Is something wrong when Bishop Romney promises to solve the social problems listed in Henry Miller's book, "The Air Conditioned Nightmare," written during WWII?

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Have things changed much at the annual awards ceremony or not?

FADE IN:

A grizzled tough old guy in a dimly lit room speaks:   "You know what I want . . . what do you say, baby?"

Cut to: A very attractive young woman, who looks like the young Lauren Becall, responds:   "As a Republican, I support a ban on all abortions with no exceptions.   I'm a member of the National Rifle Association and support the concealed carry laws and back the NRA on their support of the Stand your ground laws, I also endorse the use of hollowpoint bullets."

She pats her purse and continues:   "If you intend on raping a fellow Republican, first you might want to tell me the answer to the question asked in the movie "Apocalypse Now:'   "How come you guys sit on your helmets?"

Cut to:   the man who hesitates and then replies:   "So we don't get our balls blown off!"

Cut to:   She starts to reach into her purse.   "There's another famous question from another movie:   "Do I feel lucky?' . . . what do you say, baby? . . . if you want this game to continue . . . just whistle . . . you know how to whistle don't you?"

As "Ride of the Valkyries" plays the announcer does the V.O. (Voice Over):   "The American Women's Sharpshooters Team urges all good patriots to vote Republican this fall."

FADE OUT

A hip potential rapist, who knows the sources for all those cinematic questions, might also know that sometimes nothing is a real cool hand, but he might not be willing to bet his bippy, let alone his testicals, on what's in the bag and what's not.

If the fictional American Women's Sharpshooters Team were ever to broadcast this hypothetical advertisement, a good many Republicans might wonder "Whose side are they on?"   This supposed ad would only use Republican talking points so what's for them not to like?

Liberals, who strenuously object to the idea of PACs and advertisements run by groups whose funding is a mystery, are unanimous in the idea that it is mandatory to do all the groundwork necessary to get the Citizens' United advantage removed from politics.   Could they, simultaneously, use the Judo principle of turning an attacker's strength against himself to confuse and outrage the very people who wanted to expand the freedom of speech concept to include advocacy groups and the people known as corporations?  

Obviously the long hard slog to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens' United decision will provide leading liberal spokespersons with job security for years to come and we wish them God's Speed.

In California, proposition 32, is being touted by backers as a remedy for the PAC problems, but many analysts are saying that the measure will give further legal backing to the very practice it is supposed to remedy.    Who doesn't think that's a hysterically funny example of using lies to trick voters?   Folks outside California can read up on the issue but they should look up both the "for" and "against" arguments.   Some critics of the measure say that the proposition will only limit what unions can spend on political ads and not do anything to inconvenience wealthy conservatives who want to buy election results.

The Republicans, who want to prove that they have a sense of humor that will make people laugh, are also urging wage-earners to donate to a group that advocates passing the measure that some wags are calling "the Billionaires' Bill of Rights."   

That, in turn, causes us to wonder if Republicans, when they ask their children if they smoke pot, want their kids to tell the truth in response to that question or if they are looking to get verification that conservative kids have learned the lesson of sounding very sincere when they lie or make campaign promises.   What advice would Ayn Rand give to children who are being asked:   "Do you smoke pot?"   Is there a smoke-lie rule that applies?   I.e. if you can get into trouble over pot, just tell a convincing lie.

Since the Republicans seem determined to blame President Obama for the deficits caused by the wars George W. Bush started but kept off the balance sheet, why didn't President Obama proclaim that the "off the books" expenses had become a bipartisan American tradition and keep them off the books?   When President Obama served his partial term as Senator didn't he learn the old political legend that the Republicans spend like there's no tomorrow when they are in power and then talk up balanced budgets nonstop when they are not in power?

Since Bishop Romney's strategy of stressing his business record, which he won't discuss, and giving assurances that his tax forms, which he won't release, provide compelling reasons for electing him President have produced poll results which indicate a virtual tie; the World's Laziest Journalist is beginning to think that political punditry has become superfluous and that it is time to start writing columns that are less partisan by tackling topics such as "Have the Oscar Ceremonies changed much since we took photos of Francis Ford Coppola with Mario Puzo?"

