A history of 1960's album art - UNDER THE COVERS - Part 4 of 10

I have been looking for this for a couple of years.  I'll come back when I find the first one. 

I"m Nearly There

Arghh.  I think I know what I did wrong.  Fighting with Linux/Ubuntu and with Android.  My only Microsoft computer seems to be experiencing early onset Alzheimer's.  Speaking of which:

Brought my Mom back from Florida and installed her in Primrose Retirement Community because she could no longer live by herself.  We got the call from her caregiver just the say after I posted last.  My brothers were going down for Mom's 90th and I wasn't, but after the call I cleared my schedule and flew down.  We had been looking around and found a place just literally 5 minutes from our house.  My brothers live in opposite directions from me about  five and six hours each.

Four days later I brought her back on a non-stop from Orlando to Columbus then an hour drive from Columbus to here.  She has been in the place for 9 days at this point and it is exhausting.  We have a friend who put both his parents in Primrose at about the same time and ran into him when he was leaving the other day.  He told us he was planning on hanging himself it was so stressful.  He would hang his parents, but he didn't want that much interaction with them.  I think he was kidding.

My mother has turned into either a 2 year old saying no to everything, or a 13 year old who will not be happy no matter what.  There is no, as my mother used to say about me,  pleasing her.  Payback?

My Mom wasn't eating or leaving the condo nearly at all.  She was forgetting to do the simplest things.  But at any rate I am exhausted as is my wife.  Come home and just stare blankly at the TV or right now where the TV was because we put the TV in my Mom's apartment.  Yes, apartment, about 850 square feet every inch usable.  I think there may be more usable area then is in my house.  One good thing that was to come out of this was that my Mom would get our old TV and I would get a newer and bigger one.  My niece said that she had a TV they weren't using which was bigger then ours so my Plan was for naught, curses.

Ray Bradbury

Damn it is a bad day all around.  Ray Bradbury died. 

How about a short story?

Well at least, given his beliefs their shouldn't be much of a funeral.

I can hire half the working class to kill the other half

- Well, that was kind of just terrible last night.

I am sure that it will be explained to me by the usual suspects.  That is how the national democrats and Obama could not have done anything more then they did (which was next to nothing) to help the democrats in Wisconsin.  I will update when they explain it all.

Ever since I read that the guy who was getting a million bucks from Clinton in the primary to help manage her campaign (and no I don't feel like even taking the few minutes Google will take to find it) did not understand how delegates were awarded in democratic primaries I have felt mostly hopeless as far as the democrats are concerned.  I had thought that they were part of a larger conspiracy, but now I'm not so sure.

I guess one of the really scary things is that a majority of the voters believe that they shouldn't have nice things, but that since they can't have nice things other middle class people just like them shouldn't be allowed to have nice things either.  On the other hand our betters, that is the 1%, if I may be allowed to adopt a cliche, can have very very very nice things.  One says while bowing and tugging on their forelock.

Like Atrios says in another context I'm beginning to think that about all there is left to do is to document the atrocities.

Memorial Day and Perpetual War

Although I do not quite feel like making the explicit kind of statement that Whiskeyfire and The Beast did today I can certainly see their point.  Perhaps it is just the fact that I was one of those kids forty-seven years ago, who was convinced that I was going to protect our great country (which was not yet referred to as our Homeland, at least not outside of a small group of fascists here and there) from the red menace.  Just as they are now convinced that they are protecting the Homeland from the Muslim menace today.  Some of us got educated, most didn't.

Now I know that no American service person has died since 1945 to protect our precious freedoms.  Hell I'd go so far as to say that no American service person has died to protect any body's freedoms in that period of time.  In fact just the opposite; they have died to prevent those freedoms from being gained or exercised by the swarthy brown masses.  And of course it seems that what we fight for and against overseas eventually we accept as good and right right here at Home[land].

So we fight a perpetual war as Gore Vidal calls it and what our Perpetual War is is a perpetual colonial war.  Not it turns out a colonial war for the greater glory of our Homeland and for the riches for the state that those wars always promise, but a colonial war for various corporations many of which (I'm looking at you B.P.) are not even American corporations and the riches that those wars deliver to the power elite that rule us all.

Ok, so we've been doing it for quite a while.

