The ongoing saga of Petulant Peter Pejorative.

Last weekend’s little go-round with the ‘elite intelligentsias’ proved to me, once again, why the intrinsic problems confronting our society face little hope of being solved. Some people are far more interested in proving their superiority than actually listening. Additionally, nobody likes it when others find cracks in your arguments. Hey, I’m the same way too so it’s not like I can complain about it too much.

I’ve never been worried about odds though in any fight so, I don’t mind taking my lumps. At least not if I feel I have validity in my argument. I don’t go through the world thinking I know it all or I can’t learn something by listening to other people. In the end my experience overall wasn’t a bad one, limited by the nature of board posting, but certainly not entirely bad as there were some people who wanted to try and understand my views.

It’s not a win/lose issue either. It’s more a matter of trying to get someone to acknowledge or at least see how he or she is living by a double standard.

What Petulant Peter does in the company of his friends is none of my concern. When he writes,

“...And I know plenty of Italians who like Italian jokes, Polish who like Polish jokes, Catholics who like Catholic jokes, etc. That’s because I tend to associate with people who don’t wear their indignation on their sleeves.”

It’s great! I’m glad for him (and I’m not being facetious about this either). He’s surrounded by people who understand his sense of humor and he’s among friends. To me there is a barrier, what he does in his private life is no one’s affair.

The difference here is you have a very smart man, who has an audience, a man who uses words to earn his living. Petulant Peter is not a fool and I imagine he wouldn’t be a popular writer (or at least as successful as he has been) if he did not have the ability to pick his words carefully.

This is what gives me great pause.

He used these words in a public forum. However, I may be giving the Petulant one more credit (and traffic) than he is due. It might actually be the traffic to his site is very low and consequently there are few who have seen his feeble attempt at humor.

Like I indicated though, I’ve been known to be wrong (BELIEVE ME) ;) and with that in mind. I sent out an email as follows:

Subject: The Italian question

I read something recently and I wondered if my reaction was unique or not. Consequently I’m doing a bit of a survey and you can help me out.

I recently read the following joke:

And somewhere at this very moment... a Mafia wiseguy called “Joe the Plumber” is saying, “I’m gonna have t’get a new f*ckin’” nickname...”

My question is this: when you read this comment what is the image of the “Mafia wiseguy” that comes to mind?

Is it an Italian?

If not, what kind of person do you picture?

If so, are you okay with the joke?

Do you think it is perpetuating a stereotype of Italians even though the word Italian is not used?

Thanks in advance for your help.

PJ

I may have screwed up with the subject line. I was trying to figure a way to ask the question without biasing the response I received. If it would produce skewed results and it would defeat the purpose of the email. I wanted to gauge the response to Petulant Peter’s cheap shot among people who would feel the barb most acutely and here is a sampling of the responses:

...in my opinion the word “Mafia” in itself, comes from the Sicilian language, meaning “a wise guy” or someone with power, or another word you never hear, at least not in the USA is “Malandrino” which is also indicative of a Mafioso type of individual. I think that over the last hundred years or so, the media and good ol’ American racism, stereotyped the Mafia as being an Italian favorite pass time, and everyone of Italian descent is connected or knows someone. Well, that’s not exactly true, this country was built on criminals and murderers and cattle rustlers of all creeds and background...

Anytime you use the phrase ‘mafia wise guy’ an Italian comes to mind. And like African Americans, I’m not too thrilled with outsiders using the stereotype. In fact there are some days when I’ll let it pass and others when I wont. I resent the fact that people are still comfortable denigrating Italians, Jews, Mexicans and Asians, in this so-called enlightened p.c. era.

Well... since the word Italian was in your subject line, I already had an idea of where this was going before I read the “joke.” But generally, when one hears a “joke” about the Mafia they think of the stereotypical Italian, even though all Italians are not in the Mafia and the Mafia is not comprised of only Italians. The joke in and of itself doesn't bother me - but what does bother me is the double standard.

I do not consider myself Italian American. I am American. my ancestors came to this country to be American, for a better life. I am enjoying the fruits of their decision in the greatest country on this planet. I will die defending the rights of other U.S. citizens to say whatever they want to say no matter how ignorant or stupid it is; and there is a lot of that going around.

So far, PPP’s batting 1.000 among the Italians here. People seemed to have picked out the word Mafia or wiseguy separately in the discussion over on PPP’s board but, putting them together creates a whole other animal. It’s one of the reasons I suggested the hitman route.

I’m not holding myself out to be the paragon of virtue or esteem when it comes to these things. I believe a many of us succumb on occasion to easily definable labels as they apply to groups of people other than our own. I’m embarrassed by it in myself when it happens, I should know better. While it’s easier just to classify people by groups rather than to put the work in to get to know individuals, there’s no zero sum game to it and we are doing both ourselves a disservice as well as the people we encounter in our daily lives by doing it. It’s what I find to be the best argument against that sort of thing.

I wonder about it sometimes. I wonder if we’re hardwired for this or if it is learned behavior. I’d like to think it will be erased some day, I don’t think it will be in my lifetime but I can hope. It’s not just a racial thing either, you can look at a whole plethora of spots around the world where people are fighting and killing each other over all sorts of things - religion, ethnicity, race. Give a person a reason to mark another guy as different and you give them a reason to fight.

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand...

After I had sent out the email and gotten back a bunch of responses, I felt some follow up was in order. It didn’t make sense to continue a discussion with people who had no interest in hearing my side, whether it was by their own purposeful obstinance or a deep-seated insensitivity. I’ve been back once or twice (I think) to mainly copy the thread and saw something I didn’t understand said at the bottom although when I did it made me laugh.

So, here’s what I did: I copied all the emails and the thread in its entirety and mailed it off to two organizations in Washington (they have nothing to do with our government, they’re just based in Washington like all the other lobbying organizations). I’m not looking to embark on a crusade, frankly I don’t have the time for it.

Another letter I sent out was to a man who I believe is a much smarter man than I am. The man in this instance is a man also of Italian descent with a long career in business and also in service to his country who also happens to sit on the board of a company the Petulant one derives significant income from.

A majority of the defense of these comments in bad taste was directed back at me in the form of chiding me for being oversensitive, ridiculous or stupid. Consequently, I leave it to others who are verifiably much smarter than I.

The thing I found truly infuriating was this gem, “...the “stereotype” was this close to dying off. And then I make a joke and suddenly it gains new life.”

It summer up the problem in a few words. If a smart man acknowledges a stereotype and still feels it‘s okay to use and perpetuate then it will never die. Let others make the decision about its use. Like one of the people above noted it’s just a crappy double standard and it won’t go away if we to excuse its use.

Farting Friday.

Because farts are funny (and this will have to do until I go through some more old magazines and get a bunch of Photo Funnies scanned)

Be careful at the airport!

Why?

Well, you’ve no doubt heard about the new scanners they are slowly implemently at airport security gates? The ones that scan you so closely they can tell if you’re wearing boxers or briefs. Well, an unintended benefit is that they have removed the ability to leave the SBD – no longer will phantom farters be able to emit a stench that remains long after they’ve departed and leave their victims wondering who was responsible!

Best cartoon ever!



This is something fully appreciated by anyone who has ever worked in design or production.

VIDEO VAULT THURSDAY!
(because exclamation points make all the difference)

This week on VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS I found myself in a bit of a quandary! You see there is a very good, nay! Spectacular video I wanted to share but, unfortunately the powers that be have decided to place very strict restrictions on its distribution so I can’t embed it as I would normally do.

FEAR NOT!

Instead, I happened upon a phenomenal performance of the song live! This is a really kick-ass live performance:


Still, VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS! is all about videos so after watching that live performance you can compare it to the well-made video directed by filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson and decide for yourself which version you like better!

The stars are out!

One thing about New York is the stars are always out, even during the daytime!

In all the time I’ve lived in New York, it seems I’ve seldom run across people of fame. At least if I did I didn’t recognize them.

Sure, I managed to get a lot of pictures of John Glover, Eric Bogosian and Vincent D’Onofrio once when I happened upon a location shoot of Law and Order CI. Another time I was out with a friend on the upper west side after having lunch together and saw Robert DeNiro filming a scene from Midnight Run.

Normally though I just don’t see famous people on the streets of Manhattan.

Well, today was a twofer...

