Tuesday, July 31, 2012
A Post-WW II Non-Gay History of Popular Music
As one of the non-Californians on this blog—though my college girl friend graduated from Barstow High School and my wife's side of the family live in Albany,
First, there were the Fifties. Everyone was straight in the Fifties; gays hadn't been invented yet. Certainly, a gay man would not have been the soundtrack of choice for more First Experiences than anyone this side of Barry White. And certainly the people of that time would not have made a Greatest Hits collection by a gay man the best-selling album of that generation, it's longevity on the Billboard charts only supplanted years later but a bunch of English guys singing about their Brain Damage and a Total Eclipse).
And lesbians didn't exist at all. So we certainly would not let our children know about them, or have them appear on something called "Teen Age Music International"
They would have no immortality.**
And then there were the Sixties, where people discovered gays existed, but we try to forget about that. By the late Seventies and early 1980s, Americans hated gays again. Indeed, the only people they hated more were Iranians.
So the last thing they would ever have done is made a gay Iranian into a multi-platinum recording artist who still gets treated as if he were a G-d today. Most especially, we would never use his song at Manly Sporting Events.
Or headlining—and stealing the show—at the worldwide broadcast of a concert for hope, charity, and food.***
By the Nineties, of course, the rise of rap music to the point where white kids were listening to it—and especially "Gangsta Rap"—just reaffirmed that there is no place for gays—and especially not gay men—in music.
And certainly even if there were gay men allowed near rap, they would have no lasting influence.
I hope it's clear from the above that ignoring gays throughout history will not at all negatively impact one's understanding of American popular music.
Now, if you'll excuse me, Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods is playing at Shakespeare in the Park this year, and I have to find a way to see it. Though I may first have to check what Alex Ross says about it in The New Yorker.
*Oops. Full disclosure: the relative who is generally finishing a stint of indentured servitude at UCLJSD is currently out of the country.
**I would have written this entire post just to get this one in. It's still one of my favorite recordings, and I can't bloody find a copy either.
***Or on movie soundtracks as possibly the greatest karaoke song of all time, even down to its use of bismillah in the lyrics. Or as the creator of a love song the rest of the world likes much more than I do. Devotees are offered the full twenty-plus minutes here:
say hello
big twitter is watching you
well, it turns out that it was twitter itself that alerted nbc to adams' tweets:
...in an email to the daily telegraph, christopher mccloskey, nbc sport’s vice-president of communications, said twitter had actually contacted the network’s social media department to alert them to mr adams’s tweets.
“our social media dept was actually alerted to it by twitter and then we filled out the form and submitted it,” he wrote.
as of now, adams' account has not been reinstated.
update: the account has been restored, including the tweet w/the nbc exec's email adress, which is gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com, in case you'd like to email nbc and let them know your feelings.
tuesday night music club
remember the year netflix really screwed the pooch? here's an insider's look at that disaster
five things you don't know about food stamps
14 reasons why this one is worst congress ever
Monday, July 30, 2012
irony alert: network showing the olympics is a bad sport...
sure, everyone on twitter hates nbc's lame-ass, tape-delayed, ignorant and racist coverage of the olympics.
but one journalist got his twitter account suspended...after nbc cried how mean he was:
you can see some of his cached tweets here. the ultimate irony is that twitter's explanation for his account suspension was that he tweeted personal information about someone...the corporate email of an nbc exec in charge of the broadcast.
moral: don't remind nbc how rotten they are, and tune in for matthew perry's return to television this fall on go on!
