The Sound of the Crowd

Is anybody there?
Does anybody care?
Does anybody see what I see?

–Sherman Edwards, “Is Anybody There?” From 1776.

How the Left Lost Teen Spirit

“Gene Wilder summed up for me his mental image of [Mel] Brooks: ‘I see him standing bare-chested on top of a mountain, shouting ‘Look at me!’ and ‘Don’t let me die!’ These are the two things that rule his life.”

–Kenneth Tynan, Frolics and Detours of a Short Little Hebrew Man

In September of last year, I wrote this:

“It’s like Bush was a ten-year-old boy whose parents gave him a big stick, which he procceded to use to stir up a hornets nest. Yes, he’s the one who screwed things up–but what were they doing giving him such a big stick in the first place?”

So that’s who Bush is in schoolyard terms. The “parents” in this particular metaphor being the chickenshit, consience-deprived senators who voted for the war.

But now we know who Tony Blair is. He’s the kid who tries to egg others into a fight.

“He said, ‘your mother.’ Come on, you gonna take that?”

Okay, Elvis Costello. I’m not as much of a fan as a I might be, or as might be expected. Partly it’s to do with his voice, which I often find off-putting. But certainly I respect him for the best of his songwriting, particuarly his great skill with lyrics.

I also know that every once in a while, he goes dramatically off the rails in public. It’s been years since his last great flame out, when he got drunk with Bonnie Bramlett and others and started referring to Ray Charles and James Brown as “ignorant niggers.”

(When I say off the rails, I mean…)

He kept the inulgence of the world press and rock fans then by apologizing and claiming he was out of his head and just trying to say the most offensive thing possible. Good work.

Anyway, since then, all has been mostly quiet. Until…

It seems that Costello’s own fans walked out of a show recently. The singer/songwriter had arrived several hours late for one of his own concerts. With the very good excuse that he was watching the football. He then proceeded to shout abuse at the audience.

Courtney Love? When Elvis divorces Diana Krall, be ready…

Or for any other comic book fans of the past who may be in the audience. Kos has a post today about the EU Constitution and France’s vote in same. But that doesn’t matter.

They’ve included a graph dervived from the most recent polls on the subject; I want you to take a look at that graph…and tell me that’s not a picture of Ambush Bug.

“I’m convinced that Ambush Bug has a massive psychosis!”
“Darn right! None of my dates ever complain.”

“Someone once told George Lucas that there is no sound in airless space. He didn’t believe it. Today, George Lucas is a millionaire.”

-Ambush Bug, Giffen/Fleming

…it’s because my women characters Keitha and Annabel are currently taking up large segments of what I laughingly refer to as my gray matter. But I’m just seeing lots of blog items today that concern women.

Here Ms. Egalia, who has our deepest sympathies for having to live in a duck-humping, racist, rock-stupid, anti-sex hillbilly state, offers her thoughts about recent poll data showing a majority of support for Hillary Clinton for President:

We’ll also get the bonus of experiencing some very interesting private and public gender dramas. Many of these will be far easier on the American psyche with Hillary Clinton as the first female presidential candidate on a major party ticket. Remember when Geraldine Ferraro ran for Vice President and Americans got uncomfortable at the sight of her husband standing in the background?

The man has been there, done that. He has nothing to prove. Thus, the all-consuming national concern for the welfare of the fragile male ego will be largely appeased, or at least more so than if any other woman were to run.

This is the greatest thing I have ever seen, anywhere. A little site called Mens News Daily offers us an article on Sex, Security and PC Heresy.

At length, it’s basically about how women aren’t supposed to enjoy sex, so it should be okay for men to ravish and/or rape them, and secretly they want to be controlled and dominated anyway, and it’s because they aren’t getting this that some of them are so gosh-darned bitchy.

I am absolutely not making this up. Go see for yourself. And while you’re there, notice three other things:

1. The inevitable homophobic conclusion in which the author, with a unique connection to literacy, asserts his macho manhood while simultaneously making excuses for his wimp-dom:

In my own experiences, no less five lovers have confessed their desire to be taken and ravaged. Two of them wanted it at random; after work in her parking garage, the other suggested I break into her home and wait. On neither of these requests did I acquiesce. It sounded like a great way to get shot, beat up by some guy wanting to be a hero or (gasp) what if I got the wrong woman? Orange suits, cages and a ‘boyfriend’ named Bubba don’t appeal to me.

2. The bodybuilding ad on the side, featuring a fellow who looks surprisingly like Jeff Gannon.

3. The author’s self-identification as “businessman, father and self described ‘Libertarian bomb thrower.’ Sorry, Moya.
(more…)

Know anyone opposed to Stem Cell research? You might want to invite them to sign this pledge. It simply states that they never, under any circumstances, wish for themselves or any member of their family to be the benificiary of any:

“medical breakthroughs that are in any way associated with or connected to Stem Cell research. ”

As Bill Hicks used to say: Let’s see how comitted you are to this fucking premise.

Haven’t done this for a couple weeks…there’s a ton of good stuff at AmericaBlog this morning, especially little Ricky “man on dog” Santorum’s latest ethical difficulties, and Microsoft firing Ralph Reed.