lundi 28 février 2005

And the award for utter shamelessness in the face of irony goes to....

The Bush Administration!

Un-frickin-believable. Last time we had an Attorney General whose main focus was porn, ten guys with boxcutters (or so they say) brought down the World Trade Center. And these are the same guys who decided that a guy who sold his services as an "escort" and posted nude photos of himself all over the internet was a legitimate journalist.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday he would move aggressively to prosecute obscenity cases, and he laid out a broader agenda much like that of his predecessor, John Ashcroft.

In his first lengthy address since becoming attorney general in early February, Gonzales said people who distribute obscene materials do not enjoy constitutional guarantees of free speech.

"I am committed to prosecuting these crimes aggressively," he said to a Washington meeting of the California-based Hoover Institution.

The Justice Department is appealing the dismissal of an obscenity case in Pittsburgh in which a federal judge said prosecutors went too far in trying to block the sale of pornographic movies over the Internet and through the mail. The case initially was prosecuted under Ashcroft.


Meanwhile, back at the Pot 'n' Kettle Ranch:

Bush Administration To Require U.S. AIDS Groups Take Pledge Opposing Commercial Sex Work To Gain Funding

[Feb 28, 2005]

The Bush administration is requiring that U.S. HIV/AIDS organizations seeking funding to provide services in other countries make a pledge opposing commercial sex work, and some Republican lawmakers and administration officials are pushing for a similar policy for needle-exchange programs, the Wall Street Journal reports. Under the new policy, even groups whose HIV/AIDS work in other countries has "nothing to do" with commercial sex workers will have to make a written pledge opposing commercial sex work or risk losing federal funding, according to the Journal. In addition, the Bush administration might refuse to fund HIV/AIDS groups that do not accept Bush's "social agenda" on issues such as sexual abstinence and drug use, according to the Journal.


Unless, of course, said prostitutes are willing to shill for the Bush Administration's policies. Then it's OK. Because....

....all together now....

....sing it, sistah!.....

....follow the bouncing ball and sing along!


IT'S OK IF YOU'RE A REPUBLICAN!!

(Thanks to Americablog, which really ought to start charging me for redistributing the gems they find)

Lunchtime Oscar® Recap Blogging

So I stayed up for every last gruesome, boring, stultifying, scared shitless of the FCC minute of it.

How sad is it that THIS particular monologue by Chris Rock sounded edgy? This monologue was to Chris Rock as Jell-o instant vanilla pudding is to crème brulée. How sad is it that there was NO cleavage in sight, not even after Rock's hideous joke about the four biggest Spanish-speaking stars? How sad is it that no one wore anything really, terrifyingly awful? Are they that afraid of Kathy Griffin? And how sad is it that, as Cintra Wilson so aptly puts it in today's Salon:

Now, "Million Dollar Boobies": That was NOT the best movie of the year. That was the Champ, the Jackie Coogan, 1930s, gloves, tears, sweat 'n' snot classic, rewritten for a younger female and older male, who exercise their sexless intimacy through broken noses and mercy-killing. It was a solidly good film, but for me, it was like paying $325 a night to stay in a four-star hotel -- Clint, Morgan and Hilary are pretty much the Gold Standard, and if it you can't pull the wagon with those three majestic Clydesdales of the Thespian Craft, it has no wheels. That film had tasteful wallpaper, thick towels, a rose on the bedspread, and no real funk or character. But you can cry a world of hurt while watching that has nothing to do with the film itself, and I think that's why it won: It was cathartic. We're in a lot of collective pain, we're weary and confused, and Clint hit the right release valve. Big Daddy's going to put you out of your misery now, Tiger. You just rest.


...that Kill a Cripple for Clint swept just about everything, leaving poor, ever-more-diminutive-by-the-day Marty Scorsese, sitting there with that painted-on smile YET AGAIN? OK, last time his lugubrious, ponderous, bloated Gangs of New York was justifiably beaten by Adrien Brody's fascinatingly majestic schnozz. But just because a reasonably attractive girl can do a whiz-bang-up job playing trailer trash but can't do anything else, and just because it's Clint Fucking Eastwood behind it, and just because it involves a bunch of the Required Factors for Victory (see also: Scott Renshaw's interesting scoring system at Cinemarati, and Nathaniel R's spot-on analysis of Why It Pays For Actresses To Ugly Down), doesn't make it Great Cinema.

Of course I'm in the minority on this.

Still...it was a pretty boring evening overall. It's a shame how Hollywood has been beaten into submission by stupid billboards and right-wing shills; so that they seem to actually believe now that they are responsible for the decline of western civiliation. It's amazing to watch all these people that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity love to point fingers at shower accolades on this guy:

In the spring of 2000 Eastwood joined forces with Rep. Mark Foley (R. FL) to support the ADA Notification Act, a bill that would require disabled people to wait yet another 90 days, requiring them to ask a business, nicely, to please make their premises accessible, before suing them under the Americans with Disabilities Act for their lack of access. Since 1992, the federal law has required access. But almost no small businesses have bothered to obey the law.

Yet, according to Eastwood in his media blitz during the spring of 2000, businesses were being picked on by "unscrupulous" lawyers out to make a fast buck.

Eastwood appeared on the talk shows Hardball and Crossfire; he was covered in a Fox News Special. The National Journal quoted him. Columnists covered his comments. Newsweek used the "Mercedes" quote on its "Perspectives" page ("What happens is these lawyers, they come along and they end up driving off in a big Mercedes," Eastwood told reporters, "and the disabled person ends up driving off in a wheelchair."),


THIS is the face of "Hollywood Liberals"? Sure, Rock did that great bit comparing Bush's lack of accountability to someone who works at the Gap and declares war on Banana Republic for selling toxic tank tops that don't even exist. But once you got past that, the "Face of Hollywood Liberalism" was a puffed-up and self-important (and humorless) Sean Penn sniffing indignantly at what he perceived to be a bitchslap at Jude Law in Chris Rock's monologue, which had ME yelling at the TV, "Hey, Penn! Get over yerself already!" I haven't been so annoyed by condescension since someone reminded me that NASA stands for "National Aeronautics and Space Administration."

For me the high point of the evening wasn't even on the Oscar telecast itself, but in, of all places, Barbara Walters' interview with Jamie Foxx. Now I recognize that these people are ACTORS, and you can figure that there's a certain amount of performance in everything they do, but Fox was so articulate about what having African-Americans win these silly things means for the larger community, and so loving in the way he talked about his late kickass grandmother, that it almost made me forget I really wanted Don Cheadle to win.

After the show I went to sleep and dreamt that Clive Owen had won Best Supporting Actor. I woke up and my bed was filled (as it is every morning), with two sprawling cats.

dimanche 27 février 2005

Good Christian Moral Values


Los Angeles Times:

He called himself a monster, but in 31 years of hunting the serial killer known as BTK, Wichita police made it clear they were searching for a man who appeared in every way ordinary. On Saturday, they announced they finally had caught him.

Dennis Rader, 59, a church-going family man, a Cub Scout leader, a dog-catcher for the trim suburb of Park City, is in custody on suspicion of torturing and killing seven women, one man and two children from 1974 to 1991 — including two victims linked only this week to BTK.

Authorities would not discuss the specifics of their investigation into BTK. (The "code word" the killer used to describe himself described his method: bind, torture, kill). But they have compared Rader's DNA with the semen that BTK left at several crime scenes.

They said they were confident that Rader was the man who terrorized this industrial city for decades, taunting detectives with poems, word puzzles and boastful letters — including one in which he declared that there was "no help, no cure" for his sadism, "except death or being caught and put away."

"Bottom line: BTK is arrested," Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said at a news conference Saturday morning. "Doggone it, we did it."

[snip]

Although some of his neighbors said he was friendly — and he was well-respected enough to serve as president of his church council— others called him mean and arrogant. "He wore a badge and would swagger around the street like he was above the law. I always considered him a bully," said James Reno, 42, who has lived across the street from Rader for more than a decade.

[snip]

They all have questions they'd like to ask: How did he pick his victims? Why did he claim credit for some murders and not for others? Why did he start communicating with police again after 25 years of silence?

One question that they do not need to ask is how he eluded capture for so long.

"We always said he was invisible because he was most likely so ordinary," said Smith, the retired detective. "As it turned out, he was exactly ordinary. He went to work. He went to church. He went to Boy Scouts. He did family things. Just an ordinary guy."


I, by comparison, never, ever set foot in a church. I'm not a serial killer, either. So much for church making you a more moral person.

