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October 30, 2006
Bringing Art to You, For No Reason At All #3
Tom is a new man. He's freed his pet lava lamp. He's painted his toenails with Maalox. He's voted for the Purple party. First time listener, long time caller, he's thrown out his television and bought a radio. He has faith in the Father, the Son and the Pop Star. He's taking pictures of his neighbor, putting them on the wall, but the neighbors will call him a nice, normal guy. He's blown up 99 luftballons and now he can't sneeze. His mantra is "suffer small cherry stems." He's made of cheese and he's been sniffing spinich.
He's running for Progress, against Congress and he's up with people and down by law. He dances with wolves, foxtrot and tango, to Slim Whitman all night long. He was Lawrence Welk's producer. He's alternative. He's mainstream. He's supple. He played one of the Germans in the "Big Lebowski". He has a girlfriend named Suzy Q.
His tears are made of tuna fish. He knows karate, but can only say it in French. He wears stripes. Solids. He sunk your battleship. He owns Baltic avenue and Malibu, sugartits. He's old-school. He's new school. He graduated from the New School with a degree in graduating from the New School with a degree. He eats flowers and shits patience. He's a friend in need. He's a friend indeed. He's a friend of the devil. He knows the sound of one hand clapping.
Oh, yeah. And he's set his tuba on fire.
Posted by emily at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)
Maybe It Was The Acid
If some kid takes ten hits of acid, then kills his girlfriend's parents, I don't believe it's because he has deluded himself into thinking he's a vampire. I believe it is the ten hits of acid.
There are some groups of people, with certain fetishes, that should't drop acid. Because when reality gets blurry, they'll believe they are vampires.
Is that random enough for you?
Posted by emily at 4:40 PM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2006
Celebrating the 25th Birthday of the Wave
I think we must either be starved for good news or we're idiots who will celebrate the anniversary of anything. Like lint. Or polka-dot bikinis.
Just shut up.
Posted by emily at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2006
Attention GOP Fuckheads
When you go on PBS, my favorite network of the dulcet tones, say the same shit you say at the NRO Corner. Same snide tone. Same ugly opinions. Don't try and sing to us Libs. We know you already. (This is not directed at Brooks. This is directed at Lowry. Right at Lowry. Don't talk about negative ads in such apologetic, philsophical tones when you had an orgasm at NRO over the Harold Ford ad.)
Posted by emily at 7:37 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2006
Fat Charlie Endorsements
Obama in '08
Clinton in '08
Obama/Clinton in '08
Clinton/Obama in '08
Gore/Clinton in '08
Gore in '08
Stewart/Colbert in '08
Clinton/Gore/Obama/Colbert in '08
William Howard Taft in '08
Oprah in '08
Clinton/Gore in '08
Edwards in '08
Obama/Edwards in '08
The Canadians in '08
Posted by emily at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
Tigers and Michigan
There's nothing negative you can say about the Tigers going to the World Series. But those in Southeast Michigan (or, indeed, the entire state) should temper the hope and joy it brings. Sports is a distraction. It is not a distraction that is good or bad. There is no value judgement to it. But a Tiger turnaround does not mean a GM turnaround, a Ford turnaround, or, indeed, a Detroit turnaround. We don't get a city out of a winning season.
At best, this is a cold beer, or a tranquilizer... it numbs the city and state, distracts it from the problems. But it can't fix things. The past 40 years in this State have been one of erosion. (To be fair, this phenom is in all the upper Midwest/Northeast Industrial Corner... Ohio, Pennsylvania...) Maybe if this state stopped worshiping the internal combustion engine, stopped expecting The Big Three to rebound to past glory and started building new industries and businesses, we'd see some progress. But as long as the Gloved State's entire identity is wrapped up in the car, we will never get out from under its wheels.
Posted by emily at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2006
Kyle and Erin's Wedding
drunk
in a hotel room
full of men in tuxes
with nerf basketball
smell of mushrooms
but not the fun kind
country music
taste of rum
Posted by emily at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
Pentagon Did Nothing Wrong In Planting Positive News In Iraq
So says the Inspector general of the DEFENSE DEPARTMENT... it just gets weirder and weirder on this side of the looking glass.
Posted by emily at 7:10 PM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2006
Watching Olbermann...
