12.28.2010
What we've lost
(from the Cleveland Scene)
In November of 1974, a Browns fan and season ticket holder sent a letter to the team regarding his concern over fans throwing paper airplanes and implied the team might be sued.
The Cleveland Browns (specifically, their general counsel) sent back an absolutely epic response.
12.22.2010
A apology, of sorts.
Finally
Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates deserve recognition, as does the "squeaky wheel gets the oil" organization Get Equal.
12.21.2010
The Gallery Of Regrettable, Racially Insensitive Food: Sandra Lee Makes A Kwanzaa Cake
Case Study: Sawing Off The Branch You're Sitting On
Of course, you all know who I pray to, for all the good He does:
12.09.2010
12.05.2010
Buying a Tiger
11.23.2010
11.21.2010
Hate Email, With Richard Dawkins
11.17.2010
My New Favorite New Artist Ever For Right Now
11.10.2010
10.24.2010
10.23.2010
10.18.2010
I Think We're Going To Like This A Lot
IO9 reviews the first two episodes of AMC's The Walking Dead without spoilers. Short version: it's bloody, bloody awesome. And I loved Darabont's last film, also bloody awesome: The Mist.
10.14.2010
10.09.2010
Maybe "The Archimedes" Would Have Been A Better Name
So far, this fully armed and operation battle-resort is not targeting what's really important: the nearby stunning, gravity-defying Veer Towers by Helmut Jahn.
As great as they are, I still prefer Jahn's 600 North Fairbanks residential building in Chicago, which also seems to give the middle finger to Newton.
Sometimes, humans are cool.
10.06.2010
10.01.2010
It Keeps Getting Better And Better
The ex-wife of the Atlanta mega-church pastor accused of sex abuse by four young men once claimed the exalted church leader had a "vicious and violent temper" and beat her while she was pregnant with his son.Can this get better? Yes:
Wait, do I agree with her or am I disgusted by her too?
9.26.2010
9.23.2010
Religious Abuse Is Nothing New
"That Was My Vietnam. And I Was In Vietnam."
9.22.2010
What Darwin Never Knew
Sean B. Carroll is, in my opinion, one of the greatest science educators of our time. His books, and his explanations in this documentary, are simple and sublime.
I think I'm going to have to buy this one.
The religious always get evolution wrong: evolutionary theory explains the changes in biodiversity we observe in the past through the present. Every new post-Darwinian scientific discovery--from the rediscovery of Mendelian genetics, to the discovery of DNA as the molecule of inheritance, to the modern understanding of developmental biology--had every chance of overturning Darwin's theory. Instead, each of those monumental scientific breakthroughs modified his theory to make it more accurate.
Evolution is a fact; the theory of evolution is, to date, incontrovertible. Gods are, to date, controvertible.
9.21.2010
Ruling From The Living Tomb
Outdated mores and bigotry are, once again, upheld and preserved by dated, ossified politicians. My generation is being ruled from the living tomb, just like Jefferson warned...
Pesky Archives Beat Infallible Pope
Here's the translation:
I'll expect my apology in a century, when there are 5 Catholics left.Why is a Catholic obliged to vote for the parliamentary list of Adolf Hitler? Because in the National Socialist state intrinsically and through the Reichskonkordat
1. the Faith is protected,
2. peace with the Church is assured,
3. public morality is preserved,
4. Sunday is hallowed,
5. Catholic schools are maintained,
6. the Catholic conscience is no longer burdened,
7. a Catholic has equal rights before the law and in the life of the nation,
8. Catholic organisations and associations, insofar as they exclusively serve religious, charitable and cultural purposes, can operate freely.
Therefore a Catholic is obliged on 12 November [1933] to vote thus:
Referendum: yes
Parliamentary election: Adolf Hitler
9.19.2010
"Joseph Ratzinger Is An Enemy Of Humanity."
No one need take such insolent, deceitful, vacuous bullshit from the likes of that wheezing octogenarian in his blood-soaked Versace mu-mu. Least of all Richard Dawkins, who gave a firebrand speech so electrifying and damning that it will make you cheer.
