Digital art: My nephew Beau

click to enlarge

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I, too, was born in Kenya, and educated at the Madrasah

click to enlarge

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Testy Fest: The Montana Testicle Festival

Several times while visiting Montana, I have passed by (but never actually attended) the Testy Fest (motto: "I had a ball at the Testicle Festival").

I think because it is on the way to Sturgis, the festival includes a lot of public nudity, motorcycles, beer, music, and, of course, fine dining. The crowd usually consumes something like two tons of bull cojones.



The party happens at the Rock Creek Lodge, 20 miles east of Missoula along I-90.

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Michelle Obama naked?

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs Correspondent



Scouring the millions of corners of the Internet for nude photographs of First Lady Michelle Obama appears to be an area of spirited and relentless Internet/Google research.

There are, of course, hundreds of thousands of references in a G.I.S. on the subject. Many "entrepreneurs" have grabbed various domains related to the nude First lady, for example: http://michelleobamanude.com./ a site that, of course, carries a few lame display ads.



OK, friendos, we'll keep you posted in the highly unlikely event a prime cache, or mother lode, of naked Michelle Obama photos turns up. Us, and about a million other blogs, web sites, and old media. . .

I wouldn't hold my breath, however. You will probably have far better luck searching for nude photos of the various Pop Tarts.
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Want to get your wallet back when you lose it? Keep a baby picture in it...

A fascinating article appeared in Boing Boing in July on social research by an Edinburgh psychologist:

"Researcher Richard Wiseman and team left a load of wallets lying around with various contents, trying to see if there was a correlation between, say, baby pictures or cards indicating charitable giving and the rate at which wallets are returned. It turns out that people in Edinburgh (and maybe everyone) have a high likelihood of returning wallets with baby pictures, but are much less likely to return the wallets of charitable givers."

Read the article here.
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Goo - a scene from Dark Skies

Dark Skies may be my favorite television show of all time. It survived just 20 episodes, and is so obscure by now that there aren't even many clips on YouTube! I do have a bootleg of the series (Bryce: I'll buy numerous copies for gifts...if it ever actually comes out!

Here is a clip, in which Kim is abducted. . .


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Video: Bill Maher talks to Jeff Sharlet about The Family a/k/a The Christian Mafia

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for sending this on. I'd read about them before, and heard rumblings--but they actually seem far more nefarious than I'd been led to believe. Jeff Sharlet doesn't seem to be a nut at all--he's an editor at Harper's. This is not some wack job raving about Obama's birth certificate, his indoctrination at a Madrasah, or about which government agency bombed the WTC. This seems quite real. And spooky.



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On The Road again: roadburn

In about nine hours, we will be trying to get on the road, back to Seattle, and recover the roughly 750 miles we just traversed a week ago. Roadburn!

Obama brokers beer bash and breaks out the bombers

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Correspondent

President Barack Obama acted as the bartender on Thursday at a "beer summit" meet-up of the main figures in a highly charged case of racial politics. Obama hoped to turn the broil into a "positive lesson" in the national debate on race relations.

President Obama described the meet as a "friendly, thoughtful" conversation over beers at the White House with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and a cop, Sergeant James Crowley, who is white. Vice-President "Crazy" Joe Biden also showed up to throw back a few.

Earlier this month, Crowley arrested Gates for disorderly conduct after a confrontation over Gates not identifying himself (someone called the police, believing Gates was an intruder). Words "were exchanged," and both parties seem to have lost their cool. This, naturally, sparked a media feeding frenzy as the 58 year old Gates, accused the policeman of racial profiling. Crowley denied this and accused Gates of overreacting.

Obama poured gasoline on the troubled waters by saying he thought police "acted stupidly" in arresting his acquaintance, Professor Gates.




According to sources in the White House, even after several beers, the atmosphere was tense. The President rolled a couple of joints and passed them around. When our source returned to the meeting, everyone at the table was laughing uproariously and demanding more beer.
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Poem: Highway 89 Haiku

Bugs and cooties stacked
Four layers deep on my grill:
This is sweet revenge.
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Random Photos From Montana, Wyoming, and Chico Hot Springs

a fishing shack? Or someone's cabin? I can't tell.


A very cool street sign in the mountains


The horses and ponies at Chico Hot Springs dining


The obligatory photo of a pissed off buffalo


The Boiling River

The Beartooth Mountains at dusk

Del and my niece Melanie prepare to tell the little kids

ghost stories accompanied by banjo and recorder

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In hot water: soaking in the Boiling River in Yellowstone

At Boiling River, at almost exactly the 45th parallel and straddling the borders of Wyoming and Montana, you can stand with one leg in the glacial Gardner River and the other in boiling (probably really about 130 degrees) water. This is probably the nicest hot springs I have ever soaked in. The Boiling River runs alongside the Gardner River, and down into rock pools where the hot water mixes with the icy river water. A series of soaking pools create a range of temperatures, from cool to extremely hot. The result is nature's own hot tub, with small pools carved water with a great view of the Gardner River canyon walls. We soaked here for two and a half hours after a hike.

Cousins Mackenzie, Del, and Melanie

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