"...but I deserve it. Did you see my white skin?"
Remember what this is about.
They are the takers
"Those people. Those people over there. The black people. They are soooo entitled. Why should America pay for their welfare?"
"...but I deserve it. Did you see my white skin?"
Remember what this is about.
"...but I deserve it. Did you see my white skin?"
Remember what this is about.
Monogram
Monogram
by Robert Rauschenberg
1955-59
Oil
paint, printed paper, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber heel
and tennis ball on canvas, with oil paint on angora goat and tire on
wooden base mounted on four casters
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
One of Rauschenberg's most famous works, Monogram, pushed the art world's buttons by further merging painting and sculpture as the combine moved from the wall to the pedestal. While he began with traditional materials - an abstract painting executed in oil on stretched canvas - he abandoned tradition by adding an assemblage of found objects on top of the painting to create a canonical, three-dimensional combine painting. Rauschenberg often acquired materials for his artwork on his meanderings about New York City, allowing chance encounters with found objects to dictate his artistic output, and Monogram was no exception. In one of his wanderings in the early 1950s, Rauschenberg found and purchased a stuffed angora goat from an office supply store and later encircled it with a tire he encountered in street trash. He applied paint to the goat's snout in gestural brushstrokes that quoted Abstract Expressionism. On top of the canvas, Rauschenberg surrounded the goat with a pasture of more detritus strewn about its hooves - including a tennis ball, a wooden plank, and several found and reproduced images.
Similar to his earlier combine, Bed (1955), Monogram is a work that engages the viewer on multiple levels, as they look at, down, and around the interwoven elements of the work all vying for the viewer's attention at once. However, despite many varied interpretations, Rauschenberg refused to hint at any predetermined meaning of the different symbols within the work, instead allowing viewers to create their own associations between the objects and images. Despite Rauschenberg's insistence against specific meanings of the work, often critics interpret the tire-ringed goat as a symbol of the artist's sexuality, as well as his role within the art world, trampling over tradition with his own artistic monogram.
Space Porn
This isn't Interstellar. This isn't Gravity. It is some very new space porn that puts your perspective very much into space. If you are a space geek, you have to see this. So beautiful.
I hope this is the future for us.
Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist
from Erik Wernquist
on Vimeo.
Merry Christmas!
I hope this is the future for us.
Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist
from Erik Wernquist
on Vimeo.
Merry Christmas!
Sea Legs by The Shins
This song has been stuck in my head for days now. I can't shake it. It's cool, though. It is probably my favorite Shins song.
"Sea Legs"
Of all the churning random hearts
Under the sun
Eventually fading into night,
These two are opening now
As we lie, I touch you
Under fuller light.
Girl, if you're a seascape
I'm a listing boat, for the thing carries every hope.
I invest in a single light.
The choice is yours to be loved
Come away from an emptier boat.
'Cause when the dead moon
Rises again
We've no time to start a protocol
To have us in.
And when the dog slides
Underneath a train,
There's no cry, no use to searching for
What mutts remain.
Throw all consequence aside
The chill aspire, people set alight.
Of all the intersecting lines in the sand
I routed a labyrinth to your lap.
I never used a map sliding off the land
On an incidental tide,
And along the way you know, they try
They try.
And we got sea legs
And we're off tonight
Can I've that to which they've no right?
You belong to a simpler time
I'm a victim to the impact of these words,
And this rhyme.
'Cause when that dead moon
Rises again
We've no time to start a protocol
To have us in.
And when the dog slides,
Open the door, and where'd she go?
There's no time, no use to searching for
The mutts remains.
Throw consequence aside
And the chill aspire, people set alight.
Of all the churning random hearts
Under the sun
Eventually fading into night,
These two are opening now
As we lie, I touch you
Under fuller light.
Girl, if you're a seascape
I'm a listing boat, for the thing carries every hope.
I invest in a single light.
The choice is yours to be loved
Come away from an emptier boat.
'Cause when the dead moon
Rises again
We've no time to start a protocol
To have us in.
And when the dog slides
Underneath a train,
There's no cry, no use to searching for
What mutts remain.
Throw all consequence aside
The chill aspire, people set alight.
Of all the intersecting lines in the sand
I routed a labyrinth to your lap.
I never used a map sliding off the land
On an incidental tide,
And along the way you know, they try
They try.
And we got sea legs
And we're off tonight
Can I've that to which they've no right?
You belong to a simpler time
I'm a victim to the impact of these words,
And this rhyme.
'Cause when that dead moon
Rises again
We've no time to start a protocol
To have us in.
And when the dog slides,
Open the door, and where'd she go?
There's no time, no use to searching for
The mutts remains.
Throw consequence aside
And the chill aspire, people set alight.
Mirror Mirror on the Wall
Mirror Mirror on the Wall
Mirror Mirror on the Wall
Mirror Mirror on the Wall
oil on canvas
11" x 14"
José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros
José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros
José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros
Have a Safe Christmas!
This is how ammosexuals celebrate Xmas! Is that girl pointing her gun at Santa?!
The only thing missing is the loving and peaceful baby Jesus.
The only thing missing is the loving and peaceful baby Jesus.
This guy shutdown the police
I hate that I'm enjoying seeing cops get their asses handed to them.
The problem is that cops have a serious job. They have a serious job that many do not take very seriously. It is no big deal for these cops to toss this guy's house, cuff him and ruin his life. That is way too easy. It should be a little harder to ruin a person's life.
Militarizing my fence
I have had... seven... maybe eight break-ins into my property in recent months. The hooligans hop my fence and toss mine and the other cars in my lot.
I lost a pretty flash pair of Gucci sunglasses - a $385 pair of Gucci sunglasses to one of these petty criminals. They were freaking prescription-lensed. I hope that punk is wearing them and too damn dense to know that the headaches are coming from the inability to see properly.
The breaches have gone as far as an attempt to break into the first floor apartment. They ripped off the window screen before my neighbor's Doberman barked that bastard off the property. Packages that the lazy UPS flunkie just tossed into the front yard have been stolen. Bike seats have been stolen. Whole bikes have been stolen from as high up as from the third floor back deck. It takes some brass to "penetrate" that far onto my property.
It seems that what they do is they push the neighboring building's trash can up against my fence and hop over to land on my dumpster. That is how they break into my property and this shit stops now.
My dumpster has to stay where it is. I can't alter that aspect. I tried installing lights. They haven't been very deterred by all of my security lighting endeavors. I have the place lit up like Vegas. Next, I can try upgrading the fence. I can make it a deterrent by adding some iron spikes.
I think these, pointy little beauties could do some damage. With any luck, these jag-offs will not be deterred, will get up there, slip and become a big, bleeding decoration for all to see.
This may sound weird, but I installed these caps with Gorilla Glue. Yep, went through a lot of that stuff. The caps are on there real good, though. Gorilla Glue bonds metal to metal pretty well.
I will need to remove the excess dried glue. It is really taking away from the stylish beauty of the "fleur de li"-like shape. I will then paint the whole thing with Rust-oleum. It'll look sharp and hopefully, be dangerous to burglars.
Torture warm fuzzies
Let's overlook how disgusting it is to use this image in this manner, what these fine folks are telling us is that they don't care that torture doesn't work, that it provides no meaningful information, that they just like it because it makes them feel all warm and fuzzy inside when people they don't like are caused pain and suffering - regardless of if they are actually guilty of anything.
h/t The Politburo of Teabilly Mockery
We are awesome!
"It is impossible to hold us to an impossible standard like 'not torture'. Sometimes, you just gotta torture!"
What My Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege
by jdowsett at A Little More Sauce
The phrase "white privilege" is one that rubs a lot of white people the wrong way. It can trigger something in them that shuts down conversation or at least makes them very defensive. (Especially those who grew up relatively less privileged than other folks around them). And I've seen more than once where this happens and the next move in the conversation is for the person who brought up white privilege to say, "The reason you're getting defensive is because you're feeling the discomfort of having your privilege exposed."
