Can you imagine how *I* feel about it, Dmitri?

You know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the Bomb? The Bomb, Dmitri... The hydrogen bomb!... Well now, what happened is... ahm... one of our base commanders, he had a sort of... well, he went a little funny in the head... you know... just a little... funny. And, ah... he went and did a silly thing... Well, I'll tell you what he did. He ordered his planes... to attack your country... Ah... Well, let me finish, Dmitri... Let me finish, Dmitri... Well listen, how do you think I feel about it?... Can you imagine how I feel about it, Dmitri?... Why do you think I'm calling you? Just to say hello?... Of course I like to speak to you!... Of course I like to say hello!... Not now, but anytime, Dmitri. I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened... It's a friendly call. Of course it's a friendly call... Listen, if it wasn't friendly... you probably wouldn't have even got it... They will not reach their targets for at least another hour... I am... I am positive, Dmitri... Listen, I've been all over this with your ambassador. It is not a trick... Well, I'll tell you. We'd like to give your air staff a complete run-down on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes... Yes! I mean i-i-i-if we're unable to recall the planes, then... I'd say that, ah... well, ah... we're just gonna have to help you destroy them, Dmitri... I know they're our boys... All right, well listen now. Who should we call?... Who should we call, Dmitri? The... wha-whe, the People... you, sorry, you faded away there... The People's Central Air Defense Headquarters... Where is that, Dmitri?... In Omsk... Right... Yes... Oh, you'll call them first, will you?... Uh-huh... Listen, do you happen to have the phone number on you, Dmitri?... Whe-ah, what? I see, just ask for Omsk information... Ah-ah-eh-uhm-hm... I'm sorry, too, Dmitri... I'm very sorry... All right, you're sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well... I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are... So we're both sorry, all right?... All right.

~*~

Don't miss Dr Strangelove on Turner Classic Movies tonight. (Above dialogue by Terry Southern, whom I coincidentally mentioned here at DEAD AIR a few days ago.)

In Stanley Kubrick's now-classic anti-war film, the amazing Peter Sellers plays three different roles (with three different accents). He was so great, lots of people who never check movie credits do not even realize the three roles are played by same person. (Captain Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, Dr Strangelove) Many British actors find it nearly impossible to deliver a realistic-sounding flat-US-Midwestern accent (by contrast, southern accents are "fun" to do), but Sellers could do anything. His placid President is just perfect.

Slim Pickens, Sterling Hayden and George C. Scott are also terrific. The movie largely defies description, and every peacenik should see it multiple times! (And everyone else too, of course.)

~*~

I am still deliberating over last week's election (Dr Strangelove is perfect accompaniment), and sorting through all the post-mortems, teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing.

Some links I found especially pertinent and interesting:

Terrance at Republic of T has an in-depth four-part series titled The GOP’s Pyrrhic Victory: Why It Won’t Work. (I certainly hope he's right!) Read em all!

Check out Glenn Greenwald's The self-absorption of America's ruling class. And as Greenwald notes (see link), my Senator (and not the one you expect!) is now itching to start a war with Iran. (Saints preserve us.)

By way of fabulous Onyx Lynx (blows kisses!), I found Glenn W. Smith's post, rationally titled Why the Fear and Loathing? Excellent question.

Amanda Marcotte spins the election for the Guardian and I am not convinced. She seems to think the conservative Tea Party women did not do so well... apparently she hasn't visited South Carolina lately. If you had informed me even two years ago, that South Carolina would have a Woman of Color as governor in my lifetime? I'd have laughed at you.

This IS a sea change in politics, and the more liberals try to deny this, the longer the Tea Party will reign.

WAKE UP EVERYBODY, no more sleeping in bed.

Another mystery solved

Thanks to Yellowdog Granny!

I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I sure saw AC/DC

It's Saturday and time for my weekly earworm roundup. Yes, earworms all through the election and beyond.

~*~



Here is a 70s song I've always identified with, particularly on a religious/spiritual level. Yep, I know just what he means.

I've always loved the line "and I nearly died from hospitality"... ohhhh, me too.

Couldn't Get it Right - Climax Blues Band



~*~

In the US, the hit version stopped right after "funny how tiiime fliiiies"--but the British version goes on about 45 seconds longer. I like the original better.

Head over Heels - Tears for Fears



~*~

For my beloved Mr Daisy! "I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I sure saw Molly Hatchett..."

