Chamblee54

There’s an invisible yet palpable mist of nervous uncertainty in the air these days. Will our banks crumble and our economy collapse? Are our already-stifled freedoms being further stripped away by evil corporations and misguided politicians? Will our water and food supplies be contaminated and rendered useless by a blind and wasteful society? And perhaps most threatening of all, will any these events delay the release of the new Madonna album? With the year 2012 upon us, and the bleak ambiguity of the future unfolding before our very eyes, we must all prepare for the inevitable rebirth of humankind. We mark this as a time to burn away the old, negative, destructive practices, to turn ourselves to a more loving, compassionate way of living and relating to each other. If the end of days is near, then we say it’s time to celebrate! The Intergalactic Love Affair descends upon Atlanta to welcome all the creatures throughout the cosmos with love in their hearts to rejoice in our diversity of body and mind, and our prosperity of spirit! Transport yourself to a time of galactic disasters, meteor storms, alien invasions, mutant outbreaks, zombie uprisings and robotic overlords! Break out your ray guns and iridescent bell-bottoms and prepare for the DIGITAL DOOMSDAY DISCO! This locally produced phenomenon is a Valentine’s costume ball where imagination, creativity, and embracing your inner-misfit push the limits of pageantry and spectacle. On February 10th, you are welcome to join us as we transform Jungle Club into a visual feast of color and light, pump up the music with stellar DJs, and sprinkle in magical performance art. To guide the way, we have enlisted local dance-floor icons Diablo Rojo (of Manshaft fame) and Vicki Powell (Ladystache and Sunday Services at Church) for an epic DJ DUEL that is going to light the joint on FIRE! Call the fire trucks honey, because it is going to be smoking! Cosmic nuns, frolicking space nymphs and mind-bending acrobatic aliens will serve up a nova of excitement throughout the night. THE RAINBOW CONNECTION The Intergalactic Love Affair (IGLA) is a community celebration-meets-fundraising event lovingly thrown together by the collaborative efforts of the Atlanta Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Atlanta Radical Faeries. Now in its 2nd year, the event was conceived as an opportunity to unite the passion and creative powers of a group of friends toward raising funds for queer-minded organizations in the Atlanta community. In its inaugural year, all proceeds from IGLA went to YouthPride to shine a light on the issues facing young queers in our community. This year we fire the spotlight on an often overlooked group in our alphabet soup – the Atlanta transgender community – by donating 100% of funds raised from this year’s event to the Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC) and their TransHealth Initiative. The FWHC is one of many independently run feminist centers across the country whose goal is to empower people through education and services that encourage healthy and meaningful lifestyle decisions. Agency spokesperson Jaime Chandra states, “The Center is not just about women; it’s not just about choice. It’s about empowering people to live a healthy life as they truly want to live that life, without judgment.” The FWHC offers compassionate and affordable healthcare to gender variant and intersex individuals, as well as hormone-therapy for transmasculine clients. For the Trans Health Initiative, there was a need in the FTM and transmasculine community for informed healthcare and hormone therapy as bias and ignorance in mainstream clinics often prevented them from getting the care they need. The THI clinic – which has been actively seeing clients despite a forced 5-month hiatus due to a lack of a medical supervisor who could administer hormonal therapy – is happy to announce that they will relaunch their program in the upcoming weeks with a new Primary Medical Supervisor so that hormone therapy can start up again. Additionally, a new coordinator, Sybastian Welch (a trans-identified man and advocate), has spearheaded the project on integrating recommendations into the program to help realize the actual needs of the Trans-masculine community. “Co-creating Space for Love’s Most Bold and Beautiful Expression” The Intergalactic Love Affair was conceived in a common social space when a group of friends asked themselves, “How can we translate the immense sense of love present within our circle and pay it forward to our local communities while also fostering bonds between them? AND how can we make it FABULOUS and FUN?!” The Atlanta Radical Faeries are a very loosely aligned fellowship of friends, family, mutants, and misfits uniting countless queer sub-cultures to foment community through acts of radical self-expression, love, and compassion. Through delicious pot luck meals, healing heart circles, honest and open discussion groups, and volunteer work, we strive to emote the intentions of self-affirming love, empathy, and compassion that drive us all. Many of these same philosophies can be applied to our partners in crime, The Atlanta Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. An order of 21st century queer nuns, the Sisters are dedicated to the manifestation of cosmic joy through freedom of expression, community outreach, social activism and charitable acts. Their manifest states, “We love expiating stigmatic guilt and spreading cosmic joy. We paint our faces to express the diversity in the community and by bringing our inside expressions out and to reflect the beauty of the people we meet and serve.” The Sisters have been in Atlanta since 2009 and delight in helping our communities through condom ministries, diverse fundraisers and promoting health awareness. They are first-line fighters in the campaign for universal human rights in the queer community. The Intergalactic Love Affair is intended to be the beginning of a series of events that will provide public forums, panels, mixers, and performances that will spotlight social issues impacting our queer community. You are invited to join the discussion at facebook.com/intergalacticloveaffair. In the meantime, set your phasers to FABULOUS, rip up your mama’s old sequin gown for your new alien space-frock, and meet us at Jungle on February 10th for what will be a night you won’t soon forget! This text also appears in David Magazine.

