Mike Smith: 1943 - 2008
Lead Singer of the Dave Clark 5...
Thursday, February 28, 2008
so where's the snow... ??
Old & dear friend Holly emailed this view from her home in Santa Cruz (Gawd, but I love California!), i.e., a coupla days ago -- this as we were having a snowstorm on this end of the continent at the time.
another one bites the dust...
William F. Buckley: 1925 - 2008Have to acknowledge this cat as I actually enjoyed listening to him talk. Rather than say things like, "Well, that's confusing," or "I find that bewildering," he'd say something more like, "I must confess to a certain mystification."
Was just listening to a soundbite on the radio on the way home: Michael Medved, dipstick extraordinaire, said of Buckley that he personified the concept of "intellectual" and "conservative" as not being a contradiction in terms. Well mebbe so, but Medved and his lot are doing their damnedest to put the lie to that.
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Update: Back in '88, Buckley was given a good pasting by none other than Al Gore; this being at a Democratic primary debate, Buckley was the moderator. The question had to do with Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a.k.a., SDI, a.k.a., Star Wars. Buckley saw fit to challenge Gore w/a follow-up question. Gore was on his game, however, and after a few back-&-forths, Buckley said, "We have to move on," to which Gore retorted, "I don't blame you!" That was when I realized Gore had something to bring to the table.
Come to think of it, even Mike Dukakis had a good debate that night. Go figure!
aaaand we're back...
... with a great line by Carlin:
I do feel that when you're born into the world, you're given a ticket to the freak show, and when you're born in the United States, you're given a front-row seat.
2nded!
Oh! Another line... considered here as choice:
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Update: The boy got zapt and the E.K.G. reads "normal sinus rythm." Thought some of you might be glad to know.
Oh! Another line... considered here as choice:
Well, in 1992 I had that piece called "The Planet Is Fine, the People Are Fucked" arguing that the creation of humans may have been nature's way of finding out how to make plastic.Is why I love this guy!
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Update: The boy got zapt and the E.K.G. reads "normal sinus rythm." Thought some of you might be glad to know.
Friday, February 22, 2008
fade to black...
we leave you now...
incommunicado for an extended period... facing a deadline for some copywriting, which will take up our waking hours thru next week... fairly exciting as we haven't been this sort of pressed since college...
monday, meanwhile, we're to undergo a procedure called cardioversion...
it comes with it no guarantees...
we'll be back on the air... tomorrow...
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
gee... ! it's g.e. bringing "good things" to light again..
I'm trying to plug in to Olberman's vids from tonight's show. This is what I get:
And then Dubya and Dick and the Department of "Justice" will have you by the short-hairs. The business of surveillance has only begun, and one ought know that even if an Obama were to become president, the Oligarchy simply could not allow him to dismantle that which they've so painstakingly constructed. Consequently, then, the safest among us will be forever on the move and without various electronics dangling from our ears or off the limbs. But then we'd also be the nobodies with no ability to communicate with others -- have an influence on our own direction; an influence, maybe, on civilization's.
Just getting plugged in.
So what one must do is allow General Electronic -- a fairly entrenched multi-national conglomerate, who owns MSNBC, and who, by the way, is getting obscenely and filthily wealthier by the nano second off the fighting and dying in the Middle East -- plug into your laptop, maybe drop an interactive virus that will record your every keystroke, maybe concoct a few itself, send the report to Room Such & Such at AT&T in San Francisco (for a fee of course), who in turn forks over your interpreted proclivities to this government entity, ensconced somewhere between Baltimore & Washington city, believing itself as having to do with the nation's security. Oh wait! That'd be national security, which, we all have come to glumly realize, has nothing to do with our nation's security.
Sorry, my bad!
Which is all well and good, my friends, that is if you cannot handle having your freedoms.
But, just an example: What if you like to look at Erotica?
Guys!?
$40 Billion dollars worth of Erotica -- okay, Porn! -- gets consumed in the U.S. every year, conservatively speaking. And if you -- Guys!? -- step outta line, say, a little too too... ??
So many ways to fuck you over. Small wonder we're already the most incarcerated nation in the world today. But, y'know, no problem! You're a nobody -- not even on the radar.
But what if you're a gifted orator running for a high office? Hm?
