A Violently Executed Blog |
||
|
Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all. - Maximilien Robespierre A Violently Executed Feed BUY SOME STUFF, MAKE ME HAPPY Contact me. Links and stuff Handshake Bloggers Damn Good Music
|
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
I'll Get Around To Posting Something Today A little overwhelmed at work, 2 cow-irkers aren't here today, leaving me flying solo until 3. Talk amongst yourselves. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:18:00 AM   Monday, November 29, 2004
Test Time! A Test About Me! With thanks to Mojave 66 for the inspiration. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:55:00 PM Test Takin' Foolishness
Only 33%? Guess my lack of a Camaro overrode my former mullet. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:14:00 PM Frequently Asked Questions In the interest of helping those readers that don't interact with me on a daily basis, I thought I'd list the questions most commonly asked of me in real life. Are you serious? - Most of the time. I'm kind of going for a "wisecracking guy that's really upset about a lot of bad shit in the world" vibe. Is it working? No, really, what's your fucking problem? - In an intrinsic sense, my problem is that I have ADD, combined with a tendency towards depression. Oh, and I've got this little ache in my lower back, and I frequently have an acid stomach, especially when I read the news. Externally, I'm rather disgusted with the level of discourse in the US, the inability of so many Americans to even locate Iraq on a map, war, famine, poverty, disease and the continuing career of no-talent bimbos like Jessica Simpson. So, you think you're pretty smart, do you? - In a word, yes. What are you smoking? - Pall Mall ultra lights. Just enough nicotine, and I can pretend they're almost good for me. You didn't ask, but I'm at about 3/4 of a pack per day, more if the news is especially annoying. Why do you hate America? - I don't. I hate some of the things our nation does, but I love our ideals. Do you have an attitude problem, mister? - Fuck no. Do you ever shut up? - When I'm asleep. Do you want a knuckle sandwich? - No, thank you. Why don't you go fuck yourself? - Believe me, if I could, I'd do it. These are the questions I'm asked most often. If you've got more questions you'd like answers to, drop 'em in the comments below. Have a nice fuckin' sunshiny day, mmm-K? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:41:00 AM Sunday, November 28, 2004
Worthless Treasure Went to see National Treasure last night with a friend, and I managed to avoid disappointment only because I hadn't had any real expectations for the movie in the first place. For the record, my friend had suggested we go see National Treasure in the hopes that I would shout angrily at the screen throughout most of the movie. Looking at the movie with the eye of a Conspiracy Fan, here's my list of problems with it: (1) Solomon's Treasure - This is a great treasure, supposedly captured and built upon by a succession of empires over the ages, then lost as they were sacked by another. How this assortment of loot manages to stay together over the centuries and all the others didn't is not mentioned. (2) The Knights Templar - OK, you've got a conspiracy movie and no good conspiracy neglects the Templars. So far, so good. Buuuuttttt.... the chronology is wrong. The Order of the Poor Brothers-in-Arms of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded before they dug under the Dome of the Rock (probable site of Solomon's Temple), and how, exactly, did this great treasure get stuffed back under Solomon's Temple, where it was supposed to have started out in the first place? (3) Hidden Clues - Clues hidden in plain sight, cool. Clues hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence, cool. Not once using the fact that the street grid of Washington, DC was designed by a Freemason and is chock-full of pentagrams and intersecting angles, uncool. (4) The Relationship - Obsessed protagonist, goofy sidekick, charismatic enemy, beautiful foil that falls for the protagonist... got all the standards, but somehow the delivery falls flat. It's like the writers knew that we expect the hot chick to fall for the hero, and didn't think it was terribly important to show that relationship developing. It was all "antagonistic, antagonistic, antagonistic, a kiss underground and BAM! They're married at the end, Bob's your uncle!" Come on, what's that maxim they tell writers? "Show, don't tell." Those are just the most glaring problems I had with the movie, but there's more, many more. This was a movie that screamed for the help of Kenneth Hite and/or Tim Powers. Once again, I take the Bad Movie juju upon myself, so you don't have to. Thanks can be expressed in the form of cash payments (Euros or Pounds Sterling only, please). [EDIT] - And, in fact, Ken Hite came up with a much better ending to the movie. [EDIT OF THE EDIT] - Linus over at Pepper of the Earth has a terrific snarky sum-up of the movie. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:00:00 AM Saturday, November 27, 2004
A Little Somthing For You Theater Folk Out There Saw this link on Kat's blog: THE THINGS I WILL NOT DO WHEN I DIRECT A SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTION, ON STAGE OR FILM 36. Keanu Reeves will not be allowed near the production. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:23:00 AM Friday, November 26, 2004