monday morning
whenart meets science: ants turn colors when eating colored sugar
increasing the minimum wage helps the economy
the 50 cutest things that ever happened
when matt taibbi says to read a book
what i found most compelling about this book was the material in the beginning chapters, in which israel, through lawson, describes his early career as a trader on wall street. it’s this experience in the deeply corrupt netherworld of endless, relentless insider trading that warped israel’s mind to the point where he could become perhaps the biggest dupe in the history of con artistry - rolling stone
Labels: banksters, matt taibbi, wall street
Sunday, July 29, 2012
skippy's sunday night music club
Labels: music, olympics, skippy's music club, youtube
environmental news stories sunday
bee protection group under fire for failing to fight pesticide "armageddon." - a major bee conservation group in scotland has become embroiled in a bitter row for failing to back a ban on nicotine-based pesticides blamed for killing bees - glasgow herald
california ranchers hit by midwest drought. - california ranchers may be hit harder by the drought in the nation's heartland than farmers in the corn belt - sfchron
extreme drought areas in us nearly triple in one week . - the us drought monitor reports that areas on the nation under extreme drought conditions in key agricultural states has tripled in the past week. - treehugger
midwest crops, fish, water supply punished by drought. - temperatures heading north of 100 degrees fahrenheit and scarce rain portended another blistering weekend for much of the u.s. widwest, where the most extensive drought since 1956 is devastating crops, evaporating rivers, and threatening to push world food prices higher - reuters
on the missouri river, drought's effects are diluted by tapping northern reserves. - in times like these, you might have to dip into your savings. that’s true even for the missouri river. the big muddy has run through this year’s supply of snowpack and rain and is now drawing on reserves held in lakes upriver in north dakota and montana - kansas city star
in dallas area, high water use can be tied to affluence. - the biggest drain is water for landscaping. and that will come at a steep cost. state experts say that in the next 50 years, north texas will need an estimated $21 billion of new reservoirs and infrastructure to sustain the region’s water use as the climate gets hotter and the population grows. - dallas morning news
the london array: the world's largest offshore wind farm. - as britain strives to meet european renewable energy targets, the world’s largest offshore wind farm is rising from the waves off the coasts of kent and essex. - the telegraph
nationwide insurance won't insure fracturing. - after nationwide insurance publicly announced it wouldn’t offer coverage for property damage caused by hydraulic fracturing, the aftermath that ensued lit up a firestorm of anti-fracking rhetoric - sydney herald
north korea floods kill 88, leave thousands homeless. - flooding across impoverished north korea this month has killed 88 people, left tens of thousands homeless and devastated swathes of farmland, state media said. - afp
why science is a non-issue in the us presidential election – again. - in the face of a massive drought and climbing sea levels, are the presidential candidates going to talk about climate change? why is science always at the bottom of the list of campaign issues that resonate with the public? - talk of the nation
forgotten tragedy: timor sea oil spill. - it's been called the forgotten tragedy. fishing communities in indonesia's west timor region say their livelihoods have been contaminated by one of australia's biggest oil spills, the montara disaster in the timor sea - australia abc news
paraguay opens doors to unregulated foreign investment. - in his first month as president of paraguay, federico franco has thrown open the doors of his country to foreign investments that have raised questions about environmental safety - interpress service
Labels: australia, bees, california, climate change, drought, energy, england, floods, fracking, london, mississippi, north korea, oil spill, rivers, science, scotland
hand held rocket launchers
...scalia’s across-the-board defense of weapon-carrying laws is not new, having been at the heart of his majority opinion in district of columbia v. heller, which protected an individual’s right to possess firearms. however, his nonchalant suggestion that private citizens could legally carry rocket launchers so long as they’re “hand-held” suggests just how willing he is to protect an armed nation. - think progress
Labels: 2nd amendment, guns, scalia, supreme court, violence
like a sunday afternoon
us lags behind 15 other countires in median income
love can come from lust, says study
can't get to london for the olympics? why not try brunsbuttel, germany, for the mud olympics?
and rip the star of kevin drum's cat blogging friday, inkblot. we know how hard it is to lose a pet, they are like family. our condolences, kevin.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
skippy's saturday night music club
Labels: england, music, olympics, skippy's music club, youtube
one republican tells it like it is
in the deposition, released to the press yesterday, [jim] greer mentioned a december 2009 meeting with party officials. “i was upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping blacks from voting,” he said, according to the tampa bay times. he also said party officials discussed how “minority outreach programs were not fit for the republican party,” according to the ap - salon
Labels: criminal, florida, gop, voting rights
saturday come slow
robert frost: comfortable americana, or terrifying exixtential angst? or both?
chronicling mitt's mendacity vol. xxvii
my cats are beatles fans
and rip dr. who's first romana, actress mary tamm
some peeps are freaking out
and, to those talking heads on nbc who opened up the ceremony on the telly by asking if london was "ready" to host the olympics, i say "shut the f** up."
wankers.
Labels: olympics
Friday, July 27, 2012
skippy's friday night music club
Labels: england, music, olympics, skippy's music club, youtube
the true olympic spirit
Labels: olympics
pobre españa ... literal y figurativamente
with spain on the brink of bankruptcy, its olympic committee decided to save money this year. it got its olympic uniforms for free, from the russian designer bosco, which also provided kit for the russian and ukrainian teams.
but several spanish athletes have taken to twitter to express their distaste for the freebie clothes they're required to wear. after an outcry over u.s. olympic outfits made in china, spain's olympians have a different gripe about their uniforms: they're just plain ugly.- npr
Labels: bankruptcy, fashion, olympics, spain
it's friday night
for the first time, canadians are richer than americans
portugal decriminalized all drugs 11 years ago
and just in time for the olympics: the stupidest injuries in the history of sports
Thursday, July 26, 2012
thursday's child
kids explain science
if the wizard of oz took place in china
bridges over freeways built for wildlife
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
From Tolstoy to Tinkerbell...
