Crackpot calls the kettle black

What would Americans' ulcers do without Bobby Jindal?
 

Bobby Jindal:
Cable news troll

The Louisiana governor, who less than two weeks after the Charlie Hebdo massacre went to London to bleat about Muslim "no-go zones" there and across Europe, has just called President Obama "shameful" for mentioning that America has a gun-massacre problem a day after nine African-Americans were gunned down at a Bible study in Charleston, S.C.

Of course, Jindal did this on the Fox News Channel.

“I think it was completely shameful, within 24 hours of this awful tragedy, nine people killed in a Bible study in a church,” Jindal said. “Within 24 hours, we’ve got the president trying to score cheap political points. Let him have this debate next week. His job as commander in chief to help the country begin the healing process.”

Obama said Thursday the shooting shows the need for a national reckoning on gun violence. “At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” he said. “It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.”

SO HERE we have a failed governor of a poor Southern state "trying to score cheap political points" by lambasting Barack Obama for "trying to score cheap political points" in the wake of an act of domestic terrorism . . . just like he did overseas back in January.

Compared to Jindal, Obama is an amateur when it comes to "shameful."

Actually, the guy isn't a putative presidential candidate (whose hobby is bouncing the rubble of Louisiana as its worst governor ever) so much as he is the political version of an Internet troll. It's enough to make one wish America had a moderator who could ban GungaSpin2016 from the national comments section.

This time . . . Charleston

Another day, another act of domestic terrorism committed by a man with a hate-filled heart and a bullet-filled gun.

I don't know what is more remarkable and terrifying, that so many Americans harbor murderous hate in their hearts or that these sick souls find it so easy to acquire arsenals, both large and small. And a small arsenal was all it took to all but erase from this mortal coil African-American congregants gathered for prayer and Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
 
Nine dead. 

Among the first to be gunned down was the pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, "the moral conscience of the General Assembly” in the words of one Senate colleague.

Who would do this? According to police, just another violent and troubled young person -- one possessing the ballistic means to kill in person those he had already slain in his heart of darkness.

It appears that 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof was a white supremacist. A Facebook photo showed him wearing a jacked adorned with patches of the flags of Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. His car's front plate depicted the flags of the Confederate States of America.



AND THERE'S this account from NBC News:

"At the conclusion of the Bible study, from what I understand, they just start hearing loud noises ringing out," cousin Sylvia Johnson told NBC affiliate WIS-TV, "and he had already wounded — the suspect already wounded a couple of individuals."

She said one of those people was Pinckney, a 41-year-old married father of two and Democratic member of the state Senate.

The female survivor told Johnson that the gunman reloaded five different times and that her son was trying to "talk him out of doing the act of killing people."

But he wouldn't listen, she said.

"You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," the shooter told the group, according to the survivor's account to Johnson.

RT @Jeremy11alive Confederate flag at full staff over SC State Capitol. Other flags at half staff. Thoughts?… pic.twitter.com/KyjkfufXfq

— 11Alive News (@11AliveNews) June 18, 2015

TODAY of all days, the Confederate battle flag still flies at the state capitol in Columbia. At full staff. What could people possibly be thinking?

Don't answer that.

3 Chords & the Truth: Booze, broads, stellar frauds

This week's edition of the Big Show features a stellar "live" album that wasn't. Recorded "live in concert," that is.

The first-ever pairing of jazz greats Peggy Lee and George Shearing was supposed to be a blockbuster-type thing at the 1959 National Disc Jockey Convention, held Memorial Day weekend in Miami Beach, Fla. A live album was locked into the Capitol Records release schedule, and audio engineers would be there to capture it all on tape -- in glorious stereophonic sound -- for what would become the Beauty and the Beat! LP.

And if you listen to Episode 297 of 3 Chords & the Truth, you will hear a fair chunk of that 1959 Capitol LP on the show. It is glorious. Peggy Lee is brilliant, and Shearing and The Quintet are swinging years ahead of their time, stylistically.

It's an important record . . . and it's a joyous listen.

IT'S ALSO an epic fraud.

On the other hand, that's pretty appropriate for an album purported to have been recorded at a DJ convention epically summarized by the Miami Herald as "Booze, Broads and Bribes." And America would soon learn all about "payola," thanks to a radio confab where the record labels ran amok and the broadcasters ran . . . amoker?

I mean, here you have a live, in-concert recording session at a convention full of bought-off, drunk-ass DJs (and a large contingent of "ladies of the evening" on the labels' dime) in a ballroom at the Americana with a tragically messed-up public-address system. What could go wrong?

WELL, if you listen to the Big Show, you sure as heck will find out. And you'll hear a bunch of great music, too . . . and not just from a legendary jazz pianist and an equally legendary jazz singer.

And you'll also hear about Omaha's connection to the whole mess.

3 Chords & the Truth . . .  it's not just a freeform music show. It's an expedition. An adventure. And a blast. Don't forget to check out our organ-flavored rock 'n' roll set in Aisle 1.

I guess that's about all I have to say about that. Except. . . .

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there.  Aloha.

He meth have misspoken

This is your anchorman. This is your anchorman on . . . meth?

At least this is your anchorman with meth on the brain. Well, this certainly explains a lot about Channel 6 here in Omaha.

I understand this clip made it to the Tonight Show.

They don't call it Channel Sux for nothing. And remember, pass the meth pipe from the left-hand side. Now, name that '80s pop-culture reference.
 
Now back to Mary Jane at the anchor desk.

The Ballad of Al Simon

Lincoln Journal Star

Come and listen to the story of a man named Al,

A Cornhusker farmer trying to feed his kids and gal,

And then one day he was growin' him some food,

And up through the ground came a bubblin' crude,

Oil, that is, black gold, Texas tea,

Well, the first thing you know, ol' Al's a millionaire,

Kinfolk said, "Al, move away from there,"

Said "Omaha is the place you ought to be,"

But he said I ain't a goin', a new roof's all I need,

Shingles, that is, tar paper, roofin' nails,

Well, now it's time to say goodbye to Al and all his kin,

And they would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin' in.

You're all invited back a gain to this locality

To have a heapin' helpin' of their hospitality

Cornhusker that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off.

Y'all come back now, y'hear?

-- Apologies to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs

Yo' mama's a tagger

When your mother can't resist tagging an overpass, you know something is seriously up with the universe.

This is the overpass at Cass Street on the Keystone Trail in west-central Omaha. Obviously Mom has found the sweet spot where nagging, unauthorized public art and exercise intersect.

In the public-policy arena, perhaps it's time the Omaha City Council considers cracking down on spray-paint sales to middle-age women.

3 Chords & the Truth: Hangin' out, playin' records

I thought that this week we could hang out and play some records.

What do you mean that's what we do every week on 3 Chords & the Truth?
 
Fair point.

Well, what say we hang out and play some more records this week on the Big Show?

ALL RIGHT, that's what we'll do, then. After all, isn't that what freeform radio was all about anyway? I'm sitting here in the studio with some records, some CDs, some . . . whatever . . .  and I'm playing 'em for you because I thought you'd like to hear this cool stuff I've come across.

That's 3 Chords & the Truth. It's as simple as that.

So, if you want to hang out and listen to some records, come right in. I got a bunch of 'em.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

All you need is paint

Nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
Nowhere you can be that isn't
where you're meant to be
It's easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

THE FUN of going to estate sales often lies in the surprises you find amid the artifacts of people's lives that are being sold off one item at a time.

Sunday in Omaha, this was what we found in the onetime bedroom of a onetime teenager who now must be around the same age I am.

Speaking as a Baby Boomer . . . wow!

As I recall, the house has been sold, and who knows what the fate of this teenage tribute to the Fab Four might be. You'd hope the new owner would lack the heart -- or the nerve -- to paint over this or, God forbid, to turn this house that once was a home into yet another tear-down on a street that has seen a few older houses razed so that newer, bigger ones might replace them. 

If that's to be the fate of this house, being yet another demolition job or the new owner merely painting over a teenage masterpiece, I just wanted folks to know that Jay Dandy's room had the awesomest wall ever back in 1977.

3 Chords & the Truth: Music for a summer's eve

It's Friday night here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. It's windy. And it's rainy.

There's been rumbles of thunder; it's muggy. It's starting to feel like summer.

If there's some particular feel to this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth, it seems to me it's a summery feel. It's upbeat. It's smooth. It's . . . summery. At least to me.

Dunno what else to say about it, apart from it's a danged fine listen. As always.


THE BIG SHOW is good music. And fun. And sonically edifying.

I'm not exactly sure what "sonically edifying" means, but I like writing it. Just like a like me a good summer's eve. Just like I like me the Big Show.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

But at least their brains are on a diet

Oy, veh.

1) Sometimes, understatement is not a virtue. By Channel 9's news writing standards, King Kong was larger than most apes.

2) At what point did the ability to obviously state the obvious become optional in journalism?

3) Holy crap.

You gotta kill somebody

Yesterday, Nebraska had the death penalty. Today, it doesn't.

Be that is it may, the execution executive branch of state government isn't taking the unicameral's override of Gov. Pete Rickett's veto of legislation abolishing the death penalty lying down. On the question of making murderers dead -- despite Nebraska not executing anyone since 1997 and its problems obtaining the proper drugs for lethal injection -- Attorney General Doug Peterson's attitude can only be described as "never say die."

Because he wants to kill. Kill! KILL! KILLLLLLL!

Doug Peterson

One day after state lawmakers repealed the death penalty, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson is questioning a portion of a repeal law dealing with the fate of the 10 men currently on death row.

But State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, the sponsor of the repeal law, said Thursday that the attorney general doesn’t have a case.

"There’s no legal issue here," Chambers said.

Peterson, in a press release, said its office, "at the appropriate time," will seek a court decision to resolve the state’s ability to execute those currently on death row.

He pointed to language in Legislative Bill 268 that states: "It is the intent of the Legislature that in any criminal proceeding in which the death penalty has been imposed but not carried out prior to the effective date of this act, such penalty shall be changed to life imprisonment."

"We believe this stated intent is unconstitutional," Peterson said.

Only the State Pardons Board, under the state constitution, can change a criminal sentence, he said, the Legislature cannot do that.

Chambers, in an interview, said he knows that and reflected that in drafting the bill. He said he also made it clear during floor debate on LB 268 that while the Legislature’s "intent" was that death-row inmates get life sentences, the body has no power to do that.

"Courts have always said that intent language has no legal effect," the senator said. "We recognized that the bill would not change the (death) sentences."

However, Chambers added, LB 268 removes the state’s method for carrying out a death sentence.

Because of the new law, the 10 men on death row would continue to have death sentences, he said, but the state would have no way to execute them unless the Legislature enacted a new method of execution.

"And the Legislature is not going to authorize any method of execution," Chambers said.

NOW, BEING that Nebraskans deserve full disclosure from its elected officials, Peterson should immediately reveal whether he ever sat on the Group W bench and, if so, for how long.

Tonight's vintage vinyl listening

It's always 1963 somewhere.

Tonight, that would be here in the 3 Chords & the Truth studio here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. For I am the king of all I survey in used-record stores and the Goodwill.

And to tell you the truth, a lot of these vintage LPs, assuming they haven't been abused by teenagers -- and this is one I'm pretty sure wouldn't have been -- sound spectacular. Better than many, many brand-new ones hipsters are paying upwards of 20 bucks for these days.

The moral you can take away from that is this: Sometimes, it is better to be old and cheap than young and hip. Sayeth your Mighty Favog.

3 Chords & the Truth: In the dark

Sometimes, you have a brilliant plan, and you execute it to perfection.

Sometimes, not so much.

This week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth,  your premier musical destination on the Internet, falls into that second category. The funny thing, though, is that in the humble opinion of your Mighty Favog, it didn't turn out half bad.

Sometimes, I guess, just winging it and saying "whatever" can work out just as well as the best-laid plans with the best-case execution.

That works for me. I mean . . . whatever. Right?

WHEN IT comes to putting together yet another stellar edition of the Big Show, the only thing that matters when it comes right down to it is this one simple thing: It can't suck.

Methods of achieving that goal are secondary.

So just listen in yet again and let your ears be your guide. I mean . . . plan or no plan, I haven't steered you wrong yet. Right?

Right???

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Do the Freddy

We bid a fond farewell to Mad Men in a manner that we hope might earn Roger Sterling's enthusiastic approval. Sal Romano certainly would have loved it.

So let's all do the Freddy.

Well, not literally. Eww.

Today's listening

This afternoon's LP listening (and digitizing) -- a 1972 British repressing of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 1970 debut album.

Though manufactured in the United Kingdom, this album was released for the West German market. If you couldn't figure that out from the album number, it would be hard to miss the German price tag . . . in Deutschmarks.

I'M ALWAYS finding stuff like this here in Omaha, a.k.a., Ground Zero, a.k.a., home of the U.S. Strategic Command. If you have an Army or Air Force base in your town, I'd imagine the used-record pickings are equally good.

What would you say the chances are this will show up on some future edition of 3 Chords & the Truth? Me, I'd put the odds at 100 percent.

3 Chords & the Truth: It's a secret

You'll never know how much I really loved it. You'll never know how much I really cared.

Listen . . . do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?

Closer . . . let me whisper in your ear. Say the words you long to hear -- what the Big Show's paying tribute to.

Listen . . . do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?

CLOSER . . . let me whisper in your ear. Say the words you long to hear -- screw it, I can't tell you.

I've known  the secret for a week or two. And nobody knows, not even you.

