Pepperpuss, and Excursions in Conversation and Violence

Apparently the Oscars is starting off with a 20 to 30 minute jazz song... yeah well, I guess it is the 20's after all.

February 9, 2020

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I've always wondered what Trump's nickname for Trump would be if Trump wasn't Trump. Let's give credit where credit is due, Trump is probably the greatest mean-spirited nickname-giver of all-time. So what would he call himself if he was his enemy? I might have figured it out- President Chump. Here it is in context, "There goes Kim Jong Un again, playing President Chump like a fiddle."

February 9, 2019

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The Onion- Frustrated Hope Hicks Wishing She Could Find One Nice Guy In This Autocratic Personality Cult

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Interesting idea- there are only two methods we have to make the world as we want it, conversation and violence. Where conversation fails, violence is the only other option.

February 9, 2018

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Been waiting for CNN's History of Comedy for months and the first episode didn't disappoint. I laughed so hard at Sam Kinison's necrophilia joke it blew out my appendix stitches. Second thought, that was a bit disappointing.

February 9, 2017

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Charles Blow on Sessions appointment- "When former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke is thrilled at your confirmation, what does that say? I know EXACTLY what that says… #resist."

February 9, 2017

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"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Yep, old William Blake's got my number, always moderation in excess with me.

February 9, 2014

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Christy Lemire only gave four stars to two movies last year- Gravity and American Hustle. This year she's already given four stars to one movie- The Lego Movie! For what it's worth, it's at 95% on Rotten tomatoes. That can't be, can it?

February 9, 2014

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I got a dog! What should i name her?

February 9, 2013

Good suggestions- Waffle Cone, Thelma, Slayer, Kujo, Cosmo, Elva, Coconut, Scrabble, Honey Child, Wampa, Seat Belt, Mrs. Robinson, Wanda Rafferty, Falkor the Luck Dragon, Skrimshaw, Timpte, Luz, Bingo

So Pepper it was. Almost Rosy.

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I've had this 6-hour Auschwitz documentary in my netflix queue for over a year... somehow it just never seems like the right time to watch it.

February 9, 2011

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On this day in 1913, a group of meteors was visible across much of the eastern seaboard of the Americas, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.

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The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on this day in 1964, performing before a record-setting audience of 73 million viewers across the United States.

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Bill Haley left us forever on this day in 1981, and exactly 5 years later, Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System.

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The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump began on this day in 2021. When the Republicans voted to not follow Lynn Cheney's lead, I finally lost all hope for them. Tribalism over the country, at its absolute finest.

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The founding father of founding fathers, the endlessly quotable Thomas Paine joined us on this day in 1737.

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

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William Henry "He Died In 30 Days" Harrison, joined us on this day in 1773.

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Just a terrible human being, Mia Farrow, was born on this day in 1945. But don't take my word for it, take some of her kids' opinions.

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Sham 69's Jimmy Pursey joined us on this day in 1955. 

"If the kids are united, we will never be divided."

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The Phillies made it to the 1993 World Series with the help of John Kruk who was born on this day in 1961, followed by Todd Pratt in 1967.

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Charlie Day joined us this day in 1976. 

Dennis: Okay, alright what’s your favorite hobby?

Charlie: Uhh…magnets.

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Another notable birthday- Joe Pesci (1943), 

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky left us on this day in 1881. From The Brothers Karamazov:

"I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular."

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Composer and conductor, Percy Faith, left us on this day in 1976. Theme From A Summer Place, is the absolute height of music as far as I'm concerned. I don't know how he did it. In that music he perfectly captures a time and place and feeling. It's bizarre. A mystery. Incomprehensible.

https://youtu.be/zV0SuwqOTY4

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Another notable deathday- philosopher John Hick (2012)

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Don't make them like that anymore...

