Saturday, July 28, 2012

GOOD JOB, DANNY BOYLE!

I MAY BE ONE OF THE FEW CONTRARIANS on this planet who was not the least bit impressed with the Chinese Olympics Opening ceremonies extravaganza. I don't have much use for robotic, collectivist communist choreography. But this British show tonight was simply grand. It followed their traditions, their eccentricities, their art and culture with just the right balance of organized chaos and techie choreography. While their musical teen show through the decades was too long for my taste, the rest of the program was excellent. Some of my highlight picks:
  • The salute to the British National Health Service children's hospital, with real doctors and nurses! Call me crazy, but I loved how the Brits showed the entire world, particularly America, that health care isn't a privilege for those who can afford it, but a right of all people. And I LOVED how they celebrated universal health care instead of apologizing for it, as the right wing in this country claims. Universal health care is a cornerstone of a civilized society, and it was great to see the Brits rub it in our faces.
  • Everybody's pick, the Queen and James Bond. As Boyle said, it was a bit "surreal" for 007 to play a fictional character interacting with a real monarch. But they pulled it off without a hitch. The Queen is a natural.
  • How they sped up the parade of nations. That's the part of the program that can get old pretty soon unless they move it along. And they did. Bob Costas remarked it was the fastest he'd ever seen. Good Brit efficiency.
  • How the American athletes looked cute and kinda Frenchie in their berets, while the French contingent looked more Americanized in their uniforms. Loved the ironic political contrast!
  • The celebration of blue collar labor and infrastructure. These Olympics have provided an economic boon for London, revitalizing blighted urban areas and providing thousands of construction jobs for the new venues that were built, including tonight's Opening Ceremonies stadium. This was also Danny Boyle's favorite moment. While all that ELITIST JERK Meredith Vieira wanted to talk about was James Bond and the Queen, Boyle kept coming back to how moved he was to see the honor guard of workers who built the stadium applaud as the torch went by. Vieira never acknowledged it. At least we still have Bob Costas. It didn't happen by design, I'm sure, but Boyle gave us Americans a roadmap pageant on how to revitalize our economy: health care, infrastructure, construction jobs, education (the children's literature part, including J. K. Rowling), and community. 
  • Loved the contrast between Michelle Obama surrounded by smiling people, looking totally simpatica applauding Team USA as it entered the stadium, and the Romneys seated in what looked to be the nosebleed section, surrounded by empty seats. Might as well dub their section, "The Leper Colony!"
  • Nice moments: Lighting of the cauldron, and Paul McCartney (meh, not my favorite Beatle) who looks more like the walrus each time he pops up. He closed it out professionally with "Hey Jude."
Good job, Danny Boyle. Now it's on to the Games!

Friday, July 27, 2012

MITT THE TWIT LYING — AGAIN!

MEMO TO LADY ALEX: REPEAT AFTER ME. — THE 'LEFT' TAKES Mitt out of context, "I was against that, I’m against this" ... REALLY, Mark Halperin?! Oh, and Alex? It's OK to call your Svengali buddy Mark who dropped a mind-melt mickey in your NOW cup, a 'LYIN' RATBASTARD, BOTTOM-FEEDING SCUM ...'

GOTTA LOVE BRIT TABLOID HEADLINE WRITERS!

IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT motor-mouth braggart Mitt Romney spilled the beans about a BEHIND-THE-SCENES meeting with the head of British Intelligence, MI-6, whose existence the British government didn't even acknowledge until 1994. I've a feeling this is the first and last time in this election campaign British Intelligence share, as a courtesy, sensitive secrets with Planet Kolob worshipper, Mitt The Twit:

Mr. 1% DUMPS ALL OVER LONDON OLYMPICS; BORIS, DAVID FIRE BACK AT "MUT RHAM-NEE"

HA-HA-HAHAHAHA! GOTTA LOVE IT!!! THE PRESUMPTIVE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE, in his first foreign trip as such comMITTs SERIAL GAFFES, FAUX-PAS, and INSULTS the hosts of the 2012 Olympics, venerable London Town and the United Kingdom, our closest ally, questioning their readiness and security for the Olympics. The inimitable Boris Johnson, mayor of London, and Prime Minister David Cameron fired back. Said Cameron, greeting Herman 'MITT' Munster:

(By the way, during this photo-op Cameron kept turning his head to the cameras, but Romney wouldn't stop staring at the British PM with that lingering, weird yearning look of his.) Ah, but David, the salt lake city's still the site of Disneyworld and Taj Mahal, all wrapped into one, for America's premier Cult of The Planet Kolob. (Rumor has it Romney refuses to release his taxes lest it be revealed how much he contributes to his strange, secretive sect; one of the best political garbage sifters in the business takes a look.):


Have you ever wondered why Jay Carney seats Chuckles Toddy in the front row of White House press briefings? Because Chuckles is the perfect foil for getting the word out in case folks miss the political message — always count on Chuckles to spell out the obvious as Jay, trying his best to look serious, plays him like a tambourine:
JAY CARNEY: "The President directed that we continue to ensure that we are doing everything possible to keep the American people safe and to continue close cooperation with our British counterparts, in keeping with our special relationship. The President also made clear he has the utmost confidence in our close friend and ally, the United Kingdom, as they finalize preparations to host the London Olympics."
Meanwhile,  Herman 'Mitt' Munster kept digging a deeper hole for himself:


This could well be the worst foreign policy "diplomacy" by any major U.S. party presidential candidate in modern times. Mitt Romney violated every basic tenet of high level diplomacy that is taught in university for aspiring diplomats:

1. Never, ever, under any circumstances insult your "host" nation. It's a simple thing, really. As the presumptive major party nominee, you are representing the United States in your travels abroad. As one of the first things you do, you don't sit down with your media and start dissing the host nation. Not only is it rude, and extremely bad manners toward any host, but whatever you say abroad must be carefully measured and calibrated lest you create a major international incident. The phrase, a politician is "being diplomatic," is far from meaningless.

In fact, mastering "diplomatic language" is a fundamental requirement for any major presidential candidate. Not mastering your basic diplomacy shows you're not ready for prime time. More consequentially, diplomatic and foreign policy ignorance and stupidity is dangerous. It's really, REALLY dangerous for US.

2. Doubling down is even worse, when the nation you diss happens to be our most reliable and strongest ally, historically.

Finally, Romney compounded the weirdness (Mitt Romney is, without question, really REALLY weird!) by attempting to tell Matt Lauer a "joke" which, basically shot the CRINGE factor off the charts. Here's Mitt, speaking of a boxed gift his EQUALLY WEIRD sons gave him:
"They said if you wear this, mom will pay more attention to you. IT WAS A RUBBER HORSE MASK."
Ouch ... OUCH!?! Imagine, if you will, Mitt getting ready for a hot date with Ann. EXACTLY:


Here's the Rev giving us ALL the CRINGE-ey sound bites from Romney's DISASTROUS foreign trip:

 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Lady Alex Takes A Break; Not Before Hypnotized By Mark Halperin On National TV

WE ALL NEED AN OLYMPIC BREAK. Lady Alex took a break until August the 13th before plunging completely into the Dark Abyss, or more familiar cesspool, if she hasn't already. Inexplicably, Alex hosted the journalist poseur Mark Halperin and went on to compromise her journalistic integrity.

Once again, Mark Halperin is caught doing his thing, using his MSNBC platform to LIE shamefacedly on behalf of Mitt Romney, documented AD NAUSEUM on this blog. It matters not. They keep trotting him out, and like a good Republican propagandist, he keeps revising the facts into LIES confident of his contemptible (to him) liberal colleagues' inadequate recall, including Alex, who knows better and has no excuse.

Here's Halperin:
"You know, the left spent a lot of time taking stuff mitt Romney said out of context, and now people on the left are complaining that the right is taking this out of context. It’s what happens when you accept the premise you can take something out of context which they did with what governor Romney said. I was against that. I’m against this.” 
It’s quite brazen. Where to begin with this faux journalist carrying water for the Romney campaign right under Alex’s nose? The amazing thing is, that for "the left" to pretend it's tit-for-tat, as the sophist Mark Halperin propagandizes, we must completely disregard the Romney campaign ad in which a statement by the President quoting John McCain on the bad economy, in the same sentence, was edited out by Romney to attribute the statement to the President. A LIE. Alex, who is smarter than she appears here becomes, inexplicably, a Halperin enabler, volunteering a false equivalence between what Romney said on the campaign trail, thoroughly and contextually documented, for which he was properly lambasted:
“Corporations are people, my friend,” Romney said.

