This is what you came for

 I honestly think Taylor Swift only goes out with well-known men for the sheer publicity of it all.  Nothing ever comes of it.  Conspiracy theorists say she hooked up with Travis Kelce because he's pimping for Pfizer.  I don't take it to that level it's simply par for the course for her.  She's 34 now and her biological clock is ticking.  I can't check out groceries at the store without seeing her on most magazine covers.  Dua Lipa or any other artist doesn't get this press.  She's a whole sub-economy now.  What are your Swifty thoughts?

The Impeachment Inquiry etc.

Kind of tangentially following the political stuff because I don't care anymore. A lot of other stuff on my plate of late but re this impeachment inquiry for me it's kind of weird that there's some kind of connection between the Ukrainian president and digging up dirt on Joe Biden himself and his son. It'd be like saying there's some kind of Tanzanian connection for that matter but the bottom line is you can't impeach someone for simply being an asshole so you have to have something. Hell Trump might complete two terms with the constant background chatter of impeachment talk. Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings just died at 68 because of poor health. Sen. John McCain died while still in office and of course Alex Trebek with pancreatic cancer is still doing Jeopardy. Seems a trend now work 'til you drop. That ain't gonna be me and I don't see the nobility in it. Soon as I reach the required minimum I'm going online to file my SS. Just saw an interview with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns last night on PBS. He reminds me a lot of Neil deGrasse Tyson for some reason. Their smartness is annoying and do they ever question their own smartness? Burns just did a whole documentary on Country Music which I'm not really into and never could get into not for lack of trying ("...They shot my horse and my wife ran away...") but I did watch parts of it anyway because I like Johnny Cash. Now Burns said he's gonna do one on race which that's another one to slog through God help us. I think we've reached the point where most of us would like to move onto other subjects. Burns said in the interview that Thomas Jefferson had something like a hundred slaves on his estate and we know now that Columbus killed the Indians so you can't really honor anyone these days. I don't know man talk about what you want.

& the award for Best New Political Artist goes to AOC

I get the feeling Trump wins reelection in 2020 because the Democratic field is so diluted from which a real powerhouse is unlikely to emerge.  What are there twenty candidates now?  Cardi B may as well run.  Impeachment seems not much worth it to quoth Nancy Pelosi.  My mind is tired.  I've moved onto other things.  It might be a good thing if Maroon 5 stopped churning out new songs.

The death of Prince, a break from the Trump cycle

According to the wiki meaning provided by Prince himself Purple Rain means "the end of the world, being with the one you love, letting your faith/god guide you."  Prince was a religious sex symbol and according to one Times writer his sexual orientation was he loves You.  Prince dead at 57.  Why do the world's dictators live such long lives?  Former SS guards live into their 90's, Manson still getting three squares a day?  Prince 1958-2016 RIP

Papal thoughts

Re the wonderful papal mass at MSG it would have been such a nice touch if that great cantor got to sing the Prayer of St. Francis.  I have a somewhat more positive view of Francis after his trip to the States although he needs to get off the climate change.  What's up with Boehner?

The Dukes of Hazzard problem

To start off I don't think this old show was particularly great but it anchored my Friday night tv schedule when I was growing up.  I remember it well, Dad and Mom would come home from food shopping and Dad would give us a box of Devil Dogs but Mom would say go eat an orange.  So TV Land is yanking the show because of the whole Confederate flag controversy which wouldn't be that much of a controversy had that young Aryan racist not shot up that black prayer meeting.  Wondering does Katy Perry now have to tweak her hit song "California Gurls" because it includes a line about Daisy Duke bikinis?

Maybe it's not so much the NSA, maybe it's Google

Slow day at work so we got to discussing Google. A woman thinks Google+ is a good idea but I said I wasn't comfortable. That's a public profile so if you're not big on privacy folks can get to see that you downloaded The Advanced Guide to Rimjobs let's say or a self-help book regarding substance abuse. I was reading an app review for Yonkers PD Tips and there's an actual guy's name who commented and I clicked something and got to see his literal movie, book and music library on whatever devices Mike has. Now they make conservatives out to be nosy people poking around in folks' business but I really don't care to know all this. Google Maps and the Street View, guy at work told me how they get those images. They have a team who drive these white cars around with yellow things on top that take the pictures and they do this every six months. Hey BB there's a job for ya. Of course out in CA Google is test-driving driverless cars and then there's all the Glassholes out there. It's ALL OUT THERE but it ain't all good imo. Dunno, maybe the Snowden rage is misplaced or could be divvied up more. Mommy there's a Google monster under my bed.

