Memorial Day

"While visiting the American cemetery in Normandy, a French gentleman and his friends came upon Amos, and when he realized that Amos was a WW2 veteran who fought in Normandy, the French gentleman gave Amos a letter. My brother Joe read the letter to us and as we all listened, we all cried. You can see the thankfulness in the French gentleman, as he holds Amos's hand and thanks him as he leaves. A truly enchanting moment." - 'almeidaal'

Still of a man outside a phone booth, from the Miami Vice (t.v. series) episode "Rock and a Hard Place."

This shot brillliantly establishes a captivating mood :  incommunicado, ensconced in shadow and pale neon.  Representative of a series which became synonymous with a decade, a cinematic and visual tour de force from the height of the 20th Century.

'Floor'

'Floor' created by South Korean artist Do Ho-suh at the Hong Kong International Art Fair, Friday.  From the Christian Science Monitor, Kin Cheung/AP

Quote of the day

"All chaps are assless. If you have chaps with an ass, you have pants."

- Unk.

American writer tells final tale from the afterlife

Many of us experienced the greatness of Mark Twain through exposure in the familiar staples of lit. class; through Huck Finn and Jim's adventures on the Mississippi, through the perils of Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher. Mark Twain was a master of wit, hyperbole, and of the practical - an American archetype. He was good enough for us then, and oddly - he's proving it anew.

Revealed today (see article below), Twain left an autobiography behind with instructions not to set free for an entire century, which has been safeguarded in a university's vault in California. What a curiosity. Why the special instructions? What will the writings speak of? What themes? Predictions? Genius, crazy, or ill-advised? The twist on the waiting game is irresistible. Perhaps Twain wanted to ensure some time front and center in our age. That's one writer's suggestion. I can buy it.

Thank goodness we didn't miss it in the daily Info Age firehosing. 

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/after-keeping-us-waiting-for-a-century-mark-twain-will-finally-reveal-all-1980695.html

Cagey's listening to

QOTD

"Success is in the attempt."

Jan Hammer debuting new material

Gary Busey, you're the best we've got

How many celebrities can you say are actually interesting?

My happy thought today:  Dude seems batshiate CRAZY, but that's why he's so awesome!  He's the friend everyone would secretly like to have, but won't.  Maybe. 

How we arrived here:  There was a story out of San Diego about a retired NASCAR driver who was chased by police at speeds of over 130 m.p.h., until his engine blew up, which incidentally sort of happened in an episode of Miami Vice.  Perp looked like Gary Busey.  I then commenced an exhaustive hunt for pics and stories of his escapades at the Oscars.  Run of the mill actors are boring.  Not Busey: He is often pictured in Hawaiian shirts.  (Sarcasm font needed here)  "OMG," you have no idea.  With your personality, you can either pull off the shirt or you can't.  Gary definitely can and does. 

Know him.  Love him.  He starred in some of the greatest movies of our age, including Lethal Weapon, Predator 2, Point Break, and Under Siege.  I ended up finding the definitive compliation of clips (see below, end) and a conclusion:  We all need a little more Busey in our lives.  I hope we see Gary Busey in many, many more movies and online clips.  I hope we all embrace the crazy a little more. 

He's unique in that he doesn't need to rely on a PR staff to create notoriety. The unorthodox Hunter Thompson approach he takes in his interviews are completely unpredictable and spontaneous; on the other extreme, you may see him in a video telling some interviewers that they need to set up the shot perfectly - several times - to a ridiculous extreme that prompts you to question whether he does this on purpose to show a kind of subtle(?) mastery over the situation.  Come to think of it,  I have never seen him lose the initiative.  He always seems to be in complete control, but leaving quite a bit of doubt with the videographers and others he encounters. 

In Predator 2 behind the scenes, starting with an what sounds like it's going to be an English 301 summary of 'reversal', he explains the reason he's wearing his tactical gear with quantum theory and preventing everyone from turning into fine pink mist.

I'm also a fan of his convenient use of acronyms, e.g. BIBLE: "Basic instructions before leaving Earth." SOBER: "Son of a b****, everything's real."  What a saga, what a character.  Spice of life. 

http://www.screenjunkies.com/general/13-craziest-gary-busey-moments

(Check the interview with the Swedes.) 

