Shaker Pat passes on this piece by Greg Palast, noting "I love the irony of this guy being involved in potentially wiping out voter records, when the AG & White House wanted to replace the [prosecutors] because of 'insufficient prosecution of voter fraud'!" I love that irony, too. Cue the laugh/cry scale of the damned.
Gonzo Presser
Any minute now. Open thread.
UPDATE: Well, that's over. If you missed it, Gonzo basically told a bunch of shockingly controvertible lies, then turned tail and beat it the hell outta there like he had a hot lunch date with Rod Majors. When the Bushies promised greater transparency in government, I don't think egregious amounts of transparent bullshit was precisely what the American people expected.
As ever, I sit wondering whether to laugh, or to cry, or to do a little of both.
You be the judge.
UPDATE 2: Here's the video of the press conference, for those who weren't able to view it live. Thanks to Petulant, who's also got a post with screen caps if you can't watch the video.
Shaker Gourmet
The recipe this week comes from none other than Kona!
Kona adds:Green Corn Tamales
6 Cups fresh corn (about 10 ears)
½ cup yellow cornmeal
1 to 2 tablespoons rice flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup reduced-fat sour cream
4 tablespoons soft butter
4 Anaheim chilies, roasted and seeded
6 ounces Monterey Jack cheese
Several corn husks saved from corn, rinsed in hot water and drained.
Puree the corn kernels in a food processor with a steel blade. Might require two batches.
Pour corn puree into a bowl.
Beat in cornmeal, one tablespoon rice flour, sugar, salt, sour cream and butter.
Batter should be thick. If it seems runny, add the other tablespoon of rice flour.
In a greased 9x13 baking dish, place Anaheim chilies and cheese on bottom, layer the corn mixture over this and cover with the clean corn husks.
Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes until mixture is set and golden around the edges.
This can also be prepared using 8 greased oven-safe ramekins. Just reverse the layers: put the corn mixture on the bottom and top with a strip of green chile and cheese, and then cover with a husk.
"I used to get green corn tamales at El Cholo in Los Angeles. It was a seasonal thing during the summer. When we moved to Austin I wasn’t sure how I’d survive without my fix so I found this recipe from the California Milk Advisory Board. Serve it with some refried beans.
For those who have never roasted a chili it’s quite easy. I wash and dry them and then place them in a toaster oven for a few minutes per side until they darken. Remove and put in a plastic bag to steam until ready to skin and remove seeds. I cut the tops off, then split them lengthwise down the middle. This makes it easy to flatten them to remove the skin. The skin will mostly peel off – or you can scrape them with a knife if necessary."
Bonus recipe for St. Patrick's Day below....
Pistachio Cake
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 small package Pistacio Pudding and Pie Filling
1/2 tsp. almond extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup oil
7 drops green food coloring
powdered sugar
Combine and beat. Pour into greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes in pan. Once cake is thoroughly cooled, sift powdered sugar over top.
Submitted by Shaker Constant Comment.
Well, Fuck My Cluster
The federal prosecutor purge is turning into a serious Bush administration clusterfuck. (My earlier post, All the Way to the White House, has a summary of today's Times and WaPo coverage.) TPM Muckraker's got a useful timeline I recommend, especially if you're just getting up to speed on this story—which hasn't been getting much interest, comments-wise, as I've been posting about it, no doubt due to total and unmitigated scandal fatigue. It does seem a bit like all the other outrages that never amounted to anything and fell off the front pages without the merest hint of accountability, and it's hard to muster any more energy after watching every member of the criminal enterprise known as the Bush administration—with the exception of Scooter "Pardon Me" Libby—escape unscathed from all manner of lawbreaking and scandal for years. But this one became worthy of everyone's attention the moment Gonzo's chief of staff—a man smack in the middle of all this shit—resigned yesterday. On a Monday. When that shit can't wait until Friday afternoon, it's serious.
Anyway, Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is pissed: "I am outraged that the Attorney General was less than forthcoming with the Senate while under oath before the Judiciary Committee. It is deeply disturbing that this plan appears to have originated from high-ranking officials at the White House and executed in secret with a complicit Department of Justice. … The President of the United States and the Attorney General are responsible for setting the moral standard for this Administration. Apparently this matter does not bother them but it does bother me, and we will summon whoever we need in our hearings to get to the bottom of this."
Go get 'em—and don't let 'em go.
Don't make us regret believing in you, Dems. Be better than them. And, if I may make one more modest request…fuck those unscrupulous fuckers once and for fucking all!
UPDATE: Schumer gets serious at a press briefing: "This weekend, I called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to step down. Today’s staff resignation does not take heat off the Attorney General. In fact, it raises the temperature. Kyle Sampson will not become the next Scooter Libby, the next fall guy. Either Attorney General Gonzales knew what his chief of staff was doing—that’s a pretty severe indictment—or he didn’t, which means he doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what’s going on in the Justice Department. We now have direct evidence that Attorney General Gonzales was carrying out the political wishes of the President in at least some of these firings. A startling amount of information about the White House’s role has emerged in the past few days. Attorney General Gonzales’ chief of staff withheld information on the White House’s role in the Justice Department in terms of who was preparing to testify to Congress. Attorney Gonzales’ chief of staff may well have obstructed justice."
Think Progress has the video and the full transcript. There's more, and it's good.
Pot, Meet Kettle
I love this.
Tonight, Bill O’Reilly attacked the “radical movement” that opposed the Nevada Democratic Party’s debate with Fox News. O’Reilly said that MoveOn, “the Daily Kos or whatever that stupid thing is,” and others “use propaganda techniques perfected by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of information. They lie, distort, defame, all the time.” Progressive activists attack Fox News because “we report on them accurately,” O’Reilly said.In the No Spin Zone, every day is opposite day!
Video at the link.
You're Outta There
DePauw University, site of the sorority evictions based on "image," has now evicted the sorority, with University President Robert G. Bottoms saying that "the values of Delta Zeta did not fit with" DePauw's. I love a story with a good ironic ending!
Bottoms sent a letter to the sorority telling them they "would no longer be recognized as part of the Greek system at the school" and asked them to leave the campus before next fall. D'oh! That's one serious walk of shame, bitchez.
H/T Deeky.
Memories…
Baked Jesus
Last month it was Mary on a pizza pan, and now Jesus is making an appearance on a baking sheet:
The Lord is said to work in mysterious ways — and for Aaron Frazer, the mystery intensified seven days ago while he was roasting peppers at his own work at Cowboy Coffee on Victoria Street.
It was then — last Friday around noon — that the 28-year-old cook first witnessed what he claims is a relief of Jesus Christ, etched out roughly on a baking sheet by the burnt run-off from roasting red peppers.
I like people who save me the work of making captions.
And at least he's honest about his motives.
Spurred by the tale of a Florida woman who four years ago sold for $28,000 a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich that had (apparently) the face of the Virgin Mary burnt into it, Frazer got to believing he could turn his own little miracle into a small fortune.He might want to shoot a little lower, considering Baked Jesus has zero bids so far.
Shortly after the discovery, Frazer had the baking sheet posted for sale on eBay, where he is hoping it will pocket him a sizeable purse.
…“I haven’t checked it recently, but the last time I did there was one hit and it was from Kyle (his co-worker),” Frazer said, adding his boss has been supportive of his ambitions.
“[I’m hoping] for as much as possible and maybe a movie deal.”
Holy folks Gone Wild on pizza pans, doggy doors, ice, peanuts, x-rays, turtles, ultrasounds, chocolate, dying plants, sheet metal, trees, more trees, more trees, more trees, more trees, wardrobes, water stains, grilled cheese sandwiches, potato chips, plates of pasta, drywall, fish, and more fish. H/T Spin Dentist.
MREWYB
So, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that he supports Don't Ask Don't Tell because homosexual acts are "immoral."
Pace said the Pentagon should not "condone" immoral behavior by allowing gay soldiers to serve openly. He said his views were based on his personal "upbringing," in which he was taught that certain types of conduct are immoral.Now we get down to it. Now that the bullshit about "unit cohesion" has finally been well and truly undermined, with 73% of soldiers saying they'd serve with gays and lesbians, all that's left is to call Teh Gays immoral.
"I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts," Pace said in a wide-ranging discussion with Tribune editors and reporters in Chicago. "I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.
"As an individual, I would not want [acceptance of gay behavior] to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else's wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior," Pace said.
At which point, someone needs to ask General Pace why he believes homosexuality is immoral. If his answer is: "God says so"—which, quite honestly, it appears to be, what with his reference to having been "taught that certain types of conduct are immoral"—that's not an appropriate answer for justifying public policy in a country ostensibly guaranteeing freedom of (and from) religion. And, because DADT is a civil law as well as a military regulation, it is, in fact, public policy and ergo up for debate, unlike most military regulations.
