the_archfiend

I'm surprised that it actually took this long:

Courtney Love finally lost legal guardian rights over her daughter Frances; normally, this wouldn't be of much interest to me, but I find it sort of amusing that this didn't happen after any of C-Love's earlier public meltdowns or even some of the ones that occurred while Kurt was alive.

Obviously, the mixed bag that was Nirvana makes this subject matter a lot more relevant to me than any other bit of celebutant nonsense normally would: although I greatly admired Kurt Cobain's ability to craft a melodic hook that would stick itself deep into your memory and never come out, the threesome from Aberdeen, WA were symbolic of both the successes and failures the Seattle grunge scene had. Massive, long-term appeal among rock fans and the potential for more in the offing fit into the former category; death-wish level drug abuse and band-killing emotional dysfunction fit in the latter. There were bands from Sea-Tac that I liked better (Soundgarden and Alice in Chains before Layne Staley's own heroin addiction enervated them) or who made more money (Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters, both of whom are even more mixed bags in terms of musical output than Nirvana ever was), but Kurt's dysfunctional soap opera cast a massive - and entirely undeserved - shadow over the scene that it never recovered from. And although I don't want to turn this into a typical Yoko Ono diatribe, his wife didn't help one damn bit. Matter of fact, she probably contributed greatly to whatever thinking spurred that fateful decision to blow his brains out. There's only so much an unstable person can take when his spouse - and the mother of his child, besides - comes off as being even crazier than he is.

Decades ago, rock scene wags were probably placing bets on when - and not if - famous burnt-out cases like Keith Richards and Iggy Pop were going to drop. Ultimately, neither did. In short, they both wised up. It's a real pity that fellow junkies like Cobain, Staley, Shannon Hoon and Andrew Wood never got that far.

Well, I got my H1N1 shot yesterday and no extremities fell off. Sorry about eating all those random cats on the way back home, though...

For those of you who feel as snarky towards anti-vaccinationists as I do, Orac offers up this recent pearl of wisdom.

And for those of you feeling particularly paralogical, this is irrefutable proof that innoculation against illnesses will make the Chicago Bears play lousy and lose despite having no real reason to - other than being lousy, of course.

I was looking for something a bit more substantial on the latest vacillations of Senator Grandstander (I-Aetna), but I suppose this will have to do for now.

Seriously, though: is Lieberman trying to set a new record for coming off as a complete tool to as many people as possible in as short a time as possible?

This is a relatively short link that doesn't go into brutal detail about one of the most infamous events in American - and for that matter, world - history, but this collection of reminiscences about Pearl Harbor contained a particularly striking comment:

To some, the service has taken on great poignancy given the fact that U.S. troops are risking their lives in the more recent conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Last week, President Barack Obama issued orders to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

"It's the same thing all over again," said 89-year-old Richard Laubert, of Phoenix, Ore., who was a pharmacist mate at the Naval hospital at the time of the attack. "I just thought when we were doing the war that would be it for the rest of time. But it seems like we just never solve anything."

I'm hoping (beyond all evidence to the contrary, unfortunately) that Mr. Laubert's words end up being anything but bitterly ironic in the near future.

Just in case you're just as sick of the OBAMA 1S A SEKR1T MUSL1M!!1!! meme as I am, make sure you're not throwing up in the direction of a friend when you look at this link.

Russell Wiseman is not only someone who has one of the most inaccurate surnames ever, but he also seems to be suffering from a terminal case of what can best be termed "Grinning Jerkface Syndrome". Normally, I wouldn't make a snap judgment based on physical appearance, but in his case I'll make an exception.

Yeah, yeah, I know; it's being done to death everywhere. I just thought that I might want to get some more humor out of the situation if I could.

3) No offense, but I've seen the photos of Rachel Uchitel and Jaimee Grubbs and compared them to Elin Woods. No offense - and I'm not going completely out of my way to seem like a sexist douche here - but he could've done better in choosing women of convenience in terms of looks, particularly in comparison to his wife. Beer goggles at work? C*ckhound behavior gone horribly wrong? What?

(For those of you interested in my personal opinion: Grubbs - somewhat passable but obviously augmented. Uchitel - uchimeh.)

4) Remember what I said about how I said this might not even be his twentieth liason? Anybody wishing to bet the over-under with me can contact me via email for the right to win a no-prize at the MIB Pirate Party at Capricon in February. Terms to be discussed later.

5) Anyone else convinced that a really, really bad cable TV movie about this is already being script-doctored for a spring premiere date? Anybody also convinced that there's a particularly good chance it'll be aired by Showtime?

