Chamblee54

The legend is that Ernest Hemingway started the fad for six word stories. “For sale, baby shoes, never worn”. After he shotgunned his way to eternity, the idea kicked around for a while. Then twitter emerged in it’s 141 character glory, and someone started #6wordstory. Maybe one of them uses 141 characters. Here is a selection of these 6ws. PG may write one, or even five, just so he can say he is a trendy kind of guy. After copying and formatting these selections, we realize that Hemingway did it better than 98% of the tweeters. Pictures for this waste of bandwidth are from The Library of Congress // poetry doze you stick to prose // his name is rumplestiltskin! THE END // Austin is Gorgeous. End of Story. // time to bang out this // She was lost, looking for light. // You See What Had Happend Was… // and this weave saved my life // RTD finally leaves, fandom finally rejoices. // Right here could be the key, // spilt drink, bag hooked, hit face // Regina, you’re wearing sweatpants. It’s Monday. // once apon a time the end // I died. He lived. She smiled. // uhh , see what had happened was … // Jordan Witzigreuter is perfect go away // walk a mile in my shoes … // love begins and ends with you….” // Love hurts. Choose Vodka or Henny // I came. I saw. I conquered. // they met, they married, they died. // I just got some great head! // I try, I hurt, I need! // she foolishly fell for the “player” // The haters will always hate, jealous. // my life is gonna be legendary. // Six chambers. One bullet. Favorable odds. // There was a frog, it died // Kameron has one nice trumpet. Bye. // Belly fat killed the cats owner // But you are never wrong, Sherlock. // Darth Vader murió siendo Anakin Skywalker. :) // I Got So Drunk Last Night // He tried his best. Failed anyway. // The cow jumped over the moon. // “She doesn’t remember me. Yet.” // They lived happily ever after. Not. // Music runs rampant through my veins // Together, Forever, Through whatever, Whenever”” // “Then Buffy staked Edward. The End.” // Remember the American dream of possiblities // I’ve never been to Mount Vesuvius // “Who’re you?” “I used to know.” // Hockey’s half mental, half being mental. // “Common Sense, is not Common tho” // Affection. Erection. No protection. Inspection. Infection. // ugly girls are addicted to photoshop. // well, see what happened was i…. // Kameron has one nice trumpet. Bye. // cow, lives on moon, dies tragically. // she licked.i cummed.the end. // tried, failed, tried something else, succeeded.” // Head and shoulders saved my life. // drop the panties and bend over. // i couldnt think of anything else! // he inserted it, then she farted // Remember clean air and clean water // One Day You Disappeared The End // There was this onetime in bandcamp” // they hated eachother, now their friends. // i like food more than you. // dear homework, nobody likes you. Thankyou. // Guess our mascot, win a prize! // Hakuna Matata,what a wonderful phrase // And then @RomeoMiller proposed to me. // Old classmates. One night stand. Strangers. // She was ugly. She became Beautiful. // i kiss straight guys always, always // Political unity ends in international disaster. // Niall James Horan is simply beautiful. // best friend is a male // And they lived happily ever after! // i banged harry, it was hottttttttt // You are smarter than a chimp // Yes I’ve changed. Pain changes people! // get knocked down, get back up // The rain made hearts into livers. // Ghosts broke mom’s crystal bud vase // Hearts hear truth better than ears // you know i got the burner. // This was more entertaining than Twilight. // You wanna be high for this. // That Baby Don’t Look Like Me!! // They kissed, died, woke up, killed // The gun smoldered. He walked away. // I’m more popular than you are // when i have food, I’m happy. // I’m done. you can have him. // took a dump, no paper, nightmare. //  Mariah Yeater’s a hoe…..The end. // I hate trending topics about Bieber. // cool story bro, tell it again // “He lied + she believed = trust issues . // Got To Get Back To Hogwarts. // real friends turn into fake friends // i discovered Nutella. best day ever. // bring me food, then i’m happy // Cool Story Bro, I Don’t Care. // soo , you giving head or what ? // Then Bella killed herself. The end. // Your mother should have swallowed you // I came, I smashed, I left…. // You’re Born…You Die…The End // “A BIRD was once THE WORD” // I was married for 72 days. // Oh my God! You killed Kenny! // that baby dont look like me // give me head not a headache // While editing these 6wss, PG decided to move the mouse to his left hand. While doing this, he knocked over a cup of coffee.This is a message to keep the mouse on the right side of the desk. // Carl Hiassen says that selling a story to the movies is like sending a child to the Charles Manson day care center. // Two brothers, ties, and a whale // Chicago Is So Two Years Ago. // The Black Person Always Dies First // Nineteen years later, all was well. // the cat went swimming but drowned. // I smoked a joint, I’m stoned // drop out of school, train pokemon. // is that wart or rice crispie // Wow seriously please go kill yourself. // Exposition, conflict, action, climax, dénouement… // One. direction. bed. now. forever. happy. // I wish I could count – // My brother killed all my clan. // and he ate the entire penguin // HistoryNeedsYou Sir James Pennyman // “Would you like fries with that?”-// Never too early to be drunk // WHY MUST I CHASE THE CAT!???! // Failed a test. Having a drink. // He smashed raw, then pissed flames.. // Named my pipe “Lucky.” It broke. // Two tickets, to the gun show! // Alex sold lemonade to beat cancer. // I blacked out at Arbys again. // You do you, I do me // selah.