I was having lunch down in one of my favorite restaurants, Mario Batali’s Lupa on Thompson Street, when my lunch companion elbowed me to look over when an attractive blonde entered and was waiting to be seated. She was striking to be sure but then New York is full of beautiful women. An explosion of blonde hair, large hoop earrings and big eyes the woman was clad in a downy jacket, tight jeans and thigh high boats. She was very much ‘put-together.’ I glanced quickly and then turned back not wanting to be obvious or rude.

There was a pause and then a moment later something clicked and I was thinking I must know her from somewhere. I did the quick rundown and looked over again and realized it was Mina Suvari! She was meeting her current beau for a nice lunch, having done some shopping. I was trying to remember what else she had been in besides American Beauty (I wound up having to look it up) but, she is a really beautiful girl.


Later on I was sitting with my friend Ed having coffee and watching people pass on the street outside when a girl walked by and I again had that momentary flash of recognition. This time it was Bonnie Dennison walking up First Avenue. I’m not a soap fan but I understand she’s on The Guiding Light now. I recognize her though from her time on Third Watch playing the daughter of one of the leads.


She must live in the neighborhood because it’s the second time I’ve seen her. I walked by her as she was coming out of a haircutters on 23rd Street awhile back. So, the stars really were out today.

This is funny.

As we get closer to the election, there is a sense of desperation setting in. How do I know this?

I know this from the things I see around me, the emails I receive, the stories in the newspaper, and the pictures that are taken.

I saw this posted to a contact’s Flickr stream:


Not so much a statement of fact, as much of an example of the lengths McCain supporters are going to in an attempt play to potential voters’ fear (okay, there’s nothing on it that says it’s from a McCain supporter but I can’t imagine an Obama supporter would be running around putting something like this on a person’s windshield).

Then, I got this:



I watched the whole thing, you should too.

I don’t like politics of fear and it doesn’t matter to me who is doing it. When I got the following email back on November 4, 2004 I was no less annoyed:

Dear friends,

I have been composing this note in my mind all morning. I guess it's a sort of concession note, one which I was hoping and praying would be a victory note instead.

This is a very dark day for our country. The unified blindness to the danger that this administration poses to our very way of life and to our lives, is astonishing.

We are now in profound danger of losing everything that this country has stood for for over two hundred years. This disregard for the Constitution (which a President is sworn to protect) and the contempt for individual rights which this Administration has practiced is now only going to increase, as their perception that the American people approve of their actions is now in play.

It baffles me how the idea of "values" seems to have been completely distorted. Pastors around the country stood at their pulpits this past Sunday and urged their congregation to support Bush and his contingent because they represent "family values". They will get rid of Roe vs Wade, they will prevent gay marriage, they will bring prayer in schools and they will promote faith based initiatives... These issues are just a smoke screen put up to blind people to the fact that this administration has only one true "value" and that is MONEY. This country just sold it's soul to the devil and doesn't even know it.

What kind of "values" allowed them to murder thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, people whose only crime was they were in the way of Dick Cheney gaining control of the Iraqi oil fields and in the way of this administration's desire to set up permanent US bases in the middle east (that is what they are doing in Iraq, building permanent bases), these people weren't insurgents or terrorists, they were ordinary people going about their lives, children, babies, mothers, fathers, grandparents, farmers, teachers, lawyers and doctors, eating breakfast, going to school, telling their children bedtime stories, when bombs started dropping on their homes, their schools and their places of business. They hadn't threatened us, they hadn't attacked us, they hadn't done anything which justifies their deaths. (And what about the thousands who have been maimed, blinded, orphaned... homeless and jobless, the atrocities our government perpetrated are endless).

This Administration's "values" are to sacrifice the lives of brave young men and women whose only mistake was to trust their government. Brave and honorable American military personnel who had faith that their president wouldn't put them in harm's way unless it was absolutely necessary. Their lives are being sacrificed for the almighty god "dollar".

"Thou shall not commit murder..." unless you can justify it with lies. These are the real "values" of this administration, lies, murder and contempt for anyone who disagrees with them.

Trying to find ways around the Geneva Convention (which simply promotes human decency), mistreating helpless prisoners, keeping people imprisoned with no access to counsel (not everyone in Guantanamo Bay and other prisons is guilty, but have no way to defend themselves), this is the kind of behavior we equate with dictators and despots like Stalin and Hitler and yes, Saddam, not with our great American "values" of liberty and justice.

What kind of "values" justify the selling of our nation's beauty to the highest bidder? The fact that this Administration is willing to sell off forrest which are thousands of years old (some trees where saplings when Christ walked the earth), sell off the glorious beauty of God's creations, plant and animal, for corporate profit and greed is a sin not a "family value". The fact that they will pollute and plunder this magnificent planet is tragic.

They are selling off our children's future, they are putting our health on the block for the highest bidder. And they are doing it behind closed doors in secret meetings... those are the real "family values" of this Administration, how valuable is your family to their wallets. They rule the country through fear, when the truth is we should be afraid of them.

America is in for a shock when the truth of just how corrupt this Administration is begins to be clear. Because mark my words they are corrupt, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"... well the blind faith of the people just gave them "absolute power".

I have a prayer today for the "Presidential Prayer Group", pray for America's sons and daughters because their lives have just been put into the hands of monsters...

And grieve with me because our lives are about to be forever changed...

Yours, O

PS Let's never give up the faith that real "values" will eventually prevail and we will be able to regain some sort of true decency and justice and honor to the concept of being a American. Let's march and write and demonstrate and not go gently into the night! And most importantly never ever give in to the fear and betray your fellows, together we will stand, divided we will fall.

I responded to the email’s sender in kind and told him not to pass off this whiny, poor me bs off on me. The response I got was full of vitriol but the upshot was I should think about leaving the country or as the last line of the email put it: So, maybe you should go to Bermuda... Or go to hell.

Yes, it’s easy to remain friends when people agree with you, not so much when they don’t.

Looking at that email now though, a couple of things immediately jump out at me.

First off, we’re still here.

How did that happen? Four years later and we are all still here! An amazing thing, no? The sky didn’t fall and we survived. All the gloom and doom embodied in the email sent to me on election day of 2004 and while things aren’t wonderfully, rosy, lollipop dreams we truly never know what they would have been like if the other guy won. They could be better or they could be worse and we’ll never know.

But... we survived.

Among the things the email warned of happening:

• They will get rid of Roe vs Wade (still here last time I checked)


• they will prevent gay marriage (well that didn’t happen, if anything there have been more states recognizing it)


• they will bring prayer in schools and they will promote faith based initiatives (I don’t think prayer in schools has gone through - I’m sure they have continued to promote faith based initiatives but I’m not quite sure to what effect)


• ...that is what they are doing in Iraq, building permanent bases (if anything I think people here feel we can’t get out soon enough and as far as permanent bases go I don’t even think the Iraqis want us there)


• The fact that this Administration is willing to sell off forest which are thousands of years old (our forests are still there)


• pray for America’s sons and daughters because their lives have just been put into the hands of monsters...

I mean... c’mon.

The point I’m trying to make here is no matter who wins, our nation is strong enough to survive it and if we want to make progress as a nation we have to begin to adjust our attitudes. When the American electorate felt the administration had failed them, the midterm election provided an opportunity for the citizens of this country to voice their displeasure and voice it they did. The Republican party lost control of the House, it happened for a reason, it happened because our system works.

It doesn’t work 100% of the time, it’s not perfect, far from it. The people who live in our land want desperately to get things right and I think all of us buy into the ideal.

One of the things I liked about the last debate... I mean really, REALLY liked. It was the fact Barack Obama didn’t succumb to the temptation to paint his opponent as a polar opposite. He was able to recognize there are areas where the two men agree and even issues where Obama has great respect for the stands his opponent has taken. In that single moment he looked to me, more presidential than any leader we have had in a long time.

Will this translate to an effective term in office should he become Chief Executive? I truly do not know. Even assuming he will win, is putting the cart before the horse because they are other factors in play here. Race, whether or not it is overt element of the contest, is still an issue in some people’s minds. It’s unfortunate, but I think people would be foolish to blind themselves of the role it is playing in this Presidential election.

