Saturday, January 31, 2009

Confidential to Henry Park

You are absolutely nuts, Henry.

(h/t snaps)

Saturday Night at the Radio!

Our Miss Brooks: "Putting the Touch on Miss Brooks" (24 October 1948).

The Great Gildersleeve: "Visit from Aunt Hattie" (4 February 1944). A little skippy, but tolerable.

Night Beat: "Old King Death" (10 July 1950).

Spike Jones Spotlight Revue: "Guest Mel Torme" (9 April 1948).

CBS Radio Workshop: "Brave New World (part I)" (27 January 1956). With narration by Aldous Huxley hisself and music by Bernard Herrmann. Yep, that's William Conrad helping out. This, as John Dunning would say, is an example of radio putting on its long pants. Of course, radio drama was already nearly dead, so it was putting on its pants only to wander aimlessly about the halls while everybody else watched TV.

And part II (3 February 1956).

How low can you go?

Pretty damn low. The Post:
Denver police have identified a suspect in the case of a woman who took a pain-medication pump from a soldier who lost a limb in Iraq as he lay in a hospital bed recovering from surgery at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center.

On Friday night, Crimes Against Persons Bureau detectives obtained a warrant for the arrest of 59-year-old Linda Coulimore for investigation of aggravated assault on an at-risk adult. . . .

The soldier was unconscious when the woman lifted the device, full of powerful narcotics, from equipment that gave him a dosage intravenously, Jackson said. Other than saying that the drugs were dangerous narcotics, he said he could not say exactly what they were.

A police source said the soldier lost a limb in a war-related incident in Iraq but could not comment further.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Churchill case heats up

RMN:

Ward Churchill and Bill Owens have frosty encounter

Former Gov. Bill Owens on Friday compared onetime CU professor Ward Churchill to a famous movie maker — and it wasn't a compliment.

"In retirement, he's starting to look a lot like Michael Moore," Owens said of the overweight and frumpy director of Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11.

A fat joke? Real mature, Bill (he said as if he'd never pointed out what a bloated sheep's bladder Chutch is).
Churchill, fired by CU in 2007, is suing to get his job back.

Owens and others, including University of Colorado regents, are being deposed as part of the trial, scheduled to start March 9 in Denver District Court.
Being? Seems awful late in the game.
Owens declined to discuss in detail what kinds of questions he was asked and what answers he gave, but Owens wasn't shy about expressing his opinion of Churchill.

"Ward Churchill is a plagiarist and a fraud and, regrettably, we continue to pay for his deception."
My share: .0008 cents per year. I protest!
The deposition took place in the office of Churchill's attorney, David Lane. Owens, who left office in January 2007 and now is a businessman, was represented by the attorney general's office.

For his part Friday, Churchill refused to shake Owens' hand.
He never should have offered. Politicians want everyone (even people who would gladly kill them if they could get away with it) to like them.
So Owens took a verbal jab: "I said, 'Come on, you're a big guy.'"
Zing!
Lane said later: "I hope the governor's feelings weren't too hurt."

Churchill and Lane claimed the firing was in retaliation for exercising his constitutional right to free speech. . . .

"I very directly told David Lane that I also had a First Amendment right to speak on the subject, and I reflected what a vast majority of Coloradans were saying," Owens said.

"Unfortunately for David Lane, his client had a clear pattern of lying for virtually his entire academic career. That's why he was fired.

"I believe the jury will reject Churchill's (claims.)"
From your lips, etc., Billy.
Lane thinks his client will win, but if he loses, Lane said, at least Churchill will have been judged impartially.

"This is the first fair forum that we will have appeared before. Everything else has been stacked by CU," Lane said. "Bill Owens has been a staunch opponent of Ward Churchill forever, and I'm looking forward to a jury of citizens (reviewing the case.)" . . .
Can't wait to see what he'll say when the jury rejects Churchill's lies.

Update: Notice how reporter Lynn Bartels gets the comparison backwards in the second graf? Careless. Should be, "referring to the overweight . . ." and etc.

Update II: They fixed it. One other thing I just noticed: yesterday there were over a hundred comments on the thread of the story. Now there's only 48. Snapple, what did you do?

American profs putting together Israel boycott

Haaretz:
For first time, U.S. professors call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

The campaign was founded by a group of 15 academics, mostly from California, but is, "currently expanding to create a network that embraces the United States as a whole," according to David Lloyd, a professor of English at the University of Southern California who responded on behalf of the group to a Haaretz query. "The initiative was in the first place impelled by Israel's latest brutal assault on Gaza and by our determination to say enough is enough."

"The response has been remarkable given the extraordinary hold that lobbying organizations like AIPAC exert over U.S. politics and over the U.S. media, and in particular given the campaign of intimidation that has been leveled at academics who dare to criticize Israel's policies," Lloyd wrote in an e-mail to Haaretz Monday.
Uh-huh. Like Wart.

(via the pirate with the parrot whose beak changes shape through the evolutionary force of alcohol)

Thursday, January 29, 2009

'Educational event,' march, rally for murderer in Boulder

Lenny "Still in a Cage" Peltier, that is:
"America, when will you live up to your own principles?" (Leonard Peltier)

Boulder, Colorado -- The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (Colorado Support Groups), Indigenous Support Network and 180-11 will be presenting an educational event on the University of Colorado campus on February 6th, 2009 to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the arrest and imprisonment of Native American political prisoner, Leonard Peltier. The event will feature talks by Chief Leonard Crow Dog (spiritual leader), as well as David Hill and Ben Carnes, of the LPDOC. There will also be performances from local Lakota drum group, the Plenty Wolf Singers and Aztec dancers, Grupo Tlaloc, from Denver. The event will begin at 7:00pm in room 100 of the Mathematics building.

That Group Tlaloc shows up for everything. Hardest-working Aztec dancers in show biz.
(The LPDOC will also be staging a rally followed by a march outside the Boulder City Courthouse on Pearl Street starting at noon on Feb.6th 2009-same day)

Leonard Peltier is an internationally recognized political prisoner who has been imprisoned for 33 years.

(recognized by Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Amnesty International, Robert Redford, Willie Nelson)
Saintly men all, especially Willie Nelson. But what does "recognized" mean here? I'd recognize Peltier if I saw him on the street (and cross to the other side). Luckily, that'll never happen.

This case needs to be brought back into public awareness at this pivotal time in American history.
Maybe President Obama will pardon him.
To quote Leonard Peltier, "To heal will require real effort, and a change of heart from all of us. To heal means that we will begin to look upon one another with respect and tolerance instead of prejudice, distrust and hatred. We will have to teach our children-as well as ourselves-to love the diversity of humanity....We can do it. Yes, you and I and all of us together. Now is the time. Now is the only possible time. Let the Great Healing begin." (Peltier from Prison Writings My Life is my Sun Dance).
This from a man who shot two people in cold blood at point-blank range.
The ideals of a nation and a man's life are hanging in the balance.
Sheeeit.


(h/t: a reader)

Update: Quote of the Day: "“The mother fucker was begging for his life, but I shot him anyway."

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Bulbous

Been slowly changing over to CFL bulbs in the last year or so (since they got so much cheaper), but here's a fun (well, boring) fact: There are six incandescent bulbs in this house that I haven't had to replace since we bought the sh--sinkhole almost eleven years ago: three in an overhead fixture in a bedroom and three vanity bulbs above the mirror in a bathroom. Not as impressive as this, but these lights are turned on and off all the time. Any other Howard Family bulbs out there?

Update: From the Centennial Bulb "facts" page: "Charles Kurault of the TV program "On the Road with Charles Kurault" visited the bulb in the 1970s and included it in his book as well."

Visited the bulb.

Update II: From the main page: "For those of you who watch the Discovery channel you might have caught the episode 69 of MythBusters. No, they were not questioning the Bulb . . . "

Never question the Bulb!

Update III: Freaks me out that the main-page montage includes a pic of a little girl touching the Bulb. Rumor has it she was ritually sacrificed afterwards.

Update IV: Praise the Bulb. Praise it with great praise.

Update V: Praise the Bulb! The Bulb grows angry!

Update VI: By "rumor," of course, I mean "the local newspaper."

Abstract(s) of the Week!

Human Rights Quarterly:
Cartoon Violence and Freedom of Expression

The publication of the "Danish cartoons" generated a continuing conflict between freedom of expression and religious tolerance. The article examines the history of cartoon satire, invoking past examples of racial and religious discrimination in cartoons while emphasizing the important role cartoonists have played in criticizing and checking the exercise of power. The legal implications of the "Danish cartoons" is [sic] analyzed through the lens of international human rights law, in particular the concepts of hate speech, racial discrimination and religious defamation. Finally the present movement in the UN towards "cartooning for peace" is promoted.
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies:

Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology

What does it mean to be oriented? How is it that we come to find our way in a world that acquires new shapes, depending on which way we turn? If we know where we are, when we turn this way or that, then we are oriented. We have our bearings. We know what to do to get to this place or to that. To be oriented is also to be oriented toward certain objects, those that help us find our way. These are the objects we recognize, such that when we face them, we know which way we are facing. They gather on the ground and also create a ground on which we can gather. Yet objects gather quite differently, creating different grounds. What difference does it make what we are oriented toward? My interest in this broad question of orientation is motivated by an interest in the specific question of sexual orientation. What does it mean for sexuality to be lived as oriented? What difference does it make what or who we are oriented toward in the very direction of our desire? If orientation is a matter of how we reside in space, then sexual orientation might also be a matter of residence, of how we inhabit spaces, and who or what we inhabit spaces with. After all, queer geographers have shown us how spaces are . . .

Update: Actually went and found the "Cartooning for Peace" site. It would probably help if the captions and thought balloons were translated into the takeover language of the 21st century, Esperanto, but I was surprised by a few; the ones, that is, that were (mildly) sympathetic to Israel (how, I say, how, does that forward the peace process?). Can't figure out how to link to any particular cartoon (they have that Coverflow thing going on) and the whole site is kind of convoluted, so just look around.

The Stasi would have loved her

Everybody's had this, so I'll just pile on. Post columnist Kristen Browning-Blas channels the civil-rights stalwarts of yore (and mine):
Have you ever been in that awkward situation where someone makes an off-color joke, or worse, a blatantly racist one? People laugh uncomfortably, or look away, or pretend they didn't hear.

Maybe your son's new coach makes a subtle racial slur and you don't want to make the other parents uncomfortable, so you stay quiet. . . .

After a week of hearing stories of incredible sacrifice leading up to Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration of our first African-American president, I had the chance to test the courage of my own convictions in a small way.
A very small way.
On "Fresh Air" Jan. 19, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) told the radio show's host Terry Gross about being beaten by Alabama state troopers as he and 600 other voting-rights protesters marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965. They knew they might be hurt, yet they stepped on past the fear. . . .

Moving, yes, but I had no idea how much that call to action would resonate on Inauguration Day. After watching the swearing-in on TV, I hauled myself to the gym, thinking I'd march on the Stairmaster along with the parade. Our gym has a cafe/bar, and I stopped to have some soup first.

One of the employees was checking the tea and noted out loud that they were out of black tea. To the other server, she made a joke about ordering some more "Obama tea."

On this day, of all days, I could not turn away, pretend I didn't hear.

My pulse raced a little. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. In the larger scheme of things, calling her on it was a small act.
Petty, even.
I did the uncomfortable thing and spoke to the server (the jokester had disappeared), and to the club manager. "What do you want me to do?" the manager asked, when I said I thought it was not a harmless joke but a racist statement. I suggested racial sensitivity training at the very least. He said he would "take it under advisement." I found out later he spoke to her about the incident.

That day, I left before the tears of frustration spilled over. You might expect to shed some tears watching Obama take the oath of office as our president, for whatever personal reason.
For whatever personal reason.
But tears of anger and fear? Anger at others' lack of outrage. Fear at being singled out as the trouble-making complainer. . . .
She should have feared the ridicule. Read whole thing. Her kid is a Young Pioneer in training. Read the comments, as well (something I almost never recommend for newspaper threads). Here's one:
OMG! This is the bravest thing I've ever read!

As a "person of color", it's great to know that sensitive, caring people like you have my back. While I can never truly repay you, I promise the next time Macy*s has a "White Sale", or my office mates propose a "white elephant" gift exchange for our lame holiday party, I will give them a piece of my mind in your honor.

Salazar opposes Gitmo plan

NIMBY:

Republicans who oppose moving terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay to Colorado's Supermax prison now have a Democratic ally: Rep. John Salazar.

The Western Slope congressman says prisoners at the Cuba-based U.S. Naval detention center should not be sent to the maximum-security prison in Florence.

"I frankly think it seems more appropriate to send them to military facilities," Salazar said.

The Democrat echoed GOP fears about moving high-level terror suspects from Guantanamo, though Salazar stopped short of opposing President Barack Obama's plan to close Guantanamo.

"It is a key issue because some of them might be very harmful to American society," Salazar told the Pueblo Chieftain for Wednesday's editions. "One thing President Obama is trying to do is negotiate with other countries in an effort to move them, but we have to be careful who we let go and whether they can become threats again."

Salazar's concerns put him closer to Colorado Republicans, who have said moving detainees to Supermax is a dangerous
idea. . . .

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tuesday Night at the Radio!

Ann Althouse had a post the other day on Harry Morgan, Jack Webb's partner Frank Gannon on the mid-60s version of Dragnet (and of course, Col. Potter on the Saint Al Show). So here's a Dragnet, long before Harry Morgan. "Big Mailman" (24 May 1951).

And since we were honoring Kim Jong Il's deathless work, "On Bringing About a Signal Turn in Potato Farming" the other day, we should (well, will) have an episode of I Was a Communist for the FBIiiiii: "Fifteen Minutes to Murder" (1 July 1953).

Jack Benny: "Jack Takes His Song to a Publisher" (14 October 1951).

Escape: "She" (11 July 1948). H. Rider Haggard story. John Mortimer must have taken "She Who Must Be Obeyed" from this, mustn't he? Wonder if he ever said so.

Bilalulations

Here's part of a comment from "Bilal" on a thread at Biased BBC. It's in response to "frankos," whom Bilal somehow thinks is Jewish (he's not), and several other commenters:
With no due respect, do not forget that you in ratio to Muslims are a minority in the UK frankos. Regardless of anything; how long do you think it will be before an insurrection targeting you miserly, yes - "stinking", sons of pigs will initiate? What do you think is being cooking up in Iran? How long do you think it will be until the "Islamists" hold military coups (e.g. in nuclear-armed Pakistan) in ousting the futile Arab treacherous "leaders" who have their fingers stuck up their arses; then collectively use their arsenal and numbers to walk into occupied Palestine and re-institute the gas chambers of World War 2? From their perspective; why shouldn’t they? What good have you done that should make them think twice? What have you done that should make any anti-cancerous human think twice? If there is a cancer that is killing the world, whether directly or indirectly; one should remove it. “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”, as Mel Gibson so adequately put it. . . .

You people should be hunted down.

To conclude; I'm above you sub-vermin. Hence I will not lower myself by stooping to remaining in your lowly genocide-supporting cyber-pigsty.

Wishing you all non-Benign testicular (or cervical in Sue’s [a frequent B-BBC commenter] case) cancer . . .
Scroll up for earlier and scarcely less vituperative Bilal comments, but scroll down first. Things get, um, lively.

Flash: self-deception still knows no bounds

The Rocky:
Former evangelical pastor Ted Haggard's wife says she knew about his struggles with same-sex attraction for years and felt he was "winning the battle" before a scandal involving a male prostitute triggered his downfall in late 2006.

Gayle Haggard makes the remarks in an appearance with her husband on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to air Wednesday. She said she was shocked when Haggard first told her the truth about the allegations against him.

"The first words out of my mouth were, 'Who are you?"' she said, according to a publicity release issued today by Harpo Productions.

However, Gayle Haggard also said her husband told her early in their 30-year marriage that he "struggled with some thoughts."

"I felt it was the thing that could destroy Ted if he gave in to it," she said. "So I prayed for him and I felt as though he was winning the battle." . . .

Guess we can all relax now

BBC:
A team of environmental researchers in the US has warned many effects of climate change are irreversible.

The scientists concluded global temperatures could remain high for 1,000 years, even if carbon emissions can somehow be halted.

Their report was sponsored by the US Department of Energy and comes as President Obama announces a review of vehicle emission standards.

It appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. . . .
The scientists (scare quotes are juvenile) do offer a sop to politicians who might be crushed by the potentially pork-threatening news:
They say politicians must now offset environmental damage already done by man-made pollution.
That's not very sexy.

Fun (possible) facts

Dave Kopel compares the number of Rocky and Post stories covering Obama's inauguration to other years, and finds that they went comparatively crazy.

Fine, fine. But what really caught my eye was this sentence in the last graf:
Arguably, race is so important that the first (noncloseted) biracial president deserves coverage that dwarfs that of previous presidents. . . .
Now, I've always maintained that Richard Nixon was a quadroon, but I wasn't aware of this, which is probably what Kopel is referring to.

Update: Al Stewart on poor Warren.

Del Toro asked hard questions; walks out of 'Che' interview

Hollywood liberals. I spit me of them. Wash Times:
A controversial new biopic about Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara is awakening old passions and provoking vigorous defenses and denunciations of the iconic revolutionary and - in the case of an interview with The Washington Times - a dramatic walkout.

"I'm getting uncomfortable," Benicio del Toro said after fielding a question about his new movie's portrayal of the Bolivian and Cuban revolutions. "I'm done. I'm done, I hope you write whatever you want. I don't give a damn." . . .

In doing research for the picture, Mr. del Toro was drawn to the writings of Guevara. "First, you start with what he wrote. What Che Guevara wrote. And he was a great writer, he wrote for years, so you start with that," he said.

Given the film's tenor, however - Guevara is shown telling a reporter that the most important thing for a revolutionary to have is "el amor," love - it's fair to ask to which parts of the Guevara bibliography the producer was exposed.

"He was a man full of hatred," said Armando Valladares, the Cuban dissident imprisoned by the revolutionary regime in 1960. Named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, Mr. Valladares is the author of "Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag" and a board member of the Human Rights Foundation. Speaking through Glenda Aldana, a translator who works for the foundation, Mr. Valladares points to Guevara's writings as proof.

In his "Message to the Tricontinental," Guevara espoused "hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine."

"He took joy in killing counterrevolutionaries and was one of the most hard-edged, most Stalinist, pro-Soviet communists of the whole leadership," said Ronald Radosh, a Hudson Institute adjunct fellow and author of "Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left."
But (to quote Richard Thompson on Kenny G) he had such lovely crinkly hair.

(via JuthersBrud)

Monday, January 26, 2009

I blame Colorado

Last Tuesday or Wednesday: 71 degrees and sunny.

Today: a high of 13 degrees, with five inches of snow on the ground, a like amount ready to dump tonight and a low forecast of three or four below zero.

Did I say I blamed "Colorado"? I meant "climate instability." Easy mistake to make. They both start with a "c" and all.

Guardian: Hospitals to cut meat from meals to save planet

Our future:
Meat-free menus are to be promoted in hospitals as part of a strategy to cut global warming emissions across the National Health Service.

The plan to offer patients menus that would have no meat option is part of a strategy to be published tomorrow that will cover proposals ranging from more phone-in GP surgeries to closing outpatient departments and instead asking surgeons to visit people at their local doctor's surgery. . . .

Among the most talked-about is likely to be the suggestion that hospitals could cut carbon emissions from food and drink by offering fewer meat and dairy products. Last year, the United Nations climate chief, Rajendra Pachauri, provoked a global debate when he said having a meat-free day every week was the biggest single contribution people could make to curbing climate change in their personal lives, because of the chemicals sprayed on feed crops and the methane emitted by cattle and sheep. Last week, the German federal environment agency went further, advising people to eat meat only on special occasions. Pencheon said the move would cut the relatively high carbon emissions from rearing animals and poultry, and improve health. . . .

The report will argue that reducing carbon emissions will cut bills for equipment, medicines, energy, water and waste services, and improve health - in the short-term for example by encouraging people to walk, in the long-term by helping to reduce the impacts of climate change.

"Unless we all take effective action now, millions of people around the world will suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the climate changes," it says.
Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.

Update: I know what they mean, but doesn't it sound weird to American ears: "phone-in GP surgeries." How'd the surgery go, doctor? Oh, I just phoned it in. Gotta quit going to the pub for lunch every day.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Father and son

Dad 'n' lad. Surf 'n' turf. Knoxnews.com: "Letter threatening Jackson's life determined to be written by father of man who killed Lincoln":
Dismissed for 175 years as a fake, a letter threatening the assassination of President Andrew Jackson has been found to be authentic. And, says the director of the Andrew Jackson Papers Project at the University of Tennessee, the writer was none other than Junius Brutus Booth, father of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Dan Feller and his staff solved the mystery of the July 4, 1835, letter to Jackson. The story of their investigation will be featured this summer on PBS' "History Detectives."

The letter, which addressed Old Hickory as "You damn'd old Scoundrel," demanded that Jackson pardon two prisoners named De Ruiz and De Soto who had been sentenced to death for piracy in a high-profile trial of the day.

"The trial of them and the other pirates had been a national news story. It was heavily covered," Feller said.

Pardon the pirates, the letter writer demanded, or "I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping."
Wild. Er, arrggggh.

(via Mark Steyn at the Corner)

Catching up with: North Korea!

From the Korean Central News Agency (all sic, of course):
  • Kim Jong Il Enjoys Performance Given by Art Squad of KPA Unit 757. The performers put on the stage colorful numbers of various genres including agitating story "General Inspects Drill Ground," female trio "Soldiers Sing of Our Supreme Commander," drama agitation "Sharp Eyes," male quartet "Whole Country Knows," male vocal solo "The Country I Am Defending" and choral recitation of poem "Let's Sharpen Our Bayonets to Annihilate Enemy." . . .

  • A music and dance performance was given by artistes of the Ryanggang Provincial Art Troupe at the Taehongdan County Cultural Hall on Tuesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of leader Kim Jong Il's famous work "On Bringing about a Signal Turn in Potato Farming". . . .

  • A torchlight soiree of youth and students "The Homeland of Songun" was held at Kim Il Sung Square Tuesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK. . . .

