Tag: Open Thread

I should mention that I don’t believe in miracles, except that I have two to report.

First and foremost, I think both of my pups will be okay. Considering they were at death’s doorstep a mere two weeks ago, and that I had been convinced no less than four times that we were going to lose them, I would consider this a miracle. Not in the religious sense, mind you, though I can understand how some might feel that way. Instead, I consider it physiologically miraculous that they survived kidney failure, liver failure and loss of nearly 30% of body weight (while they were on fluids, I should add). They’re mostly back to normal, though we’re still trying to get them to eat appropriate dog food, as opposed to roasted chicken, kielbasa and bacon. Oh, and carrots. They LOVE carrots.

The second miracle to report involves my passport application. Specifically, I sent it by snail mail on a Thursday (can’t use a courier to send to a PO box). I received my new passport just eight days later. Granted, I did have it sent back by courier and I paid extra to expedite processing. But eight days? Especially when it had to traverse a border in both directions? I’d call that a miracle. I mean, this is the US government (and Canada Post) we’re talking about!

BTW – I’m going to be travelling (for work, alas) over the next few Mondays (and many other Mondays this summer). So, while I hope to have the foresight to set up a Party ahead of time, I will apologize in advance if I miss one!

I’m including a movie trailer in this pony….but not to tell you about a movie, but to ask about one.

Below is the trailer for the movie ‘Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans’, also mentioned on the San Francisco IFF website.  Apparently it is, as the title would suggest, a discussion of the history of the Faubourg Treme section of New Orleans, called simply ‘Treme’ by its residents, and otherwise known as the 6th ward.

Glenn Greenwald has finished reading all 8000 pages the Pentagon has released in the Pentagon Propaganda/”Military Analysts” Scandal.  For the past few days he has been reporting on their content and it is just damning!

For a reminder of just what we’re talking about-

Brian Williams’ "response" to the military analyst story

Glenn Greenwald, Salon

Wednesday April 30, 2008 07:00 EDT

New analysis from Greenwald below.

Years ago when I was young and broke, I used to work my way through music festivals that interested me because I could never afford the tickets. I always enjoyed the Mariposa Folk Festival held in various locations near and around Toronto. As a kid, I was dragged there by my semi-hippie Mama.

As a young adult, I worked my way through college as a bartender and waitress, so I always go stuck in food services when I volunteered. One year, my job was to organize on foot delivery of food to the performers, a most excellent assignment because the performers were quite happy not to have to stand in a line up. They tended to invite the food workers in to whatever party they were having.

One year our shower facilities on site were two tents. A boy tent. A girl tent. And a garden hose. Spray and wash.

So I always had some affection for dirty, smelly, music festivals marked by debauchery, crowds and sunburns.

But a funny thing happened this year. Even though the crowds at the Beale Street Music festival were pretty well behaved and it did not rain the entire time, I lost the love. I might take a break next year and go to an actual blues or jazz fest.

In the past some of the headliners have caused public finger wagging. Three Six Mafia local boys from the Frayser area in Memphis, a once thriving now somewhat blighted area of town were accused of encouraging nudity and drug use when they did their shows. The thing is nobody huffed and puffed when the smell of herbal cocktails wafted around during Parliament or KC and the Sunshine Band in past years, or at Santana this year. My guess: because the people doing the grooving were old folks and they didn’t whip off their clothes to show off expanded waist lines and beer bellies. So. For some reason in the south the young ones engaging in illegal substances and flashing their hot bodies is way more offensive than Mom and Dad stepping out.

I do have a word to the Tall people of the universe. In my case, that means almost everybody. I like Tall people. I socialize with them regularly. But…..

In crowded social situations, elbowing the shorties in the head and stepping on their feet just to create some space and pass by is fucking rude. On the off chance that I am reincarnated as a sumo wrestler, I will remember you. And if you actually notice I am trying to take a picture, deliberately standing in front of me just because you can is also very fucking annoying. Thank you.

Despite my mother’s sincere efforts to introduce me to culture, I was fairly apathetic about the whole exercise until I went to the Prado in Madrid. Going back there is on my list of things to do before becoming too old and arthritic and addled to enjoy it again.

At the time some Goya paintings were on display, some of his paint for the royals stuff.

Given my limited knowledge about painters, I will soon run out of artists I have actually heard of or artists whose paintings I have actually seen.

One thing I really like about this next poetry piece is the way it makes you want to frolic with puppies in green dewy fields…..

I am the sentimental type, I guess.

Tomorrow I’m chaperoning the band trip to the Music in the Parks exhibition/competition with the Cab Calloway School of the Arts middle school band, where thing 2 is the lone bass clarinetist.

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.  He graduated last in his class at West Point.  At the end of the Civil War, Custer was promoted to major general of volunteers. In 1866, he was appointed to the regular army position of lieutenant colonel.  His title of “General” was a courtesy only.  He established a reputation as an aggressive cavalry commander willing to take personal risks at Gettysburg among other places, but was also known for the Battle of Trevilian Station, where Custer was humiliated by having his division trains overrun and his personal baggage captured by the Confederates.

And there was that Greasy Grass thing.  You could look it up.

The reason I mention it is he reminds me of somebody.

McCain – War Hero or Just Incompetent Pilot? by DrSteveB

Now as DrSteveB admits, one of his main sources is Wayne Madsen who doesn’t have a sterling reputation, but this is DocuDharma not DailyKos and conspiracy theories and questionable sources are explicitly allowed.

I thought I’d share it so you can think about it the next time you hear someone call McSame a “war hero”.

John Kerry drove a Swift Boat and killed gooks with his bare hands like Rambo.  McSame was a washout who used his daddy’s influence to get a job driving a bomb dump truck (an A-4 is not a fighter) so he could kill people from 30,000 feet.  He was a boozer and a skirt chaser.  He participated in propaganda broadcasts while captured.  He cheated on his wife who stood by him during his captivity and then dumped her when she was injured to marry a drug addicted charity thief who was prettier and richer so he could have a political career.

This is John McSame- “maverick”.

Thursday,  I  Think  Seriously,  About  Stupid  Shit

So we’re discussing getting a couple chickens….

From the “You did what……why???? department…..

According to this Yahoo!News story, Clint Straatman, a PE teacher at Minico High School in Rupert, ID, took a Mexican flag from a student…

because “white kids” might have hurt the 16-year-old.

¡Malo!

But wait…..it gets better…..

He said he put it in a garbage can because he had no place else to keep it.

¡Muy, muy malo!

Camelo had brought the flag to school, as did other students, in celebration of Cinco de Mayo….

I found it quite amusing to watch the reverse MSNBC meltdown last night.  It was New Hampshire all over again.

What these Beltway Butt Kissing Access Whore Media MORANS don’t get is that people don’t buy their bullshit anymore.  Eight years (at least) of continuous cognitive dissonance has taught them better.

It’s objectively true.  Disregarding the disintegrating broadcast audience it in fact takes many many more impressions to achieve the same sales effect- ask any ad buyer.  We are resistant, which is why viral marketing is such a big deal.

But it’s not just their credibility, these dying Dinosaur Dolts have dumbed down their job so that any Hair Sprayed Made Up MORAN pretty enough to read a teleprompter and stupid enough to charge less than your ELITIST ULTRA-RICH SALARY can get the same ratings.  What makes you better than the next Faux Noise Bimbo?

Sucks to be an actor when Hollywood for the Ugly goes all pretty on ya.

So you’ve outsourced your own employment.  You deserve to be extinct.

We all get cable TV and we watch it every night.  We remember when you re-work the same tired (do you think he looks it?) old plot lines substituting Jamie Sommers for Steve Austin and even having the same tired old B-List uncle cousins of the Producers in the same stinking old parts.

The reason you hate hippies is you’re unhip.  You’re ugly.  You’re just outcasts who haven’t gotten over High School so you’ve formed your own kool kidz klub (initials intentional).

Well good luck with that.  You’re being hoist by your own latte drinking life styles you chauffeured cell phone chattering chumps.

The average person graduates High School and understands things better than your 7th grade schoolyard gossip stories.

But Wait!