Salinger Dead, Caulfield at Rest

J.D. Salinger is dead.

The author of lone assassins’ most popular book has passed away at 91.

I do not know why Mark David Chapman and Arthur Bremer were so obsessed with Catcher in the Rye, nor why it was consistently among the top ten most censored books in America. But there you have it.

He landed at Utah beach on June 6, 1944. I didn’t know that. The usual, excellent New York Times obit is here.

Requiescat in pace.

Courage.

Why I Initially Backed John Edwards: Nukes

If you will check the archives, I initially supported John Edwards in the presidential stakes. I didn’t do it because of where his penis had been, NOR do I now believe that the First Annual National Castration, Weenie Roast and Auto-da-fé is appropriate, just, or says anything that is NOT insulting about the national psyche, our Collective Obnoxious*, but that is by the by.

Another cheapjack defender of public “morality”

(* Or, shorter, Faux Nooz™ and its “Hot chick teachers who’ve had SEX!” Sniff! Sniff!)

I supported Edwards because Obama has this insane idea that nuclear energy  will ever be anything OTHER than a nightmare, and is, instead, a panacea for our energy problems.

Look, I used to live downstream from Los Alamos National Lab, and I had a cousin who worked there for years. From a young age I’ve been aware of the “promise” of nuclear power, but it is an endless downside with zero upside, as I will esplain to you. LOOOOOOOOOCY!

I believed that Obama believed nukes to be good, coming from the state in which Exelon —  the thousand pound gorilla in the U.S.’s nuclear power industry —  operates six, count ‘em SIX nuke plantz. It is politically idiotic to be against nuclear power in Illinois, sad to say.  And it’s a fait accompli. They’re there.

Some REAL Astroturf in Oregon

News Flash: The Los Angeles Times SUCKS.

OK. Not so much news. But consider the arrogance, the clueless elitism of this first sentence of the report on Oregon’s election:

Voters in Oregon OK tax hikes for some

Corporations and wealthy families are targeted to help ease the state’s budget crisis.
By Kim Murphy
Los Angeles Times
January 27, 2010

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada – Facing a budget crunch that threatened to close schools early, lay off teachers and slash healthcare benefits, Oregon voters ended two decades of tax scrimping Tuesday by approving higher taxes on corporations and wealthy families …

“Reporting from Vancouver, Canada“?

Robo-Sockpuppets Behave As Predicted

“Breaking news: I am an idiot.”

Well, I told you so yesterday at 2:20 PM PST.  And look at what today’s cat dragged in:

Sockpuppets Confused About Astroturf

You know, there are times when the willful ignorance, mindless hatred and generic cluelessness of the Reichght approaches absurdist art.

No, I’m not talking about that Ionesco play’s worth of inadvertent black humor displayed by Canadian Import Mark Steyn filling in for Rush Limbaugh this morning — although it really deserves its own post for sheer “No WONDER they don’t let any critics call in” intellectual masturbation, as Steyn nearly loses debate after debate with himself.

He’s nearly as flaccid a Michael Medved, with the same pseudo-intellectual”denouncing intellectuals” oxymoronicism, but with the added cachet of a Canadian accent seemingly thick enough to pretend to be vaguely British or Scottish: a “Canadian Club” whiskey pretending to be “Glenlivet,” “Glenfarclas” or “Glenfiddich.”

Best served as a mixed drink with plenty of ice and Canada Dry Ginger Ale.

The Battle of the Little Greenhorn

News Item:

Amanda Lee Myers / Arizona Daily Star:

J.D. Hayworth says he’ll run against John McCain — Former Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth says he is planning to run against John McCain for his U.S. Senate seat. — Hayworth, a Republican, told The Associated Press late Friday he stepped down as host of his radio program on KFYI-AM, a conservative radio talk show in Phoenix. [...]

It seems like now is the time to tell this story:

Once upon a time, then-Arizona congresscritter J.D. Hayworth served on the natural resources committee with my congressman, Peter DeFazio. DeFazio called him “Little Rush” as did many D’s. Hayworth got the nickname because of his Right Wing Talk Radio roots.

That Tedious, Predictable Earthquake Metaphor

Yes, Virginia, every “clever” newspaper editorialist in America is going to use the “earthquake” metaphor — never thinking, but EVERYBODY ELSE IS GOING TO USE IT TOO! — still, I am undoubtedly in that small minority who have actually experienced one. So, undaunted by the proliferation of lackadaisical or even lazy metaphoricists, I draw on the resonance of my actual seismic experience.

Because that is what an earthquake is, after all: it is the resonance of a deep movement in the crustal material floating on the dense mantle and core of the big rock we all live on. A wave of complex vibration, manifesting as a devastating shock to surface-dwelling life forms, not the least of which are humans.

The Alter Boys Strike Again

The five Catholics that we were assured wouldn’t form a tight ideological unit to destroy any modern conception of the Constitution have finally dropped the big one.

The Alter Boys: Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy (not present)

I’m sure you’ve heard (unless you’re living in a cave) that the Papist Pentarchy strikes again. Three of them, you might recall, handed the 2000 election to George W. “Caligula” Bush (two — Scalia and Thomas — with blatant conflict of interest issues that would have caused any lower court judge to recuse themselves).

@ Treason

Welcome to post #777.

I want to tell you about a crime.

By you, I mean “posterity.” My fellow travelers of the present drift dreamily through the mists of time, convinced that all is well, that it’s still “Morning in America” and untroubled by national events. The economic collapse of 2008 was averted and, therefore, all is well with the world.

Here was where we stood, and what the world looked like based on what we knew today, January 20, 2010, the one year anniversary of the inauguration of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois as the forty fourth president of these United States of America.

Then and Now

In the wake of Watergate, Massachusetts sneered that they were the only state (with D.C.) that voted for McGovern. And rubbed it in with a bumper sticker seen everywhere in the Bay State.

So, I guess fair’s fair.

Time wounds all heels.

Courage.

The Weather in Cloudcuckooland

The weather in Cloudcuckooland is balmy.

I refer, of course, to this commercial on Martin Luther King day: