Poem of the Day: Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Oh, just read it.

Kurt Schwitters, "Anna Bloom."

O you, beloved of my twenty-seven senses, I
love your!
You your thee thine, I your, you mine. -- we?
This (by the way) is beside the point.
Who are you, uncounted woman? you are
-- are you? People say you are, -- let
them say it, they don't know how it stands with us.
You wear your head on your feet and walk about
on your hands, on your hands you walk.
Halloo your red dress, sliced in white pleats.
Red I love Anna Bloom, red I love your! -- You
your thee thine, I your, you mine. -- we?
This belongs (by the way) out in the cold.
Red bloom, red Anna Bloom, what do people say?
Prize question: 1. Anna Bloom has a screw loose.
2. Anna Bloom is red.
3. What colour is the screw?
Blue is the colour of your yellow hair.
Red is the thread of your green screw.
You simple girl in simple dress, you dear
green animal. I love your! you your thee thine, I
your, you mine. -- we?
This belongs (by the way) in the ashcan.
Anna Bloom! Anna, a-n-n-a, I trickle your
name. Your name drips like soft tallow.
Do you know it, Anna, do you know already?
You can be read from behind, and you, you
loveliest of all, you are from behind as you are
from the front: "a-n-n-a."
Tallow trickles softly over my back.
Anna Bloom, you trickle beast, I love your!

Tuesday Musical Tribute

F@ck Kairos. I know that this should be a Michael Jackson tribute, or something like that. But I do not care.

Tuesday song of the day, "If I can't change your mind," by Sugar, one of the best bands from the 1990. Copper Blue, of course, is also one of the best albums of the 1990s. You can preview it here.



The band had only a three year run. But, in those three years, they made some great music.

Saturday Musical Tribute

A song that's been on Harrogate's mind lately.

Poem of the Day: Saturday, Independence Day, 2009

Happy Fourth of July to all Situationers, although some of you are Anglophiles unfortunately. Ye know who you are. :-)

Also, Happy George Steinbrenner's birthday.


Robert Frost, "The Pasture"

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long. You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long. You come too.

File Under WTF:

According to CNN: Palin will resign as Governor of Alaska.

There is a lot of speculation that she will run for President in 2012 and, consequently, she will not run for reelection for Governor in 2010.

But, why would you resign now and not finish your term? Is everything in Alaska going to go down hill so fast that you think you will not be blamed for it?

Update: File under this is incredibly stupid. from CNN:

Palin added in a statement that she was "determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path. ... Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional lame duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose."

Let's think about this statement. If Palin were to run for president and win, then she faces a dilemma. Since, under current constitutional standards, which I assume would not change, if Palin were elected in 2012, then she would not run for reelection in 2016 because every president who wins reelection is a lame duck. Of course, this also means that a victory in 2012 and a conviction against being a lame duck, means that if she were to win in 2012 she would be a lame duck president and, hence, should resign.

She is just bizarre. And no too bright politically. At least she is doing what is best for the citizens of Alaska. Maybe she will do the same for the rest of the country by resigning from politics.

Update II:
She said she believes politics is "superficial." Define Irony.

Update III: Watch it yourself. I am waiting for the 5:30pm showing on MSNBC. And the Geese in the background.


I guess we will no longer have Nixon to kick around. Oh wait. That was before he won the presidency. Shit.

Poem of the Day: Friday, July 3, 2009

Megs looked at my funny the other night when Sweet Toddler J and I sat in the bedroom and read a few of Emily Dickinson's poems. When Sweet Toddler J. was only two months old, I remember that I soothed her from a crying fit as I read a few Robert Frost poems to her. Wednesday night, we had a grand time on the Chase as we drank apple juice and read Dickinson.

Unfortunately, I cannot find one of Dickinson's poems that I read to the little one. But in the spirit of that night, here is the poem of the day:

"This World is not Conclusion," Emily Dickinson

This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond --
Invisible, as Music --
But positive, as Sound --
It beckons, and it baffles --
Philosophy -- don't know --
And through a Riddle, at the last --
Sagacity, must go --
To guess it, puzzles scholars --
To gain it, Men have borne
Contempt of Generations
And Crucifixion, shown --
Faith slips -- and laughs, and rallies --
Blushes, if any see --
Plucks at a twig of Evidence --
And asks a Vane, the way --
Much Gesture, from the Pulpit --
Strong Hallelujahs roll --
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul --

George W. Bush, Richard M. Nixon, and James Buchanan

President Buchanan did nothing to prevent the Civil War. President Nixon, well, did too many things to list.

President Bush: invaded a country with no WMDs because of a poker bluff Saddam played to hold off Iran. CNN has more but I cannot make it through the article.

Poem of the Day

The Choice, William Butler Yeats

The intellect of man is forced to choose
perfection of the life, or of the work,
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.
When all that story's finished, what's the news?
In luck or out the toil has left its mark:
That old perplexity an empty purse,
Or the day's vanity, the night's remorse.

New Stupid Piece of Shit from Sony

Since Solon likes shiny new technology, he might like this. (Or does it have to be from Apple?)

Wednesday Musical Tribute

Same Orchestra, doing "Jupiter." Freaking incredible.

Todd Purdum on Sarah Palin

There is a new article by Todd Purdum in Vanity Fair concerning Sarah Palin and the 2008 Presidential Election. This article is an interesting text as it reveals very little that we did not know before and takes a few, deep and dark swipes against Sarah Palin that seem to be unfair against her and that come from a source (Purdum) who is unqualified to make these claims.

With so little new information, and what new information in the article does not seem too relevant, I have too questions: first, why should anyone other than political junkies read the piece? Second, even after reading the piece and reading the terrible slams on Palin (postpartum? seriously? what are your qualifications to diagnose this?) why cannot I not, even in good conscience, defend Palin? After everything she said and did during the campaign, I feel as if I should not even mention that the postpartum claim is outlandish because Palin deserves almost every unsubstantiated claim against her for ever unsubstantiated claim she delivered.

Update: Watch this video.


It is discourse like this, with not so subtle references to Obama as a terrorist and Obama as King Kong (no racial implications here, none whatsoever), and Palin as a national, and erotic, savior (notice the kinky, right-wing military and sex fethish with the erect missiles in relation to Palin in a military uniform-- starbursts indeed) that makes me believe everyday the network news should run the Thanksgiving footage of Palin being interviewed as turkeys were slaughtered. That is the correct metaphor for discussing what would happen to the US if Palin ever achieved national office.

"Going" Green or Merely "Performing" Green? And When, O When, Will We Stop with the Compulsive Use of Ironic Quotation Marks

Last week, Megs raised an excellent question about Americans, ranging "from esteemed blogger Andrew Sullivan to our own Harrogate," who have "changed their identifying display to the color in support of Iranian protesters."

