Sunday, December 26, 2004

 
Ho, ho, ho my ass.

I don't know about yor neck of the woods, but here in LA this wasn't a very fucking merry Christmas at all. Seems like every year for a week or two before Christmas people are a little happier, nicer, slightly more polite, etc., and it seems to last until New Year's almost. Not this year. Everyone was just the same old assholes they are day in, day out. Seriously. I didn't detect a bit of Christmas spirit and frankly, I didn't produce much myself.

Maybe it's got something to do with our incredibly shitty president, our incredibly shallow, contemptous and self-absorbed populace, our incredibly, mind-bendingly crappy media, and all those fucking nutso fundamentalists and liberal-haters trying to turn this year's Christmas into some sort of Crusade of the righteously indignant.

Or maybe I just live around a lot of complete assholes. (I do)

I dunno, but I can tell you one thing- my new year's resolution is to be even less surprised by our society's decline into abject corruption and fear.

Merry damn crapmas crapohs!


posted by Tim 5:33 PM

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

 
Fuckwad roundup.

This blog sucks. It's pretty pointless and I never have time to nor even feel like posting in it, being that so many peope do such a great job at being good bloggers with something interesting to say, so mainly I want to direct you now to The Poor Man, because he's an awesome writer and the last couple days he's been saying what I'd like to say which is mainly this:

51% of the voting public are complete fucking morons, and it's high time we stopped being polite about politics, because these people are idiots and it really doesn't matter how tactful or respectful one acts, they're too fucking stupid to process anything that's even the tiniest step above a music video.

I don't know if you heard but internal FBI memos indicate torture was either put in place or OK'd by executive order.

We literally, LITERALLY have a criminal government. This isn't the low-level corruption we all accept cynically as inevitable, this is violation of human rights, international and domestic law.

Also, less serious but more revealing (also at Poor Man, the post before the linked one), 55 percent of Americans oppose drilling in ANWAR. So the question is, why the FUCK did some of those people vote for Bush?

Because we're a profoundly stupid country, which doesn't mind very real, very serious criminal activity- the kind we invade countries and depose governments for- at the highest office in the land.

Such an angry man, I am... I want to punch one of those people that gets pissed if you say "happy holidays" instead of merry christmas. wouldn't that be awesome?


posted by Tim 7:46 PM

Thursday, December 16, 2004

 
Ewwwwww.

Zell Miller is just an icky guy:

The American Conservative Union on Thursday announced it has tapped Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., to present the "Courage Under Fire" award to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth at the Conservative Political Action Conference's Feb. 18 banquet.
...
"The swift boat veterans performed an invaluable service to America," Miller said in a statement. "These veterans took a lot of undeserved criticism for daring to speak the truth."

He's just so gross. There's no better way to put it.

I imagine up close he's got a very fine coating of slime on him.

Can I nominate him for the "Let's Kick 'em in the Balls!" awards? I guess I have to found the awards and then nominate him, but anyway, let's kick him in the balls.

Grossest old man EVER.


posted by Tim 9:28 PM

Sunday, December 12, 2004

 
So you know.

If I wake up somewhat refreshed and in a good mood I like to scream a lot.


posted by Tim 1:03 PM

Monday, December 06, 2004

 
This wouldn't fit...

At my film site, someguyproductions.com (the ol' wifey needs to fix the ol' movable type), so I'm putting it here because it's kind of funny.

Some of it is hack, but it's all pretty good. Enjoy.

Wedding Advice

Don't register and don't give anyone any present ideas. Rather, tell everyone that their coming to the wedding is "present enough". That way everyone will totally give you money.

Everyone will think you're weird if you have a lasagna instead of a cake, but screw them. Note: the cheese will scald you horribly, so forgo the "pushing of food into new spouse's mouth" thing.

You might think it will be funny to say "I do" in belches... Trust me, it will be the funniest thing ever.

Depending on what state you marry in, you may or may not be required to play "The Humpty Dance" at the reception. *

If during the vows one of you says, "When I first laid eyes upon you, it was like the cool, clean, menthol taste of Camel in the morning", Philip Morris will pay for the wedding.

You might think it'll be funny to have a cake top that totally doesn't look like you- for instance, if you had a cake top that was clearly of a Polynesian couple... but it's not. It's racist.

However, using one of those Mexican "day of the dead" skeleton couples as a cake top will guarantee your entry into the "This Year's Hippest Weddings" annual.

Give all your guests some of those disposable cameras. It's one more damn thing to deal with.

Studies show that a marraige is 78% more likely to end in divorce if there was a conga line at the reception. Be smart: Don't conga.

If the maid of honor passes out in the middle of the ceremony, don't do anything- proceed as normal. Otherwise people will be uncomfortable.

Everyone on earth has that one, absolutely perfect someone waiting for them somewhere. Don't speak to anyone you don't know between the engagement and the wedding, you'll just be asking for trouble.

Branson, Missouri is a wonderful place to spend a honeymoon. Branson, Missouri: "Ya'll havin' fun now, ya' hear?"

When the officiate mentions something about kissing he's referring to you, so listen up.

If you go on your honeymoon to a ritzy hotel on a Caribbean island don't feel bad about perpetuating the long, cruel legacy of colonialism. No really, don't. Relax.

If you spin it right, you can convince your spouse constant, crippling poverty is romantic.

If you go to Hawaii for your honeymoon stop in at Blockbuster and ask how Roy is doing. I'd sure like to know how ol' Roy is doing.

Practice "the kiss' over and over and over again so it looks spontaneous.

Give racist uncle Carl the super-important job of "folding table watch" to keep him out of trouble.

Announcing "we're gonna go do it now" is not a classy way to exit the reception.

Three goats is a pretty good bride price, but unless you want to hear about it for the rest of your life, hold out for four.

Two words: Subway caters.

[*- this joke totally made without any knowledge of what "The Humpty Dance" is at all.]
posted by Tim 10:11 PM

 
Quickly...

If a person doesn't "believe" in evolution they're an idiot. There is no more singular, complete test for complete dumbassery than that.

Yep. All them people who think they worship Jesus who believe the world is about 4 to 6,000 years old and was created in 6 literal days and go to church and go to school and drive to the store and walk and talk like they're regular human beings...

Idiots.

I'm sorry people, it's like not "believing" in gravity. It's not subject to belief, it's not dependant on faith, it's how things are.

You know, no where in the bible does Yaweh or Jesus tell you you need to be a fucking idiot in order to worship them properly. You can, I don't know, like in the real world, exist in reality as it is and still be a believer in your God.

See that? Believer. Your religion is dependant upon your faith- your belief. That means it's unique to you and personal, so shut the fuck up. Evolution is not dependant upon anything we creat in our minds- it's physics for the biological world, so it's a fact of life like the air we breath so it's not subject to the petty whims of some dumbass who doesn't want their kids to learn about the world around them.

I'm just randomly pissed right now. I'm done.


posted by Tim 9:38 PM

 
I'd loan you my shovel...

But you're doing a fine job digging that hole yourself:

The White House said on Monday it would borrow money to help pay for adding personal retirement accounts to Social Security, after ruling out tax increases to finance a transition experts say could cost $1 trillion to $2 trillion over 10 years.

$1 to $2 trillion. That means it's probably more like $2 to $3 trillion. Jesus Christ. What a fucking lunatic. Borrow $1 to $2 trillion in order to make social security one giant mutual funds account? Fuck.

If you think this is sound government you're a fucking idiot and you can go fuck off you idiot fuck fuck fuck. We're so fucking doomed.


posted by Tim 9:32 PM

Saturday, November 20, 2004

 
To every dumbass in the world...

ATTENTION!!!

When George W. Bush says he wants "unity" he means he wants everyone to do exactly what he wants.

See, "unity' means "do what I tell you" to George Bush. So, media dumbasses, instead of writing "Bush calls for unity" write "Bush wants nations to follow his lead".

For everyone else, unity is not "doing what W says", OK? Unity, in political context, means "consensus". Look it up you dumb fucks because I'm tired of W proclaiming what's what, the rest of the world saying "hey, that's a bad idea", and then you stupid fucks saying "all them nations don't want unity". Fuck you, OK? America is not the center of the Universe, and George W. bush sucks my ass.

whew. angry man.


posted by Tim 5:30 PM

Friday, November 19, 2004

 
I don't know nothin' about nothin'.

I wish I knew about movies or music or sculpture or furniture or some crap like that. I dunno, it'd just be kind of cool to really know about one thing or another. Like, last night I'd say "oh, Nells Cline has worked with Thurston Moore, Mike Watt of Minutemen fame, he's big into sort of the prog rock thing". "Oh, Carla Bozluich? She's from that alt-punk-country outfit The Geraldine Fibbers, she also..." blah, blah, blah. Wouldn't it be great to be able to bore the shit out of people with encyclopediac knowledge of something? Actually I'm interested in movements and connections and schools of thought/art, whatever, but good gord, who has the freaking time to do that shit?

I make little shorty films and I see fewer movies than most everyone I know. I've never seen any Fassbinder or Cassavetes or plenty of other of them types, and I'm trying to make movies? I don't know shit about nothin'.

But I think maybe sometimes that's a good thing. Like last night. Let's say I was into the Geraldine Fibbers (highly likely I could have been, cool looking chick with dark features plus decent punk?), if I was one of them sorts I'd probably be following everything since somewhat uncritically having already given my respect to the artist, which would mean last night I would have thought that crap was good.

well it t'weren't.

I just don't have the time to watch a whole boatload of Fellinni to "get it". I watched three of his films and didn't really care for any of them (La Strada wasn't one of them). And the thing is with sort of historical avant-garde, punk, whatever artists is you sort of have to be familiar with the context to appreciate it. So you need to be familiar with their contemporaries, both popular and avant-garde, you need to be familiar with the different artists movements of the time, the societal context, and you need to start from the beginning of their work to see the progression. Then, then you will understand how and why whomever was an important artist.

Shee-it.

