Marilyn Monroe Reads
display of a link in this facility does not indicate approval of content ~ richard anderson ~ dr xu ~ what is more important ~ Miss Army Recruiting of 1962 ~ Rex Tillerson Is Wrecking the State Department ~ 10 year old killed ~ Was America Founded to Be Secular? ~ Judge writes letter of support to jurors in Yanez trial ~ What Google Searches Reveal About Who We Really Are (It’s As Weird As You Think) ~ Sports Page ~ 101 shot, 14 fatally, in July 4 weekend gun violence across Chicago ~ Mom accused of killing family bows during bizarre court appearance ~ Voices from the Battle for Mosul ~ Cobb County hostage suspect told us by phone he didn’t want to hurt anyone ~ Hostage suspect served in the Marines for four years ~ Marilyn Monroe Reads Joyce’s Ulysses at the Playground (1955) ~ Can we *please* stop asking if Jews are white?: a ten trillionth blog-attempt at explaining antisemitism @chamblee54 this post did not tell me very much, other than the fact that people still use blogspot ~ Church Point woman arrested in officer-involved shooting that killed burglary suspect ~ These Blackface-Wearing, N-Word-Spewing Culture Vultures Would Like to Teach Your Kids About Hip-Hop ~ The Painful and Liberating Practice of Facing My Own Racism ~ Ending Racism Take Action Enter your email to receive tools to help dismantle racism with meditation. ~ Family and Friends Of Dejuan Guillory Are Stunned After He Was Killed In An Officer Involved Shooting ~ Ville Platte Deputy Kills Father of Three on Outing with Girlfriend ~ Is clinical depression impossible to think your way out of? ~ Charlie Brown, former owner reminisce on Backstreet’s wild Atlanta ride Queer Up Your Inbox Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter for all the best and most vital LGBT Georgia news, interviews and photo galleries of the week. ~ Why you should always ‘Like’ your own Facebook posts ~ Social Media Hacker Warning Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept Jayden K. Smith friendship request. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the middle it will say forward. Hit that then click on the names of those in your list and it will send to them ~ Only if the gasoline in his vehicle came from a muslim country. ~ This is an ad, for a business at 2069 Cheshire Bridge Road. In the Seventies it was a lesbian club called the Sports Page. Today it is the Heretic. ~ You are blocked from following @tariqnasheed and viewing @tariqnasheed’s Tweets. ~ @NeinQuarterly I saw the best drafts of my generation. Destroyed. By hitting Tweet. ~ Before the sports page, it was Molly Malones Chowder House, aka Molly Cologne’s Powder House. It was, briefly, a drag queen show bar called Timbers around 1978. The complex on the other side of the creek, with the Dominoes, used to be a Putt Putt golf course. My mother saw a bumper sticker, that said “I play putt putt” and for some reason thought that was hilarious. ~ If the lips are moving, or the fingers are hitting a keyboard, then the result is questionable. ~ The 2nd amendment guarantees the right to bare arms. ~ Jon Ossoff lost because he was a weak candidate. I don’t believe your story about voter suppression. ~ Greg Palast: How Racist Voter Suppression Could Cost Jon Ossoff the Georgia Election That video was not believable. It was heavy on the rhetoric, and shifty with the facts. While there may have been GOP monkey business in this *race*, I don’t believe the election was decided by Jim Crow. The racism obsessed, SJW slant of this report hurts the credibility. If I had a written transcript, I could track down some of the so called facts. Except for one thing: this miserable election is over, and I am beyond tired of thinking about it. ~ Who was the Democratic Party genius that chose Jon Ossoff to be the big money candidate in #GA06 ? ~ Part of the trouble with videos is difficulty in fact checking. Is the Korean organization even in the 6th district? Maybe there were other problems that led them to be shut down. I could go on and on. The story of the missing voter applications is another one that I have not seen documentation of. ~ @ChrchCurmudgeon Funerals can be times of deep grief and sadness, but my pastor would like mine to be a celebration. ~ @ErnestPassion The people that motivate with anger, hate and jealousy have no sense of shame. ~ Thank You I don’t accept friend requests from strangers anyway. I have been receiving messages about “Jayden K. Smith.” That is a flakey fake name. ~ pictures for this monday morning detachment from reality are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Four Short Poems
Four short poems recently appeared on this blog. They have been combined into one longer piece. These sixteen lines will be performed, possibly tonight at Java Monkey. If you are near downtown Decatur, then you are encouraged to attend. Admission is always free, but buying refreshments, and tipping the servers, is well thought of.
Here are the four poems. This is the order they are presented in below. Euphemism, #MyDragNameWouldBe, White Trash Tinkle and Super Duper.
Euphemism is based on Every British swear word has been officially ranked in order of offensiveness. #MyDragNameWouldBe is a twitter hashtag. White Trash Tinkle, a collections of compliments, was found in the Racial Slur Database. Last but not least, Super Duper is based on the hinky construction known as Ablaut Reduplication. This is pronounced AB lout REE doo pla kay shun. You should never use a word you do not know how to pronounce, or spell.
Rhyme Zone was used to make the lines go together. Poetic license was used. However, Poetic Licence Shoes were not worn. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
bloody arse cow pussy crap ginger, helen highwater orphelia weiner
damn git g-d jesus christ minger, jackie ossoff cilla stack misty meaner
blue eye devil betty crocker, fiddle faddle jibber jabber
becky bubba crisco cracker, super duper pitter patter
dickhead tit munter bloodclaat clunge, tanya obama pattie bourgeoisie
cock dick fanny flaps punani plunge, sofonda peters miss carry tokee
yogurt yuppie yaku winkle, wishy washy hokey pokey
whiskey tango white trash tinkle, razzle dazzle boogie woogie
sod-off arsehole bitch knob molochs, mike hunt queefer sutherland lady macdeath
bint balls bullshit bugger bollucks, camille toe ginger vitus diane breath
big nose cabbage confederate, tittle tattle dilly dally
buffy clampett degenerate, kitty catty shilly shally
pissed off bellend son of a bitch, oliver clozoff sue pository
bastard beef curtains beaver snitch, whore moans jamaica depository
lily munster elvis fruitcake, teenie weenie ping pong sing song
ofay opie paleface pancake, bingo bango bongo ding dong
The Revenge Of Samuel Clemens
Mark Twain left earth to take care of itself on April 21, 1910. Now that 100 years have passed, his uncensored autobiography is about to be published. As True Slant tells the tale, Reports of Mark Twain’s resurrection are greatly exaggerated.
Samuel Clemens is an icon of americana, his books a staple of high school english. The clever sayings of Mr. Twain are quoted to this day. On his death in 1910, President William H. Taft said “Mark Twain gave real intellectual enjoyment to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come. He never wrote a line that a father could not read to a daughter.”
The White House predecessor of Mr. Taft was Teddy Roosevelt. Mr. Roosevelt became famous as a result of what Mr. Twain called “the iniquitous Cuban-Spanish War”. When the newly conquered Philippines did not greet the Americans as liberators, a brutal little war broke out. There were reports of massacres of women and children by American troops. This conflict led Mr. Twain to write The War Prayer, which would not be published until after he was dead. (Teddy Roosevelt became President after the murder of William McKinley. Some people speculate the Mark Twain was involved in the death of President McKinley. There used to be some youtube videos with more information, but they have been taken down. )
The truth is, Mark Twain was a rascal, with many sharp opinions about religion, big business, and war. As Henry L. Mencken wrote “Instead of being a mere entertainer of the mob, he was…a destructive satirist of the utmost pungency and relentlessness, and the most bitter critic of American platitude and delusion, whether social, political or religious, that ever lived.” His present day image of Colonel Sanders, played by Grandpa Walton, is far from the mark.
But then, Grandpa Walton is not what many think. He was played by Will Geer, whose birth name was William Aughe Ghere . Mr. Geer, a member of the Communist Party, organized a violent dock workers strike in San Francisco. The co organizer of that strike was Mr. Geer’s boyfriend, Harry Hay.
Getting back to Mark Twain, it seems like some people don’t like to have their heroes tarnished by reality. True Slant wrote a feature that is the basis of this post. (The text part anyway. The pictures are from The Library of Congress . HT to dangerous minds. ) It seems like when the True Slant author, Mark Dery, posted a link to his article on Facebook, Chaos ensued.
Weekend Update: Apparently, some Bronze-Age bible troll reported my Facebook link to this essay as “abusive,” presumably because Twain was an atheist and Huckleberry Finn, one of the most banned books in a nation that stinks to heaven of god-bothering, is the devil’s handiwork. Now, due to Facebook’s guilty-until-proven-innocent logic—a rule of thumb that wins the Idi Amin Dada Award for enlightened online governance—I’m unable to repost. Anything. Whether you like Twain or my work or not, I hope you’ll consider reposting a link to this page on your Facebook page as a way of saying you support free speech. If that sounds like product placement, mea culpa maxima.) YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Facebook appears to have repealed its ban on my links, at least for the moment, restoring the link to this article. Heartfelt thanks to all who stood with me in free-speech solidarity by reposting a link to this essay on their FB pages. Twain would be proud of you!
In the sandbox epic Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance , a philosophical ramble detours on the concept of mythos over logos. The concept is that people, when presented with information that disproves there illusion, will continue to believe in the illusion. This would seem to be the case here. The inspiring story of Mark Twain is threatened by the reality of the writers last work. (Actually, this autobiography was dictated to a stenographer, rather than written.) People would rather feel warm and fuzzy about a myth, than read the truths of the mythmaker.
This is a repost. A few things have happened since 2010. Autobiography of Mark Twain has seen three volumes released. 13% of the Volume One comments on Amazon are one star. True/Slant has been purchased by Forbes, and links for this article no longer work. A new edition of Huckleberry Finn has been issued, with America’s favorite dirty word deleted.
Which Carl Jung Archetype Best Describes You?
Which Carl Jung Archetype Best Describes You? A well meaning facebook friend posted the initial link. PG knew there would be other quizzes. It might be fun to take a few, and compare the results. PG knew little about Carl Jung ( CARL YOUng,) and even less about the archetypes. If nothing else, it is a good excuse for text to go between the pictures. These images are from The Library of Congress.
Mydailyquizz starts off with a blue faced woman. She is having a bad hair day. The quiz is nine questions, with multiple choice answers. There are a couple of innovations. For the “Would you rather…” question, “Other/None of these” is an option. For the traditional “Is the glass half empty or half full,” you can choose “Who drank the other half?” You are then asked which of the seven wonders of the world you want to visit, despite the fact that only one still stands.
PG gave honest answers. “You’re the trickster! Jung identified this archetype in gods like Hermes in Greek mythology, Loki in Norse mythology, and Mercury in Roman mythology. Like these mischievous gods, you’re quick, witty, cunning, and elusive….” PG passed on the option of taking another quiz, Can You Pass The Psychopath Test?
Playbuzz is the top result on google. Their quiz is identical to the facebook version. PG played along, and chose the opposite of his honest answers. “You’re the explorer! According to Jung we can find this archetype in many myths and fairy tales. You’re a restless nomad, always full of wanderlust. You see life as one big adventure and you’re always planning your next move. This archetype thirsts…”
Apost has another copy of the bad hair lady quiz. Is “The Plagiarist” one of the archetypes? PG chose the last answer for every question. “You’re the ruler! Jung identified this archetype in many myths. Think of Zeus, “Father of the gods”. You’re a control freak that desires success and order…”
Jungian Archetype Test is a new test, from Psychologist World. It is thirty six statements, which you rank from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The statements were probably used in other evaluations. Two examples are “I feel sorry for people in a worse situation than myself” and “Friends often turn to me for advice.” You are given both a “Self,” and a “Persona,” archetype. For PG, in both cases, it was “The Innocent Child.”
Sun Gazing was the last time PG took the bad hair lady quiz. It was offered by five other times on the google first page. For the last archetype assignment, PG chose the first multiple choice answer listed. “You’re the sage! According to Carl Jung, the sage represents wisdom and the search for truth. You are wise beyond your years, patient and a deep thinker. You’re driven by a thirst for knowledge. One of your greatest fears is being ignorant, misled, or duped. …”
Which Jungian Archetype Are You? is an original quiz. It is fourteen multiple choice questions. One example is “Finish this sentence: I’m most driven to fulfill the needs of my: Ego, Soul, Self.” PG is not certain what the difference is. The imaginative questions reaches its peak with “You’re in the midst of cave exploring when you come across a fire-breathing dragon. What do you do?” PG would “Deny it exists.” Is it the cave, the dragon, or PG, that does not exist?
“You Got: The Innocent The promise of the Innocent is that life need not be hard. They are the spontaneous, trusting child. The Innocent fears abandonment and seeks safety. Their greatest strength is the trust and optimism that endears them to others and so gain help and support on their quest. Their main danger is that they may be blind to their obvious weaknesses or perhaps deny them. They can also become dependent on others to fulfill their heroic tasks.”
Criticize White Privilege
display of a link on this page does not indicate approval of content ~ your ride with James ~ safety pin box ~ So You Wanna Be An Ally ~ the silence of the lambs ~ New Jersey College Fires Black Professor After She Went On Fox News To Criticize White Privilege ~ ‘HELP! I Lost My Passport!’ A Short Guide on What to Do ~ Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy – “We Don’t Like The Blacks Either” ~ Seven Tips From Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction ~ Lectureporn: The Vulgar Art of Liberal Narcissism ~ Columbus Pride festival coordinator resigns after protest incident ~ Franz Kafka Agonized, Too, Over Writer’s Block: “Tried to Write, Virtually Useless;” “Complete Standstill. Unending Torments” (1915) ~ @admiralmpj America, do you see the toxic power of racism? A bill with a 17% approval rating might pass, just to erase the legacy of a Black President. @chamblee54 AHCA would result in making campaign donors major $$$ as usual talk about race is a handy distraction you fell for it @admiralmpj Right. You caught me. Never mind that I’ve been watching America all my life, and RWers like you for the last decade. @chamblee54 “RWers like you”…..all you know about me is that i disagreed with you one time on twitter @admiralmpj Hmm. I feel safe with my assumption: ~ The Problem With Writing About Florida ~ Media is wrong forensically about death of Philando Castile ~ The Best Podcasts of 2017 (So Far) ~ Diamond Reynolds, girlfriend of Philando Castile, accused of assault with a hammer ~ 74 seconds first four episodes ~ Where You From, Honey? ~ Suspect accused of killing Vietnam vet helping niece move surrenders ~ Fake News ~ Suspect shot, killed after trying to run deputies over with car ~ Controversial ‘Comfort Woman’ statue unveiled in Brookhaven ~ Health Disparities in Drug- and Alcohol-Use Disorders: A 12-Year Longitudinal Study of Youths After Detention ~ A racist stereotype is shattered: Study finds white youth are more likely to abuse hard drugs than black youth The study was conducted over the course of 12 years and