My Heroes

I've been meaning to post about this for a few weeks. Friend and lurker devoted fan of Echo Jamber JLD sent me a link to this OpEd in the NYT by Roger Cohen about Joao Correa, who did not have time to wait to use the lavatory in his ticketed cabin.

Per the AP story (more about them later) quoted in Cohen's piece,

Correa, 43, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he had a bathroom emergency 30 minutes into a March 28 Delta Air Lines flight from San Pedro Sula to Atlanta but found the single coach aisle on the Boeing 737 blocked by a beverage cart. He said he asked whether he could use the lavatory in business class but was told no.

When the cart wasn’t moved after a few minutes, Mr. Correa said, he ran for the business-class lavatory. He said the flight attendant put up her arm to block him and he grabbed it to keep his balance.

I can so relate on so many levels. As Cohen writes

. . . I think you have to accord great respect to a “bathroom emergency,” especially in a middle-aged gentleman.

[SIDEBAR: I am near Correa's age, and he/I/we was/were just referred to as "middle-aged". Not news, but I am not used to seeing it in writing. Ouch.]

Anyway, Cohen continues:

Imagine poor Correa, assailed by disquieting visions of the mountain of fried fish with jalapeños he’d vacuumed down at the Bistro San Pedro Sula Del Mar, and then — the horror! The horror! — spotting the beverage cart (formerly the food cart) blocking his path to relief.

Uh-oh.

I can hear the snippy reply from the flight attendants, mostly middle-aged themselves, all of whom think the fun of flying disappeared some decades back — about the same time as their job security and sense of humor — and would rather be sipping mojitos in Sanibel than talking up seven-dollar “wraps.”

“You’ll have to wait, Sir. We’re doing the drinks and tiny pack of peanuts service.”

The intonation of that “Sir” will be familiar to many of you, a tone peculiar to American airline companies, one in which resentment, superiority, fear, contempt and impatience are coiled into a venomous parody of politeness — a three-letter expletive really — that stands the notion of service on its head and tells the whole dismal story of U.S. carriers in recent years.

OMG the "Sir"! A parody of politeness--so true. I have heard that "Sir" many, many times. It's often accompanied by the unmistakable look that airline employees get when they go into their practiced "I'm dealing with the passenger with legitimate complaint Crazy Person" mode.

On a rare (for me) Northwest flight, a flight hag went from 0 to Nancy Grace in 5 milliseconds after I grabbed some ice out of the bucket to put on my bleeding lip (courtesy of some oaf who elbowed me as I tried to get my book out from underneath the briefcase he plopped in my seat when I stood up to let his fat ass in next to me). Girlfriend was threatening to get the pilot and have me taken off the plane because she didn't like the way I was talking to her . . . I had made no threats and wasn't in any way violent - she just had that new post-9/11 "have you taken off the plane" trump card, and she used it. Degrading, but I wanted to get to where I was going . . . although in retrospect (as always) it would've been interesting to have called her bluff. (Bitch if you're still out there I hope your trashy ass gets laid off in the merger. Yeah, I said it.)

But where was I, and where are my manners? I love how Cohen illustrates the idiocy of the airline's reaction to Correa's case. It was an international flight, and his name sounds Brazilian - perhaps there was a language barrier? I wasn't there - perhaps s/he thought he was storming the cabin--although it all should've been clear once he got where he was going and did what he needed to do. Would s/he rather he shat in the aisle??

No question: Airline employees have a challenging job to say the very least, and my fellow passengers are often obnoxious boors, or worse. (Moi? Never!) Still, that does not give them license to make bitchitude their baseline state - and there are plenty (most?) who do not. (The FAs on UA 142 today from MSP to ORD were delightful - even the one with too much lip gloss but a fabulous Sheila E vibe.) We know you don't "control the weather" already ferchrissakes - stop telling us that like we're 5 years old . . . what you do control is how you react to and adjust your "customer service" in response.

Here's to you Mr. Correa - I hope your case is dismissed as the needless litigation it is - and thank you Mr. Cohen - great article.

Oh, Lars

Lars Ulrich is on Rachel being hideously San Francisco-centric.

