Celebrity Mug Shots
There is a site called “The smoking gun” which can provide hours of fun. PG stumbled onto a section, devoted to mug shots of celebrities. Before jumping to any conclusions, take a look at Rush Limbaugh, and Paris Hilton. They look just as presentable as ever, give or take a prescription or two. On the other hand, look at Glen Campbell. and try not to remember what he used to look like.
Mug shots are a part of history. We have all heard the story of Rosa Parks, and how she started a revolution by keeping her seat. The mug shot taken that day is a part of the story.
(According to wikipedia, Mrs. Parks was arrested December 1, 1955 in the original incident. She was later arrested February 22, 1956 as part of the bus boycott. PG is uncertain which arrest led to the photograph in this post.)
There are 18 people displayed in this post. Bernie Madoff earned his money the old fashioned way, by stealing it. James Earl Ray and Lee Harvey Oswald were accused of killing someone famous, although the guilt, or innocence, of Oswald will never be known. Martin Luther King Jr. was involved in the bus boycott, sparked by Rosa Parks. A prophet is not without honor, except in his own land.
Janis Joplin cussed out some police during a concert in Tampa, Florida. Soon, it was determined that free speech enabled her to behave in that manner, and the charges were dropped.
Deion Sanders was warned not to fish at a lake owned by SW Florida International Airport. That did not stop him, and he was taken into custody. Deion gets points for having a great smile during this moment of glory.
Most of the rest got in trouble because of sex or drugs. Frank Sinatra had an affair with a married woman, which could get you locked up in 1938. Jim Morrison, Pee Wee Herman, and Larry Craig gave public exhibitions. Mr. Craig gets points for wearing a flag lapel pin. This is a repost.
The Scarlet R
Bloggingheads.tv released another chat featuring Glenn Loury and John McWhorter. With election days 35 days away, there was lots of talk about Donald and Hillary. It only took 1:44, in episode 44020, to learn what is expected. The assignment is to call DJT a racist, and lament what a terrible thing that is. This is what passes for political discourse in 2016.
At 3:28, there was an aha moment. The line was that DJT, instead of an orange haired ogre, was really just a seventh grade bully. When PG was in seventh grade, there was a mean person who gave him problems. This individual is now a facebook friend, and regularly posts memes supporting DJT. PG likes to know what the “other side” thinks. Ignoring the memes is always an option.
At 9:22, the importance of identifying racism in others is stressed. This is said to totally justify the appeal of DJT. Once you call someone a racist, you no longer have to work to understand their motives. When the scarlet R is super glued to somebody, that is all you need to know.
The Scarlet Letter is the rip roaring tale of Hester Prynne. She got caught fooling around, and had the scarlet A, for adultery, pinned to her chest. It was pinned to her chest, and she could see who did the pinning. In today’s “woke” world, the scarlet R, for racist, is super glued to the back of the terrible person. The person never knows who gave them this dreaded, irrevocable, label.
At 21:28, John tells an amusing story. He was talking to a well meaning white woman, said to be helpful in selling more books. At some point, the woman felt obligated to say that “we don’t like to talk about race.” John was too polite to laugh in her face.
The truth is, of course, that talking about race is the new national pastime. Does anyone listen? In all that talk, is anything worthwhile said? These questions are considered rude, and probably racist.
