Edwards Without Delay

Open your Third Nostril: Read the Moomin' Light Edition of Tarheel Tavern

The theme for this week's Tarheel Tavern is "strong opinions" - any kind of strong opinions, positive or negative. It's part of what I like about blogging - finding out what people really think. - Moomin Light

Ready for some strong opinion? It IS Sunday, after all!
Well head on over to Moomin's edition of...
Tarheel Tavern
"Don't just eat a hamburger. Eat the Hell out of it!"




*hat tip to Bob Dobbs and the Church of the Subgenius

The Opinion Age

The Opinion Age, the stunted little brother of the Information Age, is moving into adolescence.
Allow me to let my literary brother to speak my thoughts:

(George Bernard Shaw from "Man and Superman"

DON JUAN. "Pooh! why should I be civil to them or to you? In this
Palace of Lies a truth or two will not hurt you. Your friends are
all the dullest dogs I know.
They are not beautiful: they are only decorated.
They are not clean: they are only shaved and starched.
They are not dignified: they are only fashionably dressed.
They are not educated they are only college passmen.
They are not religious: they are only pewrenters.
They are not moral: they are only conventional.
They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly.
They are not even vicious: they are only "frail."
They are not artistic: they are only lascivious.
They are not prosperous: they are only rich.
They are not loyal, they are only servile;
not dutiful, only sheepish;
not public spirited, only patriotic;
not courageous, only quarrelsome;
not determined, only obstinate;
not masterful, only domineering;
not self-controlled, only obtuse;
not self-respecting, only vain;
not kind, only sentimental;
not social, only gregarious;
not considerate, only polite;
not intelligent, only opinionated;
not progressive, only factious;
not imaginative, only superstitious;
not just, only vindictive;
not generous, only propitiatory;
not disciplined, only cowed;
and not truthful at all--liars every one
of them, to the very backbone of their souls."

Not intelligent, only opinionated? Sound familiar?
Sounds like, well, ME, doesn't it!
(But that is just my opinion!)

Who was it that said: "Thinking is better than knowing, but seeing is better than thinking."?

White Supremacist Rush Limbaugh calls Rape Victims "Ho's"

Notorious civil rights foe, Rush Limbaugh, on his radio show today, referred to the Duke rape victims as "ho's" -- a derogatory term meaning "black whore". Granted, the apologist, and eventual fall guy for BushWorld, says a lot of things you might expect from a drunken college fratbrat, but Mr. Limbaugh dropped out of college three decades ago. Like so many childstars, Rush is stuck performing the same schtick to the same schmucks show after show,year after moribund after. No wonder these folks don't believe in evolution. They never evolve!

Like an ex-conservative friend of mine said just today: You can't trust Rush because he ALWAYS defends Bush. He doesn't have his own mind." Imagine how Rush must feel being of one mind with a man who makes Dan Quayle seem intelligent! At least Quayle never ordered the killing of thousands of people. His stock has actually risen because of Bush.

The great thing about listening to NPR, say, instead of Rush and his clones, is that you hear the full spectrum of opinion, from the best minds of our time, but you also get the added benefit of information, knowledge, wisdom, and good music. Not the adolescent misinformation and hyperventilations of a man still acting out his college fantasies, and clones.

Rush talks about manliness, but if he were a real man he would stand up to Bush once in a while, and take a chance. But alas, he is bought and paid for. He MUST say the things he says, or he is history. He is the man who could have been a Man, but chose excess instead.

What is full, empties. It's a fact of nature. And he's been full too long.
He should get out while he's ahead.

The first time ever I saw your face...

When I first arrived in Green Witch Village, I thought I had arrived in Greenwich Village, except I was surrounded my mountains, streams and otter. Lots of otter. More otter than you can shake a spear at. So don’t bring your spear. Bring someone else’s if you must, but do not, I repeat, do not, bring your own. Especially not the ruby-tipped one.

