SPENCER WIGGINS - I'd Rather Go Blind

Freitag frolic

It is hard to take a nuanced position in today's highly charged political climate. Everybody is very invested in pitching the sanctity of their position and the evils of "the other guy."

Ken thinks I am a flip flopper. He asked me if I was in the democrat or republican chair this morning.  The other day he said I was a liberal except in matters concerning Israel. I don't happen to think that is an accurate assessment but that's cool.

Although I don't think that is entirely fair. I prefer to think of myself as an honest referee. For instance I was happy to hear about the release of the Horowitz report yesterday on Operation Fast and Furious. I happen to share a lot of the anger of the right on this brutally concocted and ill conceived program. For once, I basically agree with Issa, a guy I never agree with.

"There needs to be supervision, there needs to be oversight and law enforcement operations like Operation Fast and Furious need to be referred from the start to the "highest levels" of the department," Horowitz testified in the 471 page report.

Last night, Lawrence O'Donnell was looking at the report as a vindication of Holder, Obama and the higher ups. No one had any evil motives. Looks like total system breakdown to me and the bigshots go unscathed. I prefer to think of it as a monumental catastrophe. Maybe they didn't know but they should have known. It happened on their watch, with their subordinates and a valuable American man was killed by one of the weapons released into the system because of this awful operation. No victories here for anybody.

This was such a bad deal. Three of the five lawyers who reviewed the wiretap applications testified to Horowitz to never personally reading the affidavits. No one can be proud of their performance when evidence of such blind incompetence come to light.

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Here's one for you from TPM.

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Interesting article at New Republic about current polling. With all of the other polls showing Obama with an increasing lead, Gallup and Rasmussen continue to go the other way. Complicated but it turns out Gallup does not include the "no home phone" demographic, which tends to skew minority.

Sweet Hawaiian Sunshine

A missive from the retro futurist

Akaka Falls © Robert Sommers 2012

As you can imagine, this blog has grown into a hungry beast that takes up a whole mess of my time. I can't help it, the train's barreling down the tracks at this point, out of my control.

I've tried to put the brakes on before and found out that like the hydra, you cut off its head and nine more grow back in its place.

I guess I just have to accept it and move forward. What can you do, I like to shpiel?

I got a neat post card and letter of introduction from a blog reader today who goes by the name of The Jolly Curmudgeon.  Jolly lives in Hakalau, Hawaii and says that he reads the blast faithfully, it is "chewing gum for his brain."

I appreciate being able to put a name on one of those recurring green stars on my map. Welcome Jolly, thank you for the kind words and I will take your musical suggestions to heart. I dig Frisell and the little bit of Buckethead I have heard.

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Next I want to hear from those blast fans in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I know you are reading, we definitely need to pow wow. Don't know much about the country except that the women are very tough, won't even get off their horses to give birth. That's some wicked strength. Love the barbecue.

Would be cool for more of you lurkers to step forward, disclose yourselves and chat. Thanks for reading.

Run the numbers

From a.p.:

46% of the people, some 76 million households, paid no income tax last year. According to the Tax Policy Center study, 38 million taxpayers escape paying because their income is too low. One in five of the rest benefit from tax breaks for the elderly. 93% of those who owe no income tax make less than 50k per year. 5% make 50 to 100k per year. More than 430,000 make more than 100k annually. That includes 4,000 households  earning more than 1 million per year, thanks to tax exempt interest, reduced rates on capitol gains and dividend and other deductions.

Strange Brew

Mitt Unleashed

Jedi photo composite © Robert Sommers 2012

"My job is not to worry about those people." Mitt Romney

This whole Mitt video fiasco is just unbelievable. To have the opportunity to hear and see a politician actually honestly tell the truth as he sees it, it just doesn't happen very often ladies and gentlemen. Of course, his whole premise is largely full of shit.

I am a lifelong democrat who has never taken a penny of government assistance and pays my income taxes, close to one million dollars in a single calendar year in 1989 when things were really rolling. I don't expect any free ride dependent relationship with the government nor as far as I know, do any of my friends that vote with the democratic party. Don't know anybody who feels like a victim either.

You'd be surprised at the people that don't pay any taxes. They come from all income brackets, persuasions and political parties. Mostly they have really sneaky tax attorneys.

Mitt is doubling down today and I think that it will be a net loser but I say hear hear. He's finally telling us what he really believes down deep is the unvarnished truth and I for one, think he should keep talking. Some conservative pundits are aghast, blaming the handlers for not keeping their stake horse bound and gagged or at least parroting the standard party line. And the message has not resonated all that well, even Fox News today is showing polls with Obama with commanding and increasing leads in Ohio, Florida and Virginia, the crucial swing states. But it will probably not affect him with the average republican voter, who probably largely agrees with him.

Kind of reminds me of Dudley Moore in Crazy People, the 1990 film where he plays an advertising director who has a nervous breakdown and has an epiphany in the looney ward. He will tell the truth in his ad campaigns.

Comes up with the classic ad above. And a few others that are hilarious as well. Metamucil: We help you go to the toilet so you won’t get cancer and die. Or, You may think phone service stinks since deregulation, but don't mess with us, because we're all you've got. In fact, if we fold, you'll have no damn phones. AT&T - we're tired of taking your crap!

Mitt is finally able to speak from his heart. He thinks that roughly half the population are parasites looking for a handout and that he doesn't have a chance in hell with them. Maybe that is the real line dividing us. Liberals tend to think that people are generally good and do their best to be productive and decent citizens and conservatives think that a huge segment of the population is merely trying to "get over." Maybe it has to do with where you grew up?

Stalwarts on the extreme right are rushing to their new champion. Limbaugh, Jennifer Rubin (see Mitt finds his game plan) and that breed think he is finally on message. His political allies are fleeing for the hills. They may secretly agree with him but no chance in hell that they are going to open their mouths. This truthiness may not be so good for business.

"I think the basic point is correct. It's what this election is about. Do we want a government - centered society? Do we want to continue to build government and grow our debt at an unsustainable level and bankrupt this nation? Or do we want to start working toward a path of opportunity, success, things that actually make this country great," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin.

