BACK IN THE MINNWISSIPPI, RAIN HAS HERALDED THE ARRIVAL OF ANOTHER CRAZY ROUND OF SPRING WEATHER as is making even the farmers and planters nervous.

Nervous, as in risking getting stuck in mud-soaked fields getting spring field work done, and sometimes having to be pulled out of the quagmire, tractor and all.

Even crazier: Conditions are expected to remain rather cooler than average into the weekend--as in maxima pretty much limited to the 50's and rain pretty much the rule save for some sunny conditions Saturday.

*************

GIVEN THE ECCENTRICITIES OF LONGITUDES AND TIME DIFFERENCES PREVAILING ACROSS THE WORLD, Your Correspondent feels it best to send along to the Australian and New Zealand readers of The Exaggerator his best wishes for the ANZAC Day observance there (in fact, as I write, it's now 05h25 Friday morning in New Zealand, 03h25 in Sydney and Melbourne, 02h55 in Adelaide and 01h25 in Perth).

*************

MEMO TO THE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS IN THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE VIS-A-VIS ISRAEL, all based on the rather illogical "enemy of my enemy" argument excusing anti-Zionist feelings in spite of their otherwise seeing Palestinian Arabs as "inferior mud peoples:"

How can you expect Palestinian Gaza in particular to be particularly self-sufficent in the energy department without risking suspicions of being seen as "supporting terrorism" all along? (I say this in response to the likelihood of serious power cuts in Palestinian Gaza thanks to Israel's unwillingness to supply fuel to the local power station, in reprisal for recent Palestinian missile attacks into Israeli soverign territory.

(Which, in turn, also affects sewerage and wastewater treatment facilities, as can translate into risk of epidemics for dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera and other diseases common where a lack of proper sanitation and hygiene exist.)

As well, there's also the issue of whether the Palestinian Authority has soverign jurisdiction over the waters of the Mediterranean Sea off Palestinian Gaza and out to the traditional three-mile limit offshore of the high-tide line--especially if there turns out being substantial undersea deposits of oil and natural gas extant off Palestinian Gaza.

*************

SOMETHING WHICH THE GOP DESERVES (AND SERIOUSLY), AND WHICH YOUR CORRESPONDENT WOULD LIKE TO SEE @ their 2008 convention in the Twin Cities this fall:

Videlicet, certain delegates standing up to, and challenging, the prevailing GOP party line as has seen same (and its articles of faith) abandoning the Abraham Lincoln model and instead being closer to those of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo and the apartheid regime in South Africa, among others tending to Fascism/Corporatism.

Especially considering the following (thanks to Brave New Films for the hat tip):

Is this convincing enough, or is the GOP secretly resorting to doublethink for fear of being "outed" by Those Meddling Bloggers as nothing less than closet Fascisti?

=============

AND ANOTHER THING FOR THE GOP TO ADDRESS when they convene @ Xcel Energy Centre:

How much is the GOP paying Fox Prolefeed Channel to keep same on air, let alone advancing the GOP's "talking points"--all the while knowing consciously of their Fascist tone and nuances?

And to what extent is the subsidy of Fox Prolefeed coming out of party funds and accounts?  

(AND NO, I'M NOT TALKING "G-D BLESS AMERICA," THE PREFERRED SUCH among the Religiopolitical Right's forces of Zealotry and True Belief:)

None other than that exercise in obnoxiously arrogant English jingoism entitled "Land of Hope and Glory," to the melody of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March #1, and preferably sung in an obnoxious-sounding staccato crossing into the Nazi stylee befitting the GOP's arrogant ways of late.

The lyrics therefor, thanks to Wikipedia, for the interested:

Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned.

G-d make thee mightier yet!

On Sov'reign brows, beloved, renowned,

Once more thy crown is set.

Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,

Have ruled thee well and long;

By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,

Thine Empire shall be strong.

CHORUS:

Land of Hope and Glory,

Mother of the Free!

How shall we extol thee,

Who are born of thee?

Wider still and wider

Shall thy bounds be set;

G-d, who made thee mighty,

Make thee mightier yet;

G-d, who made thee mighty,

Make thee mightier yet.

Thy fame is ancient as the days,

As Ocean large and wide

A pride that dares, and heeds not praise,

A stern and silent pride

Not that false joy that dreams content

With what our sires have won;

The blood a hero sire hath spent

Still nerves a hero son.

