5/27/12

 
_____

How to mush a collective Brain: Have a big NATO conference in a great American city. Capably control the mob. Declare success. Then, bomb a family in some tiny Afghan village that no one has ever heard of, kill a couple and their six children. Stick it in between the Egyptian elections and Lady Gaga cancelling her Indonesia tour. Say you'll conduct an investigation. Sign another contract. Declare success.
_____

Lady Gaga cancels Indonesia gig.

5/26/12

Being friends with filmmakers can be challenging - a text from Jesse James Hennessy: "Hey, let's meet up Sunday. I might need you to film me nude in the boiler room."
_____

Sometimes we just don't know until they go...
_____

School or prison? This video helps you not tell the difference.
_____

Here come de judge. No one says it better.

"What if Memorial Day reminds us of times when we had more freedom? What if freedom is dying right under our eyes? What if the memory of the past is more fulfilling than the reality of the present?"

5/25/12

Here's the top three winners of the 2012 Best Illusion of the Year Contest.
_____

Hey, super-cute disbeliever on Sprague and Wall with the flowers woven in your dreads and lecturing me on the Marquis de Sade: "You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer."
_____

Can a man’s ideas be separated from his deeds? What if he’s murderous and maybe insane, but insightful? What if he is the Unibomber?
_____

Here's Penn Jillette on Hannity talking dope, the election and libertarianism. 
_____

I'm finding it difficult to take Hurricane Bud very seriously. 

5/24/12

I was working on Microsoft Word and typed in this bit of dialogue: "Witches? Magic potions? Evil spells?" SpellCheck underlines "Witches?" and "Magic potions?" determining rightly that they are sentence fragments. But "Evil spells?" is not underlined. Do you know why?

5/23/12

Do you realize that Egypt is having its first democratic election in 5000 years?
_____

All of you people who laughed and said I was being paranoid and irresponsible for suggesting that the domestic drones -- right now patrolling the Washington State border -- could eventually be armed and used against us: Nazi cops in Texas are pushing to arm their drones with rubber bullets and tear gas. Count on them getting what they want.
_____

Often odd ad/test juxtapositions
demand an enlightened interpretation. 

5/22/12

Philosophical Stab-in-the-Dark.
_____

Here's the pre-desecrated painting of South Africa President Jacob Zuma in full frontal crudity. Here's it is after two men sprayed and smeared it with paint.

I predict the worth of the vandalized version will skyrocket.
_____

When running for office, Obama said he supported the “basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs” and that he was “not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws.”

This, of course, was BS. Hope that Obama would be a more tolerant drug warrior has vanished.
_____

Penn Jillette goes off about Obama's drug war hypocrisy.
_____

One candidate for the California Congress says he'll smoke a joint on the steps of the Capitol building if elected.

5/21/12

Soldiers who desecrate the dead see themselves as hunters.
_____

Is this guy schizo? Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash., see below) and some other guy have proposed an amendment that would "neutralize" the ban on dissemination of propaganda on American soil. 
_____

Sometimes Spokesman-Review columnist Doug Clark totally nails it:
City ordinance shows lack of sound thinking.
_____

A group of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans made a symbolic gesture against NATO in Chicago Sunday by tossing away their war medals. I think these people deserve a medal.
_____

Here's an article by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash., 9th District) and some other guy: 
The Case Against Indefinite Detention.
_____

Not everyone in Chicago is growing their beards and holding protest signs. Northrup Grumman scored a $1.7 billion dollar contract yesterday with NATO to build more drones for its "global surveillance capabilities." 
_____

Todd Gitlin on the Bad Old Days and the protests in Chicago.
_____

Did you see the great celestial event yesterday? 
The clouds briefly got darker.

5/20/12

Five reasons drone assassinations are illegal.
_____

NATO doesn't arrive anywhere peacefully. Why would anyone expect anything different in Chicago?
_____

Obama separated the G8 and the NATO summits by physical distance not just for "security reasons" but also to discourage the rightful perception that they are the same thing.
_____

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”   

                                                                   — H. L. Mencken

5/19/12

Here's the Bill Moyer's interview with political activist and Rage Against the Machine front man Tom Morello.
_____

Why so little media mention of the army of protesters and malcontents pouring into Chicago for the NATO summit? 
_____

With a few exceptions (like his comments on the AIDS virus), I can not disagree with much of what the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright has said. I might have more respect for Obama if he'd fess up to halleluiah-ing the Rev for 20 years. 
_____

There is a solar eclipse this Sunday. Can it really blind you?
_____

The House yesterday turned back an unusual coalition of liberals and conservatives and voted down legislation to reject explicitly the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects apprehended on United States soil.
_____

“All options are on the table,” says House Speaker John Boehner in the ongoing congressional investigation into the “Fast and Furious” operation and whether the House would move to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt should he refuse to fully comply.
_____

Innocent Americans ensnared in a Kafkaesque nightmare unfolding in Orwellian language.

5/18/12

I'm reading a book on anti-gravity and can't put it down.
_____

Despite polls showing overwhelming public opposition to the war, the House shot down Rep. Barbara Lee’s amendment that would effective end the Afghan War, allowing spending only for the safe and orderly withdrawal of US troops and military contractors.
_____

“The first American patriot that shoots down one of these drones that comes too close to his children in his backyard will be an American hero.”  

               -- Judge Andrew Napolitano, on Fox News

5/17/12

Ron Paul's chief strategist just released a memo flatly stating that Paul has NOT ended the campaign. What's going on here?
_____

Military detention law temporarily blocked by judge.
_____

What if George W. Bush had done that?
_____

Here's one of the jokes that Jimmy Kimmel decided not to tell at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner:

"Newt Gingrich’s campaign is so dead, Mitt Romney wants to baptize it and Rick Santorum wants to put it in a jar and show it to his kids.”
_____

How the Swiss Army knife adapted after 9/11.

5/16/12

"In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant." 
-- former French president Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)
_____

Despite warnings about lawsuits and complaints about rambunctious legislating, the Spokane City Council votes 6-1 to replace the city’s noise ordinance.
_____

Ron Paul is essentially out of the race. (Just don't tell his supporters.) 
Some people are pissed.

5/15/12

Police in Minnesota experiment on citizens with illegal drugs then drop them off at Occupy Minnesota. The "study" (Science!) was recently suspended. There was very little national media attention.
_____

Carlos Fuentes, dead at 83.
_____

I love this headline from ScienceDaily: "Drugs from Gila Monster Saliva Reduces Cravings for Chocolate and Ordinary Food." 

And the congregation all said, "Duh." You don't even need to turn it into a drug. Just the thought of lizard spit makes me not hungry at all.

5/14/12

Did you know that Mother’s Day was originated not to fill restaurants or boost the stock of Hallmark cards but as an anti-militarism effort? After witnessing the horrors of the Civil War, Juliet Ward Howe wrote the 1870 Proclamation. She speculated that if women were in power, they would naturally end the madness. Then came Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.
_____

I can't believe more people aren't upset about the holy, gay Obama Newsweek cover. The president was against gay marriage just a few days ago, remember? This isn't just jumping-on-the-bandwagon, this is wagon-jacking. 

His election year conversion and the offensive magazine cover act to drain the credit away from those who truly deserve it: the people who want it, work for it, and are getting it, or have already gotten it -- most notably, the people of Washington State.
_____

I just heard that "Hold me closer Tony Danza" song. I don't understand Elton John since he came out.

5/13/12

I quote 1984.
_____

The Center for Justice and Gonzaga University Law School’s University Legal Assistance program are registering several sharp concerns about a proposed new noise ordinance that is slated to be taken up by the Spokane City Council tomorrow night.
_____

Wow. At first I thought this was a hideous Photoshop joke; but it's not. We have got to be the most gullible people on this planet.
_____

Did you see the smirking, low-life Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, on Meet The Press this morning explaining how they "lost" two billion dollars? These scumbags WILL NOT STOP ROBBING US until we start to finding them dangling from early morning New York lamp poles from hemp neckties. 
_____

The U.S. military Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working hard to establish an array of cybernetic insects. The super creepy program, "Hybrid Insect Micro Electromechanical Systems" (HI-MEMS), is part of their Controlled Biological and Biomimetic Systems program and seeks to fuse mechanical micro-technologies to living insects creating a machine-bug amalgam.

5/12/12

A cycle of overhyped terror plots involving government agency entrapment feeds a multimillion-dollar surveillance industry.
_____

"NATO should have died with the end of the cold war. Instead it grew into the octopus-like creature it is today, its suckered tentacles attaching themselves to every conflict that arises, internationalizing ancient tribal feuds and elevating minor border skirmishes to the level of international crises."

5/11/12

The United States is resuming sales of weapons to Bahrain, as the Bahrain government continues to violently persecute and torture members of the pro-democracy movement.
_____

Between 1854 and 1863, Japanese artist Kano Kazunobu (1816-1863) created a series of 100 paintings of the Buddha’s 500 disciples. It's believed that during one of the Buddha’s famous sermons, 500 followers received instant enlightenment. 
_____

Should you need the government's permission to work?
_____

What do you think the odds are that thievery, extortion, greed, lust and general scumbaggery are at the roots of JPMorgan Chase's "surprising" $2bn loss on "complex investments"?

5/10/12

Time magazine's breast-feeding cover provokes some strong reactions. 
I think it's awesome.
_____

An unknown language is found stamped in an ancient clay tablet.
_____

Real Text Message:

Me: Happy annual recognition of your Earth trotting. May your physicality endure for many more such recognitions.

James: Thanks. When did you come out as Vulcan?

Me: Oh, I see. Earth humor. Now I shall laugh.

Me: Is there some pittance of material goods you require of me that might additionally impugn this day with significance?

James: No, I think if you keep speaking Vulcan for the rest of the day, that would be enough.

Me: Splendid. Continue your celebration despite my absence. 

