FUN with LEONARD COHEN

A word about LIBS

On social media, the bully boys who love their guns and Trump and a five pound cheeseburger on French-fried bread, scream about "LIBS."

They get sarcastic about "LIBS." Nothing the "LIBS" do is any good. "LIBS" are "snowflakes" and "weak" and "too sensitive."

Yeah. And when they're caught downloading porn, they'll want a judge who is a LIB.

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sex.

We love the old songs, don't we?

Stephen King is NOT being paid by the word...

When you're a writer, you might want to flex those creative muscles and live up to your status as somebody who nails it with original, quotable remarks.

"Trump needs to go. He's one bad hombre."

I think I overheard these very words from a janitor taking the subway up to Spanish Harlem.

60,000 people liked this? 8,000 retweeted it?

These are the same people who lip-read the words "PUSH" and "PULL" when they see them on restroom doors?

They're the same ones that can't get enough of killer clown movies.

Here's a guy who only writes books the size of bricks and he can't write even find ten choice words about TRUMP!

I know. Fans shouldn't expect much. What's the hacky phrase everyone uses in situations like this? Oh yes: "What did you PAY to read this?"

If you don't pay Stephen King, don't expect anything too witty. He's one bad hombre!

One of the their more obscure PROTEST events...

There's also Prince, Cobain, Michael, and for you very OLD timers, Buddy Holly!

Patti Smith, Peter Gabriel and Sting

Well, you've gotta appreciate Peter Gabriel and Patti Smith coming out for BDS sanctions against Israel. If you're a Nazi.

Somehow, the most persecuted people on the face of the Earth are being singled out for abuse by millionaire Gentile rock stars...ones who have reputations for sensitive poetry and songs championing the misunderstood.

The odd thing here is that there are OTHER nations on Earth that deserve some sanctions. But Patti and Peter aren't telling people that minorities are being abused in Syria or that China abuses the Tibetans. How about Russia's ethnic cleansing of people in Ukraine and other neighboring countries, or their harsh attitude toward gays and even (Pussy Riot anyone) rock musicians?

Any word on how badly some ethnics in Turkey treat other ethnics in Turkey? Or do Peter and Patti not let Kurds get in the way...when they can kick the Jews instead?

Why is it that Procol Haram...er, Boko Haram...doesn't get any ire from Peter Gabriel? He's the guy who sang about "Biko" but he doesn't seem to know what's going on in Africa when it comes to rape and murder.

Gosh, Patti, you don't think North Korea is a "piss factory," where they keep SLAVES?

Another question for you, Patti (no relation to me) Smith, why don't you ask for BDS sanctions against your own country? The Palestinians got a raw deal? What about the Indians? They are pushed off their land, killed by the thousand, and currently live on crappy reservations instead of enjoying GOOD land. Why doesn't that bother you, dear? The Indians can't even get a football team to STOP calling themselves REDSKINS.

Mr. Gabriel, everything fine between the English and Irish? You don't worry about British fishermen pushed out of their own seas by rivals from the European Union?

Somehow the ONLY country that Patti and Peter (and their Third Reichmaster Roger Waters) worry about is Israel, which just happens to be "The Jewish State." Any concern over the Jews being bullied and stabbed in Sweden, or firebombed in France? Nahhh. Because the Night belongs to Palestinians. Take that SLEDGEHAMMER to the Israelis, Peter, and don't even mention the way the British empire did much worse in pushing around people everywhere from South Africa to India and back.

Hypocrisy anyone?

And just because I had to listen to this irritating, stupid and monotonously imbecilic song in a supermarket the other day...

Hey you un-PC jerk, don't you know? AGT's Kodi Lee win was PORN

I finished binge-watching my guilty pleasure, episodes of "America's Got Talent."

Frankly, I'm not used to WAITING and I don't like SUSPENSE, so instead of suffering week after week, wondering who will be eliminated and who will go on, I store the shows and watch them at my own pace.

By an interesting twist of fate, two of three finalists had disabilities.

Er, is THAT ok to say? Do we say "challenges?" There are several PC words now. My late friend George Carlin had a routine about this. He loved words and hated the misuse of them:

"'Passengers in need of special assistance?' CRIPPLES! Simple honest direct language! There's no shame attached to it. In fact it's used in Bible translations: "Jesus healed the cripples." We don't have any cripples in this country anymore. We have "the physically challenged." How about "differently able." I've heard them called that. You can't even call these people handicapped anymore. They'll say "We're not handicapped, we're handy capable!" These poor people have been bullshitted by the system into believing if you change the name of the condition you change the condition! It doesn't happen! We have no more deaf people in this country: it's hearing impaired. We have no more stupid people. Everyone has a "learning disorder." He's "minimally exceptional." Psychologists have begun to call ugly people "those with severe appearance deficits..."

