Defenders of the Poles

Send back your War Machine, man!

Santa exploits his elves, just like Keebler. In fact, Santa and Keebler are both members of the EBB. Co-incidence? I think not!

We, the Defenders of the Poles, shall expose these gross injustices of justice and root out the corrupt elfsploitation that is all too rampant in the cold nether regions of planet Earth. Join us! The link is in the upper right.

Poles (North and South), Represent!

We all play our part

Life is much like the WWF toy hockey game - you're controlled by forces far beyond your influence, assigned your set role and unable to move out of it, save the little wiggles in the tiny rut you call "your life". Mine too! In this parable you are the Hacksaw Jim Dugan character, and not the Hulk. Ain't that always the case?

But seriously, this artwork is magnificent. Note the detail in the customized hockey sticks, each suited to its owner. So you know, Hacksaw is the creepy looking guy in the top left of the ring, eating his 4x4 hockey stick. You ever feel like doing that? Me too!

Profiles in Manhood

Ah, men (human and alien). The cause of, what? 98% of the world's problems? All the wars, by far - by far - most of the crime, the violence and murder, the wanton cruelty of the powerful over the powerless. Men - if you had to exclusively and effectively profile one group, skip the Arabs or Russians or Chinese; profile every man - we're the cause of all the trouble!

For example, alcohol, and foolish behavior. Men excel at this, imbibing both with gusto. For example, chugging. Here's an oldy but always a goody:

A wonderful piece of art - please note the very partly consumed shrimp flying through the air. You put that much liquid into a semi-permeable container and at some point - quickly! - it's gotta come out.

Freudian Field Day, Chicago, 1983

I presume the Patriarchy was only fully established with the first cities, which by necessity required power structures to operate, and these were all run by men. From there, success leads to success, power leads to more power, and 1000's of generations have lived a massive dichotomy: Men run everything, and are the cause of all humanity's problems. Maybe it's time for something new?

Let's go Matriarchy! Women would do a better job of running everything, since they've got more in the game. Sure, perhaps over time, women with power would turn into bloodthirsty monsters bent on crushing all their enemies. But perhaps they would not! And that's better odds than with men, with whom we've had an ample sample size.

But alas! Divide and conquer does indeed prove ruthlessly effective, and all it takes to keep women from rightfully taking over is a small percentage of turncoats, or, in this case, women drinking alcohol, acting the fool.

Rock n' roll!

You're Not Supposed to Kill Your Goldstein

Here's Osama on his 3rd date with Zawahiri - he let him hold his gun. But seriously, do you think these men think they're monsters, or do you think they feel justified in their actions? Remember, even young Osama had dreams of flower power and groovy rock n' roll:

The internet tells me that smiling lad in the circle is a young Osama Bin Laden. Austin Powers style. Like all supposed monsters, he was a young man once, no doubt concerned about getting laid. But something happened, something learned, some spirit took hold and he went off to fight instead, and once you get used to violence, more violence is always easier, and mayhaps predictable. So, James Bond Villain style, Osama and his gang took on the World, and well, they're still holding their own. And, more crucially, our world has changed because of Osama's war:

Our society, Western society in general, has lost much in this war. We've become desensitized, beaten down, made to cower and worry in fear. Our media feeds us daily hates and THINGS THAT WILL KILL YOU and everything seems so much more extreme, in every way.

Except, thank FSM, we have this guy, this Obama guy. He's like magic, I tell you, and I feel we rolled triple 6's in this wacky game of Risk we call "Our Lives" and got the perfect leader. I knew Obama was the real deal way back, and so am almost never surprised by anything he does anymore. He's incredible  - consider, he was roasting Trump and being roasted himself all the while this Operation Kill Goldstein was getting prepped and ready. He was calling the shots every step of the way. He was laughing at an Osama joke - ha. He's so cool, our Prez, Barack Hussein Obama. Damn!

The Force is strong in this one. If you'd like to know more about President Obama's policies, or history, or anything, feel free to ask. I love talking Obama!

