The website The Gore Vidal Index always held the fort down for the author. Take a look around. There is plenty there to enjoy. It is an amazing Gore Vidal website.
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« June 2012 | Main | August 2012 »
July 31, 2012
July 30, 2012
What's Next For Willard Massengill Romney? 'Blockhead' Jokes in Poland?
England hates Mitt...
Palestine hates Mitt...
Mitt loves Jerusalem...
Mitt hates kosher food...
Mitt loves Socialized Medicine...
Bibi Hates Mitt...
On to Poland... the heart of old new Europe. Someone throw this poor bastard a rope.
July 29, 2012
USA Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Wins Silver!!! Oh, Wait... Losers!!!
Sad, really. We have lost touch with the Games in a way that is so grandly American. When we consider it losing a Gold Metal instead of winning a Silver. Time for you boys to stay home next time and get jobs.
Quick, name the other two guys on the relay team.
July 26, 2012
Hitchcock and Marnie
To Have and Have Shot
From a February 22, 1953, letter from Ernest Hemingway
to his close friend Gianfranco Ivancich.
Dear Gianfranco:
Just after I finished writing you and was putting
the letter in the envelope Mary came down from
the Torre and said, “Something terrible has happened
to Willie.” I went out and found Willie with
both his right legs broken: one at the hip, the other
below the knee. A car must have run over him or
somebody hit him with a club. He had come all the
way home on the two feet of one side. It was a
multiple compound fracture with much dirt in the
wound and fragments protruding. But he purred
and seemed sure that I could fix it.
I had René get a bowl of milk for him and René
held him and caressed him and Willie was drinking
the milk while I shot him through the head.
I don’t think he could have suffered and the
nerves had been crushed so his legs had not begun
to really hurt. Monstruo wished to shoot him
for me, but I could not delegate the responsibility
or leave a chance of Will knowing anybody
was killing him.
Afterwards I was crying when a Cadillac came
to the door with a worse psycho than that big one
I had to hit. With him was his keeper. I still had
the rifle and I explained to them they had come at
a bad time and to please understand and go away.
But the rich Cadillac psycho said, “We have come
at a most interesting time. Just in time to see the
great Hemingway cry because he has to kill a cat.”
They were inside the house and so I locked
both the doors and sent their chauffeur away.
The one said, “You have a gun. There is always
someone with a gun.”
So I gave him the gun (cocked) and then he
started to make compliments. So I took his
horned-rim spectacles off and took the gun away
from him and put it away in Mary’s room. Then
I humiliated him as he should be humiliated,
omit details, and then the awful thing happened.
He thanked me and his keeper thanked me and
said that was what he needed and what he came for.
What sort of people are these?
He was a rich boy, officer in 11th Airborne
Div., which never jumped in combat (not their
fault); they would have made the assault in Japan
if we had not used the atomic bomb and I
suppose they never got over it.
Certainly missed you. Miss Uncle Willie. Have
had to shoot people but never anyone I knew and
loved for eleven years. Nor anyone that purred
with two broken legs.
July 25, 2012
A Serious Question About Faith... Boxers, Briefs or Magic Underwear?
When is the news media going to start making fun of asking Mitt Romney about his religious briefs beliefs?
July 23, 2012
July 21, 2012
Fuck You, Christopher Nolan
The director and writer of the last three Batman films has released a statement on the shootings in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorada during a midnight screening of his latest: The Dark Knight Rises:
Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises, I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community. I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.
I was hoping to close my eyes and ears to the latest massacre of innocents at the hands of an incredibly armed lunatic who appears at a random place and time and unleashes the fury that such weapons possess.
This time it was a movie theater, but if I changed the channel, there the story was, everywhere... wiping all other stories off the screen, including the daily massacre of innocents in Syria at the hands of their government. I wondered what thoughts the teenaged boys of Syria had for the shooting victims in Colorado?
I too, at one point in my life, considered the movie theater my home, my sanctuary, a place to escape and enjoy the magic images and sounds projected onto a giant screen in the dark. I loved movies and learned from them. At some point, and maybe it was just age, movies stopped being enjoyable for me, they certainly stopped be challenging. How many Batman movies am I expected to see? When the first round of Batman films stopped bringing in the crowds, they ''rebooted' the series with a more violent storyline and characters. Christopher Nolan was a director who was going to transform the Batman brand and bring the crowds back into the theaters. He was going to give us a grown-up Batman.
Mt. Nolan glorified the psychopath wilh all the tools of his craft.
It isn't all Mr. Nolan's fault, but he is one of the modern filmmakers who made me lose interest in the movies and certianly stopped that feeling I once had that the movie theater was my home. My home is my home.
I had no intention of commenting on the 'Batman Shootings', but Mr. Nolan's press statement made me angry..
...The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me...
Did Mr. Nolan stop to think about the images on the screen behind the man dressed in riot gear and gas mask, firing automatic weapons into the smoke filled aisles, back-lit by the projected moving images of men dressed in riot gear, killing one another? It must have been one hell of a spectacular example of reflexivity.
July 20, 2012
George McGovern Turns 90
Geroge McGovern turns 90 years old today.
This is from a wonderful post by Charles P. Pierce... I had to share it.
...And, just for the eternal historical record, because of the invaluable work of Stanley Kutler, we find that, on July 19, 1972, George McGovern's 50th birthday, the man he was running against had a meeting with his aide, Chuck Colson, in which they chatted amiably about how the Watergate cover-up was going as regards Howard Hunt, the White House aide who hired and supervised the burglars.
