I know that my Habs will live on

But I'd really rather see Brofman in charge than that other Quebecois institution. But hey, at least they squeaked into the playoff.

Power ballad schlock queen eyeing bid for Les Habs.

I have seen more intelligent cacti

Republicans - because we needed a name for people who are dumber than houseplants. I just hope someone remembers to water Betty Brown occasionally, it must get dry in Texas.

Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

Yes, Betty, because Asian names like Ko, Sato, Hu and Singh are much much more difficult than say Tatigliano, Satterthwaite, Papadopolis, Rogazinski, Medvedev or Gonzales. I'll admit that some Asian names are a mouthful  - Indonesian, Thai and Sri Lankan names in particular tend to be longer and more complex compared to short, blunt Anglo-Saxon monikers like Brown and Wood - but that isn't really the point here. Brown isn't suggesting that all names should be anglicized, just Asian names. 

But it isn't about race. 

Sure it's not. Nothing is ever about race with the Republicans and the conservatives, except when they get shoved back from the trough, then its all about discrimination against poor, persecuted middle-aged, wealthy, white men.

ending torture

Say what you want about Obama and his insistence on protecting the bankers and the wealthy and his refusal so far to prosecute his vicious, corrupt and venal predecessors -- if he does nothing else for the next eight years this is a significant accomplishment in cleaning up the mess left behind by the previous neofacist administration. This is the next step.

Sorry isn't good enough

I appreciate that the police in Vancouver have a difficult job to do right now what with the wave of gang violence engulfing the city, but the police have absolutely no right to seize cameras from journalists or any individual who is taking pictures at a crime scene, whether it interferes with their investigation or not. They are within their rights to request that news organizations not publish information that might impede an investigation, or to ask individuals to come forward with photos or videos of crimes, but the decision of what to do with such private property is up to the owner. The officer who assaulted the news photographer and threatened him with arrest should be fired immediately. This kind of conduct is illegal and a violation of a host of constitutional rights. In light of the actions of the police in the Dziekanski killing at the Vancouver airport and the attempt by the RCMP to confiscate evidence of their misconduct, and a cop in Ottawa not so long ago, this kind of thing cannot be tolerated by a free society. It isn't as if the Vancouver cops haven't been accused of this kind of thing before either.

No, but I think there may be anarchists in my broom closet

tip of the fez to Hypatia!!

Second Life Sunday

This weekend's theme is the magical world of witchcraft - so we have a couple of hours of supernaturally great music and the latest entry in our James Stewart Film Festival as the Glorious People's Cinema Project marches forward. This week's offering is "Bell, Book and Candle" in our man Jimmy is pursued by modern day witch Kim Novak  - she probably wants revenge for his throwing her off that tower in "Vertigo" a couple of weeks ago.

The music starts at 5 pm Pacific / 8 pm Eastern with the movie rolling at 7 pm Pacific/ 10 pm Eastern. Join us here and on Radio Woodshed or in Second Life at the Red Zeppelin.