Friday, November 29, 2013

The War on Christmas: Black Friday Edition


Blogger's Log: 2300 hours, 11.29.2013

Still suffering from an L Tryptophan, sugar and alcohol induced hangover, complicated by a 45 minute wait in line to buy discounted pillows from Anna's Linens on the evening of Thanksgiving, followed by a midnight visit to the Hallmark store. (False alarm. Their web site lied. They didn't open until 8:00 AM Friday.) A return to Hallmark at 8:00 AM, followed by a visit to Home Depot...

The Blog is in no condition to post any original thought of value.

I tried. Really, I did.

It's easy to preach "No shopping on Thanksgiving," and "No shopping on Black Friday."

But, The PC has a wife.

So, principles go right out the window.

At least I got nowhere near a Walmart.

I have to draw a line in the sand, somewhere.

But, the weekend is young.

Who knows what tomorrow and Sunday will bring?

Much has happened this week, that deserves comment.

With any luck, The Blog will be back up to speed tomorrow or the day after, to post a "week in review," column.

Until then, The Blog will send you over to the good folks at AddictingInfo.org, and let them do the heavy, post Thanksgiving, lifting.

Please enjoy and be edified by "5 Ridiculous War on Christmas Myths."

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Bonus Thanksgiving Post: A Different Perspective

One last thing before I call it a night.

Well, until I get up at 4:00 AM to put the turkey in the roaster.

Mrs. Blog and I have a favorite "short order" diner. A restaurant belonging to a small, SoCal, regional chain called "Spires."

Over the years, we have eaten so many meals at our local Spires that The PC is pretty sure that The Blog, Jr. thinks it was our kitchen.

This year, as was the case last year, Spires will be open on Thanksgiving day, serving turkey dinners, and the rest of their menu, from 6:00 AM until 6:00 PM.

Like so many businesses, the Spires staff is expected to work on this holiday.

Which seem outrageous, on the surface.

But, this morning, The PC overheard a conversation that made me rethink my outrage.

The people at the next booth made a remark about how awful it is that the Spires staff have to work on the holiday.

Our favorite waiter, his name is Al, replied...

"Most of our customers are elderly. (It's true.) Their children aren't at home, anymore. Or, they are widows and widowers. They eat here every day. Sometimes two and three meals a day. We are their family."

Al is right. I have seen it for myself.

Al has a family of his own. He has supported them, working as a waiter at this little short order restaurant, for as long as I can remember. He has two daughters in college. It must be hard. But, he seems to manage.

He will have his Thanksgiving with his own family after 6:00 PM.

After he has taken care of his Spires family.

"God" bless Al and Winnie and Sophie and Jesus, and all the others at Spires.

They are special people.

The "take-away" is this...

Tip your waiters. Tip them generously.

For the record...

This does not let Walmart and Kmart and the rest off the hook.

Eat at your favorite restaurant if you feel inclined.

But, don't shop on Thanksgiving.

That's just not right.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Thanksgiving and the Greatest Moment in TV

Every Thanksgiving, I like to share one of the funniest moments in television history and, almost certainly, the funniest Thanksgiving episode ever.

I think that this is the first time I have shared it via this blog.

Please enjoy "WKRP in Cincinnati: Turkeys Away."

The Blog is thankful for his friends, family and total strangers who drop by and indulge The PC in my little pastime.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Satire Is Getting Impossible

The Blog has gone down this road before.

But, with every passing day...

The real world is getting harder and harder to satirize.

                                          Satire isn't dead, yet. But, it's feeling kind of sick.

Way back in Two Thousand and Aught Three, then Los Angeles Times political cartoonist Mike Ramirez, an ultra-conservative, Republican, was allowed to exercise his First Ammendment right to be a dickweed, three times a week, on the op-ed page of the Liberal leaning Los Angeles Times.

One day in 2003, Ramirez put pen to paper and scribbled the following cartoon.

Now, any idiot can see what Mikey was doing here.

I guess.

"Politiks" (whatever the fuck that is) is holding a gun to Dubbya's head, because Iraq and some shit.

Never mind that Mike R.'s body of work showed that he was The L.A. Times' token righty.

