THINGS "GOOD AND UN-GOOD"

Headline doesn't mean anything, by the way. It just seems as though the more we listen to Johnny Cash the more reliable our moral compass becomes.

But, screw it, let's do it that way. Things good and un-good. Good. Our four regulars: Anita, Harvey, Lily and Anonymous FB. We're not the most professional blog in the world. Up on the high horse, we'll say it's because we prefer the printed word to the format -- Kelso's family crest to quote Jim Bouton: an open mouth on a field of wild verbiage. We try to finesse and piss at the same time and all we seem to do is alienate. In our above four commentators, we'd dare put the Nuts up against ANY BLOG IN THE WORLD in terms of average IQ of regulars. Anita, Harvey, Lily, and FB, many, many thanks for reading every word, following every bend in the river and never, ever posting any bullshit or self-aggrandizement. Nos alegramos mucho de esto. Thanks for leaving us to do the self-aggrandizement and here we go again. We're feeling very much like Lou Reed today. It has been said that initally The Velvet Underground sold 100 records, but all 100 buyers formed bands of their own. Anita, revive AnitaXanaxNow, please. H, we know you're too busy, but, FB, you have NO excuse not to blog.

Oh, by the way, we're offering a no-limit prop of even money on Anita, Harvey, Lily and FB's average IQ against the average IQ of the posters to any other blog out there. Opponents must have 4 commentators minimum but all must be included. We'll discuss off-shore escrow, amounts and other governing rules over a more private medium.

So, now on to a more complete response to Anita's comments on last posting. You are absolutely right, Anita, it was a very simplistic take on things, but was there not a passage in the posting that noted we were using "shorthand"? Nevertheless, as referred to in the shorter comment, we were looking for the best meme we could find to encapsulate what's going on in political U.S.A. and why. The Bush administration with its 28% approval rating, and 9/11 getting staler by the MINUTE, continues to govern as though Bush were Fidel Castro and had just won an election 99.5% to 0.5%. Not only do they get away with it, they're winning with it. OK, this seems contradictory, so why is it happening? It's happening because despite the best efforts of the true believers, the Democrats play so as not to lose any one fight and as a result they lose them all.

OK, why? Let's start with Anita's question about why the Democrats seem so uncomfortable with "gays." She's right. It's absurd. Every Democrat is supposed to announce in no uncertain terms that Republicans can take their fucking remarks about a "gay agenda" and pound sand. Moreover, every single Democrat should say the pure truth that "gay" and "straight" are (a) meaningless terms and (b) a tendency toward sexual preference for one's own gender is another variation of normal. Full stop. Fuck you. You don't like hearing that, fuckhead Republican, then do something about it, but too bad for you because if you try it we'll out every fucking one of you. See how that "plays" in your district? Does that sound harsh? It shouldn't. Bush used the same tactics re "patriotism."

The Democrats' fear make them the real homophobes. But do the Republicans really have problems with "the gay agenda"? Of course, they don't. They bullshit their base with it but it's all for show, not for dough. No? How about former Senator Rick Santorum? This guy was mad as a hatter, so twisted up and perverted with some sort of hideous Middle-Ages variant of Christianity, but with the world of political skills and fucking smart. He lived in Buck's County, Pennsylvania, of all places (to complicated to go into that) and wanted to unseat Peter Kostmayer, a popular, openly gay Democrat who'd served his district very well for years. So,what does Santorum do? He hires the smartest homosexual man in politics in Pennsylvania to run his operation and he cracks Kostmayer for the House seat, Wofford for the Senate, and reaches the leadership in 12 years. His own insanity got him beat by Casey but that's not the point. Santorum, sick as he was, had not a drop of real homophobia in him. And Anita, about Edwards, maybe not so much. We'll leave it to Freud as to why.

Karl Rove speaks for himself.

As for the cop-show metaphor, what makes it so simplistic? Liberals and Conservatives can always find plenty of stuff upon which to agree to disagree. Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill always found a way to work it out. Reagan was smart enough to know that he'd could tell stories about "welfare queens" but he couldn't really fuck with AFDC, abortion, Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare. O'Neill knew he'd have to swallow some tax cuts and accept monetarism as a fact of life. And there it was. Everything tucked in. Anyone out there really think Reagan was substantially to the right of the Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama of today? But we're a little off-track just because it's so funny to think of Reagan's presidency as some kind of Golden Age of Social Democracy! The point is this: there is one issue that absolutely unites lefties and righties--privacy. The most ultra-left wing Jewish New Yorker doesn't realize it but today he has more in common with the White Supremacist Militias than he does with someone like Joe Klein or Tim Russert. Those guys love the authoritarian, police, warrior state Gingrich introduced, Bill Clinton pushed along and Bush perfected. The former Center and Middle Right have actually joined to form a new Far Right while the former Far Right and Left are on the other side but don't get it yet. Far Right and Left can toss away every difference just to agree on that one fucking issue -- privacy, get it? -- and sort it all out later. And, please tell us, who forms the anti-privacy caucus? Bush's National Security apparatus, the feds, the prosecutors and the police. No, not watching Dick Wolf and Stephen Bochco's stupid TV shows isn't going to change anything right now. But Kelso doesn't watch them because he derives no pleasure from rooting against his own privacy even in TV fantasyland. Shouldn't the Gonzales mess tell everyone that THE POLICEMAN IS NOT NECESSARILY YOUR FRIEND AND LESS SO THE PROSECUTOR? People of color and 2/3 of Jews know this but rest have to wake up or learn to love fascism.

As for Deming? Well, let's see. Who were the important scholars of manufacturing and service operations of yesteryear? Crosby, Deming and Taylor, no? They were about efficiency and labor productivity. None were Karl Marx to be sure, pure theorists of capitalism, but where do you think Deming would fit on today's ideological scale? Somewhere to the left of Kucinich. Crosby maybe near Teddy Kennedy. And as brutal as Taylorism is, it's no match for Elaine Chao or whoever Bush's Secretary Of Labor is. They,with Democratic complicity, are about to re-legalize slavery. Not that it wasn't re-legalized during the Clinton adminstration with the prison expansion and privatization.

Dammit, AnitaXanaxNow, did you have to mention Deming? This subject makes Kelso crazy. Fucking Deming was as responsible for the creation of the American middle-class as the entire "Greatest Generation" was. But the "Greatest Generation" turned into the shittiest generation and threw it all away. Pick any salient one sentence musing of Deming's and your average American would probably think it was Marx who said it. See the lyrics of Stiff Little Fingers' "Is That What You Fought The War For?" for details. Talk about "un-good."

Ascione at 40/1 against Federer. Eschauer at 20/1 against Davydenko. You'll probably lose but you're getting paid for taking the chance.

Kelso's Nuts love you.