Tropfest 2005

From its famed humble beginnings in Darlinghurst's Tropicana Caffe 13 years ago, Tropfest is now trumpeted as the world's biggest short film festival. Way back in 1992, John Polson asked the permission of the local Tropicana cafe owner to screen his first short film Surry Hills, 902 Spring Roll.And as they say, the rest is history. Australians love the idea of egalitarianism and any Joe Bloggs on

Tropfest 2005

From its famed humble beginnings in Darlinghurst's Tropicana Caffe 13 years ago, Tropfest is now trumpeted as the world's biggest short film festival. Way back in 1992, John Polson asked the permission of the local Tropicana cafe owner to screen his first short film Surry Hills, 902 Spring Roll.And as they say, the rest is history. Australians love the idea of egalitarianism and any Joe Bloggs on

Six Degrees of Leonardo DiCaprio

Usually I cede the culture beat to our brother site Modern Fabulousity, but I heard this on Newsradio 88 this morning, and in the spirit of the Festival of Ridiculousness that is Oscar® weekend, I wanted to pass it on.

Out of 20 acting nods, at least seven, or 35%, are connected to fellow nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (a.k.a. The Actor Who For Some Reason Scares the Bejeezus Out of Straight Men in America):

Thread 1:

Leonardo DiCaprio worked with Kate Winslet in Titanic.

Kate Winslet worked with Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Carrey worked with Morgan Freeman (nominated for Million Dollar Baby in Bruce Almighty.

Thread 2:

Leonardo DiCaprio worked with Johnny Depp (nominated for Finding Neverland) in What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Johnny Depp's co-star in Finding Neverland is Kate Winslet.

Thread 3:

Leonardo DiCaprio worked with nominee Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) in the 1980's television series Growing Pains.

I'll add a couple more:

Leonardo DiCaprio worked with Meryl Streep in Marvin's Room. Meryl Streep worked with Clint Eastwood (nominated for Million Dollar Baby) in The Bridges of Madison County.

Leonardo DiCaprio worked with Ioan Gruffudd in Titanic. Gruffudd appeared with Clive Owen (nominated for Closer) in 2004's King Arthur.

OK, now you try it. Post your findings in the comments.

samedi 26 février 2005

IRL: Sydney bloggers' yumcha

With regular photographic :P knowledge of each others' lives, it seemed about time that Sydney bloggers put names to handles, and faces to blogsites.We had a Sydney bloggers yumcha today, forcibly drawing back the curtains from the anonymous stage of cyberspace.In attendance was pinkcocoa, ShinChan, BHR, R, R's sibling, Casey, and of course yours truly. The rollcall was modest, but the appetites-

IRL: Sydney bloggers' yumcha

With regular photographic :P knowledge of each others' lives, it seemed about time that Sydney bloggers put names to handles, and faces to blogsites.We had a Sydney bloggers yumcha today, forcibly drawing back the curtains from the anonymous stage of cyberspace.In attendance was pinkcocoa, ShinChan, BHR, R, R's sibling, Casey, and of course yours truly. The rollcall was modest, but the appetites-

God speaks to The Poor Man


Oh yes He does:

When I parted the Red Sea and made it rain frogs and all that, I didn't have to listen to pissy complaints about how my miracles don't live up to your artistic standards. Yes, he's a whore, in every sense of the word, he is a top member of the national press corps who is also a professional online ass-fucker, and, indeed, his head looks like a great big penis. I'm glad you finally figured it out.

And, frankly, I shouldn't have had to say anything, because it's not like this wasn't obvious enough to begin with. And it's not like I'm made out of fucking free time, either. I have to run the Universe over here. Do you know how big the Universe is? Pretty fucking big. A little bit bigger than your apartment, and, if I say so myself, a lot better managed. So let's maybe keep the wiseass Talking Heads stage show comparisons to ourselves from now on. And I wouldn't even have to get involved with all this metaphor shit if you'd just read your damned email once in while.

And I don't want to come off as hyper-critical here, because I'm a forgiving God and all that, but if there is any way of missing an obvious point, you people will find it. You know how many plagues I had to give Pharaoh before he clued in? SEVEN. Seven fucking plagues I had to come up with before this guy gets the picture. Makes me crazy. Now, if you've ever seen what a Pharaoh thinks of as a tasteful headstone, you'll understand that these people weren't real big on understatement, but still. And just look around at how many people still can't puzzle out what the Gannon story as all about. So I've got you and your smart-ass David Byrne comments on one side, and Howie Kurtz still scratching his head on the other, and meanwhile I haven't had a day off since that Sunday 15 billion years ago. I didn't create the universe so I could spend all my time tutoring shaved monkeys in Remedial Cluefulness. So, I'm real sorry I can't make absolutely everything perfect for absolutely everyone all at once. I'm real real super sorry about that. I'd love to spend all my time wiping your ass for you and making the cute girls fall in love with the chess club and everything, but I'm afraid my schedule is a little tiny bit busy at the moment. But everybody always wants something. It's like two weeks ago, when all the Patriots fans expect me to make the Patriots win, and the Eagles fans expect me to make the Eagles win, like that doesn't put me in an awkward position. Apparently, I'm supposed to figure out how all the Patriots blitz schemes work, while you all sit around going "The White House approves a 'journalist' who is a literal prostitute who literally has a dick for a head? I don't get it." I guess this is the division of labor which everyone thinks is fair. Well, that's just some real tough fucking shit for all y'all, because I'm not the evening's featured fucking entertainment at the fucking Howard Johnson's lounge - I'm fucking God, bitches, and God doesn't fucking do requests.
said


The Poor Man has more of his conversion experience here.

Why the Bush Administration is going to have to stop all scientific research


It's because scientists keep coming up with pesky findings like this -- discoveries with the potential to completely debunk beyond all doubt the Biblical account of creation:

NASA researchers say they have recovered bacteria that apparently lay dormant for 32,000 years in a frozen pond in central Alaska.

If confirmed, the finding means that there may be many other pockets of ancient life in permafrost and seafloor sediments. The hardiness of the bacteria also suggests that life could survive even on Mars, in places like the frozen sea reported by other researchers this week.

But the NASA claim was greeted with some reserve by other scientists because previous claims of resuscitating ancient bacteria have not been borne out.

The bacterium, a novel species, was recovered from a frozen pond exposed in the side of the Fox tunnel, a hole dug through Pleistocene-era ice by the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory at the Army. Dr. Richard B. Hoover, a biologist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, said that while visiting the refrigerated tunnel he noticed a discolored patch in a layer that froze 32,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon data. Taking samples back to his laboratory, Dr. Hoover and his colleague Dr. Elena V. Pikuta noticed bacteria that started moving as soon as the ice thawed.

The bacteria resembled a group of microbes called carnobacteria that can tolerate cold and are often isolated from refrigerated food. The NASA researchers established that the microbes belonged to a new species, which they have named Carnobacterium pleistocenium in honor of its age. The bacterium is not poisonous, Dr. Hoover said, although some of its close relatives cause disease in fish. The researchers are reporting their finding in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Dr. Hoover said he believed the bacteria were not able to divide during the eons spent locked in the ice, so the specimens he thawed out would have been 32,000 years old, the time when the Alaskan pond was last in liquid form.


There's only so long the president's fundie minions are going to allow this sort of exploration to take place. After all, we can't run the risk of finding anything to prove them wrong, now, can we?

Blog Posting of the Week


Bloggers aren't just remaking news anymore, now some are reviving the nearly-lost art of satire as well.

Put down whatever it is you're drinking and check out this gem from "Brian Nowhere" at Kos:

Oh Baby
by Ann Coulter


Well can you believe the latest tizzy the left has gotten itself into since it was discovered recently, that the President was discovered to have allegedly feasted on the flesh of an infant?
The liberal press has attempted once again to create a firestorm of controversy by taking facts out of context and twisting the story to suit it's own devious purposes.
All of this comes as no surprise, but it is still hard to stomach the manufactured outrage coming from a democrat party that we all know has no love lost between itself and infants.
These advocates of on-demand abortion and second chance contraception have suddenly, in light of recent events, decided that miraculously, they now wish to (gasp) defend children from those who would wish to dine on their tender young carcasses. Where were they when the battle over the Lacy Peterson law (making the willful destruction of a fetus equal to the crime of murder) was being fought in the trenches? I'll tell you where they were. Right smack dab in the center of the pity pot, as the federal courts decided that democrats would finally be forced to remove thier filthy child-murdering hands from the the money pot of abortion clinics and womens health advocate groups that council women to murder their babies.
Make no mistake, they are hypocrites, one and all.
It is amazing how indignant the left has now become, now that they have realized what a political windfall they can reap from this overblown, overhyped controversy.

The fact is, that liberal pundits like C. Everett Coop and Howard Dean, Socialist movements such as the A.M.A and the Department of Children and Family Services, and all the other liberal scum who have conveninetly decided to blatantly grandstand, distorting the facts in this case so shamelessly, are all just further proof that the left will stop at nothing in their scrurrilous and desperate attempt to reclaim lost power.

The President ate a baby. So what? If my President decides he has developed a taste for baby food, who am I to judge? So conveniently we forget how many children have been saved by the policies of George Bush. If the Democrats had been in power, surely the child that the president ate would have been left behind, caught up in the twisted maze of bureaucracy and red tape of the Democrats tax and spend reality that would be our school system were it left to them to destroy.


There's more....

