Sunday, February 27, 2005

Fear and Loathing on the Red Carpet




Don't you wish you were there?



Watch out Bart! I think Sideshow Bob has escaped again!



Show 'em your ass, honey...

HEY! HAVE YOU SEEN MY WIFE'S ASS?


I hear she's meeeeeaaaaaan.


I wish I had been invited to their Oscar party.


December v May



Ok, I know it's just as cliche to bitch about the old man/young woman dating thing as it is for them to do it in the first place, but this is getting out of hand!


Warren is gettin on a little, ain't he Annette?


Morgan, how old is your date?


Alan and some little chippy!


Oh my God! She's just a child, Jamie!

Monday, February 21, 2005

So long and Mahalo.

R.I.P., HST

Just got in on a rainy night in the devil's cauldron of Liberalism and Feel-Good Sinnery, having contributed positive vibes to the taping of the Naked Trucker and T-Bones' DVD at the Troubadour, when I learned via the internets the Hunter S. Thompson killed himself today.

I read the Great Shark Hunt when I was 18. I dressed as the good Dr. for Halloween my freshman year for the South Street debauch in Philly.

My dorm room was adorned with a homemade poster, the opening quote to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man- Dr. Johnson."

Read his final column , Shotgun Golf with Bill Murray, here.

Maybe the Rapture has begun, and the Lord took the truest of believers before the going got really weird.

R.I.P.

wikki wikki, bruddah

Friday, February 18, 2005

Somebody buy that man a new shoe

Because I'm sure he didn't get it back.

Protester chucks a shoe at Richard Perle.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

The Rainbow Twangers

I have the pleasure of working with two British citizens. Today they showed me this delightful clip on the internets.

Enjoy.

RAINBOW

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Patriotism and Good Citizenship

As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary:

Patriot: A. n. 1. A fellow-countryman, compatriot. Obs. rare. 2. a. One who disinterestedly or self-sacrificingly exerts himself to promote the wellbeing of his country; ‘one whose ruling passion is the love of his country’; one who maintains and defends his country's freedom or rights. In this use, at first, as in French (see Littré), with ‘good’, ‘true’, ‘worthy’, or other commendatory adjective: cf. ‘good citizen’. ‘Patriot’ for ‘good patriot’ is rare before 1680. At that time often applied to one who supported the rights of the country against the King and court.
This begs further inquiry into the word "citizen." The OED basically defines citizen as "A member of a state, an enfranchised inhabitant of a country, as opposed to an alien; in U.S., a person, native or naturalized, who has the privilege of voting for public offices, and is entitled to full protection in the exercise of private rights."

To go further and look for the meaning of "good citizen" I did a quick google search. Surprisingly, there are an awful lot of articles about dog training when it comes to good citizenship. (Actually, I shouldn't be shocked at all, I used the analogy of city vs country dogs and blue vs red states here.) But these links are equally matched by a number of child development or classroom resources for educators. Like this one from Parenting.org:

The Mark of a Good Citizen
Good citizens understand that they have a responsibility to the community, environment and law. You can instill in your child the virtue of citizenship by explaining the difference between good and bad citizenship.

Traits of good citizenship:
Being a good neighbor by caring about others.
Sharing your time and skills to the community to make it better, cleaner and safer.
Conserving resources by practicing the three R's: Reduce. Re-use. Recycle.
Staying informed on issues and voicing your opinions by voting.

Traits of bad citizenship:
Looking out only for yourself.
Littering and wasting resources.
Leaving all political matters to the so-called "experts."

You can be a positive role-model for citizenship by doing the following:
Show concern for the success and safety of others.
Use non-judgmental language that does not offend or demean.
Do the right thing, especially when it is difficult.
Do the right thing, even when no one is looking.
Take responsibility for your actions.
Reflect on how your actions affect the welfare of others.


Interesting, huh? Makes me want to apologize for the profanities strewn about willy-nilly in the following post on Democrats. However, makes me realize that these basic humane principals, necessary to the civilizing of toddlers, is so missing in Repubs and Libertarians. Hey you right wing "conservatives," I'd love to only look out for number one all the time too! I'd certainly sleep better at night if I only cared about me and mine. And I'm pretty healthy, so far, so what do I care about insurance or social safety nets etc. etc. etc? This is childish thinking. This is id based greed. This is not enlightened or farsighted. It's not even very Christian, if you want to look at it that way. I'm an atheist so I have to adhere to that "do the right thing even when nobody's looking" all the time -- because I don't believe in the eye in the sky or santa's list keeping. I do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because there is a cloudy, harp laden heaven waiting -- or hundreds of virgins for that matter. I do the right thing just because. Just because I'm a good citizen.

