There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.

"Are Southerners more likely to discriminate than Northerners?" asked a skeptical Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

Well, duh, John I don't know. From the same article...

What a bunch of asshats the conservatives on the high court are. Kennedy should retire already and let Obama appoint someone rational to the court. It's been too long.

On the other hand...

Like many progressives I've already had my share of disappointments in the Obama administration, none of them unexpected.

But I also think it's easy sometimes to focus on the issue of the day and not back up and keep things in perspective. This pictorial diary at Kos had some amazing images, especially of the inauguration.

But the image I personally found most interesting was this one--



I asked myself wtf Obama was doing looking under the desk while Caroline Kennedy was laughing? Was a pulling a lame Bush looking for WMDs schtick?

Further down the thread somebody answered my question. He was looking for this...



Sitting here at my desk at work I have to tell you that idea makes me a little misty.

Ooh, the Germans are mad at me. I'm so scared! Oooh, the Germans!

From the "you can lead a horse to water" file: Obama vs. Bush at 100 days.

While much has been made of Obama’s high levels of support in recent weeks, most new presidents still have some reserve of good will at the 100-day mark. Bush, for instance, did not score below 59 percent approval in any of our communities in early 2001. Even in our very Democratic, big-city “Industrial Metropolis” counties, which voted against him by large margins, he did well.

Obama, on the other hand, is below 50 percent in our heavily Latino “Immigration Nation” communities and at just 50 percent in our “Military Bastions” located near military bases. He’s also at just 51 percent in our culturally conservative “Evangelical Epicenters.”

Get that?

Democrats in big cities were willing to put aside an election that was arguably stolen to support a Republican president for the good of the nation, but Republicans in "Evangelical Epicenters" are unwilling to accept an electoral trouncing and put aside their differences for the good of the nation, so obviously this reflects upon the character and actions of these two presidents in question.

Your math. It doesn't work.

Here's a crazy idea-- Maybe, just maybe comparing the Democratic and Republican bases doesn't work because the two disparate groups have fundamentally differing idea of their responsibilities as citizens. Perhaps one groups values diversity and even *gasp* disagreement while the other takes a slash and burn, my way or the highway approach to political power that the founders of this great nation would consider abhorrent.

Put another way- Barack Obama is not a "divisive" president just because the average Republican is an unpatriotic, uneducated fuckwit.

Don't hang their stupidity on him.

/have a nice Monday. :)

Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful.

Okay, I'll come out and say it even though it may force Randal to bitch-slap me into tomorrow: I don't like death metal very much.

Even though I feel cut a pretty broad swath of musical interest, I just can't get into death metal no matter how hard I try. I'd like to believe that at it's heart this stems from the fact that I'm really not that angry of a person. I guess it comes down to different strokes, or in this case different guttural screaming, for different folks. One man's amazing shredding on the guitar is another man's bleeding ears.

So you'll understand my dilemma when I heard that a local radio station was having a promotion to win a pair of tickets to a an advanced screening of the new Star Trek movie that I've been itching to see with the only catch being you had to sit through a free concert by the Klingon death metal band Stovokor.

These guys--

Since it was literally just a few blocks from my workplace I decided to swallow hard and head off to the concert. So I tossed on an a red shirt after work and bopped up to the show.

I'm really glad I did. A persistent theme in my life has been me fighting through my reluctance to do something to be rewarded by finding out I enjoyed the hell out of whatever that thing was. This stretches from listening to new types of music, to trying new foods to sex.

I'm not saying I'm now a death metal fan but there was something about these guys loopy personalities and their on stage Klingon characters (which they never break) that was incredibly appealling. The guys in this band were having fun and this came through in the music, as angry and guttural as it sounded to those of us who don't speak Klingon. Yes; they sing every song in Klingon.

There was also something great about watching a room full of people in Star Trek costumes head-banging in time to the Klingon musical assault taking place up on stage. There was a Trek highlight reel playing behind them that showed scenes all the way from the original show to the movies spoofs from shows like Robot Chicken.

In between songs the band members would mock the crowd, promising us that we would have the honor of working in the mines once the Klingons took over the planet. A guy behind me shouting something about Praxis (an inside Trek comment) and the band immediately went into a faux memorial thing.

Bottom line: I had a great time last night. Stovokor is a fun band well worth seeing if you get the chance. Here's a couple of pix I took with the cell phone. Sorry they're a bit blurry.

UPDATE- Wil in the comments has another take on last night's show as well as some fantastic photos he took of the band.

(The tickets to the movie? Yep. I got 'em. I'm seeing it a week before it opens. Moohahaha!)

Damned your eyes, Igor!

Doc Zaius tagged me with eyes meme last week. I'm going to be nice and not tag anyone else, but here are my eyes. Let it be known that those eyes are connected to a Clooneyesque visage on a perfect physique if you were wondering.

You're goin' down. Chainsaw.

Give 'em have a taste of your boomstick, Barack.

You can't handle the truth!

The wonderful Liberality zapped me with the Honest Scrap Award which appears to be a bloggy game of truth or dare. I ain't afraid of the truth.

Rules:
1.You must brag about the award
2.You must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you and link back to the blogger
3.You must choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design
4.Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog.
5.List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself.Then pass it on with the instructions!

My victims are:
1. Snabulus
2. Swinebread
3. Lockwood
4. Fran
5. Arkonbey
6. Lisa
7. Ubermilf.

