a little more action

I was just reminded by Crimewave contributor, Terry Gilmer, that Collin was not the first person to daydream about there being a Mark Maynard action figure… Here’s a snapshot from the world of Mr. Gilmer (where Linette and I, and the characters from the Simpsons get together to buy him drinks each night).

While I think I look a little too much like a Nazi from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” I think the Linette action figure is just about perfect, right down to her little beer can hat and the piece of green plastic she’s rolled herself up in.

Posted in Mark's Life | Leave a comment

from the ministry of information

Over the course of the past few weeks, we learned that the Bush administration has made it a practice to pay columnists for their enthusiastic support of the neo-conservative agenda. As this practice was impossible to defend, Bush said that he’d see to it that it was stopped. In spite of his promise, Senators Kennedy and Lautenberg, however, have proposed what they’re calling the Stop Government Propaganda Act. I haven’t read it yet, but I’d think, at least judging from the name, that it would be hard fight for the Democrats to lose. (And, even if they don’t get the votes of some Republicans, they get the opportunity to run against people in ’06 who voted FOR propaganda.)

While we’re on the subject of the administration using suspect methods to sell us on legislation that we wouldn’t otherwise support, it’s worth noting that this president has spent more of our tax money on PR firms than any other administration in history. Here’s a clip from a recent USA Today story:

The Bush administration has more than doubled its spending on outside contracts with public relations firms during the past four years, according to an analysis of federal procurement data by congressional Democrats.

The administration spent at least $88 million in fiscal 2004 on contracts with major public relations firms, the analysis found, compared with $37 million in 2001, Bush’s first year in office. In all, the administration spent $250 million on public relations contracts during its first term, compared with $128 million spent for President Clinton between 1997 and 2000.

How much do you want to bet that there will be an ad during the Super Bowl about why we desperately need to dismantle Social Security before it kills us? (I’m picturing a giant Social Security monster stomping on the elderly like Godzilla.)

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

call him a paranoid lunatic, but he’s usually right

Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who broke the Abu Ghraib torture story, is now looking into the administration’s systematic dismantling of the generally non-partisan CIA and its replacement with something much more right-leaning and agenda-driven… That, in part, was what he was discussing a few days ago when he appeared at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York. You can find a video and transcript at Democracy Now, and a good discussion at the Daily Kos site. Here’s just a little taste:

There’s a lot of anxiety inside the — you know, our professional military and our intelligence people. Many of them respect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as much as anybody here, and individual freedom. So, they do — there’s a tremendous sense of fear. These are punitive people. One of the ways — one of the things that you could say is, the amazing thing is we (have) been taken over basically by a cult, eight or nine neo-conservatives have somehow grabbed the government. Just how and why and how they did it so efficiently, will have to wait for much later historians and better documentation than we have now, but they managed to overcome the bureaucracy and the Congress, and the press, with the greatest of ease. It does say something about how fragile our Democracy is. You do have to wonder what a Democracy is when it comes down to a few men in the Pentagon and a few men in the White House having their way. What they have done is neutralize the C.I.A. because there were people there inside — the real goal of what Goss has done was not attack the operational people, but the intelligence people. There were people — serious senior analysts who disagree with the White House, with Cheney, basically, that’s what I mean by White House, and Rumsfeld on a lot of issues, as somebody said, the goal in the last month has been to separate the apostates from the true believers. That’s what’s happening. The real target has been “diminish the agency.” I’m writing about all of this soon, so I don’t want to overdo it, but there’s been a tremendous sea change in the government. A concentration of power.

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

the clementine

A few months ago, I mentioned here on the site that I wanted to create a new mixed drink and name it after my daughter. I offered a prize for the best idea, and thousands of drink recipes rolled in for “The Clementine.” After weeding out all the ones that sounded vomit inducing, or contained sawdust, melted plastic, chips of lead paint and the like, I convened a panel of professional drinkers to pour over the remaining entries. After a great deal of discussion, we narrowed the field down to three, and, at that point, I said that there would be a taste test someday soon to determine the winner… Well, that day is tomorrow.

Linette and I have been invited to a party in Ann Arbor tomorrow night, and I thought that it would be a perfect place to hold the last round of “The Clementine Challenge.” So, I just got back from the store, where I spent about a hundred bucks on top-shelf booze, cherries, Enfamil, mashed peaches, and clementines (the little fruits). The only thing I couldn’t find were the blood oranges.

So, that’s why I’m writing… I want to know if you can tell me where to get two blood oranges at this time of the year in southeastern Michigan. I’ve tried Hiller’s and Meijer’s, and I plan to try Whole Foods tomorrow morning. Do you have any other ideas? How about that produce place in the Kerrytown complex, or the Asian store on Packard? Have you seen a blood orange lately? If so, where?

As for the drink competition, I’m looking forward to it. I think it should be fun. All three of the recipes look good, even the one that incorporates baby food and formula… If I get my shit together, I might even take my video camera out and try to tape some responses. (I’ll post the winner over the weekend, but for the whole story, you might have to wait until the next issue of Crimewave comes out.)

Posted in Mark's Life | 6 Comments

my awesome figure

I just received this from Collin. I’d like to make some kind of insightful statement about it, but I can’t get past how FUCKING HOT I am with a waist… And in case you can’t read the small print, here it is: “Not responsible for sudden onset of obsessive-compulsive behavior or blood-filled eyes. Wash hands after using. Three times ought to do it. Highly poisonous. Do not chew. Contains small parts and evil. Sticks to most fabrics. Buyer beware. Ball shaving kit not included. Not suitable for children under the age of three.”

Posted in Mark's Life | 10 Comments

Connect

BUY LOCAL... or shop at Amazon through this link Banner Initiative VG Kids space