interviewed 1,829 youth (1,172 males and 657 females between the ages of 10 to 18) who were detained at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago between 1995 and 1998. ~ Olivia de Havilland sues FX over ‘Feud’ ~ A Columbia Professor’s Critique of Campus Politics ~ Maher scorches Republicans who condemn ‘President-what-the-f*ck’s’ tweets but still vote with him ~ Why white allies take up emotional space: its codependence ~ talk about race ~ russia talk ~ nra ~ Officers fatally shoot woman in Denver following Littleton carjacking, chase ~ 1 killed in 2 separate officer-involved shootings in Colorado Friday evening ~ Short Story Award For New Writers – Summer! ~ Despite Internal Turmoil, Klan Groups Persist ~ Chris Christie You go to twitter. The top trending subject is Chris Christie. He was photographed at a state beach, that is closed, due to a budget crisis. His spokesman said “He did not get any sun, He had a baseball hat on.” ~ Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, PT. 1 Part the First. A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. ~ broflake, poem titled america, is djt a communist, excrescence , 58 gender, eskimo brothers, bob beckel , ablaut reduplication , ~ The giant teddy bear in the corner was the wisest voice in the room. ~ #sjwprivilege it IS my business ~ #FakeFireworksFacts they’re made of faeries who turned evil and so had to be ground up in to firework dust ~ Many people say Andy Warhol was the person who erased the line between art and marketing. Is the Trump Presidency the result? ~ it is better to say shit or fuck when angry than to say G-d or Jesus ~ @RectorSun All told, 9 people were shot Thursday in Baltimore, 2 fatally. Latest was 39-yr-old man wounded in 900 blk E. Patapsco Ave about 11:05 PM. @michaelianblack At some point, it might be worth discussing whether or not the NRA is a terrorist organization. ~ @realDonaldTrump Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show ~ Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year! ~ If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date! ~ I think this also applies to discussions of sensitive subjects, like race relations, religion, and politics. It is easy to be a hypocrite here, so lets just say it is a goal to aim for, and I don’t always make it. ~ If you want to know who your Jungle Book spirit animal is, you can always google the question. Someone else is usually doing a similar quiz. It can be fun to do several, and compare results. ~ @thehill Lewandowski: Trump is the “Hemingway of Twitter” @chamblee54 baby president for sale never worn ~ This quote is from the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, Article VII. While Mr. Adams may have played a role in writing this, it is not certain that he deserves sole credit. In 1780, the war for Independence was still being fought. It is not certain whether an established government would have said this. There is a sentence not included in this meme… “Therefore the people alone have an incontestible, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.” I imagine Mr. Adams would have taken a dim view of an attempt to “totally change the same” while he was President. ~ pictures for this gratuitous waste of the reader’s time are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Fighting Racism With Clickbait
A link keeps turning up on facebook. It is for an item, 18 Things White People Should Know/Do Before Discussing Racism. It was posted at The Frisky | Celebrity Gossip, Relationship Advice, Beauty and Fashion Tips. The facility has a series of suggested posts at the top of the page. The first one you see is BLOWJOB TECHNIQUES YOU NEED TO TRY.
18 Things is supposed to be educational. PG was encouraged to read the piece two weeks ago, and found it lacking. The link today was from a combination facebook friend/ facebook unfriend. Maybe 18 Things deserves another look.
18 Things is garbage. Take a look at number one. “1. It is uncomfortable to talk about racism. It is more uncomfortable to live it.” You would never know this from the number of people who seem to enjoy talking about racism. The louder you talk, the more passion you display, the more truth your words have. What is uncomfortable is to quit talking, and listen.
But then, maybe the idea is for everyone to talk at once. Here is item 16: “16. Silence does nothing. Blank stares and silence do not further this difficult but necessary conversation.” If you are going to listen to someone, it is very helpful to keep your mouth shut.
“2. “Colorblindness” is a cop-out. The statements “but I don’t see color” or “I never care about color” do not help to build a case against systemic racism. Try being the only White person in an environment. You will notice color then.” This is a curious paragraph. Sentence one has little to do with sentences two, three, and four.
Sentences three and four are connected. The author assumes that the PWOC reading this piece has never been the only pale face in an environment. Actually, it is probably more common to be the only white person in the room, than to be the only black person in a room full of whites.
“3. Oprah’s success does not mean the end of racism. The singular success of a Black man or woman (i.e. Oprah, or Tiger Woods, or President Obama) is never a valid argument against the existence of racism. By this logic, the success of Frederick Douglass or Amanda America Dickson during the 19th century would be grounds for disproving slavery.”
Has anyone ever said that the success of Oprah Winfrey is the end of racism? Do you have a link for that? Ok, and even if they did say that, it would be wildly untrue. But it gets better. If you agree with this statement that very few people have made, that is like saying that the success of Frederick Douglass disproves slavery. This is ridiculous.
