The Truffle

Make no mistake--30 years ago, I might've been a Republican. No, not a Republican of the Tom Delay/Rick Santorum/Bob Ney variety, but rather, a Rockefeller Republican. A Millicent Fenwick-type Republican. (For those of you who don't know about this remarkable lady, she was a Congresswoman from New Jersey who was the real-life inspiration for Doonesbury's Lacey Davenport.) I can agree with the socially liberal, fiscally conservative types. Fiscal conservaatism, at least, is not a bad thing. Fiscal conservatism, as I understand it, means that you're cautious and you don't spend money you don't have. Fiscal conservatism is all but dead in today's GOP. Bush and his cast of idiots are like a bunch of spoiled Daddy's girls running amuck in Bloomingdale's waving credit cards. They are best described as "borrow and spend conservatives." Moderate Republicans are slowly dying out. Lincoln Chafee, a decent guy who was out of place in the GO...

Yes, that is a cake you see below. A real cake. A cake that looks like a thoracic cavity. Looks appetizing, doesn't it? Making this cake is much easier than it looks. All you need is a good copy of Grey's Anatomy and the complete guidelines for this culinary masterwork at this site and you too can enjoy dessert and explore the wonders of the human anatomy. Who would've thought that possible? (I wonder what it would be like to stick a fork in the cake and watch the fruity filling spurt out.) P.S. This killer rat cake looks interesting as well.

When I saw Forest Whitaker in "The Last King of Scotland," I thought "Hoo boy. We have this year's Best Actor Oscar winner." But it seemed like a long shot. No doubt, he'd be running against other actors with more name recognition. Including Peter O'Toole, who's been nominated several times. Well, guess what? He won the Oscar! I'm so happy! Now, if the US could somehow disentangle itself from Situation FUBAR, all would be right in the world.

At the Oscar ceremony last night, a lesbian hosted the ceremony. Another lesbian won for Best Song and thanked her wife in her acceptance speech. The wingnuts' favorite former vice president won an Oscar. So did two African-American actors. And Leo DiCaprio encouraged the audience to go green. And now it's Monday and the Oscar parties are but a memory. But wait! Far from the liberal enclave of Hollywood (you know, where Ahnuld got his start in action films) comes a new WaPo/ABC News poll. With Bush's approval ratings mired by the unpopular war, Americans trust congressional Democrats over Bush to handle the situation in Iraq by a margin of 54 percent to 34 percent. That is down from a 27-point gap before the president's address last month. Since that time, trust in the Democrats on the issue has slipped six points. That has not been matched by increasing confidence in Bush, but by a five-point rise in the number who trust neither the Democrats in Congress nor the...

Turns out there's one legislature even lazier than the 109th Congress was. I'm talking about the New York State legislature. They only worked 65 days in 2006. They only work two to four days a week. They only work between January and June. This is not a joke, either. And they're making full-time salaries...why, exactly?

It's fellow German psych-prog legends Faust. They're not on a silly German comedy show, alas.

Have an openly gay Star Trek actor do the honors: Maybe Mr. Takei can come up with a similar response to Michael Medved.

I want Forrest Whitaker to win the Academy Award Best Actor on Sunday night. If he wins, I will know that truly there is justice and righteousness in the world. Okay, an end to Situation FUBAR would also make me really, really happy. But until then, Forrest Whitaker winning the Oscar will be the next best thing. P.S. I also want Helen Mirren to win, but it seems she's a lock.

Remember when professional gasbag Camille Paglia huffily opined that "if civilization had been left in female hands, we would all be living in grass huts"? This is back when rehashing old, tired tripe was supposed to be shocking and radical. Here's something really shocking and radical. Anthropoligists have studied chimpanzees and now have a theory, based on the chimps' behavior, that weapons may have been invented by--surprise!-- females, not males. The logic behind this is actually very sound. The use of spears and axes to hunt and kill is commonly thought to have been pioneered among humanity's ancestors by males, but research has indicated weapons may have been a female invention that compensated for their lesser size and strength. Anthropologists' observations of chimpanzees in Senegal have revealed they gnaw the ends of sticks to create rudimentary spears, which they use to hunt bushbabies, a small primate. The findings are the first evidence of th...

Note to La Hill: If you want to win voters, like the two thirds or so who think the Iraq war is a bad idea, you could try responding like this when Cheney tries to put a positive spin on Situation FUBAR. "Now, keep in mind, this is the same guy that said we'd be greeted as liberators, the same guy that said that we're in the last throes. I'm sure he forecast sun today," Obama said to laughter from supporters holding campaign signs over their heads to keep dry. "When Dick Cheney says it's a good thing, you know that you've probably got some big problems." I'm liking Obama more and more by the minute.

