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Issue #466
July 2013
Remembering this impressive experience, Lemming went on at the age of 13 to become one of the youngest inventors on the American frontier. He removed a wheel from a broken wagon, built a platter to go underneath, and created a device that he dubbed the Green Machine. The Green Machine worked like this: The wheel would lay flat on the platter, while a hungry soul placed their plate of flapjacks thereon. Then they would hover above the wheel as they turned it, as a shaft of mucus would drizzle from their nose onto their breakfastlike syrup being poured from a pitcher. Yum! By the time he reached adulthood, Lem received an inheritance from his grandfather and spent the entire sum to start Cabarrus Green Machine Worksa company that mass-produced his keen invention. Unfortunately, America wasnt ready for the Green Machine. Within a few years, his company was bankrupt, leaving him a penniless wreck. But did Lemuel Cabarrus give up? Of course not! Hes Lemuel Cabarrus, dammit! A local morning newspaper gave him a job selling papers on the street. Sales were slow, and Lemmings financesand that of the newspaperlanguished. But eventually, the Cabarrus instinct for innovation kicked in. Instead of merely yelling when each new issue came outwhich only woke the townsfolk and turned off potential customersLem would play the part of a dour grump scoffing at the latest news events. He fancied his character as an early Archie Bunker. But he wasnt quite as talented of an actor as Carroll OConnor was. One morning, Lem opened up a fresh edition of the newspaper and began bellyaching about the latest happenings. Aw, that damn William Jennings Bryan, can you believe that guy? he said to a man sitting at a train station. Free silvers an oxyboron, you know. Guys like you and me dont want nothing thats free. The passenger ignored Lemuels tirade, but the air was thick with the fumes from a nearby cough drop factory. As Lem gasped for air, he sought shelter in an empty garbage can. In an attempt to keep warm, he lined the can with the newspapers he was selling. He fell asleep inside the trash can, and the paper went out of business that day because its entire press run was wasted keeping Cabarrus toasty. Not one to be discouraged, Lemuel looked for new opportunities. Hed never been much of a political bloke before, but he started to believe his characters blandishments against Bryans populism. One afternoon, Lem was sitting on a park bench and began chatting it up with one of the locals. Lemming fumed about how if mill workers didnt like their meager pay, they should move to another town where the market would pay them more. In his mind, if a person didnt succeed in life, it was their fault. Americas the freest country in the world, by golly, and if you failed, you were a communist and a burden on the beleaguered taxpayer. He declared that if somebody wasnt satisfied with their lot in life, it was fine if their favorite politician would visit them and buy them a hamburgerbut they should forget about any large-scale government action to help them. Government was here to serve solid people like Lemuel Cabarruswho invented the Green Machine, dont you know! The man he was talking with liked what he heard. It turned out the fellow was the president of a local college. He needed a real go get em type to serve as the head of the science department. Lem was just the man! Not long after Lemming settled into his new career, a scandal broke. Lem borrowed a buggy that belonged to the college and claimed it was for his proposed cotton candy vending business. His excuse for taking the vehicle was suspect, for authorities found the buggy in his back yard with the wheels removed. It was propped up on empty Hungry Jack boxes. A canopy made of flour sacks protected it from the elements. Butas is usually the case for a staunch conservative like Cabarruseverything came up roses for him in the press. Front-page editorials admonished readers that they just didnt understand a born genius like Lemuel. In 1914, this media praise encouraged Lem to throw his hat into the ring for the election for state representative. A Republican, his campaign slogan was, Put a Lemming in the legislature!
Cabarrus won the race with a smashing 50.01% of the vote. There was of course no need for a silly recount. In his one term in the state legislature, Lemming wrote and passed one of the most enduring laws on the books: the Right-to-Libraries Act. This law gives large property owners the unlimited right to use libraries and other public establishments without having to pay a cent in property taxes to finance them. One must only present a copy of the deed for their property, andas long as its worth at least $800,000public buildings must open for them even in the overnight hours when theyre otherwise closed. As an additional benefit, the no-longeroppressed property owner is protected from their tax dollars being used for overtime pay for those big, mean, scary public employees. Plus, free hors doeuvres and a live band are available upon request. Recently, this law was cited by 2 local judges when they ruled in favor of the Tea Party in their lawsuits against the library. Now thats democracy and choice, Lemuel Cabarrus style! Before then, people used to think democracy was about free speech and a free press. But the Lemster sure set em straight, didnt he? After retiring from politics, Lem lived off lucrative speaking engagements. Before his death in 1928, he became a fixture in the new medium of radio. As he lay dying, his triumphant last words were, The Green Machine defeated the Greenbacks! As he drifted off to meet his maker, he once again smiled his trademark smirk of satisfaction. Some historians now believe Lemuel Cabarrus made up his humble log cabin origins. But thats ridiculous. We all know no right-wing politician would ever lie about their modest background. LEMUEL CABARRUS AINT REAL! Get a grip!
One of the most memorable toys in our stockpile was an exciting board game called Bermuda Triangle. This game has a huge magnetic cloud that sucks up players as they ship goods across the sea. It seemed to have all the pieces intact, but I noticed something amusing. I found that I had once taped labels to each of the little boat pieces to denote a Sesame Street character because there werent enough players and we had to play against phantom Muppets. One of the green boats was labeled OS1 for Oscar the Grouch. Yes, one of the yellow boats was labeled BB1. I was sorely disappointed at the condition of some of our other toys. Destroyed for no reason. Ruined, scotched, demolished, no damn good. A toy helicopter had been crushed to shards by having heavier items stored on top of it. The same goes for a model ambulance, whose wheel was hopelessly broken off. I was so proud when I put together that ambulance, and some baby went ahead and destroyed it. On several occasions during our toy sort, when we found a broken toy, my mom lamented, Aw, it broke! Thats right, Mom. It broke. It was once so full of life, but now its a
useless shell. And how did some of our toys lose their parts? We found a jigsaw puzzle composed of a map of the 50 states, but North Dakota was missing. How do you lose a big state like North Dakota? And how in the Wide, Wide World Of Sports did we lose so many instruction manuals? I remember some of our toys getting ruined decades ago, but my family members acted surprised recently when they found them in shambles. Some had been deliberately destructed for supposedly noble purposes. According to legend, my mom had once punched out some frames in a View-Master disk about national parks because they were too scary for us tiny tots. And why do we have a set of View-Master disks for The Waltons? Looking at View-Master reels about Grandpa Walton losing his life savings when the bank goes out of business must have been a real wet blanket. Even my Skedoodle was ru! Some toys were spotless because I never played with thembecause I was too old for them when my folks got them. Why would I want to play with, say, a Care Bears plush bathtub toy labeled for ages 1 to 3 when I was 19? As for the toys that were in good shape, kids today just wont be interested in them, because these toys have nothing to do with video games or Pokmon. But weve been trying to sell em anyway. In my day, we were satisfied with the things we had. When I was sorting the toys and found one that was in good condition that I wanted to sell, I said, Pass. I kept saying it again and again for the same toys, because my mom was in such disbelief that a 40-year-old man would want to sell his old toys. Surely some good toys were thrown away in the confusion. Then there were the books. Not everybody shares my knack for thrift and preservation. One day when I was about 12, a page fell out of an old French-to-English dictionary that we had and got torn in half. Shortly afterward, I planned on taping it back together and putting it back in the book. But before I had the chance, my mom found one of the page halves, wadded it into a ball, and threw it away. I was aghast. After this book turned up during our toy sorting expedition, it was likely garbified altogetherfor it was ru. My mom insisted I take home some of my old toys for safekeeping. She thinks I have unlimited storage space. During our toy sort, I stumbled upon that Scribble Pad that my mom claimed 30 years ago to have thrown away because someone had scrawled a number on each page. As you know, Im a guy who cries when perfectly good paper is wasted. Squandering paper gets the tear ducts flowing! So I had to rescue the Scribble Pad before anyone else saw itbecause I knew it was going to be consigned to el garbajo otherwise. I smuggled it into my box of goodies to be taken home. I also ended up with statements from My Very First Bank Account. This account had no withdrawals for several years, until one day in 8 th grade, when I had to withdraw almost the entire contents to pay for things my school falsely accused me of breakingliars they are. Then of course theres those famous last words: We cant keep this. Yes we can. But if its ru, let it become compost to nourish the materials that will someday become the playthings for the next generation. Broken toys have a spirit that should live on.
