Kindred Spirit.

staring problem
Originally uploaded by I'm Fantastic.

I bet she smokes French cigarettes.

There is no Bigger Picture point to make here. I just like this passage that I ran across:

She sits at the back of the café with her lined notepad, her books — poems by Billy Collins, Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead — and a look of dreamy possibility.

Where will her thoughts take her today? To the unfortunate man, head drooped in sleep, at a nearby table? To thoughts of love, for she is young, pretty and unattached? To a play she will soon be acting in?

What matters is that Tracy Michailidis writes, three pages every day and often in this café, Alternative Grounds. "I'll write about anything," she says, "anything to get the pond scum off the top of my brain."

Does she wear a black turtleneck and a beret? And does she snap her fingers when she wants to applaud?

I'm sure it's a fine piece, but . . .

Why is this

so visually evocative of this?

:)

Atlas Fled.

You've heard of "white flight"? Well, according to the WSJ's Opinion Journal, it seems liberal utopia California is suffering from "productivity flight."

It takes hard work to drive anyone away from California's sunshine and
scenic vistas, but politicians in Sacramento have been up to the task.

The latest Census Bureau data indicate that, in 2005, 239,416 more
native-born Americans left the state than moved in. California is also on pace
to lose domestic population (not counting immigrants) this year. The
outmigration is such that the cost to rent a U-Haul trailer to move from Los
Angeles to Boise, Idaho, is $2,090--or some eight times more than the cost of
moving in the opposite direction.

What's gone wrong? A big part of the story is a tax and regulatory
culture that treats the most productive businesses and workers as if they were
ATMs. The cost to businesses of complying with California's rules, regulations
and paperwork is more than twice as high as in other Western states.

But the worst growth killer may well be California's tax system. The
business tax rate of 8.8% is the highest in the West, and its steeply
"progressive" personal income tax has an effective top marginal rate of 10.3%,
or second highest in the nation. CalTax, the state's taxpayer advocacy group,
reports that the richest 10% of earners pay almost 75% of the entire income-tax
revenue in the state, and most of these are small0business owners, i.e., the
people who create jobs.

Do they have a sunless tanning salon at Galt's Gulch?

Now THIS could get interesting.

Insight envisions Cheney stepping down after the November elections.

I don't know how much stock to put in "senior GOP sources." How senior are they, and how many of them are there?

But if true, it might render moot all the Press The Cokie Nation talking-head hand wringing that this will be the first time in modern history that there is no [quasi-] incumbent running for President.

It would also provide the Republicans (and don't think Karl Rove's little mindgears aren't already spinning about such matters) the opportunity to put into office the first black and the first female Vice-President, all in one fell swoop. (Or a swell foop, if you prefer.) That'd really stick it to the Democrats.

OR, they can pretty much hand-pick the next President, if they go with Giuliani. (Or McCain, for that matter, but I don't think that's likely.)

But I wouldn't put it past them to go with John "Pay No Attention To That Boob Behind The Curtain" Ashcroft.

Can't Pittsburgh and Cleveland just get along?

I guess the signs were there all along.

Note the sequins:

Note to the kinky fried man: Willie's unique abilities could be better utilized in the state tax agency, or perhaps in drug enforcement.

I KNOW I'm not supposed to eat YELLOW snow . . .

. . . but what about BROWN?

Surely not!

SHOCKER: Rockstar uses drugs!

Notable passing / Jeeves got whacked.

I attempted to Ask Jeeves when rebar was invented, and I noticed something.

He's gone. They finally offed him. Poor guy.

Bastards.

And if that wasn't bad enough, they haven't got a clue when rebar was invented.

Question.

How do I ask this without sounding like a smartass?

There may be something I am missing, but I honestly am curious.

If the Golden Mosque was built in the year 944 AD, then why is there rebar sticking out of it's rubble?

One thing the moralitrogs always bring up in the gay marriage debate . . .

. . . is "Why stop there? Why not let people marry goats?"

Well, unfortunately, forcible goat marriage already exists.

As does premarital goat sex.

THE Erection Company.

THE Erection Company.
Originally uploaded by Arkanssouri.

http://www.nwlink.com/~tec1/index.htm

CBS: Still faking news after all these years.

From this story:

"It was a graphic, and we don’t feel it changed the editorial value of the story, per se."

Bull. Pictures, especially on television, create the atmosphere in which the text of a story is regarded. Same thing with music. Would we believe what Bob Schieffer if every time he appeared on camera, Darth Vader music was played in the background?

But let's put their assertion to the test, with their own article. See if the added graphics change the editorial value.

‘48 Hours’ apologizes for altered image

The executive producer of CBS’ "48 Hours Mystery"

has apologized for airing an altered image of the front page of the Tribune

in an episode about the murder trial of Ryan Ferguson that aired Saturday night.

The producer, Susan Zirinsky, said she didn’t know the image of the front page containing the story about Ferguson’s sentencing had been manipulated until this week after Tribune Managing Editor Jim Robertson

complained to CBS in an e-mail.

"It was an egregious oversight for us not to know it," Zirinsky said. "It was a graphic, and we don’t feel it changed the editorial value of the story, per se."

Bob Steele, a senior ethics faculty member at the Poynter Institute, a premier journalism training center in Florida,

said CBS executives should apologize to viewers and use the network’s Web site to explain what went wrong and accept responsibility for an ethical failure.

"What they did wrong was twofold," he said. "One, they altered reality by changing a piece of documentary journalism.

"Secondly, they deceived their viewers because they left them with the impression that what they showed was a truthful representation of what the newspaper showed."

The TV newsmagazine showed several front pages from the Tribune during its hourlong program "Dream Killer," about the trial of Ferguson, found guilty in October of killing Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt.

During the show, which raised the question of whether Ferguson was wrongly convicted, a graphic of the Tribune’s Dec. 5 front page showed a photograph of Ferguson that was different from what actually appeared in the Tribune. The original photograph showed Ferguson in a jail uniform as he appeared at his sentencing. In "Dream Killer," Ferguson was shown in a suit and tie.

Zirinsky said the graphic has been changed in the master tape of the program to accurately reflect the Tribune’s front page. A freelancer hired by CBS for the first time was responsible for the alteration, Zirinsky said.

"We feel we are doing the right thing," she said. "We have apologized to the editor."
Steele, of the Poynter Institute,

said CBS can explain what went wrong in terms of the action of its freelancer but said that doesn’t absolve the network of its responsibility.

"CBS retains the responsibility of what they put on the air, including how" its news "is gathered and how it is produced," he said.

Ferguson, 21, was found guilty Oct. 21 of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the slaying of Heitholt, whose bludgeoned and strangled body

was found in the early hours of Nov. 1, 2001, in a parking lot next to the Tribune. Ferguson and Chuck Erickson were arrested March 10, 2004, after witnesses told police Erickson had spoken of the crime to a friend.

[I could go on, but I think I've made my point. -- Blogmaster, or "BM" for short]

Looks more like they're on patrol to me.

From today's Google News:


Maybe my cultural bias is showing; maybe they get busy a little differently in China. Maybe their movies about guys "showing each other their guns" are really about guys showing each other their guns.

We're from the Minnesota Commerce Department...

... and we're here to make your gas more ungawdly expensive.

Subgenii need not apply for Freedom of Religion benefits.

Judge to Rachel Bevilacqua: Repent or you'll never see your son again.

The War on JR "Bob" Dobbs continues.

H/T to H&R.

RIP, sweet idiom.

"Scarce as hen's teeth" has suddenly become obsolete.

If you're going to make a mutant chicken, wouldn't making a boneless one be more productive than making one with teeth?

Dr. Moreau called; he wants his island back. Ditto for his Mad Scientist gig.

Too bad ...

...this technology hasn't been applied to my microwave oven.

"Come get your f***ing ramen noodles, you bloody a$$hole! They're f***ing done!"

Moron? Maybe . . .

. . . but at least she hasn't tried to steal the homes of little old ladies because she wanted more limo parking.

Feud between the Marthinator and the Self-Messianic Landthief heats up.

Donald Trump is still fuming over Stewart having the nerve to blame him for sabotaging her own prime-time "Apprentice" show. Her rationale: Trump wouldn't
step aside, retire his successful show and give her the entire "Apprentice"
audience.

"What moron would think you're going to fire the guy with the No. 1 show on television?" Trump told Newsweek yesterday.

Was The Apprentice ever the number one show on television? Steve Rogers of Reality TV World, in a 10/20/05 article, says no:

Last fall's The Apprentice 2 averaged 16.14 million viewers and a 5.8 rating during its run, a significant drop from the initial Apprentice edition's 20.70 million viewers and 7.5 rating (an average that, at the time, had placed The Apprentice 1 just behind Survivor: Pearl Islands' 20.72 million average to rank 7th -- ahead of E.R. -- in the 2003-2004 season's viewership rankings.)

