I can't cook a Thanksgiving dinner. All I can make is cold cereal and maybe toast.

Happy Thanksgiving to all great friends and family! I can think of a lot of things to be thankful for this year which is probably in and of itself the biggest thing I'm thankful for.

Love ya all!

Dean

Someone get that dirty old man out of this operating theater.

There isn't a whole lot to say about the sad passing of Robert Altman other than to say I personally salute him for two amazing achievements: single-handedly changing the style of western films with "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and being the first director of a major motion picture with the balls to use the word "fuck" in it's dialog.

RIP, sir.

Come on, this man has been under a lot of pressure.

Sometimes it's hard to escape the fact that a goodly portion of progressives have a stick up their ass. You know the people I'm talking about; humorless, iron-deficient drones who flee from pop culture like Dracula from holy water.

Over at Tapped there's a small spat taking place over Michael Richards's recent racist remarks during a stand-up routine. Charles Pierce took a whack at Richards's tirade by observing, in part, that the late comic Sam Kinison was much better and channeling the angry id. This prompted the following response from fellow Tapped blogger Garance Franke-Ruta:

Why is it that misogyny is the only hatred still defended by men of the left? Seinfeld soothed the "maidenly vapors" people had around Kinison? My recollection was that Kinison was a disgusting, hateful, hate-filled boor and those "maidenly vapors" he raised were genuine feminist objections to him, by women who were, for example, trying to create a situation so that girls like myself were not, in the 1980s, subjected to his rants (and those of the equally gross Andrew Dice Clay) by our older brothers and their friends.

Personally I wouldn't bet the farm on Franke-Ruta's recollection. Kinison was indeed rude and crude, of that there's little argument. But characterizing Kinison as a misogynist portrays a serious misunderstanding of the man's approach to comedy.

I remember vividly spending a date with the very progressive future Mrs. Wormer sitting in my car and listening to a tape of Kinison's stand-up and laughing profusely. As a former pastor Kinison's take on religon and Jesus were inspired. Both of us were big fans of Kinison yet neither of us could stand the aforementioned Andrew Dice Clay because we found he himself to be too much of a misogynist. What is that seperated Kinison from Clay?

Pathos. Despite his screaming Kinison rarely came across as truly angry. Instead he came across as someone that'd been beat up pretty good by life and was in a lot of pain. For all the abuse heaped on others he himself was generally the biggest target of his own satire. Clay - who calmly chain smoked and recited dirty limericks during his own act - came across as somebody who really hated women and everybody else that didn't make up his target audience of frat boys.

The nose of the police dog, although long and efficient, points in only one direction at a time.

You'll have to admit this murder/ shooting of Clinton's neighbors looks a trifle suspicious. Obviously it should be front-page news now that the OJ deal has fallen by the wayside. What the press really needs now is former congressman Dan Burton "proving" the Clintons were involved by summoning them to watch him shooting a watermelon in his back yard. Those were good times.

I'm sure Larry Klayman can be talked into coming out of retirment to dig into this story and get to the bottom of the Clinton's guilt. Perhaps it involved a love triangle or swinging or something really sordid like that. Proof? Not necessary where the Clintons are involved. The burden of proof lies somewhere between innuendo and just-made-this-up-out-of-whole-cloth when it's Bill and Hillary.

Of course to really make this nostalgia come alive they'd have to bring in Richard Mellon Scaife to finance the investigation. I'm sure it wouldn't take much convincing. I'm sure he still hates the Clintons. He just didn't seem the forgiving type.

"Spokespeople for the Clintons did not immediately respond to requests for comment."

I don't doubt it for a second.

Take your stinkin' paws of me, you damn dirty ape!

Damn, dirty hippies are apparently trying to ruin everything in Kentucky (and America.) I'm sure Digby and Duncan will be on the case.

Child of the kindly West, I have come to know, if more of us valued your ways - food and cheer above hoarded gold - it would be a merrier world.

Those that felt Peter Jackson did a poor job of interpreting Tolkein for the big screen are going to be happy at this news. I'm personally not the least bit happy that my position that Jackson got a lot more right than he did wrong and it could've been much, much worse is about to be vindicated when someone else takes the helm of the Hobbit.

Let me see if I've got this straight: in order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying.

I imagine you've already seen this Washington Post article outlining a pentagon summary of options in Iraq but just in case you missed it-

Pentagon review sees 3 options in Iraq

The Pentagon's closely guarded review of how to improve the situation in Iraq has outlined three basic options: Send in more troops, shrink the force but stay longer, or pull out, according to senior defense officials.

Insiders have dubbed the options "Go Big," "Go Long" and "Go Home." The group conducting the review is likely to recommend a combination of a small, short-term increase in U.S. troops and a long-term commitment to stepped-up training and advising of Iraqi forces, the officials said.

Personally I would haved dubbed the three options "Go Big," "Dogpaddle" and "Go Home" but that's just me being a silly realist. "Go Long" does imply throwing a Hail Mary pass so at least it somewhat captures the slim chance of success of what really amounts to staying the course.