Arran's Alley

Watch what they do, not what they say.

Mick Arran

Mick Arran
Location
Savannah, Georgia, USA
Bio
I've done everything from recycling to teaching in a pre-school. Most recently I was for 10 years an acting and theater teacher as well as a pallet builder. I read a lot and I'm an old man who remembers the distant past with somewhat more clarity than this morning's breakfast. I've been blogging for a decade and I don't do "light". If you're looking for recipes, self-promoting displays of items made for sale, titillating stories about how I was a pimp for an afternoon, or the beauties of toasters, you've come to the wrong place. Check the Front Page.

MY RECENT POSTS

MAY 17, 2011 8:40AM

Where Have We Seen This Before?

I must admit that I'm having difficulty with this Dominique Whosis thing. On one hand, it does the heart good to see the head of the often-criminal IMF perp-walked in handcuffs and denied bail. 'Bout time somebody in the predatory globalized

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Is Newtie Gangrene actually running for president this time instead of pretending he is as a way of boosting his new book or his lecture fees (which has always before turned out to be his real agenda)? Seems it may be so

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APRIL 14, 2011 4:46PM

A Calm, Rational Conversation

From Digby, who really ought to know better by now.

And once we cut the deficit by doing nothing and everyone has pulled themselves together after this collective panic attack, we can all sit down and have a rational discussion about long term health care costs and fixing that little shortfall

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MARCH 26, 2011 5:36PM

The Rich Win. Always

It occurred to me when I was reading a book on the beginning of the Civil War that we, us ordinary shlubs, have been under the thumbs of the rich since the beginning of what we are foolishly pleased to call "civilization". From the very beginning of socialized tribal

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Socialism. It's scary just to say it, ain't it?

You might think that's a Bad Thing. I mean, hasn't everybody been shying away from terms like "liberal" and "progressive" and "socialist" because we've been taught they represent frightening, evil people and anti-American values? But in fact it's a Go

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MARCH 17, 2011 1:48PM

The Children of Babbitt

A hundred years ago – OK, 89, I rounded it off, so sue me – Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel called Babbitt, the first ever about what our wanna-be-aristocrat upper middle class was really like. It was a hugely successful book, not least because it skewered a smug, self-satisfied, arro… Read full post »

MARCH 15, 2011 5:17PM

IOKIYAR, Meet IOKIYAC

As we are all now well aware, there is a split in the nation's system of law and morality: if you're a conservative Republican , committing fraud is a standard business practice and adultery is justified by your patriotism; if, otoh, you're a liberal Democrat, playing golf is tantamount to treas… Read full post »

MARCH 10, 2011 1:54PM

Did You Know...?

1) Did you know that Newtie would never have committed adultery if he wasn’t such a damned passionate patriot?

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is in the early stages of a presidential campaign, spoke in an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network /

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MARCH 9, 2011 2:03PM

Our Plutocracy: It's Official

In case you had any doubts, this is a plutocracy (Via Avedon):

pie chart 

The financial world is tres concerned that after 30 yrs of outsourcing, globalizing, union destroying, automation, and stock-friendly lay-offs, there isn't much left in the way of employees. (Via FDL's Blue Texan)

Even

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MARCH 5, 2011 2:02PM

Fantasy Politics

I don't suppose I need to ask how this qualifies as "moving to the center". Especially when you consider the latest poll results. It doesn't, of course, except on Wall Street and inside the Village Bubble where life is beautiful all day long and all you have to do is smile.

What seemsRead full post »

The Brilliant Minds in S Dak have come up with plan to eliminate all abortions that is breathtaking in its simplicity, almost elegant. Make it legal to kill the doctors who perform them.

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include k

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Since none of us get anywhere these days espousing intelligent, workable, rational solutions to our deadly problems, and seeing as how the Randian views of the batshit crazy Right (BCR) are so much easier to pursue what with their not having to provide any sort of proof that any solution

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After extensively quoting from a ProPublica report exactly how often the Obama admin rejected the opportunity to add help for homeowners caught in the mortgage/foreclosure trap (otherwise known as cramdown), Atrios winds up by with the usual lib claptrap conclusion: “They fu/… Read full post »

President Barry O, continuing confused on his role wherein he apparently thinks he's president not of a nation but of a corporation that helps other corporations to screw consumers, has decided that with the economy everywhere but Wall Street in free fall and banks foreclosing on homes they don't own

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JANUARY 11, 2011 5:55PM

This Will Not Happen

There’s a new analysis of the Gulf oil spill that makes plain the reasons for it are, as many of us said, systemic. Not an accident, not a once-in-a-lifetime concatenation of incompetence, faulty equipment, and mismanagement, no, the direct result of BAU. The report calls for massive new r/… Read full post »
DECEMBER 23, 2010 3:55PM

The Myth of Christmas

Reprinted from 12.24.06 – And it will continue to be printed every year until the O’Reilly-originated “War on Christmas” BS ends. There’s no antidote to lies except truth.

This would be the time, if ever there was one, to reflect on the meaning of Christmas, but before wRead full post »

DECEMBER 20, 2010 1:58PM

Panic on Wall Street

The Masters of the Universe on Wall Street are shivering with fear, something M's of the U rarely experience, certainly not more than 3 or 4 times per each 4-hr day. Is this because:

  1. They have finally realized that the endgame of the economy-theft they've organized will be a/
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DECEMBER 7, 2010 11:43AM

The Culture of the Rich

So our democracy is finally dead after 235 yrs, replaced by the corporatist plutocracy the rich have always wanted. Our old level-seeking, middle-class-directed economy is no more, replaced by a plutonomy aimed at filling the needs of the rich and ignoring everyone else. Is that as far as it goes? UnRead full post »

NOVEMBER 18, 2010 3:34PM

Liberal Ideas Aren't "Fringe"

In 1964, Lyndon Baines Johnson, not the most liberal of liberal FDR Dems, fought the right-wing poor-bashers by saying stuff like this in speeches all over the country (this excerpt comes from a speech he made in North Carolina on May 7):

Right here in North Carolina, the State where I

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climbing mount mortimer

by Ponsonby  Q Braithwaite 

 

(Ponsie and Carolyn, intrepid as always, have finally reached their destination, the Mortimer Mansion, with limbs intact and hearts of steel. They are, they believe, ready to face whatever dangers await them in their attempt to purlRead full post »

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010 3:55PM

Third Parties: Not Just for Fun Any More

At Norwegianity, Mark Gisleson thinks we have to vote Democrat. The argument he makes is weak but it's the only one there is.

They [Republicans] want us tired. They want to create outrage fatigue so we'll stay home on November 2. Fuck you if you don't vote this year, and fuck yo

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2010 5:12PM

The Rich Need Our Help - $$$ Addiction

No, this isn't another one of those tongue-in-cheek attacks on the rich that have become so fashionable lately, what with them making such horse's asses of themselves. (Via Mark G) I actually have come to believe that rich people really do need our help, not just because it would prevent th/

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 6:22PM

RW Blogger Admits He Hearts Witchcraft

In the world of Right-wingnuttery, it is considered important to espouse only fundamentalist religious views: gays are evil, abortion is evil, Obama is the Antichrist, and Halloween is a symphony for the devil in which demons hide in candy and take over kid’s souls, turning them into Satan&rsquRead full post »

SEPTEMBER 11, 2010 5:21PM

New Liberals = Old Conservatives

David Sirota is having a little difficulty telling the difference between Neoliberal economic policies and the kind the GOP has been pushing for decades. (Via Norwegianity)

In simplistic, Lexus-and-Olive-Tree terms, the neoliberal economic argument goes like this: Tariff-free trade polici

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SEPTEMBER 7, 2010 7:33PM

Obama's Labor Day Kabuki

Everybody, it seems, wants to believe Obama isn't a corporate puppet sell-out. Bob Herbert, who has been very tough on Obama's willingness to give Wall Street anything it wants while refusing Main Street more than the absolute minimum of what it needs, "finally" hears what he's been wanting to h/

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