Naked Came I

Independence Day is tomorrow in the United States. So, forthwith is an Independence Day quiz to test your knowledge about the American independence. No peeking on Wikipedia or Google, now! Answers are behind the cut.

1) How many years has the U.S. been independent as of 2009?

2) The Continental Congress voted in secret session for independence on July 2, 1776. But the Declaration of Independence wasn't approved until:

a. July 3
b. July 4
c. July 5
d. August 2

3) The Boston Massacre is commonly said to be one of the incidents which started the American revolution. The massacre occurred in:

a. 1770
b. 1772
c. 1774
d. 1776

4) "The shot heard 'round the world" occurred during the Battle of Lexington and Concord, generally considered the start of the American Revolution. This battle occured in:

a. 1776
b. 1775
c. 1777
d. 1770

5) In an attempt to prevent revolution, the Second Continental Congress extended the "Olive Branch Petition" to King George III. He refused to receive the petition, instead issuing the "Proclamation of Rebellion." Did this occur before or after the Declaration of Independence?

a. Before.
b. After.
c. This never happened!
d. At about the same time.

6) Who invaded who first during the American Revolution?

a. England invaded America.
b. America invaded Canada.
c. America invaded Spanish Florida.
d. England invaded Spanish Florida.

7) The "Evacuation of Boston" is considered the first major victory of the American Revolution. Why?

a. Because Gen. George Washington safely evacuated all his troops out of Boston before the British got there.
b. Because the Battle of Bunker Hill occurred during it, and that was a major American victory.
c. Because Gen. George Washington put cannons (captured at Ft. Ticonderoga) on Dorchester Heights, forcing the British out of the city.
d. "Evacuation" refers to diarrhea! This is when the American army instituted sanitary measures to stop a big Yellow Fever epidemic which could have wiped out the troops.

8) What colony was the first to do away with its royal charter during the Revolution and establish itself as a state?

a. Massachusetts - "Don't tread on me!"
b. New Hampshire - "Live free or die!"
c. Virginia - "Birthplace of liberty!"
d. South Carolina - "Remember Ft. Sumter!"

9) Tom Paine's political pamphlet, Common Sense, was written in January 1776 and was a major impetus toward American independence. What did it argue?

a. George the Third was mad and revolution was the only way out.
b. All Americans and Britons should overthrow the Crown.
c. Republican democracy and separation from Great Britain was the only solution to America's political problems.
d. All of the above.

10) The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin to draft the Declaration of Independence. How long did it take them to come up with a draft?

a. Six days, just like in the Bible.
b. Five and a half months...you know Congress!
c. Six weeks.
d. Nineteen days.

11) The first battle of the American Revolution fought after the Declaration of Independence was?

a. The Battle of Brooklyn in September 1776.
b. The (First) Battle of the Bulge in July 1776.
c. The Battle of Lake Montreal in October 1776.
d. The naval battle of Montauk Lightship on July 5, 1776.

12) John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence is huge! How come?

a. He had a neurological disease which prevented him from writing small like everyone else.
b. He already owned the John Hancock Insurance Co., and wanted to imitate his corporate logo.
c. He was the first to sign, and he had a big ego.
d. He was printing the document for the public, so was authorized to sign it larger than anyone else.

13) Which of the following is NOT a complaint in the Declaration of Independence?

a. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records...
b. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
c. [C]utting off our Trade with all parts of the world...
d. He has plundered our women, ravaged our Ports, burnt our bridges, and destroyed the lives of our Cattle.

14) True or false: Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence didn't sign it until August 2, 1776?

a. True.
b. False.

15) Congress started work on the first constitution of the new nation (the Articles of Confederation) how soon after the approval of the Declaration of Independence?

a. On July 8, 1776.
b. On July 12, 1776.
c. On July 5, 1777.
d. On April 19, 1781.

Timothy explains it all...

1) How many years has the U.S. been independent as of 2009?

233.

2) The Continental Congress voted in secret session for independence on July 2, 1776. But the Declaration of Independence wasn't approved until:

a. July 3
b. July 4 Madison and Jefferson both initially argued for July 2 as the actual date of independence, but gave in to popular myth instead.
c. July 5
d. August 2

3) The Boston Massacre is commonly said to be one of the incidents which started the American revolution. The massacre occurred in:

a. 1770
b. 1772
c. 1774
d. 1776

4) "The shot heard 'round the world" occurred during the Battle of Lexington and Concord, generally considered the start of the American Revolution. This battle occured in:

a. 1776
b. 1775 - Military hostilities between American and England existed for a full year before independence was declared!
c. 1777
d. 1770

5) In an attempt to prevent revolution, the Second Continental Congress extended the "Olive Branch Petition" to King George III. He refused to receive the petition, instead issuing the "Proclamation of Rebellion." Did this occur before or after the Declaration of Independence?

a. Before. - King Geroge issued the proclamation on August 23, 1775.
b. After.
c. This never happened!
d. At about the same time.

6) Who invaded who first during the American Revolution?

a. England invaded America.
b. America invaded Canada. - Yup! American the aggressor! An American army captured Montreal, but a bigger invasion of Quebec failed and the Americans withdraw with their tails between their legs.
c. America invaded Spanish Florida.
d. England invaded Spanish Florida.

7) The "Evacuation of Boston" is considered the first major victory of the American Revolution. Why?

a. Because Gen. George Washington safely evacuated all his troops out of Boston before the British got there.
b. Because the Battle of Bunker Hill occurred during it, and that was a major American victory.
c. Because Gen. George Washington put cannons (captured at Ft. Ticonderoga) on Dorchester Heights, forcing the British out of the city.
d. "Evacuation" refers to diarrhea! This is when the American army instituted sanitary measures to stop a big Yellow Fever epidemic which could have wiped out the troops.

8) What colony was the first to do away with its royal charter during the Revolution and establish itself as a state?

a. Massachusetts - "Don't tread on me!"
b. New Hampshire - "Live free or die!"
c. Virginia - "Birthplace of liberty!"
d. South Carolina - "Remember Ft. Sumter!"

9) Tom Paine's political pamphlet, Common Sense, was written in January 1776 and was a major impetus toward American independence. What did it argue?

a. George the Third was mad and revolution was the only way out.
b. All Americans and Britons should overthrow the Crown.
c. Republican democracy and separation from Great Britain was the only solution to America's political problems.
d. All of the above.

10) The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin to draft the Declaration of Independence. How long did it take them to come up with a draft?

a. Six days, just like in the Bible.
b. Five and a half months...you know Congress!
c. Six weeks.
d. Nineteen days.

