Oh No, Not You Again, Again

I always thought that I would know
When it was time to quit
That when I lost a step or two or three or four or five
I’d notice it
Now that I’ve arrived here safely
I find my talent has gone
Why do I go on and on and on and on and on
And on and on and on and on and on
Randy Newman, singer/ song writer, “I’m Dead (But don’t Know It” from the CD "Bad Love"

I wrote about the Rolling Stones here going on another tour, playing the same songs the same ol’ way, and charging in the neighborhood of $100 or more for tickets, and why would anyone want to see them.

That post is still generating comments: The Knitter said... You sock it to em Mick, I'm sure you're well used to being criticised by the over 25s by now!

That note made me pause and realize that the Rolling Stones have once again struck a chord with another new generation of fans. It’s true that the more mature folks have heard the Stones so much that they might a bit jaded or possibly wiser about the group continually recycling their hits, not coming up with anything groundbreaking, covering the same themes, and basically playing it safe.

I recall when I was in high school and crazy for the Stones, someone who was in his late 20s or early 30s back then, said that the Stone were tired and old. I dismissed him as not knowing anything.

Well, perhaps I too was wrong to dismiss the Stones. In the absence of any real groundbreaking music today, it makes sense for people to continue to connect to the band that was at ground zero. The Stones do have an impressive catalog of music and they have weathered on with minimal personnel changes while the Beatles’ music has endured, the band never made it out of the 1960s.

I though Daughter simply liked the Rolling Stones because she grew up listening to them and seeing them in concert (three times). She has been bugging me to see them again. I assumed it was because it was our little tradition, but I am convinced now that another generation has discovered why no one has ever argued with the group's self-proclaimed title from their 1969 live album "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out": The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.

On The Mark -- Pat Who?

What a whiny, pathetic op-ed (actually more like a personal blog diary post) Pat Buchanan wrote here regarding the revelation of the great Deep Throat mystery. One would think that Richard Nixon was backstabbed and unfairly accused. Actually, one would think that Buchanan is jealous that he wasn’t Deep Throat (as some suspected) and he enjoyed being a part of the mystery that has now been ruined.

Buchanan extols Nixon’s election victories. He beats his chest about Nixon’s approval rating before the Watergate fiasco. “The liberal establishment was beside itself with hatred,” Buchanan writes, practically implying that Nixon was innocent and his demise was the fault of the liberal establishment, which includes the Washington Post, which, according to Buchanan, propagandized the antiwar movement.

He accuses the frail, ailing Deep Throat, W. Mark Felt, of following the money. Of course, why not? Woodward already has a book coming out next month about his dealings with Felt and how they worked together to bring the truth of Nixon’s illegal activities to the world. Why shouldn’t Felt get some money for his family? He’s the one who took all the risks.

Buchanan has had a pseudo political career since Watergate and he probably believes he would have one day been president if he hadn’t been on Nixon’s team as a speechwriter. The tone and content of his editorial does an excellent job of highlighting what’s wrong with the conservative base today. They have absolutely no concept of what’s right and wrong except as how it fits within their agenda.

Go crawl under a rock, Pat.

Doritos Quotes Hillel;Shammai Has No Comment

Saw it on television tonight, as I was preparing myself mentally for a day of giving back to the community (as part of my company's mandatory "good works" project) -- Doritos (a Frito-Lay product) has adopted Rabbi Hillel's famous statement as a marketing slogan:

If not now, when?

They've even got a website. [shiver]

High Score

When I was kid, my friends and I would spend countless hours talking about video games -- discussing our favorites, sharing secret tricks, and comparing high scores. I can distinctly remember listening to Robert Mamos tell us how to beat Track and Field, by holding a pen between one's fingers to more quickly hit the two buttons over and over again, getting up enough speed to set the long jump record.

Of course, we were kids then -- sixth grade, junior high school, and maybe even into high school. It's one thing to be deeply enmeshed in video games at a young age... it's another thing to be playing them when older (and there's nothing wrong with that)... and then there's my anonymous friend, who pulled me aside this past weekend to show me something on his PDA:



Yes, he'd been playng a video game and took a snapshot of his high score so that he could show it to friends.

An Easier Way to Find Porn on the Web

You know as well as I do that it's just too darned hard to find porn on the web.

