Happy Birthday Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp turns 45 today, but can still pass for 20 years younger. He makes any movie he's in worth watching just for his performance if nothing else. He looks a hundred different ways in photos, even those taken off the set, because he's never truly between characters. He's known for playing really eccentric characters, and likes to get "uglied up" although that never actually happens.

J.D. wiki

IMDB bio

Clark! and Dylan!

General Wesley Clark has endorsed Obama in a call for unity. He made the announcement on his mailing list, and you can read the text of the endorsement here. He's my top pick for VP, or at least something in the Obama administration.

And Bob Dylan has stated his support for Obama in this article which quotes from an interview with the Times in London. Also, according to the article, Dylan has never endorsed a candidate before. Here's a quote:

"Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval.

"Poverty is demoralizing," he said. "You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to."

Dylan, 67, reportedly shook hands with his interviewer and as he walked out the door, added, "You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future."

Furbaby Friday - Jax's pillow

This cat does like people feet. Jax sez we should be glad that somebody likes our feet since they are usually not our best feature.

Tags and links: Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at COTC - Cats - Catblogging

Worst. Souvenir. Ever.

[LINK] I know that people don't generally care about fish. I personally don't eat fish because I don't eat "beings", but most people I know DO eat them... but eating them is not the issue here. This is a Chinese Olympics souvenir (probably unofficial), a keychain that contains a live fish! Killing a fish merely for a gimmick. First of all, to use a living creature like this is unthinkable, and how stupid an idea is this? Sooo stupid and wrong on so many levels. It can't possibly be fed because the item is sealed up. Luckily for the fish, it would probably not live long.

Who would buy this? Do they think it's fun for a kid? What kind of a message is that to teach them? Disgusting.

Bobby Kennedy said...

"Our brave young men are dying in the swamps of Southeast Asia. Which of them might have written a poem? Which of them might have cured cancer? Which of them might have played in a World Series or given us the gift of laughter from the stage or helped build a bridge or a university? Which of them would have taught a child to read? It is our responsibility to let these men live....It is indecent if they die because of the empty vanity of their country." (Vietnam War speech, Calif, 3-24-68)



"Parties are instruments of government....The business of parties is not just win elections. It is to govern. And a party cannot govern if it is disunited." (Kings County Democratic dinner Brooklyn, NY, 1965)

"Every dictatorship has ultimately strangled in the web of repression it wove for its people, making mistakes that could not be corrected because criticism was prohibited." ("Value of Dissent" speech Nashville, Tennessee (1968-03-21))

"The advice 'bomb them back to the Stone Age' may show that the speaker is already there himself, but it could, if followed, force all of us to join him."

From wikiquote.

Grocery Store Swing

We went to Central Market to see The Quebe Sisters Band. They were at the Westgate location, which really kind of sucks as a music venue (the North Lamar location is excellent for music, but not this one). The Quebes (pronounced "quay-bees") are 3 early-twenty-something sisters, all fiddle champions and great singers. Their style is very retro; combination of big band and Texas swing jazz (Western Swing), so imagine Bob Wills meets Andrew Sisters and Benny Goodman... and it's pure Texas. Check them out:


Adorable. Yes, they are. And sweet too. Their following right now is mostly right in line with the music they play, lots of older folks (and by "older", I mean "even older than me") and families. They drew a good crowd, including Texas fiddle legend Johnny Gimble, whose music career goes back to the 1940s, and was a member of Bob Wills' band.

The Quebes are very talented, but I really think they should start doing some original material. They could really take off then. As good as they are, they could still easily be pigeonholed as a novelty act now.

Truce

Here's a video I posted back in March also, and it's a good time to give it another spin. It's from Kat Edmonson, a local musician. It's called "Be the change that you want to see." Just a bunch of good healing messages, reminders of what we should be about during this time. I am really going to try not to keep pounding on the wedge and busting on the Clintonites, even if I think it's deserved. It will serve them well to do the same. We'll see how long I last. A little restraint, if possible, coolheadedness, but none for the right wing. Eyes on the prize, everybody.

Captions?

Historic and incredible

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

The symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder revolve around a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and sense of entitlement. Often individuals feel overly important and will exaggerate achievements and will accept, and often demand, praise and admiration despite worthy achievements. They may be overwhelmed with fantasies involving unlimited success, power, love, or beauty and feel that they can only be understood by others who are, like them, superior in some aspect of life.

There is a sense of entitlement, of being more deserving than others based solely on their superiority. These symptoms, however, are a result of an underlying sense of inferiority and are often seen as overcompensation. Because of this, they are often envious and even angry of others who have more, receive more respect or attention, or otherwise steal away the spotlight.

found via AmericaBLOG.

There were 2 speeches last night, both by people are presuming to be the Democratic nominee, and both soldiering on either because of or in spite of the numbers. Here's Obama's nominee speech:


Tags: Obama - Clinton

More fake facts

Here it is, the last day of the Primary season and the last States vote today, but it still may not be over. Hillary is using a last-ditch pitch to sway both uncommitted and Obama superdelegates her way. Trouble is, the "facts" she's pitching are not factual.

