Go Angeles!!

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.
George Eliot (1819–80), novelist

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

This is an excellent organization from the owner, team management to caring about the fans.

That other Los Angeles baseball team from owner to management sucks and deserves to have its team eliminated from any post season play, but it won’t stop them from raising prices next year again.

Ultimate Fighting is Not a Sport

Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made.
José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955), essayist

Ultimate Fighting is very barbaric and does not appear to be a sport to me. I’ll be the

first to admit that I have never watched it longer than 30 seconds because I equate it to dog or cock fights; it seems to appeal the lowest levels of human nature.

Boxing used to be a sport, but now it seems a sport for suckers who are willing to pay $50 to cable companies.

I have I missed something about this growing Neanderthalic sport?

Marijuana -- Don't Smoke it and Text

I don’t respond well to mellow, you know what I mean, if I get too mellow, I-I ripen and then rot.
Woody Allen, filmmaker

From the Wall Street Journal evening e-mail:

Wn2 Buy Sme Reefer?

In a cautionary tale regarding text messages that touch on sensitive topics, a 19-year-old West Virginia man was arrested after inadvertently alerting state troopers about a drug deal with an errant text message.

The Associated Press reports that Joshua Wayne Cadle, of Cross Lanes, W. Va., allegedly sent the text to what he thought was his friend's number. Unfortunately for him, the good people at the West Virginia State Police now use those digits. "He text messaged that and asked his friend if he wanted to buy some reefer," said Trooper B.H. Moore. Another trooper responded to the text, setting up a rendezvous and Mr. Cadle was taken into custody on Wednesday night in a shopping center parking lot.

He was charged with delivery of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver.

I am curious whether he was selling a large amount or just enough for personal use, in which case the trooper is a jerk, but at least he is not as stupid as the dealer.

If All Lawyers Were This good...

I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.
Groucho Marx (1895–1977),comic actor

Annoy-a-Tron is a Success

“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke”
Herman Melville (1819-1891), writer

I read this at the Treppenwitz blog:

A while back I was eating lunch at my desk and cruising a cool website for tchotchkes (gadgets and toys).

One of the items I found there, appropriately called 'The Annoyatron', was a complete waste of time and had absolutely no redeeming value whatsoever... except as a potential irritant and practical joke. So naturally I had to have it.



Simply put, this little wonder can be hidden just about anywhere (e.g., under the desk of they guy who has been stealing your coffee cream and munchies out of the office fridge for the past six months). It emits an incredibly irritating, high-pitched electronic chirp at random intervals of between 3 and 5 minutes.

The high frequency and relatively long interval between chirps make it virtually impossible to locate the Annoyatron... and it is pretty much guaranteed to drive the victim into a twitching, hair-pulling lather within an hour or two.


I had to have it. And, it worked like a charm over a two-day period.

Victim #1
First, I placed it in a co-worker’s office and came back after a couple of hours and said every time I walk by your office I hear beeps. That unleashed a volley of concern from her about her computer possibly going on the fritz or maybe it was that she was streaming her iPod from someone else’s file. In any case she was being bothered. Success! I fessed up and had a good laugh.

Victim #2
I placed the device in the light box over her computer. Again, I came into her office, which she shares with another co-worker, and I said, “Why do I keep hearing beeps from your office?” She explained that all her electronics were going on out and she was minutes away from unplugging her computer and taking it to IT support. I told her to check with me before she did that. She left the office and I moved the device over to her co-worker’s desk. He didn’t care and thought there was something wrong with the building. I admitted what I did and we had a good laugh.

Victim #3
A young, strapping athletic guy, 6-2, was asked about the beeping I heard from his cube. He was concerned that his phone was going out. I was using this for phycological advantage as we had a ping-pong match scheduled last night at Bixby’s bar at mid-Wilshire. I’ll write about the results of the match this weekend. I removed the device before telling him and placed it in victim #4’s office.

Victim #4
This was the best one. I came into his office used the usual line about hearing beeps from his office, but he was suspicious. I suggested he find it before something blows up. He doesn’t trust me for some reason. Let me just tell you that after I wrote about the cat of death he had the picture reproduced and placed on the back of my office door that I didn’t notice until around lunch.

I checked back a bit later and he had moved all his electronic equipment to one side of the desk to isolate the sound, he listened to the battery pack on his computer to see if that was making the noise. Since I was not hiding my smile, he watched my hands to see if I was controlling some sort of remote buzzer. I eventually showed him the device and had a good laugh.

The down side to this is I fear reprisals may be coming…

Using God for Publicity

Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), writer

Looking for and successfully achieving much publicity, Nebraska Democratic State Senator Ernie Chambers has filed a lawsuit against the universal autarchy in a silly example to highlight frivolous lawsuits.

One of the reasons this has and will receive much more attention than it deserves is because reporters love nothing more than being able to write off-the-wall stories. This certainly qualifies

However, most of the reports are stating that he filed the suit in an effort to stop natural disasters from befalling the world.

Chambers filed a lawsuit against God in Douglas County Court Friday afternoon, accusing God of causing "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like," personally I would have blamed it on the Bush gang. He also finds god responsible for having his chroniclers "disseminate in written form, said admissions, throughout the Earth in order to inspire fear, dread, anxiety, terror and uncertainty, in order to coerce obedience to Defendant's will."

Chambers said the lawsuit was triggered by a federal suit filed against a judge who recently barred words such as "rape" and "victim" from a sexual assault trial.

The accuser in the criminal case, Tory Bowen, sued Lancaster District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront, claiming that he violated her free speech rights.

