Thanksgiving Isn't a Holiday

Thanksgiving to me means getting up at nine in the morning, chugging black coffee mixed with Kahlua, and watching perhaps the greatest annual television event ever: the Macy's Parade. No, I'm serious, fuck you if you don't like the parade, especially since it's the only thing that validates the bullshit packaged with this meaningless day. For three hours, the last place network blows the wad it saved by defunding its other shows all over your screen. While you sit on your ass and enjoy, those hard working men and women (mostly men) brave the elements head on to bring you the absolute best in entertainment.

 Fucking American heroes. They might as well be in Iraq.

Thanksgiving means nothing. Not even, "Thanksgiving is stupid", or "Thanksgiving used to mean something". Thanksgiving means nothing at all, and it meant even less than that until Macy's bought it in 1924. Since then, we have all had a reason to gain consciousness on the last Thursday of November, and up until that point in time the day would have been better used as a full work day. At least then something other than asinine rituals that further materialistic ends and immense personal greed would come out of it.

Thanksgiving is a twenty-four hour window into vacuous needs and vapid solutions for those needs. Thanksgiving is a tailgate party to Christmas, hanging out in the parking lot of the arena, passing out beers to sixteen-year-olds, promising them a great time at Christmas, but hey, let's chill for a bit, listen to my stories about seeing the Scorpions in '88. Thanksgiving should be abolished, as it truly serves no purpose.

But keep the parade. I love the balloons, and David Alan Grier's commentary, and figuring out who's lip syncing and who's trying to keep from passing out due to exposure. I especially like how every year they stroll out a Native American-themed float, just as a way of saying, "hey, water under the bridge, white people". If they made the parade a full twenty-four hours long and called that Thanksgiving, I would fully support it. The parade represents a sense of unity and camaraderie between Americans as we celebrate walking down the street in the cold. That's what this day is really about; turning up your collar, facing the icy winds that herald winter's approach and saying, "fuck yes". The pilgrims can suck a high hard one.

I mean, does anyone ever stop and think about what we're all being commanded to celebrate by big-box retailers and our own federal government? White douchebags sailing to someone else's country, forcing their religious beliefs down the throats of the locals, and deciding then and there that this was a day to be remembered. You know, when you say it out loud, like really spit it into your Grandpa's face, Thanksgiving  makes you feel like an asshole for celebrating it.

Plus, in what way is that event significant to our history, or to that of the world at large? We have about as much in common with the pilgrims as we do with Leif Ericsson or Christopher Columbus, two people who did exactly what the pilgrims did, albeit centuries before and with much greater success. Why are we supposed to get the whole family together to celebrate a group of people who failed collectively in their only historic enterprise? Fuck the pilgrims.

Lastly, there seems to be a minority of Americans who find spiritual significance in Thanksgiving, saying that because the pilgrims were of puritan-protestant faith, the day should be a commemoration of God helping his followers find a new home. That's a load of shit-dick, because the writings that catalog the events of the First Thanksgiving don't appear until 1850, a scant nineteen years after Abraham Lincoln decided God liked us enough for us to have a pre-Christmas in November. No, really. So Lincoln just so happened to pick a day of significance to the Christian God, thus sealing our nation's allegiance to a bronze-age education for centuries to come. Great job, beardo.

Mourt's Relation is the only publication of the era that could possibly have included an honest account of the First Thanksgiving, except it was written by a man who didn't live in Plymouth colony at the time, and was only ever affiliated with Thanksgiving in 1841, so no dice there either.

Thanksgiving has no meaning whatsoever, except as a free day off to watch the awesomest thing ever forever on television. Though I suppose by the measure of our time, that's more than enough to consider Thanksgiving a religious holiday.

Old People: A New Genre in Film

A few nights ago, I went to the movies to catch a late-night showing of Gravity, because I really wanted to watch Sandra bullock die in space. I left the theatre disappointed, but that's a story for another time. The movie was bland and forgettable, but one thing that did stick out in my mind was a trailer for the latest Stallone picture: Old Guys Boxing.

I know what you're thinking: another fucking Rocky movie. Actually, Stallone isn't portraying Balboa in this movie (for some reason), but rather a completely different old Italian boxer who wants to fight his way out of retirement. Who could possibly think this was a re-hash of other Stallone movies, or that DeNiro was thrown in to make people say, "they were good together in Cop Land, so logically this movie will be even better"?