I'm sure that's true sometimes. And I'm sure there are a lot of people, white and otherwise, who can attest to a kind of a-ha moment or paradigm shift where they "got" what privilege means and they did realize they had been getting defensive because they were uncomfortable at having their privilege exposed. But I would guess that more often than not, the frustration and the shutting down is about something else. It comes from the fact that nobody wants to be a racist. And the move "you only think that because you're looking at this from the perspective of privilege" or the more terse and confrontational "check your privilege!" kind of sound like an accusation that someone is a racist (if they don't already understand privilege). And the phrase "white privilege" kind of sounds like, "You are a racist and there's nothing you can do about it because you were born that way."
And if this were what "white privilege" meant—which it is not—defensiveness and frustration would be the appropriate response. But privilege talk is not intended to make a moral assessment or a moral claim about the privileged at all. It is about systemic imbalance. It is about injustices that have arisen because of the history of racism that birthed the way things are now. It's not saying, "You're a bad person because you're white." It's saying, "The system is skewed in ways that you maybe haven't realized or had to think about precisely because it's skewed in YOUR favor."
I am white. So I have not experienced racial privilege from the "under" side firsthand. But my children (and a lot of other people I love) are not white. And so I care about privilege and what it means for racial justice in our country. And one experience I have had firsthand, which has helped me to understand privilege and listen to privilege talk without feeling defensive, is riding my bike.
Now, I know, it sounds a little goofy at first. But stick with me. Because I think that this analogy might help some white people understand privilege talk without feeling like they're having their character attacked.
About five years ago I decide to start riding my bike as my primary mode of transportation. As in, on the street, in traffic. Which is enjoyable for a number of reasons (exercise, wind in yer face, the cool feeling of going fast, etc.) But the thing is, I don't live in Portland or Minneapolis. I live in the capital city of the epicenter of the auto industry: Lansing, MI. This is not, by any stretch, a bike-friendly town. And often, it is down-right dangerous to be a bike commuter here.
Now sometimes its dangerous for me because people in cars are just blatantly a**holes to me. If I am in the road—where I legally belong—people will yell at me to get on the sidewalk. If I am on the sidewalk—which is sometimes the safest place to be—people will yell at me to get on the road. People in cars think its funny to roll down their window and yell something right when they get beside me. Or to splash me on purpose. People I have never met are angry at me for just being on a bike in "their" road and they let me know with colorful language and other acts of aggression.
I can imagine that for people of color life in a white-majority context feels a bit like being on a bicycle in midst of traffic. They have the right to be on the road, and laws on the books to make it equitable, but that doesn't change the fact that they are on a bike in a world made for cars. Experiencing this when I'm on my bike in traffic has helped me to understand what privilege talk is really about.
Now most people in cars are not intentionally aggressive toward me. But even if all the jerks had their licenses revoked tomorrow, the road would still be a dangerous place for me. Because the whole transportation infrastructure privileges the automobile. It is born out of a history rooted in the auto industry that took for granted that everyone should use a car as their mode of transportation. It was not built to be convenient or economical or safe for me.
And so people in cars—nice, non-aggressive people—put me in danger all the time because they see the road from the privileged perspective of a car. E.g., I ride on the right side of the right lane. Some people fail to change lanes to pass me (as they would for another car) or even give me a wide berth. Some people fly by just inches from me not realizing how scary/dangerous that is for me (like if I were to swerve to miss some roadkill just as they pass). These folks aren't aggressive or hostile toward me, but they don't realize that a pothole or a build up of gravel or a broken bottle, which they haven't given me enough room to avoid–because in a car they don't need to be aware of these things–could send me flying from my bike or cost me a bent rim or a flat tire.
So the semi driver who rushes past throwing gravel in my face in his hot wake isn't necessarily a bad guy. He could be sitting in his cab listening to Christian radio and thinking about nice things he can do for his wife. But the fact that "the system" allows him to do those things instead of being mindful of me is a privilege he has that I don't. (I have to be hyper-aware of him).
This is what privilege is about. Like drivers, nice, non-aggressive white people can move in the world without thinking about the "potholes" or the "gravel" that people of color have to navigate, or how things that they do—not intending to hurt or endanger anyone—might actually be making life more difficult or more dangerous for a person of color.
Nice, non-aggressive drivers that don't do anything at all to endanger me are still privileged to pull out of their driveway each morning and know that there are roads that go all the way to their destination. They don't have to wonder if there are bike lanes and what route they will take to stay safe. In the winter, they can be certain that the snow will be plowed out of their lane into my lane and not the other way around.
And it's not just the fact that the whole transportation infrastructure is built around the car. It's the law, which is poorly enforced when cyclists are hit by cars, the fact that gas is subsidized by the government and bike tires aren't, and just the general mindset of a culture that is in love with cars after a hundred years of propaganda and still thinks that bikes are toys for kids and triathletes.
So when I say the semi driver is privileged, it isn't a way of calling him a bad person or a man-slaughterer or saying he didn't really earn his truck, but just way of acknowledging all that–infrastructure, laws, gov't, culture–and the fact that if he and I get in a collision, I will probably die and he will just have to clean the blood off of his bumper. In the same way, talking about racial privilege isn't a way of telling white people they are bad people or racists or that they didn't really earn what they have.
It's a way of trying to make visible the fact that system is not neutral, it is not a level-playing field, it's not the same experience for everyone. There are biases and imbalances and injustices built into the warp and woof of our culture. (The recent events in Ferguson, MO should be evidence enough of this–more thoughts on that here). Not because you personally are a racist, but because the system has a history and was built around this category "race" and that's not going to go away over night (or even in 100 years). To go back to my analogy: Bike lanes are relatively new, and still just kind of an appendage on a system that is inherently car-centric.
So–white readers–the next time someone drops the p-word, try to remember they aren't calling you a racist or saying you didn't really earn your college degree, they just want you to try empathize with how scary it is to be on a bike sometimes (metaphorically speaking).
One last thing: Now, I know what it is like to be a white person engaged in racial reconciliation or justice work and to feel like privilege language is being used to silence you or to feel frustrated that you are genuinely trying to be a part of the solution not the problem but every time you open your mouth someone says, "Check you privilege." (I.e., even though privilege language doesn't mean "You are one of the bad guys," some people do use it that way). So if you'll permit me to get a few more miles out of this bike analogy (ya see what I did there?), I think it can help encourage white folks who have felt that frustration to stay engaged and stay humble.
I have a lot of "conversations" with drivers. Now, rationally, I know that most drivers are not jerks. But I have a long and consistent history of bad experiences with drivers and so, when I've already been honked at or yelled at that day, or when I've read a blog post about a fellow cyclist who's been mowed down by a careless driver, it's hard for me to stay civil.
But when I'm not so civil with a "privileged" driver, it's not because I hate him/her, or think s/he is evil. It's because it's the third time that day I got some gravel in the face. So try to remember that even if you don't feel like a "semi driver," a person of color might be experiencing you the way a person on a bike experiences being passed by a semi. Even if you're listening to Christian radio.
The phrase "white privilege" is one that rubs a lot of white people the wrong way. It can trigger something in them that shuts down conversation or at least makes them very defensive. (Especially those who grew up relatively less privileged than other folks around them). And I've seen more than once where this happens and the next move in the conversation is for the person who brought up white privilege to say, "The reason you're getting defensive is because you're feeling the discomfort of having your privilege exposed."
I'm sure that's true sometimes. And I'm sure there are a lot of people, white and otherwise, who can attest to a kind of a-ha moment or paradigm shift where they "got" what privilege means and they did realize they had been getting defensive because they were uncomfortable at having their privilege exposed. But I would guess that more often than not, the frustration and the shutting down is about something else. It comes from the fact that nobody wants to be a racist. And the move "you only think that because you're looking at this from the perspective of privilege" or the more terse and confrontational "check your privilege!" kind of sound like an accusation that someone is a racist (if they don't already understand privilege). And the phrase "white privilege" kind of sounds like, "You are a racist and there's nothing you can do about it because you were born that way."
