Snake handlers, finger surgery eve, and talk radio updates

You never know what you'll see in downtown Greenville. This past Sunday, in what used to be called Bergamo Plaza (apparently they are in the process of naming it something else, to go with the fancy new ONE building) I saw this snake-handling lady. She didn't mind me taking her picture.

Just another day in the neighborhood.

~*~

Well peeps, as mentioned previously, the surgery on my ganglion cyst is tomorrow morning. I confess to being a nervous wreck. Not really about the surgery itself, but about the anesthesia-shots (administered with a BIG ASS needle) I'm getting on either side of my finger. I've already had one shot--right in the cyst--and it wasn't fun. This promises to be far worse. Argh.

And the idea of my index-finger-joint being (aiyeee) scraped, is just SUCH AN UNPLEASANT CONCEPT. (Can't they use some other word?)

I hope I can type, but probably won't be able to for a couple of days, so this is the official SURGERY EVE update.

Luckily, I can still run my mouth, you lucky folks. I will be broadcasting as usual. Hopefully, I won't be on so many drugs that I make no sense... but when has THAT ever stopped me?

~*~

This week's OCCUPY THE MICROPHONE shows--

Monday: The Zimmerman verdict, with local activists Traci Fant and Efia Nwangaza.

Tuesday: Zimmerman trial juror #B37's interview with Anderson Cooper, excerpts and analysis. Much fulminating from your humble narrator, echoing the points in my last blog post (and even quoting some of the comments).

Wednesday: Stevie Wonder boycotts Florida, and an interview with Green Shadow Cabinet member Ben Manski, author of a popular statement about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden titled, Liberty is hunted around the globe: What Snowden taught us about American freedom.

Going on in a half-hour, and we'll be talking about one of the best rightwingnuts available for sheer comedy relief, TED NUGENT! (Shooting fish in a barrel, my friends!)

Check us out, yall; if you wanna join us LIVE AT FIVE, here is the WOLI-AM livestream link. Have a listen! Also, podcasts available at the website.

~*~

Hope all is well with you, have a great weekend... and take care of your joints!

~*~

UPDATE/EDIT 7/21: Surgery postponed until Thursday... so I can obsess and worry for another whole week. Argh.

This is your cat on catnip

Internet connection woes have plagued me for days now. Days. Bah.

Sorry about that.

Here is our recent show on WOLT-FM, have a listen. After the show, we chowed down at The Red Bowl, which has the greatest sauce (for my veggie lo mein) in the entire universe. I regret to say I don't even know what it's called. If I knew how to make it myself, I would dump it all over everything and eat it daily.

Right now: enjoying the dapper Anderson Cooper and the spirited CNN discussion about women in combat. My mother once told me that if women were ever required to register for the Selective Service (military draft) en masse, you'd see a baby-boom the likes of which this country has never seen. I always wondered if she was right. But allowing women in combat is still a long way from forcing them to register for the Selective Service. (more discussion here)

Mr Daisy is currently listening to the namesake of this blog, UNCLE DAVE'S DEAD AIR, and I am getting ready to join him.

But first, thought you should see this Public Service Announcement. I already posted it on Facebook, just to get the word out.

Get your cats and make em watch! The life you save may be theirs!

This short, seven-minute film (by Jason Willis) debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Truly inspired!

CATNIP: EGRESS TO OBLIVION?

Las Vegas Republican Debate

Yes, I am covering this Republican Presidential debate in (more or less) REAL TIME, just as I did the Labor Day Tea Party debate in Columbia. And let me tell you, nothing much has changed, except the ritzy venue, featuring fashionable Anderson Cooper. For some unfathomable reason, they've tossed in hyper-conservative, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (currently polling at 1%), for good measure. Probably because of his media-popularity with the Religious Right.

I got a late start, first tuning into CNN during anti-immigration fireworks between Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry, who accuse each other of being soft on illegals. Perry says Romney hired undocumented workers in his own home--Romney becomes furious and says that isn't true. Perry loudly and self-righteously announces Romney's statement is "the heighth of arrogance"--which makes me wince. Please, no more Texas governors who mangle the language.

Michele Bachmann talks to "the moms" in the viewership, which startled me. This marks the first time I ever heard a presidential candidate appeal to moms, as a mom. I am not sure what I think of that; none of the male candidates addressed other fathers "as a dad"--but then again, I seem to remember that candidate Barack Obama did. Bachmann tells us the economic collapse greatly threatens mom's "nests" and their babies, and she uniquely understands the fears of moms; hold on, she adds dramatically, help is on the way!

Nests? Sounds like crackpot Christian-counseling lingo, doesn't it?

