Tag: Open Thread

So I’m glancing through the news this morning and I find this:

Every once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don’t bother looking up. It’s likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1.

A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.

People who are unaware or have no advance notice will almost certainly wonder, as they cast a casual glance toward the moon on that night, what those two “large silvery stars” happen to be? Sometimes, such an occasion brings with it a sudden spike of phone calls to local planetariums, weather offices and even police precincts. Not a few of these calls excitedly inquire about “the UFOs” that are hovering in the vicinity of our natural satellite.

Now I have been burned too many times by astrological events … either the sky is too cloudy to see the fabulous eclipses or there’s too much light in my neighborhood to view the wonderful meteor showers.

So I forgot about it until I got home from work.  I got off the subway in my usual trance, half asleep, and was walking the four blocks to my apartment when I inadvertently glanced up at the sky.

Wow!  There it was, a beautiful crescent moon, bright Venus and Jupiter right there!  Although it had been raining all week, tonight the sky was dark and clear.  The lovely sight put a big smile on my face.

Open thread is open for your tales of astronomical wowness or anything else that you’d like to share.

So.  Seneca has exposed me for the horrible nag I am.  I hate to push him down with something this slight, but it will be Robyn and mishima if not me.

I kind of laugh at his concern because ‘centrist’ is a label I’ve always worn proudly, Armando and I used to joke about it.  Even ‘purist’ fails to wound me because I know the policies I advocate are hardly substantive, they are political and oriented toward electoral victory.

My shallowness is astounding.  My platform but 2 primary planks.

My prescription for Democratic Officeholders and Politicians is that they stand for fucking something, anything.  The reason people don’t vote for you is that you are cowards, weaklings, and liars.  They are right not to trust you.

On the other hand Republicans are shameless bullies and bigots, common thieves,  torturers, murderers, and war criminals.

My second plank is the Village, the blow dried air headed vacuous vacant Versailles access addict asskissing idiots who think they tell us what to think.

And that’s the power new media has.  To avert your eyeballs for an instant.

The TV business is uglier than most things.  It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.  There’s also a negative side.

As little effort as that takes, it has it’s effects.  They are terribly sensitive to negative popular opinion.  They can hardly stand to be confronted with facts in public debate.

• Brian Williams by Greenwald
• Brian Williams by Spencer Ackerman

You can smell the fear in the morning like coffee.  They hate us for a reason, and they should.  If we have excess energy we should expose them to others as the fools they are.  Show them our scorn and derision in concrete ways.

The reaction shows they are vulnerable, the business model is not working for them any more than it did for the Music Biz.  Even now giving live performances is more lucrative than airtime and who is advertiser supported after all?

And why are we doing it if revenue is down anyway?  Madison Avenue leads directly from Detroit down to Family Ford with the six cute kids a shilling, five new models, four finance programs, three months no payments, two SUVs.

And from NBC to Channel 3.

We know what you are.  We’re just negotiating the price.

This song is called Alice’s Restaurant, and it’s about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice’s Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that’s just the name of the song, and that’s why I called the song Alice’s Restaurant.

This Pony Party should be treated as an open thread!  Please do not rec the Pony Party!

Over at Your Right Hand Thief, oyster describes his night at the movies in Sometimes reality is like a weird movie.

I was astonished to find out that there really IS a God!  And he’s on the radio!

As I drove away, the radio was tuned to WRNO 99.5fm Rush Radio. “In tough times, it pays to be right”, is their new tag line. And… guess what was on? No, not a replay of Rush or Hannity. Instead… it was the last two minutes of The Jesus Christ Show, hosted by Jesus Christ. I’m not kidding! Jesus does a radio show. Hallelujah!

A female caller asked the host a question: “Jesus, should I fear hell?” Jesus replied by saying that he didn’t have much time[!], so he would have to keep his answer short. (The short answer was “Yes”, but it was said with infinite love.) There’s a distinctly addictive quality about the Jesus Christ show. It’s very soothing. I could see myself listening to it on a regular basis.

Again, I’m not kidding.

Open thread is hereby open!