People seemed to have a problem with the concept of Occupy the Rose Parade, but the intent was not to disrupt the parade. Why not take advantage of an opportunity when the streets are blocked off and people are watching to express one’s opinion? After all, those Jesus people do the same thing every year.

The music is courtesy of the Rose Parade—it’s the “good bye, we’ll see you next year” music. Of course, seeing the Constitution roll by with “Sentimental Journey” playing…well, the irony was not lost on yours truly.  Oops…the song is Moonlight Serenade.  Thanks, Petrea!  Mr. Earl mentioned it was Moonlight Serenade on Facebook too.  In any case, as you can hear in the video, the music was terrifically loud…

The music was more upbeat by the time the Octopus rolled by (anyone know the name of the tune)?

I’m terribly allergic to cats.  But I let Rex sit on my lap and scratch him under the chin and talk to him like he’s a dog. I don’t think cats care for verbal niceties, but Rex puts up with them. Afterward, I walk to the washing machine like an arthritic robot and remove all my clothing. In the shower I hose off like Meryl Streep in Silkwood.

He looks like a lovely ampersand to me.

Beau chat

The Neverending Nightmare of Amanda Knox by Nathaniel Rich

Could Amanda Knox Have an Autism Spectrum Disorder? by Maia Szalavitz

Why There Will Always Be Three Amanda Knoxes by Nina Burleigh

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Altadena Hiker ponders the accusations against the accused Knox on her blog over here.

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Let’s face it…Wordpress blog postings with pictures look awesome on the iPad.  Ergo, here is an image from the car wash.

photo by Timothy Down

Oh, that I had heeded her advice.  But then I read “Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult.”  I can’t find any substantial point in this article, written by Mike Lofgren, that I disagree with.  Lofgren writes (speaking about Republicans):

For people who profess to revere the Constitution, it is strange that they so caustically denigrate the very federal government that is the material expression of the principles embodied in that document. This is not to say that there is not some theoretical limit to the size or intrusiveness of government; I would be the first to say there are such limits, both fiscal and Constitutional. But most Republican officeholders seem strangely uninterested in the effective repeal of Fourth Amendment protections by the Patriot Act, the weakening of habeas corpus and self-incrimination protections in the public hysteria following 9/11 or the unpalatable fact that the United States has the largest incarcerated population of any country on earth.

Of the many things that have changed since 9/11, it’s that bit about the Fourth Amendment and the Patriot Act that I find particularly disconcerting.  Consider this story about over-zealous law enforcement at Mall of America (over here).  God help you if you’re not white and accidentally leave your cell phone behind.

Et voilà—I started reading 911Truth.org.

It’s commonly accepted that ‘conspiracy theorists’ are basically nut jobs who want to find the meaning of major events in unrelated facts, who want to make a case for a grand unified explanation when in reality no such big plan/big picture could actually exist.  According to Timothy Melley, author of Empire of Conspiracy, “Conspiracy theory, paranoia, and anxiety about human agency…are all part of the paradox in which a supposedly individualist culture conserves its individualism by continually imagining it to be in imminent peril.”  In other words, conspiracy theorists are paranoid…though even Melley admits that “…they are difficult to dismiss as paranoid in the clinical sense of pathologically deluded.”  But never mind that—in modern media and general public opinion, they are.

Call me a nut job, but there are cogent reasons why people I doubt the government’s version of the events of 9/11.  Pointing out inconsistencies doesn’t make you a fringe lunatic or unpatriotic.

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, who could hardly be confused with a rabble of untreated psychiatric patients, have a new video out about World Trade Center  Building 7.  Considering that this building wasn’t hit by a plane, it is rather remarkable that it collapsed at all.

Yes, Ed Asner’s tone may be over the top, the music may be a bit much.  But science is compelling stuff.

