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."

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Mitch Who? Mitch Miller 1911-2010


Checkout the commercials at 5 minutes



It is hard to believe that as a country we were ever that naive and that corny, but I suppose we were. Mitch Miller and the Gang eventually recorded more than 20 long-playing discs, (long playing what?) many of which made the Top 40. By 1966 they had sold 17 million copies.

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Mitch Miller, Maestro of the Singalong, Dies at 99
By RICHARD SEVERO
Published: August 2, 2010

Mitch Miller, an influential record producer who became a hugely popular recording artist and an unlikely television star a half century ago by leading a choral group in familiar old songs and inviting people to sing along, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 99.

His daughter Margaret Miller Reuther confirmed the death Monday morning, saying her father had died after a short illness at Lenox Hill Hospital. Mr. Miller lived in Manhattan.

Mr. Miller, a Rochester native who was born on the Fourth of July, had been an accomplished oboist and was still a force in the recording industry when he came up with the idea of recording old standards with a chorus of some two dozen male voices and printing the lyrics on album covers.

The “Sing Along With Mitch” album series, which began in 1958, was an immense success, finding an eager audience among older listeners looking for an alternative to rock ’n’ roll. Mitch Miller and the Gang serenaded them with chestnuts like “Home on the Range,” “That Old Gang of Mine,” “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” and “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.”

When the concept was adapted for television in 1961, with the lyrics appearing at the bottom of the screen, Mr. Miller, with his beaming smile and neatly trimmed mustache and goatee, became a national celebrity.

By then he had established himself as a hit maker for Columbia Records and a career shaper for singers like Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Johnny Mathis, Doris Day, Patti Page and Frankie Laine. First at Mercury Records and then at Columbia, he helped define American popular music in the postwar, pre-rock era, carefully matching singers with songs and choosing often unorthodox but almost always catchy instrumental accompaniment.

Mr. Bennett’s career took off after Mr. Miller persuaded him to record the ballad “Because of You,” backing him with a lush orchestral arrangement by Percy Faith. It reached No. 1 on the pop charts in 1951.

Ms. Clooney was making a mere $50 a recording session when Mr. Miller asked her to record “Come On-a My House,” an oddity based on an Armenian folk melody written by the playwright and novelist William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian, who later went on to create Alvin and the Chipmunks. Ms. Clooney was dubious. “I damn near fell on the floor,” she recalled.

They had a heated argument. But in the end Ms. Clooney agreed to record the song, and it became a giant hit, establishing her as a major artist.

“Nothing happened to me until I met Mitch,” she later said.

By the end of the 1950s Mr. Miller’s eye and ear for talent and songs had been critical in making Columbia the top-selling record company in the nation.

Mr. Miller was the Midas of novelty music, storming the charts with records like Jimmy Boyd’s “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and providing singers with unusual instrumental backing: a harpsichord for Ms. Clooney, French horns for Guy Mitchell. One of his earliest hits, “Mule Train,” was recorded by the muscular-voiced Frankie Laine with three electric guitars, and Mr. Miller himself using a wood block to simulate the snapping of a whip.

Mr. Miller was a studio innovator. Along with the guitarist Les Paul and a few others, he helped pioneer overdubbing, the technique by which different tracks are laid over one another to produce a richer effect; he employed it memorably with Ms. Page, whose close-harmony “duets” with herself became her signature. He also achieved what he called a sonic “halo” on numerous recordings by the use of what came to be called an echo chamber — actually an effect an engineer produced by placing a speaker and a microphone in a tiled restroom.

One Miller specialty was developing crossovers from country to pop. He had particular success with Hank Williams’s songs: he transformed “Hey, Good Lookin’ ” into a hit for Mr. Laine and Jo Stafford and did the same for Mr. Bennett (“Cold, Cold Heart”), Ms. Clooney (“Half as Much”) and Ms. Stafford on her own (“Jambalaya”).

His touch was not always sure. When he had bagpipes accompany Dinah Shore on a song called “Scottish Samba” the result was, in Mr. Miller’s own words, “a dog.” And probably the nadir of Frank Sinatra’s recording career came after Mr. Miller left Mercury and took over pop production at Columbia in 1950.

Sinatra complained that Mr. Miller forced him to record inferior material like “Bim Bam Baby,” “Tennessee Newsboy” and, perhaps most notoriously, “Mama Will Bark,” a 1951 novelty duet with the television personality Dagmar that included dog imitations. Sinatra even sent a telegram to a Congressional subcommittee complaining that Mr. Miller had denied him “freedom of selection.” (Sinatra did sometimes veto Mr. Miller’s song choices. When he refused to record “The Roving Kind” and “My Heart Cries for You,” Mr. Miller replaced him in the studio with a young singer named Guy Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell’s versions of both those songs became hits and made him a star.)

Interviewed by Time magazine in 1951, Mr. Miller was less than enthusiastic about the kind of gimmicky pop records that had become his specialty. “I wouldn’t buy that stuff for myself,” he said. “There’s no real artistic satisfaction in this job. I satisfy my musical ego elsewhere.”

Mr. Miller came up with the idea for his singalong albums in 1958, drawing on a repertory that ordinary people had sung in churches and parlors for decades. By the time he recorded the first “Sing Along With Mitch” album, he had already had success with this approach on the singles chart, scoring a No. 1 hit in 1955 with an arrangement of “The Yellow Rose of Texas.”

Mitch Miller and the Gang eventually recorded more than 20 long-playing discs, many of which made the Top 40. By 1966 they had sold about 17 million copies.

In 1960 his singalong concept was given a one-time television test on NBC. The response was so favorable that “Sing Along With Mitch” became a mainstay of family television, running — every other week at first, then weekly — from 1961 to 1964, then returning in reruns in the summer of 1966. Viewers were encouraged to sing along and instructed to “follow the bouncing ball” — a large dot that bounced from word to word as the lyrics were superimposed on the screen. Among the singers featured, in addition to the male chorus, was a young Leslie Uggams.