    When the participants formed letters "Glory to General!" and a floral basket in reflection of the firm determination of the hot-blooded young people to hold leader Kim Jong Il in high esteem, deeply trusting and following him, fireworks were displayed to beautifully decorate the nocturnal sky of the square on the auspicious day of September. . . .

  • The Forest Management Office of Riwon County, South Hamgyong Province, on the eastern coast of Korea has transformed pine tree forests into pine-nut tree forests, from which it is gathering a large amount of pine nuts.

    Pine trees in the county with lean land all crooked to look ugly and be of little use. . . .

  • New books have been published recently by the Literature and Art Publishing House of the DPRK.

    The book "Bosom of Great Teacher," divided into six chapters, deals with the immortal exploits performed and noble virtues shown by General Secretary Kim Jong Il while guiding the Mansudae Art Troupe. . . .

  • The Workers' Party of Korea Publishing House and the Mansudae Art Studio produced posters "Let us all turn out to push ahead with farming preparations for new year!" and "Let's apply much more manure of quality!" . . .

  • The 7th Basketball Tournament of Officials of National Institutions took place at the gymnasium of Kim Il Sung University.

    The tournament was held on league and knockout match basis by officials of ministries and national institutions. Winners in the men's event divided into four groups were teams of the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Extractive Industries, the Grand People's Study House and the Rakwon Guidance Bureau. . . .

  • The youth shock brigade activities have been briskly conducted to make a breakthrough of advance in building an economic power this year. . . .

    Members of the Cha Kwang Su Youth Shock Brigade at the Pyongyang Thermal-Power Complex voluntarily carried out the difficult tasks in overhauling generators and boilers and ensuring their normal operation. Those of the Kim Hyok youth shock brigades at the Chonsong and Sinchang youth coal mines overfulfilled their coal production assignments every month by carrying on continuous drilling and blasting. . . .


  • There are in Kwangbok and Yongung Streets of Pyongyang Tourism Souvenir Showrooms where one can see the creative wisdom and sentiments of the Korean nation. . . .

    According to Jong Sin, manager of the showrooms, lots of foreigners have visited the showrooms this year and said as one that they were happy to visit the showrooms deep in the odor of the Korean nation. . . .

  • Update: "Artistes."

    Update II: Wm. T. Sherman links to this vid of American war crimes in Iraq from the sadly moribund Songun Blog:



    Update III: "Youth coal mines"?

    Saturday, January 24, 2009

    Post travel: Obamatouring Chicago

    Sorry, think I just threw up in your mouth a little (or however the cliché goes). The Post's interestingly named Electa Draper (not as good as "Chantal Unfug," of course) joins the worshippers:
    The city of Chicago has many faces, but the one that is inescapable this winter is President-elect Barack Obama's. . . .

    Obama's image flutters on Chicago street banners and shines from storefronts. Chicagoans have an extra bounce in their steps and new stops to highlight on their tour routes — the hangouts the Obama family came to love.

    Businesspeople talk happily about the "Obama bump" in revenue from people making mini-pilgrimages. . . .
    Kind of like the Hajj! (Yes a "Hussein" joke).
    From soul food to swanky cuisine, the Obamas ate their way through Chicago . . .
    Reject mental image, reject mental image . . .

    Downtown, a Barack and Michelle date night [sorry, threw up in your mouth again] often included dinner at chef Rick Bayless' upscale Mexican restaurants . . . . Mexican folk art dazzles the eye while "sustainably raised" vegetables, poultry, meat and fish from local artisan producers grace the plates.

    Spiaggia's, a stylish and expensive Italian restaurant, 980 N. Michigan Ave., is where the Obamas traditionally celebrated Valentine's Day [not apologizing any more]. . . .

    Sepia, a favorite spot for Michelle in the West Loop, 123 N. Jefferson St., is right next door to the boutique of Maria Pinto, a favorite designer and good friend of the soon-to-be first lady. Be forewarned, you have to make an appointment to try on clothes here.

    Rats.
    Sepia is a renovated 1890s print shop with carefully preserved vintage features such as well-worn brick walls, contrasted with contemporary twists, such as the clear plastic drum encasing the crystal chandelier.
    Transgressive.
    Other famous Sepia patrons include politico Rahm Emanuel and actors Bill Murray and Gwyneth Paltrow.
    You had me at the plastic-drum-encased chandelier. On with the tour!
    The Obama residence is a stately reddish-brown brick Georgian revival with six bedrooms and four fireplaces at 5046 S. Greenwood Ave. While attractive, it has plenty of more palatial neighbors — architecture that makes this section of town fun to stroll. You can no longer stray too near the Obama home — blockades are in place —but you can glimpse the president-elect's house from about half a block away. . . .
    Half a block away? Bet you can get a lot closer to Billy Ayers' house.
    If you are a true Obama fan ["High five! Down low! Too slow!"], you can visit the Hyde Park Hair Salon, where he got his hair cut for more than a decade, until fame dictated that his longtime barber, Zariff, start going to him. . . . Zariff reports that "the Obama style," which he describes as "low, youthful and joyful," is now being requested by men who stop by from all over
    the world. . . .
    That's enough.

    Missed this

    But I missed most everything last week. Rocky business writer David Milstead has a piece on the problems facing both Denver dailies. Concluding grafs:
    Perhaps The Post can hang on to a significant number of Rocky subscribers if the paper closes, revenue will improve, and MediaNews will have more than a pyrrhic victory.

    I don't think so. I will make two predictions, which may be my last in this column. One is that 18 months after the Rocky closes, The Post will have retained very few of the Rocky's subscribers, loyal to the tabloid format.

    And two: Once we stop speculating when Denver will become a one-newspaper town, we will begin to ask when the Post will close as well.
    I asked that a while ago (see update).

    (via Romenesko, but I can't find the link)

    Tuesday, January 20, 2009

    Inaug notes

    Update: If you're watching Fox: Evander Holyfield is messed up. Jesus, the reporter [update: that Leventhal guy again] is calling him "together," and he's clearly punch-drunk (as they used to call a series of TIAs caused by being hit in the head too many times).

    Never started a post with an update before. The D-blog: forging fearlessly into the furture.

    Update II: Geraldo is still alive?

    Update III: How could one not be proud of our military? These people are way smarter than the average bear. I remember what I was like in my early 20s, sort of. A jerk. These people are funny, self-deprecating, smart, quietly confident. Altogether heroic.

    Update IV: Obama's appearance at the military ball was hilarious (if that's the word). Leave aside the naked beseeching of the grunts to trust him, the interview or whatever it was he conducted with the unit in Iraq, most of whose members were from Chicago, was, um, awkward. That's a better word. The whole thing was awkward.

    First problem was the satellite delay, which for the first few minutes had Barack and the soldiers speaking over each other. Whatever.

    But a little ways in, Barack asked a bad question, and almost every personnel was obliged to answer: are you a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan?

    This, of course, is racism (look ma, I'm a deconstructionist!). Any Illinoisoonian who heard the responses had to have laughed, knowing that the Cubs are the white team and the Sox (who play in the largely black South Side) are the black team (the St. Louis Cards, of course, are the gape-toothed sister-screwin' hillbilly southern team).

    Obama is a White Sox fan (natch), but only one of the militaires was. I think there was one black person, who wasn't asked, so the lone Sox supporter was a white woman from, I think, Naperville, straight west from Chicago. I think she was tortured into claiming Sox fandom.

    Update V: Think Barack and Michelle will screw like mink when they get home (the White House)? I don't. More important, do you realize the question probably never came up about Tricky Dick and Pat? Hot, hot, hot.

