Basta Pate de Foie Gras

 (A little Italian....a little French. My idea of international flavor.)

I gave up eating goose liver years ago when I was told that those who create it nail the feet of live geese to a board so the birds cannot move; stuff food down their throats with frequency; tie their throat closed so they cannot upchuck it; slaughter them just before their livers burst, and then feed those livers to overfed humans.

It was, as I recall, very rich fare.

Almost as rich as the surfeit of news coming from a gob-smacking variety of political scenes. 

Someone asked me why I haven't posted in several days in view of this richness of news material on offer. I explained my lack of enthusiasm for posting because :

     *  the insanity of Rush Limbaugh (new name: Rush Limpballs, thanks to the creative phraseology of a fellow screamer) who exposed himself (or, at least his perversions) on air;


     *  the materialization of a satisfying list of sponsors who have fled his filth;

     *  the strange saga of  'Sick' Santorum and his Medieval notions of Christianity;

     *  the passage of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's rape decree, perpetrated on women who wish to lawfully terminate a pregnancy;

     *  the untimely passing of Breitbart the Bad whose mind was so warped that he made little sense of his world and his maker probably took pity and returned him for a diagnostic, and maybe even a design change;

     *  the mindlessness of the goppers' candidates as they seek to sack one another with lies, innuendo and impotently devastating verbiage.....

..... have provided too rich a meal for us gluttons who enjoy winkling out mankind's perfidy for the sake of our own amusement and edification - and enthusiastically sharing it..

Oh, there is more, much, much more..... and I am reveling in all of it. I'd empty the cupboard if I could.

But there is very little point in commenting on it since it is much too tasty to require any further seasoning from me.

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Sex-ridden And Proud of It

I believe we are the most prurient nation on earth. Maybe even in history.


Yes, I know about the Kama Sutra, and all the carvings in and on  the temples of many Eastern nations. I know about (but not much) the doings of the Marquis de Sade. I know there have been bawdy houses since time began, and that there are industries devoted to producing all manner of pornographic material that members of all walks of society subscribe to. And I know what is said to be the oldest profession extant.

But the temple carvings in Cambodia, and elsewhere in the East, are not hidden behind a plain brown wrapper. And visitors to those sites don't giggle and make off-color remarks (unless they happen to be American). Those who created them and those who admire them are not ashamed and don't consider their lack of shame shameful.

However, Americans are and do.

At least those Americans of the Santorum/McDonnell ilk,  And, dear heaven, there appear to be such an antic, frantic lot of them judging by the Jimmy Swaggarts, Jim Bakkers and Ted Haggards of Evangelicalism. And we cannot forget all  those Catholic priests - and deviant Protestant pastors - that the churches' head honchos hide and protect.

They are ALL pissant hypocrites.

I don't think the most sex-involved among us - the ones who have an active and avid interest in all things sexual - should be pronounced nearly as disgusting as the prudish prigs who claim to approve of only married sex in the missionary position and/or total abstinence. These are the ones that never seem able to get their minds and tongues off the subject of other people's sexual activities for even a minute.  

I am convinced that some of the biggest skunks at the garden party are those who insist that we censor the videos of those adorable bare bottomed babies  who are often featured on programs like America's Funniest Videos. Why is it necessary to blur the unclothed cheeks of a two-year-old unless we are a country so sex-crazed that we believe such a view would send the population into a frenzy of rape and molestation.

Yes, America, we are, indeed, exceptional.

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How Now, You Cow?

Could it be there is a chastity belt in your future?

Could Rick Santorum and Virginia's Bob McDonnell be any more out of touch with this epoch?

Actually, I'm not exactly sure how long an epoch is, but nothing either of them says carries any association with anything I believe or have experienced, and I lived most of my life in both halves of the last century.

Unfortunately, those who are being born in this century are going to have a lot to deal with if the religious nuts who are, in the main, white, middle-aged males buttressed with Viagra, and who are swanning about on the political stage advising women they are just so much meat.

Are you a woman who dares to entertain the idea of ending an unwanted pregnancy? It's legal but, damn it, before you can take advantage of this right, you must submit to the governor of Virginia. Lie down, spread your legs and let some guy probe you with a wand that isn't his own.

Unbelievable!

We are being told contraception is bad. It leads to - heaven forefend! -  inappropriate activity like sex for fun and pleasure.  We can't have that! Any woman who dares to want to get laid just for the hell of it might,  in a few years, find herself in the public square with her hands and feet locked in the stocks while upstanding male churchgoers chuck rotten eggs at her. 


Or, remember the ducking stool?

What kind of a society of guilt-ridden masochists and sadists are these bulwarks of religion trying to turn the population of this one-time democratic-loving, freedom-pursuing - and, Christ, yes, religious-free country into? 

This is a resurrection of the Inquisition.

Ladies...get out your pitchforks and get into the fight. 

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How To Take a Sponge Bath

     1.  Wash down as far as possible.

     2.  Wash up as far as possible.

     3.  Then wash "possible".

The GOP goose chase is down to three candidates and worried Conservative activists who know their asses from their elbows are praying that Santorum is not "possible."

However, we liberals recognize that Santorum is indeed possessed of all the necessary functioning features of "possible" and we will be overjoyed to see them laid bare.