There idea of a holiday party is coke and lots of cupcakes…..somebody’s gonna puke and colorful it will be! (fb) /// It has come to my attention that everyone except for me hates candy corn. If you encounter any candy corn, please send it to me. SEND ME YOUR CANDY CORN. (fb) /// A Jewish sailor was shipwrecked on a desert island and the first thing he did was build two synagogues. Years later when he was rescued people were bewildered and asked him why he built two synagogues, to which he replied: “Oh that other one… I would NEVER go there!” /// “Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians.” – Urban II /// My “Week Of Not Checking Into OK Cupid So I Don’t Hook Up With Another Fat Chick” lasted four hours. On the plus side, she was the smallest one yet. (tln) /// So he was supposed to be helping me with my math but instead we ended up drinking coconut rum in his basement and having sex. I think my mom was right, getting a tutor will be good for me. Relieves the stress. (tln) /// He threw up, and left his credit card next to the puddle. He kept on saying he wanted to pay for the damages. (tln) /// REASONS YOURE SINGLE : You can’t date food (tw) /// REASONS YOURE SINGLE your female friend who told you your bf was no good is with him now (tw) /// REASONS YOURE SINGLE: Yue b3 textn lik diz :( (tw) /// REASONS YOURE SINGLE – Nobody likes you. (tw) /// REASONS YOURE SINGLE ; These No Good Niqqa’s ! (tw) /// REASONS YOURE SINGLE: Earth Men are Boring and you’re waiting for the right tentacle monster to sweep you off your feet and simultaneously (tw) /// Reasons youre single – cuz your such a hoe that when you die they gonna have to burry you in a’ Y’ shaped coffin. R-T if you get it. (tw) /// Lindsay Lohan’s line of coke #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage (tw) /// I use to fight everyday to prove I wasn’t a stereotype. Now I just think you’re a douchenozzle if you see me as one. #dowhatIwant (fb) /// One never truly finishes an essay, but yet we publish them anyway. (Aph) /// Ambition is the cancer of happiness. (Aph) /// We’re all victims of someone’s beliefs, namely our own. (Aph) /// I don’t want to be associated with any academic discipline that allows people like me to be members of it. (Aph) /// Man is the only beast that tries to deny his beastliness. (Aph) /// Marketing: it gets people to buy new things that look used and used things that look new. (Aph) ///this bartender needs to lay off the meth but damn thats a strong drink (fb) /// I think some people wasted to much money on Philosophy classes. (fb) /// “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”-John Milton, Paradise Lost (fb) /// “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” – Richard Feynman (fb) /// Trick or treaters just rang our doorbell Give them the moldy beer cans, we need to get rid of those (tln) /// Blow job bear ended up in my bed last night. She didn’t live up to her costume. (tln) /// He gave up on mugging us when Dave wouldn’t stop laughing. He was wiggling his finger at the knife and making baby noises and giggling. The guy just walked away. (tln) /// I feel like I just tasted lung cancer. (tln) /// Automated bus service announcement, in loud cheerful voice: Thank you for riding the MTA! Bus driver, grumbling: They don’t really mean it… (ony) /// Administrative assistant: I just wanted to touch bases with you before I touch base with you later. (ony) /// Boss: We used to have this character come over to clean out our septic tank and he would be eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at the same time. Coworker, pushing lunch plate away: I guess I’m through with this. (ony) /// who was wearing the fake mustache? I just found one in my cleavage (tln) /// You tried to initiate “Occupy McDonald’s” when the cashier didn’t give you enough ketchup. (tln) /// “If you think you understand it, that is surely a sign that you don’t” (fb) /// #thingslongerthankimsmarriage The time a black person gets to live in a horror film. (tw) /// #ThingsLongerThanKimsMarriage The line of trick or treaters outside Casey Anthony’s house. (tw) /// #thingslongerthankimsmarriage ………. Do you want me tweet about that?? (tw) /// #thingslongerthankimsmarriage needs to stop trending… only thing shes done for society is let a mediocre sextape get leeked.. (tw) /// #thingslongerthankimsmarriage LeBron’s lonely ring finger! (tw) /// My first ride without training wheels on my bike #thingslongerthankimsmarriage (tw) /// Passwords must be at least ten characters long, contain both upper- and lower-case letters, contain at least one numeral, and must contain non-alphanumeric characters. Passwords must be changed every sixty days. TRANSLATION: We’d really just rather you forget your password each time you try to log in. (fb) /// “The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.” – George Carlin fb Procrastination is underrated. (fb) /// my goal was to make out with as many people dressed as batman as possible. I have my priorities. (tln) /// I thought of you this morning when I woke up in a bed with a girl wrapped in duct tape dressed as a coors light can. (tln) /// halloween is the only time that anne boleyn, the joker, a cowgirl, and a mexican man complete with sombrero and poncho can all hit the same blunt (tln) /// My goal tonight is to get arrested because what cop can say they have ever arrested a giant sperm before. God I love halloween (tln) /// WARNING!!!! some photos will be offensive. If you do not have a sense of political correctness or silliness, or lack the potential to poke fun at the USA, gender or cultural icons, these photos are not for you!! (fb) /// “A good conscience is a continual Christmas.” — Ben Franklin (fucl) /// Newton was born the year that Galileo died. (fucl) /// Cole Porter’s summer home was called No Trespassing. (fucl) /// The #thingsonmymind could probably get me locked up. (tw) /// I often thought of killing myself but then I wanted lunch. – Paula Fox (tw) /// All my thoughts are second thoughts. – Aldous Huxley (tw) /// REASONS YOURE SINGLE GOD HATES YOU (tw) /// if women also participated in #NoShaveNovember there would be a huge drop in November pregnancies. (tw) /// The cheapest is rarely the least expensive. (Aph) /// Amassing an easy fortune often becomes a great misfortune. (Aph) /// Reality wears many different masks. (Aph) /// The trouble with reality is that it doesn’t seem all that real. (Aph)/// When all else fails, wax epistemic. (Aph) ///“The popular mind often pictures gigantic flying machines speeding across the Atlantic and carrying innumerable passengers. … It seems safe to say that such ideas are wholly visionary.” — Harvard College Observatory astronomer William Henry Pickering, 1908 (fucl) /// Not everyone agrees with me. I don’t know why but not everyone agrees with me. Eventually they will.” –Michele Bachmann /// I think there’s a fine line between being a slut and being classy. I walk in between that line. /// Yikes! Should I alert our neighbors? (fb) /// Men are like the letter Q, and they are all zeros with a small tail to it ! (fb) /// “You are lame and having sex with you is like going to the dentist, sit back, relax, and you won’t feel a thing” (fb) /// NOTE: The incorrect spelling was done intentionally as a means of better expressing the message. (fb) when someone’s talking too much, ask them, “is my pants zipper down?” when they say no, tell them, “then why is your mouth open?” (fb) /// Man: Hey baby, what’s your sign? Woman: Do not enter. (fb) /// “I long ago realized that if everybody likes you, you’re really not even close to maximizing your true Heartless Bitch potential.” (fb) /// “The law makes the silliest damned fuss about death. People die by the thousands every day; but simply because someone has had the energy and enterprise to assist old D’Courtney to his demise, the law insists upon turning him into an enemy of the people. I think it’s idiotic, but please don’t quote me.” Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man (fb) /// 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). /// selah.

There are sayings you hear when growing up, and they won’t go away. Then you get older, and you realize they were true.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right”. This is a handy argument tactic. When someone complains about something, the easiest remedy is to complain about them. It seldom helps solve the problem.
“You shouldn’t discuss politics or religion at work”. This is why sports are so popular to talk about, except during football season.
“If you can’t say anything good about someone, don’t say anything at all”.
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.

It has been said that PG has too much time on his hands. This is not always meant as a compliment. Yesterday was the last day of a campaign to clean out the camera shots folder. 566 pictures from the Little Five Points Halloween Parade stood in the way. After a while, the last picture was processed. In the background was a series of podcasts. In the spirit of the holiday, PG was dressed as a human.
The ear tickling was found at Booknotes. Authors promoting new product came to a show, on C-Span, between April 1989 and December 2004. The show was hosted by Brian Lamb. When you click on the links, they will start to play automatically. The sound usually needs to be turned up. A transcript is supplied, which makes a blogger’s life much easier. The authors are twenty years younger than today, which is usually a good thing.
Michael Howard had a book, “The First World War”. This conflict has always fascinated PG. It is little thought of today, in the United States, even though it created the conditions for many of today’s problems. It was incredibly bloody. Germany lost 1.8 million men, France lost 1.4 million men (out of a population of 30 million), England lost .74 million men, and the USA lost .11 million men. (“Then in the summer of 1918, in late sort of May and June, the Germans were attacking so strongly, so successfully, that it looked as if the whole line was going to break. And the Americans then did start putting in their troops. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) was the great — the — the great battle of the Big One, your 1st Division. And then increasing number of troops until when the war ended in November, 1918, there were then two full American divisions, with a lot coming up behind. And that was when they had their casualties. It doesn`t look as if they had very many, but if you consider that those casualties they suffered were all suffered within about six weeks, you realize how much they were actually not only involved in the fighting but … getting mown down by German machine guns.”)
Almost no one today knows why this gruesome war was fought. Mr. Howard has a short version. “LAMB: Well, go back to the very beginning. And you point out Archduke Franz Ferdinand. HOWARD: Yes. LAMB: Who was he, and why is he always the object of where the war started? HOWARD: Well, he was the heir to the throne of the Habsburg empire — Austria-Hungary — which was one of the great powers. And he was assassinated by a terrorist. It was a nationalist terrorist from — basically, from Serbia. And he was backed by — covertly by the Serbian army and possibly by the Serbian government. LAMB: You say he was 19 years old, the assassin? HOWARD: About that. I think he was 17, actually. I don`t quite know. But he was a typical young, idealistic terrorist who wanted to see Serbia free from the dominance of the Austrian empire. The Austrian empire was multi-national. It prided itself on having about 12 different nationalities under the imperial rule. Just — some of them were Serbs. Just outside the Austrian empire, there was an aggressive, ambitious Serbia that wanted to sort of have all the Serbs under its command in Belgrade. And it`s — including a number of them who were in Austria. Now, when this terrorist assassinated the heir to the throne, this created a shock comparable, in its way, to 9/11 here. It was regarded as something so outrageous, so abominable, that some kind of revenge had got to be taken. And for the Austrians, this seemed the moment to crush the Serbs for good. There was a general feeling throughout the Austrian empire that We`ve got to finish with these people. They`re bad guys. And they knew, however, that if they did declare war on — on Serbia, Serbia had a patron, who was Russia, and Russia would try to deter the Austrians from attacking Serbia. And if they went through with it, then the Russians were likely to declare war on Austria. The Austrians would have been deterred from attacking Serbia because of this if they did not have the Germans behind them. And they therefore turned to the Germans and said, If we get involved with a war in Russia, will you back us? And the Germans said, Yes, we will. And then one thing led to another. The Austrians did declare war on Serbia. The Russians then did declare war on Austria. The Germans then did declare war on Russia. And Russia`s ally, France, declared war on Germany. It was one of these awful (UNINTELLIGIBLE) escalation. Something which looked sort of fairly small and fairly local escalated into a — not simply a European war but because the British came in, it then became a world war fought all over the globe.”
After the millions of men died, what had been accomplished? LAMB: Who got what they wanted out of all of this? HOWARD: That`s a jolly good question, nobody really.