But that's not the only unoriginal old-person-movie slated to hit theatres soon; take a look at Last Vegas, starring three old white guys and Morgan Freeman as their black friend.

Aside from also featuring De Niro not even bothering to act anymore, the movie boasts four male friends who journey to Vegas for a bachelor party and wind up in a series of zany misunderstandings and yuk-filled hijinkery. Sounds a lot like a movie I've seen three times already.

Compare these two surefire shitstorms to movies like Red, It's Complicated, and Hope Springs. Old people are invading our cinemas and remaking our films, presumably to take out all the rap music and sass-back.

Aside from being pandering drivel, these movies are just not entertaining. I mean, who decided old people needed their own movies anyway? Most of the old people I know are dead, and the ones who are alive sleep through every movie they watch. Plus, a lot of these old-people-films (I'm going to call them OPFs from now on) feature sex and violence as predominant themes. Who decided our old people should be having sex with each other? Senior pregnancy rates are at an all-time low; let's keep it there. The violent content doesn't really bother me personally, but if your target audience wore pacemakers and struggled to breath while eating, would you litter your films with explosions and dismemberments? Unless you wanted the aisles of the local CineMagic to be a writhing mass of coronary episodes, you'd tone it down a shade.

To recap, these movies are poorly written, poorly acted, poorly planned, and poorly reviewed. So why do we keep seeing them pop into theatres? I mean, I like The Expendables as much as anyone, but that doesn't mean I wanna see old dudes in every movie. Also, why is it that whenever Hollywood needs an old black man, Morgan Freeman is immediately given the part? It's like no one even considers Delroy Lindo anymore.

Did you motherfuckers even see Crooklyn?!

 

The madness must stop. Old people, stop making movies. And if you insist on watching these shitty movies, keep them to yourselves. I imagine all the world's old people being kept in prisons, but instead of like barred windows and armed guards, because everyone in the prison is old and all, I picture like satin drapes and really nice comforters on all the beds. In these prisons, the old people can live as they please, complaining about the temperature of their bath water, accusing the ethnic staff of stealing, and watching these dreadful films in solace. We'll say we'll come to visit but we never will. And eventually the prisons will stop medicating those who have overstayed their mortal welcomes, and the unmedicated will be left to wander into the wilds to be taken by the elements. We'll call them 'retirement homes', and all of them will be in Florida.

Until my glorious transmission comes to pass, I suggest we turn the tactics of the elderly against them. I want everyone who reads this post to write an angry, poorly spelled, directionless letter of disgust to any movie studio; bonus points if you accuse the studio execs of indoctrinating viewers into the Jewish agenda. Eventually, the studios will relent, as a letter-writing campaign is legally binding in California. Let's stop the Gray Menace before they come out with a remake of Sex & the City.

 

 

quickie: HumbleSmug

Once again I have come under fire from some greasy punk with a Nokia claiming to be an artist. His name is Sami and he likes to cry a lot.

This isn't really the guy I'm talking about, but I fucking hate Black Veil Brides.

I wish I could show you an actual picture of this gentleman (gentlewoman?), but he like most of the dregs of the internet hides behind anonymity. I suppose that's fine for some, but I AM SPENCER FUCKING FIFFIELD. I will have none of that.

As you may have guessed, Sami here has a problem with me hating art students. I explained my disdain for art students several months ago and god damn will they not shut up about it. First Shawn McNulty tries to sue me, then this little dickweed wants to bitch me out for hating his shameful lifestyle choice. Am I correct in assuming you have no last name because you were disowned by your parents, or were you trying to emulate Cher or Tiffany?

You can read his list of grievances with me and another proud anti-art warrior here if you want. Or you can threaten his mother sexually via e-mail, which is what I want.