Flip side, I saw this story in the paper:

Franklin County, Ohio, prosecutor Ron O’Brien launched the investigation after student reporters at palestra.net, a Fox News affiliate, discovered the mass registration effort at the home in a working-class neighborhood on Brownlee Avenue.

“Our board of elections referred 13 suspicious registrations to us, all from people with out-of-state addresses, all of whom claim to be living in a three-bedroom house in Columbus,” O’Brien said Friday.

Vote From Home is registered to the East 82nd Street brownstone of Heather Halstead, daughter of Halstead Properties founder Clark Halstead Jr. She and her husband, NYU grad Marc Gustafson, are among those under scrutiny.

Maybe there is this feeling, things like this are necessary but, I can’t condone the idea of ‘winning at all costs.’ It’s an attitude the sacrifices all the noble rhetoric and high-ideals. I’m enough of a realist to know politics are a dirty game but isn’t there a point where these things should stop? It sure seems as if no one is blameless.

Putting it to good use.

Over the past few months, two people within my sphere have been confronted with the challenge of being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

The first person, a man who had just retired from job after many years and who was looking forward to retirement, complained about being dizzy back around Memorial Day weekend. He died in August. He went into the hospital and that was pretty much it, for the next twelve weeks he did the shuffle people who confront life threatening illness do and finally he succumbed. It has been a tremendous blow to his family. At the same time when a person in your family is confrronted with any kind of illness, there is a helplessness people as they watch a loved one undergo what can be a life ending battle.

The second person is a peer who had been diagnosed long ago with a tumor and had thought the matter had been resolved only to find it hadn’t. Her symptoms came upon her and she knew something was wrong. The upshot was she had to become her own advocate and wound up having both surgery and then undergoing an arduous round of radiation therapy.

When things like these happen, you want to make some kind of gesture, some show of support.

I had been thinking about this very thing over the last two months. Trying to come up with a way to do something good.

Originally, I had thought about shaving my head and trying to elicit some kind of donations from people to put towards a related charity. I figure there are more than a few people in this world who would pay money to see me look foolish, so why not put that to good use? I looked around but I wasn’t finding the charity I wanted.

Then a week or so ago I was out with someone and she mentioned something in passing. My ears immediately perked up! I had never heard about it before but it still fit the bill. It’s an organization called, Locks of Love:

WHAT IS LOCKS OF LOVE?

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics. Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. The prostheses we provide help to restore their self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers.

So, suffice to say I will be sporting a much shorter doo by Halloween.

Is Peter David a bigot?

I have to watch my mouth, really.

I find I always have to be measured in the things I write and I say. My biggest fear in life stems from saying something thoughtlessly, without malicious intent and inadvertently hurting a person or persons I care about because of my ignorance.

I think, it happens to all of us.

Without realizing it, we can say things we think are harmless and in the process hurt people by being misread.

I can remember being at the NY Comicon last year and seeing someone say something to another person and as good natured as it might have been, it was so over the top and hurtful to the person it was being said to. These were two professionals too, that was the amazing thing. One guy just blurted out something and later on I spoke with the guy who it was directed at and commended his restraint. It was that offensive.

The guy who said it though... not a clue.

Stuff like that happens around us all the time. Sometimes, it blows up in a big way (see Jesse Jackson’s Hymietown statement or Don Imus nappy remark). Sometimes it doesn’t because people are polite and just laugh it off so the person saying it can save face.

So, getting back to the original question, is Peter David a bigot? Probably not, a bit of a pompous ass and he might be a little insensitive at times but I don’t get the sense he’s a bad guy. Me writing the question though will only cause Peter’s blood pressure to rise.

Over two years ago, I started this entry:

I’m tired.

Here is one of the things I am tired of:

I’m tired of being sh*t upon because I’m Italian (or at least partially so and have a surname that ends in a vowel).

Contrary to the popular belief of all you stupid, ignorant f**ks out there, we are all not connected in some way to the mob. As a matter of fact here are some little jewels for you as of the year 2000 census there were 15,638,348 Americans who identified themselves as being of Italian ethnic origin. According to FBI estimates there are 25,000 people involved in what the government terms IOC (Italian Organized Crime). In essence it’s a little more than a tenth of one percent (0.16 percent if you do the math).

The problem is though; society in this country romanticizes Italian gangsters. All you idiots sitting around watching The Godfather or Goodfellas or The Sopranos and getting some kind of vicarious thrill off of it. Whether it‘s the result of having little going on in your own empty f**king lives or what.

I had been down in Little Italy and had taken these pictures:




Being in Little Italy and seeing that was offensive. All those tourists coming to New York and visiting Little Italy to get a souvenir and what do they take home? This s**t!

Oh, and I can tell you for a fact the people running the store weren’t Italian. This crap is just so blatantly stereotypical and discriminatory it’s beyond words.

I was reading one of the blogs I usually check out, in this case it’s Peter David’s. A few days back he wrote this:

And somewhere at this very moment...
...a Mafia wiseguy called “Joe the Plumber” is saying, “I’m gonna have t’get a new f*ckin‘ nickname...”

And I was kinda pissed.

It’s a bit of a cheap shot.

The inference is there; when I see the words ‘Mafia wiseguy’ I’m not thinking of a guy who is from Nepal or Suriname. I get the joke but it’s a little bit in poor taste. Peter David is a writer and I know he goes for the gag. He writes funny stuff, I’ve laughed heartily reading some of his stories but, this is a bit of a sore spot with me because of what I’ve seen above and also discussions I’ve had with relatives and friends who are of Italian descent none of whom are greatly thrilled by what seems to be open season on Italians. Somehow, it’s okay to define a whole ethnic group by romanticizing a very small portion of those people.

The whole, Italian/Mafia thing is a bit overblown as it is anyway. People watch the Sopranos and they buy into all that crap.

The problem is though; there isn’t balance in the representation of Italians in the media.

So, if you go to the thread, you can see where I wrote a response:

Thanks PAD for the Mafia reference, way to perpetuate a stereotype.

And... I hit the button twice because the browser didn’t seem to update the first time. I hit it so it got posted twice - which I hate and you can’t erase those posts there so I was stuck with this double entry. I went back to the thread and nobody seemed to pick up on it. They were too busy arguing about other things anyway. So, I got my two cents in and I figured that was that.

Stupid me. Silly rabbit.

So, I must have hit a nerve or something because I got a response from the man himself (and believe me when I say it is rare I get a response from Peter to anything I write):

Right, right. Because after “The Godfather,” “Godfather Part II,” “Godfather Part III,” “Goodfellas,” “Married to the Mob,” “The Sopranos,” “Analyze This,” “Analyze That,” not to mention countless real life trials involving criminals with similar nicknames, the “stereotype” was this close to dying off. And then I make a joke and suddenly it gains new life.

Please.

PAD

Wow.

I’m reading this and as I’m looking at it, I’m getting really pissed off. Why? All the movies the guy cites are movies about Italians and all of them are the kind of thing I find bothersome. I mean, take a look at those f**kin’ pictures from Mulberry Street!

So, I’m going to write something in the thread and I figure, ‘I’ve got the guys email address, why not just write him directly. It’s really nothing.’ I can imagine he wasn’t making that inference, I can give him the benefit of a doubt that wasn’t his intent but, his attitude is akin to GFY (think about it for a second). Not, “Yeah, I can see it now but I wasn’t going for that.” Just a good ole Fuck You this is the way the world is and my saying it doesn’t make any difference because everyone knows it’s true.

So, I write an email:

Hey Peter,

I was going to leave a comment for you but it's so much easier just to write you.

I'm going to call you on it.

I just want to understand... so you think perpetuating stereotypes is a good thing? Does this apply across the board or is it only specific ethnic groups you think it's okay to slam.

Like the Obama thing with the Fried Chicken.

Stupid. Beyond stupid, crude and ill mannered.

No less offensive than the nuts that run around in this world talking about how everything is controlled by a select group of Jewish bankers.

I mean, if I want to, I can go on at length with these things all day.

They're stupid though.

Thing is, I kind of think of you as a somewhat smarter guy than that. So, when you trot out some mafia stereotype as a means to get a cheap laugh well, guess what? Italians don't find it funny because popular culture in this country already goes a long way towards misrepresenting Italians here as evidenced by all the mob movies you were so quickly able to pull out of your ass.