It's been five days, and so far nothing is working. So I'm going to throw up a fun ditty and leave it to the Blogtopia(tm, Skippy) Readership to find the post chez DeLong and the original quote. For extra credit, explain that the reason for the editing is that it's judicious, not malfeasance.*
Meanwhile, have some fun with this possibly-irrelevant tune.
*I haven't seen anyone else mention it directly, but I've been offline much of the past week. So probably I'm wrong.
living the meme...orandum
neither does chicago
newsweek owner barry diller tells staff dead trees mag will soon cease publication. oddly enough, staff panics.
peter bogdonovich is is sick about having made a movie about violence. we agree, at long last love was a bomb.
links via memorandum
wednesday week
america's overseas base empire and a dangerous new way of war
alaskan town votes in cat as its mayor
and rip george jefferson, actor sherman hemsley addendeum and dr. joe gannon, actor chad everett
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
skippy's tuesday night music club
tuesday night fever
how washington is wrecking the economy
greenland glacier loses chunk twice the size of manhatten
and rip first woman astronaut sally ride
quote of the day
“including as many americans as possible in our electoral process is the spirit of our country. it is why we have expanded rights to women and minorities but never legislated them away, and why we have lowered the voting age but never raised it. cynical efforts at voter suppression are driven by an un-american desire to exclude as many people and silence as many voices as possible.”get ready for michele bachmann to denounce the former republican governor of florida as some
voter suppression is as close as you get in democratic politics to mortal sin. and it’s going to be one of the prime features of the 2012 election. it is shameful, cynical and frankly disgusting.
sort of whack-a-doodle kenyan loving muslim brotherhood joining socialistic pinko commie.
Labels: florida, gop, governor, quotes, voting rights
my hands didn't build this
star of romney ‘my hands didn’t build this’ ad received millions in government loans and contracts - abc news
Labels: advertising, liars, romney
Monday, July 23, 2012
skippy's monday night music club
Labels: guns, mass murder, music, skippy's music club, youtube
say hello
monday monday monday
this isnwhat passes for investigative journalism on the right
here's a girl doing her impression of all 151 pokemon characters
the very first picture uploaded to the internet was of a comedy band of employees at the cern large hadron collider. we couldn't make this up
michele bachman's words
huma abedin, the deputy chief of staff to secretary of state hillary clinton and the wife of former rep. anthony weiner (d-ny.), has been placed under police protection after receiving a threat, according to a report in the new york post.
the report, which cites unnamed law enforcement sources, says abedin was threatened by a man after rep. michele bachmann (r-mn) last week claimed the state department official had family ties to the muslim brotherhood and called for a probe.- the hill
Labels: bachmann, hate mongering, violence
Sunday, July 22, 2012
skippy's sunday night music
environmental news stories sunday
dry as a bone: drought's wide impact is likely to last for years. - of all natural disasters, drought is the most common and the least understood. around kansas city, drought creeps — first claiming the missouri crop grower, then the kansas cattleman who can’t afford grain to feed livestock. - kansas city star
scientists discover pacific ocean contains higher than normal levels of caffeine. - if you've ever fancied a quick pick me up at the beach, you may not have far to look. scientists said they have found elevated levels of caffeine at several sites in the pacific ocean off the coast of oregon - london daily mail
baltimore's aging water system needs makeover. - nationwide, water system managers have awakened to the need to keep tabs on the condition of underground pipes and replace them before they fail, sometimes with catastrophic results. but many local officials have been unable or unwilling to confront the staggering cost and scale of a comprehensive overhaul. more than 60 miles of lines are deemed at high risk of breaking. - baltimore sun
dupont facing 30,000 claims for tree deaths. - a year after it became clear that a new and highly touted lawn herbicide called imprelis was killing and damaging many thousands of trees around the country, the manufacturer, dupont, is busy processing claims for compensation. some 30,000 homeowners, golf courses, municipalities and landscapers have submitted claims - new york times
record summer temperatures, by the numbers. - the weather this summer has been so extreme that it has rivaled the most destructive and unbearable summers in u.s. history, years that are infamous in weather lore. those years include 1988, which was the year that nasa scientist james hansen first warned the u.s. senate about the consequences of manmade global warming. - climate central
sen. merkley, citing climate fears, wants big study of coal export plans. - sen. jeff merkley (d-or.) is pressuring the obama administration to conduct a sweeping environmental review of proposals for coal export facilities in washington and oregon - the hill