I still don't know what the fuck Bauhaus is. I look it up once in a while and it was a design school, but I don't get it as a reference or a context when it's used that way. You say Bauhaus I think German, right angles, and Black. That's it.

So I'm not very cool. When the hipsters start talking DeStigl I can't keep up. I can drop a few DaDa/Surrealist names only because I took a class on Surrealist literature in college (where we watched an Annie Sprinkle video complete with 10 minute organsm or something. Yep, cesspool of immorality alright), but that's about it.

So I'm the intellectual lone wolf maybe. Or maybe I'm just not nearly as smart as I think I maybe might be. Or maybe I'm just lazy and can't resist cartoons. Yeah.


posted by Tim 11:39 AM

 
Depression, No?

I saw Wilco last night at the Wiltern (here in LA, not too far from my apartment) and now I’m depressed. It was so super-awesome everything after is a damn let down.

I’ve seen them about 5 times, saw them back with the “old” band, the Being There/Summer Teeth/Mermaid Avenue band, which was cool, and the two bands since then. They were always awesome (except once when I saw them at UCLA, they didn’t seem too happy to be there), but last night they were super awesome. They rocked, so hard. Seriously the bad was so tight it was just amazing. Most of the songs were done as supah-dupah rocked-up version of what’s on the album. So very awwwwwwessssssooooooooommmmmmmme. So now I’m depressed.

Here’s a word of advice for concert goers who hope to ingratiate themselves to their favorite band somehow: Don’t assume you “get it”.

Someone held up a sign near the end of the 2nd encore- end of the concert- that said something about CA being a blue state, probably something like “welcome to a blue state” or something like that. Anyway, the head Wilco said (paraphrasing pretty closely) “it’s nice to be in a solid blue state like California” (cheers) “but I don’t believe in that red state, blue state bullshit. We’re purple, at best, and what we need to do is talk to each other and how are we supposed to do that if we divide ourselves up into red and blue? No one likes sending people off to die and dropping bombs on people’s heads. What we go to do is talk to each other.” Then something about politicians divide us up and they’re distracting us “how can we keep them from doing things we don’t want them to do when we’re too busy fighting each other? The people have the power”.

It might sound a little dopey but it was actually pretty articulate. He’s a witty, articulate guy, it turns out, and that’s not just the super-fan talking. Anyway, the sign sort of pissed him off, and sign-boy didn’t win any famous rocker friends last night.

Don’t assume you “get it”. Don’t assume you’re in on it with your favorite band, author, actor, whatever. That’s my so very fucking useful advice for the day.

As far as Jeff Tweedy’s plea, he’s right, but at the same time I think that’s a bit naïve. I seriously think about ¼ of the nation is completely and utterly lost from reason. It’d take a generation of work to create a majority who at least checked in on reality once in a while. This country isn’t divided by opinion, it’s divided by perception: those who perceive something akin to reality and those who perceive something else entirely. There’s no building bridges with the reality-deprived, rather you got to fight them for the next generation in line.

Anyway, awesome concert.

The opening act sucked though. Carla Bozulich, whom I’m learning is one of those much-admired, long lived, never-made-it-meanstream, “true artist” types. Well she’s got a great voice and looks really cool but she can’t write a song to save her life. It brought me back to the opening acts I used to endure when I’d go out to small clubs in Seattle. Dumb lyrics, pretentious, moody music, the whole slurred-words-over-real-sparse-instruments-and-then-explode-with-everyone-banging-the-shit-out-of-everything-like-it’s-more-meaningful-than-a-decently-written-song-that-isn’t-derivitive-of-everything-ever stuff.

She covered Willie Nelson’s “Red-headed Stranger” album and got him to sing on three of the tracks. I love Willie Nelson. She’s down with Willie and can’t write a song that doesn’t remind one of bad thirteen-year-old girl poetry? One of them “artists’ artist”. Like they all really love her because they appreciate her voice and tenacity so much but can’t step back and realize “shit, maybe she shouldn’t be opening for us cuz… well her songs sort of suck.”

Anyway…

posted by Tim 9:21 AM

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

 
Predictions for the next 4 years

These were wrote November 3rd for somewhere else online:

Predictions (realistic):

Social Security is dismantled. Some sort of super IRA replaces it, maybe current seniors will get to keep their SS annuity, but everyone else will have their money funneled to money managers. Not being a guaranteed annuity, the "safety net" disappears and SS essentially becomes another tax break for the very wealthy.

Public schooling shrinks due to most (80% or so) of public schools being listed as "failed" according to NCLB rules. The federal government takes administration of the schools over (that is a provision in NCLB) and essentially sells off every public school it takes over to for-profit education outfits and in some cases religious outfits.

ANWR is opened up for drilling.

Some sort of "tort reform" bill is passed which will essentially take away citizens' most powerful tool with which to fight power- the freedom to litigate.

The EPA continues on its current path and essentially becomes a placement agency for corporations who want to rape and pillage protected land.

The tax scheme flattens even more, and capital is no longer taxed at all. Essentially meaning only labor (poor and middle class people) really gets taxed. Rich people will make most of their income from capital, which will mean no growth for the bulk of the nation, while the wealthy just get more wealthy. We'll have the largest disparity between rich and poor in the entire world. Keep watching Cribs!

Air and Water purity laws are weakened so it'll be cool to have mercury in your water system. Makes it cheaper for private water companies to deliver the stuff and easier for other corps to dump into them.

More people are going to die as a direct result of this administration's incompetence, hubris, madness.

2, possibly 3 new supreme court justices are appointed. The racist Pickering is one of them. The court will then have a majority of radical conservatives and:

Abortion becomes illegal

Secret searches, wiretaps, monitoring, etc., become perfectly legal.

Detention without charge or access to trial becomes legal, destroying habeus corpus (which is pretty much gone anyway, right now).

Segregation could possibly become legal again. Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia interpret the constitution as it stood pre civil war, pre civil rights. Get 3 Pickering type guys in there and it's very possible "seperate but equal" could become perfectly legal.


A word on the realistic predictions: For the last 50 years we've been living in FDR's America, a New Deal America. Every decent social contract we have either sprung directly from the FDR administration or is a bi-product of its legacy, enacted by other administrations. Prior to FDR we did not have SS or unemployment insurance or Medicare or Medicade. All of those things could disappear- concervatives have been trying to do so since day one. Prior to FDR there were no laws regulating dumping and polluting. Prior to FDR there was no regulation of markets, the SEC did not exist. Prior to FDR racial discrimination was legal. Prior to FDR the country was for all intents and purposes a plutocracy.

All the ways life has basically been for the last 50 years, everything we've become accustomed to having around and having stay pretty much the same no matter who's in charge, all of that is not a product of circumstance. It's not simply "how things are", it's how people made them to be. We've been living a pretty good life in a country built by progressives, we've been living in a Democrat nation. All of that could go away. Every bit of it, having repurcussions that are difficult to imagine and frightening to contemplate. We're very simply living in a new and different country now. This isn't the America we've had for the last 50 years, the America we've had for the entirety of the modern age, so far.

I'm fucking scared. You simply can't expect things to stay pretty much the same because all the things that have made the last 50 years "pretty much the same" are about to be attacked and dismantled right before your eyes. It's going to become much uglier to live in this nation. Dog eat dog as a badge of integrity and patriotism, here we come!


Predictions (slightly paranoid):

We invade Syria, Iran, or both.


Predictions (really paranoid):

The North Korea paranoid thing from a few posts ago.


I'm always hoping someone wiser than myself will explain to me how I'm pretty ignorant and off the mark, because it would be really nice to think my predictions are just paranoid feelings of someone who's ill-informed, rather than an extrapolation of what I've been seeing for the last 4 years.


Here's one thing I know will come true:

Bush will continue to suck ass.





posted by Tim 7:06 PM

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

 
I'm all wrote out

I've been, uh, discussing the issue with some people on a message board. for some reason I'm an arrogant asshole for saying half the country is fucking idiots.

Whatever. I'm not being literal, of course, but calling half the country stupid for voting for Bush is like calling... uh...

Listen I'm really tired. Let me just tell you that I'm fucking freaked out, yet at the same time sort of not surprised in the least.

My predictions for America, 2008 later.


posted by Tim 9:17 PM

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

 
Update

According to Yahoo News, as of 9:33 Pacific time 11/2/04, there are currently at least 44,905,797 complete fucking idiots residing in the US.


posted by Tim 9:30 PM

 
Paranoia

Gonna let it take over for a moment:

Bush wins. The question is "what to do with North Korea?" We launch a strike on NK, built on some bullshit pretext of course, conventional, nuclear, whatever...

They launch all the nukes they have, say 1-6, at the west coast. Our new missle shield doesn't work, of course (because it can't work- physics ain't contigent upon belife, people), and LA and San Fran and San Diego get taken out, let's just say.

Horror, horror... "we need to stay the course"... "god bless america", etc.

NK is gone, much of SK, so is CA. What does that mean? Republican majorities for... well, perhaps forever. A new reality would be created- the world would become a place where any day of the week a city, a nation, a people could be wiped off the face of the earth simply because things were so fucked up. We'd make it that way. And of course if this country is stupid enough to elect Bush again in this environment, they'd be stupid enough to do whatever the GO would want them to do. All it takes is the balls, let's say, to accept the deaths of millions of people in NK, SK, and quite probably the largest west coast cities.

Do you think these guys don't have the balls to accept that? Fuck, they already have. They've already invaded a country for no good reason. They've already accepted the deaths of thousands upon thousands of Iraqis and certainly thousands of US soldiers...

What's scale to people who have already made the commitment to madness? Just logistics, that's all.


What are we going to do if he wins? Life won't be the same as it usually is. We won't be able to just muddle along and expect things to be basically OK. These people aren't good. They're not competent. They're mad. Mad.

And they run our country. And all of us fat, selfish, stupid Americans let them run it.

Holy fuck I'm so freaked out.

posted by Tim 9:06 PM

 
Please.

I'm going to cry if Bush wins. Cry like a little girl.

I can't even fucking contemplate it.

