Now that's airwolf.
Since Fanboy Rampage went the way of all flesh, I’m just not as plugged in to the gonzo side of the comics blogosphere, so it took John Holbo to point out Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog pointing out something I should have been up on already: First Second’s online catalog with sample pages, which includes snippets of the next book on my list: Eddie Campbell’s domestic apocalypse, The Fate of the Artist. —Also, there’s a blog, with among other items a glimpse of Paul Pope’s Battling Boy, which I’d’ve known about already if I was up on my Publishers Weekly Comics Week. Totally unairwolf of me, I know.
Jupiter drops (one).
I used to work in the Rax in Oberlin, Ohio, and one day I went to the manager to complain. I pointed to one of the factoids printed on the paper placemats they used to line the cafeteria trays. “It says you play soft rock, or jazz, or whatever.”
She looked at it. “Yeah,” she said.
“Not muzak.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“It specifically says you don’t play muzak.”
“I see that,” she said.
“You’re playing muzak,” I said. It was true. They were. I can’t remember what song was playing because that was the point, or it used to be the point. You know what I’m talking about.
She shrugged. —I got the skinny later: you subscribe to Muzak, like cable television. Literally pipe it in. The Rax had taken over the building from some other fast-food brand, Arby’s or some such, and the muzak system was already in place, wired up, switched on, chirping away. Nobody knew which particular service and nobody knew where the controls were and it would have been too expensive to rip the speakers out and anyway the stuff was bland and inoffensive and nobody ever got a bill, so why not? We’d close for the night, mop up, wipe down, just two of us and the echo of some airless afternoon in Van Nuys when some Nelson Riddle second-stringers phoned it in for a little mad money. We’d shut off the lights and lock the doors and leave the syrupy strings to serenade a dark and empty restaurant.
Stupidity is a process, not a state.
Pam Spaulding patiently explains how hair works to a baldly racist smashmouth prick.
And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not sleep.
I’m telling you right up front: I have no idea what this means.
Apparently, oneiromancers find it to be (by far) their most popular request: tell me what it means to dream of losing my teeth. They fall out, she says, and I try to catch them in my hands and I can’t. I start to say something, he says, and they turn to dust and blow away. He kisses you and they shake loose in your mouth and you swallow one and it catches in your throat. I spit them out one by one onto an empty plate and wake up in a cold sweat. —Wouldn’t you?
“Teeth represent our ‘bite’ or our aggressive/assertive nature. When we can’t get our teeth into something it suggests we have little control. Please contact me so we can discuss this matter further. If you dial +1866 286 5095, follow the prompts, and dial in PIN code 032, I shall assist you.”
I always feel a little guilty for not liking China Miéville more than I do. Maybe it’s because I’ve only ever tried to read Perdido Street Station, which comes off like Clive Barker on a Warhammer bender? —I should really try to read more, I think to myself, at least finish the thing, so I pick it up again after having set it aside for a good long while, ignoring for a moment the piece of paper that flutters out (I’m always using odd bits of paper as bookmarks—receipts, bus transfers, that sort of thing), and read “The hovels that encrust the river’s edge have grown like mushrooms around me in the dark,” and I sigh, heavily. (Oh, to rise above this to not smell this filth this dirt this dung to not enter the city through this latrine but I must stop, I must, I cannot go on, I must.) Well, ought, maybe. —That internal monologue comes to a stop soon enough, thank God, and the book settles into a third-person past tense that’s, well, redolent of Imajica. Sigh.
But I did pick it up just the other day, in an attempt to refresh my memory on certain points to be made later, and a piece of paper did flutter out, one of those things I’d tucked into the book when I’d last been reading it, and I picked it up and had one of those moments when the world cracks, when you’re presented with evidence of something you’d not so much forgotten as never bothered to think about again when thinking about the things around it. (Comes to much the same.) —I got on the train and went to work and heard the news and stood there, stunned, and shook my head; and then I went to the dentist. I had an appointment, you see. —Later, we bought newspapers.
Planes?
“Beware, not all tooth dreams are symbolic. Once in a while a tooth dream is telling you to get yourself to the dentist’s chair.” Sure, fine, but I’m telling you: I have no idea what this means.
Say: Who hath forbidden the beautiful (gifts) of God, which He hath produced for His servants, and the things, clean and pure, (which He hath provided) for sustenance?
“Except,” Babe the Blue Ox; “Complainte Pour Ste Catherine,” Kirsty MacColl; “Read, Eat, Sleep,” the Books; “Stone,” Cibo Matto; “Avignon,” Chuck Coleman; “Mimi on the Beach,” Jane Siberry; “Qu’ran,” Brian Eno, David Byrne; “Robin Hood,” Momus; “Bloodletting,” Concrete Blonde; “Let Me Be Your Liquor Man,” the Minni-Thins.
I mean, I knew somebody’s daughter went to see her father and he killed her.
According to statistics obtained from the World Bank, about 113 million total number of women are missing as a result of female infanticide (female fœtuses being aborted or newborn girls being killed) and neglect of young girls, which has led to a severe gap in the demographic composition of the population of China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Turkey.
—Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, “Making the World a More Secure Place: Combating Violence Against Women”
Just to put it in a little perspective, that’s about the number of women and girls in the US.
—zuzu
This mind-set needs to be broken. A culture that carves the genitals of young girls, hobbles their minds and justifies their physical oppression is not equal to a culture that believes women have the same rights as men.
—Ayaan Hirsi Ali, “Women and ‘gendercide’”
I’m not intimidated by the threats and the attempts to make me shut my mouth, because living in a rich western European country like this one, I have protection that I otherwise would not have in Somalia or in Africa or in any other Islamic country.
—“Moving stories: Ayaan Hirsi Ali”
In our remaining minutes, I learned that Bill doesn’t believe that women don’t always have a choice about whether or not to have protected sex. He swore that I was the first woman ever to tell him that sometimes contraception fails. And he doesn’t believe that women who do choose to abort take that decision very seriously and aren’t happy about it. He claims that 99% of the 800+ abortions that were performed in South Dakota last year were “abortions of convenience”—whatever the heck that means.
—Nancy Goldstein, “My dinner with Napoli”
I returned to the office. Mayor Blount was sitting down, looking very tired. He had cleaned himself off. He said, “I did it for you. Do you understand?”
He seemed like my father, I can’t say it better than that. I realized he was under a terrible strain, he had taken a lot on himself for me. He went on to explain how Dr. Fay was very dangerous, she was what they call a cripto-female (crypto?), the most dangerous kind. He had exposed her and purified the situation. He was very straightforward, I didn’t feel confused at all, I knew he had done what was right.
We discussed the book, how man must purify himself and show God a clean world. He said some people raise the question of how can man reproduce without women but such people miss the point. The point is that as long as man depends on the old filthy animal way God won’t help him. When man gets rid of his animal part which is woman, this is the signal God is awaiting. Then God will reveal the new true clean way, maybe angels will come bringing new souls, or maybe we will live forever, but it is not our place to speculate, only to obey. He said some men here had seen an Angel of the Lord. This was very deep, it seemed like it echoed inside me, I felt it was inspiration.
Then the medical party drove up and I told Dr. Premack that Dr. Fay had been taken care of and sent away, and I got in the car to drive them out of the Liberated Zone. However four of the six soldiers from the roadblock refused to leave. Capt. Parr tried to argue them out of it but finally agreed they could stay to guard the oil-drum barrier.
I would have liked to stay too the place was so peaceful but they needed me to drive the car. If I had known there would be all this hassle I never would have done them the favor. I am not crazy and I have not done anything wrong and my lawyer will get me out. That is all I have to say.
—Racoona Sheldon, “The Screwfly Solution”
Yup. Still trying, Ringo.
“I will no longer link to any writer who does not disclose his identity and affiliations in an obvious place or manner, or reply to online commenters who decline to disclose their names.”
Stupid fucking bigots.
Remember when they told us the ban on “a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effect of marriage” in Ohio’s anti–same-sex marriage amendment wouldn’t affect domestic violence protections for unmarried couples? —Turns out they’re as good at crafting amendments as they are at balancing budgets, or running wars. (Or spotting satire. Or plucking beams from their eyes. Or getting ahead without cannibalizing their own. Or anything at all but dazzling a handful of pundits at Beltway cocktail parties. Well, that, and bleeding us all dry.)
Quis custodiet ipsos immane?
During an unpublicized March 8 talk at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, Scalia dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the US Constitution or international conventions, adding he was “astounded” at the “hypocritical” reaction in Europe to Gitmo. “War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts,” he says on a tape of the talk reviewed by NEWSWEEK. “Give me a break.” Challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don’t have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back: “If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son and I’m not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it’s crazy.”
—Newsweek, “Should Scalia Recuse Himself from the Gitmo Case?”
There are now about 490 prisoners at Gitmo, and “55 percent of the detainees are not determined to have committed any hostile acts against the United States or coalition allies.
“Only 8 percent of the detainees were characterized as Al Qaeda fighters. Of the remaining detainees, 40 percent have no definitive connection with Al Qaeda at all and 18 percent have no definitive affiliation with either Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
“Only 5 percent of the detainees were captured by United States forces. [A total of] 86 percent of the detainees were arrested by either Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and turned over to United States custody. This 86 percent of the detainees captured by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance were turned over to the United States at a time at which the United States offered large bounties for capture of suspected enemies.”