Seventh does not equal first, Mr. Trump. I HOPE you're having someone else do your accounting for you, because you obviously do not understand that numbers have values.

The Daily News article continues:

Stewart ignited the feud by claiming she was supposed to start her inaugural season by firing Trump, and that the real estate mogul nixed the idea.

In a letter Trump penned to Stewart Tuesday, the millionaire developer blasted her as a liar, likening her deception to the insider-trading scandal that got her prison time.

A liar? Hmmm... let's look later in the article and see what producer Mark Burnett says:

Mark Burnett, producer of both "Apprentice" shows, said firing Trump was briefly discussed after Stewart raised the idea.

So it's not the Marthinator who's the liar here, now is it? I hope you drown in your gold-plated bidet, Mr. Trump.

I love the smell of politics in the morning.

It's getting to be that time again. Time to start regularly checking DC's Political Report, that is.

Here's how the current polls are looking for the 2006 Governors' races:

and the Senate:

It's still pretty far out, but I'm seeing more dark blue states than dark red ones...

Apparently, I have amnesia.

This was in my Inbox this morning:

Hi, write a telephone number... We yesterday wonderfully were engaged in sex:-)))))
Photo suuuuuUUper!.. write .... i remooooove... [URL removed by your friendly neighborhood webmaster.]

NOW ALL OK!!!!!!!

I have no memory of the encounter.

Here's something Bush SHOULD be going to the mat for,

instead of protecting the interests of Dubai.

He should put his foot down and tell SMU that if they use eminent domain to take property for his Presidential Library, he'll put it somewhere else.

Not holding my breath.

SCOTUS Beat!

Pro-hallucinogenic tea!

Blogmaster's note: It is hard to spell "hallucinogenic."

And later in the article, we find that Waylon Jennings discriminated against them Dukes by calling them "Good Ol' Boys."

Stepped into a dispute over whether white managers can be sued for calling
black employees "boys." The court unanimously overturned an appeals court
decision that said the term "boy" alone was not evidence of workplace
discrimination. The decision is a loss for Tyson Foods Inc.

What does this mean for the Boy Scouts of America?

Oh, just shut up, Jimmie.

If you don't want people pointing out that you're a cheater, then don't cheat.

IT<>ROCKETSCIENCE.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Ayn Rand's works among the most pirated in India.

Piracy: bad. Unless you're Ragnar Danneskjold (which indicates that in certain instances, Ayn Rand herself believed piracy was justified.)

Spreading the word: Good.

Question is, will Atlas Shrugged now have a new blurb splashed across it's cover: Atlas Shrugged, the Toyota Camry of Indian Literature ?

Note to the NY Times:

States don't have rights. They have powers. Individuals have rights. And among these rights individuals have are the rights of life, liberty, and property.

ALDI: Books are to be judged by their covers.

It's not what you do; it's how suspicious your appearance is to Aldi's managers.

Damned Meditrogs.

Let me get this straight.

The proposed Missouri cloning ban would allow cloning that creates a life only to destroy it, but would ban cloning that creates a life intended to live?

Cloning in and of itself violates nobody's rights. It is the killing of a clone that raises the legal and ethical questions. But the killing of a clone will be okay, while allowing a clone to live will be illegal?

Goddamned murderous meditrogs.

Be afwaid, Jimmy Carter.

Be vewy, vewy afwaid!

Okay -- Ewww!

Okay -- Ewww!
Originally uploaded by Arkanssouri.

Yes, it's a real product.

Just droppin' by . . .

. . . to let my loyal readers know that I haven't joined Harry Carey, Barry Goldwater, and Jerry Garcia in that Great Hot Tub In The Sky.

Been snowed in since Friday, and family obs keep me from blogging today.

The Fifth Plane.

This has sort of faded out of our group consciousness since 9/11, but a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of it by a story on A&E.

What happened to the al-Qaeda members who were going to take down United Flight 23? Were they ever caught and was their target ever identified?

And why does the media pretend there were only four planes?

For those of you who need a refresher, here's a relevant excerpt:

Kirk is adamant that Ballinger did save the passengers and crew of United
Flight 23, which on Sept. 11 was about to depart from Newark, N.J., to Los
Angeles. Kirk believes Flight 23 was going to be commandeered. Thanks to
Ballinger's quick call, the flight crew told passengers it had a mechanical
problem and immediately returned to the gate.