I had heard stories about how magical, even mystical, the mountains of North Carolina were, but I thought it was all legend…until I saw, and felt, for myself, the natural power of this ancient and venerated land…which, by the way, is in danger of being divvied up and sold to the highest bidder.

To find the actual village, you will require a guide of high spiritual caliber. If and when you are ready to go, that guide will appear, and whisper the words “Go go” into your left ear. It will be on a Sunday, and probably in the late afternoon.

You will then need to promptly slip into your go-go boots and miniskirt (or kilt), and follow him, blindfolded, on the back of a horse name Wildfire or Trigger. Sometimes Larry.

Do not press your go-go heels into the horse, as he would remind you of the story of Neitzsche or Kundera’s Karenin.

Please leave your cell phone in the nearest trashcan.
You are about to live.

See more progress on: Green Witch Village

Jill Carroll is free, saying she was treated mercifully

Jill Carroll

A Carol for Miss Carroll

A lot of people in the world are rejoicing today. I am one of them.
The Christian Science Monitor journalist, Jill Carroll, was released, unharmed, and says that she was treated well during her captivity. This is the kind of victory everyone celebrates.
May we, in turn, show some mercy. It's the right thing to do.

American Idol 2006: Tips for the contestants

Ace Young (Ace Jung), Bucky Covington, Chris Daughtry (Chris Dawtry), Elliott Yamin (Eliot Yeaman) , Katharine McPhee (Katherine Catherine McFee), Kellie Pickler, Lisa Tucker, Mandisa Hundley (Huntley), Paris (London) Bennett (Brokeit) and Taylor Hicks (Tailor Hyx).
These are the archons of celebrity; the Mozarts of our evening; Life Itself. Perhaps I overstate. I wish them all the best of luck, but wish they would dare to be extraordinary.

Were I to give each one of them one piece of advice it would be this:
Taylor...focus on your resemblance to George Clooney.
Ace...Do some James Taylor.
Bucky...your ancestors were the king's musicians in the court of King Charles. Widen and deepen your musical palate.
Chris...Keep going, even if you don't fit the American Idol mold.
Elliot...Consider theatre or comedy. They need singers too.
Lisa...you are still young. Maybe too young even. Your time will come.
Paris...you too may be too young, but your personality makes me think of you as a TV personality.
Mandisa...You might be better off pursuing opera or movies. You may be too good for American Idol.
Kellie...lose the stupid and emphasize the radiant sexiness.
Katharine...Stay yourself and quit wearing frumpy clothes.

In figure skating, the skater's routine is limited by the music. If you can find something classic, memorable, slightly complex, emotional and widely popular without being overdone...you should benefit from the utilization of priorities in song selection.

Meditate and do tai chi before performing so you will not appear wooden and mentally elsewhere or discombobulated.

At this point, you have to perform at your highest, as the standards have risen with each paring away.

Remember Robert Frost's dictum: "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No joy in the writer, no joy in the reader."

The same applies to your performance. Bring us joy. Make us cry.

But remember...you are all winners, and all will benefit greatly from the experience and exposure. Don't fret if you lose, since you've actually won already.

Love what you are doing.

Meet the New Boss

ENCEES: North Carolina Blog Awards

FROM THE WEBSITE:

The ENCEES (here's the clue... NC) is designed specifically for them. All the hard slogging pajamhadeen, right here in North Carolina. They will hardly be mentioned in the National Awards. Here's Their Chance.The Format is the same as the Biggies, so you'll be familiar with the process...make your nominations in the Comment section. We'll run this first phase for a week or so, to establish our candidates. Twigs and Seeds will keep the Awards Diary at the top of the Front Page all week, with updates. When this phase is concluded ...the Runoff. Spread the Word, and...Good Luck!

Alt.Primetime by Rah Bourbon

From Huffington Post' Contagious Festival
BROKEBACK BUSH
Papa's Got a Brand New Baghdad
Impeach the Smirking Liar
Democrats Get Balls

OTHER FINE VIEWING
Cheney watches his cheerleaders
Open the Government
Tom the Dancing Bug
How do you describe Bush?

(Hattip to Rah Bourbon for the links)

ABC Producer Sent to Gulag for Dissing Fuhrer

Here is the memo that got ABC producer Green sentenced to Gulag Bushipelego. But a fine-toothed examination of the memo seems to reveal two different fonts.

In his defence, blogger Anonymoses reveals that Bush has been responsible for up to 147,000 tons of human puke, and even a few pints of cat puke.

"Faith-based Initiates": How Bush Paid Preachers to Get Out the Vote

Faith-based initiatives (wink wink) are a euphemism for Bush's paying preachers for getting out the vote, for him, in 2004 and in 2000.

What's a Kellie Pickler?

What's a Kellie (Kelli, Kelly, Kelley, Caeli) Pickler (Picoler, Pickle, Picker, Pickeler)?

Kellie Pickler is a singer and performer from Albemarle, North Carolina who has won the hearts of many viewers, but is in danger of losing a certain percentage due to her idiotic cliches.
She is a talented and beautiful singer, and will probably do well regardless of her standing on American Idol. But given that FOX is not a venue most intellectuals don't gravitate toward, her playing dumb may well benefit her. (I assume she is playing.)

But just as Kellie stock may have gone down, Bucky Covington's has gone up. His response when Chicken Little was sent packing was classy and warm.

Learn from each other and you both will do great things.

TV
kellie pickler 3-7
Kellie Pickler - I'm The Only One
Kellie Pickler - How Far
Kellie Pickler - Somethin' To Talk About

MORE MUSIC FOR KELLIE FANS
Supper's Ready - Genesis
King Crimson - "In The Court Of The Crimson King"
Genesis - the musical box
Epitaph - King Crimson Theme
Vista - Robert Fripp
King Crimson

Anonymoses TV : Week of March 20, 2006

Juggle with the Beatles

CLICK ON LINKS BELOW FOR MORE AMAZING TV.

BLOGGING
What is a blog? - Robert Scoble
What is a blog? - David Sifry
What is a blog? - Chris Pirillo - Money with blogs
What is a blog? - Howard Rheingold
Dutch Bloggies 2006

POLITICS
Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the American People
PNAC and the NEOCONs: wanted a new Pearl Harbor
Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War
George Lakoff on Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think
"Stick It" from Boston Legal (James Spader)
The Boat and the Bomb : 20th Anniversary of the Bombing of the Rainbow Warrior
Iraq War - Chomsky
Election 2004: Republican Terror Manipulations, How They Work and Why
Al Franken, The Truth (with Jokes)
Being Opinionated in America: Maureen Dowd & Thomas Friedman
George Soros - The Bubble of American Supremacy
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation: 20th Annual Evening for Peace - Jonathan Schell and Harry Belafonte
Journalists Under Fire: Vietnam & Iraq
Iraq War - Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey - Killing Civillians in Iraq
The Illuminati Families who Rule the World
Charlie Rose - Gore Vidal / Pierre Salinger
Frank Zappa on CNN's Crossfire (1986)
Clip from Manufacturing Consent
John and Yoko's Year of Peace
Cornel West - Democracy Matters
The Secret Government - Bill Moyers
John Edwards campaign speech
Speech by Al Gore on January 16th on Domestic Spying
A Conversation with William J. Clinton

HUMOR
Problems of Right-wing activists
Ed Thompson's Trumpet Duet
Long John Johnson, all the livelong day - Cat talking
Choco Party - Japanese Commercial
The Fartlighter
Chris Bliss - live comedy performance
Chris Bliss - television appearances
Monty Pythons the Knights and the Holy Grail
Farting Preacher
Titanic reenacted in 50 seconds

SPIRITUALITY
God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It
His Holiness - The XIV Dalai Lama
Krishnamurti with Trungpa Rimpoche
Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark - Laurence Gardner
RUMI: POET OF THE HEART