If you didn't bother to read it, and really, you shouldn't have, our little friend ends his article by saying (s)he doesn't understand why everyone hates art students, or where these scornful opinions originate. Since I live only to educate and enlighten, allow me to extrapolate. Sami, people hate your kind because you stand in bold defiance of societal norms; whereas a Philosophy or Psychology major would read an article and analyze its content academically, an Art major will read a blog post with a differing opinion of his own and walk away with no further insight. You don't just respond poorly to criticism, you refuse to accept it. Your feyvolken present the world their canvases for open scrutiny, then complain when no one likes them. If you can't handle people saying they don't like you or what you stand for or what you create, then not only should you abandon art, you should abandon the Internet altogether.

In closing, since the last time an artist bitched me out I wound up giving him a full review, I shall afford you the same luxury Sami. I perused your other articles while researching my rebuttal and jotted down a few notes for you.

1) STOP WEEPING FOR HUMANITY. Naming your blog's archive is asinine, especially when the name you chose is headache-inducingly effete. Weep for humanity, your page moans. But I will give you points for adhering to the age old adage of writing what you know. Since you're an artist, you probably know a lot about weeping.

2) HUMBLE AND SMUG? From what I've gleaned in these articles, you should drop the 'humble' from your title. Unless you're using that word ironically, and again, since you're an artist, I wouldn't put it past you.

3) THE DUCK FACE. Wow, an article on how annoying duck face girls are? Timely stuff! Someone tag Sami on Twitter and tell (s)him it's not 2008 anymore.

4) STOP! USING! EXCLAMATION POINTS! You absolutely litter your articles with these, which is actually kinda funny considering how vocal you are about your pointless environmental concerns. I'd understand if you were doing this to evoke a humorous or incredulous tone, but it really just makes you look like you're screaming at my eyes. When babies scream, I put them in the garbage. When women scream, I put them outside. Come on up to NH and find out what I'll do to you if you scream at me.

LETTER GRADE: DOUBLE ABORTION MINUS.

I don't want to read anymore bitching from you, Sami. I mean, feel free to bring me up again in your blog if you so desire, as your brow-furrowingly maladroit keystrokes serve only to increase my pageviews, but one retaliatory article is all your whining warrants and only one will you get. Suck it.

Professional Football and the GOP are Destroying America

Professional football is the stupidest concept the synapses in my frontal lobe have ever attempted to osmose. The games are tedious to say the least, the same 'roided out monstermen win each year no matter which team they play for, and it all leads up to a Super Bowl championship title that is immediately stripped away the next season. I mean, really, doesn't that galvanize the entire season? One could properly summate the Super Bowl  as, "millionaires playing a game that means nothing to them while untold swathes of inebriated troglodytes scream for them to kill each other".

 

Oddly enough, that last explanatory snark could also be used to describe our wonderful country's current political furlough. If you haven't been paying attention, and to be fair you probably haven't, our glorious republic is mired in a quag of bipartisan hornswogglery. To put it in Double Dare terms, the Red Team dared the Blue Team to come up with a new (read: less socialist) health care plan and the Blue Team double dared them to do something about it. The Red Team accepted, and now everyone loses. To make the metaphor even more confusing, this all happened after the Blue Team already won the game.

REMEMBER THE NINETIES????!?!?!?!?!

You see, our president has decided it is time for our country to try something new, and by new I mean something that every other first world country is doing. Government run health care will cost less than the private option, and the rest of the world has known this for years. But because the idea was proposed by a black guy, half of our country's representatives are throwing a tantrum.

On a personal note, I honestly don't see the problem with the Affordable Healthcare Act. I mean, the medical coverage provided by your insurance doesn't actually change when you change providers, right? The only thing that changes is who you send your money to, and to reiterate, Obamacare costs less. I read comments on CNN and WMUR message boards saying that some Americans feel a government-run health care program would force citizens to relinquish their right to choose an insurance program on their own. That'd be a fine argument if insurance companies hadn't been forming localized monopolies for half a century after the McCarran-Ferguson act was passed in 1945. In short, no one in America can tell insurance companies how to fix their rates or when to stop expanding because the Fed does not recognize them as commercial businesses. Choosing private insurance over Obamacare is choosing the thieves over the police, and again, the police are charging less.

But how does this tie in to football again? One could draw a myriad of comparisons between professional football players and the GOP. Both consist of millionaires with drug problems, both are proud supporters of the prostitution industry, and neither of them are affected by job performance. John Boehner wept like a maiden during his inauguration back in 2010, talking about how much  personal freedoms and responsibility meant to him. Three years later, he's throwing a temper tantrum because the President wants us to live longer. Aren't I free to accept the Government option if I want it? Aren't you as an elected official responsible for following the will of your constituency instead of giving everyone the silent treatment? Congratulations Republicans, your speaker of the house is a toddler.