The winner of AGT this year, Kodi Lee, is blind and autistic. He's "differently able" but in a huffy piece at the Huffity Puffity Huffington Post, a writer went on ad nauseum about how "ABLEISM" is a blight on the world, and even mentioning someone's disability is some kind of...PORN.

Oh, demeaning what porn actually is, are you? Pornographers resent being lumped in with disabled people. For one thing, how in the world would Kodi Lee, blind, appreciate porn?

On AGT, the word "inspiring" was used over and over for many acts on the show...from 10 year-old opera singers to a cancer-surviving child to a quartet that sings on behalf of soldiers who are suffering from traumatic injuries or stress. It was applied to an 84 year-old acrobat and, yes, to Kodi Lee, who happens to be a rare savant who can memorize not only songs but even classical music after hearing it once. The fact is, Kodi Lee's DISABILITY took a lot of effort and family love to control. He as prone to outbursts. He disliked being touched. He couldn't walk out on stage by himself; he needed his mother to help him get seated at the piano.

Finding him overcoming all this shouldn't be praiseworthy?

Not according to this sour, scolding piece:

Shame, SHAME on anyone who calls a blind autistic 22 year-old's competing on a talent show "inspiring."

The Debbie Downer who wrote this (perpetraing Debbie Down Syndrome? No, no, that's a HORRIBLE joke) doesn't seem to want a disability to be mentioned.

You know who disagreed with this? Kodi Lee's mother and his family, who wanted to share with the world how Kodi was different and how he was able to function in life. "Without music," his mom said, things would be much harder. Was she being...pornographic?

Another contestant who won the hearts of viewers and the judges was Robert Finley, who, like Kodi Lee, is no amateur going to the AGT auditions on a whim, but an experienced performer. Finley, 65, lost his sight a few years ago. One of the original songs he sang? "Starting to See."

What, he's a pornographer? He shouldn't sing about what he knows? He shouldn't write about what it's like to be blind?

A lot of disabled people in daily life don't want to have to explain their problem, but a lot know that there's curiosity and that explaining the situation puts it out of the way. That choice belongs to each person. Kodi Lee's family chose to explain it, and perhaps have people understand that not every kid with autism is a lethal Adam Lanza. That people with autism can find outlets to help them cope in this world.

The fifth place finishers this year, "Voices of Service," said they formed their group to help give comfort and hope to people who fought for their country and came back with a disability. Are they pornographers? When they read letters from people who have been inspired and have been comforted by their singing, were they no better than a download of a gangbang video?

The author of the huffy Po piece was livid about ABLEISM and the Mark of Cain on the evil people who dare to feel inspired. Let's not discuss a disability and let's just pretend it doesn't exist.

You know who disagreed with this? The THIRD place finisher in the competition. THIS guy:

In every one of his stand-up routines, Ryan Niemiller, born with congenital birth defects, joked about his problems buttoning a shirt or shaking hands. He did a routine about how he had no interest in swimming. He even had a comic act in which he attempted to fight a pro wrestler and got flattened in the ring. The punchline was that when the wrestler's back was turned, Niemiller got up and charged, knocking the two-handed wrestler down and pinning him for the count. Niemiller referred to himself...are you ready...as...

THE CRIPPLE THREAT.

So, the 3rd place finisher on "America's Got Talent" jokes about being a cripple, but the 1st place finisher's victory is reduced to "PORN." The people who voted these guys past hundreds of contestants, and past Top Ten finishers who were able-bodied acrobats, is some kind of "trope" about feeling sorry for the disabled.

What this tells you is that the PC world is never satisfied about anything. They will always find some reason to be OFFENDED. They will find some reason to take up a contrary position and scowl at the insensitivity of others.

You might well ask what is WRONG with these people, that they don't do what the people with disabilities do, which is accept the congratulations and praise and the word "inspiring."

Niemiller did joke about the problems of his disability and the way people might look at him and be glad they don't have his problem. He turned it around, imagining what it would be like if a woman heard him say: "You know, looking at you, I feel better about myself." BUT...he accepted the judges saying he was an inspiration, and he also accepted Howie Mandel pointing out that he was a very good comedian.