5/8/12

Johnny Depp had to rely on "a team of assistants" to help him during bathroom breaks while shooting the new vampire film, Dark Shadows, because his sharp movie nails made it difficult for him to urinate. But, a team? It took a team? What, one to unzip and retrieve? one for aim? one for the shake? one for retrieval and the precarious up-zip? Maybe an apprentice for any post-holstering adjustments? (I wonder if they had T-shirts printed.)
_____

Mystify your friends with this bit of psycho-trivia: 
Michelle Bachmann is now a Swiss citizen. 
_____

Enjoy, my friends. If you're anywhere near Spokane, the best weather on Earth is right outside your door.
_____

Everyone's talking about asteroid mining -- the next space age gold rush. I'm not convinced. Consider the price of fuel, the perils of humans in space, international treaties, etc. 

What about the asteroids already on earth? We've been getting battered by them for hundreds of millions of years. The Chicxulub asteroid smashed the Yucatán, killed the dinosaurs and cleared the way for Homo sapiens. Let's send some of these Homos south of the border to mine Chicxulub debris and avoid any extraterrestrial shenanigans for centuries. 
_____

If he wouldn't have been poisoned with strychnine by a jealous husband and suffered horribly for three days before he succumbed to a miserable demise, blues innovator Robert Johnson would have celebrated his 101st birthday today. Evidently the whole Deal-with-the-Devil thing is vastly overrated. 

5/7/12

This bee was just a dying bug on my floor until I made him a star.
_____

South Korea customs officials are stepping up their inspections targeting smuggled capsules that contain the powdered flesh of dead human babies. Say what you want about the U. S. Border Patrol in our area but say it without the burden of a thriving powdered dead human baby flesh market.
_____

Look for some of my Occupy Spokane footage to possibly be used in the podcast version of Praxis, a live radio show and podcast on KYRS 88.1 & 92.3 FM, discussing action-based politics and organizing in the Northwest, hosted by Taylor Weech. 

Click here -- it's probably on right now.
_____

Why web surfers are more likely to get a computer virus by visiting a religious website than by peering at porn.
_____

Surveillance cameras are now so powerful that they were able to zoom in on individual spectators at the Rugby World Cup and read their text messages.

5/6/12

Goober, dead at 83.
_____

I don't understand leaf blowers. Is the noise really worth the disruption of a serene Sunday afternoon just to clear a sidewalk of a scattering of grass clippings from a lawn that didn't need to be so loudly mown?

And you kids get outta my yard...
_____

The FBI is quietly pushing its plan to force surveillance backdoors on all social networks and e-mail providers, and is asking Internet companies not to oppose a law making those backdoors mandatory.

Remember, though, don't call them Nazis, that would be rude...
_____

How biology is central to constructing a more complete and unified theory of the Universe.
_____

Some horse won the Kentucky Derby yesterday. There was a shot of some fat, rich guy who owns the horse smiling and holding up a big trophy. I totally predicted this.

5/5/12

A friend told me that workers were replacing the floor last Sunday night at the Rocket Cafe on 14th Street and someone called the police, thinking they were evildoers. Three Spokane Police Department cars and two Border Patrol trucks responded.

But, to the Border Patrol's credit, there have been no Al Qaeda attacks on Rocket Coffee Shops since 911.
_____

Another Fantasy Itinerary change.
Uncheck Nuevo Laredo.

_____

The Ethics of Drones -- a discussion from Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.

5/4/12

Here's George Orwell’s own definition of doublethink, from his ingenious novel Nineteen Eighty-Four:

"The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient.... to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies."

That's right, the war in Afghanistan is over; we'll be fighting there at least until 2024. 
(I could use a stiff shot of Victory Gin right now.)

5/3/12

Okay, let's try to be sensible about this:

Drones are suddenly flying on the border of our state.

The Border Patrol suddenly claims the authority to show up at local police traffic stops... 

My friends, the logical progression is for a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar named Napoleon to take over the Jones' farm with his trained dogs and eventually learn how to walk upright on his hind legs. 
_____

Why are federal agents from the U.S. Border Patrol responding to Spokane 911 calls?
A) They're just another part of our new Neo-Nazi culture.
B) They're just another part of our new Neo-Nazi culture.
C) They're just another part of our new Neo-Nazi culture.
D) All of the above.
_____

Washington State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, will not seek reelection.
_____

Here's the trailer for Beasts of the Southern Wild, winner of the Grand Jury at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
_____

The speech that got JFK murdered? The American University commencement address, delivered June 10, 1963.
_____

Munch's masterpiece The Scream sells at auction for $119.9 million.

What makes The Scream so iconic?
The art of anguish.
_____

Don’t be fooled: Chairs are dangerous. Very dangerous.
_____

Water guns will be banned at the Republican convention in Florida, but concealed handguns will be allowed.

C'mon guys, water guns don't get people wet, people do.

5/2/12

    
_____

Man sues BMW after a four-hour motorcycle ride leaves him with two-year erection.

Could I ride it for just a few minutes?
_____

Here's an article by the woman in the video I linked to on 4/30: 
Why I Interrupted Obama Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan.
_____

Manufacturers are targeting U.S. police forces for sales, as drones move from the Middle East to Main Street.

The author of the article discusses the story with DissentRadio.com
_____

THEIRS

5/1/12

Mayday! Mayday! 
May Day celebrants clash 
with May Day marchers. 
_____

Millions of people around the world will march and demonstrate today for workers' rights. But not in America where the big game is on TV, the new Hustler magazine is out, and the bosses want you to put in a few extra hours to finish up that report/change the reader board/clean-up on aisle six. Little do most Americans know that May Day is international workers' day and it was inspired by events in the USA.

The history of Mayday. (From Marxists.org)
What is Mayday? (From an English language French website)
The brief origins of Mayday. (From the IWW)
_____

Is that a maypole in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
_____

The Police Brutality Coloring Book.
_____

Total hits for April: 98,227

4/30/12

President Obama's counter-terrorism adviser explains America's use of drones at a Washington think tank.

A protester disrupts the speech and is carried out by a cartoon character. (She's right about the no mention of civilian deaths.) 
_____

The lead story in the Spokesman-Review about drones now patrolling Washington State borders was mentioned by yours truly on this website six days ago. Checking your sources and stuff like that must really slow you down.
_____

I hope I'm not the only one who wanted to slap the shit-eating smirk off of White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan's face in his interview with ABC's This Week.

"Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population," he said, though he did not mention that the drone strikes have been carried out in nations with which the United States is not at war: Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Brennan went on to defend the murders, saying “sometimes you have to take life to save lives.” He provided no examples of how the killing of nearly 2,000 people, virtually all of them unidentified, including many women and children, had “saved lives.”
_____

They say it's not the twenty miles THERE that gets you; it's the twenty miles BACK. My body is saying they're wrong. It's both.

4/29/12

What a curious blend of wanderlust, intrigue, compulsion, obsession, boredom, and multiple borderline neurosis it must be that is causing me to ride my bike twenty miles to the Idaho border so to hand-pump and drink a glass of water directly from the aquifer.  
_____

Scott Brown (R-Mass.) wins the third-grade vote with this half-court basketball shot Friday afternoon while visiting a Hyannis, Mass., community center.
_____

Wearable electronics: transparent, lightweight, flexible conductor could revolutionize the electronics industry.

4/28/12

The traitorous House of Representatives passed CISPA -- the Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act -- by a vote of 248-168. CISPA now goes to the Senate.

CISPA gives the government, including military spy agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA), virtually unlimited powers to capture our personal information -- medical records, private emails, financial information -- all without a warrant or proper oversight.

4/26/12

I've never met anyone who has received fan mail from some flounder.
_____

A judge in the Netherlands has upheld a new law to ban foreign tourists from entering cannabis cafes.
_____

To date, Dudley Do-Right still has not come out of the closet.

Click here to hear the Canadian National Anthem.
_____

Technicolor jelly lets you cook up an edible piano.
_____

The House yesterday approved cybersecurity legislation that privacy groups have decried as a threat to civil liberties.
_____


"But here, cleverly disguised as a bomb, is a bomb."
                                             - Bullwinkle J. Moose

_____

You are all suspects now. What are you going to do about it?
_____

Hundreds of 5-year-old municipal vehicles found in Miami that were never used.
_____

And now, here's something we hope you'll really like...

4/25/12

I just gave permission to EarthSky.org to use footage from my video Klamath River Whale. EarthSky, a science media company based in Austin, TX, will use the footage in a Spanish-language educational video short about whale communication that will ultimately air on the Galavision show Detrás del Saber ("Behind the Knowledge"). Esta' bien.
_____

The Prez on Jimmy Fallon last night.
_____

You restaurateurs think the surge of hand sanitizer purchases means an increase in personal hygiene. Think again...
_____

Researchers at the Institute of Gynecology in St Petersburg (!) now claim to have found a clear anatomical structure that they identify as the "G spot." Not everyone is screaming, "Oh, baby! Oh, baby!"

4/24/12

Make everything okay.
_____

Five states are having their primary elections today? Did you know? And does it matter? No. We're stuck with the choice of Loser Number One and Loser Number Two -- just like last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that...
_____

I'm not sure what this teaser from my friend Jesse is about yet, but I guarantee it somehow involves me being covered in some sort of horrendous goo. 
_____

A Predator drone is now being used to patrol at least a 900 mile section of the Canada-US border from the “vicinity” of Spokane, Washington to the Lake-of-the-Woods region of Minnesota.
_____

Awesome. People are freaking out about this Oreo ad. Not necessarily because of the BIG BOOB, but because it could cause childhood obesity. Ha!

4/23/12

Getting OUT of the city -- I might bike out to Centennial Trail West and check out the back trails of the Camp Seven Mile area: random exploration, philosophical treasure hunt, Nature worship -- you know the drill...

4/22/12

This whole thing stinks. The Boston Massacre memorial was one of the many pieces of public property that was vandalized across the country over the weekend. I see these Kony fanatics buying uniforms and learning goofy marches.
_____

These posters appeared all over downtown Spokane and beyond. It's NOT something we can all agree on. Their intentions are deceptive and they seem to have totalitarian leanings. Look into it more before you sign on.

Ugandans criticize popular video for backing U.S. military intervention in Central Africa.

Visible Children viewed critically.

Kony 2012 criticisms.

Kony 2012 filmmaker detained for alleged public masturbation.

