Tim points out three great articles from the delightfully polemic FrontPage magazine. I wouldn't post 'em if they weren't worth the bother. Check out these fun bits:

Love, Poverty and War - an interview with Christopher Hitchens

Hitchens: Osama bin Laden is a kind of pseudo-intellectual, with a rough theory of history and a highly reactionary desire to restore a lost empire. But he negates even this doomed, pseudo-Utopian project by his hysterical Puritanism, which bans even music and which of course would deny society the talents of women as well as driving out anyone with any culture or education. Thus, any society run by him or people like him would keep on going bankrupt and starving itself to death, with no ready explanation of why this kept happening. The repeated failure would inevitably be blamed on Zionist-Crusader conspiracies, and the violence and repression would then be projected outward, which is why we have a right to concern ourselves with the "internal affairs" of the Islamic world.

Susan Sontag: An Obituary

Since the counterculture is not strong enough to overthrow IBM, the Pentagon, etc., it must opt for subversion. "Rock, grass, better orgasms, freaky clothes, grooving on nature--really grooving on anything--unfits, maladapts a person for the American way of life." And here is where the Cubans come in: they enjoy this desirable "new sensibility" naturally, possessing as they do a "southern spontaneity which we feel our own too white, death-ridden culture denies us. . . . The Cubans know a lot about spontaneity, gaiety, sensuality and freaking out. They are not linear, desiccated creatures of print culture."

Indeed not: supine, desiccated creatures of a Communist tyranny would be more like it, though patronizing honky talk about "southern spontaneity" doubtless made things seem much better when this was written. In the great contest for writing the most fatuous line of political drivel, Sontag is always a contender. This essay contains at least two gems: after ten years, she writes, "the Cuban revolution is astonishingly free of repression and bureaucratization"; even better perhaps, is this passing remark delivered in parentheses: "No Cuban writer has been or is in jail, or is failing to get his work published." Readers wishing to make a reality check should consult Paul Hollander's classic study Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society, which cites Sontag's claim and then lists, in two or three pages, some of the many writers and artists who have been jailed, tortured, or executed by Castro's spontaneous gaiety.
...
In "What's Happening in America (1966)," Sontag tells readers that what America "deserves" is to have its wealth "taken away" by the Third World. In one particularly notorious passage, she writes that "the truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, and Balanchine ballets don't redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history."

Kwanzaa -- Racist Holiday From Hell

When once asked why he designed Kwanzaa to take place around Christmas, Karenga explained, “People think it’s African, but it’s not. I came up with Kwanzaa because black people wouldn’t celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that’s when a lot of bloods would be partying.”

(A little heavy on the "love Jesus not Kwanzaa" view, but an interesting read nonetheless. You may also want to check out "The Night Before Kwanzaa" courtesy of Mr. Lams.)

Correction: The post was by Jonathan Rowe on Tim's site.

Why give a man a miracle when you can teach him to make them?


Thanks to some inspired Aussie, you can now produce miracle Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwiches on demand. Mmm... behold the power of cheese. I wonder what kind of sandwich Jesus would make (WSWJM)?

The link I should have posted on Christmas: Only in Lapland

Finally, my people in the frozen north get a little recognition. I'm still waiting to find the site dedicated to Finno-Slovenes (I'll take Finno-Croats in a pinch). After all, the Yugo-Mexican connection has been well documented and it's high time we Post-Yugo-Finns got our due.

I'm really not sure what to make of this online database of government informants. Having spent a semester doing criminal defense work, I can see the motivation behind this, but really it just strikes me as another ugly byproduct of a system with perverse incentives and outcomes. [insert rant about the Drug War, Federal Sentencing Guidelines, Mandatory Minimums, and prosecutorial power here] I'm sure this is an attempt to balance the scales a bit, but it just ain't pretty.

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Merry Christmas

I'm off to Colorado and then Arizona. It's likely I'll be internet-less for about a week. Let's all hope the detox goes well.

Don Knotts IS Dubya



From Milk and Cookies: Michael Moore may be campaigning for "Fahrenheit 9/11" to win a People's Choice award, but "Dubya: The Movie" is probably more likely to win.