Charles Fecher edited “The Diary of H.L. Mencken”. Henry Louis Mencken was a writer and editor, who was much beloved by the smart people of his day. He is little known today.
The diary is rather controversial. Mr. Mencken is shown to be an anti semite and a racist. “It is impossible to talk about anything resembling discretion or judgment in a colored woman. They are all essentially childlike, and even hard experience does not teach them anything.” Mr. Mencken was a bitter opponent of Franklin D. Roosevelt, maintaining that the New Deal violated every aspect of the Constitution exept for the prohibition of quartering troops in private residences.

At the bottom of the page, the viewer is directed to other shows “YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:” This led PG to a chat with Murry Kempton. Mr. Kempton was, before his death in 1997, a New York journalist. He was much loved by the people who write New Yorker magazine, and inform people west of the Hudson River about such things. Mr. Kempton tells about Paul Robeson, Malcolm X (Mr. Malcolm), Richard Nixon, and a few others.
Eric Rauchway wrote “Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt’s America.” This incident has been discussed at Chamblee54. The shooting of William McKinley has been largely forgotten, but propelled Theodore Roosevelt into the White House. Mr. Roosevelt ran as a third party candidate in 1912. (This made certain the victory of Woodrow Wilson. Within a year, the Federal Reserve Bank was established. A few years later, America entered World War One.)
Before a speech, Mr. Roosevelt was shot in the chest. The text of his speech deflected the bullet, and he made the speech anyway. “Well, the bullet went through his speech, as I say, which is in his breast pocket and hit him in the fleshy part of the chest, it appears, and he kind of looked down at himself, and he didn’t think that there was any arterial blood coming out, and he coughed, which he said, you know, he remembered from being a soldier that was one way to tell if there was internal bleeding. He didn’t cough up any blood, and so he said to himself, well, I can go on and do this. Now, this was a considerable risk. I mean, whatever precautions he took, to go walking around with a bullet in your chest is never a good idea. But he thought it was worth the risk to achieve this political end of giving this important speech.”
After McKinley died, there was a controversy about the competence of the Doctor’s who treated him. There was one more matter. “LAMB: Didn`t you say there was a dispute over what happened to his stomach? RAUCHWAY: Yes. When I was looking into the book, I talked to a Buffalo doctor, a pathologist, who said, Well, you know, when I was doing my residency here, there was a story going around that his stomach was on display and that you could see the bullet hole in the back of the stomach, but I never saw it, he said. And apparently, nobody has, either. But it`s part of Buffalo lore.
Martin Marty wrote a book about Martin Luther. This is the one interview that PG found boring, and did not finish. There is one good quote about Mr. Luther in his older years. “But the Reformation didn`t go the way he wanted it to. He really was sour on Wittenberg. He didn`t even like to go back to it. He thought that Germany would have moral reform that it didn`t have. He thought that everybody would come flocking to his catechism, and he had to have the police, I guess you`d say, enforce that. So he was a very disappointed person, frustrated that the Jews didn`t convert. He thought they`re all going to convert when you get — he read the Hebrew scriptures as the Christian Bible. And so when Jesus comes along, that`s just fulfilling that. So why wouldn`t the Jews all come running? And well, it must be the rabbis who are holding (ph) them. So he spewed out terribly anti-Semitic things … The empire is breaking up. You`re facing the issue of the Turk, the Muslim. He calls them Mohammaten (ph). Somebody said they — the Turk is Luther`s luck. He wouldn`t have been alive if it weren`t for the threat of the Turk along the way. He read the Quran — bad paraphrase, but he at least knew what was there. And sometimes he sounded friendlier to the Turk than he did to the pope. In his last years, too, the pope had become for him the anti-Christ. And the language that people then used — there`s a whole volume of exchange between Luther and Thomas More, whom we think of as a cool humanist, “The Man for All Seasons. The language they use is — we couldn`t use it on this program or anywhere else. That`s just how it was. And that shows up mainly in his late years.”
Winston Groom became famous as the author of Forrest Gump. He is also a military historian, and wrote a book about the Battle of Ypres (pronounced EEP), A Storm In Flanders. The book is about one of the battles in World War One. There is a military cemetery at Ypres, and a monument to 80,000 British soldiers who died, but did not have enough matter left to bury. Of course, the conversation gets back to Forrest Gump before long. “LAMB: And what did it do to change your life? GROOM: Well, I — I’ve been able to upgrade my brand of toilet paper”.
James Tobin wrote Ernie Pyle’s War: America’s Eyewitness to World War II. (Ernie Pyle and Gomer Pyle are not related.) Ernie Pyle was a war correspondent in World War II. Mr. Pyle wrote about what the war was like for the men in the trenches. As the European war wound down, Mr. Pyle was burned out, and returned to the United States. He was persuaded to go cover the war in the Pacific. On April 18, 1945, on Okinawa, this proved fatal.
The last chat that PG listened to was with David Crosby , who usually has something to say.( Chamblee54 has discussed Mr. Crosby.) This interview was produced May 28,2000. Mr. Crosby talks about the need for campaign financing reform, and how tough it is to make people think that their vote counts. In a few months, PG would have a similar conversation with a friend, who thought it was important to vote for Al Gore. PG was unimpressed with Mr. Gore, and not scared by Mr. Bush. I doubt that PG, or Mr. Crosby, could have foreseen the way that election was going to turn out, or the disastrous consequences for humanity.

PG found a picture on Facebook. It was a satire of We are the 99 percent. The cutie pie man is holding up a hand written sign. The sign says “I am a child of the omnipotent everything. I represent a unique and luminous aspect of the shimmering entirety known as ALL THAT IS. I am responsible for and to all the other facets of creation who are experimenting with “Being”. The ides of “us” or “them” is meaningless to me. As I lift up my fellow creatures, I ascend. As I ascend, we are all together uplifted. I have the same creative and destructive power as every immaculate partide of the ecstatically united whole. I AM THE 100%.”
