"Forcing prisoners to wander in an infinite labrynth, living in fear of being torn limb from limb, may seem harsh to some people now, but..."

Barney Frank Rocks (sometimes)

Time Capsule

The only friend of mine who was "gainfully" employed (Jeff H., as a mailroom clerk at the GE plant in Louisville, KY) purchased PIL's Metal Box in 1979. At the time, there were 5 of us who hung out together (me, Bob V., Jimmy T., Andy C. and Jeff), all in our late teens, early 20s, unhappy and living on the cusp of the Reagan era.

We were disillusioned in an existential way, anxious about what was next in our undefined lives and generally pissed about it all. We had embraced punk rock because musically it was satisfying, but also a clear "fuck you" to the people around us (high school acquaintances, family, etc.). At this point, through music and literature (William S. Burroughs, etc.), we tried to whittle away at the things that appeared to tie us down. We didn't have another place to go, I think we just wanted to cast off with the dark hope that something else would turn up.
My memory of listening to Metal Box at Jeff's apartment (the rest of us uncomfortably lived with our parents) was that its move away from "rock" was both thrilling and a bit terrifying. We all dug it, but it was an uneasy pleasure. There was madness in the music.

At the time, we regularly flirted with a kind of lunacy that was part of the un-tethering process that we had begun. In addition to a wreckless love of drugs and alcohol, we would play games that involved sitting around in the wee hours drinking beer and smoking weed while we tried to chip away at each other's already fragile identities. The goal was to find psychological weak spots, examine them and test whether the other guy's sense of self was strong enough to acknowledge his own flaws and hidden anxieties. I believe we called these "truth" games.

Good times.

Gog and Magog

In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:

"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."

Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:

"This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins".

h/t Clive Hamilton, CounterPunch.
http://www.alternet.org/authors/10693/


The murderous narcissism of those malignant dickheads is almost impossible to grasp...but there it is. I'm certain the cable news outlets will program their newscasts around this earth shattering revelation...no?...ah, maybe the NYTimes or the Washington Post, no?...(crickets)

I Hate These People.

"The goverment would rather kill babies than pay for my penectomy!"

Holy Crap!

Should we alert the Teabaggers, Birthers and Deathers?

Two Great Things Rolled Into One

I'm surprised this movie wasn't banned in the Bush Era.

Senator Jefferson Beaureguard Sessions III

Posted almost without comment...what an assclown.

And, also...

h/t http://www.rumproast.com/

Yer Yella! (Du er Fej!)

One of my favorite wrongheaded scenes from a Hollywood western: Nevada Smith, 1966 (with Dutch subtitles?). A good illustration of the american psyche that must indulge in unspeakable cruelty before it decides to choose another approach, and in this case, because it's not worth it.

But what has stayed with me over time is the anguished and absurd taunt from Karl Malden at the end, "Ya haven't got the guts! You're yella!"

They're more comfortable talking about Area 51 and how the discovery of Noah's Ark has been covered up by the liberal media.

It is hard to look away from the clusterfuck that is "teabagger's nation."

A variety of mixed up, half remembered talking points fed to them by conservative think tanks, wingnut blogs, wingnut radio and Fox News.
Keep it up.








h/t bloggerinterrupted.com

A simple argument

The Bush Administration tortured detainees because they were scared shitless and never really cared about the rule of law. Period. 912...912...912...912...912...912...912...912...912...

Nuff said...

I'm not going to address the vapid dishonesty of the astroturf "tea bag" movement, or what it really means in 2009...others do it much better.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Morning Sedition Nostalgia

One of my favorite bits from Air America's long lost Morning Sedition...revived on http://airamerica.com/breakroomlive.

Rev. Lowery's benediction was mean.

He blew a dog whistle that the right wing couldn't hear.

Long ago...

I saw Run Home, Slow when I was 10 or 11 and it blew me away. My stepfather would often take us to drive-in movies (Louisville '68-'71) where I saw all the spaghetti westerns, Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, etc. Most of what I saw clearly wasn't age appropriate, which is why it was so powerful. This film had a big effect on me, so much so that I would incessantly imitate the hunchback character to entertain (and creep out) my mother and brothers.

But I didn't know until today that Frank Zappa did the sound track. Cool.
h/t Aristocrats http://ristocrats.blogspot.com/

Malignant Narcissist

As George W. Bush performs a series of exit interviews on national TV, and in light of the minute to minute deterioration of the Bush economy, I was reminded of a post I put up on another blog back in May, 2006. I was thinking about foreign policy at the time, but I believe Bush's impotence, blame shifting and indifference (disguised as ideology) fits into the same frame.

For years I have been reading about the Bush administration's rationale for preemptive war, its claims to the mantle of global superiority as a (moral) nation state. The left, rightly and too easily, blasts large holes in this rationale, pointing out failing after failing. Currently, we are debating the wisdom of Iran as the next front for Bush's bellicose foreign policy. This has become my dark fear: the chaos, conflict and death of Iraq, and possibly Iran, are actually the goal. The neoconservative think tankers are millennialists. The me, the you, and the now don't exist for these guys. They are working for 3006; they are willing to write off the 21st century; at least the one that includes us.

I would like to find a bright spot here, maybe even some humor. We all enjoy watching Bush unravel as he is asked direct questions by a gathering of graduate students. His rambling answers, the idiotic mugging and giggles combined with his arrogance and impatience are truly disturbing. Increasingly, I get the impression that as he looks at his handpicked (or not) audience, he really doesn't see people with lives, interests, values...they don't register in his gaze. I really think he is running the clock down, halfheartedly pretending to govern as he waits for the next calamity, the next step in the millennial sequence.

We are currently experiencing that next step...ratbastards.

Damn...that assclown at work was right.

Coffee is for Closers

McCain/Palin canvassing meeting in Manchester, NH 10/30/08.