the defeatists!

No respect, I tell you...

Huffington Post has a travel piece up showing bits and pieces of Route 66. Waxing lyrical and implying that we generally do not know our country because we drive interstates instead of things like HW 101 or the Lincoln Highway or Route 1 or whatever. Well, that's fine. Most of the stuff people pretend to be nostalagic for on Route 66 are pretty horrible. For example, Barstow. That said, they chose to show a shot of The El Rancho Motel in New Mexico. Problem is, their picture says "El Rancho---Barstow" on the damn hotel' sign. There are hotels in Barstow that could lure tourists, I guess but the El Rancho is for someone trying to emualte Burroughs and Naked Lunch. A wretched place, home to bunches of street people, the crazed, ill, drunken and drugged multitude that make this a sad commentary on America in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

Ok, it is a pretty good song...couple of kind of transformational versions here. There are some live Stones footage ones, but this has Mick Taylor on slide so it's the superior; as for the Nat King Cole Trio, what the hell...

It's been a while since Crusader AXE agreed with much coming out of Rome...

I got to spend a good part of the day in the just-down-the-hill Mall; dropped the wife off at Regis for a 10000 mile service, the car off at Sears for a 5000 mile service and spent hours not drinking in the Tally Ho Tavern trying to beat the devil but sitting in Barnes and Noble. Constant stream of phonecalls that I didn't get because Motorola appears to have made that cell phone shielded from the signal...the calls would have pissed me off or amused me or something -- we don't have the oil you asked for for the sled but we have this and we're going to do it; we don't have that either but we have this other stuff; oops, we were wrong, we do too have what you wanted and we're going to use that. Go figure.

On the way out, we stopped and traded in cell phones and carriers. People were actually very helpful -- I always found Catherine Zeta-Jones the image of helpfulness, my self -- and we now have semi-smart phones that I am probably too bad tempered and ADDS these days to really figure out. However, the spouse is happy because she now has GPS and I'm happy because I hate AT&T on principle. I realized as we were driving home, that I had not checked email once all day, and figured that I was probably not missing anything important, but would probably have a mail box full of alarums and hazards from Defeatist Central and Malcontent Control. Nope -- which is good, it means they had better things to do today than send each other emails. It's actually almost pleasant at the moment in the Crossroads of Opportunity -- still low 90s; other years, 110F has been consistently buried by this time and the temperature is still climbing, headed for 100K...I spent a few minutes looking at stuff, and saw this, which gave me a smile and a momentary good feeling about the Faith of My Fathers, Mothers and Everybody Else going back to the 5th Century...

Indeed, the announcement that the Vatican rag of record has declared The Blues Brothers a Catholic classic is somewhat redemptive, I guess...Dan Ackroyd announced that he'd been an altar boy at age Six which I do not believe, but that he was somewhat lapsed, which the AXE had no trouble believing, but he was writing a check for the local parish. Most of us old and lapsed Catholics from pre-Vatican II days really have a lot of residual fondness for the old girl, even though the ideology is absurd: Ratzinger a totalitarian more interested as Protector of the Faith in theological trivia than abuse of power through the abuse of children; and Jesus wasn't a Catholic or even a Capricorn, but a Jew...giving the whole Christkiller thing kind of an odd-twist...in fact, Jesus was found guilty by a somewhat corrupt Roman military governor and executed by Romans. So, the Italians killed Jesus. Or not...

Anyway, as I've pointed out in the past, no Catholicism, no Irish monasteries preserving culture after everything went pear shaped for the empire. No Occam's razor, no Aquinas, no Gothic cathedrals, no Charles Martel and boys at Tours. No Catholicism, and we'd all be Muslims. Or, possibly Druids. Or Vikings.



Most likely Muslims, although Christianity does pretty well in really cold climates; not so much Islam, although parts of Western China, Pakistan and Afghanistan get cold as a Viking Hell. No Catholicism, no Protestant Reformation, work ethic. No Catholicism, no Elizabeth; no Bono and Edge. No Catholicism, no revolt.

Doesn't mean it's right. James Joyce, when asked if he were becoming a Protestant after he renounced Catholicism, said no, why would he  trade a logical absurdity for an illogical absurdity; he thought so much of his witticism, he put it in Portrait and in Ulysses and probably in Finnegan's Wake but in some nonsense non-rhyming Irish version of Cockney rhyming slang and Sanskrit. Probably put it in a personal ad in Zurich looking for a typist. 



No Catholicism, no Protestantism. It serves a purpose, for those who need it. For those of us who don't, it's a fond memory that appears to mask a falling fortress, crumbling under neglect, ignorance and the assaults from within of the privileged and the trivial. Now, in a piece in the Atlantic, Ross Douthat makes a critical point discussing the idea that the Catholic Church is on it's last legs.

