Waiting for a Flick

My typographical error rendered the title to this post Waiting for a lick, whichI quite enjoyed.

Truth in advertising, etc.

I meant to begin Waiting for a Flick because, well, I am.  And from a surprising source.

Joss Whedon is behind it, so my anticipation is mildly surprising.  Whedon's work on Firefly entertains me, but his oeuvre does not rest near my wheelhouse.

Anyway, his black-and-white, set-in-LA Much Ado About Nothing is high on my list of gotta-sees.

I understand that he hasn't made any changes to the text -- which is a rarity in stagings of Shakespeare's work, much less in films.

But a film shot in 12 days by the director/producer/mastermind behind summer blockbusters is mildly interesting from the jump, and made more so by this line from a review in The Guardian:

In certain aspects this is Shakespeare as that black-and-white classic,

The Philadelphia Story.

Now who doesn't wanna see that?

A Nice Lesson From the Court

SO I yap about a lotta stuff (well, I used to yap about stuff, before entering moribund blog phase), and because I lack the discipline to actually write, my yapping is at best  momentary pique.

Nothing changes here:  it's yap all the way.

But I found yesterday's Supreme Court decision on an Arizona law very instructive.  Not substantively, and only in passing as an instructive vehicle to understand what the Court usually does.

But instructive in how reporting has so grossly distorted our view of what the Supreme Court is usually doing or deciding.

Let me write two headlines, or imagine yourself hearing on your radio the following ledes:

(1)

The Supreme Court prohibited Arizona from requiring documentation of citizenship for voting in Congressional elections

vs

(2)

The Supreme Court held that Congress preempted Arizona's ability to require documentation of citizenship for voting in Congressional elections.

The distinction is small, but [methinks] meaningful.


Under that first headline, seven justices decided that . . . . something [the Constitution, presumably?] bars Arizona from requiring proof of citizenship in elections.

Under the second, seven justices decided that Congress had the power to restrict, and had in fact restricted, Arizona from requiring proof of citizenship.

Whether a state can or should require documentation of citizenship[ is a pretty controversial, heated issue:  is it being used to prevent voter fraud, or to limit access to the ballot box?  To let seven [well, five] people decide that, and try to tell you where the limitation is found in the Constitution or elsewhere, grants the Court a fuckuva lotta power.

But whether the federal government can establish rules for federal elections, or whether a federal law can trump a state law in Constitutionally permissible areas, are not controversial issues.  They're settled and taken for granted.   So in this case, letting two-hundert and something Congressmen (and fifty-something senators, and a president) decide that a federal form without additional docuimentation is good enough is a bit more representative.

And aggrieved folk who want to change the rule and require more documentation can vote for a U.S. representative who will try to change the law, and likewise can contribute to the campaigns of presidential candidates and senatorial candidates who favor requiring more documentation.  As opposed to . . . what?  Bitching about the Supreme Court, or trying to impeach a justice?

But I didn't hear the second headline read on NPR or elsewhere, and I didn't see the headline in any of the newspapers that I read.  Which I lament -- it really ain't that hard to get it right.

And it might do a tiny bit o' good at maintaining whatever respect remains for the Court.

Now sometimes the justices will really just decide what they want and dress it up, or Congress will have punted and left it to the Court to decide what Congress intended.  I don't mean to suggest that the Court isn't involved in setting policy, as lamentable as that may be.  But it strikes me as really quite possible that Scalia or Kennedy or Roberts-- or even somebody else in the majority--might think that documentation of citizenship would be a really good idea.  While also deciding that the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution gives the federal government the power to decide, and takes it away from the states when the federal government has spoken.


I'll go back in my hole now, and I'll get up a photo of some zebras cavorting, or some French actresses' tits, as soon as I can. . . .

Tigers and Wolves, Oh My! No. 2

Tigers and Wolves, Oh My! No. 2

copyright 2013 mistermuleboy

all rights reserved

pretty please.

Turismo, No. 2

Turismo, No. 2

copyright 2013 mistermuleboy

all rights reserved

pretty please.

My Town

My Town, No. 2

photo copyright 2013 mistermuleboy

all rights reserved

pretty please.

Where Are you, Jew?!?

Around the Majors With MASN

Being out of the country, I have missed this sad news. My supposed paranoia now seems childishly innocent

-from a portable device

So, I'm working on a photographic mystery series. . . .

