Nuclear Rays From My Halogen Haze

music, politics, art, Elvis apologism

Blagojevich defies all reason and logic and appoints Roland Burris to replace Obama for Illinois’s Senate seat December 30, 2008

Filed under: Celebrities,Obama,Politics — orangehairboy @ 10:30 pm
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Arg!  This makes me so mad!  What good does it to do Blagojevich to appoint Roland Burris now, at a time when the corruption charges leveled agaisnt Blagojevich ensures his nomination will never see a seat in the Senate honored?

Former State Attorney General Burris isn’t a terrible choice, and he’s a choice that Governor Blagojevich could have totally fucking made with impunity, if only he’d been content to stay in politics as a man of dignity.  ARRG!  I don’t fucking get it!  Why did he need to be so corrupt, especially now at this historic time of still tentative liberal gains?

It’s greed for greed’s sake, because we know Blagojevich ain’t starvin’.  And once you reach the level of governor, there’s no way you’ll ever be stuck in the poor house again.  After your term as Governor is over, you can join a left-leaning think tank, or get a snazzy job in the private sector heading some bitchin’ company, or run for another elected office, or fuck it, you can go make speeches at colleges, all of which pay more than I’m making, and I didn’t start off already fucking rich!

Instead, Blagojevich has tainted his own name and the names of everyone who’s ever donated money to his campaigns, including the name of Roland Burris.  Maybe Burris should have been chosen–though there are probably fifty veterans of Illinois politics who could say they have more experience–and it’s a choice that Blagojevich should have made honestly when he was still a revered statesman.  He fucked it up, and the Democrats are fucking it up, and this scandal will haunt us for the duration of Obama’s presidency, and we’re all just in a royal clusterfuck that we don’t yet have the political capital to withstand.

In a weird way, a choice like the one made in New York with Caroline Kennedy would actually make better sense in Illinois now.  A system as tainted with scandal as Illinois’ almost would do better to choose an outsider to conventional politics such as Kennedy, if only because we could be relatively sure such a person hadn’t been in cahoots with the Blagojevich political machine.  But because Democrats can’t help but be idiotic douchebags with self-afflicted open sores on their faces, we have Burris as our temporary choice in Illinois and Caroline Kennedy as the choice for Hillary’s replacement in New York.  Both of these controversies make me question the Democrats’s dedication to actual democracy.

 

California wins lawsuit against Airborne December 16, 2008

Filed under: Art,Comics,LAist,Other Stuff,Politics,Soda Pop — orangehairboy @ 7:29 pm

My buddy Greg has been saying this for years–a medicine “created by a school teacher” is not something to brag about and is no substitution for drugs crafted through the rigorous application of the scientific method. 

And now Airborne just lost their case with the State of California, and is going to have to significantly change their marketing strategy as well as their formula.  That’s a good thing, since not only is it not good for colds, but they know damned well that it’s not, and in fact, its potent dose of vitamins endanger the health of women and children:

Even after studies, Airborne knew that major ingredients in their products–Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Zinc–did not prevent colds. They continued to market their product as a cold remedy, says the Attorney General’s office. Even worse, they say, is that Airborne’s dosage of Vitamin A is 5,000 international units and when taken as recommended, one would consume 15,000. That’s a “potential health risk to vulnerable populations including children and pregnant women.”

No word on how Lloyd Dangle, the artist behind those scary germs on the Airborne packaging, is taking this.  I wonder if all the knock-offs of Airborne he so humorously dug into a couple years back will be getting similar legal treatment.

 

Milk and Sylvester and Neil Young! December 8, 2008

Filed under: Bands,Celebrities,Electronic Music,Gay and Lesbian stuff,Movies,Performers,Personal Shit,Politics,Songwriters,Soul Music — orangehairboy @ 7:38 pm

I just saw Gus Van Sant’s Milk last night.  Of course it was great and moving and sad and informative.  And of course Sean Penn wowed us with his performance, even though we already knew it was going to be good.

But amidst all the drama and sadness and history, I got a little nugget of sweetness when they had a scene recreating a Harvey Milk birthday party, including Sylvester singing him ”You Make Me Feel!”  God, I love that song, and I thought the drag performer Flava (er, real name is apparently Mark Martinez) carried the outlandish role of Sylvester pretty well. 

One purchase I really want to get in the near future is Sylvester’s first album, Sylvester and the Hot Band.  After his stint with the Cockettes, he initially moved in kind of a funk-rock direction, including a cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man” that I still have not heard, though the reviews are incredible!  Here’s one of the few tastes of this album I’ve gotten, and it’s a goodie:

 

Tycho Brahe is not a train set! December 4, 2008

Filed under: Celebrities,Musicals,Politics,Religion — orangehairboy @ 11:53 pm
my brotha, the Brahe!
my brotha, the Brahe!

Today’s re-discovery of the space-light phantasma-echo of Tycho Brahe’s supernova (originally discovered in 1572) has sent me into a whirlwind of post-mortem mania over Tycho’s total awesomeness!  This is the Renaissance man for me! 

Not only did he use meticulous observation (without a telescope) to determine that the stars were not fixed to celestial spheres and that the planets (aside from noble Earth, which he and the church never relinquished) seemed to revolve around the Sun, but he also hired a clairvoyant dwarf named “Jepp” to hang out under his table at parties, and had a tame elk as a pet (who died of a drink-related accident!).  He also lost his nose in a drunken duel (his exumed body had green stains around the nose, suggesting he wore a copper replacement), and may even have been killed by Johannes Kepler, because his measurements of the stars were that fucking accurate.

 

And I haven’t even gotten to the Bob Dylan part yet!  “Tycho’s Supernova” directly inspired the Edgar Allen Poe poem “Al Aaraaf,” which inspired Dylan’s 1966 poem-novel “Tarantula.”  This same Supernova also likely inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet (though hopefully had no impact on the band Oasis).
More importantly, the insight Tycho gleaned from his supernova informed all of modern astronomy, from Galileo’s elimination of the celestial spheres in the heliocentric model (though Tycho’s was geo-heliocentric, he was the first to give up the spheres!) to the Chinese calendar–it was the church-sanctioned Tychonic view of the heavens that Jesuits took to China in time for the Ming dynasty to enjoy it before they croaked.  And of course, whether or not there was a murder, Tycho’s measurements inspired his sucessor Kepler to complete his work on the movements of celestial bodies.
Perhaps what I find most interesting though, aside perhaps from the drunken elk, is that when I was learning this stuff in school, they made it seem like there was a logical evolution from Ptolemy all the way to Galileo, and that Galileo’s theory of a heliocentric universe with no celestial spheres was the final vision in the evolution of astronomical thought until like Newton.  Turns out that actually, Tycho’s vision had pretty long legs–the Tychonic vision of the universe was probably the preeminent one until it was finally disproved in 1729:
The tenacious longevity of the Tychonic model into the late 17th century and even the early 18th century was attested by Ignace Pardies who declared in 1691 that it was still the commonly accepted system and by Francesco Blanchinus who said it was still such in 1728.
Pretty nifty, I think, for a dude whose home life sounds a bit like Einstein-meets-Caligula, with a touch of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!
 

Bob Dole needs positive reinforcement December 3, 2008

Filed under: Other Stuff,Politics — prodigalsonnybono @ 12:00 am

Isn’t Bob Dole just a lovable old coot? This touching tidbit from the Nixon archives released today shows that this former leader of the Party of Lincoln also had a frailty, a need to be commended by virtuous men such as Nixon.  It really gets me misty-eyed reading this:

The material also shows a sensitive side to Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who apparently needed affirmation in his job as chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1972.

“The key to Bob Dole’s effectiveness is his morale and his attitude,” Colson told Nixon in a February 1972 memo. “A pat on the back from you tonight when you see him would go a long way toward keeping his spirits up. He is very sensitive to this kind of thing and often asks whether you know what he does. The slightest mention would have a very healthy impact.” 

I can just see Nixon now, talking to Bob Dole like he was Checkers the puppy dog.  “Hey There, Bo-Doo!  You’ve been such a good boy!  Where’s that waggly tail?”