Richey Rocks, but Dahv has a lock on the 10 and under crowd



"C'mon it's time to feel the rhythm
of this funky groove
You can feel it cause it really
wants to make you move"

This Christmas, care enough to send the very best: Letters from Bad Santa

The first reviews of Serenity are in over at AICN.

I've related an anecdote to more than a few folks that largely sums up the Middle East dilemma for me. To spare you the tedious details, the gist of it is that an arab said to someone in all seriousness, "The Americans invented dinosaurs to eat muslims." Up to now, I've taken this as a sign that rational and peaceful discourse in the Middle East is a little chimeric. Todd Seavey, having heard this anecdote, now causes me to reconsider everything:

"You know, as I age and grow more concerned with the concrete instead of the abstract, I find myself having conversations such as one with Julian Sanchez months ago in which I argued that (a) we must fight Islamism, (b) in the long run robots will replace humans, and (c) we can't wait for a gradual Hayekian process of evolution to occur if our enemies already have nukes, and I summed up the whole position by saying we need to take out the extremist Muslims so that they aren't the ones who program the robots. And since I fully expect we'll develop AI-possessing robots before they do, and since I was just telling someone else that (1) I expect scientists, in their wisdom and humility, to start immitating nature more when creating templates for complex robot brains and bodies and (2) I want the robots to be stronger and more durable than homo sapiens' bodies, I guess you could sum up my core political and cultural views these days in the slogan AMERICA MUST BUILD DINOSAURS TO EAT ARABS."

Awesome.

Note to future self: no matter how funny it may seem to wear an orange jumpsuit and blackface to a halloween party while sitting as an active judge, consider leaving the shoe polish at home (unless of course, the joke is worth it).
Did I mention that I just passed the ethics for lawyers test (Multi State Professional Responsibility Exam)? Woot!

I laughed out loud at this excerpt from Mr. Cranky's review of Dodgeball:

If there's one bright spot, it's that this film could well win the Oscar in the category of Most Projectiles to the Crotch in a Feature Film. It also might be qualified for some sort of humanitarian award for giving a small cameo role to Booger from "Revenge of the Nerds." You know the name of the actor who played Booger? I do: It's "Booger." And it will always be "Booger," no matter if he shows his face in a restaurant, a supermarket or on stage while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.

There's just nothing cool about forever being known as "Booger."

Anna Nicole Smith outtakes from the top ten outsider videos. Lots of other hilarious bits there as well.

Gangsta Barney

I love New York



"This collection of street posters, mad scribblings, political screeds, religious rants, and paranoid raves was collected on the streets of New York City from 1985 to the present. Some time ago, it occurred to me that the streets are as full of art as, say, thrift shops are full of great paintings. So, inspired by Jim Shaw's collection Thrift Shop Paintings, Adolf Wölfli's visionary scrawls, and outsider music, I began carrying a portable razor with me whilst out on casual strolls. What began as a hobby has remained an obsession and this obsession is brought to you in living color here on UbuWeb."

You really must see the new Willy Wonka trailer.

Santamosh

This may be my only hope of ever winning a game of Monopoly. (Credit to Mike.)

Your ears will never trust you again



"Crazy as it sounds, RICHEY NEVER GOT TO AUDITION for American Idol while they were down here in Orlando, FL* With only 2 hours left before auditioning, Richey was escorted and told to leave the building after dancing and entertaining , impatient and bored people. American Idol officials said that his entertainment didnt fit the standards and conduct of the american idol agreement, so with that Richey never auditioned. Crazy isnt it?

"Does Punk Rock fit the standard of what American Idol is looking for ? Probably not, but WHO CARES!!!! LOL Its just all about having a good time & being yourself."

Good Will Hunting all over again



From Milli Vanilli to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, America seems to love when two idiots combine forces and try to sell someone else's work as their own.

Thanks to Milk and Cookies, we learn that with her case allowed to proceed, Sophia Stewart may very well ruin the lives of Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers. The question is, can moviegoers now sue her for subjecting them to the sequels?

"DID YOU KNOW — the original creator of THE MATRIX and THE TERMINATOR trilogeez was an Afrikan woman by the name of SOPHIA STEWART?

"The original script was called, of all thingz... THE THIRD EYE and was stolen by 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, the Wachowski Brothers and Joel Silver, who created first 'The Terminator' series , then 'The Matrix' trilogy !!

