COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Don't call it Bluegrass


Saturday night
at the Elephant Bar


26 comments:

  1. The top space is blank, Al-Whito!

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  2. They're playin' in Green Bay, tomorrow night, the start of a three night stand.

    If the New York Giants fall flat, that'd be some kinda party.

    Golly ...

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  3. Californiacation Dream
    The last of The Mamas and the Papas.
    These folks F..... like rabbits and Snorted like Dirt Devils in addition to singing.

    The Black Dahlia Heritage
    VD Czar Dr. George Hodel shared with Man Ray a love for the work of the Marquis de Sade and the belief that the pursuit of personal liberty was worth everything—possibly even, for Hodel, gratuitous murder.

    What has recently come to light, by way of two startling investigative books (2003’s Black Dahlia Avenger, by Hodel’s ex–L.A.P.D. homicide-detective son, Steve Hodel, and—building upon it—Exquisite Corpse, 2006, by art writers Mark Nelson and Sarah Hudson Bayliss), is that George Hodel was a prime suspect in the notorious Black Dahlia murder. (According to Black Dahlia Avenger, Hodel was the killer, and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office conducted extensive surveillance of him. There were numerous arrests, but no one was ever charged with the murder.)

    A striking, graphic array of evidence in the two books strongly suggests that it was Hodel who, on January 15, 1947, killed actress Elizabeth Short, then surgically cut her in two and transported the halved, nude, exsanguinated corpse—the internal organs kept painstakingly intact—to a vacant lot, where he laid the pieces out as if in imitation of certain Surrealist artworks by Man Ray.

    Without knowing any of this, 13-year-old Michelle Gilliam walked through Tamar Hodel’s porch into a room decorated all in lavender and beheld a sultry Kim Novak look-alike.
    “Tamar was the epitome of glamour,” Michelle recalls. “She was someone who never got out of bed until two p.m., and she looked it.

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  4. Prisoner of Conscience
    The challenges John McCain faced as he launched his latest presidential campaign.
    ---
    Given his popular status as a maverick war hero, John McCain has a good shot at winning the 2008 presidential election—if he can get his party to nominate him. But one minute he's toeing the conservative line (on gay marriage, say, or immigration) and the next he's telling someone what he really thinks.

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  5. Drives in 5 states target affirmative action
    Activists aided by Prop. 209's Ward Connerly are launching a campaign to ban race and gender preferences.

    Connerly '08!

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  6. The Uncle Earls playing in the Oneida Casino Lounge, there in Green Bay.

    How about those Indians,
    showin' some style!

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  7. Updates From South Carolina
    Sister Toldjah has a comprehensive list with updates

    The Charleston Post and Courier reports on the delegate count at stake for Republicans in SC:

    If the state gets to keep all of its 47 delegates, then 29 delegates go to the top vote-getter statewide and three delegates each to winners in the six congressional districts.

    If the state’s penalty remains, then 12 of its delegates will go to the statewide winner and two delegates each to winners in the six congressional districts.
    That’s 24 delegates total which are up for grabs in today’s SC primary.

    In NV, there are 34 delegates at stake for Republicans, and 33 for Democrats.

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  8. Al-Deuce-Al
    Double Al, for short.

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  9. Florida, at 114 delegates puts Rudy in the delegate count lead, if he can win, there.

    Voting has already started, there in Florida. Started here in AZ, too.

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  10. Don't laugh, home made press passes work. I had a cuz fancied himself a gay blade, was teaching in Washington state, made himself a press pass from some little newspaper somewhere there, and watched the NCAA semi-finals that year from the press box Would pretend he was taking notes and stuff.... Liquor too, was ok, he said.

    It's gonna be a cold game tomorrow, in Green Bay.

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  11. Got myself and a photographer onto the sidelines of the Cardinals' games, when they played at ASU.

    Did it twice, but it really wasn't worth the effort of driving to Tempe, to watch the Cardinals.

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  12. He said it was easy, nobody blinked an eye. Just flashed the press pass. Had it laminated, with the newspapers name.
    -----------
    A U.S. Border Patrol agent is dead in California after being struck by one of two vehicles fleeing toward the U.S.-Mexico border during a pursuit by law enforcement today.

    The officer, whose name has not yet been released, was laying spike strips across the road in the Imperial Sand Dunes recreation in the southeast portion of the state at about 9:30 a.m. when he was hit by a Hummer believed to have been driven by smugglers.

    The Hummer and a Black Ford F-150 pickup truck escaped into Mexico, Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jeremy Schappell told the Yuma Sun. It is unknown whether the vehicles were carrying drugs or human contraband.

    "Right now our Mexican liaison unit has contact with the Mexican authorities ... try and track these individuals down," Schappell said.

    Witnesses said the two vehicles were being pursued on I-8 between Calexico, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., when the drivers left the interstate and turned into the dunes, fleeing toward the nearby border.

    "It was at the entrance to the Buttercup Recreation Area, where the duners usually park," Schappell said.

    Because of the proximity of interstate and the dune recreational area to the border, the area is popular with smugglers, he said.

    "It actually happens quite frequently out here. What they try to do is, they hope to blend in with the usual dune traffic to increase their chances of going undetected," Schappell said.

    Today's death is the first for an agent in the Yuma sector in over four years, Schappell said.

    "It's not easy. No law enforcement agency wants to lose one of their own. What we're focusing on now is making sure the agents at the scene are taken care of, mentally. Our primary focus is on the family, helping them cope and deal with their loss." WND

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  13. Family should feel better when GWB gives the Driver a Presidential Medal of Freedom, Cause Freedom, like FAMILY VALUES, doesn't stop at the Border.

    AND, Freedom ain't Free.

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  14. 0.3% REPUBLICANS: SOUTH CAROLINA...
    MCCAIN... 33.4%
    HUCKABEE... 28.05%
    ROMNEY... 19.25%
    THOMPSON... 11.52%
    PAUL... 3.93%
    GIULIANI... 3.67%

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  15. Can Dems cross over in Florida?

    that's why Mac will win SC

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  16. Illegals Win!
    ---
    Interviews with Democratic caucus-goers indicated that Clinton fashioned her victory by winning about half the votes cast by whites, and two-thirds support from Hispanics, many members of a Culinary Workers Union that had endorsed Obama. He won about 80 percent of the black vote.

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  17. Fred's as good as gone:
    ---
    Jonathan Martin at The Politico writes that Fred is sounding like he will drop out if he doesn’t have a “strong finish” in SC today:

    Fred Thompson made it clear at a midday campaign stop that he won’t continue in the race without a strong showing out of South Carolina tonight.

    “We’ll see how we have to do, we’ll see what the results are,” Thompson said, when questioned at a small press availability if he needed to win to go forward. “I’ve always said I have to do very well here; there’s no question about that. I stand by that.”

    “We won’t have too much longer to wait,” he added.

    Asked what his plans were for Monday, Thompson repeated the question: “Plans for Monday currently?”

    “It depends on the outcome,” Thompson admitted. “We’ll see.”

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  18. At a campaign head quarters address a few minutes ago, Thompson sounded like a man saying "Goodbye."

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  19. I don't know which white space you mean, Doug.

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  20. News from Nevada, despite the voter results it is the delegate count that counts, in the end.

    Obama picks up 13 delegates
    Billary gets 12

    Obama wins by losing.

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  21. Between "Uncle Earl" and the Youtube thing is a Blank square the same size as the Youtube that just has a little red x in the upper left corner.

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  23. Big John rolls into South Carolina and wins. He gains the momentum

    He gains the mojo of victory!
    As they march into Florida
    Already ahead in RCP polls McCain has only to beat Rudy there and he rolls up Romney across the South on Super Duper Tuesday.

    God helps US, he could even win in November. Then kiss a whole set of what were once considered involuable Constitutional freedoms and rights good bye.

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  24. Leaving Jews out of Nevada’s Caucuses

    Observant Jews in Nevada face a peculiar dilemma this year--do they vote in the caucus or go to synagogue?
    The caucus, which is scheduled on January 19th by both parties, conflicts with the Jewish day of rest known as Shabbat.

    Hadar Susskind explains what this might mean for one of the country's fastest-growing Jewish populations.

    http://interfaithradio.org/audio

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