The Big Tent

Hi Dan Riehl! What have you got for us?

Liberals Hate the First Amendment

No doubt, no doubt. Let's see who these liberals are:

Progressive Republican Lisa Murkowski has forced a Right-leaning talk radio host off the air in Alaska, simply because he disagrees with her. Yet, she is attempting to portray her opponent, Joe Miller, as seeking to do the very thing of which she is guilty.

Well, that's one liberal. Any more liberals hating the first amendment?

Meanwhile, Comedy Cenrtral has embraced the misguided and repugnant notion that it can control the media, even on public property. That instinct isn’t only illiberal, it’s un-American. Thanks to new media it will not work.

Any more? No? Okay, all done. Your hatey-hatin' liberals for today are a Republican senator and a television executive. That last guy in this long long long list of two liberals is even accused of doing something ILLIBERAL, which is DOUBLE-REVERSE-UPSIDE-DOWN WORSE than BEING LIBERAL.

I hope THE LEFT is ashamed.

Happy Hallowe'en

Inevitability

Here is a hit:



Here is the unavoidable result:

Today's Busy Readers

The Christian Science Monitor:

We're collecting 140-character book reviews – perfect for today's busy readers.

140 character books are the better idea.

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveller." It's a real adventure! Tricky too! All finished now.

Cryptozoology

A theory:

The legend of the ferocious chupacabra, or goat sucker, has circulated around Central America since the 1990s. But the supernatural chimeric beast -- described by some as half dog, half bat -- may just be a coyote suffering from mange, says entomologist Barry OConnor of the University of Michigan.

The potential here is that the sasquatch is really just a mangy hippie.

Interest, Newsletter, Etc.

Orly Taitz wins a major award! Okay, not a major award, she's the OC Weekly's 2010 Bob Dornan Scary OC Hall of Fame Inductee.

SqueekyFromm:

Because I am very vocal, plus it only takes one good Obot-fighting Birther to beat off a herd of you OBOTS!

Squeeky now has her own blog. Check out the crocodile poem. And note the presence of follower Dan Lacey.

The Vagina Analogues

Tracey Emin:

She said: 'In respect of the emergence of forgeries on the market I'm seriously concerned that the forgeries and fakes are damaging to myself as well as collectors and investors in my work.

'From my perspective inferior artworks produced in my name damaged my reputation and credibility as an artist.

'My artwork is deeply personal and comes from my heart. It hurts and distresses me to see these fakes and forgeries that have no regard, respect or understanding of what I do.

'With a view to others, I'm upset and distressed to think people have been conned.'

It's distressing that some forger might fabricate some deeply personal object using Tracey Emin's name without being her deeply personal employee. Investors beware! Will I next be forced to doubt exactly who and what has been in Tracey Emin's vagina?

Head-Stomping? Child's Play.

Canadians LOVE kicking children in the face!

Voters have elected Sam Katz to his third term as Winnipeg's mayor.

The Final Cock-Block

Sporting news:

A giant red stag, thought to have been the biggest wild land animal in the UK, has been shot dead.

The creature, named the Exmoor Emperor, weighed more than 135kg (300lb) and stood nearly 2.75m (9ft) tall. It was killed in the middle of the annual rut.

[...]

The Exmoor Emperor was given its name by photographer Richard Austin, who said he was not surprised at the shooting.

He said: "With a set of antlers that this deer had, it was going to kill him in the end.

"Growing that big and that huge and that magnificent, he was a definite target."

It has always surprised me that nobody has bothered to shoot Mount Everest.

The Search for the Weapons of Mass Democracy

Kevin D. Rumsfeld:

There is no voter fraud. The conclusion does not follow from the evidence. It is entirely possible that there is lots of voter fraud and that the DOJ did not prosecute much of it from 2002–05. There are lots of things the DOJ is not very good at. For instance, the DOJ does not bring a lot of convictions for terrorism crimes; does that mean there is no terrorism and no terrorism threat? Or does it mean that the government is more focused on disrupting terrorism plots than on getting convictions? Or does it mean that terror suspects are getting convicted of lots of non-terrorism crimes instead?

Ha ha, the fact is, Kevin D. Williamson is not a stupid asshole because he has an example. Let us not doubt the gravity of the problem:



As the Zone 5 Commissioner for Daytona Beach is responsible for making The Troops Nuke Terrorists With Tax Policy I am glad someone is on the case.

