Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh used the word on his radio show. “Our political correct society is acting like some giant insults taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards… I think the big news is he [Emanuel] is out there calling Obama’s number one supporters f’ing retards. So now there’s going to be a meeting. There’s going to be a retard summit at the White House.” Sara Palin’s response was that this was satire and was OK. And over in the Texas gubernatorial race, a consultant for the Republican governor Rick Perry admitted that he repeatedly used the word in a conference call. Palin’s response was to have a spokesman say that it was disrespectful. But there was no call for the consultant to be fired. So it appears that in Sara Palin’s world it’s OK to refer to people using the R-Word as long as you are a Republican. In other words, she is using something that we are all fighting to stop for her own political gain.

So among the people who have used the word in public, only Mr. Emanuel has taken the vow to stop using the word and has promised to help the Special Olympics fight against the word, but he is the only one who Sara Palin has publicly spoken out against and demand be fired. But that isn’t the end…

The show Family Guy on Sunday night featured the character Chris Griffin dating a young lady with Down syndrome. Palin was in an uproar insisting that the show made fun of her son. But in the show, the young lady is the tough one. She is fully empowered and bossy. She acts like a regular person not the stereotype of a person with a disability. Chris drops the young lady after she bosses him around. “I used to hear that people with Down syndrome were different from the rest of us but you’re not. You’re not different at all. You’re just a bunch of [bleep] like everyone else.” Yep, just like everyone else.

By the way, the young lady with Down syndrome, was voiced by Andrea Fay Friedman, an actress who has Down syndrome.

“Defending the word ‘retard’ is not heroic” By Michael Gerson

Discuss.

Cadmium is a highly dangerous metal. It is a known carcinogen and can prevent brain development in children. Items made with cadmium easily shed the poison especially when placed in the mouth. Since cadmium is not restricted in the use of jewelry there is no recall even though it is outlawed in the use of painted toys and is considered a toxic waste. Some of the charms purchased from Walmart’s contained more than 80% cadmium. There is no effective treatment to remove cadmium from the body because it binds strongly to a blood borne protein.

The solution is very simple. Don’t shop at Walmart’s. Don’t buy cheap jewelry from China. Buy American made products. They may be more expensive but they are much safer and help keep American workers at work.

In February, 1894, Charley Becker put on the uniform of a New York City police officer. Twenty one years later, the state of New York executed him for murder. In 1894 the NYC police department was completely corrupt. The department was designed to make it impossible for a police officer to live on his salary, forcing him to accept bribes. Officers who gave trouble to their superiors were sent to outlying parts of the city where access to bribes from gamblers, pimps, and prostitutes was hard to find. Officers who maximized their bribes and passed a percentage of the money up the line to their superiors found themselves in the best parts of the city. Charley Becker found himself in the Tenderloin District of the city, an area called Satan’s Circus because of the gambling, prostitution, and all-night bars that provided plenty of money to a corrupt police officer. Becker maximized his money and slowly moved up the line, eventually becoming the head of the Strong Arm Squad responsible for raiding gambling houses. Becker filled his bank accounts using his position to protect those who paid him off.

This part of the book was amazing to me as I was unaware of how corrupt the New York City Police Department was even less than 100 years ago. Dash does a good job of showing what the city was like and how a police officer could make a fortune in this world. He keeps the story flowing well as we near the murder of Herman Rosenthal, the gambler who was the partner of Charley Becker. But it is with the murder that the story starts to drag and become unfocused. Dash does a poor job of describing the two trials of Becker and relating it to what was going on in the city at the time. The description of the trials is confusing as he fails to focus on the key witnesses or give a good description of how the trials unfolded. He doesn’t make it easy on us as he uses the first name, last name, and nickname of the same character sometimes on the same page. The last 80 pages of the book seem almost tacked on. Since we know how the story ends, Dash needs to find other ways to make the end of the book interesting but he isn’t able to do it.

Overall, the book is a fairly good read although it does drag in parts and the end could have used some help. If you are interested in the story of Charley Becker and the NYC police department and want to find out if he really was guilty (at least as well as can be found out 100 years later) then this book is well worth picking up.

Boy loves girl who marries rich Dude. Boy gets rich ruins rich Dude marries his sister. Girl laments,dies. All lament on moors. Kate Bush sings.

h/t: passiveaggressivenotes.com

The Pogues are an Irish rock band playing a mix of traditional Irish music heavily influenced by punk music with strong political leanings. The group mixed modern instruments such as the electric guitar with traditional Irish instruments such as the tin whistle, cittern, and accordion. The original name of the group was Pogue Mahone (póg mo thóin) meaning “kiss my arse” in Irish. The group has had various members over the years but they have included Shane MacGowan (vocals), Peter “Spider” Stacy (tin whistle), Jem Finer (banjo), Cait O’Riordan (bass), James Fearnley (accordion), Phil Chevron (guitar), Terry Woods (mandolin and cittern), Darryl Hunt (bass), and Andrew Ranken (drums). Cait O’Riordan left the group in 1986 when she married Elvis Costello.

The Pogues were originally formed by Shane McGowan in 1982 but due to his drinking problems he left the group in 1991. McGowan’s singing was replaced by Joe Strummer of the Clash and later by Spider Stacy who had played the tin whistle in the group. The group is famous for McGowan’s drinking problems as he is often drunk while performing but his banshee wail makes The Pogues one of the “50 Bands To See Before You Die” according to Q magazine. The group broke up in 1996 but reformed in 2001 with McGowan but only for touring and have no plans to release a new album.

“Fairytale of New York” was released as a single in 1987 and reached #1 in the Irish charts and #2 in the British charts over Christmas. The song features the singing of Shane McGowan and Kirsty MacColl in a duet. The song has become a Christmas classic in the UK and Ireland, and was voted the best Christmas song of all time three years running starting in 2004 in polls by VH1 UK.