excuse. Under PRISM, the NSA spies on e-mail, file transfers, and other Internet communicationsin blatant violation of the Fourth Amendments protections against warrantless searches. (This is in addition to the earlier illegal phone eavesdropping program that Bush also had a direct hand in.) If federal authorities dont drop the hammer on PRISM, the states must. Perhaps the person they should start with is National Intelligence Director James Clapper. Clapper was appointed to this post by Obama, but hes actually a hangover from previous administrations. Among other blunders, Crapper lied to the Senate back in March when Ron Wyden asked him if the NSA collects data on Americans. Clapper replied, No, sir. That was a lie. Not just any old lie. Clapper lied at a Senate hearing. Later, Crapper tried to justify his fib by saying it was the least untruthful manner of lying. Presidential administrations have gobs of leeway in justifying questionable government actions. Thats muchocuz so little was done to enforce the Constitution in previous years that any statute that authorizes unconstitutional activity but hasnt been explicitly struck down is viewed as real law. Its just like how Bill Clinton couldnt be impeached for advocating the right-wing idea of public school uniforms. But you can certainly go after public officials who had a more direct role in carrying out a program and knew it was illegal especially when they lie at a congressional hearing! Dianne Feinsteins defense of PRISM is preposterous. What does she say about Snowdens whistleblowing? Its treason, she grunted. No its not. Go look up treason in your Charlie Browns Cyclopedia. Psychotic Howdy Doody impersonator Mitch McConnellKentuckys longest-running jokechimed in too and demanded full prosecution of Snowden. PRISM is usually written in all-caps like its an acronym. But for some, this scandal should result in PRISONwhich ought to stand for Privacy Reigns In Some Other Nations. (Its like the acronym I devised for BAILOUT: Buncha Affluent Imbeciles Living Off Us Taxpayers. It took me less than a minute to come up with that!) In the meantime, we need to repeal the right-wing Patriot Acta tool in the arsenal of every government snoop. Now another chapter in the PRISM scandal is unfolding: Google has written to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for permission to publish the number of NSA requests and FISA orders theyve received. When you have to ask permission from the government to publish something, thats mighty miserable. I sure as shit didnt ask Janet Reno before starting The Last Word.
Poo Wars!
The pee and the poo (snap snap)...The pee and the poo (snap snap)...The pee and the poo, pee and the poo, pee and the poo (snap snap)... to the tune of the theme from The Addams Family Feces is regarded as a serious matter the world over. Whether its spelled poo, pough, or poux, bowel movements elicit endless fascination in any language. Its the universal language of poo! Cape Town, South Africa, is now the site of the Poo Warsthe local medias name for a series of protests prompted by inadequate sanitation. Bags of feces have been dumped inside local government offices as part of the protests. Raw sewage was thrown at a politician. At least 180 people have been arrested in the uprisings. Many locals are angry at having to share outdoor toilets because of the lack of indoor sanitation. This has led to unhygienic conditions. In regard to the discarding of poo at the government offices, one activist who was arrested said, We are emptying our toilets there because our toilets have smelled for 3 months. There were plans to dump bodily waste at the entrance to the provincial legislature for the second time in a week. Nations go to war over pee and poo. Its just a form of appreciation.
