I’ve been absent a couple of days, yes. (Insert the usual excuses.) And I would have posted something last night, but I went out on a rare Tuesday night to see Doggy Style, which I guess you’d call a gay bar popup in an otherwise straight bar. It’s very informal; sometime after 9:15 you look around, and everyone’s a handsome man. The bar TV system switches to a mix of campy old videos, including a montage of Joan Collins-Linda Evans catfights from “Dynasty,” Vanity 6, Li’l Kim, the Scissors Sisters and miscellaneous Euro-popsters from the ’80s with Flock of Seagulls hairdos.
But it was a warm place on a cold night, so there it is. And I worked at home all day, so it was nice to get out.
Meanwhile, thanks to Roy, who for some reason tracks right-wing bloggers, for finding this National Review appreciation of Glen Larson, recently deceased creator of a lot of bad ’70s/’80s television, including “Quincy, ME.” (The ME stood for medical examiner, as we all know from watching CSI, right?)
The writer singles out “Next Stop Nowhere,” a landmark Quincy investigation into the dangers of punk rock. It’s amusing because I know someone whose parents dumped his punk records (“including a few 7-inches that are worth something now”) into the trash compactor after viewing this alarming episode. Today, it looks as ludicrous as it would have to most people who weren’t your parents back then. But the National Review, god bless ’em, doubles down:
Made long after social causes of the week and Klugman’s penchant for soppy lecturing had begun to capsize the series, the fabled punk rock episode serves as an ironic touchstone for aging hipsters keen to remember when they were all scary and hilarious. On a fresh viewing, however, “Next Stop Nowhere” paints a fully true picture of punk rockers as they really were: deceitful social predators who wouldn’t think twice about framing you for murder and forcing you into a codeine overdose.
Forced into a codeine overdose! So that’s what really killed Sid and Nancy.
What kind of echo chamber do people live in to write this stuff?
Two inches of snow allegedly arriving today. I know that’s nothing to you guys in Buffalo, but here? It’s 18 degrees and I’m not looking forward to the solstice, still a month away.
A good day to all.
On edit: I can’t let today pass without noting it’s the 10-year anniversary of this hilarious event:
Alan had just accepted his job here, and we were preparing to move. We laughed maniacally over this event, and hoped our new home would always be this exciting. It hasn’t let us down yet. Detroit! This is why I love you! You’re never, ever boring.
Kirk said on November 19, 2014 at 9:24 am
I never watched Quincy, but that reminds me of the equally ridiculous LSD episode of Dragnet.
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Joe K said on November 19, 2014 at 9:34 am
Blue Boy!!!!
Killing a hour at dtw, waiting on delta to take me and the mrs to visit the mouse house.
63 today,then 70,75, 79, 80.
Pilot Joe
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Bitter Scribe said on November 19, 2014 at 10:25 am
Hey Nancy–Sorry to go OT so soon, but: Did you see that Daily Show segment last night about Detroit shutting off poor people’s water, while it still flows to sports arenas, golf courses and other businesses that are just as far behind in their water bills? Pretty outrageous stuff.
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nancy said on November 19, 2014 at 11:11 am
I did see it, yes. It was very funny. IIRC, there were a few factual errors in there, including the biggest of them all — that several of the large sports venues have paid their bills in full.
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jcburns said on November 19, 2014 at 11:20 am
I would give good money to find out what actor Harry Morgan (Dragnet and M*A*S*H, of course) was thinking in those many many 1960s Dragnet reaction shots where he was required to look with 1) a blank expression, 2) a shaming ‘tsk-tsk’ shake of the head or 3) the most imperceptable of head-nods…while the tinny orchestra went “wah-DAH-dah-dun-dun-dun!!!!”
That, my fellow Americans, is acting-for-a-paycheck par excellence.
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2014 at 12:12 pm
I remember reading an interview (maybe in TV Guide, back in the days when I read that!) where Morgan referred to the Dragnet part of his acting career as his “stick-figure” days.
Speaking of periodicals, and despite that Time magazine made me mad with their stupid anti-teacher cover a few weeks back, I really enjoyed their informative cover piece on Taylor Swift.
