Run what ya brung

"Fixer's People" are amazing sometimes!

EssEffChron

Horse dreams dashed, German teen turns to cow Luna

This is a heartwarming story. Go read.

Shave an' a haircut, two bits and not worth a plugged nickel

Ever had yer hair cut by a freshman at the Barber College? A cheap amateur butcher job. Samey-same with Ryan's dreamworks budget. You'll never get a date looking like that. Heh.

Click to embiggen so you can read it better

From YubaNet.

Pence Lets The The Truth Slip

The 'baggers sometimes have a little trouble keeping their lies straight. Also, 'truth as gaffe' occasionally slips out even on FOXProp. Condolences to those who have to watch this shit to let the rest of us know.

Via Think Progress:

Thanks to ThinkProgress2.

Since that vid talks about the troops, let's talk about not paying them should there be a Repug gummint shutdown.

Again, Think Progress:

One painful consequence of a possible looming government shutdown is that U.S. troops, many of whom are currently stationed and fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, will not get paid. “You could have forces deployed in the field, with their families back home, and no one’s getting paid. And that could be an issue,” one defense department official said.

Could be an issue? Let me say something about that - our soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines mostly don't give a shit about being in harm's way. You can fuck with their chow, fuck with their sleep, send them to shitholes the devil shudders at the prospect of being in, and they will do their duty, give it their all.

Fuck with their pay and they're liable to go on strike. Remember, these days we have a married military. The troops have wives and kids and live off base and have bills to pay. As Gates says, they live from paycheck to paycheck, and fuckin' with their families won't fly.

In my day (read "Once Upon A Time..."), about 99% of us were single and lived in the barracks. In my meteoric rise from a lower-than-whale-shit Private making $73 a month to my lofty final princely sum as an E-4-over-two of $212.50 a month, I never once didn't get paid. We got a place to live, our chow, we could wash our own clothes if we had to and find a free haircut that would satisfy regs if not style, and you'd be surprised how many guys can shave with a worn-out blade (to Marines, pain is weakness leaving the body). All our pay really did for us was let us buy smokes and beer and an occasional civilian cheeseburger and unnecessary luxuries such as shaving cream and starched utilities. The powers-that-be made damn sure we got it. I've stood in line for an hour aboard a ship in the middle of the Nowhere Ocean to get my pittance in cash even though we were six weeks and thousands of miles from anywhere but the ship's store to spend it. You couldn't get into the ship's store for two days after payday but that's another story. You could get in any of a hundred card or dice games of your choice. Heh.

Point is, money wasn't all that important to us other than we had it coming and had better get it, and the Brass made sure we did.

The goddam 'baggers want this government shut down and the hell with supporting the troops. Just collateral damage in their pathetic ideological wet dream.

"a wishlist of every conservative wet dream"

El Rude-o on Ryan's "budget" proposal:

[...] Because you know what would have happened if the situation was reversed.

If a Democrat had proposed a budget that radically cut the military, raised the top tax rate by nearly a third, ended all the wars, created a national health care system through a new payroll tax (thus relieving businesses of a huge financial burden), expanded EPA and food safety enforcement, and jacked up discretionary spending on education, scientific research, and more, and still yielded trillions of dollars in long-term savings, and then explained the document by saying, "This isn't a budget. This is a cause," do you think that that Democrat would have been hailed as "courageous" by any Republicans? Do you think that anyone in the media would have taken the thing seriously? Don't be fucking stupid. What would have happened is that most Democrats would have run away like beaten bitches afraid of Rush Limbaugh's switch, Republicans would have called it "un-American" and "the mostest radicalest budget that anyone has ever put out in the history of forever" and taken the word "cause" to mean "Marxist rape of your children," and Fox "news" would have gone to TardCon 5 in demonizing everything: "Do you want the government telling you what diseases you can have? Do you want Barack Obama to decide how much shit should be on your chicken?"

Paul Ryan's budget is not a serious document. It is, instead, a few pages of dried ejaculate on paper. It is a wishlist out of every conservative wet dream, and, as such, it is ballsy just how brazen it is. If nothing else, you can't say in the future that Republicans didn't warn us. Ryan's plan, his "Road Map," sets the bar so low that it pretty much guarantees that Democrats will be negotiating away many of the programs they worked on for decades and then declare victory because they didn't give in to everything Republicans wanted.

The fuckers swung for the fence all right. Let's hope it's a called strike.

Getting stoned ...

Firstly, I feel a lot better than I thought I would. I guess I'm still in half-decent shape. Heh ...

The real bitch about these "dry" (no mortar) stone constructions is getting the first course level. The entire job took me about 8 1/2 hours (stopping only for 3 smoke breaks), but laying the first course took about 5 of them.

