the defeatists!

Why we actually bother to care...

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
  - HL Mencken

Steroids...when a chick's legs look like Brett Farve's, expect steroids

Enough said. Putin probably uses HGH to keep that ripped look... Of course, given the fact that the air quality in Bejing right now is just wonderful -- only barely toxic as opposed to being semi-solid -- testing positive might be a survival technique for a sprinter or other track athlete.

Why MBAs make lousy Presidents...almost a rounding error!

The whole revising downwards after the fact is intriguing here. In accounting, an variance of less than 1% is generally considered just a rounding error. However, the larger the number, the more a rounding error looks like or is real money. A lot of small countries could do well indeed on the rounding errors in the US government's checkbook. I'd be producing the American version of Top Gear and tooling around in a 911 on the rounding errors in Bill Gates' checkbook. Keep that in mind as this goes on a few months --

The American economy expanded at a weaker-than-expected 1.9 percent annual rate between April and June, the Commerce Department announced Thursday, while numbers for the last three months of 2007 were revised downward to show a contraction — the first dip since the recession of 2001.

Since they just figured out that the economy was headed south in the fourth quarter of 2007, wanna bet the odds that when they re-configure the numbers on the first and second quarter, we'll actually have met the statistical definition of a recession, of three successive quarters of 0 or negative growth?

For Alan, in hope he finds peace...

Rhinhart and Not Sure for Americuhh!!!

There's a conspiratorial clown in Oklahoma  running for re-election using a comic book as a tool. Well, I don't have any big feelings about comic books. When I was a hatchet, I'd stop daily in this little smoke shop/newsstand/bookie joint on the corner of Harrison and Water back in Syracuse, and plop down my 15 cents for something...Classics Illustrated was a brand I liked. In second grade, I got to read versions of the Illiad, Ivanhoe, Against All Flags, Caesar's Gallic Wars, and so on. Think of Cliff Notes, only with color pictures. I read Prince Valiant Comics; I read The Viking Prince; I read about SGT Rock and Easy Company; Blackhawk...you get the picture. They used actual, multi-syllabic word constructions with subjects, predicates, objects, and even the occasional subjuntive clause. I believe those things were called, what was it, I'm blanking...oh, yeah, complete sentences.

However, this guy's stuff is homophobic ( a gay character has horns, and I don't mean trumpets!), full of lousy grammar and misspellings  When challenged on the misspellings by CNN, the guy said something like, " I don't necessarily care, dude...you know? Really, kaschizzle..."and probably flashed some gang signs. He claims the thing took him two months to do. The fact that this idiot is a white, Christian, Republican-suit  under indictment and awaiting trial in September for corruption charges  makes it even more precious. He blames the "Gays, Godless and liberal 'good old boys" on the country commission for his travails.

I do not know who the good old boys at the courthouse are," said County Assessor Leonard Sullivan, a Republican who has had public disagreements with Rinehart.

I have really encouraged him on more than one occasion to get professional help. He really needs it,"  said Sullivan, who is not depicted in the comic.

While to a certain extent this is just silly and funny -- those Oil Patch Republicans, what a barrel of laughs -- I think there are more serious issues for us to consider. And laugh at.... Leonard Pitts  has an intriguing insight into the whole thing, plugging the cult not-quite-a-classic Idiocracy... 

I am not an Oklahoma County voter, so maybe you wonder why I care about Rinehart's campaign. I don't. What I do care about is what I will call the ongoing stupidification of America, of which this is but one glaring example among many. Think of the congressman who advocated bombing Mecca to teach Muslims a lesson. Think of the "zero tolerance" policy that required a 10-year old to be suspended for bringing to school the tiny toy gun from his GI Joe. Think of the "Jay Walking" segment on the "Tonight Show" where average Americans cannot answer basic questions of civics and history. Think of those cable shows where we are theoretically entertained by coarse women vying for the affection of washed-up rock stars. Heck, read your junk e-mail. And then tell me you don't feel the nation's collective IQ dropping like stocks...No, I'm talking about stupidity, which I define as an inability to analyze, draw conclusions from, or otherwise "use" information even when one has it. And stupidity is often characterized by smug indifference. When a CNN anchor drew Rinehart's attention to his spelling errors, his reply was, "I don't necessarily care." ...In recent years, we have seen intelligence demonized as the sole province of the "elite," a term that once described accomplishment, but is now used to condemn anyone who looks like he might have accidentally cracked a book or had a thought. Not long ago, I gave a commencement address in which I told young people I am less concerned with what they think than "that" they think. Because we are losing that skill. Me, I find that alarming.Maybe you disagree. I bet you'll feel differently when Brent Rinehart is president.

