And, leaving aside the usual crippled rants for the moment, I present a musical detour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQu49GdLGu4
Steve Gadd, Drums
Marcus Miller, Bass, Bass Clarinet
Joe Sample, Piano(s)
David Sanborn, Sax
Eric Clapton, Guitar(s), Vocals
The best all-out blast I've ever seen, true ensemble playing!
Friday, December 26, 2014
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
The. Best. Ever.
This is what can happen when you wander the web....
It has become absolutely predictable, every year 'round this time somebody, somewhere, puts up a JEEEESUS display of some kind in the wrong place and the other side promptly makes a fuss, followed by another fuss in return, ad nauseam...
I offer you this as the most innovative and appropriate response I've ever encountered:
If you're into airing grievances and displaying feats of strength, then the Utica Fire Department's Shepherd Place fire station might be the place for you Tuesday.
Read more: http://www.uticaod.com/article/20141222/News/141229888#ixzz3MlAVAGiF
Heh, what better way to throw a move on your opponent, right?
It has become absolutely predictable, every year 'round this time somebody, somewhere, puts up a JEEEESUS display of some kind in the wrong place and the other side promptly makes a fuss, followed by another fuss in return, ad nauseam...
I offer you this as the most innovative and appropriate response I've ever encountered:
Festivus celebration to take place at Utica fire station
COMMENT
S. Alexander Gerould
Posted Dec. 22, 2014 @ 1:05 pm
UTICA
Posted Dec. 22, 2014 @ 1:05 pm
UTICA
If you're into airing grievances and displaying feats of strength, then the Utica Fire Department's Shepherd Place fire station might be the place for you.
People are expected to gather in front of the station at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Shepherd Place and Sunset Avenue, to celebrate Festivus, a fictional holiday made famous on the popular sitcom “Seinfeld.”
“Utica is a diverse city with many different beliefs and religions,” said Kevin Nugent, an organizer of the event, in a news release. “We want to ensure that all faiths are represented on government property, as well as share our faith with the city of Utica.”
Today's event comes as a homemade sign reading “Happy Birthday Jesus we love you” displayed in front of the station has received national attention from a variety of media outlets and has drawn criticism from the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, which sent a letter to Mayor Robert Palmieri asking him to direct Fire Chief Russell Brooks to remove the sign immediately.
Brooks, meanwhile, said that he would take the sign down "right after the first of the year."
Festivus was made popular by the character Frank Costanza in a 1997 episode of “Seinfeld.” The holiday came about after Costanza became upset with materialism and commercialization during the holiday season, and it gives people the chance to air their grievances and take part in a wrestling match.
During today's event, the Festivus-celebrators plan to present a Festivus Pole - a staple of the holiday's celebration - to the department to be placed alongside the birthday sign, according to the press release.
The pole will be crafted out of Utica Club beer cans to demonstrate hometown pride.
The group also is calling for other local religions to request the fire department post signs representing their faiths to foster feelings of unity and togetherness in the city during the holiday season, according to the release.
On Monday, Brooks said two groups of carolers visited the station recently and many people have been stopping by the station to wish the firefighters well and have been leaving cards.
“I am amazed at the attention this little sign is getting,” he said.
Read more: http://www.uticaod.com/article/20141222/News/141229888#ixzz3MlAVAGiF
Heh, what better way to throw a move on your opponent, right?
Sunday, December 21, 2014
A Suggestion...
Our country has undergone a significant and horrific change over the course of my lifetime, the product of said change is now on full display when it used to be buried in the local newspaper's (remember them?) weekly "Police Blotter" due to the acceleration of technology in communications. The head (apparently up his own ass) of the NYPD union decided to put his supreme arrogance on public display over the Mayor's supposed responsibility for the senseless killing of two of his officers by an apparent nut-job from out of state, thereby doing his level best to hurl a 55 gallon drum of gasoline onto an already flaming situation.
I have something of a suggestion to address this and it was brought to my mind by everybody's favorite Koch-Whore, that wretched fuckstick who currently occupies the Governor's office in Wisconsin, Scott Walker. He famously (and successfully) went after the "public-sector unions" in order to reduce or entirely negate their influence in said state, but, BUT, the police union (to my knowledge) was not included, even though they are also "public-sector" employees. Why not employ the very same tactics to correct this massive oversight on his part? It's long past time to jerk the leash on these purveyors of state-sanctioned violence and bring them to the bar of justice when they commit crimes "Under Color of Authority" and who have now apparently declared war on the city of New York AND the duly elected Mayor of said city.
It's one thing to be an arrogant asshole, it's something light-years different to be an arrogant asshole with a gun and a badge and a free pass to murder at will. There is a strong parallel to the situation ongoing with Wall Street; "Oh, trust us to regulate ourselves!" and look what happens... This ain't over by a long shot and, unless some kind of shift in thinking and behaving occurs, it will likely get bloodier, mostly from the police side because they have the firepower and the license to kill.
I have something of a suggestion to address this and it was brought to my mind by everybody's favorite Koch-Whore, that wretched fuckstick who currently occupies the Governor's office in Wisconsin, Scott Walker. He famously (and successfully) went after the "public-sector unions" in order to reduce or entirely negate their influence in said state, but, BUT, the police union (to my knowledge) was not included, even though they are also "public-sector" employees. Why not employ the very same tactics to correct this massive oversight on his part? It's long past time to jerk the leash on these purveyors of state-sanctioned violence and bring them to the bar of justice when they commit crimes "Under Color of Authority" and who have now apparently declared war on the city of New York AND the duly elected Mayor of said city.
It's one thing to be an arrogant asshole, it's something light-years different to be an arrogant asshole with a gun and a badge and a free pass to murder at will. There is a strong parallel to the situation ongoing with Wall Street; "Oh, trust us to regulate ourselves!" and look what happens... This ain't over by a long shot and, unless some kind of shift in thinking and behaving occurs, it will likely get bloodier, mostly from the police side because they have the firepower and the license to kill.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
That Stuff...
It can be described in various ways...
After you have been out in the back country for a month or longer, it has been described in years past as "Toe Jam" by those removing hiking boots, Frank Zappa called it "Stink Foot" in a song once in the old days....
Also known as the remnants of the (R) party a few days after any off-year election. I take that back... should be "after any election". It might be an interesting exercise of the english language to come up with the entire spectrum of descriptives for that particular disease, unfortunately there isn't enough room for that much weird in the database of this computer.
The thing that is so alarming is the fact that there is a significant enough percentage of the voting public who will punch the spot on a ballot that has "ass-rape" disguised as "republican" on it. I fear for this country when there are enough semi-literate skullfucked fools who can be deceived into returning such mental midgets(and I use the terms mental and midgets with some trepidation in conjunction when writing) to the government year after year.
Oh, well.... Here we go again.
After you have been out in the back country for a month or longer, it has been described in years past as "Toe Jam" by those removing hiking boots, Frank Zappa called it "Stink Foot" in a song once in the old days....
Also known as the remnants of the (R) party a few days after any off-year election. I take that back... should be "after any election". It might be an interesting exercise of the english language to come up with the entire spectrum of descriptives for that particular disease, unfortunately there isn't enough room for that much weird in the database of this computer.
The thing that is so alarming is the fact that there is a significant enough percentage of the voting public who will punch the spot on a ballot that has "ass-rape" disguised as "republican" on it. I fear for this country when there are enough semi-literate skullfucked fools who can be deceived into returning such mental midgets(and I use the terms mental and midgets with some trepidation in conjunction when writing) to the government year after year.
Oh, well.... Here we go again.
Why?
One of those things that provide a slippery slope towards total and complete foolishness.
Hmm. I somehow managed to make myself an invaluable ally of the weird artifacts that somehow make ghosts inherent in the world that we used to be talking about the other time we ended up in the middle of this word puzzle.