Some people in the front of the audience shouted, “No, they’re not!”

“Of course they are,” Romney said. “Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people. Where do you think it goes?”
There’s nothing ambiguous about it. And why is Alex behaving like a guilty progressive supplicant in Halperin's presence? You want the full context, Alex? Here it is. Mitt Romney was making an outrageous defense of corporate rights, that we should not raise taxes on “people” including “corporations are people” to pay for Social Security and Medicare:
ROMNEY: "Do I believe that Social Security should take no part in deficit reduction negotiations? Social security and Medicare are a large part of federal spending. It is about half. Not just this year, but over the coming decades, if we are able to balance our budget, we have to make sure that the promises we make for Social Security and Medicare are promises we can keep. There are a couple ways to do that: one way is to raise taxes on people. Corporations are people. Of course they are — where do you think it goes? Human beings, my friend. Number one, you can raise taxes. That is not the approach I would take." 
And yet Mark Halperin is allowed, for the ZILLIOnth time, to make a false equivalency between what the "left" presumably took out of context from Romney (a LIE which Alex hypnotically conceded) — where's the specific proof; exactly what has the left taken out of context from Romney? Meanwhile nothing is said of Romney's pathological LIES — Alex should spend some useful time catching up with Steve Benen at MaddowBlog. He has methodically documented Romney's weekly LIES. Puzzling how Alex ignores her colleague's resources but will take what Halperin says at face value. This is the only possible explanation:


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Olympic Long Shorts: The Games Are On, Baby!

WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN AN OLYMPIAN FOOTBALL (SOCCER) MARATHON, the women today and the men tomorrow! The U.S., of course, picked up where they left off, as the team to beat.

Rollin', rollin', rollin' down the river ... Team USA are once again the clear gold medal candidates, beating medal contender France, 4-2, after being down by 2; likewise, Brazil of Marta, Cristiane & Co. spanked Cameroon 5-0. Not a big fan of easy wins to kick things off for Brazil because the world's most talented female footballers have a tendency to get cocky; so here we go again. On the bright side, Brazil's two awesome forwards (below) make beautiful magical football together. Like the phrase, "they complete each other's sentences," Marta and Cristiane complete each other's passes. These women have been playing together so long that they have a psychic connection.

On the goal scored by Cristiane, Marta made a diagonal run skirting the box, right to left, sidestepping defenders. But she held onto the ball as Cristiane was offside in front of her. Intuitively, Cristiane slipped onside behind Marta and made a run into the box. Changing direction as only the sublime Marta can, she spun and fed her teammate a perfect pass into open space. Cristiane did the rest. She coolly dribbled the goalkeeper and, with the sang-froid of the great finishers, calmly stroked the ball into the back of the net as a defender scrambled vainly to cut off her angle.

A beautiful masterpiece to crown Cristiane as the top goal scorer of all time in Olympic women's football. They're the greatest players in the world, these wonderful Brazilian women, and the Americans for all their prowess, hustle, and physicality still speak of the Brazilians with respect, admiration, and a touch of envy: The Brazilian women are "volatile," they feed on "emotion" but can be rattled and knocked off their game. All true, which may be why, if it comes down to a Brazil-USA confrontation somewhere down the line, the remarkably plucky American women will be rightfully favored again.
The GREAT Marta. Cristiane Scores Her Record-Setting Masterpiece. Air Abby Scores Again.
Marta's team deserves better from the Brazilian Football Federation. In Brazil, it's a man's game. The women have no "program" to speak of, few resources or support structure, no league in which to hone their skills although the stars play abroad, and most importantly, no college "soccer" program to develop the young stars of the future and give young women athletes a leg up on physical conditioning. As President Obama said, no matter how good or talented you are, you can't do it alone. It takes a village, indeed.

Team Brazil's problems persist: Andrea their goalkeeper, solid on all fundamentals, is four years older and four inches too short. Which is a definite liability in penalty shootouts. Andrea usually guesses right, but the ball is, frustratingly, just out of reach of her outstretched fingers. The team still concedes too much territory on transition. Marta is the greatest ever, but she's only human. And the team lacks an anchor reference in the middle, like Team USA's great Abby Wambach, powerful air warrior swooping down like an eagle from on high. Marta and Cristiane like to roam, far and wide. Sometimes too wide, along the flanks. Isolate them and the team loses its punch. For when they connect, magic happens.