The Pogues - The band played waltzing matilda

Kind Of Back To Normal

Ming able to run again without a leash.

I thought I'd drop back in and see if anyone was here.  I'd made a promise to myself that I wouldn't worry about or do any blogging until after Ming got better.  Well she is better.  Her stomach tube is out and the hole in the stomach has healed.  She doesn't have all her hair back and we are still taking her to the vets to get laser treatment regularly on her knee, but...............

She will never be able to eat kibble or have bones but Traci has decided that she will cook all her food, which incidentally tastes great.  Brother what a long haul these last four months have been.  Completely exhausting.

I have been working through it all and we've had about a half dozen or more people come around to help take Ming out on a lead when I'm gone.  We only now feel comfortable leaving the pups alone so that we can go out together (other then trips to the vet both here and at OSU, of course).  Went to the sleazy Mexican place around the corner last night.  Back in forty-five minutes.  Dogs asleep.  Ming's personality has changed through this whole ordeal.  While she was never mean, but rather aloof, but now she is friendly with everyone.  Which is a little disconcerting since she no longer seems to care to guard the house or even warn us when there is someone at the door.

The OSU vet said we were great owners, my wife disagreed and insisted we were parents to the cats and dogs.  I disagree with them both I consider them all my friends and we help each other through life and best we can each of us doing what we are able.

In other news I've got a new client who is up on a rape charge.  Cunnilingus.  Yeah I know.  In addition my client seemed determined to confess to everyone he met except his priest and lawyer.

I've got some ideas for posts and stories I want to try out as soon as I figure out how to turn off the god damn touch pad on an Ubuntu 12.04 system.

Ming at the Vets with her laser goggles on.  We all had to wear them so we didn't damage our eyes.

HOLY FUCK WHAT HAPPENED TO BLOGGER?

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

I do like the Myth Busters  And I also believe that this is the slogan for most of our politicians and economists.

More and Less and Where I've Been Recently

Ming Mrach 3.

Well this has been a hell of a year to this point, if I can be allowed to start the year right around Xmas for which my wife and I got the flu for.

Then after that noticing that my chow was limping and taking her in to the Vet to get ACL surgery which requires that she be kept literally on a short leash for at least eight weeks.  That happened January 31 as I've mentioned before.

After that we agreed that we couldn't take the vacation we wanted to because one of us had to stay with the chow.  So I flew off to Florida to spend a week with my mother and to take her to the doctor.  Did that and we are for the most part in agreement that dementia is starting.  She, of course, refuses to get help or to come up home.  Trying to organize something more then watching the train wreck that I know is coming is not a lot of fun.  My niece (who was raised by by mother) is the only other person who seems to see what is going on.  One of my sister-in-laws was there last week and was so Pollianish that, well I threw up a little.  "Isn't she doing so well?"  Well no she isn't.  What she is accomplishing is because we have people coming in every day for two hours and because people are visiting.  Crap. 

Oh yeah, so my Mother in Law went to Florida for spring training which she has done for decades and as soon as she got down there she decided that her blood pressure meds weren't working and quit them then became very sick, so she is at home right now and my wife and her sister are trying to crowbar her to the doctor.  Oh yeah. now it turns out that my mother-in-law is pissed at me because I am trying to put my mom in an assisted living facility. I think that she thinks my wife and I are practicing on my mother so that when the time comes we will find it easier to do it to her. (Smart lady.)

So anyway, I got home and my wife told me that the chow had been throwing up daily.  We took her to our local vet who then had us take her to OSU, (well he was going to have us take her to Med-Vet, but I told him I wouldn't take another animal there).  Got her to OSU and the situation was much more serious then we thought it might be.  The chow had a reaction of some sort to the anesthesia from her first surgery and it had caused her esophagus to shrink nearly closed.  I'm sure that they were surprised that we agreed for them to take drastic measures to fix the problem..  So starting about February 23 we started to bring her up OSU weekly to have a balloon inserted into her esophagus and inflated to slowly bring the thing mostly back to where it was.  Because of the chows weirdness with the vet up there we would bring her home every day that she had the procedure, because she was feisty.  The first part of everything that happened was that the chow got a feeding tube inserted directly into her stomach, where it is to this day and where it will be for another couple of months in all probability. 