PG finished work on a post, and then saw that Karen Handel had resigned from her job at the Susan G. Komen foundation. He decided to leave comments at a few blogs, in an effort to drum up traffic to his site. Self promotion is part of blogging.
The first round was at Peach Pundit. PG left a quote from his post Sunday, Karen Handel Is An Idiot. This is an edited version of the comment thread.
chamblee54 February 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm Karen Handel gave an interview to Northside Woman , shortly after starting The Handel Strategy Group. There was a fun quote: “What I know is I will be prudent and smart about my career. I will make sure the things I have engaged in are not things that will present a difficulty for me later”.
CobbGOPer February 7, 2012 at 1:02 pm As in when she runs for the Senate.
Engineer February 7, 2012 at 2:40 pm She would make a good candidate for Senate in Georgia.
Andre February 7, 2012 at 2:08 pm Charlie, if you will indulge another request, could you close comments on this thread? I ask, not with the intent to shut down deliberative debate, but due to the fact that many folks on this site know both Karen Handel and her husband on a personal level. It may be difficult for the folks who know Karen Handel personally to remain civil while others excoriate her based on the caricature being portrayed in the media. So, Charlie, to maintain civility, just shut down this thread.
heroV February 7, 2012 at 4:58 pm just move along. literally nobody cares what Andre thinks.
Spacey G February 7, 2012 at 2:44 pm After long and careful thought on the matter, about :20 sec, I can’t help but agree with Andre. Tear down this blog post commenting now, Mr. Charlie.
Doug Deal February 7, 2012 at 3:29 pm Yeah, because that is precisely what she did. She’s just like Hitler. You need to get out in the world and realize that there is more to “women’s rights” than killing fetuses, and there is something troubling and perverse about how much joy it brings many on the left.
chamblee54 February 7, 2012 at 4:53 pm “killing fetuses, and there is something troubling and perverse about how much joy it brings many on the left.” Do you have a link for that? I don’t know anyone who is happy about abortion. It is a troubling issue. This type of toxic rhetoric makes it much worse. The grandstanding and pandering by the anti choice crowd is one reason why this issue cannot be resolved. Remember, Karen Handel was not anti abortion enough to please the Georgia Right to Life organization when she ran for Governor.
Doug Deal February 7, 2012 at 5:19 pm I stay out of the abortion debate because it is populated by an extremley vocal minority (albeit a sizeable one) of crazies on both sides. I will, however, criticize both sides on their extreme behavior from time to time. Regardless of what you believe, there is a certain amount of excess zeal in the actions of members of organizations like Planned Parenthood, NARAL and a number of other that cannot be explanined merely by “protecting a woman’s right to choose” as they are remarkably silent on the issue of a woman having the right to choose to say own a gun. Also, where is the outrage at the vicious attacks on women who chose to be conservative? Of course there is none, as it is about one thing, sticking it in the eye of the people you oppose and since abortion is the means to that end, it is championed fervently.
The next stop is JoemyG-d. Joe is having a busy day, with a court ruling on Proposition 8. Other stories got buried. PG left a comment, and link, about Karen Handel. It got one reply.
