A Waste of Time and Energy

Nobody has any ideas anymore?

The network has given a script commitment to a reboot of The Brady Bunch from executive producerVince Vaughn and CBS Television Studios, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. 

The multicamera comedy about the famed TV family would revolve around the youngest of Mike Brady's boys, Bobby Brady, as a divorced dad who remarries and starts a new family. 

Raising Hope's Mike Mariano will pen the project and executive produce alongside Lloyd Schwartz, son of the late Sherwood Schwartz, who created the original ABC sitcom that ran from 1969-74. Vaughn, Victoria Vaughn and Peter Billingsleywill also exec produce through the actor's Wild West Picture Show Productions shingle.

There are no ideas out there? Nobody has an innovative way of making people laugh? We're just going to reboot the 1970s and hope for the best?

This is What Happens When You Allow People to Steal Valor

You knew this was bound to happen:

New Jersey has sued two state residents, claiming they collected tens of thousands of dollars in donations for a bogus 9/11 charity. 

In the lawsuit filed Monday in Superior Court, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office claims 66-year-old Mark Niemczyk of Tinton Falls, N.J. and 40-year-old Thomas Scalgione of Manahawkin, N.J. used the money they raised for their own personal gain. It also alleges that the pair — who both have criminal records — failed to register the charity as required by state law. 

The two men have driven throughout the state in a pickup truck painted with the names of first responders who died in the terrorist attacks. Niemczyk claimed to be an ex-Navy SEAL while he solicited donations. 

When NBC 4 New York inadvertently stopped Niemczyk without recognizing him at his apartment complex in Tinton Falls Monday, Niemczyk spoke about himself in the third person. 

"Whatever money I know he collects goes out," he said.

The Stolen Valor law, recently knocked down by the Supreme Court, makes it a right to act like a jackass and claim to be someone who earned military honors. The problem I have with that is that it is all too often done to defraud people, not to pump up a weak resume.

There is definitely a free speech aspect here. Making up lies about yourself in order to impress others is protected free speech; to me it is fraud and should be handled as such.

I hope these clowns end up losing everything, especially their truck.

No Taxes For Ten Years?

Everyone who is blogging about this probably has the same thing to say, and I'm not going to throw fuel on the fire by simply saying my own version of "holy cow!"

This is an apocryphal story, and if it should prove to be true, it really does highlight the divide between rich and poor in this country. America is not a country that wants to hate the rich; far from it. It is a country where being rich is not treated the same way it is treated everywhere else; it is something to aspire to, especially through hard work and perseverance.

The problem with Mitt Romney is that he is running a terrible campaign and he is stonewalling on his tax returns. He is a terrible politician who is fast becoming the poster child for being out of touch, too rich, and indifferent to political realities.

Nobody wants to hate Romney; people want to like him, but he is too used to holding his nose and stiff-arming the little people. He is an order giver, not a politician. He has failed to find his true calling in life, and, for that, we are now suffering.

William Jacobson Doesn't Even Pretend to Not Be Racist Anymore

Of course, Obama related to first black slave on his, um, mother’s side

[snip]

Et tu, Ancestry.com? Why have you sold your integrity by “cobbling” together facts, making “deductions” and ultimately telling us that Obama is related to slave “John Punch” because the last name sounds like Obama’s mother’s ancestor “Bunch.” 

I’m just waiting for someone to link Obama’s first black slave ancestor to Elizabeth Warren’s Cherokee ancestor, you know, the one with the high cheekbones.

I love it when the smell of wingnut rises in the morning.

Here we have a "respectable" educator and a professor and a highly-popular conservative blogger, and all that's missing are his Klan robes and his copy of "The Bell Curve." And he'll have a "heh, indeed," from Instapundit before the day is through, no doubt.

The Infuriating Smugness of a Lame Tech Blogger

Wilson Rothman, get out of town.

I can't stand smug, knowing, insider-ish writing, especially from a tech blogger who thinks others are hanging on every new development.

If Microsoft is, indeed, getting rid of Hotmail, then that's a sore spot for me. I've had my Hotmail account since the summer of 1997 and it is the one thing that I have hung on to throughout my travels on the Internet and all that.

My Hotmail account is me, on the web, for all intents and purposes, and I am going to miss it if Microsoft kills it off.

This is not the way to notify customers of changes; this is why Microsoft is turning into a massive joke.

Illustration by W. T. Benda

This is an early Twentieth Century illustration by the artist W. T. Benda. It was commissioned by Willa Cather for inclusion, along with other images, with her story My Antonia.

Instead of blogging, I am up to my eyeballs in nostalgia and loss. Such is life.

Mitt Romney Should Have Stayed Home

No one has had a more disaster-prone trip overseas in recent memory than Mitt Romney's summer debacle. You'd have to go back to Richard Nixon's limousine being pelted with eggs and rocks in Latin America to find anything comparable. 

It has gotten tense within the Romney campaign:

When the pool and traveling reporters were told to return to their busses, Haake adds, a mass of reporters instead headed over to the motorcade area, where Romney was observing another monument. It was there the press started shouting questions. An example: “Gov. Romney, are you concerned about some of the mishaps on your trip?” Another: “Gov. Romney, do you have a statement for the Palestinians?” And: “What about your gaffes?” Another Romney press aide fired back, “Show some respect,” adding: “Kiss my ass. This is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.” That press aide later apologized to some of the reporters, but the damage was done.

Whoever is still working for Romney has no idea what they're doing anymore. At something as simple as a monument visit, things should never get out of hand like that.

If I was a Republican, I'd pray for a brokered convention that would dump Romney in favor of anyone with a pulse, crazy or not.

The Biggest Thing in the World

Is there a reason why I don't care about any of this?

I am a winter olympics sort of person; I have never followed the summer olympics.

False controversies like this really do not interest me, either. There HAS to be drama, so they add fake sound effects and try to tell the "human emotion" and "popular interest" stories in manners outlined above.

It is contrived to think that a soccer player would make a stand on Twitter against an announcer, and do so out of some sort of need to be honest. If threatened with expulsion, the comments would be pulled down. There is no courage exhibited here; merely a tolerance for social media bitching and carping that extends to everyone at the games. This is not a male or female issue; it's a marketing issue.

NBC is going to take yet another bath on these games. Their coverage has been, and will be, dismal. Why bother?

I guess it is because I am a terrible, terrible sports blogger. I simply do not care.

Abstract Number Six July 2012

The sixth and final abstract painting of the month, and I have no idea what it means.

Somewhere, embedded in this work, are two skulls and some bizarre imagery. I left it as is when it dried, thinking it couldn't possible work, but it does.

Who Would You Rather Have a Beer With?

Tim Pawlenty makes a lame and rather dismal remark:

What's a folksy, blue-collar pitch from a Midwestern pol without a good beer analogy? 

Appearing at a GOP Victory office opening in swing state North Carolina, Tim Pawlenty on Saturday compared the President Barack Obama's lofty rhetoric of hope and change to the unsatisfying byproduct of a poor-quality keg of an adult beverage. 

"We got a problem because we've got a president who's all foam and no beer," declared the former Minnesota governor and top GOP VP pick.
The crowd of about 300 supporters roared. 

"I don't know about you but I'm tired of hearing these teleprompter speeches and no results!" he said. "You know his big fancy speeches from four years ago; those speeches, those words don't put gas in our cars do they? And his teleprompter speeches don't pay the mortgage do they?"

What is sadder? The fact that three hundred people "roared" at something as lame and as pathetic as an "all foam, no beer" remark or that they all forgot the fact that his comparison, making Romney a beer with no foam, goes against Romney's Mormon faith? I cannot decide.

Who would you rather have a beer with? How about we leave that for another discussion about a complete and utter lack of substance in our politics.

I do know this--if you're going to talk to Republicans about Romney, avoid comparisons to alcohol and avoid making the case that President Obama was making speeches that would turn into gas in cars and mortgage payments. He never promised anything like that. And I guess Mitt Romney, who doesn't drink beer, cannot use a teleprompter from here on in. Nice one.

Is Mitt Romney going to put gas in cars and pay mortgages? I thought Republicans were for small government, leaving people alone, and letting people pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Do they need a Republican to get elected president so that he will do those things for them?

Pawlenty may have just talked himself out of a vice-presidential slot.

Church in Wolfach, Germany

A church steeple in Wolfach, Germany.

Understanding Hillary Clinton

Reuters has a magazine article up on Hillary Clinton that is definitely worth looking at. This stood out:

the more Clinton waxed on about Suu Kyi, the more I thought that she was also talking about herself—a celebrity first lady with a troubled marriage who could have chosen to opt out of politics entirely but instead launched a whole new career as an ambitious United States senator turned combative presidential candidate before morphing yet again over the last few years into the most globetrotting top diplomat in American history. "When I was first lady," recalled Clinton, "I could say anything I wanted to say, and I often did." Here she stopped for one of her trademark deep laughs before adding, "for better or worse." It's a laugh that makes her very human—and also one that immediately calls to mind the many controversies of Clinton's long career. Remember "the vast right-wing conspiracy" that was out to get her husband during the Monica Lewinsky scandal? And her defiant taunting of Barack Obama during the 2008 primaries, when she said her future boss wasn't nearly experienced enough to take that 3 a.m. phone call? Now Clinton has a different role and a different set of dilemmas: If she speaks too forcefully about human rights, she'll be chided for letting wild-eyed activism get in the way of America's economic interests. But if she fails to bash the Chinese over their harsh treatment of dissidents and brutal suppression of free speech, then she'll be called a sellout. Her shape-shifting career guarantees that Clinton will be criticized at every turn, but it also gives her the opportunity, as she notes about Suu Kyi, "to put into practice everything she's been thinking about and working on her entire adult life."

The reason why it is so difficult for Clinton to speak about human rights is because few of her predecessors did enough on behalf of human rights to give her any room with which to work. Diplomacy is very much a game where you have to walk in the footsteps of your predecessors; for the entirety of the Bush Administration, Colin Powell and Condi Rice were de facto absent from any substantive discussion about human rights. The world suffered mightily for it.

