Campanastan

R.I.P. Daydream Believer: Davy Jones, 1945 - 2012

So sad to hear that Davy Jones, who rode the Monkees to fame in the mid-1960s and beyond, died earlier today at the age of 66.

In their day the Monkees were much maligned as a 'manufactured' group (which they were - probably the original 'boy band') but their music and reputation have aged very well. Even today, few realize that Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith ,whose mother invented 'liquid paper', were quite accomplished musicians. Nesmith wrote the song Different Drum, a hit for Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys. And let's not forget that Micky Dolenz starred in the TV show, Circus Boy! 

Here is Davy's best-known vocal as a Monkee, and arguably the group's most beloved song, Daydream Believer: For decades, intelligentsia and hoi polloi alike have pondered and debated the song's meaning.

  

"The Monkees are like the mafia. You're in for life. Nobody gets out." - Davy Jones

I-Am-A-Guerrilla-In-Manila: Week 6

Friend and former graduate school officemate Barney Popkin wrapped up his trip to Philippines for the Asian Development Bank (ADB). But now he's back there on another project.

If the picture looks unusual, it's in southern Arizona. Barney's checking out the Tucson Rodeo and other items before heading back to Manila.

Download I-am-a-guerilla in Manila - Week Six

You can read his five previous reports by going here.

"You know you live in Tucson when the cold-water faucet is hotter than the hot-water faucet." - Unknown 

Amazing Video: Bald Eagle Swimming With Prey

Amazing video of a bald eagle pursuing and catching a nutria (large aquatic rodent). Quite remarkable.

From Jerry Coyne's blog:

Alert reader James sent me this great video.  Talk about exaptations: when the eagle repeatedly fails to catch a nutria in the water, it drops on top of it, and, floating in the water, swims the damn thing to shore using its wings to paddle. (Eagles obviously don’t have feet adapted for swimming, and the feet are occupied anyway.)

Nutrias (Myocaster coypus), by the way, are also called coypus, and are large aquatic rodents originally native to South America but introduced throughout the world for fur farming.  It’s not clear to me if this one was alive before the eagle started dive-bombing it. 

 

"Don't quack like a duck, soar like an eagle." - Ken Blanchard

The Rick Santorum Freedom & Morality Flow Chart

Rick Santorum likes to warn us about how the government is undermining our freedom. So what would he like to do? Get a God-fearing government that knows the right thing to do when it comes to legislating morality! Freedom from sin!

From Ruben Bolling.

“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” -- Rick Santorum, 2003

Suffering From Downton Departure Depression? Do Dress Dolls!

Suffering from Downton Abbey withdrawal? Will Mary find solace in the USA? Will the Dowager Countess indulge her cougar tendencies? Is Matthew really impotent? Will Cora's ne'er-do-well brother Farley muck up the Abbey's placid facade? (I made that last one up.)

Try these paper dolls from Vulture! They may provide some temporary relief.

Thanks to Jane Selverstone for sending these my way! 

And, no, it's not just another soap opera!

Oh, the dialogue!

Cora: "I hate to go behind Robert's back."

Lady Grantham: "That is a scruple no successful wife can afford."

I-Am-A-Guerrilla-In-Manila: Week 5

Friend and former graduate school officemate Barney Popkin has wrapped up his trip to Philippines for the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Here is his fifth seriocomic report (read the first one, the second one, the third one, and the fourth one.)

If the picture looks unusual, it's in southern Arizona, where Barney is right now - home until his next trip.

Check out his professional BPPLLC newsletter.

Download I-am-a-guerilla in Manila - Week Five

"No matter how long the procession might be, it will continue into the church." - Filipino proverb

OMG! Seniors Texting! Check Out These STCs - Senior Texting Codes

From friend Barney Popkin (not pictured here!), plus several of my own.

Note that in the title, 'OMG!' means 'Oh, My Gout!).

These have probably been around the Internet, but remember, IVOT (I'm Very Old, Too).

ATD: At The Doctor's

BFF: Best Friend Fainted

BTW: Bring The Wheelchair

BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth

CBM: Covered By Medicare

GGLKI: Gotta Go Laxative Kicking In

GGPBL: Gotta Go Pacemaker Battery Low!

CGU: Can't Get Up

GHA: Got Heartburn Again

CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center

DWI: Driving While Incontinent

FWB: Friend With Beta-blockers

FWIW: Forgot Where I Was

FYI: Found Your Insulin

HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement

IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?

LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out

LOL: Living On Lipitor

LWO: Lawrence Welk's On

OMG: Oh, My Gout!

OMMR: On My Massage Recliner

OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.

ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing....Can't Get Up

TTYL: Talk To You Louder

WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?

WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again

WTP: Where's The Prunes?

WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil

WMD: Where's My Depends?

WTF: Where's The Feenamint?

FFTAYOITC: Feel Free To Add Your Own In The Comments

"Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough." - Groucho Marx

"At my age, it's like trying to shoot pool with a rope." - George Burns on sex at 90

OMG! ¿Dónde Están Las Mujeres?

You've got the title right - "Where are the women?" WTF? A 'expert' panel on contraception with no women? Is this 1960 or something?

Got this picture from a number of sources; Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) posted a similar photo here.

 You can see the original photo here and also read why a female witness was not asked to testify. 

Two women actually did testify, both from conservative Christian colleges - Calvin College and Oklahoma Christian University. Read more here.

Seems to me that President Obama's original proposal enhanced religious freedom, as it would have forbidden Catholic Church-run institutions - hospitals, schools, etc. -  from denying its employees, many of whom are not Catholic, access to contraception coverage in their health insurance plans. It said nothing about requiring the Catholic Church to rescind its (neanderthal) policy forbidding birth control (except for the 'rhythm method' and abstinence) for Church members. 

Obama's policy might cut down on the number of abortions, too. Duhhh.... 

Make no mistake about it: this fuss over contraception - and abortion, too - is about power over, and control of, women - pure and simple.

I thought we had a come a long way; sometimes I think I am back in 1960, where the Republican presidential candidates are.

But what do I know? I'm not a Republican male.

"If men got pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." - Title of a book by Helen Forelle and Janet Leih (1991)

A Cynical Look at Science Students and College vs. Graduate School

So many people sent me these that I cannot remember them all. 

Some seriocomic looks at 1) Science Students; and 2) College vs. Grad School.

Click on each one to enlarge.

Enjoy!

Now, this:

“This made him a grad student, and grad students existed not to learn things but to relieve the tenured faculty members of tiresome burdens such as educating people and doing research." - Neal Stephenson

Celebrate Darwin Day!

I posted about Darwin's 203rd birthday over at WaterWired - give it a read. In it I refer to an article by Dr. Jerry Coyne (that's a picture of Coyne's copy of 'the book'.

And if you think the USA has a 'Darwin problem', read this article by Kenneth Miller (thanks to Laura Crossey). It's more a 'science problem'.

Enjoy!

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin

"Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going." - Michael Shermer

I-Am-A-Guerrilla-In-Manila: Week 4

Friend and former graduate school officemate Barney Popkin is on another trip, wrapping up a trip to Manila for the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Here is his fourth seriocomic report (read the first one, the second one, and the third one).

Download I-am-a-guerrilla in Manila - Week Four

Hilarious as usual.

Even a few more former President Estrada jokes!

"What good is the grass if the horse has died?" - Filipino proverb

Dr. Seuss Redux

I had so many people send me this that I can't remember them all. 

Click to enlarge.

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." -- Dr. Seuss

A Court Order For Eavesdropping, But Not For Killing?

An column by the LA Times' Doyle McManus was posted on The Oregonian's blog, 'The Stump' today. 

Here are the first few paragraphs of the column:

When it comes to national security, Michael V. Hayden is no shrinking violet. As CIA director, he ran the Bush administration's program of warrantless wiretaps against suspected terrorists. 

But the retired air force general admits to being a little squeamish about the Obama administration's expanding use of pilotless drones to kill suspected terrorists around the world -- including, occasionally, U.S. citizens. 

"Right now, there isn't a government on the planet that agrees with our legal rationale for these operations, except for Afghanistan and maybe Israel," Hayden told me recently. 

As an example of the problem, he cites the example of Anwar Awlaki, the New Mexico-born member of al-Qaida who was killed by a U.S. drone in Yemen last September. "We needed a court order to eavesdrop on him," Hayden notes, "but we didn't need a court order to kill him. Isn't that something?" 

Hayden isn't the only one who has qualms about the "targeted killing" program. The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been pressing the administration to explain its rules for months. 

In a written statement, Feinstein said she thinks Awlaki was "a lawful target" but added that she still thinks the administration should explain its reasoning more openly "to maintain public support of secret operations." 

As Hayden puts it: "This program rests on the personal legitimacy of the president, and that's dangerous." 

There has been remarkably little public debate about the drone strikes, which have killed at least 1,300 people in Pakistan alone since President Obama came to office. Little debate inside the United States, that is. But overseas, the operations have prompted increasing opposition and could turn into a foreign policy headache. 

The last paragraph really hits home: little public debate about the drone strikes and the number of poeple killed since President Obama came to office.

I used to think that when it came to warfare, we were 'better' than those we were fighting. We did not torture. We did not use terms like 'collateral damage'. We tried to be 'the good guys'. Now I am not so sure. That's discomforting to me.

Here are the last two paragraphs of McManus' column:

The biggest problem with this newly invented form of clandestine warfare is that its rules have been made on the fly. The Obama administration, like the Bush administration, has made crucial decisions with little outside review and virtually no public scrutiny. 

The administration says it has the authority to kill U.S. citizens who are active in al-Qaida, but it's never explained how that squares with the Constitution's guarantee of due process. It's past time that it did so. 

Agreed.

Read the entire column and the comments. 

"This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism."-- Tony Blair

I-Am-A-Guerrilla-In-Manila: Week 3

Friend and former graduate school officemate Barney Popkin is off on another trip, this time to Manila for the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Here is his third seriocomic report (read the first one and the second one).

Here's Barney giving a geography lesson, indicating how well Americans know the whereabouts of Philippines. 

Download I-ama-guerilla in Manila - Week Three

Barney has a lot of humor in this report, including some local Pnoy (Filipino) humor. Pnoys like to tell jokes about the intelligence of former President Joseph Estrada. Here's a good one:

Estrada walks into a bar in the USA. One guy tells the bartender,"Johnny Walker, double." Another guy says, "Jim Beam, double." Estrada says, "Joseph Estrada, single."

More where that came from!

Enjoy!

"Whatever the tree, so is the fruit." - Filipino proverb

An Attack on the Supreme Court? What Then?

Quite a dilemma.

So what would happen if there were an attack on the Supreme Court? The Continuity of Government Commission,  a joint project of the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, has examined this issue and issued a report.

The Commission has also issued similar reports about Congress (mini-report) and the President.

Sobering, to say the least.

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary." - James Madison

Apocalypse Wow!

Mary Frances sent this my way.

Oh, yeah!

"Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose." - Garrison Keillor