The Recognition of the Power of Bruce Springsteen's Butt as Rite of Passage

Gore Vidal left us on this day in 2012.

"The unfed mind devours itself."

Endlessly quotable. 

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Can we just be done with Trump and his endless race-baiting? He entered the public political consciousness with his Obama birth certificate nonsense, which he clearly knew was phony, but he went on about it for years. (Hey, any publicity is good publicity, right?) That was like 14 years ago, and a year doesn't go by without him intentionally throwing some of his garbage into the public stew, consistently downgrading the country's level of conversation.

Now enthusiasm for Kamala is at its height, and he's calling her race into question. It was only a matter of time. All the attention needs to be on him. Is she black, is she Indian? What did he want to get out of his meeting today with black journalists? He didn't want an honest exchange of ideas. This is what he wanted, us commenting on another racial controversy of his own creation. This type of thing can't be ignored though. It needs to be called out.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a weird thing for someone to do in 2024?

By the way, how does one identify Trump? Monty Python said it best. "He's not the Messiah - he's a very naughty boy!" It's time for him to be spanked and put to bed.

July 31, 2024

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My kids are having a birthday party in my room for Licky and Grogu. I got to pick the music so I chose Bruce Springsteen on Pandora. Dancing in the Dark came on and my kids started laughing at the Born in the USA cover. They asked me why it's just a picture of his butt. I told them they had to figure it out themselves.

July 31, 2021

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They can't beat me yet...

July 31, 2022

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A woman at the Salvation Army was wearing a mask that read, "LORD PLEASE PROTECT ME." Reminds me of that poll that came out a while ago that said 75% of Americans believe "God helps those who help themselves" is from the Bible. Haha.

July 31, 2021

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From Roger Ebert's autobiography, Life Itself: 

"I feel reluctant to write in a hurtful way, not always, but usually. I feel repugnance for the critic John Simon, who made it a specialty to attack the way actors look. They can't help how they look, anymore than John Simon can help looking like a rat."

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Haha, Bill Maher: 

"If in February you tweet, "KEEP AMERICA GREAT," and in July you tweet, "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," you have to admit that between February and July you ruined America."

July 31, 2020

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The other night Zuzu asked me one of the all-time worst questions-"Daddy, how can people make things?"

Me- "What do you mean???"

Zuzu- "If we make things with tools, how did people make the tools? And how did they make the tools that made those tools if we always need tools to make tools?

Great question! I always wondered the same thing- how can there be an infinite regress of tools??? I told her I didn't know but the whole thing might have started with some chimp-like creature poking a stick in a termite mound.

July 31, 2020

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I keep hearing about these anarchists. Police who don't allow First Amendment rights are also anarchists.

July 31, 2020

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Imagine that Bennett wins the nomination. Trump will point out that he's running against the psychologist from South Park, and the election is over.

July 31, 2019

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Gretel woke me up three times last night due to nightmares. Then she woke me up again with this:

Gretel- Daddy, what are milk and yogurt called? I can't remember.

Me- Dairy?

Gretel- Yeah!

It was like 3 or 4 in the morning and I'm getting quizzed on the freaking food pyramid.

July 31, 2019

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You hear a lot of medicare-for-all detractors say, "the Democrats want you to have free everything." It's the same ridiculous thing that they'd say if there weren't free public libraries, free police forces, free public school, unemployment, social security... the military. Of course none of these things are free, we pay for important public services with our taxes. It's just a question of whether health insurance is an important enough public service, and if it will be less expensive. We can look to any other country that has free public health care as a guide. Are they disappointed, and do they want to go back?

July 31, 2019

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Gretel just got a Star Wars guy for helping me so much- Hammerhead. She asked Grummy if she knew who it was but Grummy's guess was crap- Chewbaqua.

July 31, 2017

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A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss- a book so nice I'm going to listen to it twice. Possible answer to why there's something rather than nothing- maybe nothing is unstable.

July 31, 2015

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Something I reflect on often- Buddha didn't wash himself until the dirt would fall off of its own accord.

