What a long strange trip indeed

The father of acid has passed away. Pretty fascinating guy and legacy.

Of course, it's all so much better for everyone that LSD is illegal and that handguns are readily available. I sure know I sleep better at night.

Then again, aside from Art Linkletter's daughter, I don't recall anyone dying from an acid trip...right?

Montreal

Gig and I went to Quebec for the weekend on an 18th wedding anniversary trip using flight miles and my ample unemployment proceeds. We had a fine time and were treated to some excellent meals.

Notable among these dining establishments was this place.

Their primary offering was a selection that any fine French restaurant would naturally have on its menu; steak and pomme frites. However, that was the ONLY thing on the menu and they did it perfectly.

Go read this review and see what I mean. If you're ever in Montreal, go there. I mean it.

Bon appetit!

We're winning!!

Right?

Ummm, not so much.

McBaghdad

Would you like a sugar, waffle or IED cone to use as a tourniquet for your child, sir?

God, what an idiotic idea and the crowning glory that is the Bush clusterfuck.

Friday Random Ten

Mind's Eye--Wolfmother
Everything's Ruined--Fountains Of Wayne
Have It All--Foo Fighters
Love Me Tender--Link Wray
Walk Away--Franz Ferdinand
And Then So Clear--Brian Eno
Rock Billy Boogie--Robert Gordon
Blue Angel--Roy Orbison
Keep Yourself Alive--Queen
Black Cadillacs--Modest Mouse

Dennis!

The most hated Librul in Cleveland has a dynamic and interactive new website filled with RSS feeds and all kinds of groovy techie stuff.

Egress can be found here and don't forget to bookmark.

Green Day

On the day after Earth Day, I thought it would be fitting to put up a link to a really cool sustainability website I found out there on the inner tubes.

Check this place out. Chock-a-block with stuff.

Mr. Fish

I am so sick of this endless primary season. Evidently, so is Mr. Fish.

All Cusack...all the time

If it's Tuesday, it must be Cusack.

More good stuff on War Inc.

The Rude One

Wow.

It's been ages since I linked to The Rude Pundit. But his rant today is pretty good on McCain.

I watched wee Georgie on the ABC show this weekend and yes, McCain was wacky and scary.

I went to meet John McCain at the West Side Market in the Spring of 2000. I wouldn't cross the street to piss on him if he were on fire these days.

He's a twisted cancer on America. Fuck em'.

Condicula

Here. We. Go.

Condi Rice turns up the heat after sneaking into the country in the middle of the night to call Al-Sadr a pussy. Nice job.

She should really be the first to go into The Hague since she stayed the longest with the Chimp than any of the other Stooges.



Me? I'd rather read Tom Engelhardt.

Remember, John McCain was the one who sang "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran"...and she keeps popping up as his Veep. You do the math.

Solutions, folks. We need 'em. Fast.

Robert Gordon

A little SCTV video from 1980 with Bob and Danny Gatton.

Oh, that's Rich

Frank Rich dishing on the debate. Him rite good.

The Onion

Sometimes, I'm not entirely sure that they're being satirical.

Bob (Hearts) Google

Me likey the Google.

Another edition of...

...what Digby said.

Feelin' Irie, Mon

Actually, I think I like this version better than Brewer and Shipley's rendition. No Random Ten this week. After watching this video, I'm spent...

(h/t to the Mayor of Bentonville)

Winger Hate

Aside from fringe bloggers and the stain of right wing radio freaks, I don't have anyone to shout this at, but SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP about Obama's preacher!

Oh, why am I yelling?...'cause of this article.

Gnarls Barkley

Gnarls Barkley - Run [Live @ SNL]
by Get-Me-Bodied

Mark B. told me that GB rocked the house on SNL last week. Wow. Was he ever right.

Britt Speaks!

Spoon Singer Spins Stories

Another day in Paradise

Hi. I'm Joe. Friend of George W.