Hmm. I somehow managed to make myself an invaluable ally of the weird artifacts that somehow make ghosts inherent in the world that we used to be talking about the other time we ended up in the middle of this word puzzle.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Edification from Ed
Somewhere in the convoluted mess that was my adolescence, I became aware of a certain fellow named Edward Abbey through a book that I found titled "The Monkey Wrench Gang".
Here's a pair of things from him, first a wonderfully weird drawing he did of himself:
Then, this quote from his collection titled "The Journey Home, Some Words In Defense of the American West" going way back to 1977 and an essay to be found therein titled "Freedom and Wilderness, Wilderness and Freedom".
"As I see it, our own nation is not free from the danger of dictatorship. And I refer to internal as well as external threats to our liberties. As social conflict tends to become more severe in this country - and it will unless we strive for social justice - there will inevitably be a tendency on the part of the authoritarian element - always present in our history - to suppress individual freedoms, to utilize the refined techniques of police surveillance (not excluding torture, of course) in order to preserve - not wilderness! - but the status quo, the privileged positions of those who now so largely control the economic and governmental institutions of the United States."
Hayzoos H. Creeping Christonaut on a Double Acting Rubber Crutch, Ed Abbey had our current situation nailed to the barn door like an unfortunate coyote hide way back then.... The question going begging at this point is just why the fuck we, as a collective species, have not done enough to counteract the evils perpetrated by these nefarious, greedy, reckless and awesomely evil assholes that have gotten away with dominating the globe despite the warning so eloquently given by Dwight David Eisenhower at the end of his Presidency?
Here's a pair of things from him, first a wonderfully weird drawing he did of himself:
Then, this quote from his collection titled "The Journey Home, Some Words In Defense of the American West" going way back to 1977 and an essay to be found therein titled "Freedom and Wilderness, Wilderness and Freedom".
"As I see it, our own nation is not free from the danger of dictatorship. And I refer to internal as well as external threats to our liberties. As social conflict tends to become more severe in this country - and it will unless we strive for social justice - there will inevitably be a tendency on the part of the authoritarian element - always present in our history - to suppress individual freedoms, to utilize the refined techniques of police surveillance (not excluding torture, of course) in order to preserve - not wilderness! - but the status quo, the privileged positions of those who now so largely control the economic and governmental institutions of the United States."
Hayzoos H. Creeping Christonaut on a Double Acting Rubber Crutch, Ed Abbey had our current situation nailed to the barn door like an unfortunate coyote hide way back then.... The question going begging at this point is just why the fuck we, as a collective species, have not done enough to counteract the evils perpetrated by these nefarious, greedy, reckless and awesomely evil assholes that have gotten away with dominating the globe despite the warning so eloquently given by Dwight David Eisenhower at the end of his Presidency?
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Short and Sweet
From David Weber & Eric Flint's 2014 book Cauldron of Ghosts, part of a quick libertarian sidetrack:
"More than legal scholars like to admit, the concept of a protection racket was hard to distinguish on the ground floor from what people got from legal authorities. To a crime boss, you turned over a portion of the proceeds of your business or profession and in return you got protection, stability, stable supplies and prices - even, in the best run areas, a measure of social welfare. To a legitimate government, you turned over a portion of the proceeds of your business and profession and in return, you got...."
Seems to me we have the best/worst of worlds going on in 'Murica right now, today and, for the foreseeable future, ad infinitum. Worrisome to me is the possibility of a seriously wrong-headed bunch of irresponsible, deceitful and well and truly delusional maniacs abusing the system to drag us, kicking and screaming, into a world shaped by the 1611 King James Bible. They don't seem to care if they use the gubmint or la cosa nostra to achieve their wretched ends.
Fuck. Those. People.
"More than legal scholars like to admit, the concept of a protection racket was hard to distinguish on the ground floor from what people got from legal authorities. To a crime boss, you turned over a portion of the proceeds of your business or profession and in return you got protection, stability, stable supplies and prices - even, in the best run areas, a measure of social welfare. To a legitimate government, you turned over a portion of the proceeds of your business and profession and in return, you got...."
