Ben Franklin on the tea party, rabid democrats, rabid republicans, the press, and erosion and slippery slopes

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A great aerial shot of Ballard/North Beach (Seattle)

By Jack Brummet
Seattle Metro Editor


This is a nice aerial shot of Ballard (my neighborhood) in Seattle.  The waterway you see at the bottom is the Ship Canal that leads up to the Government Locks.  Near the top, the bulge in the land is Golden Gardens.  North and west of Golden Gardens is the North Beach neighborhood.

click to enlarge -- Photo by Dcoetzee (released to the public domain)

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Video Clip: Dr. Steve Brule "for your health"

Another great "for your health" segment from Dr. Steve Brule...



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Finger of the Day No. 6 - George W. Bush caught on video clowning with his finger

By Mona Goldwater
and Pablo Fanque,
Folkways Editors






George W. Bush clowns around during a videotaping session, and gives the finger that would come back to haunt him when he ran for President. You can hear the audible gasps from the crew and handlers.  They weren't shocked he gave the finger; they were shocked he did it while the cameras rolled ("that's just my one-finger victory salute").

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Middle finger of the day No. 5 - Eight actors with fingers sticking up (Lohan, Ledger, Fox, Luke Perry, Jodie Foster, Kirstie Alley, and Mickeys Mouse and Rourke

By Mona Goldwater & Pablo Fanque
Hollywood and Society Correspondents
for All This Is That

Actors seem to give the finger frequently to the paparazzi.  We're not quite if this is because the 'razzi are so annoying, or because a photograph with the finger can only be distributed to and published by a limited number of venues?

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Keith Richards plays Connection with The Rolling Stones in Scorcese's "Shine A Light"

By Jack Brummet
Rock and Roll Correspondent








Connection has always been one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs.  Keith Richards often played the tune with his band the X-Pensive Winos in the last 1980's, when it looked like the Stones were defunct.  As it turns out, they weren't--Richards and Jagger patched it up and they've toured and released some middling to weak records since then. 

This rendition of Connection, a YouTube "slideo" is from the Scorcese documentary that came out a few years ago.  Yeah, his voice isn't much, but I kind of like the spirit of the performance. 


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Middle finger of the day No. 4 - Ten upstart youth

By Mona Goldwater & Pablo Fanque

More middle fingers, this time by the newborn to ten year old set.

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Sarah Palin running in 2011, or "replenishing the coffers?"

By Pablo Fanque

All This Is That National Affairs Editor

When the calendar turns to 2011 in a couple of weeks, we will nearly officially be in the midst of Campaign 2012.  We may, or may not, discover Ex-Governor Sarah Palin's real intentions.  Is she running?  Is she just appearing to run to jack up the sales of her second book, drive viewers to her Discovery Channel reality show, increase her fees for personal appearances, and boost her ratings on the Fox News Channel?  Or is she really in it to win it, fully intending to sweep through the primaries and caucuses, win the Presidential nomination at the 2012 convention in Tampa, and make "One and Done," a reality by taking out a sitting President? 

The stream of polymedia appearances, and never-ending barrage of commentaries, policy statements, and endorsements issuing from SarahPac, Facebook, and Twitter show that she wants to remain in the spotlight center-stage. . .whether for political or pecuniary reasons.  We will learn her true intentions sometime in the coming year, for better or for worse.

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Mission Statements - Two poems by Jack Brummet

Mission Statement
The army
Has two duties--

To break things, and kill people;
The rest is fluff and overhead.
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Mission Statement, 2


To launch your nefarious enterprise,
You don't need to see
A discounted cash flow analysis.

You only need to know
If the right people
Are in your pocket,

And, if not, then whom
Should be bought off,
Scared off, or bumped off?
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- Poems by Jack Brummet

Middle finger of the day No. 3 - Seven senior fingers

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
& Mona Goldwater, Arts and Style Editor

Today's selection are what we shall loosely call senior fingers.   As far as we can tell (and, as you know, many images found on the internet are either unattributed or misattributed), none of the subjects of this set of photos are famous, or even identified. [click images to enlarge]

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Sean Combs live video of his party goes up in smoke when a model's hair catches fire (she's fine)

P Diddy/Puff Daddy/Sean Combs apparently video streams all his parties. Things didn't go so well on this one...





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Finger of the day No. 2: four political fingers - President Obama, Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller, President George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

By Pablo Fanque & Mona Goldwater


The photo of Nelson Rockefeller is one of our favorite political photos ever.  It was 1976, and  by then he knew he would not be the nominee for president in 1976.  So, Nelson kicked back and lived the good life as the Vice President.

At a rally, a heckler was hucking verbal garbage at him, and Rocky leaned across the podium and gave him a righteous finger. The photo appeared in newspapers everywhere the next day.  People were offended  a man of such high office and supposed dignity could resort to a crude gesture like the finger.  The rest of us mostly thought it was just awesome a politician could show exactly what he was feeling. 

click images to enlarge

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