My Own Private Little Greek Goddess

To hell with Obama and his inauguration. All you little Obama-bots are welcome to him. Here's what I'm going to be digging on today.

Agents Sentences Commuted

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, two former US Border Patrol agents previously convicted on a number of charges stemming from the shooting of an alleged drug smuggler in the course of their jobs, have had their sentences commuted in a last act of clemency by outgoing President George W. Bush. Originally sentenced to eleven and twelve years respectively, both men's sentences are now set to be served in full by March 20th of this year.

They probably never should have been charged to begin with, but the one thing that may have hurt them the most in the minds of federal prosecutors-a tempering with evidence charge-was probably the precursor to the accompanying charges. Ironically, that was the only charged overturned on appeal. The two guards had allegedly removed shell casings from the scene of the incident.

In the meantime, the smuggler in question was found not to have been armed, contrary to the agent's claims, and a van in the area, which apparently contained significant amounts of marijuana, was never proven to have belonged to the immigrant, who was shot by one of the men in the ass while attempting to flee. He was later granted the right to sue the federal government. He was later apprehended smuggling marijuana across the border.

I always wondered why Bush never pardoned the men, which, assuming the accounts I have heard are correct, he should have-and should yet. A commutation is not quite the same. They will probably never be able to regain their former jobs. Of course, that might be just as well with them, but they could also recover damages. By limiting his actions on their behalf to a commutation of their sentences, as opposed to overturning them entirely, Bush has offered a degree of protection to the federal government they probably do not deserve.

But at least after a relatively short time, they will be free men, albeit with a probably undeserved record.

Insert Not Included

That's how these crooked damn companies hook you every time. They make you think you're getting a great deal, and then you have to turn right around and buy something else before they will work. There oughta be a law.

People's Cube

Mormon Family Values And Proposition 8

I guess it won't be long now before the gay marriage issue will figure prominently as a plot device in the HBO series Big Love, a show about a polygamist Mormon family which is produced by Tom Hanks. Hanks has come out swinging in response to the recent Proposition 8 which outlawed gay marriage in California.

“The truth is this [show, "Big Love,"] takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop-8 happen,” he told Tarts. “There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here’s what happens now. A little bit of light can be shed, and people can see who’s responsible, and that can motivate the next go around of our self correcting Constitution, and hopefully we can move forward instead of backwards. So let’s have faith in not only the American, but Californian, constitutional process.”

Which, it seems natural that the show broach the subject matter, and that's fine as long as it does it in a thoughtful, non-condescending way, without becoming preachy about it. It might actually make for some interesting television if, for example, one of the three wives portrayed on the show had a gay brother-or if she herself were gay. If the husband turns out to have been a Proposition 8 supporter, or even donated money to the cause, it could turn out to be even more interesting.

One things for sure, under the circumstances in which the polygamist husband lives his life, he damn sure wouldn't want to end up on this map.

Across The Universe

I guess if this story is true, that our universe is in reality a giant holographic reflection from some unknown extra-dimensional universe, somebody has some 'splainin' to do. For example, to that great big giant pagan sitting somewhere the universe getting ready to smoke his umpteenth cigarette before he finally goes to bed and jacks off-come on, cut it out.

On the other hand, if I really am a nothing but a hologram, what the hell do I know? I'm probably nothing but a reflection of some superior being who has probably decided to not smoke and jack off any longer, and my current angst over my habits is just a reflection of his greater wisdom, sort of like this article of a man giving a presentation in holographic form.



I have a better idea, however, one that at least is more comforting, whether it is right or not. How about as we spread out across the universe, and accelerate due to decreasing levels of gravitational pull exerted from our central point of origin, we take on a more complex form and actually over time add dimensional depth due to the ease of restriction. Thus to those of you who see our universe from your present perspective, you are seeing a continuing process of evolution.

See, under my scenario, the best is yet to come. We are the best of what has come to pass so far, and yet, things can only get better, wouldn't you think? We should grow increasingly more complex and, as a result, more evolved. Of course, we could also all just eventually dissipate. Just in case, whatever I do between now and then, I promise not to tell.

The Rehabilitation Of Adolf Hitler

Little Adolf Hitler Campbell, along with his sisters (one of whom is named Aryan Nations) has been removed from the custody of his parents and remanded into the custody of The New Jersey Division of Youth And Family Services. One example of a good reason for this occurred when, as a portent of a long and troubled future, a New Jersey store in the families hometown of Flemington refused to decorate a birthday cake for the little boy with the objectionable name included.

Look, I don't often agree with state social services and their methods and aims, and I could care less that the parents involved are obviously Nazis or, failing that, maybe just stupid pricks. They need to leave their kids out of this kind of nonsense, and as far as I'm concerned New Jersey made the right call here.

Anybody For A Bonfire?

Know anybody that's planning on attending the Obama inauguration? Are you? If so, you should be ashamed of yourself. According to this article

The carbon footprint of Barack Obama's inauguration could exceed 575 million pounds of CO2. According to the Institute for Liberty, it would take the average U.S. household nearly 60,000 years of naughty ecological behavior to produce a carbon footprint equal to the largest self-congratulatory event in the history of humankind.

Maybe if they had already had the inauguration, my pipes wouldn't have frozen up overnight, necessitating a most appreciated speedy repair job by my local city water department. Thankfully, this was due to exposure of the main pipe outside to the sub-zero temperatures last night. They fixed and insulated them, and as an extra bonus, they repaired the outside cylinder on which the cover fits. It had previously been damaged when a neighbor parked his truck over it. Since this caused the lid not to fit adequately, the cold air pulled a number on the pipes last night. Thankfully, it was an outside, not an indoor pipe, which would have cost a pretty penny to repair.

According to environmentalists and their Congressional supporters like Henry Waxman, problems of this nature, and other things, are all due to "Global Climate Change" (because Global Warming just sounds so damn hilarious these days).

Thus, according to the article, Waxman is determined to rush through legislation as quickly as possible to deal with these issues, apparently before even more people catch on to just how nonsensical it all is, despite those of us who have already figured it out, and while there is a ton of money to be made off what is these days looking more and more to be a scam of-well, of global proportions.

Is it any wonder the chap seems to be in a bit of a hurry?

The day Waxman delivered his statement, the National Weather Service issued a warning for Chicago about wind chill somewhere in the vicinity of 25 to 40 below zero. In Maine, citizens expected something around 40 below zero. And Iowans were warned that temperatures could drop as far as 27 below. In many places across the nation, there was record-setting cold.
So, in other words, Waxman expects these unfortunate glacial souls to pay higher energy prices to shield themselves from Arctic chills in the name of global warming?
That's quite a trick.
Still, politically, the time is right for progressives to pass any legislation they please. But Democrats may also be setting themselves up for failure. This kind of central planning, after all, has a winning record envied only by the Detroit Lions.


Now that is just unfair and mean-spirited. The Lions have a pretty decent record overall, especially their Thanksgiving Day record.

I guess I can come clean now and drop the coyness, and give thanks unto the Mighty Quinn for his speedy response to my earlier invocation at Yule. Just don't scare me like that anymore, buddy.

So, Who Was Number One Again?

A flurry of news from the excellent blog Popehat, so I'll just link to the main page. I'm too lazy right now to mess with Microsoft Word, so, first things first.

No sooner do we hear that the popular British series The Prisoner has been remade and will be shown on the cable channel AMC (starring The Passion Of The Christ star Jim Caviezzel in the title role) than we learn that the old series star and creator Patrick MacGoohan has died at the age of 80.

If the new series is as good as the old reportedly was, it will serve as a fitting tribute to the life of this great actor, who also starred in the cult hit series The Avengers. AMC is showing the old series, but this is kind of a mixed bag. I don't think they could possibly top the ending of the old series, yet if they don't change it, that kind of ruins the element of surprise. Then again, it's easy enough to find that out on the internet. Or is it? Decades later, people are still debating what it means.

MacGoohan never revealed what it was, and now he has taken the secret to his grave.



On top of the news of MacGoohan's demise, it was revealed earlier that Ricardo Montalban has also died. He capped off a decades long career with an appearance in "The Wrath Of Khan", which was arguably the greatest of the Star Trek movies. Montalban, in the title role of the villainous Khan-a role he recreated from the old sixties series-made the movie and quite possibly is single-handedly responsible for re-invigorating the franchise.

That's the thing about great movie villains. You have to love them, and then again, you have to hate them.

24-Yet Another Season Of Mind-Numbing Torture

I had high hopes that this season of 24 would make up for the generally awful last season six. Tony Almeida, long presumed dead, was returning as one of the series main villains. He had plenty of reason to be bitter. When he was supposedly killed about two thirds of the way through season five, he was a victim of then current President Charles Logan, who killed Tony’s wife, and assassinated former President David Palmer, in a convoluted plot to prevent Palmer from revealing the truth about a shady plot Logan was involved in. He intended to set up Jack Bauer to take the blame for the assaults to cover his tracks, Jack having gone into hiding in order to prevent his being handed over to the Chinese for an earlier assault on their embassy, which resulted in the death of a Chinese diplomat in season four. Jack of course came out of hiding to clear his name, and when we finally learned the truth, and Logan was finally brought to justice, he ended up getting a slap on the wrist in order to prevent the nation being traumatized.

Now it turns out that Almeida was revived within ten minutes of his death by a rogue British agent who then took him in as part of his crew of domestic terrorists. (How all this happened so quickly, with Tony’s body in custody of the government agency for whom he worked, has so far not been satisfactorily explained) When Jack is subpoenaed away from a Senate Committee hearing, where he is being grilled for his use of torture in the interrogation of suspects while a member of the now-disbanded CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit), and remanded to the custody of the FBI, he learns that his old friend and partner is now not only alive, but a domestic terrorist. The group to which he belongs has gained control of the nation’s protective firewall, giving them the power to affect the national power grid, air-traffic control, water and sewage treatment plants, and a host of other things. Their goal-to blackmail current President Allison Taylor into calling off an assault on the rogue leader of an African nation bent on genocide. In the meantime, we learn that high-level officials of the American government are on the payroll of the despotic general, whose nation is rich in diamonds. As if that is not enough, Jack quickly learns that the FBI has a mole in its ranks.

