"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
-Oscar Wilde		 Brilliant at Breakfast title banner "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself."
-- Proverbs 11:25
"...you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?" -- Steve Gilliard, 1964 - 2007

"For straight up monster-stomping goodness, nothing makes smoke shoot out my ears like Brilliant@Breakfast" -- Tata

"...the best bleacher bum since Pete Axthelm" -- Randy K.

"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." -- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015), They Live
Sunday, August 29, 2010

Who knew that Beckapalooza would feature a civil rights movement theme park?
Posted by Jill | 9:15 AM
title=
Children of teabaggers on the "Experience Birmingham 1963" ride

(More photos and commentary at the Great Orange Satan.)

Labels: , ,

2 comments
Bookmark and Share
Friday, May 28, 2010

Tasteless but Burning Question For Our Time
Posted by Jill | 8:12 PM
So....what happens to Avenue Q now? See why I ask around 2:35 in:



Jeff Marx, co-creator of the show, explains:
Jeff Marx, who conceived the Broadway musical Avenue Q with Robert Lopez, called up EW to remember Gary Coleman, and discuss some of the changes they would instill in their show, which boasts a character named for the late actor. “It’s a very sad day for all of us,” Marx says. “And we’re really sorry to hear this. We all were inspired by him for many, many years.”

Marx says that the show decided to alter some of the lines in the script, since they seem “inappropriate” now, but the show will go on. Marx says Avenue Q has even planned a tribute to Coleman, which will follow Friday night’s showing at New World Stages and be headed by the actress who plays Coleman, Danielle K. Thomas. “We all grew up watching and enjoying his work, and it’s just very sad to hear.”


Hey, Jeff...Corey Feldman is still around....

Labels: ,

0 comments
Bookmark and Share
Friday, September 25, 2009

I wonder how many people in these Georgia counties are teabaggers and birthers?
Posted by Jill | 5:05 AM
I don't want to hear a peep from these people about "big government" ever again:
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Tuesday asked President Barack Obama for an emergency declaration to assist the 17 Georgia counties with recovery efforts due to recent flooding and severe weather.

The declaration would unlock federal funds for emergency response measures and aid for losses. The request estimates about $16.4 million in required federal aid, including $8 million for debris clean up and $5 million fro individuals and households.

Several Georgia creeks and rivers, swollen by continuous rainfall have overtopped their banks, and at least seven people have lost their lives to the flood waters. More than 30,000 residences in metro Atlanta are without power and more than 1,000 residences are estimated to be seriously flooded as indicated by aerial surveillance and 911 calls for help.

"I am confident President Obama will recognize the extensive damage these floods have caused on such a large metro area," Perdue said. "This request for disaster funding is essential for the recovery and rebuilding process to begin for these Georgians, local governments and businesses."

In fairness to the state's Republican governor, he has at least had the decency to recognize the limitations of supply-side economics, at least for his state. In May he responded to Republican lawmakers in Georgia who were pushing for a capital gains tax cut for businesses:
Georgia’s a balanced budget state. And it’s very difficult to do the stimulus-type bills in a state that’s starved for revenue and cash at the same time. So that kind of destroys a supply-side theory within a state government.

But the district is represented by Tom Price, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Here's Tom Price addressing a teabagger rally in April:



By Tom Price's logic, the residents who have lost everything in his flood-ravaged counties should not rely on the government for help but instead pull themselves up by their bootstraps. I hope that those who benefit from the fact that we have a president who is a human being instead of a cold-blooded monster like the Republicans who relentlessly attack him think for a few minutes the next time they rail against "government handouts."

Labels:

9 comments
Bookmark and Share
Thursday, September 24, 2009

Worst. Vacation. Idea. Ever.
Posted by Jill | 6:20 AM
The Titanic Memorial Cruise, coming in 2012.
Make sure you go to that lifeboat drill. You don't know just how realistic they're planning to make this.

Labels: ,

2 comments
Bookmark and Share
Saturday, June 13, 2009

It's hard to be a racist in a hospital
Posted by Jill | 9:08 AM
My late father-in-law was a racist. He didn't much care for Jews either, at leat not until his younger son got together with one, settled down, got married, started a career in IT, and lived what the old man believed to be a normal life. He had few dealings with either black people or Jews. His friends were all guys from the old neighborhood in Jersey city. His doctors were all Italians from the old neighborhood, or at the very least, guys with Italian names.

In his final years, he spent a lot of time in hospitals. His doctors were sometimes Jewish. The nurses and aides who attended him were Asian and Black and Latino. Lo and behold, he became one of those old guys who flirts with the nurses. And once he actually had dealings with people who weren't Italians, he discovered that maybe they weren't as different, evil, or threatening to his way of life as he thought. Yes, he worshipped before the altar of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, but by the time he died, he had mellowed out considerably on matters of race.