 I'd be clapping too if I made John Boehner cry.

Rallying behind the GOP for obstructing our Government from fulfilling its only purpose is like supporting the Detroit Lions, except Republicans sometimes win things. All the Right Wing message board huff-puffery really serves to illustrate is that you don't know how little you matter to Boehner, the Koch brothers, and the other Tea Party lunatics that will probably be running this country in 2016. No matter who wins, we lose, and once the Shutdown/Super Bowl is over, the season starts back up again, and everyone has to act like the last year was important. Fuckin' a, right?

Devious Maids is a Big Piece of Shit

My television has been giving me a lot of bullshit lately about this show called Devious Maids. I literally cannot make it through a single episode of Top Chef or Next Food Network Star without seeing an ad for this piece of crap. Has anyone noticed lately how low the bar has sunk? In a completely unrelated note, did you know that Caucasian females have the largest cable network demographic? But I'm sure that has nothing to do with why this show is unwatchable.

If any women are reading this, please, for the love of Allah, tell me how that sold you. According to TV By the Numbers, two million of you idiots tuned in to the pilot, which is really saying something, because watching that ad, I can't even tell what the show is about. I see five vaguely ethnic women in maid costumes running around a whole bunch of rich white people doing... stuff. Just random tasks. While this ballet of retardation unfolds, we hear an annoying voice bleat out such poetry as, 'bling-bling', and 'dirty rich, dirty rich' over and over. It sounds like they told a five-year-old to use as few words as possible to describe what she saw. Dirty. Rich. Bling. Rich. And again, as moronic as that sounds, it got two million people to watch an hour long show. Fuck.

Being the maverick that I am, I decided to give these hoes a day in court. After all, this is America, and before we take the dregs of our society behind the shed and shoot them, we have to act like we don't want to. Now, I haven't seen the actual pilot, but as in the case of Teen Wolf, it will not stop me from passing judgement on the rest of the series. Also, I put on the second episode last night while I was waiting for the new Venture Bros. to come on.

I'm putting this here so that Marc Cherry, creator of Devious Maids cannot truthfully say that I wrote an entire article about his shitty show. Also, Venture Bros. rules.

The episode starts off with the five high-end call girls you saw standing around not being maids in the ad eating lunch and gossiping about their employers. This is what writers call a hook, or an opening scene meant to grab the target audience. Rather than a scene involving exposition or character development, this show chose eating and spreading rumors, which are the two things women in America do best. After eating, the maid Wikipedia calls Marisol (racist) begins asking questions about a murder victim whose job she took (that happened in the first episode. I know it seems important, but trust me, it really isn't). Rather than giving her a straightforward answer like an adult would, none of the maids tell her anything specific about the dead girl or her employers. The violins in the background started playing louder when Marisol brought up the murder, so that tells me the family that employed the dead girl probably had something to do with her death. Don't you just love it when the music tells you what's happening in the story and not the actual fucking writing?

Hard work.

From there we cut yet again to the five 'maids' not doing their jobs. This time they're relaxing by some gigantic pool drinking martinis. Are we going to see these maids do any actual maid stuff in this show? Because so far, all they've done is talk about how much it sucks to be a maid while they sat around. Suddenly, another employee of the house (this time a black dude, who'd a thunk it?) bursts onto the scene and begins chastising the women for sitting around when they should be working. Clearly this guy is supposed to be the downer of the show. I mean, what kind of dickhead expects women to do what they're paid to do? Doesn't he know how hard it is to be a maid?

 Seeing the black guy as an enormous threat to her drinking and anti-labor, one of the maids (Wikipedia says 'Carmen', I say they wrote down every pseudo-Latina name that came to mind short of Juanita and slapped them at random across the caramel foreheads of these poor five actresses) jumps on the black dude's shit and starts making out with him. Bordering on prostitution, Carmen uses this sexual leverage to get her friends as much booze and relaxation time as they want. I guess being a maid must be really, really hard considering how much time these bitches need to sleep/drink/skank it up.