Seems to me we have the best/worst of worlds going on in 'Murica right now, today and, for the foreseeable future, ad infinitum. Worrisome to me is the possibility of a seriously wrong-headed bunch of irresponsible, deceitful and well and truly delusional maniacs abusing the system to drag us, kicking and screaming, into a world shaped by the 1611 King James Bible. They don't seem to care if they use the gubmint or la cosa nostra to achieve their wretched ends.
Fuck. Those. People.
Friday, May 16, 2014
An Apology
After all these years of random explosions about the Jesus Taliban, I find myself in the mood for an apology.
This all started because Bill Nye (The Science Guy) decided to lower himself (and science by proxy) to the level of Ken Ham and this "young earth" creationism/intelligent design delusion in that sort-of, maybe-in-another-definition, public relations clusterfuck "debate" thing. In the ensuing (and entirely predictable) uproar, the Reverend Pat Robertson has stepped into the breach and messed up all of my previously well-learned opinions of him. As one of the leading voices advocating theocratic fascism in America, I have come to expect nothing but sheer tyranny By God (in Jesus name) out of him.
Not once, but twice in recent days, I have read stories of Pat speaking at different times and on different broadcasts, to the issue of "young earth" creationism on his flagship television program and, in no uncertain terms, deny this stuff has any validity. The last time I checked, the indefatigable Mr. Ham is calling out Reverend Robertson to "debate" the issue. Something like a Jesus Cage Match, complete with refreshments (insert tacky sacrament joke here).
Hey, Pat.... I'll take back at least a significant percentage of all those things I've thought/spoken/written about you and your particular breed of weirdness lo these many years as long as you tell Ken Ham that you refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
You have done a great deal to redeem yourself with your staunch defense of reality in this particular instance, please don't screw it up by emulating Bill Nye.
This all started because Bill Nye (The Science Guy) decided to lower himself (and science by proxy) to the level of Ken Ham and this "young earth" creationism/intelligent design delusion in that sort-of, maybe-in-another-definition, public relations clusterfuck "debate" thing. In the ensuing (and entirely predictable) uproar, the Reverend Pat Robertson has stepped into the breach and messed up all of my previously well-learned opinions of him. As one of the leading voices advocating theocratic fascism in America, I have come to expect nothing but sheer tyranny By God (in Jesus name) out of him.
Not once, but twice in recent days, I have read stories of Pat speaking at different times and on different broadcasts, to the issue of "young earth" creationism on his flagship television program and, in no uncertain terms, deny this stuff has any validity. The last time I checked, the indefatigable Mr. Ham is calling out Reverend Robertson to "debate" the issue. Something like a Jesus Cage Match, complete with refreshments (insert tacky sacrament joke here).
Hey, Pat.... I'll take back at least a significant percentage of all those things I've thought/spoken/written about you and your particular breed of weirdness lo these many years as long as you tell Ken Ham that you refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
You have done a great deal to redeem yourself with your staunch defense of reality in this particular instance, please don't screw it up by emulating Bill Nye.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Lawsuit Factory....
That malignant lawsuit factory masquerading as a Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas lost their founding father.
What, and I'm supposed to shed crocodile tears over the death of a well and truly deluded human who spent his life spreading disinformation (read: outright lies) about gay folks and America, "protesting" at military funerals and then going to court to win judgments on 1st Amendment grounds? Sorry, ain't happening.
Now, maybe, we can move along a more rational path without the delusional foolishness. Unless, of course, the remaining family members see to it that ugly still has a place in our public discourse.... How the fuck else do you define "asshole" without something to point at?
What, and I'm supposed to shed crocodile tears over the death of a well and truly deluded human who spent his life spreading disinformation (read: outright lies) about gay folks and America, "protesting" at military funerals and then going to court to win judgments on 1st Amendment grounds? Sorry, ain't happening.
Now, maybe, we can move along a more rational path without the delusional foolishness. Unless, of course, the remaining family members see to it that ugly still has a place in our public discourse.... How the fuck else do you define "asshole" without something to point at?
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