Marriage Equality Pondering the whole issue and its current status, I am well aware that at the moment, things don't look too good. The forces of bigotry made a good stand in this battle and won every single ballot initiative. The Hate Amendment is still lurking in the rafters of Congress like some kind of vampire, waiting for night to fall so that it can once again swoop down and terrorize the populace. Jerry Falwell is mobilizing another cohort of narrow-minded zealots to take the battle to the streets. Right-wing dominance of the reins of government will continue for at least another two years, probably more. Still, it's heartening to know that a majority of young Americans think tolerance and acceptance of our differences is a good idea. As the Boomers and their parents age and die, the good they have done will not be interred with their bones. The spirit of inclusiveness that makes America great continues and thrives in the coffee shops and schools. Even with the current deck stacked against us, though, it's important to keep fighting for equality and progress. As William Faulkner said, "We speak now against the day when our Southern people who will resist to the last these inevitable changes in social relations, will, when they have been forced to accept what they at one time might have accepted with dignity and goodwill, will say: 'Why didn't someone tell us this before? Tell us this in time?'" Those words were true of the Civil Rights Movement and they remain true. It's up to us to do right by our kids, and make sure they know that some of us, at least, fought the good fight for them and their children. Hold your heads high, progressives. Time is on our side, and no matter how dark it gets in America, there's always a new day. Keep slogging forward and fight like hell for truth, justice and our nation's ideals of inclusive democracy. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:31:00 AM THEY Don't Want You To Know About This Friday Five... This week, I ask: Talking with a friend at work, the subject of conspiracy theories came up. It's a favorite of mine, as the mental contortions most conspiracy theorists come up with are truly a sight to behold. Here's what I want to know: What are your top five conspiracies, real or imagined. As a special bonus, can you find a common thread to link them all together, kind of a Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory? I love me some conspiracy nuttiness. The more whacked-out the theory, the better. So, without further ado, I present Adam's Top Five Conspiracies! (1) The Merovingians - A line of kings that ruled the Franks following the collapse of the Roman Empire in Gaul. Legend said their ancestor's came from "over the sea" and they have been linked to the Grail Guardians in some legends, causing some conspiracy theorists to assume that they were descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The last king of the Merovingians, Dagobert II, was murdered by agents of Pepin the Short, father of Charlemagne. Many conspiracies since then are purported to derive from efforts of collateral descendants and supporters of this sacred bloodline to regain some or all of the thrones in Europe. (2) Gothic Architecture - The rise of the massive Gothic Cathedrals in Europe coincided with the rise of the Knights Templar. Of course, in the world of conspiracy, correlation is causation, so the Order of the Poor Brothers-in-Arms of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon became the movers and shakers behind this architectural movement. In keeping with the Templars' supposed secret obsession with (choose one: Goddess Worship/the Virgin Mary/Sacred Bloodlines/All Of The Above), the major cathedrals of Northern France ("major" meaning "the ones that fit on the map") match the layout of the constellation Virgo: 
(3) The JFK Assassination - "Magic bullets". Cubans by the stockade fence. Russians. The CIA. The Mafia. The Zapruder Film. For those into serious esoterica, the ritual murder of a sacred king to renew the land. All of these theories cheerfully skip right past the obvious and go straight into Woo-Woo Land (some further than others...). All available evidence (and let's remember that Absence of Evidence =/= Evidence of Absence) says that a long-time loser with a history of violence and, possibly, a previous attempt on the life of a public figure, shot and killed an American President all by his lonesome. (4) Reptoids - Reptilian, shapeshifting invaders from (choose one: outer space/another dimension/Earth's prehistory/the Hollow Earth) have infiltrated our society to (choose one: guide us to cosmic unity/harvest our flesh for food/toy with us/destroy the world). They are hidden (choose one: among us/in Dulce, New Mexico/in Antarctica/at the North Polar Entrance to the Hollow Earth/behind the Moon). The reptoids are the rorshach test of conspiracy theories - theorists see in them what they most fear or desire, and all of their supposed actions reverberate through history, culminating in the near future in a Singularity of (choose one: immanentization of the eschaton/reptoid on human violence/reptoid on human rape/cosmic unity/human revolt). Lots of fun, but make sure you toe a string about your waist before veturing into the maze of Reptoid belief systems, as it's easy to get lost. (5) The Disappearance Of My Sammich - Last year, I brought a sammich to work for