Hunting Fail



Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

Juan Cole Discusses The LeT

Pakistani terrorist groups are mutating into new, dangerous forms in response to "Pakistani Reaganism". There is still time before the nukes get rolled out, but the window of action is shrinking:

The sole captured LeT operative, Kamal, is said by the Indian press to be from Faridkot village near Dipalpur Tahsil in Okara District of Pakistani Punjab, southwest of Lahore ... This is such a remote and little-known place that even Pakistani newspapers were having difficulty tracking it down.

Kamal is said to be telling Indian security that he and the others trained in camps in Pakistani Kashmir. (The original princely state of Kashmir, largely Muslim, is divided, with one third in Pakistani hands and two-thirds in Indian; India joined its portion to largely Hindu Jammu to create the province of Jammu and Kashmir.)

The Kashmir police have gotten good enough at counter-terrorism measures that elements of the LeT may have decided to go after a soft target such as Mumbai instead.

...The model that the Reagan administration pressed on the Pakistani military, of funding rightwing "Islamic" militias to kill Soviets, gradually became standard operating procedure. But then the Pakistani Religious Right began adopting the model for themselves. If it is all right to mobilize death squads in one righteous cause, why not in others?

...Others, including elements in the Pakistani military began wondering why they should not apply the Reagan Jihad model to Kashmir. And they did. In the late 1980s, Hafiz Muhammad Said (once a professor of engineering at Punjab University) set up the Center for Mission and Guidance (Markaz al-Da'wa wa al-Irshad) in a huge compound at Muridke outside Lahore. The Center soon established the Lashkar-e Tayiba as its paramilitary. With the behind the scenes encouragement of elements in the Pakistani military, the LeT sent guerrillas into Indian Kashmir to attack Indian troops and facilities. The Lashkar prided itself on not killing civilians, on not targeting Shiites, and on keeping its focus on what they thought of as the Indian occupation forces.

...The SSP and the Lashkar-e Tayiba was joined by other Sunni militias, including the Movement of the Holy Warriors (Harakat ul Mujahidin). In 2000, Mawlana Massoud Azhar broke off from the latter to form the Jaish-e Muhammad or Army of Muhammad, a particularly violent group focusing on Kashmir. All these Pakistani organizations trained their fighters in the Taliban camps, some of which were actually run by al-Qaeda once Bin Laden allied with the latter in 1996. (It is said that the Inter-Services Intelligence made the introduction).

High Dudgeon of Americans directed at the Pakistani military for this activity is the height of hypocrisy. The Reagan administration actively encouraged Islamabad to mount precisely such activities against the leftist government of Afghanistan (which, while dictatorial and brutally oppressive, was busily educating girls, admitting women to professions, spreading literacy, working against the vestiges of landlord feudalism, etc.) From a Pakistani point of view, Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and Indian-occupied Kashmir were morally equivalent.

...The Pakistani military is itself now suffering blowback for its past policies. Its name is mud in Pakistan. A Pakistani Taliban has emerged that often declines to be its puppet, and which has killed hundreds of Pakistani troops. The Marriott in Islamabad was blown up by the Pakistani Taliban.

The cell that hit Mumbai was probably a rogue splinter group. They completely disregarded the old Lashkar-e Tayiba concentration on hitting only Indian troops in Kashmir, targeting civilians instead. It is very unlikely that anyone in the Pakistani military put them up specifically to this Mumbai operation. This attack was much more likely to be blowback, when a covert operation produces unexpected consequences or agents that were previously reliable go rogue.

The Mumbai attacks were not the first of this scale on an Indian target by the LeT.

If the Pakistani government does not give up this covert terrorist campaign in Kashmir and does not stop coddling the radical vigilantes who go off to fight there, South Asian terrorism will grow as a problem and very possibly provoke the world's first nuclear war (possible death toll: 20 million).

The civilian government that has recently taken over Pakistan is weak. If it puts too much pressure on the military too quickly, it risks another coup and destabilization. But the training camps in Azad Kashmir must be closed.

India, Pakistan, and the Obama administration need to do some serious diplomacy on Kashmir, and try to settle this major global fault line before the 10.0 earthquake finally hits.

"We're Going To Own Your Ass"

Michael Moore on Olbermann (video at link):

Despite his anger at Washington, however, Moore was no more sparing of the automakers, who were back before Congress on Thursday to insist that if they are not given $34 billion right now, they risk going out of business by the end of the month.

"Any money given to the current management is just going to be money that's being flushed right down the toilet," Moore insisted. "They don't have a clue about how to run these companies."

Moore pointed out that "GM wants $18 billion. The total worth of all the common stock in GM right now is a little less than $3 billion. ... Why would we give them $18 billion?" He believes that if the government bails out the auto firms, it needs to receive a degree of control over their operations in return.

"This new president and this Congress has to say to the Big Three, 'I'm sorry, but this car thing isn't working out," Moore suggested. "We're running out of oil, so you need to build hybrids, electrics, and we need mass transportation. ... If we give you $34 billion, we're going to own your ass."

"These geniuses thought that everybody would want to buy a Hummer and that somehow there was an untold amount of oil under the earth," Moore concluded sarcastically. "Why would we reward them?"

To The Moon With Saturn

No! No! My car! Am I going to be driving the Edsel of the 21st Century? Make them stop!:

General Motors Corp. launched its Saturn division in 1985 as a "different kind of car company," one given the task to sell cars in a new way and compete with Japanese juggernauts like Honda and Toyota.

The idea, simply, was to make money on the small, economical vehicles that had always been losers for the Detroit giant.

Now GM may be abandoning the brand altogether.

The sweeping restructuring plan GM released this week in hopes of squeezing $18 billion in aid out of Congress includes a pledge to "explore alternatives" for Saturn.

GM officials say options include overhauling the lineup, partnering with another carmaker, selling the brand and, potentially, sending Saturn off to the junkyard.

GM's Swedish luxury brand Saab might also be sold, and Pontiac could be transformed into a "niche" brand inside other dealerships.

But the decision to consider pulling the plug on Saturn, the agile little start-up that GM developed to reinvent the way it produced and sold cars, is a bitter reminder of just how deep the automaker's troubles run.

Saturn, after all, was created to do almost everything that GM, industry experts and many members of Congress say a modern car company has to do to survive in today's market: Make a limited range of small, fuel-efficient cars, then sell them through a small network of dealers for a profit.

There was just one hitch: GM says Saturn never made a profit.

At its plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., Saturn made simple, unfussy cars designed to appeal to penny-wise drivers. But the price point of the vehicles -- in recent years as low as $12,000 on some models -- was far too low to cover the cost of producing and marketing them, analysts say.

In response, the company raised prices substantially, to an average of about $17,000 two years ago and about $24,000 today. To accomplish that, however, the company had to stock the lineup with larger, fancier vehicles like the hulking Outlook sport utility vehicle.

The Outlook, which seats eight, starts at $31,000 and seemingly has nothing in common with the no-fuss economy sedans like the S-Series, which debuted in 1991 with a sticker price of $7,995.

"To broadly stereotype, Saturn buyers are single women teachers," said Eric Noble, president of Car Lab, an industry consulting firm in Orange. "They don't need an eight-person SUV."

So far this year, Saturn sales are down 21% from 2007 levels, compared with a 16% drop for the auto industry as a whole.

Sean Nill Profile

Pleasant article in today's sports pages:

Nill is Laguna Creek High School's terrorizing lineman, a teenager with a thirst to block and tackle. And to go musical. Football is in his blood – his dad, Mark, is the Cardinals' coach – and theater, dance and the sounds of song are in his heart.

"And as soon as he gets far enough away so no one can hear him, you know he's singing again," Laguna defensive coordinator Winston Young said. "He can't stop."

And no wonder. The Cardinals, with father Nill and player Nill at the forefront, are humming to a fresh new tune this season. It has been a season of milestone achievement for Laguna Creek as it barrels into Friday's City Championship against another playoff upstart in Pleasant Grove.

..."It's been a season of making history here," coach Nill said. "It's a unique team."

...It was in the fifth grade Sean Nill discovered the joys of theater. He had already found football. He performs each spring in the River City Theatre Company.

His father jokes with his son, asking, "Would you rather win a Heisman in football or a Tony award?" The truth? Player Nill will take a section title ring and the Tony, thanks.

"I love theater," Sean Nill said. "That and football have always been in my life. Gives me good balance."

How We Do It In Sac-Town

Troubles for the Núñez family:

Full of beer, rum and rage after being turned away from a fraternity party, four Sacramento men – including the 19-year-old son of former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez – killed a San Diego college student and then tried to destroy evidence, according to allegations contained in court documents.

Esteban Núñez assured his friends that he would "take the rap for it" and expressed hope that his "dad would take care of it," according to an arrest warrant affidavit that detailed interviews conducted by San Diego Police Department investigators.

...Rafael Isaac Garcia, 19; Leshanor Thomas, Jr., 19; Ryan Kelly Jett, 22; and Núñez each face one count of murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of misdemeanor vandalism in connection with the Oct. 4 slaying. If convicted of murder, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

...A woman who was hosting the men at her apartment told police the four were drinking and showing off their knives. They talked about wanting to show people "how we do it in Sac-Town," according to the warrant.

"Bitter, Table For Two!"



Fred Thompson on our economic woes.

Frank Zappa On "Crossfire" (1986)

Warring Impulses




Just too much good stuff over at failblog.

When I saw the above, I laughed so hard that I thought I would suffer a stroke, and so had to leave the room.

This is pretty good too.....


see more pwn and owned pictures

Charlie Brown Concedes

Sad, that. Nevertheless Tom McClintock, who has built his entire career on ideological consistency, will arrive in a drastically-changed Washington, where Republican power is curtailed and economics will rule the day. In short, failure on steroids. In two more years, the 4th District will get a chance to judge the efficacy of ideological consistency.

Searching On The Fairness Doctrine

I used Google to look at the counts of 'Fairness Doctrine' in the news archives, and there are distinct waves in the number of mentions of the term in the news. There was one big wave around 1950, apparently when conservatives were trying to use the 'Fairness Doctrine' to break liberal hegemony over the news. Then there is another wave in 1987, when the 'Fairness Doctrine' was dropped. There was a third, smaller wave in 2007 regarding efforts to revive the 'Fairness Doctrine' to put FOX News out of business and/or defend FOX News. Check it out!

fairness doctrine - Google News Archive Search: "2000-08 Search other datesSearch other datesFrom To"

Proposition Eight - The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

From the LA Times:

Written by Marc Shaiman and directed by Adam Shankman, the piece shows gay marriage backers and foes debating the issue in song against the backdrop of a Sacramento community college theater. John C. Reilly and Allison Janney lead the gay marriage foes -- all dressed in dark Sunday-best suits. The anti-Prop. 8 crowd includes Neil Patrick Harris and Andy Richter.

The musical begins with the gay marriage supporters singing about "a brand new bright Obama day.... Happy days for the gays." The anti forces then move in, singing: "Nobody's looking, let's spread the hate ... Proposition 8!"

Jack Black then appears as Jesus, who takes part in some mediation. By the end of the video, everyone seems to oppose Prop. 8 (in part because of the lawyers and tattoo removal required to end those same-sex marriages).

The video posted just recently. Early reviews?

Gawker: "This reminds us how smart Obama was to keep celebrities from too-vocally supporting him.... Because usually they seem really obnoxious and do more to aggravate than they do to inure. Oh, plus the music sucks."

Playbill has some of the cast names: The "Proposition 8'ers and The People That Follow Them" include John C. Reilly as Prop 8 Leader; Allison Janney as Prop 8 Leader's #1 Wife; Kathy Najimy as Prop 8 Leader's #2 Wife; Jenifer Lewis as Riffing Prop 8'er; Craig Robinson as A Preacher; and Rashida Jones, Lake Bell and Sarah Chalke as Scary Catholic School Girls From Hell.

Rupert Murdoch Drifting Away From FOX News

Intriguing interview clip here:

According to Wolff, however, the real issue is that Murdoch has "come to like the liberals more than the conservatives -- and many of them have come to like him, too. ... His life is now largely spent around people for whom Fox News is a vulgarity and a joke."

"If he became utterly convinced," asked Olberman, "not only would a liberal network make you five times the money that Fox News makes you, but one will exist and it will put Fox News out of business, would he go down the street tomorrow, shut off Fox News, and put on a liberal version of it just for the money?"

"In a New York minute," Wolff replied.

"He saw a market niche," Wolff explained. "It was easy to get into, it was easy to service these people, it was cheaper to service these people, and he went for it. ... He saw a money-making formula."

Wolff believes that now Murdoch, "wants something else. ... He is becoming something else."

Wolff explained, "One of the interesting things about Murdoch is that he is -- how would we say this? -- henpecked." In the 1980's, Murdoch was influenced by his second wife, who was "classically, and in a doctrinaire way, a Catholic conservative." But "now he's with a woman 38 years his junior, quite young, quite liberal, quite open, and certainly engaged with all of the Hollywood people."

The Gay Bible

And the Lord spoke:

A gay version of the Bible, in which God says it is better to be gay than straight, is to be published by an American film producer.

New Mexico-based Revision Studios will publish The Princess Diana Bible – so named because of Diana's "many good works", it says – online at princessdianabible.com in spring 2009. A preview of Genesis is already available, in which instead of creating Adam and Eve, God creates Aida and Eve.

"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Aida, and she slept: and he took one of her ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from woman, made he another woman, and brought her unto the first. And Aida said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of me. Therefore shall a woman leave her mother, and shall cleave unto her wife: and they shall be one flesh.' And they were both naked, the woman and her wife, and were not ashamed."

The film studio said it would also adapt and direct the revised Bible as a two-part mini-series, The Gay Old Testament and The Gay New Testament, once it is completed.

"There are many different versions of the Bible; I don't see why we can't have one," said Max Mitchell, who directed the science fiction comedy Horror in the Wind, in which an airborne formula invented by two biogeneticists reverses the world's sexual orientation.

"I got the idea for the Princess Diana Bible from Horror In The Wind," he added. "After the world becomes gay, religious people create The Princess Diana Bible, which says that gay is right and straight is a sin. Then they burn all the King James Bibles."

Conjunction Sunday

Left: Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon, in conjunction, Sunday night. The view is to the southwest, from DMTC in Davis, looking above the building housing 24-Hour Fitness.


Bruce sent this on Sunday evening:

Jupiter and Venus begin December in conjunction at dusk in the southwestern sky. If the sky remains clear, the Jupiter-Venus conjunction, officially occurring tomorrow night, will be spectacular. Venus is the brighter of the two planets, and it remains high in the southwest throughout December, while the gaseous Jupiter descends the western horizon all month.

Venus, ever effervescent, is visible at negative fourth magnitude (ultra bright), and it is easily mistaken for a distant jetliner approaching Dulles International Airport with its landing lights on. Jupiter at negative second magnitude is bright enough to enjoy from the urban light-polluted sky. At month's end, Venus sets after 8 p.m., and Jupiter sets before 6 p.m.

Tonight, notice that the sliver of a young moon is below Jupiter and Venus, while tomorrow night the crescent can be seen above the planetary duo. Young moons always appear briefly in the western sky at dusk and early evening.

At the very end of December, the fleet Mercury (zero magnitude, or bright) joins with Jupiter at dusk in the southwest for another conjunction. The brighter Jupiter is to Mercury's left, and Venus is far above the fray.