Overall he's cool but he did almost make me vomit with all that obnoxious "everyone from Europe loves SF and only SF" (that's a selling point??) BS. If he had to leave SF he'd go back to Denmark. Why not just go now?

Smug alert!!

Monday

At the risk of sounding Twitter-y, it's a sign that the day and the week are off to a good start when Haircut 100's "Love Plus One" is playing at Whole Foods when you're buying your lunch.

In addition, one of my favorite cashiers associates, the fabulously-named and perfectly-eye-linered Giselle, provided added inspiration and goodwill today - in addition to her new nose/lip piercings, she was absolutely rocking a slouchy off-the-shoulder Flashdance/Fame look.

Thank you Whole Foods on North Avenue. Can't wait for your new store (and bigger parking lot) to open. Maybe the North and Sheffield SBUX will move across the street and free us all from their Parking Lot of the Damned.

(How many blog posts are titled "Monday" every Monday? Probably TNTC.)

You Have to Be Part of the Union to Get the Tamiflu, Dumbshits

Via Digby, this hour's latest Republican hypocrisy. Y'all remember Rick Perry, the totally macho Governor dude of Texas? Yes, the one who was yammering on about seceding?

Before they go, Perry's gon' make sure they get all the Tamiflu they can from the CDC:

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas asked the C.D.C. to send 37,430 doses of Tamiflu.

Rick, you do know that the CDC is part of the Federal Gubmint, don't you?

Assholes.

Republican Whining Baby Stunt of the Day, Part Five Million

My head wants to explode after reading this (courtesy of Mr. Sullivan) :

In an e-mail sent Wednesday to the 168 voting members of the committee, RNC member James Bopp, Jr. accused President Obama of wanting “to restructure American society along socialist ideals.”

“The proposed resolution acknowledges that and calls upon the Democrats to be truthful and honest with the American people by renaming themselves the Democrat Socialist Party,” wrote Bopp, the Republican committeeman from Indiana. “Just as President Reagan’s identification of the Soviet Union as the ‘evil empire’ galvanized opposition to communism, we hope that the accurate depiction of the Democrats as a Socialist Party will galvanize opposition to their march to socialism.”

No, that's not from The Onion. It's true. Seems this guy:


Photo: AP

is actually spending time pretending to do something useful by introducing a serious resolution calling for the Democrats to rename themselves.

Let's see:

Still sucking Ronald Reagan's dick and making reverent references to him: Check.
Fifth-grade use of the incorrect name for the Democratic Party (which has worked so well at making people think Democrats are scary): Check.
Glasses that I had in 1979: Check.
Trying to out-moran moron and out-media-whore the rest of his party: Check.
Condescending, reptilian smile used in a failed attempt to hide inner assholism: Check.

Once again, a Republican is the annoying smart-ass kid at the back of the room who gets off on disrupting class by being obnoxious. Do they really want to start a name-calling fight? (Of course they do. It's all they do.) As Mr. Sullivan said,

When you have no constructive policy to offer, just re-label your opponents "Democrat Socialist Party."

I move that the Republicans rename themselves the Juvenile, Bereft of Actual Ideas, Out-of-Touch, Racist and Homophobic Christianist Party of Pasty White Guys and Southern White Women with Big Hair Who Lied Us Into War, Support Torture, Wrecked the Economy, and Who Don't Know What Socialism Is.

Anti-Gay of the Day, Part IX

Via JMG, absolutely sickening news of (more) persecution, torture, and murder of gays in Iraq.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has uncovered a brutal and horrific torture method being used against gay men by Iraqi militias. Roving squads are capturing men accused of being homosexual and using superglue to seal their anuses - then forcing them to consume a diarrhea-causing drink. The men then die in horrible agony.

As Joe asks, "Where is our government on this? Aren't we fucking RUNNING that country?"

Remember as well that this is being done in the name of religion - Islam, Religion of Peace - and we must of course be respectful of others' faiths.

OMG

Blowoff.

Chicago.

IML weekend.

Ha-Ha

A great quote from Glenn Greenwald:

I wonder how long it's going to be before [Jane] Harman joins the ACLU? What's that old saying -- a "civil liberties extremist" is a former Bush-enabling, Surveillance State-defending Blue Dog who learns that their own personal conversations were intercepted by the same government that they demanded be vested with unchecked power.

