Zappa v. Novak

1986.

Prince's controversial album Dirty Mind was the most explicit thing people had heard. Dionne Warwick had the top-ranked single of the year* ("That's What Friends Are For"), and my mom was taking fashion tips from The Miami Sound Machine. It was a more innocent time.

But Bob Novak was still Bob Novak, the Washington Times was still staffed by uberconservatives living in another universe, and Frank Zappa was...awesome.

Zappa takes on the forces of pop culture censorship in this 1986 Crossfire clip. It's worth watching the whole thing to get the full effect.

*I forgot what an amazing year for pop 1986 was until now. Check out the Billboard Top 100.

Say it ain't so!

Re: America...F**ck yeah!

"Floyd Landis is the coolest injured-yet-victorious athlete America has seen in recent years."...pending his vindication of doping charges.

But if Bill Clinton does come out...

Then he should definitely do it like this:


Previously: Ann Coulter says Bill is gay.
In other news: '90s boy-band icon comes out. (WP)

It's so easy it's not even fun anymore

Coulter-bashing, that is.

Today: Ann Coulter outs Bill Clinton on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Seriously, you won't believe this. (Wonkette) Further proof, as if we needed it, that book learnin' don't teach you nothin.

Sometimes I wonder whether Ann is afflicted by some kind of reverse Bulworth phenomenon--compelled to say the exact opposite of the truth in the most absurd way possible. It just doesn't compute, otherwise.

America...F**ck yeah!

I almost cried. It was like watching Miracle on Ice.

Floyd Landis is the coolest injured-yet-victorious athlete America has seen in recent years.

• Cooler than Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. (Because Mr. Schilling earned our eternal respect when he helped propel the Sox to their 2004 World Series victory on a hastily-repaired, visibly bleeding foot...but then lost it by campaigning for Bush!)
  
• Cooler than Kerri Strug, the U.S. Olympic gymnast who completed her routine on torn ligaments. (Because Floyd can put away 10,000 calories a day during the Tour! As compared to whatever Kerri eats.)
  

The tooth fairy is a total scam artist

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I got, at most, 25 cents per lost tooth.

Now I find out that baby teeth are a valuable and lucrative source of stem cells. (CNN)

Someone owes us some serious cash.

The proprietor of West Virginia

OK, so King Coal may not literally own the Most Unhorizontal State in the Union. But he's about to buy it.

Don Blankenship, CEO of Charleston-based Massey Energy, last week "announced plans to wrest control of at least one chamber of the state Legislature from the majority Democrats in November."

In coordinated press appearances, Blankenship declared war on several dozen lawmakers seeking re-election. He pledged to devote millions of dollars from his personal wealth to "change the leadership of the West Virginia House of Delegates" while also targeting several Senate seats."--AP

For a little background on Massey Energy's track record in West Virginia, check out this CBS story. You may also want to pay a visit to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

Science validates energy bar addiction!

Sweet.

According to a study outlined in this article, athletes who ate three energy bar snacks throughout the day (as opposed to a calorie-free liquid placebo) showed improved anaerobic power and endurance after only 2 weeks.

Poor research or poor grammar: which is the worse sin?

I respond as the tort reform community sends its least prepared representative to comment on my May, 2005 post about the federal energy bill's MTBE liability waiver. Read it here.

Our fair city

The crime wave probably won't kill you, but the weather might.

Tragic and scary

Man Slain In Attack on Couple in Georgetown: Three assailants who cut the throat of an aspiring politician from Britain killed him and tried to rape his female companion early yesterday in the driveway of a Georgetown mansion, police reported, after the couple had returned from a night at the movies. (WP)

What a terrible shame. This awful story reminds me of my #1 DC safety tip for new residents: counterintuitively, it is sometimes safer to stay away from upper income (read: mugging target) areas late at night. Or perhaps this tip should be rephrased as, "nowhere is really 100% safe. Don't count on standard visual cues like cleaner streets or fancier houses...take a cab and get inside quickly."

"The Treason Card", indeed

The Wall Street Journal, overall, is an excellent newspaper. But the editorial page, which is managed separately, can be, well, a little nutty at times. I had somehow missed this particular example of WSJ editorial nuttiness, as related by Paul Krugman in the NYT today ("The Treason Card"):

Does anyone remember the editorial that The Wall Street Journal published on Sept. 19, 2001? "So much for Florida," the editorial began, celebrating the way the terrorist attack had pushed aside concerns over the legitimacy of the Supreme Court decision that installed Mr. Bush in the White House. The Journal then warned Mr. Bush not to give in to the "temptation" to "subjugate everything else to the priority of getting bipartisan support for the war on terrorism." Instead, it urged him to use the "political capital" generated by the atrocity to push through tax cuts and right-wing judicial appointments.

Wait, what? They really published this? On Sept. 19, 2001? Guess I missed it because like most of America I was too busy comforting friends and relatives who lost loved ones at the WTC, tracking down my NYC friends, or simply dazed with the vicarious trauma.

Beyond the foulness of anyone openly considering taking political advantage of an event that claimed 3000 lives, not eight days after the fact, there is an added element of loathsomeness here because the WSJ is, in a way, the paper of record of lower Manhattan. I mean, the Wall Street Journal lost subscribership in that tragedy.

Where this same editorial board gets off accusing the New York Times of acting treasonously for breaking the bank data sifting story, I just don't know.

Coed naked yoga

Buck Naked Yoga (as seen on Fox 5 News)

Actually, not coed, and that's the problem. This is awesome! Where can I find a women's class, though?

Well, at least that's settled

(CNN)

A patriotic snake

In Shenandoah NP yesterday, I saw something I had never seen before: an big fat Eastern Timber Rattlesnake (crotalus horridus horridus--cool name). He rattled at us! This is a photo from the internet, not a photo of our snake, but you get the idea.


They say the Eastern Timber Rattler was the model for the Colonial American flag: