LT Saloon

Dick Armey’s Army of Darkness

City Farms

Herd About It?

by Ana Grarian

I just read Farm City the Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. It is a fun book documenting her exploits into raising everything from fruits and veggies to bees to chicks to pigs in a vacant lot in a not so desirable section of Oakland California. You get to know her and her neighbors through their interactions over her unusual enterprise. Though in her neighborhood nothing is exactly usual. Read on -- There is more »« Okay, fold it up now

Angry Townhall protestors accuse Hitler of being “the new Obama”

More brilliant satire from William K. Wolfrum:

Angry Townhall protestors accuse Hitler of being “the new Obama”

By William K. Wolfrum
William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

BERLIN (Aug. 25, 1939) — A townhall meeting led by Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels was interrupted by angry protesters, shouting anti-Nazi chants and carrying signs that compared Fuhrer Adolf Hitler to Barack Obama. The townhall meeting – which had the purpose of gaining support for Germany’s planned attack of Poland – was briefly delayed as the protesters had their say.

“We want our Germany back,” screamed one protester. “We will not go down the radical path America went down with Obama!”

Read on -- There is more »« Okay, fold it up now

BushCo Remembered

Not that we want them back in power, of course!

Inspection- The Great Rhetorical Train Wreck at Beaver River Station… (Part 2)

You might notice I also posted part one. I know this is a repost. I thought it would make sense to do this to help readers understand my use of the rhetorical train wreck. Only this edition is the great rhetorical train wreck on much smaller scale. Even the smallest communities seem to have problems discussing issues. I believe it is tearing society apart. Oh, and there is an actual train in this part of our story! I will start with a quote from the previous Inspection…

“We have become a society which argues by extreme; absurd, hyperbole… and that has become the standard for ‘rationale’ discussion. Those who disagree with us are cast in absurd stage lights while we toss rotten tomatoes: personal insults and mischaracterizations, at them. Many of these comments are no more than mere smears that would make Boris Badenov seem more human: more real. Of course another factor here is the tendency to portray whatever those who disagree with us believe in as always resulting in worst case scenarios, while whatever you believe in will always result in best case scenarios.”

“Worst and best case scenarios almost never come true.”

Beaver River Station is a quiet hamlet in what some refer to as “The Central Adirondacks.” It’s a bit more southwest than “central,” but years ago someone… maybe Mr. Cohen or Adirondack French Louie: I’m not sure… started calling the area “central” and it has super glued itself to the region since at least my great Grandfather was a guide.

There are no roads to Beaver River Station; not since the Flow, as it used to be called, was flooded near the turn of the previous century. But there is a railroad going right through the center of town. On a rare occasion I will see a train, or maintenance crews with railcars: trucks really, riding the rails past my retirement home.

There also is a controversy surrounding this railroad which is a great rhetorical train wreck on a very small scale.

When we bought our place there in 05 I longed to return to the peaceful, quiet; “get out of Dodge while going to Dodge City” town I first fell in love with in the early 60s. The kind of place where a stranger: a teen, could sit at a restaurant and play cards until past midnight with the owner’s wife and the parents of many locals… some who are now on opposing sides in this train wreck.

This sometimes rather nasty divide is over whether to rip out the rails and create a recreational trail out of what is used for snowmobiles when the train isn’t operating in the winter… or support the railroad’s efforts to hopefully have regular passenger service that passes through the Station. There’s an added incentive: a necessarily limited ability to ride the rails with a railcar.

Ever had a controversy where you feel you’re on a rack and screw and you’d rather not have one side pulling on your arms, or the other stretching your legs? This is the way I feel about this issue. I can see advantages and disadvantages either way in this debate. But what I do see is what this issue might do to my beloved Beaver River Station. As fellow Beaver River-ite Bill Partridge and I agreed a few years ago…

“This town doesn’t need, and is too small, for this kind of %$#@!.”

(I provided the “color” to our comments, to clear Bill of any foul language there may have been.)

Like all issues, we should return to some rather obvious observations from the previous Inspection…
Read on -- There is more »« Okay, fold it up now

Inspection- The Great Rhetorical Train Wreck Called America (Repost)

Just below you will find the newest Inspection. This is a repost of the previous column: part one, first published June 7th, 2009. I felt it important to have them together.

You can almost hear the wheels screeching, the train horn blow in desperation, the tipping of the cars and the engine bucking at the sudden stop.

The great rhetorical train wreck called America.

You hear it in the “I am willing to say anything” nasal tone of Ann Coulter, the Left Wing pundits who claim Obama is George Bush in Black.. or that George Bush gets off on torture… the sniffles of Glen Beck moaning and over the top histrionics about “his” America and invisible plans to steal guns.

While my own political skew is obvious to most readers, I won’t type that it’s all the fault of the Right, the Left, the Fundies, the Secular, bloggers or even my own generation. I won’t even claim that my personal pedestal is higher than all the aforementioned.

It’s not.

We have a problem America. We can’t talk to each other.

Read on -- There is more »« Okay, fold it up now

Sometimes Even Republicans Tell the Truth…

GOP Congresswoman: Party Looking For “Great White Hope”
– Eric Kleefeld, TPMDC, Aug. 26, 2009.

Jenkins: `Great white hope’ remark not about Obama
– AP, Aug. 27, 2009.

The Great White Hope
– 1970 film starring James Earl Jones.

Jack Johnson, World’s First Black Heavyweight Boxing Champion
– From Wikipedia

Ye Olde Scribe’s Incredible: Somewhat Edible, Links

“IBU. You not be Scribe. Drinking beer is better than a case of hives.”

Limbaugh at Home

Sen. Ted Kennedy Dead at 77

Tireless crusader for liberal causes Sen. Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy (D-MA) is dead at 77 from complications of a cancerous tumor in his brain. From a wealthy, famous, and well-connected family, Sen. Kennedy was perhaps one of the last practitioners, both personally and politically, of ‘noblesse oblige’ in America, the concept that those who have been fortunate in life have a moral obligation to be generous and kind to those less fortunate. (Literal French translation to English: “Nobility obligates.”)

“From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”
– Jesus, Luke 12:48.

Over the next few days you’ll hear all sorts of eulogies and encomiums to Kennedy, but the best way his colleagues could honor him would be to pass a health care reform bill with a public option covering those who can’t afford insurance, something he strongly advocated during his more than 40 years in politics.

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy Dies at 77
NBC News & news services