4/21/12

Hey, it's 421, National Surprise Drug Testing Day! 
_____

Just in time: Spokane County is seriously considering closing Geiger Corrections Center.
_____

Standing at eight feet tall and weighing in at one ton, a statue of famously conspicuous marijuana consumer Willie Nelson was unveiled in the city of Austin yesterday at 4:20 pm. The larger than life statue is a gift to the city, with funding coming from private donations.
_____

No politics intended: Your left side is your best side. Your best side may be your left cheek, according to a new scientific study.
_____

Is Facebook making us lonely?
_____

Let's put all of this behind us, okay? Here's a 1968 anti-marijuana PSA hosted by Sonny Bono.

 4:20 

       420 (cannabis culture)
    What is 420? What does 420   Mean? The origins of 420
                 Urban Dictionary: 420
    Dude on Price IS Right bids 420 over and over
      420 Magazine

4/19/12

Amnesty International is urging Russian authorities to release three members of the female punk group, Pussy Riot. The three were detained shortly after members of the group stormed a church in Moscow on February 21 and performed a song criticizing  president-elect Vladimir Putin.
_____

Nation writer Jeremy Scahill explains the steps taken by the Bush administration and extended by the Obama administration in order to circumvent Congress and carry out targeted killings.
_____

The University of Colorado in Boulder hopes sealing off the campus will help it snuff out the popular pot smoking event. Officials say they will SPREAD FISH FERTILIZER to make the grounds uninhabitable. Last April 20 approximately 10,000 people attended the annual smoke out.

4/18/12

Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held the corpse's severed legs.
_____

TV legend Dick Clark dead at 82.
_____

Is a new asteroid mining operation being launched by Ross Perot Jr., Google bigwigs and James Cameron?

4/17/12

The Nativity -- a film by James St.George and Jesse James Hennessy from 2005.
____

The benefits of rainy weather:

I watched Pedro Almodovar's latest film The Skin I Live In. It's a departure from his past work; same complex storyline, sweeping camerawork, beautiful colors and decor, but in a curiously Almodovar-ized sci-fi/horror genre.

I also saw Werner Herzog's latest documentary Into the Abyss, an examination of two men about to be executed for a triple homicide. Not one of his best, but definitely worth watching. 

I also watched the entire hilarious series of Portlandia, written by and starring Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, lead guitarist/singer for Portland band Wild Flag.

4/15/12

The tagline "It will change everything" is devastatingly true. How could I ever watch another movie now that the world has ended? I just saw Lars Von Trier's staggeringly beautiful, befuddling, soul-revealing and symbolically rich film Melancholia. 

It'll change the way you look at cinema. It's like being married to the same, perfectly fine woman for thirty years and then having a libidinous night of wild passion with an ultra-sexy, nymphomaniac super model. 

Now I'm supposed to go home and mow the fucking lawn? I don't think so...
_____

I have children in their thirties. I have grandchildren in their teens. Yet, my brain -- despite decades of improper maintenance and some outright abuse -- is still in its late twenties. 

Ignorance of biology and mathematics is not always a bad thing. 

4/13/12

Parked in front of Mootsys downtown. 
I think it's a band truck.

_____

CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act -- paving the way for the military/corporate takeover of our culture. Now supported by Facebook, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec, Verizon and 800 other traitorous American companies.
_____

Documents provide rare insight into FBI’s terrorism stings.

4/12/12

Chill. Take a deep breath. BE the big rodent.
An encounter I had on the Fish Lake Trail near Cheney.

4/11/12

Santorum suspends campaign. 
_____

You don't hear much from many of the victims of U.S. drone strikes anymore because, well, they're dead. But even the "lucky" ones who are merely torn up a bit are being silenced by the Obama administration.
_____

Police pose as giant bunnies to catch illegal drivers. Wascally wabbits.
_____

More than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year took antidepressants, sedatives and other prescription medications. Some see a link (duuuuuh) to aberrant behavior. 
____

Astronaut John Glenn was picked for the first orbital flight, but NASA first sent Ham, a chimpanzee, to test the water. In spite of his lack experience, Ham did everything John Glenn would do. Both Ham and Glenn would end up in Washington: Glenn in the U.S. Senate, Ham in the National Zoo.

4/9/12

Lunch with Arp.
_____

"Mr. Satan? Mike Wallace, CBS News. I have a few questions about the Fall of Man. Is this a bad time?"
_____

Why don't more skateboarders use the principles of dog sledding and have a Husky or two pull them around? Later, they can rent the dogs out when the gas runs dry and folks can tow around their stripped down cars.
_____

I was almost sure that the thoroughly drunken Kathie Lee Gifford was going to bite the head off of that puppy on Kathie Lee and Hoda this morning. 

I know, I know, it's stupid to even tune in; but, I watch it sometimes in the morning so I don't have to drink alone.
_____

The U.S. has agreed to the Afghan government demand that we -- in combat gear and yielding automatic weapons -- no longer  break into the personal homes of private citizens, drag them terrified and half-naked into the streets while we ransack their dwelling and all their belongings, and on rare occasion rape and kill them.

How inconsiderate. Don't they realize we're only there to protect them?
_____

Ultra-rich paranoiacs are buying up luxury condos in an abandoned missile silo beneath the Kansas prairie to prepare for doomsday. Only $7 million dollars will get you through the coming Apocalypse. All that stuff about the camel and the eye of the needle -- Ha! What a crock! 
_____

Lunch today with Arp Xigar. 
Homeland Security has been notified.

4/8/12

Classic Jesse. From 2008. 
Boom Happy Easter Shucka Boom.

4/6/12

Bizarre news item of the day: Lou Reed and Insane Clown Posse are collaborating.
_____

More Nazi news: in a five-four ruling this week, the supreme court decided that anyone can be strip-searched upon arrest for any offense, however minor, at any time.
_____

Depending on any horrors arising at work today, chances are good that I'll be attending the kickoff of the 50 Hour Film Slam tonight.
_____

Russian President Vladmir Putin confirmed that his country is working on the creation of an electromagnetic gun that attacks the central nervous system and puts the target in a zombie-like state.

4/4/12

Spokane began enforcing a "Do Not Occupy" order on the Ridpath Hotel building downtown. The only business left in the building was Diamond Parking, which had to shut down. The way this story is spiraling downward I can see them tearing down the hotel and Diamond Parking and paving a parking lot.
_____

Great empires succeeded because the value of the plunder exceeded the value of conquest and governance. Here's how empires really work.
_____

Romney wins Wisconsin, Maryland, D.C. primaries. 
He's your dude, Repubs. Deal with it.
_____

A federal judge in Texas demanded that the president explain recent statements that some have construed as questioning the authority of courts to review, and potentially strike down, his signature health care law.

4/2/12

Sarah Palin is co-hosting the Today Show tomorrow. Look for her to introduce a news piece by NBC correspondents Jenna Bush or Chelsea Clinton who will then reference correspondent Andrea Mitchell, wife of former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, whereupon they'll all strip naked and eat a live baby for Satan. 
_____

I just watched Roman Polanski's latest film, Carnage. Two couples meet cordially to discuss their sons' playground altercation. Civility beautifully erodes into chaos via excellent acting, an amazing script and great direction. Polanski -- who is pushing 80 years old -- has been doing this for nearly 60 years: think Knife in the Water, Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, The Tenant, The Pianist. One of the world's great artists.
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I'm not sure what got into me yesterday...

4/1/12

Noam Chomsky says in the recent issue of Linguistics Today that the new hip word meaning "groovy, neat, cool, rad, bitchin', awesome, etc.," will be "pork," as in "The new Motorhead album is totally pork," or "I dig your pork hoodie," and will utilize all the variations such as "porkin', porkiest, uber-pork," and so on.
_____

Biblical scholars analyzing ancient script in Tarsus, Turkey, have concluded that because of confusions in translations between Aramaic and Greek, the words of Jesus "Love thy enemies," should in fact be read as "Throw rocks at thy enemies." The New American Version will be changed to "Bomb your enemies."
_____

New studies show that smoking crack is actually good for you.
_____

Until now, only a handful of people knew that the head of Orson Wells is being kept alive in a think tank water tank just outside of Washington DC.
_____

Obama just announced a press conference tomorrow morning dealing with a matter of "existential importance." Multiple agencies say White House leaks suggest the subjects will deal with "inner-dimensional alien contact," and gay marriage.
_____

Newt Gingrich just called me and asked if I would consider being his running mate. I realize our politics are dissimilar and he's probably just using me to balance out the ticket; still, I told him I'd consider the offer.
_____

OtherSpokane hit count for March: 7.2 Trillion

3/29/12

Instead of going to one of Spokane's many locally owned, high-quality coffee shops, as I have done religiously for the last 20 years, I think maybe today I'll go to Starbuck's and have a big, hot, frothy mug of bug juice.
_____

Who was behind the killing of 44 Yemeni civilians?
The civilian massacre the US neither confirms nor denies.
_____

Oh, gee, what a surprise... Experts now say that radiation at the Fukushima (now properly pronounced Fuck-Us-Shima) is far worse than previously thought. The current radiation levels are so high that even robots can't enter.

3/28/12

If it wasn't for me running naked through the streets of Spokane wearing a Darth Vader mask and screaming about Bolsheviks I might just be another face in the crowd.
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For economic and social reasons, many Afghan parents want to have a son. This preference has led to some of them practicing the long-standing tradition of Bacha Posh - disguising girls as boys.
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Fact: Five out of four people have trouble with fractions.
_____

A new New York Times/CBS News poll shows that support for the war in Afghanistan has tanked. Of those surveyed, 69 percent opposed the occupation. This is up from 53 percent just four months ago.
_____

Is it snowing microbes on Enceladus, Saturn's icy moon? NASA's Cassini spacecraft gathers evidence for a "uniquely accessible" habitable zone.

3/27/12

From ScienceDaily's Ruin-My-Freaking-Dinner Department:
Placenta on toast? Could we derive benefits from ingesting afterbirth?
_____

My friend and colleague Jesse James Hennessy wins first place in the B-Movie Vault video contest for his entry Poetry is Torture. (No doubt my tortured performance as torturer was essential to the victory.)
_____

The polite conference rooms where liberties are saved and lost.
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A lighthearted shampoo commercial featuring Adolf Hitler? 
Too soon?
_____

Near Spokane, bodies were pulled out of Bonnie Lake and Spirit Lake last weekend. And those were just the ones they found.

