the defeatists!

You go, Girl! Err...seek the blood of Jaysus and pennance...err...No Surrender!

come from an island, Ireland, a nation
Built upon violence and morose vendettas.
My diehard countrymen like drayhorses
Drag their ruin behind them.
Shooting straight in the cause of crooked thinking
Their greed is sugared with pretence of public spirit.
From all which I am an exile.  -- Louis MacNeice

The Partition of Ireland remains the gift that keeps on giving. Michael Collins has got to be laughing in his Guinness. Or, to look at it another Protestant politicians make a porno! And, George Michael the former Senator--no, wait, George Mitchell, the former Senator --and Bill Clinton are obviously to blame for Missus Robinson and the lad with the restaurant...although, what sort of woman gives her lover $80K to open restaurants and then asks for 20% kickback fo Jaysus and the Orange Order and Presbyterian Church? I think this is really kind of cool in a Gonzo way.  Presbyterian political women have mid-life crises? Wouldn't it have been easier to get this gal a Rolex, a Miata, and a chihuahua and a membership in a tennis club with a Gay, Argentinian Tennis Instructor...

"She looked out for me to make sure I was OK," McCambley told the BBC. (AXE commentary: Sure.)He said Iris Robinson, now 60, gave him two checks for 25,000 pounds ($40,000) each, but she then asked him for 5,000 pounds ($8,000) back, possibly to donate to the evangelical Protestant church she attends. (AXE amazement: Semen money instead of blood money? Protestants got indulgences?)

The BBC said Peter Robinson was aware of the financial deal – which should have been reported to British parliamentary standards authorities in both Belfast and London. Peter Robinson denies having known about the deal. (AXE commentary: Well, he was probably reading something and she announced she was giving the lad some money to invest in a restaurant because he did such a great job on boiled sheep stomach and lentils, and he said, "Sure, dear. You're in my light...or words to that effect. Or, she was threatening him with sex...)

Even before the scandal, Iris Robinson had caused her husband political problems when she condemned homosexuals as revolting and called on them to seek help from psychiatrists and Christianity. "Just as a murderer can be redeemed by the blood of Christ, so can a homosexual," she said. ( AXE praeteritio:(Yeah, it's a word, look it up in any text on rhetoric! In Greek it's this παράλειψις; it's also called paralipsis, and one of the texts indicates that it's primarily used for ad hominem attacks. Well, we'll refrain from gay-bashing here, having used up our supply of the blood of Christ for more natural abhorrent practices like sex with women and speeding past schools. )Having just posted about the Magdalene laundries, what the fuck can I do with this...pass! It's too easy...)...

And then, the human interest slant:

The exposure of Iris Robinson's affair had Protestants and Catholics united in gossip Friday – including at the Lock Keepers Inn, McCambley's thriving cafe on a popular River Lagan walkway. McCambley himself spent most of the morning standing outside the inn talking on his cell phone. Then he carefully walked across an icy river bridge to a waiting car without speaking to journalists who had also poured into the inn. "It is just such a surprise, to think with someone so young," said Janice Richards, 33, sipping tea with her baby asleep beside her in a stroller. Another customer, 43-year-old Carol Blaney, leaned over and agreed furtively: "I know there is the whole political thing. But to me it is the fact he is so young." (AXE commentary: Young and nubile? Wait...would this be a big deal if she had gone after a more mature man like, oh, Sean McGowan? Now, that's an image...proper Protestant lady and the principal Pogue. Bring a whole different slant to the Pogue Mahon bit. It would have been better still if the politicians boy toy had actually been a girl...heheheheh. Protestant pobahs plunging into the port and perusing pictures of perverted political girl on girl pederasty...or some such! )

Of course, there is a lot of serious political crap going on here... Martin McGuiness and the IRA are concerned that the lad might have been traumatized by the Mrs. Robinson bit, the Orange Order feels betrayed, and will the Peace Process survive? Well, Gerry Adams and Marty besides, the Nationalist Movement has a history of rejecting its leaders over sex, so why not the Protestant Boys? The Orange Order has always felt betrayed since before they left Scotland. It was easier for Cromwell to ship them to Ulster than exterminate them in Scotland. They were pissed off ever since. And, if the Peace Process doesn't survive, I suspect it was never real anyway. If its not strong enough to survive this bullshit, well...

