Category: Uncategorized

Courtesy of Catbirdseat, here’s a Valentine’s Day card inspired by The Arcade Fire:

Click the Valentine card to see it on its original page.

Valentine’s Day Card courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Here’s a photo that my friend Eldon just sent me — it’s the chalkboard at the Golden Griddle on Eglinton:

This story in the Poughkeepsie Journal would be just another story about a police car chase if it weren’t for the name of the driver who was arrested: one Landocalrissian Butler, age 27. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t let us know whether his parents named him after the Star Wars character or if he had his name legally changed.

It’s the word of the day in Toronto news and a good name for a band!

Click the illustration to see it on its original page.
Illustration from The Hookah Girl and Other True Stories.

Merlin Mann (of 43 Folders fame) wrote on Twitter:

Pockets of the Bay Area tacitly run on that mix of navelgazing and arrogance you perfect around Christmas of your freshman year.

I’ve lived there. It’s true.

Republican candidates and Vader have the same line:
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

Here’s a post by Frank J. over at IMAO — one of the right-wing blogs where you’ll find a lot of carping about John McCain just not being bat-shit crazy conservative enough — titled The Lovable, Huggable President, in which he writes about what he sees as the ideal qualities of a president:

Opinion seems to be that Obama is pretty unbeatable. Why? Because he’s so charming. He has no accomplishments and no more experience with foreign affairs than the average college student, yet there’s a good chance he could be elected president just because he’s so darn likable. If this strategy of nominating a nice looking empty suit works, expect future presidential elections to be between two plush toys (“Looks how adorable they are! I can decide which one to pick!”).

Just a reminder: We’re currently the most powerful nation in the world and the definitely leader at blowing crap up. Our leader should never be charming. He should be scary. He should appear in the nightmares of our enemies, eating their children. Diplomats should not want to meet with him unless they have numerous armed guards for protection. That’s who the leader of the most powerful nation should be.

Sounds like an endorsement for the Vader/Voldemort team in ’08!

You can buy the T-shirt here.

I’d like to think that it’s not necessary to point out that there’s a difference between strength and bullying, but given the tenor of the times, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Dig deep enough into a bully, and you’ll find a coward at the core. As the fine folks at The Metaverse put it in their analysis of the short story The Cold Equations (a good read if you’re into the ethical implications of engineering):

It’s a commonplace that our civilization is soft and sentimental. It’s less remarked that soft and sentimental people– particularly the chair-bound geek variant– often idolize brutality. The actual inhabitants of barbarian eras don’t necessarily share this feeling; they often took pains to appear as refined and cultured people.