Only Confirmed Followers
Advice for those considering joining the military ~ Jeanette Winterson’s 10 Tips on Writing ~ I Approve This Message: Why Political Ads Now Come With Disclaimers ~ Unearthed, Vol. 1 :: Sausalito Haze ~ Our current POTUS is famous for his incontinent use of twitter. Here is how W does twitter @GeorgeWBush This account’s Tweets are protected. Only confirmed followers have access to @GeorgeWBush’s Tweets and complete profile. Click the “Follow” button to send a follow request. ~ The most popular personality test in the world is a joke ~ djt on 091101 ~ Rahsaan Roland Kirk “Blacknuss” ~ Here is a response to the TPC video. I am tired of the kneeler controversy. Both sides are right. Police should not kill unarmed black people. The flag, and the national anthem should be respected. Just because you intend a gesture to mean something does not mean people are not going to be offended for different reasons. But above all, I am tired of Nike. The controversy was quieting down, when Nike fired it up again. Nike is making an existing conflict worse to sell shoes. ~ zoe tillman ~ Don’t fall for the hoax: Facebook isn’t restricting your News Feed to 25 friends ~ @TheKert She has made a statement confirming it’s him. Obviously she disagrees with his statements but she confirmed that is in fact her brother. ~ @Suburban_Dic BDSM – Bridge, Dominoes, Scrabble and Monopoly. ~ For all the poor Black kids who become prey for rich white liberals ~ led zeppelin debut ~ Left or Liberal? ~ sex pisstols ~ The High Price of Stale Grievances ~ Officials: Evidence in Botham Jean’s home supports Amber Guyger account of his location in apartment ~ Tom Waits Releases a Timely Cover of the Italian Anti-Fascist Anthem “Bella Ciao,” His First New Song in Two Years ~ Seven Questions With Phil Johnson ~ what dave wallace ate ~ The value of skepticism ~ My Chat with Rick Mehta – Academic Freedom Under Threat ~ David French on “The Great White Culture War” | The Ezra Klein Show ~ The Great White Culture War ~ On Saturday, I received a robo call from 2020 insight. It said it would take five minutes, but lasted nine minutes. Chris, the robovoice of 2020 Insight, said that it would be a survey. You were asked to respond to a series of statements about the candidates for District 81 in the Georgia House, Scott Holcomb and Ellen Diehl. All of the statements were complimentary towards Rep. Holcomb, and derogatory towards Ms. Diehl. One of these statements said that Ellen Diehl has a life sized cardboard cutout of Donald Trump in her home. Whether this is, or is not true, has no impact on her ability to represent the 81st district in the GA House of Representatives. It is a sad moment when a politician insults an opponent by saying she supports the President of the United States. ~ This publication is made possible, in part, by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant ~ Neal and Bob were walking one day. They saw a dog licking his balls. Neal said, “I wish I could do that” Bob replied “Maybe you should pet him first” ~ A better way of phrasing that would be to observe that sometimes African Americans DON’T use the magic word. The language choices of African Americans give me neither permission, or desire, to use the magic word. ~ @Suburban_Dic Cunnilingus – Dinosaur noted for its short arms and long tongue ~ Of course I am a sinner. Is photoshop mischief a sin? I differ with you about the details. IMO, the death/reputed resurrection of Jesus has nothing to do with what happens to my post mortem soul. ~ The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as McCain–Feingold Act, requires candidates for federal offices to have a disclaimer in their advertising. It is now boilerplate… I am Joe Blow, and I approved this message. Question: Is there any requirement like this for state and local races? Are the so-called surveys from 2020 Insight, which are really advertising for one candidate, legal? ~ The least radical thing you can do is speak in all caps ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. ~ here is the poem from last night at java monkey:
#myleastfavoritephraseis you okay ~ but nothing to get excited about
are you triggered at the end of the day ~ this is a teachable moment no doubt
it’s a deal breaker that you can believe in ~ christians aren’t perfect just forgiven
i work to live i don’t live to work spin ~ have a nice day don’t get mad get even
you might have a negative attitude ~ he’s a nice guy once you get to know him
that’s the way we do things here dude ~ love the sin hate the sinner sink or swim
he’s a nice guy once you get to know him ~ good grief that is not an apology
love the sin hate the sinner sink or swim ~ cool beans on the right side of history
good grief that is not an apology ~ that’s the way we do things here dude
cool beans on the right side of history ~ you might have a negative attitude ~ selah
Tubby Boots
PG found Classic Television Showbiz while reserarching a recent feature about the late Sherwood Schwartz. The site is a treasure, with youtubes of classic tv shows, and interviews with “entertainers”. Somewhere in the sidebar was a link to a story about Tubby Boots. This is a repost.
Charles “Tubby” Boots was born around 1926 in Baltimore MD. He was a nightclub comedian. Mr. Boots weighed 375 pounds, had bleach blond hair, and often performed without a shirt. He wore pasties on his boobs, and would twirl them simultaneously in opposite directions.
The parts in blue are borrowed from Classic television showbiz. Tubby’s parents were a vaudevillian dance team called Boots and Barton. At the age of seven this youngster was clocking in at an astounding two hundred pounds, a constant target of ridicule in his Baltimore schoolyard….During his childhood, Tubby managed to witness a performance by comedy’s greatest cult icon, Lord Buckley … Tubby Boots recalled shortly before his death, “[Lord Buckley] was like a father figure to me. I met Buckley when I was seven years old when I was working at the Hippodrome in Baltimore, Maryland, and I was in awe of him. I saw his act every time he would come back to play the theater … I would sit in the theater all day and watch the shows. I’d stay out of school for the whole week – my mother would pack me a lunch – she knew what I was doing because I wanted to learn about show business. Buckley would do his hat-switching act. Every other show he would get me to do it with him. I’d hang out with him backstage, we’d go out for lunch or dinner, he’d sneak me back into the theater and I’d watch the whole stage show again. I started working nightclubs when I was eleven. I weighed 250 pounds and passed myself off as twenty-one. I got arrested in a strip joint and the police said: ‘We’re not going to throw you in jail but you’re not going to work in this town again – you’re too notorious.’ So they actually put me on a train and said ‘Where you wanna ticket to?’ I said, ‘New York.’ I didn’t run away – I was forced to leave. So when I got to New York I called Buckley and, pretending to sob, said, ‘My mama died in a car crash…my father was with her…’ Unbeknownst to me, he called my mother and told her, ‘He’s with me.’ So he got me a job at The Three Deuces, passing me off as twenty-one.” The Three Deuces was one of Manhattan’s major jazz holes in the thirties and forties, regularly featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Lord Buckley was connected to the jazz world for most of his career, performing in their clubs and utilizing a great deal of the Black hipster vernacular in his act.”
