Signs, signs, everywhere a sign

In researching this latest brouhaha over whether or not the Wiccan religious symbol should be on the approved list of Veterans Affairs of Belief Emblems, I found this list.


Check out the Atheist symbol.




Huh. It's cool and so very...DEVO.

Lawdy, lawd

Youse gots to luv them Republican values.

The Old Man

Just felt like posting an old Bukowski poem I came across the other night. He's been gone for 13 years now. I miss knowing that he's out there.

The Laughing Heart

your life is your life

don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

be on the watch.

there are ways out.

there is a light somewhere.

it may not be much light

but it beats the darkness.

be on the watch.

the gods will offer you chances.

know them.

take them.

you can’t beat death

but you can beat death in life, sometimes.

and the more often you learn to do it,

the more light there will be.

your life is your life.

know it while you have it.

you are marvelous

the gods wait to delight in you.

Robber Barons

Paul Krugman via JP.

Oh crap, Harvey...

You've shot another waitress/actress.

Mr Spector appeared dazed, according to police reports, alternately railing against the officers and apologising for the misunderstanding. His state could have been the result of shock, alcohol, the medication he was on, or the 50,000 volts of electricity he received when police fired a Taser gun at him after he allegedly failed to remove his hands from his pockets.

Phil Spector is not your friend. Trust me.

This is pretty much how I feel

The new record comes out in July.

Until then, read and re-read this letter.

He's right. Spoon is the best band to come out of North America since Talking Heads.

I Repeat. The new record comes out in July. Oh. And George W. Bush still fuckin' sucks.

Gee? ...you think I've been drinkin'? Yep, me too.

Pre-Thursday Random Ten

Misery is the River of the World-----Tom Waits

I Need All the Friends I Can Get-----Camera Obscura

My Mathematical Mind-----Spoon

Beer, Gas, Ride Forever-----The John Doe Thing

Small Favors-----Fountains of Wayne

Joyrides for Shut-ins-----Cave Dogs

Sunday Morning-----No Doubt

Cities-----Talking Heads

Creepin' Up the Back Stairs-----The Fratellis

Give It Away-----Red Hot Chili Peppers

Weekly Muqtada Updata

If it's Wednesday, you know it must be Mookie.

Juan Cole weighs in.

Lying Liars

You'll have to slog through the Salon ad, but go ahead anyway and read Glenn Greenwald's recounting of the Jessica Lynch scandal.

Our current govmint is a just short hair away from Soviet stooge propagandist bullshit. In some ways it's worse. At least the old Politburo guys winkingly acknowledged that they were lying and the majority of the faceless citizens knew that they were being told falsehoods.

We just eat it up and ask for more.

Salute

Tip o' the helmet to the General.

It's not exactly my story. Personally, I like the paranoia, but it's a good tale nonetheless.

Mighty-Mighty 10th District

Shit.

I must say that I do enjoy the pols who are working for us in Ohio.

I, of course, have my issues with Geo. Voinovich, but he's trumped 100 times over by Dennis the IMPEACHER and Sherrod Brown anyway.

Shorter Bob: I'm proud to live in a place where representation such as this is a reflection of a better worldview for everyone.

To all my friends.

Sad

David Halberstam RIP

Tim Ryan

Here's a link to a great article in the latest edition of the Washington Monthly and the accompanying cool profile of Tim Ryan.

Yeah, yeah, I know that many folks have labeled him to be Traficant-lite, but from the speeches I heard him make, he's the real deal. Anyway, it's good to see credit go to this young Turk and his burgeoning following of hopeful youngsters.

Boris the Spider

Yeltsin takes a dirt nap. Pootey prolly had him offed.

The town so nice, they named it twice

The Blonde and I went to the City this weekend to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary and had a great time.

We saw three shows. A rather tepid production of Craig Lucas' "Prelude To A Kiss" with John Mahoney. I remember really liking the movie with Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan, but ultimately the script is stupid. We got half price via the TKTS booth so no biggie.

Nixon/Frost was next. Wow. I believe we saw the final preview perfomance as this review was in this morning's NYT. Langella was wonderfully surreal as Nixon and Michael Sheen's rendering of David Frost was superb. Great staging and pace. The theatre was buzzing before and after the show.

The highlight of the weeked though was at Joe Papp's Public Theatre in the Village. We saw Philip Seymour Hoffman in a little show called Jack Goes Boating about a lovable and lonely stoner and his friends who try to fix him up. A very nice little script and a great performance by Phil. We had front row center seats in a very intimate space and I doubt that I'll ever be as close to an Oscar winner...particularly when he's smoking a bong.

Beauty and The Beast

Yo. We're back from NYC (more on that later).

And no, I'm not referring to some schlocky dumb musical in the title of this post. Nope I'm talking about this meeting with KKKarl and the ever lovely Sheryl Crow.

He's must be some kind of bizarre maladjusted eunuch to shrink from her grasp. Sheryl can kimono may place anytime and touch me anywhere she'd like. Just sayin'.

Oh, Elaine

She nails it.

Elliot Gould

It's true. He was really cool.

Attaturk

Ummm, what he said.

Blogroll

I've added my homey Rick Perlstein's new spot to the roster of friends. It's chock-a-block with a good deal of what exactly I've been talking about for several years now.