We're so very fucked if he wins- that's 2 or 3 supreme court judges, drilling everywhere but your forehead, breaking SS and medicare...

We're fucked if he wins and, frankly...

Fuck, it's just really staring me in the face now: the possibility. If he wins, what the fuck am I supposed to think about this nation? About people I know that voted for Bush? Are we really that insane?

Please George Burns, do me a solid.


posted by Tim 6:15 PM

Monday, November 01, 2004

 
My dream

My dream is on the day when W is vacating the white house I could be out there, across from the area he's gonna pass by, an area he's gonna see, holding a giant sign- we're talking huge, people- a giant fucking sign that says:

DON'T LET THE
DOOR HIT
YOUR ASS ON
THE WAY OUT,
ASSHOLE.

I guess I'd have to have A#@ and A#@hole or something but that's my dream.

Buy me and my wife a plane ticket and I'll do it, man.
posted by Tim 7:14 PM

Saturday, October 30, 2004

 
Some spam I got

This is the content of a spam that had a very nasty, disgusting title so I just had to look at:

When humans discovered fire, they learned to cook their food in a samurai continues to permeate our culture. Get the story on the strict destination, New York has something to offer almost every visitor. Mars Works. Using mutant DNA, scientists have bred a mouse with twoMovies such as Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and Jim Jarmusch's

Movies such as Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and Jim Jarmusch's any cables.t took a lot of special effects work every day to get vacation spot just may be New York City.As a travel over your phone.very car out there has a muffler -- it performs the When humans discovered fire, they learned to cook their food in a

Awesome.



posted by Tim 3:20 PM

 
Dear George Burns,

I know I have all kinds of philosophical muckety-muck between me and faithfully believing in an all-powerful being who gives a shit if I do it doggy-style, for instance, but I'd really, really appreciate it if you could make sure John Kerry wins by a fucking landslide. Not just a win, but he wins so bad it's like he pulled down W's pants and fucked him live on TV screaming "Bitch!"

If this doesn't happen I'll just have to assume you're either not up there or you're not a nice guy. Apparently I'll burn forever in hell for a multitude of things I've done to offend you, but at the same time you can't find it in your infinite infiniteness to grant any of my wishes. Ever. Kind of a one-way system you got there and frankly, I just can't cotton to shit like that.

But if it does come true, and we all get to watch W throw a hissy fit and bawl when the results come in, I'll consider you "all right", which is the same thing as "pretty boss", which is just fine and a mark for your side.

posted by Tim 3:12 PM

Thursday, October 14, 2004

 
Bono is such a tool.

And I love him.

I do. He's the rock star you can hate so easily. So very easily. He's everything everyone hates about rock stars wrapped up in one rock star, and yet there he is, still kicking it, and still kicking it better than 80% of anything that's out there at any given time.

What a fag.

It'd be so easy to fall into cynicism and embrace the "shut the fuck up you posing, aging, pretentious asshole" mindset, but dammit, he transcends easy math...

That's why he's "Bono".


posted by Tim 6:24 PM

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

 
Doc

For anyone who might come here looking for info on the documentary...

It's being worked on. Soon.

It's tough though, because every time I come back to it I pretty much have to watch 1/4 of all the footage again to get started. It's been a real bear, but it's coming together.

And I haven't forgot... man I really, really haven't forgot the people that were kind and generous enough to actually give me some $$. Someday soon I'll dig through my email and send them all an update, and you will receive a copy when done, plus some other silly stuff I've done, because you're much better people than I. Seriously.






posted by Tim 7:39 PM

Monday, October 11, 2004

 
I need a new drug.

I have no loyal readers, but acting on the conceit that I do remember when I told ya'll about my wedding and my friend whom when we'd go hiking together we'd "chew" and we did it for old times sake and now he's got a really bad habit?

Well... I don't have a habit, but I'm editing something and I have to do it every day and night otherwise I won't get done and the answer has been... chew.

I become Tim Plus! If I'm tired and just wanna sit on my ass and I have no ideas or discipline, I pop some in and suddenly I'm all over that shit. Also, I don't mind doing housework. So my wife actually sort of encourages the practice because she's in school and works full time so she's never home so someone's gotta do it.

But this stuff is gross and it's bad for your health in general and more importantly for your gums and teeth. Thanks to a shitty dentist (the only kind a low, low middle-class guy like me can afford in LA) my teeth, while still good generally, aren't the magnificent choppers they once were. Seriously, it's freaking me out. I have a terrible dentist. I've been brushing about 5 times a day for the past 6 months (I used to only 3 times a day at most, often only 2) to make up for it but still, this shit ain't helping.

Wow. How gross sounding. I'm not in the British book of big smiles or anything, I'm just getting older and I gotta maintain, so...

I need a new drug!


posted by Tim 7:24 PM

Friday, October 08, 2004

 
Idiot

"I hear on the internets..."

The president of the free world, ladies and gentlemen.


posted by Tim 6:28 PM

 
John!

K-man! Be less politician-y and you'll win them.


posted by Tim 6:25 PM

 
Almost... but not quite.

I almost feel sorry for Bush. He's no match for Kerry. Kerry is crushing him.

Imagine it, a petty little man, spoiled, silver spoon, drunken 40-year bender, riding on his family's coattails, been cloistered as president, cut off from challenge...

There he is, naked on stage and all his swagger and confidence and "charm" laid bare and pointless and shallow before a room full of people and the whole world, across from him a grown up, a real man illustrating just what a little, sad man Bush is.

It's almost enough to make you pity him.

But then you remember he's George W Bush: Fucktard.

Fuck him. Burn baby burn.


Kerry needs to be more precise on answering the questions though.

posted by Tim 6:17 PM

Thursday, September 30, 2004

 
Dear Daivd Brooks,

Fuck you.

OK? Fuck you, already.

The "smart" conservative my ass.

You're maybe one step up from the idiots at Fox News, but fuck you.



posted by Tim 7:55 PM

 
Me

I could beat him in a debate.

Jesus, he says the same damn things again and again.

Well, I'm no debater but Bush is just dude who can memorize 20 facts and three emotions.

Holy shit. Fox news has some asshole, former Bush aide, saying "this president doesn't need botox, fake tan..." and they gave him about 30 seconds to rant like a fucking head trauma patient, and then for the "counter" opinion they go to some frog-throated chick, who's a Fox political analyst, and she just has some "the Kerry people will be pleased with this debate" or something like that, and only gets about 10 seconds.

Former Bush aid with insane, talk-radio shit flying out his mouth for pro-Bush ("I think he won this debate hands down").

Fox News analyst with lame I think he did pretty good, shit for pro-Kerry.

If anyone ever tells me they sincerely believe Fox News is fair and balanced and objective I'm going to kick their teeth down their throat. I feel the what I just described gives me the legal license, well, moral at least, to do so.


posted by Tim 7:31 PM

 
FT

The president seems to think the key to leading the world is to send the right messages.

Does he think he's psyhic?

Oooooh. Bush just lost it again. He said "Oh course I know Osama attacked us! I know that!", like a fucking teenage girl.

Pussy.

Fucktard.

Pussy fucktard.


posted by Tim 6:55 PM

 
Booyah!

Kerry just said:

"I made a mistake in talking about Iraq, president Bush made a mistake in invading Iraq."

He's kicking the shit out of him.


posted by Tim 6:29 PM

 
Ohhhhhh... SHIT!

Kerry got him. Got him riled up. His 30 second response to Bush's response to a question about homeland security broke his concentration. He blurted out a stupid sounding (more stupid than usual), childlike retort.

Kerry's got him. I think he's already won. Unless he fucks up big time he's got him, he's got Bush on the defense, and his only defense is the same old bullshit he always pushes.

Kerry's good. He's a president, not that fucking rotary member standing across from him.


Oh shit, he's come back to the "What kind of message does that send our troops?" line.

Fuck. Tard.

posted by Tim 6:24 PM

 
So...

Bush is good. If I were an idiot I'd find his bullshit pretty inspiring.

But Kerry's better. He faltered for about the first 30 seconds of his first question, but he's better, much better.

The first word out of Bush's mouth in response to the first question was, "9-11..."

No shit.

Our president is a fucktard.

For real. An actual, for real fucktard.

god help us if he wins.


posted by Tim 6:12 PM

Thursday, September 23, 2004

 
So cute you'll puke.

So my friend who brought his kids to the wedding told me the cutest thing ever yesterday.

Apparently Jerry Seinfeld wrote some kind of children's book and he was poppin in the CD that came with it for his kids to listen to. I don't know exactly what's on the CD, like a performance of his or something, I really didn't understand how my friend was describing it. Let's call him Jones. Jones has a recently acquired nicotine addiction (hey, how many words have I misspelled so far?)- chew- and he was feeling a bit groovy so I didn't get exactly what this CD is. It was a tradition when we'd go hiking up in the cascades to take a dip out on the trail. Why? Because when you have no addictions and don't smoke, taking some disgusting chewing tabacco is like getting on a magic carpet ride to unicorn-alley where the bees make honey out of spun gold and gilded asses. Really. Notice I already acknowledged it's disgusting. But that pony ride... very nice out on the trail, or at a glacial lake that's about 1 degree above freezing. So anyway at the wedding we took some for old times sake and now he's got a really bad, gross habit. I petted the unicorns.

Anyway, he put this CD on for his kids- who are the sweetest, cutest kids ever- and Jerry Seinfeld hadn't spoke 3 sentences when his 3 year-old daughter says,

"Oh that Tim. I love him."

If you're not gushing and screaming "Awwwww" at the top of your lungs then you're dead inside, because that's the cutest thing ever.

OK, see- I'm Tim. Got it? She thought that Jerry Seinfeld was me. Get it? She hears this CD, thinks it's my voice, and says she loves me. Get it? Yeah, let it sink in...

Now scream:

Aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!

posted by Tim 9:38 PM

Friday, September 17, 2004

 
Funk

Big, blue funk.

