Trick Or Traif

Okay. I admit -- humbly -- that I missed the Memo, or the Tweet, or the 800 number flashed subliminaly between frames of Inside Hollywood, or that part in the bible, where we were told it was okay to offer pork 'treats' to children at Halloween.

At Salon (a site I support with money), I found an article by their Cooking Guru, Francis Lam, with a recipe for "Candied Bacon To Get You Ready For Halloween".


Obligatory Small Animal Photograph In Middle Of Bacon Rant
(Courtesy Of Shilling For Bilderberg)

The idea is simple: You cook bacon and then melt sugar onto it, which cools into a sweet, brittle shell... Cooking bacon relatively slowly renders away much of the fat but keeps the meat pliable until you actually candy it, and sugar does crazy things when it gets hot... once sugar hits 310 degrees Fahrenheit, it cools into glass. How will you know when it's gotten that hot? Well, at about 340 it starts to turn to caramel, so once its color becomes golden and then brown, it'll be fine.

As a cooking Dog, I think Francis Lam's writing about cooking is fun, and the recipes he passes along are great. You can read the article here -- but I take handing out candied bacon at Halloween as another sign of the coming of 2012 and the final days of the human race.


Translation Of Mayan Pictographs At Great Temple Of Lompoc

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Random Barking At No Moon

Stress, on occasion, won't allow you to sleep, or to go back to Dreamland™ if you happen to wake up.

So, here I am, having been up since 2:00AM; I have an abusive neighbor who lives above me -- a semi-shut-in-by-choice with a quick temper who has had me wearing earplugs in order to sleep for the past five years -- and tonight, he isn't home. The first time in forever I could have slept normally, and I can't. Classic. And people wonder why I think The Universe has it in for me.

Anyway, I was reading this post by an artist whose work I enjoy looking at, and had this early A.M.'s Deep Random Barking Thought: I'm an artist, and a writer, and would probably be better off if I spend way more time doing that.

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Thank You, Lil' Boots. Again. And Again. And Again. And Again.

Worst. United States. President. In. Our. History.

The New York Times online reports that warnings have surfaced, leaked from sources in the American intelligence community, of planned assaults against Western European capitals by Al-Qaeda terrorist teams.

Some of the potential attackers may already be in Europe... [and reports indicate] the Haqqani network in Pakistan as involved in the plot. The network is allied with the Taliban and has been a target of some recent drone attacks in Pakistan.

Another French official speculated that the leak of Washington’s concerns about attacks in Europe from Pakistani Al Qaeda and the Taliban was also meant to justify the increasing drone attacks on targets inside Pakistan, to press Pakistan to use ground troops more aggressively in the tribal areas and even to prepare the ground for using American ground forces, covert or otherwise, inside Pakistan.

However, that's not the money quote:

Many in Washington believe that the answer to stability in Afghanistan lies in a more aggressive offensive against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants sheltering in Pakistan.

Many in Washington? And whom the fuck does the NYT refer to? Where were these Many, when U.S. Forces in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2002 were pulled back from going after Bin Laden et Cie -- knowing where they were -- and not being allowed to complete their mission?


Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo in Middle
Of Blog Rant (Today's Animal: The Rock Hyrax)

Where were these policy sageheads when President Cheney and his crack team of incompetents made sure Lil' Boots got his war in Iraq, the easy target (Hey; it's full of WMD's; "Greeted As Liberators"); what could happen?

Where were these "Many" that now say we should be more aggressive in Afghanistan -- when for almost a decade they supported Lil' Boots' official line: To ignore it as if it weren't happening la la la la; I can't hear you..., thereby allowing a Bush family friend Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to regroup, and Osama as the 'spiritual leader' to continue pushing a fantastically warped, megalomaniac vision of re-establishing an Islamic Caliphate.



