Everything's Going My Way

So I'm writing you from San Francisco, where I've finally returned after 5 years, to collect my things, see old friends, and celebrate my birthday (yesterday). It's been great, and I'm leaving for home today, driving a huge U-Haul loaded with my recording equipment, and looking forward to the work I'm about to create with it - again, finally. Lots of things are about to change.

In the meantime, I thought I'd catch you up on how everyone's latest favorite NewAge nut job, Laura Dern's Enlightened character Amy Jellicoe, is faring in her series' second season. Let's see:

 Still crying over destroying a relationship. 

 Still crying over messing up at work. 

 Still going off, and still blaming her completely uncalled-for explosions on anyone and everyone convenient, rather than her own immature outlook. 

 Which means nothing has changed and the show's still very realistic. Please make a note of it:  

I'll see you when I get my stuff back over the Sierra's,...

 

Fuck Dale Carnegie - Bukowski, Bitches!

I'd say this, from Glenn Reynolds, sums up what's wrong with the Republican party pretty well:

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “Let’s just say that the libertarian movement would do well to spend less time reading Ayn Rand and more time reading Dale Carnegie.”

Yeah - self help - exactly what we need to become laughing stocks, twice in a row! 

Not surprising from the Instapundit. Further down the rabbit hole. Lost. 

 I'm thinking about talking to these guys 'cause, pardon me, but failure is no longer an option,,..

 

It Would Be An Honor

 

 I have no idea - beyond blowjobs - what Arianna Huffington has contributed of worth to mankind:

"All I can remember her saying was that, when she was a little girl, the Virgin Mary had meant so much to her and now here I was cruelly destroying her dreams.”

I hope the blowjobs are worth it,...

 

Baked In Politics: Eating The Cake Doughnations Create

 

On the face of it, I still like the law, though my estimation of lawyers has fallen considerably. 

 

Science, too, can still turn my head - like J. Howard Marshall's first gander at Anna Nicole Smith - but scientists? Forget 'em.

   

But, when I think about it, religion and it's offshoots seem to be one of the few areas of life that I dislike the practice - and, eventually, many of the participants - in equal measure.

   

A big reason for that is because, like a pipeless hashish smoker, one of the few ways to capture the "spiritual" smoke they're blowing is under glass:

Transactions involving millions of dollars, an unsolved murder of a table member, a mysterious severed animal’s head seen as a threat, a lying witness, a secret recording and the destruction of lifelong friendships.

 

 It's much easier with the others, though not much different, except in scale. If I ever needed an example of how fools will instinctually follow their own worst enemy right over a cliff, I've got one - from the world of politics, The American Interest Magazine:

Instapundit maestro Glenn Reynolds has been saying for some time that from where he sits, the Carter comparison looks like a best case scenario for this President.  For all our sakes, I hope Glenn is wrong,….

 

 Nope - according to The Laws Of Quantum Failure - it looks like my own personal Dr. Evil (or is that Inspector Clouseau?) finally got something hilariously right:

President Barack Obama expressed gratitude last week to former President Jimmy Carter's grandson, who had a role in leaking secretly-recorded video of Mitt Romney's infamous "47%" comments, James Carter said Thursday on CNN.

 

And what, BTW, does Jimmy Carter's Grandson do? Oops - WORST CASE SCENARIO!!!! - He's just an opposition researcher! I've said it before and I'll say it again:

   

 Folks, Glenn Reynolds is just another in a long fucking line of history's smart-sounding idiots.  

 But - since he spared us Mitt Romney - he's one I'm currently grateful for.  

 But not the only one:

   

With this revelation, in a way, it can be said everybody's two favorite "conservative" law bloggers - Ann Althouse and Glenn Reynolds - are, both, partially responsible for the course of Obama's presidency!

   

 Which brings me to something I find weird:

   

 Just as I discovered, pre-election, I couldn't vote for either presidential candidate because I knew better than to accept what I either was saying, I also found I could no longer read what are, ostensibly, his two greatest online supporters - for what I suspected was exactly the same reason!

   

 They said they were for brains, but it's all about seeing the narcissistic reality, baby, which - from them all the way up to Obama - is, now, obviously the same when it comes to the rest of us:

   

 You will pay the price for their folly,…

Blowing Smoke

I just glanced at Hot Air and there's nothing mentioned worth talking about - which is funny, because they haven't run out of posts, the poor things. Nah - there's no more money - so what must be done will be, the only question is how quickly we adapt.

I can wait,...

 

Damp It Down (Further)

So - now that the world's "ended" - it's cool to say "I was forced to eat raw animal organs"** while serving as a religious cult's sex slave in Mexico? Whatever. Scientology's got a concentration camp in the California desert, where who knows what goes on, and nobody's getting too upset about that:

Ex-cultists are expecting waaay too much from this crowd,...

