Chamblee54

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

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

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

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

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

This is without a doubt one of the nicest good luck forwards I have received .. Hope it works for you — and me! Lotus Touts: You have 6 minutes There’s some mighty fine advice in these words, even if you’re not superstitious .. This Lotus Touts has been sent to you for good luck from the Anthony Robbins organization. It has been sent around the world ten times so far. Do not keep this message. The Lotus Touts must leave your hands in 6 MINUTES. Otherwise you will get a very unpleasant surprise. This is true, even if you are not superstitious, agnostic, or otherwise faith impaired.
ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to.
As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
THREE. Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
FOUR. When you say, ‘I love you,’ mean it.
FIVE. When you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ look the person in the eye.
SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.
EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.
TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
ELEVEN. Don’t judge people by their relatives.
TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.
THIRTEEN! When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask,
‘Why do you want to know?’
FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
FIFTEEN. Say ‘bless you’ when you hear someone sneeze.
SIXTEEN. . When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R’s: Respect for self; Respect for others;
and Responsibility for all your actions.
EIGHTEEN. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
NINETEEN. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
TWENTY- ONE. Spend some time alone.
Now, here’s the FUN part! Send this to at least 5 people and your life will improve. 1-4 people: Your life will improve slightly. 5-9 people: Your life will improve to your liking. 9-14 people: You will have at least 5 surprises in the next 3 weeks 15 and above: Your life will improve drastically and everything you ever dreamed of will begin to take shape … A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart Do not keep this message.
This message is a recycled email. PG does not endorse the contents of this message. PG does not condone use of the expression “faith impaired”. It will probably be more than six minutes, from receiving this message, until it is sent out. If you can’t take a joke, get off the internet. If 9-14 people read this thing, then that is the first surprise.
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

PG decided to participate in a video shoot. He arrived at a house, wearing old clothes, intending to paint sets for a party. The auteur needed bodies for the film, and PG, for some reason, decided to join in. A wig tragedy was found to go on PG’s white hair, and a sequin vest was available. After the crew was costumed, the vehicles set out for Buckhead.
The first choice for parking was charging, so an empty garage by the disco Kroger was used. The plans were loose. Just run toward the camera, waving your hands and screaming. It got the attention of a security guard, who said that they don’t allow picture taking on the premises. It was the same story on the other side of the building, which apparently is in the same complex. A decision was made to go to Peachtree Road, where the sidewalks are public property.
The camera was set up, and the sunday drivers got an eyefull. The actors went across the street for a shot. PG remembered, after the shot had started, that he preferred to be photographed without his glasses. He took them off, and carried them in his hand for the rest of the shot. PG discovered that running down a sidewalk on Peachtree Road, wearing a sequin vest, air conditioned pants, and a wig tragedy, was a lot of fun.
A couple of shots later, and the team was doing close ups on a sidewalk. A third security guard, who was much nicer than the first two, came by to tell them to quit making movies on private property. Before long, the movie making was done for the day.

