The Ninth Gate of the Kingdom of Twitter

Some annoying tweeps brag when they reach 100 or 500 followers. But a true hero like Radley Balko remains humble even having reached spiritual perfection.


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Pictures of People from the Recent Past
Funny, I thought that Scout-related physical molestation generally ran downhill. I guess the mid-90s where a time of experiementation all around.


c. 1996
I had never heard of this site before, but davehuge Tweeted it today and a good thing he did. The SEXY PEOPLE blog is the bee's knees. Just you click and see.

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Hail to the Chimp?
In offensive art news, New York Post editorial cartoonist Sean Delonas is in the Al Sharpton shame chair for allegedly conflating Travis the killer chimpanzee with our Commander-in-Chief. Personally, I don't see the resemblence. In an interesting side-note, though, this could turn into the perfect racist riposte to the law enforcement swine caricatures of the infamous Black Panther Coloring Book.

In any case, this raises an important question - when does lighthearted simian-themed doodling become a toxic demonstration of hate? And what of the great chimpanzee-related art treasures of the past? Are we to throw these beautiful canvas babies out with the critical race theory bathwater?


Field Marshal Sir Basil Chimpington. Image: Finkbuilt
But even if we give the fine art of yesteryear the great-grandfather clause treatment, we must ask whether the identity of a modern artist can absolve an image of racist implications. After all, American society has embraced the uneasy detente of only allowing certain loaded words to be used by certain people. So I must wonder - would a drawing of a dead chimpanzee automatically be a crude ethnographic insult if it were drawn by a chimpanzee?


Yes, this is a real book
Why yes, Amazon, I'd love a description.

Towards the end of the 1950s biologist, investigating the question of how art originated, came up with the idea of getting monkeys to paint pictures. Consequently, exhibitions were organized and attracted much controversy, catching the attention of artists such as Dali and Picasso. Monkey Painting places this colorful episode within the context of the human sciences. Thierry Lenain explores for the first time the origins of "monkey art" from the classic theme of the Monkey-Painter to the most recent experiments showing how this amazing activity can be part of a cultural history where modern art and evolutionary thought meet.

Ah, of course - "the classic theme of the Monkey-Painter." I think there's a chapter in The Power of Myth on that. And yes, biology pedants, I know there's a difference between a monkey and an ape. It's just more pleasant when you don't feel the need to constantly point that out. Jerks.



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In 1981, Newspapers Didn't Fear the Internet

Clearly, that attitude has changed.



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Banner Ad FAIL

PETA has launched a new campaign to get people to care about fish. As their own website points out, no one really cares if fish get harvested and eaten because unlike cuddlier animals, "They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads." True enough.

In order to cast them in a more adorable light, PETAns have started comparing them to little cats. That's right, according to Ingrid Newkirk and her band of vegan fundamentalists, fish are now "sea kittens". Stupid, right? Well, it gets better.

This a screen capture of www.seakittens.com taken about 20 minutes ago (click image for larger version). I don't know who registered it, but it's hilarious!



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I'm a Better Poet Than Elizabeth Alexander


This is the reason no one likes contemporary poetry (see above)

So that inaugural poem on Tuesday was pretty shitty, right? Of course it was. Don't worry, though, I've taken the phrases from the original and re-arranged them to form an awesome asskicking version. If God and Thomas Jefferson had a son and he became President someday, he just might be good enough to have this poem read at his inauguration.


Praise Song for the Spiny Sparkle

Each day we go about our business, catching each one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hole in a uniform. Someone is trying to Love thy neighbor somewhere with a pair of pencils.

Sing the names of the teacher who brought us her son in need of repair.

All about us is Love to keep clean and work inside of. We encounter each other and A farmer says, “Take out your wooden thorn. Begin.”

Someone spoons on an oil drum. On the brink. struggle it out at kitchen tables. Do thy self marital.

"I need dirt on the other side.” many have laid the train tracks into which we cannot see.

Need noise, love, harm and the will of others. on the brim, on the cusp more than you need.

repairing the things with cello, boom box, harmonica.

Balls.

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A New Kind of Patriotism
I've got issues with the so-far announced Obama legislative agenda. That much is true. But, of course, that doesn't mean that I'm not a good American. Even my old friend Tim Carney has made that clear. And so, in the spirit of inclusiveness, I'd like to remind everyone that:


Wait, the same people who made dissent a virtue in the previous administration will welcome dissent now, right? Right? Anybody?

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It's National Drag History Month
According to someone or other, it's somewhat-officially National Drag History Month, wherein we remember all of those gentlemen and ladies who have defied traditional gender roles and entertained the queer, urban bohemian and bridge-and-tunnel crowds alike.

Let the following video clips serve as an ad hoc tribute to the coarse and corseted and the teased and tucked.


Marlene Dietrich looks super hot in a tuxedo in Morocco (1930)


Jack Lemmon makes excuses in Some Like It Hot (1959)


Milton Berle is Auntie Mildred on I Love Lucy (1959)


Divine is a bad, bad girl in Female Trouble (1974)


Joyce Hyser gets out of gym class in Just One of the Guys (1985)


RuPaul quickly became the Supermodel of the World (1993)


"I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK" at the Hollywood Bowl (2006)


Coco and Evie girl it up in the 9-minute short The Jizz Party (2008)

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LibertyWeek 25: The Silver Lining to the News


Welcome to LibertyWeek’s Silver Anniversary with your hosts Richard Morrison and Cord Blomquist and Special Guest William Yeatman. Our 25th episode starts with timely events from years past in The Day in Wikipedia, and then moves quickly into the latest, newest New Mexican news about Gov. Bill Richardson’s municipal bond scandal. We return to the salty seas to see some Somali pirates get their karmic comeuppance, listen to the bailout blather du jour coming out of Washington and New York and stand strong against attempts to demonize those violent video games we love so well. With that down, we congratulate the winners of the Golden Globes and finally turn to our Special Guest for a discussion of the President-Elect’s energy and environment team. We round out the show, as always, with an encouraging bit of Olympic News.

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VIDEO: Barack Obama and the Price of Change



How much will President Obama's plans for economic stimulus and other federal spending cost the American taxpayers? The Competitive Enterprise Institute does the math.

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