Wednesday, March 31, 2010
SLOW MOTION
No movie today.
I was slowed by the need to meet with Paul the Gardener this morning.
It is time to prune.
This is a big year for the north side. A lot of dead stuff to weed out.
The olive tree is already blooming. It has been a wet winter, so we will have to prune it a lot and spray, to kill the remaining blossoms.This is to prevent ripe olives strewing our patio this fall. Ineradicable oil spots.
This year we are going to cut the banana trees down. The big ones. They are so tall that they are browning. Hard to get the water up there in the dry air.
And all the rest of the usual trims.
Stuff grows very fast here. It is an annual affair.
I have been trying to get this project on the road for several weeks. I take this process slowly. I know that my man overcommits and is always behind. Overpromising.
I called yesterday with a more stern demeanor. He called later to say he would be here at 8 this morning with his crew.
Well, he was here at 9 this morning and no crew. He will start tomorrow.
We did our walk-around to decide on the work to be done.
Here is how it goes.
I have a list. I start to walk through it as we stroll through the yard.
At the second or third tree, he takes the list from me and starts to tell me what he will do. We go through the entire property and he has it all figured out. No help from me. Well, an occasional mutter or wheeze.
This is why he is my man.
He knows his stuff and he has utter confidence in his proposals. Cutting into shrubs and cactus and trees is not a trivial manner. They need to be shaped. There are consequences. Cactus limbs, for example, support each other. Take one out and others fold.
The ten minute walk is a seminar in desert horticulture.
Suddenly, there is no hurry. It will get done and done right.
He said he would start today but he didn't come back. I called and he said that he had to go file papers and it took too long. He was too late to get (good) helpers from the labor pool. He will be here.
Tomorrow. 8 AM.
I will be here.
The work will get done.
Three days or so to do it. It is a huge job. Piles of branches. It takes one pruner and two helpers.
Paul says that he will do it himself.
That is worth waiting for.
Did I mention that in June it will be time to prune the palm trees? Not so hard. He farms that work out. It takes and hour.
Labels: desert, horticulture, life
NO, NO AND NO! HELL NO!!! NO GODAMMIT!! NO!
From Firedoglake:
Obama’s decision “continues to defy the will of the American people,” Boehner said in a statement, pointing to the president’s decision to open Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters, while leaving Pacific and many Alaskan waters largely closed to exploration.Obama could propose cutting taxes to zero, deporting everyone who can’t speak English, renaming the country “Jesusland”…doesn’t matter.
Labels: Republicans
LETTERS
Do you wonder about those ten letters Obama reads each day?
I did.
Here is the rundown.
For a look outside presidential bubble, Obama reads 10 personal letters each day
There is a nice profile of how all the communications to the President get handled. An overwhelming load. Phone calls, emails, presents, regular letters.
But somehow down at the bottom of the process they find ten typical letters to send to the boss to read every night.
They are not all in support either. He sees tirades and praise and plain old hello's.
Read the article. It is very well written and answers a hundred trivia questions.
Labels: Administration Obama
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
At Key West Beach, Wondering Who’s a Vagrant
This is funny. Sort of.
We used to go to Key West on a fairly regular basis.
It was best when it was in its hippie-gay phase.
For a few seasons some discos from Fire Island (The Monster) and other gay enterprises moved to match the gay migration, some of it A-list (Calvin Klein).
Key West was thought of as Provincetown South. Some inkeepers and restauranteurs had places in both locales.
We had a lot of fun in Key West. I may have actually gone there alone once or twice.
I did my first snorkel swimming on the coral beds which are no longer very rich. John and I found a deserted island that the boat guy took us to and then discretely sailed off for an hour while we had at one another. Another fantasy scratched off the list.
Then things turned. We had the worst weather ever one year. We stayed bundled up in a heatless guest house with no sun for days. Cold rain. 24/7.
We didn't go back for awhile. February can be the cruelest month in Florida. The Caribbean, St. Croix, became our happy haunt until Hurricane Hugo.
Then we tried Key West again.
The hippies were gone. The gays were gone. The cruise ships had landed.
The city had put in a wharf to welcome cruises and it became a day stop with hot and cold running drunks and knuckle draggers from one end of Duval Street to another.
We rented a house this time and, aside from the cold pool, it was a nice stay. And it was our last.
I remember the morning runs were punctuated by the sound of breaking glass from the bars.
Another Key West story. I went there a couple of times to have a business meeting with my partners.
The last time we went, the time we told one partner he wasn't anymore, we walked to a restaurant and got lost.
One of us, the one who got X-ed, insisted on walking further in the same direction despite the daunting signs that we were in the Key West ghetto.
Finally, in an act of mercy, a black guy came out of his house and told us we should do a U-turn and go back where we came from. It wasn't an "or else" statement. It was a simple humanitarian warning.
Now.
None of this is about homelessness.
But if one thing was a constant all the times I have been in Key West, it is the homeless. Or the "vagrants". Same thing.
As one of them says in this article, Key West is one of the best places in the country for living outside on the streets or the beach or wherever you can find a secure sleeping place.
They were always there. Panhandlers. Idlers.
And drunks.
But, in the drunk category, you can't tell the vagrants from the tourists except that the tourists are a lot more of a public nuisance. Throwing up, acting out. It is a drunk's playland. Duval Street once claimed to have the highest density of bars of any town in the United States.
The vagrants are quieter. They sit and nurse their bottle. They lounge. They go to the beach and play chess and checkers. They enjoy the sun.
I don't know why they are rousting them off the beach. No one else ever goes there.
Key West is on a coral bed. There is no sand except that which is trucked in. The "beach" is so close to the airport you can smell the diesel.
I like the creativity behind the title "quality of life policing".
Whose quality? Whose life?
We have the same problem in Palm Springs incidentally. Vagrants. But they are kept in a tight cordon in an area not exposed to the tourists.