And if this were what "white privilege" meant—which it is not—defensiveness and frustration would be the appropriate response. But privilege talk is not intended to make a moral assessment or a moral claim about the privileged at all. It is about systemic imbalance. It is about injustices that have arisen because of the history of racism that birthed the way things are now. It's not saying, "You're a bad person because you're white." It's saying, "The system is skewed in ways that you maybe haven't realized or had to think about precisely because it's skewed in YOUR favor."
I am white. So I have not experienced racial privilege from the "under" side firsthand. But my children (and a lot of other people I love) are not white. And so I care about privilege and what it means for racial justice in our country. And one experience I have had firsthand, which has helped me to understand privilege and listen to privilege talk without feeling defensive, is riding my bike.
Now, I know, it sounds a little goofy at first. But stick with me. Because I think that this analogy might help some white people understand privilege talk without feeling like they're having their character attacked.
About five years ago I decide to start riding my bike as my primary mode of transportation. As in, on the street, in traffic. Which is enjoyable for a number of reasons (exercise, wind in yer face, the cool feeling of going fast, etc.) But the thing is, I don't live in Portland or Minneapolis. I live in the capital city of the epicenter of the auto industry: Lansing, MI. This is not, by any stretch, a bike-friendly town. And often, it is down-right dangerous to be a bike commuter here.
Now sometimes its dangerous for me because people in cars are just blatantly a**holes to me. If I am in the road—where I legally belong—people will yell at me to get on the sidewalk. If I am on the sidewalk—which is sometimes the safest place to be—people will yell at me to get on the road. People in cars think its funny to roll down their window and yell something right when they get beside me. Or to splash me on purpose. People I have never met are angry at me for just being on a bike in "their" road and they let me know with colorful language and other acts of aggression.
I can imagine that for people of color life in a white-majority context feels a bit like being on a bicycle in midst of traffic. They have the right to be on the road, and laws on the books to make it equitable, but that doesn't change the fact that they are on a bike in a world made for cars. Experiencing this when I'm on my bike in traffic has helped me to understand what privilege talk is really about.
Now most people in cars are not intentionally aggressive toward me. But even if all the jerks had their licenses revoked tomorrow, the road would still be a dangerous place for me. Because the whole transportation infrastructure privileges the automobile. It is born out of a history rooted in the auto industry that took for granted that everyone should use a car as their mode of transportation. It was not built to be convenient or economical or safe for me.
And so people in cars—nice, non-aggressive people—put me in danger all the time because they see the road from the privileged perspective of a car. E.g., I ride on the right side of the right lane. Some people fail to change lanes to pass me (as they would for another car) or even give me a wide berth. Some people fly by just inches from me not realizing how scary/dangerous that is for me (like if I were to swerve to miss some roadkill just as they pass). These folks aren't aggressive or hostile toward me, but they don't realize that a pothole or a build up of gravel or a broken bottle, which they haven't given me enough room to avoid–because in a car they don't need to be aware of these things–could send me flying from my bike or cost me a bent rim or a flat tire.
So the semi driver who rushes past throwing gravel in my face in his hot wake isn't necessarily a bad guy. He could be sitting in his cab listening to Christian radio and thinking about nice things he can do for his wife. But the fact that "the system" allows him to do those things instead of being mindful of me is a privilege he has that I don't. (I have to be hyper-aware of him).
This is what privilege is about. Like drivers, nice, non-aggressive white people can move in the world without thinking about the "potholes" or the "gravel" that people of color have to navigate, or how things that they do—not intending to hurt or endanger anyone—might actually be making life more difficult or more dangerous for a person of color.
Nice, non-aggressive drivers that don't do anything at all to endanger me are still privileged to pull out of their driveway each morning and know that there are roads that go all the way to their destination. They don't have to wonder if there are bike lanes and what route they will take to stay safe. In the winter, they can be certain that the snow will be plowed out of their lane into my lane and not the other way around.