To start we had to feed her every four hours.  It turned out that the vet didn't mean every four hours through the night, just during the day, but for the first week we didn't know that.  We are now starting to feed her by mouth, pea sized meat balls made out of canned dog food.  We will never, the vet says, be able to give her kibble or to feed her by bowl, it will have to be by mouth in pea sized amounts. 

In the middle of all this my secretary got completely fed up with the guy I share office space with and quit.  Not you know like giving notice.  She came into my office and in a 45 minute monologue told me just what was wrong with him.  About 40 minutes into it I asked her if she was going to work out the day.  She told me no and gave me her key and shook my hand.  Given the quality of her work, I can't say that I am completely devastated, although I would have liked a little more notice.

I'm like one of these people who things happen to and who are always looking over their shoulder to wonder what is next.  Although to be honest, so far at least things aren't happening to me directly just to the entities who are near and dear to me.

Hey,  in news outside my back yard (which reminds me the weather has been so warm and the rain so intense, I have to mow my yard before the end of March) the head of the IMF says that the problems in the European Union are all over, even if the actual people living there are living on a lot less money.  Oh wait I'm sorry not all the people just the vast majority.

 

Mistah Breitbart He Dead.

i

So Andrew Breitbart is dead.  Someone else claimed that Bette Davis said, when Joan Crawford died:  "You should only speak good of the dead.  She's dead, that's good."  I concur.

Fredoglake has a post up in which Lisa Derrick, who knew the guy, kind of says nice things about him.  Most, but not all of the commenters seem to be taking the line:  so young how sad.  Salon gives a of nice little obit ending with the lovely family man bullshit.  Blah blah blah.

I am not the kind of person who thinks the death of everybody is a tragedy.  To that person and his immediate family, probably.  But not always and not to everybody.

In Breitbart's case he was a man who used what skills and influence he had to destroy people's lives and to destroy and try to destroy organizations whose reason for existence was to help the poor and less fortunate.  What he did and what he stood for was evil.  That is what he was to the world as a human being.  In his life he chose to make a stand for everything that is wrong in this country at this time. Why should I feel any kind of sympathy for that kind of evil person?

Or if I my paraphrase Mark Twain:  But he is dead now and I hold him no particular grudge.  In fact if  I could send him a fan to help him where he is now, I would do so.

Or since I am getting all literary and the Firedoglake poster is defending Breitbart because he was nice to her:

The Hangman at Home by Carl Sandburg

WHAT does the hangman think about
When he goes home at night from work?
When he sits down with his wife and
Children for a cup of coffee and a
Plate of ham and eggs, do they ask
Him if it was a good day’s work
And everything went well or do they
Stay off some topics and talk about
The weather, base ball, politics
And the comic strips in the papers
And the movies? Do they look at his
Hands when he reaches for the coffee
Or the ham and eggs? If the little
Ones say, Daddy, play horse, here’s
A rope—does he answer like a joke:
I seen enough rope for today?
Or does his face light up like a
Bonfire of joy and does he say:
It’s a good and dandy world we live
In. And if a white face moon looks
In through a window where a baby girl
Sleeps and the moon gleams mix with
Baby ears and baby hair—the hangman—
How does he act then? It must be easy
For him. Anything is easy for a hangman,
I guess.

UPDATE -- 3/5/2012

I've had a couple of further thoughts.  If I didn't make it clear enough although Breitbart was a scum I am incredibly disgusted with the "liberals" who seem to need to make sure that they are not considered old meanies for saying nasty things about him.

A second thought is that he would have had no real power if there was anything like even a single back bone to pass around the various "liberal" organizations.  Acorn was defunded with overwhelming votes in congress, including most of the democrats.  Shirley Sharrod was fired by Obama and repudiated by the NAACP before anybody bothered to check out the realities of her speech and what she did for the white farmers.  Finally, who was the slimy democratic congress who was sending pics of his prick around who bailed at the first mild wind (with the assist of the democratic establishment) while diaper David Vitter is still a senator?  Breitbart would have been nothing if the liberals who are in "power" hadn't caved to him at every opportunity. 

Anybody Still There?

Life almost seems with me too much near and far recently.

