They're Everywhere ... Part Deux

It wasn’t hard, but I have found some more stupid to start the week …

TENNESSEE

The McMinn County School Board has voted to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” from an eighth-grade language arts curriculum due to concerns about profanity and an image of female nudity in its depiction of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust.

Art Spiegelman, the author of “Maus,” told CNBC:

“I’m kind of baffled by this. It’s leaving me with my jaw open, like, ‘What?’ I’ve met so many young people who ... have learned things from my book. … I also understand that Tennessee is obviously demented.”

Spiegelman suspects the school board members were motivated less  about some mild curse words—there are eight in the entire book—or the nudity—the nude woman in the book is Spiegelman’s mother, and the photo showcases the degrading way women were treated in the camps—and more by the subject of the book, which tells the story of his Jewish parents’ time in Nazi concentration camps, the mass murder of other Jews by Nazis, his mother’s suicide when he was just 20, and his relationship with his father.

What to do? Write letters? Protest? Cast a GODDAMNED vote? Yes, to all of that, but also do as Stephen King suggested on Twitter … find out which library has this book, and indeed all books banned by so-called conservatives, and check the book out and read it; or find a bookstore that sells it, buy it online, and read it.

Knowledge is power and if you read Spiegelman’s book you’ll see that the authorities in Tennessee are trying to erase the Holocaust from history.

And I know of at least 11 million reasons why that should never happen.

WASHINGTON

Robert LaMay, a State trooper was forced to step down from his job because he refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and after being let go, he told the state’s Democrat Governor Jay Inslee to “kiss my ass.”

Y’all know where this is going … this week LaMay died from COVID.

Sorry, not sorry.

NEW YORK CITY

Last weekend SNL made fun of Candace Owens in a skit, after which Owens ran to Fox to complain about the idea of a Black woman portraying another Black woman as stupid for laughs. Oh Candace, have you never seen SNL?

But then, minutes later on the same show, Owens showed how stupid she is when she went after … wait for it … Minnie Mouse, for wearing a pantsuit:

“It goes back to, like when they did this to the M&M’s and now they’re making [Minnie] more masculine … They’re taking all of these things that nobody was offended by and feel like they have to get rid of them and destroy them because they’re bored. You know, they’re absolutely bored. They’re trying to destroy fabrics of our society, pretending that there’s issues. So everybody looks over here, look at Minnie Mouse. Don’t look at inflation … look at Minnie Mouse. The world is going forward because we’ve got her in a pantsuit. Never mind, that you can’t get anything at the grocery store and you can’t buy a piece of bacon unless you’ve got $30 in your pocket. At least, we’re addressing the real problem, which is Minnie Mouse.”

Yes, there is no food at the grocery stores, and bacon costs $30.

Methinks Candace is too dumb to see that there are other places to shop, and she’s too dumb to note that even she wears pantsuits but a cartoon mouse doing so is taking it too far.

PS She’s been a leader in the conservative push to kill as many fellow conservatives as possible based on the theory that it will drive Joe Biden’s approval ratings down among the surviving Americans who were smart enough not to listen to people like Candace Owens in the first place.

And now she says the Moon landing was faked.

WISCONSIN

GOP Senator Ron Johnson is against government efforts to make childcare cheaper for parents:

“People decide to have families and become parents. That’s something they need to consider when they make that choice. I’ve never really felt it was society’s responsibility to take care of other people’s children.”

Johnson says slashing unemployment benefits to get more people back to work and alleviate the ongoing labor shortage would be a better alternative.

So, not only does Ron Johnson want to cut unemployment benefits, but he wants to make it harder for working people to get childcare so they can work.

ITALY

Pope Francis says parents of LGBTQIA children should not condemn them but offer them support.

But the Catholic Church will do nothing to help those same children, much less LGBTQ+ adults, and the church will never accept same-sex marriage.

How does a parent who is Catholic support an LGBTQIA child and also support a church that denies that child the right to marry when they are grown?

WASHINGTON DC

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch works right alongside of Justice Sonia Sotomayor who has diabetes, a condition that puts her at elevated risk for serious illness, or even death, from COVID-19. She has been the only justice to wear a mask on the bench since last fall when the justices resumed in-person arguments for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.

Sotomayor did not feel safe in close proximity to people who were unmasked so Chief Justice John Roberts, understanding that, asked the other justices to mask up except Gorsuch, who refused. His continued refusal means Sotomayor has not attended the justices’ weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone.

Get educated. Save yourself from The Stupids.

 

Bobservations

Monday morning I walked into our home office and Carlos said to me:

“You know what I want for my birthday? A new pair of pants like these.”

I looked at his pants and countered with:

“You know what I want for my birthday? You, not telling me what to get for your birthday in 12 weeks, and instead of that you talking about my birthday in two days.”

That’s my way of saying it’s my birthday today and we will be gone for the weekend.

I will return on Monday!

And for those who don’t see the hypocrisy, know that this president and not the former guy, called that reporter the very same day and apologized for what he said.

Something Thing 45 has never done.

