The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    The Medal of Free-Dumb

    By A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 05/01/2012 - 11:50pm |

    In the early days of my 725-day army career, I spent some time at Ft. Hood, Texas. Luck of the draw, I guess. I had been sent there out of AIT along with about a billion other bald-headed idiots to be fodder in the new Americal Division that was being formed. We were about to surge, and we hadn't even heard the term, but look out, Charlie, here we come. Yeeee ha! Somehow, though, they filled it before they got to me. That was my luckiest number draw to that point, the lottery not yet being in place. And, since everybody has to be somewhere, someone decided to assign troop number U.S. 5 444 ---8 to a short timers unit.

    Richard Day's picture

    THE SINS OF THE FATHER...

    By Richard Day on Tue, 05/01/2012 - 4:17pm |

     

    You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected--even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.

    Exodus/20-5

    Gordy aint a bad speaker actually; not a bad speaker at all.

    jollyroger's picture

    Standard Global Warming Models debunked. Truth: Sooner, Higher, Drier, Stronger

    By jollyroger on Sun, 04/29/2012 - 6:00pm |

    I have a dream.

     

    It has nothing to do with the end of racism.  My dream is to see the look on  Rush Limbaugh's bloated face as he paddles by in his Waterworld survival kayak.

     

    I may yet see it.

     

    Everything they said would  happen is happening, but sooner.

    Distance Intimacy

    By Dennie Briggs on Sun, 04/29/2012 - 11:45am |

    My nephew, Shaun, has just invited me “to connect on his LinkedIn site.” I wondered why he would want his aged uncle on his spot. As a teaser, the underwriter hinted that such a connection might create opportunities for the future.

    Our Distressed Defective Democracy

    By Aunt Sam on Sun, 04/29/2012 - 10:47am |

    I think it is past time we admitted the obvious, shucked off our mantles of denial and shame, and own the truth. We can shout it out or sing it in harmony, as we confess the all too obvious…..

    It’s our fault that our form of democracy is failing.

    Oh, don’t even try to pretend you didn’t know it. 

    But we can fix it!  Really!  For sure!  Yes, we can!  But, will we?  How?

    I know what I’m about to propose is radical and most likely will create all kinds of outrage, no doubt including accusations complete with cheeky labels like anarchist, commie (channeling Allen West), turncoat, even twit and bloody prat.  

    Oh, if you are wondering about the usage of British slang, it’s paying homage to Winston Churchill who best stated the motivation for this post when he declared:

    "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

    jollyroger's picture

    Do Laboutins come in size 15?

    By jollyroger on Sat, 04/28/2012 - 7:12am |

    The last time I bought sneakers (Nikes, sz 15), the cute girl at the register asked me "Are these for you?  Oooh, junk!". (Wherein the noumena of the large footed.)

     

    I do not bring this up in an act of shameless self-promotion (ed note: Yeah, right!) but as the result of random thought associations provoked by the fortuitous juxtaposition in the Times of two stories from what we may (without condescension) call the frontiers of sexual behavior.

    jollyroger's picture

    Shouldn't the Ronulans be poised to seize Americans Elect?

    By jollyroger on Fri, 04/27/2012 - 12:01am |

    A recent meander through vale of crazy,  where the really, really, wild things are, has acquainted me with the hope evinced by Ron Paul's peeps that somehow they will snatch the Repugnant party right from under Kid Repugnant himself, when they get to the big throw down in Tampa.

     

    Yeah, maybe.

     

    Richard Day's picture

    THE CORE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!

    By Richard Day on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 7:34pm |

    Willard

     

    President Obama has been linked to the SDS through Bill_Ayers.

    [Refuted] Egypt Highlights the Peril of Democracy

    By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 1:44pm |

    [Note: there is *NO* real source for claims about this law in Egypt - be careful with spreading - likely highly exaggerated urban myth]

    With Egyptian politicians considering a 6-hour window on necrophilia, and lowering the marriage age to 14, we're left considering whether they were better off with Mubarak.

    Ok, they haven't passed the law yet, and to their credit, many (including seemingly most women) oppose the changes, but it exemplifies issues of authoritarianism vs. liberal democracy in places (like the US?) where the populace as a whole seems to be veering off into insanity or cruelty or just backwardsness.

    Mubarak's wife Suzanne helped push through changes in divorce law, which once took 10-15 years for a woman to obtain (but now comes much quicker if she gives up financial rights).

    40% of marriages end in divorce, and there's a push to return to the old system. As if the causes for divorce weren't the issue more than the results. 

    jollyroger's picture

    The afghan war:collective guilt without agency. Collective punishment without proportionality. Instinctively, America recoils

    By jollyroger on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 2:37am |

    The reported level of buyers remorse now expressed by previously enthusiastic consumers of the military model for handling international terrorism can easily be explained as a public relations fumble by propagandists doing the best they could with poor material, or the shortcomings of execution that have hobbled an otherwise sound strategy of enhanced domestic security premised upon "fighting them over there" a little more vigorously, and hence successfully, next time.

     

    jollyroger's picture

    The noose tightens...George Bush, turn in your passport.

    By jollyroger on Tue, 04/24/2012 - 5:41pm |

    The wheels of justice grind slowly--painfully so.

     

    We who have long looked for a Bush appearance in the dock at the Hague for his admitted war crimes, learn with pleasure that an anticipated trip to Canada will present a further opportunity for a last minute change of travel plans.