Fin Today, 2:30:34 PM Karen Handel Is An Idiot « Chamblee54 I hope it is not bad form to post another person’s blog here, but it is good post on Handel & Komen.
The last spot on the campaign trail was Red State.The initial comment there was:
A fun quote – chamblee54 Tuesday, February 7th at 12:27PM EST Karen Handel gave an interview to Northside Woman , shortly after starting The Handel Strategy Group. There was a fun quote: “What I know is I will be prudent and smart about my career. I will make sure the things I have engaged in are not things that will present a difficulty for me later”. There is more here about Karen Handel” .
The next time PG checked the stats, Red State had sent him 28 viewers. A little while later, he tried to log onto Red State. He got an error message… 601 Database redigestation error. This lasted throughout the day. Finally, using a different browser, PG went to the post. The link had been deactivated, and a tag line was added to his post… “The moderators are guessing that I would sooner bite off my own left arm than have you click on Live Action.“… There were some more comments.
“Karen Handel is an Idiot” Nice blog title – tankertodd Tuesday, February 7th at 1:47PM EST I completely discount you and everything you say simply because you titled your blog thusly. There’s no arguing with you, debating you, so why bother reading? You’re here to throw dirt. It’s idiotic behavior like this that screws up our country. You should be ashamed you’re one of the bad guys.
So Chamblee… – Repair Man Jack Tuesday, February 7th at 2:07PM EST Do you think posting a blog entitled Karen Handel is an Idiot will seriously further your’s. If so, you probably work for some serious scumbags.
Always interesting how the Left… – Moe Lane Tuesday, February 7th at 2:29PM EST …reserves its venom for female and minority conservatives. I’ve also taken the liberty of ending your attempts to draw traffic from our site. No, no thanks necessary. Or possible, come to think of it.
There’s even more relish to it –  jakeofalltrades Tuesday, February 7th at 5:46PM EST when you realize that leftist maroons actually believe Moe has deprived them of the freedom of speech. It’s the cyber equivalent of tazing a hippie.
There are two more points to make before we post the rest of the pictures. (The pictures today are from The Library of Congress ) Chamblee54 is emphatically not pro abortion . It is one of the life issues, along with war, and capital punishment. Abortion is a ghastly procedure which is 100% fatal for the baby. Abortion is the taking of human life. We are almost always better when we let G-d make the decision to terminate a life. However, there are times when the woman feels that it is necessary to terminate the pregnancy. It is a tough decision, which the toxic rhetoric makes worse.
The second point to make is, yes, Karen Handel is an idiot. However good her motives, she screwed this job up royally. The Susan G. Komen foundation is being exposed to scrutiny that it would not have had to face, and is not looking good. It is doubtful that this is going to help the anti abortion movement. Will it keep any babies from being killed? Your guess is as good as mine.
UPDATE A 601 Database redigestation error is serious business. PG had to take the computer to the shop to get it to go away.