Juan Cole calls Bush's linking of Iran and Al Queda to daily violence in Iraq propaganda.

He's exactly correct. Gosh, what a fuckin' mess.

Bruuuuce!

It's Obama time.

That pesky 2%

The headline of this article would be hilarious if the country weren't actually failing as spectacularly as it actually is.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it again here...

Worst. President. Ever.

Microfish

This HAS to be watched.

War Inc.

John Cusack's film about the glories of life during wartime is slated to drop Nationwide in May. Let's all make a personal commitment to go out there and go see it, eh?

Chertoff

I had missed this pronouncement by Count Chocula over the weekend.

Bring it on, muthafucka.

IKEA

The L & T Gig should enjoy this post about the founder of IKEA.

Here's my favorite quote from the article...

It has been claimed that more people read the Ikea catalogue than the Bible - and that one in ten Europeans have been conceived on an Ikea bed.

My City was gone

For all of you Y-Town homeys out there.

An odd kind of hope pervades the Mahoning Valley.

1968

It takes a very long while to load, but there's a really cool interactive timeline of 1968 in this month's online and dead tree edition of AARP magazine.

From the RFK and MLK killings, Mai Lai, the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the criminalization of marijuana to the publication of Soul on Ice, it was the most tumultuous year imaginable.

While I was but 9 years old, I do remember it being crazy.

But put in perspective through the long lens of 40 years, it's amazing that this nation, and at large, the world, survived as well as it did.

Go check it out here...

Robin Williams

Spring is here, it's Masters week and a young man's thoughts turn to... golf. Robin Williams explains the origins of the game for us.



Hat tip to Jim P.

Brave New World

This piece from AlterNet says it all. Now get out there and get shopping you silly sheeple.

Moqtada watch

Ummmmm. This isn't good.

Webby weirdness

I can't tell if I like this site or not.

It's certainly funny and entertaining. I'm concerned however that it may be the primary resource for "BREAKING NEWS" over at Fox News Channel.

Ain't gonna study war no more

While I've been preaching this tax revolt stuff for a while and although tax season is nearly over, I still feel that if more of us did this, it would take its toll.

Here's a really good breakdown of the civil disobedience of which I'm speaking.

And no, we just filed and didn't do it this year either. Maybe next year now that I know more about it.

Friday Random Ten

Who's gonna throw the very first stone? Oh! Who's gonna reset the bone?

Praying Hands--Devo
Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time--O.K. GO
Satin In A Coffin--Modest Mouse
The Dog Song--Nellie McKay
Getting Better --Gomez
Intervention--The Arcade Fire
I Have The Touch--Peter Gabriel
Right Now--Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris
Planet Of Weed--Fountains Of Wayne
Solar Sister--The Posies

WTF?

California may be the land of fruits and nutz, but lawmakers in Florida are remarkably distanced from reality themselves.

They passed this law yesterday.

The money quote in the article, from this tool, referring to the framers of the Constitution's feelings about gun ownership is..."It was what was dear in their hearts."

The stupid!...oh, how it burns!!

Smoking Kills

I keep telling Dave that cigarettes are bad for his health. Of course that depends on one's proximity to the ordnance warehouse...

Stoopid Librul Media

There goes that picky ol' NY Times again inviting our politicians to fund something besides the War in Iraq. What a bunch of tools.

The Big One

Brother Dave sent me this thing from The Nation the other day. It's as good a breakdown of the current financial swoon as we've seen.

I'm never sure whether to shit or go blind when I read this sort of item. Ah well, we'll all be dust sooner or later, eh?

I think I'll go have a lemonade and not worry about it.

Surgetastic

Here's one for General Petraeus

Steve Bell

They say she rides on a pale horse...

Freedom of Choice

I'd rather fight than switch.

I was thinking about posting something about religion the other day and I just happened to come across this bit o' news from Springfield to kick start my thought.

I'm a non believer. Always have been. Check it out...