I'd like to drown Grover Norquist in a bathtub.

Pretty Pictures

Tip o' the porkpie to Tim for enlightening me to the remarkable beauty of these photos. Some of them are astounding.

Gore Vidal

That's right.

Gore effin' Vidal, folks.

Now that Vonnegut and Stephen Jay Gould are gone, he's one of the few smart ones left.

Again with Emphasis

I repeat, Juan Cole.

I've got nothing to say about mass slayings by gun wielding idiots beyond that until we give up guns, and particularly automatic weapons, we're hosed as a society.

I used to scream this rant at the top of my lungs. I'm way past being hoarse. How can we possibly be shocked by these events any longer?

Fuck it.

Three Bagger

Juan Cole hits one out of the park again today.

And while we're talking baseball metaphors, Tony Zinni threw a no-hitter yesterday on Timmeh's little show. His book sounds spot on with truthiness.

Oh, and to finish the baseball allusions, The Tribe is sitting atop the AL Central this morning.

Fuck yeah, I know the season has barely begun, but it's still a nice start to an already weird baseball season.

I just wanna be loved...

...it that so wrong??

I swear, this is the last mention that I will make regarding the Imus kerfufflle.

Harvey weighs in.

Wolfowitz

The old comb sucker is in some seriously hot water.

Now I am well aware that the resignation of the President of the World Bank pales in comparison to the high drama that is Don Imus, but can't we at least PRETEND that we're paying attention?

To my knowledge, the part about the booing Wolfie got from the staff yesterday did not make the US papers.

Rudy

Joe Conason brings it home on Giuliani.

And so it goes

Kurt Vonnegut was the single largest influence on me as a young person as it relates to reading and a thirst for knowledge. His wonderful novels that I read in high school had a formative impact on my character development that made me who I am to this day.

I suppose it's silly to love someone that you never met, but I loved Kurt Vonnegut. How could you not with quotes like:

"All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber."

Go read Slaughterhouse Five or Cat's Cradle or Breakfast of Champions this weekend.

Po-tee-weet.

Chimpeach!

Tip o' the chapeau to the Redman for the html banner to the right of this page as well as to the inclusion of Cleveland regarding the festivities on the 28th.

If you read this blog regularly and would like to join me in attending the action on Saturday night April 28th, send me an email and we'll figure out a plan to meetup.

The I-Man

I've always thought that Imus was a sophomoric fool so I guess I don't get all the hub-bub, bub.

He had a big hand in creating (right here in Cleveland) what is now folksily referred to as the industry of the "shock jock". Frankly, if both Imus' madre and the sow that birthed Morton Downey Jr. had aborted said fetuses, we may have been spared the fate of what has happened to our national civil discourse

Then again, Big Oxy continues to spew forth his bile so I've negated my own argument as to the origins of this sad phenomenon.

Anyhoo, Digby nails the cult of personality that is Don Imus.

Lying Liars

I was on some survey site (I think it may have been The Nation) last night and they were polling people as to when the Cheney Administraion will/should bail out of Iraq.

That is one stupid fucking question.

Go here and you'll get the correct answer to that particular speculation. Look closely at the profiles of Anaconda and Balud since they're two of the biggest bases. These guys always have and always will "hide in plain site". They're doing exactly what they've always said that they were going to do which is build a permanent infrastructure "over there".

Listen, we're going to have bases in the Middle East, and specifically in Iraq, for the rest of our natural lives, folks. It's high time we get used to it and the likelihood that 2-3 US GIs will die every day for the next 10-20 years.

Now that I've cleared that one up...what's new with Lindsay Lohan?

Hey everybody

Adrian Belew is at the Beachland on the 26th of April.

Who's with me?...

Weather report

So...

This picture was taken during that wicked storm on Valentines day.

This one was taken 20 minutes ago.

Can you tell you tell the feckin' difference? Yeah, me neither.

Friday Random Ten

Home Opener Edition (and yes, it's still snowing) Gabba, gabba, hey.

Toto Dies...Nellie McKay
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows............Rolling Stones
Party by the Sea.....Wyclef Jean
Beautiful World.....Colin Hay
Beer, Gas, Ride Forever.....John Doe
I Predict a Riot........Kaiser Chiefs
Real Wild Child........Jerry Lee Lewis
Wrong 'em Boyo.......The Clash
Make it Rain...............Tom Waits
Lines in the Suit.....Spoon

Jagged Little Humps

Alanis spoofs the BEPs. She's a funny gal. And completely Canadian to boot!

Opening Day

The Indians open their season tomorrow at the Jake. As I look I out my office window, I can barely see the stadium for the snowflakes and the forecast looks thusly...

According to the Weather Channel, we're not even orbiting around the sun any longer. The boys of summer?...I think not.

Firebrand Cleric

I've been saying this for nearly three years now, but Muqtada remains the guy who is holding all the cards in Eye-rack.

Check out this piece by the NYT's most excellent Dexter Filkins. Read the whole thing for sure, but the prescient part is that Al-Sadr is number two with a bullet.

Plus, he said this over the weekend. That's next Monday for those of you keeping score at home.

And now...

...for something completely different.

Terry Jones proves yet again, that satire is a sharp weapon in the face of lunacy.