11) The first battle of the American Revolution fought after the Declaration of Independence was?

a. The Battle of Brooklyn in September 1776. - The British Navy sailed from Nova Scotia and seized New York City. Washington was almost caught from behind, but during the night ferried his troops over to Manhattan and safety.
b. The (First) Battle of the Bulge in July 1776.
c. The Battle of Lake Montreal in October 1776.
d. The naval battle of Montauk Lightship on July 5, 1776.

12) John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence is huge! How come?

a. He had a neurological disease which prevented him from writing small like everyone else.
b. He already owned the John Hancock Insurance Co., and wanted to imitate his corporate logo.
c. He was the first to sign, and he had a big ego.
d. He was printing the document for the public, so was authorized to sign it larger than anyone else.

13) Which of the following is NOT a complaint in the Declaration of Independence?

a. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records...
b. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
c. [C]utting off our Trade with all parts of the world...
d. He has plundered our women, ravaged our Ports, burnt our bridges, and destroyed the lives of our Cattle.

14) True or false: Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence didn't sign it until August 2, 1776?

a. True.
b. False.

15) Congress started work on the first constitution of the new nation (the Articles of Confederation) how soon after the approval of the Declaration of Independence?

a. On July 8, 1776.
b. On July 12, 1776.
c. On July 5, 1777.
d. On April 19, 1781.

Labels: history

It's a shame that Michael Jackson died when Karl Malden did. Jackson contributed so little in comparison to what Malden did, and what Jackson contributed won't be nearly as long-lasting. Qualitatively, Jackson's contributions are ephemeral compared to Malden's.







.
Karl Malden, a great actor

Karl Malden was born Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago on March 22, 1912. His father, Petar Sekulovich, was a Serbian immigrant who worked in a steel mill and later delivered milk. His mother, Minnie Sebera Sekulovich, came from a part of Bohemia which was then part of Germany but is now part of the Czech Republic. The family moved to Gary, Indiana, when Karl was five. He didn't speak a word of English until he was taught the language in kindergarten. As a teenager he helped his father deliver milk. As a child, Karl was often cast in plays at the local Serbian Orthodox Church. As a teenager, his father pushed him to enroll in the church's adult all-male choir; although most of the men were double his age, Karl began to sing in the chorale. (He later admitted the experience kept him out of the trouble most of his friends got into.) He became a solid basketball player in high school, and was elected senior class president.

After high school, he worked for three years in a steel mill.

Malden attended Arkansas State Teacher's College for a year, but when he turned 22 he left off for Chicago. He'd gotten the acting bug at Arkansas, and using $340 in savings he studied acting at the Goodman Theater Dramatic School. He did so well that he was awarded a scholarship for the remaining three years. He earned additional tuition money by building sets for the theater's productions. During his stint at Goodman, he met the aspiring actress Mona Greenberg.

He graduated from the Goodman in 1937, but was forced to return to Gary (where he drove a milk truck) in order to earn a living. Later that year, he received a letter from Robert Ardrey, a playwright he had met in Chicgo. Ardrey invited him to New York City to try out for a part in his latest play. Malden and his wife moved to New York City. Ardrey's play was never produced, so Malden began auditioning for other acting jobs. Harold Clurman and Elia Kazan cast him in Golden Boy, a production about a tragic boxer being staged by the Group Theater.

The Group Theatre was a New York City theater collective formed by theater director and drama critic Harold Clurman, theatrical producer and director Cheryl Crawford, and actor Lee Strasberg in 1931. It was founded in order to break away from the stylized, "theatrical," melodramatic acting of the day, and designed to present powerful, socially relevant, naturalistic plays. The actors would be highly trained, but highly realistic as well. The Group Theatre pioneered the "American acting technique" -- a style of acting derived from "The Method" teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski. (The Group Theatre was a forerunner of The Actors Studio, founded in 1947 by Kazan, Crawford, Sokolow, and Robert Lewis.) There would be no stars; the ensemble cast was everything. Members of the Group Theatre included Elia Kazan, Harry Morgan, Stella Adler, John Garfield, Franchot Tone, Ruth Nelson, Will Geer, Howard Da Silva, John Randolph, Joseph Bromberg, Clifford Odets, Sanford Meisner, Anna Sokolow, Lee J. Cobb, and many others. Over the years, the collective would produce important plays by Clifford Odets and Irwin Shaw. Golden Boy was the Group Theatre's first big hit. During the productio of Golden Boy, Malden and Kazan became very close friends. Kazan persuaded the actor to Americanize name, so "Mladen" became "Malden" and his first name became "Karl" (the name of his grandfather).

Malden and Greenberg married in New York City on December 18, 1938.

Malden was drafted into the Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force) in 1942, and rose to the rank of Captain before mustering out in 1945. Returning to Broadway, Howard Clurman cast him in a small part in Truckline Cafe (1946) opposite another newcomer, Marlon Brando. Malden stayed with the Group Theater throughout the late 1940s, taking acting classes from its top performers and directors and acting in some of its productions. In 1947, he was cast as Chris Keller in Arthur Miller's breakout play, All My Sons. It's about an airplane parts manufacturer, Joe Keller, whose partner (Steve Deever) is jailed for selling faulty parts to the military which resulted in the deaths of 21 airmen. The play takes place a year after World War II. Larry Keller, the Keller's eldest son, has been missing in action for three years. Chris, the youngest son, has just come home. Deever's son, George, is certain that Joe Keller falsified the company records so that only George Deever would be blamed...but he can't prove it. George's sister, Ann, is due to marry Chris Keller. Chris defends his father, and during a 24 hour period at the Keller house Joe Keller's story slowly unravels and the truth comes out.

Kazan cast Malden in another new play, Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, in 1947. Malden was cast as the dim but earnest Harold "Mitch" Mitchell, Stanley Kowalski's poker and drinking buddy who persistently woos Blanche DuBois until he learns of her sexual promiscuity. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947 and closed on December 17, 1949. Jessica Tandy (a virtual unknown at the time) received a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Blanche DuBois. The production received no other Tony nominations. Malden stayed with the production for its entire first run. For two years, he and Brando shared a dressing room. It left them fast friends.

By 1951, Malden had appeared in nearly 20 plays in New York City. Among them were the original stage production of Key Largo (1939) and a revival of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1951). Beginning in 1940, he'd also had some film roles, and by 1951 he'd had eight of them (including substantial if non-starring parts in Where the Sidewalk Ends [Fox, 1950], The Halls of Montezuma [Fox, 1950], and The Gunfighter [Fox, 1950]).

