blog troll no. 10

Ten! Ten blog trolls! Woo-hoo! As always, a Daveawayfromhome blogtroll is not an obnoxious person spewing bile and venom in your comment box. It is, instead, where I share the best results of my various forays into the Internets Tubes with the rest of you, saving you the trouble of wading through the crap (and there is a lot of crap - have you hit the "next blog" button lately?)

Drawings and Such Things, an Italian art blog
Great Showdowns, drawings by Scott Cambell
Producciones Balazo, an amazingly drawn web comic, unfortunately in spanish and so largely incomprehensible to me
James Hance, an artist, whose works include Wookie The Chew
Tom Gauld's Flickr stream.
Unhappy Hipsters
Chapter 56; an artist's blog
Fun Stuff With Hanni Brosh: art
Cat vs. Human
Zunguzungu
A Conscious Outpost
Maliki: le webcomic
Mishka; webcomics, etc.
Wayno Cartoons
Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson
Jack & Jill Politics: A black bourgeoisie perspective on U.S. politics
Southern Beale; a Tennessee liberal (i.e., a local endangered species)
Beggars Can Be Choosers; a Texas journalist's progressive blog
Matt Blum; photographer
Irina Werning, photographer (does a nice now-and-then series)
Boxing Barbie
Mariel Clayton, doll photography (more Barbie)
OakOak; street art
The One Cam... I cannot explain this one
2D Goggles - or - The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace And Babbage
Tangents Reviews; a webcomic review site/blog
Dear Photograph; another re-photographic site... sort of.
Pablo Delgado; the street art is especially wonderful
Crazy Thoughts
Darlene's Hodgepodge; an 86 year-old who oughta team up with Helen Philpott.
Stupid Enough Unexplaination a liberal blog (and a blogtroll repeat)
MF Blog; a liberal blogger
Aussie Sammie; an Aussie teaching in OKC
Duly Noted; Lindsay Beyerstein's new blog
Blue Gal
Sam Harris, atheist
Wild River Review"; a web magazine
Man Are We Screwed; yes we are
Filmspiration (tumbler)
Mixed-Multimedia (tumbler)
This Is A Clever Blog Title (tumbler)
Hannah Is Just Awful
I love Charts
The Friendly Atheist
Gabby's Playhouse; a blog, with comics
Mercworks; cartoons in blog form
Katie Schwartz; a blog
Detritus Of Empire, Tacitus2's blog
Married to the Sea
Yowayowa Camera Woman Diary: Natsumi, floating

This being a Daveawayfromhome tradition, there have been preceding blogtrolls. Sample them here: no. 9, no. 8, no. 7, no. 6, no. 5, no. 4, no. 3, and another one (I'm not sure of its number - there may actually be only 6 of blogtrolls, but it's too late to change now).

quote for Sarah Palin Day

‎"Bushisms often hinged on a single grammatical or factual error. Palinisms, by contrast, consist of a unitary stream of patriotic, populist blather. It's like Fox News without the punctuation."

Jacob Wiesberg.

Mercifully, she seems to have mostly faded from the scene. Unfortunately, she's been replaced by Rick Perry, who might actually be worse.

Might.

for the new season

sunday funny

saturday matinee

The Village from Pedro Sousa | visuals on Vimeo.

This just looks so fake, like it was done using a toy train set. But it wasnt.

doin' the math

Okay, so one of the recent talking points that conservatives have been using lately has been to complain that 50% of Americans pay no income tax. The unspoken part of that complaint, of course, is that these are poor Americans who arent paying taxes, rather than millionaires or corporations, and as such are undeserving of receiving any government "largess" in return.
Well, John Stewart the other day made an interesting point, which you can watch, and then I'll add to it. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Now, even if you were to take everything that the bottom 50% of America possesses, it would only pay off a tenth of the deficit (the wealth of the bottom half of the nation amounts to somewhere around 1.5 trillion-ish*, split amongst 150 million people).
Next, imagine that we slash the budget on stuff like money spent on "job and family security", "education and job training", medicare and medicaid. Hey look, there's another 1.7 trillion!
By golly, maybe Republicans are right! Just nine years of giving nothing to the "poor" (you know, those folks "who dont pay taxes") and we'll have the debt paid off, all without any pain at all for corporations and millionaires.

Yay!



* That's just my estimate, and while my math may be wrong, it wont be off by enough of an amount to make my general point incorrect.

linkage

- The Right isnt the only side of politics to contain people who are, shall we say, a wee bit over the top.

- Beyond WTF? Further proof that America is doomed.

- This page isnt here. (via)

- Adventures in genderwars at Gabby's Playhouse (via)

- Is Barack Obama this century's James Buchanan?

- Test your vocabulary! (via)

- I may have to switch to Google Chrome, just for this app.

- Listen to this People's Pharmacy show, then be a bit worried next time you buy those cheap generic drugs (which are, of course, the only ones you can afford).

- Audio book: downloadable A Canticle For Liebowitz from NPR (via)

- So you think you want to be a war photographer?

- How boosterism ought to work.

- NuPenny: when art and commerce collide the right way. (via)

- Okay, I'm pretty clueless around women, but even I know this one. (via, the long way)

- Om nom nom. Why we love fat. (via)

- For the artists! Do-it-yourself Doodler. (via)

- The trouble with Clarence, and a way to send him packing. (via)

- Not your everyday chandeliers, or, the craft of lighting (via)

- Inside The Ghost Ships of the Mothballed Fleet. (via)

- this has got to be one of the coolest, most amazing things I've seen in a while. I really wish more people read this blog, just so they could see this thing in action. (via)

quote for the day

"They lie, this awful, destructive right wing. Often. And repeatedly. And they lie with such brazenness and bravado that it's as if lies are steel-toed boots kicking in the teeth of truth. How do you fight that? Because, from experience, the Rude Pundit can tell you that you can say the truth is the greatest fuck you'll ever have and most conservatives would say they'd rather just masturbate."

The Rude Pundit

victorian rap

I'd say that about says it all, right?

(via)

sunday funny

And I started watching Star Trek before 1982.

saturday matinee

The Illusionists is (will be) a documentary about body image and the manipulative industry that has created itself around largely manufactured insecurities.

why do I live here again?

Once again, estimations of America's numberoneness have been greatly exaggerated. We're not even better than Kazahkstan, for chrissakes.

quote for the day

“Love for one person does not negate love for another, instead one love works in synergy with another, building a dense and electric web that goes beyond the limited definition I felt forced to accept before. It will take years to dismantle the kind of love I was taught to look for, the one that possesses and owns, one that leaves no room for others and that assumes the heart is weak and vulnerable to the point of requiring fierce protection and exclusivity. Its myriad manifestations make it possible to love so hard and so fully without fear, jealousy or pain. It is, of course, more work to love this way, but to learn to take the hits and hurts as bumps in the road to being a better lover of myself and others is worth every ache.”

Berlin Reed in OP issue #6- SCHOOLED

how almost everyone got screwed in one easy chart

via Pryme.

picture for the day

We're the goddamn Batmen!

ugh

Have I mentioned how much I hate summer?

sunday funny

saturday matinee

This would probably be a "dust devil" anywhere else. But it's so much cooler than a dust devil.

HOT!!! HOT!!! HOT!!!

Today, when the temperature goes over 100 degrees (and it will go over 100 degrees*) it would have marked the 43rd day in a row, breaking the record for consecutive days over 100 degrees, set in 1980.
Except it wont, because on Thursday a storm blew in from Oklahoma and cooled things down to 89 degrees*. Except that we didnt get any actual rain or anything from that storm. No, all we got is enough clouds to break the streak 3 days before we beat it. Which would be fine if we were done with 100 degree days, but we're not, not by a long shot. Today, and the next ten days, and probably another week or more after that, it will continue to be over 100.
So, things are pretty much the same today as they were last Saturday. The same. Except for Thursday and the streak. Exactly the same. So far, there have been 49 days above 100 degrees. We only need 21 more this year to beat the record for total days over 100 degrees, set in 1980. Twenty-one! Aargh!

As of now, there is no end in sight, either.

Have I mentioned how much I hate summer?

I really, really hate it.

Really.

Hate.

Summer.



* sigh... the dangers of preposting - I wrote this last saturday when there seemed no hope of anything remotely cool except for a miracle. Which of course happened, if you want to call 97 degrees a miracle. Today, just to vex me, started out with rain and hasnt gotten above 90 all day. Tomorrow, though, shows a return to form, which will continue for the rest next 10 days. I know, I should be grateful for a day off from the century mark. But I'm not. And I dont feel bad about that.


* Thursday's high was 97.

just wanted to get this over with

quote for the day

"Things that sparkle and glow always cast a shadow somewhere"

Lion-san

late again! why dont I read the Onion, dammit

WASHINGTON — A day after signing legislation that raised the government debt ceiling and authorized steep budget cuts, President Obama thanked Democrats as well as Democrats for their willingness to make tough, but necessary, concessions during negotiations. "I'm truly grateful that both Democrats and their Democratic counterparts were able to reach this consensus, accepting an agreement that is far from perfect not just for Democrats, but also for Democrats," Obama said Wednesday of the deal that cut federal spending $2.1 trillion over 10 years but included no revenue increases of any kind. "Lawmakers from across the political spectrum—from moderate Democrats to the more liberal members of the party to dyed-in-the-wool progressives—reached within the aisle and showed the nation that compromise requires real sacrifice from everyone." Obama added that while it may look ugly at times, politics is about Democrats giving up what they want, as well as Democrats giving up what they want, until an agreement can ultimately be reached.

Seriously.

quote for the day

"Riots are what happens when people–almost always young men–stop believing in their communities, in their country, in their rights as a citizen. Riots are what happens when whole groups are treated as potential or actual criminals by the police. Riots happen when anger, resentment, testosterone and yes, consumerist desire are greater than civic pride or fear of the police, when the facade of power finally cracks and people realise they outnumber the forces of order. And mostly particularly, riots are what happens when people despair, when there appears to be few options in the present and none in the future, and no way to fix the situation."

Emily Manuel, Why riot and not revolt? Protest and the London Riots

I gotta remember this line

Sara: "I was just going to say something, but I cant think of what it was. Must not have been very important".

Bruno: "On the contrary, Sara, more likely it was such an important thought that it was invited to some swank party, and will show up here later on, slightly drunk and disheveled".

Christoper Baldwin in Bruno

end run

So, imagine if your Fearless Leadership, wherever you lived, came to you and said, "We're going to build a new highway. It will have two roadways, one for ordinary folk and second one for people who have the money to pay for it". Chances are, that kind of thing wouldnt go over very well, right? Well, guess what's currently being built down the middle of LBJ Freeway here in Big D? That's right, a tollway! They've stolen our (admittedly rather useless) HOV lane and are converting it to a roadway that anyone who has the money to spend can drive merrily down avoiding the usual insane scrum that is Interstate Highway 635.
Apparently, giving special privileges to wealthy folk is as simple as finding the right angle to present it to the public. Like the angle where you simply call it something else.

six years

Today marks six years since I began blogging. Began, as in, actually attempting to say something beyond "um. hello".
Anyway, in six years of blogging, here's what I've learned: As nice as it is to have your own web address, when you stop writing, then you stop supporting, then you stop paying, and then the site goes away, which is a loss for history. Blogger may not be here forever, but it will be here for a very long time, as will every great blogger who may be gone but whose words and ideas live on, courtesy of Google.
Also the lousy ones, of course, but even they have something important to teach the future, even if it's merely "wow, those guys were a bunch of idiots".

So.

Yep.

That's about it.

Sorry. That's what I got to show for 72 months of blogging - a trivial statement on archiving. Yay me!

sunday funny

I dont really have this experience, since I wear shorts almost year-round. The potential for wearing shorts pretty much any day of the year is one of the few things I like about living in Texas.

saturday matinee

HOT!!! HOT!!!

Today, when the temperature goes over 100 degrees (and it will go over 100 degrees) it will mark the 36th day in a row. Next Saturday, when I'll probably post an even more pathetic whining post because by then we will have had 43 days in a row (barring a miracle) which will break the record in Dallas for consecutive days at 100 degrees or more. As of now, there is no end in sight, either.

Have I mentioned how much I hate summer?

I really, really hate it.

quote for the day

"Conservatives flatter themselves by saying that their talk-radio gripes about healthcare or whatever are tantamount to things like D-Day or Washington crossing the Delaware or whatever, because without that they’d just be a bunch of angry white men who don’t want to pay taxes and don’t care about other people."

JOSHUA GREEN, senior editor of The Atlantic, on Real Time With Bill Maher.

I'm meltinnnnnnnnnnng...

You know what's depressing? When you look at the 10-day forecast and think, "oh thank God it's going to cool off later this week", then you realize that "cooler" is still over 100 degrees. I hate summer. I especially hate summer in Texas.

From Intellicast:

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CDT FRIDAY...

* EVENT...AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL RISE
TO NEAR 110 DEGREES TODAY AND FRIDAY. RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES
ARE EXPECTED AS WELL. LOW TEMPERATURES OVERNIGHT WILL ONLY FALL
INTO THE UPPER 70S AND LOWER 80S WITH MID 80S IN URBAN AREAS.

* TIMING...EXCESSIVE HEAT CONDITIONS ARE LIKELY THROUGH FRIDAY.

* IMPACT...THE RISK FOR HEAT RELATED ILLNESS OR DEATH IS HIGH...
ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO ARE INVOLVED IN OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES...OR
ARE IN INSUFFICIENTLY COOLED HOMES OR BUILDINGS.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

BE SURE TO CHECK ON PERSONS WITH HEALTH PROBLEMS AND THE
ELDERLY...AS THEY ARE THE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO HEAT EXHAUSTION AND
HEAT STROKE. NEVER LEAVE YOUNG CHILDREN OR PETS IN AN ENCLOSED
VEHICLE...EVEN FOR A SHORT TIME...AS TEMPERATURES CAN QUICKLY
RISE TO LIFE THREATENING LEVELS.

TAKE EXTRA PRECAUTIONS IF YOU WORK OR SPEND TIME OUTSIDE. WHEN
POSSIBLE...RESCHEDULE STRENUOUS ACTIVITIES TO EARLY MORNING OR
EVENING. KNOW THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF HEAT EXHAUSTION AND HEAT
STROKE. WEAR LIGHT WEIGHT AND LOOSE FITTING CLOTHING WHEN
POSSIBLE AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER.

TO REDUCE RISK DURING OUTDOOR WORK THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND
HEALTH ADMINISTRATION RECOMMENDS SCHEDULING FREQUENT REST BREAKS
IN SHADED OR AIR CONDITIONED ENVIRONMENTS. ANYONE OVERCOME BY
HEAT SHOULD BE MOVED TO A COOL AND SHADED LOCATION. HEAT STROKE
IS AN EMERGENCY - CALL 911.

No.7: Morton's Toe

When your second toe is bigger than your big toe.


There are 24 more Everyday Things You Never Knew Had Names.




(via)

quote for the day

“Norway’s Prime Minister is a liberal atheist, they have one of the best economies in the world, they have universal health care, and subsidized education, it has had the highest Human Development Index 7 years in a row, and it’s never started a pointless war, given tax breaks to the richest, and created Jersey Shore — yet it’s America that knows best.”

— Matthew Trevithick, responding to this story, “Former Bush Official Places Blame For Oslo Attack On Norwegians For Not Being ‘Serious’ About Terrorism".

Really though, shouldnt that phrase "former Bush official" pretty much say it all about the validity of the article?

you've been doing it wrong

a definition:

“Travesty”—a change of clothes—dressing one subject in the style of another.

(h/t)

quote for the day

"The Neocons of the think-tank Project for a New American Century that guided Bush decided to ignore our decaying domestic infrastructure in favor of a project of global modernization that involved spending trillions on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--and now Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya. The Directorate operates like the board of directors of a multinational corporation and has a post-national perspective on the generation of wealth. It has willingly turned the United States into a third world country of an expanding class of the poor and structurally unemployed and a contracting wealthy elite living within gated communities and offshore enclaves.

The political agenda of the Koch brothers is to deconstruct the social-democratic state by eliminating Social Security, public education, environmental protection and public health, but to characterize this transformation as one of freedom from the intrusions of the Nanny State. With the middle class now in free fall into the lower orders, the industrial elite has abandoned all sense of national identification with their “fellow American citizens.” We have become a Third World Country overnight and now are like modern India that would rather spend its resources on nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers than toilets and clean water to eliminate the necessity for millions of people to defecate in the streets and water courses they use for bathing and drinking."

William Irwin Thompson