3/26/12

The lack of comment from comedians about Dick Cheney's heart transplant is like a big, gaping hole in the chest of American comedy. Also, no word about Cheney being on the waiting list for a soul transplant (which can be rejected by the recipient).
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Rick Santorum says a naughty word.

3/24/12

Here's Jesse's entry to the previously mentioned contest he entered. 
I play the torturer. The violent shivering he's doing is not acting. 
Shot in the creepy cellar of a local restaurant.
_____

Dick Cheney finally gets a heart.
_____

A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.
_____

Mining magnate Clive Palmer has accused the United States government of funding environmental group Greenpeace via the CIA to undermine Australia's coal mining sector.
_____

New surveillance system can compare your face against 36 million others in a single second.
_____

In the past few years, Homeland Security has worked hard to (in)secure our college campuses. 
_____

The biotech folks at Monsanto are after our children's brains now.

3/22/12

The Biggest Political Winner this week: 
The Etch A Sketch!
_____

Here's Bill Maher's editorial in the New York Times yesterday: Please Stop Apologizing. 
_____

As Obama told a crowd in Cushing, Oklahoma, that he now endorses a southern portion of the Keystone pipeline, Native Americans opposed to the decision were forced to protest in a cage in a park miles away from the event.

Or so goes the story that's been working its way around the web today. I've yet to see any photos or verification from any mainstream media.

3/21/12

Religious claims wither under rational scrutiny. But religion is deeply etched in human nature and cannot be dismissed as a product of ignorance, indoctrination or stupidity. Until secularists recognize that, they are fighting a losing battle.
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We kill children nearly every day in Afghanistan. Robert Bales, a U.S. Army staff sergeant who allegedly killed 16 civilians, including nine children, killed them outside the formal structure of the military unit. Murder is not an anomaly in war.

3/20/12

A 7.4 earthquake on Mexico's southwestern coast! It was centered near Acapulco but shook la caca out of Mexico City. I was in Mexico City ten years ago and my pervasive thought was "This is the last place on earth I would want to be in an earthquake." 

Siento empatía por todos, mis amigos.
_____

During the 1930s, Hitler's American followers were so confident that he would triumph they spent millions building a deluxe compound ready for his arrival.
_____

I finally got to see the film Spokanarchy. (I checked it out for free at the downtown library.) I absolutely loved it! I'm not sure why I avoided watching it for so long; I suppose I fell into that can-anything-good-come-out-of-Nazareth type thinking. But, I learned stuff I didn't know, I was entertained (and sometimes pleasantly confused), and it ultimately made me proud to be from Spokane. I'm not sure a more honest film about this city has ever been made.

3/19/12

Having survived St. Patrick's Day, take a moment to think of all you know about the Irish: Leprechauns. Shamrocks. Potato famine. 

I don't know about the little people, but I do remember being taught in school how the potato crop failed in 1846 and that 400,000 Irish peasants starved to death. What they didn't tell us is that regardless of the crop failures, Ireland still had plenty of potatoes, grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultry, which the landlords exported to foreign markets for greater profits.
_____

Santorum wants to de-smut the web. 
Could we really get rid of internet porn?

3/18/12

Werner Herzog eats the world.
_____

Jesse James Hennessy shoots another video contest and enlists
yours truly as an accomplice. Here's a few shots that hint at the
weirdness. I'll provide a link after he submits it.

             
_____

Check out YouTube's Dirty Signs with Kristin! Kristin shows us how to hand sign useful phrases like "You're a dumb ass," and "It's like Christmas in my mouth," and "Die in a fire."
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Only on Bourbon Street in New Orleans can one see so many people actually "fall down drunk" as in the early afternoon following the St. Pat Parade in downtown Spokane. 

Put that in your promotional video.
_____

Have you visited the Washington Post's Mention Machine? See how many times a candidate is mentioned on Twitter or the media in general.

3/17/12

Are you smelling the big, festering, bloated, dead rat in the middle of this Kony 2012 ordeal? We've known that Kony has been committing atrocities for decades. Why are we so gung ho now? 

Can you say "rare earth minerals?"
_____

It's only a matter of time before they produce a fictional television show about the producing of a reality television show.
_____

Did you know that the comedian Gallagher is in a medically induced coma after a heart attack last week in Texas?

3/16/12

Starting off KHQ's six o'clock news, Alex Rozier welcomed us to this "rainy Friday night." A minimal investigation by yours truly revealed a sunny, blue sky. Rozier was later rightly belittled by weatherman Bill Kelly whose office evidently has a window. 
_____

One of the co-founders of Invisible Children, Jason Russell, (the dude from the Kony 2012 video) has been hospitalized after police said he was detained for being naked and masturbating in public.
_____

George Clooney was arrested earlier today for civil disobedience during a demonstration outside Sudan's embassy in Washington DC. 

"We were all in a cell together," he said. "It was nice."
_____

Here's the new Obama campaign video, 
directed by Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim 
and narrated by Tom Hanks. 
_____

Democratic senators issue strong warnings about the use of the Patriot Act. (Where have they been the last 10 years?)

Senators demand DOJ release secret spy rulings.
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What has the Occupy Protest achieved? 

3/15/12

Beware today. 

It's the Ides of March, best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was killed, 2056 years ago today. Caesar was stabbed 245 times in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators who aptly demonstrated the importance of the personal vote.
_____

Rod Blagojevich — now also known as federal prisoner number 40892-424 — starts serving his 14-year sentence for corruption today.
_____

People are saying that Rush Limbaugh calling that law student a sl-- and a wh--- is no different from Bill Maher calling Sarah Palin a c--t. I think they're all a bunch of d---heads.
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W--- be f------ or s------ in b--- ---ki-- i-'- c---!

3/14/12

It's Pi Day. commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (Get it? 3.14). In 2009, the U.S. House of Reps supported the designation of Pi Day.

I celebrated last night by watching the frenetic and very enjoyable movie:
 π.

Pi is an irrational number, meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating. There are website that show pi up to a million digits. But you'll have to check them out another time -- they're all crashing today.

3/13/12

If you really care, call your elders. Everyone born in the early Sixties or before had horrifying nightmares last night about the romantic side of Richard Nixon.
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Former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney has cancelled an April appearance in Toronto citing concerns that Canada is too dangerous.

Click here to hear the Canadian National Anthem.
_____

What in your brain separates the pleasurable adrenaline high of a horror film from the traumatizing experience of someone breaking into your house? Why we love to scare ourselves.
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Famous physicist Stephen Hawking has signed up to make a cameo appearance in geeky sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Hawking's casting comes just weeks after Star Trek legend Leonard Nimoy made a special appearance, much to the delight of the show's nerds.

3/12/12

“I can get you a gallon of gasoline for a dime. … You can buy a gallon of gasoline today for a silver dime. A silver dime is worth $3.50, it’s all about inflation and too many regulations.” – Ron Paul

Ten best quotes about rising oil prices.
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Television shows about "doomsday preppers" -- reality shows about people who are stockpiling, arming and otherwise preparing for some kind of apocalypse -- are on the rise.
_____

How did fatalistic, damaged Kurt Vonnegut cope after surviving a massacre? 
By smirking at the absurd.
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It's Mitt Romney's 65th birthday. He says he'll pass on his Medicare benefits.
_____

Here's an interesting review of Cătălin Avramescu’s new book: 
Intellectual History of Cannibalism.
_____

In central China, millions of people tune in to watch an extraordinary weekly television talk show called Interviews Before Execution, in which reporter Ding Yu interviews murderers condemned to death.
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What America lost when Dennis Kucinich lost.

3/11/12

3/10/12

LSD gets another look as alcoholism treatment.
_____

It's Daylife Saving Time. Remember to spring your clocks back three hours to offset the earth wobble to be caused later this season by approaching Comet Carl. Also, remember to change the batteries in your tasers.
_____

Political cartoonists skewer Rush.
_____

Another sign of the Apocalypse: The 700 Club Founder Pat Robertson says marijuana should be legalized, and that the war on drugs is a failure.

3/9/12

Here's the Kony 2012 video everyone is talking about. The documentary follows filmmaker Jason Russell in his pursuit to end the conflict in Uganda by capturing Joseph Kony, the leader of the rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army, his personal army of kidnapped children.

But the talk isn't all positive: Kony baloney...

The filmmaker is pushing for the "international court" to prosecute and enact punishment. Kony is a monster, but giving such power to a world court is extremely disturbing and dangerous.
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There are more people on Facebook right now than there were on the planet 200 years ago.

3/8/12

A solar tsunami is pounding the earth today. They say that if you fashion aluminum foil into a wide-brimmed, cavalier-style topper you will repel all harmful rays and most fellow citizens.
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Nice job, Ohio Democrats. You just voted out one of the few honest people you have left: Dennis Kucinich. No doubt you'll get the government you deserve.
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The 10 companies that profit most from war.

3/7/12

Here's my video Random Notes and Observations on Road Trip. I try to convey the sense of mystery, religious pilgrimage, and Doubting Thomas angst I experience while traveling.

3/6/12

It's Soup-er Tuesday. On the menu: Beans and Pork. Someone open a window.

3/4/12

Jack White's performance on Saturday Night Live was AMAZING. I thought he was going to hurt himself or someone else during his second set. Lindsey Lohan as host was ho-hum at best. 
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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) endorsed Mitt Romney for president yesterday and declared his intention to be considered as a Vice Presidential candidate by saying it's not his intention to be considered as a Vice Presidential candidate.

3/3/12

Romney wins Washington Caucus with 38% of the vote. Paul with 25% barely beats Santorum with 24%. Newt brings up the rear with 10%.

How each Washington State county voted.
_____

Update: Rush apologizes.
_____

Washingtonian Republicans caucus today. Don't let the "It's only a straw poll" talk keep you away. This -- the last political expression before Super Tuesday -- is important and influential. The results will be announced tonight.

Here's the real time vote count.
_____

Once again, the buffoonery of Rush Limbaugh is preventing us from discussing what's really important. 
_____

The amazing Jack White is musical guest on Saturday Night Live tonight. Lindsey Lohan hosts.