All that the Bush Whitehouse saw was a gun to Bush's head.

An obvious death threat.

Right?

In response, Bush's Secret Service, literally, came pounding on the door of the L.A. Times, demanding to have a word or two with the terrorist, Mike Ramirez.

The powers that be at The L.A. Times, rightly, told the Secret Service to "fuck off and stop being clueless dick-heads," and didn't let them pass their lobby.

You can read all about it, here.

Fast forward to...

This week.

This week, no less than three, count 'em, three, idiots caught the attention of the Secret Service, by very openly advocating for the assassination of President Obama.

This guy sent an email addressed to "Adolph Obama" via the Whitehouse.gov web site.

This guy went, verbally, postal, in a post office.

Both of them have been arrested, because, you know, Obama is a tyrant.

A Facebooker going by the title of "Christian American Patriots Militia" (who lives in his parent's basement and wears Alcoa wrap on his head, I'm guessing,) has gotten a lot of people's attention, including the Secret Service, but has not yet been arrested, is still on Facebook, because... well... I really don't fucking know why.

So, okay. These morons are probably guilty of all sorts of federal crimes, but mostly, they are guilty of being fucktards for exercising their First Amendment right to be fucktards via a government web site, the Post Office, and Facebook.

The system has, or will be, taking care of these idiots.

But then, there is this guy.

This guy is killing satire.

Because what more can be said?

The Blog tried to find a screenshot of this video on Google, but there just isn't one.

So you are just going to have to endure the whole video.

(Yes, the Blog has linked to the same video four times, just to make sure you go see it.)

Unlike the idiots above who are, stupidly, publicly, advocating for the assassination of the President...

This Tea-billy "Spartan" spouts idiocy, but breaks no laws.

(Yep. I just linked to it, again.)

As far as The PC knows, there is no law against displaying moobs* and a beer belly while wearing a mask and cape.

                                                                     *F.Y.I. "Moobs."

The Blog hopes that there is no such law, since he, occasionally, dons a Batman "onesie" and mask whenever a Jehovah's Witness or home remodeling salesman comes to the door.

Not so sure that "Impeach Obama Spartan" could beat a horse abuse case.

(Yep! Linked to it one more time.)

Just sayin'.

10 Questions





So, yesterday, this happened.

That's right. After three long decades of saber rattling at The Middle East in general (except for Israel, because Israel and The USA are BFFs,) and at Iran, specifically...

The US and her allies reached an agreement regarding nuclear development limitations with Iran.

Because diplomacy, bitches!

It should not be surprising to anyone that, before The President's presser announcing the deal, was even over, Right-wing, Conservative, Republican, Christianist outrage spewed forth.

Senator John Cornyn (R-The Independent Republic of Texas) took to the Twitter machine and twatted out the following...

That damned Obama! Distracting 'Merca from a glitchy website by promoting peace in the middle east. He's a crafty Muslim.

The military industrial complex is pissed, because there is no profit to be made from diplomacy. No bombs, no money.

The Dominionist, End Timer, fundies are pouting because JesusJehovahGod won't be returning as soon as they hoped. No bombs, no Armageddon, or some shit.

By some coincidence, or not...


Today, this happened on the Facebook.

All of my conservative friends, who are all highly informed and educated and think for themselves because they get their information from Breitbart and WND and various Facebook pages with words like "Freedom" and "Patriot" in their names...

(But, who never watch Fox "News" or listen to any AM radio, ever.)

...All, independently and on their own, shared that little number with us ignorant, Liberal, Obama supporters.

Oh sure. We Libs shared our own favorite memes of the day.


                                                                      Like this one.


Because, yeah.

The Blog is too lazy busy to comment any farther on this.

But, I ran across an interesting post from Allen Clifton over at Forward Progressives that seems appropriate at this point.


