Don't they have special magazines for people like this?
Some people have a thing for legs, others for breasts or even feet. Some people are into leather or nurse uniforms or stockings. Apparently the new White House Chief of Staff, the President's uhhh...right hand man, has his own peculiar fetish - Dubya's bloodstained hands

"Government should be run like a business"
No.

Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.

This has long been a typical conservative hobbyhorse and, as might be expected, has the accompanying scent of horseshit.

Government should be run like government, not a business. That is why whenever the sort of backslapping, Chamber-of-commerce "self-made men" who inherited Dad's hardware store and turned it into a chain of four hardware stores get elected to office and declare that "government should be run like a business" generally manage to completely screw things up and alienate the voters and the bureaucracy, while sending the state into debt (see: Reagan, Mulroney, Harris, Bush et al).

Businesses are run from the top down, the head of the company is pretty much god-like in his or her power over employees. Businesses are run to make a profit and the president and board of directors are answerable to the shareholders who own the company and no one else. Their ultimate goal is to maximize profit. They can be autocratic, they can focus on profitable areas of business and abandon businesses,products and services that are unprofitable. They are all about the money, the capital, the return on investment, the dividend. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in a capitalist economy it is the expected state of affairs.

Democratic governments are supposed to be by, for and of the people. They exist to serve all the citizens, not just those who can afford to own a share of the apparatus, or their customers. They cannot ignore public opinion. They cannot turn their back on unprofitable lines of businesses such as national defense or education or law enforcement. They are not supposed to make a profit -- that doesn't mean they can be fiscally irresponsible, but they should not be taking in significantly more than they are laying out. Their responsibility is not to line someone's pockets, but to ensure peace, order, and good government, protect people's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Governments are an organized way for people to work for the common interest of everyone, to protect the underprivileged and disadvantaged, to provide essential services that business doesn't see any profit in, such as workmen's compensation or welfare, or that they should not be trusted with -- such as law enforcement or environmental regulation. Government is immediately answerable to the people, business is not.

So the next time some jackass in a nice suit and an expensive haircut starts telling you the problem is that goverment isn't run like a business, ask him if he'd like to see it run like a really successsful corporation like say...Enron. Then ask him if he thinks the police and fire department ought to only serve people who can afford their services or if we should get rid of all the environmental regulations, all those annoying zoning rules, and building codes. Ask if he'd like to have the cops run a credit check before they show up when his business is being robbed or his wife raped. Ask if he'd like the fire department to decide that having paramedics or local fire halls wasn't cost effective the next time he has a heart attack or his kid's school catches fire and the closest fire hall is on the other side of town where the rich people who can afford it live. Ask if he'd like to have his house fall over in the next strong wind because the builder cut corners or if he'd like a 24-hour-day strip club to open next to his kids school or an iron foundry and rendering plant to be built right next door to his home.

That's what running the government like a business would mean.

Don't fence me in
I think we can all look forward to Dave Neiwert's response to this bit of dimwittery from the knuckledragging Minutemen

Minutemen to Bush: Build Fence or We Will
Thursday April 20, 2006 4:01 AM
AP Photo NYET888
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
Associated Press Writer
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Minuteman border watch leader Chris Simcox has a message for President Bush: Build new security fencing along the border with Mexico or private citizens will.
Simcox said Wednesday that he's sending an ultimatum to the president, through the media, of course - ``You can't get through to the president any other way'' - to deploy military reserves and the National Guard to the Arizona border by May 25.

Revenge for all times you bit his ears off?
More Easter Bunny violence and video at
man.descending: The Easter Bunny Hates You

Go read...

The Rude Pundit :Three Signs That Your Superpower Is Becoming a Cheap Rip-Off of the Soviet Union:

Go read Billmon, NOW!
Whiskey Bar: If It Quacks Like a Duck

In Your Ear....

Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

DONALD FAGEN
Morph the Cat
Warner Music, 2,580 yen

A new album of smooth, jazzy R&B-inflected pop from Steely Dan is always a major musical treat and a new solo album by Donald Fagen, one half (some might say more) of the creative brain trust behind the band, is a very close second. The casual listener might be hard pressed to hear the difference, but Fagen's solo work seems to lean a little more heavily on old-fashioned R&B and a little less on radio-friendly rock hooks.

That isn't to say Morph the Cat is a noncommercial album--far from it--but Fagen indulges his love for extended solos and dense horn arrangements a little more when on his own and nearly half of the album's eight songs clock in at over six minutes. Most of that length is taken up with intricate and artfully executed guitar solos, by past Steely Dan sidemen Hugh McCracken, Wayne Krantz and Jon Herington. All three manage to scream and wail enough to put most heavy rock guitarists to shame, yet do so in the most tasteful way imaginable, never veering into vulgarity or seeming out of place.

