Monthly Archives: October 2007

Kinder, Gentler?

gurney.jpg

Pawn was watching the evening news tonight and the story was last night’s stay of execution issued by a divided panel of the US Supremem Court in the case of a convicted killer in Mississippi.  Anyway, while the anchor and judicial circuit reporter coversed about the import of the decision, and the ramifications vis-a-vis the 11 other currently scheduled executons (8 now on hold) a series of file photos of execution chambers were shown.  Each and every one has a gurney to which the condemned is strapped, and each of those gurneys had a pillow on it.

This begs the question, who fluffs that pillow?

Debate Highlights – Santa Claus and UFOs

Santa Claus UFO

Strange admissions were made during last night’s Democratic Presidential debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia. First came this

MR. EDWARDS: You know, I — I believe in Santa Claus. I believe in the tooth fairy

And then, later in the debate, came this:

MR. RUSSERT: Congressman Kucinich, I want to move to a different area, because this is a serious question.
The godmother of your daughter, Shirley MacLaine, writes in her new book that you’ve cited (sic) a UFO over her home in Washington state — (laughter) — that you found the encounter extremely moving, that it was a triangular craft silent and hovering, that you felt a connection to your heart and heard direction in your mind.
Now, did you see a UFO? (Laughter.)
REP. KUCINICH: I did.
Democratic Debate Transcript – Election 2008 – Politics – New York Times

Editorial Trick or Tick?

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On the front page of NYTimes at 3:22 PM EST on Halloween, the tease copy for an interior Janet Elder story read:

Republic (sic) candidates find themselves in a quandary over President Bush’s low approval ratings.
The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia

Is this an editorial response to the tendency of GOP candidates to refer to their opponents as “The Democrat Party”? Republicans have been referring to the Democrat Party since at least Robert Dole’s 1996 Presidential run, but much more so in thje past seven years, as the Bush Whitehouse has practically made it standard form. Pawn thinks it’s high time that the press play a bit of turn-about on the “Republic Party” but wonders how soon that rendition will either disappear or get “fixed” on the Times site.

Ghostly Endorsements

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Speaking of words from beyond the grave, Jake Tapper of Mickey Mouse dot com reported yesterday in his blog, Political Punch, that Gerald Ford has endorsed Rudy:

It’s rare that presidents speak from beyond the grave, much less to make a political endorsement. For that reason, perhaps it’s understandable that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani hasn’t had a response to the surprise announcement made in today’s New York Daily News by the late President Gerald Ford.”I think Giuliani is an electrifying guy,” Ford told Daily News Washington bureau chief Tom DeFrank in May 2006. “He’s a great speaker. He’s had a good record of winning in New York City, and he can be tough.”
…Ford was the last Republican president to have supported abortion rights. Giuliani aspires to be the next.
Political Punch

More wit from beyond

A Mgic Story

My RSS aggregator just popped this into my consciousness, direct from the late Theresa Duncan’s blog, The Wit of the Staircase:

I thought he might have decided, looking back, that it had all been some sort of bizarre coincidence, or maybe a highly original prank. He said, “At the time, of course, I was quite shaken by it.” And now? “I am still shaken by it.”
The Wit of the Staircase: Basil Rathbone’s Ghosts

Sorry, just had to reproduce that portion of the original, as it speaks to how those of us who miss Theresa feel when these automaton apparitions knock on our mailboxes.

The posting is about a ghost story from Basil Rathbone, as related by Dick Cavett.

The site editor, Theresa’s friend Glenn O’Brien (I think) added this note to the end of the post:

Editor’s Note: Theresa had left this post to appear automatically on this date (another will appear on New Year’s Eve).

Ooh goody, once more we will waken to find letters from beyond in our mailbox.

Sandblasted Into Oblivion


Is it intolerance, myopic fastidiousness, or outright stupidity?

What is the biggest eyesore on the streets of east London? A giant rat with a knife and fork in its paws, apparently. Or a rioter throwing flowers. Hackney council says these subversive images are making the place look dirty and have to go – even if they were spray-painted by Banksy, the art world’s most unlikely superstar.

