Oh yeah I wrote a column the other week...

I'm trying to un-atrophy my blogging muscles. In the meantime you can read my column for the PittNews.. I should have another column this week. Wednesday.

This column, from last week, isn't political. It's my real reaction to watching Entourage.

I fucking love this show. And just about every fella I've talked to that has seen it is of the same opinion. It's Sex and the City, for guys. As in, just as S&tC had everything the ladies wanted in a program, Entourage has just about everything I look for in my television. That and Jeremy Piven is fucking gold.

But yeah, the column doesn't have much to do with Entourage, except that if life in the Entertainment Industry is as glamorous as portrayed within the show, I am fucking moving to LA.

Yeah, so yeah...

I feel really unoriginal right now, and I need to deal with that, fella.

So in the meantime read this excellent post by Greg Saunders of Talent Show:

This isn't a partisan game and it's not funny. Treating the indictments of government officials like a holiday is pretty childish coming from a left-wing so politically neutered that we have to rely on a grand jury to score political points for us. So wipe that smile off your face. George W. Bush is going to be President for the next three years. The next chance the Democrats have to regain the Senate and the House is more than a year away, but despite every Republican misstep that's happened lately, it's still doubtful that Democrats will be able to get their shit together well enough to swing either body. You want to celebrate? Try winning an election first. Just because your opponent fell doesn't mean you knocked him down.

You say "schadenfreude", I say "fucking embarrassment".

And I would be lying if I said that I don't feel waves of jubilance. But it's more than schadenfreude, it's a sense of relief that parts of the system seem to be working after 5 years of them not. Its nice, I hope it continues until a few old white men are in jail.

Yeah this isn't much of a post. Baby steps, ya'll.

I just said ya'll, wtf.

OMG, MIDTERMS ARE OVER LMAOROFFLES!!!

Haha! I emerge victorious! I r00l and midterms dr00l.

Anyway, apart from sitting about 5 ft from the future Democratic Senator from PA, Bob Casey, I have a new column for the PittNews. Read it.

The blogsault will return on Monday, have a great mo'fucken weekend!

I don't hate Halloween...

...But if I may speak for all that cannot, stop dressing up your pets.

Actually strike that. Keep dressing up your cats. Simply because the resulting vengeful glare is when they are at their most human.


...you can almost hear their oaths of retribution...


Yeah, so last midterm today in less than 2 hours. My good buddy Steven Bonko is in town, so I'm bracing myself for all the awesome and irresponsible things we'll do.

(and by that I mean, read ghost stories to eachother, mom)

The Colbert Report...

If Steve Colbert can maintain the level of awesome that he presented in the debut of The Colbert Report, Jon Stewart's going to get a run for his money.



I mean, I could watch the gravitas-off for hours on end, it was amazing. Well done, Steve.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel: 3 papers down, 2 midterms, a paper, a column and a magazine left.

Also, it seems lightning has struck. Welcome back, Pat.

I've decided to return...

Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
The stillness, as a Chinese jar still
Moves perpetually in its stillness.
Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,
Not that only, but the co-existence,
Or say that the end precedes the beginning,
And the end and the beginning were always there
Before the beginning and after the end.
And all is always now. Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still. Shrieking voices
Scolding, mocking, or merely chattering,
Always assail them. The Word in the desert
Is most attacked by voices of temptation,
The crying shadow in the funeral dance,
The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera...

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

- T.S. Eliot, "Four Quartets"

One of the reasons I haven't blogged in a while is that I haven't been satisfied with my ability to represent with language the sudden, spontaneous, intuitive thoughts I have. However, I've decided that I need to write every day in order to get better at it. Frequently I won't write about politics, at least not in the way Arun and Sean write about politics, because quite frankly I hate politics and politicians. Anyway, just announcing my return.

Breaking radio silence...

Yeah, the first half of The Silenced Lion is over, only one more week until I resume assaulting the internets with my unfiltered opinion.

