"I think they are all homosexual communists in Satan's army...I espect as well they all live together and bathe together every morning and have the anal sex with one another, with the fisting and the guinea pigs." - Manuel Estimulo
"I can never quite tell if the defeatists are conservative satirists poking fun at the left or simply retards. Or both. Retarded satire, perhaps?" - Kyle
"You're an effete fucktard" - Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom
"This is the most pathetic blog ever..." - Ames Tiedeman
"You two [the Rev and el Comandante] make an erudite pair. I guess it beats thinking." - Matt Cunningham (aka Jubal) of OC Blog
"Can someone please explain to me what the point is behind that roving gang of douchebags? I’m being serious here. It’s not funny, and doesn’t really make anything that qualifies as logical argument. Paint huffers? Drunken high school chess geeks?" - rickinstl
After a day of reading, responding to comments wanting to know if my blog mentor and favorite Zimbabweian Food Expert Crispin Sartwell was some kinda outside Jew Agitator because I recommended his work at Veterans Today, we were hungry. Cupboard was generally bare. Even bear would probably have sufficed but...not really. So, not caring for IHOP and wanting eggs for dinner, we ended up at Denny's in Lenwood, the upscale retail area of this awful place. It's a Overstock Mall...with some national restaurants.
While there I heard a criticism of Barstow that I need to respond to. Guy came in -- huge guy as tall as wide and he was wide-- and wanted to know if they had liver and onions on the menu. Hearing no, he was upset. He had left wherever he was this morning and thinking of his mother, he wanted LIVER AND ONIONS. Waitress -- a prison-tatooed Harley rider named PennyPam or something like that -- suggested he go to Chillis...yeah. (Guess she's never been there -- in about 100 yards away.)
The crowd Chillis markets to is definitely made up of people who might want liver and onions if and only if the alternate is live puppy and kitten flambe. Guy decided to go to Victorville and find it there...now, the idea that Barstow is restaurant, cuisine, culture, economically and educationally deprived is one I endorse, defend and publicly advocate. But, the not having a restaurant in town that has liver and onions on the menu is a plus, as far as I'm concerned. For centuries, children have been forced to eat organ meat -- liver, kidney, tongue, lungs, testicles --because their parents had had to eat it and what they had to do as kids was what they inflicted on their children.
But, we Boomers and our spiritual heirs in GenX have refused to force that crap down the throats of children...and soon, no one will eat organ meat unless in some exotic restaurant or when so old they know longer know what they're doing. We have fucked up a lot of things in our time -- but by the God that I don't believe in, that's one thing we got right.
Of course, things like Chicken nuggets are made from organ meat, skin and anything else lying around the factory floor, but at least it doesn't taste like liver, kidneys, testicles, tongue or lungs. It tastes like battered library paste...
So, the Japanese are "quietly" encouraging people who live within 19 miles of the reactors to leave. In case you're wondering, that works out to an area of about 3560 square miles. Granted, at least half of that will be Ocean, but 1700 square miles in Japan is a pretty big deal. And, of course, the Japanese depend on the ocean for a lot of food -- fish, seaweed, shellfish. In case you're wondering, the problem with the settling particles, known as fallout, is that they will enter the food chain. Now, if you can stand to not eat food items made in Japan, not a problem. Except, there are these things called migratory animals -- fish, birds, etc. and ocean currents. Do we have a problem? As always, define "we." The global WE has a problem, and the Japanese We have a problem. The US we, not so much...until the quake hits California.
There is one area where the WE is pretty universal. Conventional wisdom, by its very nature, may seem normative, but it's not wisdom. The economic unravelling that we're experiencing is a pretty good example of that...Now, if somebody advocates a set of ideas that do not work and that everybody else thinks are stupid, why do we consider them prophets? And, why is it that the political classes are so eager to go down rabbit holes? Rabbit holes where there are no rabbits, just vipers and dragons? Paul Krugman has been a strong voice urging against this, and supposedly we have a messianic sort in the White House who combines the soaring beauty of his rhetoric with pragmatism. Krugman is starting to find that funny, by the way; so, to a certain extent, am I. It's either that or go psycho and have an aneurysm. The US is not Greece; nor, is the US Japan. But bad ideas played out elsewhere are still bad ideas; and you can learn from mistakes vicariously. It's better to learn that way -- it hurts less. But, the conventional press and the Republicans have managed to get us in a situation where we're determined to do the same dumbass thing that other people have done to solve the wrong problems in such a way as to guarantee the greatest possible disaster...