I'm not an appy camper today

I lost my techno-virginity a few years back, I know a few moves. Now I don't have the same knowledge as one of those e-dorks you see hanging out at the public library all day with their devices but I do feel I'm fairly literate in the area now. We can talk about the pros and cons of sideloading .apk files and I'm comfortable. So lately I installed on my tablet one of those much-ballyhooed cleaner/sweeper apps to improve memory and storage and so there's an option for cleaning your media files so I read the prompts and messages very carefully and took my time mulling it over. Now nowhere does the app say this will delete your media files, the very word "delete" is not even used but the operative word is clean so eventually I went ahead. Lo and behold my entire music library was deleted as well as a few videos I downloaded. Not the end of the world, there were no important docs but I just sat there on my bed and it was a warm and muggy night and I was just stunned just the same. Mind you this was an app update so I went to read the app reviews and the vast majority were negative. Now instead of actually addressing the complaints of the app-users the Mobile Support Team kept repeating one or two stock answers over and over again. Very annoying. So I HAD to uninstall the little monster yesterday else it might one day actually eat up, inhale my tablet. I've kind of come to the conclusion over time that while Apple is vastly more expensive than anything Android the iOS is not as annoying and frustrating as the Android OS and they say malware is not really a problem. Read any tech support forum devoted to Android users and you get the drift. WHY all the suffering, is it necessary? I mean folks are busy, they don't have time for this. So yesterday I did my first Google Maps street views and while it's creepy it's also fascinating. Is that BB there trimming his hedges? All these techno-issues though, no wonder everyone's walking around so irritable. Maybe this is what happened to Shia LaBeouf, dunno:)

The contradictory world of technology

This happened to me once, you'll be on your tablet and a startling message comes up - "You're running out of storage space." Once you calm down you realize it's not all that tragic as you have many files that aren't that mandatory for you but you were in a downloading mood. Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" video never made sense anyway but all the same you were encouraged to put all that content in in the first place. So this important notification suggests deleting media content, unpinning stuff, uninstalling apps so you get yourself a cache cleaner and you feel like you're cleaning house. Google Play boasts they have over 700,000 apps in their appstore and not that long ago you were actually encouraged, nay pushed to get all the apps you could muster but now a very important app comes along, actually it's an App Uninstaller because you may have installed too many apps that you don't really use that much. I was looking over my download history this morning and this mobogenie apk file must've automatically downloaded like over 10X. I don't know whether to say thanks for the pup, I actually like mobogenie but I feel like BB sometimes that maybe it's a good idea to take a break from the technological scene once in a while. You're pushed to download as part of this digital consumerism then you're told you should clean house. It's like taking up smoking just so you can quit.

Mitt Romney had a better grasp of foreign policy

Just sayin'. Most countries these days are responsible for at least one or two positive contributions to the civilization-at-large. Of course everything is Made in China today but Japan has given us superior cars and cameras for example and even South Korea has Samsung headquartered there. Has Russia ever given us a digital camera, a computer chip, a smartphone or a new tablet? Russia is known for two things only - vodka and its military buildup. I remember learning in high school that a large % of the Russian economy, maybe it's even the majority is devoted to its keeping up its military might. Putin is an anachronistic leader and seems to have a very bad case of those cold war blues. Putin doesn't like Pussy Riot, he doesn't like the gays and he's not into going forward. Of course Obama's red lines mean nothing, it'd be like Gilbert Gottfried being a bar bouncer. A former director in the KGB vs. a former Chicago community organizer and I'm thinking my Dad is right Hillary would have been a better president at least on the world stage. So what's gonna happen now if Crimea becomes officially annexed to Russia again? is Obama gonna issue one of them executive orders he likes so much say banning the import of their famous drink? It's like as soon as the Sochi Olympics were over Putin couldn't wait to get back to the action. So has anyone apologized to Mitt Romney yet?

