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I'MMA LET YOU FINISH

Cool! New thread! At last, Thanks A!
LJ | 12.25.04 - 8:34 pm | #

Uh oh.
Rexroth's Daughter | 12.25.04 - 8:34 pm | #

Merry Christmas, A.

Night, all.
pie | 12.25.04 - 8:36 pm | #

Bah humbug!
Gozer | 12.25.04 - 8:36 pm | #

New thread. Cool. There's an almost-full moon tonight.
Hecate | 12.25.04 - 8:38 pm | #

Well, my date just called and cancelled. Looks like I'm stuck with you guys.

Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 8:41 pm | #

Well, it wasn't an actual date, it was a friend coming over to watch a movie.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 8:43 pm | #

night pie.

That Central is gonna hang out breathin my air arrggghhh [shakes fist]
kent | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 8:45 pm | #

I'm deciding if I want to take a nap or go back to my novel.

I wish the Cipro would kick in. I was feeling better yesterday.

Speaking of Cipro...

My doctor gave me samples of it that he had laying around. Not unusual. What freaked me out was that he gave me this box about 8 X 3 X 3. I open it up, there are five smaller boxes remaining inside. The big box held 50 of those smaller boxes. I saw those five smaller boxes and I was like, man, I must really be a lot sicker than I thought if he's giving me this much.

I open the smaller box. What do I find?

One pill in a 3-inch long seal pack thingie.

ONE. What a waste! Don't worry, I've already blasted Bayer for it.
LJ | 12.25.04 - 8:45 pm | #

Good night, Pie.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 8:46 pm | #

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.....

CS is Trout your beast?
kent | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 8:47 pm | #

LJ - overpackaging is a major personal grievance of mine. It drives me nuts. And that's beside the main point - how much more landfill over fill it all is and how wasteful. (and I'm not what one would think of as austere in my habits.)
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 8:49 pm | #

">Have we no shame? None at all?
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 8:49 pm | #

Looks like Rummy's got a NEW strategy for explaining why things aren't his fault:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World...l? oneclick=true

Apparently fighting the insurgency is an Iraqi issue, not an American one.

My guess is the new strategy: pull out ASAP and blame everything on the Iraqis.

Will it work? No. But things not working has never stopped Rummy before.
DragonScholar | 12.25.04 - 8:50 pm | #

Hecate - I've the TH White biog sitting here, waiting to be sent.

And Mr. Deeds Goes to Town on TCM. Kuhl.

Populism on the tube and the possibility of my country not screwing up hopelessly. Time to crack another bottle of champagne.
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 8:51 pm | #

Happy Holidays everyone. Sorry I've been so quiet. (Not that you noticed or would care. But I've missed you all.) Been busy with family, etc....

Here's a good Christmas-during-wartime song, if you're still in the spirit: "Daddy Please Come Home for Christmas" (click homepage).

Peace and love to all of you.

-Speedy
Speedy | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 8:52 pm | #

Ptolemy has been a little unsettled lately, you see there is way too much snow on the ground to do a proper inventory of the north fourty, And he's pretty sure some other cat is marking all his spots.

i try to tell the guy that none is as intrepid as he, and while the snow is still 15 inches deep no one else will be out and about, but that does not seem to satisfy.

Then again it could be about the grey girl cat he has a thing for
kent | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 8:53 pm | #

Oh I admit, I was so enamoured of Strom I dragged my nakeed body, open-legged, across the room to him. The next day, it took the janitors hours to clean up the trail I left. Since then, Strom called me his little snail.
-liddy Dole
bebe rebozo | 12.25.04 - 8:53 pm | #

kent,

I'll bring my own oxygen bottle.

(if I can remember where I put the damn thing.....)
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 8:53 pm | #

Will it work?

Depends on what you mean by "work". If it gets our troops out of there, hell yes, it works (for me).

I've been expec`ting something like this almost from the start. There's absolutely no percentage in us staying in Iraq; the longer we stay the worse it is. Even the moron-who-si-our-president has to grok that, sooner or later.

And now that the popularity of the war, as judged by polls, has dropped below 50%, it seems that even the-morons-with-whom-we-must-share-a-country, are starting to get it.

Bush'll leave, if he has a single brain cell. And all will be forgiven. Iraq will disappear from the headlines, and work on Bush's statue on My. Rushmore will resume.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 8:55 pm | #

Hey! I found my missing bottle of N20, that's even better!
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 8:55 pm | #

Central,

We're more fun anway. What movie? I finally got around to watching Wizard of Earthsea, which I tivoed back while working on the brief from hell. It was ok, not great. All I could find on tv today was Ben Hur. Yesterday I finally caught Finding Neverland which I'd also class as ok, not great. Anyone seen motorcycle diaries?

GWPDA, careful with that bubbly stuff!
Hecate | 12.25.04 - 8:55 pm | #

DragonScholar, I heard that too. He's amazingly consistent in his shamelessness, truly a man who would benefit from a heart transplant--from Cheney! This is such a soulless bunch that it at times feels like fiction, while it's happening. Will a larger portion of the American people continue to take this and wave the flag? May we live in less interesting times.
Ronjazz | 12.25.04 - 8:56 pm | #

kent,

Missed your post. Yeah trout's with me, he's asleep at my feet right now. He's such a great little guy. No nitrous for him though, he gets too damn crazy.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 8:58 pm | #

Jeez, bebe, I'm embarassed to be laughing so much at such unrelenting sickness. Keep it up.
Ronjazz | 12.25.04 - 8:58 pm | #

GWPDA, careful with that bubbly stuff! - Nah, nah, it's Christmas, and I, in my great wisdom, trekked across town to acquire an entire case of Trader Joe's not entirely awful cheap champagne. I've got it stored in Arthur's room, but see - he hasn't any -thumbs- ....
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 8:59 pm | #

I should mention that the singer on "Daddy Please Come Home for Christmas" is a young girl, which makes it extra sweet.

Peace.
Speedy | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:01 pm | #

Has anyone seen the film Evelyn?
Chauncy Gardner | 12.25.04 - 9:02 pm | #

Hecate - concur on Wizard of Earthsea. It was lackluster at best.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:02 pm | #

GWPDA,

Isn't Trader Joe's great? It used to be just a California chain, I think, but we've got one out here in Tysons, on the way to the Hermes store. Stuff you just don't find anywhere else. They sell the best allsorts I've ever had outside of London.
Hecate | 12.25.04 - 9:03 pm | #

Since then, Strom called me his little snail.

Bob used to call me his escargot, but not since we've boycotted the French. Just as well -- it was hell getting the garlic butter sauce out of my crotch. I would get a nasty rash on my inner thighs.
-- Liddy Dole
watertiger | 12.25.04 - 9:03 pm | #

CS, give that fine beast a gentle pat on the head for me will ya?

GWPDA, If you would transfer a bit of christmas love Arthur's way on my account, I'd appreciate it.

Tena, give your sweet philosopher/scientific beast a hug, let him know that i smile when I think of his analytical ways.
kent | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:05 pm | #

Hey, Speedy - Happy Holidays!
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:05 pm | #

Tena,

I thought Isabella Rossellini was good and that Ged's friend was pretty good, although the modern sarcastic comments just didn't fit. Otherwise, not so great. Good dragon, though. And the wizard's school was a little too much like Hogwart's.
Hecate | 12.25.04 - 9:05 pm | #

kent - thanks, I will - I got a digital camera. As soon as I study 598 pages of instructions, I'll be cat blogging! I can't fucking wait.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:07 pm | #

I love Isabella Rossellini.

Never let it be said that I don't have great taste in women.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:08 pm | #

Hecate, yes, Trader Joe's, like Hamburger Hamlet, was only in California. Then, they put one toe over the line into Arizona and off we went. They have the best of everything there is - and stockpile Two Buck Chuck for the New Year. The raspberry chocolate jellies. Real butter. Untainted milk. Olive oil that is not so pricey you can use it. Garlic powder.... Dried tomatoes! Blueberries! Also every single ordinary item, for all of them are between 20-50% cheaper than anyplace else. Consider the shelled pistachios, for example. Or the Canadian brie of which Arthur is fond enough to steal from the centermost point of the highest place of the kitchen....

And the simple fact that at TJ's off Camelback, there are many vehicles with Kerry/Edwards stickers still, nuzzling up to my big yellow trucka with the Impeach Bush label and we all have our fingers crossed....
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:09 pm | #

Wizard of Earthsea

While I enjoy le guinn, I had never read this particular book, when I finished watching the show, I wonder if the twin of the producer of those horrid lifetime network movies is producing all of the original SCi-FI channel programming.
kent | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:09 pm | #

It's too late for a present for most people (do the Orthodox Christians give presents on that January date?) but: there's a cat toy that's a little soft 6" doll of a person. They used to have Kerry and Bush among others! Bush will still be available...
Neil' | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:10 pm | #

Hope everyone had the merriest of Christmases -- or at least survived the day in good spirits. Raise high the wassail cup.

What the hell is a wassail anyway?
Toonscribe | 12.25.04 - 9:10 pm | #

Yeeeeewww. I had way too much wine this evening. Plus Ava is kind of putting a guilt trip on me for putting her out on my lanai so she wouldn't pull the tablecloth off the dining room table. Yow, typing is hard when intoxicated.
BGK | 12.25.04 - 9:12 pm | #

GWPDA,

I've still got my Kerry sticker on my car and so do lots of folks around here. Wouldn't it be the most amazing thing ever if Kerry challenges this election? I was so sure he'd given up... See he's planning to visit the troops in Iraq.
Hecate | 12.25.04 - 9:13 pm | #

kent - "GWPDA, If you would transfer a bit of christmas love Arthur's way on my account, I'd appreciate it."

I'll go kiss him on his wrinkly old mug right now, for you.
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:14 pm | #

Hecate - Agreed on all you said. It never seemed to have much life - though the dragon was wonderful.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:14 pm | #

What the hell is a wassail anyway?

Here
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:14 pm | #

I seem to remember wassail having toast floating in it?
Hecate | 12.25.04 - 9:14 pm | #

Tena, Hecate:

What did you think of Sebastian Roche, who played the evil King?

If you'll allow me a 'starfucker' moment, he used to work out with us here in NYC. Supernice, down-to-earth guy in real life (as is his wife, also an actor). I watched the series for his sake. I thought it was incredibly static with piss poor transition. Such a shame - I love Le Guin.

The version of "The Lathe of Heaven" that came out in '80 was a watershed moment for me.
watertiger | 12.25.04 - 9:16 pm | #

I got a digital camera

Fan freakin' tastic Tena, I look forward to it.
kent | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:16 pm | #

Jes' funnin'.

Wassail
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:17 pm | #

What the hell is a wassail anyway?
Toonscribe

Everything you ever wanted to know about Wassail
WoodyGuthrie'sGuitar (aka kono | 12.25.04 - 9:18 pm | #

I got a digital camera

Can't wait to see Kitty Tena!
watertiger | 12.25.04 - 9:18 pm | #

CS

Cute weasel. Don't think it would fit in a cup, though -- not unless you used a Weasel-matic like the Bass-o-matic from the old SNL skit.
Toonscribe | 12.25.04 - 9:18 pm | #

The Bush doll is unfortunately often mistaken for Chucky

Doesn't scare Jack.
BGK | 12.25.04 - 9:19 pm | #

I was going to share some Pierce Brosnan and Alan Bates stories, but the old boy network is in full swing tonight. (joking) I should know better than to just lurk.
Night all.
Chauncy Gardner | 12.25.04 - 9:19 pm | #

Hecate, yes, Trader Joe's, like Hamburger Hamlet, was only in California. Then, they put one toe over the line into Arizona and off we went. They have the best of everything there is -

I like the King Arthur baking mixes, which I never knew existed before Trader Joes. I bought the popover mix, made it up and served popovers with a $90 free-range dry aged prime rib - the roast was top notch and was cooked to perfection, but still, all everyone could rave about were the popovers.
Stinky | 12.25.04 - 9:19 pm | #

I haven't taken my Kerry sticker off either. I've seen several others. Some people one block over left their yard sign up until just a short time ago.

I think a lot of people would be excited and happy --
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:20 pm | #

I love Isabella Rossellini.

