Newt, the “angry little attack muffin” (thank you Peggy Noonan) makes Thomas Eagleton look like the picture of mental health.  LK didn’t know he was one of the despised northeastern elite just because he rode the NYC subways, and no doubt his fellow strap-hangers will be equally surprised by Newt’s vituperations.

The European leaders get their economic marching orders from the same banks and hedge funds that got them into their mess, while the European people just get shafted.

The question isn’t whether Madonna should have done the Super Bowl halftime show, but what kind of damage control is now most appropriate.

All this, plus the pinball segment and some fresh bumper music make this yet another show that one misses at one’s own peril.

Enjoy!

Hour 1:

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Hour 2:

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Among this morning’s bonus balls:

Was Haley Barbour, by pardoning 200+ mostly politically connected lowlifes, trying to obfuscate the pardoning of the convicts who worked at the governor’s mansion, convicts who perhaps saw some Mississippi mischief that the Gov doesn’t want going public?

Why the Prez and Ron Paul are currently sitting together in a corner of the schoolroom, backs facing the class, while wearing matching dunce caps.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close almost killed LK as he attempted not to break into full-blown blubbering in a crowded movie theater.  Its impact knocked him for a loop and probably influenced the show more than he’d like to admit.  The film was as powerful as The Descendants was limp. For reasons not easily explained, but LK takes a shot at it.

Why Leon Panetta couldn’t be Warren Buffet’s secretary, let alone the SecDef.

How Greece is being raped by the EuroZone (read “Germany”).

Dr. John weighs in with his timely and much needed observations on the proliferation of medz for kidz.

Enjoy the free game (see pinball references above):

Hour 1:

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Hour 2:

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“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”

LK attempts to remain serene while hyperventilating following South Carolina’s primary and the Gingrich victory, which came about, in large part, due to the Newt’s racially charged code words.

LK comes to bury Paterno, not to praise him, and can’t understand why anyone, besides the Friends of Sandusky, would see it otherwise.

He goes toe to toe with Dr. John, as they engage in a long volley of news both joyous and repulsive, and Dr. John’s fully redesigned 2012 Serenity Prayer rings true.

LK tips his helmet to the NY Giants.

Enjoy the show:

Hour 1:

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Hour 2:

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To live one day at a time like everything is just swell; 
To send me a Rolex so I can really enjoy one moment at a time; 
 To learn to avoid and run from hardships as the pathway to peace;  
And not taking, as He did, this sinful world
 as it is, but imagining it as I would have it; 
Trusting that He will make all things right instead of me trying to do it. 

That I may be unbelievably and screamingly happy in this life 
and even more super duper happy with Him in the next.

Amen.

Like you , LK…I too am done!  Toasted. Fatigued, infuriated, and feeling helpless.  A voice in a void that, unless I say something completely idiotic, hateful  and ruthless enough to go viral on You Tube, rises like a silent cloud to nothingness.  A voice that on Tuesday had so much more meaning as it screamed GOAL!!!! while my wife and I sat in hockey bliss, munching $9.00 fries and $10.00 beers.  A voice that delivers joy and pure devotion as it whispers “I love you,” to my sleeping wife.  Otherwise, a voice that is basically unnecessary.

We – more-so  you – rant weekly about all the horrors, cruelties, political gaffs and corruption, illegal and un-winnable wars, genocide, and on and on and on.  And yes, it’s a good thing to enlighten, to make people aware.  But even too much awareness bloats the psyche.  Like a therapy session that lasts longer than an hour because the brain shuts down from too much information, enlightenment and awareness become so much white noise, or worse, crying wolf.

And so, at least for now, I am washing myself clean of any and all responsibility of everything and anything that goes on outside my immediate circle of loved ones.  I imagine this will last for two or three days, but right now, it feels really, really good!

                          

LK’s controversial take on the Marines who urinated on the dead bodies in Afghanistan: punish the puppeteers, not the puppets.

Speculation on Haley Barbour’s real reasons for pardoning hundreds of prisoners, including convicted murderers.

Football, as only LK and Dr. John can play it.

Leaders who rise because, and only because, they have more nerve and less humility and shame than the rest of us.

Hour 2 may have gone to hard drive heaven, but if it returns from the brink, we’ll post it as soon as it’s out of the ICU.

Enjoy hour 1:

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The Republicans are being obstructionist.  No one paying attention can dispute this.

The President, purportedly a constitutional scholar, is finding every which way to circumvent that same constitution.  Clearly to know it isn’t necessarily to love it.

It’s an embarrassment to this country to have Rick Perry as one of the six candidates of one of the two major political parties running for the presidency.