It was in 1951 that Elia Kazan cast Malden in his film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire. It was a great success. The $1.8 million production grossed $4.8 million at the box office. Nontheless, it was only the fourth-most-popular film of 1951: Quo Vadis (MGM; $11.9 million), Alice in Wonderland (Disney; $7.2 million), and Show Boat (MGM; $5.5 million) all did better. The film was nominated for a whopping 12 Academy Awards. It won four: Vivien Leigh for Best Actress; Kim Hunter for Best Supporting Actress; and Richard Day and George Hopkins for Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Black-and-White; and Karl Malden for Best Supporting Actor. (The other nominees that year were Gig Young in Come Fill the Cup, Kevin McCarthy in Death of a Salesman, Leo Genn in Quo Vadis and Peter Ustinov in Quo Vadis.) Brando was nominated for Best Actor, but lost out to Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White; Best Director; Best Motion Picture; Best Music; Best Sound; and Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.

From that point on, Malden was largely a screen actor. He did a few more plays -- a revival of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms (1952), The Desperate Hours (1955), and The Egghead (1957). But he largely did films. He worked for Alfred Hitchcock in 1953's I Confess! (Warner Bros.), but his next prominent role was as Father Corrigan in On the Waterfront (Columbia Pictures, 1954). Once again, he played opposite Brando. And once again, he was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. This time, however, he lost to Edmond O'Brien in The Barefoot Contessa (United Artists, 1954). (The other nominees were Lee J. Cobb in On the Waterfront, Rod Steiger in On the Waterfront, and Tom Tully in The Caine Mutiny.) He would later play Southern pedophile lecher Archie Lee in Baby Doll (Warner Bros., 1956) and the soul-crushing father of paranoid schizophrenic baseball legend Jimmy Piersall in Fear Strikes Out (Paramount, 1957).

By the end of the 1950s, however, the "golden age" of Malden's film career was oddly over. He co-starred in The Hanging Tree (Warner Bros., 1959), and actually finished directing the film when Delmer Daves died during the production. He had a co-starring role as Rev. Ford in Pollyanna (Disney, 1960), re-teamed with Marlon Brando in the Western One-Eyed Jacks (Paramount, 1961), played a tobacco-raising villain in Parrish (Warner Bros., 1961), was an honest family man settling the wilderness in How the West Was Won (MGM, 1962), played a hard but fair prison warden in The Birdman of Alcatraz (United Artists, 1962), was Mama Rose's long-suffering husband in Gypsy (Warner Bros., 1962), a combat-weary Army captain just doing his genocidal job in Cheyenne Autumn (Warner Bros., 1964), an aging cardshark in The Cincinnati Kid (MGM, 1965), and a sophisticated con man in Hotel (Warner Bros., 1967). But it was Patton (Fox, 1970), where at the age of 58 he played General Omar Bradley, that brought him widespread acclaim as an actor again. Amazingly, he was not nominated for the role. (John Mills won in the now-forgotten Ryan's Daughter (MGM). The other nominees were Richard S. Castellano for Lovers and Other Strangers (ABC Pictures), Chief Dan George for Little Big Man (National General Pictures), Gene Hackman in I Never Sang for My Father (Columbia), and John Marley in Love Story (Paramount).)

Concluding that his film career was pretty much over now that he was nearly 60 and hadn't been nominated for an Oscar in 15 years, Malden retired. But in 1972, producer Quinn Martin approached him with the idea for a television show. Martin and his wife, Madelyn Pugh Davis, were part of the four-person writing team behind I Love Lucy. Two years after that show left the air, Martin turned producer. His first television series, The Untouchables, was a ratings smash. Over the next decade, he was the most successful television producer in America. Among his shows were Twelve O'Clock High, The Fugitive, The Invaders, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, and The FBI -- all of them prime-time successes. Martin had an idea for a new show, one that attempted to bridge the older generation of actors he'd been working with (Robert Stack, David Janssen, William Conrad, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) with the younger, hipper generation of actors audiences were demanding. His idea: A buddy-cop show pairing an older, wiser, sadder detective who is rejuvenated by his association with a brash, highly educated, but inexperienced rookie. Malden, figuring he had nothing to lose by starting all over again in a new medium, agreed. The Streets of San Francisco debuted on ABC on September 16, 1972, right opposite The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show. Amazingly, the show survived its first season, and ABC moved it to a new night for its second season. Malden played Lt. Mike Stone, a 20-year police force veteran and widower who is assigned to work in the homicide squad with Assistant Inspector Steve Keller (Michael Douglas), an educated and brash but inexperienced detective. For his role on the show, Malden would be nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four years in a row: 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1977. Michael Douglas would leave the series in 1975 to pursue a film career; he was replaced by Richard Hatch (who, after the show ended, would land on the original Battlestar Galactica series). The ratings took a nosedive, and the show was cancelled in June 1977.

Malden did a few more films and TV movies after that. He was in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (Warner Bros., 1979) and The Sting II (Universal, 1983). And in 1984 he starred in the NBC mini-series Fatal Vision. Based on the book of the same name, it is the real-life story of Jeffrey MacDonald, MD, who in 1979 was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters while he was a Green Beret captain and physician in the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Malden played Freddy Kassab, the father of the murdered woman. Malden is the centerpiece of the film; Gary Cole (playing MacDonald) appears only in the first and last thirds of the picture. The emotional turning point of the film centers on Malden's role as Kassab, a grieving father who at first completely supports his son-in-law and then only slowly turns against him. For this role, Malden won an Emmy as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special.

It wasn't the only thing Malden did in the late '70s and through the '80s. He also starred in a number of commercials for American Express traveler's checks. Each commercial was the same: A thug would steal a purse or wallet. A disaster would occur, requiring the tourists to pay for damages. An illness would strike. And each time, the hotel/restaurant/hospital wouldn't take a credit card or regular check. The couple would always wonder why they didn't carry American Express traveler's checks. And then Karl Malden, in suit and tie, wearing a fedora low over his eyes, would grimly announce: "American Express traveler's checks. Don't leave home without them."

In 1989, Malden was elected to a one-year term as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was the first actor to hold the post since Gregory Peck two decades earlier. He was re-elected twice, and retired in 1992 at the age of 80. Malden didn't drink or smoke, and was notoriously quite about his political leanings. In 1998, he asked the Academy to award an Academy Honorary Award to his old friend and mentor, Elia Kazan.

Kazan had directed numerous important theatrical productions, including Men in White, Waiting for Lefty, Golden Boy, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, All My Sons and Death of a Salesman, and J.B. But he'd also directed numerous important motion pictures, including A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Sea of Grass, Gentleman's Agreement, Panic in the Streets, A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata!, On the Waterfront, East of Eden, Baby Doll, A Face in the Crowd, and Splendor in the Grass. He'd twice won the Oscar as Best Director -- for Gentleman's Agreement and for On the Waterfront. But in 1952, he had also testified before Rep. Martin Dies' House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan had previously refused to name names befor the committee, but recanted under pressure. Kazan had been a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, as had many entertainers in the days before the Soviet Union's true rapacity was known. Ten Hollywood insiders had already refused to appear before the committee, citing their First Amendment rights (Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson and Alvah Bessie). Known as the "Hollywood Ten," they were prosecuted, found guilty of contempt of Congress, and each was sentenced to between six and 12 months in prison. But Kazan testified. He knew that if he did not, he would be blacklisted in Hollywood and never work again. As a naturalized citizen, if he did not testify he probably would never be granted a passport and permission to leave the country. So Kazan named names: He identified eight other members of the Communist Party, all of whom had already been named as Communist Party members in previous testimony before HUAC. The names included playwright Clifford Odets, actress Paula Strasberg, actress Phoebe Brand, actor Tony Kraber, and actor (and homosexual) Zero Mostel. Kazan wasn't the only Hollywood insider to name names (others included SAG President Ronald Reagan, studio head Walt Disney, actor Adolphe Monjou, director Edward Dmytryk, director Frank Tuttle, screenwriter Budd Schulberg, screenwriter Richard Collins, columnist Walter Winchell, columnist Hedda Hopper, and actor Gary Cooper). Nor did he name people who had not previously been identified. Nonetheless, Kazan was vilified in Hollywood. As a reward for his co-operation, Kazan was allowed to continue to work. On the Waterfront, released in 1954 just two years later, was an attempt to justify the morality of informing on friends. Malden's recommendation was bitterly opposed by those who had never forgiven MrKazan for testifying before HUAC. But in the end, despite bitter debate, the Academy's Board of Directors agreed to give the Honorary Award to Kazan.

In 1997, Malden published his autobiography, When Do I Start? He received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2004.

In increasingly frail health in the last five years, Karl Malden died at his home in Los Angeles on July 1, 2009, of natural causes.

Labels: celebrities, cinema, obituary, TV

Here's another photo of that really pretty natural blond with the long, fabulous uncut cock.

I have people say "Oh that hair" or "that face" or "how young". Guess what? I never really care about that in a person. I look for the brain, the heart, the soul, and what's between his legs (because I am, sadly, cursed with being a bottom and a size queen and I hate it but it is what I am).

Sweetly blond and hung

Labels: big balls, big cocks, blonds, foreskin, nipples, photography, pubes, twinks

Mollie Sugden is dead. She was 86, and had suffered a long illness.

Oh no...

Labels: celebrities, obituary, TV

I came across a list of Britain's Top 100 Comedies, as determined by a series of votes in 2004. As an American who watches some PBS, I figured it was fair to see what I might have watched out of the Top 25. So, here goes:

1. Only Fools and Horses (1981-2003) — never seen it


2. Blackadder (1983-1989) — seen every episode!


3. The Vicar of Dibley (1994-2007) — seen every episode!


4. Dad's Army (1968-1977) — never seen it


5. Fawlty Towers (1975-1979) — seen every episode!


6. Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister (1980-1984, 1986-1988) — seen every episode!


7. Porridge/Going Straight (1974-1977, 1978) — never seen it


8. Open All Hours (1973, 1976-1985) — seen some episodes, but not many


9. The Good Life (1975-1978) — seen about half the episodes


10. One Foot in the Grave (1990-2000)— seen every episode!


11. Father Ted (1995-1998) - never seen it


12. Keeping Up Appearances (1990-1995) - seen every episode!


13. 'Allo 'Allo! (1982-1992) - seen a few episodes


14. Last of the Summer Wine/First of the Summer Wine (1973-present) - I think I've seen about half the shows from 1976 to 2000, but nothing with the "new cast"; I've seen none of the "First" shows


15. Steptoe and Son (1962-1975) - never seen it


16. Men Behaving Badly (1992-1998) - I've seen about half the shows


17. Absolutely Fabulous (1992-1996, 2001-2005) - seen every episode!


18. Red Dwarf (1988-1999, 2009) - seen every episode!


19. The Royle Family (1998-2000, 2006, 2008) - never seen it


20. Are You Being Served?/Grace&Favour (1972-1985, 1992-1993) - seen every episode!


21. To the Manor Born (1979-1981, 2007) - seen every episode!


22. Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973-1978) - never seen it


23. The Likely Lads/Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (1964-1966, 1973-1974, 1976) - never seen it


24. My Family (2000-present) - never seen it


25. The Office (2001-2003) - seen every episode!

I've also seen every episode of As Time Goes By (#29), The Young Ones (#31), Waiting for God (#37), Coupling (#54), and most of The Thin Blue Line (#34). I seriously do not understand why Coupling did not rank much higher.

I hate to say that I've also seen a couple episodes of the very awful My Hero (unranked on this list, thank Jebus!).

Overall, this isn't bad for a non-Anglophile American.

Labels: comedy, humor, TV

Any time a skinny black guy from South Carolina gets outside in broad daylight shirtless, pulls out his enormous uncut cock, and busts a nut for all to see...

Well, God Bless America!



Really quite amazing and patriotic

Labels: big cocks, big knob, black men, foreskin, gay porn, public sex

AWESOME!!!

A 16-year-old girl in Connecticut heard her mother moaning and screaming in the bedroom. Worried that her mom's boyfriend was beating her up, she called three other boys. They rushed to the house with baseball bats and broke down the door of the bedroom. They began beating the mom's 25-year-old boyfriend.

Turns out mom was having great sex with her boyfriend instead.

Now the daughter and three boys are up on assault charges.

YES! YESSSSSSSS! OH GOD YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Labels: humor, sex scandal

I love those British reality TV series 1900 House, 1940s House, Edwardian Manor House and so on. The American series (Frontier House, Colonial House, Texas Ranch House) leave a LOT to be desired. And, truth be told, the latter two British series (Regency House Party and Coal House) aren't up to snuff. But the first three? Wonderful!