Mr. Boots got a job as the emcee for burlesque shows, frequently in traveling carnival shows. He was doing well, when Lord Buckley called him from Hollywood. Supposedly, there was a movie job waiting for Mr. Boots. When he got to California, he found out otherwise. “Tubby became affectionately known as Princess Lily. “He used to call me Princess Lily but Prince Charles of Booth was my title. Buckley used to say: ‘Lil! You had the misfortune to be born with the beautiful body of a woman in the ridiculous body of a man!””
In 1959, Mr. Boots was in a bizarre accident. He was taking a bath, and the controls for the hot and cold water were in another room. Lord Buckley was handling these controls, and poured scalding hot water into the tub. Mr. Boots was stuck in the tub, and was badly burned. He spent a week in the hospital, and was not friends with Lord Buckley later.
After he recovered, Mr. Boots moved to Miami Beach. He performed in motel lounges for many years, and developed a following. Comedy albums were becoming popular, and Mr. Boots contributed “Thin my be in but fats where its at”. The albums were sold at his shows. The legend is that no copies exist that were not autographed.
The various search engines are sketchy about Tubby Boots. The Lady Bunny tells about going to see Mr. Boots in a supper club on Long Island in the eighties. Reportedly Mr. Boots did well during the comedy club explosion of the eighties.
PG saw a show by Tubby Boots. It was December 1974, at a dingy Atlanta bar called The Cove. PG was hanging out with someone we will call McClain, who liked the drag shows at The Cove. The bar was a former electronics warehouse, with a sign for Ballantines Beer by the front entrance. Ballantines had not been sold in Georgia for a long time, but the sign stayed. This was on Monroe Drive, behind Piedmont Park. Tubby Boots was a friend of somebody, and did a show at The Cove one night.
If you can stand to look at the embedded video, you get an idea about his show. Forty years later, PG can remember a few of the jokes. There was a one liner about an *African American* who took a shit, and thought he was melting. There was a routine based on the role Katherine Hepburn played in “Suddenly Last Summer”. My boy is not queeyer, he’s carnivorous. After a while, the shirt came off, and he twirled pasties from his boobs in different directions.
After the show, PG talked to a black friend, who did not want to meet the comedian. Meanwhile, Tubby Boots and McClain were making out. Before long, McClain came over to PG, and said he wanted to go somewhere else. McClain died in July, 1992. Tubby Boots died in August, 1993. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Robocall Survey
PG was minding his business at 3:00 pm, 09/08/18, when the phone rang. It was Chris, with 20/20 Insight. The voice asked if PG would like to take a five minute survey. At 3:09, the last keypad button was pushed. PG’s emotional buttons were pushed a few minutes before the call ended.
The call started normally. Are you likely to vote in the upcoming election? What is your opinion of Republican Brian Kemp, and Democrat Stacey Abrams? To answer, you push a number on a touch tone phone. There is a lot of pulling the phone off your ear, to look at the keypad, and choose the appropriate button. After a while, this can be annoying. The correct answer for most of the demographic questions is NOYB. This is found at the end of a long list of options.
It is a cliche of phone calls that the third thing you hear is what the call is about. Robocall surveys work the same way. The third topic here was the race for district 81 of the Georgia House. The players are Democratic Incumbent Scott Holcomb, and Republican Challenger Ellen Diehl. It will soon become apparent that @RepScottHolcomb is paying for this robocall.
PG received another call from Chris at 20/20 Insight. It was in support of Sally Harrell. She is running for the Georgia Senate, from district 40. The pattern is the same. You start with the headline race. Then you move on to the race sponsoring the ad. At some point a series of statements are read, and you are asked to respond to them. The statements are positive about one candidate, and negative about the other. It is obvious what is going on.
Robocalls are part of the political game now. They are despised by many voters, and yet many candidates still use them. It is like the strategy used by Nike to sell shoes. You will upset people who are offended when their ritual patriotism is disrespected. These consumers should be offset by the shoe customers who enjoy the exploitation support for their social justice jihad. The problem is, many people support the kneelers, but respect the patriots. Millions of consumers are tired of having their chain pulled over this manufactured controversy. Nike is smirking all the way to the bank.
What does Nike have to do with voters? Elections are another commodity. @RepScottHolcomb has made a calculated decision. The amount of voters that will be positively influenced by this robocall will offset those that are angered by it. John Q. Public’s peace of mind is not considered. The offended voter is collateral damage.
What made yesterday’s call such a trust buster was the negative statements about @iDiehl4Georgia. Chris said that Ms. Diehl was a fanatic supporter of Donald Trump, who “… lives w/ life-size cutout of Trump & talking Trump doll.” The text is from the twitter feed of @RepScottHolcomb. In other words, Rep. Holcomb paid for this ad.
There are a lot of people who don’t like Donald Trump right now. *Trump supporter* is considered an insult, and sometimes justification for violent assault. Evidently, Rep. Holcomb thinks it will help him get re-elected to call his opponent a supporter of the President. The fact that Rep. Holcomb is a well liked incumbent, who could easily run on his record, apparently is not good enough. The Georgia House of Representatives has nothing to do with Donald Trump. Opinions about the POTUS have no bearing on the job of representing the 81st district. This is name calling, and mud slinging politics. Because someone supports an unpopular person, who is President of the United States. So much for respecting the office.