Limbaugh thinks this could be a teachable moment, a pivotal win for conservatism:

"...This could be the opportunity for Romney and for that campaign to finally take the gloves off and take the fear off and just start explaining conservatism. Start explaining liberty to people and what it means, and explain that they don't have to be in that 47%.  There's no reason for them, for everybody, to essentially have given up on their future in this country.  There's no reason for it.  This is, to me, such an opportunity to espouse conservatism and to explain to people. Now that people are focused on this, now that people are paying attention to it, this is a golden opportunity, and we know Romney's got it in him because of what he said to these people...We want to stop Obama.  We have got to get Obama and the Democrats out of power if this country's future is to have any semblance of its past."Rush Limbaugh - A golden opportunity for Mitt Romney

Keep pounding your war drums, GOP. Time to go all in. You're on to something.

Here's to the one republican who bothered to tell the truth, at least as he saw it. Thanks, Mitt.

Exposed

My photo clan is having another group show in November. I was the art director, conceiver and paste up man for this poster. Sanoguy took the shot of our model, Brett. Should be an interesting show.

Jesus's other half

So Jesus had a wife...Who knew? I can see it now (cue harp music):

"Savior, shmaver, how about lifting a finger around here once in a while, Mr. Son of God."

Sighing, Jesus looks beatifically at his spouse, Mary, and then rolls his eyes heavenward. "Yes, dearest."

"Don't patronize me, Jesus. You mess with me, you'll wish you died young."

"And another thing, those disciples don't wipe their feet after they step in that filthy Galilee shmutz. You want to see hell, I'll show you hell. You'd think one of your merry men could hold down a job? But no. Moochers. Heal the sick, loaves and fishes, you ever bring me any of that nosh home? Never.

Everybody wants to talk about the messiah, they think those robes clean themselves? Saul's wife got  a new camel. A four door. Son of a carpenter, ha, this place is a dump. And another thing...

(to be continued? your idolatrous contributions graciously accepted.)

"Bring home two bialy's and a shmeer. I know you got the wine thing covered. Mary."

Magical Mystery Tour

Here's a great way to lose an hour of your life.

Red State Moochers

From David Graham's Where Are the 47% of Americans Who Pay No Income Taxes? at Atlantic.

Buddy Guy

Twisting in the wind

Can we vote none of the above?

I just listened to Mitt's news conference, nervously fending off questions regarding his "inelegant"comments that the 47% of the population that are dependent on the welfare state will always be voting for the democrat. Sounds like the opening salvo in the class war to me. A  bit intemperate, perhaps a final nail in the coffin. I almost felt sorry listening to him stammer and twist like a piece of bacon on the grill. Press sensed blood and they were on him like hungry mosquito's. Has not been a good week for the Republican presidential candidate. Another video has now surfaced where Mitt is seen talking about a concentration camp styled Bain factory in China with glowing approval.

The Obama Administration has been disrobed as well. After several days in which their recount of the sacking of the Libyan Embassy turned out to 180 degrees counter to the host country's version of events, that the killings were merely the result of a spontaneous combustion of film critics, comes a heap of evidence that it ain't necessarily so. In fact there was no riot, there had been a small demonstration in the morning. More like a targeted assassination. But that runs counter to the Sally Field narrative, they love us, they really love us. If the Libyans are smart, they will toe the administration line, whatever you say, just keep the checks rolling in...

Today word from Libya that our government had explicit word of an impending attack three days prior to the killing. This to me is Obamian equivalent of Condoleeza Rice getting the august memo that terrorists were planning on flying into the World Trade Center and then doing nothing. Completely feckless and irresponsible. Ambassador Susan Rice looked like a prozac addled robot as she mouthed her weak denials and parroted the standard Obama administration party line.

The muslim intelligentsia, the Zakarias and Adjamis of the world have been hard at work trying to come up with intellectual justification for the massive unrest. Poor misunderstood muslims with a caliph sized inferiority complex. How would you like to be part of a civilization that hasn't done anything much to speak of except ululate for the last eight hundred or so years? Wearing out their welcome in Australia, Germany, France, Denmark, Holland, now where else have I forgotten...

Was it so hard to figure out that the only organized opposition and alternative after the fall of the dictatorships was the fundamentalist theocracy? And the only thing those people hated more than their own monarchs was the west. By all means, Obama, let the blind sheik out of jail. He wasn't too successful in blowing up New York, can't you give a guy a break?

Of course now the situation is so bad in Afghanistan that we won't even do any more ride alongs with the Afghan military or police, so riddled with taliban plants eager to murder their american compatriots. It has been a grand experiment, but it has failed. Admit it and get the hell out of there. Now.

The Moody Blues - Go Now

"We will never have the smart people on our side"

Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining department

I know I promised...But the koolaid coming from the White House spokesman Jay Carney was just too much to take this evening. He had the temerity to say that the riots in the Muslim world were not directed at the United States of America but instead merely at an insulting film. They love us, they really love us...Which is total horseshit, as any sober person can tell you that has been paying attention.

Jay, they are rioting from London to Jalalabad, and all points on the islamic compass in between, burning Uncle Sam in effigy and incinerating the stars and stripes, even torching a Hardees and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Not because of the original recipe's calorie count, I can assure you. Sorry to break the news to you Jay, but when the mob starts chanting "death to america" I believe there is possibly some national animus involved. Even Barack's new found bff's in the Muslim Brotherhood are sore at our country these days. Might have to throw them another billion or so so they ease up.

I know it doesn't fit real neatly into your nascent arab spring narrative but life is like that sometimes, As Lennon said, it's what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.Sometimes you can't look at how you want things to be, but have to deal with how they actually are. It's hard, I know.

The way I see it, Obama has two options at this point; he can apologize to the rioters (our fault/my bad) or find a convenient way to blame Israel for the whole mess. I am sure that you guys can spin the whole thing back your way and nobody is going to really notice.

best,

Robert

Blue Railroad Train

One last question?

I sense fatigue. You are tired of politics and my ranting of late regarding the unrest in the arab world. This will be my last mention for a while, I promise.

But I do have a question for you. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the coptic christian film maker whose provocative film torched the muslim world, has been picked up by the local cops for questioning. Arab masses and monarchs have been demanding his head on a spit for days. Why not just deliver him and let the angry mob rip him apart?