Chambers said Bowen's lawsuit is inappropriate because the Nebraska Supreme Court has already considered the case and federal courts follow the decisions of state supreme courts on state matters.

"This lawsuit having been filed and being of such questionable merit creates a circumstance where my lawsuit is appropriately filed," Chambers said. "People might call it frivolous but if they read it they'll see there are very serious issues I have raised."

Tip of the hat to my compadre, B2

Just Looking Redux

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), painter, sculptor, architect and engineer

Jack and Chandira played along and provided comments that I slightly edited from the "Just Looking" post below, which I have pulled and put front and center. Also, as promised Annabell gave us her thoughts while creating the art.

Below are our impressions of the art.

Jack's Shack said...
It reminds me of an entrance to a kitchen in a diner or coffee shop. I like it.

Chandira said...
I like her style, and that they both have a very different feel, and evoke different emotions. That bottom one reminds me of a nice comfy nook in a Starbucks somewhere, on a cold autumn day, after a long walk around the lake. The top one is far less 'comfortable', and I like that, too. I love the colours. That brown/purple mix is always fascinating. Was hoping for a bigger version if I double-clicked, but I like that the smaller version remains mysterious to my fuzzy eyesight. ;-)

The Misanthrope said...

I see books. The dark blueish spot appears as door handles to me. The three small squares toward the right remind me of windows that let the light in to the reading room, which gives it that yellow glow.

Annabell explains:

Study #4, 1997

Collagraph, Acrylic plate, ink, pastels In this piece one of a series of studies. I began with a piece of acrylic, taped off the work area, selected a more earth tone color palette while still maintaining a bright overall feel. The process involved applying the inks to the plate, then laying the rice paper, wooden spoon is then used to rub the ink onto the paper. Using more inks and pastels to further develop the shapes and colors. The colors I use are heavily influenced by my Latin heritage. I chose to play with basic shapes (circles, rectangles, squares, lines) to create a sense of harmony with activity. The results can be interpreted as a bit dark, yet playful and inviting. This study brought joy and general happiness to me.

On The Mark -- Dead Jazz

The only good thing about a jazz great dying is we get hear a lot of their music for a week on the radio. Last week an unsung great in the jazz world passed, pianist Joe Zawinul. Zawinul played a role in changing jazz in many different ways from the 1960s onward. I’m not a jazz biographer, but the song he is probably best known for (that he composed) is the bluesy “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” when he was playing in the ‘60s with the sax great Cannonball Adderly. One thing that made the song so fascinating was Zawinul playing the electric piano – my guess is that it was the first time an electric piano was used with a classic jazz ensemble. The tune has since been played zillions of times by other jazz, blues and rock artists. It also was the beginning of breathing new life into jazz at a time when it was getting pummeled by rock – the Stones, the Beatles, etc.

When Miles Davis made his foray into jazz fusion, it was Zawinul at the synthesizer leading the way. When the great band, Weather Report, was leading the jazz fusion charge in the ‘70s and ‘80s (and keeping jazz alive), it was Zawinul at the keyboards (and Wayne Shorter on sax). I saw Zawinul with Weather Report “back then,” but it wasn’t until I saw him a few years ago at Catalina Bar & Grill, a local jazz club, that I really got to experience what he meant when he said (paraphrasing): music is not about chords and notes. Music is about atmosphere – what you feel in and around you. I felt like I was in his livingroom that night.

With all that said about jazz fusion, yesterday I heard a solo acoustic piano rendition by Zawinul of “My One and Only Love,” recorded in 1965. Wow.

Posted by On The Mark

Talking to MyselfExercising on the Elliptor

It is a sign of a dull nature to occupy oneself deeply in matters that concern the body; for instance, to be over much occupied about exercise, about eating and drinking, about easing oneself, about sexual intercourse.
Epictetus (c. 55–c. 135), Greek Stoic philosopher

I wish there was some sort of competition on elliptical machines. I’d like to know how I compare to others. It gets rather difficult to continually race one’s self. However, in order to do try and better my last numbers I sometimes assemble music that will get me moving quicker.

My most recent numbers were for 30 minutes, ramp level 6, which also works the quadriceps, gluteals, hamstrings and calves. I set the level for resistance for either 12 or 13 depending on how much energy I have. I burn 512 calories (which doesn’t really mean too much because that varies with age and weight, and it is just an estimate on these machines anyway, but what else do I have for comparison?), travel a distance of 3.26 miles, heart rate reaches a max of 171.

I attribute any gains to the music I select. I arranged the iPod exercise play list Saturday morning for battle. I rocked out pulling the levers and pushing pedals looking like a crazy maniac as listened to:

Vertigo – U2
Eat the Rich – Aerosmith
Big Ten-Inch Record – Aerosmith
Sweet Hitch-Hiker – John Fogerty
Falling in Love (is hard on the knees) – Aerosmith
Travelin’ Band – John Fogerty
Hey Tonight – John Fogerty
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out – Bruce Springsteen
Baby, Please Don’t Go – Aerosmith
Centerfield – John Fogerty
Pink – Aerosmith
I Bet you Look good on the Dance Floor – Arctic Monkeys

What If...Avenue Q Added Larry Craig to its Cast

I think a lot of gay people who are not dealing with their homosexuality get into right-wing politics.
Armistead Maupin, journalist, author. Guardian (London, 22 April 1988)

This piece is very much worth watching. It's well chorographed/edited and it's only a minute and a half.