Where is the Internet porn? Is it accessible only after you type in some crazy combination of search words? Or on some off-the-beaten-path web site that requires a complicated series of passwords to enter? Who knows -- it's just too hard to find. That is, until now.

The Internet's primary oversight body (known to friends as The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved a plan Wednesday to create a virtual red-light district, setting the stage for pornographic Web sites to use new addresses ending in "xxx."

Finally, some easy-to-find web porn; it's about time.

[Source]

As Good As Lord of the Rings, Except for the Writing

Orson Scott Card, perhaps best known for his novel "Ender's Game" and the Xanth-like fruitfulness of its sequels, has written an insightful review of "Revenge of the Sith" and, in passing, its creator as well. Card takes Lucas to task (he titled the article "As Good As Lord of the Rings, Except for the Writing"), but is clearly still a fan:

Even though the characterization is nonexistent, the relationships like a seven-year-old's impression of how grownups act, the politics clearly the product of a mind that has never grasped history, and the science at the 'How can rivers flow north?' level, the underlying saga still manages to touch a chord.

Read the whole review here. (Thanks, PoliBlog!)

The Dying Art of LA Play Development -- Guest Columnist

By

Johnna

Last month the Mark Taper Forum shut down all of its new play development labs (Blacksmyths, Latino Theatre Initiative, Asian American, Other Voice- Disabled Writers, etc.). The new artistic director at the Taper, Michael Ritchie, describes his disappointment in the labs to the LA Weekly thusly, “With these labs I had wanted to see more product. . . .” He goes on to cite poor advocacy for production by the lab leaders (who were all summarily fired) and long development cycles as reasons the labs were disbanded. The new plan is to ‘partner’ with smaller local theaters and bring successful small theater LA premieres to the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the experimental Culver City-based arm of the Mark Taper.

The first play to be ‘moved up’ in this Off-off to Off-Broadway model is PERMANENT COLLECTION from the Greenway Arts Alliance. PERMANENT COLLECTION is an exploration of race relations written by white, male playwright Tom Gibbons and despite its doubtless merits, politically, it is sort of an awkward choice to replace selections written about minorities by actual minorities.

They told me in theater school that the theater was a dying art. And that I was apprenticing myself to a wasteland of dwindling opportunity, increasing commercialism, and unrealizable artistic promise. That was part of the romance of pursuing theater. How poignant and meaningful to be priestess of a dying religion, I thought in my exuberant twenties. Now it is just depressing. With the Taper closing the door to all play development, the burden is now placed on the ridiculously under-funded smaller theater community. So this is a good excuse for all you local readers to go and see some local, live, small theater this weekend. That is apparently the best we can do for anything that is not ‘product’ in the arts community.

Johnna is a Los Angeles based playwright, winner of the 2003 OC Weekly Best New Play Award for her play, COCKFIGHTERS. Two of her plays will be published in an anthology of naturist plays this summer. Two other plays will be produced this year.

No Deep Throat Today

If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people — including me — would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.
Hunter S. Thompson (1939-2005), journalist

What if there was a Deep Throat today in the Bush gang’s center that divulged information that implicated the president, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as conspirators to manipulating data to falsely engage the United States into the Iraq war?

You would be right, if you said the right-wing media, the Ann Coulters, the Rush Limbaughs, and the Fox cable news would be screaming about the liberal basis and the cowardice of the reporters not to name names. I honestly believe that if Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were investigating the Bush gang today as they did the Nixon administration, Woodward and Bernstein would find themselves in jail and fined hundreds of dollars everyday they refused to reveal their source.

The poisoned atmosphere for the media today and the threat of revenge from the Bush gang, conservative groups and media consolidation has stifled hard-hitting independent journalism and scared government insiders/whistle blowers.

G. Gordon Liddy was on the one of the conservative news cable programs last night saying that former FBI official W. Mark Felt, who stepped forward Tuesday as Deep Throat was unethical. That is like Charles Manson saying that the Tate-LaBianca murders were poor anger management on his part.

I wish this were just hyperbole on my part, but unfortunately, it is not. There is no law in the U.S. Constitution that guarantees the press the right to conceal sources, but there are several areas of the law that make withholding information a crime. Hence, the pending fines and pending jail time for journalists Judith Miller, of the New York Times, and Matthew Cooper, of Time magazine for possibly knowing which government official leaked the name of a CIA spy.