Clinton will always be a victim of sexism and Republican hatred. They despised her then and they despise her now. On substance, she is better than all of them, and they know it.

The End is Nigh

Even though it is the middle of summer, and few voters are paying attention, you can be rest assured that whoever is running Claire McCaskill's reelection campaign is watching these polls.

The President is not popular in Missouri, and he's not going to win that state. McCaskill has tried to carry out her Senate duties as a centrist, and nobody's buying that. Replacing her with one of these nutjob Republicans is a non-starter; I refuse to be a purity troll and celebrate her being thrown out of the Senate.

But, here's reality for you--Missouri is going to send wingnuts to Congress, sooner rather than later. Might as well make them work for the seat.

My Neglected Little Scribd Account

Scribd had such promise; where did that promise go?

Well, the inclusiveness of sharing posts on Google+ has been a wonderful development for me, and that's probably the one thing that has been responsible for causing me to stop uploading documents on Scribd.

When I analyzed traffic from Scribd, there was virtually nothing coming from there to indicate that Scribd readers were engaging my content and going to visit my sites; Google+ is entirely the opposite. Not only do I get hits, feedback and praise, I see real traffic.

Scribd, however, has redesigned their website. Featured documents are prominently displayed and everything else kinds of disappears into undefined columns and gutters. They need more lines to separate things; minimalism is fine, but there's too much content splattered about. The document about cinematography occupies the center mass of the upper half of the site but the document thumbnail is improperly formatted.

Anyway, Scribd was a great idea, but you won't find much of me there anymore.

Abstract Number Five July 2012

This one was a lot of fun to do. All of my paintings have an element of fun, but this one came together about as well as could be expected.

I love the details in this one, and it is probably my favorite of the whole bunch.

The Sad Decline of Madonna

To say that Madonna "should know better" is to ignore decades of her history as an artist and as a performer.

Her live shows are choreographed and organized along whatever plans were established during the planning phase. It is unfair to suggest that she should just change her performances due to current events. Someone had to find that prop, and it would be unfair for that poor person to lose their gig.

Madonna is there to shock people. The singing and dancing are just a small part of that. Whatever is trying to explode from her chest doesn't really belong to her anymore. It's just another special effect that, charmingly, doesn't want to fall flat anymore.

I mean, look at her. A lovely woman, yes. But Madonna is just not going to age gracefully, is she? Her sad decline requires her to be more and more shocking. The problem is, how can anyone tell anymore? I cannot.

The Big Ten Rallies Behind Penn State (Sort Of)

You can't read this without knowing what the chart posted above really means:

CBSSports‘ Bruce Feldman was first to report the free agent frenzy, and as of Wednesday, members of Illinois’ coaching staff were apparently hanging out in State College trying to grab a player or two*. 

(*Illinois coach Tim Beckman denied coaches being present at PSU, however) 

“We have chosen to stay at Penn State and opposing coaches are outside our apartment, was that the intention of the NCAA?” tweeted Penn State defensive back Adrian Amos.  

Embellished or not, there was a chaotic vibe coming out of Happy Valley.
Day 1 of Big Ten media days was more subdued. Partially because Nittany Lions running back Silas Redd wasn’t in attendance — he’s reportedly very close to signing with USC — and partially due to other Big Ten, coaches taking a by and large less-controversial approach when it comes to poaching from their fellow Big Ten member. 

Bret Bielema (Wisconsin), Brady Hoke (Michigan), Urban Meyer (Ohio State), Bo Pelini (Nebraska) and Kevin Wilson (Indiana) are among the coaches who said in one form or another that they would not actively pursue Penn State players.

It is wonderful to see these coaches develop some semblance of ethics during this particularly troubling time, but there's no denying the fact that Indiana and Illinois are desperate to get someone--anyone--in there who can play football.

You could easily make the case that throwing Penn State and Indiana out of the Big Ten wouldn't hurt the conference one bit, and I would buy that argument wholeheartedly.

Another Flip Flop For Mitt Romney

The problem with foreigners is that they don't behave like the people Romney pays to shine his shoes:

Mitt Romney found that all politics are, in fact, local after being forced Thursday to clarify remarks about London's preparation for the Olympics, which prompted a minor uproar in the British press. 

In his interview last night with NBC’s Brian Williams, Romney called several logistical issues at the 2012 Olympic games here “disconcerting” -- including a contracted security firm’s failure to provide enough personnel -- and said that a possible planned strike by customs and immigration officials was “not something which is encouraging.” 

Local press seized on the comments, which generated buzz on British television today and which one newspaper columnist called “derisory." Even Prime Minister David Cameron reacted, pointing out that the London games were being held in a major metropolitan area, not in “the middle of nowhere,” a comment interpreted as a reference to the games Romney headed in Salt Lake City in 2002.

I realize that the only thing Romney has to do is appear presidential at this point, but his failure to accomplish even the visuals and not offend his hosts is an amazing failure. Who is advising Romney and why haven't they been fired yet?

Abstract Number Four July 2012

It's very, very blue.

Bill O'Brien Made the Worst Decision in Sports History

You could make the case that there have been people who have made worse career decisions; I am not buying any of those.

