August rambling: Porn stars, Playmates, prayer

A Sinkhole of Sleaze

Trump crossing the swamp
After this


Why Fascism Has the Power to Seduce the Broken

John Oliver Confronts Fake Grassroots Movements

In 2008, America Stopped Believing in the American Dream

When That “Feel-Good” Story Really Ought To Make You Throw Up

Who Chooses Abortion?

Ken Screven – The Conscience of the Newsroom

The Scientific Case for Two Spaces After a Period

On Prepositions

Joe Biden’s LGBTQ acceptance initiative

Walter Ayres: Pope Francis and the death penalty

Vlogbrothers: How Do Adults Make Friends? and How I Made Friends

Terry Crews Made A PSA With Samantha Bee To Illustrate Why Sexual Assault Jokes Really Aren’t Funny

Treating Golfer’s Elbow And How To Prevent It

The seven original cast members of Saturday Night Live inducted into the Television Hall of Fame

Dick Cavett in the digital age

Alan Alda (and Leonard Maltin) Diagnosed With Parkinson’s

Amy Meselson, Lawyer Who Defended Young Immigrants, Dies at 46

Charlotte Rae, R.I.P.

Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan were 23 when their daughter, Lisa, was born

How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions

The end of Campbell’s Soup?

Embracing päntsdrunk, the Finnish way of drinking alone in your underwear

The mind-bendy weirdness of the number zero, explained

Now I Know: Who You Gonna Call? Not This Ghostbuster and The Blood*, Sweat, and Tears of English Rugby Players and Why You Can’t Visit Liberty’s Torch and Why the National Animal of Scotland is… Wait, Really?

Players from Sesame Street read great lines from the movies

Christopher Lee and Jane Seymour

THE SWAMP

A Sinkhole of Sleaze

Week of Corruption Scandals: A Closer Look

Why Betsy DeVos shuns the American flag on her 40-foot yacht

PORN STARS, PLAYMATES, AND PRAYER CIRCLES

Mike Pence – Holy Terror and has drastically lowered his moral standard for a President

John Oliver: the next issue of Stupid Watergate

How ICE was radicalized

How the regime misled the public on poverty

EPA is now allowing asbestos back into manufacturing

The Quislings of American Collapse

The Constitutional Con

His Foreign Policy Held Back by Struggle to Grasp Time Zones, Maps

Boston Globe Calls For A Nationwide Response To Attacks On The Press

MUSIC

The anthem of the Republic of Tyva in the Russian Federation

Ohio – John Batiste, Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr

Vasily Kalinnikov – Bylina, an overture

“Africa” le Toto as Gaeilge

Summer Wind- Willie Nelson

I greet my country -Ahoulaguine Akaline featuring Bombino

Feel The Love – Rudimental, featuring John Newman

In the Mood – Glenn Miller (see Sonja Henie!)

Stand By Me – Bootstraps

Fur Elise – pianist Lola Astanova

The Place Where Dreams Come True and End Credits – James Horner, scoring Field of Dreams

Coverville 1227: Cover Stories for Kate Bush and Rush and 1228: Cover Stories for Whitney Houston, A Flock of Seagulls and The Go-Go’s

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly); Cover by Sina

1-2-3 – The Electric Indian

My Dearest Ruth – Patrice Michaels (from Notorious RBG in Song)

The niece Rebecca Jade will be singing at five Sheila E shows this month, in Michigan and the Northeast

How the Beatles unravelled: Hunter Davies, the band’s official biographer, recalls the tensions that led the Fab Four to split

The Top 60 Female Artists of All Time

January Rambling: sweatshops, Steve Bissette and singing

Some yahoo wrote The Rare Case Against Creator-Owned Comics, citing the Steve Bissette article as “proof” of his premise.

 

Vernon Supreme for President. Just one of about four dozen candidates on the New Hampshire ballot.

From here: “When Steve Jobs died…, deification from the media and inconsolable consumers made gripes about Apple’s use of sweatshops seem like the cynical mumblings of contrarians. The problem is that there’s plenty of documentation and reporting that supports the criticism.” See also this: “Mike Daisey was a self-described ‘worshipper in the cult of Mac.’ Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out.”

Rich Kids For Romney.

A Gentle Question for the Christian Right.

Nobody has the right to take another life; Roger Ebert on the death penalty.

Elizabeth Warren: ‘It Gets Better’

Gabrielle Giffords resigns from the US House of Representatives, a year after being shot in the head, so she can more fully recover. The video is very nice, but there are always trolls – check them out at the YouTube site at your own risk – who show what schmucks some people can be.

My buddy Steve Bissette noted the unfortunate circumstances involving the non-publication of 1963, a project that involved, among others, Steve and Alan Moore. Then, some yahoo wrote The Rare Case Against Creator-Owned Comics, citing the Bissette article as “proof” of his premise. Steve responded to “this oddly-headlined post at Newsarama, which”, Steve hastened to add, “somewhat distorts the context of my own end-of-2011 Myrant post.”

Aggressively inarticulate.

The late Etta James covers Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle. Here’s her Roll with me Henry a/k/a The Wallflower.
From the Wikipedia: “[Musician Johnny] Otis took the group under his wing, helping them sign to Modern Records and changing their name from the Creolettes to the Peaches and gave the singer her stage name reversing Jamesetta [Hawkins] into Etta James. James recorded the version…in 1954, and the song was released in early 1955 as ‘Dance with Me, Henry’…changed to avoid censorship due to the subtle title. In February of that year, the song reached number one on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart.” Yes, her At Last was played at Carol’s and my wedding reception, too. And coincidentally, Johnny Otis died that same week as Etta. Here’s his Willie and the Hand Jive.

A nice story about the late Dick Tufeld, who voiced the robot on Lost in Space, among MANY other gigs.

Ten Bits of Advice Writers Should Stop Giving Aspiring Writers.

The Year in Kickstarter.

Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy hit back at Fox News during a UK press conference following the London Premiere of their new film. Fox News had publicly criticized the film for supposedly pushing a ‘dangerous liberal agenda’ at kids.

Three musical pieces, including those 5 people on one guitar I saw more than a few times across the interwebs.

Art Spiegelman exhibition in Angouleme, France.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910).

Ellen and Sofia.

Sammy Davis performing If I Were A Rich Man, with Mark Evanier citing the source, and making an interesting point about its appropriateness.

Pie on the brain.

Mozart is 256.

This guy travels the world and everywhere he goes, he shoots a second or two of video of himself. Then he goes home and puts it together.

Pacman, the Musical.

Cookie Monster as Tom Waits. Or vice versa.

Sorry, San Francisco football fans, but the 49ers Aren’t Going to the Super Bowl. So, go New York Giants, even if they play in New Jersey.

MOI, ELSEWHERE

Post SOPA/PIPA, KeepThe Web#OPEN; Oppose ACTA

The GOP Debates debate

Slavery By Another Name: Doug Blackmon, Bill Kennedy and Me

Chainsaw Comics Presents: Fear

GOOGLE ALERTS

Roger Green Trim and Construction – Local Business · Charlotte, North Carolina

Dr Roger Green DDS – General Dentistry Sun City West, AZ

11629 West Roger Green Road, Campbellsburg IN 47108

The Jobs reaction

While I don’t feel the emotional pull of Jobs’ passing that I have had with other public figures, I think there was an awful lot of unnecessary snark targeted at Apple employees and fans who wept as though their father had died. For some, especially the former group, he probably WAS like a father figure.

I was fascinated, at some oddly arm’s-length manner, about the death of Steve Jobs. Genius, no doubt; visionary, for certain. And, though I never purchased an Apple product – no MacIntosh, no iPod, no iPad, I recognize the impact Apple’s design had on PCs, and just about everything else. I have also seen all but two of the Pixar films.

I came across this article, “arguing against a Jobs hagiography.” I LOVE the word hagiography; it’s almost never used in the literal sense – biography of a saint – but rather to inbue characteristics on the dead that are overblown or inaccurate, usually with an admonition not to do so.

Interesting that the post-Jobs world was apparent even before the announcement of his death. When the new iPhone 4S was released last week, speculation was high “whether Apple CEO Tim Cook can keep Apple going like Steve Jobs did remains an open question. Industry analysts who closely study the company’s every move are somewhat mixed. Apple’s iPhone event on Tuesday, said some, revealed a lackluster show from Cook. Jobs was legendary for splashy product launches shrouded in secrecy and rehearsed to perfection.”

And of course, Cook can’t. It’s like being the new coach of a very successful sports team; he’ll always be compared with his predecessor, and invariably won’t do quite as well. I feel for Tim Cook; he has the great misfortune of not being Steve Jobs.

While I don’t feel the emotional pull of Jobs’ passing that I have had with other public figures, I think there was an awful lot of unnecessary snark targeted at Apple employees and fans who wept as though their father had died. For some, especially the former group, he probably WAS like a father figure. As for me, I’m always depressed when people younger than I pass away.

Here are some items that caught my interest:
Steve Jobs’ Playboy interview (1985)
Steve Jobs’ government legacy: Citizen-centric computing; Jobs’ ability to craft tools for intensely personal computing helped
spark direct citizen-to-government computing.
Steve Jobs and His Magical Business Decisions, even as his failures are noted.
The Life of Steve Jobs
A TV commercial never shown in this form
My favorite Steve Jobs parody
Tributes from:
About.com
Spatula Forum
Shooting Parrots
Arthur at AmeriNZ, whose podcast I listen to on iTunes
MAD magazine
PARADE magazine (quotes)
The Onion: The Last American Who Knew What The F@#$ He Was Doing Dies
Jon Stewart, whose commented that, since he died too young, we hadn’t “used up” his creativity yet; at some level, I understood that.

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