International
Song of the Day 3/8: AC/DC, “Big Balls”
Everybody from pundits to peons is showing love for Voldomyr Zelenskyy, but nobody has put it better than Bon Scott and AC/DC did way back in 1976. Though it all blends together from this distance, the song and the album it appeared on, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” weren’t officially released in the US until […]
Song of the Day 3/6: Cake, “I Will Survive”
A song for Ukraine, which Putin thought would crumble, lay down and die. Not so far. There have been nearly 200 covers of this song, in more than a dozen languages, since Gloria Gaynor’s original in 1978. Cake’s 1996 version is the only one I’ve heard that strips it down and gives the bass a […]
Song of the Day 3/3: Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Exodus”
As might be expected, the Russian war on Ukraine has produced lots of refugees — more than 1 million so far, according to the United Nations, about 2% of the country’s population. Officials expect that as many as 4 million people eventually will leave, with another 3 million displaced within the country. Most European Union […]
Song of the Day 2/20: The Association, “Windy”
Here’s a symptom of climate change you don’t hear about much in the States: destructive hurricane-force winter winds of more than 120 mph. There’s plenty of video to prove it. Suffice it to say this didn’t used to happen. Though they’re not much heard today, The Association was all the rage in the days of […]
Song of the Day 12/4: The Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
H/t puck. I don’t have to be asked twice to play the Clash. Mick Jones didn’t write this song on 1982’s “Combat Rock” about emigration*, but it’s not quite clear what he did write it about. Speculation has always centered on his tempestuous relationship with singer/actress Ellen Foley (it’s her voice on Meat Loaf’s “Paradise […]
Song of the Day 12/1: Oasis, “Some Might Say”
Some might say that being snowed in at a remote Yorkshire pub over a long weekend with an Oasis tribute band would be an over-enthusiastic illustration of Sarte’s hell. Indeed, some already have. You can bet most of those people are not Oasis fans, and that they wouldn’t have braved a blizzard forecast to hear […]
Song of the Day 11/30: Josephine Baker, “J’ai Deux Amours”
Though you’ll find no mention of it in American media, a famous American-born entertainer today received one of the highest honors France can bestow — Josephine Baker was interred at the Panthéon in Paris, the first Black woman to join the ranks of the country’s most distinguished citizens in the famous mausoleum. Born in St. […]
Song of the Day 11/16: Wings, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish”
Today’s Open Thread notes the completely foreseeable problem Northern Ireland is posing to the feeble, delusional brains behind Brexit. The solution to the problem is simple: Give Ireland back to the Irish. Even Paul McCartney could see that back in 1972. When British troops killed 13 unarmed civil rights protesters in Derry on Jan. 31, […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021
Thank whatever you believe in that the 20th anniversary of 9/11 passed with as little flag-waving horseshit as it did, but Jesus Christ on a tandem bike, can we stop mourning the loss of national unity? You know what unites people? Grief. It wasn’t patriotism, or feeling for our fellow Americans. It was heartsick sadness. […]
DL Open Thread Thursday, August 19, 2021
Why would a guy, a Florida governor let’s say, dissuade people from getting vaccines or wearing masks, but go all-out on a treatment for people once they come down with Covid? Why do you think? Um…could it be that his second-biggest political donor owns a big chunk of the treatment company? Didn’t have to turn […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, August 8, 2021
Alexander Pope was right: A little learning is a dangerous thing. He put it more poetically, but his observation was spot on. People who know a lot usually know how much they don’t know, whereas people who learn only a little tend to overestimate their knowledge. A perfect example played out yesterday at Christiana Hospital, […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, July 25, 2021
Is anyone under the impression that the Democratic Party has moved to the left? If so, please take a look at the vote to increase Pentagon spending by $25 billion, to $740 billion, passed the Senate Armed Services Committee on a 25-1 vote. Elizabeth Warren was the only one to vote against it. Democrats who […]
DL Open Thread Thursday, July 15, 2021
Nobody wants to hear it, but the pandemic is not over. Global cases rose last week for the first time in 10 weeks. We’re shaping up to have a truly nasty outbreak in the fall in Dumbfuckistan. Democrats — why can’t they do the right thing? Latest example: SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, who’s under […]
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