And it is not really that great to sleep outside in the summer.
No one has started "quality of life" policing yet.
Labels: culture
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
BETTER
For those who are wondering, my leg is better today. Or, perhaps, the medication is better.
I switched from Extra-Strength Bufferin to Ibuprofin (Advil).
I take a little bigger than indicated amount with the Advil. My dentist said it is OK.
I know. He isn't an orthopedic surgeon. So what? It is the same question and the same answer. All of it for the short term. 1200 mg / day is the max on the bottle. You can take up to 1600 easy without any adverse effects.
I went to the gym and did the bike. It didn't hurt to work it that way.
I did my weight work.
I can walk pretty well. A slight limp favoring the tight upper calf.
It is localizing.
I can sit and lie without any discomfort.
So it is on the mend.
I also get used to the pain and go through it. I am not a stoic but I don't usually give in to pain. I experience it and let it go.
I don't do anything stupid though.
I know I am supposed to work it so that it repairs appropriately in the right fiber layers and all. It is surely a tear.
Muscle.
So that is it.
I tried the cane a bit last night but that is a hinderance not a help.
AND ANOTHER SHOT IN THE FOOT
The "repeal the health reform bill" crowd, the intelligent ones, had second thoughts and now want to repeal and replace only parts of the law as passed. Trying to get out of that corner they painted.
But the purity guys won't let them.
Club For Growth Demands Fealty
The Affordable Care Act is not only good policy it is good politics. The citizenry are beginning to get (small business people here) that there are some good things in this bill. That the GOP may just have overstated their opposition to the provisions.
Now the ag'ginners are getting their comeuppance.
Labels: Administration Obama, Republicans
CENSUS DROPOUTS
I predicted this.
The extreme right wing opposition to the Census has led to the reduction of count for poor white republican anglo saxon protestant families of the evangelical persuasion.
Traditionally, blacks, hispanics and other minorities are undercounted.
The are hastening their own race to the bottom of the deck.
Reaping What One Sows on the Census
The national average on the return rate for census forms is 34%. In much of Texas, the more Republican the area, the lower the return rate. In Briscoe County in the Panhandle, McCain/Palin won nearly 75% of the vote -- and 8% of locals are sending in their census materials. In King County, near Lubbock, McCain/Palin won nearly 93% of the vote -- and only 5% of locals are answering the census.This is sort of a darwinian thing isn't it?They apparently have no idea that they're acting against their own interests.
Culling out.
Labels: republican whack jobs
RACETRACK
My newly developed understanding of quantum physics, leads me to rejoice over this.
Large Hadron Collider Finally Smashing Properly
This whole project has been a slow starter but that is to be expected.
Now I am going to have to get a book on "dark matter".
Labels: science
FAIR AND BALANCED FLAP ISSUES
Faux News cuts away from Obama's remarks and signing of the student aid bill to watch a plane land successfully.
And we wonder why the fringes are misinformed and ignorant of what the government is actually doing.
It is actually censorship.
Labels: republican whack jobs
HALF NEW
I saw the second half of
Du levande / You The Living (2007)the Swedish film by Roy Andersson.
The first disc sent had a scratch on the last half hour. Someone didn't like it.
But I did.
Today, I watched the whole thing which means that I saw the same stuff twice and it still holds up. I saw more in the frame. Andersson uses a static camera.
I thought less about Tati today and more about Buster Keaton. The reviewer also saw a reference to the Ayn Rand novel You the Living in the title. If that is so then it is more than tongue in cheek.
Rand was against the state and supported the ego. The primacy of the individual. A lot of the baggers we see right now are Randians. Me first. Fuck the state.
Nothing in this film is as political but it is all about people pursuing happiness beyond reasonable limits and mostly all for themselves. A certain souzaphone player and drummer come to mind. Heedless of others they pursue a vision of happiness which doesn't work either. They fail to see that their own expectations are the ingredients of their depression.
There is even a psychiatrist who explains it all. People are mean. You can't make mean people happy. "I give them pills". They don't work either but they go away satisfied.
The film is actually quite funny if, in the end, rather dark or pessimistic.
It was as funny the second time as the first.
You know the Johnny Mercer song You Gotta Accent the Positive? Well these folks need a good dose of it.
It being Sweden, there is also a lot of alcoholism in here too. But I will let it go at that.
I have ordered an earlier Andersson film which is designed along similar lines.
Coming soon.
I will give this one a 5 out of Netflix5 because I have almost seen it twice already and I will probably want to see it again sometime. I look forward to Andersson's next film whenever that is. He has only made 4 in 40 years.
Be sure to see the slide show in the review at the link.
Labels: films
ROTHKO
I would love to see this play.
In "Red" 2-Man Cast Shares Stage With a Vivid Character
Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne play Mark Rothko and his assistant.
They actually paint in the show. It says you can smell the paint when you come into the theater.
Rothko was a haunted man and committed suicide. He was trouble for patrons. He was commissioned to paint eight panels for an opening of a Four Season's Hotel and then withheld the work because he didn't like the hotel's clientele.
I never stayed in a Four Seasons for exactly that reason but we used to have dinner in their really nice bistro facing the Boston Common. I know. Very self referential but it is the truth.
Rothko's works are very moving. They are often shown in low light as prescribed by the artist.
We went to see The Rothko Chapel in Houston.
I can still see it in my mind's eye.
Rothko mostly painted stripes or columns in unusual shades that worked the eye and spirit. Hard. It all went right past the brain.
Monday, March 29, 2010
ON THE INJURY LIST
This morning I was taking off my gym shorts at the shower and as I stepped out of them I went all twingy on my left leg. It hurt like hell and I couldn't stand on it.
I had just done the bendover hamstring stretch.
I think that perhaps I stretched to far, too fast and too cold. I can normally "nod" myself down to touch the floor with flat palms but I am not sure that I "nodded" this morning.
