Daily Blend: Saturday, February 25, 2012

So Derpy has been killed, her body reanimated into a nameless, generic template. Seriously, fuck the whiners. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about … good, I guess.)

Ohio’s latest Drug War craze: $5,000 fine and 1½ years in jail for any car with “hidden compartment(s)”, even in the complete absence of any illegal material.
(via @radleybalko)

Is YouTube ^[pictured] now cracking down on any videos (unjustly) flagged as “religiously offensive”?

Open letter to Bill O’Reilly: “Your economics is wrong and your ethics convenient.”
(via The Agitator)

So, how’d that work out for ya?
(via The Agitator)

What to do when cold-loving artists have too much time on their hands.
(via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Derpy • My Little Pony • My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic • Hasbro • ableism • Ohio • cars • John Kasich • thunderf00t • YouTube • Bill O'Reilly • oil • Lou Dobbs • ethics • Don Boudreaux • War on Drugs • Richard Nixon • Nixon administration • Simon Beck • snow

Daily Blend: Wednesday, February 01, 2012

“Isolated incident” in Dallas, TX: Cops barge into wrong house, arrest and brutalize man without finding any evidence. Bonus: Includes charming comments from apparent Dallas cop in comments.
(via @radleybalko)

“Isolated incident” in Fitchburg, MA: Feds chainsaw their way into wrong apartment, terrorize mother and toddler. Includes pitbull puppy who miraculously wasn’t shot.
(via @radleybalko)

Jen McCreight tears into Susan G. Komen for the Cure ^[pictured] for cravenly backstabbing Planned Parenthood to appease anti-abortionists.

Twitter does censorship right by being transparent about it, or something.
(via @normative)

Amazing: A letter from a former slave to his old master.
(via @GretaChristina)

Good point about sexualization in comics: “Near-naked superhorny women is a male fantasy. Being a hulking Adonis who can punch through tanks is also a male fantasy.”

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Danny Cantu • isolated incidents • Dallas Police Department • drug raids • Judy Sanchez • FBI • Susan G. Komen for the Cure • Planned Parenthood • contraception • anti-abortionists • anti-choicers • Christians • Christianists • Karen Handel • Twitter • Jourdan Anderson • PH Anderson • comic books • superheroes • sexualization

Daily Blend: Sunday, January 29, 2012

JT Gaskins

• 17-year-old cancer survivor ^[pictured]: I want to grow my hair to donate to charity. High school: That’s against the rules, so you’re suspended.

• Ho-hum: Yet more anti-global warming claptrap in the Wall Street Journal.

• Art in The Simpsons.
  (via The Agitator)

• Taxonomy of animal horror movies.
  (via @radleybalko)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: JT Gaskins • Madison Academy • cancer • charity • Locks of Love • Peter Gleick • The Wall Street Journal • scientists • The Simpsons • paintings • horror films

Daily Blend: Friday, January 13, 2012

James O’Keefe

Heeeeeere’s FREDDY!

• Professional screw-ups James O’Keefe ^[pictured] & co. prove the possibility of voter fraud in New Hampshire by unwittingly committing it themselves.

• “[H]e reportedly told police he would hunt them down and eat them, their dogs and their entire families.”
  (via The Agitator)

• Another heartbreaking story of injustice brought to you by DOMA.
  (via The Agitator)

• This, kids, is what you’d call sum srs mad skillz.
  (via Ian Meredith)

• Ugly Renaissance Babies.
  (via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: James O'Keefe • New Hampshire • voter fraud • Paul Brock • K-9 • Frederic Deloizy • Mark Himes • Defense of Marriage Act • DOMA • gay marriage • same-sex marriage • painting • paintings • Renaissance • babies

Daily Blend: Friday, November 11, 2011

Bill Donohue

I think I’m just gonna stop with the Friday Canines … unless anyone’s got any objections?

• Another police officer reprimanded for not extending “professional courtesy” to a speeding highway patrol (read: for not letting him get away with a crime).
  (via The Agitator)

• Months after bullying the Smithsonian Institute into pulling an “offensive” exhibit, Bill Donohue ^[pictured] is now at it again, this time attacking NYC’s Brooklyn Museum of Art over the same video.

• *drumroll* Aaaaand let War on Christmas 2011 commence!

