Wednesday Poetry Blogging

Starting today, and running through October will be a series of sonnets - today's merely odd, the remainder oddly demented.

This one is based on a real life experience. The others are not.

FIFTH DAY DOWN

For four straight days I've been flat on my back.
Prospects for tomorrow -- not too bright.
But first I have to face another night
Of nose-runs, insomnia, and cough attack.

Day two they put a needle in my hip,
Pumped in some paste, a substance that is not
The amber liquid I would call a shot:
That lovely Malt, imported in green glass.

When morning comes I'll rise to face tomorrow,
Without a Scottish gift to ease my sorrow,
And if some comely lass of nursely station
Approaches from behind with medication

I'll demurr, and if you get my drift,
If she insists, then I will plead the fifth.

-- Jan. 28, 1999, 11:00 pm

Copyright Jazzbumpa. All rights reserved

Sunday Music Blogging

Here is some heartbreakingly beautiful Russian music.

I've played this. Not a lot for the trombones to do - but it has to be there, and it has to be right.

Movie Blogging - Julie and Julia

Yesterday, my lovely wife and I saw this movie. She read the book a couple of years ago, before it was quite so popular, and I am reading it now. This movie evidently falls into the category of "chick-flick*" so I'm a bit conflicted about admitting how much I liked it, which was rather a lot. I'm also enjoying the book, but that is, so to speak, another story.

Deflation?

I rarely put up a post that is simply a link to another post - but this one looks to be supremely important.

In the process of a quick read through, I discover a couple blogs with a mostly economic focus, that might make it to my right hand frame after a little exploration.

Pension Pulse

Washington's Blog

Evil Thieving Bastards Update

Ann Minch of Red Bluffs, CA has apparently won the first round in her battle with BofA.

Article here.

YouTube page here.

You go, Girl!

Deep Stupid #7

(Updated, 9/22)
Diane Fedele was President of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated.* Their October, 1988 newsletter, in the height of the presidential campaign, included the image of food stamp "Obama Bucks" depicted below the fold. Blind to the stereotypes of fried chicken, ribs, and watermellon, "It was just food to me," stated the culturally tone deaf, irony-challenged Fedele.**

Sunday Music Blogging

This week we lost Mary Travis to cancer. She was 72. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded IF I HAD A HAMMER for their first, eponymous album, released in 1962, when I was 15. The group's music helped to define both the ethics and the aesthetics of the 60's. Mary's pure voice, slender torso, and long straight hair set the standard for the sound and the look of a decade. She was beautiful to look at, and beautiful to hear.

RIP Mary Travis. We are poorer now.

The YouTube page with the video above also has a brief, but very nice bio.

Deep Stupid #6

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Fox News contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano writes about the President’s health care reform plan. He claims it is “unconstitutional at its core.”

Napolitano is a former state court judge, so I respect his credentials as a fellow member of the bar. But a first year law student could demolish most of Napolitano’s argument. And that same first year student, having done some quick research, could dispense with the rest.

The above is reported by Evan Falchuc. (Full disclosure: Falchuc is a member of the bar. I am not.)

A former state judge offers a commentary that is blatantly wrong, in both the big picture and all of it's relevant details.

One variant of Deep Stupid is the utterance of outright false statements (e.g. bare-faced lies) by people who not only should, but actually do, know better.

The Lying, it burns.

Wednesday Poetry Blogging

I have to say that the greatest influence on my life,
and on my writing, directly and indirectly,
has been my two Children.
-- Raymond Carver

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Raymond, I am not like you,
Though we've both known drunkenness and despair.
And we've both been influenced by our children,
But I think in different ways.
And I, too, have a brief attention span,
Limiting me to things of a single sitting --
Poetry and short fiction. I speak now of reading.

You were John Gardner's most famous and successful student.
I can only know him from his words,
And seek vainly to find him in yours:
Words honed sharp on a blue whetstone
Worn smooth by the sea,
Found in a handkerchief under your desk,
Then passed from hand to hand.

Blue is the precise word, I believe, for
Your free strophes full of drunkenness and people pissing,
And your spare prose, pared too deep sometimes,
But greater still than larger things.
I hope your too-short life was not so sad as they suggest.
Where did you pass the blade, Raymond,
When your carving days were through?


Copyright Jazzbumpa. All rights reserved.

"Evil Thieving Bastards"

For some more detail, check out the Huffington Post article. Interesting comments, as well.

Update: Turns out the evil thieving bastards are lying sons-o'-bitches, too.

Update 2: But wait, there's more:

The issue of a civil lawsuit over executive bonuses should be a sideshow given there is strong evidence of coercion to commit securities fraud by former Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and actual securities fraud by Bank of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis.

9/15 Update 3: It's not just the lady in the video who is defaulting on her credit card debt.

Why Capitalism Fails

We are in the midst of the greatest failure of capitalism since the other Great Depression.

Yet what you hear from purblind capitalists, libertarians, and others who drank Ayn Rand's Kool-Aid is that capitalism didn't fail. It just wasn't implemented properly. America failed. (I especially love that one, coming from patriotic right-wingers.) All that socialistic government intervention must have knocked the wheels off the cart.

Sunday Music Blogging

I've had this tune in my head for days.



One of the basics of bebop was to set a new tune to the harmonic structure of an existing tune, and maybe, alter the chords to make it more hip.

Here's the source for Goovin' High. (Strange disconnect between the sound and the video ?!?)



Surprised me. Now, I guess I'll have to learn it.

Compare this. Egad!

This is How Obama Should Handle the Republicans*

Everything I know about Chris de Burgh** can be seen in this video. (Embedding disabled, alas.)

There's more, of course.

Mr. de Burgh is still performing, and recently had a series of sold-out appearances at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Peter Crawley of the Irish times wrote a review that - while it was not quite in a vein of high snark - was dismissive in its condescension.

Mr. de Burgh, a master of high snark, was not pleased.

Now, wouldn't you like to see Obama engage in some high snark and, for example, say that Pat Buchanan is "puffed up in his own self-importance," or that Joe Wilson*** is a "loathsome little turd?"

Update: Same message, delivered by Bill Maher (a must-read.)
____________________________________
* With a tip of the hat to my Lovely wife for the idea.
** With a tip of the hat to Maria @ CT
*** The South Carolina guy, not Valerie Plame's husband.

Deep Stupid #5

Since I'm in hand-off mode today, I'll just let Letterman handle it.


sponsored by Speaker Dennis Hastert on June 25th of that year and signed into law by President Bush on my 57th birthday.)

Cherry Picking*

Not necessarily the minor details, though. You can always keep whatever supports your preconceived notion or new pet theory, and disregard the rest. That's simple human nature. Propagandists know how to exploit human nature for their own - usually nefarious - ends; and for them, cherry-picking is a tool.

Conservative commentators do it all the time. Libertarians and neo-cons have to rely on it, because what they're selling is ultimately at variance with reality.

Here**, the Sandwichman calls out a Libertarian on a particularly egregious example. Data cited to support a new variety of New Deal Denialist meme is based on a single corporate experience in Canada during the 90's. Wow - what an amazing lack of relevance.

______________________________________________
* Picture from here.
**Follow the links.

Deep Stupid #4

This, by Marybeth Hicks, besides being all kinds of stupid, is just so wrong, on so many levels, that it takes a true master to parse, deconstruct and refute it with the degree of thoroughness it so richly deserves.

So I will just turn it over to Ed.

Republicans - All Wrong, All the Time, Pt 4

Note the changes in the number of Americans living in poverty. The only big declines have happened during Democratic administrations. The first big decline on the chart was the result of the Kennedy/Johnson Great society. Nixon/Ford followed by Carter did little to affect poverty numbers. Reagan wasted no time in getting more people back into the chains of poverty. Though his irresponsible fiscal profligacy might have contributed to a slight decline after the initial surge, by the end of the Bush I term, poverty was almost back to the 1959 level. The next big decline in poverty occurred under Clinton. There was good and bad in the Clinton Presidency. This good thing was totally undone by Bush II.

Do you see any hope of this trend improving in the near future?

Note: I could only find an earlier version of this graph with data through 2007. So I grabbed the above chart from DeLong.