The bulk of this post is a double repost, which you may, or may not, find interesting. It is about global warming, so if you want to skip the text, and go directly to the pictures, no one will be offended. The pictures are from The Library of Congress Before we get to the main feature, there is another tidbit from the archives to share.
Two years ago, America was getting ready for the Super Bowl. There is frequently suspicion that certain games are rigged. One possible reason would be better TV ratings. (How many mediocre New York teams have played on Super Sunday?)
In 2010, it was Brett Favre, playing for the Minnesota Vikings, who had a terrible fourth quarter in the conference championship. The Chamblee54 piece said “The flip side is that someone, somewhere, is tired of crybaby antics, and wanted to spare America the spectacle of tmi Brett Favre.” This was before Mr. Favre learned how to send self portraits over his cell phone.
Here is part one . Somewhere in his drifting around the internet, PG found a reference to the story of Noah and the Ark. A light bulb above his head switched on, and the answer was apparent: Global warming is the second great flood.
In the Biblical story, G-d was upset with the way man was doing things. She gave Noah a heads up, and he was ridiculed by the good citizens of the day. Finally, it rained forty days and forty nights, and everyone except Noah got wet.
In the modern version, G-d sees man making a wasteland of the bountiful planet. An amazing resource like oil is controlled by hateful tyrants, and burned to make cars run. The signs of dis ease are apparent to some, but they are ridiculed by the good citizens of the day.
This time, things are different. Instead of forty days and forty nights, it is two hundred years of burning fossil fuels. It is a time of war, and rumors of war.
Here is part two . PG was shooting from the hip the other day, and said that G-d was causing global warming. At first it seemed a bit goofy, but like other thoughts about her ( G-d is in the details comes to mind), the more PG thinks, the more sense it makes.
A lot has to do with your idea of who G-d is. ( maybe the four other w’s, what, when, where, and why should also apply. Former POTUS are best left out of discussions about G-d). Although PG would not put global warming past Jehovah or Mary’sbabydaddy, those conceptions are just a bit obsolete. The idea of G-d that PG uses is the fifth element, to go with earth, air, fire and water.
The moonies have another view…that G-d is the difference between a human being and five dollars worth of chemicals. There seems to be an overall body of knowledge that makes the earth function. A DNA, or software. This framework of knowledge is how PG views G-d.
Right now, man is living in a paradise. A planet with earth, air, water and fire that is uniquely fabricated to support intelligent life. The role that G-d played in facilitating this planet is a mystery. There is a balance of life here…the right amount of gravity, the right ph balance in the oceans, the proper mix of gases in the atmosphere.
Man has been granted this paradise…it was not earned, it was given out of the bounty of G-d. And man has done his best to destroy the environment. Promiscuously burning fossil fuels is just part of the damage.
Now, there does seem to be a plan to deal with this. If the level of CO2 in the air goes above a certain level, then the temperatures will start to rise. This has been proven time and time again. There are nay sayers…some of whom are not on fossil fuel industry payrolls… who say this is a natural process, and has nothing to do with the actions of man. These people are similar to the upstanding citizens who ridiculed Noah when he built his ark.
It should be noted that the story of Noah and the ark might be a myth. That is, it is full of symbols and allegory, and is not to be taken literally. It could be that in an ancient time, G-d got fed up with the evil deeds of man, and decided to teach a lesson. This could be what is happening today.

It was another Sunday morning shaking out the cobwebs for PG. He read a featurette about a “frickin’ weirdo” actor . In the fine print was a link to The Extended Socionics Test (Beta). Personality tests are always good for a few hundred words to put between the pictures. Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
The test is 75 questions, in three groups. Group one is 28 questions. They are pairs of statements, with one statement being the opposite of the other. An example is “You view the cup as half full” … “You view the cup as half empty”. Your answer is a sliding lever between the two statements. You can go strongly for one or another, go mildly for one or another, or be stuck in the middle.
The first group of questions has a lot of bad choices. PG is getting bored with this exercise. If he had finished his coffee earlier, he might not have taken on this chore.
The second group of questions has a question in the middle, with a choice of two statements. An example is “What best describes your life philosophy?… Work hard and play hard; if you’re not with us, you’re against us…. Engage in small group activities and serious discussions. Let a multitude of ideas flourish and help realize those that show promise.”
PG did not copy a sample question, from group two, before moving on to group three. To get back to group two, he had to start the test over. In this second taking of the test, he is going to be a female, born in 1984. The answers to the test will be random.
The third part of the test is 38 pairs of photographs. You choose which one of the two you prefer to spend time with. It is always two women, or two men, and nobody seems to be over thirty.
PG is INFj, The Empath, , and Ethical Intuitive Introvert . This is also known as EII (INFj) . The brief description goes like this:
“Using introverted feeling as her base function and extroverted intuition as her creative, the EII is adept at understanding people’s internal drive and motivation. She often acts reserved, respectful, and polite around others she does not know well but will eventually open up more. She implicitly trusts her intuition when judging someone, and this intuition serves her well at grasping more abstract concepts. EIIs need to constantly set new goals for themselves and they care deeply about meeting these goals. However it should be noted that these goals are very personal, and she places less weight on the conventional achievements that society values, so often any correlation is largely coincidental. At her best, the EII is known for respecting other people’s beliefs and values while also being an overachiever at school and work; at her worst, the EII’s compassion and empathy can cause her undue harm when the people she cares about are suffering. Overall, the EII cares about diligence, meeting one’s individuals goals, and respecting others; she distates behavior that is overtly loud, abrasive, or aggressive.”
The female, who was born in 1984 and gives random answers, is a EIE-2Fe . This is also known as ENFj, The Actor, and Ethical Intuitive Extrovert. Several of the photographs in part three were repeated from the first test.