In any case I have been wobbly all day but it is a lot better.
The worst part is when I go over in the bend over and touch the toes position that it hurts most.
Hamstring, right?
Yes. I self diagnose and take Extra Strength Bufferin.
I also use the leg.
I did the hot cold thing this morning but there is no swelling and so that is done with.
How do I know that it is the hamstring? I do not.
Is it important that I know? I don't think so.
I have been at this shit for a long time. Running, gym, stretches, all that. Everyonce in awhile I get an injury.
If it was bad enough I would go seek help. But it is not.
Booker and I did the walk tonight and it got better as we walked. Circulation, use of the injured muscle to put it to rights.
Fortunately, the red dog was home and so we went into the yard and the dogs ran around and around. Booker got 20 minutes worth of walk in five minutes and I got a break. We went home afterwards.
For those who worry, don't. I will be back in the game shortly. Actually, I am in the game. I haven't curtailed anything, just am moving a bit more slowly.
If you want to diagnose. There. On the left. Have at it. What do you think it is?
NICE
Not that any of us are surprised but, still.
Ricky Martin Comes Out: "I'm A Fortunate Homosexual Man"
All this just simply helps.
The more we are out the less they can drive us back in.
Public figures get to choose their own direction and time but courage is always admirable and Martin has done it before his career dims and before someone plays "gotcha" with what is and should be a private matter. Even for a public life.
Another thing. He just adopted. Good for him. He owes it to the kids too.
Labels: gay liberation, gay life
SCHADENFREUDE
From WaPo.
The Republican National Committee gave nearly $2,000 to a Southern California GOP contributor for meal expenses at Voyeur West Hollywood, a lesbian-themed California nightclub that features topless dancers wearing horse-bits and other bondage gear, according to newly filed disclosure records.Doesn't everyone know that these are public records and that they will be scoured.
That stupidity is the least of it.
The hypocrisy of this is breathtaking.
Of course, the Demos have their own scandals but rarely do you see a Democrat caught with his pants down at a Tea Party rally or a NRA meeting.
We may be stupid here and there but we are not prone to crossing to the other side for illicit fun.
This is also the venue for an infamous, well commercially so, gay party run by the White Party crowd.
It should be said that this place is upscale. It may deal in sleaze but the folks dress up for it. And pay a lot, evidently, for a good time.
Very Republican, in a way, if you think about it.
Labels: rep, republican whack jobs
BATTER UP!
Obama to Throw First Nats Pitch
Do the two fingers like that make it a curve?
I am about as qualified as he is to do the deed.
But he is game and I am not.
Labels: Administration Obama
FANATIC
Today's movie was
A nebbishy kind of guy is a rabid fan of the Giants football team.
He stalks a star of the team. The star takes offense and clocks him. The fan struggles with his loyalties to the team and his own integrity.
This guy is a retarded adolescent and he knows it but it is his life.
We see other similar people.
I figure, given the money in the game, that this is a significant culture. That is not the point of the film. We are more involved in the fan's struggle with himself and those few around him who want him to change and get a "serious life".
Patton Oswalt is the fan. He is great. It is his film. You can see what is going on just by watching him. Oswalt is a standup comic who also voiced Remy the rat in the Pixar animation “Ratatouille”. He is very good.
There are a lot of surprises in the film and they all "sell". It is a loving portrait of a somewhat unloveable guy.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
UNDERGROUND
This is from the website Spaceweather.com which I have been reading every day since one of my young interviewees turned me on to it.
Today, I am informed that we have a worm moon. Ever hear of that?
WORM MOON: According to folklore, tonight's full Moon has a special name--the Worm Moon. It signals the coming of northern spring, a thawing of the soil, and the first stirrings of earthworms in long-dormant gardens. Step outside tonight and behold the wakening landscape. "Worm moonlight" is prettier than it sounds.We have worms in the desert.
I am not sure how they got here. I imagine that they have been here since before the desert went dry. We used to be underwater.
The smart ones live in the lawns and golf courses that get regular water. Darwin works for their survival as the weak minded or too adventurous of them crawl out on the hot sidewalk and, well, fry.
When I see them I put them back. If they are still moist and wiggling.
I have a long time fondness for worms of all kinds. When I was a kid, I kept an earthworm colony alive in a pot but they all died eventually. Earthworms need to wander and to explore. Just not out on the hot sidewalk.
I also kept mealworms in a jar. They didn't care. They liked it in there. They could lay their eggs and die and the eggs would rehatch. Every so often--yearly?--I would change the medium. Flour and bran.
I suppose that our earthworms work just like those back east. They are tuned to the the biological clocks that will have them stirring just about now.
I think that this is so because we do not have any earthworms on sidewalks (when it would be safe) from November until, well, about now.
I will look for them.
In the meantime we will enjoy the moon which seems especially bright just now. It is rising as it gets dark and setting just before dawn. Perfect timing.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
MAHER
I don't much like Bill Maher but I like this.
New Rule: You can't use the statement "there will be no cooperation for the rest of the year" as a threat if there was no cooperation in the first half of the year. Here's a word the president should take out of his teleprompter: bipartisanship. People only care about that in theory, not in practice. The best thing that's happened this year is when President Obama finally realized this and said, "Kiss my black ass, we're going it alone, George W. Bush style."
Labels: Administration Obama, fun
ALL TAKE BUT NO GIVE
Steve Benen notes the paradox and contradiction of people protesting against government programs when they, themselves, are the direct beneficiaries of government programs.
I imagine that a lot of people on Social Security or disability or unemployment or Medicare A to D, don't think that they are on the dole. Adding to the debt. A part of big government. But they are. We all are.
The word "ignorant" comes to mind.
The NYT has an article today about how, when the economy recovers, there may not be so many tea bags out there who have time to run to Sarah's events or to picket their congresspeople. They will be working.