So, hey -- thanks, Lil' Boots! Running America was just like all the other business ventures you got involved in -- oil business; sports team management; Governor of Texas; husband and father -- each, a complete failure. Except, running America turned out to be an EPIC FAIL. The only real difference is the scale; and now, you have actual blood on your hands: At least a quarter-million people, probably more.

And, there are people walking around in London, Berlin, and Paris right now who may not be walking around any longer, in the near future. They should thank you in advance for your far-sighted, wise counsel and sage leadership-- they'll all want to say Thanks In Advance! for what may happen.

Don't worry your little hereditary-rich head over it. We'll clean up your mess while you take it easy; that's 'god's way', to you. Because you've toiled, and are as well a pathetic piece of human waste regarded, you are living proof of god's having given up on us in disgust and now fucks with us, an immoderate and malicious countenance, shining upon you as one of the Elect.

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They Make Commercials

Get Out Your Buckets And Be Prepared To Use Them

I was in a laundromat early this morning; its owners unlock the doors at about 6:00AM, daily, turn on a local TopPop radio station, and leave until 10:00PM. While loading up the washer, I listened to a commercial for a local supermarket chain -- a woman's voice, telling me how certain produce items remind her of her childhood, of "the smell after my dad cut the lawn ... how my mom made lemonade... it all just reminded me of times and things you could count on."

We live in times when Citizens in the trenches are manipulated, daily, for our vote, our support; our money. This commercial was attempting to link buying things at Safeway™ with the idea of safer, more secure times, with childhood fun, mom and dad, and the smell of fresh-cut grass.


Safe And Secure, With The Smell Of Fresh-Cut Grass:
Memories From Everybody's Childhood -- Aren't They?

You know, childhood -- I mean, for those lucky enough to grow up in a house, with both a mom and a dad, and an actual lawn. Not like growing up in an inner-city housing project with Food Stamps, people smoking Rock on the stoop and fifteen-year-olds turning tricks, gang-bangers fighting for the Turf you live on and schools where pat searches happen every day.

I listened to the commercial because I didn't have a choice, and looked around for a bucket to throw up in. Then, on the Intertubes, I found something worse.



Nissan motors has recently released a teevee commercial (see it here) for it's newly-released electric auto, the 'Leaf'.



It features a big and cuddly actual Polar Bear, actual melting ice caps; a long journey, and a knowledgeable Consumer, whose smart "Earth-friendly" choice makes a friend out of Little Knut Of The Berlin Zoo, thereby proving that the motivations of animals are really just as reasonable and well-considered as our own.



Part of me thinks it's a well-made piece of commercial teevee work, knowing something about Maya and 3DMax, alpha-channel and traveling mattes, and I'm impressed with the result -- even more impressed that anyone has been able to train a Polar Bear, the largest land carnivore on the planet -- our 21st Century version of a furry T-Rex in the animal world.



The spot ends with the cute 'n cuddly Polar Bear giving (all right, I'll say it) a bear hug to the Consumer for purchasing a 2010 Nissan 'Leaf' electric car. Another part of me expects that the Polar Bear would rip the Consumer's face off and eat it.



The human being in me thinks this commercial is a typical corporate response: Identify the problem (solutions to which can affect our sales of, uh, 'hydrocarbon-based transportation delivery systems') with something cute and cuddly (therefore making it less 'serious' and more 'managable'). Then, identify the product in the mind of the viewer / listener with 'cute 'n cuddly'. Finally, use catchy images or phrases that will get people talking and go viral, and thereby boost sales, leading to profits, and I want to puke in a bucket.


"How's This? Cute And Cuddly Enough For You? Huh? Huh?
And By The Way -- You Didn't Even Taste That Good!!"

Has Nissan announced that the threat of Global Warming is so serious that they are immediately terminating their production of internal-combustion-engine vehicles, and will now produce nothing but electric automobiles for sale? No? Well, then this is just a cute, imaginative come-on from the propaganda arm of The Capitalist Structure We're Immersed In, and the big problem it references still exists.