lunch. Between 7:30 AM when I arrived and placed the sammich (a delicious leftover meatloaf sammich with onion, garlic paste and sharp cheddar on homemade bread) in the fridge in the breakroom and 11:45 AM when I went to retrieve it and savor its Leftover Goodness, it was stolen. No one admitted to taking it, but I have no doubt that one look at its perfection would serve as a near-overwhelming temptation to possess it and consume it. Obviously, someone wanted to prevent me from partaking of the bliss of a good sammich, although I have not yet narrowed my suspects down sufficiently to engage in more direct interrogations. I shall not give up, though. Looking at all the stuff I've got, I'll take a stab at the Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory for $1000. In ages past, as the Age Of Reptiles neared its cataclysmic end, the progenitors of the Reptoids fled in their flying saucers through a dimensional rift to a pocket universe located between the atoms at the center of the Earth. For untold millenia, they thrived there, until some restless elements reemerged to see what had become of their legendary homeland. They found a world populated by primitive mammalian bipeds that reasoned much as they did. The reptoids were split into two factions, one aimed at wiping the abominations from the face of the planet (the Black Reptoids) and one determined to uplift the humans to provide the reptoids (who called themselves the Anunnaki) with kindred spirits. This battle raged through the ages, the reptoids' holographic projection belts allowing them to pass as humans and their advanced mental science to pose as gods, angels, demons and wizards. Slowly but surely, the reptoids that looked upon mankind as brothers gained the upper hand, although there were a few minor setbacks (Atlantis as a prime example). Posing as refugees from Judea, a few Reptoids created a dynasty supportive of human intellectual freedom in the south of Gaul which was ultimately wiped out by servants of the Black Reptoids, who by this time controlled the nascent Roman Catholic Church. Centuries later, the Knights Templar were guided by the Anunnaki to the site of Solomon's Temple, where they discovered a secret cache of documents explaining the secret geometry behind the Anunnaki's ability to travel between dimensions. Again the Black Reptoids struck, destroying the Templars before they could complete their masterpiece, a ley-line based psychic booster that would have boosted the collective intelligence of men in Europe enough that some degree of peace and unity would have been achieved. The remnants of that system, tied as it is with Reptoid techno-magic, are the gothic cathedrals we view with awe today. Fast forward several centuries, and the Black Reptoids struck again, killing President Kennedy the day before he was planning to announce an alliance with the Anunnaki against the Black Reptoids and their Soviet/Cuban/Mafia pawns. The war again went undergound after that, as both sides agreed that their secrets had been dangerously close to exposure. Decades after that, the chance formation of a psychic-enhancing mold spore in a leftover meatloaf sammich threatened to give me powers beyond those of any human previous, powers that could shake the world to its very foundations. For the safety of the Reptoids, it was decided that that sammich must disappear. The rest of the Friday Fivers are waging their own battles against the dark forces arrayed against (choose one: humanity/Christianity/the future/the universe/that crazy old guy that stands in the middle of the park and yells about bugs), but their secrets can be parsed out if you know the key to the messages encoded in their blogs, which are listed to the left. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:25:00 AM Thursday, November 25, 2004
An Analysis Of The Exit Polls I'm still not 100% convinced the election was stolen via vote-count fraud, but I'm becoming more and more convinced. This tends to reinforce some suspicions I had. The first sweep has been singled out as having poisoned the whole barrel; but this is ridiculous - you simply need to make a slight adjustment to the final gender breakdown (@ 12:21 a.m.), if you believe that to be skewed, which has very little effect on the results (read on to see exactly how this works in terms of actual numbers). posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 6:46:00 PM Off We Go! Turkey Day dinner at the in-laws', and Melissa made chocolate pie! Hope everyone's day goes well, and that your relativedon't drive you too crazy. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:02:00 AM Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Some Love From Our Friends Overseas No, they still haven't sent me Emma Thompson. Instead, they've accepted our apologies. Thanks, guys. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 3:32:00 PM Ditchin' Early Preparing to leave the office now, and there's lots to do before Thanksgiving, so I'm not sure I'll get another blog entry in before I gorge myself senseless on Turkey Dinner Goodness tomorrow. If not, thanks to all of you invisible internet people out there that read this blog. I'm thankful your visits to this website feed my ego by giving me the opportunity to feel popular. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:59:00 PM Update On Our Dear Leader's Billboard In the spirit of forward-looking The outpouring of posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:35:00 AM Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Yep, It's Real What, you ask? This: 