9.17.2010
Crazy Obsession
9.16.2010
9.15.2010
The Funniest Will & Grace Moment Ever
Swamp People
And the story of Bruce and his dog Tyler is great:
9.14.2010
Just When You Thought She Hit Stupid Bottom...
This Statue of Liberty was gifted to us by foreign leaders, really as a warning to us, it was a warning to us to stay unique and to stay exceptional from other countries. Certainly not to go down the path of other countries that adopted socialist policies.Sarah Palin
________________________________________________
Did I mention it's a multilevel stupid underground garage?
I tell my parents all the time there is no better gift that they could have given me than besides such an appreciation for family and for faith and patriotism, it's been an upbringing in America in this most perfect state in America - Alaska, where we are independent and we have the pioneering spirit that more of America should hopefully get to look into the state and understand and really try to emulate because it's that pioneering spirit that America needs more of.I get more coherent sentences out of the illegal immigrants around here.
9.13.2010
The Wicker Tree
Hey Tobermory, We Gotta Get In A Fight
9.10.2010
We need these books
9.09.2010
Still In My Top 5
9.08.2010
RIP Glen Shadix
Glen was put through "gay reparative therapy." It failed. And his story is horrifying:
But Glen survived, and we will miss him. Here's 2 musical tributes for Glen!
From Beetle Juice, for being the great Otho:
And from The Nightmare Before Christmas, for being Halloween Town's Mayor:
And, less famously, he was the preacher in the, "I love my dead gay son," scene in Heathers.
I love my dead gay Glen!
The Dignity Of Reason
Christopher Hitchens, on his battle with cancer. I recommend the whole article: Hitchens--even in his poisoned, withered state--is as sharp as always.
A dignified death is hard to come by, but we must all strive for it. My sci-fi hero did:
9.02.2010
PZ Makes My Argument Better
Naturally, I dislike the idea of constructing religious buildings anywhere, since they are a colossal waste of community resources, typically represent unproductive holes in the tax base, and promote stupid thinking — but guess what? Those aren't legal cause to interfere with people's right to waste their time and money. Also, if we accept the privilege of individual autonomy and personal freedom, we don't have moral cause to interfere.I get spooked out by any religion claiming "insensitivity." It's a building, nothing more, nothing less. Let's not add to what it is until those who occupy it do so. Then, we can point and laugh, or rally and protest, or let the government raid it for terrorism.
The first amendment is hard, and insensitivities are not its standard.
9.01.2010
Still Too Hilarious
8.30.2010
8.27.2010
Religion Is Evil; And Your Shit Stinks As Bad As Theirs, So SHUT THE FUCK UP
When I joined the protest of "Draw a Mohammad Day," I didn't do so to bully a religious class. I did so to stand up against an assertion that religious sentiments trumped free speech (and could do so with threats of violence).
The same applies to my support of the "Ground Zero Mosque;" or, as I like to call it, the "Ground Zero YMMA." I will not accept crazy, non-realist arguments ("this slaps the 9/11 victims in the face"), nor the insistence that tolerance has a radius.
The first amendment to our Constitution is hard; it's not for the weak of mind, but it protects us from them. And I am weary of Christians throwing bibles in glass houses.
Forget about Ground Zero and use your noggin to think back to the bloodiest event in American history. Was it the Confederacy of Muslims, Atheists, and Homosexuals whose bloodthirsty hordes converged on the goodly Christian Yankee Army of the Union North at Antietam and Gettysburg?
I am the first to say that Islam is a wicked religion: but they all are. And our great republic doesn't win by pretending that the arguments that work in theocracies apply here. Or by pretending that sentiments trump rights.
I am deeply disturbed by this rhetorical Jabberwocky. What do you think will happen when some Muslim Americans go to the completed Ground Zero Memorial, pull out their prayer rugs, and pray that the families of the victims have an iota of grief lifted off of them; and that Muslims around the world will unite against those who would commit violence against our republic?
Now, we all know what will happen: they will likely be castigated and harassed, if not beaten and kicked and spit upon.
We are better than that, and I won't have it any other way.
I'll defer to another Alabama graduate:
Roll Tide Joe! Were the Republican Party as decent, and thoughtful, and principled, and grown up as you.