Never let it be said that I don't have great taste in women.
Central Scrutinizer | Email | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:08 pm................................................ "He put hi disease in me"-A stark naked Isabella from the movie "Blue Velvet".......Why that line never became famous is beyond filmic comprehension.
notch | 12.25.04 - 9:20 pm | #

that's a cute wassail!
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:21 pm | #

Dr. Pedaent, I read the article you linked. I'm horrified. Ticketing the poor for being poor is morally repugnant. And for the police to take that poor man's sleeping bag and back pack is beyond appalling. The climate of disdain for the marginalized in our Bush's society is very troubling.
Ellie | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:21 pm | #

Sorry-"he put his disease in me"
notch | 12.25.04 - 9:21 pm | #

Bush'll leave, if he has a single brain cell.

That's a very faith-based "if," wouldn't you say?

More likely he'll continue blaming his ever more apparent military quagmire on the Iraquis. And he will continue withdrawing US forces from cities and from any "security-keeping" role.

But don't forget that adding some (non-Saudi) military bases to the US inventory and controlling access to Iraq's oil infrastructure have always been among the covert reasons for invading Iraq. You don't think big (energy) daddy Dick Cheney will let little Georgie forget about those goals, do you?
baked potato | 12.25.04 - 9:21 pm | #

...not unless you used a Weasel-matic like the Bass-o-matic from the old SNL skit.

That's what I wanted for christmas, but I got socks instead.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:22 pm | #

watertiger,

I thought that the actor did all he could with a poorly-written part. Too many screenwriters can't write good villians. They're all just cartoons, 100 percent evil. Most evil people believe that they're doing the right thing. The kind and his paramour were too cartoony, which, of course, is not how LeGuin writes. I love here writing.
Hecate | 12.25.04 - 9:22 pm | #

Thanks for the wassail info.

I drink to your health.
Toonscribe | 12.25.04 - 9:22 pm | #

"I was so sure he'd given up... See he's planning to visit the troops in Iraq."

You shouldn't have been. The cess said not, all along. You can't read cards dearie and not believe the answers....

I didn't believe for a minute that he'd given up - only that he'd decided that a repeat of Florida would destroy him. I kept my mouth shut and have been biding my time, pushing to one side and then another, but all along annoying my friends with the idea that what, if? I'm old school. I don't believe that Himself is unable to read the runes.

Santini olive oil is what you want to buy, btw; also the balsmic vinegar. With those two things in your pantry you can work miracles.
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:23 pm | #

Click my homepage to see how those mutherfuggers are dropping the whole thing to the IRaqi People like some half baked Saigon ...

Rumsfeld is famosu for sitting in the oval office with Powell and saying " Jerry Bremmer works for you right ..."

well, clearly now he is telling the Iraqi people that this is their mess to clean up and they are done being troubled with them any longer . Next , Rumsy will say they did what the Iraqi people wanted and needed and now it is time to go ,

See you on the roof ...
A.s.H. | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:24 pm | #

Too many screenwriters can't write good villians.

Which is a real shame, since those are usually the most interesting characters.

Yeah, I was a little embarrassed for him, and really annoyed at whoever did the adaptation. It really wouldn't be that hard to re-create her vision. I mean, crap, they spent all that money on sets and costumes. They can't invest in a good screenwriter?
watertiger | 12.25.04 - 9:25 pm | #

All I had to eat today was a piece of celery.
gpt | 12.25.04 - 9:25 pm | #

I got an iPod for Christmas. Totally unexpected. I guess now I can be like all the Kewl Kids.
Buzz Bomb | 12.25.04 - 9:26 pm | #

now I see someone else posted that a long time ago ...sorry ....shoulda read all the posts!

Old news
A.s.H. | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:27 pm | #

..........."He put his disease in me"-A stark naked Isabella from the movie "Blue Velvet".......

Mmmmooooooommmmmmmmyyyyyyy!!

I still get chills when I think of that movie.

Dennis Hopper creeped me right the fuck out.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:27 pm | #

I've still got my Kerry blue yard sign up, right alongside my hand lettered sign saying "BUSH LIES!" And I still have my "Bush Knew" bumpersticker on the truck...and my "Iraq Is Arabic For VietNam" sticker on the MG...
WoodyGuthrie'sGuitar (aka kono | 12.25.04 - 9:28 pm | #

Dennis Hopper creeped me right the fuck out.

"Don't look at me, bitch!" (sucking oxygen)

Hell, you knew you were in trouble from the opening frames of that movie.
watertiger | 12.25.04 - 9:29 pm | #

"Iraq Is Arabic For VietNam"

That is g-o-o-d. I want me one of them.
watertiger | 12.25.04 - 9:30 pm | #

(sucking oxygen)

Wasn't that nitrous?

Hell, you knew you were in trouble from the opening frames of that movie.

The severed ear did it for me.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:31 pm | #

http://www.breakfornews.com/ arti...ToUnconcede.htm

Coming Up For Air
Kerry Preparing Grounds to Unconcede
Election Challenge likely on Jan 6th

If you haven't been following John Kerry closely, get ready to hear of surprising developments. The vote-defrauded, potential president-in-waiting has just indicated through his lawyer that the validity of George Bush's reelection is no longer a given.
gregor | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:32 pm | #

Wasn't that nitrous?

I think you're right. That's why he was so psychotic.

So much MORE psychotic.

I can't watch anything Hopper's in and NOT think of that role.
watertiger | 12.25.04 - 9:32 pm | #

GWPDA, thanks, big over here!
kent | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:32 pm | #

"It is time to mobilize the intellectual, social and economic resources of the region to design a response not solely dictated by strict market forces to recover the conditions for flourishing life here in San Diego."

It is the very forces that you talk about--local intellectual, social, and economic--That are totally responsible for those conditions. I am afraid that only a strong benevolent federal government can do anything to make the lives of the unlucky and poor to be livable. And we don't have that in the extreme.

What you describe makes me so sad.
Cass | 12.25.04 - 9:33 pm | #

Cool, I just got the new Thomas Covenant chronicles book for X-mas. I'll probably read it all day tomorrow. Sweet.
Pine Lake Larry | 12.25.04 - 9:33 pm | #

"Central Scrutinizer" - I got my pool acidwashed, and the City of Phoenix only charged me $20 bucks to exchange all the water! Pretty neato Xmas present I figure.

To-morrow, time for mulch!
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:33 pm | #

Merry Christmas all y'all!

In response to a couple posts.

We will be in Iraq for decades. Rummys ploy seems to be, turn security over to the Iraqi's and the US troops retreat to the the dozen or more military bases being constructed. With the troops out of sight behind secure fences the insurgency might well deminish, as long as the elected Iraqi government isn't percieved as to pro American.
But, there's alot of 'buts'. What if the new gov is too anti American? What if supply by air becomes untenable?
A new war against the evil gov and people of Iraq?
We went to war in Iraq for a reason, and it was not to free the Iraqi People. That reason has not gone away.

.
agave | 12.25.04 - 9:33 pm | #

remember all those cars that had "my president is charles heston" stickers on them? well as i said in the thread below, i am going to do something similar-"john kerry is my president"! if the unconcession really happens- well i hope that this idea catches on. gotta stick it into peoples faces.
dan hoppe | 12.25.04 - 9:34 pm | #

I can't watch anything Hopper's in and NOT think of that role.

Yeah.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:35 pm | #

On Bush leaving Iraq - I don't know. It's not in his nature to ever swerve off course, no matter how fucked up the course. He is always convinced that he's right.

I don't know.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:36 pm | #

dan hoppe - Yah, I agree. I'd switch my Kerry sticker for one of those.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:38 pm | #

Stinky - I'm glad you've found TJ's. I've actually tried to coerce various people into going to work for them, for the discount. Can you imagine the joy? "Yes, Mr. Smith, here's your paycheque, and yes, it's only $10.oo this week, but wait'll you see what your shopping basket has!" King Arthur's very good. Watch for the re-appearance of the red peppers at $1.65.

Kent! Arthur says "snurkkkk, hnurhff".

God be with you all this night. Baby Chuy says Adios!
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:40 pm | #

the City of Phoenix only charged me $20 bucks to exchange all the water!

Seriously? They must like you!

On Bush leaving Iraq - I don't know.

Not without the oil he don't.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:41 pm | #

I read "TH White", then I read "Arthur", then I got real confused because I was reading TOFK last week (my dog died and I needed comfort). Might does not make right.
J Bean | 12.25.04 - 9:42 pm | #

I made a "Kerry Won" vinyl cutout and put it on the 3rd tail light on my car. So many people honk and give me the victory sign, I love it. I wish it could happen...
Upcoaster | 12.25.04 - 9:42 pm | #

My neighbor's daughter has one of those damn Charlton Heston is my president stickers. I didn't know they were that common. I thought she was uncommonly redneck. Still do.
Pine Lake Larry | 12.25.04 - 9:43 pm | #

Central Scrutinizer - well, it's cause I put all the old water down the sanitary sewer you see - so I was really just exchanging old for new. Neat monitoring system tho, hunh? That's Phoenix - best managed city in the world. I did call and ream them out tho and demanded they charge me for a 40' pool's worth, but then they explained.
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:44 pm | #

J Bean,

So sorry about your dog.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:44 pm | #

We went to war in Iraq for a reason,

Ah, the old "we did it for the oil". That's part of it, of course. But I believe, as I have always believed, that Shrubya did it for much more elemental reasons. He did it to bring the head of his father's enemy home. To redeem himself to the old man.

Well, he's done that.

Ya gotta remember, people do things for different reasons. Cheney's reasons aren't Rummy's reasons aren't Dubya's reasons. Arent Rove's reasons, and Rove above all has the president's ear; we know this. And an unpopular war threatens Rove and his domestic agenda. We know this too.

My money is on a very diminished American presence in Iraq, very soon.

P.S. My money was on McGovern to win in 1972, too.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 9:45 pm | #

I'm going to just make your day and give you some excerpts from two letters in the Dallas paper today. Christmas Day.

the first one is titled: It's Secular Deceit

I am writing as a Jew who is happy to see Chrismas lights, hear Christmas carols and attend Christmas parties. What disturbs me is the current secular movement seeding to destroy the "Christmas season."

The secular movement is hostile to all religions and is deceitfully trying to dismantle Christmas in the name of fairness...blah blah blah

The second: We Must Wake Up

What will it take for us to realize that our wold has changed and along with it "our" America? We are going to have to give up many of our freedoms, because the fact that we had those freedoms allowed a 9-11 to happen.

Sorry - just had to share
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:47 pm | #

I'm going to just make your day and give you some excerpts from two letters in the Dallas paper today. Christmas Day.

the first one is titled: It's Secular Deceit

I am writing as a Jew who is happy to see Chrismas lights, hear Christmas carols and attend Christmas parties. What disturbs me is the current secular movement seeding to destroy the "Christmas season."

The secular movement is hostile to all religions and is deceitfully trying to dismantle Christmas in the name of fairness...blah blah blah

The second: We Must Wake Up

What will it take for us to realize that our wold has changed and along with it "our" America? We are going to have to give up many of our freedoms, because the fact that we had those freedoms allowed a 9-11 to happen.

Sorry - just had to share
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:47 pm | #

Yes, J Bean. Losing an animal is so very difficult. You have my sympathies. And I understand about the comfort. Remember when Merlin says to young Arthur, "The best thing for being sad is to learn something..."? I've saved that passage for years. Have it copied down on an index card somewhere.
Ellie | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:48 pm | #

Tena,

Why don't you and the Mister move? I mean, really.

More crackpots per square inch than anywhere; that's Texas.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 9:48 pm | #

if this really happens on jan 6, and it looks like kerry is going to try to prove vote fraud in the key states, then my kerry for pres. butt.on goes back on.

doesn't kerry still have about $50,000,000 still sitting around?

and goddamnit, it is time that the democrats stood up to the RENAZICANS. fuck it!
dan hoppe | 12.25.04 - 9:49 pm | #

That's Phoenix - best managed city in the world.

Must be. At one time I lived out in the sticks and had rural water, and our bill was $60 or $70 a month, even though we used a cistern (old, old house) to water the garden and wash the cars.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:50 pm | #

Since then, Strom called me his little snail.
-liddy Dole
bebe rebozo

Oh, Ick!
oldwhitelady | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:50 pm | #

P.S. Did it really say "seeding to destroy"? Your typo, or illiteracy as well as idiocy on the part of the letter writer?
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 9:50 pm | #

that is "button"
dan hoppe | 12.25.04 - 9:53 pm | #

That's ok, dan, I can't type tonight either.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 9:54 pm | #

What will it take for us to realize that our wold has changed and along with it "our" America? We are going to have to give up many of our freedoms, because the fact that we had those freedoms allowed a 9-11 to happen.

Just what freedoms does the letter writer mean, I wonder? Freedom to have your vote counted if you are a Democrat, most likely.
Buzz Bomb | 12.25.04 - 9:55 pm | #

WoodyGuthrie'sGuitar (aka kono)

an mg??????????????????

please tell me about that.
love the things. had a '53 td bought in london and shipped to santa cruz. ok san francisco. but i went to live in sc. moved it and me to fortuna in hunmboldt county. poverty overtook us and i sold it to a good home. too much info?
dread pirate roberts | 12.25.04 - 9:56 pm | #

Central - Don't you see? Because I put the water back down the City sanitary sewer, they monitored it and then deducted it from the cost of my then adding the water back in from the hose. Brilliant. Commonsense. I'd already paid for the water in the first place of course.

Merlin says to young Arthur, "The best thing for being sad is to learn something..."?

This is the only thing that has gotten me this far. Despite despair, clinical depression, horror, and abandonment, it is so; the Only thing for being sad is to learn something.

My Arthur agrees, entirely. It's the only thing that matters - even when you do not, the learning does.

Where's Incog?
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 9:57 pm | #

We got a little cat for Christmas (actually a few days ago) from the pound. Already have an older cat, well ~10 mos. Thought he needed company and a play mate. It looked like a disaster at first. When they first met they smelled noses and hated each other, which suprized me, becauce LC is usually pretty good around other animals, even had cat buddies he hung around withwhere we used to live. It turned out great, tho. They play rough and the little one is fearless, screams like she's getting killed, but comes back for more. Eventually they end up tired and grooming each other. They both sleep together in the new bed we got for Zoey, the new ones name.

.
agave | 12.25.04 - 9:57 pm | #

We are going to have to give up many of our freedoms, because the fact that we had those freedoms allowed a 9-11 to happen.

911 happened because dipshit and his crew didn't pay attention to the August 6th PDB, not because we have "freedoms."

How fucking stupid can people be?

Wait....

No need to answer that.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 9:58 pm | #

GWPDA, the "learning something" that I do these days is to stay informed. The goons can take away my civil liberties but, so far, they aren't able to take away my MIND. Sometimes I think I'm a bit compulsive about it but reading, keeping up, is better than just curling up in fetal position and drinking the kool-aid (the solution all to many people have obviously decided upon).
Ellie | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:01 pm | #

Anybody know what Jeffer's blog is called? I've forgotten, and I was wondering what pithy comments he might have in honor of his Savior's birthday.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:01 pm | #

Happy Christmas: http://www.john-lennon.com/happyxmas.ra
just passing thru | 12.25.04 - 10:02 pm | #

Brilliant. Commonsense. I'd already paid for the water in the first place of course.

It's good planning. It's too bad every city in this country isn't that progressive in the way they're managed.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 10:02 pm | #

I don't want to give up any of my freedoms. As a matter of fact, I'd like a few more.
Toonscribe | 12.25.04 - 10:03 pm | #

Anybody know what Jeffer's blog is called? I've forgotten, and I was wondering what pithy comments he might have in honor of his Savior's birthday.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:03 pm | #

Robert M. Jeffers' blog:
http://rmadisonj.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!
Deana Holmes | 12.25.04 - 10:04 pm | #

Central Scrutinizer - it's just like discovering that the day you've run out of something is the same day you've arranged to have whatever it is arrive at your door. Tremendously soothing and comforting. Like watching Humphrey Bogart or reading Scarisbrick - when you need it, it's there.

Heaven.

Ellie. No one can take away what you think. Not even the bad people.

And now, goodnight. From Arthur too.
GWPDA | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:08 pm | #

Thanks Deana. For everything. For your sanity. Your wisdom. Your posts. Your insight. Your courage--I imagine being you takes courage. (How are the LDS'ers treating you these days?) And last but not least, for helping an old guy with a bad memory.

And my apologies for the double post. Damned haloscan.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:08 pm | #

I didn't want to be a buzz kill with those, but I just couldn't let them sit there either. My jaw really did drop when I read those. I'm still chuckling.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:09 pm | #

Happy, ipod, digital, flatscreen, hummer.

p.s. what happened to christmas??
blyspi | 12.25.04 - 10:10 pm | #

night GWPDA, Arthur, both fine and sweet beasts.
kent | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:10 pm | #

Tena,

I never laugh at idiots. There are way to many of them for me to find it funny.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:11 pm | #

GWPDA,

Goodnight (and to Arthur too.) Happy Jalepenos!
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 10:11 pm | #

Dr. Pedant

Yes, many reasons, by many people, and many current motivations by many people.

But, a military presents (how do you spell that? Oh well, Merry Xmas) in the middle east and oil, means we stay in Iraq. Saudi Arabia is no longer reliable, as Wolfobitch has hinted at.
They're going to try to have it both ways. Claiming that Iraq is now run by Iraqis and security is their job, while we mantain a strong US military presence.

.
agave | 12.25.04 - 10:12 pm | #

I'm amazed you're able to chuckle, Tena. And I'm impressed. Stuff like that does unsavory things to my blood pressure. I've completely quit reading the Tulsa World because of letters to the editor of just that nature.
Ellie | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:13 pm | #

I'm with Ellie. I don't read the paper either.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:14 pm | #

Well, Tena, it wouldn't be the "new" America without some fresh morsel of stupidity or outrage every single day, even on Christmas. The scary thing is that I'm growing accustomed to it, like a fish grows accustomed to its aquarium water.
Buzz Bomb | 12.25.04 - 10:14 pm | #

agave,

Yeah, maybe. Like I say, I'm 0 for 1 in the predictions department. We'll see, won't we?
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:15 pm | #

On a cosmic note... the eggheads at JPL can eliminate the possibility of this thing smacking Earth any time now. It's OK. I won't mind.

Really.

Please?
Mark Bialkowski | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:17 pm | #

I didn't want to be a buzz kill with those, but I just couldn't let them sit there either. My jaw really did drop when I read those. I'm still chuckling.

I'm with Tena. Spent the afternoon among very GOP Houston types (independent oil producers, related via marriage to yours truly) and bit my tongue when dinner conversation turned to politics. Finally could take it no more and blurted out something about "But when do we decide we've stabilized Iraq?" My brother in law took me up (he's former Green Beret, from 'Nam), but later admitted I was right, that there was no foreseeable point when "all things would be well" and leaving would not lead to chaos.

Coupled with the Xmas letter from a family friend (parents of children my age, known for years) giving thanks over the election outcome, it could have brought me down. But these are good people, even if they might be unthinking sometimes.

There are shades, ranges, gradations, IOW. Always good to know where the lunatic fringe is, so you can observe it. Always good to remember, too, that "democracy" in America is a tenuous concept at best. The letters Tena cites remind me of that. They remind me that freedom is not free. But the price paid for it is not paid solely, or even often, on the battlefield.
Robert M. Jeffers | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:19 pm | #

Mark,

Don't worry; I'm sure some of that faith-based science'll take care of it.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:19 pm | #

I don't think Lynch ever outdid the Eraserhead baby. I was watching that movie in a packed theater once and the film broke. The house lights came up; the audience went "Awwww!" and then quieted down to a murmur of normal talking. After about thirty seconds some guy in the back started imitating the bizarre, keening cry of the baby. The whole theater burst into hysterics. It was fucking hilarious.
Buzz Bomb | 12.25.04 - 10:19 pm | #

But these are good people,

Jeffers, you know better.

Goebells loved dogs and children.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:20 pm | #

Re Trader Joe's: try the aritichoke parmesan dip. The hummus is good too.
M | 12.25.04 - 10:21 pm | #

i mean artichoke
M | 12.25.04 - 10:22 pm | #

Good night GWPDA and Arthur.

anyone watching The Sound of Music...love that musical.
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:23 pm | #

Talking about drug doing creepy characters in the movies. The cop in "the Professional" biting those capsules before he did something viscous, was creepy. Love that actor, can't remember his name.
WHERE'S MY B1?

.
agave | 12.25.04 - 10:24 pm | #

You know, Jesus General has a post and link about the TAS poetry contest in which you use Rumsfield's phrase "You go to war with what you have" in it (contest closes Dec 30, 2004). I see several posters from Eschaton have added their poems. What a good read! I don't know how they are going to pick out the best?
oldwhitelady | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:26 pm | #

But these are good people,

Jeffers, you know better.

Goebells loved dogs and children.

I would never equate any of these people with Goebbels.

For one thing, none of them has the power, or the venality, or the lust for authority. For another, I'm in no position to declare myself so ideologically pure that I can judge, and condemn (the two words are not synonymous) them.

I think they are largely unreflective. It's a luxury that seems to be peculiar to Americans who have never left this country. My brother in law volunteered for Vietnam, and was Green Beret. His political reflexes are sometimes knee-jerk, but if you talk to him, he reconsiders and thinks again that people "over there" are people, too.

The greatest weakness is imagining that someone who disagrees with you, is unworthy of your consideration. That is comparable to Goebbels.
Robert M. Jeffers | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:26 pm | #

agave

That was Gary Oldman. He's great. I love "The Professional."
Toonscribe | 12.25.04 - 10:27 pm | #

Up until recently, letters like that were making me insane. Just lately I've been a lot better able to see the humor. The letter from the silly woman who wants a dictatorship because she's scared (Or else Karl Rove just sits up nights and writes these things - who knows anymore?) is a lot more worrisome than the Jew for Jesus.

But really, the letters are so childishly blatant that I do find them funny. They're just nuts
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:27 pm | #

Goebbels loved dogs and children.

I love how they used to say how much Hitler "loved" dogs.

He used to beat his German Shepherd, Blondi, till she urinated on the ground out of fear.....and at the end, he had her poisoned.

Some love!
Terry C | 12.25.04 - 10:27 pm | #

Mark Bialkowski, my understanding, a limited one, is that it's really early in the data collection and observation to accept the current conclusions about that object. Quark soup wrote about it pretty well. I'm still hopefull, I was hoping to retire from my second career that year. (2029)
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:28 pm | #

weblackey--My family had (has?) Sound of Music on. I riled them a bit by pointing out that Hammerstein cheats in the Do Re Mi lyric by failing to find a pun for "la." It's annoyed me since childhood.
Draco | 12.25.04 - 10:28 pm | #

"I thought that the actor did all he could with a poorly-written part. Too many screenwriters can't write good villians."

It's not for a lack of role models. As for villians being interesting, I can't say there's much brain candy in the current crop.

At the end of Earthsea, I was like, "that's it?" Visually impressive, but empty -- as others have said.
stencil | 12.25.04 - 10:29 pm | #

terry C.

In the end, Goebbels had his children poisoned -- all six of them.
Toonscribe | 12.25.04 - 10:30 pm | #

Okay, late to the party.

Has anybody done anything
embarassing?

If not, I volunteer.....
steve simels | 12.25.04 - 10:31 pm | #

OH, bullshit. Bullshit, you sanctimonious bible thumper. The only difference between your average god-fearing Texan and Goebells is the fact that the former ain't got the power of the latter. Power corrupts; and it corrupts the simple-minded better than almost anyone.

The presumption in your argument is that the salt of the earth can do no wrong. And how wrong that is; but I'm sure there are lots of folks on the Right who would agree. Lots of folks on the Right do agree, right now--you're smart enough to be clued in to the God-fearing fly-over land, and the heathen coasts conversation that's going on right now.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:31 pm | #

Robert - we went to the hospital today to see my mother in law and she had a book there - God and George Bush - something like that. Mr. Tena's brother is married to one of the kindest, sweetest, lovliest women imaginable. Unfortunately, she is loony as a lovelorn loon on loon lake under a full moon. She's a fundie. I asked Mr. Tena's sister later who had given MIL the book - of course, it was the fundie SIL from down your way. We see very little of them - almost never see her any more. That's just fine. I told Mr. Tena's sister today when she told me where the book came from - I love her, she's a wonderful person, but I have no tolerance for her right now. Just as well they don't ever come up for the holidays anymore.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:32 pm | #

agave,

Yeah, maybe. Like I say, I'm 0 for 1 in the predictions department. We'll see, won't we?
Dr. Pedant

Me too. I predicted the Kerrey landslide.
But I think you're right, in that the no of troups will go down and interaction with the Iraqi populace will pretty much cease. News reports of what we are still doing there, will be non existant, but we will be there.
agave | 12.25.04 - 10:34 pm | #

Dr. Pedant - Indeed, the salt of the earth can be dangerous as can any other human being. All are susceptible, though certainly the simpler minded can often be more easily led. Not always, however, since simple-mindedness does not preclude native cunning.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:35 pm | #

Hammerstein cheats in the Do Re Mi lyric by failing to find a pun for "la."

I agree with you! However, when I sing it to myself...and any other innocent bystanders...I work it!

la..lammas? I got nuthin'/
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:36 pm | #

Absolute vodka corrupts absolutely.
steve simels | 12.25.04 - 10:37 pm | #

steve - You're back! Have you been absolutely corrupted?
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:38 pm | #

But these are good people,

Bullshit. Bullshit bullshit bullshit. In just what sense are they good people? In the sense that they give thanks for the death of Iraqi children? In the sense that they give thanks for the senseless death of our youth? In the sense that they vote for impoverishing you, me, and our country for now and into the future? In the sense that they go to your, or some other, fucking church on Sunday? Sorry, Jeffers; yours is the only religion that offers forgiveness to sinners, and if you ask me, that just allows for sin. We were better of with the Jews and atonement; not much better off, but better, nonetheless.

Evil done mindlessly or thoughtlessly as you would have it is still evil, and the people of whom you speak? Fuck you, fuck them; I'm more than happy to condemn them to the eight circle of hell for eternity, where they belong.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:39 pm | #

"I would never equate any of these people with Goebbels"

What about Cheney? Keep repeating the same lie over and over again and people will eventually believe it.
M | 12.25.04 - 10:39 pm | #

And while I'm fucking things, fuck haloscan.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 10:40 pm | #

Tena --
Well, my spelling's not doing
too good.

Absolute vodka.

Jesus.
steve simels | 12.25.04 - 10:40 pm | #

That was Gary Oldman. He's great. I love "The Professional."
Toonscribe

Thanks, It was right on the tip of of, what's that thing in your mouth? Haha.

Yeah great movie.

.
agave | 12.25.04 - 10:41 pm | #

El Loco wishes everysucker a Merry X-mas and a happy new year. I'm going to South America tomorrow but will be in touch. Thanks for Atrios for keeping me so informed. "It's hard work" but someone has to do it! Love. El Loco
el loco | 12.25.04 - 10:41 pm | #

well, let us see what really transpires on jan. 6. see if this is real.
but for now i am out of here. back to work tomorrow.

marking jan 6 on my calender. let us hope that kerry fights. i myself am ready. let's rumble.
dan hoppe | 12.25.04 - 10:46 pm | #

dan hoppe - Happy New Year.

el loco - safe journey. stay in touch.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:48 pm | #

weblackey--I'm having trouble with a homonymic pun for "la" too, but we're not the highest-priced lyricists on Broadway either, are we? Where's Lime Rickey?

I didn't mention to anyone that Max in Sound of Music is heavily encoded for queerness--that much I missed as a kid.
Draco | 12.25.04 - 10:49 pm | #

Re Gary Oldman, one of my favorite movie moments occurs in "JFK" when Costner, ranting about the big conspiracy, declares that the government has submitted a false photo of Lee Harvey Oswald. He then announces "Here's the REAL Lee Harvey Oswald," and holds up a photo of Gary Oldman.

It's looking more and more plausible.
Draco | 12.25.04 - 10:54 pm | #

Okay, late to the party.

Has anybody done anything
embarassing?

If not, I volunteer.....
steve simels |

You mean ever, or like today on Christmas.
I once stood on the automatic door mat in a grocery store in Phoenix trying to close the door during a sand storm, thinking the wind was blowing it open.
When I realized my mistake, I looked up and all the people in line and the check out workers were looking at me in amazment.
But if you wanna do something tonite, cool, let us know.

.
agave | 12.25.04 - 10:54 pm | #

Yes, Max comes off a little on the homosexual side of the spectrum. Speaking of...

Why aren't there more guitar toting-red headed-x nuns that get along with children and sing so beautifully?
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 10:56 pm | #

Hey agave,

Not me, but a few weeks ago I was in another State. The one next to Illinois, if you must know. I was in a McDonalds, waiting in line for the ice machine. The kind where you tap the lever with your cup and out comes some ice. Want more, tap again, and more will come out. Well, the guy in front of me didn't get it. He seemed to think that all he had to do was hold the lever in with his cup, and it would keep spilling out ice. Which is of course not how it works. (Kinda like holding down the lever on the paper towel dispenser AFTER it's done dispensing paer towels). So I had to wait while he cursed out this machine that wasn't working right. Took a while.

Feh. Hoosiers. Give most of them a brain cell and it'll double their IQ.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:01 pm | #

Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead

A favorite. I love both Gary and Tim.

Ooh, Tim and Tupac in Gridlock. I love that movie - I really miss Tupac.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:01 pm | #

He then announces "Here's the REAL Lee Harvey Oswald," and holds up a photo of Gary Oldman.

It's looking more and more plausible.
Draco

No shit?
Kevin's not fit to even hold a picture of Mr Oldman.

.
agave | 12.25.04 - 11:02 pm | #

qgave - Kevin's not fit to even hold a picture of Mr Oldman.

You got that right. Kevin is an idjit. And a rather unpleasant idjit, at that.
Tena | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:04 pm | #

Kevin's not fit to even hold a picture of Mr Oldman.

Costner's the worst actor in Hollywood, since Reagan went on to other things. Man does he suck.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:05 pm | #

I'm watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Kinda reminds me of Bill O' Reilly.

Christmas arrives despite his scheming.

Merry Christmas
Admiral Komack | 12.25.04 - 11:05 pm | #

Ahh, embarrassing moments. Okay. I'm a little hyperactive, and sometimes go against the grain, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I would want to go in a cart door at the local Walmart. Yes, I've shopped there. Save it.

Well, I wanted t make a grand entrance so I did a little duck and leap. I duck under the door and leapt into the air on the other side of the door.

I was planning a big "Superstar" landing once inside the store. Alas, my plan was foiled by a second security door about 6 feet behind the first door.

I managed to leap nose first into that second steel door, and I felt my body crumple and nose slide down the door. I just rested there for a moment not sure if my eyes were open or not. Then tried to get up. As I rose, the stream of blood from my nose was pretty constant toward the ground. I also had quite an audience.

Note to self: use that main door with the automatic opener.
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:06 pm | #

Damn, weblackey. Wish I'd been there to enjoy it in person. But thanks for the belated laugh.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:08 pm | #

Dr. P, were you in Missouri? Those damn ice machines have pretty much stunned all of us. Thank god it's cold outside, so we can hold our drinks out the car window and drive real fast to cool the drinks.
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:10 pm | #

Okay, where do I find a

"I Survived Christmas 2004!"

T-Shirt?
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:10 pm | #

Hammerstein cheats in the Do Re Mi lyric by failing to find a pun for "la."

FUCK Hammerstein!

Dough! The stuff that buys me beer,
Ray, the guy who sells me beer.
Me, the guy who driniks the beer,
Far, the distance to my beer.
So, I think I'll have a beer,
La...? la la la la beer!
Tea? No thanks I'm having beer!
And that will bring us back to...

D'OH!

--The much better Homer Simpson version.
Thersites | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:11 pm | #

weblackey

That is pure genius, it solves a long standing problem I have had.
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:11 pm | #

Nah, it was Indiana. But I've been to Missouri too--at least Missouri has St. Louis.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:12 pm | #

Dr. Pedant

That was me, and that's how it works at home, on the frig.

Used to live in Ohio, never could figger out how our neighbors to the west where as nednecked as the ones to the south.

Don't know if it's true, but seems like they tried to legislate the value of PI to 3.14, and forget all the rest of those bothersome digits.
agave | 12.25.04 - 11:12 pm | #

It was great, after it healed it was awesome. A real Jackass moment. I thought about going back and asking for a copy of the security tape, but I was too chicken. I could have won $100 and a t-shirt for sure!
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:13 pm | #

Thers,

Man, that rocks. Or something.

D'oh!
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:13 pm | #

Bebe Rebozo is a bore. Worse than that guy who calls everybody "brownshirt fucks" and lime/lemon rickey's arrythmic limericks.
Sir Jane Russell | 12.25.04 - 11:15 pm | #

I like homer's version now. Thanks Thersites
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:17 pm | #

Thank god it's cold outside, so we can hold our drinks out the car window and drive real fast to cool the drinks.

Ha!

Way back when, this friend of mine had one of those old 70's station wagons with the luggage rack on top. We were headed out of town on a road trip and we had beer but it was room temp. We ended up lining up the beer on the inside of each side of the luggage rack. By the time we got where we were going, what little beer we had left was pretty much frozen.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 11:17 pm | #

I thought about going back and asking for a copy of the security tape,

One of these days you'll see it, in an e-mail that's forwarded to you and about a million other people.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:17 pm | #

Bebe Rebozo is a bore. Worse than that guy who calls everybody "brownshirt fucks" and lime/lemon rickey's arrythmic limericks.
Sir Jane Russell | 12.25.04 - 11:18 pm | #

I have some more lovely Freeper comments up about the Conservative Women of America protesting against Subaru for marketing to the gay community. A sample:

"You got to differentiate. Female homosexuals a.k.a. lesbians seem to prefer Foresters (they like cleaning out the underbrush) or Outbacks. Male homosexuals a.k.a. faggots or fairies or whatever like Mazda Miatas and I've seem some lately in those new Mini convertibles. Automakers as well as many other retailers cater to the crowds with the highest disposible incomes. Since the homo community seems to have a collective death wish, it spends like there is no tomorrow and tends to collect certain new cars."

Pam's House Blend
Pamindurham | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:19 pm | #

Is 3.14 by slice or the whole.

That's two belly laughs in as few minutes! Who needs ice? I'm content.
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:19 pm | #

If Kerry unconcedes, isn't that a flip-flop?

Ya know that's how they'll spin it...
Roddy McCorley | 12.25.04 - 11:19 pm | #

Mad TV is SOOOO getting orders from Murdoch, what with that Moore sketch and all.
Assamite | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:19 pm | #

Bebe Rebozo is a bore.

Shut up. That's my boyfriend.
Richard M. Nixon | 12.25.04 - 11:19 pm | #

Bebe Rebozo is a bore. Worse than that guy who calls everybody "brownshirt fucks" and lime/lemon rickey's arrythmic limericks.
Sir Jane Russell | 12.25.04 - 11:20 pm | #

I love it when a troll comes here to criticize, and can't even do it without making the newbie mistake of double posting!

What a dipshit.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 11:22 pm | #

"Maybe the flag with the black spider makes people nervous."

Wow, never caught that line before.
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:22 pm | #

This is rich. Some troll who's comment isn't funny or interesting the first time posts three times and then calls someone else boring.

Look in the mirror lately, Jane? Your tits sag.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:23 pm | #

Central Scrutinizer

Its like a double fault when up at serve. Shameful.
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:23 pm | #

But these are good people

We can't forget that many, many people have been very very cleverly manipulated so that certain of their best instincts -- loyalty, patriotism, respectfulness -- are twisted into a kind of wilful blindness. For a lot of them it will take the equivalent of getting their ass knocked down on the way to Damascus for tem to change their minds because it would involve abandoning a very comfortable worldview and identity.
Thersites | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:23 pm | #

Whoops, I mean triple posting.

More of a dipwad than I originaly thought.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 11:24 pm | #

whose
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:24 pm | #

Homer: "D'OH!"
Lisa: "A deer!"
Marge: "A female deer!"
Buzz Bomb | 12.25.04 - 11:25 pm | #

originally
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 11:27 pm | #

Unfortunately, she is loony as a lovelorn loon on loon lake under a full moon.

Hahhahahhah! That's a keeper.
Buzz Bomb | 12.25.04 - 11:27 pm | #

Thersites,

I grant that. And I wouldn't mind so much, but I have a child. And I so want her to grow up safe. And she won't. Because of Jeffers' "good people". And when "good people" hurt my child, I don't think of them as good people. And I don't even care that it's because they are stupider than dirt, watch way too much TV, and hence are easy to manipulate.

Sorry, it's just the way I am.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:29 pm | #

I am a straight man and the proud owner of a Subaru Forester. If that makes me a lesbian, well, then I guess I'm a lesbian!
Buzz Bomb | 12.25.04 - 11:31 pm | #

Buzz Bomb, you're a lesbian trapped in a man's body. It's okay.
weblackey | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:32 pm | #

I just realized I finished my bag of Nestles Turtles that I get each year for Christmas. I think some one is going to have to talk me down from the sugar high. Is melba toast a proper downer to take off the edge?
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:32 pm | #

Thersites--Your comment about people trusting BushCo for the comfy identity politics echoes a recent 2-part article at antiwar.com called "Never Smile at a Crocodile" (about avoiding fights with Bushbot relatives over Xmas). I recommend the articles because her social worker approach to and rhetoric about the W supporters assumes that they're not operating on any rational level, but have been marketed an identity by the equivalent of abusive parents.
Draco | 12.25.04 - 11:33 pm | #

Chalk me up as another Forester owner who's a lesbian trapped in a man's body.
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:34 pm | #

Is 3.14 by slice or the whole. At one of the fancy places like a Marie Collander or such, a slice can hit 4.50 easy. It is nice to see some place trying to freeze prices on pie for the average joe out there.
EkCenTriK

No no, I mean ah, huh?, Damn those frozen Marie Collander pot pies are yum.

What was I saying?

Pie. Hummmm.

.
agave | 12.25.04 - 11:35 pm | #

EkCenTriK

[acid rescue (and who even knows what that means anymore, except me?)]

Niacin. 10 tabs. Call us and we'll talk you down, if necessary.

[/acid rescue]
Dr. Pedant | 12.25.04 - 11:36 pm | #

I seem to be hearing an echoing version of "Christmas don't be late" by the chipmunks. Its slowed down and amazingly sounds like a real person. Not sure if I can handle it man.
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:40 pm | #

Dr. Pedant
Actually you just reminded me that I forgot to take my meds, Niacin being one of them.
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:42 pm | #

Dr. Pendant, do you mean this?

http://tinyurl.com/6s7l3

And yes I googled.
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:46 pm | #

Re Dennis Hopper in "Blue Velvet"--it's never made clear exactly what he's inhaling; typically for Lynch you're left to speculate on the most perverse option. I kept hoping Hopper would get his usual stash mixed up with a canister of helium, then throw a high-pitched tantrum.

I don't remember if the nitrous is explicitly identified, but there is an interview with Hopper in which he describes how the gas was initially supposed to be helium (per Lynch's vision and/or screenplay), and that Hopper suggested that nitrous would seem better for the character.

Supposedly Lynch was completely unfamiliar with nitrous and its effects, but enthusiastically agreed once it was explained to him. It probably was a wise decision, although the world lost out on a potentially transcendently weird performance by Hopper.
Dennis Hopper's Publicist | 12.25.04 - 11:46 pm | #

whose
Dr. Pedant

when
agave
agave | 12.25.04 - 11:47 pm | #

out on a potentially transcendently weird performance by Hopper.

Or I should say, "weirder."
Dennis Hopper's Publicist | 12.25.04 - 11:49 pm | #

"Or I should say, "weirder.""

I was waiting for you to correct yourself.
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:50 pm | #

EkCenTriK

oatmeal

(I like this one word posting)
agave | 12.25.04 - 11:51 pm | #

Chalk me up as another Forester owner who's a lesbian trapped in a man's body.

me too.

it's probably pretty safe for republicans to bash subaru owners.
theodoric | 12.25.04 - 11:53 pm | #

I may hold on the oatmeal, I am just introducing myself to U2 and it works.
I always tend to be way behind on music, if you can call what I listen to as music.
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:53 pm | #

agave

Or did you just mean as a replacement for the Niacin in general?
EkCenTriK | 12.25.04 - 11:56 pm | #

Nitrous is a lot more fun when you're not at the dentist.

Years ago, a friend had one of those big, 5 foot bottles of nitrous, and we would hook a garden house to the nozzle, turn it on full blast, and pass the hose around the room.

And when you have a lungful of straight N20, you sound like james Earl Jones doing Darth vader.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 11:56 pm | #

Dr P,

I know, I go around and around with this myself, careening from pity to horror to amusement to disgust. But what can you do? I content myself with teaching our kids that Republicans are evil.
Thersites | Homepage | 12.25.04 - 11:57 pm | #

Dr. Pedant: Everything is groovy with me. This was a good Christmas, even though I've been sick. My parents paid to fix my car so now it runs great. I wasn't expecting any other presents, but they bought me a 17" flat-panel monitor which is going to take a bit of getting used to, I think. My sister got me Office 2003 and my brother bought me a silver choker. My cats got a toy from my mother and life is good.

Except now I have to drive over to Tempe and feed my boyfriend's cat. Demanding little thing, she expects to be fed every day!
Deana Holmes | 12.25.04 - 11:59 pm | #

Well, not "doing" Darth Vader.... ahhhhh, you know what I mean.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.25.04 - 11:59 pm | #

This is freaky for me

"(CNN) -- Tens of thousands of travelers spent Christmas in an airport, as Comair canceled all of its flights and many US Airways passengers waited to be reunited with their luggage."

I just read the article and it sounds almost identical to what happened to us with America West back in November. Bad weather, computer issues, lost reservations, baggage chaos etc. It sound so close that it is spooky.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 12:08 am | #

Watching Love, Actually now. Can't believe I haven't been forced to watch this before. Seems OK, though it's not quite up to the level of The Octagon or Spawn or Roadhouse.
Thersites | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 12:10 am | #

Dennis H's Publicist:

I thought I was making an absurd joke with the helium remark, but a quick google of "blue velvet" "frank" and "helium" shows that you're right and Lynch originally wanted helium in the tank.

I'd love to see a DVD with some bonus deleted helium scenes, but apparently none were ever made

Seems my wild absurdities are all in a day's work for Lynch.
Draco | 12.26.04 - 12:11 am | #

Sir Jane: c'mere a minute, got a new cantilever design I wanna try--cross my heart, this one's a real lifter.

Hey now, don't get too close- I don't like the germs you're giving off!
Howard Hughes | 12.26.04 - 12:14 am | #

Greetings, fellow Eschatonians.

I'm back from the in-laws. Great Xmas, no Repugs, good food, etc.

On the Earthsea trilogy: Would have loved to see it, even if it's bad. I love Ursula Leguin!!!

On cars: I own a Honda Civic; dunno if that's considered a fag car or not, but I'm definitely a fag trapped in the body of a fag
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 12:15 am | #

Oh, and on the subject of catastrophic impact by heavenly bodies (ahem...): 98% probability of a miss isn't so bad... Anyway, I thought the world was supposed to end in 2012, long before 2030....
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 12:18 am | #

Hammerstein cheats in the Do Re Mi lyric by failing to find a pun for "la."

How 'bout;

La; a tale that just aint so

The use of La as "lie" is as legit as the use of Fa as "far", it seems to me. But then I'm no Hammerstein...
Doozer among Fraggles | 12.26.04 - 12:18 am | #

Just a heartfelt Greeting from a long time lurker - too shy to speak up much, nonetheless I have gathered wisdom and courage and even hope from these pages. I reckon there are many like me - who used to think they were alone - but are so pleased to find a whole roomfull of people whose universe does NOT end at the tip of their noses. Many thanks...
ewww | 12.26.04 - 12:23 am | #

You mean we were able to have Christmas after all? I thought the secular left destroyed it.
pontificator | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 12:23 am | #

phew. another Christmas destroyed utterly.

All we have to do now is wreck New Years and our liberal secular humanist conspiracy will be complete...
sunzoo | 12.26.04 - 12:28 am | #

Doozer--That la/lie is better than anything I came up with; I kept playing with "dolce vita" and "al spelled backwards." The best I had was "Miss Turner to her friends" but I doubt anyone ever called Lana Turner "La" and it didn't fit Sound of Music's late 30s Austrian setting anyway.

Bonus points for consistent meter!
Draco | 12.26.04 - 12:28 am | #

pontificator,

It was close, but next year's not lookin' too good.

Cross yer fingers. /s
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 12:29 am | #

sunzoo

Wait I shouldn't have bought gifts and had folks over? Heck I don't even have the receipt for the little bit of peace on earth we managed to maintain in the household. Target will never let me return it now.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 12:30 am | #

The use of La as "lie" is as legit as the use of Fa as "far", it seems to me.

...it didn't fit Sound of Music's late 30s Austrian setting anyway.

If they ever remake "Sound of Music" and change the setting to Georgia, that'd be perfect.

And hey, a Doozer trumps a Hammerstein any day of the week, IMO.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 12:32 am | #

If they ever remake "Sound of Music" and change the setting to Georgia, that'd be perfect.

Complete with Fascist/Nazi subplot....
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 12:34 am | #

"If they ever remake "Sound of Music" and change the setting to Georgia, that'd be perfect. "

Right and they would change to title to "Maria's a'pickin and a'grinnin"
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 12:34 am | #

gave

Or did you just mean as a replacement for the Niacin in general?
EkCenTriK

just read it had to do with memory, with malnutrision and too much alcohol, both of which cause a defficentcy in B1, and not good things to da brain.

Now My Honey is home.

Nite all

Hope you all sleep well on this Merry Christmas nite.

.
agave | 12.26.04 - 12:37 am | #

and our liberal secular humanist conspiracy will be complete

Oh, and there areM/B> other holidays! I won't give up until I finally ruin one for the whole world forever. Muuuuhuuuu-waaaaaaaaa- haaaaaaa-haaa!
evil weblackey | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 12:37 am | #

...Worse than that guy who calls everybody "brownshirt fucks"...

[great gildersleeve]Yeeeeeessssssss???[/great gildersleeve]
dave | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 12:37 am | #

Heck I don't even have the receipt for the little bit of peace on earth

don't wait for the post-Christmas sales, I have a feelng it's going to be in even shorter supply next holiday season.

my recommendation: hoarding.

Seriously though, this was the best Christmas on record. No running around and trying to have a perfect holiday with perfect presents and perfect parents. the kids got some books, some crayons, a couple of DVDs. No travel, no nonsense. Woke up, opened some presents, went back to sleep and slept in late; took the kids to the park, afternoon nap, enchiladas , homemade refried and cold avocado/corn salad for Xmas dinner. Everybody watched Mulan on DVD together and eventually crashed out on the couch.
sunzoo | 12.26.04 - 12:37 am | #

...and they would change to title to "Maria's a'pickin and a'grinnin"

I suppose they could black out a few teeth....
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 12:38 am | #

shoot. I didn't mean to yell.

La; a tale that just aint so

Awesome, it's in the weblackey unplugged version, with your permission, of course.
weblackey | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 12:40 am | #

Draco & C Scrute; Thanks. I try. Sometimes a bit too hard, I think. Probably why L. Ricky outproduces me 20:1 on liomericks; If I can't get the meter "right"--the rules aren't really all that hard & fast--it just aint...right, Nome Seine?
And never having seen TSOM (and fully intending to never) I didn't know it was set in Europe. I thought it was Murcan alla way.
Doozer among Fraggles | 12.26.04 - 12:41 am | #

other holidays!

National Eggplant Growers Day is definitely on the shit list ..
sunzoo | 12.26.04 - 12:42 am | #

Don't know if this got mentioned earlier, but via Kos, here's a real fire and brimstone sermon from Andrew Greeley. Choice passage:

This time of the year we celebrate ''peace on Earth to men of good will.'' Americans must face the fact that they can no longer claim to be men and women of good will, not as long as they support an unnecessary, foolish, ill-conceived, badly executed and, finally, unwinnable war. If most people in other countries blame the war on Americans, we earned that blame in the November election...

However, to me, the truly interesting part comes at the end:

Note: Some conservative Catholics -- Republicans, I assume -- are spreading the word on the Internet that I am an ''unfrocked'' (sic) priest. That is false witness. I am and have been for 50 years a priest in good standing of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Call (312) 751-8220 if you don't believe me. False witness is a grave sin and must be confessed before Christmas communion. Moreover, those who commit it are bound to restore the reputation of the one about whom they've lied.