But couldn’t America still end up like Greece? Yes, of course. If investors decide that we’re a banana republic whose politicians can’t or won’t come to grips with long-term problems, they will indeed stop buying our debt. But that’s not a prospect that hinges, one way or another, on whether we punish ourselves with short-run spending cuts.
Austerity doesn't work to jump start a modern economy. I do not mean that the unemployed all need to be given Escalades. But if you increase demand, you'll get money moving which will result in them at least getting Kias. Or Chevys... But, Krugman eloquently points out that the political classes are mired in a debate about what is not the problem. The immediate problem is demand, not deficit. By focusing on spending cuts, the Republicans are going to do to the US what the Tories have done to Britain. However, we seem stuck doing dumb shit things over and over. Need more energy -- let's put Nukes where they can fuck up a lot of things. Got a problem in the Muslim World -- shock and awe. Got an economic crisis -- let's do what has been proven not to work. As Krugman points out...
And then there’s the British experience. Like America, Britain is still perceived as solvent by financial markets, giving it room to pursue a strategy of jobs first, deficits later. But the government of Prime Minister David Cameron chose instead to move to immediate, unforced austerity, in the belief that private spending would more than make up for the government’s pullback. As I like to put it, the Cameron plan was based on belief that the confidence fairy would make everything all right. But she hasn’t: British growth has stalled, and the government has marked up its deficit projections as a result.
Which brings me back to what passes for budget debate in Washington these days.
A serious fiscal plan for America would address the long-run drivers of spending, above all health care costs, and it would almost certainly include some kind of tax increase. But we’re not serious: any talk of using Medicare funds effectively is met with shrieks of “death panels,” and the official G.O.P. position — barely challenged by Democrats — appears to be that nobody should ever pay higher taxes. Instead, all the talk is about short-run spending cuts.
In short, we have a political climate in which self-styled deficit hawks want to punish the unemployed even as they oppose any action that would address our long-run budget problems. And here’s what we know from experience abroad: The confidence fairy won’t save us from the consequences of our folly.
I found myself in a strange discussion the other day -- my chiropractor's wife who is the practice business manager was advocating a "flat tax." Her idea of the flat tax was that everybody has to pay the same AMOUNT of tax; that way, if you can't afford the taxes, you can't live in this country. Elaine makes no pretense of being at all political...but, she has an atomistic view of things that is similar to the nonsense spouted since the 80s by first the supply siders and then the Contract On America types and now by the Tea Party. The worst part is that some of the spouters should know better. Dick Armey and Phil Graham are economists -- they know better. They have to...they can do arithmetic. But, philosophically driven by a failed ideology, they continue to proclaim the world is flat and its only by chugging down some more of Doctor Reagan's magic elixir that we can be saved. Or Friar Tetzel's celestial passport.
Sometimes, you just want to know more...FAIL says that the headline is too long but if the purpose of the headline is to make you want to read the rest of the story, well, shitfuck...
I don't drink anymore. As a result, when I have a headache and shaking hands, it means I'm sick. I have slightly more money, slightly more scruples, and despite a serious problem -- unlike most people, I liked the taste of beer and whiskey right from the beginning, so I miss the tastes and textures -- have made the adjustment reasonably well.
But, if you're not a drunk, beer is a good thing. It is possible to brew nonalcoholic beer that tastes good, by the way -- Clausethaler is a bad example, but the Becks and St Pauli products are ok as is the alcohol free Paulaner. The best I drank in Germany was from a small brewery in the Spessart Mountains that I really enjoyed.
So, what is the old man babbling about? Well, Ethiopia. I actually had a close Ethiopian friend in Seattle named Joseph Roberts. Joseph is an interesting guy -- was one of the Ethiopian baby orphans in the early 70s when they were in vogue, and both he and his sister were adopted by a couple of British Academics on their way to Hong Kong. Classic Ethiopian profile, looked like you might imagine Johnson's Rasselas. Oxbridge Accent, Harvey Mudd trained scientist, Microsoft millionaire and one of the nicest and brightest people I've ever known. Retired and has a few oddball hobbies like taking care of the poor in Seattle and running some business in Guinea off and on. Had to show him how to polish shoes after he came back from one trip with some fairly expensive things ruined, he thought, by the dust he couldn't get out. Talk to an old soldier about how to clean shoes...of course, now that the boots are all rough side out, spit polishing will go the way of the bullet molds...