It Would Be Uninteresting If It Weren't David Fincher
And the musicians who beat Richard Cheese for the best cover of Radiohead's "Creep?" Scala and the Kolancy Brothers, which is apparently a Belgian girls choir.
I don't think I'll skip this one.
8.26.2010
8.21.2010
8.18.2010
"People, They're No Fun"
8.17.2010
I'd forgotten how much I love his work
Doing the mural at the Atlanta Aquarium
AND appearing at Dragon Con this year!
Strangely (In)Appropriate
Per aspera ad astra
Ray Bradbury is mad at President Obama, but it's not about the economy, the war or the plan to a construct a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City.
“He should be announcing that we should go back to the moon,” says the iconic author, whose 90th birthday on Aug. 22 will be marked in Los Angeles with more than week's worth of Bradbury film and TV screenings, tributes and other events. “We should never have left there. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever."
and from Reason hit & run:
Ray Bradbury Hysterical Theater: We Got Too Much Gummint, Too Many Internets, But Not Enough Moon Colonies!
8.13.2010
8.12.2010
8.11.2010
Put your thinking tuques on
Inception theory du jour of the day
I have always thought the name Ariadne to be lovely & have used it in various games. When I realized it was Ellen Page's character's name I was intrigued: Why pick a name from Greek antiquity? Ah, Christopher Nolan, you scamp, you are truly a thinking man's director.
Ariadne helped Theseus get out of the Minotaur's labyrinth by trailing string. Obviously this can refer to Inception's Ariadne's abilities as a dream architect, but can it also be a sly way of Christopher Nolan telling us what really happened to Cobb?
That's all the thinking I can do today. Now, back the to The Sims.
"There Is Not Conclusive Evidence..."
This is why he won:
_________________________
The video might not work, but I strongly encourage you to follow the link and watch this video. It is AMAZING!!!
"The witness stand is a lonely place to lie."
8.10.2010
My Lament, Put To Song
They heard me singing and they told me to stop,Modernism is dead. Long live the age of the dummies and their politics of failure and resignation...
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock.
I guess we're stuck on this decaying rock, doomed to perish.
Album Review: Arcade Fire's The Suburbs
Arcade Fire's Funeral was inspired, and Neon Bible was brilliant (and both were suggestively atheistic). But their new album, The Suburbs, is exquisite.
I don't understand people who don't own and love Arcade Fire's albums. You might as well worship some god....
My Hero
A flight attendant cursed out passengers, grabbed a beer then triggered an emergency chute Monday at a JFK Airport terminal, authorities say.When the police arrived, he was having sex with his boyfriend.
8.06.2010
8.05.2010
I Knew I Knew Where Mal Lived
At lunch today, I was perusing a book on modernist architecture, and I found it:
Am I wrong?
And yes, I bought the book.
8.04.2010
Somebody Smack This Has-Been
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich called the decision "an outrageous disrespect for our Constitution"...For Newt, marriage has been between 1 man and 3 women. Not at the same time, of course; that would be too traditional.
"Congress now has the responsibility to act immediately to reaffirm marriage as a union of one man and one woman as our national policy," Gingrich said in a statement.
Prop 8 Overturned, 14th Amendment Next
The freedom to marry is recognized as a fundamental right protected by the Due Process Clause. See, for example, Turner v Safely, 482 US 78, 95 (1987)...Uh oh, it's the Republican/Tea Party's new worst enemy: Amendment XIV!!! But what about "traditional marriage" in the US?
The evidence shows that the movement of marriage away from a gendered institution and toward an institution free from state-mandated gender roles reflects an evolution in the understanding of gender rather than a change in marriage. The evidence did not show any historical purpose for excluding same-sex couples from marriage, as states have never required spouses to have an ability or willingness to procreate in order to marry. FF 21. Rather, the exclusion exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage. That time has passed.Don't tell that to the fussbudgets over at Concerned Women for America. Those pious, submitting broads might rend their maternity aprons and stomp on them in disgust with their bare feet.