And so it goes. Who knows, one of these great teams may falter before the anticipated duel. The competition is strong. Sweden looks real good, and even in defeat France is a talented side that can surely bounce back. But me, I could watch Marta and Cristiane and Abby play all day.

Colombia's looming EPIC fail ... AGAIN. It was said that Colombia's top priority in these Olympics was to "get revenge" against the U.S. for their last defeat to the American women in the World Cup. REALLY?! How infantile. It's axiomatic in any high level competitive team sport that "looking ahead" to your next opponent is courting disaster. Today, the Colombian women lost to the North Korean swarm, 2-0.

Now they're in a deep hole and their next game, against the USA, becomes a MUST-WIN. Good luck, ladies. This isn't the first time Colombia has failed at this level. In their 1994 World Cup (men's) elimination to the U.S., the defender who failed to stop Team USA's winning goal was assassinated upon his return to Colombia. Sheer insanity that one hopes will never repeat itself. In this game, hubris without conditioning is a deadly combination.

The North Korean communists remind me of the Republican Right. They swarm the ball in numbers. They're like a collectivist hive. Ever noticed how the Republicans are given their simple talking points, then set off as a team of communists to repeat them over and over and over again in a mind-numbing exercise: job creators-job creators, tax cuts for the (rich) job creators, class warfare, cut bank regulations, drill-baby-drill, death panels, Obama is foreign, weak, apologizes, doesn't understand American business, wants to cut the military ... swarm; swarm; swarm.
 The Tea Party/Republican Caucus Refuse To Take The Field; Delay Game By An Hour!
It matters not if they're lies and gross distortions. These Republican right wingers are all communists, hard to tell them apart, a moving target, a hive — swarm; swarm; swarm. Individualism is discouraged. The Team is stronger than the sum of its parts. Communists; swarm; swarm; swarm. The hive. But a leader — not an individual — emerges. A swarthy, lumbering woman. (They've been suspended for taking illicit body-building drugs.) It's Limbaugh! It's Rushbo! It's Limbaugh! As she flops on her stomach after another failed goal attempt, hoping something sticks. In the end they eke out a 2-0 victory. Swarm; swarm; swarm.

Yup. Right wingers and Republicans are really like communists.

ALL YE NEED KNOW OF ETCH-A-SKETCH MITT JINGOISTIC NEOCON "FOREIGN POLICY"

DICK 'DARK LORD' CHENEY BLACK MAGIC SUNGLASSES:

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

For The People of Norway And Aurora, Colorado ...

A LITTLE HEALING FROM THE BOSS. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND Steve Van Zandt honor the victims of the
22 July 2011 terror killings at a memorial concert in Norway, this past Sunday, exactly one year later.




And we're waitin' on a sunny day, gonna chase the clouds away ...

Monday, July 23, 2012

Chris Matthews Embraces Aurora Massacre As A Tragedy That "Unites" Us In Grief

Chris Matthews' "Let Me Finish" tonight was probably, for me, the low point of his commentaries. It must have been Mark Halperin's toxic presence, Chris's reactionary Republican "brother" attempting to throw cold water on any talk of sensible gun control with his usual, cloying insincerity and biased, highly partisan commentary. It obviously went right over Chris's head, but wasn't lost on this political observer, with a nose for phonies like Halperin.

He ticked off the 2008 Democratic candidates — Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton — as examples of politicians who rejected gun control, apparently a "coastal" liberals' thing. Halperin archly suggested that these "well-meaning people" lack the "intensity" and "resources" of the other side. Perhaps. But I cannot believe that reasonable people, Independent suburbanites, the voters Obama is courting in this election, would oppose common sense legislation, e.g., to outlaw high-capacity clips and close the gun show "loophole," among other reasonable regulatory proposals. The deviant, one-issue gun nuts, like Chris's brother, will never vote for Obama anyway, so who cares?