Stay away from amazon reviews, Tim. they depress the hell out of you. The fucking dregs of society, man. People who just love to hate, driven by hate, only thrill they get out of life is feeling superior to the people they hate.

We live in the most fucked up country... I mean, the reason why it's so fucked up is because theoretically it should be super-duper most of the time. Freedom of speech, free press, all that shit. And we got the news cycle dominated by swift boats and "Buckhead" and condolences for Rush's most recent dead hooker fiasco...

Funk.

Someone convince me we're not staring into the abyss. Please.


posted by Tim 10:11 PM

 
Doomed, doomed, doomed.

How long did we live with people saying on TV and in newspapers that Vince Foster was murdered without the media taking a critical look at it?

To this day Paula Jones can still get on TV if she wants to.

Were we inundated with stories about how Whitewater was a bunch of made-up crap once the Ray report was released?

Uh, have you seen anyone on mainstream news say anything remotely like, “All investigations and all available information indicate that indeed Saddam Hussein had no relationship with al Queada in any way, contrary to what the Bush administration has claimed again and again.” No. The best you’ll hear is “Dick Cheney asserted again today that al Queada and Saddam Hussein did have contacts, an assertion critics say is not true”.

Has anyone on TV come out and say anything like, “All of the rationales the Bush administration used as reason to go to war with Iraq have been proved to be false: There were no…” etc.? No!

So why the fuck is Dan Rather’s face on the tube every time I look at it?

Here’s the deal, people: regardless of whether or not those memos are fake or not, #1- they change nothing. No new substantive information is contained in them. #2- you’d have to be the biggest, most deluded asshole in the world to think CBS’s possible fuck-up is proof of some liberal media conspiracy given all the above, and about a million other examples I could come up with.

We’re DOOMED. We stay on this track I guarantee you 50 years from now we will not be a democracy or a republic. Mark my impotent-rage filled words.

posted by Tim 8:45 AM

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

 
More

Proof we're doomed, that is.

Check out some of the 1 star reviews here for porn star Jenna Jameson's biography.

That is the only way I can describe the phenomenon of a porn skank actually putting sentences together. Yeah she did have help but believe me it didn't improve this book any. She totally tries to justify the fact that she is a porn star, as if that would make it any better. Just admit it, you are a two-bit skank who can't do any better. Admit it!!! You'll feel better. She is the green-eyed monster of envy when it comes to REAL actresses or models, you can see it in the way she tries to babble on that Cindy Crawford actually came on to her. What would a gorgeous woman like Ms. Crawford want with a plastic looking floozy like Jenna Jameson? Not a thing. But she tries to make us believe that as well as a lot of other BS in this book. Don't go there.
---
Way to go, America. You have made a bimbo's book a topseller. Only in America. Why oh why do some people look up to these types of women? Me? I prefer a down-to-earth cutie with big brown eyes and a natural figure. But hey that's just me. I have never found Jenna Jameson to be appealing, and I never will. At least she has improved slightly from the horror she was in Private Parts (the frizzy 80's hair! the bad teeth!) but that's not saying much. I will never understand my fellow man when it comes to this sleazebucket known as Jenna Jameson. But I guess her looks aren't the issue here, it is the horribly written book. HORRIBLE. She is as stupid as she is unattractive. That's the best I can say about her and her book.
---
If you are completely blinded to the fact that Hollywood degenerates have taken over the media and are now infiltrating the wonderful realm of literature, than be my guest and add to the insult. With genuine authors abound, I suppose it is quite easy to be drawn into a book like this, but just sit and think about it for a minute. I'm going to give money to someone who's only claim to fame is being a drug-addled adult film slave? Is this really important or pertinent to our lives in any salvageable way? Why do we want to know about this filth, just because there's a glossy cover on it and the chance of nudity? Aren't we as humans deserving of so much more. Just go to your library and see all the amazing novels out there, and please realize that this garbage should only be on one list, the list of worst books ever made.

That's on the first page. Guys who waited around until the first day of selling when they opened the comments up so they could be the first to be horribly mysoginistic.

A day late was this guy:

So let me get this straight: Jim Bob and Betty Sue America don't have like any time to read the New York Times or otherwise try to figure out the facts during (a) an election year and (b) our country's continued involvement in an unjust and costly disaster of a war. But they've got the time and the scratch to waste reading about the exploits of a no-talent, clear-heel-wearing porn skank? Bravo, America!

I'm like totally proud to be an American now. Osama, you may have your suicide bombs and your fanatical followers, but we have best-selling biographies of women whose claim to fame is solely based on their ability to handle hundreds of penises without smudging their mascara. You may send out videotapes taunting our inability to catch or stop you, but we have DVD libraries full of oxygen thief beehatches like Jenna Jameson, whose sole talent is being able to look seductively into a camera while being saturated in others' bodily fluids. Osama: you may think you're going to destroy this proud nation. But we're going to beat you to it.

The book? Well, Jenna was raped. And like ALL women who have been raped, she turned to meth, porn, and letting 300 lb. carpet salesmen and drunk frat boys shove one dollar bills in her buttcrack. Totally a triumph of the human spirit, man. And I totally like how Amazon's own review says the book ends on a "family values" kinda theme. I guess spending the better part of a decade coated in reproductive fluid must make you want to actually reproduce! Who knew, right? It's almost like a Lifetime movie, except with breast implants and Peter North.

Ah, well. If your country's headed to hell in a handbasket, you might as well have something to read on the trip. That's worth two stars.

Hey, no argument here about how stupid Americans can be when it comes to being informed, but again, this violent reaction to the book. Why?

There's a few more, I don't want to post them, basically it's all the same thing:

"Whore. Slut. Glorified hooker. A complete waste and there's so many other more important things in this world I thought I'd take time out of my day to write a review in Amazon about how the whore is a waste of space. And also she's somehow responsible for America's moral decline/ignorance. Slut."

I don't know anything about Jenna Jameson except she's a porn star (my collection is all dwarf porn, so...), and frankly I don't care. But what bothers me is this whore/madonna complex just about every other guy out there can't grow out of. So she fucks people on camera for money? So what? I get fucked by "the man" every day.

OK, I can understand thinking that that sort of promiscuity is immoral and/or bad. But why the violent hatred? Where does this vitriolic disgust come from? She's not robbing banks or pushing over statues of Jesus, she's having sex.

Why do so many men hate "the whore"? Why is it such a passionate issue for them?

Was it because I slept with their moms and they walked in? Could be.



posted by Tim 6:56 PM

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

 
Holy crap.

Perfect. Just perfect.

General Motors Corp.'s uber-sport utility, the Hummer, has been the biggest and baddest passenger truck on the US market to date, but it may soon be getting some outsized competition in the form of the CXT.

Modeled after commercial haulage trucks and dump trucks, the CXT will be the world's biggest production pick-up truck when it goes on sale later this year, its makers said Monday.

We deserve to be doomed. Jebus Cripes. What a country of dumbass hicks we are.

[S]aid Rob Swim, a spokesman for International Truck and Engine Corporation. "If you brought this truck to the playground, you'd be king of the dirt pile."

Thanks, jackass. Feel free to fall off a cliff.


posted by Tim 1:19 PM

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

 
An open letter to my neighbors.

My room is right above the laundry room and when you dry your clothes with freaking fabric softener I can't put my fan in my window because the air is filled with your freaking caustic chemicals. Don't you know fabric softener is the biggest lie of the last century?

Yeah, the wedding euphoria has worn off.

This awful chick and her awful husband who live in my building hate me for some reason. I mean HATE. The other day I'm at my window, there's some kids having a water balloon fight outside, and I hear this caustic, hateful bitch saying "Hit that one! Hit that one right there! Hit that one!" -Splat!- "Thanks."

She told the kids to hit my car with a water balloon. Bizarre.

The day before I was walking out onto our balcony to sand a piece of furniture and she pulls up (their parking space is below our balcony). I backed out of the doorway for a second thinking maybe I should do it on the back porch, she thought I was going back in and I hear her say to her passenger, but really loudly, "There goes the hater!" I walked back out right after she said that, and she was looking up at me and then tried to pretend she wasn't talking about me.

Bizarre.

I think this all goes back to the time a friend of hers parked in our parking space for about 3 hours. With nowhere to park I parked behind her car. When her friend came out (I didn't know who it was at the time, people do this shit all the time) I walked down as she (the horrible wench) was saying "This fucking asshole parked behind you". I said "We wish you wouldn't park in our spot like that, we've got two cars and it's hard to find parking."

"She didn't know it was your spot!"

"OK, well don't park there again for so long because-"

"She didn't know it was your spot!"

Her friend, who weighed about 300 pounds (I'm not making fun, I'm serious) was saying "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was your spot", in this really weird, high-pitched voice that made me think she might be mildly retarded or learning disabled, at least (I'm not making fun, I'm serious). Anyway, my point was that she and the awful woman knew it was someone's spot, and of course they both knew that someone (other than themselves) was paying for that spot, so they shouldn't park there for 3 hours like it's their spot to park in. It's just rude. I said something like "well, you knew it was someone's spot and-"

"She didn't know it was your spot! She's not going to do it again!"

So now she tells kids to throw water balloons at my car. I was so bewildered when she did that I didn't get up and ask her "Why'd you tell that kid to throw a balloon at my car?" I wish I would have. I'd like to know.

Oh yeah, also this guy would come over and visit his baby's momma all the time and every time there was an empty space in our parking spot he'd park there. In fact he'd only park in our spot, no where else. The first couple of times he was prompt about getting out of there when we'd pull up and honk (not knowing who it was at first), or when someone would need to leave (there's room for two cars in a line, he'd park behind us too) but then after 2 or 3 times he just started taking his own damn time coming down and leaving when he felt like it. Sometimes it would be 2 or 3 minutes, once when I asked him to move his car ahead of the time I needed him gone he took 10 minutes coming down. 2 minutes doesn't seem like a lot of time, but it's our spot and again, it's rude to do that, not to mention inconveniencing when it's 11 o'clock at night and my wife is coming home from school and has to honk and wake up people to get that asshole to move... three minutes later.