It is incredibly disappointing to lose this much respect for someone. PG feels that he has been played for a fool. Scott Holcomb is no longer the much respected Representative from his district. Scott Holcomb is just another cynical politician. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The photographer was Russell Lee, in Kansas, in August 1939.
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Do More Than Talk
both sides ism ~ What Is Shigella? An Explainer of the STI Exploding Among Gay Men ~ @Bumbling85 Need to do better than that dude, kek was around long ~ before the alt right. Any gamer would know that. Try looking a little further than the SPLC and try looking at Warcraft where it originated from many moons ago. Then you will see it’s ties to memes and gaming. ~ Homophobe Arrested At Key Gay West Bar For Drunken Violent Outburst ~ 29 shot, 6 fatally, in Chicago weekend violence ~ @chaeronaea UMMMM yes your mother attempting to hire a hitman to have you killed is……………..illegal ~ Family says ‘Jim Crow Road’ doesn’t represent what you think ~ Lest We Forget the Journalist Who Exposed CIA Cocaine Trafficking, Would Be 63 Today, but He ‘Shot Himself’ in the Head, Twice ~ @JohnBrennan Colin Kaepernick drew our collective attention to the problem of continued racial injustice in America. He did so not to disrespect our flag but to give meaning to the words of the preamble of our Constitution—“in order to form a more perfect union.” Well done, Colin, well done. ~ Officer ‘fighting for his life’ after being shot by man trying to steal bandanas, GBI says ~ half mast or half staff ~ Northwestern doctoral student among 6 fatally shot in Labor Day weekend violence ~ HeyJackass! ~ Call Them What They Wants ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad @Ahmadinejad1956The #NFL season will start this week, unfortunately once again @Kaepernick7 is not on a NFL roster. Even though he is one of the best Quarterbacks in the league. #ColinKaepernick #NFL ~ @Ahmadinejad1956 Had a busy day today . But I always make time for #Twitter ~ Redux: If You Can Hoe Corn for Fifty Cents an Hour … ~ Jim Harrison, Reading, 27 February 2002 ~ Claudia Rankine: why I’m spending $625,000 to study whiteness ~ @meetrobertsmith They don’t? Have they made a public statement? ~ nfl kneelers ~ social justice statement ~ Houston after Harvey ~ Some White People Are Very Mad At Nike And Colin Kaepernick ~ 7 shot during teen party at Birmingham’s WorkPlay; 1 of the injured in custody ~ 6 teens shot at Birmingham’s Workplay ~ @CNBC ‘Don’t touch me again, man’: Sen. Marco Rubio faces off against InfoWars conspiracy monger Alex Jones in hallway heckle spat ~ Bret Easton Ellis on ‘American Psycho’, Hollywood Hypocrisy, and the Excesses of #MeToo ~ neil young ~ Taibbi: David Remnick’s Steve Bannon Flop Was a Journalistic Embarrassment ~ nike talk ~ How Well-Intentioned White Families Can Perpetuate Racism ~ Believe in Something….Even if it means Sacrificing Everything?! ~ Georgia GOP House candidate Ellen Diehl and the global witches’ coven ~ troye sivans ~ Jim Brown Cuts Colin kaepernick Throat ~ depression talk ~ ‘The pain never ebbs. The tears never dry. But they are proof that my brother, Rob, mattered’ ~ Police: ‘No suspects, no motive’ in drive-by shooting that killed paralegal ~ Thousands Of Evangelicals Sign Petition Condemning Churches That Advocate For “The Social Justice Agenda” ~ “They” Is a Fine Pronoun, But It Ain’t Mine ~ warren zevon ~ las vegas story ~ Nike’s Big Gamble on Colin Kaepernick ~ Why White Parents Need to Do More Than Talk to Their Kids About Racism ~ Scientific Racism Isn’t ‘Back’—It Never Went Away ~ @RepScottHolcomb This is my opponent. She lives w/ life-size cutout of Trump & talking Trump doll. She deleted some of her videos this week. Here’s one: Georgia GOP House candidate Ellen Diehl: “Understanding Islam—If you’re not Islamic, they want to kill you” – Brambleman ~ anti Diehl propaganda ~ Serena Williams accuses umpire of sexism and vows to ‘fight for women’ ~ ksu cheerleader files lawsuit ~ Jeanette Winterson’s 10 Tips on Writing ~ I just had a twitter chat. I have screen shots, if it gets deleted. @iSocialFanz I trust brands that TAKE a stand much more than brands that go with the flow and are scared to upset one side or the other! Kudos to @Nike #ColinKaepernick #ImWithKap #ImWithNike #NikeBoycott #Injustice There was a picture of Pat Tillman, with the Nike text pasted in front. @chamblee54 The Tillman family does not appreciate this @meetrobertsmith They don’t? Have they made a public statement? @chamblee54 That took less time to find on google than it will take me to write this reply. ~ #Nike choose labor day, to announce their new spokesman for shoes made in Asian sweatshops #ColinKaepernick ~ Has anyone seeing this damaged Nike apparel as an act of protest? How many people really have? Maybe this is the plan… to have a few plants say they are burning their shoes, and get more publicity for Nike. It is bad enough to commodify social justice jihad.To further divide and alienate people, just to sell more sweatshop produced footwear. This is very cynical and exploitative. ~ I am one of the 96% I do not pay retail for books. If it turns up in a yard sale, or at the library, I might try it I appreciate your desire to move product, but this simply is not going to fly A singing commercial for the book would be fun to listen to ~ I do not buy brand name merchandise, unless it is a good deal. I have no illusions about the sweatshop origin of most of the items I do wear. I resent the way Nike is exploiting divisions in our society. Millions of people are offended that their ritual patriotism is being disrespected. While I might not agree with them, these people are entitled to their opinions. If Colin Kaepernick arrogantly ignores these people, then that speaks poorly of him. If the supporters of Mr. Kaepernick choose to insult these people, then that speaks poorly of them. When Nike exploits these divisions to gain market share, then that speaks poorly of them. Do these opinions make me a shitty human being? ~ cissexist is not a good word for spoken word performances the spell check suggestion for cisssexist is coexist ~ I just received a robo call from 2020 insight. It said it would take five minutes, but lasted nine minutes. It apparently was in support of Scott Holcombe. I have always supported Scott, but will have to re think my support after this call. This call said that Ellen Diehl, his opponent, has a life sized cardboard cutout of Donald Trump in her home. Whether this is, or is not true, has no impact on her ability to represent the 81st district in the GA House of Representatives. ~ How many people have really burned their Nikes? Was this staged, to get more publicity for the ad campaign? Something is really fishy here. ~ 300 309 are you registered to vote ed has life size blow up of donald trump in her house 389 6869 20 20 insight ~ pictures for this pointless waste of bandwidth are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Citizen: An American Lyric
Citizen: An American Lyric is a book of prose poetry by Claudia Rankine. It has 169 pages, and was sponsored by The College of St. Benedict. PG accepted a copy of the book, on the condition that he create a work of art based on it. This blog post is the start of this commitment.