Bill O'Brien made a decision to coach at Penn State that was based on honoring the tradition; he is not a bad man for having done so. But, what we now know is that there is virtually no conceivable way in which Penn State can compete in the Big Ten for the next decade, if not more. The loss of all of those scholarships, and the guarantee made by the NCAA to allow players to transfer without having to sit out for a year, means that the floodgates are going to open and the competitive players are going to start leaving, and soon.

They should have taken the 4-year ban. It would have made a clean break from the past and it would have allowed O'Brien to walk with his dignity intact. Instead, Penn State made a decidedly selfish decision. When the stadium is empty, and when the alumni are staying away in droves, this will be more apparent than ever.

How many can he keep? And how long before O'Brien decides that he does not want to go down as a 4-54 coach at Penn State?

The Perfect Way to Change the Subject

American workers aren't all bad, of course. We have plenty of highly skilled people. What we lack are ethical capitalists who actually want to produce things and take measured risks. And, when you think about it, why should they do the right thing? This notion that they can't find workers is yet another wingnut myth--it has no basis in reality.

The current system rewards cutting workers, shedding overhead, and taking a short-term gain instead of investing and growing companies over the long haul. Nobody cares what the profits might be in two or three years; American companies live or die by the next quarter. If the choice is to keep profits flat or cut a thousand workers and see a jump in the value of the stock, guess who's going to be looking for work? The CEO or the thousand workers sacrificed to make things look profitable? It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, until, of course, there's no one left to fire.

If we had a tax policy that rewarded job creation and investment, you might see a change in this outlook. But, instead, you have a corporate culture which worships at the altar of cutting, not investing.

One of the biggest enablers of this outright theft of productivity is Tom Friedman. How many times do we need to hear that American workers have no skills? Well, that's all dashed to pieces now, isn't it? The problem is, no one cares.

Another Rat Jumps Into the Water

The amount of money that might have to be paid out to the victims of Jerry Sandusky is staggering. No wonder they are terrified at the prospect of having to pay out what could be hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

What people don't realize is that if the insurer does not pay, the taxpayers of Pennsylvania will be on the hook for the money that will bleed Penn State dry. There are no ethics left when you can't even get a major insurance company to honor a signed contract. What are they going to do? Sell off University property? Who would buy a state-of-the-art football stadium in the middle of nowhere?

You could, literally, field a professional football team from State College and call them the Settlements. They could play eight games a year in the stadium and the proceeds could go towards paying off the victims. The NFL is an organization with parity anyway; in ten years, this could be a Superbowl team.

The Inbetweeners

I have just finished watching all 18 of the series episodes of The Inbetweeners. I will probably watch the movie at some point; and why not? This was a brilliant show, and as a latecomer, I feel blessed because I did not have to wait for new shows. That must have been agony.

First of all, the cast is perfect. Their chemistry is without peer; the next best thing that I can think of would be The Kids in the Hall.

Second, the stories are a run through every non-cliche you can think of. There are more ideas in this show than you would get from any American sitcom.

Third, there is no way to translate this to an American audience. The show is too real. Americans simply could not handle any of the graphic sex, the drugs, or the lawlessness. Even in the post-Borat world, there's no chance an American audience would be exposed to anything remotely like the British series.

Good luck with that.

The End of Decency and Civilization

So, America's darling had sex with a married man, and now all is destroyed and ruined. What a load of melodrama.

I suppose Kristen Stewart has to do penance for this nonsense, and that will involve pretending to be sorry, wearing a scarlet letter A on her chest, and the end of some forty year-old dude's marriage. This will fuel a decade or more of phony outrage

In other words, business as usual in the whole entire world everywhere over.

Martin Amis Forgets

Martin Amis had this to say about literature, and his new book:

And the book is a kind of satire of contemporary England—a member of its underclass wins the lottery and enters its tabloid class. 

Satire is—I wonder how helpful it is as a category. It was once defined in apposition to irony, in that the satirist isn’t just looking at things ironically but militantly—he wants to change them, and intends to have an effect on the world. I think that category just doesn’t exist in literature. No novel has ever changed anything, as far as I can see.

This is a fairly ridiculous thing to say (Sinclair Lewis anyone?) because books have had enormous impact since their creation. Novels have changed a great many things. One of the most influential novels in human history is, of course, Uncle Tom's Cabin. You would think that an Englishman would grasp this, since Harriet Beecher Stowe was treated as if she were royalty in England after the publication of the novel.

I think it would be fair to say that Martin Amis is not going to be known for his ability to give great answers to interviewers. This is not a knock against him at all.

Abstract Number Three July 2012

Abstract Number Three isn't difficult to understand. I put some pain on a canvas, it dried, there it is.

Really, this isn't difficult. It's fun as heck, actually.

No Death Penalty for Penn State

Take the statue down, but keep playing football:

NCAA president Mark Emmert has decided to punish Penn State with severe penalties likely to include a significant loss of scholarships and loss of multiple bowls, a source close to the decision told ESPN's Joe Schad on Sunday morning. 

But Penn State will not receive the so-called "death penalty" that would have suspended the program for at least one year, the source said. 

The penalties, however, are considered to be so harsh that the death penalty may have been preferable, the source said. 

The NCAA will announce "corrective and punitive measures" for Penn State on Monday morning, it said in a statement Sunday. Emmert will reveal the sanctions at 9 a.m. ET in Indianapolis at the organization's headquarters along with Ed Ray, the chairman of the NCAA's executive committee, and Oregon State's president, the news release said.

All of that is well and good, but removing symbols while allowing the Penn State Football program to continue is yet one more example of how money runs college sports. We can thus be spared any nonsense about ethics, values, and doing the right thing. It's all about the power of the Penn State alumni. They scare the hell out of the NCAA and taking away their football would drive everyone around the bend.

But, go ahead. Take down the statue of Joe Paterno and pretend that's all that needs to be done. In a few years, no one will care about those boys anyway.

A One Hundred Round Drum

A 100-round drum for the AR-15 Assault Rifle 

AR-15 with scope and 100-round drum (this is not the weapon used in the Colorado attacks)

I have to admit--I did not know you could legally purchase a 100-round drum for the AR-15 assault rifle, which is a knockoff of the M16.  the civilian version of the M16.

When I used the M16A2 rifle, the largest clip we were issued was a thirty round clip. This would get you through a range qualification and that was the extent of my experience.

Seriously--James Holmes had a 100-round drum and had purchased 3,000 rounds? And we still can't have a discussion about gun control, ever?

What a crazy world.

Abstract Number Two July 2012

Everything seemed to work with this one, although I'm not sure how.

It does seem to be a lot of things circling the drain--an effect that I must admit I fail to notice when I'm doing these things.

The FBI Failed to Stop Major Nidal Hasan

If it's Friday in July, then someone must be dumping some bad news.

In this case, the FBI is offloading an embarrassing report that should be widely publicized and debated. Guess what? Not going to happen.

It should not surprise anyone that a former director of the FBI has just delivered a bombshell. The FBI failed to perform due diligence. It failed to adequately follow up on what Major Nidal Hasan was up to. It failed to step in and give the United States Army what they needed to get this guy outprocessed into Fort Living Room with some clearly-defined level of urgency.

The ridiculous use of the term "Defense Department bosses" leaves little to the imagination. As soon as Hasan was discovered to be in conversations with al-Awlaki, two things should have happened, that damned day: he should have been placed in custody, pending a hearing and he should have had his security clearance revoked, pending further investigation. They should have frog-marched him out of the building he was in and locked him up (with all due process, of course). That did not happen.

We do know that his chain of command at the now-defunct or soon-to-be-closed Walter Reed Army Medical Center passed him on to Fort Hood without actually evaluating him properly as an officer. The mere fact that he was promoted, despite displaying incompetence in the performance of his duties, indicates that the Army's officer evaluation system is broken.

In other words, the FBI shit the bed and people died due to incompetence.

This is a sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in. And, to be specific about it, they should forcibly shave Hasan's beard clean off. He is still an officer in the United States Army. He should be forced to comply with proper grooming standards. Whatever religion he claims to follow is simply not Islam.

Pat Sajak is Still Drunk on the Job

The defining moment in Pat Sajak's life must have been when he would show up for work, drunk as a skunk, and perform his gameshow host duties while inebriated in front of an audience that couldn't tell the difference between him being sober or sloshed.

He seems to have missed the defining moment of this issue, which was when the Obama campaign dropped an ad where Mitt Romney came out against entrepreneurialism, too.


It kind of makes you wonder if Sajak is drunk-blogging his way through life now. How sad. I hope he gets some help. I hear he's a national treasure.

Say Anything, But Don't Say Anything About Gun Control

It is a tragic thing for people to have to live through something like this. I cannot imagine the horror and the pain that the people in Colorado are experiencing right now.

What I know is this--no one better say anything about gun control. No one better bring it up and make the case that enforcing existing laws isn't really cutting it when there are so many felons and crazy people getting their hands on guns. No one better speak up and say something along the lines of, "hey, maybe we should do something about how easy it is for the mentally ill to get weapons that can kill a lot of people."

How much do you want to bet there was at least one thirty round clip used in this incident? Anyone? Do the math--fifty or sixty shots and two firearms. Body armor? Why do we allow the sale of body armor anyway?

Body armor is designed to keep you alive long enough to finish your shooting spree. Beyond that, only cops and the military should have access to it. Yeah, that makes me a sucker and a fool, but, guess what? I can't think of a single, solitary reason for anyone not a cop and not in the military to have body armor unless they're involved in drug dealing or planning the next shooting spree.

I'm not suggesting that we take away your squirrel rifle, grampa. I'm not with the bleeding hearts who are calling for a ban on all guns, every gun, whichever gun there is that can be banned. I'm thinking about background checks that matter and the end of gun show sales to whoever walks up with cash money.

I'm not going to be surprised at all when we learn the details behind the life of the sick and deranged asshole who did this (and, don't worry--this will hardly harsh the summer movie buzz that is the latest Batman movie).

Apparently, he didn't have the decency to off himself and bring about his own demise--what a coward.

This is altogether too depressing to think about beyond having some sympathy for the victims.