July 31, 2014

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Roger Ebert's autobiography is one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. This is simply a great quote about his experience with Dolly Parton.

“In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder.”

July 31, 2014

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Tonight I was crouched down, creeping around the living room, fly-swatter in hand, hunting the bothersome fly who'd been buzzing around all night. He landed right on my forehead. So what would have you done?

July 31, 2010

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A big pickup truck in front of me had a bumper sticker that read "McCain/Palin: Two Boobs, No New Ideas." He put on his left turn signal and turned right. I can't explain why, but that seems somehow perfect. Sometimes I like trying to figure out the symbolism of real life.

July 31, 2010

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Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory on this day in 1703 for seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet. He was pelted with flowers.

Who says there's not been progress? Hell, even flowers were progress!

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On this day in 1941, under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question." It was obviously Hitler's plan, but there's remarkably little hard evidence like this that it was Hitler's plan. 

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The USS Nevada was sunk on this day in 1948 by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs. It was being used for target practice in post-war tests.

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The Apollo 15 astronauts became the first to ride in a lunar rover on this day in 1971. I think this was the beginning of the end for Apollo. Driving a rover on the moon? Was that worth a billion dollars or whatever it cost? I bet that's when the public support shifted dramatically. 

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Mario Bava joined us on this day in 1914. The ambience!

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Philosopher John Searle was born on this day in 1932. "In general, I feel if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself."

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Ted Cassidy, who played Lurch from The Addams Family, was born on this day in 1932.

"You know, I can't tell you that I'm very fond of anything I've done, including - and especially- 'The Addams Family.' That's an albatross around my neck that I've got to get rid of somehow."

Sad, I wish he owned it!

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Mark Cuban was born on this day in 1958. At this point Trump hasn't declared his candidacy for 2024, though he will. Biden will get destroyed if he runs again. If it's Biden/Trump Part 2, I rest in comfort that some combination of Mark Cuban and Howard Stern will destroy both. We're over due for a third party win.

July 31, 2022

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J. K. Rowling was born on this day in 1965. As close as I can tell, she defines women as a group of people who will be, are, or have been, humans who could potentially be raped and have to carry a baby they did not wish, among other things.

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B. J. Novak was born on this day in 1979. It's easy to forget about the credit that we owe the writers of The Office for the staggering list of fantastic quotes.

Michael Scott, The Office, Season 7: Threat Level Midnight

“I am a huge Woody Allen fan. Although I've only seen 'Antz.' But I'll tell you something, what I respect about that man is that when he was going through all of that stuff that came out in the press, about how 'Antz' was just a ripoff of 'A Bug's Life,' he stayed true to his films. Or at least the film that I saw, which, again, was 'Antz.' Thing is, I thought 'A Bug's Life' was better, much better than 'Antz.' Point is, don't listen to your critics. Listen to your fans.”

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From his stand up- "In 4 years of college I didn't learn a thing. I majored in psychology and reverse psychology."

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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry left us on this day in 1944. 

"He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man."

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Roddy Piper left us on this day in 2015.

Heart attack while asleep...ugh, my worst fear, the fate of Stanley Kubrick too. Worse than sharks, worse than being rolled up in a carpet and tossed over a bridge into water. You go to sleep, and then nothing...for the next trillion years, times a trillion raised to the trillion power years. Rest in peace for Roddy Piper? Sounds like a fate worse than death. That guy had vitality, and I'd take that over almost anything.

He once said, "One night, I knocked out Mr. T, kicked Cyndi Lauper, chased Dick Clark back to his locker room, and slapped Little Richard."

I wonder who is more quotable, Gore Vidal or Roddy Piper.

July 31, 2015

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French actress, Jeanne Moreau, left us on this day in 2017. She also lives forever:

https://youtu.be/bWjCTLsTxVY

"Together we make our ways,

In life's whirlpool of days.

We go round and round,

Together bound, together bound."