In 2007 the song was briefly censored by the BBC because of the word “faggot” being deemed potentially offensive to gay people. Following protests from listeners, including the mother of Kirsty MacColl, the censorship was lifted. MacColl had died in 2000 in an accident in Cozumel. MacColl and her sons were diving in a restricted boating area. When they surfaced, a speeding boat entered the area. MacColl was able to push her son out of the way but in doing so she was struck by the boat and killed. The boat was owned by Mexican supermarket millionaire Guillermo González Nova but he denied driving the boat claiming an employee was at the controls. The employee was sentenced to three years in prison for negligence but was allowed to pay $90 in lieu of serving his sentence.

Merry Christmas!

Fairytale of New York
It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won’t see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in at ten to one
I’ve got a feeling
This year’s for me and you
So Happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They’ve got cars big as bars
They’ve got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It’s no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can’t make it all alone
I’ve built my dreams around you

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing “Galway Bay”
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas Day

The Pogues – A Fairytale Of New York

A couple of weeks ago when I took him to the Saturday program I couldn’t get him out the car and I was getting frustrated at the idea of carrying him in because he tends to hit and throw himself around when you try that. Mikey was screaming at me because he just wanted to go for a ride and didn’t want to get out. Finally in frustration I reached into my pocket and as a joke I took out a dollar and said, “I’ll give you a dollar if you go in.” Immediately he stopped screaming. He unbuckled himself, took the dollar, walked in to the school, and went right to the candy machine. It was like a miracle.

Michel talked to Mikey’s therapist and she said, “Let’s try it at school too.” They set up a little shop for him where he could use his dollar to buy things like Fruit Loops and milk. In the morning I offered him a dollar to get on the bus. He took the dollar and went right out, handing the dollar to the bus driver. She was a bit confused but I explained what was going on and so the aide held the dollar for Mikey until he was buckled in. Mikey held onto his dollar until he got to school, went right to his classroom without any trouble and then strolled over to the little market area. He picked out his treat and paid with his dollar.

It has worked every day since we started doing it. Who would have figured that Mikey was just looking for a little cash to behave!

Crowded House is a rock band formed in Australia by Neil Finn and Paul Hester when their group Split Enz broke up in 1984. The members of the group are from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The band has gone through various incarnations over the years but the current members are Neil Finn (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Seymour (bass), Mark Hart (guitar), and Matt Sherrod (drums).

The group’s first album was released in 1986 and received worldwide praise and success. The album had five hit singles and went platinum in the US and Australia (6X platinum). They have never been able to recapture success in the US and their albums have failed to reach Gold status. However the group has continued to have huge success in the UK and Australia with all of their albums going Platinum “down under.”

After the group’s failure to make a dent in the US charts with their second album, the group was ready to try again with the album, “Woodface”. The first single from the album, “Chocolate Cake”, is a humorous look at American excesses (“The excess of fat on your American bones will cushion the impact as you sink like a stone”). But it sealed their fate in the US as it offended some people and failed to make the Billboard charts in the US. It was very successful in the UK and Australia however.

Chocolate Cake
Not everyone in New York
Would pay to see Andrew Lloyd Webber
May his trousers fall down
As he bows to the queen and the crown
I don’t know what tune that the orchestra played
But it went by me sickly and sentimental

Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?
Tammy Baker’s got a lot on her plate
Can I buy another cheap Picasso fake?
Andy Warhol must be laughing in his grave

The band of the night
Takes you to ethereal heights over dinner
You wander the streets
Never reaching the heights that you seek
And the sugar that dripped from the violin’s bow
Made the children go crazy, put a hole in the tooth of a hag

Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?
Tammy Baker must be losing her faith
Can I buy another cheap Picasso fake?
Andy Warhol must be laughing in his grave

And the dogs are on the road, we’re all tempting fate
Cars shooting by with no number plates
And here comes Mrs. Hairy Legs

I saw Elvis Presley walk out of a 7-Eleven (that’s right)
And a woman gave birth to a baby and then bowled 257
The excess of fat on your American bones
Will cushion the impact as you sink like a stone

Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?
Tammy Baker, Tammy Baker
Can I buy another cheap Picasso fake?
Cheap Picasso, cheap Picasso fake
Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?
Kathy Straker, boy could she lose some weight
Can I buy another slice of real estate?
Liberace must be laughing in his grave

Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?
Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?
Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?
Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?

Radiohead is an alternative rock band formed in England in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano), Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboard), Ed O’Brien (guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass guitar, synthesizers) and Phil Selway (drums). The original name of the band was “On A Friday” but they changed their name in 1991 at the request of their record company, EMI, when they signed their first record contract. The new name was based on a song on the Talking Heads album, True Stories.

The group’s first album released in 1992 contained the group’s most successful US single, “Creep.” The song was blacklisted by BBC Radio 1 because it was deemed “too depressing”. This fit in the with the group’s overall image which Beth describes as “the best Emo group of the 90’s.” They have been very successful with all of their seven albums going gold or platinum in the US and the UK. All four of their most recent albums have reached number one in the UK and at least number three in the US.

The Bends, released in 1995, was Radiohead’s second album. Five singles from the album reached the top 25 in the UK. The most successful single in the US was “High & Dry” but the most successful single in the UK was “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” For a group that routinely writes depressing songs, “Street Spirit” reached a new level of depression described as “one of [the band's] saddest songs” and a “dark tunnel without the light at the end,” by the group’s lead singer.

Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Rows of houses, all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things into position
All these things we’ll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out

This machine will, will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again

Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes
All these things into position
All these things we’ll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again

Immerse your soul in love
Immerse your soul in love

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