Saturday, December 22, 2007

Friday, December 21, 2007

Wow! The Beatnix video: Stairway To Heaven

This is one reason YouTube is great, despite all the not so great stuff. Here is a video from the early 90's Australian TV show, The Money Or The Gun, by The Beatnix, a Beatles Tribute Band.


End of the Juggernaut--> Almost There In No Time Reports On The Tragic Withdrawal of Tom Tancredo From The Presidential Race


click to zoom up Tom

Almost There In No Time (a blog for The People) reports on Congressman Tom Tancredo's withdrawal from the Presidential sweepstakes. Tom who?
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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Some quotes from the film American Beauty



I recently watched American Beauty again, and remembered what touched me about it the first time I saw the film. It is a flawed jewel, but it works. You can read/download the script here. I have witnessed people in my life make incredible transformations. At least one of them nearly identically echoes the plot of American Beauty, sans the killing. The central thrust of the film is: "It's never too late to get it back." Some quotes from the movie:


Lester: (amused) Look at me, jerking off in the shower. (then) This will be the high point of my day. It's all downhill from here.

Lester: Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser, and they're right. I have lost something. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I know I didn't always feel this sedated. But you know what? It's never too late to get it back.

Lester: It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about.

Carolyn: Lester, you're going to spill beer on the couch.

Lester: So what? It's just a couch.
Carolyn: This is a four thousand dollar sofa upholstered in Italian silk. This is not "just a couch."
Lester: It's just a couch! This isn't life. This is just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living. Well, honey, that's just nuts.

Lester: Remember those posters that said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life?" Well, that's true of every day except one - the day you die.

Lester Burnham: I feel like I've been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I'm just now waking up.

Brad Dupree: Man, you are one twisted fuck.

Lester Burnham: Nope, I'm just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose.

Carolyn Burnham: Your father and I were just discussing his day at work. Why don't you tell our daughter about it, honey?

Lester Burnham: Janie, today I quit my job. And then I told my boss to go fuck himself, and then I blackmailed him for almost sixty thousand dollars. Pass the asparagus.
Carolyn Burnham: Your father seems to think this type of behavior is something to be proud of. Lester Burnham: And your mother seems to prefer I go through life like a fucking prisoner while she keeps my dick in a mason jar under the sink.
Carolyn Burnham: How dare you speak to me that way in front of her. And I marvel that you can be so contemptuous of me, on the same day that you LOSE your job.
Lester Burnham: Lose it? I didn't lose it. It's not like, "Whoops! Where'd my job go?" I QUIT. Someone pass me the asparagus.

Lester Burnham: I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.

Lester Burnham: Brad, for 14 years I've been a whore for the advertising industry. The only way I could save myself now is if I start firebombing.

Lester Burnham: [narrating] I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday.

Lester Burnham: My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood; this is my street; this is my life. I am 42 years old; in less than a year I will be dead. Of course I don't know that yet, and in a way, I am dead already.

Lester Burnham: [narrating] Janie's a pretty typical teenager. Angry, insecure, confused. I wish I could tell her that's all going to pass, but I don't want to lie to her.

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Danger Dog! The New Homeland Security Threat Rating System



Someone at Wired (a magazine I haven't read for about 10 years) came up with a hot-dog based security threat rating system. The last time I flew to Texas, about two weeks ago, we were at Orange. But that was really the Chicago Dog level.

Notes on the Hot Dog System:

1. Fried, Bacon-Wrapped Tijuana Danger Dog. In the Mexican States of Nayarit and Jalisco (where I have visited several times), and, possibly in Baja, these are called Tocino Dogs. Our old pal and restaurateur, Jorge, often peddled these in Bucerias from a cart at fiestas. I have also seen Tocino Dogs sold on the streets of Los Angeles, around Staples Center when I have attended E3.

2. Chicago Dog With Everything. Have you ever had a Chicago Dog? A Hot Dog on a nice roll, with mustard, that neon green relish they use, a slice of pickle, celery salt, sport peppers (a pickled chili of medium hotness), mustard, and tomatoes.