The Thinning Mule

Day One ends

Wings Over Capital Centre

May 15, 1976

• 1. Venus and Mars 
  2. Rock Show 
  3. Jet 
  4. Let Me Roll It 
  5. Spirits of Ancient Egypt 
  6. Medicine Jar 
  7. Maybe I'm Amazed 
     (Paul McCartney song)
  8. Call Me Back Again 
  9. Lady Madonna 
     (The Beatles cover)
  10. The Long and Winding Road 
      (The Beatles cover)
  11. Live and Let Die 
  12. Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me) 
  13. Richard Cory 
      (Simon & Garfunkel cover)
  14. Bluebird 
  15. I've Just Seen a Face 
      (The Beatles cover)
  16. Blackbird 
      (The Beatles cover)
  17. Yesterday 
      (The Beatles cover)
  18. You Gave Me the Answer 
  19. Magneto and Titanium Man 
  20. My Love 
  21. Listen to What the Man Said 
  22. Let 'Em In 
  23. Time to Hide 
  24. Silly Love Songs 
  25. Beware My Love 
  26. Letting Go 
  27. Band on the Run 
  28. Hi, Hi, Hi 
  29. Soily 

Edit Setlist

They drive me to activism

Yeah; Christians are an oppressed minority in this country, so I get it.

But DeGraaf, a ministry director, told HuffPost that the reports he has seen lead him to believe that the Kansas Legislature needs to protect Christians in the military.

Why don't we protect everyone in the military.  You know, from IEDs and other lethal things. . . .



PS   I'm in love with Barbara Bollier !

For The Mythical Monkey, No.14

I'm Not Ashamed of Any of My Porn, but I Hang My Head About Owning This. . . .

"accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, . . . may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." The Federalist No. 47, p. 324 (J. Cooke ed. 1961) (J. Madison).

i write incomprehensible posts

mmmmmmmy parents must be so proud

When the red, red robin comes

a long time ago, the Jestaplero gave me shit in the comments section about being patently imbalanced and unfair. The context?  I was repeatedly describing former Senator Evan Bayh as the anti-Christ for not doing something, while not naming the ten other people who were not doing it worsely.

The Jestaplero was right that I wasn't being fair.

You see, I was more disappointed in the Bayh fellow, at the time, than some other fuckjheaded douchenozzles from whom I expected whatever loathsome behaviour I was decrying.

The same sorta thing is at work today, of course.

Some close friends are just amazed when they find the evidence of my enthusiastic support [in real life kinda support, not anonymous blog support] for my candidate from 2008, winner o' my vote, winner o' my heart, Barry Obama.  Hawaiin, Kansan, scholar, wag, energizer.  He'd made me a bumper-sticker, pin-on-the-lapel kinda supporter.  Talked him up.

That support lasted through his inauguration, and even survived what I thought was a horrible miscalculation in pushing through "the Stimulus."  I thought he'd fucked up, but I was still behind him.

Well, that ended kinda quickly.

Four years after I'd enthusiastically supported him, I was lambasting the guy.  During the 2012 campaign, when a friend announced on Sep. 12 that Mitt ROmney had demonstrated that he was not qualified to be President [his comments on the Cairo riots and Benghazi were at fault], I responded that Barack Obama was not qualified to be president.  At fault:  his disregard for the Constitution in appointments, and in reversing himself on the limits of his power regarding certain illegal immigrants.

I apparently went easy on the guy, as he was much more hostile to the idea of limits on his power, and on time-honoured restraint and comity, than I had assumed.



 Today I find him abhorrent for so many reasons.

A couple'a his defenders have continued to explain that the . . . misssteps. . .  of DoJ and IRS/Treasury and State and CIA can't really be laid at his feet.  Especially DoJ -- why, that's independent criminal prosecution.

Except it's not.  As the Pres himself has explained, directing resources and establishing the focus of the executive-branch agencies is his job.  One that he's proud of, if during an election he can enact a Dream Act that he'd earlier explained was beyond his power.

But some people tell me that I'm churlish for holding him to blame.  Why how, they asked, could I hold accountable the same man who did a glorious job (the week before an election) rebuilding the New Jersey seashore singlehandedly.




My criticism of the guy was always accompanied by a nagging inquiry -- was I waving my abstract libertarian crap while not looking squarely at what the guy has to do in the real world.  But I've kind of ended the internal debate.  I think it's fair to view him as harshly as I have and do.

But I won't make those Nixon comparisons.  Not me.  I don't think this is the kind of presid

Everyone has heroes: his is James Dean

(the) Razz, 2013  [Noone for Nicely] 

A chill shot the hall as I began to sweat. . . .

photo copyright 2013 J. Scott Watson

all rights reserved

used by permission

The Brownshirts are coming

Wow.  Holy fucking Christ.

Holy Jesus Fucking Christ.

A reporter in search of information who gives his source instructions about how to reach him is a co-conspirator, in the eyes of this Administration.



Nixon used the government to make life miserable for his enemies.

These guys are using it to silence reporters.


Now I have to get off my fat ass and actually compile the list.  The list where Constitutional constraints are just too heavy a drag on the whiz-kid.  And where time-honoured notions of the uneasy balance are being tipped.