Glad to see someone calling the brownshirts on their smear campaigns the moment they start for a change...
dave | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 12:43 am | #

weblackey; Public Domain alla way.
Doozer among Fraggles | 12.26.04 - 12:45 am | #

if only the rest of Catholic Left would get as loud and unruly as Fr. Greeley. It's a fine tradition and about the only redeeming value of that tired old horse of a religion. Speaking as a former Catholic myself, of course.
sunzoo | 12.26.04 - 12:45 am | #

Glad to see someone calling the brownshirts on their smear campaigns the moment they start for a change...

Sounds like Father Andrew Greeley don't cotton to slander.

Good on him.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 12:46 am | #

Central Scrutinizer

And the Von Trapp kids are actually all hers in reality. Out of wed lock and since she would have been educated in the Georgia school system, she would be none the wiser. Von Trapp eventually marries her since the local baptist church finds out the truth and he has to make her an honest woman. When he finds out her father is a KKK heavy and momma wants to sleep with him behind Mari'a back, they make a midnight run for New York. They finally end up there singing in the streets for hand outs. It is soul stirring and you get to hear the major hit, "I was 25 yearns with 11 younguns before I found out what IUD meant"
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 12:47 am | #

EkCenTriK,

That's fucking brilliant.

Know any playrights looking for a project?

Seriously.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 12:50 am | #

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Commandment 8, IIRC. Y'know, one of them 10 edicts from the Burning Bush Himself, the same 10 the wingnuts are so eager to enshrine in every courthouse across America.
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 12:51 am | #

brilliant no, sugar high yes. Heh
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 12:51 am | #

Conservative Students Target Liberals

A "fair and balanced" witch hunt being directed by Busheviks... like David Whore-and-witless.
Tom - Daai Tou Laam | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 12:52 am | #

RRRRRrrrrr.... *playwrights*I swear it's not me, it's the beer.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 12:53 am | #

That is false witness.

Aint that about the politest "They's a buncha lyin' motherfuckers" you ever heard? Go Andrew!
Doozer among Fraggles | 12.26.04 - 12:54 am | #

Would a stenographer then be a "copywright"?
Doozer among Fraggles | 12.26.04 - 12:55 am | #

Tom, did your link go to the right place?
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 12:58 am | #

Tom,

Wrong link?

Would a stenographer then be a "copywright"?

Only if she was incompetent.
Or drunk.
Like me.

Please, someone take this keyboard away.....
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 12:59 am | #

I have a question regarding the balance of the universe?

Did Mad Magazine parody the Passion of Christ?

One must follow the other or disorder rules as the scales tilt to far.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 12:59 am | #

I found the correct link re: "academic freedom" article...
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 1:01 am | #

Central Scrutinizer

If someone takes your keyboard away, then you would simply find a designated typist and mayhem would ensue once again. The best of drunken havoc is always wrought by the drunk.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:01 am | #

EkCenTriK
I dunno if I'm nearly as attracted to this Maria. Does she still play guitar?
weblackey | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:05 am | #

I'm waiting for the threads at the mother ship of the Little Green Raelians deriding the Pope's sermon on peace, Queen Elizabeth's Christmas message on religious tolerance, and the Christmas message from the patriarch of Jerusalem which blamed the Israeli occupation for the problems in the Middle East.

""" "We pray that all walls fall down, those around Bethlehem and the other Palestinian towns, and the walls of hatred in our hearts," Sabbah said.

"We say that it has lasted too long. It is time to conquer the violence in the souls and in the hearts of individuals, of leaders." """
Tom - Daai Tou Laam | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:05 am | #

EkCenTriK
I dunno if I'm nearly as attracted to this Maria. Does she still play guitar?
weblackey | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:05 am | #

Tom Daai...

Your link took me to a Yahoo home page thing.
LJ | 12.26.04 - 1:07 am | #

EkCenTriK
I dunno if I'm nearly as attracted to this Maria. Does she still play guitar?
weblackey | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:08 am | #

While I hope everyone out there had a very happy holiday (whichever one you choose to celebrate), I'm personally glad that Christmas '04 has come and gone. Something about this year was just so obnoxious, in-your-face and just not very merry at all.
gene214 | 12.26.04 - 1:08 am | #

LJ, EkCentrik, et al., see my post above.
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 1:09 am | #

ooops. Conservative Students Attack Liberal Professors take 2...
Tom - Daai Tou Laam | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:09 am | #

I just stopped in to wish all the Atrosians a very happy Christmas.
cosmic grappler | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:09 am | #

weblackey

Well, her strumming arm hasn't been the same since the accident in the Tabacco fields, but she can get a get rythmn going by bounding the guitar on her knee and just holding a pick in front of it.
But yeah, she can manage little brown jug fairly well.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:09 am | #

EkCenTriK; A parody of TPoTC might look a bit like Ackroyd's takroff of Julia Child on SNL way back when.
Or maybe that Monty Python thing on Sam Peckinpah (if I'm not disremembering that incorrectly).
Seriously though, how do you parody what is essentially a gruesome parody of a popular-fictionalized version of an early Christian oral tradition to start with?
Doozer among Fraggles | 12.26.04 - 1:10 am | #

All,

I posted the link earlier to Father Greeley's column. I also posted his email address, I wrote and told him to keep hammerin at the wall of lies that permeates our society and that he is doing a fine job.

agreel@aol.com write and offer him your support. It is important.
DWD | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:10 am | #

Slomo

I read it, but I declined to comment, no offense meant Tom, just decided to stay on nonsense for a bit longer and avoid reality.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:10 am | #

Geez Cosmic, I had the Merry part down today and now I find out it also had to be "Happy"?
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:12 am | #

Doozer

I really had to rewind a bit on the SNL skit. Ooh that was classic.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:13 am | #

Whatever gets you through the night, EkCenTrik.

Did you get good presents from Santa?
cosmic grappler | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:14 am | #

I'm still looking for that 57 stratocaster, but otherwise, it's been a great day.
cosmic grappler | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:15 am | #

I hope you all had a great Christmas. The Eschaton site is one of my daily highlights in this bleak political period.
jr | 12.26.04 - 1:16 am | #

Yep Cosmic, we had a pretty good time today. Normally it is a mess of angst imposed by my side of the family. Angst took the day off. The wife and MIL were happy since they basically did all the work for dinner and setting up the house and it all meshed. We have been here for a year, last year being chaos due to move, so it was like doing the sea trials for this home and it was all good. Pretty good present this year.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:17 am | #

To many professors, there's a new and deeply troubling aspect to this latest chapter in the debate over academic freedom: students trying to dictate what they don't want to be taught.

Then go to fucking Bob fucking Jones University, bitch.

Thanks Tom, Slomo.

I'm distracted by my local tv preacher Terry Fox blaming everything on liberals. Seriously, he blamed the death of the woman in missouri that was killed by the psycho baby stealer on "liberals."

and,

"The first spirit of the bible is anger."

I shit you not.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:18 am | #

he blamed the death of the woman in missouri that was killed by the psycho baby stealer on "liberals."

Eh?

Is this something like 9/11 being the fault of homos?
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 1:20 am | #

Excellent. We've moved several times at Christmas, and it's always a race to see what we can get done. Now we've been in this house for 12 years and things run pretty smoothly.

I had to drive to DC yesterday to get my daughter. Her flight was canceled and she only had enough money to get from NY to DC so I rented a car (long story) and drove up. I sand Christmas music and blues the whole way up so it wasn't too bad.

I took a long nap today to make up for it.

Oh, and the drinks.
cosmic grappler | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:21 am | #

Ek - I understand. Consider it a public bookmarking of sorts. I just wanted to note it in a thread, because I don't want something like that article to just slip by because it's published on Christmas, while "damnable" liberals are wanting to feel jolly and merry and festive.
Tom - Daai Tou Laam | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:22 am | #

This guy is a fucking nut.

Rush Limbaugh behind a pulpit.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:22 am | #

sand=sang, although with my voice, it's pretty much a wash.
cosmic grappler | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:23 am | #

Time for bed.

Good night.

Buy the damn book.
cosmic grappler | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:24 am | #

Is this something like 9/11 being the fault of homos?

Pretty much.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:24 am | #

It's all my fault.

Good night.
cosmic grappler | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:26 am | #

Tom - Daai Tou Laam

Well I would say they were put to it, it is just part of the plan so to speak.

But I have a feeling the backlash is coming quickly. I am not sure why, I get a bit down, then a series of events, not really connected for some reason just tells me to hold on.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:27 am | #

The funny thing is, when the camera pans the audience, most of the folks look like they don't want to be there.

Now he's starting on the guilting for tithings....
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:27 am | #

Central Scrutinizer, why are you putting yourself through this? Are you some kind of masochist? Or do you have some kind of sick fascination with the whole thing?
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 1:29 am | #

Slomo,

It's a "Know Thy Enemy" thing.

This guy's a moron leading idiots.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:31 am | #

Central Scrutinizer, is this Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, KS? I scanned their webpage. ( http://www.amenibc.org/index.html ) What I want to know is: since when does a "church" have swimming, racquetball, bowling and a fitness center?????
Deana Holmes | 12.26.04 - 1:33 am | #

Besides, his sermon is pretty much the same from week to week, month to month.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:34 am | #

This guy's a moron leading idiots.

Isn't that all you need to know about it?

I've given up. It's going to take 4 more years of Bu$hco for the red-state idiots to get it. I just hope by then it won't be too late.

Too bad the other 49% of us are also going to get hit with the karmic blowback.
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 1:35 am | #

Central Scrutinizer

See that sort of thing gives me hope. People I think are beginning to understand to a degree. The more folks like Fox say what they do to the level they do, the more absurd it all seems.

Two of my friends, first thing they said about the Infant Thief, she should get the death penalty. My view, which they at first trashed, was she was off her rocker and should be placed away somewhere indefinitely with help. Took me a bit of time but their hard edge left and okay, maybe in this case and that of Yates, the death penalty wasn't right. Then we got into the death penalty as a whole. More argument, a bit of compromise. My view by the way, is the only reason we should have a death penalty is we have had to decide we cannot protect society from a given individual for the run of that individual's life. The death penalty, as with war, is an admittance of failure. ANy other reason fails unless you are admitting to being either going for revenge or being fiscally efficient. Not sufficient means to make death a legal process.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:36 am | #

...is this Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, KS?

That's the one.

What I want to know is: since when does a "church" have swimming, racquetball, bowling and a fitness center?????

Since he guilts his congegation into giving more and more every week. You should hear the guy, he's pretty good.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:37 am | #

Central Scrutinizer, is this Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, KS?

Oy. First Fred Phelps and now this.

What's the matter with Kansas?
SWR | 12.26.04 - 1:38 am | #

If we secular liberals are destroying Christmas, then I want more destroyed Christmases just like this one... This was the best Christmas I've had in ages...really mellow, no stress, peace, calm, good times. Also, I made out like a bandit in terms of presents and stuff, which doesn't hurt.
Interrobang | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:39 am | #

Happy Holidays to everyone from TR&R! The luminarias were lit all over Albuquerque...
Samir | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:43 am | #

I had a great Xmas, and Other Mr. Slomo got me lots of cool stuff. And, the in-laws are a much happier bunch than my native family in California. Always a depressing experience to go back to California for Xmas, so I was happy to skip it this year....
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 1:43 am | #

EkCenTriK,

I know what you mean.

When this guy asks for an "Amen", he gets a murmer from the congregation. Their heart doesn't seem to be in it. And then he chastises them for it.

And yeah, the death penalty is for revenge; that's it.

It's like Clint Eastwood said one time: "People don't come to my movies for the violence, it's the vengence." Or something like that.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:43 am | #

SWR,

He's not nerly as nutty as Phelps, but he has a huge (for Wichita) congregation.

You should hear some of the shit he says. Like I said, Rush behind a pulpit.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:48 am | #

Santa rules. that guy gives stuff, even when naught as naughty as one might wish. giving, with no expectations of a return. the gift. what a concept. Santa rules.
jfrjfrjfr | 12.26.04 - 1:49 am | #

didn't the baby Santa once tell a tale about rich men trying to get past a Camel on their way through the eye of a needle. or am I mixing up my Birth of Baby Santa tales?

'twas a rainy day here, but plenty of cool commodities. All praise to Santa, the benificent and bountiful One True Santa.
jfrjfrjfr | 12.26.04 - 1:54 am | #

I'm off to bed, thanks for listening to my drunken ramblings.

G'night.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 1:55 am | #

G'night CS and everybody else. I'm off to bed too. It's almost 2am here....
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 1:57 am | #

Slomo,

Juan Cole has what I regard as the definitive response to this whole 'liberal academic' canard of Horowitz and his ilk. Here's the link, though you'll have to scroll down to the entry for November 28, where Cole responds to George Will:

http://www.juancole.com/ 2004_11_...le_archive.html

As for this claim that students feel intimidated into censoring their conservatism, well, nonsense. I'm a relatively friendly, but adamant Lefty pinko who teaches philosophy at a Catholic liberal arts college in Wichita, KS. Students generally assume that you share their conservative assumptions, but their discovery that I voted for 'the other guy' didn't stop one of the friendlier ones from asking, without irony, whether I didn't think 'the secular humanists had ruined this country,' and whether I didn't also concur that this was a 'fact' rather than an 'opinion.' My very diplomatic response was to say that I could think of a WHOLE BUNCH of other, more plausible causes for America's decline related to capitalism and commodity fetishism.

Moral: the fact that they knew I disagreed didn't shut them up. Of course, one could respond that they were too afraid to talk. My answer is that early on, when things weren't going well in an unrelated area of my teaching, I heard about it. So if the lack of ideological space and my oppressiveness had been an issue, you can bet somebody would have said something.

Another student, who's appealingly astute and scatter-brained, brightly informed me that her father's decision to outsource his employees' labor was paying her tuition. She spoke quite cogently (from Cato Institute policy papers) in favor of privatization during our classroom debate, asked me privately why I hated George Bush so much, fought with me during the two days of instruction on Marx, and has told me that she's 'already planning my semester' around the course in Social and Political Philosophy I plan to teach next Fall. And this, after her sighed question in class whether 'all philosophy teachers were liberals?' Guess I'm not so awful that she can't learn from me, huh?

She makes me better, I make her better. Nobody pusses out of discussing controversial topics, everyone is respectful, and everyone learns from everyone else. That's the fucking point.

So when I hear these tales of professorial intolerance and oppression, I am more than a little suspicious. It all sounds opportunistic and trumped-up to me. It's especially ironic to hear these fucks argue for minority rights when they claim minority status for themselves, while denying them to the genuinely disadvantaged.

Can you say, 'red herring?'
CF | 12.26.04 - 1:57 am | #

In a way jfrjfrjfr, may I call you jfrX3?, you have a good point. People are knocking the Christian left and right at the moment. I realy don't think we should anymore than we want them to knock those of us with a different faith or non-faith. To me it is respect. While there are many negative things that happened because people used Christianity as a mallet, the actual core is something to consider. What if it is true. There is a beauty there that is not what the hard right proclaims. I have always envied the faithful because they have something foundationally I do not. However, I am not one to simply accept because I want that structure and foundation. I have to believe before I ever accept that, in my way, it would be an insult to go for the gold and not the meaning. And this spins back to who cares if Santa Claus is a commercial gold mine, the thought of Santa Claus is pretty special even if fantasy. let the spirit dictate your actions, not the marketers.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 1:59 am | #

st. etienne: i don't intend to spend christmas without you.
n69n | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 2:01 am | #

"I'm off to bed, thanks for listening to my drunken ramblings."

As usual, I wish I had that excuse.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 2:02 am | #

Another student, who's appealingly astute and scatter-brained, brightly informed me that her father's decision to outsource his employees' labor was paying her tuition. She spoke quite cogently (from Cato Institute policy papers) in favor of privatization during our classroom debate, asked me privately why I hated George Bush so much, fought with me during the two days of instruction on Marx, and has told me that she's 'already planning my semester' around the course in Social and Political Philosophy I plan to teach next Fall. And this, after her sighed question in class whether 'all philosophy teachers were liberals?' Guess I'm not so awful that she can't learn from me, huh?

When I was in college, most of the students I knew where completely apolitical. They wanted to make money, get laid, and drink beer. There were very few leftists and even fewer conservatives.

And I've always assumed that if you didn't like a professors politics, you would just drop the class and take another one.

Has so much changed in my absence?

In fact, one of the most popular classes (for frat jocks and soriority girls) was a class called "Marxist Economics" and that was only because it was an easy bullshit course where you could get an A without studying.

Even Republicans took that one.
SWR | 12.26.04 - 2:03 am | #

CF,

Thank you for the link.

Much appreciated.

Good night all.
Central Scrutinizer | 12.26.04 - 2:03 am | #

EkCenTriK, good night...and good night to all the rest of you. I hope it was a nice day.
weblackey | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 2:05 am | #

amen to that Ek. as a practicing non-Catholic, or a non-praqcticing Ex-Catholic, I'm just as happy as th next poster to slag redstatetroll's, but if the spirit is willing...etc...

the post from Greeley earlier reminded me of that. as do all the Irish Catholics I know who voted KE despite what their pastors told them. Santa is all about giving, and Dicken's repudiation of the Dickensian realities he was glossing, and Nast's characterizations of Jolly Old St. Nick as inherintly opposite of the Gilded Age monsters he usually caricatured. give me Nast's Santa, and Dicken's Reformed Scrooge, and let's not forget the Jesus of Capra. now that's a Santa we ought to be celebrating, no matter what denomination of Xtian, or Secular Humanist ZombieUltraLeftist we may find ourselves in.

go Santa, give it ...
jfrjfrjfr | 12.26.04 - 2:06 am | #

Good night to you all. 2004 is spinning down, make the best of it. 2005 is coming and we have to move out all the baggage we gathered in this year. The garage sale of the psyche has some real bargains. Hang ups, fetishes and journals of soul searching are tagged red for 50% off.
EkCenTriK | 12.26.04 - 2:09 am | #

SWR,

Granted, the majority of my students ARE apolitical. But at least at the place I teach, in addition to the party spirit, there's a certain kind of apoliticality tjat moves quite a number of them toward Catholic piety and flight from the world. It's a little mystifying, frankly. By contrast, the non-traditional students are another story; more critical and politically astute.

Ciao
CF | 12.26.04 - 2:44 am | #

The Coalition of the Killing.

Up yours, Dickhead Rumsfeld. Enjoy the blood on your hands, just like Judas.
Jeremi Tripp | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 3:02 am | #

Merry Christmas everyone,
When you finish blogging here, come check out http://www.progressivepioneers.org/. We have just started and we are working on getting the established blogs to link us, but for now, I encourage you to go visit and participate in our blogs, polls, and you can even take action. We also have a little humor section too. So check us out at http://www.progressivepioneers.org/, just click the link!

Love & Peace,
Austin
Austin from So. Cal | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 3:14 am | #

Dave, I'm glad you linked to Father Greeley's column. Mr Strawhat found that this morning and printed it out so I could read it over my Christmas breakfast.

There's a thread of right-wing ugliness in Catholic life that's been creeping (and I do mean creeping) closer to the top in recent months and years, and there's a lot of moderate and lefty Catholics who see it, hate it, and don't have the clout to do much about it.

But Greeley does. Not only does he have a nationally syndicated column, he's got those novels that gently feed moderate-to-lefty Catholicism to millions and millions of readers who read them because dear Nuala Anne and Dermot and Bishop Blackie solve the mysteries so neatly. Millions and millions. Besides having a hell of a soapbox, the man's richer than God. And he's the real thing and not afraid of anyone. The number Greeley puts in there is the office of the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Chicago, not just the switchboard. I detect a whiff of righteous fury in that last paragraph. He won't let the bastards get away with sliming his reputation. They picked the wrong guy.

Go get 'em, Andy!
strawhat | 12.26.04 - 3:32 am | #

Yup.

Father Greeley NAILS it:

Americans must face the fact that they can no longer claim to be men and women of good will, not as long as they support an unnecessary, foolish, ill-conceived, badly executed and, finally, unwinnable war. If most people in other countries blame the war on Americans, we earned that blame in the November election -- not that there is any serious reason to believe that Sen. John Kerry would have had the courage to end the war. Perhaps if he had changed his mind, as he did about the war in Vietnam, and opposed the Iraqi war, he might have won. Too late now. Too late till 2010 -- or 2020.

Sad.

Ain't it?
Ben Had | 12.26.04 - 4:45 am | #

Ouch!
John L. Kerry | 12.26.04 - 4:54 am | #

Anyone awake?
Tjo | 12.26.04 - 6:12 am | #

Largest earthquake in 40 years and tidal wave hits SE Asia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south...sia/ 4125481.stm

BBC NEWS
Sea surges kill thousands in Asia
Thousands of people have been killed across south and east Asia in massive sea surges triggered by the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years.

Villages have been swamped and homes destroyed after the 8.9-magnitude quake, the fifth strongest since 1900.

At least 1,000 died in Sri Lanka and a similar number were killed in India.

Casualty figures are rising and deaths have also been reported in Thailand and on Sumatra in Indonesia, thought to be near the tremor's epicentre.

Exact figures for casualties are hard to confirm but hundreds of people are also said to be missing in India's and Sri Lanka's coastal regions.

DEADLY DEVASTATION
Sri Lanka: 1,000 dead
India: 1,000 dead
Thailand: 55 dead
Indonesia: 150 dead
Malaysia: 7 dead
Source: Government officials

Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga has declared a national disaster, and the military has been deployed to help rescue efforts for the 500,000 people thought affected on the island.

High sea waters have also struck tourist resorts on the coast of Thailand, reportedly killing scores of people.

The low-lying Indian Ocean islands of the Maldives have also been severely flooded but there is no word yet on casualties.

Communications down

Thousands have meanwhile been displaced from their homes by high tides in Indonesia.

EMERGENCY NUMBER
The UK Foreign Office has set up an emergency helpline for those worried about relatives in the wake of the quake disaster - the number is 0207 008 0000
Panicked people reportedly fled their homes in the towns of Medan and Banda Aceh, the capitals of two of Sumatra's provinces.

Indonesia's geological position - along the Pacific "Ring of Fire" - makes it prone to earthquakes and volcanoes.

Electricity and telephone networks in the area have stopped working, making it difficult to confirm the extent of the damage, the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Jakarta reports.

Ground shaking

Indonesia's worst-hit region appears to be Aceh, a strife-torn province on Sumatra's northernmost tip, which has seen heavy clashes between government soldiers and separatist rebels.

It's terrible - the rain and the wall of water and the horrific shaking; in so many years of living here I have not ever seen anything as terrible as this
Kareemoff Sumyun Gy,
Jakarta
Several houses in the towns of Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe are said to have been damaged or washed away in flash floods.

A witness interviewed by a local radio station reported seeing nine bodies in Banda Aceh, where part of the town's largest hotel is said to have collapsed.

"The ground was shaking for a long time," another witness told the radio station.

In November, 29 people died when an earthquake struck Indonesia's eastern province of Papua.

IMPACT OF THE EARTHQUAKE

Sto
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 6:18 am | #

Just saw the news! !!!
socs | 12.26.04 - 6:26 am | #

Giant tidalwaves kill thousands.

How quickly the world can go upside down.
Elaine Supkis | 12.26.04 - 6:29 am | #

Apparently the fault ruptured along something like 150 miles. That is one serious earthquake.

And of course this won't make any of the "top news stories of 2004" lists, because the second half of December doesn't exist, as far as journalists are concerned... and besides, Scott Peterson was more important.
vaara | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 6:32 am | #

sad.
socs | 12.26.04 - 6:34 am | #

I used to work in the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University. A beautiful, sad part of the world.

No real wonder that the numbers coming out of Indonesia are small so far; there's no country in the world more scattered, more invented, with a government and military even more addicted to secrecy and cronyism than our own.

The numbers won't be won't be small for long. The vast majority of the Indonesian population is coastal, so these tidal waves are very, very bad news.
Thersites | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 6:39 am | #

You can watch live coverage on the BBC site.
http://news.bbc.co.uk
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 6:40 am | #

Oops. That was me. I'll learn to check one of these days.
NYMary | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 6:41 am | #

Just terrible.
Tjo | 12.26.04 - 6:41 am | #

wonder what the religous right will make of this one?
socs | 12.26.04 - 6:50 am | #

Thersites: apparently the tsunamis mostly traveled north and west (at least according to the reports I've seen so far). Cold comfort to the people in Aceh, I'm sure...

and some former colleagues of mine are working in Pekanbaru now. But I imagine they're probably home for the holidays.
vaara | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 6:51 am | #

After shocks from 5.9 - 7.3.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recen.../ Australia.html
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 6:51 am | #

On a brighter note.... thousands stranded on airline delays during Christmas.
http://tinyurl.com/5lkjw

I like the blerb about the union not having anything to do with telling people to call in sick.

This, and all the reports of sales numbers slumping.... maybe the revolution has begun folks.

Keep buying blue!!!
Barndog | 12.26.04 - 6:51 am | #

Barn--did you see that too? Oh! I was so heartened by that!
socs | 12.26.04 - 6:53 am | #

Aiee - I'm getting old

But just a few days ago I vaguely remember someone posting about the strong earthquake that occurred in the Pacific Ocean and the prediction that there could be major tidal waves (tsunamis?) in countries that border the it. But that person was worried about CA. Anybody know about this than I do. Could it effect CA?

These poor people. They start with nothing and it goes downhill from there. And of course, there will be cholera epidemics there now because of the resultant lack of clean water. oy.
QuiltLady in NY | 12.26.04 - 6:53 am | #

Hey Barndog, can you try that tiny url again? Thanks!
NYMary | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 6:54 am | #

Life is so fragile
socs | 12.26.04 - 6:56 am | #

QuiltLady-

Thursday morning there was an 8.1 off of Macquarie Island about 250 west of New Zealand
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 6:59 am | #

If there was a tsunami from the Macquarie Island quake, it would have hit by now. In fact, it would only have taken 12 hours or so to cross the Pacific.

The Macquarie Island quake didn't affect anyone, except perhaps some penguins.
vaara | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:07 am | #

http://tinyurl.com/5lkjw

Yes indeedy. Hope they like livin in our world.

Even if 'buy blue' isn't completely the case, it sure is nice to start spreadin the meme, right?
Barndog | 12.26.04 - 7:08 am | #

BBC says death toll in India now at 5000. Worst hit is Tamilnadu.
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 7:17 am | #

Well, maybe some of them outsourced jobs can come back to the good ol' USA then, right?
Barndog | 12.26.04 - 7:19 am | #

So there were two major quakes in one week. I hope that's enough.
QuiltLady in NY | 12.26.04 - 7:21 am | #

It was one of the biggest quakes in 200 years. Fifth biggest.
Elaine Supkis | 12.26.04 - 7:31 am | #

You can read emails from folks in the area coming into the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talki...int/ 4125619.stm
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 7:34 am | #

'Morning, gang. The quake news is awful, isn't it?

And, just to show that they're soulless, scumsucking hacks no matter where they are, CNN International has the following poll up:

Do you think the tidal waves triggered by the Sumatra earthquake will deter tourists from visiting Asia?
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:35 am | #

Alaska is much more unstable than California and the greatest quake since Krakatoa happened in Alaska, Prince William Sound, 1964. It also featured a giant tsunami.
Elaine Supkis | 12.26.04 - 7:35 am | #

Wow, RealTexan. Those are... wow.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:37 am | #

They're saying that the fault line break was 1000 km long and shifted 10 - 30 meters.
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 7:40 am | #

I just looked at the "impact of the earthquake" map (scroll down), and it's terrifying. It must've scoured the entire coastline of the Bay of Bengal.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:44 am | #

filkertom,
CNN polls have been so stupid and inane lately. I think I remember reading one the other day that said something like, "Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?"
mer | 12.26.04 - 7:45 am | #

Money quote from the NY Times:

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

That's not something I ever imagined seeing in the news.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:48 am | #

mer -- I saw that one, too. People are getting paid for that.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:49 am | #

According to one of those BBC eyewitness reports, the wave has already hit the Seychelles (just northeast of Madagascar), causing damage and casualties there. I guess this means it'll be hitting Africa soon.

Holy crap.
vaara | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:53 am | #

Kind of annoying -- all the major news sources except Reuters and the BBC are basically reprinting the AP story.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:56 am | #

.
NEWS FLASH:

MORE DEAD MUSLIMS
also Hindu's, Buddhists, Christians, and maybe an Animist or two:
"8.9 EARTHQUAKE, KILLER TSUNAMI HITS SUNDAY"
.
cosa nostradamus | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 7:56 am | #

Thanks, cosa. I spread the word on my LiveJournal.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 8:10 am | #

The earthquake news is horrible. Relief organizations are really strapped right now too. We all know what to do, give or take the Republican stalkers.

OT: I re-read "Homegrown Democrat". the last time I did something like that was when I went to see "Nashville" twice in one week, then Carter was elected.

I can't think of a book like it since "Common Sense". Anyone who cares about democracy and decency should read it at least once. Our Democratic pols should read it until they absorb it.
"There is a message here: if lower taxes are your priority over human life then we know what kind of person you are." p. 133-34. Those on the Wall of Shame should have this pinned to their chests.
EPT | 12.26.04 - 8:13 am | #

The best coverage is on the BBC site. I'm watching the world feed and it's refreshing not to see flashy graphics and music ala CNN, Fox and MSNBC. The anchor is doing a great job staying on top of all the reports coming in.
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 8:18 am | #

The last three after shocks have been 6.5 6.2 6.3
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 8:22 am | #

What? CNN runs "I feel the earth move...under my feet"?
Elaine Supkis | 12.26.04 - 8:30 am | #

The tourists who were on boat excursions are all missing. More than one relative of tourist divers has contacted BBC to report their relatives can't be found.

Tsunamis: underwater is very dangerous, it is a rolling wave which sweeps up all the sea life from the floor and flings it into the air...
Elaine Supkis | 12.26.04 - 8:34 am | #

CNN runs "I feel the earth move...under my feet"?

Wish I could say you've got to be kidding. But it sounds like the "new media" style, all coy, all 'ironic' all those dead people won't stink up my cozy little life. It's the same as their Iraq coverage.
EPT | 12.26.04 - 8:35 am | #

BBC reports that land mines are being dislodged by the water in Sri Lanka disrupting rescue efforts.
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 8:37 am | #

Elaine -- that's hideous.

Christ. People are dying by the thousands, and you know some producer had some shmuck spend minutes, whole minutes, acquiring the rights to use that song snippet, thinking that was the perfect way to ice the delectable cake that is this story.

Shallow, evil fucks.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 8:39 am | #

Indonesia now reporting 1873 dead.
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 8:40 am | #

For the evangelicals, anything and everything are both confirmation of the pending apocalypse.
underwhelm | 12.26.04 - 8:41 am | #

This could happen on the east coast of this country and islands offshore. There's an entire volcanic mountain on an island in the mid-Atlantic that is in danger of breaking off and slipping into the ocean.
Ô¿Ô | 12.26.04 - 8:46 am | #

The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled
When the star in the sky is gone
When the kings and princes are home
When the shepherds are back with their flocks
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost, to heal the broken,
To feed the hungry, to release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people,
To make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman

Not ironic, not witty, beyond a doubt not cool but true. Any "christian" who is not at least trying is a liar and a fraud.
EPT | 12.26.04 - 8:46 am | #

MSGOP is using Frank Lunz to explain the Ukraine elections.

Aside from the obvious problems with Lunz being an incompetent - his bias
should rule him out from any media work

This is a man who has a replica of an electric chair in his foyer --and for a recent party had a Bill Clinton doll sitting in it.
Liars for Bush | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 8:47 am | #

Why I stopped watching CNN

BECAUSE THEY HAVE MORE FLUFF THAN NEWS

Like now showing this inane piece about breathing at high altitudes for mountain climbing and skiing instead of the breaking news of 5000 dead.

I remember when CNN was the place to go for news. Fuckers.
QuiltLady in NY | 12.26.04 - 8:48 am | #

Ô¿Ô, I read about that too. My entire family would be gonners if it happened. Makes you think if you didn't before. Just because something hasn't happened within the history of The United States doesn't mean that it won't.

Wouldn't it be nice if the United States had some money in its economy to give disaster relief and rescue just now?
EPT | 12.26.04 - 8:49 am | #

QuiltLady, CNN wants so hard to be Faux Lite, it's sickening. I really don't feel I can trust more than the five minutes of hourly NPR, as far as any broadcast news goes. And even that's chancy these days.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 8:50 am | #

EPT -- you just said something that clicked in my head, and I know things like it have been said before, but...

If any major corporation had been run the way BushCo is running this country, wouldn't they have all been fired, indicted, fined, and imprisoned by now? And a new CEO and board brought in to try to save the desperately floundering company?
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 8:53 am | #

NPR just played the Howard Dean scream as part of it's retrospective on 04. What's that now? One million, five-hundred and fifty-seven thousand four hundred and 26th time it's been played by the media?
Ô¿Ô | 12.26.04 - 8:55 am | #

They're proud to have been kingmakers of GWB, along with the rest of 'em.
underwhelm | 12.26.04 - 8:56 am | #

If you have broadband watch the coverage on news.bbc.co.uk
RealTexan | 12.26.04 - 8:57 am | #

http://kydem.blogspot.com
KYDem | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 9:04 am | #

In Queens NY, try Channel 133
CNN International
At least they are discussing it rather intelligently.
QuiltLady in NY | 12.26.04 - 9:05 am | #

Ô¿Ô
Howard Dean, even his scream, is a really neat guy. The media sure cheneyed him.
oldwhitelady | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 9:17 am | #

Barndog, your tinyurl link didn't work. What's this about "Buy Blue"????
Slomo | 12.26.04 - 9:18 am | #

Ohhh, this is gonna be bad. Death toll up to 5,600, and they haven't even really started the clean-up or restored communications.
filkertom | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 9:21 am | #

Blame tinyurl then.
Barndog | 12.26.04 - 9:23 am | #

I grieve for the dead in Indonesia...but:

Already 31,000 U.S. (Iraq war) veterans have applied for "disability benefits" for physical and psychological injuries. Nine thousand have been "wounded."

A combat wound is a rifle grenade hitting you on the jaw and driving your bottom teeth into the roof of your mouth. It is a rain of hot metal pulping your eyes. It is all the booted feet in the world concentrated in one piece of shrapnel crushing your groin.

It is never walking again, never making love again, losing your sense of taste forever because Donald Rumsfeld did not care enough about you to armor your vehicle. Readers who can tolerate the sight of amputated limbs should see the photographs that accompany a recent New England Journal of Medicine article on battlefield wounds.

MORE
WoodyGuthrie'sGuitar (aka kono | 12.26.04 - 9:24 am | #

Still giving me a chuckle:

Bumper sticker I saw yesterday on the car that passed me.

Don't Steal - the government hates competition.
oldwhitelady | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 9:26 am | #

It threw the earth off its rotation?
Hecate | 12.26.04 - 9:30 am | #

just flipping through cable "news" networks and actually heard the bubble headed blond on Fox say that the death toll is 5,600 in SE Asia from the earth quake/tsunami. What seemed most horrifying to the bubble head was that there are so many "Westerners" vacationing in Thailand, etc. Guess that horrific death toll wouldn't be quite so bad if there weren't so many people like us included in it.
I hate the "news media in this country.
EarthMerm | 12.26.04 - 9:33 am | #

WoodyGuthrie'sGuitar (aka kono

Quite frankly, I think every newspaper in the country should show pictures of the soldiers with amputated limbs. They should be front page news. "Look what the enlisted gave up for their government".
The paper here will show a gratuitous picture of the war on the front page about once a month. They always have people writing bitching about "What if my child saw that picture".. blah blah blah... I say "if your kid saw it, good!, damnit! That kid needs to see what is happening supposedly for it and everyone else".
oldwhitelady | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 9:36 am | #

This is reminiscent of Krakatoa, except no volcano blew up, so there was no sound to warn people.
emd | 12.26.04 - 9:38 am | #

new thread up
WoodyGuthrie'sGuitar (aka kono | 12.26.04 - 9:39 am | #

This is reminiscent of Krakatoa, except no volcano blew up, so there was no sound to warn people.

Krakatoa was not East of Java. Don't let early 70s B movies fool you!
Angry Blue Planet | 12.26.04 - 1:20 pm | #

That earthquake was rough, tragic. What will happen in built-up CA when the shift finally hits the fan?

As for CNN: If it was started by Ted Turner, how could it get so fauxtian? Is it the miracle of buying shares? Isn't that one of the right's strategies?

PS: get one of those Bush cat toys.
Neil' | Homepage | 12.26.04 - 1:30 pm | #

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