Maybe you'd feel differently if every time you saw a movie that involved Jewish people it played to the same repeated stereotype as well. Of course, there are parts of this country that buy into the whole Jewish stereotype but, I'd like to think of those people as ignorant.

It occurred to me recently when I was reading a column about the top five comic book characters that was written for Columbus Day and there was a preponderance of them being tied into the Mafia. It's ridiculous.

For the record: as of the year 2000 census there were 15,723,555 Americans who identified themselves as being of Italian ethnic origin.

According to FBI estimates there are 25,000 people involved in what the government terms IOC (Italian Organized Crime).

“We estimate the four groups have approximately 25,000 members total, with 250,000 affiliates worldwide. There are more than 3,000 members and affiliates in the U.S., scattered mostly throughout the major cities in the Northeast, the Midwest, California, and the South. Their largest presence centers around New York, southern New Jersey, and Philadelphia.”

It works out to little more than a tenth of a percent! At 0.16 percent of the Italian population in the United States, excuse me if I think the representation in popular culture of Italians and association with the Mafia is more than a little bit skewed.

Also, if you substituted what you wrote for any other politically incorrect stereotype, you'd be pilloried because there is without question a different set of standards being applied.

PJ

and I get this back:

I actually figured the “so much easier” aspect relates to the fact that if you tried to pursue it, you’d have to deal with all the people who are going to tell you you're being ridiculous.

PAD

I know how these things work. I’m not a big lurker around those parts, I go, I read what’s posted and put in my two cents but I’m not looking for flame wars. I don’t ever look for flame wars (they find me sometimes but, I always try to just walk away from them).

Putting the thing up on the thread is no doubt about generating views for Peter and his website. It’s his playground, his kingdom so, the odds are stacked in his favor. However, I’m not over the top on this and I can’t understand why the guy is just being so obstinate. I would think just, as someone of his faith, he would have some kind of understanding of how these things work. Plus, the guy is a writer! Words are his business.

So I wrote back:

That’s condescending and you’re wrong whether you want to admit to it or not. Poll a bunch of Italian friends if you’re so secure in your position and see if they’re thrilled with your viewpoint.

It’s not cool and you’re being a total dick too.

I figure fine, if you think you’re right go out and ask a bunch of Italians if they like stuff like that and see what they say. You might be surprised.

Oh, and I used the word ‘Dick’ which to me is something mild. There are a lot of other words I could use that are a lot stronger but, you don’t use an elephant gun to swat a fly and it’s a minor disagreement. At least, that’s what I’m thinking.

Now in the meantime... back in the thread, this is going on - these are the responses it’s generating:

• mister_pj, it was a joke. It was obviously a joke and it was not an offensive one. You're coming across as oversensitive.


• The Sopranos was a documentary.


• mister pj, on what grounds is this perpetuating a stereotype? Tony is not an exclusively Italian name. Nothing in PAD's post was specifically Italian. The Mob does exist. They do tend to have colorful nicknames.
  
• Unless one takes any and all references to the Mafia as being aimed at Italians...in which case who is exactly perpetuating a stereotype???

and of course, because Peter likes a good fight (even when you’re not begging for one) and also because he is so much smarter than the rest of us he has to stir the pot because he likes to sit back and do that:

Posted by: Peter David: I'm not expressing indignation. That would require my being angry. I'm not angry because the accusation is too absurd to get angry over.

I just think you're just being ridiculous. And you can stop sending me private e-mails about this as well. If you want to press your case, do it here, but don't waste my time or clutter my e-mail box with this PC nonsense.

PAD

Posted by: mister_pj: Oversensitive, I like that.

Let me tell... you can be Polish and be on the receiving of a Polish joke, or Jewish and be on receiving end of a Jewish joke, or Irish, or Black or Spanish or any other ethnicity. Tell me when it’s YOU or YOUR ETHNIC GROUP if you still find it funny.

Maybe it’s not offensive to someone who isn’t of Italian descent but, this whole Italians=Mafia thing is a load of crap.

I pulled this off of Wikipedia:

(I cite the stats above, no need to repeat them)

It has nothing to do with being over sensitive as much as being tired of this bullsh*t and finally calling people on it.

• mister_pj: Tell me when it’s YOU or YOUR ETHNIC GROUP if you still find it funny.
  
  PAD didn't make a joke about an ethnic group. He made a joke about the mafia.
  
  You're the one insulting Italian Americans by implying that any comment about the mafia is a comment about Italian Americans.
  
  THAT is why oversensitivity (PC bullshit) is bad.


• "Let me tell... YOUR ETHNIC GROUP if you still find it funny."
  
  "To this day, Italian Americans are frequently associated with organized crime, and New York in the minds of many Americans,"
  
  I think it is necessary to distinguish between two issues here.
  
  First, popular culture in general traffics in stereotypes of Italians, Irish, blacks, Germans, hispanics, arabs, Jews, asians, rednecks etc. in jokes, movies, TV etc. But these stereotypes are usually not malicious, and I don't think the writers and artists who use them actually think that all members of the group in question actually fit the stereotype, nor do they use them in order to say anything about a whole group. Stereotypes by there very nature are an exaggeration, a focusing on one aspect to the point of absurdity.
  
  Yet, if we look at the Wikipedia quote, it would seem that too many people take these stereotypes and apply them without the ability to distinguish between the stereotype and reality.
  
  What does that mean?
  
  And, of course, Joe is such a stereotypically Italian name...


• PJ, you may be unaware of this, but most of this country's minorities have, at one point or another in their assimilation into the Coll- er, I mean the American Melting Pot, had associations with organized crime. The Irish gangs in New York were pretty much overthrown by the Mafia; the Triads are still in evidence on the US West Coast; fortunately for us all, the Bloods and Crips fell to fighting among themselves before they could become much of a force on the national crime scene.
  
  "Joe the Plumber" could in fact be a member of almost any of these organizations ("Joe" seems an unlikely name for a Triad member). It is only your own hypersensitivity that insists this is a slur against Italians. Way to perpetuate a stereotype, mister_pj.

Posted by: mister_pj: Okay...

Let’s say for the sake of argument I’m misreading things.

Mmmm?

Interesting then the examples that were pulled up, don’t you think: Right, right. Because after "The Godfather," "Godfather Part II," "Godfather Part III", "Goodfellas," "Married to the Mob," "The Sopranos," "Analyze This," "Analyze That," not to mention countless real life trials involving criminals with similar nicknames, the "stereotype" was this close to dying off. And then I make a joke and suddenly it gains new life.

All those movies that were used as examples? They’re about Laotians, Swedes and Namabians?

Oh! Before it becomes an issue, in my haste I misspelled Namibia. No slight against Namibians was intended.

• Do you find all these movies and TV shows offensive toward Italians?

Posted by: Peter David: Let me tell...YOUR ETHNIC GROUP if you still find it funny.

Yes. I do, actually.

And I know plenty of Italians who like Italian jokes, Polish who like Polish jokes, Catholics who like Catholic jokes, etc. That's because I tend to associate with people who don't wear their indignation on their sleeves.

PAD

Posted by: Peter David at October 18, 2008 03:13 PM
All those movies that were used as examples? They’re about Laotians, Swedes and Namabians?

They're all movies about mobsters. Nor was the original comment equating the Mafia with Italians. You did that all by yourself.

There's two issues:

1) Whether my initial comment equated Italians with gangsters. It didn't. (no when someone uses the phrase Mafia wiseguy they’re referring to the English, right Peter?)

2) Your insistence that there is a connection between Italians and mobsters. I listed the various films--most of which were very popular, very successful and generally well-regarded (except for GF III, admittedly)--to indicate that if there IS such a connection, it's already so firmly entrenched in pop culture that a passing comment by me, which did not in fact mention Italians (see point 1) perpetuated nothing except some peoples' need to take offense where none was presented.

Oh, and thanks for the private e-mail calling me a dick. I'll be deleting your future mails unread.

PAD

Posted by: mister_pj: Let’s talk about it this way, since it seems to have hijacked the thread and there was a belief that I would somehow shrink from defending my earlier statements.

One reason I make an issue of it so strongly, is because the individual who wrote it traffics in words and words are powerful things.

Let‘s look at the statement:

...a Mafia wiseguy called "Joe the Plumber" is saying, "I'm gonna have t'get a new f*ckin'" nickname..."