Seriously, how do these cunts stay employed?

I had seen enough. I dropkicked my television in disgust. How could any woman with half a brain cell debase herself by watching this crap? Devious Maids is insultingly stupid. I really feel like the Lifetime network may be the most openly anti-woman network on the air today, which would be a good thing if all of their shows weren't terrible. Lifetime seems to exist solely to sell women a reason for the world to hate them. I thought Devious Maids might just be the worst television show I had ever seen, until this played during a commercial break.

That's a show about nothing but gigantic tits. Lifetime took that beautiful concept and made it into a somehow awful looking television show. I guess that goes to show how fat women can ruin pretty much anything.

quickie: perchance some poetry before a fortnight

 This is what my poetry feels like: jizzing inspiration through a pen.

I love poetry. Everyone who knows me personally knows this, and if you didn't, then I must really fucking hate you. Whenever I meet someone worthy of my social graces, I always inform them of my love of free-verse, slam-esque poetry. There is something so liberating about stringing semi-coherent thoughts together without punctuation or rhyme and calling it art. It's defiant.

Poetry will save the world.

In an effort to show you what I love about... poetry, I have provided for your scrutiny below a wondrous work of poetic beauty. Please, comment and tell me what you really think! MEAN COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED.

REVOLUTION

 Hegemony,

A dark cloud inside

my soul

My heart

is menstruating

Black, red
The demon in my head

No time

to rhyme

free form

the new norm

So many fools will never understand

That I am deeper than they

Even though

they are the ones with 'jobs'

My job is to make you think

My words are a candle in the wind

My words

ARE

Revolution

I'm Buying Kelly Ayotte

Oy vey

You read correctly, kids. Today I'm going Old Testament on everyone's asses and setting out to buy a woman. But not just any woman will do. She's got to have sass, and an ass that won't quit. Perhaps most importantly, however, she has to be willing to accept cash bribes. Sounds like Kelly Ayotte is the right woman for the job, for once.

This video doesn't make New Hampshirites look like insane, gun-toting rednecks at all!

As I'm sure some of you recall, about two weeks ago I stated my position on gun control, mostly that it was unnecessary. After all, guns don't kill people; bullets do. Guns are a great American tradition, just like robbery, and corrupt politicians. That's why I've decided to go ahead and combine all three into one awesome Kickstarter project: Buying a Politician.

You see, according to this handy website I found called opencongress, Killer Kelly received fifteen large from gun and ammunition lobbies last year. Not gonna lie, that was a disappointment. I was hoping  Mrs. Ayotte would have some dignity, and refuse bribes below three digits. But perhaps this was a mitzvah in balashon; I mean, is fifteen grand really that much anymore? I think with just a few donations from the public and some elbow grease, a rare Chinese aphrodisiac that sells for thousands on the black market, I could raise fifteen grand in no time. But then, my idea got jacked by an even awesomer idea. Why not just cut out all the hard work and have other people raise the money for me?

That's right, I'm pulling a Tim Lambesis, by which I do not mean I'm going to have my wife killed. I mean I'm going to not work on this project at all and instead let all of you do it for me. Kickstarter is going to personally fund my mission of buying Kelly Ayotte for the princely sum of $15,001 dollars. I'm a fair businessman; I know that there are other offers on the table, and I have to be able to prove I can beat them.

Of course, I'm sure some of you are wondering what I'll do with NRAyotte once she's well and bought. Well, since all she can talk about lately is her lengthy career and longstanding support of public safety despite voting against making WMDs harder to obtain, I feel like she's due to retire. Once I own Kelly, I'm going to make her leave her office and retire to my farm, where she will plow the fields and tend to the livestock. She'll also produce milk for me.

Unfortunately, Kickstarter does not at the moment support any political projects, which sucks, because I can't think of a good enough lie to get this onto Kickstarter. So that's where you come in. I want everyone who reads this post to come up with a good lie I can use to pass off my project onto Kickstarter. Or, if anyone has a Kickstarter already going, why not give me some of that money? Or, if some of you have jobs or sell drugs or whatever, why not just make an all out donation? Note: please keep donations under $200 each, so I don't have to go through all the paperwork to report you guys to the IRS. Let's show these politicians that if they want to be bought, we'll treat them like the prostitutes they are and give them lots of money and gifts.