You remember that Hoover kept Kennedy in line, yes? Kept his affairs out of the press. Strong-arming those in the know with a mind to share, all because J.Edgar & Jack were, like, tight, right?
Is how J.Edgar kept his job, you see, for as long as he could and all the while with Bobby hating his intestines.
And in the meantime, he somehow got a whole building named after his cross-dressing self.
Now that's Pornography!
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Update: Ah! Access to Olberman! -- via Safari, though not Firefox.
To watch video in the new MSNBC.com player, you will need to update your version of the Adobe Flash Player.Then it provides instructions on how to quickly install the device.
And then Dubya and Dick and the Department of "Justice" will have you by the short-hairs. The business of surveillance has only begun, and one ought know that even if an Obama were to become president, the Oligarchy simply could not allow him to dismantle that which they've so painstakingly constructed. Consequently, then, the safest among us will be forever on the move and without various electronics dangling from our ears or off the limbs. But then we'd also be the nobodies with no ability to communicate with others -- have an influence on our own direction; an influence, maybe, on civilization's.
Just getting plugged in.
So what one must do is allow General Electronic -- a fairly entrenched multi-national conglomerate, who owns MSNBC, and who, by the way, is getting obscenely and filthily wealthier by the nano second off the fighting and dying in the Middle East -- plug into your laptop, maybe drop an interactive virus that will record your every keystroke, maybe concoct a few itself, send the report to Room Such & Such at AT&T in San Francisco (for a fee of course), who in turn forks over your interpreted proclivities to this government entity, ensconced somewhere between Baltimore & Washington city, believing itself as having to do with the nation's security. Oh wait! That'd be national security, which, we all have come to glumly realize, has nothing to do with our nation's security.
Sorry, my bad!
Which is all well and good, my friends, that is if you cannot handle having your freedoms.
But, just an example: What if you like to look at Erotica?
Guys!?
$40 Billion dollars worth of Erotica -- okay, Porn! -- gets consumed in the U.S. every year, conservatively speaking. And if you -- Guys!? -- step outta line, say, a little too too... ??
So many ways to fuck you over. Small wonder we're already the most incarcerated nation in the world today. But, y'know, no problem! You're a nobody -- not even on the radar.
But what if you're a gifted orator running for a high office? Hm?
You remember that Hoover kept Kennedy in line, yes? Kept his affairs out of the press. Strong-arming those in the know with a mind to share, all because J.Edgar & Jack were, like, tight, right?
Is how J.Edgar kept his job, you see, for as long as he could and all the while with Bobby hating his intestines.
And in the meantime, he somehow got a whole building named after his cross-dressing self.
Now that's Pornography!
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Update: Ah! Access to Olberman! -- via Safari, though not Firefox.
Monday, February 18, 2008
"a question... !"
Dana Perino, Dubya's bottle-blonde press B.S.er bot, asks A Question:"Do you trust the intelligence community more than you trust Democrats who are beholden to their left-wing?"Speaking as a so-called left-wing blogger (who, in reality, is actually conservatively progressive and/or progressively conservative):
"Fuck No!"
And whyyyyy don't I trust the intelligence community more than Democrats beholden to the left-wing?? Well, I figure Dubya puts it best hisself:
"[F]ool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again."
Sunday, February 17, 2008
mccartney pays out $100M in hush money...
We talking blackmail or really bad pre-nup? Either way, Heather Mills is *cough* the new Britney, which means, of course, network news will have yet another reason not to cover the Iraq occupation.
why it pays to blog (i.e., even when yer not getting paid)...
An update to a story on which I blogged, figuring it to be metaphoric of Dubya's world:The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse, the subject of an animal-abuse investigation, that provided meat to school lunch programs.
All of which begs the question of how bad the situation had to be to get Bush's cronies to actually do the right thing.
dan hatfield v. curt mccoy...
It wouldn't be spring if Shaughnessy didn't trash Schilling, or Schilling, Shaughnessy...
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Update: Okay! Spring training...
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Update: Okay! Spring training...
the beatles sang "stairway to heaven"... ??
Uhm, noooo... But it's quite possible you've confused acid rock w/dropping acid.
(h/t to Ken Levine)...
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
another one bites the dust...
Curious entity, even from this TM devotee's perspective.
(I was so gonna post this sooner but I was in a trance.)
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
grand state of maine...
Ah, well! Having belched out my latest conspiracy theory in the previous post, I am most pleased to link to:A huge victory for Obama in Maine. Final results still to come, but it's a landslide."Welcome to Hillary's lost weekend!
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Update: Maine's turnout is described as "incredible." Could it be the excitation of making history with these choices for nominee? Or could it also be what we'd get more readily if we moved elections from Tuesday to Sunday nationwide?
Anyways:
The state's Democrats overlooked the snowy weather and turned out in heavy numbers for municipal gatherings.It was snowing here in Western Mass today. It was blustery and bitter. Almost invariably, meanwhile, the snowfalls in Maine are heavier and more insufferable. So as I've already had to deal with my heaviest winter in years, while staying for a few weeks in Brunswick, that is after my stay in the hospital, I must say I've grown to appreciate what it means to be a Maineiac this time of year. They are a stout-hearted lot with big ol' rubber boots!!
Makes this expatriate Maineiac mighty proud! Ayuh!
no longer the age of reason...
Axiomatic? A black American president will, not might be, assassinated. Or so it would seem to be widely believed. For example:
Given the antipathy she engenders, are we talking some kind of insurance policy?
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Update: Answering that last question: Uhh, No! Those most likely to take out a black president and who could get at him would likely be the same who are frightened of any reversal of corporate welfare policies and its accompanying obscene profits (It's not personal, it's just business.), and not the unhinged, though assuredly very lone white supremist everybody'd figure to be in the equation.
And we all know the corporate demons just lovvvvve Hillary.
P.S., Of course, all this doesn't mean an Exxon or a Haliburton wouldn't hire one of, say, Blackwater's grandest dragons, likely for Christ, who just happens to be handy with an M40. That'd be them hedging their bet.
Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing believes Barack Obama would be assassinated if he were elected U.S. president, the British writer said in a newspaper interview.It stands to reason inasmuch Bush's America is a sick, obsessive and violent culture. And as Lessing suggests, Obama, as a presumptive nominee, scares a lot of the darker demons out on the prowl. Later in the piece, she suggests he should in any event have Hillary as his #2.
Given the antipathy she engenders, are we talking some kind of insurance policy?
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Update: Answering that last question: Uhh, No! Those most likely to take out a black president and who could get at him would likely be the same who are frightened of any reversal of corporate welfare policies and its accompanying obscene profits (It's not personal, it's just business.), and not the unhinged, though assuredly very lone white supremist everybody'd figure to be in the equation.
And we all know the corporate demons just lovvvvve Hillary.
P.S., Of course, all this doesn't mean an Exxon or a Haliburton wouldn't hire one of, say, Blackwater's grandest dragons, likely for Christ, who just happens to be handy with an M40. That'd be them hedging their bet.
Friday, February 08, 2008
pachelbel rant
Happened upon this purely by accident. The guy's pretty funny, and he sets a new standard for me: the most obscure stand-up comic you can still find in Wikipedia.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
mitt quits...
Romney's excuse for getting tired of hemorhaging money:
Oh wait! He's a Republican.
"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."Tedious asshole to the end, eh, Mitt?
Oh wait! He's a Republican.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
uhm...
I'm convinced deja vu is the experience following the dream of the experience. Of course, the dream would have to be prescient and/or precognitive, n'est-ce pas... ?
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Update: Some people got it. Some don't.
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Update: Some people got it. Some don't.
Monday, February 04, 2008
that's entertainment...
Received an email from the HAMster this afternoon; rare reader hereabouts he, but wanting desperately to feel my pain over the imperfection that was yesterday's Superbowl blowhole.
Here it is: Oh Well!
As I had been hitherto made pleased, but not deleriously so, by the Sox winning the Series last October, so am I not so wantonly devastated the Pats couldn't hold the line against a most ferocious Giants pass rush. I dunno, maybe 3 Superbowl titles and 2 World Series crowns in the last 6 years, not to mention 3 NBA flags in the 80s, which seem like yesterday to me (one of which I witnessed from the press box with locker room access), isn't enough for the next greedy fucker. But me? I think I've grown a little desensitized by the multiple orgasms.
