I'd like to raise a toast to the Illuminati. Keep fighting the good fight.

Pure brilliance. Awesome, stellar, diamond-hard brilliance.

H/T: Top Commenter, RG. Thanks, dude.

Insert Your Profanity Here

That line in the video just made me laugh out loud.

Joe Dan with another educational video in the ever growing curricula offered at Froglegs University.

F. U.

But, Joe, who doesn't love you?

Progressives are dinosaurs.

In this new Afterburner video, Bill Whittle points out, in his always reasoned and insightful way, that the age of centralized control -- the age of tyrants -- is finally drawing to a close. He likens them to dinosaurs. And we all know what happened to them.

I agree with his analysis. Life is simply moving too fast, for far too many people, for the governments of this world to continue to move like ponderous, lumbering giants and NOT get swept away as the dinosaurs did.

Extinction can be a good thing.


But extinction never comes without great pain, tragedy, and death.  When cataclysmic change happens, either in nature's environment or in man's, what can not or will not change is destroyed.

So let's not be surprised when they put up a fight.

Just saying.

Rituals

All kidding aside, if there is one New Year's resolution that I think is important to make, it's to resolve to slow down and consciously build rituals in my life.

With the memories of the holidays still warming to the heart, this is a wonderful video that speaks to the softness and gentle rhythm of days spent building rituals. A winter's walk through the forest, cutting down the tree, noticing the new growth of next year's fiddleheads, baking the recipes handed down from our mothers, gathering together against the cold to share life. We don't make rituals in our lives anymore. We hurry through life, running so fast we're like stones skipping over the surface of the pond. But there are great, wondrous, important things hidden in the depths of the pond, and it is in diving into these things, deliberately, consciously, that we create rituals. These things used to be the province of women who tended the fires, and baked the bread, and nurtured the community by weaving together the single, individual strands of sisters and cousins and neighbors into tightly-knit groups. Groups that laughed together, quietly, voices pressed down by the close warmth of company.

<>

Rituals once were a constant in people's lives. They used to come from religion, which we are rapidly abandoning, from women, whom we have liberated from the chore, from the seasons, which demanded attention for our very survival. But we no longer seem to need rituals, and consequently they have been tossed aside to lighten the load as we speed along until we are all skipping stones. Busy, busy, busy...going nowhere fast.

Rituals create mindfulness and build connections. Rituals give structure and meaning to the present, by shaping the experience of all who participate so that we are pulled closer by shared memories. Without rituals we are left to gather memories on our own from a jumble of constantly bouncing, rushing experiences, each of us pulling different impressions and pictures from the hectic scenes through which we move. Rituals slow us down and connect us.

I resolve to create rituals in my life. 

But they won't all involve bread, or I'll get big as a house.


H/T: Kitchen Vignettes

Hipster Flintstones

And their cars that ran on feet. You know that's coming...

These guys were prophetic.

H/T: To a very dear and funny friend.

My next project

Okay...I'm spending Christmas vacation attempting to create Bacon Crack. HAHAHA!

H/T: IMAO who posted this video which sent me down the rabbit hole...

Struggling with cool

There once was a time in my life when it was effortless to be cool. Cool wasn't something you did; cool was something you were. But, like staying skinny on a diet of pizza and ice cream, or waking up presentable on two hours of sleep, that time is long gone. It's so long gone down the road that it's out of sight, the dust has settled, and I'm standing there forlorn, abandoned, and beaten. I know this because I am reminded of it virtually every single day by my teen-aged daughter. For those of you who have managed to get through life without one of those, believe me, you have missed one of life's greatest joys. I love learning at this stage of my life that I am hopelessly out of step and that my best attempts at, well, almost anything, are woefully inadequate.

Who knew? Do. Not. Answer. That.

Coming home from school today, my daughter was monitoring the music. This is an activity that  she considers vital to the trip -- any trip -- and apparently it is a highly esoteric process with a number of variables, about which I haven't a clue. Numerous songs that I liked were being skipped, but when she came to "Somebody That I Used to Know", I said, "Let's listen to that. I haven't heard it in awhile."

"Oh please! That song has been done to DEATH! NO ONE listens to it now."

OOPS! Not cool. Whatever.

"I listen to it," I insisted. "They played it alot for awhile, but that was months ago. You used to like it. How did I miss that it stopped being cool?"

"You haven't seen this?"

And she took my phone and brought up this YouTube video.

And we laughed ourselves silly.

So, it seems when there are 6,000,000 views of a send up ridiculing how lame your song has become because it was too popular, you are officially uncool.

I remember when it was cool. That was when Rachel Lucas was writing about it. But that was back in July and I imagine she has known for some time the song had reached its zenith and descended into the NO LONGER COOL abyss.

Andy Warhol once said that everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. He was right. But I am from the era when people were famous for decades...or their whole lives. You got used to them. You could rely on them. Being cool wasn't that hard because it didn't change that fast. This fifteen minute stuff is really difficult for me to keep up with.

This Goes Double For Me

If even ONE reader of mine does not also read Rachel Lucas, you MUST pop over and see this post. It is superbly appropriate for the interminable waiting we all are feeling as we hunker down in our bunkers, ammo dry, waiting...waiting...waiting...not JUST for tomorrow, but for the results tomorrow night. Perhaps it is particularly pertinent to me as I am dieting away a pesky five pounds right now, which is one of those numbers that translates more often than not into "who gives a sh*t?" resulting in never getting through it entirely. Normally, just a couple of pounds off and I'm ON THAT PLATE!

HAHAHAHA!

But not this time.

This time it's for the win.

President Romney AND a size four. Then I'm gonna be like Dragon Baby, baaaaby!

That duck is next....

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.

May the best horse win.

Today was the Breeders Cup Classic, the richest horse race in Thoroughbred racing.

At 5:45 or so, the camera focuses on the horse's trainer, Ian Wilkes. Beside him is a woman, probably his wife, who so reminds me of myself. Not in looks, but in behavior. I would be just like that if my horse were winning -- arms pumping, screaming, clapping, jumping up and down. Yeah!

If your heart is racing, your breathing is ragged, you're screaming, "Oh, God!" over and over, and the whole thing only lasts around 2 minutes...it's probably a horse race.

How About We Try Electing a REAL President?

We tried going with the cool kid, but that didn't work. 

—23 Million Unemployed or Underemployed
—47 Million on Food Stamps
—5.5 Million Homes in Crisis/Foreclosure
—$4500 Drop in Household Income
—$5.5 Trillion of New Debt
—$716 Billion in Medicare Cuts
—$2.6 Trillion for Obamacare
—$1.9 Trillion in New Taxes in Obama’s Budget
—100% Increase in Gas Prices 

How about we try electing a real grownup, with a lifetime of real success to be a real president? What's the worst that could happen?

A Pictorial Essay of the Vice-Presidential Debate

ALWAYS  BE  BATMAN

When The Love Affair is Over

The digs about all your previously charming little personal habits start in...with a sharp shovel...to the skull.

I suspect Obama didn't spend it on women. Just saying....

President Romney. Say it like you MEAN it.

President Romney.
PRESident Romney.
President ROMney.

President Romney. Sir.












But who's the putz standing next to you? Lost to history. Bwaaahahaha!

HAHAHA! Someone is getting a scolding. It's the woodshed for you, young man.

Last night was sublime. It was delightful. It was pure keen.

It was about time.

Romney finally brought everything to the table. Obama, as always, brought nothing. Not even his teleprompter. What a contrast.

Chris Matthews got a massive butthurt watching it. Let the wailing and the gnashing begin.

Chris was left begging Obama to watch HIM more. That's your only advice? No leg tingles then, I'm guessing.

This morning Jim Lehrer is getting kicked to the curb by the left as well. How COULD he allow Obama to look so BAD? What the hell was Lehrer doing just sitting there while Romney handed him his ass over and over again? Wasn't Lehrer aware that his JOB was to save President Empty Chair from getting smacked around like a lunchroom folding chair by a kid Michelle has just denied an extra dessert?

NEW YORK (AP) — Jim Lehrer may be regretting his decision to come out of semi-retirement and moderate his 12th presidential debate.

The veteran PBS anchor drew caustic social media reviews for his performance on Wednesday, with critics saying he failed to keep control of the campaign’s first direct exchange between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. The candidates talked over Lehrer’s attempts to keep them to time limitations, and his open-ended questions frequently lacked sharpness.

Hell, even Obama seemed annoyed at the lack of control. Early on, he suggested that they move on to something else, obviously tired of getting bloodied. But the beating had just begun and Romney still had a lot of swing left in that right arm.

Tweets went out between campaigns and Obama's camp wrote: "Romney is a good debater. This is not a game changer, though."

Romney campaign tweeted back: "If this had been a game, the ref would have called it."

Over at Rachel Lucas's blog, Physics Geek nails it.

The Moral Hypocrisy of the Left

Remember this?

Remember how this picture gave us our talking points? How we were supposed to mock her patrician, out of touch "hobbies", the disgraceful way she threw around her money...on a horse!??! How DARE she? This was all the proof the left needed that the Romneys were completely evil. They didn't care! They owned a horse, ferchrissakes!

Get the freaking pitchforks and torches!

But when Obama sidesteps a meeting with Netanyahu on the heels of attacks on our embassies, attacks that left Americans dead, misses his security meeting and flies off to Vegas for a fundraiser, we're supposed to be reassured that he is staying on top of things with his iPad or something. He's just that smart.

And we are never to forget that he cares. About us. The little people. Very little.

This little soiree with Beyonce and Jay-Z and a $105,000 tower of champagne at a fundraiser that cost $40,000 a pop to attend is just another example of the kind of hard, tough choices that Obama makes for us every day.

Bless him. The sacrifices he makes for us all.

Just remember, Ann Romney owns a horse. That's all you need to know.

Bring back the stocks

A little shame in a society is a healthy thing. It serves not only to punish and correct the behavior of the person who has transgressed society's norms, but -- perhaps more importantly -- it serves to reaffirm society's agreement with those norms.

No one likes to be shamed. That's why it works, kittens.

Actually, we still experience shame in society, for it will always be a powerful motivator of human behavior. But now, ironically, shame is meted out by the left for transgressions against political correctness and wrong thinking. CODE! 

And if that doesn't work, there's always jail time.

"Innocence of Muslims" filmmaker being taken in for questioning.

So shame never goes away, but it's important to realize who metes it out and for what crimes.

Andrew Klavan, in his usually witty style, illustrates the absurdity of where shame is leading us now that the left is in charge of it.

But please go and read his accompanying article to this video. It. Is. Bloody. Brilliant. 

Honest.

H/T: Andrew Klavan and RG, Top Notch Commenter

He's making a list...he's checking it twice

Obama may not have a list...or a plan, but Paul Ryan has both. Here's his list. Let's compare this with the Democrats' plan, which is: SPEND MORE MONEY.

* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy (Self-flagellation fund)– $445 million annual savings.
* Save America’s Treasures Program (Starving artist fund) — $25 million annual savings.
* International Fund for Ireland (Guinness fund)– $17 million annual savings.
* Legal Services Corporation (Obstruction fund) — $420 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Arts (elitist crony fund)– $167.5 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Humanities (atheism fund)– $167.5 million annual savings.

It's a long list. Find the rest at Joan of Argghh's Primordial Slack.

Tonight....WE ARE DUMB!

Actually, that's optimistic. As Ron White says, "Stupid is forever."

This young girl did a parody video using Justin Bieber's song, Boyfriend, a while ago. She's very good. Here she is using Fun's song, We Are Young.

H/T: Harvey at IMAO.

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.

"Idiots...it's for you."

From noted Top Notch Commenter, RG. Thanks, man. You're awesome.