OFFICIAL LYING CONTEST RULES
- No more than one lie per reader. Or you could lie and say you're somebody else, I don't care.
- By lying to me via comments or email, you are signing away ownership of your lie. In essence, your lie becomes my lie, which instantly makes it cooler.
- You will receive no money for your lies. But if you want, you can quote me on that the next time you get ripped off at McDonald's.
- Be creative with your lies! And remember, you have to find a way to fit my obviously political project into one of Kickstarter's project categories: Art, Fashion, Music, and a whole bunch of other shit you can read here.
- The winner of the contest will receive an official friend request from me on FaceBook, and their choice of either some of my used men's clothes (shirt size L, inseam XL) or a signed Magic: the Gathering card, winner's pick.

Let's show these politicians that if they want to be bought, we'll treat them like the prostitutes they are and give them lots of money and gifts. Lie to me, kids!

Why America Doesn't Need Background Checks

Shame on you, lady!

Guns rule. I don't think anything is more manly than shooting a gun at something. Think about it; I'm a man. My weapon is my cock. But also, I have a gun, which is like a metal cock. Guns shoot bullets, which are like little tiny lead cocks. Shooting bullets at something is like shooting little death cocks out of a metal cock being operated by someone with a cock. MANLY.

But danger looms, kids. That guy we elected President says universal background checks are key to preventing further gun violence. Preposterous, I know, and the American people aren't standing for it, other than the ninety-one percent of voting Americans who said they stand for it. I stand by the letter of the second amendment, even though it doesn't actually say I have the right to own guns. Guns helped build this nation from the very start, when our European ancestors came to this land and shot all the Indians. No one kills people with guns quite as skillfully or frequently as Americans do! With the help of guns and the greatest President ever, we managed to kill over 620,000 of our own citizenry during the civil war. To add insult to injury, that's more Americans dead than our total losses in all of the previous and following armed conflicts involving American troops combined. Suck it, al-Qaida!

Now you're thinking, "but Darsh, universal background checks are the only bipartisan measure we have against gun violence". And that, friends, is exactly why I don't support universal background checks. I hate teamwork, and therefore any measure deemed bipartisan just isn't going to fly. Also, I like owning guns, and if gun shop owners were forced to run a background check on me, they'd find that I am in no mental condition to own a firearm. That means all that paperwork filed and man hours spent to not sell a gun to me; way to kill small businesses, Comrade Obama. Which is more important, people: the convenience of small business owners, or kids not getting shot? After all, Entrepreneur magazine called small businesses 'the backbone of America'. No one calls dead children the backbone of anything.

A little girl exercising her right to handle a WMD

Background checks aren't the answer. The truth is, kids, if you get shot at school, it's your/your parents' fault for not sending you to school wearing a flak jacket and wielding a 1911A1. When will the American public wake up and realize it is no longer safe to leave your home unarmed? There are too many people just walking around with guns out there! Why, just the other day while I was waiting in line at the grocery store I had to use my gun. As I do whenever I'm in line for the checkout, I spent my time waiting in the queue by loading and polishing my perfectly legal to own and carry in the state of New Hampshire Heckler and Koch HK33! I love my Heckler and Koch; I especially love the second part of it.

Nothing is more American than owning a gun stolen off a dead PAVN soldier

Anyway, as I was loading rounds into my magazine (which, again, is totally legal to do out in the open in NH), a white guy in Dockers and a pastel pink polo pulled a knife on the cashier, causing many of my fellow shoppers to spill their beverages in fear. Well, this motherfucker doesn't cotton to criminals in his neighborhood, so I loaded my cartridge, leveled my rifle at my hip and said, "say hello to Treyvon Martin," just before I shot him in the leg (curse you, HB135).

I know, I know... I'm a hero. And I know, American gun owners are responsible for stopping almost every crime in the history of forever. Which makes it so hard to believe politicians who spout off meaningless statistics, like how numbers frequently cited by gun owners on how many crimes are stopped by private citizens are actually from 1990, or how our violent crime rate has been dropping almost five percent yearly since 1992, or how children in America are eleven times more likely to be shot than children in other first world countries, but those are just meaningless facts. Anyone can make up a fact. For example, my penis is eighteen inches long. That's a fact.