Judging by his recent comments, Leon Panetta couldn’t command a fleet of rubber duckies in a bathtub, let alone handle being the Secretary of Defense

We’ve got two super-turbo monster trucks, one being driven by an elephant, the other being driven by a donkey, heading straight for each other in a game of chicken.  The big problem is that riding in the back, with no seat belts or helmets, are you, me, and everyone else in this country.

Dr. John Palumbo playfully muses on the end of the world and having too much stuff.

                          

I asked myself what I would do if this was it. If I knew for sure that say by next Wednesday everything was just gone.  My immediate bonehead ideas were 1.  Buy the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport…the fastest car in the world – and drive it as fast as it can go , which is 253 mph.  2. Buy the L115A Long Range Rifle – the best sniper rifle in the world, and shoot a bunch of Taliban guys just as they were getting ready to rape someone.  3.  Move next door to Angelina Jolie and take her for a ride in my new Bugatti.  And 4.  Drive Angie and me to NYC to find Donald Trump and punch him in the face.

Now of course, all of that is just simple self-entertaining nonsense, and I fully realize that I would do none of those things because none of those things have any true meaning.  But then comes the puzzle – why bother with meaning if this is all over – including my inherent awareness of myself?  And then that irritating God thing comes up and I have to start all over.  Was it the fear or love of God that kept me from just letting go of all restraints and tearing through this life like a mad dog?  Or was there some gene plugged in during mom and pop’s coitus?  The truth – at least my truth when giving this some heavy thought, is that one dies like one lived.  I believe that having gone so many years traveling what I assumed to be the correct path, the right thing to do, the way to be, and so on, has been so deeply deposited into my psyche that even now, knowing that Wednesday next is the end of everything, I would behave in exactly the same manner I did all those hundreds upon hundreds of past regular Wednesdays.

And so, if the Mayans are in fact correct, there will be people stealing, raping, killing, and doing all kinds of bad stuff. But I believe that those people have been struggling with keeping themselves under control all along.  The majority of us will just sit, realizing there is nothing else we can nor need to do.

As for me, my Bugatti -Jolie imaginings washed away for the comical absurdities they were, I would gather my family and try to keep them from the panic and fear that accompanies any unknown.   I would hold them close, and laugh and cry and run through memories and even discuss what is next for us since we all, my family that is, have a belief in an afterlife.  And whether that afterlife is man made fodder created to keep everyone from cracking up at the thought of death, or a mystical, spiritual truth doesn’t matter.  Hope is what has helped me and my loved ones through this life.  To drop it now would be as illogical as shooting up the Taliban.

Still, there is a tiny part of that sniper thing that gives me a smile.  Gonna have to talk that over with God next Wednesday.

                          

“While the cat’s away the mice (or rats in this case) will play” is the theme of this week’s show.  While our psyche’s take a well deserved rest from the daily barrage of unsettling world events, that same world takes advantage of our dropped guard and reveals extreme behavior that would alarm and dismay us were we in our usual state of vigilance:

1.  The Chinese are planning to send men to the moon.  LK thinks they’re going to claim it as theirs.

2.  Iran claims to have produced a nuclear fuel rod and successfully test fired a long range missile.

3.  President Obama signs a bill that he vowed to veto that risks our basic constitutional rights.

Among other things.

                          

Dear Young Leader,
You have in front of you, two paths.  The one is that which you know.  A sheltered life of luxury and protection from the outside world.  The other is quite extraordinary, as it has the potential of running parallel with that of Siddartha Gautama, or the Buddha.

You see, when Prince Siddhartha was a few days old, a holy man prophesied he would be either a great military conqueror or a great spiritual teacher. His father, King Suddhodana preferred the first outcome and prepared his son accordingly. He raised the boy in great luxury and shielded him from knowledge of religion and human suffering. The Prince reached the age of 29 with little experience of the world outside the walls of his opulent palaces.  One day, overcome with curiosity, Prince Siddhartha asked a servant to take him on a series of rides through the countryside. On these journeys he was shocked by the sight of an aged man, then a sick man, and then a corpse. The stark realities of old age, disease, and death seized and sickened the Prince.

For a time the Prince returned to palace life, but he took no pleasure in it. Even the news that his wife had given birth to a son did not please him.

One night he wandered the palace alone. The luxuries that had once pleased him now seemed grotesque. Musicians and dancing girls had fallen asleep and were sprawled about, snoring and sputtering. Prince Siddhartha reflected on the old age, disease, and death that would overtake them all and turn their bodies to dust.

I am wishing you the wisdom and openness of heart to make the right choice.