Tammy Faye dead at 65

Tammy Faye had just done a final interview with Larry King on Thursday, looking like a skeletal shell of who she used to be. She passed away the following morning.

I remember when I was younger and there was the whole sex scandal and money laundering charges centered around her ex-husband, Jim Bakker, and how it made me completely distrust organized religion. Although she was not implicated in any crime, I never believed those masscara-stained cheeks again. It all seemed like a rouse and I had been tricked all this time.

Now that I'm older and can see beneath the surface a bit more clearly I understand that Tammy Faye tried to do good things with her life, but kept getting screwed over. It didn't help matters that her trademark eyes always prevented me from taking her seriously. No one wants their life to become a joke though, so it's quite a sad event in that respect. On that note, I feel it's appropriate to leave you with this.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. - Revelation 21:4 (King James Version)

4 Years Gone

You're enjoying a few drinks with friends during 4th of July festivites when suddenly you notice a large man walking towards you. It's not just any man, but a convicted criminal.

You know this, because you're the one that put him behind bars. You raise you hand instinctively and brush the side of your head. You lightly trace the small indention, where hair refuses to grow anymore. The entry wound is still tender and twinges a bit when it rains. It's the mark that HE left you with to forever remember how you barely survived the ordeal. You still haven't been able to shake the recurring nightmares that make you bolt upright in the dark and leave you drenched in sweat, sleepless and alone.

This has to be your imagination, this can't really be happening.

The man continues walking in your direction, moving ever closer. His eyes focused on you.

Your limbs have become useless except for your hand that has started twitching uncontrollably, spilling the remainder of your gin and tonic on the bar floor. You cannot even manage to blink, as if your eyes were cameras that must record every detail in this final chapter.

The man stands before you now and takes his hand out of his pocket.

You let out a small gasp, barely audible as all the air seems to have left your lungs. He's here to finish a job he botched the first time. It will all be over soon.

He reaches out and puts his hand in yours, lightly shaking it. You cringe, unable to mask your horror and quickly recoil. He apologizes for the grief he's put you through and says he would change it if he could do it all over.

You can only muster a feeble nod of acknowledgement and he silently turns and walks away. You feel dizzy and your stomach is churning, while your muscles ache from the tension. It will still be a few moments before you can whisper "help," then topple out of your chair and collapse, unconscious on the floor.

The embellishment is fiction, but the story is true. Read it here.

Hide the Garden Gnomes!

When walking out your front door there are various things you might expect to see, but I'd say that a missile launcher would probably be last on the list. It does raise countless questions as to why it was left there and by whom. Hopefully the authorities can make some sense of it, cause I'm scratching my head right now.

Plame Case Tossed Out

This really makes me mad, but I sort of expected it. I'm sure that Valerie Plame's legal battles will be tied up in red tape for many, many years to come. The whole thing just evokes a sense of helplessness that makes my stomach turn.

Vick the Prick

My girlfriend told me about this story months ago when they initially raided Michael Vick's property in April, searching for drugs. Now it seems they have finally gathered enough evidence and issued an indictment by a Federal Grand Jury for his alleged organization and participation of an illegal dog-fighting ring. I absolutely cannot stand cruelty to animals and I don't understand how some people can show such disregard for another living creature.

For punishment I'd let the dogs he trained and tortured have the afternoon to use his crotch as a chew toy.

Filibust This!

It seems Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) borrowed someone's spine for a while and is going to force the Republicans to filibuster on the Iraq withdrawl unless they get an up/down vote on the Reed/Levin Iraq legislation. Better get out the sleeping bags and Smores, it's going to be a long night.

CNN - The Most Trusted Name in Sleep

I won't even attempt to comment on this lackluster, mind-numbingly endless series of counterpoints as I fell asleep by the third point. This would have been far more interesting if they would have transcribed it into binary code.

Love Letters From Michael Moore

Michael Moore has a knack for pushing people's buttons. Not just one, but like 10 or 20 of them at a time. While I don't always agree with his opinion, he doesn't mind asking the tough questions that many journalists avoid, and he is absolutely relentless when an answer doesn't satisfy him.

After CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta used some inaccurate information regarding Moore's new film "Sicko" that's when the train came off the tracks. A few days later during an interview on The Situation Room I honestly thought Moore was going to rip off Wolf Blitzer's head and use it as a hat, demanding retractions and apologies for their alleged misinformation. Dr. Gupta fared no better the next day as he became Moore's life-size whack-a-mole for the next half hour.

A week later and still no apology or statement corrections for Mr. Moore. That's when he decided to unleash verbal napalm on the CNN office.


I will say that I agree with Moore on most of his points this time around...and it evoked such a visceral reaction that even I wanted to choke the life out of him after reading this biting missive. I'm convinced that were I holding Moore's masterfully crafted paper in my hands it would actually burst into flames while reading it.

This letter is a perfect example of how manipulative and calculating Mr. Moore can be when provoked. I sincerely believe this man could sell ice to Eskimos...speaking of which, I'd say Blitzer and Gupta need some for the charred remains of their backsides right about now.

Cleaning Out the Trash

Geez Louise, I had a metric shit ton of spam in my comments section of this blog! It took me nearly half an hour to sandblast that garbage off my site...and I still feel dirty .

Obviously these punks have never met my friend Edgarware. I know how to deal with this kind of crap!

My Music

I haven't composed anything in a terribly long time, and a majority of my music was thought to be lost amidst a computer crash and change of apartments. However, one of my friends did still have a collaborative piece we had worked on a few years ago so I tossed it on my other blog Random Snark. More music updates to come in the near future!

A Welcome Overstayed

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq has declared they are ready to take responsibility for security of his country and the Americans can leave "any time they want". This is the nice way of saying "How nice of you to drop by...now F off please." We've become the guest that wouldn't leave at this point and I think they're finally sick of it. The Iraqis are rapidly discovering their democracy cannot be dependant on what the Americans dictate it to be, but rather what they forge by their own hands. Will they be successful? The answer is honestly irrelevent...at least they will have a chance to shape their own future instead of having us stand over their shoulder and tell them what it should be.

Bush has repeated his "stay the course" mantra so many times now the Iraqis are wondering "Is this guy ever going to leave?" Bush has said "We will take the fight to enemy," but what he fails to consider is the fact that we're fighting in someone else's backyard now and destroying everything they own in an attempt to protect them. At some point (like now) the Iraqis just have to say "Screw this! Hey...hey...HEY! I will take care of this myself !"

One thing PM Maliki said troubled me though, stating the Iraqi forces are "still in need of more weapons and rehabilitation." Didn't we just train your guys for a couple of years already? By now you've got to have at least one guy that learned something and can teach everyone else. The law of averages dictates even the soldier that fell asleep during arms training retained some fragment of useful information. Surely they can compare notes or something.

I don't anticipate we'll ever completely leave Iraq, but I believe the bulk of our troops should head home, per the Prime Minister's request. After all, Bush did say "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down". Let's see if he stays true to his word...instead of leaving it as a problem for "the next guy". In my opinion, the longer we stay, the line between ally and enemy will become more blurred and we further risk turning those we're protecting completely against us.