These visits to alternative reality are from a variety of sources. Included are Facebook (fb), twitter (tw), Futility Closet (fucl) , All Aphorisms, All The Time (Aph) , Texts From Last Night (tln) , and Overheard in New York (ony) . Attempts to maintain a no profanity blog will be suspended for this post. Pictures were taken by Gwinnett County. // I have two things to say to the gentlemen who sent me their photographs this morning. Posing nude in front of a camera in your bathroom does not make you a model. Secondly, you may be confusing me with a photographer for National Geographic. (fb) // Last night, my kids and I were sitting in my den. I told to them, “I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.” They got up, unplugged the computer and threw out my wine!! The little bastards (fb) // Figured out why I couldn’t cut these onions right – there wasn’t a glass of wine in my other hand ‘for balance’. (tw) // Before you ask, that’s actually a Mars bar floating in it. I’m not that cruel. (tw) // FFS, I’m in the bizarre end of YouTube again. This time, may I present: Vagina Bubbles From Hell (tw) // Often, cloaked like trick or treaters in the casual disguises of philosophical gossip, we wonder about the ultimate meaning of a man’s life (tw) // I keep forgetting the same thing over and over again. I know it’s important but I keep on forgetting it. (tw) // Xerox Candy Bar: Ah, you’re just a copy of all the candy bars I’ve ever eaten. (tw) // The dog was so old he looked like a stuffed dog. I tied him up to a fire hydrant and he pissed on it, but it was only stuffed piss. (tw) // Work life balance is such bullshit…. Between work, sleep, and blacking out, I pretty much wrote off my 20s. (tw) // #1: Hey, do you have change for a $20? #2: $20’s are change, bro. (tw) // One of the biggest problems with todays society is that we’ve run out of colonies of send our undesirables to. (tw) // If you can only be good at one thing, be good at lying… Because if you’re good at lying, you’re good at everything. (tw) // #1: Who gives a fuck about SOPA? #2: If you got busted downloading MJ’s Thriller, you’d get more jail time than the dude that killed him. (tw) // #1: Socialites are just bottom-feeders with money. #2: They do give mean head though. (tw) // Mitt embodies the bullshit ass-kissing banker-consultant-MBA double-talking piece-of-shit mentality we hate. He is hyphenation personified. (tw) // So sad…Please, put this on your status if you dated, know, work with or are related to (or divorced from) someone who suffers from stupidity. We all need to understand stupidity is real and must be taken seriously. You could be sitting next to a stupid person right now. There is still no known cure for stupidity, and sympathy does not help. Sometimes a 2×4 to the back of the head helps, but not a lot. But we can raise awareness! 53% won’t re-post this because they don’t know how to copy and paste. (fb) // “It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake” – Frederick Douglas (fb) // “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” – Patti Smith (fb) // “Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy” – Paracelsus (one of history’s greatest alchemists) (fb) // “If you’re gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.” ― Marilyn Monroe (fb) // On April 18, 1926, Sinclair Lewis mounted the pulpit of a Kansas City church, took out his watch, and defied G-d to prove his existence within 10 minutes by striking him dead. G-d spared him. George Bernard Shaw had once made the same challenge but gave G-d only three minutes. “I am a very busy man,” he said. (fucl) // A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life.-Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (fb) // Portion out pleasure so that one can always still increase it. – Immanuel Kant, Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view (fb) // Though terror speaks to life and death, and distress makes of the world a vale of tears, yet shame strikes deepest into the heart of man-Silvan Tomkins, Affect Imagery Consciousness vol III (fb) // No person wishes to abandon Christian terminology, but they can secretly change it so that it doesn’t require decision or action.-Soren Kierkegaard, Two Ages: A Literary Review (fb) // The public comes into existence because all its participants become spectators rather than participants.