The full moon Dec. 12 will be at its closest (356,556 kilometers, or 221,554 miles) to Earth since 1993, and the full moon won't be this close again until 2016. Once a month the moon gets close to Earth at perigee, but sometimes the monthly lunar perigee coincides with the full moon. On Jan. 1, 2257, the full moon will be closer than this year's event -- at 356,371 kilometers, or 221,439 miles -- according to Belgian astronomer and mathematician Jean Meeus.

Bruce also sent this regarding the recent presidential election:

(from December 2008 Celestial Timings By Cayelin K Castell):

...There was a wave of heart opening energy that swept the globe and set a powerful heart directed template for the coming revolutionary changes. I also know there were many who did not share in the joy of this event for many reasons. Even so it seems the genuine joy, hope and love experienced by so many reached a critical mass that altered our reality and established a new template for the Earth.

Speculation about the effect of the Uranus/Saturn opposition on election day ranged from no election, to another stolen election, to concerns about riots and unrest if the election appeared to be stolen again. Ultimately, Uranus surprised us when it came through with an unexpected outcome, a land slide victory that powerfully opened the hearts of so many around the globe. I experienced an unprecedented profoundly powerful physical shift in my surroundings when the announcement came that Barack Obama had been elected our 44th president.

The only way I feel I can come close to describing my experience is by saying I felt the whole room literally spin around me and I knew a major assemblage point had shifted as we were clicked into an alternate reality or alternate timeline. I have read other accounts that though worded differently seem to have expressed a similar experience acting as a confirmation for me. I feel we were witness to the imprint of a whole new planetary template anchored in the vibration of love, hope and inspiration.

The news was full of stories about the joyous reactions and celebrations around the planet suggesting we reached a large enough critical mass to establish a new holographic field. Meaning those waves of hope, inspiration, joy and love are now fully anchored into the new template and the new timeline of the mass consciousness. My sense is that this new template will be the basis for the recurring Saturn Uranus oppositions still to come and will be greatly assisted when we remember to keep it energized with our thoughts, feelings and actions.

Catastrophe For AMTSJ

Jim sends word of this calamity:

The final curtain has fallen abruptly on the American Musical Theatre of San Jose.

The group sent out a press release today announcing that it will cease operations effective immediately and that their productions of “Tarzan” and “42nd Street” and the presentations of touring shows “Chicago” and “Avenue Q” have been canceled.

Here is more information from the press release:

"We received a telephone call a few days ago from our co-producer for `Tarzan,’ which was the Theater of the Stars in Atlanta, Georgia basically telling us that they had used all of the funds that we had paid them towards the production for other things," said Michael Miller, CEO and executive producer of AMTSJ. "In essence, they cancelled the show without giving us any warning, and we discovered that the funds we had paid for `Tarzan’ were spent on another production of theirs, which lost a significant amount of money," Miller continued.

Added Robert Nazarenus, AMTSJ's chief financial officer: "The cancellation of `Tarzan’ meant nearly a $2 million dollar loss to us. The disappearance of the six figures that we paid to Atlanta's Theater of the Stars in good faith coupled with the huge loss of revenues we anticipated from `Tarzan’ was just too much to overcome, particularly in these economic times." Nazarenus went on to say "Despite the harsh economic times, we were operating prudently, and had a solid strategic plan in place. We have always found a way to succeed, with quality productions, patron loyalty, and community support. This season was no different. But, when you in essence lose nearly two million dollars, it is impossible to recover. What makes this even more frustrating is the fact that this is caused by the wanton actions of another theater company."

Romish Plots

Walt stumbles upon a new angle regarding papal ambitions:

No doubt you already knew that the 1929 stock market crash was a Jesuit retaliation for the electoral defeat of Al Smith in the 1928 election. And that so-called "leader", Franklin D. Roosevelt, was a willing tool of the Papists. But did you also know that the Iraq War is an attempt to recover the lost Papal States for the Vatican? Find out more.

Gabe suspects the fellow is misinformed:

I am quite wary of communicating with this fellow, because his logic (or reason) seems to be quite out of the window.

What was the Pope doing when he opposed the Iraq War in 2002-2003? What was Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) doing when he claimed the war to be unjust according to the Catechism in 2003?

Again, I doubt that this fellow does not allow for logical discussion.

Meanwhile, I'm impressed:

Wow!

Who knew?

I’ve often thought there were parallels between Al Smith in 1928, and John Kerry in 2004 (both Catholics). Yet this fellow doesn’t even mention these parallels.

Conspiracy theories just aren’t what they used to be. I suspect a Catholic somewhere is in charge of quality control.

Surfeit Of Serpents

Left: Snake catcher Geoff Brouff with a handful of snakes he found at Esther Honegger's Fannie Bay home. Picture: BRAD FLEET


It's important to remember these babies aren't poisonous. Mean, nasty, ill-tempered, and aggressive, yes, but fairly benign by Australian standards (via Wicked Thoughts):

IT WOULD be enough to put phobia sufferers in their grave - 14 baby carpet pythons slithering around in your bedroom.

Esther Honegger was "horrified" when she found the baby snakes in her Fannie Bay home.

"I thought 'Oh my God, how many of them are there?'," she said.

"I hate snakes and as I walked backwards and forwards I would see another one."

"They were everywhere - there was one curled around my bedhead, another around the bottom of the chair, and when I went outside there was one in the hallway, another on the (stair) railing and another on the step.

"It was like I was having a nightmare.

"Everywhere I looked they just kept popping up."

The self-employed driving instructor first noticed the snakes when going to bed about 9pm on Wednesday.

She called friends, who she says didn't believe her, and then called the police.

She was then told to call the 24-hour snake hotline.

Snake catcher Geoff Brouff attended her home on Geoffrey Crescent and managed to wrangle seven of the snakes.

But the next morning he received another frantic call from Ms Honegger who had found five more of the reptiles in her house.

Another trip back to her unit on Thursday afternoon found another two.

Ms Honegger is now tippy toeing around her home as Mr Brouff said it was likely there could be more hiding around the place.

"Carpet snakes lay an average of 25 to 30 eggs so yeah it's definitely possible there will be more," he said.

He said the mother was likely living in the roof and the babies came through the air-conditioner vents.

Lost Top End, Down Under

People lose the craziest stuff:

A MEN'S magazine says 130,000 inflatable breasts intended as a free gift for its January issue have gone missing en route to Australia.

A spokeswman for Ralph magazine said the container carrying $200,000 worth of plastic breasts left docks in Beijing two weeks ago but turned up empty in Sydney this week.

The magazine has put out an alert to shipping authorities but if the breasts didn't turn up in the next 48 hours it would be too late for the next issue, she said.

Ralph editor Santi Pintado urged anyone with information to contact the magazine.

"Unless Somali pirates have stolen them its difficult to explain where they are," Pintado said.

"If anyone finds any washed up on a beach, please let us know."

"Do You Like Rihanna Too?"

Last night, at Target, among other things, I purchased a DVD of Rihanna, in live performance of her album "Good Girl Gone Bad". The checkout clerk and I began talking about various pop stars.

"Who's your favorite pop star?" I asked. "Well, there's several," she said, "but right now I'd have to say Janet Jackson. We spent $1,000.00 and saw her in San Jose." "Oh, so you must have stayed down there and that's why it cost so much," I said. "No, that's what the tickets cost," she said. I replied: "Really?" and she just nodded her head. "But we were in the third row," she added.

I told her about my forthcoming trip to New Zealand to see Kylie Minogue, and she thought that was so exciting. We both agreed that both Madonna and Beyonce were excellent. And with Britney Spears coming to Sacramento's ARCO Arena on April 11th, the new year was bound to be pop heaven!

In fact, we got so excited about pop stars that it wasn't until I reviewed the store receipt hours later that I noticed she failed to charge me for four bottles of toilet cleanser.

Doctor, It Hurts When I Do This

The doctor bid me to take my clothes off and lie down on the examination table. I hesitated, but slowly complied, and explained how the groin pull two Fridays ago made it hard to lie down.

Looking at my thigh, he said "That's a significant bruise! It looks like you really hurt yourself! No doubt you tore some muscle!"

