Baron Dave Romm
Minnesota Election Widget
By Baron Dave Romm
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Widget to track MN Senate Recount
Continuously updated, via the Mpls Star Tribune.
The widget, as of this writing, says Franken is up by 50, but the various stories it links to have him up by 225. I suspect that the widget isn't updated on a weekend. Or maybe the Strib stopped caring. In any event, it's a good resource and I'm putting it up for the third time.
If Coleman had won by this margin, I would have accepted it, though with less enthusiasm. Now, we here in Minnesota can take pride that our Bush-loving sycophant Norm Coleman has lost to a wrestler and a comedian. He only got in office due to the death of Paul Wellstone, and could not fill even one of his shoes. Bye Norm, you're a bad joke.
On Political Satire
The issue raised by Michael Dare is an important one: Free speech is free for all. The right wingers don't get it; we in the middle (and you on the left) understand.
In Defense of Barack the Magic Negro and continuing in Part II, Dare chides his friends for coming down on conservative satire without having heard it. Several people condemned the CD We Hate the USA without giving it a fair shake.
Is turnabout fair play? Many on the right, and certainly most on the far right, randomly insult anything they don't like. Often in the most disgusting, scatological, paranoid way. They'll accuse anyone of hating America if they so much as utter one word that isn't Politically Correct: If the conservative blogosphere hasn't seen it a million times in endless comments, echoed on hate radio over and over, reinforced by paid pundits on Fox "News", their sphincters clench and they lash out.
No, turnabout is not fair play. We're not going to sink to their level. Well, not often, anyway. One of the political dictums of the last 60 years or so: Anyone can sling insults, and many do. On the left, this is playground taunting. Childish, but a predecessor to the real arguments.
To the right, the insult is the argument. Mere name calling justifies their political positions. Joe McCarthy can wave a blank piece of paper smugly shouting, I have here in my hand a list..." of known Communists working in the State Department. He never showed that list to anyone, and his claims changed. But the "commie haters" didn't need proof: the claim was enough. They were convinced. In an eerie similarity, Communists (the right wing branch of Marxism) didn't require actual proof either. At roughly the same time as McCarthy, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev could bang his shoe for attention at the UN, or go to Poland and declare, "Whether you like it or not. history is on our side. We will bury you!"
Both were wrong. McCarthy and his ilk never produced a list, and went on a hate-filled, unAmerican spree of bullying and intimidation. The Soviet Union never buried anyone culturally, and went on a hate-filled militaristic spree of invasion and propaganda.
McCarthy was finally brought down by decent folk standing up to tyranny. Edward R. Murrow was unafraid to tell the truth. McCarthyism stands out as one of the worst periods in American history. The rabid hatemongering never went away, and was used by Reagan, Bush and talk radio to bludgeon a non-existent "liberal news media" that dared to report real news. The Soviet Union was finally brought down by decent folk standing up to tyranny. Solzhenitsyn was unafraid to tell the truth. Stalinism stands out as one of the worst periods in Russian history. The rabid hatemongering never went away, and Putin continued to browbeat the liberal news media and invaded Georgia.
But I digress. Where was the political satire in all this?
On the right, it wasn't satire. The jokes were nasty and stupid, and only served as propaganda.
On the left, the humor was generally non-political. In order to succeed in conservative Hollywood, entire subjects were out of bounds. You couldn't have black people on television. Married couples had to have a double bed. Heaven forbid that two guys kissed.
When political humor succeeded, it tended to be against a common enemy. "They may have won all the battles," sang Tom Lehrer about the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, "but we had all the good songs." That was okay by Franco: He wanted the power more than the laughs.
And so on through the sixties and seventies. On the left, underground newspapers protested the Vietnam war since the mainstream media was too scared to tackle real issues, either with reporting or with satire. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour sliced and diced all sorts of political positions, mainly on the right. They provided a platform for Pete Seeger, blacklisted during the McCarthy Era and still persona non-gratis on cowardly networks. For this, they were fired. They weren't cancelled. CBS knuckled under to pressure by President Nixon and fired them.