According to The World Christian Encyclopedia (1985), more than a billion of the world's people consider themselves nonreligious (agnostic about religious claims) or atheistic (actively opposed to religion). Nearly three-quarters of these people live in East Asia, where they are a majority of the population of China. Nonreligious persons and atheists also make up a majority of people in the Soviet Union. Non believers are a larger group worldwide than Islam. Even if you combine all of the followers of Hinduism and Buddhism together, non-believers outpace their numbers.

Meanwhile back in Jesusland,

As of 2006, 14.1% of Americans do not follow any organized religion. This is an unusually rapid increase -- almost a doubling -- from only 8% in 1990. There are more Americans who say they are not affiliated with any organized religion than there are Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans taken together.

So, if we shun and punish non-believers, should not there be other repellent castes of folks equally deserving of our scorn. How about smokers?

While smokers have certainly been pushed to the margins physically, it's hard to say that they're complete social outcasts. I know several people who smoke. It breaks along these lines...

In 2002, approximately 22.5% of adults were current smokers. Although this prevalence is slightly lower than the 22.8% prevalence among U.S. adults in 2001 and substantially lower than the 24.1% prevalence in 1998, the rate of decline has not been at a sufficient pace to achieve the 2010 national health objective.

In 2004, an estimated 20.9% (44.5 million) of U.S. adults were current smokers; of these, 81.3% (36.1 million) smoked every day, and 18.7% (8.3 million) smoked some days. Among those who currently smoked every day, 40.5% (14.6 million) reported that they had stopped smoking for at least 1 day during the preceding 12 months because they were trying to quit. Among the estimated 42.4% (90.2 million) of persons who had ever smoked, 50.6% (45.6 million) were former smokers.

So, we might agree that the percentages are relatively equal in both camps with smokers shrinking and dying at prodigious rates while atheism is growing at much the same speed.

Why then, is one group frequently maligned and the other is left to their own relative freewill? Discuss.

Aethism. It's the new black.

Driving Miss Cokie

I meant to put something up here yesterday about Cokie's blather on li'l Georgie's show from Sunday.

Instead, I'll let the far more erudite Glenn Greenwald make my point for me.

Six of a Kind

This one is for Nick...

Frank Rich

Once again, the former theatre critic for the Times is spot on in his thinking and observations in yesterday's column.

Behold the truth telling.

From my cold, dead hands...

Sweet fancy Moses, no good news today. The economy and jobs are in the dumper. War continues to rage in Iraq. Tribe and Cavs are sucking wind...oh, wait, here's something...

Mother fucking Charleton Heston is dead!

Yep, that cheered me up.

This pinhead was president of the NRA for 6 years. In that time approximately 180,00 people in the U.S died due to firearm ownership.* Nice work, dillweed.

*Suicides accounted for about 58 percent of gun fatalities, or 17,000 to 18,000 deaths, per year; another 11,000 deaths, or 37 percent, were homicides, and the remaining 800 to 900 gun deaths were accidental

Clueless

You may have already seen this as it's making its way through the tubes today. This dumb bunny, Patrick McHenry (R-NC), tells the story of his play-date sleepover in the Green Zone. What monumental gall he shows calling a soldier a "two-bit security guard" and his Superior Officer, "a Supervisor".

Does he think he's complaining to a mall cop about some frisky kids over at the Orange Julius?

Standard issue dipshit from the right.

Endorsements

For what it's worth, here's a smart guy who "diggs" him some Obama. Nice words.

Blunderiffic

Corrupt administration falls even farther down the rabbit hole.

Developing...

Fast Car

I have always had a great admiration for Paul Simon's music. Here's a review of his month long gig at BAM that sounds really cool.

Also, here is the video of Wyclef's cautionary tale of hot wheels both real and imagined with the vocal talents of Mr. Simon along for the ride.

It's my turn

Hey, check it out, a story about me.

I just filed last month and I begin drawing unemployment next week. I'm officially on the dole. Isn't that swell?