I got my tools together first. Sharp spade, ruler, square, 4' level and a little rake.



The biggest bitch was breaking down the pallet and sorting the stones according to size and shape. This should be done before laying the first stone. They vary in size from approx 3' square down to stuff as small as a computer mouse.

I started by laying out the stones for the first course in approximate position. I laid the longest, straightest edge of each stone toward the outside, measuring out from my line to keep them fairly straight. That's the big rule here. The first course has to be level.



The trick is to start at the lowest side. Since the backyard is pitched to the west, I started on the west side. Once I got the first stone leveled, I moved on to the next, leveling each one to the preceding stone.



Notice I started a few feet off the corner. In my initial sorting, I picked out 4 corner pieces that were big enough to take up the whole corner, giving a good base as opposed to several small stones to make the corner.



Now, in the pic above, you see the west and south sides of the garden. Thanks to the difference in pitch, I had to go pretty deep by the time I got to the southeast corner (the first course is essentially buried). So what I did was start the first course on the east side at the same depth as the second course on the south. Observe:



This is the same corner with the east side leveled.



Then it's just a matter of stacking stones where they fit without wobbling. Also, the "seams" of the upper course shouldn't line up with those of the lower course.



And then, after a couple hours of stacking and moving stones around, it comes together.





I still have to pick up some topsoil to fill in the bed up to the top of the wall, but I sure as hell ain't swinging 500lbs of soil this morning. Maybe tomorrow. Heh ...

As always, click on the pics to make bigger. If you have any questions, leave 'em in comments.

Note to John Gall: I have no idea what kind of rock this is (I'll ask Sam the next time I'm at the nursery) but if I had to guess, I'd figure either a shale or slate of the kind you see in eastern Pennsylvania, very stratified.

That's the problem ...

The mind still feels 25. Got my stone work done but I'd be surprised if I can stand up straight in the morning. I'm shot, the Mrs. just cracked a beer for me, and the dogs are rushing me along for bratwurst. I'll document the adventure in the morning. Heh ...

Miss Becky Outed!

Nah, nothin' as juicy as my title suggests. Dammit. Heh.

Think Progress

Why Beck Is Out At Fox: Poor Ratings And Paranoid Rants

I would say more the former and less the latter. Murdoch and Ailes like ads, which Becky has cost them many of, and it's only their poor beknighted ignoramus viewers that lurves them some paranoid rants.

Liquid alert!

Last month, Fox News officials told the New York Times anonymously that they were “contemplating life without Mr. Beck.” The Times also reported that “[m]any on the news side of Fox have wondered whether his chronic outrageousness — he suggested that the president has ‘a deep-seated hatred for white people’— have made it difficult for Fox to hang onto its credibility as a news network.”

Glad I warned ya, huh? Difficult for Fox to hang onto its credibility as a news network? Bwahahahahahahaha! What credibility? Dude, that ship sailed a long time ago.

Becky deserves to be relegated to the AM radio in some old Studebaker pickup out in goat country. I don't think the goats will be any more retarded by him. Or the goatherd who probably doesn't understand English very well anyway.

Prost to that!

EssEffChron

It's become fashionable in American beer-geek circles to talk about the dire state of beer in Germany. The story is usually based on this fact: Germans are drinking less beer, about 101 liters per capita last year, down from more than 130 liters in the mid-1990s.

The story usually then leaps to questionable assumptions about why this is happening. Chief among these: German beers have become boring because the big six Bavarian beer producers make exactly the same beers. A conclusion is arrived at: What Germany really needs to regain its former glory is some gosh-darn, rootin' tootin' American innovation - namely in the form of American-style craft brews.

Call me an unrepentant Europhile, but I get a little uneasy when I hear Americans talk about how our innovations can save the world's oldest beer culture. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Coors' "cold-activated can" also a so-called American "innovation"? And let's be clear about beer consumption: The United States consumes a little over 80 liters per capita. Even with the decline, Germans are still drinking significantly more beer than we do. Until I walk into the average bar and see everyone drinking barleywine or barrel-aged sour beers rather than Bud Light or PBR, I suggest we should be a little more humble when it comes to commenting on other established beer cultures.

Heh. People who drink Goat Piss shouldn't throw (kidney?) stones!

Enjoy.

If The First Amendment Had To Be Ratified Today…

This is all too true. Tina Dupuy:

Republicans will tell you they’re the sole Constitutional purists in the country; they worship the document more/better than you do. But imagine if the First Amendment had to be voted on today. It would need two-thirds majority in both Houses just to be proposed.