10 Questions Every Liberal Should Ask Every Republican
 1) If Republicans are so fiscally responsible, why was President Eisenhower (in the 1950′s) the last Republican president to balance the budget? 
2) If President Reagan was such a fiscally conservative hero, why did he quadruple our national debt during his eight years in the White House?
3) If tax breaks are the main driving force behind job creation, how would we create jobs once tax rates were reduced to practically zero?
4) If socialized health care is so awful, why does every country that leads the world in life expectancy have socialized health care?
5) If you support the freedom of religion (as per our Constitution), and my church recognizes gay marriage, isn’t your support for the banning of same-sex marriage an attack on my religion’s First Amendment rights? 
6) What’s more realistic?  1) That an entire region of the United States that supported slavery in the late-1800′s and support segregation in the 1950′s and 60′s suddenly stopped being racist, or 2) The racist southern Democrats in the south became Republicans during the 50′s and 60′s when the Republican party shifted toward an idea called the “Southern Strategy,” where the GOP appealed to the racism in southern whites who didn’t like African Americans voting for Democrats. 
7) If taxes are at some of their lowest levels in history, and the wealthiest in this country are richer than ever, why hasn’t the growth in the wealth of the middle class matched that of the top 2%? 
8) If our Founding Fathers wanted this nation to be based on Christianity, why don’t the words “Christian” or “Christianity” appear even once in our Constitution? 
9) If a Republican president reduced massive job losses in the midst of the worst recession in nearly a century by more than 50% in his first 4 months in office; presided over 44 consecutive months of private-sector job growth creating nearly 8 million jobs; killed Osama bin Ladin; saw stock markets reach all-time highs; saved the American auto industry; increased domestic oil production to highs not seen since the late-90′s and championed the largest year-to-year deficit reductions since World War II, would your party not be calling him a hero and a legend? 
10)  If Jesus spent his life helping the poor and the needy, how does it make sense that a party which claims to be for “Christian values” continues to cut funding for programs that help the poor and the needy?
These questions should make Thursday's Thanksgiving dinner with your ditto-head uncle or fundie bro-in-law interesting.

(If The PC is thankful for nothing else, it is that he will be breaking Thanksgiving bread with like-minded, fellow travelers, leaving all the ditto-heads 2000 miles away.)

If any of your Republican co-diners can answer any of these questions without sounding like Sarah Palin, give them an "attaboy" and an extra helping of sweet potatoes. If they can't, hand them a heaping helping of smugness. Ronald Reagan would approve.

And, if you happen to be one of The PC's Conservative friends who happened to drop by The Blog's blog...

Please endeavor to answer the questions here in the comments section. I would love to hear from you!

But, please, please, please...

Leave your answers here, not on Facebook. It's not that hard.

If you're smart enough to operate the internet, you are smart enough to use The Blog's comment section.

Thank you. 

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Bonus 11/22/63-13 Post

Tonight, on the night of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK...

One of The Blog's most conservative friends...

No, check that...

The Blog's most conservative friend...

An evangelical college professor with a PhD in far right, fundamentalist "Christian," tea bagging, sanctimony...

Dropped a big old, heaping helping of backhanded disrespect for the anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination.

(I guess he didn't get the latest memo that JFK has now been, magically, transformed into a conservative.)

Absorb this...






He is correct. As far as it goes.

C.S. Lewis, the genius novelist and pioneer of "Y.A." fiction did, indeed die of natural causes on the same day that JFK was assassinated.

And, as commenter Blurry Blurryson correctly points out, another genius novelist, Aldous Huxley, also passed away from the same affliction, (old age,) that took C.S. Lewis, on that same day.

The Blog is an admirer of all three of these brilliant men.

C.S., Aldous, JFK.

Tragic losses, all.

But, as they say on "Sesame Street..."

"One of these things is not like the other."

Only one of these men lost his life on the wrong end of a bullet.

Post Script...

That tremor you just felt in SoCal was the secular humanist and Pear Blossom Highway resident Aldous Huxley rolling over in his grave, after being lumped in with the Christianist Lewis and Catholic Kennedy.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Obligatory JFK Post & Happy Holidays: Repost

Last night, The Blog promised to repost Part 2 of his "War on Christmas" rant.

Click here to read "Happy Holidays."

                                          _________________________________



"Everyone who was alive at the time remembers where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated."

That is the conventional wisdom.

Is it true?

Maybe.

For your favorite Blog, it is only true-ish.

I was a mere blogling of four years when it happened. So most of my memory of it is pretty fuzzy.