I absolutely adore Edwardian Manor House. It's set in the 1930s. A family of four is put in the upstairs to act the part of the "lords." A disparate group of 10 (ranging from an older man and woman to kids of 18) are placed downstairs to act as the staff. It doesn't hurt that all four of the younger men in the "staff" section are hotties, nor that we get to see them butt-naked a couple of times, nor that one of them (Kenny) begins to sneak around the house and finds places to have sex with one of the girls.

My second-favorite in the group is 1940s House. A mother, father, divorced daughter, and two grandsons are put in a house from 1940, and have to live through the Blitz. Since many younger women's husbands were off at war and moved in with their parents, the plan made sense. This was a family, too, which thought the 1940s was this Golden Era. It turned out not to be so. The most fascinating part of the show is the air raids, conducted almost nightly for nine solid weeks. A siren would go off in the house, and everyone would have to rush downstairs and into the back yard into their air raid shelter. Sound was pumped into the air raid shelter (including that of buzzbombs) and the shelter rocked as if bombs were really going off. Dirt would be splashed against the shelter, too, to frighten the family. Things go so real that everyone -- adults as well as children -- would being screaming in fear.

1940s House is also very, very factual. 1900 House was factual, too, but the focus was on how a family would adapt to the lack of modern conveniences. 1940s House focused on that, but also focused on how a family would react under conditions of fear and uncertainty. And that's why 1940s House is one of my absolute favorites among the various series.

Oddly, despite it being the second-most popular of the "House" series, it had no article on Wikipedia. Until now.

At first, I thought, "Oh shit. There'll be nothing on this show anywhere." I'd certainly read nothing about it in the papers or trades when the show was first broadcast in the U.S. in 2002. (I first saw it in a 2003 rerun.) But I guess you never know until you look. In the end, I was overwhelmed with the amount of material on this show.

Reflecting back on why I like 1940s House so much is the series' sense of reality. There's no fake drama there. The Blitz really happened. Instead of fake drama about giant robots or mutants with super-powers or radiation-ridden meteors landing on the front lawn, this is something which real people did, were involved in, were affected by. It wasn't jazzed up "for dramatic effect" by Hollywood, either. V-1 "buzzbombs" (or "doodlebugs") really flew overhead night after night. You can hear what they sounded like here. Imagine hundreds of them, every night, night after night, sometimes during the day. That throbbing, rasping, bass roar. It'd terrify you -- as it did Britons. And the family in the show, even though they knew it was fake, were just as scared by the sound.

We live in an age where there is a vast amount of "entertainment" available. Television and films keep upping the ante to be heard among the vast number of entertainment options. It's not enough to offer courtroom drama; now courtroom drama has to be about a pedophile arsonist who is a secret CIA torturer of alien invaders. Horror films aren't about "mere" psychos any more. Now the psychos have to be so inventive and gory that they are no longer realistic. Hannibal Lecter seems to benign compared to Jigsaw or the Hostel sex-torturers. Audiences cheer when John Doe inventively slaughters another innocent victim in Seven.

This might not be such a problem if we didn't also live an the Age of Irony. Sarcasm, cynicism, snark, post-modernism: Call it what you will. It's an utter lack of sincerity. It's alienation -- so much so that the touchstone emotion which is supposed to be reacted against is lost. The only sincere emotion any more in the Age of Irony is disgust. And disgust breeds hatred.

Personally, I reject all that. I don't roll around in irony, disgust, hatred and alienation like a pig in the mud. I seek those truer, more honest emotions. Anyone can hate. Not everyone can love. Or think. Or act. Or change things.

Perhaps that's why I'm so attracted to something like 1940s House. There's honesty there. Maybe it's why I'm attracted to the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica as well. That was a show about people reacting to genocide and terror. Later, it devolved into idiocy about robots, angels, resurrection and "Luke, it is your dessssssssssssstinyyyyyyyyyy..." But there was a time when it reached the best heights of literature: Real emotions, real-world issues, dealt with in a human manner, a sincere manner.

I often wonder if my fascination with and love of politics and history is driven by the same thing. I flee from alienation to seek the real, and those things are real. Every day, history is what it is. Every day, the politics of my city affects the lives of 300 million. But is that all there is? I often wonder.

Labels: art, history, literature, TV

And now comes word that Apple's iPhone allows kiddie porn.

The "Beautymeter" app allows people to upload their own photos and allow others to rate them. Apparently, a 15-year-old girl did so, and the kiddie porn shot flew to thousands of users.

Big deal. I'm not advocating child pornography. But there are tons of "hot or not" Web sites out there which have unwittingly permitted the same things to happen. In fact, the original "Hot or Not" site had to quickly move to human moderation and robo-moderated registered user accounts (with age verification) because so many people (adults as well as those under the U.S.-age-of-consent limit of 18) were uploading photos of nude teens (male and female). And while the largest sites still employ controls to (largely) ensure that underage individuals don't get their pink bits on the Web, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of similar, smaller sites which don't have this sort of social conscience (and don't respect the law).

Somehow, Apple is only concerned about iPhone apps. It's not concerned about the browser on its phone which allows all iPhone users to access these other sites.

I'm no hypocrite: I'm not advocating censorship on the Web. If I was embarrassed about this stuff, I wouldn't have used my real name on all my hundreds of gay porn reviews and would have worked much harder at creating an online pseudonym.

But if Apple is going to be this upset, they need to stop being hypocritical and start removing that browser, too. To my mind, there's no real difference between my having an app (which I purchase and which requires my affirmative action to employ) that autoloads images of a teenage girl and my using a browser (which I purchase and which requires my affirmative action to employ) to load images of a teenage girl. Apple seems to think that because it auto-approves (practically) iPhone apps that this somehow implicates Apple in pornography. Guess what? Apple already auto-approved the browser app, and that implicates Apple in pornography.

For Apple to start bashing porn apps is just hypocrisy.

Labels: economics, technology

I needed a good laugh tonight............


Shut your fucking face, uncle fucker
You're a cock-sucking, ass-licking uncle fucker
You're an uncle fucker, yes it's true
Nobody fucks uncles quite like you

Shut your fucking face, uncle fucker.
You're the one that fucked your uncle, uncle fucker
You don't eat or sleep or mow the lawn
You just fuck your uncle all day long

Shut your fucking face, uncle fucker
You're a boner-biting bastard uncle fucker
You're an uncle fucker, I must say
Well, you fucked your uncle yesterday

Uncle fucker, that's U-N-C-L-E -- Fuck you!
Uncle fucker
Suck my balls!