First-Draft of Bush Iraqi Speech

“…They passin’ the presidency around like a party joint. It go from the Bushes – the Clintons to the Bushes and back…
Mos Def, rapper / actor, from “Real Time with Bill Maher"


Toner Mishap has once again scored an early first draft of Bush's speech tonight. We are certain it will change, but it nonetheless gives you a flavor of what is in store for us.

Thank you, thank you, fellow and fellowette Americans.

It’s a pleasure to be here tonight at Crawford. Hey, how did all you legislators get in my living room? That’s just a little Frank Sinatra humor for my high-rollin’ donors. I know I am in the Oval office. I am just showing I can laugh at myself the same way the rest of the world laughs at me.

Let me level with you. This Iraqi situation. It's not gonna change. I have learned a trick or two from the oil companies. Raise them prices, lower them, raise again and even higher, than lower them a bit and the people are happy. See, I have raised the troop limits so that I can withdraw them to pre-surge levels and make you thankful for the reduction. Frankly this war is no longer mine. I get to hand it off to the next president, which will most likely be a Democrat. Now, now, bear with me.

Karl Rove (little turd blossom) is behind this strategy; we turn this mess over to the democrats and there is no way to get out of this disaster. The public which has a short memory will blame the democrats and then brother Jeb will be elected president in 2012. Just endure friends. All will be right again, hah, that’s another joke, right as in right wing. I am going to make more money than my buddy Bill Clinton on the speaker’s circuit.

Speaking of speeches, I would like a moment of silence for my speech coach, Alex, the African Grey parrot, who recently passed. He did a heckva job.

Shana Tova - Happy New Year

For there is no man so righteous on earth who does only good and never sins.
Ecclesiastes 7:20

For our Jewish readers and friends

September 11th

There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.
William Hazlitt (1778–1830), English essayist

Thanks Steve

Grief remains one of the few things that has the power to silence us. It is a whisper in the world and a clamor within.
Anna Quindlen, writer

Sometimes someone touches your life in just a small way, but their kindness and spirit is evident in major ways that even if you have not spoken to the person in at least 25 years maybe more you will never forget them.

It doesn’t matter that he had no idea how I felt. No one in his family will see this or know the nice memories I have of him. As a dumb kid he talked to me as if I were his equal, even though he was an adult and had served in Vietnam. He took me to a concert at UCLA Royce Hall at the spur of the moment to see something that I don’t recall, but he loved music and was a musician all his life.

Via e-mail I heard he passed away Sunday morning, which made me very sad, much sadder than I expected to feel.

Here’s to keeping your memory, Steve. My deepest sympathies to your immediate family and close relatives.

Sunday Morning Shuffle

How could a man be satisfied with a decision between such alternatives and under such circumstances?
George Eliot (1819–80), English novelist

Cleaning up the backyard the iPod shuffle produced:

1. "Man in the Long Black Coat" – Bob Dylan
2. "Town with No Cheer" – Tom Waits
3. "Cool Dry Place" – Traveling Wilburys
4. "How About You" – Bill Evans
5. "Baby Please Don’t Go" – Van Morrison
6. "Larry of Arabia" – Chico Hamilton
7. "All the Girls Love Alice" – Elton John
8. "Love’s The One and Only Thing" – Willie Nelson
9. "Jump on Top of Me" – The Rolling Stones
10. "I’ll Be Seeing You" – Tony Bennett

Talking to MyselfMovies and Television

I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.
Groucho Marx (1895–1977), comic actor

The newly remade western “3:10 to Yuma” starting Russell Crowe and Christian Bale is every bit as good as advertised. I read the Los Angeles Times movie review from Friday this morning it is pompous, but right on the money.

I had never seen the original "Yuma," but it’s due any day now once Netflix finds my movie that I mail back last week. "The Bourne Ultimatum" was the last movie at the theaters that I watched and it was enjoyable, but Yuma kept me on the edge of my sit and I had no idea how it was going to end or what was going to happen to certain characters.

Tonight one of my favorite HBO shows returns "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which is one of those shows you either love or hate. It seems as though it has been a while since it last show an original episode. Also, the new HBO show “Tell Me You Love Me” comes on tonight that is supposed to have so much sex that it’s boring.

Right now my favorite shows are “Californication” and “Weeds” on Showtime, followed

closely by “Saving Grace” on TNT. And, that is more than enough TV for me. As

it is, it takes all week to get these shows in. We record them and watch one or two per night as the week progresses.

Shuffling the iPod

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice [music].
Samuel Johnson (1709–84), author

I found this idea rather intriguing over at Incertus. Place your iPod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs that are played. I did it a couple of times.

My first random 10 songs were:

1 “Déjà vu” by Crosby Stills & Nash
2 “Scarlett Ribbons” by Willie Nelson
3 “Sweet Emily” by Leon Russell
4 “Jet” by Paul McCartney
5 “Fortunately – Vignette for Bed In” by John and Yoko Lennon
6 “Moonage Daydream” by David Bowie
7 “Turn, Turn, Turn” by Pete Seager
8 “My Ship” by Sonny Rollins
9 “City of New Orleans” by Willie Nelson
10 “Helpless Hoping” by Crosby Stills & Nash

I enjoyed it so much I did it again:

1 “The Part You Throw Away” by Tom Waits
2 “Got to Get You into My Life” by The Beatles
3 “A Woman Left Lonely” by Janis Joplin
4 “If you Really Want to be My Friend” by The Rolling Stones
5 “Isis” by Bob Dylan
6 “Torn and Frayed” by The Rolling Stones
7 “Jacksons, Monk and Rowe” by Elvis Costello
8 “Broken Promise Land" by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussain
9 “Learning How to Live” by Lucinda Williams
10 “Blue Suede Shoes” by Elvis Presley
I was reminded curious about what would come next so I continued to 13
11. “Mind Games” (home recording) by John Lennon
12 “Smells Like Teen Spirit by” Patti Smith
13 “Shoot the Moon” by Nora Jones

The Embarrassor in Chief

The United States has got some of the dumbest people in the world. I want you to know that we know that.
Ted Turner, businessman

President Bush is once again out embarrassing the country:

According to a story from the Associated press:

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, he said: "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).

