I feel the need to break out the big guns for our Kickstarter. BEHOLD BABY CLAIRE. She was SO FLUFFY. In all seriousness, thank you to everyone who’s contributed so far. And if you haven’t, consider this: I have more baby Claire photos. Also baby Kick photos, and some news I’ll be sharing on Sunday about the project and also A TRANSCRIPT OF THE CRACK VAN FROM ELECTION NIGHT 2008. Yes, it exists. I could be persuaded to post excerpts. If we get close enough. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Halfway There, So …
From Album 5 It’s bad enough that at least around here, just driving to a hardware store is a potentially life-threatening exercise. The only thing that stops a shoplifter is a vigilante bystander with a gun. Or, at least, that’s what an unidentified woman apparently decided shortly before she opened fire on an SUV carrying a man who was fleeing the nearby Home Depot. No, this isn’t an endorsement of shop lifting (duh), but in the greater scheme of things, the very real potential for some sort of tragedy from discharging a firearm more than outweighs the loss of “power tools … Continue reading Nail Guns, Aisle 7, Hot Lead In The Parking Lot
I haven’t done a movie soundtrack in this segment before andRobin and the 7 Hoods struck me as a good place to start for two reasons. First, I’ve had it on my mind since posting a clip last Saturday. Second, my favorite cousin introduced me to the movie and its wonderful Van Heusen-Cahn songs when I was a kid. You’ve either got or you haven’t got style and she’s got it. Thanks, T. Clip time:
Robin and the 7 Hoods is, of course, a Rat Packy take on the Robin Hood myth transported to prohibition era Chicago. I like it more than the more famous Ocean’s 11 but it was a troubled production as far as producer-star Frank Sinatra was concerned; both the Kennedy assassination and the kidnapping of his son Frank Jr. took place during and right after the film shoot. But that didn’t stop the Chairman of the Board from making My Kind of Town a staple of his live sets.
It’s time for me to stop nattering and get visual. Here’s the LP cover:
This is stupid: Look, it’s a phony deal that was perpetrated on the public. I was asked a simple question by Chuck Todd at “Meet The Press”. And people, I gave a very honorable and honest answer. I said, sure, if I was doing terribly like some of these people, I wouldn’t stay in. I mean, who would stay in? But I’m not. I’m leading every single poll. One poll came out yesterday, 30, or the other day, I’m at 35 percent nationally. 35 percent. I was — I’m 20 points ahead of everybody else. Why would I get out? … Continue reading In Which I Keep Being Grossed Out by Agreeing with Donald Trump
Listened to this, this morning, as I was driving to work. The law forces employers who pay more to a man working the same job as a woman to prove that the pay is based on elements other than gender. It also changes the rules on whether and when employees can sue employers regarding pay issues, and allows employees to discuss pay without fear of retribution. Aileen Rizo is one of the women who helped make it happen. A math consultant at the Fresno County Office of Education, three years ago Rizo discovered that one of her recently-hired male colleagues earned $12,000 more … Continue reading Aren’t You Afraid Being a Target if You’re a Target?
Except they do, lots of them: In a world flush with free information, some young people are still willing to shell out for news they read. A recent poll shows that 40 percent of U.S. adults ages 18-34 pay for at least some of the news they read, whether it’s a print newspaper, a digital news app or an email newsletter. [snip] A quarter of those polled paid for some type of digital news, while 29 percent paid for a print paper or magazine. Older millennials are more likely than younger millennials to pay for print news products. That effect … Continue reading Kids Today Don’t Pay for Their News!
Pope Francis came to America this past week with great fanfare. Thousands lined up for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see and get near him. I have written on this Pope previously and my firm belief is that he is a Marxist. With all that I have seen and documented, there is no doubt in my mind that this is the case. The Pope embodies all the sought for goals of the Left and he delivers them wrapped in religion and piety.
The Pope has blamed the evils of this world on capitalism and greed. He has used that as a political spring board to preach wealth redistribution and Liberation Theology. His doctrine is communist in many, many respects. Pope Francis is called The Great Reformer and the reason for that is his colossal move to reform the Catholic Church… to modernize it by welcoming in such platforms as homosexuality, abortion, transgenderism, climate change and the embrace of Islam.
Pope Francis meets with Kim Davis. The Left melts down.WDTPRS ^ | 9/30/15 | Fr John Zuhlsdorf Posted on 9/30/2015, 6:42:24 PM by markomalley
The catholic Left are desperate to silence the so-called “culture warriors”, especially to squelch Catholics who uphold clear Catholic teaching in the public square.
