When I grow up, I want to be a "stunt veggie"

Not really, but the phrase cracks me up.

White House Christmas Tree and Copyright...

Spent an excellent week home in Milwaukee for Christmas, which included a visit to the MAM. Didn't go through the Warhol special exhibit (ends Sunday, focuses on his Catholicism, go see it) because we saw it in October, but we walked through the extra Pop Art they borrowed for the occasion and stared for awhile at the Mao silkscreens. They look sort of like this image of Mao from the White House Christmas Tree:



The cover article of the November issue of ARTNews was about Warhol and his current popularity on consumer products. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts owns his copyrights; you have to get a license from them to use his images. They approve just about every request--perfume, chocolate, snowboards, condoms--but according to the article "the foundation rigorously guards against unauthorized use of copyrights and trademarks" and "legal actions have been periodically initiated against offenders."

So did the "artist" (sneer quotes) who contributed this derivative work to the White House Christmas Tree--they didn't even alter it, they just decoupaged it on a ball--get permission from the Foundation to use Warhol's work? I'm not insinuating anything, but I want to know. Because I'm pretty sure "the glory of Barack Obama" isn't covered under "fair use"--see Associated Press vs. Shepard Fairey. They charge "nominal fees" for "educational and creative purposes" but they do expect you to get their permission before using their property in your own art. Which is fair, and supported by copyright law.

I'm not a fan of copyrights lasting for generations after the creator's death, but the Foundation donates its money to artists, art programs, and museums, and I AM a fan of those things being supported solely by private entities instead of tax dollars.

Yeah, I know, this pales next to all the unConstitutional garbage the White House is orchestrating, but given that people who describe themselves as "artists" are overwhelmingly Obamaphiles...they need to know they're just tools of this megalomaniacal bastard and his pals. If they'll countenance stealing from icons, stealing from you is easy-peasy. (Thanks for nothing, Ovoters!)

Hrm.

I've been wondering if Gaia would get jealous of Barack Obama when brain-dead sheeple started worshipping him instead of her...and today she rumbled.

So many people have been so brainwashed, and kept so ignorant about science, by the end of tomorrow I expect to hear or read that the earthquake was caused by Global Warming (man-made, of course!) more than once.

(Quasi-related article on "intellectual curiosity" in education. If desire to learn was a requisite for college admission, the textiles lab I taught--to textiles majors, mind you--would have had five students.)

Obama Criticism Flow Chart

From the frighteningly-named MISSOURAH.com. You may have to embiggen it or click over to get the details, but the point should be clear:



Did you know racism has increased 67% since January 20?

Heh heh heh.

Disturbing Thought for the Day

Federal law requires that gifts to the POTUS--that he and Worf's cousin don't decide to purchase from the government to keep--be transferred to the National Archives, until they can be transferred to the appropriate presidential library.

They're going to end up with a warehouse full of bras and panties (and boxers, although eventually gays might figure out he doesn't care about them enough to risk the larger black vote by doing anything they want him to do) tossed on stage by bobby-soxers.

And untreated delusional schizophrenics get to vote, just like us. Probably more often than us, since the nice volunteers at ACORN are filling out their ballots for them.

(On the bright side, think of how pissed Bill Clinton must be...he had to send law enforcement out to round up his action, and Barry's action comes to him.)

Idiots.

Yesterday I saw this bit about a baggage cart operator falling down on the job. I've been thinking about it at work today while I try to make sense of the math involved in predicting runway incursions. I had a professor back at engineering school who told us not to bother making every design completely idiot-proof, because nature is constantly designing bigger idiots.

I'm also mulling over the clip I accidentally heard this morning of Obama speaking at ASU, exhorting students not to pursue their own dreams of success if they involve a nice house, a respected occupation, producing goods or services that improve the lives of others, or enough money to take care of yourself instead of waiting for the government to do it, but instead to pursue his dream of them becoming servants of the state.

But...what if my professor is correct, and no matter how clever President Camacho* there thinks his system is, there are enough idiots out there to screw it all up?

We're probably all doomed, since the vast majority of idiots are eager to fuck themselves over doing his bidding, but maybe there's a little tiny nanovolt LED of hope.

* Everytime he takes a podium, he gives the audience a hearty "fuck you." Best analogy yet.

How...imperial.

Remember when the Taliban destroyed pre-Islamic Buddha statues so future generations wouldn't know there was any religion in Afghanistan before Mohammed, and liberals were (rightly) outraged at "erasing" history so it wouldn't interfere with official government propaganda?

White House Permanently Deletes Bush-Era Twitter Archive

Presumably, destroying White House records violates some sort of law about national archives, but hell, no one cared when Clinton officials did it, so why start now?

The actual content has been permanently erased. So if you're a Communication scholar or historian studying early Presidential uses of social media technologies, you're screwed. Because fuck you that's why.

I've been wondering what it will be like to be an historian in a hundred years--if they will mistakenly think the contemporary newspapers are a reliable primary source of information about 2009 (especially "papers of record" like that NY Times) because that's what they learned from their historical research methods professors. The media's [insert sexual metaphor here, I'm too tired to think one up] of Obama and the Marxist left is going to have repercussions well past our lifetimes, even if they don't manage to "completely remake America" over in the next 3.6 years.

Enemies Foreign and Domestic

My brother sends this photo from wherever he is in California getting some sort of Army training (yeah, I'm a civilian...) of "Jihadist squirrel trying to steal [his] weapon."

Had an...interesting...conversation at an art class tonight. While we were drawing (well, everyone else was drawing, I was making pencil marks that resembled nothing in front of me) one of the middle-aged women (a quilter, too) kept up a non-stop monologue about her life and travels. She segued from London to Vietnam to Iraq, and how happy she was Obama was elected, which led to "As soon as John McCain said we were going to be at war for a hundred years I knew we couldn't let him win. But Obama's going to stop the war." And dammit, I paid too much money for that class to sit and listen to crap like that for eight weeks.

When she paused for breath, I said--calmly and politely, because I spent too much money on the class to get kicked out on the first night--"He might not get a chance. The other side might not want to quit fighting." And from the look on her face, I got the feeling that it had never once occurred to her that wars don't end without an agreement by both sides (capitulation is a form of agreement...)

She said "I guess there have been wars that have lasted a hundred years," and moved on.

Later she had to mention how she hates Sarah Palin, but changed the subject to quilts when I said, "Really? I like her, she's everything I wanted to be when I was a kid." Heh.

I noticed this six months ago, but DAMN. It is truly impossible to be out in public and not have total strangers start worshipping Obama and/or bashing conservatives and expect everyone in the room to chime in. And I know I'm not alone; Jay Nordlinger at NRO has written several columns and posted a lot of reader e-mail to the same effect.

Although--I hope I didn't just jinx myself--the company I'm working has been safe so far. My desk is in an area away from engineers and populated by people who want to be management when they grow up, so I've heard all sorts of Machiavellian machinations for power and every detail of this one sales guy's girlfriend's first 11 weeks of gestation except the position they were in at conception (sweet Michelle's biceps, that man never shuts up), but not one bit of politics. It's a nice change from the last six months of my last job.

Just what you've all been waiting for...

For all your quilting and home decorating needs: Barry O cotton fabric.



I need a bigger picture to determine if that's a Nazi salute, or if he's pointing out Superman. But the vignette where he's posed as a bobby-soxer dreaming of himself, that's priceless.

Ironic: Cranston is one of two, maybe three fabric finishers left in the U.S., after the EPA sent them all to SE Asia. Textile production needs energy, and Barry's going to do his damnedest to make sure they can't get it at a reasonable cost.

In a few months, if I find some on clearance somewhere, I will take great delight in denegrating this particular religious iconography, a la Shawn Quinlan, whom I respect for his use of fabric, despite his tired cliches and hackneyed leftoid talking points. But I'm not willing to pay new fabric price right now.

Dear laid-off Obama voters

You wanted change. You got change. Kwitcherbitchin.

Ich habe keine Wörter.

Enough with the Obama Quilts already.

You know, in 8 years, I didn't see a single George Bush quilt that didn't reference him as a genocidal monster or a bumbling simian.

Interviews with "Obama Quilters", for posterity.

...quite a few Shepard Fairey ripoffs, too. *cough*

Silver lining to not having the money to attend the international show in Chicago this year: I won't have to see any of this garbage and my head won't explode.

Bigger than Jesus!

More "would be funny if it wasn't so damn sad."

One lady got up and told him she needed a car and a new kitchen. The Teleprompter Kid told her to talk with his staff after the show and sure enough, some rich friend of his gave her a house! I thought I was watching Oprah instead of Obama!

Heck, Jesus himself only gave out fish sandwiches.

I'm going to steal that last line.

More:

Notice how hardly anyone clapped when Obama declared that "nobody wants unemployment insurance -- they want a job."

The only thing that surprises me is that people are surprised by this.

Get the popcorn...

Corporate MSM vs the socialist-chic cult. Kind of like a Hawkeye-Bugeaters game.

AP alleges copyright infringement of Obama image

Actually, I think I want the AP to win, because I'm very uncomfortable with the concept that it's acceptable to steal intellectual property to benefit politicians or government:

Robin Gross, an intellectual property attorney who heads IP Justice, an international civil liberties organization, believes that Fairey had the right to use the photo, saying that he intended it for a political cause, not commercial use.

"Fairey's purpose of the use for the photo was political or civic, and this will certainly count in favor of the poster being a fair use," said Gross, based in San Francisco.

Ooooh.

I trust you've all pre-ordered your Obama fleece panel to make cuddly no-sew throws.

I understand documenting the election/coronation with a commemorative quilt, but wrapping up your loved ones in The One is pathology.

This needs a caption

I followed this from Kate:


You could accessorize your plastic pocket President with guns, swords, or lightsabers, if that flag is still too icky for you to have in your house.

Bloggers have been predicting plenty of spin-off merchandise will be sold to clothe the action figures, including miniaturised Chicago Bulls strips for the basketball-mad President, dancing shoes for State occasions, and even a jogging trousers and Nike trainers so the action figure can resemble Obama during his morning workouts.

He's only the second black fashion doll to become President:


but he's never been an astronaut or a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Yet.

I will tell the story of Obamacles through my scribe Iowahawk.
But this poem is copyrighted, so reproduce at your peril.

(Yeah, I have to deal with this internet crush on Iowahawk. Maybe if I keep reminding myself he's a stinkin' Hawkeye...)

Obama Voters

Two anecdotes from my day, illustrating (along with the stuff I posted at Badger Blogger) why I will spending most of the next four years drunk as a form of self-preservation.

1) At the office after lunch, five O-bots were giving each other high-fives, and then they realized none of them knew who the governor of WI was. Not a single fucking one of them. The Palin-bashing vegan knew her Congressional representative was "Gwen Something...something long and complicated" (that would be Moore...I can see how such a foreign-sounding a name with so many syllables can be hard to remember), and one of them thought there was a Sentienthauser involved somewhere (Sensenbrenner, who doesn't represent any of them). They never got around to wondering who their Senators were.

Oh yeah, you're enlightened, superior beings, smarter and better than me. I'm so glad your ilk are running the country. Assholes.


2) At the gym, two women (I think they were women...I don't like to belittle fat people because I look like Jabba the Hutt from the neck down, but these creatures outweighed me at least 100 pounds apiece, maybe even 150, and it was kind of hard to tell what biological sex they were since they had crew cuts, but I was in the women's locker room so that's as good an assumption as any) swooning--NAKED--over the TV, which was showing the coronation. And then, they talked:

Being 1: Oh my God! It's so awesome!
Being 2: Like, this guy at school said they should just cut spending. And I was like, duh! Rich people should pay for it!
Being 1: People are so suh-STOO-pid! [Yes. She made it three syllables, which is worth a bitch-slap right there.] You can't fix anything without spending! I mean, you can't cut anything! You have to spend!
Being 2: I know! Thank God Obama's smarter than that!

There was probably more, but the whole world turned misty red and I put on my boots without putting on pants so I could get the fuck out of there without screaming "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FUCKING IGNORANT YOU ARE?!" because it's generally a bad idea to get in a fight with 600 pounds of deadweight even if you haven't overworked your arms out of sheer adrenalinic pissed-offed-ness. All they would have had to do to incapacitate me was fall on me...

I should have asked them if they had any fucking idea what sort of spending Obama would be rubber-stamping, because I'm sure they couldn't name anything more specific than "health care for poor babies!" (without mentioning it would only be for the babies that weren't murdered on the taxpayers' dime) but it wasn't until after I was halfway home that I remembered "$350 million for fucking appliances."


I woke up today ready to give Obama and his supporters the benefit of the doubt, and they were all assholes (I won't even mention the whitey-bashing, because I can't do it in a half-way civilized manner) and imbeciles. The hell with them all.

Human stupidity is infinite

If Obamacare doesn't cover tattoo removal...I almost said, "I bet you could make a few bucks!" but you'll probably be taxed and/or regulated out of business, so nevermind.

This is the scariest irrational human behavior I have ever seen...and I've been to a New Kids on the Block concert.