-Soren Kierkegaard, Two Ages: A Literary Review (fb) // To all my haters: You have my thanks, but not my respect. (tw) // “Pretty is overwhelming, having something to say on top of that can just be mindboggling.” (fb) // Charges: CRIMINAL ATTEMPT TO COMMIT CRIME // “Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.” — Bertrand Russell (fucl) // “If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.” – Catherine Aird. (fb) // Drunk cheerio confetti may seem like a brilliant idea when your drunk, but believe me, the next day, its a horrible, horrible mess. (tln) // He was all like, “I’ve prayed every single day just for one more night with you.”… Omg just give him a quick handy and walk out. (tln) // someone to text and fuck? since when does that constitute a relationship? (tln) // I swear my vagina formed calluses just to deal with how big he is (tln) // I’m really proud of myself for not blacking out yet this weekend! … It’s a Thursday. (tln) // Also, ran into my neighbor across the street. He told me about scheduling his vasectomy. We are officially way beyond the acceptable point for asking his name again. (tln) // and then she started to quack like a duck and u started throwing bread at her (tln) // Last thing i remember is pounding jager and puking in that nerds george foreman grill. Then i wake up this morning with some random tooth brush in my mouth (tln) // Guy on train on cell: Yeah, man, I’m not sure if I can go out tonight. (pause) I know there’s going to be a shit-ton of booze, but I think I’m staying in. I’ll go next time. (pause) I’m just saying, I have no idea what I’m on right now, but I don’t think I should mix it with alcohol. (ony) // Grandfather: You remember my cousin, Arthur? Little boy: Who? Grandfather: You remember him, he was at your bris. Little boy: Oh, right, right. (nods) (ony) // Guy to friend, about teen passing by: I know this girl, and she’ll suck your dick for free! Passing teen #1: What? Eww, gross! Passing teen #2: Really? Where? (ony) // “I make my way among the non-electric people to seek reasons for my death and my living” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) // “Hell, I couldn’t even get a job as a dishwasher.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) // “Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather Boa!” ~ Allen Ginsberg (tw) // “A poem is like a radio that can broadcast continuously for thousands of years.” ~ Allen Ginsberg (tw) // going to mcdonald’s for a salad is like going to a prostitute for a hug (fb) // Q. How can you tell when a man is well hung? A. When you can just barely slip your finger in between his neck and the noose. (fb) // Tween boy #1, after exiting TD Bank with two friends: Where do you get the money you spend? Tween boy #2: Where do you think? My parents. Tween boy #3: I spend my own money. Tween boy #2: And where did you get that money? Tween boy #3: My Bar Mitzvah. I got almost $6,000. Tween boy #1: Damn, why am I not Jewish? Tween boy #2: Hey, I have considered becoming Jewish just for the money! (ony) // Teen, looking at rack of sweater vests: Hey, look–I could turn into Rick Santorum! Mother: Yeah, but then I’d have to disown you. (ony) // Hipster girl on cell loudly: Courtney! I have to pee so bad! I’m going to wet my pants! Hipster dude, walking by: You’re wearing a dress, sweetie. (ony) // Life is my favorite drinking game. (tw) // Man is the cancer of nature, growing uncontrollably and exponentially. (Aph) // If all people were thrown into the sea, the sea would immediately become cleaner. (Aph) // We live as if we had two lives. The first one is used for the acquisition of resources. (Aph) // When faith replaces knowledge, its reliability is halved but its insistence doubles. (Aph) // #1: AAPL says the US doesn’t have workers w/ the skills to make iPhones. #2: It takes a lot of skill to survive on 70¢ an hour. (tw) // I don’t let my kids watch Lady Gaga. She has such a negative message… If you’re ugly, you have to dress like a freak. (tw) // Nothing is more succinct and articulate than just doing the jerk-off hand motion. (tw) // Before you say something is fucked up, don’t forget, Newt Gingrich married his high school math teacher. (tw) // Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, you have boobs. (tw) // I’m going Roethlisbergering tonight. (tw) // “…alcohol allows me to be this hero, striding through space and time, doing all these daring things.” ~ Charles Bukowski (tw) // selah

PG was minding his own business, listening to an internet discussion, when he heard a comment about Warren Harding and the word “normalcy”. This reminded PG of a post he wrote about the phrase “founding fathers”, which apparently was created by the former President. Comments were made.
Chamblee54 So Warren Harding coined the phrase normalcy . In the keynote address to the 1916 Republican convention, Mr. Harding was the first person to use the expression founding fathers . He is also regarded as one of the worst Presidents ever to serve.
rcocean Liberal propaganda. Harding wasn’t that bad at all, and simply didn’t have the time (only in office for 2 years) or live in an era when “Big decisions” needed to be made. If he’d been elected in 1916, he probably would’ve done better than Wilson. This country would be better off if we’d had more Coolidge’s and Harding’s and fewer Nixon’s, LBJ’s, and Wilson’s.
urbanxii Why, because he didn’t insist on twisting the country into his image?
donzeko I tend to think that the Harding hate is unfair. He fares badly because his administration was hit with serious corruption and scandals, but the underlying impetus seems to be his inactivity. Considering that he only served briefly and did so in a time of relative peace and prosperity, his lack of grand ideological crusading doesn’t seem like a fair reason to call him one of the worst. He shakes out quite favorably when you put him next to the other consensus worst Presidents: Buchanan, Hoover, Pierce, Johnson, etc. I figure he deserves a place solidly in the mediocre range along with the Gilded Age Ohioans.
It is a cliche of history classes that Warren Harding was one of the worst men to occupy the oval office. (Richard Nixon was the POTUS the last time PG studied history. This cliche does not consider the last forty years.) PG is a fair minded person, who is always looking for something to write about. The question for Mr. Google was “was warren harding a terrible president?”. Answers dot com has a generous helping of biographical sketches.
Warren Gamaliel Harding was born Nov. 2, 1865, Caledonia OH, and died Aug. 2, 1923, San Francisco CA. (His birthplace is also cited as Blooming Grove OH, and Corsica OH.) He published a newspaper, got into politics, and was elected to the US Senate. In 1920, he was a compromise candidate, on the tenth ballot of the Republican convention. He clobbered James Cox, ( His family firm, Cox Enterprises, owns Channel 2 and the fishwrapper.) and became President March 4, 1921.
The United States was in an economic downturn in 1921. The War in Europe ended in 1918, and a postwar depression was on. The last two years of the Wilson administration had been chaotic, with the President suffering a debilitating stroke. In a few years, the roaring twenties were on, and America was prosperous for a few years.
Mr. Harding was reputed to be a womanizer, gambler, and heavy drinker. He was not an activist President, but allowed his cronies to do what they wanted to do. This proved to be his downfall. “I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends. They’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!”
There was a major scandal involving oil reserves. It centered around a place in Wyoming called Teapot Dome. The details of this affair mostly came to light after the death of President Harding. Albert B. Fall, the secretary of the interior, was convicted of a felony for his role in the affair… the first cabinet officer to become a felon while in office.
Mr. Harding went on a trip to the west, to make speeches and deals. He was the first President to go to Alaska. While in Alaska, he read some documents about the crooked dealings of his friends. In a few days, he was in San Francisco. He had been in ill health during the trip.
“On Thursday, the President’s health appeared to be improving, so his doctors went to dinner. Harding’s pulse was normal and his lung infection had subsided. Unexpectedly, during the evening, Harding shuddered and died suddenly in the middle of conversation with his wife in the hotel’s presidential suite, at 7:35 pm on August 2, 1923. Dr. Sawyer (a homeopath, and friend of the Harding family), opined that Harding had succumbed to a stroke, but doctors there disagreed. … After some discussion, the doctors issued a release indicating the cause of death to be “some brain evolvement, probably an apoplexy”. Mrs. Harding refused to allow an autopsy. In retrospect, scholars speculate that Harding had shown physical signs of cardiac insufficiency with congestive heart failure in the preceding weeks. Naval medical consultants who examined the president in San Francisco concluded he had suffered a heart attack. “
The sudden and mysterious death of a President, with reports of a scandal surfacing, is fertile ground for conspiracy theorists. Mr. Harding did appear to be in poor health, so this may have been a natural occurrence. The truth will never be completely known.
One aspect of the Harding administration that is not well known is his attitude about race. In the years after World War I, America was engulfed in race hatred. The Ku Klux Klan had a revival. “In a speech on October 26, 1921, given in segregated Birmingham, Alabama Harding advocated civil rights for African Americans; the first President to openly advocate black political, educational, and economic equality during the 20th century.” Mr. Harding supported an anti lynching bill, which a Democratic filibuster kept from passing.
Jimmysnax brings the Internet tradition of snarky commentary to the legacy of Warren Harding. Apparently, former newspaperman Harding could not write his way out of a paper bag. (In 1923, radio was a novelty. The printed word was the primary means of communication.)
Run your eyes over one of the best known examples of his waterboarding of the English tongue: “I would like the government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved.”
Here’s what H. L. Mencken said about Harding’s speech writing and speech making: “He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.” The 20’s were a wonderful time for language!
Or as E.E. Cummings put it, announcing Harding’s death: “The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors is dead.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress

There is a book, Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun . The author is promoting it, with interviews at NPR and Democracy Now . It is a good story, of an innovative product and savvy marketing. Atlanta’s Gold Club, r.i.p., played a key role in this marketing. If the book is anything like the interviews, it will be a great read.
In the NPR show, there is a contradiction. Paul Barrett, the author, discusses how gun control is a dead issue. There are more guns available in America today, and crime is going down. New York is a much safer city today, than it was twenty years ago. Then, Mr. Barrett mentions that he does not own a gun. He lives in New York, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in America. Perhaps these tough laws are the reason that New York is safer?

PG found this in his inbox. A QUICK PRAYER Please do not break. Just 27 words. “G-d, our Father, walk through my house and take away all my worries and illnesses and please watch over and heal my family in G-d’s name, Amen.” This prayer is so powerful. Pass this to 12 people including me. A blessing is coming to you in form of a new job, a house, marriage, finances, or maybe an answer to something (a prayer, a request) that you have been waiting for. Do not break or ask questions.