EoMEoTE #4: Chorizo and rocket

I've been meaning to join in an EoMEoTE (End of Month Eggs on Toast Extravaganza) ever since I saw the first version way back in December last year. Eggs, toast... is this not the international brunch of choice? With limitless opportunities for culinary entrepreneurship? Brilliant, brilliant idea Anthony and Jeanne!As usual though, time crept up on me so when I saw Julia's punctual post on her

EoMEoTE #4: Chorizo and rocket

I've been meaning to join in an EoMEoTE (End of Month Eggs on Toast Extravaganza) ever since I saw the first version way back in December last year. Eggs, toast... is this not the international brunch of choice? With limitless opportunities for culinary entrepreneurship? Brilliant, brilliant idea Anthony and Jeanne!As usual though, time crept up on me so when I saw Julia's punctual post on her

Why They Invented Photoshop


I have a decent-size collection of very old sheet music from the early 20th century given to me by a family friend. I've sold some of it and donated the proceeds to the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, since the family friend died from breast cancer. But I still have a fair amount, and I've been perusing it of late, trying to find just the right cover illustration into which to Photoshop a great title for a nonexistent song that just happened to emerge in conversation last week: "What If They Knew (I'm Really a Liberal)". Songs in the nineteen-teens really did have titles like that; great titles like "The Little Good For Nothing's Good For Something After All" and "I'm So Miserable Without You (It's Almost Like Having You Here)." OK, that last one isn't real, at least not from that time; according to the Car Talk web site, it's a line from =gak= a Stephen Bishop song.

I just recently purchased this truly amazing specimen from Ebay...the song is called "Everybody Wants a Key To My Cellar":




Now the title itself is pretty racy, but add to it the fact that it's from 1919, and the hands are both brown and white, and you've got one heck of a subversive piece of sheet music.

So while I'm taking a stroll down Memory Lane doing trivial stuff like this, Billmon has been busy creating the next generation of anti-AARP ads. Go take a look; it's pretty funny stuff.

vendredi 25 février 2005

Cosmo Condi


Jesus toe-tappin' Christ in a sidecar.

If this is journalism, I'm almost ready to say let Gannonguckert do whatever the fuck he wants, because it can't sink any lower.

Here's a woman who is Secretary of State. She may have turned everything she's touched into shit, but she IS the current Secretary of State. She may be an incompetent nincompoop, but she IS the current Secretary of State.

Of course now that she's been confirmed, the piano lessons, the ice skating, the doctorate -- none of it means jack shit, because, well, she looks bitchin' in "fuck-me" boots:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield on Wednesday dressed all in black. She was wearing a black skirt that hit just above the knee, and it was topped with a black coat that fell to mid-calf. The coat, with its seven gold buttons running down the front and its band collar, called to mind a Marine's dress uniform or the "save humanity" ensemble worn by Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix."

As Rice walked out to greet the troops, the coat blew open in a rather swashbuckling way to reveal the top of a pair of knee-high boots. The boots had a high, slender heel that is not particularly practical. But it is a popular silhouette because it tends to elongate and flatter the leg. In short, the boots are sexy.

Rice boldly eschewed the typical fare chosen by powerful American women on the world stage. She was not wearing a bland suit with a loose-fitting skirt and short boxy jacket with a pair of sensible pumps. She did not cloak her power in photogenic hues, a feminine brooch and a non-threatening aesthetic. Rice looked as though she was prepared to talk tough, knock heads and do a freeze-frame "Matrix" jump kick if necessary. Who wouldn't give her ensemble a double take -- all the while hoping not to rub her the wrong way?

Rice's coat and boots speak of sex and power -- such a volatile combination, and one that in political circles rarely leads to anything but scandal. When looking at the image of Rice in Wiesbaden, the mind searches for ways to put it all into context. It turns to fiction, to caricature. To shadowy daydreams. Dominatrix! It is as though sex and power can only co-exist in a fantasy. When a woman combines them in the real world, stubborn stereotypes have her power devolving into a form that is purely sexual.


And this is the Washington fucking POST we're quoting here.

Unbelievable.

In case you doubted that it's about punishing the evil unchaste temptresses....

...and not about babies' lives at all, here's your proof:

The Kansas attorney general, a staunch opponent of abortion, has demanded the medical records of nearly 90 woman and girls who had late-term abortions, saying he needs the material to investigate crimes.

The two abortion clinics involved in the case say the state has no right to such personal information and are fighting the request in the Kansas Supreme Court.

But Attorney General Phill Kline insisted Thursday he needs the records because he has ``the duty to investigate and prosecute child rape and other crimes in order to protect Kansas children.''

Sex involving someone under 16 is illegal in Kansas, and it is illegal in the state for doctors to perform an abortion after 22 weeks unless there is reason to believe it is needed to protect the mother's health.

Kline spoke to reporters after details of the secret investigation, which began in October, surfaced in a legal brief filed by attorneys for the two clinics. The clinics argued that unless the high court intervenes, women who obtained abortions could find government agents knocking at their door.

The clinics said Kline demanded their complete, unedited medical records for women and girls who sought abortions at least 22 weeks into their pregnancies in 2003. Court papers did not identify the clinics.

The records sought include the patient's name, medical history, details of her sex life, birth control practices and psychological profile.


Now that one of their own has obtained a second term as president, the Christofascists have been emboldened to drop the pretense that they're defenders of human life, and are now free to expose what they really are -- frightened little dickless men who are terrified of sexuality -- their own, to be sure, but also of that of the evil females who cause them to get those boners in the dead of night.

These people are sick motherfuckers, that's all there is to it. This attorney general is an absolute monstrosity. You want to know why we say it's OUR bodies? This is why. Coming on the heels of the attempt at legislation in Virginia that would allow women who didn't report miscarriages within 24 hours to be charged with a crime, it's pretty clear what these guys are all about.

For all that this guy SAYS it's about finding "child rape" (hmmmmm....he IS obsessed with that, isn't he?), how come he's going after the girl, not after the so-called rapists? Maybe because he believes, along with so many of his Christofascist peers, that men are helpless victims in the face of evil Daughters of Eve?

I hope everyone who voted for Bush is happy now. And I don't want to hear any more about the "liberated" women of Afghanistan, either.

(via Running Scared and Hoffmania.)

jeudi 24 février 2005

My God, They Think of Everything, Don't They?

We have Scott at Poetic Leanings to thank for this one:

Dear Friend;

This message has been sent to you by a friend or a relative who has recently
disappeared along with millions and millions of people around the world.

The reason they chose to send you this letter is because they cared about you
and would like you to know the truth about where they went.

This may come as a shock to you, but the one who sent you this has been taken
up to heaven.

If you read a Bible, you will see that after chapter three in the book of Revelation,
the church is no longer mentioned as being on earth. (The church are the believers
in Jesus Christ, not the buildings in which people meet.)

In the Bible, 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4 verses 16 and 17 tell how Jesus came
to take away His church. But, you have to believe the Bible is the Word of
God in order to believe this.

I am sure that there will be a lot of speculation as to what happened to all
these people. The theories of some scientists and world leaders will have
so much credibility that most of the world will believe them.

It will sound like the truth!

But, there is only one truth. And, that truth is that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh,
came back to earth and took with Him to Heaven all who believed in Him
and made Him their Lord.

If you would like to give your life to Jesus Christ and be born again, it is
not too late. First you must pray to God saying"Father I admit I am a
sinner, and I will turn from my sin and do good. I believe that Jesus was
your son and that He came here to die for me so that my sins would be
forgiven. I ask you to forgive me and I will repent of my sins. In Jesus
name I pray."

If you just prayed that prayer and meant it with all your heart, then God
will know you as one of His own. You should now seek out others who have
also given their lives to Christ, read a Bible daily, and do your best to
bring others to Christ.

God bless you.


Well, he got it from The Daily Show, but we got it from him. So there.

But think about what a valuable service this is. By simply giving these guys your e-mail address, YOU can assure that all of your friends who were left behind know what happened to you after you're raptured to heaven to eat Cheez-Wiz and Ritz crackers by the left hand o'God. Sort of like calling your mother to let her know you got home OK.

These people are nothing if not thorough.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

I repeat: For a guy who just wants his privacy, Gannonguckert just won't shut up.

Now he has a blog, in which he casts himself as a martyr.

(Hint: I guess we're the Pharisees.)

Ready to vomit? Here ya go:

About Me

Bruised but not broken

I'm baaaaaaack! If you thought I was going to slink away - then you don't know much about me. Someone still has to battle the Left and now that I've emerged from the crucible, I'm stronger than before.

Despite all the pleas from the Left to go over to the 'dark side' and expose the 'corrupt Bush administration' simply isn't going to happen. My faith and my ideology are rock solid.

Still, the last few weeks have been difficult for my family and my associates. To them I offer my apology and gratitude for their support.

In regard to the allegations about my personal life, I have been advised by my attorneys not to comment on any of the details pending the outcome of any possible legal action I might pursue. Therefore, I won't be discussing any of that stuff here.


Nice to know his faith is rock solid. After all, when your faith gives you a "get out of jail free" card just for believing what some guy in a dress told you to believe, that gives you a lot of leeway.

