A Los Angeles man has an unusual business catering to fans who want more than just an autograph…
 

 
Do. Not. Want. Whoever did this should provide high res versions, screen savers, etc, for others to use so that this meme gets passed around quickly on blogs.

This could easily become an iconic image of the the 2012 election cycle. Make it so!

(via Facebook)

 
The great greatest British disc jockey, John Peel would have been 72-years-old today.

In the years since Peel’s death, there has been no one, absolutely no one, who has stepped into his shoes to do what he could do. You’d think that it would be the case that some new golden-eared music fanatic for a new generation would come along and tell us all what’s good to listen to, but clearly—and sadly—that’s not happened. This is a testament, of course, to just how culturally influential this one man truly was.

In the clip below, Jarvis Cocker tells a charming anecdote of a star-struck youthful meeting with Peel that led to a “Peel Session” for Pulp in 1982.
 

 
Via the awesome Sabotage Times

Tattoo by Yomico Moreno in Caracas, Venezuela
 
Street Anatomy posted this insane photo of David Arguello’s deltoid muscle tattoo. This is up there with the amputee dolphin tattoo I posted a while back.

 
This is kind of cool: a children’s book of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” drawn by ace illustrator Andrew Kolb. There’s no hard copy yet, but you can download the pdf.

“Space Oddity” is a song that has a special appeal to children and I say this with confidence because it was the first 45 RPM record that I bought myself. The not-so-happy-ending (where the astronaut loses contact with Earth) might be a bit distressing for the young’ns, though…
 

 
Below, David Bowie performing “Space Oddity” on The Midnight Special in 1973 during his legendary “1980 Floor Show” special. I saw this when I was an 8-year-old kid and it changed my life.
 

 
Via io9 (where they recommend that Kolb tackle Diamond Dogs next!)

 
Friar Michael Rodriguez of El Paso’s San Juan Bautista Catholic Church is at it again with his anti-gay stuff, this time in the form of an offensive and condescending full page advertisement in the El Paso Times, the city’s largest newspaper. In the ad, the far-right priest calls gays “immoral,”“putrid,” and “depraved.”

From The Advocate:

The paid advertisement in the El Paso Times, titled “True Pastoral Care for Homosexuals,” is from Friar Michael Rodriguez of El Paso’s San Juan Bautista Catholic Church. The virulently antigay and antichoice Rodriguez first writes about showing compassion for gay people before explaining how gays are destructive sinners.

“Engaging in depraved and unnatural sexual acts will lead directly to the ruin of both the homosexual’s body and soul,” Rodriguez writes. “Our very anatomy cries out against the lie that homosexual acts are ‘ok.’”

Rodriguez closes his screed by saying we live in a “godless society” that condones homosexuality.

“Reflect, first there are (a) individuals committing mortal sins of a homosexual nature; next, evil extends its tentacles to (b) society as a whole accepting homosexual and homosexual activity as ‘normal”; and finally, iniquity’s victory is all but sealed when (c) laws are enacted which impose the putrid homosexual ideology on everyone, while those who, rightfully resist it, are ridiculed, attacked, and persecuted,” Rodriguez writes.

The ad claims that the statements don’t reflect the views of the El Paso Times, a newspaper that reaches more than 108,000 people daily. A phone message was left with the newspaper regarding the publication’s advertising policies, but as of late Monday the call was not returned.

Joe.My.God happened to find Friar Michael Rodriguez’s contact information if you want to give him a piece of your mind…
 

 

 
According to this map, it appears that weed is free in the Great Lakes. Shhhhhhhhhh, America’s best kept secret! Everyone will buy a houseboat and move there!

Click here to see larger image.

(via Floating Sheep)

 
In a Q and A in the Washington Post’s “On Faith” column, famed evolutionary biologist and outspoken smart person, Dr. Richard Dawkins ridiculed Texas governor and GOP theocrat Richard Perry in a manner both highbrow and low-ball simultaneously. I found it most satisfying:

There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.

***

A politician’s attitude to evolution is perhaps not directly important in itself. It can have unfortunate consequences on education and science policy but, compared to Perry’s and the Tea Party’s pronouncements on other topics such as economics, taxation, history and sexual politics, their ignorance of evolutionary science might be overlooked. Except that a politician’s attitude to evolution, however peripheral it might seem, is a surprisingly apposite litmus test of more general inadequacy. This is because unlike, say, string theory where scientific opinion is genuinely divided, there is about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well. Evolution is not some recondite backwater of science, ignorance of which would be pardonable. It is the stunningly simple but elegant explanation of our very existence and the existence of every living creature on the planet. Thanks to Darwin, we now understand why we are here and why we are the way we are. You cannot be ignorant of evolution and be a cultivated and adequate citizen of today.

Nope, but you might become the Republican nominee for President of the United States. Funny how it works that way…

 
DM pal and acclaimed writer Steve Duffy passed on these amusing paintings by Swedish artist, Andreas Englund, who says of his art:

“Humor can be the carrier of messages that are otherwise hard to convey. For me, it liberates my thoughts and ideas from pretentiousness while at the same time it opens doors to new routes and angles.”

As Mr Duffy points out, even superheroes get old, and “this’ll be you, one day.” Well, yes, but maybe without the lycra cat suit.

See more of Andreas Englund’s paintings here.
 

 

 
Via Empty Kingdom, with thanks to Steve Duffy.
 

 
Hilarious! Wisconsin’s Marathon County Central Labor Council is dis-inviting state Republicans from participating in this year’s Wausau Labor Day parade. The following statement was released about the event and signed by Randy Radtke, President of the Marathon County Labor Council AFL-CIO.

The Wausau Labor Day Parade is a time to celebrate the working men and women of Wisconsin. It is not a political event or stop on the campaign trail. It is a time for working families to come together to celebrate their hard work and a time where we recognize the labor movement for all they have given us—the weekend, the 40 hour work week, child labor protection, a safe work environment.

It should come as no surprise that organizers choose not to invite elected officials who have openly attacked worker’s rights or stood idly by while their political party fought to strip public workers of their right to collectively bargain

STANDING OVATION!

Via Daily Kos:

That’s right: Wisconsin Republicans eliminated collective bargaining rights, and as a result, they’re disinvited from celebrating working men and women, their unions, and their history of struggle. And Sean Duffy, of Real World and “I struggle to meet my bills right now” on $174,000 per year fame, isn’t too happy about it:

On the federal level, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) represents Wausau. In a statement to local ABC affiliate WAOW, Duffy’s office decried the labor council vote. “Having walked in this parade in past years, Congressman Duffy was hoping that for a moment, we could set our differences aside and simply have some fun in a family-friendly event,” a Duffy spokesperson said.

“[The congressman] walks in a lot of parades, and staff called to register a spot last week and was informed in colorful language that no Republicans were being allowed to participate this year,” added Duffy Chief of Staff Brandon Moody in an email to The Huffington Post.

Yes, so sad that on Labor Day those nasty unions are refusing to set aside their differences with elected leaders of the party trying to eliminate them.

You piss in the wind, it comes back to hit you in the face and some urine-stained chickens are coming home to roost for Republican politicians in Wisconsin. As someone who believes wholeheartedly that anyone who self identifies as a Republican should be shunned by right-thinking people, this news gave me quite a good chuckle.