On the right, you had Gomer Pyle, USMC, Imus in the Morning and Spiro Agnew putting down critics as "nattering nabobs of negativism". Were these funny? America thought so: Gomer Pyle was one of the top rated shows of the time. It wasn't political satire, but shoved any serious commentary on a very dirty war into broad stereotypes. Imus' targets weren't always on the left, but his urbane wit combined with an increasingly scatological mindset to appeal to the base conservative sphincter. Agnew... well, the Vice President continued a Republican tradition of being the attack dog for the right. In the way that VP Humphrey avoided under LBJ, Agnew (and later Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin) appealed to the GOP "base".
Late night tv shows went after many targets, but ultimately bowed to right wing talking points. By the 90s, it was just as common to hear a GOP lie from Leno or Letterman as it was from the floor of the impeachment hearings.
The right was "funny" through the rise of Rush Limbaugh as a major political force to the "jokes" on the internet, to Hollywood scandalmonger Matt Drudge becoming the standard by which conservative "news" is reported. The left got yuks from Saturday Night Live, The Onion, internet subverters like Bartcop and eventually The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Through to today.
The right appeals to the lowest common denominator. Sphincter conservatives need to have their preconceived notions stroked in lieu of facts: the joke is the political commentary. Paranoid delusions weren't suspect; the non-believers were subjects of ridicule.
The left tries to be funny. The pissed-off left hangs out in its own echo chamber (such as Bartcop-E; hi fans!), but the humor tends to have links. The center and the left make fun of real issues. At least, we try: Sometimes we put our foot in the gutter with the right. Hey, I was in third grade once.
To many on the right, humor doesn't need to be funny. It's hazing. You laugh at the same jokes we do our you're not one of us. To many on the left, humor needs to be funny or we're all just a bunch of third graders. You conform to our non-conformity in the same way we do or you're not one of us.
The difference is one of intent, and of audience. Rush Limbaugh's audience is different than Al Franken's, and so is the intent of Newt Gingrich and Roger Ailes: Limbaugh and hate radio are building a vocabulary for conservatives. Sciafe and company are like a bunch of old geezers waving their cane at the young 'uns, "You kids better learn some manners." And they're willing to pay dearly to teach those manners, usually by corporal punishment. Buzzwords, stock phrases, straw men arguments, repetition of lies. These are the other side to conservative Think Tanks, attempting to provide an intellectual basis for the failed policies of Reagan or Bush. To a listener on the left, a conservative joke isn't funny because it has no basis in fact.
To a listener on the right, a liberal joke isn't funny because it doesn't stroke their sphincter. The Daily Show's audience is different than Fox's The 1/2 Nwes Hour. The right can't duplicate the intent of the left, which is to educate as well as poke fun. The left knows what's going on in the world, and wants to hear more of what they already know. The left doesn't have the same type of Think Tanks because they don't need them: Read the news. Preferably, British news as American news long ago sold out. As Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a notorious liberal bias." Humor from the left is observational and only a little didactic.
Is it possible for the right to make humor that the left finds funny? Sure, though it's rare. Is it possible for the center and left to make humor that the right finds funny? Sure, some conservatives like a good laugh without regard to politics. Let's not sink to the childish level too prevalent these days. Some on the right are capable of laughing at themselves; some on the left are not.
Which brings us back to We Hate America. I haven't heard it. Frankly, it isn't particularly high on my list of things to hear. I'd much rather get the latest from The Capitol Steps or Hail To The Thief. Mostly, I tend to ignore right wing humor. I don't find it funny; much of it I find repulsive.
But Michael Dare is challenging us, and indirectly me, so let me answer. He's making two points. First, that Paul Shanklin and co. fall under the same Free Speech dictums as anyone. They have the right to express their opinions as humor, the same way that I do, that Michael does, that Larry Flynt does.
Granted. Free speech is free for all. But that's a bit of a straw man. No one was trying to burn the CD. Critics of Chip Saltsman didn't want to throw him in jail or blacklist him in the same way that the McCarthyites hounded Frank Sinatra or Pete Seeger. They're simply pointing to his taste in humor. The right future hounded DNC chair Howard Dean for his elocution. Can we not judge a candidate for RNC chair by his public face? For Christmas 2008, Saltsman sent a music CD full of political satire songs to members of the Republican National Committee. Whether he has the right to do so is not the question: He does. What this says about his character is what's under consideration. If the Republicans pick him as their Chairman, he brings baggage.
