Now it's stuck in my head

Hey, what's with the grey shirt?

Here's the studio recording:

Theology of the Body for Dummies

From SMDS.

It's never the right time to have kids, but it's always the right time for screwing. God's not a dumbshit. He knows how it works.

Now, I contend that every bit of this tweet is true. It may not be the most beautiful way of stating a truth, and perhaps theological statements deserve beauty. But Sidewalk English is the best way to communicate to some people, and although it hits you sort of hard, a sock in the jaw is what some people need.

Wilder Lower Wolves

Newsmax reports that Sarah Palin has recovered from her earlier popularity dip.

Riding a wave of positive publicity from her book tour, Sarah Palin's favorable rating has crept within just 1 percent of President Barack Obama's job approval rating, according to the latest polls by CNN and USA Today/Gallup.

The results suggest Palin has fixed the dent in her popularity ratings created this summer when she announced she was stepping down as governor of Alaska.

According to a CNN poll released Monday, 46 percent of voters now say they like Palin. That's the same level of popularity she enjoyed before she resigned the Alaska governorship.

I was in a client office yesterday and I heard a bunch co-workers discussing late night hosts. Who did they like best, Conan, Leno, etc. Letterman's name came up and this dude said "He's dead to me because of the way he treated Palin and McCain and threw softballs to Obama." Everybody nodded in approval and I suppressed a huge grin.

The reason for my grin's hugeness? I've known these people for years. One of them for 12 years, another for about 7, etc. They are neither wild-eyed conservatives nor knee-jerk liberals. They are mid-westerners and members of the silent majority in the independent political middle. Sarah Palin has the kind of popular appeal among these people that some of the uber-intellects of the right don't grasp, but the more pragmatic wolves on the left can smell from miles away, hence the fear and loathing.

Oh, sure, they hate her views. But go up to the wolves and shout "Mike Huckabee!" and you'll get no baring of the teeth even though he comes down in the same place as Palin on social issues. These animals fear power, and she has got it. To be truthful, I don't see why she doesn't retire from politics and make millions of dollars writing books, maybe doing a Paul Harvey style news and comment, show up on the news shows every once and a while to point out what an ass-clown Obama is. Making all the female news sluts look ugly just by showing up would be an added bonus.

But if she runs for office, I'm behind her all the way.

Trio Live from '82

Warning: I don't speak German, but the third tune here features some "sign language". I think he also uses the word schwanz.

3 2

So that naturally reminded me of Pete Behrens (this one).

I really think you either love or hate them. I had a friend who considered their skanked out version of Tutti Frutti to be an utter blasphemy against the holy name of Little Richard. Du lieber!

But I love every thing those cats ever done.

A breath of fresh air from Deutschland

Here's a beautiful blitzkrieg from Der Spiegel on Obama's West Point bellyflop. I heard about 10 minutes of the speech, and this Kraut, Steingart, nails it up by it's lederhosen. The piece is short, so read the whole thing. I'm not going to excerpt any of it because I'm lazy and kind of drunk, too. But the ending is sweet: "The American president doesn't need any opponents at the moment. He's already got himself." Maybe Obama should look in der mirror.

David Carr on the "Obama Reality Show"

This NYT piece pulls no punches. My fave excerpts follow.

One of the downsides of having a president who is also Celebrity in Chief is that it creates the impression that the leader of the free world is part of a milieu that is more TMZ than C-SPAN. In an effort to remain connected to the social media world that was so much a part of his electoral victory, the Obama administration may be guilty of a very contemporary common offense: Oversharing.
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The president can’t be blamed for a few knuckleheads trying to game their way into his presence, but his shared love of the camera leaves him vulnerable to suggestions that he is too busy appearing as the president and not busy enough being one. And we all know that television shows — reality or otherwise — can jump the shark.

So the Big O's falling approval ratings could be related to standard media ratings, i.e., everyone is sick of his show.

Compare that to Mr. Obama’s outing to Five Guys, where he is filmed taking burger orders from staff members — “You want fries?” — and then sets off with Mr. Williams in the limo, sitting with jacket off and feet up on the seats.

I like that the current president gets out of the bubble, that he enjoys a burger, and is willing to walk back into the White House with a greasy go-bag for the staff. I’m not sure being able to watch it all unfold is good for his presidency.

“When he ran, the Obamas were pitched as kind of a reality show to the public. We’d hear about his dinners with Michelle and we felt like we knew them,” said Michael Hirschorn, a former executive at VH1 who now runs Ish Entertainment, which produces reality programming. “But now that he is in office, there is a danger of the mystique going away. The problem with social media and constant video is that it flows like water and reduces everything to the same level. Not much of it is special, and it all becomes content, even if it’s the president.”

Yeah, well I'm not a TV producer or anything, but I think what the TV-consuming public wants to see now is a big fight with Michelle Obama screaming at the Prezz, stuff like "I own you, mother-f___er!! You wouldn't be here without me!" That might help jack up the ratings again. Let Michelle be Michelle, I say. Let it all hang out. They could call it The Obamas: Reloaded.


Carr concludes by a brief contrast with Jackie Kennedy's White House tour. It's just long enough to make his point; any longer and he'd risk damaging Michelle in the comparison.

Mrs. Kennedy may have been impossibly glamorous and done her share of image management, but she had a chaste relationship with the camera and the public.

“I want to live my life, not record it,” she said.

In other words, Jackie had some class. Nuff said.



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Teen World Savers, Volume 3

This is the best one yet! More action! More silliness! More pratfalls!

And here's the exciting conclusion....