Holden Caulfield Still Frightens The Establishment


Almost 60 years after it was published, "Catcher In The Rye" continues to be banned by a number of school districts across America.

And why not? Holden Caulfield challenges the establishment, he questions authority, he laughs at social norms, he smokes, he swears, solicits prostitutes and thinks for himself.

This is apparently dangerous to some adults, many of whom were required to read J.D. Salinger's precedent setting book in the 50's, 60's and 70's.

In the 1950's it was banned in almost every high school in America. After all, The Hardy Boys were enough fun and adventure for America's conformist students. Those with a daring side could try Ernest Hemingway, at least those of his books which were approved.

Maybe it was Holden Caulfield that ignited the rebellious spark in that generation which refused to trust their government and protested America's involvement in other countries' civil wars.

Book banning still goes on in America. Strangely enough, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" used to be banned because its main character was a smart-ass, rebellious child character who didn't care what adults told him to do. Today, the same book is banned for a different reason. It is now politically incorrect. Because the book uses a dialect and concepts which we now consider racist, it is considered insensitive and unreadable.

Of course, when it was written, it actually was satirizing racist people of its time.

You can find a reason to ban any piece of literature if you try hard enough.

I thought I would share with you a typical recent half-a-month in Iraq that continues on due to U.S. military presence costing $300 MILLION PER DAY courtesy of your taxes. Do you even care?




Car driver by bomb attached to car, Al-Zab, southwest of Kirkuk 16 Jan 2010

Trade Ministry employee shot dead in car in east Baghdad 16 Jan 2010

Twenty-five by bombs in Jumla market, Najaf 14 Jan 2010

Sunni high school student shot dead in Khalis 14 Jan 2010

One by bomb in market, Mu'lemeen, Baquba 14 Jan 2010

Man by bomb attached to car in Khalidiya 14 Jan 2010

Man and woman shot dead in Al-Arabi, west Mosul 14 Jan 2010

One by roadside bomb, Tesaa Bayar, Abu Ghraib 13 Jan 2010

Seven by suicide truck bomb in Saqlawiyah, near Falluja 13 Jan 2010

Awakening Council member shot dead in Edhaim 13 Jan 2010

One shot dead in Ameen, Baquba 13 Jan 2010

Four police by car bomb in Sadiyah 12 Jan 2010

One by hand grenade in house in al-Qebla, Basra 12 Jan 2010

Taxi driver shot dead in al-Mussayab 11 Jan 2010

Christian vegetable seller shot dead, al-Sanaa al-Qadeema, west Mosul 11 Jan 2010

Body found shot dead in Rouna Ki, south Kirkuk 11 Jan 2010

Man shot in crossfire between insurgents and police in Mosul 10 Jan 2010

Body of young man found shot dead, Dorra, al-Dabas, west of Kirkuk 9 Jan 2010-
10 Jan 2010

15- or 16-year-old boy by roadside bomb, Sinaat al-Karama, east Mosul 9 Jan 2010

Brother of Accountability and Justice Committee member shot dead in east Baghdad 9 Jan 2010

Newly married couple found dead in home in Souran, northeast of Arbil 9 Jan 2010

Two police by roadside bomb, Ras Al-Jadeh , west Mosul 8 Jan 2010

Policeman by roadside bomb in Khanaqin 7 Jan 2010

6-7 by bombs in Hit 7 Jan 2010

One by roadside bomb, Imam Wees road, south al-Saadiya 6 Jan 2010

Two children by bomb in flat in Wadi Hajar, south Mosul 6 Jan 2010

Ten-year-old child by roadside bomb, Yenkeje, near Tuz Khormato 6 Jan 2010

Five women in traffic collision with US vehicle, Al-Nil, north of Hilla 6 Jan 2010

Three police by roadside bombs in Wahed Athar, south Kirkuk 4 Jan 2010

Three by roadside bomb in central Mosul 4 Jan 2010

Bodies of 2 brothers kidnapped in 2005 found in Talafar 4 Jan 2010

Three security guards shot dead in Tal Abta, west of Mosul 3 Jan 2010

Body of man found strangled in Tal al-Riman, west Mosul 3 Jan 2010

Body of kidnapped young man found stabbed in Abrahim al-Khalil , south of Hilla 2 Jan 2010-
4 Jan 2010

Man by car bombs, Eshreen Street, Bayaa, Baghdad 2 Jan 2010

Body of man found in car on Kanan-Baladruz road 2 Jan 2010

Two police shot dead on outskirts of Mosul 2 Jan 2010

Policeman by bomb attached to car in Falluja 1 Jan 2010


Supreme Court Decision Good For NBC



Burbank, CA - AP

The Supreme Court's decision this week that corporations can spend as much money as they like on political campaigns will benefit all the major broadcasters and especially NBC. The network which has only one show in the top 30, a football game, announced that they will become a full-time network that will air only political commercials sponsored by corporations.