Listen . . . do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?

Closer . . . let me whisper in your ear. Say the words you long to hear . . . nope. Still not telling you.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

The times of your life

This week on 3 Chords & the Truth we remember the times of your life . . . our life. Somebody's life. Or at least a pop-culture approximation thereof.

Cryptic? Yes. So I guess you'll have to listen to the Big Show to figure out what we're up to.

That is all. Be there on the Carousel. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Making you glad you're alive

This week's 3 Chords & the Truth is the kind of show that will make you glad that you're alive.

With that said, just dance where you might be -- and push back against the world's darkness harder than it pushes on you. Because we should be glad that we're alive.

ME, I'm just glad you're listening to the Big Show.

So let's dance, shall we? Life's too short to waste on anger, despair, paranoia and finger-pointing . . . and that's just what we see on Facebook.

Eschew that. Listen to this.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

An up-and-coming epic fail

Repeat after me, Omaha World-Herald online person in charge of Facebook updates:

"This is s***. This is Shinola.

"This is s***. This is Shinola.

"This is s***. This is Shinola."

On the other hand, that unknown editor probably is too young to know any more about Shinola than he or she knows about Garth Brooks.

ON THE third hand, one commenter is "pretty sure" the up-and-coming thing was a joke. To me, that doesn't matter. A newspaper's credibility can be trashed one lame ironic remark at a time just as well as it can by one glaring display of cluelessness at a time.

And credibility is about the only weapon "legacy media" like newspapers have left in their arsenals, particularly when they're counting on people to purchase access to their "product," which is reliable information. After all, if it's bulls*** you want, you can have your social-media fill of that for free.

3 Chords & the Truth: Better than a million apes

A million monkeys trying to come up with Shakespeare . . . or an average episode of 3 Chords & the Truth . . . will come up with something akin to this.

Wpojkerp' oerjesf;pooj p'kqrw'pkqw P'WQKEK ;lsmcp[sek wkfsk aw[pksa[pk aw[psls[plk [pqienmcdls sa[pkfa[s ;;ws[ w[q qw[poer[20wioerw a[wpoda's las'dl'asld a's;kda'sp 

X['ofl'sa; l;alkdas;k as'lda'spold][w poq-02148909218 qpowiruwpqokd aljq[p39r08c[pc  [oqew9r8[09w 0qew[98 r0[9qwe [0qwer9i  [w0e9fq8 03[2qw0[r980 23r823q0 p;owaiafi'pa fio'w  .

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VQM3 ['3 poISFP"O efiawp' s;'zkf;/l kzvs/ljka;oewruipo9qw4580p9qoiu 
k'pokfgeql;hefgawliyqp0woqv'c
p[

Q34pt'iv4p[i'pqweo' q[vwewo['w3o'[qwpo  ;ae'kf;/lasdkf;'awel  aw'[
aw' ;aow 'paew
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A;wpior'pa A serp[0it [-ip' a'sd;fk: ADSVl" ;zpdsko ;sdvlkz zx;klx/v,k are/gpio'p0tqi[pqKLW ,/;AFKS ;oiew;OPIwe kr:;wepaiop'0aeriw p4q3orti qve' p'0q4o;i q43t;i 'poerwi' IP;O4GERTUWQ09P8V OLwqe i[' oq;o

THAT DIDN'T work out so well, did it?

So don't monkey around -- leave the quality music programming to your Mighty Favog, not a bunch of apes . . . or your local radio station, for that matter. We'll all be happier.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Found at your local Goodwill

Oh, the things you find at your local thrift store.

Or, in this case, at the Goodwill in North Platte, Neb. That's why it never hurts to hit the Goodwill when you're traveling -- in this case, on an overnight trip last week to west-central Nebraska.

There I found not only this autographed Loretta Lynn LP, but three more of hers as well, two of them autographed like the one above. The cost for the whole stash was about what you'd pay for a large espresso drink at your local coffee emporium.

And if anybody tries to take 'em from me, we're gonna be goin' to Fist City.

'We must be strategic in how we riot'

When a major cable network lets fools like Marc Lamont Hill on its air to say things like "We must be strategic in how we riot," you know with absolute certainty that the last grown-up in television news has died or retired.

President Obama wasn't kidding the other night at the White House Correspondents Dinner when he "joked" that "usually the only people impersonating journalists on CNN are journalists on CNN."

As I watched rioters rule the streets of Baltimore last night on CNN, with police standing by observing as thugs looted liquor stores and set buildings alight not 50 yards away, I thought "This is a civilization refusing to defend itself." It seems to me there is a hierarchy of imperatives, and just above "Police should neither kill nor brutalize ordinary citizens or suspects in custody" is "Society must not be allowed to descend into violent mayhem."

