Bakerstreet

Poor Bastards, this must be the unemployment line or the line for a soup kitchen or maybe even the free government cheese line! I heard that the line started forming two weeks before it opened and that everywhere the lines are hours long before you get to the front! A friend stood in it for six hours on a Sunday and came away empty handed. Damn that Bushitler. this recession is worse then the 1920s stock market crash, the ecomony is in the toilet. the sky is fall… wait a minute… is that an Apple logo? Is that the line to get the new 3G iPhone? Aww shit, where’s my checkbook, I gotta go…

Our Obama, who art so heavenly,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy presidential election comes.

Thy will be done,

In America as in other socalist countries.

Give us this day our free healthcare.

And Increase for us our taxes,

throw those who trespass against you under the bus.

For those are not the persons you knew

And lead us not to victory, but to defeat in Iraq,

But deliver us from evil bushitler.

For thine is the kingdom,

of the power hungry, and the glory hounds,

Obama Damn America

Barack Akbar.

Last night we got a chance to see Hancock, unfortunately I came away rather disappointed, but WB really enjoyed it. I warn you that this review will have spoilers below the fold.

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First he fixed the fifty-seven states, America was without form and void, and the darkness of bushitler was upon it; and the spirit of him was moving over the face of the waters. And he said, “Let there be clean energy”; and there was clean energy. And he saw that the clean energy was good. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

And he said, “Let there be an end to global warming and let there be glaciers in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And he ended global warming and made the glaciers that had been receding reappear so that the polar bear population would continue to grow. And it was so. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

And he said, “Let the waters that are receding return to their proper levels, and let the dry land reappear where New Orleans once was before the black-people-hating plague befell the lands.” And it was so. And he saw that it was good. And he said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth so that no man on earth shall go hungry.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind and all the earths peoples were fed. And he saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

And he said, “Let there be clean air for all the world’s peoples to breath and let the ozone layer be repaired, and let all the pollution-causing factories and power plants be banished from the earth.” And it was so. And he made the air clean to breathe and repaired the ozone layer and made the world’s peoples able to breathe the cool clean air. And he made the factories and power plants that caused the pollution to be banished from the earth. And he saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

And he said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of replenishable living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the heavens.” So he replenished the great endangered sea monsters and every endangered living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And he saw that it was good. And he blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

And he said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds, but let the cattle not expel the gases that damage the ozone layer.” And it was so. And he made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind and the non-gas-expelling cattle so that the ozone layer would not be harmed. And he saw that it was good. Then he said, “Let us make over man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have kindness over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the non-gas-expelling cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. And let all of mankind live in peace and let no war ever be fought again, let the jews and the arabs and all of mankind live in peace, and let poverty be banished from the earth and let all man have access to healthcare so that no man will ever again suffer.” So he made over man in his own image, in his image he made them over; male and female. And he blessed them, and he said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth; and take care of the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every living thing that moves upon the earth, and live in peace with no war ever be fought again, let the jews and the arabs and all of mankind live in peace, and let poverty be banished from the earth and let all men have access to healthcare so that no man will ever again suffer.” And he said, “Behold, I have given you Clean energy and I have repaired the ozone layer and banished the pollution-causing power plants and factories, I have fed all the peoples of the world and ended war and poverty and provided healthcare for all mankind.” And it was so. And he saw everything that he had done, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Thus the fifty-seven states and all the earth were fixed, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day President Obama finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. And when the first lady saw what he had done, she was at last, for the first time, finally proud of America.

Barack Akbar

In defense of Rapists er… Men.

Women (and men too) like to draw attention to themselves, they do it with makeup and clothes and the way they act and walk. So why are they so surprised when it works?

As part of her research, Kearl conducted an anonymous, informal e-mail survey of 225 women on the subject. She found that 98 percent of respondents experienced some form of street harassment at least a few times, while about 30 percent reported being harassed on a regular basis.

I imagine that the ones getting the most ‘harassment’ were the better looking, better endowed and more scantily clad ones, but they didn’t research that I gather.

“For me, anyone who interrupts my personal space to objectify me or make me feel uncomfortable or threatened is harassing me,”

Well for an article that you would think would explore both sides of the issue, they constantly call the catcalls harassment and abuse, this seems to be the tone they take throughout.

“I call it street abuse,” says New York City filmmaker Maggie Hadleigh-West, 49. “It’s unwanted attention and invasion of space.”

Unwanted, OK I can understand that, invasion of space requires them to come into your space, did they? The article is on catcalls right, I take that to mean the men are saying or yelling things at the women, If they touch the women, that is considered assault.

“Being in a public space with a strange man who is being sexually aggressive is potentially dangerous,” Hadleigh-West adds

Hmm, I guess if it is just you and a strange man alone in a public area or maybe a bad neighborhood, but does he have to say anything in a scenario like that for it to be dangerous? Is someone yelling or talking to you sexually aggressive? I guess that depends on what he is yelling.

