Photograph: Chicken Love Tragedy - A Cautionary Tale of Beastiality in Iberia

This photo and the mangled grammar in the caption first appeared on the internet in the early 90's, back when we were all using the Spry browser to cruise between the few hundred websites that existed then...
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Americans actually do seem to care, and the frogs appear to be sitting on their wallets

According to the Associated Press, Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year, even beating the 2005 total was swollen by the of aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the devastating Asian tsunami.

U.S. Citizens contributed an estimated $295.02 billion in 2006, a 1% increase when adjusted for inflation, up from $283.05 billion in 2005.

"What people find especially interesting about this, and it's true year after year, that such a high percentage comes from individual donors," Giving USA Chairman Richard Jolly said. Individuals gave a combined 75.6% of the total.

The biggest piece of the donations, $96.82 billion or 32.8%, went to religious organizations. The second largest donations, $40.98 billion or 13.9%, went to education, including gifts to colleges, universities and libraries.

The report showed that about 65% of households earning under $100,000 give to charity, "It tells you something about American culture that is unlike any other country," said Claire Gaudiani, a professor at NYU's Heyman Center for Philanthropy and author of The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism. .

Gaudiani said Americans give more than double the next most charitable nation--Great Britain, who gave roughly 0.73%. Not surprisingly, the frogs a/k/a France, kicked in at a 0.14% rate, far far behind countries like South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany.

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Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here - Lyrics and video

Back in the day, and even up to a couple of years ago, I didn't pay much attention to Pink Floyd. I was absorbed by Zappa, CSNY, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Doors, The Band, Hendrix, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Dylan, and The Grateful Dead. Since then, I have learned that these guys actually mattered a great deal. "Wish you were here" is my favorite song by Pink Floyd (so far). The video here is of the Floyd in their geezerhood, at a reunion show. . .



Wish You Were Here
by Pink Floyd

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
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Old 97's downloads

click to enlarge the Old 97's

If you've been a visitor here recently, you know I have been on a serious Old 97's jag for a while now. I am still contemplating going over to the Gorge at George to see them at the Willy Nelson Picnic show on July 4th. . .which happens about two days after I return from a vacation in Central Washington next week. One of the buggest disappointments of the last few months was the night in Austin a couple of months ago, when I went to see them at Stubb's. The show was rained out.

If you're not familiar with the Old 97's canon, or if you're too cheap to actually buy CDs, the Old 97's have at least two tracks from all six of their albums free for downloading here. If you're an alt-country fan, or a power pop fan, I think you'll like these guys. I'm a little embarrassed it took me so long to get a clue about these guys, because they have rapidly become tops of the pops for me. . .
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Who is "Carlo" on the last Soprano's episode?

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Many people are puzzled by the reference to Carlo on the final episode of The Sopranos. Carlo Gervasi apparently becomes an informant after his son is busted. Several references in the last show allude to Carlo's upcoming testimony against Anthony. This is not the Carlo who was killed earlier in the series. Carlo Gervasi, played by Arthur J. Nascarella.

Carlo Gervasi first appears in Season Four, as a captain of Jimmy Altieri's old crew (Jimmy you may remember was also disposed of as a rat). Gervasi runs the Bloomfield Avenue casino, and was part of the Soprano family's port hijackings. In Season 6, Carlo attended two celebration dinners at Nuovo Vesuvio, first when his cousin Burt Gervasi becomes a made man and a second when he attends Christopher's bachelor party.

After Vito's murder, Gervasi is given all of his construction action. He stated once that he wanted Spatafore "dragged behind his car." When Tony decided that Spatafore had to be killed, Silvio (Steven Van Zandt) suggested Gervasi for the job because of his views. Carlo later avenged his family's honor in a memorable episode by stabbing Fat Dom for making jokes about Spatafore's murder and implying that Gervasi was also gay. He freaked out and stabbed him in the back room of Satriale's Pork Store with Silvio also getting sucked into the action. Tony Soprano discovers them waiting to dispose of the body and was angry because of the murder's possible blowback. Gervasi takes charge of disposing of Gamiello's body and even drives to Connecticut to deposit his head in a storm drain, if you remember that scene earlier in the season. You actually did see Carlo a great deal, but the glimpses were usually fleeting.

In the series finale, Gervasi's son is picked up by the FBI for drug-dealing. When Carlo fails to show up for a meeting with Paulie Walnuts, he warns Tony that he may be cutting a deal. Soprano's attorney confirms that someone is, in fact testifying before a grand jury and that indictments are forthcoming. In the final scene, Tony tells Carmela that Carlo is testifying, thus confirming that he turned informant to keep his son out of jail and possibly out of revenge for the murder of his cousin.
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Blog Wars--> Boycott This Blog: Almost There In No Time

The proprietor of Almost There In No Time, a favorite blog of NMBLA members,
as well as the NRA, the Republican National Committee, and Ralph Nader.
One follower describes Ericksen's eyes as "penetrating and insidious.
When he looks at you it's like a hypnotist's watch."