Now, if I write:

...a hitman called "Joe the Plumber" is saying, "I'm gonna have t'get a new f*ckin'" nickname..."

Does it call to mind the same mental image? Why not?

Certainly, I could use the word hitman but, it wouldn’t have the same connotations. It would be appropriate and still get the message across.

Now, I say something about it and I get the indignant response: Because after "The Godfather," "Godfather Part II," "Godfather Part III", "Goodfellas," "Married to the Mob," "The Sopranos," "Analyze This," "Analyze That," not to mention countless real life trials involving criminals with similar nicknames, the "stereotype" was this close to dying off.

So, there is an acknowledgement a stereotype exists, but what? It’s okay? Is this a kind of wink, wink, nudge, nudge thing? Well, I’m being a dick but it’s okay because who really cares? I mean you’re being oversensitive!

If I write:

...a Yakuza called "Joe the Plumber" is saying, "I'm gonna have t'get a new f*ckin'" nickname..."

or

...a Russian wiseguy called "Joe the Plumber" is saying, "I'm gonna have t'get a new f*ckin'" nickname..."

Brings significantly different mental images, no?

In regard to what **** said, you know it’s a problem...

On the one hand I can watch the Sopranos and like it. It bothers me though, just as any of those other movies do, because they are perpetuating the stereotype and it is detrimental. People in this country don’t readily identify Madonna or Jay Leno as Italian even though they are.

I read a column the other day on the occasion of Columbus Day the subject being the top five ‘Italian’ characters in comics and not surprisingly most of the origin stories or back-stories were wrapped up in and around ‘Mafia’ (organized crime) story elements.

Somehow, I’m accused of not having a sense of humor because a comment like that bothers me. It has nothing to do with indignation being carried around on my sleeve as much as it does calling it for what it is.

It’s not any more appealing than a host of other stereotypes that are thrown around. As far as the people laughing, I laugh too sometimes to be polite when someone says something stupid of only not to embarrass them.

• Oversensitive, I like that.
  
  Need a mirror?


• So, as long as we are clear, you find any reference to organized crime as an inherent slight against Italians?
  
  I say--shame on you sir! You neglect the great contributions made by other ethnic groups to our proud tradition of criminal scum. The Irish, for eample--The Winter Hill Gang, Edward "Punchy" McLaughlin, Dennis "Dinny" Meehan, Richard "Peg Leg" Lonergan, Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia, Edward "Eddie The Butcher" Cummiskey, Terry "Machine Gun" Druggan, George Horace "Kid" McCoy, etc etc.
  
  But it's true that the Irish mob is completely unrepresented in popular culture, once you forget about such movies as The Public Enemy, Angels with Dirty Faces, Prime Cut, The Sting, Miller's Crossing, Gangs of New York, Road to Perdition, The Departed and a bunch of others. Not to mention The Black Donnellys and Brotherhood on TV.
  
  There's also the kosher nostra, populated by such colorful men as Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach, "Big" Jack Zelig, Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis,harles "Charlie the Cripple" Litoffsky, "Dopey" Benny Fein,"The Greaser" Rosenzweig, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Joseph "Doc" Stacher, Hyman "Curly" Holtz, Louis "Shadows" Kravitz, Harry Tietlebaum, Philip "Little Farvel" Kovolick and Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg.
  
  And I don't know how February passed without mention of those African American pioneers such as Stephanie St. Clair, Leroy "Nicky" Barnes, Dwayne "Wonderful Wayne" Davis, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory, Bumpy Johnson and many others who overcame anti-black bigotry to rise among the ranks of our nations criminal elite.
  
  But some folks see "Joe the Plumber" and automatically think Italian. Shameful.

Posted by: mister_pj: Oh, you mean this email?

email repeated (regarding being condescending)

Yeah, I can see how that’s so extreme it would cause you such tsuris.

****, you’re kind of not answering what I wrote right above your post.

I think some folks see Mafia wiseguy as an Italian reference.

Posted by: Peter David: You’re right… ratio of intelligent people against the total population.

So basically you're arguing that I have to watch what I say because of what stupid people might think.

If that's your point, you're certainly making a good argument for it.

PAD

It just goes on and on and on. Basically, Peter’s fans are backing him up. There are a couple of people who are interested in discussing the thing - it wasn’t so much a discussion I wanted to have. Mainly I wanted an acknowledgement of some kind and truthfully the phrase ‘Mafia wiseguy’ is a buzz phrase. People start parsing things but the inference is clear. The guy wrote something, he was going for a joke and I understand it. At the same time though he was playing to a stereotype I’m getting sick of hearing about because it’s day has passed.

What’s great is the circular logic used in the argument. First off, someone writes something with a clear inference. They offer up proof of the stereotype succinctly verifying its existence. In the process they indict themselves. Then when that is called into question they try to obfuscate the argument going back on another point or by being insulting (and look I know I’m as bad as the next guy with the dick comment).

We could go round in circles forever. How egotistical is PAD? This was his last email:

Next comes the part where you inform me you're going to stop reading my work.

PAD

LOL!

I responded thusly:

Dude, thanks for reducing this down to such an infantile level. You're really stretching here aren't you? Is it that hard to say you're wrong?

(although I will admit, I can laugh about the statement if only because I know that is usually how these things play out for you and it is a funny comment)

I guess what I should have written back is, “I have your permission?” Because I’m sure PAD is thinking there that the world revolves around him. (LOL)

And he’s not a bad guy... I just happen to disagree with him a lot on this. If it makes it easier for him so be it. I’m just really annoyed at his attitude overall. Plus, Peter sees the need to prove he’s superior somehow. He can’t acknowledge when he wrote what he wrote he was trying to paint a very specific word picture.

Peter, I doubt you’ll read this because you’re just too f**kin dense. I still stand by what I said though and at the end of the day you can call me all the names you want but what is amazing in all of it, is how privileged you seem to feel, how much the attitudes of others mean so little to you.

I certainly hope you don’t find yourself on the receiving end of the same treatment some day, now that... that would be funny. Not the ha-ha funny you were shooting for with the off the cuff joke, the cheap shot you figured on getting away with but the ironic kind that the people who pull this kind of crap wind up have happening to them all too often as some kind of balancing of the scales.

Oh, and lastly... the whole business about being oversensitive. Well, I decided to forward the whole thing exchanges, emails and all to a couple of organizations and see how they view it. Maybe you’re right PAD, maybe I am being oversensitive. Or maybe... you’ll find I’m not the only person who finds your cheap shots distasteful. Seems to me it would have been a whole lot simpler just to own up to it instead of trying to be so superior.

I don’t need this battle but I can forward comments you’ve made along to groups who can determine how they feel about it.

See, I made one comment but, with you... it’s about being right even when you’re wrong. I gave more than one occasion for wiggle room just to acknowledge or recognize the existence of the kind of thing I’m talking about. Something that is so pervasive in the society, so accepted - a blind eye is turned to it because people don’t speak up.

Yeah, I’ve got to imagine that’s why you would rather run in it a thread on your blog than just to deal with it through the back and forth of correspondence. Dude, don’t explain it to me, explain to all the other people in the industry who are Italian the next time you throw around cracks like that.

Oh, and the latest of course is Peter trying to bury the thread and posting this really ‘enlightened’ passage about Colin Powell... mighty big of you there Peter.

Rap translated.

I know I don’t feel paricularly older as I crest my forties and come upon my fifties but admittedly, there are times when I feel slightly out of touch with those elements of culture that are in fashion today. While I like some rap music, quite a bit of it often escapes me because I don’t understand what the performer is referencing. I’m glad someone has finally got around to translating it:

Farting Friday.

Because farts are funny (and this will have to do until I go through some more old magazines and get a bunch of Photo Funnies scanned)

Ever wonder what we’re doing sending our troops to foreign lands? What life and liberty we are preserving by our presence? This short provides an answer to that question:

VIDEO VAULT THURSDAY!
(because exclamation points make all the difference)

This week’s entry into VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS is again one of those stellar examples of a marriage between imagery and music that is rare for music videos but proves how the right approach can elevate a song to something more:



Of course, it should come as no surprise that the director is a man who consistently scores high marks for his work in the genre:

After a few years writing screenplays, Romanek decided to focus on music videos and signed on with Satellite Films, a boutique division of David Fincher’s Propaganda Films. His subsequent work has come to be regarded as among the best of the medium. He has worked with many top-selling recording artists from different genres of popular music, and his videos have been given credit for making stars out of some.

