Unlike the IKEA ad, this one is actually funny.

That’s not whiteface; it’s sunscreen.

While looking for health-related uses of ginger root, I ran across this little nugget:

2000 BC: Here, eat this root.
1000 AD: That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 AD: That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
1940 AD: That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1975 AD: That pill is worthless. Here, take this antibiotic.
2000 AD: That antibiotic is ineffective. Here, eat this root.

I don’t know who originally wrote it, but it made me smile.

That’s been a tough job this week.

Instead of watching Ms. Hilton on Larry King tonight, let’s all go see the new Bruce Willis flick.

I don’t hate Paris. I don’t even know her. But I do have trouble with the idea that while she eats up an hour of CNN time, there are plenty of other news stories that suffer … like the Senate’s subpeona of documents from the White House today.

Did you know Brit Hume of FOX News is mentioned by name in newly declassified CIA documents?

How about the violence in Iran over gas rationing?

Today, June 27th, is National HIV Testing Day. That’s not as important to know specifically, but your HIV status certainly is. It’s a good reminder to get tested.

Even the media-started and media-propagated storm between Elizabeth Edwards and Ann Coulter is more interesting than watching Paris whine about how bad jail is or that she’s really just misunderstood and isn’t dumb at all. (Riiiight. I grew up in Southern California. I know a dumb, blonde celebutante when I see one.)

Know anyone who works or shops at Guitar Center? They may be interested in this story about the company’s buyout. (It may adversely affect two dear friends of mine, so I’m very much on top of this one.)

Now I know Ms. Hilton has pledged to change her image and that her 23 days in jail changed her. But what are the chances she’s going to spend one minute NOT talking about herself and her problems? What are the chances she’ll mention anything - anything at all - going on the world that’s more important than she is?

Zip. Zero. Zilch.

So if you still want to watch something tonight that is all entertainment and doesn’t contain one bit of news content whatsoever, go see Live Free or Die Hard, which opens today. Though Bruce Willis has aged since the franchise started, I’ll lay odds the new movie will be a lot more entertaining than anything Ms. Hilton does tonight or any other night.

Well, except for that night-vision sex video … but come to think of it, even that was pretty boring.

Jesus! Does she ever stop looking at the camera?!

I responded to an idiot here today. Couldn’t help myself. My hormones are all out of whack, which happens when you hit your 40s. “Moody” doesn’t even begin to describe my last few days.

Don’t expect another response, though. I really don’t care what the idiots have to say most of the time, but today?

Today I was going to publish the idiot’s contact information here.

Yes, you could say I’m a bit tense.

Where the FUCK is my coffee?!

I adore the visual style of this animation. It’s creepy and yet just a simple commentary on human evolution and nature taking back what is hers.

So I went to the website found at the end and discovered quite a few more cool short animations. Go figure the first one I clicked is titled Memento Mori.

I can’t help myself sometimes.

I own many items from your company and enjoy them all, from my wavy wall mirror to my maple TV stand and more. This letter is in regard to an ad for your company, the link to which is located here:

IKEA Ad Link

I am responding specifically to the statement within the ad which says:

Unlike a creepy gothic roommate, who can be a bad influence.

I know you probably meant a goth roommate would decorate their own living space in dark colors. However, the statement comes across as a disparaging remark on an entire subculture.

However it was meant, it is never acceptable to look down on any human beings, regardless of their cultural or subcultural affiliation. I doubt you would have said a “jock” or a “rockabilly girl” would be a bad influence. Why, then, is it acceptable to say that a goth would be?

A person’s choices in throw pillows has nothing to do with whether they are a bad influence or not. I’m sure there are drug dealers and serial killers out there with spectacularly decorated homes.

At the very least the comment is distasteful and should be removed from your marketing materials and online ads as soon as possible. Meanwhile, I will be boycotting IKEA products until it is gone and notifying everyone I know to do the same.

Thank you for your time.