Meanwhile, Chris stayed mum as Halperin weaved his craven deception of plausible-sounding LIES, with Chris wrapped around his little finger. Allow me to set the record straight on Mark Halperin's usual misinformation:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call for assault weapon ban in U.S. gets blasted by gun lobby  

BY RICHARD SISK 

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU 

 Thursday, March 26, 2009 WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Clinton called for a new assault weapon ban in the U.S. on Thursday in hopes of cutting off arms flowing to Mexican drug gangs — and was immediately blasted by the gun lobby. Clinton was naive in thinking that "if Americans give up their freedoms, that it's somehow going to affect the operations of the Mexican drug cartels," said National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also signaled that President Obama wasn't itching for a fight with Congress to renew the assault weapon ban enacted by former President Bill Clinton. It expired in 2004.
I would remind Matthews that Hillary's husband, Bill Clinton, at great personal political risk to his presidency, passed the assault weapons ban in 1994. Then, as early as 2009, after the 2008 campaign referenced by the LIAR Halperin, Hillary expressed support for a new assault weapons ban to keep such military weapons away from the Mexican drug cartels. Made sense. To the Mexican president, too. Naturally, Chris compounded his imbecility by gushing, "Mark, my colleague, my idol, you nailed it, as usual!"

But it gets worse. Chris raised the white flag of surrender to the NRA with this bromide-laced statement of helpless spiritual abdication to the world's bloodiest, most violent society:
"I wonder if some events are not just beyond our control, but well beyond. Even if we could outlaw the sale of guns, let's face it: we've outlawed murder for centuries and that hasn't stopped it. We could check on people with mental and emotional problems but, let's face it...there are millions of people facing them — people who live in their own private grief and confusion and pain, but don't wreak havoc and horror on others."
"Well beyond?" Really!? Chris's triangulating hero, Bill Clinton didn't think so. Nor, for that matter did Hillary, only three years ago. And isn't it precious how Chris the Chameleon (he gets that way in Mark Halperin's toxic presence) reverted to his reactionary Goldwater supporter self, even drawling "CA-LA-RA-DUH" as if he's the Duke, John Wayne, playing cowboys and indians, and no doubt killing lots of them injuns.

Let's face it: No one calling for stricter gun safety laws in the wake of this latest carnage has ever suggested outlawing the sale of guns, much less impinging on the Second Amendment. So Chris's gratuitous and gross exaggeration is a self-evident red herring exposing the dishonesty of his puerile, hand-wringing acceptance of mass murder, and the horrific slaughter of innocent people out enjoying a movie, that he called "this crime in Colorado." There's "crime," Chris. And then there's massacre.

Chris explains. We're a BIG COUNTRY, starring Gregory Peck and Jeanne Simmons, directed by Billy Wilder:
"Besides, this is a big country. Millions of us live in our own private worlds, worlds that are good or bad but have little to do with others. We have no right as a society to go around checking in on people with all kinds of problems — mental, emotional, or simply social. They certainly don't want us doing that, I'm sure of that."
Um Chris, I hate to break it to you, but we're not that big by population density. America's percentage of the world's population is only 4.47% despite our huge carbon footprint, contributing fully 25% of the world's greenhouse gases. Geographically, we come in behind Russia and Canada.

Yeah, I get it; some may hazard a hunting expedition with Dick Cheney — pronounced CHAY-NEE; pay no mind to Chris's ridiculous losing obsession, mispronouncing the Dark Lord's name, from, amusing irony, a dude with a heavy Philly accent — wandering the open Wyoming range with guns strapped close to genitals. I get it.

But not this bizarre, gratuitous remark: "We have no right as a society to go around checking in on people with all kinds of problems — mental, emotional, or simply social. They certainly don't want us doing that, I'm sure of that." I don't know from what dark recesses of Chris's mind this sprang, but no one addressing the mental illness aspect of mass killers has suggested any such intrusive Big Brother therapy. Chris would be better served worrying about the state's capacity to track our locations through cellular phone signals, not to mention the privacy issues involving e-mails, phone conversations, and ubiquitous surveillance.

What has been suggested, however, is to the extent we make mental health care available to a larger population, as part of President Obama's ACA, the ability of mental health professionals to catch the warning signs in a disturbed individual will have increased exponentially before they become homicidal. The argument that because we cannot catch every potential mass murderer or suicidal individual means we should throw our hands in despair, give up, and do nothing, is absurd.

