Will return.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

(click for larger image)

"Peace."
- Jesus

The Rick Warren business

(This was my comment on Courtney's blog about Obama's selection of Rev. Rick Warren for the invocation at his inauguration.)

The ever-eloquent author of the science blog ERV sums up my own thoughts on Rick Warren pretty well. Read it here.

Personally, I enjoy conversing with those who have differing opinions. I welcome and encourage opposing arguments. In fact, I typically take the role of devil's advocate simply to learn more about a controversial subject--I'm not a confrontational person, but I do love to learn (as long as the person I'm conversing with is as capable of logic, compassion, and courtesy as I am).

But with this Rick Warren business, we cannot afford to simply welcome Obama's selection of Warren (and potential involvement in the new administration) as a way to open up communication lines with the opposition. His stance on a number of issues is just so far outside the realm of humanitarian reasoning that we are forced to fall back on that old adage: "I won't dignify that comment with a response".

It is not about liberal and conservative viewpoints converging to find a workable medium. We don't want to call Warren a conservative, as that would be legitimizing the radical positions of an incredibly powerful and influential man. We want to work with real and true conservatives, that is, conservatives who rationalize their positions with logic and fact. You know, the good guys. Guys like Colin Powell. Guys like Ron Paul. Guys like pre-2008-republican-presidential-candidate John McCain. We may not agree on everything, but goddamn it, we love hearing what they have to say. If anything, they give us a run for our money.

I've noticed that the recent failure of the Republican party has become cause for celebration among liberals. Of course I'm happy that they didn't take the White House--but I hate that conservatives are now being held hostage by ignorant power-hungry megalomaniacs demanding everything from the revocation of our inherent civil liberies to the abolishment of the scientific method. On the one hand, we should be glad, since no one ever gives credence to the ramblings of a crazy kook.

But on the other hand, we should be frightened and angry, for the same reason--no one ever gives credence to the ramblings of a crazy kook.

Except that Obama just did.

Marmed again

This guy made me do this.

Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
Post them here for everyone to guess.
NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions.

Aight, so here we go. In order? I don't know.

1. This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption. Let us give praise to our maker and glory to his bounty by learning about... BEER.

2. I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers!

3. Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.

4. No fucking shit, lady. Do I sound like I'm ordering a pizza?

5. Is this something you can share with the rest of us, Amazing Larry?

6. I can tell you with no ego, this is my finest sword. If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut.

7. Thank God. I die a true American.

8. Remember... you... are my number one... guy!

9. I'm gonna go have a smoke right now. You want a smoke? You don't smoke, do ya, right? What are ya, one of those fitness freaks, huh? Go fuck yourself.

10. Dude, what is the deal with Neil Patrick Harris? Why is he so horny?

11. Shut up, Linda!

12. It's like Napoleon. When he was the king, you know, people were just constantly trying to conquer him, you know, in the Roman Empire. So, it's history repeating itself all over again.

13. I don't really come from outer space.

14. Look, I don't know what futuristic utopia you live in, but the world I live in, a bitch need a gun.

15. He's not my father. He's my lover.

Good luck!

Religion is stupid

Especially Christianity.

But I love Christmas! I love love love it!

I know, I know. It's only the 17th. We still have a ways to go. But I can't wait! I can't! I can't wait to drink winter ale with my dad, eat my mom's Christmas cookies, sink my teeth into that thick juicy turkey, drive around in the snow on those the dangerous icy roads (I find this surprisingly relaxing), listen to Christmas music, wrap presents, open presents, tell Santa what to put in Holly's stocking, put a red velvet collar with jingle bells on my cat, grill game hens for my friends, place nutcracker stamps on my bills...

What else? I want to go caroling! Does anybody do that anymore? I did it once as a kid. A family friend hosted it in his neighborhood. A big group of just wandered around the neighborhood with candles and lyric sheets, knocking on doors and simply singing to whoever answered. It was so much fun! Someone really should revive this. Anyone with me?

I tried to hang lights on my house last weekend and failed miserably. But we have a wreath on the front door! Holly put up the tree and other decorations too. We went to the Nutcracker on Saturday, went ice skating with our friends last week, and it's already snowed and frosted outside. But one things still missing: the reason for the season.

Which is this:


That's right. I STILL DON'T HAVE A COPY OF THE JETHRO TULL CHRISTMAS ALBUM!!! I've vowed to remind myself every year to buy it, and I keep forgetting until our Christmas funds have been depleted. So who out there loves me?

God bless us, everyone!

Peace.


***UPDATE***
As it turns out, my dad had a copy of it all along! AND NOW I HAVE A COPY! And those of you (un)fortunate enough to have come over to my house this past Saturday have all heard it now! Isn't it awesome????

Oh, and I do like Jesus. Sorry for the mix up.

Bangs

It's a tough month for beautiful women. Last night the legendary Bettie Page died in her sleep. I was madly in love with her--I suppose I still am. How can anyone look at her and not love her?

