As you can see, my congressional district is present and accounted for. (Is that depressing or what?)
In sordid political news: If the Republicans don't get their way, which they won't, they are threatening to shut down the government.
I can still remember the last time they pulled this childish stunt, under the auspices of awful Newt Gingrich, currently fattening himself up on the CNN dime... the very same evilll liberal media he used to make his living by trashing on the GOP-chicken-supper circuit.
How does that work exactly? You trash them and they gratefully respond with a high-profile, cushy, pricey gig? (And has that ever happened to you?) Becoming an elected politician seems to guarantee a lifelong livelihood for these no-talent hacks... and then they want to deny the rest of us the (government-sponsored, taxpayer-provided) health care they have always enjoyed.
Again, how does that work, exactly?
For comedy relief, Gingrich just appeared on CNN's Piers Morgan show, assuring us that this government-shutdown is no big deal. (Tell that to the military personnel, fire-fighters and others who won't get paid for risking their lives.) Newtie actually seems annoyed that anybody would get upset over this pesky little incident. (And if it's no big deal, why did NEWT HIMSELF use it as a weapon in 1995, unless he wanted it to HURT?!)
The blazing, horrific hypocrisy is as stomach-turning as it is brazen. (More here and here.)
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I have been grossly negligent regarding our recent WOLI shows... and to provide a partial remedy, here are some links, with copious apologies for being so preoccupied:
Monday, September 23, 2013
Death of professor shows America values sports more than education
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Has Dusten Brown given up hope in custody fight for daughter?
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Senator Lindsey Graham's opponents oppose his stance on Syria
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Senators proposing "real" reforms to NSA
Friday, September 27, 2013
Where does Senator Tim Scott stand on mass incarceration and racial disparities in South Carolina?
Monday, September 30, 2013 (today)
Is US government shutdown imminent?
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Other interesting stuff:
:: Amanda Knox's retrial commences in Italy, without her presence. (CBS News)
:: I've written here a couple of times about Damien Echols, West Memphis Three Death Row inmate. Since his release, he has settled in Salem, Massachusetts (notorious for the historic witch trials) with his wife, Lorri. In a strange turn of events, Michael Blatty, son of famous Exorcist author William Peter Blatty (!), has made Damien's controversial presence in Salem his raison d'être.
It is a patently bizarre tale from Boston Magazine, which just adds to the continuing horror-story elements of Damien's life:
It’s hard to pinpoint when he lost his anonymity—when people started to notice, and talk—but very quickly he became part of Salem legend: Did you hear that Damien Echols moved to town? They whispered it, waiting to buy scratch tickets at 7-Eleven, in the locker room at the Y, over tea at Gulu-Gulu. Some in town were excited, fueled by stories in the local papers with headlines like “From Death Row to Witch City.” Of course, he had not expected to go entirely unnoticed. Not like he had in New York, where he’d first begun the walking as a way of burning through fear. In New York no one paid attention to anyone else, which meant he could walk the streets of Chinatown for hours and hours without interruption or incident, learning to reacclimate to humanity after 18 years in exile.Read it all.
But in Salem, people took notice. They began coming up to him on the elliptical. Approaching him as he settled in with a pot of tea. Chronicling his every move. They were not always welcoming. At one point, someone etched a message into the side of a women’s bathroom stall in the East India Square Mall: “Murderers Walk Free.”
:: The Foo Fighters song, My Hero, kept running through my head as I read this one -- The Lie of Heroes: How Kerouac Almost Killed Me:
The lone wolf, right? That’s the image we get when we see some of our heroes, forsaking mediocrity or bureaucracy or blatant cowardice and heading off into the unknown, alone and full of purpose.
There aren’t any lone wolves; that’s another fiction, another lie. Wolves are pack animals, like humans, social creatures. The only ones who go off on their own are diseased or ostracized.
Lone wolves tend to die rather quickly.