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The Weekend Music Thread-Father Time and Baby New Year

Did you know David Letterman got his start on their short-lived Variety Show?

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 29, 2013 @ 5:25 pm

“Mercy, mercy me! Things ain’t what they used to be…”

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 29, 2013 @ 5:16 pm

Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but somehow I just can’t be as optimistic about the future as some of my fellow Planeteers. I just heard that almost 2 million people are due to lose their unemployment benefits thanks to the GOP’s failure to extend the program, and their continued “hostage-taking” of budget deals and refusal to negotiate unless Obama agrees to their “terrorist” terms of gutting and/or 86ing the social benefits system entirely. Which means that until the House agrees to fund the unemployment system, no new unemployed people will ever receive benefits again. Not that Congress cares, though. They continue to receive “taxpayer benefits” for LIFE regardless of how they treat the American people. And not that they care anyway, because to them, the poor, minorities, and women are useless undesirables they harbor such hatred for and have all but condemned to die. 🙁

The NSA has still not been reined in, let alone abolished and its datacenter(s) destroyed like the Berlin Wall. Another court judge said it was very much a necessary force to “keep us safe,” which means that the SCOTUS will eventually have to decide (and there’s virtually no chance of the neocon 5-4 ruling going in favor of we the people). Plus, even if the government security agencies were reined in, there’s no way any law would ever be enacted penalizing private companies like Google and Facebook for collecting user data. I’m sure also that there are pro-Hollywood Democrats who want these programs to remain in place to throw 13-year-old MP3 downloaders in Gitmo as “economic terrorists.”

Meanwhile, the ice caps continue to melt… the Middle East remains the world’s hotbed of violence… and A&E put profit before progressivism in reinstating that bigot Phil Robertson. Americans continue to show their hatred against LGBT people by supporting him and by (gasp) hoping Robin Roberts’ cancer returns, because she publicly came out on her Facebook page, thanking her girlfriend for emotional support. See for example several comments on the Yahoo OMG article, like this one:

Richard T. 40 minutes ago

I hate her, hope it comes back and she dies.

http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/robin-roberts-comes-out-on-facebook-223218396.html

We’re also gearing up for yet another shutdown threat in January 2014… so I say, we’re on the Eve of Destruction.

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 29, 2013 @ 5:13 pm

The Capitalism That Stole Christmas – The Anti-Materialism Theme of Classic Christmas Films

War is over — IF you want it.

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 10:10 pm

I guess you better not show your brother A Tale of Two Cities either, he’ll be scratching his head as to why Marie Antoinette was treated so unfairly by offering a thoughtful suggestion to the poor who couldn’t afford bread to let them eat cake.

Exactly, she’s our only defense against a certain New York mayor who won’t let anyone eat cake!

Christie’s running mate, perhaps?

(Well, OK, maybe not running mate…) 😀

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 10:07 pm

The concept of a TV exec being Scrooge is pretty funny.

And all too real to a certain “Jay” Cratchit, I’m sure! 😉

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 10:04 pm

OMG — my dad ordered TAKEOUT Chinese yesterday and was watching Christmas Story on-demand!

Me, I prefer the Sgt. Al Powell ceremonial Christmas dessert. AKA Hostess Inc.’s signature product of nuclear “yellow cake” goodness, the all-American Twinkie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fcdmsw4azw

RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD! (Talk about “die hard.”)

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 9:57 pm

BTW, AdLib, did you catch the message about the disappointment of workers caught in corporate cost-cutting schemes, towards the end of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (aka A Chevy Chase Christmas)? Brian Doyle Murray (Bill’s brother) plays Clark Griswold’s grouchy boss, Frank Shirley, at the company where Clark works making some sort of synthetic food additives (this is certainly a subject for another day, about America’s over-reliance on, and companies’ profit from, processed chemicals in the nation’s food supply).

Clark is so eager to get his Christmas bonus in the mail after the boss speaks favorably of Clark’s idea for a new food additive, and so certain that he will, that he pays ahead of time for a new swimming pool for the Griswold family compound (yes, another message about the whole “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality of suburban America).

He is heartbroken, of course, and EPIC FREAKS OUT when his “holiday bonus” turns out to be “a one year membership to the Jelly-of-the-Month Club.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQXuazYI_YU

Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I’d like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where’s the Tylenol?

