Tea Party News Brief

Via Maddow, if this isn't the strangest thing you've ever seen you've eaten way too much acid.





I am too confused to speak. Honestly.

Cancer News

The disease that we all know way too well may have just gotten a small kick in the teeth:

British scientists have discovered a "rogue gene" which helps cancer spread around the body and say blocking it with the right kind of drugs could stop many types of the disease in their tracks.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia said their findings could lead within a decade to the development of new medicines to halt a critical late stage of the disease known as metastasis, when cancer cells spread to other parts of the body.

The culprit gene, called WWP2, is an enzymic bonding agent found inside cancer cells, the researchers explained in their study, published in the journal Oncogene Monday.

It attacks and breaks down a naturally-occurring protein in the body which normally prevents cancer cells from spreading.

In tests in the laboratory, the UEA team found that by blocking WWP2, levels of the natural inhibitor protein were boosted and the cancer cells remained dormant.

If there's anything more perfectly sickening and terrifying than how bits of our own bodies can attack us—and travel around to attack us again and again—I don't know what it is. Nor do I want to know.

Little Pied Cormorant, Cat's Eye Sea Shell

Over at my Aussie site.

Boiling down the RW response to Loughner

Joe Scarborough of all people finally helps me to boil down what's so wrong the RW response to the Tucson shooting. What they all are really saying:

The fact that I'm an irresponsible and offensive asshole doesn't make me responsible for the Tucson shooting!

Yeah, well, they may be right.

"The *educated* ruling class"

One well known commentator, on Obama's speech at the Tuscon memorial:

It was, it was all the things the educated, ruling class wants their members to be and sound like.

"Educated" is a bad thing, apparently.

Haate crime

The Washington Post had a word contest years ago in which they invited readers to take a word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition for the word. Here's one:

Haate crime: What Dutch Nazis get charged with.

Opossums, Possums, and the Art of Photoraphy

A post at my other place.

"Blood Libel" Experts, Table of Two Million!

Today is going to be another stupid day in media world.

What I Want on my Gravestone

If I actually planned to have one:

[sic]

That oughta do it.

GO DUCKS!

They don't have the game on the telly in Sydney, but I'll be keeping tabs online.

Oh well. Hell of a try.

Rage Against the Dying of Lead Paint

This guy would protest government regulation off uranium in children's toys.

My Own Best Friend (The Dog Song)

"My Own Best Friend," the video. (Warning: Contains words that cause cancer in laboratory mice.)

Happy Birthday: Long Tough Blog!

This lesson in internet distraction began on New Year's Eve, 2005. Happy Birthday to us, and a sincere Happy New Year to anyone passing by.

It's New Years Day in Australia, we had a fabulous time on Collaroy Beach watching the fireworks and families with Tin and her friend Di, had a few beverages, watched the fireworks at the Harbor Bridge on TV. Had a swim this morning - it's about 90° F - got some work down, now Im having a beer and listening to Penguins on a Rock.

I love my life.
 

The zombies: "Time of the Season"

I woke up with this song in my head and it will not go away. Maybe I dreamed about listening to the radio when I was four.

I love this song, for childhood memory reasons, and for that opening riff: "dum dum dum (tick) ahhh! dum dum dum (tick) ahhh!" But: "Time of the season"? I'm as relaxed as the next guy about lyrics and odd usages of phrases, but that just seems lazy. Might as well say "period of the period of time."  Then the "Who's your daddy"" business. Never did quite get that. But hey, we'll let that pass.

Because this, my friends, is a legendary video (go here if it doesn't play):


The Zombies - Time of the Season
Uploaded by peakers. - Watch more music videos, in HD!



 

Australia: Where Even the Turds are Alive [update]

My Australia blog has a new post about turds.

I've moved to Australia, and I've got a new blog about it

Take a look: Little Australia.

Announcing: a Leak!