Simon Cowell and others pointed out that Kodi Lee was a very good singer. That's why he won. With a voice that recalled Johnny Mathis and Jose Feliciano, Lee (who has been gigging for several years) gave outstanding performances. Would he have won if he wasn't blind and autistic? Probably not, but feeling inspired by somebody conquering a disability is NOT PORNOGRAPHIC.

Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles DVDs are not sold as PORN on Amazon and eBay.

After I finished watching the finals, I was curious to know more about autism, and what different types of the condition there might be. That's when I discovered the Huffy Po article telling me that I had been watching PORN, and that my interest in Kodi Lee was somehow lurid. That's their "trope" anyway.

Look, if you want to be cynical, and rain on the parade, how about telling people the truth about AGT saying "YOU JUST WON A MILLION DOLLARS."

That's the lie. That's far more obnoxious than playing a sympathy card about a disability. You know who did that? Last year's winner, a card magician. In one of those "get to know the act" pieces, he pointed out that he overcame the disability of cutting a finger and suffering tendon damage. That was pornographic? Not simply human interest? This year viewers being told that a semi-finalist in a dance troupe had spent time in a hospital but kept on practicing, or that another had a broken foot. This crosses the line between inspirational and it becomes porn?

Kodi Lee will NOT be getting a check for a million dollars. He has two options. He can collect $25,000 a year for the next 40 years (before TAXES) or he can settle for a lump sum which, factoring in the taxes, would amount to about $300,000. That's a dirty shame, isn't it? But it's not "Talent Show Porn."

Another LEGIT reason to be cynical about "America's Got Talent" is how manipulative the show is, IN GENERAL. One of the corniest routines is when Simon Cowell interrupts somebody's audition (judges are supposed to be impartial) and declares, "Perform a different song..." or "Do that a cappella" or "Come back in an hour with something else." Equally creepy is when Cowell gasps and blinks and declares "I've never seen anything like this in my life," about an act that he actually saw just a few months earlier on "Britain's Got Talent."

There are many who wonder if Simon Cowell had rehearsed his "gaffe" when he told Niemiller, who only has a few fingers, "it's in your hands" whether the comedian could get to the finals.

Also kind of foul, is that AGT does not distinguish between the REAL amateur and the longtime buskers, cruise-ship denizens and other professionals who have been making a living and are just looking to move from small-time to Vegas...while having a huge advantage over others who haven't even been on a stage before.

You can feel like you've been had, a tad, when you think, "Hey, that Robert Finley wrote some very good songs, I hope he puts out an album..." and it turns out he already DID in 2017, and was mentioned in Rolling Stone for being the "breakout star" of the "Easy Eye Sound Tour" revue in 2018.

"I may not see your face, but I can feel the love in this place..." sang blind Robert Finley. Is he the porn star or the pornographer for singing those lines about his disability?

One more thing about Finley. Is it pornographic, or a sign of weakness, for someone with a disability to seek help and get some benefits? Finley received help from the "Music Maker Relief Foundation," a non-profit organization. Should he have turned this down, because people with disabilities are like anyone else?

There are reasons to be cynical or to find the show as fraudulent as most "reality" shows are. Complaining that any discussion of disability is lurid and "pornographic?"

"America's Got Talent" in previous years, has given back-stories to people clearly trying their best to conquer stage fright, or those who came back from an illness that might flare up again, or a violinist battling a degenerative disease, a deaf woman who could sing, and a singer who survived 3rd degree burns while being one of the few to survive a plane crash.

It's a talent show and it's entertainment, and you might as well feel sorry for able-bodied contestants who can't sway judges or get audience sympathy because they simply have some talent and no drama. Should we feel sorry for the 11 year-old who sang opera perfectly, but finished outside the Top 5 because she was simply a privileged white girl who wasn't in a wheelchair, didn't have a disease, or hadn't been orphaned and raised by wombats in Australia?

There's a special disorder that afflicts people who feel bad over feel good stories. There's a true quirk in people who choose to think people are condescending when they are simply being complimentary. There's something very strange about people who have to be utterly bone-headed and idiotic in showing how super-sensitive they are.

Ryan Niemiller, in finishing 3rd, told the world that he was grateful to be on stage, because maybe five years ago, he would have been shunned. People wouldn't be able to accept him and laugh at him laughing at his own problems. What a world, if in another five years, we continue to move backward due to PC nonsense and "Social Justice Warriors" who have a disability that involves being humorless, dour, and scolding about everything they see.

The DUMBTH File - the new CRETIN-friendly version of COSMOPOLITAN

When do you ever look at magazines anymore? At the dentist's office? If somebody left a few on top of the garbage can down the block?