Not that Pitt is Edmund Burke in his writing. Lots of incomplete sentences and grammatical misconstructions...don't begin sentences with "And." Sentences are supposed to express complete thoughts. And so on. But, I'll leave with for those interested in textual analysis to worry about that piece of the pie.

We have what appears to be basically an illiterate as president; based on the prowess of the remainder of the Bushite gang, I'm having problems with any of them having advanced degrees...Despise him as he deserves, Henry Kissinger is obviously brilliant. Twisted and deranged, but brilliant. Condi, not so much...The Lee Atwater-Karl Rove tradition of taking things out of context and inflating them really is contributing to the decay of thought and discourse. I'm about ready to advocate the return of duelling pistols as a way of settling disputes. I'm pretty sure that John McCain would have called out Bush and Rove in 2000. Today, he's as craven as they are, but that's for another time -- we're not accountable as a nation. Hamilton spread rumors of incest on the part of Burr, Burr shot his ass off. Hamilton smugly went to the duel sanctimoniously intending to "reserve his shot." Burr had a different approach.By the way, Burr was the sitting Vice President of the United States at the time. So, Cheney was only the second VP to shot someone in office...in his case, a friend, by accident.  Andrew Jackson shot a man who insulted his wife despite having taken a round in the chest that might have killed him, saying later that he would have killed the bastard if he had been shot through the heart. Jackson fought 13 duels. I'm not advocating murder as a way of thinning the herd, but the lack of testicular fortitude on the part of politicians in general might be amped up a bit i fthere were personal consequences for one's actions.

Brent Rinehart

Since the cratering of the Cthulhu-Guiliani campaign, we've been reaching around trying to find a new candidate to endorse. There aren't a lot of possibilities that really fit...but, I think Brent Rinhart would make a helluva continuation of the Bush story. Brent Rinehart is da man wid da plan...blame in on the gay, commie, Jew, liberal good old boy elites Rhinhart and Not Sure for the USA...they got electrolytes...

Bad drugs...

The Wall Street Journal used to have a lot of integrity on its news pages, particularly the economic stuff.  Obviously, that's gone. Or, they're coming out of the greed closet...

The trend here is it's relatively soft but it's not horrible," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James. "It's not what we would typically see in a recession. Perhaps exports is offsetting the softness in domestic demand." ( Do ya think? With the dollar running toward the Zimbabwaen value thanks to oil speculation and general nuttiness, soon the average Chinese businessman will be able to import a Cadillac for the price of a Hyundai...)

A separate report showed that sales of single-family homes fell 0.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000. The drop, the fifth in six months, was smaller than expected.

Here's the problem. It only takes a couple of minutes with Excel and Google  to get numbers that show they're insane. Or liars. Or speculators themselves. If I had Murdoch's money, and was a pirate, I'd be planning to buy a lot of stuff sometime in about 12 months. So, from the rich motherfucker point of view, this is a good deal. It's the soon to be extinct middle class that's getting it in the throat. You know, YOU. As of July 21, 2008, the inventory in the top 55 markets was a tad, a McCain as it were, under 1.35M. The weekly inventory had increased about  21% while the median asking price had decreased 15.7% to about $281K. Only SEVEN of the markets had had a decrease in the number of houses. Only FOUR had an increase in asking price. All this as of last Monday. In a week. Yeah, hope is busting out all over...At least 27 of the markets were flat, indicating that in just less than half the major markets, we've hit bottom. Or, that supply is equal to demand.

It's called the law of supply and demand. I'm not sure when the Bushites decided to repeal it. But the facts that the housing market still has a way to go to hit bottom barring a miracle, and that the market for Beluga caviar, big HD plasma screens, Lamborginis and Modavo watches is peaking hardly indicates underlying strength. Except to robber barons and their lackies. 

 

Fuck you Texas and Fuck that Lone Star Beer While Sleeping with My Brother's Wife whom my wife met while my dad was dating her daughter

Not necessarily the Rapture but...Some interesting things happening in underground, Alt Country.

