Jimi Hendrix - Star-Spangled Banner (Woodstock)

For NPR fixture Daniel Schorr, as for many lefty journalists, it’s always 1953 and McCarthy is always sniffing out communists. [...] Read the rest »

The July 4th edition of our weekly booking photo roundup is a celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of mug shots.

A 2007 deal memorandum covering Nicole Kidman's appearance in the film "The Reader" was found in movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's trash. Here ya go.

A great idea from the NRCC. [...] Read the rest »

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What can a baseball fan learn from a series of e-mails exchanged by Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee, the trainer who has accused the baseball star of using performance-enhancing drugs?

Subtle? [...] Read the rest »

Who’s a “hero” in Berkeley? [...] Read the rest »

Columbia executed a well planned and orchestrated rescue of long held hostages yesterday.  The most famous of the released hostages was Ingrid Bentencourt, a dual French/Columbian citizen who ran for President who was held captive for 7 years.  Freed along with her was 3 US citizens who were military contractors assisting in anti-cartel and anti-FARC operations who had been captive for 5 years.

The Columbian military had infiltrated operatives and flipped a few FARC members to use as double agents.  They convinced the local head of the FARC to transport the captives to the base of the central leader of FARC, and from there a large group of hostages would be used in an exchange deal with the Columbian authorities.  FARC has an estimated 700 hostages (although some may be dead) many held from 5 to 10 years in captivity.  Thousands of FARC members are in prison, and between the rash of defections and casualties in stepped up military ops they are more import...

Three Asians and an American were stranded on a deserted island.

They got down to divvying up jobs. One Asian said she would fish. Another volunteered to gather coconuts, berries and fruit. The third decided to gather fire wood.

The American volunteered to eat. He would eat his fill, and then let the others divide up whatever was left.

Now, if you are a modern economist you will say that the American is an essential cog in the system. He is creating a demand for the products produced by the Asians.

The problem is, one day the Asians wake up, and get to thinking if they threw the American in the drink, they would not only have more food for themselves, but would be able to spend some time sunbathing and frolicking in the surf.

That day has dawned in Asia.

The only reason the American dollar has any value, is that the world has faith that it is issued by a healthy and vibrant financial system.

However, nowadays the dollar is simply a promise to keep eating. As the value of American eating has increasingly ceased to impress Asians and Europeans, the value of the dollar has decreased.

So the Federal Reserve “prints” ( actually they set policies which permit the banks, who actually create the bulk of the money through the lending process, to increase the size and number of their loans) more dollars.

But, in the end, this makes the dollar worth even less. Everyone understands this. If, in an innocent world, there was only one Eat-Me-Elmo, then he is quite valuable. When every American girl has one, you can't give Elmo away.

It doesn't help when American consumers use plastic to purchase all their stuff, in other words a virtual promissory note to pay back paper promises to keep eating , along with a shitload of interest. A credit card transaction is a loan—and like I said, every loan “prints” more money.

I don't mean to be professorial, but for those who do not know how this works, I will give a real oversimplified explanation. When you go to a bank to buy a house, they do not actually have that $200,000 in their vault. By regulation they have to have a small percentage of it, but not the whole thing. So when they cut the borrower a check, they have effectively created or printed money. And that is the way that most money is “printed.”

So all that patriotic shopping at the mall, the loose mortgages, etc. created more dollars---making the dollar more and more worthless:



Then the government gets in the act. It was already a gluttonous pig when George Bush came to town, but Sonny has managed to make LBJ look thrifty.

Congress does not have anywhere near enough money to pay their bills---so they borrow. And, as I was saying, borrowing creates more money. The frosting on the cake is most of the money is borrowed from China and the Jihadists.

Of course, the United States always pays its debts. But in order for there to be enough money available to pay these debts, the Federal Reserve has to set policies to insure there is sufficient liquidity to cover our government's spendthrift ways.

The American dollar has shrunk 25.8% since 2000. If the US dollar had kept pace with the Euro, the going rate of a barrel of oil (which are traded in dollars) would be around $80, rather than $140. Gas would be about $2.60 a gallon.

One might think all this inflation, and economic hardship, would be enough to wake Americans up.

But since it is not:

Don't we have a freakin' ounce of pride?

A few years ago, when the loonie slipped in value, there was widespread patriotic outrage in Canada, with demands that their currency be shored up.

However, Americans, for the most part, don't seem to care at all.

