Saturday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

Native-born Californians regain majority status

Yay! Now there's too many of us instead of too many of them. I guess that means us homeboys are winning, ¿sí?

Here's some of us now singing about the success of immigrants in California:

Out of the Blue: Michael Gallagher, Pat Seamount, Terry Harris performing Buck Owens'Streets of Bakersfield at the Trout Festival in Kernville, CA

Hey, they made the big time, all the way to Kernville. Not everybody can claim that. Note: I tried for the Trout Festival, but I think I overloaded their server. It's held here. Real Californians love their fish hatcheries. I've been to many.

Thanks to labunner1.

Pope's preacher: Accusations akin to anti-Semitism

Interesting opinion in a headline at BuzzFlash:

"Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews." Something tells us with this sort of desperate attack, including one against the New York Times, that the Pope is much deeper into the Pedophile scandal then even we know.

I would 'liken' it more to exposing the attempted Nazi cover-up of the 'collective violence' they inflicted on the Jews.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Great song, cool train. YouTube changed its format and I apparently don't get to pick my own color for the border anymore. I'll work on it. I screwed my head on a little tighter and it's OK now. Always read the directions...

Luxury liner forty tons of steel. Emmylou Harris.
Video: Steam train, Pride of Africa, in south Africa.
cape town - Kimberley - Pretoria - Knysna

Emmylou Harris ~ Luxury Liner

Thanks to benbruch, Netherlands.

Where credit is due ... 2

Much as I rag on Barry, things are looking up.

Where credit is due ...

To Bill O'Reilly. You did the right thing, you miserable, insane twat.

The Ghost Fleet of Suisun Bay

Interesting 12-min. video of a bureaucratic/regulatory/environmental nightmare. Includes a segment about USS Iowa (BB 61) which had a powder magazine explode in 1989 due to aged (1930s!) and improperly stored propellant and which destroyed a 16-inch gun turret and killed 47 crewmen. The Navy at first blamed the explosion on a gay lovers' quarrel.

Rust in peace no more, me hearties,
Your waiting days are almost done.
Off to Texas and broken for scrap,
No more belowdecks gay seamen's parties.

Gordon

Sorry, but these things just pop into my head.



EssEffChron photo gallery.

Headline of the Day

U.S. Sues KBR for Alleged False Claims Act Violations Over Improper Costs for Private Security in Iraq

Perhaps we're finally starting to get somewhere with some of the bastards who have been stealing from us.

Quote of the Day

The Rude Pundit

In other words, the Scott Roeder conviction demonstrates that we can successfully try terrorists in a civilian court.

Even if he's a white American, I might add.

Blast From The Past

I'm sure we're all having lotsa fun with the RNC's weenie self-stomp at the Voyeur club in WeHo. I found out today that it's the old Pink Pussycat, which was pretty infamous back in the day. I even managed to find it a coupla times.

From a NYTimes obit on its former owner via Pensito Review, along with a lot of other history of the place:

Located near the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, the club was a popular destination of tourists and locals alike, known for its glittering stage shows and equally glittering celebrity clientele.

It was a favorite watering hole of the Rat Pack, and for good reason. Mrs. Schiller shrewdly gave her dancers stage names like Fran Sinatra, Samya Davis Jr., Deena Martin and Peeler Lawford, and the originals soon showed up to inspect their namesakes.

The club was also internationally famous for its attached institution of higher learning, the Pink Pussycat College of Strip Tease, familiarly called the Navel Academy of the West…

The Pink Pussycat had a good ride, but by the late 1970s, nude dancing was in and striptease was out. The Schillers, now in their sixties, converted the club to a discotheque called Peanuts that was popular with gay women.

I remember the first time I went to a topless dancing joint. My friend Roger took me to one up on the Sunset Strip. I can't remember the name of the club but it was across the street from the Whisky a GoGo. Nice place, nothing sleazy about it. There weren't any table dances or 'private shows' in those days, so it was all pretty clean-cut fun. I was just out of the service (1966) and I had never seen anything like that in my young life! Pretty girls! Tits a-floppin' all over the place! I don't think my jaw un-dropped for a week. I may have revisited the place once or twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I was, thank you Lord. But I digress...

It turns out that Mrs. G and I have some shared experiences in WeHo (That's new. We just called it West Hollywood in those days.) in the years before we met. Besides being folkies and bluegrass fans and thus patrons of the Troubadour and the Ash Grove, we came dangerously close to crossing each other's paths a lot closer to what is now the Voyeur.

