Slow dances with doom

What's with modern apocalypse fiction? Said a friend:

"You know, everything was much better exactly one day ago," he said, on that fateful April day in 460 AD, exactly one day after the Roman Empire collapsed entirely.

Sheesh.

Liberated the fuck out of them.

Said by an acquaintance from Vladivostok:

"What I remember best about the Soviet era was that the heaters worked."

Oh, say does that artistic equivalent of baboon vomiiiiiiit stiiiiiill waaaaaave...

I'll be the first to say it: The flag of the United States is a wretched piece of artistic design.

It's busy, the colors clash, and as a 18th century IFF aid, it completely blows. From a distance, it looks like a blob of pink and blue. What, are those dirty colonial rebels or the British East India Company?

As a modern IFF aid, it's hilariously inept.

"Roger that, I cannot ID if they are friendlies or hostiles, they appear to be wearing some sort of pure green-grey insignia. Or maybe they all fell right-sleeve first into chicken poop, cannot confirm, over."

You know what's a good flag design, from both an artistic and identification perspective? This:

In fact, this flag was so successful as an identification aid, that it forced the opponents of its bearers to change their insignia, so that they would avoid friendly fire incidents. In a simplified form, it's still distinctive, and easily recognizable, if a bit reminiscent of modern art.

Occasionally, I construct axioms

Reaction is realizing that, on the official multiple choice test on good and evil, good is not in the answer bank.

On Nerds

Your Dear Blogger has been very lazy of late. Dancers! Did I tell you to stop?

A blog I've never heard of before has a great analyses of The Big Bang Theory. In a fairly remarkable show of self-awareness by the nerd crowd, she rejects how the show portrays nerds (as something to be laughed at).

The Big Bang Theory and its British predecessor, The IT Crowd are both comedies poking fun at nerds. Sometime in the late '90s and early 2000s, the Star Wars generation turned thirty and found that, after college, they had to get a job. A great influx of the modern nerd was injected violently into mainstream society, and the NORPs have had to find some way to cope. These shows are a manifestation of that reaction.

At some point, though, someone discovered that these shows which cruelly poke fun at nerds could be marketed to nerds. Nerds are unused to exposure and fame, and so even this very negative publicity was welcomed with open arms by them. Thus, you can find a booth for The Big Bang Theory at Comic-Con.

I don't find these shows fun to watch or at all clever. They're a gas relief valve for people who have a hard time with that weird guy at the office who collects action figures. If you've never had to deal with that, or simply don't care, that humor has a decent chance to not resonate with you, and the somewhat hackneyed writing behind it doesn't have anything to hide behind.

Somewhat predictably, though, if you are the weird guy at the office who collects action figures, you stand a decent chance of selling out. Any time in the spotlight tastes as sweet as chocolate to an impoverished African child, no matter if that time is used to jeer and laugh at you. This urges no cause, spurs no activism, requires no awareness to be raised. It's just a fact of life: For the monkey, no publicity is bad publicity.

More martyrs for the cause!

It would be rad if Oleg would stop advocating the shooting of cops.

Does he really think that knocking off a few cops on a no-knock warrant with scary, high capacity drum magazines will make law enforcement and the bureauarchy as a whole more sympathetic to the idea of laxer gun regulation?

You don't hear this one anymore...

Mister Charlie Lindbergh, he flew to old Berlin,
Got 'im a big Iron Cross, and he flew right back again
To Washington, Washington. 

Misses Charlie Lindbergh, she come dressed in red,
Said: "I'd like to sleep in that pretty White House bed
In Washington, Washington."

Lindy said to Annie: "We'll get there by and by,
But we'll have to split the bed up with Wheeler, Clark, and Nye 
In Washington, Washington."

Hitler wrote to Lindy, said "Do your very worst," 
Lindy started an outfit that he called America First 
In Washington, Washington. 

All around the country, Lindbergh, he did fly, 
Gasoline was paid for by Hoover, Clark, and Nye 
In Washington, Washington.

Lindy said to Hoover: "We'll do the same as France:
Make a deal with Hitler, and then we'll get our chance
In Washington, Washington." 

Then they had a meetin', and all the Firsters come,
Come on a-walkin', they come on a-runnin',
In Washington, Washington. 

Yonder comes Father Coughlin, wearin' the silver chain,
Cash on his stomach and Hitler on the brain.
In Washington, Washington.

Mister John L. Lewis would sit and straddle a fence,
His daughter signed with Lindbergh, and we ain't seen her since
In Washington, Washington.

Hitler said to Lindy: "Stall 'em all you can, 
Gonna bomb Pearl Harbor with the help of old Japan."
In Washington, Washington.

Then on a December mornin', the bombs come from Japan,
Wake Island and Pearl Harbor, kill fifteen hundred men.
In Washington, Washington

Now Lindy tried to join the army, but they wouldn't let 'im in,
'Fraid he'd sell to Hitler a few more million men.
In Washington, Washington 

So I'm a gonna tell you people: If Hitler's gonna be beat,
The common workin' people has got to take the seat
In Washington, Washington.

And I'm gonna tell you workers, 'fore you cash in your checks:
They say "America First," but they mean "America Next!"
In Washington, Washington.


"Lindbergh", by Woodie Guthrie