Consider it: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

First, it’s way too progressive for today’s rabid rightwing. And if the Republicans saw this Amendment as a win for Obama – it would have to be stopped by any means necessary.

All the President would have to do is say he thinks it’s important for Americans to have freedom of speech, religion, the press and assembly.

Then the Tea nee Republican Party would call them “Obama Freedoms.”

Right-wing blogs next would tap, “What do Hitler, Machiavelli, Darwin, Che Guevara and the New Black Panther Party all have in common? They all love Obama Freedoms.”

“Obama Freedoms will indoctrinate our children to be secular Islamists who want taxpayers to pay for gay marriage abortions at Ground Zero,” Newt Gingrich would say in some Vaseline-lensed ominous music-packed video he’d hawk on his website.

There's more. This is the upshot:

The First Amendment – arguably the foundation of our democracy – if brought up today would die in committee.

Yes, our time is just that stupid.

Yes, our time is just that stupid.

Frances Fox Piven: Still Tougher Than Glenn Beck

The American Prospect

The legendary anti-poverty activist, who is leading a nationwide teach-in on the corporate-fueled austerity movement with Cornel West today, talks about the current political moment -- and what can be done to reclaim government for the people.

Cornel West is one of my favorites, a liberal's liberal, and one fast-talkin' smart brotha!

Here's a couple of the questions asked of Professor Piven:

The old canard is that the Republicans are the party of the wealthy, while Democrats speak for the poor, working class, and middle class. So why does this situation appear to be as bad under Obama as under the Bush administration?
...

The Democrats' attitude toward their voters appears to be, "We're the best you've got. What are you going to do, vote Republican?" How do progressives manage to actually push the Democrats left?

You can go read her answers.

From wipin' yer ass to $4 gas to the 'bagger House

AlterNet

You knew they were big. You knew they were evil. From the union-busting actions of their minions in Wisconsin and Ohio to their war on health-care reform, to their assault on the environment and their attacks on the science of climatology, Charles and David Koch have earned their place as the focus of progressives' scrutiny in the age of the Tea Party -- the destructive and regressive movement they bankroll. But a new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that, as bad as you thought the Kochs were, they're actually worse. And their reach into virtually every aspect of political, economic and physical life on the planet is probably greater than you thought possible.

Go.

The great Barack Obama conundrum

If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford, who does his whole column in one* timely 'must read' paragraph.

*The printable version breaks down into normal ¶.

...turns out he's not been nearly fine enough. Just the opposite, in fact. To the sneering disappointment of the puritanical left, Obama has turned out to be pretty much exactly what he said he'd be during his '08 campaign: flawed, exceedingly moderate, a resolute compromiser, overly pragmatic when he should've been a badass, temperate when he should've been white hot and furious, offering concessions when he should be bringing the hammer down. In short, Obama has failed. He has not at all been the delicious chocolatey superjesus of radical sociopolitical transformation most on the hard left hoped, prayed and sacrificed precious Prius bumper ad space he would be. Hence, the conundrum.
...

Let us now check the liberal Whine-O'-Meter.

That's easy - the needle is wrapped around the 'max' pin about three times.

The solution to this conundrum is actually very easy. If you're unsure of Obama because he's been less the demigod superhero studbunny you hoped for, well, you have but to merely glance at the competition. Across the board and down the line, the GOP contenders for 2012 so far are laughingstocks and charlatans, complete caricatures of actual humans with brains. The Palins and the Bachmans, the Huckabees and the Newts, the Trumps and the Romneys -- it's all birthers and paranoids, adulterous slugs and ditzball sociopaths, fringers and terrified Mormons, a bloody madhouse clown car of cutesy whiffleball glop. I can hardly wait for the debates.
...

So count your presidential blessings, libs, for while they may be tattered and rashy and often pinch and ride up, they are, on the whole, still plentiful and hugely impressive and just shockingly better than any alternative you can name, much less vote for. And you know it.

Mr. Morford could have been channelling me. That's exactly how I feel.

How it works ...

From our pal Michael:

...

It's their vicious circle, you see:

-- People are ignorant.
-- Republicans make more people ignorant and people more ignorant.
-- More people vote Republican.
-- More Republicans make more people even more ignorant.
-- Etc., etc., etc.

...

In a nutshell, yes.

This ...

Should be etched in marble somewhere:

...

And once again a stupid Conservative acts on a stupid Conservative idea and ends up costing the taxpayers money they can ill afford thanks to the stupid Conservative tax cuts for the rich.

...

Maybe etched in a whole buncha pieces of marble so we can mark conservative failures (and there are a lot of them) for future generations to see and learn from.

No tongues ...

The stomach heaves ...

Rock and Roll ...