If you haven’t seen the movie, you have to stay tuned for the result of all this. Here’s a hint: it involves Randy Quaid in the most hilarious bit of simple-minded, good-natured, revenge-seeking “Amelia Bedelia” literalism the world has ever known.

Or is it enough just to say… it involves Randy Quaid? 😉

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 9:42 pm

We have Comcast cable (ick, I know), and they have a series of audio-only channels called Music Choice, playing a variety of musical genres (classic rock, Latin pop, ’80s new wave, etc.). One of these channels is called “Sounds of the Seasons” and is my mother’s favorite. She keeps it on for holiday music while doing house cleaning and prep for the decorations. It’s better than the radio stations because no annoying ads and a (slightly) broader variety of tunes. Off to the side is a trivia blurb section offering a snippet of info about something related to the song or artist, or in the case of the Christmas lineup, trivia about Christmas-related things. One of these trivia blurbs had to do with A Christmas Story. According to Music Choice, “1983’s A Christmas Story was the inspiration for the TV series The Wonder Years (1988-93).”

As King Johnny used to say, “I did not know that!” It makes sense, though, as the format is very much the same: the adult narrator relating a story about his childhood. The show has another connection to another holiday classic: Daniel Stern, Marv of Home Alone, was the voice of the adult Kevin Arnold. (Also, Juliette Lewis was in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and played older brother Wayne’s girlfriend in a few episodes as well.)

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 9:26 pm

Same to you, ChoiceLady 🙂 You’re very welcome for the memories, to borrow a paraphrase from good ol’ Bob Hope. Speaking of Bob Hope, here’s a video of Christmas in Rhode Island, from the folks who brought you “Road to Quahog” 🙂

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 9:12 pm

Kes, you’ve got to see the SNL “post-script” in which Dana Carvey (as Jimmy Stewart, of course) gives Potter his just-desserts. 😉

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 8:51 pm

Hi AdLib. Thanks for the welcome. A belated Merry Christmas to you, and Happy Kwanzaa (26 Dec), which I’m sure Fox of course loves to hold up as a “made-up holiday” and yet another aspect of the “secular war on Christmas,” yet which is actually a peaceful holiday celebrating community brotherhood and the celebration and rediscovery of African culture. According to Wiki, “Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba—the seven principles of African Heritage), which Karenga said ‘is a communitarian African philosophy’.” It celebrates friendship and community effort, which I’m sure Fox would love to depict as “oh noes communism.”

If Mandela was alive, I’m sure he would be celebrating Kwanzaa as well as Christmas, as welcoming people into the community is chief among these tenets. For some reason Fox et. al. prefer an exclusionary Christmas. Conservatives also seem to be of the pro-big-business/finance mentality. Maybe this is all tied in with the MINE MINE MINE frenzy that big business megastores love to feed among their Pavlovian salivating shoppers, as they also seem to believe that the holiday itself only belongs to “certain people” on a first-come first-serve basis…

BTW, speaking of exclusions, you haven’t lived until you’ve heard the annual rant from conservative family members about how Jewish performers “shouldn’t be allowed” to sing “Christmas songs” on radio. There are only two local stations that play Christmas songs (and one stops at midnight-oh-one on the 26th), so there’s a lot of dial-shifting that goes on in the car whenever Barbra Streisand or Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme are on. This year I actually got an earful about Cat Stevens being among those performers who shouldn’t be allowed to record “Christmas” songs… I don’t know that he ever did, but apparently he must be part of the “media wing of Al-Santa”? 😉

My family has Jingle All The Way on video. I’ve seen it quite a few times, and for me the best part is (spoiler) at the end when Ahnuld suits up as the Turbo Man in the parade. I’m pretty sure that was supposed to be a spoof on The Terminator, right down to the point where he says “I’LL BE BA –” and then gets ejected into the air by a malfunctioning jetpack. 😉 The whole story was in fact inspired by the Cabbage Patch Kids insanity, but at the time of the film’s release (1996), the same kind of chaos was also going on in the malls and retail stores, but this time, it was over Tickle Me Elmo!