I don't understand the nostalgic talk of how the latter day SNL has never lived up to the early days. Have you ever actually gone back and watched the first few years? Revolutionary for the times, maybe. But they don't really satisfy today's Daily Comedic Requirements (DCR).
_____

Let's get to the important stuff: 
Katy Perry Shows Off Her Underpants.

3/2/12

From the LA Times: In Washington State, Ron Paul has a shot at first win.
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In the past few weeks, I've shaken hands with three of the five people running for the presidency: Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. The likelihood that I've shaken hands with the future President of the United States is now up to two or three percent.
_{_____}

If you haven't heard Ron Paul speak live, this could be your last chance (literally -- he's in his late seventies). He's appearing again at the Convention Center today at noon. Go see him. Trust me. It's worth the effort.

The thing about Ron Paul is this: he may not win this election, or even come close; but he, unlike any of the other candidates except Obama, is going to affect American politics for the next 50 years.

If attendance at rallies is any indication of voter turn out, Paul (with an estimated 2,500 at his last shindig), is going to kick major Washington butt in tomorrow's caucus. Strangely, polls show that Santorum (who had a few hundred attendees, and ten percent of those were children) is in the lead.

3/1/12

If lackluster is one word, I could describe the Santorum rally in one word.

I did learn something though: Having been to a Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and now a Rick Santorum rally, I believe I could identify the rally giver merely by looking at a photo of the crowd. 

The highpoint of the afternoon: while the crowd of a few hundred was waiting for The Rickster (he was nearly an hour late because he was doing an interview with Bill O'Reilly), the intercom played rock music, the most notable being Pearl Necklace by ZZ Top.

Oh, yeah. And there were children everywhere. Everywhere you stepped, you almost stepped on a kid. Kids were crying and screaming, running around poking people in the legs with giant Santorum for President signs. Given Santorum's views on conception and birth control, I guess this shouldn't have surprised me so much. Still, to give him his due, Santorum, who has seven children, knew enough to leave all but the grown one at home.
_____

From the Libertarian Party: 

The food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture,
is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever!

Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks "please do not feed the animals" because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves.
_____

Santorum brings his spiritual medicine show to Spokane Valley at the New Life Assembly Church at 3:00 pm today. I'm going to dust off my Sunday-go-to-meetin' shirt and try to make it.

Ron Paul is BACK. Twice in two weeks. Noon, Friday, at the Convention Center, again.

It's little surprise our humble burg is getting so much attention: Saturday is the semi-esteemed (actually brand spanking new) Washington State Republican Caucus. Forty of 43 delegates will be picked through the caucus-and-convention process.
_____

The State B Basketball Tourney is in town. Your humble editor actually played in the tournament in 1973 -- the first and last time that Selkirk High School ever made it that far. (That's me, number 44, with the movie star hair and the hot legs.)

2/29/12

Last Sunday the Oscar for Best Foreign Language category went to an Iranian film called "A Separation" (available on Netflix). It has been described as a compelling tragedy of truth and lies and communication breakdown, set in Tehran. The stuff of real people.

But not everyone is happy.

The warmongers of the world -- who cannot wait to start bombing Iran -- know that the next step in satisfying their lust is to somehow dehumanize the Iranian people; apparently it's easier to kill people who don't seem like real people.

Maybe now that prospect will be a bit more difficult.
_____

Why are we letting this happen? The House just passed a bill that will make protesting illegal at a Secret Service protected event. Wanna say something in an unconventional way at a political convention? Potentially a federal crime. Wanna shout "Hey, stupid and smelly one!" to a visiting foreign dignitary who you think is stupid and smelly? Potential federal crime.

The people who we trusted and sent to D.C. to protect our rights and best interests voted against us: 388 to 3. Eight of the nine Washington State representatives voted yea, and one didn't even bother to vote.

Here's the text of H.R. 347.
_____

Davy Jones, lead singer of The Monkees, dead of a heart attack at 66.

2/28/12

Romney wins Michigan and Arizona.
_____

Leg.

_____

Michigan real time vote count. Arizona real time vote count.
_____

Was Kathleen Turner (from the Eighties) at the Newt Gingrich rally in Spokane last week? Look at Part Two of my video The Newt in The Kan at The Bing at the 7:15 mark. 
_____

People with no sense of humor are criticizing Billy Crystal for the prerecorded opening film during Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony in which Crystal impersonates Sammy Davis Jr., prompting claims that the “blackface” performance was offensive and racist.
_____

This is okay, though...

_____

Pear of Anguish, Heretic’s Fork, Spanish Tickler: Names of the latest hip microbrews? No, they're instruments of torture.

2/27/12

The clip the networks are showing of Newt bragging about how gas was only a dollar-something when he was Speaker of the House was from his Spokane appearance. 

I think... Unless he says exactly the same thing in the exact same way at every rally. And Callista claps and nods her head in the exact same way. If you think that might be possible...
_____

Henry Markram, a South-African-born brain electrophysiologist, wants to build a supercomputer simulation of the brain, integrating all of neuroscience. He is one of six finalists pursuing the $1.3 billion prize in one of the European Union's two new decade-long Flagship initiatives.
_____

The more we know about the brain, the less we understand how it creates consciousness.
_____

Maybe Rick Santorum is able to articulately bemoan and criticize higher education because of his Bachelor of Arts with honors in political science from Pennsylvania State University, his Master of Business Administration from the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, and his JD with honors from the Dickinson School of Law.

Today, the president seemed to answer without actually mentioning Santorum. "When I speak about higher education," he said, "we're not just talking about a four-year degree." He explained that he also meant community college and training for manufacturing jobs.

2/26/12

Here's my video of the Newt and Callista Gingrich Show in Spokane at The Bing Crosby Theater, 2/23/12. That's right, The Newt in The Kan at The Bing.

Newt Gingrich in Spokane - Part One

Newt Gingrich in Spokane - Part Two

2/22/12

Here's my video of the Ron Paul rally in Spokane, 2/17. Paul goes off about the country's insane economic programs, the loss of our civil liberties, and the president's dangerous power plays.

Ron Paul in Spokane - Part One

Ron Paul in Spokane - Part Two
_____

I'm going to try to make it to The Bing tomorrow at 2 pm to see The Newt make his first appearance in The Kan. Gingrich has perpetuated his campaign by telling each state and city what he thinks they want to hear. It'll be interesting to hear what Newt thinks Spokane wants to hear.
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"Satan has his sights on the United States of America!" presidential contender Rick Santorum declares.
_____

The hamburger of the future will be grown from bovine stem cells.

2/21/12

Happy FAT TUESDAY! Every Mardi Gras I'm reminded of when James and I were in Mazatlan, Mexico during their Carnival celebration. We wandered the packed streets, taking in the bizarre sights: scantily dressed beautiful women, a fire eater with a blackened face, drunks drinking fire water from Pepsi bottles, wide-eyed children, music and dancing everywhere. We stepped around a corner and found ourselves in a crowd of shouting young men who were lighting a bonfire beneath an effigy of Uncle Sam sitting on a missile.

"Arriba," we squeaked.
_____

Here's the Playboy interview with Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.
_____

The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur accused CNN host Erin Burnett and the establishment media Friday evening for trumping up Iran’s weapons capability and trying to start another war in the Middle East.
_____

There have been 500 deaths in the U.S. from the use of police tasers. A majority of the victims were unarmed. Amnesty International calls for strict guidelines.
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I'm having much trouble getting my Ron Paul video on YouTube. Still trying. Maybe tonight.

2/19/12

I'm uploading my "Ron Paul in Spokane" video to YouTube and it says the upload time is 799 minutes, which is certainly a drag, and seems like ancient technology.

Then I remember that just 10 years ago I barely believed that such a thing was even possible: to shoot and edit and publish a video that is theoretically accessible to anyone on earth. 

Ten years ago (and it seems like yesterday to me), I had just started doing this website; the possibility of which, 10 years before that, was thought of by only a small handful of visionaries. 

Ten years before that I was siphoning gas from my neighbor's Pontiac so I could get my truck to work the next day.

Ten years before that I thought the future was flying bubble cars and robot maids. 

This is how I keep things in perspective.
_____

The FDA plans to investigate whether inhalable caffeine sold in small canisters is safe for consumers.
_____

Today's Inside Washington: smart people talking.

2/17/12

Spokane's first visit from a presidential candidate:
Ron Paul at the Convention Center, downtown, tonight at 7:30.
I presume it's just a speech; no golfing.

2/16/12

Here's Jesse James Hennessy's creepy video entry into a contest for the industrial band Dismantled. 
_____

Having discussed the matter with a few people who, unlike myself, actually golf, I'm beginning to doubt my own doubting that Rick Santorum could have hit a ball 275 yards and set it on the Coeur d'Alene floating green. The people I talked to said that, while certainly very difficult, the task was not in the realm of the fantastic.

So, Senator Santorum, my humblest apologies. I'd like to make it up to you: next time you're in Spokane, maybe I could buy you a couple of drinks. Maybe later we could go back to my apartment, listen to some old Barry Manilow records, maybe give each other a nice back massage. I don't know. Just tossin' out some ideas. No strings.
_____

By far, my favorite story this week: a man suffers a heart attack after eating a "triple bypass burger" at the Heart Attack Grill in downtown Las Vegas.
_____

In Spokane, tomorrow night at 7:30: RON PAUL at the Convention Center, no doubt with lots of people holding up that creepy Love Revolution signage. I'll be there with my video camera. Look for me. Say hello.

2/15/12

Hagadone Hospitality bigwig, Jerry Jaeger, claims that Santorum hit two balls onto the famous floating green just before a campaign stop yesterday at the Hagadone Events Center in Coeur d'Alene.

Because of winter water levels, the green is moved out into the lake to a distance of 270 yards from the tee. The average drive of a pro golfer on the circuit is 290 yards. That Santorum, a respectable 12 handicap, could set a pair on that Cd'A landmark is impressive. 

To my knowledge, no photos or phone videos of this miraculous event exists. We have only the testimony of his apostles. A less-confirmed rumor has the Rickster later walking out to the green to retrieve the balls.
_____

Proving that really smart people can be just as dorky as the rest of us, a scientist working with the Large Hadron Collider took data from one of the earliest collisions at the LHC and added simulated data that followed the path of a heart-shaped equation. The heart was pierced not by Cupid's arrow, but two proton beams smashing together.