Got tons of rocks coming in a few hours ... Not-So-Great Wall of Long Island to follow.

Thunderstorms last night and the intarwebs were the major casualty. Thankfully, the cable was up and I got to see FC Schalke 04 hand Internatzionale Milan their ass.

Update:

They've arrived, and a half-hour early I might add.

Fuck it

Nuthin'. Zip-point-zilch. Same old shit. Ennui. Boredom. Nothing's goin' on that rocks my boat, pops my cork, blows my skirt up.

Hoping for news from Fixer's garden, gonna go shovel snow for the 14th day in a row to get outta the rut. That's bad. Heh. Later.

Ignore them at your peril ...

Mr. Mass-transit states it plainly (in toto):

The disparity in media coverage between what right wingers get anywhere anytime and what lefties have received over the past decade is so huge that when I reach for reasons I tend to get more paranoid about news organizations than I usually am. It's hard not to see it as a deliberate decision from the top. Ignore the protesting hippies.

Which is why the social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs) worry the government and "mainstream" press so much. It's not run through the corporate filter before the masses get to consume it. Ask the former and current, soon-to-be-former, Middle East despots how that goes. Like them, those here with all the power believe ignoring a problem will make it go away.

Word always gets out, now more than ever.

***

Gotta do some maintenance work over at Dad-in-law's place. Later ...

Of course ...

I'll vote Dem, but I certainly ain't happy about it. I expected better and no, I'm not in. Let him get his money from the corporations he's already sold out to. I've given enough to politicians before the fact. Ain't none of them getting a dime from me anymore until they prove they're worth it. Barry sure as hell hasn't.

Update:

Carl puts it well:

...

Trillions for banks. Nothing for Americans except a tax cut that no one even noticed and a healthcare reform bill that, if it survives, won't even kick in for another three years. Ahead of it, HMOs are gouging rates and doctors are overbilling all in the name of the rainy days to come.

When do we get to fight this class war back? When do we get to untie our hands and instead of being beaten, slapped and punched, maul those who harm us daily, with no regrets, without honor or loyalty to the nation that bestowed upon them the very gifts that our soldiers, We The People, have fought so hard for over the centuries?

When do you champion us? I'll give to your campaign. I may even contribute the same significant amounts I did in 2008. But it won't be with joy in my heart and hope for the kind of change we can believe in.

...

Indeed. Mr. Obama only gets my vote because the alternative, or not voting, is so much worse.

In a sane world ...

They'd all be in jail:

Transocean Execs Get Bonuses For 'Best Year In Safety,' Despite Gulf Disaster

But this is America in the 21st Century.

Garden update ...

Oy. Well, first off, I was gonna surprise the Mrs. so I ordered up a little shitbag plastic fence from Home Depot online. Unfortunatley, H-D didn't email me when the stuff shipped. I'm usually around when UPS comes and I deal with it. I figured I'd be outside and intercept him before he rang the bell and set it up while the Mrs. was working. Well, today, while I was running around, the shit came and was waiting inside the front door when I walked in. There were 6 boxes.

Needless to say, the Mrs. and the dogs interrogated me until I spilled the beans (the dogs were only happy to see me, the Mrs. wanted to know what was in the boxes).

So here it is. This took me 4 hours. The Mrs. likes it and it doesn't look half-bad (it'll do the trick until I get my buddy Ed the Welder to make me something out of wrought iron - 2 or 3 years maybe), but I had to engineer it a bit.

Like I said, it's shitbag plastic, probably made in the same place they make those shitty plastic coat hangers. But it's cheap so I won't mind ripping it up when Eddie gets "a round toit" (I introduced him to the mother of his 6 kids so he owes me one ... or not).

The little clips connecting the pieces are shitty, and it was an ass-puckering experience trying to lock them together without breaking (I broke 2). Fortunately, being in the auto repair business for 30-odd years, I got a million black cable ties. I ended up using a tie at every joint and it really stiffened everything up. The Mrs. likes it, I'm happy.



I also added some more plants to give the perimeter some more depth and color.

On the east side, I put a couple Sedum on either side of a Red Dianthus.



On the north side, I did the same thing on either side of the Japanese Holly and the Juniper, though instead of the succulents flanking the Dianthus, I used English Daisies.



I used the same combination on the south side.



On the west side I put a Sedum in the center and two varieties of Phlox (Emerald Pink and Emerald Blue).



And last but not least, I added a Clematis to the center bed (in the tripod) and I'm gonna let that grow up the tree.



Time to have a beer, take a shower, and wind the dogs up to have the Mrs. make us dinner (I send surrogates, heh ...). Later.