"The Church has been horrifyingly corrupt in previous eras and still survived. It’s been led by ecclesiastics who make Bernard Law’s hands look clean, and still survived. It’s faced fiercer enemies than Richard Dawkins (think Nero, or Attila, or Voltaire) and still survived. Time after time, G. K. Chesterton wrote, “the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs.” Each time, “it was the dog that died.” But if the Church isn’t finished. period, it can still be finished for certain people, in certain contexts, in certain times. And so it is in this case: for millions in Europe and America, Catholicism is probably permanently associated with sexual scandal, rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as in many previous dark chapters in the Church’s history, the leaders entrusted with that gospel have nobody to blame but themselves.

I don't know. I think that there will always be those who need a god and who need a personal god. Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Animism -- they exist because we had a need that we still have. The AXE's blend of Stoicism, Tiffanyism, Existentialism and Scholasticism is definitely based in large part on those 16 years of Catholic confinement...and Dan, at six your were probably a choir boy rather than altar boy. However, same silly costume and same nuns pointing the way toward the truth, the light and boy's room. 

There are days I miss Sister Teresa Marie teaching first and second and then second and third grade simultaneously. Feeling of safety is long gone, the feeling that someone has a plan is definitely long gone; Sister Gregoria hasn't shown me how to throw a curveball later, and Fr. Major hasn't told me to grow out my crewcut and use a comb either. That church is gone, as is the sense of trust and the belief that God sees all. If God sees all, Ratzinger and the Pederastic Priests and Brothers are in for a hell of a hell.

I ultimately go back to my anti-theistic epiphany -- there is no god, god has a plan beyond our understanding, or god is an evil motherfucker with a warped sense of humor and no good intentions toward us. I know what I think...

Shiva Time!

While discussing the possibility of new page over at Area 51  andcontemplating a picture of a high altitude nuclear explosion, I commented, "Shiva is a pretty bitch when she's trying to destroy the universe." Well, Newt Gingrich is a petty bitch at the best of times, and his current madness about using electromagnetic pulse weaponry to counter the North Korean's effort to either launch a satellite or nuke Japan -- either way, a fuck-up...missed both!! " -- is an example of why people with PhDs in the history of Belgian Education regulations, should never be allowed to talk about science. Ever. Not even with a real scientist, capable of telling the guy how fucked up he is.

Gingrich was the child of a career military family, moving a number of times while growing up and attending school at various military installations. He ultimately graduated from Baker High School in Columbus, Georgia, in 1961. He received a B.A. degree from Emory University in Atlanta in 1965. He received an M.A. in 1968 and a PhD in 1971 in Modern European History from Tulane University in New Orleans.^[4] His dissertation topic was Belgian Education policy in Africa. While at Tulane, Gingrich, who at the time belonged to no religious group, began attending the St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church to pursue an interest in the effect of religion on political theory; he was soon baptized by the Rev. Mr G. Avery Lee.^[5]
...A Baptist since graduate school, Gingrich converted to Catholicism, his wife’s faith, on March 29, 2009. ^[15]

Anyway, without recapping his rather bizarre career -- he commits serial adultery, marries the gal, converts to her religion while condemning and trying to railroad Clinton out of the White House, politicizes the flag, writes a "it would have been a good thing if the South had won at Gettysburg and Roosevelt knew about the Japs" set of alternative histories, and helped Tom Delay come to power along with Twitshit de la Dweeb. About the only thing he's done that indicates anything even marginally pleasant is replacing Dick Cheney as Republican Whip. Twit. Idiot.

So, he proclaims on Fox that we need to EMP North Korea. There's a problem...EMP in this context is electromagnetic pulse, not Experience Music Project...EMP is a helluva weapon but there's one slight drawback... unless they've pulled a bigggggg fucking rabbit out of his ass, Gingrich is advocating high altitude nuclear airbursts against Korea. Ok, odd concept. Granted, given North Korea's location, we'd probably have to get right with South Korea, China, Japan and Russia first. There are non-nuclear ways to do do this, but they're not going to be very effective against a whole fucking country. Nope, a 50 megaton bomb at 100 miles will fry the little bastards circuits. It will also do the same to lots of other stuff. Pacemakers, IPods, microwave ovens, radar guidance systems. Interestingly, the more primitive the electronics, the better equipped they are to survive. Oh, and burying the stuff below ground helps a lot too...is anyone else seeing problems with these characteristics and attacking a country that is about as technologically advanced as Hahti and where they bury stuff and tunnel under stuff just to find some edible rocks?