At 31:09, John said the n word. It is not known whether it ended with -er, or with -a. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Instead Of Calling The Police
Listing a link in this venue does not indicate approval of, or agreement with, content ~ Dear readers: Please stop calling us ‘the media.’ There is no such thing. ~ Part Two ~ False Equivalence, Delusion-Grade ~ Charlotte police shooting: What happens next ~ Black Activists Rally For Unarmed White Man Shot by Cops ~ What To Do Instead of Calling the Police ~ What the Data Really Says About Police and Racial Bias ~ Teen in serious condition following accidental shooting to the head ~ The first Trump-Clinton presidential debate transcript, annotated ~ Defending Hillary Clinton Isn’t Feminism ~ 10 Step Guide to Zen Meditation ~ Should the Media Downplay the New Murder Spike? ~ We Should All Be Outraged By Trump’s Absurdly Racist Pitch To Black Voters ~ Healing from Toxic Whiteness ~ Justin Carr ~ Mary J Blige ~ crispy chicken ~ R&B singer Mary J. Blige never got over the public response to her racist “Crispy Chicken” Burger King commercial in 2012. The commercial set in motion a backlash that ultimately derailed her career and her marriage. “It hurt my feelings and crushed me for two days,” Blige told Hot 97’s Angie Martinez. Apparently Blige didn’t learn a thing from her spectacular lack of judgment in 2012. ~ If an officer stops you Always be polite And never ever run away Promise mama you’ll keep your hands in sight Is it a gun? is it a knife? is a wallet? This is your life It ain’t no secret, it ain’t no secret No secret, my friend You can get killed just for living in…Your American skin ~ Wendy Williams rips Mary J. Blige for singing about fried chicken ~ Goodbye To Language ~ I Am NOT Black, You are NOT White. ~ 9 Reasons Why The “I Am Not A Label” Video Makes No Sense ~ Pedro Maldonado ~ Black Lives Matter protesters take over BLM debate hosted at U-M ~ Black Lives Matter Leader Jerry Ford Jr. Gets Robbed, Responds Exactly As Expected ~ Hoarder mom may have unknowingly lived with son’s body for 20 years ~ Looking Inward : On White Fragility, Guilt, and the Path Toward Self-Correction ~ Atlanta attorney accidentally shot wife after SUV hits bump in road ~ If @haroldpollack is a technocrat, maybe he could do something about that awful sound quality ~ Kraftwerk :: Live In Soest, 1970 (First Concert) ~ Man accidentally shoots, kills himself in southwest Atlanta ~ Are the US police intentionally hiring psychopaths? ~ #icandy racist video ~ Video Surfaces of ICandy Owner Darryl DePiano Saying the N-Word ~ Taxi driver shot and killed in Chamblee ~ Chicago homicides ~ Police investigate deadly triple-shooting in DeKalb County ~ Erica Nelson ~ Police: Teen killed father before school shooting ~ @WernerTwertzog Dear Twitter pedants: I do not make punctuation “errors.” I make aesthetic choices. That subsequently change the rules. ~ @SenatorReid Racist is not a term I throw around lightly, but Donald Trump is a racist. He says and does things with full intent to demean and denigrate.@chamblee54 @EmoNegro1 @SenatorReid people don’t toss the word racist around lightly…they aim and use great force with intention of hurting people ~ when BS was asked how to quit outsourcing of jobs to asia, he said raise the minimum wage ~ @jerryspringer Hillary Clinton belongs in the White House. Donald Trump belongs on my show. ~ At least we don’t have comedy insurance. ~ Its okay for a white person to be silenced in my opinion. ~ Comments have been disabled for this story. ~ The moderator of the debate was the Lester of three evils ~ @BCDreyer #CopyeditingProTip You’re not allowed to insult millennials if you can’t spell “millennials.” ~ In colonial India, the dam was a coin of little value. The British soldiers would say that something was “not worth a dam.” This got back to England, the n was added to dam, and stronger expletives used. After a while, instead of something being not worth a cussword, people did not give a cussword. This is said to indicate a lack of concern. Now, giving a shit is a peculiar way to say that you care. Feces is a nasty, smelly substance. To gift someone with ordure could be seen as an insult. “The Universe giving a shit.” Lets start with Universe. This entity is unfathomably large. English speaking Americans are a tiny, tiny, part of the universe. If the universe were to give a shit, it would overwhelm the milky way, with whatever goes for fecal matter in outer space. As for a church slogan, perhaps you can go back to the origins of “worth a dam.” Today’s american penny has very little value. Maybe you could say “People giving two cents.” Even adjusted for inflation, that is still not very much. At least it does not stink. ~ KimKierkegaardashian @KimKierkegaard Hair flip & eye roll belong to completely different spheres; different sides of the soul are set in motion. ~ “This HAS to be said!” No, it doesn’t. The hateful rhetoric on both sides of this nightmare election has been beyond horrible. ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The railroad pictures were taken by Jack Delano in January 1943 ~ “Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago, Illinois and Hammond, Indiana. Conductor Cunningham reports at the yard office where the yard clerk gives him the waybills for the train and instructions to deliver it.” ~ The other pictures were taken at Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida. “Students waiting to be taken to the agricultural school farm where they will learn modern methods.” Photographer: Gordon Parks, February 1943. ~ selah
Blackout Poetry
There is a thing called blackout poetry☽ . The instructions are simple. “how to make a blackout poetry: 1- find an old book, magazine or newspaper and a black marker 2- let the words find you.” If you google blackout poetry you will be sent hither dither and yon.
