Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally – New York Times

Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally – New York Times

Ms. Bhutto, who had twice been the country’s prime minister and was a leading contender to be the next prime minister after elections set for Jan. 8, was declared dead by doctors at a hospital in Rawalpindi at 6:16 p.m. local time. At least a dozen more people were killed in the attack, and some reports said there were at least 20 dead. Hours later, her body was carried out of the hospital in a wooden casket, held high by hundreds of her followers clad in black.

I won’t pretend to know much about Bhutto or the Pakistani political climate — I am sadly ignorant. But I do think it’s a sad day when anyone — even someone whose politics I dislike — is assassinated for their beliefs or political stance.

The Most Metal Christmas Gift EVAR.

Bone dagger with skull holder

My dad got me this skeletal dagger, with skeleton-rising-up-from-Hell holder. For all tomorrow’s sacrifices. Heh. Totally rad.

I also got: an Arduino for learning to do hardware programming, an Ion drum machine, a USB Peltier cooler/heater for drinks, a cool portable 30W amp for my iPod, On Food And Cooking: The Science And Lore Of The Kitchen, a GorillaPod poseable camera tripod, an ATC2K helmet cam (30fps @ 640 x 480!!!), a Tom Waits t-shirt, a wifi detector t-shirt that lights up when there’s wifi, a Skooba laptop tote that you can paint and draw on, a tiny keychain remote for fucking with people’s TVs (not a TV-B-Gone but an actual remote), and a microstylus for my fingertip that will be hella handy with my touchscreen I got last year. Oh, and Thom got me a Barnes & Noble gift card, to fulfill my need to read the rest of the His Dark Materials series.

(Kaydence got a whole bunch of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse toys, plus a RoboPanda and various other kid stuff. The look on her face when she walked in was priceless. It’s really her first full Christmas with the family, and I think she’s pretty happy.)

Great Christmas. Alex and Laurenn and Thom and Carrie came over last night and we had a big Christmas feast. I made soy bread pudding and blackberry cobbler (Laurenn is rennet-intolerant) and we had ham and all sorts of homemade cookies. Alex had never seen It’s A Wonderful Life, so we watched that and Bad Santa, which — along with Scrooged and Die Hard — is one of my favorite Christmas movies.

Now everybody else is napping and I’m figuring out how to shoot video with my new helmet cam. I hope your Christmas was as awesome as ours has been.

I'm DJing New Year's Eve @ Freakin' Frog

If you’re in Vegas and you’re not up for cruising the Strip and hunting an expensive club or bar to hang out on for New Year’s Eve, stop by the Freakin’ Frog on Maryland Parkway (between Tropicana and Harmon on the east side of the street, next to the as-yet-unopened barbecue joint with the highly fruity sign), where I’ll be, er, dropping science from 9pm – 1am. The Frog has a vast and ponderous selection of brews and whiskey, one of the largest in America, and you can get shitfaced and groove to my mad beats, yo.

And if you’ve always wanted to give me a New Year’s kiss, and you’re a girl, this is your chance. Thankfully, Getchell is spoken for this New Year’s. Those were some sad, desperate years. ‘Nuff said.

Finally, Somebody Found A Use For Wyoming

The Raw Story | Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday. “We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area [Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming] that encompasses our country are free to join us,” long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

The Lakota are claiming that their treaties with the US government are essentially null, due to not being kept up by, ah, one of the parties involved.

The treaties signed with the United States are merely “worthless words on worthless paper,” the Lakota freedom activists say on their website. The treaties have been “repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life,” the reborn freedom movement says. Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said. “This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution,” which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said. “It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent,” said Means.

That’s pretty awesome. And having lived in that part of America, let me be the first to say to my Lakota cousins: you’re welcome to it. Seriously. If you can reclaim your cultural heritage and get past the problems that reservation life has created for you…and also freak out all those toothless fucking inbred redneck bastards who dot that beautiful land with their trailer parks and copper mining pits…I will support you 100%. Hell, put the rednecks in reservations.

This is awesome. I’d actually like to see this happen, for real.

A Musical Christmas Card

So I’m obviously not much of a Christmas guy. Nor do I like most Christmas music (the Phil Spector Christmas album notwithstanding). But there are two Christmas songs I adore: “Fairytale Of New York” by the Pogues, mentioned a couple of days ago, is one of them.

And so, since there’s no feasible way for me to record a cover of “Fairytale Of New York” (since it would require a girl who could sing like Kristy McColl, a pennywhistle, and a lot more whiskey than I can afford), here, for your seasonal pleasure, is my cover of “Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis” by Tom Waits, which is my other favorite Christmas song.

Enjoy. And merry Christmas.

Thought Of The Day

In the future, the words “whore”, “skank”, “slut”, “slattern”, and possibly the word “retard” and the phrase “train wreck” will all be replaced in common usage by the word “spears“.

As in “I can’t believe you got drunk on Zima and went down on every single dude at the bar, you fuckin’ spears!”

Or “Fifteen people are dead in the worst spears in Amtrak history.”

Rolling My Eyes Towards England

BBC radio station censors Pogues Christmas hit – Yahoo! News

LONDON (Reuters) – British public broadcaster BBC’s Radio 1 has cut out the word “faggot” from an old Christmas hit in a move the mother of the song’s late performer branded “ridiculous.” In “Fairytale of New York,” released 20 years ago by Irish band the Pogues and singer Kirsty MacColl, she sings “You scumbag, you maggot/You cheap lousy faggot” as her character in the song argues with one sung by Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan.

This is, in point of fact, one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful Christmas song ever released, and it’s not homophobic in any way. The song is about an old Irish immigrant couple, arguing on their deathbeds, and if you play it at the right moment, I’ll cry.

The full verse goes:

Kirsty: You’re a bum, you’re a punk Shane: You’re an old slut on junk / living there almost dead on a drip in that bed Kirsty: You scumbag, you maggot / You cheap lousy faggot / Happy Christmas, your arse / I pray God it’s our last

Which doesn’t sound particularly lovely, I know. But you have to hear the song.

And the boys of the NYPD choir Are singing ‘Galway Bay’ And the bells are ringing out For Christmas day

When I saw the Pogues last year, Shane brought his wife out to sing poor Kristy’s part, and they slow-danced under fake snow on stage. Sad and beautiful. (Kirsty McColl died several years ago, saving her children from being run over by a boat.)