Peter Robinson's many political rivals in Northern Ireland have questioned whether he can remain head of a shaky coalition with Irish Catholics _the central achievement of the province's 1998 peace accord. Many within his own Democratic Unionist Party – a movement with a deeply conservative Protestant base – expressed doubts about his political survival as well. ( AXE commentary:The guy replaced Paisley. A technocrat replaced a giant of hatred, intolerance and bitter reminiscence of various massacres of Catholics throughout his career? What hope did he ever have?) Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, the senior Irish Catholic in the coalition, sought an urgent meeting Friday with Robinson but failed to get one. The two have had an increasingly tense relationship in the past year. (AXE commentary: Yeah. Before it was just great. They go down to the Pub and talk about the good old days when Marty was leading the armed struggle and they were both trying to kill each other in the interest of Jesus Christ. Sad when old friends fall out.)The political tensions coincide with ongoing attacks by IRA dissidents against police and British soldiers in Northern Ireland...

Now, if the world-weary, cynical old United States can get utterly befuddled by Monica Lewinsky and this current issue of the big-dicked weasel from the Budget Office, and on and on and on, ad infinitum and ad nauseam as they say in Lubbock, with our somewhat more liberated view of sex and human nature and forgiveness and David Vitter hiking the Appalachian trail and so on, WHAT THE HELL WILL THIS DO IN NORTHERN IRELAND, where the Weltanschauung is, shall we say, somewhat Talibanian?

No, Ireland needs Brendan Behan and Liam Clancy and Sean O'Casey to handle this. Bono and the Edge aren't up to it, and McGowan doesn't write enough of his own stuff anymore...I actually feel sorry for Mrs. Robinson and her husband. And, may god in his mercy be kind to Belfast...which would be a first.

A city built upon mud;
A culture built upon profit;
Free speech nipped in the bud,
The minority always guilty. --Louis Macniece

Smite them, Tiffany. At least Fred...Thank God and the gays for this one

God Hates Lady Gaga I have not paid any attention to Lady Gaga. Can't imagine why I should. However, in much the way I intend to buy a sweater at the Gap because of the whole Solstice devil worshipping commercial, I now agree to pay a few moments attention to her. Him? It? I really don't care...Fred Phelps, the lunatic pastor who consistently tells us that God hates Fags and therefore it's right to protest the funerals of fallen soldiers because God hates FAGS!...Fred the Brain Dead anti-Christian Christian who brings a whole new level of dweebness and fun to fundamentalism has decided to take on the Lady herself...Just him and his bunch of thyroid-eyes, mouthbreathing, demi-army of Twits who are giving dipshits everywhere a bad name because of their antics. He is beside himself, as the guys in his parade probably pud-pull to images of her ladyship...

Gaga's thoughts on gayness, not on Phelps according to The Congressional Record ...

Her devotion to gay culture is unparalleled by any other artist operating at her level of visibility or success. “When I started in the mainstream it was the gays that lifted me up,” she says. “I committed myself to them and they committed themselves to me, and because of the gay community I’m where I am today.” Earlier this year, in her acceptance speech for her MuchMusic award for best international video, Lady Gaga thanked “God and the gays.” Before agreeing to tour with Kanye West this fall, Gaga told the rapper, “I just want to be clear before we decide to do this together: I’m gay. My music is gay. My show is gay. And I love that it’s gay. And I love my gay fans and they’re all going to be coming to our show. And it’s going to remain gay.” That’s another clause in the Gagaland constitution: Gay culture shall gush undiluted into the rapids of society. It shall not be co-opted, fancified, dolled up, or Uncle Tommed. “I very much want to inject gay culture into the mainstream,” she says, “It’s not an underground tool for me. It’s my whole life. So I always sort of joke the real motivation is to just turn the world gay.”

