GIN AND TACOS

As I plan to be back on here Tuesday evening with NH Primary bloggin'-a-plenty, I will keep this relatively brief. More accurately I'll keep it brief because in the time between conception and actual blogging on this topic, another able blogger covered many of the same points already.

So let's talk about the trainwreck "feel good" hit of the winter, Tom Hanks' delightful Charlie Wilson's War. Leave aside the fact that I find Mr. Hanks and his grating aw-shucks-ain't-I-a-good-guy demeanor almost unbearable. Leave aside the fact that Julia Roberts' lips look like someone stapled two enormous millipedes to her face. Let's instead focus on the fact that this historical tale is somehow told as a charming, quirkly, feel-good story. It ends (caveat: I refuse to dignify this by paying to see it) with a mass of Afghan "freedom fighters" chanting Charlie Wilson's name, waving about their American-provided Stinger missiles, and gushing with love for the Red White and Blue.

Seriously.

My first reaction, the moment I first heard of this film (in the form of a trailer in the theater), was to turn to my film companion and say "Um, how are they going to get around the fact that those mujahadeen we armed to the teeth eventually became al Qaeda?" Apparently, I have now learned, the way they get around it is by ignoring it and ending the movie with a syrupy God Bless America pep rally.

Those radical Muslim "freedom fighters" (now known as Terrorists) sure do love America!
buy valtrex generic noprescriptionbuyonlinerxx.com over the counter

Roll the fucking credits! Quick! Before anyone starts asking questions!

Recasting alcoholic, ass-pinching lout Charlie Wilson as the lovable Tom Hanks (you know, that guy Tom Hanks is in every goddamn movie) was enough of a middle finger toward historical accuracy. Warping the American involvement in the Soviet-Afghan War into a tale of how hardcore Muslims came to love America is…well, it's just a bridge too far.

I have a lot of neat stuff planned for this week, but since Tuesday and Wednesday are likely to be swamped with NH Primary talk I want to go with something not explicitly political today. Don't worry, it's still trenchant.
buy premarin online www.conci.com/wp-content/languages/new/online/premarin.html no prescription

So by now I hope you've heard that the RIAA has finally leapt the chasm that separated their behavior toward customers from outright hostility. Yes, now it appears that they are taking the position in court that making electronic copies of legally-purchased CDs for personal use is illegal. Let me clarify what they are arguing in case it is unclear: you purchase the new Tremendous Fucking CD (who isn't?
buy amitriptyline online www.conci.com/wp-content/languages/new/online/amitriptyline.html no prescription

). Then you decide to rip a copy on your PC to add it to your iPod – which is, you know, what people do with CDs these days.
online pharmacy stromectol best drugstore for you

STOP. ILLEGAL. NOT ALLOWED, sayeth the RIAA.

You're not redistributing the music, nor are you stealing it. But their new legal position is that….are you sitting down?…..if you want to put it on your iPod you need to go purchase the album again from iTunes or another legal music download site. Yup, that's what they're arguing.

My memory fails; can anyone think of an industry making such a lengthy, ludicrous, and aggressive assault on its own paying customers?
online pharmacy propecia best drugstore for you

I briefly recall Microsoft (circa Windows 98) arguing that if you had two computers in your home you had to purchase two copies of Windows, but they recanted after intense negative publicity. I can only conclude that the record industry is taking legal advice – from beyond the grave – from one Russell Jones. Like the classic Ol' Dirty tune "Here Comes the Judge" is a musical interpretation of the Onion column "I Am Fucking Insane," the new RIAA strategy provides a legal interpretation of the same principle.

Lots of bitchin' questions in the comments. Let me take a crack at them.

1. Hillary is not out of the race, but people are just drawn to Obama.
https://aboutfeetpodiatrycenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/pdf/cipro.html

My bet is that she finishes second in NH and then will get hammered out of the race by losing NV and SC before the end of the month. She'll probably finish 3rd in both of those, in my estimation. If she ends January 0-for-4, kiss her ass goodbye.

2. I don't have a favorite, although the person I'd bet money on to win the whole show at this point is Obama.

3. Establishment Republicans hate Huckabee because he is a backward Southern Baptist Preacher character out of a Coen Brothers movie.
https://aboutfeetpodiatrycenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/pdf/strattera.html

Frankly, if Huckabee wins the GOP nomination (which I still doubt) it doesn't matter who the Democrats nominate. All that guy is missing to complete the Yokel persona is a jug band and the cast of Hee-Haw. He looks like a fucking used car salesman – and his lack of foreign policy knowledge is just humiliating.