Norway's Andres Breivik slipped through the cracks and massacred 77 people, in one of the worst mass murders in history. Still — still, Norway ranks seventh from the bottom in murders. It remains one of the world's safest nations.

In 2009, Norway had .6 intentional homicides per 100,000 population compared with America's 5 murders per 100,000. Proportionally the U.S. has 8 times as many homicides. The incarceration rate in Norway is 71 per 100,000 citizens. In America it's 743 out of 100,000 citizens.The recidivism rate in Norway is around 20 percent. In America it's an astonishing 67% which says a couple of things about Bain Capital USA: (1) The trafficking of prisoners is a huge profit-making enterprise which Mitt might very well be invested in; and (2) governments — state, local and federal have no interest whatsoever in rehabilitation; the Big Money is in warehousing bodies, the majority of them African American males, in for relatively minor drug offenses. Until they become hardened criminals behind bars.

Out of sight out of mind. Such is Chris's exceptionalist America; a hand-over-fist profit-making prison industry so that he can go to the movies in peace in the 'Burbs of wealthy Virginia. It works. Most of the time. Statistically, it's sort of like flying. Chris concludes with a pious whimper unworthy of his better efforts:
"We are still a strong, caring society of people who can hurt when someone three thousand miles away has their life robbed from them, when someone we can tell is just like us feels the loss of someone they care about. And that is the one good thing to come of this, but it is — and do not let this pass like so many events in the news — far more important than the arguments we have here. Being united is always better than being divided. On this tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, we are surely together."
Yes of course, we feel empathy for those who are hurting, victims of an unspeakable crime. Not only in America; anywhere in the world that people are suffering. We are human, after all. We are not unfeeling psychopaths, or sociopaths, like the killer. But I could not disagree more with the self-serving statement that the "one good thing to come of this" is that we are "a strong, caring society of people who can hurt when someone three thousand miles away has their life robbed from them" and we are "united" ... "surely together" in sharing the survivors' grief.

With great respect for the victims of this heinous tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, I reject Chris's sentiments. He has a right to them, of course. But he is only parroting the familiar gun advocates' line, that resistance is futile; that some things are beyond our capacity to "understand" and better that we accept and be supportive of the victims. For the second clause of this argument, like the second clause of the Second Amendment, is that "now is not the time to be speaking of gun control." How often have we heard this meme the last couple of days? Mark Halperin has delivered his verdict of lies to reinforce Chris's unconditional surrender to the NRA — like Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green, preparing to be processed.

But in another program, Ari Melber dared to defy the conventional narrative. "There is a "systemic problem in the way we deal with this tragedy," he said defiantly. "They, the NRA do not have the right to shut the rest of us up." Good on Ari. The NRA is a despicable outlaw organization soaking in the blood of thousands of innocent victims. Taking them on is a patriotic and moral imperative for every fair-minded citizen across this land.

Quotable: Media Vulture David Gregory

THE LYING RATBASTARD DOES IT AGAIN with the false equivalency, on the inflammatory rhetoric of the RIGHT, as bemoaned by Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, who was referring to the New McCarthyism of Michele Bachmann, without mentioning her by name:

DAVID (SLITHERING LIAR) GREGORY: "Unfortunately it's a BIPARTISAN deterioration."

How contemptible is Gregory? As contemptible as everyone else at corporate right wing Beltway MSNBC Media who does the same thing: Chuckles Toddy ("essentially they're swiftboating Romney." NO, YOU LITTLE PUNK, YE OF THE RUSSERT JAMES GANG POSSE; TELLING THE TRUTH IS NOT SWIFTBOATING!), and old Beltway pro-Repug stalwart, Andrea Mitchell. I don't watch the guy because I'm tired of flinging stuff at the TV machine, but Stephanie Miller played the clip on her radio show, as she does EVERY MONDAY after Gregory the right wing Republican enabler throws the TRUTH under the bus.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Quotable: Eugene Robinson — "ENOUGH!"

ENOUGH! ENOUGH OF COLUMBINE! ENOUGH OF GEORGIA TECH! ENOUGH OF AURORA! ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH!

With respect for the victims and their enormous, unfathomable grief, the best thing we can do for them is to join Gene, WaPo Pulitzer Prize writer, and everyone else who is repulsed and sickened by the NRA and its policies of promoting mass murder and massacres by gun violence — ENOUGH!