—Nat Hentoff, “Gitmo: The Worst of the Worst?”
Cheney shuns Electoral College requirement
In written statement, he says results may impede performance of the executive’s constitutional duties
Mon Dec 15, 2008
When Vice President Cheney received the tallies of electoral votes from the fifty states and the District of Columbia, he issued a statement saying that he did not feel bound by requirements that he inform Congress as to the results of the election.
Cheney indicated that he felt he could withold the information if he decided that disclosure would “impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive’s constitutional duties.”
Cheney wrote, citing President Bush: “The executive branch shall construe the provisions… that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch… in a manner consistent with the president’s constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withold information…”
The statement represented the latest in a string of high-profile instances in which the Bush administration has cited its constitutional authority to bypass a law.
After The New York Times disclosed in December 2005 that Bush had authorized the military to conduct electronic surveillance of Americans’ international phone calls and emails without obtaining warrants, as required by law, Bush said his wartime powers gave him the right to ignore the warrant law.
And when Congress passed a law forbidding the torture of any detainee in US custody, Bush signed the bill but issued a signing statement declaring that he could bypass the law if he believed using harsh interrogation techniques was necessary to protect national security.
Past presidents occasionally used such signing statements to describe their interpretations of laws, but Bush has expanded the practice. He has also been more assertive in claiming the authority to override provisions he thinks intrude on his power, legal scholars said.
Bush’s expansive claims of the power to bypass laws have provoked increased grumbling in Congress. Members of both parties have pointed out that the Constitution gives the majority the right to select the electors who choose the president, and the executive branch the duty to abide by that choice.
“Can you imagine the turmoil if the electoral college upholds the results of the popular vote?” said Cheney at the reception ceremony, referring to the November election which saw unprecedented landslide victories for Democrats at state and national levels.
“Some Democrats in Congress have decided this president is the enemy and the work he’s done keeping this nation safe and secure is grounds for removing him from office,” Cheney said. “The American people have already made their decision. They agree with the president.”
When asked if the electoral college votes would ever be tallied, Cheney was quick to add: “I never said never. This is a long war we’re facing. National security has to be taken into account. We’re examining every option. Nothing’s off the table.”
He went on to say, regarding the Democrats: “If they are competent to fight this war, then I ought to be singing on American Idol.”
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee agreed with the vice president, saying: “It’s true. Cheney can’t sing a note.”
This newspaper did not respond to repeated Democratic requests for a chance to comment on this story.
You can't die for the life of you.
“Sympathy for the Almighty,” The Kleptones; “Baltimore,” Lyle Lovett; “Hunter’s Kiss,” Rasputina; “Let Me Love You Up,” Sophie B. Hawkins; “Segue in C,” Duke Ellington & Count Basie; “Alech Taadi,” Khaled; “The Prince,” Madness; “Too Hot to Hold,” Big Ella; “Pickapart,” John Butler Trio; “Right Out in the Street,” Steve Espinola.
It’s not just the size of a walnut.
So I’m browsing the latest New York Review of Books and the ad for Manliness can’t help but catch my eye. “Why do men need to feel important? It’s their manliness. But is manliness obsolete? Is it even a virtue?” —How disappointing to discover the author’s rather limited notion of manliness, when the questions are so patently leading. It is, I suppose, cute enough to picture him patiently reinventing a crude wheel, all the while imagining he’s taking the discourse to grounds that aren’t already worn thin by the traffic. Strength is for the weak, Professor, and would you please stop sullying my family’s good name?
Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signor Domenech?
He certainly is. Oh, dear Lord, is he ever.
The Domenech post linked above has been removed from the Red America queue and archives, though the individual article link still works; in case that, too, goes dark, posterity might ask I point you hereabouts. I rather doubt it has anything to do with the post as it is and far more to do with the perfect storm battering the Post; some are already speculating it was the last missive from this particular iteration of Red America. If so, it’s rather like nailing Capone for tax evasion, or more to the point, like fighting a symptom and not the disease. Still, if you’re smiling into your coffee as you read this, take a moment to dwell on us and them and remember: arrogant racist homophobic incompetent crony apparatchiks are people too.
Before I forget again.
September, 2006
(Is it just me, or is the touch of grey in the Scott icon a little disconcerting?)
Going to Pine Ridge
“To me, it is now a question of sovereignty,” she said to me last week. “I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.” —She being President Cecilia Fire Thunder of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. (Thanks, 
ginmar.)