Later, Ballinger was told six men initially wouldn't get off the plane.
Later, when they did, they disappeared into the crowd, never to return. Later,
authorities checked their luggage and found copies of the Qu'ran and al-Qaida
instruction sheets.

"I felt good about that one," Ballinger said.

Kirk admits it's speculation, but said he believes "there are 200 people
walking around today because of Ed Ballinger."

Big Brother: Porn equals terrorism.

Homeland Security officers strongarm library patrons, overstep authority, shred Constitution.

And are not fired.

Instead, they are "reassigned."

Outsourcing America.

I'm not normally one to complain about outsourcing. My philosophy is that if someone else can do it cheaper, go for it.

But giving a UAE company rights to operate six crucial American ports is just idiotic. It's ASKING for a terrorist attack.

I have a feeling that at some point in the future, I will be saying I TOLD YOU SO.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys, unless they're gay ones.

Brokeback Willie releases Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other, formerly done by Pansy Division.

See? SEE! Carlton Turner is vindicated!

Either that, or Willie's been spending so much time around those Austin liberals that it's worn off on him.

Sneaky.

Heh-heh-heh.

This may be a stupid question, but . . .

. . . how, exactly, does a sheep check the sex offender registry?

I bet he can kick Shaq's ass.

That's OFFICER Hulk to you.

Like the Houston gas station that blares Frank Sinatra outside all night . . .

. . . people are discovering the art, science, and beauty of teenager repellant.

How do you plead to the question of "Are you a smartass?"

I plead GUILTY AS HELL!

The WPDQ has this little comic called Crowque. Today, Crowque left a space for people to draw cartoons of Muhammad, then complained that nobody, not even Denmark, took him up on the offer.

I, of course, had to email them the following picture:

Wonder if MYWAY's being attacked . . .

. . . can't get into my email or virtually anything else on the site this morning.

Until Ouchy The Clown comes out with his own line of Valentine's Day cards...

... I'll have to be creative.

Tomorrow, we celebrate . . .

. . . the beheading of St. Valentine.

Might I suggest a movie or two? How about dinner
and roses? And don't forget the chocolates!

Be wary, Mr. Chekhov . . .

. . . and warn the rest of the Reliant crew.

The mind-control parasites won't be found on some distant, battered planet.

They're already here.

What, did he shoot The Hammer now?

More Questions Raised About Delay in Reporting Cheney Misfire.

Please, Hammer, don't hurt 'im.

Maybe I should go work for the Weekly World News.

Or maybe Marvel Comics.

'Cuz that fellow in the middle of that crater on the moon looks to me an awful lot like the Silver Surfer.

Suggestion for Senator Conrad Burns ...

... If you don't want people pointing out that you called Arabs "ragheads," then don't call Arabs "ragheads."

THIS<>ROCKETSCIENCE.

Some guys pay good money for that.

From Ananova:

A Russian teacher faces two years in jail after ordering her students to
lick clean the floor of a classroom.

But did he use the eraser to rub one out?

Dude, that is WAY not cool.

I wonder if he could write his name with it.

That would make him, what, triskadextrous?

I WOULD use the c-word . . .

. . . but that might get me banned in certain places.

So I'll use this headline instead -- BITCH.

In her "look-at-me-look-at-me" zeal . . .

Michelle Malkin misses a larger issue in the video to which she links, .

One of the search strings that flashes across the screen is "Elvis [or maybe it's Lisa Marie] Presley spooks Jesus Christ."

Fear not, Jesus. Elvis and his jumpsuit can't harm you anymore.

Everything's right with the sporting world again.

Budweiser Shootout tonight.

Prior to McCain-Feingold,

I would have insisted such a thing as this could never happen. Now I'm not sure it can ever NOT happen.

HR 4694 ("Let the People Decide Clean Campaign Act") would grant nominees
of parties (i.e., Democrats and Republicans) that had averaged 25% of the vote
for House races in a given district in the last two elections would get full
public funding.

All others (i.e., third party and independent candidates) would be
required to submit petitions signed by 10% of the last vote cast for partial
funding, and 20% petitions for full funding.

Furthermore, candidates who don't qualify for funding would be barred
from spending any privately raised money on their campaigns.

