The Billiken's Bluff

This is the closest thing to disaster



Keep on fading, snow white into black
The kind of thing you (hope to) laugh about after

We on an award tour with muhammad my man
Goin each and every place with the mic in our hand
New york, nj, n.c., va
We on an award tour with muhammad my man
Goin each and every place with the mic in our hand
Oaktown, l.a., san fran, st. john


A Chav Party!!!







Leathal Weapon 5



The Screwtape Letters

But are you not being a trifle naïve? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches [...] But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily 'true' or 'false', but as 'academic' or 'practical', 'outworn' or 'contemporary', 'conventional' or 'ruthless'. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous -- that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.

The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle on to the Enemy's own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result?

Your affectionate uncle

Screwtape



Poor people of the world unite...Harlem World to Caracas...



Take that, take that...



A call to arms... a call out of alcoholics (recovering addicts in the room excluded)... and a warm winter for all.



two oil-rich straight shooting cowboys headquartered in the lone star state



Straight shot...

Citgo will provide 100 million gallons of heating oil at discount prices this winter to low-income people in New York and 17 other states. Citgo, a Houston-based energy company that is owned and controlled by the Venezuelan government, organized the highly publicized event in Harlem -- one of a series designed to boost the Venezuelan leader's popularity in the U.S.

From LA Times/Bloomberg:

WASHINGTON — President Bush's approval rating has reached its highest level since January, helping to boost the Republican Party's image across a range of domestic and national security issues just seven weeks before this year's midterm election, a new Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

The survey spotlights a continuing array of Republican vulnerabilities, but it also offers the first evidence in months that the GOP may be gaining momentum before November's battle for control of Congress.

Democrats hold a lead in the poll, 49% to 39%, when registered voters are asked which party they intend to support for Congress this year. But that advantage may rest on softening ground: On virtually every comparison between the parties measured in the survey, Republicans have improved their position since early summer.

In particular, Republicans have nearly doubled their advantage when voters are asked which party they trust most to protect the nation against terrorism — the thrust of Bush's public relations blitz in recent weeks.

Good job, guys.

I was going hungry and lazy here














When you stopped me in my tracks








I was going crazy; I was desolate and ready to kill








But maybe I believe in another place

>







If you go, you won't look back






And anywhere you go you know











The ugliness will follow you still













And you break
This into waste


We are desperate, lonely and underpaid




I’m a bitter man, I know



But listen, honey, you're no fun









I will never live like you





But you will probably die like me





Oh lovelessly, an ending



Full of god, and god makes plenty.





You will go on searching



For someone to keep you killing







If you love me, won't you leave me?



'cause I want to settle down








First you
Fade into the background



Wouldn’t even call me
Had the nerve to leave me









Go ahead and love me
I’m a hungry man
Ever since you went away



First you
Fade into the background






Wouldn’t even call me
Had the nerve to leave me








Go ahead and love me
I’m a hungry man


Ever since you went away

I don't know if you've got another place



Where you bury all these things











I don't know if you can see the shadow
That you cast on the ground
But maybe I can see through the lonely face


Loose your feet and loose your waist
Anywhere you are, you know the freedom there



Is dragging you down


And you break me into lines



We can shake our bodies
And wreck our minds
I’m a bitter man, I know,



But listen, honey, you're no fun



And oh, don't you wanna love?









And don't you wanna feel?



I remember, you were reckless, you were hungry
You were real,



you were so uptight
Listen, I don't mind
I feel like I’m watching a car crash.



And oh, this is how it ends
You will watch your friends


Take a moment, take a knife
Then they'll put it in again.
This is how we are

I will never live like you do



[much respect]

I've never felt comfortable being described as a liberal or a democrat. I'm more ANTI if anything.



But without the t-shirts and slogans. I could be convinced to be a card carrying Democrat if they changed a just about everything about their party. I like Elliot Spitzer but only because he seems like a little bit like Bruce Wayne, a rich citizen of Gotham, devoted to fighting crime with a Bill Cowher, granite jaw:



With that said I can't stand the center. The politically correct, say nothing offensive, nothing you believe in. Squelch all opinions that even remotely resemble a deviation from the median.



And yet my public life, my career and my comments without my mask on



are from this spineless center.



I like fantasy sports leagues, in part for the messageboard posts, the back and forth, and the team names. On WFAN sports radio there are callers who want to create small controversy. They call in this time of season and say why women shouldn't be allowed in fantasy sports leagues, or why the last caller is an idiot for taking that position. They posit that it's a boys club on the messageboards. Lewd and crude. They want to protect innocents at all costs. No casualities in this exchange of barbs. They also don’t want anyone reporting back what goes on inside.

I am the De La Brickashaws, mildly clever Jets fan's play on words (or not) in this year's fantasy football league. Nothing offensive (I've been broken politically correctly long ago),



but consider some of the other team names from my baseball league which is in its last throes:

Sure we have the SUNY frat boy boilerplate:

This League is GAY
T-Baggers

But we also have the more nuisanced:

The NY METsicans
Minaya's Gardeners


This is how people interpret the world around them.