For example:

And from the same roughhewn poet:

Batman, Batshit, bullshit and Obama...and the Death of Innocence

Hello everyone,> > As you know I am not a very political person. I just
> wanted to pass > along > > that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for
> about an hour on his > visit > > to 'The War Zone'. I wanted to share with you
> what happened.> >> > He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof
> vehicle, got to the > area to > > meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the
> commander here at > Bagram. > > > > As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand he
> blew them off and > didn't > > say a word as he went into the conference room to meet
> the General. As > he > > finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell
> (pretty much a big > top tent > > that military personnel can play basketball or work
> out in with > weights) so > > he could take his publicity pictures playing
> basketball. He again > shunned > > the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for
> their service. > > > > So really he was just here to make a showing for the
> American's back > home > > that he is their candidate for President. I think that
> if you are > going to > > make an effort to come all the way over here you would
> thank those > that are > > providing the freedom that they are providing for you.
> >> > I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball > Players or the
> Dallas > > Cowboy Cheer leaders than from one of the Senators,
> who wants to be > the > > President of the United States. I just don't
> understand how anyone > would > > want him to be > > our Commander-and-Chief. It was almost that he was > scared to be around > those > > that provide the freedom for him and our great
> country. > > > > If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I > wanted you all to
> know > > what kind of caliber of person he really is. What you > see in the news
> is all > > fake....( AXE mentoring comment, to coin an acronym in the best military tradition of Fubar and Snafu, young soldier, GYHOOYA or Get your head out of your ass...)

This is the meat of an email is from an Army Captain at Bargram who is obviously was disappointed that Barrack Obama may be a...politician, and that he isn't really all that wonderful, nice and splendid. I'm not sure how much credence to put in it -- for one thing, the email asks that it not be disseminated to any news organization because of the impact on the guy's career. Well, unless you're General Petraeus and respond with a smile to a reporter's question about why aren't there more Democrats in the Army by saying, "There are more than you think." or you're echoing the party line at the Pentagon, officers really are not supposed to be political.

However, the Army jumped  through hoops -- basketball hoops? -- to make it difficult for Obama to connect with soldiers. Seriously, this guy is pretty naive -- does he really think that VIPs get to make their own schedules? By the way, to use some Marshal McCluhan on you, Obama is not a "hot" candidate like a Bobby Kennedy; he's the epitome of "cool", like Jack Kennedy. He's intellectual, inspirational and somewhat distant from the whole thing. I'm not saying that he doesn't want to be president. But, he's not the type to connect with small groups in unscripted public settings.

Supposedly, that's McCain's forte. Yeah, well, Bob Hebert has a column about that today, and it's kind worth reading. The idea that strikes me is that the American people don't know Obama but they do know McCain.  Really? He's becoming, to steal a phrase from my Quaker friends --yes, the AXE has friends from the Friends. Hell, I thought about converting at one time. There's a lot of Zen in George Foxe's thought. The whole non-violence thing was a problem though..Anyway, McCain is becoming "brittle..." He's a lot like Bob Dole in this. If you recall the "where's the outrage, where's the outrage?" mantra from 1996, you can see the similarity. McCain's comments about "losing a war to win an election" nonsense is the sort of right wing nut paranoid drivel that says Roosevelt was in on the attack on Pearl Harbor so we could go into the war to help the Russians; in more recent years, the kind of amoral, ungrounded crap like Bill Fisk's "nuclear option" or his diagnosis of Terry Schivao as alive and functioning, albeit on a somewhat restricted frame by looking at videoes. McCain's whine and inappropriate grimaces that pass as smiles makes the AXE wonder if he's got some sort of Tourette's syndrome, where his unconscious mind takes over and short circuits the whole discussion with some nonsense.

There are a lot of similarities between Bush and McCain. They both appear avuncular, friendly, gladhanding types. They are admittedly not the brightest lights on the Christmas tree. They both got everything they have because of their family connections. McCain is physically brave and a courageous American...the Journal's nonsense about The Dark Knight  as a paen of praise to George Bush aside, I'm not so sure about what Twitshit ever did that was brave. Drinking the worm out of the bottle of Mezcal before watching a donkey show in Nuevo Laredo back in the day is probably about as brave as he gets. Back in the day, McCain did that sort of stuff for breakfast...in fact, there are indications that I could be literally correct on that one.  Also, Bush pouts and does petulant things where Batshit might just take a swing at you, or his wife. Or call you a cunt. ...or imply your wife is a lesbian and call your daughter ugly. Yeah, class guy all the way.

