perfidy

Hey, everybody! Good news!

WE'VE WON THE WAR ON TERROR!!!!

Want proof? The Department of Justice has time to do this (thanks to Arthur Silber for the link)!!!

the Bush administration is launching a massive crackdown on porn. Late last month, John Ashcroft's Justice Department brought the nation's first case against pornographers under federal obscenity laws in a decade. Two movie producers from the porn capital, California's San Fernando Valley, were arrested Aug. 27 on 10 counts of producing and distributing obscene movies. Each man faces 50 years in prison and a $2.5-million fine.

49 more indictments are expected in the coming months, and Attorney General Ashcroft has directed the DoJ to keep it up, targeting hardcore weirdo sex stuff as well as more "mainstream" fare.

According to the [Chicago] Tribune, the [DoJ's] letter to the outside indicated "that by focusing first on the most extreme material, the department can build a record of successful prosecutions, emboldening prosecutors and setting precedent for additional cases." The New York Sun reports Oosterbaan's chilling references to "states that pander 'mainstream' videos" and "tremendous and historical progress" in combating "the scourge of obscenity."

Well, I feel safer. You?

[moreover] I wanna hear you say it, Buckethead. I wanna hear you say you're going to vote for Bush again, when he won't even rein in his raving moralistic whackjob of an Atty. Gen. from riding roughshod over the Bill of Rights. Say it.
 

As of 9:00 this morning when I left for work, still no power. At this point, not having power is substantially more frustrating, because everyone else on my street has had their power restored. The power company won't give me an estimate on when, either. At least, now that my neighbors have power, they aren't running their generators, and I my neighborhood doesn't sound like the middle of a tractor pull.

Thanks to Ross for allowing us to come over last night and pretend that we still live in a technologically advanced civilization, and watch DVDs, order carryout and gaze at the pretty electrical lights.

I have been without power since 9:00 last night. I am posting this from the house of a friend who (seething jealously) has had power restored. Hurricane Isabel did not do too much damage overall, but a significant amount of downed trees has left hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Virginia powerless.

Therefore, posting will be light until power is restored. On the plus side, lack of electrical power for refrigerators is a good execuse to eat shrimp for lunch, steak for dinner, and all the most expensive food in the fridge for snacks before it all goes bad. Natural disaster is a good excuse for breaking the diet. Or for almost anything.

Lots of games of Parcheesi until Dominion Virginia Power gets its act together.

Kevin Drum deconstructs the various strains of truth-flexing the President has indulged in. While it's easy to shout "Liar!" at the top of your lungs, it's another thing entirely to level a nuanced accusation, which Drum does with aplomb. I would prefer if he set aside the "16 words" thingy in favor of the Clean Air Act and the de-funding of Americorps, because I think those are stronger cases than the by now well-gnawed bones of UraniumGate, but his initial point stands.

I'm already on the "anybody but Bush" bandwagon... the only problem is choosing among so many mediocrities and slightly terrifying standouts (I'm talking to YOU, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark).

The eeeevil landlords at New York University might be shutting down the Bottom Line, one of THE most hallowed stages in the history of rock, folk, blues, and American music of all stripes. In the wake of September 2001, business fell way off and the Bottom Line got behind on their rent with NYU, the owners of that property as well as most of the rest of lower Manhattan. Here's the statement from the Bottom Line:

The problem is as follows: Even before the terrorist attacks on the World Trader Center, the nation was already feeling the downturn in the economy. Our business, along with so many other small businesses, has not been able to recover since the tragedy of September 11th. Attendance to shows has declined. In addition, our customers are feeling economic stress, our bills have been multiplying, and we have found ourselves substantially behind in our rent. Our landlord, New York University, has started eviction proceedings. During our negotiations with New York University to resolve this situation, the Bottom Line has presented several different proposals to pay our past due rent, while at the same time keeping current with a new, higher rent proposed by NYU. Unfortunately, NYU has not been open to negotiating a long-term solution to our mutual problem. We want to pay off our debt to NYU, but to do so we need to remain in business. To stay in business, we need a promise from NYU that, if we pay off the rental arrears, they won't evict the Bottom Line.

This is awful. I don't know the whole story, because I no longer have business with the Bottom Line's owners, but regardless of the details it would be an enormous tragedy if this venue were to close. There are few enough good places to see music in New York while actually sitting down without the Bottom Line going the way of the dodo. Co-owner Allan Pepper might be an abrasive curmudgeon, but he's a lovable, ethical, and hard-working abrasive curmudgeon who has spent the last thirty years dedicating his life to the betterment of humanity through transcendentally great music. That should count for something, but of course it won't.

<CelebrityAppeal value="Suzanne Somers">

The Bottom Line's website (linked above) has details on how you can help, or at least show support for, this pillar of American popular music. West 4th Street used to be the center of the universe, as far as folk music goes, and the Bottom Line is one of the last vestiges of that world.

Just last night I was in a conversation about Boston, and how much less interesting Kenmore Square looks now that they gentrified the Rathskellar out of existence and moved the Disney Store in. Change in and of itself is not bad, but it sure does hurt if you care.

</CelebrityAppeal>

[moreover] The way the Bowery's looking these days (that is, less full of homeless people, syringes, and gunk-- all charming), I wouldn't be surprised if CBGB gets the boot someday soon in favor of a Starbucks or a Body Shop.

Via geekpress I find this CNN story about Doune Castle, about forty miles outside Glasgow Scotland.*

Avast lubber keelhaul.**

It turns out that Doune castle is the site where Monty Python filmed The Quest For The Holy Grail, and the tour guides are pretty cool about the whole thing.

The castle manager even keeps coconuts on hand for those vistors who wish to pretend to be King Arthur and Patsy, and the staff are known to help out with on-the-spot reenactments of crucial scenes filmed at the castle-- Castle Anthrax, the Rescue, the French Taunter, the Knights of the Round Table song, etc.

I declare the first ever Ministry of Minor Perfidy State Visit, for the purpose of reviewing the grounds and facilities of Castle Doune. The mission will commence just as soon as sufficient capital has been raised to fund such an excursion. Now, who's with me? Who's with me?!?!

Scurvy dog grogbarrel purple monkey dishwasher plank something something eyepatch.***

* What really burns my biscuits is that I've been right by there, repeatedly, and never knew. Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn.

** Obligatory pirate-speak. Arr.

*** More. Isn't it annoying?

Yarrr, it be National Talk Like A Pirate Day, and be warned, ye lubbers, that me pirate name be Mad John Flint. What be ye's. . . ye,

ye's'er. . .

uh. . . yours . .

er. . .

Fuck it. Check out the funny quiz, you, um. . . scurvy dogs, you . . . something.

Arr.

There are a million ways to take the Bush administration to task. There are a million and one ways to catch them in a bald-faced lie, or at least a mendacious prevarication.

And yet Andrew Greeley of the Chicago Sun-Times feels the need to invoke Godwin's Law, corollary 1 with his first sentence in this editorial.

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief (director of communications, in the current parlance), once said that if you are going to lie, you should tell a big lie. That may be good advice, but the question remains: What happens when people begin to doubt the big lie? Herr Goebbels never lived to find out. Some members of the Bush administration may be in the process of discovering that, given time, the big lie turns on itself.

Is that the best he can do? Hitlering the President? Pathetic, and approximately as mature as the outrageous canards launched by Benjamin Franklin Bache against John Adams. Except Adams had Bache arrested for treason, and that hasn't happened yet to anyone this time.

<paranoid>Yet.</paranoid>
 

The Ministry, in its relentless quest to improve no matter the price in blood or suffering, has developed another new category, and a new icon for an old one.

This icon, we felt captured the essence of the Horseshit category far better than any sophomoric fecal imagery, and so the old one was liquidated: [Update] this has been altered to reflect the new category name.

Click the webtastic punditry expander link below for more information on the categories.

For your edification, here is how the Ministry uses, and abuses, the categories:

The following categories may seem similar, but here are the guidelines for their use:

[wik] The Ministry of Future Perfidies notes from the distant vantage point of the year of our Lord 2025, that many of these categories proved to be unnecessarily precise, and were merged. Intermittent improvements to the quality of icons was seen every time someone bothered to pay attention to the site. (So, on average, about every 5-7 years.) 

Via John Cole (again, yes), I find that he blogged about the welfare contribution inequality thing a while back, long before CalPundit, and long before my lazy, sorry ass stumbled on the scene (um, yesterday).

And then Jane Galt puts the hurt on us. I'm not totally sold, but yes, nuance is dawning in my paleolothic head.