The president's next goof went uncorrected — by him anyway. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Bush called them "Austrian troops."

That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying "Austrian," the official text released by the White House switched it to "Australian."

Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way.

He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president to center stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theater.

The event had inauspicious beginnings. Bush started 10 minutes late, so that APEC workers could hustle people out of the theater's balcony seating to fill the many empty portions of the main orchestra section below — which is most visible on camera.

Even resettled, the audience remained quiet throughout the president's remarks, applauding only when he was finished.

A logistical glitch added to the woes.

APEC security workers would not allow the members of the media who travel in Bush's motorcade to enter the Opera House along with him. This even though the journalists allowed into the president's entourage are extensively screened and guarded by the Secret Service, which has more stringent security standards than about any operation in the world. And even though they always accompany him into public events.


It would be so nice if the the betterment of the country he would leave early and take Dick Cheney with him.

And Then There Were TwoRIP Luciano Pavarotti

Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings.
Robert Burns(1759-1796), poet


In the audience here: Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.




Read the New York Times obit here.

An Open Letter to the Woman on My TrainWho Doesn't Read Drink Labels

Dear lady on my train,

When you sat down next to me today on the train, I must admit that was already one strike against you -- I like my privacy, nose in my book, outside world tuned out. So sitting next to me was strike one.

But really, I can't hold that against you. After all, the seat was open -- and if you want to sit there and talk loudly to other passengers, I can't really be upset with you. Not justifiably so.

So.

Here's what gets me -- you were sharing with a fellow passenger the joys of the nice, cold beverage you were consuming, even offering him a sip from the lip of the selfsame bottle. So generous, you!

You extolled the temperature, the taste, and the carbonation of this lovely lemonande beverage (and "lemonade" is what you called it). But here's a tip: "Mike's Hard Lemonade" is no sippin' lemonade; it's an alcoholic beverage, and not [technically] legally allowed for public consumption.

When your friend asked what was in it, and you said, "oh it's just lemonade -- but it's carbonated" he, wisely suspicious, did not take the proferred sip.

Perhaps you didn't see the label's message about alcohol content? Perhaps you missed the big warning on the bottle about pregnant women abstaining from drinking it? Perhaps buying it in a six-pack wasn't a clear enough sign?

Is it evil to have been secretly hoping for a cop to come drag you off to the stir? Well, if wishing you were in jail is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Rock and Roll Fantasy

One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), playwright

I had never seen this before, but there is a video that captures my rock and roll fantasy over at Jack’s. I absolutely love it, but I have to stop stealing his stuff, so you have to click over their to watch my dream life.

To You and Me

Let’s drink to the hard working people
Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back-breaking work
Mick Jagger/Keith Richards, singer, song writers for the Rolling Stones

"Salt of the Earth" from the 9-11 concert at Madison Square Garden, nonetheless very apropos on this Labor Day and the coming anniversary of a day that will live in infamy.

Back to Work and Nothing has Changed

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
Bob Dylan, singer, song writer from "Things Have Changed"

As you prepare to settle into life after summer vacation, I highly recommend reading "Back to the Maddening Crowd" by Anything They Say.

No Love in a Time of Cholera

We can’t do anything…. They just die and die and die, and they keep coming and coming and coming.
Florence Parent, physician. New York Times, (July 22, 1994), on the cholera epidemic among the Rwandan refugees.

Despite our unrelenting heat wave here in Southern California now, which many of you across the country will get soon enough, the people of Iraq and many other places around the world have it far worse on a daily basis. The story in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times regarding a Cholera outbreak in Iraq further demonstrates how bad we have made the situation for the people there.

A cholera outbreak in northern Iraq, where thousands of people have sought refuge from sectarian violence, is overwhelming hospitals and has killed as many as 10 people, and struck more than 80 people in Sulaymaniya and Kirkuk.

Aid agencies had warned of the possibility of a cholera outbreak as blazing summer heat settled in Iraq, where the infrastructure is shattered by war and neglect. The disease tends to appear in the summer because, as the temperature rises, Iraq’s chronic electricity shortages make it difficult to operate pumps at sewage and drinking water treatment plants, which leaves many people without clean water, according to the article in the LATimes.

It seems that we have made a bad situation in Iraq even worse.

Patience of a Saint

All God’s children are not beautiful. Most of God’s children are, in fact, barely presentable.
Fran Lebowitz, writer

Why I thought one child was plenty.



Tip of the hat to Monkeys for Helping. There will be more items coming from there. This site makes me laught out loud.

Do Old Flames Still Burn Hot?

My God, these folks don’t know how to love—that’s why they love so easily.
D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930), author

I was reading the obituary for John Gardner, a prolific British thriller writer who wrote more novels about Bond — James Bond — than Ian Fleming did, died on Aug. 3 after collapsing near his home in Basingstoke, England, but it was not carried in the New York Times until August 29. He was 80.

But the last paragraph caught my eye:

Also surviving is Mr. Gardner’s fiancée, Patricia Mountford, an old flame who was moved to get in touch with him after many years when she discovered he had borrowed her surname for the heroine of his most recent books.

This brings me to the question, do you ever forget an old girlfriend or boyfriend and do you want to connect with them again to see how they are doing after all those years?

I know I do. However, I would prefer to learn about them without meeting them. Let them remember, if they do, as I was, not as I am. Granted, I think I am a better person today, but don’t want them to see how I have aged – whether it is well or not is irrelevant.

Dear Mr. President

It is almost as if you were frantically constructing another world while the world that you live in dissolves beneath your feet, and that your survival depends on completing this construction at least one second before the old habitation collapses.
Tennessee Williams (1914–83), playwright

From The Times-Picayune on the anniversary of Katrina:

...Louisiana had three times more damaged homes and seven times more severely damaged homes than Mississippi. Universities in this state had three times as many students displaced and had four times the losses of Mississippi's campuses. Louisiana fisheries suffered almost 75 percent of the damage done by Katrina, and our hospitals lost 97 percent of the hospital beds closed by the storm.

Yet in every case, Mississippi ended up with a disproportionate share of aid. Housing grants, for instance: Mississippi got $5.5 billion in Community Development Block Grant money for its 61,000 damaged homes. Louisiana, with 204,000 damaged homes, got $10.4 billion. If the aid were given out proportionately, this state would have gotten twice that much.

We hope that President Bush and Congress remember that imbalance when they consider Louisiana's request for $4 billion to keep the Road Home Program in the black.

Our neighbors on the Gulf Coast were hit hard by Katrina, no doubt about it. And Mississippians needed the help of the federal government to rebuild and recover. No one who has suffered from devastation would argue otherwise.

All Louisiana wants is to be treated fairly. But that hasn't happened.

Some people point to the clout of Mississippi's congressional delegation as the reason. Others say that Louisiana's reputation for political chicanery has hurt us.

Frankly, neither should be an issue. The people of Louisiana are no less deserving of disaster aid because their representatives are newer to Congress or because some of the people we trusted to lead us turned out to be scoundrels.

As President Bush returns today to mark the second anniversary of Katrina, this is what Louisianians need him to remember:

We are Americans who have suffered a great tragedy. We have worked tirelessly for two years to revive this beloved place and reconstruct our lives. And we ought to get no less help from our government than any other victims of this disaster....

Godfather Played Hard

The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.
Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), singer


This is great. Once again, I borrowed from Jack

Senator Gone Wild

“Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.”
H.G. Wells, (1866-1946) writer

You just can’t make this stuff up. A senator who votes against gay rights bills is then caught in the men's room by an undercover cop. The police would be better served fighting the gang problems, but the hypocrisy is what makes this matter news.

From the Washington Post:
Republican Senator from Idaho Larry E. Craig pleaded guilty earlier this month to misdemeanor disorderly-conduct charges stemming from his June arrest by an undercover police officer in a men's restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, a court spokeswoman and the senator's office said yesterday.
Craig issued a statement confirming his arrest and guilty plea, which were reported in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. But the Idaho Republican maintained that he had not engaged in any "inappropriate conduct" and that the airport police misunderstood his behavior.

"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions. I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct," Craig said. "I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

Now in his third term, Craig, 62, has been a member of the Senate Republican leadership. He has been a prominent figure on gun rights and Western land issues.

Roll Call, citing a copy of a report by airport police, said officers had been conducting a sting operation inside the men's room because of complaints of sexual activity there. The police report gives this account of the arrest:

The undercover officer was monitoring the restroom on June 11. A few minutes after noon, Craig entered and sat in the stall next to him. Craig began tapping his right foot, touched his right foot to the left foot of the officer and brushed his hand beneath the partition between them. He was then arrested. (this is the stuff we read and joked about while in junior high school; it was in the book “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex, but were Afraid to Ask.”)

While he was being interviewed about the incident, Craig gave police a business card showing that he is a U.S. senator. "What do you think about that?" Craig asked the officer, according to the report obtained by Roll Call.

If you want to see how the Senator trolls for sex you can watch this video


What the officer should have said is that your hypocrisy and politics are disgusting.

Let’s not forget:
Mark Foley of Florida, who quit the House last year after exchanging sexually explicit e-mail messages with under-age male pages. Worse still, Republican leaders had known for a while of Foley’s predatory sexuality involving teenagers who work for the Congress. then there are Republicans like Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, whose phone number turned up on the list of the so-called D.C. Madam, or Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and Representative Rick Renzi of Arizona, both caught up in F.B.I. corruption investigations.

Gov. Arnold and State Republicans Lack Compassion

Saving lives is not a top priority in the halls of power. Being compassionate and concerned about human life can cause a man to lose his job. It can cause a woman not to get the job to begin with.
Myriam Miedzian, author

I have been sitting on this article since Saturday. This is absolutely unbelievable. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to govern from the middle, but the Republicans only believe in their way or no way. As a result, they held up the state budget for two months until they made conditions worse for the homeless and the elderly.