A Republican in the audience licks his lips in greed and demands to know whether Yucca Mountain (in Nevada) can be "opened up". He means for dumping nuclear waste, but you can tell several of the candidates don't have a clue what this question refers to. Newt Gingrich, eager to show off his superior knowledge, says this would be okay after "tests"--to determine if the location is environmentally sound, and "everything so far says that it is." (Of course, he completely ignores the Western Shoshone and their unique issues in regards to Yucca Mountain.) And then, BOOM, Ron Paul suddenly jumps on it with both feet as a states' rights issue. Why should the other 49 states dump their garbage on Nevada? Why is the government cleaning up what private industry has done? This is for the nuclear power plants themselves to clean up, so why aren't they? Another blistering diatribe from the good doctor, the only candidate who seems to know how to think for himself and actually answer questions. The rest of the candidates gape in amazement, still wondering where/what Yucca Mountain IS... Newt looks sheepish and ridiculous, having just had his clock cleaned by Ron Paul, when as we know, Newt fancies himself a big intellectual policy wonk and college lecturer.

That was fun.

At this point Governor Perry starts babbling oddly about the Tenth Amendment. As you may know, this is also a favorite talking point of our Governor, Nikki Haley, and he seems to be making a rather naked grab for her endorsement. [Local aside: Perry's wife Anita recently visited local Baptist stronghold, North Greenville University and tearfully yowled that "other candidates" have "brutalized" Perry for his faith, which is a real hoot, and ... incidentally, seems to have no basis in reality.] Perry really sounded mediocre, and meandered all over the conservative lot. I am hereby rescinding my prediction (that he will win the SC primary) unless he gets himself ready for prime time, as he clearly is not yet.

Herman Cain, Businessman-candidate and GOP rock star of the moment, gives a decidedly lackluster performance this time around. I didn't hear any references to his much-ballyhooed "999" tax plan. (He may have mentioned it in the first 20 minutes, but I am grateful I missed it, in any event.)

During this debate, I learned Nevada has the highest rate of home-foreclosures of any state. Rick Santorum says the Wall Street bail-out is to blame, which was supported by Rick Perry and Herman Cain. (audience noise: OOOOooooOOOOOhhhhhhHHHHooo)

In answers to questions about Romney's Mormonism, Newt Gingrich goes on an offensive rant about faith. In doing so, he insults all the atheists and agnostics in America, saying you can't trust anyone who doesn't pray, that such a person has no judgment. This from a man who is now on his third wife.

The heighth of arrogance.

Asked about the military, Ron Paul used that forbidden word, Empire. The USA owns more weapons than every other country put together, he said; we have military presences in 150 countries. "Where does it stop? We're broke now!" Every empire has fallen before us, and if we don't stop engaging in Empire, we will fall also. "We are doing it to ourselves," he said, more than once. There was applause, but also slack-jawed amazement on the faces of Romney and Perry, those ideological lightweights.

When asked about Israel specifically, Ron Paul didn't budge, and enlarged upon his ideas: Israel has been damaged by being propped up (financially and militarily) by the USA. In reply, Santorum melodramatically pronounces that our military budget should NOT be cut ONE SINGLE DIME. Perry adds that we should defund the United Nations, that old Bircher line. Later, Romney jumps him for having once worked for Al Gore. Direct hit!

And the rest of the debate was pretty much like this.

I thought the French had class?

Photo from the UK Guardian.



Gerard Depardieu publicly pees on a plane:

A flight attendant told the French actor that he would have to wait to use the bathroom until after takeoff. So he just relieved himself on the plane's carpet. No biggie!

Another passenger went to French radio station Europe 1 with her eyewitness account of the urination, saying a visibly drunk Depardieu repeatedly asked to use the bathroom, but was told to wait 15 minutes.

"And then he did it on the floor..." the witness said. "No one said anything. It all happened with courtesy."

After the actor peed on the floor, the plane had to turn right back around and return to the gate, where a crew reportedly spent two hours cleaning up the peed-on plane.

A CityJet spokesman confirmed the incident to Agence France, but did not say whether Depardieu was kicked off the flight.

Depardieu, 62, has a history of drunken antics. In 2009, the actor beat up a car, smashing in the windshield with his bare fist. In 1990 he was convicted of drunk driving.

"It all happened with courtesy?" Say what? (I often do not understand Europeans, even when they speak English.)

Ask yourself some fun questions: what if a black hip-hop star, or even Courtney Love behaved like this?

There really ARE different standards of behavior for different people. A white European movie star who pisses on the airplane carpet is regarded as embarrassing and even amusingly gross. Other people acting similarly could be (and have been) regarded as a threat or as dangerously out-of-control. Even though Depardieu has a history of actual violent behavior, Anderson Cooper couldn't stop giggling while reporting this story on CNN. Would such a stunt be equally funny from an African-American NFL star? Just sayin.

It all depends on who you are. The laws are literally enforced differently, depending on what observers are feeling about who you are and the persona you project. That is what "profiling" means. It means you make people uncomfortable.

Make them comfortable, and as the world's most successful con-men will attest, you can get away with anything.

PS: Gerard apologizes, blames prostate.