the defeatists!

Seek to maximize the insolence zone...

On the Truth Value of Mouthfeel (Or Why These Peppers Aren't Hot)

at any rate, i don't feel the necessity to pretend to believe what, if it were true, would make the world a little better. and indeed, if you know that you're doing that, you don't actually believe what you say you believe: believing p is taking p to be true, not taking it to help us all live as brothers.

- Capn Capitulation

our very own Capn Capitulation gets on about the violence done in the name of Islam in the linked to passage.  now, the talking heads in this country, for the most part, would like to Freedomize^tm the rest of the Middle East, such as we have done in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran is next, and who knows what nation will also wind up on the list. now while the Eboo piece is dishonest, it is also combatting an American narrative that concludes with American interference in the Middle East, since (we all know) that is where Muslim terrorists come from, and (we all know) they want to get us. it is impossible to deny the truth of the matter, because you can't deny that there are some crazy fucking Muslims out there, but BUT BUT the case being made for the truth is being and has been used as the kernel of the entire American foreign policy for the past 9+ years.  you've seen where that has gotten us; note the body count, and how much better that makes you (and each and every American) feel about the world.  that is what the truth here has been used for, Capn.  sleep tight!  the choir in our American heaven harmonizes to the tune of benevolent and magnificent American influence wherever our C-40's may land.   

of course a more direct confrontation with the foreign policy of the past 9 years (and what lies before us), and with the realilty of the threat of terrorism and Muslim extremists would be welcomed, honest and admirable. and, unfortunately, you are not likely to find Eboo critical of any and all American military involvement in the Middle East.   

at any rate, I for one do not go seeking honest assessments in the Washington Post.

Fuck at a funeral...

You know, the concept of shooting fish in a barrel implies that even an idiot can do it. So, when you lob questions to John Cleese...it's sort of like putting the world's greatest trap shooter in Seattle's Pike's Place Market with the world's greatest shotgun and having the said WGTS stand appropriately and then shoot at the fish thrown by the fish throwers...hilarity can ensure, but it's just too fucking easy for the shooter...

As politics gets more childish, does satire get harder for you?
Yes. Take Sarah Palin — so many Republicans love her. I suddenly realized that in order to actually understand that someone is not very bright — or to be brutal, that they’re rather stupid — you really have to be more intelligent than them. Most Republicans aren’t smarter than Sarah Palin. It’s true.

Baby Juice All Over The Street

So the Culture Ghost has been going through some rough times lately, putting it lightly, and I figured I'd cheer him up by sharing an email story about a recent vacation to Northern California which included Mrs.Fun and several of her hometown, longtime, friends.  we were basically in Napa Valley (hoity toity) boozing it up for 4 days.  

the dude that one of my wife's bff is dating is an American, whereas I am a Defeatist, and at one stop we were talking wines across the globe, looking at a map, and I mentioned coyly, knowing my audience, how Syrah originated in Iran (which is false!).  from this, the dude then goes and tries to correlate the black plague with the ottoman empire or some shit.  it was like he was trying to teach me a lesson.  "well ya know"  "them Muslims is bad.  they're not even human!  they caused the black plague!"  and he was trying to test me to see if I was catching his drift.  like I'd give him the ignorant white guy secret handshake.  we're on vacation and we're supposed to be having fun and instead half of us are trying to dismiss and/or one up the other half over shit none of us have any control over.  lucky for him the bff he is dating has the same opinion as the wife and I: our opinions don't really matter and it is no use arguing.  maybe it will rub off.

if America were a swaddled baby left on my doorstep I'd stomp on it in public.  baby juice all over the street.

Dithering idiots...Plague, anyone?

Somehow, this simple explanation of why anyone with any sense is terrified of their financial future if they are not in the top 1 percent of the nation's wealthy has fallen off the top of the leader board and is ranked on HuffPost by the sad tale of Roman Polanski's arrest and pending extradition to the US for having sex with a minor 32 years ago. In the face of the recent spate of the Charles Manson family reunion tour, I gotta say, we are a vapid, moronic race, us human beings. Shovel-ready jobs? Shit. Normally, even in recessions, the delta (MBA talk for difference...drop it in conversation with the boss and then argue for a raise once things get a lot better) is really small, and based largely on location of talent and incorrect allocation of talent. I need computer programmers, but they're in New England and I'm in Arkansas; I need welders, but I'm in New England, and they're in Idaho. Or, I need engineers and welders and computer programmers, but I'm in New England and everybody who comes to see me has a degree in Etruscan studies or something. Some realignment, and whee...jobless rates go down.