PG is up to page 11. So far, it is a series of paragraphs, that do not seem to connect to each other. PG generally favors stories, and biographies, to books of prose poetry sponsored by a university. The first couple of pages are about a student who asks another student to lean over during a test, so the non leaning student can copy answers off her page.
At the bottom of the page was a picture. Two recently built houses are on a road. The road sign in front says “Jim Crow Road.” This is eye catching. There really is a Jim Crow Road, in zipcode 30542, Flowery Branch GA. “Family says ‘Jim Crow Road’ doesn’t represent what you think” A man named Jim Crow lived there when he was alive, and is buried there now. His family, and neighbors, speak highly of the late Mr. Crow.
Page 7 is about a friend, who used to call someone, presumably Ms. Rankine, by the name of her black housekeeper. Pages 10 and 11 are about some incident at a school. Claudia talks about “John Henryism,” or the medical effects of dealing with racism. PG has experienced the fight or flight feelings when angry people, both black and white, go off on him for whatever reason. Is this “John Henryism,” or is that reserved for black people in their unpleasant dealings with white people? This is the first day of reading here. PG will return to this text later.
CAAL is divided into sections. So far, PG has got through the first three. One and three are brief prose poems, mostly about times when the author got her feelings hurt. Almost all of the incidents are what you might call microaggressions. Someone calls her by the name of someone else. A real estate agent says that she is comfortable with the friend of the author. It is not certain how the white reader is supposed to react to this. Since you were not a witness, you don’t know all the facts.
Part two is about Hennessy Youngman and Serena Williams. PG had never heard of Mr. Youngman, aka Jayson Musson, made youtube videos about being a black artist. The plan is to be angry. “White people want to consume your artwork, but they don’t want to understand you, because then you would be just like them, and the white audience don’t want the _____ artist to be like them, you know what I’m saying, it’s pretty simple.” Mr. Youngman says simple at 2:37 in the video. This speech was made in 2010. Mr. Youngman has not posted a video in six years.
The following language came in at 0:52 of the video mentioned in CAAL. “as a _____ artist, you can exploit the shit out of white people. and a lot of the guilt that white people have over shit that you don’t have no control over, burn my toast the other day, if I told some cracker on the street that I burned my toast and if I said it to him in a certain tone assert my anger I know he’ed apologize and most likely buy me some more toast.” PG has been the cracker on the street a few times.
Most of part two is about Serena Williams. PG does not follow tennis, and, until recently, was barely aware of who Ms. Williams was. In part two, the struggles of Ms. Williams are detailed. It is mostly questionable calls by tennis officials, sometimes followed by Serena Williams outbursts. CAAL does not paint a flattering picture of the tennis player.
In the last week, Ms. Williams was featured in the Colin Kaepernick Nike Commercial. Yesterday, Ms. Williams was in the news, after another incident involving an official. As noted earlier, PG does not follow tennis, and has no interest in this latest controversy involving Serena Williams. There is a limited amount of mental energy to use on controversies that involve a boring sport.
This is part one of the agreed upon art statement. PG might not be a good fit for this project. PG aknowledges the struggles of African America. PG also knows that he has a life, with its own privileges and struggles. Hennessy Youngman says that the way for an _____ artist to get ahead is to make white people feel guilty. At least that is what Mr. Youngman said in the first 2:37 of that video. PG did not listen to the rest. PG has seen the white guilt game in many forms. Maybe the answer is to go off on an authority figure. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Part two and part three of this series are now available at an internet near you.
Bulwer Lytton Part Three
Ivory clouds parted above the approaching mahogany frigate to reveal not the cerulean skies of literary convention, but a utopian kaleidoscope of mulberry, periwinkle, taffy, juniper, chartreuse, bubblegum and mauve, and Captain Alexander Smollett silently exalted the poetic license of Robert Louis Stevenson for its vibrant insinuation that this nautical interloper indeed was sailing under false colors. Joe Wyatt, Amarillo, TX
She pursed her lips in disapproval as she considered the divisive and hateful words her lover used to describe the shredded broccoli she had prepared for their honeymoon feast, and woe, too late, she realized that perhaps Col. Sanders was not her destined soul-mate, but, oh God, that pointy little beard sure did tickle her fancy. George Coe, Broad Run, VA
This date is going horribly wrong she thought staring in vegan disgust at the charred remains sizzling in his fajita skillet — her large, luminous, sectoral heterochromic eyes that had a limbal ring of deepest grey flickering angrily in the flame of a beeswax candle filtering the air around them.