In California, Arnold eliminated a $55 million program that has helped thousands of mentally ill homeless people break the costly cycle of hospitalization, jails and street life, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Among the cuts:

Tracking hospital efforts to eliminate infections, which kill more than 7,000 Californians a year

• Budget for state parks cut by $30 million (let the gangs have them, what the hell)


• Helping to persuade drug companies to keep discount drug programs alive for lower-income people, cut by $6 million


• Protection for senior citizens, budget cut by $17.4 million
  

This takes the cake, truly: A $45 million tax break for yacht owners stays in the budget. State Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine, a yacht owner, pushed to ease the tax burden on owners of yachts, plans and RVS. This way rich Republicans can stay in the water and not see the homeless or care about state parks, let the seniors die naturally, they don’t need no stinkin’ drugs.

"...So Help Me God" God Help Us

“...Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826) U.S. President

Is President Bush snorting drugs and drinking again? It sure sounds like it in his defense of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

He praised Gonzales as “a man of integrity, decency and principle” and complained of the “months of unfair treatment” that preceded the resignation.

Unfair? Here is the man almost single handedly responsible for rendering obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners.

“It’s sad,” Mr. Bush said, asserting that Mr. Gonzales’s name had been “dragged through the mud for political reasons.”

Sad? It’s sad that he told an astonished Arlen Specter during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January that habeas corpus rights are not guaranteed under the Constitution.

It is more like criminal as when it was revealed that while he was White House counsel, he tried to press a hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to approve illegal domestic spying.

From Frank Rich at the New York Times:

By my rough, conservative calculation -- feel free to add -- there have been corruption, incompetence, and contracting or cronyism scandals in these cabinet departments: Defense, Education, Justice, Interior, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. I am not counting State, whose deputy secretary, a champion of abstinence-based international AIDS funding, resigned last month in a prostitution scandal, or the General Services Administration, now being investigated for possibly steering federal favors to Republican Congressional candidates in 2006. Or the Office of Management and Budget, whose chief procurement officer was sentenced to prison in the Abramoff fallout. I will, however, toss in a figure that reveals the sheer depth of the overall malfeasance: no fewer than four inspectors general, the official watchdogs charged with investigating improprieties in each department, are themselves under investigation simultaneously -- an all-time record.

Wrongdoing of this magnitude does not happen by accident, but it is not necessarily instigated by a Watergate-style criminal conspiracy. When corruption is this pervasive, it can also be a byproduct of a governing philosophy. That's the case here. That Bush-Rove style of governance, the common denominator of all the administration scandals, is the Frankenstein creature that stalks the G.O.P. as it faces 2008. It has become the Republican brand and will remain so, even after this president goes, until courageous Republicans disown it and eradicate it.

Bring back sex in the Oval Office, please

Trying the Pope's Patience

There is no sin except stupidity.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), playwright

Right-wing nut jobs make me crazy. This is dedicated to you, who don't understand the mess this administration has created. One moron left a comment under "Presidents Say the Darnest Things," and another doesn't believe in free speech (which is why I suppose they are okay with the government spying on its citizens), so he deleted my comment.

In Other Words

Sometimes I think words are like girlfriends—can't find a good one to save your life when you're actually looking, but when you don't need any they're falling out of the goddamned trees!
Jay McInerney, author, from "Brightness Falls"




Thanks to Anything They Say (see link to your right).

Grace Paley -- RIP

“I’m not writing a history of famous people. I am interested in a history of everyday life.”
Grace Paley (December 1922 -August 2007), writer

See the article from the New York Times

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie.

I love you.

Posted Without Comment:Tom Cruise

Truthiness

The Cardinal is at his wit’s end—it is true that he had not far to go.
Lord Byron (1788–1824), poet













Thanks to Jack over at the Shack, and thanks to John where Jack found it.

Where’s Michael Moore Part II

He had had much experience of physicians, and said, “the only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910), author

Here is the good news: Americans are living longer than ever. A baby born in the United States in 2004 can be expected to live an average of almost 78 years of age. This is my caveat: if they don’t have to drive Los Angeles freeways, deal with the TSA or expect any kind of customer service.

Here is the bad news: 41 other countries surpass the U.S. in longevity. Countries whose residents out live those of us in America include Japan, most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.

Andorra, a tiny country landlocked in Western Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. Once isolated, it is currently a prosperous country mainly because of tourism and its status as a tax haven. Of course being wealthy helps to live a healthy worry free life, just look at Brooke Astor who lived to 105.

Among the reasons for the U.S’s surprisingly low ranking is that 47 million people lack health coverage, we have some of the fattest people, we have a high percentage of babies born who die before their first birthday, which puts America behind Cuba, Taiwan and most of Europe.

From the Heart Blogging

Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.
Samuel Johnson (1709–84), author

Writing personal thoughts rather than just snarky posts about news items is very difficult and more time consuming. I find that Jack over at Jack’s Shack does it quite well when he does it. Also Lorianne at Hoarded Ordinaries is excellent (that is not hyperbole) in all her writing, but I find the more personal posts about her previous marriage engrossing. I have a very hard time with such writing. I wrote about the “An Overlooked Casualty of Divorce,” but that is about as personal I can get. From time to time, I have some ideas but it’s rare that I will actually write about it. I can’t even keep a journal because I find it awkward to write my thoughts in that.

As blogging fades as a craze and readers and bloggers fade away, I keep coming very close to hanging it up and saying that I have been there and done that. Unfortunately for my limited free time, I keep finding something to post about.

I think writing is a good exercise and even if the only visitors are those looking for why Hopper Rolls Over in his Grave or a Bjork video, I try to think as Cormac McCarthy when he told Oprah, I don’t care if anyone reads my books. He means it too. The man lived in poverty for many years. I enjoy people coming by, but the few people who stop by it also means less self-imposed pressure and I can write for myself.