“Over the last three years, Atlanta based artist, John Carroll, has been on a journey of sharing a piece of blackout poetry with his social media followers everyday.” This is news to PG, who doesn’t get out much. Mr. Carroll tweets at @makeblackouts, and has a book for sale, Hidden Messages of Hope. Making your own blackout poems is cheaper, and more fun.
Most instructions for BP use the printed page, edited with magic markers. If you like getting ink on your fingers, this is the way to go. PG prefers a digital approach. Computers are cleaner, the base text is not rendered useless, and you can make mistakes. Once something is blacked out with a magic marker, it is gone forever.
When PG began to make BP, he used a paint tool to cover up excess text. Later, he would highlight the unwanted words, and apply a 33 point gaussian blur. This gave way to highlighting the words that are going to be used in the poem, invert the selection (cntrl + i), and apply the gaussian blur. If color is involved, open hue-saturation and lower the saturation to zero, effectively changing the image to black and white. Sometimes, the blurred out sections are made lighter.
Many of the original texts were found on facebook. Rants about racism, sexism, and the nightmare election have been used. Often, the words remaining address the inner truth, previously encased in the mudslide of text. The BP are frequently posted as a comment to the original rant. It is usually, though not always, well recieved. On September 23, this comment was made:Stephanie Gomez Grow up. To which PG adds, bless her heart.
The process described above uses GIMP. Follow the link for download information. Here are some examples of blackout poetry.
The Debate Part Two
When DJT and HRC agree on something, it is time to look out. While HRC did not explicitly say HELL YEA, you know that she agreed with this: TRUMP: And they’re going to end up getting nuclear. I met with Bibi Netanyahu the other day. Believe me, he’s not a happy camper.
HRC is in a bind on the Iran/Iraq/Israel conundrum. She is obviously on the Israeli payroll, and is all too eager to provide the services paid for. On the other hand, she has to do something. A nuclear war over Iran is just too tacky to contemplate. So she helps to negotiate a treaty, which may, or may not, prevent Iran from getting the bomb. Israel enjoys having a nuclear monopoly in her region.
CLINTON: “With respect to Iran, when I became secretary of state, Iran was weeks away from having enough nuclear material to form a bomb. They had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle under the Bush administration. They had built covert facilities. They had stocked them with centrifuges that were whirling away…”
DJT gets a lot of bad press, deservedly, for fibbing. To nobodies surprise, HRC tells a few whoppers. The bit about “Iran was weeks away” from having the bomb is simply not true. The whole Israeli pearl clutching about Iran thing is a distraction for the treatment of Palestinians. While Israel is blustering about Iran, she can ignore the horror that is Gaza.
Then there is the Brooklyn Debate. HRC recites the Israel line verbatim. She knows her lines. BLITZER: “Thank you. Secretary Clinton, do you agree with Senator Sanders that Israel overreacts to Palestinians attacks, and that in order for there to be peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel must, quote, end its disproportionate responses?” CLINTON: “I negotiated the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in November of 2012. I did it in concert with… President Abbas of the Palestinian authority based in Ramallah, I did it with the then Muslim Brotherhood President, Morsi, based in Cairo, working closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet. I can tell you right now I have been there with Israeli officials going back more than 25 years that they do not seek this kind of attacks. They do not invite the rockets raining down on their towns and villages. They do not believe that there should be a constant incitement by Hamas aided and abetted by Iran against Israel…”
The paragraph before the “weeks away” comment was noteworthy. CLINTON: “Let’s talk about two important issues that were briefly mentioned by Donald, first, NATO. You know, NATO as a military alliance has something called Article 5, and basically it says this: An attack on one is an attack on all. And you know the only time it’s ever been invoked? After 9/11, when the 28 nations of NATO said that they would go to Afghanistan with us to fight terrorism, something that they still are doing …”
This was the only time during the debate that Afghanistan was mentioned. This is the longest war in American history. It is fifteen years after 9/11. The United States, and NATO, still have not gotten enough revenge. The only people to benefit from this war are the heroin merchants.
It should be noted that one country with a heroin problem is Russia. It is a wealthy energy producing country, it is near Afghanistan, and has a population that is well known for wanting to get fucked up. Could Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin be making money off the heroin trade?
Getting back to Mr. Dump Mr. Trump, he is in the position where he can endlessly complain. He can claim to be opposed to the war in Iraq, and then whine about the way it was fought. DJT can say anything he wants, because he never had to express an opinion on the record. By contrast, HRC was a US Senator in 2002, and had to vote, on the record, on the AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAQ RESOLUTION OF 2002. All of her campaign contributors called her before that vote, to remind her of their investment. (It should be noted that Barack Obama was an Illinois state senator at the time. He did not have to take a stand either.)