To those of you who cry freedom of speech and American values I direct my question;

In a time where the President, who claims to be a democrat (and presumably uphold democratic ideals), believes that it is legal to assassinate United States citizens without benefit of trial, indefinitely detain American citizens without trial or the ability to defend themselves or face their accusers, tap phones, read and data-mine email and any other personal method of communication without a search warrant or probable cause, use gps to track the movements of innocent americans and store them for an extended period of time, use drones and video cameras to monitor the daily activity of Americans who are not suspected of any wrongdoing, keep us in a vaguely defined and undeclared state of war that has lasted for over a decade, against a vaguely described enemy named terrorism, use drones to kill bad guys in foreign allies' sovereign countries without their acquiescence, waterboard, torture and occasionally murder enemy prisoners, participate in rendition arrangements with other countries that will do the same, obey or abrogate the Geneva Convention when convenient, and indulge in a gaggle of other intrusions on liberties that we Americans have held dear for centuries, so why not just be pragmatic and deliver his head? Our constitution and bill of rights is near meaningless now anyway, what's the big deal?

Benghazi post mortem

Fox Military analyst Col. David Hunt, in an interview with Breitbart News, is alleging that the State Department rules of engagement for the Libyan Embassy did not allow for bullets in the defender's guns. Supposedly the roe was approved by Hillary last year. It sounds preposterous and super fishy and I have to be suspicious of anything coming from these sources but the facts in question need to be looked at. State Department is currently clammed up and not talking. Wonder if we will ever find out what really went down? I sure hope that this is total bullshit.

"The State Department just allowed our guys to get killed. If you approve no bullets in guns for the mission security guards and an outhouse for a mission, you’re inviting it."Col. David Hunt

Hunt told Breitbart News that “the rules of engagement have been changing drastically over the last 10 years. . . The reason the surge in Iraq worked was we had another 40,000 soldiers and the rules of engagement were changed to allow our guys to shoot. What’s happened in Libya is the final straw of political correctness. We allowed a contractor to hire local nationals as security guards, but said they can’t have bullets. This was all part of the point of not having a high profile in Libya.”

According to Hunt, the debacle at the American mission in Benghazi is directly the result of Obama’s new policies. ”The policy of the Obama administration led to this,” he said.

"Thanks for liberating us, we're sorry."

Ballsuck

The Daily Show
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DIM LIGHTS THICK SMOKE

Risk a shilling

Oh, to be done with the election and never have to hear about "optics" or "dog whistles" again.

While the race is pretty much a dead heat statistically, pundits are coming to the conclusion that things are getting pretty dicey for Mitt Romney and his chances of getting elected. There are three major battleground swing states in play, Ohio, Florida and Virginia. According to experts, all President Obama has to do is win one of these key states and it will be near statistically impossible for Mitt to win.

Obama currently holds a 5 point lead in, 7 point in Ohio and 5 point in Florida, according to the latest NBC, Marist and Wall Street Journal polls. He has a commanding lead with the london bookmakers as well.

From NBC:

"These states – all of which Obama carried in 2008 but which George W. Bush won in 2004 – represent three of the most crucial battlegrounds in the 2012 presidential election. And according to NBC’s electoral map, Romney likely needs to capture at least two of these states, if not all three, to secure the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency.
By comparison, Obama can reach 270 by winning just one or two of these battlegrounds  – on top of the other states already considered to be in his column.
(Obama also has an additional path to victory without any of these three states if he wins the toss-up contests of Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.)
What’s particularly striking about these polls, Miringoff observes, is how most voters in these battleground states have already made up their minds, with just 5 to 6 percent saying they’re undecided, and with more than 80 percent signaling that they strongly support their candidate.
“Those who are thinking of voting have pretty much picked sides,” he says."

So the likely voters have decided, there is little movement except for a slight post convention bounce for Barack and Mitt needs to slaughter the President in the debates if he is to have much of a chance at the big enchilada. Without any snarkiness, what do you think the chances are of that? A decent man, a successful man, one who has a lot of good qualities to admire. Not necessarily the most brilliant public speaker I have ever heard and a bit detached from the average american's lot. A little green, talks without thinking and seems to be run by a bunch of guys in a back room.

"President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family." Mitt Romney

On the backdrop of wife Ann saying that $150 million dollars doesn't qualify as wealthy to today's definition by Mitt that middle class means $200 to $250 thousand, or less, later qualifying that they mean aggregate household incomes, you get the feeling they might be a skoche detached.

 Every close election, and this one is going to be close, brings back arguments about the value and merit of the electoral college.

I say do away with it, every American's vote should count equally. What we have now is the tyranny of the rural population, a homogeneous demographic ideologically.

The electoral college unfairly conflates their power.

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Read the other day that Mitt was now concentrating on white males without a college degree. How exactly do you find and narrow down this demographic? Besides the obvious trolling at Nascar events, I mean. If you can read this paragraph without stumbling we aren't interested in talking to you...

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This should have been a gimmee for the Repubs, with the public's tepid response to the incumbent and the screwed up economy. What's the old expression, they could fuck up a wet dream?

I just don't think Americans are buying the message, the slate of candidates was a choice between Santorum psycho, Bachman wacko, Gingrich nutso and the only psychologically normal candidate, Mitt, who alienates many in his party because they think he belongs to a dangerous cult. I don't think he is a bad guy, probably way more pragmatic than he is given credit for, if you take his performance in Massachusetts into account, and probably willing to seek bipartisan compromise, something that has eluded the incumbent although probably through no fault of his own.

Mitt is about to be crucified by the conservative intelligentsia, eyed like the fat lady walking through the cannibal picnic. The truth is that it is not Mitt that scares most americans but the rest of his cronies, the tea party, the evangelical right, those that would privatize medicare and social security. The radicals of the day are all in the GOP and it scares people. Ryan today said that Obama can't say that we are all in this together because he isn't speaking to the unborn. God. What about ghosts, who is speaking to the ghosts?

It is the Gary Bauer's and Tony Perkins, Karl Rove's and Ann Coulter's that drive most of the sane people nuts. The Republican party, a once great party of W. Rudman, W. Cohen, Weicker and Rocky that has let itself become a freak show. He will be blamed but the reality is that our country is simply not buying the republican message. Obama didn't create the class war, but Goldman certainly brought it to the fore. On equal pay for women, reproductive rights, a host of issues, the environment, their social message seems like a walk back to the Victorian age.

