Medium and Message

Long long ago I mentioned liking this song as sung by Blossom Dearie.

Here is an ambitious yet inevitably horrifying short film using it.

Who?

Obscure band "The Beatles" (get it?) have their recordings unearthed.

By popular request:

Welfare

Thomas Sowell explains (circa 1980) that he'd never do real work if he could help it, therefore nobody else will either, and that he must be regarded as a failure.

By Their Froot Loops Ye Shall Know Them

Thomas Sowell:

The most important thing about what anyone says are not the words themselves but the credibility of the person who says them.

Let me be scrupulously fair here and note that a proportion of these results represents crazy foaming-at-the-mouth Hitler invocation by commenters at Townhall and not Thomas Sowell. So about half and half.

Credulity

My daughter told someone today that Labour Day is a celebration of the Twelve Labours of Hercules.

Said someone had to check with me to see if it was true.

Clean my stables, libs!

Free Silvio Berlusconi!

Communists take Italy!

Silvio Berlusconi defended his decision to sue newspapers over their reporting of alleged scandals in his private life, claiming yesterday that 90 per cent of the press in Italy was controlled by a “Communist and Catholic-Communist minority”.

Also:

He claimed that, unlike some of his predecessors: “I do not use my power for personal advantage”. The Constitutional Court is to rule this autumn on whether a law passed by Mr Berlusconi giving himself immunity from prosecution is legally valid.

Giant Rat in Volcano Hideout

Rats.

Victory!

Only 10 of 13 women flogged for wearing trousers!

KHARTOUM, Sudan — A Sudanese judge convicted a woman journalist on Monday for violating the public indecency law by wearing trousers outdoors and fined her $200, but did not impose a feared flogging penalty.

Lubna Hussein was among 13 women arrested July 3 in a raid by the public order police in Khartoum. Ten of the women were fined and flogged two days later. But Hussein and two others decided to go to trial.

Read the article. Lubna Hussein is a stronger person than I.

UPDATE:

Off to jail.

KIWI UPDATE:

Out again. I wonder if she wanted her colleagues to cough up the dough on her behalf.

Curse You George Soros!

Andrew Breitbart has a stupid column in the Washington Times about Van Jones and how Katie Couric should shape up and investigate every Obama appointee. Heck, she or her staffers should investigate something at some point: I'm for that too. But look at this little bit:

Instead, talk-radio host Glenn Beck and Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit, as well as Breitbart.tv editors Scott Baker and Liz Stephans, led the charge forcing the mainstream media's hand while the usually reliable George Soros-funded "netroots" media defense mechanism couldn't fend off the growing body of charges.

That Soros jerk was asleep at the switch again instead of stifling all True Conservative messages.

Just Playing

Accidentally discovered someone's soul:



Uh oh. If I was fooling around with blotter acid I might want to pay attention to the prophecy in Glenn Beck's eyes.



Keane style:

Decadence

In further news via Boing Boing, this:

How much is a box of pencils worth? Fifty pence? £3.99 if the pencils have rubbers on the ends? Well, if they're part of a Damien Hirst art installation, the value is £500,000. That is what 17-year-old graffiti artist Cartrain discovered when he pilfered some pencils from Hirst's sculpture Pharmacy. And that wasn't all – he was arrested, released on bail, and is waiting to find out if he will be formally charged with causing damage to an iconic artwork worth £10m.

Y'know, I have some appreciation for the games Hirst plays in making his art, but fuck him. The theft had style:

He then created a "wanted"-style poster that read: "For the safe return of Damien Hirst's pencils I would like my artworks back that DACS and Hirst took off me in November. It's not a large demand... Hirst has until the end of this month to resolve this or on 31 July the pencils will be sharpened. He has been warned."

There's more context in the article about some feuding involving appropriation, but that only makes Hirst look worse.

Or, erm, the Tate. Rereading I don't think I see thing one about Hirst taking any action at all except putting pencils back when they're recovered. Fuck him anyway and the Tate!

Also royalties are owed the designers of the pencils.

Snakecharming

Via Boing Boing.

The Unreal Roxanne

Via cognitive dissident, this correction:

Correction: It has come to the attention of the Daily News that a number of statements in this article written for the Daily News by a freelance reporter are, or may be, false. Cornell University has told us that Shante did not receive any degree from it under either her birth or stage name. We have confirmed that prior to the article, at least four publications on Cornell's own website reported that Shante had earned a Ph.D. from the university. Those references have now been removed. And in response to an inquiry today, Marymount College stated that Shante attended there for less than one semester.

Numerous e-mail and telephone inquiries by the freelance reporter to Marymount during the preparation of the article to confirm Shante's account were not responded to. Finally, there have been recent media reports that there never was an education clause in Shante's recording contract. When the reporter contacted Warner Brothers Records about the contract before the article, its only response was that it was having difficulty finding someone within the company who could "talk eloquently" about it.

Vermin

Beware, my friends,
The common Vermin
Seeking underthings
To squirm in.

(Ahh, memories.)

Beaten to the Punch

This seems like a nice event for a good cause:

On Tuesday, September 8, the first annual Ride 2 Recovery eBay Charity Auction will begin and run for 10 days. The highlight of the auction will be a dinner experience with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

[...]

The money raised from this effort will go to support the participation of wounded heroes in the R2R program and events, purchase bikes, helmets, and other technical equipment required for the wounded heroes.

Punchback.

Ostriches in the Krasnoyarsk Zoo

Found here.

Old.

Baffled Burt Prelutsky:

Boneheads would have you believe my opposition to Obama is based on racism. I, on the other hand, would insist that when a presidential candidate announces that once his energy plan is in place, our energy costs will soar; that he will bury you if you have the temerity to own a coal company; and that he believes, as he told Joe the Plumber, that it is government’s job to re-distribute wealth, what does race have to do with it? I hated all that stuff back when it was being promoted by such white con artists as Karl Marx, Josef Stalin and Saul Alinsky.

Few of my fellow communists can forget Marx's first triumphant book tour through 1950s America, surely the promotional event Burt is referring to here.

Furthermore They Are Staffed By Morans!

Good point!

Also a good point:

Rebel Without Drawers

Scooter Schaefer on his ability to relate, dude:

It is easy for me, now 25, to imagine what a twenty-something forty years ago must have been feeling. Concern over a war raging abroad, dire economic conditions at home, and the role of government in a young person’s life always lingering.

The U.S. was undergoing a societal, political, and cultural transformation during which the baby boomers, the young generation of the day, were at ground zero. Unhappy with the "establishment" and "the man" to whom they held responsible for their woes, they started a movement.

With so many parallels to choose from in the problems facing our generation, we too should hold to account the powers that be. The disaffected youth of today need to open their eyes to see the "establishment" and "the man" that looms over them.

An immense government and vast bureaucracy with unprecedented power, the likes of which this country has never seen. A powerful elite in a distant capital making decisions that infringe on our liberties and freedoms with a "we know best" attitude.

From his bio at the Patrick Henry Institute:

Gabriel “Scooter” Schaefer is the most recent addition to the staff at the Patrick Henry Center. As a recent graduate of George Mason University, Scooter was an outspoken advocate of conservative principles and issues affecting his campus. After a post-graduate back-packing trip around Europe, Scooter returned to the United States with a profound respect and admiration for his country, coupled with a determination to pursue conservative advocacy and liberty. Shortly thereafter Scooter found an internship position with an outspoken conservative member of Congress, Representative Tom McClintock of California. (CA-O4) With Capitol Hill experience under his belt Scooter returned to his passion of campus outreach and advocacy as the Assistant Director of the Caucus for Campus Freedom at the Patrick Henry Center.

Bless you, TownHall, for your mad web skillz:

Health Care (Mental Variety)

The ongoing hammering of Megan McArdle by John Holbo attracts a very funny libertarian called Albert Jensen in comments.