And it's not just the fact that the whole transportation infrastructure is built around the car. It's the law, which is poorly enforced when cyclists are hit by cars, the fact that gas is subsidized by the government and bike tires aren't, and just the general mindset of a culture that is in love with cars after a hundred years of propaganda and still thinks that bikes are toys for kids and triathletes.
So when I say the semi driver is privileged, it isn't a way of calling him a bad person or a man-slaughterer or saying he didn't really earn his truck, but just way of acknowledging all that–infrastructure, laws, gov't, culture–and the fact that if he and I get in a collision, I will probably die and he will just have to clean the blood off of his bumper. In the same way, talking about racial privilege isn't a way of telling white people they are bad people or racists or that they didn't really earn what they have.
It's a way of trying to make visible the fact that system is not neutral, it is not a level-playing field, it's not the same experience for everyone. There are biases and imbalances and injustices built into the warp and woof of our culture. (The recent events in Ferguson, MO should be evidence enough of this–more thoughts on that here). Not because you personally are a racist, but because the system has a history and was built around this category "race" and that's not going to go away over night (or even in 100 years). To go back to my analogy: Bike lanes are relatively new, and still just kind of an appendage on a system that is inherently car-centric.
So–white readers–the next time someone drops the p-word, try to remember they aren't calling you a racist or saying you didn't really earn your college degree, they just want you to try empathize with how scary it is to be on a bike sometimes (metaphorically speaking).
One last thing: Now, I know what it is like to be a white person engaged in racial reconciliation or justice work and to feel like privilege language is being used to silence you or to feel frustrated that you are genuinely trying to be a part of the solution not the problem but every time you open your mouth someone says, "Check you privilege." (I.e., even though privilege language doesn't mean "You are one of the bad guys," some people do use it that way). So if you'll permit me to get a few more miles out of this bike analogy (ya see what I did there?), I think it can help encourage white folks who have felt that frustration to stay engaged and stay humble.
I have a lot of "conversations" with drivers. Now, rationally, I know that most drivers are not jerks. But I have a long and consistent history of bad experiences with drivers and so, when I've already been honked at or yelled at that day, or when I've read a blog post about a fellow cyclist who's been mowed down by a careless driver, it's hard for me to stay civil.
But when I'm not so civil with a "privileged" driver, it's not because I hate him/her, or think s/he is evil. It's because it's the third time that day I got some gravel in the face. So try to remember that even if you don't feel like a "semi driver," a person of color might be experiencing you the way a person on a bike experiences being passed by a semi. Even if you're listening to Christian radio.
Historians Rank George W. Bush Among Worst Presidents
By Kenneth T. Walsh
President George W. Bush is near the bottom of the heap in the latest survey of historians on presidential leadership.
Bush received an overall ranking of 36 out of 42 former presidents—in the bottom 10.
Ronald Reagan was rated 10th best, up from 11th in a similar survey taken in 2000; Bill Clinton was rated 15, up from 21 in 2000. George H.W. Bush went to 18 from 20.
The five best presidents, according to the historians, were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman, in that order. Rounding out the top 10 were John F. Kennedy at six, Thomas Jefferson, Dwight Eisenhower, Woodrow Wilson, and Reagan.
The worst presidents, according to the survey, were James Buchanan at 42, Andrew Johnson at 41, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison, Warren Harding, Millard Fillmore, George W. Bush, John Tyler, Herbert Hoover, and Rutherford B. Hayes.
The survey was conducted for C-SPAN, the cable network, among 65 presidential historians and scholars, who ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on 10 attributes of leadership: public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with Congress, "vision/setting an agenda," "pursued equal justice for all," and "performance within the context of his times."
Supervising the survey were historians Douglas Brinkley of Rice University, Edna Medford of Howard University, and Richard Norton Smith of George Mason University.
"How we rank our presidents is, to a large extent, influenced by our own times," Medford said in a news release. "Today's concerns shape our views of the past, be it in the area of foreign policy, managing the economy, or human rights. . . . Lincoln continues to rank at the top in all categories because he is perceived to embody the nation's core values: integrity, moderation, persistence in the pursuit of honorable goals, respect for human rights, compassion; those who collect near the bottom are perceived as having failed to uphold those values."