Satellite View Of Southeastern Coast Of The United States,
With Projections Of Results Of 15-Foot Rise In Sea Levels
-- But, It's All Hippie Crap, And Anyway We'll Be Dead
(Image Based On 2007 NASA Report By Dr. James Hansen)

I'm only a dog, and no one listens to me. No one listens to the bears, either -- and sadly, they'll go extinct before Nissan does.

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Jobs Is On The Way!

London's Financial Times reports that "call center workers are becoming as cheap to hire in the US as they are in India, according to the head of the country’s largest business process outsourcing company."

As a Dog, I have a fair nose for things. Back in February, I added yet another extended rant a post about circumstances in the American economy:

Keep your eyes on the Fed Rate, and the CPI. If the first stays flat and the other continues to drop... well, hopefully other countries will outsource their call center and manufacturing work to the U.S., where there could be a huge pool of cheap labor in the not-too distant future.



Man; I hate to be right about some things. However, that's also vexing -- what happens if other stuff I've considered becomes real, too?


...Like A European Communist Uprising?


...Or Little Rupert's Dream Come True: Hitler Gets His Own Slot?

Well, we live in America: Land Of The Free, Home Of The Hip, where anything is possible. Don't we?

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Triumph Of The Shill

(Art By Mongo)

Little Rupert Murdoch, ten years old, watches his favourite film for the 5,432nd time: Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph Of The Will. And every morning, Little Rupert wishes he he had been born as Joey Goebbels.

But that's okay. He believes Joey was, at heart, just a businessman -- just as Little Rupert, in his heart, is... something else.

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Addicted

I See... _______ Pitifully Stupid People; All The Time

Why wouldn't you be addicted to an episodic television program that presents people, trying to help other human beings, which has a serious focus around one brilliant, sarcastic (even occasionally abusive), complicated, but ultimately endearing character -- one who believes those other human beings are worth saving.

Not because of any warm and compassionate expression of the Buddha nature; but because life is weird, and hard enough; and people lie their asses off just because that's their nature -- and saving them is work.



And, I admit some similarities between Gregory House's character and personality and my own: We're both intelligent, funny in an offbeat way, and either leave 'em laughing, slightly amazed, or appalled. But, I don't get to pop Vicodin and use a cane -- though I did lose sensation in a good bit of my right leg after an attack of sciatica three years ago; it's permanent, and I can get a fine limp going after an hour or so walking, which is something I like to do. But no cane, though I own one.

Anyway, I started watching House, MD on an on-again, off-again basis -- earlier episodes, in syndication (I won't watch Fox on principle). But, like so many other programs I never watched when they were on air, I've missed a good deal of the series to date. And now, I'm as addicted to it as House is to the Vicodin.


The Whole Sick Crew, January, 2009, Left To Right: Omar Epps,
Olivia Wilde; Jennifer Morrison; Jesse Spencer; Hugh Laurie;
Lisa Edelstein; Peter Jacobsen, Before The SAG Awards

Luckily, I'm still employed; live alone with my rug and dog bowl by the heater; and have disposable income... to buy the collected Seasons of the program to date, so that I can catch up to where the series is now, which I will begin to watch on Fox just as soon as Little Rupert chokes on one of his wife's thongs.

I like it. You may like drinking beer until you pass out. Or, going to monster truck rallies (House does). And, ultimately, the show is about people working together, their relationships and personalities -- and that's what life is ultimately all about. Maybe.

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Tickle Me Hellmo (Clean American Version)

You Can't See The Sky From There, Ya Little Freak!!

This is for my friend Kim, who enjoys Elmo as much as I do.

Look, boys 'n girls: I've watched Elmo. When this little dude is in his 'room' -- is he actually in a room? No. It's a series of crayon drawings -- as if they were just figments of that plush red-orange paranoid-schizophrenic's imagination.