A lot of them sure seem to have a lot of time on their hands.
I suppose that I am going a bit overboard about the baggies. They have gotten my goat.
I always saw them as a bunch of hot head "aginners" but now I see them as a direct threat to the social fabric.
Forgive me if I vent over the horseshit that I see daily from these folks.
It is one thing to dress up like Paul Revere and go to a demo and quite another to be like a patriot and be American.
When they throw those terms around themselves, "patriot" and "American", they seem to be from another country than the one I grew up with.
But I have a faulty memory. They were there when the civil rights laws were being forged and they were there in the sixties when heads were getting bashed for raising questions about the war. They were there when McCarthy was their leader. They were there when John Birchers were in force. They were there when we used to have to wade through them at airports. They were with LaRouche then.
They are the same people who voted for Prop 8 and ended gay marriage in California and that is the least of what they want to do with the likes of me.
And, yes, we have to have them now because this is America and we are all patriots and they are part of the tension that makes democracy work. So I will put up with it.
At least I, don't want to throw any bricks through their windows or to "reload and target" other people over their views.
There.
Maybe I can get off it for awhile. I am just so over these fucking people.
Labels: republican whack jobs
POPCORN FOR THE EYES
Today's movie was the Brit gay film
This is actually a nice romantic comedy without a lot of pretense, stereotypes or gratuitous sex scenes.
It mostly revolves around three couples or potential couples, well four or five, who are looking for Mr. Right or think that they are.
It is quite funny and the guys are very good. Some are lookers, some not. There are certain types of gay man represented here but most, actually, are metrosexual. This is love in the city. London.
Everyone is actually quite likable even the sort of mildly bad guys.
We both enjoyed it and found it very satisfying with no rough spots.
The gay film industry, just like the bible film industry, here in the states is mostly predictable and formulaic.
This film, surprisingly, is not. There are some great jokes, lines, and the situations are new and different.
If you are gay and you want a little light romance and some fun, this is for you.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 even though, like popcorn, I sort of want to go back and see it again. I don't think I will really remember it tomorrow. But that is OK. Lite is good.
Labels: films
MISREADING
David Remnick was an excellent piece in The New Yorker last week about the missteps that Israel has been taking with the Obamas.
Comment; Special Relationships
Netanyahu is particularly myopic and tone deaf to the present state of his US friendship.
He evidently cannot see what is in front of his face.
He is resolutely failing to see the friendship that the Obamas have for Israel, if not him personally. He is an ass.
And he went to MIT!
Well, he won't be the first ass to graduate from there.
He interned at BCG. The outfit Romney ended up CEOing.
Labels: Israel
TEAD OFF
From the NYTimes with Frank Rich's op ed
The Rage is Not About Health Care
Demographics are avatars of a change bigger than any bill contemplated by Obama or Congress. The week before the health care vote, The Times reported that births to Asian, black and Hispanic women accounted for 48 percent of all births in America in the 12 months ending in July 2008. By 2012, the next presidential election year, non-Hispanic white births will be in the minority. The Tea Party movement is virtually all white. The Republicans haven’t had a single African-American in the Senate or the House since 2003 and have had only three in total since 1935. Their anxieties about a rapidly changing America are well-grounded.
Labels: republican whack jobs
WHITE HOUSE SEDER
This is a great story. Very nice. An idea of what life is like in the Obama circle when the politics and governing are not cooking.
Next Year in the White House: A Seder Tradition
What I like is the total involvement between Obama and the "junior" staffers.
It is like a classless society.
Labels: Administration Obama, holidays
Saturday, March 27, 2010
MORE THAN I EXPECTED updated
Palin in Searchlight, NV. See below.
We print the facts here even if we don't like them. FIrst reports said 20,000 but I waited for AP.
About 7,000 people streamed into tiny Searchlight, a former mining town 60 miles south of Las VegasIt is still a lot. Busloads from Las Vegas.
Update. The NYT says "several" thousand.
Gettin' smaller.
Labels: republican whack jobs
THEY BLINKED
Another breakthrough in a week of breakthroughs. The Russian-US disarmament agreement.
Obama (and Hillary Clinton) doesn't get enough credit for the great strides he has made in foreign affairs.
The meme is that he is weak. He gives in.
Take a look at this.
Steel.
The Arms Deal That Almost Didn't Happen
That seems to be one of the key takeaways from the long-sought treaty -- Russia wanted to test Obama, and hoped he'd buckle. Indeed, the Russians seemed to think it was likely, given the U.S. president's domestic challenges, and Obama's desire to complete the deal and move on.
"When President Obama's domestic positions were weakened in recent months and he was completely consumed in his crusade for health care reform, making all other issues irrelevant, it is surprising how much attention he kept on Start," said Sergei M. Rogov, director of the Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies in Moscow, referring to the treaty. "Even being 24-hours-a-day busy on health reform, he had a 25th hour for Start."
What Russia didn't expect is what they got -- a U.S. president who took hard lines, didn't yield, and was willing to be patient. That was true even when missile defense provisions threatened to scuttle the entire deal.
(snip)
Despite the Russians' apparent leverage, Obama didn't back down. The Russians did.
Periodically over the last few years, Obama has joked that "just because I'm skinny doesn't mean I'm not tough." I think everyone is starting to get a better sense that the boast is accurate.
Labels: Administration Obama
UNDEAD LIVE
Today's film was Bruce La Bruce'
Otto; Or, Up with Dead People (2008)
The word transgressive doesn't quite capture the outrageousness of Bruce La Bruce' films.
A Canadian working in Germany, La Bruce manages to spin out a piece of outrage about once every two years.
I suspect it takes him that long to get backing.
But, here is the thing, he has more interesting footage of film, more creative use of the film media and more innovative film technology than most other films I see hands down.
Sometimes the plot is thin but the lines are really wonderful. Everything is mockable. This system, that system, the talking head, the ranting radical, the intellectual and so on. A lot of laughs.