There's also the inconvenient little problem of lots of Americans who could argue in favor of the repeal of DADT with the argument: "God says so." See, some people's upbringing included being taught that denying equality is immoral, but homosexuality isn't. That's the whole conundrum of invoking God as the singular rationale for or against public policy—God says lots of different things to lots of different people, and all of them think that they're right.
So we've got to have some other way of determining public policy—and it's oh so serendipitous that, the day after we had a discussion about religion not being the singular genesis of morality, I'm given the opportunity to apply my tired old "my rights end where yours begin" secular construct again (which is popular with lots of religious folks, too, as it happens—mostly those who like to keep their relationship with God just between them and God). It's just so gosh-darn useful, because most of the things that people like to argue are God-says-so bad, or intrinsically bad, also happen to fail the MREWYB test. Like murder, for example. God prohibits it, most people have a visceral aversion to it, and it clearly can't pass the MREWYB test, because your right to live prevents my having a right to murder you. Done and dusted. It's only the things about which even the God-says-so folks can't really come to an agreement, about which average people have vastly different innate reactions, that we really need another strategy. And that's where MREWYB becomes extremely handy.
And same-sex relationships pass the MREWYB test with flying colors. Spudsy's right to kiss and hug and love and fuck and marry and get a flat and a car and an adorable dog with his husband has absolutely no capacity to infringe on any of my rights. Or anyone else's. And the cool part about it is that it doesn't stop anyone else from complying with God's wishes as they interpret them. If your God says homosexuality is immoral, then you don't have to be gay—but the people who are gay can be as gay as the day is long, and better yet, equal to the rest of us.
That's what we MREWYB-ers like to call "a win-win situation."
Repealing DADT provides another awesome "win-win." Gays and lesbians can serve their country, and homophobic fuckwits can find another career where they won't be bothered by Teh Gays, like interior design.
And maybe General Pace can shut his bigoted piehole and the Army can put his sorry old ass out to pasture where it belongs. And while he's chewing on his cud, perhaps he can chew on this, too: The gays and lesbians who are willing to die for this country, in spite of its stubborn insistence on treating them as second-class citizens, are patriots of such profound resolve that denying them their chance to serve honestly and openly is a rather more spectacular moral failing than two boys kissing could ever hope to be.
All the Way to the White House
Dare I say it? The White House's partisan purge of federal prosecutors is the scandal that seems to be sticking—and it makes sense, in spite of what appears (at least from my perspective) to be the public's general lack of interest in trying to sort out all the details, which are pretty darn boring, as far as political scandals go. No sex, no murder, no searing images of people stuck on their roofs for days, and no Bush administration abuse of power any more egregious than a dozen others. But this time, they crossed federal prosecutors, who got their jobs in the first place by being smart, skilled, and bloody tenacious. It only makes sense that when the Bush administration started messing with pit bulls, they finally got bit.
Today, the NY Times headline is White House Said to Prompt Firing of Prosecutors and the WaPo headline is Firings Had Genesis in White House. And Bush gets named. From the Times:
The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had been criticized by Republican lawmakers, administration officials said Monday.Another familiar name is popping up again, too—Harriet Miers, ill-fated Supreme Court nominee and former White House counsel. In 2005, Miers sent a memo to Gonzo's chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, inquiring "whether it would be feasible to replace all United States attorneys when their four-year terms expired." Sampson responded that "filling so many jobs at once would overtax the department," and began to work with Miers on "devising a list of attorneys to oust." Yikes. Sampson resigned yesterday.
Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were not aggressively addressing voter fraud, the White House said Monday. Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, was among the politicians who complained directly to the president, according to an administration official.
…Within a few weeks of the president’s comments to the attorney general, the Justice Department forced out seven prosecutors.
Today the WaPo reprints some damning correspondence between Sampson advises Miers, in which he outlines how the Patriot Act can and should be used to make interim appointments (as I described here):
Sampson, Sept. 7, 2006: "I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed. It will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don't have replacements ready to roll immediately. I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments. [By avoiding Senate confirmation], we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House."
Miers: "Kyle thanks for this. I have not forgotten I need to follow up on the info. But things have been crazy."
And then:
On Dec. 7, Miers's deputy, William Kelley, wrote that Domenici's chief of staff "is happy as a clam" about Iglesias.Sampson also wondered, via email, with regard to Gonzo's power to make interim appointments: "[I]f we don't ever exercise it then what's the point of having it?" That charming rhetorical was directed to a White House aide.
A week later, Sampson wrote: "Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow (not even waiting for Iglesias's body to cool)."
The story at the moment is that Sampson resigned "after acknowledging that he did not tell key Justice officials about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information to Congress," so Justice is trying to make him the fall guy. Thing is, some Dems are already calling for Gonzo's head. I'm not remotely convinced even his chief of staff is going to be enough this time.
The White House is going to be facing a similar predicament. They're going to need a fall guy of their own, and the dearly departed Miers is surely being set up for the swan dive. But—she already took it. She's gone. And Rove is right in the thick of it again, too, as per usual. He's a tempting target, and he looks very dirty, with one of his cronies getting an interim appointment and his having relayed to Miers "complaints he had received that the Justice Department was not moving aggressively on voter fraud cases." Digby revisits Rove's previous murmuring about the integrity of elections, and Josh Marshall is all over this sub-issue of voter fraud:
The very short version of this story is that Republicans habitually make claims about voter fraud. But the charges are almost invariably bogus. And in most if not every case the claims are little more than stalking horses for voter suppression efforts. That may sound like a blanket charge. But I've reported on and written about this issue at great length. And there's simply no denying the truth of it. So this becomes a critical backdrop to understanding what happened in some of these cases. Why didn't the prosecutors pursue indictments when GOP operatives started yakking about voter fraud? Almost certainly because there just wasn't any evidence for it.It's helpful to have patsies in the Justice Department when you're keen to pursue partisan cases for which there's little evidence.
And, in case you're wondering, the usual suspects who constantly scream about activist judges don't seem to be losing much sleep over the Bush administration trying to turn the Justice Department into its own personal marionette troupe. What a shocker, eh?
Question of the Day
I was all atwitter recently while looking at the WFMU music blog (referenced in this post), and it led to the amazingly awesome Fudgeland blog. Not only did he have a live Tiny Tim album for download that I'd never even heard of (my love for Tiny Tim is good and pure, and I will hear no sneering jokes about it!), he also posted this incredibly awesome homemade compilation of rarely heard, long-forgotten "themes" from 80's movies. DOWNLOADED.
So now, confession time. I have a total weakness for the "Howard the Duck" song from the movie of that name. Sure, the movie was pretty shudderingly awful... I was a huge fan of the comic when I was a kid, so I was totally excited for the movie; my heart was broken. But I still totally love the song. Sung by the fetching Lea Thompson (in the made-up movie band, Cherry Bomb), with some quacking electric gee-tar effects; what's not to love?
(Odd little aside: I was checking out the free movies available on Comcast's "On Demand" service this weekend, and much to my shock, there was Howard the Duck. Does anyone know how to somehow get a movie I've DVR'd onto DVD?)
There's many other embarrassing gems on this comp, (I'm sure my sister will be quite pleased to see Xanadu!) but Howard is definitely my guilty pleasure that no one would ever know about if it weren't for blogging! My secret shame. By the way, one of the coolest things on this comp are the included dialogue snippets from the flicks, and a secret bonus track! Shh! Don't tell your friends!
So, folks... what movie "theme" song do you totally love that you'd never admit to if it weren't for the safely anonymous nature of the internets? Shakes admitted to me over the phone that she absolutely loves "Playing With the Boys" from Top Gun by Kenny Loggins. She claims that it's because it's "so bad" she absolutely loves it, but I know better. She thinks it's teh awesome. You just know she dances around to this in front of the bathroom mirror, singing into her hairbrush.
My other secret shame favorite: "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" from the "cleanup montage" in Revenge of the Nerds. Seriously, if you can't think of one, think of any "trying on silly hats in front of the mirror"-esque montage from any movie; I'm sure there's some song you totally love.
(By the way, I haven't done a "Name that Cult Movie" quote game post in a good long while. Does anyone miss that?)
Beautiful Edinburgh
This is a short film called Koya Moments (referencing Ron Fricke's film Koyaanisqatsi), made by Edinburgh photography teacher Ewen Meldrum. Meldrum, who took thousands of photographs over two years to create the time-lapse film, says he decided to make the film to counter Edinburgh's negative image built by pop culture: "I was sick of Edinburgh always being portrayed as being full of junkies and people always repeating the statistic that it is the Aids capital of the world. So I set about making this film showing what a stunning place Edinburgh is."
Success. The film is spectacular.
