Mood Music Monday

100 years ago today, Robert Johnson was born. Perhaps the greatest blues man to ever live, he died at age 27--allegedly the victim of poisoned whiskey.

Anyway, happy birthday Mr. Johnson.




Hat tip to Jon Meyers for the link.

bellum medicamenti delenda est

Mood Music Monday: Dedication to the CIC and DevGru

Now usually I don't do this...

..but credit where it is due: here's a shoutout to BHO and the badasses formerly known as Seal Team Six (now "DevGru") who took out OBL yesterday.





It doesn't make up for all the pain, disappointment, and waste of the last two years, but it's not a small accomplishment.

We will now return to our regularly scheduled skepticism and resentment of executive power.

bellum medicamenti delenda est

Mood Music Monday

Just saw this nonsense by Glenn Beck. I'm just in stunned awe of the irresponsible absurdity that he and the greater Fox News Channel has become. Just...flabbergasted.

Anyway, this came on my iTunes shortly after I finished the video linked above, so I thought it only appropriate: Arcade Fire's "Antichrist Television Blues."



PS -- if you were one of the people who'd never heard of Arcade Fire before they won Album of the Year at the Grammy's, get to know them. They are great. Got to see them live last year at Merriweather Post Pavillion--great show.

Hitting the Road...

About to pick up my rental car and head to Indiana. I appreciate all the emails and phone calls of support that have come my way. Thank you so much.

Mood Music Monday

My brother Philip called me this morning to tell me my father passed away. He was 83.

Among many other things, I developed my appreciation for gospel music from my dad. He was a huge fan of Mahalia Jackson, so I can't really think of a better song for today than "Soon I Will be Done."




Paul A. Blanks, Sr. (1928-2011) Rest in peace, Dad.

Mood Music Monday: Hysterical Fears Edition

I am not going to comment too much on the assassination attempt in Tuscon over the weekend, but the reaction to it has been predictably ugly. Suffice it to say that the blame placed on the Right--namely Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck--for this, directly or implicitly, is irresponsible and serves no purpose other than political point-scoring at the expense of free speech.

American politics is full of harsh rhetoric, as it has been and will continue to be. There are already calls to institute speech restrictions -- which will do no good whatsoever other than to quash dissent. It's already illegal to threaten the life of a congressman, or anyone for that matter, as well it should be--but saying "we're targeting this senator this election" is no more a threat than printing that senator's face on toilet paper. The time we live in certainly isn't the nadir of American political discourse--though the number of times this country has been goaded into pointless wars makes a singular nadir hard to pinpoint--but let's not pretend we've lost some sort of bygone civility from more genteel times.

The histrionics coming from the Left are unsubstantiated and unhelpful. It's just their most recent attempt at fear-mongering: the cheap and effective political technique used by pols of all stripes that requires little or no resemblance to reality whatsoever. And as Adam Serwer noted, the Republicans would, in all likelihood, engage in the same if Rep. Giffords were a Republican or the assailant was Muslim, Arab, or an immigrant. But that doesn't make the Left's behavior any less despicable--it just proves they are as boorish and loathsome as their counterparts.

Anyway, in the spirit of using media to create bogeymen and incite irrational fears of those whom you disagree, my MMM for this week is the man responsible for everything bad that happened to kids in the late 1990s:



It's the edited version, I still doubt it's "safe" for work. And yes, I just compared Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to Marilyn Manson.

bellum medicamenti delenda est

Update: OH FOR GOD'S SAKE:  Some are actually blaming the music: "It's a sign of the shifting culture wars that little attention has been paid to Drowning Pool since the Arizona shooting on Saturday."

Mood Music Monday

A driving noise was coming from the office next to mine Friday afternoon, so I went to check it out. It was this song--a throwback bluesy rock track with a dark side. In short, I love it.

I haven't sampled the rest of their catalog yet--I'm not sure it can live up to this song, and given iTunes users ratings, the rest of that album probably falls well short of it. But I'll definitely check the rest out when I get a moment. Til then, I give you the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club:



If that's not your thing, perhaps you'll enjoy what at least one researcher claims to be the first Rock n' Roll song ever recorded. (Shocker: Elvis covered it.)


 

bellum medicamenti delenda est.

Mood Music Monday

Keynes versus Hayek Rap Battle: The Sequel



HT: Tim Andrews

Mood Music Monday

Just because it was stuck in my head this morning:

Mood Music Monday

If livin' was actually easy, it wouldn't be almost 11PM before I posted my Mood Music Monday--but it just came on my iTunes and it's a great song. The embedded video could have used a spell check, but spelling isn't really the point, now is it? Enjoy--I hope to post something substantive soon.

Mood Music Monday

I think you probably know why...



Today is going to be busy with the Kagan hearings and the last (and most important, in many respects) SCOTUS cases of the term being released, so I don't know if I'll get to eulogize ol' Bobby Byrd today. If I don't, suffice it to say that I shed no tears.

