FZ

Frank Zappa, December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993.

Trey A. of Phish on FZ:

""...I'm making a new album, and the producer I'm working with told me that there is a whole generation of musicians coming up who can't play their instruments. Because of stuff like Pro Tools, they figure they can fix it all in the studio. Whereas with Frank, his musicians were pushed to the absolute brink of possibility on their instruments, at all times. Phish tried hard to do that too: to take our four little instruments and do as much as we could with them. I would not have envisioned those possibilities without him....
Zappa gave me the faith that anything in music was possible. He demystified the whole thing for musicians in my generation: "Look, these are just instruments. Find out what the range is, and start writing."""

Got that disco-emo boyz

mo' Zappa product:
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III

sabadoGigante

Diwali-mas



gimme dat ol' time religion

"The word 'chance' then expresses only our ignorance of the causes of the phenomena that we observe to occur and to succeed one another in no apparent order. Probability is relative in part to this ignorance, and in part to our knowledge." — Laplace

Mormon frauds, cont.

Daily Herald (Provo, UT):

""An 80-year-old man thought his life savings was being invested by his one-time LDS bishop, Kevin Palmer Thomas. But by the time the elderly man stopped turning over his money he had lost more than $300,000, a police affidavit states.


The affidavit alleges that Thomas, 51, used his leadership position in and knowledge of the LDS Church to earn the man's friendship. The man reportedly had saved more than $400,000 throughout the course of his life, and when he turned it over to Thomas, he believed it was secured with property and promissory notes. Thomas made token payments to the man in order to convince him that he was making a great return on his investment, the affidavit reveals. But then the payments reportedly stopped, and the man learned of his losses.


The affidavit also states that Thomas bilked the man out of an additional $15,000 when he convinced him to invest in a "hard money loan." Thomas reportedly spent the money on himself. In addition, Thomas is accused of forging checks worth more than $40,000.


As a result of the allegations, Thomas was arrested earlier this month on charges of communication fraud and exploitation of a vulnerable adult, both second-degree felonies, as well as forgery, a third-degree felony. The affidavit also describes him as a convicted felon who is currently awaiting sentencing on a different case. Court records reveal that in March Thomas pleaded guilty to theft and burglary of a vehicle. His sentencing had been scheduled for Nov. 9.


The affidavit states that Thomas could face more charges when prosecutors formally file the case and that he is a suspect in at least two other felony crimes.


The affidavit also notes that Thomas had been a successful mortgage broker for many years and that his criminal activity happened after the economic downturn in 2007 and 2008. Thomas's position in the LDS church is mentioned several times in the affidavit as well.""

Romneyocracy = one big Provo-ville.


More on LDS bunko:
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Energy-ball

LA Times:

""When the oil price shocks hit the United States in the 1970s, many Democratic stalwarts supported the Nixon and Ford administrations in their attempts to enact comprehensive energy policies. They understood that energy is not a partisan issue but rather one that draws people together to ensure the future health and security of the nation. Democratic senators, congressmen, governors and President Carter supported myriad energy technologies, policies and projects, including nuclear power, conservation, renewable energy development, the Trans-Alaska pipeline and the lifting of oil and natural gas price controls.


While other Democratic voices sometimes argued that energy policy leaned too heavily toward conventional fuels and not enough toward conservation, fuel economy or efficiency standards, few party leaders opposed specific forms of energy or played to the galleries of anti-industry activists....""

....
To Frack or not to Frack.

~(foo-ball)

“The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.”
Hawthorne.

++++++++
(relatedly: Super-scribe Brian Goldie and his favorite Tommy Trojan)

"the roads to war..."

PC Roberts/Counterpunch

""In the November 22 presidential “debate,” the candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul, revealed themselves as a collection of ignorant warmongers who support the police state. Gingrich and Cain said that Muslims “want to kill us all” and that “all of us will be in danger for the rest of out lives.”

Bachmann said that the American puppet state, Pakistan, is “more than an existential threat.” The moron Bachmann has no idea what is “more than an existential threat.”


However, it sounded heavy, like an intellectual thing to say for the candidate who previously declared the long-defunct Soviet Union to be today’s threat to the US.


Any sentient American who watched or read about the Republican presidential debate must wonder what there is to be thankful for as the national holiday approaches."""

  Miss Krenwinkle Miss Bachmann called Pakistan "more than an existential threat". The dizziness of freedom, man.

+++++++++++++++++

T-day

"Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for -- annually, not oftener -- if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments."


- Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (U of C Press, 2010).
 

