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?