A good reason not to bother is...DUMBTH. That's the term Steve Allen coined for the dumbing down of the culture. Last time I checked some magazines to see if they might be open to freelancers, I found most...weren't even magazines.

It was more like a collection of tweets. More like somebody patched together some Instagram and Facebook pages.

No wonder people would rather surf the Net for FREEEEEE instead of subscribe to even classic magazines like Time or...Cosmpolitan?

I took a PDF look at the September issue of Cosmo. Helen Gurley Brown may be turning over in her grave. She died back on August 13, 2012, and her magazine is brain dead.

As I recall, the idea was to give sophisticated women some lurid sex tips, provocative interviews, and reflect being...COSMPOLITAN.

They might as well change the name of this magazine to MALL RAT.

I got the idea things were less than COSMPOLITAN when I scrolled down to a picture of a brainless bitch with a huge TATTOO on her arm, plodding through a supermarket. She had a huge container of ice cream in one hand, and her face said BRAIN FREEZE.

Like Twitter or Facebook, this wasn't an article as much as somebody's blog, with pasted-in quotes from other idiots. "I follow my fave food bloggers on Instagram..." is one bit of dimwit advice. Jeez, the magazine is encouraging people NOT to buy the magazine.

I figured maybe this was just one page for the clueless lip-readers out there, and the bulk of the slimmed-down mag would be aimed at COSMPOLITAN women. The kind who might not call each other "bitch" at the office, or chortle over the last episode of "Judge Judy" they DVR'd.

Magazines in the Age of Dumbth are short-attention span to the max.

Let's not get involved in anything we might not be able to finish between the 1st and 3rd floor on the elevator.

Page after page offered cobbled-together nonsense either e-mailed in, or grabbed off Twitter. Really? A woman offers a revelation about how often she changes her panties...and COSMPOLITAN prints it?

Another alarming thing about DUMBTH is that magazines have to imitate video games.

The art department must have a constant supply of STARBUCKS coming in, so that every page is jittery and cluttered.

Millennials who have grown up "multi-tasking" by watching TV, a cellphone, and going to the bathroom at the same time, can't face a page of solid text and they love graphs and charts and board-game layouts.

Facts? Useful information? Not so much. The DUMBTH of the COSMO reader is so great, that the obvious is accepted as useful.

Breaking up with boyfriends even faster than Taylor Swift? Get some kewl advice...

Hey, yo, if you need to chill after a break-up, go watch some Bling-crap thing on AMAZON PRIME.

You need to pay for a copy of COSMO to get advice like that? No wonder the surviving magazines are not surviving too well.

The closet thing to a real COSMPOLITAN article was about some vain, brainless fool gushing over her expensive lipstick treatment. Women's magazines are all about this kind of trivia. Women, we are told, should be elected to office. They should be heads of companies. They should be taken seriously. Except if you look at COSMOPOLITAN, you see that all women care about is their idiot vanity. Hairstyles, make-up and fashion and looking at the mirror constantly is what this magazine is about...along with brainless ideas about watching Amazon Prime and checking out "foodies" who might have a good recipe on Instagram.

Put it this way, Ruth Bader Ginsberg didn't get where she is because she didn't know how often to change her panties or what kind of blush to put on her cheeks. Or how to tattoo her lips:

Just to prove that COSMOPOLITAN is not at all for sophisticated city women, here's an utterly vapid page on ASTROLOGY.

Yes, idiot women not only believe in horoscopes, but think that everybody born at a certain time of the year is "extra kinky" or wants to "keep those sex toys clean." (A Virgo cleans her dildo, a Leo does not?)

As Popeye once said when he went down on Olive Oyl, "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more."

I reached my saturation in the douche world of DUMBTH when I saw THIS ad:

Yes. An ad for a PIRACY cartel from RUSSIA. This ain't a dot.com. There's no COM or NET or ORG with this site. It's RU. For RUSSIA. The sophisticated COSMOPOLITAN woman downloads pirated software, cheats copyright, and is just a few clicks away from 4CHAN, huh?

"We HEIL, HEIL...right in der Fuhrer's wife's PANTIES??" EVA BRAUN'S UNDERWEAR

"Springtime for Hitler's wife's underwear..."

The GOOD NEWS for SOME nutsy nazi fetishist, is EVA BRAUN's silk panties went under the hammer...und BANG! SOLD!

Treasure hunt or schwein hunt? How does anyone know if they're hers? A Braun stain in the back?