(Thanks to Our Hero, John Aravosis, for locating this bit o'wingnut swill.)

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Americablog is a Festival o'Gannonguckert right now...I won't reprint here, just go read it. The story seems to be gaining some critical mass in the mainstream press.

Two things are interesting, however. First, it seems that Talon News has shut down its web site for a "redesign" and a "top-to-bottom review of staff and volunteer contributors". And that restaurant on the corner is opening soon "under new management", too. Yah. Right. Uh-huh. Whatever you say, boss. As Crusader John Aravosis says, "For a 'real' news outfit, the loss of one single reporter seems to have shut them down." Does seem odd, doesn't it?

And second, it seems that Fox News and Ann Coulter are now championing the rights of prostitutes.

Coulter says:

Now the media is hot on the trail of a gay escort service that Gannon may have run some years ago.


Gee, if Ann were the kind of intrepid reporter she likes to think she is, she'd know that the "escort service" Gannon "may have run some years ago" was in fact selling his own services, and was still up and running as recently as last Monday (as the REAL intrepid reporter, Mr. Aravosis, reported on Americablog). And of course we all know Ann's real name is Anthony Clatterbox. (Sorry...couldnt' resist.)

And Fox News says:

"Likewise, many of the same leftist blogs that castigate the religious right for intolerance didn't hesitate to reveal the sexual peculiarities of White House correspondent/sympathizer James Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon."


You know, it's getting harder and harder to keep track of what constitutes "moral values" on the right without a scorecard. They used to hate all kinds of sex outside of procreative sex within marriage...especially prostitution. Heidi Fleiss went to jail. I think the "Mayflower Madam" did too. Then they put in a loophole for rich white Republicans, especially those holding public office. (see also: Gingrich, N., Hyde, H., Giuliani, R., et. al. ad nauseum.) But then last time I looked, which was yesterday, a Republican-affiliated money-laundering slush fund for campaign money was using gay marriage -- a longing for commitment within exclusive, loving relationships for gay people -- as a weapon against the AARP. That's a BAD thing, according to the right. But now, if you're gay, being a hooker is simply a "sexual peculiarity", according to the wingnuts.

I'm so confused....keeping track of the swaying and ever-changing moral values on the right has given me a headache. I'm going to go lie down now.

mercredi 23 février 2005

Hey, Mr. Saletan, come to the reality-based community


William Saletan obviously lives in a dream world where there's no age discrimination.

My experience is that it kicks in at 40 and really starts with a vengeance at around 45. That was the age at which I interviewed at a major television network for a Web development job. The first part of the interview was with the HR guy, who asked me a number of questions about cultural phenomena obviously designed to find out how old I was. The question that finally got me branded was one about slide rules, because yes, I did use them in high school chemistry.

He then left the room to get the guys in the department, came back, and I went off with the two guys who ran the department. They spoke to me about the job for five minutes, asked if I had any questions, then took me back to the HR guy -- without even interviewing me. The HR guy, his demeanor entirely different now, said "I don't think you'd be a good fit here."

There are many of us who are north of 40 (I will turn 50 this year) who still work long hours, work hard, keep up with new technologies as required by our jobs, and are just as valuable employees as anyone else. But when we get laid off, most of us can't find work at anywhere near the same level. No one wants to hire a 50-year-old or a 60-year-old when for far less money they can get a 23-year-old who they can delude themselves will stay for 30 years.

So why guys like William Saletan are still claiming that people can now work until they're 70, I have no idea, unless they live in the same fantasy world that the Bushistas live in. Oh, they CAN work, but one can only work for as long as someone is willing to hire you...even as a consultant.

Toxteth Hotel, Glebe

We had a quick dinner at the Toxteth, a low-key but recently refurb'ed pub in Sydney's inner west.The food here definitely fulfilled the "value" part of the pub grub equation, with enormous servings to satiate the ravenous.Calamari with chips $13.00Grilled marinated chicken breast with chips and salad $18.00Smoked chicken salad with Roquefort dressing $13.00Baby octopus salad $18.00The chicken

Toxteth Hotel, Glebe

We had a quick dinner at the Toxteth, a low-key but recently refurb'ed pub in Sydney's inner west.The food here definitely fulfilled the "value" part of the pub grub equation, with enormous servings to satiate the ravenous.Calamari with chips $13.00Grilled marinated chicken breast with chips and salad $18.00Smoked chicken salad with Roquefort dressing $13.00Baby octopus salad $18.00The chicken

The Grey Lady Exposes the Scam


Wow.

This may be the hardest-hitting editorial the New York Times has published in years:

As he stumps for Social Security privatization, President Bush always gets a big round of applause for promising that the money in a private account could be passed on to one's heirs.

If those happy clappers only knew the details.

Under the president's proposal, when you retired you would not be able to start spending the money in your private account until after you bought an annuity, a financial contract in which you hand over a lump-sum payment and, in return, get a monthly stream of income for life. The upside of buying such an annuity would be that you'd be protected against outliving all of your money. The downside is that even if you died immediately after retirement, the most your heirs would inherit would be the amount that remained in your private account after you had paid for the mandatory annuity. (If you lived longer, of course, you might well need to spend the remainder to supplement the annuity's low monthly payout. )

The idea of making the private accounts part of one's estate is particularly appealing to low- and middle-income earners, who may not have all that much to leave to their heirs under normal circumstances. But those are exactly the people who would have to use the largest share of their accounts to buy annuities. The government would require that annuities be large enough to keep recipients above the poverty line for life. The less you had to start with, the less you'd have left over after buying the mandatory annuity.

What if you died before you retired? As with many claims Mr. Bush makes about Social Security privatization, the fate of your private account in the event of your untimely death is unclear. But one issue that raises big doubts about whether that money could be inherited is the question of how the trillions of dollars the government would have to borrow to set up a privatized system would be repaid.

Under the president's proposal, when you retired, your traditional Social Security retirement benefit would be cut by an amount equal to all the deposits you had made into your private account plus interest. (The interest would be three percentage points higher than the rate of inflation.) The benefit cut would be each person's contribution to repaying the huge debt the Bush administration would take on to "pay for" privatization.

But if you died before you retired, you would have already used some of that borrowed money to set up the private account and yet would never have made any contribution to repaying the debt. So in that case, how would the government recoup your share of the amount it had borrowed? Well, it could let your share of the debt go unpaid - in effect bequeathing to your heirs and their fellow citizens ever-higher deficits. Or your spouse could inherit your private account and the benefit cut that went with it. Or the government could take its cut from your private account before the money went to your survivors - a grab that could wipe out your stash.

The White House would hotly deny that the last alternative could happen. Nothing freaks out the Bush administration more than the suggestion that the government would ever tap someone's private account - even for money that is owed to the government. It doesn't, however, seem too bothered about gutting your traditional benefits. Go figure.

Blasting Hunter S. Thompson


I don't like atonal jazz. Never have. When Mr. Brilliant plays Miles Davis' Agharta or Pangaea; or King Crimson's Thrak Attack, I have to at least leave the room, and sometimes the house, depending on how loud it is, because it gives me a headache.

I don't care for it, but I'd never say it's not music, nor would I say it's bad music. It just doesn't speak to me personally.

Stephen Schwartz of The Weekly Standard doesn't seem to have that ability to separate the subjective opinion from the facts. In a hatchet piece that violates the Don't Speak Ill of the Dead At Least Until the Body is Cold rule, he decides that Hunter S. Thompson's self-destructiveness gives him carte blanche to take some potshots of his own:

Thompson had much in common with Burroughs and Ginsberg. First, their products were mainly noise. Their books were reissued but now sit inertly on bookstore shelves, incapable of inspiring younger readers, or even nostalgic baby boomers, to purchase them. Thompson claimed credit for the invention of "gonzo journalism," epitomized by his great success, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, published in 1972. He will inevitably be hailed by newswriters as the creator of a genre. But if his work is taught to the young, it is as an exemplar of the madness of the '60s, not as literature or journalism. Aside from his own later works, including such trivia, bearing his signature, as The Great Shark Hunt, Generation of Swine, and Songs of the Doomed, of what did "gonzo" journalism consist? Thompson left no authorial legacy.

It has long been argued that lasting literature is an impossibility without imitation and emulation, and that although young authors often produce works ridiculously imitative of their idols, real writers grow out of such mimesis to gain recognition for their own, individual abilities. But who can imagine a youthful talent beginning with an exercise in the gonzo style? Thompson produced no others like him, for the same reason Burroughs and Ginsberg generated no schools of novel-writing or verse. One may go further and say they had nothing to teach the young, except to emit a cacophony.

Indeed, it would be one thing to say that Thompson and the others like him, such as Burroughs and Ginsberg, are dated. Even embarrassingly old-fashioned artistic works, bereft of immediacy for those who are not part of the environment from which they emerged, have the capacity for revival. But Thompson produced a clamor without content. Doubtlessly, the most pathetic aspect of the '60s phenomenon was the absolute conviction of Thompson and those who encouraged him that "living in the moment" really did count more than anything else in the world, that history never existed and that the future was their property.