Michael's second point is that we in the center and on the left should judge right wing humor by the same criteria that we judge left wing humor. He has a point, but only so far. The right uses humor differently than the left. The intent of Barack the Magic Negro may be to poke fun at Al Sharpton as well as Barack Obama, but is it designed to be funny, or to reinforce disgusting stereotypes? It's possible to do both.
I haven't heard it. I listen to stuff I don't like all the time, and mostly just dismiss the stuff as unworthy of my time. It may be worthy of your time. My job, as music reviewer and political commentator, isn't to put people down, it's to raise the level of discussion. Okay okay... sometimes my job is to put people down. Generally, my targets are politicians, but I'm not above taking swipe at humorists or conceptual artists.
We should be able to judge any attempt at humor on the level of funniness, and we should also be able to comment on the intent of the work. Michael is right that we shouldn't judge the humor until we've heard it. But the right has a history, a cultural value, of hate and of using the worst aspects of humanity to drive their political agenda. The playing field is not equal. We can't leave values of intent out of a review. The right can't merely be held up to the left's higher standard, they must also be judged by the standards they impose upon others.
Again, I haven't heard We Hate the USA. I've ordered a copy for the station, and hope to have it by next week. If not, I'll search around on YouTube and listen to selected cuts and report back here. I'll give it a fair shake. Which is more than Limbaugh ever did for the left.
Remarkable continuing news from another planet
Mars rovers roll on to five years BBC, January 3, 2009CE:
The first robot, named Spirit, landed on 3 January, 2004, followed by its twin, Opportunity, 21 days later
It was hoped the robots would work for at least three months; but their longevity in the freezing Martian conditions has surprised everyone.
The rovers' data has revealed much about the history of water at Mars' equator billions of years ago.
"These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity at Nasa's Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We realise that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice, but on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead."
Spirit is exploring a 150km-wide bowl-shaped depression known as Gusev Crater. It has found an abundance of rocks and soils bearing evidence of extensive exposure to water.
Opportunity is on the other side of the planet, in a flat region known as Meridiani Planum.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Good-bye 2008' Edition
What word would you use to describe 2008? And why?
A. Good
B. Bad
C. Tough
D. Historic
E. Memorable
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to BadToTheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Results tomorrow
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
'What happens in war happens' (guardian.co.uk)
Photographs of Abu Ghraib abuses shocked the world. Seven were charged, but the face of the scandal will always be Lynndie England, the 21-year-old private grinning at the camera. Emma Brockes meets her.
Kathleen Reardon: What to Expect from an Intelligent President (huffingtonpost.com)
Brace yourself. It's going get rocky soon. We are about to have a very bright man as our president. And we've been away from that territory for a very long time.
Lawrence Ferber: Photo Finish (advocate.com)
Did Prop. 8 backlash cause art censorship -- or its reversal -- at Brigham Young University? Could be, as BYU photography student J. Michael Wiltbank found when his contribution to a two-week-long art exhibition -- eight pairs of benign portraits, each depicting an LGBT-identified BYU student alongside a supportive friend -- had been removed.
Michelle Helberg: Interview with Brian K. Vaughan (afterellen.com)
The prolific comic book writer of series like Y: The Last Man and Runaways talks to us about GLBT characters in comics.
Tallulah Morehead: Dead Folks (huffingtonpost.com)
Hello Huffington Post darlings. Your prayers have been answered as I, Tallulah Morehead, The Nearly-Living Legend, have surely heard the cries of my fans in the Internet Wilderness, and have acceded to the pleadings of The Huffington Post to add a little class to their entertainment pages, by bringing along the same kind of wisdom that you have been reading on my flog, The Morehead the Merrier.
"Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain" by Oliver Sacks: A review by Doug Brown (powells.com)
Oliver Sacks has been a working neurologist for over 40 years. Thus, when he wants to use specific examples to illustrate a point, he has many at the tip of his pen to choose from. Note the subtitle: "Tales of Music and the Brain." This is not a traditional nonfiction book about music and the brain like Levitin's "This is Your Brain on Music"; it is largely stories about people. The majority of the book consists of case histories of various patients Sacks has seen over the decades. Thus, "Musicophilia" is more about how the brain doesn't perceive music than about how it does; but often we learn how the brain does things by seeing how it fails.