So far so good, but then it all falls apart. Tony is in fact working undercover to bring down the terrorist group. As if that’s not enough, it also turns out he is working as part of a secret group of counter-terrorists made up of Jack’s former compatriots in CTU.

In other words, what was once the sharpest, edgiest show on network television has turned into a satire of itself. Something has happened to the writers of this show. They are no longer willing to take chances, the kind of chances that made this show several notches above your average television fare, and now they are pandering to the audience. That’s a sure sign of doom. First, the writers in conjunction with the networks insult their viewers intelligence, and then they throw them a few crumbs to string them along.

There was no reason to bring Tony Almeida back. He should have stayed dead, but the writers couldn’t resist using the popularity of Carlos Bernard as a ratings ploy. It would have worked too, if Almeida truly was a villain, but under the circumstances, his return to the show is meaningless drivel designed to attract viewers and shore up ratings. The use of characters Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynne Rajskaub) and William Buchanan (William Morrison) in the ridiculous plot device of devoted government servants struggling in anonymity to save the nation from the dastardly corrupt villains who have infiltrated the government, is just adding insult to injury.

True, they could salvage this season-and the show-by turning it around, but I doubt now this will happen. I have a feeling the entire series is already in the can, and so it’s probably too late to rework this obvious mess.

In the past, when 24 sprung a shocker, it had impact. You never saw it coming. In almost every season-even the god awful season six-there were usually at least one “WTF” moments that defined the season, for better or worse, even if it made no difference to the overall worth of the season.

Season One stands out still as the best of the lot. It was a non-stop nerve grinding suspense ride, starting from the abduction of Jack’s daughter and her friend by two young thugs on the payroll of a Balkan based terrorist group determined to blackmail Jack into assassinating then Presidential candidate David Palmer. This led to the later abduction of Jack’s wife Terri, who was later raped, and then finally, at the end, murdered, by Nina Meyers, the one CTU agent Jack trusted, and with whom he had previously engaged in an illicit affair, and who turned out to be the CTU mole in an unfortunately too oft-repeated plot device.

Season Two saw the sacrificial death of CTU chief George Mason, who flew an activated nuclear bomb out to a remote area of the Nevada desert, where it exploded in relative safety. Mason had been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation, and so his death was a given, but still gut wrenching in that he was previously seen as something of a heel.

Season Three saw Jack forced to do the unthinkable-he was forced to murder his then CTU boss Ryan Chappelle, in order to secure his cover in an attempt to recover a biological weapon sold to a rogue British agent by a Mexican drug cartel. Jack had previously engaged in heroin use and become an addict as part of his cover, and so this action threatened to send him into a further downward spiral. Chappelle knew it was coming, and tried to weasel out of it, but in the end, he was on his knees as Jack sent the bullet crashing into his brains. At the end, Nina Meyers was finally killed, as was Sherry Palmer, the President’s treacherous wife, and Palmer himself was forced to resign in the face of his wife’s actions-she had murdered a man to prevent him revealing his wife’s affair with the Presidents brother and Chief-of-Staff.

Season Four-Palmer’s presidential replacement was incapacitated by an attack on Air Force One, necessitating his replacement by Vice-President Charles Logan, who seems totally out of his element in the face of this season’s terrorist threat, and so calls for advice from Palmer. In this season, Logan seemingly represents a kind of perverse comic relief. He is corrupt, but seemingly incompetent, and willingly sells Jack down the river in order to keep himself politically viable.

Season Five-As already explained, former President Palmer is assassinated, as is Tony Almeida’s wife Michelle, in an assault that almost kills Almeida as well. He is later seemingly killed by a captured conspirator when he gets a little too careless in his interrogation of the man, who jams a needle with what is supposedly a lethal dose of some drug into Almeida’s stomach. It is only later that we learn that President Logan himself is the Chief ringleader of a group determined to extend America’s influence into the Central Asian region by enabling a terrorist attack by way of smuggled Russian missiles. By the end of the season, both Logan and Jack are in custody-Logan by the government, Jack by Chinese espionage agents still itching for revenge for the earlier assault on their embassy. They would later agree to return him to an almost certain death in the following stinker of a season.

Season Six-Yes, even as horrible as it was, it too had its moments, as in at the very beginning, where we learn that one of the ringleaders of the Logan cabal, a mysterious dorky looking unnamed character, was actually Jack Bauer’s treacherous brother, and that Jack’s own father is involved in a conspiracy to control the government. Both of them are killed, the brother unfortunately early on. The rest of the season devolved into nonsense. Someone decided it would be cool to make President Palmer’s brother, the aforementioned Chief-of-Staff of Season Three-the next President Logan. The only thing that salvaged this season was the re-introduction of the Chinese espionage agent over the course of the last several episodes, and in retrospect, even that now seems forced and hackneyed.

So what will be the defining moment of current Season Seven? I don’t really know, but I think it’s already come and gone. The producers of the show have lost a golden opportunity, taken what could have been a compelling idea and plot device in the resurrection and villainy of Tony Almeida, a man seemingly twisted by the drive for revenge, and turned it into just another television cliché.