Fair and Balanced

I was just reminded why I no longer listen to NPR. Evidently they're not allowed to call waterboarding, slamming a prisoner's head against the wall, etc. torture. That's all just "enhanced interrogation techniques". The George Orwell comparisons are apt.

Juan Williams did a good job of parroting all of Cheney's latest BS:

"One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort," Cheney said.

Cheney said he's asked that the documents be declassified because he has remained silent on the confidential information, but he knows how successful the interrogation process was and wants the rest of the country to understand.

"I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country," Cheney said. "I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was."

.At one point Williams said "You have a sense, and Vice President Cheney's point is . . .". Uh, Juan, he's a former Vice President. As Digby said, "Did someone forget to tell Dick that he has no authority anymore to formally or informally ask the CIA to do jack?"

Williams went on to talk about whether it might just be Obama's attitude that's causing the latest round of torture-related hissy fits among the Republicans. Never mind "analyzing" the merits of said hissy fits or the fact that this or any of the ridiculous things puked up by the High Dudgeon Spokesthing of the Day . . . they said it, so it's newz, I guess.

STFU, Cave-Dwellers!

I don't think I even have enough scorn and contempt to heap upon the Teabaggers of April 15 2009.

Jeebus H. Christ, what part of "YOU LOST THE ELECTION, BITCHES!" don't those whining, shrieking babies understand?

When Dubya was Prez'dint, weren't the very same knuckle-draggers the Guardians of the Nation's Sovereignty, the Most Absolutely Dedicated, Totally Most American of All American Americans, the Most Likely to Become Patriotically-Aroused and Most Vigilant About the Sacred Homeland Created by the "Judeo-Christian" (or just Christian if there are no Jewish voters listening) Founders???

Answer: YES ad nauseum.

So, just using my 100 level logic here . . . Wouldn't that mean that they are also Most Devoted to the System of Government on Which Our Sacred Government was founded???

Crickets.

Grass roots, please.

See this.

It's Obama-hatred and head-about-to-explode-because-a-black-man's-in-the-White-House craziness, plain and simple.

It's not just the 2008 election, though. These undereducated/willfully ignorant, lizard-brained, easily-manipulated, increasingly impotent, and always angry racists think that if we could just go back to some imaginary 1950s-esque version of America, everything will be just right for them and their pig-eyed, white-supremacist ilk. Dumbshit Dubya, now there was a stand-up guy. A real man's man. Clearin' brush and all. He could do whatever he wanted, cuz he was a good ol' boy, and he talked like a real 'murcan. None of those fancy big words, complete sentences, and abstract thought. Nope - none uh that librul puttin' on airs shit.

(Question: Embarrassed yet, Yale and Harvard Business School?)

As dday at Digby's blog put it:

You can't escape this - for eight years, George Bush broke the economy, rang up massive debt, started unnecessary wars, wiretapped American citizens and committed torture in our name, and crickets from these folks. In under 100 days, Obama has inspired cries of secession. I guess the tax cut wasn't big enough.

Sadly for them, and dangerously for us, those morans morons don't realize that they're the peasants who are being totally played by their overlords (cue Jeff in Pensacola - classic). We're getting a tax cut under Obama? Facts? Wha??? Give them the slightest excuse to come out and show their disgusting, racist, anti-Obama signs and play-act like they're "taking back 'their' country". . . add a little Fox promotion "coverage" . . . and it's a tea par-tay!

Janeane Garofalo captured it all perfectly during her appearance on Keith O:

"Let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight-up. That is nothing but a bunch of tea-bagging rednecks. There is no way around that."

A-fucking-men, sister.

[Sidebar: Thank you, Dionysus for the emergence of a real "Librul media", the antidote to the incendiary madness of Fox "News", the PC wussiness of CNN, and the cowed pandering of NPR: Rachel and Keith on MSNBC.]

Not content to let the embarrassment issue die, now the Teabaggers are whining about all the fun that we've had at their expense. Mustang Bobby of Shakesville and Bark Bark Woof Woof has an excellent takedown of the latest stupidity. This hissy fit comes to us courtesy of Scott at Powerline:

The star hosts of CNN and MSNBC news shows have notoriously derided the tea party demonstrations around the country with reference to the practice of teabagging (which I had never heard of before they brought it up). As John noted, both networks' "journalists" used the rallies as an occasion for childish sexual innuendoes -- in the case of MSNBC, the same obscene teabag "joke" was repeated 51 times in a 13-minute segment.