Among the historians and political scientists who participated in the ratings were H. W. Brands, Thomas Cronin, Robert Dallek, Alvin Felzenberg, Fred Greenstein, and James McPherson.
Historians Rank George W. Bush Among Worst Presidents - US News
Police Brutality in Berkley
#whodoyouprotect?
This was a perfect video. It was practically orchestrated.
No one reads
Shmuckboy 3000 is dressing down the President as ineffectual. The masthead is reaffirming that. The details, however, report the actual military response thus far as ordered by the executive.
Total mistake. 1 out of 3 ain't bad. And we would've issued a correction but there just wasn't time... or because of reasons.
Comcast Doesn't Give A F*ck
Number 1 most hated customer service and why?...
Unplug. Read a book. Definitely stop reading this crap.
Unplug. Read a book. Definitely stop reading this crap.
The Unknown Known
God, remember this face? The perpetual smirk. Remember this guy just smart-assing his way through briefing after briefing about how many people his bad ideas got killed.
There is a brilliant new documentary about the audacity of this man aptly titled The Unknown Known.
My skin crawled the fuck away.
Are you being persecuted?
There is a pernicious rumor that resurfaces every Advent season and spreads across social media faster than a cold in a kindergarten class.
It's the rumor that God can be "kept out" of Christmas.
You may have heard it from Kirk Cameron or an anchor at Fox News or an army of culture warriors who have once again worked themselves into a frenzy over the "War on Christmas." Galvanized by fear, they storm checkout counters to demand that clerks issue them a "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" and cry persecution when inflatable manger scenes are moved from public courthouses to private property. They pine after the good-old-days when Christians could force Jewish kids to sing Christmas carols at school and they demand that every gift purchased, every mall opened late, every credit card maxed out must be done so in Jesus' name or else Christ will be "kept out" of Christmas. They do it because someone told them that God needs a nod from the Empire to show up, forgetting somehow that the story of Advent is the story of how God showed up as a Jew in the Roman Empire.
In a barn.
As an oppressed minority.
To the applause of a few poor shepherds.
The whole story of Advent is the story of how God can't be kept out. God is present. God is with us. God shows up—not with a parade but with the whimper of a baby, not among the powerful but among the marginalized, not to the demanding but to the humble. From Advent to Easter, the story of Jesus should teach us that God doesn't need a mention in our pledge or on our money or over the loudspeaker at the mall to be present, and when we fight like spoiled children to "keep" God in those things, we are fighting for idols. We're chasing wind.
Religious persecution is real. Suffering is real. But sharing the public square is not persecution and being wished "happy holidays" causes no one to suffer. We would do well this time of year to remember the words of the Apostle Paul from Philippians 2:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Updated from last year.
http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/persecuted-christmas-2014
Sanford Logo 4
I seem to have broken my Sanford Logo 4 0.7mm mechanical pencil. It is my favorite tool for illustration. It isn't holding a lead anymore and I am truly sad.
Keto Check-In
Hey! 8 pounds in a month. Today was weigh in and I lost 8 pound this past month. I am pretty happy because this might be the first diet I can actually do.
My wife says I look and feel thinner. She hugged me for a long time inspecting my shape. She is happy. She should be for this was her idea. She is a real smart cookie.
Staying away from carbs hasn't been too hard so long as I can do dairy. Fat can stand in for sweet. But like I said before, it is surprising hard to consume 75% fat to 25% protein. This evening, I am accomplishing this with a pork rind-encrusted pork chop covered in melted cheese and hot sauce! It's F-bomb good!
Yes, a pork rind-encrusted pork chop. You see, you can't use regular breading because we are steering clear of carbs. So, I crushed up a bag of pork rinds and they did great. I added some cheese to the rinds too. I would've like to add parmesan, but I used munster. It worked but parmesan would've worked better.
Anyway, that first night, the chops were dreamy. So juicy. Tonight, the left overs were a little dry as expected, so I melted cheese over it and used a generous amount of hot sauce (no carbs in Frank's Red Hot!!!!). Satisfied and on track.