Mewt vs Nitt

Gingrich vs Romney

""NASHUA, N.H.—If Mitt Romney is weak broth, Newt Gingrich is a bouillon cube. Watching the two Republican presidential front-runners in New Hampshire over two days has been a study in contrasts. Romney is a known conservative ingredient suitable in a main dish. Gingrich is a powerful dose of partisan flavor to be used sparingly.


Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the “Republican Ideas Man.” But when you listen to those ideas—the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch—you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they’re too scared of the Gingrich future.


As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama “said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition,” Romney said. “Well, I’m here to collect.”""

Many Mericans might consider a papist (Gingrich converted to the church of Aphrodite catholic church a few years ago) and a Mormonic to be completely at odds yet MR and NG have one thing in common: they're both members of  the Chickenhawk Hall of Shame.

+++++++++++

Speaking of Mormonics:  it's Dennis Dunderson, LDS-Log Cabin guy and the P-dale press club

OWS, etc.

Counterpunch/AC

""So chapter one of the Occupy movement draws to a close, and maybe the concerted onslaught by uniformed goons actually did the movement a favor – scant comfort to those battered to the ground – by leaving the Occupiers with a positive bank balance in ·terms of imagery at the moment of their enforced departures. Besides, this will allow trained teams of OWSers to hunt down all members of those drumming circles and dispose of them by any means necessary. This is not protected speech.""

sabadoGigante

Bride: A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.


Ambrose Bierce

Freddie Newt

LA Times/Gingrich:

""Newt Gingrich, who has built his now resurgent presidential candidacy in part around virulent criticism of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, found himself Wednesday defending the at least $1.6 million he reportedly earned while under contract to Freddie.

While campaigning in Iowa, Gingrich was besieged by reporters asking him about a Bloomberg News report that his consulting firm took in much more from Freddie Mac than previously reported.

The former House speaker said he didn’t know how much he had received from the federally backed mortgage company, but that he welcomed the inquiry into his private-sector work.

“Everybody will dig up everything they can dig up,” said Gingrich, according to the New York Times. “That’s fine, they should.”""

sabadoGigante

“The state of man's mind, or the elementary phase of mind which he so far possesses, conforms precisely to the state of the world as he so far views it.” Hegel

the Fraudulent

Dante's Inferno

Nix DoD cuts

say John Howard Johnsons Boehner and the Demopublicans: 

"Top congressional  Republicans, Democrats and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are united in a single message to the special bipartisan committee looking for ways to cut the deficit: Leave military spending alone.


House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday that the Pentagon budget was cut more than enough in the debt accord this past summer by President Obama and Republicans.


That deal calls for cuts of $350 billion in projected spending over 10 years. The Pentagon is planning on reductions of about $450 billion.


“I would argue that they’ve taken more than their fair share of the hits,” Boehner said.""

"Experience hath shewn...."

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”


Th. Jefferson

YU55

Asteroid/LA Times:

""Asteroid YU55 is about to swing by Earth, coming closer to our planet than the moon. It will make its closest approach at exactly 6:28 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday.

The event marks the first time that something this big has come this close to Earth since 1976, and the scientists who have been tracking it on a daily basis since Friday are giddy with anticipation.

"It is just a great scientific opportunity. It is really, really exciting," Marina Brozovic, a scientist and member of the JPL Goldstone radar team, told The Times."""...

An asteroid closer than the Moon might be said to define a "truthmaker".

PIGBALL, Inc

bad news for Joe Chestero in Happy Valley
sports-hysteria-redux

sabadoGigante

mazzy star update



Like opium day at the convent

Salud

New tax revenues

LawrenceWelk Boehner/HuffPo:

""House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that any bipartisan agreement reached by the congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee will need to include some new tax revenue.


Most Congressional Republicans have signed a "taxpayer protection pledge" -- devised by the Grover Norquist-led group Americans for Tax Reform -- vowing not to raise taxes. When asked about Norquist on Thursday, Boehner dismissed him as "some random person in America" but later revised his comments to say that "Norquist, like millions of Americans, believes that raising taxes is not good for our economy."


According to CBS News, Boehner insisted that Republicans would only compromise on tax revenue if Democrats were willing to take significant steps to shore up entitlement programs."

and the winner is...Mitt Androidly

Douthat/NYT:

"....Ignore the Politico daily briefings, the Rasmussen tracking polls, the angst from conservative activists over Romney’s past deviations and present-day dishonesties. Please ignore me as well, should campaign fever inspire a column about the Santorum surge or the Huntsman scenario. Because barring an unprecedented suspension of the laws of American politics, Mitt Romney has this thing wrapped up.


Note that I am not saying that he will win every primary or caucus. He could easily lose Iowa to somebody, and if he loses Iowa, he will probably lose some Southern primaries as well, giving political reporters grist for the horse race narrative they crave."""

Thus speaketh Douthat.