This was still a chance for the HRC moving lips to call out the DJT moving lips. CLINTON: “Well, I hope the fact-checkers are turning up the volume and really working hard. Donald supported the invasion of Iraq.” TRUMP: “Wrong.” CLINTON: “That is absolutely proved over and over again.” TRUMP: “Wrong. Wrong.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. They were taken in Douglas, Georgia. The date was July, 1938. The photographer was Dorothea Lange.
The Debate Part One
As you may have noticed, the Donald and Hillary show had a major performance monday night. With the help of a transcript, this slack blogger is going to express himself. The first part is going to be about the wit, and wisdom, of Donald J. Trump. Does he think he is impressing anybody? Maybe his base, and a few peeps put off by Hillary’s yucky personality, think picking a fight with the queen of nice is a good idea. And just how many people, living in states where your vote matters, are still undecided? Living in so-red-it-glows Georgia, it can be tough to know the difference. Anyway, here are a few examples of the orange goo soaking through his scalp, to further fry his mind.
CLINTON: “In fact, Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis. He said, back in 2006, “Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money.” Well, it did collapse.’TRUMP: “That’s called business, by the way.” CLINTON: “Nine million people — nine million people lost their jobs. Five million people lost their homes. And $13 trillion in family wealth was wiped out.”
CLINTON: “… Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it’s real.” TRUMP: “I did not. I did not. I do not say that.” CLINTON: “I think science is real.” TRUMP: “I do not say that.”
TRUMP: “And look at her website. You know what? It’s no difference than this. She’s telling us how to fight ISIS. Just go to her website. She tells you how to fight ISIS on her website. I don’t think General Douglas MacArthur would like that too much.”
CLINTON:” … Or maybe he doesn’t want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody’s ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn’t pay any federal income tax.” TRUMP: “That makes me smart.”
CLINTON: “We have an architect in the audience who designed one of your clubhouses at one of your golf courses. It’s a beautiful facility. It immediately was put to use. And you wouldn’t pay what the man needed to be paid, what he was charging you to do…” TRUMP: “Maybe he didn’t do a good job and I was unsatisfied with his work…”
CLINTON: “You know, he tried to switch from looks to stamina. But this is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs, and someone who has said pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers, who has said…”
TRUMP: “You know, Hillary is hitting me with tremendous commercials. Some of it’s said in entertainment. Some of it’s said — somebody who’s been very vicious to me, Rosie O’Donnell, I said very tough things to her, and I think everybody would agree that she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her”.
One of the themes of the DJT crusade has been immigration. You are all familiar with the routine… *we are going to build a wall, and Mexico is going to pay for it*. He touched on the subject Monday night. TRUMP: “So we’re losing our good jobs, so many of them. When you look at what’s happening in Mexico, a friend of mine who builds plants said it’s the eighth wonder of the world. They’re building some of the biggest plants anywhere in the world, some of the most sophisticated, some of the best plants. With the United States, as he said, not so much.”
The reason for the Mexican diaspora is economics. People living there cannot make a decent living, and so they come north to work. One way to slow down immigration is to provide jobs south of the border. So this starts to happen, and DJT complains. The dude is never happy.
At least when the money was made in America, some of it was spent here. Now, the money is made in Mexico, and the workers, and their money, will stay there. Maybe some profits will flow back into the United States. With the global economy, it is tough to say where the money is goes.
All DJT does about the loss of jobs to Mexico is complain. This is probably better than the Bernie Sanders approach. In the Brooklyn debate, BS has a curious solution to the problem. Bear in mind… one of the main reasons plants are built in foriegn countries is the lower wages paid to workers. Much, much lower wages. And what is the BS approach?
BLITZER: “So how do you bring back these jobs to the United States without affecting the cost of goods to America’s middle class and poor?” SANDERS: “Well, for a start, we’re going to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Cemetery Blues
PG and Uzi had their usual Sunday phone call, and agreed to go to “Sunday in the Park”. It is a festival in Oakland Cemetery, with live music, people in costumes, open mausoleums, and lots of good clean fun. It wasn’t until that evening that PG learned that today is Dead Poets Remembrance Day. Edgar Allan Poe met his maker on this day in 1849.
There was a Chamblee54 post about DPRD two years ago. The idea is to go to a cemetery and read a poem. An effort will be made to do that tonight, although promises about dead poets are notoriously unreliable. The 2010 post is included as part two of this feature.
The first poem read that afternoon was “Looking for the Buckhead Boys” by James Dickey. In the intervening two years, PG listened to a podcast with Christopher Dickey, the son of the writer. Sometimes bard is short for bastard.
So PG, Uzi, and Hazmat went to a festival in Oakland Cemetery. Like everything else, it is more popular and expensive. You had to pay to park, which Uzi generously took care of. The brick walls around the boneyard have been repaired, and no longer look like they are going to fall down. Those walls are important, because people are dying to get inside. This is the second time that PG and Uzi have attended the October festival in Oakland Cemetery.
There are always things that you need to see at Oakland. Margaret Mitchell, the Lion Statue, and the mausoleums are important stops. PG followed the signs to the grave of Bobby Jones. It had golf balls and a putter, which was not necessary.
Don LeVert was a member of the Atlanta Sky Hi Club for many, many years before his departure in 1997. PG and Uzi always seek him out, and it is usually a bit of an adventure finding him.
After visiting Don, PG found the marker for “Brother John Wade”. His time on earth was September 23, 1865 to January 15, 1916. This was from the autumn just after the War Between the States until 37 days before PG’s father was born in Rowland, North Carolina. There was a renewed sense of connection to the stone monuments.
The facebook friend said “Today is Dead Poets Remembrance Day, Oct. 7th, the day Edgar Allan Poe died. Be sure to visit a graveyard and read some poetry today”. PG didn’t have anything better to do.
The first obstacle was finding a book of poetry. PG is not a poetry person. A look at the shelf turned up a paperback, “125 years of Atlantic “. Poetry was to be found between those covers.
The book had two stickers, both saying 69 cents. At the old Book Nook, this meant that the book was half the price on the sticker. With tax, that would be 38 cents.
125YOA had stayed in PG’s car for a few years. Whenever he was stuck somewhere with time to kill, this book was waiting. One afternoon in 1998, there was a slow day at work. PG read a remembrance by Gertrude Stein, about life in France at the start of World War II.
The cemetery of choice was connected to the Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church. PG has driven by this facility thousands of times. He walked past the graves until he found a fallen tree to sit down on.
The first poem was “Looking for the Buckhead Boys” by James Dickey. PG began to read out loud, and soon could smell the drug store air of Wender and Roberts. The author bought fifty cents worth of gas at a Gulf station. Today, fifty cents might buy a tablespoon of gas, and Gulf was long ago bought out by BP. Wender and Roberts became a bar, which was torn down, to make way for a shopping destination. Not all change is progress.
Buckhead is not what it used to be. When Mr. Dickey was the bravest man in Buckhead (he took a shit in the toilet at Tyree’s pool hall), PG was not even thought of. The traffic jams on Peachtree Street are still there, as the blue haired ladies follow poets into the ground.
When PG finished reading Mr. Dickey, he put a teal postit in the book, where the poem stood. PG looked up, and the graveyard seemed different. Maybe the sun had sank a bit in the sky, and maybe the poem had changed PG in a way he could not put into words. Maybe another poem was the answer. Take the glasses off, open the book at random, and turn the pages until a poem shows up.
On page 404…the historic Atlanta area code…was “The Wartime Journey” by Jan Struther. The 1944 work was unknown territory. A group of people are traveling on a train. The wounded vet, the untried recruit, the salesmen shared the space with a lady, taking a baby for her soldier husband to meet. The theme of the rhymes was that America was totally at war, and that war is different from peacetime. Today’s war in Babylon is not like that.
Halfway through the reading, a freight train pulled by. Today, passenger trains are a novelty, and freight rules the rails. The shipment today was double decked containers, ready to pull off and slap on an eighteen wheeler.
Deaths are said to come in threes, and reading poetry in a graveyard should be the same. PG went on a random search for a Moe, to go with the Curley and Larry already digested. A page of poems by Emily Dickinson was the result. These pages left PG unmoved. It was as if he was back in the sixth grade, with a horrible English teacher forcing him to memorize Hiawatha. It was time to go home.
Dick Nixon TV Critic
The text below is a conversation between Mr. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman. The tape was made May 13, 1971. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
NIXON: … CBS … glorifying homosexuality.
EHRLICHMAN: A panel show?