The ratings were good, but the critics were mostly unimpressed. Brooks Atkinson, writing in The New York Times, suggested in 1962 that “Sing Along With Mitch” might best be viewed with the sound turned off.

Even at the singalongs’ height, many Americans considered them hopelessly corny. That sense only intensified as a younger generation came of age in the 1960s and musical tastes changed. There were news reports that shopping malls had begun piping Mitch Miller music on their sound systems as a way to discourage teenagers from congregating. Years later, in 1993, when David Koresh and members of his Branch Davidian cult were holed up in their compound in Waco, Tex., F.B.I. agents tried to flush them out by blasting “Sing Along With Mitch” Christmas carols.

By the time Mr. Miller’s television show left the air, his era of popular music had largely ended with the emergence of rock. He was sympathetic to blues and folk music and had one of his biggest hits in 1951 with Johnnie Ray’s “Cry,” a histrionic performance often cited as a rock ’n’ roll precursor. He had also tried to sign Elvis Presley for Columbia before being outbid by RCA. But he turned down an opportunity to sign Buddy Holly, and he was outspoken in his dislike of rock ’n’ roll in general. “It’s not music,” he was quoted as saying, “it’s a disease.” When Bob Dylan, soon to become one of rock’s most influential artists, joined the Columbia roster in 1961, it was not Mr. Miller but another label executive, John Hammond, who signed him.

Mr. Miller told Audio magazine in 1985 that his opposition to rock ’n’ roll had been based more on principle than on taste. The so-called payola scandal, in which record companies were found to have paid disc jockeys to play rock ’n’ roll records, had dismayed him, he said. He also complained about “British-accented youths ripping off black American artists and, because they’re white, being accepted by the American audience” — although that hardly explained his opposition to rock ’n’ roll in the ’50s, a decade before the advent of the Beatles and other British bands.

His wife of 65 years, the former Frances Alexander, died in 2000.

In addition to his daughter Ms. Miller Reuther, Mr. Miller is survived by another daughter, Andrea Miller; a son, Mitchell; two brothers, Leon and Joseph; two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Mitchell William Miller was born on July 4, 1911, in Rochester, one of five children of Abram Calmen Miller, an immigrant from Russia and a wrought-iron worker, and Hinda Rosenblum Miller, a former seamstress.

Mr. Miller’s own musical career began with the oboe. The composer Virgil Thomson called him “an absolutely first-rate oboist — one of the two or three great ones at that time in the world.”

He took up the oboe almost by chance. Seeking to join the orchestra at Washington Junior High School in Rochester, he showed up late for the tryouts and found it was the only one of the instruments, offered free to students, that had not been claimed.

By the age of 15 Mr. Miller was playing with the Syracuse Symphony. After high school he went to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, graduating cum laude in 1932.

He played with the Rochester Philharmonic and then made his way to New York City, where he played oboe for a season under David Mannes in concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He later got a job with the CBS Symphony, performing with it during the notorious Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast in 1938.

He also played in orchestras under Andre Kostelanetz and Percy Faith and performed in another that accompanied George Gershwin on a concert tour as a pianist. When Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” opened on Broadway in 1935, Mr. Miller was in the pit orchestra. He continued to play the oboe after he became a record producer, most notably on the recordings the great jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker made with a string orchestra.

Mr. Miller went to work for Mercury Records in the late ’40s, initially as a producer of classical music and then as head of artists and repertory in the pop division. In 1950, at the invitation of a former Eastman classmate, Goddard Lieberson, executive vice president of Columbia Records, he took the equivalent position there. In the early 1950s he was also musical director of Little Golden Records, which made widely popular recordings for children.

After rock came to dominate the record business and the singalong craze ran its course, Mr. Miller left Columbia and ventured into the Broadway theater, with limited success. He produced “Here’s Where I Belong,” a 1968 musical based on John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden,” which closed after one performance. He was later involved in the production of several other Broadway shows, few of them hits. In the 1980s and ’90s he was a frequent guest conductor of symphony orchestras.

“What pleased me the most,” he said in an interview with The Times in 1981, “was a fellow who came up to me after a concert in Chicago and said, ‘You know, there’s nobody in this whole country who hasn’t been touched by your music in some way.’

“That really made me feel good.”


109 comments:

  1. Say what you want, but this would not have happened in the 1950s. They may have been corny but they were not stupid.

    The attorney for the man charged with last year's deadly shooting rampage at Texas' Fort Hood Army post says his client, who is still on the military's payroll, can't find a bank willing to cash his checks.

    Attorney says Hasan is lucid and won't plead guilty to charges of killing 13.

    While Maj. Nidal Hasan sits in Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas, waiting for his next hearing in October, his lawyer, John Galligan, has been shopping around to banks trying to find a financial institution willing to take on his client as a customer.

    "Various banks have refused, without any specificity, to permit Hasan to open a checking account where he can have his military pay deposited," Galligan told ABC News.

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  2. This is the weirdest story of the week. Why doesn't Hasan just sign his checks over to the lawyer? The shyster is going to get it all, anyway.

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  3. Follow the bouncing ball....

    Texas is not much for a speedy trial. And it is Texas that is holding the Major, not the Army.

    It may be, rufus, that with Direct Deposit that there is no check, but only a credit to an account available.

    I still remember the pay line and getting cash from the young LT. I do believe those days are as long gone as Mr Miller.

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  4. Ha'aretz - Barak Ravid - ‎12 hours ago‎
    United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday the creation of an international review panel into the Gaza-bound flotilla incident in late May, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed him of Israel's agreement ...


    That stonewall is crumbling ...

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  5. PARIS (Reuters) - Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari warned that the international community was losing the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to an interview published on Tuesday.

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  6. Funny rat. You got in line. They called your name. You stood forward, saluted looking down at the strong box, cash and a loaded 45. You signed, picked up your cash and did an about face. It actually felt pretty good.

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  7. We had a chopper go down loaded with cash for 100 troops. They never did find that chopper. Said it probably went down in a lake.

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  8. I remember Mitch, basic good guy, I think.

    Svetlanas For Linear Thinker

    We went to the Air Museum in Boise, actually Nampa. They had a P-51, a Blue Max, bunch of other stuff, all flyable, also a helicopter gunship, the kids could sit in it, an Apache I think it was. They also had a nice recognition to Pappy Boyington, he was from Idaho, but didn't hang around here long, born in Coeur d 'Alene, went to the University of Washington, then outta here.

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. I was at the NCO school at Fort Sherman, on the Atlantic coast of Panama, and pay day arrived.

    My unit was on the Pacific coast and I was running low on cash, drinking nightly at the NCO club, there on Sherman.

    The staff of the school would not release us to go back to Kobbe to get paid. It'd have taken the whole day to take the train back and forth.

    I was on the phone to the 1st Sgt, who told me he'd do what he could. The idea of going a week without beer, not the Engineer way.

    Lo and behold, towards the end of the day a Huey drops in on the parade grounds, and out climbs the LT and the payroll guard.

    The staff of the school, they were surprised, to say the least. But all of us Engineers got our money and were able to party on.

    As the say, loyalty flows from the top, then is returned. My chain of command was loyal to us, and we'd have gone to hell and back for the Major and 1st Sgt.

    And we gave the infantry boys a ton of grief, because none of them got paid. Their chain of command did not give a shit about them and their money problems.

    It was, as always, a good day to be an Engineer.

    The LT, he was none to happy to have been tasked with making the trip, but we sure did not care much about that.

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  11. Down past McCall there's an area that has both nice big pine trees and sage brush, never seen the two together like that. Seems kinda high up in the mountains for sage, but there it was, intermixed in the pine. Never seen anything like it anywhere else, that I can recall. Just an oddity. Wish I had a picture of it, but I was on the wrong side of the car, couldn't get it, and the daughter was driving fast.

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  12. Mr Stockman, he thinks the Republicans are responsible for the financial collapse, he is certainly right, about that.

    Four Deformations of the Apocalypse

    The day of national reckoning has arrived. We will not have a conventional business recovery now, but rather a long hangover of debt liquidation and downsizing — as suggested by last week’s news that the national economy grew at an anemic annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter. Under these circumstances, it’s a pity that the modern Republican Party offers the American people an irrelevant platform of recycled Keynesianism when the old approach — balanced budgets, sound money and financial discipline — is needed more than ever.


    David Stockman, a director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, is working on a book about the financial crisis.

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  13. Boise, Nampa, hell it's practically all one now. Many of the old irrigated fields, gone now. We did see onions, irrigated with the little syphon tubes out of the canals, really heavy irrigated wheat that they were harvesting, really heavy, much of it lodged over, sugar beets, corn and alfalfa. None of this was interesting to anyone but me. The old Capitol Dome is now overshadowed by the
    Banner Bank Building, but Boise has lovely wide streets, and modern buildings.

    Here's the old Idaho lockup. Wish you were all there, save Melody, busting rocks.

    The Mormons have a new Temple of course, shining in the sun, monstrous thing, with Moroni atop, blowing his horn, and, get this, a labor dispute, these pissed folk were sitting with a big sign, just inches off the Mormon property, but I didn't get a pic of that either.

    I have to say, some of these Boise ladies, the local bourgeoisie, know how to get dead drunk at a Shakespearean play, and have a hell of good time doing it.

    And the Boise River has plenty of fish, if you know what you are doing.

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  14. The stone was quarried from the nearby ridges by the resident convicts, who also completed all the later construction. [3]

    heh, they made 'em build their own housing

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  15. The New York Times ran a story that said the "Gulf oil spill is vanishing fast." And this very news organization ran a story suggesting that oil-gobbling microbes are eating up a lot the oil.

    These reports have angered many — particularly those close to the disaster who are still, well, seeing lots of oil.

    "There was more oil at South Pass Tuesday than I've seen since this whole thing started; it was really discouraging," Louisiana charter boat captain Mike Frenette told the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Bob Marshall. "I don't know where everyone else is looking, but if they think there's no more oil out there, they should take a ride with me."

    Don Sutton, another charter boat captain, concurred, telling Marshall that he followed a line of floating oil "that stretched from South Pass to Southwest Pass probably two to three miles off the shore," more than 15 miles. "And that wasn't all we saw. There were patches of oil in that chocolate mousse stuff, slicks, and patches of grass with oil on them. The Gulf might look clear, but we're still seeing oil coming ashore." Recent satellite photos showing large swaths of discolored water seem to back up the claims by Frenette and Sutton.

    Likewise, many coastal scientists and other experts insist that the oil hasn't gone anywhere.

    Millions of gallons of oil are still beneath the surface,

    they say, and all that crude probably won't rise to the surface for some time until it reaches the shallower waters closer to shore. The oil is appearing gradually, mostly because of the steady stream of dispersants that BP has used to break up the oil into tiny patches.


    The NYTimes or the boat Captains, who to believe?

    I think I'll go with the charter boat Captains., they are there, on site.

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  16. desert rat said...
    Ha'aretz - Barak Ravid - ‎12 hours ago‎
    United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday the creation of an international review panel into the Gaza-bound flotilla incident in late May, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed him of Israel's agreement ...

    That stonewall is crumbling ...




    One standard for Israel, no standard for the entire rest of the world...

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  17. Boise State University Campus
    I fished a little lower down, and the water was lower than in this pic. I got a nice wave from two local gals on bikes.

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  18. Like, this is somethig we've never seen before, a fisherman.