Mrs. G lived on La Jolla Ave. about four blocks from the club. I lived about three miles away, but we both used the same laundromat at Sta. Monica and Crescent Heights, two blocks from the club. Mrs. G says they had pizza there, but I don't remember that. There was a donut shop there. I remember that. Heh. Our skivvies mighta been waltzin' with each other and we never knew it.

Donuts and pizza only go so far while you're waiting for your laundry, and as luck would have it, there was an adult bookstore on the block. It was called The Book Circus, and the sign had red and white stripes and a picture of a clown.

Update: Holy crap! It's still there!

Mrs. G remembers going in there with her friends, stoned outta her gourd, to get a pack of smokes and her friends taking off and leaving her there. Heh.

I remember getting kicked outta the joint. Me and my buddy Howard actually paid the admission and went into the hard-core part of the store. We had a ball! We were looking at books and magazines and laughin' our asses off. Hold up a photo and in a loud voice, "Hey, Howie! Look at the schlong on this one!". Stuff like that. Well, we found out that porn is serious business and we were disturbing the patrons with their hands in their pockets and the manager asked us to leave. He even gave us our 50¢ back.

I met Mrs. G in '71 after she moved to Burbank and the rest is history. I can't remember how long it was before we put two and two together on our West Hollywood days, but we still get a big kick out of it.

Thanks for putting up with my sashay down memory lane. I had one yesterday, too. Check my comment at Fixer's post. Sometimes yer past comes outta nowhere and tickles ya on the ass.

Blogger is sucking wet monkey ass today.

Palin Advises Tea Partiers: 'Stop' Cars With Obama Bumper Stickers

TPM LiveWire

Less than a week after a Nashville man was driven off the road because his car sported an Obama-Biden bumper sticker, Sarah Palin has called on Tea Partiers to stop drivers whose cars have a similar sticker.

Or that bumper sticker you see on the next Subaru driving by, an Obama bumper sticker. You should stop the driver and say, "So how is that hopey, changey thing working out for you?"

This shit's gettin' out of hand. Between this and Scumbag Hannity's "McVeigh wannabes' remark, and some of the other bullshit, somebody's gonna get killed and sooner rather than later.

The rabble-rousers and shit-stirrers will evade responsibility by saying they were just trying to use humor to make a point, but they know damn good and well that there are plenty of loonies out on the fringe they cater to that will take this stuff literally, from people who will say, "I ain't no McVeigh wannabe. I'll prove it..." and blow somebody up, to fools who will actually try to pull over other drivers and fuck with them.

Please, please, please pull over that '92 Dakota with the Obama sticker. You'll be surprised how easy it is, unlike those Subarus who will call the cops and haul ass out of danger. Ask me how the hopey-changey stuff is goin'. Then ask yourself how the 911 call for the ambulance is goin'. You betcha.

If these idiots fuck with you, fuck back even harder. You can't change their minds, but you can change their faces. It's all in self-defense from a perceived threat. Of course it is.

The hell of it is that when confronted by danger or a threat of harm, in California at least, under the law you are expected to retreat rather than combat the threat. Sorry, judge, but my Drill Instructor didn't teach me how to do that.

I want to put some fear into these assholes, up close and personal, not at a distance like they're trying to do to us. I don't want to go to jail so I have to wait until one of them starts it, dammit. I think I'm developing an attitude. OK, the attitude I've had for years is getting worse. I don't like that in myself, but I can live with it.

A personal story. Yesterday at the Costco gas station, I started a conversation with a guy who was driving an early Falcon Ranchero. I told him how much I had wanted one of those 50 years ago when I was a kid. He had an SCTA license plate frame, so we chatted about Land Speed Racing a little. All very pleasant, until he said that under Obama we'd be racing rubber band powered cars because he was going to take our gasoline away. I didn't think fast enough to just tell him we'd have to learn to wind 'em up real tight so after a little more and rapidly devolving chitchat I just told him we'd had eight years under 'that bastard Bush' and it was our turn. He said that at least Bush was an American. Out of respect for the rule of law, or more properly respect for what the law can do to me, I just told him he was all wrong and walked away. We actually exchanged 'nice talkin' to yas' though I don't think either one of us meant it after the gearhead chat went away. There were no harsh words exchanged and that wasn't the place for a confrontation anyway. I fumed about it for ten minutes.