Yes, we're now erecting billboards to make sure we all understand that Our Dear Leader is here to guide us into a new era of Maybe they can get rid of that frumpy old Statue of Liberty and replace her with a huge statue of Dear Leader Bush shaking his fist towards the East and all the I'm so excited! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 11:24:00 AM Really, The Iraqi People Ought To Be A Little More Grateful After all, we Free to be kidnapped by thugs, tortured in American-run prisons, blown up by cluster bombs, walk in raw sewage, live without electric power, see one-time executioners for Saddam run the country and now, just 'cause we love 'em so much, we've made sure that Iraqi children are more malnourished than ever! We don't do that for just anyone, mind you. No, it's only special friends. So buck up, Iraqis! Uncle Sugar's gonna take care of you! Now, let's be a little more gracious about all the benefits of our Free Society you get. There are schoolchildren in America that have never even seen a smart munition. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:24:00 AM Monday, November 22, 2004
What Progressives Stand For It's the subject of a lot of discussion, and I think whatever final conclusions we reach, we can't go wrong if we start with the Four Freedoms that FDR outlined in a speech on January 6, 1941: The first is freedom of speech and expression --everywhere in the world. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:05:00 PM Well, I'm Glad Someone In The So-Called Liberal Media Is On The Job Keith Olbermann of MSNBC has been following the suspicious goings on in Ohio and Florida. Unlike most in the media, he's taking a critical look at the evidence before dismissing tales of possible fraud as tinfoil-hat paranoia. Meantime, The Oakland Tribune not only devoted seventeen paragraphs Friday to the UC Berkeley study on the voting curiosities in Florida, but actually expended considerable energy towards what we used to call ‘advancing the story’: “The UC Berkeley report has not been peer reviewed, but a reputable MIT political scientist succeeded in replicating the analysis Thursday at the request of the Oakland Tribune and The Associated Press. He said an investigation is warranted.” I'm still very skeptical on the possibility of the election being overturned on the basis of recounts/investigations in Florida and Ohio, but more than ever, I feel thatit's important to shine as bright a light as possible on any instances of unusual activity regarding voting. Ohio and Florida had odd things going on before, during and after the election, and they need to be investigated. I'm talking a full body-cavity search for each and every county in those states, followed by grabbing them by their ankles and shaking them up and down to get any loose bits out of their pockets. I don't give a rat's ass how much it costs - if we can spend $40,000,000 trying to determine if Bill Clinton got a fuckin' blowjob, fer crissakes, we can drop a little to make sure, I dunno, that our goddamn elections work Bev Harris of Blackboxvoting.org is busy tearing into Florida, Cobb and Badnarik, among others, have raised the proper monies for a recount in Ohio, so let's make sure we flip over every rock and expose whatever's under them to the light of day. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:11:00 AM Sunday, November 21, 2004
More Brilliance From Your Republican-Dominated Congress Bill Could Criminalize Fast-Forwarding DVD Ads, Trailers A new bill before Congress may eventually have DVD-viewers thinking twice before fast-forwarding through the ads and previews. It's not enough that the GOP decided to rewrite the rules to protect The Bugfucker, they've got to dump even more bad legislation on us? Another tip o' the hat to Red America for giving us four more years of this to look forward to. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:59:00 AM Saturday, November 20, 2004
Weird Link! It's Just A Plant - a children's story of marijuana. While I appluad the efforts of these fine folks to demystify marijuana, one must admit that possessing this book would no doubt cause some rather pointed questions to be asked come "show and tell" day. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:15:00 AM Fucking Fundie Moron Senate hears testimony on porn addiction Comparing pornography to heroin, researchers on Thursday called on Congress to finance studies on "porn addiction" and launch a public health campaign about the dangers. Senator Brownback said some of his middle-age male friends limit their time alone in hotel rooms to avoid the temptation of graphic pay-per-view movies. I see - these middle-aged dipshits can't stay in a hotel room without the TV marching across the room, beating them senseless, tying them to a chair with their eyelids propped open by toothpicks and forcing them to watch soft-core porn. Give me a break - they just don't want their furtive viewing of the first five minutes of "Teenage Tit Freaks" showing up on the credit card bill. Obviously, if we allow this to continue, we'll all turn into sex-crazed monsters with hair on our palms, our sightless eyes oozing pus and, somewhere up in heaven, Jesus crying his eyes out over our sin. Keep your fucking paws off the porn, and I'll keep my goddamn baseball bat off your skull. Red America, I hope you enjoy the Christo-stalinist stooges you've elected. You've elected to choke on your own vomit, and that can't come soon enough for me. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:07:00 AM Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses... But Not If They're Darkies Haitian pastor dies on U.S. doorstep MIAMI - Haitian-Americans watched in awe this week as a group of 44 Cuban entertainers applied for political asylum in Las Vegas, unmolested by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. So, near as I can tell, Cubans are A-OK, 'cause they're anticommunists, and we don't care if any of them engage in acts of terror, but those damn negroes in Haiti are a threat to the Precious Bodily Fluids of the Pure And Holy United States. Fucking bastards. I know this has been policy for decades, but it still sickens me. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:53:00 AM Friday, November 19, 2004
Friday Five - Family Trouble Edition This week, Rob wants to know: Name the five most nightmarish in-laws or events involving in-laws you have had to burn through. I don't really have any nightmarish events involving my in-laws to discuss here. I'm fortunate in the family I've married in to, and get along very well with Melissa's parents. And they don't read this blog, so I'm not worried that they'll read this. As a result of my fortunate marriage, I don't have much, if anything to contribute. [3 hours later] I thought of a couple of things to list - either flat-out weirdness or semi-amusing stories involving Melissa's and my extended families, and you'll have to be satisfied with that. (1) Redbook Magazine - Perverted! Melissa's grandmother is best described by the term "A Pistol". She was widowed with 5 children and kept her family together, working her ass off to survive. Later, she met and married a wonderful man who accepted and loved all her children. "Turp", the man Melissa's mother knew as her father, died last year, and Jean is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's, a shell of the woman I first met 13 years ago. Jean always told it like it was - never sugar-coating it and frequently by her blunt statements causing some discomfort - but she was a warm person, and despite my earring and frequently shaggy hair, I never felt anything but welcome at her house. About 6 years ago, we were visiting and Jean announced that she had cancelled her subscription to Redbook (a magazine aimed at women, with the usual assortment of sex tips, recipes and celebrity interviews). Not particularly edgy, it's always been solidly middle-America. We were surprised by Jean's announcement, and asked why. "Because I read this article in there that said a woman and a man ought to lick each other down there when they have sex, and that's just wrong! That's what dogs do. So I cancelled my subscription. I don't need to read that!" (2) The Jalapeno Incident My first trip to East Texas was while Melissa and I were engaged. I drove all night from Atlanta to get to Little Rock (where her father was stationed at the time) just before Christmas, and then the day after Christmas, we all drove down to Lufkin, TX to visit the relatives. Melissa's father, Norm, is the youngest of 3 and we got a good visit in with his older brothers Frank and Elvis and their families. After we'd been there a while, the menfolk gathered in the kitchen to talk so I followed along, racking my brain for experiences from life on my parents' farm to share, not having a tremendous amount in my current life (theater major, latte-drinking liberal with socialist tendencies) that I felt comfortable discussing. While they shot the breeze, everyone else was helping themselves to a gallon jar of pickled jalapeno peppers. Not wanting to look like a wimp, I did too. Pepper for pepper, I matched the other men, manfully forcing myself past the pain and putting up a tough front. Eyes streaming tears, my nasal passages completely open and flowing, I ate what seemed like a thousand peppers, each one scorching its way across my tongue, searing itself down my throat and settling uneasily in my stomach. Some considerable intestinal distress later (thankfully without vomiting), I finally admitted that I wasn't as hip to pickled jalapeno peppers as I had pretended, but had wanted to fit in. The general consensus was that if I was willing to do that to myself to make sure the extended family liked me, I was probably just crazy enough to fit in anyway. (3) The Lipscomb Family Reenactment Of The Bataan Death March. Several years ago, Melissa and I made plans to attend a Lipscomb family reunion in Florida over the summer. Drew was 4, Franny was an infant, and we came up with what seemed a good plan - take 2 days to drive from Austin, TX to Americus, GA (a little over 1000 miles, or 14,543,971.26434556 Kilograms to you Europeans and Canukistani). From Americus, we'd drive to my parents' farm (they had two houses at this point, as my mother was working at a hospital about 2 hours away from our farm and that kind of commute doesn't work if you deliver babies for a living), spend the night and drive back down to Pensacola, FL (about a 6-7 hour trip). 