i am a slob. i admit it. but the advantage of being a slob - besides the obvious fact that it is easy to pick you out in a political meeting - is that i rarely have to deal with the prom dress crisis.

you know the prom dress crisis. the cold sweat and sheer outrage that overcame your date when another girl (who did look better in it, admit it, you lied) shows up in the same dress.

in the sunday night confines of a fine korean bbq in k-town, i met my prom dress crisis. some would call it a doppleganger crisis, but he was much taller and better looking than me.

"hey," k poked me in the ribs. "check that guy out."

a ribbed sweater with no gathering. black t-shirt underneath. torn jeans (but were they lucky? hah!) and, goddamit, doc martins, but the cool ones with the stitch all the way down the toe. just like i'm wearing.

and then, dammit, the same fucking glasses.

"he's dressed just like you!" said k.

there were two caucasian guys in the whole damn restaurant. and we looked like we had been shopping together that afternoon.

that does it.

red ties from here on out.

THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH SOCIETY.

rarely is this point made so clearly.

so they estimate over 22,000 people dead from the tsunami.

and what is the caption on the AP photo?

Tsunami aftermath in Sri Lanka. The insurance sector was shaken by the waves of damage along the coastline of South Asia but insurers said that the cost of claims was likely to be contained because many of those affected could not afford comprehensive cover(AFP/Sena Vidanagama)

i just returned from a trip to italy.

i flew coach on lufthansa, the german airline.

my calls for taking over the last 4 rows of business class for coach lebensraum were not accepted, despite the fact our desitination was munich.

"if god had not wanted them shorn, he would not have made them sheep."

calvera,
the magnificent seven

R.I.P. elmer bernstein

why i love los angeles:

turandot at sunset at the hollywood bowl, with Hei-Kyung Hong.

sweet.

signs of the distingration of society, part 1

municipalities often put bumper stickers on its fleet cars and trucks - like "there is no excuse for domestic violence" (los angeles city) or "we're hiring!"(LAPD)

los angeles county has a new bumper sticker that says:

"don't abandon your baby."

they should add another next to it:

"everybody else: duck and cover!"

why i love los angeles, part 23

a large flashing road sign, 60 feet above Pico blvd, that says:

"watch the road!"

email to psychotic mickey kaus, after a particularly egregious post:
are you fucking insane?

latinas with NPR accents? most telemarketers with specialized polling interviewers (who are absolutely necessary for conducting polls) are accent neutral, or at the very least well spoken enough to not telegraph ethnicity, if that is in fact possible. and the whole "pleasers" argument for polling is absolute bullshit - and i know because i conduct 12-15 polls a year. the LA Times polls may be inaccurate, but that is because of the random dialing methodology. by the way, i don't seem to remember you going off the edge like this when LAT polls showed your boy bushie in the lead.

you must not get out much, because your arguments increasing resemble lefty english professors trying to squeeze marxist meanings out of mark twain novels.

try doing analysis based in the real world instead of haymaker hits against your personal prejudices.

The Propagandist

"a jew who figured out a way to survive the holocaust."

this is what tony blankley, former gingrich disciple, said about george soros, among other things.

its ironic, really, that these bastards that claim to foster democracy loathe and attack a man that actually makes it possible in the former east block and elsewhere around the world.

soros helped fund the overthrow of milosevic and foster democratic movements around the world, but damn, he opposes dear leader - so he must be a crank and an enemy.

oh, and he's a jew too.

but doesn't that make him a neoconservative?

fuckheads.

that zany bush, he does it again!

on the anniversary of the brown v. board of education decision, at a speech commemorating it, in fact, he pushes his constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

that joker! pushing a constitutional amendment to enshrine discrimination during a speech celebrating our country finally rising above discrimination (at least legally)!

that joke is almost as funny as laying a wreath on jefferson davis' grave on MLK, jr day! that prankster!

or filing an amicus brief against affirmative action on a subsequent MLK, jr day! that irrespressible rascal!

i can't wait to see what happens next!

i mean, this is all a joke, right?

it's memories that I'm stealing
but you're innocent when you dream
when you dream
you're innocent when you dream


tom waits

Spin Alert

okay folks, before this gets out of hand:

the reeps, from inhofe to kyl, are saying - and i quote - "as bad as the prisoner abuses were, there were no beheadings" and that they are "outraged by the outrage."

again, conflation from the GOP to serve their short-term political purposes, the crass bastards.

the masked cowards that beheaded berg ARE NOT the same people we are abusing in iraq - prisoners, which if we are to believe the ICRC, 90% of which are innocent, like berg.

and staking our moral superiority on the assumption that despite our barbarity and abrogation of long-standing humanitarian agreements, we are at least slightly better than terrorists in black masks and sneakers is a pretty slippery slope.

keep your eye on the ball. don't let them distract you from the real issues.

i'm losing touch.

how, exactly, is someone saying "yeah, and above that, i threw the others, too" a news story worthy of breathless "did kerry lie" headlines (abc news) and full-scale news cycle attacks?

especially in a world where the rationale for the war in iraq changes as frequently as the temperature on the angel's stadium sign, bush can't explain the same way twice why he failed his physical or was suspended from flying, or even remain consistent in the withering denials and attacks regarding richard clarke's accusations?

at least kerry had medals to throw over the fence. he went, risked his life and had the courage to come back and say it was wrong.

i guess i just find it galling that people who refused to serve, but are only too happy to send others to die, will attack a man that stood up and did his duty.

it makes me wonder whether working in politics is even worth it. i already see that very few people that are true leaders are willing to stand up and serve in government - largely because anybody that has the balls and the charisma to lead has faults and makes mistakes.

and when mistakes (or rather vague statements) like kerry's get blown up like this by a bunch of cowardly, draft-dodging, hypocritical weasels, all it does is further discourage the real leaders and political risk takers from entering the fray - where they will have to deal with meaningless bullshit like this.

the important stuff: do we have more jobs, is our economy in better shape, are we making the u.s. and the world a better, safer place. these are the questions we need to ask and discuss.

but as long as the liars and the denigrators are in charge - and their media handmaidens continue to enable them - we will never substantially address the real issues. this is largely whining, because the real problem is deeper than that.

is this gotcha-style bullshit what the people of the u.s. really want?

because if it is, i don't think i can keep doing what i'm doing - trying to make my country a better place.

because i can only do that in partnership with my fellow citizens. not in spite of them.

my favorite t-shirts from concerts and events are always the guys hawking the copyright violations in the parking lot.

since i might be going to see sumo wrestling tomorrow night, i have some suggestions for the parking lot t-shirt vendors:

the vernacular:

"gimme sumo dat!"

or the hopeful:

"sumo day my prince will come"

or, for the lawyers,

"sumorary judgement"

or, faustian sumo:

"sumopheles"

or, punk sumo:

"i got salt in my eye in the sumosh pit"

or, finally, for the winner:

"sumost-est"

nice. this is getting out of hand.

"A growing minority of Americans believe that Jews were responsible for Christ's death. Roughly a quarter of the public (26%) now expresses that view. This represents a modest but statistically significant increase in the number holding this opinion when compared with a 1997 survey by ABC News which found 19% feeling this way. But a solid majority of Americans both then and now (60%) continue to say that Jews were not responsible for the death of Christ.

"Nonetheless, the shift in opinion among young people and African Americans over that period has been striking. Currently, 34% of those below age 30 and 42% of blacks say they feel Jews were responsible for Christ's death, up substantially from 1997 (10% and 21%, respectively). By contrast, there has been far less movement among older Americans and among whites. "