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Other notable deathdays- Andrew Johnson (1875), Franz Liszt (1886)

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When's the last time C-SPAN gave you goosebumps?

https://youtu.be/W4zwCMf8dsc

July 31, 2010

Postscript: Holy crap! I couldn't believe when I clicked on this link it was a 12-year-old Anthony Weiner diatribe. It is still just as powerful! Oh my goodness. What is it with Republicans trying to keep health care away from 9/11 first responders and veterans? Just today Jon Stewart was on two of the morning news programs talking about that exact topic. What is it with these people, seriously? Jon Stewart and Anthony Weiner were friends too. 

Whatever happened to Anthony Weiner? Oh yeah. I guess it's only option would be to run as a republican, and it seems like he might have burned his bridge.

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The Onion headline- Fucking Loser At Movie All By Himself

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Anyone criticizing Simone Biles for gutlessness needs to get out there and show her how it's done! (It's enjoyable to imagine.)

https://youtu.be/Lp5ZxhXTdXU

July 31, 2021

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I might have already mentioned it, but The Little Prince was James Dean's favorite book. Saint-Exupery, again- "Those who pass by us, do not go alone, and do not leave us alone; they leave a bit of themselves, and take a little of us."

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Vidal again- "I’m not sentimental about anything. Life flows by, and you flow with it or you don’t. Move on and move out."

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Roddy Piper again- "I've been in 30 car crashes, none of 'em my fault, I swear on a stack of midgets... OK, they were probably all my fault."

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Tibetan Buddhist Prayer:

May you be at peace. 

May your heart remain open. 

May you awaken to the light of your own true nature. 

May you be healed. 

May you be a source of healing for all beings.

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A 1-ton rubber band ball dropped from 2,000 ft.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1470817283748830

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Alexis de Tocqueville- "It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle."

Huh.

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Karl R. Popper- "Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell."

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B.J. Novak again:

Michael Scott, The Office, Season 2: Sexual Harassment:

“There is no such thing as an appropriate joke, that's why it's a joke.” 

That seems applicable somehow, but certainly Michael Scott shouldn't be any sort of moral guide.

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Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket- "The dead know only one thing, it is better to be alive."

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Addendum

Bonus Searle quote: 

"With Derrida, you can hardly misread him, because he’s so obscure. Every time you say, "He says so and so," he always says, "You misunderstood me." But if you try to figure out the correct interpretation, then that’s not so easy. I once said this to Michel Foucault, who was more hostile to Derrida even than I am, and Foucault said that Derrida practiced the method of obscurantisme terroriste (terrorism of obscurantism). We were speaking French. And I said, "What the hell do you mean by that?" And he said, "He writes so obscurely you can’t tell what he’s saying, that’s the obscurantism part, and then when you criticize him, he can always say, 'You didn’t understand me; you’re an idiot.' That’s the terrorism part." And I like that. So I wrote an article about Derrida. I asked Michel if it was OK if I quoted that passage, and he said yes."

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Bonus Rowdy Roddy Piper quotes:

“Just when they think they got the answers, I change the questions.”

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"You do not throw rocks at a man with a machine gun."

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“He’s as strong as an ox, and almost as smart!”

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I'm not here to be liked, I'm here to be remembered.

Addendum 

the finger

by Charles Bukowski

the drivers of automobiles

have very little recourse or

originality.

when upset with

another

driver

they often give him the

FINGER.

I have seen two adult

men

florid of face

driving along

giving each other the

FINGER.

well, we all know what

this means, it's no

secret.

still, this gesture is

so overused it has

lost most of its

impact.

some of the men who give

the FINGER are captains of

industry, city councilmen,

insurance adjusters,

accountants and/or the just plain

unemployed.

no matter.

it is their favorite

response.

people will never admit

that they drive

badly.

the FINGER is their

reply.

I see grown men

FINGERING each other

throughout the day.

it gives me pause.

when I consider

the state of our cities,

the state of our states,

the state of our country,

I begin to

understand.

the FINGER is a mind-

set.

we are the FINGERERS.

we give it

to each other.

we give it coming and

going.

we don't know how

else to respond.

what a hell of a way

to not

live.