I feel like this debate is circling the drain. No matter how many children are shot and killed in their own schools, America will never divorce itself from its guns. Guns are ingrained in our society, like grain is ingrained in things made out of grain. Guns are as American as spaghetti, burritos, and the NRA. Speaking of the NRA, did you know that the NH branch of the NRA has begun airing ads defending Kelly Ayotte for voting against universal background checks? I always think its so nice when gun lobbies give little gifts like that to politicians for setting aside the safety of their constituents and supporting the interests of citizens who actually matter: rich white men.

 AMERICA!

Someone Wants to Sue Me!

Oh shit. It finally happened.

Yes kids, as the title implies, I have been legally threatened. A cease and desist email has come my way, albeit four months after the fact and at one in the morning. I always knew this day would come; great men like me are always being oppressed by painters of abstract landscapes.

Remember way back in November when I posted my article on why art students should be euthanised? Well leave it to an art student to take criticism poorly. It seems Herr McNulty says using his image (see below) on my blog ist verboten. Unfortunately for Nutty 'Nulty, I'm completely in the right.

My use of his image falls under what we bloggers call 'fair use'; it applies to any use of a copyrighted image in a review, parody, or criticism, and my claim fulfills all three. I'd also like to point out that I did not download that image off Saddam McNulty's personal website, but rather his FaceBook page, which nullifies the claim that the only place it can exist is Oshawna Bin Nulty's personal site, and that whatever poor schlub coughed up the cash for this nug of dook deserves a refund. Speaking of refunds, why do you seek 'back damages', Shawn 'Puffy' McNulty? I'm not getting paid for this, dick; neither are you.

I'd like to see this quibble end here, Shawn Juan Quixote... oh, who am I kidding? I'd like to see this case make it to the supreme court. Alas, it shan't, because upon speaking to a lawyer, I was told I had nothing to worry about. As for who spilled the beans, let's just say it was a nameless legal aide at the very law firm Señor Censorshit has attempted to sic on my black ass, Friedman Iverson.

"That's definitely something we can take care of. Just send him a letter back saying 'screw off', probably."- A Verbatim and In-Context Quote from Friedman Iverson, 3/21/13

Now, just to protect myself before I wriggity-wreck myself, I'm not going to publish the video I recorded of the phone call I made to FI. That would be illegal in this country, because I am not a government official. However, I would like to see this issue put to bed officially, so just to restitute any offense, I shall make McNultsack a peace offering:

A FULL REVIEW OF HIS WORK.

COPYRIGHT SHAWN MCNULTY 2009!!!!

1) TITLE. The title of this painting is 'Shiver Blue', and it is quite apropos. I shiver when I think an adult man painted this (I would have guessed a child, or at least a female would be responsible), and I blew out my o-ring laughing when I found out it was supposed to be a landscape!

2)ORIGINALITY. As a writer, I fully understand the importance of developing one's personal style. Before I hit the scene as the Internet's first official comedy blog back in 2008, no one was writing angry, obscenity-filled rants about Barack Obama. I feel an enormous swelling of pride in my genitals when I think of how I sired an entire genre of writing called "Hate Speech". This work, however, is not nearly as creative. Rather, it is a trite, mediocre, and above all boring painting. It's just two blue squares with a stripe painted through it. What land could this "art" be trying to -scape?

3)SKILL DEMONSTRATED. Well, you've proven you know how to apply paint to a canvas, however this is a skill all toddlers acquire in preschool, so you'll forgive me if I feel it lacks any effort on your behalf.

LETTER GRADE: TRIPLE FART MINUS!

I hope this puts things in perspective for you, McNulty. Lastly, if anyone reading this has any questions about handling a cease and desist letter, refer Chilling Effects, a non-profit organization operated by people who, like yours truly, value free speech, and would never childishly threaten to sue someone for disliking their shitty paintings. Stay golden.

quickie: music reviews, et al.

Serendipity + Stupidity = Stupendipity

The new Anthrax EP, Anthems, streets tomorrow. Don't buy it. Don't even listen to it. It's a cover EP, although that won't stop whoever runs Anthrax' merch store from whoring it out to everyone who subscribes to their FaceBook feed (which I shall henceforth refer to as FaceFeeding).