Occasionally, there's an actual piece of furniture; but when he takes us to his 'computer' (another crayon drawing), and ties to operate it... aw, C'mon. He's been drinking Sterno, or doing PCP. And look at the things he talks to. You think they actually exist?

And then there's all that crazy stuff he comes out with; it's like he ate a copy of Gravity's Rainbow or something. Where does he get that? And that affected, high-pitched laugh? Creeps me out.

Better be happy Elmo isn't running the country -- but, given the state of things, who can tell?

In another work life, I would have watched him wind himself up and run for about thirty seconds, before I went to a pat search -- that's all the Probable Cause I'd need. Little freak has H&S Code violation written all over him. He's got a plastic bag of Meth in his pocket (assuming he has one); I know it...

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Run For Your F______ Lives

This little video has been making the rounds:



It was made by those Grand Folks at The Onion, and purports to be a member of Congress reading a law which allows bizarre forms of martial law in the case of a Classified virus outbreak leading to [Classified] and eating of human brains [Classified].

Aside from the reminder that we're always one announcement away from a christian fundamentalist theocracy that would make Ceauşescu's Romania look like Disneyland, I'm almost sorry it's not real because the production values are so high. The actor they hired to portray "Representative John Haller" is spot-on.

Another reason I'm sorry it's not real: Back in my child-time, the original Outer Limits series debuted in 1964. An episode that caught my attention was "The Architects Of Fear", which starred a young Robert Culp (about to hit stardom with Bill Cosby in the teevee series, I Spy) as a scientist-member of a group who believe Earth's warring humans would unite -- if faced with the threat of an alien invasion.

When the group decides they will create their own alien and have it appear with murderous intent, Culp pulls the short straw (literally), and is slowly transformed, physically, into a hideous mound of latex and paper-mache. His mission is to crash-land a spacecraft on the mall in front of the United Nations building and make people believe he is just the first -- sort of an uglier, more ill-tempered Klaatu.


Robert Culp, Hoping For Better Roles, 1964.

Sadly, he misses his mark and ends up crashing in a swamp not far from his own home (What are the odds? Outer Limits was always doing this kind of thing), and his wife rushes to find him... Hey, buy the video if you want to know how it ends.

But, watching The Onion's creation, I begin to wonder if it wouldn't take something like an alien invasion, or a zombie infestation, to get people to pay attention to our common humanity and leave the past behind, or else get eaten. Just Sayin'.

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I Don't Listen, I Really Don't Listen

Apparently, at my Place Of Witless Labor™ I stopped listening to some information I was given regarding a possible promotion past the part where I started getting upset.

Embarrassing behavior and several informative conversations later, I've come to the conclusion that I am a human being, and not something you see in the movies -- such as a Freeway Abutment or Carport Oil Stain, which are occasionally smarter than we are.

Promotion still in the hopper (Q: Will they or won't they? A: No Way To Know). Sit around and wait -- but listen more closely next time.

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They Don't Like Me; They Really Don't Like Me

Advised at the Place Of Witless Labor™ that there will be no promotion after all. Gee, tough sledding; that's the way it goes; we all have our little disappointments to live with; you should be grateful you have a job; I've had a difficult life myself so please stop whining; Thanks so much for your time.

Time to move on; nothing to see here...

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Culture Of More: Screwing The Peasants

Department Of Justice Drops The Dime On Goldman-Sachs


"Moi, Un Criminelle? I Fart At You, Américains stupides!"
Fabrice Tourre, Prime Suspect BSD, Testifying Before The
Congressional Inquiry Into Causes Of The New Depression
Financial Crisis (Photo: Forbes online, 4/27/10)

Goldman-Sachs, home of the best money that money can buy, is reported to be the target of a Department Of Justice criminal investigation, prompted by information forwarded from the SEC.

Bloomberg and the NYT reported the story under National news.

