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

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Defending Teachers

By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 12/23/2012 - 2:23am |

Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler, as he does frequently, voices the teachers' angle on things - in this case of the massacre - that we've been attacking them for decades, trashing teachers' unions, pretending that public teachers are just lazy and that school vouchers will cure all our ills. Even liberals blasting away at the poor state of education even as minorities make leaps and bounds progress over 2 decades that everyone ignores. Democrats like Rahm Emmanuel and Republicans like Scott Walker blast away at the teachers' unions, one point of sharing in our our rare bipartisan consensus.

How Democracies Work

By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 12/02/2012 - 2:56pm |

Blogger detained for anti-government writings; dies in custody. Head of cyber department fired, 7 officials arrested. Justice & democracy.

Uncharged detainee dies in custody of drug overdose; after unsupervised autopsy, body kept in storage until after general election, when organs have rotted out, at which time remains sent back to Yemen. Permanent war on terror, business as usual.

Afghanistan 4-Evuh!!! War on Drugs!!!

By PeraclesPlease on Fri, 11/16/2012 - 11:48am |

Well, I blew it - I thought with the number of green-on-blue attacks and the complete collapse of our efforts there, plus the pointlessness after getting OBL in Pakistan - that we'd start cutting and running right after election day.

59% Obama vote women

By PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/07/2012 - 10:01am |

Ayup, looks like 59% of Obama's vote was female voters in a highly gender defined election. Women made up about 54% of the voters and favored Obama 55-45, so roughly Obama's base is 59% women, 41% men.

So will women get some of the love back, or will they have to fight tooth and nail (oops) for basics like use of contraception, proper health care, abortion rights, and some of the less "soft" non-reproductive-related issues that women might prefer?

Big Winner: Nate Silver, Big Data

By PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/07/2012 - 7:14am |

In a veer to reality-based elections, Nate's total prediction this time, 49 right last gives us hope that the effects of the chattering class will be diminished next time.

After chumps like Dick Morris blew all credibility (did they have any left?) proclaiming a blowout to be, when any casual glance at the ground games in needed states proved it hoo-hah?

An Election Day Wish: End Precinct Voting

By PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/06/2012 - 8:55am |

In an age where we can pull $1000 out of any ATM worldwide, it's absurd that we're stuck in an age-old tradition of going to a particular precinct on a particular day to stand in a pretty retro booth to vote.

There's no reason not to have voting places where everyone can vote if we can't just do it via our mobile phones (yes, there are considerations for voting fraud, but as new last minute software for Ohio machines shows, we have this to contend with anyway).

Why to Vote Against Obama

By PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/05/2012 - 9:46am |

 

Alan Grayson catalogs: “a socialist nightmare hellscape.”

Obama Unjumps Shark?

By PeraclesPlease on Wed, 10/31/2012 - 7:34pm |

Perhaps like Katrina was a turning point for Bush's presidency, Sandy will be a turning point for Obama's.

After 4 years of 11-dimensional chess, this one's curiously a no-brainer - get help to people quick, get the power back on, get the payments in, streamline response.

I was ready to write a column about how we could get resources in *before* the storm, since we knew they'd lose power, subways would be flooded - and there's Brownie criticizing Obama for acting too quickly. Well that's a good side of the fence to be on.

Winners & Losers

By PeraclesPlease on Sat, 10/27/2012 - 5:16am |

Winner - Lena Dunham, now the viral video Obama Girl 2012 along with monster book advance - I feel a bad Foreigner hit coming on...

Loser - Donald Trump, still finding ways to look ridiculous post-The Apprentice

Winner / Loser - Mourdock, finding the positive side to Richard Speck and Albert DeSalvo, and portrayed as Voldemort on Stephen Colbert, has earned himself a lucrative earlier-than-expected post-congressional Fox career. 

4th Estate as 5th Column

By PeraclesPlease on Fri, 10/26/2012 - 5:26pm |

I disagreed with Emma a few days ago over the idea we needed more "hacks", but now I'm reconsidering...

Bob Somerby as usual's doing a bang-up job tracking the media madness, and in 2 particular areas his observations fit together -

1) the media pack has gotten chummier of late with its Groupthink as Twitter helps them align their stories (sad, but bars used to serve this purpose, and at least then you could say you got a buzz)

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Defies gravity Can spit really far Almost touch my toes Can cut a fly's legs off with a beer cap from 20 paces Know how to say useless stuff and prattle on in a dozen languages Don't know when to shut up
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To be for or against the Plague, it's much the same thing. Fiddledee, how a body shure do get around - just 2 weeks ago I was in Mississippi and now I'm all the way to Tennessee... Eat or Be Eaten Better to be pissed off than pissed on.
Biography
Born in swaddling clothes (designer, of course) at the confluence of big waters, my first recorded words were "Dad, can I have the keys to the car?" Raised a Southern Pedestrian, my musical talents were recognized at an early age, leading to my being exiled to the shed out back with a stack of books that became my eddykayshun - advanced readin', writin' & ritmytick, creating a major quandary of "what will I do, oh what will I do?" (Gunslinger) As an old black man advised in song, "You Gotta Move", so move I did, traveling the byways sideways even a lot of driveways, picking up sticks and psychological tics, even movin' to Beverlee through a quaint misunderstanding of the seriousness of TV series, until finally I blew up so big the carry nation incarnation tarnation couldn't hold me no more, so I fixed my sights on yonder sitar, and like Queequeg and Paul Bowles and one of those abducted kids by the Pied Piper of Hamelin, I ventured forth to the larger world, pickin' and grinnin', doin' me some reckonin' and naughts from naughts, occasionally rightin', building me some buildings and wiring and just trying to understand the babble comin' out of people's mouths and heads, I finally ended up in what Rummy quaintly calls "New Europe", which ain't so new from what I sees, but that pit in my stomach from lack-of-moving-sickness finally disappeared, and instead I sit behind a whopping big desk stacked with missives from all the chiefs with big whampum around the world telling me "what's going on". Which seems like a load of boolshit to me, but I guess that's what keeps me busy and entertained now, separatin' the weeds from the chapstick. So my name is Perry Keys, or Peracles to you, and since my mammy always said, "say please and thank you", I added the please, but I'm holdin' back on that thankee until I feel you've earned it. But do welcome, and I hope we's a gonna have a real good time. It all starts with, "I wuz born a poor young white chile livin' in the South..." and we cycle through again, like Nietzsche and his infernal regurgence. So enjoy, and let's spin a spell...

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