The rest of the piece is little better. Items 4, 5, 9, 14, and 15, can be summed up with the five words … there is racism in America. You are encouraged to use google to educate yourself. This can go in different directions. Maybe you could google “logical fallacy,” or “critical thinking.”
This feature should not be taken as denying the existence of race problems in America. (The words racism/racist are problematic.) People should be treated with kindness and respect. Opportunities should be available to all people. The police should not target racially defined populations. Celebrities should not say tacky things.
The question arises, though. What value do articles like 18 Things have? Do they inform people who need to learn? Are they preaching to the choir? (Frisky has a header ad for Red Bull. Do articles like this sell power energy drinks?)
There are other possibilities. Do articles like 18 Things trivialize racial problems? Maybe the constant promotion of nonsense like 18 Things will lead people to believe that there really isn’t a race problem in America. People who uncritically praise articles like this are doing more harm than good. Those who claim to educate should be held to some sort of standard. Posting nonsense on the internet is not the same thing as working for equality and justice.
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present, spent an hour talking on Booknotes. This is a C-SPAN show, with author interviews. The show aired March 12, 2000. Later that night was a show about the 2000 election, featuring Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. The role Mr. Nader would play in the November election was unimaginable in March.
The first serious job Mr. Zinn had was World War II. He served in the Air Force. Towards the end of the war, “we bombed a little French town on the Atlantic coast called Royon… `We’re not going to use regular demolition bombs. We have something new. We w–you’re going–instead of dropping our usual 12 500-pound demolition bombs, you’re going to drop 30 100-pound canisters of jel—jellied gasoline.’ It was napalm–the first use of napalm in the European theater.”
Later, Mr. Zinn thought about it all. “And it didn’t s–the–the thing is you’d bomb from 30,000 feet. You don’t see what’s happening down there. You don’t see people suffering. You don’t see people burning. You don’t see limbs falling. You–you just see little flashes in the–in the d–in the dark, you know. And—and you go back, and you’re debriefed and you don’t think about it. And it’s horrifying.
Later–only later did I begin to think about it, and I was horrified by what I had done, and I’m still horrified by what I did. But I think that had an effect on my thinking about war, because here I was in the best of wars. And I believed it was the best of wars because I volunteered for it. A war against fascism? I mean, how could you find a more bestial enemy? And yet it’s a–it complicated the war for me. It complicated the morality of the war, and it made me begin to think that war itself is evil. Even when it starts with good cause, even when the enemy is horrible, that there’s something about war, especially in our time when war inevitably involves indiscriminate killing … war simply cannot be accepted morally as a solution for whatever problems are in the world.
Whatever tyranny, whatever borders are crossed, whatever problems there are, somehow human ingenuity has to find a way to deal with that without the indiscriminate killing that war involves.”
Brian Lamb is the host of Booknotes. He speaks non theatrically, often with questions that are very different from the narrative presented by the author. After this talk about war, the question was “LAMB: What would you have done had you been president and those bombs were dropped on Pearl Harbor? Mr. ZINN: That’s the toughest question I’ve ever faced. I … And–and I confess, I–I–I haven’t worked out an alternative scenario.
PHOTUS is known for taking a non-heroic view of our history. Regarding the US Constitution, “When they set up the new government, when they set up the new Constitution, I mean, they set up a strong, central government which will be able to legislate on behalf of bondholders and slaveholders and manufacturers and Western land speculators.”
Mr. Zinn does not discuss The War Between The States on this show. (PG has not read PHOTUS, and does not know how WBTS is treated.) This was a case where the central government was favoring the industrial interests, at the expense of the agricultural interests. How much of that conflict was economic, with abolition serving as a moral fig leaf?
After the war, Mr. Zinn went back to school. A job appeared at Spelman College, and he worked there seven years. After that, he taught at Boston University for 24 years. His next door neighbor was five year old Matt Damon, who later read the audiobook version of PHOTUS.
There is one more bit of amusement from the transcript. Mr. ZINN:`For the United States to step forward as a defender of helpless countries matched its image in American high school history books but not its record in world affairs. It had opposed the Haitian revolution for independence from France at the start of the 19th century. It had instituted a war with Mexico and taken half the country. It had pretended to help Cuba win freedom from Spain and then planted itself in Cuba with a military base, investments and rights of intervention. It had seized Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and fought a brutal war to subjugate the Filipinos. It had opened Japan to its trade with gunboats and threats. It had declared an open-door policy in China as a means of assuring the United States would have opportunities equal to other imperial powers in exploiting China. It had sent troops to Peking with other nations to assert Western supremacy in China and kept them from–kept them for over 30 years.’ LAMB: There’s a lot more in here about Colombia and Haiti and Nicaragua. Is this country at–this sounds like I’m–I’m arguing here, but has this country done anything right?