The federal review, which lawyers say is common in such a high-profile case, is being done by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Bloomsberg financial news reported. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Goldman Sachs on April 16, alleging fraud tied to collateralized debt obligations that contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Based on public reports about the SEC matter, a criminal case may be difficult, said Douglas R. Jensen, an attorney with Park & Jensen LLP in New York ... “In order to proceed criminally in a case, you need to have very clear evidence of lying, cheating and stealing,” said Jensen...


"Dunno Why The Fuk I Be Heah; Um juss a Businessman; Capiche?"
Goldman BSD Blankfein Swears, Kinda, To Talk 'Bout Somethin',
Maybe (Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters / ABC News Online 4/27/10)

Little Rupert's Wall Street Journal, however reported it as "Politics" and with a little not-very-subtle spin informs us that Congress is really just trying to mislead the public:

Senators vs. Goldman
The committee members fumble toward finding the real villains
[Unsigned Article]

If an investor buys shares in General Electric, and then GE's stock declines in the future, is the New York Stock Exchange to blame? What if the investor chooses to purchase the shares through TD Ameritrade or Charles Schwab? Is the broker also responsible for the losses?

Senators interrogating Goldman Sachs executives yesterday appear to believe the firm has a duty to protect all of its institutional trading partners from making bad decisions... Yet much of the Beltway class, looking back at the financial crisis, now believes that gamblers who bet their money on an always-inflating housing bubble are the real victims...

...In sum, it appeared to be another bad day for the SEC's specific case against Goldman. But lawmakers seemed intent on finding the firm generally guilty of meeting institutional demand for subprime housing risk.


Messr. Tourre Leaving The Capitol: Calimari, Anyone?

It's like the age-old defense of the rapist: "Hey; She Was Askin' For It! She Wanted It!" It's really the fault of the banks and clients to whom Goldman sold those bad investments, because... they wanted it. They forced us.

We're not sure which of the politicians at yesterday's Senate hearing did the most to confuse spectators. Investigations subcommittee chairman Carl Levin of Michigan seemed unaware of the difference between a market-maker, whose role is to offer prices at which a client may buy or sell a given asset, and an investment adviser, whose role is to act in the interests of the client as a fiduciary.

Ranking member Susan Collins of Maine showed that she understood the difference, yet still decided to badger the market makers at Goldman Sachs to admit they weren't acting as fiduciaries. [Who have an obligation to advise clients about risk] Of course they weren't, as their sophisticated institutional customers would have known.

But the heart of the argument against The Masters Of The Universe is this: If you knew your investments were made up of crap, even if your role was not to act as a 'Fiduciary', didn't you still have an obligation to inform others they were selling bags of toxic waste?

Goldman's responses when questioned were to use the same logic as Little Rupert's anonymous writer in the WSJ. Come on, you idiots; We had no obligation to define risk to other players. We sold them stuff to make money. They were in it to make money.

They know how the game's played -- they lost! We won! And that's all that matters. That's how the free market operates, you fookin' Peasants. Do ya hate freedom, is that it?


Goldman's Legacy To Our Kultur.

But those kinds of answers just obscure and evade the real, basic question in everybody's mind: Didn't you have an obligation not to sell bad investments at all?

What's disgusting about the performance of people like Tourre and Blankfein this week is their inability to comprehend the legitimacy of that question. From the perspective of a player, A Big Swinging Dick In Wall Street, they haven't done anything wrong -- and if you believe we have... well, you stupid Peasants, we'll just buy our way out of it.


Who Cares About The Little People? (Cartoon: Abstruse Goose)

However, free of cant, the truth is that Goldman sold toxic crap, because they could. Because they wanted to make more money. It was the Game, Baby; the Game, and the payoff was More. The proof is that as a company, they bet against the performance of their own investments to win big if the subprime market collapsed -- or as Little Lloyd Blankfein put it in a memo, "short [on] mortgages saved the day".