Flew down to Florida to see my mom and to see what was going on with her.  We now have a person going in for two hours every day and that seems to be helping things, but she keeps losing weight. My mom not the caregiver.  Also, unfortunately all the Internet I had been stealing while down there, are now secure with passwords, so I ended up not posting while I was down there.  Not because I couldn't go to coffee houses to use their Internet, but I just didn't seem to get around to it.

Also, the goddamn touch pad continues to be hypersensitive.  Now that I'm using Ubuntu, I haven't figured out how to turn off the touch pad while I'm typing.  My wife's Acer has two keys you can hit to turn the touch pad off and then hit them again to turn it on.  This didn't used to be a problem, I don't think with any computer.

At any rate took mom to the doctor who was a pretty nice guy, but he was essentially no help.  My mother doesn't eat and doesn't clean herself any more, nor does she wash her own clothes.  Now when I say she doesn't eat I mean almost.  And when I say she doesn't clean herself, I mean she will do a sponge bath every other day or so.  So the doc. said based on our reporting, that she is definitely in the early stages of dementia.  Then he regaled us with stories of his elderly relatives, most of whom are in Africa, most of whom were doctors, and who are losing it in one way or another, but whose lives  he doesn't think he should intervene in yet.  Not a lot of help.

Back home and my chow had been throwing up every day since shortly before I'd left.  We thought that she might have some stomach irritation from the drugs from the surgery.  Nope that that simple.

She has esophagitus which is a narrowing of the esophagus which in all probably occurred from some sort of reaction to the anesthetics used in the surgery.  We took her to the OSU Vet E.R. Clinic and they took her in right away.  It was so serious she was near death, but because she is so brave and impervious to pain we had no idea.  We gave permission to do anything possible to save her (thank god we'd paid off our credit cards in January).

So what  they have done is to scope the esophagus and put a balloon down it to increase the size back to normal.  There will be another one to eight procedures at approximately one week intervals.  She is unable to eat through her mouth and for the time being she is even unable to drink.  She has a feeding tube directly into her stomach and we have to put food into it every four hours even through the night.  The first feeding was a 8:00 a.m. this morning and didn't go badly.   Noon was better for us, she took both well.

She is at $5gs and we may be only half way through the treatment.  In addition we are simply emotionally overwhelmed.  What with everything.

"Union Maids" (1976)

Met the people who made this movie shortly after it came out.  Interesting folks and the group they belonged to was not beloved by the college history professors in the Dayton area because of the previous movie they made about Patterson the guy who founded NCR.

Somebody will indeed do it sooner or later

This post started by my reading alicublog and being disappointed in both the essay and the comments to the essay.  Followed that by reading Greenwald and then going over to Lawyers, Guns and Money where I read a comment on the Greenwald essay and then to read the comments on that (there are over 800 comments on Greenwald's essay, I can't bring myself to even start reading them).

Too much inside baseball?  Maybe, at any rate the commentators at alicublog, people who I consider to be fairly knowledgeable and progressive, were cheering the fact (they said) that Obama was lying about his beliefs concerning gay marriage.  They think that it is a good thing.  I mentioned that I was kind of queasy about that kind of bald faced lie (if that is indeed what it was), and was politely lectured to.  I was told that it was just necessary, don't you know.  It is a good thing.  At least for Obama at least this time.

Well I can certainly believe that Obama is lying since I think that he has lied more than any other president that I have ever known in my lifetime.  I will admit that it is possible that Nixon may have done it more, but since I never believed anything that son of a bitch said, I never paid any attention to it so I can't say how many actual lies he told.

Still to those people do not seem to know or perhaps care just how corrupt they have become.

As far as LG&M that is a different story.   The commentators there are rabid partisans, exhibiting what Greenwald calls tribalism.   For most of them it is simply impossible for Obama to do something wrong.  So the when it is pointed out that under the current law and executive policies Obama (or the president, if you will, whoever it may be) could claim that congress is aiding Al Quida and have them all indefinitely detained, in theory without explaining what the evidence is, the response is outrage.

Oh well perhaps I read a little too much Roman history in college.

Fine Whines, Why Do You Ask

Knowing more than I want to about the inside of a dog's knee right now.

And this is more or less what it looks like inside right now.

I've been very over whelmed recently.  I've kind of taken it out by remaking the visuals on the blog on a daily basis, a slight exaggeration, but not much.

