Family Gatherings

We just came back from a big family event. Today was Warden Williams' 80th Birthday Celebration (his b-day was actually June 1, but the party was delayed). My mom, Lynn Younger and Warden have been living together for more than 27 years. My mom always hoped they would marry, but Warden just wasn't interested in marrying again (he had two previous marriages). And we told my mom to not worry about it, since she had already been married three times and this live-in relationship was the best she has ever had. Why ruin a good thing.

Anyway, Warden is a great guy, a true gentleman, with tremendous character and he has touched many lives over the years as a teacher, father, friend and more. So my mom organized this big party and many family members and friends flew in from Tennessee and California, to celebrate with us. There were many heartfelt speeches and testimonials praising the guest of honor. And then Warden took the microphone and after thanking everyone and sharing some of his thoughts, he dropped a bombshell on us.

Turns out Warden and my mom got married in Mesa on May 1.

Shocked and pleased everyone. Tears all around. Wow!!!

I never thought my mom could keep a secret, but she did this time.

Congratulations to Warden and Lynn Williams. May you have many more happy years together.


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Amazing

God, I love this.

Damn.

UPDATE
Here is the original Motown 25 performance for comparison.


And this from Andrew Sullivan is spot on:

There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically raped at a very early age - and never recovered. Watching him change his race, his age, and almost his gender, you saw a tortured soul seeking what the rest of us take for granted: a normal life.

But he had no compass to find one; no real friends to support and advise him; and money and fame imprisoned him in the delusions of narcissism and self-indulgence. Of course, he bears responsibility for his bizarre life. But the damage done to him by his own family and then by all those motivated more by money and power than by faith and love was irreparable in the end. He died a while ago. He remained for so long a walking human shell.

I loved his music. His young voice was almost a miracle, his poise in retrospect eery, his joy, tempered by pain, often unbearably uplifting. He made the greatest music video of all time; and he made some of the greatest records of all time. He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.

I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours' and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out.

I hope he has the peace now he never had in his life. And I pray that such genius will not be so abused again.

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The King of Pop

Weird. Yes. Strange. Yes. Self-Indulgent. Yes. Creepy. Yes. Sad. Terribly.

But never forget the music, the performances, and the groundbreaking videos. Michael Jackson was the musical powerhouse of my generation.

My sister and I used to play Jackson 5 45s over and over and sing them together. I loved all of his early solo albums, and saw Michael and his brothers in concert once. I'll always love his music. And I still get a thrill watching his videos.

My wife and stepchildren don't get what all the fuss is about today. But I am mourning him and appreciating what his music and personality meant to me.

• Ten songs by which to remember Michael Jackson
• Can't stop crying over Michael Jackson
• Michael, Farrah and David's Passing a Death of Our Childhood
• Michael Jackson videos: The Best of the Best
  

Here are my Top 12 (couldn't stop at 10) Michael Jackson songs (post Jackson 5 but including the Jacksons):
1. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
2. Billie Jean
3. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
4. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)
5. Can You Feel It (The Jacksons)
6. Do You Remember the Time
7. The Way You Make Me Feel
8. This Place Hotel (The Jacksons)
9. Rock with You
10. Human Nature
11. Smooth Criminal
12. Scream (with Janet Jackson ... and the most expensive video ever made)
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Lets's dance ... Let's shout

Lets's dance ... Let's shout ... Shake your body down to the ground ...

Thou shalt not ...

Republicans are hypocrites:

From WashingtonMonthly via BalloonJuice:

And Another for the Family Values File
by John Cole
I knew Sen. Ensign was a hypocrite, but it wasn’t until I was got through this exhaustive list at Benen’s joint that I realized how much of a hypocrite he is:

"When Bill Clinton’s adultery came to public light, Ensign not only voted to remove the president from office, but insisted the president should resign as a result of the personal scandal. When former Sen. Larry Craig was caught up in a sex scandal, Ensign not only called for Craig’s ouster, but led the charge against him.
Ensign has also been a fierce opponent of marriage equality, and supported a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. In 2004, the Nevada Republican lectured his colleagues, “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded. For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation.”
And did I mention that Ensign is a longtime member of the Promise Keepers, a conservative evangelical group that promotes strong families and marriages?

This shit never surprises.
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Tweets for Dummies

Republican Congressmen are idiots:

From Josh Marshall
The Hoekstra Pile On Continues
Yesterday, you'll remember, clinically unselfaware Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) tweeted that the struggle of Iranian reformists was similar to the oppression faced by House Republicans when Nancy Pelosi won't let them bring enough amendments to the floor. That tweet triggered a wave of tweet heckling, as others mocked Hoekstra's unique mix of grandiosity and cluelessness. Eric Kleefeld rounded up some of the best of these counter-tweets in a post at TPMDC.
But I hadn't realized until just now that folks were keeping up the ridicule in the comments section of the post.
This one was funny: "My mom made me carry the trash out to the alley. Now I know what the Bataan Death March was like."
It's almost developing into a niche Hoekstra-mocking art form. Kind of like a Haiku.
This one, this one and this one were pretty good too.

Let me try one:
"I just got stopped on the street for directions. Now I know what the Spanish Inquisition was like."
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The magic dog ...

Talk about a horrible travesty of justice ... via BalloonJuice:

Canine Justice by John Cole

This sounds like something out of a bad movie, but apparently a load of people in Florida were convicted of crimes and jailed for years on end based on the supernatural powers of a dog and its handler. You know where this is going, don’t you? It was a load of nonsense, and now many of the men are being released three decades later after DNA tests clear them.

You have got to read this.

Hate and Ingnorance

Shine the light on them ... and watch them scurry ...

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What a wonderful world ...

I love unbridled creativity! We need more joy in our lives. This helps.


And what a genius Dick Van Dyke was and is. Fun.
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Project Runway ...

The island of St. Barthelemy in the Caribbean is near the top of the list for my favorite places visited. While on a Windjammer Cruise on the Fantome in 1994 I visited the island with my friends Andy and Karen. I'm sure that everyone who visits St. Barts remembers the airport. It is listed as one of the most dangerous airports in the world because of the tricky approach that challenges even the most experience pilots. We were told there were more than a few taxi cabs on the island that had airplane tire tracks on their roofs, since the main road crosses with the aircraft approach at the top of a hill. See what I mean here:
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