Bauer said today that the reason Obama is winning is voter fraud and welfare money. Another commonly heard jeremiad is that the slanted mainstream media has it in for Romney and he is probably really actually winning.

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Ryan said yesterday that Obama treats their only true mid east ally with indifference. I agree with him. If not outright antipathy. Of course, Netanyahu is not an easy guy to work with and is trying to pin the President's ears back. But Obama has never been comfortable with Israel, never visited it although he found his way to Cairo, is too busy next month to meet with Netanyahu here.

They are just another country in the President's eyes, to the great pleasure of many americans, myself excluded. I listened to Hillary and Barack at the eulogy this morning and my respect for her is increasing and for him a trifle diminished. He is cold and aloof, a classic Chicago politician.

The State Department has always been dominated by arabists and I flinched today when they brought up the Palestinian Authority's sorrowful reaction to Ambassador Steven's killing. Yes, they have such a stellar reputation. How soon before the events pour into Gaza and the P.A.'s West Bank? Speaking of Israel can you imagine a scenario where an anti Moses movie is made and jews are killing and rioting in Haifa, Shaker Heights and Fairfax in protest? Of course not, we only expect that sort of behavior from you know who? We can't let a handful of radicals cast a pall over the islamic world as a whole, unless of course we are laboring under a grave misconception and the malady turns out to be actually systemic.

Iran's nuclear computer calculations have surfaced this week, the sort of modeling that is created prior to nuclear weapons being built. Probably the smoking gun that had alarmed the Israelis. A prudent country would take notice but it is probably not politically exigent right now, so there will be no red lines thank you.

Here's the real deal, the way the blast swami sees it; Iran gets one free punch, one nuke can land on Israel, but we americans will be in with both feet after that, that is if there is anything left. Count on us.

Don't do anything until you call us.

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An excellent discussion of the logistics of red lines at the Weekly Standard.

The whole enraged mideast makes me think of an old joke.

Did you hear, Salman Rushdie, author of the reviled Satanic Verses,  has a new book out? It's titled Buddha, you fat fuck.

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"I know that this awful loss, the terrible images of recent days, the pictures we're seeing again today, have caused some to question this work. And there is no doubt that these are difficult days. In moments such as this, so much anger and violence, even the most hopeful among us must wonder."

Barack Obama 9/14/12

I am past wondering, put me down in the "firmly convinced" category. Certain people have placed themselves outside of the human circle, and are if not beyond redemption, at least not worth a single drop of civilized blood.

HUNG UPSIDE DOWN

9.13.12

Okay, repeat after me, one more time, Islam is a religion of peace...

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A very ugly week. The arab spring and its fledgeling democracy is now turning into a flaming fundamentalist mob in Benghazi, Cairo and Yemen. The Morsi government in Egypt waits a day before it decides to condemn the uprising by its own followers, the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood contemplates holding another riot the very next day.

Morsi does finally issue a statement but it is more concerned with going after the supposed jewish, Israeli filmmaker (who it turns out is actually not an Israeli or jewish, instead a coptic christian) than quelling or condemning the unrest. After all, these are his peeps. Makes a guy yearn for the good old days of the dictatorship.

Apologize to Allah or we will burn the whole fucking place down. A very civilized people, to be sure.

A stupid, obscure two bit preacher, Terry Jones, hands still charred from burning korans, now tries to incite a war against Islam by circulating a terrible movie and the arab world gets instantly torched. Strictly legal but quite irresponsible. You know these muslims have no control, with the daily savagery that exists in their world. Atavistic animals with no empathy for human life. The same people who place bombs in crowded markets where they are sure to kill scores of innocent people. We have to give them a pass. You know how volatile they are.

Don't forget that we are forgiving a billion dollars of debt to our new friends in Egypt this year. Because as Barack Obama says, the egyptians may not be our allies but they are not our enemies either. Well not yet anyway.
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Andres Serrano - Piss Christ c. 1987

You can submerge a jesus figure in piss, publish cartoons of bleeding stars of david, burn the american flag and people in the west are for the most part pretty chill. They may get sore but nobody gets killed. You might do a few years in the pen in Russia if you go after the Russian Orthodox church but usually nobody  gets wacked.

But god forbid that you piss off the muslims and the religion of peace. Life for them is a temporary currency, whether it ends by religious war, honor killing or suicide vest. A freaking fourteen year old detonated himself this week. Nothing has changed for the better since 9-11 and after a decade of American intervention. Afghanistan is a joke, soon they will let all the prisoners we have captured out of their jails in a kind muslim gesture that we westerners wouldn't understand. Insha'llah.

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Mitt Romney, facing longer odds on the presidency by the week, is sounding more and more bellicose. He accuses the President for apologizing for  a State Department statement regarding the stupid incendiary film that was issued prior to the sacking of the Libyan Embassy. Sounds to me like the State Department was pretty well attuned to the probable reaction of the arab street to the pointless provocation. Now he is after Obama for not being tougher on China, the people who hold half of the national paper. Careful what you wish for, tough guy.

The Republicans are itching to show everybody how big, tough and butch they are, they yearn for a world where countries once again quake in fear at the awesome specter of american might. Unfortunately our track record hasn't been so good of late in the fear department. Hard to kick ass and take names in a low tech or asymmetric conflict, especially one where people are eagerly looking forward to martyrdom. More calls lately to annihilate the whole breed, why build these expensive weapons if we never want to crack a few eggs and make omelets.

The Dinesh D'Souza's and Niall Ferguson's of the world globe's resources, well it is our divine right and nothing more than a testament to american exceptionalism. Jesus blew air up our butt and said we could. It was the great powers manifest destiny to colonize India, the native americans and all the other colonies of the world. The blacks were better fed and educated after we enslaved them. We do these people a favor when we subjugate them and conquer their countries. Often in the name of religion.