• Austin, TX plans to allow residents issue their own handicap parking tickets. I cannot see how this could possibly be abused at all.
  (via The Agitator)

• Ed Brayton shares his deconversion story. Wish my own lasted for even a paragraph.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Florida • Miami PD • Florida Highway Patrol • Thomas Vokaty • Bill Donohue • anti-Catholicism • Brooklyn Museum of Art • Fire In My Belly • David Wajnarowicz • War on Christmas • Christmas • Right-wing media • Christmas Tree Tax • Austin, TX • meter maids • parking tickets • Ed Brayton • Christianity • atheists

Help! The sunlight wants to kill me!

Awesome stop-motion animation by Sarah Wickens using sunlight. It’s like a crime novel brought to life … heliographically!

Via Gawker:

British animator Sarah Wickens uses sunlight as her main medium in creating this stop-motion video that features devious sun-hands slashing the wallpaper, knocking shit over, and reaching up from the floorboards as though it wished to yank someone by the ankles and pull them down into its terrifying abyss. Now we know who's been moving around our furniture when we leave home in the afternoons.

The moonlight never behaves so violently or creepily, as far as we know.

That’s because it waits ’til we’re asleep before pulling its own shenanigans.

(via @dontrythis)

Tags: Sarah Wickens • stop-motion animation • animation

Daily Blend: Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Pastor Mike Stahl [source]

• Christian-Rightists claim gays are persecuting conservatives whilst calling for the incarceration of gays.

• Rush Limbaugh: Former State Secretary Colin Powell will vote for President Obama again because “melanin is thicker than water”. “Media tweak” defense in 3 … 2 …

• Random Internet pastor ^[pictured] wants to create a national registry of known atheists ^{[screenshot (1010×5758)]}. But, don’t worry; it wouldn’t include their home address, so that makes it okay.

• This is telling – and disturbing – on a number of levels.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Matt Barber • Liberty Counsel • gay people • Bryan Fischer • American Family Association • homosexuality • Rush Limbaugh • Colin Powell • Barack Obama • racism • Mike Stahl • atheists • Jesus Christ • Christianity • Stephen Sawyer

Daily Blend: Monday, August 22, 2011

[click for full comic]

• Proposed bill would end life-without-parole sentences for nonviolent drug possession in Oklahoma.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Today in “things I have got to try out someday”. ^[pictured]

• Oh, Japan. Even their manhole covers are psychedelic.
  (via The Agitator)

• Where’s <insert name of any robot depicted in last century here>?
  (via The Daily Grail)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Constance Johnson • Oklahoma • clouds • Japan • sewers • WALL-E • robots

Fail Quote: Donohue warns against censoring offensive art

Bill Donohue [source]

This has to be one of the most hilariously ironic bits of hypocrisy to date (which is saying something). From the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue, now criticizing the Smithsonian Institute’s proposed spineless policy to examine new exhibits to ensure they don’t offend anyone’s precious religious sensibilities:

"They are giving themselves wiggle room," Donohue said. "They are leaving the door open to censor that kind of art they find offensive."

Yes, you read that right. Bill Donohue, the guy spearheading the most ridiculous self-righteous shitstorm ever over one Smithsonian exhibit that held a video with a whopping 20 seconds of footage in total showing Jesus on a crucifix crawling with ants, the guy who demanded that the (privately-funded) exhibit be removed (which it was) because it “assault[ed] Christian sensibilities”, and the guy who just can’t believe that the Smithsonian would dare to host art that some people might find offensive and has been hounding them, like a rabid bulldog with OCD, for an groveling apology ever since …

… is now worrying that the Smithsonian’s new policy to make sure no more exhibits end up offending pearl-clutchers like him – a policy created directly because of him – could lead to people “censoring that kind of art they find offensive”.

This berk has enough chutzpah in his gigantic brass balls to sink the Titanic all over again.

Just for the sake of completion, here’s the oh-so-offensive video-in-question, A Fire in My Belly by David Wojnarowicz and Diamanda Galas:

Daily Blend: Saturday, January 22, 2011

Bill Donohue

• Howdy ho, it’s that “Renew the Fuck the Fourth Amendment ‘Patriot’ Act” time again.

• Bill Donohue [pictured] still trying to get the Smithsonian Institute to kiss his whiny ass for having the gall to present an art exhibit that offended pearl-clutchers.

• MSNBC and Countdown’s Keith Olbermann abruptly part ways without any explanation. Now for false-equivalence twits to rejoice over the end of “the Left’s Glenn Beck” …

• Now that’s a hell of a hole-in-one, mini-putt version.
  (via The Agitator)

• The 11 Most Retarded Fictional Weapons.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)

• Sen. Scott Brown [pictured] (R-MA) lives up his reputation as a moderate and declares his support for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. If only others would follow …

• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks his mind in a probing letter at The Australian.
  (via Political Irony)

• In Latest Compromise With GOP, Obama Agrees He Is a Muslim
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Civ5 gets it right regarding piety and rationalism.

• Oh … just … huh. Sacra-lacta-licious, indeed.
  (via The Daily Grail)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Friday, September 17, 2010

Poster: Rally to Restore Sanity

This morning, I learned that you really need to remember to write down your “security question” answers somewhere. Stupid TD Canada Trust website.

• Featured: You ARE going to the Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert rally(s) [Stewart’s rally pictured] in D.C. on October 30, riiight? *curses living across the border*

• Conor Liniham has an ironic title.

• Ancient Mexican religious ceremony impacts fish evolution.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Canadian scientists claim they’re being muzzled by the government.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Meet Adrian Gray, balancer of giant rocks. Cool stuff.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• Ann Coulter: Even unintentionally, she’s still spreading misery.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Amazing illustrated diary from WWI soldier discovered after 90 years.
  (via The Agitator)

• More Texas Board of Education follies: They’re now discussing how Islam should be treated in textbooks – ie. if kids should learn about those filthy Moslems.
  (via Right Wing Watch)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Conor Liniham • Ireland • Minister for Science • fish • Zoque • Canada • scientists • Canadian government • Adrian Gray • Ann Coulter • Michael Gross • WWI • Kenneth Wootton • Texas Board of Education • schools • textbooks • Islam

Daily Blend: Monday, August 09, 2010

Abortion rights

Is DADT repealed yet?

• Powerful account from an atheist who was forced to protest at abortion centers ^[pictured] as a young girl.

• Doggycide: Riverdale, Georgia cop responds to a false alarm, shoots and kills the family dog as soon as it runs out.
  (via The Agitator)

• Interpretive CAPTCHA art. Neat.
  (via The Agitator)

• Some basic facts about South Park.
  (via The Agitator)

• Cool color photographs from the US in the 1940s.
  (via The Agitator)

• “SWAT team requested for violent midgets”
  (via The Agitator)

• Making me cry for the fate of society again.
  (via The Agitator)

• President Obama describes the large number of great improvements and reforms made to Medicare, including eliminating the notorious “doughnut hole” once and for all. Not that you’d know from the mainstream media, of course.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Basil Marceaux.com’s official concession speech. WHY DIDN’T YOU VOTE FOR HIM? YOU ANTI-AMERICAN COMMIE BASTARDS
  (via @todayspolitics)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Tags: abortion protestor • abortion protestors • cop • cops • CAPTCHA • CAPTCHAs • South Park • photography • USA • SWAT • commercial • commercials • advertisement • advertisements • Comfort Wipe • Barack Obama • ObamaCare • healthcare • Medicare • doughnut hole • donut hole • Basil Marceaux • Tennessee • Republican • Republicans

Daily Blend: Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Beneath the placidly smiling face, the heart of a monster

• Remember that innocuous, imperfect Declaration on Religion in Public Life put together during the last Copenhagen atheist convention? It just sent Ken Ham into a delusional little paranoid fit. Laughter and exasperation ensue.

• Freedom of the Press wins out: Coast Guard finally removes ban prohibiting reporters and photographers from documenting the oil spill.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki ^[pictured] calls for the death of Molly Norris, the cartoonist who originally launched “Draw Muhammad Day” before withdrawing from the event for (ironically enough) safety reasons. Or, in which my anger at the Obama’s administration efforts to find and eliminate Awlaki just lost some (though not all) of its edge.

• Prominent Moscow art curators who set up an art exhibit satirizing the legal censorship of blasphemous art face 3-year jail sentences for setting up art exhibit featuring blasphemous art. Update: Both have been found guilty but received hefty fines without any accompanying jail time.

• So, if you’re an skeptic/atheist, are you a warrior or a diplomat? Personally, I’m really quite casual about it all and my attitude (ie. level of respect) towards others is determined by their own attitudes and actions, not what they believe in. As far as I’m concerned, believe in whatever the hell you want, just as long as you aren’t demonstrably harming anyone else in the process. In which case, the invective machine revs up with a wrathful roar.

