Link of the Day: Artistic 2-fer

[High Praise! to 4of7 of Little Worlds]

2013 Fresh – April (plus a few extras)

2013 Fresh – May

Fair warning on the May link – although it DOES have penguins, it’s also got… well, I think he must’ve just dusted his blog, because some of it seemed to get in my eye toward the end of the post.

[Think you have a link that’s IMAO-worthy? Send it to harvolson@gmail.com. If I use your link, you will receive High Praise! (assuming you remember to put your name in the email)]

Wisdom of the Day: Laden Interview Deniers Santa MacGyver Politics

Obama Warned Us – Outreach

The promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach — condemnation without discussion — can carry forward only a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.

BARACK OBAMA, Nobel Lecture, Dec. 10, 2009

“Like, for example, a door that opens into a uranium enrichment facility.”

Random Thoughts: Marriage, Beards, and Income Inequality

Marriage is a very important institution to many people… which should’ve been an argument to keep the govt out of it as much as possible.

Having the government redefine marriage didn’t begin with gay marriage and it won’t end with it.

Scifi always seems to be predicting bigger, even more tightly packed cities but I think it’s going the opposite way.

I mean, really, who needs a big city anymore? We don’t need to live near each other; we have Amazon.com and can telecommute.

I’ll never understand why welfare ever evolved from anything more than just handing poor people a crust of bread.

Compromise: Pardon Snowden for telling us the NSA is spying on Americans. Execute him for revealing the NSA is spying on foreigners.

“Let’s all grow beards; it will distract everyone from our record-setting incompetence.” -White House

Why is Jay Carney also wearing a flannel shirt and speaking in a deeper voice?

Planets die all the time. And if Earth isn’t going to be around forever, I’d rather spend our remaining time using my preferred light bulbs.

“I decided to grow some facial hair too. It’s called a ‘toothbrush mustache.'”
“BIDEN!”

PRO TIP: To get practice at fist-fighting humans, first fist fight a monkey and then move up to a lesser ape.

When is the Game of Thrones/Downton Abbey crossover?

So what does “fighting income inequality” mean? You put a gun to the head of someone with more money and then take it?

And if I have a million dollars but someone else has a billion dollars, how sad should you be about my inequality?

Just a month ago Obama told Jay Carney, “If you like your clean-shaven face, you can keep it.”

One of the biggest travesties of the income tax is the idea someone’s income is anyone’s business other than his own.

The Old Spice ad was weird. I’m afraid I can’t devote any of my vast intellectual powers to analyzing it, though.

I love my fellow Americans, but I don’t want any of them to have even a fractional say over my own finances.

As for income inequality, I’d like people to have the income they deserve but I don’t think I could stand idly by while that many people starve.

I could have told you banning gun sales was unconstitutional and it only would have cost you $50.

We’re becoming a country of 300 million spoiled rich kids who have no idea where money comes from.

I don’t have to worry about cold weather here in warm sunny Idaho.

With the trajectory we’ve been on this century, it shouldn’t be long until the supervolcano erupts.

I’m guessing the unconstitutional part of Chicago’s banning of gun sales was where they banned gun sales.

The news says the Fed has been engaged in pro-growth policies since the beginning of the Great Recession. What evidence is there of that?

Biden’s 2014 New Year Resolutions

My man in State has done it again.  He has managed to get his hands on the Vice President’s list of New Year Resolutions for 2014.   This year he resolves to:

  • Learn how to tie my own shoes
  • Get brave enough to pet Bo
  • Finish watching School House Rock’s How a Bill Becomes a Law
  • Get brave enough to pet Hillary
  • Steal my nose back from Sasha
  • Learn how to use my DVR so I can get caught up on the back episodes of Sesame Street
  • Get brave enough to pet Putin
  • Get past onesies in jacks
  • Figure out how to pry that safety plug out of the electrical outlet so I can finally taste it
  • Place in the Senate Simon Sez competition
  • Get brave enough to pet Rachel Maddow
  • Finally beat Barney Frank at strip tic-tac-toe
  • Prove that Nancy is a real witch
  • Finish the bust of Helen Thomas fashioned from my toenail clipping collection
  • Practice kissing with the bust of Helen Thomas fashioned from my toe nail clippings
  • Get brave enough to kiss the real Helen Thomas
  • Live happily ever after

Talent Pool

The cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica in the last decade have approved more than a dozen construction projects on or near two well-known faults without requiring seismic studies to determine if the buildings could be destroyed in an earthquake.

Let me guess, the people who signed the approvals went on to design HealthCare.gov, didn’t they?