This is what people would say without work places, and DMV’s and public spaces. Child's honesties. Everyone Mets fan would admit, if assured no repercussions, that the Mets blueprint has a decidedly Latin imprint. Omar Minaya signs the best Latin American players. People say on sports radio that it doesn't matter, which it doesn't to most people, but they also say they can't see a pattern.



call a spade a spade

I'm not sure what good it does to call out Omar Minaya for signing, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, trading away Kris Benson. But, if the question is posed, observe honestly.

I can't care less about a players country of origin. I am a Mets fan. Jose Reyes is my favorite player. I root for him because he is small and quick and I know that whatever stats he compiles are free of any steroid/HGH accusation (i.e. Ryan Howard needs 10 clean years behind him before his fans can argue on his behalf). But, ask me and I'll tell you honestly that the Mets are the NY METsicans.

The street is correct.

The Utah Jazz pursue Arayan talent. Their GM, Scott Layden, transmutated to New York, signed Travis Knight, traded for Keith Van Horn and drafted Michael Doleac. Utah byproducts. Isiah Thomas traded Van Horn and filled the roster with his type of player.

The Celtics, were the Celtics because they had Bird, Mchale and Ainge (alongside Parrish)... three Irish-looking white guys. They appealed to their fans.



We cast our teams in our own image and likeness.

The Toronto Raptors are repositioning themselves as a foreign other. More than just the neighbor from the nook of the north. This will appeal to someone and this composition is not at random.






Everyone in NY media, and I guess every NYer by extension, wanted to know about Shawn Green's (the outlier on the NY METSicans) Wedding that his teammate and friend Carlos Delgado attended last year. Did Carlos do the hora during the party?





He's been described in the NYT Sunday Styles section (incorrectly) as perhaps the best Jewish baseball player in the MLB (Lance Berkman) come home to NYC. In 2000, when Green signed with LA, the Yankees considered bringing Green in to be a draw for New York Jewish fans.

Refusing to reveal obvious prejudices, black and white motivations.




Sports is close to Walton’s egalitarian meritocracy on the field, but in the hearts and minds of fans and ownership there are certain tangibles that are given equal consideration, but denied vehemently, outside the confines of your friends' fantasy sports league.

Does Bin Laden smile?



Is there humor in miltant islam?







shine your teeth till meaningless and sharpen them with lies.



Can anyone speak to this?

I feel like I’m watching a car crash.
And oh, this is how it ends
You will watch your friends
Take a moment, take a knife
Then they'll put it in again.
This is how we are
This is how we are
We are young and stupid
And raised by wolves.

[watchingtheworldchange]

being more concerned with girls and parties and drinking 40s, and the excitement of it all than the actual events on the day of 9.11.01.

You will go on searching
For someone to keep you killing

He'll NEVER FORGET.



And I'm READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL

From an CNN.com piece on a possible Democratic shift among female Republicans, here's a quote from the spoiler who thinks such women are merely cutting and running:

Still, some Southern women remain stalwart supporters of the president and the Republican Party. At a watermelon festival in Chickamauga, in the mountains of northwest Georgia, substitute teacher Clydeen Tomanio said she remains committed to the party she's called home for 43 years.

"There are some people, and I'm one of them, that believe George Bush was placed where he is by the Lord," Tomanio said. "I don't care how he governs, I will support him. I'm a Republican through and through."

Did everyone get that? "I don't care how he governs, I will support him." Now I know this is probably just some crackpot that the writer interviewed for the juicy quote, but damn, Clydeen.

Reminds me of ol' what's-her-name...

Ahmadinejad continues his interesting walk on the fine line between terrifying and hilarious.

In a Week in Review piece this week, the Times had this to say:

But averages can be affected by big changes among a small group of people, which is exactly what seems to be happening with incomes, according to an array of government data. The census report, for instance, showed strong income growth last year only at the 95th percentile of the distribution, which covers families making $166,000 a year. Even at the 90th percentile, as well as the 50th and further down, according to the Labor Department, pay increases have trailed inflation over the last three years.

Not being an expert in anything remotely quantitative, this text still speaks volumes to me. It's easy to understand, contextualize, and, in my case, become really furious about. It brings to mind excessive tax cuts, the repeal of the estate ("death") tax, and various other economic iniatives of which I disapprove.

My question, though, is why can't everyone understand it? You don't need a college degree or even a GED, so why isn't this on the front page? If this isn't news, then what is?

Oh right - Suri.

And this "unusually pretty" CBS correspondant, Lara Logan:

She's the news.

"News," sans news, is the News.

Meanwhile, Lebanon, Palestine, Mexico, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Venezuela, presidential "signing statements," line vetoes, Cheney's evil chief-of-staff David Addington, unaffordable health care, a debacle of a war, and innumerable other complaints and worries are perpetually playing Shiloh to today's Suri - old hat, totally over, fighting for headlines.

Nothing new here, I know. But every once in a while, I just weep for people who would sooner pick up a gun or a crucifix than a newspaper. That is so say, Americans.