The Media Research Center detailed the teabagging references in an informative press release. The Huffington Post noted the references as well as more "jokes" in the same vein (including a video of Cooper's jape, over which David Gergen cluelessly chortles).

While sitting in for Keith Olbermann on April 15, MSNBC's David Shuster packed the teabagging puns into his report on the protests. Shuster is like a juvenile student who has commandeered the loudspeaker system at his high school to commit the prank of a lifetime. Maybe it was just a case of Olbermann's writers feeding Shuster the same good stuff they usually give to Olbermann.

Andrew Sullivan is giddy; he seems to think the phenomenon is a big ball of fun.

Speaking of Mr. Sullivan, he links to a different segment:

There is something funny going on here, if not exactly where Cooper, Maddow and Sullivan find it. Cooper is widely reputed to be homosexual. Maddow and Sullivan are of course public homosexuals. It is funny in an ironic sort of way that these folks choose to disparage the tea party protestors from somewhere inside the homosexual subculture. Why not just call the protestors girly boys and let everyone in on the joke? Or would that spoil the fun?

OMG, STFU you pearl-clutching drama queen! Here's Andrew's reply:

I can assure Mr Johnson that teabagging knows no bounds on sexual orientation - and the vast majority of tea-bagging is purely heterosexual - and no disparagement or celebration of the teabaggers' sexual orientation is implied or imagined. I believe in tea-bag equality for all - gay and straight - myself. So does Samantha.

Ever wonder why the GOP is losing the next generation?

Note the most excellent link to a SATC clip featuring a Samantha Jones classic.

And excuse me, dumbshit, but why would Rachel have some special militant gay insight into teabagging? Sorry to be the last to tell you, but teabagging involves balls, and Rachel's a lesbian. You do the math.

Things I Love: SIRveillance

Dwight of Dwight Supremacy is a master at snapping candid shots of hotties. They don't appear to be posed, so I assume they're surreptitious. How does he do it? I once asked him what his secret is, but he didn't tell me.

Here's today's entry:


It's all so good: The handsome, etho-exotic face, perfect beard and buzzed head, nice tats, and gay-ish sunglasses (that would be laughable on me but totally work on him). Visit the fabulous Dwight Supremacy for more!

Coincidentally, I had to venture onto Michigan Avenue today [I arrived at my gym without any running shorts and since I'm newly rededicated to exercise and had driven "all the way down there" (3.7 miles), I wasn't about to go home. Nordstrom, which once carried a lot of Adidas stuff - e.g. running shorts and the like - no longer does (although the Fred Perry is back in full force - YAY!), so I had to schlep up to the Nike Store.] The crowds were as bovine and annoying as ever, but there were LOTS of hot daddies on the way. I was wishing I had my iPhone with me and that I possessed Dwight's skill at capturing hotties' images.]

Take Oklahoma With You

Dear Texas:

Good-bye. Please leave. Take your boastful "Don't Mess With Texas" crap (Don't worry, we don't want any part of your mess) and secede already . . . and please take the rest of the Confederacy (exept maybe Northern Virginia--where all the commies live) and Oklahoma with you. Kansas and Utah, too, if you want.

Secession? What will the infantile whining drama queens of the right think of next?? As dday writes:

With all the talk of torture memos recently, we've skipped over the return of secession talk to the national forefront. Seeing Rick Perry mocked on late-night show and cable-chattering show alike, I do think his comments flipped the light switch on for some people. You can't escape this - for eight years, George Bush broke the economy, rang up massive debt, started unnecessary wars, wiretapped American citizens and committed torture in our name, and crickets from these folks. In under 100 days, Obama has inspired cries of secession. I guess the tax cut wasn't big enough.

"We’ve got a great Union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what might come out of that." Thanks for the positive feedback on the Union and for that scary threat, Gubner!

[I'm no Gregory Peck, but WTF with Rick Perry's voice??? Is that real? Is he serious? Gawd.]