FILM
Ritual In Transfigured Time - Maya Deren
Le voyage dans la lune - Melies
les francais au travail - Lumiere
Metropolis [1927] - Fritz Lang
un chien andalou - Luis Bunuel & Salvadore Dali
Man Ray Avant Garde Collection - Surrealist masterpieces
L'AGE D'OR [1930] - Luis Bunuel
Zero De Conduite 1933 - Jean Vigo
Battleship Potemkin - Eisenstein
Rhythm 21 - Hans Richter
Ballet mecanique - Fernand Leger
Nosferatu [1922]
His Girl Friday
My Man Godfrey $$

MUSIC
Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring - Josh Groban
I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles
The Beatles - I'm Down - Live at Shea Stadium 1965
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Music Video by The Beatles
John Coltrane - Naima Live 1965
John Coltrane - Live 1963
SummerFest 2004: Chick Corea: Rehearsal
The Kinks "Well Respected Man" on Beat Beat Beat!
Ten Years After - I'm going home (live woodstock)
Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead Tribute
Dave Clark Five - "Catch Us If You Can"
dead can dance - milan 2005
Jon Anderson - tour of the universe tour
Enya Tribute to WTC 9/11
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds "Nature Boy" Music Video

CULTURE
Tim Leary before leaving us
Robert Anton Wilson, Part One
Robert Anton Wilson, Part Two
County Sligo, Ireland
Gurdjieff inParis (1949)
Gurdjieff & Friends tour France (1949)
Concert of Sacred Music by Gurdjieff
NASA - Hubble view of the universe
Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man 1975 - Ashley Montagu
African American Lives - Henry Louis Gates III
Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are"
ArtsPass: John Singer Sargent 1856-1925
UNC vs Duke - Matt jumping over Bonfires
Andy Griffith Show: Andy Discovers America
The Biltmore Estate - Asheville, North Carolina

Hugo Chavez Incorrectly Identifies Bush as Donkey

Presidents at Play

President Chavez, lending further proof that presidents just aren't what they used to be, incorrectly mislabeled (or would that be correctly mislabeled?) our own President Bush as a donkey. And we donkeys are furious. Bush is, frankly, no donkey. Come on presidents! Crack the books if you have to.

But Chavez does not stop there! He also calls Bush a drunkard! A drunkard! Is he stuck in the 80s? Bush has not been a drunkard for a long time. But you've got to admit, it is a lot better than the his original accusation, where he called him "alcoholic Mr. Danger", perhaps referring to Nick Danger: Third Eye, of Firesign Theater notoriety.

Rummy Reminisces about Nazi Germany

Secretaries will talk!

Unlike George Clooney's Huffington blog, these are the secretary's actual words:

Some have described the situation in Iraq as a tightening noose, noting that "time is not on our side" and that "morale is down." Others have described a "very dangerous" turn of events and are "extremely concerned."

Who are they that have expressed these concerns? In fact, these are the exact words of terrorists discussing Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates -- who are describing their own situation and must be watching with fear the progress that Iraq has made over the past three years.

In other words, regarding the American POV:
1. Time IS on our side.
2. Morale is UP
3. There has been a VERY SAFE turn of events.
4. No need for concern.

In other words...there is still a buck to be made on this farce.
His other streams of income, i.e., the Bird Flu Scare, lobbyist for private water, and hair wax showman are rolling right along.

Good thing we sold Government to Business. Easier to drown it in the bathtub of outrageous debt.

Australian Katrina

Largest cyclone in decades threatens Australia

Global warming hasn't become any less global, or any less intense. Each year is expected to be worse than the last, with every year bringing more and more intense storms, until one big and powerful enough to swallow Rush Limbaugh has evolved. Some say this is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, since black holes are notorious gobblers of light, and apparently, oxycontin.

More on the good effects of global warming later...