Labels: humor, music

Cartoon Network has decided that reality TV shows are cheaper than animated cartoons, so they are now running a block of live-action series. One of them is The Othersiders -- an amazingly stupid show that mimics Ghost Hunters over on Sci Fi Channel. You can tell the show is really dumb with the geeky 14-year-old kid is in charge of the sophisticated ghost-hunting equipment, and a raccoon foraging inside an abandoned airplace at night scares the shit out of everyone.

Then there is Survive This. Eight city kids from Canada are taken by Survivorman host Les Stroud into the woods and told to survive on their own. You've got Adam (the 16-year-old handsome athlete), Zac (the 14-year-old camp counselor and outdoorsman), Becca (the 17-year-old rich pretty princess), Becky (the 17-year-old environmentalist who hates bugs), Kareem (the 17-year-old Hindu-Canadian who is Mr. Motivator at school), Jen (the 16-year-old outdoorswoman), Catarina (the 17-year-old inner city tough girl), and Holden (the cute, biracial, 17-year-old technology geek). Everyone goes through two weeks of survival school, and is given a survival guide and some limited equipment (rain ponchos, fire-starting gear, etc.).

There's so much fucking drama in the 30 minutes of each episode that it's like watching a soap opera on fast-forward. It doesn't help that every single sentence or shot on the show is accompanied by basses and cellos playing "dramatic music."

On the first episode, the eight kids are introduced. They are dropped off in an alpine forest near a small lake, creek, and marsh with about three days' worth of food (which they realize must last them more than two weeks). The eight must work together to build two shelters, and must boil water to drink. They also must store their food in a tree.

On the second episode, Les Stroud arrives to judge their first night's performance. The shelters are good, but the team did not store their food high enough (only eight feet instead of 15 feet off the ground, and only three feet rather than five feet from the trunk of the tree). He confiscates five items of food. The group is broken into a boys' and girls' team and told to build shelters again. Catarina suffers from heat stroke, and Becca tends to her rather than help build the shelter. Adam (who has a crush on Jen) helps the girls build their shelter. Les Stroud arrives to judge the results. He judges the girls' shelter to be superior. Even though the roof would not keep out rain, the boys' shelter is too near a cliff and too near the water. Zac catches frogs in the pond, and the group eats frog's legs for the first time. The second day is over.

On the third episode, Becky complains that Becca and Catarina eat too much food (even though she herself is not doing much to help the group). Les Stroud breaks the group into pairs: Zac and Catarina much hunt for frogs. Kareem and Holden get to fish. Adam and Jen get to search for edible plants. Becca and Becky must hunt for insects. Les also takes away everyone's fire-starting materials, so they have to keep the campfire going. Laziness sets in, and everyone but Adam/Jen give up by mid-day. Rain nearly puts out the fire, but it is kept going. That evening, Adam catches and kills a pheasant, which they cook for dinner. While chopping up the bird, Adam accidentally cuts his leg with a knife and suffers a severe, deep cut. Les Stroud arrives to judge the food-gathering contest, declaring it a bust. Kareem considers going home (Mr. Motivation turns out to be Mr. Whiner), but doesn't. The third day is over.

THE THIRD DAY????????????????? My god, from the incessant whining, crying, and hand-wringing on this show, you'd think they'd been in the boondocks for a month! Kareem actually thinks he's lost lots of weight in 36 hours. Becca fantasizes about whether she'd take a hot shower, hot food, or a soft bed first. (She's had to sleep on the col', col' ground only two nights by now.)

You know, being sick with a cold and being forced to watch lots and lots of bad TV makes you realize what a vast wasteland most television is. (I won't get started on Maury...)

Labels: Cartoon Network, TV

The New York Times yesterday ran a sweet article on the new all-volunteer history project, Here Is Where. The project is the baby of 39-year-old Andrew Carroll. In 1993, the Columbia University English major co-founded the American Poetry and Literacy Project with Joseph Brodsky (then U.S. poet laureate) to distribute free poetry books across the country. It has since distributed more than 1 million free, brand-new poetry books in schools, hotels, subways, train stations, hospitals, jury waiting rooms, supermarkets, truck stops, day-care centers, airports, and zoos. In 1998, Carroll established the Legacy Project (warletters.com), a repository for soldiers' wartime letters and e-mail messages home.

The Here Is Where project documents photographically various famous historical sites. Carroll had read a story of historical coincidence that amazed him:

In late 1864 or early 1865 (the date is not certain), 21-year-old Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln, was waiting at the Pennsylvania Railroad train station in Jersey City, N.J. Lincoln was one of many passengers who were attempting to board a sleeping car. The crowd surged forward, and Lincoln was pushed against the railroad car. He slipped down between the car and the platform. Suddenly, the train began to move: Lincoln was in danger of being serious injured, even killed. A man reached down and grabbed Lincoln by the coat, and hauled him back up onto the platform. Lincoln's rescuer was Edwin T. Booth -- brother of John Wilkes Booth.

Booth did not know who he had rescued, but Lincoln knew Booth well: Edwin Booth was one of the world's leading Shakespearean actors at the time, and Lincoln had seen him perform numerous times. In fact, Edwin Booth had appeared for the first (and last) time with his actor brothers Junius and John in the summer of 1864 in New York City in a production of Julius Caesar. (The show was a benefit performance. The funds raised were used to erect a statue of William Shakespeare that still stands in Central Park.) Edwin Booth was appalled by his brother's assassination of President Lincoln, and struggled for years afterward to over the infamy his brother brought on the family name. As for the train station: It was demolished, and a PATH station now exists on that spot (it's the Exchange Place station).

Very few historical sites in the U.S. have been documented, and the goal of Here Is Where is to do just that. Among the sites documented so far:

• 123 Lexington Avenue in New York City - Today, this is Kalustyan's, a Middle Eastern and Indian food market. But on September 20, 1881, it was the home of Vice President Chester A. Arthur. He took the presidential oath of office here after the death of President James A. Garfield. Garfield had been shot on July 2, 1881, at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad's Sixth Street Station in Washington, D.C. He was leaving the nation's capital to give a speech at his alma mater, Williams College in Massachusetts, when a disgruntled officer-seeker, Charles Guiteau, shot him in the back. Garfield probably would have survived the attack, except that his incompetent physicians stuck their unwashed fingers repeatedly into the wounds, causing blood poisoning. Garfield was moved to Long Branch, N.J., in early September 1881 so that he might recover, but he died there on September 19. Guiteau was hung in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 1882.


