Fight Global Warming!

Make your own snowflakes!



A pretty fun timewaster, actually (click pic for link).

Merry Christmas

"Some Mistletoe For You"
by
Louis Wain

The following is, of course, not really a Christmas song, but the sentiment is perfect for the season - particularly after the year we've had. While visions of sugarplums dance in your heads, may your dreams bring you peace and renewal.




WRAP YOUR TROUBLES IN DREAMS
Ted Koehler, Billy Moll, Harry Barris
1931

What price happiness,
What price happiness?
Who can truthfully say?
But for every share, with tears we pay.

Love is happiness -
I've had happiness,
But it ended one day.
Now I look at life a different way.

When skies are cloudy and grey
They're only grey for a day -
So wrap your troubles in dreams
And dream your troubles away.

Until that sunshine peeps through
There's only one thing to do:
Just wrap your troubles in dreams
And dream all your troubles away.

Your castles may tumble, that's fate after all
Life's really funny that way.
No use to grumble, just smile as they fall -
Weren't you king for a day?

Just remember that sunshine
Always follows the rain.
So wrap your troubles in dreams
And dream your troubles away.

Video from a very silly Mack Sennett short, but the only one I could find with Bing. He recorded this song 4 times in his career, so he must have enjoyed singing it as much as I enjoy hearing him.

The Favorite Christmas Song ...

of the Obama Administration:



Merry Christmas, comrades!


********


Randolf's Party

It was Chrisbus time but Randolph was alone. Where were all his good pals. Bernie, Dave, Nicky, Alice, Beddy, Freba, Viggy, Nigel, Alfred, Clive, Stan, Frenk, Tom, Harry, George, Harold? Where were they on this day? Randolf looged saggly at his only Chrispbut cart from his dad who did not live there.

'I can't understan this being so alonely on the one day of the year when one would surely spect a pal or two?' thought Rangolf. Hanyway he carrie don putting ub the desicrations and muzzle toe. All of a surgeon there was amerry timble on the door. Who but who could be a knockingon my door? He opend it and there standing there who? but only his pals. Bernie, Dave, Nicky, Alice, Beddy, Freba, Viggy, Nigel, Alfred, Clive, Stan, Frenk, Tom, Harry, George, Harolb weren't they?

Come on in old pals buddys and mates. With a big griff on his face Randoff welcombed them. In they came jorking and labbing shoubing 'Haddy Grimmble, Randoob.' and other hearty, and then they all jumbed on him and did smite him with mighty blows about his head crying, 'We never liked you all the years we've known you. You were never really one of us you know, soft head.'

They killed him you know, at least he didn't die alone did he? Mery Chrustchove, Randolf old pal buddy.

- John Lennon, from In His Own Write, 1964

Wain Wednesday 32

"A Love Story"
by
Louis Wain

Looks like kitteh is not feeling the love.

SCOTUS And Kelo

LauraW (at Ace of Spades), on the aftermath of Kelo:

SCOTUS' Chickens Come Home To Roost In New London

This cannot be emphasized enough.

The people who run your city, the politicians who are full of bright ideas for improving your life by infringing on others' rights, and the black-robed genius who is tasked with interpreting our founding documents; NONE of these people are smarter than you.

NONE of these people are gifted with superior insight on how better to run your life or use our native resources. But they believe that they are. So without the brake of morality or explicit law, these geniuses and pols and town busybodies will extend professional courtesy to each other as they go about dismantling your life for some dubious utopian idea.

Think hard about those words, particularly in the context of the current healthscare debate.

From the comments of that post:

I have kept saying this since the campaign. Obama is sooooo smart. Why? Well, uh, he got accepted to Harvard Law School (finishing is not a problem, the day you are accepted, they print your diploma). He wrote that super-awesome book about himself.

First, none of this is a serious intellectual task. There ain't no math. It's not about solving problems, it's about empty rhetoric at best. Just because pretentious people, who like to think they are smart (David Brooks) can understand nothing more complicated than prose in their mother tongue, doesn't mean someone who does it well is intelligent. Just the opposite, in my experience.

Second, this is why I rag on lawyers. If lawyers were like accountants -- experienced, professional specialists who (Doug Hoffman aside) don't try to parlay their education into some sort of divine right to rule -- then I'd have no problem. But there ain't nothin' special about lawyers. They're idiots by my scale. They usually have trouble with math. Send a native-English speaking PhD mathematician -- one of the two of them left -- to Harvard Law and see him laugh at the trivialities involved.

Law school is where you go when math is too hard for you.

So not only are these self-styled philosopher kings not smarter, they're dumber. But even if you do get a true genius, he doesn't know anything. Look at the brilliant economists who said that the unemployment rate wouldn't get above 8%. Has one of them apologized? Committed hara-kiri?

One thing math tells you is that everything, in the real world or theory, is waaaaay too complicated for even the most brilliant person to understand. It is one of the reasons American democracy has worked so far. We have resisted the siren's song -- more or less -- of the ubermensch and we are better for it.

Posted by: AmishDude at November 11, 2009 10:56 AM

What he said.

More & more excellent comments at the link.