According to a story last month from the Copley News Service, in 2004, 78 journalists around the world were killed in the line of duty, including four in Mexico. In Cuba, more than 20 reporters and editors are languishing in prison for covering news that Fidel Castro did not like. And in the United States, unbelievably, approximately 30 journalists face possible jail time for refusing to divulge the identities of confidential sources.

A free press is as important to our democracy as any of the documents our founding fathers wrote to keep this country strong against corrupt leaders.

On The Mark -- "Check," Russia

At first it seemed intriguing. Then I realized playing a game, even a sophisticated game like chess, is not the same thing as real life.

As reported in the LA Times recently, Garry Kasparov, the youngest chess champion in history who was also an undefeated chess champion for 10 years, is entering the game of politics in Russia. Yes, the same Kasparov who dueled to a 1-1 tie with the infamous IBM supercomputer, which has the capability of analyzing 50 billion potential moves in three minutes.

Now he’s identified his next opponent, Russian President Vladimir Putin. So far, Kasparov has only said that he wants to campaign to make sure Putin steps down in 2008 as the current constitution mandates. He fears, like many others, that Putin will re-work the constitution so that he can stay another term, or run the country behind the scenes for four years, then take over again in 2012.

He hasn’t said he actually wants to run for office, but he’s acknowledged that it’s a consideration. On the face of it, it seems that Kasparov would be a worthy opponent. He’s brilliant. Strategic. He’s made his country proud and thus has the general popularity of the people. He also could probably put together a very good campaign, particularly with his ability to be able to think “several moves” in advance.

Yet with the continuing disintegration of democracy in Russia, one has to wonder if Kasparov would actually have the opportunity to make some of those moves. Putin is not the type to wait around to knock over the King in defeat. As the former head of the KGB, he's been known to "think" ahead, too...

Patting Our Collective Backs

There is nothing you can say in answer to a compliment. I have been complimented myself a great many times, and they always embarrass me—I always feel that they have not said enough.
Mark Twain (1835–1910), author

There have been several stories over the months that Toner Mishap offered opinion on, what is most gratifying is that we often lead the mainstream media in regards to commenting or in some cases even reporting. Today’s editorial in the Los Angeles Times by Robert Scheer writes about the death of Pat Tillman and on the lies the Bush gang (in my opinion) knowingly exploited and then covered up. On The Mark, wrote about Pat Tillman’s death on May 23, 2005.

We certainly don’t recommend Toner Mishap over the media, but we do get some self satisfaction on our solid news judgment. That’s it; I don’t want to break my arm patting our backs.

"Luke, I am the Holy Father."

Thanks, Devo!

Bits on Books

I got tagged with this meme by Someguy at Mystery Achievement... so here goes:

1. Total number of books I've owned.
If I don't count the books my wife has (and given her profession and proclivities, that's a massive amount), and if I guesstimate the number that have ben donated to libraries or traded at bookstores... whew. I don't know... maybe 2k? That's probably a low estimate...

2. Last book I bought.
Barbie's Fashion Show and Happy Mother's Day, Mami for my kids. I'm less a buyer than a renter, as I work next door to the central branch of the Los Angeles Public Library... so I read for free!

3. Last book I read.
Barlett and Steele's Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness

4. Five books that mean a lot to me.
Only five? How about the first five that come to mind?

1. The Torah (known to non-Jews as The Old Testament, but for me it's the only Testament)
2. Camus' The Stranger (my wife knows why)
3. Huxley's Brave New World
4. Asimov's Pebble in the Sky (first Asimov book I ever read)
5. Kishon's Unfair to Goliath

5. People who I'll infect with this meme.
The Misanthrope and On The mark, natch -- but I guess they don't count.
Hector Vex
Pirate at apjournal
Dr. Taylor at PoliBlog
Devo at Vitriolic Monkey
Jack at Random Thoughts

On The Mark -- It's Not Even Wrong If You Get Caught

It’s only wrong if you get caught. That was always a feeble rationalization for doing something illegal. Now, with some parents in the Los Angeles area, it’s gotten even worse. For them, it’s not even wrong if you get caught.