Television shows succeed when they grab the viewer’s attention and make them want to tune in for more, and the key factors here are suspense, mystery, and the element of surprise. When television shows start pandering to their audiences, they throw those elements out the window. Then the viewers tune in to How I Met Your Mother.

Of course, I could be wrong, but when a series jettisons its most promising and compelling plot device this early on, it’s not a good sign.

South Korean Blogger Jailed For Criticizing Economic Policies

This is a story you might expect to hear come out of Pyonyang, not Seoul. How much longer will it be before the internet is regulated by some kind of international treaty which will make it illegal, according to international law, to criticize international trade or financial policies? If that ever does happen, which is not beyond the realm of possibility, to what other areas could this lead in the way of regulation? Don't laugh, international regulations of the internet of various types have already been discussed, though typically this involves the use of internet communications involving things such as sex crimes and alleged terrorist communications. Now, in the face of the current and seemingly never-ending global financial crisis, we have the following story from the International Herald Tribune.

Among governments struggling to contain the global financial crisis, South Korea set a rare and controversial example over the weekend by arresting a popular blogger who was accused of undermining the financial markets but worshipped by many Koreans as an online guru.

The man, known throughout South Korea by the pen name of Minerva - after the Roman goddess of wisdom - upset the government with his doomsayer's forecasts for the economy and his satirical attacks on President Lee Myung Bak's policies.

But when some of his predictions on the markets proved right, he gained a huge following among South Koreans fretting over an uncertain economic future.

Park Dae Sung's arrest on Saturday on charges of spreading false online information with a harmful intent - a crime punishable by up to five years in prison - came as the South Korean government was escalating its efforts to fight the fallout of the global financial turmoil. Last week, Lee's administration established an emergency economic task force to be based inside the presidential Blue House's "war room," an underground bunker fitted with security hot lines.

"I wrote articles to help those people alienated from the government - small merchants, individuals and ordinary people who had suffered from the financial crisis," Park told journalists on Saturday before he was jailed. "I plead not guilty."

For months, both the media and the authorities have scrambled to identify Minerva, who has uploaded more than 100 anonymous postings in Daum, the country's second-largest Web portal. He achieved a prophet's status after he predicted the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, the crash of the Korean currency and the effects of the toxic U.S. mortgage crisis eventually engulfing South Korea.

The commentary that got him in trouble was his claim on Dec. 29 that the government issued an "emergency order" to financial firms and major corporations to stop buying U.S. dollars in a dire effort to arrest the fall of the Korean won. The government was forced to issue a denial to calm the market, though officials had previously appealed to large companies to stop hoarding dollars.

Kim Yong Sang, a judge at the Seoul Central District Court, approving Park's arrest, said his blogging "affected foreign exchange markets and the nation's credibility."

According to the article in the International Herald Tribune, this guy got typically one hundred thousand readers per post. You can bet if he had spent the majority of his time promoting the economy and the Korean markets, and defending the Korean government, I wouldn't be blogging about this, because I never would have heard of the guy. Yet, wouldn't that under the circumstances be more of a crime? Criminal activity is all too often defined by law-makers and by law-enforcement in self-serving and manipulative ways, and this is certainly an example of that, albeit an extreme one.

I promise you will never hear of some stock market analyst, professional or otherwise, being prosecuted for promoting certain stocks, bonds, or market funds-save for those rare cases involving conflict of interest-regardless of how ill-advised it might turn out to be to heed their advice. Why then should someone be prosecuted for advising the opposite. It shouldn't be illegal to be a wet blanket. What if someone had sounded the alarm years ago over Bernie Maddoff's suspicious fund, and warned us all that it sounded more like some kind of advanced Ponzi scheme than a legitimate investment opportunity? Yet, of course as we all know now, that turns out to have been the case.

This guy predicted the collapse of Lehman Brothers literally days before it happened, something nobody here saw coming, yet he has a mere two year college degree-not an economics degree, but in some kind of tech-related field. He established an on-line persona as some old Korean farmer with an inexplicably advanced knowledge of economic language and trends. He is actually in his early twenties, and probably devised the persona out of a perceived need to protect his anonymity in the face of growing controversy. Yet, his persona was not that far removed from reality.

There are people that just seem to have a natural knack for seeing into certain things for which they have no advanced training or background. There are far too few of them, and they come along far too seldom, but when they do, they can have a huge impact. Had he been trained in this field, he probably would have kept his mouth shut and been just another cog in the wheel.

I would also like to note that the South Korean government in this case, in doing what Minerva accused them of doing while denying they did it and accusing him of a crime for blogging about it, may have broken some kind of international law by attempting to interfere with the international trade in dollars. The only thing Mr. Sung seems to have gotten wrong is his statement that there was some kind of "emergency order" as opposed to what the government described in almost cordial terms as an appeal to stop hoarding US dollars.

Yet, he got his facts slightly wrong, which gave the government the wriggle room they needed to pounce. That is the beginning of an authoritarian state, and may be yet another sign of the imminence of the coming ultimate collapse-to me, a welcome one-of the much-lauded "global economy". It should not let the door hit its ass on the way out.

Sigur Ros-Gobbledygook

Wasted Away

When you think of Jimmy Buffet, you tend to think of some slacker lounging on the beach or on the deck of a cabin cruiser, drinking tropical drinks off the coast of some Caribbean island, just relaxing and day-dreaming while planning his next deep-sea fishing excursion. You think of good times and silly, meaningless albeit fun music and partying. You wouldn't imagine his songs would have the kind of effect that a song by, say, Marilyn Manson might have if played at the wrong place at the wrong time, around just the right-or wrong-psychotic person on a drink-and-drug binge.

Well, evidently, you would be wrong.

A soldier from Fort Bragg, hanging out at a bar in Steamboat Springs, Col., was reportedly killed as a result of a bar fight, instigated when the soldier and a couple of friends put a Buffett song on the jukebox.

The police captain was quoted in the Rocky Mountain News as saying, "(Lopez) and two other individuals put on the song, but two other individuals did not agree with it."


The article doesn't say which Buffet song it was, but in retrospect, I can imagine ways in which almost any of them could induce this type of reaction under the right circumstances-especially if played repeatedly.

If I had to make a bet, though, I would have to put my money on "Cheeseburgers In Paradise"

The American Dream-Everybody Wants A Piece

Don'cha just love Larry Flynt? Well, hell, why not bail out the porn industry? They probably have more employees, and customers, and make more money, than the American auto industry. Forget Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors. What could possibly be more American than Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler? In their own twisted way, they do provide a vital, needed service, and as the article notes, we are definitely a nation in need. As Flynt said in his statement in which he expressed the hopes for a congressional bailout for the porn industry-

"People are too depressed to be sexually active," Flynt said in the statement. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."

I wholeheartedly agree. If something isn't done, and soon, some of my favorite lounge dancers might quit and start working as school teachers or something. That would just be wrong on so many levels.

Lawsuit In The Making

Sometimes Andrew Sullivan serves up some real vile concoctions in his so-called "Daily Dish", but he's really served up a sewer full of shit now. John Travolta should sue this ass hat, and The Atlantic too, by the way. Yep, in case you haven't figured it out, Sullivan has implied that Travolta is acting shady over the death of his son Jett.

Of course, he's too clever to come right out and accuse him or murdering his beloved son, who died a few days ago from a seizure-well, according to the autopsy which Sullivan informs us was overseen by Travolta's family physician. No, he just points out that Travolta had the son hurriedly cremated without releasing the official results of the autopsy. He leaves it up to us to fill in the blanks, even throwing in there that Travolta flew the family jet home from the Bahamas. I guess if he was that distraught he couldn't do that, huh, Andrew? What a toad.

Of course if he is sued he would probably claim he was merely implying that Travolta was trying to hide the facts of his son's condition in the face of claims the boy was autistic, something the Travolta's have previously denied. What's next? Did the boy die as the result of some bizarre Scientologist healing ritual, perhaps-or a secret cult sacrifice? Hell, they do believe in reincarnation, you know.

It's not just Sullivan, either. Inside Edition has been covering this story, and one of the correspondents tonight was about to explode out of her panties trying to find out an ambulance driver's opinion as to what Travolta meant when, after his son died, he said to the dead boy, "I'm sorry".

She actually smiled when she asked this. It was ghoulish. She didn't even hide her delight at the prospect of getting a confirmation of something sinister. The ambulance driver however merely said that he figured Travolta meant he was sorry he couldn't help him, or something to that affect. Unfortunately, the editing process blacked out what I would guess was probably her disappointed reaction.

These people are really treading on thin ice, and the First Amendment is not an excuse. This is not an attempt to ferret out the truth concerning a matter of importance or interest. This is nothing but an attempt to sell papers and attract viewers, and rake in advertising dollars.

I usually like to soak in a hot bath at night, but tonight I think I need a shower.

Blog Wars-Wonkette versus Confluence

For your entertainment pleasure, I now present what stands to be a jolly good laugh-a war of bloggers, both allegedly of the liberal persuasion. Wonkette and Confluence have been going at each other all day now. Well, more accurately, they've just been slinging mud at each other by way of comments pages. Unfortunately, neither will publish the others comments on their respective blogs, on the posts on which each has attacked the other-which would make it even funnier-but they are still managing to pull in the comments from their respective supporters.

It's simple, really. Wonkette supports Obama, while Confluence is a PUMA blog that is still up in arms over Hillary's defeat. They are now upset that Wonkette is currently leading the voting for Best Liberal Blog for the 2008 Blog Awards.

I don't blame them. If I paid good money to Technorati to make the top blogs list and found myself being trounced by a hated rival in the popular vote, I'd probably feel pretty stupid. It's got to bite to be a Hillary supporter and get trounced in an election by an Obama supporter, even if it is just for a blog award. Kind of like rubbing salt in the wound. Or, in this case, taking off your bra and seeing nobody looking in your window but kids pointing and laughing at your sagging breasts. Or maybe walking outside in a house robe, whereupon the neighbor dog walks up to you wagging his tail, sniffing your crotch-and running away whining and howling in agony.

Of course, to your average Confluence reader, sagging breasts and douche abstinence both seem to be badges of honor. They just won't publish your comments if you make mention of them. At least with Wonkette, you can comment, provided you are pre-approved for commenting. In fact, I supposedly can, if I can only remember my password. Why bother?

I won't vote for either, of course, or for any of the nominated blogs in any category. That's because I resent the Technorati criterion. To me, that should not be a factor, but since it is, I will express my rebellious streak by not promoting it-therefore, no link to it from here. Google it if you must.

As for these two blogs, I admit to enjoying Wonkette on occasions, for no other reason than the snarky sarcasm that is their stock-in-trade. The PUMA people are just sore losers. That's the least of it. These people are deranged. What kind of person devotes this much time to a failed presidential campaign. Earth to PUMA-IT'S FUCKING OVER! Read them and bear in mind, these are the two faces of the Democratic Party. Not a pretty sight.

Well, Wonkette is-you just don't want to bring her home to meet the folks. Just screw around with her a few times and pass her on to your friends. At least you can't smell her from across the room.

American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan

Okay, it's damn sure not perfect, but I have to admit that, on balance, I like it. Especially two components of it. Make that three.

1. Payroll tax cuts to low income to middle income workers, which would apply even to workers with no end of the year tax liability. More money immediately in your pocket, as opposed to waiting till the end of the year refund. As much as 500 dollars per individual and up to 1000 dollars per couple. Not a lot when stretched out over the course of the year by way of weekly paycheck (about ten dollars per week per individual, twenty dollars per week per couple), but still helps, provided it doesn't lessen tax refunds. If it did, now that would bite.

2. Tax cuts to businesses to cover losses of the previous five years (it is currently limited to last two years losses). What does Obama think he is-a Republican or something?

Finally, my favorite, and it's about damn time-

3. Tax cuts to businesses to keep jobs in America, and/or avoiding further lay-offs. One of the few good Democratic proposals of recent years, and in fact practically the only good idea John Kerry ever had. It is sorely needed. Now, if we can only get the damn thing passed.

Of course, not everything in the proposed legislation is that good, but, you got to take-well, you know.

Okay, you can shoot me now.

Assud The Jew Eating Rabbit

Silly rabbit. He's a replacement for Nahoul, the Killer Bee whose "martyrdom" is portrayed at the beginning of this segment of the popular Palestinian children's program "The Pioneers Of Tomorrow". Due to the Israeli blockade, poor Nahoul was unable to reach a hospital in Egypt for a life-saving operation. Previously, there was Farfour the Mouse, who was "martyred" by a brutal Israeli interrogator, in an act of violence that was also portrayed in a segment of a previous program.

The little girl is named Saraa, probably the daughter or granddaughter of a mid-level Hamas leader. She is the hostess of the show, which is basically over-the-top Hamas propaganda. Among other things, it advocates, in fact demands, the liberation of the Al Aqsa mosque and the land of Palestine from the "filthy Jews", and encourages martyrdom to it's young viewers.

I picked this particular segment, though it's out of order, because it has what I assume is a regular feature, a call-in segment where viewers can call in with questions. In the one question asked on this particular segment, someone asks the rabbit why his name is Assud, which means "lion". The bunny from hell answers that a rabbit is a no good coward, after which he promises he will "eat the Jews".

Chilling. And a very good indication of why there will never be peace in the region as long as the Palestinians are controlled or influenced by such as Hamas. In view of the on-going Israeli onslaught against Hamas, I am going to make this a regular series. It helps put the whole affair in perspective. The little girl is gone. It's too late for her. She is probably ruined. She will grow up with the knowledge of the blood of children on her hands, if she grows up at all. For Hamas to use her as an advocate to encourage other Palestinian children to follow their path is in my opinion the depths of depravity.

This is more than just an appeal to patriotism. This is outright lies and child abuse. An overall viewing of some of these videos should put an end, once and for all, to the notion that Hamas might ever be bargained or reasoned with.

I know by the way there are some who will protest that this video was deliberately misinterpreted by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. I don't buy that for a second. It would be too easy to disprove. Besides, in some instances, translation is all but unnecessary, if not superfluous.

At any rate, view this video at your own risk. A strong stomach is in order. It speaks volumes that once cartoon characters reach a certain level of popularity and recognition to the children of Palestine, they are "martyred" at such a time as to achieve maximum impact, and then replaced by another to carry on the fight-all the while encouraging the children of Palestine to join the "Pioneers Of Tomorrow", many of whom will likewise willingly, even gladly, join Nahoul and Farfour in "martyrdom".

Puce Moment

This charming little video has only been on YouTube for a week, though it has been around for a while. It is titled Puce Moment, and is actually a fragment of a larger work called Puce Women, by avant-garde underground film director Kenneth Anger. It seems Anger and myself have something in common other than an interest in occult ritual. We are both enamored of silent-era Hollywood, which is the subject of this film.

The actress in the film is one Yvonne Marquis, who sometime later went to Mexico, where she became the mistress of the then President of that country. As interesting as that is, it is matched by the enigma of the score, recorded in 1966 by an unknown psychedelic folk-rock artist named Jonathan Halper-who following this seems to have vanished completely from the face of the earth. Granted, he has a YouTube site, but I am almost convinced the person who put up the site is not the genuine article. Who is he then? Listen to the two songs on the video, which replaced the original score by Verdi (remember, the film was originally made in 1949).