LATER: Related only in the style over substance sense, Snapped Shot on President Pose & Prose.

h/t Carin, at Is This Blog On?

EVEN LATER: Uncle Jay Explains The News.

Après Halloween LOL

I confess, the whole way through this I heard my mother's voice wailing, "WHY didn't they take the laundry basket out of the background!??" She was a darned good photographer (my dad was, too) and had a sharp eye for the background of a picture.

UPDATE: Click here to go to the Sweet Juniper blog and see what surely must be the most fantastic (homemade!) children's Halloween costumes ever! They made my day - I was all moody and depressed, since I had no trick-or-treaters last night. While you're there, check out the writing on and photos of Detroit.

Got Candy?

Dry Bones - The Delta Rhythm Boys

This Post

is for my sister ... and only she knows why!!!



Hot Jazz Band - Christopher Columbus



Christopher Columbus
Andy Razaf, Leon Berry 1936

Mister Christopher Columbus
Sailed the sea without a compass.
When his men began a rumpus
Up spoke Christopher Columbus:

"There is land somewhere
Until we get there,
We will not go wrong,
If we sing a swing song.

Since the world is round,
We'll be safe and sound,
Til our goal is found,
We'll just keep rhythm bound."

Soon the crew was makin' merry
Then came a yell, "Let's drink to Isabelle,
Hum, bring the rum, Ho Hum."

No more mu-tin-y,
What a time at sea,
With di-plo-macy
Christy made his-to-ry.

Mister Christopher Columbus
He used rhythm as a compass.
Music ended all the rumpus,
Wise old Christopher Columbus.


Happy Columbus Day!

OMG

The competition's getting really fierce at the Iowahawk Endowment for the Arts $33.18 Steel Cage Art Death Match. Some great new entries: I'm partial to The Battle Hymn of the Obamatons - First verse & chorus:

Barack Hussein Obama is the coming of the Lord!
He has taken o’er the banks where all the cap’t’list wealth is stored,
He runs all the auto comp’nies save those bastards out at Ford!
His lies keep rolling on!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Barack Obama is our ruler!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His lies keep rolling on!

Whole song here. The downsized auto worker in me couldn't resist that one, but go see them all - you'll laugh & laugh.

One Of My Favorites

Two favorites, actually - the video and Mr. Whittle:



I rewatch this to calm down when the news of the day makes me want to bite someone.

Oh, and check this comparison of Palin's pre-order book sales vs. those of David Frum (one of those GOP "elitists" that Whittle speaks of) at Doug Ross:

Memo to David Frum, re: Sarah Palin

Heh. Keep going rogue, Sarah.

Talk Talk

DrewM. has a post up at AoS: Success At Nuclear Talks! Iran Agrees To....MORE TALKS!

Wow, more talks! That's so awesome. This is so much different than all the talking and inspecting of Iranian facilities we've been doing until now. No, this is nothing like the almost 10 years that came before. It's different because this time it's S-M-A-R-T.

See? You don't, do you? Because you're a wingnut.

*snip*

EXCLUSIVE: Must Credit Ace Of Spades HQ---Obama plan to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons uncovered!

Step 1-Talk to Iran
Step 2- ???
Step 3- Victory!

*le sigh*

Speaking of wingnuttery, there's confessional talk in the comments of this Stoaty Weasel post of conversion to same and how it came to be for some folk.


All this talk makes me weary made me think of this:



Prolly my favorite "garage" number - Music Machine MySpace.


Talk Talk
Music Machine (1966)

I got me a complication
And it's an only child
Concernin' my reputation
As something more than wild
I know it serves me right
But I can't sleep at night
Have to hide my face
Or go some other place

I won't cry out for justice
Admit that I was wrong
I'll stay in hibernation
'Til the talk subsides to gone
My social life's a dud
My name is really mud
I'm up to here in lies
Guess I'm down to size
To size

Can't seem to talk about
The things that bother me
Seems to be
What everybody has
Against me
Oh, oh, all right

Here's the situation
And how it really stands
I'm out of circulation
I've all but washed my hands
My social life's a dud
My name is really mud
I'm up to here in lies
Guess I'm down to size
To size

Talk talk Talk talk Talk talk Talk talk


Yeah, I know, I have strange musical tastes - from Gilbert & Sullivan to garage punk/psychedelia in 2 posts! :-D

I Can Die Happy

I'm on iowahawk! Hey, I'm unemployed & don't have much to live for.

My submission letter:

Having endless respect (okay, slavish worship) for the talent that is Burge, as well as life-long love of all things Gilbert & Sullivan (particularly The Mikado), I imagine the noble iowhawk as the humane Mikado himself. Who else in the the blogosphere could be described thus?

A more humane Mikado never
Did in Japan exist,
To nobody second,
I'm certainly reckoned
A true philanthropist.
It is my very humane endeavour
To make, to some extent,
Each evil liver
A running river
Of harmless merriment.

My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time —
To let the punishment fit the crime —
The punishment fit the crime;
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment!
Of innocent merriment!

(more here and here)

No one, that's who. And he's saving Teh Arts - A true philanthropist! Bow! Bow! to iowahawk!

