Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Whole Lotta Shakin'



Yesterday I was on the phone with the Lobbyist when the earthquake hit. Being an erstwhile Angelino, and otherwise experienced at such temblors, I knew what it was right away, if not necessarlly, what to do about it. The Lobbyist rang off quickly and evacuated her building. I watched my co-workers abandon ship and then looted the communal office supplies. After about 4 PM, the work-mood being broken, and my co-workers almost all departed, I headed out and boarded the subway, for two stops. My train had a malfunction of some sort which caused me and all my fellow passengers to be offloaded to a jammed platform, next to which the broken train sat, preventing any replacement. I decided to walk, since it was a beautiful afternoon and it was only a couple of miles.






The streets of downtown were gridlocked becaude many traffic signals were haywire. But every bar along Connecticut Avenue was jammed with happy evacuees, people who got outside and discovered it was beautiful and so decided to knock off early and/or wait out the bad traffic. My heart went out to the many poor-schmuck waitrons who arrived at the restaurants where they work expecting the sleepy 3-to-5 time when they could mix mixers, fold napkins, eat their own meals, and othewise gear up for actual business, only to be swamped by earthquake-related goldbricking.






Today I noticed that the Post had a big headline "Earthquake Jolts DC Area." Well, no shit Sherlock. This strikes me as the quintessence of modern journamalism; it's not really about news, per se, it's about confirming what everybody already "knows."







Friday, August 19, 2011

Mourning in America



Offertory

Every day they’ve that much more
Of cops, courts, corporations, Korps;
They thank their God of pure Armed Force

With freedom’s bruised, insemened corpse.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Sunday Meditations



At least in America, today's typical "Christian" believes fervently those aspects of dogma and scripture which are juvenile, cowardly, atavistic, self-excusing, and sentimental. On the other hand, with respect to the difficult lessons -- tolerance, brotherhood, self-abnegation, and honesty -- which Jesus supposedly imparted by precept, parable and example, the Christian finds Christ totally full of shit. Yet the careerist clergy does not point this out.






The atheist's beliefs are quite often logically and morally consistent, consistent with the empirical evidence of the world (save for the ethical leap of faith), and consistent with the atheist's behavior. The fundamentalist's beliefs are nonsensical, superstitious, and abrogate morality for the capricious preferences of the jealous and bigotted diety, and are blithely set aside for worldly gain or pleasure. Yet the atheist must respect the Bible-thumper's faith, and not vice versa. Jesus wept.

Monday, August 08, 2011

Expect GOP Retirements



It appears master strategist Nancy Pelosi only poses as a total fucking idiot. She has virtually ensured many retirements from most Christian-Right wing of Congress by tricking Boehner into abolishing the Congressional Page Program. I expect that some of the former Congressmen will go into the Catholic priesthood where they can continue to mentor young boys.

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Doing the Gipper Proud




Joe Walsh, congressional Tea Party Darling comes, off even at a glance, as a smug, vicious twit, narcissist to his superficial core. And it is the opposite of surprising that he turns out to be such a sanctimonous hypocrite, telling the world about goverment expenditure, "I won't place one more dollar of debt on the back of my kids....," while stiffing them for child support to the tune of $117, 347.



This kind of hypocrisy it is not incidental to the right-winger, it is essential. Today's Republicanism is the creed of the self-blind projectionist. Sanctimonious hypocrisy is its life force.

Monday, August 01, 2011

Jimmy Carter II



BO has all the political acumen of Jimmy Carter, with none of the commitment to principle.






It seems to me that he ought not be reelected, whatever the cost. If you do not exact a penalty for such behavior you are indeed condoning it.