If the events of 1974
made it strikingly obvious, perhaps for the first time in American history, that the President is not above the law, I suppose we have to assume now that we are (re-)establishing the opposite principle. Or will the Obama administration finally take a stand?
Little Labia
From the patio, this evening.
descent, and then oblivion
Foe
Day by day the wind picks at the roof and the weeds creep across the terraces. In a year, in ten years, there will be nothing left standing but a circle of sticks to mark the place where the hut stood, and of the terraces only the walls. And of the walls they will say, These are cannibal walls, the ruins of a cannibal city, from the golden age of the cannibals. For who will believe they were built by one man and a slave, in the hope that one day a seafarer would come with a sack of corn for them to sow?
–J.M. Coetzee (1986)
Y’all
This weekend, I remarked how nice a passerby’s cigar smelled and the fellow handed me one, wished me well, and walked off.
Contra Costa
Sometimes I make things up
for my drawings.
Names I Like
Sergio
Carlos
Javier
Mariano
Slayer Fan
(thanks, Dale)
For Cindy
Cursing as anesthetic
Letting go with a stream of expletives when you stub your toe can lessen the pain, mother fucker.
“Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon,” said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England and one of the authors of the new study. “It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain.”
But, mom, Dr. Stephens said it was okay to say it.
Scientists encourage you to swear when hurt:
Although cursing is notoriously decried in the public debate, researchers are now beginning to question the idea that the phenomenon is all bad. “Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it,” says psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in England, who led the study. And indeed, the findings point to one possible benefit: “I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear,” he adds.
Which came first, the chicken or the asshole?
Close scrutiny does not remove the fact that all answers to this question are speculation that rely on some system of methodical cognition.
Whether it is deemed rational or irrational is a matter of subjectivity.
The nature of the question as a philosophical inquiry is that it reveals something about human nature.
The need to have information, so as to satisfy the ego’s desire for control.
quote out of context
“I think red is an eye-popping color and it’s not subtle, and to me by not offering it in a size over 18, Delta is saying, ‘We don’t want you wearing that if you are over size 18,’” Reller said. “But the job isn’t about being sexy. It’s about safety.”
no, it isn’t code for something
The worm is said to secrete a lily-like smell when handled, spit at predators, and live in burrows 15 feet deep. There have been only a handful of sightings.
Is this the fishes’ happiest time?
Does McDonald’s market to Caucasians?
Alternately, when did McDonald’s stop marketing to white people?
from the spam
A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.
David Brinkley|
Dear clusterflock:
Do you think Michael Jackson should be part of the 2009 butter sculpture at the Iowa State Fair?
There is still time to cast your vote!
BUTTER SCULPTURE VOTE
Voting closes at 3 p.m. on July 16.We appreciate the input of hundreds of people who have voiced their opinions, both positive and negative, on the issue of including Michael Jackson in the 2009 butter sculpture.
The ongoing discussion has created a lot of, well, ‘churn.’ Since everyone has an opinion about the sculpture, we’ve decided to put it to a vote and let Fairgoers decide.
The concept of the sculpture will be a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk on July 20, 1969. In honor of Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind,” this year’s sculpture will include an astronaut, an American flag and a buttery rendition of the surface of the moon. Depending on the vote, Michael Jackson would be featured in a small side portion of the sculpture as the first pop-star to perfect and popularize choreographed moonwalking.
Do you think Michael Jackson should be part of the 2009 butter sculpture?
You Buy Me Coke
Sometimes the world feels a lot like a story Deron told at Clusterflockstock. “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you buy me coke you’re okay, fuck you…” and y’all are the ones buying me coke. Everyone should buy everyone more coke, you know?
And not “that” kind of coke. Don’t be that way.
from the comments
1. Any cold, viscous drink should be drunk through a straw (e.g., milkshake, slurpee, frozen margarita).
2. Non-viscous drinks without ice may never be drunk through a straw.
2. Soda pops and ades served over ice may be drunk through straws.
3. Root beer may never be served over ice, nor may it be drunk through a straw.
4. Iced tea must never, under any circumstances, be drunk through a straw.
5. Club soda may be sipped through a tiny straw only if presented in a small glass. It must never be drunk through a “normal” straw.
6. Still water must never be drunk through a straw, regardless of the ice factor.
7. Iced tea must be served in a see-through receptacle, preferably made of glass. Again — and I cannot state this strongly enough — do not use a fucking straw when drinking iced tea.
The one that got away
Kelsey asked a while ago why we take pictures. My answer was to learn how to see and think. Barry quoted Garry Winogrand saying: I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed. Barry’s own answer was equally nuanced.
I took too many pictures with my first dSLR (this statement is complete self-defense; I don’t believe a word of it). The truth is, I love taking pictures — and, I feel somewhat embarrassed by that. The learner’s fear of showing work in progress — a smitten’s doubt whether he has the right. Of the thousands of photos I took with that camera I whittled them down to three. It was a good exercise. One that furthered the process of learning to see and think.
A month or so back, my laptop went out. I wasn’t too worried about it at the time because I have a large external drive I backed everything up to. Looking through my Lightroom archive, though, I realized a couple days ago that something was wrong. A whole stretch of images were grayed out, a subtle question mark in the upper right hand corner.
I couldn’t figure it out. I allowed myself to think this was a simple misunderstanding — that somehow the images, the folders that contained them, somehow had been misplaced — that in the setting up of the refurbished laptop, the images had been waylaid.
What I am beginning to realize, however, is that the sequence of images (from which, one of the three I am most pleased) must have been imported directly onto the original laptop hard drive, rather than to the external drive, where all the other images were stored. When the laptop crashed I didn’t worry about it — I knew those images were safe.
As I told Amy, there are thousands of images among that batch I would gladly trade to have that single image back. It’s not that I lost a few hundred images from among thousands — it’s that I lost one of the three I most loved.
quote out of context
“(The Earth) has been here 6,000 years, long before anybody had environmental laws, and somehow it hasn’t been done away with,” Allen said.
The Monocle Gesture
For when your friends are being pretentious assholes.
Because I have never recovered from working nights