I break this silence only to mourn the loss of an icon of progressive blogging, Jesse Taylor. He's left Pandagon to do some nonsense about a governor's campaign. I'd rather he stayed to entertain me, but I suppose his life is his own, or something.

Fare thee well, Jesse.

::over and out::krrrk

Fucking midterms...

Yeah, as you may have noticed the postings have been sporadic at best recently. That's because of stupid midterms. I have a bunch of papers due this week and a bunch of tests the following week. Also, I am trying to finish the first issue of Left Hook Magazine to be published in a couple weeks as well as write a column for the paper every week.

So, I am taking a break from the blog until the smoke clears. I might post, I might not. I will, however, link to my columns so check back here on Wednesday!

The Silenced Lion bids you all a good two weeks (unless lightning strikes and Sean or Pat decide to post). I hope I see you on the other side.

UPDATE: The column I wrote this week was a peice of shit and I told my editor not to publish it. I'm in a slump and its all school's fault. It'll get better.

The funny returns...

You look glum, friend. You know what'll cheer you up? Reading my latest column for the PittNews. It's swell.

Piling on Delay is the most fun.

Happy day...

Delay has been indicted again! This time for money laundering. How gangsta!

A Texas grand jury indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday for alleged involvement in money laundering related to the 2002 Texas election, raising new and more serious allegations than the conspiracy charge lodged against the former House majority leader last week.

And he'll need every bit of that newfound street cred when he's trying to avoid the beatings he'll receive by every minority in his cellblock.

The surprising new indictments followed by a matter of hours a motion by DeLay's Texas legal defense team to quash last week's charge on grounds that the Texas prosecutor in charge of the case lacked authority to bring it. The lawyers alleged that the crime of conspiracy was not covered by the state election law at the time of the alleged violation.

So his lawyers have implicitly admited he was involved in the acts in question. Which is nice.

DeLay, who had earlier accused the prosecutor -- Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle -- of partisan zealotry, promptly issued a statement accusing him of stooping "to a new low with his brand of prosecutorial abuse." DeLay said Earle "is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate." The congressman added: "This is an abomination of justice."

Well, I mean you'd think Delay would be better able to discern "abomnations of justice" considering his, you know, being one. Obviously his perception is failing as he gets closer to donning prison garb. Do those come in Armani?

Hear hear...

I am at home in DC for my grandmothers service. She would have been 86 today. I miss her so much and I wish I was a better grandson. I've never been to a funeral and I don't want to make this a habbit. So. Stay put, all of you.

Furthermore, since I won't be blogging this weekend I will leave you with what I would have said if Ross hadn't beat me to it a-goddamned-gain:

Look, We all knew Roberts was going to be confirmed. The people of this increasingly sick and depraved nation seem perfectly happy to turn power over to quasi-fascist dicks who promise them blood, glory, and food. I don't know what's worse, the twisted, lazy sociopathy that defines the modern American middle class voter, the "what are you going to do about it, faggot?" attitude towards corruption displayed without shame by our Feudal masters in Washignton, or the fact that millions of poor and middle class morons listen to the endless chatter of the rich parasites who are ruining this country, and believe themselves to be a part of their club.

Where was I? Oh yes, Roberts. We knew he was going to be confirmed, but couldn't the spineless pussies who call themselves Democrats at least try to put up a perfunctory fight? If only to be on record fighting for what's right? How fucking difficult is it to do the right thing? It's not like the democratic traitors who voted to confirm this sexist pig will gain any advantage from having done so. Seriously, how fucking hard is it to act on principle?

Who else wants to get pass-out drunk instead of thinking about that donkey tattoo on their ass*? I'll be the one in the corner booth weeping into a glass of scotch.


* I thought it was clever.

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARRIE MOFUCKIN' SHAFER, HERE'S TO 21 MORE YEARS OF YOUR WHITE BREAD FACE!