After going on about how the government must have a very compelling reason to restrict rights of a group of people--or some communist French nonsense like that--up comes my favorite part (which is a header, no less):
PROPOSITION 8 IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL BECAUSE IT DENIES PLAINTIFFS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT WITHOUT A LEGITIMATE (MUCH LESS COMPELLING) REASONThe whole thing is a scathing page-turner. Early in the ruling, Chief Judge Walker describes how the defendants only called two witnesses, one of whom was not qualified to enter expert testimony. It's as riotous as dry legalese can get, and it reminds me of Judge Jone's ruling in Kitzmiller vs. Dover.
Cheers to Gov. Schwarzenegger for refusing to defend Prop 8. And cheers to Chief Judge Walker for including this nugget:
That the majority of California voters supported Proposition 8 is irrelevant, as “fundamental rights may not be submitted to [a] vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.” West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette...Cue "activist."
8.03.2010
8.01.2010
7.30.2010
7.27.2010
Still One Of The Best Endings Ever
I cry every time I watch it...
From Reason.com
What once was parody may soon be diagnosis.
In 1995, in an effort to parody the way the American Psychiatric Association’s hugely influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders medicalizes every excessive behavior, psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg introduced on his website the concept of “Internet Addiction Disorder.” Last summer Ben Alexander, a 19-year-old college student obsessed with the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft, was profiled by CBS News, NPR, the Associated Press, and countless other media outlets because of his status as client No. 1 at reSTART, the first residential treatment center in America for individuals trying to get themselves clean from Azeroth, iPhones, and all the other digital narcotics of our age.
7.23.2010
7.22.2010
7.20.2010
Disturbing
A violent police raid posted on YouTube sparks outrage—but the only thing unusual was that it was caught on video.
In May a Missouri police raid that was captured on video went viral. As of this writing, the video had been viewed more than 1.2 million times on YouTube. It lit up message boards, blogs, and discussion groups around the Web, unleashing anger, resentment, and, regrettably, calls for violence against the officers involved. I’ve been writing about these raids, including some that claimed the lives of innocent people, for five years. There’s never been a reaction like this one. (You can see the video at youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc.)
Brilliant!
Ru Paul's Drag U is fucking brilliant! Best spin-off show ever. We gotta get a certain someone onto season 2. I'm talking about you, Miss Tobermory Thang....
7.19.2010
TV Alert: Revenge, And Redemption, Of The Queens
You know you should watch it Miss Thang. So don't fuck it up!
7.17.2010
Science Fiction Music
The song is Billy Radcliffe. It's by Frank Black and the Catholics, from their album Pistolero.
Billy Radcliffe didn't go to town
And when we looked up
He was looking right down
Catching blue in his eyes that were brown
Billy Radcliffe
(Billy Radcliffe)
Billy Radcliffe owned by the state
From his first breath
To the cemetery gate
He was the first boy born in space
Billy Radcliffe
(Billy Radcliffe)
Billy Radcliffe very first one
He really had lived just a cursed son
A split in half man sang the cherubim
Billy Radcliffe
(Billy Radcliffe)
Billy Radcliffe saw what the Devil man saw
He saw a spot of blue in black of the eye of the Lord
Such a cruel love
Is the kind that has wrought oh Billy
Billy Radcliffe
Billy sadly didn't live long
He had to stay there
Because he wasn't too strong
He's stepping out the door
Blowing up like bomb
Billy Radcliffe
(Billy Radcliffe)
Billy Radcliffe very first one
Really a hatched man a light switch son
A split in half man sang the cherubim
Billy Radcliffe very first one
A split in half man sang the cherubim
I bet you cried when he died now didja
Now didja ?
Now Billy Radcliffe saw what the Devil man saw
A spot of blue in black of the eye of the Lord Oh Billy
Billy Radcliffe saw what the Devil man had
And I feel very bad for
William Radcliffe
The Marsist
7.16.2010
Paycheck Alert!
For the next 2 months, I will be eating only noodles and peanut butter sandwiches: Books-A-Million is selling some relatively cheap books on modernism, Case Study houses, progressive architecture, surrealism, and Bauhaus. I browsed through a few, and I have to have them all.
