Your children will all die of gouda overdoses while blowing crack dealers. After eight o'clock at night.

Here's something from the always-entertaining sun-gazette letters page. It's no fucking WONDER Bushco can manipulate people so easily: we're terrified of our own shadows in this country.

Parents FYI: ‘Cheese’ is coming. Don’t know what ‘Cheese’ is? It’s a new drug kids are using; it is heroin based and very addictive, showing a 600 percent increase in patients for addiction. Plus, there is a very high death rate associated with ‘Cheese’.

Parents not setting boundaries and disciplining bad behavior just is not acceptable unless you don’t care if your kid comes home in a body bag. With this, you handful of good parents need to put a zero tolerance in place now. No dating until 18; home by eight; no sleepovers; no contact with kids that smoke, drink or are screwing around; no booty calls; and adult supervision and checking everyday on the kids. And they are children until the age of 25.

Drugs, smoking, drinking and sex are all interrelated. Any of them makes your kid vulnerable and can lead to codependency and your child adopting this kids behavior. Having a boyfriend or girlfriend too young is pressure that only increases those chances of harming your child. Being sexually active too young is addictive, stunts, growth, lowers intelligence, shortens life and leads to the violent behavior we are seeing all too often.

‘Cheese’ is in the south now, but will be here soon. It is deadly. Are your kids out Fridays and weekends to the drug, drinking, and sex parties now? In the future, when they use “cheese,” will they come home?

Jerry L. Robison

Jersey Shore

What happened to Against the Blog?

What happened was that I read the last two hundred-plus pages in a single day, putting me even more woefully behind than usual, and then I got horrifically bogged down writing and grading papers and, well...I'm still totally all about the book, but the further away you get the more difficult, to say nothing of irrelevant, it becomes. I may go back to it when I get sufficiently far-advanced in the audiobook, but doing more now would do no good to anybody. Assuming that the previous entries did.

Random WAH???!!!

Now that we've driven everyone off by never posting, let's revive an old favorite, shall we?

01. Elvis Costello, "Tears Before Bedtime"
The opening track from Imperial Bedroom isn't the best thing from the album, but it serves as a good introduction for what's coming. Lots of layers and deceptively spiky, acid relationship lyrics. 7/10

02. Steeleye Span, "Longbone"
Surprisingly creepy. Possibly my favorite original Span song, which is damning with faint praise, but it really is good. They go to the giant's island to try to take the giant's gold, with disastrous results. 8/10

03. The Chieftains, "Tears of Stone"
Slow instrumental. Very nice musicianship, I must say. The point is, I approve. 8/10

04. Dexys Midnight Runners, "Plan B"
People only know "Come On Eileen," but this is my favorite DMR song. Starts slow, then explodes onto the scene at about the minute and a half mark, with electrifying results. Sincere and good in a moral sense. 9/10

05. Roxy Music, "Avalon"
Undoubtedly impeccably refined and sophisticated. Even if I don't love it, it certainly does what it sets out to do with great proficiency. 7/10

06. Psychedelic Furs, "Highwire Days"
There are those who complain about the Furs having gotten less punkish and more poppy in their latter years. I can sympathize with this in principle, but I didn't hear the band until long after they had broken up, so what do I care? I am not ashamed to proclaim that this is a thrilling song. 8/10

07. Gordon Bok, "These Dry Stone Walls"
A minimal kind of song. I like it, though that might be in large part due to nostalgia. I do wish I knew it's history--regardless, though, It isn't an all-time Bok classic. 6/10

08. Evensong, "Gypsie"
A gentle, hippyish, sixties folk thing. Melodic and wistful. 8/10

09. Stan Ridgway, "Stormy Side of Town"
If you know Ridgway at all, the title should give a good idea of what this sounds like. A vivid little portrait of the area in question. Hard to believe it wasn't an album track. 8/10

10. Johnny Dowd, "First there Was"
Languid little murder ballad. He seems very detached--almost bored--about being hanged. I mean that in a good way, mostly. 7/10

Fuck Jerry Falwell

Condolences to the bereaved, of course, but there's not a hell of a lot of good to be said about the man himself. Here is a good summation.

The Official Inchoatia Presidential Endorsement

Mike Gravel! Seriously. What a cool guy. This country would probably suck a lot less if he won. A ringing endorsement for sure!

This would sound like complete gibberish to many people.

But I'd like to note that the new version of the Mac port of SNES9X--1.51--is the FIRST ONE EVER that works with the English translation of Wonder Project J. Huzzah!

Incredible New Chick Tract!

When my brother wrote to give me a heads-up about the new Chick tract, he alleged that it was "possibly the greatest one ever." Naturally, I was skeptical--that's a pretty high bar to clear. To achieve that level of greatness, I thought, it would have to feature Pirate Grandpa battling Muslim ninjas atop an exploding zeppelin--high above the streets of Neo-Tokyo! But I'm a big enough man to admit it: I was wrong. I know I usually try to provide some sort of commentary on these things, but in this case I feel like there's nothing I say. This tract is so awesome as to defy commentary. Just read it.