Gary Busey - the best celebrity!

You'll never know the vigil I keep

When you sleep
You never know the vigil I keep


Watch you sleep
You'll never know the vigil I keep

(With apologies to The Church)

"Cracker Tuners" by Cagey

Assignment 1 (easy):  Find a way to combine all ingredients provided to create delicious bachelor hors d' oeuvers.  This epiphany was realized by Cagey at 12:04 a.m., Sunday, May 16th.

Article: Credit card concierges - your new best friends?

A blogger tests the limits of a credit card company's "concierge" service, which purportedly will help you with:

• Restaurant recommendations and reservations
• Travel arrangements 
• Entertainment planning, including ticketing
• Business-related assistance such as conference and hospitality services
• And much more

Source: http://usa.visa.com/personal/visa-signature/concierge.jsp

"How to Make Visa Obey Your Every Desire: The Credit Card Concierge Experiment,"  by Tim Ferris.
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/05/01/credit-card-concierge/

Nice Dream

Nice Dream (Link)

I had a really great dream during a nap today.

Dreams so often blur the lines between sleep and reality.  That is, to say, they seem so real at the time.  They are real, as far as we know.

I've been thinking a bit lately about this man-hater, this slug named Kagan, who through no fault of her own, was awarded a spot as U.S. Solicitor General despite 31 senators voting negatively.  I know that positions awarded like this one tend to be political in nature, but what if someone truly objective (remember the blindfold on the lady justice came along?  Would both sides of the aisle come to an agreement in these modern United States?

Now, she's up for U.S. Supreme Court justice, which will be rammed through given the liberal balance of power in U.S. government, despite doubts on her morality; despite her lack of experience; despite her preposterous banning of military recruiting and ROTC at Harvard while working there.  A likely constitutional revisionist and relativist who can sit there and tinker around for a nice, loooooong time. 

I would refuse to go to Harvard, given the opportunity. Come to think of it, I'm glad we don't recruit there. The military has no room for those who lack humility and honor, the silver-spooned and vain.

In my nice dream, I had gone with my friend Rusty to a big Harvard gala.  Just as the festivities let out, we stole our way up scores of stairs to the roof of the student union, atop a large hill.  Then, turning around, the view of the town of Cambridge was quite breathtaking.  The stairs were made of white limestone, like you'd see outside the SCROTUS (Supreme Court).

And then, we urinated all over the streets of Harvard from our bird's eye view.  Not a trickle, but thousands of gallons flooding the area until you had something briefly resembling the waterways of Sicily. 

Cagey's listening to

Michael Savage explains the mental disorder of liberalism

Suck it, liberal reporters

N.J. governor Chris Christie makes a liberal iconoclast's head explode.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/05/chris_christies_rant_common_se.html

Quote of the day

NO, I do not want to ******* link my Google, YouTube, and Facebook accounts.  And no permanent opt-out?  Go suck eggs, Google!

"I don't like the idea of youtube consolidating with gmail. I also don't link youtube to facebook. I think the idea is nifty for some people, but I am not interested whatsoever. Please stop asking me. I also find it arrogant of youtube that there's no way to say "No, I do not want to link my accounts". Instead it says something like "No, I don't want to link my accounts right now (we'll remind you again later)". GoogleTube, who do you think you are?  Quit asking me to link my facebook, my gmail, my everything, to your video service. I may be wrong about the invasion of privacy, but the language you use 'We'll remind you again later' makes you seem like some totalitarian, some father figure, "we know what's best for your internet use."         - "mysterymanandy"

On the Greek financial crisis

Just dropping in to remind everyone that the U.S. financial crisis of 2009 and any ripple effects, to include Greece, are the result of modern liberalism from the Clinton years, and Reno the bank-slayer.  Care to disagree?  Please comment.

Life in slow-motion

Driving on the blvd. today, I thought I saw someone I knew.  Slow motion pass.  Deja vu?  The double-take I made and keeping Bessie in between the lines both demanded my attention.  So many moments we control, so many that are hard to.