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Got this from D today:

HI Robert 
I got this email from some right wingers, I believe by accident? It interested me from a couple of perspectives. First, I don't give a shit if the president is a muslin, mormon, catholic or anything in between as long as he believes in our constitution and is a strong defender of our country and freedoms. This may be an oxymoron depending upon the religious agenda connected with politics. Secondly, this piece demonstrates what can be done with the media tools at everyones disposal in creating propaganda and how easy it is to globally dispense ideology and spread hate. It is also hard to believe that the conservatives at FOX news couldn't do a better job of editing the propaganda. The irony of the video is that it demonstrates the makers (presumably Americans) of this piece are not being patriotic Americans in defending the rights of individuals to practice freedom of religion. Another possibility is that this really is cyber propaganda promoted by muslin fundamentalist to agitate American fundamentalists so that both sides have an excuse to continue the undeclared war against muslims and the blasphemous Americans. The premise that this piece is not being aired to the public because it is so scandalous is ridiculous to me since all of the heavily edited clips are from the public media! Maybe the simplest explanation is that it is just some racists that can't accept the fact that Obama is partially black. If this be true then we are reaching the bottom of the barrel where the scum is and skin color trumps all aspects of American principles. I thought it might be interesting to air this on the blog and see what kind of response it generates. At a minimum I'm interested on what you think? To me this is scary stuff and I have images of guys in brown shirts hugging the guys in white sheets to bring about a better society! 

In God we trust!                    I wonder which God they are referring to? WOW
dd

" Subject: FW: Fox News Has Been Blocked From Showing This Clip


CLICK ON  THE ADDRESS AT THE BOTTOM IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHO THE PRES REALLY IS                   

Remember when we were told to watch Fox News on a Sunday night that was going to air something about Obama and we watched but never saw anything! Well, read below and click on the video to see why it got pulled before it could air
Now we know why Fox News never broadcast it as they had originally planned to. This piece was pulled.
  *I encourage you to please send this to everyone on your email list ASAP.*
*Remember all the notices we kept getting to watch Fox News on Sunday at 9PM? What Happened?*
*This is the clip that got pulled due to pressure from the Administration.*
Obama Puts Heat on Fox News to Prevent Sean Hannity from airing this piece.
*This is a video that Sean Hannity of FOX News has been trying to show that we are told has consistently been blocked by the Obama Administration for several weeks. It was a matter of time until the internet picked it up.*
*Watch it now before it gets pulled from the internet!*
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28
Forward to as many and as quickly as you can!
-- IN GOD WE TRUST

I am not going to hit on the link. It has been a kind of crummy day and I don't want to bum out any further thinking about stupid people.

Rich sent this over: As reported by the AP regarding the negotiations re the Chicago teachers' strike: "A top (Chicago School) District negotiator… said just before the talks resumed - 'We take these negotiations incredibly serious' ".
No doubt a product of those same Chicago public schools.
BLR - Richard

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The Obama wants to take god's name off your money scare was truly pathetic.

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Warren sends this over from New York: Beautiful day in NY.....seems the El Primo "square table" was clairvoyant on foreign policy.......What Romney did was not simply abysmally stupid but despicable......a bit interesting...bumped Obama to -2.30.... 

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I meet people these days and get a lot of apologies for them not reading lately. Hey people, forget it. If you want to read, read, if not, great. Sorry I ever asked. I am over it. People keep telling me I should write a book. About what, pray tell? Anybody can write a shitty book. If I write a book, I am going to write a book. Should hit 3500 blog posts real soon, there's a few books there, not counting the hundred or so I have already jettisoned.

Saw Genser the other day and he said that he likes the politics part but he has noticed that the majority of the blog is actually a chronicle of my trials and tribulations. I assume that must get boring, we all most prefer our own trials and tribulations, thank you. Any way here are a few of mine of late.

Cortisone shot in the side of the foot yesterday, big honking needle, plantar fasciatis has now morphed into tendinitis and it's real hard to walk, especially in the morning. Any of you check out my cool new limp? After visiting the podiatrist we went to check on an old family friend whose phone has been disconnected, only to find out from her neighbor that she had died, pretty much alone. A terrible tragedy as she had always been there for Leslie's mom.

Got rid of the landline, after 30 years. Same telephone number. What is the point? Save four hundred bucks a year, you know where to find me.

Air conditioning is out, flooded the carpet. Amazing we did without for 18 years. Hot, sticky and miserable.

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San Diego Union has just bought the local rag, the North County Times. Now we have two worthless papers. The Union Tribune, under the direction of owners Doug Manchester and John Lynch, has purged the newsroom, editorialized that both Bushes should be on Mt. Rushmore, Obama being the worst president we have ever had, had the writers shill for their development projects and generally offer the most one sided, conservative slant this side of Roger Ailes. Absolutely no thought of balance, in a pretty politically evenly divided town.

They now absorb a paper that gives a regular forum to the likes of Michael Barone (who thinks Romney is kicking ass right now), Debra Saunders and Richard Kirk. The two papers line up to the right of Attila the Hun. Right wing radio, in print.

Guess if I don't like it I can publish my own damn paper...

I get tired of slanted news from either side. Would rather first reach for Google News over Huff Post or Townhall as a go to news portal.

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Leave on an up note. Chocolate has been found to fight off stroke risk, Hooray!

High Water (for Charley Patton)

We shall not forget

I don't know why I bought the painting but I felt strangely compelled. We woke up at 3:30 in the morning to drive to the Rose Bowl swap meet, where I was scheduled to return a painting to a friend who had consigned it to me. She never showed.

We walked around in the early light and viewed the morning's offerings. Pickings were slim, I did find a good buy in a gorgeous Fulper lamp whose lineage and pedigree had somehow escaped it's previous owner.

Then I saw this painting. Bizarre, gruesome. perhaps not even salable, a serious long shot. But well rendered and obviously painted with conviction, it needed a home. Dennis from Off the Wall was walking near bye and he encouraged me to go for it. I wasn't so sure. Not like you could put it over the couch in the living room. Fairly large at 30" x 36". One of the neat things about my gallery is that the offerings are so diverse that I can occasionally sneak a curveball like this over without things getting too weird. This one is pushing the boundaries.

I live by the old saying that there is somewhere an ass for every saddle.

The painting depicts the holocaust as well as all of the nazi death camps, Sobibor, Dachau, Auschwitz (where my grandmother Pesa's parents and siblings met their cruel fate), Bergen Belsen, Buchenwald, Theresienstadt, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sachsenhausen, Majdanek and Ravensbruck. Six million lights vanquished and extinguished forever.