H. R. HALDEMAN: No, it’s a regular show. It’s on every week. It’s usually just done in the guy’s home. It’s usually just that guy, who’s a hard hat.
NIXON: That’s right; he’s a hard hat.
EHRLICHMAN: He always looks like a slob.
NIXON: Looks like Jackie Gleason.
HALDEMAN: He has this hippie son-in-law, and usually the general trend is to downgrade him and upgrade the son-in-law–make the square hard hat out to be bad. But a few weeks ago, they had one in which the guy, the son-in-law, wrote a letter to you, President Nixon, to raise hell about something. And the guy said, “You will not write that letter from my home!” Then said, “I’m going to write President Nixon,” took off all those sloppy clothes, shaved, and went to his desk and got ready to write his letter to President Nixon. And apparently it was a good episode.
EHRLICHMAN: What’s it called?
NIXON: “Archie’s Guys.” Archie is sitting here with his hippie son-in-law, married to the screwball daughter. The son-in-law apparently goes both ways. This guy. He’s obviously queer–wears an ascot–but not offensively so. Very clever. Uses nice language. Shows pictures of his parents. And so Arch goes down to the bar. Sees his best friend, who used to play professional football. Virile, strong, this and that. Then the fairy comes into the bar. I don’t mind the homosexuality. I understand it. Nevertheless, goddamn, I don’t think you glorify it on public television, homosexuality, even more than you glorify whores. We all know we have weaknesses. But, goddammit, what do you think that does to kids? You know what happened to the Greeks! Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo. We all know that. So was Socrates.
EHRLICHMAN: But he never had the influence television had.
NIXON: You know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. Neither in a public way. You know what happened to the popes? They were layin’ the nuns; that’s been goin’ on for years, centuries. But the Catholic Church went to hell three or four centuries ago. It was homosexual, and it had to be cleaned out. That’s what’s happened to Britain. It happened earlier to France. Let’s look at the strong societies. The Russians. Goddamn, they root ’em out. They don’t let ’em around at all. I don’t know what they do with them. Look at this country. You think the Russians allow dope? Homosexuality, dope, immorality, are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the Communists and left-wingers are clinging to one another. They’re trying to destroy us. I know Moynihan will disagree with this, and Mitchell will. But, goddamn, we have to stand up to this.
EHRLICHMAN: It’s fatal liberality.
NIXON: Huh?
EHRLICHMAN: It’s fatal liberality. And with its use on television, it has such leverage.
NIXON: You know what’s happened [in northern California]?
EHRLICHMAN: San Francisco has just gone clear over.
NIXON: But it’s not just the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco is that way. The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time–it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, with that San Francisco crowd. I can’t shake hands with anybody from San Francisco. … Decorators. They got to do something. But we don’t have to glorify it. You know one of the reasons fashions have made women look so terrible is because the designers hate women. Designers taking it out on the women. Now they’re trying to get some more sexy things coming on again.
EHRLICHMAN: Hot pants.
NIXON: Jesus Christ.
The Golden Calf
When PG was a kid in sunday school, he heard about the the golden calf. It turns out that, splendid allegory aside, he didn’t really know much about the story. With the help of google and Bible Gateway, the text of Exodus 32 showed up. G-d bless public domain, and copy paste. The Bible is the main source for this tale. It doesn’t really matter if it is the inerrant word of G-d, it is a pretty good story. And much of the message rings true today.
1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
This is a modern story. The church is begging the people for gold. The sons are wearing golden earrings. The church takes these ill gotten gains, and forge a make believe G-d. This time, it looks like a cow. Billy Graham will come much later.
7 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 9 And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
Moving down a few verses, the story gets good. 19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. 20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. 21 And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? 22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. 23 For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. 25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies) 26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. 27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord G-d of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. 28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: there fell that day about three thousand men.
Lets get this story right. Moses comes back from somewhere, and sees a naked party by the golden calf. He has a hissy fit, threw the golden calf into the fire, and tells people to start killing each other. Over three thousand men are killed. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Six People Killed By Police
There is a tweet being shared. @ShaunKing “6 people were killed by American police…yesterday. That’s the most of any day this month and more than many nations in an entire year.” 8:51 AM – 21 Sep 2016 When you consult Mr. Google, the details are not easily available. None of the recent articles by Mr. King, who writes for the New York Daily News, have any more information.