In this film he shows us, well, zombies. Real and imagined.
He shows us two films. One in black and white and the other color with crossovers to and from both.
He has a character that only appears in black and white and without sound using dialog boards like, well, silent movies. He has great dissolves from one shot to another. Lots of neat cinematography.
And the best part. He always has handsome men and there will be some very good homo sex somewhere. Often, heteros get a chance too but not in this one. Granted, some of the sex is kind of gory, this being a zombie flick and all, but La Bruce does not miss the opportunity to slip in a bit of real, true blue porno.
The headline of the review above is not kidding. He does manage to straddle (!?) the line between art and smut.
And why not? Isn't some art smut and some smut an art?
I would give all of Bruce's films a 4. I could be induced to see any of them any time. Again.
Not everyone's taste but there must be enough of us who fit his niche for him to keep producing these things.
Labels: films
BOOKERS BUSY DAYS
You read below about Booker's adventures in climbing the walls and then coming down.
Last night he racked up another tennis ball ten minutes into our walk.
A trophy.
Nothing would do but to go home and put it in his den. The living room.
Go out for the rest of the walk?
No sir. Not on your life. Gotta work on the ball. And he did.
A ten minute walk.
And now, this morning, John reports that while "inspecting" an empty house (John's architectural hobby) Booker found another tennis ball.
This time in the pool of the house.
The next thing John heard was a splash.
And the long unanswered question was answered.
"What if Booker falls into the pool".
He swims. He finds the steps. He gets out.
Just that simple.
John didn't say whether he would have jumped in to save the Book if he was foundering. But he didn't have to.
Booker brought the ball out with him and dropped it. Sopping wet. Booker and the ball.
John tried to get him to take the ball and carry it home.
Nothing doing. Bad ball.
They came home, Booker got dry.
Another adventure.
Labels: Booker
TURNING A PROFIT, A WINDFALL!
OK tea bags!
Those of you who thought/think bailout was a bad idea.
U.S. take if it sells its Citi stake to settle cost of bailout: $8 billion
That is 8 billion dollar in profits, 27%.
The Obamas will cash in for us.
That is because in the last year, the Obama's fiscal policy has helped the economy turn around.
Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh. Tell me about it.
Results count.
I love the redeeming quality of history and facts.
But the baggies won't hear about this. They only watch Fox. They love Beck. The adore Rush. All of whom have their denial story ready.
Socialism. Naziism. Takeover. Nonsense.
Labels: Administration Obama, republican whack jobs
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
Separate Bunks for Gays, Says General
This same general is fighting the repeal of DADT.
He is in homosexual panic.
I have some news for him.
Young Marines are already at it. They don't call themselves gays. They call themselves buddies.
They are all over the internet.
Some have wondered whether all that male bonding may have taken a little more deeply than intended.
Nevertheless, the gay bars in San Diego and other top Marine locations are filled with the young men who serve so valiantly in our military and more power to them.
There is nothing wrong with this of course.
It is great. Great for the men, great for morale, great for unit cohesiveness.
I don't see what the general is getting his panties all in a twist about.
Probably as a young officer he did not see what was going on in his own service. What was happening all around him.
Gay friends who are Marines report a happy and sane sex life during their tour of duty. Many of the guys went on to get married and lead a straight life style. As they say.
Sure. Some of it is situational sex and everyone knows that too. We are not talking gay marriage here.
But to hear the general and his friends tell it, that is the next thing that is going to happen.
A roll in the bunk when a little high or a dalliance out behind the barracks isn't going to hurt anyone. If it did, The Corps would not have the reputation it has for high pride and higher morale.
The funny thing is that if gay military did have separate rooms they would finally get the privacy they needed to have as much homo-sex as they wanted.
Labels: gay military, gay rights
SEARCH ME
They have determination.
Showdown in Searchlight: tea party targets Reid
The organizers want to fit 10,000 tea bags into Searchlight, NV for an anti-Harry Reid rally. Sarah Palin.
Good luck.
It is his home town.
I have been to Searchlight.
It is on the way to Vegas if you go the "back way".
We always stop there for a snack and pit stop but not in the town exactly. We go to a snack bar (and casino) at the airstrip.
Searchlight proper is a no traffic light bumper strip on Rte 95. All the rest is desert. Mines. Ghost towns.
There are three motels. Well, one of those is actually a dude ranch outside of town.
If you are going over the speedlimit, you will be in and out of Searchlight in a minute.
There is a diner/casino in the center. The place we went once.
On either side of Searchlight, north or south, there are about 50 miles of flat out desert. Two and three lane road. Plenty of room for the crowd that the organizers hope for. There will be traffic jams.
I am reporting on this just because I know the place and have sat in its splendor.
I would imagine that Harry Reid has not been there, except to visit, in many years. I don't suppose that he will be there today.
There seems to be some doubt that 10,000 tea bags will be there either. We shall see.
They could pull it off.
Labels: tea party
Friday, March 26, 2010
COLLEGE ASSISTS
I work with prospective students and, now, I have eligible grandchildren.
The student loan landscape has been horrendously mismanaged.
The other "big fucking deal" that was passed with Affordacare* is the reform of the college loan structure to take banks out of it and put the students back in the picture. The loan revenue will go back for loans. Not into banker pockets.
All This and College Loans Too
Not quite as revolutionary as Affordacare but close.
*Affordacare or Affordable Care, the name of the health care reform measure shortened. Not Obama care incidentally. That is the swear word used by the tea bags. The title of the act is Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Progressives are pushing an aka, the Affordable Care Act or ACA. We will see what happens
Labels: Administration Obama
LIFE IN 50 SEGMENTS
Today's movie was Roy Aundersson's
Du levande / You the Living (2007)
Swedish. Great. Wry. Poignant. Funny.
Yes. 50 vignettes. I didn't count. I accept that.