Get It, ACLU

Are you listening Democrat party "leadership"? (Answer: NO.) Via digby:

Does everyone remember this?

The Washington Post, January 3rd, 1994

Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) and House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) yesterday urged Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate any involvement by President Clinton with a failed Arkansas savings and loan firm and a real estate venture in the state.

There was a time when the Republican congress, in the majority and in minority, was calling for independent counsels every five minutes for such threats to the nation as firing an white house employee and personal real estate dealings that took place years before the president was elected. (not to mention personal indiscretions.) The right wing noise machine would go crazy and the opposition leaders in congress would raise holy hell until the president had no choice but to ask the Attorney General to name an independent counsel just to shut everyone up for a while.

Obama's "it's important to look forward and not backwards" bullshit makes me want to barf.

Please shove that crap back up your ass, wuss. As Keith O said, the torture memos constitute the "Dead Sea Scrolls, the Rosetta Stone of the Bush/Cheney legalese rationale, the fig leaf of legalese". What more do you need? Morons, troglodytes, and neanderthals all over the nation showed up yesterday to attempt to protest . . . um, er, ah - having a black President. Will the thinking people of this nation rise up to demand justice?

Probably not.

OMG did you see Lindsay Lohan's personal ad video???

----------

Bravo to the ACLU. As Glenn Greenwald writes:

Finally, it should be emphasized -- yet again -- that it was not our Congress, nor our media, nor our courts that compelled disclosure of these memos. Instead, it was the ACLU's tenacious efforts over several years which single-handedly pried these memos from the clutched hands of the government. Along with a couple of other civil liberties organizations, the ACLU (with which I consult) has expended extraordinary efforts to ensure at least minimal amounts of openness and transparency in this country, something that was necessary given the profound failures of these other institutions to do so.

Never been more proud to be a card-carrying member!

In Vino Veritas?

I really enjoyed this piece by Nina Caplan at The Economist of London's More Intelligent Life (The Economist has a magazine?) about her one-month break from alcohol, specifically her beloved vino.

The methinks-she-doth-protest-too-much first paragraph almost made me bail out:

"I am not an alcoholic. I don’t get sick, fall down or start my day with tots of whiskey. But I do love wine. I am entranced by the socio-historical and chemical properties of the vine. It is, for me, an intellectual pursuit–albeit one that is also literally intoxicating."

(Ah yes, an intellectual pursuit . . . right. I totally feel you on that, Nina. Have you ever seen that video on the history of Ketel One? Captivating. 300, 400, or even graduate school level stuff.)

Fortunately, I did not give up:

So what else did I learn after a month of stone-cold sobriety? That it's over-rated. There is a reason why people drink proportionally more the less they like themselves: alcohol takes you, as so much slang for drunkenness has it, out of your head. I’m no self-loathing Hemingway or Parker, but a month is a long time in your own uninterrupted company. Nobody wants to spend that much time with me--not even me.

So true. So incredibly true. Want to turn everything - and I mean everything - that's bothering you off? (Temporarily, but completely?) Have a drink.

A year and a half ago I went for two months without a drop. It really was glorious: 10+ pounds absolutely melted away, the sleep was Ambien times fifty, and the sense of satisfaction was boundless. Yet, I've gone back.

Why? Ms. Caplan's piece didn't answer that question, but I enjoyed her account nonetheless. Alcohol - It's like a toxic yet reliable fuck buddy - so fulfilling and dependable . . . never lets you down - but so bad for you. It's all good in small doses, but who wants a small dose??

Thank you to Mr. S for the link. To paraphrase something an acquaintance once actually said to my dear friend R, without him I'm nothing.

Speaking of Mr. S, check out this piece about him on the same Economist site. (Who knew he modeled for The Gap? Dang.) I gave up on Andrew in the midst of his darkest "fifth column", Bush-loving days - but clearly have returned. No matter what he writes, I will always commend him for his thoughtful response to a friend of mine who e-mailed him after being diagnosed with HIV. Andrew sent my friend a thoughtful, long reply, and I could tell how much that meant to him.