Having lived a short time myself in Scotland's capitol and Mr. Shakes' hometown, I hardly needing convincing that Edinburgh is a lovely city. I imagine there is hardly a more beautiful place on the planet than Edinburgh during its August festival, when its every inch down to the very cobblestones of the Royal Mile virtually hum with the vigor of music and art and grand fucking life. But if you've not been there, not stood under its magnificent skies looking out over the Firth of Forth on a perfect Scottish sunny day, you'll feel like you have after watching Meldrum's exquisite ode.
Quote of the Day
"He doesn't exactly recall, but he may have had a casual conversation with the A.G. to say he had passed those complaints to Harriet Miers." — White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, relaying Karl Rove's "hazy recollection" of reporting GOP complaints about former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Ooh, it's all so…hazy. I just can't…recall.
Runner-up Quote of the Day, from Steve Benen: "The political director of the White House was having casual chats with top Justice Department officials, including the attorney general, about which federal prosecutors weren’t doing enough to politicize their offices. Soon after, those prosecutors were fired in an unprecedented purge. Why would anyone find this suspicious?"
Ha. Shit, that would be fucking hilarious if only it weren't so goddamned tragic. Totally typical. Which is why I'm making this my official emblem of the Bush administration:
Sexual Harassers: The Jackbooted Thugs of the Patriarchy
The headline says: More Men Report Sexual Harassment at Work. When you read it, did you think of:
A) Straight men being harassed by women?
B) Straight men being harassed by gay men?
C) Straight and/or gay men being harassed by straight men?
Most people who read that headline will likely presume it means more men are being sexually harassed by women, and a smaller number will presume it means more straight men are being harassed by gay men. Fewer still will interpret it to mean more men are reporting being harassed by straight men—so if you choose C, you're in a distinct minority, and you're also right.
Increasingly, both gay and straight men are reporting being subjected to sexual harassment perpetrated by straight men, and it's exactly the kind of sex-related abuse used to establish dominance in many examples of ritualistic hazing.
"This kind of harassment has always taken place in the workplace," [Riki Wilchins, executive director of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C.] says. "But the kind of abrasive, sexualized horseplay that might have been acceptable 10 years ago is actionable today.Men now comprise about 15% of sexual harassment complainants, and almost none of the charges are filed against women, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Instead, in this minority of cases, like almost all of the 85% brought by women, the harasser is a bully. Against women, he is an alpha male affecting the posture of a compulsively leg-humping alpha dog; against men, a Nelson Muntz on steroids whose ubiquitous taunts are not just aggravating, but aggressive. These men are the patriarchy's enforcers—workplace thugs who marginalize women, gay men, and transpeople, and who insist that straight men adhere to the same norms, lest their metaphorical kneecaps meet with a metaphorical crowbar.
"More males realize they don't have to take it -- they can file suit."
While harassment based on sexual orientation is not protected by federal law, it's important to note that in gender-based harassment, the aggressors -- and their victims -- are likely straight.
"We assume that the vast majority of the cases are not individuals who are necessarily gay or transgender, but they're in situations where there are these abrasive codes of masculinity to which men are expected to live up to," Wilchins says.
…In the case of men harassing other men, these unwelcome behaviors could range from the use of feminine pronouns and sexual taunts, to simulated sex acts and threats of a sexually aggressive nature, according to GenderPAC.
The patriarchy is, more than anything else, a mafia. The patriarchs—rich, white, powerful, straight men with old money and old family names—are the dons, the kingpins. Their corporate buddies, the nouveau riche captains of industry—Ken Lay, Lee Raymond, Donald Rumsfeld—are the capos, who do just enough (a woman CEO here; a black chairman of the board there) to put a mask of progress on the ancient structure. Then there are all the little made men, made by virtue of their birth—the wealthy white boys of endless American suburbs who want to be capos themselves someday, willing to do whatever it takes to get there, who prove themselves early on playgrounds with nasty words and sneering snouts. And then there are all the Henry Hills who so desperately want to be goodfellas—but by virtue of their genes, or meager beginnings, will never quite fit in—that they're willing to make their bones in the ugliest of ways, to earn themselves some begrudging respect from those born to the family. They'll vote against their own best interests—and hurt the people closest to them—to get it, and that desperation, that insatiable yearning for the unfettered access and privilege the dons dangle as a gossamer reward, makes them invaluable. Stupidly, perfectly invaluable.
All the rest of us, including the men who aren't born rich and white and straight and powerful, well, we're expected to buy ourselves some protection by laughing at the misogynist jokes and chuckling at the homophobic epithets and suffering in silence ungodly rape statistics and cheering gay bashing and never, ever raising a goddamned fuss.