The artist paints ovens, death trains, murder, identification tattoos, the whole horrible nightmare of the holocaust. A disturbing narrative painting, definitely not the kind of thing I run across too often. The seller was asking a lot, he finally cut his price in half and I made the deal. It was still expensive but I figured there has to be at least one more person in the world that thinks that it is interesting, if nothing else as a historical document. Perhaps an academic institution, a punk couple or maybe even an unrepentant nazi will see it as a must have? Maybe not the smartest business decision I have ever made.

It is the heaviest painting I have ever bought, in the emotional sense, that is for sure. Definitely not another still life to brighten a corner.

I didn't find out too much about the artist. Supposedly living at some point in Florida, M. Fonerman is not googleable. Perhaps he or she had survived the camps? Was he or she #247315? There was a companion painting of a boat next to it by the same artist which I did not purchase. Didn't speak too much to me.

Leslie was in the gallery yesterday and told me that she thought that it was really well painted. Actually was glad I bought it. I have been feeling guilty, with the sneaking suspicion that I could die with this one. If I do, so be it, everything is a crapshoot. It is a visual remembrance of a time of darkness that we forget at our peril.

Sometimes you just have to go with your gut instinct. Honor the memory of the people of Plotsk and Wyszkow, Warsaw and all the other ghettos and shtetls.

John Handy - Hard Work

veeprevarication

If there is any lesson that can be gleaned from the current political season, besides the obvious one, that the system is at a stalemate and not working, it is this; if you come up with a catchy political slogan you better not waste any time merchandising it if you want to make bank.

I got the call about ten days ago from Warren. Hey I got this great idea, Lyin' Ryan t-shirts, Brett is working on the art, you up for one? Fifteen bucks.

Having a broad sense of civic pride and wanting to support the local artists and ideologues I said sure, why not? Happy to troll for a few customers for him on the blog as well.

A couple hours later I get a call from KJ in Arizona. Hey Rob, listen to this one: I got a great idea - Lyin Ryan and Mitt's a twitt. What do you think of this novel t-shirt idea?

Brilliant, KJ. You might want to get it right into production...

At this point in time, my best guesstimate is that there are roughly two thousand different Lyin Ryan t-shirt and bumper sticker designs percolating on some graphic artist or another's back burner.

The country is soon going to be so inundated with them that it will be not too long after the next election that they will be finished circulating through the nation's clothes supply and on the shelves of the neighborhood Goodwill. Over.

People won't even remember who the guy was in a few months but the modern language will have a new Pinnochio synonym.

I was talking to Dane from Arizona yesterday and he said that he had an idea driving, which he offered to a buddy. Mitt Zombie. Get it? I said that I did.

He had the brilliant idea, his pal made the t-shirts. Guess what, there are five different versions out now, from five different artists. Got to get up awful early in the morning in this new century and brave new world of political commentary.

So listen folks. Lyin' Ryan is just brilliant. Hysterical. You slay me. I really mean it. But it is so last week. You got anything new and fresh?

Drinking Again

dueling govs

California Governor Jerry Brown has thrown the match race gauntlet down with his bellicose counterpart in New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie. Although I think that Jerry has been a pretty good governor and we do belong to the same political party, I for one, wish he would just STFU.

Christie started the whole thing, calling Brown an old retread at the Republican National Convention. Brown responded. “I’m old. I’m 74. I’ll be 74 and a half next month. OK, Christie, I challenge you to a three-mile race. Try some chin-ups maybe, and some push-ups. “I said, this old retread can beat you any day of the week,” Brown said.

He is behaving like one of those old codgers at the gym who wants everybody to feel their hard stringy bicep or maybe challenge you to a chin up contest. You just can't win no matter what happens. Big woop. You beat the old guy.

As a guy who could stand to lose a few pounds myself I wonder at the Governor's motivation here? Hey, who's the fattest guys in the Governor's association? Let me humiliate him and make him feel even worse about himself, losing to an old guy. He knows he's overweight, why be an asshole Jerry?

I would have more respect for Jerry if he challenged him to something Christie is really good at, maybe the potato sack race or the pie eating contest. Chugging milk of magnesia. Way to salvage your sagging virility at the expense of the fat guy, Moonbeam. But I guess Christie did start it.

Raging Bull

I am in my fourth decade of selling art. I started out as a painter and quickly running out of my own canvases, started collecting and selling way back in the 1970's. I rarely sell contemporary artists, my gallery specializing in impressionist paintings from 1890 to 1940. In fact the only contemporary artist I have carried for years is Carol Lindenmulder. I love her work and she understands the game. A talented colorist, we get each other. I wish that I was more successful with her, she is really good. And deserves better. Wish I could provide her better exposure.

One of the reasons I don't sell contemporary is that as a fairly empathetic type, I feel bad when I can't sell somebody's work, for one reason or another. There is some emotional baggage involved when you are dealing with the creative work of a fellow human being and you also don't want to "let anybody down." It is a big responsibility.

Flash forward to today. I have judged art shows for many years, both alone and with other judges. People have told me that I am a great judge because I have strong opinions and am not afraid to critique. I offer any entrant an honest appraisal of their work from my own perspective.

We had three openings in Fallbrook today, the fifteenth year of the Galaxy of Glass show at the Art Center, the neat Shoe Show at Brandon Gallery and the show I judged for the second year in a row, Rich Stergulz's Small Works show at the Pinnell Gallery.

Tonight all hell broke loose.

Let me just say at the outset that I know my faults better than most anyone, excepting my spouse of course. I recognize my conceit, abrasiveness, arrogance, self absorption, all of those things as well as anybody.

I was explaining my own prejudices to some of the assembled artists this afternoon prior to the awards and critique. Art is subjective and I wanted to include and clue them in to my thought processes and value system. I said that I favored well crafted works, with good composition, that exhibited good underlying drawing skills.  I usually favor these types of pieces over what I call the happy accident type artworks, where fortune and kismet intersect in a zen flash of minimalism to produce a nice final outcome. I like graphic art but sometimes the conceptual seems to interfere with an artist's sensitivity and ability to be "in touch" with a subject.