Quote of the Day

A comment on this article:

"The invisible hand of the free market does not do safety inspections.”

Nor, unregulated, will it.

Verrrry Interesting...

YubaNet

While intensive agriculture, highways, and cities have put pressure on ecosystems and species in most parts of Germany, the so-called “Death Strip” was off limits to most humans for decades, and thus became a safe haven for rare wildlife and plants.

You vill go see. You vill enyoy. If you do not, ve haff vays of making you...

The Pot Calling The Kettle Black

Gail Collins (NYT) on The Donald:

During one down period, I referred to him in print as a “financially embattled thousandaire” and he sent me a copy of the column with my picture circled and “The Face of a Dog!” written over it.

This from a guy who carries an embarrassed bleached blond dead skunk around on his head? Chutzpah, thy name is Trump!

1%ers

Vanity Fair

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.

I find 'One-Percenters' to be a very apt title for the wealthiest among us. In the world of motorcycling, the 1%ers are the outlaw bikers. They are proud of it and a lot of them wear 1% patches on their cuts. Walk right up to one of 'em and stare at it. Heh.

Many of the outlaws also wear 'Filthy Few' patches, which I think applies to the richies as well.

Naturally, the rest of us card-carrying motorcycling 99%ers are a cut above and spend our time sipping tea and carrying on deep literary and philosophical discussions...

Headline of the Day

Fed Judge: State Legislatures Don't Have Authority To Limit Collective Bargaining Rights

This is good. 'Rights' not specifically enumerated in the Constitution were generally hard-won to redress grievances left out or not thought of at the time. Or left in like slavery. We do not get to vote away other people's rights and they do not get to vote away ours, the Repug M.O. be damned.

HPUB Website

PRWeb

The Huffington Post Union of Bloggers, a non-profit corporation affiliated with Local 1981 of the National Writers Union, announces the launch of http://www.hpub.org. The Union calls on Huffington Post readers and bloggers to utilize this new and exciting website.

FAQ

What is HPUB?

The Huffington Post Union of Bloggers (HPUB) is a non-profit corporation affiliated with Local 1981 of the National Writers Union.

Who are its Directors and members?

Current and former bloggers and employees of the Huffington Post and their supporters. Their names are confidential.

What does HPUB want?

To build a news and views website for change and transformation; not driven by advertisers and a Board of Directors beholden to shareholders.
...

What are the criteria to have work published?

HPUB policy is to promote quality original and reprinted material that reflects Progressive values and vision of change.

Good for them.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

TEA PARTIERS CALL FOR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
But keep sending them their Social Security checks

Economy Added 216,000 Jobs in March
Analysis: number of bartenders hired more than offset number of school teachers fired.

Chinese Activist Gets 10 Years for Libeling Leadership as Autocratic
Proving his point.

Toy Maker Raises Ruckus With “Breast Milk Baby”
Decides to delay release of “My First Delivery” and “C-Section Sally.”

Can "Penis Pump Peter" be far behind?

Top Ten ...

No, not Letterman, JP has a rundown of the Top Ten in the Rethuglican Clown Car for 2012:

...

A recipient himself of the Franklin Graham Islamophobic Asshole of the Year award for two years running, this hypocritical serial adulterer made national headlines by screaming about Sharia law in the US and the erecting of the Cordoba Center two blocks from Ground Zero. The anti-Nostradamus, Gingrich has been wrong about everything yet still vacuums up enough money from mindless, racist minions every year to form exploratory committees that invariably tell him he's unelectable.

...

Errands ...

This morning. Be back later with a garden update at the least.

"Got a problem wid dat?"

Last snow post of winter 2011?

I hope so. Since my roof got cleared last Sunday, the weather has been mahvelous dahling! The warm temps caused my little bit of residual ice to start creeping off the roof. I whacked at it with my ice whacker to seemingly no avail. Five minutes later, whoomph! and thirty linear feet of ice came down. This is nothing, happens every few years and I have all I need to repair it in stock.

Click to embiggen

I am damn glad I had the roof de-snowed. If that had come down with 5 to 6 feet of snow on top of it the damage would have been a lot worse, and that has happened. One year we had so much ice and snow come down that it broke the deck, the railing, and the steps. We went in and out through the garage for about a month while I waited for massive chunks to melt so I could begin repairs.

This video shows the awesome power of my Honda and what's left of its winter-worn simple-minded operator. At one point about 4:00 I am about to take a cigarette break, remember the camera is running and think better of it. A coupla times you can see me having to physically pull the machine when the treads stopped motating and just churned snow.