But if we should, if we should, then the enforcers are meant to let us know what's what, in no uncertain terms.
This is something uppity women and gay men have known for years—and something straight men who have not the slightest inclination to be a part of the patriarchal mafia are beginning to find out in larger numbers. If you don't get down with the pussy and fag and n-----r jokes, you're gonna get beat down instead, how about them apples, queer?
The Patriarchy: Bad for everyone who ain't a patriarch!
I'm glad to see more men are bringing legal challenges to what is, truly, no more than jackbooted thuggery of behalf of the patriarchy. It happens to be important for anyone who isn't a patriarch; we are all each other's allies more than most of us see or acknowledge. As I've said before, though all of us, sans rigorous philosophical exertion, are hapless conduits for every limiting and oppressive archetype upon which the patriarchy depends, conveying the bars of our own cages, very few of us are its unconstrained beneficiaries. Even the average straight, white, middle class American man exchanges privilege for severe limitations on his personal expression and emotional life—and he is encouraged never to examine that devastating trade-off too closely, lest the veneer on the alleged bargain prove thin enough through which to see.
It's about time all of us started getting a little Eliot Ness on this shit. Except, you know, with booze.
Several Thousand Words
FOX News in Pictures, thanks to Welcome to Pottersville.
Here are my two favorites:
Poor guy; I'm sure he's just sobbing over this.
And shopping at Wal-Mart increases penis size!
News from Shakes Manor
In which Mr. Shakes lives up to the Scotsman's reputation as perv and poet.
The Scene: Saturday night; master bedroom at Shakes Manor.
Mr. Shakes climbs into bed.
Mr. Shakes: To sleep, perchance to dream.
Shakes stands at the bedside, trying to untangle her comforter, which is a mess.
Shakes: Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Mr. Shakes: What a piece oof woork is a man, hoo nooble in reason, hoo infinite in faculty, in foorm, in moving, hoo express and admirable; in action hoo like an angel, in apprehension hoo like a god—the beauty of the woorld, the paragoon oof animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence oof doost?
Shakes: How much do I love that you can quote me Shakespeare before bedtime?
Mr. Shakes: Proobably as mooch as I loove your boobies. Noo quit fooking with that bloody blanket and get 'em in here.
Interesting
I'd never heard of this album, but when looking through the archives of the WFMU blog (in the MP3 section), this album caught my eye:
"Lullabies from the Axis of Evil:"
"In his 2002 `Axis of Evil' speech, George W. Bush Singled out Iran, Iraq and North Korea, along with their allies, as the enemies of democracy. Enlisting world support for his war on terrorism, Bush pointed a finger and drew the line between us and them. But Bush forgot one thing. These enemy states are filled with mothers and children. Producer Erik Hillestad took up the challenge in reminding us with Lullabies from the Axis of Evil. Hillestad proves `our enemies' possess a remarkable capacity for love and warmth in a tradition of lullabies that spans generations of sense and memory. Hillestad pairs singers from around the world singing in English with the traditional lullabies sung by a host of singers from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria, Cuba and North Korea. Pleasantly devoid of Stereotypical lullaby arrangements and overproduction, the collection of lullabies on this CD shuns the saccharin and keeps the compositions spare and focused on the song. The CD opens with "You, My Destiny," pairing Iran's Mahsa Vahdat and Sarah Jane Morris from England. The pair exchanges verses in this heartbreakingly lovely lullaby.I thought this was a pretty nifty idea. Apparently, the album has sold more than 10,000 copies, and got a writeup in the WaPo. The WFMU blog also notes:
Jon Birge of the New York based Valley Entertainment, says that his company has been listed as one of the companies the Bush administration no longer wants to cooperate with: link. The reason; Birge's company is the US distributor of Lullabies From The Axis Of Evil, a Norwegian CD in which women from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, North-Korea and Cuba sing lullabies in duet with western artists.Now, nothing more is said about this company being one the Bush administration "no longer wants to cooperate with;" the commenters in this post seem as confused as I am. What exactly does that mean? One comment notes:
My understanding from this article is that Mr Birge reportedly has been informed by a third party that the Bush administration has placed Valley Entertainment on a list of companies that are to be subjected to "special treatment" in all their contacts with the authorities. Delays, bureaucratic complications, etc.(The article link was bad, so I didn't include it.)
I've never heard of "the government" doing anything like this to a record label, but I could be wrong. Anyone have anything to add? Anyway, it's a groovy concept; there's samples at WFMU, and a link to purchase the album, if you're so inclined.