PS  Joe calling Doocey that was an early birthday gift for me, I think!

If you've seen No Time to Die, you know Daniel Craig is not returning to the role. And that means the search is on to find the next 007, and according to Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, Idris Elba's name is firmly in the hat.

His name should be on the script. Okay? Give that to me for my birthday!

Sarah Palin, who just last week said she would take the COVID vaccine over, ahem, her “dead body” has tested positive for the virus.

Dreams do come true … for my birthday.

I have been watching Showtime’s Billions since it premiered because it features some really great actors, notably one Paul Giamatti who plays Chuck Rhodes. Last season, Rhodes’ nemesis Bobby Axelrod, played by Damien Lewis, left the show, and was replaced by Corey Stoll.

Stoll and his smirk and his wink-and-a-nod performance, along with his fabulously bald head, float my boat.

That’s it; that’s the post. Corey Stoll with icing on his bald head for me to lick off.

Sure it’s Camden, and this is a bit much, but I think it screams It’s My Birthday!! ! And I’m a big ol homo!!

Last week I bought a chicken to make sandwiches and, well, it doesn’t. It just shits all over the floor.

What am I doing wrong? I mean, it’s my birthday!!

The executive committee of the Arizona Democratic Party [ADP] formally censured U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema over her vote against changing rules in the chamber to steer through voting rights legislation.

Now it’s up to the people of Arizona to vote her ass from office and send her back to obscurity. Wouldn’t that make a lovely birthday gift?

In what is surely a rip-off of Weekend At Bernie’s, this week two men in Ireland, brought a dead man into a post office in an attempt to collect his pension.

The deceased man was propped up by two other men, which clearly alerted the staff who contacted emergency services and police rushed to the scene.

Life imitates art … and gives me a good laugh … for my birthday.

This is Will Willets, a model represented by Silver Fox Management. His ideal holiday is lying in a hammock with a margarita on a Mexican beach … now that’s a birthday present … but the question is: Would You Hit It?

Architecture Wednesday: Retreat on a Pond's Edge

It takes a lot of walking to get to this place, and it took a lot of walking through the property’s dense forest and around massive boulders to the pond’s edge on the remote ten-acre plot  before owners, Stephen Peck and his husband, John Messer, decided where they wanted to build their home.

For visitors to get to the home, you first drive down a long winding gravel road, through dense forest, until you arrive at a small parking area, and then you take a narrow boardwalk slipping between trees and enormous boulders until you reach the house that Peck and Messer sited the home on the edge of a secluded pond in Maine.

The main living space features walls on each side of the open-concept living area framed in floor-to-ceiling windows to balance the couple’s desire for a modern home with the durability required for Maine’s extreme weather variations. The concrete fireplace hearth extends to form a seating area in the corner with views into the dense woods and down to the waterfront.

Also on this floor is the primary bedroom, hovering above the forest floor, with its own wall of glass to frame the views into the surrounding woods and the pond’s edge. There is an en suite bathroom is clad in Brazilian marble and a sunken tub with its own amazing forest views.

On the lower level, a small study takes in the mossy foreground while a guest suite and a second study are connected by a covered boardwalk and a cantilevered screen porch. A large deck lines one side of the home, which is mostly built on piers, and was created to make the house feel lifted above the ground.

Peck designed the home, and its pathways through the woods and boulders to make guests, and the owners,  feel like they are truly leaving the world behind as they wander up to the house.

 Dwell   Elliott Architects

After Yesterday's Dumb ....

 ... I opted for a palate cleanser of some of my favorite things through the years. 

Like my paternal grandmother, Agnes Dorothy Nolan, born in San Francisco just one month after the  Big Quake of 1906. She was tiny, barely five feet tall, but she was a pistol!

Carlos and me in Key West the week I flew to Miami to meet him. This was the third day of my trip and by then i knew this was where I belonged.

Mom and Dad on the deck of their house in Blue Canyon.

Tuxedo, showing off the goods to the Sun Gods.

Little MaxGoldberg used to sit in the window behind the shades, and then pop his head out; I love his little wink.

Consuelo. Is it me, or does she kinda match the sunroom love seat? Did we adopt her because she went with the furniture?

Ozzo, all done up a la the Obama Hope poster.

This is Lady, who lived to be twenty-one. I had dolled her up with gold stars for a Christmas card; she wasn't happy, but she let me do it to her.

Scruffy was the old man of the house, who had bad legs, a bad eye and lost an ear to cancer before he passed. He was tough but lovable.

Spunky was the bitch of the house, but she loved to be scooped up and held on her back while you rubbed her belly. I love her hypnotic eyes ...

Sweetie, whose name truly fit her, dolled up for that same Christmas card as Lady. Sweetie also lived into her 20s.

Tallulah Belle. The first cat we adopted in South Carolina. Her favorite nap spot was inside an empty pot. We didn't have her long, but she was something.

Thomas was a cat Carlos adopted in Miami, though to be fair, it was actually Thomas who adopted Carlos. He as a huge cat, of no discernible breed, who looked mean but wasn't at all; he was a pussy cat.

