Insert Appropriate Who Lyric Here

Noam Chomsky: Obama's Attack on Civil Liberties Has Gone Way Beyond Imagination

Chomsky nutshells Obama perfectly:

"What it is is the same kind of commitment to expanding executive power that Cheney and Rumsfeld had. He kind of puts it in mellifluous terms and there's a little difference in his tone. It's not as crude and brutal as they were, but it's pretty hard to see much of a difference."

The right wing votes those who make them feel superior, the left votes those who make them feel good. Neither are in power to help; just to perpetuate more power. Unless and until we have a third alternative, a party that leaves us ALONE, we're doomed.

Definitions Matter

According to Merriam-Webster:

Hero • he-ro, noun. 

plural: he-roes

1 a. mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability

   b. an illustrious warrior

   c. man admired for his achievements and noble qualities

   d. one who shows great courage

2. a. the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work

    b. the central figure in an event, period, or movement

3. a. an object of extreme admiration and devotion: idol 

* * * 

Dear Mainstream Media:

Quit overusing the word. Just because something happens to people, and they survive, does not make them heroes. Just because a person happens to walk into his back yard and discovers something completely by accident, does not make him a hero. In fact, it's insulting to those who truly ARE.

Thanks,

Moi

Cone of Silence, Please

Eye on the TV
'cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor
It happens to be like.
Killed by the husband
Drowned by the ocean
Shot by his own son
She used the poison in his tea
And kissed him goodbye
That's my kind of story.
It's no fun 'til someone dies.

Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie
While the mother
Holds her child
Watches him die
Hands to the sky crying
Why, oh why?
'cause I need to watch things die
From a distance.

Hard Week's Month

Or something along those lines. I have no excuses. I've been busy, work piled up like dominoes, dog and family duties, and now Maddie in surgery for a series of tendons she busted running hell bent for leather after a coyote a couple weeks back. The surgeon guaranteed us an outcome that will have her back to her lil' ol' pistol self.

But not after 8–10 weeks of recuperation. In a crate.

Yes.

Shoot me now.

And Louie is certainly not going to be happy.

"Until the day I can once again play Doggie Smack Down with my sister and double team the squirrels with our ferocity, I will lie here in protest and refuse to move. But make sure I still get my snacks, okay?"

Typical Maddie. Always wants Louie's toys, sneaks in to get them, then walks away once she does. He don't care. He just wants her to looooooooooovvvvve him!

Thought of the Day

Haiku Monday: Forgetfulness

Mem’ries buried deep,

conjured suddenly. My name?

Grandma can’t recall.

* * * 

Miz Boxer is hosting this week, since she won last week's hot and heavy competition. Check it out. Don't forget now, you hear?

Happy to Work on Maggie's Farm

If, as Paul Simon asserts, every generation throws a hero up the pop charts, what does that say about our generation?

For the first time in several years I watched the Grammy Awards from beginning to end, and the next morning bitched to S.B. about the alarming lack of passionate, middle-finger-to-the-establishment protest music emanating from today's youthful musicians.

Apparently, Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine pondered the exact same thing, concluding in this piece that for the first time in popular music history, our youth—and youthful musicians—are embracing the status quo, rather than rebelling against it.

I don't hear any outrage emanating from the airwaves, that's for sure. No "California Über Alles" for the 21st Century, no NWA, no Clash, no Guns 'n' Roses, no Rage Against the Machine. Hell, we don't even have a Bob Dylan. About ten years ago, Ministry put out a brilliantly raging, anti-George Bush diatribe masquerading as speed metal. But ever since Obama came into office, crickets have done nothing but chirp. Instead, all I hear are over-inflated Pot Tarts screeching different versions of the same old love-gone-wrong laments and belly button lint contemplating guitar slung crooners reveling in the kind of post-teen ennui that involves a lot of pot and mom and dad's basement. For rock music we have, what, Coldplay? Train?

Sure, there has always been pop music, the kind of no-brainer stuff that's simply meant to be catchy. I'm fine with that. I own a lot of ABBA and I think Kelly Clarkson is the bomb. But they are not rock and roll. Rock and roll, by its very nature, is supposed to flip off the establishment, not suck at its teat.

Am I wrong?

1. Yes, you are wrong. Obama has ushered in the Grand Age of Shiny Happy, and because everyone is going to be taken care of, there is no reason to be angry.

2. No, you're not. Obama has ushered in the Age of Dependence, and our youth, instead of seeing authority as something to rebel against, sees it as a means by which they get to pay the rent without getting off the sofa.

3. I have no idea. All I wanna do is dance.