the defeatists!

Sometimes the blind pig finds a goddamn truffle...

Seriously, I was screwing around looking for some guitar tabs and a link to Plan 9 from Outer Space to torment the assorted Defeatists and Malcontents when I discovered this...The Internet Archive.
Links to tons of material including things like this concert by the Derek Trucks Band with Susan Tedeschi. With download capability. Tons of material, including films, books, broadsheets and tons of other things. There are some drawbacks, of course -- copyrighted material is in scant supply. But, if you want to scan a collection of Lincoln's sayings and speeches, well, check this... Or want to watch a cheesy film with a gal with bazookas, try this, The Outlaw by auteur Howard Hughes.

Here we go round again, again, again...

The news that Ray Davies is putting together a Kinks tribute with people like Bruuuuuuccccceee and Bon Jovi and the Killers is actually helpful today. While I'm not excited about a Kinks reunion tour, given that Dave Davies is recovering from a stroke and god only knows what the lead playing would be like or what he'd end up doing



(Triangle? Do the CSN deal from the old Daylight Again tour where they basically had turned off David Crosby's guitar since he was drugged out? Glockenspiel? Given the relationships between the brothers, frustration could yield to an onstage performance with the Glock-10...) but we don't appreciate the Kinks as much as we should. New Wave, Punk, Alternative...Ray Davies is definitely a major rock influence, and we could claim not a terribly commercial one. Hell, Mark Knopfler is a direct descendent of Ray Davies aesthetically...he just is a superb guitarist, composer and arranger...Ray is more poet-journalist.  

That actually made me feel better when I thought about it. I got to spend time this morning in a "webinar" on employee engagement. This is the new management buzzphrase for employees actually not hating their jobs and hoping that the company does well. The webinar or links can probably be found on the Towers-Perrin website in a couple of days, and from an academic point of view, it was pretty good. From a reality based point of view, keeping in mind how the pointy-haired boss keeps replicating, I gotta say I can see shortfalls should the researcher's thoughts become mainstream.



For example, one way to track employee engagement is by the amount of time people spend seeking career information from internal sources versus external sources. If they're on the company career site, that's a good thing, indicating that they think not horribly about the place. However, if they are spending all their time on Monster or Careerbuilder, that's not so good. So, I can picture a ton of people I have worked for or with who's solution would be simple -- block internet access to sites with career information. Loyalty is better than chaining people to their jobs, but in a pinch, chains work.  And, if you're a pointy-haired boss, you don't worry if the chains pinch.

Enough to make a Defeatist decide to take up playing on street corners and parking lots, hanging out in front of Vons strumming Joe Hill songs for quarters...oh, and most of the people I know...? They're probably looking at Monster right now.

Playing Palin, she thinks she freaking Madonna...

Divas do not make good politicians. I know people who have worked in the Senate, for example, and behind the scenes guys like Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer are total dickweeds. Teddy Kennedy, except for the drunken Irishman schtick and the cockhoundness before his remarriage, was a fairly decent guy. The Alaska delegation seemed to have a fixation on assholes, although Begich has yet to offend anyone the way Ted Stevens offended all sentient beings. Bill Frist was supposedly a fairly nice guy; Trent Lott was charming; Bob Dole had an extraordinary sense of humor. In fact, I suspect Dole could join the Defeatists as Cato and make all our stuff here and at the outlier sites -- or sites of which we are outliers -- a lot better. His wife, on the other hand, makes dildoes look warm and cuddly. However, they were all invariably polite to people who demonstrate that they love them. Until now...



So, Sarah Palin is showing her true colors. Not that anyone needs to be surprised but...the AXE figures that she'll blame her self-induced flashing of the true Sarah on the liberal media somehow.

"We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold, my kids were crying," one man was quoted saying. "They went home with my wife. She was out here in the freezing cold all day. I feel like I don't want to support Sarah."...Another woman told Indy Channel, "We bought two books from Borders to have our receipt and our wristband to get it signed tonight. My books are going back to Borders tomorrow." The angry crowd turned on Palin as she returned to her "Going Rogue" tour bus. (Emphasis added)

First of all,  The Typepad is not recognizing Palin as a proper noun as I draft this, which means Michael Palin should sue. Next when a crowd of ignorant assholes turns from cheering and orgasmic moaning to booing and catcalls, that's pretty tame behavior. Wonder how many of these twits were carrying guns? If they'd shot the tires out and torched the goddamn bus while making her sign the books and their various body parts, and then barbecuing the kid, then they would have turned. Here, some dipshits got a comeuppance...delivered by the Moose-slaughterer Profundis herself...

This makes the John Stewart bit even more relevant. Seriously, if the candidate for whatever is this oblivious, this tone deaf, then all I can say is that Mitt-Plastic-Fantastic-Romney might have a chance. Huckabee is supposed to actually care about people, even though he gets his economic theory from Malthus. The more Palin shows that she's just a self-centered, baby-popping, ignorant cunt from the backwoods, the better their chances. However, neither MPFR nor Huckleberry can get the crowds riled up and the base enthralled. If I were the Dems, I'd stockpile this footage and play it often.

Powered by morbid curiousity since 2005

Have you ever wanted to comment on a site and gotten pissed off by the robot guards and not commented? I know I have; I suspect others have. However, now that we have received two comments from a fucking on-line website in fucking Kiwi and Kangaroo land offering commenting almost coherently about the topic, I have gotta say, the ROBOT GUARDS ain't working. Now, often as not the discussion is almost coherent to begin with; but I want to thank On-line Viagra for the suggestion that we post a song about anal sex. I'm not going to do it, but thanks for the suggestion. Instead, here's something really awful...I actually prefer the Archies Cover to this one...why do people think bad Reggae horns are better than Viking horns as backup is beyond me. That would at least be different...