There oughta be a law that requires these yingyangs to wear floppy hats with teabags dangling off the brim so we can spot them easier and avoid them.

I still want a '60 Falcon Ranchero.

New Jersey to put ex-strippers to work weatherizing homes

Grist

The WeatherStrippers will seek to put caulking guns in the hands of disadvantaged former strippers through a 12-week, hands-on training program focused on efficient building erection and maintenance.

Between people actively and creatively punk'n us out, and business as usual amongst Repugs who don't understand there's no such thing as 'right-wing humor', I think April Fools Day should be a national holiday, a day of observance for the fools among us.

Exactly ...

The Republicans can plead their innocence and blame the Dems all they want, but their leaders know what's going on and are encouraging it:

HANNITY: When you think about the vast majorities that they have in Congress and they had to bribe, backroom deals, corruption, that’s all because the tea party movement, the people — all these Tim McVeigh wannabes here.

American Terrorism is the new black (in the fashion sense) for the Republicans. What do they call it? Sedition? I believe they have laws against that but I'm not holding out any hope Hannity will get his richly deserved federal fucking.

In case you've forgotten: Timothy McVeigh

Update:

Maybe I was wrong. Those fun-loving guys at the IRS are about to crawl up Scumbag Sean's ass.

Guam might capsize. Say WHAT?!!!

April Fool, right? One can only hope...

Hotlanta Journal-Constitution

WASHINGTON -- Is the island of Guam in danger of tipping over and capsizing?

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson recently worried that it might be, according to a videotaped congressional hearing that is getting plenty of play online and over the airwaves.

Johnson's comments came during a House Armed Services Committee meeting as he questioned Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, about the impact of U.S. troops on the little island.

"My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize," Johnson said, straight-faced and seemingly serious.

The admiral seemed to take the question seriously, too. "We don't anticipate that," [...]

Well played, Admiral! Gotta have a straight man!

One would think a congressman, especially a Democratic one, would know that an island is the top of a mountain and not a goddam canoe!

It gets funnier. Or just worse.

The derision online quickly gained momentum Thursday.

A note from a reader to a blog at National Review Online said, "My son is stationed on Guam. I just sent him the video and told him to run to the other side of the island. He said one of his shipmates showed up to work with a life vest on!"

On YouTube, about 75,000 visitors had viewed the video exchange through Thursday afternoon.

"Please Georgia, you gave us Cynthia McKinney, now Hank Johnson?" one commenter wrote.

Johnson issued a written statement Thursday as the mockery mounted.

You bet he did. You can hear it spinning like a top. Heh.

"I wasn't suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over," he said. . Johnson said he was "using a metaphor" to describe how adding more military personnel to the tiny island "could be a tipping point which could adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and could overburden its stressed infrastructure."

Using a metaphor. Uh-huh, suuuure he was. Close, but no cigar, pal.

Perhaps Rep. Johnson's next career will be as a Somalian pirate...

That's it ...

Be an idiot:

A group of suspected pirates was captured Thursday after attacking a U.S. Navy frigate in the Indian Ocean, according to a statement released by the U.S. Sixth Fleet.

The USS Nicholas reported taking fire from a suspected pirate skiff shortly after midnight local time west of the Seychelles, the statement said. The Nicholas quickly returned fire and began pursuing the skiff, which was eventually disabled. A boarding team from the Nicholas subsequently captured and detained three people, the statement said.

...

Dumbasses should be glad they lived to tell everybody how stupid they are. Were I Nicholas' captain, they wouldn't be so lucky.

The gift that keeps on giving ...

That would be the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, Chairman:

...

The Republican National Committee inadvertently sent a fundraising mail piece earlier this month with a return number that leads to a phone sex line offering to connect callers with "hot horny girls … students, housewives, and working girls from all over the country."

...

These guys gotta get laid more ... well, maybe not but at the least, they should stop watching internet porn.

Shopping Day

'Tis over the freshly snow covered hills and through the freshly snow covered woods we must go. I'll just leave ya with these:



Don't cover the children's eyes, cover your own! Oh, the horror...



See yas later.

Thanks to YubaNet.

What's the point?

When I see shit like this, I wonder why we bother:

Most Americans think that the Democrats not only did something illegitimate by passing health care reform on a party line vote, it was so illegitimate that they were asking for violence and vandalism by doing it. Good to know.

...

I guess you really can't fix stupid.

It has become seriously disenchanting to be an American lately. It's obvious that our people don't give a damn about the substance of anything. We've had some quite serious problems in this country but I think the refusal of a good portion of the American people to use their brains borders on a national dysfunction.

...

If that's the case, then our democratic system of government is effectively dead. Any minority party can simply block all legislation, make up a bunch of bullshit about "tactics," threaten them with violence and the people will back them. (Unless they are Democrats, of course, in which case they will be told the "elections have consequences" and be called obstructionists who refuse to allow the governing party the room they need to govern.)

...

We can't survive this way for long. I just hope I'm gone before the real decline begins. The end won't be pretty. In a century, the American Empire will be just another chapter in the history books.

In the Pink ...

Thank god for the Code Pink folks. It was wonderful to see Karl Rove getting his balls broken as he tries to make money from his raping of America:

Good for them for making sure that bastard can't appear in public without at least one voice raised to call him a murdering war criminal.

Headline of the Day dos

Pretty good article.

No Need to Thank Us, Hutaree: Anti-Government Militia Suspects Request Public Defenders

Lemme see if I get it - this brain dead buncha batcrap crazy wingier-than-wingnut phony xtians thinks the government is the cause of all their troubles and were plotting to destroy it by killing a coupla cops and starting a civil war. Yeah, like that was gonna happen. The last time I can think of that a 'general uprising' was planned was the Tet Offensive in '68. Didn't work then either, but I don't guess these clowns read much history. These ying-yangs' thinking was probably closer to Charles Manson's Helter Skelter. So when they get caught, instead of being cut down in a shitstorm of po-leece lead on the spot or up against a wall, or being Gitmo'd like the terrorists they are, they are now relying on said taxpayer-funded government to protect the same Constitutional rights they accuse the same government of trying to destroy. Through their mental fog they seem to understand that a free-market lawyer costs money they ain't got because no reputable employer will have anything to do with them because they're idiots and God seems to not be answering their call for Him to provide because He is hiding his face in shame that He made them in his own image because they're idiots. Hey, even the Almighty has a few warranty problems. Is that about right?

Who says irony is dead?

The real irony will be when the Public Defender, most of whom have better conviction rates than the District Attorney, gets 'em off. Heh.

What Jesus reads when he's naked

Double Old No. 7 and bleach, please...

If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford selling his just-released book which I'll probably buy. And maybe even read.

Often do I hear the scintillating words, "Oh sweet Jesus Mark, that column you just wrote about neurotic fundamentalists/the Zen of Obama/divine kinkiness/Canada's vile oilsands/gay Vatican lust/the need for more awe in the workplace just made my day/blasted coffee through my nose/completely wrecked my fragile relationship with my angry, born-again sister in Florida, and for that I should probably thank you.

"Not only that (these fine voices often continue), but so orgasmic/overcooked was that piece of writing that I decided before I even made it past the headline/second paragraph/part where you mention genital tattoos/high-fructose corn syrup/dark matter that I would forward it on to a select group of like-minded Wiccans/inmates/Texas Board of Education members, just to make them smile/convince them to sleep with me/ensure they hunt me down like a Mormon lesbian in Salt Lake City. Just FYI."

I finally wrote a book.

I should tell you about the hate mail. For "The Daring Spectacle" also contains nearly 50 prime examples of the nastiest, most gut-wrenching hunks of spittle I've received over the years, much of it so vile and low it could never be printed in this very column due to editorial policies governing hate speech and the misspelling of "faggit" and "commy." It is something to behold.

These messages, almost exclusively from exasperated ultraconservatives, make for quite the spectacular sideshow of anger, sexual angst and atrocious grammar. They are unedited, raw and included nearly verbatim. You've never read anything like them. Trust me.

There are columns in the book that nearly got me fired, columns that were banned/spiked by the paper and hence have never been read before, columns that made my editors wince and pray we wouldn't get vicious letters from the Catholic church or the Scientologists or about two-thirds of Texas. Which we invariably did anyway.

I repeat: "The Daring Spectacle" is available for ordering right now. It will be available everywhere else very soon, including the Kindle, though you'll miss all the cool pictures and formatting.

Much more, as usual.

If I can't buy the book right out of the trunk of Morford's car like a bluegrass band's CD, I'll wait until I can get it from BuzzFlash, which won't take very long, I betcha. I buy from them whenever I can because I get most of my good leads for posts off of there and I feel guilty and they need the money. Also, BF let me win a contest and gave me prizes and the gal who gives me the great customer service is a hotter'n blazes good Librul babe.