Some are related.
All are on the side of sad and sometimes tragic. But always a laugh is behind or in front of the tear. Droll?
Some have compared this to Jaques Tati. I can see that.
This project took three years to make. It is all studio filmed. It has an enormous cast as almost all of the vignettes have different actors.
Those who do show up in different scenes help underscore the point or the laugh or the simple emotion. We know the backstory.
Most are looking for happiness when it is right in front of them or could be.
The sets are all in pastels and natural wood. Some are enormous. I would not normally pay attention to this but I knew how the film was made and it helped me sort of get my bearings. Some pieces of some sets and a bar set are used over and over in different arrangements.
This is intentional. I am sure that it doesn't bear a lot of scrutiny but it gives us a base or a skeleton to this widely various number of situations that we are sort of pushing through.
On the other hand, it never seems rushed.
My disc had a bad scratch so I missed two or three pieces.
I will see it again and I want to. All of it.
That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD
When Booker came to stay with us we were concerned about his taking a run.
Rescue dogs do that.
They don't know where they are going. They just want to get there.
Wherever it is.
He did really well. No running. We have a fence around the yard so there was no worry there.
Except for that embankment on the north side which is about four feet high high with thick bushes on top of the retaining wall.
There is a fence on the other side, up the hill and out front if somehow, against all odds, with the help of a machete, he could get through the undergrowth.
So we didn't worry about it.
Even though there are kitties up there from time to time. Even though there are rustlings from rats and bats. He barked but never chased.
Until this winter. T Book decided he could use the spa cover as a step ladder and went roaring through the impenetrable bush in a rush of pent up frustration. No machete. After the kitty.
I was there at the time. I saw it. I didn't believe it. But I went after him. Called. I didn't try the bushes.
And he came right back, stepped down on the spa cover and contritely returned to the yard.
He knew that he had erred and did not try it again.
FF to the present. We took the spa cover off the other day. I figured that would be the end of the problem.
No step ladder.
This morning. No Booker in the back yard.
Oh! Booker is up on the retaining wall. He was trying to see if he could use the spa sides to get up there. Just an experiment. But it worked. He was up there.
Problem. He couldn't get down. Or couldn't figure out how. Somehow those spa rims looked pretty small from three feet above them.
His dismay at being stuck attracted both Dads to the back yard.
Very embarrassing.
Worse, he finally had to be lifted down. Dignity drained.
He was contrite. He was apologetic. He did not need a speech or a shaking finger.
He has been a very good boy ever since. I suspect that he will be a good boy all day today.
Embarrassment is a great teacher.
Labels: Booker
HORDES
I keep thinking that it is going to end.
But it continues.
We are being visited by hundreds of may flies. In the yard. In the house. They are everywhere.
I do not remember this happening before.
They are in the pool. They are in the spa.
There are so many of them. They are in the air. All of the time.
Wispy little things with spidery legs.
It says that they breed in lakes. I don't know about that.
Swimming pools? With chlorine. And filters?
Maybe the rainy weather this past winter have helped make hidie holes for them
No matter how, they are here.
They only live a short time. Some an hour. Others up to a day.
Their bodies are everywhere too. Carnage. Well, I guess it isn't carnage if they die a natural death. And the bodies deteriorate almost immediately.
We aren't trying to get rid of them. They are almost inconsequential except in their mystery. Even Booker has a tolerant view. If they are going to die soon anyway why not just let them alone.
The first year we were here we had a cricket invasion. Other years there have been other hordes, mostly different types of ants. Termites of course. This is California. We went and eradicated all of those.
But the mayflies can stay, endearing as they are. This years horde is gentle and temporary.
It is just that there are so many of them.
INSTITUTIONALIZING NASTINESS
Timothy Egan has a great piece in the NYT today.
Try these quotes:
Unfairly or not, the defining images of opposition to health care reform may end up being those rage-filled partisans with spittle on their lips. Whether the outbursts came from inside Congress — the “baby killer” shout of Rep. Randy Neugebauer, and his colleagues who cheered on hecklers — or outside, where protesters hurled vile names against elected representatives, they are powerful and lasting scenes of a democracy gasping for dignity."An adolescent living in the shell of a former statesman. That's enough. You need to read the article.Now, ask yourself a question: can you imagine Ronald Reagan anywhere in those pictures? Or anywhere in those politics? Reagan was all about sunny optimism, and at times bipartisan bonhomie. In him, the American people saw their better half.
AND
From the leader of the opposition, at least, was expected a level of decorum. But instead, Rep. John Boehner, the Republican who wants to be the next speaker of the House, predicted “Armageddon,” and shouted “Hell, no!,” his perma-tan turning crimson in rage.
AND
But it’s always better to be building something than destroying it. John McCain had a positive campaign slogan in 2008 — “Country First.” This week, he vowed “no cooperation for the rest of the year.” This is an adolescent living in the shell of a former statesman.
He took his position, he said, using the same justification as the Texan who yelled “baby killer,” because “the American people are very angry.”
The party of Reagan indeed.
I didn't think Reagan was a great man but I thought he was a decent man who put collegiality and congeniality right behind country.
Labels: republican whack jobs, Republicans
Thursday, March 25, 2010
SUPPRESSION
Well, lookie here.
A GOoPer purge.
I wrote about David Frum the other day who apostatically said that the Republicans had created their own Waterloo with totally saying "no" to Health Care Reform.
Now he is fired from one of the conservative think tanks.
Taking the Think Out of Think Tank
This is the guy who coined "axis of evil". A key bush speech writer.
Purity. That is the word from over there.
It is interesting.
You could no more stifle the Democrats' urge to disagree and flounder around wrestling each other over dogma and all out there in the public view. Dissent plus transparency. I guess that scares the troglodytes.
It sure has helped the Demos have a great year capped with the passage of that "big fucking deal" HCR plus, in case we forget it, the overhaul of the student loan mess.