Tomato envy is a big deal in these out-West parts.  Oh, we feign niceness, we pepper each other with niceties.  But let’s face it, the green thumbs out here (I am not in their number) are in pitched battle to grow the Best Tomato West of the Rockies.

I don’t care who’s growing.  Tomatoes are better back east.  There.  I’ve said it.

The Scout has been growing Early Girls and Purple Cherokees this summer, but his plants are too much stalk without enough broad leaf.  Is he over-watering?  His admiration for the Hiker’s tomatoes resulted in the following (to the tune of California Girls by the Beach Boys):

Well east coast fruits are hip
I really dig the red they wear
And the southern shades with the way they stalk
They knock me out how well they bear

The mid-west beef marauders really make me eat a fright
And the northern looms are the heirs so fair
They keep the palate warm and bright

I wish they all could be ‘Dena Hiker’s
I wish they all could be ‘Dena Hiker’s
I wish they all could be Hiker’s early girls

What The Scout lacks in green thumbery is made up for by clever wordsmithery.  He’s my Best Boy.

Of course it was not possible for me to stick one toe into the Palin pond without ending up face down and about to drown in the inch of water that is the Palin saga.  I haven’t paid attention to Palin for the past couple of years, but The Sarahscapades still give me cat scratch fever.  The statement below got me reading about her again (full article here):

Palin’s disdain goes beyond the bitterness of a public figure who has been burned by the press…Perhaps one key to Palin’s dislike of the news media is a streak of intellectual insecurity, or a trace of impostor syndrome.  Her best defense against being found shallow is a strong offense.

Another factor, I think, is that the humiliations she has endured in the media have been unusually invasive—including, at the lowest point, speculation that Palin’s youngest son, Trig, was actually born to her daughter, Bristol, and borrowed as a campaign prop. 

If we’re pointing fingers, Sarah Palin’s Lies (at palindeception.com) and  Palin’s Deceptions (at palindeception.blogspot.com)  have done a good job of trying to ferret out what happened.  (Shout out to Palingates over here as well.)  There are probably others.  Again, I quit paying attention to Palin shortly after the 2008 election and carried on not caring when she quit being Governor to pursue a career in reality television.

Until today.  I won’t drag you point by point through what I’ve read today.  Let’s just fast forward to Bristol Palin’s appearance on Good Morning America, June 27, 2011.  You can see it here.  BP is on the publicity circuit to publicize her new book, Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far.

In the interview, Bristol is forthright: She is a single mother with a son to support.  This is why she appeared on Dancing With the Stars, and she says as much.  (Presumably it is also why she wrote the book.)  Bristol will star in her own reality show later this year.

Two comments:

1. Minute 2:00 — A photo is shown of Bristol holding both Tripp and Trig.  For those of us in the ‘Bristol is probably Trig’s mom’ camp, this was gasp-worthy.  Certainly someone is making intentional decisions about the photos that will be seen during the interview.  Bare minimum, if you are trying to fuel the rumor machine about Trig’s parentage, this was the photo to keep it going.  (The Scout noted that Trig bears a resemblance to Levi Johnston.  You make the call.)

2. Minute 4:45  — Robin Roberts mentions that Bristol writes in her book that she was “thrown under the campaign bus” — with little help from the McCain team.  Bristol confirms this.

Let’s have a quick look at Sarah Palin’s Lies:

Make no mistake here. What the McCain campaign did was nothing short of genius. Faced with some very reasonable questions about the circumstances surrounding Sarah Palin’s giving birth in April of 2008, they managed to diffuse the entire controversy without ever releasing a single piece of information about Sarah Palin or the birth.  Instead, the story was re-framed to be about a seventeen-year-old girl, and then, immediately became off-limits because, conveniently, families and children of candidates are off-limits. That they were able to get away with this switcheroo is astonishing.  It seems to occur to almost no one that it was the McCain campaign that threw Bristol “under the bus” to begin with. (emphasis mine)

Back to the interview, minute 4:45.  There’s the same “under the bus” language.  Language that apparently made it into  the book.