Jeff Zucker, head of NBC says, "we don't care who they're for or who they're against. We will become the 24-hour 'all political commercials paid for by corporations' network! We'll be swimming in the money shortly!"

NBC said, "we'll have all 30-60 second spots running all day. To break up the monotony, we'll have only two shows, one will be 'Jay Leno hosts the funniest political commercials sponsored by corporations' and 'Conan has his roster of characters acting out political commercials sponsored by corporations.' We're already booked up for a year!"

No difference between 1953 and 2010


When I was born 57 years ago today, a man named Joe McCarthy was running around accusing everybody of being Communists.

Today, 4 different Joe McCarthy's continue the tradition:

Sarah Palin - Blame It All On God.


Sarah Palin - Blame It All On God.

Sarah Palin has an answer for why everything happens. "It's All God's Plan."

That has been her answer to numerous questions including the explanation of why there is an Iraq War and why she was thrown into the spotlight of politics.

She needs to realize that using her same inspirational logic, it was "God's Plan" for her underage unmarried daughter to have a baby, for her and John McCain to lose the 2008 Presidential Election, for Jay Leno to lose and regain 'The Tonight Show,' and thankfully for both Simon and Paula Abdul to leave 'Idol'."

Considering she not only called the Iraq War part of "God's Plan" AND "a task that is from God," hopefully she doesn't see large scale human tragedies such as earthquakes, also part of "God's Plan."

You never know what these right-winged maniacs are really thinking (as proven so far by Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson).

3 Last Presidents Join Forces

PAT ROBERTSON -- GO TO HELL OR HADES OR HAITI OR SOMEWHERE ELSE FAR AWAY


PAT ROBERTSON -- GO TO HELL OR HADES OR HAITI OR SOMEWHERE ELSE FAR AWAY

RIGHT-WINGED REPUBLICAN TV EVANGELIST PAT ROBERTSON TODAY SAID THAT THE PEOPLE OF HAITI EXPERIENCED THE EARTHQUAKE WHICH HAS KILLED A MINIMUM OF OVER 100,000 OF THEIR PEOPLE BECAUSE--"THEY ONCE MADE A PACT WITH THE DEVIL."

HOURS LATER, SEARCHING FOR A WAY TO COVER-UP HIS STUPIDITY, HE SAID:
"Haiti? I thought they said 'Hades.'"

FOX NEWS IS PROBABLY GOING TO HIRE PAT ROBERTSON AS THEIR NEWEST COMMENTATOR.

AP, Newspapers, Networks...Please Hire A Proofreader

In the last two years, the major wire services, newspapers and networks online continue to release stories filled with typos, mistakes and other glaring errors.

Why can't they hire a proofreader before releasing stories online?

This compelling story was ruined tonight when I read the first paragraph:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – AP -- Miep Gies, the office secretary who defied the Nazi occupiers to hide Anne Frank and her family for two years and saved the teenager's diary not, has died, the Anne Frank Museum said Tuesday. She was 100.

This emotional and intriguing story is destroyed as you read the first few lines and then read it over and over again while saying to yourself, "what? that doesn't make sense."

Happy Birthday Elvis!



Elvis would have been 75 today.

I had the opportunity in my life to talk with members of his "Memphis Mafia," his stepbrother and to Scotty Moore, his original rockabilly guitarist.

For those of you who dismiss Elvis as an actor, probably because all you have seen are some of his "travelogues" such as "Blue Hawaii" or "Viva Las Vegas," take the time to view films he made which show his incredible abilities as a serious performer.

"Love Me Tender," "King Creole," "Charro" and "Stay Away Joe" will show you a very talented performer who could have been as famous as an actor as he was a singer.

However, he only did what Col. Tom Parker told him to do which basically were the travelogues and "make a fast buck" TV-style films.

Scotty Moore told me something that I had never seen in print anywhere before.

He said that when Elvis rose to stardom so fast as a singer, he actually got bored with it and wanted to do something unique: He wanted to form a strictly INSTRUMENTAL group where he would play piano and guitar only and not sing.

When I said that sounded absurd, Moore told me that he was just as surprised, but Elvis told him that.