SJ Baldock, Quitman, TX
Terellian Shapeshifters often blew their cover by taking subtly inappropriate forms — a squirrel that swims perhaps, or a chair with five legs — but Officer Max Throckmorton spotted this one immediately; every Human knows that bidets are NOT purple, and they usually aren’t installed next to a McDonald’s drink dispenser. Mark Watson, Chapel Hill, NC
As Lakshmi bestrode her vanquished foe in the Dombivli garment store, she clutched the coveted outfit and with a smug, haughty voice demanded, “Whose sari now?” Brent Guernsey, Springfield, VA
Though she had just been laughed out of the forty-second delicatessen that week, Epicurean philosopher Florence Smoot was determined that she would find the answer to that age-old question of which came first – the chicken salad sandwich or the egg salad sandwich?
Joshua Long, Harrison, OH
Grace Delgado, pointedly of average attractiveness so as to be relatable to the masses of pitiful girls wasting their time reading erotic novels to make up for their lack of romantic lives, stared at herself in the mirror for a few minutes that morning, for no other reason than the author needed a chance to describe her physical appearance. Bridget Parmenter, Katy, TX
It wasn’t fair to call Michael a scum-sucking monster from the deep, the miserable, fetid descendant of some unnamed demon who, after centuries at the very depths of the ocean, had somehow surfaced and found his way to Wall Street—it was accurate, of course, but he preferred Michael.
Allison Bryski, Danville, CA
It didn’t sound like a particularly glamorous profession but to get the post of ‘senior equine theriogenologist specialising in artificial insemination’ in the Royal stables Edward had had to beat off some really stiff competition. Phillip Davies, Cardiff, Wales
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Parts one and two are available.
Namjoon or Nietzsche
This Is What it Means if Slow Walkers Make You Furious ~ Cocaine in Coca-Cola ~ Why We Took Cocaine Out of Soda ~ Namjoon or Nietzsche ~ Why some white Americans see racial equality as oppression ~ Vodka for Breakfast: On the Melancholy of Cheever’s Journals ~ Johnny Isakson On John McCain And…Life, Really ~ Is This the Stupidest Book Ever Written About Socialism? ~ KimKierkegaardashian ~ @KimKierkegaard I gave my name in Starbucks as «Death» and left, and when the barista called out my name three times Death entered & said «I’ve been summoned.» And the barista said, «Your matcha is ready.» And Death said, «Thanks.» And though I would not stop for death it kindly stopped for tea ~ come to the right side @willmenaker ~ John MacArthur Doesn’t Know Any Evangelical Churches Which Disrespect Minorities ~ ‘We Were Treated Like Criminals’: Black Pastors Who Were Racially Profiled Are Fighting Back ~ Gay History – August 28, 1981: The Day The AIDS “Epidemic” Officially Began ~ She Always Carries Jonquils ~ Reporter, Dystopia Beat ~ James Baldwin, The Art of Fiction No. 78 ~ Joe Rogan Experience #1158 – Chuck Palahniuk cheryl strayed ~ Jamie Brickhouse: Moth GrandSLAM Out of Bounds A New Pair of Cha Cha Heels 8 9 17 ~ jim goad ~ TIH 224: Joshua Chaplinsky on LitReactor, Chuck Palahniuk, and Juicy Hollywood Rumours ~ Using a phone while driving is illegal, but Georgia motorists don’t seem to care ~ KSU cheerleaders who knelt during national anthem cut from squad ~ tatto spelling fails ~ Pope Francis Verified account @Pontifex We Christians are not selling a product. We are communicating a lifestyle. ~ Vatican defends pope’s Twitter account despite attacks ~ nixon alcoholism ~ 11 drunkest presidents ~ All 43 Presidents, Ranked by How Hard They Partied ~ 9 Things People Get Wrong About Being Non-Binary ~ not political ~ @amconmag There are people with far, far more offensive racial views than Donald Trump or Tucker Carlson. If Trump and Tucker are “racists,” then what do you call those other people? ~ Calling Donald Trump ‘Alt-Right’ Only Empowers Real Racists ~ @realDonaldTrump I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews ~ UDC ~ United Daughters of the Confederacy & White Supremacy ~ getting facts right is a cuck move ~ Even funnier than the “white guilt” snowflake-letter to the NYT are the resumes of the snowflakes dispensing advice for the NYT ~ @chamblee54 .@tweetertation .@katrosenfield It is interesting to talk about *strategy* with regards to social justice jihad Demoze thought calling @realDonaldTrump racist would help defeat him it did not work interesting to hear about @CherylStrayed after @chuckpalahniuk did her dirty ~ N.Y. Times Got Hoaxed? Comic Claims Authorship of “White Guilt” Letter ~ Ben Shapiro Reads ‘White Guilt’ Troll Letter Sent to New York Times ~ Thomas Paine was an influential writer during the American Revolution. He was also a controversial character. When he died, this was printed. “He had lived long, done some good, and much harm.”– New York Evening Post, June 10, 1809. ~ Paine Obituary ~ A Rollicking French Animation on the Perils of Drinking a Little Too Much Coffee ~ identity politics is an expression invented by people who don’t like it. It you use the expression that means you are against it ~ @chamblee54 @KAnthonyAppiah @robertwrighter during talk about creating national identity, i thought of the before american civil war state identity was much stronger, compared to union identity, than it is today this was a cause of the war overlooked today for slavery trash talk ~ Hey friends who are at DragonCon? ~ Old-school eulogy at Aretha Franklin funeral ignites wrath ~ mollie tibbits ~ Childish Gambino – Feels Like Summer ~ ‘I went to my first orgy and loved it’ ~ blfc winner ~ There is a cancer moment. You realize the treatments are not working, and it is a matter of time. It is a sad moment, no matter what happened in the life that led up to it. ~ I found this podcast, and the subject is juicy hollywood gossip. It seems as though Lauren Becall was notoriously cheap. One day, she made her driver stop at craft services. She went inside, and stole several cases of soft drinks to take home with her. ~ A young girl would sit next to her grandfather on the couch. Gramps would get the girl to jack him off. Later, the girl went outside. There was a bird, without feathers, laying on the ground. The girl picked up the bird, and bent it in half. When the bird died in her hands. it felt like her grandpa’s penis as he ejaculated ~ @tweetertation @katrosenfield @CherylStrayed ~ On June 10, 1809, after the death of Thomas Paine, The New York Evening Post had this to say: “He had lived long, done some good, and much harm.” ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. ~ here is the poem from last night at java monkey:
a lot of people don’t have much pie ~ i was too stubborn to ever forget
all the money you made will never buy ~ back your soul at least i’m out of debt
satan always comes as a man of peace ~ see it from a different point of view
his mind is dirty but his hands are grease ~ feel like me see like me or be like you
you just kinda wasted my precious time ~ forsaken waters around you have grown
baby I was so much older than grime ~ here’s your throat back thanks for the loan
forsaken waters around you have grown ~ yesterday just a memory tonight
here’s your throat back thanks for the loan ~ name me someone that’s not a parasite
yesterday just a memory tonight ~ baby I was so much older then grime
name me someone that’s not a parasite ~ you just kinda wasted my precious time ~ selah
Armistead Maupin At DBF
When PG heard that Armistead Maupin was coming to the Dick Hater Book Festival, not going was out of the question. There were rumors of a film showing/Q&A on saturday, and PG scoured the DBF website, looking for information. When the film showing was finally put on the website, tickets were no longer available.
On the morning of the talk, PG fussed over which shirt to wear, settling on a purple t-shirt with no adornment. Next, PG called his friend “P” to make arrangements to meet at the First Baptist Church, site of Mr. Maupin’s appearance. The ring tone for PG calls on “P”‘s phone is “Tutti Frutti.” “P” had agreed to let a friend do laundry at his house, and had to jiggle the schedule a bit. “P” wore a tie dyed t-shirt, with a chest hair display hole below the collar. This all blends in nicely with the lavender shirt, pink suspenders, and Levis that Mr. Maupin wore.
The talk started at 1:15. PG arrived at 12:30, and snagged a prime parking spot. The talk was in the sanctuary, and PG found seats in the fifth row pew. The church house setting gave Mr. Maupin pause. He said something about using profanity, and the pastor said “Its all good.” Mr. Maupin then told the story of getting lubricated on maitais, and coming out to his neighbor. She said “big fucking deal.”
When PG arrived at the church, Mr. Maupin was standing in front of the auditorium. PG went down and shook his hand. “My blog is Chamblee54, and I am writing about this, so I am going to watch what you say.” Mr. Maupin looked sideways, as if to say “who does this guy think he is.” Later, while discussing gender transition, Mr. Maupin paused for a second, and said he manted to say this properly. He was watching what he said.
The talk was a delight, as everyone knew it would be. The *southern-ness* of his parents, moving to San Francisco, the Tales of the City series, and Rock Hudson all were discussed. The pbs lady who hosted the event said that Mr. Maupin was like the Forrest Gump of our generation. This went over about as well as PG telling Mr. Maupin to watch what he said.
At some point, the racial values of 1950s North Carolina came up again. It occurred to PG that this was a very white audience. He looked in the rows ahead of him, and to the side, and did not see any p.o.c. When the talk ended, PG was one of the first to stand up, and did a quick survey of the rest of the room. There may have been p.o.c. at this event, but PG did not see them. For painfully woke Decatur, this is an interesting development. You can welcome people all you want, but if nobody shows up, then nobody shows up.
PG spoke to Mr. Maupin one more time. While discussing the techno-gentrification of San Francisco, Mr. Maupin said that “Decatur is starting to look pretty good.” He then said that maybe you say Deck-a-tur. After the show was over, PG approached the stage, and told Mr. Maupin that the correct pronunciation was Dick Hater…. the town had been renamed Dick Hater in honor of the lesbian population. Mr. Maupin laughed, and acted like he had never heard that. A man with a DBF badge told PG “You’re making that up.”
Chamblee54 has featured Mr. Maupin one, two, three, four, five, six times. Pictures, for the text to go between, are from The Library of Congress.
Bulwer Lytton Part Two
The good always wins out when you observe matters from a distance, gasped Detective Inspector Fred Pickle, dangling from a meathook in a disused Balham slaughterhouse, but it didn’t, really, not for him, nor yet for the guy on clean-up. John Holmes, St. Petersburg, FL
It was a dark and stormy night: the wind whistled like an old man with drugstore teeth trying to teach his grandkids to say, “She sells sea shells by the sea shore,” causing the little shavers to wonder why Peepaw was suddenly talking like Daffy Duck, whether he’d just had a stroke, and if any of them was in the will. Mark Schweizer, Tryon NC
Under a lurid dawn sun, the Usher Property was less baleful than it had been during the past evening’s abode-splitting weather event, and my practiced realtor’s eye – have I not mentioned my profession already? – recognized development potential once the tarn was drained and fissure remediated, perhaps to build an outlet of shopping at which consumers would dawdle, aghast at the scale of discount savings. Brian Brus, Oklahoma City, OK
Although widely despised by his own kind, Kazimir Kilcescu was a hero to a few uninhibited vampires who adopted his “baby talk and Ugg boots” method of victim selection which, when applied correctly, largely eliminated the blood-curdling screams that otherwise left them the choice between letting their swooning prey go scot-free or choking down two liters of curdled O-pos.
Drew Herman, Port Angeles, WA
The summer afternoon was so fierce, Italy pulled off its boot, to wiggle toes in the cool blue sea, as hot Contessa Ravioli slid off her pantyhose. Don Hansbrough, Seattle, WA
He was a bold man, thought Arial Calibri, the typesetter’s daughter, but he wouldn’t recognize a superscript if it was underlined, believed that “strikethrough” was a baseball term, thought italics were people from Italy, and that sans serif was a Caribbean island. Sara Hough, Blacksburg, VA
Even in the noisy gloom of the Oyster’s Pearl, the most frequented bar in town, Sergeant Pete Harrison spotted her the moment she walked in–the young, tall blonde in a tight red dress that clung to her the way those stringy bits stick to a banana after you peel it.
Sylvi Warshaver-Stein, New York, NY
Unlike the effete bun-coiffed duennas back at the English Department, she was just the kind of unassuming dame you liked to find holding down a stool and nursing a smoke at the end of the bar — no more likely to decline a drink than a noun, casual when it came to conjugation, and disposed to end a sentence with a proposition. G. Andrew Lundberg, Los Angeles, CA
Priscilla was a persnickety, perspicacious, and petulant old prude, with a parsimonious purse brought on by pernicious poverty, prone to pettiness, and with an air of pusillanimous if not precarious ways, all proving that the worst things in life are pure pride of place and a pretense of presumptuousness brought on by pouting at the people who preferred prune juice over pilsner.
Linda J. Ashmore, Lynnwood, WA
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Part one was published Friday.
Kekcon At Dragoncon
It was a quiet labor day saturday. PG went to the Dragon Con parade last year, and swore never again. Things were going quiet this day, until a facebook friend posted a call to arms. Something called kekcon had a table at DC, promoting yet another fantasy convention. Somebody got the notion that kekcon was “anti-Semitic white supremacist dweebs.” There was a call to arms… kekcon needed to be kicked out of dragoncon. (If you are losing interest, and want to skip ahead to the pictures, no one will think any the less of you. The pictures are from The Library of Congress.)
PG went to the kekcon site, and did not see what was so terrible. PG then made the fateful decision to comment on the facebook thread… Luther Mckinnon “I looked at the Kekcom website, and I don’t see any “anti semetic white supremacist” talk. What is going on with this hatemongering?” Bill Ruhsam “Do some research.” Bill Ruhsam “Not on their website” Luther Mckinnon “Hey, you are the one throwing stones. SHOW A SOURCE FOR YOUR INFORMATION.” And the show was on. If you want to see the unedited version, go here. The post has been deleted.
Maryam Payne “It’s not that hard to connect the dots if you take a look at their Twitter account, if you’re genuinely not understanding it. You do know that white supremacist groups are going to try to fly under the radar and use coded language in larger forums, right? Because on their website, that’s obviously what they’re doing. Members of the made-up “nation” that they have hashtagged on their Twitter account was present (complete with flag) at Charlottesville. Guess which side they were on? (I’m not naming or linking any of this garbage, so you’ll have to look for yourself).” Luther Mckinnon “OK So you don’t like their opinions. They have the right to express these opinions. Why are you so special that you have the right to shout them down? Maybe YOU are the one who should be kicked out of your overcrowded costume party.” Mariana Pannell “Because their opinion lead to genocide and part of WW 2. They are not free of the repercussions of hate speech, no matter how coded the language is” Kekcon is guilty of saying offensive things, because they post a picture of a frog.
If you have ever been in an argument over religion, you recognize the stages. The first stage is where you are talking about ideas. One of the parties disagrees with some of the ideas, and their mind is not changed by the arguments offered in support of those ideas. The next phase is the personal insults.
Hope Ranker “What’s your bag, Luther? Crush on one of the organizers? Got called a gamergater at some point and didn’t know why? Or is all just fun political theory to you and you haven’t actually processed yet that Kekistan gamergaters literally find it fun to ruin people’s lives?” Luther Mckinnon Hope Ranker “We talked in a parking lot seven years ago. Until now, I am not a Dragon Con fan, or an Alt Right person. However, I am disgusted with political correctness run amok, which is what this seems to be. This will give me material for a blog post, but will be of little value to anything else.” Hope Ranker “Do some research, Luther. Pepe the frog. Kek. Gamergate. The culture around those things has literally been having fun at ruining people’s lives for years. This is not the post to educate you: It’s the thread for alerting people to the threat. If you want an education on the matter then go to Google. If you just feel stressed out and threatened by all this, then work out that stress somewhere else.” Is there an etymological connection between arrogant and airhead?
Hope Ranker is the facebook friend whose post PG saw. PG and Hope talked in a parking lot seven years ago, and became facebook friends. Since that time, there has been no interaction between the two people. This is a problem with facebook. People post things that should be of no interest to people, but, for some reason, it catches their eye. You can get dragged into a conversation you have no interest in. The only thing that got PG’s attention here is the ugly spectacle of people who decide that their opinions are the only ones that can be heard. In this case, once they get your attention, they refuse to answer basic questions, and tell you to go away. FWIW, Hope Ranker unfriended PG during this episode. Unfriending people, to punish them for having contrary opinions, is pathetic.
Luther Mckinnon “Last year, I went to the DC parade, dealt with the mob scene, and swore never again. This year, I get in a facebook quarrel with thought police. This is a much more comfortable way to participate.” Hope Ranker “This isn’t fun or comfortable for anyone else on this thread.” Hope Ranker “I know him, it did years ago. He’s not a first-hand alt-righter. He’s just accidentally spewing their arguments for them because he didn’t know what he got himself into.” Miranda Compton “What a Troll shit stirrer you are. Back off.” Luther Mckinnon Hope Ranker “I am not spewing anyone’s arguments. I am just asking for evidence for your claims. I did research, and did not find anything.” Hope Ranker “This is not the place to explain gamergate to you, Luther. It’s the place for coordinating a response to their threat. If you’re not here to help with that then please show yourself out.” Luther Mckinnon “Eventually I will leave. The more you argue with me, and insult me, the longer I will be here. I don’t see much coordination going on. Just insulting someone who asks what you are talking about. All you have to do is show a link. The only link I have seen in this thread is to the discredited SPLC.” Bill Ruhsam Luther Mckinnon “you are choosing to stand by racists and misogynists and fascists. That makes you complicit Congratulations. You’re an alt-right bigot.”
Sheerluc Birchfield sent the SPLC. link in a private message. Luther Mckinnon “the splc is discredited plus, that article does not say what is wrong with kekcon, other than having a picture of pepe on their site” Sheerluc Birchfield “O it says quite a bit about what’s wrong with those people. I can see I made a mistake by trying to help. You said you did your research but obviously you did very light and sloppy research. Hope was right on the mark for deleting and blocking you.” *You Cannot Reply To This Conversation* This is where the story ends.
Chuck Palahniuk And Joe Rogan
Joe Rogan Experience #1158 – Chuck Palahniuk hit the internet recently. Mr. Palahniuk (Paula Neek) writes trendy books, most famously Fight Club. Mr. Palahniuk is pleased to hear people say “the first rule of…” It makes him think he has had an impact on the culture.
Inevitably, authors talk about their writing habits. Mr. Palahniuk fills up notebooks in longhand. When he gets bored, or is killing time in an airport, he begins to type these notes. To quote Truman Capote, this is not writing, this is typing.
One of the themes of this conversation is what offends people. The author of Guts knows about giving offense. Often, people are not especially offended themselves, but are offended on behalf of other people. Mr. Palahniuk uses the phrase “white knighting,” to describe this protective umbrage taking. Per urban dictionary: “White knighting Defending someone who does not wish to be defended.” White knighting is woke whitesplaining.
Two especially tasteful stories were told. If you are inclined to get offended, for any reason at all, you probably should skip over these two stories. The pictures, by The Library of Congress, are safe. Both of these stories are by well known authors, who are named in the interview. If you want to know who they are, you will have to listen to the interview. Once again, these stories are hard core, and you should take great caution in reading them. If you like these stories, there are more in the podcast.
Upon further consideration, it has been determined that one of the stories is too much. If you want to hear it, you can listen to the podcast. … The break room at a hospital was next to the room where autopsies were performed, with a glass window looking in. A twelve year old boy was on the slab, having died in a bicycle accident. The Pathologist cut away the boy’s face, and peeled it back, so that it hung over his jaw. This exposed a dark red layer of muscle, covering the face. The man looked at this, and said “that’s the color I want to paint my den.”
Mr. Palahniuk has had a lively career. A crooked business manager stole a great deal of money from him. Since he is no longer filthy rich, but merely filthy minded, he continues to produce books. Fight Club 3 is in the pipeline. It will probably be accompanied by a promotional tour, with more grossout stories for the clamoring public.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Paul Carter, 1903-1938, photographer Date Created/Published: Sept. 1936 Untitled photo, possibly related to: Negro workers on Newport News Homesteads, Virginia Untitled photo, possibly related to: Negroes on a picnic, Newport News, Virginia Lunch hour at Newport News Homesteads, Virginia
The Ten Suggestions
Someone had an idea for a book. The result is Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century. The method was modern. Instead of waiting for a grumpy deity to send down tablets of stone, some academics sent a box of suggestions to a committee. committee. Here are the chosen “non-commandments.”
01– Be open-minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
02– Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true.
03– The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
04– Every person has the right to control over their body.
05– God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life.
06– Be mindful of the consequences of all your actions,
and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.
07– Treat others as you would want them to treat you,
and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspective.
08– We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations.
09– There is no one right way to live.
10– Leave the world a better place than you found it.
You have to give credit for trying. It might sell a few books. The non-commandments don’t have the benefit of translation by a poetry minded Englishmen. They have a stodgy feel. It is not likely that anyone will file a lawsuit over a stone rendering of these thoughts.
The popular commandments are found in Exodus 20: 3 – 17. They are considered core beliefs of a religion that values belief over practice. In other words, just believe something, and don’t worry about what you do. There is also Exodus 20: 23. Ye shall not make with me G-ds of silver, neither shall ye make unto you G-ds of gold. This would seem to be worthy of inclusion in the big time ten. It might interfere with the capitalist free market economy, but you can always say you believe it.
When your religion is claimed by a majority of your neighbors, you enjoy #ChristianPrivilege. You can even whine about #WhitePrivilege, while enjoying the benefits of #ChristianPrivilege. One day, the pound sign will go back to meaning number, and the #hashtag will be mercifully forgotten, along with the Ten Non-Commandments.
If you get past the religious whoopeedo, the Ten Commandments hold up as good rules for living. The fact that the self anointed religious people routinely violate many of these fine rules should not be taken into consideration. They believe in the commandments, and can, loudly, explain why their actions are not a problem. After a while, PG just wants freedom from religion.
Part two is a repost. After Exodus 20, there are ten thoughts about the Ten Commandments.
1 And G-d spake all these words, saying,
2 I [am] the LORD thy G-d, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other G-ds before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy G-d [am] a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy G-d in vain;
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy G-d: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates:
11 For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother:
that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy G-d giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.
A The ten commandos are not meant to be believed. They are meant to be practiced.
B If you take away the religious whoopdeedoo,
the ten commandos hold up as common sense rules for living.
C If you ever meet someone who claims to practice all of the commandos,
then you are dealing with a liar.
D We are all G-d’s children. She gave you a heart and a mind. When in doubt, trust your heart. E The first commando is powerful and under appreciated.
It does not include books about G-d, or the so called son of G-d.
F There is an ongoing controversy about the public display of the ten commandos. Some say such displays violate the second commando.
PG wonders if having a sign forbidding lying and stealing is going to work in a courthouse.
G The third commando is more than G-d’s last name. It is about the proper use of a sacred name. In a perfect world, the word G-d would only be used for worship and respectful discussion. A “pledge of allegiance” to a nationalist symbol is not an appropriate use of a sacred name.
H Sunday is too fine of a day to spend inside a church house.
I When you are discussing religion, it is normal to be a hypocrite.
If you disagree with someone, the easiest argument to scream hypocrisy.
J Whenever possible, show kindness to your neighbor.
K The text for Exodus 20 is courtesy of King James Bible Online. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
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