drought affects large swaths of u.s. - a devastating drought has taken over areas of the rocky mountains and midwest. author and conservationist william debuys tells renee montagne that one of the shocking things has been the number of new high temperature records. - morning edition npr
massive southeastern oregon wildfires: did weather, cows or grazing policies fuel the flames? - on one thing ranchers, federal land managers and environmentalists can agree: the long draw fire that devoured an area more than six times the size of portland in a week will take years to heal - the oregonian
fukushima workers told to lie about radiation exposure. - a japanese subcontractor working for the stricken fukushima nuclear plant has admitted it asked workers to lie about radiation exposure. - australia abc news
louisiana senator seeks faster permits for oil drilling. - continuing the lengthy battle with the obama administration over complaints it is still taking too long to approve new drilling permits, sen. david vitter, r-la., proposed legislation switching permitting decisions from the interior department to the department of energy - nola times picayune
green groups target new mexico senate race. - new mexico’s senate race has turned into a key test of political strength for the environmental movement, which is spending heavily to block former-rep. heather wilson's (r-nm) bid - the hill
lobster catch bottoms out. - prior to a massive die-off in 1999, connecticut's lobster fishery was worth more than $100 million a year. now, it's a fraction of that, and researchers from the state department of energy and environmental protection are embarking on another study looking at the effect pesticides may have played in the die-off - bridgeport ct post
Labels: climate change, coal, drought, energy, global warming, gop, louisiana, new mexico, nuclear power, ocean, oil, oregon, pollution, toxins, water, wildfires
bill moyers and chris hedges
Labels: capitalism, disaster capitalism, moyers
lazy sunday afternoon
national insurer won't cover fracking
occupy bohemian grove
eldery bees discover the fountain of bee youth
Saturday, July 21, 2012
skippy's saturday night music
Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube
the outsourcer in-chief
in march 1999, shortly after romney left bto take over the troubled winter olympics in salt lake city, brookside capital investors inc., a bain-related entity wholly owned by romney, filed a report with the Securities and exchange commission that listed dozens of companies in which brookside held a stake the previous quarter. the roster included investments in singapore-based flextronics International ($13 million) and florida-headquartered jabil circuit Inc. ($41 million), two companies that were leaders in the fast-growing field of outsourcing electronics manufacturing and offshoring production to low-wage countries. together, these two investments represented almost 10 percent of brookside's $559 million portfolio. - mother jones
Labels: bain, outsourcing, romney
aurora might have been stopped
the ar-15 rife carried by holmes, a civilian semi-automatic version of the military m-16, would have been defined as a “semiautomatic assault weapon” under the violent crime control and law enforcement act of 1994. if the law was still in force, semiautomatic assault weapons would have been outright banned - think progress
Labels: 2nd amendment, colorado, guns, mass murder
canadian adoption
the city of vancouver has designed a climate change “adaptation” strategy to tackle a potential increase in street flooding, sewer backups, damaged forests and heat-related illnesses by 2050.
..“you either pay money to deal with extreme weather events now or pay money to deal with the after-effects of not having a plan in place,” reimer said. - vancouver sun
Labels: canada, climate change, global warming, vancouver
saturday clothes
ohio cuts back on early voting
the 401(k) scam
religious fanatics destroy school in mexican town
Friday, July 20, 2012
june 20, 1969
I got another letter from Ronnie's teacher at school
Look, I'm as much of a people person as any cranky, middle-aged, ready to fight you at the slightest provocation guy from Jersey could be, but I just don't like Mitt Romney. Yes, I know the issues. I have been a politics and government junkie for forty years (yes, forty years--at the age of fourteen I watched the entire 1972 Democratic Convention, gavel to gavel---the words "Ohio passes" still bring a smile to my face, and no, it has nothing to do with BMs). I read everything I can about the issues, about economics, about political history. I took probably 20 or 30 political science and political history credits as an undergrad. I know you shouldn't vote for someone just based on likability, but I just don't like that guy. He seems the most insincere politician I've ever seen, which is weird because faking sincerity is the most valuable tool in a politician's arsenal.
Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest as an excuse for posting this vid. This is one of my favorite very obscure songs from one of my favorite very obscure groups. If you've heard of this group...how are things in Baltimore these days?
down the penrose lane
good morning, black friday
the computer programmer that developed the '80's video game was a woman
zimmerman's cop comnection in the treyvor martin case
fox news pressures romney to let palin speak at the convention
and rip former snl writer and al franken's partner, tom davis
Thursday, July 19, 2012
You Don't Tug on Superman's Cape...
While I can't find the most famous sketch he wrote, here's Jacques Pepin explaining the real-life version of it:
And here's my wife's old friend, Stephanie, sharing stories about Julia. (Stories about Tom's old writing and performing partner are ongoing, as he—unlike David Bowie in Todd Haynes's imagination—really did become a Statesman.)
you're so bain
thursday night blues
staying home in november is not an option
carbon - it's freaky
pz myers refuses to ride the the chariot of the gods
mccain shows some class and character
on the floor of the senate wednesday, sen. john mccain (r-az) repudiated rep. michele bachmann’s (r-mn) mccarthyesque witch-hunt to root out the alleged muslim brotherhood infiltration of the u.s. government. the flap started when bachmann all but directly accused secretary hillary clinton’s top aide huma abedin of working on behalf of the muslim brotherhood in a letter with four colleagues to the state department’s inspector general demanding an investigation.- think progress
Labels: bachmann, mccain, mccarthyism, muslim, witch hunt
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
wednesday night prayer
you deserve a break today -- unless you're gay
conservapedia's most over rated sports stars
10 of the world's most infamous cults
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
when you're a tuesday girl
6 million people can't vote due to felon disenfranchisement laws
stoned mice leads to breakthrough in understanding memory
and rip country music legend kitty wells; also passing, deep purple keyboardist (and writer of smoke on the water) jon lord
Monday, July 16, 2012
monday monday blues
nbc and microsoft complete their web divorce
genetically modified foods not served in monsanto's cafeteria
romney and son investigated for $8 billion ponzi scheme
Sunday, July 15, 2012
king of bain (reprise)
it’s just all of the jobs that i threw away
there’s a little pink slip that i’m thinking of
because firing folks is the one thing i love
canned 'em in california, let 'em go in maine
on my way to my gop white house reign
and you all watch your paychecks going down the drain
'cuz you know that’s why they all call me the king of bain
words & music: stung, a. winters, s. dopeland
and here's the music, if you want to sing along:
lazing on a sunday afternoon
out-of-control cop sued for abuse
more gop calls for romney to release his tax returns
and rip producer of every great film you ever saw, richard zanuck
Saturday, July 14, 2012
happy bastille day!
saturday ball
number of homeless students tops one million
2012 on track to becoming hottest in u.s. history
ursula the sea witch forced to get liposuction
Friday, July 13, 2012
get 'em out by friday
romney invested millions in chinese firm that profited from u.s. outsourcing
sexual objectification, part 1: what it is
the top ten events in the romney olympics
Thursday, July 12, 2012
thursday night
florida accused of covering up worst tb outbreak in 20 years
abandoned wal-mart transformed into a public library
hard-core gamers turn out to be violent, childish and misogynist
and daniel tosh makes rape jokes about a female member of his stand-up show audience;. here's a petition to get comedy central to take him off the air
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
wednesday night hop
innocent woman spends 53 days in jail
with his new hbo series newsroom, it looks like aaron sorkin has nailed down the all-important news pundit demographic
everything you need to know about mitt romney in one venn diagram
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
happy 10 year blogiversary to skippy the bush kangaroo!
hooray!
all of us here at skippy international are as pleased as a platypus to be celebrating 10 years of contiguous blogging at skippy the bush kangaroo!
who can believe that it's been 10 long and relatively unproductive years since skippy wrote his first blog post lo, so long ago?
so much has happened in blogtopia, and yes, we coined that phrase, in the intervening years.
blogtopia (y!wctp!) has grown exponentially, which is the only way to grow, if you ask us, and since you are reading our blog, we're assuming that you did ask us.
in the beginning blogtopia (y!wctp!) was simply a few malcontents switching from usernet flamer forums to pajama-clad rants in their mothers' basements on a daily basis. and now, look around you, blogging has become virtually a vitural world of millions of malcontents switching from usernet flamer forums to pajama-clad rants in their mothers' basements on a daily basis. and we helped!
we'd like to start out our over-indulgence of self-congratulation with, as is our tradition on our blogiversary, a look back at our very first blog post, lo those many years ago:
the web is one huge library full of books that didn't have to go through an editor to get published. is that good or bad? in truth, it's neither (ok, i've seen some of these blogs, you're right, it is bad). but nonetheless, as the french say, pass the fries!
i gotta start off with thoughts about mr. bush's speech. didn't work for me. not me personally, but my stock portfolio. i spent most of this morning selling at least half of my holdings. one sep-ira which i had started in 1993, and had doubled in value by 2000, had fallen all the back to original value plus $50 as of end of trading today.
i hate to tell you kids this, but we're in the middle of another great depression. that's ok, though, i'm old enough that my parents grew up during the first one, so i know some good techniques for saving money.
we couldn't have done it without our wonderful staff here at skippy international, which includes our delightful co-bloggers, both current and past:
ken houghton, jim yeager, george, mahakal, tami the one true, rj eskow, holden caufield (formerly of first draft), g.d. frogsdong, carnacki (formerly of the mystery of the haunted vampire), and of course, pudentilla.
a big thank you also to brett penrose, who provides original cartoons to this humble space, including the one above w/obama and skippy sharing a cake (makes sense to us!).
also we must needs give mad props to lauren bruce, blogger extraordinaire and html genius, who designed our blogging template. and to august j. pollack, the brilliant artist/blogger who drew our beloved roo logo.
and of course, most of all we owe this blog's very continued existence to our enviromental editor and right-hand woman, cookie jill, without whom this space would have completely disintegrated into the cybervoid years ago.
we take you through the first 10 years of the history of this humble space below, as well as thanking our good friends and supporters (as well as those we lost), also below.