4. The Reagan Republican coalition is splintering in the sense that no single candidate can bring all parts of it together, so they've each picked a horse – religious nutjobs (Huckabee), cut-taxes-at-all-costs suburbanites (Romney), and mouth-foaming war hawks (Giuliani). Oh, and McCain (old people). Romney is the only person who could really appeal to all of them, but unfortunately the religious right is too bigoted to let him do that.

5. McCain will do very well in NH – he won it in 2000 – and then fall off the face of the Earth thereafter. His schtick plays well there but his appeal beyond that is very limited.

I decided to give up making predictions this year, but I called this one in my head about a week ago and now I feel stupid. Now watch me start making predictions again and be totally wrong. OK. New Hampshire: Obama, Clinton, Edwards. Romney, McCain, Giuliani. Huckabee won't crack the top 3, and Obama/Clinton is basically a coin flip.
buy viagra generic buy viagra online over the counter

If the race is decided by more than one or two percent I'll be shocked.

For obvious reasons, No Politics Friday will not happen today. Instead I'm substituting a series of observations about Iowa. This format seemed to work pretty well back in 2006, so without further delay…
https://aboutfeetpodiatrycenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/pdf/cytotec.html

I know this is snarky and unfair, but a little birdie whom I trust dearly and desires anonymity has planted something in my ear.

Based on data available to this person, he/she told me that Hillary Clinton is in for a very rude surprise tonight courtesy Obama and Edwards.
buy amoxicillin generic buynoprescriptiononlinerxx.com over the counter

Take that for what it's worth. But if she finishes 3rd, you can stick a fork in her.

On Iowa Caucus Day (for those of you who still can't f'n believe it's on January 3rd, I feel you) I encourage you to give this TalkLeft post a read. It's ostensibly about Mitt Romney, but he's pretty incidental to the point this emphasizes.

I think this Romney event summarizes just about everything that disgusts and disinterests Americans about contemporary politics. Herein we see Iowa / New Hampshire campaigning at its finest: coreographed photo ops with "normal folk" as props and background. The reporters outnumber the supporters/voters by about 10 to 1, and Romney couldn't be happier about it. After all, they're his intended audience.

buy clomid online buy clomid no prescription

I can guarantee that if 1000 voters but zero reporters showed up to an event he'd be despondent (unless, of course, it was a fund-raiser).
buy amoxicillin online buy amoxicillin no prescription

Nothing – and I mean nothing – about this event makes the setting or attendees necessary aside from branding it as "Romney visits common folk in their hovels." The candidates descend on these tiny, godforsaken towns like locusts, devouring every diner, church, and town hall in sight before moving on to the next field. After the caucus/primary, of course, you couldn't pay any of them enough to visit Keokuk or Plover or Waterville Valley again.

For someone who teaches courses about elections and the presidency, it's remarkable how little attention I can force myself to pay to the election.

This process has turned into something nauseatingly cynical and flat-out stupid. The IA/NH dog-and-pony show is essentially a bunch of power-hungry millionaires playing at giving a shit about what us unwashed plebes have to say. They go on expensive "listening tours" and show up at town hall meetings, as though the semantic act of calling something a listening tour while patiently enduring the whining rabble means that the candidates really give a shit. There's nothing quite like the trademark Hillary Clinton rictus – pained, stretched too tight, and threateningly insincere – to make voters think "Wow, she really cares."

Tomorrow is a day of reckoning for many, but not all, of the candidates. Those who finish anyplace lower than 3rd might as well start writing concession speeches.

Their fund raising will slow to a trickle and the campaign will quickly become a money-losing proposition. But despite their immense power, I think Iowa/NH voters feel more stunned than anything else. I can't imagine how two years of this insane media circus could leave anyone feeling more prepared to make a decision. Were I an Iowan, the hypocrisy of the East Coast elite blazing into town, momentarily pretending that they care about the ultimate flyover state, would poison my opinions of everyone involved.

