Monthly Archives: October 2010

Hey, remember when Dick Cheney accidentally shot an acquaintance who suffered minor injuries? Well, according to this, the acquaintance wasn't really an acquaintance and the injuries weren't that minor. Another example of the media getting a story wrong.

I link to most Fred Kaplan articles and now I suspect I'm going to be linking to most Matt Taibbi pieces. This one about the Tea Partiers is spot-on, at least according to my observations and encounters. They rally against those who accept moola from Uncle Sam and then deny or rationalize when they do the same. And this one reminds us that the real piracy in our country is not that your neighbor is collecting unemployment insurance but that bankers and others on and around Wall Street are digging us into such a deep hole that they're about to reach China…literally and figuratively.

To show you what an honest guy I am: Last night, I posted an Amazon link for that Johnny Carson DVD set for $108…and as you know, I get a tiny commission if you click on it and order. However, a couple of folks pointed out to me while I slept that the website of my home away from home, Costco, is selling the thing for $70. That's probably the price it'll be when the set is released later this month and they actually have them in Costco stores.

So while I would profit from you ordering via that link, I do feel compelled to tell you where you can get it for a lot less. That's where I'm going to get mine, probably when I swing by to pick up more Turkey Pot Roasts. (Postage, if you order from the Costco site, will add some bucks to that price but it'll still be cheaper than Amazon.) Of course, you could purchase your copy at Costco and then send this site a little donation of, say, ten bucks. That way, we both profit. But you do whatever you like…

By the way: I should have emphasized the point that, sadly, this set does not feature complete episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. 14 of its 15 DVDs run 108-130 minutes and hold four episodes so each episode has been cut down to around a half-hour. That's still got to be great stuff but they're not uncut episodes of the show. Which would have been even nicer.

Fred Kaplan tells us what's going on in Afghanistan. I'm glad he understands it because no one else seems to.

Those of you who are in the Animation Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America, West have probably received an e-mail about this but I'll mention it anyway. Next Tuesday evening at the Guild, they're having the last meeting of the year of their little "Schmooze" gatherings. They usually manage to land some dazzling, impressive guest for these but this year, none of the folks they asked were available so they wound up with me. This is true…it's not a self-deprecating joke. Well, it's self-deprecating but it's not a joke. Anyway, I'm not sure what I'll be talking about. I may just discuss Costco and tomato soup for an hour. But if you're a member, come by and hear whatever it is I say. And remember that if I'd turned them down, the next person on the list was probably you.

Joe Conason on certain Republicans' plans to raise taxes. My cynical side believes that any time anyone of any party says "I've got a plan to make taxes fairer," what they've got is a plan to lower theirs and directly or indirectly raise someone else's.

I also think that our national debate on taxes fixates way too much on income taxes and not enough (usually, not at all) on things like sales taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, etc. It would be so much healthier if we did away with the word "tax" and replaced it with some noun that denotes the money that citizens are required to pay to the government in any form. That is the number that matters to me. It doesn't really matter to me if I pay a thousand bucks less in income tax and then wind up paying a thousand bucks a year more in some other way. Income taxes may even be tidier and more efficient than some other possibility, I don't know. I guess what I'd like is the collection method that (a) cost the least in collection costs and (b) provided the least possibility of someone gaming the system and getting off without paying their fair share. And I think there are so many wealthy folks out there who don't want (b) that it will never happen.

I just voted. Or rather, I just filled out my ballot and will go mail it in a little while when I go do my marketing, which I generally do after 2 AM.

The last few elections have fallen on inconvenient days for me: I was outta town or in meetings. That's why I became a vote-by-mail person but I've discovered an advantage I hadn't thought of. The election is over, at least for me. I don't have to read any more about the propositions. I don't have to listen to the candidates trashing each other and trying to make something out of nothing.

What I saw of the gubernatorial debate last night here in California seemed to steer clear of silly topics…like what can be done to solve the state's problems. Instead, they talked a lot about how someone in Jerry Brown's office was overheard calling his opponent, Meg Whitman, a "whore." That's rude but…I dunno. I have a hunch someone in Ms. Whitman's office at some point may have called Jerry Brown an asshole and had the good fortune not to have it get recorded. In any case, Brown apologized a couple of times and Whitman could have scored a few points with me (though not enough to get my vote) if she'd said, "Fine…apology accepted. Now, let's get on with much more important things, like how to get California back on the right track." Instead, she tried to make the whole election now turn on that, darn near suggesting Californians should vote for her because some unnamed person in Brown's presence called her that. Brown, who I generally like — I think he was a fairly good governor his last go-round, better than any since — talked way too much about Whitman's housekeeper. "Vote for me because my opponent is a bad person" doesn't go very far with me. I'd still like the candidate I vote for to have a little competence.

But you know what? I don't have to spend a lot of time thinking about all this now because I've voted. It's especially helpful in terms of all the ballot initiatives. Some of them are quite confusing and I could read up on them from now 'til Election Day and not be sure if those ones will be yes or no. It's quite liberating to decide you've read enough and it's time to commit and stop researching and mulling. Which I have done. I've marked my ballot, stuck it in the little privacy envelope and put the little privacy envelope in the bigger envelope and sealed it. If I can just remember to put a stamp on it, my voice has spoken.

It's done and off my mind this way…and you might enjoy it as much as I think I do. Just because "they" say the campaign has to run six months doesn't mean you can't end it for yourself after five.

Christopher Hitchens explains why so few decent or sane people want to run for public office. And here I thought it was because they were all afraid of being eviscerated by Christopher Hitchens.

I'm enjoying the mini-series Michael Feinstein's American Songbook on PBS. Mr. Feinstein is an inveterate collector of sheet music and other artifacts that chronicle American popular music, particularly in the area of show tunes. He's also pretty good at playing and singing show tunes and there's some of that in the series…but there's also a lot about his collection and goodies from that collection.

Lyricist Johnny Mercer and tunesmith Henry Mancini wrote one of the most popular songs of their day when they composed "Moon River." Would you like to hear the demo they made with Mancini at the piano and Mercer singing the words he wrote? Well, thanks to Feinstein's diligent detective work, you can. Go to this page and click where you're supposed to click, my huckleberry friend.