Dame Edna Everage: What I see in the mirror (guardian.co.uk)
When I look in the mirror I see a caring woman at the height of her powers with an exquisite complexion.
Jerry Spinelli: Biography (bookbrowse.com)
"I never did grow up to be a cowboy Nor did I realize ambitions to become a printer, a fighter pilot, a biologist or a baseball player. But I did become plenty of other neat things. I became a terrific, never-give-up-till-the-caboose railroad car-counter. And an intrepid berry-picker. And a fearless salamander-hunter. And a night sky-swooner. And a husband to one and father to six.
David Bruce: Examples of Good Deeds (evidenceofhumanity.org)
Joe Franklin used to give a lot of handouts to old vaudevillians and other old-time entertainers who needed it. When they would protest that they didn't need charity, he would tell them, "Consider it payment deferred," then he would explain, "If I had been alive to see you at the height of your stardom, I would have spent at least this amount going to your shows. Consider this what I would have paid if I had had the chance."
Edited by David Bruce: "Me, Myself, and My Family and Friends" (Free Download.)
This book is a collection of mainly humorous stories about life, growing up, family, and friends.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Halloween 2009 at George W's Door
Trick or Treat for the Feet?
replied:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, but still on the cool side.
The kid is kinda bummed that winter break is over. Can't blame him.
NYC Hillary Clinton Fundraiser
Jon Bon Jovi
The final note of Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign may very well be sung by Jon Bon Jovi.
The musician is performing at a fundraiser for the former presidential candidate as she tries to close out her campaign debt, which stood at $6.3 million as of last month.
The Jan. 15 performance at Manhattan's Town Hall is being billed as "a final evening in support of Hillary Clinton for President Debt Relief." Ticket prices range from $75 to $1,000.
Jon Bon Jovi
3D Super Bowl Ad
'Monsters vs. Aliens'
Some 150 million 3D glasses will be given away for Super Bowl viewers to watch a three-minute 3D sneak preview of the big-screen animated feature "Monsters vs. Aliens." While 3D telecasts are nothing new, this marks the first time one has been done for such a large audience.
DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey "Sparky" Katzenberg called the stunt "perhaps the biggest media-advertising event in history." He wouldn't give a hard figure on the cost, but said it "involves tens of millions of dollars."
Katzenberg promised the quality of the 3D will be superior to what has been done in the past. He said the glasses will use Intel InTru 3D and ColorCode 3-D, which updates the old red-blue Anaglyph system.
The technology will also allow those without the glasses to see an almost ordinary image on the TV screen. But, Katzenberg added, it still doesn't come close to the 3D quality moviegoers will see in theaters when the film opens stateside March 27.
'Monsters vs. Aliens'
2009 Schedule
Spoleto Festival USA
Tributes to longtime chamber music director Charles Wadsworth, a return visit by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and an operetta inspired by movie actor Peter Lorre highlight a more modest 2009 season of the Spoleto Festival USA.
The 33rd season of the internationally known arts festival will be staged from May 22 through June 2 across Charleston, festival organizers announced Sunday.
This year's festival has a budget of $6.2 million - down from last year's $8.4 million, said festival spokeswoman Paula Edwards. Last year's festival was staged just as the national economy soured and ended the season $372,000 in the red - the first deficit for the festival in 13 years.
The Spoleto Festival USA was established in Charleston in 1977 by composer Gian Carlo Menotti and modeled after his festival in Spoleto, Italy.
Spoleto Festival USA
Wedding News
Hobbs - Robinson
Former Blackadder star Tony Robinson is to wed his girlfriend - despite their 35-year age gap
The 62-year-old actor-turned-TV-presenter proposed to Louise Hobbs, 27, during a three-week holiday in Malaysia last month.
Robinson, who has been dating Hobbs since 2005, split from his wife of 18 years, Mary Shepherd, in 1990. They have two children, Laura, 31, and Luke 29.
Hobbs - Robinson
Art Theft
Berlin
Thieves stole works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and others from a Berlin gallery over the New Year's holiday, police said Friday.
More than 30 works - worth an estimated ?180,000 ($250,000) - were stolen, apparently between Wednesday afternoon and lunchtime Thursday, police spokeswoman Claudia Schweiger said. The artwork was taking from the Fasanengalerie, a private gallery near western Berlin's central shopping district.