Why does Wikileaks announce that they're going to release leaked material they have? Doesn't it at least kind of defeat the purpose of the leaks? Especially in the case of a private entity like "a big U.S. bank"? Doesn't it give those being leaked from time to fix the damage that might be caused? In the case of the government, if the leaks could actually put people in danger, this is understandable, but even then you wouldn't have to announce it publicly. I don't get it.

Trying to Touch and Reach You...

Just for that one line, a beautiful George Harrison folk song for my beautiful far away girl.

Richie Havens: "License to Kill"

This song has possibly the weirdest line Bob Dylan ever wrote: "man has invented his doom, first step was touching the moon..." What, Neil Armstrong let loose the curst of the moon sphynx? Or is it space travel? Or am I missing something?

Probably missing something.

Anyway, it's a beautiful and haunting song, and the odd and slow tempo for some reason suits Richie Havens'guitar style in a very nice way.

It was legal "because the lawyer said it was"

You know, we really needed another one of these:



Thank you, George W. Bush. Thank you.

Twenty-Nine Dollars (and an Alligator Purse)

I'm not sure how I feel about this song on the cassette player for the ride to work on an early morning. I may not be right all day:

Tracheotomy

I wrote a song many years ago called "I Can't Wait to do a Tracheotomy." It's a love song. Some of my friends here might know it. I was just thinking about that song, and about my father, while looking out over a wide expanse of our Rogue Valley from the deck of my friend Eric's house - he's in Argentina - smoking a Seneca brand filterless cigarette that I bought on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation in Western New York recently. I was in Western New York to visit my father, and various other wonderful elements of my family. 


My father, it turned out, actually had a tracheotomy some years after I wrote that song. Some years after that he presented me with the metal tracheotomy contraption that he'd had to wear during that episode. The grandkids tell me he blew bubbles through it now and then. Dad gave the device to me because I'd written a song called, "I Can't Wait to do a Tracheotomy," and he thought I might like to have it. 


I still have that metal tracheotomy contraption; I saw it recently while going through my possessions in preparation for our move to Australia. I found it in a sandwich bag. Still shiny as ever. I think I'll take that contraption with me to Australia. Why not? 


I tell you this only because: There are some moments, some events, some memories, some combinations of moments, events, and memories, that make this weird painful thing called Life worthwhile. For me, that's one.

Thought for the Morning: Tax Cuts II

America, if Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, and David Beckham have to pay a bit more in taxes, they'll only have hundreds of millions of dollars left—and America will be destroyed.

This has been another Thought for the Morning.

Thought for the Morning: Tax cuts

What we need now in America - what we really, really need the very most - is for people with secret bank accounts in Switzerland to pay less taxes. That would make everything perfect. It would be especially good for the unemployed.

Redux: Health Care Reform SAVED Money

Because it's being said again, and louder now that Republicans have taken the House, I have to go back to this post from last January:

Democrats have done a terrible job countering the "It costs too much!" screams from the teabaggers and other Republican miscreants regarding health care reform. How difficult is it to get this across:

• Passing a health care bill, say the Senate bill, which will cost $849 billion over ten years, SAVES money- billions and billions - because the government would spend MUCH MORE than $849 on health care over the next ten years without the bill.

• Again: The government already spends money on health care. We just do it horribly. Passing the bill would save billions and billions of government dollars.

• Passing the bill would save money - while providing thirty million more Americans with coverage, and ending the odious practice of denial of coverage due to preexisting conditions.

How hard is that to get across to the "It costs too much!" crowd?

More here: How Health Care Reform Reduces the Deficit in 5 Not-So-Easy Steps; here: Budget office says health care bill saves money; and this is just interesting.

Thought for the Morning: King George III thinks Obama is a socialist!

This has been another "Thought for the Morning."

 

What Makes You Vote the Way You Do?

People too often appear to vote as if some time in the past their feelings were hurt by someone or something, and that that hurt and humiliation never quite went away. They vote for people who prey on those feelings, and who clearly do not have their interests in mind whatsoever. It's a real shame. The ballot box is no place for such immature crap. We have a country to fix and run.

Not John

I'm Moving to Australia

Me and my other 5/8 are selling off most of what we own, putting a wee bit more in storage, heading off to New York to see and say goodbye to the dozens of members of my wonderful family, then, in December or so, we're headed to Sydney. Tin Tin is from there, and has wanted to go home for some time. I've already received a five-year permanent resident work visa. (I know that's an oxymoron, but that's what it says.)

I'll be writing still, only now as a freelancer rather than a staff writer. Tin Tin will be looking into acting, waking up her old agent skills, and making documentaries. And we will be making some books together, too.

After 20 years in little town, Oregon, this is a very big deal. A very big, very good, very exciting, downright freaky deal. (I'm going to go find me some platypi!)

On a very related note: Need a couple songs for the old electronic music device? This would be an exceptionally good time for a few thousand people to buy a song or two from my CD, Bottomfeeders. Please do go give a listen, I think you'll find something you like. (Over in the right sidebar there are many places to go for songs, including iTunes and Rhapsody.)

Thanks very much in advance.

P.S. Blogger has done some strange things with photos - it decided the center location and the size for that one. Oh well. It's a shot I took coming into Sydney in 2006. You can click to enlarge, and can see the harbor bridge and opera house right to the right of the bridge.

Seve Calls the European Ryder Cup Team

Seve Ballesteros called the European Ryder Cup team this week to tell them what life's really about. Looks like it worked. 14 1/2 -13 1/2 - wow! Wish I'd seen it.

Congratulations, E-Team. And well played, Americans, what a comeback.

P.S. For several posts on Seve, who has been battling brain cancer for many months, hit the "Seve Ballesteros" tag just below this post.

"Going to jump off the GW Bridge. Sorry."

We need a better understanding of cruelty. And shame. Just horrible.

The World Needs More Anne Feeney

Folk-singing unionmaid and all around ass-kicking hellraiser Anne Feeney is experiencing some medical difficulties, I'm very sorry to say. Purchases of her songs are especially helpful right now, as you can imagine. You can help out by buying a song or three here, here, here, and here at iTunes. (The first link, CDBaby, has several more places to buy Anne's songs.)

Here's Anne's Facebook page, and you can join Anne's Caring Bridge group here.

We're thinking of you Anne, and Julie, and all your family and friends. We are thinking of you.

Marijuana Growers Join Teamsters Union

Ho-lee crap:

The workers are trimmers, gardeners and cloners. Cloners clone different strains of marijuana, depending on its medical needs, said Lou Marchetti, the business agent for Local 70, which organized the workers and negotiated the contract. Marjyn Investments provides medical marijuana used by patients suffering from cancer, HIV and other life threatening illnesses.

[...]

Under the two-year contract, the company will pay for the workers’ health care costs. The workers will receive pensions under the Western Conference of Pensions Fund, and their wages, currently at $18 an hour, will increase to $25.75 an hour within 15 months. They also get 10 paid holidays and 60 hours of personal time per year.

The times they are a-changin'...

What a Jerk!

Ahem.



And evil to boot!

Now TPM has unearthed a 1997 C-SPAN video that shows O'Donnell voicing concerns that a drag queen ball "celebrates the type of lifestyle which leads to the disease," objecting to terming those with AIDS "victims" and calling AIDS a consequence of a certain "lifestyle which brings about this disease."

What an asshole.

George Washington: "I Cannot Tell a Lie. Glenn Beck Can, Though."

America's Creepy Uncle lies to his "restore honor" crowd. Yep. Sounds about right.

I'll hide behind a smile
and understanding eyes
and I'll tell you things that you already know
so you can say
I really identify with you, so much
and all the time that you're needing me
is just the time that I'm bleeding you
don't you get it yet?
I'll come to you like an affliction
and I'll leave you like an addiction
you'll never forget me
you wanna know why?
cause I'm a liar

Another Kind of Courage

Veterans of the Iraq War protest more over-deployed soldiers being sent to that mess.

Hitler Was a Black Jew

Neo-Nazis around the world: Suck. On. This.

Anti-Islam Bigotry = Good For Al Qaeda

You can feel the lava under this very thorough Frank Rich column. Just one tiny bit:

After 9/11, President Bush praised Islam as a religion of peace and asked for tolerance for Muslims not necessarily because he was a humanitarian or knew much about Islam but because national security demanded it. An America at war with Islam plays right into Al Qaeda’s recruitment spiel. This month’s incessant and indiscriminate orgy of Muslim-bashing is a national security disaster for that reason — Osama bin Laden’s “next video script has just written itself,” as the former F.B.I. terrorist interrogator Ali Soufan put it — but not just for that reason. America’s Muslim partners, those our troops are fighting and dying for, are collateral damage. If the cleric behind Park51 — a man who has participated in events with Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes, for heaven’s sake — is labeled a closet terrorist sympathizer and a Nazi by some of the loudest and most powerful conservative voices in America, which Muslims are not?

Pat Boone's Parents Were Ignorant, Hateful Bigots

Well, that explains it:

We are all, to a great or lesser degree, the inevitable product of how we were raised, what we were taught and experienced as children.

Dr. Laura, Sarah Palin, and First Amendment Rights

A quick note to the simple-minded: The First Amendment protects citizens from suppression of free speech by government. It has absolutely nothing to do with other citizens giving you shit. When you mention First Amendment rights when talking about this, you are saying something really stupid. I know neither of you mind saying really stupid things, I just wanted to make note of this.

And I just have to transcribe a Tweet The Palin made about this, exactly as she wrote it, spaces or lack of them and all:

Dr.Laura:don't retreat...reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence"isn't American,not fair")

She quit her radio show, if I'm understanding that spaghetti-headed drama queen correctly, because her First Amendment rights ceased to exist?

Kids, this is why they tell you to not do meth.

Manhattan Islamic Center: Not backing Down

Good for him.

And the guy is so regular American he actually kind of reminds of Jason Bateman.

A Long Tough Blog Fundraiser

And by "Fundraiser" I mean "Buy a song or three to support LT and A Long Tough Blog!"

I've never done a fundraiser here, and I don't have advertising (aside from the "Amazon Song Choices" button). I've maintained this blog for five years to say this and that now and then and to provide a place where people can hear and buy my songs. If you are so inclined you are invited to buy some songs, or even the entire "Bottomfeeders" album, and perhaps to even tell a friend or two about this humble internet abode. My personal favorite song on the CD: "Sigh." Something special happened with that one.

You can see the PayPlay link below. For other internet outfits where you find the album, look under "Songs For Sale - Cheap!" up at the top right of the page.

My great thanks in advance.

"Read Ayn Rand" Written Across America

Some dumbass did a dumbass thing:

One man drove 12,238 miles across 30 states to scrawl a message that can only be viewed using Google Earth. His big shoutout: “Read Ayn Rand.”

Except he forgot to finish the message. I helped him out:

"Disappointment Haunted All My Dreams..."

I know they're a pretend band invented by those seven guys at the Trilateral Comminsion, or something, but hell, this is just a cool song. And the opening lick - from keyboard to guitar - is just fantastic.

Sarah Palin's Eye Roll at "I'm a teacher"

This video reveals something bizarre. At about 1:10, Palin asks this obviously thoughtful woman what she does. She answers "I'm a teacher." Palin goes "Ohhh," rolls her eyes, and her and her daughter share an "Oh, that's what's wrong with her" look. Watch for yourself to see if I'm reading too much into it.



And the "Oh you wanted me to be your governor!" moment 10 or 12 seconds in is such incredibly pure slimy condescension I can feel it on my skin.

Shannyn Moore at HuffPo knows the woman in the shot.