When Schwartz uses the word "dated", he means "I'm just pissed that I wasn't around for all that sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, and I'm going to make everyone who was PAY FOR THEIR SINS." As for whether Thompson's work is "dated", go look at the quotes from Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail that I filched from Will Pitt's obituary again, and tell me if those paragraphs are dated, or if they describe George W. Bush even more than they describe Nixon.

These wingnuts are so absolutely terrified shitless at their own sexuality, their own impulses, their own SELVES, that they've been fighting a war against what THEY PERCEIVE as "the 60's" for the last 25 years. Does anyone really believe that sex didn't exist before the 60's? That music as a barometer of social change didn't exist before the 60's? The ignorance of American sociocultural history that these people have is astounding.

In the 1920's, after a bloody war, young people abandonded the staid foxtrots and Tin Pan Alley love songs of the WWI era, embracing jazz and the Charleston. Young women abandoned corsets and hiked their hemlines. "Petting parties" ran rampant on campuses. They don't teach you about this in school. Oh, they talk about flappers and jazz and the Charleston, but they don't teach these phenomena in any kind of social context. If you read Paula Fass' excellent book on the subject, The Damned and the Beautiful. American Youth in the 1920s, you'll see that there's nothing new under the sun, and that "youth movements" such as that which took place in the 1960's are a recurring phenomenon.

It's sad to see young conservatives -- people like Ben Shapiro and their ilk. Youth is a time for exploring your boundaries; for experiencing things and making your own decisions as to what works in your own life. These young people who aren't allowing themselves to have any experiences not prescribed by a bunch of terrified middle-aged men are only cheating themselves.

I'm not saying that some of these experiences aren't phenomenally stupid, or that people like William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson lived responsibly, because they didn't. There are plenty of people who break new literary ground without drugs. But there's no getting around the fact that the drugs are an integral part of who Thompson was and how he put his ideas on paper. If Schwartz and his terrified friends don't want to read Thompson's work, don't read it. That's what's wonderful about America -- we can make choices for ourselves.

That's something that people like Stephen Schwartz have forgotten...or want to take away from themselves as well as the rest of us.

And oh, by the way? As of this writing, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is ranked #13 at Amazon.com. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972 is #42. Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness--Modern History from the Sports Desk is #33.

So don't tell me Thompson doesn't speak to what people are thinking.

Is this what the war's supporters wanted?


Ever since the war started, Bush's mindless, blind, grinning supporters with their flags and their ribbon magnets have been perfectly willing to buy into the ever-changing rationales for this war. I've never really understood this dynamic; this idea that you just shrug off the fact that there are no weapons of mass destruction after you were told that they were not only certain there were, but that they knew where they were. I've never understood how anyone can just forget about this and mindlessly parrot, "Yes, we originally went into Iraq to impose democracy, yes, yes, yes, Bush sayeth so ergo it's true." The fact of the matter is that there was ONE reason Bush started this war, and when that ONE reason turned out to be horseshit, he decided -- quite accurately, as it turns out -- that he could dupe the moronic American public into changing his original rationale whenever he wanted to, and they'd buy it.

I wonder how all those people with the ribbon magnets; the ones panting from jumping through logical hoops for three years, feel now that our noble military exercise in Iraq has succeeded only into turning Iraq into an Iran with an endless civil war between secularists and Islamists:

Ayad Allawi, the current prime minister, and Barham Salih, a Kurdish politician and deputy prime minister, said in separate interviews on Tuesday that without guarantees renouncing sectarianism and embracing Western democratic ideals they were poised to block Dr. Jaafari's nomination and possibly peel off enough members from the Shiite's United Iraqi Alliance to form a government of their own.

Iraq's interim constitution effectively requires a two-thirds majority in the new assembly to choose a prime minister and government, and the Shiite alliance, led by two religious parties with close ties to Iran, won a bare majority in the Jan. 30 election.

Indeed, initial indications were that a potentially polarizing battle was possible, one that could expose the deep fissures in Iraqi society that have been held in check since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Those fissures not only cut across sectarian and ethnic lines but also track a wide disagreement about the nature of the Iraqi state: whether it should be religious or secular, centrally led or governed by a federal system, allied to Iran or anchored in ties to the West.


Let's face it, folks. Iraq is a total, utter botch-job. There is no way that the secularists and Islamicists are going to live peacefully side-by-side. The choice in Iraq now, after Bush's Great Adventure in Attempted Penis Size Enhancement, is an Iran-friendly Islamist government, or a U.S.-puppet secularist government that we are going to have to prop up via military strength in perpetuity. If you think the latter is a great option, I have three words for you: Shah Reza Pahlavi.

mardi 22 février 2005

Just suppose...

Philip Barron at Waveflux asks the obvious question:

...if Social Security was all privatized the way George Bush wants it to be, all tied up in the stock market...

...how much of your retirement fund would you have lost today?


I'll go a step further: If you retired today, and your account was invested in the stock market, how would you feel?

A royal stinker of a day it was, too:

The Dow plunged 174.02 points, or 1.6 percent, to 10,611.20 as all but one of its 30 components fell into the red. It was the market barometer's biggest loss in points since May 19, 2003.

The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 28.30 points, or 1.4 percent, to 2,030.32 and the S&P 500 fell 17.43 points, or 1.5 percent, to 1,184.16.

In the broader market, decliners led advancers 26 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange and 23 to 9 on the Nasdaq. Big Board volume was about 1.74 billion shares while some 2.05 billion shares traded on the Nasdaq.

Among Dow components, Home Depot slumped 4.1 percent after its quarterly report disappointed some investors. Merck, which had leaped 13 percent in the previous session after a panel recommended returning its drug Vioxx to the market, fell 4.3 percent.

Only Verizon Communications managed small gains within the Dow.

March crude futures closed up $2.14 at $51.15 a barrel while April crude, now the front month contract, gained $2.41 to close at $51.42 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude last topped $51 in late October. See Futures Movers.

"When oil popped above $51, the market sort of gave up waiting for tomorrow's release of CPI numbers and people started to take whatever profits they had," said Robert Pavlik, portfolio manager at Oaktree Asset Management.

Concerns about inflation ahead of Wednesday's report on consumer prices in the wake of news of a surge in wholesale prices last week added to the negative tone of the market.

Gannonguckert the Motormouth


For a guy who isn't talking to the press, this guy can't seem to shut up:

In other matters, Guckert said he is spending most of his time these days writing in a journal he has kept since he first began covering the White House in February 2003, a journal that could become a book.

"I have probably one page for each day at the White House, about 200 pages of stuff," said Guckert. "Is it all interesting? Probably not. But it could be [a book]. I haven’t thought that far ahead."

Guckert, who contends he still has a future in journalism, also added that entering the paid-speaker circuit is another goal. "It is likely that I will start making some appearances and speaking," he said, declinig to name specific efforts he has taken in that regard. "There are people who are definitely interested in some of my behind-the-scenes work in the press room." That is certainly an understatement.

When asked about what journalistic opportunities he could find, Guckert said only: "I still think, despite the bad things being said about me, I am a journalist, I have been one for two years and have written about 500 articles. I paid a big price for the privilege to call myself a journalist."

Although Guckert said no one had asked him to be their guest at the 2005 White House Correspondents dinner, scheduled for April 30, he believes his recent fame will make him a potential guest. "There is still time," he said, noting that the dinner had often prompted attention because of some controversial guests in the past, such as Monica Lewinsky. "There is always someone there trying to make news," he added. "Maybe this year it is going to be me."


I'll bet Gannonguckert's favorite fragrance is Egoïste.

I mean, how pathetic is this guy? He really WANTS to be this year's Monica Lewinsky.

(via Americablog...where else?)

Crones for Camilla

That's my new slogan, and I'm sticking with it.

Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about Charles and Camilla. No, she's not a great beauty like Diana was supposed to be, but then, she's about fifteen years older than Diana -- and Diana ain't looking too good these days either. I mean, give me a break. The woman is 56 years old, for God's sake! She needs a new hairstyle, but as 56-year-olds go, she's tall, slim, and not half bad looking.

The bashing that this woman has been getting in the U.S. press, who ought not to care about such things, is pretty sickening. Even Jon Stewart has gotten in on the game.

You know, if Charles had just made an honest woman out of this gal in 1972, Diana Spencer would be alive today, married to some two-bit eurotrash with a title and sleeping with the poolboy, the way rich royal relics are supposed to. Instead, millions of tabloid pages later, you had two corpses, two kids whose mother's name was dragged through the mud, a single dad, and a royal family that's a frickin' joke.

At least the English have their history as a reason for the Camilla bashing. Americans have nothing but our mean-spiritedness. And what could be more mean-spirited than banning her from the White House?

I Am Not Kidding. Since Camilla seems to be an all-purpose target these days, the White House decided to toss yet another bone at the fundamentalist right by banning her from the White House:

GEORGE Bush has banned Camilla Parker Bowles from the White House - because she is a divorcee.

The unprecedented snub has effectively sabotaged Charles's plan to take his bride on a Royal tour of America later this year.

The trip would have been the pair's first official tour as a married couple.

But the US President - a notoriously right-wing Christian and reformed alcoholic - told aides it was "inappropriate" for him to be playing host to the newly-weds, who are both divorcees.

The decision was made even though the late President Ronald Reagan was divorced.

A Government insider said: "It was relayed to us from Washington that Mrs Parker Bowles would not be welcome at the White House.

"The Americans are aware that the visit will be subject to a lot of media attent ion and did not want the President drawn into what they view to be a public relations exercise.

"It's now uncertain if the visit will even go ahead."


I guess this means Neil Bush is banned from the White House too, right?

I swear, sometimes I think this bunch provides us with material on purpose.

And We'll All Go Together When We Go


See? As I asked the other day, where is Tom Lehrer when you need him?

Ron Beasley starts our day over at Running Scared with an analysis of an article by Paul Craig Roberts that should scare the living bejeezus out of you. The short version: George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden have the same vision for the Middle East: Create instability in the Middle East to justify their actions, their imperialist ambitions.

Of course, I've known this since 9/11/01.

WTF???


I wonder what kind of logical hoops the Bushistas are jumping through to get to this:



The ad appears on the web site for The American Spectator, and links to USANext, otherwise known as Those Wonderful People Who Brought You The Swift Boat Liars. Last time their target was John Kerry, this time it's America's senior citizens.

The site doesn't explain exactly HOW the AARP is against the troops and supportive of gay marriage, mind you. It does, however, contain observations by such giants of public policy as USANext's CEO Charlie Jarvis, long-forgotten former TV-show host Art Linkletter, and bad sex novelist Bill O'Reilly.

There really ARE no depths below which Republicans won't sink, are there?

UPDATE: Hah! Those chickenshit little weasels at American Spectator have already taken down USANext's ad and replaced it with one reading "Free Special Report! 14 Facts the AARP doesn't want you to know!" -- with a link to the USANext site, but NOT to said 14 facts.

Meanwhile, these fuckwads also have a teaser: "Join a live call with Art Linkletter!" Now, I don't know anyone, not even my 77-year-old mother, who is going to be jumping up and down at the thought of a live call with Art Linkletter. Alan Rickman, then maybe we can talk. But Art Linkletter? Fugeddaboudit. But get this: If you're one of the 5 senior citizens in the world for whom this is an exciting thing to do, you know what you get when you click the link? A donation page.

Nice fucking guys, these.

lundi 21 février 2005

Pssst. George W. Bush is Gay

Now that I have your attention....

Seriously, though, the way the wingnuts are going, can speculation about C-Plus Caligula be far behind? I mean, there are only so many cartoon characters they can impugn, and they're rapidly running out. I think only the denizens of Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends are left. So who's next? I mean, Gannonguckert has said that Kerry would be the first gay president, and they've been calling Hillary a dyke for years.

The latest gay subversive trying to Corrupt Our Children is that jolly old green ogre himself, Shrek.

Yes, Shrek.

I swear, you can't make this stuff up:

Uh-oh!

That other jolly green giant could be in trouble.

Shrek 2 is the latest animated film title to be "outed" by Christian fundamentalists in the U.S.

On its website the Traditional Values Coalition (news - web sites) is warning parents about the cross-dressing and transgender themes contained in the hit DreamWorks feature, now on DVD.

"Shrek 2 is billed as harmless entertainment but contains subtle sexual messages," says the coalition, which describes itself as a grassroots inter-denominational lobby with more than 43,000 member churches.

"Parents who are thinking about taking their children to see Shrek 2 may wish to consider the following."

The article then proceeds to describe one of the characters, an "evil" bartender (voiced by Larry King) who is a male-to-female transgender in transition and who expresses a sexual desire for Prince Charming.

In another identified scene, Shrek and Donkey need rescuing from a dungeon by Pinocchio and his nose, which is made to extend as an escape bridge by getting the wooden boy to lie about not wearing women's underwear.

The TVC report, A Gender Identity Disorder Goes Mainstream', raps DreamWorks for helping to promote crossdressing and transgenderism.


Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd were unavailable for comment, though Mr. Incredible insisted, "Elastigirl is not a beard! We did not get married just so we could win the Oscar®. We have a normal, heterosexual marriage, as evidenced by our three children. And now that Jack-Jack has shown some special abilities, that should put an end to speculation that he was adopted as part of our attempt to pass for straight."

The Broadest Brush in the World


This would be funny if it weren't so appalling...and so representative of what constitutes the so-called "mainstream right" these days.

Gay-o. Is OK-o


...in Springfield!

Last night's episode of The Simpsons may not have been the funniest on record, and the coming out of Marge's sister was only marginally more surprising than the coming out of Smithers would have been (I was kind of hoping for Moe Sizlack, myself), but it got in enough zingers to make it Important Television. They even found a way to get in a slap at their own network. Schweet.

But for those who wanted to know if the web site cited on the show is for real, (http://www.springfieldisforgayloversofmarriage.com/), yes it does.

Snapped: Bill Bryson at the Valhalla, Sydney

Bill Bryson at a Gleebooks author talk at the Valhalla in Sydney.Generally known as the witty author of numerous travel books, Bryson is currently touring to promote his latest book, A Brief History of Nearly Everything--a layman's guide to the Big Bang and the start of the Universe.Looking remarkably cool in a velvet jacket despite the Sydney humidity, Bill read us chapters from various works,

Snapped: Bill Bryson at the Valhalla, Sydney

Bill Bryson at a Gleebooks author talk at the Valhalla in Sydney.Generally known as the witty author of numerous travel books, Bryson is currently touring to promote his latest book, A Brief History of Nearly Everything--a layman's guide to the Big Bang and the start of the Universe.Looking remarkably cool in a velvet jacket despite the Sydney humidity, Bill read us chapters from various works,

Scott Ritter, seer

Scott Ritter, July 2002:

Does Iraq truly threaten the existence of our nation? If one takes at face value the rhetoric emanating from the Bush administration, it would seem so. According to President Bush and his advisers, Iraq is known to possess weapons of mass destruction and is actively seeking to reconstitute the weapons production capabilities that had been eliminated by UN weapons inspectors from 1991 to 1998, while at the same time barring the resumption of such inspections.

I bear personal witness through seven years as a chief weapons inspector in Iraq for the United Nations to both the scope of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and the effectiveness of the UN weapons inspectors in ultimately eliminating them.

While we were never able to provide 100 percent certainty regarding the disposition of Iraq's proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95 percent level of verified disarmament. This figure takes into account the destruction or dismantling of every major factory associated with prohibited weapons manufacture, all significant items of production equipment, and the majority of the weapons and agent produced by Iraq.

With the exception of mustard agent, all chemical agent produced by Iraq prior to 1990 would have degraded within five years (the jury is still out regarding Iraq's VX nerve agent program - while inspectors have accounted for the laboratories, production equipment and most of the agent produced from 1990-91, major discrepancies in the Iraqi accounting preclude any final disposition at this time.)

The same holds true for biological agent, which would have been neutralized through natural processes within three years of manufacture. Effective monitoring inspections, fully implemented from 1994-1998 without any significant obstruction from Iraq, never once detected any evidence of retained proscribed activity or effort by Iraq to reconstitute that capability which had been eliminated through inspections.

In direct contrast to these findings, the Bush administration provides only speculation, failing to detail any factually based information to bolster its claims concerning Iraq's continued possession of or ongoing efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. To date no one has held the Bush administration accountable for its unwillingness - or inability - to provide such evidence.


Here's a report on what Scott Ritter is saying now:


Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia’s Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

[snip]

On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran’s alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.

The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%.

Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh.

On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The Coming Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known investigative journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, "The next strategic target [is] Iran." Hersh also reported that "The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer." According to Hersh, "Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran. . . . Strategists at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the military’s war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans’ negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act."


Don't forget, Ritter was right the first time.

Here's something else to chew on: The Selective Service Administration Annual Performance Plan for fiscal year 2004 states the following goals for its "strategic objectives":


Strategic Objective 1.2: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 56 State Headquarters,
442 Area Offices and 1,980 Local Boards are operational within 75 days of an authorized
return to conscription.

How success will be measured:

Meet the established timelines for the Agency’s quinquennial
workload study.

Results of REX meet established targets identified in the REX Plan.

Strategic Performance Goals:

Ensure that 90% of assigned SDs and RFOs are capable of implementing Timed-Phased Response (TPR) functions and responsibilities.

Ensure that 90% of assigned SDs and RFOs are capable of providing instructions and administering the Registrant Integrated Processing System (RIPS).

FY 2004 Annual Performance Goals:

Prepare and conduct an Area Office Prototype Exercise which tests the activation process from SSS Lottery input to the issuance of the first Armed Forces Examination Orders.

Redefine Agency infrastructure based on quinquennial workload study.

*****

Strategic Objective 1.3: Be operationally ready to furnish untrained manpower within DoD
timelines.

How success will be measured:

Evaluate the results of the FY 2002 REX and future Readiness Exercises.

Validate and make any necessary changes to the automated systems supporting the mobilization process.

Strategic Performance Goals:

Achieve 95% of readiness objectives based on readiness exercise.

Achieve approval and validation of the RIPS Manual.

FY 1999 Annual Performance Goal:

Ensure 95% of predefined readiness objectives are attained and validated during readiness exercises.

FY 2004 Annual Performance Goals:

Prepare, conduct, and evaluate an Area Office Prototype Exercise to ensure the activation process is viable from deployment of the SSS Lottery to the issuance of the first Armed Forces Examination Orders.

Ensure 90% of the personnel tested are capable of implementing activation procedures.

Ensure that 95% of the predefined readiness objectives are attained and validated during the Area Office Prototype Exercise.

****


Think about it. If Bush is planning to put the scalp of Iran on his belt next, he's going to have to do it in one of three ways:

1) A wholesale pullout from Iraq, leaving the Sunnis and the Shia and the Kurds to duke it out among themselves (or else use mercenaries to prop up an Ahmad Chalabi regime)

2) An exclusively air war against Iran, leveling the country and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in the bargain (yeah, THAT'll win over hearts and minds

3) A ground war, and by definition, a draft.

Name yer poison, folks.

A Sad Day for Truth-Seekers


"I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth." -- Hunter S. Thompson


I hate when I wake up in the morning, and it's snowing, and it's going to be a major hassle getting to work, and it's supposedly a holiday, but everyone's going to be coming in, and I'd be a real wuss not to -- and then I turn on Morning Sedition to hear Mark Reilly and Marc Maron talking about someone in the past tense, and discover this. It's going to be a great fucking day, folks.

Hunter S. Thompson, the hard-living writer who inserted himself into his accounts of America's underbelly and popularized a first-person form of journalism in books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," has committed suicide.

Thompson was found dead Sunday in his Aspen-area home of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, sheriff's officials said. He was 67. Thompson's wife, Anita, had gone out before the shooting and was not home at the time.

Besides the 1972 classic about Thompson's visit to Las Vegas, he also wrote "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." The central character in those wild, sprawling satires was "Dr. Thompson," a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.


In some ways, waiting to hear this news has been like waiting for the other shoe to drop for the past twenty years. You just KNEW Thompson would check out this way. But just as Dorothy Parker is the role model for a particular brand of smart-ass New York area Jewish women writers, in some ways Hunter Thompson, his brand of gonzo journalism often imitated, but never quite duplicated, is the creative father of some of the the smartass bloggers we read now -- the farmer at Corrente. Digby. Attaturk. MG at Norwegianity.

Thompson's incisive observations on the American political and cultural scene may have seemed to be filtered through the colors and haze of hallucinogenics, but no one was able to get past the bullshit of American life like Thompson. And now there's no one, and we're out in the wilderness alone, and there's no drugs to even take hold.

On Antiwar.com this morning, Brandon J. Snider, obviously too young to have read Thompson in his heyday had this to say:


I'm mad at Hunter S. Thompson. I'm mad at the way he lived his life, whacked out of his gord, so to speak, on any chemical you can think of, and how he met his death, apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Either way, it was a waste. After becoming a counterculture icon in the 60s and 70s, Thompson faded into obscurity, where he has remained, locked away in a "compound" in Aspen, Colorado, for most of my lifetime. Reading his "Hey Rube" columns occasionally in the past few years, it was reasonably clear to me that Thompson was insane, and the most obvious culprit was drugs. It is literally impossible for most people to believe the amount of junk Thompson did in his adult life.

[snip]

What I admired was his writing style, which was brilliant and inventive, and his one-time relevance as a counter-culture journalist. His left-libertarian writings could have had a much bigger impact in the last 30 years or so, if he hadn't taken himself out of the game. His biggest admirer was Matt Drudge, and I once saw Drudge say that Thompson should "come down off the mountain and stop acting like a nut". Too true, but Thompson wasn't acting anymore. He had become the sort of character he used to skewer, back in the Rolling Stone days. And that's why I'm mad at him; no, I can't be mad at him. It's just such a waste.


There you have it -- a kid for whom Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas opened a whole new world, but one obviously too young to understand how it's possible to just get sick and tired of fighting the good fight, especially when you see history repeat itself -- only far, far worse than last time. We thought Nixon was as bad as it could get, only to be presented with George W. Bush. I can't blame Thompson for not wanting to go through it again:


"How many more of these goddam elections are we going to have to write off as lame but 'regrettably necessary' holding actions? And how many more of these stinking double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me at the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils? I understand, along with a lot of other people, that the big thing, this year, is Beating Nixon. But that was also the big thing, as I recall, twelve years ago in 1960 - and as far as I can tell, we've gone from bad to worse to rotten since then, and the outlook is for more of the same."

"It is a nervous thing to consider: Not just four more years of Nixon, but Nixon's last four years in politics - completely unshackled, for the first time in his life, from any need to worry about who might or might not vote for him the next time around. If he wins in November, he will finally be free to do whatever he wants...or maybe 'wants' is too strong a word for right now. It conjures up images of Papa Doc, Batista, Somoza; jails full of bewildered 'political prisoners' and the constant cold-sweat fear of jackboots suddenly kicking your door off its hinges at four A.M."

"The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy - then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. Probably the rarest form of life in American politics is the man who can turn on a crowd & still keep his head straight - assuming it was straight in the first place."


Sound familiar? Like exactly like what we're going through now? Well, it's from Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972. That was 33 years ago, friends, and we've learned not a godamn thing.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

In some ways it's a kindness that is done to us when we get older, that death no longer holds the terrors it did when we were eight years old and would sit bolt upright at two in the morning trying to wrap our minds around the concept of not existing anymore. For if we got to be sixty-seven, Thompson's age when he decided to check out of this level of reality in his own distinctive, if appalling, way, and were still waking up with night terrors about death, we'd never get out of bed. On the other hand, there's a weariness that sets in; a sense that we just don't have it in us to fight that battle anymore.

I'm sorry that Brandon J. Snider and his compatriots won't have Hunter Thompson around to guide them through the morass that is Bush II. But then, Thompson never set himself up as some kind of sociopolitical messiah. He was an eccentric, a complete wackjob, who could set fire to a page simply by putting words on it. But you can't spend eternity pulling up rocks only to find maggots underneath them. Sooner or later you burn out, retreat to your compound in Colorado, and spend your days shooting at targets -- and then at yourself.

You kids are going to have to find your own way now. But if you look carefully, you'll see the footprints in the snow that Hunter S. Thompson left for you to follow.

[Updated with Fear and Loathing... quotes from Will Pitt's excellent obituary.]

dimanche 20 février 2005

Best. Blog. Tagline. Ever.


"Building Needed Joementum for Sore-Losermen Nationwide"

And for this alone, Corked Bats would be the latest addition to our blogroll, even without cogent observations like this:

As I was saying, Guckert should reveal his ties to the administration in detail for a simple reason. Liberals gunning for the administration now serve his purposes better than the GOP. There are two sides battling for ground on this story. There is a side that wants this to be about Jeff Gannon and about how liberal bloggers conspired to take him down. And then there is a side that wants the story to be about the White House and its divorce from free society. This story will be one or the other at this point. Which one do you want it to be JeffJim?

Do you want this story to continue to be about your embarrassing career choices or do you want it to be about how you were a pawn in a game of political football that just got blown wide open? Do you want to be a prostitute or a noble whistleblower? Withholding information about your ties to the White House only exposes you more because right now, investigating you is the only way we are going to get to that burning set of questions about the White House. And frankly, you keep egging the blogosphere on with your incoherent defenses every time you sit down for an interview.

So do yourself a favor, JeffJim, and ally with the "liberal bloggers" who want to get this story off of you and laser focused on the thugs in the White House. Running for cover in a GOP that has a lot more to lose by cozying up to a gay prostitute rather than making him the object of their latest deflection--a domestic Lyndie England if you will--will only hurt what is left of your good name in the end.

Think about it another way: if you defect you will probably at least get a book deal. And with your background it shouldn't be too hard to write the most interesting book to downplay a major sex scandal since 2004's My Life. And that's when the big bucks start rolling in...

samedi 19 février 2005

Gannonguckert was a director of GOPUSA

...or so GOPUSA used to claim as recently as October 28, 2004:



So much for the idea that there was no connection.

This image (thanks to the intrepid SusanG of Daily Kos, who really deserves a shared Pulitzer with John Aravosis for their great work on this story; I'm just an aggregator) is from Google's cache from 10/28/04.

I'm not even TRYING to keep track of everything with this story, but apparently the MSM has finally latched onto it, and too many people are sniffing around for the truth not to get out.

Don't forget that Watergate was a "third-rate burglary."

