click the heads to enlarge
---o0o---
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Clinton Enemies List
". . .that does not mean all is forgiven by others in the Clinton universe."
"For proof, look no further than Doug Band, chief gatekeeper to former President Bill Clinton. Band keeps close track of the past allies and beneficiaries of the Clintons who supported Obama's campaign, three Clinton associates and campaign officials said. Indeed, he is widely known as a member of the Clinton inner circle whose memory is particularly acute on the matter of who has been there for the couple — and who has not."
" 'The Clintons get hundreds of requests for favors every week,' said Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. 'Clearly, the people you're going to do stuff for in the future are the people who have been there for you.' "
---o0o---
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Poem: Flying, depending on the context, is better than not flying
Flying is the straw man.
It’s falling that is the issue,
And even falling per se is OK.
The hitch arises the moment
Falling becomes not falling.
I call it the uncontrolled landing problem.
---o0o---
Painting: map 12
I have painted several of these maps over the years, but I still haven't done the one I really want to do. If I do paint it, I guess I'll know it. Of the ones I've done, this is the only one I own, so it's a bit of a sentimental favorite. Apologies for the photography. I just can't get the hang of photographing paintings and drawings.
click the map to enlarge
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click the map to enlarge
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Monday, June 09, 2008
Growing up: Hillbilly home-made toys
click young John/Jack to enlarge
If you've read any of these growing up stories, you remember I grew up poor. That didn't necessarily mean we didn't get toys (which my parent's generation would call "store-bought"). We did get toys for birthdays and Christmas, and in between, we played with toys my dad made (he also built boats, bikes, and even campers). There are a few he made I can't quite remember, but I know they involved bobbins, and wooden thread spools. He could create dozens of objects from rope. His Navy days had left him a master knotsman, and some of my favorite toys were his ropework. Here are some of the toys he made, and we played with. This is only a small part of his toys--the others are lost somewhere in the haze floating over the Green & White River Valley.
The Paper Hat. He could fold several styles of paper hats from newspapers. One was the one below--almost a Papal hat; another was a skull-cap sort of affair; and he could also create an excellent Pirate Hat as well. E-how tells you how to make your own, if you'd like to take a crack at it.
Dad also made several varieties of bathtub or pond motorboats. The illustration below shows one of his standards.
This was no work of genius, but he also made us tin can telephones (and tin can puddle jumpers):
One of my favorites was the Monkey Fist. It wasn't that useful if you weren't climbing mountains or tossing a rope from a ship, but it had this heft and symmetrical coolness that made you want one. We always had one tied to the dinner bell on our back porch (how tarheel is that? How many of you had a "dinner bell?").
There was a very simple toy called a Buzz-toy, that John, Sr. called a "zippo." This was possibly my most beloved toy. I could even make one myself when he showed me where to find the cord. He always used a kind of hybrid thread, with cotton and some sort of synthetic like nylon. You could really get these zippos zipping! If you had a strong cord, you could really get these things moving, and it generated a great low, rumbling whirring sound:
Other growing up stories on All This Is That:
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Oh, you can't get to heaven: Boy Scout songs
Click the scouts to enlarge
This is a song we often sang in Boy Scouts. We substituted verses that spotlighted the adults who were along on our camping trips ("Oh you can't get to heaven/in Mr. Crawford's car/Because Mr. Crawford's car/stops at every bar").
Oh, You Can't Get to Heaven
Written By: Unknown
Copyright Unknown
Oh, you can't get to heaven
(Oh, you can't get to heaven)
On roller skates
(On roller skates)
'Cause you'd roll right by
('Cause you'd roll right by)
Those pearly gates
(Those pearly gates)
Oh you can't get to heaven
On roller skates
'Cause you'd roll right by
Those pearly gates
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more.
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more.
Oh, you can't get to heaven
(Oh, you can't get to heaven)
In a rocking chair
(In a rocking chair)
'Cause a rocking chair
('Cause a rocking chair)
Won't get you there
(Won't get you there)
Oh, you can't get to heaven
In a rocking chair
'Cause a rocking chair
Won't get you there
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more.
Oh you can't get to heaven
(Oh you can't get to heaven)
In a limousine
(In a limousine)
'Cause the Lord don't sell
('Cause the Lord don't sell)
No gasoline
(No gasoline)
Oh you can't get to heaven
In a limousine
'Cause the Lord don't sell
No gasoline
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more.
Oh, you can't get to heaven
(Oh, you can't get to heaven)
In a motorcar
(In a motorcar)
'Cause a motorcar
('Cause a motorcar)
Won't go that far
(Won't go that far)
Oh you can't get to heaven
In a motorcar
'Cause a motorcar
Won't go that far
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more.
If you get there
(If you get there)
Before I do
(Before I do)
Just dig a hole
(Just dig a hole)
And pull me through
(And pull me through)
If you get there
Before I do
Just dig a hole
And pull me through
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more.