It sucks. I really can't come up with any other way to put it. Here, the metal gods have united to offer us six hand-selected generic rock songs (their takes on Boston's 'Smokin'' and Thin Lizzy's 'Jailbreak' sound especially asinine covered) done in the most stale, pedantic, obvious way possible. Just listen to their take on AC/DC's classic, 'TNT'.

I love how they took that song, and played all the notes exactly as AC/DC played them, and want us to pay money for it. Also, anyone notice how oddly Joey Belladonna pronounces 'oi'? He's saying it like, 'ay'. Which is odd, because that's not even how Angus Young pronounced it on the original recording.

The rest of the tracks follow suit, offering up no real deviation from the songs as they were written. The one bright spot is their cover of 'Anthem' by Rush.

That was admittedly pretty cool sounding. But one good track does not an album make, unless you're Adele, at which point one good track can turn into a three year career and two more Grammy awards than Megadeth has. Letter grade: F+.

2013 Sucks Ass, Pt. 1

Nazi Pope = best band name ever

As a wise man once rapped, you've been waitin' and debatin' for oh so long, just starvin' like Marvin for a new blog post. It's been three fucking months since I hit the scene with hot nut of insight ejaculating out of the tip of my brain, but the wait is over.

So what happened while I was out? Nothing of note: the Mayans, once again cementing their status as a bunch of morons, wore the proverbial egg on their faces after the world failed to end last year. What else... I got new jeans for Christmas. That was pretty neat.

Okay, so the tail end of 2012 was an enormous disappointment for everyone involved. But surely 2013 has already yielded a fresh crop of pop culture and news for me to shit on twelve more times, right? Well guess again; so far the only two noteworthy events of the year involve an old man dying of old man disease, and a legless guy somehow killing a legged person; that's right, the two top stories of late are The Pope's Battle with Old Age and Joe Kills Bonny in Real Life.

So let's discuss this a bit. Pope Benedict the XVI, aka the Dragon of Blood, AKA the Seed of the Beast has been smitten, er, I mean, blessed by the Allfather with Consumption or something. We need a new Pope. Preferably one who wasn't a literal, actual Nazi.

Benny is also a big fan of children's cowboy hats.

I guess it has always struck me odd that the Vatican decided to follow up on as great a Pope as John Paul 2.0 with so shitty a Pope as that thousand-year-old Aryan mummy up there. John Paul the Second spoke out against apartheid in the eighties (speaking out against something is a big deal when you're super old), supported the overthrow of Premier Bush during that war that was supposed to end a few years ago, and even took on the burdensome encumbrance of convincing Catholics that the Catholic Church's stance on evolution (namely that it didn't happen) is wrong. JP was a maverick, known to flip off reporters and blast Megadeth from the Popemobile stereo (citation needed). Best of all, he stood against women in the church, saying that even he didn't have the authority to give a woman a job. I salute you, sir. Here's a Pope I can get behind.

JP, displaying his trademark "hand-noculars"

Cut to 2005, when that beautiful dream came crashing down like the World Trade Center on Burn a Koran Day. Since Nazi Dracula took over the reigns after JP's untimely death at age 84, his duties so far have been cartoon overreacter, hater of all things rock, and Facebook friend of Saudi Dictator King Abdullah. What a guy.

Besties!

Next, let's talk about the No-Legged Man here, Oscar Pistorius. He killed his girlfriend. He thought she was a robber.

This seems to be one of those cases where the defendant admits to doing the crime, then goes to jail for it. Except Shoeless Joe Jackson here seems to think that, even though he admits to killing his girlfriend, he shouldn't go to jail for it. He also claims that, even though he admitted to premeditating the murder of the robber he thought his girlfriend was, and then executed that murder, it shouldn't count as premeditating a murder. I guess when you spend your life having shit handed to you for being crippled, you sort of expect defense attorneys to sort out the deets when you kill someone. To quote Chuck Testa, "nope".

I guess I only bring this up because an adult man should never run from his problems. Specifically if he has no legs. In honor of Pistorius being the first white athlete convicted of killing someone, I pledge a new post every month for the next 1 month. Kisses!