In her 1998 documentary “War Zone,” Hadleigh-West confronted catcallers and filmed their responses. Many of the men literally ran away to avoid talking to her about why they whistled or made a provocative comment.

Wait a sec… I thought these were ‘dangerous sexually aggressive’ men. THEY RAN AWAY? WTF. Just because you wanted to talk? So maybe it was just that? All talk.

“Yeah, it’s objectifying and all, but you know, if I walked down the street and didn’t have men looking me up and down and catcalling, I’d think, ‘Boy I must really be getting old and dumpy’

Ahh, maybe partly the truth?

Emily May, 27, and six of her friends were inspired to create the site in 2005 after a young New York woman used her camera phone to take a photo of a man who was looking at her while touching himself on the subway.

Doesn’t say that he said anything to the woman so that isn’t really a catcall, it is however a crime!

OK, let’s look at this, everyone likes to get the attention of someone of the opposite sex (or same sex), I like walking down the street and having a girl look me up and down and smile at me. I doubt women are much different. The difference is in the way men and women express their approval of what they like, men are more vocal as women are not. While a man might look at a girl and voice their approval, women mostly just look and smile unless they have been drinking and then they might be a little more aggressive.

Does it ‘objectify’ the women? What? We are talking about a guy (or girl) that is looking at a complete stranger right? You can only judge that person on looks and nothing else until you get to know them. How do you get to know someone or get someone to notice you? You talk to them! Sure you may not like the manner, but it sometimes does work! If you’re one that thinks that ‘guys are just pigs’ and that it is just men that do it then explain this? Are they objectifying him?

Women like men to look at them, otherwise they wouldn’t spend so much on makeup, hair, clothes and other male attracting niceties. Maybe it is just that they also attract some men they don’t want to. Would a women complain if a George Cloony look alike in an expensive suit whistled at her? How about if it was a middle aged unattractive construction worker with a beer belly, flashing crack that whistled at her? I think she would be flattered by one and horrified by the other, I’ll let you be the judge on which is which.

‘Say a word and the bunny gets it’

Someone who expresses their opinion and backs it up with at least some links is brainless and of course ‘only a few steps above the terrorists and madmen that shoot up school campuses’. I am glad to be among such terrorist as the founding fathers who pissed off the british with their declarations and proclamations. This country has a thing called free speech that most people love to point out when they are expressing their opinion but quickly forget when someone expresses a different opinion. 

I have a time to piss people off category that I use on posts I think may upset someone, I say things not to piss people off, they get pissed off because I say things they don’t agree with. I post nothing that I don’t truly believe, and I try to back up what I say with links and references. I don’t mind arguing the matter with someone, as long as they too can argue their point intelligently, when the argument turns into insults and name calling, I can tell that the emperor has no clothes. The most common place to see this is when Islamist start shouting racist at blogs and people that point out how evil Islam is, never mind that Islam is not a race!

By the way, I just happened to get an autographed copy of racist Mark Steyn’s new book America Alone in the mail today and look forward to reading it.

So will I shut up so that I don’t piss anyone off? Fuck that, as George W Bush once said ‘Bring it On’!

I’ve been mulling over all the talk about the Yale Art Project. As an artist I was asked if I thought it was ‘art’. Having only read about it and not seen it, I can’t really say. I do know that art is more of a personal opinion then anything. Just because you don’t like the sound doesn’t mean it’s not music, saying that something isn’t art is the same.

Some painters use watercolors, some acrylic, and some even blood. Does the medium change the fact of whether it is art or not? Art is sometimes controversial. Nude photos, drawings and statues always have some that will call it pornographic and smutty. Abstract art is called weird, strange and garbage. Picasso, Pollock, Dali and others created works that were strange and subject to interpretation.

Performance Art is another gray area, it’s not the same as say, a painting, it’s more like acting or theatre with a more abstract tone. What I usually find is that performance art is used more for social or political rants that may or may not matter to the viewer. The problem is that while I compare performance art with acting and theatre, actors have to be good at acting (or have good looks and/or big tits!), the same is not true of performance artists, anyone can just ‘create’ a performance.

So what about the Yale art? Not having seen the work, I’m not even sure what kind of art it is. I have heard it is artwork, performance art and just a publicity stunt. As performance art, it doesn’t make sense, she is not menstruating at the gallery, as I’ve heard, the art is already done, and I’m not sure what statement she is trying to make. As artwork, having known lots of artistic types, I’ve seen them use all matter of medium to create their art, paint, mud, garbage, and yes, even blood, if it is what they think is the right medium, then I see nothing wrong with it. Of course in this case, I don’t think that people are upset that she is using blood so much as how she is getting it and what the blood may contain.

