More than Sammy Sosa but Less than Martha Stewart

Greetings, friends,
It's June in Los Angeles, always a very pleasant time...the kids are out of school (and out of the library, phew) lazing around and terrorizing the streets...the thick fog of "June gloom" comes in every night, blazing gray and white across the sky until the sun peeks out in the late afternoon...and best of all, my precious jacarandas are in bloom, globes of lush purple emerging from the green canopy over our fair city.

Let me begin my rant with this rather humorous tidbit sent to me by Mr. Lightwood, who is not, incidentally, a Nigerian:

DEAR SIR/MADAM,
I'M SORRY TO DISTURB YOU ON THIS QUIET AND PEACEFUL SUNDAY BUT I HAVE TO POINT YOU TO THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE:
http://j-walk.com/blog/docs/conference.htm
THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING.

And an interesting picture from Barcelona...and I was just on this street...
More Than 7,000 Gather for Nude Exhibit in Spain
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030608/ap_on_re_eu/spain_sea_of_nudes

On to the meat of the screed; if you didn't see the Op/Ed section of the Sunday Times, you missed this article, but here is it...this one put ice-water in my veins, folks:
Bush's Scorched-Earth Campaign
--------------------
Politics drives policy as the White House seeks to knock out the Democratic Party.
By Neal Gabler
June 8 2003
http://www.latimes.com/la-op-gabler8jun08,0,7453391.story

Bush's dealing with Europe are in a similar style. I am, of course, disappointed to see this rather childish game of one-upsmanship between the US and Europe. The latest move: Blocking the European Union from taking command (as they were supposed to this month) of the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. Don't hear them complaining on Fox, eh, when they didn't want Americans there in the first place, but now they can't come home, just to spite the French and the Germans:
http://www.EUobserver.com/index.phtml?aid=11597&sid=9

Yet that new nation, the EU, is just enlarged by almost 40 million people...but you didn't hear that on the Fox News:
Poles Say 'Yes' to EU in Historic Vote
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030608/ts_nm/eu_poland_dc

And now, for something completely different: a king who is also an idiot:
King Blames Trousers for World's Ills
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030602/od_nm/pants_dc

or a politician:
Nebraska Lawmaker Proposes War With Iowa
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030529/ap_on_fe_st/iowa_war

or a pair of nice girls at the G8 protest in Lausanne:
World Photos - AP
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/030531/168/4988f.html

My friend Geri sent me a slightly pornographic stick-figure video which may amuse you:
http://www.starterupsteve.com/swf/Group_X_video.html
If you're intrigued, you can check out the band's site and sample their album,
"Stepping on the Crowtche owf Your American President" at:
http://www.groupxarab.com/
They claim to be a Saudi Arabian rap group, but I think they're actually from Marietta, Georgia.

Finally, and this is rather odd (thanks, Geri), it's a campaign to get Lenny Bruce pardoned for his crimes in New York...even though he's dead. Perhaps we should do this here as well...but I think he may have died before he was convicted of obscenity in California. Anyone who knows, please enlighten me. THANK YOU.

On May 20, 2003, a press conference was held in New York City to call upon Governor George E. Pataki to posthumously pardon Lenny Bruce for his November 1964 obscenity conviction (read the never before published N.Y. trial court opinion). The petition was submitted by Ronald Collins and David Skover, co-authors of The Trials of Lenny Bruce (2002). The petition was endorsed by letters of support by well-known entertainers and writers and by prominent First Amendment scholars and lawyers.
http://www.trialsoflennybruce.com/pardon.htm
Please sign the petition to Governor Pataki!

Vive le mini-Screed!