Grammys

Now I know why I never really watch any of those major award show extravaganzas on Sunday nights at least not in their entirety. I skim and surf them at best but when it comes to the music awards shows like the Grammys it always inevitably devolves somehow into black/urban music aka rap/hip-hop which isn't really my thing and from what I saw somehow combining that with Imagine Dragons didn't work imo. Beyonce & Jay-Z, you know if we stopped helping celebrities trend on Yahoo everyday they might not be the massive ego-trippers they've turned into. Help them out will ya, google a major disease instead. Lots of parents and others are up in arms over Jay-Z and his wife's raunchy routine last night, what is it somehow classier when Beyonce twerks instead of Miley? and oh yeah there was some type of gay mass weddings going on although I must've missed that part. I've never liked the mixing of politics and any type of major awards show from LA but they all do it and that's usually when I change the channel to a NutriBullet infomercial or a Sanford and Son rerun. I honestly don't even know who won I was so turned off.

I need another TMI closet

Robin Thicke told Howard Stern he and his wife Paula Patton have done nearly everything. I know all about Sandra Fluke's monthly birth control expenses and how Michael Douglas got his cancer. Katie Couric once had her colonoscopy filmed and John Mayer has had coitus with Jennifer Aniston. There's older stuff like Bob Dole's erections, Bill Clinton's crooked member. Some quite dated Johnny Carson stuff and Frank Gifford has a thing for smelly women. I don't know where to keep all this stuff. Maybe I'll go to Home Depot and get one of them sheds.

Facebook Follies

Let's face it Mark Zuckerberg was a genius and social-networking trailblazer but lately there was the FB IPO which sucked and now in business news AT&T has decided to sell the brand new Facebook Smartphone for just 99cents since that turned out to be a flop on all fronts including even the software and apps.  Facebook has also had troubles and controversy of late with some pedophiliac-themed pages which have popped up every now and then and well anyway now the next big kid on the block is Pinterest and while I don't think Facebook is gonna go the way of MySpace (MyWho?) anytime soon I really think he needs to give the big Ralph Kramden brainstorms a rest for now.  In other news Ariel Castro he of the infamous and bizarre Ohio kidnapping case now says he should have just stopped at two women as sex slaves.  Yeah you got greedy bro!  Also some big ABC News producer, the he became a she and walked on the wild side and the marriage is kaput with two kids in the mix.  Used to be you could practically go days on end in the news cycle and it was boring now it's offensive, strange for some reason but in an interesting way.  I used to like Pink but her songs are now like crabgrass on the radio, new songs every week and I've kinda had my fill and who is this Phillip Phillips guy?  They made a big deal over what Justin Bieber wrote in that Anne Frank guestbook over in the Netherlands but I categorize it probably as a brainfart, basically an expression of a thought you can't even explain or express properly and I thought what people write in the logs at museums and galleries is kinda private anyway.  Got a buck? I wanna go get me a new smartphone, maybe ten.

The Closing Ceremonies were a little weird

Maybe it was the influence of the Christian Bros. but the whole thing reminded me of a cross between Madonna's Bedtime Story music video and Shock the Monkey.  Even Duran Duran wore long pointy hats, whirling dervishes to West End Girls and then there were peformers dancing around with garbage pails on their feet and then giant supermodel posters came by paraded by dark figures and then Annie Lennox without Dave Stewart sang out something on a float and there was some kind of tribute to David Bowie thrown in the middle but again I was over the hump at that point.  Ah the Brits, just a sliver of acid, get those dark Gothic creative juices flowing.  I only watched the Games sporadically heavy channel-surfer that I am.  There was the inspirational Oscar Pistorius story of course with its sci-fi edge, Gaby Douglas the first black American gymnast to get the gold and Phelps who's retiring.  Now he can go home and smoke his bong.  There was the high-diver Tom Daley from Great Britain who splashed too much during one critical dive and didn't go in at the right angle only to make beautiful comebacks right after that.  I was always afraid of them hitting their heads on the board.  There was the Mo guy who won the 1000M and 500M races and speaking of which I think I only saw one white runner.  I remember many years ago some really fast black runner I forget the name and one interviewer asked him how come he's so fast and he said when he was growing up he was used to running away from the cops.  Actually I don't think you can say that today, Bob Costas would be fired.  American swimmers Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte...tried the butterfly as a kid in Tibbetts Pool in the big YO and that there's a stroke that completely goes against the grain and human nature, dunno the purpose.  Not into the beach volleyball at all, that's when I channel-surf.  Likewise women boxing each other's brains out and don't care to watch cycling indoors around some track, more into the diving/swimming and track & field events as I said.  Of course they never had that Munich moment-of-silence marking in 1972 when terrorism and international sports mixed but what did you expect exactly?  It's like the Olympics is being run by the UN.  Kudos to Jewish-American gymnast Aly Raisman for even bringing up the topic. Next stop in cuatro anos Rio de Janeiro, expect a decadent undervibe.  Mark my words someday chicken-spitting will become an Olympic event.  Why the hell not? everything else is:)

I kinda admire Romney at the NAACP convention in Houston

I didn't think he had it in him but he took it up the ass, ripped into ObamaCare and said how his policies are especially bad for African-Americans.  Of course everyone hooted and hollered like he just insulted Mother Teresa.  President Obama is so taking the black vote for granted and why shouldn't he that he sent Biden down there instead.  That'd be funny though if he said something stupid.  So when is it acceptable to criticize a black president?  I say when the jobless rate is still over 8% it's fair game and when a president is this weak liberals using the Race Card just looks plain stupid.  I'm not quite sure how Conservatism got linked up with the whole racism charge in the first place, didn't Charlton Heston once march with the Rev. Martin Luther King?  I read somewhere recently that Bill Maher has accused Matt Drudge of racism for constantly going after Obama.  I think with Maher it's not so much humor anymore, he's way past the Mort Sahl stage.  It's not funny or entertaining and now he's just venting a distorted anger, some chronic mental masturbator.  Put another way I'll take a Seinfeld or even a Jon Stewart.  Chris Brown and Drake fighting over a girl, I'm no fan of Chris Brown but it wasn't right what Drake did.  Now it comes out that Rihanna is into S&M and so maybe Chris Brown was confused when he hit her.  Fat uninsured folk, I think liberals are guilty of hate here.  Again kudos to Romney and he kept on rappin' too, I love it.  IF Romney does make Condi Rice the VP that's a heavy 2-fer, she's black and she's a woman.  Look sometimes you gotta counteract these things, it's not like somebody's gonna call her a house nigger -

right?

Look Death happens

For the best perspective yet on the tragic demise of Whitney Houston it's our man Bill O'Reilly:

http://www.billoreilly.com/column;jsessionid=E5791B76D2239868188A0BD5266670?pid=35777

The Newt & Mitt Show

Up until now I have for the most part avoided those endless GOP debates (are there supposed to be so many?) but I mainly tuned in last night at Rock Center on NBC to see if moderator Brian Williams would Go There, you know the Newt marital material which liberals are suddenly interested in but as I watched all I got was Cuba is 90 miles off the coast of Florida. I watched about the first hour off and on, it was fairly exciting to tell the truth with Romney and Gingrich attacking each other. Newt kept saying he wasn't a lobbyist for Freddie Mac, Romney put his tab at about $1M/yr. with Newt giving a much lower figure of course and truth be told I thought Romney's points were relevant and Newt gave off a stink cloud like an octopus obfuscating the issue, reminds me of some of the debates here. Meanwhile over at Bain Capital......Santorum and Paul looked like those Jeopardy contestants who just stand there and never ring the buzzer, Williams seemed to notice and got them in there too. Uncle Paulie thinks there are too many wars we can't afford but it was clear who the night was all about. Obama HHS Sec'y Kathleen Sebelius telling Catholic hospitals they have one year to figure out a way to provide birth control services to women, I would have thought it better for Mitt and Newt to go after Obama who seems to me likes to stoke the Culture Wars - "throw another log on the fire Corey" - but I guess they have to get rid of their respective threats first before they can go to the next level. Gosh man so how many more of these to go? it's becoming a weekly series like American Idol. Maybe Marky Mark can host the next one.