This is a repost. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
I don’t know where the gun was
display of a link in this space does not indicate approval of content ~ Mike Thevis ~ Understanding Contemporary White Supremacy ~ George Zimmerman and Jeronimo Yanez highlight the need to unpack anti-Blackness in Latinx communities ~ On Philando Castile, Akai Gurley, and Non-Black People of Color’s Complicity in Anti-Blackness ~ PARKAtlanta-induced headache is over after eight long years ~ Blotner’s Novel and Gwynn’s American Fiction Classes ~ 10 Things We Learned From Godfather-of-Punk-Rock Doc ‘Danny Says’ ~ Tyler Goodson of “S-Town” podcast accused of animal cruelty ~ Squad dashcam video – Yanez case ~ Authorities release dashcam video, other evidence from Yanez investigation 9:10 “He had a grip a lot wider than a wallet” ~ Press conference responding to verdict in Jeronimo Yanez trial ~ Jeronimo Yancz Co, Atty Compldint No: 0620373879 ~ Minnesota officer on tape: ‘I don’t know where the gun was’ An officer who arrived on the scene, Roseville police Officer Juan Toran, said he performed CPR on Castile. As paramedics were rolling Castile onto a backboard, Toran said he saw the gun slide out of Castile’s front right pocket. Toran said he didn’t even have to reach into the pocket to grab it. But St. Paul firefighter Eric Torgerson, a paramedic, testified that he saw an officer reach deeply into the pocket to retrieve the pistol. ~ @KellyannePolls Laughing my #Ossoff ~ Pro Tip to future campaigners: Don’t make a vulgar joke about your last name the campaign slogan. #VoteyourOssoff got old and annoying. ~ The Real Story of the Von Trapp Family ~ Stevie Wonder ~ Something Fishy Happened in Georgia Special Election, Thousands of Voters Turned Away ~ Young Joni Mitchell Performs a Hit-Filled Concert in London (1970) ~ An inventory of Philando Castile’s car: Life, interrupted ~ The dashcam video ~ Why this millennial Democrat’s concession speech sounds like he’s doing an Obama impression ~ John Waters’ RISD Graduation Speech: Real Wealth is Never Having to Spend Time with A-Holes ~ Another question I heard recently has the same answer. The other question: How many bullets does it take to kill a black body? The answer to both questions: All of them. ~ Use-of-force experts analyze Castile shooting video ~ @Kaepernick7 A system that perpetually condones the killing of people, without consequence, doesn’t need to be revised, it needs to be dismantled! ~ Yanez juror: ‘Nobody was OK with it’ “It just came down to us not being able to see what was going on in the car. Some of us were saying that there was some recklessness there, but that didn’t stick because we didn’t know what escalated the situation: was he really seeing a gun? ~ Timekeeping as feminist pedagogy ~ Surgeons urge people to throw away that wire bristle BBQ brush ASAP ~ Off-duty St. Louis officer injured by ‘friendly fire’ after police chase of stolen car ~ Philando Castile ~ Yanez juror: ‘Nobody was OK with it’ Minnesota Public Radio is doing an outstanding job of covering the Jeronimo Yanez trial. Today, there is a powerful interview with one of the jurors. If you want to move past the sensational clickbait, there are a few things to learn. ~ Porn, Nazis and sarcasm: How these 3 old rules basically explain the entire Internet ~ Man allegedly shot by motorist while fleeing police ~ murderism ~ People Were Mad At Campbell’s Soup Because Of Their Gay Friendly Ad And Campbell’s Had The Best Response Ever ~ wsbn55894 | Directors of “Waffle House” Group Describe Beginnings, Real Estate, Buildings, Etc. ~ I just got a robo call from the Susan B. Anthony foundation. This is different from the Susan B. Komen foundation. SBAF wants me to vote for a so called pro life candidate. Her opponent was labelled a pro abortion extremist. The #GA06 election is tomorrow. On wednesday, this nightmare will be over. ~ “Propaganda does not deceive people, it merely helps them deceive themselves.” ~ Eric Hoffer ~ Thank you for the phrase *retail politician*.Yes, Hillary was qualified, at least compared to WJC, GWB, BHO, and DJT. However, both HRC and KCH have yukky personalities. While the substance may be good, the style is terrible. And the show business part of politics is important. There is one other difference. Whatever her shortcomings, KCH is famous because of who she is. KCH is not famous because of her husband. ~ @BillKristol “Talk to the elbow ’cause the hand is on vacation” is a favorite way of mine of communicating with the young hipsters at @weeklystandard. ~ The voters of #GA06 are the winners. They have endured the well funded efforts the entire nation. This unpleasant experience will be over tomorrow morning. ~ And when I give you the stupid answer you requested… ~ A recent post is Questionnaire for left-wing hacks. One item: “Are there topics you refuse to cover because doing so would make you a pariah among your journalist friends?” Let the good times roll. ~ the philadelphia flag is ugly it does not represent a population known for having good taste ~ @rickygervais You can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, but an atheist tweeting an opposing view is jolly hurtful. ~ I was listening to a show about the Presidency recently. Someone asked, would you rather have a competent scoundrel, or an honest buffoon. They did not consider today, when the President is an incompetent scoundrel. ~ @realDonaldTrump Since the Obama Administration was told way before the 2016 Election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Focus on them, not T! ~ @realDonaldTrump Obama Administration official said they “choked” when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election. They didn’t want to hurt Hillary? ~ I enjoyed seeing you last night. When I got home, I remembered that we had this online discussion/argument. At no time, when I was in your presence last night, did it occur to me to mention this discussion. Until I found this comment thread, to make this comment, I could not remember what the discussion was about. ~ @realDonaldTrump Karen Handel’s opponent in #GA06 can’t even vote in the district he wants to represent….because he doesn’t even live there! He wants to raise taxes and kill healthcare. On Tuesday, #VoteKarenHandel. @chamblee54 Replying to @realDonaldTrump With all due respect, this #GA06 voter is not interested in your opinion ~ 1- Don’t tell me what body part to vote off. 2- Do you live in #GA06? If not, mind your own business. 3- If you live in #GA06, be sure to cast your secret ballot. ~ @realDonaldTrump Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY? @jamiedupree In this tweet, the President acknowledges that there was election interference by Russia in 2016 ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
With All Due Respect
At the 44 minute mark of a recent debate, Karen Handel (KCH) and Jon Ossoff (TJO) were having a bit of a skirmish. The question (41:34) had been put to TJO: How can you be independent in Congress, when you will need Democratic Party help in a re-election. TJO rambled a bit, and did not answer the question. Instead, he attacked KCH. The attack centered around the PR disaster at the Susan B. Komen foundation, which KCH played at central role in.