---o0o---
Sunday, June 08, 2008
"18 Million cracks in the ceiling": Hillary Clinton calls it quits
by Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor, All This Is That
Washington, D.C. Saturday 6/7/08
OK. We supported her. And then we didn't support her. She and her husband have perhaps too often aggressively pursued their dream, and along the way made some dumb comments about race, Obama's religion, Bobby Kennedy and other tasteless faux pas. . But today, when she finally conceded defeat, it was Hillary Clinton who made the big classy speech, as she bowed out.
"As we gather here today," she told her fans and staff at the National Building Museum yesterday, "the 50th woman to leave this Earth is orbiting overhead. If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House."
"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it," the Senator said, "and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time."
---o0o---
"A lack of focus" [on our nuclear weapons!!!] " Gates fires Air Force officials
This is a mind f***er of all mindf***ers. Like some of you, I grew up in the duck and cover era. We practiced dodging the effects of a nuclear bomb. Watch this video to get an idea of the national obsession with nuclear attack, as well as our laughable solutions for surviving a direct atomic bomb attack. As it turns out, not only are we under-prepared, but the air force may even be part of the problem, and not the solution, and safety-net, we've been led to believe in.
This week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired (rather, he asked for the resignations of...) two top Air Force officials Thursday, saying an investigation into the mistaken shipment of missile parts from Hill Air Force Base to Taiwan exposed a systemic "lack of focus" on nuclear accountability. In addition to the resignation of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, Gates said a "substantial" number of other officials - presumably including some from Hill - might be fired or reprimanded.
Our handling of nukes seems just about on the order of those of the breakaway 'Stans and former Soviet Republics. We are about as casual in handling these deadly weapons as the guys who stock the shelves at your grocery store. In short, whatever they found was so scary it even spooked the Bush Administration. And those boys are not easily spooked. If Bush is spooked, the rest of us should be racing for the Pampers and shoveling out a bomb shelter in the back yard.
---o0o---
Video by Roman Coppola: Matthew' Sweet's Sick of Myself (with lyrics)
I've always loved this song, and the album, 100% Fun, that is now over ten years old. Another song on the same album, "We're the same," is every bit as good. MS is a pop genius.
Sick of myself
by Matthew Sweet
You don't know how you move me
Deconstruct me
And consume me
I'm all used up
I'm out of luck
I am starstruck
By something in your eyes that is keeping my hope alive
But I'm sick of myself when I look at you
Something is beautiful and true
In a world that's ugly and a lie
It's hard to even want to try
And I'm beginning to think baby you don't know
I'll take or leave
The room to breathe
The choice to leave you
I'll throw away
A chance at greatness
Just to make this
Dream come into play, I don't know if I'll find a way
cause I'm sick of myself when I look at you
Something is beautiful and true
In a world that's ugly and a lie
It's hard to even want to try
And I'm beginning to think baby you don't know
I'm beginning to think baby you don't know
There's something in your eyes that is keeping my hope alive
But I'm sick of myself when I look at you
Something is beautiful and true
In a world that's ugly and a lie
It's hard to even want to try
And I'm beginning to think baby you don't know
I'm beginning to think baby you don't know
---o0o---
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Video: Muddy Waters plays Mannish Boy
Ooooooh, yeah, ooh, yeah
Everythin', everythin', everythin's gonna be alright this mornin'
Ooh yeah, whoaw
Now when I was a young boy, at the age of five
My mother said I was, gonna be the greatest man alive
But now I'm a man, way past 21
Want you to believe me baby,
I had lot's of fun
I'm a man
I spell mmm, aaa child, nnn
That represents man
No B, O child, Y
That mean mannish boy
I'm a man
I'm a full grown man
I'm a man
I'm a natural born lovers man
I'm a man
I'm a rollin' stone
I'm a man
I'm a hoochie coochie man
Sittin' on the outside, just me and my mate
You know I'm made to move you honey,
come up two hours late
Wasn't that a man
I spell mmm, aaa child, nnn
That represents man
No B, O child, Y
That mean mannish boy
I'm a man
I'm a full grown man
Man
I'm a natural born lovers man
Man
I'm a rollin' stone
Man-child
I'm a hoochie coochie man
The line I shoot will never miss
When I make love to a woman,
she can't resist
I think I go down,
to old Kansas Stew
I'm gonna bring back my second cousin,
that little Johnny Cocheroo
All you little girls,
sittin'out at that line
I can make love to you woman,
in five minutes time
Ain't that a man
I spell mmm, aaa child, nnn
That represents man
No B, O child, Y
That mean mannish boy
Man
I'm a full grown man
Man
I'm a natural born lovers man
Man
I'm a rollin' stone
I'm a man-child
I'm a hoochie coochie man
well, well, well, well
hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry
Don't hurt me, don't hurt me child
don't hurt me, don't hurt, don't hurt me child
well, well, well, well
Yeah
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