Elitists

A Psychoanalyst* Attempting to Understand Our World:

Let us assume that approximately 20% of the most gifted High School graduates are accepted into an elite school; that means 80% are not going to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, etc. Many of them are going into the US Military; many go into business; many go to State Schools and second tier colleges. The upshot is that there are far more people who are the intellectual equals to those who matriculate at the elite schools than there are, in fact, in those schools. Further, as noted by [Charles] Murray**, the limited experiences of the elites who are voluntarily estranged from the average American (how does one maintain one's status as a member in good standing in the elites if one goes to a NASCAR race or enjoys hunting or fishing?) means that they lack what is known among the non-illuminati as common sense. If you haven't ever run a business it is not only supremely arrogant, but also fails the test of common sense, to imagine you can tell businessmen how to run their businesses; such humility is more easily learned outside of the Ivy Leagues.

Arrogance is never a becoming attitude; when those who are arrogant base it on successfully passing through a filter which has minimal relevance for the real world, retribution by the hoi polloi who resent their betters can only be a matter of time. The original Tea Partiers of 1773 were not deterred by the knowledge that the Mother Country was the repository of elegance, charm, and manners that the rubes of the New World could never share. In a world in which the ability to actually succeed at creating value is only partially related to the ability to amass the entrance requirements for Harvard, the loss of that necessary differentiation by our elites has caused them to sacrifice their authority and relevance. We do not need Harvard Social Scientists to tell us how to live our lives; most of us know better what is good for us.

Below, a social scientist from Yale who also went to Harvard:



*Good god! A psychoanalyst is somewhat almost sometimes a social scientist!
**Good god! Another Ivy League BA in History! Also an MIT grad!

Enthusiasm!

Tris Hussey:

So today’s TEDx event was focused on education, a topic near and dear to me because am, after all, and educator as well. Not only do I write books, but I teach as well. In fact, next Saturday (next week), I’ll be right back at UBC Robson Square to teach my Building Websites with WordPress class. Fitting then that I would be at my first TED experience, which focused on education, in the very place where I educate others.

Gee, I hope pipefitting instructors have the sense of mission that this gentleman does. The next set of cubicle drones is in good hands.

A Tale of Two Posts On the Same Goddamned Page

OMG ROB REINER YOU STUPID ASSHOLE YOU CALLED TEH TEA PARTY HITLER!!!

The fact is, all Muslims are Nazis.

Alasdair Gray

Alasdair Gray has made his mark as a writer - you should buy Poor Things or Unlikely Stories, Mostly - but he's getting some attention for his equally odd art.

A story of his artistic life.

A gallery and explanation of some of his paintings.

What Happens When You Waste Your Mana Conjuring Food

The lovely daughter's local high school:

A gang of angry online video game players tracked their trash-talking opponent to his Vancouver high school and broke the teenager's fingers, police say.

The teenager, a student at Eric Hamber Secondary School, was confronted during lunch hour and beaten because he had been playing an online strategy game with a group of friends who were beating their opponents and lording it over the losers, police said.

Four or five assailants made him kiss their feet before hitting him with batons, breaking his fingers.

Give Us Your Poor, Your Tired, Your Muddled Asses

Welcome kooks!

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife have told an immigration hearing in Vancouver they need asylum in Canada to escape from "Hollywood star whackers."

We got Michael Moriarty already and he needs a pal.

Reason to Panic

Via one of those reliable English papers:

Aircraft crashes after crocodile on board escapes and sparks panic
A small airliner crashed into a house, killing a British pilot and 19 others after a crocodile smuggled into the aircraft in a sports bag escaped and started a panic.

If the pilots had been equipped with their own crocodiles this disaster could have been averted.

If you are seated beside the gentleman below RUN RUN RUN to Fox News and collect millions.

I Laughed

I think Jon Stewart's a great guy with good taste and a quick mind and makes jokes that I would love to be making... I just dislike the mugging and yelling and HEY IT'S A JOKE RIGHT HERE I AM TELLING! I confess that I do not watch The Daily Show, not even in little video clips on the net because most of those don't play here in the outer reaches of North America.

But anyway, liberated from his face and his voice Jon Stewart is absolutely hilarious.

Women Are Leeches

Veronique de Rugy:

It would benefit women if you took away their benefits.

Let's actually quote a portion of it:

Also, government benefits tend to make people dependent, which is too bad considering how long women have fought for their independence. The example I use is the one of Social Security: Women depend on Social Security more than men. Based on Social Security data, almost 29 percent of women over age 65 rely on Social Security for at least 90 percent of their retirement income. That number increases to 46 percent for unmarried elderly women. These women are particularly vulnerable to changes in government policies. At any time, Congress can reduce benefits even for people who have paid into the system their entire lives. In a sense, it did that earlier this month by saying that Social Security recipients won’t get a cost-of-living increase this year.

The reality is that the benefits these women are receiving from Social Security and are counting on receiving in the future are not a sure thing. If fact, we should all prepare for the likelihood that they will be reduced. Starting in 2014, the system will run a deficit, and the trust fund will run dry in 2037. Benefit cuts seem inevitable. Women stand to lose the most.

I have been getting a lot of very negative e-mails just for suggesting that women would be better off breaking their dependence on government payouts. As expected, I have been accused of wanting to put older women on a cat-food diet.

What a baseless accusation to make of someone who wants to make 90-year-old women more independent by not giving them money.

Duke to Nuts

Everyone loves Jimmy McMillan! There's nothing like a good kook to make politics entertaining although it's a pity that many go on to actually hold office, and with more pernicious agendas.

But what, in the eyes of a different kook, is Jimmy McMillan's most endearing feature?

That's right, gentle reader, he's a fan of Ronald Reagan:

Still, there’s one politician McMillan admires: Ronald Reagan. The 40th president charmed audiences with his impeccable sense of humor, and McMillan tried to emulate his example last night. For instance, at one point he rhymed his answer: “There’s nowhere to go. Once again, why? You said it, ‘The rent is too damn high.’” The audience roared. “Once the other candidates heard that,” he says, “they were doomed.”

A sense of humor is the sharpest of political weapons and for McMillan, no one wielded it better than Reagan. “Obama has almost got it, but Ronald Reagan perfected it,” he says. “I love him to death.”

Attempts to appropriate rock and roll and Dr. Seuss make a kind of sense: they're really really good, if usually antithetical to hilarious social conservative boobs and bloodless libertarian maniacs alike. Jimmy McMillan though? HANDS OFF MY NUTS.

In Flight

It's Different There

I don't think anyone really understands how different it is in Pakistan.



Above is a file photo of disgraced Pakistani ministers who have not yet completed the dying process mandated by SHANIA LAW. It would help Anglo misreaders - always on the lookout for an uncharitable interpretation of Islam - if our fellow People of the Book called it the "colouring process" but YOU argue with the big-sword guy.

Lawsuit Not Work Right

I had no idea there were Officer Bubbles cartoons before this.

Bonus! A court filing below. In it we learn that YouTube commenters call


OFFICER

BUBBLES

an

ASSHOLE.

More stuff I did not know!

Officer-Bubbles Statement of Claim

For What?

History:

One hundred years ago to the day, a crew of six men and a cat left New Jersey in the first-ever attempt to cross the Atlantic in a powered flying machine.

[...]

The America flew out of Atlantic City on 15 October, 1910, after weeks of build-up and speculation over whether she would ever leave the ground.

[...]

The crew's first crisis was a howling protest from their good luck mascot, a cat named Kiddo.

Chief Engineer Mervin Vaniman stuffed Kiddo into a bag and attempted to lower it onto the motor launch following the airship. But the boat was too far behind and the cat was pulled back up again.

Murray Simon wrote: "You must never cross the Atlantic in an airship without a cat - more useful to us than any barometer."

The Orb Menace Continues

Via LGM, some news we can use:

"Nobody was injured and I don't consider it an attack but it certainly it was a national security incident and something the Air Force said has never happen in their official policy documents," said Robert Salas, a former U.S. Air Force Nuclear Launch Officer.

Salas is speaking of a night in 1967, according to ABCNews.com, when he was on duty and
glowing red orbs
appeared outside the gates of the nuclear missile base. At the same time, the weapons were disabled. While the weapons were not damaged, he said it took a couple of days to rearm them.

There you have it: the government is hiding information about AGGRESSIVE COMMUNIST ORBS.

Why I Get My Own Seat On the Bus

I "work" on stupid things like this:



Also the smell and what we euphemistically call "leaks".

Anyway, she needs to be ensmallened for use and the flames encheapened or at least corralled to fit into scenery properly, but this initial test scene has a quiet dignity of its own that I thought should be shared.

Sex: More Boring Than Ever

News:

OTTAWA—The Conservative government wants to help unemployed Canadians find careers as strippers and for-hire escorts.

According to a draft Oct. 1 memo obtained by the Star, Ottawa has determined these careers once considered “morally offensive” should be put on the federal government’s Job Bank, which is also available for use by the provinces.

[...]

The draft policy, which has yet to be implemented, stated that the following occupations will “be acceptable for posting on Job Bank”:

• Exotic dancer, erotic dancer, nude dancer, striptease dancer and table dancer.

• Escort, chat line agent, phone agent for personal services and telephone agent for personal services.

I am sure that the tax reven...reve... zzzzz

Home-Spun Science

Here at Substance Labs it's our mission to help mankind advance through discovery of the fundamental stuff that makes up our universe. To this end we have magnetically captured grannies in a vast machine where we fire them at each other. Getting them to meet at exactly the right point at the right speed before they fade out sees them break up (along with a minor release of energy: were we not putting these grannies to good use they would no doubt be napping) into smaller particles. Have a peek into the collision chamber:



Yes, my friends, I here announce the long-awaited discovery of the cronoton.

Also Businessmen Should Be Denied The Vote

The Derb nudges Pat Sajak - a very important game show host! - into the ninth circle of hell:

Pat Sajak: “I’m not suggesting that public employees should be denied the right to vote …”

Go ahead, Pat: say it. I did, back in 2003.

If you let public employees vote, what do you think they are going to vote for? For more public spending, more government jobs, higher government wages. Can you vote yourself a pay raise? No, and neither can I. Bill Bureaucrat and Pam Paperpusher can, though, and they do. Bill and Pam have no problem at all with ever-swelling public budgets, with ever-expanding public services, with the creeping socialism that is slowly throttling our liberties out of existence.

It’s an idea whose time will soon come.

I'm with the Derb:

FUCK THE

TROOPS!

Hippies on Rascals

Hi Zombie!* What's up?

This is a memo to America’s hippies:

Tea Party values are hippie values.

What?

You heard me right.

No I didn't. WHAT?

The Tea Party is the one social movement in contemporary America that can rightfully claim to be the ideological heir to the original hippie movement that started in the mid-’60s.

What I remember about that hippie movement was that they were righteously angry old people, wanted to drop bombs on deserving folks in other countries and loved seeing people in jail for all sorts of stuff that was actually worthy of flogging and death. Surely today's whacked-out snakey-dancing "tea" party libertines are more threatening. Aren't they? Let's see!

If you, as a hippie, think the thesis of this essay couldn’t possibly be true, you’ve been paying too much attention to the mainstream media.

This is true of hippies! They were unfailingly trusting of elitist societal mouthpieces to tell them what was good for them! Tell me more!

The Tea Party has been intentionally misrepresented, villainized and smeared by the powers-that-be. But this too is a feature that the Tea Party shares with hippies — the hippie movement was itself misrepresented and smeared by a different mainstream media over 40 years ago.

OMG THEY SMEARED THE HIPPIES AS "THE SILENT MAJORITY"!

In short, the Tea Party and the hippie movement share four fundamental core values:

* A craving for independence;
* A celebration of individualism;
* Joy in the freedom offered by self-sufficiency;
* And an acceptance of the natural order of things.

I'm convinced! The next time one of these gentle hairy kids with the oversized pupils hands me a brownie, I'm a-chompin'! FOR AMERICA!

*Gotcha.

The Kyrgyzstan Elections Are a Global Bombshell

Via the RSS reader, Reuters knows something we don't:



The Life and Leisure section will never be the same.

John le Carré

Via MetaFilter here's an interview with John le Carré.

It's nice and all, but weak in comparison to this enormously entertaining CBC interview I heard last night. Some of the same ground is gone over, but better, deeper, more interesting, funnier. Writers & Company is a fine show and may be found here. The trousers of Rudolf Hess make a welcome appearance. Part two next week.

New Releases

10 Questions: Miriam Robbins Dexter on the Power of Female Display:

Magical female genital display: Are you talking about history or, more specifically, the history of art?

This is history, not just the history of art. For the prehistoric age, we don't really know exactly what is and isn't history. That it's history is more recently shown in a 19th-century letter we found in the Irish Times. The letter's author was an older man who wrote that as a child he observed a woman who was being besieged by people with pitchforks — she lifted up her skirts and they ran away. There's also a 19th-century story about rows of older Chinese women frightening off invaders by standing on the city wall and exposing themselves.

Smelly Bear Grease

A tangent from an NPR article on Italian singers:

This was happening during a period when there was a great deal of discrimination against Italians in America. For example, this excerpt was taken from a profile on Joe DiMaggio from Life Magazine in 1939.

"Although he learned Italian first, Joe now speaks English without an accent. ... Instead of olive oil or smelly bear grease, he keeps his hair slicked with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti."

Why Didn't They Just Waterboard Him?

The prelude to an interview:

Syndicated columnist Jack Anderson had the White House on the run.

With just months until the 1972 election, he'd exposed a blatant bribe within the Nixon administration. Now, the president's men had him in their sights more than ever before. They discussed poisoning his aspirin or sending him into a dangerous hallucination by smearing LSD on his steering wheel.

This was no joke. In his new book, Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington's Scandal Culture, journalist and University of Maryland professor Mark Feldstein chronicles the real-life assassination plot that topped off an epic feud between the columnist and President Richard Nixon. Both men, he writes, lost their bearings in a world of lies, blackmail, and corruption.

Thousands

An interview with two scholarly gentlemen:

"Did you anticipate this kind of reaction?" I ask them.

"No," sighs Violent J. "I figured most people would say, 'Wow, I didn't know Insane Clown Posse could be deep like that.' But instead it's, 'ICP said a giraffe is a miracle. Ha ha ha! What a bunch of idiots.'" He pauses, then adds defiantly, "A giraffe is a fucking miracle. It has a dinosaur-like neck. It's yellow. Yeah, technically an elephant is not a miracle. Technically. They've been here for hundreds of years…"

"Thousands," murmurs Shaggy.

There is so much more, and so much weirder. I'm not kidding: READ THE WHOLE THING.

Horrible Australians

Telepathic Ed on war:

During WW II there were a Million American Servicemen in East Australia and tensions Arose between the American and Australian Servicemen. The Australians then and now are Infamous for their Horrible Personalities, not all are like this but Most Are. By the end of the Day You've been Insulted Several Times. The American Servicement were Payed Much more than the Australians and the Australians Resented This. The Girls found the American Servicemen to be Much More Attractive with their Outgoing Personalites and Pretty Accents and Happy to Spend their Money on a Good Time. The Australian Girls Regarded the Australian Servicemen as the Same Dour Joe Blokes they had Unfortunately Become Used to. The Australians's Anger over the Americans Ability to get the Girls and their Freespending Ways came to a Head on November 26 and November 27, 1942 when thousands of American and Ausralians Servicement Street-Fought each other for these 2 Days with Hundreds of Injuries many of them Serious and with 1 Australian being Killed. The American who killed him stood Court Martial for Manslaughter but was Acquited for Self-Defense. This was Called "the Battle of Brisbane," and News Accounts were kept from the American Public (We're Fighting our own Allies?).

Do I spy a D&D joke right after this bit?

Field Studies

Dear National Geographic:

I never thought this would happen to me, but while on wildlife research studies in Arizona behind a bingo hall I came across a dead granny. After I cleaned up and retreated behind the dumpster I was witness to an event that should shake the foundations of granthropology:



Yes, I had discovered the first documented case of GRANNIBALISM.

Yours from the pre-trial centre,

S. McGravitas

Important Issues

I am told there exists a program to feed the poor:

SINCE its introduction in 1964, America’s food stamp program has helped millions of struggling Americans put food on their tables in difficult times. During the recent economic downturn, the number of people in New York City receiving this assistance has grown more than 35 percent.

This sounds like a fine program. How terrible that people need it, but it's good that it's there.

Recipients, however, aren’t allowed to buy everything a grocery store might sell. The federal government bars the use of food stamps to buy cigarettes, beer, wine, liquor or prepared foods like deli sandwiches and restaurant entrees. Still, the program, which is supposed to promote nutrition as well as reduce hunger, has a serious flaw: food stamps can be used to buy soda and other sweetened drinks.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT, MY MIND HAS BEEN BLOWN!

Every year, tens of millions of federal dollars are spent on sweetened beverages in New York City through the food stamp program — far more than is spent on obesity prevention. This amounts to an enormous subsidy to the sweetened beverage industry.

Why is the ramen industry entitled to their subsidy?

To correct this, New York City and State are asking the United States Department of Agriculture, which administers the food stamp program, to authorize a demonstration project in New York City. The city would bar the use of food stamps to buy beverages that contain more sugar than substance — that is, beverages with low nutritional value that contain more than 10 calories per eight-ounce serving. The policy would not apply to milk, milk substitutes (like soy milk, rice milk or powdered milk) or fruit juices without added sugar — and its effects would be rigorously evaluated.

I'm not a fan of the sugar-water industry [pause for glug-glugging] and there are health and cost rationales that I guess a bureaucrat should look at because it's their job - and that's what these guys are doing - but the poor should be able to get a treat now and then. On the bright side if the line is drawn according to to the caloric limit then the aspartame industry retains its subsidy. No doubt the folks in charge of the diet brands of the bottling industry will receive hefty bonuses if a national plan follows the NYC proposal.

Drink Up Ladies!

But in ever-so-small amounts or your children may become MONSTERS.

More Cowbell

Terrible singing, terrible lyrics, great song.

You know you're just dragging it out when your songs get slower instead of faster when you play them live:

Oops

Old news, but what the heck:

U.S. government documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and recently posted on the website of the George Washington University National Security Archive shed some additional light on talks with the Taliban prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, including with regard to the repeated Taliban offers to hand over Osama bin Laden, and the role of Pakistan before and after the attacks.

[...]

According to the BBC, the Taliban later even warned the U.S. that bin Laden was going to launch an attack on American soil. Former Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil said his warnings, issued because of concerns that the U.S. would react by waging war against Afghanistan, had been ignored. A U.S. official did not deny that such warnings were issued, but told BBC rather that it was dismissed because “We were hearing a lot of that kind of stuff”.

Pride in the Flag

My country does equality well:

Brawl erupts as 100 drunken women watch stripper on Vancouver Island
By Walter Cordery, Nanaimo Daily News October 4, 2010 4:07 PM

NANAIMO -- Police want to talk to the management of Nanaimo's Cavallotti Lodge following a drunken melee that erupted at the hall on Friday night, featuring more than 100 drunken women and a male stripper.

[...]

A witness to Friday's escapades who did not want to be identified said one woman stood on her chair to watch the male exotic dancer, who was dressed up as a police officer before he started to remove his clothing. The women behind her took exception because their view of the stripper was obstructed.

At least four police cars responded to the assault.

Tear shit up, ladies.

But of course there's always a counterpoint to such enlightened sharing of the duties of inebriation, vulgarity and violence. In Afghanistan, a lotta rape on a Canadian military base, perpetrators unknown.

What's In a Name?

Wendy A. Goldman:

Movies have the power to make us laugh or cry, to anger or inspire us, to move us, or just to provide escape. And, sometimes, they have a power beyond simple entertainment; they can influence new ways of thinking, feeling and pursuing our lives.

Movies are also one of the primary arenas in which the so-called “culture war” is fought, where the battle for the hearts and minds of the public, and the conflict between values considered traditional or conservative, and those considered progressive or liberal is played out—reaching people in a profound, instinctive way. Conservatives, while finding success at the ballot box, in talk radio, the blogosphere, and in cable news, have been less successful at the box office, and therefore, are playing catch-up in the culture war.

It is with this in mind that we have launched Crusader Pictures. Crusade means the vigorous advancement of a cause, and the cause at the heart of Crusader Pictures is to produce entertainment which stands up for individual liberty in a manner that will appeal to a wide audience.

Okay loser.

See if you can figure out what the hell the first project is all about. It seems to have something to do with this, but upside-down and backwards.

Back Into RSS

Checking out an old newsreader and its old feeds. What's one of those without trivia?

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
-Alfred Hitchcock, In Simon Rose, Classic Film Guide (1995)
British movie director (1899 - 1980)

Ownership

An appraisal:

[Serge Gainsbourg] knew no cultural boundaries. He was a Eurovision Song Contest winner — 1965, representing Luxembourg, not France — who was also compared to France's greatest poets. When he died, in 1991, president Francois Mitterrand called him "our Apollinaire, our Baudelaire".

Pfft. Trust a Frenchman to think one of theirs could be as talented as Apollinaire or Baudelaire.

Judge and Prepare to Be Judged

This makes good reading.

Songs iTunes Hates

Out of 14905 mostly-random plays of about 3000 songs (the at-work rotation), iTunes refuses to queue these sad eleven:

Eminence Front - The Who
Goin' Out West - Tom Waits
Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad - Tammy Wynette
Beat The Retreat - Richard Thompson
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Small Parts Isolated And Destroyed - Nomeansno
Fire on the Bayou - The Meters
What's Golden - Jurassic 5
Nothin' for Christmas - Eartha Kitt
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Thurl Ravenscroft
Rehab - Amy Winehouse