(repeat CHORUS)

If it worked to whip up support for "painting the map pink" (as in thus identifying prominently such areas of the world as were under British rule and control) in the glory days of That Empire Upon Which The Sun Would Never Set, I see no reason why the GOP can't adopt it for its own ends and purposes in justifying a "Lord and Master" role and place for America (with Iraq "only the beginning," naturally enow) in rather obnoxious stylee.

Obnoxious enough to reduce the GOP to farce, especially when YouTube features video of the GOP's "inside of the inside," so to speak, singing "Land of Hope and Glory" in an obnoxiously drunken staccato--and, notwithstanding Fox Prolefeed inevitably suggesting that the same was "faked" or "staged," getting wide circulation.

Especially in that segment of the chorus proclaiming "Land of HOPE and GLORY,/MOTHER of the FREE!/HOW shall we EXTOL THEE,/Who are BORN of THEE?" (Emphasis mine.)

*************

NOW TELL ME IF KEITH RUPERT MURDOCH IS TRYING TO "GO NATIONAL" IN THE PRINT MEDIA, PROLEFEED SECTION, with his designs on purchasing the Long Island "respectable tabloid" Newsday from the Tribune Company, relaunching same on a satellite-delivered, nationwide basis with circulation deliberately targeting culturally-deprived environments.

And with much the same sensationalist excesses marking Keith Rupert's British "red top" tabloids of The Sun and the News of the World, right down to the obligatory Page Three soft-porn distraction.

Sensationalist excesses tending heavily to racism, jingoism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism--you name it, he'll exploit it. Guaranteed to have Lord Northcliffe (founder of the Daily Mail, Fleet Street's original masters of Fourth Estate jingoism for the masses) spinning in his grave, not to mention William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. 

see more crazy cat pics

WITH THE SOCIOECONOMIC SITUATION ONLY LIKELY TO GET WORSE BEFORE GETTING BETTER, ESPECIALLY SO IN THE EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT, expect there the likelihood for plenty of "work-from-home" opportunity ads making the rounds of especially the culturally-deprived environments and their residents with few or no realistic job skills ... let alone the fact of their being unable to work in the community for reasons outside their direct control.

That, and overzealous delusion on the part of conservative propaganda as holds dear among its articles of faith the "complete and final" reduction of unemployment numbers to a theoretical nil rate consistent with free-market capitalist models and paradigms (yet unaware that Communist propaganda was forever claiming that their economies had nil unemployment, failing to recognise that such included "make-work" positions to create the aura thereof).

Which should best be approached with caution.

Or, better yet, avoided altogether.

Especially so the "make-work/fake-work" variety such as that promising as much as $8/hour for "easy [and] pleasant" home mailing work; those behind same fail to mention that mailroom services, with their economies of automation and scale, can make short work of high-volume mailings @ significantly and measurably lower costs than using homeworkers.

Which, right there, makes such ads misleading, particularly so considering Basic Principle 3 of the Better Business Bureau Advertising Code:

An advertisement as a whole may be misleading although every sentence separately considered is literally true. Misrepresentation may result not only from direct statements, but by omitting or obscuring a material fact.

Something which should be considered in case you see any "work-from-home" advertisements of the "envelope-stuffing" or "home mailing" model around--and which should be enough to trigger contact to your local Better Business Bureau in the form of an Advertising Review Request.

Especially if the ad includes testimonials which sound suspiciously glowing or otherwise "too good to be true" (which may be the case if it sounds such, as the maxim hath it); such should be considered as a point of challenge, particularly so from the areas of:

• sincerity;
• authenticity; and
• timeliness.

That, and whether the "endorsers" received consideration of any kind to influence the tone and nuance thereof--disclosure of which the FTC requires if such is, in fact, the case. Never mind that the consideration is either in cash, in kind, or a combination of the two.

In any case, even if you have an overzealous desire to avoid going on welfare out of "common sense" or suchlike patsies (including the traditional paranoia about "undermining of the moral fibre"), avoid "work-from-home" offers if you can if you want to avoid being taken unscrupulous advantage of.

Which the weird and unwholesome element hopes will be the case in view of the current job and economic situation. After all, it's the mountebank who profits all the more out of socioeconomic misery and dislocation, or the fears thereof, among especially the vulnerable who otherwise know not where to go. 