Now, the damage on the surface will be little to none, except those caused by the accidents from the failing electronic systems. Tripping over facts is kind of a Gingrich specialty anyway...So, in order to prevent Kim Jong Il from having his way with us through nuclear weapons, on a weekend where the Prez starts talking about a world without nukes, this weasel advocates pre-emptive nuclear war.  Of course, he doesn't say that. Maybe the services have some wonderful high tech weapon to do this, but if they do, it would be really highly classified, and if Newt still knew about it, somebody is leaking serious stuff to one of the biggest mouths on the right who is not so obviously crazy as to not be able to be elected, even in Georgia.

I remember a sleazy little fan book I bought in 1966...

In it, he wasn't quoted so much about wanting to be Woody as about becoming more like the blues players, Mance Lipscomb, Lightning Hopkins and the various itinerant minstrels like Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Bill Broozey. Download BeyondHereLiesNothin_.mp3. Go Figure.

"This is going to fail, but it's going to be sooooooo funny."

I dislike Rap. Hell, I hate it. I don't get it, and my Paddyass white brain doesn't find it musically or intellectually interesting. In this, I am sure I resemble my father trying to get his head around Bob Dylan and not getting it. That said, I accept that I am an old white guy and I don't like contemporary teenage rock either. It's a generational thing...but, I am a big fan of keeping it real.

I'd been meaning to write about Jamamster Mikey Steele's effort to re-brand the Republicans as an urban-suburban hip hop thing, kind of like tweed jeans that ride so low as to show your jockey shorts, but really thought that it was so ludicrous as to be almost tautologically stupid. Then I read IOZ's piece, and decided I needed to add something. This is the best example of intellectual dishonesty and bankruptcy since...shit, since a long long time. Only the greatest White R&B Band of all time can describe it. Here's my comment...

You gotta get the chorus of "mutafuckah...mutafuckah...peas out!" going in the background to get the whole effect.  So, let me get this straight? Johnny B "Bonemaster" and MitchyMitchMC are headed to the "heartland" to do what, exactly? Breakdance in the Rotary in Tuscaloosa? Get down with it in Clovis? Join with MC Rove and the less Talented members of the Drew Carey troop at some Father and Song banquets at the San Angelo CYO?  As Melissa Harris-Lacewell, 30ish professor of politics and African American Studies at Princeton told Rachel Maddow, "They see Obama as Superman, and they wanted to get kryptonite. You get Kryptonite from Superman's home planet, so they went to Planet Blackguy! Planet Old Blackguy...This is going to fail, but it's going to be soooo funny. I can't wait...Peace out, Rachel." Peace out, IOZ! Mutafuckah...

So, here's the whole commentary. This doesn't require snark at all...this guy has got to be a Democratic mole in the R's stable, or they are really, really, really in trouble. Maybe they could get the highest elected Black Republican, the guy who chairs the Texas State Railroad Commission to team up with Steele and a bad Aerosmith cover band to do Walk this Way at their next fish fry. 

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OK, I'll have that lobotomy now...

Things not to see at the top of an article about Megan Mullally .

Oh, deer...

You know, this is a great Christmas season, and some folks just don't want it to end...Santa is Satan, Rudolph is a commie pinko fag and leads an embarassment of gay reindeer. The problem with the religious right wing nuts is that because they eschew logic and reason, it's hard to know whether or not a site is really, really parody or is really, really sincere. This reads a lot like something my drunken Holy Cross crusader buds would have written in 1971 for the annual satirical edition of the school Newspaper. Actually, I recall writing some very nasty stuff for the '73 edition. There really isn't any better way to celebrate the HOLIDAYS than looking at this and then listening to a classic by anarchists...or antichrists. Or both...

Abstinence pledges lead to abortions...venereal disease...virgin births?

Tiffany, please make it STOPPPPP!!!!!! Seriously, wanna bet that Bristol Palin and Levi didn't have abstinence pledges at their drive-in, drive-by- Wasilla (and the typepad hobbits aren't sure how to spell it either, but I don't care!) creationist, fundamentalist, abstinence is the best sex-education church...

Oil companies get OK to annoy polar bears

Seriously, our polity is such that the best snarkiness is to just let the facts sing...

Another piece of incompetence

There was never any doubt in my mind during my visit to China that I was probably being "minded" by the people who had me there teaching. If they thought that I had information they needed stored on my laptop, I would probably expect them to copy it. When you visit Shanghai or any Chinese city, you notice the lack of privacy, and the lack of boundaries.

So, what the hell was the Secretary of Commerce doing in China, carrying and leaving his laptop unattended? At the risk of seeming cynical, and we certainly wouldn't want that, was he hoping to have the People's Liberation Army read his email? If he went to lunch at a conference, one would think he would have had low level staffers standing guard over his stuff...

I'm not sure what sort of brilliance the Chinese could loot from the US Department of Commerce. But, the lesbo porno shots of Mary Cheney probably would result in at least some amusement...