When you click on the picture, you go to the original post. If you look in the comments, you get a Link to some music. . The man is a musician, with product to sell. There is nothing wrong with this. Lots of people have product to sell, and if people don’t know about it, they will not enjoy it.
PG posted this link on facebook, and noted the marketing connection. It was said that this was a BUZZKILL, and that he was “raining on the parade”.(The spell check suggestion for BUZZKILL is BUGZILLA) PG responded with this comment: “The music is pleasant to listen to. He has a right to market it. I did not intend to “rain on the parade” with my comment. I think the satire of the 99% movement was rather tacky, and the message is a lot of nonsense. However, the music that he is promoting in this manner is fun to listen. Sometimes the end justifies the means.”
We live in a time when everyone is shouting. When everyone is shouting, no one is heard. If Mr. Brinkley wants to further his career as a performer, that is his right. ( We were going to say privilege, but that is an insult these days. Semantics can be funny.) The seminal post has 660 comments as this is written, and will no doubt hit the magic 666 soon.
Whether or not Mr. Brinkley agrees with the comment in the picture is beside the point. It would be nice if he is sincere, and really *believes. (One of the songs, “Not Hiding Now”, explores this dilemma.) You can still see his product here , there, and here again. Pictures are from The Library of Congress .

As you may have noticed, PG likes to take pictures, and then warp them. (He has been looking for a term to describe this, and is going to try photowarping.) A week ago, he noticed that he had fallen behind on this, took an inventory, and saw that he had 1453 pictures in the warp line. After a week of intensive labor, this number is down to 613.
As this is written, it is 1:30 am, on the last Sunday of October. This is probably the heaviest party night of the year. PG did know of a party, but it would mean driving fifteen miles and paying twenty dollars. This cover charge includes an open bar. PG is a retired drunk, and does not relish paying for other peoples legal drugs. Sometimes, the best way to enjoy life is to warp pictures, and listen to entertainment on the internet.
The first round of eartickling was an episode of bloggingheadstv. This feature is a discussion of life in Russia. Those of a certain age remember when Russia was the baddest boogieman to haunt the planet. Today, some things are different, and some are the same. A certain amount of dissent is permitted on the internet. The television outlets are kept under control.
In the early nineties, PG talked to a lady from Soviet Georgia. She said something that makes more sense the more you think about it. “In our country, the government and the secret police run everything. In this country, the banks and the computers run everything.”
The main audio event tonight was a seven part video series by Og Mandino. The series was captured in 1990, six years before the death of Og Mandino. (Og is short for Augustine.) It is his basic motivational speech.
PG first heard of Og Mandino when PG was working at Redo Blue. A co worker, who we will call Freddie, carried a book by Og Mandino for his first year at Redo Blue. Freddie was a fan of motivational authors. Freddie was also the laziest person PG has ever shared a payroll with. PG has not kept up with Freddie. To be fair,  that there is a chance Freddie is doing well these days.
In the years after that, PG heard the praises of Og Mandino sung by Neal Boortz. In spite of this, PG was curious about the message of Og Mandino. When PG has the misfortune to be exposed to motivational speakers, he tries to learn one or two things from the entertainer. PG does not consider this type of message to be entertaining, in contrast to many in our culture.
PG was not impressed by Og Mandino. PG felt like someone had been trying to manipulate him. There was one moment of irony. One of the concepts that Mr. Mandino espouses is that you are not doing anything by yourself. You must be willing to say, ” I need help”. When PG heard Og Mandino say “I need help”, a picture of a drag queen named Mary Edith Pitts was on the screen.
Another thing that Og Mandino says is that you should read. PG agrees with this … moreover, PG reads. Only difference between PG and Og Mandino is in the choice of reading material. The entertainer says you should go to the library, and find more motivational writers. Right now, PG is reading a ghost written autobiography of Bing Crosby. It is tons of fun to read, and has no motivational value at all.
The last speaker on the hit parade tonight makes the same point. Kurt Vonnegut appeared on a taped episode of the Charlie Rose show. (The archives of the Charlie Rose show are available for listening.) Mr. Vonnegut talks about making your soul grow by writing short stories and poems. Whether this is the same success that Mr. Mandino talks about is in the eye of the beholder.