Also reminiscent of Steely Dan is Fagen's love of offbeat humor and storytelling. "H-gang" tells the story of the "ultimate five-chord band" and "Security Joan" is a meet-cute tale for the era of the "war on terror."

Behind all the fancy arrangements and clever lyrics lies the rock upon which the tarnished chrome church of Steely Dan was built--Fagen's solid talent as a composer, pianist and singer. His versatile voice remains as expressive as ever, straining just a little to hit all the highs and lows as it always has, with just a hint of decadent indulgence and corruption and a large dose of ironic humor.

Besides, you have to love anyone who can get away with describing a character in a song as a "Rabelaisian puff of smoke."

THE LITTLE WILLIES
The Little Willies
Toshiba-EMI, 2,500 yen

Pulled together in 2003 by singer-songwriter Richard Julian and his longtime friend and pop-jazz sensation Norah Jones, the Little Willies were originally meant to give the two a chance to play some old-time country music with some pals in a one-night stand at a New York bar called the Living Room. Fortunately for all, the gig proved to be so much fun that it became a recurring irregular engagement whenever the band members' conflicting schedules permitted.

That sense of fun permeates this collection of western swing and old drinking songs penned by the likes of Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Townes Van Zandt. There is even an Elvis cover, with Jones languorously crooning Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller's "Love Me" with backup vocals provided by "the Ordinares."

Julian adds three of his own songs and a contribution from bassist Lee Alexander rounds out the collection.

Jones and Julian split the vocal work evenly with Jones' authentic sounding honky-tonk piano and some tasty guitar work by Jim Campilongo grabbing the instrumental spotlight.

Purists may question whether a bunch of New York jazz musicians can do justice to country and bluegrass classics such as "Streets of Baltimore" and "Tennesse Stud," but their infectious sense of enjoyment and obvious affection for the material make the Little Willies more appealing than the bluff jingoism and Nashville cliches of Toby Keith or Garth Brooks any day.

Besides, you have to love a band that can get away with writing a song about Lou Reed going cow tipping.
(Mar. 30, 2006)

Land of the Weird, Home of the Strange
New airline slogan: Fly with us and get a free Transportation Security Agency uniform
or did the bag-searcher just run out of thank-you-for-letting-us-invade-your-privacy notes and decide to leave his shirt instead?

You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't poke the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with the Easter Bunny but you could sue his fluffy butt.

I wonder if these kids were studying the Constitution the day they were locked in like criminals

No monopoly on stupid
Christian creationists who insist that Darwin is nonesense and the cleave, uh...religiously to literal interpretations of the Bible are by no means confined to red states of U.S. or even North America. They say and do thing that many of us find odd or funny (like setting up creationist dinosaur parks) but are really at their most hilarious when they try to show "scientific proof"

"There will even be a week-long Family Creation Conference in tents at the Cefn Lea Christian Holiday Park near Newtown in mid-Wales, for which about 40 families have signed up, at which Mr Mackay will attempt to answer fundamental questions such as: Did bees sting before Adam sinned? Why would birds need to migrate in a good world? What would polar bears do in a world with no ice and what did great white sharks eat before Aussies went surfing?
The answers may seem obvious, but it is proof that even believers in the inerrancy of the Bible
feel the need to seek something scientific to bolster their case "

Five weird habits
I've been tagged by Dave over at the Galloping Beaver, who was tagged by Sandra at Lesser Spotted Bunting and asked to reveal five weird habits. While I have a variety of weird habits, many of which I will not discuss in polite company, let me say that I'm sure my friends and especially my wife could name many many more than five weird things I do, say or think.

1. I always carry a harmonica and play it everywhere - waiting for the bus, walking down the street, waiting at the stoplight when I drive. When I used to spend a lot of time on the road for work I used to wear one in neck rack occasionally and play non-stop on longer drives.

2. I put mustard on dill pickles and cheese, sweet pickle relish on grilled cheese sandwiches and hot sauce on just about everything.

3. I almost never wear sneakers - a lifelong habit- and notice other people's shoes. I do not have a shoe or foot fetish and doubt I have ever owned more than three or four pairs of shoes at any given time in my life.

4. As a (recovering) literary critic, I read obsessively and rarely leave the house without a book. I regularly go back and reread favorites. I read everywhere (when I'm not playing harmonica, though I have been known to do both) and have a such a book-buying jones that I try not to go into bookstores if I have money in my pocket.

5. I never leave or return to the house without my pockets overflowing with stuff: wallet, notebook, pens, pencils, lighters (I don't even smoke anymore), food, hipflask, handkerchief, harmonicas, penknife, change purse, safety pins, matchbooks with phone numbers or ideas written on them, business cards, harmonicas, chopsticks, comb, cell phone, ipod, reciepts for thing bought weeks, even months ago, newspaper clippings, train schedule, etcetera ad infinitum.

My car, when I drove one, used to be much worse - the backseat floor I used as a garbage dump, the trunk was stuffed with camping gear and tools and odd and ends like stray cans of beer, old newspapers and leftover firewood, I could, and occasionally did, live out of it for days on end.

So between all that and being a blogger I suppose I can pretty much count on ending my days as a mustard-stained derelict in brogues pushing a shopping cart full of books, playing the harmonica and shouting at traffic

And I'm tagging:
Dave at Axis of Evel Kneivel
Baz at Oi! Thump!
CC at Canadian Cynic
Cathie at CathiefromCanada
The almost daily Mike Daley

My Old School

Night view of the University of Waterloo Arts Library

Nice to see the kids at my old Alma Mater are as classy and inventive as ever. Hat tip to Maple Leaf Politics

Surf music is not dead

Kevin Wood / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

Move over Frank Sinatra, there's a new chairman of the board--the surfboard that is.

When thinking about surfing and pop music, the first thing that comes to mind is early '60s teenage beach movies and the twangy, energetic surf-guitar sounds of Dick Dale, the Surfaris and the Ventures, or the tight harmonies of the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Then along came Jack Johnson and everything changed.

Johnson is currently riding a wave of popularity worldwide with his laid-back, feel-good, roots-based beach sound built around simple acoustic guitar melodies and gentle, reggaelike rhythms. This wave will bring him to the shores of Japan for a one-night stand at Chiba's Makuhari Messe on Saturday.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Johnson was a professional surfer from the age of 16 until he moved to the mainland to study film at the University of California's Santa Barbara campus. From there, he went on to make a pair of award-winning surfing films before his musical career took off in 2001 with the sleeper hit "Brushfire Fairytales." Subsequent albums On and On in 2003 and last year's Between Dreams both entered the U.S. Billboard charts at No. 3, and his latest Curious George: Sing-a-Longs and Lullabies for the Film debuted at No. 1.

Johnson's seemingly effortless rise to fame came about almost by accident. While he had been playing guitar since he was 14, Johnson had never planned a career in music. He played in a punk band in high school and at occasional parties and college coffeehouses in Santa Barbara and used some of his own music in the soundtracks for his films, but never expected it to become a full-time job.

In 1998, while editing his film Thicker than Water, he met G. Love, whose music he had used in a film. The two hit it off and Johnson was invited to hang out at the studio the next day.

His visit to the studio culminated in his teaming up with G. Love and Special Sauce to record one of his own songs, "Rodeo Clown," which appeared on the band's 1999 album Philadelphonic.

At the urging of friends, Johnson recorded a four-track demo, which caught the attention of surfing buddy J.P. Plunier--the right-hand man of singer-songwriter and guitarist Ben Harper.

Johnson signed with Harper's Enjoy Records in 2001 and Plunier produced his first album, which sold mainly on the strength of word of mouth starting in the surfing community, eventually moving 250,000 albums in its first year of release. U.S. tours with Harper followed, and by 2003 Johnson was headlining shows of his own.

No stranger to Japan, Johnson has been performing here since 2002, and his 2004 tour is the subject of a recently released DVD.

Johnson's success has helped launch careers among his surfing and singing comrades, notably Donavon Frankenreiter, whose debut came out on Johnson's own Brushfire Records label.

Saturday's show will be opened by Johnson's former U.C. Santa Barbara schoolmates the Animal Liberation Orchestra, an up-and-coming jam band whose 2005 independent debut Fly Between Walls--released last year in Japan--will be rereleased across the United States this month by Brushfire Records. The album contains a collaboration with Johnson, who provides the vocals on "Girl, I Want to Lay You Down."

Also on stage Saturday will be singer-songwriter Matt Costa, another artist debuting on Brushfire this spring in the United States and Japan.

Jack Johnson with guest Animal Liberation Orchestra will perform April 15, 6 p.m. at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, (0570) 08-9999; Animal Liberation Orchestra will also play April 14, 7 p.m. at Thumbs Up in Yokohama, (045) 314-8705.

(Apr. 13, 2006)

The sane people
Over at Liberal Catnip, there is some pondering of when the term liberal became a perjorative and what the heck a progressive is. Go read that.

I think some of the reluctance of many on the left/progressive/liberal side of the political spectrum (or "sane people" as I like to call them) to identify as "liberals" has to do with the marginalization of so-called liberals in the 60s by the more committed people in the progressive movement who had nothing but disdain for what some "progressives" and right wingers still refer to as "chequebook liberals" - people who give money to causes but don't really do anything to support them.

(see Phil Ochs' "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" )

There are still lots of these people around, in fact the vast majority of the population is liberal in orientation, but not really committed to full-scale activism. How many people do you know that recycle, but drive gas-guzzling SUVs or deplore the flight of the manufacturing industry from North America, hate slavery and sweatshops, but love to buy cheap crap imported from China at Wal-Mart. I don't want to point any fingers, since almost everyone on the planet is a hypocrite -- we all compromise, it's really just a matter of degree. (You're reading this, so you probably own a computer - do you have any idea how bad building computers is for the environment, you tree-killing bastard?)

Also in the '80s it became widely known (thanks to the demise of the FCC's fairness doctrine and the rise of Rush Limbaugh, the original oxy(contin)moron) that all "Libruls" had three eyes, fangs, ate Christian babies, wanted to take everyone's guns away and set up a one-world government under the communist-dominated United Nations and worst of all wanted to keep good, red-blooded Amurikins from calling women "broads" or African-Americans "niggers" and spend all our tax-dollars to rename manholes "personholes" (-- all which is true by the way, didn't you get the memo?). The end of the fairness doctrine sped the rise of the loudmouthed yahoo nativist school of punditry. That, along with the return of the worship of wealth and conspicuous consumption that took off in the '80s, and the reactionary culture of victimhood ("Change is always for the worst, bring back the good old days! What do you mean we can't do anything we want?) is what made old conservatism new again. You can blame Ronald Reagan for that - I certainly do.

In Canada, since the Liberal Party has been the natural ruling party for so long, it is part of the establishment, something that became more evident than ever when the party swung to the right in the 80's and 90's. As a result, those more who are more activist, left-oriented and anti-establishment (NDP voters and so-called small L liberals) have often called themselves progressives to set themselves apart for those who backed the big-business-friendly Chretien and Martin governments.

Call them what you want - liberals, progressives, leftists, radicals, revolutionaries, anti-fascists, socialists, ratfink commie pinko bastards - I just think of them as my friends, the sane people.

First "Truthiness" now "Scienciness"
Cornell University drinks the "intelligent design" kool-aid and offers a two month long credit course.

I think Drew Curtis over at FARK said it best: "Two-month schedule starts with lecture on "Great Breakthroughs in Intelligent Design Research," followed by 59.5 days of lunch"

Maybe Cornell will eventually establish an ID faculty - it could go next to the School of UFOlogy, across from the L. Ron Hubbard Memorial Center for Theology and Xenobiology.

The ultimate treehouse
The Swiss Family Robinson's pad ain't got nothing on these arborial pod dwellings. Definitely a step up from the shipping skid, two-by-four and chipboard scrap lumber monstrosities of my youth.

Family Values
Okay, I give up. I'll admit the Republicans are the party of sound morals and family values and even love children more than Democrats.

Guarding America while it sleeps
Yes, Mr. and Mrs. America you can rest easy knowing that Homeland Security is protecting you and your children from nasty foreign terrorists and journalists. Well, at least its protecting you -- the kids, ehh....not so much. And lest you think that the Homeland Security spokesman facing charges for child porn and attempting to seduce a 14-year-old girl via a computer chat is an exception to the rule, think again.

the envelope please...

The winners list for the Koufax awards has been released. Maybe next year.

Delusional
This is really the only word for Stephen Harper. He is sitting as Prime Minister with the slimmest minority government in Canadian history and is below 40% in the polls and yet thinks he has a mandate to monkey with the Constitution. Eventually the man is going to get a serious bitch-slapping from reality.

Pay no attention to that Brownshirt behind the curtain
Nunc Scio has the goods on Tory MP for Okanagan-Shuswap Colin Mayes, who has suggested that journalists be jailed for writing "distorted" or "inaccurate" articles. He has since retracted the comments he made in a column he wrote and sent out to local newspapers in BC - I suspect he got an angry phone call from the boss. As a professional journalist of over 15 years experience, I would like to say I support this idea wholeheartedly. I think any journalist who knowingly lies in print should be clapped in irons, right next to any politician who lies or fails to live up to a promise.