• 125 East Baltimore Street, Baltimore - This is the sit where Mary Katherine Goddard printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence which included the names of all of the signatories.


• 2660 Woodley Road NW, Washington, D.C. - ‎On November 27, 1925, the celebrated poet Vachel Lindsay (father of American lyrical poetry) was having dinner in the hotel's restaurant. An African American by a busboy approached him and placed three poems next to Lindsay's plate. Lindsay read them, and was amazed. That night, he read them to his audience at a poetry reading. The "busboy poet"??? Langston Hughes.


• 1401 Wilson Blvd., Rosslyn, Virginia - Now it's a nondescript office building and parking garage. But in 1972 it was....well, a nondescript office building and parking garage. This is where Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward would meet "Deep Throat" -- W. Mark Felt, Associate Director of the FBI. Felt was effectively in charge of the FBI for much of 1973, due to FBI Director L. Patrick Gray's illness and frequent abscences from the Bureau. From June 1972 until June 1973, Felt saw everything compiled on the Watergate break-in and cover-up. When Woodward wanted to meet "Deep Throat," he would move a flowerpot with a red flag in it onto the balcony of his apartment (1718 P Street NW, #617). When Deep Throat wanted a meeting, he would circle the page number on page 20 of Woodward's copy of the New York Times and draw clock hands to signal the hour.

I don't know that Carroll's new project is that special. The Web's "long tail" provides countless opportunities for amateur historians (like Carroll) to document history, and many do so. It's scattershot, sure, but unless Here Is Where gets a gazillion bucks from someone then it's approach to history will be scattershot as well. And let's be quite honest: Wikipedia already does a lot of this.

But so what? I think this stuff is just plain fun. It's one thing to photograph a well-documented historical site. But it's another when you find out that the dumpy Chinese restaurant you are eating in is Mary Surratt's boarding house.

That's what 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C., is. Today it is a place called "Wok and Roll." But in 1862, it was owned by Mary Surratt. Mary married her husband, John Surratt, in 1839 when he was 27 and she just 16. They moved to Surrattsville, Maryland (the town was Clinton in 1879 due to the notoriety associated with Lincoln's assassination), where many Surratts had homesteaded and continued to live. The Surratts lived on a 287-acre farm, and owned a general store, a gristmill, a tavern, and post office in the center of town. John Surratt was an alcoholic, and died in 1862. The Surratts were Confederate sympathizers: They allowed Confederate spies to store guns and cash at the Surratt tavern, and they used the Surratt post office as a place for receiving mail and other messages. Plagued by financial problems after her husband's death, Mary Surratt leased the family farm to John Lloyd (a D.C. policeman who was a Confederate supporter and agent) and took up residence in the townhouse at 604 H Street NW. She leased the upper floor to tenants, and used the ground floor and English basement for herself and her three children (John Jr., Isaac, and Anne). Surratt's eldest son, John Jr., was a courier for a Confederate spy ring. In March 1864, John Wilkes Booth began organizing a band of Confederate sympathizers to kidnap President Lincoln. The kidnapping conspirators included John Surratt, Jr., and the group met often at the Surratt boarding house in D.C. Allegedly, Mary Surratt (also a supporter of the Confederacy) joined in the discussions and helped plan the kidnapping.

On April 11, 1865, Lincoln gave a speech supporting voting rights for blacks. Furious, Booth resolved to move ahead with the kidnapping plot. On April 13, Booth decided that the group should not merely kidnap Lincoln but assassinate him. Although he informed the six principal conspirators, it is not clear that Mary Surratt knew that the plot had changed from kidnapping to murder. On the afternoon of April 14, Booth read in the paper that Lincoln would be attending a play that night at Ford's Theater. That afternoon, he went to the Surratt boarding house and gave Mary Surratt a large package. He told her to deliver it to John Lloyd at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville, and to tell Lloyd to have the guns and ammunition ready that evening. Surratt did as she was told.

Booth killed Abraham Lincoln at 10:15 p.m. on April 14, 1865. He fled Ford's Theater and with another accomplice fled across the Navy Yard Bridge (today it is the 11th Street Bridge) into Anacostia. They rode down Good Hope Road SE (where I live) and then down Naylor Road SE until they crossed the District line into Maryland. They road eight miles south along Branch Avenue until they reached Surrattsville. They retrieved the weapons and ammo at the Surratt tavern, then spent the day at Dr. Samuel Mudd's house (where Booth's broken leg was set). The next day they traveled about 23 miles south along the Old Washington Road (now U.S. Route 301) to Bel Alton, Md. They went to Rich Hill, the home of Col. Samuel Cox (a Union officer who harbored secret Southern sympathies). They hid in a nearby swamp for five days, waiting for a boat to take them across the Potomac River and into Virginia. There, Union troops tracked them down on April 26. Booth and his accomplice hid in a barn. The accomplice gave himself up, but Booth was shot in the neck and died a few minutes later.

Eyewitnesses identified Booth as the assassin almost immediately. Many people knew who Booth's associates were, and that he hung out at the Surratt boarding house. It wasn't more than a day before the co-conspirators had largely been identified. Mary Surratt was questioned on April 16, and was arrested on April 17 after further questioning. The arrival of co-conspirator Lewis Powell at her home did not help her any.

Handsome, young Lewis Powell (aka "Lewis Payne") was to have assassinated Secretary of State with a knife, but failed. Unfamiliar with D.C.'s streets, he hid in Congressional Cemetery for three days, then walked back into the city proper. He showed up at the Surratt boarding house just as Mary Surratt was being arrested. He, too, was then arrested.

David Herold guided Powell to Seward's home, but when he heard the commotion inside the house he fled. He met Booth at the Navy Yard, and escaped into Maryland with him. He gave himself up on April 26 when Union troops cornered the two conspirators at a farm near Bel Alton, Md.

George Atzerodt was to have killed Vice President Andrew Johnson at the hotel where Johnson was staying. He got drunk, chickened out, and was arrested the following day after his questions about Johnson's location raised suspicion.

The co-conspirators were held at the Washington Arsenal (now Ft. Lesley J. McNair) in D.C. After a seven-week trial, Surratt, Powell, Azterodt, and Herold were found guilty on June 30 and sentenced to die by hanging. Execution was carried out on July 7, 1865, at the Arsenal. The execution was botched: The nooses were not tied properly, and the drop was not high enough. Atzerodt died instantly of a broken neck. Herold struggled briefly, urinated himself, then shuddered and died (probably of a broken neck). Surratt's neck did not break upon hanging. She struggled and shuddered for several minutes before choking to death. Powell, too, did not die from hanging. He struggled for life more than five minutes, his body swinging wildly. Twice he moved his legs up into the sitting position. He was the last to die, choking to death.