You need to let me be on top sometimes. I gotta get rid of these love handles (ony) /// “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” –Horace Mann (fb) ///  I mean how do you tell a nurse in the ER that you dislocated your knee giving a blowjob to your boyfriend. (ony) /// Tourist girl to friend: Thank god our bodies don’t completely turn off when we go to sleep or else people would be getting raped and murder all the time. Wanna see the shirt I got? –F Train (ony) ///  “When fascism comes to america, it will be holding a cross wrapped in a flag.” (fb) /// do it yourself (DIY)— lots of folks (fb) ///I know I’m constantly being manipulated by my cats, but I love ’em anyway… (fb) /// We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, & to bring home those who have lost their way. – St. Francis of Assisi (fb) ///”A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.” ~ Arthur C. Clark (fb) /// Written on the side of my new glasses: FOSSIL. An apt description of an old dude wearing progressive bifocals. (fb) ///Cashier, looking at driver’s license: Oh, you’re an organ donor? Lady: Yes… Cashier: Did it hurt?! –Target (ony) /// I think we’re getting a little bogged down by our definitions of definition. (fb) /// “If politics is fundamentally about solidarity—and I believe it is—then poetry is the most profound form of politics” — @tejucole (tw) /// RT @tejucole: Sergeant Baba Wuya was on night patrol on Lasisi Street in Jos when he felt machetes descend on him, and then ceased to feel. (tw) /// The #OccupyWallStreet #OccupyAtlanta movements have one principle argument in common. The status quo is entirely unacceptable. (tw) /// I’m at the point in my life where I’m trying to get guys I’ve fucked to give a ride to guys I’m going to fuck. (ony) /// “Only when the last tree is cut down, the last fish pulled from the river, the last sunrise blotted out and last lands made dug for our fills will we realize maybe, just maybe that we can’t eat money.” (fb) /// The frustrated cannibal threw up his hands. (fb) /// That awkward moment when your sexuality is kinda being erased in a technically non-offensive way. (fb) /// If you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. (fb) /// “It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right – especially when one is right.” – Friedrich Nietzsche (fb) /// Angel Poventud (spell check suggestion : Ventured)#occupyatlanta 3:28am there was a large police presence surrounding the park. Command vehicle still here, tents still here. Status quo? (tw) /// Winnie Anne Wright We’re sitting at the bar at waffle house, they’re doing dishes in front of me. All the smells are about to make me sick. #Sundayproblems (tw) /// Dalton Healey The first time I have ever had a wait at Waffle House, I wasn’t aware that even existed! (tw) /// Confused teenage girl to another, looking at wall of silver-screen era movie star magazines: Where’s Justin Bieber? –Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria (ony) /// Big blond tourist doof to grossly overweight wife who eyeballs every passenger: Yes, you’ll see all kinds here. –Uptown 1 Train (ony) /// Pretentious, fake man to pretentious, fake woman: But of course, Soho in the old days was so pretentious and fake… –Art Gallery, Chelsea (ony) ///Hobo poet on train: Ladies and gents, a subway haiku for you: “New York subway map/ Manhattan flaccid penis/Brooklyn/Queens scrotum.” –2 Express Train (ony) /// “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” – Aristotle (fb) /// “Every passing minute is a chance to turn it all around.” – Vanilla Sky (fb) /// Beryl: ” Anyone ever telll you that you were fickle?” Linda:” No. I never hang around long enough!” (fb) /// Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” ~His Holiness The Dalai Lama (fb) /// I’m so over every discussion turning into a rant about racism and privelege these days. I’m also over hearing about “The Man”, “The 1%”, and how Kate Middleton is bringing back pantyhose. (fb) /// The ear is a better communicator than the tongue. (aph) /// If you feel offended you are ready to write an aphorism. (aph) /// Rudeness is sauce to his good wit, which gives men stomach to digest his words with better appetite. (aph) /// Girl: So I got undressed, pulled out my vibrator, and asked him to give me a little inspiration and cheer me along. He said he’d be right back and returned with a family-size box of Cheeze-Its. Like, what the fuck? Boy: When a girl says she wants to cum for you on camera, it’s generally not a good time to go to the concession stand. –W 3rd (ony) ///There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to Fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. (aph) /// There is no alchemy that changes opinions into facts; the search continues for an alchemy that allows facts to alter opinions. (aph) While you can understand the tragedy of the commons on an intellectual level, you really can’t feel it on a visceral level until you try to find a clean public restroom. (fb) /// A Facebook friend posted a very racist picture. I commented this is racist and offensive. A girl quickly responded: “Your hair and corndog offend me.” I might get this tattooed. It is just too good. (fb) /// You and your rumors have two things in common; you’re both fake and you both get around… (fb) /// If I say what I think, I’m a bitch. If I cry some times, I’m a drama queen. If I have guy friends, I’m a slut. If I stand up for myself, I’m mouthy. Seems like you can’t do anything now a days without being labeled. So what, go ahead and label me, see if I care. Re-post this if you’re proud of who you are!!!! (fb) /// “By appreciation we make excellence in others our own property.” — Voltaire fucl /// If a pizza has thickness a and radius z, then its volume is pi z z a. fucl ///  Thank God I didn’t lose my virginity to that asshole. That woulda been like winnin a raffle ticket for a free bag of dog shit. But with like a really pretty bag. A pretty bag full of dog shit. (ony) /// I mean how do you tell a nurse in the ER that you dislocated your knee giving a blowjob to your boyfriend. (ony) /// I’m at the point in my life where I’m trying to get guys I’ve fucked to give a ride to guys I’m going to fuck. (ony) /// “A day without laughter is a day wasted.” – Charlie Chaplin (fb) /// “You have no right to set up standards and ideals for other people, and you have no right to expect in others a perfection that is lacking in yourself”. (fb) /// “There is nothing worse than fading into anonymous obscurity.” – Unknown (fb) /// Thank God I didn’t lose my virginity to that asshole. That woulda been like winnin a raffle ticket for a free bag of dog shit. But with like a really pretty bag. A pretty bag full of dog shit. (ony) /// This isn’t his Halloween costume. It’s from Jenny’s wedding, so don’t report me to DEFACS. (fb) /// Sam Simpson Nothing better than redneck waffle house in GA ! (tw) /// Alex Rogers The chef at the waffle house has a staring problem (tw) /// Chill-Cool Chunn @OMFG_imAWESOME this waffle house is a trip! Waitress yelling, forgetting food, and old lady preaching about money. (tw) /// Bryania Banner darby: do you have a boyfriend? me: no. darby: does he hate you? me: i dont know.. darby: i think he does. me: haha..probably. (tw) /// Elementary school boy #1: You wanna know why Wal-Mart is the best? Cause you can buy a big box of cereal in one aisle, then go to the next aisle and buy a gun! What more do you need? Elementary school boy #2: Wowee… Elementary school boy #1: Exactly! You can’t do that anywhere else in the world! –6 Train (ony) /// I’m pretty sure that when my parents bought me those savings bonds they thought it would go towards something useful like tuition. Not your bail. (ony) /// $150 bar tab covered by these tits. That’s now the going rate. Keeping my bra on during sex unless i see the Benjamins. (ony) /// Yeah Greg found him eating out of a tuna can with a pill cap (ony) /// 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) (Aph), and Overheard in New York (ony). Pictures are from The Library of Congress . These images are Union soldiers from the War Between The States. The video is courtesy of Live Apartment Fire. Selah.