The headline story is Keith Scott. The initial reports said he was a “Disabled Black Man Shot Dead by NC Police While Reading in Car.” This narrative is contradicted by the police … “Police said in a statement Tuesday that officers saw Scott holding a handgun as he exited his car and returned to his vehicle. He then exited again as officers approached him and posed an “imminent deadly threat,” The incident will be investigated.
A google search was made for “people were killed by police september 20 2016.” The first result regards Keith Scott. The second result is about Ahmad Khan Rahami, accused of setting off a bomb September 17. The third result is a story, Oklahoma has a killer cop problem, especially if you’re black. This story was prompted by the death of Terence Crutcher. That shooting took place September 16.
The fourth result is the Canadian Calgary Sun: Redstone shooting that killed two people possibly gang-related. The fifth result is in Los Angeles, Driver in High-Speed Pursuit Dies After Crash in Long Beach, Authorities Say. The uncle of the deceased, Anthony Hill, said: “We know a lot is going on with these police officers out here, and doing things the way they’re doing it, so … it’s hurtful, it’s sad. Especially when you can’t get answers.”
Results six and eight are for general news programs on pbs and cnn. Neither page shows reports of new police killing. Result nine is about Cam Newton. Result ten is Several people detained after man shot in forearm in Phoenix … a non police shooting.
On result seven, we begin to learn something. It is from Huffington Post, Here’s How Many Black People Have Been Killed By Police Since Colin Kaepernick Began Protesting. HuffPo talks about Colin Kaepernick, but links to an article in the Guardian, The Counted People killed by police in the US. The article has six incidents on September 20. The age, race, and gender of the first victim is not shown. Of the other five, it was four white men, and one black man.
Mashantucket, CT Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Police Department A tribal police officer fatally shot an armed patron outside Foxwoods resort casino after the patron allegedly displayed a weapon, according to state police.
Thomas Tucker White Male,49, Westminster, CO Police said the man and several others were burglarizing a home, and when the homeowner returned the man punched the homeowner in the face and pointed a gun at him. The man then fled on his motorcycle before crashing while officers pursued him, according to authorities. He was shot after he allegedly brandished a weapon as he ran away on foot. Update with name, age, and race from Washington Post.
Sandy Duke, White Male, 43, Nashville, TN Duke allegedly broke into someone’s home and tied someone up before stealing a pistol and a car, among other items. Authorities tracked Duke after he fled and fatally shot him when he turned toward officers with a pistol in his hand, according to police.
Keith Scott, Black Male, 43, Charlotte, NC Officers were looking to arrest a man on outstanding warrants near an apartment complex when they saw Scott get out of his car with a gun, according to authorities. Scott, who was not the man police were looking for, returned to his car and then got out again before an officer shot him, a police spokesman said. Scott’s family disputes the police account, and said that Scott was unarmed and reading a book in his car when he was killed.
Joshua Scott, White Male, 22, Port St Lucie, FL Deputies were attempting to involuntarily commit Scott for mental health treatment under a court order, authorities said. Scott reportedly armed himself with a gun and barricaded himself inside his home when deputies arrived. During a six-hour standoff, police said they tried to negotiate with Scott, who fired out of his home multiple times. He was shot and killed when he allegedly pointed the gun at Swat officers.
Charles Dove, White Male, 35, Decaturville, TN, Dove was shot ‘during an altercation’ with police after he allegedly robbed a gas station and fled from responding officers, officials said.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Part Two is now available.
How To Start A Fight
One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas gift… The next year, I didn’t buy her a gift. When she asked me why, I replied, “Well, you still haven’t used the gift I bought you last year!”
My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed. I turned to her and said, ‘Do you want to have Sex?’ ‘No,’ she answered. I then said, ‘Is that your final answer?’ She didn’t even look at me this time, simply saying, ‘Yes..’ So I said, “Then I’d like to phone a friend.”
I took my wife to a restaurant.The waiter took my order first. “I’ll have the rump steak, rare, please.” “Aren’t you worried about the mad cow?” “Nah, she can order for herself.”
My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked, “What’s on TV?” I said, “Dust.”
My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, “I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds .” I bought her a bathroom scale.
My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table. I asked her, “Do you know him?” “Yes”, she sighed, “He’s my old boyfriend…. I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago and I hear he hasn’t been sober since.” “My God!” I said, “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”
When our lawn mower broke and wouldn’t run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the shed, the boat, making beer. It was always something more important to me. Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point. When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house… When I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. I said, “When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.” The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.
Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio and then I discovered that the weather would be bad all day. I went back into the house, quietly undressed and slipped back into bed.. I cuddled up to my wife’s back, now with a different anticipation and whispered, “The weather out there is terrible.” My loving wife of 5 years replied, “And, can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that?”
After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s License to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later. The woman said, ‘Unbutton your shirt’. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, ‘That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me’ and she processed my Social Security application. When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office… She said, ‘You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too.’
These human interest stories are borrowed from Expressing Myself. This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress. “Halloween party at Shafter Camp for migrant agricultural workers. Shafter, California.” November 1938. Photographer: Dorothea Lange.
Rhyme With Extreme Caution
A Glorified Sidewalk, and the Path to Transform Atlanta ~ slam ~ Being white, and a minority, in Georgia ~ Complete Medical Transportation ~ Poetry Writing: 10 Tips on How to Write a Poem ~ Playboy interview ~ get your white sheets ~ trick or treat ~ tweet ~ Bomani Jones Takes us Behind the Scenes of his Ta-Nehisi Coates Playboy Interview ~ Refining “Microaggression”: a linguistic perspective ~ How To Help Someone With Depression. ~ Telling The Truth About the Stanford Rape Case ~ Colorblind Ideology Is a Form of Racism ~ bho speech ~ bho speech ~ 6 Unhelpful Comments That Gaslight People in Conversations About Social Justice ~ Stranger Than Fiction – Author: The JT LeRoy Story ~ you must remember this ~ you must remember this ~ Lee Kendra Childs ~ I am the strongman or straw man? ~ You are one misunderstood facebook post away from being in the #BasketOfDeplorabels ~ @chamblee54 @lauraalbert from an ad for Fellini Satyricon “If you see with innocent eyes, everything is divine.” ~ Technically plateaus are the highest form of flattery. – terrible one-liners I learned today, #235 ~ These materials are educational in nature. The implications and risks of a transaction may be different from client to client based upon each client’s unique financial circumstances and risk tolerances. ~ I’m feeling just a little bit smug because I just found out what cis gender means Moby ~ I suspect a person of Mexican origin might not appreciate being called Mex Garcia. ~ Scared, as in frightened, has one r. Scarred, as in having scars, has a double r. ~ @RedNationBlogga If Colin Kaepernick took a knee for Gay Rights and the LGBT Community, what would be the reaction? @chamblee54 what if he went down on both knees for the LGBT community? ~ googled national hotep day… Did You Mean: national hoop day, national hope day, national hump day ~ @aedwardslevy she died as she lived, doing crossword puzzles on her phone while attempting to cross a major street ~ Every link on the first page of google is to a right wing wacko website. ~ Every link on the first page of google is to a right wing wacko website. ~ The cost of a secret private hospital would be astronomical, even for Hillary. And then to have it be conveniently located in Lower Manhattan when she gets the vapors. It seems highly fishy. ~ playing in san francisco has rubbed off on number seven ~ Know Your Goal, Avoid Clichés, Avoid Sentimentality, Use Images, Use Metaphor and Simile, Use Concrete Words Instead of Abstract Words, Communicate Theme, Subvert the Ordinary, Rhyme with Extreme Caution, (Daydream Auction,) Revise, Revise, Revise ~ @GrnEyedMandy Donald Trump Jr made a holocaust joke proving the bag doesn’t fall far from the douche. ~ 1-@TheKevinAllison I think the emphasis on racism is a mistake There are many many other problems with DJT people are tired of racism talk 2- @TheKevinAllison I will not let it deter me but others may be driven into the DJT camp because they are tired of being called racist ~ trashing people with resting bitch face/negative attitude/depression is another form of bigotry that is encouraged ~ two wrongs make a right pseudo logic is not funny ~ There aren’t any definitions for ladysplain yet. ~ @goldengateblond Hillary Clinton on the NYC explosion: “I’ll have more to say about it when we actually know the facts.” ~ If a white politician told white people that he would take voting for a certain person as an insult, he would, with some justification, be called a racist. Now we have a mixed race President, making a speech at the Congressional Black Congress, telling black people that it is a personal insult if they don’t vote democratic. ~ if a poc votes for trump its a personal insult if a pwoc votes for trump its racism this election stinks ~ if a poc votes for trump its a personal insult if a pwoc votes for trump its racism this election stinks ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. “Listening to the speaker at the conference to Aid Agricultural Organization during the cotton strike (Steinbeck Committee). Bakersfield, Kern County, California” Photographer: Dorothea Lange November 1938. ~ 666 words in this post ~ selah
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