**ADDED: Honestly, my first thought when reading that was, "Hey - so was I!"

No Bowing - Even If Warranted (That Would Be A Biggie)

These people are so damned s-l-o-w. Not only is it long past time for nation-wide in-sync traffic lights but, if I were Lord Of All I Survey (stay with me, I'm mulling it over) we would also adopt Utah's grid system for street addresses. Of course recycling would be eliminated, along with homeopathy, because those and other forms of fraud would finally be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And I'd probably even legalize drugs once I saw signs America was mature enough to take them.

Kind of a "reward system" thing, maybe, I don't know.

 Like I said, I'm mulling it over,...

Ahh, Yes - France: I Can Smell The Cheese From Here,...

You'd have to check the posts under TMR's "France" tag, but (I think) I've mentioned before that, while living in France, I once watched 9 guys dig a hole. Or rather, one guy dug, another "supervised" his work, and the rest smoked, joked, and tried to look fashionable enough to compete with the police for the lady's attentions. So - and since I remember that so-called "work crew" also only brought one shovel for the job - this has the ring of truth:

PARIS (Reuters) - The CEO of a U.S. tire maker has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders view France's work ethic in a letter saying he would have to be stupid to take over a factory whose staff only put in three hours work a day. 

Titan International's Maurice Taylor, nicknamed "The Grizz" for his negotiating style, told the left-wing French industry minister in a letter published by media on Wednesday that he had no interest in rescuing a plant set for closure. 

"The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three," Taylor wrote on February 8 in the letter in English to the minister, Arnaud Montebourg. 

"I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that's the French way!" Taylor added in the letter, which was posted by business daily Les Echos on its website and which the ministry confirmed was genuine. 

"Titan is going to buy a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one Euro per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs," he said. "You can keep the so-called workers."

The French like to tell themselves we "Americans live to work, while the French work to live", but, when they do so, they always overlook two things: 

1) Sure, Americans like to work - we're the shit, and making stuff and accomplishing things is fun. 

 2) People who talk to themselves, instead, are crazy,...

 

Black (By Accident)

In No Sense

This is John Prine. A new friend turned me onto him during my first year in high school. At the time, I never thought I'd like music like this, but the words got to me, allowing a glimpse at Prine's humanity and that of the people he sang about. He made it easy.

I found Prine's "Best of" collection today and bought it - flooded with memories of being young, dumb and homeless, but beginning to look at the world in whole new way, especially when it came to "adult concerns". This was my soundtrack. And I smiled:

 A prelude to the nightmare to come,...

 

Remember That Perfume, "Obsession"? It Stank, Too,...

O.K., here's Instapundit - the most-popular-and-lauded (and supposedly-totally-cutting-edge) of the law professor blogs - with a Question Of The Day:

"IS FACEBOOK OVER? Bye, bye, Facebook: Americans abandoning in droves, says poll. I notice that my timeline moves a lot more slowly than it used to."

"I'm Starting To Get Turned Off To Facebook"

(You know where this is going:) That's TMR from April 20011, making it clear Glenn's "timeline," in reality, has actually already moved far into reverse.

Sigh. I don't know why I bother. Reynolds is simply not a Big Picture kind of guy, and so, probably pretty worthless. As his predictions about the last presidential election, also, showed: 

 

When it comes to blogging, if Instapundit's cutting edge, we're discussing very dull blades,…

Held Down-Held Back-Held Up (Don't Touch Me Again)

When I can read a Bloomberg headline like "Obama’s Agenda Seen as Dead in the Water by Republicans," it just serves to remind me how utterly deceitful those in my party are about the political danger we face - and the litany of useless End Of The World chain-yanking we endure.

 

I can barely stand to open my email box for all the bullshit.

 

And losing an election didn't change a thing.

The funniest bits are these "remember that 2016 is only three years away" messages, reminding me (warning me, waaay too soon) I can look forward to, once again, watching these lames display their strength by screaming "watch this" before jumping off a cliff. Oh goody.

 

The point of this blog is, of course, I don't get any of it.

   

The problem seems pretty simple to me: 

About one quarter of the Western world has an issue with reality, but rather than correct them - even on issues as clear as the historical record - some would prefer we accept or accommodate them, or possibly even elect them as our leaders, insisting we somehow overlook the glaring inaccuracies they spew.

   

I ask you - of the 1,000s of interviews Mitt Romney did - how many of these supposedly bloody-meat-desiring "journalists" were willing to challenge the candidate on something as simple and clear-cut as the historical record?