Self-Portrait
Self-portrait-ish. Needs a lot more work. Maybe tomorrow. Milo thought it needed some red marker all over it.
#createarteveryday
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg has been one of the biggest influences on my art. Frankly, I have been accused, without my protest, of ripping him off. I call it homage. He is amazing and I stand in his shadow.
This is the first piece of his that I ever encountered. And the rest is art history.
Untitled
by Robert Rauschenberg
This is the first piece of his that I ever encountered. And the rest is art history.
Untitled
by Robert Rauschenberg
Create art. Everyday.
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| My son and our first joint effort to #CreateArtEveryday. |
I want to am going to start to create art everyday. I am going to do it alone. I am going to do it with my son. I am going to do it.
I used to be a painter, that is, a full-time painter. Dare I saw that I used to be an artist. Today, not so much. I have become a whiny bitch of a Sunday painter. And even then, not a whole lot of work to show for it. I don't know what I want to paint. But I have to do it. It is the only thing that truely relaxes me - that centers me.
So, what to do? What to do? How about I just create some art. Any art. Anything. The mere act of crapping out some random strokes on paper will lead to crapping out some deliberate strokes on a canvas. To call up the change agency philosophy that I use in my day job, you cannot dictate innovation. Short of being Marcel Duchamp, you cannot point at something a make it art. Therefore, you need to find yourself in an environment that fosters creation and it will come. Establishing this frequent regiment will keep my artistic ability well exercised and viable.
Stay tuned for more.
New Evidence Hillary Killed Lincoln
Since it is 23 months until the next election, we might as well get going (no time to lose!) on the 2016 talk. I think it best to republish a piece from May of last year as a little taste of what is to come. This is a joke, of course, from the the very talented Andy Borowitz of The New Yorker but, make no mistake, this is the exact type of crazy that will be coming down the road.
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| Photograph courtesy Library of Congress. |
Fox: New Evidence Hillary Killed Lincoln
By Andy Borowitz
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In what may be the most serious allegation ever made against the former Secretary of State, Fox News Channel reported today that Hillary Clinton was involved in the conspiracy to murder President Abraham Lincoln.
The latest charge against Mrs. Clinton was reported by Fox host Sean Hannity, who said that the evidence of her role in the Lincoln assassination came mainly in the form of e-mails.
According to Mr. Hannity, “If it’s true that Hillary Clinton killed Lincoln, this could have a major impact on her chances in 2016.”
The accusation against Mrs. Clinton drew a strong response from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.—S. Carolina): “There’s been a concerted effort by Hillary Clinton to cover up her role in President Lincoln’s murder. She has said nothing about it. This is bigger than Watergate, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Second World War put together.”
Responding to the allegation, Mrs. Clinton issued a terse statement indicating that she could not have participated in Lincoln’s assassination because she was born in 1947.
“That’s what she wants us to believe,” Sen. Graham said.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/fox-new-evidence-hillary-killed-lincoln
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Gonna be a parent... again.
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| "That was a fun day." |
I thought I was done with this. Not having kids, just caring for them. I have a boy. He's three and some months. He's doing just fine. He is almost potty-trained and can play by himself. He is a little genius who, in the grand scheme of things, can fill in the many, many blanks I leave for him as I am a busy parent (read: disengaged).
As I told you, I have another baby coming. The wife is twenty-four weeks in which means sixteen weeks to go. And then all the fun. The crying. The diapers. The middle of the night feedings. The lack of sleep. The responsibility. At least I'll get two weeks off work. Yippie.
I have often thought "who in the hell is allowing me to be in charge of another human being?" It just seems unrealistic. And possibly dangerous. For example, I watched my son stick a plug into an outlet with his hands around both metal ends and I took way too long stopping him from killing himself. It just didn't register for a second - like I was watching a movie. I did stop him, though.
Don't get me wrong, I am really happy. Having my son has been the single greatest experience of my life. He brings me such joy. And now I will have two of these little balls of goodness rolling around. I am having a girl and she's gonna be magic.
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