Martin A. Lessem has a piece on one of Kirk Cameron's pathetic attempts to attack the theory of evolution (other than the ridiculous creationist-annotated version of the Origin of Species he's been hawking of late, of course) and does a nice job of pointing out that you really, really shouldn't use examples of unfound transitional fossils that are about to be found. And one of them by local guy Paul Sereno, no less.

It also seem that Kirk's attempts to hawk free copies of his new favorite book aren't going all that well.

OTOH, whaddaya expect from a failed teenage actor who demanded that the actress who played his girlfriend on Growing Pains be fired merely because she posed in Playboy?

Just when I though no one could get much viler than Fred Phelps, this issue pops up from Uganda, and to say that it puts African fundamentalist wackjobs in a new, even more malign light than before is being far too kind.

To wit, the Ugandan parliament is considering a bill that - in short - would criminalize not only homosexuality but any act of speech advocating on behalf of the Ugandan LGBT community.

From Ed Brayton's piece:

The proposed bill would:

* Reaffirm the lifetime sentence currently provided upon conviction of homosexuality, and extends the definition from sexual activity to merely "touch[ing] another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality."

* Create a new category of "aggravated homosexuality" which provides for the death penalty for "repeat offenders" and for cases where the individual is HIV-positive.

* Criminalizes all speech and peaceful assembly for those who advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens in Uganda with fines and imprisonment of between five and seven years
.
* Criminalizes the act of obtaining a same-sex marriage abroad with lifetime imprisonment.

* Adds a clause which forces friends or family members to report LGBT persons to police within 24-hours of learning about that individual's homosexuality or face fines or imprisonment of up to three years.

* Adds an extra-territorial and extradition provisions, allowing Uganda to prosecute LGBT Ugandans living abroad.

Pretty damn monstrous, isn't it?

I'm sure that the fourth and sixth bullet points probably violate any number of international treaties as well.

Freddy Phelps would be proud. So would Joseph Kony.

But wait! There's more!

First-world support for this atrocious piece of legislation comes in the form of strong support by the American fundamentalist organization The Family (AKA The Fellowship), which apparently has Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni's ear. If you don't want to slog through the Fresh Air interview with journalist Jeff Sharlet, Ed's more succinct post on the Ugandan connection can be found here.

After reading stuff like this, I'm beginning to think that investing in a gross of air-sickness bags wouldn't be such a dumb idea.

1) I probably find this entire story as amusing as the next guy, but one thing amazes me: has any celebrity who could suffer some serious financial damage in a messy, highly public divorce ever considered the idea of handing a future spouse a pre-nup that specifically states that he (or, to be fair, she) will not cough up oodles of their own hard-earned cash if an affair comes to light unless said affair wrecks a partnership in, say, a co-owned production company or the like?

Yeah, I know that this would make divorce lawyers oh so sad and is probably a bit naive if Hubby or Wifey insists on their partner being completely, utterly loyal.

IMHO, It's even more naive to think that celebs will tread the straight and narrow after being publically hunted by publicity-hungry sex objects of convenience for years on end.

2) If current rumors are to be believed, this wasn't Tiger's only dalliance. It may not even be his twentieth.

I fully expect us to be awash in this crap throughout most of 2010 if the usual Infotainment outlets have their say.

Anybody got a cave for rent?

Some or you are well aware of what Godwin's Law is, and Orac finds a rather overripe version of it at work on an anti-vaccination blog. Be forewarned that the post I'm quoting is just as long as it is depressing.

I haven't had much of anything nice to say about DuPage County GOP heavyweight (and perennial gubernatorial candidate) JIm Ryan ever since his role in the railroading of Rolando Cruz over the Jeanine Nicarico case became known, and his already tainted track record as DuPage County State's Attorney got even less appealing following testimony by Ryan's longtime pal Stuart Levine during the trial of ex-Governor Scummy's longtime pal Tony Rezko:

But there's more that could prove to be troubling for Ryan's bid for governor. Two investment firms whose managers collectively gave more than $70,000 to Ryan's failed 2002 gubernatorial campaign subsequently got multimillion-dollar government pension deals, state records and transcripts of Levine's testimony at Rezko's trial show. Levine testified he helped the firms win those deals, which were approved by a state board on which Levine sat within 30 days of the contributions to Ryan's campaign fund.

You can read the rest of this at the above link, but it's worth noting that a Ryan spokescritter has done the predictable pee-pee dance around the substance of the charges, as usual:

Jim Ryan spokesman Dan Curry says Ryan has no reason to think the contributions he got from Walton Street Capital and the John Buck Co. are in any way tainted and doesn't plan to return them.

"Throughout his career, Jim Ryan's integrity and the integrity of the law enforcement offices and campaigns he ran have been above reproach," Curry says. "He had no connection whatsoever to the secret crimes committed by Stuart Levine.