In any case, this was a personal thought shared. Whether I keep blogging or not, I have no idea, it’s a day-to-day proposition, but I suspect I will, having hung up blogging regularly back in October of 2005, I have no desire to resume that pace. This casual pace of writing as I feel like it is not too bad.

Sorry Your Broadcast was Censored

One of the least pleasant aspects of life in America these days is the militarization of city life. The infrastructure is there, there are controllable cameras everywhere, the helicopters are constantly overhead.
William Gibson, science fiction author. Interview in i-D (London) Oct. 1993

The below post was borrowed/stolen from theBhc at Anything They Say, hook, lines and link.

If you want to really understand what Net Neutrality means and how it will disappear in the hands of telecom companies, look no further:

In a prominent nod to one of the festival's lead sponsors, the logo for this year's Lollapalooza concerts in Chicago includes the tag line, "delivered by AT&T." But Sunday's headliner Pearl Jam complained that AT&T delivered less than the band's full performance during its Lollapalooza webcast. The powerhouse telco turned off the audio during the song "Daughter" while singer Eddie Vedder was railing against President George Bush. That bit of censorship -- which AT&T says was a mistake -- gave a bit of fuel to the forces arguing for "Net neutrality" regulations....

AT&T spokeswoman Tiffany Nels said the company goofed. Its Blue Room website is open to Internet users of all ages, so it tries to block "excessive profanity" from the broadcasts. It hires contractors to monitor the performances, and the broadcasts are delayed slightly to enable monitors to bleep off-color material. But those monitors aren't supposed to edit songs, just the stage patter between them, Nels said. "It's not our policy" to censor performances, Nels said, "and we regret the error." She added, "There was no profanity. It was a mistake."

What, exactly, did this "mistake" cause to be cut out of the broadcast?

"George Bush, leave this world alone"
"George Bush find yourself another home"

What I expect Tiffany actually meant was that it was not their policy to publicly admit AT&T would censor songs.

These are the corporate toads that want to control the internet but also want you to believe they won't do anything like they just did. Nothing about these people is to be trusted. Nothing.

Earthquakes

“If they'd lower the taxes and get rid of the smog and clean up the traffic mess, I really believe I'd settle here until the next earthquake”
Groucho Marx (1895–1977), U.S. comic actor


I hate earthquakes!!! The one this morning was 4.5, but it was enough to wake me up and hope that it would not build into a long damaging quake. This one just swung back and forth. I didn't hear anything fall. They scare me half to death.

While the seismograph spikes my heart flat lines.

White-Haired Guy Gets Mad

Read George Will's Newsweek column from this week's issue. Excerpt:

Contrary to the Constitution's mandate that the president "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed," the current president, much more than any other, has issued "signing statements"—essentially, line-item vetoes, which are unconstitutional—to tell the executive branch that some provisions of bills he signs into law need not be enforced for constitutional or policy reasons. As [Charlie Savage of The Boston Globe] writes, "If a president has the power to instruct the government not to enforce laws that he alone has declared to be unconstitutional, then he could free himself from the need to obey laws that restrict his own actions."

Who Would have Guessed? Keith Really did Inhale

They shoulda called me Little Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of the stuff! My nose got big enough to back a diesel truck in, unload it, and drive it right out again.
Little Richard, rock’n’roll musician

I have to take a moment to gloat, no not about all my correct posts about Bush and Cheney, but the fact that I know my Rolling Stones. Keith Richards and Dad; Keith Richards admitted that he did indeed inhale his dad’s ashes, just not with cocaine.

He admitted it because he is generating publicity for his memoirs. According to someplace on the internet where I found it, he said:

“I pulled the lid off (my father’s urn) and out comes a bit of dad on the dining room table. I’m going, ‘I can’t use the brush and dustpan for this’.

“What I found out is that ingesting your ancestors is a very respectable way of … y’know, he went down a treat.”

The autobiographical book is due in the fall of 2010, I suspect that will be about the time the Stones retire as a touring band.

Back to Work

Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status.
David Mamet, playwright

To welcome me back to work the LAPD set a speed trap that I fell right into. What better way end the rest and relaxation of a vacation, but to have a our over taxed police force set speed trips for the corporate folks going to work. Then in the afternoon, they wait outside the building writing jaywalking tickets. I love our men and women in blue. Gang problems be damned.

***

My favorite new television is "Saving Grace" with Holly Hunter. It is just a smart fun show. "The Closer" that follows is less so for me, but wife loves it. Now I can get back to my book.

What would John Lennon Say?

My role in society, or any artist or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
John Lennon (1940–80), rock musician

The Wall Street Journal had a story the other day about the piano on which John Lennon composed "Imagine." George Michael and his longtime partner, Kenny Goss, a Dallas gallery owner purchased the instrument from a private collector at a Sotheby auction for $2.1 million in 2000.

Now there are sending to places that need healing and hope.

The piano was displayed on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., where 32 students were massacred by a lone gunman in April. People drove from as far away as Washington, D.C., on Memorial Day weekend to see it. Some wanted the chance to play "Imagine" or other songs on it. Others simply ran their fingers over the cigarette burns Mr. Lennon had left on it.

The piano hasn't always been welcomed. Administrators at Columbine High School outside Denver, still suffering from publicity fatigue eight years after two students killed 13 people there in 1999, refused to allow the piano on the school campus. And officials at Ford's Theater in Washington, where President Lincoln was assassinated, ignored requests that they play host to it. When it showed up anyway one morning on the sidewalk in front of the theater, actors rushed out to see it.