Kudos to those who prepared the GMA interview questions for doing their homework.  Duly noted.

Sarah Palin has a loose, difficult relationship with facts, whether they are the facts of her own family history or the facts of America’s history.  Bill Keller pointed out that Sarah wants our attention.  Well, count me in, because once again she got my attention.  I will have to choose another reprieve for myself after today.

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Trash-or-Truth Talkin’ Super Bonus: Todd Palin’s paramour says she gave Sarah Palin a massage in early 2008 (here! over here!).  Paramour’s surname is Tripp.  You just can’t make this stuff up.

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A photo of the Firth of Forth on this fourth…

Photo credit: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/F/firth.html

-Can a man be in love two women at the same time?

-Shoulda/woulda/coulda: At least one character deals with a “what if” question.  As in: “What if I had stayed in Paris instead of leaving?”

-The writer struggles, but then gets positive feedback (just like Dianne Wiest’s Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters)

-The past was probably a better place to be, except they didn’t have antibiotics.

This is not an exhaustive list, nor is this a proper movie review.  I want to pose a question to those of you who have seen the film.

*SPOILER ALERT*  Quit reading now if you haven’t seen the film and plan to do so.

My contention is that Gil, in love with Adriana, should have stayed with her.  I know he has a realization that no matter what period of history he’s in, even if it’s his favorite one with his idols, he will eventually be discontented.  Alright then, if that’s the case, at least stay with the woman you love.  Even if it’s her favorite time in the past and not hers. If you love her, you’ll do that.

Instead, Gil mentions antibiotics, leaves his love and returns to his present.  His romantic ideal is trumped by the marvels of modern medicine.  He ends up bumping into (again, like the end of Hannah and Her Sisters) the woman who works at the antique shop.  She’s cute, but she’s no Marion Cottillard in La Belle Époque.

But that’s Woody for you.  He’s smart enough to know that if you’re going to make a romantic movie, end it at the beginning of the relationship. Because we all know that there’s only one way to go after that initial pinnacle of attraction and delight.

Photo courtesy of foodnetworktv.com

PS  No one in the theatre laughed louder than I did when Gil said he’s from Pasadena.

A soul-sapping thank-you if I ever received one. Administrator can’t be bothered to walk down the hall herself. And what the hell is “all I do?” I do my job. I get a paycheck. I avoid products made in China—practically a full-time job in itself.  Try to find something that wasn’t either made in China or made in a modern-day sweatshop.  Oy vey.

This picture has nothing to do with what I just said.  I prefer posts with pictures, that’s all.  Here’s a fun one (and perhaps a bit more germane)…

Here’s where to go for info: The Daily Page (dot com).

Here’s a nice encapsulation of the hubbub from Salon:

Union leaders have agreed to pay more for their benefits, which equates to an 8 percent pay cut, as Walker has proposed as long as they can retain their bargaining rights. Walker has refused to compromise, although he said last week that he was negotiating some changes with Democrats.

For those of you like me who never thought the American public would break away from the couch and the remote control to do something like this, well, this is pretty cool stuff.  Here’s a link to Huff Po’s The Best Wisconsin Protest Signs.

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Happy Spring, everyone.

I started yelling at him about his trash. I rolled down my window (passenger side – he was to my right) to make sure he knew what I meant. He had hypocrite all over his face. I could see that he routinely chides his wife/lover/significant other/spouse/ward/charge/his own mother/(your name here)  for stuff that he does all the time.

He knew I was angry and he was waiting to see my white middle finger once the light turned green. He glanced over, hoping for vitriol.

He got Gandhi. I pressed my palms together in such a way as to say, “I’m praying for you buddy.”  Not in that wimpy Christians-we-look-down way, in the Gandhi way.  I might as well have had a white diaper on.

Ape that he was, he had to do the same to me. Never was a man with a mustache so unappealing.