An insidious presence has crept into the "blogosphere." Dean Ericksen, a native Seattleite and environmental executive, recently initiated a scandalous blog known as Almost There In No Time. Mr. Ericksen is slowly and insidiously building a cult following in the Pacific Northwest. One person who escaped his clutches told All This Is That "Ericksen plans to increase his following until he has the numbers to make a national splash. . .and what he plans on doing will make David Koresh's conflagration look like a marshmallow roast, and will make the Jonestown Massacre look--literally--like a kool-aid party. His intention is to create such an apocalyptic meltdown that he will be long-remembered. Unlike some of those other leaders, however, he has no intention of going down with the ship!" He increases his following by preaching a strangely polyglot mixture of several seemingly incompatible philosophies, not unlike, say Heinrich Himmler or Adolph Shicklegruber himself. "He's able to pull it off, " one former cult member told All This Is That, "because unlike most of those other wackos, he doesn't seem to be in it for the sex, or the money."

Ericksen's blog is listed as a favorite on the websites of the National Rifle Association, the National Man-Boy Love Association, The King County Republican Party, the American Nazi and Communist Parties, The Junior League, Aryan Nations, Volksfront, the VFW, the fraternal orders of Elks, Moose, and Eagles, The Masonic Lodge, The National Vanguard, White Revolution, the National Alliance, the G.O.P., the Moral Majority, as well as the individual blogs of Charles Manson, Oral Roberts, Mark David Chapman, and the entertainers Celine Dion, David Hassehof, and Rosie O'Donnell. How does this seemingly random stew of no talents, hate groups, and political reactionaries join in agreement about one blogger's website? I have no idea. But I do know that Mr. Ericksen needs to be stopped well before he reaches critical mass. Perhaps it's even too late for that. One well-known deprogrammer said "it's virtually impossible to deprogram one of his followers. Once Ericksen has rooted into their psyches, it is very difficult to evict him. It's like zombies; once you cross the line you don't go back."
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A Painting Of A Moroccan Dance Scene (artist unknown)

click the painting to enlarge

This massive painting (I'd guess it is about 10 feet by five feet) hangs in a stairwell in my parent-in-laws 1904 mansion. It is a painterly rendition of a "casbah" scene. I've always loved the drapery and the pastel palette. If I am lucky I can buy or glom onto this painting when they sell the house--despite the fact it is too large to hang in anything approaching a normal house. I never saw a scene like this when I was in Morocco...the women in Morocco aren't nearly so pale, and I certainly never saw any of the women dancing. When you saw the women at all. . .

Idiot, moron, imbecile: an old illustration

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No, I am not talking about a specific person. . . this is an illustration from a textbook, outling the now apparently verboten system of categorzing people's mental acuity.
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The spooks come clean: CIA to release details on decades of secrets

The Central Intelligence Agency will soon declassify thousands of pages of documents on spook operations from over three decades ago. The , CIA Director Michael Hayden said according to Reuters.

The "Family Jewels" documents chronicle foreign assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s. . .according to a summary posted on the National Security Archive site.

The documents to be released next week also include accounts of break-ins and theft, surveillance of U.S. journalists, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, and "behavior modification" experiments on "unwitting" U.S. civilians.

"Much of it has been in the press before, and most of it is unflattering, but it's the CIA's history," Hayden said in a speech on Thursday to the American Foreign Relations Conference.
"This is about telling the American people what we have done in their name," Hayden said.

The CIA chief said the documents provide a glimpse of "a very different time and a very difference agency." Hayden said 11,000 pages of analysis from would be available on the CIA's Web site.
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Ralph Nader, a/k/a The Dingbat, threatens to run for President again

Ralph Nader says he is seriously considering running for president in 2008 because he foresees another election with no real choice to voters.


"You know the two parties are still converging -- they don't even debate the military budget anymore," Nader said in a 30-minute interview. "I really think there needs to be more competition from outside the two parties."


Ralphie, or as he is known on All This Is That, "The Dingbat" has zero chance of winning the presidency should he run, but he knows he doesn't need to win to affect the outcome. Many Democrats blame Nader for siphoning enough votes away from Al Gore in Florida in 2000 to elect George W. Bush. Sure, I blame Al Gore too, but nonetheless, if The Dingbat had stood down, we wouldn't be facing the mess we've lived with these last 6 and a half years.



Ralph, Don't Do It!
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Painting: There's a riot going on

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Video: Hillary Clinton rolls out her campaign song with a homage to the Sopranos finale

The Senator made an interesting choice of themes for her viral video. . .and starred in the video along with the wannabe First Husband.


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