Also, you'll hear a coupla airplanes, or maybe the same one circling to gain altitude from our 6000' airport to get over our 9000' mountains (see 'density altitude'. Pilots who don't take it into account on takeoff crash around here more frequently than you might think). Airplanes fly low over my house all the time. Whatever they're lookin' for, it's already gone.

I left this for late in the day so you could see it first thing in the morning when all your mental power is occupied with that first cuppa and a smoke. Trust me, this is not a mental workout. Heh.

Wasn't sure if my Honda could blow a way through that snowpile. With a little shovel work it can. This is the last few minutes of an hour and a half job. Took a few more minutes to clear the finished way back into the garage.

Boring I know, but my dog is always fun to watch.

The GOP Is Great!

Wow. After that title, I gotta read the directions on the air sickness bag - "after use, fold toward you". Gotcha...

This is "if you can't say something nice..." along the lines of "gee, for a fat girl you don't sweat much".

Bill Maher thinks of something nice to say about republicans

Via Raw Story.

Must See!

This is good! I will admit to having this story every bit as wrong as the teabaggers albeit in a different direction. Hartmann be esplainin' it well.

See also the Tea Act of 1773. If you don't believe Wikipedia, pick your own. See the Boston Port Act as well.

Thom Hartmann: The TRUE story of the Tea Party

Thanks to TheBigPictureRT.

California Snow

Tom Russell is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. He writes about shit I can relate to. I'm not 100% certain, but I think his accompanist on this is Nina Gerber. Even if I'm wrong, you should know about this wonderful guitar picker.

Those of you who follow my antics should know that I have a bountiful surfeit of 'California Snow'. My lot runneth over. It's been T-shirt weather since I had my roof cleared and it's melting at a prodigious rate and thank you Jesus for that.

21SEP08 at AMSDconcerts, A San Diego CA concert series, with video by Steve Laub

Thanks to AMSDconcerts.

Saturday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

Famous old-time country gospel singer Robert Plant lets one fly!

Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy (July 30, 2010) at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL

Of course the best way to bring down Satan's Kingdom is don't vote for Repuglicans.

Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down"

Thanks to LizaJaneAudiophile.

A tale of two governors

Seeing as how the Brain is a bicoastal effort from remarkably similar yet remarkably diverse rocket scientists in New York and California, I found it interesting that this article in the EssEffChron draws some similar parallels between a coupla other NY and CA rocket scientists with bigger rockets. Whether they attain unimaginable soul-stirring heights (like the Brain) or topple over on the launch pad is yet to be seen.

In New York, home of what has been called America's "most dysfunctional legislature," Democrat Andrew Cuomo has been showered with praise this week as he prepares to sign a budget deal that cuts billions of dollars from schools and health care without imposing new taxes.

In California, where the "most dysfunctional" legislative title may also apply, Democrat Jerry Brown is being hammered: His budget proposals look shattered, his calls for a June special election dead, his Plan B uncertain and the two major parties in Sacramento no longer speaking, at least publicly.

Cuomo, the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, and Brown, whose late father was California Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown, are three months into their terms and leading solidly blue states that are deep in the red.

Much more. Enjoy.

He'd probably do a better job ...

Than Secaucus Fats. I can't listen to this whiny kid (he's been all over the news here) who wants to be governor of New Jersey anymore, but if I lived there I'd vote for him before I'd vote for Christie.

Say what you will ...

About Islamic fundamentalists (and you know how I feel about fundamentalist religionists of any stripe), you don't see them going out and burning bibles. What the fuck is with the Christian fundies that they can't show the same respect for others' holy scriptures? Personally, I think they all should be used for kindling but I also believe in respect for my fellow humans and their beliefs (as long as they don't try to force them on me). Jackholes like this piss me off:

...

Jones originally gave up the idea of a Koran burning, but I guess life got boring without some media attention following Rep. Peter King's fearmongering hearings. Jones's ignorant book burning took place a little over a week ago, though it was largely ignored in the American media.

...

And now a buncha UN workers are dead. Good job, asswipe.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Emmylou Harris performs "Darlin' Kate" live at the Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas on March 18, 2011.

For more videos, visit npr.org/tinydeskconcerts
For more SXSW coverage visit npr.org/sxsw

NPR Music Tiny SXSW Concert: Emmylou Harris

Thanks to nprmusic.

Stand up! Hook up! Shuffle to the door...

Fixer inspires me sometimes. This vid ain't very good but you get the idea. Happened 10 minutes ago. The deck railing is 10 feet off the ground but it's only a foot and a half to the snow below it.

Tami chases her ball. Taken on my deck. And off it. Boy, did I get The Look from the Mrs. for conning Tami into doing that, but Tami didn't seem to mind.

Stoned ...

And not the good way.