So, like, Oh Well!
Look, kids, I'm pushing 50 and Lord knows I've had my share of ups & downs as a Boston sports fan. The game yesterday enabled me to invite a friend and his lady to my brother's house to see both the brothers and their kin; slap some hootin' & hollerin' 5s with 'em when Brady hooked up with Moss one last time in the endzone; wonder what in hell Belichick was doing channelling Marty Schottenheimer by going for a 4th & 13 instead of letting his kicker go for 3 on the 49 or by not throwing the challenge flag on an apparent fumble recovery that should've been ruled down-by-contact -- I mean WTF, Bill??; and fall out of our chairs when Manning got away from the Pats' rush and finally connected with Plaxico for the winner.
We drank a little, ate a lot, goofed on the commercials (by the by, the interrupting shirt stain was by far the funniest comm) and a halftime filled with Tom Petty. 'Course the Pats might be confused as the Heartbreakers by hungover New Englanders this day.
But as the man said: Oh Blasted Well!
Sports is entertainment. The game was highly entertaining. The boy got his money's worth. Had a good time. Lovin' the family! Life is short! Get along, li'l doagy!
18-1 is what it is, then. Still more wins in a season than hanybody ever before. My cup has been runneth over.
Congrats to the J'ints and their fans!
Pitchers & catchers later this month. But, uhm, maybe I'll be reading s'more books -- y'know?
P.S. to Hammie & Chaatoes: Sorry to take the wind outta yer sails, fellahs! No gnashing of teeth to be had here.
And HOW 'BOUT 'DEM REDSKINS!?
Here it is: Oh Well!
As I had been hitherto made pleased, but not deleriously so, by the Sox winning the Series last October, so am I not so wantonly devastated the Pats couldn't hold the line against a most ferocious Giants pass rush. I dunno, maybe 3 Superbowl titles and 2 World Series crowns in the last 6 years, not to mention 3 NBA flags in the 80s, which seem like yesterday to me (one of which I witnessed from the press box with locker room access), isn't enough for the next greedy fucker. But me? I think I've grown a little desensitized by the multiple orgasms.
So, like, Oh Well!
Look, kids, I'm pushing 50 and Lord knows I've had my share of ups & downs as a Boston sports fan. The game yesterday enabled me to invite a friend and his lady to my brother's house to see both the brothers and their kin; slap some hootin' & hollerin' 5s with 'em when Brady hooked up with Moss one last time in the endzone; wonder what in hell Belichick was doing channelling Marty Schottenheimer by going for a 4th & 13 instead of letting his kicker go for 3 on the 49 or by not throwing the challenge flag on an apparent fumble recovery that should've been ruled down-by-contact -- I mean WTF, Bill??; and fall out of our chairs when Manning got away from the Pats' rush and finally connected with Plaxico for the winner.
We drank a little, ate a lot, goofed on the commercials (by the by, the interrupting shirt stain was by far the funniest comm) and a halftime filled with Tom Petty. 'Course the Pats might be confused as the Heartbreakers by hungover New Englanders this day.
But as the man said: Oh Blasted Well!
Sports is entertainment. The game was highly entertaining. The boy got his money's worth. Had a good time. Lovin' the family! Life is short! Get along, li'l doagy!
18-1 is what it is, then. Still more wins in a season than hanybody ever before. My cup has been runneth over.
Congrats to the J'ints and their fans!
Pitchers & catchers later this month. But, uhm, maybe I'll be reading s'more books -- y'know?
P.S. to Hammie & Chaatoes: Sorry to take the wind outta yer sails, fellahs! No gnashing of teeth to be had here.
And HOW 'BOUT 'DEM REDSKINS!?
Sunday, February 03, 2008
the chi lites...
"Oh, Girl" w/Eugene Record as lead singer...
Anybody too young to have lived through the 70s may find the garb amusing, or the fact that back then we'd say (and rather conversely) it's outta sight! -- but the song and the melody are still all that.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
hanging curveballs for the holidays...
Huckabee: Enough with 'God Questions'But, Guv'nah, ain't this one of them "As ye sew, so shall ye reap" deals?
Ooo, sorry!
Friday, February 01, 2008
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