We define patriotism by the wearing of flag lapels.

And shopping.

The San Diego City Council will vote next Tuesday to declare July 8 “National Council of La Raza Day.” [...] Read the rest »

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New York’s Chuck Schumer (D-Blabbermouth) leaks to the press a letter he wrote demagoguing bank regulators and singling out IndyMac’s financial instability. [...] Read the rest »

First things first. [...] Read the rest »

FARC’s ace in the hole is their stable of 700 hostages. [...] Read the rest »

Just like every decent lesbian country & western club really should have a bull riding machine, no proto-riot grrl kinderwhore bar is complete without a Robospanker. At least, that is how it would be in a perfect world.

Many a dyke, who is cursed with a sense of cultural history, does a silent prayer, on Christmas Eve, that Santa's designated switch hitter will stick a Babes in Toyland CD in her stocking:



And nothing could be finer than the band's original CD--Spanking Machine, a seminal album that set off a wave of raging all girl bands, and launched a thousand bitches.

It is solidly awful from the opening track Swamp Pussy to the unambiguous wrap up Fork Down Throat.

It is an album full of tribal pounding and aggression. But, the loud drums, can not possibly obscure the primal scream of Kat, which was only silenced when the suits slicked up Nirvana, and ruined a perfectly healthy garage band scene.

Anyway, some entrepreneurial perv has actually created the machine, which inspired the raging trio of Midwestern gals to set off on a trek to Seattle, and a rawk to cult girl fame.

It is simply called the Robospanker, and some might consider it a bargain at 800 bucks:



That's indisputably cute, but for the thinking girl, there is more to it than another topic for Howard Stern to fill up his time slot.

Unlike classic rock DJ's, who between their uninsightful pretentious quips, sometimes wonder what the metaphysical connection is between a German airship and a British electro blues band --- feminists, punkstorians and girls in general, have never really given a rip about the significance of the title of Babes in Toyland's opening act.

This is because elucidation is really not necessary.

The theme clearly has something to do with the utilitarian creepiness of Jeremy Bentham, who thought so highly of the concept of automated spanking that he actually wrote a learned treatise on the subject. But more than that, it has to be the universal childhood fear of, and intrigue with, the device.

Back at the childhood academy, that molded my various psychoses, the rumor mill was always rife with speculation on exactly how the spanking machine in the principal's office worked.

And then lo and behold, I find out, from my own daughter, that it seems the progressive mistress of her school is also in possession of such a device, although, like in my school days, there have never been any first hand accounts (except from the Class Pinocchio) of it's heartless rational administration of punishment.

And therein, like the silent unknown terror of the Zeppelin, lies the real power of the Spanking Machine. The whole thing is a slightly naughty version of the tired themes of works like Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times.

At its simplest level the machine is the forerunner of lethal injection. The rage of society, and our need for retribution, is turned over to an impartial machine—and us moderns, feel that somehow this exorcises our worst instincts and sanitizes, not just the process, but our souls. We not only like to pretend—but find it fascinating.

But, once again, there is more to it than that.

In childhood nightmares, and hesitant fascination, the spanking machine is the ultimate in equality, and the terrifying triumph of brute totalitarian reason over emotion, which is really the only thing that defines us as distinct individuals.

No longer will there be different strokes for different folks. A rebel girl will be unexpectedly snatched from her peers and the emotionless robot will administer the precise requisite number of measured swats across her booty.

What could be more fair—or terrifying?

Like a Zeppelin in the night, the quiet launch of Soviet nukes, or the various types of terror that may come unexpectedly out of the lands of Islam, the existence of the spanking machine fosters a sense of quiet hysteria and desperation.

However, in this case, theoretically, only bad girls need to fear being suddenly swept away onto the lap of impartial justice, and administered fair and measured antiseptic booty licks, from a device so reasonable it knows nothing of the human soul—not to mention the diversity of sensitivity between derrières.

But, for some reason, the good girls are uneasy as well.

It is the kind of thing that drove a whole generation of postmodern kinderwhores mad.

You maybe saw where Christopher Hitchens submitted himself to waterboarding and got a videotape made and wrote an article about in Vanity Fair. [...] Read the rest »

CNN says America feels safer from terrorist attacks than we have since 2001. [...] Read the rest »

Barack Obama, sweetie, do tell us how your $1.32 million home loan below market rates without paying the normal extra fees demonstrates “new politics,” please. [...] Read the rest »