My mother had a part-time retail job in 1983 and actually came home with a shiner (!) from getting caught up in one of these “mommy mobs.” My older brother works at a certain Canadian retail giant that just got an epic DDoS on consumers’ credit cards. He unfortunately was called in to work on the day after Thanksgiving. The standard uniform is a red shirt and tan slacks; employees can either wear one of their own, or a store-branded T-shirt with the famous logo on it. On this particular day he decided to wear a plain one, which irked my mother because he pulled it out of a pile and it was all wrinkled and awful. She had already ironed a store-logo one for him, but he told her he didn’t want to wear it. She asked why, and his response was, “Are you kidding? It’s Black Friday! No way in hell am I going to work wearing a TARGET on my back!”

(rim shot)

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 26, 2013 @ 8:47 pm

A greeting of Happy Holidays just takes in account that there is a diverse population and offending nobody.

But see, it does offend Republicans, who are offended at the mere fact they have to share “their” calendar with all these useless undesirables and lowlife heathens, the “surplus population” that Scrooge aka Rush can’t stand to see alive.

Fox baggers are allergic to diversity. It makes them gag.

SANTA IS WHITE, MMMKAY? HE JUST IS! JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T LIKE THAT FACT OR IT OFFENDS YOUR PWECIOUS FEEWINGS DOESN’T MAKE IT NOT TRUE! NOW SHADDUP AND MAKE ME A SAMMICH, BOY! YOUR NAME IS TOBY NOW! WHITE POWER!

–Megan Kelley

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 23, 2013 @ 6:18 pm

I’m from somewhere in the vicinity of Lincoln Chafee-ville (remember the “holiday tree” debacle of Christmas 2012 that made it all the way to Billo’s show?). Scrooge at the landmark local theater, Trinity Rep, is a holiday tradition not to be missed. A duly appropriate story amid numerous financial crises in the home state of Quahog in recent past, not the least of which involves an entire city filing for bankruptcy — Viola Davis’ hometown of Central Falls, R.I. (This is before Detroit followed suit.) Central Falls is basically the “Compton” of Rhode Island. It’s tragic how people live there. (There is a place called Little Compton, but it is actually a nouveau-riche kind of suburb. Not at all the equivalent of “Little Italy” or “Little Havana” or other American “diminutives” referencing the home city.)

When will Americans learn to “keep Christmas all the whole year,” regardless of whatever spiritual or religious inferences it may or may not have? I may not be old enough to recall mothers assaulting one another in retail stores for Xavier Roberts’ iconic chubby infant dolls, but I certainly do remember seeing several melees pitting human against human for the acquisition of some useless iMachine. Not all Americans are involved in the materialist kerfuffle, of course, but for the ones who are, how can we get them to (in reference to the Apple slogan) “think different”?

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 23, 2013 @ 6:12 pm

The Weekend Music Thread–Happy Holidays

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, do kannst mir sehr gefallen!

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 12:33 pm

Social Security, Medicare, The Deficit, Poverty, Unemployment – One Vote Could Help Them All

that money has to be paid anyway

Republicans don’t agree. They would rather we do away with ALL safety-net programs and cleanse the earth of the undesirable caste so that Jibus can return and rule in the land of kings.

Sooner or later they’ll push for a breath test as a requirement to receive benefits. Not a Breathalyzer, but a “breath test”:

Q: Do you breathe?

If yes, you are ineligible for government subsidies. I GOT MINE, GO DIE SUCKER!

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 23, 2013 @ 6:25 pm

Something tells me Republicans bristle at the fact that the maximum wage isn’t $0/hour.

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 23, 2013 @ 6:22 pm

Ladies and Gentlemen, Our Corporate Anthem

♪ ♪ ♪

Ariannatevka, Ariannatevka
Underfed, overworked Ariannatevka
Where else could sabbath be so sweet?

Ariannatevka, Ariannatevka
Intimate, obstinate Ariannatevka
Where I know everyone I meet.

Soon I’ll be a stranger
In a strange new place
Searching for an old familiar face
From Ariannatevka!

Ariannatevka, Ariannatevka
I belong in Ariannatevka —
Dear little village,
Little town of mine!

♪ ♪ ♪

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 2:08 pm

He has been trying to remind us that some things we must do together because they cannot be done by an individual, e.g, the Hoover dam; the interstate highway system and many more.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. It wasn’t built by one person either.

Unfortunately, it might burn just as fast — especially if everyone is too into themselves to work together and stop it.

