Words fail me

William Shatner made a Christmas album with Henry Rollins and Iggy Pop.  I can say no more.

A quick question about CBS and Tesla

Are they married?  Having an affair?  Worship each other as gods? I ask this because, as a general rule, CBS This Morning is the show we watch while getting ready in the morning.  For a couple months now, I don't think we've gone more than a couple days at a time without CBS having something about Tesla or Tesla's CEO Elon Musk.  Not just stories, but full blown specials focused on him and his company.  I mean, even in stories where I didn't think it would go there, they manage to somehow talk about Tesla or Mr. Musk, and almost always in the most positive manner.  Even when the story is negative, like Tesla laying off thousands of workers, they still find ways to praise and adore Tesla and Musk.  Am I missing something?

Marty Robbins would be proud

Australian town besieged by flood of tumbleweed.  Sometimes I think I have it rough.

There is a reason I'm poor

Because it never once dawned on me to photograph a potato and sell it for a million dollars.

Now drivers in California have even more to worry about

Stoned, hallucinating Coyotes terrorizing motorists.  It's not  enough that it's California.  Now this?

A commercial that makes me want to go anywhere

But Philadelphia.

Sometimes you just can't be ready for every contingency

Like when you're ready for work and then find out your car tire was slashed by a rampaging Buddhist monk who flipped out because he stepped on an insect.  That's the sort of thing I can see happening to me.  But thankfully, it hasn't yet.

I have to move there

You just know someone has been planning a picnic for the last 81 days.  It has to stop raining some time!  Really, I'm one of those minority types who enjoys cold weather, and rainy, cloudy days.  Though I do think that 81 days would probably push me over.  That, like anything, is most enjoyable when you don't always get it. 

For those worried about the future of copyrighting monkey selfies

This story might be of interest. 

Looks like J.K.Rowling has a new book

And it probably will be the stuff of many debates and discussions.  Rowling is the first fruits of the global internet age, author of a book series of unprecedented success, and the matriarch of later works such as the Twilight Series of The Hunger Games.  In short, books where even fans begin by admitting they aren't the greatest followed by gushing praise and adoration and the bearing of teeth toward anyone who dares question her greatness, are going to have a legacy for better or worse.  On this thread on Good Reads, we have a string of reviews with the usual warfare common on any internet subject.  My favorite?  The fellow who concludes the book was not readable, but rather than dare to criticize his idol Rowling, concludes he is the problem; he's just not right for the book.  

In other words, I am the reason that I cannot (and probably should not) try to read this book. I am not the right reader for this book. 

You have to love it.  I've often considered that it's not so much the genre of fantasy and science fiction that I don't care for, it's the fan base of those genres that have always seemed a bit, well, you know.

Two great tastes that taste great together

I guess, since a fellow is willing to risk jail time for - Reece's peanut butter cups.  Not diamonds.  Not gold.  Not money.  Reece's.   Well, at least it's not the Reece's Pieces.  You know there's an E.T. joke in there somewhere, but I'm just too tired.

The Jimmy Carter Study Bible

Yeah, really.  One of our nation's worst presidents has published his own study Bible.  Boy, I love Protestantism.  Given his degeneration into a leftist fundamentalist who sees anyone who doesn't conform to mandatory group think conformity before the infallible dogmas of liberalism as stupid, evil, racist, terrorist wannabes, it's not going to take much to imagine what his interpretations of Holy Scripture will be.  The man who, of late, has become a burden for his own party by declaring that anyone who doesn't obey The One is a racist, shows why, even when I see problems in the Catholic Church and its history, I still go to bed and rest well at night knowing I get my teachings from higher sources than politicians with axes to grind.

One final post warning

Beware the dreaded Dog-headed Pig Monster!  Really, in Africa folks are getting worried.   Be honest, don't we all secretly wish there were such things, things that defy science and hearken back to a time where human beings huddled in their longhouses, candles flickering, while outside in the impenetrable darkness of forest and fen, unspeakable terrors waited to snatch away the unwary?  It sure beats worrying about the things we worry about today that appear all too real, and against which there seems to be no magical sword handed to us by a mysterious cleric.