I don't know the music of The Smiths

A lot of friends challenge me, with differing levels of vehemence, when I rail about the citizenry protecting itself from its government.  "yeah, like they're really gonna drone you" seems to be a prevailing sentiment.

But the government is always -- men and women.  And men and women do bad things: sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad.  Republican and Democrat.

This time, it's under a Democratic administration, and it's not too big a deal.  Why, it's benign.  It's not political.  We're assured. Last time, and maybe next time, it'll be a Republican administration.  But any notion that we're not cattle to be corralled and controlled seems to me. . . .  optimistic.

I don't assume, btw, that there's necessarily any coherence -- there can be lots of collected bad actors, or negligent actors, all doing their little damage.  But when you have the levers of power, and men with guns backing them up [wait; the guns are the levers!], it's hard not to tug on the kevers now and then.  Why, if you don't, they'll rust or go bad

Congrats to the Rocket !!!

I see that Ronnie O'Sullivan, lovingly known as the Rocket, has won the world's Snooker crown.

attaboy, Rocket!

 Fifth time's a charm!  [as I hope any impending MuleMarriages might prove. . . .]

Happy 87th Birthday, Don -- from mistermuleboy, mythical monkey, So Fair, and Bellotoot

I was entertained Tuesday night by Facebook acquaintances twisting themselves into pretzels to criticize Mark Sanford and laud Bill Clinton, or vice versa.

As I explained there, any comparison of the two does have its limits:  one was a moralizer talking about the sanctity of Gahd's institutions and the importance of honouring and respecting family values, while the other was a moralizer talking about the harms of workplace sexual harassment, honouring women's accomplishments on their merits, and trumpeting the legal system's need to protect women alleging wrongful workplace sexual harassment.








You know, that Roger Clemens as a Boston pitcher was a flaming asshole, but he grew up before joining the Yankees.  Or was he a great guy in Boston before joining the pinstripers?  I can never remember

you know, that Comet song from when were kids -- so get some omet and vomit today -- that sucker is hard to get outta yer head.



Isn't it?

Douche Nozzle, No. 2

Is he describing his dick?

Photograph copyright mistermuleboy 2013

all rights received

please.

The only phase of his career that I've enjoyed was

. . . let me get back to you on that one.

Feeding the Monkey and the Mule

A shot from the set of China Beach.

Marg Helgenberger and Dana Delaney.   Same shot.

Hubba hubba

Petulant

Feeding the Mythical Monkey

Hacking Can Be Fun, No. 2

Sometimes hackers and spammers touch my soul.  They just stick to it.  And demonstrate the human desire to skate by without honest work.

But they're rarely clever.

I like my new comment spammer, TOM, though.

He's not exactly clever, but he's a tryer:

TOM Orrell has left a new comment on your post "Welcome":

I really love and appreciate this post for so many reasons. I think that it's really honest and open and that's really brave.
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Posted by TOM Orrell toThe Mouth O' The Mule at April 16, 2013 at 4:41 AM

and

TOM Orrell has left a new comment on your post ""tis A Shameful Mark":

It’s delightful. An enjoyable read.
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Posted by TOM Orrell to The Mouth O' The Mule at April 16, 2013 at 5:07 AM

and

TOM Orrell has left a new comment on your post "Cramped and Curmudgeonly, No. 16":

I’d honestly like to discover this book! It looks fantastic from start to finish
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Posted by TOM Orrell to The Mouth O' The Mule at April 16, 2013 at 4:54 AM 





and finally:

TOM Orrell has left a new comment on your post "I Walked, No. 2":

Thanks, all those negatives you mention are distinct possibilities when someone’s expectations exceed what someone else can realistically deliver.
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Posted by TOM Orrell to The Mouth O' The Mule at April 16, 2013 at 4:51 AM

When I read the comments, it almost makes this blog seem interesting.

Almost.





If I ever need pre-written essays, wekk I by Gahd know where I'll get 'em. . . .

Halftone

Crumbling Fame, No. 2

Crumbling Fame, No. 2, copyright 2013 mistermuleboy

all rights reserved.

please

End of the Road, No. 2

End of the Road, No. 2 by mistermuleboy, copyright 2013

As It Has Always Been, No. 2, No. 2

As It Has Always Been, No. 2, No. 2     copyright 2013 mistermuleboy

 

Leaving the Pier, No. 2

Leaving the Pier, No. 2, copyright 2013 mistermuleboy

Happy Anniversary

So, eight years ago today, I quit drinking.  It's sometimes melodramatic, but not in my case:  if I hadn't, I'd be dead.  I would have been dead for seven years or more.

If I somehow hadn't died, I would have continued my career as a musician:

≈

I don't eat frosting

Twenty-Four Hours Away

for Little Johnny Jewel

Biscuit, baby !