Can anyone explain this?
Y’know, when someone says “I think he just wrote down some shit that just came into his head and turned it in”? Can anyone make a compelling argument against that theory about this article?
Does anyone have Sasha Frere-Jones’ email? Maybe he can shed some light on this….
Tego Calderon blew up Madison Square Garden the other night. More music that I think everyone should have…
Like rappers, reggaetón artists are driven by the competition of freestyle battles. And the incorporation of the DJ into sets is becoming the industry norm. “Musically, reggaetón was born in a hip-hop environment, with a little bit of Jamaican dancehall and Puerto Rico’s own tropical flavor and ritmo,” says Vico C, one of the movement’s founding fathers. He’s on a phone from Miami, one of the hotbeds of the culture in the States, followed by New York City, Orlando, and Chicago.
What I have heard, I totally dig, ESPECIALLY Don Tego….
She went this morning. Rest in Peace.
And he’s my FUCKING HERO.
And in a Ramones shirt, no less.
Chuck and his buddies have Big Brass Ones, that’s for damn sure.
Look at that grin. Holy cow.
Billmon takes a good hard look at Senator Danforth’s plea for a little common sense on the Right and declares it…
a little disingenuous. At one point in his own political career Danforth barely survived a close race against a pro-choice Democrat — former Lt. Gov. Harriet Woods. I don’t remember hearing him complaining about the influence of the religious right back then.
In that sense, Danforth is very much in the mainstream of the GOP mainstream, which has studiously ignored the more bizarre obsessions and authoritarian yearnings of the Christian conservative movement for more than two decades now, out of fear of being left behind (at the ballot box, not the Rapture.)
It’s even occured to some libertarian-minded Republicans that these people really aren’t (hold on to your chair) conservatives at all, but rather what could perhaps be described as “Afrikaner Socialists.” That is, to say, they have no great philosophical quarrel with big government, as long as it’s their big government, and can be used to smite the heathen and reward the faithful.
I don’t know what I could say that could possible improve on the term “Afrikaner Socialists,” so we’re just going back the show already in progress…
And if mass opinion finally rebels against the extremists, as it did in the Terry Shiavo case? What then? Well, nobody ever said running a right-wing populist movement on behalf of a wealthy oligarchy would be easy.
Well… OK, then.
The anonymous “staffers” that throw people out of events that the shunned persons (as taxpayers) have paid for seem to share a certain M.O.
They always seem to
1. Refuse to give their name.
2. Demand the gate crasher’s ticket.
3. Tell them they’ve been “added to a list.”
5. And crumple up the ticket. (that’s my favorite bit. “No Soup for YOU! ONE YEAR!”)
See, sometimes the brown shirt is on the inside…
In the meantime, enjoy this photo:
(She’s 13.)
Now the Pope’s got one.
Here in Geeklandia, where I work, several thoughts are being knocked around:
1. Is it the same tube? I mean, since Terri Sciavo’s not using hers any more?
2. And what if he lingers for like 12 years? As eponymous puts it: “…still being around in 30 years,
completely incoherent, unable to speak, giving the mass in morse code with his eyelids…
but ALIVE dammit!”
Romulus the Mechanic warned me off of a really cherry looking 86 Volvo 240 last night, saying “Yes, the motor runs and the transmission is probably fine, but everything else about it is going to break before those things do, and it will drive you insane. Just because it cranks and drives doesn’t mean it’s ok.” I think that there’s a lesson here.
Big Jerry “You Sodomites Deserved This” Falwell is sucking air through a pipe, now, too.
This could get ugly if they all go on the same day.
First, note the headline:
“Boy Scout official charged in child porn case”
Then, note the byline:
“DALLAS, Texas”
I’ll pretend to be shocked if you’ll pretend I’m good looking. On three?
I tell ya, seems like Florida and Texas just stay in the news these days. Like I said before, in Florida and Texas, it’s like Old Testament Time, All the Time™.
This is kind of ironic, I think…
The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.
“These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward Bob Schindler’s legal battle to keep Terri’s estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri,” says a description of the list on the Web site of the firm, Response Unlimited, which is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo’s father. “These individuals are passionate about the way they value human life, adamantly oppose euthanasia and are pro-life in every sense of the word!”
Privacy experts said the sale of the list was legal and even predictable, if ghoulish.
“I think it’s amusing,” said Robert Gellman, a privacy and information policy consultant. “I think it’s absolutely classic America. Everything is for sale in America, every type of personal information.”
Certainly seems to add some credence to Michael Schiavo’s assertions that his father-in-law is in this to fully exploit it to his advantage. I mean, the man lost all credibility to me when he dialed Randall “Let the hate wash over you” Terry’s phone number. But now we see his Barnum credentials out on his sleeve for EVERYONE to see.
Hey, what good is exploiting your half-dead daughter and pimping her inert body out for the clown stampede if you can’t make any money off of it, right?
Damn. Reading back on this, I sound like The Rude Pundit today…
Now, before we go any further, remember that this is the newspaper that reported that Exactly 25 Chechen Terrorists Crossed the US/Mexico Border in July with the intent of disrupting the elections last November. So, take this with a bag of salt.
But TODAY they’re reporting that Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, one of the largest Latin American gangs, and the members of the Minutemen Project are getting ready to square off in the desert on the US/Mexico border. I have to wonder who in Mara Salvatrucha called the Washington Times to tip them off. (“Hey, ese, get Reverend Moon on the phone, pronto…”) You don’t think that maybe one of these honkies in the Minutemen Project maybe MADE THIS UP, do ya? I mean, who woulda thunk it?
Not that any of these brave Americans would use this as an opportunity for puffery or posturing…
James Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran who helped organize the vigil to protest the federal government’s failure to control illegal immigration, said he has been told that California and Texas leaders of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, have issued orders to teach “a lesson” to the Minuteman volunteers.
“We’re not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers,” Mr. Gilchrist said. “And those guys are just a bunch of punks.”
Er. Well, I am sure he didn’t add “fucking wetbacks” under his breath or anything.
Now, let’s assume that this “war” that is “brewing” is not the product of this armchair commando’s fevered imagination… The only sourcing on this article is “[Gilchrist] said he has been told…”
Ah.
I see.
For the sake of discussion, let’s allow him the little Rambo movie inside his skull… Someone needs to remind Sergeant Rock that Viet Nam was 30 years ago. If what I read in the papers about him is accurate, James Gilchrist is a retired accountant.
Let’s review what we know about La Mara Salvatrucha:
MS-13 is made up of mostly Salvadorean immigrants that came here after the 17 year civil war in El Salvador. Many of them are veterans of that war, some former FMLN and some former government and death squad troops, trained in guerilla warfare tactics. More here. If these guys are actually in Arizona, it’s because they’re coyotes, ie-professional people-smugglers that convey people through this desert for a living. They have the home turf advantage.
So, essentially we’re talking about these guys versus these guys. Or, more specifically, this guy versus this guy.
I’m just saying. I mean, you Minutemen guys might want to skip dessert at Outback for the next couple of weeks, if you follow me.