ALL News Celeb Hot, Fashion & Music: March 2011

Haley Watch 3-31-11

At left: Nikki Haley's recent photo in the New York Times magazine.

~*~

Our governor, GOP rising star, continues to bedazzle the nationwide press. Lots of local jabs about the widely-discussed NYT-magazine story (including several from your humble narrator), asking why she won't talk to South Carolina media, but prefers to go national, where she is gushed-over nonstop.

It's a little hard to take.

On the local front, Haley's interesting former gig at Lexington Medical Hospital inspires some impressive old-style investigative sleuthing by Robert Kittle of WSPA in Spartanburg:

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Gov. Nikki Haley says she was only doing the same thing every other member of the Lexington County legislative delegation was doing in pushing for a heart center at Lexington Medical Center, not doing something special for her employer.

While Haley was a state representative, she was hired as a fundraiser for the Lexington Medical Center Foundation. The hospital was trying to get state approval from the Department of Health and Environmental Control to start a heart center.

Emails between Haley and her boss, Lexington Medical CEO Mike Biediger, raise the question of whether Haley was using her position as a lawmaker to try to influence the DHEC vote.

And specifically, Haley's 2008 online job application has raised all kinds of red flags.

She also addressed questions about her application and pay for that job. Her application lists her salary at her parents' clothing store as $125,000 a year, but her tax return for that year shows she made only $22,000.

She says she never put $125,000 on the application and never told anyone that she made that much. While another part of the application has her signature, the part that has her salary history has only her typed name.

But the hospital says it would be difficult for someone else to have added that because they would have to know her work and salary history, Social Security number and other personal information to be able to access the online application. There would also be a password or security question.

Gov. Haley said Monday, "There was no password. The password was where I graduated from high school."

Lexington Medical Center's heart center was eventually approved in 2010.

Hmmmmmm.

From FitsNews, the conservative blog that still isn't having any:

Haley – or a mysterious job application “phantom” – listed her 2007 income at Exotica International (the clothing store run by her parents) at $125,000 and requested that the hospital pay her this same amount. The only problem with Haley’s alleged income declaration? According to federal tax returns – which the Republican candidate belatedly released during the 2010 gubernatorial race – she only reported earning $22,000 from Exotica in 2007.

Haley has repeatedly denied that she filled out the application or provided the $125,000 figure – which she insists is inaccurate. However, the hospital has said it did not alter the submission. In fact, the online resume service that the hospital uses only permits its staff members to view, print or forward the application information.

A hospital spokesperson also told to The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper that anyone fraudulently filling out the application “would have had to know (Haley’s) social security number, address, job history, past supervisors, job duties, education and other details.”

The plot thickens.

Will any of this lying duplicity catch up with our popular Tea Party heroine? Will that fawning national press finally turn on her when it is discovered she has never had a real job? Or will that just make her more incredibly wonderful in their eyes: Wow, she was elected governor without ever having a REAL JOB! Is that awesome or what?

As always, stay tuned, sports fans.

Wordless Wednesday: Discovering coolness

Daisy's grandson dons sunglasses, appears momentarily confused. I'm sure he'll catch on later!

Gut feelings

I recently spotted a local celebrity in the flesh, a woman who is a regular on the local fundamentalist religious TV station. She is something else, and her old-school bouffant hairdo is hard to miss. She was getting food and sitting down for a quick afternoon meal with her family.

The overhead music was playing, and I heard Lou Rawls' old 70s hit, "You'll never find another love like mine"... and just as I passed her, as we both gathered our napkins and silverware, I heard her singing along with Lou, "You're gonna miss my lovinnnnnnn"... and I was momentarily startled. She likes old disco, I thought, surprised. Did I think all the fundies were raised in caves or something? They share the same pop-culture as the rest of us, as separatist as they sometimes are.

As I heard the TV-evangelist sing along with Lou, I was filled with a sudden, unaccountable affection, possibly because I had previously only heard her sing bad gospel songs.

I also realized that being a professional fundie was her job, and it is possible she gets as tired of her job as the rest of us get tired of ours.

I turned and smiled at her, as she was singing the old Lou Rawls song, and she smiled warmly back at me. It was a nice moment.

~*~

My second recent realization is one that I need to chew on awhile... but I will share it with all of you nonetheless. You can help me nail it down, so to speak. To wit:

I live in a very conservative area, and as someone with radical politics and personal style, this means I have to possess a pretty strong personality to go against the grain of the majority.

If someone lives in a very liberal area, and has very conservative politics and personal style, they will also have to possess a strong personality to go against the grain of the majority.

My realization: I may be temperamentally more similar to the minority-conservative-in-liberal-area, than I am similar to the liberals around them. In a majority-liberal area, people can easily take liberalism for granted and don't often get very spirited about it. Thus, the liberals may be lukewarm liberals that in a conservative locale, would be lukewarm conservatives.

When conservatives emigrate to the upstate (and yes, they do, as if there weren't enough of them here already), they are excitable and revved up, like new converts. You can spot them. They take nothing for granted. They have arrived at Ground Zero of Tea Party Central--the Promised Land--and they are raring to go.

They remind me of myself, back in the day, when I got to Berserkley and thought I knew everything.

It's an unnerving realization that I first got whacked with upon reading Eric Hoffer's brilliant book, The True Believer (that all fanatics and extremists are more alike than different). But I never made the connection about geography before, and the concurrent personality types.

In a place where 'everyone' is liberal (Seattle, San Francisco), then an individual's liberalism will mean something very different that it does in a place like upstate South Carolina, where they will try to run you over for having pro-Obama/vegetarian bumper stickers on your car. Thus, the individual's response to political challenges will be very different. There is no need to be defensive when you are in the majority. It is interesting (and telling) to note how this political defensiveness is exhibited. What happens in one place, as standard and typical, would never happen in the other.

Example: During a recent group-conversation, I used the word "evolved." (Correctly, as in, "We evolved to crave fat and carbs"--this may have been, in fact, my exact phrase.) I used the word in a dietary context a number of times, and in each instance, two people in the room corrected my word choice, "created." We were not evolved to crave fat and carbs, we were created that way, by God Almighty. (Well, if we were indeed CREATED that way, why bother to fight it?)

I did not want to start a fight over Darwin at that particular juncture and in that social setting, so I allowed them to correct me, but kept right on using the word, too. And I realized, that kind of shit annoys me, and it's the type of thing that people living in liberal areas don't realize we have to put up with. And the conservatives don't realize it either. (I always wondered what William F Buckley thought of the dopey-fundie brand of right-winger, which he surely knew existed? Or did he believe all conservatives were yacht-club members in good standing?) In the same social situation, would the radical atheist from San Francisco just drop everything and jump in whole hog, and start preaching the Darwin gospel? I only know a couple of radical atheists here in the upstate, and neither behave in this fashion; I think the new arrivals might let a few things slide, the way the rest of us have learned to do.

And how does this influence us and our approach to what we do? Our politics? Our writing? The way we frame the issues?

Can you tell when a blog is written in a conservative or liberal area? How can you tell?

Just some ideas. Discuss amongst yourselves!

~*~

And of course you know I have been earwormed with the damn thing ever since, right?

You'll never find another love like mine - Lou Rawls

~*~

I heard the first two minutes of this old Devo song on the Weather Channel (!) of all places, played over and over during the weekend whilst announcing rain, and now I am earwormed to death with this, too.

And so, it magically becomes our blog post title for today.

Gut Feeling - Devo

Some more good news

So much is going on in the world, I hardly know where to begin. Alternative medicine suppliers have had an unexpected nationwide run on all types of iodine, in anticipation of radiation poisoning. This took us totally by surprise; we never expected it and didn't plan for it. For my part, I've been reminding everyone of how right I was in opposing nuclear power back in the wayward 70s, and loading up on nori. I figure it can't hurt.

And I've been talking to my customers, as always.

I guess you all know that the Left Behinders are out in force, what with wars and revolutions and rebellions all over the Mideast, as well as probable-meltdowns and the infamous year 2012 approaching. It's the end of the world as we know it.

Along these lines, I thought yall might like to see the First of the Four Horsemen, spotted in Egypt (on European television), whilst bored newsreaders jabbered on. I guess they didn't see it? (One wonders how anyone could miss video of the imminent apocalypse.)

Go to 1:25; they helpfully rerun it in slow-mo a few times, for your edification.

Now, see, if it hadn't been a WHITE horse, nobody would have noticed.

There are many explanations of this video, with copious details about glare and lens-reflection, etc... but of course, many people have their own explanations. And I get to hear all about it. But you know what?

I feel fine. :)

I did it! ...I bought the Clarisonic

After much debate on this, I finally decided it was time.

As many of you know from watching some my videos, my skin can be problematic. I've even been on prescribed skin creams and cleansers which now I realize are not very effective, because once you're off them, your skin relapses.

I've only had it for a few weeks and I do feel that my skin is cleaner after using it. I know that I'm getting a deep clean everytime I use it. In terms of breakouts, I am still getting them but I don't really blame my new Clarisonic for that. I already have oily skin and when I toss in the stress from work and life it's inevitable for me to experience breakouts.

It's a work in progress for me, but overall I do like my Clarisonic. Hopefully after a few months I can report good news!

Do you own 1? How do you like it? Do you feel that it's improved your skin?

Awilda

I'm a Girl That Loves Shoes....

And these are at the top of my "Needs" list.

Why?

Because they are incredibly sexy and versatile. You would wear these piratically anywhere, in pretty dress or a pair of jeans.

Absolute Stiletto perfection in my eyes.

Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011

The most beautiful woman in the history of the world (and the subject of Daisy's major lifelong celebrity crush!) has passed on... I simply can't talk about it. :(

Below, some of my favorite photos of Elizabeth, from an older post.

Old Hollywood is officially over. Goodbye, dearest Elizabeth.

PS: You know you're getting old when your icons start dropping like flies...

~*~

Dead Air: Now with more warfare

I haven't been too sure about what I should write.

Except for this: My apologies to the rest of the world for American interventionism run berserk, once again. We are now at war with THREE countries simultaneously! President Hopey-Changey seems intent upon rivaling Ronald Reagan with his imperialist war credentials. Nobel peace prize, HA HA HA!

I am sick over our newest military adventure in Libya and just wanted to go on record as officially saying so.

Alas, as poor children die of no transplanted kidneys and various curable cancers at home, The United States of Amurrica spends big bucks bombing... who? Why? What for? Huh?

As I said, I am sick over it.

Your opinions?

PS: President Hopey-Changey (PHC for short) comes courtesy of Larry at LOTUS.

Wordless Wednesday: Photo of the year

My favorite posters from Saturday's rally.

Goodbye, Bear

Chemist of the Stratosphere, Owsley Stanley, inventor of the Stealie (without which I would have no blog logo!) has died. I can personally attest that his infamous product rocked the house, featuring (borrowing a line from Hunter Thompson) "the Universal Symphony with God singing solo and the Holy Ghost on drums"... he was also the actual "Dancing Bear" in Grateful Dead iconography, for those who didn't know. He was the subject of the Steely Dan song, Kid Charlemagne. (I wrote about him in part, here.) He died in a car crash, of all things.

Rest in peace, Bear. There is a special place in heaven with your name on it, where the music never stops.

~*~

The near-total blackout of TV-coverage about Saturday's big rally here in South Carolina has depressed me. If a thousand people rally and nobody covers it, did it make a noise?

Wait, what am I saying, near-total? I think it was, in fact, total. The print media covered the rally in a somewhat cursory fashion, and at least one TV-station announced the rally in advance. There was some sporadic coverage, which I suppose is better than none. But several of us agreed that we saw NO TV-cameras at all, throughout the event.

I noted that there were a few radio-reporters present, God bless them. In particular, I saw hip-hop radio stations and black Gospel radio stations... are these the only two factions left in the state who will people tell the truth?

Apparently.

~*~

My sincere apologies for lack of brilliance. I have simply had NO TIME to write or even get my laundry done. And my Farmville crops keep dying! :( But I must admit, I love that T-shirt at the HOT TOPIC, Nobody Cares About Your Farm, and feel strangely compelled to buy it.

I hope to provide some pithy commentary by the weekend, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, here is a very cool song about a great chemist. :)

Kid Charlemagne - Steely Dan

Rosamund Pike

The "Barney's Version" star Rosamund Pike looks absolutely beautiful at The London Critic's Circle Film Awards . Nice smile. Nice legs.

See More Hot Celebrity Photos ===>

Agnes Bruckner

Agnes Bruckner, the "Vacancy 2: The First Cut" star looking hot in a white witty Tees. Yes, they are real :D

See More Hot Celebrity Photos ===>

Friday nights in northern Ohio...

Children all over northern Ohio used to stay up late on Friday nights to watch Ghoulardi, who hosted horror movies and other fun stuff. We loved him! Apparently there is now a whole book out about him and his Cleveland-based show (see link), which I must read.

He did a memorable spoof on the immensely-popular 60s nighttime soap opera "Peyton Place", which he called Parma Place. It began with polka music, unlike the respectable New Englandish music that signaled the beginning of "Peyton Place"... In addition, the "drama" consisted of finding new places to put plastic pink flamingos in the yard, as Ghoulardi frequently complained to his long-suffering wife (curlers forever in her hair) that he couldn't find his Cheez Whiz. It was so OHIO... I don't think the jokes translate well to these modern times, but we loved it to death.

I loved all the wonderfully-shlocky horror movies I saw during that time, and have included some old trailers below.

~*~

Children of the Damned (1964)

~*~

Check out the question mark on the wall behind William Castle's head. Not sure of the significance.

13 Ghosts (1960)

~*~

Caution: major sexism, as a woman's brain/head survives and her scientist boyfriend scouts out other sexy bodies to sew onto her head. (Really, and we GREW UP on this stuff!)

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1960)

~*~