Nixon: What will he say then?
Colson: Well, if he's properly coached and he's got a good lawyer, I think he is the one guy I figure will take the rap, take the heat, and will not speak.
I love history.
July 19, 2012
Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me. You Let Him Leave The Building...
Just put them out of their misery, already. If NPR can't manage to go after the Republicans now... they deserve whatever they get.
"I do have concerns about spending money on public broadcasting," Rubio told Diane Rehm during an hourlong Q&A on NPR.
NPR has been a source of criticism from congressional Republicans who view it as a liberal refuge that espouses its views courtesy of public funding. Although only 2 percent of NPR's funding comes from government grants, the loss of federal funding would undermine the ability of NPR stations to pay for NPR programming, NPR says.
Rubio argued that private donations should support such an enterprise as NPR, and that plenty of outlets are available to house that ideology and format. He admitted, though, that he enjoys Rehm's show and that NPR's funding is low on the list of costs that should be cut.
July 15, 2012
July 11, 2012
We Can Stop It... But Will We?
A little Thom Hartmann for you:
"In screwed news...Republicans want police and firefighters to only make minimum wage and no more.
Last week – the Mayor of Scranton slashed the pay of hundreds of city workers, including cops and firefighters, to $7.25 an hour – the lowest hourly wage currently allowed for by law. The Mayor says that his city is broke and, because he's unwilling to raise taxes on business or millionaires, can't afford to pay its workers anymore money. That's the problem in several cities across America, which have seen their revenues dry up during the Bush Great Recession.
President Obama offered a clear solution to this problem with his American Jobs Act, which gave emergency federal relief to states to help struggling cities avoid massive layoffs or pay cuts to public worker salaries. Unfortunately, Republicans have blocked the American Jobs Act – so police and firefighters across America are joining Wal-Mart workers in the ranks of the working poor. To add insult to injury, Republicans are also fighting a Democratic effort to raise the minimum wage – which currently has less buying power today than it had in 1968."
July 10, 2012
Ouch! Florida Students Receive Inspirational Messages From The WRONG Son of God
The State of Florida: CS/SB 98 - Education
General Bill by Siplin (CO-SPONSORS) Evers; Storms; Negron
Education: Authorizing a district school board to adopt a policy that allows an inspirational message to be delivered by students at a student assembly; providing policy requirements; providing purpose, etc.
Effective Date: 07/01/2012
"The bill would allow school boards to adopt policies giving students authority to deliver "an inspirational message" during the student portion of any assembly. Administrators, teachers, coaches and other school personnel would be prohibited from reviewing the message or editing it."
Twelve Labors of Hercules
1) First task: to kill the Nemean lion, a monstrous beast that terrified the country of Nema.
2) Second task: kill the Hydra, a terrible nine-headed water serpent
3) Thirdly: capture, alive, the Arcadian stag.
4) Fourth task: capture of the Erymanthian boar
5) Then clean the Augean stables. Labor Five. King Augeus had a herd of 3,000 oxen and the stables had not been cleaned for 30 years.
6) Sixth labour: slaying of the Stymphian birds, which fed on human flesh.
7) Capture the Cretan bull sent by Neptune to the king of Crete for sacrifice.
8) Eight: capture of the mares of Diomedes.
9) Nine: obtain the the girdle (belt) of Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons.
10) Capture the oxen of Geryon, a monster of with three bodies.
11) Eleven: obtain the golden apples of the Hesperides.
12) Final task: the bringing up of Ceberus from the underworld.
No injuries have been reported among the students and parents are lawyering -up.
You've Been Invited To Tea! Pennsylvanians May Be Carrying More Than A Voter ID To The Polls This Fall
The man behind a company that got a big state contract to educate Pennsylvania voters on the commonwealth’s restrictive new voter ID law is a fundraiser for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Ads created by his company, a Republican lobbying group, encourage Pennsylvania residents to obtain state-issued photo identification so they don’t “miss out” on their right to vote.
Blind Trust... That's Enough of An Explanation For Corporate Media
You can stand on a beach at one end of Bermuda and piss onto the sand at the other end of the island. But, The Mexican-Mormon doesn't know where his money is...Blind Trust indeed.
July 08, 2012
July 07, 2012
July 06, 2012
Summer Americana Reading... Absolam, Absolam!
Today is the 50th Anniversary of the death of William Faulkner.
A President mourned his passing.
Faulkner's novel Absolam, Absolam! has consistently been in my Top Ten Books list since I first read it 30 years ago.
Labelled a Souther Gothic novel, Faulkner weaves together a tale of three familes before, during and after the American Civil War.. and we see that war's lingering effects on the latest generation, the character Quentin Compson.
This Faulkner novel and Ernest Hemingway's short stories made me fall in love with solitary, contemplative reading.
July 05, 2012
-- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends... Pennsylvania Qualifies.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
I think Pennsylvania has clearly qualified for the "abolish it" according to the Declaration of Indepenedece.
"More than 758,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania do not have photo identification cards from the state Transportation Department, putting their voting rights at risk in the November election, according to data released Tuesday by state election officials.
The figures - representing 9.2 percent of the state's 8.2 million voters - are significantly higher than prior estimates by the Corbett administration. Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele has repeatedly said that 99 percent of Pennsylvania's voters already had the photo ID they will need at the polls in November.
The new numbers, based on a comparison of voter registration rolls with PennDot ID databases, shows the potential problem is much bigger, particularly in Philadelphia, where 186,830 registered voters - 18 percent of the city's total registration - do not have PennDot ID."