    Update VI: Billy Baldwin on expectations for Obama: "You can't turn the Titanic around in 30 seconds." The Titanic, of course, was a big ship that sank without trying to turn around.

    Sample dialogue from Titanic:

    Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio): Rosie!

    Rosie (a really hot Kate Winslet): Jack!

    Jack: Rosie!

    Rosie: Jack!

    And so on. Billy Baldwin is a genius.

    Ayers, Jensen to speak for Churchill in Boulder

    As Snaps points out in comments somewhere, soft-voiced terrorist Billy Ayers and eco-Luddite Derrick Jensen will be appearing for Ward a few days before the start of the trial of his suit against CU:

    Students for TRUE Academic Freedom is hosting an event in conjunction with Ward Churchill’s landmark academic freedom lawsuit against the University of Colorado. Churchill’s legal suit for violating his first amendment rights begins March 9th. Therefore, we are bringing well known activist-scholars Derrick Jensen and Bill Ayers to voice their strong support for Churchill and political dissent in academia. Their presentations will unveil the mask of liberal academia and link Churchill’s fight with other scholars who have been attacked for their strong beliefs. If we want our universities to embody institutions of critical inquiry, then we must not only support scholars such as Ward Churchill, but also view these attacks in context. Come and hear the shocking truths behind the right-wing attacks on Churchill. Hear what they don’t want you to know!

    Date: Thursday, March 5, 2009
    Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm
    Location: Glenn Miller Ballroom, at CU Boulder inside the UMC

    Ob-servation

    When Obama painted that now-sacred wall today, he tried to do it around a smoke detector--without even taking the cover off. Hey, he's just like me!

    Update: Google: "7162 related articles."

    Update II: Tip for landlords: A thick coat of paint mutes the sound of a smoke alarm.

    Monday, January 19, 2009

    Stick to making expand-O-waist slacks, Joe

    Joseph Farah at World Net Daily ("Home of the 'Little Entenmanns'") on, well, you'll figure it out:

    Many a coward has been bolstered in his conviction against challenging tyranny by not reading too deeply into the Scriptures. Yet, nowhere does the Bible ever suggest evil rulers are to be obeyed. When the rule of men conflicts with the commands of God, the Bible leaves no doubt about where we should stand.

    That's why I do not hesitate today in calling on godly Americans to pray that Barack Hussein Obama fail in his efforts to change our country from one anchored on self-governance and constitutional republicanism to one based on the raw and unlimited power of the central state. . . .

    Nowhere in the Bible does it teach us to obey evil rulers. Nowhere.

    Jee-sus.

    Update: Confidential to Coloradoonians: It's the cake the coach eats!

    Sunday, January 18, 2009

    Code name: Liberal

    NYT on new Rosenbergianist factoids.

    (via LGF spinoff linkaloid)

    Sunday Night at the Radio!

    In honor of the I--goddamnit--inauguration, Jack Benny: "Mr. Benny Goes to Washington" (10 March 1940).

    Haven't played a Gunsmoke in a while. "How To Die For Nothing" (10 October 1953). Mmmmm, Sugar Krinkles.

    The Les Paul Show: "Sweet Georgia Brown" (11 July 1950). What a freak. Actually his music bores me, but his technical wizardry is part of his-toe-ree.

    Vic and Sade: "Elkskin Shoelaces" (7 June 1944).

    Shouting moron: Ward featured in Sundance free-speech film

    Cinema Blend:
    Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech explores free speech in America by addressing contemporary cases in which the First Amendment has played a very significant role. The documentary not only looks at how free speech has been challenged in our country, but also how willing or unwilling Americans are to give up civil liberties in exchange for national security in a post-9/11 era.

    Filmmaker Liz Garbus speaks with her father, First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus as part of the narrative for the film. Garbus takes us through the era of McCarthyism as well as other pivotal times in our nation’s history when the First Amendment was put to the test, using his own personal experiences as well as other historical references to lay out the story. The film also cites various cases from recent years, including Ward Churchill being fired from his job as a professor at the University of Colorado after he wrote in a blog post that the people who died in the World Trade Center were, “a technocratic corps at the very heart of America’s global financial empire” and calling them “Little Eichmanns.” . . .

    Between Garbus’ stories and the cases mentioned above, we’re given a pretty decent variety of examples to demonstrate the issues surrounding our First Amendment rights. What’s interesting is seeing just how much 9/11 has impacted the way Americans view the First Amendment. In addition to showing news footage and the like from each specific case explored in the film, Ward Churchill, Debbie Almontaser, Chase Harper, Ruth Benn, Ed Hedemann as well as others are all interviewed to give their personal perspectives on the cases and in some instances, to make sure their side of the story is heard. . . .
    Yeah, Ward's really had problems making sure his side of the story is heard.

    The Baltimore Plot

    Don't think Obama had to sneak into Washington yesterday like Sometimes-Honest Abe did in 1861, but he'd sure look fetching in a kilt and tam o'shanter. The Baltimore Plot:
    On February 11, 1861, President-elect Lincoln boarded an east-bound train in Springfield, Illinois at the start of a whistle stop tour of seventy towns and cities ending with his inauguration in Washington, D.C. Pinkerton had been hired by railroad officials to investigate suspicious activities and acts of destruction of railroad property along Lincoln's route through Baltimore. Pinkerton became convinced that a plot existed to ambush Lincoln's carriage between the Calvert Street Station of the Northern Central and the Camden Street Station of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This opportunity would present itself during the President-elect's passage through Baltimore on February 23, 1861. Pinkerton tried to convince Lincoln to cancel his stop at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and to proceed secretly straight through Baltimore, but Lincoln insisted upon keeping to his schedule. . . .



    Friday, January 16, 2009

    Abstract of the Week!

    American Speech:
    Dude

    The patterns of use for the address term dude are outlined, as are its functions and meanings in interaction. Explanations are provided for its rise in use, particularly among young men, in the early 1980s, and for its continued popularity since then. Dude is used mostly by young men to address other young men; however, its use has expanded so that it is now used as a general address term for a group (same or mixed gender), and by and to women. Dude is developing into a discourse marker that need not identify an addressee, and more generally encodes the speaker's stance to his or her current addressee(s). Dude indexes a stance of cool solidarity, a stance which is especially valuable for young men as they navigate cultural Discourses of young masculinity, which simultaneously demand masculine solidarity, strict heterosexuality, and nonconformity.

    Let's work those abs! Cinema Journal:
    The Creature from the Black Lagoon: Marilyn Monroe and Whiteness

    The whiteness of Marilyn Monroe offers a case study of the interaction between race, sexuality, gender, and class in the formation of individual and cultural identity. Surveying the historical meanings of white as an influence on blonde whiteness, this study of Monroe proposes that historical contexts, individual agency, and the close analysis of specific written and visual texts all need to be taken into account in studying the concept of whiteness.

    Last day today for Rocky Mountain News bidding

    Not that anyone neccessarily has made a serious offer. The Post:
    Rocky Mountain News owner E.W. Scripps Co. said Wednesday it will accept bids for the struggling newspaper through the close of business Friday.

    Scripps then will review any offers "as quickly as possible, but there's no specific timetable for completing that process," spokesman Tim King said. . . .

    Many newspaper analysts have said that the chances of selling the News are slim.

    Russell Means on "house servant" Obama

    The Republic of Lakota Chief Facilitator pops his cork. Atlantic Free Press:
    American Indian activist Russell Means said President-elect Obama was selected by the colonial powers as president to improve the US image globally in the aftermath of George Bush. Further, Means said Obama’s appointments show that he is a Zionist controlled by Israel.

