Machine gun bacon

Someone called Ted Cruz.  Machine gun bacon. 

Those are not a series of random words.  Apparently there's a video of a US presidential candidate 'cooking' bacon by tying it to the barrel of a gun and then firing the gun numerous times so that the barrel gets hot enough to cook the bacon. 

What do you have to do to be presidential candidate in the US these days?  Be a lunatic?

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/04/ted-cruz-sizzles-up-machine-gun-bacon.html

From: http://www.wideopenspaces.com/presidential-potential-ted-cruz-cooks-bacon-ar-15-video/

Our Lady the Virgin of Mount Carmel ... & other stuff

O most beautiful Flower of Mount Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendour of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me this my necessity.

TRANSLATION: 'Thanks for the day off tomorrow.'

In Spanish it's La Virgen del Carmen, but in English it's Our Lady the Virgin of Mount Carmel. ... I don't know, but I also get a day off for the Immaculate Conception, in December.

....................................

I'm finding the press intrusion into the lives of Nick Cave and his family really inappropriate right now. We do not need to see photos, especially not within a few hours of the incident.

Best wishes to the family in what must be a very difficult time.

.........................................

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Straight to You (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYbOHXMtelU

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Louis Tomlinson of One Direction:

'At the same time, the Jungwirth family has discussed how best to move forward with the prospect of Briana being a single mother.' WHAT?? He's not even going to pretend to want to be there for the baby? This stinks, it's just a scheme so that we all think he's het ero.... Sounds crazy, but people have gone to even greater lengths in the past.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3162462/Louis-Tomlinson-s-mother-seen-love-child-s-scan-heard-heartbeat-family-American-stylist-pregnant-discussed-retaining-lawyer.html#ixzz3g1Lwp0kz

(© Vanity Fair magazine.  I have no desire to steal the credit for this image.  Not that anyone's reading this right now anyway.

Nice to meet you, Caitlyn Jenner?

(The question mark is about me questioning myself for acknowledging and writing about what is essentially celebrity gossip.)

I think this ex- Olympic winning decathlete has tarnished himself more by the family he married into (and all their tawdry [s]exploits) than by anything he (now she)* has done as an individual.

Well, Caitlyn looks better than Kris (even though this is Photoshopped to fuck), and less fake/plastic than Kum:

I do question why I even care enough to write this.

* I'm being respectful with my pronouns. Using 'he' to refer to before today, using 'she' as of today.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Ethical dilemma: I'm out of booze and it's 10pm.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?



(Photo: https://twitter.com/the_clash_band) 

General Election 07/05/2015

General Election 07/05/2015.  I'm not going to spend undue time watching the results come in this year, though I will certainly be paying attention.

I don't feel any optimism.  It's going to be a hung Parliament, which will mean another up to five years of uncomfortable bedfellows hedging and compromising.  The very antithesis of a government that could be visionary and inspired.  

The two candidates who do have some kind of vision are Farage and Sturgeon.  Farage is best nodded at sympathetically as you would do to any drunk old man in the pub falling asleep in the corner, otherwise you take no notice; and Sturgeon... well, she's not an MP, she's not standing in this election... Nicola Sturgeon has nothing to do with the British Parliament.  She's an MSP, the First MInister of the Scottish Parliament (poor Wales only got an Assembly), and she's the leader of the Scottish National Party... but she's actually nothing to do with the UK's Westminster government.

If the SNP become the junior partners in the British government...?  I would actually agree with whoever said this could be the biggest British constitutional crisis since the abdication of Edward VIII.  I'm not saying that the situation couldn't be resolved sooner rather than later... but I don't know if there's a historical precedent for a non-elected MP, non-House of Lords person becoming a Deputy Prime Minister of the UK government.  

I will say this, though.  When Alex Salmond stepped down last September and named Nicola Sturgeon as his successor, I thought I wouldn't hear much about her after that, that the SNP would calm down a bit after the referendum didn't go their way. and become a minority party like Plaid Cymru, if not a bit more vocal/popular.  I was wrong.  Whatever else you say about Nicola Sturgeon, she's already got an advantage for not being as odious as Alex Salmond.

And I now think Scottish independence will come sooner than what I believed in September in 2014.  In September I thought the Scots would leave it another generation to hold another referendum (more like 2035-2040 rather than 2030).  I strongly believe in a nation's right to self-determination.  Emotively and rationally I did not want Scotland to leave the UK, I didn't want to see the break-up of the UK, but I do recognise Scotland's right for autonomy away from London.  

I also didn't think Scotland was ready for independence in September 2014.  (There was talk about them not being able to participate in the 2016 Olympics for not being able to register as an independent country... if Scotland left the UK they would for a time no longer be in the EU - what would that mean for border control? - would Scotland have an independent currency?  Some Scottish businesses were considering moving their headquarters into England, where the economy was known to be more certain.)  This would have been the end of the UK as we know it.  But now I think if the SNP become the dominant party north of the border, they could really learn what it takes to run a whole country after a number of years dominating the Scottish Parliament.  10+ years.  Might not even need a referendum.

There's uncertainty ahead.  And I fear the £ sterling will lose 3-5% (maybe more) of its value with the announcement of the hung parliament.

Fingers crossed that the best happens!

Mixed reaction to the new Vaccines single, out August 2013

http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/track-exclusive-the-vaccines-melody-calling

I don't know if 'a bit disappointed' or 'underwhelmed' is more fitting here, but I do hope it's a grower!  It's not a BAD song, but it lacks that post-Ramones kick or the large sound of 'I Always Knew' the Vaccines tracks always have.  I like this song least of anything on Come of Age, and I think the first album as a whole was better than Come of Age.  I think the first three tracks on Come of Age are almost perfect, a perfect trio.

Posted this on Facebook.  Nueva Providencia, indeed!

Jajaja, ¡error de ortografía! ¡Nueva Proidencia!