Life in the Country

Thank goodness “Dave Sadistic Juggalo” has been caught by the intrepid law enforcement officers of Whatcom County (4th paragraph).

This area is simultaneously sad and amusing.

Josef Stalin Didn’t Have Freakin’ Repulsor Beams

What can I say — I’m stoked for Robert Downey as Iron Man.  While never my favorite superhero, there was always an interesting tension to the character, even if it was somewhat cliched.

And if Hollywood continues to do a reasonable to good job resuscitating the comic book heroes of my childhood, I guess it means I don’t ever have to grow up into a responsible adult.  Just ask my homeboy and spiritual adviser Ghostface Killah.

Scrantonicity

I’ll be home soon to catch some of the Pennsylvania returns, and hopefully Obama will wind up within ten points of Clinton.

The primary is over for all intents and purposes but as I’ve said before, Hillary has every right to stick around until the bitter end.  Just don’t expect us to ever take her or her husband seriously as political assets in the coming years if they refuse to accept the obvious fact — it’s ovah.

Tags

Lurker blogs on “Graffiti & Street Art” in L. A. (via).  S’cool.  Here’s my favorite spread so far.

The Measure of All Things

President Bush was incredibly eager to meet with the Pope and tell us about the dangers of moral relativism the other day.  Actually, he referred to something known as “the dictatorship of relativism,” a phrase coined by Pope Benedict himself.

And somewhere, a wide-eyed philosophy grad student put down her copy of Anti-Oedipus long enough to shed a single, trembling tear.

In all seriousness, Froomkin nails it:  “Yet some of Bush’s most defining decisions — such as launching a war of choice against Iraq and his picking and choosing which laws actually apply to him — suggest a highly subjective sense of right and wrong. Most notably, he defends the use of interrogation tactics that violate human dignity by arguing that the ends justify the means.”

Whither Protagoras?

Adults Speaking

I’m not sure if Obama’s recent comments about guns and religion in rural America were quite the gaffe they’ve been made out to be, but he should have known that at this stage in the race, with Hillary growing more desperate by the day, it was probably ground he needn’t have tread.

To paraphrase Jon Stewart, it’s refreshing that Obama is willing to speak with Americans as if we were adults when it comes to these potentially divisive issues.  It also makes him an even bigger target, and I’m sure that he and his handlers are aware of this.  At least, I hope so.

As the flap dies down, Oliver Willis comes through with an important point — the Clintons are getting disturbingly friendly with the right-wing attack machine.  Not good.

(Although I have to admit, it’s kind of funny how something as annoying as doing my taxes made me less interested in the primary than usual this past week.)

Holy Snark

His holiness the Dalai Lama went to a Dave Matthews concert near here a few nights ago.

When Jesus returns, I guess this means he’ll be whisked over to a Baha Men concert.

(Sorry, I just really, really can’t stand Dave Matthews.  Ugh.  Just typing his name gives me sick little chills.  But that’s my problem, not yours.)

Idle Worship

Malkmus (The Onion)

Malkmus (Spin)

Malkmus (“Red Eye,” that weird crypto-hipster thing on FOX)

Leadership

Linking to Wikipedia is pretty lazy, even by blogger standards, but behold — General Daniel Sickles, U.S.A.  During his long and illustrious life, he managed to 1) Gain notoriety for bringing one of his whores, Fanny White, into the halls of the New York State Assembly, 2) Murder the son of Francis Scott Key in front of the White House (Key had been sleeping with his lawful wife), 3) Avoid the rap by executing the first “insanity defense” ever (sort of), 4) Almost lose the Battle of Gettysburg for the Union by advancing his units into an idiotic salient at the Peach Orchard (near the Round Tops) for fame and personal glory, 5) Promptly see his men slaughtered and have one of his legs blown off by a Confederate cannonball, which he had sent to the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C. (later the National Museum of Health and Medicine), and 6) Win a Medal of Honor (through shrewd lobbying and palm-greasing on his own behalf).

There’s just so much amazing stuff.  Here’s a somewhat old interview NPR did with Thomas Keneally, author of American Scoundrel.

I’m doing some research for a writing project, and it would be a shame if I couldn’t work Sickles in somehow.  If not, I’m a better person for knowing more about this truly great American.

Update: A former employee of the National Museum of Health and Medicine contacted me to disabuse me of some factual errors above.  I still think Wikipedia does a pretty good job of compressing and presenting the most important and salacious details, but there are plenty of other resources out there as well.  In my own defense, I was a lousy English major, not a history major.  (But I ended up teaching high school history for a few years.  Go figure.)

Bright Eyes

RIP Charlton Heston.  I could never understand your personal politics, but you were a hell of an actor.  While many will probably remember you best for The Ten Commandments (understandably so), for me you’ll always be the dude being carried away on a stretcher at the end of Soylent Green or better yet, the guy staring at the top of the Statue of Liberty and screaming “You blew it up!” at the end of Planet of the Apes.

(I had a roommate once who did a one-man version of the entire ending of this great, misunderstood film.  It was a thing of beauty to watch.)