"This Queenz been fighting these plagiarizing pirates since 1999 and can use the assistance of the undaground to assist her in revealing the truth!"

Lots of gift giving goodness at Palisades Toys.



I'm digging the plush, bendable "Alien chest burster."

Soon to be littering Young Republican dorm rooms everywhere....the 2005 Great American Conservative Women Calendar. Mark each day with the cold calculating smiles of such luminaries as Ann Coulter, Dr. Laura, Michelle Malkin, Condoleeza Rice, and Shemane Nugent!



This holiday season, I like to think of it as the new coal.

From the 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time (a fictional list)

Ayn Rand's A Selfish Christmas (1951)

In this hour-long radio drama, Santa struggles with the increasing demands of providing gifts for millions of spoiled, ungrateful brats across the world, until a single elf, in the engineering department of his workshop, convinces Santa to go on strike. The special ends with the entropic collapse of the civilization of takers and the spectacle of children trudging across the bitterly cold, dark tundra to offer Santa cash for his services, acknowledging at last that his genius makes the gifts -- and therefore Christmas -- possible. Prior to broadcast, Mutual Broadcast System executives raised objections to the radio play, noting that 56 minutes of the hour-long broadcast went to a philosophical manifesto by the elf and of the four remaining minutes, three went to a love scene between Santa and the cold, practical Mrs. Claus that was rendered into radio through the use of grunts and the shattering of several dozen whiskey tumblers. In later letters, Rand sneeringly described these executives as "anti-life."

Be sure to check out the entire list.

SpongeBob inspires crime wave



First SpongeBob's evil subliminal imagery was exposed, now it seems his very presence inspires crime:

"Police have recovered an inflatable SpongeBob Square Pants that was stolen from an area Burger King.

"The fast-food restaurant received a tip about an individual who took SpongeBob. When police went to the residence, where SpongeBob was located under a bed in the suspect's bedroom.

"The 9-foot SpongeBob was taken from the roof ot the Vermilion Burger King on Nov. 20.

"John Baldwin, 20, was charged with receiving stolen property. Two others are being investigated in connection with the case.

"There have been other SpongeBob thefts across the country."

Have fun with local merchants

From Bad Gas, here are some helpful signs to post outside of friendly establishments.

Karate Chimp. Awesome.

The epitome of evil: Hitler, the Disco-Fuhrer

Conspicuous consumption



"Doting South Korean parents can preserve their child's umbilical cord in acrylic resin to make a personal seal or even have it gold plated.

"Shim Jae-cheol of U&I Impression said the firm had gold-plated about 80 to 100 umbilical cords a month since starting business in August, with prices ranging from 80,000 won to 100,000 won ($76 to $96). It also offers mail order (that seems sanitary).

"South Korean law allows parents to keep the umbilical cord of their children, although sales to a third party would be illegal.

"Another supplier, Agamo, which makes calligraphy brushes made from human hair and preserves umbilical cords in personal seals, hopes to branch out to Japan.

"'The company got the idea from mothers just storing umbilical cords and navels in an album or what-not,' said Suk Tae-jin of Agamo.

"Keeping children's umbilical cords and making calligraphy brushes from their hair have long been a long tradition in Korea."

Happy Thanksgiving

So I actually went to the Macy's parade today. Figuring that it's my last chance to go see it and having someone remind me that not going when I live two blocks away would make me the laziest person on earth, I felt compelled. Unlike the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, this one takes itself seriously. The crowd is noticeably different - a lot of families, far fewer transvestites, and a lot more sober. Not nearly as much fun. The highlight? Steve Irwin (aka The Crocodile Hunter) waving with such enthusiasm from his little float perch I thought he might do an unintentional stage dive into the crowd. He didn't.

Nooooooooooooooooooooo..........................

Elastigirl's Bastard Son


Meet Garry Turner, world's stretchiest skin record holder guy.

Politics will never be the same



The ramifications of this are, well, amazing. He should be at every future political debate:

"The Amazing Kreskin, who bills himself as 'the world's foremost mentalist,' wants to help his home state of New Jersey stem the tide of shady practices in government, a problem U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has called widespread.

"Kreskin sent a letter to acting Gov. Richard J. Codey offering his nonpartisan services to help ferret out those who come to government with ulterior motives.