Apparently she was rich enough to have some Jewish concentration camp tailor add her monogram. Something like that.

Eva was a ripe 33 when she and her 56 year-old husband died in a Berlin bunker in April of 1945. In all that time, SOMEBODY was holding onto these bloomers, singing UNDIES UNDIES UBER ALLES.

Why now? Was it somebody in Argentina selling them off to raise money to fight a Weisenthal Center extradition back to Der Farterland?

Perhaps it was difficult to unload these because most reasonable auction sellers, including EBAY, refuse to glorify Hitler or the Nazis in any way.

Humbert and Ellis, an auction house in England, did the honors. It would seem that neither Humber nor Ellis's grandparents told stories of being terrified by British bombing raids that literally sent people into the underground, praying for their lives.

All right, enough with der bad jokes and puns. You want to know HOW...MUCH...did it cost someone to be able to run a hand over fabric that once grazed Nazi nookie.

$4,623, in American dollars.

This is considerably higher than what a typical pricey boutique would charge. La Perla's online shop has the ADELE (which Adele couldn't possibly fit into) for $150, the ATHENA hipster for $250, and the LAWINIA ROSE FRENCH KNICKER for $260. Let's say that LAWINIA is a little sexier than the EVA:

In the past 30 days, the most expensive pair of panties sold on EBAY was...

The ad: "Gucci Tom Ford thong, museum archive piece. Women’s size small. Same style seen on Kim Kardashian. The tag was removed when I thought I was keeping and wearing it but the thong it self is still in new condition. Extremely rare. Please ask any questions before purchasing because I do not accept returns..."

The second highest price for panties fell way down:

The winner of the Eva Braun pair did not bid in person. The bid was phoned in, probably single handed. The enthusiastic bidder also paid $3,247 for a white lace nightdress worn by Eva. No details on whether she wore them both at the same time.

Did she have a ball with Adolf while wearing them? He only had one.

You probably knew that. Which is why his underwear had ballroom. Did you also know that Hitler has a flatulence problem, and was also subject to some kind of morbid disorder that had him changing his underwear up to three times a day? Talk about ethnic cleansing. In the charmingly titled "Living with Hitler," we find this:

"Hitler changed his underwear as he saw fit. It could happen that he would do so every day, perhaps twice or even three times, or then again there were times when he just wouldn't change for two, maybe three days...only short underpants, even during the winter when it was freezing cold...at night he didn't wear pyjamas but rather a nightshirt made out of simple linen."

You're welcome.

As Col. Klink used to say: "Dissss-missed!"

OH...you did want to see my autographed photo from Werner Klemperer and Robert Clary?

ECOLOGY vs GLUTTONY : AMNY CHOOSES GLUTTONY

PRIORITIES...PRIORITIES...

Which is more important and impressive, New York hotels trying to save the ecology by reducing plastic container trash...

....or some fat slob glutton winning a zeppole eating contest?

It seems AMNY figured it was much more admirable and exciting to report on jackasses wasting food than thinking people trying to preserve natural resources.

A report on "SUSTAINABLE TOILETRIES" got 1/8th of a page in the newspaper.

A report on an asshole who flushed 54 half-digested zeppoles down the toilet? OVER HALF A PAGE.

Nothing says "America" more than WASTE. Americans are hated all over the world for the way they WASTE FOOD.

While people in India or Somalia or other nations go to bed hungry, and would be grateful for a bag of rice tossed from a helicopter, idiots in America stage EATING CONTESTS.

A moronic street fair was held in Little Italy (and it IS Little now, occupying only a few blocks due to gentrification). A company that makes zeppole (unhealthy "fired balls of dough, sprinkled with powdered sugar") decided to call attention to themselves NOT by giving some away, but by having an EATING CONTEST.

"I'm in shock to see someone eat 54 zeppoles in six minutes," one moron is quoted in the paper as saying. "I'm also happy and pleased and proud to see so many people here." Sure, give the public what they want; the spectacle of gluttony. Food is entertainment. It's snacks. It's a pastime. It's not for sustenance. That's why the nation is FAT.

"On Saturday there will be a meatball eating contest...and a macaroni and cheese eating contest..." AMNY reported.

If some church group handed them a press release asking for donations to their soup kitchen, would AMNY even print it?

Meanwhile, that 1/8th article: "Hotel groups back push for sustainable toiletries."

A state bill introduced by Sen. Todd Kaminsky, NOT yet passed, would ban "single-use plastic personal care products such as shampoo, conditioner, lotion and hard soap" in hotels.