So Batboy is an aloof, intellectual asshole who probably doesn't like people. Batshit is an arrogant bully who has very little class as a human being. What, by the way, is it about these Republican creeps? The McCain's and the Gingrich's divorce their wives in nasty circumstances; the family values crowd runs around with hookers of all persuasions and genders and attitudes or seduces children. Ok. Got it. If I have to chose, and I do, between Batshit and Batboy, Knarly Ole Nader and Bobby Barr, I'll go with the guy who appears brightest and most in tune with what I think. I'd buy McCain a drink to honor his heroism; I still think Corvairs are kinda cool, so I'm probably not going to hang out with Nader. Barr and Ron Paul and Mike Gravel all had important things to say about how we've gone wrong as a government and a country. But, I'll vote for Batboy. Then, I'll get to bitch in clean conscience about how he fucks us all over if he does, and gloat if he delivers on his "hope" thing. 

Guns, cars, bars, guitars and beer...the reasons I'm not rich

For the last week, I've been besieged by people trying to sell me a Corvette. Given my interest in shows like Top Gear and general fast car ambiance, I'm not completely surprised although still somewhat taken aback...I've commented here that Corvettes are not, shall we say, the AXE's dream vehicle. They have always been good in a straight line, but that's about it. They are incredibly thirsty -- their small V-8 claims 26 to the gallon but that's undoubtedly highway, with the windows up, no AC and coming down a mountain. They were always uncomfortable. I did find one on line that I liked -- it was a 79 Stingray with 80K on the clock. However, it's in Dallas. And, the Quality of Chevys in 1979 makes me think that there's a reason why it only had three owners and 80K on the clock...

One of the sites I look at in the evening is New York Magazine's gliterrati piece, for no good reason except they have an excellent sense of the absurd. They tossed up this piece as a jump ball, and nobody was really able to slap it...or maybe that's an unfortunate analogy. For some incongrous reason, I've always felt that there was a lot of sublimated homosexual stuff going on in the Dukes of Hazard movie. If Ashely Simpson isn't a Marilyn Monroe type, not sure who is. This is from the original, which had a lot of the same stuff going on...And, for some snarky reason, Vanity Fair, home to nude pictures of teenage girls and various other strange stuff, has started a "gay car blog." What the hell are they thinking of you ask? Well, cars are American as eagles, and easier to acquire and almost as expensive to keep. (Note to readers: The AXE does not have an eagle. Honest. I'm not Stephen Colbert.) Why wouldn't they be interested in cars? My kid brother's partner, a classy gentleman named Germaine who does own a bunch of real estate in Beverly Hills including the one housing his salon off Rodeo Drive told me how he had always wanted a Corvette. He finally got one and drove it for about six months, hating the damn thing because of all the things that people who are not brainwashed by the mystique or those who were and bought one point out. He must have had a good week, because he took it in for service and they gave him a loaner -- a Cobolt. Really a crappy cheap car; given that they had about $60K of his cash sitting on the lift leaking and shaking and acting all weird, they should have gotten him something better than that. So, he was driving back to the shop and saw an Acura Dealer...stopped, test-drove a RL and that was all she wrote -- the bill of sale and transfer was done that day.

Chuck Berry - Come On
by Red_Chuck

Most gay folks I know are smart consumers with good taste. A list of the top "gay" cars is actually a good place to go look for possible new rides. As the teaser on NYMAG pointed out, not one is a Mazda Miata. However, the blog has yet to put out the list...but, I think it'll be worth the occasional visit, particularly as the miles go by on the AXE mobile and the balence owed on it goes down. Seriously, smart consumers with good taste. If Consumer Reports and Playboy had their way, we'd all be driving Toyota Corollas. And, Maybachs.

(Note to people who have car loans with interest -- it's not a good idea to buy a new car while you're upside down on your car loan in a tanking economy because you can get 0% financing on approved credit. Seriously. Far better to live on a while, and increase your car payment by some amount to knock off principal quicker and lower the interest paid over the long run. If you happen to not be upside down or have the damn thing paid off and have it still worth some money, then go ahead and trade. If you're not in a favorable position and have absolutely got to get a new car because the ashtrays are full or you just had a flat tire on the brand new tires you bought, I advise you to  trade down. Seriously. I traded cars for just those reasons -- I drank a lot in those days --as well as because I thought a Jeep made more sense in Ectopia than the '89 Mustang GT I'd had for a year and I had just quit drinking and wasn't thinking clearly --I traded the Jeep in under a year for a V6 Probe and look at SUVs and shudder..) Anyway,  Vanity Fair came up with a list of what they figure is the gay buyers guide. Although snarky in the extreme, there really isn't a bad car on the list except for the one they threw in for bad taste -- the Pinto. I didn't know a lot of gay folk when those things were on the road, but the one's I did know well were lesbians and drove Porsches, Mustangs and a 1969 Opel sports coupe. Which was far superior to the 1979 Corvette, for a quarter of the price. Of course, the dollar was worth something then...

