Ready to eat your face and scream

Mark Morford is talking about horror/apocalypse movies, and manages to talk about the far right in that context. As long as we have ignorant Repugs, I don't need to go see any horror movies.

I mean, we adore violence, mayhem, the id unleashed. We are eternally fascinated by our own decay and demise, enthralled by our most disturbing fantasies, everyone not so secretly wishing they really could turn into a zombie, vampire, werewolf or a hundred other misunderstood mutant monsters because, well, that's what we all like to think we are, right? Some noble, misunderstood beast? Hey, I get it.

What's more, fear is where the money is. Fear is where the power is. Who wants to hear a tale where everyone wakes up to their divine natures, where suddenly everyone in town starts channeling the Dalai Lama and no one steals anything or molests anyone or calls the president a commie socialist Nazi whilst humping their Bible and quoting their gun? Oh wait, that's backwards. Or not.

Even the laughable "Left Behind" series of apocalypse porn books written for undereducated Christian paranoids traffics in the same violence-drenched, juvenile chyme as your average dimestore horror flick. Turns out even Christian euphoria and enlightenment are bathed in gunfire and blood. After all, everyone knows Jesus loves nothing more than a good, flesh-rending massacre, right?

As long as it's a massacree of us godless librul commie fucks, I guess. The christards have been willingly duped to twist the whole concept of what they claim to believe in into something that would horrify Jesus. Probably make a good horror movie.

For Zappatistas

Article in LATimes.

Now there's a headline that catches your eye. Yes it turns out that late Frank Zappa, the restless musical genius who may have been the most committed inconoclast in the history of rock, was a pal to the late Jack Kirby, the cosmic dreamer who is arguably the second most essential figure in the history of the American comic book. (You have to put Superman at first.)

Quote of the Day

The first little bit of a good article by Robert Parry on the reasoning behind Obama's Nobel:

Last year, Barack Obama did something extraordinary for the cause of world peace. He built a campaign that wrested control of the U.S. government from a gang of duplicitous warmongers.

"If you need a goat f****d, CNN will do it!"

Funny and sad but true at the same time, Jon Stewart roasts CNN and by extension, cable 'news'.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
CNN Leaves It There
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Brings a whole new level ...

To the term "Eat Me". God, I love the French:

Paris Chocolate Fashion Show: feast for chocolate lovers

If ya really gotta be ...

A racist Nazi pig, at least do it right.

Irony and Satire are dead ...

Been saying it since the Chimp's first term. Even Gordon, our eternal optimist, has to label his satirical posts as such because people will believe they're real. Hey, the truth is more ironic than The Onion nowadays. To wit:

...

"We're not going to be the party of angry white guys," [Self-hating closeted homosexual Sen. Lindsay] Graham told the irate, overwhelmingly Caucasian crowd, apparently ignoring the obvious irony of his directive.

...

Sigh ...

Great thanks to our pal UL for the link.

Is this where the line forms ...

To kiss Olympia Snowe's old white ass?

President Obama appeared in the Rose Garden late Tuesday afternoon to hail the Senate Finance Committee's passage of a health-care overhaul bill - singling out Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Me.) for her "courage" and "seriousness of purpose."

...

Is she a Democrat? No. Will she bring other Republican votes with her on the final health care bill? Probably (almost certainly) not.

Mr. Obama, one Republican vote, given so grudgingly, does not bipartisanship make. Fuck Olympia Snowe and all the Republicans (and their corporate puppeteers) and give the overwhelming majority of Americans what they want. A publicly supported health care program that is good and affordable.

Light to none blogging today

A part broke on my motorcycle (Imagine that! It's only nine years old!) and I gotta go to Reno and get a replacement so I'll have a running bike until the snow flies. See yas later.

Yeah, why not?

Jill just had to have a procedure and after a successful outcome asks a question:

...

I'm fortunate in that even if I do have to pay for it, it won't bankrupt me. I would guess that this is not the case for up to 90% of Americans. The difference between me and Republicans is that I ask "Why can't everyone have this", whereas Republicans say "I get my health care -- fuck you."

...

Fortunately, like Jill, the Mrs. and I have good health insurance. They've always been there to put me back together and the Mrs.' week-long stay (with surgery) in Sloan-Kettering a few years back would have bankrupted us (or brought us really close to the edge) were it not for our insurance.

There are many Americans one hospitalization, one surgical procedure, one emergency room visit away from financial ruin. We have people debating whether or not to allow undocumented immigrants die from their illnesses instead of someone paying to treat them.

...

There are six insurance company lobbyists for every member of Congress. These lobbyists have spent $380 million in the last few months buying the minds of American Idiots and the votes of Congresscritters so that their gravy train will keep on rolling. That's enough to pay the premiums for family coverage for over 29,000 families. Assuming $5000 per colonoscopy (WITH anesthesia), that's enough to pay for 76,000 colonoscopies. Even if you believe that insurance company executives are entitled to eight-figure compensation packages, do you also think that lobbying is the best way to spend $380,000,000? [my em]

...

For those taking the insurance companies' side in this, I have a question of my own: Where's your humanity?

With what the insurance companies spend ensuring their position and monopolies (don't forget, they lobby Congress all the time, not just when something of this much import to them is on the table), they could have insured everyone in America who needed it. It is disgraceful on both the insurance companies' part and those in Congress who enable them.

Jill agrees with me on another point:

...

Here's how Wikipedia defines "protection racket":

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American health care policy has become a form of legalized robbery, the same way defense contractors were allowed to loot the Treasury at the height of the Iraq War. It's time for guys like Harry Reid (and you too, Mr. President) to grow some nut and call it like it is. The insurance companies and their elected cohorts have traded their humanity for profit and campaign donations. It has to stop now.

Quote of the Day

Digby:

... Personally, I think that a report put out by my cat would be more reliable than one that was put out by the insurance companies. (And he's not even an economist.) ...

Quote of the Day

Dave Zirin, sports editor of The Nation on TRMS about Rushole's past drug use re owning a team:

"If OxyContin keeps Limbaugh from owning an NFL team, it truly is the miracle drug!"

No shit!

Maybe video later.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

It's called extortion ...

Being it's Columbus Day, this is quite apropos. The Mothers And Fathers Italian Association used to call it "protection".

I guess the insurance industry finally decided they weren't going to get the kind of sweetheart deals that PHarma and the Hospitals got, so they've gone on the warpath by holding a gun to ... er ... releasing a "cost projection" report about the effects of health care reform. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that it says they will raise premiums sky high if reforms are passed.

...

"Ey, ya nevah know when ya might have a fiah or some punks wanna trow a rock tru yer windah. We make shuah dat don't happen ... for a small weekly payment, ya heah."

Quasi-Holiday Bonus Music Blogging

Since today is kinda sorta a holiday, I thought I'd slip in a little bonus music.

Guy Clark performing with Emmylou Harris at the 2005 Americana awards, with Shawn Camp on the fiddle.

Guy Clark w/Emmylou Harris ~ Dublin Blues

Thanks to Txmusicam.

Support the Troops? NIMBY!

[Welcome to Crooks and Liars readers. Thanks, Mike! ~ F]

Veterans For Common Sense

October 11, 2009, Taylor, Texas (Austin American-Statesman) — A California company wants to convert an empty facility formerly used as nursing home into a trauma assistance center for as many as 88 female veterans, including those who have been sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers.

But some Taylor residents say they don't want the facility in their town.

Wolbrueck lives across the street from the proposed facility where veterans would live. She said she fears that veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder might attack residents in the Buttermilk Hill neighborhood.

"They can have an episode where a flashback transports them back into a combat situation, and they can perceive anyone as a threat: an elderly person taking a walk around the neighborhood, or a child on a bike," she said.

Yeah, 'support the troops' is fine. Until they need support. Then they're all crazed time bombs and should go live in someone else's neighborhood or under a bridge. Maybe especially female veterans - PTSD combined with PMS might level the joint.

Yeesh. Moral values, you know. It's for the children. Hooray for the red, white, and blue. Until the chickens come home to roost, that is.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Legalization of Marijuana Gains Support in California
Legalization of OxyContin gains support in Mississippi.

Drop in Birth Rate Blamed on Recession
Babies having second thoughts about being born already $40,000 in debt.

Physicist Working on Large Hadron Collider Arrested for Al Qaeda Links
Terrorists reportedly trying to obtain a black hole.

McDonald's Opens in the Louvre
Officially brings to close 500-year epoch of European cultural dominance.

Pity me ...

It's Columbus Day, in New York, and I work for an off-the-boat Italian. It's gonna be all Italy, all day:

Today is a holiday because a Spanish queen sent some bocciagalupe out to get her a curry and he got lost and found chocolate and syphilis instead ...

I wonder if the Native-Americans celebrate today too?

Wingnut logic ...

George W. Bush (if the Scandinavians would stop smoking dope) should be the one to get the Nobel Peace Prize. Scott takes a look:

Doug Giles, pastor of Our Lady of Free In-Room Coffee and HBO, and father of Fantasy Camp Follower Hannah Giles, is here to pierce Obama’s Nobel Prize-winning pretension like a Roman soldier poking Jesus with a spear to see if he’s done.

...

Being a godless infidel, I hadn't been to a church service in a while (aside from weddings and funerals) and I hadn't realized they changed their whole schtick.

...

What kind of Scandinavian trip weed are you guys roasting up there in your skull bongs? You blondies are orbiting the moon on this one!

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Of course, if the Nobel boys truly wanted to dole out props to people who actually brought real peace to rank regions, men such as George W. Bush, who liberated 50 million Muslims in Iraq living under jackass Hussein’s murderous boot

...

Last mass I went to, Fr. Joe talked about the church carnival that raised money to help the disadvantaged in South America and Africa. He talked about helping your fellow man who'd fallen on hard times (it was during the 'Nixon Recession') and the losses to our parish in the Veitnam war (everybody knew a family where a father or son was killed there). He talked about kindness and caring for all of God's children.

I guess all that compassion went out the window in the past 35 years in favor of hate and prejudice. Services in this guy's church must resemble a Klan meeting.

Just sayin' ...

What gets me is that the news media spends more time talking about Dave Letterman's, and now Jimmy Kimmel's, sex lives when all evidence so far shows they were faithful to their partners when in committed relationships.

How come, when the senators and reps who are part of the 'moral' and 'family values' crowd (and generally the loudest) cheat on their wives, multiple times, it's glossed over? Reported on once or twice and then down the memory hole?

Hypocrisy (not even) among late night talk show hosts isn't detrimental to the running of the nation, yet we make a big deal of it. Though when our elected reps cheat and lie, well, that's business as usual.

Quote of the Day

The Rude One speaking of Michael Moore:

...

America has always been his subject, and there are few people who have loved this country as much as Michael Moore. But while most Americans love this nation as if it's their hometown football team, he loves it like you love your child. That means that, while he may be ready with the praise, he is ready to scold it and correct it and try to make it better as it grows. For what else do we want for our children than for them to be confident, happy, and secure adults?

...