 

where the fuck were you when we needed you? November 17, 2008

Filed under: Gay and Lesbian stuff,LAist,Los Angeles,Performers,Politics — prodigalsonnybono @ 9:09 pm
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This comment on a recent photo essay in LAist about the No on 8 protest sums up exactly what’s going on in my mind.

What Ross hinted at is that yes, goddam it, where was this mass energy when we needed it? We’ve been living in a conservative, er, cesspool for years, yet for some reason, most people I know felt no compulsion to come down and help man the phones to prevent this from getting on the ballot, which is where we should have stopped it cold, or to rally opposition to it once it got there. Politics only works for the side of good if we’re proactive, not reactive. It’s so much easier to fight against a bad law if it never gets passed.

I would go one step further and say, seriously, shame on you if you are able-bodied and capable and didn’t at least try to help with this cause.  That goes double for all my homo friends who didn’t bother to help out.  Though I understand that many of y’all may not want to get married, at this juncture or in the foreseeable future, all your rights as equal citizens with equal protections are in grave danger now that Proposition 8 has passed.  And not only yours, but the rights of gays in other states–not just to marry, but, say, to teach kids, or coach little league, or leave a living will with their partner–are all going to be affected by this.  This was a litmus test for the rest of the country, as the Mormon church well knew, and as this bill goes, so too goes the public perception about the law’s role in curtailing queer equality.  Or any equality.

So, if you didn’t help out, you fucked up!  I’m not saying that the protests are not important, because better late than never, I guess.  But next time, open your damned eyes and try to swat away the flies of injustice before they lay their eggs in your face.

Update: There’s a silver lining here.  Apparently the hateful supporters of this bill were just as dumb about donating money as we were dumb about not donating time.

 

electoral hanky-panky in Alaska? where are all those votes? November 7, 2008

Filed under: Alaska,John McCain,Obama,Politics,Satan — prodigalsonnybono @ 1:57 am

I read an interesting post today from Shannyn Moore: looks like there may be some serious missing votes in Alaska.  No proof here, folks, but she does present quite a head-scratcher.

This year, early voters set a new record. As of last Thursday, with 4 days left to vote early, 15,000 Alaskans showed up-shattering the old record set in 2004 by 28%! Consider the most popular governor in history-and now the most polarizing-was on the Republican ticket. Consider the historic nature of this race; the first African American presidential candidate EVER! The second woman to ever make a presidential ticket; and she’s one of our own. Despite that, we’re supposed to believe that overall participation DECREASED by 11%. Not only that, but this historic election both nationally and for Alaska HAD THE LOWEST ALASKA TURNOUT FOR A PRESIDENTIAL RACE EVER!!! That makes sense. REALLY??? Something stinks.

I remember well the 2004 election with Ohio–though Bush may still have taken the state, there were clearly several instances of sheer voter fraud from the Republican side that benefitted him.  And now it sounds like Alaska may have gotten into the game (though of course Palin would never use her political might for personal reasons).  Just because McCain may have won the state anyway doesn’t excuse disenfranchising 11% of the population (or more!).  The question is, will this be investigated?

After all the times the Republicans have rigged precincts, hired guys like Diebold to make shitty automated voting machines with no oversight, and then turned around and cried foul at a truly great organization such as ACORN when some dude at the mall wrote down “Mickey Mouse” as a name for their voter lists, it’s clear that we need voter reform ASAP.  One of the biggest goals of this administration and of this Democratic congress needs to be to undo all the jerryrigging that conservatives have done to our electoral systems, as well as to our media, to how we contract services in time of war, to how we conduct ourselves on the national stage–okay, to just about everything.

 

my predictions for Fox News and Republican spin November 6, 2008

Filed under: Obama,Other Stuff,Politics — orangehairboy @ 8:59 pm

"I Predict!"

Now that Obama will soon be President, and will have a relatively safe Democratic majority in Congress to help him implement a new and progressive vision for America, look out for the biggest punditory flip-flop in recent history.  Conservative talking heads will soon be bending over backwards to contradict everything they ever espoused about how the political process should work.