If you're interested, here's the equation:
(cos(100*x)*sqrt(cos(x))+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x^2)^0.01
These guys know how to party.
_____

Samuel L. Jackson drops (carpet bombs) the N-word while describing Obama: 

"When it comes down to it, they wouldn't have elected a [bleep]. Because, what's a [bleep]? A [bleep] is scary. Obama ain't scary at all. [Bleeps] don't have beers at the White House. [Bleeps] don't let some white dude, while you in the middle of a speech, call [him] a liar. A [bleep] would have stopped the meeting right there and said, ‘Who the fuck said that?'"

[Yeah, okay, I just wanted to bleep the N and print the F.)

2/14/12

I think every seven years we should have a year where we don't celebrate any holidays.

2/13/12

As of today, gay marriage is legal in Washington State.
_____

Here's the text of War is a Racket, written by Major General Smedley D. Butler, a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps, and an outspoken critic of U.S. military adventurism. At the time of his death, he was the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.

In 1934, Butler claimed Wall Street interests conspired to overthrow President Roosevelt and replace him with a fascist government, an allegation that came to be known as the Business Plot. 
_____

The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of scientific thought, issued a report today on the applications of neuroscience in the military and law enforcement contexts: new performance-enhancing designer drugs, brain stimulation to boost brain function, and weapons systems that plug directly into the brain.
_____

Warmongering: just good business sense. iRobot, a Massachusetts company best known for the Roomba robotic vacuum, now produces remote-control PackBots, used by U.S. combat forces to disable improvised explosive devices and perform other dangerous tasks. The robot could be weaponized—in one test it launched a rocket that trailed explosives behind it to clear mines or other obstacles.
_____

The warrior hypothesis: Men commit 90 percent of murders. The brutality is biological, in part. But power, not gender, determines belligerence.
_____

Did you hear on the news about the eight children who were killed in NATO air strikes in Afghanistan the other day? No? And you won't either: people who support murderers don't usually brag about it.
_____

The most interesting things from Steve Jobs' FBI files. (At least he didn't kill anybody.)
_____

Robert Reich: Obama Has Handed The Election Over To The Super Rich.
_____

In her Wall Street Journal column, former Regan scriptwriter Peggy Noonan explains why Republicans don't like Romney.

2/12/12

Here's the official objection from the Office of the General Council of Catholic Bishops to the Department of Health and Human Services regarding mandatory contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The first few paragraphs and the summary sum it up nicely. I can not imagine an effective legal stance against this.
_____

Mitt wins Maine with 39% of the vote; Ron Paul takes second with 36%. 

You'd be a fool to place any bets yet. The Republicans still have no idea what they want. This race is wide open.
_____

The latest Inside Washington: fun with Gordon, Nina, Colby, Evan, and Charles.
_____

The Pentagon, not traditionally known as a vanguard for women's liberation, announced that rules restricting women in combat would be loosened, increasing the likelihood that more females -- marching side-by-side with their male counterparts -- will be able to die needlessly to make rich warmongers even richer.
_____

Check out this video, satirizing the TSA's butt-groping goons.

2/10/12

They're baaaack. The Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-gay church best known for protesting military funerals, says its members will be at Saturday’s service for the two Washington children who died when their father torched their home.

Here's a film I did about the "church" when they graced Spokane.
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The Democrats want you to forget about this, at least until after the election: Yes, we still "render" people (read kidnap) and send them off to foreign countries to be "interrogated" (read tortured). 

In Smithfield, N.C., protesters regularly gather at a small airport to protest Aero Contractors, a private company that is rumored to have ties to the CIA and its "extraordinary rendition" program of secret detentions.
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The Office of Naval Research announced Wednesday that they will begin testing an advanced Electromagnetic Railgun (EMR) within the next few weeks. The launcher uses magnetism to fire its payload instead of a chemical propellant (like gunpowder). 

Oh, we're still killers. Just not as noisy about it.
_____

We've become so good at this. 
We'll soon be able to kill without even touching the trigger.

2/09/12

What is wrong with us? 
This is not "them." This is us.
_____

Here's just one of the things wrong with us:
The Board of Something-or-Other in LA County has agreed to this 37-page ordinance that imposes stiff fines for throwing a football or a Frisbee on any beach in the county.
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State Senator Constance Johnson of Oklahoma City has introduced a measure that calls to mind the famous Monty Python “Every Sperm is Sacred” sketch from the 1983 film “The Meaning of Life.”

The Oklahoma “personhood bill” defines human life as beginning at the moment of conception and, “at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state.” If Senate Bill 1433 were to become law, all forms of abortion and some forms of contraception would be considered murder and therefore illegal.

Sen. Johnson introduced an amendment to the bill mandating that the same rights and benefits be granted to spermatozoa, which would outlaw masturbation by men, anal sex, sex with condoms, all forms of fellatio to completion, as well as numerous other acts. 

She stated that she had inserted it to highlight the absurdity and sexism inherent in the current bill. She later withdrew the amendment.
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How to start a war: an article from 2002, prior to the onslaught of the Iraq war, which documents the History of War Pretext Incidents.

Is the Pentagon seeking to trigger military confrontation in the Persian Gulf with a view to providing a pretext and a justification to waging an all out war on the Islamic Republic of Iran?
_____

Here's yesterday's NYT story about Washington State's gay marriage struggle.
_____

Here's an FBI pamphlet for military surplus stores to help identify potential terrorists by recognizing suspect activities such as stockpiling food.
_____

Congress just passed a bill making it easier for the government to fly drones in U.S. airspace. 

The FAA Reauthorization Act, which Obama is expected to sign, orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for testing and licensing commercial drones by 2015. Privacy experts say it will lead to widespread electronic surveillance by police and private companies.

The commercial drone market could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The FAA projects 30,000 drones in the nation's skies by 2020.

2/08/12

Curiouser and curiouser: Santorum sweeps Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado! Rick's hat trick confounds politicos. More evidence the GOP is even more schizo and dangerous than the Dems.

Delegate count: Mitt 91, Santorum 44, Newt 29, Ron Paul 8.
_____

The Terry Gilliam School of Film: 10 Lessons for Directors Today.
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What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?
192 very intelligent people answer.
_____

At home with mass murderers. The private photo albums of Himmler and Streicher are simultaneously bizarre and disconcertingly normal.

2/07/12

Just days after President Obama claimed that the CIA drone campaign in Pakistan is a "targeted, focused effort" that "has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties," a richly documented report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, on behalf of the Sunday Times, asserts that the U.S. first kills people with drones, then fires on the rescuers and others who arrive at the scene.

Since Obama took office, between 464 and 815 civilians have been credibly reported as killed, including more than 175 children. The three month investigation has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. 

Between May '09 and June '11, attacks on rescuers were reported by the New York Times, CNN, Associated Press, ABC News and Al Jazeera.

The drone attacks were started by Bush in 2004. They have been stepped up enormously under Obama.

There have been more than 300 drone attacks in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.
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Umshini Wam - As following any Die Antwoord video or Harmony Korine movie (Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy, Trash Humpers), I'm left in a pleasant state of shock.

2/06/12

Russian scientists just drilled into Antarctic Lake Vostok, sealed off for 15 million years by 2 1/3 miles of ice. 

I predict they'll discover a race of intelligent guppy-people, who communicate their deeper thoughts telepathically, and their more immediate concerns with gurgling noises and bulging eyeballs. Because I was the first believer, they'll make me Emperor of the Up, which to them is just a twisted form of Down, which is not a big deal to advanced guppy-people.

Still, things will be much better when I'm emperor. You'll see.
_____

Here's the definition of the metaphor "Bread and Circuses." 
Better known today as "Doritos and football."
_____

A Wisconsin judge recently ruled that humans: 

Do not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd; do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow; do not have a fundamental right to board their cow at the farm of a farmer; do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice; and cannot enter into private contracts without State police power intervention.

Judge Patrick J. Fiedler's decision was rendered on Sept. 9. He stepped down from the bench on Sept. 30 to work for a Monsanto law firm.
_____

Phil Donahue On Piers Morgan Discussing Ron Paul.

2/05/12

A stunningly beautiful day in Spokane, Washington.
_____

A House-Senate conference report this week called on the White House to accelerate the use of drones in U.S. airspace. 
_____

Mitt wins Nevada. Newt claims a weak second. Ron Paul takes third -- a big loss, considering he put so much effort in the state. Santorum has to be considering an exit stage right.
_____

My prediction for the BIG GAME today: The Orioles in overtime. Unless that Tebow guy is playing, then Jesus by three. Bobby Orr will kick a foul ball with seconds left in the fifth period. Technical foul. Flea flicker on three. Budweiser...

...And ultimately revealing, with little doubt, that the real winners today are the ad execs, who have successfully convinced the American herd to talk about and actually look forward to the Super Bowl commercials!

2/04/12

Watch the real time voting count for the Nevada caucuses. 
Polls close tonight at 7:00 pm.
_____

Here's a FBI pamphlet for coffee shop owners to help identify potential terrorists. Do you always pay cash? Concerned with personal privacy? You're going down, Al Qaeda wench. 
_____

Biagio Anthony Gazzarra, aka "Ben Gazzara," 
artistic risk-taker, dead at 81.
_____

Inmates at a prison print shop sneak an image of a pig into a state police crest that appeared on Vermont police cars.
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How quickly things don't change: 
George Carlin on the illusion of freedom.

2/02/12

Check out my friend Jesse James Hennessy's latest video oddness: Borrower's Etiquette. Funny. Great acting, photography and editing.
_____

Have you ever considered how utterly stupid the whole groundhog-seeing-his-shadow thing really is? I think we should determine the likelihood of spring by the consistency of Santa Claus' morning bowel movement. Like the Chinese used to do.
_____

I've been in the market for a good handgun; but, with all the regulations and bad press, what's a potential criminal to do? Answer: patronize North Idaho fast food drive-throughs. 