I replied that the bruise appeared about the same time as the groin pull, but I wasn't sure the two were connected, since it's so easy to bumble into furniture during a show anyway and get bruises. And besides, this bruise was eight inches away, or so, from the groin pull.

He replied, "Oh, there's no doubt the two are connected. It's called gravity. The torn muscle bleeds, and the blood runs down the inside of the leg and pools just below the skin of the thigh."

Oh!

I explained how I had continued doing aerobics despite the injury. Last night I felt like a shambles, huffing and puffing, and it hurt like Ow! Ow! Ow!, but I was still more active than the week before. Rather than cautioning me against the activity, the doctor said I was courageous to continue. He suggested heat compresses and said it would heal in eight weeks time.

Munchkin Respect

Some of the Munchkins in 1939's "The Wizard Of Oz" were children, not midgets, and they've had some trouble getting respect:

Everyone knows about the Munchkins, portrayed by 124 pituitary midgets in the 1939 motion picture starring Judy Garland. These days, the word "Munchkin" -- now included in some dictionaries -- is synonymous with small. Credited in the film as the Singer Midgets, the diminutive cast was comprised of little people from all over the United States, with the core group being part of the famous troupe of performing midgets managed by Leo Singer.

But not all of the Munchkins were little people. It may be a footnote in Hollywood history, but let the news be spread that about 10 young girls of normal height, ranging from 7 to 9 years old, danced and sang alongside the little people 70 years ago on MGM's massive Soundstage 27.

...Last year, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored the entire diminutive citizenship of Munchkin Land with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame near Grauman's Chinese Theatre that simply reads: "The Munchkins." Nothing about "midgets only." Yet, the handful of former child Munchkins who had been invited to the event were denied introduction and participation in the unveiling because they were not "vertically challenged." Where is the Lollipop Guild and their sweet greeting when you need them?

"That was disappointing because my family was with me," says Todd, of West Covina. "You can pick me out as clearly as any of the midgets in the film, but they knew the midgets would draw the crowds, I guess."

..."I can pick myself out in the movie right there on the yellow brick road, dancing the skip, and I recall it so vividly," says Clark, a former dancer and now a grandmother of four who lives in Corona del Mar. "The set was so huge. I was in awe. I felt like I was in the middle of a fairy tale . . .

...The girls didn't have a lot of interaction with Garland. Bruno recalls that she tried to get an autographed picture from the young star: "It was frightening. I'd go up to her trailer and knock on the door and ask for a picture. I remember screwing up my courage every day. When I asked, she'd look down at me with those great big eyes and she'd say, 'I'm sorry, I don't have a picture today. Can you come back?' "

...Clark can still kick up her heels and do the Munchkin skip, the choreography they learned on the yellow brick road. Her grandkids have begged her to teach them the recognizable step.

Division Of Responsibilities In The Australian Government

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain:

Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen is refusing to be drawn on by how much the Australian economy has slowed during the past three months.

...Mr Bowen said it was the job of other people to track key performance indicators to predict numbers, such as growth.

"Our job is to keep the economy as strong and growth as robust as possible," he told ABC Television on Tuesday.

Farewell To The Noiseless Neighbors

Pulling up to my driveway in the foggy night shortly after 2 a.m., it was hard to avoid noticing a half dozen police cars down the alley, just past 'Skunk Corner', next to the big apartment building on Second Avenue. Ah, the cops struck the neighbors with the little 'compound'!

Day and night, there always seemed to be a dozen young men at this compound. The compound had high wooden walls and they would back their large vans right into the compound gate, and they appeared to socialize all night long, with vans pulling in and out at all hours.

Nevertheless, there was never any loud music emanating from the compound: no booming car stereos, or anything. They weren't very outgoing, these anonymous young men, but they never caused any trouble for Sparky or myself. Well-mannered neighbors, but nocturnal neighbors that seemed wedded to big vans.

Sigh. Well, I suppose they had their own free-wheeling agenda that crossed some bright legal lines. Now, I'll bet they put a noisy troublemaker in there - maybe even a percussionist!

Disturbing Fog

How thick was the fog last night? It was so thick, E. observed, that she was "as blind as a hawk."

Driving through Midtown at 2 a.m., the most disturbing sight was seeing a car creep through a red light while heading west on J Street.

Skulking Cop

Returning to Sacramento from Davis on Highway 50 on Friday night, I ended up behind a car that seemed to weave in and out of its lane.

A Highway Patrol car quietly pulled up beside me that also seemed to weave in and out of its lane.

Driving is like Relativity: if you are the only one staying in your lane when everyone else is weaving, you are the menace to traffic safety.

Then, the Highway Patrol car quietly pulled directly behind me. Suddenly, I realized what was happening: the cop was weaving because he was observing the car in front of me and he was skulking behind me in order to avoid discovery.

The inevitable happened. At the first clear opportunity, the cop turned on his lights and pulled aside the car in front of me.

Pulling Back

Apparently we've been in a recession for a year (no surprise there, really). And the DJI is off 428 points (the only surprise there is why the market took off last week; the big Citi bailout was a sign of continuing failure, not a reason to celebrate). Then this:

The U.S. credit-card industry may pull back well over $2 trillion of lines over the next 18 months due to risk aversion and regulatory changes, leading to sharp declines in consumer spending, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney said.

The credit card is the second key source of consumer liquidity, the first being jobs, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst noted.

"In other words, we expect available consumer liquidity in the form of credit-card lines to decline by 45 percent."

Cross-Border Anxiety

While folks in the USA worry about illegals and drugs, folks in Mexico worry about drugs and guns:

HOUSTON – Houston has become the top source for firearms going into Mexico, supplying drug cartel gangsters with weapons for their deadly battles, according to federal law enforcement officials.

"Our investigations show Houston is the top source for firearms going into Mexico, top source in the country," J. Dewey Webb, special agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Houston division, said in the Houston Chronicle.

Federal law enforcement officials said gangsters have chosen Houston because of its numerous gun shops, proximity to the border and its long-established networks for smuggling narcotics into the United States.

Mexican officials estimate 90 percent of nearly 27,000 weapons seized from stash houses or recovered from crime scenes in the past two years came from the U.S.

Authorities say numerous crimes, including a 2007 Acapulco massacre, show the carnage brought on by Houston-bought guns.

ATF is targeting at least three Houston groups it contends supply weapons to the Gulf Cartel, which operates along the Texas-Mexico border, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

Agents working with their Mexican counterparts have traced at least 328 Houston-bought firearms to those groups since 2007, when the investigation was launched after an audit of a gun store's sales records.

...U.S. officials have an obligation to do more to keep guns on this side of the border, Mexican authorities said.

"All the weapons the drug syndicates are using in Mexico come across the border from the United States," said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the U.S.

Third Weekend Of "Man Of La Mancha"

Glad we got through it!

Typically this show is not hazardous in the way lots of shows are - the slow, cerebral, deliberate pace aids the actor's health. But because of cast changes among the muleteers, plus my injury last weekend, I've been really worried that further harm could fall on the cast.

Nevertheless, we got through it without too much trouble. We had trouble getting Matt from Fairfield up the stairway - at one point I lost my balance - but Brennan helped save me.

Focus is a tiny bit of a problem. Instead of studying our lines in the men's dressing room, like we should always be prepared to do (even though it's already the third weekend of the show), we are studying a joke almanac instead, and we sometimes seem to be hunting for punch lines.

Here's hoping the last weekend goes OK!

Feminine Wiles

Out of Africa:

UGANDA'S police warned male bar-goers to keep their noses clean after a probe found a gang of robbers had been using women with chloroform smeared on their chests to knock their victims unconscious.

"They apply this chemical to their chest. We have found victims in an unconscious state," Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) spokesman Fred Enanga said.

"You find the person stripped totally naked and everything is taken from him," he said.