This is one of the first pics of Obama I ever did download. 12/07/07, in a store in Iowa. Keepin' it real.

Think any of this will change any wingnut's minds?

I doubt it. I doubt many things these days - like war can ever end, or even slow down anymore. Small wars, mind you. Nothing that would truly disrupt global business. The Military Industrial Complex is deeply entrenched in every major country, and there's no putting that genie back in the bottle. So Obama can try and wind down all these wars - and hey, maybe not get involved in any more? And did I mention I am a SUPER HIPPY? I amaze myself with this, but it's true. If I had my wish, there'd be no more war, and we'd all live in peace and fellowship with the other, working for the common good, all of our needs met and our lives filled with pleasure and satisfaction...

But yes, I also realize we live in a hard world, with hard men, in hard times. The kind of men who put a bullet into the eye socket of OBL last night.

Sadly, we've created legions of these guys. Goons, willing and able to do almost anything, violent. And they probably think like mercenaries  too - and Lord Knows there's lots of new mercenary outfits out there. Why not? The USA is more than willing to outsource the killing and torture. Money talks.

Think of what the last decade has done - all the war, the random bombings, the torture, the real and manufactured fear, it's all added up to a fundamentally changed world. We're a more extreme place these days, with tactics improved, ways of killing improved, ways of seeing and hiding and plotting improved... it's not good stuff, but some of it may turn out to be good in the end. We'll see, won't we? At least there will be lots of explosions - always fun!

Also, too: When Bush just simply stopped caring about OBL, circa 2003, I figured it was per the orders from the secret powers: Having OBL alive and out there was far more valuable to the Cause than killing/capturing him. The "Cause" was ruining this country and making themselves incredibly rich. This of course was the role Emmanual Goldstein played in the book 1984, which, again, if you've not read since High School, you should give it a go again. It's fantastic, and terrifying. Because the Right is using it like a playbook, and it's working.

So, this morning, I woke up wondering how the Right would mock or otherwise dismiss this moment for Obama. And there you have it: You're not supposed to kill your Goldstein, you fool!

(Also, also: Your connection to this post is "Bearded Crazy Religious Men".)

Amazon Women on the Barricades

This is a test shot from the original Wonder Woman TV show  - wonder why they didn't go with this outfit?

 Another test shot - closer to the mark. Wonder Woman of course was an Amazon princess somehow transported to modern times, and used her magic bracelets and lasso to fight crime. For some reason. Did you know the real Amazons are theorized to come from modern day Ukraine? Then called Sarmatia, up the road from Scythia. Lots of cool myths, half legends, conjecture, and maybe some fact. Read here.

I was thinking - as is my wont - that the gender equality we've created in America (not yet perfect, but getting closer all the time) sure is a double edged sword. Work sucks, and I suppose if trends continue, women will be fighting in the Empire's wars as often as men. Is this a good thing? Shouldn't we strive to hold onto a reliable, large group of people who are usually steadfastly for peace? Rather than raising more warriors?

Also, since I'm turning super Marxist, I tend to think of everything political these days from the perspective of "how will it benefit the ultra-fat cats?" The fat cats only want a few things: Power, money, and more of each please. More money is always a goal, and one way to do this is to pay as little as possible for labor. Slavery is the best (free!), but hard to maintain these days. So the goal then is to get as close to slavery while maintaining the illusion of freedom. Sounds like the last 30 years of American politics, right?


So, be careful what you wish for ladies. Equality is great, but with it comes a different type of oppression at the hands of The Man. 


The answer is Unions, of course. People power. All the people - since, as soon as some people accept that other people aren't as good as them, or don't deserve something they do, etc, The Man will use this division amongst the Peoples and deploy the age old divide and conquer strategy, which I think almost always works. Alas.

The last 30 years of society, explained

To be clear, it's all Reagan's fault. Well, he's the symbol of it, the guy who led the charge. But it's really of course the thousands and thousands of minions and acolytes who made it happen. But this is not a political post, but rather, cultural/fashion. Just don't forget the political background.

My thesis: It has been technology which has driven ALL major societal changes throughout the history of humanity. Fire, stone tools, metal tools, etc. What is new, recently, however, is the pace - we're on the upcurve of an exponential explosion in technology since the Industrial Revolution, but really and for my purposes, kicking in with the arrival of the computer.

The 80's are my focus here, as it is when several trends crystallized and gained strength, and now dominate nearly every aspect of American culture today. Everything 80's is pretty much in the picture above. But let me paint this picture for you - and yes, I spent about a half hour thinking about this, so I'm sure it's 100% correct.

For a long time, American society progressed and changed slowly. You could look at pics of businessmen in the 50's and and 20's and while the fashion's changed, the same air of formality, of tradition, permeated all.

Then came the first stirrings of the counterculture, inspired by jazz and blues and other African American creations, these trends first gained heavy traction in the culture with the Beats - Kerouac, Ginsberg, and all the rest. The Beats helped shaped/became the Hippies in short order, and this was a mainstream development. Again, look at the differences in clothing and behaviors from 1953 to 1963 to see what monumental changes took place at this time. And the key, parallel technology development of this time? The TV. That was the key.

The 1970's continued all of these trends, but now with a corresponding backlash from "conservatives" of every stripe - from sexism to racism to new ageism, here began our continuing war of "Punch the Hippy". It's very much still going on ("SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!" is as succinct a summary of this trend as possible). However, the larger forces of culture and technology continued to move on, with the perfect storm of the 1980's, in general.

Fashionwise, it's easy enough to see the progression from 60's hippies to 70's rhinestones and plaid to 80's day glo and pastels, and even working its way into 90's grunge and hip hop. I think we've stabilized the craziness on the fashion front since the 2000's, but maybe I'm still too close to the time period, and can't see it (Note! I realized in 1993 that fashion is idiotic by looking at pictures of myself from 1984; I vowed to try and dress in a "timeless" fashion from then on, though what is and is not timeless is of course hard to say at the time. My rule of thumb: The plainer the better. Always.)

But it's the technology that's key. Several huge developments in the 70's paved the way for quite an upheaval in American culture: Cable TV, and computers/video games, and portable music players. Each of these new technologies allowed an individual to create a shell - a world they no longer had to leave (or leave rarely). You could find out what kids in California were doing with ease now; you could hear the music that's popular in London overnight; you could play the same game you once played in an arcade (social setting) at home. And thus, the segmentation/fragmentation of culture - which again, is only continuing.

With all specializations - and that's what a segmentation of culture is to me - you have more extremes. Music can be more extreme; fashion, games, everything leads to more extremes, since you have people so focused on the particular topic, AND there's now a nearly real time feedback loop where you can build on the works of others very quickly.

The feedback loop only gets more extreme as well - the Web is the best example of this effect ever invented. And I suspect that too will only continue, as technology will soon allow our brains direct access to a web of other brains, leading no doubt to a cyborg future.

Till then, and only as an observation - I make no value judgments about any of this - we continue on these same paths built for us by poor black  jazz musicians and Jewish poets and a generation of  kids who now have it baked in their bones that the future is always more, faster, bigger, etc.

These trends all congealed around the Reagan Revolution, which led to a MASSIVE increase in the mindset of American consumer culture, leading directly to the outsourcing of most American manufacturing, and the subsequent destruction of economic fundamentals of the country. America exists today as a strip mall, supplied by China, populated by poor people deep in debt, brainwashed to believe their misery will go away if they can only get the newest flat screen tv, or whatever.


Until the dam breaks (external event), might as well enjoy the ride.

Klingon Smoove

I would ask you Worf, how are you going to pay for a fancy yacht? Federation Officers make exactly nada. Try the High Council if you're looking for some bling.

Almost Vacation Time!

What kind of worker's benefits do Santa's elves get? Do they even get paid, or are they slaves? Does Santa, like the evil Keebler, exploit his elves?