The two sparred for a few minutes. PR expected someone to call the other a poopyhead, which they would reply to by saying you have cooties. KCH said something, and TJO interrupted. “It’s a simple question, with all due respect” “With all due respect, do not interrupt me”
This may be the one moment of this nightmare election that captures two personalities. KCH is not above interrupting, and using shady argument tricks. It was her moment to take control of the situation. Most politicians are hypocrites.
PG got a screen shot, which is posted above. Look at the eyes. KCH is mean. She is tired of this silly little boy. TJO is looking at his shoes. The embarrassment about being out badded by his opponent is evident. KCH won the momentary power game. She easily *handled* TJO.
Maybe people will quit saying “with all due respect.” WADR is the new “bless your heart.” On election day, KCH won , with, or without, due respect. It is not known what the turning point was, or if TJO ever had a serious chance. Most 6th district voters are happy to see a noisy campaign end. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
The Terranauts
PG was trolling the Chamblee library, and saw a copy of The Terranauts. This is the latest novel by Tom Boyle, an author who PG enjoys. Something was needed to look at in those times that require reading material: warming up the car, eating, waiting rooms, and parking lots. If the story gets good, this can progress to stretching out on the couch, and letting other pastimes wait. This book report may have spoilers. Read it at your own risk.
Terranauts are people who go into an enclosed bio-sphere. The sentence is two years after enclosure …. nothing in, nothing out. The story is told from the POV of three people: Dawn Chapman, Linda Ryu, and Ramsey Roothorp. The story goes chapter by chapter, with the narrators taking turns. In the spoiler alert above, it might be noted that the primary characters are already spoiled. Dawn and Ramsey are chosen for the mission, with Linda sulking on the outside. Veteran novel readers know what is going to happen with Dawn and Ramsey.
The library works on a three week cycle. After twenty one days, you either return your book, or renew it for another cycle. Terranauts was mildly amusing at first, but not compelling. The story went on. None of the story tellers was terribly likeable, but seemed to be competent at doing what terranauts do. The facility, nicknamed E2, or earth two, became a character of sorts. There was a nasty power outage. The crew came within minutes of having to break enclosure, or die for the cause.
After six weeks, PG was roughly half way through. When he got to the library, a copy of Tropic of Cancer was waiting. PG had requested TOC months earlier, and had given up on receiving it. You cannot renew a requested book, so PG had three weeks with Henry Miller’s scandalous output.
Henry Miller is tough to pin down. There are interviews on youtube. Mr. Miller talks about how the French include women in their conversations, and have a lot of respect for them. This benevolent attitude is the direct opposite of his novels. The Miller character in TOC is a pig. The story is beautifully written, despite, or maybe because of, the flawed characters. PG has the sense that it was conceived in French, and then transcribed in English. TOC has a prose poem feel to it. You want to slowly read it, line by line, and then stop and savor it. You probably will not finish in twenty one days.
When it was time to return TOC, The Terranauts was on the front shelf. This is the shelf with frequently borrowed books that have not been relegated to the stacks. PG decided to take Terranauts home. Within a few pages, Dawn was pregnant. Ramsey was the daddy. Linda was not happy. The story now has a macguffin, and is fun to read obsessively.
Dawn goes on to do what she wants to do. Ramsey goes along with it, until he doesn’t. At about the due date, the novel begins to get weird. The plot does not register. Dawn becomes more abstract. The story finally comes to a conclusion, of sorts. Linda is a bitch. Ramsey is a bastard. Dawn is just sort of there. E2 functions as well as can be expected.