Megs wondered whether it makes a difference at all, do the Iranian proestors even care? "Normally," she observed, "I'm all for the grassroots movement, but this one seems just too easy. Click a button, it says to me. That's all you have to do to help these people." Reading this post from the snug, secure confines of a hallowed Ivy League Library, Harrogate found himself feeling extra vapid. Worse, he was not much heartened by the latter half of Megs' post, which made an interesting move towards embracing the possibility that this "click of a button" movement might actually be doing something beyond making us feel proud of ourselves.

Sigh. Harrogate has no effective answer to this issue. But since Solon is right that intention always matters no matter how embedded in Theory we get, Harrogate in his own rambling way, would like to take a shot at stating why he went with the Green identifier.

First off, an important distinction needs to be made between Andrew Sullivan and us facebookers and lightly-trafficked bloggers (as friends know, Harrogate has deep ambivalence towards Sullivan, because Sullivan is a committed neoliberal, which Harrogate finds only marginally less repulsive than the mainstream American brand of social conservatism. But that is beside the point here). Sullivan's blogger coverage of the Iranian election and its aftermath has been beyond stellar, and one would be hard pressed to suggest that Sullivan has made no difference in shaping the public imagination, both in the United States and abroad, on these important events. To the extent that the Iranians have had uncensored access to the Internet during this time, Sullivan has in all likelihood reached protestors there as well.

Sullivan inspired Harrogate to identify Green on Facebook. Cannot remember the post (there are sooo many), but there was one where Sullivan argued that these identifiers matter. That whereas Obama and the Congress have a responsibility to be cautious with their Rhetoric, bloggers and "plugged in" citizens in the United States and throughout the Western world are not at all beholden to caution, and that while it may only be the click of a button, it sends a "human family" message.

Sullivan's was an assertion of the importance of Rhetoric in the most layman sense of the term. "That's just Rhetoric," some might say. But "Rhetoric matters," Sullivan responds, for it adds momentum to a sense of global sympathy for those who fight for their political freedom.

As Megs said, we all here in the US (except for those who want to bomb Iran and are thus sad that its people are suddenly humanized in the mainstream American imaginary) support the protestors there. Harrogate, persuaded by Sullivan, decided to inscrbe that support on Facebook, and he admits to having entertained the idea that some protestors would notice, and be gladdened by, the fact that so many are doing this.

In the end, Harrogate comes down believing that that we are, in some way and in Megs' hopeful words, "speaking to the Iranian populous" with these identifiers. But we also ought not to flatter ourselves that we are hardcore political activists in changing a Facebook Profile Picture from Picture of Ric Flair to a Placard asking "Where are Their Votes?"

Tuesday Musical Tribute

Mind-Blowing 2009 BBC performance of "Mars." Perfect with the morning coffee while thinking about all sorts of things. Will get ya every time.

Poem of the Day: Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Lonely House, Emily Dickinson

THE LONELY HOUSE.

I know some lonely houses off the road
A robber 'd like the look of, --
Wooden barred,
And windows hanging low,
Inviting to
A portico,
Where two could creep:
One hand the tools,
The other peep
To make sure all's asleep.
Old-fashioned eyes,
Not easy to surprise!

How orderly the kitchen 'd look by night,
With just a clock, --
But they could gag the tick,
And mice won't bark;
And so the walls don't tell,
None will.

A pair of spectacles ajar just stir --
An almanac's aware.
Was it the mat winked,
Or a nervous star?
The moon slides down the stair
To see who's there.

There's plunder, -- where?
Tankard, or spoon,
Earring, or stone,
A watch, some ancient brooch
To match the grandmamma,
Staid sleeping there.

Day rattles, too,
Stealth's slow;
The sun has got as far
As the third sycamore.
Screams chanticleer,
"Who's there?"
And echoes, trains away,
Sneer -- "Where?"
While the old couple, just astir,
Fancy the sunrise left the door ajar!

Poem of the Day

CHANCE MEETINGS, Conrad Aiken (1889-1973)

IN the mazes of loitering people, the watchful and furtive,
The shadows of tree-trunks and shadows of leaves,
In the drowse of the sunlight, among the low voices,
I suddenly face you,

Your dark eyes return for a space from her who is with you,
They shine into mine with a sunlit desire,
They say an 'I love you, what star do you live on?'
They smile and then darken,

And silent, I answer 'You too--I have known you,--I love you!--'
And the shadows of tree-trunks and shadows of leaves
Interlace with low voices and footsteps and sunlight
To divide us forever.

Monday Morning Movie Flashback (MMMF), and the Question of the Day

Can ye believe True Romance is 16 years old? What a wonderful scene this is, and how redolent with TRS-ness. Which brings us to the Question of the Day:

Is Floyd's rhetoric here appropriate to his Rhetorical Situation?



What about here? Moreover, here, does Gandolfini really "conde-n-scend," or is Floyd just being overly sensitive? Looks like a pretty cordial exchange to Harrogate....

The Morning Read

Over at Balkinization, Law Professor Sandy Levinson writes about constitutional defects, constitutional ideology, constitutional interpretation, and constitutional politics in relation to Chief Justice John Robert's comments on the infamous Dred Scott decision.

If you want to understand the complexity of controversial Supreme Court decisions, this is the blog post to read.

Sunday Musical Tribute

Upon his return Harrogate sees that much has taken place here. He hopes to speak to M and Paperweight soon, to express his delight for them. He also plans a response to Megs' probing post about the whole Green Thing.

But as decompression continues, for now Harrogate submits this cover of "Suffragette City" by none other than Boy George.

A good cover? Harrogate reports, you decide.





Oh, and heh. If this has put ye in a Boy George State of Mind®, then get your fill by checking this wondrousness out:

There's equality for ya!

In this month's "go figure" section of Sports Illustrated:

$510,000
Amount won in a
settlement by a man
who sued the A's for
sex discrimination
because he was not
given a souvenir hat
the club handed out to
women at a game on
Mother's Day 2004.

Fair and Balanced: Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

Thank G-d for Fox News. Today, Gov. Mark Sanford (D) of South Carolina admitted that instead of hiking the Appalachian Trail, he took a five or six day to trip to hike in Argentina. He amended that statement to say he went to Argentina to see his mistress.

During the Press Conference, Fox News was right there to help his cause:



What? Sanford is a Conservative Republican? Does that mean Fox News made a mistake when defining someone to confuse its viewers? Seriously? They would do that? Again?

And, since I watch Fox, I thought only Democrats had affairs....

The Nixon Tapes

A few more Nixon tapes, from January and February of 1973, were released, ensuring that he will be remembered as the worst president in the history of the United States. Though there is some competition fot that honor, no president can surpass Nixon. From The New York Times:

On abortion, after the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade:

Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies.

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding: “Or a rape.”

On antisemitism:

The tapes also include a phone call from February 1973 between Nixon and the evangelist Billy Graham, during which Mr. Graham complained that Jewish-American leaders were opposing efforts to promote evangelical Christianity, like Campus Crusade. The two men agreed that the Jewish leaders risked setting off anti-Semitic sentiment.

“What I really think is deep down in this country, there is a lot of anti-Semitism, and all this is going to do is stir it up,” Nixon said.

At another point he said: “It may be they have a death wish. You know that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.”