*****

Contacting IKEA:

USA press contact
Mona Astra Liss
+1-610-8340180-5852

If you’re accustomed to listening to streaming Internet radio or streaming music services such as Pandora, you may be surprised to discover that when you tune into your favorite streams today you’re greeted with silence. Many Internet broadcasters—including Yahoo!, Rhapsody, Live365 stations, MTV Online, AccuRadio, and KCRW (a popular public radio station in Santa Monica, CA)—have gone silent today in a Day of Silence protest over a change in the way they’ll be charged for their services. This change, which will levy fees based on the number of listeners tuned into a particular song rather than on a percent of the broadcaster’s revenue (as was the model in the past), will likely put most Internet broadcasters out of business.

Here is a link to the story quoted above. You can also go to SaveNetRadio.org to find out how you can help save your favorite online stations.

“Diversity” and “competition” are not expletives.

I just received an e-mail from MoveOn.org which says in part:

It hasn’t hit the news wires yet, but retired Generals Robert Gard and John Johns are going public today with something big. They’re calling on Congress to ban the use of torture, restore the right to trial and shut down the disastrous prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Regardless of whether you agree with the Iraq War or the current Administration’s policies toward same, you have to admit that prisoners who are held without recourse - and even perhaps tortured - is a distinctly un-American way of handling human beings, even in wartime. The Geneva Conventions were written to tell us how prisoners of war should be treated, among other humanitarian concerns, and we are happily and regularly ignoring them.

Let me put this in perspective: If you or I were arrested tomorrow on U.S. soil, we’d normally have the right to an attorney, a limited stay in a local jail until charges were filed and a bail amount decided, and the possibility of leaving detainment until our trial.

If you or I were arrested tomorrow - and this happens even on U.S. soil - and accused of terrorism or of helping terrorists, we’d be at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with no rights whatsoever.

If that doesn’t scare you, consider that even after a court has ruled the Administration cannot hold people at Gitmo indefinitely, that they can’t torture prisoners, yadda, yadda, yadda, the President and other neo-conservatives BALK at the very idea the Justice Department has any say in the matter.

Worse, the Democratic Congress we elected last November - in part because we as a people are unhappy with the Iraq War - has shown it completely lacks teeth when it opposes the President and his cronies. They need to sprout a big, heavy pair and tell W. to fuck off, but they won’t.

So it’s up to us, but we have become so complacent we didn’t even notice our rights being eroded (habeus corpus, anyone?). We are fat, dumb, happy, and it doesn’t involve us, so …

Hey, isn’t Paris getting out of jail tomorrow?

The noise is there to keep us from paying attention. If you don’t yell loud enough over it, you won’t be heard.

Here’s your chance to scream a little: You’ve obviously got a spare moment, because you’re dicking around reading this blahg, so take 30 seconds to sign the MoveOn.org petition against torture. The text of the petition is short and sweet:

We are Americans and in our America, we do not torture, we do not imprison people without legal recourse, and we do not give any president unchecked power. Congress must act quickly to rein in this over-reaching president and overturn these un-American acts.

You or I (cross our appendages) may not end up at Gitmo or someplace like it (secret prisons, anyone?), but understand this: It’s very existence and the Administration’s refusal to allow basic human rights within its walls is a test for us, a test to see just how much bullshit we will watch occur around us without raising a finger in protest.

Complacent sheep are easier to herd.

Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Benjamin Franklin

In a dream last night, I had a philosophical conversation with friends in which I explained there is no such thing as “normal,” especially as the term applies to families. I believe the idea came directly from watching the movie Running with Scissors recently.

We’ve also recently watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, Black Snake Moan, White Hunter, Black Heart, and Reno 911: Miami.

Why I don’t dream in relationship to any of those other movies rather than the angst, insanity, dysfunction, and overall black comedy of Running with Scissors isn’t exactly beyond me. The unfortunate truth about the 60s and 70s is that most of us were watching television families and wishing our own could be “normal” like them.

What we didn’t know at the time is that those families only exist on television. They are the figment of some studio’s imagination.

Families are not Full House, Leave It to Beaver, or Growing Pains. Rosanne, Malcolm in the Middle, and Married … with Children get closer, but shows like them rarely get produced.

We seem to be much happier watching the idyllic families and ignoring our own. Maybe it always was that way.

Now I read that the movie version of Running with Scissors was tempered down a lot to be released onscreen. I wonder what I’ll dream about if I read Augusten Burrough’s book?

All families are psychotic.

If you can’t beat ‘em, arrange to have ‘em beaten.

Love me some George Carlin.