Very good stuff, and enlightening
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alex said on November 19, 2014 at 12:20 pm
Not sure if it was Dragnet or Adam 12, but I remember an episode that aired when I was about age 7 in which there was a blonde woman with a flat affect and monotone voice singing “Baby, baby, boomerang… Mince pie… Dog eye… .” She was supposed to be tripping on drugs of some sort. It was a memorable performance because it was so bad. I knew nothing about drugs, yet could tell it was made by people who knew nothing about drugs for the benefit of an audience who knew nothing about them either.
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2014 at 12:32 pm
…and JC – the thing that makes that photo of hard-nosed Webb and stoic Morgan is the photo on the wall behind them, of LBJ looking into the middle distance
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 19, 2014 at 1:12 pm
I’m struggling with “informative cover piece on Taylor Swift.” Perhaps it’s my age.
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MichaelG said on November 19, 2014 at 1:16 pm
Loved that clip, Nance. The fans were not impressed by the large, spoiled rich children. Shows how dumb a basketball player can be that they kept wanting to go back out on the floor. The fans were not in a charitable mood and would have eaten them alive.
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Jolene said on November 19, 2014 at 1:21 pm
Here’s what the NYT thinks is a Thanksgiving food characteristic of each state. Indiana’s is Persimmon Pudding, Basset. You seemed to suggest that this was a downscale delicacy, but it has made its way to the big time. The recipe for lefse, the entry for North Dakota, came from a woman who went to high school with my mother. A (very distant) brush with fame.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/18/dining/thanksgiving-recipes-across-the-united-states.html?ref=dining&_r=0
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2014 at 1:26 pm
Jeff – I only intended to skim it, but it pulled me in, and was indeed quite informative.
That artist really and truly has it going on; and her story is more than a little compelling.
Granted, she was born on third base – but she really is a homerun hitter
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Deborah said on November 19, 2014 at 1:57 pm
Off topic, but this is a complete mystery to me. From our bedroom window from the 27th floor I can look down and to the north onto Oak Street Beach and nearly every morning since I’ve been back in Chicago there are 2 to 4 people standing in the lake about hip deep. Mind you, it’s really cold in Chicago now. I can’t find our binoculars to get a better look, but they seem to just stand there, they occasionally stoop over. I have no idea what they’re doing, some kind of fishing I suspect but it has me baffled. I have never seen that before even in good weather. Does anyone have any idea what they could be doing? They don’t appear to be fly fishing because I never see them cast off, just stoop over every once in a while, but mostly they just stand there???
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Connie said on November 19, 2014 at 1:58 pm
Baked German potato salad for Michigan? Not in any part of Michigan I have ever lived in. Had way more of that in Indiana than I ever did/have in Michigan.
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Connie said on November 19, 2014 at 2:05 pm
There is some really strange stuff in that Thanksgiving foods article. I think they are making it up.
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Jolene said on November 19, 2014 at 2:10 pm
I agree, Connie. Or, at least they are stretching a bit for some of those entries, though the ND lefse is definitely a thing. My German-heritage sister-in-law won the hearts of my Scandinavian relatives by learning to make it after she married my brother.
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Peter said on November 19, 2014 at 2:33 pm
Dragnet is one of my guilty pleasures…I’m convinced that Jack Webb and the gang were acting that way on purpose – man, there’s some bad acting on that show. I still cry at the end of their Christmas show when the little Mexican boy brings back the statue of Jesus in his “new” wagon.
And while I’m being confessional, I still cry at that Andy Griffith episode when the old man wanted to get arrested so he can spend Christmas with the gang in jail.
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Charlotte said on November 19, 2014 at 2:54 pm
One of my writer friends asked for some foodie clips to pass along to Sam Sifton about a month ago — of course, I only realized later that the 2 Thanksgiving posts from my old blog I’d sent him were about how I hate Thanksgiving food. But if they were reaching out to people like me, who is not a native Montanan, than no wonder they got such goofy recipes.
The Minnesotans are not amused: http://mspmag.com/Blogs/Dara/November-2014/GrapeGate-Thanksgiving-A-Modest-Proposal/#.VGzdua8aMw4.twitter
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2014 at 2:55 pm
The scene from the old cheesey Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer on the Island of Misfit Toys, when they’re about to give up and go to bed on Christmas Eve –
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Deborah said on November 19, 2014 at 3:22 pm
The only thanksgiving food that I’m really crazy about is cornbread stuffing. It is not something I grew up knowing about, my mother made gloppy white bread stuffing probably from a box. I make a pretty good sweet potato dish that’s whipped with sour cream and topped with pecans, no marshmallows in sight. Again, I came to that recipe later in life.
I’m roasting a chicken right now, with lemons, onions and herbs de provence with (cheap) white wine spooned over it. It smells so good I can hardly wait to eat. Mashed potatoes and french green beans will go with it.
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Dorothy said on November 19, 2014 at 3:23 pm
I’m struggling with Alex’s statement about the “memorable performance because it was so bad” on Dragnet. Weren’t they ALL bad performances, thereby rendering none of them particularly memorable?!
Brian last night I started reading the TIME with Taylor Swift on the cover while I”m backstage at play rehearsal. I know what you mean. I’m not a fan of her music but you can’t deny the girl sure seems to know what she’s doing.
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Dave said on November 19, 2014 at 3:53 pm
You have to wonder how Jack Webb did it and so successfully, too.
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Dorothy – and it made me laugh out loud twice, too!
One other digression, related to Jeff’s reference in the last thread to the 151st anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The “breaking news” on this 21st century day is that our current president from Illinois is going to speak to the nation tomorrow and announce the ‘executive actions’ he’s going to take, with regard to the ongoing immigration mess in the southwest.
It made me wonder, once again, about (an admittedly silly) argument that I once had, and which might be worth a sidelong comment or two at Thanksgiving, if (or rather, WHEN!) all this comes up at Thanksgiving gatherings across the country next week.
The silly argument was about which party can really call itself “the party of Lincoln” in 2014. Clearly, the 2014 Republican Party has a lot more in common with the American (Know-Nothing)/19th century Southern Democratic (secessionist) party, while the current president and his Democratic party would dovetail very nicely with the 19th century Republican Party, which was big on Internal Improvements, Union, and accommodation. And when it comes to a national crisis (such as at our border), our current president is inclined to ACT rather than sit and dither and do nothing – and for this he (and Lincoln) get labeled “dictator” and usurper by the inert opposition.
When President Lincoln spoke of “our fathers” who “brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal”” – he didn’t add “and really, they were ALL illegal immigrants – especially those Germans and the Irish”
And indeed, our current day press would go wild if it came out that President Obama, when he makes his Executive Action speech tomorrow, is suffering from Ebola – as opposed to the 1863 press that ignored (and/or didn’t know) that President Lincoln had a fairly bad case of Small Pox at Gettysburg (he joked on the train trip to Pennsylvania that he finally had something he could give to everybody!…which could be an impeachable remark in 2014, if our current chief executive said that)
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Jeff Borden said on November 19, 2014 at 4:16 pm
Since the proprietoress spent so many fine years in the Hoosier State and counts many Indiana residents among her followers, I cannot help but ask for reaction to the statement made by Gov. Pence yesterday that slashing the food stamps program will “ennoble” the poor by pushing them harder to find work. A story I saw recently noted that some 2 million Midwesterners are looking for jobs while only about 1 million jobs are available, so it’s not like these food stamp recipients are turning down job offers left and right, but this righteous asshole feels not an iota of guilt for such callous remarks. I’d like to see Pence live for awhile on food stamps. . .a good, long while.
I’ve said this before, but I honestly think one of the worst things that has happened to our country is the abandonment of our empathy for others less fortunate. My God, when did we become such mean-spirited, nasty muthafuckahs?
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Sue said on November 19, 2014 at 4:32 pm
Huh. Suddenly I want to watch “The D.I.”:
TSgt Moore: Private Owens! Was the sand flea you killed male or female?
Pvt. Owens: Male, sir!
TSgt Moore: Then this ain’t it. Keep looking.
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alex said on November 19, 2014 at 5:16 pm
My reaction to Mike Pence? Same as always. Cynical schmuck who can dog whistle at registers unheard by most sentient beings that really resonate with the most unfeeling ones. His shit shocks people from other states but around here the press is his lapdog.
He’s got the GOP thing down to an art as good as anyone. He plays to peoples’ sense of moral superiority by pretending that the have-nots are morally defective. It’s kind of like the reign of terror that teachers used to have over little kids in kindergarten. Everyone takes perverse comfort in watching the whipping boy getting whupped because it’s someone else and not them.
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Jolene said on November 19, 2014 at 5:18 pm
Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a piece about the recent accusations about Bill Cosby and his own regret about not having pursued this issue when he wrote about Cosby’s emergence as a sort of preacher on personal responsibility in the black community.
http://m.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/11/the-cosby-show/382891/
Must be pretty weird to be Mrs. Cosby right now. Maybe it has been all along. But they have just launched a big exhibit at the Smithsonian showing art they have collected over many years. They had been doing a series of interviews about the exhibit, one of which I saw on the PBS NewsHour. She was lovely–very animated and knowledgeable.
http://africa.si.edu/50years/gala/
But, since Scott Simon confronted them about these accusations on NPR, there have been no more interviews. Very sad for her to have this moment of displaying the fruits of a lifetime of investing in beauty and the power of the imagination spoiled by her husband’s apparent lifetime of taking advantage of young women. And that’s to say nothing of the effect on the women.
I feel sad about this myself, not so much because I saw him as the swell dad of The Cosby Show–of course, I saw it, but that was a low TV-watching era for me–but because I have admired him as a comedian ever since I listened to his early albums in high school.
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Joe K said on November 19, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Deb a at #12,
Could they be runners icing there legs, when im training for a marathon, after a hard 15-20 mile run, I’ll fill the bathtub with ice a water and ice for 10-15 minutes, contracts the blood vessels in the legs, and other places, and forces out the bad blood, and helps with soreness, sounds strange but it works.
Pilot&runnner
Joe
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Basset said on November 19, 2014 at 6:10 pm
Persimmon pudding may well be an upscale dish, and I feel gratified and validated that The Times has acknowledged its existence, but my experience with it was entirely rural and blue-collar. Not to say it hasn’t been consumed at other levels of society, I just haven’t been there to see it.
I’m probably the only one here who remembers Harry Morgan in “Pete & Gladys,” a short-lived series that I believe was in black & white.
Just got in from the annual deer-season trip to northern Michigan, weather miserable, no deer. Joe, we would have called you on the way through & gone for a tenderloin but we passed through under some time pressure and at odd hours.
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Jolene said on November 19, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Obama to speak about his executive order on immigration tomorrow evening. Am not sure about exactly what he will say, but he’s expected to announce plans that will shield several million people from deportation and allow them to work legally. Will be interesting to see what happens next. What are you all thinking about this idea?
Some comments about public opinion on the issue: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/11/19/democrats-face-major-challenges-in-selling-executive-action/
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Deborah said on November 19, 2014 at 6:20 pm
I support Obama’s executive action on immigration. He gave congress plenty of time to act and they were too scared to do so. It’s about time something positive happened.
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Deborah said on November 19, 2014 at 6:26 pm
Joe K, interesting, but it seems that they stand there for longer than 15 to 20 minutes though I have to admit I haven’t timed them. They also seem overdressed for runners, but it’s far enough away that I can’t really tell. I assume they have hip waders on or something, maybe they have nets and are scooping up fish? I have no idea? Because the lake may actually be warmer than the air, this early in the season, there may be something surfacing that I know nothing about. I’ve tried googling this but have found nothing.
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Jeff Borden said on November 19, 2014 at 6:36 pm
They may be fishermen wearing waders, Deborah. I’ve seen them out at the end of jetties and piers in subzero weather before when the lake isn’t iced over. Maybe some of the heartier souls prefer standing in it??
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Suzanne said on November 19, 2014 at 8:22 pm
I worked with a number of low income people at a job a few years ago and it was eye opening. There were a few lazy sorts among them (what group doesn’t have them?) but for the most part, they were hard working, decent people who had been given nearly nothing to start with, making it very difficult to dig themselves out of the hole they began life in. It’s all well and good for Mr. Pence to believe he’s going to incentivize them to work, but is he going to give incentives to businesses for hiring them? Because I can guarantee you, businesses won’t.
We routinely held mock interviews and many of them could not make eye contact and had no decent clothes to wear to an interview. Because of their environment, many of them have no clue how the business world works and their lives are complex. They don’t have cars and have to ride the bus, which doesn’t run often enough to get them where they need to go on time or maybe not at all. Their budgets are so razor thin they can’t afford even the least little glitch or the whole thing falls apart.
I don’t have any answers to make it work, but I don’t for a minute believe that telling people their lazy will help anyone. There are more people than jobs available. It’s that simple.
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Dave said on November 19, 2014 at 8:25 pm
Yes, and Harry was the next door neighbor, I think, in another show, December Bride, starring Spring Bynington, who, it seems like, was in a lot of early TV shows.
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Dave said on November 19, 2014 at 8:29 pm
BTW, I think Glen Larson was one of the many people that James Garner may have punched in the nose, as recounted in his autobiography. He said that Larson was stealing Rockford plots and using them, thinly disguised, in other shows.
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Connie said on November 19, 2014 at 9:45 pm
Netflix will debut a new 10-episode season of Longmire in 2015.
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MichaelG said on November 19, 2014 at 10:07 pm
To end the local election story, a winner has finally been declared in the race for California’s Seventh Congressional District in Sacramento. At an estimated cost of $13.1 million dollars, this has been called the most expensive 2014 congressional race in the country. Ami Bera, the one term Democratic incumbent beat back his Republican challenger by a razor thin margin after two weeks of painstaking counting. It must be noted that the Republican candidate is a former member of congress who is (for these times) a moderate. For example, his TV ads noted that he was pro-choice.
I live in the Sixth District. The Democratic incumbent, Doris Matsui, cudgeled her Republican challenger by 72 points.
The Republicans are going to be all over Obama for his “amnesty” but, in any world of reality, how the fuck are you going to deport over 5 million people? It’s time to get real about the whole immigration business.
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alex said on November 19, 2014 at 10:23 pm
Ronald Reagan was the Mother of Amnesty. Take that you stupid xenophobic teabagger fuckmooks and blow it out your new one.
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Jolene said on November 19, 2014 at 10:36 pm
And it is exactly what happened with the Simpson-Mazzoli Act under Reagan that today’s conservatives use as an argument as to why we need a fence nine feet high along the border, i.e., those who were here got amnesty, but illegal immigration did not stop. I’m not sure anything can stop illegal immigration, but the one thing that might help is making it much, much harder to hire undocumented workers. If people can’t get work, there will be no reason–or at least more limited reasons–to come.
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Sherri said on November 20, 2014 at 1:59 am
But Republicans want to hire undocumented workers. It’s so much easier to exploit undocumented workers.
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Deborah said on November 20, 2014 at 6:42 am
Woo hoo about Longmire! I wonder if it will still be shot in New Mexico?
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Julie Robinson said on November 20, 2014 at 9:12 am
Exactly, Sherri! The hypocrisy is incredible.
I did a small amount of research on my Irish great-grandparents and couldn’t find them in the Ellis Island records. Then I was told they went through Canada or New Orleans, which meant they were much more likely to be undocumented. By teabagger logic, I guess I should be deported.
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brian stouder said on November 20, 2014 at 9:27 am
Well, I think I’ll buy the book, when someone writes Mike Nichols’ biography.
What caught my eye was that he was born in 1931 in Berlin(!)…there’s a story right there
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/20/showbiz/obit-mike-nichols/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
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Connie said on November 20, 2014 at 10:06 am
Brian that story was told on Morning Edition. He was about 7, and only knew two phrases in English. One of them was “please don’t kiss me.”
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beb said on November 20, 2014 at 10:07 am
Deborah @12: It’s possible they are out collecting water samples to measure for bacteria.
Brian Stouder @22: The Party of Lincoln. Let’s see: Lincoln opposed secession; the Republican party is full of secessionists. Lincoln was for government for the people by the people and of the people; The Republican party believes the Koch Brothers should rule the country. Also Voter suppression. Finally, Lincoln freed the slaves; Republicans want to lock them up (because Blacks are “inherently” criminals). I think it’s a slam-dunk: Republicans are not the party of Lincoln.
Jeff Borden @23 writes: “I’ve said this before, but I honestly think one of the worst things that has happened to our country is the abandonment of our empathy for others less fortunate. My God, when did we become such mean-spirited, nasty muthafuckahs?”
Actually, my thought is, when were we not a nation of mean-spirited mothers? It’s all well and good to say people should not for hand-outs *cough*farmers*cough* but without jobs — without well-paying jobs — it’s hard to pull yourself up by the bootstraps to shoes you don’t have.
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brian stouder said on November 20, 2014 at 10:12 am
Beb – well said!
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Julie Robinson said on November 20, 2014 at 10:21 am
Perhaps Republicans should be known as the party formerly known as the party of Lincoln.
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Jolene said on November 20, 2014 at 11:10 am
Before the 188os, there really were no laws regarding immigration, which means that a whole lot of Americans have ancestors who came simply because they wanted to come.
Wikipedia has a brief history of US immigration laws. I’m sure there are many other sources online.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_laws_concerning_immigration_and_naturalization_in_the_United_States
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Deborah said on November 20, 2014 at 11:24 am
There’s an interesting article in Slate about opening a Whole Foods in Detroit http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2014/11/whole_foods_detroit_can_a_grocery_store_really_fight_elitism_racism_and.html
So I found the binoculars, still hard to see the people standing in the lake. They appear to be wearing red hoodies with something in white on the front and the back. Really from a distance they almost look like Santa Claus. They are carrying a rod about 4 ft long with something shiny and circular on the end of it, and a smallish bucket or something hanging from their sides. I can’t tell if the rod thing is a net or scoop of some kind. It could be a metal detector? But they aren’t using it the way I’ve seen guys using those things on land? Anyway it’s odd.
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Little Bird said on November 20, 2014 at 11:40 am
Could the folks in the water be part of the clean up crew for this?
http://m.chicago.curbed.com/archives/2014/11/06/dozens-of-zombies-are-floating-around-lake-michigan.php
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Charlotte said on November 20, 2014 at 11:59 am
Jolene — that’s how my mother’s side of the family arrived — the rich one came down from Canada via Milwaukee, and the Irish came over via the Erie Canal and eventually followed the railroad, bought a railroad section out in Leland west of Chicago. No one was particularly documented. My grandmother, didn’t know until she was in her early 20s that the family caretaking the farm in Leland (1st thing purchased, last thing left) were her Irish cousins. Her grandmother had married into the French Canadians, who had a foundry and were quite well off, and promptly denied her Irishness. Sadly, both she and her husband died on the Lusitania, and Mary Mackin Plamondon washed back up on the shores of Ireland where she’d been born. But they were all undocumented, brought family over after themselves.
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brian stouder said on November 20, 2014 at 12:21 pm
Little Bird – THAT got me laughing!
What an odd little story, eh?
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Deborah said on November 20, 2014 at 12:51 pm
Mystery solved! I just took a walk up the lakeshore and they are indeed guys troweling for treasure with metal detectors. A woman with a heavy accent, walking her dog confirmed that’s what they were doing. She said “they must be finding monies, otherwise they wouldn’t does it”. True. I had been avoiding walking along the lake because of the cold and wind but even though it’s only 25, it’s sunny and the wind isn’t horrible. I’m sitting on a bench in Lincoln park and my fingers are freezing so I’m quitting now.
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Deborah said on November 20, 2014 at 1:49 pm
Trawling not troweling.
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MichaelG said on November 20, 2014 at 1:51 pm
Here’s an interesting, if scanty, article for you, Brian:
http://jalopnik.com/how-formula-one-actually-works-a-guide-for-confused-am-1661109693
It’s long on name calling and short on details.
Yesterday, the county voting people declared the Democrat the winner in the Seventh Congressional District. Today the Republican conceded, sparing us all a long ugly recount drama.
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brian stouder said on November 20, 2014 at 2:26 pm
MichaelG – that was the best article I’ve read about F1 for a very long time…or maybe ever!
It’s as if Cooze watched F1 for a year, and then summed up the experience.
an excerpt:
I love Formula One. I love that its ownership is utterly nonsensical and that pretty much everything it does defies logic and convention. I love that it is still bossed by an octogenarian dwarf who tinkers with it like an especially skanky model railway. Formula One – the concept of spending inordinate, deeply offensive amounts of money on crazy fast cars – is inherently the most ridiculous sport on the planet and it naturally attracts people whose ridiculousness defies even the skills of the greatest Hollywood scriptwriters, and as such it absolutely deserves – no, make that needs the most obviously fucked-up, opaque, dodgy, mercenary, undemocratic bunch of rules and leaders imaginable. This is North Korea with 750hp.
Remember: if Bill Gates ran a brothel, it would be a shit brothel. We don’t need nice – nice doesn’t win. Ethics and motorsport don’t matter to each other; don’t exist to each other.
Amen
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Sherri said on November 20, 2014 at 2:31 pm
So, I took a trip to California for a few days, and on my flight from Seattle to San Jose, the guy getting off the plane in front of me had a t-shirt with the following on the back:
GET THIS STRAIGHT! I DON’T CARE about the color of your skin, your gender, your politics, OR YOUR RELIGION…If you support raising taxes, violating rights, bypassing the constitution, or disarming people: I WILL RESIST YOU. Obedience is not patriotism. Patriotism is love of your country, NOT YOUR GOVERNMENT. DON’T TREAD ON ME.
At least I knew he wasn’t carrying, since we were on a plane. I wonder if he considered that a bypassing of the constitution, a violating of his rights, or disarming that required resistance? I wonder if the flight attendant who told him that she liked his t-shirt as we left the plane thought that his right to bear arms should not be infringed on the plane?
I don’t know about his copy of the constitution, but my copy of the constitution gives Congress the power to raise taxes, so isn’t resisting taxes bypassing the Constitution? What is a country without a government? Do they think the constitution was given to Moses from God on stone tables along with the Ten Commandments, to be preserved for thousands of years just waiting for America to be settled? What rights do you have without a government to protect them?
When I hear people like this use the word constitution, I feel like Inigo Montoyo: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
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brian stouder said on November 20, 2014 at 2:47 pm
Sherri – indeed! And as Jolene and others reminded us, upthread, the Holy Founding Fathers and their Unerring Original Intent never had anything at all to say about immigration!…or if they did – it was “Come on down! Plenty of room!”
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alex said on November 20, 2014 at 2:58 pm
Well, Deborah, if those guys ever get down to Belmont Harbor…
I used to have a ginormous keychain back in the ’80s. I’d hook it to my left hip. It was a gay thing. I had bazillions of keys on it, some I was never able to replace, including one for a Kryptonite bicycle lock (I just gave up and abandoned the bike), storage lockers, vehicles, homes. It was heavy. It had a stretchy lanyard on it and I used to spin that sucker on my finger just for the hell of it. You can figure out the rest of the story I’m sure.
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Deborah said on November 20, 2014 at 4:29 pm
Good story Alex, especially the way you told it.
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Dexter said on November 20, 2014 at 5:25 pm
Went down to see my VA man today…had to, as my private retirement medical plan was shredded and riddled for next year…first thing? The retired Marine gunnery sergeant tells me my paper work , which is all I ever had, was not proof I was ever in Vietnam. Twice on the paper it indicates Vietnam service, but this guy says hundreds of guys fake it…so where’s my medal he says? WTF? This is why I have not been to a VA office in over 40 years! Well…he calmed down a bit, it was like he was trying to get me to storm out, but I kept arguing with him and told him I was insulted…so at the end of this first visit he hands me a folder of paperwork to fill out and tells me he is going to change my life. I left there happy I didn’t start calling him every thing in the book…and now I have to go back to see him tomorrow…anyway, this could work out for the best unless my records were totally burned up in the VA fire in St. Louis in 1973…then? We’ll see.
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MichaelG said on November 20, 2014 at 5:56 pm
Dexter, I’m also in the process of trying to claim some benefits from the VA. My daughter filed the paperwork while I was sick last spring. A month or two ago I got a letter from them requesting proof that I had served in Vietnam. My first thought was “You don’t have a record of that? Two trips?”. Anyway, next thing, they sent me an appointment date for a consultation with a nurse practitioner. This was a couple of weeks ago. She seemed to have no trouble believing that I had served in RVN and raised no questions about proof. Now I have an appointment tomorrow for some kind of pulmonary test and another one on Monday to test my ears/hearing for tinnitus.
The nurse said that lung cancer was common among people who had been exposed to Agent Orange and I was exposed to the stuff in spades. I also brought along my little flash drive that Kaiser gave me with my medical records on it. She appreciated that and said that it would save a lot of time since she wouldn’t have to arm wrestle Kaiser for a copy.
So good luck to both of us, Brother. Keep us posted.
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Dexter said on November 20, 2014 at 8:20 pm
MichaelG…got my hearing test scheduled already…retro-payment for Agent Orange damages to me was promised, as well as a monthly payment for the rest of my life…so yes I am glad I went today. Wow, that Marine was really testing my mettle, but he did calm down after a while. He started out real badly with me…really glad I let him do his little routine. He kept hollering BULL shit! What a character…sheesh…. Best wishes to you and your recovery and pathway back to complete remission and permanent health.
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