Hail to the Chief indeed.

Going Green

Greeting, fellow bloggers and readers of TRS. I've been drawn back after an extended hiatus--sabbatical, perhaps?--dragging my feet, kicking and screaming, because I cannot stop thinking about going green.

It seems everyone around us, from esteemed blogger Andrew Sullivan to our own Harrogate has changed their identifying display to the color in support of Iranian protesters. Until this morning, I've been skeptical of this sign of solidarity. "What do they care?" I thought, referring to the people of Iran. As late as last night, I told Solon that I found it somewhat empty to make so easy a change and do nothing else. "We're all in their support," I told him. "I don't know a single American who isn't. So what are these Greenies doing that's so important, making an outward sign of it?" Normally I'm all for the grassroots movement, but this one seems just too easy. Click a button, it says to me. That's all you have to do to help these people.

I don't know if it's the lack of sleep or the lack of coffee, but I started to change my tune this morning. If the Cub cared--or spoke English, for that matter--I'd right this moment be asking her about Iranian citizen's access to American media. For I truly don't know the answer. Are American bloggers truly speaking to the Iranian populous? Is that their intent? Since our own government has--wisely, I think--shied away from any pointed, tangible support of the protesters, is this more important?

(Both girls are awake now and demanding my thoughtful attention. More later, but I'd love input.)

A Father's Day Tribute

This is a little ditty for all the dads at TRS from all the kids. So Solon, Roof, Harrogate, Paperweight, and Oxy this is from Jeezy and Lion Cub; Harley Q; Supadisco-T; Wild Man; and Oxy Toddler.

Saturday Musical Tribute, and a Brief Farewell from Harrogate

Off of Pink Floyd's much-maligned, but actually quite excellent, 1994 record The Division Bell. Here's the sublime album cover:




The song is "High Hopes," even without Waters it captures much of the beauty of Floyd. Enjoy the song, friends. Harrogate rejoins the TRS ranks in a week.

Assy McGee Award® for Saturday, June 20th: Bill O'Reilly Laments the Culture of "Personal Attacks Leveled Against Public People"

Chalk this one up in the OMFG category. Bill O'Reilly's column today weighs in on Letterman's now infamous joke about Sarah Palin and her daughter(s), and wags his righteous finger at an American discourse in which "increasingly, personal attacks are being used to marginalize opposing points of view."

Even more entertaining is this line: "I've been on the Letterman program five times. Last time around, he called me a goon and mocked Rush Limbaugh's weight. I asked him why he was doing that, but he did not have an answer."

So yeah, OMFG. Here we have a worldview in which Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, are victims of increasingly crass, personal discourse represented by David Letterman.

O'Reilly, whose mode of discourse is fairly represented by the fact that he continues to pride himself on branding George Tiller with the "Baby Killer" moniker for year upon year. He laments the personal attack on Palin and her daughters. Palin, too, decried it as sexist, condescending, and more than a little bit gross to boot. All of which is bad. But calling GOP voters and their leaders the "real Americans," and the Dem candidate a friend of terrorists: that's just being "folks."

Ugh.

Friday Musical Tribute: A Happy Anniversary Shout-Out to Supadiscomama, who is Indeed Crafty, and Just Harrogate's Type

And Now for a Little High Romantic Art

Solon, surely thou hast not forgotten?

Yes, People Buy These

For sale on a bastion of thoughtful political discourse, thoseshirts.com.

A new love

C recently bought me Jason Mraz's new cd "A Beautiful Mess," and I have fallen in love with him. In fact, I'm declaring him my new boyfriend. Here is my favorite track off the album, "Make It Mine."

"A Profitable Enterprise"; Or, No Longer Meh about Clapton

Here is Slow Hand at his best.

Wednesday Musical Tribute Part the Second; or, A Dual Gesture of Love to M and Oxymoron

Sheryl Crow's "The Difficult Kind," as virtuously performed by herself and Eric Clapton.

Wednesday Musical Tribute, and a Homage of Sorts, to Little Green Footballs

Major Tip of the Hat to Little Green Footballs for this priceless image. Readers not familiar with the website should know that its proprietor, Charles Johnson, and the site's commenters regularly refer to themselves as "Lizards." While Harrogate has several times offered strong disagreement with LGF's politics, the unabashed centrism Johsnon represents includes a very strong support for speech rights and religious liberty, has vociferously defended Science and called out the nascent creationism that infests our current political landscape, and has made every bit as much effort to be fair to Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress, as he made with respect to Bush and the GOP Congress. Similarly, Johnson's loathing of the theocratic oppression in much of the Middle East is a sensibility that Americans of all political stripes ought to appreciate.

Plus, isn't the above just an awesome picture?


As an added measure of homage, Harrogate installs a wonderful live performance of Phish's "The Lizards," as the Wednesday Musical Tribute.

"Troll Slayer" Funniness; or, The Unstoppableness of the Twilight People

Monday Musical Tribute

A kickass version of "Gold Dust Woman" needs no particular reason to be posted. Verily, it simply deserves to be taken seriously.

A Right Winger's Response to Obama's Remarks on Islam in Cairo

An interesting column is up today, by Bruce Bialosky, entitled Let’s All Accept Islam.

The author is right that these Muslim theocracies are incredibly benighted, period, when it comes to political and human rights.

But what the author largely misses, as Bill Maher would quickly point out, is that what he is rightly skewering has a hell of a lot more to do with the nature of Theocracy than with the nature of Islam or any other religion. This is surely not a surprise given the author's political and religious biases. But if Bialosky wants to be intellectually honest, he'll have to accept the existence of a richly documented past of theocracies, ranging from pagan to Christian to Jewish to Mormon, featuring the broad suppression of women and in which social deviance of many kinds is met with violence on an institutional level.

The Old Testament reminds us that theocracies have rolled like this for quite some time.

Theocracy sucks. That's a statement to which Harrogate allows no "on the other hand."

A Buzz Is Building About Pixar's Lack of Female Protagonists

As Pixar's newest smash hit, Up, wows audiences in the way that all Pixar movies seem to do, a counter narrative about the franchise's lack of female protagonists is beginning to pick up real steam.

A week ago, from the blog "Truth, Justice, and Tacos", appeared a post, entitled Finding Nema - Where Are The Girls in Pixar Films?.

The thesis and methodological approach from the post:

This is not to say that Pixar doesn't include worthy female characters. But these characters are never the main focus - they're there to support the lead male character in whatever quest he's on. Most often, if you see a female, they're there either as a wife, mother or love interest.

Here's a breakdown of the notable female characters from each film, plus an overall feminist grade on the quality of the female characters:

Then today, appeared this post on the NPR website, endearingly entitled "Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees."

Gotta love this snippet:

I want so much for girls to have a movie like Up that is about someone they can dress up as for Halloween, as Anika Noni Rose said about starring as the voice in The Princess And The Frog. Not a girl who's a side dish, but a girl who's the big draw.

And I'd really, really like it not to be a princess.