It may indeed be the worst thing yet of this Administration: the loss of Hab. Corp. is almost too depressing to even think about. Yet we all warbled (including me) about Mark Foley. Nobody should sit there and think this isn't a big deal.
It is too sad to think about. France, anyone? England? Canada? Japan? Anywhere?
Posted by emily at 8:55 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2006
Ha!
Found this on Andrew Sullivan... this one's for triv.
Posted by emily at 9:57 PM | Comments (0)
Henry Kissinger's "What The Fuck?" Moment
In the NY Times, Kissinger writes a review of Robert L. Beisner's "Dean Acheson: A Life in The Cold War"
The first sentence...
"Dean Acheson was perhaps the most vilified secretary of state in modern American history."
Kissinger's false modesty knows no ends, apparently.
Posted by emily at 8:42 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2006
We're Going To The World Series, Kids!
Posted by emily at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2006
My Favorite Conservatives and/or GOP
Ranked in Order
Politicians
1) Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens
2) Don "I didn't beat my mistress" Sherwood
3) Katherine "Bat Shit Insane" Harris
4) James "Global Warming is a hoax" Inhofe
5) George "YouTube Star" Allen
Thinkers, Phrase Used Losely
1) Dinesh D'Souza: New book blames 9/11 on the Left. Says if we stopped gays and women from gettin' all equal rights-y on the USA's ass, the Muslims would stop hating us. So, I guess, his solution to "hate us for our freedom" is to take freedom away. Well, that's one point of view. An ugly one.
2) The gang at NRO's The Corner: I'm sure invidividually they are all lovely people (well, I'm not sure about Jonah Goldberg.) But you get the NR crowd a blog... and they talk about sci-fi shows? Wow, conservative thought is in deeper shit than we thought!
3) James Dobson: got nothing new on him. Just the usual.
4) Matt Drudge: blame the pages!
5) Rush Limbaugh
Posted by emily at 1:01 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2006
Kos Agrees With Me (Or I Agree With Kos)
Don't get cocky, Dems. (Bad choice of words.) Let's not drool over the Senate... let's just hope that the redistricting doesn't work that well. Hope our people come out and the GOP stays home. Hope that Karl Rove's "October Surprise" has been derailed.
Eggs have not hatched. Fat ladies are not singing. The cart shall not come before the horse. And there are weeks to go.
And, in my heart of hearts, I still believe we are going to lose.
Posted by emily at 3:52 PM | Comments (0)
October 9, 2006
Remember, We're Still Not Going to Win Back The House and Senate
Don't watch the polls or the pundits. We are going to lose. You have to hit rock bottom to rebound, my friends. And I think we need to hit rock bottom to get ourselves together and come back strong. Buckley started National Review when conservative thought was fringe and bizarre. We gotta get more fringe and bizarre in order to get a coherent philosophy to counter conservatism.
And yes, I know... in the meantime, what happens to the country? Well, I'm bitter so I'm about to say who gives a fuck. These are the bozos they wanted, the war they wanted (the American people loovveed the Iraq war in the beginning, remember?)... you get what you pay for. And we shouted in 2000 and we shouted in late 2002, early 2003 and we were "left-wing lunatics"... When us "left wing lunatics" and the liberals can unite together and maybe form a few magazines and get ourselves some real leaders... that process took the conservatives 30-some years. We've still got twenty or so years left to plan.
Posted by emily at 8:24 PM | Comments (0)
Bringing Art to You, For No Reason At All #2
"Medici Princess" by Joseph Cornell.
Cornell is one of my favorite artists. He lived in Queens, NY in the 20th century and made... well, boxes. There was a large French theme going through his work, although I believe he never went there. When you think of 20th century art, you think of things as uncontained. Dada, if you will, or the surrealists or the showy frankness and gaud of Pop Art. This is contained uncontainment. Modern art in a box. Lovely.
Posted by emily at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)
October 8, 2006
Maze Inside the GOP Mind and Tactics
Something goes bad for the GOP. (Iraq, Foley, 9/11 intelligence, Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Katrina, where's Osama, etc...)
GOP's central brain switches on.
What to do?