Abstract Number One July 2012

A nice blue and greenish piece leads off the six abstracts that I have done for this month.

This one I do like; it's a great example of texture and blur.

We’ve Given All You People Need to Know

In other words, fuck off, peasants.

Ann Romney has given the Democratic Party a gift that will keep on giving well into late October. If they're going to stonewall, let them stonewall. See where that gets you with the American people. They love it when a politician gets caught hiding something.

For the record, I think that the Romney tax returns are completely legal and beyond reproach. I think they demonstrate a skillful manipulation of the tax code and they highlight the divide between those who pay taxes and those who don't. The Romney returns likely show millions of dollars being sheltered overseas, a decade or more of being completely zeroed out, tax-wise, with no taxes paid and a massive accumulation of wealth in a 401K that would shock most retirees.

What is legal is not always ethical, and, if you're running for President, you should have figured out that difference years ago. Apparently, Romney's greed exceeds his ability to use common sense.

But I can't stop laughing at this:

“We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life,” she added later.

You people? Really? Tone deaf much?

Someone has failed to explain to Mrs. Romney that, when speaking to the lower classes, the use of "you people" is a pejorative that simply will not please the marketing people in the Romney campaign who are trying to increase the likability of the brand.

Kinder Eggs Are Not Controversial

It drives wingnuts crazy that we now have a President who actually kills terrorists and defends America, especially since he's a Democrat and a black man to boot.

I'm not sure what the thrust of this is--satire or mere stupidity. President Obama authorized the killing of Osama bin Laden. Case closed. Kinder Eggs killed at least four children in the 1990s because they inadvertently swallowed the toys embedded inside of them. Kinder Eggs are illegal in the United States because you are not allowed to put toys or items that cannot be eaten inside of things that can be eaten for obvious reasons.

Adults are sophisticated enough to deal with Kinder Eggs; children are not. It's that simple. The controversy over their ban in the United States was fanned a few years ago when a conservative reacted with indignation when they were confiscated from him when he entered the United States. Here, we have laws. Elsewhere, they bury dead children. Where would you rather live?

So, in and of itself, the comic is fine; I don't have a problem with that. But the details render it somewhat soft and fuzzy as far as being satirical or having a point.

How is This a Crime?

America's laws are, to put it mildly, often in conflict with common sense.

First of all, who is Willard harming here? What standard of community tolerance is he offending by sitting in an adult theater, doing whatever he was doing? Do you really think that he--or any of the other patrons--went to see those films with the intent of critiquing them for their personal blogs?

Second, this was in Hollywood? And Willard didn't do what he was doing in front of several hundred people at his home? Again, which standard of community decency are we applying here?

Third, this is as old school as it gets. I read this story and I thought of the 1970s, which is when Willard would have been in his forties. Think about that for a minute--he's 77, and he is willing to venture outside of his home and go into an X-rated theater (yes, they still have those, apparently). You have to admire someone who is still that sexually innocent. No Internet for poor Fred--he rolls with his own hand in his own pants with the classical moves of a man who must have welcomed the advent of the adult theater back in the day. Judge not lest ye be judged.

We live in a society where comedians like Louis CK feature masturbation in their acts and where a person can't go find some release for their stress in an adult movie theater? Again, where's the connection between what Willard did, which was harmless, and common sense?

Americans have a hangup about sex. This has been exposed and discussed countless times. We have to start growing up about these things. We have to start trying to understand that some people have needs, and some people deserve some dignity and respect. You can laugh about the fact that this was a celebrity, but, the way I see it, this was just an old guy looking to let off some steam. There should be a sign out front of all adult theaters that says, "look, you know what goes on here, I know what goes on here, let's cut people some slack, okay? Now, go catch someone robbing someone, Johnny Law."

The amount of visual sexual stimulation that the average 18 year-old is exposed to today would have blown away an 18 year-old Fred Willard in 1952. There isn't anything that he's seen that doesn't comport with how American society has evolved since then. And this is the right use of our police resources? Hassling a 78 year-0ld man in an adult movie theater?

What do people think goes on in there anyway? Sheesh. At a minimum--let's at least agree that people have the right to a little privacy. Was this really in public? In the darkness of an adult movie theater? Please. This is somewhat different than if Willard was smashing kiwis into his shorts in the middle of Albertsons.

Anyway, Willard deserves a pass and I hope the legal system agrees with me.

Communism is So Over, Man

The Daily Caller dissolves further into madness and irrelevance with this whopper of a "story."

Did you catch a whiff of the anti-semitic overtones? A "Jewish" summer camp for activists? Oh, heavens. Is that where this failed media experiment is aligned now? Does that mean they have gone full evangelical wingnut?

This is a classic example of inductive reasoning. If someone has no evidence, they look for an example of where someone somewhere held an opinion a long time ago that can be conflated to mean this when it really doesn't mean that. And it means that they absolutely, positively have to be true believers of that same outdated opinion and have an insidious plot to destroy America by introducing Communism, which, of course, has been utterly rejected time and time again by the American people.

I mean, holy cow. Is it time for that Red Dawn discussion group yet?

Phony and Manipulative Practices at the Olympics

Watching sports on mute eliminates a lot of nonsense. Who actually needs "enhanced" or phony sound affects when watching someone perform their sport?

In point of fact, most of the competitors utter nothing and make no discernible sounds when performing; why does anyone believe that these things need to be artificially enhanced?

This is why the London Olympics are going to go down as being much, much worse than the Beijing Olympics; instead of fake facades and hidden dog carcasses, we get someone riding a hot level.

This is How You Talk to a Wingnut

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who works for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and her ability to confuse even the most capable of wingnut bloggers is worth admiring.

Her marriage to Senator Sherrod Brown has to be some sort of trick designed to inflict maximum psychic pain on whoever it was that thought they were getting a major scoop on their competition (my money is on Jim Hoft or Dan Riehl).

Your Father Didn't Get There on His Own, Dumbass

You have to love the personally-charged ignorance in this statement:

There was no federal bailout money for us. No Republican corporate welfare. No Democratic handouts. No bipartisan lobbyists working the angles. No Tony Rezkos. No offshore accounts. No Obama bucks. 

Just two immigrant brothers and their families risking everything, balancing on the economic high wire, building a business in America. They sacrificed, paid their bills, counted pennies to pay rent and purchase health care and food and not much else. And for their troubles they were muscled by the politicos, by the city inspectors and the chiselers and the weasels, all those smiling extortionists who held the government hammer over all of our heads. 

I thought about this after I heard what Obama told a campaign crowd the other day, speaking about business owners and why they were successful. 

"You didn't get there on your own," Obama said. "I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

This is the kind of mentality that should be driving people crazy right now. It speaks volumes as to how ignorant John Kass truly is and it speaks to this idea that Mitt Romney cares about the little guy.

Subtract thirty or forty years from Kass' biography, and go back to when his father and his uncle were grocers, and you land smack dab in the 1960s and 1970s in America. You land there in a time of inflation, economic uncertainty, war, Civil Rights, and tough times on the South Side of Chicago. 

Who built the streets that their store was on? Who policed the neighborhood so that their precious stock was protected from thieves? Who was there to put out any fire? Who was there to make certain that a larger grocery store couldn't run them out of business with toughs and firebombs? That was the point of the President's remarks, dumbass.

You end up with a picture that Kass clearly can't articulate--a picture of tough times for a lot of people, certainly, but a time when people paid much more in taxes than they do now and a time when people didn't have much if they were at or below the poverty line. The tough times of today are different. Comparing them is like comparing apples and oranges. That's why I can say that the small grocers of that time were pikers compared to the grocers of the 1930s, who would have given their right arm to have what Kass and his family had. I mean, you can go back to the 1870s and laugh at everyone who came after--those were the real grocers in America, those poor fellows trying to make it back then.

Those times are long gone. But what Kass doesn't understand is that things would have been a hell of a lot easier for him and his family if there had been the kinds of programs people are fighting to keep right now--programs like food stamps, public assistance, small business subsidies, and loan programs designed to help his family grow and expand their business. Those things still exist because President Obama is all that stands between what we have now and a future where billionaires will control every penny in America.

Of course, all we hear about is how the government is just pissing money away. But, wait a minute--money that goes to people to help them buy food to cover the gap between insufficient paychecks then goes to the people who sell them that food--the grocery store owners. What an evil state of affairs--government helping people to buy food, people buying food, and grocery stores staying in business because of the extra business. That's enough to make you want to go Galt, doesn't it?

The advent of those programs has meant that small grocers have a chance now--a better chance than they have ever had. President Obama is the one candidate in this race who can give those people a better chance. If you think starving the poor to death out of some Randian idea of instilling self-sufficiency will work, then go back to the 1870s and tell me how that was all sunshine and moonbeams for the people who lived during those times.

The grocer of today has a fighting chance at getting a thing like health care coverage for workers. Guess which party wants to blow that away.

I mean, honestly. When Kass and his family were struggling, the Romneys were living high on the hog. George Romney was running a major car company and the state of Michigan. His son was pranking his way through life without a care in the world. And Barack Obama is the one who doesn't understand what working people are dealing with?

Please.

When Romney was running Bain Capital until he decided to retroactively retire, he ate people like Kass' father and uncle for breakfast, destroying their dreams, inflating their companies with debt, and cutting them loose with nothing.

The problem is, John Kass doesn't realize that the only reason why he's even able to spread his nonsense through the massive pipeline of misinformation that he resides in is because no one--no one--is fully articulating the fact that government ain't all bad.

That Poor Man

The "regulators" caused him to commit massive, sustained fraud? Really?

That poor man. Poor Russell Wasendorf. He must feel so oppressed and uncomfortable right now.

Were it not for the fact that they essentially deregulated his industry in the late 1990s with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act, I would probably be running a fundraiser for Wasendorf right now. I wonder how much of Wasendorf's stolen cash ended up in Representative Jim Leach's pocket.

Perhaps if the investors were to stop in and say hello to former Congressman Leach, he could give them some bumming around money.

It's a sad state of affairs when a country full of defanged regulators can drive a man to self-immolation like this. America is collapsing all around us and rich, wealthy, powerful men like Russell Wasendorf are being hounded by jackals simply for stealing money that wasn't his.

I'd put up a PayPal fundraiser, but I suspect someone would just regulate that into oblivion as well.

No Wonder He Lives in New Zealand

This case continues to fall apart. New Zealand is, after all, a whole other country from the rest of the world. Isolation breeds individualism, and, well, judges can have their opinions, can't they?

The issue of intellectual property is one that affects people from all walks of life. If the Megaupload case collapses, and if the United States government ends up eating the costs of pursuing this case, then the taxpayers are going to feel the pinch.

The media companies have a lot riding on this as well. There is a tremendous amount of money and prestige on the line. You can set aside the fact that, yes, Megaupload was used to steal intellectual property and copyrighted material--the bottom line is that it will get harder and harder to protect the rights of people who make content.

Once people who make content realize that there's no point in making it, there won't be anyone other than nostalgia for everyone else left to steal.

No One Saw This Coming

I think we are well past the moment where it should have dawned on someone to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan over a year ago, but oh well. This is just another reminder of how far we need to go before American foreign policy starts to look normal again.

We are more than capable of supplying our forces, but it is significantly cheaper to truck stuff in. This added expense pours on the folly, in other words. The folly of trying to build a nation for people who don't want it, the folly of putting a tens of thousands of American troops in the middle of a land-locked country in Asia, and the folly of thinking the Taliban aren't prepared to destroy more trucks--this is what we're dealing with.

America needs to leave Afghanistan, and soon. It's over. It's all over but the shouting.

Demi Lovato Continues to Talk About Her Issues

This is a story that has interested me for some time. Celebrities who engage in cutting themselves, or self-mutilation, are rarely understood to be anything other than crazy. In Demi Lovato's case, the first step towards proving that she is not crazy was to get help.

Her healing process may be ongoing, but her experiences mirror that of her generation. How many substantive, thoughtful articles are you going to see in the celebrity press about the issues of cutting and self-harming and bulima?

Kudos to Self Magazine for actually attempting to deal with these issues in a respectful way.

In the Couldn't Get Any Dumber Department...

Which "Dems" are these? Not me. I'm going to use Aquaman against Romney.

Noted mouthbreather Jim Hoft attracts some serious talent to his house of nutty cards:

If you want a great example as to why the conservative movement can't acquire any purchase in the popular culture, look no further than the squirming minds behind these kinds of comments. This is as far as they get, mentally or otherwise, in a debate about what's happening in our country.

The fact that there's this overhyped film coming out, that we're entering the political contest for the Presidency, and that the Republicans nominated a candidate who has a shady business past, an inability to articulate why his abilities as a businessman are a positive, and can't campaign to save his life is whose fault? Oh, that's right. Hollyweird.

Mental midgets, one and all.

Dave Zirin Simply Doesn't Get It

Dave Zirin, who is the sports editor for The Nation, loses his mud here.

It's not like there's anything to gain from defending Penn State at this point. It's not like anyone is going to look to Rick Reilly with anything other than pity and disdain.

The problem here is this: Joe Paterno didn't give a damn about the children that Jerry Sandusky molested. That's now a proven fact. And what makes that the crux of everything that is going on here is that, were it not for Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky would have been caught, tried, and convicted of child molestation a decade or more ago--thus saving several young boys from being molested.

What was it that gave Joe Paterno the power to do such a thing?

Penn State Football.

Who enabled him?

Penn State Football.

What was the source of his ability to intimidate officials into doing nothing?

Penn State Football.

What is the sole reason anyone in America even knows who Joe Paterno is?

Penn State Football.

And we're talking about defending the very institution that spun out of control and allowed this thing to happen? There is no defense. The part of Penn State University that was under the control of Joe Paterno has not been under the control of the university for decades. Decades.

The reason why children were raped is because Penn State University did not have effective operational control over the men's football team because Joe Paterno had too much power and was too influential to allow anyone to control his team. His coaches, trainers, players and whoever else were all, effectively, completely in his hands and no one could touch him.

The very fact that the man was untouchable should tell you that there was and is a structural problem at Penn State that cannot be fixed unless and until the football program is, effectively, ended and then rebuilt under a new system of rules and in a way that will place it under institutional control.

Dave Zirin can't admit it--Penn State Football became the most insidious kind of criminal organization--one outside of the control of the people who were corrupt enough themselves to revel in the fact that they were winning football games while children were being raped in the showers. It was something utterly hellish and vile, and we're talking about how "spare me" is an effective rhetorical defense of what, exactly?

Spare me the details--football means what now?

Nothing.

So, you tell me. A man with tremendous power and influence is faced with a choice. He can do the right thing or he can turn a blind eye to what's happening in his own football program in order to continue his march to glory and the record books. And so, he chooses Penn State Football over children who are being molested.

What needs to happen here is this--Penn State Football needs to go away for a while, possibly for good, to set an example as to what can happen when an institution loses functional control of a major asset like the Men's Division I college football team. It needs to go away because the very foundation of Penn State Football is now so encrusted with filth and slime they're actually remodeling the showers where Jerry Sandusky raped children.

And you want to defend these people?

The Nation needs a new sports editor.