"Kreskin, who lives in northern New Jersey, said he would monitor government meetings with a mind's eye toward keeping things above board.

"'If a person is coming in with a strong hidden agenda, they're thinking about it. They're focusing on it,' he said Wednesday in a phone interview. 'I could get a ... strong sense (of that).'

"Kreskin said he sent his letter to Codey's office Monday, signing it 'ESPecially, Kreskin.' A spokeswoman for Codey, Kelley Heck, wasn't sure the letter had been received."

The new CNN commercials are pretty funny - link stolen from newly relocated Aaron.

It would surprise me if this game (?) was made by the same folks who made the site for the Polyphonic Spree.

Time to bow down before our search engine overlords: Google Scholar.

Wars and rumors of war



The educational value of the U.S. Department of Education has often been questioned, but few realize it has a much more important mission - its contribution to the war effort. Also, Louisiana apparently wants its teens first in line for a Middle Eastern vacation.

Who says my people don't know how to have a good time?



"Croatia may reopen its most notorious communist-era prison for tourists willing to part with their money to re-enact the life of a political prisoner including hard labor, stale food and nights in solitary confinement.

Modric envisions tourists being issued convict uniforms, pounding large stones with a sledgehammer and hauling the pieces on their backs to quarries around the prison on Goli Otok, a barren island in the northern Adriatic Sea.

Goli Otok which means Naked Island was a miniature gulag set up by Yugoslavia's communist dictator Josip Broz Tito after World War II. It housed 3,000 inmates at its height but has been derelict since its closure in 1989."

In semi-related news... I have a total blog-crush.

A butterfly flaps its wings in Oklahoma...

Windmill power might just destroy the world.

Indiana: Home of the nation's sexiest highway

Might as well help spread a fake news story:

"John Hostettler, the Congressman representing the 8th district of Indiana, has been convinced by local religious groups to introduce legislation in the House that would change the name of an Interstate 69 extension to a more moral sounding number.

"There are plans to extend the interstate from Indianapolis through southwestern Indiana all the way through Texas into Mexico in the coming years. While most believe this highway will be good for the state’s economy, religious conservatives believe 'I-69' sounds too risqué and want to change the interstate’s number.

"Hostettler, a proponent of the interstate extension, agrees. 'Every time I have been out in the public with an ‘I-69’ button on my lapel, teenagers point and snicker at it. I have had many ask me if they can have my button. I believe it is time to change the name of the highway. It is the moral thing to do.'"

Some pics from the set of Serenity (minor spoilage). I'll have to start an obsessive countdown to opening day soon...

This video game controller almost makes it worth buying a GameCube. (Yes, I have stooped to stealing links from BoingBoing)

The trailer for the remake of John Carpenter's classic Assault on Precinct 13 is online.

Best use of a Brita filter ever.

A Conan staffer visits NBC's tech support center in India. Hilarity ensues.

After receiving negative feedback on her latest bit of literary masturbation novel, Blood Canticle, Anne Rice decided to respond to her critics directly:

...the entire development of my career has been fueled by my ability to ignore denigrating and trivializing criticism as I realize my dreams and my goals. However there is something compelling about Amazon's willingness to publish just about anything, and the sheer outrageous stupidity of many things you've said here that actually touches my proletarian and Democratic soul.
...You are interrogating this text from the wrong perspective. Indeed, you aren't even reading it. You are projecting your own limitations on it. And you are giving a whole new meaning to the words "wide readership." And you have strained my Dickensean principles to the max. I'm justifiably proud of being read by intellectual giants and waitresses in trailer parks,in fact, I love it, but who in the world are you?

Amazon has since removed the entire post, but it can be found here.

(Credit to Nicole for keeping tabs on the seedy underworld of Anne Rice fandom and for the links.)

The Kevin Sherry Sweater Project

For that special someone in your life that's just so hard to buy for: Dog in a Shell
(also available in cat)

Here's a nice Patently Silly piece on a Roller Tool For Applying Sunscreen Lotion To One's Own Back.

Here's a nice City-Journal piece on welfare reform by Steven Malanga.

Sure She Wasn't Channeling Ted Danson?