Little Rupert's media suggests this is a political prosecution -- an attack on the 'Free Market' by the minions of a socialist scary Black Man who faked his way into the Presidency. It's true that the SEC is hard-pressed to remake its image as a guardian of financial regulation -- but that is because it did nothing to prevent the behavior Wall Street engaged in during those go-go, Lil' Boots Bush years (Remember him? Yeah, he was just, you know, some guy or other) which put us where we are today.

The "excesses of the free market" which brought about the destruction of the lives of so many people -- the Little People that our Masters Of The Universe don't give two farts about -- occurred because there was no oversight.

And no matter whether Little Rupert wants to spin this scrutiny of Goldman-Sachs as political; it isn't, and all of Warren Buffet's comments or Blankfein's appearances on television to blow smoke will not change that.

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The Delights Of The Jobless Recovery

In the words of The Great Curmudegon:

One gets the sense that elites have moved on, that the recovery is here and the foreclosure crisis is over. Neither is true.

I know how ironic this must sound, but Bloomberg reports that more and more Americans are exhausting their unemployment benefits without having found work.

What will become of them, when they have no money at all? Well, in the true spirit of the early Protestants who founded this great country, "The weak culls will have to fall by the wayside as nature intended. They are not of the Elect Of God, and therefore damned upon the Day of Judgment; and since their names are not writ in the Big Book O' Life™, who cares?"

Since the recession began, aid extensions added 53 weeks of assistance to the 46 weeks that had been in place. About 11 million Americans, roughly 70 percent of the nation’s jobless, in March received unemployment checks averaging $320 per week.

The challenge for lawmakers is that while benefits have reached record lengths, so has long-term unemployment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 44 percent of the jobless have been out of work for at least six months, the biggest share since the government began keeping track in 1948.

According to the Bureau Of Labor Statistics, a record 6.5 million workers have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more. A study by the Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative which the Bloomberg article noted shows 3.4 million workers have been unemployed for more than a year.

So, the Math: 11 million unemployed. More than half of them have been unemployed for more than 6 months, and roughly a third have been out of work for more than a year. That doesn't count people who have already lost their benefits.

UPDATE: Time for this dog to find a new food bowl, and in the next six months. Other wise members of the pooch pack, look after yourselves, since no other dogs will.


Willie Wheelie Says: Sometimes Ya Just Gotta Hit The Road

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Senator Mongo Votes Yes

You Fools Are Actually Blocking Reform Of The Financial System??


Mongo tries to be happy, Immerhin

I have no idea what those clowns from the South are about. I think someone's telling them they'll receive a campaign contribution if they protect banks and Goldman-Sachs from the big bad Evil President.

Interestingly, the maximum the GOP, or any individual Rethug candidate, would receive in contribution from the Greed 'Financial' industry is small -- perhaps a few hundred thousand dollars. That's always been the case with Washington politicians, who appear to have much lower thresholds of whorehood than the Big Boyz and Girlz on Wall Street.

Compare an investment of a couple of hundred thousand on a wonky and (if you're lucky) skirt-chasing politico with the Billions these unregulated BSD Masters Of The Universe are making, personally. Even the average bonus at Goldman for 2010 (based on Q1 performance) is $308,000... and counting.

I didn't vote for these Mint Julep Redneck Yahoos; they didn't vote for me.

I try to be happy anyway, though.

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Tee Vee For Dead People

I don't know what this is about. I just found it, out there -- on the Intertubes (actually, it's part of the introduction to the Season 4 Gag Reel of the X-Files).

I'm a Dog who can talk and write and use Photoshop, but that doesn't mean I understand everything -- so, look: You figure it out, then come back and tell us.

And don't spill my juice box. Thank You. You're Welcome.

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Heavy Thinking, For A Dog

Fifty years from now, most of the major players involved in the invasion of Iraq and the deregulation of America's financial system into a private game for the benefit of a relatively small group of people will be dead.

Then, in that distant time, there will be books and articles written which admit that "some mistakes possibly may have been made", but that the people who made them were really good with kids and felt sort of bad about it occasionally, and weren't really evil or anything -- and so couldn't be held accountable.

And, it was all so long ago, anyway.

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Topeka

Guh-Ghu-Guh-Giggity



Google, the people who aren't Evil™ (just profit-driven), have a new look this morning. I had a moment of Whaaaaa? until I realized what day it was.

But, you know, there's something in this idea. We can customize a number of applications with different skins; how about Google that anticipates and matches our moods?

Here's mine, this morning:

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Buh-Bye

Up In The Sky; It's A Bird; It's A Blimp... (Photo: Corbis)

A while ago, Lard Boy said he would leave the country if Health Care reform legislation were to be made law.

I'll tell you one thing -- if [the healthcare reform bill] passes... and all this stuff gets implemented, I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica.

Sayonara, you fat, repulsive, bigoted, talentless, closet ped-- What; he's not gone?



Well; nu? You actually expected he would? But, fear not -- two enterprising kids from Brooklyn are asking for your support via the Net to purchase a one-way, first-class ticket to sail the Blimp directly to America's unrecognized 51st State... And they've raised $2,000, so far.

Salon reports that Blubber, The One-Trick Sloth, is currently attempting to unload his "Liberace-museum-inspired Manhattan apartment". Purchased under the name of the 'RH Trust'(Moby Dick's middle name is 'Hudson') in 1994 for a reported $20 Million, it's filled with hand-painted murals and delicate, acid-treated wood detailing. There's also a private pharmaceutical safe (okay; I made that up).


$13.95 Million... And It Still Looks Like The Hangar-
Sized Digs Of A Drag Queen Who Won The Lottery

While the Two Lads From Brooklyn's offer doesn't include free Hillbilly Heroin, it is an opportunity to go to a Caribbean island and assist their local economy by hiring disadvantaged teenaged boys for, uh, casual labor. You'd think that Rushbo would be all over that kind of freebie like a crab-handed Chickenhawker with a facelift, cruising Sunset Boulevard on a Saturday night. Right?

Well, who knows. We can dream. In the meantime, the donations to buy Lard Boy's farewell ticket have been pledged to go to a good cause -- as Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams noted, "one Limbaugh recently described as 'giddy because of all the new abortions there are going to be' under healthcare reform: Planned Parenthood."

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Someone Please Explain

...why is it, in the aftermath of The Crash and revelations of how much Lil' Boots and the Cheney Presidency had lied to the country; that millions of American citizens aren't in the streets -- demanding that Banksters and various Rightist types go to prison, and that reforms and laws are enacted to make it more difficult to ever happen again?

Why?

Is the nation as brain-dead as it was between January of 2001 and sometime in 2007? Does everyone just sit watching cable teevee, and eating almost-reasonably priced bags of heavily salted or sugared things?

(And, in honor of St. Patrick's Day: History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
-- Stephen Deadlus; Ulysses, James Joyce)

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And The Winner Is

Christoph Waltz, Best Supporting Actor,
Inglorious Basterds


Waltz, Receiving The Best Supporting Actor Award

"... And this is your welcoming embrace and there's no way I can ever thank you enough, but I can start right now. Thank you."

From The Ubiquitous Wikipedia: Christoph Waltz studied acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. He started as a stage actor, playing at venues like Zurich's Schauspielhaus Zürich, Vienna's Burgtheater, and the Salzburg Festival.

He became a prolific actor on [German] television. In 2000, he directed his first film, the TV production, "Wenn man sich traut" ['If You Dare']. In Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film, Inglourious Basterds, Waltz portrayed Colonel Hans Landa; for this role, he received the Best Actor Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Waltz is fluent in German, French and English, and speaks all three in Inglourious Basterds (Though he also spoke Italian in that film, he stated on a recent Podcast that he does not actually speak that language). He is divorced and has four children, one of whom is a Rabbi. He currently lives in London and Berlin.

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