Not happening this time; and that's worth some consideration. The work is not there; until someone starts buying stuff, the work will not be there. Until someone starts making stuff, the work of stocking and selling stuff is not going to be there. At some point, there has to be tangible increase in economic value, or as my old man explained to me when I was a young, inexperienced and optimistic sort, "nothing happens until somebody does some goddamn thing!"

Well, we have one political party that is intent on not doing a goddamn thing that Cotton Mather and Alexander Hamilton wouldn't have been on board for, and one that seems to be soul-less, rudderless and directionless. I kinda like Nancy Pelosi, but nobody is going to mistake her for Tip O'Neil or Sam Rayburn. Harry Reid is not Lyndon Johnson. Barrack Obama needs a Bobby Kennedy, somebody with a fucking conscious conscience. Instead, his enforcer turns out to be gutless. Just because you can swear doesn't make you tough. As the great Gilbert Roland says frequently in Bandido, "Aye, Chihuahua!"

Note: The AXE just spent a week on his back recovering from a bout of Walking Pneumonia. Every where I turn, people are sick. The flu season isn't usually at this point for months -- maybe Tiffany is going to cull the herd this year. We can make up the job delta (Jobs needed-jobs available) by reduction in job seekers while increasing the number of people involved in burying the dead.

Speaking of Cotton Mather --

Bob the Squirrel...new defeatist ICON

Like Bible Camp, only without the hope...

Tiffany, smite this motherfucker. Smite, Smite, Smite. Have nutria invade his underpants...

This is what's wrong with intellectuals as a general class of asses. Just what kids need more of -- regimented time and thought. This dweeb is about as much of a totalitarian as Benny the Rat, only without the Gemutlicheit...

At some point, reality will bite back...Step Away from the Job!!!

Be careful what you say to someone with nothin'/It's almost like having it all!...

“Last Spring , I got arrested in Greencastle, Ind., for pot,” Mr. Snider said amiably, seated in an East Village bar during a trip to New York. “Most people don’t care if a singer smokes weed. But this one kid did. The sheriff ended up telling me he was the Barney Fife of the town. I was more embarrassed about getting caught than doing it. I’m getting in my 40s. This kind of stuff is getting old. I thought maybe it was behind me a little bit. And I think it is.”He shrugged and sipped at some wine. “Probably.”

The song is “Greencastle Blues,” a tragicomic confessional that anchors Mr. Snider’s fine new album, “The Excitement Plan,” which was released last week on Yep Roc. Produced by the Grammy winner Don Was in a recession-efficient two days — “there’s no bread to dilly-dally anymore,” Mr. Was said — Mr. Snider’s ninth studio record marks a relatively calm patch in a volatile career and should finally help secure his place alongside peers like Steve Earle as one of music’s great populist, if not popular, singer-songwriters.

It all started when I had a problem with a guy on a highway crew...Get one phone call, two tylenol and the cold grey walls closin' in!

And, of course, the hero for all of us who are fed up...DB Cooper!And this is the way we all began musically...

Rod Stewart makes your ass look fat!

Seriously, doesn't anyone know how to mix sound for female vocalists?

Hey, that's my fourth favorite DJ you're talkin' about!

On the way in to work at Ginormous, I listen to Andrew Loog Oldham; on Thursday afternoons and Saturday night, I listen to Tom Petty. When I want Jazz, I tune in KPLU FM at Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma. And, on the way home, I usually listen to "Handsome Dick Manitoba" on XM59, Little Steven's Underground Garage. He mentioned that he and Tommy Ramone and some other Yiddish Punk guys were going to do this gig on the Jewish Roots of Punk.

Like Jews elsewhere, the four represented varying degrees of Jewishness. Mr. Manitoba recalled losing his place reading his portion of the Torah at his bar mitzvah. “After the bar mitzvah?” he said. “I bought a pound of pot.”