2/01/12

  Click like if you don't like the like button.
_____

When did girls start wearing pink?
_____

Feds laughed (all the way to the central bank) 
as housing bubble ballooned.
_____

Lots of buzz about this: the largest donor to a SuperPAC supporting Ron Paul is PayPal co-founder, early Facebook investor, and Bilderberg member, Peter Thiel, the sort of ultra-wealthy, super-national figure Paul and his supporters love to hate.
_____

Bleeck! The yuck factor explained.
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Total January hits: 127,155

1/31/12

FIFTY big delegates to the Mitt-ster.

The current delegate count:
     Romney 71 
     Newt 23 (redeemable throughout the solar system)
     Squishy Love -- 13 gushy ones
     Ron Paul 3 

There are 2,286 delegates. A candidate must accumulate 1,144 delegate votes to win.

Five weeks until Super Tuesday when 11 states will vote and 466 delegates will be up for grabs.
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Real time results from the Flori-duh Primary.
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Did you see 60 Minutes last Sunday? 
Leon Panetta’s explicitly authoritarian decree.
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A close look at the roots of Romney's -- and the Mormon church's -- political ambitions.

1/30/12

Guess who I met the other day?

Spouse and helpmate of Adam Kadmon: Heva, naked Eve. She had no navel. Gaze. Belly without blemish, bulging big, a buckler of taut vellum, no, whiteheaped corn, orient and immortal, standing from everlasting to everlasting. Womb of sin.
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A study by a Penn State University found that people take longer to vacate a parking space when there is another car waiting for them to leave. However, men left “significantly sooner” when an expensive car was waiting.

1/29/12

I just noticed that InfoWars.com, the website of uber-entertaining conspiracy guy, Alex Jones, the self-described "T-Rex of Talk Radio," from Austin, TX, has a small ad in this week's Inlander magazine.
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Canadians in space, eh? Two Toronto teens launched a Lego man almost 80,000 feet above sea level--high enough to capture video of the plastic toy hovering above the curvature of the Earth.

Click here to hear the Canadian National Anthem.

1/28/12

If I said:

Because we are bombing Somalia, bombing Yemen and Pakistan by remote control, bombing Afghanistan; because we dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs on Libya; because we have special forces in 75 countries, and because we sold tens of billions of dollars of weapons to dictators in Saudi Arabia --

If I said this "has made the United States safer and more respected around the world," I would be drug out into the street and beaten to death with peace signs.

Yet, someone said this last Tuesday and tens of millions of Americans applauded.

Can someone explain this to me?

1/27/12

Gov. Jan Brewer's book on border security, federalism and the "liberal media," just went from No. 343,222 to No. 10 on Amazon's bestseller list -- in 24 hours -- following the highly publicized on-the-tarmac confrontation Wednesday between the governor and the president as he stepped off Air Force One to make a speech in Arizona.

1/26/12

Having survived the carnival show of the State of the Union Address (SOTU) and the Repub response, certain facts remain clear:

1) Both Democratic and Republican politicians initiated and supported bailouts.
2) Both Democratic and Republican politicians initiated and supported mandates on individuals and small businesses to buy medical insurance.
3) Both Democratic and Republican politicians have voted for a long list of new and expanded government programs – keeping taxes high and our debt staggering.
_____

Following the SOTU, Mootsys' insightful bartender, Jon Brown, Facebooked: 
"Why is Vladimir Putin delivering the Republican rebuttal?"
_____

"On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen." -- The president's SOTU address, 1/24.

"It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts. An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody." -- The president's SOTU address, 1/24.

1/25/12

IT'S PEOPLE!!! (Well, depending on who you ask.)

Freshman Republican state senator Ralph Shortey from Oklahoma City introduced a bill Tuesday that would ban the use of aborted human fetuses in food. He said his own Internet research led him to believe such a ban is necessary. I can't wait to see the bills he'll cough up when he reads about the alien lizard-people ruling elite.
_____

At the last minute, Bloomberg cancelled this awesome cover idea after New York magazine beat them to press.

1/24/12

I have to admit that after the orgy of butt-smooching and backslapping and wink winking, and after the endless applauding, and after the president praising the military, and the generals standing and clapping and congratulating themselves and smiling all assured they're still in biz, and their rows of medals all glimmering and shining, and after I stopped retching and gagging, I have to admit that the president, as usual, gave a pretty good speech.
_____

You'd think that a solar storm during a snow storm would cancel each other out, like putting Kahlua in your mocha.

1/23/12

Okay, the Paulites have finally gone too far.

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Well-fed economists are predicting that the price of peanut butter will rise. Look for the cost of grog and porridge to follow suit.
_____

If you watch tomorrow's State of the Union Address on the Whitehouse.gov website, you are promised that "you’ll be able to see charts, stats and data that helped inform President Obama’s policy decisions as he delivers his speech to the nation."
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See, they have a heart. Carnival Corp. is offering a 30 percent discount on future cruises to survivors of its deadly Costa Concordia shipwreck off the Italian coast. 

1/22/12

The biggest hypocrite in yesterday's SC Primary was not The Newt himself, but the 44% bloc of white, evangelical Christians -- touting family values and love-of-neighbor -- who voted for the adulterous warmonger.
_____

I just watched Please Vote For Me, a 2007 documentary film following the elections of a 3rd grade class in China. As the candidates compete for the coveted role of class monitor, you can see the personas of our current candidates and politicians in the scheming, conniving, back-slapping and conspiring of these eight year old children.

I just saw it on PBS Global Voices, but it's also streaming on Netflix.
_____

One of the great stories of our rumble-tumble attempt at democracy was buried amid hype of the SC Primary. Because of an uprising of indignation across the internet, congress has indefinitely put aside any discussion or vote on the latest corporate attempt to control the web. You can almost taste in the e-air the collective resolve to utterly crush and humiliate any similar, future assaults on our internet liberties.
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Have you Rolfed yet? Here's three amazingly bizarre and entertaining films from Australian director Rolf de Heer, all streaming on Netflix:

Alexandra's Project - Bad Boy Bubby - Encounter at Raven's Gate

_____

NYT's Maureen Dowd suggests that the election could be between two powerful victims yearning to be lonely at the top.

1/21/12

 Newt wins...
_____

I have to say it: Do The Right Thing, South Carolina. But, in my heart, I know they're about to do just the opposite. 

With two Air Force bases, an Army base, two Marine bases, three Naval bases and over 600 industries directly related to the military, South Carolina is about to reveal the Big Decision facing America today: will we continue to accept and promote and expand the war culture, or will we not? 

My prediction: Newt Gingrich to win SC by a military-brass-browned nose, along with the need for more conflict, more war, more bombs, and more of your children coming home cold in boxes.
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Real time vote count from South Carolina.

1/20/12

Everyone's freaking out about the snow berms in the middle of the streets. I love the berms. They make driving and walking through downtown Spokane a new and exciting adventure. Certain illegalities are tolerated because of berms: Jaywalking is required; and when driving, making a two or three lane change without any forward progress is commonly practiced. Cops just shake their head, then do the same. And, there are few joys as primal and satisfying as vehicular berm-busting, altering the maze, declaring boldly that you are no Spokane lab rat.
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Check out this guy's Facebook page. He married his dead girlfriend in a wedding/funeral service. If you search, you can find video of the event, if you really want to. 

I didn't.
_____

Occupy the Courts protesters clash with Supreme Court police in Citizens United protest.
_____

The entire Spokane School District -- and nearly every other surrounding district -- are shut down because of snow!
_____

Seattle is all upset because the LA Times called them snow wimps. I think they are kind of wimpy, but the LA Times saying it is like some smarmy royal on his throne dissing his subjects for complaining about having to sit on sackcloth. "We all have chairs, right?"
_____

The polls are saying that the South Carolina Primary is between Romney and Gingrich. I think it'll be closer to a four-way tie.
_____

Let's put the "Fun" back in funeral. The 130th National Funeral Directors Conference just wrapped up in Chicago. Here's what we missed: “Marketing Your Cemetery: Connecting With Your Community” and “Managing Mass Fatality Situations,” as well as “The Difference Is In The Details,” an embalming workshop. These guys know how to party.
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Today the Occupy Movement will Occupy the Courts, a one day occupation of Federal courthouses across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The purpose is to protest a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that removed most limits on corporate and labor spending in federal elections. Keeping it interesting, a judge yesterday ruled that demonstrators do not have a First Amendment right to protest in front of a Manhattan federal courthouse.
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The tortured lives and spiritual anguish of three great modern poets.

1/19/12

Here's the current list of the websites that were shut down or destabilized this afternoon by the shadowy hacker group Anonymous:

Department of Justice (Justice.gov)
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA.org)
Universal Music (UniversalMusic.com)
Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation (Anti-piracy.be/nl/)
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA.org)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI.gov)
HADOPI law site (HADOPI.fr)
U.S. Copyright Office (Copyright.gov)
Universal Music France (UniversalMusic.fr)
Senator Christopher Dodd (ChrisDodd.com)
Vivendi France (Vivendi.fr)
The White House (Whitehouse.gov)
BMI (BMI.com)
Warner Music Group (WMG.com)

This amazing show of power supposedly was in response to the Feds shutting down the file hosting and sharing site Megaupload.

But -- surprise, surprise -- I smell a rat. Here's my conspiracy theory: Anonymous is to play the role (unwittingly or not) of the new cyber-Al Qaeda, another dangerous terrorist group that we have to throw money at, create more security agencies, and give up more personal and internet liberties so the Feds can "protect us."
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What if it doesn't stop snowing?
_____

Rick Perry drops out of the race; endorses Gingrich. End of chapter, right?

No. Sheriff Perry is gonna have to contend with a whole different kind of posse when he moseys back to Austin, where he was (past tense) generally thought of as a tough conservative and an astute campaigner -- claims that really didn't manifest in his latest run for glory. 

I think the next few months will reveal that his dirty-elbowed Texan buddies would rather ride side-saddle than carry the flag behind this cowboy.
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Gingrich's ex-wife says she could run Ship Newt into the rocks because of his request for an "open marriage."

Gingrich daughters say "not true."
_____

Google says it collected more than 7 million signatures from the U.S. for its online petition to Congress during yesterday's Internet protest against anti-piracy legislation.
_____

Yesterday, Ron Paul introduced a piece of legislation that will repeal section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act -- the loosely defined section that allows for the indefinite detention of American citizens without due process or evidence.
_____

Santorum is the actual winner of the Iowa Caucus! 
With the votes finally certified, Rick beats Mitt by 34 votes. 
_____

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg deemed the SOPA/PIPA controversy worthy enough to post his first tweet in almost three years. "Tell your congressmen you want them to be pro-internet," he wrote, linking to a longer statement on his Facebook page.