    Whole place belongs to me, I think, wasn't any competition.

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  19. That's Boise stadium in the background, home of the Broncos of the Blue Turf. There was a big article in the local paper bout how big coach Bronco didn't want to play the U of I anymore, cause we're 'all riotous, and inebriated'. He took it back however, said he really didn't mean it.

    My wife says, our eight football players, are so damn dumb, of all races, and we got 'em all, they couldn't make it down the staircase without a playbook.

    She's pissed cause she bought them a weedeater, and they haven't done a goddamnedd thing, as promised.

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  20. One standard for Israel, no standard for the entire rest of the world...


    Everytime someone, the UN, the ICC votes to set up another kangaroo court up against Israel or it's leaders...

    think...

    One standard for Israel, no standard for the entire rest of the world...

    really it is that simple....

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  21. The Pirates of the Mediterranean will have their day in court.

    wi"o" has already judged the court and found them to be guilty.

    A tad prejudiced, seems to me.

    The whirled will hold the Israeli to the same standard it holds the Somali pirates, its' all good.

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  22. desert rat said...
    The Pirates of the Mediterranean will have their day in court.

    wi"o" has already judged the court and found them to be guilty.

    A tad prejudiced, seems to me.

    The whirled will hold the Israeli to the same standard it holds the Somali pirates, its' all good.




    Last I checked the somali pirates are not members of the UN.

    One Standard for Israel, no standard for the entire world...

    Last I checked there was NO UN/ICC investigation concerning the somali pirates, tibet, the lebanese murder of palestinians in the fatah el islam refugee camp and thousands of other examples..

    One standard in international law for Israel.

    No standard for anyone else...

    Kangaroo Courts....

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  23. David Stockman, a director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, is working on a book about the financial crisis..



    Stockman is a clever guy and I agree with much of what he said in the article; however, I would be reluctant to quote him as an authority on anything. He is at best a mixed bag.

    He did good work for us here in MI, but after that, it was a mixed bag. He had a lot of highs and almost as many lows.

    Some still call him a crook. At best he was disingenuous.

    .

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  24. Rat: The whirled will hold the Israeli to the same standard it holds the Somali pirates, its' all good.


    Rat is happy that Iran, Cuba, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Niger, Liberia, Iraq, Jordan, Venezuela, Libya, North Korea, South Africa and others can sit an vote on Israel.

    The interesting point about the UN?

    Israel is the ONLY nation in the world prevented from actually sitting on the UNSC...

    And the UNSC wants to judge Israel...

    can you say KANGAROO?

    One standard for Israel, no other nation is held to any standard...

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  25. The United Nations is a farce, and everybody knows it. Might have been a good idea in the beginning, but it's outlived its usefulness.

    Whole thing ought to be shut down. It's just become a third world blah, blah, blah.

    Last good speech was given--

    "I have never encountered anyone who matched his command of the English language. Sentences poured forth in mellifluous constructions complicated enough to test the listener’s intelligence and simultaneously leave him transfixed by the speaker’s virtuosity."


    by this guy

    By This Guy

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  26. "One standard in international law for Israel.

    No standard for anyone else...'


    Got to go with WiO on this one.

    I see no advantage to Israel taking part in the UN show trial.

    The cards are stacked against them before it even starts.

    However, I assume Israel's calculus is that given the pressure they are under to participate and the fact that the end result has already been determined that they have nothing to lose and participating will allow them to get a few jabs in themselves.

    The UN is a sham. In terms of affecting world events they have proved themselves useless in those cases where they don't actually make things worse. In those cases where they have achieved anything positive it is usually only because of American leadership, blood, and treasure.

    It is mostly a conglomeration of small minds from small countries. It is the PC purveyor’s playground. A waste of time and money. The only value it provides the US is as political cover for some of our activities. Time to balls up and dump this decadent institution.


    (Always a good day when I have an opportunity to dump on the UN)



    .

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  27. You prick Bob.

    You slipped your denunciation of the UN in while I was penning mine.

    Another one I owe you for.

    May the wolve be put back on the endangered species list in Idaho to the point where the elk herds disappear.



    .

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  28. Here's Fifty Good Looking Girls For Quirk

    I'm dreaming of my old twenty guage Ithaca, that got stolen, I was a true killer with that baby.

    You don't sight, you just point, like it's a part of you.

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  29. Daddy is a a hell of a good fisherman, and deadly on Grouse, he's an odd man, he likes Shakespeare, farming, and good looking humorous ladies, like me. I am now matriculated. hah!

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  30. Here I Am getting ready to go to school.

    Svetlana

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  31. "Here's Fifty Good Looking Girls for Quirk"

    I don't know if it's my computer or the photographer but the pictures appear unfocused like images from some dissolute dream.

    As for the Ithaca, the man, the gun, "part of you", all very Fraudian, all vey disturbing, especially in combination with the dreamlike quality of the photos.


    Get a grip you crazy farmer. You are starting to drift again.


    .


    .

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  32. I'll tell ya, the best part of "A Mid
    Summers Night's Dream" to me, this may say something bout me, was when Helena, down on all fours, baying to yonder moon, o Demetrius, and switching, witching, switch switch switch, her buns, back and forth, so invitingly.

    Switch, twitch.


    o jesus

    the bourgeoisie ladies of Boise in booth before me got big joy out of this too

    christ she could work them hips

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  33. "...he's an odd man"

    True enough.


    "I am now matriculated."

    I've heard drug therapy can help.


    .

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  34. Nah, not Freudian at all, just a young man, his dog, and his gun.

    You think too much Quirk, that's all, that's your trouble.

    If you want me to tell you a tale of young love, up in mountains, bottle of vodka, ice, Saturday afternoons, sandwiches, condoms, listening to the Vandals, having at it, but I'm not going to, even the Brittsny Spaniel went off into the woods.