  1. The phrase “legislating from the bench” in regards to judicial rulings will disappear from the lips of conservative pundits, as the Judicial Branch is now arguably the only conservative-leaning branch of government.
  2. Pundits will stop bitching about filibusters as if they are a nuisance that prevents work from getting done.  Instead, they’ll be portrayed as heroic attempts to curtail big government.
  3. Conservatives in Congress as well as in the press will accuse Obama of secrecy or even tyranny if he ever once evokes Executive Privilege.  The name “Stalin” might be bandied about.
  4. Unitary Executive Theory?  Is that a ballet outfit?
  5. After an initial round of bashing Obama for judicial litmus tests, we’ll see Republicans in Congress getting all huffy and filibustery and apply litmus tests of their own the moment Obama starts appointing Supreme Court Justices–which complements my other prediction, that at least a couple justices will retire the moment Obama is sworn in.
 

Goodbye gay marriage! November 5, 2008

Filed under: Classical Moosic,Los Angeles,Politics,Songwriters — orangehairboy @ 9:39 pm

I am ashamed to be Californian today, and perhaps even more so to be an Angeleno.  Our people are a mix of economic moderates and social liberals, or so I had thought.  Live and let live seems to be the motto for many in Los Angeles, where gays and straights and people of all walks of life, all colors, all inclinations, mingle in front of Pink’s to get a hotdog and look forward to the Gold Line extension that’s coming in 2009.

So WHY THE FUCK did you people vote to take away the marital rights of gays and lesbians to enjoy the same benefits as everybody else?  Why is it that if I get in a long-term relationship with a man, our state government will no longer recognize us as family?  What happens if I’m in a medical accident–do my parents or cousins get to make the decision for me as to whether to pull the plug, and not my husband-not-husband?  And what happens regarding kids I might have with a partner who is less than a spouse?

This decision by the voters is absolutely no better in spirit than the ruling of Plessy vs. Ferguson, a legacy that shamed the Deep South, and shamed the hell out of me when I lived in Oklahoma (even though it was never really that southern, or that deep).  Separate but equal is never equal, and the 52% or so of voters who voted for Proposition 8 showed themselves to be selfish bigots.  Their mild distaste for seeing homos kiss made them feel justified in trivializing the real need hard-working Californians who just happen to be attached to someone of the same sex have for the protections only marriage provides.  Worse, they allowed themselves to be fooled by the Yes on 8 folks’ lies about churches and schools being forced to promote a gay agenda, when we ALREADY have had gay marriage and NONE of that shit has happened because of it.

As I drove home last night from watching the election at a friend’s house, the joy I should have felt at Obama’s victory was drowned in the sorrow I felt at the step backwards my state has taken.  My car’s stereo was playing my newly purchased copy of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, his sorrowful symphonic masterpiece composed at a time in his life when he’d discovered himself to be deathly ill and had just lost a daughter to Scarlet Fever.  Mahler’s masterpiece really overcame me, matching my mood perfectly.  I nearly wept with sadness at how close we had come to true equality, and how stupid fucks took it away just because they think butt sex is nasty and against Jesus.

Das Lied von der Erda has warm and hopeful parts as well, and so does the current state of gay marriage–though our own state is still bigoted and full of hulking moralistic dinosaurs, other states such as New York and New Jersey are gearing up for a real solid state of equality.  But I mourn the state we were for just a few months.

 

Sarah Palin and the Fabulous Stains

Filed under: Bands,Celebrities,Movies,Performers,Personal Shit,Politics — orangehairboy @ 9:13 pm
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I watched McCain’s concession speech last night, which was actually a fantastic and warm speech.  Say what you will about the ugly campaign McCain ran, and his warmongering attitudes toward foreign nations, his lust over offshore drilling, and his crummy voting record.  I think this dude is still the man he was eight years ago in his heart, a moderate and somewhat rational leader in a house of nutso.  He would have been a better president than any Bush ever was if we’d had the misfortune to see him get elected.

However, I couldn’t help but notice as I looked through the crowd at his acceptance speech…

…there are a scores of women in the audience un-ironically dressing up in bangs and glasses just like Sarah Palin!  Watch the footage with an eye towards the crowd, and tell me you don’t see some serious mimickry.  And this ain’t no Tina Fey rendition–this is an honest-to-god appropriation of Palin’s style in lieu of her substance, or lack thereof.  It reminded me way too much of this scene in the Fabulous Stains:

 

 
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