Juan Cole published a commentary, Top 10 ways OWS can Excel: Counsel from Iran’s Green Movement. The Atlanta section of the occupy movement is at a crossroads now. It gets good marks for working as well as it did, but to this date has not really achieved anything. There were mistakes made … renaming Woodruff Park for Troy Davis is a terrible idea, and would not help economic fairness.
The firefight over a hip hop festival seems to be what ended the initial occupation. There seems to be confusion as to exactly what was going on. (And how does having a hip hop festival help the overall goal of a better life for the 99%?) When you have this leaderless entity, it is possible for a red herring, like generators at a hip hop festival, to bring down the house of cards.
As for the next step, this reporter does not have a clue. The right wing can make lots of hippy (spell check suggestions:chippy, happy, nippy, hippo, lippy) jokes now, which will be a handy distraction for the one percent. The tea party is getting in on the fun. Crying victim is always a crowd pleaser.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Here are ten suggestions from the Green revolution in Iran. Remember, the status quo in Iran was not changed by this revolution. While these ideas my help the occupation movement, they are not a guaranteed path to success.
1) Pick a color to represent your movement and wear it daily in public places (work, restaurant, etc.). Remember, this is a numbers game. You want maximum visibility, and to bring your movement into everyday life.
2) Have an all-inclusive strategy. Accept people with different views who are willing to join you in protest. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to know what you want as a movement yet. The goal at this stage is to point to your opponents and say that they have been lying to you; that the show they have constructed is false and that you are sick of it.
3) Demonstrate peacefully. Committing violence during demonstrations leads to ruptures within your movement, diminishes public sympathy, and gives the security forces a reason to violently suppress your protest.
4) Be rigorous. Security forces, dressed as civilians, may commit public acts of violence in order to have an excuse to squash protests. Find footage of those that police accuses of acting violently. Make sure they are legitimate protestors. Expose them if they are not.
5) Be creative. During demonstrations in Iran, security forces dressed a male protester in female attire in a bid to embarrass him. The next day, hundreds of male protesters came out in female attire.
6) Record protests with your mobile phones and send to television stations. Many broadcasters are owned by the very people who are in the 1%. But every now and then, there are producers and news workers who are willing to get in trouble for showing the truth. This happened in Iran on many occasions. News websites have an e-mail address and they generally ask you to send them footage.
7) Send your footage of acts of violence committed by the police to foreign television broadcasters like Al Jazeera, RT, etc. When they show the footage, it puts pressure on American broadcasters to do the same. (Iranian protestors used BBC very effectively, even though it is a British outlet).
8) Write, “I am 99%” or “OWS” on all dollar bills that you circulate. Remember, you are fighting on the plane of the symbolic, and cash circulates widely and quickly.
9) Do not let politicians co-opt your movement. Many politicians, domestic or not, may hope to use your movement to their advantage. Allow them to join your movement, but DO NOT let them lead or act as spokesperson.
10) Write arguments and op-eds that aim at the logic of the system that has robbed you of opportunities and comfort. Do not aim at a particular person. People can be replaced; it is the system that is hurting you.

PG edits a picture of mannequins. He listens to Charlie Rose read a letter that Hunter S. Thompson wrote on November 22, 1963. He ate steamed collard greens, that had sat in the refrigerator overnight. He felt an ice pack over his swollen toe, on the left foot next to the big toe. His sense of smell is ignored, which means that his body and residence were clean. The night before, the police cleared out the Woodruff Park occupation. The national debt was escalating at an unfathomable rate. PG credits all of these things to his white privilege.

Today’s product is a double repost. The theme is war. The pictures are from this years Dragon Con parade. Every labor day, thousands of fantasy minded folks come to downtown Atlanta. It is amazing how many of the costumes, in the parade, are about killing. One wonders how these plastic superheroes would perform in a genuine firefight.
Part one is a story by Mark Twain. He was horrified by the activities of Uncle Slaughter 110 years ago. Part two is about the killing of women and children by remote control. This could be celebrated at Dragon Con. In the text, there is a reference to killing militants from Uzbekistan. Pro Life Republican Herman Cain calls this country “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan.”

One hundred and four years ago, the United States was involved in a war, that did not want to end. This conflict was in the Philippines. Although there had been an official end to the war, guerrillas continued to fight the Americans. The war was a nasty affair, with many atrocities.
The War against the Philippine people was a souvenir of the Spanish American War. There had been a rebellion against Spanish rule in the islands. After the American forces routed the Spanish, the rebellion shifted to the American occupiers. It was a war stumbled into, and difficult to end.
Mark Twain was horrified. He wrote a story, The War Prayer. As Lew Rockwell tells the tale
“Twain wrote The War Prayer during the US war on the Philippines. It was submitted for publication, but on March 22, 1905, Harper’s Bazaar rejected it as “not quite suited to a woman’s magazine.” Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend Dan Beard, to whom he had read the story, “I don’t think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.” Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish “The War Prayer” elsewhere and it remained unpublished until 1923.”
HT to David Crosby and his autobiography, “Since Then“. A book report is forthcoming.
Getting back to “A War Prayer“, the story starts in a church. A war has started, and is popular. The troops leave for glory the next day. The preacher has an emotional prayer to send them on their way. Unknown to the minister, there is a visitor. “An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s side and stood there, waiting.