Ten Years Gone
There is the most famous, Utopia. Greek for “No place,” made famous in English by Sir Thomas More, now generally used to refer to any place in the word’s homeland that was not given to the Jerrys for tupence in honor of the latest “bail-out” of the Fourth Reich’s bankers.
The above is borderline a violation of Godwin’s Law. Which I think of as a blogsphere coinage,though it probably goes back to some geeky fandom.
There is “Eutopia.” Good place. Poul Anderson isn’t so famous as Sir Thomas More—never had an English muffin named after him, I guess—but he used that as the title of a story published in 1967 that apparently was the first time genre readers discovered that homosexuals exist. Or something like that.
A Good Place. Not where everybody knows your name—well, at least not unless you think “Every Breath You Take” is a song about Romance—but where you can always find something to do, and generally something that is interesting.
The rule of a Successful Blog—unless you’re someone with a built-in audience, such as a private-school educated Liberal who writes about how society cannot afford to keep the common weal even relatively healthy and how everything would be just great if there were vouchers instead of public education—is, first and foremost, that you write something worth publishing every day. That’s generally in addition to your day job. Or jobs.
Speaking strictly for me, I’ve written over 20,000 words in the past week. Blogging on top of it? A rare occurrence.
And then there is Blogtopia: “Blog Place.” Sounds like a street name in Desperate Housewives or Weeds.
The coiner of that coinage runs this blog, and packs quite a kick. Skippy started this blog before either of the above referenced television shows came on the air; one is now gone, and it looks as if the other might be wrapping up.
Ten years ago, the ugly domed stadium my train just passed—the one that may well bankrupt the city of Harrison, New Jersey—didn’t exist. George W. Bush was still pretending he might not be determined to go to war for the second time, the first President in U.S. history to be so fiscally irresponsible as not to pay for the upfront cost—let alone the precious Human Capital associated with it—so that spending about $1,000,000 a year for each soldier would not burden the schools, the fire stations, the police stations, the roadways, or the power grid that soldier is supposed to be fighting to protect.
Ten years ago, the people who believe others shouldn’t have the right to vote were at least polite enough not to say so loudly and publicly to the New York Times.
Ten years ago, no one would have believed that the primary contender for the Republican Vice Presidential slot would be someone who would seriously propose that we need to cut medical benefits so we can give the rich another tax cut. (Far too many still do not.)
Ten years ago, I only had one daughter, my property taxes were half of what they are now (for the same house), and anyone who told you people would pay $80 or more a month for internet access (figure $30 for the home, $30 more for the mobile, $20 for the tethering—all plus taxes) would have been looked at as if they were insane. Now, people who don’t do it get looks of pity from their peers.
I wrote maybe a thousand words today that no one will read who does not have to. Blogtopia is the place where you write, and read, what you want to, not what you have to.
Skippy has made the world a better place, and I am happy to be a(n infrequent) contributor. I’ll try to do better.
10 years of skippy: congratulations from our friends
and we are reminded of this as we look thru our mailbox, enjoying the well-wishes from our blogging buddies.
the erudite and lovely jeralyn merritt, law superstar as well as cable news regular, is not only the founder and driving force behind talkleft (which also celebrated their 10 year blogiversary last month), she is also the person who coined the phrase, "blogiversary"!
jeralyn was one of our earliest and staunchest supporters, and we are very proud to have her send us her good wishes:
Jeralyn at TalkLeft.com
rj eskow's blog, night light, was an early pioneer in blogtopia (y!wctp!). rj was also one of our early co-bloggers. he went on to bigger and better things as being a regular on the huffington post. rj sends his greetings:
"What I found there was more than a blog: It was a genuine community. What skippy and the gang did for me was more than just an act of kindness. They kept me going when I was ready to give up. They may curse themselves every day for that -- and if they don't, I'm sure I can find them a volunteer. But I'll always appreciate it, no matter how bigheaded, arrogant, neglectful and self-centered I continue to be as I follow my downward trajectory in these, my sunset years.
