Pic of the Day: GOP Purity Test

Given that the Goposaurs are determined to push out everyone who isn't batshit crazy (and given that even St. Ronnie of Alzheimer's, President Wimp, and President Fratboy couldn't pass the new "purity test"), pretty soon, this is all they'll be able to field for public office.

Ladies & Gents, I present to you...the Pure Republican!

It's The Most Overblown Time of the Year! (song parody)

I wrote and posted this in the alt.atheism newsgroup in December of 2006, mostly as a reply to a troll calling itself "TRUECHRISTIAN," who posted some smarmy religious cut-n-paste nonsense.

Since this is a season of traditions, I've re-posted it there once a year.

'Tis the Season.

IT'S THE MOST OVERBLOWN TIME OF THE YEAR

Waltz time

VERSE 1:
It's the most overblown time of the year
With the christers all preaching and whining and screeching
And full of false cheeeeer...
It's the most overblown tiiime...of the year.

VERSE 2:
It's the slap-happiest season of all
With those grumpy old f*ckers demanding we succor
Their worshipful thrall
It's the slap-happiest season of all.

BRIDGE:
The Rightards are claiming that christmas we're maiming,
By saying 'Happy holidays"
These f*cked-up hysterics are partnered with clerics
Who want everything their own way.

VERSE 3:
It's the most overblown time of the year
They say they're inclusive but then turn abusive
If you're not in their sphere!
It's the most overblown time--
It's the most overblown time--
It's the most overblown time...of the year!

Song of the Day: Damage, Inc. (Metallica)

This final track from the former thrash-metal lords' "Master of Puppets" disc is guaranteed to beat you severely and thus remove any lingering country garbage that's been stuck in your head all day.

Oh, it begins quietly enough, but then it's run down and crushed under Lars Ulrich's punishingly quick drums and a chunky rhythm guitar riff that sounds sickeningly fast but is probably faster.




TAKE THAT!!, Carrie Underpants. I got to hear her new song FIVE times today on the same radio station (no, I couldn't change it or go somewhere else--it was at work). *grumble* I guess it was her; all I know about country is I don't like it, and my brain laps that crap up and tortures me with it at random.

Song of the Day: Foolin' (Def Leppard)

Track 7 on Lep's "Pyromania" album. In some ways it's a typical hair-band power ballad with a clean arpeggio intro and verse that falls before a wall-of-sound chorus.

But this is also a good example of Def Leppard at their best. Their "On Through the Night" disc (for all its good points) sounds muddy compared to "Pyromania." Steve Clark, Pete Willis and Phil Collen's guitars stand out cleanly without dominating the sonic space (compare to Metallica's chunk-chunk-chunk bass-heavy guitar mix). The follow-up, "Hysteria," has comparable guitar sound, but sounds slick and overproduced.

"Foolin' " was one of the big hits on 1983's "Pyro," which seemed to hang around forever on the charts, offering hit after hit. I hated metal back then--and even I had to have this album!

Song of the Day: When The Walls Came Tumbling Down (Def Leppard)

Track 6 off Lep's "On Through The Night" album.

I'm offering its apocalyptic message in light of the recent premiere of that disaster of a disaster flick, "2012."

I went hunting the lyrics and was reminded that these guys were/are pretty good with words:

A blinding light the sun had died
A new moon took its place
Tidal waves and open graves the fate of the unhuman race
The city's heart no longer beats no pity have I left to lend
A sinner sits reciting Dylan it's now that I welcome the end

Not bad for a hair band, huh?

Effing-up the moment

So I'm watching a rerun of "House" on USA; it's the second half of the story where House was involved in a bad bus crash, slowly gets his memory back, realizes that Cutthroat Bitch (Amber, Wilson's love interest) was on the bus, and the mystery is "Why?"

If you've seen it, you know this moment: Amber is on a bypass machine; the crash destroyed her kidneys, and a chemical in the flu pills she was taking has poisoned her, damaging her organs beyond hope. Wilson is given a chance: bring her out of her coma, have a little time to say goodbye.

Amber wakes up; Wilson's there. The Moment comes when she realizes that she's going to die...

Damned if those pricks didn't ruin the moment: cut to commercial, loud, brash, and jarring, about some new show USA thinks I should watch.


Stuff like that makes me wish for TiVo *grumble*

Song of the Day: A Glorious Dawn (John Boswell feat. Carl Sagan & Stephen Hawking)

I heard this on the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, podcast #224. Boswell has remixed Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking (mostly in clips from Sagan's "Cosmos" PBS series), passed them through an AutoTune, and made a pretty neat song and its own music video.

Boswell's The Symphony of Science site has the video in YouTube, MPEG, and MP4 formats and the song itself as an MP3. It's also on Boswell's YouTube channel.

There's a sad undertone, however: Sagan himself is long gone. He should be here to see this.

Pic of the Day: Proof of Ent!

Here we have a profile of Treebeard himself. Ironically, this Shepherd of the Forest has seen fit to manifest in...wooden paneling. In a men's restroom.


I'm willing to sell!

Amusing bit: when I hit "Publish Post" I got this ad on the status page:

• Interior Wood Paneling Pre-Finished Cedar & Pine. Cost Savings up to 50%.

Picture of the Day Fratboy's Presidency, summarized

Forget all the analysis. Forget the Smirking Fratboy's recent outing as a motivational speaker. Forget about the "ranch" that was sold as soon as Fratboy was out of office.

This should be the summary of George W. Bush's 8 years in office:


This prick is still alive



Because this prick didn't do his job


Good riddance to the Fratboy. Guess it's too bad about the other prick, huh?

Expanding again--Kook Clearinghouse!

Well, actually, it launched October 31. I got bored and tried to do a Google search to find a list of anti-vaccination celebrities.

Couldn't find a damn thing, other than individual references to "Typhoid" Jenny McCarthy, her dork of a boyfriend (husband? meh.) Jim Carrey, and Brent "Data" Spiner.

One would think that since celebs tend to be attention whores, they'd be lined up on the street corners to be on such a list, proudly trumpeting their ignorance.

Nope.

Well, now there'll be a place to list them. I call it the Kook Clearinghouse.

It won't just be the anti-vaxxers; teabaggers, creationists (and other religious nutjobs), AIDS deniers, moon-hoaxers, 9/11 hoaxers...if it's a kook, I want it here.

Song of the Day: Del Davis Tree Farm (Primus)

Another track from Primus' "Tales From the Punchbowl," and another bit of impressive right-hand pyrotechnics from Les Claypool. As he did with "Professor Nutbutter's House of Treats," Claypool is slapping out a low-string rhythm with his thumb and popping chords with his fingers. Pretty much the coolest damn thing I've ever seen, bass-wise. Granted, I haven't really seen much of this right-hand technique, and I suck at it, so that makes it seem a lot cooler.

I've had this album since maybe mid-1996 and had it on heavy rotation in my tape deck (remember those?)--but I never paid as much attention to the bass lines then as I have since I started "playing" bass in 2004.

See, THIS GUY is PLAYING:



Me, I consider barely a beginner. But it's not Claypool who makes me want to put the bass down and quit. That'd be Jaco Pastorius.