You may have heard that during his visit to these USA Pope Francis is reported to have met privately with the “culture warrior” Kim Davis, the Christian, non-Catholic, county clerk in Kentucky who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She went to jail for a time rather than knuckle under.
We don’t know for sure what Pope Francis said in this private meeting, but Davis didn’t say that the Pope told her to stop fighting. She wasn’t disappointed afterward. Quite the opposite, it seems.
We also shouldn’t read too much into the meeting. After all, Popes meet with people like Idi Amin Dada and Fidel Castro. Those meetings don’t signal approval. Popes meet with world leaders as well as long lines of unknown and then nearly instantly forgotten people all the time.
That said, someone inside the papal circle set up and approved the meeting with the non-Catholic Kim Davis. She wasn’t plucked at random out of the crowd. Perhaps we can conclude that Pope Francis thinks we can’t cooperate or accept same-sex marriage and we must actively resist it. That clearly is what some people are taking away from it. Come to think of it, it is reasonable to believe that the Pope of Rome doesn’t not think that men should marry men and have sex with other. Yes, that seems pretty reasonable.
A week after Pope Francis met Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for her refusal to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples, the Vatican on Friday suggested that she exploited the meeting to promote her views, denied that the pope fully supports her and cast doubt on her account of the encounter.
The Vatican later noted that the only “audience” Francis had at the gathering in Washington was with a former student of the pope, Yayo Grassi, an openly gay Argentine who along with his longtime partner and some friends met with Francis.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement that Grassi, “who had already met other times in the past with the pope, asked to present several friends to the pope during the pope’s stay in Washington, D.C.”
A video posted online shows Grassi embracing the pope and introducing him to his partner, as well as an Argentine woman and some Asian friends.
The statements together seemed intended to distance the pope from Davis.
Davis spent nearly a week in jail after she defied a Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage in the United States. Last week, she said she had met Francis at the Nunciature, the Vatican’s U.S. office, in Washington on Sept 24 during his U.S. visit, where she said he told her during a 15-minute meeting to “stay strong.”
“Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we’re doing and agreeing, you know, it kind of validates everything,” she told ABC News.
Reports of the meeting between Davis and the pope were taken by conservative groups as evidence that Francis fully supported her refusal to authorize same-sex marriages. Backers of such unions charged that the pope had been used by Davis.
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Now we are told this:Vatican assistant spokesman Rev. Thomas Rosica said Friday that Francis had not invited Davis to a gathering that included dozens of people and suggested that the meeting may have been manipulated by her and her lawyer.
1 posted on 10/2/2015 4:04:57 PM by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
So sayeth the pedophile papist.
2 posted on 10/2/2015 4:06:42 PM by Godebert
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There you have it, folks – three days, three vastly different Freeperati groupthink views of the Pope.
If he had been trolling them on purpose, it couldn’t have worked out any better.
I’ve been blogging for 11 years now, and I’ve seen just about every way a site can handle growing and sustaining itself. Some have ad upon ad upon ad. Some ask you to answer survey questions to keep reading something you can find NOT behind a paywall on seven other sites. Some do a fundraiser every month pleading poverty/victimization by opposing forces. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you any of those things are at play. We’re in no danger of being shuttered because I can’t cover the hosting costs and I have zero interest in earning … Continue reading First Draft Fundraiser: 1/3 of the Way There
Jonathan Franzen reviewing a book about how technology has ruined us all for real connection? How have I so displeased you, Ceiling Cat? Conversation is Turkle’s organizing principle because so much of what constitutes humanity is threatened when we replace it with electronic communication. Conversation presupposes solitude, for example, because it’s in solitude that we learn to think for ourselves and develop a stable sense of self, which is essential for taking other people as they are. (If we’re unable to be separated from our smartphones, Turkle says, we consume other people “in bits and pieces; it is as though … Continue reading Technology is Ruining Kids Today, Says Author Who Hates Technology, Kids, also Today
Is it me or has so much stupid shit been happening recently that it’s difficult to do anything anymore than shake your head? Because I don’t know about you but by the time I formulate a response that’s not, “I need to drink some wine and cuddle Claire” something even dumber than the last dumb thing has happened and at that point I just go hide under the bed. To wit, Jeb Bush: “Our message is one of hope and aspiration,” Mr. Bush said. “It isn’t one of division and get in line and we’ll take care of you with free … Continue reading Free Stuff
The Trapeze Artist from the Jazz Portfolio by Henri Matisse.
A cool front hit New Orleans on October 1st leading me to hope, wish, and, I daresay, pray that Summer is finally gone. It’s been a long, hot one too with record temps in July. It’s the downside of an El Nino year. The upside, of course, is that a certain storm wasn’t Joaquin to New Orleans. I should apologize for that pun but I stole it from my friend James Karst. I seem to have become the Milton Berle of the blogosphere…
There have been some high-profile armed robberies in Uptown New Orleans that have people on edge. The good news is that no shots have been fired thus far. You know how it goes, if there’s crime in an upscale zip code, people freak out. I try to remain as even-keeled as possible but it’s hard for some people. I don’t judge but I do remind them that sensational stick-ups do not a crime wave make. At the risk of being repetitive: New Orleans is now, and has always been, a tough town. It’s why one needs to keep one’s wits about one. That was one one-heavy sentence, y’all.
Shorter Adrastos: Stay alert and don’t walk around glued to your smart phone like a dumbass. Uh oh, I sound like I’m in touch with my inner Red Foreman:
That felt good. Let’s get on with it.
I’ve been asked by several people why I haven’t used a Kinks tune as a Saturday post theme song yet. Beats the hell outta me. Summer’s Gone is the right song at the right time. I learned that via Word Of Mouth:
While running a search on YouTube I discovered a co-theme song from a 2012 Beach Boys album. It was written by Brian Wilson and Jon Bon Jovi. I hope the cool kids won’t hate me for typing that name:
A friend of mine created and curated a tongue-in-cheek Bon Jovi shrine the year those Jersey boys made an unlikely appearance at Jazz Fest:
Photograph by WWOZ.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, it’s time for the break. Meet you on the other side. One door opens, another shuts behindand all that rot.
Filing an early missive because I’m being forced to undergo the first of two carpal tunnel surgeries. Wrote this on Wednesday night, so by the time you’re reading it, I’ll be stoned out of my mind on whatever he gives me for pain, watching whatever Law and Order rerun is on basic cable… The surgery is freaking me out a bit. Sure, it’ll be nice to feel my thumbs and forefingers again and maybe sleep without the “dog paw” braces my doctor had me in, but I’m not a big fan of having doctors poke at me. I think it … Continue reading Under the Knife
Obama, tonight: And of course, what’s also routine is that somebody, somewhere, will comment and say — Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together. … When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them. To reduce auto fatalities. We have seat belt laws, because we know it saves lives. For so long our political press has defined “politics” as some kind of game, for so long … Continue reading Our Common Life Together: What Politics IS
From Album 5 Kevin McCarthy. Congratulations, Kevin. You can pull your foot out of your mouth whenever you want. But…notice how NPR frames the Democratic reaction …when McCarthy made his comments on Fox, Democrats in Congress and beyond were quick to pounce. Hmmm…as if the Democrats were turning this into a political cat fight. Now, imagine the GOP response if, say, Nancy Pelosi admitted that “the longest special congressional investigation in history” was primarily a means to attack…well, I was trying to think of a Republican equivalent, but since there are none, let’s maybe go with…Carly Fiorina…why not? Anyway, you could … Continue reading And The MacArthur Genius Doofus Award Goes To…
For a lot of readers, the one name they’ll recognize is Patricia Highsmith. Give us a sense of how “The Blunderer” fits into the Highsmith books that people already know — the Ripley novels and “Strangers on a Train.”
It’s a certainly not an anomalous book. I would call it an important book from a transitional standpoint; it was her second crime novel, her first one was “Strangers on a Train.” Her second book was “The Price of Salt” and a new film version is about to come out and I know it’s been getting rave reviews. Then came “The Blunderer,” which I really think has a lot of the seeds for what would develop in “Talented Mr. Ripley” and subsequent Ripley novels and later suspense books like “Deep Water.”
At first it seems like it’s primarily a male narrative, but of course the two men are at odds, and if you even factor in the third man, who is the cop, it really is all about how they are letting themselves be ruled by the kinds of marriage they’ve allowed themselves to be part of. Now, of course we only have the perspective of Walter Stackhouse, to trust or distrust, in terms of how this marriage is going. But clearly, it isn’t going very well if he’s contemplating getting rid of his wife, and the fact that he takes perverse inspiration in this other case and becomes kind of obsessed with the other guy who may or may not have killed his wife. That creates an incredibly strange but highly readable dynamic. Then you throw in this cop and it almost becomes a narrative about police brutality. So, it also kind of weirdly foreshadows some of the conversations we’re having now.
There’s no time like the present to dive into the covers:
We’ll dive a bit deeper into Highsmith’s work after the break. I promise that’s the last time I’ll use the word dive. I should probably skip the Scuba-doo pun but I cannot help myself. Ruh roh.