Living space as art is dramatic, profound

Article:  Apartment with 24 rooms.  Very cool & innovative.  See article here: (Link) 



In the preceding video, we see the room itself as contemporary art.  I loved the pale yellow light filtering through the windows into a room that had wooden accents, very comforting, very uniquely suited to city living.

The following image appeals to me, especially because of its use of words as art.  Whether you view the language as an enhanced narrative, and read and focus on the written meaning of the scripts, or the grafitti reminds you of something else, like symbolism of journal writing and a sense of place, its modernist and minimalist representation are kept coherent, silent, and striking:

Solakov, Nedko. "Some Nice Things to Enjoy While You Are Making a Living," 2008.  From Kunstmuseum Basel.  Full Image: (Link)

This man considers the broken border a laughing matter

Article: "How modern liberals think"

"Nah, she deserves it." 

I really think I hit on something recently when I was playing on the meanings of "discrimination." Evan Sayet offers great insight into America's "progressive" blindfold, examining ideological phenomena in the west, like viewing 80-somethings in the security line as equally suspect as 27 year olds yelling "Allahu Akbar." ('Allah what?" "Oh nothing, I just sneezed.") Based on this kind of thinking that normalizes non-discrimination as a moral imperative, the United States is "bad" anytime it chooses to confront the causes of societal ills (e.g. teenage promiscuity), takes decisive action (Iraq), and so on, that fielding any view other than an aburdist one is WRONG! 

Moreover, we are willfully ignorant:

"After Times Square and South Park incidents, TV execs issue unwritten ban on any mention of Islam in comedies or dramas, with even the Daily Show's "senior Islamic correspondent" getting muzzled."
- Fark.com

Read on.

By Evan Sayet

     I call myself a 9/13 Republican. I grew up a liberal New York Jew; you don't get much more liberal than that--although it was lower-case "l," not what's considered Liberal today. I graduated from high school knowing only one thing about politics: that Democrats are good and Republicans are evil.

     I tell a story. It's not a true story, but it helps crys­tallize my thinking that brought me to become a conservative. I say: Imagine being in a restaurant with an old friend, and you're catching up, and suddenly he blurts out, "I hate my wife." You chuckle to yourself because he says it every time you're together, and you know he doesn't hate his wife; they've been together for 35 years. He loves his daughters, and they're just like her. No, he doesn't hate his wife.

     So you're having dinner, and you look out the window and spot his wife, and she's being beaten up right outside the restaurant. You grab your friend and say, "Come on, let's help her. Let's help your wife," and he says, "Nah, I'm sure she deserves it." At that moment, it dawns on you: He really does hate his wife.

     That's what 9/11 was to me. For years and years I'd hear my friends from the Left say how evil and horrible and racist and imperialistic and oppressive America is, and I'd chuckle to myself and think, "Oh, they always say that; they love America." Then on 9/11, we were beaten up, and when I grabbed them by the collar, and I said, "Come on, let's help her. Let's help America," and they said, "Nah, she deserves it."

     At that moment, I realized: They really do hate America. And that began me on what's now a five-plus-year quest to try to understand the mindset. How could you possibly live in the freest nation in the history of the world and see only oppression? How could you live in the least imperialist power in human history and see us as the ultimate in imperi­alism? How could you live in the least bigoted nation in human history and, as Joe Biden said, "see racism lurking in every dark shadow"?

~~~          ~~~          ~~~         ~~~
     So what you're left with is not really adults, but citizens of voting age who cannot judge their own positions but are virulently antagonistic to any posi­tion other than their own. Why? Because when you've been brought up to believe that indiscrimi­nateness is a moral imperative, any position other than their own must have been arrived at through the employment of discrimination. This is why Bush is Hitler; this is why Reagan is Hitler; this is why Giuliani is Hitler.

     How is Rudolph Giuliani like Hitler to a thinking person? In one way: Hitler discriminated against the Jews; Giuliani discriminated against the crack-addicted prostitutes mugging people in Times Square. Hitler discriminated against the Catholics; Giuliani discriminated against the criminal over­lords. Hitler discriminated against the gypsies; Giuliani discriminated against the terrorists on 9/11 and beyond. In other words, any form of discrimi­nation is wrong.

     The Modern Liberals know that theirs is a posi­tion arrived at through the moral imperative of indiscriminateness; therefore, any position other than their own must have been arrived at through the employment of discrimination. So this makes you not just wrong on your issues and your stances. They don't even think about your issues and your stances. They don't have to. Even if they were will­ing to, even if they were able to, they don't need to. Would you sit and contemplate Hitler's Social Secu­rity policy? No, you would fight Hitler.

From The Heritage Foundation, via Free Republic.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Regurgitating-the-Apple-How-Modern-Liberals-Think

We all need more Infidel in our lives

All the news I got in one hour today was enough to send me back to bed:

1. Students were forbidden to wear American flag t-shirts to their CA high school on Cinco de Mayo;
2. NYC wants to build a gleaming super-mosque within view of the World Trade Center site

The only good news (GREAT, FANTASTIC news) we got today was that the three SEALs were acquitted: http://michellemalkin.com/2010/05/06/last-of-navy-seal-3-acquitted/

All I had to keep me sane was the Liberalism rap, so from popular demand, here's the rest (verses 2/3):


"Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" by The Infidel

(Verse 2)

Tell a lie long enough the sheeple believe it

But you ain’t fooling me, you ain’t schooling me

Wit yo so’ called bleeding heart ain’t leaked a CC

Against the death penalty but killing the babies

Want their C-A-K-E and stuff their face wit it

Like Rosie O’Donnell big as a spaceship

Can’t shout me down like liberal students do conservatives

Toss a pie at me and catch an uppercut from this Wordsmith

That’s what I call exercising my free speech

But you want to silence me plus those who agree

Know this right now you ain’t controlling me

Even if your cameras are roaming the streets patrolling me

Where’s the ACLU when we need ‘em?

Oh yeah, they only help gays, atheists, race baiters and faith haters

And anyone else who tears the fabric of this country

Sold their souls while stealing ours for a bag full of money

[Chorus]

Far from reason, common sense and intellect

Proper mindset total lack of respect for vets

And Christ ain’t nice, totally out of order

Liberalism, the mental disorder

(Verse 3)

Another symptom of this fatal disease

Is their willingness to treat the enemy to a dish of appease

Too concerned about gay marriage and hugging some trees

Unaware that’s it’s tight on ‘em like neck T-I-E’s

100 degrees of separation from reality

We’ll burn off like calories due to their abnormalities

Leading to casualties of epic proportions

Just check the stats of the black baby abortions

10 million strong and dying spreading like wildfire

Genocide planned by Planned Parenthood preparing hoods

For destabilization compounded by welfare

Good intentions gone bad too late to repair

Stuck in despair but no longer as we take up arms

To rage against the machine that’s done us so much harm

But black democrats prefer the status quo

Now that James died, damn ain’t no soul left bro

Gotta get me some of those conservative x-ray glasses!  Love ya, Infidel!

Quote of the day

Sometimes I get an awful itch on my arms and legs after showering, which led me to a search of a skin condition called "aquagenic pruritis."  Then I found this irresistible quote:

"Hi, I'm 15 years old and i THINK that i have this 'disease'. Most of the time but not all of the time after i go for a swim my legs get unbelievably itchy, i cant stop scratching, if I'm starving and i got a big bucket of KFC in front of me, i wont eat it, ill be too busy scratching my legs. This condition is really starting to annoy me and my parents don't believe that my legs get really really itchy." - Unk.

Read more at Suite101: How to Get Rid of Aquagenic Pruritus: Tips on Treating the Water Induced Itch http://skindisease.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_get_rid_of_aquagenic_pruritus#ixzz0nB7yFlAn

Cagey on the issues: Profiling

Q:  Can someone explain to me how profiling came to be a negative idea??? The FBI has used profiling for years to catch criminals, profiling is all over the TV series' plotlines, and it actually works...and groups oppose its use???

A:  Because making choices based on experience or instinct is irrational, making choices is discrimination, discrimination is wrong, and therefore the inclination toward self-preservation is irrational?

The Church: American Tour 2010 set list

Linked videos:
PANGAEA
SPACE NEEDLE
REPTILE
IONIAN BLUES
UNGUARDED
APPALATIA
INVISIBLE
LOUISIANA
COME DOWN
MY LITTLE PROBLEM
MISTRESS
METROPOLIS
MILKY WAY
ALREADY YESTERDAY
10,000 MILES
FLY
ALMOST WITH YOU
TEAR IT ALL AWAY

Verdict: astounding on all fronts.  It was a retrospective from all their albums, starting with selections from most recent, going all the way back to their roots.  After pleading with no joy for "North South East West" in the encore, I didn't leave empty-handed.  I had great luck in snagging a set list from the stage, scanned in above!  All tickets came with a Deadman's Hand EP from the album "untitled #23" and elegant color programmes. 

Found this interesting bit of trivia on The Norva.  Apparently it's like The Ritz!  Who wouldn't want to play there, James Brown definitely liked the hot tub!  Someone at the show I met used to bartend there and said it was a "must-visit" for a lot of bands.  (Even though it's in ... Norfolk.)

Kind of serious toned until the intermission, but a bit of self-deprecating humor ingratiated The Church to the crowd, although most everyone knew that these legendary musicians didn't need to do so whatsoever. I lost my notes I scribbled, but Steven Kilbey asked why they weren't bigger in 1984, which prompted some innocent joshing at Corey Hart ("Sunglasses at Night"). Then they asked, "Why not '81?" and quipped about Kim Carnes.  There were some inevitable Men at Work jibes in there too. Kilbey finally asked why they didn't have better sales in '83, then Marty Wilson-Piper mocked out a Billy Squier ("Stroke Me, Stroke Me") homage - everyone loved it.  Kilbey also threw out some commentary that the '90s was a dangerous time to play, because they were caught between the new romantics movement and grunge.  He said they were some kind of hybrid or other hard to place movement -  " 'motes," a.k.a. darker than most, or something like that, and I think he also got a jibe in that all these "emo" kids nowadays are too effeminate and the 'motes would mop up the mat with them, to more cheers.  So many reasons to like them; like other pop icons from Australia, you know you're not dealing with a bunch of Nancy-boys or recycled pop-trash.  As an aside, connotations maybe only meaningful to me, I think about the austere landscapes of their homeland and The Road Warrior; they don't suffer from a lot of wuss attitudes down there.  This music is going to be real. Lots of impromptu glimpses into their personality that evening were especially memorable because that enigmatic and brilliant soul of theirs has attracted people like me for so long.

Colossal immigration catch 22s in post-modern America finally coming to light

What part of invasion do we not understand?  Madness being propagated by the MSM and democratic anti-Americans this week as Shamnesty II: National Suicide Boogaloo ramps up for a volley.

You really need to see this video if you can find it:  A group of a dozen or so illegals running through the actual vehicle checkpoint at the San Diego/Tijuana border, weaving their way around cars, suitcases and clothes in hand.  The brazenness in this instance was particularly appalling, entering in broad daylight, at an official security checkpoint.  It's nowhere near as bad as the miles of trash left behind in the desert, or anything like this anecdote suggests:

"Throughout the 1980's and early 90's the 14-mile stretch of border in San Diego was hostile, violent, and out of control," wrote Glynn Custred, an emeritus professor of anthropology at CSU East Bay. "Crowds would gather on the Tijuana side and pelt border-patrol agents with rocks ...almost daily thousands of Mexicans would gather on the U.S. side, then dash forward en masse in what were known as banzai runs."- Louis Freedberg
The deluge of immigration headlines in the past several days since Gov. Brewer (AZ) signed a new immigration enforcement bill makes the lines in the sand very visible separating people of reason, who believe in sovereignty and law, and the irrational crowd who trumps reason with the magic race card.  I can't buy the argument against sovereignty - all arguments should cease much earlier than getting to that point.  Some legal immigration is needed.  However, unchecked immigration levels are unsustainable, meaning this:  Look at America as a lifeboat.  You have room for 50 people, 50 more are in the drink.  What do you do?  Instead of availing themselves to logic or even listening, opponents make absurd claims that without the illegals, oranges will cost $500 a bushel.  Nonsense. The welfare state plays a large role in this, and our abundance of convenience, and our overflowing self-love all contribute to this idea.  When there is work to be had, people will work.  Competition for work is still a non sequitur, but the old ways of going to work in whatever was available do seem to be lost on us. 

It is passing strange for federal officials, including the president, to accuse Arizona of irresponsibility while the federal government is refusing to fulfill its responsibility to control the nation's borders. Such control is an essential attribute of national sovereignty. - George Will
 
"Ask any American of every ethnicity how often they are asked for picture ID. The answer is it happens on a daily basis- checking into hotels, using credit cards, at job interviews. We should be used to this by now. The only place we don’t have to be documented is at the voting booth. If voters had to prove their eligibility the Democrats would lose their base and their power. Once again the Democrats are displaying the Pavlovian response of injecting race into issues that should be looked at instead with common sense." - Alicia Colon

Enforcement: why not?  The impetus for the Arizona law stems from the federal government not protecting the border, while border states are left to absorb the billions of dollars in costs from those with no interest but self-interest. 

"As the rhetoric on illegal immigration continues to grow out of control, it’s more important than ever to share the facts on Arizona’s new law. The reality is that Arizona’s new law mirrors federal law, which the federal government is not enforcing. George Will put it in perspective; the federal government's refusal to control the border is what has caused this problem in the first place."
- Gov. Jan Brewer, Arizona
Encouragingly, several states are following suit even though the sewer pipe of misinformation flowing from the MSM posits that enforcing standing laws is not in America's best interest.

"You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see that the grand plan of the Democrats is to entrap illegal immigrants by giving them legal status and then enslave and destroy them with numerous Fedzilla handouts and programs."   - Ted Nugent

The president himself recently used the race card, rallying African-Americans, Latinos, and women to help elect Demoncats in the Congressional elections this year.  This is the same great uniter that denounces the Arizona law, and whose biggest accomplishment will be to upend every stone looking to legally circumvent Congress and ignore the will of the American people in health care reform efforts.

"OBAMA IS LIKE A DESTRUCTIVE CHILD WHO TAKES APART A WATCH AND THEN CAN’T PUT IT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN." - Michael Savage

The best news so far is that the Arizona law will influence illegals to depart Arizona, and states are building steam in crafting their own self-preservation doctrine, encouraged by the brave people of Arizona who weren't afraid to adopt common sense.  "Oklahoma, Ohio, Utah, Georgia, Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, Nebraska, and Missouri have all taken up measures similar to that of Arizona." (Ibid.) It is utterly clear that no state wanted to be first in doing this, otherwise we would have seen a lot more Prop 187s.  Additionally, a courageous new bill is working its way up the chain in Arizona, which seeks to deny public funding to schools teaching ethnic studies - "The new bill would make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or 'advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals'."  I have said often before that more than ever, this country suffers from a lack of national unity, promoting diversity at every turn - the Tower of Babel, a nation divided against itself. 

The current political environment is so blanched by the death of common sense in America, we find it easier to make millions of tiny, relatively anonymous pinpricks at our foundations than to make a concerted protest against the forces that threaten them.

For further reading:

1. http://californiawatch.org/watchblog/arizona-immigration-law-has-roots-california-border-turmoil - 80s border issues - Prop. 187
2. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/04/28/national/a150736D30.DTL - Brewer on so-called profiling concerns
3. http://www.helium.com/items/1819327-illegal-immigrants-plan-to-leave-arizona-over-new-immigration-law - Initial successful impacts of the Arizona bill
4. http://bigjournalism.com/aliciacolon/2010/04/29/from-one-hispanic-to-others-re-arizona-youre-being-had-by-the-media/#comments - A journalist calls out the democratic party's strategy to foment hatred of the US law among illegals
5. http://janbrewer.com/email/email.php?ID=51 - Arizona's new law mirrors federal law, which the gov't does not enforce
6. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2010/04/28/20100428will29.html - Veteran journalist George Will on the law
7. http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2008/10/03/the_death_of_common_sense_in_america - One attempt seeking to explain how we forgot where we came from
8. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/30/arizona-legislature-passes-banning-ethnic-studies-programs/ - Ethnic chauvinism and diversity indoc.