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.