At this point, I will vote for ANY third party, including the Greens and Commies, before I will vote for a Republican or a Democrat.

Vote Libertarian, while you still can.

I originally had this over on the TTA blog,

but decided it's more appropriate for here.

What's the difference between a porcupinecactus and the Thayer mayor's office?

With a porcupinecactus, the pricks are on the OUTSIDE.

Fox Sports gets all misty-eyed . . .

. . . in describing their mancrush on Al Michaels.

Shockingly, they don't mention the episode of The Al Michaels Show where over the airwaves, he practically begged OJ Simpson not to commit suicide.

Fox Sports thinks that in the Michaels/Bunny trade, NBC got the better deal. What they fail to consider is that, if they get hungry, ABC can make stew.

But then again, I suppose NBC could, too.

And you thought all of ABC's soap operas were on in the daytime.

Anchor dies of lung cancer, is replaced with man and woman team. Husband of woman half of that team gets shot in the head, but survives. Man half suffers serious head injuries from a bomb. Woman half discovers she's pregnant.

Wasn't this a plot on General Hospital a few years ago? Will the two men with head injuries have amnesia?

So now the question is, which of the three men is the father?

The only problems I see with . . .

Bush's idea to auction some Forest Service land are that he isn't auctioning off ALL of it, and the money generated will be spent, rather than used to reduce the national debt.

Who says Republicans are humorless?

Hit & Run brings us this little picture from CPAC:



Okay, not bust-a-gut funny, but it's not terrible.

I'd have shown her surrounded with people holding signs like "Ugly Chicks for Choice" and "Lesbians for Choice" and "Abortionists for Choice. I need a new sportscar."

Another Times gets it's own Jayson Blair?

The Chicago Sun-Times isn't happy with the Washington Times. Not happy at all.

soda

soda
Originally uploaded by Arkanssouri.

Why little Susie has nightmares.

Originally uploaded by loou.

'Tooning.

Yesterday, it still bugged me that the TCBA wants to raise sales taxes on such things as food and clothing so they can eliminate property taxes on boats.

On the one hand, we have food. On the other, we have yachting. What's more important?

So I came up with a political 'toon and posted it over on TTA.

Blame it on Perrier.

Decades ago, Perrier started it all.

And now bottled water is "taxing the world's ecosystem."

Damned yuppies.

Google.cn is bad,

but Yahoo is worse.

At least Google hasn't (to our knowledge) collaborated with the Chinese government to send dissidents to prison.

Don't do it, Ken.

The bitch left you once, Ken. For an Australian snowboarding bum, no less. Don't take her back. She'll do it again.

Tell her to go back to her loser Aussie boyfriend. Move on with your life.

Maybe I can set you up with someone. Or someone else.

Texas will have to do something about that.

We can't have the tallest building west of the Mississippi be in Los Angeles, now can we?

Everything's supposed to be bigger in Texas.

That's more than they got for Dan Dierdorf.

Al Michaels traded to NBC for a bunny rabbit.

No, really.

I'm not sure who gets the worse end of the deal.

ABC loses some insider info on any future OJ Simpson stories it wants to run.

NBC presumably will no longer have to sweep out poop from under the cage of it's new addition.

But you NEVER let me approach dung-spraying buffalo!

From Ananova:

Locals told not to approach dung-spraying buffalo.

What is the exception . . .

. . . to the rule that says "There is an exception to every rule."?

They don't like it when I knock over their house of cards.

Remember I told you about my little "There are no absolutes" meme-swat?

It seems the challenging of worldviews is not allowed in [Diar-] Rhea's World.

Return of the Gay Penguins.

It seems that even the penguin version of the Swedish Supermodel Team isn't enough to make 'em switch.

I wonder if they'll try the Coors twins next.

But . . . I thought . . . that it was the GAYS who were always trying to gain recruits.

Get a room.

Cubes: The Zen Master is my bucketboy.

Wasn't that what Tucker Carlson called Jon Stewart?

More for our Chinese readers.

From the BBC:



Click the picture to make it bigger.

Three guesses why . . .

... Kevin Whited would SO hate this headline:

Boxer urges Sheehan to not challenge Feinstein.

Atrocious? You want atrocious?

Boy band grammar, now that's atrocious!

We have this quote from James Bourne, frontman of Son of Dork, referring to Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter:

"Us and McFly are going to kick his a***."

"WE", people! "We."

Bourne continues:

"Daniel Radcliffe talks a lot of sh**. He keeps talking about everyone else's talent but he should look at his own - he is atrocious."

Bourne wouldn't know atrocious if it bit we in the arse.

As opposed to INSIDE the mayor's office, which, presumably, would have been okay.

An Ananova headline:

Couple arrested for sex outside mayor's office.

For our friends finding us through Google China:

And for the rest of you, feel free to save this image and use it on your own blog. Or create your own. Images, rather than text, might make it through.

Since when . . .

. . . does the freedom to speak equal an obligation to speak?

Why they are cowboys and not shepherds.

Because they don't carry one of these:

Spider-commie.

It's a phrase that has made it into our group consciousness. People accept it without question, as if it was somehow self-evident.

But even a casual examination reveals it to be utter balderdash.

With great power comes great responsibility.

It comes from the comic Spider-Man. And it's a close relative of "To whom much is given, much is expected," more socialist tripe.

If you're driving a new v-10 Dodge pickup down the highway and someone in a four-cylinder Pinto crosses the center line and rams you head-on, are you more responsible than he is?

If you live in a $500,000 house and your neighbor's $20,000 house catches fire due to a faulty furnace, burning both down, are you more responsible than he is? And if you say you SHOULD have bought him a better furnace, I'll smack you good.

If you have three televisions and someone who only has one steals one of yours, is it your own responsibility?

Responsibility is not a function of inequality.

I hope your friendly neighborhood Communist SpiderMan strangles on his own web.

Swatting the relativists.

Just went on a blog search for the phrase "There are no absolutes" occuring over the last few days.

Where I could, I commented that the phrase is self-disproving because it is itself an absolute.

In one instance, I pointed out that the sentence "It is never okay to rape and strangle a three-year-old" is also an absolute, and that to believe there are no absolutes is to believe it is SOMETIMES okay to rape and strangle a three-year-old.

I choose to believe in absolutes.

And this is different from Dew MDX how?

From a story on an aphrodisiac cherry soda:

The drink, called Turn On, is made with guarana, ginseng and caffeine.

And these (emphasis added) are the ingredients of Mountain Dew MDX:

Ingredients: Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium benzoate, gaurana seed extract, d-ribose, caffeine, maltodextrin, gum arabic, yellow #5, ascorbic acid, calcium disodium EDTA, taurine, panax ginseng extract, brominated vegetable oil, blue #1

I've drunk MDX several times. Mostly because the taste is, like, a thousand times better than Red Bull.

It has not once sexually aroused me.

If it HAD, it would have been unfortunate. Because I was drinking one while covering a school board meeting.

Limp-ons during school board meetings ROCK!

If there's one thing John McCain's good at . . .

... other than being anti-free-speech, that is, it's being snippy.

This is just the first line of his letter to Senator Obama:

I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere.

Oh, snap!

"Pajama Line"?

Come, Mr. Durbin Man, tally me pajamas.

Moron.

Proof of gay cowboys.

From Pridesource.com:

Real gay ranchers, who do in fact exist,... may beg to differ that the film doesn't embellish at all. One of them is Tracy Lehman. Lehman, who is now 38, was raised on a 6,000-acre cattle ranch in eastern Washington in a town of 90 people. Growing up he filled his days fixing fences and baling hay, and he still returns home twice a year to help his family during cattle drives (Lehman now works as a truck driver and lives outside of Portland, Oregon).

And from the NY Times:

"That could have been my life," Derrick Glover said one bitter cold afternoon last week, referring to the film, which he had seen at a special screening a week before in Jackson, Wyo. A 33-year-old rancher, Mr. Glover comes from a family that has worked the land around Lusk for generations. His father still runs 300 head of cattle.

Seated at a table in the smoky Outpost Cafe alongside Highway 85, Mr. Glover laid out the story of a typical ranch-country boyhood: herding, branding, culling and haying, horses hobbled on picket lines and calves pulled forcibly from their mother's bodies during spring calving. Every summer Mr. Glover sets out with his brother in a panel truck carrying their two quarter horses, to compete in calf and steer roping competitions. "I never had any intention of leaving the cowboy lifestyle," Mr. Glover said. "Ranching is who I am."

And one of the very reasons San Francisco has such a gay presence today is because in the 1800's, a group of gay gold miners known as the Lavender Cowboys set up shop there.

Then there's the 1923 Harold Hersey poem Lavender Cowboy:

He was only a lavender cowboy,
The hairs on his chest were two,
But he wished to follow the heroes
And fight like the he-men do.


But he was inwardly troubled
By a dream that gave him no rest,
That he'd go with his heroes in action
With only two hairs on his chest.


First he tried many a hair tonic.
'Twas rubbed in on him each night.
But still when he looked in the mirror
Those two hairs were ever in sight.


But with a spirit undaunted
He wandered out to fight,
Just like an old-time knight errant
To win combat for the right.


He battled for Red Nellie's honor
And cleaned out a holdup's nest
He died with his six guns a-smoking
With only two hairs on his chest.

If there weren't any gay cowboys around, where did he get the idea? And make no mistake; "Red" was a nickname most often used for red-headed men.

Suicide Van makes one big mistake in his assumptions about gay men. He equates homosexuality with femininity. He thinks you can spot a gay man by the limpness of his wrist or the lispiness of his voice. There are plenty of gay men more masculine than plenty of straight men.

Rock Hudson was gay. Figure skater Scott Hamilton is straight. Former defensive lineman Esera Tuaolo, who played in Super Bowl XXXIII with the Atlanta Falcons, is gay. Prince is straight.

You can't assume that just because a man seems like "a regular guy" that he's straight. Gay men are around you every day. You just don't know it. Even cowboys. Even football players. Even military men.

And why don't you know it?

Because if two things are true about cowboys, and men in general, they are these: 1. They know it ain't polite to kiss and tell. And 2. Real men don't discuss too deeply their feelings with other men.

What makes one gay is not the limpness of one's wrist or the desire to interior decorate or the swish of one's hips. What makes one gay is simply the attraction to members of one's own sex. Nothing more, nothing less.

And if that manifests itself into a love of masculinity itself, enough that you want a man and want to be a man, then you're not going to set off a straight guy's gaydar.

Knappster is appalled...

... at the realization that one of libertarianism's white knights is actually more of a taupe.

Then again, maybe not.

It never fails.

I sing someone's praises, and then they go and deny the existence of gay cowboys.

I suppose I'm just imagining that the International Gay Rodeo Association exists?

Big is relative.

nuts
Originally uploaded by Arkanssouri.

Note that the Jehovah's Witnesses did not start fires or kill people...

... when their unreasonable religious sensibilities were offended.

And note that the Christians at the school also did not start fires or kill people when their religious symbolism was banned from the classroom.

Can the jihadists say the same?

Damn straight Western values are better than theirs.

And now a word from the Big Brother lobby...

... no, I mean literally a word.

Obediphobia. The fear of obeying so-called authority.

As if resistance to blind obedience is some sort of mental illness.

Unwittingly, the anti-obediphobic author has expanded my own vocabulary as well -- obediphilia and defiaphobia, which are both nearly synonymous with disobediphobia.

Heh heh.

Over at the Infidel Bloggers Alliance, they're running a Mohammed Cartoon Contest.

Too bad my tooning skills aren't as advanced as I'd like them to be, or I'd already be drawing Mohammed, Larry and Curly. Eating a ham sandwich, perhaps.

"So that they can cut themselves more safely."

From the Times Online, socialized medicine reaches it's ultimate, bizarre conclusion, socialized self-abuse:

NURSES want patients who are intent on harming themselves to be provided with clean blades so that they can cut themselves more safely.

Again, mine doesn't look like that.

pecker
Originally uploaded by Arkanssouri.

Could Goofy own Pluto?

MSNBC's Test Pattern blog links to an Ask Metafilter post that takes up the old question of why Goofy,a dog, can talk and drive and, presumably, vote, while Pluto, who is also a dog, cannot.

I emailed MSNBC my explanation:

Goofy and Pluto are brothers. After Goofy was born, their mother became an alcoholic, and she drank throughout her next pregnancy, when she was carrying Pluto. Thus, he has Fetal Acohol Syndrome and is a simple-minded mute. Mickey is not his "owner," but his guardian.

But the bigger question is, why is Goofy in an interspecies romantic relationship with a cow? Maybe THAT's why Pluto's guardianship was granted to Mickey and not to Goofy.

We'll see if they print it.

Foxhole Objectivist.

Well, one in training, anyway.

From The World From My Perspective v2.0:

Last night I had my sleep rudely inturupted by a mortar attack. No one was hurt or killed, but it was quite tiresome that it occured in the middle of the night. About 2 am. Sleep is in short supply these days and I just didn't need that. The worst part was after it had all been over with my roomates felt they needed to act like idiots for annother hour instead of letting everyone go to sleep.

I also finished We The Living by Ayn Rand. A great book. Not as [philosophically] imposing as her others or as deep, but very entertaining to take a look at the living conditions imposed upon people in the development of the U.S.S.R.. I mean we have all been taught that communism is evil, but this book did a great job at illustrating the reason why.

We The Living is the one Rand novel I could never really get into. I think I succeeded in muddling through it once but have failed in all other attempts. I think it's because the book is lacking the stark philosophical clarity of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and even Anthem.

But I'm glad it brought one of America's true heroes a little enjoyment.

The best kind of date...

The best kind of date...
Originally uploaded by Arkanssouri.

is an Eat Me Date.

Didn't you kinda already KNOW?

About Marty McFly, that is?

See the trailer for Brokeback To The Future.

He's tanned, rested, and Majority Leader.

From the Cincinnati Post:

Boehner, a perpetually tanned conservative, had spent much of the past year meeting secretly with Republicans who complained about the current leadership
team, especially Blunt and his mentor, DeLay, and encouraged Boehner to launch a
political comeback.

"Perpetually tanned?" This is the state of political coverage nowadays?

Three guesses who that solitary red dot at the top is,

and the first two don't count.

Found this on Hammer of Truth this morning. It's the popular "World's Smallest Political Quiz" with the Congressmen's voting histories (after much crunching of numbers and no doubt gnashing of teeth) plotted on top of it. As usual, red is Republican and blue is Democrat.

Question is, who are the blue dots in the Libertarian range?

Another question is, why does popular opinion place Libertarians closer to Republicans than to Democrats when, as we see in this chart, the bulk of the elected Republicans are about as FAR from the Libertarians as they can get?

And a final question is, where's Bernie Sanders?

Voice from the audience: Why, he's in Washington, you silly!

Fallout.

Read what they "didn't" say about my latest letter to the editor over at the TTA.

Gouda Madness.

When did we declare a War On Cheese?

Happy Groundhog Day.

WOODCHUCK (GROUNDHOG) STEW


1 woodchuck
2 onions, sliced
1/2 cup celery, sliced
Flour
Vinegar and water
Salt and pepper
Cloves

Clean woodchuck; remove glands; cut into serving pieces. Soak overnight in a solution of equal parts of water and vinegar with addition of one sliced onion and a little salt. Drain, wash, and wipe. Parboil 20 minutes, drain, and cover with fresh boiling water. Add one sliced onion, celery, a few cloves, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until tender; thicken gravy with flour.

Then shouldn't America go into rehab?

If President Bush's diagnosis of oil addiction is correct, then shouldn't we quit cold-turkey, despite the consequences?

Shouldn't we just . . . stop . . . at least when it comes to buying foreign oil? Shouldn't we, this morning, begin building wind farms and nuclear reactors and electric cars? And shouldn't we stop selling gas and gas-run cars in this country? If it's an addiction, shouldn't we stop feeding it immediately?

Is someone gonna hafta do an intervention?

Question.

And I must state right off the bat that I don't know if this is the case in this instance.

Does appearing solo in a picture in a gay magazine by definition constitute "homosexual conduct"?

'Cuz I'm sure we can find a solo shot of President somewhere in The Advocate.

On a tangent, if a lesbian poses for Playboy, does that make her straight?

Anyone have an email addy for the Essex UK police department?

Because this page won't allow me to attach a JPG of a raised middle finger.

Don't they have any higher priorities than some guy flipping off traffic cameras?

The War on Snowmen.

From Archinect:

Frosty the Snowman is in. Six-foot penises are out. A new policy at Ripon College, in Wisconsin, decrees that only snow sculptures that are "tasteful" and "reflect the academic mission of the college" will be permitted on the campus. Transgressors will face a $50 fine, plus any dismantling costs. In the case of anonymous sculptors, the charges will be absorbed by the residents of whichever building the offending artwork is closest to.

Excuse me, but could someone please explain to me how Frosty The Snowman "reflects the academic mission"?

And what kind of standards are "tasteful" and "whichever building it is closest to"? What is tasteful to some may be distasteful to others. Who decides?

And how are there ANY dismantling costs for a snow sculpture?

So much for college being the free exchange of ideas.