Artists are never really understood.

And he probably didn't have health insurance, either, because he never held a decent job.

Beautiful things.

Because life isn't all politics. In fact, in a perfect world, life would almost never be about politics.

So enjoy the newest issue of Styling. Brew a cup of tea and sit down with a few madeleines to nibble. Previous issues can be drooled over at Coty's website.

Dinesh D'Souza and AMERICA

Demand a Plan. NOW!

Now that I've posted this, I feel like a famous, beautiful, awesomely wise, smart and caring celebrity, too!! I'm famous! I'm SMART! I CARE!!!

But not about you. Not anymore. Now that I'm famous, you're just one of the "little people". I'll be taking that gun now, thank you. I'll let my armed body guard hold it until the "authorities" arrive.

Stupid little people. HOW MANY MORE??? You don't care about anyone but yourself.

(Oh GOD! I love myself!!)

It's Sunday Morning

Think about it. That is exactly the answer we should all give.

The original Scrooge was a duo

Life Imitating Art

Well, if you can even call it art.

Years ago I laughed my head off at this video. I have ridden more than a few horses whose name should have been "Nasty Attitude." And I've been in enough show barns to attest to the fact that every other name in this video is a nickname for some expensive pony. HAHAHAHA!

WARNING!!!! NSFW! Or even around small children and pets.

So this ACTUAL race at Monmouth Park is deliciously hysterical to me as the names of the horses are real. Of course, "My Wife Knows Everything" wins. Did you any doubt?

See, guys, it's that LITTLE bit of doubt that gets you into such trouble.

Waging Christmas

With Thanksgiving leftovers finished up and all the turkey-shaped platters safely stowed, it is now time to wage Christmas. We have a neighborhood here that is completely INSANE about Christmas, with every house doing its damndest to outshine the next one. I am certain thousands of polar bears are gasping their last breaths somewhere because of the massive overuse of electricity in my town alone.

Fortunately we do not live in this neighborhood. Our home is in an area that is so secluded we can't see anyone - and they can't see us - from any direction, so the need to please others is nonexistent. But just between you and me, the need to please others would remain nonexistent if I were dead center in the Christmas Crazies' Neighborhood. Oh, I might feel compelled to do a little something.... 

Just to show I can get in the Christmas spirit, too.

 But I would be far more likely to stage a poignant tableau. I call it, "Christmas Mourning."

I am at the top.

Still struggling to find ANYTHING to be upbeat about. This is going to take awhile.

This is what keeps going through my head

Freedom or Fairness - UPDATED! I'VE BEEN LINKED AT IMAO!

Joe Dan Gorman has been composing, singing, writing and producing great stuff for years. He now has another website, Intellectual Froglegs, where he posts pithy, pertinent, and priceless videos.

Here is his latest one:

Freedom or fairness. That is what is all comes down to, kittens. This distinction is one of the most telling differences between the liberal view of "good" and the conservative view of "good".

These two ideas are, inevitably, mutually exclusive. Freedom creates unfairness; fairness can only be achieved by destroying freedom. 

To the liberal, outcome or results are the most important things in determining whether a society is good or not. Their entire sense of morality is measured on external, material circumstances. To the liberal mind, all people should have "things." What those things are depends on the moment in history and the promises made by the men in power. To Lenin the things were bread and peace, to Hitler they were healthcare and education. Liberals waste no intellectual contemplation of the interior environment of a man, his dreams, aspirations, beliefs, motives, desires; they are too busy redistributing things. If anything, the individual dreams of men alarm and frustrate the left because they can not control them. They CAN control the distribution of things. But you need power to control things.

The left loves power. Everything they believe in can only be achieved through the exercise of political power. Everything. All of it. Because what they want doesn't exist and will never exist. So you must use power to FORCE it into existence. It reminds me of the old expression, "If it doesn't fit, get a bigger hammer."

The left is always reaching for a bigger hammer.

In contrast, the right values freedom, not social or economic "fairness."  We understand that fairness of outcome does not and can not exist among free men. We understand that the only fairness that can morally be expressed by a free society is the fairness of the just use of power. When power (justice) is "blind" and all men can expect the same treatment in the application of power within society, where power is used only to prevent injurious behavior, then men are free. When power instead becomes a tool to create "fairness", then all men are slaves, chained to the demands of others. Whether you are a slave to one master, or a slave to many, you are still a slave.

This difference between the left and the right is fundamental and irreconcilable. It springs from different moral imperatives, different values. While the left values fairness which requires the expansion of power, the right values freedom which requires the restraint of power.

We will never get along.

Here is another one of my favorite Joe Dan videos from a couple of years ago which highlights Joe Dan's composing and singing talent. Get to know him. He's good.

I will never get used to being recognized by the blogs I've been reading for years. I am such an attention whore. Someone needs to shove me back into my seat.

Story Time

This is my last post before heading off on vacation. I just wanted to leave you with a lovely little children's story. Strong Bad celebrates diversity.

Ladies and gentlemen...I give you.....

Okay, now I am officially creeped out

This starts pretty well and the concept of shadow dancing is cool. But then at around 00:48, the big hand turns one of the dancers into a "dog" and things get weird because the dog looks more like a creature with a strangely deformed calf head on a woman's body than a dog. From that moment on I had visions of The Island of Doctor Moreau as I watched it.

Once that image got into my little pea-brain it was all over. I just kept seeing a weirdly deformed and super creepy half-calf, low-fat vente latte dancing around. I just KNEW if the lights had come up and the dancers could be seen, they would look like this:

So, as I said, I am now officially creeped out.

If you are now too...I'm sorry.

If you're not...what is the matter with you?

License Plate Wisdom

Not. Getting. In. That. Car.

Especially if you don't have a buck for a condom. WAR ON WOMEN!!!

This may be good advice if the Zombie Apocalypse happens.

The grand finale -- like fireworks on the 4th!

You know, I'd say those Virginians have a wacky sense of humor.

And now, for your musical interlude

A young woman steps up to the karaoke mike and blows everyone away.





H/T: Scott Ott

Get Over It

In The Line Of Fire

Clint Eastwood's performance Thursday night at the RNC has certainly put him in the line of fire. I am also certain he knew it would.

As an audience, we are conditioned to expect that speakers in a political environment will deliver a political speech. We expect a certain pitch, a certain cadence. We expect a certain focus. We expect them to be cheerleaders for the main event and to deliver a speech to the base.

Clint did not do what was expected. He did what he wanted to do. He acted. The result was brilliant. Clint Eastwood went out on stage and played a role. Nobody in the incredibly intelligent and sophisticated media "got" it - an actor, acting. But Mark Steyn did.

PLAY CLINTY FOR ME

Like William F. Gavin, I hugely enjoyed Clint Eastwood’s turn last night, but I’m not sure I agree that it was “unintentionally hilarious” and that “he forgot his lines, lost his way.” Clint is a brilliant actor, and a superb director of other actors (and I don’t just mean a quarter-century ago: In the last five years, he’s directed eight films). He’s also, as Mr. Gavin observed, a terrific jazz improviser at the piano — and, in film and music documentaries, an extremely articulate interviewee. So I wouldn’t assume that the general tenor of his performance wasn’t exactly as he intended. The hair was a clue: No Hollywood icon goes out on stage like that unless he means to.

Clint playing the part of the "Everyman". The American voter.

Clint went out on stage and, playing a part, MOCKED our president. He could not, as himself, have done that without appearing petty and impolite. He is not a commentator or a stand up comedian. He is an ACTOR. So he chose to play the part of a wise, frustrated voter speaking to the average American in a manner that was natural and unaffected.

That's the real beauty of great acting - the affectation of acting appears completely natural and unaffected.

And NOBODY got that. (Okay, nobody in the media or on the left got that.)

Clint acted so brilliantly that everyone thought it was real. That he truly was some crazy old man up there on stage who had lost his way and was awkwardly trying to think of what to say while talking to an empty chair.

GOT YA!

"Go f*&k yourself."

Liberals are so stupid. They NEVER get when you're making fun of them. Never.

Somehow these two stories go together

Grizzly bear kills hiker in Alaska park

A LONE backpacker has been mauled to death by a grizzly bear in a US national park in Alaska after taking pictures of it from close range, the National Parks Service and reports say. 

The victim from San Diego, California, was photographing the animal from less than 45 metres away - contrary to guidelines advising staying away from bears - in Denali National Park on Friday when he was attacked.

And eaten.

And then we learn this.

Average bear could be pretty smart

Computer tests of solitary species reveal animals’ ability to learn concepts

American black bears that take computerized tests by pawing, nose-bumping or licking a touch screen may rival great apes when it comes to learning concepts.

Eat a hippie. Prove you're smart. It's like an IQ test for God's creatures.

I Am a Racist

I hate whitey.

All kinds of whites.

White is boring and visually undefined. Yawn.

Color -- rich, glorious, emotionally-charged -- has an impact that stuffy old whitey never can.

A Mark Hampton library. Doesn't this just ooze comfort?

Dark colors actually illuminate a space, highlighting beloved treasures.

Could white walls EVER make you feel as cheery as this room instantly does?

I am always amazed at the reluctance of people to use color in their homes. What's the worst that could happen? You waste a day painting...and...okay...another day repainting. But honestly! Isn't a little risk worth having surroundings that rejoice in saturated, lovely color?

And paint is cheap! So...DO IT!

H/T: Cote de Texas and (my favorite designer) Mark Hampton

This Will Not End Well

Both of these boys are going to be a whole lot smarter in a minute.