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 2:03 pm

Not just color, but ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation — especially that last one. They’re basically 17th-century Puritans with 21st-century technology, and it galls them that anyone should be proud to identify themselves by who they are drawn to (horrors!) have sex with. In a perfect (GOTP) world, nobody would be drawn to have sex with anybody! They wouldn’t even know what sex is!*

*Except that it’s something husbands compel their wives to do to spread their seed and ensure that the LORD’S MOST PERFECT BEING — themselves — gets replicated ad infinitum. But any mention of the mechanics behind it and you’re guilty of obscenity. No, sex is just something that wives, and only wives,** have to do for their husbands BECAUSE GOD SAID SO.

(Also, it has to be when the husband wants it, because if the wife ever asks, she must be a prostitute and should be burned at the stake. RUSH SAYETH SHE ASKETH FOR IT.)

**Well, it doesn’t have to be wives; it can be mistresses, because that’s not adultery. Adultery only happens if a wife strays from the planta — er, marriage. But GOD SAYETH THE MAN IS ENTITLED TO AS MANY CONCUBINES AS HE SO CHOOSETH. In fact, a man doesn’t even have to get married to have sex; he just can’t get married to, or have sex with, another man. He can have sex with an unmarried woman, but an unmarried woman cannot have sex at all, including with an unmarried man. Or any woman.

(Ow, my head hurts… logical deficiency fail…)

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 1:57 pm

I hate to use any references regarding 1930s Germany

You have to note though, that much of their furor is tied to Dominionist fundamentalism and literal interpretations of (select quotes from) the Bible. Most notably, the passage about “he who does not work, shall not eat” and various parts of Leviticus condemning homosexuals as lepers who deserve to be punished with exile and death. I am a lapsed Catholic turned atheist, but even though I reject the supernatural mythology of most religions, I agree with many of the sentiments of Jesus as philosopher and social reformer. Things like “he who is without sin, let him cast the first stone” and “love thy neighbor as thou wouldst love thyself.” TeaBooger XChans are nothing but selfish, greedy narcissists who conveniently neglect these passages in favor of the harsher, more punitive ones, many of which are from the Old Testament and not the New Testament they’re supposed to follow. They are not “true” Christians, otherwise they would adhere to the philosophy of Christ as noted above. They believe that it’s their job to do “God’s work” and obliterate the heathens and the “unfit” and let them starve out and die.

Godwin’s law is practically a commandment to them, because comparisons to Nazism are not at all unfounded. Actually, Nazism is also an extremist form of Protestant white-nationalist fundamentalism, the kind we know from Dixiecrat-ism and Jim Crow white supremacism. The aftermath of the Civil War and the birth of American eugenics are actually very much tied to the Nazi Reich and the eventual Holocaust. There is a terrific book exploring this in detail: The Nazi Connection by Stefan Kuhl. I used it in a paper for a college course about WWII, and have just now begun reading it in detail. It explores the link between American racism and the horrors that occurred when Nazi Germany ran with the ball. I sort of liken the reaction by Republicans to Obama’s (two) victories to that of Hitler when Jesse Owens won the gold medal in 1936. Reductio ad Hitlerum is perfectly applicable here.

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 1:44 pm

I think it’s blatantly obvious the underlying reason why government has been gridlocked since ’08. Problem is, in many cases you get accused of oversimplifying things or “playing the race card” if you say so.

We need to face up to the fact that the catalyst for this debacle — the straw that broke the elephant in the room’s back — was the “president precedent,” in other words, ZOMG TEH BLACK GUY WON TEH END IS NEAR!!!111!1one! Democrats and Republicans alike went along with GWB on the Patriot Act. But Obama can’t get Republicans to agree on a measure affirming that water is wet. Bush could say the sky is under your feet and the ground is above your head (and I wouldn’t doubt if he did), and Republicans would nod their heads in agreement.

Obama will never be judged by history on his merits, because any real accomplishments he could have made will forever be undercut and short circuited by the racist GOTP. If this were not true, he would not be called the “crack president” by Michelle Bachmann without Bush also being called the “rum and ‘coke’ president.” Far as I know, Obama has never smoked crack in his life, unlike Ivy League party-boy Bush, who by contrast makes Charlie Sheen seem like a teetotaler.

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 1:31 pm

I’m a 17-year-old Millennial — and I tend not to trust anyone UNDER 30. Actually, make that 60. I don’t trust the young folks not to post my picture or say something not so nice about me on some stupid social MEdia website (because that’s really what all those sites are about, shameless self-promotion and narcissism and ME ME ME) with their iWhatevers. (Talk about being left to your own “devices.”)