Now is ABSOLUTELY the time to hold the COWARDS and the SICK PRO-NRA politicians' feet to the fire, just as Mayor Bloomberg said. And if he decides to enter this race as a third party, INDEPENDENT, PRO-GUN CONTROL CANDIDATE AS HIS ONLY PLANK, he will have strong support from progressives.

And we won't be the only ones. Millions of SANE, fair-minded, INDEPENDENT citizens are ready to join the cause AND FORCE THE DEBATE AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS. ENOUGH!

Quotable: Media Vulture Chris Jansing

"We have a community trying to cope AND A NATION SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS."

For Heaven's sake, DON'T INSULT OUR INTELLIGENCE; WE KNOW WHAT THE ANSWERS ARE — AND THEY'RE NOT WITH THE ALMIGHTY! GO ASK MAYOR BLOOMBERG; NOT GOD.

How despicable and exploitative is the FOR-PROFIT Media at times like these. SO MUCH MORE THAN USUAL.

America TEH STOOPID: Imagine If It Was The U.S. Hosting The Olympics

LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF THE OLYMPIC ACTION will be going on outside MOST public view, in the Olympic Village OF THE DAMNED (American and some religious fundamentalist countries' attitude) or RAGING LIBIDOS (most of the 21st century CIVILIZED world): OH MY ... HORRORS ... Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Rabbi, Imam ... PLEASE DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL OF UNMARRIED SEX ... NOT TO MENTION ORGIES AND SAME-SEX COUPLINGS!

Just imagine how the Ayatollahs in the Religious Right and their Republican foot soldiers, who have demonstrated an unhealthy obsession with controlling women's bodies and vaginas, would react to the distribution of 150,000 free condoms!? They'd probably insist on the "Made in America" uniforms to be crafted in a specialized machine shop that could manufacture state-of-the-art CHASTITY BELTS.

The oh, oh, Ohhh-lympics! As record 150,000 condoms are handed out to a host of super-attractive athletes, could London 2012 be the raunchiest games ever?

  • Athletes will receive 15 condoms each for the 17-day festival
  • 'I've seen athletes having sex out in the open, getting down and dirty on grass between buildings,' says U.S. women's goalie
  • Victoria Pendleton among the glamorous female stars offered condoms
USA Women's Olympic Volleyball Team — From ESPN Magazine's "Body Issue."

Memo To Sweet Melissa: Next Time, Ask Our "Afro-Brazilian" Chef ...

WHETHER HE MAKES A GOOD FEIJOADA. That's the ultimate test for any Brazilian chef. Of course, there's a catch: Only Brazilians can judge a great Feijoada from a simply good one, or a terrible caricature of one. Ex-pat Brazilians can't be choosers, depending also on one's location. Mostly, "good" is about as good as it gets. 

TIPPING POINT: JoePa Statue Taken Down ...

AS HAD BEEN ANTICIPATED ON THIS BLOG from a post of July 12. In an ESPN story on the 15th Penn State trustees still clung to the vain hope this outcome could be averted: "The embattled members of Penn State's Board of Trustees quietly have decided to leave Joe Paterno's statue standing — at least for now and, some hope, forever, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of the trustees' private discussions this week."

Today, their misguided desire "not to offend alumni and students who adore the late coach despite the damning findings of his role in the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse cover-up detailed in the Freeh report" finally came face-to-face with reality. It's astonishing how even in the face of the most damning evidence against Joe Paterno some of the trustees were still enacting the same pattern of behavior — protect the institution above all — which enabled horrific sexual crimes against children to take place, "by the most senior leaders at Penn State," including Joe Paterno.

That some trustees would consider leaving the most visible symbol of those heinous crimes, Joe Paterno's statue, untouched shows just how out of touch they are, even now after release of the Freeh report. They just don't get it, and some probably never will. Penn State University president Rodney Erikson said, in a statement: "Coach Paterno's statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our university and beyond. For that reason, I have decided that it is in the best interest of our university and public safety to remove the statue and store it in a secure location."

Here is how we imagined the Paterno statue coming down, like the toppling of Saddam's statue, and a photo of the real thing as workmen removed the statue outside Beaver Stadium this Sunday morning.