So I went up to the apartment he comes to visit and asked if he was there. The woman said no so I explained to her that he was parking in our spot every time he comes over, using it like he's got some sort of right to use it, and taking his time when we're down there waiting for him to move, so tell him not to park there any more because it's our spot, we pay for it, and he's worn out his welcome with his inconsiderate behaviour. I made sure to let her know we don't really mind if someone parks there when they just need to run into the building or whatever and there's nowhere to park on the street, but this guy was parking in our spot just as if it's his spot to use, and it ain't.

Just in case I started parking with the butt of my car out so when my wife comes home she pulls my car up and then parks behind me. So one night I come home about 10:30 and knowing it's only going to be a half hour before my wife comes home, I just pull all the way in. I'm getting out of my car, getting some stuff, and here comes that asshole and his baby's momma starting to pull in behind my car. He sees me so he veers off and instead goes to the other end of our building. Asshole! It was just like 3 nights before when I went up there and talked to her, she's with him, and here they are ready to park in our spot again. Ass. Holes

A half hour later my wife comes home, I'm inside the apartment not knowing she's home, and she's getting her stuff our of the trunk of her car. At that time the baby's momma leaves the asshole's car and the asshole backes up his car so that he's now on the street, but directly behind my wife. She glances behind her and thinks nothing of it (she didn't realize it was him). She's digging around for a few moments and realizes the car is still behind her. She turns again, a little weirded out because it is 11 o'clock at night and our street, while basically OK, would be considered completely ghetto by anyone not used to LA. She turns and looks and it's the asshole and he's staring her down. He's sitting there in his running car staring at my wife, giving her a menacing look while she gets her stuff. She's just bewildered and gets the rest of her stuff and turns to go into the building as he continues to stare her down, and then finally drives off.

What kind of fuck does that? What kind of miserable man-child thinks it's OK to stare down a woman by herself at 11 o'clock at night?

She knew who it was so she didn't exactly think she was in danger, but she doesn't know the guy, doesn't know anything about him except he's the asshole who uses our parking space like it's his own and that he's the asshole who felt it was wise to back up and give her a intimidating stare, so in no way does this all work out to be OK.

And this guy is a semi-big black guy with dreads who's been around our building at times drunk, talking nonsense to his daughter and the other neighbor kids. I'm not saying being black has anything to do with him being an asshole, just that imagine if he did that shit to some wealthy, white housewife in Beverly Hills or a soccer mom in Pasadena. Whatever ethnicity you are you should know it's not OK for a man to do that to a woman in that context, but fuck, this is LA! The Beverly Hills housewife would have called the cops and they beat up black guys all the time for doing absolutely nothing!

Anyway, so the other day that guy parks behind the horrible bitch woman (I'm not making fun, she's a really awful person, just listening to her bitch at her kids makes you cringe). And I guess in order to bond and show how they're so not like us, they all start ripping on me and my wife for being such assholes about our parking spot. Just more bizarre hatred toward me and my woman.

I don't get any of this. In all my dealings with all my neighbors I've always been polite. Even when asking them to move their car I've been calm and reserved and polite. I think the thing is they got it in their head that if you don't make friends with them you hate them. We don't. Well, we do now, but before they starting talking shit about us, bitching about us constantly, and constantly giving us shitty looks and water balloons, etc., we really didn't give a crap about them one way or another. We'd be polite and say "hi" with a smile, but all we ever got was glowering back.

Part of this is because we're white and 90-95%% of our neighborhood is central and south American. Well I know it is for the awfulawfulawful woman because I've heard refer to us as "those white assholes" and such many times. It's really only that couple, but basically everyone they talk with they'll constantly bitch about us being white assholes and "haters". Basically they try to get anyone they can to hate us too. I don't think they hate us because we're white, I think they hate us because they think we look down on them because they're Guatemalan. Basically she thinks we're racists, I believe, and hates us for it.

Whatever. The thing about living in LA is I've really learned what racism is. Whenever I hear a conservative or libertarian tell me there's no such thing as racism, as in institutional racism, but instead only individuals committing racist acts (so therefore racism isn't a problem, people's individual choices are, and there's nothing you can do about racism except ask people not to act racist- pretty fucking convenient for the essentially overtly racists GOP, huh?) I want to fucking beat them with a rubber hose. Individual racist acts aren't th problem.

Being white I can relate to you that for some non-white people it takes them about two seconds, one misplaced glance, one imperfect utterance, to decide you're a racist, and that for them you're stuck being a racist till the day you die. I can also tell you that some white people take any imperfection they see in non-white individuals or statistics as proof that when they're being horribly racist they're not being racsists, they're just telling it like it is.

That shit isn't natural. You have to be taught to think like that. Prejudice is natural and individual racism is always going to be with us, but that awful bitch plugging into this weird dynamic where I'm a haterwhiteasshole, that's something she's learned because we've done nothing to deserve it. Maybe that black guy thinks we're racists too. Maybe that's what he does and he felt OK staring down my wife because she's just not a woman married to a guy who asked him to not park in their space, she's a racist who was being racist to him, so it's kind of righteous that he stared her down? Fuck, I don't know.

What I do know is it's really, really easy to get stuck into a fucked up dynamic without doing anything to deserve it. If I was some kind of an asshole I'd say that bitch cow crapface woman was racist because she says stuff like "that white asshole". Being smarter than that I know I'm not an overweight, poorly educated, poor dark-skinned woman with 2 kids who will never have a decent job and never be respected by people above her economic class. In other words, when you shake it out on a real world basis I come out on top: A white male with a college degree. She's decided I'm a white asshole who hates brown people and there's nothing I can do about that. If we had some sort of contest the neighborhood kids would throw a rock through my window for her before they'd throw one through hers for me. Boo-hoo.

What's sad here isn't that I'm being picked on and singled out, what's sad here is that they're almost right to do it. Everything they've got centers around neighborhoods like mine- crowded, poor and full of recent immigrants. In five years I won't be here, or if I am it'll probably be filled up with hipsters and artists "revitalizing" the neighborhood- in other words pushing all the poor brown people out. I think that shitcrapcrap lady just resents us for not trying to fit in, or something, probably knowing we don't have to fit in because this is more transitional for us than it is for her and her husband, living with 2 kids in an apartment smaller than ours. So having a kid throw a water balloon at my car makes sense to her. Realistically speaking, that hatred and the whole "they hate brown people" thing is all she's got, that's all the power she's got.

I'm not making any sort of judgement on that, really. It's obvious I think she's a bitch and an awful person, I'm just not going to pretend we're on the same level. If I was a racist, by that I mean the cliche of just hating or thinking less of other ethnicities in general, her prejudice toward me would never be the same as mine toward her. They're not the same thing because because poor brown people don't have any power. So, I don't take it personally. She wants to hate me as the asshole white man-- sure, whatever. It's too bad. We should be able to hate each other (or respect each other) on equal terms.

It's a fucked up world and, more importantly, a fucked up country. Everyone ought to have roughly the same shot, but if you're poor, brown, and live in my neighborhood, I guarantee come public high school graduation time, you're going to be waaaay behind.
posted by Tim 9:17 PM

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

 
yep. more.

So I brought my camcorder as a last minute thought and gave it to my friend's dad to record the ceremony. I just captured most of it and he didn't get the vows. Wasn't really his fault, well, a little bit of it was, but mostly it's just because I had to set everything to full auto and he really didn't exactly know what he was doing- but I still do appreciate it and he got some good stuff. Anyway, the vows were missed pretty much, most of my wife's (WIFE) was cut off and the beginning of mine, where I'm just trying to compose myself because I almost completely lost it what she said to me and the first thing I said, and then the audio of course was picking up the kids doing a little bit of kid talk...

But that's OK. I was afraid to watch it, really. It was so incredible and so, fuck, it was transcendant, but now they're gone, lost in the air, and that's kind of poetic.

The best things in life are free.



posted by Tim 9:27 PM

 
More...

I just had a few more things to say about getting married. I feel a little odd writing them down here because this is mostly just a dump for the occasional fury-filled thoughts I have, but I feel compelled to put them out there somewhere.

I've never experienced anything like this last weekend. I've never been so filled with good feelings for so long, reinforced so much so often. I was in a love-puddle all weekend and it was amazing. And it wasn't anything special, really. It was just everyone getting together and not having to deal with family stuff. My friend brought his two kids, 5 and 3, and man oh man, what kids. So incredibly cute and fun and just filled with love for each other and their parents and everyone else. Completely free of pretense, or cynicism, or paranoia. We went to Lake Coeur D'Alene the next day (the wedding was in Spokane, WA) and everyone except my wife's father could come. I went swimming with my friend's kids and man, it was just incredible. You would not believe these kids. So much fun.

Me and my wife weren't putting anything on, something just came over us and... when I say the vows blew everyone away I mean it. Absolutely incredible. Neither one of us held anything back, we just completely bared ourselves to each other in front of our families. That's totally out of character for both of us. I was trembling when she walked down the aisle. I wasn't nervous, I just could barely handle it, it was so intense and complete, it was the most incredible experience of my life.

And I guess I'm rambling about it because I don't think this is normal. I don't think we had a regular wedding. I've seen plenty and I've never caught a glimpse of something like what happened to us. Frankly I don't know what happened. I feel like this is the sort of experience I'd have if I went out on a vision quest or something. You know, starve myself and hike out into the middle of a forest or the desert or something and just wait. Already I can barely remember it because it was so other-worldly, but I hope I can keep on feeling it forever, man.


posted by Tim 5:28 PM

 
Yep

Best. Wedding. Ever.

I've been to maybe about 30 weddings either as a guest or assisting my brother, the wedding photographer (mostly the latter), and our wedding was without a doubt the best one I've ever been to. I'm not just saying that or thinking that cuz it was me, everyone who went who expressed an opinion (without solicitation) said it was the best, the caterer felt compelled to tell my wife it was the best she's ever been to- twice- it was the best.

We're number 1!