2 nights in Pensacola, rushing from place to place and seeing family members we hadn't seen in years would be followed by a drive back to the farm, 2 more nights and then a drive back to Austin (1 night on the road and a metric assload of driving). When we didn't have kids, we could do that kind of trip, although it would feel somewhat rushed. With kids, it was a nightmare - the children were fussy and tired the entire time, Melissa and I were fussy and tired, my parents were tired from helping chase the kids all over the damn place and at some point in Pensacola, I got a nasty sunburn on my back and shoulders. Since then, we've been a little better about planning our trips. Our optimal target is 1 big drive at either end of the trip with as little additional travel as can be managed in the middle. Works much better that way. (4) Another Family Reunion Before we got married, Melissa went to a Lipscomb family reunion in Pensacola. The travel was much easier, because we (a) lived much closer to Pensacola and (b) didn't have kids in the car. At a fish fry, I was busy introducing Melissa to the finer points of Gulf Coast cuisine, specifically fresh raw oysters and ice-cold beer. My father's cousin Merwin (pure-dee Florida Cracker if there ever was one - "earthy" is another term for him) passed by and opined, "Boy, you best be keerful givin' a gal some'o them Florida oysters. Them things work, and she's liable to break ya' tonight!" Er, thanks, Merwin. Please, embarass me in front of both my fiancee and the extended family. (5) I got nothin'. There is no Number 5. The other Friday Fivers have thoughtfully provided ammunition to their extended families in the blogs listed on the left-hand side of this blog. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:37:00 AM Thursday, November 18, 2004
Right, Then! A little bit of good news: John Cleese has a new website! Sweeeeeeeeeeeet. Yoinked this one from Zarq. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 4:49:00 PM The Old Saying Goes... ..."better the devil you know." That's how Ted Rall feels about Ashcroft's resignation. Alberto Gonzales, on the other hand, possesses one of the most twisted minds the American legal system has ever produced. Bush is working hard to consolidate all control to himself - his chief advisors will be people whose current power and influence derive directly from the degree to which they agreed with him. Even though Colin Powell turned out to be as useful as tits on a boar, there was at least one voice in the cabinet that tried to stem the tide of imperialism and Christo-stalinist wingnuttery. The freshman Republican senators are almost to a man slaves to the Christo-stalinist ideology of the whacknoodle wing of the GOP. Thanks to Tom DeLay, the wingnuts have a firm grip on the House. It looks like Mullah Bush will complete his purge of "disloyal" elements in the CIA and unless the Democrats develop some damn spines, it'll be at least one new Supreme Court Justice along the lines of Fat Tony Scalia and Clarence "Uncle" Thomas. Again with the stuff that makes for an upset stomach and the lack of sleeping. I love the New America! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:16:00 PM Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Help The Troops Over at Making Light, Teresa Neilsen Hayden posted a call for help relayed from Democratic Underground: The number ONE request at Walter Reed hospital is phone cards. Because the priority of our government is to continue tax cuts for the likes of Paris Hilton, the government doesn’t pay LD phone charges and these guys, many of them amputees, are rationing their calls home. Whether you agree with the assessment of the administration or not, this is a good way to help the men and women that put their lives on the line. A small donation could make a big difference in the holiday season for these soldiers. The link above also has a list of other charities that help servicemen and women in the comments. Do the right thing, 'K? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:51:00 AM Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Fallujah If photographs of dead or maimed men, women and children disturb you, DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK. Fallujah in pictures. As in Vietnam, our military commanders report hundreds or thousands of enemy combatants dead, our forces take control of the real estate for a day or a week and call it victory. No mention is made of the innocents that suffer. As we put our thumb down on Fallujah, members of the Iraqi Resistance* spread out across the country, to Bakubah and Mosul and Baghdad. The cycle continues, and it doesn't look like there's an end in sight. * - I use the term Iraqi Resistance now because it's the most appropriate term - the vast majority of those fighting are Iraqi citizens, and they are resisting what they see as an illegal occupation of their country. I do not endorse their methods or their ideology. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:15:00 AM Monday, November 15, 2004
News From Inside Fallujah Bilal Hussein, a photographer for the Associated Press, was in Fallujah as the US assault began. "Destruction was everywhere. I saw people lying dead in the streets, wounded were bleeding and there was no one to come and help them. Even the civilians who stayed in Fallujah were too afraid to go out," he said. Maybe there was no other way, maybe there was. I suspect that an ounce of prevention early on would beat this pound of cure. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:00:00 PM Disney Refuses To Learn From Decades Of Horror Movies 2000-lb mobile animatronic dinosaur probably won't go berserk, eat tourists. Five-year-old, 2,000-pound Lucky is getting ready to travel across the continent for the first time. Lucky is a dinosaur: an Audio-Animatronics dinosaur and the first Disney character of its type to walk freely and personally interact with children and families. After a prototype test period in California, Lucky will make his "on stage" debut at Disney's Animal Kingdom in spring 2005. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:09:00 AM Sunday, November 14, 2004
