Amur Tiger Time

Five cute cubs. I wonder which ones are the boys & which are the girls?

& The Dirty Parts Are On Page....

JD Salinger is dead.

Catcher In The Rye, ah, youth, it's so alienating. You can buy the book here. In fact, you can buy all of Salinger's books there. Quotes from the book:

What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 1

All morons hate it when you call them a moron. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 6

Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it - the same night, as a matter of fact. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 9

Howard Zinn, R.I.P.

Too bad, this was one historian who actually made contributions to the people, contributions that could be put to concrete, constructive action.

Elizabeth NiNovella has more.

“I think some progressives have forgotten the history of the Democratic Party, to which people have turned again and again in desperate search for saviors, later to be disappointed. Our political history shows us that only great popular movements, carrying out bold actions that awakened the nation and threatened the Establishment, as in the Thirties and the Sixties, have been able to shake that pyramid of corporate and military power and at least temporarily changed course.”

Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, wrote a Thank You, to Howard Zinn.

Thank you, Howard Zinn, for this amazing, inspiring paragraph, which I’ve had on my wall for years now:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

He will be missed.

Pernell Roberts, R.I.P.

Frankly, I never much cared for Adam. Too much book learnin' on his part, I suppose.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968

A great man. The  '60s were not all sex, drugs, & rock & roll, so fuck the right wingers. 

I Liked That Last Pass For A Touchdown

Screw the Cowboys, they've been a bunch of whiners since the Ice Bowl. Today, 34-3. Four more TD passes for Favre, no interceptions. Such on that Ted Thompson & Mike McCarthy. Oh, to the most loyal of my loyal four readers, I am presently preparing the ultimate explanation of Brett Favre's name that has "never been made in such detail or with such care." & if you click on the last link you will be rewarded by a gratuitous photo of Jeri Ryan, who's not as good looking as many think, but she's still, uhm, OK.

Knox Burger, R.I.P.

As good a place as any to be buried.

Mr. Burger himself was such a dedicated fly fisherman that his ashes are to be buried in a creel.

Peace In Our Time?

Not with a budget request like this. It just keeps piling up & I feel stupid for not understanding it better.

...an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of a record $708 billion for the Defense Department next year,....

The Who were certainly correct.

Wont Get Fooled Again

Defense

What effing defense? Also, crooked refs.

No Wonder

I often think about why this country seems so fouled up when it comes to guns & sex, among other things. This popped up on my homepage today & it sure explains a lot. This ad is from 1918 & it promotes Erector (heh, heh) plus other "toys" by the same company. A nurse's outfit, now that really creeps me out, given the other toys advertised.

Full disclosure, I did receive an Erector set one xmas.  My family was visiting my mother's youngest brother in Waterloo, IA.  I remember building something.  Clearly, however, engineering was not in my future.  I never, ever, got a nurse's outfit.  I mean it.  I did marry a nurse, but she never, ever wore a nurse's outfit, anywhere, especially in our house. I mean it.

Health Care Reform

Good going Democratic Party. Oh well, what's a 175 lives compared to a bursting "war chest" of insurance company dollars?

Completely Missing The Point

& completely stupid, as well.

Land Of The Free?

No.

Judge Butler To Be Renominated

Good. Now, Sen. Reid, get your party in order & confirm Judge Butler. Given that Butler lost to a lying, no-good, cheating, snake (just speculating, of course, ed.), it serves the ReThugs well that Judge Butler be appointed. Time for some change I can believe in Pres. Obama.

I Guess The Same Old Tired Thinking & Letting The Foxes Guard The Chicken House Didn't Work

No surprise here. No change to believe in either. Oh, & the first understatement of the new year:

“The report is certainly a disappointment...."

Ah, Another Misspelling, Nonheroicvet Must Have Gone To A State School

I will give points for a relatively good memory. It is Gil Favor you were searching your memory banks to try & locate.

He does have that heroic Favre look.  & who can forget Frankie Laine.

Rawhide - Frankie Laine

In Response To The Nonheroicvet

Is this the Gil Favre you mention? Seems too French, but, then again, what do I know.

Packers Win

33-7.

&, of course, Favre wins big. The score, 44-7. Favre threw for 4 touchdowns, 316 yards, & for the season the following: 30 TDs for the 9th time; 4,000 yards for the 6th time ; 7 interceptions (the FEWEST of his career).

Happy New Year