My understanding is that after the summer blockbusters of 2010 and 2011 -- Toy Story 3 and Newt -- you're planning The Bear And The Bow, a Christmastime fairy tale rather than a summer adventure. And your first one about a girl -- way to go!

But why, oh why, does it have to be about a princess? Again?

Et tu, Pixar?

Thoughts?

The Intellecutal Dishonesty, Indeed The Mendacity, of George Will-Style Econ-Conservatism, in a Nutshell

It is always a tough call deciding which piece of the ballyhooed Republican troica is worse. Is it the "social conservatives," the "fiscal conservatives," or the "national security hawks"? Harrogate puts these terms in quotation marks because they do not at all describe what it is they purport to. But, never mind that for now.

The following snippet from George Will's recent column,"More Judicial Activism, Please". Not so well buried within the "look how reasonable I am and how much constitutional understanding I possess" blather is at least one giant piece of hypocrisy.

Controversy about the judiciary's proper role is again at a boil because of a Supreme Court vacancy, and conservatives are warning against "judicial activism." But the Chrysler and GM bailouts and bankruptcies are reasons for conservatives to rethink the usefulness of that phrase and to make some distinctions.

Of course courts should not make policy or invent rights not stipulated or implied by statutes or the Constitution's text. But courts have no nobler function than that of actively defending property, contracts and other bulwarks of freedom against depredations by government, including by popularly elected, and popular, officials. Regarding Chrysler and GM, the executive branch is exercising powers it does not have under any statute or constitutional provision. At moments such as this, deference to the political branches constitutes dereliction of judicial duty.

Sunday Musical Tribute.... Waiting

Disclaimer: this post is for humor only. No one needs to read anything in to this post. It is time to laugh kids, it is time to laugh.

The theme for today revolves around the word: "waiting." Right now, our good friend M is waiting and waiting rather patiently too I would add. While I am sitting around as some sleep and others are at the store, I thought I would see how many good songs I could post that involve the word "waiting." And, I think, I got at least one song for everyone. Hopefully, while M waits, she will have a good soundtrack to enjoy.

May the pot boil!!!

The best song for me, of course, is Leonard Cohen's "Waiting for the Miracle." Even though this video is not the official video, it deserves the top billing if for no other reasons since I am here, awake, and posting the entry.



Besides "Waiting for a Miracle," here is a selective list of key songs and play excerpts that focus on the word "waiting." Remember, this is a selective list: no Jonas Brothers, Jenifer Whomever, John Mayer, or Richard Marx though I am not sure how Foreigner made the list. Also, remember, this is for laughs only as it is time to laugh. And, finally, now that I think about it, these are some damn good songs. Enjoy your Sunday.

One of the best ever: The Velvet Underground, "I'm Waiting for my Man."

For all of the punks in the audience tonight: Fugazi, "Waiting Room"

For Harrogate, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, "Waiting Is the Hardest Part"

For Oxymoron, maybe: Foreigner, "Waiting for a Girl Like You"

Another classic: The Rolling Stones, "Waiting on a Friend."

From The Garden State Soundtrack, Zero 7, "In the Waiting Line."

One of the best performers, ever: Annie Lennox, "Waiting in Vain."

A Classic: New Order, "Waiting for the Siren's Call"

Another classic: Depeche Mode, "Waiting for the Night"

For all of the Gap Punks in the audience tonight: Green Day, "Waiting"

For SupaDiscoMama: Gwen Stefani, "What You Waiting For?" (FIY- The Bean likes this song, a lot, as she dances in her high chair.)

Odd- Act I of Samuel Beckett's, "Waiting for Godot."

Odder, but kid friendly: From Monsterpiece Theatre, "Waiting for Elmo"

And last, but not least, Jack Johnson, "Sitting, Waiting, Watching."

Friday Musical Tribute: The Greatness of "Porch" At This Point is an Established Rule of Physics

Chatting on the phone with oxymoron of many things under the sun, earlier today, the subject of Pearl Jam's first record came up, and what a splash it made on the culture at the time. This is still Harrogate's favorite song off of Ten. And the performance shows why, as great as their records are, Pearl Jam will always be known more as a live band than anything else. Sometimes listening to Pearl Jam live, Harrogate thinks that it may not get any better on the live guitar, than Mike McCready.

Friday Label Tribute; Or, Obviously I'm Not Laughing about the Pornographic Pictures

Today's tribute is twofold:

1) It celebrates the label used below, which I believe was coined by Harrogate. No other label is suitable for something as funny as the clip posted below.

2) This post also celebrates Solon, who earlier today steered me back to FailBlog, the site from which this video post hails.

What's the matter with Dana?

I think he's unhappy.

Fashion as Rhetoric / Rhetoric as Fashion

"By the way I don't believe you're leaving
Cause me and Charles Manson like the same ice cream
I think it's that girl
And I think they're terrible collections of me you've never seen
Maybe she's just terrible collections of me you've never seen, well"
- (Not) Tori Amos


Rape, the 88th element of hip-hop. Also, coincidentally, the 88th element of the periodic table.

Thursday Label Tribute; Or, Flea Coins the Phrase "That's Hot!"

To honor Harrogate's newest label (used below), here is a clip of Anthony Keidis and Flea from The Chase, starring Charlie Sheen. Pay special attention to Flea's line at the .45 marker. It would seem that Paris Hilton plagiarized her famous catch-phrase from Flea. Perhaps that's why the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied her request to copyright "That's Hot."



P.S. Monster madness, dude.

Political Cartoon of the Week

Thursday Muscial Tribute

"Parallel Universe," by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from the album Californication. Turn it way up, only way to hear it.



And one hell of an album cover too.

From the Rachel Maddow Show: Terrorist Threats Against Women's Health Clinics on the Rise

It really looks like more violence against women and medical providers in the crusade to end abortion, is coming. These groups are just whacked out, picketing people's private homes, yelling at and touching patients, threatening doctors and staff. Etc. Tiller's murder emboldened them, and the closing of his clinic has further emboldened them. Now we see that Operation Rescue wants to make a bid on Tiller's clinic.

Perhaps more insidiuously, a meme has been gaining traction, recently articulated by this assshole, arguing that by taking the abortion issue "out of the democratic process," the Supreme Court is to blame for political violence. How unfortunate that the New York Times would publish such trash.

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

Tiller's Clinic Closed

Linking to this AP piece, Charles at Little Green Footballs asks:

Does anti-abortion terrorism actually work in America?

A chilling question, yes?

From the AP piece:

Dr. Warren Hern, one of the few remaining doctors in the country who performs late-term abortions, said the closure of the clinic was an "outrage" and he feels the loss for Dr. Tiller's family and the patients he served.

"How tragic, how tragic," Hern said when contacted by phone at his Boulder, Colo., clinic. "This is what they want, they've been wanting this for 35 years."

Asked whether he felt efforts should be made to keep the clinic open, he said: "This was Dr. Tiller's clinic. How much can you resist this kind of violence? What doctor, what reasonable doctor would work there? Where does it stop?"

A bit further down:

Hern blamed comments from anti-abortion groups for Tiller's death.

"The anti-abortion fanatics have to shut up and go home. They have to back off and they have to respect other people's point of view. This is an outrage, this is a national outrage

Meanwhile, back in crazy-fucktard-town:

Randall Terry, the founder of the original Operation Rescue group, responded to news that Tiller's clinic would remain closed with, "Good riddance." He said history would remember Tiller's clinic as it remembers Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.

"What set him apart is that he killed late-term babies," Terry said. "If his replacement was going to continue to kill late-term children, the protests would continue, the investigations would continue, the indictments would continue."

And so here we are.

Tuesday Musical Tribute; in Honor of M's Thread on Gay Rights, and of the Metaphorical Ted

A true 90s Anthem, even if it did come out in 1988. Harrogate will never forget when Jane's Addiction burst onto the scene.

The Rhetoric of Expectations: Question of the Day

Big Television week for Megs and I. Well, not really, but we do try albeit rather poorly.

But this leads to the question of the day: what is the proper form for a new television series (with form meaning, according to Kenneth Burke, the creation of certain appetites in the minds of the audience members- see Counter Statement) ? What should a viewer expect from a new series (or a new season e.g. Weeds)? How long do you give a show that sits on the edge of being watchable? Or, at what point do you begin to use the time to watch the paint dry or to catch up on the academic murder mystery books that piled up on the shelf?

Please note: there may be a difference between shows the broadcast on the premium channels, which, I imagine, creates a unique form or carries a different set of expectations from the regular broadcast channels.

The back story: This week we started to watch Showtime's new show, Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco. The show concerns a NY City Nurse dealing with, well, being a nurse, which is the signature twist from other medical dramas, as I am told, personally, by the producer, as other shows just focus on doctors for the lead roles. Simple enough. And since I do not watch other medical dramas and I am only watching this one because of Edie Falco, I do not know if the producer is right or wrong.

As for the story: the main character is both a saint and sinner: a saint for helping those in need; a sinner for abusing painkillers, having affairs, and abusing patients as the situation dictates. She deals with patients, family members, doctors, administrators, and whatever else walks in the door. There is little that occurs outside of the hospital: lunch with a doctor and some family interaction and both seem to distract from the story.

After two episodes (via On Demand), I have very little feeling for the show. It is okay though I am not sure if I would miss it if I stopped watching it. Nurse Jackie is certainly not as high on my TV list as the Sopranos, Big Love, The United States of Tera, or even Entourage, where I needed to be in my seat minutes, if not hours, before the show begins. Instead, it exists on the True Blood or Weeds plane, where if I catch it, I catch it; if I miss it, oh well. Maybe I have time for On Demand latter.

I am thankful the show is only twenty-five minutes in length. If it were an hour, it would be too much.

There seems to be some depth and intrigue in the show but I am not sure if I want to stick around to try and understand why she became a "realist," why she removes her wedding ring when she goes to work, or why she is having an affair. Instead of attempting to discuss these aspects in the first two weeks, the show just plays on the good/ bad tropes of hospital life: Nurse Jackie displays a sense of charity by helping some patient or showing compassion for some patients while demonstrating a sense of moral superiority by mistreating or yelling at others. Of course, because of her own moral failings and an absence of character development, the attitude that reveals her moral superiority seems "blah" at best. And, yes, blah is a technical term.

Thoughts? Has anyone else seen the show? What are your experiences with other shows? How long do you continue to watch before the "blahness" takes over? What is the "turning point" at which the show meets the acceptable form and you continue watching or you reject the show and find something else to do?

J.D. Salinger Finally Speaks!!!

New Terminator Movie Brings J.D. Salinger Out Of Hiding

"Come in, come in, sit down, there's plenty of space," an exuberant Salinger told reporters, gesturing around his sitting room, which was filled with movie posters, comic books, and other Terminator collectibles, including a life-sized statue of the T-800 Model terminator as portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. "What a frigging inspired choice to cast Bryce Dallas Howard. She made so much more sense in that part than Claire Danes."

Tip of the Hat to one of Harrogate's Facebook friends.

Disappointing

The Supreme Court has decided against hearing a challenge to the Defense Department's "don't ask, don't tell" policy concerning homosexual men and women serving in the military. I have to say, even given the conservative make-up of the court right now, I find this really disappointing. I find it even more disturbing that the White House has said they won't stop the military from dismissing gays and lesbians from military service. I really like the President, and I think he and his administration are on track with most things. I really do not like the half-hearted stance he and his administration take on gay rights.

Deeply Retroactive Assy McGee Award® to Michael Reagan

An extremist white supremacist radio host named Hal Turner was just arrested for engaging in what apparently DO constitute "fighting words." Turner has been charged with:

inciting Catholics to “take up arms” and singling out two Connecticut lawmakers and a state ethics official on a Web site -- was taken into custody in New Jersey late Wednesday after state Capitol police in Connecticut obtained a warrant for his arrest.

But blightful a human being as he is, it is not Turner who wins the Assy McGee Award® for today. That honor instead goes to President Ronald Reagan's son, Michael Reagan. The clip below, Harrogate learned about from one of the commenters in the above link, and from there it did not take long to find video footage of a blood-chilling exchange that took place between Reagan and a caller on 8/15/2006. This is some of the most extreme rhetoric you will find on Right Wing talk radio, and that is saying something.

What we encounter below on its face would appear to be hyperbolic, not representative of right wing punditry. But given the increasingly shrill climate on the internet, the radio, and even on cable news today, one wonders just how hyperbolic it really is in the circles to which Bill O'Reilly caters, and to which George Tiller's murderer undoubtedly belonged.

Hippos for a Friday Night

Friday Musical Tribute; Or, The Discourse Continues

I'm going to announce right here, right now that my single best music purchase over the last two years is Neil Young's 1972 album Harvest. This is a bold statement given the quality of music I've added to my collection lately (e.g. Carole King's Tapestry, Cat Stevens's Tea for the Tillerman, and Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks), but I'm going to stand by it.

Everything about the album is wonderful, especially the arrangements. In most cases, we have only an acoustic guitar and harmonica accompanying Young's voice. Sometimes a piano, and sometimes a few stringed orchestral instruments. The minimalist arrangements compel even me to focus on the lyrics, which are wonderfully gentle and melancholy.

Until this week, Harvest was the beginning and end of my Neil Young interest. I've heard some of his electric stuff but don't care for it. I prefer his stripped down, acoustic, classic singer-songwriter stuff from the early seventies. Young is a pretty eclectic artist, so there aren't a lot of titles that fit this particular mold. I always look, but usually leave music stores empty handed.

All of this changed on Monday when I was browsing the shelves in my local Best Buy while Oxywife and toddler were playing drums on the Rock Star display. As my eyes scanned the selections towards the end of the alphabet, I saw a picture of a young Neil Young sitting at a piano. Above the photo, a label read Neil Young Archives: Massey Hall 1971.

I bought it.

I love it.

And I can't will myself to take it out of the CD player.