Why guitar based rock and roll is...the best.

Fuck a bunch of zithers and synthesizers and rap idiots trying to get coherent thoughts out iambs with no particular pentameter or even sense....how many things can you rhyme with motherfucker anyway ?  This stuff from The Mooney Suzuki in NYC is the real stuff...

WE MUST GET AGI in this CAR!!! For the sake of the Blogosphere...

Some of you may recall that my brothers have had an on-going sabotage campaign against Shakesville, a small-minded blog for small-minded, big-butted androgynous hobbits who propose all sorts of fearless stuff in a closed-minded society. AGI's spouse recently announced that she was pregnant; since he made a comment this week that he couldn't wait for the next four months to pass, I'm guessing he's kinda oblivious around the house, or his wife is so petite that were he to meet the Shakesville crew, they'd figure he kidnapped here from the Hobbit-House Saloon in Tinytown and try to liberate her from his clutches. Probably both...

Anyway, AGI has decided to get a new car. Money is an object, of course, but so is a surprising amount of political correctness...Dude, You're killing me, get a Hummer if you want space and safety for the little one! Or, and as the designated Hunter S. Thompson of the collective, I have got to advise you, the best thing to get is a Corvette. Ok, AGI has always shown some common sense, and far too much to fall for the "Dude, do what you shouldn't do, and that will make you happy..."And, did I mention his wife coaches girl's lacrosse? 

So, here's suggestion. The Volkswagen Jetta Sports Wagon TDI...The main reason for this is that the reviews all indicate that it's a helluva good car and checks all his metaphysical boxes . They do have horrid commercials, although replacing the Techo-dude and dudette in their first run at this market with a talking Bettle is a sign that they are slightly less tonedeaf than we might have thought. It gets 40MPG and sounds like a car.

Da Da Dogs | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

And, as indicated in the link, it's the number one Lesbian Car in the US. I mean, shit...how about a way to make peace now?? The testicularlly challenged and gender-confused might even let him express himself again in the comments. No matter how pointed his remarks, how could they turn on a guy who drives one of their own? 

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.”

Now, this I might go see...or wait...I'm a boy, I'm a real boy! Hasn't this been done before?

  I think Christian Bale is an incredible actor. I can't really place him as an actor although Bogart comes to mind, or perhaps a younger, less European sort of Liam Neeson. I guess my thought is more like Graham Greene...Bale is on the edge of some heart of darkness, and goes back and forth between hope, existential angst and dogged resolution. He doesn't expect to prevail except in his roles where he's a psychotic of some sort. In this case, I think he's perfect. Deep breath, shrug the shoulders and do it because you're here, now, and this is what you are supposed to do. Failure is definitely an option, but with failure comes annihilation. John Connor is not going to stand stoically by disaster. Rather, he's going to feel, shrug and continue to do what he thinks he's supposed to do. 

I skipped the last rendition of Terminator. Sorry Arnie, but you're now officially close to The Rolling Stones. Governor Schwarzenegger is not all that far from Sir Mick Jagger in terms of ludicrousness -- you have become your own Tribute Band. Arnie probably should head to supporting roles after he gets tossed out the Governator role. Still...bringing him back will make this a really look like a reunion tour.

 I'm not going to skip this one. I rarely go to films in theaters, but  I might make an exception for this one....

So, not only is it a broke piece of shit, but we shouldn't spend money to fix it, and wasn't this what Homeland Security was for?

Bill Clinton, before the castration, and his cabinet claimed in 1993-4 that a strong economy with full employment was vital to national defense. Well, that went south. I don't know about the former Prez or the SecState but I suspect they'd definitely agree with me that running water and electricity and working natural gas and oil pipelines are also vital to National Defense, especially for a nation that claims to be a technological powerhouse. So, given my attitude toward the Bush administration, this is another example of how they made us safer ...for Haliburton and KBR.

WASHINGTON -- Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war."The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," said a senior intelligence official. "So have the Russians."

Now, let me stipulate that if we're not doing the same thing, we're stupid. But, that's not the issue. The issue is that it appears to be relatively easy for these folks to do this. But, we've taken all the flash drives out the Department of Defense. I feel safer already...of course, the only way to be sure of that is to strip search everybody going into or out of any department of defense facility.  I'm sure that SoCal electric is really on top of this one...

Thank Tiffany for England...

These are the days we don't really want to remember. I keep seeking something to get happy about, and nothing seems to work. I do like "Ashes to Ashes" on BBC, but the Doctor hasn't hit it yet, and I'm feeling down. The North Koreans missed Japan. The Motor Trend Review of the Genesis Coupe says that except for the steering, shifting and overall handling, it's a great sports car. That's like saying my microwave, except for the steering, shifting and overall handling is a great sports car. Seriously, Top Gear is the only thing that seems to give meaning to my life...

 I'm so bored that I'm contemplating extinction as a positive thing.

Now baseball season starts tomorrow and that generally makes me feel better. However, being in the Crossroads of Opportunity, I don't get to see teams I give a Smeg about. Smeg? Oh, yeah, there is some level of hope...Red Dwarf is back in England, and I'm hoping it gets here sooner than later. Hopefully, with lots of t-shirts and the original Holly and the second Holly sharing the satellite naviagation system, and no more weirdness about prison ships.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, combine The Flying Dutchman and 2001 with Meatballs and Little England. I wonder if I can watch Dave TV by computer. Oh, and I bought a bicycle. I am tired of being old, fat and stupid. Can't do much about the old and the stupid, but I can work on the fat. We'll see how that goes.