I asked him once why he hadn't gone back to Ethiopia to start his business, and he explained that the clan structure made it impossible for an Ethiopian who was not affiliated with a clan -- and since he was an orphan, he wasn't -- to do much of anything. He also talked badly about the way the French had left their territories, saying in effect that this was a case of the Marcus Aurelius mode, things so fucked up that his contributions however small to the people of Guinea were having a pretty good impact.
Ok, why am I reminiscing? Well, it appears some Bavarian fellow got tired of Merkel and the Osties ( East Germans who actually spend a lot of time lamenting the loss of the Stasi, Marcus Wolff, Soviet masters and brainwashing of children) and moved to Adis Ababa to open an authentic German Braueri, complete with a German trained Ethiopian Braumeister. I think that is kind of cool -- speaking of which, this is an authentic rural German summer drink that is a helluva lot better than it sounds. Take a good strong Pilsner and mix it with equal parts 7 Up and/or lemonade. I used to prefer it with lemonade and mineral water. Still occasionally will do it with an alcohol free beer, although most of them are either too expensive (German) or too weak-bodied to handle it. Called a Radler or a Radler-Weiss, it will while away the afternoon.
Obviously, things are a bit out of kilter when adults party crash kid's birthday parties...but, I can't believe no one had a camchorder or a phone and that there are no pictures...what the hell, Murdoch is the owner now, why aren't there pictures of semi-nude Hooters waitresses in the story?
Not as hot as it might be, but here...
And here, a sexual assault by a rodent on a blond...
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.
Crucifixion as Diet...per Random Posters and Google. They've got my attention with the CNN and Fox bit. Or, is this the diet Jesus endorses? Wine, unleavened bread and fish?
Well, what's Plum Island? It is CDC operation seven miles off the coast of Long Island where they test for and develop countermeasures for infectious animal diseases. For some reason probably tied to patronage, Homeland Security has this really great idea about about moving the Plum Island facility to ...the KIng Ranch! Or, the Chicago Stockyards! Or Georgia, near the Hog farms...in order to "modernize" the facility. KBR will probably get the contract. Or, Guiliani Partners.
History is littered with the smoking wreckage of the impregnable,
the indestructible and the unsinkable,” said Representative John
Dingell in noting the homeland agency has been too secretive and
arrogant for its own good.
Chastised officials responded with
promises of thorough risk assessments before pursuing the idea further.
And, yes, they sensibly are adding a sixth and most obvious alternative
at lawmakers’ suggestion — to modernize the Plum Island lab and spare
the mainland a fresh dose of unnecessary anxiety.
I really wish that someone had gotten these clowns way back when to change their heuristics, asking instead of "How hard can it be? Let's do it!" to something along the lines of "What could go wrong?" For a bunch of religious nuts, they really ought to remember Alexander Pope and "Man proposes, God disposes!" These clowns bankrupt the nation, kill hundreds of thousands in Iraq, wait for the flowers and candy to come their way and continue to do this sort of thing. If you have to force bureaucrats to do a simple cost/benefit/risk analysis, you're not dealing with bureaucrats. You're dealing with idiots and gamblers. And, as the great cardsharp, bunko artist and wit Wilson Mizner pointed out 80 years ago, "Life is 60/40 against."
Dunkin' Donuts is run by a horde of limp-dicked, slack-wristed, commie pinko appeasers! If Malkin started complaining that Seinfeld was a commie propaganda piece because George got that stupid fur hat and Peterman was hiding out in Myanmar (Elaine with Peterman in the jungle] ELAINE: This the Urban Sombrero, I put it on the last catalog cover. PETERMAN: The horror ... the horror.) would Fox stop carrying the Reruns?
MSNBC provided this bit, as a piece with an article about how 45% of economists think we're headed for a recession. Sold a house lately? Why are the President's Day Sales still going on? and then there's this gem, the most disturbing piece being that there is a Hot Dog and Sausage Council...
And then there's this which is actually a serious ad. Calling itself the best credit card for people with bad credit, Orchard Bank is willing to step up-- "Got money Problems? We'll eat your lungs!"
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