I know it's corny, but let's talk about our resolutions for 2008. Use the comments to tell us what you're going to do and then we can hold one another to it. In theory. Unlike most blogs, I try to talk about my personal life as little as humanly possible on ginandtacos. You want to read something interesting, not a bunch of shit about my cat, my friends, and how much I drank on Friday night. I don't even have a cat.

That said, let me state that 2007 was one of the worst years of my life. I started with mononucleosis, then saw an engagement get fouled up, then lost my job, then got it back, then lost it again, then got it back, then contracted two rare illnesses simultaneously, then sputtered academically, and then screwed up another relationship. Most importantly, I saw two friendships I thought would last forever shrivel on the vine. Suffice it to say that by the end of the year it felt a little like I was flying solo through this life. So be it. If I have to go it alone, I'm going to do it well. For the Fat Lady, as Seymour Glass would say.
buy cipro online buy cipro no prescription

So I committed to this website and as a result the daily hits have doubled in 6 months. I'm proud of that and I thank each and every one of you for reading. Those of you who comment regularly and communicate via email are almost like a circle of people I expect to see around the water cooler every morning.

You're appreciated. In 2008 I want to continue to make this blog worth the world's time to read.
buy amoxil online buy amoxil no prescription

I also intend to:

I happen to be one of a small and ever-shrinking number of Americans with something called "paid vacation." Granted, as an instructor at a public university I do not technically have paid vacation (it is never called that) but I do not have to work for three weeks in December. Or a week for Spring Break. Or three months of summer – although I usually get pressed into service for that one. This is the ultimate "benefit." It is why I and many other graduate students continue to endure the endless politicking, ass-kissing, back-stabbing, and generalized intellectual grab-ass that define academia. It is why I will not make a lot of money in my life, nor will I enjoy much freedom of movement (we go where the jobs are). And I decided, after several years in a grisly, relatively well-paid Real World job, that it is worth it.

I don't like working. If you do, I humbly submit that there is something wrong with you. Sure, there's the odd person here or there who enjoys their profession. At the very least you might enjoy your job more than the available alternatives. But do you really like working? If you didn't have to do it, would you? Frankly I'd find a lot more fulfilling ways to spend my time even if I had a fantasy fun job. I suppose this makes me "lazy" and responsible for our economy's inability to compete with the Chinese. I could not possibly care less. We were not put on this Earth to make widgets.

Sometime after, oh, 1980 the consensus in America apparently became that vacation is a vestigial anachronism of Second Wave post-war regulated capitalism (along with things like unions, pensions, and government regulation). It would shock most Americans to learn how different Things are in our neck of the woods when compared to other advanced industrial democracies. Take a serious gander at how we stack up against Europe. Whereas almost every nation in Western Europe mandates at least 20 paid vacation days per annum (that's an entire month of workdays) we here in the Land of Whose Lifestyle the World is So Envious mandate none. As a result, most of us receive exactly that.
buy flexeril online www.adentalcare.com/wp-content/themes/medicare/fonts/engl/flexeril.html no prescription

Even the Japanese, whose mythologized "kamikaze" work ethic was postulated as the explanation for why their industry kicked our ass so badly over the past 20 years, legally mandate 2 weeks.

"But! But!" says your inner Hannity, "Look at how much less productive their economies are! Look at how horrendously high their taxes are!

" True. Very true. However, if that was your first reaction I have to wonder…who are you? Is your life really so joyless and your acquisitiveness so severe that you'd willingly trade the 30 paid days off they enjoy in France for the right to pay 30% in federal income tax rather than 45%?
buy stromectol online www.adentalcare.com/wp-content/themes/medicare/fonts/engl/stromectol.html no prescription

How miserable is your home life, and how limited or nonexistent are your interests (outside of shopping) that you would rather make a little more money than have time to enjoy it?

I'd like you to sound off in the comments for a very informal poll. What do you get in the way of paid vacation?

And let's not forget holidays. Does your December holiday time consist of getting the 25th off and heading back to work the morning of the 26th? Of all the things that depress me about the direction in which we're headed, I think the worst is that the glories of Third Wave capitalism have instilled in our population the idea that having Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas off from work is good enough. I wonder how many people actually console themselves at the end of another 50-hour week by saying "This is all worth it when I see our GDP." More likely they're drowning their sorrows in the delusion that they'll "make it" in some sort of Horatio Alger ascension to Independent Wealth. Then every day will be a vacation! Good luck with that.