O Ziggy, will you ever win?

Lawsuits be damned! I love Ziggy!

The Big Picture

This is the Deep Field shot from Hubble. There are a few stars in this picture (they'll have four points), but for the most part, everything you see here is a galaxy, completely separate and far away from our own.

Our own galaxy (medium sized in the galactic scale) has approximately 200 Billion stars; current estimates put the number of observable galaxies over 100 Billion, half of which would have more stars than our own.

Think about this for a moment, the scale of it. And that all of the matter that makes up Earth and everything on it is no different than the matter that makes up all these galaxies.

In relation to this scale, and the homogeneity of everything that exists within this scale, what, precisely, is our role in it? If a role we have at all.

Teleprompters!

If you're one of my many thousands of regular, loyal readers, you're probably don't need any convincing. But if you just happened to stumble upon my place here on the intertubes, let me state this is as clearly as I can:

The Republican Party is insane. They offer nothing but mockery and lies. They are, at the moment, not worthy of being called a minority party or the "loyal" opposition, as they have no sincerity. They've ruined this nation and its place in the world, and yet still, they seek nothing but destruction.

I hope saner minds can prevail, because there are certainly parts of "Conservative" thinking which are valid and need to be articulated. But not by these clowns, minions and disciples of the Atwater/Rove School of Republican Politics, which, in its purest form, is nothing but post-modern bullshit.

Keep fighting in any way you can these truly dangerous fools.

2 Big 2 Fail

See what I did there? Witty, huh?

Undercover Putin

Can you believe known SPY and former COMMUNIST Vladmir Putin was able to get this close to St. Ronnie, without St. Ronnie even knowing who he was?! We better watch these Ruskies - they're sneaky!

Math is Hard!

Sometimes. Other times it's quite tasty!

The Adventures of OctoMom (future) and Dungeon Dad

That's not OctoMom of course. Don't know who that is. That's Dungeon Dad though. What a superhero team they could make....


But seriously, dude is sick. Can you be sick AND Evil?

Spring!

Awww part 2;


Enjoy the equinox everyone!

Awwww.....

Imprinting is an amazing thing - Dogs and Duckies living in happy family harmony? Crazy!

BSG

If you haven't watched Battlestar Galactica by now, it is far too late for you to watch and appreciate the finale, which airs this Friday night. However, there is always DVD, which in many - most - ways is the far superior viewing experience.

But if you have been watching, no doubt you are a'quiver on how this crazy story will end. It seems to me the show has consciously chosen to be depressing whenever able, so I'm betting on a downer of a closer, with of course the seeds of hope - the next circle - planted and taken root.

Great episodic storytelling is something TV can do extremely well, when done right. And BSG has been done it right from the first episode. Does not happen very often in television, to be sure.

Without pause, here's Redshirt's 5 greatest TV series in history (nerd universe):

1. Angel
2. BTVS
3. Lost
4. BSG
5. DS9


Finally, won't you spare a laid off Cylon a dollar?

He's Dead, Jim

Odds are, you're not the Captain or the Doctor.

Inevitablity

There is an approaching crossroads we will face, which briefly is: Our technology grows ever more powerful - exponentially so - yet our minds remain mostly that of tribal creatures, ever on the lookout for "Others". This tribal mindset - which we share in large part with the rest of the animal kingdom - is the major reason for our wars, violence, hate, etc.

But we're so very much better at expressing this hate, this fear. We've been living under this new danger since the invention of the nuclear bomb, but now, with nuclear technology in reach of almost any dedicated people, what's to keep that genie in the bottle for much longer? What's to prevent our technology from killing us?

Not much. A wing and a prayer. We are well underway now into the next paradigm - robotic warfare. Does anyone think this will in anyway improve the human condition?

Or, is it more likely with the horrors of war a step removed, we'll find ever more reasons to fight?

Laugh now....

While you can. Cuz our future robotic overlords won't be so tolerant of your jokes.

I didn't do it!

It was the cat, I swear!

Dem monkeys is smaht

Word from the frontiers of science:

According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against visitors, the study said.

"These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way," said the author of the report, Lund University Ph.D. student Mathias Osvath. "It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including lifelike mental simulations of potential events.

This is but the penultimate step before we are forced into full scale war versus the Simians -- hear me now, Apes: We will not let you catch us unawares!

Of course, the last step is fire: If them monkeys ever start making and managing fires,we must engage in a preemptive War of Human Freedom against said monkeys. Don't wait until there is a mushroom cloud over every human city!

Go Johannes!

This is really big news from the Redshirt corner. This here satellite based telescope, named after that swell fella Kepler, is designed to spot exo-planets.

To date, we've found approximately 350 exo-planets, but all were inferred to be present, either through observing a gravitational wobble in the parent star, or in periodic dimming of the star's light as the exo-planet passes in front. Better than nothing, to be sure, but these inferrences are limited, and only would discover rather freakish planets of Jupiter size, yet also close to their sun -- that is, nothing like our Solar System.

I believe this is only due to our lack of tools, not because there are no other solar systems out there like ours. Kepler will add to the ongoing revolution in astronomy since Copernicus, which can be summarized as such: We're not the center of anything.

Each new astronomical discovery makes it ever more clear what our true place in existence is -- a dust mote - and with each discovery, I hope, the God Squad and their myths are knocked ever further back into the ignorant shadows.

Because, when Kepler finds a planet similar to ours, orbiting a sun similar to ours, with similar elements in its atmosphere, it will be another new chapter in this ongoing story of humanity understanding our place in existence. A great new chapter, the first one that has real potential for awesome discoveries (to wit: Life, everywhere).

Stay tuned!

Such sweet hypocrisy

The Repuglican party, apparently, is the party that represents, supposedly, family values, pro-life, drug free life choices, and so on and such.

So who better to lead the Repuglican party than a thrice divorced drug addict who's fond of sex tours in the Domincan Republic? Given the recent roster of Republican "stars" (Craig, Foley, Vitter), it makes sense.


But really, is there no level of cognitive dissonance that will throw a fuse in some of these Repubtard brains?

The Real OctoMom

Forget about that Jolina wannabe; never forget our true multi-limbed Mother, yeah?


It's Cthulhu, for you heathens out there.

ALL HAIL!

Dictatorship Over!

If you care, you already know: The USA was for all intents a Dictatorship from 9/12/01 to about 12/31/08.

If you don't care, you'll never admit this, and instead engage the usual bullshit Republican lies. But, in the interest of engagement, here's a link:
GLENZILLA

To wit: Our Constitution was mostly suspended due to some nifty memos -- memos! - and we've all been surviving by the Grace of our now departed Dear Leader.

For no other reason then preventing this from happening again (even with my man Obama), all the secrets need to come out, and people have to be held accountable. Otherwise, what is a society of laws? Nothing, that's what.

For example, Karl Rove flat out ignores Congressional subpoenas, and walks and talks on Fox news all the while. How's that work?

Storm Troopers Revisited

From the desk of the Oracle:

It won't be too much longer before our own God Fearin' troops don masks similar to Stormy's over here. There will be plenty of functional reasons for it -- networked com links, camera, head and face protection, cooling, etc - but underneath all of these functional issues will be the issue that underlies so very much:

Fear. Striking fear in the "enemy". Causing him terror. But not as terrorists, of course!

Imagine, if you will, that you are an Afghani goat trader -- don't knock it! It's a good career in Afghanistan. You're settling down for the night in your primitive abode, no electricity or running water, in fact, you're living much as people have for our species entire history. But then a crash in the distance, and you rush outside to see the soft green glow of night vision goggles, as American soliders pour out of the sky, out of the dark, looking like robots, like nothing you've ever seen...

I would imagine it would be quite frightening. Does this make US the bad guys? That we inspire fear, intentionally?

Tips for livin'

Take it from me: If you ever have to battle a giant, seemingly invincible Rock Demon, take heart - you can win. All you need is one of the following:
A. Extreme cold
B. Extreme heat
C. A piece of the Rock Demon himself, by which to pierce his unpierceable Rock Demon hide.