3. Hebrew National Kosher Dog With Relish and Onions. Not quite a traditional NYC dog, which usually has chili onions, mustard, and sauerkraut.

4. Microwaved Oscar Meyer Wieners on White Bread Roll with Ketchup. A really bad American dog.

5. Steamed Tofu Pup on Sprouted Wheat Roll. Often called a Not Dog in the vegie/vegan world. Yuk!

Here is the current, laughable, National Security Threat Level System:



And, finally, the Sesame Street threat level system:


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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The Enquirer John Edwards Affair Story...


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John Edwards caught in an affair/"love child" scandal?



This is a mindf**ker of all mindf**kers, to quote John Sebastian at Woodstock. John Edwards, close to the last person of either party I would have pegged, seems to be caught up in a "love child" scandal.

The Drudge Report reported this late Tuesday (but Drudge's developing story has been taken down). In short, The National Enquirer *seems* to be about to break a story on John Edwards having an affair and now, apparently impregnating his paramour, who has either come forth, or whose friends have now leaked (or sold!) the story to the National Enquirer. Sure, it is a P.O.S. periodical, but on the other hand, they have broken a lot of real scandal news (along with Matt Drudge) over the last few years.

The story, as I understand it, will appear in the National Enquirer print edition (and their website) tomorrow. It seems to have appeared earlier today on Drudge, but I can't tell, since their story, too, is now a dead link.

Drudge now has a link that goes to a dead Enquirer page. If Matt Drudge has backed off from the story, he was either hectored with the threat of a King-hell lawsuit, or he had doubts about the story himself. And if Matt Drudge has doubts about the story, it has to be pretty flimsy.



According to ogpaper.com: "The National Enquirer is brewing the latest political scandal, John Edwards accused of having a love child."

"The National Enquirer is like an alligator - once the jaws lock, there is no way out. Earlier this year the NE reported on John Edwards and his affair with an unnamed woman from his campaign (follow the links below to read that story). Now, the latest John Edwards scandal - a love child. According to reports, the John Edwards love child scandal will run as part of the front cover of the National Enquirer on Wednesday, the picture was found on the Drudge Report. According to the cover, a woman is pregnant with John Edwards baby and is hiding. The story has not been confirmed or denied by the National Enquirer yet, watch for the magazine tomorrow and keep an eye on further developments in the John Edwards love child scandal. "

I did snag the bitmap above online, but have no way to determine its veracity in this paucity of information. It may be a spoof, or a mockup, or the real thing, of tomorrow's National Enquirer.

You may remember, I always thought both John Edwards and Mitt Romney would surge ahead from their positions at 3rd place, or further back, in the pack. If these allegations have even a whiff of authenticity, we can expect John Edwards to bail out of this race like he was hopping in the first lifeboat off the Titantic. John may have been able to weather this one had it just been another tawdry affair. But Ex-Senator Edwards happens to be married to probably the best-loved spouse among all the G.O.P. and Democratic candidates (except for maybe Bill Clinton), who also happens to have incurable breast cancer. If he is guilty, he, naturally, deserves every bit of ignominy that has been and will be heaped, upon him. If he is just a victim of rumor mongering (as was his running mate John Kerry...remember the stories of the young woman he had a tempestuous affair with? They all turned out to be false), well, then, long may he run! I did support him for President previously, but not this time around, although I would have supported him had he become viable (which so far in this race, he never really has).

If you did have this affair, well then drop out ASAP John, and give a decent guy like Joe Biden a chance! And if you did have the affair, well, then you are a sub-human piece of dogsh*t, and I am embarrassed that I supported you in 200o and 2004.
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

painting: the dream is over


click to enlarge
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Ron Paul video: 'When fascism comes it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross'...

Presidential candidate (this year's dingbat, filling in for Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, and George Wallace) Ron Paul recently told Fox News (quoting Sinclair Lewis) that "When fascism comes it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." Like many dingbats, he is sometimes correct.