The book on the Case Study houses left two stains in my underwear, but I still managed to stop myself from buying it. I was conflicted when I saw a compelling book about my photographer-hero Man Ray. My brain went into overdrive; I didn't know where to spend my cash. So, until tomorrow...
I [Heart] Jeanne Gang
We've all drooled over Aqua, master architect Jeanne Gang's masterpiece of organic pageantry that fuses mid-century modernism with contemporary, energy-efficient construction.
I'm a big fan of Blair Kamin's Chicago Tribune blog, and he has a great post about Gang's contribution to Lincoln Park's ecologic renovation of the south pond.
Watch the video here, although you have to give it several minutes to load up and play. It's worth the wait: it's so fucking pretty I can't stand it.
Today, I drove across Florence's old Art Deco dam, and I drove past Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Rosenbaum house. How it pains me to see our progressive architectural heritage cast away by Americans who think that convenience and slack is comforting.
7.14.2010
What Does This Even Mean?
I believe that God has been in this from the beginning and because of that when he has a plan and a purpose for your life and you fit into that, what he calls you to he always equipped you for.Do these people even listen to what they say? And what religious monster hasn't said something similar? I bet if you search the rantings of Bin Laden, you'll find similar drivel.
Which Is Why I Suspect Religious Prudes
Pakistan!
But the gays are the perverts.Google ranks Pakistan No.1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in searches per person for certain sex-related content, FOXNews.com said.
Pakistan has ranked No.1 in searches per-person for "horse sex" since 2004, "donkey sex" since 2007, "rape pictures" between 2004 and 2009, "rape sex" since 2004, "child sex" between 2004 and 2007 and since 2009, "animal sex" since 2004 and "dog sex" since 2005, according to Google Trends and Google Insights, features of Google that generate data based on popular search terms.
The country has also been No.1 in searches for "sex", "camel sex", "rape video" and "child sex video".
7.07.2010
The Industrial Revolution Has Slipped The Bitch On Evolution
7.06.2010
7.05.2010
7.02.2010
7.01.2010
For Clyde Squid
The octopus who has correctly predicted the results of all of Germany's World Cup games has picked a winner for Germany v Argentina in the World Cup quarter-final match on Saturday.
6.29.2010
Album Review: All Of The 80's Music You Hated Loving
Redux: The new Scissor Sisters album is inspired madness. I never hated/loved the 80's so much/more.
It's like listening to Sirius XM's 1st Wave channel but not recognizing the songs; it's a Prince album before he went all Jehovah's Witness. It's when gay was straight, but totally gay.
The Scissor Sisters have their first totally great album.
We're Still National Champions
Just in case you forgot, the Crimson Tide is still the National Champions.
6.28.2010
Raven AND Nina AND Pandora Boxx AND Ongina
Nina Flowers should have won the first season, and Raven should have won the second. Most of the others were serious contenders from both seasons.
Drag queens taking tragic women and remaking them is, quite possibly, the most brilliant idea for a show since Top Chef. Or RuPaul's Drag Race.
Uh-oh
This confluence of warships may only be a transfer; but given the G8's condemnation and Israel's naval positioning and alleged pre-basings, I am concerned.
Unless we (and by we, I mean NATO, Israel, and those Gulf allies who want to remain nameless) have special ops and civilian intelligence in place to do the dirty work that smart bombs can't, any preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear centrifuges could be a disaster.
Or, it all could be nothing: a show of force whose political implications will be, in my opinion, nothing but stupid. Bombastic, insincere bullying should be left with the previous administration's 2nd-term failures. And sincere, not-thought-out military actions should be left to its 1st-term debacles. We should not lend our support to such wearying, unproductive nonsense now: all military actions should be approved by Congress (per our constitution).
Either bomb them right or get away. Doing either would make Obama demonstrably better than Bush the Younger.
I Found It!
When I was in Chicago last year, I was on a bus tour with my parents (against my protestations). And I saw, 2 streets off where we were driven, a building that warmed by mind.
By accident, I happened upon what it was. It's called The Contemporaine; and it won multiple awards. It's a residential building, which makes me both happy and ill. Why are such buildings so rare?