With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal,” Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!”
The stranger motioned to the preacher to step aside. The stranger stepped into the pulpit, and claimed to have a message for the worshipers, sent directly from G-d. The preacher’s message was for support in time of war, and implied that G-d and the preacher support the same side in this conflict. There is an unspoken part to a prayer like this. This unspoken part was what the stranger was going to put into words.
“”O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe.
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-
for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”

The New American Foundation has a report on the drone attacks on Pakistan. These attacks have increases dramatically under BHO, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize. HT to Andrew Sullivan, Atlantic Magazine, and The New Yorker.
Drones are unmanned aircraft operated by remote control. There is no human at risk (to us) in these operations. These reports do not mention how many drones have been shot down. These attacks are going on in Pakistan (which theoretically is not at war with the United States), and in secret operations around the world.
Drone attacks are like abortions. In a typical procedure, the doctor and mother are at little risk, and the baby dies. Abortion is safer than childbirth, just like drones are safer than aircraft with human crews. Safer, that is, for the human crew. Drones are just as deadly for the women and children on the ground as manned aircraft.
The issue of civilian casualties continues. Estimates range from 6% to 85 % of the deaths are civilians. This is going to be impossible to verify, with militants exaggerating and Americans denying. The lowest estimates are from the long war journal. It should be noted that if these operations were happening in America, and white citizens were being killed, a 6% rate of civilian death would be an outrage. However, when you are talking about dark skinned Muslims eight time zones away, a human life if worth less, compared to the military advantage gained.
One thing from the NAF report caught the eye here. “As a result of the unprecedented 41 drone strikes into Pakistan …about a half-dozen leaders of militant organizations have been killed–including two heads of Uzbek terrorist groups allied with al Qaeda.” What are Uzbek terrorist groups doing in Pakistan? Are we making attacks in Uzbekistan now?
Another eye popper is in the appendix. This is from a list of drone attacks.
24. June 23
Location: Makeen, South Waziristan (funeral of militants killed in earlier strike)
Al Qaeda/Taliban leaders killed: Unknown
Al Qaeda/Taliban killed: At least 45
Others killed: 45-83 (including militants)
We are attacking funerals. This is what gets POTUS the Nobel Peace Prize.
In addition to the moral disaster of killing women and children with unmanned aircraft, there are some strategic issues. The fighters have been staying in the mountainous frontier of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is the area being attacked. There are indications that the fighters are moving into more populated areas of Pakistan. They will be more difficult to fight there.
When you drop a bomb on an outpost, you destroy cell phones, computers, and paperwork. These items can be of value for determining the future plans of the fighters. Also, dead men tell no tales. Remember the ticking time bomb in the torture debates? What is someone knows where that ticking bomb is, but we kill him? He is not going to be able to tell us where that bomb is, torture or no torture.
If the goal of the war in Stan Land is to destroy the terrorists, then we should question whether killing leaders is going to do the trick. Drone attacks are a tactic, not a strategy. The anger that fuels these terrorists is not going to go away, and the leaders that are killed are going to be replaced. These attacks may slow down the resistance, but they will not destroy it.

When he is not writing detective novels about former governors who eat road kill, Carl Hiassen produces a column for the Miami Herald. This column has a Netflix ad that breaks through the toughest of popup ad deflaters. It seems as though Brad Drake, the Florida state representative from Eucheeanna, FL, has a proposal to change the way Florida executes people. In the new world order, lethal injection would be put aside. The condemned would have a choice between the electric chair and a firing squad. (Here is a copy of the bill. )
Rep. Drake has a way with words. “So, I say let’s end the debate,” Drake, a Republican, said in a release Tuesday. “We still have Old Sparky. And if that doesn’t suit the criminal, then we will provide them a .45 caliber lead cocktail instead … There shouldn’t be anything controversial about a .45-caliber bullet. If it were up to me we would just throw them off the Sunshine Skyway bridge and be done with it … am sick and tired of this sensitivity movement for criminals,” Drake said. “Every time there is a warranted execution that is about to take place, some man or woman is standing on a corner holding a sign, yelling and screaming for humane treatment… I have no desire to humanely respect those that are inhumane”
The Current sheds a bit of light on Mr. Drake’s story. “In a Waffle House in DeFuniak Springs, Drake said he heard a constituent say, “‘You know, they ought to just put them in the electric chair or line them up in front of a firing squad.'” After a conversation with the person, Drake, 36, said he decided to file the bill … There have been problems in the past with electrocutions. In the late 1990s Florida’s electric chair, known as “Old Sparky,” left one death row inmate convicted of a triple-homicide alive for moments after the electrocution, and sparked a fire on another inmate’s face.”
NWF Daily News reports that the bill was the result of a debate over an execution. Florida is one of many states using pentobarbital as a sedative in the lethal injection cocktail. “His lawyers questioned the drug, saying it had not been tested for use to render an inmate unconscious.” If the reader clicks on the ad below this story, he/she can get a free sample of Jif To Go peanut butter.
While researching this feature, we entered “lead cocktail” into Google. 6 of the 12 results on the first page were about Rep. Drake. One mentioned a 1988 movie starring Tom Cruise. One site for cocktail recipes had the plan for Death on a Lead Cocktail. ( 1 Part absinthe, 1 Part chambord, 1 Part lime juice) The SF Gate tells us that the Right herbs can lead to intriguing cocktails.
An optomist, with advertising from Home Depot, reports 85% of Kids’ Drinks, Snacks Could Contain High Levels of Lead. For the well dressed execution fan, Misses Dressy has the Lead Cocktail Dress. Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. .