The costume challenged PG was thinking about an upcoming dual facebooked event, The Intergalactic Love Affair, aka IGLA. The question troubling the vigilant PG was, Is Fabulisity Legal?(spell check suggestion:Fabulists) Since there is no money available for an official legal consultation, a google search will have to do. The top result is Fabulicity, a live journal writer. (Spell check suggestion: facility) This person likes cats, chocolate, pink, and stockings, and dislikes bullies, eel skin, meaningless affairs, and unsharp pencils. There is an ongoing dispute whether fabulisity is spelled with c or s. Perhaps it is c intown, and s when otp. The second result is a racehorse for sale. “Fabulicity is a brown mare by Fauluke out of Wise Maiden (TB)). Watch for Fabulicity’s huge stride.” The third entry is a book, “Fabulosity: What It Is and How to Get It”. Here are the one star reviews. Flopulosity didnt like it all… Kimora is just a loud mouth who wrote a book… no practical tips at all unless you want to be a model! . A bit of an ego! Bought it as a present, and decided to read it first to get an idea of what Baby Phat brand is like. After reading the first chapter, it made me want to throw it out the window! This lady is very full of herself, and it’s a bad read! DON’T BUY IT!!! The fourth result is The Surge is Working, an insomnia influenced post from 2008. PG had conveniently forgotten about this post, which was not his best effort. After the third re read, the word fabulicity was found. It was used to describe Rosie O’Donnell. Maybe Fountain of Fabulixity would have been better than queen of nice. The fifth result is a fashion blog called PennLive.” Purses Are a Girl’s Best Friend If style was about following form, then there wouldn’t be much to say about fashion, would there? And with all the glam items showing up in stores and catalogues today, there is one item we can’t go any further in our discussion without discussing. My favorite fashion accessory: the purse, murse (male purse), or whatever you want to call it. A girl’s new best friend next to diamonds, of course. These days, purses are more than just a handbag to hold your wallet. Purses are a fashion statement in itself. And this spring, designers have been working overtime to come up with a multitude of colors, shapes and sizes with fringes and chains, buckles and braided straps, metallic and colorful leather skins. It’s no wonder women spend hours contemplating over this must-have accessory. Lucky for you, I’ve come up with the three hottest purses to look out for this spring. “The rest of the results are boring, and no legal advice in any of them. Maybe we just need to wing it friday night. There has been a bit of a flap in the atlanta circle this morning. It seems like a gentleman decided that he had chosen Dandelion as his “faerie name”. PG, who was just trying to be helpful, mentioned that “Two other people are using that name.” A few minutes later, an unkind soul replied “There are lots of people named Luther, too. Maybe you should change that.” Pictures today are from last years IGLA.

BHO set a new standard for public statements from the oval office. He was talking about economic recovery. “So I want to send a clear message to Congress: Do not slow down the recovery that we’re on. . Keep it moving in the right direction.” Thank you Democracy Now for that transcript, and for the rest of the quotes in this story .
Kansas/Kenya lips were moving on another subject recently. During a “virtual interview” with youtubers last week, BHO was talking about drone strikes in Pakistan. “I want to make sure that people understand, actually, drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. For the most part, they have been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates. ” A report from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism paints a different picture .
“We’ve been looking at this since August of last year. When we were putting together our massive database on CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, we noted that there were repeated reports at the time, contemporaneous reports in publications like _New York Times, news agencies like Reuters, by CNN, that there were these strikes on rescuers, that there were reports that there had been an initial strike and then, some minutes later, as people had come forward to help and pull out the dead and injured, that drones had returned to the scene and had attacked rescuers. Now, we didn’t take that at face value when we began a major investigation, that’s been ongoing for many months now, that we just published in conjunction with the London Sunday Times, where we looked at those 18 original reports, and we’ve been able to confirm, through our researchers on the ground in Waziristan, that a dozen of those attacks on rescuers, and also two attacks on funerals, have taken place in Waziristan. And we’ve been able to name just over 50 civilians that we understand have been killed in those attacks. In total, we think that more than 75 civilians have been killed, specifically in these attacks on rescuers and on mourners, on funeral-goers.”
The US government had a witty response. “A senior American counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, questioned the report’s findings, saying ‘targeting decisions are the product of intensive intelligence collection and observation.’ The official added: ‘One must wonder why an effort that has so carefully gone after terrorists who plot to kill civilians has been subjected to so much misinformation. Let’s be under no illusions—there are a number of elements who would like nothing more than to malign these efforts and help Al Qaeda succeed.”
A few years ago, in Sandy Springs, an abortion clinic was bombed. About fifteen minutes later, a second bomb went off at the site, designed to hit those who had come to aid the victims of the initial blast. Apparently, our armed forces were impressed by this tactic, and have used it in Pakistan. It is not known whether abortion clinic bombers set off bombs at victim funerals.
There were indications that the situation may be improving. “And just to be clear, the attacks on rescuers and mourners that we note, they’ve all occurred under the Obama administration between 2009 and July 2011. I think that date is quite interesting, because that’s also when Leon Panetta stepped down as head of CIA. You have an interim CIA leader, and then David Petraeus comes in. We haven’t had any reports from Pakistan since July of last year of attacks on rescuers. So there’s an indication of a policy change, and there’s also an indication of a targeting change on the ground. So, things may be changing at the moment. “
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Those who follow this blog probably know what is about to be said. You can skip ahead to the pictures, which are from The Library of Congress . The rest of you can deal with your hangovers, and indigestion, as best you can.
Does anyone else think the game was rigged? At the end of the first half, and start of the second half, Tom Brady completed forty passes in a row. The Patriots were unstoppable, and it looked like the game was over. Then, the Giants started to move the ball, and play defense. This is not unusual.
Several things were odd. Giving the Giants two points on a technicality was peculiar. Then, as the fourth quarter rolled along, the Giants had a long drive, sparked by a circus catch for 38 yards. They drove the ball close to the goal line. The ball was given to a running back, and the Patriots fell over themselves getting out of his way. He acted like he didn’t want to score a touchdown, and then sat down, backwards, in the end zone. The announcer said something about giving up a touchdown, so that Tom Brady would have a minute for his last drive. Whatever.
One the first two plays of this final drive, the Patriot receiver dropped the ball. They poked around for a few more plays, threw a hail mary pass, and the game was over. The NFL had a champion based in New York, which is always good for the bottom line.
Speaking of bottom line, Madonna performed at halftime. After the nursing home antics of The Who a few years ago, this was a blast of fresh air. Cee Lo made a surprise appearance, in a gown he stole from Eddie Long. This show was a commercial for her new album, and takes the prize for best super bowl ad. Madonna can sell soap.
There is talk about a performer shooting a bird during the show. After more examination than is really appropriate, this youtuber has decided that it was the index finger that was extended. The lady thought that Madonna was number one.
The official commercials were a disappointment. With all that money, and all that attention, is this really the best we can do? Clint Eastwood did a Patriotic spot for Chrysler, saying that Detroit was on the way back. If only the same could be said for Madison Avenue.

When the story about the Susan G. Komen Foundation/Planned Parenthood deal came out, PG was not interested. There are so many stories in the news, and you can only care about so many. Add to this mixed feelings about the abortion issue, and the toxic rhetoric of the anti choice community, and it is normal to be more interested in what (if anything) Madonna is going to wear at halftime. Then PG made the mistake of reading a story about this PR meltdown, and learned that one of the players was Karen Handel. Mrs. Handel has been a political fixture in Georgia for a while, losing the Republican race for Governor in 2010.
Another reason PG was trying to ignore this story was the flood of information. You get started reading, you follow a few links, and before you know it two hours have gone by. The reward comes when you stumble onto items like this. Karen Handel gave an interview to Northside Woman , shortly after starting The Handel Strategy Group. There was a fun quote: “What I know is I will be prudent and smart about my career. I will make sure the things I have engaged in are not things that will present a difficulty for me later”.
There have been unflattering things about the SGK foundation coming to the public’s attention. Many of the people who have donated money to the pink cause are surprised to find out what their money is going for. Rawstory has a feature, Komen Foundation ousted their Democratic lobbyist just before hiring Karen Handel , that is just downright fascinating.
“It wasn’t until 2008 that the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, a 501(c)3, founded the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Advocacy Alliance, a 501(c)4 non-profit that, under IRS rules, can spend unlimited donor funds on lobbying. It’s that arm of the Komen Foundation that former Secretary of State and failed gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel (R-GA) was hired to run in April 2011, … She’d been serving “as a consultant” to the organization since January 2011… Finally, in 2009, Komen hired Jennifer Luray to run it’s advocacy shop directly and be their top lobbyist in Washington…. When picked to head Komen’s political arm, she was working as a lobbyist for Abbott Pharmaceuticals, a drug and device company that, among its many products, offers a breast cancer screening protocol. … But, according to lobbying disclosure records filed with the House of Representatives, Luray ended her tenure as a lobbyist with Komen in the third quarter of 2010, joining pharmaceutical device manufacturers Becton, Dickinson & Co. instead. IRS filings by Komen indicate she was given a $134,000 severance package upon her departure, which was almost a full year’s salary. “
So, Mrs. Handel was hired to run an advocacy alliance, and before long, Planned Parenthood lost it’s grant. One irony is, while running for Governor, some did not consider her to be pro-life enough. (This quote from Red State is typical: “Killing children in utero is the sacrament of the Church of the Secular Left and any person or organization that becomes the slightest threat to abortion rights must be destroyed.”) When Sarah Palin came to Buckhead to support Mrs. Handel, PG noted “Even though the Georgia Governor has little to do with Supreme Court rulings, some right to life groups have taken to denouncing Mrs. Handel. One of them made a reference to Trig Palin, which the Mama Grizzly denounced. The crowd was assured that Mrs. Handel does not like abortion.”
