Those who agree with us may not be right, but we admire their astuteness.
- Cullen Hightower
The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course, the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more.
- Woody Allen
It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
- Robert Anton Wilson
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
- Jeannette Rankin
No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.
- Kin Hubbard
Black holes are where God divided by zero.
- Stephen Wright
The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
- Noelie Altito
I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.
- Dan Quayle
---o0o---
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Minifig's Lego artwork of the Dick Cheney Hunting "accident"
click to enlarge - Thanks to Minifig for permission to use this.
This is an old piece, but it still works. Minifig from the U.K. created a lego dramatization of Dick Cheney's hunting accident (around the time of the "incident").
This is an old piece, but it still works. Minifig from the U.K. created a lego dramatization of Dick Cheney's hunting accident (around the time of the "incident").
Some earlier posts on All This Is That about Dick Cheney's misfire:
Follow-up: Victim of VP's attemped assassination suffers coronary
Follow-up: Victim of VP's attemped assassination suffers coronary
---o0o---
Are the Supremes about to rule on the constitutionality of gun ownership?
click to enlarge collage (copyright 2006 All This Is That)
The Supremes could decide the constitutionality of gun ownership, and we may know as early as tomorrow whether or not they decide to take the case. To those of us on the anti- side, it seems obvious.
You may remember during his confirmation hearing, that Chief Justice John Roberts said the Miller decision (dating back to the 1939) "side-stepped the issue" and left "very open" the issue whether the second amendment protects an individual right, or a more collective right.
Both anti gun and pro-gun forces (or, peace freaks and gun nuts) have urged The Supremes to take on this case (questioning the constitutionality of the the District of Columbia's strict gun-control law). If the justices agree to hear the case, the Roberts court will find itself square in the sights of a culture war that makes the abortion issue look like a sandbox altercation (because the pro-gun forces are well-armed, and a little bit kooky).
Does the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual's right to "keep and bear arms?" If the answer is yes, as a federal appeals court held last March, the Supremes must decide how this impacts a statute that bars possession of handguns and requires all guns in the home to be disassembled or protected by trigger locks.
It has been almost 70 years since the court even danced around the gun control issue. In 1939, the United States v. Miller, held that a sawed-off shotgun was not one of the "arms" to which the Second Amendment referred in its "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The District of Columbia is not a normal city (its gun law was passed in that heady first year of home-rule) and the law has pissed off "right to bear arms" types since it was passed in 1973. Even the allegedly apolitical Supremes must be wary of taking on this issue in an election year. November 4, 2008 looms large.---o0o---
Both anti gun and pro-gun forces (or, peace freaks and gun nuts) have urged The Supremes to take on this case (questioning the constitutionality of the the District of Columbia's strict gun-control law). If the justices agree to hear the case, the Roberts court will find itself square in the sights of a culture war that makes the abortion issue look like a sandbox altercation (because the pro-gun forces are well-armed, and a little bit kooky).
click to enlarge Chief Justice Roberts
Does the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual's right to "keep and bear arms?" If the answer is yes, as a federal appeals court held last March, the Supremes must decide how this impacts a statute that bars possession of handguns and requires all guns in the home to be disassembled or protected by trigger locks.
It has been almost 70 years since the court even danced around the gun control issue. In 1939, the United States v. Miller, held that a sawed-off shotgun was not one of the "arms" to which the Second Amendment referred in its "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The District of Columbia is not a normal city (its gun law was passed in that heady first year of home-rule) and the law has pissed off "right to bear arms" types since it was passed in 1973. Even the allegedly apolitical Supremes must be wary of taking on this issue in an election year. November 4, 2008 looms large.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Strange Things Happening On Google Maps
Google Maps and Google Earth have created an pretty fun new app.: The Map of Strange.
The Map of Strange shows you the bizarre, interesting, and odd things you find on Google Maps and satellite photos. It is a publicly editable interface (ala wikipedia), I don't know how people find all this crazy stuff on Google Maps; but they do! For example: in the southeast, somehow found a car doing doughnuts in a parking lot:
click to enlarge
The Vice-President's residence (with some interesting comments):
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
---o0o---
The Map of Strange shows you the bizarre, interesting, and odd things you find on Google Maps and satellite photos. It is a publicly editable interface (ala wikipedia), I don't know how people find all this crazy stuff on Google Maps; but they do! For example: in the southeast, somehow found a car doing doughnuts in a parking lot:
click to enlarge
The Vice-President's residence (with some interesting comments):
click to enlarge
A capsized boat:
click to enlarge
An S.O.S.:
click to enlarge
---o0o---
Saturday, November 10, 2007
McCain's 95 year old battle-axe mother teaches a lesson of intolerance and religious bigotry
John McCain's 95-year-old mother has savagely lashed out against her son's rival Mitt Romney. She claimed Friday that Mormons were to blame for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics scandal.
In an appearance on MSNBC, Roberta "battle-axe" McCain laid out why her son deserves the Republican presidential nomination. Evaluating McCain's rivals, she criticized Romney's Mormon faith and his time in Salt Lake City. "As far as the Salt Lake City thing, he's a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal," Mrs. McCain said.
John McCain quickly jumped in, [disingenuously] saying "The views of my mother's are not necessarily the views of mine." "Well, that's my view and you asked me," Roberta answered.
"I would disagree with any candidate or any campaign surrogate that chooses to disparage someone based on the faith that they hold, and instead implore other candidates and their campaigns to make a case to voters based on the important issues facing the nation," said Kevin Madden, a Romney campaign mouthpiece.
Roberta McCain said "I didn't mean to say it," as they stepped away from the cameras.
Senator McCain later said "What she meant was the Olympics were screwed up by the people in Salt Lake when Romney came in and fixed the problems there. But I know my 95-year-old mother is certainly in favor of Mormons."
What's next, John? People must be getting The Jitters about making your mom's "in favor of..." list! On Monday does she make a play for the redneck base, and rip into the African-American community, Catholics, or maybe even those pushy Jews?
---o0o---
Friday, November 09, 2007
Poem: Catch 23
Woodcarving by W.F. Bill Judt . Click to zoom.
You can only be locked up
For breaking
Three of the ten commandments.
And none of the seven deadly sins.
We have more slack
Than I thought.
---o0o---
Onward and upward! George Bush's hunger for real estate moves into new territories
click to enlarge
---o0o---
Thursday, November 08, 2007
President Bush finally beats Nixon & becomes the most unpopular President of All Time
click to enlarge - copyright (c) 2007 by All This Is That
The most recent USA TODAY/Gallup survey tells us something many of us already knew. That President George W. Bush is even less popular than President Nixon was at his very nadir.President Bush sits today with a 31% approval rating . But even more signficantly, and for the first time polling history, 50% of those polled said they "strongly disapprove" of the president.
Yes, The President has even whupped Dick Nixon, who at his low (in 1974 in the throes of Watergate), shortly before his resignation, hit a 48% disapproval rating.
You can use the search box in the left hand corner of the blog to search for one of the hundreds of articles on Presidents Nixon and Bush that have appeared in All This Is That....
Mission accomplished: I beat Dick!
---o0o---
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
All This Is That Reheated: Walibri Men Ask "May I shake your penis?"
When Walibri tribesmen of central Australia meet each other, they shake their penises instead of hands (I don't know how you greet their women. . .but I'd like to find out.).
I know what you're thinking--this is just the kind of blowhard confabulation I'm always trying to sell under the guise of arcane folkloric scholarship. If you don't believe me, do a G.I.S. a/k/a Google search. And guess what is the first citation that comes up? All This Is That, of course. We're number one in penis-shaking scholarship!
I know what you're thinking--this is just the kind of blowhard confabulation I'm always trying to sell under the guise of arcane folkloric scholarship. If you don't believe me, do a G.I.S. a/k/a Google search. And guess what is the first citation that comes up? All This Is That, of course. We're number one in penis-shaking scholarship!
Obviously, people on the Internet have some interest in the Walibri, although truth be told, virtually every Walibri reference is less about the Walibi themselves than about their curious "handshaking" custom. Don't try to find out their annual rainfall, whether they are major exporters of bauxite, or their median income.
I'm pretty sure I saw guys shaking like this the time my friends Fuzzy and Richie [1] took me to The Anvil (a notorious leather bar) in the meat-packing district of lower Manhattan.
[1] Characters in My Worst Job No. 6, my long delayed story of working at Carl Fischer, Inc. in NYC.
---o0o---
A New Sin
I've come up with a new sin. This has been germinating for something like 34 years.
When the sin is revealed, you'll have to enjoy it while you can, because the powers that be 
and the self-appointed moral executioners will, as Barney Fife says, "nip it in the bud."
and the self-appointed moral executioners will, as Barney Fife says, "nip it in the bud."The establishment will pass state, local, and national laws prohibiting the sin, and go to court to litigate which jurisdiction takes precedence. When the Pope gets wind of it, he'll be so spooked and rattled that he'll convene a Vatican III. As word spreads around the Moslem/Muslim world, the inventor of the new sin (yours truly) will be hung in effigy and they'll put a price on my head like Salman Rushdie.
The Ku Klux Klan will burn crosses with my face stapled to the crossbars and the televanegelists will howl for my hide. Religious and political factions will plot to take me out. Soon, the conservative press will demand my incarceration and possible execution; what else could they ask for an inventor and promulgator of degeneracy?
Like the hapless technician who discovers a new element, I invented nothing. I merely unlocked what was there, but hidden.
When the potential legal ramifications are squared away, I'll let you know. Somewhere, someone will need to write a new chapter or codicil to the Book of Mormon, The Torah, The Bible, and the Upanishads. Histories, books, and references will be updated to reflect the 8 Deadly Sins, the eleventh commandment, and the newly revised U.S. Code. An industry will spring up and around the new sin and provide work and income for philosophers, authors, prison guards (a/k/a screws), cops, lawyers, prosecutors, lawyers, judges, psychiatrists, parole officers, psychologists, poets, and behavioral scientists.
---o0o---
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