Recently, several students at a middle school were suspended for a day, along with other less serious punishments, for cheating on a homework assignment. The teachers caught on when they noticed that several of the students’ answers were exactly the same. After confronting them, the school administration gave out the suspensions, then took it one step further by posting a message on the school signboard that cheating was unacceptable.

One would think that the parents of these cheating kids would back the punishment, maybe even extend it at their homes by grounding them or something like that. Yet when interviewed by the L.A. Times (which was reporting on the parents’ protests of excessive punishment), several of these parents (anonymously) came to the defense of their kids and said it wasn’t that big of a deal and that everyone cheats, “my kid just happen to get caught.” They said the school overreacted because it was only a homework assignment, not an exam.

The reason these kids cheated is obvious, because they watch their parents do the same thing. For example, I stopped counting the times I’ve seen adults race through red lights. It’s not because they want to save a couple minutes (which is the rationale they use), it’s because they’re confident they won’t get caught.

I hope some of these kids learned a lesson at a point in their lives when the repercussions are less severe than they will be later in life. They’re certainly not learning at home.

Possibly a Good Politician

Why is it always the intelligent people who are socialists?
Alan Bennett, playwright

This is a politician I could truly get behind and support. I don’t know if I would like all his politics, but he does seem like the antidote for the government we currently have in office. The Associated Press reported this story:

The government that we have today in the White House, the House of Representatives with Tom Delay, the Senate with Bill Frist, is the most right-wing, extremist government, perhaps in the history of the United States," he tells labor activists at a May Day celebration in the century-old Labor Hall.

"Time after time they pass legislation that benefits the rich and the powerful, and they pass legislation that hurts the middle class, working people and low income people."

The crowd roars. They have come to hear this unlikely man who is likely to be the next U.S. senator from the Green Mountain State, and they love what they hear. This is Bernie Sanders at his best: one part revivalist preaching, two parts theater, all served up with a biting sarcasm.

It is vintage Bernie - literally. The words and the message have not changed in more than 30 years. Millions of times, he has decried - in a strong Brooklyn accent - what he sees as an outrageous, growing gap between the rich and the poor.

For half of those years, though, Sanders has been part of the Washington he loves to attack.

In his eighth term in the U.S. House, the independent socialist has carved out a career in Congress as a Congress-basher. Now he is setting his sights on the Senate, and everyone agrees he is the man to beat for the seat now held by the retiring Jim Jeffords.

The Misanthrope – Sunday’s Lighter Side

Holidays
Have no pity.
Eugenio Montale (1896 - 1981), poet

Memorial Day Weekend. We plan to barbeque, watch tennis, read and relax. My favorite weekend is one where there are no plans to go or be anywhere. I look forward to the long weekends and hope that the neighbors all go away and peace and quiet rein. So far, so good. There was some idiot the other night lighting firecrackers and scaring the dog, but thankfully, it didn’t last long.

HBO Special. I am very much looking forward to the HBO special that started last night and wraps up tonight. Empire Falls with Paul Newman, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt and a cast of stellar stars. If it is remotely as good as Angels in America, I will be delighted. That was an excellent movie with Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Emma Thompson.

LSATs. Daughter is spending this holiday weekend study for her LSATs next Monday, which also happens to be her 21st birthday. Daughter once again impresses me with her study habits as she has been hitting the books for nearly eight hours a day.

Bomb Shell. The little notice that I mentioned last weekend was a mistake to first air in the blog. Since that was the first airing of that information, I have heard from friends and family regarding that tidbit, who complained about having to hear such info via the blog. There is only one thing I can say with certainty, neither of us have any idea what may or may not happen.

No More Free Pretzels

Northwest Airlines Corp. is pulling its free pretzels from all domestic flights; now the only thing you get for free with your flight is soda. This will save the airline $2 million a year, which should just about cover the $458 million dollars they lost last quarter... in 229 years they will officially break even.

Don't fret about going hungry on their flights, though -- you can still buy a three-ounce bag of trail mix for $1.

[Source]

Feeling Bad for David Geffen

So David Geffen had to make room for the unwashed masses on his beachfront property. Apparently neighbors across HIghway 1 felt bad that they didn't have any access to the sand, and have successfully gotten Geffen to cave in and open a pathway from the highway down to the surf.

The public has a right to the land between the waves and the mean high tide line -- not everything that's got sand on it. But there's now an enforced public easement in front of Geffen's estate that has these folks virtually in his lap, leaving him without the solitude he clearly needs so desperately.