...comes a column that makes no sense. The columnist in question is Michael Medved, who used to write funny books about bad movies but is now just a garden-variety right-wing fruitcake. Back when the wingnuts were getting huffy about "Happy Feet," Medved suggested that the film had a "gay subtext." So if you notice your little boy acting kinda swishy after buying the "Happy Feet" DVD, you'll know why. Well, now Medved has topped himself. Not only has he come to the defense of a dumbass homophobic athlete, but he has managed to do so while making absolutely no sense in the process. I'm linking to Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast , where I first read this thing. I'm afraid of losing too many brain cells if I spend too much time at Townhall.com. Here goes: There is no rational basis for discomfort at playing with athletes of another race since science and experience show that human racial differences remain insignificant. The much better an...

After fourteen years and a kazillion false starts, Guns 'n' Roses has once again scrapped its next album. The working title, by the way, is Chinese Democracy, and Le Sweetie likes to joke that there'll be Chinese democracy before the thing is ever released. The band announced in December that "Chinese Democracy" was tentatively due March 6, but with that date fast approaching, the album is back off the schedule. "There is no official release date, as the band is currently mixing, but after some delays and scheduling difficulties, things appear to be moving along," reads a post on GNR's Web site. "The good news is that all of the recording for the album has been completed," the post continues. "Drummer Frank Ferrer and guitarist Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal integrated themselves into the recordings seamlessly and will have their presence felt." Note to Geffen Records--why is a wack job like Axl Rose still on the label? Don...

JetBlue can apologize all it wants. Its CEO can tell everyone and their brother how utterly mortified he is at passengers kept aboard planes for 11 hours. It can offer a new "passenger's bill of rights." But it's not going to live down this fiasco. Witness JetBlueHostage.com . You can guess what this blog's about. Blogger Genevieve is collecting stories from other JetBlue passengers. And no, I don't think she's overreacting and I don't think this is hyperbole on her part. People, this is an abuse of customers' trust, okay? Passengers should not have to wait more than three hours aboard a plane. Period. There's a little concept the airlines should know about. It's spelled C-U-S-T-O-M-E-R S-E-R-V-I-C-E. Which means you don't keep customers eating pretzels and chips for 11 hours while the toilets overflow. Dig? Barbara Ehrenreich adds: If I get stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours, I plan to use my cell phone to call ...

I go to the Long Island City in YMCA, located in (where else?) Long Island City. To get there, I take the N/W line to Queensborough Plaza and transfer to the 7. Well, most days, that's what I do. For a while, it seems my weekend workout is going to have some complications. For one thing, the 7 line is undergoing track work for the next several weeks. I'm just glad I don't have to use it regularly, unlike the poor souls who work weekends. As it turns out, in addition to the track work, well, there were some other small snags. For one thing, the Mensa candidate who suggested alternate routes of transportation gave out the wrong information. If the MTA raises its fares again, I suspect a lot of people are going to be, uhm, upset.

I spent the last day of my three-day weekend having my landlady and her husband replace a valve in the heating pipe in my bathroom. Something overheated or burst somewhere and it leaked water onto my bathroom floor. I have a cool landlady. And her husband is cool too. You'd have to be cool to spend a national holiday fixing a valve in your tenant's bathroom.

This is just pathetic. How do you treat late-stage McCain's Disease? Especially when the sufferer is the disease's namesake?

Le Sweetie e-mailed the following press release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: http://www.airsupplymusic.com A TWENTY-YEAR LABOR OF LOVE, STRAIGHT FROM SHERWOOD FOREST: AIR SUPPLY'S GRAHAM RUSSELL UNVEILS THE MUSIC FOR HIS EXCITING NEW EPIC ROCK OPERA 'THE HEART OF THE ROSE,' WHICH TELLS THE PASSIONATE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ROBIN HOOD LEGEND * * * Due To Drop In March, The Nottingham, England Native's First-Ever Solo CD, 'The Future', Wraps Romantic Lyrics In Unique Rhythmic, Electronica and Acoustic Settings (WFT? I thought the Air Supply dudes were from Australia. You know, like the Little River Band.) Starting on Valentine's Day At Harrah's Casino in Kansas City, Russell Will Be Opening All Air Supply Dates With A Three Song Acoustic Set Featuring Songs From The Album When Graham Russell was nine years old, he ventured for the first time into a forest, located just at the edge of his hometown of Nottingham, England, that has captured the Western World'...

It's the legendary Can getting funkaaaaaay on "Halleluwah." This is the band performing live in 1972. It's a pity Damo Suzuki left the band. By 1977, they were doing silly TV shows like...uh...just click and see...

For example, the sufferer begins to bend over backwards to please others. Example: blue-state Republican governors and mayors trying to woo the religious right wing. Uh, guys? That one's gonna be tough: As recently as 2002, when he was running for governor against Shannon OBrien, who supports abortion rights, Republican contender Mitt Romney told Massachusetts voters, "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose." Romney's running mate said that "there isn't a dime of difference between Mitt Romney's position on choice and Shannon O'Brien('s)." But Tuesday, in announcing that he was running for president, Romney said, "I believe in the sanctity of human life." He was for abortion rights before he was against it, in other words. Let's not get started on Rudy, 'kay? Even Giuliani has started to imply that he would support judges who might not share his views on abortion. "I would appoint judges that inter...

Senator Chris Dodd has introduced the Restoring the Constitutions Act of 2007, and everyone who cares about laws, fairness, justice, and all the things Americans should be proud of should support this act. To become a citizen co-sponsor, click here. Note: In case anyone tries to justify torture, here's a hypothetical scenario. Suppose we make an error in the war on terror? Suppose the US detains and tortures an innocent person by mistake? Suppose we capture someone who has the same name as an al Qaeda higher-up or someone who looks kinda sorta like someone on the FBI shitlist. What if an innocent man dies in a foreign prison, under the watch of the US military? Is that a possibility that the American people want to live with?

So notes All Headline News talking about Romney's presidential run: Romney, 59, has long been considered a moderate, cast in the mold of his father, who, in the 1960s, skillfully bridged the gap between his party's economic conservatives and Michigan's powerful labor and Democratic leadership. However, on the stump for the GOP nomination, some critics have suggested that Romney has gone out of his way to court the religious right and other conservatives who have proven critical to the success of Republican candidates. "His rhetoric and his positions on (issues) like abortion, like gay rights, like stem cell research totally changed when he decided his focus should be on conservative votes across the country," Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore Dimasi, a Democrat, told CNN. Romney has said that he personally opposes abortion and supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. As governor, he vetoed a bill that would have permitted embryonic stem ...

Last week's marrow-freezing cold did not translate into mountains of snow or rivers of ice here in New York City. (Knock wood.) Upstate New York has been less lucky. And by "upstate" I mean UPSTATE. As in near Lake Ontario. As in near the Canadian border. Meanwhile, the Hudson Valley, where I grew up, is experiencing the expected cold temperatures, but no snow (yet). Le Sweetie and I were hoping to go skiiing with friends this month, but somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

Elayne Riggs notes that Norbizness has founded a new religion. Among the central tenets of this faith: "Hollywood is controlled by shitty schlock merchants who pitifully recycle television shows and movies into modern-day crapfests that attract the mentally impaired." No, I don't think Norbizness will have any trouble attracting followers. At all.

Brilliant at Breakfast has noted that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has begun addressing the opposition as "the REPUBLIC Party." I guess it was a matter of time before someone did, right?

The headline: "'America's mayor' praises Bush in state GOP speech" . Back in 2006, all the GOP candidates were trying to keep a safe distance from Dubya (fat lot of good that did). Not Rudy Giuliani. Not only is he proudly assuming the mantle of a loyal 30 percenter, he's trying to out-Bush Bush in the God soundbyte department. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, arguing that America is in desperate need of a Ronald Reagan-style optimistic vision, told California Republicans on Saturday that he wants to be a president who will "win the world for a set of ideas ... that I believe come from God." Oh, please! Rudy, everyone remembers you as mayor here in New York. You never talked about God in the entire 8 years you ran this city. The closest you came to that old-time religion talk was when you went bonkers over a portrait of the Virgin Mary covered with elephant poop. Since when did you start mentioning the "G" word as a way o...

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has reconsidered their decision to hire Bill-O as their keynote speaker. From their Web site: In response to the numerous e-mails and inquiries we have received, we are providing the following update regarding the Collier County, Florida branch fundraising dinner scheduled for March 9, 2007 in Naples, Florida. Bill O’Reilly, host of The O’Reilly Factor, will not be a speaker at the dinner. The dinner will be held as scheduled. John Walsh, host of America’s Most Wanted, will be the keynote speaker. We would like to thank everyone for their comments and e-mails. I wonder if any of those e-mails were from Shawn Hornbeck's family. Anyway, this is the right decision. (Via News Hounds .)