Here is what I remember for sure...

I was watching TV.

I remember other details, but cannot vouch for the accuracy of any of them. But, here is how I remember it.

I was watching the Captain Penny show, a daily children's show that featured The Three Stooges, The Little Rascals and Astro-Boy as well as puppies for adoption and Cedar Point's wild animal expert, "Jungle Larry."


I was eating lunch. (Bologna sandwich, "Dan-Dee" potato chips, an apple and milk.)

I may or may not have been soaking an infected toe in epson salts. (It fits the timeline.)

My show was interrupted for "A Special Report." My Mom came quickly into the room from the kitchen, because in those days news was actually news and "A Special Report" would not have been a mere high-speed police chase or a high-speed Kardashian divorce. In the atmosphere of 1963, "A Special Report" would most likely mean one thing... The Russians have launched missiles at Cleveland!

But no. The news was that the President was dead.

And, that's all I've got.

Again, it may not have happened, exactly, that way. But, it's how I remember it.

                                          _________________________________

Since that time, about a gajjillion books have been written about the Kennedy assassination. Most of them speculate on theories ranging from plausible to paranoid. Most of them are also pretty dull and dry.

So, this seems like an appropriate time for The Blog to recommend one of the best novels that he has read in recent years...

                                                            Big Steve King's "11/22/63."

It is a great big recent history lesson on the subject, dressed up as an exciting and touching time travel story, with the added bonus of an ending that (unlike so many of King's epic novels) is as satisfying as the story leading up to it.

                                  _________________________________

In recent days, the right-wing noise machine has been busy rewriting history in an attempt to claim JFK as one of their own, in the same hilarious way that they have tried to co-opt Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus.

The smart, funny and, The PC likes to think, incredibly sexy Wonkette posted about this, today.

                                  _________________________________

Mere days before Kennedy was killed, The John Birch Society littered Dallas with the following...


Here's a fun game!

Replace the photos on top with pix of our current president and some of the specifics in the text with words like, "Benghazi," "Fast and Furious," "IRS," and "Obamacare," and take it for a spin. (Extra points for noticing that point #1 lists Cuba as a "friend," and another bonus for picturing Dubbya while reading point #5.)

They say that the world changed on this day in 1963.

But, some things never change.


The War on Christmas: A Repost

The War on Christmas: A Repost

It comes earlier every year.

I mean, really. It wasn't even Halloween.

No, I'm not taking about the "Christmas creep."






I'm talking about "THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The Blog ranted about this about a year ago.

But, after Thanksgiving.

December 10th, to be exact.

But, I have decided to redirect you to last year's "War on Christmas" Part: One post a week before Thanksgiving because The blog is taking the offensive.

So go and read last year's post.

Tomorrow night, "Part Two: Reposted."

The night after that...

A whole new post on the subject.

There will be a quiz.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Deer Xing Lady Rises






Hey kids! Guess who's back!

That's right! It's über-right-wing blogger, who put The Blog's hometown on the map, Kathleen O'Brein Wilhelm, aka: "The Deer Xing Lady!"

If you are not up to speed on this entertaining lady, take a few minutes to catch up...

Here...

... and here.

Go! Enjoy! I'll be here when you get back!

See, I am a Blog of my word.

After those two awesomely crazy pieces of blog-fodder, Ms. O'B W went AWOL.

Not a peep in months.

In that time, Avon Lake Patch editor Lori E. Switaj resigned(?) retired(?) was fired(?)

I don't know. I do know that since her departure, The Patch has lost most of it's local voice, replaced by generic "news" and "sponsored" stories.

*Digression and Full Disclosure*

Many years ago, Ms. Switaj interviewed your Uncle PC about an award nomination he had received for an old school "ink and paper" newspaper, The Avon Lake Press. The PC did a number of interviews with several papers around that time and is here to say that Ms. Switaj's interview was, by far, the best.

*End Digression and Full Disclosure*

The fact is, The Blog has been, for the last few weeks, "this close" to unsubscribing from The Avon Lake Patch.

The only thing that kept me around was the occasional blog post by one Carl Peterson III, under the nom de blog, "A Different Drummer." Carl is not an Avon Lake local. His blog actually originates from a location much closer to The Blog's current Los Angeles home, Northridge, CA.

He is brilliant, BTW... If you are a fan of this blog, you should go check him out.

But, after all these months, there in The Blog's email, the newest edition of The Avon Lake Patch, was a new deer-shit missive from Ms. O'B W.

Oh, my dear Kathleen! (May I call you Kathleen?) I have missed you desperately!

Finally, after all this time! A new post!

I'm so excited that I am all tingly in some of my naughty parts!

And, oh! My darling Kathleen! You did not disappoint!

Your latest rant was so worth the wait.

As always, I hate driving traffic to odious posts like this. But, The Blog is not sure about the copyright legalities of copying and pasting an entire blog post here.

So, go ahead and visit her blog for her latest.

You already know that I will still be here when you get back.

See?

Usually, at this point, The Blog posts excerpts with commentary.

Not tonight.

Instead, I will boil it down to the basic theme...


"Evil government, blah, blah, blah...

Communist, Obama, Communism, Communist, blah, blah, blah. yada, communist, Obama, yada, yada."

God! Oh, God! I love me some Kathleen!

But...

Shit!

I went and done it.

I reread her post and cannot stop myself from excerpting and commenting.

So, here we go...

"Yes, our soldiers--God Bless them--do protect our freedoms; not government."

Because our soldiers don't work for our government? News Flash, Katy! (May I call you Katy?) our soldiers work under their Commander-In-Chief, the president of the United States.

"Obamacare is too scary; worse than the wildest tornado, or ax murderer..."

Seriously? Maybe you should run that theory past the residents of Washington, IL...

...Or Lizzie Borden's parents.

"This government tore apart the greatest health care system in the world that did not need a total fix."

"The greatest healthcare system in the world?" Yes. That is why America ranks number one in infant mortality and #57 in overall healthcare, just above Haiti and Somalia, while the rest of the industrialized world laughs at our asses. 

"America, our history is built on the sacrifice of many for the freedom of all."

Sounds pretty Socialist to me.

"This government, and Obama, is against all that America is built; capitalism, the American dream and the right to eat, drink and be free. America must not be a slave to government, or we perish."

What?

Grammar much?

As someone who eats badly, drinks too much and, yes, smokes. (Just not in restaurants, bars and public buildings, and I'm okay with that.) What the fuck are you babbling about?

Bottom line...

Communist, communism, commie...





The Blog loves him some Kathleen O'Brien Wilhelm, and is glad she is back.

She is, IMHO, the dumbest woman who has never sat on a couch with...

 
Steve Doocey and the guy who isn't Steve Doocey.



Monday, November 18, 2013

Today in WTF? News: 11/18/2013





                                                It's been a "What the Fuck?" kind of day.

Walmart holds Thanksgiving food drives...


For their own employees.



Presumably, Walmart employees will have to enjoy their vacuum packed turkey and canned yams and cranberry sauce around 10:00 AM, so they can report to work for early "Black Friday."





Elizabeth Hasselbeck said something stupid.





Roseanne Barr said something crazy.


The Cheney family holidays just got awkward.

Some woman is actually desperate enough to be George Zimmerman's girlfriend.





And, oh yeah, George has been arrested for threatening her with a gun.

And finally...

The latest Right-wing, Tea Party, Conservative meme isn't just ignorantly idiotic, it's ignorantly Islamophobic, as well.

For more on this story, click here.


                                                    _______________________________



On a more positive note...

It's November 18th and "Happy Birthdays" are in order...




                                                        Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse!



                                                     Happy Birthday Calvin and Hobbes!


                                           And, especially, Happy Birthday to The Blog Jr.!

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Theater Queen



Hi. My name is The PC.

I am straight as straight can be.

And, I am a theater queen.

"Hello, PC!"


I have known this for some time.

The Blog began his love affair with live theater in his youth with minor roles in school plays in his elementary and Jr. High days.

In high school, The Blog landed major roles...

Prince Haemon in Sophocles' "Antigone" and The Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland."

The Blog's first brush with the musical genre was as a member of "The River City Boy's Band," playing the trombone, badly, on purpose, in "The Music Man."

In college, The PC played several parts, the villainous Professor Moriarity in "Sherlock Holmes," the romantic lead Aaron Jablonski in Arthur Laurents' (see below) "Invitation to a March," and Dr. Frank N. Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show."

Post college, he played the uber macho Harold Ryan in "Happy Birthday, Wanda June," and the Karloffian Jonathan Brewster in "Arsenic and Old Lace."

The Blog auditioned for, but, disappointingly, did not get the role of Mordred in "Camelot."

"The Music Man," "Camelot," "Oklahoma," "The Magic Show," "Little Shop of Horrors..."

Damn, The Blog loves theater!

But, nothing drove the fact home to me so much as the moment, a few weeks ago, when a gay coworker, a theater queen so dedicated that he travels from Los Angeles to New York to see the latest that Broadway has to offer, asked, "Hey! PC! I'm drawing a blank. Who wrote "West Side Story?"

Me: "Book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. You're welcome."

What the fuck is my point here?

Oh, right.

I am straight. And, bucking the common stereotype, I love theater.


The PC is not really the straightest Broadway baby.

                                                James Cagney was a song and dace man.

                                                                 As is Mandy Patankin.

                                                        Not to mention Hugh Jackman.


Mrs. Blog and I are what you might call "patrons of the theater."

We frequent performances at The Pantages in Hollywood, The Falcon Theater in Toluca Lake, The La Mirada Theater, Los Cerritos Performing Arts Center, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center and The Segerstrom Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The Blog has worked in show business for over 30 years.

One of the high points of my career was working with the original Broadway cast of "Green Day's American Idiot."

So, what is my point?

A couple of videos have gone viral this week.

And, as a straight theater queen, I love them both.

The first is a one man performance of "The Phantom of the Opera."

The other is a performance at a wedding reception.

Watch and enjoy.

Tomorrow, The Blog is dragging his ass to the Home Depot and tooling up to do some super masculine tool stuff at home.

When I am done, we are going to Toluca Lake to enjoy a play.

Because that is how this totally straight, theater queen roles.

Friday, November 15, 2013

#SFBatkid


I'm going to get this out of the way, upfront.

The PC has a love/hate relationship with the city of San Francisco.

It's complicated. Maybe one day I will write about it.

But, today, I have nothing but love for the City by the Bay.

Wait! That's not true! I also have respect and a whole lot of awe for San Francisco and her people.

Unless you spent the last day or two in an Amish village, you already know the story of 5-year-old leukemia survivor, Batman fan, Miles Scott who, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the city of SF, spent today living his dream of  being a crime-fighting caped crusader.

If you need to catch up, here is some really good reportage about the story.

And, if you have followed The Blog for any length of time, you know that there are two things The Blog loves...

Batman and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Today wasn't the first time that Make-A-Wish has granted a child's wish to be Batman for a day. This blog posted a similar story about a year ago. But, no one could have imagined the epic epicness that would happen in SF today.

City of SF officials got involved. Chief of Police Greg Suhr sat in for Commissioner Gordon, calling on the Batkid for help.

The San Francisco Chronicle published 1000 front pages as "The Gotham Chronicle." and, due to demand, will reprint the page in tomorrow's edition.

Local TV station KGO-TV played along.

San Franciscan, Rep. Nancy Pelosi tweeted her support and President Obama, himself, sent Miles a message via Vine.
*Digression*

Peruse the comments sections of these messages if you need proof that a certain strain of Republican can't turn off their hate long enough to get into the spirit.

*End Digression*

And then, there are the citizens of Gotham City, I mean, San Francisco, who turned out in numbers rivaling the Giant's World Series victory parade.

When it was all over, the California Department of Justice got in on the act and indicted The Riddler and The Penguin for their crimes.

And here is the best part...

Miles, who has been battling leukemia since he was 20 months old, is now in remission. He is done, for now, with chemo therapy, and might just live long enough to tell his own children and grandchildren about the day he got to save San Gotham from some super-villains.

I have linked to a couple of the stories here. Go visit Google for dozens more.

Keep a box of Kleenex™ handy.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Analogy






I have decided to start manufacturing and selling motorcycle helmets made of paper maché lined with bubble wrap.

The helmets will not be up to legal safety standards, but...

The helmet is light-weight and comfortable, super cool looking and at a MSRP of $25.00, very affordable!



Who the fuck is Obama and the nanny state gu'mint to tell you what kind of helmet you should wear?

The savvy biker will love everything about it!

Right up until the head meets the pavement.




Get it?


Monday, November 11, 2013

Party On With Pervy Uncle Sam






Go, read, then come back...

Hey kids! Go ahead and party with the Koch Bros. "Generation Opportunity!" Eat their pizza! Drink their beer!




                                       Get that awesome profile pic with Rapey Uncle Sam!

Then, go get yourself some affordable health insurance!

Of course, if you are a college student, and/or under the age of 26, you're still covered by your parent's insurance, thanks to the ACA. So, Enjoy the pizza, beer and creepy photo-op. Then tell the Kochs to shove their "opportunity" up their asses.

If you weren't at the U of M/ VT game last weekend, don't despair! "GenOp" plans to visit 20 more campuses this fall.


"Just look over your shoulder.
 We may be coming to your town!"

I don't know about you...

But The Blog is feeling nostalgic for...

                                                                           This guy!



Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Blockbuster, We Hardly Knew Ya






Dateline, November 6, 2013.

Blockbuster Video announces the closing of their remaining stores.

Which begs the question...

Blockbuster still has stores?

The Blog is old enough to remember a time when there were no video stores.

If you saw (or missed) a movie when it was in the theaters, you either waited a couple of years until it came on the TV...

or,,,

The occasional theatrical re-release.

The PC was in college when the concept of home video began. You could rent movies on tape, (BetaMax or VHS) from the rare video store. Assuming that you were rich enough to own a player.

The Blog purchased his first VHS recorder/player in 1984. It was a top-loader with a wired remote control.

Video stores were still pretty scarce. Mostly the VCR was used to tape movies like "Beastmaster" off of the cable innovation known as "Home Box Office."

After a few years, video stores began to crop up in strip malls.

They were "Mom & Pop" operations, mostly.

A third of the store, (the part in the front,) offered movies that had played in theaters a year before.

The real money was in the larger, back part of the store, behind a curtain.

The "Adult's Only" section.

At least, that is what I have been told.

*AHEM*

The Blog did most of his video rental business with a store called "Video Choice," (or something like that,) in the Los Angeles South Bay.

The store was larger than most.

And, for better or worse, the guy working the counter was an interesting character.

He was, The PC assumed, a little bit off, mentally. In those pre-politiacally correct days, the counter guy was what we would call an "idiot savant." He knew everything about every movie in the store. At check-out, he would give me, the renter, a capsule review, (without spoilers) of the movies The PC was renting. Upon return..

                                                                    "Be Kind. Rewind!"
He would demand a review.

He was a little bit creepy. But, kind of fun.

His name was Quentin.

                                                           I wonder what ever became of him.


As so often happens, chain stores rose up, driving the independent stores out of business.

Blockbuster was the Walmart of video chains.

Blockbuster thrived for a while.

BetaMax fell to the more commercial VHS.

VHS was replaced by DVDs.

Then came Blu-Ray.

By the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, video stores began feeling stiff competition from mail order companies like "NetFlix."

Stores were replaced by vending machines like "RedBox."

NetFlix went internet. VOD (video on demand,) and Hulu laid some business karma on Blockbuster.

Blockbuster tried to keep up.

But, as of November 6, 2013, Blockbuster didn't keep up fast enough.

From now on, if you want to rent a movie, you will have to do it over the internet, or, if you are a tech Philistine, rent that DVD from a machine in front of 7/Eleven.

Tonight, The Blog removes his Blockbuster Members Rewards Card from his keychain.

The world moves on.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Don't Panic!


As Halloween week, 2013, begins to fade as an, only slightly traumatic, memory...

...Regular blogging will resume, shortly. Stay tuned!

The PC is touched, amazed and slightly baffled by the surprisingly high amount of traffic this blog has hosted over the last few days, without a single new post.

A big, Blog "thank you!" to all who have visited this week!