1/18/12

Despite this country's need for jobs, Obama made the right decision in rejecting rapid approval of the pipeline from Canada to Texas. Too often decisions of great consequence are pushed on desperate people. We need a chance to educate ourselves, listen to the critics and the proponents, hash it out, and then decide. As it stands, most of the folks who will have to deal with this in their backyard probably know as little about it as I.
_____

The POWER of protest, democracy and giving a damn: Eight US lawmakers have withdrawn their backing from anti-piracy laws, amid protests on thousands of internet sites!
_____

UNBELIEVABLE!!! The last sentence Senator Joe Lieberman utters here should be branded on his forehead just below the three sixes.
_____

We finally got four inches of the white stuff! (And no, I'm not talking about Lil' Jacob, East Sprague's favorite male prostitute.)
_____

Hey, Seattle! How does it feel? Ha!!!
_____

This website stands with Wikipedia and many others in their opposition to the US Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) as currently written and currently being debated by Congress.

Click here to learn more.
_____

Another example of bad laws used against good people.
_____

Still waiting for the woeful and wondrous white poop of the snow demons. As of 5:30 this morning, nary an inch of the ethereal effluvia is polluting God's green earth.

1/17/12

Four syllables, weather wenches: SNOW-PA-CA-LYPSE. The Mayans and Spokane TV weather witch doctors predicted it, so you know it's true. And did you pay heed to good Uncle Stik about stocking up on canned goods and R&R and mari- ...ah, -nara... sauce? ...for those late nights, when you're all kicked back, the weather outside is frightful, your feet are all cozy in front of the fire, and you want to enjoy a nice bowl of marinara? 

Maybe next time you heathens will listen to me.
_____

Libertarian Illusions. Here's a pretty good critique of Ron Paul's stanch libertarianism. I don't totally agree with the article but it's good food for thought. I link to this after seeing a ridiculously inaccurate and deceptive hit piece that's been passed around on Facebook about Paul that was put out by MoveOn.org.
_____

Nothing is not anything like you thought or didn't think it was or wasn't.

1/16/12

This is the best year for politics ever! I just watched the Republican debates in South Carolina. Newt, Santorum and Perry all played the crowd like fiddles. Ron Paul stumbled. Mitt held his own. Here's how they placed IMHO: It was as close to a five-way tie as you can get. Whether it was a tie for first or last is debatable.
_____

I filmed today at the Martin Luther King rally of a few thousand people downtown. There were city cops on every corner. Two of the cops -- a nice, elderly lady, and a woman who looked like my mom's hairdresser in the Sixties -- waved and joked with the marchers. Other cops smiled and waved as well and I got the shivers. I saw no evidence of the VIPR boogie men rumored to be creeping about. Later, I heard birds singing.
_____

Huntsman is out -- will bail from the presidential race today and endorse Romney. 

Santorum gets a big boost with the endorsement of an influential evangelical Christian group, which is a big deal: Santorum is Catholic, which many fundamentalists consider a pagan religion and seat of The Anti-Christ. Go figure.

Ron Paul returned to South Carolina after taking four days off from campaigning where presumably he stayed up until 8:00 pm doing Geritol shooters and reading econ textbooks.

Newt and Perry will paint their faces black and do a minstrel show in honor of King's birthday.

Mitt, enjoying front runner status, will attempt not to do or say anything stupid. 

1/15/12
                        

  WWMLKD?

What would Martin Luther King Jr. do if he marched in the Spokane Martin Luther King Parade tomorrow?

He would see the presence of the TSA/Homeland Security soldiers and apparatus (named VIPR so to inspire fear in the population) and he -- who relentlessly denounced militarism and warmongering -- would step up to those manifestations of the police state and would beat on the side of those Homeland Security trucks with his Holy Bible until he was drug away, handcuffed, with bright red pepper spray smeared all over his beautiful, black face..

1/14/12

HAPPENING NOW! The VIPR program comes to Spokane! Yesterday a STA bus was pulled over by Homeland Security without cause or provocation and searched with dogs. We need to let these people know that we do not accept this form of Neo-Nazism in our city. Say it to their face!

This Monday, while we denounce MLK parade wannabe bomber Kevin Harpham's backwoods Nazism, we also need to denounce the TSA/Homeland Security high-tech Nazism. Say it to their face! NO NAZIS IN SPOKANE!
_____

It's a sad day for the downtown restaurant/bar culture. The Globe Bar and Grille is making its last last call tonight, after 14 years of service. Let's all remember The Globe's talented and interesting staff when they come knocking at the back kitchen door.
_____

Could you pass the US citizenship test?

My favorite question: 

     41. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.
               a) Civil War
               b) Revolutionary War
               c) World War I
               d) War of 1812

     People who answer (d) are taken out in the courtyard and shot.

1/13/12

Jon Stewart on Ron Paul's second place finish in New Hampshire.

1/11/12

Let's stop creating monsters.
_____

Harry Belafonte: Obama Doesn’t Deserve a Second Term, Lacks ‘Moral Compass’
_____

I predict that Rick Perry -- accompanied by circus music -- will juggle something during the next debate. 
_____

One of the great mysteries about yesterday's NH primary is that Michelle Bachmann, who dropped out of the race entirely, still convinced nearly 400 New Hampshire Republicans to give her their precious vote.
_____

2012 presidential primaries, caucuses, and conventions chronologically.

1/10/12

Romney wins New Hampshire fairly strongly; Ron Paul with a strong second place; Huntsman with a disappointing third, given that he put so much into doing well there. Newt and Santorum shared a distant fourth. As I've said before, Newt will always be Newt. And Santorum -- his ego Iowa-stroked -- will be harder to get rid of than a stain from a sheet. Rick Perry sang and danced with a bear.
_____

Here's the real-time vote count from New Hampshire.
_____

Penn Jillette: An Atheist's Guide to the 2012 Election.
(No, I'm not an atheist. But some of my favorite people are.)

1/09/12

I just got back from a short but thoroughly awesome road trip to Mt. St. Helens. While the road is usually closed during the winter, I drove all the way to the Johnson Ridge Observatory -- just a few miles from the crater. Very impressive. Photos and video to follow.
_____

Regarding the quiz from Saturday: Celilo Falls was inhabited by Native American fishing communities for thousands of years until it was flooded by the backwaters of The Dalles Dam. Today it's all blacktop, chain link fences, No Trespassing signs, and fat, old white people with yapping poodles in oversized RVs.

1/07/12

Today I'm visiting what was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent, where native settlements and trading villages existed in various configurations for 15,000 years until 1957. No, it's not Hillyard. Any other guesses?

1/06/12

So amazing. Stephen Colbert humiliates Obama for signing the National Defense Authorization Act.
_____

Network Solutions is now offering .XXX domains for $129.99 a year, "available to members and non-members of the adult entertainment industry." Who says we're not creating new jobs?

1/05/12

Slow time at work. I feel a road trip coming on. Stay tuned.
_____

I ran into my friend Arp Xigar yesterday at the downtown library. Our short discussion resulted in no property damage and no civilian injuries.
_____

The media is finding ways of dealing with Santorum's "Google problem." I'm still working on it.
_____

Denver police arrested a woman who pulled down her pants in the Clyfford Still Museum and tried to urinate on the celebrated artist's $30 million painting -- which was hanging on the wall. I'm trying to form some kind of mental image of how she went about this; but...

1/04/12

Romney wins Iowa, barely squeaking by Santorum by eight votes! Mitt and the Rickster each earn 25% of the vote. Ron Paul comes in third with 21%. 

This is Santo's brief moment of glory, having no money and no organization to go beyond Iowa. Paul supporters are already damaging themselves by claiming conspiracy because of "secret vote counting" or something. And Mitt is the same Mitt that Republicans didn't like in the first place. 

The big winner in Iowa: Barack Obama.
_____

Rick Perry is out, and now he's in; he's out, he's in. Does even Rick Perry know for sure?

She expected a miracle and a miracle did occur: Michele Bachmann's out.

Newt will be Newt no matter what happens.
_____

High temp of 69 in Walla Walla today. In Spokane, a high of 57.

1/03/12

Do the right thing, Iowa...
_____

Prediction: The Santorum Surge will become a euphemism for a new kinky sex act (probably somehow involving corn).
_____

Did you know that a guy named Thaddeus McCotter (no relation to my friend Stony McWeedseeder) actively ran for the Republican nomination? Me neither. He dropped out of the race on Sept. 22. 

Did you know that a guy named Buddy Roemer is still actively running? No, me neither.

1/02/12

Randy Bachman on that first fabulous chord in The Beatles' Hard Day's Night.
_____

Obama had mere "reservations" about ending Habeas Corpus and the Sixth Amendment? Bullshit. He could and should have vetoed it, preserved nearly 250 years of America tradition, and used the opportunity to denounce this new American Nazism.
_____

Warmongering: It's good for the economy and great for elections!
U.S. fighter sales soar in time for campaign.
_____

Record hits yesterday: 11,500

1/01/12

It's law, my friends. The treason is complete. We HAVE been sold out. Again.
_____

Here's some further predictions for the year 2012:

(1) Ron Paul will win the Iowa Caucus.
(2) Ron Paul will be accused of hating puppies, poisoning wells and Satanism.
(3) Sarah Palin will be doing Shake Weight commercials by 2013.
(4) Some horrible natural disaster will happen and the media will say it's the most horrible that's happened since the last one.
(5) Meet the Press host, David Gregory, will start parting his hair on the other side and not provide any explanation. People will die.
(6) People will talk about how a meteor might or might not hit planet Earth.
(7) NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell will dump ex-Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenburg and shack with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Their love child will be the Antichrist.
(8) Chris Matthews and Lady Gaga.
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Given the state of world events and collective human consciousness, there's still an 83.7 % chance the world could end on 12/21/12. So, let's not give the Mayans too much credit.
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"Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed."
     Schopenhauer
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Don't stop now!
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