As the title implies, this is a live concert from 1971. It's just Neil and his guitars, and a piano in the corner of the stage at which he twice sits to play. The songs, as he tells his audience, are mostly new compositions. Several would make it onto Harvest a year later.

While all the tracks are great, I've really been digging "Dance Dance Dance" over the last twenty-four hours or so. It's just so different from the other songs on Harvest and Massey Hall 1971. It's happy.

And since it's Friday, and the weekend is just a few hours away, happiness must begin. Watch the video and feel free to dance.



(BTW: This is not the 1971 performance. And what's with these poorly synced videos? I hate it when lips don't match the sound.)

Thursday Musical Tribute; or TRS and Soundtracks

One of Harrogate's favorite aspects of this blog, if not his very favorite, is the musical discourse, in which all Board Members have engagingly participated over the years. And, Soundtracks have been a subject this blog historically bandies about. Once upon a New Years' Eve, Megs reported on a vehicular conversation between herself and solon, in which the question of "best soundtracks" came up. A great thread emerged.

Harrogate listed the soundtrack to She's The One, which is also a record by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Harrogate's reasons for putting this album involve every single song, which taken together represents some of the best work this group ever did. And the song posted below is, perhaps deservedly, the most famous single from that record. Harrogate presents it now, as the Thursday musical tribute.

Give it up for The Onion

Harrogate isn't the hugest Onion fan out there, but he knows a winner when he sees it. Like all good satire, it takes hold of a sore spot in the political corpus we constitute, and throttles the hell out of it.

Wednesday Musical Tribute: Todd Snider's "Iron Mike's Main Man's Last Request"

The awesome Todd Snider CD, "East Nashville Skyline," was at the center of Harrogate's Big Birthday Musical Haul. This song, as the title implies, represents the point of view of one of Mike Tyson's entourage. Great stuff. Harrogate definitely hearts Todd Snider.

"Don't Blame O'Reilly": A Pro-Choice Advocate Reminds Us That Media Do Not Yell "Fire!" in Movie Theaters

Yesterday, Helen Searls had a compelling rhetorical treatment of the Tiller murder, as well as of the nature of how America handles the abortion debate more generally. Making her own pro-choice proclivities very clear, Searls takes shots at Andrew Sullivan Daily Kos, pundits on MSNBC, and many of us in the unwashed blogosphere for over-reaching in laying blame for acts of anti-abortion violence at the mantle of its most vitriolic talkers.

But, Searls' take is also very different from those who throw in totally with the free will position, or the idea that this was the action of a lone loon.

Bloggers like Jill Filipovic are quite wrong to make an analogy between O’Reilly’s rhetoric and the shouting of ‘Fire!’ in a croweded theatre. The point about the overused ‘Fire!’ example is that in a crowded theatre there is no time to think: if someone shouts, everyone runs, as there’s no time for debate or reasoned inquiry into the nature of the fire or the truth of the claim. The link between words and actions becomes blurred in this one, exceptionally rare instance.

In contrast, when O’Reilly says stuff on his show, there is every opportunity to question and challenge his claims. TV is not a panicked atmosphere but a media outlet, where the audience hears things, weighs them up, and decides whether to agree or disagree. Far from calling for anti-abortion activists to ‘mind their language’, their often crass remarks should be seen as an opportunity to meet fire with fire, to counter their claims with more compelling arguments and opinions. Far from needing less talk about abortion, we need more. Things might have turned out differently if O’Reilly’s arguments had provoked a robust public debate about why women need people like Dr Tiller and access to late-term abortions

Much to chew on here. It is certainly true that Pro Choice advocacy in the United States has grown increasingly timid, and in some ways has altogether disappeared (occasional soundbites in favor of the principles of privacy and choice notwithstanding) from the rhetoric of leaders within the Democratic Party. This unwillingness to meet the anti-abortion arguments directly, on the rhetorical battlefield in the public square, very much extends to President Obama, as Searls notes:

But sadly, for too long the question of late-term abortion has been treated as a highly sensitive, even embarrassing issue by many pro-choice activists. And pro-choice politicians do not consider late-term abortion a good subject for public discussion. As President Barack Obama’s speech at Notre Dame University demonstrated, pro-choice politicians are keen to avoid the substantive issues in the abortion debate whenever possible.

But if the pro-choice lobby stays quiet on this issue, it will effectively vacate the public arena and allow people like O’Reilly to barge in and take the alleged moral highground; shamefacedness about late-term abortion allows anti-abortion campaigners to see it and treat it as, well, something shameful. In such a climate, it is little wonder that individuals like Dr Tiller were so effectively demonised. Late-term abortion should not be a dirty little secret never raised in polite society. It should be openly discussed and rationally understood. There are many very sound reasons why women need to have access to late-term abortion services, and there should be no shame in defending them.


It is a tragedy that it has taken the brutal murder of a decent and compassionate man to remind us why so many women turn to people like Dr Tiller for help. O’Reilly has been banging on about Tiller for years, but it is only now that we are beginning to hear the other side of Tiller’s story - a story about a brave doctor who believed passionately in defending women’s reproductive rights. This was the real Dr Tiller, who was seen by many of his patients as something like a knight in shining armour.

In the wake of the Bush Administration, many of us have been gladdened and relieved at Obama's central strategy of seeking to "tone down" the culture wars. We do not want things to escalate to violence, after all, and there are pressing matters such as health care and North Korea and Harrogate's student loan debt to worry about. But at the same time, if one side refuses to tone down the culture war, then does the other essentially cede all the important Rhetorical Ground, by confining engagement to asking everyone to get along?


Questions of responsibility for Tiller's murder aside, In Harrogate's view, Searls is dead-on right in her premise that our wish to avoid vociferously defending abortion rights in the public square has been exposed as a totally ineffective approach.

How do you fight inflammatory speech? Not by shutting it down, not by asking the speakers to chill, and also not by ignoring it. Fight it with reasonable, but vociferous and bold speech of your own. We all need to realize that the Culture Wars have not gone away, have not been toned down in the United States---nor will they anytime soon.

Tuesday Musical Tribute

Another wonderful cover that appeared in the movie American Beauty, a movie Harrogate has been thinking about a lot lately, for some reason. This takes Harrogate back to the momentous conversation last fall, that he and oxymoron and solon had while driving to the bar to celebrate solon's esteemed doctorhood, about Beatles covers. Harrogate remembers citing Elliot Smith's cover of "Because" as one of his five favorites.

Also, "Because" is one of Harrogate's favorite Beatles songs, period. To wit: "Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry." How distilled.

Question of the Day

Why cannot Tiller's family sue Randall Terry, Bill O'Reilly, and others, for publicly slandering the doctor? For that matter, a kind of class action lawsuit filed by multiple doctors is imaginable, is it not?

Doctors after all are surely not public figures in the same way that politicians and pop stars are. Or are they?

Hmmmm. If someone got on television everyday and called Harrogate a murderer of babies, Harrogate would be able to sue that person, wouldn't he? Since Tiller was acting within the law, and thus demonstably not a murderer, why is it out of bounds to file a lawsuit against those who call him and other doctors murderers?