Somehow I don't think that James Von Brunn is going to do this, despite the fact that doctors, nurses, and aides who are Jewish, Black, Asian, Muslim, and a host of other groups he hates, are now charged with keeping this POS alive:
In von Brunn's twisted world, being Jewish or black are offenses serious enough to warrant death. And so, eyewitnesses say, von Brunn entered the museum, aimed his rifle, pulled the trigger and took a black man's life.

Odd how things turn out.

Von Brunn, who was wounded by special police officers returning fire, was transported to GW, as was his victim, Stephen Tyrone Johns, 39. There, Johns was pronounced dead while the hospital's staff worked feverishly to keep von Brunn alive.

I don't know how that elderly white supremacist would take this but, according to a hospital spokeswoman, from the time von Brunn entered the emergency room, through his surgery in the operating room, to his placement in the intensive-care unit, he has been under the care of a diverse medical staff that includes blacks, Jews and Middle Easterners.

If there's someplace we go after we die, there'd better be an extra-special good one for the men and women who are dressing James Von Brunn's wounds, cleaning up his piss and shit, changing his IV bags, and doing what they would do for anyone else -- including his victim, who unfortunately wasn't as lucky as the attacker: whatever is necessary to keep him alive.

Because that is what they do.

My father-in-law realized this, and in this realization he gained a kind of redemption.

Labels: ,

4 comments
Bookmark and Share
Saturday, August 30, 2008

The Goddess is VERY unhappy with the Palin selection
Posted by Jill | 5:28 PM


I wonder if there'll be a nice big cake for John McCain's birthday at the Republican Convention this year? And I wonder if they'll pose with it and throw it out -- just as they did last time.

If you are in the New Orleans area, listen to Jeff Masters:

It should go without saying that it's time to leave New Orleans. But, I'll say it anyway: It's Time to Leave New Orleans! The risk of staying in New Orleans is unacceptable. This is a huge and dangerous storm that has already killed a lot of people. The projected track and strength of Gustav is very close to that of Hurricane Betsy of 1965, the Category 3 hurricane that overwhelmed New Orleans' levees, and killed 76 people. Get out now.


Oh, and about that "no worries" hurricane-proof offshore oil drilling thing? What a shame to debunk that fairy tale right before the convention:

Crude-oil and natural-gas shipments from the Gulf of Mexico were curtailed and Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S. refining company, cut production as Hurricane Gustav strengthened on a path to strike Louisiana within two days.

Evacuations closed the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the nation's largest crude oil terminal, and cut flows from offshore platforms into the 10,500-mile (16,900-kilometer) gas pipeline to the U.S. northeast owned by Williams Cos. Enbridge Energy Partners LP closed gas conduits out of the Gulf. Oil producers shut more output, down 6.6 percent yesterday, according to U.S. government figures.

Marathon Oil Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, said it shut production at both its Gulf platforms, as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc raced to cut production of 800,000 barrels a day of oil by day's end. Enbridge Energy Partners LP began shutting off Gulf lines capable of bringing in 6.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. Louisiana's petrochemical- producing parishes ordered residents to leave, adding that return routes will be blocked and curfews imposed by nightfall.

``Devastating storm-surge flooding'' is possible, officials in St. Charles Parish, home to three oil refineries, said in a statement. Officials urged residents to leave before a planned mandatory evacuation at noon, local time, saying Gustav may be strong enough to breach levees protecting the parish just west of New Orleans.

Oil producers halted at least 6.6 percent of output in the region, according to U.S. government figures issued yesterday. An update is due later today.

Gustav, now a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 145 (230 kilometers) per hour or more, picked up speed as it headed toward western Cuba and the U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said in a bulletin. The storm was about 185 miles east of the western tip of Cuba at 11 a.m. New York time. A storm surge of 19 feet is possible at landfall in Cuba.

Gustav may strengthen before reaching the northern Gulf of Mexico in two days, the forecast said. Tropical-storm-force winds extend as far as 160 miles from the center.

Fields in the Gulf produce 1.3 million barrels a day of oil, about a quarter of U.S. production, and 7.4 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas, 14 percent of the total, government data show. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 closed 95 percent of regional offshore output and, along with Hurricane Rita, idled about 19 percent of U.S. refining capacity. Three parishes in Louisiana with refineries planned mandatory evacuations today.


And in case you're wondering what your president is doing:

The president called state leaders in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas in the early morning from the White House before heading out for a 90-minute bike ride, spokesman Scott Stanzel said.


Can't miss that bike ride, no sirree. But hey...he made a coupla phone calls. What else do you expect a president to do? No wonder John McCain thinks Sarah Palin is qualified to be president. Look at who's been doing the job for the last eight years.

Labels: ,

0 comments
Bookmark and Share