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  35. All alone, with the breeze through the trees.

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  36. Yeah, I always noticed that got'em hot, too. Ants, and listening to football. Couldn't carry enough condoms for those "special" situations.

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  37. "All alone, with the breeze through the trees."

    As I suspected.

    I noticed there was no mention of a girl.

    However, if this is the case, why the condoms?

    Never mind. I don't think I want to know.

    No wonder the dog left.


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  38. “The same government that is seeking to kill Anwar Al-Awlaki has prohibited attorneys from contesting the legality of the government’s decision to use lethal force against him,” says the complaint, which was jointly filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

    The lawsuit seeks a judicial ruling that requiring such a license in these circumstances is illegal, contending that the regulation exceeds the Treasury Department’s statutory authority, violates the lawyers’ own constitutional rights, and lacks sufficient standards and safeguards. However, it also says the groups would accept a ruling simply ordering the government to issue a license immediately.

    “Targeting Americans for execution without any form of due process while at the same time obstructing lawyers’ ability to challenge that policy is fundamentally un-American,” said Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.


    Al-Awlaki Lawyers File Suit


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  39. The girl was there, the dog off on the hunt, the lady, naked as nature, come hither, she said, such an inviting cunt, and time ended, as the breeze wafted through the trees the best time of my life.

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  40. Lebanon (controlled by hezbollah/syria & iran) are trying to start a war...

    Notice the Arab SNIPER targeted the observing IDF officers.

    -----

    This is a summary of a briefing with IDF Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich regarding today's firefight in Lebanon. The briefing took place about an hour ago.
    Today's unprovoked attack by the Lebanese army against the IDF, took place in Israeli territory along Israeli's Northern border. In some areas, there is a gap between the IDF security fence and the actual border, which is where this attack took place. IDF soldiers were conducting routine maintenance work including clearing bushes from the area. This sort of activity is crucial to keep an open line of sight, to prevent attacks and kidnappings, like the one in the summer of 2006, which was in a similar location.

    This crucial work was fully coordinated with UNIFIL, and there was nothing unique about it.

    A Lebanese sniper opened fire towards IDF forces in a clear and blatant violation of UN security council resolution 1701.

    The IDF retaliated with artillery and helicopter fire.

    IDF intelligence is investigating if this was premeditated attack.

    The LAF opened fire not at the soldiers who were doing the routine maintenance work on the fence, but at the commanders who were standing nearby observing the work. This indicates that it was a preplanned attack not in reaction to the work on the fence.

    We estimate 4 casualties on their side.

    Some parts of the LAF are influenced by Hezbollah

    After the initial exchange of fire, we were requested to suspend our fire so that they could evacuate their wounded. roughly half an hour after we suspended our fire, LAF shot an RPG at one of our tanks. They missed the tank and our tank returned fire.

    IDF only opened fire in response to our soldiers being shot at and wounded.

    This is the most serious incident along the northern border since 2006.


    Official Casualty Statement:

    Lt Col (res) killed: Dov Harari.
    Critically wounded (res) company commander (Captain).
    Hmmm.

    Other indications that the attack was premeditated:
    Three Lebanese casualties were LAF troops, but the fourth was a reporter for al-Akhbar, a Hezbullah-affiliated newspaper.
    The presence of photographers in the area.
    The presence of UNIFIL forces in the immediate area.





    My opinion?

    Israel should drop a very large munition on a Hezbollah target.

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  41. Beat that, Quirk.

    And, you have to put the smell of the pines and cedars in there too.

    And the sound of the wind through he branches.


    And the feel of soft skin.

    Or, you are not even getting close.

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  42. ...and time ended, as the breeze wafted through the trees the best time of my life...

    "...and then I woke up. The dog was pissing on my leg."



    .

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  43. Women, I love 'em. such soft and compassionate things.....and giving...o so giving

    ReplyDelete
  44. Quirk, you're dog shit, if you don't like the girls.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Call your Doctor, Bob. You're starting to "slip," again.

    ReplyDelete
  46. One of the dead was a reporter for al-Akhbar, a Hezbullah-affiliated newspaper.



    No loss there....

    I hope he suffered....

    I hope his family, after they have a Martyr's Tent celebrating his death, in the quiet of the night, mourn his life forever...

    No doubt there will be celebrations in Lebanon as for the NEW Martyrs for Allah..

    I hope they have many, many, many more soon...

    VERY SOON....

    ReplyDelete
  47. I don't need no doc Guvor Ruf, but a skinny dip in a cold Idaho lake would help.

    ReplyDelete
  48. That's Govnor Rufus, your Honor.

    ReplyDelete
  49. For all you constitutional devotees:

    "U.S. Supreme Court asked to halt Khadr trial

    ...

    Lawyer argues law underpinning the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals is unconstitutional.

    ...

    Omar Khadr, now 23, was 15 years old when he was captured in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. He is scheduled to go to trial at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base on Aug. 10 on charges that include conspiring to commit terrorism and murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade during the battle.

    Mr. Khadr’s U.S. military lawyer, Army Lieutenant Colonel Jon Jackson, contends the 2009 law underpinning the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals is unconstitutional because it created a second-class court system that applies only to non-U.S. citizens.

    “From the outset, the law of war has applied to Americans and aliens alike, because its rationale has been that reciprocity with regard to the enemy is the best and only legal guarantee that war will not descend to barbarism on either side,” Lt. Col. Jackson wrote in court documents filed on Monday.

    ..."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/us-supreme-court-asked-to-halt-khadr-trial/article1660358/

    ReplyDelete
  50. ash: Lawyer argues law underpinning the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals is unconstitutional.

    ...

    Omar Khadr, now 23, was 15 years old when he was captured in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. He is scheduled to go to trial at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base on Aug. 10 on charges that include conspiring to commit terrorism and murdering a U.S. soldier with a grenade during the battle.






