How Great I Art

About the best thing a blogger can hope for is getting mentioned (and linked to) by people he respects.

Thanks, Crooks & Liars - and special thanks to Tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors

A Small Dose Of Large Reality

Stay together. 

Work Together. 

Get shit done.

Just One Question

On the near-total, and at least borderline dangerous silliness of our GOP-Branded (and ConservaDem) "leaders" who're constantly flogging the Fear-Bishop, may I just ask, "Please, can you let us be a little less stoopid on this whole immigration/terrorism thing?"

I really do understand that an awful lot of Federal Spending is going into the pockets of an awful lot of "Security" contractors, who then turn around and graciously donate big piles of  campaign dollars to your SuperPACs (purely out of the generosity of their souls and their deep abiding sense of patriotism and civic duty, of course) and completely unrelated to the fact that you're pimping the paranoia every fucking day - but c'mon, guys, maybe leadership is about not treating us like we're all stoopid so we can have a better chance to stop acting like were all stoopid. 

Best Guess Last Year

Americans dead because of "terrorism":         30

Americans dead because of "accident": 110,000+ (top 5 preventable causes)

If we actually have people in Congress who really are concerned with spending tax dollars appropriately, and wisely, and with the intention of doing the most with the least, we'd have somebody standing up to tell us to stop losing our shit every time some faithless chickenshit asshole (hiding behind a mask because his 'god' is so great, and his cause is so just, and he's so fucking courageous) - every time that asshole threatens to kill us all with his big scary knife - from 6200 miles away; with a fucking knife.

They preach this phony Gospel of National Security and then pass the collection plate, and it works every time. We all hafta stop doin' that.

Today's Rejection

From the fine folks at Urban Dictionary, on my submission of the word "genitopenia":

Thanks for your definition of genitopenia!
A few volunteer editors read your definition and decided to not publish it. Don't take it personally!
To understand what definitions we publish and reject, check out this blog post: http://blog.urbandictionary.com/post/49469679426
Try rewriting your definition so that it's easier for others to understand, then try again.
Thanks,
Urban Dictionary
-----
genitopenia: (jen' - it - o - pee' - nia)
a deficiency or diminishment of the genitalia; primarily found in the male of the subspecies American Ammosexual.
Usage: "he needs bigger and bigger guns in his attempts to compensate for his advancing genitopenia".

I got vision in a world of myopia.  Guess that makes me too clever for words(?)

Who'da Thunk It?

I really hope there's absolutely nobody in Washington who's surprised by this shit:

Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, highlighting how little control U.S. intelligence officers and military planners have over the groups they have financed and trained in the bitter 5-year-old civil war.

The fighting has intensified over the past two months, as CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones have repeatedly shot at each other as they have maneuvered through contested territory on the northern outskirts of Aleppo, U.S. officials and rebel leaders have confirmed.

In mid-February, a CIA-armed militia called Fursan al Haq, or Knights of Righteousness, was run out of the town of Marea, about 20 miles north of Aleppo, by Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces moving in from Kurdish-controlled areas to the east.

"Any faction that attacks us, regardless from where it gets its support, we will fight it," said Maj. Fares Bayoush, a leader of Fursan al Haq.

This is straight outa some fucked up movie.  And it's the work of an awful lotta people who really do (mostly) know what they're doing.  

Now try to imagine just how bad it gets with Trump or Cruz in the White House, running from one disaster to the next. Thanks anyway, guys.

Today's Observation

...comes from our latest dead celebrity, Garry Shandling.

At about 37:30, talking about what needs to happen to get "things" squared around and working in our favor again:

(The USA) ... "it's an addictive culture bottoming out."


Marc Maron's WTF podcast:

Remembering Garry Shandling: tackling the most complex philosophical question of our day - "What The Fuck"?

Gonna miss Garry Shandling. A lot.

Go, Bernie

Hawaii, Washington and Alaska.  A Bernie sweep.

You could make something of a point - "well, after all, it's the Left Coast, y'know".  Except for that Alaska thing.  Seems there may be a bit of a fly in that sugar bowl.

Alaska isn't exactly a hotbed of Hippie Liberals - even on the Dem side of things (I suspect).  State-wide, they generally elect people from out on the right end of the spectrum, and there's no compelling reason for me to believe there isn't something of a 'Conserva-Dem slant' to Alaska Democrats as well.  Which (to me) should mean that a Neo-Liberal like Hillary ought to have done pretty well, or at least she shoulda done OK.  She didn't - not well, and not OK.  She didn't land one lousy trick all day; and you can point to some Grand Strategy of having to concentrate your efforts and bypass certain states or areas or whatever, but you'd best not be ignoring the simple fact that she got her Butt. Stomped. Straight-up.

Just averaging the percentages of the votes in those 3 states shows Hillary lost 75-25. If you get beat by a 3:1 margin by anybody anywhere at anything, you might have more than a bit of trouble.  And in "your own party"?  

But then, what's up with the apportioning of the delegates? I don't pretend to know how it all works, or how it's supposed to work. And a political party gets to do things the way they wanna do things. But maybe somebody needs to take a long look at the party rules that say a candidate can "win" 40% of the delegates by getting 25% of the votes(?)

You guys are The Democrats.  You know - like democracy and shit?  A bit more of that first part and a lot less of the second, if you please.

Weaving Tweets

Call it a Disney Moment.
If you can't get with that one, just check out now cuz you've lost what it is to be human https://t.co/kL67JGFU1R

— Mike Roberts (@eVilleMike) March 27, 2016

...meanwhile, back in Duloc, things are going pretty much as expected for Lord Farquaad. https://t.co/Sq0oZIoH1w

— Mike Roberts (@eVilleMike) March 27, 2016

Your Easter Card

Throw-Back Easter

With my favorite big brother rockin' those Mom-made Easter shirts - 1959.

And the sisters - Christie and Leslie.  Again with the Mom Couture.