Why I still review movies: Scenes from the mailbox

I've been reviewing movies online since 1997, which makes me kind of a golden oldie among online reviewers, with people like Rick Ferguson (the original Film Geek) and the GirlsOn gang having long since bitten the dust. Through sheer longevity, I seem to have gained a certain amount of reputation in this strange little universe, which I guess is sort of like being James Dale Guckert without the prostitution. I Say I Am A Critic, Therefore I Am.

Oh, sure, I've had a couple of reviews published in a local startup magazine that went bust after four issues because the guys who ran it were simply using it to promote the publisher's God-awful movie about junkies and gangsters, but that garnered no pay, and no perqs other than a press pass to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival -- which I hope to get on my own this year.

These days, I find blogging comes much easier. Doing film reviews is like pulling teeth sometimes. But what makes it worthwhile is reader mail. I don't get much of that, mostly because I have an e-mail form on the site designed to foil spammers (since I've already had one e-mail address stolen by them) and most people are too lazy to find it. But since I'm one of the few people in the universe who thought Million Dollar Baby was, in the words of The Cranky Critic, "a highly polished turd", I expected a barrage of hate mail.

I didn't get it, but I'm going to share two e-mails I did get, which demonstrate what's so wonderful about movies: They truly prove that comedian Pat Paulsen was right: One man's junk really IS another man's prune danish.

Perfect review. As a produced screenwriter, I wish I could serve up hash like this and be taken seriously. The critics are so happy to not have a typical ending to a Hollywood movie that they're falling all over themselves to praise an untypical, and poorly conceived story.



Re: Your review of Million Dollar Baby.

Pardon me, but you're an idiot. This is simply the best examination of the nature of guilt, forgiveness and redemption I've seen since, well, Unforgiven. You must have put on a stupid hat the day you saw this amazing film.

Meanwhile, out in the delusion-based community...

...we have the CPAC conference, otherwise known as "Wingnut Neverland" -- a place where U.S. soldiers found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and which boasted such luminaries of delusion as Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, and Oliver North.

Don't you wish you had been there to hear things like California Rep. Chris Cox saying:

"America's Operation Iraqi Freedom is still producing shock and awe, this time among the blame-America-first crowd...We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and facilities to make them inside Iraq."


Meanwhile, Rick Santorum was still obsessed with man-on-dog sex, or at least man-on-man sex:

"I know there are some people who may be economic conservatives and not consider themselves cultural conservatives," he said. Addressing himself to them, he tried to explain how banning gay marriage is crucial to laissez-faire governing. "Think about those communities where marriage does not exist," he said, invoking their poverty and illegitimacy. "What you see is a model of what life would look like in a country that has fathers and mothers not wedded together in strong relationships to raise children." In poor neighborhoods, he said, there's a strong government presence, "because if Mom and Dad isn't there to raise the child, someone else has to bridge the gap, and that someone else is always the government."

Santorum didn't quite explain how proscribing gay unions would strengthen families in poor communities. The assumption seemed to be that homosexuality would make a travesty of matrimony. Like a suburban block where undesirables insist on moving in, its worth would go down. "If we deconstruct marriage in society, if we say marriage is whatever you want it to be, then marriage loses its intrinsic value," he said.

"I'm talking at a very protective level about what is important to our society if we are to be a free people," he said. "The less virtue we have in our society, the more the need for government to control our lives, to govern our lives." In other words, government needs to enforce virtue in order to keep government out of our lives.


The lunatics really HAVE taken over the asylum.

The Return of the Protest Song


There's nothing like a hard-right-wing Administration of crazy religious wackjobs to serve as manna from heaven for aging folk singers. Bergen County's own Dean Friedman puts some lubricant on the rusty, creaky gears of the protest song, adds some Flash animation, and comes up with Jibjab Lite.

Where is Tom Lehrer now that we need him?

CNY: Dragon boat races

The final event on Sydney's Chinese New Year festivity calendar... dragon boat races on Sydney's Darling Harbour.Vendor making hand-made eggrolls. First time I've seen this--very impressive!Official dragon boat race opening ceremonyRelated GrabYourFork posts:Links for all Chinese New Year 2005 pics

CNY: Dragon boat races

The final event on Sydney's Chinese New Year festivity calendar... dragon boat races on Sydney's Darling Harbour.Vendor making hand-made eggrolls. First time I've seen this--very impressive!Official dragon boat race opening ceremonyRelated GrabYourFork posts:Links for all Chinese New Year 2005 pics

vendredi 18 février 2005

Anderson Cooper joins the journalistic-based community

Extraordinary.

First Catherine Crier, now Anderson Cooper. Is it possible that the sleeping giant has awakened, and we're now going to see some investigation into how Gannonguckert managed to get access to the White House Briefing Room for what looks like an even longer time than originally thought -- when he didn't even have a hard press pass.

The Anderson Cooper footage is pretty amazing stuff, if only for the contrast between Howie the Whore Kurtz' intro that takes the "Bloggers bringing down a guy they disagree with" angle, to Anderson Cooper's righteous indignation. Meanwhile, Olbermann was on the case again, with Dana Milbank, and brought up the interesting point that James Guckert (a name that can really only be pronounced two ways -- GUCK-ert, (like "duck") or GOOK-ert. Yet Gannonguckert is sticking to this idea that he uses an alias because his name is too difficult to pronounce. Olbermann, of course, had something to say about that. I myself would pay to hear Gannonguckert say this to someone like Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News.

The sense that I get from the Cooper segment is that many of the talking heads who have been carrying the Bush Administration's water for the last four years have awakened and realizedthat they're supposed to be journalists -- and that they're pissed that this guy has gotten access they don't have.

Now, if it weren't for the fact that this guy has worked for one of the most virulently anti-gay websites in the country, I'd feel sorry for him. Sure, there's no such thing as bad publicity, but it's growing more clear by the day that James Dale Guckert has received special treatment from the White House, and people now want to know why. Now, instead of being a guy who's knocked around here and there and is now lobbing softballs at the President, hobnobbing in the corridors of power, as it were, he's arguably the most visible man in America. And he suddenly finds himself a potential embarrassment to the Administration he's so slavishly supported -- an administration that won't hesitate to crush him into powder if they feel he's leading people too close to something they don't want the press to start sniffing around.

Look, I don't want anything bad to happen to this guy. This is obviously one self-loathing mofo, and it can't be fun living inside his head. I wasn't kidding the other day when I echoed the call for him to come over to our side and repent the error of his ways. And he's really not the problem; he's just a symptom. The problem is the giant stinking fetid smell emanating from the Bush White House...and it's about damn time the press started looking into where it's coming from.

Friday Night Cat Blogging


All the cuteness that's fit to print.

Govinda's, Darlinghurst

Govinda's has been around since 1979 and provides one of the cheapest dinner and movie deals around.A vegetarian all-you-can-eat buffet is $15.90.Add a movie for only $4.00.Or watch the movie without dinner for $10.90.The movie room is upstairs and its biggest drawcard is the fact that patrons get to lie on lounges for the screening.Pic from www.govindas.com.auWhat's the catch? Well, it is run by

Govinda's, Darlinghurst

Govinda's has been around since 1979 and provides one of the cheapest dinner and movie deals around.A vegetarian all-you-can-eat buffet is $15.90.Add a movie for only $4.00.Or watch the movie without dinner for $10.90.The movie room is upstairs and its biggest drawcard is the fact that patrons get to lie on lounges for the screening.Pic from www.govindas.com.auWhat's the catch? Well, it is run by

jeudi 17 février 2005

Chuckie the Camera Hog Schumer Does Something Useful


It's a Social Security benefits calculator, that shows you how big your cut would be under Bush's plan.

The calculator assumes an investment return of 3% above the rate of inflation for your private (what they call "personal") account. So if inflation is 2%, the assumption is a return of 5%. This is the assumption used by the Congressional Budget Office for its Social Security analysis. The rate is then adjusted to reflect an annual administrative cost of 0.3%. The dollar amounts are shown in inflation-adjusted 2005 dollars.

The bottom line: Unless these so-called private accounts can generate an ANNUALIZED (not total) rate of return over their lifetime of more than, say, 5%, you will get screwed.

Don't forget the disclaimer that every investment ad has in it, as required by law: "Past performance is no guarantee of future results." It's there for a reason.

Una's, Darlinghurst

Una's reputation precedes itself for Darlinghurst locals in-the-know. Having served giant-sized schnitzels for over thirty years, the patrons here are devout fans and inevitably ravenous.The specialty here is the Jaeger schnitzel, two enormous veal or chicken schnitzels served with a kilo of potato rosti and half-a-cabbage worth of sauerkraut (or so it would appear). The menu is predomoniately

Una's, Darlinghurst

Una's reputation precedes itself for Darlinghurst locals in-the-know. Having served giant-sized schnitzels for over thirty years, the patrons here are devout fans and inevitably ravenous.The specialty here is the Jaeger schnitzel, two enormous veal or chicken schnitzels served with a kilo of potato rosti and half-a-cabbage worth of sauerkraut (or so it would appear). The menu is predomoniately