• Fox “News” again trots out the 2008-era smear that Obama wants to teach sex to kindergarteners. What, run out of new fabricated smears?

• Just fucking don’t and shut up about it.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Yet another alleged terrorist at Gitmo is found innocent of all charges and released.
  (via @washingtonpost)

• The US’s current political choice: Nerds who can’t communicate vs. sociopaths who refuse to let anyone else have the country.
  (via @todayspolitics)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Tags: atheists • secularism • Ken Ham • Christian Persecution Complex • Freedom of the Press • BP Oil Spill • Coast Guard • First Amendment • Anwar al-Awlaki • Molly Norris • terrorism • Draw Muhammad Day • blasphemy laws • Yuri Samodurov • Andrei Yerofeyev • Barack Obama • lies • gay marriage • abortion • drugs • sex • hypocrisy • Gitmo • Democrats • Republicans • USA

Wherein my mind has officially been blown

Y’know, the last I heard, the graphic repertoire of elephants (along with any other “animal painters”) was limited to splashing some paint on a canvas or creating shapeless blobs with brushes and sponges (canvases that are then somehow sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars apiece). So, you can easily imagine the face I was making as I sat through this damn-near unbelievable video. Trust me when I say it’s easy to imagine – you’ll be making it, too.

Last I heard, that’s … not supposed to be possible. And yet, I can’t detect a single instance of possible trickery – it’s the real deal.

Just another example showing how we must quickly begin showing proper deference to our animal overlords before they outperform us and, subsequently, eliminate us.

(via @ebertchicago)

Daily Blend: Friday, May 28, 2010

She’s Ron’s sister
But she’s ditched Dean!
She’s still Ron’s sister.
I’m his best mate!
That’ll make it worse.
If I talked to him first--
He’d hit you.
What if I don’t care?
He’s your best mate!
— Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

• “Quantum teleportation”: not quite Star Trek-level, but the ability to instantaneously beam information across distances of 10 miles is still pretty damn awesome.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• Best response to a fire-and-brimstone street preacher I’ve seen yet. All hail The Boot!

• Again, why it doesn’t really pay all that well to be a whistle-blower, especially in a government law enforcement agency.
  (via The Agitator)

• Doggycide, complete with literal burning of the (potential) evidence.
  (via The Agitator)

• Interesting Slate sideshow on the possible end of street art.
  (via The Agitator)

• Car enthusiast has amassed a £500,000 (US$615.3K) collection of cars from classic films and TV shows. Jay Leno last seen crying his heart out.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• FEATURED: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, No More. With a 234-194 vote in the Congressional House.
  (via The Daily Dish)

• Someone needs to kill this thread and bury it. The puns … oh my dear God, the PUNS!!!

• CNN Breaking News email: “BP's top official upgrades impact of Gulf oil spill from "very modest" to "environmental catastrophe."” You. Don’t. Say.

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, April 13, 2010

I’m seriously about to have an Internet-connection-failure-induced nervous breakdown. If only smashing my router against the wall would accomplish anything to help it. But then, I’d happily do it even if it didn’t help, of course.

• If life aviation were this easy, you wouldn’t need MasterCard years of intense training.

• Worth reading: Phil Plait (Bad Astronomy) bemoans the stalemate into which NASA has fallen, past glory, and whatever hope there is for the future. Also, fuck the politicization of science.

• Spanking: good for the bedroom, bad for child-rearing. (But then, you already knew that.)

• Dinner with the greats. Much better than that other bunch of useless codgers.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• Vatican: “Coming clean about our massive systematic covering-up of clerical child sex abuse cases? Bad idea. Forgiving an old rock band for a random, trivial passing comment – a group from whom we should be asking for forgiveness for the shit we put them through over such a trivial issue? Okay, let’s go with that instead.” Nice to know they’ve got their priorities straight.

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Nailed it

That is, Vlad Artazov did, in the form of this decidedly novel and undeniably captivating art form. I just hope he still has his thumb after all that.

There are many more, and you owe it to yourself to check them out. Cool stuff.

(via The Agitator)

I wish I had a photographic memory, too

Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic Londoner artist blessed with a photographic memory (the ability to recall any image perfectly, down to its smallest details), is undertaking a 20-foot panoramic sketch of New York City, from nothing but the visual memory of his one-time 20-minute helicopter flight above the Manhattan skyline. I can’t find any larger images, but you get the idea (tantalizingly):

Neat-o.