I is for Iommi

...or Iron Man, I suppose. The only seventies bands I could think of beginning with "I" are Iron Butterfly, which to me is a sixties band, and Iron Maiden which, in my mind, will always be an eighties metal band.

This tune is all Iommi, IMHO.

What was my emergency again?

Many of you no doubt have seen this famous quote on signs, mugs, t-shirts, etc.

There's is a qualified and highly more accurate quote based on this one which I found in this wise man's forum signature:

Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?

Like Dylan said...

TAC publisher's Anonymous pet given 63 months, $890,000 in restitution

Barrett Brown, the Anonymous spokesman who threatened the family of FBI agent Robert Smith, has just been sentenced to 63 months in prison and ordered to pay $890,000 in restitution.

Championing Brown over the last two years (see further "Free Barrett Brown" links there if interested) has proved a click bonanza from young supporters of Brown for Wick Allison, publisher of The American Conservative.

The full details of Brown's relationship with Anonymous and its assaults on Stratfor and other organizations is widely available on the internet. Below is the link to an NSFW F-bomb-filled Part Three of Brown's threats against Agent Smith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOW7GOrXNZI

Even though a punk is involved, there's no music, so I decided not to embed it.

UPDATE (as they say): More what-can-you-do-for-me-today? journalism

Effete Elite conservatism vs. "Happy crazy hair smiles"

Sistah Raccoon is at it again. I think I'll just post her entire communiqué to the good people of St. Francisville, Louisiana. I will even include her signature remark to Baby Raccoon with which she always closes these missives.

Well I understan now why you peoples have all them famly conflicts down there in you deep dark woods. Lil Ray he be talking about you all a time. All a time. He even lead off he whole big new magazine article wif a rehash a Lil Ruthie an all her faults. Lil Ray say he say

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articl...

"Years ago, when my wife and I first committed to homeschooling our kids, we caught hell from my sister, a public schoolteacher. Most of her objections were familiar to us, and we had answers for them. One we didn’t see coming, though: her utter lack of sympathy for our interest in a pedagogy that focused on the classics of the Western tradition.

This surprised me because my sister was a conservative, like most people in my hometown. My conservatism is primarily cultural, social, and intellectual. Hers was also cultural and social, but it was more temperamental than intellectual. In fact, though my sister was a math instructor, and a good one, she had a reflexive disdain for intellectualism. She saw it as an effete indulgence at best, at worst a rationale for exploiting the common man. For her, the culture war was really class warfare—and her brother was on the other side of the trenches.

It didn’t matter that I had forgotten more political theory than she ever knew. What mattered was that I was a city dweller who shopped at Whole Foods and didn’t care for Sarah Palin’s style of politics. That marked me out as a traitor to the tribe."

Now I dunno if Lil Ruthie ever did any such thing at all mind you. Jus what Lil Ray say. Poor Lil Ruthie dead now. Can't say for herself no more.

So the conflict mus be Lil Ray he be a "elite conservative" save by he Dante sav and he internet life style who be "forgotten more political theory than she ever knew" while a res a you folks watch that Duck Dynasty and smile you happy crazy hair smiles. An even wif you WFHS an all. No wonder you need you Lil Ray Dante Sav Benedict Option Healing Center. Heal you right up.

Peoples an they airs. You ain't nothin but a Raccoon Baby an don't you ever forget it. Thats right Baby. Good enough

There is a lot here for all you wild creatures of the forest to feast on.

Walker, Iowa Ranger?

I hope Scott Walker — who is "my guy" at this point — can navigate this gambling issue effectively. Excerpt:

Another issue where Governor Walker will have to tread carefully in Iowa is the expansion of state-approved gambling. Walker will have to decide by February 19 whether to approve a proposed $800 million Menominee Indian tribal casino in Kenosha. “Influential social conservatives in Iowa are warning Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker that approving a proposed Kenosha casino next month could hurt his presidential bid” was the lead paragraph of a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article this month. Newly elected Iowa U.S. senator Joni Ernst joined 600 other Republicans in sending Walker a petition urging him adopt a “No Expanding Gaming” policy. Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent social conservative in Iowa who led the successful defeat in 2010 of three Supreme Court justices who had approved same-sex marriage, has also written a letter to Walker highlighting the “increased societal problems of divorce, bankruptcy, debt, depression, and suicide” that gambling can produce. In 2012, Vander Plaats’s last-minute endorsement of Rick Santorum helped propel the former Pennsylvania senator to a photo-finish victory over Mitt Romney in Iowa.

I dislike gambling because of its zero-sum nature as well as its negative societal effects, the two being closely related. But it wouldn't be a deal-killer for me if Walker came out on the wrong side of it. Sounds from this mention of this kingmaker, Plaats, like it might be a deal-killer for Walker, though.

I know what's ailing me

Just like Dylan's All Along the Watchtower was practically written for Jimi Hendrix to cover...



...Ray Charles might as well have written I Don't Need No Doctor for these white Brits.

Better commentary on the Charlie Hebdo massacre

Since I often have offered the opinions of William Donohue as my own on a wide range of topics, I've been planning to post for some time with regard to how much I disagreed with his press release two weeks ago in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Donohue mentions how important it is to be "unequivocal", then he coughs this up:

Stephane Charbonnier, the paper’s publisher, was killed today in the slaughter. It is too bad that he didn’t understand the role he played in his tragic death. In 2012, when asked why he insults Muslims, he said, “Muhammad isn’t sacred to me.” Had he not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive. Muhammad isn’t sacred to me, either, but it would never occur to me to deliberately insult Muslims by trashing him.

This is pure victim-blaming, and the only explanation I'll offer cannot be an excuse for a man as bright as Donohue. He had waged battles against Charlie Hebdo and other publications which insulted religion in the past and he seems to have felt a certain justice had been served by their murders. This is not unlike the phenomenon of Jodi Arias supporters who go too far in their empathy for someone suffering at the hands of a sex-abusing reprobate. But Arias didn't get a restraining order against Travis Alexander, she murdered him. If a sensible man educates himself on what we know about the type of person Alexander was, he wouldn't want him near any of his female friends or relatives. But he was murdered; it's not about him anymore. It's about a crime which is worse.

What troubles me even more is that this characterization of an anger which is supposedly righteous and yet leads to murder misses out entirely on the nature of Islamic jihad and the threat it poses. The men who perpetrated this violence were soldiers. If there was a miraculous religious conversion at Charlie Hebdo two months ago and everyone repented and disbanded the paper, is it sensible to think that these jihadists would not have perpetrated any terrorist attack ever? They would have just waited until another target was acquired; that's what soldiers do. Look at the Boston Marathon bombing — jihadists didn't need an insult to their religion to target a foot race. Is it insulting to Muhammad to watch a soccer game? Should kids who watch a soccer game be publicly executed? Some Islamists think that's a wonderful idea, obviously, and so in a country without any "satirical" magazines that's as good a target as any for the jihad. And we could list more.

So once again, I think that William Donohue has done a very poor job of picking the bad guy here, and I'm wondering if it might be a good time for good old Bill to take a senior advisory role at the Catholic League. You don't have to hang a Je suis Charlie sign around your neck to get your priorities straight in a response. A better Catholic response was offered yesterday by George Weigel who wisely waited a few weeks before pointing out the vulnerabilities of Europe's secularism which are epitomized by Charlie Hebdo. Excerpt:

If all that Europe can say in condemning the despicable murders of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoonists and editors is “We are all Charlie Hebdo,” then what Europe is saying is, in effect, “We are all nihilists.” And how, pray, is nihilism—nothingness raised to a first principle, skepticism taken to the last extreme—supposed to defeat conviction, however warped that conviction is? If all that Europe can say to murderous jihadism is “Why can’t we all just get along?” its fecklessness will make it an even softer target for the kind of lethal fanaticism that recently turned Paris into a war zone.

There’s another aspect to this tangled and bloody business that’s worth noting, and that is the high price that Europe, and France in particular, is paying for culturally engrained (and sometimes legally enforced) political correctness. Virtually proscribing public discussion of the threat to European civility and order posed by Islamist maniacs has made dealing with that threat far more difficult: for citizens, for the security services, and for the public authorities. In the years since 9/11, the French public square has been dominated by the jihadists and the xenophobes; and in that volatile social environment, something very bad was going to happen. Now that it has, perhaps steps can be taken to bring the adults—and the real issues—back into the discussion.

Unfortunately I'm not sure that William Donohue is one of the "adults" on this topic any more than those infected with nihilism and/or political correctness. One of the secondary effects of the murders is to send the popularity of Charlie Hebdo soaring and selling more copies than ever before. So if the true purpose of these jihadists was to silence those who attach their religion, they are miserable failures. But if their purpose is to "[C]ast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve... (Qur'an 8:12)" then they are a success. Yes, many Muslims have already voiced this opinion; the them what these jihadists did in the name of Islam was fully justified.

Coming to your town

In my short career in rock music performance we never even stayed at a hotel with a "detective".

We did meet some Connie wanna-bes, tho'....