Everybody Must Get Answers

No point in waiting until Friday to post the key to this week's quiz when all the lines have been identified already (besides, I'm taking Friday off to visit with some friends who will be here from out of town, so probably won't be posting anything then anyway). The theme, of course, was drugs... not that I'd know anything about the subject personally, you understand, but I hear that it's a rather popular topic among the rock and roll crowd. Congrats to all my astute readers for being so pop culturally edumacated.

1. I caught you knockin' on my cellar door, I love you baby, can I have some more? The Needle And The Damage Done; Neil Young

2. One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small... White Rabbit; Jefferson Airplane

3. Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds; Beatles

4. If you want to hang out, you've got to take her out... Cocaine; originally J. J. Cale, but made famous by Eric Clapton

5. How many special people change, how many lives are living strange, where were you while we were getting high? Champagne Supernova; Oasis

6. Come down off your throne, and leave your body alone. Can't Find My Way Home; Blind Faith

7. Here I lie, in my hospital bed... Sister Morphine; Rolling Stones

8. I don't know just where I'm going, but I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can... Heroin; Velvet Underground

9. Coming in from London from over the Pole, flying in a big airliner... Coming Into Los Angeles; Arlo Guthrie

10. Hello. Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Comfortably Numb; Pink Floyd

**Bonus** I have tried marijuana, I get nervous every time, there will come a knockin' on the door... Lifetime Piling Up; Talking Heads

Ride The Wild Earth

Here in the SF Bay Area, we had ourselves a moderate little earthquake at 8:04 last night. The official estimate put it at 5.6 on the Richter scale, and it was a fairly sizeable temblor. Mrs. Generik and I were watching television, she was at the table and I was on the couch, when we felt the first rather strong jolt, then about fifteen seconds of sustained rumbling, getting a little stronger at the end. The epicenter was Alum Rock, near San Jose, about 50-60 miles south of us. No damage, nothing fell off the shelves or anything, just a few rattled nerves. I know people who say they don't ever want to come to California because they're afraid of earthquakes (of course many of them live in areas where they regularly get hurricanes, tornadoes and floods), but personally, having lived here all my life and having been through plenty of them, I think that's foolish. Most quakes aren't even noticeable, or are just barely so. Last night's shaker got my attention, but the worst thing that happened is that a couple of the pictures on our living room wall are now slightly askew.

Ultimately no big deal, as far as I'm concerned. Anyone else get rattled and want to talk about it?

Whose Opening Line Is It, Anyway: Feelin' Woozy

This week's theme ought to be pretty easy for most of my readers (as will most of the songs), and shame on you for that! Here we go...

1. I caught you knockin' on my cellar door, I love you baby, can I have some more?
2. One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small...
3. Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
4. If you want to hang out, you've got to take her out...
5. How many special people change, how many lives are living strange, where were you while we were getting high?
6. Come down off your throne, and leave your body alone.
7. Here I lie, in my hospital bed...
8. I don't know just where I'm going, but I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can...
9. Coming in from London from over the Pole, flying in a big airliner...
10. Hello. Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me.

**Bonus** I have tried marijuana, I get nervous every time, there will come a knockin' on the door...

Answers Friday!

Out In The Street

On Saturday, 10/27, there were organized marches all across the country protesting the war in Iraq. Here are some of the pictures I took at the San Francisco rally, along with a fairly short (~2:30) video clip. As always, you can click on the pictures for a larger image.

If It's Monday, This Must Be Random Flickr Blogging

Mrs. Morris liked to really give herself completely to her chemistry students: "Class, this came out of me. Let's see how it reacts with a heated solution of potassium permanganate and ethanol..."

.oO When is he going to turn his head and cough? It's been nearly fifteen minutes now! Oo.

"Heh heh heh..."

A gang of Republicans and their lobbyist handlers on a junket to the upper Zambesi.

"It's kind of a funny story, actually. See, I got my imaginary friend pregnant, and somehow *I* ended up with custody. Here, you want to hold him while I go get a beer?"

(Original images, #2571, posted here, here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by Tom Hilton here.)

I Can Believe It

Americans have been buying this spread for nearly seven years now. Isn't it time to switch to something a little healthier?

Of course, depending on who wins in '08, we may be stuck with this product even longer. I can just see the "new and improved!" label if Giuliani gets in: "Now with 50% more H2O!"

(Image created by Mark Malamud, via Boing Boing.)

Fair Weather Answers

Good showing this week, with most of the lines identified early on. Kudos to mrgumby2u and Melville for recognizing Stormy, which I thought might be a stumper. (Melville will probably kick himself when he sees the Lou Christie song that he could hear but not remember the name of.) The theme was simple enough, and you also guessed that right off the bat: The weather. I was a little surprised that no one got the Stones or Led Zep songs, but I suppose neither one is especially well-known outside hard-core fans of those bands (or old farts like me -- but I repeat myself).

Anyway, here are the answers:

1. The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey. Like The Weather; 10,000 Maniacs

2. Once I thought I saw you in a crowded, hazy bar. Like A Hurricane; Neil Young

3. Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night, enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall. Hurricane; Bob Dylan

4. The tax man's taken all my dough, and left me in my stately home. Sunny Afternoon; The Kinks

5. End of the spring, and here she comes back... Hot Fun In The Summertime; Sly & The Family Stone

6. It's getting near dawn, when lights close their tired eyes. Sunshine Of Your Love; Cream

7. Walk along the river, sweet lullaby, it just keeps on flowing, it don't worry 'bout where it's going, no, no. Blue Sky; Allman Brothers

8. You were the sunshine, baby, whenever you smiled... Stormy; Classics IV

9. Listen to me, baby, you gotta understand, you're old enough to know the makings of a man. Lightning Strikes; Lou Christie

10. It is the springtime of my loving - the second season I am to know. The Rain Song; Led Zeppelin

**Bonus** The wind blows rain into my face, the sun glows at the end of the highway. Child Of The Moon; Rolling Stones

New quiz next Tuesday!

Support The Fourth Amendment

Sign a petition to Senator Harry Reid demanding no retroactive immunity for lawbreaking telecoms aiding and abetting the White House in their effort to scuttle the FISA laws. This is important, every voice needs to be heard!

Be Very Afraid!

Over at our friend Flickr, a contributor who calls himself Ed N Sted has put together a slideshow of graphics for use by the Fox "News" Network. It's pretty funny, and captures their signature breathless, "are you scared yet?" reporting perfectly. Check it out.

Glenn Beck Is... RIGHT?!?

I posted this in the comments section to Kvatch's post at Les Enragés.org (see post just below this one) about the onerous comment ("I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.") made by brain-dead right-wing tool syndicated radio host Glenn Beck regarding the fires in Southern California, but I think it bears repeating. Kvatch's point is that, in five of the counties experiencing most of the burning -- Ventura, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange -- George Bush outpolled John Kerry in the 2004 election, in some places by as much as 20%. These parts of SoCal are known to be Republican enclaves, hotbeds of modern conservatism (I know, I used to live down there in the Inland Empire), and their support for wingnuts like B-1 Bob Dornan and current corrupt Congressman Jerry Lewis is no secret. So my point, as I expressed it there, was just this:

I would argue that Glenn is right, though not in the way he thinks: Isn't putting George Bush in office proof positive that the voters who did so hate America? Or at least the America that you and I believe in?

I'm guessing, of course, that that isn't what Glenn meant when he said what he did. Still.

A BARBARian Says So Long... Or Does He?

I'm about a week and a half late to this, but it seems fellow BARBARian Kvatch over at Blognonymous announced that he was quitting the blog game... but has now relented, somewhat, and will be posting irregularly on sites other than his own (but will keep links on that site). For instance, today he's talking about that idiot Glenn Beck over at Les Enragés.org. Check it out. And while you're at it, encourage him to stay in the game. We need all the cogent voices and drum-beaters on our side that we can get.

A Lawless Presidency, A Compliant Congress

Jim Hightower posts a rather long but very readable (and rather scary) article ( h/t to Snave for the link) on the preeminent issue of the day, one that most of us in the lefty blogosphere have been warning and complaining about for years now (and that has been championed and defended in the assholosphere): The still-in-progress presidential coup that is taking place in Washington DC as Congress ignores and/or abets the situation. Here's Jim:

As Al Gore pointed out in a powerful speech he gave last year (read it here), the BushCheney push for imperial power is much more dangerous and far-reaching than other presidential excesses for a couple of big reasons. First, the Bushites make no pretension that they want these powers only temporarily, instead contending that a super-powerful presidency is necessary to cope with a terrorist threat that they say will last "for the rest of our lives." Second, they are not merely pushing executive supremacy as a response to an outside threat, but as an ideological, right-wing theory of what they allege the Constitution actually meant to say.

Called the "unitary executive theory," this perverse, antidemocratic construct begs us to believe that the president has inherent executive powers that cannot be reviewed, questioned, or altered by the other branches. Bush himself has asserted that his executive power "must be unilateral and unchecked." Must? Extremist theorists aside, this effectively establishes an executive with arbitrary power over us. It creates the anti-America.

[...]

What we have is a lawless presidency. But our problem is not Bush. He is who he is -- a bonehead. He won't change, and why should he? He's getting away with his power grab! So he has no reason to step back, and every reason to keep pushing and to keep trying to institutionalize his coup.

Rather, our problem is those weaselly, wimpy, feckless members of Congress who have failed to confront the runaway executive, who have sat silent or (astonishingly) cheered and assisted as their own constitutional powers have been taken and their once-proud, coequal branch has been made subservient to the executive.

In the first six years of BushCheney, the Republican Congress operated as no more than a rubber stamp for the accretion of presidential power, shamelessly surrendering its own autonomy in a burst of mindless partisan zeal. Too many Democrats just went along, either buying the lies or being cowed by the unrelenting politics of fear and intimidation whipped up by Bush and Cheney. (The Bushites are still using these bullying tactics, as when they demanded this past summer that Congress legalize their illegal domestic spy program and CIA chief Mike McConnell warned publicly that "Americans are going to die" if Democrats failed to pass it.)

Which brings us to the new Congress run by Democrats. Where are they? Yes, I know they have only slim majorities and that the GOP uses veto threats, filibusters, and demagogic lies to fight them -- but, come on, suck it up! At least stop voting for "the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution." For example, the party now in charge did indeed cave in to Bush's summer demand that it legalize his warrantless spying on Americans (a Lowdowner sent an email to me saying he hopes Bush gets caught smoking pot, because then the Democrats will immediately legalize it).

The founders would be stunned that Congress has failed to assert itself. They saw checks and balances not as an option but as an obligation, a fundamental responsibility that goes to the very heart of each lawmaker's oath faithfully to support and defend the Constitution.

I think this is exactly right, and, as he points out, quoting the late, great Molly Ivins, it's time to bang pots and pans and make noise and bring the situation to the attention of our fellow citizens, the media and the members of Congress who are supposed to represent us. As always, I urge you to read the entire essay yourself. You may be scared... or you may start banging on those pots and pans.

Response, Please

Gary Kamiya, in today's Salon.com, has a must-read article on how George W. Bush has ruined conservatism for those who would call themselves conservatives. Honestly, I would love for my conservative friends to read this through -- really read it, objectively and without rancor -- and respond to the many points he makes. I've wondered the same thing for years now -- virtually all through the Bush presidency -- and I have never gotten anything close to a satisfactory answer from even my closest and most trusted conservative friends.

Some excerpts (but I truly urge you to read the article in its entirety):

...The real question is: After seven years of George W. Bush, why would any genuine conservative still support his party?

Bush's presidency has made a shambles of real conservatism. Let's leave aside the issues on which liberals and conservatives can be expected to disagree, like his tax cuts for the rich, expansion of Medicare or his position on immigration, and focus solely on ones that should be above partisan rancor -- ones involving the Constitution and all-American values. On issue after Mom-and-apple-pie issue, from authorizing torture to approving illegal wiretapping to launching a self-destructive war, Bush has done incalculable damage to conservative principles -- far more, in fact, than any recent Democratic president. And he has been supported every step of the way by Republicans in Congress, who have voted in lockstep for his radical policies. None of the major Republican candidates running for office have repudiated any of Bush's policies. They simply promise to execute them better.

[...]

If it happened under Bush, Iran-Contra wouldn't even make Page A-18. Reagan covertly funded a guerrilla operation in an inconsequential Central American country. Bush covertly and duplicitously laid the groundwork for one of the longest and most expensive wars in American history. Bush declared that habeas corpus, a magnificent cornerstone of Western law, did not apply to those he designated, without judicial review, "enemy combatants." He claimed the right to lock those individuals up forever, without allowing them to bring their case before a jury. He made torture official U.S. policy, and was directly responsible for the American-run torture factory at Abu Ghraib. His approval of warrantless wiretapping constitutes perhaps the most serious frontal attack on the right of privacy enshrined in the Fourth Amendment in American history. He has made unprecedented use of "signing statements" to disobey laws he disagrees with, marginalizing Congress in the process. His radical theory of the "unitary executive" runs roughshod over the balance-of-powers doctrine that has guided American governance since the Founders.

These Bush policies all represent a direct assault on the U.S. Constitution, long-established legal and political traditions, and accepted American values -- in short, on the heart and soul of American civic life. If American conservatism will not take its stand in defense of these things, what will it take a stand for?

The answer, sadly, is nothing -- or rather, nothing except power. But power devoid of moral content is precisely what genuine conservatism should reject.

Really, these are just a few of the salient points made. Again, I urge my conservative friends and readers (you know who you are) to read the entire article and respond in some fashion, even if it's just a private email to me. I am genuinely interested in your take on this.

Whose Opening Line Is It, Anyway: Wait Five Minutes, It'll Change

Another fairly obvious theme this week (I think), with some easy lines and a couple of HDD entries. Here we go...

1. The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
2. Once I thought I saw you in a crowded, hazy bar.
3. Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night, enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
4. The tax man's taken all my dough, and left me in my stately home.
5. End of the spring, and here she comes back...
6. It's getting near dawn, when lights close their tired eyes.
7. Walk along the river, sweet lullaby, it just keeps on flowing, it don't worry 'bout where it's going, no, no.
8. You were the sunshine, baby, whenever you smiled...
9. Listen to me, baby, you gotta understand, you're old enough to know the makings of a man.
10. It is the springtime of my loving - the second season I am to know.

**Bonus** The wind blows rain into my face, the sun glows at the end of the highway.

Answers Friday!

Mondom Ranckr Fliging Blogday

Not particularly inspired today, but here goes nothin'...

Objects in photograph are more clichéd than they appear.

"I know my dignity is in here somewhere!"
"I think you'll have to dig much deeper than that, Ernest."

The Three Faces of Steve.

I don't know about bears in the woods, but I can tell you for sure about frat boys on lonely desert roads...

(Original images, #4063, posted here, here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by Tom Hilton here.)

More Like This, Please II

Senator Chris Dodd takes a principled stand on the effort to keep Congress from caving in to Preznit Eavesdropper's request to grant retroactive immunity to telecoms for repeatedly violating the FISA law. You go, Senator Dodd -- and you can tell Senator Reid for me that his attempts to undermine your efforts are counterproductive at best, and a betrayal of the Constitution and the American people at worst.

More Like This, Please

On Wednesday, 10/18, regarding the upcoming SCHIP vote, Rep. Pete Stark had this to say:

“First of all, I’m just amazed they can’t figure out, the Republicans are worried we can’t pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don’t care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where ya gonna get that money? You going to tell us lies like you’re telling us today? Is that how you’re going to fund the war? You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement. This bill would provide healthcare for 10 million children and unlike the President’s own kids, these children can’t see a doctor or receive necessary care. […]

“But President Bush’s statements about children’s health shouldn’t be taken any more seriously than his lies about the war in Iraq. The truth is that Bush just likes to blow things up. In Iraq, in the United States and in Congress.”

Of course, the Republicans in Congress and the media all got their little red-state panties in a serious twist over this shocking, shocking!! statement, because they absolutely hate it when any Democrat goes so far as to paint an accurate picture of our sociopathic Torquemada In Chief. Of course they're all calling on Stark to apologize, and asking other Dems to condemn his comments, because it was just so *gasp* uncivil. This from the party that regularly calls us "faggots" and traitors and worse, and smears war heroes and seniors and little kids with alarming regularity. Here's my response to the delicate wingnuts out there, clutching their pearls and falling on their crying couches: Screw that noise, you wussies. I hope you choke on the vapors. Pete Stark has nothing to apologize for, and nothing to back down from. It's about goddamn time that someone in Congress displayed the guts and the backbone to fight fire with fire, and I hope that more of his colleagues will learn from this episode.

Pete Stark is my hero.

Think Globally, Answer Locally

Either this week's quiz was much more difficult than I initially thought it would be, and most of my readers were genuinely stumped, or else folks have just lost interest in this whole thing already. (Cautious optimist that I am, I prefer to think that it's the former.) Only four lines were identified, although Eric the DiscoBoy did get the theme of the quiz, which was, yes, the world. Here are the answers for those of you who still care:

1. Welcome to your life, there's no turning back, even while we sleep we will find you... Everybody Wants To Rule The World; Tears For Fears

2. Here's someone now who's got the muscle, his steady hand could move a mountain. World Where You Live; Crowded House

3. If I had my way, I would move to another lifetime. Any World That I'm Welcome To; Steely Dan

4. Last week my life had meaning, it was beautiful and so sweet... My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me); David Ruffin

5. Everybody's trying to say I'm wrong. I just want to be back where I belong. World Turning; Fleetwood Mac

6. I see trees of green, red roses too, I see 'em bloom for me and for you... What A Wonderful World; Louis Armstrong (also, as Fred pointed out, covered quite capably by The Ramones)

7. It's a bit early in the midnight hour for me to go through all the things that I want to be. All Around The World; Oasis

8. No one is united, all things are untied, perhaps we're boiling over inside... The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss; X

9. The family circle gather 'round from very far and near to pass around the same remarks they passed away last year. The World And His Wife; Elvis Costello

10. There is no political solution to our troubled evolution, have no faith in constitution, there is no bloody revolution. Spirits In The Material World; The Police

**Bonus** Ice-age heat wave, can't complain... The World At Large; Modest Mouse

Back next Tuesday with another, maybe not so difficult (or maybe just more interesting...?) quiz.

Ann Coulter Laid Bare

For those of you who hadn't yet seen or heard about Ann the C's website getting hacked.

Heh heh heh.

The Joke Is In Your White House

From Tim Grieve in Salon.com's War Room this morning:

It was a joke (we think)

From this morning's White House press conference:

Reporter: Mr. President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment, he said recently that next year, when he has to step down according to the constitution, as the president, he may become prime minister; in effect keeping power and dashing any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there ...

Bush: I've been planning that myself.

Yeah, that's funny as hell, isn't it? Like the time he said it would be okay if the United States was a dictatorship, so long as he got to be the dictator. How's that working our for you so far, George? Pretty good, looks like.

Here's what I had to say about this amusing little quip in the comments section there:

Given what the Cheney/Bush cabal has been able to get away with so far, the scenario he "jokingly" proposes is really not that far-fetched: Sometime in the next year, probably close to the elections, they launch a nuclear strike against a few select sites in Iran. Iran then retaliates by sending out a large number of missiles that kill hundreds, if not thousands of American soldiers in Iraq (and quite possibly plenty of people in Israel at the same time). Congress will rally 'round the flag at this horrible attack on Americans (and/or Israel), and will roll over for any goddamned crazy directive the White House wants. Suspend the elections? Okay! How could anyone even suggest going against the Commander in Chief in a time of war and national crisis? After a vicious, bloodthirsty attack on our forces like the one we just experienced? Why, that would be treasonous! Democrats would roll over like pampered cats after a big meal, and Republicans would piss themselves with joy over not having to suffer an even bigger electoral humiliation than the mild one they experienced in '06.

I put nothing, nothing at all past these criminal sons of bitches. Jokes like that ought to make liberals want to think about purchasing and learning how to handle a gun.

Get Out Now

From today's Salon.com War Room:

Must be more "phony soldiers"

In an Op-Ed piece in today's Washington Post, 12 former Army captains who have served in Iraq say it's time for America to choose: Institute a draft, so that there will be enough troops to fight in Iraq, or get out of the country now.

The captains describe an Iraq "in shambles": Roads are in "deplorable" condition; sewer and water systems are worse than they were before the war; Baghdad gets less than eight hours of electricity a day; Iraqi ministries "do not have enough trained administrators or technicians to coordinate themselves"; there is no postal system and no "effective" banking system. What there is is "sabotage," "graft," "corruption" and "the exploitation of U.S. tax dollars by Iraqi officials and military officers." U.S. forces, "responsible for too many objectives and too much 'battle space,'" remain "vulnerable targets" for all who would attack them, and Iraqi forces still aren't up to the job themselves.

"This is Operation Iraqi Freedom and the reality we experienced," the former captains write. "This is what we tried to communicate up the chain of command. This is either what did not get passed on to our civilian leadership or what our civilian leaders chose to ignore. While our generals pursue a strategy dependent on peace breaking out, the Iraqis prepare for their war -- and our servicemen and women, and their families, continue to suffer."

Thus, their all-in or all-out solution: "To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition."

― Tim Grieve

The sooner we withdraw all American forces, the better off Iraq, America and the world will be.

Whose Opening Line Is It, Anyway: What On Earth...?

This week's theme might be a touch more difficult to discern if you don't know at least a third or more of these songs. Let's get right down to it, shall we?

1. Welcome to your life, there's no turning back, even while we sleep we will find you...
2. Here's someone now who's got the muscle, his steady hand could move a mountain.
3. If I had my way, I would move to another lifetime.
4. Last week my life had meaning, it was beautiful and so sweet...
5. Everybody's trying to say I'm wrong. I just want to be back where I belong.
6. I see trees of green, red roses too, I see 'em bloom for me and for you...
7. It's a bit early in the midnight hour for me to go through all the things that I want to be.
8. No one is united, all things are untied, perhaps we're boiling over inside...
9. The family circle gather 'round from very far and near to pass around the same remarks they passed away last year.
10. There is no political solution to our troubled evolution, have no faith in constitution, there is no bloody revolution.

**Bonus** Ice-age heat wave, can't complain...

Answers Friday!

GYWO

Hey, there's a new Get Your War On page up, be sure to check it out.



GYWO rocks like crack, baby.

Monyad Ranmod Flirkc Bloggnig

I believe it was Andy Warhol who predicted that, at some point in the future, we would all live in a yellow submarine for 15 minutes.

Yet another group of children with parents who are Democrats surrender to Michelle Malkin and her mercenary storm-troop forces from the Assholosphere.

Edvard Munch's "Do-It-Yourself Scream" kits actually provided a better revenue stream for him and his family than the original painting ever did.

This new discovery from the caves at Lescaux have scientists re-evaluating the timeline of the origins of Red Bull and vodka.

(Original images, #0567, posted here, here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by Tom Hilton, here.)

Lovely Answers

Urf... still feeling the effects of last night's BARBARian gathering, where the theme was "I'll take Manhattan" (or maybe "First we take Manhattan, then we take... another Manhattan"), but despite that, I'm here with the answers. Not that you folks didn't already get ten out of eleven, but I did say I'd print the answers today and so I shall. Here goes:

1. Sometimes I feel I've got to run away, I've got to get away from the pain that you drive into the heart of me... Tainted Love; Soft Cell

2. Here I stand, head in hand, turn my face to the wall. If she's gone I can't go on, feelin' two-foot small. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away; The Beatles

3. Heaven, please send to all mankind understanding and peace of mind... Please Send Me Someone To Love; Percy Mayfield (also covered by B.B. King, Sade, Jewel and many others)

4. T'ain't no big thing to wait for the bell to ring, t'ain't no big thing, the toll of the bell. Love Is The Drug; Roxy Music

5. I was born in a house with the television always on. Guess I grew up too fast and I forgot my name. Love For Sale; Talking Heads

6. My love she speaks like silence, without ideals or violence... Love Minus Zero/No Limit; Bob Dylan

7. When the routine bites hard and ambitions are low, and the resentment rides high, but emotions won't grow... Love Will Tear Us Apart; Joy Division

8. Whenever I'm alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again. Lovesong; The Cure

9. I wanna love you and treat you right, I wanna love you, every day and every night. Is This Love; Bob Marley & The Wailers

10. Yeah, said it's all right, I won't forget all the times I've waited patiently for you, and you'll do just what you choose to do... Alone Again Or; Love

**Bonus** There's an army on the dance floor, it's a fashion with a gun, my love, in a room without a door, a kiss is not enough... Love My Way; Psychedelic Furs

So, very good -- the only one that wasn't guessed was the Percy Mayfield song, and George sussed out the theme -- love -- right away. I'll try to confound you all a little more and a little better (a little more better?) next Tuesday.

Hey, That's Tonight!

If you're reading this, you're cordially invited to join the BARBARians (Bay Area Resident Bloggers And Readers) for our semi-regular drinking spree get-together tonight, October 11th, at Glen Park Station in San Francisco. Festivities will start sometime after 6 PM, and will conclude at some point hours thereafter. Alcohol will most certainly be involved.

Carter On Cheney

Jimmy Carter has a few choice words about Dick Cheney in a recent BBC interview:

Cheney has been on the wrong side of the debate on many issues, including an internal White House discussion over Syria in which the vice president is thought to be pushing a tough approach, Carter said.

"He's a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military and he has been most forceful in the last 10 years or more in fulfilling some of his more ancient commitments that the United States has a right to inject its power through military means in other parts of the world," Carter told the BBC World News America in an interview to air later on Wednesday.

"You know he's been a disaster for our country," Carter said. "I think he's been overly persuasive on President George Bush and quite often he's prevailed."

Come on, Jimmy, don't sugarcoat it like that! How do you really feel about the evil son of a bitch?

Earlier he had this to say about the Bush administration:

In a newspaper interview in May, Carter called the Bush administration the "worst in history" in international relations.

Just in international relations? I'd say they win that title across the board, in every category imaginable, hands down.

Giving Them A Name

By now I'm sure most of my readers are familiar with the current story of the right-wing smear merchants and 12-year-old Graeme Frost. (If not, you can find a good synopsis of the story here at Think Progress, and more in posts by Ezra Klein, here, Digby, here, and Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake, here. There are plenty of other posts about this incident at most of your usual stops as well.) Basically, young Frost had the temerity to appear on a Democratic radio address talking about his personal experiences after he and his sister suffered significant brain injuries following a car crash, and arguing in favor of continuing the SCHIP program that helps the families of kids with medical problems like theirs afford decent care -- you know, the one that the Compassionate Conservative Criminal In Chief just vetoed.

Well, obviously poor little Graeme had no idea what he was going up against by daring to disagree with the Decider, and now the wingnut noise machine has let him have it with both barrels. Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, all the good little brownshirts at Free Republic and Little Green Footballs and the rest of their ilk have been working overtime to try to paint Graeme and the Frost family as some kind of over-privileged elitists stealing undeserved taxpayer money from the government for having utilized a program to which they were fairly and legally entitled -- one that was set up for just exactly the type of situation in which the Frosts found themselves. Rather than debate the issue on its merits, these angry pundits and bloggers have instead set out to kill the messenger -- in this case, a 12-year-old boy. Disgusting is just the first word that comes to mind in regard to their behavior, but it's really no different than what they've been doing all along. They are bereft of ideas, morally bankrupt and cannot sway the majority of Americans to their cause on merit, so they use vicious attacks and outright lies instead.

Without going into all the details of the Frost case (they are laid out quite well in all of the above links), I just have to say that this is a new low even for that crowd of hate merchants and prevaricators. It's just this sort of thing that points to what the conservative movement in general -- and the Republican party in particular -- has become: Purveyors of disinformation, hatred, paranoia, character assassination and bold, blatant lies. As John Cole pointed out in his post about leaving the party behind (which I wrote about yesterday), the crazies have taken over the organization, and there's no more room now for even semi-rational people who won't follow in lockstep every bizarre move that the Malkins and the Limbaughs and the Hannitys and the Coulters and the Savages dictate. They hate people like Graeme Frost and his family, and, indeed, anyone who disagrees with them, with a white-hot intensity. Worse, they are willing to use all the considerable resources at their disposal to try to slime and degrade them, to discredit them, to make their lives miserable because they are, in the eyes of the wingnuts, The Enemy. The Other. These people have no compassion, no conscience, no moral character whatsoever, and yet they are taken seriously by millions of American citizens and the corporate media in this country -- indeed, many of them are in the employ of that very same media.

David Neiwert at Orcinus has just yesterday coined a term for this collective group of rabid dogs, a term that I believe should be spread far and wide and used frequently -- I know I will be referring to this group of liars and smear artists this way from now on -- he calls them The Assholosphere. From this day forward, that is what they will be known as whenever I refer to them: The Assholosphere. Any Republicans/conservatives who might be reading this, know that the group you are aligned with, the movement that you have supported, the people whom you have up to this point not left behind or otherwise disavowed because of their extreme, bizarre beliefs and hateful actions, will be henceforth known here simply as The Assholosphere, and unless you jump ship now, you're included. Because I've had it up to here with these assholes and their dirty tricks.
Thanks to Kurt Vonnegut for the illustration of just what it is that we're talking about here...

"Fraudulent Criminal Prosecution"

Anyone out there still wondering why the politicization of the Justice Department -- as was so thoroughly carried out under Li'l Abu Gonzales -- is such a scary and dangerous thing seriously needs to eat a bowl of dicks read this article from Harper's and the upcoming Time Magazine story about the Alabama prosecution of Governor Don E. Siegelman, a Democrat, and the ignoring by U.S. Attorneys in that state of related -- and worse, and well-documented -- crimes by Republican politicians. That this kind of selective prosecution goes on in George Bush's Republican America (and refusal to even investigate crimes committed by its ideological partners) shouldn't surprise anyone, but the depths of the corruption revealed in this particular case is almost stunning:

Those raising complaints of criminal conduct on the part of senior Alabama Republicans with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Montgomery are told in plain terms that the Justice Department is not interested in the accusations. And if they persist, they quickly become the targets of threats. In one case, it was asserted, a threat was leveled that a grand jury would be empaneled and an indictment sought: against the person raising the corruption charges.

The U.S. Attorney in Montgomery, Alabama, is one Leura Canary. Her husband is William Canary, a close personal friend of Karl Rove. William is also the campaign manager for current GOP governor Bob Riley -- who is named in the article as one of the politicians about whom there was plenty of evidence of corruption, but who was not investigated in any way by Mrs. Canary's branch of the DOJ, what with him being a Republican and all.

On October 18th, the House Judiciary Committee will hold its first-ever hearings on politically motivated prosecutions, with this particularly odoriferous example playing a central role. Feces, get ready to meet fan.

Justice Denied

Here in the Police States of America, we don't torture, and we don't arrest and hold innocent people for months at a time in secret prisons just because of a case of mistaken identity. That would never happen here in the Police States of America -- and if it ever did, the person who was wrongly held and tortured would certainly have recourse in the American judicial system, and would most assuredly receive some kind of just compensation for the crimes committed against him by the government.

Wouldn't he?

How Much Is That Bloggy In The Window?

My blog is worth $20,323.44.
How much is your blog worth?

Hahahahahaaa... *cough sputter choke* ...Bullshit. I don't believe a word of it.

Anyway, I'm not letting this thing go for a penny less than $25K.

Deserting A Sinking Ship

John Cole, author of the blog Balloon Juice, has an excellent piece up on why the Republican party is imploding in on itself (which is, imho, a good thing), and on why he personally has decided to remove himself from it after years of being a card-carrying, GOP-supporting conservative. He begins with a quote from a recent essay by David Brooks, wondering why the Repubs are in such disarray, and then makes these observations:

Hogwash. If you want to know why the Republican party is in shambles, read this:

Yesterday, in response to a question from a reporter suspicious of why he wasn’t wearing an American flag pin on his lapel, Barack Obama explained his belief that for some, the pins became a substitute for “true patriotism.” The senator said he would instead “try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”

I didn’t expect leading conservative voices to understand, but I was a little surprised at the ferocity of the response. Jonah Goldberg described Obama’s perspective as “staggeringly stupid,” and “the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of him doing.” Another prominent far-right blogger responded this way:

Seriously, you want this for President of these great United States.This is how he catches the attention of a media aligned with the terror force? This useful tool won’t wear an American flag pin? Talk about pandering to the radical base, he ought to run against Ahmadinejad. He is scoring points with Georgie Soros, won’t be waiting long for his on his Soros stipend, I’m sure. What’s Obama Hussein’s new campaign slogan, “America Sucks!” ?

For starters, people got tired of being associated with these drooling retards. Then, when they realized that these drooling retards had ideological allies running the show in the Bush administration and then began to experience their idiotic policies, they moved from disgusted to outright hostile.

Like me. It had nothing to do with Burke, and everything to do with what the party had become. A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs with a mean streak a mile long and no sense of fair play or proportion.

Seriously- what does the current Republican party stand for? Permanent war, fear, the nanny state, big spending, torture, execution on demand, complete paranoia regarding the media, control over your body, denial of evolution and outright rejection of science, AND ZOMG THEY ARE GONNA MAKE US WEAR BURKHAS, all the while demanding that in order to be a good American I have to spend most of every damned day condemning half my fellow Americans as terrorist appeasers.

Hell of an indictment of his own fellow conservatives, isn't it? It seems much in the same vein as when Michael Lind realized back in the '90s just how evil and corrupt were the vast right wing conspirators he had been carrying water for (he was involved, for instance, in the media trashing of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas nomination hearings) for so many years, and was then inspired to leave the Republican party and write Up From Conservatism. It's a real come to Jesus moment, a blinding light on the road to Damascus, for Cole, and it's worth a read. The comments, especially, are quite lively and interesting. I'm reminded of a comment that a good friend of mine, a life-long Republican, made when I went to visit him a few months back: "Bush has fucked everything up so badly that it'll be years before we see another Republican president." He said it rather wistfully, because for him, that's a sad thought. I just hope he was correct in his evaluation -- and the evidence I'm seeing seems to point in that direction.

A bit off-topic, though it's mentioned in Cole's rant above and is explored further in the comments to that post, is something that I've noticed lately and have been meaning to comment on: the palpable fear of Muslims that runs rampant throughout Lower Wingnuttia. It is apparently taken as gospel among many on the right that the "Islamofascists" are plotting every day to take over America and enforce Sharia law here, to make all the men grow their beards and all the women wear burqas, and demand that we get on our knees and pray towards Mecca five times a day. Just how this is supposed to be accomplished is never really spelled out, but I have seen and heard this very idea in many forms from plenty of the Decider's legions, so I know it's something they think about often and truly believe. I have just one comment about this ridiculous notion: If you honestly, honestly believe that somehow a group of Muslims from anywhere in this world -- Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Indonesia, the Philippines, Iran, wherever -- are going to somehow be able to take over the United States and change the way we live according to their beliefs, you are simply too stupid to live. You are a goddamned idiot if you think that can really happen.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest, allow me to conclude by praising John Cole for his intelligence and insight, and urge you all to read his post (and maybe even bookmark his blog -- it appears that he's got other good stuff on it as well).

Whose Opening Line Is It, Anyway: Let Me Count The Ways

The theme this week should be pretty easy to discern, I would think. The songs... yeah, they're probably not too difficult, either, though the bonus may be a true HDD pick. Enjoy.

1. Sometimes I feel I've got to run away, I've got to get away from the pain that you drive into the heart of me...
2. Here I stand, head in hand, turn my face to the wall. If she's gone I can't go on, feelin' two-foot small.
3. Heaven, please send to all mankind understanding and peace of mind...
4. T'ain't no big thing to wait for the bell to ring, t'ain't no big thing, the toll of the bell.
5. I was born in a house with the television always on. Guess I grew up too fast and I forgot my name.
6. My love she speaks like silence, without ideals or violence...
7. When the routine bites hard and ambitions are low, and the resentment rides high, but emotions won't grow...
8. Whenever I'm alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again.
9. I wanna love you and treat you right, I wanna love you, every day and every night.
10. Yeah, said it's all right, I won't forget all the times I've waited patiently for you, and you'll do just what you choose to do...

**Bonus** There's an army on the dance floor, it's a fashion with a gun, my love, in a room without a door, a kiss is not enough...

Answers Friday!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

This past weekend, I spent all day Saturday and Sunday at Golden Gate Park for the seventh annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, and somebody now needs to come and slap the pickin' and grinnin' off my face, because I'm still pretty blissed out. Five stages, six or seven acts per stage per day, and it's all free.

I forgot my camera on Saturday and so have nothing recorded from that day, but I did remember to bring it Sunday. Musically, Saturday may have been the stronger day (though more Hardly Strictly than actual Bluegrass), what with the acts I watched at the Star Stage alone. It started with the Subdudes, followed by the Knitters and then John Prine. All three acts killed, and after a bit of a lull with Keller Williams and Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, ended strong with a mighty set by Los Lobos.

Sunday, my pal Marty and I moved around a bit from stage to stage, and caught Earl Scruggs, Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men, Poor Man's Whiskey, The Sadies and a number of others. I got there early enough to check out Emmylou Harris' sound check on the Banjo Stage an hour before the regular show started. It was, of course, delicious.

Beautiful weather, great music, good crowds... we brought chairs and blankets and food and water and beer, and couldn't have been happier. HSB is probably the best music festival going anywhere, regardless of genre. You can't beat the location or the price or the variety of acts presented. Kudos to local rich guy Warren Hellman, who has put this show on with his own money for seven years now, and I hope he never stops.

Anyway, here are a few pedestrian shots from Sunday, nothing to write home about, but they should give you a bit of an idea of how beautiful it was out there all weekend.

Way up above the Banjo Stage, listening to Emmylou Harris and her band doing an almost complete set as her sound check.

Poor Man's Whiskey in their Oktoberfest costumes, playing and tossing big pretzels to the crowd.

Plenty of musicians show up, and you can often find impromptu jam sessions tucked away in little corners of the park between stages.

Early morning crowd at the Star Stage.

The Sadies performing.

Some people come just to hang out...

...while other people like to dance to the music.

The view is spectacular. You couldn't ask for a nicer setting for this affair.

Not that you can tell, but this is Earl Scruggs at the Banjo Stage, hours after Emmylou's sound check.

Comedy Gold, Baby

Apparently in response to this story (linked earlier in the Olbermann/Dean-clip post, below), Preznit Can't Find The Truth With Both Hands And A Flashlight claimed today that "This government does not torture people."

He went on to lie say that his administration sticks to "U.S. law and our international obligations;" and that "(t)he techniques that we use have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of the United States Congress."

Okay, quick show of hands; how many folks out there actually believe Mr. 32%, the man with the worst credibility record in the world? Anyone? Hands...?

So does he have a career as a comedian just waiting for him once he leaves the White House, or what? Because I'd be laughing my ass off at this right now, if it weren't for the fact that there are so many people who have been put through intense physical pain and suffering (and even death) thanks to his policies -- you know, the ones that he's now lying through his teeth about. "This government does not torture people." That's fucking hilarious. Tell us another one, asswipe.

Jon Stewart vs. Tweety

If you haven't seen this clip of Jon Stewart tearing Tweety a new one yet, you owe it to yourself to watch it. Hilarious!

Perfect

It's not bad enough that the Republicans have been screwing the country for the past six and a half years (okay, more than that, really, but you know what I mean), now they've released the official logo of their 2008 convention, and apparently they plan on screwing the entire year! And isn't that an awfully wide stance...?

Still Torturing

Apparently the United States under George Bush is still torturing and still breaking federal laws and violating international treaties. What a surprise.

The Joke's On You

Paul Krugman identifies just what it takes to be a conservative in these modern times: A complete lack of compassion for your fellow citizens, and the proclivity to find their troubles amusing. Nowhere is this more clear than in the recent veto of the SCHIP legislation, but it's really been a part of the conservative character for some time now. Here's a bit of Krugman's argument:

...Ronald Reagan thought the issue of hunger in the world’s richest nation was nothing but a big joke. Here’s what Reagan said in his famous 1964 speech “A Time for Choosing,” which made him a national political figure: “We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet.”

Today’s leading conservatives are Reagan’s heirs. If you’re poor, if you don’t have health insurance, if you’re sick — well, they don’t think it’s a serious issue. In fact, they think it’s funny.

On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded S-chip, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing health insurance to an estimated 3.8 million children who would otherwise lack coverage.

In anticipation of the veto, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, had this to say: “First of all, whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to think it’s a good idea. I’m happy that the president’s willing to do something bad for the kids.” Heh-heh-heh.

(...)

What’s happening, presumably, is that modern movement conservatism attracts a certain personality type. If you identify with the downtrodden, even a little, you don’t belong. If you think ridicule is an appropriate response to other peoples’ woes, you fit right in.

And Republican disillusionment with Mr. Bush does not appear to signal any change in that regard. On the contrary, the leading candidates for the Republican nomination have gone out of their way to condemn “socialism,” which is G.O.P.-speak for any attempt to help the less fortunate.

So once again, if you’re poor or you’re sick or you don’t have health insurance, remember this: these people think your problems are funny

Sick old people, uninsured, hungry kids? Man, am I laughing my ass off.

Asked And Answered

Good job, readers. You got all but two in this week's quiz, and Eric the DB identified the theme right away (war, unrest, insurrection, armed conflict, etc.). Here are the answers, and thanks to all who participated:


1. In an upstairs room in Blackpool, by the side of a northern sea, the Army had my father and my mother was having me. Military Madness; Graham Nash

2. Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons, packed up and ready to go. Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway, a place where nobody knows. Life During Wartime; Talking Heads

3. He looked a lot like Che Guevara, drove a diesel van. Kept his gun in quiet seclusion, such a humble man. Panic In Detroit; David Bowie

4. I can't believe the news today, oh, I can't close my eyes and make it go away. Sunday, Bloody Sunday; U2

5. Don't start me talking, I could talk all night. My mind goes sleepwalking while I'm putting the world to right. Oliver's Army; Elvis Costello

6. Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming... Ohio; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

7. Look what's happening out in the street, got a revolution, got to revolution... Volunteers; Jefferson Airplane

8. He blesses the boys as they stand in line. The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine... Sky Pilot; Eric Burdon & The Animals

9. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... I've got my clipboad, text books, lead me to the station, yeah, I'm off to the civil war... Slip Kid; The Who

10. Here comes the helicopter -- second time today. Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away. If I Had A Rocket Launcher; Bruce Cockburn

**Bonus** He's five-foot-two and he's six-feet-four, he fights with missiles and spears, he's all of thirty-one and he's only seventeen, been a soldier for a thousand years. Universal Soldier; Donovan


New quiz next Tuesday!

Whose Opening Line Is It, Anyway: Soldiering On

Okay, so I'm rethinking this weekly music quiz just a bit. Not giving up on it, you understand (heaven forfend!), just changing it a little from what I thought I would do initially. It seems a full week between the questions and the answers is just too long a time; most of the comments come in the first couple days, and after a week, the original post is buried so far down the blog that no one sees it any more anyway. So I'm going to try this instead: Post the quiz on Tuesday, then give the answers on Friday. Let's see if that works better for me and for you, shall we?

So let's get started here by giving the answers to last week's quiz. Between George, Eric the DB, Melville and nashtbrutusandshort, most of the lines were identified. No one got the theme, though. George was sort of on the right track when he mentioned the Billy Bragg album (although he had the wrong album for the right song), and nash, in a private comment to me, pretty much hit the nail on the head without realizing it when he said "Costello's first album really kicks off with a humdinger of a song, doesn't it?"

I realize that in this age of downloadable digital MP3s the concept of an "album" is quaintly outdated, but you have to remember, I'm old, and that's what I grew up with. There's still a ton of vinyl on my shelves at home, and there always will be. I recall having serious discussions about many, many discs over "which side of the album" was better. I couldn't begin to count the number of albums by the Stones, the Who, Van Morrison, Bowie, Traffic, Stevie Wonder and others that I would listen almost exclusively to one side for weeks at a time -- and then at some point flip it over and listen to the other side for weeks.

Anyway, long story getting longer, the theme of last week's quiz was simply that all the songs listed are the opening cuts on their respective albums. Here are the answers:

1. Well, I just got back, and I wish I never leave now (Where'd you go?) Safe European Home, The Clash. (First cut on the album Give 'Em Enough Rope)

2. Now that your picture's in the paper being rhythmically admired and you can have anyone that you have ever desired... Welcome To The Working Week, Elvis Costello. (First cut on the album My Aim Is True)

3. Let me tell you how it will be; there's one for you, nineteen for me. Taxman, The Beatles. (First cut on the album Revolver)

4. What is that sound? Where is it coming from? All around. What are you running from? She's Got A New Spell, Billy Bragg. (First cut on the album Worker's Playtime)

5. Beside yourself if radio's gonna stay. Reason: it could polish up the grey. Radio Free Europe, R.E.M. (First cut on the album Murmur)

6. Spent some time feeling inferior, standing in front of my mirror... Every Picture Tells A Story, Rod Stewart. (First cut on the album Every Picture Tells A Story)

7. Oh, yeah! I hear you talking, when I'm on the street. Your mouth don't move, but I can hear you speak. Rocks Off, Rolling Stones. (First cut on the album Exile On Main Street)

8. Early one morning, the sun was shining, I was laying in bed, wondering if she'd changed at all, if her hair was still red. Tangled Up In Blue, Bob Dylan. (First cut on the album Blood On The Tracks)

9. Mother, mother, there's too many of you cryin', brother, brother, brother, there's far too many of you dyin'... What's Goin' On, Marvin Gaye. (First cut on the album What's Goin' On)

10. Every day I try so hard to know your mind and find out what's inside you... She Has Funny Cars, Jefferson Airplane. (First cut on the album Surrealistic Pillow)

**Bonus** You know, and I've been wondering, you know, all the way home, whether the world will see I'm a better man than others by far. Skin & Bones, The Sundays. (First cut on the album Reading, Writing and Arithmetic)

Now that that's out of the way, and you can all say, "Oh, I knew that! I just didn't bother to answer," let's take a look at this week's offering. Here are ten opening lines, plus one bonus line that should be a little more difficult, and they all have a common theme. See if you can figure it -- and them -- out.


1. In an upstairs room in Blackpool, by the side of a northern sea, the Army had my father and my mother was having me.
2. Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons, packed up and ready to go. Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway, a place where nobody knows.
3. He looked a lot like Che Guevara, drove a diesel van. Kept his gun in quiet seclusion, such a humble man.
4. I can't believe the news today, oh, I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
5. Don't start me talking, I could talk all night. My mind goes sleepwalking while I'm putting the world to right.
6. Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we're finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming...
7. Look what's happening out in the street, got a revolution, got to revolution...
8. He blesses the boys as they stand in line. The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine...
9. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... I've got my clipboad, text books, lead me to the station, yeah, I'm off to the civil war...
10. Here comes the helicopter -- second time today. Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away.

**Bonus** He's five-foot-two and he's six-feet-four, he fights with missiles and spears, he's all of thirty-one and he's only seventeen, been a soldier for a thousand years.