Oy, you wouldn't believe what a day this has been for news. I could fill this whole page with The Washington Post alone, but because it's a stupid computer and not a piece of paper, it would never run out and we old curmudgeons have to carefully do something to our strength... what's that damn word... oh yeah, husband, whatever that means. But, enough about me. How're you doing? Really. Who cares?
Dateline: Katmandu, December 21, 2006
You can see forever from the wild, windswept cliffs of Katmandu. Well, you could see forever if they'd ever clean this place. I mean, there's sand everywhere, so who can see anything?
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From the Barnum & Baily Files: Get this. The billions a year Congress and the Prez hand out to farmers — ostensibly to protect small family farms? Guess what. They're actually driving them into the tank, according to economists, analysts, and farmers. It's not that hard to figure out (except for Congress, I guess). You own big farm. You get big money. You then buy up more land, mostly from small, poor farmers, or those just starting out. I must admit that one of the great privileges of being an American is our sacred right to be blithering idiots. It's nice to know that our federal government is showing the way with glaring lights and brass bands to the land of idiocy.
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From the "Stupid is As Stupid Does" Files: "Shiite Clerics' Rivalry Deepens In Fragile Iraq." That's a headline in today's Washington Post. Both have the black turban as proof that Muhammad was their great, great, great... something or other. Their fathers were at war to see who'd control the Shiites, and now they each control 30 seats in the parliament. Best of all, they've both got weird people with powerful guns (a.k.a. militias) that are widely alleged to run death squads. God bless the word "alleged." Without it, we couldn't say anything. But, I'm more than a little confused. Okay, Shia vs. Sunni. That's kind of like the Catholics and Protestants in the early days... but a lot more bloody. But Shia vs. Shia — that's like a Conservative and an Orthodox Jew fighting out with matzohs at 20 paces over whether Jews should be in Israel. Boys and girls, if the Shias are fighting the Shias, and the Palestinians are fighting the Palestinians, what the hell are we doing there? And the hell with the wall around Israel — seal the country in a bomb-impervious clear plastic shell (with air holes of course) and let the Arabs just kill themselves off. What is your intrepid reporter missing here?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dave Nalle
Ach, ye provoke me ya great lefty git. If I had any time at all I'd do my own little news digests. I think I'd call them "The News - Now With Extra Hyperbole".
Dave
2 - D'oh
Enjoy the day off then Mark. And I'll keep reading everything you put up here, "lefty git" or not.
3 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"...your intrepid reporter's undertaking a special undercover mission for Eric Olsen, Chief Grand Poohbah and Owner of BC, to find out where all the flowers have gone."
(How's THAT for mangling up a quote? Now do I get a job as a journalist or do I get a job as a journalist?)
Hope you're feeling a bit better. Let me know (after Sabbath) where all the flowers went, which street cats ate them, and how many of the street cats got spitted by angry gardeners...
Refuá Shlemá
u'Shabbat Shalom,
Reuven
4 - Mark Schannon
Dave, who you callin' a git...and what's a git anyway. Would you want to be one? And except for a couple of shots, this last one was a multi-party attack...I think.
D'oh...not to worry. I'll have Friday's version up in an hour or so.
And Reuven, I'm actually feeling great even though I have dueling docs, one with the easiest diagnosis & the other believing they haven't inflicted every test known to man on me. I'm sure once I'm completely symptom free, they'll figure out that they weren't sure what was wrong.
However, what remains inviolate...
In Jameson Veritas
5 - Matthew T. Sussman
Do we have the budget for Paul Shaffer to play a piano ditty between bullet points?
6 - Mark Schannon
Oh, and Reuven, you're doing so well with the flowers, I'll wait to hear your version after Sabbath.
In Jameson Veritas
7 - Mark Schannon
Suss, we have a small budget, but i kind of like the white space...kind of a zen thing.
In Jameson Veritas
8 - D'oh
For Mark,
Word of the day is the Balvenie
sweet houghmagandy!
9 - Clavos
40 pounds!! Man, that's some expensive hooch, D'oh. Bet it just slides down smooooothly.
10 - D'oh
Tis the season, Clavos.
A bit of a media gift.
Happy holly-daze!
11 - STM
The problem with buying bottles of grog worth 40 pounds a go, is that after the first two (small) glasses, it tastes exactly like the one you could've bagged for 15 quid.
It's a lot of money for something that eventually gets pissed up against a wall.
12 - D'oh
Ah, but I only have those two smalls, then put it away for another time.
Sometimes a bit to savor, other times you take big bites. Knowing when and which, is wisdom.
the Tao of D'oh.
13 - Clavos
Thanks, D'oh.
Umm, the link doesn't work?
Have a great Holiday!
14 - D'oh
That's funny, all three links just worked for me...
15 - Clavos
No, I meant the one in #10..
BTW, I liked the Motorhead one a lot.
I guess I'm an unplugged kind of guy...
16 - D'oh
Oh..in 10...
you mean you need to know why the pun for holly-daze?
And you do know Motorhead usually sounds like this?
But the acoutsic is wonderful, after all Lemmy IS one of the Wonders of this world.
17 - Matthew T. Sussman
D'oh, sometimes you can be such a Rube.
18 - D'oh
Suss, you such a silly geek.
But for you , here's my vision of a little drummer boy.
19 - Clavos
D'oh,
Yes, I do know what MH usually sounds like. That's probably why I liked the clip.
I'm an old fart; the Stones, Pink Floyd, The Band, Jefferson Airplane -- all that good stoner music...
Suss,
Loved the Rube bit. I can still remember my father telling me about him when I was kid.
It happened after I showed him a drawing of an elaborate flyswatter operating machine I'd drawn with a friend. At that point, I'd never heard of Rube Goldberg, though maybe my friend had (he didn't say)...
20 - D'oh
Then you're going to love this one, Clavos.
21 - Clavos
BINGO! D'oh. I'm a big Shimabukuro fan. That guy flat-ass picks!
22 - D'oh
Then here I would have thought you had liked the Gourds bit. ( the big bites link)
Ah well.
23 - Clavos
I did.
Just hadn't gotten around to saying so. :>)
24 - D'oh
Well then, there's a bit of something I like to explore at times... how differing ways of expressing something change exactly what that something communicates.
I submit to you two vastly different interpertations of the same composition.
here and here.
Let me know what you think of the thesis.
25 - Clavos
Cool!
The Johnny Cash link worked fine, but I couldn't get the other one to work.
Even before I see it, I'll tell you I absolutely agree with your basic thesis. I'm not a musician, but I am an actor (mostly amateur, community theater stuff, but I've been doing it since my early teens), and I've seen that phenomenon in acting many a time.
Please try the other link again, I'm looking forward to it.