Flying down to Florida to be with my Mother on Monday.  This was going to be a vacation with my wife, but it hasn't turned out that way.  Our chow has had to have ACL surgery.  Actually they don't call it that on a dog, but that is what it is.  She is the third dog I've had that has had to have this surgery, it is the fourth surgery.  One knee on the first chow, both knees on the pit and now hopefully just one knee on this chow.

Took her to Med-Vet in Columbus last Tuesday.  Got her there at 6:00 a.m. Then came back here to an all day custody hearing which didn't happen because one of the parents is deaf, doesn't use a regulation sign language and the interpreter said we would need two interpreters.  So that has all be continued for about two months.

The vet called and said the surgery went well, but our dog was "feisty" and we could certainly take her home that night which we did.  She was nuts from the anesthetic and not very happy for the next thirty-six hours. A mean drunk.   It turned out that the cost to us by bring her home was cut by $500.00.  There were times that Tuesday, that I think I might have paid them twice that to keep her.  However, as she came out of the anesthetic she got to be more and more like her old self. 

Now, according to the vet we will have to limit her activities for six weeks.  Some chance of that.  We have her on a long lead in the house and a short lead when we take her outside.  She is not a happy camper.  She feels fine and doesn't understand why she can't run and jump.  She can run and jump we just are not to let her do it.  The St. Bernard is freaked because she isn't being allowed to play with him.  Good god I should have kids it might be easier.  Thank god also, for pet insurance.

Unfortunately I have to go to Florida to visit with my mother who seems to be deteriorating mentally.  She refuses to bathe and refuses to wash her clothing because neither she nor the clothing are dirty.  She eats chips and sweets and won't eat balanced meals and refuses to leave her condo.  We have a person coming for two hours five days a week, who is cleaning her clothes and getting her healthy food, but at this point it looks like it will be assisted living, sooner rather than later, while she can still do it.  What that means is that we will have to get her up to Ohio some way and it looks like there is a good shot that I will have to be the one to make the final push to make her do it.  Well, as I told my wife it is just practice for me later on.

Oh yeah I see we're screwed on the foreclosure fraud settlement.  Boy is that a surprise.  Well it is kind of since I expected the AGs of California, Massachusetts and New York to hold out for something better.

Everything Old Is New Again

This is an incredible read.

The Mighty Stef - We Want Blood

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How about a little protest?

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Wednesday we went to a showing of the American version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Go with caution from this point forward since I do go into detail concerning the differences between the two movies and the book.

The American version was very good, although some different from the Swedish version.  Mara Rooney, the girl who played Lisbeth was more waif like then Rapace, but in the end I think just as good.  There are some things the American version has in it that the Swedish version doesn't and visa versa.

The rape scene was less violent in the American version and the retribution scene was different.  There is no dildo used by the rapist in the American version, at least that we are aware of and when Lisbeth returns to exact retribution and justice she brings her own dildo and uses it rather than getting the one he used on her out and using it on him.  Which I think makes her retribution look a little less like old testament justice, which if you think about it is meant to contrast, I think, with the very sick minds of the serial killers and their Bible verses justifying their killings.  Lisbeth's actions are obviously justified, particularly when one knows her entire history and relationship with the authorities. 

Towards the end after cutting down Mikael she asks him if she can kill Martin in the American version.  Then as she chases Martin his car blows up before she can do anything, which is different than both the other movie and the book. (Wrong about the book, although she did, I think, cause his death in that he purposely ran headlong into a truck while trying to escape her.)  Lisbeth actively participates in the killing of Martin in both the others, but not in this one.  This changes things, not so much that it ruins the movie, but it does change things.  In both of the others Mikael is the one who has the more conventional morality even with all his sleeping around. He does not approve of her assisting in Martin's death or even just letting Martin burn to death.  Having her ask permission of him and having him give it changes this dynamic and gives him more authority then either the book or other movie gave him.  I wonder if this wasn't an attempt by Hollywood, to make the movie a little more conventional.  You know somehow the girl needs the big strong guy for something even if it is only the moral authority to go out and kill.

In the Swedish version Lisbeth chases Martin on her motor cycle without a weapon and wearing the helmet that that doesn't allow you to see her, it makes her a kind of other worldly avenging angel, even though she exists in an otherwise real world (no matter how horrible). And you know that when she catches him she will exact retribution weapon or no.   In the American version she chases Martin, but doesn't put on her helmet and has the gun all of which makes things more realistic, but once again makes her less of a force of nature.

One of the most important symbols in this version is the bridge which is the only way on or off the Island of the Vangers.  It seems to play an important role in this movie.  I think that one of the themes that was mostly lost in both movies was the contempt Larsson has towards the capitalist class.  Oh well, you can't have everything.

Still after saying all this I did enjoy the American version.  The actors are excellent and in some ways it was closer to the book:  the ending, Mikael's daughter and her religious belief and how she not Lisbeth turned him on to the Bible verses.  Also, Lisbeth's employer and her first guardian are in this movie a little more, which should make them more interesting in the second and third movies.

Fuck Him and The Horse He Rode In On

A letter from the dick who is one of my senators.  The really liberal one.  Fuck Him.

Dear Mr. Couch

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about legislation to combat online infringement and digital theft.

Last Congress, the Senate considered, but did not pass, legislation entitled the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA).  The aim of this legislation was to assist the Department of Justice in tracking and shutting down "rogue websites."  These sites provide unauthorized downloads, streaming, or direct sale of copyrighted material.  Similar legislation, entitled the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act, was recently introduced in the Senate.  The PROTECT IP Act narrows the definition of "rogue website" in an effort to target only the most egregious purveyors of digital theft and counterfeit crime.

In an age of advancing technology, it is critical we have laws that protect internet users from unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent marketplace practices.  Too many consumers today purchase goods over the internet that may pose a significant threat to their health and wellbeing.   For example, a consumer may unknowingly purchase counterfeit prescription drugs online that contain incorrect amounts of active ingredients, and thus pose a serious risk to ill individuals.

Additionally, illegal file sharing and unauthorized copying of digital material prevents musicians, producers, filmmakers, software designers, and many others from reaping the fruits of their labor.  Such activity has the potential to stifle artistic creativity and compromise electronic innovation.  Ultimately, intellectual property theft costs our economy billions of dollars and can result in hundreds of thousands of lost jobs.

However, I have also heard from individuals with concerns about the scope of this legislation, as well as its First Amendment implications.  I take these concerns seriously.  Should this legislation come before the full Senate for a vote, I will keep your views in mind.  Thank you again for getting in touch with me. 

                        
 Sincerely,

              

                         Sherrod Brown

                         United States Senator

UPDATE: So I sent another email to my liberal senator and I told him the above was pompous, condescending and insulting among other things. Then I punched send on his web page and the next thing I knew .............. well lets just say I'm not sure it actually went through and I suspect that a second message of the same sort if they actually got the first one, would be a little less than convincing.

Internet

I posted yesterday and I didn't think about the little brag I have at the top of the page:  Banned in China.

Its true, I found out that this blog is banned in China.  I found out when I posted a remembrance of my friend Larry and tried to get a friend of ours who was in China to read it.  She told me it was blocked. 

So anyway given what PIPA and SOPA would do to the Internet and what would happen given how much I link to, this blog would definitely be banned in the U.S.A.

Whatever

Am I wrong in posting today, blackout day? I meant to post yesterday in honor of the late not particularly lamented Gary Gilmore, but I did not.  I would assume that I would be in trouble if either SOPA or PIPA were currently in force. 

I am having a problem getting myself into posting for much of anything involving politics right now. Although it looks like Ohio will have a "Heartbeat" Constitutional Amendment on the ballot so there will indeed be something to at least work against.  Or perhaps work with the Electronic Freedom Foundation.  I have actually been wondering just how long it would take the politicians to realize that the Internet can be real irritating and to do something to try to gut it.  I figure this will continue to happen yearly.  Eternal vigilance, etc.

I do slide over and read various blogs about the presidential race sometimes, but mostly I am looking for snark and humor, not information. I have a hard time getting excited about what horrible things Romney, or Gingrich or even Paul might do if elected since they are not going to do a lot that Obama didn't do already and won't do in the future if elected\. With the exception of course on his current position on LGTB issues, which costs no banker any money. 