Going on what I have heard about it, in my opinion this just seems to be a way to draw attention and get those 15 minutes of fame. Most of the artists I know create because they have to, it is what they do. They may use their art to make money, but most don’t care much about getting rich and famous or in the news. The money they make is used too live on. None really care to make it big so much, sure they may sometimes think of hitting it big, but doesn’t everyone? I hope to film a movie and I am working toward that end.  My goal is only to make the movie, if I manage to make some of my money back (or hit it big) then that will be bonus. One of the screenplays I have written could be considered sick, pornographic, twisted and controversial, but that is not the reason I wrote it. The art is what artist most cares about.

As one who likes to draw, paint and photograph nudes, dead things and other strange subjects, can I truly pass judgement on another artist work that I haven’t seen? While I don’t share it, I understand peoples anger at her choice of medium, I believe that is exactly the reason she choose it, to create a controversy more then to create art.

This is surely a sign of the apocalypse!

Is anyone actually willing to pay to see this? This would not be nostalgia, more likely self-hatred. Please, anyone willing to go to this, save the money and use it on therapy to resolve those issues. If you are willing to watch a bunch of middle-aged men lip sync while dancing to some homosexual choreography, you’re a woman that needs help. If you’re a guy, just kill yourself now.

I’m sure someone will point out that I’ve been going see ’80s bands in concert, the Go-Gos, Heart, Huey Lewis, Styx and so on. There’s some major differences though. First, the bands I have seen can actually sing, second, they PLAY INSTRUMENTS! They are actually a band, not just teenage girl vagina moisturizers that can’t really sing and who’s only instruments are between their legs. Now that they are older, the teen girl part is gone.

Since they don’t actually sing in concert, all you are really paying for is to watch them dance. Hell, just send them money and save yourself the bleeding ears. Are they not one of the reasons that some states require the disclaimer ‘some parts of the show have been prerecorded‘ on tickets to concerts if they have any prerecorded singing (or even sounds prerecorded). Even their studio stuff is mostly altered to sound good (i use the term ‘good’ loosely)!

Update: Sorry Amanda!

Charlton Heston has died.

Tomorrow starts my vacation, I was going to go to Photoshop World but couldn’t get the funds together so no PSW for me, come back next year! I have a lot of things I want to do but I’ll end up doing hardly any of them as is the norm.

I want to do some creative things so hopefully I get the chance. I would like to do some photography, some painting, and maybe even some writing. I will have my daughter who is on spring break, so that may hinder what I can do as I would rather enjoy being with her. She does like being artistic so maybe we can work on something together.

I also have an airbrush project I want to work on, but I’ve never done airbrush work before so hopefully it turns out. I need to get paint tonight to get some practice with the airbrush.

Interestingly, The latest version of WordPress (2.5) seems to work again and doesn’t fuck up the formatting on my post, at least I think, the preview looks fine but I haven’t hit publish just yet. If that is the case, maybe I’ll be blogging more as the reason I haven’t been is that it was a pain in the ass to get the post to look right. I would usually have to post with Firefox or Opera to get it to look good.

The biggest problem with the smaller desk we put into my office last year is that I no longer have space to have two monitors connected to my computer. I like having two monitors when I’m working on art in Photoshop and Illustrator. The Workbenches at this site are specifically designed for multiple monitors and since they’re designed that way, they don’t really take up much more floor space than normal desks. I need one.

This weekend my wife and I are going to go see Spamalot with some friends.  We bought the tickets back in October.  We finally showed Monty Python and the Holy Grail to my daughter a few weeks ago.  Now she gets some of the lines we quote all teh time, and she’s quoting it too!  We did not get her a ticket to Spamalot, we were not sure she would want to sit through a musical.  But we’re looking forward to it.

People are doing more and more shopping online. Some people are still paranoid, however, about how safe their personal information is on the internet. They are also concerned, and rightly so, about how to determine how reputable an online business is. I want to point out a website that is pretty useful: Customer Friendly Directory & Seal. This site says:

There are lots of shopping sites and directories out there. We are the only one strictly for merchants that are dedicated to good customer service.

After my experience with purchasing an expensive digital camera online, and the head ache it was to return it when I discovered it was malfunctioning, it’s good to find a site that compiles customer-friendly business websites. I thought I would pass it along to you, in case you need it.

Look for the seal when you’re shopping.

I don’t have a car, we got rid of my Jeep a while back because the payments were hard to make when we bought the house. I have been looking for some form of transportation since then because sometimes it sucks to only have one car. I finally got a Honda Ruckus scooter the other day.

“I don’t know Hal”

It’s my brother Tony’s and my Wife WB’s Birthday today.

this is WB in much younger days.

Why so many Ostriches?

If the professor does plagiarize your work, rest assured that CU will immediately give the professor a super secret sanction, a sanction so secret, that not even the university nor the sanctioned professor will know what it is!

H/T Michelle Malkin