Straights have destroyed the institution of marriage

& over time gays will too. You want leaner and meaner government? that'll be when the gov't finally says we are no longer going to recognize failing institutions like marriage. I was thinking about this the other day, polygamy is technically illegal but that's a religious issue isn't it? Why not have the gov't simply say have at it, we're not gonna recognize it but you won't go to jail over it? Word now that ABC News is gonna give one of Newt's ex-wives two hours to dish and it's gonna air on the Monday after the SC primary. Apparently there was some big internal discussion over there about when to air it, personally I wouldn't air it at all but what's with the two full hours? American Idol season premieres get two hours but this is what journalism has turned into. Newt must pose some sort of threat or something. I once had a workable theory that gays have gay sex because straight sex often leads to feticide and well maybe it's some sort of protest act over the destructive power of women but there's holes if you'll pardon the expression in the theory as gays are often the most pro-choice. Ah my meandering mind! Funny though both gays and straights, even those who are for and against the gay marriage have one thing in common, they both seem to feel that marriage is still some type of viable institution or something. One final question though and it's been nagging at me of late: how come many of the same people who are for the so-called woman's 'right to choose' want to take away your right as a consumer to purchase an incandescent light bulb? Liberals are only libertarian on the social issues but not much else and listening to people like Shaw and Saty wax poetic about the golden right to abortion I'm, I'm just getting into a mood here and I might accidentally delete something:)

GOP Has-Beens

The subject of has-beens interests me. One day Rocky and Blaine are one of the biggest things in the NYC radio market, the next day they're frying chicken at some Popeye's off the Interstate. These days the GOP has-beens are Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, that pizza godfather guy and maybe, make that probably Newt who can already feel the powerful vortex of the has-been hole sucking him in. IMO the architect of 1994's "Contract with America" deserves more respect than he's getting but that's just me. Michele Bachmann, too many brain farts and maybe the last straw was her mistaking Elvis' birthday for his deathday. I know it's not a big thing but taken as a whole you don't want her trying to reset Russian relations or pondering ending the embargo against Cuba. I want to devote the bulk of this blog though to Sarah Palin. Now when her star was early rising in the political sky (it didn't hurt that most men would've done her) early conservative commentary focused on such things as a family that hunts together stays together but the Gander Mountain voting bloc is only so big. Many many people have a mild distaste for the sport of hunting not through some elaborate theory of critter rights but Sarah and her family having a fine bowl of Moose Nose Stew on a snowy winter's night doesn't exactly impress them. Those be all-American values, heartland stuff to be sure but maybe not to a Manhattanite. So what makes a has-been or who has has-been potential? Could simply be just the inexorable Passage of Time, I mean Danny Bonaduce had to beat up a tranny to get back on the radar screen but in Palin's case and this is a biggie it was her overall Lack of Knowledge especially on the foreign affairs scene. You don't want this chick going up against Bashar al-Assad or negotatating some Arab/Israeli peace deal. I think the final nail in the coffin though, no it wasn't Tina Fey but Back in the Day some 8' giant black man who played the hoops plowed her. Sure it was back in the day but it's still a shock to the evangelical mind, yeah I know she's for the smaller gov't and pro-life and all so we can forgive her her youthful dalliances, her sex'chal 'perimentation but we kinda can't forget it either. Thanks Joe McGuiness! Oh yes Herman Cain and that's the really painful part of being a has-been nobody talks about you anymore. You know gimme someone who quietly has staying power through the years. Um I hate to say this but you can kinda say that about Romney. I hope to never become a blogging has-been btw, please lemme know:)

You see this is the reason the people don't like celebrities

The Most Important Birth Since Christ

There was no room at the inn but they had Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. They took over a whole wing, some folks weren't happy, you know the 99%. Beyonce's mahogany suite with the bulletproof glass which one can expect some minimal anti-paparazzi measures but C'mon! and some guy couldn't even see his twin preemies in the ICU. The NYS Health Dept. investigation into the Matter went the way of the Natalie Wood reprobe, actually that one lasted longer. One hopes the Blessed Child develops some gender-identity issues later on in life and embarrasses the proud parents, a little Chaz Bono action (Sonny hit a tree skiing and couldn't live to share in the Joy) or else becomes a porn star like Laurence Fishburne's daughter but Jay-Z does seem to be really in love with her, it ain't no sham - a Kardashian marriage not. A nursing note: why so many C-Sections?

(lite agitating fare - about 230 calories)