[analog-digital hybrid; hand drawn 24"x24" canvas digitized into photoshop]
click to enlarge
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Faces No. 245 - org chart
By Jack Brummet
[analog-digital hybrid; hand drawn 24"x24" canvas digitized into photoshop]
[analog-digital hybrid; hand drawn 24"x24" canvas digitized into photoshop]
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Great Britain's attempt to turn Adolf Hitler into a woman
Military History Editor
When World War II seemed like it would never end, with Germany's unending pursuit of real estate, America dragging her feet, and the relentless Blitzkrieg pounding London almost nightly, British spooks cooked up a plan to insinuate Hitler’s food with female sex hormones (e.g., estrogen) in hopes of taming the killer inside him.
Counterintelligence agents came up with a plan to smuggle doses of estrogen into his food to make him less aggressive. The Fuhrer, natch, had a battery of food tasters. But estrogen is colorless, tasteless, and odorless, and works slowly. The food tasters would never detect it.
[Editor's note: This reminds us of the wacky CIA plans cooked up in the 60's to poison Fidel Castro's cigars, and another one to slip him drugs that would make his beard and hair fall out.] ---o0o---
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Poem: Getting Crowded
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Think Progress's "10 things you need to know about Rick Perry"
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Not To Scale - Smoke Farm LoFi Arts Festival (Photos) & Cafe Nordo treehouse dinner
I spent last Saturday at the Not To Scale - Smoke Farm LoFi Arts Festival at Smoke Farm
near Arlington, WA. The festival features site-specific work in all visual and performance media--all spread across something like 300 acres a couple of rivers, creeks, and rugged hills. Perhaps the most interesting thing we did that day was the Cafe Nordo dinner. After you signed up (21 of us), they told you to come to the barn sober at 6:00 with good walking shoes. We paid our $20, were blindfolded and driven about ten minutes to a trailhead. Then we made the brutal hike to our dining destination, fording three creeks, dozens of fallen trees, and muddy steep hills up and down. But then we arrived at a beautiful treehouse 30 feet up an old and very large cedar tree, where were fed excellent chow paired with very good wines (see the menu, below).
Titanium Sporkestra plays at the bonfire (love these guys)
Daryle and Susan at the bonfire. Daryle ran a great treat shack at the fest.
A sculpture that becomes part of an aerial performance
A tree in a tree 0n the hike to our treehouse dinner
Susan at the treehouse, with the salad granita
Our servers by the hoist
Michael by the tree
the menu
Titanium Sporkestra
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
"Shut It Down, America" - Let's take Howard Schultz's suggestion and close our purses and wallets
By Jack Brummet, Ethics Editor
and Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
We could follow our earlier advice and "throw the bums out." But we just might end up with a President Bachmann, or President Nader. Or, we could take up Howard Schultz's suggestion and starve them out. Eliminating all campaign contributions would seriously shake the pumpkin.
"This means not kicking the can anymore. It means reaching a deal on debt, revenue, and spending long before the deadline arrives this fall. It means considering all options, from entitlement programs to taxes." - Howard Schultz
illustration © 2011 by Jack Brummet
A "throw the bums out" movement won't really change anything, because politicians thrive on backbiting, sophistry, backlash, and factionalism. But choking off the supply of cash to all politicians would surely have desired effect. It is the thing they fear the most.
Let's give it a shot. In the words of Tina Fey, "Shut it down America!"
In his--now--widely distributed email dated today, Schultz wrote:
August 15, 2011
Dear Fellow Concerned Americans:
Our country is better than this.
Over the last few weeks and months, our national elected officials from both parties have failed to lead. They have chosen to put partisan and ideological purity over the well-being of the people. They have undermined the full faith and credit of the United States. They have stirred up fears about our economic prospects without doing anything to truly address those fears. They have spent a resource even more precious than the dollar: our collective confidence in each other, in the future, and in our ability to solve problems together.