MLK

Since I mentioned the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's murder yesterday with such rancor, I thought the topic deserved a bit more reverence that I had afforded it earlier.

Go here for that.

Eat Hickory you young Punks!

This story was all over the news the other day and I forgot to link to it. D'oh!

Anyway, check out the profile of Public Enemy Number One.

Sheesh.

Friday Random Ten

The Revolution Starts Now--Steve Earle*
I Know You Well--Fountains Of Wayne
Narc--Interpol
Run Through The Jungle--Creedence Clearwater Revival
World Wide Suicide--Pearl Jam
Haiti--Arcade Fire
Adrenalin--Throbbing Gristle
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window--The Beatles
Submission--Sex Pistols
Reservations--Spoon

*The lovely and talented Georgene espied an advert in the Friday entertainment section over toast this morning for a Steve Earle and Allison Moorer show at Playhouse Square in May. Long story short---we got front row seats for the concert.

That leaves me seeing Spencer Davis Group, X and Steve Earle in the next 30 days or so.

My. Wife. Rules.

WTAM

As I may have mentioned earlier, I have agreed to blog about any collectively chosen topic by myself, Bob Frantz and King. After we put up a weekly post about a subject, we will confer live on the radio and discuss for 15 or 20 minutes about the respective merits of our probable difference of opinions. We'll see...I'm game.

That said, I wonder what I've gotten myself into. Not necessarily due to the Frantz project itself, (we're talking about high gas prices in the premiere launch of the project).

Nope, I am talking about the entire station itself.

I am sitting here listening to Tom Hamilton calling the day game at the Prog and I just heard a teaser replete with somber background music for tomorrow morning's Bill Wills show where, in order to honor the 40th anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King, WTAM is going to have a live interview with...wait for it...

...the brother of James Earl Ray where ; "Bill will talk to the brother of JAMES EARL RAY - JOHN LARRY RAY and his Book - TRUTH AT LAST: THE UNTOLD STORY OF JAMES EARL RAY AND THE ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. will reveal much about the assassination of Dr. King that has never been revealed before".

I mean, are you fucking kidding me? The brother of James Earl Ray? What are they gonna ask him?...what it felt like when his god fearin' brother shot Dr. King?...If black folks still deserve to be angry over the assassination?...which beverage goes better with a Moon Pie; an RC Cola or Dr. Pepper? Hot, fancy Moses!

What a god damned bunch of tools run this abortion of a station. I'm reconsidering Bob Frantz' gracious invite to openly discuss any given topic if this is the twisted environment du jour at The Big One. Seriously, if this is representative of the ethical standards of WTAM, I just dunno if this is for me. At this point, they're making Tokyo Rose look downright bipartisan.

I hear next week they're gonna have little June Oswald and Sirhan's sister Ayda on the mike to tell us what cocksuckers that creepy Kennedy family turned out to be.

Kermit's an OG

The Green one tears it up N.W.A style

(by the way, the primary vocalist on this track is one Ice Cube. That's Amerika's porch negro to all you nervous white folks out there).

This just in...

...from our brilliant Canadian neighbour.

Debbie does Michigan

Oh swell, another idiot gets caught with his dick in a "date for hire". This will no doubt give even more distractive red meat to El Rushbo and his zombies.

It's Better in Michigan...and certainly cheaper than in Spitzerland.

Deep Thoughts

On occasion, it can be quite enlightening to peer into the twisted souls of false conservatives. For example, read this review of Juno by good 'ol Phyllis Schlafly.

Ay! caramba! that is one loco broad.

Here's a wonderfully crafted and well written little film that she has completely misrepresented. The bandwidth of her view has the elasticity of granite.

Remember at all times, this is the way that many these sad folks think about the world. Keep it in mind as it may help in case you ever have to speak directly to one of their ilk and you're mystified by one or several of their opinions.

As Groucho famously said...

..."I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members".

I guess that goes for Senator McCain as well. Elizabeth Edwards sounds off about St. John's Healthcare plan.