I know, I know....after Bush v. Gore it is dangerous to assume the country won't stand for the election of still another fellow from the land of the misbegotten, but we can still hope that lunacy won't strike twice.


Watching Torquemada Rick having to truly defend his 15th century positions to a more homogenous audience  could be the best entertainment of the 21st century. Of course Obama could tear him a new "possible", but I think the true dismantling of the bigot will come from an incensed intelligentsia, if such indeed exist in this country.


Therefore, I have abandoned all hope of having that lump of lard and his moon base (I don't mean Callista)  providing me with a few months of popcorn-munching entertainment and am putting all my body English in favor of Santorum.

Dingy Gingy is Ringy Dingy

A couple of minor pensées

There are two reasons I cheer on blowhard Newtie: 

One, it makes the "true" GOPers crazy to think the electorate could be so stupid to think he could beat the President if he should win the nomination, and...

....two, it would be so much fun to watch his intellectual and mnemonic gymnastics and discover how many ways he can convolute facts.

Daily checking Google and Politifact for lies, exaggerations and an assortment of insane proposals (such as the moon being our 51st state)  would be as much fun as searching out theater cartoonist Hershfeld's Ninas used to be.

Eureka! I've got seven!

Beyond that entertainment, there is further fun to be had. I keep waiting for someone to accidentally brush an arm (or rolled up newspaper) against Callista's hair to see if it will either come off or snap in two.


There may be some few who are taking this slate of candidates seriously, but I doubt it.

-30

Governmental Gobbledy Gook

TPM's morning banner reads, in part,  "GOP's Pipeline Ploy".

It is referencing the comically eponymous  Keystone Kops game of Russian roulette, played with our environment instead of with someone's  little balls or bullets. 

"Ploy" is a good word to employ when attaching a description to this congress's method of operating.

I have to admit that I understand very little of this whole scheme to make money and, purportedly, make jobs by piping stuff from one country through our country to another country to be sold to still another country. It sounds like a lot of rigamarole and maybe Occam's razor can apply here in that the simplest answer is usually the right one. In this instance: greed.

Maybe you can read Brian Beutler's story - Why the Pipeline Ploy May End up Killing Keystone - http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/the-gops-costly-keystone-conundrum.php - and keep your eyes from crossing. I couldn't. It is a report that appears to recount in exquisite detail the inanities of governmental bureaucracy.

Beyond being an obvious trap set to snare President Obama, it is the nightmarishly convoluted  stuff bureaucrats live for.  I have come to the conclusion that most legislation is written to hornswoggle the electorate into believing only people with "Representative" or "Senator" in front of their names can sort out this crap.

Hell....why not? They've created it.

But I am also of the opinion that Andrew Sullivan is right in determining that the Republicans may be dumber than even they know.Successful and unsuccessful attempts to back President Obama into corners may be the end of their game since their tactics are starting to look like they were designed by Wily Coyote.

I'm no expert on economics, and I have only the slightest concept of the mechanics of actual governing, but I do have a fair amount of common sense. And this sense tells me that building a pipeline to transport tons of filthy, oily, black shale across 1,700 miles of the United States, using as much uninhabited land as possible, is a recipe for disasters of so many descriptions as to defy imagination.

I suspect the terrorists have already started to map possible routes and are noting a variety of vantage points from which they could puncture the damned thing. And, of course, you can't ignore Murphy's Law.

This is a scheme conceived in the backrooms of hell and I hope the Republicans' heavy hands have aborted it. A nice kind of symmetry.

-30-

A Pundit! How Twee

Meghan McCain has put on her big girl pants and is sitting at a table of talking heads on MSNBC.  She just used, twice in nearly the same sentence, the new, Internet-inspired term "emoticon" (a smiley face?) for the term "modicum" - which means "small amount."

Granted, she has a very pretty face; she has a great deal of self-assurance; she has been around politics all her life; she may appeal to young people; her father is a U.S. senator with a very recognizable name. 

Apparently these are the attributes that win you an interesting job associated with enlightening the public. I would have thought something more exceptional would be required.

On this same television channel, Lawrence O'Donnell has been doing promos for education. In one he reveals the information that only 20 percent of the population in this country is college educated.

He made the argument that when the G.I. Bill of Rights was instituted after WWII, (when only six percent of the  populace was college educated) conservatives called the Bill "welfare." O'Donnell pointed out that this educational advantage (given in exchange to his father for risking his life for his country) allowed him to get a good job and put his five children through college.

Why is it conservatives are so eager to keep mediocrity a standard to strive for?

In the half century since that war, the rise from six percent to 20 percent of college graduates is not a very impressive advance. While it is in itself a startlingly modest figure, added to that is the depressing fact that many college "educated" leave their alma maters nearly as stupid as when they entered.

As much as I am egalitarian by nature, I truly hate ignorance and those who wallow in it. No, I don't like unkindness and unfairness to the least among us, but it makes me wild with fury when those with more material wealth than they need are chary of sharing with those who have nothing. Especially when the plight of the underprivileged is brought about through lack of educational  and cultural advantages denied to them by the resistance of the right to invest in their betterment.

While I have no real beef with Meghan McCain, I would hope that since her advantage over others has been mostly a fortune of birth, she would make every effort to expand her horizons and invest some time in exploring the mysteries of her mother tongue.

-30-