I get along much better with people who didn’t grow up with all this Twitface crap and as such tend to have minimal use for it. Nobody needs to see pictures of what you just did in the toilet, and it certainly isn’t worth getting into a car crash to comment on a photo of Justin Bieber’s latest BM. Older folks seem to understand that a lot more than people of my generation. I started college early and have actually had other students ask me if I’m from “Pennsylvania farmland” (meaning am I Amish because I don’t use social media or have a cell phone or email address)! Meanwhile the CE (continuing ed.) students who are there to study so they can get a good job, and not so they can socialize and party, they don’t really care. Most of them don’t see the point of Failbook either.

My parents are in their 60s (though they weren’t really “of the ’60s” in terms of sex/drugs/rock-n-roll) and have never used a computer. They don’t even know how to operate cable TV. Unfortunately, I have an aunt who is closer to 70 and she just a couple years ago figured out how to switch it on (cable TV, not the computer). She got cable around the time of the DTV “transition” when they were telling everyone that you had to get cable otherwise you couldn’t watch TV anymore. ‘Course, the only station that’s ever on at her house is Fart Noise. Needless to say, I don’t necessarily get along with everyone over 60. 😉

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 1:15 pm

Getting involved at any level, paying attention to the real news and not the celebrity fluff pieces, turning off the television and talking with neighbors and friends.

It all makes a difference.

Well, every so often I do fancy me a celebrity fluff piece, because public figures are influential in our discourse nowadays, and what they say/do does have an impact. Cf. the whole Phil Robertson debacle. We need to pay just enough attention to this story because like it or not, Duck Dynasty is a very popular show, and the words of a popular public figure do have impact on the people his comments have hurt.

Not sideboob, though. ANYTHING but sideboob.

As for talking with neighbors and friends… I don’t have any in real life 🙁 but at least I have the good folks at POV and all the Huffpugees elsewhere on the web 🙂

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 1:03 pm

The Weekend Music Thread-Welcome One and All

“Pick your favorite tunes that are about being welcome and welcoming others. Post songs about love, friendship, feeling good, family and togetherness.”

Here’s an oldie but goodie. The Youngbloods, “Get Together.”

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 12:16 pm

AOL To Buy Delta Airlines: Will Require All Passengers to Fly Naked

Hi RT 🙂 If/when you do decide to leave, you’ll be more than welcome in the exodus — and because that exodus is growing, eventually Huffnpuff will have some regretful sentiments following your departure…

youtube.com/watch?v=eYx_NfnoHL8

“Sure I’m gonna miss you, too…”

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 11:20 am

If you’re wondering how to do so with FB, just follow the instructions at:

deleteyouraccount.com/sites/facebook

Make sure to stay logged out for at minimum two weeks. That includes “social logins” or comment systems (like at HP and Salon) that use the Facebook Login API.

Also, when you go to delete your PuffHo account, if it’s “linked” to some other social provider (like AOL or Yahoo or Twitter, etc.) make sure to click “Unlink my account” first, before deleting your account there. You’ll be auto-logged out; just log back in (recommended to close and reopen your browser and/or clear cookies) and then delete your account with Puffnstuff once and for all.

Word to the wise: you might have to click “Yes” several times in the dialogue that pops up “Are you sure you want to delete this account?” Seems they really want to get their claws in you and grab your leg hoping you won’t go. It gets annoying, and it may seem like your clicks are in vain, but trust me: eventually it will work. I had to close out the dialogue popup no less than eight times before my account was deleted.

Good luck to you, and welcome to PlanetPOV. 🙂

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 11:16 am

Very good, sir. As I’m sure you know, people are not wearing enough of them. 😉

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 11:09 am

Hi AdLib. Great article. “The Onion” envies you for that level of LULZ 🙂

Quick question, though: is Tim Case the son of longtime AOL CEO Steve Case, or is that a typo (intentionally?) mixing current CEO Tim Armstrong with Steve Case?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Armstrong_%28executive%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Case

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 11:07 am

Huffington Post Goes NSA on Its Members

“First they came for the Luddites…”

» Posted By Quick Brown Dog On December 22, 2013 @ 12:29 pm

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