As leaders in business, we have watched all this unfold, first with frustration and then with dismay. Like so many of our employees and customers, we are gravely concerned about the current situation. Today, with both humility and urgency, we propose to do something about it.
First, we aim to push our elected leaders to face the nation's long-term fiscal challenges with civility, honesty, and a willingness to sacrifice their own re-election. This means not kicking the can anymore. It means reaching a deal on debt, revenue, and spending long before the deadline arrives this fall. It means considering all options, from entitlement programs to taxes.
This is what so many common-sense Americans want. That is why we today pledge to withhold any further campaign contributions to the President and all members of Congress until a fair, bipartisan deal is reached that sets our nation on stronger long-term fiscal footing. And we invite leaders of businesses – indeed, all concerned Americans – to join us in this pledge.
We also believe in leading by positive example. And we believe that while the long-term fiscal challenge is serious, even more painful to millions of Americans today is the immediate crisis of jobs. Tens of millions are unemployed and underemployed. Right now our economy is frozen in a cycle of fear and uncertainty. Companies are afraid to hire. Consumers are afraid to spend. Banks are afraid to lend. Record levels of cash are piling up in corporate treasuries, idling. That cash is not being used to expand operations, train new workers, underwrite new ventures, or spark innovation.
The only way to break this cycle of fear is to break it. The only way to get the country’s economic circulatory system flowing again is to start pumping lifeblood through it. That is why we today issue a second pledge. Our companies are going to hire. We are going to accelerate growth, employment, and investment in jobs.
We do this because we want to set in motion an upward spiral of confidence. We are not waiting for government to create an incentive program or a stimulus. We are not waiting for economic indicators to tell us it’s safe to act. We are hiring more people now. We invite leaders of businesses across the country to join us in this pledge as well – and to bring their stakeholders into the effort. Confidence is contagious. The best thing we can do now is to spread it.
This is a time for citizenship, not partisanship. It is a time for action. We don't pretend that our two pledges are quick fixes. We just believe that in this moment of great uncertainty, the government needs discipline, the people need jobs – and leaders need to lead.
Our country is better than this. Let’s get things moving now.
Respectfully,
Howard Schultz
Other recent relevant posts on ATIT:
"Throw The Bums Out" - images from a quick web search
Throwing The Bums Out Does Not Mean Replacing Them With Teabaggers
"Throw the bums out!": more reflections on the deficit fiasco
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Sunday, August 14, 2011
Michele Bachmann politicks and tries out a corn-dog at the Iowa State Fair and Sarah Palin can't resist a photo op
By Jack Brummet, Flyover States Editor & Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
Rep. Bachmann samples a local corn dog at the Iowa
State Fair. On Twitter Mike_FTW wrote, "Ladies.
Gentlemen. Start your Photoshop engines. "
Ex-Governor Sarah Palin made a high-profile appearance. Of course she did. It was a high profile GOP/Tea Party week. And she has been out of the news cycles for two or three weeks. She told reporters on at the fair on Friday that she had watched the debate on Thursday night and saw nothing that made her think that the Republican field was closed to late entrants. We agree with her on that point, anyhow. There's room, because there is maybe one marginally viable candidate.
We say butt out, Democrats. Quit rending your garments over Bachmann, Perry, Gingrich and the others. Let them nominate their Goldwater, say a Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann. In our own house, we need to decide who our own candidate will be. At his break-neck fund-raising pace, it seems highly unlikely that BHO will pull an LBJ. But you just never know.
USA Today's web site reports "Sarah Plain caused a media and fan frenzy as they swarmed her from the minute she and her entourage stepped onto the fairgrounds." She may be coy about whether she will run or not, but she can't resist a media opportunity.
"There is still plenty of room," said Sarah Palin, as she was mobbed by the press. “There is still plenty of room for a common sense conservative,” she said, once again stirring up speculation that she might after all enter the 2012 fray.
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Saturday, August 13, 2011
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