My 10 Truths-
1) In high school I made the cover of the sports page for the state paper with a color photo captioned "Dean Wormer made the stop for the Rams." It showed me wrapping a running back, preparing to take him down. In truth that guy ran right over the top of me.
2) I cry while watching movies wayyyy to easily.
3) Some of my Facebook friends are women that I went to grade school with and I still feel guilty for teasing them 30 years ago but can't bring myself to apologize because I'm afraid it will make me look weird if they don't remember.
4) My little league career ended after I took a line drive to the eye and couldn't later control the fact I was ball shy.
5) At the market I've picked up a bottle of Rogaine more than once, only to change my mind and put it back on the shelf.
6) Don't know if this is an admission but I'm a HUGE nerd. I read comics, watch sci-fi and horror.
7) I'm saving up to afford to get into Cowboy Action Shooting. It's like SCA only with real guns, etc. I'm going to be a Clint Eastwood type.
8) I have a lot of favorite books but one of my all time is "Watership Down." That's right- I like talking bunnies.
9) In college I had an apartment where I slept on a futon mattress on the floor and a pack of feral cats would stampede up and down the hall all night, keeping me awake. So I sprinkled Paprika up and down the hall to try and keep them away. So mean.
10) Even though I often suggest to my brother that he should get a real job I admire the fact that he's followed his dream of acting and has made somewhat of a living at it.

Oh, you asked me why I saved you. I tried to carry you off, and the next day, you gave me water, and a little pity.

Thank you all for the positive karma sent Mathilda's way. The vet took off the patch and gave her a subcutaneous electrolyte injection to hydrate her. The immediate effect was that she looked like a doggy version of Quasimodo until a little later when her body absord the liquid.

The result was pretty amazing. Immediately upon getting home she ran around the yard and woofed down tons of dogfood and water. I think it's fair to say she's pretty much out of the woods.

It's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing milkbone underwear.

Usually I'm accused of "being a sick puppy" but right now I'm actually someone that "has a sick puppy." My very mellow, very sweet dog Mathilda had to have surgery to remove some stones from her bladder. All went well but she's not able to keep much down in terms of the prescription dogfood they sent home.

Mrs. Wormer is taking her back to the vet anyway this morning to have her pain patch removed. I have a theory that the patch itself is causing the nausea. Fingers crossed that this is the case and she's back to chasing me down the driveway before you can snap a finger.

As an atheist I don't think it appropriate to ask for you prayers but if you could send some good vibes her way I'd appreciate it.

Don't give me that. I'm sick and tired of facts! You can twist 'em anyway you like, you know what I mean?

Man, the anti-tax teabagger rally in Portland yesterday was HUGE. Check out this crowd---

Oops. My bad. That's the last Obama campaign stop rally here before the election. Here are the teabaggers who were actually at Pioneer Courthouse Square...

Once you do something, you never forget. Even if you can't remember.

Sakuracon...

What can I say? I had a great time, but #1aminefan had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the Seattle Convention Center when it was time to go. She told me early on that she was "in her element." I'll say.

We arrived early Friday and faced the only low-point, if you can call it that, of the trip. There seems to be something built into the nature of the these conventions where the organizers are genetically incapable of running an orderly registration. We waited in line six hours to get into this thing. I was cool until the very end when we were finally just a few feet from the registration counter but the convention workers kept bumping VIPS who had just arrived to in front of us. Thus the last hour in line was spent just a few feet from registration.

When I finally got up to the registration counter I didn't say anything until they insisted I pay for the whole weekend even though we weren't going to be there Sunday and we had missed most of the Friday events because of their lack of organization. I laid into the poor little volunteer but backed off failry quickly as it really wasn't her fault and this wasn't about me, it was about my daughter and she didn't care.

(This guy with the giant sword in the registration line was obviously compensating.)

Once we got into the Convention Center it was cool. #1Animefan was ecstatic, like a kid in a candy store. This thing was BIG. At least four times as big as the convention in Portland.


The first thing she wanted to do was head to the park attached to the center to join a "glomping game." "Glomping" means hugging in the cosplay lexicon. It was a hugging version of spin the bottle.

After that we headed over to the vendor hall to check out the swag.

About this time my daughter ditched me for some friends she'd made so I checked out the video game hall which had classic and newer games and systems. My favorite thing was this stage with Rock Band hooked up. They were running contests on the stage and the guys playing were really, really good.
They had tabletop and miniature gaming rooms, so I popped in those to see what they had. I was a little disapointed that Monsterpocalypse was a no show. I wanted to see that game played since I first read about it and this seemed like the perfect crowd to sell it to. Oh well.

I visited Artist Row. Great artists here.

The costumes were even more amazing than the last convention we went to. Some of the sights we took in...

(These guys were on hand-made stilts with air compressors. Pretty incredible.)

(Salt-bacon man was actually pushing product, not attending the convention.)

(There are even conventioneers in the trees.)

My favorite costume: this little girl in the Gir costume was arguing with her parents. I asked them if I could take her picture and they smiled and said yes. You can see by her face she wasn't happy about it.

It rains nine months a year in Seattle.

I'm off to Seattle with #1animefan for Sakura-Con.

I'll be the big one in the Ducks jacket not dressed like Sailor Moon. Although lord knows I have the legs to pull off a Sailor Moon costume. At least Mrs. Wormer says so.

Rhett, don't. I shall faint.

Just because the photo makes me happy...


BTW: these are the vary same troops who the right expects to join them in their threatened anti-tax, teabagger revolt against Obama and the federal government. Good luck with that.