    Speaking on Red Town Radio today, Means said what is happening now to Palestinians is what happened to American Indians. . . .

    Stating that the Zionists who control Israel now control the United States, Means added, “The power of the US in world politics diminishes every day.”

    "Now they have found a house servant by the name of Obama," he said.

    Obama was selected as a “man in charge to take the heat,” because of the “bad cop” image that Bush put forth in the world.

    “Now, all of a sudden, it is, 'We’re so great. We elected a black man to be president.'” Means added that Obama is a black man who was raised by his white grandmother and has appointed Zionists to key positions.

    Means said the US is headed for a new era of menial jobs. On Indian lands, Means said the only people who get ahead are those who sell out to the colonial system. Means said he has been in solidarity with Palestinians for about 30 years. Now, there is massive and sophisticated propaganda by Israel and the U.S. Both countries, he said, are liars.

    In the US, American Indians have been shut out of history, philosophy and the arts, in a “total blackout.” The United States does not want to be reminded of the smallpox blankets, theft, colonialism and mistreatment of the American Indian, he said.

    He said most Americans do not realize that the financial collapse of this country is only beginning. Americans cannot continue the lifestyles of consumers when there is no money. Low income jobs and menial jobs are the only ones left. Health care in the US reveals how the policies used as experiments on American Indians became US policies. The US health care system is now stringent and calloused, with constant refusals of treatment. This has always been the case with the Indian Health Service. Now it is the policy of the HMOs. Family ranchers and family farmers are now in the way of progress, the same way the American Indian was once viewed. Now, family farmers and family ranchers are being gutted, because they function on massive credit. They are trying to pay back debts, which is not possible with manipulated agriculture prices.

    “The family farmer and family rancher are now going to be extent.”
    Maybe he means "exonerated." Much more at the link, including the whole radio show.

    (via commenter "Weg")

    Update: Sheesh, JWP had it days ago. I knew that, but forgot. Oh well, got the "exonerated" joke in.

    Update II: Weg points out Churchill's typically ugly response (just scroll down, there are only two comments on the original link). Man, I hope CU's lawyers get this creep on the stand. And isn't it hilarious how he routinely disses the West, but becomes ludicrously legalistic when it suits him? Hey Ward, did you and Truthforce finally get that Boulder house decorated like you want?

    Trial starts March 9. Allegedly.

    Greg Gutfeld on CU's bright idea

    The "chair in conservative thought," which I thought had already been quietly shelved or warehoused or whatever:
    The University of Colorado announced plans to create a "chair in conservative thought" at their very liberal campus. But already College Democrats are fighting the move, saying it's politicizing the academic environment.

    Which is funnier than clown pee.

    I mean, the University of Colorado's campus is nothing but politicized — the students are all lefty conformists with politics as edgy as Howie Mandel's head.

    Worse, watching these tools defend professors like Ward Churchill — the jackass who thought 9/11 was awesome — makes you realize why college kids often make the best victims when hitchhiking. . . .
    Update: The Post: "Planned chair at CU lacks funding."

    Thursday, January 15, 2009

    Bias? What bias?

    AP (though the Post may have written the headline): "Bush address includes laundry list of back patting."

    Update: Two very different headlines on subsequent AP stories.

    Update II: That bloody Michelle Malkin had it before I did; Newsbusters after. Bwahahahahick!

    BBC kiddie propaganda, circa 1987

    If you're over six years old, just skip to 9:30:



    As B-BBC commenter Jason, who found it, notes:
    Considering how many tens of millions of their own citizens the Soviets murdered, this is every bit as disgraceful as if he had worn a jacket with Swastikas all over it. And on kid's TV! Here it is folks, commie propaganda, for kids, on BBC childrens TV.

    Mary Lincoln liked a five-finger discount herself

    Missed this at Marathon Pundit t'other day:
    Crime committed by Illinois state employees, from the governor on down, sometimes comes from unexpected corners.

    For intance, this afternoon the former executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum pleaded guilty to shoplifting. Richard E. Beard was caught stealing a "House" DVD set from a Springfield Target store. Beard was nabbed twice before on the same charge.
    Not clear from that whether he tried to lift the same (or another) season of House three times, or maybe tried Monk or whatever that fake-psychic detective show is the other times.

    Update: Authoritative review of the Lincoln Museum here.

    Plane crash funnies

    On Fox just now a reporter was interviewing a rabbi who had prayed with some of the passengers of the plane that crashed into the Hudson today. As the reporter was blabbing his first questions ("what did the passengers say?," etc.) an actual passenger walked by. The reporter turned away from the rabbi and yelled, "Can I ask you a few questions?" but got no response, as the passenger was already surrounded three-deep by reporters.

    The Fox guy turned back to the rabbi and said, "Okay, go ahead." The rabbi, looking slightly miffed, started talking ("They were all so relieved and thankful") when another passenger walked by. This time the reporter turned away and actually ran toward the survivor, bawling questions and leaving the poor rabbi just standing there.

    No luck again, so the reporter finally came back to the rabbi, who had a look like, "Don't do that again," but who, of course, didn't have anything surprising to say.

    Smoking Gun has a line so bizarre it's a new dimension of bizarre (the bizarro dimension, to coin a term):
    Meet Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III, the US Airways pilot who today amazingly crash-landed a US Airways jet in New York's Hudson River without any apparent fatalities. The heroic Sullenberger, 57, has worked for US Airways since 1980, and before that spent more than six years as a U.S. Air Force F-4 fighter pilot. Sullenberger, who now must be considered the front runner to replace Hillary Clinton as New York's junior United States Senator, is also the founder of Safety Reliability Methods.
    Update: The reporter with the rabbi was Rick Leventhal, who sounds pretty good judging by his wiki. Active, anyway. Just guessing (with the aid of stereotyping), but I bet he's Jewish. When were you last at synagogue, young man?

    Poetry Corner--of Death!

    A new poem for Barack Obama's inau--sorry--Inauguration. This from the Welsh "National Poet," Gillian Clarke. The BBC quotes it in full:

    NEW YEAR, 2009

    Venus in the arc of the young moon

    is a boat the arms of a bay,

    the sky clear to infinity

    but for the trailing gossamer

    of a transatlantic plane.

    The old year and the old era dead,

    pushed burning out to sea

    bearing the bones of heroes, tyrants,

    ideologues, thieves and deceivers

    in a smoke of burning money.


    The dream is over. Glaciers will melt.

    Seas will rise to swallow golden islands.

    Somewhere a volcano may whelm a city,

    earth shake its skin like an old horse,

    a hurricane topple a town to rubble.

    Yet tonight, under the cold beauty

    of the moon and Venus, something like hope begins,

    as if times can turn, the world change course,

    as if truth can speak, good men come to power,

    and words have meaning again.

    Maybe black-hearted boys in love with death

    won't blow themselves and us to smithereens.

    Maybe guns will fall silent, the powerful

    cease slaughtering the weak, the rich

    will not gorge as the poor starve.


    Hope spoke the word 'Yes', the word 'we', the word 'can',

    and a thousand British teenagers at Poetry Live

    rose to their feet in a single yell of joy -

    black, white, Christian, Muslim, Jew,

    faithful and faithless. We are all in this together.

    Ie. gallwn ni. (Yes, we can)
    God. Not exactly Milton. [Update: or even Milhouse.] Anyway, Clarke notes the reaction after she read the poem to "2000 schoolchildren in Birmingham":
    "Immediately all the children stood up cheering and hugging each other and I was astounded.