   

The delusional's apologists claim to do this out of a sense of decorum.

   

A sincere desire not to be confrontational with our "nice" neighbors who admit they've dedicated their lives to spreading whatever their particular brands of misinformation are, with no one - not the delusional or their supporters - taking responsibility for any confusion or other problems that may result. (Like dealing with a teen's supposedly-unwanted pregnancy, we are to accept "these things just happen.") It's driven more by cowardice and, quite obviously, an easy-out lack of ethics. 

Assholes: A theory 

The asshole: 1. allows himself to enjoy special advantages and does so systematically; 

2. does this out of an entrenched sense of entitlement; and 

3. is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people 

Aaron James

In the end, there's only one direction for us to go in, so the question is if we'll continue to go there willingly, or continue in this haphazard, one-step-forward/two-steps-back fashion.

   

 If we were smart, we'd cut through this bullshit - advancing by adhering to the facts and not beliefs. 

Unfortunately, until more of us grow a couple, we'll stay stuck on the basics,…

Time Is The Enemy

Unless of course, if it's all you've got, then shut up,...

Almost Slipped It Past Me: Our New Republican Anthem

Lord only knows 

it's getting late   

Your senses are gone 

so don't you hesitate 

To give yourself a call, 

Let your bottom dollars fall 

Throwing your two bit cares 

down the drain 

Invite me to the seven seas 

Like some seasick man 

You'll do whatever you please 

And I'll do whatever I can 

Titanic, fare thee well, 

My eyes are turning pink 

Don't call us when the new age 

Gets old enough to drink

-- Beck's "Lord Only Knows" from the album Odelay

 

Sound Effects

 I'm so disconnected now, I don't even know what day it is. 

I have to constantly check the calendar.

Same thing with time - it's so totally fluid now - so the phenomena even applies to TMR:

I actually had to check my own friggin' blog to see what's up with it.

You'd think I'd know, wouldn't you?

Nah, not right now. 

I got something going on that supersedes everything else - starting with my friend/roommate/landlord falling down, getting confused, and then having to finally be committed to a long-term facility.

The doctors now think there was a loss of oxygen to the brain, which means I'm caring for a guy whose personality is basically unchanged, though some cognitive abilities, like sense of location, are completely shot. Plus he's delusional, which I'd think would allow him to fit right in, but no.

Putting it all together, I'm living in the home (and handling the affairs) of my close friend who A) now lives nearby, and B) I enthusiastically greet - like for the very first time - on several occasions per visit. Mind you, he knows who I am, but not where we are, or how we came to be BFFs, and - thank you very much - he kind of doesn't care. As far as he's concerned, he "just got back from a skiing trip last night" and I'm his old buddy visiting him (somewhere on Earth) in what he originally said was a Navy ship, but has since upgraded to a hotel with, what I gather is, barely three star service.

I let him have that. I don't argue with his take on it. 

 It's good practice for my engagement with the rest of the world.

Fortunately, my friend's daughter (who has power of attorney) and I are more comfortable with accepting his new mental condition - and our new living situation that's resulted from it - than his other friends. To our fascination, and frustration, these fine folks have adopted a seemingly uniform position that A) the guy just needs "a swift kick in the butt" to get his mojo working again, and B) I should never have been allowed to move into his larger master bedroom until said "kick" has been applied to their satisfaction.

They're, all, either wealthy or health and environment nuts from out of state.

But, like I said, nobody's listening.

So, I'm now sleeping on a King-sized mattress again, in a gigantic bedroom, and - after I return from a visit to California in a week or so - I'll not only have a new recording studio assembled in one of it's corners but, after seven long years, that'll put me back on the road to prosperity again.

Weird how that worked out, huh?

Not there yet, though. Let's get this blog puppy back on track. 

Here's The Macho Response Mumbo Jumbo Update:

Nothing's changed.

The NewAge End Of The World resulted in their/our/this Year Zero having a "13" stuck on it - 2013 - which, if you think about it, is "spiritually" significant (snark). Bad Luck. Year Of The Snake. 

Mitt Romney.

So, if you believe, then The Force is against you - not just on a quantum level but on a totally sex-at-Woodstock cosmic one - and it's growing. Long story-short, there may be a lack of funds, because they're idiots, but there's still more than enough reality left to go around.

The folks everybody thinks are crazy, completely lost in time, will be driving the so-called sane mad with our almost blissful contentment at the sight of their world dissolving.

Left? Right? Doesn't matter. Political goal posts - though still insisted on - haven't been moved,...but were never a prominent feature of the Western playing field to begin with. I've told you:

This was always about cult(ure).

And, no matter where I sit, the prevailing one's lost,…