Tom Boyle is a competent, enjoyable word craftsman. PG gets the sense that The Terranauts was a story that defied easy conclusion. The Terranauts may not change your life, but the portion of this life spent reading it will not be wasted.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Photographs were taken by Lewis Wickes Hine. Most of the hospital pictures were taken June 12, 1918. “Dressing the wound Military Hospital I, Neuilly” The group photograph appears after the text. “American Red Cross on the best of terms with Belgian children at an American Hostel for refugees at 46 Rue du Dr. Blanche, Paris. June 1918”
John Waters’ RISD Graduation Speech
It was a rainy thursday morning. The horrible election is over, with a horrible woman the representative elect. Philando Castile is still dead, as is, presumably, Coach Casteel. The later was the eighth grade gym teacher at Cross Keys, a sadist who got off on making eighth graders run endless laps around the baked clay field. The world can be a muddy place sometimes.
Facebook comes charging to the rescue. A fbf posted a story, John Waters’ RISD Graduation Speech: Real Wealth is Never Having to Spend Time with A-Holes. There is a video, and, praise the loud lord, a transcript, aka the lazy blogger’s friend. The cisscript is courtesy of a promising blog, TELL YOUR PUP YOU LOVE HIM. A recent post is Questionnaire for left-wing hacks. “Are there topics you refuse to cover because doing so would make you a pariah among your journalist friends?”
When you listen to something while multi tasking, you wait for the moment when you have to pause the show, and take notes. This only happened one time with this product. “Never be like some of my generation who say “We had more fun in the ’60s.” No, we didn’t! The kids today who still live with their parents who haven’t seen them in months but leave food outside their bedroom doors are having just as much fun shutting down the government of foreign countries on their computer as we did banning the bomb.” The crowd laughed on cue.
What “the People’s Pervert” does not mention is that the bomb was never banned. Nuklure weapons are just as popular as ever before. Countries like Israel and Pakistan have the bomb, and wonder why caught-in-the-middle Iran are nervous. Do today’s keyboard warriors really shut down foreign governments? Only if you work for the Russian/Republican partnership.
The message was entertaining enough. John Samuel Waters Jr., hereafter known as JSW (too bad his grandfather did not put Samuel first) says a lot of things. Infiltration of the *establishment* is suggested, to make “really devious” product like “Hairspray.”
“I’m also sorry to report there’s no such thing as karma. So many of my talented great friends are dead and so many of the fools I’ve met and loathed are still alive. It’s not fair, and it never will be.” Fair is a baseball, it between the foul lines. If you try any of the stunts suggested in this address, good luck getting funding for your next project.
Youtube has the predictable fawning, punctuated by dangerous clarity. “Good lord! There are few things in life more irritating than fake bravery. Here’s a guy whose SJW views are so firmly part of the mainstream that they’re shared by most of the government, the media, and 95 percent of our colleges and universities, yet he still acts like some kind of defiant rebel whose views are somehow iconoclastic and brave. They’re not, though. Not for decades. Just turn on the TV sometime, John. Your views are 100 percent Establishment now. God help us all.”
Maybe we should focus on the multi tasking. The pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The distraction from SJW was taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in June 1918. “Relatives visiting a wounded French soldier in American Military Hospital No. 1 at Neuilly, supported by the American Red Cross.” These three images are the last ones shown today.
The Last Night Of Judy Garland
“In march of 1969, Judy married her fifth husband, Mickey Devinko, better known as Mickey Deans, a gay night-club promoter. Judy had an unfortunate habit of marrying gay men. They lived together in a tiny mews house in Chelsea, London. The evening of Saturday June 21 1969, Judy and Mickey were watching a documentary, The Royal Family, on television, when they had an argument. Judy ran out the door screaming into the street, waking the neighbors.
Several versions of what happened next exist, but the fact remains that a phone call for Judy woke him at 10:40 the next morning, and she was not sleeping in the bed. He searched for her, only to find the bathroom door locked. After no response, he climbed outside to the bathroom window and entered to find Judy, sitting on the toilet. Rigor Mortis had set in. Judy Garland, 47, was dead.
The press was already aware of the news before the body could be removed. In an effort to prevent pictures being taken of the corpse, she was apparently draped over someone’s arm like a folded coat, covered with a blanket, and removed from the house with the photographers left none the wiser.
The day Judy died there was a tornado in Kansas…. in Saline County,KS, a rather large F3 tornado (injuring 60, but causing no deaths) did hit at 10:40 pm on June 21st, that would be 4:40 am, June 22nd, London time, the morning she died. I know the time of death has never been firmly established, but since Rigor Mortis had already set in, I think this tornado may very much be in the ballpark in terms of coinciding with time of death…. Other news articles suggest the tornado struck Salina “late at night” which could certainly also mean after midnight on June 22, or roughly 6:00 am London time…
The Toledo Blade for June 24th, also in an article located right next to a picture of Garland, in a write-up on the Salina tornado noted that “Late Saturday [June 21] and early Sunday [June 22, another batch of tornadoes struck in central Kansas.” So it seems the legend seems confirmed.”
The text for this story comes from Findadeath. You can spend hours at this site. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
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