Jezebel has a story, Meet the Komen Exec Behind the Planned Parenthood Defunding There is a segment on Mrs. Handel being “prudent and smart”… “Handel herself has been largely silent on the issue, until last night, when she all but confirmed what everyone suspected by retweeting— and quickly deleting— a tweet that read “Just like pro-abortion group to turn cancer orgs decision into a political bomb to throw. Cry me a freaking river.” Alas, no one taught Karen Handel about screen grabs. The internet’s forever, Handel. Cry me a freaking river.”
The second part of this feature is a repost. It was written after the run off in the 2010 Georgia Governor’s race. Karen Handel was endorsed by Sarah Palin, and still lost.
UPDATE Karen Handel quit another job February 6, 2012.

It is the day after the runoff. Nathan Deal (once known as a corrupt congressman) beat Karen Handel. The smart people across the state have their opinions, and chamblee54’s don’t stink any worse. As always, if you get tired of the text, you can always look at the pictures. Thank you Live Apartment Fire for the video.
1- Maybe people are getting tired of Sarah Palin. The endorsement by Mama Grizzly was seen as a game changer, and indeed Mrs. Handel won the first round primary. The day before the runoff, there was a rally in Buckhead with an appearance by Mrs. Palin. PG attended, and did not gain a favorable opinion of Mrs. Handel.
Karen Handel is not a likeable person. Karen Handel is a boring speaker, especially compared to a dynamo like Sarah Palin. She got a national superstar to come to her party, and the faithful were impressed, but who else? Maybe PG was not the only one offended by Mrs. Palin telling “yall” how to vote. Maybe people are getting tired of her performance art, and the trailer trash antics of the extended Palin family. While the tea party crowd cheers on her rants about big government, maybe the rest of the country is changing channels?
2- Seeing Karen Handel in person, PG realized that he simply did not like the woman. She does not connect with the crowd. She comes across as a script reading politician.
A month ago, PG saw Mrs. Handel as the least of the evils in the governor’s race. The front runner was a squalid piece of refuse named John Oxendine. The other men included Nathan Deal, a state senator who wants teenagers to go to prison for having sex, and Humbert Humbert. While Mrs. Handel did not seem special in any way, at least she was not under indictment.
3- After going to the rally, PG went home to write about what he saw. He went to a Handel website and looked at the bio page. Two things struck him…Mrs. Handel’s maiden name was not mentioned, and her husband was referred to as “Steve”. PG decided to call the Handel campaign.
To the credit of the campaign, a live person answered the phone. When asked about Mrs. Handel’s maiden name, the lady said ” no one has ever asked me that”. She put the phone down, and went looking for someone in the office who would know.
While the search went on, PG chatted with the lady. Yes, her husband is Steve Handel. No, she is not pulling a Hillary Rodham on us. Finally, someone came forth with the word that her maiden name was Karen C. Walker. What the C stands for is a mystery.
No one is saying that Karen Handel lost the race because she did not show her maiden name in her campaign bio. But it does fit in with the impression that PG got at the rally…that Karen Handel was a script reading mannequin, saying what she thought the people wanted to hear. Maybe there is some substance behind that red suit, but we won’t find out in this election.

The story now is the the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab ( G-d bless copy paste), has been talking to the authorities. No, torture was not necessary, he was persuaded to cooperate by family members.
Some said undieboi should have been handed over to military authorities, and tortured. The fact is, the FBI deals with criminals all the time, many of which are far badder than Mr. Abdumutallab. As the Germans say in war movies, ve have vays of making you talk. And the FBI knows how to follow the guidelines, so what you say is admissible in court.
There is a video attached to this post about talking to the police. (This is not legal advice. PG is not a lawyer. If you are in legal trouble, seek professional help. Good Luck.) The general concept is that the police are smart, and can twist what you say, until you are doing time. Like the FBI, the police routinely deal with criminals who are nastier than your average terror suspect.