This is combined with my belief that the people who are ruling us all, all over the world are not very bright sociopaths. Austerity and more austerity and when that doesn't work then more austerity. This is happening in Europe in what are described as democracies. Although technically they are something else, since none of the political parties seem willing to do what the people want them to do. Also, none of the political parties will do what works, just to show, I guess that they can't be accused of scrounging for votes. Iceland as always excepted.

In American the democrats are shocked, just shocked that republicans won't vote for a jobs bill and extended benefits for those who are in the bottom half of society. Ideas the democrats didn't really come up with until they had lost the ability to control things. Mean while we all agree that the military must not be cut at all because if we do we might be invaded by Costa Rica, I guess. Or China, who really doesn't want to invade us they just want to sell us more shit.

Everything Old Is New Again

From Lawyers, Guns and Money.

  Although you can get it from the I.W.W. here

A Little Follow UP

This is just too good to pass up.

A sort of follow up to yesterdays post.  The piling on on Greenwald is still going on.  Now as I (very) briefly peruse the comments I see that we are very angry with Paul, not because of his (quite correct) positions on endless war, drug war, indefinite detention, or total surveillance state.  We are angry because of his method of getting to those positions.  We will of course not discuss the positions themselves, nor will we discuss how "liberals/progressives/leftists" are able to support a president who takes the wrong side on all those issues.

One of the more interesting attacks on Paul is on his position on the drug war.  Apparently his position is not to be considered because he wants to let the states determine the drug laws.  As opposed to the current guy who wants to continue the drug war nationwide.  Some how this makes Paul's position not serious I guess.

Otherwise, the complete ability to refuse to deal with the issues themselves, but rather allow the discussion to deteriorate into discussions of whether or not Paul could really be elected or whether or not he could accomplish his major positions if he were elected is more important then a discussion of the issues and why it is that the "progressive" community is able to support a guy who is nothing but a Wall Street Whore, or as I have began to think of him as a kinder gentler softer fascist.

I guess I should say that I find most of Paul's positions horrible in the extreme, but the idea of placing a flaming reactionary who believes in certain things that most "liberals" claim to believe in opposite a guy who played a liberal on TV and then demanding that "liberals" justify their support of the TV liberal is entertaining.  Of course they managed to refuse to engage in the merits or lack thereof of the positions and charge off in several other directions ignoring the issues. 

Why Glenn Greenwald is Not Serious

Generally I don't write these kind of posts, or maybe I do but I forgot, however I got a little pissed off today.  Read Greenwald's thing about Ron Paul and how he is the only person taking certain positions that go against the entire establishment both "left" and right.  (One really must put "left" and "liberal" in quotation marks when referring to our political/pundit class, not so much with right or conservative.)  Its a brutal take down of Obama and what Greenwald calls tribalism from a real liberal perspective (no need for quotes here).   There is more (much more Greenwald is not known for his brevity) I suggest reading the whole thing.

I, in cruising the web later went to Lawyers, Guns and Money and they had a take on the whole thing that essentially, and I do think I am being fair here (read them), accused Greenwald of supporting Paul, ignoring Paul's horrible positions of women's rights among other horrible positions that Paul takes on other things like civil rights.  alcicublog also had something about it.

The comments at all the sites seemed more than willing to ignore the original argument: mainly that Paul forces discussion of the various issues he raises into the main stream and deteriorated into, but Paul wouldn't do what he said if he was elected and/or he is just a bad person concerning civil rights and women's rights and/or he couldn't do what he said and/or ........... In other words a horse race or this is my hero and I'm sticking by him (Obama) because he is just dreamy (OK that last is a little snarky, but why not its my blog?)

Given that I figure that most of the people who read these blogs are better educated and more informed then the average citizen (showing my prejudice here) this kind of response is kind of depressing. OK major depressing.

Oh well.

Crosby, Stills and Nash - Almost Cut My Hair - Madison Square Garden, NY...

So this has the line in it "musta been cause I got the flu for Xmas." Kind of appropriate for Xmas this year.

A Christmas Carol For The Rest Of Us

Ken Russell - The Devils

Women in Love - 1969.

Well in keeping with the current stuff on this site and to see if it is the computer or me that is the problem. Plus of course in honor of Ken Russell.

Its Time

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

I've been thinking about this movie for some time or at least the end.  Well I guess that is the point.  So who are you?  The blind townsfolk, Warren Beatty defending his little capitalist empire, or the thugs?