Wednesday Poetry Blogging

Introduction to the Poet's Mouse

If you drop a mouse in a poem
He will hold it to the light, perhaps.
Or probe it for a rhyme.

Then he'll ask you to read it to him.
One more time.
Again, this time, with feeling.

When you've finished, he'll want to
Look at himself in a mirror,
Bat his eyelashes.
See if he can find himself in the rhythm.
Or the time.

If you give a mouse the time,
He will ask you for a metronome.
And beat it.

If the beat is right,
He will want a melody.

And a melody can arch and swell,
Make a point, a counterpoint,
Be notable:
Get carried away and sweep
Throughout the house, for a mouse
Can make any floor a dance floor, as well.

If you give a mouse a melody,
He'll look up at you
And remind you
That a melody needs words
To become a song.

If you give a mouse the words
Of a song - a lyric, odistic,
(Or not.)
Then he will want to live in those words.

So -
You drop a mouse in a poem.

Copyright Jazzbumpa. All rights reserved.

Not exactly a parody this time - but, still a reaction to another poem, just right in the age of 24.* This time, with a little outside help, perhaps.
____________________________________
* The other one, not mine.

Great Depression 2 - The Beginning

I've been saying for a long time that another great depression is unfolding. Here are two articles that support my viewpoint with hard data, and in ways the I wouldn't have thought of.

These are not fun reading, but they are important. Each, in its own way, suggests a bottom is between one and two years away. I think that is quite optimistic.

From Misch.

and

From Thought Offerings.

Both have great graphs. Every picture tells a story.

As a bonus, here is an article from the dreaded Main Stream Media, showing how people are developing a depression era mindset. Ultimately, that is what separates a great depression from a run of the mill recession.

Crossword Puzzle Blogging

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 Gail Grabowski

Theme: PANTS (57D: Garment that can follow the starts of the answers to starred clues. Or, as was discussed yesterday, pairs of trousers. Speak of it one day - see it the next?)

17A: *Hilarious Joke: KNEESLAPPER
(I've always heard this said disdainfully of a not-so-hilarious joke.) KNEE PANTS. Fashion comes and goes. Style is forever.

39A: *Worry, slangily: SWEAT IT.
(More commonly: don't sweat, as in "the small stuff.") SWEAT PANTS. Could this be why Dennis goes to the gym every day?

63A: *Frosted Lenten pastry:
HOT CROSS BUNS. HOT PANTS. Of course. Can anyone identify the car? Also these. And this.

11D: *Enduring, as a storm: RIDING OUT
RIDING PANTS. Also known as jodhpurs.

34D: *Freight Bearing Vessel: CARGO SHIP
CARGO PANTS have lots of pockets.

Tight theme with five answers and all the key words at the beginning of the fill.

Hi, Gang -- JazzBumpa here. The timing is only a coincidence, but after yesterday's travails, our intrepid blogger Argyle has a well-deserved day (or, as it turns out, night) off.

I've had my difficulties as well. All Cruciverb functionality related to LA Times puzzles appears to be inoperative - at least as of this writing (sometime 'round midnight PST. I'm in EST!


Across:

1A: Unshiny photo finish: MATTE. Also a finish on wall paint, but without the alliterative word play. And 7D: Brownish photo tint.

6A: Tree with quaking leaves: ASPEN. Populus Tremuloides sounds like a Roman senator

11A: Usually nonmelodic music genre: RAP. No melody, no music.

14A: Not moving: INERT. Also used for something chemically non-reactive. Frequent fill NEON, for example.

15A: Work on a loom: WEAVE. Don't forget the humility mark.

16A: Under the weather: ILL. Because a quick change in the weather can leave you feeling out of sorts - with a SINUS headache, for example.

19A: Narc's Org. DEA. Drug Enforcement Agency. Not headache drugs.

20A: Ages and ages: EONS. Like, forever.

21A: Depression era migrant: OKIE. The Joads migrated from Oklahoma to California, looking for a better life.

22A: Bat one's eylashed, perhaps: FLIRT. Sometimes you make out better at both ends.

24A: Method: Abbr.: SYST. Short for system.

25A: Lincoln wore one: BEARD. Here is the before picture.

27A: Pay hor a hand: ANTE. I saw this more cleverly as "pay to hold hands" over the weekend.