The video has two parts, a cop and a lawyer. The lawyer is all flash and rhetoric, and the cop is cold and deadly. The cop tells a story about getting the suspect to write an apology letter to the people whose house he broke into. This letter is then used as a written confession, in the suspects own handwriting. When you use tactics like this, torture seems crude and thuggish.
Two of the pictures with this feature are recent product from PG. The other six are from Gwinnett County. This is a repost . Thank you twentytwowords for the police video.

The Georgian Terrace hotel used to have an adjacent ballroom. The building opened as the “Lucky Strike”, featuring “Duck Pin” bowling. At some time, it became a 1300 seat ballroom. It was not the grand ballroom, where events for the premiere of “Gone With The Wind” were held. As time moved on, the ballroom became a music performance hall. PG saw shows there under four different business names. After the Agora Ballroom closed, the building was vacant, until a fire August 30, 1987. The site of the ballroom is now occupied by an annex of the Georgian Terrace Hotel.
The first show PG saw at this facility was in 1972. The name of the business is forgotten, as is the act that performed. A band, comprised of people PG went to high school with, played before he got there.
In 1974, “Big Time” promoter Alex Cooley opened “Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom”. The first show that PG saw was Dr. John The Night Tripper. A few months later, Capricorn artists Cowboy played, with a vulgar New York band named Mercury opening. Gato Barbieri played at the Ballroom, with PG wondering how people could dance to that type of music.
Several major acts appeared at the Ballroom, mostly without PG in the audience. KISS played there in 1974, and photographs from backstage are in the embedded video. In April of 1974, Steely Dan was across from the Fox. In the summer of 1974, The Tubes played a week at the ballroom, with another heavily hyped show. On January 23, 1976, The Patti Smith Group played at the ballroom.
In 1975, Bruce Springsteen was on the covers of Time and Newsweek, and was recieving a promotional push unlike anything seen before. He played a show at the ballroom that summer, with a generous press party in the balcony. (At one unforgettable show Alex was caught off guard by a Bruce Springsteen request. “He asked if we could shut down the cash registers because they were making too much noise!… That’s the only time I ever did that.” Alex admits.)
PG attended two shows in 1975. Mckendree Spring opened for Fanny, while PG drank too many bourbon and cokes. In November of 1975, Juice Newton opened for Hot Tuna. Miss Newton seemed to be a bit pale, and performed “Get drunk and screw”. Hot Tuna was amazing. They went on stage at 10:55, and played, without a break, until 2:50. The drummer wore a shirt, mother fucking hot tuna. Few would argue that night.
In autumn of 1977, some brave soul opened a place called “The Ballroom” in the space on Peachtree Street. One night, PG went with some friends to see an act, Happy the Man. There seemed to be a bit of chaos in the management of the facility. The Great Southeast Music Hall loaned a few microphones for the show. When the show was over, PG walked out to a car, whose motor was running, with the driver asleep inside.
In the summer of 1978, the ballroom opened as The Agora Ballroom. Apparently, there is a music hall in Cleveland with that name, and they opened branch facilities around the country. There were some shows that PG did not attend. Todd Rundren opened the facility August 19, 1978. On October 2, 1979, The Clash played. Pictures from the crowd appeared on an album by the band. On December 2, 1981, U2 made their Atlanta debut.
A few weeks after the opening, PG won tickets to an all Texas show. Marcia Ball opened, and a bored PG went to a neighborhood bar to drink beer. PG returned later, and stayed long enough for the singer with Asleep at the Wheel to ask the crowd, Are you stoned?
In November of 1978, PG called a radio station, and asked to be put on the guest list for Talking Heads . (For Talking Heads, and three links in the following paragraphs, the link is for a previous Chamblee 54 post about the show.) The first six people he called were busy, but the last one agreed to go. On the bus going home, a group of black men started to make unfriendly comments. At the next stop, a black friend of PG got on the bus, and went to talk to him.