     

    coatesd's picture

    Taking the Republicans to Task: (5) On Industrial Policy

    By coatesd on Tue, 04/24/2012 - 3:25pm |

    The Republican Party likes to pretend (even to itself) that it doesn’t have an industrial policy. It also likes to pretend that the U.S. economy is currently in such deep trouble because the Democratic Party does.

    Not so. Both parties have industrial policies whether they acknowledge them or not.

    The American economy is in trouble now primarily because the industrial policy to which the Republican Party currently subscribes remains hugely influential and entirely inadequate.

    jollyroger's picture

    Don't bogart that joint, Habib!

    By jollyroger on Sun, 04/22/2012 - 5:57pm |

    Shocking numbers from Afghanistan, show just how wide is the gulf between our GI's and their Afghan "partners"

     

    With hundreds of thousands of troops passing through the country between Jan 2010 and December 2011, only 30 Americans managed to hook-up with that fine Mazar-i-Sharif hash.

     

    A piddling 26 were helped to "get well" by friendly afghan opiate dealers.

    jollyroger's picture

    Wisconsin is Stalingrad. Get on the bus.

    By jollyroger on Sun, 04/22/2012 - 12:20am |

    Learning that the evil genius Moriarty David Koch is throwing down big time to protect his favorite toady, Governor (for now) Scott Walker, the people must rise up like a wounded  beast and here draw the high water mark of the counter revolution.

     

    Kill/Build, the Metaphor - Clouds 'R Us

    By PeraclesPlease on Sat, 04/21/2012 - 3:07am |

    Another metaphor for the Romney candidacy popped up: cookies.

    So we have dogs and cookies and basketball and working mothers and polygamy colony and what? (had another better one to add to list, but sick brain dumped it) - oh yes, it was the little Tommy Friedman 7 years old "broken metro elevator, no cell phone signal" metaphor - "3rd party daddy-warbucks-state".

    How about in the age of cloud computing, we use more engaging metaphor:

    "We are Everywhere"

    jollyroger's picture

    Prez-a hall-of-fame failure at using appointment power

    By jollyroger on Sat, 04/21/2012 - 12:03am |

    We all know the painful tally of Federal Judge openings to which Prez has neglected to make any appointment.

     

    Well, the only time he's worse at making appointments is when he actually makes one.

     

    jollyroger's picture

    It is rude to haggle with your sex worker

    By jollyroger on Thu, 04/19/2012 - 7:04pm |

    Perhaps I am overly sensitive on this issue, because my third wife, the hooker, said that whenever an American Bar Association or Trial Lawyers Convention was in San Fran, the local sex workers knew that they were in for an unusal amount of price negotiation.

     

    Now, I should not have to point out that renting sex is a very personal transaction, on both sides, as it were.

     

    Hence, it is plain bad manners to convey the following message:

     

    "That is a perfectly nice hundred dollar pussy but it is not a nice three hundred dollar pussy."

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Boehner, weeps during Ann Romney paean; Demands same choice for all moms.

    By jollyroger on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 5:00pm |

    Perhaps under the goad of a temporary insanity produced by the juxtaposition of intense hypocrisy and alcohol, John Boehner was so carried away today that he demanded restoration (plus) of AFDC (at trebled levels of support) so that all women might have access to the noble choice to stay home with their children.

     

    No, he didn't.

     

    But you see what I mean--The Pugs can't get out of their own way they are lining up so fast to crap on Hilary Rosen and entering needlepoint classes so they can produce appropriate wall hangings.

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Pashtuns, no jail yet built can hold'em (their cousins are the guards...)

    By jollyroger on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 12:27am |

    We are bemused, not for the first time, by an organized jailbreak that this weekend turned 400 Pakistani Taliban loose onto the streets.

     

    Probably the biggest fish to slip back into the stream was already under death sentence for attempting to assassinate Mussharaf.

     

    Without dwelling overlong on the individual stories, we may profitably wonder how it can be that Af/Pak jails are so porous

     

    Oh Come All You UNFaithful – It’s Judgment Day!

    By Aunt Sam on Sun, 04/15/2012 - 2:56pm |

         In the movie, ‘Indecent Proposal’, a rich man offers a husband $1,000,000.00 to bed his wife.  After initial resistance by the couple, the prompt cashing of his check was all the foreplay required. Although with the dawn came seller’s remorse, what was lost could never truly be regained.

        This film created many a conversation, oft rowdy discussions, about various topics focusing on the queries of ‘what would it take for you to ‘(fill in the blank)’.  Today, when applied to the political arena, at least in the hypothetical, it seems many would rather pimp out their spouse than vote for a candidate who doesn’t share their base political ideology.  

        Selling out one’s core paradigms when casting a ballot may not be in the same emotional and moral arena as desecrating our marital vows, but how we choose to vote does employ the same process we use when making any decision.  In the end, it always comes down to our own priorities and judgment.

    jollyroger's picture

    Hey, Prez (you worthless punk...). Take on the Hyde Amendment face on. Watch the country tilt from women's weight

    By jollyroger on Sun, 04/15/2012 - 12:32am |

    Dating back to somewhere in the seventies, a totally unconstitutional and certainly illegal and discriminatory strangle hold has been placed upon the right of women who are otherwise covered for legal medical procedures, to access their insurance for abortion services.

     

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