    He should have been executed on the battlefield and buried in the skin of a pig.

    His grave? Should be unmarked and should never be disclosed.

    If he was arrested by the USA? He should be in solitary confinement, fed bread, water and a vitaman supplement.

    No one should speak to him ever again, not a sound should pass to him..

    Complete silence forever.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Ash said...
    For all you constitutional devotees:


    The "Constitution" is dead....

    Illegal aliens now squat in every town and village of the Republic.

    The "President" is not actually QUALIFIED as a citizen to BE the President.

    So don't sweat the small stuff...

    Just wait for the millions ex-Americans crashing through your border escaping the killing fields of America...

    After all a nation without a system of laws, applicable to all citizens, is going to fall into chaos..

    And Canada will not get to slip by without the fallout..

    So to all you Canuks of the North, that hate America so much?

    Your dream may come true...

    and your worst nightmare as well...

    ReplyDelete
  52. EAST ST. LOUIS • The Rev. Joseph Tracy said he’s tired of going to funerals. And now, he suspects he’ll be going to more of them.
    "It’s open field day now," said Tracy, the pastor of Straightway Baptist Church here. "The criminals are going to run wild."
    Gang activity. Drug dealing. Cold-blooded killing. Tracy worries that a decision to shrink the police force by almost 30 percent will bring more of everything.

    ReplyDelete
  53. When it was learned that more than 50 people were shot, some fatally, over Fathers Day weekend in the poorer sections of Chicago, it didn’t even make the front page of Chicago newspapers.

    As ABC News put it, “Most of the weekend shootings took place in poor neighborhoods on the city’s south and west sides. Those areas are away from downtown and tourist attractions, perhaps one reason much of the city seemed to shrug its shoulders at the violence.” Jim O’Shea, editor of Chicago News Cooperative, said, “I think people just say, ‘Ah, it’s a bunch of gang bangers shooting each other.'"

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  54. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  55. Mexican Drug Cartel Puts a Price on Arizona Sheriff's Head

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  56. Quirk, you are quite right. I am a shy fellow, as my wife will attest , but when I fall in love I go o so overboard and make a fool of myself, I just can't help it.


    It's like an ocean cruise, a ski vacation, a hunt in the mountains, a trip to Vegas and I don't what the hell else.

    I always end up making a fool of myself, but the heart has its ways.

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  57. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  58. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody

    ReplyDelete
  59. Andrew Sullivan (keep your comments to yourselves) had a book published this year titled The View From Your Window. A few years ago he started asking readers of the Daily Dish to send photos taken out the windows of their far-flung residences and he posts them on his blog. He also recently began a The View From Your Window Contest, wherein readers have to guess where a given picture was taken.

    I've come close a few times and didn't do too bad this week, guessing, along with at least a few others, Pristina, Kosovo.

    I read the winning entry today and then, without telling him where it was, had my three-time Balkan veteran look at the photo and guess.

    http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/08/the-view-from-your-window-contest-winner-9.html#more

    He went with Pristina, too, but then remarked the slightly-off architecture.

    Well, this was the winning entry:

    "Oof, this is much harder to pin to down than last week. OK, start with clues:

    "Bullet holes = former war zone, recent enough to have not been fully repaired
    New buildings in mid- and background = war over sufficiently long enough for some rebuilding
    Snow on ground and pitched roofs = somewhere it snows/rains regularly
    Architecture = Europe

    "So we’re clearly in the Balkans, and either in Kosovo or Bosnia – Dubrovnik and Osijek (the Remnantsmain Croatian towns that might still have war damage) would not, I’m guessing, have this kind of dense modernist residential area. A Google search for “bullet holes Sarajevo” returns this photo of a mortar-damaged wall, taken in 1997 by Masaki Hirano, that has the same colour paint as the wall in the contest photo. Photos of Pristina suggest different architecture (also, the fighting in Kosovo lasted for a much shorter time, making it, I guess, less likely that there would be extensive damage to non-strategic residential areas – no siege, so no entrenched front lines). Then, with a little more digging, I found this photo – of the same building, taken from a different angle. Unfortunately, the blog post isn’t entirely clear where it’s of – could be Sarajevo or Mostar – but based on the Hirano picture, I’m going to go with Sarajevo, Bosnia as this week’s answer.

    "Unfortunately, having never been there, I don’t know the city well enough to figure out the exact location on Google maps. I also have never asked anyone to marry me there, nor do I have time to get there and back for a photo before Tuesday."

    [...]


    He was also last week's winner, correctly guessing Lausanne.

    I wanna meet this guy, 'cause that's some no-dickin'-around nerd-dom right there.

    One entrant had this to say:

    "Sarajevo? This is the best I've felt so far regarding the contest, but there is no way I can compete with folks who actually travel to or google map the exact location to the actual coordinates. Gosh, you would think Dish readers could find Bin Laden if you made it into a contest!"

    To which my veteran bin Laden hunter responded, "Dear."

    "Dear?"

    "D-I-R. Dir, Pakistan. Just north of Dir. I betcha."

    With any luck, we'll get to find out.

    ReplyDelete
  60. The recently matriculated Svetlana decided a part-time job at Walmart of Boise would be needed to defray the costs of her Twinkie addiction. There was however a long line at the job application computer terminal, and she felt the need for a nap.


    Meanwhile, daddy tired of waiting for his little Lolita, and paced impatiently at their agreed upon rendezvous point, between women's apparel and men's outerwear, his favorite haunt in the vast retail wonderland.

    ReplyDelete
  61. I'd love to see Osama's head on a pike, just for the kick in the balls it'd be to allen.

    Nah, I'd love to Osama's head on a pike for the kick in the balls it'd be to the Wahhabi.

    Which is almost one and the same.

    It'd give lie to the idea that Osama is in the mountains, ready to come back to the fight, when his people really need him, like Zapata in Mexico.

    Even Doc Z, there'd be real visceral pleasure in seeing his head.

    Obama would be a hero, deservedly so.

    ReplyDelete
  62. "...there'd be real visceral pleasure..."

    And more.

    ReplyDelete
  63. And the point of that was not to get your hopes up, Rat. Just so you know.


    Apropos nothing, it's just nice listening:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es5zRyXUQ5E

    ReplyDelete
  64. DR,

    Still thinking about my "balls"?

    Your priorities distinquish you as one sick puppy.

    Here's something to think about ,Pseudo-Ranger Boy, I am not conflicted: I would gladly see Osama killed this afternoon and feel none the worse for being proved wrong. My patriotism is not the vassal of my ego.

    I've said it before and I say it again, you are a Muslim/Islamic sympathizer in cowboy drag.

    ReplyDelete
  65. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  66. 12 Million Barrels of oil/gasoline Imported every day X 365 = 4,385,000,000 Barrels X $80.00 = $350,400,000,000.00/Yr for Imported Oil/Gasoline.

    $350 Billion, 400 Million gone. Every year.

    For about 1/3 of the mostly wasted Stimulus money we could have, basically, eliminated that for all time.

    Edit: changed 1/4 to 1/3

    ReplyDelete
  67. This makes a lot of sense: Solar Parking Lots

    Maybe Jerry Jones should take a look at this.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Well, allen, you have been so positive that Osama is dead that his revival would either double you over in pain, or have to be considered a divine miracle, Osama raised from the dead.

    Either would prove you to be wrong about most everything you have publicly stated to believe.

    Osama, back from the dead, would have to be considered divine intervention, a miracle of a sort.
    Allah at work, much like his work in Libya, with that Lockerbie cancer patient.

    As to the Israeli and their equivalency with the Somali pirates, while it is true that the pirates of Somalia are not members of the UN, they have not been in constant violation of the Geneva Accords for the past 43 years, either.

    As the Israeli have.
    The Israeli having a four decade history of disregard for the rule of law and international legal standards.

    Makes the Pirates of the Mediterranean fully equivalent to those Somali, as the PM of Turkey has stated publicly.

    The Israeli contribution to the investigation, that'll make for an interesting side bar, I'm sure.

    That the Semites of the Middle East, the Israeli and the Sauds, particularly, trend towards acting in disregard of US national interests puts them all in bed, together.
    At least from the US perspective.

    The Sauds and the Israel, allied against US national interests and working together on the continued vilification of the Persians, the only non-Semitic power in the region.

    Semetic birds of a feather, flocking together.

    ReplyDelete
  69. I have to say again, those middle aged women, down in Boise, they were nice, hallelujah , they let their hair down, right in front of me, they didn't have a clue on what was going on in the play, but no matter, the breeze blew through just right, lifting the silks, the lines were well spoken, and Helena, on all fours, twisted her buns, o back and forth, baying to the yonder moon, so invitingly, o my, and that's all the bourgeoisie of Boise really cared about, Boise is a nice town, filled to the gills with hot hot middle class women. wow I could make my living there if I was that kinda guy but i'm not.

    I could regain my youth, but that's not what I want, I don't want to live all that again, all that sadness, but rejoice is what I want.

    ReplyDelete
  70. A friend of mine was watching a movie with her boyfriend a few months ago and in the movie it showed a man signing a work visa for Kuwait. Her boyfriend said, “I had one of those for the few days I spent in Kuwait before going to Iraq but mine was a residency visa”. A couple of weeks ago someone was watching the same movie and realized that the name on the visa, which was in Arabic, wasn’t the same name the character was signing. For some reason or another he found my friend’s blog and left him a message kindly letting him know that they were using his visa as a prop in this movie. What must have happened was they had found the picture of his visa on his site and used it in the movie. Sure enough he took out his visa and all the numbers matched up. The only thing they changed was residency to work and the date. I guess they figured no one could read Arabic so why get permission to use it. I wonder if that is legal.

    My blog was targeted a few years back for a picture I had put up. Authors of a book contacted me because they wanted to use the picture in their book. I had to sign all kinds of release papers.

    ReplyDelete
  71. More bad economic news?

    The Biggest Lie About U.S. Companies

    That's an interesting story, Mel. BTW, did your photo ever make it into the book?

    ReplyDelete
  72. No shit, you should come live with me, you'd be safe.

    We could eat fish together.

    ReplyDelete
  73. DR:
    As to the Israeli and their equivalency with the Somali pirates, while it is true that the pirates of Somalia are not members of the UN, they have not been in constant violation of the Geneva Accords for the past 43 years, either.


    If one is not a nation one is not capable of being in violation of the accords..

    You are holding up an example of a man that has never gotten pregnant to compare to a woman that can...

    quite the fictional argument...

    DR continues: As the Israeli have.
    The Israeli having a four decade history of disregard for the rule of law and international legal standards.


    ONE standard of international laws for Israel, no other standards for anyone else..

    That is how Rat frames it...

    If only Israel were the evil force that Rat says, i bet they would have tracked his slimy ass down MONTHS ago and slit his throat..

    To bad the Israelis are quite moral and not what Rat protrays them to be...

    But one can wish...

    Dear Capt. Schwartz,

    We all know you are an evil semite, please go and track that Rat down and behead him now....

    darn...

    I guess I lost my decoder ring...

    Rat you can rest, your enemy the evil Joos will not slit your throat...

    but we can hope.....

    ReplyDelete
  74. DR,

    Re: Osama's death

    DR, I am just not that into having to be right. Unlike you, my world does not revolve around the false perception of personal infallibility.

    REALLY, it would cause me no pain whatsoever if my enemy, Osama, were killed now or in future. For reasons of my own, I believe him long dead; however, if proved wrong, well, good for the home team (That would be the US.).

    Having clarified things for you, you may now go back to fixating on my bouncing “balls”, you old dog.

    ReplyDelete
  75. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  76. Rat's ass is a piece of shit, no more, no less.

    ReplyDelete
  77. After well over a year of back and forth emails and printing and signing and getting the release papers out on time they decided not to use my photo. They were targeting the Internet for a certain phrase and that certain phrase came up in a post I wrote but the picture they liked wasn't associated with the phrase. I think that's why they didn't use it. Although, I got a free autographed copy of the book and an invitation to the launch party in New York.

    ReplyDelete
  78. I must have been wrong, it seems allen has no balls to be kicked.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Folks have tried to kill me before, they've all failed to perform to standard.

    The way the Israeli have been operating, in Lebanon and against Turkish shipping in the Med, they'd not be able to get it done, either.

    Though they are welcome to come try, as are you wi"o".

    Bring lawyers, guns and money, you'll need all three.

    ReplyDelete
  80. DR,

    "allen has no balls to be kicked"

    Certainly, not by the likes of you, Puke.

    ReplyDelete
  81. <a href="http://www.fish4flies.com/img/flies/Large/T2525Royal%20Coachman%20Bucktail.jpg"<:Spamish g<uitar< and I don't care ir it upsetsdMelody.

    ReplyDelete
  82. You do protest, first that you have no balls, then that I couldn't kick 'em, even if you did.

    Comical, to say the least.

    ReplyDelete
  83. A ton of bad news coming out of Pakistan. Floods, riots, political murders and retribution...

    You would think they're falling into chaos and anarchy.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Whit,

    I imagine the Corporations are going out, and getting all the money they can at ridiculously low interest rates. BTW, the reason Ford survived, and GM, and Chrysler didn't, is because Ford went out the year before, and borrowed Twenty something Billion Dollars. Debt, in adult hands, is a "Good" thing.

    All that being said, those corps only have a debt to asset ratio of 50%. Considering the low interest payments I'd say they're in pretty good shape.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Looking for a new avatar? Don't miss these. Seriously, take a look.

    ReplyDelete
  86. If you say so, Rufus.

    ReplyDelete
  87. DR,

    ...sorry, but even bifocals cannot help your illiteracy...or your homoerotic fantasy...

    wet, wet, wet

    ReplyDelete
  88. I wish you guys could find a new bar for your ongoing feud.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Remember the definition of insanity?

    ReplyDelete
  90. In Missouri, today, there was a ballot initiative (Proposition C) that would direct the State Government to opt out of Obamacare.

    It's Passing by 70%

    O'wammybammy, wot now?

    ReplyDelete
  91. whit,

    It's hard to stop a 3,500 year-old feud...Amalek, you know?

    That said, anytime you want me gone, just say the word.

    ReplyDelete
  92. The Commonwealth of Virginia, rufus, is also going to the Supremes, directly, to get the ObamaCare statute declared non-Constitutional.

    Saw that this morning, or yesterday.

    Guess the fat lady has not sung the final note of that tune, yet.

    ReplyDelete
  93. I don't want anybody gone but the constant back and forth crap is unseemly and insane.

    Someone needs to be an adult, here.

    ReplyDelete
  94. dr: Bring lawyers, guns and money, you'll need all three.



    Rat, seriously, I wouldnt waste used toilet paper on ya...

    I just hope that someone out there, with alot less than I to lose, will give you a special moment of love....

    ReplyDelete
  95. whit said...
    A ton of bad news coming out of Pakistan. Floods, riots, political murders and retribution...



    It's Allah..

    he's tired of the Pakis

    ReplyDelete
  96. Up to 75%!


    And, Mo is the ultimate "swing" state, too.

    ReplyDelete
  97. All anyone has to lose, "o", is their life.

    That you expect others to value theirs less than you value yours, well, that's just one of those things that makes you so special.

    I understand you're going to be competing in the Olympics, too.

    ReplyDelete
  98. So in the end...

    The USA gives a billion to Lebanon, only to have be used against Israel

    The west (USA) funds, arms and trains the Turks, only to have be used against Israel..

    The Palestinians received 1.5 billion and training by Gen Dayton only to have it be turned and used against Israel..

    With friends like America, can Israel afford to have FRIENDS?

    If Egypt goes Islamic Jihadist....

    There goes another 20 billion down the drain...

    ReplyDelete
  99. The best time
    I ever had in my life
    Was when Jackie
    Took all her clothes off
    Amd I did too
    And the wind
    Went through the firs

    ReplyDelete
  100. You may not be queer, Bob, but you sure as hell are bi....polar.

    ReplyDelete
  101. http://exercisingwhileintoxicated.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/the-beer-every-mile-sf-half-marathon-13-beers-in-13-miles/

    "Several of you told me that I was 'going to die' if I drank 13 beers while running the San Francisco Half Marathon. I did not die.

    "I puked three times, blacked out for miles 11 and 12, and needed five hours to finish. This is my story."

    I actually know a few people who did this. Lo these many years ago.

    "God fucking knows how I end up at Golden Gate Park, but I eventually do. I remember none of this. I remember not a thing until I see the sign for Stow Lake. Holy shit, I’m finished! I somehow snap into immediate coherence, chugalug the last disgusting sip of beer, and go to see if someone will take my picture.

    "Two cute Asian girls comply. At first, they think I’m hilarious and we’re chatting it up. But as you can see by clicking on that photo, my mouth suddenly fills with about a gallon of vomit while they are taking my finish line picture."

    That's how allen makes me feel.

    ReplyDelete
  102. "... my mouth suddenly fills with about a gallon of vomit..."

    And enough cannot be said, really, Rat, for your continuing engagement of him.

    "I wish you guys could find a new bar for your ongoing feud."

    Nooooo!!!!

    This place wouldn't be half the delight it is without it.

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete