Debutante at the Freak Show

So tonight marks the debate debut of Rick "Corndog Fellator" Perry. I imagine he'll fluff up his national security credentials by discussing his return to Texas during their wildfire crisis, even though he slashed funding for local fire departments (mostly volunteer forces). Of course, patently false narratives about GOP handling of crises never seem to be questioned by the media. Hell, Rudy Giuliani made a lucrative career out of fluffing his security credentials even though his poor, unethical decisions about locating his disaster response command post in a region known to be a target and not updating FDNY radios placed first responders in danger. Yeah, conservatives fuck up security and disaster response, then swagger about claiming to be heroes.

I expect Perry will show up at the debate, pimping a mendacious narrative about his effectiveness in responding to the disasters affecting his state, and the media won't question the narrative. Hell, the dude looks like he could have played an effective governor in a movie, so why sully that image?

Hopefully, the candidates in the freak show will form a circular firing squad. Bachmann's got nothing to lose by sandbagging Perry, and Romney absolutely has to do it (although Perry will probably sit back and have Bachmann excoriate Romney for him- no need for Perry to appear petty). I don't know if I have the intestinal fortitude to listen to the freak show on the radi-adi-o tonight, or if I will just check out the recaps tomorrow.

Idtellectuals

Characterizing right-wing pundits as intellectuals is inaccurate and overly generous. Such media figures as Michelle Malkin, Pamela Gellar and Savage Weiner (to name but three), operate strictly on an emotional level- rage and fear are all they have. In lieu of rational discourse, right-wingers appeal to the id of their followers. Right-wing commentary is idtellectualism- forget a rational, empirical approach to dealing with the outside world, and embrace resentment, terror, anger. There are no dissenters, just enemies, there is no room for nuance, ambiguity. Higher cognitive functions are dangerous, just channel your base emotions and let fly. Id id id id id! That's all they've got. Thankfully, they don't have any Krell technology to give their ids material form:

So, You Do Your Best to Undermine Me, And You're Shocked That I Spurned You?

There's no butthurt like GOP butthurt- after a concerted effort on the part of Republican lawmakers to get rid of collective bargaining by unionized public employees, Wisconsin Republicans are upset that unions are banning them from Labor Day parades. In response to this rejection, congresscritter Sean "Struggling on $174,000/year (on the public dime)" Duffy had a nice little whining statement:


"Having walked in this parade in past years, Congressman Duffy was hoping that for a moment, we could set our differences aside and simply have some fun in a family-friendly event."


Yeah, just for a moment, forget that I've spent a good deal of effort trying to pauperize you. Damn, what a shitbag- he wants to be seen in a parade, because Americans seem to enjoy them, he wants to participate in Labor Day events because everybody likes a day off, especially in the summer. Shit, laddie, you want to enjoy the perks of the office without answering to your constituents for your awful policies. Next time you hear a conservative talk about "Personal Responsibility", feel free to hit them with a shoe. These lackwits always seem to want a free ride.

Labor Day Synergy

Here's a two-fer for Labor Day weekend, which is marked by celebration of the value of work and those who perform it, and is characterized in NYC by a parade and festival in Brooklyn celebrating West Indian culture. The Jamaican poet and activist Mutabaruka wrote the song H2 Worka to publicize the situation of H2 Visa holders employed as itinerant agricultural laborers in Florida (a subject covered by the H2 Worker: Jamaican Migrants in America, for which Mutabaruka provided the music):





Of course, much of the agricultural labor performed in the U.S. is performed by migrant immigrant workers, most of whom aren't making $50/hour.

Happy Labor Day, dear readers!

Neo-Pagan Heavy Folk

Man, I've been at this blogging thing a year and three-quarters and I've only mentioned Hedningarna in three posts. I'm not much given to absolutist statements, but one that I will make is that Hedningarna's Tra is the best album released in the nineties (Nirvana and Oasis fans, please send me your home addresses, so I can personally administer beatings to you if you disagree). The beauty of Tra is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts- as great as the individual songs are, listening to the entire album (from haunting opener Täss'on Nainen to sweet closer Tina Vieri, with such tracks as the rage-flecked howl of Min Skog and the joik-inspired Tuuli along the way) packs a punch that the individual songs just can't match.

Here are some videos of Hedningarna performing live on Spanish television while at the height of their powers, when the band was fronted by two unearthly Finnish vocalists. I'm going to post all four parts, and you'd best watch them all, if'n you know what's good for you. Turn the speakers up to eleven, my dears! Part one features the songs Vettoi and Joupolle. Check out the groovy instruments, including a small bagpipe and a bizarre hurdy-gurdy type thing:





Part two of the performance comprises one song, Suet Ulvoo- check out that weird fiddly thing featured in this performance, have you ever seen the like? It looks like something Dr Suess would have cooked up:





Part three opens with Ukkonen, a "spell" to raise thunder (Ukko being the Finnish equivalent of Zeus), and continues with Pornopolka (don't drive while listening to this song- it "enheavies" the foot), a different sort of "spell" entirely:





The performance closes with the song Gorrlaus, a sultry number which, ostensibly, is about a nighttime horse-ride:





So, you watched the videos, now go out and purchase Tra- if there's one album which has the BBBB Top Quality Guarantee, this is it. I'm going to close this post with a shout out to my great and good friend J-Co, who first heard Hedningarna when he purchased a sampler CD from Northside Records which had a large sticker on the front reading "CHEAPER THAN FOOD". The sampler CD included the track Räven on it, which inspired J-Co to buy the album. Within six months, everybody in our circle of friends had purchased it as well.

Seems to Me, He's Not One to Talk About It

America's favorite deadbeat dad, Illinois congressman Joe "Fiscal Responsibility for Thee Not Me" Walsh, is skipping out on President Obama's upcoming jobs speech. We can now add shirker of duties to his list of achievements, as well as deadbeat dad, and deadbeat homeowner. Of course, it would be a huge mistake to confuse Joe "Deadbeat Teabagger" Walsh with geetar player and rawk icon Joe Walsh. Of course, it would be nice if the bad Joe Walsh would just walk away:


Skating through life, won't pay his wife
Won't even pay off his mortgage
Self-righteous twit, arrogant shit.
You do the same, he'll take umbrage.

Seems to me, he's not one to talk about it.
Seems to me, he should shut his fucking trap and go away.

Soundtrack for a Redemption Narrative

I've got a tiny bit of writer's block, so I'll just pad out a comment I left at the mother ship a while back. In the mid-part of the naughts, a pair of flaxen-haired poppets captured the hearts of White Nationalists everywhere with their White Power anthems. The Olsen Twins of hate received quite a bit of media attention with their schtick. Recently, the gals of "Prussian Blue" have renounced their racist past, although their grasp of history leaves something to be desired. Well, recovery is a process, and the girls made the first step in their transformation. The onset of their transformation was initiated, appropriately enough, through the redemptive power of music:


But after enrolling in public school and moving to Montana — a predominantly white state, albeit one with a decidedly hippie-ish vibe — Lamb and Lynx decided they simply no longer believed what they’d been taught.

Their transformation first became evident to Prussian Blue’s fans during the band’s 2006 European tour, a double bill with the Swedish white-power warbler Saga. Along with their familiar repertoire of Skrewdriver covers, racist folktunes glorifying Rudolf Hess and other Aryan “heroes,” and perky bubble-gum ballads about boys and middle school, the girls threw the audience a curve ball — a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

“Mama, put my guns in the ground,” they sang to a smattering of boos from the crowd of Scandinavian skinheads and other far-right music aficionados. “I can’t use them anymore.”

They knew it was an unorthodox choice. “Oh, our mom warned us,” Lamb recalled. “She said, ‘You know, some people aren’t going to like this — Bob Dylan was a Jew.’”


Saved by Dylan, and not even "born again" Christian Dylan- who'd a thunk it? Well, here's my snarky take on Dylan's classic, reconfigured for the former poster children for hateful child-rearing:


Mama never did like the Jews,
Never told us 'bout the "Zim"
Played no records by,
That groovy, jewy guy.
So we never heard of him.

Na-na-nazi moms are a bore.
Na-na-nazi moms are a bore.
Na-na-nazi moms are a bore.
Na-na-nazi moms are a bore.

Mama never liked the blacks,
Never told us 'bout the 'drix.
Played no records by,
That guitar-shredding guy.
So we never heard his licks.

Na-na-nazi moms are a bore.
Na-na-nazi moms are a bore.
Na-na-nazi moms are a bore.
Na-na-nazi moms are a bore.


Yeah, chalk one up for the redemptive power of music. Me? I believe in the redemptive power of snark.