You all know about my garden hijinks lately. Well, come Wednesday, I'll be building one of these:

Pic from here.

On Wednesday at 0900, they drop a couple tons of flat stones* in my yard. The bright side is that it's only gonna be 6" high and 50' long (a border around the center bed). Shoulda never took the Mrs. with me ("Do you remember those stone fences we saw in the Azores? Wouldn't one of those be beautiful?") when I went out pricing flagstones this afternoon. We also came away with 12 more plants** while we were there. Still ain't found flagstones for the walk ...

*And, believe it or not, it's cheaper than the cast stuff they sell at the Home Depot and regardless of the material, I'm still lugging a couple tons of stuff, 20lbs at a time. I have to agree with the Mrs. that the real thing will probably look better and more authentic.

**Note to Jay in NC: I'll let you know what we got when I plant 'em on Sunday.

Update:

The stone fences in the Azores the Mrs. was talking about. This is on Ponta Delgada.

Maybe I do need one...

When I turned 65 I started getting all kinds of ads for old people shit, including the little electric scooters.

Just as an aside, a lot of these have 'disconnect' switches in the back. The operator can't reach it from the seat. I had a lotta fun with this feature at the VA hospital. Vets ain't exactly known for being politically correct, but we wouldn't leave the guy stranded for much longer than for him to realize he'd been had. I don't do it to the old farts who use 'em at the supermarket. But I digress.

One of the features of the scooter ads is usually something like "If one of the following has happened to you, you need our scooter!"

Q: Have you fallen in the last year?

A: Yeah, I fell off my trials bike, dipshit.

Here's one I could live with. I wonder if Medicare will pay for it...:

Thanks to colinfurze, UK.

The asylum is getting crazier by the minute

The Rude Pundit follows up on Fixer's post:

Let's add one more piece to this puzzle. Expressing what must be the angst felt by a great many people who once proudly called themselves "conservative," if not "Republican," once-proud conservative Andrew Sullivan wrote this week, "Conservatism cannot be defined as whatever is the most extreme right-wing narrative of the moment. Time matters. Conservatism needs to be flexible enough a governing philosophy to be able to correct for conservative ideology itself. When such an ideology threatens fiscal balance, a prudent foreign policy, and a thriving middle class, it has become the enemy of real conservatism, not its friend."

He's right. However, the exigencies of time and the actions of fools change things. 19th-century liberalism is nearly the mirror opposite of today's liberalism. Eisenhower Republicans would think that today's GOP is filled with barking mad idiots and then wonder why in the fuck would leaders pay attention in any way, shape, or form to the maddest of them all. Sorry, dear, once-loyal opposition, but "conservative" has been co-opted and remade in the image of the extremists, much in the way that "Christian" now generally means "fundamentalist" in the United States. Whatever Buckley-esque resonances of decades past you may want it to have, "conservative" now means a devotion to untenable financial policies, obeisance to the needs of corporations and the very wealthy, regressive social policies, and, indeed, belief in things that are demonstrably false. The word belongs to the nuts and to the imbeciles and to those who profit off their devolved sense of the nation and the world.

What do you do, in such a relationship, where you have been abandoned by the progress of the world beyond your reach? If you have any sense, you break up. It's that simple. And you try to figure out how to make your life have meaning again.

(Note: unless it becomes absolutely necessary because of some event or other, this is the last time the Rude Pundit will talk about the godforsaken fucktardery of birtherism.)

You'll be back, Rude-Man. Those fuckers won't quit even when they're full of embalming fluid.

Yes, Boehner is really 'boner'

Weiner: ‘Who is Boehner fooling? What am I, like, Anthony Waynor?’

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) brought the house down last night at the Congression Correspondents’ Dinner, touching on the proper pronunciation of his name, his “seventies Jew-fro” that adorns with Twitter page and the proper method for engaging with journalists in live videos to show the proper amount of respect.

Video too!

Headline of the Day

Arianna: The Huffington Post is not a ‘lefty’ publication anymore

It's not on my reading list any more either. Ya still got a nice rack for an old hide, Red.

"...behold this carousel of whiny self-victimhood"

Here's a coupla ¶ from Glenn Greenwald on Richie Rich's Pity Party.

For billionaires to see themselves as the True Victims, to complain that the President and the Government are waging some sort of war against them in the name of radical egalitarianism, is so removed from reality -- universes away -- that's it's hard to put into words. And the fiscal recklessness that the Kochs and their comrades tirelessly point to was a direct by-product of the last decade's rule by the Republican Party which they fund: from unfunded, endless wars to a never-ending expansion of the privatized National Security and Surveillance States to the financial crisis that exploded during the Bush presidency. But whatever else is true, there are many victims of fiscal policy in America: the wealthiest business interests and billionaires like the Koch Brothers are the few who are not among them.