Now, a gay gun blog would be kind of different but why not? The AXE has a strong preference for Colts and Desert Eagle in handguns although I did like shooting the Beretta 9mm and the Glock 10mm is a hell of a gun. I used to own a lot of guns -- the gun is actually not the problem cost wise, by the way. Buying enough shells to get good with it will break your back. If you must own a gun and want a hand gun, I recommend the Springfield Arms collection -- high quality equivalent to Colt or Smith and Wesson, and not quite as pricey. For long guns, if you want to target shoot, there are a lot of great choices. If you want to target shoot only, go low caliber...there is nothing wrong with the .22 longrifle for plinking. If you must get something that has a lot more heft, take some classes first. Shotguns are fairly simple; I owned a semi-auto .20 Gauge Smith and Wesson that I bought from a guy who'd just got a DWI years ago for $125.

Guitars? At present, I have six, which is actually down from...nine. Over the course of my guitar playing life, counting the abortion that was the first axe for AXE, I've had fifteen. My weapon of choice for acoustic guitars has always been Gibson. I have never found a Martin that I liked playing; I've owned three Gibsons and all of them have been great. I've commented before about the Yamaha 12 string I have and love.  It's possible to get some great guitars from China, Korea and Taiwan. (Ok, Taiwan is China...and, that's where Yamaha get's their boxes made.) I have no idea what the number one gay guitar is, althought i suspect it's probably a Jimmy Page model SG 12/6 model. Or, a stratocaster. KD Lang used to play a Gibson, as I recall, in the Cow Punk days. I know that a lot of the Gay Community used to like Heart and Joan Jett -- the guitar playing still attracive blonde Wilson sister favors Gibson and Epiphones Les Pauls while Joan Jett has a thing for Gibsons. She's got an autographed custom Melody Maker up on the Gibson site as a contest promotion for her latest album. The Wilson sisters had an Epiphone up on the Epi and Gibson sites as a promotion, the Les Paul Ultra II which is the LP I own. Hell of a guitar. I think Epiphones may be the best buy at the moment in the electric guitar world, although Taylor has a trio of electrics that are really lovely. I almost bought one not so long ago...beautiful AXE with the same pickup configuration ( an acoustic and two humbuckers) as the Ultra II. I have the same attitude toward Taylors that I have toward Martin on the acoustic side, but the electrics are a totally different breed of cat.

Well, everybody has their own favorite bar. Since I quit drinking, I'm no longer an afficiando, of course. In my drinking days, I drank just about anything except Southern Comfort, Vodka, Cream Sherry or Malt Liquor. Yup, got utterly wasted on that stuff and threw up for hours. My preference was Bushmills Black, Courvoissier, Guiness, German Weizen Beer, and Henieken. At the end, I was drinking tons of stuff that I really didn't like at all in an effort to cut down and "control" the drinking. Well, I wasn't thinking clearly...I was drunk.

Is Nairobi the next Palo Alto?

Emulating IOZ, Fuck, no.

"Nairobi’s challenges are many. Internet use is relatively expensive and slow. Power failures are common. The city also lacks a world class technical university. Mr. Mworia’s professors don’t offer lessons in the latest computer languages; he must learn them on his own...Political instability can be a problem, too. (Do you think? AXE insight)Earlier this year, Kenya suffered widespread violence after its disputed national election. For weeks, work in Nairobi came to a halt..“If you have a bright idea in Nairobi, you can’t just turn it around,” (Well, that at least is similar to Palo Alto...Palo Alto City Government!) says Laura Frederick, an American working on an online payment system in the city.Still, Nairobi is home to a digital brew that invites optimism about its chances for creating unusual innovations. The city has relatively few wired phone lines or networked personal computers, so mobile phones are the essential digital tool.(Kinda like, oh, I don't know, Afghanistan!) Four times as many people have them as have bank accounts. (Nothing like no capital to make a tech revolution...of course having no money for your startup will reduce the burn rate...AXE snark) Text messages are far more popular than e-mail. Safaricom, the dominant mobile provider, offers a service called M-pesa that lets customers send money with text messages. (Of course, the logician in me wonders, without a bank account where exactly are you sending the money from?)"