John Lloyd turned state's evidence against Mary Surratt and was never tried for his part in the crime.

Dr. Samuel Mudd was tried and sentenced to life in prison, but pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in February 1869. Controversy still exists over whether he knew Booth had killed Lincoln or not. Mudd certainly knew Booth, but Mudd also did not not turn Booth in right away once he learned of Booth's culpability (Mudd tried to get Booth to turn himself in, and then waited several hours before telling Union troops where Booth was).

Col. Samuel Cox was tried for helping hide Booth, and given a light sentence.

John Surratt, Jr. was questioned by police but released after claiming he had been in Elmira, N.Y., the night of April 14. He fled to Canada on April 17, then traveled to Europe in September 1865. A Roman Catholic, he moved to Italy and served for a time in the papal guard. An American traveler and friend of the Surratt family recognized him there and in November 1866 Surratt was arrested. He escaped from his Italian prison, and traveled to Alexandria, Egypt. Again he was recognized, and sent back to the U.S. at the end of November 1866. His prosecution for murder resulted in a mistrial. Because the statute of limitation on the charges had run out, he was released on $25,000 bail. He became a model citizen, married a second cousin of Francis Scott Key, farmed tobacco, taught school, and served as an executive of a Chesapeake Bay steamship company. John Surratt, Jr. died at the age of 72 in 1916.

Labels: history

On top of everything else, I've come down with a cold. I felt it first on Sunday night, when I started coughing. But I figured it was nothing: A bit of food gone down the windpipe or something. Nope: It's now a full-blown summer cold. I'm not that stuffed up, but I'm coughing still and now the aches and pains have come. I'm supposed to be on vacation all the rest of this week, and instead of having fun I'm going to spend it at home, sick, in bed.

Labels: health

So Michael Jackson's kids probably aren't his but rather his dermatologist's. He never formally adopted the kids. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has admitted that he has touched lots of other women but only slept with his Argentinian TV show hostess. And Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says she could outrun (literally, as in a footrace) President Barack Obama.

Another day of hard news in America.

Labels: news media

Frameline -- the world's oldest and largest LGBTQ film festival -- ended on Sunday night. Patrik, Age 1.5 won the audience award for best feature film. The Swedish film is about Sven and Goran, a suburban married gay couple who adopt a child only to be surprised to find that their 1.5-year-old baby, Patrik, is in fact a 15-year-old homophobe.

The audience award for best documentary went to Training Rules, which chronicles Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland and how her homophobic coaching philosophy destroyed the lives of many of her talented young players.

Best short film honors went to LUCHA, a picture about two female Salvadoran resistance fighters who find love during that country's 1982 civil war.

Labels: cinema, gay cinema

Huh. My maternal great-grandfather homesteaded in Western North Dakota in the 1930s. Because of the large number of kids he had, and how soon they had them (until the 1960s, the descendants were having children in their early 20s, which meant they had a long child-bearing period), I am one of about 500 descendants along that line.

Fast-forward to 2000: ConocoPhillips has decided to finally drill for oil on my maternal great-grandfather's property. My family has been whining about the lack of drilling for three decades. Everyone else's property nearby has got multiple oil wells on it. Nada on ours.

Forward to 2009: I get my first check from ConocoPhillips. Amazing!

Oil revenues...

Natural gas revenues...

NGL? What the fuck is NGL? Well, thank god for Wikipedia:

Heavier gaseous hydrocarbons: ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), normal butane (n-C4H10), isobutane (i-C4H10), pentanes and even higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. When processed and purified into finished by-products, all of these are collectively referred to as NGL (Natural Gas Liquids).

Wow. Who knew that NGL was more pricey that natural gas? I'm making about 2.5 times as much off NGL as I am natural gas alone.

Nonetheless, the income is nice. (I have no hopes that it will continue, be regular, or increase, however.)

Labels: economics, oil

President Barack Obama's candidate for regulation czar, Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, is coming under increasing attack in the Senate and now his nomination might be in danger. Obama picked Sunstein to head the incredibly influential Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), an office that has power to review and assess all regulations proposed by federal agencies.

Sunstein's nomination easily cleared the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in May. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) cast the only vote against him.

But now, according to The Hill Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) is pissed off because Sunstein thinks that animal welfare laws should be amended to give members of the public (not just over-taxed law enforcement) the right to sue to protect abused animals. At his May 12 confirmation hearing before the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Sunstein explained:

In terms of my own academic writings, the suggestion, which was meant as a suggestion for contemplation, was that under state law that prevents cruelty to animals, it might be that the enforcement by criminal prosecutors could be supplemented by suits by private people protecting animals from violations of existing state law, very much like under the Endangered Species Act, where people, rather than elephants, initiate lawsuits. The idea was actually very conventional and a little boring, but maybe my rhetoric made it seem less so.

Sunstein's proposal is pretty much a technical one of law, rather than a moral one. Under current law, only law enforcement officials can sue someone for animal cruelty. Sunstein has proposed that members of the public be permitted to sue as well. Animals can't speak up for themselves, and law enforcement officials (whose resources are spread thin) don't put animal cruelty high on their agenda. Why not permit someone else to do so? Why not permit the public to sue? In fact, this is just what the law does throughout most of Europe, and the U.S. has permitted it under the Endangered Species Act. Sunstein argued this position in his 2004 book, Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions. He wrote: "Laws designed to protect animals against cruelty and abuse should be amended or interpreted to give a private cause of action against those who violate them, so as to allow private people to supplement the efforts of public prosecutors."

This has got the American Farm Bureau Federation (which is already under seige by food safety and animal rights folks) up in arms. The American Conservative Union has created a "Stop Sunstein" Web site.

They're not the only ones attacking Sunstein. I've posted before about how liberals are screaming mad at Sunstein for abandoning the tired, old, failed approach to regulation in favor of a new, broader policy that encompasses law, economics, tax policy, and more.

Sunstein is considered one of the brightest, most forward-thinking legal minds in the country when it comes to administrative law and regulation.

And people who are ignorant as dirt are going to through him over rather than allow the Obama administration the chance to move a progressive regulatory agenda forward. What a fucking crying shame...

Labels: economics, law, political science, politics