I will put Frum's picture up. A martyr to the cause of truly bipartisan governing. Also Democracy.
Labels: Administration Obama, republican whack jobs, Republicans
WRITTEN OUT
Today will be a light blog day, I fear.
I have been writing and writing all day. Catching up on email.
And I am sort of working on the outline of a speech that I will give in five weeks. To 500 people.
I am more of an improvisor than a teleprompter guy. I am not sure that I want to write it.
Maybe I will outline it.
So far, I have had about fifty starting paras. All more or less the same but subtly different.
In all my years of training I never, ever had a long speech to give. Guys in the company did them but I didn't.
The people that would consult with us on marketing always pushed speaking dates to generate business. My thought was that, if that was what it took to get business, I didn't want any.
I have some proof that I was right about that. I cannot remember one piece of business that ever came in the door from a speech. Usually people who heard the speaker figured they had learned it all. Why take the course?
I recently wrote to an old colleague. He is still giving speeches. He is not particularly successful with giving programs. But he still shows up at all kinds of conventions and speaks about sales.
He lives on "honorariums". What a way to make a living.
I would think that someone who taught selling would know about face to face selling and use it but he does not. Funny.
But I digress.
So here I am. A fucking speech.
Actually, it is more a telling of my life story as it pertains to recovery from alcoholism. A familiar tale and right on the tip of my lips.
Maybe I will wing it.
Maybe I will write a speech.
Maybe I will cancel. No. I made a commitment to a friend.
It will be fine. And so will I.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
I THOUGHT THAT I KNEW IT ALL BUT I DID NOT
What does Health Care Reform do now? I keep getting it mixed up. Here is the straight up list.
Health Care Reform's Immediate Impact
My list was a lot shorter than this.
Jeez.
No wonder it is such a "big fucking deal".
And the GOoPers are going to campaign on taking this stuff away?
Hah!
The biggest thing here, as far as I am concerned, is the kids.
Start from there. We are losing them. Physical health starts first. No one can have a decent life hungry.
Labels: Administration Obama
CLUSTERFUCK
Today's movie was Armando Iannucci's
A farce. A loose remark made on a boring talk show by an even more boring Secretary of something in the British government gets misinterpreted and before he or anyone else can stop it becomes a case of bureaucratic panic and fire fighting with cross memos, planted stories, backstabbing, territory defending and all the usual paraphernalia of second level players. The USA gets involved and the two groups of minor players go for the big fuckup at the UN where there are world class flunkies to take the whole thing to the limits. Well not to the limits, actually, but over them.
This is very funny. The dialog is very good. Clever. The people are, in a way, caricatures but, in another way, just like you and I. That is the scary part.
It is very well written and beautifully performed by a crack team of actors who take their work very seriously indeed.
The art and science of intimidation and prevarication are vividly demonstrated.
I liked it. I would have liked a 90 minute film. It was 15 minutes over that. But that is me.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
MEMORIALS
It is easy to forget about all the losses we have had in recent years.
To commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Iraq war, the NYTimes compiled these photos of the rooms of dead soldiers.
The Shrine Down the Hall--Soldier's Rooms
Their families had kept the rooms the way they were left.
One has the bed still turned down. Another has two dogs sleeping on the bed.
There are crowded rooms, messy rooms, impeccably neat rooms, boy's rooms, girl's rooms. The details show the life.
It is pretty hard to view these photos without a necessary lump in the throat or stinging eyes.
Labels: Iraq
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
HOO HOOs
It has been awhile since we have heard from Margaret and Helen.
No More Hoo Hoo for You Know Who
Labels: fun
THIS IS GREAT SINCE I EAT STOUFFERS MEALS WHEN JOHN IS OUT!
Sorry about the movie commercial.
Stay to the end.
Labels: fun
WHERE DO YOU STAND?
I don't imagine there are a lot of Republicans reading this blog and, if there are, they are skimming to catch the movies and personal stuff.
But I have a question for them. A thought problem. A challenge, perhaps, but still.
Where do you stand on this kind of stuff?
Actually two polls that verify each other.
Here are the high spots.
Or lows.
67 percent of Republicans (and 40 percent of Americans overall) believe that Obama is a socialist.
57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim
45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president"
38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did"
Scariest of all, 24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist."
The belief that Obama is a “domestic enemy” is widely held—a sign of trouble yet to come.
This is a party?
Leaders?
Labels: republican whack jobs, Republicans
BFD
Joe Biden said as much.
I am glad that Gibbs said, "And yes Mr. Vice President, you’re right.".
Great way to play the ball. Right back at 'em.
Take that Faux News
If you didn't read about it, here it is. Another gotcha moment that isn't a gotcha at all.
It is a very very big fucking deal.
At White House, Biden’s Expletive Caught on Open Mike
Oh. Is it unseemly?
What about the callous refusal to acknowledge the sick and suffering people who could not get insurance. That, folks was us. Not some stranger.
Now that was unseemly.
Labels: Administration Obama
HELP ME GET OUT OF THIS BOX
24 hours and the GOoPers are already realizing they are in a box.
Repeal?
Well, no. Not the good parts.
It sounded like a trumpet blast yesterday but today we went to Kazoo. Kevin Drum again.
Not that they have the stuff to do it anyway.
They got themselves into a box. Painted themselves into a corner.
No no no no no no no no no no. And what have they got?
No no nothing.
Fun to watch the squirming.
Labels: Republicans
HISTORY IN THE MAKING
This is a great montage from Kevin Drum.
A picture is worth another 1000 words
The signing of the Social Security Act, Medicare and today's Health Care Reform.
And not a republican in sight.
And what do the republicans think of SSA and Medicare? They are all for it. And I dare any of them to go out and slam them to their constituents.
In due course, they will be doing the same with this one while saying "no" and obstructing the next progressive legislation.