Bill O'Reilly the Terrorist Rhetor: His Response to Tiller's Murder

As Solon said, Papa Bear the Terrorist Rhetor doubled down on his violent rhetoric last night. Unsurprisingly, he altogether bypasses the issue of the hateful and demonstrably violent base to which his and other talk forums cater, and instead asserts that the real issue is "far left" craziness.

On a personal level, for Tiller's family and friends, how horrible to see O'Reilly smugly defend his inflammatory remarks the day after his death. On a broader political level, how horrible for those of us either committed to womens' rights, reaching peaceful resolutions to political problems, the rule of law, or all three.

O'Reilly's Response to Tiller's Murder

In the Wake of an Attack on Women and their Doctors, The Hate Speech Ratchets Ever Higher

Speaking of Bill O'Reilly, Terrorist rhetor Randall Terry has been getting a lot of press today, sticking his face in front of cameras and insisting that pro-life activists "not back down" in the aftermath of Tiller's murder. This is blood curdling stuff Harrogate is posting below, but it needs to be publicly excoriated, from small blogs like this to the heaviest of hitters like Williams and Couric and our leaders in the federal government. In the face of this, by Harrogate's measure, what Obama said was a good start but not enough. He needs to say more. As do any reasonable politicians on both sides of the aisle, who oppose domestic terrorism. It is time for the Rhetoric of Shame.




Tip of the Hat to Little Green Footballs

Succinct writeup of this video by LGF proprietor Charles Johnson:

Here’s Randall Terry, founder of the extreme anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, with a deplorable statement . . . This is domestic terrorism, in your face. This video is the equivalent of an Al Qaeda video following a terrorist attack, disavowing responsibility but encouraging more attacks.

Random, Sans-Links Reflections on the Sotomayor Discourse

1)Harrogate is deeply annoyed and saddened by how eagerly, thoroughly, and uncritically, everybody--beginning with Barack Obama himself---has cheerled Sotomayor's "bootstrap" credentials. The following opinion may annoy some of Harrogate's fellow Board Members at TRS, but Harrogate thinks that all this stuff about a girl from the Bronx in a single parent home making good through hard work is nothing but another manifestation of one of the most destructive American myths that we have. Almost invariably, the "bootstrap narrative" implicitly asserts that the working poor and the underclass in this country owe their plight to laziness, or some other personal shortcoming. Think of the "welfare queen" model that Reagan traded in so brilliantly.

In other words, the following formulation once again is given creds: "Oh, Look!!!! Sotomayor did it! Why can't the rest of you lazy asses do it too?" Praising hard work and talent is not a problem in itself. But the "bootstrap narrative" has been done, quite literally Harrogate would argue, to death.


2)Obama's (and Sotomayor's) rhetoric of "empathy," on this score, is much better indeed, than the bootstrap narrative. That such an idea as empathy for the less fortunate is rare indeed to our politics has been evidenced by the conniptions we have seen the Right, as well as the Media, go into over the Word and the Idea it Signifies.

3)After someone can start showing us some (not just an exception, but SOME) instances where Scalia and Thomas and Roberts and Ginsburg and Breyer, to name five of some 107, have flouted the ideological expectations that come with them as conservatives and liberals respectively: THEN Harrogate will be a little more sympathetic to the Right's current anti-Sotomayor argument that Impartiality is supposed to be more than just an aspiration.

The Right has been screaming that judges are supposed to apply the law blindly, and leave their politics at the door. But the assumption of course is that Conservatives are always correct in their interpretation and desired application of the Law.

Hmmmm. Maybe Kennedy's and O'Connor's records as "swing judges" better suit the criteria of a judge being willing to flout his or her own political views, in the name of legal impartiality. But those judges are not respected by the Right, nearly so much as Scalia, who is ideologically consistent.

Opponents of Sotomayor and more broadly of Obama. Ask thyselves, then: Are ye really mad at the idea of political sensibilities affecting judges? Or only mad at the idea of LIBERAL sensibilities affecting judges.

4)Her confirmation process is going to be ugly and what is worse, totally unartistic.

The GOP will attack awkwardly (not wanting to come off as racists or sexists), and the Dems will defend awkwardly (not wanting to come off as understanding that the idea of judicial impartiality, like impartiality in any other area of human existence, is indeed only an aspiration).

Monday Musical Tribute

Because something wise and beautiful is needed today. Annie Lennox, the song she covers here, and the movie soundtrack on which the cover appears, and finally the movie itself, all fit the criterion qute well.

The Murder of Dr. Tiller & Scary Right Wing Internet Chatter

Shortly after Tiller's Murder Little Green Footballs posted the "Bad Craziness Watch: Right Wing Reaction to the Tiller Murder," the content of which abounds with internet chatter that all Americans need to be aware of. As Solon has commented a few times on this blog, especially when a Democrat is president, the threat of political violence (Terrorism) in America skyrockets.


Here are a couple of other really whacked out threads Harrogate invites readers to check out. Sure to be at the center of this week's discourse is Fox News: here's the forum it has going, begun by Cal Thomas: Fox News. And here is the Townhall forum, equally whacked out. One commenter on this thread compares Tiller's murderer to John Brown.

To What Degree do Ideas Have Consequences : Questions of the Day

Yesterday, while in church, Dr. George Tiller was assassinated. At the time, he served as an usher for the congregation. From her position in the choir, Tiller's wife saw the assassination.

Tiller is a very controversial figure in American medicine as he was one of the few doctors in the country to provide late-term abortions for women. You can read some stories about those women here.

Tiller was the target of violent discourse by Bill O'Reilly [see here, here, and here]; by members of Operation Rescue, a pro-life organization [see here, here, and here (warning- graphic images)]; and, of course, profiled on the Nuremberg Files website [see here, and here].

Question One: If the legal standard for judging political discourse is imminent lawless action (Brandenburg v. Ohio), should the discourse from O'Reilly, Operation Rescue, or on the Nuremberg File's website be protected under the first amendment standard for political discourse or should it be classified under the fighting words classification, if that classification still exists from R.A.V. v. St. Paul, and receive less constitutional protection? Or, is a strategy of counter persuasion against O'Reilly and Operation Rescue a better strategy?

Question Two: Does O'Reilly have any moral obligation to apologize for his discourse about Tiller or does he have any moral responsibility to tone down his discourse? When discussion Tiller's profession, O'Reilly stated:

"No question Dr. Tiller has blood on his hands. But now so does Governor Sebelius. She is not fit to serve. Nor is any Kansas politician who supports Tiller's business of destruction. I wouldn't want to be these people if there is a Judgment Day."

Does O'Reilly, or Operation Rescue, have blood of their hands as well because of the death of Dr. George Tiller?

Saturday Musical Tribute

And because it's Saturday, no write-up is needed. Hey, it's the weekend.

Atlas Sigh.... Friday Song of the Day.

Via Sully.



This song would be funnier is they acted as if they were serious. What? What do you say? This is serious....