You have Leaving My Old Life Behind, followed by Yes, I Am A Hermit. I am almost half-way convinced that Jonathan Halper does not exist (despite Anger's cryptic response to a query as to the artist's identity that it was a "friend" who never did anything else).

As crazy as it sounds, I can't help but think this is the Beatles-or at least two of them. The vocals of Leaving My Old Life Behind sounds suspiciously like George Harrison. The vocals of Yes I Am A Hermit sound even more suspiciously like John Lennon. The music of both songs are perfectly reminiscent of the musical period the Beatles were going through at this particular time-the Rubber Soul, and, especially, the Revolver sessions. The lyrics seem to fit as well. All this could be explained as Lennon and Harrison's desire to work on something away from the limelight by which they now felt so constrained. They, and of course Anger, would not have wanted the original film overshadowed by the score, nor would the two pop-stars be particular eager for a public association with the controversial filmmaker.

I know it sounds unlikely, but given everything we know about the Beatles during this period, and Anger himself, it's not out of the realm of probability. An earlier association with Anger, in fact, might well have led to the later pairing of Lennon with another certain avant-garde filmmaker-by the name of Yoko Ono.

At any rate, this is a nice little film to start off the New Year. Something old to ring in the new, you might say.

New Years Chili

In keeping with the last Yule, and in honor of my (made-up)Yule God, I now present for your New Years edification, the following chili recipe, which I call, of course-

The Mighty Eskimo Chili Recipe

You will need-

2 pds. of ground moose burger (failing that, two pounds of ground chuck will do just fine-it did for me).

two eight-ounce cans of tomato sauce (and equal parts water)
one-half of a large green pepper
one-half of a small white onion
one eight-ounce can of pinto beans
About twenty strands of spaghetti broken up into quarter pieces
one-half can of beer, flat
one Hershey's bar (or one large piece of homemade fantasy fudge recipe from Kraft Marshmallow Cream jar).
one package of chili seasoning mix
hot sauce-about nine dashes, or to taste

First, in a large skillet, brown the meat, and drain the grease into a container for disposal.

In a large saucepan, add the meat, the seasoning mix, the tomato sauce and water, mix thoroughly over medium heat. After it comes to a boil, add the beans, the onion, and the green pepper. Allow to boil lightly for about twenty minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Then, add the candy and the beer and the hot sauce. Stir as you reduce the hear to low for about ten minutes. Add the spaghetti and then cover with a lid, allowing to simmer for about twenty minutes.

Eat a large bowl for New Years night, with a beer or Coke, etc., along with saltine crackers and Doritos with dip of choice. keep a large roll of toilet paper handy, and don't say I didn't warn you.

Harold Pinter-A Dramatic Effect

I never will forget the time I watched a Harold Pinter play. It was a light-hearted, inspiring, heart-warming and joyous little production about a widower named Steve Douglas, his three lovable sons-Robbie, Chip, and Ernie-and their curmudgeonly old Uncle Charlie.

Oh, wait a minute-that was My Three Sons.

No, the play I saw was The Homecoming, about a retired butcher named Max, his younger brother Sam, who worked as a chauffeur, and Max’s three sons. There was Joey, a construction worker with dreams of being a boxer; Lenny, who seemed to be a pimp; and Teddy, a professor of philosophy at an unnamed American University, who in the play has just returned to the family home in North London for a visit (thus ostensibly the reason for the play’s title). Teddy has also brought along his wife, an attractive woman named Ruth, by whom he has three sons of his own, whom he and Ruth have left in America for the duration of the couple’s visit.

By the time that the play concludes, however, Teddy will be returning to America alone. Ruth has agreed to remain with the family, who has decided to rent her a flat and put her to work as a prostitute. Of course, there’s a lot more leading up to this, as the play seeks to lay bare the elements hidden within what Pinter seeks to convince us is-and what he honestly seems to believe is-a typical working class family.

One of the ironies of Pinter’s plays is in that it would seem there is little evidence that he had any real contact or experience with any family from the lower or working classes. His conception of them would seem to be so cliché’-ridden as to call into question those critics who so frequently hail the genius of his insight. His information would seem to consist of second-hand gossip among the upper and middle classes as to what these families are like.

To be sure, there are families like that to some degree, but there is also a lighter, more positive side that Pinter either dismissed as irrelevant, or perhaps never considered the idea of its existence.

Still, this is not to dismiss the validity of his observations, such as they are. There are certainly darker, seedier sides to the working classes and all others, and Pinter captures them brilliantly, leading one to conclude he must have at least done some form of second-hand research on his subjects aside from idle parlor room gossip.

In fact, I tend to look upon him somewhat as the Walter Sickert of modern drama. Whereas Sickert the Post-Impressionist artist honed his technique of portraying working and lower class subjects “through the keyhole” to display the seedier sides of life, Pinter attempted the same thing in his plays, possibly to greater effect.

Some of course do not agree. One reviewer feels that Pinter’s plays are unlikely to survive him for long. This is more than a valid point. Sickert himself almost vanished from public consciousness after his death and became an unknown to all but a small circle of art experts. It was not until the last couple of decades that interest in Sickert and in his art revived, though this was due mainly to author Patricia Cornwall’s insistence that Sickert was in reality Jack the Ripper.