Friday, February 04, 2005

What Do Democrats Stand For?

i keep hearing libs asking "what does the democratic party really stand for?"

give me a fucking break.

we stand for the future and for sharing the risks and rewards of community. we stand for saving for a rainy day and helping out our neighbors and even the folks we may never meet who need help.

and why? because it's the right thing to do.

because why in the world do you belong to a community, a party, a country if not to band together during the rough times? and in order to do that, you have to share during the good times, too, for crying out loud, you fucking morons!

why else do we do it?

for altruism. because we are the party of altruism. yes. and folks can say that there is not such a thing, i've heard that one my whole life, that ultimately altruism is self serving. fine. i get a huge, fucking, giant, selfish, orgasmic, thrill out of doing the right thing. excuse the fuck out of me. it's awesome! try it sometime!

and if you can't buy the altruism then buy the guilt. it's the party of guilt. because i have trouble sleeping at night, eating expensive meals and dancing at million dollar balls knowing that there are sick children who need to see doctors going to sleep in my country tonight, knowing that there are somebody's kids and fathers and mothers fighting an unjust war in my name tonight, knowing there are men who have been disappeared from their wives and mothers and children by people acting on my behalf tonight.

i take it very personally -- seriously, personally, i take it personally -- when i see a young woman wearing the uniform of my country humiliating another human being . i take it personally when injured, sick soldiers waiting for health care for months on end are nickled and dimed for their lunches at walter reed hospital -- returning veterans who can't work or earn money or be with their families -- the government, the military -- who work for me, can't buy them crappy hospital cafeteria food while they're waiting to get medical care! that is my fault.

even though i didn't vote for the asshole in charge who decided to ream those guys, even though i didn't pocket the money that halliburton stole or the billions of dollars that are unaccounted for in iraq, it is my fault, i take personal responsibility for the fact that those guys and girls have to pay for their meals. so if you don't like guilt, the party of guilt? not so catchy... maybe you like the party of responsiblity. i hold myself personally responsible for the fact that we let those jerks win.

so the only thing i don't know right now is how to make things better. i certainly don't want to beat them at their own game, because i don't want to play their game. but i'll tell you something. i do know what we stand for. now, the rest of you can pull your heads out of your asses and help me figure out what to do about it.

Apoplectic

Once again Cassandra is silenced.

Not quieted, silenced. I am apoplectic.

The whole Social Security "debate." The fact that it is being debated. How? Why? This man? This fucking idiot who cannot, has not, will not balance a budget, maintain a business, work a consecutive work week, read briefings about the very wars that he started -- for god's sake, the guy wouldn't dance longer than 10 minutes at his own conspicuously consumptive coronation -- this is the man folks will even allow to bring the topic up?

And now I'm hearing phrases like "the anti-ownership crowd." Is that me? Sure, I would like to own the house I live in, for instance. It's nothing fancy, that's for sure. It's two bedrooms, 80+ years old. Barely large enough to house a child we'd like to foster someday. Probably needs at least $50k in plumbing and foundation work. And since it's in LA (in a very fancy neighborhood, I might add -- we have two strip joints within a tiny three block radius) my 80 year old childless widow of a landlady wants $600,000. See, god's gonna let her take it with her... She's such a good Catholic that she calls me up every election day and tells me not to vote for any school bond measures or she'll have to raise my rent again. Oh and she hates all the Mexicans and Russians and Armenians. All the immigrants. And did I tell you she's French Canadian?

So maybe I am anti ownership after all. If she's typical of owners... I used to be pro-neighbor. She lives next door in her own quadplex that she wants even more money for. I used to offer her rides and cook for her and try to look out for her as much as possible. That's getting harder to do since she keeps raising the rent on us every time she hears someone else in the neighborhood is getting more from their tenants.

She, of course, is getting her social security. She of course loves Bush.

Since the BIG UNITER DIVIDED us all into OLDER than 55 and YOUNGER than 55, I thought I'd share a little FYI: Canada and New Zealand won't accept immigrants over the age of 55. They don't want you showing up there expecting to live on their dole, and that's reasonable. So the rest of us better get our paperwork in order...

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

A good day in Iraq



Oh, how hard it is to be against the War on Election Day in Iraq.

Even if the polls numbers are wrong and it wasn't a 72% turnout- if it was a 50% or less, the fact that Iraqis risked their lives to go out and vote is a wonderful display of bravery and freedom.

I am happy for them.

But I still wonder if the ends justified the means. I was always an advocate of Preemptive Democracy as way to minimize or hopefully avoid casualties in an Iraq conflict...


Are the neocons right?


What if Bush has been right about Iraq all along?
February 1, 2005
BY MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Random thoughts: Bush legacy... poor planning... gambling with other people's lives.... little Osamas... Democracy at the point of a gun- is that freedom? How many Iraqi civilian casualties matter to you? How many American lives? All? Some? None?

Did the people oppressed by Saddam deserve to be killed for their freedom by our military?

It's not like we came in and joined someone's rebellion. We invaded an organized Stalinist state, but it doesn't seem that we had a clear plan for the occupation. The contractors were very organized and ready to go. The Humvees still aren't all armored. The Defense Secretary is glib, flip, and cock-sure. Iraqi's power and water is still intermittent... $9 billion dollars are missing...

Baghdad Burning

Operation Truth


What does the Project for the New American Century have to say? Nothing so far, it seems... Shouldn't they be bloviating wildly now?

My great hope is that Bush knows the War wasn't the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am his advisers told him it would be- it's ending up somewhat more like the VietNam War he avoided as a wealthy young man. So my hope is that Bush the masterful politician is looking to "fix" this nagging war and his legacy by beginning to pull out our troops. Even a "cosmetic" pull out- a few thousand at first- would be wonderful. I hope that his ego will motivate him to begin the pull out...


Even if, as a liberal, I am left in the uncomfortable position of wanting our troops to not leave the place in sheer chaos... I want NATO or the Arab League or somebody in there to help...

I don't care about being right about this... I want to be wrong, actually...

But I'm afraid this will embolden them. The neocons. The Bushes. The right wing.


He might be a lame duck on social security- but he sure is a wartimepresident