I feel bad that Geffen has surrendered his pristine, untrammelled beachfront. He bought the house, he owns most of the land around it, and it's his right to lord his money over the have-nots. Can't they just hoof it to some more public place, instead of laying out their peanut-butter-and-sand-sandwich picnics in front of his pool? Instead of letting their infants romp naked in the sea spray while he has to look on from his living room?

One of the best things about America is making lots of money and then spending it to keep others away. Hughes did it, Hearst did it, and Geffen wanted to join that club. But now that the rabble can cavort openly on Geffen's front yard, what chance will I have to clear some beautiful property all for me and my family when I strike it rich? Slim to none, I guess.

My Way or the Highway

If we ignore this threat, we invite certain blackmail and place millions of our citizens in grave danger.
George W. Bush, worst U.S. president in history

This report from the Associated Press continues passing the Bush administrations message without holding the administration accountable for the billions wasted in Iraq on a weekly basis.

Speaking out for the first time in favor of controversial base closings, President Bush said Friday the nation is wasting billions of dollars on unnecessary military facilities and needs the money for the war on terrorism.

I content that the military base closings are to blackmail senators into voting the way the Bush gang wants them to vote.

Bush, who faces opposition from many states to shutting down bases, tried to be reassuring. He said the bases would be chosen fairly and the government would do all it could to help affected communities recover.

But he made clear that the process - however painful - could not be avoided. Oh, I hope people will remember how the Bush gang is selling them down the river.

On The Mark -- Lazy Profits, Men Will Die, and Doggie Daycare

“Rebateless” Profits – I’ve always been annoyed by these companies that offer rebates on consumer items such as cell phones, TIVO, computers, etc. Each time I buy a product, I ask the salesperson why they can’t just give me the discount right then and there. Why do I have to go through this process? It’s a rhetorical question, of course, because I suspected these companies made these offers because they know must people are too lazy or forgetful to send in the documentation (like me). It was proven today, when it was reported that TIVO had a better (financial) first quarter than anticipated. The reason the company gave: Most people who bought their TIVO system did not send in for the rebate, saving the company millions of dollars.

“Men Will Die” – I saw a clip of President Bush’s commencement speech at the U.S. Naval Academy this morning. He last gave a commencement speech at the Academy soon after 9/11. In today’s speech (paraphrasing) he said -- the Marines and Sailors who graduated in the class the last time he spoke went on to become hardened battle warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soon you will, too.

Wow, I wonder how many will be celebrating tonight? The only thing missing is that he didn’t say what Mel Gibson said to his troops in the movie “We Were Soldiers” before they left camp to fight in Vietnam – Men will die.

You Live Among Them – First, let me say (or remind) that I have two dogs and two cats. I consider them family when it comes to responsibility for taking care of them, but that’s where it stops. I don’t treat them like kids. On the front page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday there was an article about the challenges people face getting their animals into doggie daycare. The article reported on how animals have to go through “interviews” and tests before the proprietor decides whether or not to admit them (this is for day care, not boarding – yeah, there are some people who don’t want to leave their animals alone during the day, as if they were children). Anyway, people go through quite the trauma waiting to find out if their dog was accepted. One woman, who feared her dog may not get accepted, was quoted as saying, “She’s not gifted.” Please…

Is It Duck Soup Yet?

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), U.S. President

I am enjoying the fact that President Bush is not getting everything rubber stamped as congress realizes that the majority, even those who voted Republican, are not extreme conservatives. As a result Bush is being ignored on his Social Security nonsense, voted against on his stem cell theology stance and he had his nuclear option in the senate fizzle.

The Democrats forced a delay in a confirmation vote for John R. Bolton, yet another setback for President Bush's thuggish choice as U.N. ambassador. The vote to advance Bolton's nomination to an immediate confirmation vote was 56-42, so it was not all Democrats since the Republicans were four short of the 60 votes that Bolton's Republican backers needed.

According to the Washington Post, Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist said, "John Bolton, the very first issue we turned to, we got what looks to me like a filibuster. It certainly sounds like a filibuster ... it quacks like a filibuster."

I think what he meant to say was, it smells like a lame duck and it looks like a lame duck. With any luck, Bush will be duck soup.