"And the victim doesn't remember anything. He just remembers being in the act of romancing."

Mr Enanga, who explained that several types of heavy sedatives had been used, said he first came across the practice last year when an apprehended thief named Juliana Mukasa made a clean breast of the matter.

"She is a very dangerous lady," he said.

What Do The Narnia Chronicles Mean? A New Theory

Cosmic analogies:

Dr Ward made his discovery in 2003 after reading The Planets, a poem by Lewis which refers to the influence of Jupiter in "winter passed / And guilt forgiv'n" – a theme echoed in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

He claims Lewis' knowledge of medieval history, of which he was one of the leading scholars, made him familiar with the characteristics attributed to the seven planets during the period. Each of these planets gives one of the books its theme. Prince Caspian, for example, is a story ruled by Mars, who is manifested by soldiery and battle, while The Voyage of the Dawn Treader focuses on the Sun, with its light and gold themes. In The Horse and His Boy, based on Mercury, the planet that rules the star sign Gemini and is associated with the power of communication, the characters include twins and a talking horse.

Troublesome Gay Penguins

Neurotic pro-Prop. 8 fears find a neurotic natural analogue:

The two penguins have started placing stones at the feet of parents before waddling away with their eggs, in a bid to hide their theft.

But the deception has been noticed by other penguins at the zoo, who have ostracised the gay couple from their group. Now keepers have decided to segregate the pair of three-year-old male birds to avoid disrupting the rest of the community during the hatching season.

A keeper at Polar Land in Harbin, north east China explained that the gay couple had the natural urge to become fathers, despite their sexuality.

"One of the responsibilities of being a male adult is looking after the eggs. Despite this being a biological impossibility for this couple, the natural desire is still there," a keeper told the Austrian Times newspaper.

And what could be more neurotic than this zoo bird harlotry?:

A German zoo provoked outrage from gay lobby groups after attempting to mate a group of gay male penguins with Swedish female birds who were flown in especially to seduce them. But the project was abandoned after the males refused to be "turned", showing no interest in their would-be mates.

The comments on this story make me laugh:

I'm Canadian and I suggest they be clubbed.
---
Clubbed?

Ann Coulter's Jaw Wired Shut

Prayers answered!

Wet November in Australia

The rainy season got off to a good start!

The Brisbane November rainfall of 326.6 mm fell short of the record of 412.8 mm, but it nevertheless appears to be runner-up to the record.



Take a look at this record of the Gap Cyclone! Just AMAZING!

"This Is Your Home; This Is Our Home" - Baz Luhrmann's "Australia"



In the Sonoran Desert of the Southwest United States and northern Mexico lives an agave called the Century Plant, which for years grows quietly without fuss or bother; then suddenly, shoots a massive flower on a huge stalk upwards towards the sky in an extraordinary, extravagant efflorescence.

Like the Century Plant, since "Moulin Rouge", Baz Luhrmann has been hoarding his energies for a massive, extravagant epic: "Australia", starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. And like the Century Plant's flower, this movie is a wonder to behold - an exclamation point in motion picture history. Like his celluloid predecessor, John Ford, who defined the essence of American character in dozens of westerns (making a star of John Wayne, among others), Luhrmann attempts to define the Australian national character: but in a single motion picture.

In many ways, "Australia" is the most ambitious single motion picture ever attempted. Luhrmann states what it is to be an Australian: what it means. No one has ever used a single motion picture for such a purpose! Most nations have relied on epic poetry to define who they were: The Iliad for the Greeks, the Aeneid for the Romans, La Chanson de Roland for the French, Niebelungelied for the Germans, Beowulf for the English.

The Americans have relied less on poetry than political invention - the Constitution and related documents. Nevertheless, American authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Australian authors like Banjo Patterson, have tried to fill the need for such national narratives using the materials at hand, such as they were.

Australian and American histories have several important parallels. Both Americans and Australians are English-speaking peoples who grew as British colonies, incorporated many immigrants, and subjugated native peoples. America has several national narratives from which to choose, however: the rebellious colonists, the log cabin frontier, the nation torn asunder by the Civil War, the energetic urbanizing people, and finally with the dime novel and the western, the great Cowboy epic popularized by people like Ford.

Under-populated Australia has been hampered in a similar project, however, partly because the original Botany Bay material seemed so hard to work with, but also because the great void at the center of the country seemed to defy definition. The deserts of the interior drove people apart rather than together. Someone like Baz Luhrmann was needed to render the inchoate material into a more solid story.

Luhrmann places his story at the beginning of World War II, a sobering moment in Australian history, when it became clear that the British Imperial Navy could not protect the country against Japanese expansion. Yet, "Australia" is not just a war story. Like Ford, Luhrmann incorporates the Great Cattle Drive into the story: this time the effort by a motley crew of cowhands to break the back of the malevolent Carney Cattle Empire and help supply the Allied armies at Darwin.

New found interest in the Stolen Generations is woven into the story too. The kids taken from Aboriginal parents out of a misguided colonial civilizing mission are represented by the child, Nullah. The same family disruption happened in the American West too, of course, but interestingly, John Ford and his colleagues never saw the motion picture potential there.

Luhrmann also has an ear, of course. Since Luhrmann also has a great interest in the musical as an art form, his film is far livelier than anything Ford attempted. Australia, the Land of Oz, also needs a theme song: the ineffable "Over The Rainbow" (1939's "The Wizard Of Oz" may well be the most-popular film ever Down Under). And like Dorothy says, "There's No Place Like Home!"

In short, this is one amazing movie. Academy Award material all the way! This is a massive, Century Plant kind of effort to reach film immortality; to outdo "Lawrence Of Arabia", or "Dr. Zhivago", or any film predecessor, and venture where no filmmaker has gone before.

Luhrmann succeeds!

Here is a portion of what Derrick Bang wrote for the Davis Enterprise. He certainly seemed to like it: the longest movie review I've ever seen in that newspaper, and five stars to boot!:

Blend the giddy, wonderfully inventive editing and swooping camera movements of 'Moulin Rouge' with the sort of old-style epic storytelling Hollywood hasn't made in decades, sprinkle with a precocious narrator and top with megastar wattage, and the result is guaranteed to be a great time at the movies.

Actually, the result is 'Australia.'

Director Baz Luhrmann, undoubtedly thirsting for some way to match the crowd-pleasing success of his 'Moulin Rouge,' returned to the land of his birth to delve into the WWII-era events that dragged Australia onto the world stage once and for all. Luhrmann doesn't work rapidly - indeed, this is only his fourth film, after 'Strictly Ballroom,' 'Romeo + Juliet' and 'Moulin Rouge' - but his visual creativity and storytelling talent grow with each new project.

We Americans still honor the bombing of Pearl Harbor each Dec. 7, an event that seared our national consciousness at a level that wouldn't be matched until the 2001 destruction of the Twin Towers. But in our characteristically myopic way, we have very little knowledge of what happened in Australia at that same time, back in 1941, when the same Japanese air forces also leveled the city of Darwin.

And that's only a single chapter of the ambitious saga concocted here by Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood and Australian novelist Richard Flanagan. The story begins in 1939, with a slightly whimsical tone that misleads us into expecting the sort of hearty Outback adventure depicted in (for example) 'The Man from Snowy River.'

...Up to this point, Luhrmann's tone has been light, and his film has the rugged but playful atmosphere of, say, Howard Hawks' 'Hatari,' with Jackman standing in for John Wayne, and Kidman the obligatory 'useless woman' destined to smarten up and toughen up. Brown and Wenham make great villains: the former the backroom schemer, the latter the lackey willing to get his hands dirty.

Even now, though, this deceptively superficial 'Western' has undercurrents of genuine tension, starting with the vulnerable Nullah's very presence; we've also already seen that Luhrmann isn't afraid to pull his punches, and tragedy enters these proceedings pretty quickly.