Good luck, if this situation ever presents itself.

State of the Republican Party

It's all right here, in picture form! The crying! The whining! The lying!

Miss Swat Valley 2009

Pretty sexy, I know! The judges are gonna have a heck of a time picking a winner this year!

Never Forget

The aide said that guys like me were ‘’in what we call the reality-based community,’’ which he defined as people who ‘’believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ‘’That’s not the way the world really works anymore,’’ he continued. ‘’We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’’

Never forget what these assholes -- and the asshole minions who did their business -- have done to our country and the world.

Assholes all.

Blessings

We are all blessed, of course, because we are alive, here, reading this presumably. To be alive is the greatest blessing you could ever conceive of.

And yet, we take most, if not all, blessings for granted, and instead are on the look out for any situation where we feel aggrieved, or cheated, and then moan and wail about these situations, forgetting the blessing that is our very existence.

There are many other blessings that are bestowed upon us that are also quickly forgotten. I could go on and on in this category, but for the purposes of this post, let us focus on the Blessings of Those Not With Us.

Case in point, in some terrible alternate universe, right now we could have as President this:











And as Vice President, this:













Do you realize how Blessed we are -- the entire world is -- that we do not?

Let us take a moment to appreciate this.....

"Sanctity" of Marriage

O America! What turgid waters you've churned!

Cow Struck by Lightning

Lives to sue.... more at 10.


Also, cool design Sister!

Redshirt Mondays

One of these Redshirts will die while performing a Lube Job - can you guess which one?

1-20-09

I've been seeing this date in bumper sticker form since, oh, about 11/5/04; It always seemed so far away, and mythical, frankly. Like a fairy tale that's nice to recite, but no one actually believes it's true.

But, now, there can be no doubt: It's true.

The Scourge of the Bush Administration is gone! Sing freedom and hallelujah! We survived, the world survived, barely.


Good luck, President Obama -- you're gonna need it!

YUB NUB!

POTUS

There's a part of me that still doesn't believe it's real. But c'mon! The Electoral College is done, the Bushies seem to be on their way out, and here we have the first official photo of Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America.

Remarkable. Good job America!

Armchair Generals Reporting for duty, Sir!

Here we have the Armchair General manual of operations. A revealing glimpse into the mind of the machine - the Military Industrial Machine.

Remember! Nothing on the web can be trusted. I might be working for the Pentagon right now, dissembling, always dissembling....



Oh, and it's also time for.....










RED STATE STRIKE FORCE, ASSEMBLE!

Goodbye 2008!

2008; what can be said? A pretty craptacular year, save for the emergence of Obama, which makes all the crap well worth it.

I have great hopes in 2009 and in the years to come, because of Obama. He's not a messiah, but he is a smart, wise, and thoughtful man who will bring sanity back to our world, and truly begin the 21st Century.

'Bout Time!

I've come to realize that I will never have a flying car, as so often promised to me in the 1970's;

I've come to accept this, and I'm OK with it.

However, in lieu of this flying car, AND my serene acceptance of lack of said flying car, I would like a rocket pack, similar to but not necessarily the same as, this one.

Thanks in advance!

Redshirt

White Males Suck!

Am I right? I mean c'mon, look at this guy!

We're all Shoe Throwers now

Huzzah to the Shoe Thrower, and I pray that his continued detention and torture does not lead to violence on the streets of Iraq;

Mr. Malaki: Release that Shoe Thrower!

Inclusion

Here's hoping Obama remembers all FSM's children at his Inauguration; FSM knows Rick Warren cannot cover them all.


And FSM wishes you all Happy Meaningless Days!

Blagoblogate!

Pay to play, fucker!



And so we've begun the "Wingnuts chase Obama" game. I predicted Rezko, which is not done yet, but it was BLAGO! who came through.

It's a Tarp!

As L.E.S.T.E.R notes, it's the Troubled Asset Relief Program....


Or, how Fat Cats Help Fat Cats.


But what about the Mon Calamari? Where's their cut?

TGIF = TBIM

Science formulas for all you lay-volk:

Thesis:
The amount of excitement you engage in under the heading "Thank God It's Friday" will be inversely proportional to the amount of misery you suffer under the heading "Too Bad It's Monday".


It's a Trap, you see....

It's Friday (Hang in there Kitten!)

I can't stop reading political news sites. While this transition period is interesting, I've got to stop - it's an addiction.

So, I'm gonna try and go cold turkey this weekend. No Kos, No 538, No TPM, hell, no Sullivan; nope, instead, I think I'll rediscover the joys of.... outside???


Maybe not.

A New Hope

Can you still feel it? The Change?


Savor it, because in short order the lustre will fade, the extraordinary turned every day....


Now I know how Wedge Antilles felt on the 3rd moon of Endor, post Death Star destruction. AMIRIGHT?!

Yes We Did!

Illinois NAZI's for Obama

Semi-seriously! Here's a quote from Rocky Suhayda, leader of the American NAZI party:

White people are faced with either a negro or a total nutter who happens to have a pale face. Personally I’d prefer the negro. National Socialists are not mindless haters. Here, I see a white man, who is almost dead, who declares he wants to fight endless wars around the globe to make the world safe for Judeo-capitalist exploitation, who supports the invasion of America by illegals–basically a continuation of the last eight years of Emperor Bush. Then, we have a black man, who loves his own kind, belongs to a Black-Nationalist religion, is married to a black women–when usually negroes who have ‘made it’ immediately land a white spouse as a kind of prize–that’s the kind of negro that I can respect. Any time that a prominent person embraces their racial heritage in a positive manner, it’s good for all racially minded folks. Besides, America cares nothing for the interests of the white American worker, while having a love affair with just about every non-white on planet Earth. It’d be poetic justice to have a non-white as titular chief over this decaying modern Sodom and Gomorrah.

Predictions

When Obama is President....


-- Fox news will morph into a righteous critic of the government, intent on exposing "corruption" and "abuses of power".

-- The rest of the MSM will have far more interest in covering these very same stories.

-- REZKO will become unto WHITEWATER - a running "scandal (really, tell me: What was Whitewater about)" that Repugs demand be investigated by a Special Prosecutor; why? For Justice? Hell no! They will do everything and anything they can to obstruct Obama

-- Remember the phrase "Jack Booted Thugs"? Haven't heard that since about 1/1/01, I reckon. Expect to hear it again.


More as the Muse strikes....

Ground Game

Polls are looking great, Obama's campaign is looking great, but what really, really is going to drive home this victory is the respective Ground Games, or Get Out the Vote Effforts (GOTV).

If you haven't already found THE new site of 2008, go here and read the full, wonderful story.

To wit: The Bush campaign of 2004 defined GOTV efforts in recent American elections -- it's fair to say the Bush GOTV efforts won him the 2004 election.

This year, however, it's a completely different story. Not only has McCain never had a good ground game, even though he had several more months to set one up, but in these final days of the contest, he's shifting funds from GOTV efforts towards more commercials (no doubt dirty, hypocritical, and slanderous). This is a fundamental sign that things are not well in McCainland.

On the flip side, Obama's ground game makes Bush's 2004 efforts look like semi-pro wrestling; captilizing on the long primary, Obama supporters are everywhere, legion, all highly motivated to win this for not only Barack, but the America we all love (and not the America we've been turned into).

If you can do anything in these last few days to help out, it's easy to start. Go to barackobama.com and find the state your interested in. There will be lots of groups and efforts to choose from.

I'll be driving folks to the polls. If one person votes for Obama who would not have otherwise, it will all be worth it.

As Kos has been saying: "Leave it all on the road". Truly, now is the moment to crush the Neocons and end their influence in our country.

New Game cont.

Can you feel everything changing? Cuz it is.

From the "Onion Predicts the Future" File

Joe The Plumber, Fred the Forklift Driver.... you get the point:

Madness!