Did you know that today the "approve" of HCR went to about ten points over "disapprove"?
Our man made it over the hurdle!
Labels: Administration Obama
SPACED OUT
Today's movie was the much overlooked
with Sam Rockwell who I enjoy seeing in any film. He plays the lone human who runs a mining operation on the back of the moon with robotic help.
Some strange stuff begins to happen.
We are slowly allowed to figure out what is going on just before the guy does. The very best suspense. It is quite good.
It is not so much a who-done-it but more a how-does-it work movie.
If you are a true science fiction fan I think this would be very satisfying. I am not so much but I really enjoyed watching and being challenged by this film.
The themes are not new but the gimmick is. Very neatly done.
The film is directed by David Bowies son, Duncan Jones. He has a deft touch.
The real acting here is quite good. Rockwell is very talented. The CGI is kept to a spare minimum and, oddly, applies mostly to the human photography. Very nice. I would call the entire mood "hermetic".
I am avoiding plot because the plot is the thing.
I wouldn't mind seeing this again sometime.
That would make it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED
I just watched the signing of the Health Care Reform bill.
It was moving to watch all the people who made this possible and to see some of the folks who, as regular citizens, lent their story to this historic passage.
It went pretty fast. Unlike the previous year of hard work to make it happen.
He outlined the things that will happen today. And senior citizens will not lose anything. The donut hole begins to close today.
It was a grand occasion and I am glad that I saw it.
Video later.
Labels: Administration Obama
Monday, March 22, 2010
LIFE AND DEATH
Today's film was the winner of the 2009 Foreign Film Oscar.
This is a rather western film about a very Japanese custom. The preparation of dead bodies for the funeral.
Yeh. Kinda morbid? No. Not really. Rather nice. Clean. Ceremonial. I wouldn't mind this at all. If I wasn't dead.
A young man falls into the profession. So to speak. Rather beautifully. With a wise older man who takes him on as an assistant.
We move through the phases of his experience. Some are funny. Others scary. There is an understanding of death that comes about in a very personal way for our hero.
And quite a lot to do with the subject of fathers.
I don't want to give much away as the film needs a fresh view for its most impact.
I would gladly see this again and maybe I will. You should too.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Sunday, March 21, 2010
AGONY OF DEFEAT AND THE THRILL OF VICTORY updated
While Obama's NCAA bracket crumbled, in the same week, he won his signature victory for Health Care Reform.
I am so happy that it was not the other way around.
You can always set up a new bracket.
The opportunity to begin the hard work to fix the medical mess in this country got a giant step forward tonight.
I am very pleased.
I am sure that our President is pleased also.
I stayed up to see this one through and I am glad that I did.
I sure spent long enough worrying it along its tortuous path.
From the CNN live blog:
As Republican consultant Kevin Madden just said on CNN, whatever you think of the bill you have to admit that this is an historic moment. Certainly the most dramatic change to the American health care system since the 1960s. Maybe the biggest change to the federal government's relationship to its citizens since the creation of Social Security in 1935. And all that in a very polarized political atmosphere during an economic crisis. Pretty incredible.Amen.
Labels: Administration Obama
SLURS updated to include "wetback" and site reference and also "baby killer". That was from the floor of the House itself--a GOP congressman
I was thinking about the guys who hollered "nigger" "wetback" and "faggot" and spit at Congressmen yesterday and the GOoPers who defended their free expression. Even went out on the balcony to cheer the cretins on. And took a "Don't Tread On Me" flag with them.
Sooner or later the good conservatives are going to have to deal with this rabble.
In the meantime, take this!
Labels: republican whack jobs
BIGGEST BUST IN HISTORY
I predicted it. Along with a lot of other people.
Record 71% disapprove of governor, poll shows
The Field Poll is very reliable.
But so is my nose. Stink is stink.
He is totally inconsistent. Totally inattentive. Totally unable to listen or deal.
And, from what I can tell, he is a dick besides.
I won't publish his picture. We have seen enough of him.
Labels: California
THE RETURN OF BEN FOLDS
I have always liked Ben. I just lost touch. Maybe I should join Chatroulette after all.
I thought about it but I always block at the signup. This is very well done. Funny. Improvisation at its highest. And the contacts are great too. Most actually get it.
Labels: fun
JAPAN
A lot of surprises in here and not all of them positive. About Japan, that is.
Labels: culture, geopolitics
A GOP VIEW
Don't take my word for it. Listen to David Frum. The fingers are starting to point.
Labels: Republicans
COUNTED
They apparently have counted the chickens. I will take their word for it. For now.
I don't think that any of us can process how momentous a yes vote will be for health care reform.
It is a long time coming.
It will take a while for the value of it to sink in but I figure that will happen long before the November elections. The shouters might come to their senses when they see that they have been listening to lies.
In any case, as Obama has said, the importance of this is so great that it would be worth the losses to make it go ahead. Sooner or later it will sink in and, when it does, the country will be way better for it.
I have been on tenterhooks all day. Looking in. Peeking.
I guess we won't really get the count until later tonight but I am feeling a lot better about it than I was.
If and when this passes it is a great victory for Obama. It is his signature package. Win or lose. He said he would do it and he has. One year.
While he was turning the economy around!
A lot of people have griped about the process. Why he held back. Why he didn't go out for the long passes.
I have said, from the beginning of this, that he is a long game player and has had the strategy right from the start.
It is and has been a complicated process and product. The remaking of 40% of our economy.
I was reading how baffled the health insurance industry is about what to say about this. They are upset about control but they are happy about 30,000,000 new customers. They have to be in terrible cognitive dissonance.
Good. They are bastards but maybe they can reform themselves. Sometimes it takes a good execution to sharpen up the mind. In this case, the execution is the passage of this bill.
So for once lets also give some credit where credit is due. The US Congress.
Labels: Administration Obama