Now I had dinner with Dixon last night, an artist and teacher that I have judged with at least three times prior and he thinks that I am all wet, his example being Picasso's ability to capture so much feeling in a certain line or gesture drawing. There are certainly other approaches, I happen to be comfortable with mine. I trust my eye, it has kept me in business for many years.

Anyway I brought up an example to the artists from last year, when a painter who happens to be a good friend of mine took a minor bit of umbrage when I told her that she was right on the cusp of a prize but I gave it to a more well developed work. This woman is so good that she can draw circles around 99% of her competition but  it is almost too easy for her and I wanted her to push herself a little harder.

The next thing I know, an enraged woman is wagging a finger in my face tonight saying I had no right to slander her friend or talk about another artist's work, especially one who was not in this years show. I had run across this woman before, and lets just say we have never hit it off.

I told her that she had misunderstood me, which she had, and people were looking at her in amazement, since she was making quite a scene. I let her know that her friend was also a friend of mine and a woman whose work I not only respected enormously, but had also purchased, but it didn't make a dent in her harangue.

She said that I had told the artist in question last year that it was a painting show, not a drawing show, which I never said. I asked her where this came from and she said that someone had told her and I cautioned her that it was ridiculous to respond to hearsay. I remember that last year this same unpleasant woman, accused me of picking favorites and underhandedness prior to that show, for complimenting one of the artist's work within earshot of her. Egads, the fix was in, I liked somebody's work. Conspiracy.

Contemporary artists get very touchy. These people obviously take this stuff very seriously. The next thing I know the artist that I had supposedly slandered was at the show asking if we had a problem? I said of course not and I hope and do believe that she believed me. There are certainly a whole room of witnesses that can back me up as to what I said and did not say. I think that she was a little embarrased at the depth of her defender's venom.

You can try your best in this life and some people are just not going to like you. And vice versa. If I judge again next year, I am bringing a bulletproof vest and flak jacket.

I am happy to say that the balance of the evening went very well. The award winners were pleased and people seemed genuinely well disposed to the critiques and the constructive spirit in which they were offered. But I can also honestly say that tonight's events reinforce why I much prefer working with dead artists.

Moanin'

Senator Huey Long

The "south end of a northbound horse." The original advocate for wealth redistribution. Not championing the guy, but I find his ideas and oratory interesting.

Pot Follies

I wouldn't trust Paul Ryan, voted biggest brown noser by his high school graduating class, as far as I could throw him, but love yesterday's gambit on marijuana reform.

Ryan said that he would respect state's rights on medical marijuana, that they have the right to legalize. Now in a sense this is meaningless as his boss and running mate Mitt Romney has been unequivocal in his condemnation of the evil herb. It doesn't really matter what Paul Ryan thinks because he is speaking here for Paul Ryan.

But it adds a certain amount of ironic twist to the topic, both for its political ramifications and considering Obama said the same thing four years ago and was clearly not being truthful. Who would have thought that young Paul Ryan would be out ahead of President Barack Obama on this subject?

But you see, if Romney is to have a chance in the upcoming election, he needs traction in the states of Colorado and California, two states that have borne the brunt of the Obama Administration's War on Weed. With large numbers of marijuana users in both states, unhappy with draconian prosecution and federal disregard for state propositions, a stance like this could siphon enough stoner votes away to make it a horserace. Even if Ryan doesn't really believe it and is merely maneuvering for votes.  Hoist the president on his own words and petard. He deserves it.

The Mother Earth Healing Collective in San Diego is no more. Mother Earth was the last collective standing, had done everything by the letter and in full compliance with the local authorities. The investors had reportedly poured more than $700,000 into the venture. Feds shut it down last week. The business managed to stave off closure seven weeks ago by filing for bankruptcy protection pending an appeal, but that legal stay ended last Monday. There are now no licensed medical marijuana facilities in the county. That's leaves an estimated 70,000 patients without a regulated supplier.

United States Attorney Laura Duffy has been on a jihad against pot collectives for over a year. She had sent letters to landlords of collectives, threatening to seize their property if they didn't get rid of the dispensaries. She said that through the prism of federal law, there is no such thing as medical marijuana.
Hard to square that with what Obama said in 2008 but that's politics, I guess.

Mother Earth was the only medical marijuana dispensary licensed under San Diego County's restrictive policy. I know, I was once a member.

Duffy said in a statement: "It is not a defense to either criminal liability or to the forfeiture of property that the dispensary is providing 'medical marijuana.' The United States Attorney's Office supports eviction of the commercial marijuana businesses, like Mother Earth, that operate outside of federal law."

Mother Earth appealed to Congressman Bob Filner, but to no avail. Filner (D-Calif.) recently sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy of the state’s Southern District, calling some crackdowns “unwarranted intimidation.”

“The Co-op operates under a strict county ordinance that mandates that the facility is inspected monthly by the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and according to these inspection reports, all parties have followed the letter of law,” Filner wrote to Duffy.

Duffy has shut over 200 clubs in San Diego, preferring that we recriminalize rather than obeying the referendum of the California voter, who legally passed Prop. 215 in 1996. Let's give the money to mexican drug lords instead and force the elderly and infirm who are using marijuana for safe pain relief to go without or perhaps get hooked on dangerous and powerful narcotics.

Mother Earth was careful and tried to do everything right. But no matter. Now there is not a single legal dispensary in San Diego, Riverside or Imperial counties.

“We are a small club that deals directly with severely ill people and we are very picky about who we deal with,” the owner, Bob Reidel, said. “The federal government, the most powerful entity in the world, goes after these little landlords instead of dealing with the municipalities and the states that are creating laws that put people in jail under false pretense.”

In a move that smacks of Stalin and the gulag, Duffy even tried to prosecute newspapers for running ads and stories about medical marijuana until she was hit by a first amendment lawsuit threat by the ACLU. She threatened local city officials in Del Mar with jail time for administering lawful medical cannabis regulations.

In an interview with the New York Times, Duffy said that "...Most often the individuals who are visiting these places have obtained sham doctor recommendations for really no purpose other than to engage in the recreational use of marijuana. To the extent that blatant distribution of marijuana is not available in commercial businesses throughout California, certainly in this district, I think that’s a good thing.”