Change The Names And It's Right Out Of Pravda Bush Orders Purge Of Criminal Wreckers At CIA WASHINGTON - The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers thought to have been disloyal to President Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the war in Iraq and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources. Helllooooo, Mr. Bush! Josef Stalin called - he says he finds the irony delicious! posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:25:00 AM Saturday, November 13, 2004
Well, Dang! One of my favorite mysteries has been The Voynich Manuscript, which turned up in 1912 when an antiquarian book dealer named Wilfrid M. Voynich purchased the MS as part of a batch of items from an undisclosed location in Europe. The Voynich Manuscript, as it came to be known, was written in an unknown language and lavishly illustrated. Documents attached to the manuscript that dated to the 17th Century indicate it had at one time been in the possession of Emperor Rudolf II of Bohemia. Since 1912, amateurs and professional medievalists and cryptographers have devoted thousands of hours towards deciphering the codex to no avail. Speculation as to the author of the manuscript has ranged from Roger Bacon to Francis Bacon to John Dee to Voynich himself. I personally wondered if it was a hoax, but patterns of the words and symbols in the codex suggested it consisted of a real language, albeit a disguised one, and sheer laziness (and a desire to avoid getting sucked into something as crazy-making as the Voynich MS would be for me) kept me from doing anything. Now, a British psychologist thinks he's figured it out. Gordon Rugg spent two years doing an analysis of the manuscript using a method he and some coworkers had developed for problem analysis. Rugg's conclusion? It's a hoax, written in the early 17th Century. The author is still unknown, but Rugg suspects it was Edward Kelley, a confidence man that had attached himself to the court of Elizabeth I. Don't get me wrong, it's damn cool that Rugg seems to have figured it out, but part of me is a little disappointed that it's not chock-full of ancient secrets or anything. Unless... the nonsense words are themselves a code.... posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 7:20:00 AM Friday, November 12, 2004
To John Ashcroft, We're All Traitors Well, except for the Good Folks that wholeheartedly signed loyalty oaths and pledged obedience to Our Dear Leader at his invitation-only pep rallies. Those that question Our Dear Leader give "aid and comfort" to the enemy, an ill-defined group that seems to consist of queers, muslim fundamentalists (really, just about any Arab except Saudi princes) and the Democratic Party. See, Johnny-boy thinks that judges that act as a check upon the executive and legislative branches of government are a threat to national security. "Courts are not equipped to execute the law. They are not accountable to the people," Ashcroft said. Wow. The mind boggles at the thought that having ostensibly nonpartisan legal experts in charge of the legal system means that the legal system doesn't work. But it's not really a surprise that he feels that way. The Republicans have been committed to overthrowing the balance of power in our government for years, ever since the Dixiecrats fled to the GOP. Bleating about "activist judges" (translation: judges that refuse to adhere to a certain, narrow-minded view of Civil Liberties), voting to strip the courts of their power to hear cases involving Gay marriage, efforts to roll back Affirmative Action and reproductive rights. Folks, the courts are our last line of defense, and 51% of this nation voted for a man and a party that plans to shove the most reactionary judges possible into every court in the land, from the county traffic court to the Supreme Court. Ashcroft's replacement, Alberto Gonzales, isn't much better. Sure, he doesn't seem to have Ashcroft's obsession with covering naked breasts on statues, but he is the guy that was one of the prime movers behind the scenes in formulating the administration's policy on the use of torture, which bit us so hard in the ass at Abu Ghraib. The Geneva Conventions are "quaint", he said. Torture is good, dissent is treason, law is obstruction. Make sure you get that straight, folks. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 9:57:00 PM Friday Five - Fashion Challenged! From Laura: Think back to the 80's and early 90's - which were your five absolute worst fashion disasters? Do you have any photographs from that period, and most importantly, will you share them? I'll make it clear right now - I have no photogtaphs of my less-than-optimal fashion choices. So don't ask. That said, here's the list: (1) Mullet - It was the 1980s, so I got a haircut that was much like that of many people around me. It lasted about a year, then went away. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not hiding the fact that I had one. I refer to that period now as "getting in touch with my ethnic roots". (2) No eyebrows - This was the result of some tequila, a slow Wednesday night and a bottle of black hair dye. I dyed my hair black, realized my eyebrows weren't the same color, and thought it might be interesting to shave them off. Wrong. I looked like a goddamn lizard. Once my eyebrows grew back, it wasn't a bad look, especially when my natural hair color came back in and I started wearing my hair short and spiked. In the right light, it looked like my hair levitated about 1/2" off my scalp. With the punked out clothes and the fishhook earring, it provoked many interesting responses from people I met. Which, really, is why punks dress that way - they just don't want to admit it. (3) In high school, I had a modified bowl cut (no part, short bangs, above the ears in the front). Combined with my then-scrawny build and the button-down shirts I wore, it wasn't a good look. I was, at least, spared bad acne, and I wasn't wearing glasses then, so I didn't have the simply awful choices for frames from that period foisted onto me. (4) Lumberjack beard - Early 90s, I was working at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, building sets and teaching the students there how to avoid lopping off fingers and arms with the power tools. Not a bad job, I had fun and great benefits, although the pay wasn't great. I got it in my head to grow a full beard, then decided I wasn't going to trim it back. The result was a bushy red monstrosity that covered my entire lower face. In the winter, it was rather nice, as it helped keep my face warm. In the summer, though, it served mainly to trap sweat close to my skin and I had to shampoo it twice a day if I wanted to avoid a serious sweat funk. Shaving it off was fun, though. (5) Sleeveless t-shirts - everyone in the 1980s is guilty of this one, so I don't feel too much guilt over it. At least mine were usually modified to provide a custom aesthetic, like my "Choose Death" shirt that had been modified with a .12 guage shotgun and some red paint. Good times. The other Friday Fivers are hiding in their rooms until their hair grows back out, but their blogs are listed to the left. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 8:03:00 AM Thursday, November 11, 2004
Belated Veterans' Day Post Marvin's and my comments in the post below got me to thinking, and it's something that John Kerry and his cmpaign staff got a grip on - the military is not the enemy of the Left. Michael Moore took a stab at addressing this in "Fahrenheit 9/11" when he stressed that the soldiers in Iraq are folks from the same backgrounds as you and me, and that we owe them our thanks, and we owe them our respect. For 30 years, the right has taken the words of a few anti-war protestors and used them to fuel their fires of resentment. We cannot afford to either take the military for granted or to heap abuse upon them. The men and women in our military have volunteered to serve, to protect our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and they are there because they feel it is their duty. Screaming "Baby killer!" might give you a nice adrenaline rush, but it's not going to help in the long run. This is tied in to my feelings about the election - I'm disappointed and angry about the results, and I believe very strongly that many people that voted for Bush did so without having given real consideration or thought to the issues. I'm not going to stop being angry about the election, but I'm trying really hard to let go of my anger at those that voted for Bush. If I'm going to teach my children to use their words as the first option and their fists as the last, I've got to show them that. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 10:33:00 PM OMG! WTF? Tanks show up at protest in LA. LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM two armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered. Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police quickly cleared the street. The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the tanks were deployed to this location. Uploaded here is video from the event. According to military sources, the tanks were lost and stopped in front of the protestors to ask directions. Just fuckin' weird, man. And not something that exactly gives the Left warm fuzzies, ya know? posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 2:07:00 PM Feh. Thanks to the idiocy of Senior Management, my workload has just been doubled, if not tripled. More later. posted by Adam C. Lipscomb at 1:13:00 PM Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Kids In Combat Not about Fallujah, this post. Drew got into a fight at school the other day. When Melissa picked him up, he had the beginnings of a small bruise under his left eye. It took her some time to worm the details out of him, but story turned out to be something that makes me proud of him. There's a new kid in Drew's class, we'll call him Bobby. It seems that another boy, Charlie (not his real name either) was teasing Bobby, and Drew told him to stop. When Charlie wouldn't leave Bobby alone, Drew attacked him. I'm of two minds about this, and haven't figured out how to discuss it with Drew. My experience in childhood with bullies has given me a very strong opinion on the importance of standing up to bullies early and often, while I'm also aware | |
