Blog WCCT Blogbort

The Humble Bees Show Their Uke Expertise in Middlefield on Thursday

A veritable summit of the strummers will take place Thursday evening in lovely Middlefield, Conn. There (at Peckham Park) and then (at 6:30), you will be treated to the five-man uke group the Humble Bees, as well as special guest performance by Jim and Liz Beloff, who have been, ahem, instrumental in sparking the national revival of the ukulele. Jim (whose father, Marv, is a member of the Humble Bees) was raised in Meriden but now lives in California. He’s written the book (literally) on...

Glenn Beck's Bad Karma

If indeed karma, good and bad, does exist in this world, I wish it would rear its head soon. Glenn Beck, in particular, seems ripe for a major does of cosmic blowback.

Good News for Nose Pickers

Stinky Journalism has gone to the mat with the New York Daily News for their gallery of photographs that catch celebrities and public figures in unflattering moments.

Joe the Markley

You think the protests in Wisconsin can’t happen here? Give the Tea Party a chance to pull the levers of power in Hartford and any sort of madness is possible. The governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, who was recently swept into power on a Tea Tidal Wave, has introduced a budget so extreme, so filled with union-busting nonsense that does nothing to actually cut spending, that the good people of Wisconsin have risen up against him, and the state government. It’s...

CNN=New Fox News?

Danke Schoen, Herr Hammer

In the wake of Tom Delay’s conviction and sentencing to three years in prison for conspiring to direct laundered corporate money to Texas Republican candidates—and subverting democracy in the process—it may be interesting to examine the roots of his crime spree.

Blood on Sarah's Hands

Question: Why was it that Sarah Palin was one of the first self-appointed “leaders”

Better Late Than Never

Lost in the haze of turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce was this bit of lovely news: Tom DeLay was convicted of money laundering by a Texas jury and faces a possible life prison sentence. Now, in addition to his credentials as Majority Whip, Dancing With the Stars contestant, gerrymanderer, sleazeball and backroom extortionist, Mr. Delay can add "convicted felon" to his resume.

Hang Down Your Head, Tom Foley

Linda's Bling

According to Aaron Blake of the Washington Post, Linda McMahon "spent $454 of her own money on each vote she got in her Connecticut primary win last month, making her campaign the most expensive per-vote in the country during a primary season rife with self-funders."

Rev. Terry Jones (R-Hades)

The Wrong Reverend Terry Jones (R-Hades) is the face of the modern Republican Party. Oh how I wish this Terry Jones were the same Terry Jones who was a member of the Monty Python troupe, just as I have always wished that Sarah Palin was somehow related to Python's Michael Palin. (And do we know this isn’t the case? I mean, have...

Sad Satire

Right wing blabbermouth Laura Ingraham is making more than her usual racket of late. As guest host of Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News program, she seems to suffer under the delusion that she is the smartest person in the studio. And yet every guest, when they get a chance to speak around her rude interruptions, has completely upstaged her, if not humiliated her. Ingraham is like her namesake Doctor Laura, in that she...

Beyond the Palin (Again)

Sarah’s slapstick sideshow continues. That is, former governor Sarah Palin has sent out another fundraising pitch so that “real Americans” can help her pay for her “massive” legal fees. My guess is that “real Americans” have other, more pressing financial matters to attend to than to help out someone who has made $12 million since quitting her job and walking away from her responsibilities to the...

Little Lord Poopy Pants

Pampers has jumped the shark. They are now selling designer diapers. These must-have items cost $6 more per pack than regular diapers and they will be coming to a Target near you soon.

Manute Bol

One of my favorite NBA players of all time, Manute Bol, died last week. I only just found out about it from a friend with whom I used to go to Washington Bullets games specifically to watch Bol play. Thin as a telephone pole, but 7 foot 7 inches tall, Bol was one of the most endearingly awkward pro athletes I have ever seen play. He was also a shot-blocking machine and a crowd favorite for his sunny disposition and his good works off the court for his Sudanese people.

Sarah Palin, Con Artist Par Excellence

I am in awe of Sarah Palin. She truly is one of the great con artists of my lifetime, and she only seems to get more brazen and shameless as we slouch through the heat of summer toward an election showdown.

Wasted Water

On my usual roadside litter rounds this past week, I was struck by a phenomenon about waste. It isn’t a new phenomenon but it’s new to me because I’m paying more attention to the “natural spring” water bottles now that state venues offer 5 cents back upon their redemption. (Redemption feels like the wrong word, since there is little redeeming about plastic waste).

What Hath Orrin Hatched?

Sen. Orrin Hatch, assuming the “Doddering Fool” role so ably filled for decades by Strom Thurmond, is out to get soon-to-be Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). Blumenthal’s recent misrepresentation of his Vietnam-era military record created a 3-day media shower that appears to have run its course.

Hurry Up, 2012!

At my age, time already moves too fast for me to wish that the future would arrive any sooner. But I will make an exception for one thing. That is, 2012 can’t get here soon enough, because that’s when we can send Joe Lieberman packing. His proposal yesterday—on Fox News, of course—to “automatically” suspend the rights of citizenship of anyone with “suspected ties” to terrorists was the worst sort of...

An Open Letter to the Plastics Industry Trade Association

Dear SPI: The Plastic Industry Trade Association

Earth Rules

As Earth Day looms upon us again, we are inundated by messages to be more “environmentally friendly,” at least for this week or until all the “green” sale items are gone. For example, every grocery stores you visit now suggests buying one of their vinyl or canvas shopping bags and using one of their gimmicky handheld computo-wands to tell you what’s “good” or “bad” for you and Mother Earth. But if grocery stores...

Traveling Violations

It seems fitting that, on the day after the UNC Tar Heels men’s basketball team lost the NIT championship game to the University of Dayton, that I would stumble on Ken Krayeske’s slam-dunk expose of recruiting expense shenanigans at UNC and at UConn. His “UConn and UNC Basketball: The Not-So Complete Picture of Recruiting Expenses” can be found on his blog/ Web site, The 40 Year Plan.

Emergency: East Haddam

James Howard Kunstler has seen the future and its name is emergency. To be more precise, its name is The Long Emergency, which is the prescient book Kunstler published in 2005 that lives up to its subtitle: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century.

Act Your Rage

No, with this headline, this is not a post about Tea Baggers or anti-tax "heroes" flying their private planes into government buildings in protest. This is a post about New Jersey's finest, and longest lived, garage band, The Doughboys, whose new album Act Your Rage has shoved aside all my other CDs for the past week.