Here’s what she told the New York Times:

“I’ve been closing very strongly since Feb. 20,” she said, referring to the day after Mr. Obama won Hawaii and Wisconsin. “I have won more votes and won more states than Senator Obama. All the independent analyses break in my direction. A lot of the key states that we have to win, I win those states.”

Her math has been different from anyone else's, and DailyKos (among others) has an explanation (go there for the numbers).

She argues that she has the popular vote, and the superD's should go to her. But...

1. she is counting votes from territories who don't vote in the general election, so being popular there is irrelevant.
2. she is NOT counting caucuses!! So Puerto Rico counts in her world but Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Washington and Wyoming do NOT.
3. she is counting Obama's Michigan votes as zero, since the flawed primary in Michigan permitted no Obama votes. Zero.

She stated that she has won more states than Obama.

No. He has won 33 contests (and is expected to win the next 2). She has won 21. I am using the CNN tallies. America Blog figures that she must be using the Feb. 20 date to spin her statement about winning more states. Very deceptive.

SuperDs... I hope you are not falling for this. We have made decisions based on blatant lies too many times. That needs to stop.

Shave and a haircut beat

R.I.P. Bo Diddley, an undisputed musical legend. This is a photo I took back in the early 70s, and at that time he was no less of a legend already. Who Do You Love, Hey Mona, Road Runner, and Hey Bo Diddley, Love is Strange, I'm a Man. It was about his rhythms, his signature beat, not his melodies. In 1963, The Everly Brothers, Little Richard, and the Rolling Stones opened for him on a UK tour, and was certainly a major influence on the Stone. Huge. And a major influence on so many others, U2, Clapton, Springsteen, Buddy Holly, so many.

Bo Diddley wiki


Here's a video from 1966 om the TNT show:

Hot Cha Cha

Don't it make you want to dance?*

Some dogs (with their people watching over them) were having some fun in this fountain. It's one of those where the water streams out of the floor. Dogs and kids have a blast with those. Yesterday, when I took this pic, it got up to 100°... AND it's humid. Since around the 18th of May we've been between 95° and 100°, It's 98° as I write this, so hello summer.

The backyard is as wild as ever, sunflowers are up, and bugs are in full force. We seem to have made our own hybrid flowers by favoring the tall ones, so most of the sunflowers are 8-10 feet tall and covered in little flowers.

Here's a shady path and one of the squash plants. Those haven't produced very much, MrB thinks partly because of heat and partly lack of bees, and partly who-knows. The importance of bees in growing vegetables is not widely known, and people really need to cut back on the pesticides.

Here's a guy (the green lynx spider) who functions as a pesticide (he eats insects) but unfortunately, like pesticides, he also kills insects we want to preserve like butterflies and bees. We leave him alone though, because he's part of the balance.

Also part of the balance is that colony of Great Golden Digger Wasps that lives right outside the only outdoor exit of the screened porch. Out of all the dirt patches in the whole area... that had to pick right there to move in. MrB has spotted them flying with grasshoppers in their clutches and taking them down the holes for feasting. If you want to see a Youtube of this digger wasp feat, click here (someone else's video). They probably take down a few of the lynx spiders and other 8-leggers too. These suckers are big. I'm told the males can't sting me and the females aren't that interested in doing it, so I just watch my step.

I'll leave you with this wild backyard pic to enjoy sans mosquitoes and in air conditioned comfort, or if you are in another climate, with your late spring cool breezes.

*Song title - Rusty Weir

Scorched earth, bitter people

The Clinton campaign has nurtured a huge movement of people, many of whom will not even vote for a Democrat in November if their candidate -- the one entitled to the mantle in spite of losing the contest using every measurement -- is not the nominee.
Well, if their own racist feelings will not permit them to vote for a black person, then the white guy might represent them better anyway.

I watched some of the proceedings yesterday. I thought it was as good as any reality TV show can be. Wexler and many others made their points with extreme passion. Here's a clip where he smacks down Ickes.

Here are links for the rest of his debate speech. Good stuff. He simply kicked ass. Not that some of the others didn't...

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

And Ickes made it plain that party unity will only be achieved when ALL their demands are met, and they get their way 100%. Compromise is not what the Hillary presidency would be about (a quality that she shares with Bush, along with delusional).

She will win Puerto Rico today, so she can add those numbers to her "I have the popular vote" tally even though Puerto Rico is irrelevant because they don't vote in the Presidential election. And telling more lies, making claims to be "the most fiscally responsible candidate" even though she has not even been able to manage a campaign budget without going $20,000,000 in debt. Just saying something over and over doesn't make it true, but there are plenty of people who believe every word.

I am not ashamed of people who vote their conscience no matter who they vote for. This is America. I am ashamed of the way the Clintons have built this wall through the heart of what can be a strong, unified party that will take back the White House from its permanent Republican Neocon Rovian grasp that is destroying this country and everything it is supposed to stand for.

This election is about the American people, Hillary. It's not about YOU.

The needs of the many are greater than the needs of the one. Go back to the Senate and later you can run for Governor of New York and win. It's a powerful position that will probably be available soon. That's your pacifier... so suck it.