Then things really roar into full throttle, and the ride never lets up for the duration of the film's nearly three-hour running time. The stakes get higher, the tension waxes, wanes and waxes again, and you'll be at the edge of your seat, heart in mouth, for pretty much the entire final hour.

...Cinematographer Mandy Walker shoots these proceedings to emphasize the Northern Territory's lush expanse, and the film stock has the rich color and razor-sharp resolution of classic John Ford Westerns. Production designer G. Mac Brown has his hands full, whether going for tired and baked, as the dilapidated Faraway Downs is introduced, or establishing the harbor at Darwin, warships at the ready, but waiting like sitting ducks for what is to come.

Composer David Hirschfelder's dramatic score is appropriately sweeping and orchestral, while music supervisor Anton Monsted makes canny use of source songs, none better employed than Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's 'Over the Rainbow.'

I can't remember the last time I had so many emotions tweaked during a film, while also having this much fun. Oh, wait, yes I can: It was during 'Moulin Rouge.'

Sarah Palin Turkey-Gate Top 10 Excuses - Letterman - 11-24-2008

Guinda Thanksgiving

Accompanied Sally to the Adams' residence in Guinda, in the Capay Valley just a few tantalizing miles away from Cache Creek Casino.

Nice warm day, playing with the pug dogs, and eating turkey.

Karaoke Wednesday

Since Callison's seemed to be inactive this day before Thanksgiving, we ended up at the Clarion.

Who knew that two separate parties (myself, and the adjacent table), would, out of thousands of pop songs, independently judge that this instant demanded Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back"? It's been five years since I sang it in karaoke, and I bumbled it bad, but the ladies at the adjacent table were much more practiced and did an excellent job.

Jetta embraced "White Rabbit" and Larry (aka Keifer) embraced "Aqualung". I embraced Britney Spear's "Piece Of Me" but me singing 'American Dream since the age of 17' somehow lacked conviction.

Trouble At The Family Lodge Moose

As a C/W groupie, E.'s eyes have been opened to the drama involved in making music:

E.: MMMAAAAARRRCCCC! There was trouble last night! A. was telling T. "Stop! You played that phrase just right last weekend and now you are doing it all wrong! Do it again!" And T. said "That's it! I'm outta here! I'm not going put up with this anymore!"

M.: That's what happens all the time with the musical theater people. They call it 'artistic differences'.

E: MMMAAAAAAAARRRCCCC! It does nothing but cause trouble!

Catherine Fitts on Coast to Coast AM Oct 6, 2008 1/12



I've been wondering where the Republican Party goes now, since its leadership is basically discredited and the new leadership that is evident (e.g., Sarah Palin) seems ill-prepared to lead. New, responsible leadership has to come forward, but who, and from where?

Listening to George Noory last night, I got a revelation that people like the woman on this Oct. 6th interview (part 1 of 12 parts posted here), Catherine Austin Fitts, are likely to provide a portion of the answer. The interview last night isn't on YouTube yet, but don't worry, her star is on the rise, and we'll hear more from her soon.

Answers To Science Questions

This list has been passed around the Internet longer than Britney Spears, but it doesn't mean it isn't just as funny as on the first day it appeared:

A teacher forwarded this list of comments from test papers, essays, etc.,submitted to science and health teachers by elementary, junior high, high school, and college students. As she noted, "It is truly astonishing what weird science our young scholars can create under the pressures of time and grades."

"The body consists of three parts - the branium, the borax, and the abominable cavity. The branium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and the abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five - a, e, i, o, and u."

"Nitrogen is not found in Ireland because it is not found in a free state."

"H2O is hot water, and CO2 is cold water."

"To collect fumes of sulphur, hold a deacon over a flame in a test tube."

"When you smell an oderless gas, it is probably carbon monoxide."

"Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin & Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin & water."

"Three kinds of blood vessels are arteries, vanes and caterpillars."

"Blood flows down one leg and up the other."

"Respiration is composed of two acts, first inspiration and then expectoration."

"The moon is a planet just like the earth, only it is even deader."

"Artifical insemination is when the farmer does it to the cow instead of the bull."

"Dew is formed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them perspire."

"A super saturated solution is one that holds more than it can hold."

"Mushrooms always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas."

"The pistol of a flower is its only protections against insects."

"The skeleton is what is left after the insides have been taken out and the outsides have been taken off. The purpose of the skeleton is something to hitch meat to. "

"A permanent set of teeth consists of eight canines, eight cuspids, two molars and eight cuspidors."

"The tides are a fight between the Earth and moon. All wat er tends towards the moon, because there is no water in the moon and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight."

"A fossil is an extinct animal. The older it is, the more extinct it is."

"Equator: A managerie lion running around the Earth through Africa."

"Germinate: To become a naturalized German."

"Liter: A nest of young puppies."

"Magnet: Something you find crawling all over a dead cat."

"Momentum: What you give a person when they are going away."

"Planet: A body of Earth surrounded by sky."

"Rhubarb: A kind of celery gone bloodshot."

"Vacuum: A large, empty space where the pope lives."

"Before giving a blood transfusion, find out if the blood is negative or affirmative."

"To remove dust from the eye, pull the eye down over the nose."

"For a nosebleed: Put the nose much lower than the body until the heart stops."

"For dog bite: put the dog away for several days. If he has not recovered, then kill it."

"For head cold: use an agonizer to spray the nose untill it drops in your throat."

"To keep milk from turning sour: Keep it in the cow."

Improv Class

Last night I attended a long-running pick-up Improv Class, run by Mike Rowe, who teaches in Davis.

Interestingly, two different Improv classes are listed on Seeaplay.com as being at the Geery Theatre (22nd & L Streets, Sacramento) at the same time, Mondays at 7 p.m. This class is at Tuesday at 7 p.m., however, so I don't know how it falls in the grand scheme of things.

Nice 40-seat, or so, house!

A new frontier in theater for me!

The musical theater experience certainly helps here, of course, but I don't expect any agents to call just yet!

The Fires, And A Brush With Fame

Great article:

I'm afraid of fire. Not in the Frankenstein monster sense - I don't growl and toss furniture if someone lights a cigar near me or if a dwarf prods me with a torch. (Hmmm. Well, maybe I'd toss the dwarf.) But, if I see flames more than five feet high that are not attached to a fireplace or a drunkard's barbecue, then my ponytail assumes Afro position.

I live in Santa Barbara, California.

Last week, it caught fire.

I was afraid.

...I went back into my office and started working. About 5:45, a hammer of wind smashed into the backyard with enough force to slam all the house screen inserts shut. We get Sundowner winds here, sort of like Santa Ana's on crack. They come out of the desert, hit the mountains like a tsunami and howl through the valleys - banshees heading for the ocean, raising temperatures ten or twenty degrees after sunset in a matter of minutes.

...The live footage of the fire was not encouraging. The thing was traveling like a freight train. One of the reporters announced that there was a spot fire, caused by drifting embers, two blocks away from our house. I got my wife and dogs out of there, said I'd finish packing and meet them in the next town in the parking lot of a Vons' supermarket. I managed to drag a metal dog crate into the stuffed wagon, which now looked like it was ready for Ellie Mae and Granny Clampett to climb onboard, and locked up the house.

It was a strange feeling. Inside, was every book I had ever purchased since the age of 11 (a "Twilight Zone" paperback) as well as every album, CD and 45 rpm I ever listened to. A lifetime of stuff, spanning three states and a dozen domiciles, just sat there waiting to take a hit. The house itself was the first and only one my wife and I owned together. The site of seventeen of our twenty years as a dynamic duo was now in harm's way.

I took one look behind me.

A massive mushroom cloud of smoke arose, blotting out the moon, a crimson fist of flame blazing within it. Growing up in an oil refinery town, I knew that something had just gone up Big Time.

...So, we slept in the wagon. Or tried to. I wound up sitting in the front seat, watching the fire miles away. All night. I have the spine of a painful Slinky so I couldn't sit too long. I began wandering around the parking lot. I got stopped by a guard who wondered what an aging hippie, cigarette in hand, was doing prowling around evacuee's cars. We wound up having a nice chat. I couldn't sleep. I was trying to calculate where our house was in the flames below.