First tactic: Blame Democrats
Second tactic: Blame the media
Third tactic: Blame the terrorists
Fourth tactic: Blame Clinton
Fifth tactic: Blame secular culture
Sixth tactic: Blame the victim
Seventh tactic: Blame Clinton again
Eighth tactic: Blame the bloggers
Ninth tactic: Blame France
Tenth tactic: Blame the 60s
Eleventh tactic: Blame George Soros
Twelfth tactic: Blame the gays
Thirteenth tactic: Blame PBS/NPR/NY Times
Fourteenth tactic: "9/11 changed everything"
Fifteenth tactic: Third time's the charm, try blaming Clinton again
Brought to you by the party of personal responsibility.
Posted by emily at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)
TV Alert
If you guys can catch it (and I know this nerdy of me), try and watch the re-running of "Eyes On The Prize", one of the cornerstone docs on the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s. I saw it in college and it's truly wonderful.
It's playing on PBS, natch.
Posted by emily at 8:08 PM | Comments (0)
October 7, 2006
Someone, Please, Make This Comic Book...
Posted by emily at 3:48 PM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2006
Bringing Art to You, For No Reason At All
Photo by Cindy Sherman.
Posted by emily at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)
The Amish Are Better Than Us
The news this last week has been frightening to parents of school-age children, obviously. But was I the only one in the nation NOT shocked and surprised by the Amish reaction to the school murders? The MSM has scratched its head bloody on the idea of "forgiveness". Of course, the mainstream "Christians" in this country are not so hep to forgiveness, either. When two thousand people died, a large amount of mainstream people in this country clamored for heads, Wild West posters and sneered at the innocent Pakistani down the street. We also invaded a country that had nothing to do with the events of that day. Why? Oil, yes... Bill Kristol, yes... 1% doctorine, yes... obsession, yes... but it felt good to Joe and Jane America because it was revenge. Stinky, hot revenge... that was what Iraq was for 9/11. Nevermind that we shot the wrong horse.
But the Amish, who devote their lives to Christian humility, have no need to go all Rambo. It's against the scripture. The need for revenge and that kind of anger is a poison. (See: Nancy Grace). It's the easiest thing, the human thing... hard not to want it when you feel violated and wronged. But Christ does not stand for it. Witness (bad pun) those people in Lancaster who want to help the shooter's family and see what truly following the scripture looks like. (Nevermind that the shooter's family is just as innocent as anyone else and suffering shame and pain... mainstream American usually doesn't worry about that. We'd have that family marched through the street in shame. Again, it doesn't matter who we blame or have revenge on, just as long as it is someone or some country to make US feel better.)
Posted by emily at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 5, 2006
Again, David Brooks disappoints... but not George Will
Rational Conservatives Watch:
Brooks column in today's Times: I feel, strongly, that it is always dangerous to equate art and real life to explain a greater point. What's even stranger is to use "The Vagina Monologues" to somehow explain how a "tear in our moral factor" lead to the Mark Foley affair. One thing I know about the Foleygate: there was no vagina involved.
Still, I think Brooks misses one of the main reasons his party is in trouble by saying that whatever party addresses our society's moral problems will be a winner. First, the GOP (and Brooks) has a very wishy-washy standard when it comes to torture. And that's saying it politely. What's more immoral: sex or torture? I tend to think torture. Then again, it's not Americans we're torturing, so why would we care? (sarcasm) It's Americans who are having dirty, naughty sex, thinking about dirty, naughty sex or allowing the Vagina Monologues to be published.
But I lose my point. Second problem with trying to get GOP their trademark moral sheen back: it was never really there. And this is what (I think) George Will is pointing out so beautifully. The GOP made a big mistake painting themselves as consistantly "more moral" than the Dems. When you have a big tent, you can't always control who comes in. You can't equate belief in a political philosophy with being a more moral party than the other side. To our eternal credit, we Dems don't generally do this (maybe we do with things like torture, but I digress.) We know we're pot smoking, sex-having, gay-loving hippie heathens. But maybe we can get a balanced budget.
Let's elect leaders who run g'vts effectively, not moralizers who are going to "restore the moral tear." The best moral examples for a culture are probably dead ones... they can't IM 16-year-olds from beyond the grave and thus disappoint. And what do you do to restore a moral tear? Get sodomy laws back on the book? Ban "Brokeback" and the "Vagina Monologues" and Todd Soldtz (spelling?)'s "Happiness" and Proust and "Madame Bovary" and "Tropic of Cancer"....