It has also been to the Memphis motel -- now a museum -- where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 to a Texas prison on the eve of an execution. It showed up at a ceremony commemorating the lives lost during the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, then 12 hours later was unveiled in Waco, Texas, at a service for the 80 members of a religious sect known as the Branch Davidians who died in a 1993 blaze after a 51-day standoff with federal officials.

Personally, I think it is a bit overdone. I think Lennon would tell Michael to get real, it is just a piano. It could have been any piano that he had ordered. If it helps people what the heck. Give Peace a Chance!

The Shadow of the Wind

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
James Russell Lowell (1819–91), poet

I interrupt the regularly scheduled post to share with you the most enjoyable book I have read in some time. Wife’s friend, and mine too, is in a book club and told me about a book that anyone who reads it loves it.

The book, “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, is a bibliophile mystery that is so rich in story and characters that I am delighted that I read slowly and can savor every page of this almost 500-page novel. I am not a sophisticated literary reader. I read about 15 to 20 books a year, while B2 reads that in a month, On The Mark a few less than that, but nonetheless I love reading.

I started this book knowing very little about it. I read a brief synopsis of it on Amazon before I ordered it in hard cover. I started “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy while waiting for the book to arrive and was thrilled that it was not any longer than its 241 pages because that was a dismal world I certainly hope none of us ever see.

I opened the first page of "The Shadow of the Wind" and the first line hooked me: “I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.” I have underlined a few lines that I will use in quotes before posts as I did in Friday’s “Credit Card Crooks.” Here are a few since blogging most likely will go back it irregular postings as vacation ends when the alarm goes off tomorrow at 5 a.m.:

“In this world the only opinion that holds court is prejudice.”

“…man is a social animal, characterized by cronyism, nepotism, corruption, and gossip.” (you know I will use this for a post on the corrupt Bush administration)

“Army, Marriage, the Church, and Banking: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

“Darwin was a dreamer, I can assure you. No evolution of anything of the sort. For every one who can reason, I have to battle with nine orangutans.”

“There are few reasons for telling the truth, but in lying the number is infinite.”

The New York Times blurb on the back jacket, which I just now read, sums it up perfectly: “Gabriel Garcia Marquéz meets Umberto Eco meets Jorge Luis Borges for a sprawling magic show, exasperatingly tricky and mostly wonderful…Ruiz Zafón gives us a panoply of alluring and savage personages and stories. His novel eddies in currents of passion, revenge and mysteries whose layers peel away onion-like, yet persist in growing back…We are taken on a wild ride that executes is hairpin bends with breathtaking lurches.”

Another reason my wife can feel good

Because she hasn't spent 10.5 years being pregnant.

Credit Card Crooks

…you want to learn how to rob a bank, or how to set one up, which is much the same thing…
*A line from “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The above line finally got me out of my reading chair to once again point how insidious and predatory the banks and credit cards remind.

From a New York Times editorial:
…the credit card industry has stealthily adopted methods designed to maximize burdensome penalties and fees, while ratcheting up interest rates as high as 30 percent. Companies bombard unwary consumers with teaser packages that promise very low interest rates to start, while reserving for themselves the right to raise rates whenever they choose. The details are buried in deliberately arcane contracts that run 30 pages long and that even lawyers have trouble understanding.

Still more
… Under a provision known as “universal default,” a cardholder who pays a credit card company faithfully can still be hit with a high penalty interest rate for missing payments with another creditor. In another despicable tactic known as “double cycle billing,” a cardholder who pays $450 of a $500 balance is charged interest on the entire amount as opposed to the unpaid balance.

State usury laws would once have precluded many of these practices, but those have been preempted by federal regulations that are increasingly designed to make banks and credit card companies happy — rather than protect consumers.

Our elected representatives are about to go on a month’s summer vacation at our expanse, so nothing will be done until September, and still while the Republicans have enough power to block anything to protect the consumer, nothing will be done, so be wary and limit your credit card use (this has been a public service announcement).

*the book I'm currently reading

Relief at Dodger Stadium

Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
George F. Will, political columnist

Barry Bonds versus the Dodgers is over. Tuesday through Thursday night I tuned into the Dodger game to see if Barry Bonds would hit his controversial, historical-tying home run at Dodger Stadium. I am pleased to write that he did not. The only good from Bonds hitting a home run at Dodger Stadium would have been Vin Scully making the call, if you happened to have cable. I suppose the justice in that is that Vin Scully was one of the announcers who made the call for Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run. As Scully said during the game, the circus moves on to San Diego.

Despite the steroid allegations surrounding him, I am not so sure that any of the modern day records should be compared to the early part of the last century since the dimensions of the ball parks have changed (Dodger Stadium used to be 410 to centerfield when I was a kid, today I believe it is 395). The pitcher mounds used to be higher and the strike zones have changed in ways that I don’t recall immediately. So comparisons are not really accurate, all of the records should have asterisks.

Bridge Disaster

One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.
Salman Rushdie, author

Our heart goes out to those involved in this disaster. Photos are from CNN, New York Times, and Breitbart.com. This will be unfolding throughout the day. This could just as easily happen in California to our freeways when the next big earthquake hits. We most likely not fall into the water, but flatten cars below, similar to what happened in Oakland in 1989.

What All Irresponsible Pet Owners Deserve

Extraordinary creature! So close a friend, and yet so remote.
Thomas Mann (1875–1955), author

I borrowed this cartoon from Diary of a Hope Fiend. It's a great cartoon.