I wandered around the outside of the gym. A fellow asked if he could talk to me. I thought he was from the Red Cross. It was 3 AM. It turned out he was from the Associated Press. Now, it's hard for me to become emotional without clinging to humor. I told him I didn't think we'd have a house left, describing the scene and adding, "I was waiting for Dante and Virgil to show up."

...After a few hours at the computer, while waiting for a 4 PM news conference, I opened my e-mail. There were a lot of messages from friends. One said: "Google: ed naha dante virgil." I did. There were 11,000 hits. My A.P. quote found its way to news sites from here to Hong Kong (I'm not kidding.). There was some dark humor to that. As an aging writer, I always try to get my name out there for prospective employers. I never thought being scared shitless would be a big publicity move.

That evening, the fire seemed to be holding in place. The winds had died down and hadn't picked up as forecast. I hadn't had any real sleep in thirty-six hours. I was still wired. My wife came into the office and said "Fox News is on the phone." I thought she was kidding.

A producer for "Fox AM" had seen my quote and wanted to know if they could do a phone interview "live" the next morning. Most people don't react like that in calamities, he said. Wotta funny quote! I thought long and hard about the offer. Fox? Me? My mind went into overdrive. This could be a whole new career! I could be the Dennis Miller of disasters! The pain pundit! The calamity commentator! I asked what time the interview would be. "8:15 AM, East Coast time," he said. That would be 5:15 AM my time. "That's not an interview," I said. "That's an exorcism." He loved that quote, too.

...The cause of the fire would be discovered. Ten college students built a bonfire for an all-night party at the ruins of a 1920s private garden, "The Tea Garden," and didn't quite put it out. They built a bonfire in Red Flag fire alert weather, with high winds forecasted and nearly no humidity. Their names have not been released. Nobody is sure if they'll be charged with anything more than a misdemeanor.

I personally would like to review their SAT scores.

The homes that went up were big and small. Homes that have seen generations come and go, some built by the families themselves, were reported as being "estates" and "mansions." The Montecito angle was played up because of celebrity residents like Oprah and Rob Lowe. By the end of the fire, the national news had somehow come to the conclusion that it affected only the rich and the famous. Christopher Lloyd lost his house. So did over 200 of his fans. For every Rob Lowe, there are a hundred John and Jane Does living in our hills and valleys.

...Whenever there's a major fire in California, there arises from the hinterlands a smug "that's what you get for living there" reaction which I've never fully understood. Yes, California is the brunt of many a joke because of its lifestyles, movie stars and whackjobs. I've been out here 25 years and I still make fun of some of our more bizarre occurrences. But snickering when a person loses everything?

I actually heard one guy say: "Well, people should know better than to live in the hills or the valleys." Dude, there's nothing out here BUT hills and valleys. And deserts. In fact, it's a geographical condition found with alarming frequency in this country. Collectively, it's known as the Southwest.

...To all those who, for some reason, seek to editorialize straight news events and disasters, here's something to chew on. The East Coast gets hit by hurricanes and blizzards. New Orleans is built below sea level. Several states sit in what's known as "Tornado Alley." San Francisco is perched on a fault line. Las Vegas is in the middle of a desert.

Rivers flood. Forests burn. Winds howl. The earth shakes. Mountains crumble. The sky punishes. Zip codes don't enter into the picture.

We're all guests on this planet, pundits. It's a gift. It's a responsibility. It's our mother. It's our child. It's not affiliated with any ideology or political belief system.

Why Won't The Polar Bears Mate?

A misunderstanding:

Tsuyoshi, a four-year-old ''male'' polar bear, and his 11-year-old female partner, Kurumi, have been living together since June at the Kushiro Municipal Zoo in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

But much to the frustration and puzzlement of zookeepers, the bear couple, on a breeding mission, showed no signs of chemistry, and Tsuyoshi has never gone into rut even during ''his'' mating period.

''Observing his behaviors, we got suspicious as to whether Tsuyoshi was really a male,'' the zoo said in a statement.

The zoo put Tsuyoshi under an anesthetic earlier in the month for a gender checkup, and learned he was a she.

''I have mixed feelings,'' Yoshio Yamaguchi, head of the zoo.

Obama Will Address Economic Woes Today, Pres. Bush To Pardon Turkey

"Circus" Video Teaser



The big Britney wave gathers!

Yesterday's Aerobics Class

You want me to do what, and how fast?

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Grapevine steps are the hardest!

Whew! Hand me those ibuprofen skittles! Let's do it again!

The Looters Begin To Scuttle Away

Bob Herbert:

In a radio address on Saturday, Mr. Obama described his plan as follows:

“It will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jump-start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy.

“We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.”

The message is many years overdue. The hope is that it hasn’t come too late.

The idea that the nation had all but stopped investing in its infrastructure, and that officials in Washington have ignored the crucial role of job creation as the cornerstone of a thriving economy is beyond mind-boggling. It’s impossible to understand.

Impossible, that is, until you realize that bandits don’t waste time repairing a building that they’re looting.

Brisbane Will Get A Shot At The Record!

Big storm rolling in on Saturday! Brisbane already has 284 mm of rain for the month. 130 mm of extra rain is required for a new November rainfall record of 414 mm. That's a lot of rain, but it's doable for the semitropic climate. Will it rain quite enough to bust the November record?

In any event, the dams are certainly being helped by all this rain! SEQWater is at 45.5%, the greatest level for the Brisbane metropolitan reservoirs in three years, and the levels continue to rise!

Jet Pack Crossing Over The Royal Gorge

Looking For Meaning On A Stroll On J Street

First, there was the man walking down the sidewalk, who hesitated, then with a look of disgust, threw away what appeared to be a bandage, or a diaper, on the sidewalk. What was that all about? I can understand throwing such a thing away, but then that begs the question of what he was doing with it in the first place.

Then, there was the Menace of the Meandering Blonde. She approached down the sidewalk and she had a big purse, and she was digging something out from the bottom of it, and she was digging something out from the bottom of it, and she was meandering, because one can't simultaneously dig something out from the bottom of a purse, and walk straight. I veered to the right, she veered to her left, and I began to panic, because no matter what I did to avoid her, she anticipated my maneuvers. Collision was narrowly avoided only because she actually found what she was looking for!

Then another woman, burdened with shopping bags, ran across the street and twisted her ankle. She hurried past, clucking at how she had narrowly avoided becoming roadkill.

Then there was the Man At The Corner. He appeared to be a foreigner, perhaps an Ethiopian, and he seemed lost, repeatedly voicing "TERA. T.E.R.A. T-E-R-A. Tera." What does that mean? To me, TERA means Terminal Effects Research and Analysis group, in Socorro, NM, but it didn't look like he was looking for new explosive concepts in land mines.

What did all this mean? I was beginning to tear my hair, out looking for a deeper meaning in what appeared to be a random universe.

Then, I saw a woman carefully taking close-up digital photos of a rose. Now, THAT I understand! She didn't try to touch or smell the rose at all (no one actually smells roses anymore - that's so old-fashioned!) but we all need photos of roses for our blogs!

Someone Soon Will Call Bernanke's Bluff

Left: Who is that masked man?


Setting lots of bad precedents these days!:

The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.

This may be the path to a government default, and the closest thing the financial world has ever seen to the Apocalypse! Time to rein in the Fed:

“Whether it’s lending or spending, it’s tax dollars that are going out the window and we end up holding collateral we don’t know anything about,” said Congressman Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee. “The time has come that we consider what sort of limitations we should be placing on the Fed so that authority returns to elected officials as opposed to appointed ones.”

Invite The Celebrities, Then Treat Them Poorly

Celebrity-types are likely to be so traumatized that they will be quite reluctant to return. These folks follow money, and there is certainly money in Dubai, but this is a bad way to do business.