It's not a DONE DEAL like a zeppole-eating contest. It seems if there's something good going on that involves preservation and not WASTE, it requires a little persuasion. Kaminsky's "bill has the backing of the Hotel Association of New York City and the New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association."

That's very nice of them, but it's also good for the hotels. They're going to save a lot of money on free toiletries. They'll shrug and tell the tourists to go down to the lobby store and BUY large containers of shampoo, lotion and liquid soap. But at least this idea is good for the economy and the environment.

The idea of eating contests as "good publicity" for any food vendor is nauseating. You don't exactly need to encourage people to eat hot dogs, zeppole, macaroni and cheese or meatballs. If AMNY ran a coupon for "10 cents off" they'd get a crowd. "Two for one" and it would be a stampede. Too bad some people promoting events are too stupid to know how to run a promotion the right way. As for eating contests, all that food goes in another direction: down the toilet.

Any of those Oceanside kids heard of PHIL OCHS?

Here's a little forum item for you. The question to others in the forum...will it be nice to move from Queens, New York to a little further away...Oceanside, on Long Island?

While Brooklyn and the Bronx are considered worse, not everybody is thrilled with Queens. One of the most notorious crimes in New York City history happened in Kew Gardens, Queens: the murder of Kitty Genovese.

Legend had it that her screams were heard as she fought with her attacker, and from various windows, citizens mutely watched and did nothing. Phil Ochs used this as the first lines of "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends." As in: "Look outside the window there's a woman bein' grabbed...now she's bein' stabbed..." Chorus: "...it wouldn't interest anybody..."

Such a thing couldn't happen in Queens again, right?

Just to be on the SAFE side, how about further away, in Oceanside?

Some kid is walking with a girl who "belongs" to somebody else. The girl is trying to make her boyfriend jealous? Whatever. The kid is called out and...

Look outside the window, there's a student bein' stabbed.

What did the kids do who were watching all this? They started recording it on their phones.

This is the apathy of the 21st Century. Don't get involved, don't call 911, just record it because...wouldn't it be cool if it went viral? That sure beats spray-painting your TAG on a subway train.

The kids who were making sure to capture the last moments of a fellow student's life probably are big fans of Drake. Kanye. Cardi B. Whatever the names are of the current rappers who wear the bling and stomp around in expensive sneakers and make crippled-up finger gestures that are supposed to mean something.

Back in the day, "the kids" were turning away from meaningless pop tunes on the radio and beginning to put "Eve of Destruction" on the charts, and "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Like a Rolling Stone." Even pop groups like Spanky & Our Gang were donning gospel robes and singing "Give a damn about your fellow man."

And Phil Ochs was on a major label and touring.

The perp walk was done and the killer taken to a police precinct.

Maybe nobody should expect "kids today" to listen to the music their GRANDPARENTS may have listened to. Is it too much to expect that they'd be listening to music that doesn't glorify violence, or call out and curse other rappers and pop stars in every verse?

In Phil's time, violence in movies was minimal. People were sounding alarms when Sam Peckinpah gave us "The Wild Bunch," and many were appalled by the violence in "Bonnie and Clyde" or "The Godfather." Now, that stuff is literally laughable, and the ante has been upped to...REALITY. Kids go online to watch THE REAL THING, and to them, it's just like the movies. Like the video games. It's just entertainment.

So they were on their phones recording the death of a fellow student.

And I stick this on the blog knowing that "I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody, outside of s small circle of friends....

Oooh Taylor Swift, Oooh Kany West, Oooh....SHUT UP

Jann Wenner once ran an actual music magazine that wasn't involved with gay-salivation cover boys (including boy-band heroes and the Marathon Bomber) and glitzy air-head pop acts (the current Taylor Swift cover).

Was it around the time he came out that he also put the magazine up for sale? Finding no takers, he's tried to re-invent Rolling Stone as People Magazine with Dr. Dre ear buds. It's mostly trivia but hey, it's music trivia. Whee!

Taylor Swift, the only person who can sell a million CDs anymore (her fans MUST cradle the booklet and photos and add to their collections) apparently consented to a Rolling Stone interview just in case her new album got tepid reviews for being pretty much like her last one, and the one before.

The thrust of it? Oooh, her feud with KANYE, who called her up to tell her he had a new gossip song about her that mentioned he hoped he might have sex with her. He apparently neglected to play her the line where he says he made "the bitch" famous (for trying to take an award from her on stage and give it to Beyonce).

