The New Church Picnic

Representative Steve King comparing the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement said:

"The differences we have are that I don't know of any member of the Tea Party that's been arrested," he said. "They are a peaceful group of people that could just as well be the folks at my church picnic.

Mitt Romney

If, as Mitt Romney say, Corporations are people, too," then I am going to try to leave my wife for Victoria's Secret.

How Groupon Affirms Me

It's free for the vendor. It's discounted. It offers 35% off. They offer huge discounts off the "best stuff my city has to offer." Lucky me! I don't need to fight for quality taxpayer funded education -- just give me a scissors printer.

I now have the privilege to receive a daily discount from Groupon or LivingSocial or some other company that has my best interest and happiness in mind. As Sally Field said, "They like me. they really like me!

By my calculations, if I save 37% on the bottle of Reunite Lambrusco a fine Ernest and Julio Gallo's  California Chardonnay, I will not only save money, but get the joy of walking up to a non-unionized member of our nearly minimum wage service sector and show her how we successful middle-class strivers do it! Not only do I save on this heavily discounted item which I didn't really want and still churns a modest profit for store and bottler, but I also feel dignified.

All I can say is, "What a great country!"

Relatives In Oz, Deluded, Powerful, and On Drugs

His House Is a Very Very Very Fine House

Talking today to someone like the nice fellow who owns this house, I learned that America’s budget problems have been caused by the working men and women who belong to unions like those Wisconsin people. Prior to our discussion, I had always thought that unions protected the middle class, insured that they received things like a fair wage, health benefits, a shot at a 40 hour work week, and a bit of a paid vacation. Boy was I wrong!

Now I know that the economic disaster that occurred at the beginning of the Islamic foreign -born President Obama term end of the Bush administration’s term was actually caused by the benefits paid to union members. 

I thought for a minute that the real problem might be: two unfinanced wars or the greedy Wall Street hedge fund motherfuckers managers or all the unwed black mothers driving Cadillacs around town or Terri Schiavo or Bill Ayres pallin' around with terrorists  or those pimps from Acorn or Chandra Levy or Tiller the Baby Killer or Don’t Ask Don’t Tell or NPR’s firing of Juan Williams or all the saggy pants on gold teethed black teenagers or MSNBC or Rahm Emanuel or Hollywood’s Elite Liberals or Al Gore’s discovery of the internet or Michael Moore’s hateful distaste for democracy or tax breaks for everybody including the billionaires who create the engine which creates American jobs even though no jobs have been created or Sista Soulja or Jesse Jackson or the dude from Louisiana with the cash in his freezer or the Clintons who murdered that Foster guy over Whitewater, but I learned that I was mistaken.

I learned that it wasn’t the fault of guys like the one in this house, but the working men and women who belong to unions. They should not be allowed to ruin our country by collective bargaining. The guy who lives in this house told me that we can’t afford to pay these guys so much. 

Anyway -- one look at this guy's monstrous beautiful house and I knew he was better than me and that he would never lie. 

Twelve Reasons To Go Back to Bed: Today's Paper

1. Attackers Wearing Army Uniforms Make Deadly Assault on Bank in Afghanistan SECTION A - PAGE 6
   By ALISSA J. RUBIN
   
2. Russian Trial to Bare a Face of Nationalism SECTION A - PAGE 6
   By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
   
3. Iran Releases Two Germans Who Reported on Stoning Case SECTION A - PAGE 8
   By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
   
4. Madagascar Bars Entry to President Ousted in ’09 SECTION A - PAGE 8
   By BARRY BEARAK
   
5. Uganda President Takes Big Lead in Re-Election Bid SECTION A - PAGE 9
   By JOSH KRON
   
6. Somali Pirates Hijack Yacht With Americans Aboard SECTION A - PAGE 10
   By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
   
7. Ivory Coast Forces Fire on Protesters SECTION A - PAGE 10
   By REUTERS
   
8. As G20 Leaders Set Deal, Geithner Criticizes China SECTION A - PAGE 10
   By LIZ ALDERMAN
   
9. At Church’s Urging, Cuba Frees 7 More Dissidents SECTION A - PAGE 11
   By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
   
10. Oil Flows, but High Prices Jangle Nerves SECTION A - PAGE 12
    By STEVEN ERLANGER
    
11. News Analysis: Unrest Encircles Saudis, Stoking Sense of Unease SECTION A - PAGE 13
    By ROBERT F. WORTH
    
12. Cycle of Suppression Rises in Libya and Elsewhere SECTION A - PAGE 14
    By ANTHONY SHADID

Let’s Make One Thing Clear (Channel)

I liked the outfit that looked as if pizza dough fell on top of Lady Gaga’s head. I appreciated the flotilla of vicious strummers madly head-bobbing behind Bob Dylan. I felt Jagger channeling his inner old brother. Yet most of the music on the Grammy Awards Sunday night was unfamiliar to me. Maybe I need to listen to more Top 40 Radio.

There is more talk about rancor on the radio than music on the radio.

Clear Channel  Communications and Infinity Broadcasting dominate the domestic dial, spending millions for the right to play the same songs over and over and over and over, so we can honor a couple of people over and over and over and over at televised award programs.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 created this mess, ultimately insuring that you will hear popular music with anesthetizing uniformity, or all Bieber all the time. It might be good, but more likely just predictable. Major labels, major promoters, and major stations control it all, resulting in efficiency on the order – and quality of McDonald’s.

It’s all so perfect, but depressing in the way that nostalgia always works – we miss the way things were downtown as we shop at Target and park safely. On the other hand, since the lack of variety on the radio is so evident, the internet has become a boundless reservoir for music new and old, domestic and international.

Congress would like to defund NPR. Before you agree to support this, try listening to something here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/.