The Antisocial Socialist

They're lighthouses! Why, what did you think they were?

Since I'll be spending May Day a) working and b) off the internets, I'll wish you all a happy May Day right now (and celebrate it along with the rest of the city on May 3). So there!


More of this, please.

And a look back: Brisbee deportations, 1917.

Here, have some cats playing the theremin.

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Courtesy of Laughing Squid.

Also, An Engineer's Guide to Cats:

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Hat tip: eumelia and warlordkittens.

P.S. You guys, I cleaned all of the binders and textbooks off my floor! You can almost see it again.

Poll time!

( cut for lots of images )

They're from here.

Speaking of k.d. lang, read this then this. (I particularly like the sad montage in the first link. Hee.) For the record, I'm 28 and her version of "Hallelujah" is my favourite. I wish I could say that Leonard Cohen's version is, especially since some of the verses that Buckley and everyone else leave out are some of my favourites, but there's that whole synth pop element that he just didn't do well at all. I want to hear covers of all of the songs that he wrote in the 80s and 90s by other artists. The Future has great songwriting ruined by bad instrumentation. It's just Wrong.

What's the tradition of younger generations mining music from the past, anyway? I can't imagine teenagers of my parents' generation obsessing over Frank Sinatra, but half of the kids I teach are obsessed with Led Zeppelin. Is it just that the Boomers dominate our cultural landscape even now?

On that note, the latest Neil Young album is just embarrassing. I finally heard it. It makes me cringe.

Parents, be mindful of the lullabies you sing to your children. They pick up more than you might think.

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frostokovich: Do Cretins Take Over Every Time There's a War? The Answer: Yes

In 1918 the US Government instituted a program to round up and put into detention camps women who were believed to be prostitutes working on or near US military bases. Government agents set traps for and rounded up real prostitutes. There are reports of Feds hiding in bushes in parks, waiting to spring out and jump any woman who walked by on the arm of a soldier. These WWI Homely Security boys also arrested what were called "Charity girls." Charity girls were young women who picked up soldiers and sailors for a fun night out--you know, just a smoky, boozy night of carousing, and if there was sex in the bargain, what the hell, sometimes that's what we want. In some cases, like those walks in the park, the women were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were arrested anyway.

I did not know about this.

If you need a palate-cleanser afterwards, read various web comic artists on liking their women like they like their coffee. For the record, Drew has the one I always use.

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[Poll #1032276]

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Your other video for today, via gillen

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Wherein Siskel & Ebert are hammered and talk about violently overthrowing the government. NSFW. Utterly awesome.

Where is my hover car? Where is my personal airship?



I'm sleepy, o friendlist. Tell me a story.

I know I said I was out of here, but then I stumbled on some classic bits of internets that I just needed to share.

1. My favourite libertarian has some sage advice for women who are threatened with violence over the interwebs. Some of it is sensible, like not blogging under your real name. Some of it is paranoid, like getting a private mailbox and buying a gun.

Some of it could only have come from a lolbertarian:

• Don't whine about it. If you whine, you're a big drama queen. Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey has dealt with much worse, and you don't see her whining! (Oh, except for in the post I just linked to, and in a whole bunch of other posts following the "I'm the perfect woman" post that made her an internets celebrity.)
• Ignore them and they'll go away. (Because that worked so well in grade school.)
• Don't vote. (I'm not kidding; she actually said this. Maybe that's why the Libertarian Party is so fringe; more people would vote for them, were it not for those internet stalkers!)

Folks, it's the "she shouldn't have been wearing that miniskirt" excuse, in digital form. I love it.

2. Fred Malek, John McCain's funding co-chair, is a Jew-counting dog-barbecuer. (Hat tip: Making Light.)

Take a moment to revel. I did, and then I wondered how I could get a job as a government Jew-counter.

3. Penguins. Chasing butterflies.

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(Hat tip: Pandagon.)