A song dedicated to Newt Gingrich

Since he's promising us the moon, perhaps it's worth keeping things in perspective. There were other, better copies, but the first touching comment on YouTube is a heart breaker, so I used this one.  As songs go, this little Henson ditty has more soul, depth, and meaning that the sum total of our presidential race from both sides of the aisle.

Well done film critics

According to George Lucas, it was the unrelenting criticism of his cinematic trash heaps known as 'The Prequels' that prevented him from doing more films.  Whew!  That was close.  So in the name of all the memories and all the magic from that summer in 1977 that changed movies for ever, thanks to everyone whose screams of indignation finally broke through to the only man who could save us from the unending terror of future prequels. 

Strait of the blue dolphins

Looks like the US Navy has a double secret plan for protecting our interests in the Strait of Hormuz:

I don't know which makes me want to cry more

The fact that the press office of the Vatican took biographies of the 22 new Cardinals straight from Wikipedia without proper attribution, or the fact that the press office of the Vatican took biographies of the 22 new Cardinals straight from Wikipedia.  At least the article speaks as though the official biographies have more credibility to them.  But then having more credibility than Wikipedia is like having more talent than a reality television personality. 

Alec Baldwin reminds me that it's not easy having respect for celebrities

I'm sure everyone heard the news.  American Airlines has a policy about cell phones.  Baldwin ignored the policy.  Baldwin was removed, acted like a spoiled child, and then appeared on SNL to do what SNL does: mock those who challenge its prepubescent sensibilities.  Funny?  Not really.  Most of SNL isn't really that funny, at least IMO.  I never thought it was.  I always found most of its skits to be 'I laugh because everyone else does and it's expected.'  But really.  I mean, this is the stuff a middle school student does because he gets caught cheating on a test and doesn't have the maturity to own up to his actions. 

It just reminds me that celebrities in our culture are treated like the aristocracy of old.  And apparently, not a few of them expect such treatment.  Naturally, Yahoo News gushes over the stellar performance of Baldwin and rejoices in the mockery of an airline employee who failed to genuflect to the obvious superiority of our noble class. 

Dog bites man is not news

Man bites dog is news.  But dog shoots man in butt with shotgun is priceless!  I wouldn't joke about it, but according to the story, the fellow is OK, owing to a well placed pair of waders. 

California teacher embraces his inner Orwell

And demonstrates why so much of post-modern secularism and skepticism is more akin to a personality disorder than an intellectual movement.  Naturally, it's all about converting the students to conform to his values system and beliefs.  Unlike Christian Evangelists, who have been maligned for decades for daring to persuade people that their religious beliefs are wrong, modern secularists are fine with bypassing persuasion and going straight to the crushing iron gauntlet of censorship and oppression.

Dumbest quote?  From Mr. Cuckovich himself:

“When you sneezed in the old days, they thought you were dispelling evil spirits out of your body. So they were saying, ‘god bless you’ for getting rid of evil spirits. But today, I said what you‘re doing doesn’t really make any sense anymore.”

You get that?  I guess anything that happened before yesterday is no longer valid because?  Why?  People believed something then and maybe don't now but we still use the term or phrase?  Wow, I'll bet that's the only time that has happened, with regards to 'God Bless You' when someone sneezes.  Can we go through and begin to discard any other saying that is based on things we don't suppose to be true?  Or just those things that the esteemed Mr. Cuckovich deems not to be true?

Only post-modernity could produce a person proud of their intellectual superiority who thinks and behaves in such a way.  Or maybe not.  Truth be told, people have been behaving like this for eons.  Non-religious people, too.  And it seems to be the goal of modern secularists and post-Christians to forget that little lesson, or perhaps, to ignore it.

Update:

Meanwhile, a New York coach who took his floundering team to a cemetery to attempt to bolster their devotion to the sport, has been suspended.  Yeah, it was a little heavy handed, I'll grant you.  But think of that.  Look at how quickly he has been suspended for daring to use strong tactics to punish.  We don't use strong tactics unless it's to punish kids who oppose gay rights, or similar outbursts.  But a teacher who is using tax supported class time to demand conformity to his post-religious beliefs has been slapped on the wrist, and is still going strong.  More to the point, he's said he will continue his crusade to proselytize his students. 

Anyone else missing the signs of the times?  Anyone?  Anyone at all?