Mood Music Monday

Forgive the tardiness. Working on a bunch of stuff today. Should have a real post up Tuesday.

This was inspired by an ex-roomie's post on facebook, an episode of CSI:LA...and because I'm a tall light-skinned brotha with dimples.



Yes, the vid is corny, but he was 19. Give him a break.

Mood Music Monday

I really need to get "Motown 25" on DVD--(is it even available?). If you're not old enough to remember this show, you really should look into it. It was amazing.

Oh, and this was the first time most of America had ever seen the 'Moonwalk.' For anyone interested in pop culture/history, this entire event was remarkable.

Mood Music Monday

Lena Horne, RIP

A beautiful voice and a voice for civil rights is now silent. As such, it's only fitting that this Mood Music Monday is dedicated to Ms. Lena Horne.






Lena Horne, RIP.

(Belated) Mood Music Monday

Apropos of nothing. Just a great song from the Wonder Boys soundtrack -- an underrated movie, imnsho. Enjoy.

Mood Music Monday

Audio moderately NSFW



Via Julian Sanchez

By the Time I Get to Arizona

If you haven't heard yet, Arizona's legislature just passed a harass-the-Hispanics bill. I wish I was kidding.

I don't have time to get into the problems with localities enforcing federal law, but this is just so broad that it boggles the mind how rational people can pass such god-awful legislation. Here is a good and pretty short video detailing some of the major problems with the bill. Pay particular attention to the "anti-discrimination" provision.


It seems only appropriate to play this for Mood Music Monday.





You can urge Arizona's governor Jan Brewer to veto this odious legislation here.

Thanks to America's Voice for the Selden link and the petition to the governor.

Update: Governor Brewer signed the bill today (Friday), with accompanying empty rhetoric about how it's not going to encourage racial profiling.

Take the White Man, Kill the Nigger

So, in honor of my current governor Bob McDonnell's declaration of April as Confederate History Month, I thought I'd note a couple of the more overlooked battles of the "War of Northern Aggression." The first is the Battle of Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864:

A Union report of that day:

All the wounded who had strength enough to speak agreed that after the fort was taken an indiscriminate slaughter of our troops was carried on by the enemy with a furious and vindictive savageness which was never equaled by the most merciless of the Indian tribes. Around on every side horrible testimony to the truth of this statement could be seen. Bodies with gaping wounds, some bayoneted through the eyes, some with skulls beaten through, others with hideous wounds as if their bowels had been ripped open with bowie-knives, plainly told that but little quarter was shown to our troops. Strewn from the fort to the river bank, in the ravines and hollows, behind logs and under the brush where they had crept for protection from the assassins who pursued them, we found bodies bayoneted, beaten, and shot to death, showing how cold-blooded and persistent was the slaughter of our unfortunate troops.

War is hell, obviously. But there was something different about this battle. Most of the "unfortunate troops" that had been slaughtered--many of whom were murdered after surrender--were black. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate lieutenant general who ordered the attack on Fort Pillow and the future co-founder of the Ku Klux Klan, said:

"It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people that nigra soldiers cannot cope with Southerners."

In his report to his superiors, Forrest wrote:

We captured 164 Federals, 75 negro troops, and about 40 negro women and children, and after removing everything of value as far as able to do so, the warehouses, tents, &c., were destroyed by fire.

And the Union accounts of the forces inside Fort Pillow before the attack:

Our garrison at Fort Pillow, consisting of some 350 colored troops and 200 of the Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry, refusing to surrender, the place was carried by assault about 3 p.m. of 12th instant.

Such gentility. Such honor. Such...a remarkable disparity in the race of the dead.

That summer, at a battle known as "The Crater" near Petersburg, Virginia, a trapped regiment of black soldiers--along with many whites--threw down their weapons and surrendered under intense Confederate fire. The Southern response: "Take the white man, kill the nigger."

And so they did.

As I've noted before, there is a strand of libertarianism that defends the South, secession, and the Confederacy--some go so far as to hold the Defenders of the Lost Cause to be beacons of liberty. The federalist rhetoric employed by the Confederacy does not hold up to scrutiny, (ahem, Fugitive Slave Law). Furthermore, it is astonishing to me that federalist principles are held to be more meaningful than the plight of the millions of people in bondage--and, indeed, as they were invoked by the CSA to maintain that bondage--by modern day apologists, and audaciously in the name of "liberty."

Cloaking the murderous racism and slavery of the Confederacy in terms of liberty is offensive to me, and should be to all people who hold the integrity of the individual as something dear to them.  Slavery is anathema to liberty, and the facts clearly show that the Confederacy was founded to preserve chattel slavery. Any good points Confederates may have made about federalism while furthering their crimes can never negate the original evil that undergirded the Confederacy's foundation and existence.

Mood Music Monday

I needed something a little ridiculous this morning...and there is nothing quite as ridiculous as a Canadian white boy doing reggae/rap fusion.



A licky boom boom down.