Whose morality? What sex is wrong? There's some we can all agree on, but I've heard rightie-rightie-righties (that's three "righties", so we're talking real zealous crusaders) say shit like sex only for procreation. You want that law on the books? WHO makes the line? I thought consentual adults was a good line to draw.
Today's column in the Post: As I've commented before, it used to be disturbing to agree with George Will. But yet again, he comes out looking way wiser than Brooks on this. I think Will is probably just as disturbed that he's been agreeing with Dems on some things recently.
And the true fact: if the Dems can't win this time, we need to implode the party, go our seperate ways, and find another line of work. I'm suggesting circus work.
Posted by emily at 2:01 PM | Comments (0)
October 4, 2006
While We Were Distracted...
There's been plenty of other news. And I'm beginning to think this Foleygate wasn't instigated by the Dems, but by the GOP. Think about it. Hab. Corp. gets rolled back (good-bye Magna Carta), torture is legal, American casualties in Iraq have gone up, Woodward has a new book out, claim in said book about a meeting with Rice and Tenant about terrorism prior to 9/11 confirmed by logs... and what's the talk of the Beltway? One bad dude.
Now, why they would decide this is better for them... I don't know. But it does take everyone's eyes of the major ball.
BTW: conservative on NPR just gay-bashed. Lots of rightie-rightie's doin' that gig right now. why not? they have a lot of practice at it.
Posted by emily at 4:09 PM | Comments (0)
Brownie, Bushie and Horny
Dems are blasting this picture all over the web. Is it fair to the GOP? No. But since when has politics been about fairness. Now you read all the blogging right-wing cry babies saying that the Dems are behind Foleygate. So what, bitches? It's the first smart thing we've done since 1992 and that still doesn't excuse the hypocrites who've forgotten the nourishment they're reaped from Ken Starr's massive tit. And the true issues of voter anger are still Iraq, Katrina, the economy, etc... this just icing on the cake of a massively incompentent ruling party that cares more about power than policy. Or fairness.
Was it fair to do what Bush people did to McCain in 2000 (calling up voters and reminded them that McCain has a brown child)? Kerry with the Swift-boat ads? How dare you call the Dems out on nefarious behavior and explain away your lack of action on worries of being accused of gay-bashing. Not you, GOP, who have elevated gay bashing to an art form, modern-day Dixiecrats whose "preservation of our way of life" just happens to trample on the rights of others. 2004's victory was all about gay bashing. Don't tell me you're afraid to do it now.
The outrage over Foley would be the same if it were a 16-year-old girl. Foley's sexuality is a red-herring and it plays well to the homophobes and the homophobes in the GOP. I can hear them saying, "See, we tried to be tolerant... but look what happened."
Back to the original topic. If the Dems did release this info (and whose paranoid now, right-wingers?), its still wrong what Foley did. All they're doing is bringing to the public what was a gross abuse. If the GOP was on the other side, they'd do the same thing, only they would have done it even closer to the election. Like the day before.
Posted by emily at 1:59 PM | Comments (0)
October 2, 2006
The GOP Spinners Can't Fucking Subtract!!
To all you GOPers comparing Foleygate to Monicagate:
Monica was born in 1973. The affair with President Clinton started in 1995. She was 21/22 when this began. This is well above the age of consent. So, Mr. Ben Stein... for all the times you've played math teachers, apparently, you can't subtract. Because 21/22 is nowhere near 18 or 16.
And, dare I say, there's a large difference between a 21/22 year-old woman and a 16 year old boy. Maturity, experience, ability to perceive consequences for your action. Even if Lewinsky wasn't the brightest crayon in the box and she sure couldn't keep her mouth shut (well... you know what I mean)... she was old enough that we as a society don't protect her from her mistakes. It is called age of consent laws.
There is not to be compared to the Clinton/Lewinsky mess. As in, one is against the FUCKING LAW!
Posted by emily at 8:46 PM | Comments (0)
Mamas' Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Congressional Pages
I smell blood in the air from DC and naughty, naughty sex IMs. On Friday, tongues were still wagging about Bob Woodward (I still don't think he's redeemed himself.). Now, we've got a Congressman and his boys. Is this changing the channel? I guess it isn't true that only Iraq can hurt the GOP.
Posted by emily at 7:25 PM | Comments (0)