Well, Wet-Fred-the-Brain-Dead has another take on the whole thing...You gotta love the whole forehead of a whore thing. It's like the bald hipster saying Howie Long has cop hair. Seriously, this guy is to religion what Disco Demolition was to baseball promotions and Tom Delay was to the whole Saturday Night Fever Revival. 

So, while I'll probably hate it, here is Lady Gaga doing something or other. I intend to get the sweater at GAP on Monday...and chuckle.

Lady Gaga - New Music - More Music Videos

"there's nothing wrong, that wasn't wrong before"

“And while I will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests, I also promise you this — and this is very important as we consider our next steps in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said. “I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way.”

 

I recall looking through Newsweek as a kid and getting freaked the fuck out looking at pictures from the war in Afghanistan. Afghani fighters pushed back the Soviet Union forces! well there was one iconic picture of a dead Afghani soldier with bare hands and a gun (AK 47? aXe?), and the caption, as I recall, was that the dude's hands had frozen to the metal of the gun once he had passed. it's not a vivid memory, kind of a tonal thing in my mind right now. it's not quite real to me. these images aren't. it is, in effect, not a pipe.  

I always click on the image. do you click?

Dear god, Lesbos revenge...Or Tiffany has taken over LLBean and Wrangeler!

If Rachel Maddow misses this one, she'll never forgive herself. This demands some cheery, snarky irony. I'm starting to think that having stopped drinking 19 years ago was a terrible mistake...

Back in the day, I used to joke that the Army hired designers who were gay and hated women in order to design their uniforms. They were awful -- not flattering, unattractive, inefficient and ineffective at doing what they were supposed to do. There is a nice irony in that the original women's fatigues had a cute little pocket on the sleeve for pens and pencils and tampax or whatever -- tootsie rolls, tampax, pocket vibrators --where now the Army Combat Uniform has the same thing.

However, I think that men's fashion has been taken over by Lesbians-Who-Hate-Men. The people who were running it before may have been gay, but they liked men. Or, perhaps it's an alliance between LWHM and Androgonous Guys on Bad Drugs...or possibly Good Drugs. However, I don't expect to see anyone that I'd care to have a cup of coffee with, listen to, or consider as a functional human being dressed like one of Britney's dancers on crack with better abs striding along the catwalk. Or street. seriously, if Mick or Steven ever showed up for a gig dressed like this, the Stones or Aerosmith would turn into the Village People. (Or, Keith and Joe would just shoot them. Blam. On Stage...and get off because they're rich, and  because they eliminated a public nuisance.) Even in the Crossroads of Opportunity; this would be outre even for Vegas.

I understand fashion statements. I just don't see the pont of "Hey Ever'bodee...I'm a dickless twit!" as one.

Meanwhile in the neighborhood...

of the crossroads of opportunity, just down the road a piece...

recursive dissonance slays me

"why pay all that rent, when some day you can own your own home?" 

"someday you can own your own place, or at least build equity."

"it's much better to work towads something you'll own one day.  it instills a sense of responsibility."

thanks mom. 

it's almost as if people never paid attention to their elders.

There I am in Spookaloo, city of magic, city of light, ensconced upon my front porch in broad daylight — long about noon, my rising time — drinking something of a potable beverage, playing my guitar, long after everybody else in the neighborhood has packed up their lunchbox and gone off down to Kaiser Aluminum to put in their shift. This enrages my neighbors. One in particular across the road, little retired banker fella, has been known to cannonball his rotundity across the road, and stand there and publicly berate me for my sloth and indolence.

"Why don’t you get a job?" he says. Lot of you heard that, I’ll bet.

Now, me being hip to the Socratic method, fires back a question. "Why?"

"Why?" he says, taken aback. "If you had a job you could make three, four, five dollars an hour."

I said "Why?" I asked, pursuing the same tack.

He said, "Hell, you make three, four, five dollars an hour, you could open a savings account, save up some of that money." I said, "Why?"