"At the time Jim Ryan knew him, Stuart Levine was a respectable citizen in the eyes of everyone, including the news media. Jim Ryan closed his previous campaign fund years ago and has no intention of refunding any money that was long ago spent and honorably collected."

Yeah. Sure. Keep in mind that this was a politician from Illinois that decided that Levine (who hosted some of those drug shindigs at a Lincolnwood hotel Chicago SF fans know all too well) was "respectable".

As stated before, The Land Leviathan by Michael Moorcock.

(The real fun will be figuring out how to get copies of Warlord of the Air and The Steel Tsar, of course.)

Kudos to Dave Kovarik for mentioning this.
 
Kansas nutcase Fred Phelps and his travelling caravan of inbred relatives calling themselves the Westboro Baptist Church have decided to move away from their usual tactic of picketing everything in an effort to demonize gays and are now - wait for it - targeting synagogues and other Jewish organizations.
 
From the article:

In Washington, Margie Phelps balanced several signs targeting Jews, Israel and the Obama administration. One read "Rabbis Rape Kids," another said "God Hates Jews." Margie Phelps' T-shirt read "Jews Killed Jesus." She argued with men and women passing by, warning them that God will soon send the Jews to hell.

"I don't care what you claim, chosen wise," she said. "Obedience is the standard."

Ah, clerico-fascism. And in 2009, yet. How charming.

As usual, this mentally addled nonsense backfired nicely:

Indeed, many Jewish groups have found a Westboro protest has opened doors for dialogue and interfaith engagement. Several weeks after they came to Hillel, Ayalon coordinated a large campus rally for peace. She had heard from many students, and leaders of faith groups, who wanted to speak out.

"It was a learning experience," she said. "It showed how not to react and think about what they're doing and do something more constructive."

My only question is how a malicious sack of maggot-ridden crap like Phelps can look himself in the mirror when he wakes up in the morning.

I only got out there after 2PM on Saturday, but even considering that I decided to fortify my meme sense for the con by starting to read this work by Michael Moorcock (1974 DAW paperback edition with proper Michael Whelan cover art, no less), I thought that what I did get to check out was pretty damn impressive.

BTW, the costumery photos have already appeared at Flickr, The Enthusiasts and steamfashion, among others. Enjoy.

I'm not particularly good at writing posts that lack the snarkiness that I inherited from my dad (which is, incidentally, not the only thing I picked up as a habit from him; he was a big SF fan in his day and of Isaac Asimov in particular), but I'll give it a shot.

To him and the rest of the 1303rd Engineer General Service Regiment (which later evolved into the current 130th Engineer Brigade, currently based in Hawaii) that saw service in both the European and Pacific theaters during World War 2, I can only say one word that won't come off as either pompous or uncomfortably sentimental: 

Thanks.

It seems that the First Church of Appliantology may be looking for new members after it got hit by a triple whammy recently.

First it was the two-part Nightline report from last week. Next, a certain director who won an Academy Award  a while ago upped and quit their ranks. Finally, the outcome of a a fraud trial in France didn't make them particularly happy there, either.

Maybe they should just take on a different set of beliefs concerning space aliens in order to sweeten the pot for potential converts. Something having to do with ancient human contact with aliens of a more benevolent nature. Something like...like...ah, skip it. It's been done.

Senator Palpatine's threat to support a filibuster against the current Senate health care reform bill isn't surprising when you consider who his third biggest campaign contributor over the last five years is: the US manufacturers of the same happy little pills that made everyone from Courtney Love to Rush Limbaugh (further) goofy at one time or another.

What a surprise.

1) No Ramsey Campbell. Odd. Kathe Koja not being there isn't surprising, since she supposedly abandoned horror fiction for teen fiction years ago; still, I loved both The Cipher and Bad Brains and wish she'd come back.

2) Remember when Stephen King seemingly had a bajillion paperbacks out at the same time? Dean Koontz has outdone him with the seeming megabajillion paperbacks he had on the rack. It's my assertion that he's a 'bot. Or  worse.

Bryan Burwell points out  in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Cardinals management might want to get around to clearing up a few things about their new hitting coach, such as the fact that he was caught redhanded by an FBI investigation using anabolic steroids around the same time he and Sammy Sosa were engaging in the most bogus home run race of all time.

The fact that Bud Selig - who would be the MLB commissioner if he ever acted like one - waxed orgasmic over McGwire's comeback proves two things: that he's an idiot and deserves to be fired. The former assertion is a proven fact. The latter, unfortunately, will never happen.

Some people choosing to harass Michael Weinstein and the soldiers he's represented (such as Specialist Jeremy Hall or certain Air Force Academy students mentioned here, including one of his own sons) might want to think twice when dropping a burning dog turd of an email on certain doorsteps in the name of God. 

Just a thought.