The etchings, prints and sculptures included "Profil au fond noir," a 1947 work by Picasso; "Nude in a rocking chair," a Matisse print from 1913; and "Le Boupeut," a 1962 color print by Georges Braque.
The gallery's owner discovered the loss New Year's Day, having found signs the door had been pried open, police said. Given the number of works stolen and the weight of the sculptures, two or more people probably were involved, police said in a statement.
Berlin
Calling California
Alabama
There used to be a time when people who called Linda Jahraus' home in Laguna Beach, Calif., were actually wanting to speak to her or her husband. But for the past several months, the majority of callers have been trying to reach an Alabama unemployment hot line. The call confusion has added to the frustrations of the state's unemployed and has left at least two California households hoping for a little less ringing in the new year.
"We almost didn't pick up the phone," Jahraus said Friday after spotting an incoming Alabama number from The Associated Press on her caller-ID. "It's a pain in the neck, quite frankly. The day after Christmas we had 50 or more phone calls and they started at 5 a.m."
The Alabama Department of Industrial Relations administers unemployment benefits and set up a toll-free number for jobless Alabama residents to apply for benefits.
After making little progress with Alabama officials or her phone company, Jahraus contacted the Montgomery Advertiser, which reported on the story Friday.
A spokeswoman for AT&T Alabama, which has the department's account, called the problem unusual. Spokeswoman Sue Sperry said the company would be working through the weekend to trace the problem. She said it could involve a number of factors, from the long-distance network to a glitch in the switching center.
Alabama
Ancient Sport Still Thrives
Samurai Archery
It is about as far from the Olympic sport of archery as it can get. The bow is taller than the person shooting it, and, to the uninitiated, it appears lopsided and unbalanced. There are no sights, no high-tech stabilizers.
And, of course, it is done on horseback, at upward of 40 mph.
It's called yabusame, and it is the sport of the samurai.
Each year, archers in feudal shooting gear climb atop their decorated mounts for a lively competition on the beach of Zushi, a town just south of Tokyo, galloping in the sand as thousands of onlookers cheer and shout. The first competition was held here in 1199.
Samurai Archery
Mexican Warlock Predicts
Antonio Vazquez
Mexico's self-proclaimed "Grand Warlock" says the United States will pull troops out of Iraq in 2009 and send them to the border with Mexico in an attempt to expand its territory.
The prediction from Antonio Vazquez comes with a word of warning though: his record of projecting the future is spotty at best.
Vazquez has been making predictions since 1980 on events ranging from international events to the private lives of celebrities, based on his reading of tarot cards.
Vazquez erroneously predicted last year that oil prices would be stable and that Cuba's Fidel Castro and singer Britney Spears would die. This year, he says Spears will continue to triumph.
Antonio Vazquez
Weekend Box Office
`Marley & Me'
The family tale "Marley & Me," starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson as owners of an adorably mischievous pooch, took in $24.1 million to finish as the No. 1 movie for a second-straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
With no new wide releases, the weekend shaped up largely like the previous one, with Disney's Adam Sandler comedy "Bedtime Stories" in second place with $20.3 million.
The new year was off to a good start, with the top 12 movies taking in $130.1 million, up 7.4 percent from the same weekend in 2008.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Marley & Me," $24.1 million.
2. "Bedtime Stories," $20.3 million.
3. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," $18.4 million.
4. "Valkyrie," $14 million.
5. "Yes Man," $13.9 million.
6. "Seven Pounds," $10 million.
7. "The Tale of Despereaux," $7 million.
8. "Doubt," $5 million.
9. "The Day the Earth Stood Still," $4.9 million.
10. "Slumdog Millionaire," $4.8 million.
`Marley & Me'
In Memory
Pat Hingle
Pat Hingle, a veteran actor whose career included a recurring role as Commissioner Gordon in several Batman movies in the 1990s, has died. He was 84.
Family friend Michele Seidman says Hingle died at his home in Carolina Beach shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday.
Seidman says Hingle decided to settle in the coastal town after shooting the movie "Maximum Overdrive" in the area in 1986 and had lived there for more than 15 years.
His career in movies and television spanned six decades, and he was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1958.
Hingle's last movie was "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which was released in 2006.
Pat Hingle
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