Bettie Page
22 Apr 1923 - 11 Dec 2008

Her smile, her bangs, the entirely natural look of her poses--just what is it about her? How can a few cheesecake photos for girlie magazines capture such an endearing and charismatic and sincere personality? She could be wearing a bathing suit, an evening gown, a corset, or a leopard-print loincloth; she could be decorating a Christmas tree, tying up and spanking a naughty companion, buckling her shoe strap, or thrusting a riding crop at the camera; she could be doing, or wearing, nothing at all. It didn't matter--she was always equally beautiful, sexy, innocent, and empowered. Ignore what anyone else says; her photographs were never dirty, never pornographic, and never ever exploitative.

After her retirement from modeling, she hardly ever allowed herself to be photographed. However, a couple shots did slip through (perhaps the only photos that could legitimately be argued as exploitative), and we could see that the lovely Bettie was absolutely gorgeous even into her eighties. Of course she was!


Now let's watch her dance!

Oh Freedom!

Odetta
31 Dec 1930 - 2 Dec 2008

As a teenager, I was first introduced to and promptly fell in love with Odetta upon hearing her on a mixtape mailed to me by my beloved late Uncle Steve. Her hypnotic a cappella rendition of "Glory, Glory Hallelujah" was the last song on that tape and I listened to it over and over again. Years later I re-discovered her after hearing her 1963 version of "Midnight Special", which I still consider the best version of the traditional folk ballad, ranking it even above the great performances by Terry & McGhee, Josh White, Van Morrison, Pete Seeger, and the seminal recordings of Leadbelly.

She was as much a social activist as she was a musician. At some point in the early 1950s, she was thrown off a train bound for Los Angeles along with all the other "colored" passengers, deciding then she would use her love of American spirituals to "heal the wound", as she described it. In 1961, Martin Luther King called her "the Queen of American Folk Music". In 1963, she marched on Washington and sang "We Shall Overcome" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Forty-five years later--had she lived just two more months--she would have sung for America's first black President at his inauguration ceremony.

Here are two incredible performances late in her career--

"Midnight Special" (2005):




"Glory, Glory Hallelujah" (2008):

Why I Hate Urban Tulsa Weekly, Reason No. 395

I'm sure I've told you before, but make sure you never read Urban Tulsa Weekly. Here are just the latest reasons why you shouldn't:

390. Opinion columnist Michael Bates is a colossal dick.

391. Senior editor Keith Skrzypczak is an even bigger dick, seeing how he managed to offer my wife a job and insult her intelligence at the same time. Or, in his defense, he could just be a dumbass.

392. They spelled my name wrong when advertising my first ever live gig. My last name, Buck, is pretty complex, unlike, say Skrzypczak.

393. The movie times are notoriously wrong.

394. Their film critic throws around the word "flick" waaaay to much, as though the new James Bond movie is a low-budget horror-comedy. "Movie" is slang for "moving picture", later called a "cinema film". "Flick" is a bullshit term that an aging, pseudo-cynical Halo-obsessed dipshit uses to make his horrendously unenlightening movie review sound "edgy".

395. They've picked up the nationally syndicated column by Ted Rall, who at first was a candle in the dark with some decent op-eds sprinkled among the Urban Tulsa shitpile (such as a passioned call for the new President to close Guantanamo or his willingness to criticize American capitalism), but he must have recently succumbed to the peer pressure of UT's elite Jackass Club, as evidence by this week's column. If you want to read it, that's your problem.

"No one should delude themselves into believing that racism or its kissing-cousin conservatism are dead."

Of course it isn't. It's alive and kicking exactly one sentence later: "Barack Obama, after all, is only half-black, and not even half-African American at that."

It gets better. "Jeremiah Wright aside, Obama had a white upbringing. A product of the elite, he went to an Ivy League college...If we were looking at President-Elect Sharpton, I'd believe in this change. (Too scary? Exactly.) As things stand, the rich white people who own and run the country have little to fear."

So, even though he's sort of black, we should feel OK about trusting him a little. Just as long as we get one thing clear--he's not entirely black. Remember--he's only half black. He had a "white upbringing". He has an Ivy League education. His campaign brought a record number of voters on both sides of the political spectrum to the polls. And, of course, he is our President-Elect. Obviously, it was his white side that made this happen. A truly black person like Al Sharpton could never accomplish these things.

But sometimes his ugly smelly blackness shines through: Obama's best personal buddy Reverend Jeremiah Wright is obvously entirely black, because otherwise he wouldn't have said such stupid things, right? 'Coz crazy religous zealots never say anything stupid. Therefore, Obama is black by association.

Shame, shame, shame. Everyone knows that real black people talk like Al Sharpton, and since Barack Obama doesn't, he must not be very black. And since he's sort of white, maybe we can treat him sort of like a white guy? Surely we're beyond the age of using rumors of Negro blood to slander a Presidential candidate, right?

Holy fucking shit! part 3

Welcome home, kids.

Holy fucking shit!

Giddiness

Well, here we are. Let's all go make some friggin' history, shall we?!

If you don't, the Red Skull will abort your babies with science!