THE PERFECT DRUG COMMENTARY BY TRENT REZNOR

My funniest debate moment.

Not sure if people picked up on the irony of it or not.

Funniest moment: Listening to the candidate who complains the loudest about wasteful government spending and wanting to cut government costs whining about how his opponent didn’t take money from the government for his campaign.

Naked Spiderman.

I don’t talk a lot about the whole internet dating thing suffice to say I’ve been doing it for awhile but as the old saw goes, ‘A gentleman never tells.’ Consequently, I tend to be discreet about my activities.

What has come to my attention though, is there is a breed of man out there in the world to whom no reasonable boundaries exist. When I say boundaries, I’m not even talking about following some arcane rules of etiquette as much as I am about observing normal social niceties. I cannot help but be amazed by the temerity, rudeness and stupidity of some of the guys out there!

Case in point, without going elaborate detail, I’ve corresponded with several women and heard amazing tales of their experiences in the world of online dating. These have included strangers (or near enough) sending along videos of themselves, or pictures or just notes with what would best considered inappropriate suggestions. What I can’t for the life of me fathom is how a guy could think it would be okay to do something on the Internet he wouldn’t do if he were meeting a date for the first time!

Think about it...

I can’t say I’ve ever handed over a nude picture of myself to a woman on a first date, nor have I unbidden suggested we immediately engage in either an open relationship or a continued study of the intricacies of the Kama Sutra.

Well, today topped all.

I got to emailing back and forth with someone and she was describing her experiences (which were pretty funny to say the least). As proof of the veracity of her stories she forward along a picture of Spider Man to me.

Well, maybe I should qualify that.

She forwarded along a picture of a guy (from the back thankfully) who was body painted as Spider Man and pretending to wall-crawl. I really, really wanted to post it here but she asked me not to.

I really wanted to though!

Nothing is as funny as seeing naked Spider Man for the first time!

Furry Fridays!

Someone sent this along to me and I had to share it, particularly on Furry Fridays:

VIDEO VAULT THURSDAY!
(because exclamation points make all the difference)

It’s baaacckkkkkk...

Mainly because I’m trying to clean out the draft’s cue and I’ve run through the Friday Photo Funnies for the moment. This week’s entry into VIDEO VAULT THURSDAYS is by a band whose former members have names like: Daddy Long Legs, M.S.G., Skip O’Pot2Mus, Tard-E-Tard, Spanky G, Willie the New Guy, Foof, Bubba K. Love.

In March 1996, the band, complete with a new line-up, recorded their second full-length album, One Fierce Beer Coaster, first released on Cheese Factory Records (now Republic Records), and re-released on Geffen Records in 1998. The original release, designed by Michael Calleia at Industrial Strength Design in New York City, contained an actual beer coaster as part of the packaging. They embarked on their first “real tour” of the United States and Europe (they are quoted as saying this was “the first tour where nobody’s parents had to drive out and pick up the band after the van broke down”). It was this album that broke them as a recognisable act in the rock/metal scene of the time, and many tracks from it became rock club staples that would be played for years to come.

Genius moment.

I got an email from NetFlix today, sometimes I am amazed by the stupidity of the world around me.

DEXTER: SEASON 2: DISC 1 was not available today at your local shipping center. Instead, we will be shipping this DVD from Salem, OR on the next business day. As usual, you will receive an email letting you know we shipped your DVD.

An entire nation of NetFlix users - they worked so very hard and could only find a copy of something on the west coast. Amazing!

These are great!

I never saw these before, they’re hilarious!

The new Tourrets’ poster child?

If you watched the Vice-Presidential debate last week, one of the things you may (or may not) have noticed was the way Sarah Palin seemed to repeatedly wink into the camera. Some pundits were focusing on that afterward noting that Governor Palin had been heavily coached and it was her way of connecting with potential voters and seeming more folksy.



However, most observers also noticed that during a lot of the debate, Governor Palin would avoid answering the direct questions of the moderator. It got me to thinking, there’s a disease where the sufferers are stricken by tics and the utterance of non-sequiters. Maybe the whole ‘winking thing’ wasn’t part of any planned strategy? Maybe we’re assigning motives to something that is more readily and easily explained? Maybe it’s actually something the campaign has gone to great lengths to hide?

Coprolalia (the spontaneous utterance of socially objectionable or taboo words or phrases) is the most publicized symptom of Tourette’s, but it is not required for a diagnosis of Tourette's. According to the Tourette Syndrome Association, fewer than 15% of Tourette's patients exhibit coprolalia. Echolalia (repeating the words of others) and palilalia (repeating one's own words) occur in a minority of cases, while the most common initial motor and vocal tics are, respectively, eye blinking and throat clearing. In contrast to the abnormal movements of other movement disorders (for example, choreas, dystonias, myoclonus, and dyskinesias), the tics of Tourette’s are stereotypic, temporarily suppressible, nonrhythmic, and often preceded by a premonitory urge. Immediately preceding tic onset, most individuals with Tourette’s are aware of an urge that is similar to the need to sneeze or scratch an itch. Individuals describe the need to tic as a buildup of tension, pressure, or energy which they consciously choose to release, as if they “had to do it” to relieve the sensation or until it feels “just right.” Examples of the premonitory urge are the feeling of having something in one's throat, or a localized discomfort in the shoulders, leading to the need to clear one's throat or shrug the shoulders. The actual tic may be felt as relieving this tension or sensation, similar to scratching an itch. Another example is blinking to relieve an uncomfortable sensation in the eye. These urges and sensations, preceding the expression of the movement or vocalization as a tic, are referred to as “premonitory sensory phenomena.” Published descriptions of the tics of Tourette’s identify sensory phenomena as the core symptom of the syndrome, even though they are not included in the diagnostic criteria.

The financial crisis explained!

This week’s This American Life did a great job of explaining just what were the forces behind the credit crisis that has been splashed about the headlines over the last three weeks. Fortunately, even if you weren’t around the radio to catch this week’s show you can still hear it in its entirety via the TAL website:

Alex Blumberg and NPR’s Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast. They’ll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could’ve done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place. You can learn more about the daily ins and outs on the Planet Money blog.

The real Vice Presidential debate!

Saturday Night Live hasn’t been this good since the 70s!

120 miles.

I took a ride the other day. I went up to visit a friend at their house. It turned out to be a sixty-mile trip each way.

120 mile roundtrip for a visit isn’t usually the kind of thing I would do but I had promised I would do it and it had been put off for a bit of time. The reasons it had been put off had to do with weather, health and obligations but I finally managed to do it this past Thursday.

Thursday we were supposed to have the kind of sunny days that are dwindling down to a precious few now that we enter October. The temperature was supposed to get up into the 70’s and it was supposed to be sunny. What it would up being was a mostly overcast day and about ten degrees colder. We even had a pretty good rain at one point in the afternoon.

It may seem a little odd to spend so much time dwelling on the weather but there’s a good reason for that.

I rode the scooter the entire way.

The trip up took a bit longer than I had planned; it wound up being around two and a half hours. I had printed out a triptik from the triple A website and there was just a little less detail in the thing than I would have liked. So, at one point I managed to take a wrong turn that added a bunch of time to the trip. I compounded that by taking a second wrong turn adding even more time.

Being a guy though, I wasn’t lost. See, guys are never lost. (LOL)

Actually, I stopped for gas after the second wrong turn asked a girl in the gas station (to no avail) and a lady school bus driver (again no help) before finding a strip mall I had been in once a long time ago. The strip mall has a supermarket and a Rite-Aid but neither of them had a county map! Fortunately, I found another way to determine my location and got to where I was going.

It rained during my visit. This had me dreading the trip back especially since rain hadn’t been forecast but, the weather cleared and even though I took a bit more care because of the wet roads the trip back was shorter and less eventful than the trip up.

However, I have to say in retrospect... it was an amazing day!

Sometimes, I forget just how beautiful the countryside around me is. Literally a short drive away is some of the most picturesque landscape a person could imagine. It really is awe-inspiring. I had forgotten that. I don’t know why but I had and it was wonderful just to be out exploring.

I road from where I live over the Bear Mountain Bridge. To get to the Bear Mountain Bridge from here requires you to drive along a winding, heavily traveled two-lane road that clings to the shear face of a mountainside. I’ve driven this road on the scooter a few times now and I love it. The mountains are lush and the river cuts through them making everything look postcard perfect.

After I got over to the other side of the bridge, I shot up 9W past West Point. Here, the road climbs and climbs and climbs as it makes its way over the mountains that border the river. You go further and further up until you have a view of the land on the opposite bank spread out beneath you. After you crest the ridge you have a long downhill run that winds up in some rolling fields of farmland.

Then it was a matter of cutting through gently rolling landscape populated by damp groves of trees and meandering small rivers occasionally bursting out into swatches of open fields.

Four hours plus of riding.

Aside from the strong winds on the way up and a little bit of a chill it was a spectacular ride. Next time, I’m making sure I dress a little warmer but I’m also going to take my time and stop along the way to take some pictures.

FRIDAY PHOTO FUNNIES!

Reliving past glory of a misspent youth.

Again, foto funnies are posted as a historical analysis of the changing face of humor in our country of the last 25 or so years. They do not present the viewpoint or opinion of the blog owner. Often they are wildly politically incorrect and offensive - if you are offended by the material in a foto funny, you either need to develop a sense of humor or surf elsewhere.

For more fun, check out The National Lampoon site, the originators of the Photo Funny.

Because it needs to be said.

Like I said recently, I’ve been writing somewhere else lately. The amazing thing is the volume of hits I get through that site asa opposed to the platry trickle of traffic that passes this way. I wrote something though I am going to repost here because once again I find myself astounded by the hypocrisy of some people.

A call to the liberal left.

So, I had the most interesting discussion tonight. Maybe I’m being a little facetious but not so much.

Tonight, I called someone who had given me her number through the fast cupid website. I think we talked for about three minutes and in those three minutes she was able to determine I was not for her.

It’s more than a little off-putting.

Actually I find it offensive but more on that in a moment.

They say that politics makes for strange bedfellows, nowhere is this concept illustrated better than in the union of James Carville and Mary Matalin.

If opposites attract then certainly Carville and Matalin have proven that old saw as well because there is obviously a great chasm in their political views. Somehow though they manage to make things work.

So, getting back to matters at hand. Tonight I called a woman who had given me her number. Within the first few minute or two of the conversation she said the deal breaker would be if I was a Republican (which I am registered) and pretty much that was it.

I got off the phone and was done.

See, I think that the biggest problem in our country today is the very strong partisan lines that seem to be drawn in the sand by both political parties. These lines are polarizing in that they try to cast every issue in our country into a simple black or white.

That’s a problem and a big one.

By failing to recognize that there are subtleties to everything we encounter during our voyage on the planet, we remove the ability to compromise. There are no absolutes in our political landscape; there are no true ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys.’

Somehow though, I think I may be an exception.

See, I don’t believe in voting entirely along party lines and I can’t say that I ever have. It simply doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Consequently, there have been several occasions where I have voted for a candidate that was on the Democratic line. As a matter of fact in the upcoming election I am swayed to cross party lines - strongly (and if you don’t believe it, I do have another blog where I’ve written at great length about that very topic).

I can’t say I’ve ever voted for Junior either (although you would be surprised at the number of people who assume that is the case because of my party affiliation). I just didn’t like the guy and after 8 years I’m glad I didn’t vote for him. The Mother Jones article I read way back in ’99 pretty much nailed it spot on.

So, when I’m talking to someone who supposedly embraces the tenets of the Democratic Party and the liberalism that is purported to be part and parcel of the parties’ worldview, I find it amazingly ironic someone would be so entirely dismissive of me.

Of course the thing is, I’ve also gotten to a point in life where I can’t find it within myself to argue with stupid people. If you are that intellectually stunted where your world can be broken down into two camps, chances are no matter how much I try I’m not going to convince you that life isn’t a zero sum game.

And that goes for the Republicans out there as well as the Democrats. When we talk about what is broken in this country, I think we need to begin with the dysfunctional political rhetoric that we engage in. If we truly want our country to be a better place we had better start trying to listen to the arguments that each side would offer up and then work towards an acceptable solution to both parties.

But then, maybe I’m too much of an optimist and living in a fantasy world.

FRIDAY PHOTO FUNNIES!

Reliving past glory of a misspent youth.

Again, foto funnies are posted as a historical analysis of the changing face of humor in our country of the last 25 or so years. They do not present the viewpoint or opinion of the blog owner. Often they are wildly politically incorrect and offensive - if you are offended by the material in a foto funny, you either need to develop a sense of humor or surf elsewhere.

For more fun, check out The National Lampoon site, the originators of the Photo Funny.

The big copout.

The big news today is about canceling Friday’s debate between the two candidates. Again, I couch my criticism of what is going on in the context of being a person who is registered Republican. The reason I always say this up front is two fold. First, it should be acknowledged that there are a slew of broad opinions across the party and not everyone agrees with the extreme wing. Second, my commentary cannot be so readily dismissed as springing forth from the supposed ‘Liberal Left.’

Senator McCain, though I have in the past professed my admiration for the man, is making a grievous mistake should he choose to postpone Friday’s debate. People want to see the two candidates face off before the election. Using the smokescreen of ‘there is important business to be done in Washington in regard to the financial crisis.’

First off, there is always important business to be done in Washington. This is merely the latest in a series of challenges our nation faces. The senator did not think that business was serious enough to relinquish his seat while he pursued the office of the president. So, what does that mean for the period of the last 18 months or so that preceded this crisis? Are we to believe that the business conducted over that period of time was unimportant? Further, isn’t it a bit disingenuous of the Senator to somehow try to position the crisis as something that happened overnight? The events of the last 18 months have bought us to this point, until this moment the Senator did not find it so important as to quit the campaign.

Second, my biggest hesitancy over Senator McCain taking office is his age. This is undoubtedly a factor the nation must confront. Is the reality of the situation more indicative that the Senator really is not able to focus beyond a single issue at a time? Is it possible because of his age that the demands of a long session in the Senate in the days leading up to Friday’s debate and participation in the debate itself are simply beyond his capacity? If so, what does this say about his ability to serve the nation as its leader?

I won’t even begin to get into the flip-flopping that has gone on in the previous week with the statements that our economy is ‘fundamentally sound.’ It‘s just too similar to Nero fiddling while he should been passing the water bucket.

If you want to put the campaign on hold, do everyone a favor and just drop out because whoever does become our next president isn’t going to have the luxury of calling for a time out while the world or events spiral out of control.

FRIDAY PHOTO FUNNIES!

Reliving past glory of a misspent youth.

Again, foto funnies are posted as a historical analysis of the changing face of humor in our country of the last 25 or so years. They do not present the viewpoint or opinion of the blog owner. Often they are wildly politically incorrect and offensive - if you are offended by the material in a foto funny, you either need to develop a sense of humor or surf elsewhere.

For more fun, check out The National Lampoon site, the originators of the Photo Funny.

The Sarah Palin letter.

I was reading something about a Sarah Palin letter. Apparently there’s a Sarah Palin letter making the rounds.

Actually there are several of these things making the rounds but it appears only one of them is true. I went to Snopes.com and found the one that is. It’s written by a woman who knows Sarah Palin well and gives some background to the woman’s life and career. In the interest of fairness, I give you the link to the actual letter, make your own determinations from it.

The Kilkenny Sarah Palin letter.

I’ve said it before.

HURRICANES BLOW!

Can someone explain the logic of putting newspeople out in the middle of hurricanes?

I wrote about this somewhere else because I simply find it fascinating.

How many times do we need to see some poor idiot standing out in the middle of a driving rain to know how bad hurricanes are? Is this merely a question of geeky news directors, the guys who were part of the A/V club in high school enacting their revenge on the ‘pretty people?’

I’m thinking too in some way TV is doing a great disservice to people.

Stick with me on this...

If you tell people that a hurricane is coming and it’s a good idea to evacuate in advance of the storm then why would you send people into the midst of it? Isn’t that sending the message that it‘s okay and safe to ride out the storm? If the newspeople are willing to go into the middle of the storm, the reasoning probably is that it must be somewhat safe now, isn’t it?

I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow but perhaps one of the best moments in the film was this point where there is a plague of twisters in the LA basin and a newsclown is out in the street doing a report on it when a car is flung out by the wind of the twister taking the aforementioned newsie out.

It underlined the stupidity of sending newspeople into these things.

People are home watching the TV and every time one of these hurricanes hits there are a slew of newsies on the scene.

Yesterday or the day before, Geraldo Rivera was out in Galveston when suddenly a wave came along and took the footing out from underneath him.

Can you imagine?

I can see the headlines now, Geraldo Swept Out to Sea!

The man who boxed Frank Stallone, who gave us the secret of Al Capone’s vault and Trash TV taken from us in a singular moment of irony provided by Mother Nature.

They need to create a Jim Cantore award for these people but really they need to stop sending them out in this weather to begin with. Last time I checked, aside from flooding, rain, wind, tornados... well hurricanes are all pretty much the same, it’s just a question of how badly you’re going to be f*#$ed.

FRIDAY PHOTO FUNNIES!

Reliving past glory of a misspent youth.


Again, foto funnies are posted as a historical analysis of the changing face of humor in our country of the last 25 or so years. They do not present the viewpoint or opinion of the blog owner. Often they are wildly politically incorrect and offensive - if you are offended by the material in a foto funny, you either need to develop a sense of humor or surf elsewhere.

For more fun, check out The National Lampoon site, the originators of the Photo Funny.

New work for Mary Gross.

Today I shot off an email to Mary Gross’ agent.

Why?

I was in the other room and CNN was on on the TV. Sarah Palin was making a speech and as I listened to the voice, it struck me I thought I heard it before. It was a moment later when I realized I had, although it was a different person: Mary Gross!

Anyway, she’s got a lot of work in the offing over the next few months if she wants, because I can see her doing her Sarah Palin impression on The Colbert Report or The Daily Show!

TV TUESDAYS! Shows that went pffffft!

So, last night was the big second season premiere of:

Real dolls in primetime.

When the Sarah Conner Chronicles premiered last January on Fox and it took suck to a new level.

I sometimes wonder if my tastes in entertainment have become passé. Seeing the hype in advance of the show, I wondered if it might be the case so, I gave the show the benefit of a doubt and watched the premiere. Maybe I should qualify that, I watched what I could manage to sit through of the premiere.



I never would have thought the day would come when I would miss Arnold Schwartzenegger thespian skills. Needless to say I am hoping this will die a quick death. The only thing I am really disappointed is that my personal fave Shirley Manson is in the cast.

The big What If!

I got to thinking about this tonight and the more I got into it, the more staggering the implications became.

What If.

What if September 11th never happened?

Try to wrap your mind around that for a second. Over the next few days because of the anniversary coming up it will be paraded before us again so, I ask you to think about a world where the perpetrators are caught before getting on the planes or there is some great foul up in their plan and even after getting on the planes, the aircraft don’t reach their intended destinations.

Are we in Afghanistan? If not, is the Taliban still in power? What’s the situation like in neighboring Pakistan because of it?

Are we in Iraq? What happens to Saddam Hussein? Has there been a coup? Is he murdered? Does he go to war with one of his neighbors?

Are we at war at all? With China? With Russia?

Does George W. Bush get elected to a second term? Does Al Gore run against him in ’04? Does John Kerry win?

Is there a mortgage crisis? Are the markets doing well? Have we squandered the surplus?

Does the government fail us to the extent it did during the catastrophe that was Katrina?

If there has been one defining moment that has determined the path of our nation over the course of the first decade of the new millennium, September 11th is it. It has set us upon a path no one can truly see where it will lead. We still couch political discourse within the framework of “security” and making America “safe.”

Friends like these.

I’ve got friendships with people the world over. It sometimes seems strange how these things develop. One of my friends, Sandra, just finished directing a music video. It came out good (great song too):

They just don’t make ’em like this anymore.

As far as cases go on the People’s Court.

More idle musings.

So, if they had a website where people wrote about picking their noses, it would be called Booger?

What’s all this stuff about a McCain and Palin ticket?

Isn’t Palin one of the guys from Monty Python?!?! Isn’t he British?!?! I thought they wouldn’t let foreigners be president? In a nation this large you would think they could find someone here, don’t you? Besides, isn’t Palin always busy with those travelogue shows! How’s Palin supposed to address all the business of government, if Palin is off gallivanting around the world? Sure Ronald Reagan was an actor but at least he was American and not a comedian to boot! You would think if they were going to draft an actor, they would at least get a dramatic actor on the ticket!

(off camera whisper).

Oh... never mind.

A tip of the hat to the late but very talented Gilda Radner.

FRIDAY PHOTO FUNNIES!

Reliving past glory of a misspent youth.


Again, foto funnies are posted as a historical analysis of the changing face of humor in our country of the last 25 or so years. They do not present the viewpoint or opinion of the blog owner. Often they are wildly politically incorrect and offensive - if you are offended by the material in a foto funny, you either need to develop a sense of humor or surf elsewhere.

For more fun, check out The National Lampoon site, the originators of the Photo Funny.

The October surprise.

Not what you’re thinking though, Yankee fans are bemoaning the team’s season this year. Even though the Yankees have a surprisingly good record considering the devastating injuries they’ve suffered through - and this is coming from a Mets fan!

However, Yankee fans look west and see the Dodgers and aren’t necessarily bemoaning the loss of long-time departed manager Joe Torre. Still, Joe Torre’s string of bringing the teams he’s managed to the postseason could very well remain unbroken!

Don’t believe me?

Take a look at the remaining schedules for the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks. The Dodgers on September 1st are two and a half games out and still face the division leading Diamondbacks head to head three more times. However, the big difference is this: aside from those games versus the Diamondbacks, the rest of the schedule the Dodgers face Sand Diego (9), San Francisco (6), Pittsburgh (4) and Colorado (3). At the time of this writing only Colorado among the four teams has more than 60 wins!

The Diamondbacks though besides facing the Dodgers have 7 games against wild card contender St. Louis! A team that is playing hard with has a winning home and road record. Their schedule fills out with Colorado (6), San Francisco (7) and Cincinnati (3).

Just a thought.

You watch the weather channel during one of these storm events or just about any major news outlet, and they have reporters on the ground.

I find this somewhat humorous...

Putting a person out in the weather like that. This is news?

Newsperson: IT’S WINDY! (surprise)

Newsperson: IT’S RAINING! (surprise)

Um... last time I checked, that’s the definition of a storm. I’m waiting for that one golden moment when one of these poor clowns is out there and a billboard or something comes flying along and takes them out on camera. Maybe then they’ll stop sending people out into this crap.

Also, I think television does a disservice by having their correspondents do stuff like that.

I think people watch this stuff on TV and figure if the newsies can be out in the soup, there really shouldn’t be too much of a problem should they decide to sit out a storm or go out in really bad weather either. It runs contrary to all those warnings they broadcast telling people to hunker down for the duration of the bad weather.

I think it was in The Day After Tomorrow where there was a point in the movie when tornados were hitting the LA basin and a reporter decided to be out covering in when a car got thrown his way. It made for a funny movie moment and underlined the stupidity of the whole exercise but it will be a lot different if it happens in real life.

Some food for thought.

A vivid reminder.

In case anyone is under the illusion of just how much the administration has failed this country over the last 8 years, if people are walking around justifying the two terms of GW Bush, it would appear that nature is planning on providing a reminder in the form of Gustav.

Any continuation of the policies of the last two presidential terms should be held up against the response of the federal government to one of the greatest disasters of modern times. If Katrina was a staggering blow to the city of New Orleans, should Gustav strengthen he may well provide the knockout punch.

Those people thinking it’s no big deal... well, you’ll be in for a very big surprise when it comes to heating your home this winter. Lest you forget Katrina was one of those factors that put this country on the fast track to $4 a gallon gasoline.

FRIDAY PHOTO FUNNIES!

Reliving past glory of a misspent youth.


Again, foto funnies are posted as a historical analysis of the changing face of humor in our country of the last 25 or so years. They do not present the viewpoint or opinion of the blog owner. Often they are wildly politically incorrect and offensive - if you are offended by the material in a foto funny, you either need to develop a sense of humor or surf elsewhere.

For more fun, check out The National Lampoon site, the originators of the Photo Funny.