What They Say About You (2004)
They may have much to say about you, but I have little to say for the moment. Suffering from another flurry of dizzy spells that recur every few months and knock my brain and body out of action for a few days. After sleep and rest, I'll be back probably by Sunday.
In the interim, enjoy today's image and rumble around in the many fine sites and blogs just to your right.
Meanwhile, and it pains me to say this, I look forward to entering the No Spin Zone.
The Red Pill (2004)
Blog with a View, at heart, is a digital art photoblog. Each Wednesday, I present an image without the messiness of alleged annotation.
Feel free to talk back to the art, as the blog's description notes. Or, if you like, share a link to your own art or photoblog.
Flora (2003)
Now here's someone the Dobson's and his like-minded fundie familiars will find worse than SpongeBob. From Blessed Bee:
Flora: The Roman Goddess of Spring. "The Flourishing One," annually honored at the May Day festival called Floralia. Flora was "a Lady of Pleasure," but she was a prominent and important deity in Roman paganism. Some say her name was the secret soul-name of Rome itself.St. Augustine and other fathers of the church abominated Flora and her festival, which they said was a licentious orgy of nude dancing and promiscuous behavior.To the Celts, May Eve was known as Beltain or Beltane. The Teutons called this celebration Walpurgisnacht, and to the Romans it was Floralia. The Goddess Flora, Maj, May, Maia, or The Maiden was the reigning Queen. The festival celebrated her virgin or "flower" aspect, thus the promise of fruit to come. It was the time to wear green in honor of the Earth's beautiful, new, green mantle. A time for sexual license, symbolizing nature's fertilization. A time when marriage bonds were temporarily forgotten and sexual freedom prevailed in rural districts all the way up to the 16th Century.Because of the seemingly ineradicable sexual license of the May rituals, and their well-remembered pagan connotations, churchmen viewed May Eve as a major sabbat of witches.We say, erect that Maypole...
I'm not sure our Supreme Court selected elected, BushCo-sanctioned moral warriors want you erecting anything to this woman:
I challenge Courtney Love to a cage match.
[Flora (1730s) by Rosalba Carriera]
No, I think these moral values are closer to what our War-on-Christmas crusaders have in mind:
The statues have been undraped since Ashcroft's departure. But will Gonzales insist they be tortured?
[Cartoon by R. J. Matson]
Yes, we'll tighten the screws on that mental chastity belt in that faith-based abstinence class, but nothing fertilizes fundie frenzy like a good round robin of torturing. Just swap your maypole for a cross, buy some custom-made nail bling, pass the popcorn, and...
The whips sound better in Surround Sound...
But despair not, retro Walpurgisnacht lovers. Sexual freedom still prevails in American rural districts. And you can always catch the new improved Flora slinking around web shrines and busting out on DVD in your local sacristy of values Wal-Mart:
I'll erect your yee-haa!!
A Flora fit for The Book of Virtues. A goddess to gather around the still for. The secret soul-name of rednecks themselves.
Humans Are Such Easy Prey (2001)
Lounged around today for the holiday. Did I watch football? No. I soaked up aliens.
First, while treadmilling, I watched part of Species. A scientist receives an E.T. email asking that unknown alien DNA be combined with human genetic material. Unaware of the president's ban against using intergalactic stem cells, the scientist complies. But, thinking safety first, he mixes the alien blubber-like stuff with female chromosomes in order to, in his words, "keep the resulting specimen docile." Bad move. The intermingled concoction is killing machine Natasha Hendstridge who's more interested in mating and terminating than being brought to any leader.
I followed that up with a couch potato afternoon of watching several episodes from the second season of the new Battlestar Galactica. If you've seen any of the remake, you know it's a serious, compelling drama and has none of the cheesy overtones of the original. The Cylons, renegade robots who've turned on their creators and brought about a near apocalypse, have replicated themselves in human form and (according to the tag line) "have a plan." Again, the female "toasters" seem more deadly than their male counterparts. The Cylons appear to be obsessed with reproduction and children -- perhaps scheming to mate with humans like in Species -- but also are driven to massacre people given any opportunity.
So, in both films, a puzzling paradox nags. If you're an alien, and you want to mate with people (a popular theme from The Mysterians to Alien Resurrection), why work overtime to slaughter your lover pool? And, more broadly, why do filmmakers and audiences usually prefer evil, scheming aliens to gentle, give-me-a-big-hug aliens? Let's ask the experts.
Someone at ColdFusionVideo, talking about Ridley Scott's Alien, wonders:
Hell, why kill us when you can conquer us with superior technology, mind control or the help [of?] some fool scientist collaborator?
Yeah, right. My point exactly. And what about this mating fascination? Any other ideas floating around out there?
Well, the scrupulously researched World Weekly News has the scoop:
Dr. [James "former government UFO expert"] Kune says aliens mate with us for both practical and emotional reasons."In the early years of alien visitation, many E.T.s were looking only for cover -- marrying a human man or woman took suspicion off them as outsiders. Eventually they realized that not all humans marry, that they could just as easily pass as 'confirmed bachelors' or 'old maids.'"But most aliens actually did end up marrying. "For most other species, it's unnatural NOT to pair off with someone. The longer they stayed here, the lonelier and more eager for companionship they became. And so they began developing actual loving relationships with humans.One of the most surprising findings in my research is that these alien-human relationships are among Earth's strongest marriages. While the overall divorce rate for U.S. marriages is hovering around 50 percent, almost 90 percent of alien-human marriages last well beyond the so-called 'seven-year itch' that often marks the end of human-to-human marriage. "
So, it's a deep cover deal -- and not just a fling for inter-species carnal knowledge? But our on crack reporters here at Blog with a View searched the skies and scraped the sordid underbelly of the UFO. We spoke with one recently divorced alien with an itch big as a nebula he just couldn't scratch. Let's cut straight to the footage.
BWAV: Zoltar, has your recent divorce changed your views about alien-human relationships?
ZOLTAR:
All. Carbon. Based. Scum. Must. Die!!!
[Image seen at Black Cat Forums]
Whoa. Don't blow an organ we don't have, dude. You still got the goods. Maybe you need to spend less time in the tub. Remember, you have a small shrinkage problem by nature. From Everything2.com:
"Alien males are not especially well endowed and yet virtually every human female who's had a sexual encounter with them agrees with me that it was absolutely mind-blowing," declares Sandy Morewather, author of the upcoming paperback, Alien Love Secrets.
Okay, so you're stubby but studly. But what about the alien fairer sex? What melts their warp core? Nigel Watson explains their unearthly foreplay in Fortean Times:
In my own research I have interviewed 'Martin Bolton' who had visions of, and telepathic communications with, three young space women. On behalf of these entities, he window-shopped for female attire and watched porn films. They were the 'goodies'; the 'baddies' beamed pain to his brain and for a three-year period stretched his penis during the night.
Uh huh. I'm starting to think there's more than a little self-stretching in today's post. Isn't that right, Voltron? Um, right, Voltron? Voltron?
While. Blogger. Rambles. On. Insipidly. Voltron. Will. Borrow. This. Object. From. Blogger's. Home.
[Image from Trader Cracks]
The Party's Over (2000)
I need my head examined
I need my eyes excited
I’d like to join the party
But I was not invited
You make a member of me
I’ll be delighted
--Elvis Costello, "Two Little Hitlers"
Pumped for 2006, are you?
But which party is over? Surely, and unfortunately, not the Republican party -- currently still enjoying political control of, well, everything. Whatever war crimes and Constitutional reversals Bush continues to commit, BushCo CEOs won't raise a hand for a single, pathetic wrist slap. Will it be another year of Bush doing a heckuva job to spend more of that mandated political capital that he claims to have earned?
Will it be another year of shaking my head in amazement -- stunned that each new revelation of cronyism and corruption gets a wide berth from the mass media? We were lied into endless war, folks. Our leader admits authorizing covert spying on us without judicial review. Pogo's come home like the prodigal son. Will the likes of Nancy Grace care? Will Pravda Fox News stop violating their own motto by deciding what to report? I mean once you've positively spun torture and black sites and domestic surveillance, what's next on the slippery slope of starting to terrorize to stop the terrorists? Embracing Eric Rudolph talking points? Advocating Kent State Redux?
I'm tearing up that elephant mass mailing. I'd like to join the party, but annoyances like scruples and ethics -- those "moral values" that BushCo voters claim to cherish -- hold me back. An acquaintance recently asked me, "Why are you so upset about Bush spying to stop terrorism? Do you have something to hide? If not, you'll be fine."
Well, thanks for that reassurance, comrade. Sorry if the extensive track record of BushCo lies and catapulted propaganda doesn't have me blowing my noisemaker with more glee. I feel like the sullen, moody guy drinking alone in the dark corner of Times Square while partygoers breathlessly count down the lighted ball.
It's not my party. You'll never make a member of me. That thought delights me.
I have nothing to hide but plenty to protect. My freedom of speech, for one -- without having my skull caved in with a flagpole while being called unpatriotic or defeatist. My right to privacy, for another -- without having spooks reviewing my Amazon purchases or Sam Alito and pals playing doctor and acting as kingmaker.
So what's my fragile hope for the new year? That, simply, finally, the party is over.
Is the parade in its last throes? Are we turning the corner?
[Photograph seen on BAGnewsNOTES]
But who am I kidding -- when I'm wedged snugly in the heart of red state America -- where we'll raise another beer for torture as we pose proudly for the telephoto lens. Yes, what was I thinking, comrade? I need my head examined.
~/~
UPDATE: I revised this post slightly. Sue me.
Wise Men Auditions (2002)
Blog with a View is in sleep mode for the holidays but will be back with fresh views after the start of the new year.
Santa Lifts Off (2000)
He's on his way -- at least according to the grapevine of Bush-authorized wiretaps. No wonder the guy's suspect. He gives to the poor. Never downsizes. Never outsources. No Enron creative accounting. No kickbacks from the toy lobby. Santa can't be a Republican -- especially after an infraction like this:
If the anti-Christmas forces are winning, then the war in Iraq is nothing short of total victory. -- Ruth Marcus
[Cartoon by Mike Luckovich]
By the way, my Christmas stocking is getting heavier. As seen on MyDD, Barron's, a bigtime big business magazine, has called for impeachment hearings on Bush for criminal wiretapping infractions. Here's my favorite part:
Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment.
I'm down with that. BushCo loves these you're-either-with-us-or-with-the-terrorists polarized dichotomies. So let's pitch this black and white worldview back into Torquemada's Bush and Cheney's laps. Congress should either vote to explicitly grant the President unlimited, warrantless snooping on American citizens free of judicial wrist slaps (and then see how voters enjoy enabling their government to edge further into old school KGB spying) -- or, Congress should immediately begin impeachment hearings for the most heinous Constitutional violations by an administration since Richard Nixon. Okay, Judiciary Coms. Mull that either-or voice vote over your egg nogs and yule logs.
And that's what I call hearing such a clutter...
~/~
Drop by Agitprop. Blogenfreude's on top of the absurd "War on Christmas" hooey.
Christmas at Circe's (2001)
I suppose there are worse ways to spend Christmas than being in thrall to a witch. You might be a better man for the experience, unless you pig out completely.
We're having ham this holiday. How did you guess, Ulysses?
[Circe (2005) from Unbillable Hours]
Ho. Ho Ho?
Missed Window (1999)
Those that would give up essential liberty in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.
--Benjamin Franklin
As Christmas closes in, the blog will pretty much go into holiday photoblog mode for the next few days.
But, before that, I'd like to say thanks to legislators who've been showing some gumption and standing up to the BushCo bullies lately. Although the Patriot Act got a six-month reprieve, its troublesome privacy issues are increasingly being magnified under a public microscope. And with Dear Leader claiming near omnipotent executive police powers in the name of fighting terrorists in a war apparently without end, Americans should be concerned about snoops in the wires and the bookstores and the libraries.