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Monday, December 17, 2007

Video: Dake Wakeling and The English Beat perform "Save It For Later"

The English Beat perform their song "Save It For Later" from their final great album, Special Beat Service. Dave Wakeling and The English Beat are still touring (I saw them two weeks ago in Austin, Texas. . .click here to read that post.).


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It Can Happen Here: Japanese Relocation Camps, 1942-1946

Almost immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, most Japanese-Americans were rounded up and transported to concentration camps across the United States. Nearly every Japanese family in my home town of Kent, Washington was removed. Less than half returned following World War II. I am not proud to say that one of the most famous images of Japanese relocation was this photo, taken in Kent, in January, 1942:



In our war hysteria, we didn't want any Japanese Americans near the west coast. They would form cells and assist soldiers and pilots from the motherland in attacking The Pacific Coast. The number of Germans and Italians placed in the camps is only a fraction of their total population compared with the Japanese, virtually all of whom were locked up.

After the war only about thirty families returned to the valley area. I remember the Miyoshis, Yamadas, Nakaharas, Koyamatsus, Hiranakas, and Okimotos. Some of them got back into farming (not on their old farms, which had been confiscated and sold). I worked on the Yamada's farm a couple of springs, cutting and boxing rhubarb, and I worked for a couple of weeks on Kart Funai's farm one summer, bunching radishes and scallions.

Sinclair Lewis wrote a well-known novel "It Can't Happen Here," and Frank Zappa penned a song by the same title. As you can see, and as you just read, it can 't happen here. This is the map of the Japanese-American concentration camps run by the W.R.A.:




click to enlarge

Link to an earlier, and far more detailed, post on the internment camps, and the story of the Japanese-Americans in Kent, Washington. A link to an article here explaining how this might have happened (Growing Up In Kent, Washington: Tarheels, Hayseeds, Hicks, Hillbillies, and Crackers).
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Even Jeri Kehn can't resuscitate her husband's wheezing, tubercular campaign (but it's fun to watch while she tries)

Following are some recent photos of Jeri Kehn Thompson on the campaign trail, visiting VA hospitals in South Carolina and Virginia, on the set of Neil Cavuto's TV show, at an endorsement dinner, and various other stops. She is on the campaign trail, attempting to breathe life into ex-Senator Fred Thompson's moribund and flailing campaign. Following the photos are links to other Jeri Kehn photo roundups on All This Is That).


Jeri orates to a women's group


Photo opportunity with Nevil Cavuto (he's the one on your right)


The Thomson's pose with a supporter.


Another photo-op



Jeri Kehn and daughter at the V.A. Hospital


Jeri on the beach with another lady in red (notice the 100
watt smile is utterly absent)

Jeri makes a cameo appearance on stage...


Jeri and daughter in matching outfits.


"I kid you not," Jeri Kehn tells a supporter


Jeri in another photo-op.


Jeri Kehn smiles for the win in a babe-off with two other women.


Other recent Jeri Kehn photograph round-ups on All This Is That:

Photomontage: Jeri Kehn pressing the flesh (includes one photo of her husband) and links to Jeri Kehn photo motherlode
Latest Jeri Kehn sightings and photographs
Two more Jeri Kehn Thompson Photos
Latest Jeri Kehn sightings and photographs
Jeri Kehn Thompson photo update No. 12--eleven new Jeri Kehn photographs
Two more Jeri Kehn Thompson Photos
A Jeri Kehn Thompson cameo appearance in a Fred Thompson campaign video, four new Jeri Kehn photographs, and a Mrs. Fred Thompson photo roundup
Three additional photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson a/k/a Jeri Kehn
Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)
One More Jeri Kehn Thompson photo
Jeri Kehn Photos, Part 3: Three more photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson
More Jeri Kehn photos--> A follow-up to "Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)
Not Jeri Kehn: people who are not Mrs. Fred Thompson, yet who often turn up in search engine searches on "Jeri Kehn"
Three new Jeri Kehn photos; links to Jeri photos; and Fred Thompson describes the beauty of having a hot first lady;"
New photographs of Jeri Kehn Thompson on the campaign trail (and a couple of her husband Fred too)---o0o---