Nor was Sickert the only great artist to suffer this kind of indignity, aside from perhaps the wild accusations of maniacal crime sprees. Herman Melville, the renowned author of Moby Dick, went through a similar period of obscurity after his passing. It is very possible that, as the author of the piece at the previous link said, Pinter’s work will fade from memory for two reasons. For one thing, his work no longer has any real shock value. For another, people’s tastes are likely to veer towards a more balanced view of the human condition.

Pinter’s work eventually gained him recognition as a Nobel Laureate, and in his acceptance speech, he launched into a tirade against America, which he seemed to blame (along with the Western world in general) for every conceivable ill in the world today. His unabashed hatred of America in fact seemed to eat at him more every day, growing in proportion to the cancer from which he suffered for years, and which eventually took his life during this Christmas season.

Was Pinter always a miserable human being? He very possibly was. He seemed to hate everything about the modern Western world, particularly America, but I wonder how much of this was a projection of his own self-loathing in proportion with his own illness. He even took his political views to the extent of joining a defense of Slobodan Milosevic, probably on the grounds that Milosevic, while arguably a tyrant, was a too-convenient scapegoat for the aims of Western imperialists.

Pinter declared during his later years that he had an obligation to speak out against the excesses of Western political corruption and the excesses of capitalism. Yet, as pointed out here, the irony of his position seems to have escaped him.

As the article puts it-

The ultimate paradox of Pinter's political agitation is that his views – anti-American, anti-capitalist and so on – far from being bravely dissident are now the new artistic orthodoxy. From the National Theatre's house bard David Hare to Turner Prize winner Brian Wallinger, the cultural champions of our time tick most of the boxes on the think-a-like-a-Pinter form.

It is other voices, and this is even more true in the Scottish cultural landscape, which now struggle to be heard. Conformity with the assumptions of a broad left consensus appears to be a precondition for securing an artistic hearing. Cultural conservatism has been driven to the margins. If you doubt me, then let me ask just one question: When was the last time a new right-wing play was commissioned to appear on a Scottish stage? If it's a question to which your only answer is silence, then remember, as Pinter knew, silence can be the most eloquent sound of all.



In any event, if Pinter does fade from public consciousness, I’m sure it won’t be for long. It almost certainly won’t be forever. In the meantime, people continue to discuss his plays and their meanings. Some of his detractors claim they lack meaning, and that Pinter’s major contribution to drama is the use of the pause for dramatic effect, something for which credit him for developing and utilizing to new levels.

At the same time, he has his supporters and fans. This is understandable, as he could be, in real life, engaging as his works were provocative, as demonstrated in this interview.

If I were to give an assessment of Pinter’s work, I would guess he seems to be saying that humans are by nature violent, obsessive, compulsive, and reckless, and that the lives of working and lower class peoples reveal the true core of humanity, stripped of its practiced pretenses. His plays bring it all out, laid bare to the surface.

In the Homecoming, Max waxes poetic about his long-lost friend MacGregor. It’s not until near the end that we learn MacGregor had been carrying on an affair for years with Max’s beloved late wife, the mother of his sons, facilitated by brother Max the chauffeur, whom Max consistently berates and feminizes as consistently as he continually tries to infantilize his sons, whom he delights yet in tucking into bed at nights. Sam eventually falls to the floor, a victim of an apparent heart attack, though it’s unclear if he is dead or dying. The remainder of the family looks upon this as an inconvenience. Teddy, the oldest son, is distressed mainly at losing a ride to the airport back to the US. Nor does he seem particularly distressed that Ruth has decided to remain with the family. Slightly bemused, but not deterred from changing or even delaying his return to America, he seems to have considered this from the beginning of his trip.

Ruth you see was a prostitute before her marriage to Teddy, and Lenny seems to remember her as such from some time past. The Homecoming then is hers. She has dropped the pretenses of civilized culture at last. She was not happy then. She will still not be happy, perhaps, but at least she will be what she always was, and what she will always really be. She can at least pretend to some level of personal fulfillment.

Teddy, whom Ruth tells not to be a stranger, can finally cut away from the totality of his past. We know somehow that he will never see any of them again. He has his own niche inhabited by those pretenses of his own construction, and has no room for those of the past. Yet, we see in time that he will be the same kind of father to his three sons as Max was to he and his brothers. His break from the past is an exercise in futility. It will almost certainly come around full circle.

All the others will continue to live their lives as always. Ruth will be their mother, sister, daughter, and lover. She will fill a void, but that void will doubtless swallow her up inside it, over time. We can easily assume of course that she and Joey eventually go “the whole hog”.

I have to wonder whether Pinter ever watched an episode of My Three Sons. I can easily imagine that he did, and that wholesome picture of family life inspired to write this as a cynical response. In its own way, however, The Homecoming is, though grittier and harsh, funnier, more compelling, and ultimately more satisfying as an artistic endeavor. Unfortunately, it is every bit as realistic as a view of humanity from the opposite extreme as that portrayed by those old time situation comedies. That in itself if anything should give us all pause.