In fact, Democrats fought the good fight on many fronts. As Bloomberg.com reports:
Democrats prevailed in getting Senate Republican leaders to abandon the [Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] oil-drilling plan, which was attached to the defense budget. That and the six-month extension of the Patriot Act were setbacks for President George W. Bush, who had pushed for the oil provision and for full renewal of the anti-terror law. Democrats also succeeded in using a procedural measure to delay enactment of the spending cuts that target programs such as Medicaid and student loans.
I've dissed the Dems in the past for rubber backbone syndrome, but I'm grateful for their efforts in doing what they were elected to do: serve the best interests of the people -- all of the people. Again -- thanks.
But don't let up. A window of opportunity has opened, and don't let it close and be nailed shut with the usual BushCo black hole rhetoric. Rip it off at the sashes. Let light and air fill the room.
And can't you feel it? The whole crazy quilt of lies and fear and bullshit is finally unraveling. And I think the American people are ready to trust their own guts and not Bush's. The room of the country is stuffy and smells like something rotting. As John Dean once said: There's a cancer on the presidency.
The president is not above the law -- whatever grave, shadowy rationale he uses to excuse his own dictatorial behavior. As Gene Lyons acutely observed this week:
Anybody who rationalizes George W. Bush’s illegal use of secret, warrantless wiretaps against American citizens is no friend of democracy. They may call themselves “conservatives.” But they might with equal accuracy dub themselves Martians or Zoroastrians.In reality, they are ideologues who place party over country, enemies of the Constitution and its freedoms. There’s evidently no outrage they won’t rationalize so long as a Republican’s doing it. For reasons best left to historians, the Republican right has made itself captive to a brand of callow authoritarianism that’s found its hero in this swaggering mediocrity who appears invariably to draw the wrong lessons from what few scraps of history he knows.The last time no-warrant, presidentially authorized wiretaps came before the Supreme Court was 1972, courtesy of President Richard M. Nixon, who used the FBI to spy on political foes and famously decreed that “when the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.” The court voted 8-0 against Nixonian presumption. In his concurring opinion, Justice William O. Douglas quoted his illustrious predecessor, Justice Louis Brandeis: “Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.”[...]Bush and his legal enablers hold to an extremist interpretation of the “commander-in-chief” clause of the U. S. Constitution that would give him virtually unlimited executive powers in times of war -- even a “war on terror,” a metaphorical struggle against an abstract noun which theoretically could go on forever.It’s an absurd argument. The president commands the armed forces, not the United States. The Founding Fathers meant to assure civilian control of the military, not to establish a wartime strongman.[...]But Bush evidently doesn’t want even a secret court to know who’s being spied on. He may have good reason. NBC News reported that the Pentagon is up to its old tricks. Papers obtained by the ACLU reportedly show the FBI gathering intelligence on a “Vegan Community Project,” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Greenpeace and the Catholic Workers, all about as likely to launch a terrorist attack as my basset hound Fred.
So, legislators, of both parties, don't buy into the daily dose of fear and show none yourselves. Don't let the curtains be drawn. Act. Act now.
Some citizens and congressmen and women aren't waiting. And they've got the goods to back up their claims. To learn more please visit
and follow the links and read and think and decide for yourself. If you do, I really believe you'll come to this zen-like conclusion:
And you know what's the best present in my stocking this Christmas? Listening to wingnuts, now starting to fret that Bush may be on the impeachment ropes, arguing that charges should never have been brought against Clinton. Aaaah. Better than sugarplums.
From NewsHounds, who watch Fox News so I don't have to:
FOX News Legal Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, appearing on The Big Story yesterday [12/20/05], equated Bush's current predicament with that of Bill Clinton's lying to a judge over the Lewinsky affair: criminal, but does not rise to the level of impeachment. He charges that if the Democrats take over the House in 2006 they will impeach Bush because "they hate him" and want "payback."
Oh, goodness no, dude. 'Tis not personal. 'Tis not about payback. 'Tis about upholding the Constitution and enforcing the laws of the United States. 'Tis the season to be giving...
...giving out subpoenas for Rovians and NeoCons and all Bubble Boy enablers to appear at an impeachment hearing.
And that reality-based community show should keep the window open enough to flood the whole country with light.