SEVERAL YEARS BACK, WHEN "SPAMMING" STARTED TO BECOME ALL THE MORE A NUISANCE, several companies whose business was the transmission and dissemiation of "bulk e-mail" messages were pushing the idea that such was "environmentally-friendly" as it saved paper and ink, thereby reducing waste paper going into the landfills (as if they weren't aware of paper recycling programmes in many parts of the country).

Not to mention invoking a rather pathetic and conspitatorial-sounding platitude suggesting that leading Internet services companies, "consumer rights" groups and others were "conspiring" to "prevent the further development of new and innovative marketing techniques" by spreading "lies and misstatements" about "bulk e-mail marketing."

WELLLLLLLL--!!!!!!

How much longer before the "spamming"--er, "bulk e-mail marketing"--confraternity starts to push the notion of such being "carbon-neutral," let alone the waste of electricity, bandwidth and telephonic resources caused by "bulk e-mail marketing"?

see more crazy cat pics

FOR YOUR CORRESPONDENT, IT'S BEEN A RATHER BUSY MIDWEEK,  what with:

• doing some further sweeping of the motel's car park;
• restocking the pop vending machine;
• sending out some used TV sets to a recycling collection; and
• getting me some Archer Farms (as in Target) Blood Orange Italian Soda; hopefully, a review will be forthcoming in this space.

Translating, in effect, into a sense of tardiness in going to (virtual) bed with this essay. I trust you will understand.

=============

COME TO THINK OF IT, TODAY PROVIDED PERHAPS THE BEST (AND, FOR AWHILE, THE LAST) OPPORTUNITY TO GET SOME SWEEPING DONE of the motel car park, given some mild weather outside in contrast to some damp and dreary-looking conditions yesterday.

(The sweeping-up was started on Monday, which also saw rather decent conditions.)

I say today because overnight, rainy and dreich conditions are likely to make their presence felt here in the Minnwissippi--and will likely remain so into the weekend, along with cooler general conditions (high 50's for maxima Friday and Saturday, high 40's Saturday).

No wonder the farmers and planters out this way are desperate for some serious dry conditions for once so they can get the field work and planting out of the way for once, notwithstanding the high cost of diesel fuel, fertiliser and chemicals.

*************

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD ABOUT THE SPECULATION IN CERTAIN SECULAR-PROGRESSIVE CIRCLES SUGGESTING WHERE THE HYPERCONSERVATIVES are manipulating to the point of perverting Hillary's Presidential bid--as in getting Republicans to switch sides through "dog-whistle" tactics questioning Barack Obama's racial and moral fitness for the Presidential position by voting for Hillary in the primaries, and then setting the stage for a back-door electoral coup d'essai by The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang, a/k/a John McCain.

Even if Hillary won the primaries in Pennsylvania last night, neither she nor Obama are any closer to the requisite number of delegates to secure the Democratic Party's nomination (though Obama still has the advantage in this regard, howbeit slight).

Too, history could be on McCain's side, unless he were to make that one fatal misstep as may be all the likelier: The Star Tribune in Minneapolis had a "factoid" (under heading of "Have you heard?") on its front page this morning which noted where, in nine of the last ten Presidential elections, the first candidate to secure the requisite number of delegates necessary for their party's formal nomination went on to win the November election.

Hence, vigilance all the more on The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang for that one fatal lapsus linguĉ that, under the right circumstances, could be the end of McCain's likely chances for victory, no matter what he does to try and save himself. Especially if YouTube picks up on it.

*************

SPOT THE FLAWED LOGIC IN THIS CONSERVATIVE ARTICLE OF FAITH:

The "why and wherefore" for keeping taxes on "the four hundred" all the lower is to stimulate them into creating jobs "out of the collective goodness of their hearts" for the Lower Classes, who wind up paying an even higher tax bill just to cover these tax cuts for the "elect***entitled as of right."

Only it turns out that the jobs are not created stateside, as conservative (il)logic would have it.

So what stands in the way of Congress correcting this imbalance, even with tax incentives offered employers to encourage their hiring welfare cases per workfare (among them Advanced Earned Income Credit over and above their regular pay in lieu of traditional welfare emouluments)?