To all our motherly readers:

Now how about some breakfast?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:20 AM | Comments (186)
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If you've ever been to a fair, street carnival, or seaside boardwalk, you probably have one of these: a stylized, humorous portrait of yourself or your loved one, your head freakishly large and misshapen (and invariably grinning like a monkey), atop a spindly little body that is engaged in some activity that you told the artist you enjoyed -- riding a horse, jogging, water-skiing, or just standing around like a goof.

The term derives from the Italian caricare, which means to "charge" or "load". Thus a caricature is a "loaded portrait". The art form has been around for many centuries; caricatures of politicians have been found scratched into the walls of Pompeii. It is generally used as a kind of shorthand: it exaggerates certain physical aspects of the subject in order to give the viewer an idea of the subject's "inner person". It is meant to illuminate the subject's personality by assuming that personality is to extent at least expressed through the face and body.

Of course one man's humorous caricature is another man's outrage -- many an unfortunate artist has been sent to the gallows for making an unflattering portrait of the King. The wise artist knows how to read his subject, in other words: when the line between humor and cruel mockery has been crossed. (Some cross it deliberately, of course: much political caricature is deliberately cruel rather than humorous.) more...

Posted by: Monty at 06:06 AM | Comments (264)
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Welcome all M&M-types to just another Caturday.

The List of Obsolete Skills
Sadly I'm familiar with more than a few of these. And here's just a sample of the skills that were practically standard three decades ago:

• Dialing a rotary phone
  
• Putting a needle on a vinyl record
  
• Changing tracks on an eight-track tape
  
• Shorthand
  
• Using a slide rule
  
• Refilling a fountain pen
  
• Operating a dictaphone
  
• Using the eraser ribbon on a typewriter
  
• Adjusting the timing on your car
  

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:50 PM | Comments (1151)
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There's been some low rumblings about this for while but Utah is not exactly the media capital of the world and Bennett isn't the most high profile Senator in the country. Now it's done.

Three-term Sen. Bob Bennett was driven from office Saturday by anti-incumbency rage and hostility toward Washington, becoming the first victim of the rising discontent.

The three-term senator was bounced from office on the second round of balloting, failing to finish ahead of attorney Mike Lee and businessman Tim Bridgewater, who move on to the final round.

If neither Bridgewater nor Lee receives 60 percent of the delegate vote they will square off in a June 22 primary.

Bennett becomes the first Utah senator to fail to get his party's nomination since Democrats tossed out Sen. William King in 1940 over King's opposition to the New Deal.

When the results were announced, there was a huge ovation with shouts and yells of "He's gone! He's gone!" Delegates leapt to their feet, and embraced and waved "Do Not Tread On Me" flags.

You know who this benefits? Not Mitt Romney. He showed up today to speak for Bennett. That didn't work out so well.

This isn't blind throw all the bums out type stuff.

The opposition to Bennett is specific, and can't be chalked up to a general anti-incumbency fervor. Neither of Utah's two Republican congressmen are at risk of losing their seats, and Republican Gov. Gary Herbert doesn't have any serious challengers.

Bennett is under fire for voting to bail out Wall Street, co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill mandating health insurance coverage and for aggressively pursuing earmarks.

Bennett tried to reassure delegates he is a fiscal conservative.

"You want to get deficits under control. I have authored bills to rein in the entitlement spending that now makes up two-thirds of the federal budget," Bennett said. "I've already voted for a balanced budget amendment three times and I will again while making certain that it won't be turned into a tax increase for Democrats. Our tax burden is already too high."

Some delegates, who tend to be more conservative than other Utah Republicans, are also upset he's still in office after initially promising to only serve two terms when first elected in 1992. Is anyone really buying the 'balanced budget amendment' crap? Guess not in Utah.

Freshman GOP Congressman Jason Chaffetz from Utah knows the score.

There isn't a revenue problem in Washington DC. There is a spending problem!

Normally this kind of thing would scare me a bit. I mean Bennett isn't the most fiscally conservative guy in the world and going much to the right of him would mean nominating someone not likely to win but, come on, it's Utah. Why not throw an insanely hardcore conservative out there? It's not like they are going to lose. It's Utah.

This might serve as a warning shot not so much to moderate conservatives in swing states but moderate conservatives in conservative states (hello Lindsey Graham!) that they need to get with the program.

Before we get to that point, we'll get lots of hand-wringing from MFM types about 'conservative purity tests' and how if a guy like Bennett isn't welcome in the GOP the party is doomed! Of course, they'd curse Bennett if he was reelected as another conservative drone but that's just because they are intellectually honest like that.

Posted by: DrewM at 03:04 PM | Comments (424)
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A devastating knife attack. This is how you do it.

Heed the Master.

Impressive, yes?

Note the intricate footwork and exquisite control. Marvel at the panther-like speed with which he eliminates his targets.

Admire the way it looks like he very nearly cut himself at around :30, and then flails at the target in fits of spastic rage.

Best part? This guy teaches a class on this shit. Yes. To people who are paying him to learn it.
Here, let's lift his entire syllabus right now:

Lesson One: Assume a relaxed pose, perhaps behind a tree or bush.
Lesson Two: Suddenly charge. It's especially effective if you run like your legs don't like each other.
Lesson Three: Hopefully get your head blown off before you actually harm another person.

The youtube comments are priceless and should not be missed.

While you check them out I'll be here...just hangin' out.

UPDATE: I'm being told in comments that this guy is probably not teaching a course on how to commit sudden unprovoked attacks, but simply demonstrating how quickly a determined attacker can get to you.

Okay, that makes way more sense. I guess I saw this thing going viral today and didn't want to miss out on that New Video smell.

I apologize for my unkind remarks about this fellow's intentions and general mental health.

Now that that unpleasantness is behind us, let's all make fun of his shorts.

Many thanks to Mesablue.

Posted by: LauraW at 12:41 PM | Comments (315)
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Oh yeah, I heard an unspoken "boy' in this one. Not in the racial sense but in the "you're an immature man-child who needs to grow up now that you're President".

(Video via Hot Air)

I couldn't pick Jan Brewer out of a line up and I'm not ashamed to say I love her.

Obama can't take a punch. He's thin skinned and testy. I really hope Republicans look at this kind of hard hitting ad as a model of how to attack him. Yes, he, the Democrats and the MFM will cry 'racism' but they are going to do that anyway. Better to ignore them and speak directly to voters.

Speaking of voters, folks in Colorado seem to have looked at what their neighbors to the southwest have done and are saying, sign us up.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of Colorado voters favor a law like the one just adopted in Arizona that authorizes local police to stop individuals they suspect of being illegal immigrants, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state. Thirty-five percent (35%) oppose such a law.

Nationally, 59% of voters favor a law like Arizona's, unchanged from a week earlier despite last weekend's protest rallies. Fifty percent (50%) have an unfavorable opinion of the protestors.

But also as is found nationally, 55% of voters in Colorado are at least somewhat concerned that this intensified effort to identify and deport illegal immigrants will end up violating the rights of some U.S. citizens. Forty-three percent (43%) do not share this concern. This includes 33% who are Very Concerned and 20% who are Not At All Concerned.

People seem more worried about actual problems than they are about media name calling. It's not guaranteed to translate to votes but it's certainly something for Republicans to build on.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:20 AM | Comments (377)
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I'm told this movie was in the sidebar a few weeks back, touted as a 'best worst' type of movie.

Here's the tour schedule. Do watch the trailer. It's so awful it's a crackup. I feel badly that I'm missing the only Connecticut screening this weekend.

One of our very own CT Morons, Daryl T., is associated with this film somehow. Maybe he cooked up those great CGI effects.

From reviews at the IMDB page:

Where does one start? How can you mentally digest something like Birdemic? I am still in shock. I have seen some shitty movies in my time. But Birdemic, friends and neighbors, is the worst movie in the history of film-making, on this planet or in any other dimension for that matter. It is bad, OMG, right off the scale on the shitometer. The acting? Poor Alan Bagh, is he a living, walking wooden plank? Special effects? I swear, the birds are cardboard cutouts dangling from strings. For some reason, they explode when they hit something. Why? Why is that? Can't somebody explain, for freak's sake?

Everything stinks so very gaggingly. A rhesus monkey with a camcorder poking out of its arse would do better. Beware, my friends, beware of this abomination that is Birdemic.

Wow.
Wow.

Daryl's mom wrote that review, BTW.

I think he should avoid the subject at brunch with her tomorrow.

Posted by: LauraW at 07:39 AM | Comments (50)
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President Wonnerful wags his scornful finger at us yet again.

This time saying that Americans do not spend enough time outdoors (his economic policies will soon be correcting that problem) and that children should be doing fun stuff like hunting and fishing.

President Obama stated in a Presidential Memorandum last month:

the Federal government...has a responsibility to... [r]econnect Americans, especially children, to America's rivers and waterways, landscapes of national significance, ranches, farms and forests, great parks, and coasts and beaches.

The above quote has two ellipses, but, difficult as it may be to believe, I did not distort his words. He truly believes that the Federal Government needs to solve this problem, which he defines further in the Memorandum:

Children, especially, are spending less time outside running and playing, fishing and hunting, and connecting to the outdoors just down the street or outside of town.

Children aren't hunting enough? It must have hurt to pander to those bitter clingers.

Naturally the solution is the creation of yet another government program. I guess to make sure that your kids get out to the National Parks a few times a year or fulfill their squirrel quota or something.

It's vitally important to this President that your children, who you are not raising correctly (he can tell because he looks at statistics on National Park usage) get outside more and commune with 'Nature.'

Because he knows you assholes won't do it.

It has to be difficult to be Barack Obama. Every day he looks in the mirror and says, "Damn, I have to do EVERYTHING around here!" with a big exasperated grin.
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Posted by: LauraW at 05:44 AM | Comments (245)
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Hey it's the ONT so prepare your drink and your typing finger.

Hey Remember Biff From Back to the Future?

Well Tom Wilson who played Biff in Back to the Future is now a standup comic and here's one of his songs answering the usual fan questions. So listen up buttheads!!

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:25 PM | Comments (1035)
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He came very close to going full Ron Burgundy when he read his stage direction -- "ad lib a tease" -- out loud.

Rick Sanchez will say anything you put on his teleprompter. Enn. Ny. Thing. Geh.

Speaking of stupid -- Ed Shultz.

And this is some funny stuff. This guy goes into berserker mode over the crash yesterday. He sounds like Alex Jones finding out 7-Eleven just ran out of Zingers.
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Posted by: Ace at 02:39 PM | Comments (232)
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