“We have to clean up the walls,” said a spokeswoman, confirming that the street cleaners are ready to blast some of modern British art’s most distinctive images away as part of a zero-tolerance policy. “We can’t make a decision as to whether something is art or graffiti. The Government judges us on the number of clean walls we have.”
You dirty rat: street cleaners prepare to blast Banksy away – Independent Online Edition > This Britain

No really, where?

Overdressed, pretty-lady: I don’t want to eat too much and get fat, you know. There’s only one place you want fat, and that’s here. I have just enough there, don’t you think?

Older gentleman: (mumbled response)

Pretty-lday: Oh, so you like Sherrie do you?

Overheard at Dehli restaurant during lunch buffet. Couple was seated behind Pawn.

Door County Gibson

Door County Gibson

This delightful concontion brings a pleasent and refreshing twist to the standard Gibson for early autumn evenings in Wisconsin. This is the time when we celebrate the cherry harvest, and the orchards are rife with the product of the cherry trees. In Wisconsin that means cherries from Door County, the thumb in the mitten-like shape of the state. Substituting a little 100% pure cherry juice (not sweetened) for vermouth will leave you smiling at your soon empty glass. Use a good potato vodka for this drink, you’ll appreciate how this almost flavorless variety of vodka gets out of the way of the cherry juice’s dry, almost bitter flavor. This most certainly is not cherry vodka!

Door County Gibson

To a shaker of ice add a healthy splash of 100% pure, unsweetened cherry juice (a mighty anti-oxident!)

Add enough potato vodka to make a decent martini, about 3 or 4 ounces

Shake well, and strain into a martini glass

Garnish with a cherry

The Blood Spatter Widens

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My hero, Independent columnist Robert Fisk writes today on the resurgence of militias and glut of cheap, available weapons on the streets of Lebanon. Both arguably side effects of our bloody misadventure in Iraq:

Lebanon is peopled with ghosts. But the phantoms now returning to haunt this damaged country –the militias which tore it apart more than 30 years ago – are real. Guns are flooding back into the country – $800 for an AK-47, $3,700 for a brand-new French Famas – as Lebanon security apparatus hunt desperately for the leadership of the new and secret armies.
<SNIP>
What now worries the Lebanese authorities, however, is the sheer scale of weaponry arriving in Lebanon. It appears to include new Glock pistols (asking price $1,000). There are growing fears, moreover, that many of these guns are from the vast stock of 190,000 rifles and pistols which the US military “lost” when they handed them out to Iraqi police officers without registering their numbers or destination. The American weapons included 125,000 Glock pistols. The Lebanese-Iraqi connection is anyway well established. A growing number of suicide bombers in Iraq come from the Lebanese cities of Tripoli and Sidon.
Robert Fisk: Secret armies pose sinister new threat to Lebanon – Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk

In forensics, blood-spatter evidence is used to recontruct the origin and angle of an insult upon the human body. In the Middle East right now, and spreading up into Turkey and Eurasia, we are seeing the spreading of the blood spatter from the Bush adminitration’s feckless prosecution of two wars — one just one manifestly unjust.

A Headless Party – Just In Time For Halloween

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Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), variously described as the head or the face of the Republican Party is calling it quits stepping down after less than 11 months on the job, according to the AP:

Mel Martinez, the public face of the Republican National Committee as its general chairman, announced Friday he was stepping down from his post after serving only 10 months.
“I believe that our future as a party and nation is bright and I have every intention of continuing to fight for our president, our party and our candidates,” the Florida senator said in a statement.
His resignation came months earlier than anticipated. Martinez wasn’t expected to step down until a Republican presidential nominee was selected, and the earliest that could occur is February.
The RNC said Martinez’ job would not be filled.
Martinez, who is up for re-election in 2010, said he was relinquishing the job to spend more time focusing on his constituents and because the RNC had achieved the objective he set when he assumed the job in January.
“It was my goal as general chairman to lead the party as it established the structure and raised the resources necessary to support our presidential candidate and ensure Republican victories next November. I believe we have accomplished those goals,” Martinez said.
Martinez quits as RNC general chairman – Yahoo! News

I particularly like the part where he says, “My work here is done.”

The party has no plans to replace him. I guess without a leader the Republicans figure they’ll be immune from the old “Fish rot from the head” problems.