He said, "Well, you save up enough of that money, young fella, pretty soon you’ll never have to work another day in your life."

I said, "Hell, that’s what I’m doing right now!"

—Utah Phillips (1984), in the middle of his performance of Hallelujah, I’m a Bum! on We Have Fed You All A Thousand Years

I just learned today that Utah passed.  man, what a bummer.

anyone who ever went to college would understand that yes, you're not likely to get your deposit money back from the bastard running the place.  but you know what?  you could leave that place trashed as can be, because ultimately it's not your own place.  if the owner wants to rent it to the same class of people, or better, he'll need to invest in cleaning it up and improving it.  not me.  that's some fucking responsibility right there.  an ownership society is just as easily enslaved.  who's your master now?

Now, this is the sort of book they should be reading in English Lit 101

Because, after all, isn't this what all great literature is about? 

And everybody needs one of these...don't they?

The dog ate the weapon?

That's what we do when we catch bin Laden, goddamnit. My theory is that the perp was really a CIA operative trying out a new type of psychological warfare. Or, and this is disturbing on many levels, that's what they do for fun in the gay community of Fresno.

Everybody in the world, listen and listen good!

Get lives.  Seriously....If you want to share pet pictures, cococachoo.  But, don't waste electrons in this nonsense.

"I hate Illinois Nazis!" and ersatz Druids...

Three years ago the other night, I was with the significant other as opposed to the spouse. We were in her somewhat squalid rental and she announced that we were going to do something special that night. Well, that filled me with dread, actually. She then asked to borrow my buck knife -- why a guy in a suit teaching executive education to Navy types was carrying a 4 inch Buck folding blade at the significant other's home tells you more about me than her. Then, go in and change into my bathrobe. She went in and changed into her robe. Ok, the next step was to light a bunch of candles -- what is it about the Irish and candles? Is it the centuries of brainwashing and "Light a candle for your mother, maybe the good lord will cure the alcoholism and the dementia...Are we just a race of Pyromaniacs? I mean seriously, what the fuck is that all about? --and kneel on the floor in front of the fireplace in which we never had a fire despite the chill while she read what was supposed to be a Solstace prayer she got out of a New Age magazine. As I recall, vaguely, after the blessing of the summer or something, she then had me read some of Harry Potter to her. Ok, did I mention she had gorgeous green eyes, great legs and Irish blonde hair and most of the time was pretty sane? Because this doesn't sound like a her that an I would fall for.

Anyway, the news that the freaks came out on the solstice to the Salisbury plain to play at being Pagans and Druids didn't surprise me. Just annoyed me, in the way that Ryan Seacrest or whatever his name is annoys me. And, fucking Illinois Nazis...wannabes. I dislike wannabes. They're so busy wannabeing that they never are anything worth a shit. We're not suffering as a result of losing the touch of the sacred that the Druids or the old Celtic gods or the Norse or the "Pagans!" had or their wannabe successors profess to have. Now, we don't know what the fucking Druids did at  Stonehenge, we don't know what they really believed. We know, we think, that they worshiped trees. We also know that they were into human sacrifice and ritual torture. I'm not aware of masses of Mestizos showing up on the solstice to sacrifice virgins and rip out their hearts. Despite the fun in Help! the Devotees in Kali aren't mainstream and few folks decide to become part time Thugees  just to recapture their roots. I admire tribal members in this country who do the Sun Dance because that actually requires suffering and endurance and belief to get through. People who buy a big igloo shaped doghouse to pretend that it's a sweat lodge really should just go to the gym and sit in sauna. For some reason a lot of white folks want to harken back in their spiritual life to a reality that was not real. By the way, Pagan means not Judeo-Christian; it wasn't a specific religion. Calling yourself a Pagan could mean you're a Scientologist, a Sunworshipper or you worship your left as opposed to right testicle...

Did I mention it's 115 here in the Crossroads of Opportunity? Fuck a bunch of Druids...   

Now in the Fremont district of Seattle, they don't pretend that this more than an excuse for fun...