And this is Voncie, Lady's brother. He was smart as a whip, and crazy as a loon.

Sidenote: no, it isn't lost on  me that we have certain cat "types" ... Lady and Tuxedo. Max and Sweetie and Scruffy; Voncie and Tallulah; Spunky and Consuelo. I think if we ever found a cat that looked like Thomas, we'd grab him up to.

They're Everywhere ...

I try to start the week off with a good story, a cute story, a feel-good story, if you will, but this week I uncovered that other virus infecting America … Stupidity and Ignorance. It’s everywhere and the only cure is education and turning off Fox. Sadly, these folks are too far gone …

MICHIGAN

Litter boxes have never been inside Midland Public Schools and are not being used by students, according to the district's superintendent who issued a statement to families on Thursday to dispel rumors on social media.

Michael Sharrow, Midland Public Schools superintendent, was forced to go on Facebook to tell parents of students that one parent was, um, wrong, er, stupid, to say that the schools were providing litter boxes in student restrooms for those who identify themselves as “furries.”

"Let me be clear in this communication. There is no truth whatsoever to this false statement-accusation! There have never been litter boxes within MPS schools. … [Our] Midland PS stakeholders may be confused about a false message-accusation that has resurfaced this week and is gaining traction in the social media realm. It is such a source of disappointment that I felt the necessity to communicate this message to you. In this divisive-contentious world in which we currently find ourselves, I ask that if you hear wild accusations that don’t sound like something in which your Midland Public Schools Board of Education, Administration, District would be part, take a moment to send an MPSConnect message to me."

Merriam-Webster defines a "furry" as "a person who identifies with and enjoys dressing as an animal especially as a member of a subculture devoted to the practice."

I’m not sure who was dumber, the parent who started the rumor, and spread it to social media, or the parents who believed it.

VIRGINIA

Amelia King was charged last week after she said at a school board meeting that she would "bring every single gun loaded and ready" to fight mask requirements for her children.

King later emailed the board to apologize for her choice of words:

"I in no way meant to imply all guns loaded as in actual firearms, but rather all resources I can muster to make sure that my children get to attend school without masks. My sincere apologies for my poor choice in words."

coughcoughbullshitcoughcough.

She said, “every single gun loaded and ready” and so the Luray Police Department charged King with making an oral threat on school property.

She has since been released on a $5,000 bond.

I hope her guns are taken from her, and I hope her children are checked on because this woman needs someone to watch her. In the age of school shootings being an almost “normal” occurrence, words matter, and hopefully her words, her ignorance, will cost her some jail time and a big fine.

Washington DC

Representative Lauren Boebert is once again in hot water for being an ignorant twat, after she asked a group of Jewish people visiting the US Capitol if they were there to do “reconnaissance.”

A rabbi in the group says:

“You know, I’m not sure to be offended or not. I was very confused. … I actually turned to the person standing next to me and asked, ‘Did you just hear that?’”

Boebert now says her little question was a joke and that she made it as a dig against Democrats who accused her of conducting large tours for people days before the Capitol riot happened:

“I saw a large group and made a joke. Sadly when Democrats see the same they demonize my family for a year straight.”

Hey Lauren, you dumb hate-filled bitch, you are not funny; if you’d wanted to make a point, however ignorant and stupid, you would have made it to Democrats, those people you accuse of demonizing you and your family, You wouldn’t make it to a group of unsuspecting visitors.

But she’s not done being a hate-filled ass; while the person leading the group was an Orthodox Jewish individual with a traditional beard and others had yarmulkes on, this twat said:

“I’m too short to see anyone’s yarmulkes.”

You’re too stupid to be in Congress, too.

PENNSYLVANIA

The Chambersburg Borough Council is set to vote today to rescind the anti-discrimination ordinance just four months ratifying it last October because the political makeup of the council changed to a majority of Republicans in November.

And Republicans hate LGBTQ+ Americans.

Chambersburg is among 70 Pennsylvania municipalities with LGBTQ+ protections regarding housing, employment, and public accommodations but would be the first to repeal its protections.

Pennsylvania, like 26 other states, has no such statewide protections.

WASHINGTON DC

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee held a virtual meeting this week on how toxic chemicals are killing US soldiers but Representative Madison Cawthorn used the meeting to clean his gun on camera.

Cawthorn, the youngest and dumbest current member of Congress, fiddled with his black pistol while one witness explained how burn pits are harming military service members, and when Cawthorn’s staff was asked if this was an appropriate use of time, his spokes-idiot, Luke Ball, said:

“What could possibly be more patriotic than guns and veterans?”

Cawthorn wouldn’t know because he lied about being accepted to the Naval Academy and then waves around his gun on camera as a substitute for his limp dick.

Get educated. Save yourself from The Stupids.

The Funny Papers

Nick Anderson, Benjamin Slyngstad, Deb Milbrath, Dave Whamond, Drew Sheneman, David Horsey, JD Crowe, Kevin Siers, Jack Ohman, Ann Telnaes, Clay Bennett, David Fitzsimmons, Ed Hall, Michael de Adder,