Columnists, who consider their mission is to proivde snide comments about all politicians, might be more inclined to ask their audience if watching the Republicans try to ignore a major hurricane disaster reminded them of King Lear.   Many people might not get the joke and ignore the source but when Ayn Rand advised her disciples not to vote for St. Ronald Reagan for President, didn't she get ignored too?

The world's laziest journalist has always been fascinated by picaresque adventures and the people who chronicle their travel experiences but it wasn't until after posting last week's column that we learned that Henry Miller had written a book about his experiences on the road.   We were disappointed to learn that the Berkeley Public Library didn't have a copy to borrow, but Moe's Bookstore on Telegraph Avenue had a used volume of a collection of Miller's work for sale.   It included the text of "The Air Conditioned Nightmare."  

After living in Paris for almost a decade, Miller had returned to the USA because Europe was on the brink of a cataclysmic war and he wanted to write a book about the return of the prodigal son experiences he would gather while traveling around his native land.

Pseudo Intellectuals (moi?) will be delighted to find a cornucopia of very intriguing pre Pearl Harbor pop culture trivia in the book.   Miller assumed that his audience would know who the writers Hermes Trismegistus and Kenneth Patchen and British actress Olga Nethersole were but we had to look them up.   The names of these once famous personalities have become rather obscure examples of Google-bait.  

For a columnist who has covered various episodes from the Occupy protests in Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco, Miller's laundry list of social complaints sounded very much as if they "were ripped from today's headlines."

If economic inequity was a topic for Henry Miller seventy years ago and if it will be a hot issue for activists seventy years in the future, what then is the benefit that will be derived from doing the work necessary to post columns online about the issues that are generating the news events that transpire as the United States prepares to celebrate the workers of the world on Labor Day of 2012?   (Were the people who worked to establish Labor Day as a legal holiday, asked the HUAC question?)

If the prospect of providing reading matter for a bookstore customer seventy years in the future were very rational, then working to do some fact finding and providing some speculative comments about the personality of a Mormon bishop might be worth the effort, but if seeking fame and fortune are not valid motives for doing all the required labor, then the only reason left is:   "Just for the fun of it."   If that's the case . . . .

If Scanlan's Magazine was open to sending a leading practitioner of the Gonzo style journalism to report on the festivities surrounding the running of the Kentucky Derby, then maybe (just maybe mind you) they might be willing to give the World's Laziest Journalist a similar assignment and send him back to the Oscars - .

Other than giving permission to our self to use a picture we took at the Oscars - almost forty years ago, we have no way to prove to Scanlon's that we covered the awards program back in the mid Seventies but if Bishop Romney can convince America that his unavailable business history is just as valid as Nixon's secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, then perhaps there is still hope.

Quote wranglers will be delighted with the assorted possibilities provided in the works of Henry Miller.   We like this incomplete sentence:   "A man seated in a comfortable chair in New York, Chicago or San Francisco, a man surrounded by every luxury and yet paralyzed with fear and anxiety, controls the lives and destinies of thousands of men and women whom he has never seen, whom he never wishes to see and whose fate he is thoroughly uninterested in."

The disk jockey will play some music he thought might have been appropriate at the Republican National Convention: AC/DC's song "Big Balls,"   the Kiwi song "My father was an All Black," and   Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."   We have to go over to Frisco to see "Vertigo," which is the best movie ever made (according to some Brits).   Have a "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" type Labor Day Weekend.

Authors Website: marijuana-news.org/smokesignals

Authors Bio:

BP graduated from college in the mid sixties (at the bottom of the class?) He told his draft board that Vietnam could be won without his participation. He is still appologizing for that mistake. He received his fist photo lesson from a future Pulitzer Prize winner. (Eddie Adams in the AP lunch room told him to get rid of the everready case for his new Nikon F). A Pulitzer Prize winning reporter broke BP in on the police beat for a small daily in Pa. By 1975, Paul Newman had asked for Bob's Autograph.
(Google this: "Paul Newman asked my autograph" and click the top suggested URL.)
His co-workers on the weekly newspaper in Santa Monica,(in the Seventies) included a future White House correspondent for Time magazine and one of the future editors high up on the Playboy masthead. Bob has been to the Oscar ceremony twice before Oscar turned 50.
He is working on a book of memoirs tentatively titled "Paul Newman Asked for my Autograph." In the gold mining area of Australia (Kalgoorlie), Bob was called: "Col. Sanders."