[...] They single-handedly fund advocacy groups and covert campaigns on a wide variety of highly controversial issues that adversely impact huge numbers of people. That they expect to be able to do that without any vigorous response or opposition or anger is just reflective of their oozing sense of entitlement: the same syndrome that leads them to perversely believe that the True Victims in America's political culture are its wealthiest and most powerful.

This strain of delusional self-victimization is not uncommon. One commonly finds those who are the strongest and most powerful convincing themselves that they are the oppressed and the marginalized. Many Americans believe that -- as they invade, bomb and occupy countless Muslim countries -- that they are the ones being victimized by the Muslim world, while many Israelis and their loyalists believe that the nuclear-armed, constantly invading, occupying and bombing nation is the real victim of aggression and militarism in the Middle East. [...]

This is exactly the psychological affliction that leads Wall Street plunderers and tycoons and billionaires to see themselves as the victims of the resentful lower-classes and the "radical egalitarians" who run the U.S. Government. Even as they get richer and everyone else gets poorer, even as the very few remaining restraints on their political power are abolished, even as the disparities in wealth and power grow ever-larger, they become increasingly convinced that everything is stacked against them, that there is a grand conspiracy to deprive them of what is rightfully theirs. All of this could be confined to a fascinating, abstract psychological study if not for the fact that the people who think this way exercise the most political power and continue to exercise more and more.

But...but...but...nobody was supposed to know...our Supremes said so...the peasants have found out and now they don't like us...waaaaaaaah...

Note to the Kochs et alia: you are crunchy and will taste good with ketchup. If there's anything left after cleaning.

Huckabee: All Americans Should Be Forced at Gunpoint to Listen to David Barton

This is at Talk To Action.

While most eyes were on the Conservative Principles Political Action Committee conference in Iowa on Saturday, many of us who follow the religious right were more interested in another conference, also held in Iowa, on Thursday and Friday. This other conference was the Rediscover God in America conference, where all the same potential 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls that appeared at the Saturday's Conservative Principles PAC conference told us what they really think -- that America should be governed by biblical law.

Sure, there was a lot of talk about important issues like the economy at the Conservative Principles PAC conference, but it was at the Rediscover God in America conference that we learned that all of our economic policies should be based on the Bible. And who did we learn this from? None other than Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton, who kicked off the conference with a lengthy presentation of his usual historical hogwash. Then, one by one, as the potential Republican presidential candidates took the podium to let the audience full of pastors know just how Christian they are, each began by gushing about what a great historian and good friend David Barton is.

You can read the rest of this, and there's video with Suckabee's 'gunpoint' comment left in although it was edited out of the webcast. Edited out for good reason - Huckeeboy let their true feelings slip out.

Yes, to these crazies we should all be forced at gunpoint to listen to the lies and rantings of the American Taliban. Do what the religious right wants or they'll shoot you. Good Xtians to a man and damn white of 'em.

Not getting involved ... (revisited)

Being I've operated with both of these aircraft, one has to wonder how uninvolved we're actually becoming:

...

But unlike the attack aircraft used in the war’s first days, these planes fly low to the ground and fire cannons instead of dropping bombs. Experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan, the A-10’s 30 millimeter “Avenger” guns to shoot holes at ground targets; the A-130 loiters over its targets at 15,000 feet before firing its 25 mm, 40mm and 105 mm guns. If you want to take out enemy tanks, trucks and artillery pieces from the sky — with friendly dudes on the ground nearby — these are the planes you fly.

...

The other side ...

Of the Cattle Dog coin.

Remember about a month an a half ago, when I posted a vid of my little idiots dogs roughhousing while I was trying to blog? Well, this is the other side of the coin, when they're beat and don't want to be bothered.



Sorry but you'll never get that minute back. Heh ...

And yes, that's the Beeb on in the background.

I realize ...

We've been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator but shouldn't an elected representative know a little about geography?

The old joke goes that most people can't find whatever country the United States is at war with on a map.

...

I mean, I guess sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Committee doesn't require knowing much about anything "foreign". Seems believing anything French is no good is qualification enough.

Oh yes ...

You see it all the time. Women fake rape to get abortions. Christ ...

Summing up ...

The political discourse in America in the beginning of the 21st Century. The Rude One:

...

Something's seriously fucked beyond fucked when, in order to be considered at having a real shot at winning Republican primaries, you gotta not just go nutzoid anti-choice and anti-gay (which is stupid enough), but you gotta at least leave the door open for genuine madness in order to appease the inmates at the asylum.

Getting crazier by the day too.