It's a righteous song indeed, that genuflects at the name of the late Bon Scott. (My spouse goes through periods of playing this over and over, hence the unavoidable earworm.) If you ever see the Truckers play this live (we did), you will witness a giant crowd of hopped-up rednecks screaming in unison "With Bon Scott singin LET THERE BE ROOOOOOOCK!!!!!" which I bet is scarier than shit. (But what a lotta fun.)

Let there be rock - Drive By Truckers



~*~

Wait, why don't I just show it to you?

Let there be rock - Drive By Truckers (live)



Repeating my goal: to come back as Shonna Tucker in my next life!

Have a great weekend!

A devastating blow to our antiquated systems

The recent election may seem strange, you say. What can possibly be happening to human beings? Well, Jack Nicholson had the answer DECADES AGO, and explained it all... but were we listening? No.

I say, we all listen AGAIN, because it all makes (as that antique-store proprietor on the old Friday The 13th TV series was always saying) A Terrible Sense.

Apparently, they made a lot of this dialogue up on the spot. Dennis Hopper "directed" Easy Rider, so to speak, and the "script" was officially credited to Peter Fonda, Hopper and Terry Southern. I credit Fonda for bringing "Wow!" into the adult lexicon; before this time, "Wow!" was mostly reserved for children and comic books. Fonda's famous stoned "Wow!"s made the quiet utterance of "Wow!" cool--and we haven't shed this verbal habit since.

We now know that in real life, the situation (in the movie) was likely reversed, and it was Jack that probably showed Peter Fonda how to smoke weed.

Proposition 19, Rest in Peace.

~*~

"If they're so smart, why don't they just reveal themselves and get it over with?"

"Why don't they reveal themselves to us? Because if they did reveal themselves it would cause a general panic."

I'd say they revealed themselves, at long last, yesterday.

~*~

Jack Nicholson explains things - excerpt from Easy Rider (1969)

Nikki Haley is South Carolina's first woman governor

Nikki Haley makes history as the state's first non-white, female governor. (photo from Greenville News)

In national news: Tea Party rides to victory, nation on verge of anarchy. Infrastructure in dire peril. Cops and firemen deemed unnecessary as private security company business goes through the roof! Oh, sorry, getting ahead of myself...

But my predictions were correct, Haley took Sheheen by 65,000 votes in the largest SC turnout for a gubernatorial election ever.

Haley leads GOP Surge
By Ben Szobody • Staff writer • Published: November 03. 2010 2:19AM
Greenville News

South Carolina voters picked Nikki Haley to be the state's top executive Tuesday, boosting an Indian-American child of immigrants and political ally of Gov. Mark Sanford from a desk in the Legislature to the Governor's Mansion amid a conservative wave.

It caps a remarkable, 18-month rise in which Haley defeated a primary slate of establishment Republican figures, then an evenly funded opponent from one of the state’s prominent Democratic families.

More than 1.2 million people voted — the most ever for governor — and nearly 52 percent broke for Haley, giving her a 5-point, 65,000-vote margin over Democratic Sen. Vincent Sheheen.

It was the smallest margin of victory for a South Carolina governor since 1994 but also part of a broader Republican surge that girded GOP control in the state's General Assembly and recast Congress as a more conservative body.

Greenville, as it had for Sanford, delivered a major rush of votes to Haley late in the night after what had been a seesaw ballot count for much of the evening. She ended up easily carrying the Upstate while Sheheen picked up many of the rural Midlands and Pee Dee counties.

Translation: the rich white people I wrote about in my last post, carried her through. The poor black counties voted Democratic.

In a year of political meteors, Haley has already become an icon, smiling from the covers of magazines and highlighting European coverage of U.S. elections that swung in part on the tea party phenomenon, frustration with Washington and a female constellation of so-called “mama grizzlies” — all of which Haley harnessed on her way from fourth place in a crowded Republican primary to the state's top elected office.

It was a rise sparked by the endorsement of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and capped with her historic victory as both the first woman and first minority governor in the state’s history.

She told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters after midnight that the message of her campaign — a better economy, better schools and a more accountable government — was “simple.”

“To every citizen of South Carolina, regardless of how you voted, I'm going to get to work for you,” she said. “You've taken a chance on me. I will never stop trying to make you proud.”

Let's hope she remembers to pay her taxes, now that she has been elected. (/snark)

Worried.

And I will stay that way until the Tea Party era is over; by my humble estimation, between 3-6 years (depending on leadership capabilities and other related factors).

Mourning in America.