Appropriation without irony. Lyrics without too much intelligence. Cultural critics, or whatever you call yourselves, analyze....

Monday Song of the Day

"Naked As We Came" by Iron and Wine.

I must say, I like Iron and Wine though I fear that if I listened to a full album I would be disappointed. I know the band form movie soundtracks only (Garden State, In Good Company) and that scares me a bit. For today, we have "Naked As We Came," which I first heard on the In Good Company Soundtrack. It goes very well with Landed by Ben Folds.

A Moral Imperative

Since Bill Murray is now on board, Ghostbusters III will begin filming soon. Developing.

File Under Irony

According to CNN, Liberty University revoked its recognition for the College Democrats since the college group "stood against the moral principles" held by the school and therefore could no longer be sanctioned. The faculty representative was told by administration: "'You can't be a Democrat and be a Christian and be a university representative.'"

Liberty.

University.

I think Garland Greene said it best: Define irony. Bunch of idiots dancing on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash.

Congrats Dr. Supadiscomama.....

Here's looking at you...

Is this funny, or is it completely inappropriate?

I read this article a "Hot for Teacher" night that is being held at a Seattle night club. I can't decide if I'm amused or disgusted. . .

Congrats to Dr. Supadiscomama!!!!

Poem for the Day

"If I Could Only Live at the Pitch That is Near Madness," Richard Eberhart

If I could only live at the pitch that is near madness
When everything is as it was in my childhood
Violent, vivid, and if infinite possibility:
That the sun and the moon broke over my head.

Then I cast time out of the trees and fields.
Then I stood immaculate in the Ego;
Then I eyed the world with all delight,
Reality was the perfection of my sight.

And time has big handles on the hands,
Fields and trees a way of being themselves.
I saw battalions of the race of mankind
Standing solid, demanding a moral answer.

I gave the moral answer and I died
And into a realm of complexity came
Where nothing is possible but necessity
And the truth wailing there like a red babe.

For Roof

Randy Jackson wore a bow tie during last night's American Idol finale.

Harrogate Offers A Public Apology

Harrogate is going to keep this short. Mostly because the person he needs to apologize to has no idea about the existence of this blog. But the truth is that in the past, Harrogate has several times maligned the blog, Little Green Footballs, as a far right extremist website.

This was never true, though at the time Harrogate sincerely thought it was. But since Obama's victory it has become quite clear that this blog, run by Charles Johnson, is a firecely centrist blog, far more centrist philosophically that Harrogate himself. Johnson has taken a brave stand against the Right who loved him during the Bush years, with respect to defending science and civil liberties for all. Harrogate disagrees with LGF's view of the international landscape and what to do about it, but that does not excuse the caricature with which he has painted LGF in the past.

Having followed the blog for the last few months, Harrogate apologizes.

Nostalgia

Rough butt sex!

Wednesday Musical Tribute

"A Common Disaster," by Cowboy Junkies.

Truth Spoken about Republicans and African-Americans

You always hear talk in the Right punditry that Republican racism is a mere construct, used by Democrats who are actually the racists because they follow what George W. Bush famously called the "soft bigotry of low expectations." That Republican meme is one of the most deceitful that is out there: but the good news is, it consistently fails to persuade substantial numbers of voters not already on board with the GOP agenda. That in mind, This is one of the best political blog posts Harrogate has ever seen. Too good for a snippet. Gotta read the whole thing.

On The Donald, Carrie Prejean's Statement, and Free Speech

The most recent kerfuffle over Carrie Prejean has to do with recent suggestions that she would be stripped of her "Miss California" crown for lingerie pictures she posed for at seventeen. However, one of the greatest thinkers and handsomest men of our modern era, Donald Trump, has brought the hammer down on this notion.

Miss California USA can retain her crown even though she failed to reveal she had posed in her underwear as a teenager, pageant owner Donald Trump said Tuesday.

Carrie Prejean appeared by Trump's side as he made the announcement at New York's Trump Tower.

Trump also defended the answer that Prejean gave at last month's Miss USA pageant when she was asked her view of marriage by judge Perez Hilton, a celebrity blogger. She said she believes marriage is between a man and a woman.

"It's the same answer the president of the United States gave; it's the same answer many people gave," Trump said. "She gave an honorable answer; she gave an answer from her heart."

Trump said he and other pageant officials had reviewed racy photos of Prejean and decided they were acceptable.

"We are in the 21st century. We have determined the pictures taken are fine," he said, adding that "in some cases the pictures were lovely."

Heh. "In some cases." There's something sardonic about The Donald that Harrogate has always found appealing, however much Harrogate has tried to rebel against liking anything about the guy.

But enough about bad hair, smirks, and the like. In the clip below, Carrie Prejean commits the same error that so many Americans in and out of academia make. She states that she exercised her First Amendment rights on the stage when Perez asked her about gay marriage. This is of course true. But then she makes the leap into asserting that those same rights, for which her grandfather fought, were violated in the backlash that followed. Tied up in this of course is the notion that the Miss USA judges violated her First Amendment Rights when they allegedly deprived her of victory as punishment for her opinions.




Sorry, Miss Prejean, but ye are full of it here. The First Amendment protects you from facing government retribution for speaking your mind. It most certainly does NOT protect you or anyone else from being publically demonized for your opinions. This is part of the American tradition, too. Perez, classless as he is, was exercising HIS free speech rights when he called you a "Cunt," among other epithets. You might think of it as "punishment," but it is not a violation of your free speech rights for people to make fun of you or to villify your opinions. These, like it or not, are often the consequences of weighing in on a hotbutton issue in the American discourse.

All that being said. Harrogate, again, totally disagrees with Prejean's stated opinion, but also thinks that many on the Left have behaved very badly in demonizing her for what she said. Harrogate has established that in his opinion, when you look at the whole fiasco objectively, people like Olbermann and Perez look much, much worse as human beings, than does Prejean. And of course, Prejean's champions in the media, people like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity etc., are already wastes of skin who make their living spreading lies and hate, so who really cares where they fit into this particular equation?

And Miss Prejean, as for the judges. They are free to use whatever criterion they wish, especially since you will never be able to prove that you would have won but for offering said opinion.

Facebook Has a Ban in Place on Pictures of Breastfeeding

As most Situationers have been making copious use of facebook lately, this story will prove extra troubling for the immediate audience.

Now, the piece Harrogate has linked to, entitled "Jew Haters Welcome At Facebook, As Long As They Aren’t Lactating," is mostly interested in exposing Facebook's allowance of Holocaust denial----author Michael Arrington uses the ban of breastfeeding pics as a way to further that exposure.

Opinions will of course vary as to the allowance of Holocaust denial. Harrogate for his part is glad we do not follow the lead of many European countries, in criminalizing such speech. Let the loathsome cretin deniers speak out and be revealed in all their ugliness, for the rest of the populace to see.

But, Facebook. Really? You really have a ban on breastfeeding pics as a violation of decency standards? That is so freakin sad, and for so many reasons.

Untitled Mother's Day Post