Last night, Baltimore descended into violent mayhem. Last night, its elected leaders fiddled while Baltimore burned. And on a national "news" network, some damn-fool commentator lamented that the oppressed needed to be more "strategic" in their rioting.

Marc Lamont Hill

FORGET "two wrongs don't make a right." Forget that by looting and burning the stores of merchants, burning a church's senior-housing project that was under construction, assaulting bystanders and journalists for the crime of being white and endangering the lives of innocent residents of their own neighborhoods the rioters threw away any claim to the moral high ground. Forget every single thing that should be self-evident in any society not intent on suicide.

Forget all that.

Instead, let's focus on the strategic value of being "strategic" in your rioting.

The moneyed and powerful may no longer possess the will to preserve public order or defend a teetering civilization, but I will guaran-damn-tee you that the moneyed and powerful -- in other words, the ruling class -- does have the will to defend its money and its power. So what then happens when "strategic" rioters head downtown, or to affluent neighborhoods, to strategically riot, burn, kill and loot? What happens when city hall and Camden Yards, home of baseball's Baltimore Orioles, go up in flames?

ME, I'm thinking that when Stuff White People Like start to be consumed by the all-encompassing rage and "strategic" rioting of the underclass, those who might be indifferent to the ongoing immolation of the ghetto suddenly will embrace the tactical efficiency of helicopter gunships and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. If and when that comes to pass, I wonder what academic rabble-rouser Marc Lamont Hill -- more commonly known in the 'hood as "p***y-ass toilet fodder" -- then might think of being "strategic in how we riot."

Ultimately, when a minority suffers injustice and abuse by those in power, moral authority is the only authority it possesses and moral suasion is the only weapon it can count on. When people who are vastly outnumbered and, in Fortress America, vastly outgunned as well start to believe that two wrongs do make a right, at some point they will find the "oppressors" think that three just might.

3 Chords & the Truth: We're ba-aaack!

Look in the sky!

It's a bird!
 
It's a plane!

It's a frog!

A frog???

Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog . . .

It's just 3 Chords & the Truth -- back from a break and found on this blog!

In other words . . . never fear! The Big Show is here!

Railtown, U.S.A.

I've been away from the keys . . . and 3 Chords & the Truth . . . and the blog . . . and lots of stuff for the past three weeks. Time to get back to it -- them.

So, I'll do just that by posting this, some pictures from an overnight trip to North Platte, Neb., my old stomping grounds that's simply known as Railtown, U.S.A. North Platte is the Union Pacific Railroad. The U.P. is the largest employer in the city of 25,000 in west-central Nebraska, and North Platte is home to the largest rail yard in the world -- Bailey Yards.

Bailey Yards is where the railroad repairs trains, classifies rail cars and puts them together into east- and westbound trains. The yard is massive -- more than eight miles long and 3 1/2 miles wide at its widest point. The locomotive repair shop works on some 300 engines a day and handles thousands upon thousands of rail cars daily as well.

SO, WHEN I was in town the other day, a visit to the yard's visitor center in the Golden Spike Tower was a must.  You get a helluva view from eight stories up.

See, I told you the place was massive. Below is just a small part of Bailey Yards. A small part. Small.

ON THE other hand, you can get in some quality trainspotting, too, in downtown North Platte, down by where the city's old train depot once stood.

FINALLY, being that this is the Great Plains, ye shall know a town by its grain elevator.

3 Chords & the Truth is coming up next at its usual bat time on this same bat channel. Be there, aloha. That is all.

3 Chords & the Truth: Spring cleaning

Today is April 1. Time for some spring cleaning at 3 Chords & the Truth.

The first thing to be cleaned from the program . . . hard rock. For us at the flagship program of the Revolution 21 universe, it's going to be nothing but good music. We're going with pop, jazz and easy listening -- music that calms the savage breast . . . and makes your world a safer, nicer place.

That's why you're going to notice a change in 3 Chords & the Truth. We like to call the approach "The Velvet Sound," and it's going to sound as smooth as a fine swath of blue velvet.

I URGE you to check out the new sound of the finest music podcast on the Internet. I think you'll agree with us when we say to hard rock 'n' roll mayhem "We're not missing you at all."

The program is all about good music, and good music is what you'll get from us at 3 Chords & the Truth. And that's all your Mighty Favog has to say about that, because the proof is in the hearing.

Try it. We guarantee you'll like it.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

And that's your program news -- and your program -- for Wednesday, April 1, 2015.