    "If 15-year-old kids get excited about Barack Obama winning the election, then it gives me this great feeling of hope, a hope that we can all share in.
    So hard to get teenagers excited.
    "It is not just that we believe he's a good man or an eloquent man, but that we somehow need him to be a man who appreciates language and truth, and will make all the lies of the last eight years disappear.

    "We're on his side and we'll try to make it work.

    "We're all black now. And it's taught us all - from schoolchildren in Birmingham to poets in Wales - that if you're black, you can do it; if you're a woman, you can do it; if you're young, you can do it. And if you're Welsh, we can do it."
    I'm with the people last month who were wishing we could move the inauguration up, if only because it would be over by now.

    Update: JWP adds in comments: "Oh, I did have time to notice they left off the last line. The ending should read":

    "Maybe black-hearted boys in love with death
    won't blow themselves and us to smithereens.
    Maybe guns will fall silent, the powerful
    cease slaughtering the weak, the rich
    will not gorge as the poor starve.

    And maybe monkeys will fly out my butt."

    Wednesday, January 14, 2009

    Great start

    More spam, probably not from Michelle:
    I'm very sorry to bother you with my E-mail.But I want you to understand that I truely need your assistance to this great offer I'm offering you from the source of my mind.

    I'm getting a restraining order

    Another e-mail from Michelle:
    John --

    Last week, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced that we're bringing 10 supporters to Washington, DC for several days of Inaugural celebrations.

    With the deadline coming up on Thursday, I'm pleased to announce the selection of the first grassroots supporter who will be attending the Inauguration.

    Cynthia Russell from Newberry, Florida, and her guest [read the FYI] will attend the welcome ceremony, Barack's swearing-in, the Inaugural Parade, and our Neighborhood Inaugural Ball.

    Cynthia is a builder and has been feeling the impact of the recent economic crunch. She wrote:
    Hope'n'changehope'n'changehope'n'change . . .
    We need to select 9 more supporters like Cynthia, and I would love for you to be one of them.
    I'm in!
    Make your donation of $5 or more . . .
    I'm out!
    Supporters like you made this historic moment possible.
    True, true.
    You gave your passion and hard work to this movement, you brought millions of new people into the political process . . . and we're counting on you to do the same for the Inauguration.
    You want me to bring millions of people to the inau--sorry--Inauguration?

    You could be there to celebrate your amazing accomplishments and give a strong start to the change you fought so hard for.

    My mom doesn't think my accomplishments are so amazing.
    Please make a donation of $5 or more and help us celebrate everything you did to make this day possible.

    Nothing could be better than having you there to be a part of this historic event.
    Aw, shucks.
    Thank you for everything you've done to bring us to this moment,
    My pleasure, sweetie.
    Michelle

    P.S. -- The opportunity to be part of this historic event is open to everyone, regardless of whether you make a donation. Participate now by telling us what this Inauguration means to you.
    That link, which sounds like it might go to yet another "Why I Love Obama and Want to Become Gravid With His Mutant Children (And Then Abort Them at Taxpayer Expense)" contest, instead goes to a donation page. What, you don't want my opinion anymore? Also, while I received the e-mail on the 11th, the selection process or whatever it was ended on the 8th.

    Thanks a lot, Michelle.

    Tuesday, January 13, 2009

    Tuesday Night at the Radio!

    Been a while. So, stuff I haven't played in a while:

    I Was a Communist for the FBIiiiii: "Red Waves" (18 March 1953). "The women who join the Reds aren't interested in being women at all . . ."

    Night Beat! Hard-hitting voyeur Randy Stone of the Chicago Star prowls the town: "The Girl From Kansas" (5 June 1950).

    Suspense! Charles Laughton in "An Honest Man" (5 August 1948).

    And, of course, Vic and Sade: "Lodge Holiday Home" (1 May 1944). Mmmm, lima-bean croquettes.

    Monday, January 12, 2009

    Crime beat!

    Golden:
    An officer went to the 18200 block of West Third Avenue and contacted a 79-year-old building maintenance employee who said he was outside when he saw a young girl walking around without a shirt on. He said he approached the girl's mother and told her the girl needed to put some clothes on. He was upset because he thought it was inappropriate for a little girl to be without a top. The mother told the man the juvenile was a boy. When the employee went back to his van he discovered someone had placed a diaper in the exhaust of his van. The officer told the man to concentrate on his job and ignore the family. The mother told the officer she thought the building employee was harassing her because she is not up to date on her payments.

    Sunday, January 11, 2009

    "Look at the Jews run!"

    Video from last week in London (via B-BBC commenter Alan@Oslo):



    Update: Sorry, the link seems to be screwed up. Here's the post it's in.

    Can't make it

    To the dueling anti- and pro-Israel protests at the Capitol this afternoon, but hopefully a stalwart or two from the People's Press Collective will be there. If so, I'll link to their coverage.

    Update: The Rocky's John C. Ensslin is liveblogging, somewhat anemically, from the protests.

    Update II: Dimpled dictator El Presidente has mucho good filmage. Lots of "Jews = Nazis" flags and other paraphernalia, while zombiehunter has kiddies wearing bullseyes. Call in the IAF!

    Saturday, January 10, 2009

    Where's Osama?

    Not a peep from the hairy greasestain formerly known as Osama bin ("Alf") Landon, er, Laden, about Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza. You remember Osama, the guy the U.S. should have gone after instead of being sidetracked by the chance to commit our own genocide in Iraq?

    This means one of two things: a) he really, really wants to express his solidarity with the Pali freedom fighters (everybody knows how much the O-man cares about Palestine), but he forgot to pay his Verizon bill, or; 2) he's, you know, dead.

    Update 14 January: The corpse speaks! "The authenticity of the tape could not be independently confirmed, but the voice resembled that of bin Laden in previous messages."

    Friday, January 09, 2009

    Abstract of the Week!

    Canadian Review of American Studies:
    At a time when many women choose fewer medical interventions at birth and claim less sex preference before birth, why do so many choose to use technology to determine the sex of their babies weeks before they are born? The popularity of accessing ultrasound imaging to ‘‘determine'' fetal sex resonates with a contemporary gender liberalism that affirms binary sex, gender equality, and (limited) gender variation within the logic of consumer choice. Prenatal ultrasound technology is a central and current means of disciplining women into a normative maternal identity and authenticating the sex and gender identities of both mother and child. The ultrasound exam naturalizes the binary sex system upon which maternal and filial identities hinge, through the technological construction of the image of a normatively sexed body. By insisting upon the primacy of naturally sexed bodies even while deflecting attention from bodies onto images, commodities, and discursive behaviours, the popular discourse surrounding ultrasound imaging of fetal sex and the sharing of images of fetal genitals uniquely authenticates the binary sex system as the ‘‘biological'' limit of gender and sexual variation. Pregnant women are not erased by the hypervisibility of their fetuses. Rather, as they correctly access the medical technologies and goods of middle-class motherhood, they become visible as the properly gendered mothers of properly gendered children.
    Update: Readers if any may have noticed a certain lack of posting around this putrid bog, and that the posts that do make it up are even dumber than usual. I'm busy, but posting should get back to "normal" (more frequent, still dumb) in the near furture.

    Update II: "Haggard deems himself 'heterosexual, but with issues.'"

    Tuesday, January 06, 2009

    Man falls from ski lift, is left dangling (so to speak)

    I blame global warming. The Post:

    It was a bad day - and one he won't soon forget - for a man who dangled with his bare tail in the breeze from Vail Mountain's Skyline Express Lift after falling from the chair last Thursday.

    The unidentified skier boarded the lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin, but the fold-down seat wasn't in its proper position, according to the web site thesmokinggun.com.

    Here's a pic from the site:


    Feel a little shameless posting this, but maybe it'll help the guy out in his lawsuit by adding to his embarrassment. The Smoking Gun, of course, has more pics.

    Update: "Photographer could lose job after unVailing skier." Why do people insist on using bad puns? Huh? Huh?

    Sunday, January 04, 2009

    BBC bias exposed--in the Huffington Post?

    The righty blogosphere was bawuzzin' this weekend about Huffpoop publishing an anti-AGW piece that actually disses oddly shaped alien Gore-al ("Mr Gore, Apology Accepted"), but I haven't seen anything about this equally astonishing piece last week on the BBC's anti-Israel bias during the late unpleasantness (and every other time, of course):

    A brief example -- the BBC persistently refer to "Israel's attacks" on a "Palestinian militant group." First, Israel is responding to unfaltering attacks, amounting to more than 6,300 rockets and mortars on Israeli citizens, since Israel left Gaza in 2005. Second, the 'militant group' are Hamas. Not a militant group in terms of a unified national army, but, an internationally recognised terrorist organisation who have taken control of the Gaza strip. On Saturday, Hamas re-declared war on Israel and proclaimed their ultimate goal is the destruction of Israel. Israel has been forced to respond so as to protect the lives of civilians, by way of targeting Hamas leaders through directed airstrikes and seeking to avoid danger to as many Palestinian and Israeli civilians as
    possible. . . .

    The BBC fail to mention how Hamas have thanked Israel for a) uprooting over 9,000 Israeli civilians and removing all presence from Gaza in 2005 in an effort to achieve peace and, b) allowing the extra supplies on Friday. Since 2005, Hamas have launched more than 3,500 rockets and mortars into Israel and claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attempts in the region. In response to Friday's generosity, Hamas fired more than 40 rockets into Israeli cities and vowed to continue the attack against Israel, on Saturday. The result? Hamas threatens the lives of 250,000 Israelis who live in range of Gaza fired rockets. Israel has had to order residents in the south of the country to remain in bomb shelters while Israel attempts to secure the region.

    And so on. Obvious stuff to any BBC-watcher, but in Huffpo? Maybe Arianna's about to turn back into a conservative. (God, I hope not.)

    (via Biased BBC, which is doing excellent work exposing the BBC's not-so-subtle support of terrorists.)

    Snaps enables

    Yep, everybody's favorite commenter here now has comments enabled on her blog, Legend of Pine Ridge. Go over and say howdy (multiple posts with lots of links encouraged).

    Abstract of the Week! (II)

    Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 31-40 (2009):
    Some Academics Try to Push Back: Ward Churchill, the War on Truth, and the Improbabilities of Interruption

    C. Richard King
    Washington State University

    In this essay, the author outlines the limits of critical inquiry in the wake of 9/11 through a close reading of public reaction to Ward Churchill and his essay "Some People Push Back." Following an overview of the public panic and its fallout, the author details the forces and feelings that have converged to contain academic freedom and public intellectuals. Against this background, the author unpacks the key terms and tactics employed to delegitimize Churchill, highlighting the important intersection of the moral rhetoric of the cultural wars with the colonial discourse of the war on terror around the notion of civilization and those hostile to it.

    Key Words: civilization • culture wars • neoconservativism • public intellectuals • war on terror
    Other key terms: fraud * liar * plagiarist * bully boy * Keetowah

    Unfortunately, SageJournalsOnline wants $20 for a temp pass to see the whole piece, and there's no way I'm going to pay that on the mere hope (well, assurance) of a larf or two at King's po-mo "unpackings." Maybe JWP (who, by the way, notes an offhand diss of Wart in a wall 'o' words correspondence between two "animal liberationists") and that pedophile parrot of his will be willing to pay (he--the parrot--has fancy bathrooms).

    Friday, January 02, 2009

    Movie news

    Surfing the channels the other night I went by one of the most boring movies ever made, Gone With the Wind. Don't often tell stories about family stuff, but there's a connection. My father's first wife was Marcella Martin, who came close to winning the role of Scarlett O'Hara in the famous (in certain circles) "Search for Scarlett" which mogul David O. Selznick conducted at least half as a publicity stunt. She didn't get it (duh), but unlike, say, Joan Bennett, Lana Turner, Jean Arthur or Tallulah Bankhead (who also tested) she did manage to get another part. Here, I believe, is her only scene (though I won't swear to it because I've never made it through the whole crapfest):

    Scarlett: Cathleen, who's that?

    Cathleen Calvert (Marcella): Who?

    Scarlett: That man looking at us and smiling. The nasty, dark one.

    Cathleen Calvert: My dear, don't you know? That's Rhett Butler. He's from Charleston. He has the most terrible reputation.

    Scarlett: He looks as if... as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy.

    Crucial. Her subsequent career was sub-mediocre, with only a couple of further movie appearances in such garbage as West of Tombstone, and some TV appearances, including with Jeff Bridges in an episode of The FBI and a year or two in some kind of role (probably a dowager) in the soap Another World in the mid-60s. She also did a lot of summer stock-type stuff. I found a couple of photos, but this is the only one large enough to post:


    My sister and I found this same publicity shot in my grandmother's closet when she (my grandmother) died in 1998 at 105.

    My dad was kind of an interesting guy. He grew up doing the grueling work required on a farm in Central Illinois, was educated in a one-room schoolhouse, went to Yale (the first person from Mason City who did, as I heard too many times) where he studied economics under future Nobel Prize-winner (and rigid Keynesian) James Tobin, went back to Illinois to make fine furniture, and died an alky's early death. I have no idea how he met Marcella, how long they were married (not long), or why they divorced.



    Oh, my papa.

    Handsome, wasn't he? And I look just like him (see Kenny Be's rendering of your darling D-blog, upper right sidebar). There are 90-year-old ladies who still put their palsied hands to their long-removed breasts and tell me, "He was the handsomest man I ever saw in my life."

    I wait for my chance, then shove them down the stairs.

    Update: One earlier dadegy.

    Abstract of the Week!

    boundary 2:
    These ruminations arose in response to America's war on terrorism. I started from the conviction that there is no response to war. War is a cruel caricature of what in us can respond. You cannot be answerable to war. Yet one cannot remain silent. Out of the imperative or compulsion to speak, then, two questions: What are some already existing responses? And, how respond in the face of the impossibility of response? When I thus assigned myself the agency of response, my institutionally validated agency kicked in. I am a teacher of the humanities. In the humanities classroom begins a training for what may produce a criticism that can possibly engage a public sphere deeply hostile to the mission of the humanities when they are understood as a persistent attempt at an uncoercive rearrangement of desires, through teaching reading. Before I begin, I would like to distinguish this from the stockpiling of apparently political, tediously radical, and often narcissistic descriptions, according to whatever is perceived to be the latest Euro-US theoretical trend, that we bequeath to our students in the name of public criticism. Uncoercive rearrangement of desires, then; the repeated effort in the classroom. Thus I found myself constructed as a respondent. . . .

    Teh Glenns to be interviewed for Broncos head coaching job

    Glenn Morris and Glenn Spagnuolo, coaches. Man, I knew the Broncos were a mess, but this is ridiculous. Maybe they like how the two jerk-rads generaled the DNC protests, which, come to think of it, were frequently attended by only eleven people or so--just like a football team!

    Update: Oops, wrong Spagz, wrong Morris.