“if you leave the cave looking like that, you’ll be responsible for what happens to you’

Turns out that neanderthals could actually talk. Scientists recently discovered that neanderthal man contained the FOXP2 gene which apparently implies speech. So, not only could they talk, they started distorting the cave news far earlier than we ever imagined. Eventually , men were berated for not wearing small rocks signifying their cave loyalty.
I [...]

Where madness lies, or, ‘and the Emmy goes to Jon Hamm’..

I just watched possibly the best 10 minutes of television this year (possibly several years). The season-ending episode of the superb AMC series, Mad Men, set in 1960 featured Don Draper (Jon Hamm) making a pitch to Kodak executives. He takes their new-fangled slide projector ‘wheel’, renaming it ‘carousel’, in a pitch that [...]

They’ll stone you when you’re trying to be good, or Following the Brooksian logic to its logical end

A woman walks across Bicentennial Mall late at night. Some guy had asked her for a light sometime earlier that evening on 5th Avenue. When she walks past the bandshell area of the mall, that same man rapes her.
Kay Brooks says:
She should not have been walking through the park alone and late at night.
No, that [...]

Sometimes the bastards deserve to die..

Man chokes woman nearly to death and drops her five year old daughter in alligator infested waters.  Mom survives, daughter is killed.  If this guy truly committed this atrocity, I have absolutely no problem with him paying for this crime with his life.  None.

Sports for $500, Alex…What is a story I won’t believe until I see the death certificate…

What is, George Steinbrenner ceding control of the Yankees to his sons.  I’ve been a Yankees fan since 1960 and I plan to be a Yankees fan until they produce MY death certificate.  I’ve never been a big Stienbrenner fan (what is control freak for $300, Alex?), but he did put the Yanks back on [...]

Dear Abby, dear Abby

Advice columnist Abby recently came out - so to speak - with her declaration that she believes that gay marriage should be legalized. This pronouncement probably makes some people very happy, and some people very turned off. It made me wanna write a new verse or two for the old John Prine [...]

Getting tough on MyanmarBurma

After years of US coddling the militant military government of Burma (hey, they used to be anti-commie and if you were sufficiently anti-commie you could torture cats* and grandmothers with US backing), SOMEONE in the Bush administration is finally speaking out against the torture and the oppressive nature of the generals who run the [...]

‘Bring out yer dead, bring out yer dead’

And the Yankees said…’We’re not dead YET!’
whew…new life.

Pro-Life the Bush way

$70,000,000 a DAY for Iraq.
Veto Extending Children’s Insurance Bill (S-SCHIP). Children WITH-OUT insurance will continue to receive some kind of care. Sadly, it will be in an emergency room at a hospital near you, at a cost that will eventually, ironically, be borne by you.
We’re watching this one folks. Compassionate [...]

Breathing easy…my favorite new sign in the Arcade

I frequently eat lunch in the Arcade. I’ve always loved the Arcade, from the time I was a kid and my grandfather brought me down to the peanut store (still there!) to the present with the wonderful Greek Touch. And now it’s even better!

Uh, the pic was taken by me with [...]

Right-wing guide to honoring the military

First, ascertain if said person was or is indeed part of the military.
Second, ascertain if said person supports our President’s effort to go after Bin Laden, find weapons of mass destruction, bring democracy to Iraq, at least achieve most of the benchmarks we set in Iraq belittle the benchmarks as not realistic safeguard markets when [...]

Non-smokers liberation act begins today

And although this probably makes me extremely unpopular with smokers, libertarians and some curmudgeons, I’m grateful, along with most of the 73% of the adult Tennessee population that does NOT smoke. I’m tired of second hand smoke. I’m sick of the invisible barriers between smokers and non-smokers in most of the restaurants I [...]