Your humble servant,
iamfelix

********

Check out how the program started here and here.


From the 1982 Stratford Festival, The Humane Mikado:

Chapter Eleventy

in this outpost's mad love for the marvel that is iowahawk, who not only brings the funny, but pens insightful serious stuff with the best of them - He writes an excellent tribute to American agronomist and hero Norman Borlaug, who died on Sept. 12.

My favorite part:

The last season of Norman Borlaug's life was spent on the faculty of Texas A&M University where continued working to promote humanitarian projects and food yields around the world. Despite the many accolades he earned he remained modest, almost to a fault. According to one story a security cop refused him entry into his campus office parking lot one Saturday morning, due to an Aggie football game. He cheerfully complied and walked an extra mile from another lot, instead of pointing out to the cop that the building was actually named after him.

Unlike contemporary self-styled members of the environmental-scientific community -- many of whom seem to view the human race as malignancy -- Norman Borlaug was unapologetic in his view that science should be harnessed for the good of mankind. For him, starvation was a pressing human problem to be eradicated, not the inevitable self-inflicted consequence of human folly; and he went about solving it in a systematic, methodical way. Not through armchair theorizing or manifestos, but through hard work and dirt-under-the-fingernails empiricism. He didn't seek utopia, just better crop yields.

Borlaug Wiki.

LOL

Wake Up, Mrs. Petrowski

Good morning! Did you have a restful sleep? Yes, I know it's 3 AM, I just thought... well, the whole orderly staff thought a little early morning air would do you some good after all that commotion yesterday. I have to say you're a pretty feisty old gal for 86!

How's that?

You're 78?

Still, you should really take better care of yourself. Just look at those bags under your eyes! You're no spring chicken and all that protesting just causes stress. Here, why don't we wheel you over to the balcony so you can get some of that fresh healthful air.

Yes, I know it's cold. But look at the spectacular 14th story view! A clear night sky full of stars, and if you lean over the railing you can see all the way down to the empty parking lot. Just like the Ferris Wheel at the 1892 World's Fair, back when you were a little girl.

Now if I can just unlatch this... stupid... mmmp... sliding... mmph... door. Crap.

*********************

Read the rest at Iowahawk.


Scary evil monkey shills for ObamaCare at IMAO:

free helth cair for dum stoopids

So Sue Me

From Sarah Palin's Facebook site, copied in its entirety CUZ IT'S IMPORTANT:

YOUR TAX DOLLARS HARD AT WORK: FIRST CARS, NOW FOREIGN OIL
Today at 12:10am

Today's Wall Street Journal contains some puzzling news for all Americans who are impacted by high energy prices and who share the goal of moving us toward energy independence.

For years, states rich with an abundance of oil and natural gas have been begging Washington, DC politicians for the right to develop their own natural resources on federal lands and off shore. Such development would mean good paying jobs here in the United States (with health benefits) and the resulting royalties and taxes would provide money for federal coffers that would potentially off-set the need for higher income taxes, reduce the federal debt and deficits, or even help fund a trillion dollar health care plan if one were so inclined to support such a plan.

So why is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil so that the nation's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, can drill off shore and create jobs developing its own resources? That's all Americans want; but such rational energy development has been continually thwarted by rabid environmentalists, faceless bureaucrats and a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits aimed at shutting down new energy projects.

I'll speak for the talent I have personally witnessed on the oil fields in Alaska when I say no other country in the world has a stronger workforce than America, no other country in the world has better safety standards than America, and no other country in the world has stricter environmental standards than America. Come to Alaska to witness how oil and gas can be developed simultaneously with the preservation of our eco-system. America has the resources. We deserve the opportunity to develop our resources no less than the Brazilians. Millions of Americans know it is true: "Drill, baby, drill." Alaska is proof you can drill and develop, and preserve nature, with its magnificent caribou herds passing by the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), completely unaffected. One has to wonder if Obama is playing politics and perhaps refusing a "win" for some states just to play to the left with our money.

The new Gulf of Mexico lease sales tomorrow sound promising and perhaps will move some states in the right direction, but we all know that the extreme environmentalists who serve to block progress elsewhere, including in Alaska, continue to block opportunities. These environmentalists are putting our nation in peril and forcing us to rely on unstable and hostile foreign countries. Mr. Obama can stop the extreme tactics and exert proper government authority to encourage resource development and create jobs and health benefits in the U.S.; instead, he chooses to use American dollars in Brazil that will help to pay the salaries and benefits for Brazilians to drill for resources when the need and desire is great in America.

Buy American is a wonderful slogan, but you can't say in one breath that you want to strengthen our economy and stimulate it, and then in another ship our much-needed dollars to a nation desperate to drill while depriving us of the same opportunity.

- Sarah Palin


And this interesting nugget, from an Ace of Spades commenter:

83 OT but,
This happened last August.. Soros hedge fund invests $811m to buy Petrobras stake.

LINK

he's lost money since.
I wonder why the one has invested money in Petrobras?

Posted by: paul at August 19, 2009 08:46 AM (uSt2Q)

Yeah, I wonder, too.

Paul Krugman ...

of the NYT, is this, without the charm of Claude Rains:



See why, here.