28A: Bank encumbrance: LIEN. This is a charge against real or personal property for the payment of any debt or duty, which must be satisfied before the property is sold.

30A: Sound hear twice in "Gargantuan." HARD G. But only heard once in Pantagruel. Remember the "Hard and Soft G" puzzle from a few months ago?

32A: Command for an attack dog: SIC EM. Strange expression. Does anyone know the origin?

35A: Dressing for romain and such: SALAD OIL.

38A: Palm Pilot or Blackberry, briefly: PDA. Personal data assistant. Like a virtual electronic secretary.

42A: Mex. neighbor: USA. Us, eh?

43A: Hardly geniuses: AIRHEADS. Will this unleash another barrage of blonde jokes?

45A" Contest submission: ENTRY. Or, a crossword fill.

47A: Arrived: GOT IN. Seemed like I just arrived in bed when the alarm went off.

48A: Poet Pound: EZRA. Another alliteration. And a Bible Book.

50A: Old hands: PROS. Professionals. An old hand is experience.

52A: Coerce: FORCE. Don't coerce me, bro!

54A: Infield protector: TARP. A big roll of plastic sheet that's rolled out onto a baseball infield during a rain delay.

58A: Retreats in the desert. OASES. Or maybe only a mirage.

60A: Bring up: REAR. Not bringing up the rear, but nurturing children.

61A: Field of expertise: AREA. Mine is being a grandfather. What's yours?

62A: Jr. high, e.g.: SCH. School abbreviation.

66A: Maneuver among moguls: SKI. Long alliterative clue for a short answer.

67A: One way to read: ALOUD. But only if reading aloud is allowed.

68A: White sheet wearer, on Halloween. GHOST. Usually cute and lovable. Not like these guys.

69A: Sixth Sense for short: ESP. Extra-sensory perception. I just knew it.

70A: Sources of blue eyes, say: GENES. Or as Mendel would say, "The eyes have it."

71A: Shipping weight deductions: TARES. The weight of the containers.


Down:

1D: Studio sound equipment: MIKES. Microphones. An abbreviation that has become a standard word.

2D: Be a thorn in the side of: ANNOY. No obscure crosses to annoy me today.

3D: Prom goers: TEENS. High School Prom. Fashion or style? You decide.

4D: Railroad bridge support. TRESTLE. I can never remember how to spell it.

5D: UFO crew, presumably: ETS. Extra-terrestrials. Great bicycle riders.

6D: Greet the morning.: AWAKEN. Not so much fun at 2:00 a.m.

8D: Part head gear: PAPER HAT. Didn't we just see some of these.

9D: Genesis outcast: EVE. Yes. it was all about Eve.

10D: Spongy ball brand: NERF. Can you get enough?

12D: Tip off: ALERT. Stay alert for the start of basketball season.

13D: One in a buffet stack: PLATE. Get a clean one when you go back for seconds.

18D: Ear part. LOBE. Eeeewww!

23D: "Shane"star Alan: LADD. He made lots of movies. And lots of money.

26D: Surrealist Salvador: DALI. No beard - just a  mustache

(1/06/10 note - I've temporarily disabled the link to the moustache pic, for analytical reasons.
It's all chopped up here to be non-searcable)

http://www.wreckthetapedeck.com/wp  ****

-content/uploads/2009/07/Salvador-Da  ****
l%C3%AD-In-Voluptate-  ****
Mors-photograph-by-  ****
Phillippe-Halsman.jpg")

29D: "That'll do, thanks": I'M SET. Abbreviation in the clue and answer. Nice.

31D: Movie critic at times: RATER. I'll give this clue two thumbs up.

32D: Restful Resort. SPA. A new and alliterative clue.

33D: Deposed Despot AMIN. A bad dude.

35D: Stockholm bound carrier: SAS Scandianavian Airline System International. New to me.

36D: Jerusalem is its cap.: ISR. Israel, of course.

37D: Set (down): LAY. Now a lay me down to sleep (wishful thinking.)

40D: Street urchin: WAIF. I always think of this. Reminds me of granddaughter Emily.

41D: Ralph Kramden's Pal: ED NORTON. From The Honeymooners

44D: Sprinkler attachment: HOSE. I think of it the other way around.

