Saturday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

Most folks have heard "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor. Here's a very pretty version by The Seldom Scene.

Thanks to fkazz, Japan.

Texting is dangerous

Regina, Saskatchewan, Leader-Post:

A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve but was killed when an unexpected text message set off her bomb too early, according to Russian security sources.
...

Security sources believe a message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her at a safe house.

I wish all the homicide bombers were that smart. Some of us know you're not supposed to even look at the explosives and detonators at the same time, let alone put 'em together, until you're ready to blow something up and even then you don't connect the wires or device until the last second. Oh well, she musta been ready...

Learning curve. Ouch.

So there we were, cruisin' on home after our big day out, freshly groomed English Springers asleep in the back seat, freshly chowed-down-upon well-accessorized highly Polish-ed dogs (see comments) in our tummies, mellow CD in the player, all's right with the world, and I decide to see if I can work my vidcam at speed. Turns out I can. Barely.

I distilled this down from an 8min. video, just l'essence, for your viewing pleasure. It's a quickie.

Ya know how me'n Fixer use 'heh' a lot for humor and irony? You can do it out loud too and the context is clear! Heh.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

One of Emmylou's signature songs and one of my favorites. This goes out to my Dad who would have been 117 today.

Making Believe is a country music song written by Jimmy Work and best known for its chart-topping version in 1955 by Kitty Wells. The song is consistently on lists of all-time greatest country music songs and has been covered by scores of artists over the past fifty years, including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Connie Francis, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Ernest Tubb, Social Distortion, Skeeter Davis and Volbeat. The song is occasionally called (and performed as) "Makin' Believe".
...

The song received new attention with no less than three single releases in 1977-78, The Kendalls hitting #80 with the song, their first release on Ovation Records. A few months later, Emmylou Harris climbed to #7 with her version. The following January, Merle Haggard received considerable airplay for his version, which was the B side of his then current release "Running Kind".

From Swiss concert

Thanks to 1000Magicians, UK.

How to tell if a Catholic is driving too fast

Thanks to Mrs. G's friend Pat, formerly of West (East?) Islip, Noo Yalk. Her husband is an old Coastie named Rob. Pat and Rob. Sounds like a mugger's M.O. in The Castro. Heh.

Egypt ...

Nothing to say until the dust settles. Mubarak will either stay or go; it's just about the amount of human life squandered before it's over. I'll just say this: It's about time we realized it is not in our best interests to make deals with corrupt regimes with questionable human rights records. We've been propping up that government for 30 years. Naturally, if Mubarak is overthrown, "Yankee Go Home" will be the watchword. Think about that in concert with the fact Egypt is part of the foundation for the Mid-East peace with Israel. We pay them $5bln a year not to shoot at Israel. What do you think would happen if a new government comes in with a hostile agenda toward Israel?

We could have big problems.

Shopping Day

It's over the mountains and through the woods for us today. Spa Day for the pups, $1.50 Polish dogs (w/drinks) for us. I'll leave yas wid dis and see yas later:

Bill O'Reilly explains that he had a good reason for comparing Arianna Huffington to Nazis.

Shorter: IOKIYAR

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Bill O'Reilly Defends His Nazi Analogies
www.thedailyshow.com
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Friday Monster Blogging

Da Chooch loving the new snow

Ziva exercising her sense of humor.

The Mrs. is coming home from her Wes' Coas' swing today. Gotta chase the hookers, dancing girls, and drag queens out. Heh ...

Charlie Louvin 1927 - 2011

The most influential country singer that most people have never heard of, Charlie Louvin passed away yesterday. Even if you've never heard of The Louvin Brothers, you've heard their music.

Thanks to Buried3030.

Pretty complete obit at CNN.

A tribute album that included tracks by Dolly Parton, James Taylor and Merle Haggard won a Grammy for best country album in 2003. Ex-Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers member Gram Parsons covered the brothers' "Cash on the Barrelhead" in 1973. Parsons' singing partner Emmylou Harris drew early notice as a solo performer with her version of "If I Could Only Win Your Love," and both Wilco forerunner Uncle Tupelo and rockabilly revivalists Southern Culture on the Skids recorded versions of "The Great Atomic Power" in the 1990s.

So long, Charlie. Thanks for the music.

Sputnik Moment

The President called for 'innovation' in his SOTU. Not quite Sputnik but here's some. Heh.

EssEffChron

National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence last Friday evening.

Tucson TV station KVOA says Border Patrol agents working with the National Guard contacted Mexican authorities, who went to the location and disrupted the catapult operation.

The 3-meter (3-yard) tall catapult was found about 20 meters (20 yards) from the U.S. border on a flatbed towed by a sports utility vehicle, according to a Mexican army officer with the 45th military zone in the border state of Sonora.

The catapult was capable of launching 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of marijuana at a time, the officer said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

"Condition of anonymity" = Laughin' his ass off too hard to speak.

Thanks to Anglosearch,UK.

Guess what I'm doing today?

Snowthrower next winter (if I survive this one), bet the house on it. My backyard is beautiful but I got a ton of shoveling to do. Woke up to another 18" this morning.

Click to make big.

Update:

Of course the ladies don't want to come in the house:

So much for free speech and telling the truth

Raw Story

Border guard fired, ‘interrogated’ for saying pot should be legalized

ACLU slams 'ideological purity' test for government employees

As well they should.

In documents (PDF) filed in a federal court in west Texas last week, Bryan Gonzalez alleged that he lost his job in 2009 after telling a colleague on the Mexican border that he believed legalizing marijuana could reduce drug war violence.

Gonzalez was issued a termination letter stating that he was fired because he "held personal views that were contrary to the core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication and esprit de corps," according to the lawsuit.

"I was asked if I wanted to overthrow the American government," he said. "I was asked if I was a socialist."

But his only transgression was to say that legalizing marijuana would "eliminate a lot of unnecessary deaths."

"Firing a public servant because of their political opinions is an egregious violation of the First Amendment," Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU's New Mexico branch, said in an email.

"We cannot require nor should we expect uniformity of thought within our law enforcement institutions," he continued. "Purging the ranks of government employees who fail 'ideological purity' tests is about as un-American as it gets."

No shit. Un-American is the New American Way on the right.

"Ideological purity" is a right-wing thing, and there's an awful lot of money to be made in Border Enforcement and The War On Some Drugs. Even a casual disagreeing statement, no matter how true, is sufficient to complete the offense.

Iron Highway Bust

AZ Central

The seizure of more than 700 guns and the indictments of 34 people announced on Tuesday are further confirmation that Arizona has become an iron highway for weapons into Mexico, according to federal authorities.

Many legal purchases by straw buyers at Arizona gun stores are being financed and orchestrated by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, federal officials said.

The cases announced Tuesday involved the purchases of many AK-47s, .50-caliber rifles and other semiautomatic weapons in single-day transactions at gun stores by straw buyers paid by the cartel, U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke said.

All of those indicted are U.S. citizens or legal residents.

Teriffic. American citizens fueling the Mexican drug war for the almighty dollar. It's the American Way!

Everything's happening in Arizona these days and we're so lucky it's just across the river. Be sure to tip the ferryman.

10 amazing truths you already suspected Volume VI

If it's Wednesday, it must be Morford.

1) The end is near-ish! Government overspending will be the death of us all! Massive, crushing debt will blot out the sun and ruin your lawn! Buy gold and hoard it in your small intestine for the End Times that are coming soon! The GOP and Glenn Beck hath spoken!
...

Ironic, then, how it's actually the Tea Party-riffic red states that suck up far, far more in government handouts than the blue. Did you already know? I bet you did. Even more amusing is the inverse relationship: The more red/Republican a given state votes -- and hence the more loudly it complains about government spending -- the more it swallows federal handouts like Charlie Sheen inhaling Bolivia. It's true. It's also sort of amazing.

2) It all dovetails sweetly with the fact that the more morally righteous and fundamentally Christian a red state is, the higher its teen pregnancy rates, the sadder its abortion rates, the less it cares for its poor and its needy, the more awful its sex education, the less it contributes to the national dialogue and the more paranoid its gun-loving, Bible-misquoting, Fox News-adoring citizenry.

Does it matter? Nope. As evidenced by the last election, the Republicans know -- and brilliantly leverage -- a rather vile truism liberals cannot seem to grasp: When all is said and done, it pays to be a hypocrite.

3) Fox News makes you stupid. Fox News makes you stupid. [...]

Duh. Duh.

6) The pope! Right. Wouldn't be a proper "10 Truths" list without a mention of the ever-quotable P. Benedict, always ready with a fine, hoary excuse for the gay porn palace that is the Catholic priesthood.

8) Mmm, Taco Bell. [...]

Retch. Someone, somewhere, must think the Taco Bell crap is Mexican food. It's barely food at all, and the closest it comes to being Mexican is that Mexican kids reconstitute it and heat it up and hand it to you.

Speaking of Mexican food, Mrs. G is completely recovered now, so tonight we're going to go to Las Panchitas to quell a monster jones for an Early Bird Special discount combo plate and so she can get a $3 Happy Hour Cactus Smoothie Frozen Concoction That Helps Her Hang On*. All's right with the world.

*Wishing a speedy recovery to Jimmy Buffett after his massive face plant.

And I prefer the term "thrifty senior citizen" to "cheap old fart", thank you.

But I digress.

9) America's favorite book? The Bible. The single tome that tops the bestseller list every year and is cited by all GOP hopefuls as their favoritest book ever next to "The Hungry Caterpillar" and "Curious George Disappears Into a Gay Pride Parade and Emerges Four Days Later Wearing Nothing But a Cock Ring and a Smile"? The Bible.

The book the vast majority of Americans know the least about, never fail to misinterpret their facts when referencing, generally haven't actually read and largely haven't the slightest clue what they're talking about despite how they claim to set their wobbly moral compasses by it? One guess.

That's an easy one: the Constitution.

The impression I got ...

From the SOTU is that is was the rhetoric of a dying empire. It seemed more like a speech given at a pep rally than what was really needed.

One thing that struck me:

"We will invest in biomedical research ..."

Cue the Republicans teabaggers yelling about some derivative of 'eugenics' in five, four, three ...

Note to Republicans:

Investment = Improving the educational system and sponsoring scientific research that will yield benefits in the future.

Spending = Dumping money into two useless wars and overpriced weapons systems to combat an enemy that doesn't exist anymore.

Jesse Ventura Sues The TSA

TPMMuckraker

The complaint further argues that a body scan amounts to a "warrantless, non-suspicion-based, electronically-recorded strip search" and says the "demeaning and degrading" scans "meet the definition of unlawful video voyeurism."

I agree that TSA goes too far and all for naught and needs to be reined in hard, but it must have been extra embarrassing for he-man Jesse when the screener called all his buds over to look at his little juice nuts. Heh.

Headline of the Day

Rahm Emanuel: Illinois Supreme Court issues order keeping him on ballot for now

This comes as no surprise. At least he's Chicago's problem now.

The weather's here, wish you were beautiful

Actually, the weather's beautiful and I wish you were here. Our normal January thaw is lasting longer than usual and everybody's waiting for the other snowshoe to drop.

On the supposition that large weather events anywhere have some effect everywhere, go read everything you need to know about the current La Niña.

Might be best to read at bedtime, to wit:

Atmospheric indicators (in terms of sea-level pressure, winds, cloudiness, etc.) show this La Niña episode to be one of the strongest of the past century, while oceanic indicators have been at moderate to strong levels, with sea surface temperatures averaging around 1.5 degrees Celsius cooler than normal in the east-central tropical Pacific. There has been a robust ocean-atmospheric coupling, as evidenced by reduced cloudiness and stronger trade winds in association with cooler sea surface temperatures.

Much more...zzzzzzz...

Bud in a Bottle

New Marijuana Soda to Launch in Feb.

According to the Sentinel, Butler's soda pot line will include the "flagship cola drink Canna Cola, the Dr Pepper–like Doc Weed, the lemon-lime Sour Diesel, the grape-flavored Grape Ape and the orange-flavored Orange Kush."

The mind boggles as to what might happen when this is used as mix for cocktails!

Or just straight - "Buuuuuuurp. Oh woooooooow dude!"

Giants do not fall easily

William Rivers Pitt on Olbermann:

People are understandably outraged and disturbed over his abrupt and ill-defined departure from MSNBC…so how, in the face of all this, can I justify my “Meh” reaction?

Well, I already explained the first reason.

The second reason is simple: Keith Olbermann is not dead. He was not beamed to Neptune, never to be seen or heard from again.

Write it down, carve it in stone, make a note, and bet the farm:

Olbermann will be back.
...

Giants do not fall easily. Count on it.

OK then!

Update:

From a good piece on KO by Will Bunch:

[...] ...the inevitable discussion panel yesterday on that network's "Reliable Sources" with Howard Kurtz occasionally touched on a "talking point" certain to drive progressives crazy -- which is that Olbermann has been the perfect left side of a mirror image with angry conservative Fox hosts like Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck.

Well, they all can be loud and take strong points of view, but otherwise the comparison is more than a tad ridiculous. Olbermann's list of worst transgressions would be headlined by an over-the-top rant about Sen. Scott Brown -- which he quickly apologized for! -- and violating a policy he said he didn't know existed by giving money to three Democratc candidates. Compare that to the unapologized-for sins of Beck -- telling viewers last summer of progressives to "shoot them in the head" or claiming that President Obama has "a deep-seated hatred of white people" -- or O'Reilly's frequent harangues against "Dr. Tiller the baby killer," who was later murdered by a right-wing zealot.

Beck's words have not only inspired death threats against an elderly female professor but actual gunmen like Pittsburgh's Richard Poplawski, who bought into the host's conspiracy theories before killing three cops. I challenge anyone to find an act of Olbermann-inspired violence or threats (and while you're searching, check out his record as host of "Countdown" in supporting charitable causes).

The irony here -- and it's a big one -- is that one of Olbermann's best contributions to our political dialogue was going after the bogus idea of false equivalency, that people on the left and the right are always equally bad in equal proportions while only centrists are the possessors of beauty and light and truth. Ironic because no one has been a bigger victim of false equivalency than Keith Olbermann himself.

It's like comparing me with Valentino Rossi as the best rider with the fastest motorcycle.