Hope Is Contagious And I Feel It Coming On

From this week's email interchange. California/Texas, Contento/KCD:

Bro,

How's your weekend going? Ready for Sunday?
Ready for Springsteen fighting the Man? Heh.
More importantly, are you ready for Monday?
And the next seven months sans futbal?

Always thinking about you and your needs.
Never a care for myself.

xoxo

-- Me
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Hey,

You sound drunk and frisky; come see me.

Yes, I do descend in to a blue funk this time o’ year.
The bell-jar has me in its sights.

How was your Evening With La LaBelle?

Looks like I may be under contract, selling the house.
I’m thinking southwestern Florida. You in? How about
a road-trip this summer on your break to poke around?
Home prices are good down that way and there’s lots of
foreclosures awaiting Obama-dollars.
I too await my check.
Did I tell you my back has been bothering me?
(Read: disability check.) I’m going to get terminated,
see how much free shit I can get and write
a book about it called Parasite!
Will you edit?

I love you, too.

Damn straight I'll edit. And index. Might add a chapter or two while we're at it.
Scam or be scammed. That's my ethic. Heh.
What did KCD say when I sent that pic of me at Turtle Bay in my hammock? Oh yeah:

"Classic; you in a hammock while freeloading."

KCD know me too very well. And yeah, despite my low-brow beginnings, I have attained classic-hood. You betcha.
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PS1 Because I stole a word: TOMCC
PS2 Picture Credit: JMAX of The North Shore
PS3 Not to change the subject but the opening of Death Wish takes place not far from where that hammock swings. Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kersey at Turtle Bay. I'm just saying.
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Taylor's Six-Pack

WWOW

What would Obama wear?
TAG Heuer or Jorg Gray?

It's a watch that leftie President Obama was given as a gift by his Secret Service agents on his 46th birthday on August 4, 2007. It is from the Secret Service employees' store at the Secret Service HQ in DC, and bears the Secret Service shield on the dial. Like his TAG Heuer it is another sports watch, with similar action-man appeal.

Kids today won't wear watches. They look at their cell phones for the time. All of 'em. Me? Like the grifter Clinton when he was president (though now he wears a Panerai -- poor boys gotta show off when they scam it big later) and the congenitally well-mannered President Bush before me, I'm a Timex (thanks, JMax) guy. When I'm not adorning my action-man wrist with an Omega (thanks JMax). Or taking the Bulova third way (thanks, JMax).
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PS Contento's favorite website:
The Art of Time
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Shabbat Shalom

Hey, It's Chinese New Year

That means we get to bring back Rosie Ching Chong O'Donnell.

3000 Words

Super Bowl Sunday Helper

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Thanks, Rational Black Man.
And hey, the day this was posted the recipe was for hot wings, buff-like-me wings, wing lover's delight. The available Kraft culinary offerings appear to renew themselves daily. Sweet.

Rangel Rule

More quick change we can all believe in.

All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.

Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.

“We must show the American people that Congress is following the same law, and the same legal process as we expect them to follow,” says Carter. “That has not been done in the ongoing case against Chairman Rangel, nor in the instance of our new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. If we don’t hold our highest elected officials to the same standards as regular working folks, we owe it to our constituents to change those standards so everyone is abiding by the same law. Americans believe in blind justice, which shows no favoritism to the wealthy or powerful.”

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Pic swiped from the Buffalo Bean

Club Gitmo

Rodney Lee Conover over at Big Hollywood pitches a sitcom: Akmed's Heroes; then adds a few more thoughts.

But I digress… Back to Guantanamo – I hear you get to read the Koran, eat three squares and what – pray five times a day? I got bad news for the idiots who think the enemy are being treated poorly at Gitmo: Put these guys in Rikers Island and the only thing they’ll be praying for is to be back in Cuba. Give these fanatics a choice between San Quentin and Abu Ghraib and they’ll form a naked pyramid faster than you can say; “Thank-you Slave-mistress Lynndie, may I have another?”
Put them in American prisons, my friends, and as Ross Perot used to say; “Problem solved.”

Vacation Brochure here.
Purchase Official Club Gitmo gear here.

Here's Some Macho Sauce For Ya

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Thanks Big Hollywood

It's Starting

Musical Interlude

Prayers Of Gratitude

Ben Stein goes to see Defiance. Then he prays. Then he reviews:

To put it mildly, the movie was mind-bogglingly depressing and upsetting. The suffering, misery, and terror of these people, my blood, was almost beyond belief.
But the movie served a purpose. As I left the theater, I knelt on the pavement of the parking lot to thank God for letting me be in 2009 America instead of 1941 Byelorussia.

Me? I believe Stein did kneel in the parking lot to pray. Why not?

Read the whole thing here.

Defiance previously mentioned here.
Denby Refresher: "The movie is a kind of realistic fairy tale set in a forest newly enchanted by the sanctified work of staying alive."

North Slope

Governor Mrs. Todd Palin fires up her Political Action Committee, SarahPAC.
Hey, I'm just saying.

Amen to the color design of her SarahPAC website. None of that pretty in pink like the TeamSarah site. And amen to her stance on energy independence. More gas for essentials: snow machines and road trips.

This Just In From Bookass

News from the literary world: John Updike Dies
In his memory Bookass and Contento offer this as stolen and updated from Updike in his old piece On Not Being A Dove from an old issue of Commentary:

Sure I would enjoy being released from the responsibility of having an opinion on Guantanamo, on the War on Terror, on involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and, yeah, Iran, and indeed, I would be glad to be freed of all the duties of living in a powerful modern state—while continuing to accept, of course, the benefits. But I cannot pretend to believe, though it would be convenient to do so, and such belief would align me with all'o'my progressive and tolerant and oh so caring friends, that our unilateral withdrawal from the struggle against Islamic barbarity would serve the national interest or the cause of peace. But it wouldn't and I won't.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Updike
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And thanks, Bookass

Can You Spell Loser?

USA Today reports

Ungrateful passengers who touched down in the Hudson River instead of burning alive in a crash-induced inferno claim they appreciate the $5,000 they've been offered by US Airways — but some say it just ain't enough.
Joe Hart, a salespussy from Charlotte who suffered a bloody nose and bruises, says he "would like to be made whole for the incident."
It's too soon after the accident to determine what emotional distress he has suffered, he says.

Oh, boo hoo hoo, Joe. We feel your distress. Take the $5K and buy a testicle. Go back to your job, work hard and save your money. Then buy a second testicle. That makes a full set and might confer the wholeness you seek.
You're obviously unfamiliar with the concept of sac, so in the spirit of service, here's a pic of what to look for. Now man up._____________________________________________________
Thanks USA Today for allowing me to translate your reportage.
Update from Mike Gallagher Friday, January 30th
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Musical Interlude

This one's the new Mishka.
It ain't out yet. Or on YouTube, not in any good way anyway.
Be released in a few weeks. Release Party at the Roxy. C U There.
But you can hear it now, on, yeah, M. McConaughey's web site.
I'd hide the scissors or the cat and grab the Bose and crank it up.
Don't smack me for listening to this today. New days new sounds, hey.
And the J is for Just and the K is for Keep and the Livin is for Livin.

No Title

No text. No link.

Elsewhere In The World Of Sport

Abbott captures US men's figure skating crown
3 hours ago
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AFP) — Jeremy Abbott continued his
breakthrough season by winning the men's title at the
US Figure Skating Championships.




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Even more rink update at
Unregistered News
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Okay, One More And I'll Stop

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Thanks, Chas Charles
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Musical Interlude

What the heck, my all time favorite Aretha song:


45 rpm version here

ReRe

Mr. Song Millinery

No, Mr. Song will not sell you Aretha's hat. But you can get the next best thing here at his Detroit shop.

The hat worn by the Queen of Soul was hand-molded and would cost upward of $500 -- if it were for sale, the 36-year-old designer said. Customers instead were offered a satin ribbon version for $179.

At $179 that hat'd be a bargain at twice the price, that's what I say. Above quote from Puffington Host. Find it yourself.
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Thanks, Scott
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Post Sportsmanship Sport

Oprah Summons The Doprahs

Wednesday’s post-inaugural edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show, taped at a Washington restaurant, overflowed with strange and messianic notions about Obama and how the thrill over him is unanimous. Actor Forest Whitaker summed it up for Oprah: "The light of the New Age is here." Oprah pal Gayle King passed along her agreement with a message that "Not only does he hear us. He feels us. That when I hear Barack Obama, they said, he talks to my soul." Whitaker also strangely claimed "we’re not used to seeing" a president and a First Lady who love each other, but the Obamas have signaled "it’s okay to love."

Don't get me started. These celebutards are kookier than ever imagined. Why are they allowed to vote? Adulatory creepiness should be a franchise disqualifier. See? You got me started.

Incest Is Still Best

But Abortion Is Gooder Too
In other words, many of the birth defects cited by British politicians as grounds for restricting cousin marriages may actually be the result not of cousin marriage, but of failure to screen and abort defective fetuses. So....we now have a second logical target for genetic regulation: If inbreeding is too dangerous, what about "inflicting" maladies on your children by failing to screen the embryos? If you know you carry bad genes—and particularly if you're at higher risk of passing down a serious disease than most sibling couples would be—shouldn't we police your procreation just as carefully?

My Dinner With Micheal

“We know where unchallenged, unthinking adoration of a charismatic leader usually leads. And yet I find myself drawn to do so nevertheless — my heart sings Obama, while my brain whispers caution.”

From Big Hollywood

Shabbat Shalom

Tie Me Off, I'm Ready To Nod

Barack Smack Seized

Cops: New York dealers sold heroin named for current cult idol of junkies: Obama.
Add good heroin to the scores of progressive products that have been branded with President Barack Hussein Obama's name -- the most commercial presidential name in history.

Club Gitmo Ricidivism

Said Ali al-Shihri (pictured below), prior island paradise internment inmate is now again -- guess what -- a terror leader.

A FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee has emerged as the deputy leader of al-Qa'ida's Yemeni branch, highlighting the problems associated with closing the detention centre within a year.

Reports yesterday said the militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, was suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the US embassy in Yemen's capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with al-Qa'ida in Yemen.

His status was announced in an internet statement by the militant group and was confirmed to The New York Times by an American counter-intelligence official.

"They're one and the same guy," the official told the paper.

Read the whole thing in The Australian.
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Update 01/24/09: Two ex-Guantanamo inmates appear in Al-Qaeda video
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two men released from the US "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have appeared in a video posted on a jihadist website, the SITE monitoring service reported.

Historical Interlude

Other important events in American history:

Just 52 years ago,
on January 23rd, 1957 the
Wham-O company began
manufacturing aerodynamic
plastic discs, now known as
Frisbees.

War Criminal Continuity

Killer Obama missiles fired from a suspected Great Satan aerial drone killed seven Homo sapiens today on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, a lawless region -- unless you consider شريعة to be a form of law -- where sniveling al-Qaida butchers are known to bunker in their hidey-holes, officials said.

The strike was the first on Pakistani territory since the immaculation of President Barrack Obama and his Continuity You Can Believe In administration assumed the joysticks of unlimited power.

Despite the fact that hope is for chumps, Pakistani leaders had expressed hope Obama would halt the attacks, more than 30 of which have been launched in the past few months, reportedly killing several (well, that's a start) senior blood-thirsty adherents of the religion of peace.

While such strikes were evidence of war crimes only days ago when BushHitler was President no word yet on whether these strikes are currently acceptable to Code Pink, Cusack-Penn and Cindy Sheehan, patriots all, since Kenyan-American Obama is now Commander-In-Chief .

Though the (air quotes) pro-U.S. (closed-air-quotes) "government" of Pakistan routinely protests such strikes as trampling their sovereignty, everyone knows Islamabad actually welcomes more deaths among its own haplessly stupid sheeple.