Ronald Bailey recounts a recent Joan Baez concert:

Joan stopped singing and announced that she had "multiple personalities." One of her multiple personalities is that of a fifteen year old poor black girl named Alice from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas. Baez decided to share with us Alice's views on the election. Amazed and horrified I watched a rich, famous, extremely white folksinger perform what can only be described as bit of minstrelsy—only the painted on blackface was missing. Alice, the black teenager from Arkansas Baez was pretending to be, spoke in a dialect so broad and thick that it would put Uncle Remus and Amos and Andy to shame. Baez' monologue was filled with phrases like, "I'se g'win ta" to do this that or the other and dropping all final "g's." Baez as Alice made statements like, "de prezident, he be a racist," and "de prezident, he got a bug fer killin'." Finally, since Bush won the election with 58.7 million votes to Kerry's 55.1 million, Alice observed, "Seems lak haf' de country be plumb crazy."

Credit to Todd for the find.

Balloon Manor - I love it!

This was great until the bagpipes outside my apartment (I am as baffled as you) started to drown out my PC. Viragelic.

There is Hope for Michael Moore Yet…



Are you an enraged liberal having trouble getting into Canada? Our neighbors to the north have not abandoned you! They’re ready and willing to marry American political refugees.

Of farts and fugues



Sure, Mozart may have been a red, but who knew he had Tourette's?

"When you write a song, as Mozart did, called Lick Out My Arsehole, that in itself is not so shocking judged by the standards of his day. But what is very odd and Touretty about it is that he set it to the most gorgeous, sublime tune. It's Tourettishly inappropriate."

Insert Lame "MacGyver/Red Green/Quirky Use of Tape" Joke Here

Another great occupation that I should've known about before law school.

And thanks to GIS, I now know that duct tape has a political stance as well: Duct Tape for Peace

Monkeyphonecall might be old news, but there are other ways to brighten your pal's day. Try The Smile Starter, for instance.

Mike and Stephen finally have their cd online. You should check it out, even if musicals aren't your thing. Good stuff.

Why? Why not?


Costumeless? Forbes to the rescue!

I was all set to just chalk this Carl Lewis music video up to another lame 80s mistake a la rapping football players, until the totally disturbing old fat crone blowing bubbles arrived... then this became truly flair worthy. Credit to Mr. Victor Lams for bringing this to my attention.

Thanks goes out to Michael Malice for noting that the Tard Blog is back online. Be sure to check out its meaner, older, and abused sibling, Slow Children at Play.

Domino Artwork

Giant Douche or Turd Sandwich?

Finally, someone understands my position on the issues. Thank you, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Thank you.

[I was somewhat torn today, however, as I realized that if I were to cast a vote for Dubya that would effectively nullify P. Diddy's vote. If I actually thought that someone would inform him of this, I would feel pretty compelled on November 2.]

I once tried to explain to someone why it is that most of my friends are likely never to join Friendster on principle. My explanation didn't really do the trick because he just looked at me like I was insane. I'll have to send him this link.

The joys of an election



Communists for Kerry

Enjoy the Draft

Also, who has the better story - Ashley or Brooke?

You want a finger? I can get you a finger.



If at first you don't succeed...

"An unemployed ex-gangster in Japan in love with a 15-year-old girl chopped off his little finger and mailed it to her father twice in an unsuccessful bid to prove his commitment, police said.

"Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, 36, was arrested Monday after the teenager's father told police the finger had been sent to him again, after marking it return to sender the first time, a police spokesman said.

"When he first sent the finger, Yoshikawa allegedly enclosed a note: 'Please let us go out in exchange for this finger. I will send it again and again until you accept my request.'

"The father, 43, opposed the relationship -- and was unpersuaded by the finger.

"Japanese gangsters known as the yakuza commonly chop off their little fingers to atone for such defects as betrayal or defeat in turf battles."

419 Spamologue. - more great stuff from zefrank.

What makes weightlessness even more fun? Cat tossing.

Dubya and crew sing the Mighty Mouse themesong.

How did we ever survive elections before the web?

Hank Makes it Flat - I'm speechless.

Some good brain teasers.

You just can't top FARK headlines: "Men arrested for throwing pies at Ann Coulter; apparently were unaware that the only way to unmake her is to throw her back into Mount Doom." The Smoking Gun is there.

Blogger is on crack, so I'm reposting...


link.

My favorite cd store (which conveniently happens to be about 50 feet from my front door) made this year's "Best of" Village Voice list. I've been supplementing my piracy with a number of recent purchases:

The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart
Scissor Sisters
Cake - Pressure Chief
R.L. Burnside - A Bothered Mind
The Magnetic Fields - The Charm of the Highway Strip

I've also had a couple of other cds on heavy rotation lately:

Green Day - American Idiot
The Thrills - Let's Bottle Bohemia
The Thrills - So Much for the City
Bjork - Medulla
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
Muse - Absolution (and everything else by Muse)

So what have you been listening to?

A little moment of Angel nostalgia... because this never gets old.

One of the funnier Onion bits in quite a while: Jacques Derrida "dies"

John Kerry supports desecrating the memory of C.H.I.P.S.

One good idea deserves another



Relationship advice from the internet:

Step 1. Find the best way to meet your future spouse.

Step 2. Express yourself! Once you've rounded up the perfect partner, don't let convention stand in the way of incorporating your interests, pastimes and hobbies into your ceremony.

Step 3. Wedded Bliss.

Ugly Dolls

A Pox on all Your Sportsbars


This little gadget will make the whole Yankees v. Red Sox thing a lot more entertaining.

Giving a whole new meaning to "rock the vote"



From Division of Labour:

"Elections officials knew something was wrong when they got voter registration cards for Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, Michael Jordan and George Foreman."

"A Defiance County man has been arrested for allegedly filing more than 100 false voter registration forms in exchange for crack cocaine from a Toledo woman working on behalf of the NAACP’s voter registration drive.

Chad Staton, 22, of Stratton Ave., faces a fifth-degree felony charge of false registration after sheriff’s deputies said he filled out the registration forms by himself — using either fictitious names or addresses — and gave them to Georgianne Pitts, 41.

Toledo police searched Ms. Pitts’ home and discovered drug paraphernalia along with more voter registration forms. Police said that Ms. Pitts admitted to paying Mr. Staton in crack cocaine, in lieu of cash.

Ms. Pitts, working on behalf of the NAACP National Voter Fund, submitted the forms to the voter fund, which in turn submitted them to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections."

Beats underwear and ramen, I guess...

Just because it's a cheap shot, it doesn't make this clip of "the Breck girl" fussing with his hair any less funny.

Pimp my Lando



I'm sure there are at least 4 or 5 doctoral dissertations lurking here.

Perhaps the best use of a webcam ever: shakeskin
(this is less of an endorsement than a commentary on webcams...)

I think this may be better than the Peter Pan guy



Apparently, Oklahoma's been keeping this little gem all to itself.... (via cruel.com)

Summer Camp for Atheists



Welcome to Camp Quest - "It's beyond belief."
(blatantly stolen from Tim's blog)

I was all set to mock them for having a unicorn as their mascot and for being located in Kentucky, but then I noticed that they featured a corn maze in '99. All is forgiven. Sign me up for some of those thrilling "Scientific Method and Critical Thinking" activities. I'm so there...

The taint of the Harding administration



Recent scholarship has attempted to vindicate the much-maligned Warren Harding. Nevertheless, Stephen Colbert chooses to side with the more traditional view in The Daily Show's latest book:

"Warren G. Harding was a worthless piece of shit. Fuck him. His presidency was a taint, not just in the sense of a 'stain on the office,' but literally a taint -- the anatomical area between the anus and the testicles."

Pooh on the verge of Tourette's



A topic of discussion for the next meeting of the A. A. Milne Society: Does Winnie the Pooh's comorbidity of ADHD and OCD necessitate a course of Ritalin treatment?

This kid is my hero.

Here's the Eminem video that was banned by BET at Michael Jackson's request. I know this will be of particular interest to all our readers who watch BET and nothing but BET.

Eugene Volokh of "my blog links to him" fame will be speaking at Fordham next Monday (Oct. 18) for the Federalist Society thing I somehow ended up in charge of. If you're in the vicinity, I've probably spammed you already. Attend or suffer my wrath.

Communication breakdown



Kayti Didriksen is getting all the media attention for her painting "Man of Leisure, King George," being the cause of the City Museum of Washington shutting down its latest exhibit.

"Myra Peabody Gossens, a public relations consultant for the museum, said the exhibit was not what had been expected.

"'The museum is not an art museum,' she explained. 'It gets mostly groups of children, with teachers trying to tell them something about history.'"

Other artists selected for the "Funky Furniture" exhibit are likely feeling left out. Dana Ellyn and Matt Sesow are just as kid-friendly and politically neutral.

Someone has combined two of my favorite geek distractions: Thief: The Brick Project

Anyone heard from the McCalls lately?

I get the feeling if I took the time to look through these, I probably know some kook who's started one of these Unusual Churches and Cults.

This ranks high on my list of unintentionally funny websites: Project Hello

(Reminds me of 419 Eater...)

Maybe it's just spillover affection for my great uncle's octogenerian band that plays at every family reunion, but I can't help but dig the oldest punk band ever.

When you care enough to send the very best



"I got diagnosed with Crabs and Scabies since we played. You might want to get checked too. www.inspot.org"

More fun with chocolate



For all of your cherry-filled chocolate brain and orifice plug needs, check out bluelips.com.

Disco invades Eastern Europe, creates havoc



"A Romanian village was left deserted after its inhabitants fled in panic after mistaking disco lights in a nearby town for an alien invasion.

"Villagers in Cristinesti, eastern Romania, thought they were under attack by aliens when they saw bright, multicoloured lights in the sky and started leaving the village en masse.

"But police who were called out to investigate discovered the lights were coming from an open air disco in the town of Herta near the Ukrainian border, the daily Adevarul reported."

The Zoomquilt

This reminded me of MST3K's Master Ninja Theme Song. Classic.

While googling MST3K, I ran across this nifty site. Now to catch up on all those Max Headroom episodes I missed....

Good news about your faith-based tax dollars



As long as we're on the subject of mainstream religion...

Tax time will be here before you know it. It's good to know that when you check the box that reads, "Yes, rather than directly supporting faith-based groups, I would prefer that the federal government tax me and then divert a portion of those funds to support them" on your 1040, the money will be safely funneled to perfectly normal groups holding perfectly normal coronation ceremonies in a Senate building.

Now you can relive the history of the Mormons with your very own action figures from Latter Day Designs.
In case you need to brush up on your history...

Moroni: Yes. Long ago all Native American were white. We all came to America from Jerusalem. And while we were here we were visited by Christ.
Smith: Jesus live here in America?
Moroni: Yes. Eventually, my people were all killed by the other tribe of Israel, and as punishment, God turned their skin red. These are the Native Americans you know today.
Singers: Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb
Moroni: There is an ancient book buried near here, written on gold plates that accounts my people's lives. Also buried with the book are two seer stones, the Urim and Thummim, which will allow you to translate the writings. Find it, and fulfill your destiny.
Smith: Wooww...
Singers: Joseph Smith was called a prophet
Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb

This is excellent. Rockfish (credit to Todd)

War on terror got you down? Adopt a Sniper

Who loves the chocolate? Michael Malice, that's who.

Got my bumper stickers in today. They are much what you'd expect, though I find the "TheBumperSticker.com" that appears on all of them to be a little annoying. They made up for it by including two extra stickers in the pack. Now to find an appropriate place to put a "The Rockefeller Foundation: Funding Revolutionary Leftists Since 1913" sticker...

Here's an interesting blog post about North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel that you can file under more bizarre communist trivia.

The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation

Here's a fun new video from Fatboy Slim: Slash Dot Dash

C'est tres bien. Le Prince Bleu

Hurricane Bjorn

The Many Faces of Kerry

In a desperate attempt to make philosophy appealing to the masses, David Chalmer's has a page devoted to zombies.

In related news, I recommend Shaun of the Dead. It was no Evil Dead, but pretty funny.

Here's a great critique of everyone's favorite xenophobe, Michelle Malkin.

Because ninjas need love too: www.singleninjas.com

Reason #585...



Klingons for Kerry Credit to Todd via Volokh.com for the link

Along the lines of Zladko Vladcik's Electronic Supersonic, it's MC Yuri with In Da Cab... um.. yeah.

Something tells me he's no Steven Seagal


Robert Downey Jr goes pop

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a la Zork circa 1982.

"The South Is Gone A Rise Again"