Carter Family (Maybelle and the girls)- Wildwood Flower

https://youtu.be/ewnfWoSQz3o

February 9, 2011

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Cracked- 5 Bizarre Factors That Secretly Influence Your Opinions

5. Temperature affects your taste in movies

4. If you touch an object, you want it more

3. Your name can influence your life choices

2. Hand gestures can manipulate you

1. Analyzing your thoughts too hard can change your opinions for the worse

http://www.cracked.com/article_20223_5-bizarre-factors-that-secretly-influence-your-opinions.html

February 9, 2013

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http://www.buzzfeed.com/seancurry1/questions-atheists-are-sick-of-answering

February 9, 2013

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http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/06/the-50-harshest-roger-ebert-movie-review-quotes/

February 9, 2013

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Mother Jones- Trump’s Doubts and Ignorance on Nuclear Treaty Worry Experts

It's one thing to agree or disagree with something. It's quite different to not understand what you are agreeing or disagreeing with.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/president-trumps-thoughts-key-nuclear-treaty-worries-experts

February 9, 2017

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Mother Jones- Fox News Tries to Prove Steve Bannon Isn’t as Bad as ISIS

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/02/fox-news-wants-you-know-steve-bannon-isnt-terrible-isis

Haha.

February 9, 2017

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Vivian Maier 

                

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Sopranos:

After Valentina tricks Ralph into stepping in horse shit.

Valentina La Paz: Besides, it's good luck.

Ralph Cifaretto: What?

Valentina La Paz: It's good luck to step in horse shit. Ask any horse person.

Lois Pettit: It's true.

Ralph Cifaretto: Then why aren't you people walkin' around all day lookin' for piles o' horse shit to stomp around in?

Lois Pettit: It only works if it's an accident.

Ralph Cifaretto: Fuckin' sick, all o' yous. Fucko, where's the hose?

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Hermann Hesse- “A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to commit outrages...” 

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Hitchens, on cats vs dogs: “If we stay with animal analogies for a moment, owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are god. (Cats may sometimes share the cold entrails of a kill with you, but this is just what a god might do if he was in a good mood.)”

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H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: Second Series- "Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong."

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Chris Rock- "People are starving all over the world, what do you mean, "red meat will kill you"? Don't eat no red meat? No, don't eat no green meat. If you lucky enough to get your hands on a steak, bite the shit out of it!"

Addendum 

1.

Myspace Blog

February 9, 2007

To the naysayers who say nay to audiobooks...

I say they might be man's crowning achievement, for without them I never would have happened upon this deliciously blasphemous gem from Mark Twain's autobiography. I feel drunk with truth.

Is it too long for you? Oh, ye of so little concentration- the only thing too long was your last puff on that marijuana cigarette. Perhaps you'd prefer my previous blog. It's a short read and more substantive.

THE CHARACTER OF MAN

Concerning Man--he is too large a subject to be treated as a whole; so I will merely discuss a detail or two of him at this time. I desire to contemplate him from this point of view--this premise: that he was not made for any useful purpose, for the reason that he hasn't served any; that he was most likely not even made intentionally; and that his working himself up out of the oyster bed to his present position was probably matter of surprise and regret to the Creator. . . . For his history, in all climes, all ages and all circumstances, furnishes oceans and continents of proof that of all the creatures that were made he is the most detestable. Of the entire brood he is the only one--the solitary one--that possesses malice.

That is the basest of all instincts, passions, vices--the most hateful. That one thing puts him below the rats, the grubs, the trichinae. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. But if the cat knows she is inflicting pain when she plays with the frightened mouse, then we must make an exception here; we must grant that in one detail man is the moral peer of the cat. All creatures kill--there seems to be no exception; but of the whole list, man is the only one that kills for fun; he is the only one that kills in malice, the only one that kills for revenge. Also--in all the list he is the only creature that has a nasty mind.

Shall he be extolled for his noble qualities, for his gentleness, his sweetness, his amiability, his lovingness, his courage, his devotion, his patience, his fortitude, his prudence, the various charms and graces of his spirit? The other animals share all these with him, yet are free from the blacknesses and rottennesses of his character.