There was only about 30 people or so, it was in a garden, it was casual, we didn't put on a big show and plow through all the traditional things you're supposed to have to do that just really detract from the whole coming together vibe, everyone was freaking blown away by the vows we said to eachother (as was I- seriously, it was amazing), the food was great, the music was great (both the mix that we made to play during eating, etc., and the song her mom sanf accompanied by guitar and the guitar playing during the bride's walk up- her mom and stepdad and bluegrass/old cowboy music/folk musicians), everyone was happy to be there, the ceremony was short but shone like a freaking magnesium flare...

Best weekend of my life. Best wedding ever. Best bride ever. Me? I could use some work.



posted by Tim 11:07 AM

Thursday, August 26, 2004

 
I'm getting married

This Sunday.

No shit.

Send me money.


posted by Tim 7:34 PM

Sunday, August 22, 2004

 
Here's one more asshole you can stop defending.

Along with McCain who, although as a man I don't doubt he's stand-up all the way, always caves in when it comes to politics and always plays the good soldier no matter how much he obviously feels something has crossed the line into the absurd, ya'll can stop ever saying anything decent about Bob Dole:

Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole suggested Sunday that John Kerry (news - web sites) apologize for past testimony before Congress about alleged atrocities during the Vietnam War and joined critics of the Democratic presidential candidate who say he received an early exit from combat for "superficial wounds."

...
Dole told CNN's "Late Edition" that he warned Kerry months ago about going "too far" and that the Democrat may have himself to blame for the current situation, in which polls show him losing support among veterans.

"One day he's saying that we were shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said. "The next day he's standing there, `I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran.' Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam," said Dole, whose World War II wounds left him without the use of his right arm.

Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out."

This seems to be the rule of thumb: Across the board Republican politicians only care about power, so no matter how great a guy or gal any one of them might be as a person, they nevertheless suck ass.

I love that Bob Dole thinks 35 years ago and today are just "one day" and "the next day". How far back can one go in someone's life and still reference it as just the other day?

One day Bob Dole's suckling on his mother's breast and shitting his pants and the next day he's popping viagra and criticizing John Kerry.

Is that fair?


Keep it up, you morons. It's great to see your true colors shining though a' la Cyndie Lauper.

posted by Tim 9:20 PM

Sunday, August 08, 2004

 
It's funny because it's sad

You know as much anxiety that I have over my job, it's still the best job I ever had.

Yes. That's means I've neveer had a cool job. Worked with cool people before but never had a job I really liked. Chipes... I'm following in the old man's footsteps. Crap.


posted by Tim 1:50 PM

Friday, August 06, 2004

 
I'm gonna get fired.

I just know it.

Today a dude got fired, different department, but the guy who told me was telling me part of it was his attitude, like he was a grumpy gus and that was part of it, and he was telling me like, you know, wink, wink, your ass is on the block for the same reason.

This guy may just be trying to rile things up, he does that, but the fact is I'm the office freak. I don't talk to anyone, I'm never cheerful, I never have anything to say. Why? Well as for not talking to anyone, I work with a bunch of brokers who only talk about sports and money. I don't give much of a shit about either. They're salesmen, calling up old people and brow-beating them into buying shit, and that's not my bag. I just don't have anything in common with any of them, I don't have anything in common with anyone else, really, and in general I never know how to do standard-protocal small talk.

You might think I'm trying to be cool somehow by claiming I don't know how to do small talk, like I'm above bland pleasantries. No. I simply can't do it. I don't know how and let me tell you, my life would be much better served if I could just fucking do the standard bullshit office talk bullshit. I'm just missing a gene or something.

Oh yeah, most everyone there is pretty right-wing as well.

I'm never cheerful because I hate my job. I hate my job because I don't do anything. I don't do anything because I have nothing to do and my boss is the worst manager in the world. He's a real nice guy, but he is absolutely terrible at managing my time and his own time. Consequently, I'm vastly underutilized and don't do anything all day and that basically puts me into a zombie stupor. My general disposition is that of amiably not giving a shit, which is fine, but put me in a job for 3 years where I don't do anything, can't really move ahead on my own, and am fully aware I'm smarter than 75% of the guys working there... I don't stay very cheerful.

I never have anything to say because I'm a fucking zombie who just wants to go home.

You might be thinking of all this wonderful advice and what-not, something that starts with "maybe you should-", well save it. It's a unique situation and there's not much I can do about it. Yeah, I'm gonna try to be a little more "cheerful" until I get my ass canned, but I'm sort of stuck.

I spent a couple weeks formulating a plan to add a whole new department to our company, one that would tap into an underserved, rapidly expanding market. I wrote it up in a proposal, gave it to my boss, made some changes and-- he's been sitting on it for nearly 7 weeks.

Even when I'm really proactive shit doesn't change. Every yearly review I have with my boss I beg him to put me to better use, to give me more responsibility, teach me how to fish kind of bullshit. Every year it's the same thing-- nothing changes. and then when something does, like he'll pass something on to me- you see he's a real anal micro-manager who has to do everything himself- more often than not all that happens is I find out the entire thing, whatever it is, is a complete waste of time. Either that or it's so incredibly, stupidly simple he could have gave it to me on day one and it only adds 5 minutes a week to my work load. He's a terrible manager and he's making my job experience hell. But he's a good guy.

I can't even really get along with him at work though because I'm just so fucking out of it, and so constantly embittered about having nothing to do and no real responsibilities and therefore job security. It's an esoteric business and unless I become a successful salesman I'll have to rely upon my boss to advance my position. and I'm not going to be a successful salesman. I just don't have it in me.

Hopefully my ass isn't on the line but the fact is I wouldn't be surprised. I'm a fucking mope at work. I can't help it though. it sucks and it just sucks the life out of me to sit in front of the computer and do nothing all day.

p.s.- The guy who got fired, I always considered him a real asshole. Not just a grumpy gus but a dick. Also, you couldn't understand a fucking word he said. He was from South America somewhere, a black guy, and it wasn't really an accent but he slurred his words so bad he made Fenster from The Usual Suspects sound eloquent. Anyway...

How do you fake cheerfulness?

posted by Tim 9:34 PM

Thursday, August 05, 2004

 
OK, OK... He's just an idiot.

Our president, ladies and gentlemen:

He said he's only going to raise the tax on the so-called rich. But you know how the rich is, they've got accountants. That means you pay. That means your small business pays. It means the farmers and ranchers pay. That's the wrong medicine for this economy, and we're not going to let him prescribe it.

The stupidity pretty much speaks for itself, but if for some reason you don't get it, here it is:

First of all, is he pretending he and his entire administration's heads aren't rich?

Anyway, he's implying something about rich people, something negative. Mainly, even if you raise taxes on them, they will buy their way out of them. "But you know how the rich is..." You don't say "But you know how the [demographic], are" unless it's a negative connotation. So the president, himself a rich man, a proscriber to "trickle-down" economics, from a party whose base is rich people is telling you rich people are tricky weasels who will just as soon get an accountant and transfer their tax load to you as look at ya'.

Bizarre.

He's also saying there's nothing you can do about rich people shrugging off their taxes. They've got accountants, taxation can be avoided by them.

I can't imagine what a Republican who makes 25K a year would think listening to this. Would they agree? If so, is that a negative? I mean, Bush could just as easily had said the above and then said "we're going to make sure rich people can't buy out of their taxes", right? If it's a negative thing, this weaseling out of taxes, why is the most powerful man in the nation rolling over and telling his people there's nothing that can be done about it?

Listen, there's just so many layers of weirdness to that statement. It makes no sense on any level. I mean, he's talking liberal's language. If he said "rich people can afford to get out of taxes and that's not fair to you, those who cannot afford to do so", he'd be speaking pure liberalease.

Part of what he said is true: the wealthy can afford to shelter their income, the poor and middle class cannot. But implying there's nothing that can be done about it, or that it means there's no point to raising taxes on the rich, or that tax shelters for the rich's income means more income taxes for middle-class people without any actual increases in middle-class income tax rates- that's all a load of rainbow colored horseshit.

But the most fucked up thing about this is the Republican tax strategy further entrenches exactly what he's essentially complaining about. By lowering taxes on investments and concentrating on use and income taxes, Republicans knowingly make it much, much easier for the rich to get richer and much, much harder for the poor and middle-class to move up.

Because, as the boy-king states, the rich can afford to get out of income taxes. How? Well shit, pardner, via lower taxation on investment income which Bush and the Republican congress puched through. A more accurate sound bite would have been:

"But you know the rich. I've made it much easier for them to make money via investments and other unearned income, so if their income tax rates go up, they're not gonna' feel it."


posted by Tim 6:28 PM

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

 
First black president...

Obama.

2024 (I'm realistic).

Damn, that guy's good.


posted by Tim 7:00 PM

Thursday, July 22, 2004

 
This is so important...

I really felt like someone had to point out something obvious, that no one has said yet:


Jessica and Ashlee Simpson are both kind of ugly.


They got weird faces with weird chins and weird bones.

If it wasn't for a lot of money servicing their looks, they'd be 2nd tier, "kinda cute" at best.


There. The world can move on now.





posted by Tim 1:08 PM

Sunday, July 11, 2004

 
So friggin' stupid.

Officials discuss how to delay Election Day

U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a terrorist attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.

The department has referred questions about the matter to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

The department wants to know about the possibility of granting emergency power to the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, authority that Roehrkasse said was requested by DeForest B. Soaries Jr., the commission's chairman.

Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state and senior pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey.

He wrote in April to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice asking them to seek such legislation from Congress, Roehrkasse said.

Roehrkasse said the recent discussions were sparked by intelligence indicating al Qaeda wants to "disrupt our democratic process."

There's only one group of people in the world that can disrupt out democratic process, and they're in the white house.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned of such an attack in a news conference last week, saying it was based on intercepted "chatter" among al Qaeda operatives.

Roehrkasse noted, however, that there was no specific information suggesting such an attack would be aimed at the political conventions or Election Day.

Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of California, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, took issue with Ridge's comments Sunday.

"Six days ago, the leadership of the House and Senate intelligence committees and leadership of the House and Senate were briefed on these so-called new threats," Harman said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"They are more chatter about old threats, which were the subject of a press conference by Attorney General [John] Ashcroft and [FBI] Director [Robert] Mueller six weeks ago.

"[Ridge] sounded more like an interior decorator talking about what more we can do under the shade of yellow," she said.

What has Homeland Security officials worried is that terrorists could attempt to disrupt the election in same way that March 11 train bombings in Madrid created unrest three days before the Spanish general election, Roehrkasse said.

Although there is no evidence that the bombings influenced the Spanish election, Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero unseated Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose government supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

You see folks, it's real fucking simple: If we postpone or otherwise disrupt our elections because of a terrorist attack, then terrorists will have succeeded in disrupting our elections. If there's a terrorist attack and we do not postpone or disrupt our elections, then terrorists will not have succeeded in affecting our elections.

Fuck, this article is just so... It's freaking Orwellian, it really is. The only way a terrorist can disrupt our elections is if we disrupt our elections because of some terrorists! Terrorists cannot affect our electoral process, goddamnit! Unless they usurp all the election committee chairmen around the nation we're still in control.

This is just setting up an excuse to grab power and fuck people, that' all it is. There has to already be contingencies in place if, for example, someone blew up a polling place somewhere, the entire electoral process is in our control, not terrorists. The idea that if terrorists blow some building up or something, that we have to postpone the election, is just absurd. For the love of mike, it's not like if there was a crisis during or before the election the same damn people wouldn't be in charge, they don't switch places the day of the election...

It's just so stupid. Spain's a perfect example: did terrorists try to affect the electoral process there? If so they sure didn't succeed, did they? And why is that kiddies? Because Spain went ahead with their elections as planned.

Cripes. It's that simple. Terrorists have no power. Zero. All the power they have we give them. Same damn thing in Israel- some hamas guy blows himself up and they call off peace talks and shit? Fuck, man! Why do they give some poor bastard with bombs strapped to his bacck so much say in how things work out?

Sometimes, man...

Well it's actually quite simple- the people in charge already understand this. But, for instance, Sharon knows he can be tougher, get more of what he wants, and fuck the Palestinians more and more whenever there's a suicide bomber, so they make for a handy excuse. Same here. They know things could still go off without a hitch, they're just setting up an excuse for a power grab. A couple weeks postponement so Bush can be seen hugging firefighters and shit on TV and swing things his way.

This country is full of rubes, man. Full of 'em.


posted by Tim 4:32 PM

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

 
Hmmmm...

I don't know what to think of this page. On the one hand there's that funny/tragic feeling from all these people praising Bush for things he has spent the last 3 years proving he is incapable of doing:

...he has succeeded in bringing the country together, and in making the world a safer place...

My admiration for President Bush stems from his setting aside partisian politics to just get the job done of serving all Americans!...

I enthusiastically support the President because of his work to lower taxes for ordinary Americans...

I support President Bush because of his commitment to our national security and his untiring efforts to support our Armed Forces....

Then there's the "what planet are you living on?" feeling that washes over rom stuff like this:

President Bush has given me the ability to believe in politics again, not as self-centered rhetoric by the power hungry, but as policy for the good of our country.

Then there's the "you'd probably vote for the hostess on QVC if you could" feeling:

President Bush has helped restore my faith in America. I visited New York City in Oct. 2001 and American flags were everywhere! They are still everywhere in Georgia! It’s wonderful to see American patriotism once again! Thank you Mr. President for standing strong in tough times. May God bless you.

But in the end I just feel sorry. Sorry for this poor, fucked-up deluded people, sorry for the country, and sorry for myself for wasting 10 minutes reading this crap.

I look at President Bush and see a dependable, compassionate, Christian man. No one leader can please everyone, but he does all he can for our country. I am so very proud of him and once again, am proud to be an American. May God bless President Bush and his family.

I support President Bush and his administration, because of the way in which he has handled the war on terrorism. His leadership, dedication, follow-through and hard work have made our country a safer place to live during these changing times. My family will continue to sleep well at night knowing that he's on the job!

You poor, poor deluded bastards.

There's also a whiff of pathetic desperation coming off the page... all these "regular folks" articulating why they're gonna vote for Bush, each one a sad tragedy of that modern scourge, disenfranchisement of reasoning... and meanwhile every diplomat, general, ex-official, nobel prize winner, economist, and lifetime civil servant on the continent is busy forming an association or two with the sole purpose of releasing white-papers on how shitty a president Bush is...


President Bush. Idiots vote for him all the time.*


*paid for by evil




posted by Tim 6:42 PM

Sunday, June 27, 2004

 
Saw Farenheit 911 last night...

Good flick overall, but it really, really needed a better sense of time to it. It jumped around basically from topic to topic, and within those topics, which were segued into from other topics, it had to necesarily jump around in time. The overall message was clear, but it woul have been more effective if when all this was happening was clear too. Like, ohh, so if it's got someone from the whitehouse basically lying, show that A happened first, and that B (the lie) happened later so it's clear how mendacious these people are.

Same with the terror alert stuff. It made the point how we were played like a piano with all that terror alert bullshit, but what would have really illustrated it is a timeline of terror alerts showing when they came out and what significant news just happened to be breaking at that time.

I mean, has there ever been a greater propaganda campaign by the US government, save some stuff from WW2, than those fucking terror alerts? It was completely and purely a propaganda tool and that's even more clear in hindsight. The nation was abused and pissed on and manipulated for a year, it should have been given a greater treatment because to me it's perfectly illustrating of how corrupt this administration is.

But hell, with these bastards where do you start?

Good flik, go see it.


posted by Tim 9:51 AM

Friday, June 25, 2004

 
Oh. My. God.

Just by coincidence I turned on CNN a few minutes ago in the lunch room to find an interview for Irish TV with Bush.

That guy needs to be on TV more often.

Holy shit. I'm still trying to pull it together.

God, I'm like, physically shaken. That pedantic, petty, childish man is the most powerful person in the world. Holy fucking shit.

He was being challenged on several points and all he could do -all- he could do was ramble off the talking points he has memorized with a pedantic smirk on his face in a slow, deliberate manner as if he was talking to a child. And what he had to say amounted to a child's argument.

[Saddam] was a threat. He was a threat.... He had the capacity to build weapons. He had the capcity!.. to build a weapon. He was a threat.

I just checked for a transcript and couldn't find one, but check this shit out:

Bush pleads for courtesy.

Washington, DC, Jun. 25 (UPI) -- An Irish reporter threw courtesy aside and repeatedly interrupted President George W. Bush during a television interview at the White House.

"Let me finish. Let me finish. May I finish?" Bush said early in his interview with Radio and Television Ireland Thursday, according to a transcript released Friday.

"Let me finish. Let me finish, please. Please. You ask the questions and I'll answer them, if you don't mind," he said in a second interruption moments later.

So if the Moonie times says Bush was getting a bum deal you know he was being a prick.

She wasn't "interrupting" him so much as trying to have an adult conversation with him, a skill Bush seems to think he need not master being the preznit and all. They were seated face to face in order to have a chat, not him standing behind a fucking podium taking one question per reporter, and he'd say some bullshit and she'd say "but what about..." or something and he'd turn on his "victim of the media" mode and buy time by pretending she was walking all over him.

An interruption is when someone, ah... interrupts you. You know, you're talking and in the middle of a sentence or clearly in the middle of an explanation someone jumps in.

Pretty much every sentence Bush says on his own is a complete thought. Some short, declarative sentence. So, a normal person who can think and string sentences together to provide a description of their thoughts could be forgiven for thinking those long, blank pauses are fine places to continue the conversation.

From the Post:

Coleman: "The world is a more dangerous place today."

Bush: "Why do you say that? . . . "

Coleman: "I think there is a feeling that the world has become a more dangerous place because you have taken the focus off Al Qaeda and diverted into Iraq. Do you not see that the world is a more dangerous place? I saw four of your soldiers lying dead, on the television, the other day. . . . "

Bush: "You know, listen, nobody cares more about the death than I do.

Coleman: "Is there a point at which --

Bush: "Let me finish. Please, please, let me finish, then you can follow up, if you don't mind. Nobody cares more about the deaths than I do. I care about it a lot. But I do believe that the world is a safer place, and becoming a safer place. . . .

"People join terrorist organizations because there's no hope and there's no chance to raise their families in a peaceful world where there is not freedom . . . so the idea is to promote freedom and at the same time protect our security."

Each time he'd play the "I'm a victim of your uncoothness!" game his "can I finish-es" got longer. What a pussy.

I have such a hard time describing Bush because he's so familiar. I've known people like him my whole life. I've been around grown child-men like him my whole life. Usually they're fat, sunburned hicks who get mean when they're drunk. They're petty, self-righteous, self-absorbed, malicious, mendacious, and emotionally immature.

When they get sober they take all their worst qualities and project them onto their God, or their family, or their sobriety, or a combination of it all. See, that way they never have to really, truly change. Introspection is never acquired. They can still be the biggest prick in the world
but it's all behind a somewhat restrained facade and whatever their crutch becomes. If it's God, then all their emotional faults emanate through their devotion to him. So rather than just smacking their kids around or belittling them for sport they maliciously admonish them for not being right with God and use sin as their excuse to abuse people. If it's family, their constant pissing and moaning and victimhood is all in defense of their family from outside forces that want to rend them asunder. Usually the government.

People like Bush are not mature, responsible adults. People like Bush are everywhere. Go to some hick town where they guys are beet red and their t-shirts are tucked into their jeans, plop down in a bar and try to have a friendly conversation at 2 in the afternoon. The graciousness of middle America will become manifest.

People like Bush use "fag" as an insult about once every 45 seconds.

What makes Bush so dangerous is he chose that life. He was born into blue-blood money and privilege and what kind of man is he? He's a red-faced, alcoholic hick who don't need no book learnin'.