"Peace out, and love to the house of skippy - rje"
our good friend brad friedman, of the bradblog, is a tenacious protector of voting rights. more than anyone else, brad has documented the ever-quickening erosion of said rights in this country. we are tickled to know him personally, and even more so that he took time from his busy schedule to write us this:
but what do i know? I've only been at it for 8 and a half years, unlike mr. decade.
thanks for your unapologetic feistiness, on-target ass-kicking and unwavering whimsy for each and every one of those years, skipper! congrats! and, imagine that, you didn't even have to make shit up or lie about wearing a pimp costume even once to help make the blogosphere (and no, you didn't coin that phrase) and world a much better place over all of those years.
other than that, please quit blogging soon. i'd hate to be outdone by a kangaroo.
BRAD FRIEDMAN of THE BRAD BLOG
you can read some other well-wishers at their own blogs:
dave johnson, whose seeing the forest will be celebrating their 10 year blogiversary in five days
busted knuckles over at onery bastard
our good friend jill at brilliant at breakfast
driftglass @ driftglass
michael j.w. stickings at the reaction
batacchio at vagabond scholar
ron beasley @ newshoggers
our good friend joe gandelman of the moderate voice
bluegal (aka fran to her friends - who is our partner along with the late jon swift in our annual blogroll amnesty day project) wishes us the best over at her gig @ crooks&liars
august j. pollack, the genius behind our goofy 'roo logo, expresses his regards at some guy with a website
skippy: the first 10 years
we at skippy international are proud of the
first and foremost among said achievements was being the very first blog mentioned by name on cnn, when daryn kagen expertly ducked skippy's assertion that she was as guilty of selective truth-telling as she accused blogs of being.
secondly and foremost among skippy's dubious achievements was getting cnn producer abbi tatton to not only start mentioning as many liberal blogs as conservative blogs on her short-lived feature, "let's sit at a computer on tv and look at the blogs! live! with abbi tatton!", but to also, finally, mention our blog as well! (also, we got a mention at columbia journalism review and a name-drop in a slate headline for our efforts!)
second and a halfly, and foremost, we also got to be the punchline for a terrific series of jokes on the daily show, thanks to the whole abbi tatton brou-ha-ha, and yes, "brou-ha-ha" is spelled with a "u":
thirdly, and foremost among our achievements, we would be remiss were we not to
we could go on.
so we will:
we have been finalists for "best blog in the entire universe" (or something like that) too many times to count, unless it's relatively easy for you to count to four.
and, we are especially proud of our final showing in the 2007 contest:
we were among the first to win the coveted golden monkeyfister award (and we won it twice!)
skippy collected over $10,000 in pledges for relief for aid to the victims of katrina.
we roused all of blogtopia (y!wctp!), left and right, to help us collect a million hits on or near our third blogiversary!
skippy corresponded with two incredibly talented mystery writers, sara paretsky and barry eisler.
we are a reference used in the wikipedia article on marcy wheeler.
but most importantly, we sold t-shirts!
ok, the t-shirts were not the most important things. of course, the blogroll amnesty day celebrations were the most important things, and we discuss that in length below in our fallen comrades post.
10 years of skippy: our fallen comrades
we teamed with jon swift in our yearly efforts to ignore the uncaring, decidedly-unliberal (at least as far as linking policy went) behemouths that several popular lefty blogs had become, and made a consious effort to not only link to blogs with smaller traffic numbers than ourselves, but to encourage all of blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase, to do so, too!
tho we lost jon swift, aka al weisel, a little over 2 years ago, we like to think that his unbridled generosity lives on in our blogging philosophy: that no voice is too small to be listened to; that no blog is too irrelevant to be relevant.
we are sad that we lost other great blogging friends during those 10 years as well. this blog couldn't have survived without the kind support of jim capozzola, who graciously paid the way for our banner-less blogger platform in the literal first days of our existence.
we also miss the wonderful pithy stylings of aaron hawkins, the uppity negro, as well as melanie mattson's bump in the beltway, both taken from us far too soon.
and of course, the constant support and encouragement of the great steve gilliard was a big part of why we continue, even to this day. we are sure there are dozens of other bloggers who feel the same way about steve's love for their work.
Oh Wow...
Monday, July 09, 2012
Oh Well...
Labels: music
monday, monday
christie vetoes tax increase for millionaires for the third year in a row
protesters demonstrate outside of koch fundraiser for romney
internet troll disses girl geek icon felicia day; internet strikes back
now it's funny: archie out of context
and rip quentin mchale and marty, character actor ernest borgnine
Sunday, July 08, 2012
skippy's sunday night music club
Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube
environmental news stories sunday
has ‘organic’ been oversized? - organic food has become a wildly lucrative business for big food and a premium-price-means-premium-profit section of the grocery store. the industry’s image — contented cows grazing on the green hills of family-owned farms — is mostly pure fantasy. or rather, pure marketing. Big Food, it turns out, has spawned what might be called big organic - nytimes
toxic health dumping scandal. - the dangerous disposal of hazardous substances including liquid uranium and contaminated objects, the dumping of the confidential records of patients and the mishandling of asbestos have exposed a culture of mismanagement in sydney hospitals - sydney morning herald
texas seeks new water supplies amid drought. - the punishing seven-year drought of the 1950s in texas brought about the modern era of water planning. but the drought of 2011 was the hottest, driest 12 months on record there. - weekend edition
showing vultures a little love. - think of a giraffe lying on the serengeti plain. he has just died, maybe of disease, maybe he was killed by a pride of lions, but now he's a 19-foot-long, 4,000-pound mound of meat, which very soon is going to stink and rot and muck up the neighborhood. - national public radio - npr
rising temperatures and drought create fears of a new dust bowl. - triple-digit days. weeks with little to no rain. soil crumbling away. stunted corn stalks. right now the fertile fields of the u.s. midwest are experiencing corn-killing weather, with parts of five corn-growing states in the region experiencing severe or extreme drought - time magazine
torrential rain wreaks havoc across britain. - more than 200 flood warnings and alerts were issued by the environment agency on saturday as torrential rain swept the country, causing havoc in many areas - the guardian
scores killed in russia floods. - severe flash floods in russia's southern krasnodar region have killed at least 99 people and affected nearly 13,000 in the area's worst natural disaster in decades, officials say. - afp
u.s. drought sets record. - more of the nation is in the grip of drought than at any time in the past 12 years, including over half of the contiguous united states, according to the u.s. drought monitor. - orange county register
Labels: animals, australia, drought, ecology, england, environment, npr, organic, russia, texas, toxins, weather
it must be sunday
john boehner can't make you love mitt romney
five famously disengaged employees and what we can learn from them
study finds spanking leads to mental illness
carry that weight, at least across the street! it's the abby road webcam!
Saturday, July 07, 2012
skippy's saturday night music club
Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube
saturday at midnight
blame game going on at cnn over plummeting ratings
former irs official calls for investigation into alec
mitt romney and the new gilded age
is it bad form
oystapacolypse now
a disturbing nationwide decline in oysters and the life-giving reefs that they build is particularly dramatic in california, where the once-abundant native species has been virtually wiped out, according to a recent scientific study.the report, published in the scientific journal proceedings of the royal society b, said olympia oysters, once an integral part of the native american diet and a staple during the san francisco gold rush, are functionally extinct."essentially, today, the number of oyster reefs is zero," said rob brumbaugh, restoration director for the nature conservancy and co-author of the study. "it's the complete elimination of a key species and habitat on the west coast." - sfgate
Labels: california, food, food supply, oregon, science, washington
Friday, July 06, 2012
friday's child
bobby jindal's strange history with exorcisms
romney's bain problem
"stand your ground" laws lead to more murders says new study
does "the amazing spiderman" seem like it has a few holes in the plot? it does
san diego's 4th of july fireworks celebration
Labels: 4th of july, Epic Fail, san diego
$5.5 million an hour
duke energy ceo bill johnson resigns after one day, gets $44 million in severance - grist
Labels: ceo, employment, energy, jobs, retirement, unemployment
crime of the century
modern international bankers form a class of thieves the likes of which the world has never before seen. or, indeed, imagined. the scandal over libor -- short for london interbank offered rate -- has resulted in a huge fine for barclays bank and threatens to ensnare some of the world's top financers. it reveals that behind the world's financial edifice lies a reeking cesspool of unprecedented corruption. the modern-day robber barons pillage with a destructive abandon totally unfettered by law or conscience and on a scale that is almost impossible to comprehend. - huffpo
Labels: banking, banksters, corruption, england, lawlessness, libor, wall street
raul castro, 96, gets pulled over in arizona
raul castro is a former governor of the state of arizona.
the wife and a friend of former arizona gov. raul castro are calling for changes in border patrol procedures after agents recently detained the frail 96-year-old in 100-degree heat for more than a half-hour.think progress has more....
castro said he was traveling from his home in nogales, ariz., to celebrate his 96th birthday in tucson when his vehicle triggered a radiation sensor at the border patrol checkpoint on interstate 19 north of tubac.
castro said agents sent him to another inspection area and continued to question him outside his vehicle for 40 to 45 minutes even though he explained that he had undergone hospital testing on his pacemaker the previous day, likely triggering the sensor. - az central
this is the third time the former governor and ambassador has been detained by border control. the first occurred years ago while he was repairing his own fence and agents stopped him and asked to see his work card — although they eventually desisted after castro pointed out a sign by his farm entrance that read “judge castro.” the second occurred years later in san diego, although that encounter ended shortly after someone recognized castro and said “governor, how are you?”
Labels: arizona, border patrol, governor, immigration