Two "Bad Guy" Characters From American TV Are Now DEAD!

Sure, both of them were as vilely EVIL as any darkly Satanic, perfidiously wicked, insanely inhuman monster can be, but our question for today is, who was worse? Was it the dangerously brutal, hate-filled, heavily addicted, murderous scum, consumed by his own aspirations for an undeserved self-aggrandizement? Or was it the mob lieutenant nephew of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano?

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Jerry Falwell Is Dead: May Fundamentalism Be Buried With Him

Robert Paul Reyes

May 21, 2007

The corpulent corpse of Jerry Falwell, found on the floor of his office, is symbolic of the state of the religious right.

Many pundits, reporters and bloggers referred to the "untimely death" of the preacher from Lynchburg, VA. Falwell was 73, he had a history of heart problems and he weighed over 300 pounds. It's a miracle he lived so long, when he had to lug around all that excess weight.

Falwell railed against homosexuals, abortionists and pagans, while his three chins quivered in moral indignation. Falwell eschewed preaching against the sins festering in his own congregation: Divorce, gluttony and pride.

Falwell's carcass was smartly dressed in an executive suit, but underneath the well-tailored veneer he was already decomposing. The evangelical kingdom has many megachurches, but the grandeur of the temples can't mask the waning influence of the religious right.

Falwell and Pat Robertson belong to a dying breed of evangelicals who built their empires by scapegoating homosexuals and pagans.

These old relics are being replaced by evangelicals like Rick Warren who have a postmodern sensibility. Instead of relegating gays and lesbians to hell, Warren is very involved in raising money to find a cure for AIDS.

Let's hope that emerging leaders like Warren will give a more welcoming face to the evangelical faith.

Because of Dobson, Falwell and Robertson, the culture at large has come to equate evangelicals with Neanderthal rightwing politics.

Jerry Falwell is dead, may his brand of reactionary fundamentalism be buried with him.

"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others." -- Groucho Marx

The Marx Brothers are loads of fun. I recently watched my first few films and now I'm in love. I had no idea the extent to which they've spilled over into pop culture... TV, films, cartoons, nearly everything. You can learn more about them here.
A few Groucho Marx quotations:

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing..if you can fake that, you've got it made.

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

Dig trenches? With our men being killed off like flies? There isn't time to dig trenches. We'll have to buy them ready made.

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

I sent the club a wire stating, Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.

I didn't like the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions-the curtain was up.

Now there's a man with an open mind - you can feel the breeze from here!

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.

She got her good looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon.

I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas and how he got in my pajamas I'll never know.

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.

Before I speak, I have something important to say.

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

I intend to live forever, or die trying.

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
--Kate

Mmmmmmm.... meat.

I do love meat... and I hate it. It's a bizarre relationship, I have. Growing up on a farm where cattle was raised made ground beef a staple and steaks a frequent choice. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, and gravy was a meal I ate once a week. That is probably why I loved chicken so much.

I recall when I was younger my grandma urging me to eat the breaded skin on my fried chicken breast--I prefer white meat--"It's the best part," she'd say. Then later, after a couple quadruple by-pass surgeries, urging me to skip the tasty skin. How things change.

One thing that is developing in me is a squeamishness with raw meat. Steaks cooked rare used to be "juicy" to me... something I looked forward to and now all I see is blood. I can't deal with any organ meat either. Ugh.

I love bacon and ham. Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato sandwiches are a favorite of mine. When I am at a restaurant that serves sausage links or bacon with the meal and the server asks my choice, I always want to say... BOTH.

Eggs aren't "meat" but they are protein and an animal product so let's talk about them here. I have never cared for eggs. I can really only eat them scrambled or in some kind of cheesy omelet or egg bake. Fried eggs, sunny side up, hard boiled--they all just disgust me. I don't like them deviled or poached. I do not like them Sam I Am. I recall eating a soft boiled egg out of a coffee cup as a child. My dad standing there expectantly. Me trying to blink away the images of a baby bird... It's just too much for me, even as irrational as it seems.

I doubt I could ever function as a vegetarian or vegan but I am leaning that way more and more in my old age, though not for the reasons most people make that choice. Fast Food Nation did a number on me and it was months before I could stomach any fast food options. Now I have to block the gag factor if I let myself think about it, the same way I do when I try not to think of baby birds...

The meat category ranked in order of favorites:
Chicken
Pork roast
Bacon
Ham
Turkey
Roast beef
Steaks
Ground beef
Bratwurst
Spare Ribs
Pork Chops (don't like these much... tough)

I love seafood and fish immensely. I also realize that it's a very regional thing and that there are many kinds of fish I've never tasted. I love crab, tuna, salmon, walleye, trout, cod, lobster, tilapia, clams, and more. Seafood paella is one of my all-time, mouth-watering faves. I'm not much of a shrimp person. A lot of people love shrimp scampi, not me. I don't mind shrimp in things but I would never order it at a restaurant. I don't mind squid.... it's a bit salty, from what I remember. Seafood is best when it's NOT the breaded variety. And tartar sauce disgusts me. (Though I didn't mind the "Fishwish" sandwich I had in the cafeteria at my elementary school--the sauce was orange...)

Any kind of fish that can be improved by melted butter or drizzled lemon juice, is my kind of fish, with the exception of lutefisk. That is one kind of cod I can live without. In my childhood it was served every Christmas Eve and no amount of melted butter could make that taste good to me. Instead, I looked forward to something my dad called Torsk... or poor man's lobster. That was something I loved. I've never been good at cooking fish but recently I tried some herbed salmon recipes. Very yummy. Wonderful in a salad.

--Kate

Things I Fear

skunks
pressure cookers
tornadoes
snakes
ridicule
going blind
badgers
lice
change
getting fat
the future of America

"What would you give for your kid fears?" -- Indigo Girls

--Kate

Every Day Should be Earth Day...

Requiem

When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
“It is done.”
People did not like it here.

by Kurt Vonnegut
from the closing poem in his collection of biographical essays, A Man Without a Country (2005)


--Kate