As a Kentuckian, I know what the modern Republican Party is capable ofnone of it good (and much of it violent). This story is just the latest example of the fart-like bouquet of scandal that has surrounded the Kentucky GOP for decades. In 2011, a far-right group called Restoring America backed failed Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams. Not unlike Williams himself, Restoring America was laughed at by many. It was laughed at like laughing was going out of style! Restoring America was bankrolled primarily by one Terry StephensWilliamss father-in-law at the time. It pissed away its gabillions of dollars on radio and TV ads supporting Williams. Now the group has been fined $4,500 by the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance for trying to shield the identity of this lone major contributor. I guess it really wasnt much of a group. It was just one rich guy. In the meantime, were watching the GOP scandal in northwestern Florida in which a county office containing the completed ballots for a special election was burglarizedsince the right-wing media wouldnt follow up after the GOP was caught falsifying Benghazi documents.
I know its ironic for an alumnus of the hopeless Campbell County Schools to expose another states disorganized education system, but in a constitutional republic, its our duty. The Campbell County Schools consistently tried to justify its authoritarianism by saying it was a conservative suburban community, and that its values needed to be enforced. That was an unacceptable excuse. Why should Americans in any state tolerate public disregard for constitutional freedoms at all? America depends on openness and investigationqualities that transcend state borders. YOUR SCHOOL DID IT TOO!!! isnt a good pretext. This article focuses on Indiana because the situation there had gotten particularly out of sortsso much so that the states Republican school superintendent Tony Bennett (not to be confused with the singer) lost reelection last year in an upset. When Bennetts Democratic challenger took the post, Republican lawmakers threw a sore loser shitfit and demanded changing this post so it was appointed by the governor instead of elected by voters. Bennett was then hired by the state of Florida to run their schoolsa state known for Nazi-run school districts like Polk County, which recently arrested a student over a science fair experiment. But the Polk County scandal had a happy ending: The arrest generated so much outrage that the student received a full scholarship to the U.S. Space Academy. In a nation known for broken schools, no other state that I know of is quite as upfront as Indiana is in calling school districts what they arecorporations.
anyone ever cite the top 10 from Solid Gold for chart stats? One of Billboards main competitors was Cashboxwhose print edition is now defunct, though an Internet-only version later cropped up. Cashboxs downfall came as the magazine was rumored to be controlled by organized crime. It was widely believed that the Mafia rigged Cashboxs music chart. Youd think the Mob would have more important things to do, but its a strange world out there. Anybip, something weird happened on the Cashbox chart in 1992. Anyone who was still paying attention to Cashbox may have noticed that an obscure Wayne Newton album cut from 1976 titled The Letter bolted onto the chart. In fact, it went all the way to #1even though hardly anyone had heard it, and it didnt appear on any Billboard chart. It was on the Cashbox chart for 31 gigantic weeks. It also hit #1 on Cashboxs country chart. The idea of a Wayne Newton tune hitting #1 in 1992 was preposterous enough. I knew pop radio like the back of my butt in 1992, and I never heard of the song. Theres only one conclusion: It sounds to me like the Mafia was just throwing their weight around. Who else would pay to place a forgotten, years-old song at #1 on a nationwide music chart without any statistical basis for it? And why else would the Mob do it except to showcase their power and influence? I cant see what else would be in it for them. The real question is: Why did they choose an old Wayne Newton cut? I can just picture a bunch of Mob guys sitting around a table in a smoky room talking about what Wayne Newton song they wanted at #1. Will it be Daddy, Dont You Walk So Fast? How about Years? Whats next? Will we see FreedomWorks buying #1 hits for Pat Boone?
viewers with right-wing propaganda 24/7. This right-wing messaging machine is well-oiled, well-funded, and pervasive. Whos surprised that the Republicans have their own data mining operation to dig up info about nominees to what are supposed to be nonpartisan posts?
Last I heard, the school was still deciding whether to file charges. Still deciding? If I did something like that when I was a high school senior, Id probably still be whiling my life away behind bars. Those kids daddies must be bank presidents to get off so easy.