"Nuh-huh, girlfriend"

Because it just needs to be on every internet outlet imaginable - even this one, via Mr. Sullivan, a video response to the pathetic attempt at an advert by the DOM twits . . . and, because it is so excellent, I shall reprint Mr. Sullivan's intro here:

Well, that didn't take long. Did Maggie Gallagher really think we'd take those campy green screen Beckisms lying down? Nuh-huh, girlfriend:

Bravo, guy (I assume?) who created the remix, and Bravo, Andrew.

Brilliant

I am overpowered by the plaintive, vulnerable beauty of this version of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" - it's Neil Finn (of Crowded House) with the Johnny Marr on guitar. I'm speechless.



Not to go all drama queen on all y'all but last night after a few listens I was moved to tears. Yup. When you remove The Glorious Moz's sad-sack patina, the words are the same, but the song is as you've never heard it before. Try to listen to:

Just driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven't got one
I haven't got one

and not start to blub a little bit. Or a lot.

Brilliant.

[Thank you to Deeky of Shakesville for making me aware of this.]

Disgusting

I'm so glad we liberated Iraq. Via Mr. Sullivan,

The NYT reports:

In the past two months, the bodies of as many as 25 boys and men suspected of being gay have turned up in the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City, the police and friends of the dead say. Most have been shot, some multiple times. Several have been found with the word “pervert” in Arabic on notes attached to their bodies, the police said.

Further on in the article, some strange details about 'mos in Iraq:

Basim, who preferred to be called “Basima” — the feminine version of his name — wears his hair long for Iraq. It falls to just below the ear. His ears are pierced, uncommon for Iraqi males. White makeup covers his face, a popular look for gay men in Sadr City who say they prefer light skin.
. . .
In recent months, groups of gay men have been taking greater chances, gathering in cafes and other public places in Baghdad, Basra, Najaf and other cities. On a recent night in Sadr City, several, their hair parted down the middle, talked as they quietly sipped tea at a garishly lighted cafe, oblivious to the stares of passers-by.
. . .
“I don’t care about the militias anymore, because they’re going to kill me anyway — today, tomorrow or the day after,” said a man named Sa’ad, who has been taking estrogen and has developed small breasts. “I hate my community and my relatives. If they had their way, the result would be one gunshot.”

Thank you NYT for those titillating details! Maybe if all those sissy freaks didn't part their hair in the middle, they wouldn't deserve to be killed be such targets. (So all gay men in Iraq want to be women? Or just the really really brave ones? Or just the ones that the National Enquirer New York Times chose to focus on for this story?)

Regardless, what a horror. I condemn the Medieval Islamic roots of this discrimination. I'm going to remind myself of the plight of gay people in the Muslim world the next time I start feeling sorry for my gay self here in the U.S.

Things I Love: Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Tonight my friend Rich and I attended our zillionth performance by one of Chicago's treasures, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. OK, fine, not zillionth, but we have been going to see them together since the early 90s when we both moved to Chicago after college.


As always there was a lot to love. The photo above is from a new piece by the extremely sexy, I mean talented HSDC Company member Alejandro Cerrudo, "Off Screen" - a series of vignettes set to movie scores. Cerrudo also created "Lickety Split", which depicts "three couples enveloped in the unpredictable layers of love". This piece introduced me to the music of Devendra Banhart - it concludes with the breathtakingly gorgeous "Korean Dogwood", surely one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

Other favorites through the years include Ohad Naharin's "Minus 16" (my April 2002 appearance in the audience participation segment - I was personally selected by the fabulous Cheryl Mann - is the stuff of legend), Margo Sappington's "Mirage" (which introduced me to "Serenade to Music" by Vaughn-Williams - another of the most beautiful things I've ever heard) Daniel Ezralow's "SUPER STRAIGHT is Coming Down", and Nacho Duato's "Na Floresta".

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. If they are ever near you - go see them. You will not be disappointed.

OMFG - Glenn Beck

While I would totally fuck him, Glenn Beck is, to put it mildly, a freak.

I like what G-squared had to say about him:

one of the most notable developments in our political culture is that the person who is rapidly becoming the voice and face of movement conservatism -- Glenn Beck -- is so deranged that it is hard to put into words.

Glenn (Greenwald, not Beck) continues by posting this hilarious excerpt from le Colbert Report.

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