That was some interview. Wow. What a jackass.


posted by Tim 2:38 PM

Sunday, June 20, 2004

 
At the gym...

I'm reading the closed-captioning on the local "news", and they're asking people about that guy getting beheaded and what to do about it.

Tanned, blond woman who's got to be at least upper middle class:

We're dealing with a primitive Arab mindset, and there's nothing we can do. You can't negotiate or debate or anything, it's just time to leave.

Nice. She was real flustered and indignant btw.

Dude who looks like a 55 year old trucker:

I don't want to see one more American beheaded. I supported the war but I think it's time to leave now.

OK, OK...

So wiping out over 5,000 Iraqi civilians sat just fine with you. The deaths of over 800 soldiers was acceptable. The cultural loss of the museum and the library archives was just fine.

The like, I forget now, 400 billion or more spent is OK?

The complete and utter breakdown of a society that, for as awful as it was under Saddam, wasn't a threat, was secular, and was essentially stable, that's cool too?

The squandering of America's moral standing in the world is peachy.

Taken on a ride by Bush and Co. and being their bitches for 2 years is alright with you...

But a couple of regular Joe's get brutally killed and it's time to leave?

You supported all the above, supported the huge human, financial, cultural, and strategic costs... I assume will vote for Bush in November, everything was just fine until some guy, some random dude gets his head cut off.

Fuck you, buddy.

Fucking fuck from fucksville.

Way to grasp the complexities of the world, dumbass.

Shit people suck. Don't they though?


posted by Tim 7:37 PM

Saturday, June 05, 2004

 
Reagan's dead.

I just heard one of my, uh... uneducated, frankly ignorant neighbors say "He defeated the communists! He didn't mess around!"

I don't blame him. I mean, what kind of fucked up country with an ostensibly free media and open government has to live over 20 years with the myth of a man when the actual history is well known?

Fuck, why does any of this ever surprise me? Why does it surprise me when people who don't have railroad spikes sticking out of their heads say Bush is a great president?

Now... I've been in a funk lately, but you really got to ask yourself-- are we insane? Is the United States filled with clinically insane people?

See, I remember when I didn't know anything about history or politics and what my attitudes were because it was just a few years ago. And when I look back I understand completely why I thought the things I thought-- I just simply was not aware of the facts and my vision was very narrow. So, because I used to be an idiot I can give people the benefit of the doubt...

But the thing is, I don't understand how the people who run the show can continue to fool most of the people most of the time. Even a cursory understanding of the current Iraq war would leave someone to understand the administration is either corrupt or incompetent or both. I would have understood this even when I was an idiot. It's so obvious.

Is such mass willful ignorance/delusion a sign of a people out of their fucking minds?

Ah whatever. I'm so sick of "conservatives". Fucking grow up, people.


posted by Tim 4:31 PM

Sunday, May 30, 2004

 
I wanted to share this.

From Atrios, a letter from the mother of a gay kid:

As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel and misguided people can be.

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.

I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.

He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.

It's long, but you ought to read it.

There's very, very few followers of Christ in this country. Plenty of "Christians", but very few people who got the point of what Christ was supposed to have been teachin'.
posted by Tim 7:23 PM

 
If there was ever any doubt...

That Bush is an emotionally immature, spoiled little boy of a man, this ought to confirm it for you:

A handgun that Saddam Hussein was clutching when U.S. forces captured him in a hole in Iraq last December is now kept by President Bush at the White House, a spokesman confirmed on Sunday.

Time magazine, which first disclosed the gun's location, said military officials had it mounted after it was seized from Saddam near his hometown of Tikrit last year, and soldiers involved in the capture gave it to Bush.

The magazine quoted a visitor who had been shown the gun, which is kept in a small study off the Oval Office where Bush displays memorabilia. It is the same room where former President Bill Clinton had some of his encounters with former intern Monica Lewinsky.

Bush shows Saddam's gun to select visitors, telling them it is unloaded, both now and when Saddam was captured, Time reported.

"He really liked showing it off," Time quoted a visitor as saying. "He was really proud of it."

White House spokesman Jim Morrell said, "The president was proud of the performance and bravery of our armed forces and was honored to receive it on behalf of the troops involved in the operation."

First of all, what the fuck is this: It is the same room where former President Bill Clinton had some of his encounters with former intern Monica Lewinsky. ?

How the hell is that related in any way to the story?

Anyway, so what we got is a president who's never worked an honest day in his life, never had to pay any dues, has had his whole life on training wheels thanks to his familial connections, who was AWOL from his daddy-appointed stint in the national gaurd... keeping the gun of a tin-pot dictator like war booty, pulling it out to brag about it to friends.

Bush is a fucking pussy. He's got no right to prance around on an aircraft carrier like he's a warrior and he's got no right to pretend he's led anything, and to pretend he's conquered anyone. He's a mediocre, emotionally stunted, petty little man sitting on top a virtual junta and he's got the balls to go to these war colleges and pretend he's a soldier, he's got the gall to say shit like "bring 'em on", thinking he's making some sort of brave sacrifice.

Good god I can't stand him. He's a child. A fucking child. He's got zero class, and sometimes that's why I think he's the perfect president for this fucked up country.

I have no doubt members of the 101st fighting keyboarders think this is the coolest thing ever, think it's real macho for the prez to have war booty in his office.

We're so doomed.


posted by Tim 4:06 PM

Saturday, May 29, 2004

 
God...

Gallery Owner Attacked for Iraq Abuse Art

A San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison — a black eye delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently objected to a painting that depicts U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners.

...
Guy Colwell's painting, titled "Abuse," depicts three U.S. soldiers leering at a group of naked men in hoods with wires connected to their bodies. The one in the foreground has a blood-spattered American flag patch on his uniform. In the background, a soldier in sunglasses guards a blindfolded woman.

...
Two days after the painting went up in a front window, someone threw eggs and dumped trash on the doorstep. Haigh said she did not think to connect it to the events at Baghdad's notorious prison until people started leaving nasty messages and threats on her business answering machine.

"I think you need to get your gallery out of this neighborhood before you get hurt," one caller said.

She removed the painting from the window, but the gallery's troubles received news coverage and the criticism continued. The answering machine recorded new calls from people accusing her of being a coward for moving the artwork.

Last weekend, Haigh said a man walked into the gallery, pretended to scrutinize the painting for a moment, then marched up to her desk and spat in her face.

On Thursday, someone knocked on the door of the gallery, then punched Haigh in the face when she stepped outside.

People suck.

You know, I think the US is doomed. Really. I can easily imagine this country being some sort of fascist democracy in 25 years or so. You know, democracy in name only and fascist for all intents and purposes. People like the person who spit on her or the person who punched her would be quite happy to live in a country that more or less repressed everyone unlike themselves-- intolerant "patriots" with SUVs and big-screen TVs on credit. The religious right explicitly wants to live in a theocratic (fascist) state. Folks who hang out at little green footballs or free republic would be perfectly fine if "liberals" were round up and imprisoned or what-not.

The right has pretty much lost all perspective. People who demand their country be accountable to its people and people be acountable to its laws are seen as "traitors". If you understand the US is a nation of laws, not men, you're going to be considered a traitor to these folks, really.

There's not much further to go for this country to completely and irrevocably lose its essence. And all of this, all of it is being done in the name of the US, in the name of the constitution, in the name of freedom. People just don't get it.

We had it. We had it for quite a while. We're going to lose it. Europe is probably going to contain the world's only viable democracies in 20 years or so because they've been through the cycle already. We sort of invented liberal, secular democracy, we're gonna be the first the completely trash it too.

I guess I'm being maudlin, but I have no faith in this country any more. I live around stupid people. Really fucking stupid people. Uneducated, ignorant, paranoid, stupid people. More and more and more as the gap between rich and poor widens it seems the bottom half of this country just gets dumber and dumber, the 20 or 30% above that get more and more resentful of the bottom half and more and more "conservative", and the top 20% or whatever just more and more entrenched.

I don't think it's something we can pull out of.

I work in the securities industry and all I see are wealthy people helping other wealthy people get more wealthy. Are poor people helping other poor people get... anything?

We've failed as a society, the right has won. The bottom half is filled with ignorant, stupid poor people because that's what the last 30 years have been producing with no serious commitment to education, infrastructure, urban planning, or representative democracy. This country has slowly been reformed to be a country ripe for the wealthy to exploit and get more wealthy. The day the SS tax was created as a regressive tax and income taxes slashed was the first nail in the coffin. Now we have a large portion of the populace thinking a "flat" tax is more "fair" and "easier" (note to idiots who believe this- it's very easy to figure out your tax rate, and wealthy people can make money with money, the income tax isn't shit to them even when it's up to 70%), and that non-earned income shouldn't be taxed at all!

That's insane! We have people with 5 million dollar accounts where I work and they don't pay a goddamned dime on any of it. They buy a bunch of munis, for example, and they don't pay a cent of tax, they get (right now) a 5% return courtesy of tax-payers, and all that cash they just put into more munis and get more money from taxpayers... it grows and grows and grows and they never pay a single cent in taxes!!

You're paying for their wealth! You! You "libertarian" asshole who thinks absolute self-interest only benefits the world. You "conservative" with a small business who thinks poor black people are getting your tax money. They aren't! Rich people are! And while you do all your hard working and feel like some sort of fucking uber mensch because you're "creating wealth" while everyone else just consumes... you're working your ass off so some millionaire can collect all those ad valorem taxes you've been paying.

Shit, man. If you'd pull your ass out and support national health care, education spending, and commitment to infrastructure and community development annd high fucking taxes for wealthy people who DON'T NEED ANYONE'S HELP, the playing field would start to level. Regular people wouldn't be so burdened with the cost of living and could eat out a little more often in your shitty restaurant. Kids would come out of school a little smarter and maybe they could work the cash register. Your neighborhood would improve and maybe it wouldn't be such a dive location any longer...

Shit. I don't believe in the power of this nation's history and laws any more. Nope.

posted by Tim 6:50 PM