A few weeks later, Tim Curry made his United States debut. Some record company invested a lot of money in him, and supplied him with an outstanding band. PG was wandering around the balcony after the first show, and saw Tom Waits sitting at a table. The bodyguard said no, that’s not Tom Waits, it is just someone that looks like him. At a bar, after the show, PG was raving about what he had seen, when a lady came up to him. What color are your eyes? They are brown, because you are full of shit.
Somewhere in the haze of 78 and 79, Ultravox brought their synthetics to the Agora. A local band, First Blood, was more entertaining as the opener. PG drank a very large can of Foster’s beer, and floated through the proceedings. After the show, PG was invited to a party in Candler Park. On the way there, there was a horrific car crash on Ponce de Leon. At the party, friends of First Blood dissected their performance, between lines of coke.
One night, PG was enjoying drink specials at a neighborhood bar. He took a break, walked over to the Agora, and saw a few minutes of a show by Freddie Hubbard.
In early 1979, the B 52s were on the verge of stardom. (Here is a nifty feature about the Atlanta local music scene in those days.) The opener for the 52s was The Brains , yet another talented band that never made it big. At the table next to PG, a lady wore a dynamite World War Two army uniform.
Later in 1979, Ted Turner had an idea for a TV show, “Live at the Agora”. The first show was filmed in Atlanta, and featured Graham Parker and the Rumor. If they ever show that film again, and you see a crowd shot, that is PG wearing a white T shirt, with a white Agora iron on logo. Parker was a great musician, who had the misfortune to look like Big Bird’s nerdy little brother. If Graham Parker had looked like Bruce Springsteen, he would have been a superstar.
In March of 1980, Lene Lovich came to the Agora. About a year later, Spirit  played on Peachtree Street. The show was sponsored by a radio station, and tickets were $2.96. Despite the low price, and high musical quality, the balcony was closed, and only about a hundred people were at the show. PG thought this was odd, but little surprised him by this time.
The last show that PG caught at the Agora was The Ramones. Joey and the pinheads were past their prime, with only two original members playing. It was an all ages show, with alcohol served in the balcony. Downstairs was a festive party, with costumes and enthusiastic high school kids. The balcony was the same rock and roll drunks you had seen for years. The Ramones would have made a great oldies band, if they could have quit dying.
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

Letters of Note got some traffic this week with To My Old Master , a letter from a freed slave to his former master. As it turns out, LON has been in business since September 9, 2009. People have enjoyed reading the mail of others for hundreds of years. The day after the slave letter, they printed a doozie by H.L.Mencken. Here is a sample. Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”
As for religion, I am quite devoid of it. Never in my adult life have I experienced anything that could be plausibly called a religious impulse. My father and grandfather were agnostics before me, and though I was sent to Sunday-school as a boy and exposed to the Christian theology I was never taught to believe it. My father thought that I should learn what it was, but it apparently never occurred to him that I would accept it. He was a good psychologist. What I got in Sunday-school—beside a wide acquaintance with Christian hymnology—was simply a firm conviction that the Christian faith was full of palpable absurdities, and the Christian God preposterous. Since that time I have read a great deal in theology—perhaps much more than the average clergyman—but I have never discovered any reason to change my mind.
The act of worship, as carried on by Christians, seems to me to be debasing rather than ennobling. It involves grovelling before a Being who, if He really exists, deserves to be denounced instead of respected. I see little evidence in this world of the so-called goodness of God. On the contrary, it seems to me that, on the strength of His daily acts, He must be set down a most cruel, stupid and villainous fellow. I can say this with a clear conscience, for He has treated me very well—in fact, with vast politeness. But I can’t help thinking of his barbaric torture of most of the rest of humanity. I simply can’t imagine revering the God of war and politics, theology and cancer.
I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it. The belief in it issues from the puerile egos of inferior men. In its Christian form it is little more than a device for getting revenge upon those who are having a better time on this earth. What the meaning of human life may be I don’t know: I incline to suspect that it has none. All I know about it is that, to me at least, it is very amusing while it lasts. Even its troubles, indeed, can be amusing. Moreover, they tend to foster the human qualities that I admire most—courage and its analogues. The noblest man, I think, is that one who fights God, and triumphs over Him. I have had little of this to do. When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness. No show, however good, could conceivably be good for ever.