46D: Boris's partner in 'toon espionage.: NATASHA Fatale and Boris Badenov.

48D: Online birthday greetings, e.g.: ECARDS. Greetings froma a distance.

49D: Round number?: ZERO. Literal, in this case.

50D: Outlaw chasing group: POSSE. Euphamism for a lynch mob.

51D: Poolroom triangles: RACKS. Where is the triangle?

53D: Prompt again: RECUE. Or break another rack, perhaps.

55D: Vine covered recess: ARBOR. ANN had one, here in MI.

56D: Get extra value from: REUSE. The ANN ARBOR reuse recycle center.

59: Thick carpet: SHAG. Or a certain haircut.

64D: Bullfight shout: OLE. What, no corrida?

65D: Rank above Cpl.: SGT. As in Sgt. Bilko.

Pretty good puzzle. That's all Folks. I'm going back to bed.

JzB the sleep deprived trombonist.

Cross-posted at L.A. Times Crossword Corner, with additions, corrections, and other subtle improvements.

UPDATE:

Don't believe the time stamp. I finished this thing at quarter to five, a. m.

Not a Good First Day of School for Some

Speaking of education - this is heartbreaking.

The number of homeless students has approximately doubled in many school districts, and now totals over 1,000,000 nationally.

Another tragic symptom of the current depression.

Sunday Music Blogging

It's been a long time since I've thought about - or even remembered the existence of - the Chapin brothers: Harry*, of Cat's Cradle** fame, and Tom, who hosted "Make a Wish"*** way back in the day when my kids were very young, indeed.

Here they each have a take on the modern system of education.

Harry First (embedding disabled at YouTube ?!?)

Flowers are Red.

Then Tom



_________________________________________
* With a hat tip to EOTAW.
** No damned cat. No damned cradle. Oops! Wrong damned link.
*** I think a blogger is what I'll be. Imagine all the possibilities.

Deep Stupid #3

This Republican ad, featuring Michael Steele, is stunning in both its stupidity and its arrogant cynicism.

I'll turn the podium over to Steve Benen of Washington Monthly. (But take the liberty of adding red highlight.)

Anyone who can watch the whole thing without pounding your head against a hard surface is a stronger person than I am. An ad like this is so breathtakingly stupid, and is so shameless in its cynical assumptions about the gullibility of the nation, it's literally painful.

The strategy is straightforward enough: Steele thinks he can kill the reform the nation needs by scaring the hell out of seniors with ridiculous lies. If Steele were a sane, responsible person, he'd choose a different path. After all, just last week, Steele said -- within a 24-hour timeframe -- that Medicare is a) a great government program that Democrats are trying to undermine and the GOP is trying to protect; and b) a terrible program that doesn't work and should probably be privatized. And this only came after Steele ran one of the all-time dumbest op-eds to ever run on health care policy.

Media Matters deconstructs the ad point by nauseating point.

In case you have the stomach for more, here is Steele's Washington Post op-ed where he delivers the same message in print.

DeLong weighs in on how dumb and inconsistent Republicans are on health care.

The stupid -- it burns.

Now THIS is Interesting

I have no idea if Stefan is right in this assertion:

The weird thing - the really, really weird thing - about the 1992 presidential campaign was the tracking poll published in Newsweek shortly after the election.

Throughout the entire campaign, from February to November, Bush's support in the electorate did not drop below 30% nor exceed 40%. This was through Perot's lead in the polls, through his dropping out on the eve of the Democratic convention, through his reentry in September, and all the way to Election Day - 60 to 70 percent of the nation was going to vote against the incumbent.

There was no evidence from that tracking poll that Perot had anything at all to do with the result - in that the election was going to be a defeat for Bush regardles. Indeed, Bush's only hope was for Perot and Clinton to split the electorate so evenly that Bush's loyal 35-38% could squeak him through to victory.

Perot did, however, have everything to do with the legitimacy of the eventual winner.

This is a side note to your main thesis, but nevertheless something that has bugged me at a low level for 16 years. It seemed obvious to me that Perot was from the beginning out to prevent a Democratic landslide, not to take up any sort of arms against Bush. (His actions in 1996 could have no other strategy -- save serving his megalomania, something that could also explain his effort in 1992, of course.)