. . . There are certain sweet-smelling sugar-coated lies current in the world which all politic men have apparently tacitly conspired together to support and perpetuate. One of these is, that there is such a thing in the world as independence: independence of thought, independence of opinion, independence of action. Another is, that the world loves to see independence--admires it, applauds it. Another is, that there is such a thing in the world as toleration--in religion, in politics, and such matters; and with it trains that already mentioned auxiliary lie that toleration is admired and applauded. Out of these trunk-lies spring many branch ones: to wit, the lie that not all men are slaves: the lie that men are glad when other men succeed; glad when they prosper; glad to see them reach lofty heights; sorry to see them fall again. And yet other branch lies: to wit, that there is heroism in man; that he is not mainly made up of malice and treachery; that he is sometimes not a coward; that there is something about him that ought to be perpetuated--in heaven, or hell, or somewhere. And these other branch lies, to wit: that conscience, man's moral medicine chest, is not only created by the Creator, but is put into man ready charged with the right and only true and authentic correctives of conduct--and the duplicate chest, with the self-same correctives, unchanged, unmodified, distributed to all nations and all epochs. And yet one other branch lie: to wit, that I am I, and you are you; that we are units, individuals, and have natures of our own, instead of being the tail end of a tapeworm eternity of ancestors extending in linked procession back and back and back--to our source in the monkeys, with this so-called individuality of ours a decayed and rancid mush of inherited instincts and teachings derived, atom by atom, stench by stench, from the entire line of that sorry column, and not so much new and original matter in it as you could balance on a needle point and examine under a microscope. This makes well-nigh fantastic the suggestion that there can be such a thing as a personal, original, and responsible nature in a man, separable from that in him which is not original, and findable in such quantity as to enable the observer to say, This is a man, not a procession.

. . . Consider the first-mentioned lie: that there is such a thing in the world as independence; that it exists in individuals; that it exists in bodies of men. Surely if anything is proven, by whole oceans and continents of evidence, it is that the quality of independence was almost wholly left out of the human race. The scattering exceptions to the rule only emphasize it, light it up, make it glare. The whole population of New England meekly took their turns, for years, in standing up in the railway trains, without so much as a complaint above their breath, till at last these uncounted millions were able to produce exactly one single independent man, who stood to his rights and made the railroad give him a seat. Statistics and the law of probabilities warrant the assumption that it will take New England forty years to breed his fellow. There is a law, with a penalty attached, forbidding trains to occupy the Asylum Street crossing more than five minutes at a time. For years people and carriages used to wait there nightly as much as twenty minutes on a stretch while New England trains monopolized that crossing. I used to hear men use vigorous language about that insolent wrong--but they waited, just the same.

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. We have two opinions: one private, which we are afraid to express; and another one--the one we use--which we force ourselves to wear to please Mrs. Grundy, until habit makes us comfortable in it, and the custom of defending it presently makes us love it, adore it, and forget how pitifully we came by it. Look at it in politics. Look at the candidates whom we loathe, one year, and are afraid to vote against, the next; whom we cover with unimaginable filth, one year, and fall down on the public platform and worship, the next--and keep on doing it until the habitual shutting of our eyes to last year's evidences brings us presently to a sincere and stupid belief in this year's. Look at the tyranny of party--at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty--a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes--and which turns voters into chattels, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern master.

If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times. A Hartford clergyman met me in the street and spoke of a new nominee--denounced the nomination, in strong, earnest words--words that were refreshing for their independence, their manliness.1 He said, "I ought to be proud, perhaps, for this nominee is a relative of mine; on the contrary, I am humiliated and disgusted, for I know him intimately--familiarly--and I know that he is an unscrupulous scoundrel, and always has been." You should have seen this clergyman preside at a political meeting forty days later, and urge, and plead, and gush--and you should have heard him paint the character of this same nominee. You would have supposed he was describing the Cid, and Greatheart, and Sir Galahad, and Bayard the Spotless all rolled into one. Was he sincere? Yes--by that time; and therein lies the pathos of it all, the hopelessness of it all. It shows at what trivial cost of effort a man can teach himself to lie, and learn to believe it, when he perceives, by the general drift, that that is the popular thing to do. Does he believe his lie yet? Oh, probably not; he has no further use for it. It was but a passing incident; he spared to it the moment that was its due, then hastened back to the serious business of his life.

2.

Treatise on Buddhist Wisdom