Who knows, maybe Kylie got the treatment too? Make her think twice about returning!

Some of Britain’s best-known stars – including singer Lily Allen and supermodel Agyness Deyn – were subjected to intimate strip-searches on their way to the lavish launch of the world’s most expensive resort in Dubai.

Actor Rhys Ifans and Ms Deyn’s rock-star boyfriend Albert Hammond Jnr were also among more than 100 guests examined by Dubai Customs officials to ensure they were not smuggling drugs into the country.

Ms Allen said she was left ‘terrified’ by her ordeal, while Ms Deyn said she found her treatment ‘traumatic’.

The United Arab Emirates has a strict anti-drugs policy. Earlier this year British tourist Keith Brown was jailed for four years after a microscopic speck of cannabis was found on the sole of his shoe.

Officials targeted guests heading to the £20million four-day bash at the Atlantis resort last week, including many who have reputations for heavy partying.

...Ms Deyn, 25, said: ‘Both Albert and I were strip-searched. It was really traumatic. It wasn’t the best experience in the world but it is their culture and you just have to respect it.’ Mr Ifans, who once said he lived ‘Don Juan moments of sex, drugs and drink for maybe months, seasons, years even’ did not wish to speak about his experience.

But one of his travel companions said: ‘Rhys quivered to jelly as soon as the officers approached him. He was beside himself with worry. They made him strip bare and poked him about with plastic gloves.

‘He had to hold his private parts out of the way while an officer did a thorough inspection. After nearly two hours of being interrogated and molested he was told to put his clothes back on and go on his way.

‘He was very scared and at one point was close to tears as he honestly thought he was going to be banged up. It’s really put the wind up him. It will be the only thing he will remember about the trip – he tells everyone he comes into contact with.

...Other guests at the four-day extravaganza to open the £1billion resort included Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, film stars Wesley Snipes and Lindsay Lohan, and singers Kylie Minogue and Shirley Bassey.

...‘They got celebrities for the publicity, and in return the stars were promised they would be treated like royalty. Many of them feel very shaken and violated by the strip searches. It’s ruined their trip.’

The Wuss Walks

I wonder why?:

Alan Colmes, the longtime liberal half of the Fox News Channel prime time program, will leave the show at the end of the year, the network announced Monday.

Well, like commenter Othar Hugh Manati says:

I hope they replace Colmes with someone who will be a bit less deferential to the bloviating Hannity. A dead jellyfish would probably suffice.

Tucson Regional Ballet's "A Southwest Nutcracker"

Left: Timothy J. Reckart hugs his daughter, Lizzie, 11, between rehearsal scenes. Reckart has been a volunteer in the party scene of the ballet since the show's inception. Over the last 14 years, he has seen all three of his daughters move through Tucson Regional Ballet's ranks. (James Gregg / Arizona Daily Star)


This article strikes me right in the heart!

I was a student at Linda Walker's ballet school from 1985 through 1988, during the years of growth and transition, when Tucson Community Ballet moved out of its storefront on Speedway and into its current location on N. Wilmot.

Now, many happy years later, Linda Walker's Tucson Regional Ballet is a far larger operation, and the "Southwest Nutcracker" is an amazing testament to Linda's choreographic, teaching, and managerial skills.

A thousand bouquets to Linda and her fellow dancers!:

The scene is chaotic on a Saturday afternoon at Linda Walker's Academy of Ballet on the Northeast Side. At least it is to those unfamiliar with Tucson Regional Ballet's weekend rehearsals for its annual production of "A Southwest Nutcracker."

In one room, swarms of young girls in multicolored leotards — half pretending to be coyotes, the other half Fort Lowell cavalry soldiers — are battling in a carefully choreographed scene while 30 more dancers watch from the sidelines.

Two rooms down, 10 adult volunteers, including professors, a therapist, a lawyer and a physician, are soon hashing out the "Nutcracker's" opening party scene, trying their best to mimic what a soiree thrown by a well-to-do Tucson family in the 1880s might look like.

Walker, dressed head-to-toe in royal blue, calls out directions to her performers from a chair in the volunteer room as Tchaikovsky's classic "Nutcracker" score blares through speakers connected to an aging silver stereo system.

"It all comes together in the end," Walker explained. "We know exactly how this thing is done. It is a big puzzle right now, but all the pieces will fit."

Walker is an old pro when it comes to "A Southwest Nutcracker," a Tucson take on the classic fairy-tale ballet, as are many of the 150 cast, crew and volunteers.

Next weekend's performances will mark the adaptation's 15th anniversary.
Over the years, "A Southwest Nutcracker" has become just as much of a tradition for the people involved with it as it has for the fans who come and watch. From the dancers, to the costume makers, to the choreographers, everyone comes away with something special, and everyone has put their best foot forward to get the production where it is today.

The vision

Walker's road to "A Southwest Nutcracker" has been a slow-going series of baby steps.

Having served as a student at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York and with the San Francisco Ballet, Walker moved to Tucson from California in the mid-1970s. By 1981, she had her own school up and running in a one-room storefront on the East Side.

Walker opened the school to teach her own daughter how to dance. "I wasn't particularly pleased with the teaching quality that was being offered in Tucson back then," she said. But it wasn't long before students began pouring in.

By 1983, Walker, with help from key community members, had created a separate nonprofit performance group, the Tucson Regional Ballet, or Tucson Community Ballet as it was then known.

Both the school and the company continued to grow over the next decade until Walker, who had already moved her school into a 5,000-square-foot facility on North Wilmot Road, decided that it was time for her company to take on the "The Nutcracker."

From the very beginning, Walker wanted her "Nutcracker" to have Tucson ties.
"I had seen a video of a 'Nutcracker' that Rudolf Nureyev had choreographed that was set in Paris instead of Germany," Walker said. "All the names were French. They had costumes and characters to portray the French lifestyle. I asked my co-director how she would feel about setting our 'Nutcracker' in Tucson. She was cautious but was willing to give it a shot."

The company began buying fabric from local vendors and piecing costumes together from repertory works performed in years prior. All new choreography was created, as were Southwestern equivalents of traditional 'Nutcracker' characters.

The main character, a young German girl named Clara, became Maria. The dancing sugarplum fairy was now a prickly pear. Mischievous mice turned into coyotes, and snowflakes still appeared, but in Tucson Regional's rendition, they were falling at the top of Mount Lemmon.

People loved it. The production's first shows at the Leo Rich Theatre sold at 80 percent capacity when it debuted in 1994, and the fan base has continued to grow. Sets and backdrops have been built up. Costumes have been improved upon. In 2004, the company moved from the intimate Leo Rich to the much larger Tucson Music Hall, and the production now receives live musical accompaniment from members of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Today, "A Southwest Nutcracker" has a budget of $135,000, paid for through grants, ticket sales and private donors.

Progress has been steady, but Walker says the hundreds of young girls who have participated over the years, including those who have stuck with the company, are what matter.

"Seeing these children that I have had in my company for 13 years walk through my door as young women makes my life happy and gives it quality," Walker said. "I am so blessed to have all of this."

Excuse Me, It's An Honor To Teach Aerobics!

Military boneheads:

BANGKOK - A MAVERICK Thai general who has threatened to bomb anti-government protesters and drop snakes on them from helicopters has been reassigned as an aerobics teacher, the Bangkok Post said on Friday.

Major-general Khattiya Sawasdipol, a Rambo-esque anti-communist fighter more commonly known as Seh Daeng, reacted with disappointment to his new role as a military instructor promoting public fitness at marketplaces.

'It is ridiculous to send me, a warrior, to dance at markets,' he said, before launching an attack on his boss, army chief Anupong Paochinda.

'The army chief wants me to be a presenter leading aerobics dancers. I have prepared one dance. It's called the 'throwing-a-hand-grenade' dance', he said.

Margaret Cho's Mormon Ditty