Broken Rail, Broken Subway Commute is the title of the Gothamist's latest post on yesterday's N/W line debacle. And whoopity doo--even The New York Times is reporting on it. And they're so poetic, too. The beating of a butterfly’s wings, it is said, can lead to a hurricane an ocean away. And a break in a Manhattan subway rail, though it may lack poetry, can really foul up the morning trip to work in Brooklyn and Queens. Mm I being really bitchy about this commute from hell? I mean, between this and last summer's blackout, it seems that Queens--or my neighborhood, at least--has gotten the short end of the stick. How about upgrading the electricity and the N/W lines? I'm getting sick to death of "track work" every other weekend...and I'm sure that plenty of 7 train riders feel the same way.

Yes, it's sad that Anna Nicole Smith died. HOWEVER, over 3,000 soldiers have been killed in Situation FUBAR since 2003. Anna Nicole Smith leaves a baby girl who'll never know her. Among those fallen soldiers are mothers and fathers who'll never see their children grow up. That is all.

Okay, Deep Purple did indeed put out a "Concerto for Group and Orchestra" at one point, but still, they are not prog. Prog blogging is taking a hiatus this week as we bring a clip that libertarian feminist rock drummer Redneck Feminist is bound to love: the classic Mark II lineup--including drummer extraordinaire Ian Paice--performing "Space Truckin'."

I hate commutes from hell. Hate hate hate. Okay. Let me calm down and explain. I live in Astoria, Queens. I take the N and W train to work. It is the only subway line in my neighborhood. And this morning, it was not running. There was no N service. There was no W service. It was about 18 degrees outside. It was too cold to walk and too cold to bike. Even if I could bike, office buildings are notoriously pissy about bicycles. (Side note: My office let me keep my bike in the mailroom when I rode it to work during the transit strike. It was actually FUN riding to work! Of course, there really isn't any place to keep the bike aside from the mailroom. And I had to use the freight elevator. Otherwise, I'd ride to work on a regular basis. Sigh.) Anyway, the reason for the subway screwup was a broken rail on 59th and Lexington Avenue. That's not in Queens, people. That's in Manhattan. You can't run the N/W lines in Manhattan, but you CAN still run the tr...

Why is Fashion Week held in Bryant Park under a tent? It's freezing. The runway models could get pneumonia. They're already so dangerously thin that they don't have a lot of body fat to burn to keep warm. Can't Fashion Week be held somewhere indoors?

"Welcome to Dreamland." That was the title of David Byrne's freak-folk showcase at Carnegie Hall on Friday. I was in the nosebleed seats with Le Sweetie, and I pored over what looked like an interesting bill: Cocorosie (a sister act I knew about alrady), Adem (whom I'd never heard of), Veviter (ditto), Vashti Bunyan (folk cult heroine), and Devandra Banhart (the genre's biggest stah . A decent overview of the genre can be found here . Basically, freak-folk draws equally from '60s folk and '60s psychedelia, giving it a modern feel while acknowledging the genre's early influences, which tend to be pretty cultish acts. Nick Drake, Donovan, Sandy Denny, and lesser-known singers like Bunyan and Linda Perhacs are stylistic forerunners. If Donovan's looking for a comeback, perhaps he should consider giving Banhart a call to collaborate. As for Drake and Denny, they are, alas, no longer with us, and thus they haunt today's freak-folk scene in spi...

Okay, WHY is Bill O'Reilly a scheduled speaker at a fundraiser for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ? Isn't this the same scumbag who said that Shawn Hornbeck must've enjoyed spending four years as the captive of a psycho kidnapper? Which Mensa candidate invited the guy? And what do you think John Walsh has to say about all this? Joann Donnellan, a spokeswoman for the group, says that O'Reilly is still scheduled to appear at the fundraiser, despite the Hornbeck flap. Donnellan said Wednesday that O’Reilly’s invitation was accepted in November to help raise awareness on the issue of missing and exploited children. She said the invitation to speak to the group still stood. “We thought he would be an interesting speaker,” she said. Donnellan said the organization, as well as the public and O’Reilly, do not know all of the details surrounding Shawn’s abduction. “Kids do what is necessary to survive,” she said. “In the media, we hear, ‘Why didn’t he...

Three Henry Cow alums--Chris Cutler, Fred Frith, and Tim Hodgkinson--reunited! Lovers of avant-garde, weird, and challenging music drool with delight! (I was there, folks, and it was a great show. It was also packed!)

I know...so am I. And it's still only February 2007. Well, here's something to take your mind off La Hill, Obama, Joe "SHUT UP!" Biden, McCain, Rudy, and all those other wannabe deciders. Al Franken is running for Senate. Specifically, he'll be running for the Minnesota Senate seat formerly held by Paul Wellstone and currently held by Norm Coleman. This is going to be a fun race, people.