But it does cast an interesting light on the Clinton Presidency, and the Perot candidacy.

Taken from the comments to DeLong's post on why health care reform couldn't pass on Clinton's watch.

Sad stories, both, and in every possible way.

Deep Stupid #2

Pat Buchanan is amazing.

I'm not sure what his point is here. There must be one. I suspect it to be profoundly sinister.*

Here are Buchanan's actual words:

Hitler had never wanted war with Poland, but an alliance with Poland such as he had with Francisco Franco's Spain, Mussolini's Italy, Miklos Horthy's Hungary and Father Jozef Tiso's Slovakia.

Perhaps the stupid wouldn't resonate so powerfully, if I hadn't read this,** by somebody who actually knows what he is talking about, just a couple of days ago.

It came a day after the Gleiwitz incident, one part of Operation Himmler. The latter had German troops dressed in Polish uniforms attacking German emplacements along the border in order to give a casus belli. At Gleiwitz, for example, an SS unit so dressed attacked a German radio transmitter and then retreated, leaving behind dead bodies also dressed in Polish uniforms. The bodies–those of concentration camp inmates–were called Konserve, or “Canned Goods.”

A hat tip to DeLong, who comes down hard on Buchanan, so I don't have to.

If you don't want war with Poland, bozo, it's easy not to have one: if you don't want war with Poland, simply don't attack Poland.

This could also have been categorized under Republicans: All Wrong, All the Time. Those words are synonymous with DEEP STUPID.

Thursday 9/03 Update: In comments, J calls the bloggers at EOTAW hacks. Draw your own conclusions on that score. But this: "(They also ban anyone who refuses to sort of join in the chants as well)" is pretty well refuted by the dialog accompanying this article. In contrast to J, I have been impressed at times by the thoughtfulness and patience with which the EOTAW bloggers and regulars refute the ignorance and foolishness of trollish commentors.

___________________________________
* Sure. Call me a cynic.
** Please read the entire article, and follow the Gleiwitz incident link.

Wednesday Poetry Blogging

The Puzzle

Puzzle, puzzle, burning bright
In Across Lite overnight,
What constructor's clever eye
Framed your distorted symmetry?

From what distant EBON skies
Came these WONDERS for my eyes?
HOLY COW - to so aspire,
BY THE BY, such creative fire!

Could REN ELATE us with such art?
Could OPRAH twist our ARM or heart?
And when the fills began to beat
Were there rhymes and metric feet?

Where the OMEN, where the chain?
So KEENLY works the puzzler's brain!
IN A JAM of corner's grasp
Foreign words dare cross and clasp.

GABE and EROS thrust their spears,
ISABEL SPEWS forth her tears.
Do we smile, this grid to see?
Do we have HIGH FIVES for thee?

Puzzle, puzzle, burning bright
In Across Lite overnight,
What constructor's clever eye
Framed your distorted symmetry?

Blake's famous poem, THE TIGER, today's unfortunate victim, carries a sign that says, "parody me." It's been done hundreds of times. The original, IMHO, is quite spectacularly awful.

This version is based on a recent LA Times crossword puzzle (Thus. Aug.27) with a cleverly asymmetric grid, by Dan Gagliardo. The deliberately distorted symmetry of the grid inspired this effort. The words/phrases in ALL CAPS are taken from the puzzle grid. Across Light is a software package that enables solving on your computer.

One thing in puzzles I complain about is the crossing of obscurities - in this puzzle it was two foreign language words in the North-east corner. Hence: "Foreign words dare cross and clasp."

For further commentary on this puzzle, check here.

Deep Stupid #1

UPDATE: Looks like my pic of the lovely Miss B has evaporated into the ether.  You can find dozens more here.

I've argued with Urbino occasionally about whether the Deep Stupid* things you hear are actual reflections of genuine right wing stupidity, or just things right wing tools say because they are whores.

I guess, if you can't tell, it doesn't matter.

Maria Bartiromo is, for sure, a tool. I never realized that she is also STUPID!

________________________________________
* Full disclosure: I shamelessly stole the DEEP STUPID idea from Urbino