So now we have the feds, as judge and jury, instantly negating California law with the supposition that all doctor's recommendations are shams and all clubs are shams. As a person with a history of multiple cancers, heart problems and major surgeries with a city and state card, I know that that is not the case. I know many other patients, of all age brackets, who have obtained relief through marijuana, especially those undergoing chemotherapy. What are these folks supposed to do now?

I don't blame Laura Duffy, a typical federal jackboot doing her job. I blame the President for dissembling and not reigning in his troops and also his Justice Department for not respecting the will of the voters in my state.

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Senate Bill 420 -

    "demonstrates that more information is needed to assess the number of individuals across the state who are suffering from serious medical conditions that are not being adequately alleviated through the use of conventional medications"
    "require[s] the State Department of Health Services to establish and maintain a voluntary program for the issuance of identification cards to qualified patients and would establish procedures under which a qualified patient with an identification card may use marijuana for medical purposes"
    "creates various crimes related to the identification card program"
    "authorize[s] the Attorney General to set forth and clarify details concerning possession and cultivation limits, and other regulations, as specified"
    "authorize[s] the Attorney General to recommend modifications to the possession or cultivation limits set forth in the bill" and "require[s] the Attorney General to develop and adopt guidelines to ensure the security and nondiversion of marijuana grown for medical use"

In enacting the bill it was the intent of the legislature to:

    "clarify the scope of the application of the act and facilitate the prompt identification of qualified patients and their designated primary caregivers in order to avoid unnecessary arrest and prosecution of these individuals and provide needed guidance to law enforcement officers"
    "promote uniform and consistent application of the act among the counties within the state"
    "enhance the access of patients and caregivers to medical marijuana through collective, cooperative cultivation projects"
    "address additional issues that were not included within the act, and that must be resolved in order to promote the fair and orderly implementation of the act"
    Recognizes the right of patients and caregivers to associate collectively or cooperatively to cultivate medical marijuana.
    Disallows marijuana smoking in no smoking zones, within 1,000 feet (300 m) of a school or youth center (except in private residences), on school buses, in a motor vehicle that is being operated, or while operating a boat.
    Protects patients and caregivers from arrest for transportation and other miscellaneous charges not covered in 215.
    Allows probationers, parolees, and prisoners to apply for permission to use medical marijuana; however, such permission may be refused at the discretion of the authorities.
    Makes it a crime to fraudulently provide misinformation to obtain a card, to steal or misuse the card of another, to counterfeit a card, or to breach the confidentiality of patient records in the card program.

Proposition 215 added Section 11362.5 to the California Health and Safety Code, which:

    Exempts patients and defined caregivers who possess or cultivate marijuana recommended by a physician from criminal laws which otherwise prohibit possession or cultivation of marijuana.
    Provides physicians who recommend use of marijuana for medical treatment shall not be punished or denied any right or privilege.
    Declares that the measure is not to be construed to supersede prohibitions of conduct endangering others or to condone diversion of marijuana.

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I think that with the actions and betrayal of Obama, we have missed a golden opportunity to implement some common sense marijuana reform in this country. But the one time stoner decided that with Malia and sister Sasha coming of age, it would be a better time to turn into his parents and throw the rest of us to the wolves. Certainly won't get any better with Mitt Romney at the helm.

Rivers of Babylon - The Melodians

A dish best served cold

I have been reading up on Spain and came across the following interesting story when researching the ancient city of Toledo. Josephus said that Toledo was founded by the jews around 590 b.c., giving it the name Toldoth, supposedly populated by people from ten tribes of Israel. Other historians believe that it might have been founded by the Romans, named for the consul Tolemon. Who knows the actual origin?

Whatever its actual birth, the barbaric invasions of the fifth century brought down the great Roman Empire. Waves of german people's swept down the peninsula in successive waves and Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, established his court in Toledo in 513. He gave way to the visigoth Leovigildo. In 589 successor King Recuardo made catholicism the official religion in Spain.

In the eighth century, Islamic invaders swept over Iberia, crushing the Visigoths near the lakes of La Janda.  Saracens took over Toledo in 712, under the command of Tariq, and named it Tolaitola.

Christians started a reconquest effort and in 1085, Castillian troops under King Alfonso VI retook the city and expelled the moors. Toledo and Spain in general has been host to a variety of people and the Moors influence can not be underestimated, architecturally and culturally. The story I want to recount took place in 803.

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Tolaitola was then governed by the cruel, iron hand of Yussuf ibn Amru. The populace lived in a state of perpetual terror. He made no distinction between rich or poor, high dignitaries or slum dwellers. He killed and tortured them all.

The aggrieved people had a counsel meeting and decided to send a delegation to the Caliph, Al Hakem and tell him about the depth of Yussuf's tyranny. The Caliph listened but was reluctant to take any steps against his governor. Finally he was swayed, the delegation returned with an order for the imprisonment of the governor.

There was great relief in the city when Ibn Amru was imprisoned in the dungeons of his own castle, on Montichal Hill, the present Paseo de San Cristobal. But it was not enough for the people to see the demon lord imprisoned and one day they stormed the palace and slit his throat in jail.

The people nervously awaited the reaction of the Caliph and the possible harsh retribution. Their fear grew even larger when they found out that the new governor was none pother than their deceased tyrant's father, who was the Caliph's close friend. The love of this man for his dead son was legendary. But to everyone's great surprise, the new governor was kind and tolerant, seemingly understanding as to the reasons for the subjects grave actions. He won them over with his kindness and forgiveness. Even the nobles, the people most directly responsible for the son's death, were treated kindly by the new governor. This was reassuring because they feared his wrath.

One day, approximately four years after the change in governors, the Caliph's eldest son, Prince Abder Rachman, arrived at the city walls at the head of an army of select horsemen, on the way back from a northern campaign. The Governor arranged a lavish reception for the Prince and invited all of the worthy citizens of the city.

Thousands of torches illuminated the hill and people were dressed in their most splendid finery. Montichel Hill was a scene of great celebration. Inside the palace it was a slightly different story. The tragedy had begun. One by one as the guests entered the castle past the guard of honor they were decapitated with a scimitar. Four hundred citizens were said to meet their end at the end of the curved sword that night, under the watchful and pleased eye of the Governor.

The phrase "a night in Toledo" continues to resound in Spain as a harbinger of dreadful, unforeseen events. And gives new meaning to the saying that revenge is indeed a dish best served cold.