The flat-bodied ice queen whose last album featured a grumble called "Look What You Made Me Do" (which Taylor fans delighted at dissecting for its references to other pop stars) has done the same with a new song on the new album.

Idiot fans of today's idiot pop acts seem to be DELIGHTED to gossip about gossip lyrics. From Eminem's "calling out" everybody on his rap tracks to back-and-forth digs involving Kanye, Katy, Taylor, etc. etc., it seems that the only way to entice the REALITY SHOW-loving Millennials is with petty gossip.

Who will the Bachelorette pick? Who is a "real" housewife. Who wins "Dancing with the Stars." How can we keep "Keeping Up with the Kardashians."

These vital video questions are matched by "Did Kanye just insult Drake again?" "Did Kanye just diss Taylor again?" "Let's make a list of all the people Taylor refers to as making her do something like write an idiot song about Look What You Made Me Do."

Several generations ago, this shit was the exception, not the rule.

Nobody even knew who the hell "Judy Blue Eyes" was, in the Stephen Stills song. Nobody really cared. The song was universal.

Nobody was concerned with who Joni Mitchell aimed "Coyote" at. It was just an interesting song about a relationship.

If a song had people "guessing," it was because it had artistic value: Don McLean's "American Pie." No gossip there.

The only breach that shocked the music world was John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep At Night," which didn't get an instant insult answer song from McCartney. Everyone knew that on any Lennon solo album, he was going to write at least a few songs referencing himself, but he also added "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance."

WHERE are the protest songs? Taylor and Kanye don't believe in climate change?

WHERE are the love songs? It seems Taylor can only break up with guys every other week, and Kanye is married to a plastic blow-up doll that can't quite pop out babies too well.

At one time, the charts were loaded with everything from "Eve of Destruction" to "silly love songs." Now it's what...self-referential gossip shit? We're NOT on the "Eve of Destruction" these days? Or is it that we're so close, Millennials don't want to hear about it? Is love so impossible now that the closest we get are those dirge heartbreak songs from Adele? Adele is aiming at an older audience and doesn't do "beats." You don't dance to Adele, you waddle. Or you cry.

The Rolling Stone piece just proves once again that ROCK is DEAD, "personality" is now more important than substance, and that the world is more concerned about celebrity gossip than peace, love and understanding. Nothing funny about THAT.

TYPO of the DAY - Are you FOND of being fatally shot?

Three trouble-prone teens put on masks and tried to rob a house in some dangerously creepy town in the Deep South. Two of them:

In reporting on this, the LONDON DAILY FAIL...er, MAIL...published a rather ironic sign on the property. Trespassers could be SHOT? They sure were. Once the kids began firing at the home owner, he returned fire and fulfilled the sign's promise.

The caption does suggest, doesn't it, that in lawless neighborhoods some people may be FOND of fatal encounters.

BOWIE SAID IT, BUT HE DIDN'T CREATE IT - another MEME for MORONS

What's one of my pet peeves? QUOTES ATTRIBUTED TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER SAID THEM.

I'm also not too fond of QUOTES from people who merely REPEATED somebody else's witticism.

You can't fault David Bowie for THIS:

It's quite likely that if he was around, he'd admit: "I didn't come up with that one. I read it somewhere."

If you want to quote Bowie, quote one of the brilliant things he did say, like, "FAME, FAME, FAME" or "CH-CH-CH-CHANGES!"

This remark, in one way or another, has probably turned up in hundreds of old magazine articles, prayer books, pamphlets, and even novelty toilet paper. It might not be in The Bible or the Koran, but don't be surprised if someone unearths these very words peeled from an ancient fortune cookie from the Tang Dynasty.

Bowie was QUOTED as QUOTING it in the 1997 book on Bowie, “Loving the Alien” by Christopher Sandford. Sandford does NOT say that Bowie originated it, he only quotes Bowie as liking it. Bowie says:

‘A wonderful analogy: “Religion is for people who believe in hell; spirituality is for people who’ve been there.” That for me makes a lot of sense.’

Where did Bowie get it? Three years earlier, 1994, it was quoted in a book by John Lucas called "Winning a Day at a Time." Quoth John:

“Religiosity is often for those people who are afraid to go to hell, and spirituality is for people like me who have already been to hell.“

Also in 1994, "The Road to Healing” by Raymond Guterman came out, and Guterman attributed the quote this way:

“Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.” (John Lucas, Coach, Philadelphia 76ers)

All over the Internet, people are putting the COPYRIGHT SYMBOL on every poem, every story, even every quote they stick on a blog. They get into flame wars if somebody tweets what they tweeted. Hack comedians and the most obscure of songwriters file suit insisting that SOMEHOW a famous person read their mind or came across their obscure Facebook page and STOLE the QUOTE. People do want, if not MONEY for their creativity, some CREDIT.

Assuming John Lucas was the first to say it (which he most likely wasn't) at least he quoted it before Bowie did. Wouldn't it be a little bit nice for John Lucas and his relatives to see HIS name on a MEME instead of David Bowie? It's a bit dishonest and revolting for a pop star to be idolized not just for a handful of songs and androgyne poses, but for "oh my, one of the most profound and coolest things I've ever read....SHARE IT...pass it along..."

The Internet should be the place of “Snopes” and of working together to debunk lies and celebrate the truth, and that includes who should be credited for their wisdom. You can quote me on that.

NY TIMES GETS A STINK OVER CRYBABY JUDGE KAVANAUGH'S DIRTY DIAPERS

You know SUPREME COURT JUDGE Kavanaugh?

A jurist is supposed to be mature, fair-minded, and show composure under trying circumstances. Then there's THIS guy:

Testifying on why he should be on the Supereme Court, when he's nothing but an arrogant self-serving pig-headed beer-guzzling overgrown preppie from YALE...he cried. And cried. And sobbed. And sniffled. And growled. And cried. And cried.

Whether you think it's ancient history for a drunken college jerk to stick his dick in a girl's hand, or try and jump on her, or expose himself...no question that RIGHT NOW, we have a Supreme Court Judge who he has the emotional maturity of an 7 year-old girl

The Republicans managed to block the ever-simmering Obama from nominating a judge to fill the vacancy. Nope, you're just the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. We're gonna push and shove and screw this up till you leave office. Once TRUMP comes in, THEN we'll rush through a totally unqualified, red-faced dimwit whose most memorable quote is "I LIKE BEER."

Hey hey, the judges are now going to side with the anti-abortion lunatics and religious fanatics. The ones who will gladly fry some convict in the electric chair, because life is precious only when its still in the twat.

Would Red-Faced Beer-Guzzling Judge Kavanaugh have made sure to get an abortion for some woman he abused? Of course not. He would've made her give him a handjob. Maybe he would've shot his load in a nearby half-filled cup of Budweiser.

All the allegations against Kavanaugh were met with: "So?" And "We don't believe what women say."

Recently, MORE allegations have surfaced on this guy. Kill the messenger. The New York Times reported on a new book that charges Kavanaugh with abuses nobody knew about before. But guess what...the woman involved has chickened out. She "can't remember" the vivid things she told her friends. For some reason, she's developed amnesia rather than call out a sitting Supreme Court Judge who happens to be very tight with the Teflon President who has evaded all impeachment efforts while racking up outrageous examples of corruption.

We got some COOL HANDS, Luke, and they are Republicans. They will make sure there's a failure to communicate.

If somebody does manage to communicate some information, and isn't intimidated, then just drown 'em out:

It's always gonna be "FAKE NEWS, FAKE NEWS, FAKE NEWS," a mantra to deflect THE FACTS, THE FACTS, THE FACTS.

Pressure can make a victim of sexual abuse forgetful. It can make a Minnesota senator resign when he should not have resigned. It can stall and then disintegrate cases against movie moguls and peculiar actors. "Charges have been dropped..." A baby buried in a backyard rather than taken to a hospital, or tossed into a car trunk and left to putrify, can be shrugged away as "insufficient evidence" and charges reduced to the equivalent of littering, or no charges at all. A tourist in Italy can be arrested and even convicted on flimsy evidence. It's Kafka's world, we just walk around in the mazes of it.

Crybaby Kavanaugh got a lot of sympathy for sweating, sniffling, stuttering, turning red, and looking like a baby who didn't get a diaper change. After he got what he wanted, the crying shifted:

The Republicans will say "Look at the snowflakes..." How quickly the wet themselves with tears, unlike our brave Kavanaugh. He wasn't wetting himself with mucous sniffles and saliva and copious salt water oozing from his eyeballs. No, that's all FAKE NEWS and PHOTOSHOP.

The Republican answer if you don't like Trump's antics, don't like the rising climate change, don't like the corruption, don't like the waste of taxpayer money, don't like the "swamp" of corrupt officials and ridiculous ambassadors doing nothing in foreign countries, and all the rest of it? "Too bad. Cry about it." And no, unless your KAVANAUGH, crying won't help you.