Spooky Action

Matthew 16:18 at The Mall

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sat, 23 Jan 2016 22:56:00 +0000

"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

What other group would gather in the tens of thousands to demonstrate their beliefs in the face of a "cataclysmic" storm in Washington D.C. while the all-powerful federal government they were protesting against was shutting down?

Bonus Question: What event led to the end of the French Revolution?

Watch the normally delirious crowd...the Reign of Terror ended days later.

1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts - #3

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 22:00:00 +0000

I received a copy of Ryan Andrew Kinder's 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts

and started working through it. I like this one:

3. You receive and unmarked envelope with a check for $5,000,000 inside. It a legitimate check, what do you do with it? Do you ever find out who it is from? How does it change your life?

I make an appointment with Bishop Olmstead, to discuss a sizable donation from an anonymous source. I bring my wife and the check. After introductions, I hand him the check and say: "She wants a cute little house and a European vacation. I'll leave you two to work out the details."

Check the book out. It's a lot of fun! :-)

What Would Brian Williams Week Be Without A Downfall Video?

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 06:05:00 +0000

A while back 'Downfall' videos featuring Adolph Hitler were all the rage. Then they were done in by overexposure and bad production values.

But Brian Williams rides to Hitler's rescue, by inspiring this new, most excellent entry into the Downfall parody pantheon:

While researching how to make Downfall parodies, I ran across the original scene from Downfall, which made my blood run cold. What madness!

And if you'd like to create your own Hitler video, try this.

Glimpse Into The Male Psyche

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 01:25:00 +0000

Woman of My Dreams: "You smell of sweat and cigars!"

Small Voice Inside My Head: "Mission Accomplished!"

The Greatest Scene Tim Burton Ever Filmed

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:31:00 +0000

Pro Tip: Always ask for a last request

I am SO glad I wasn't drinking anything when I saw this

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 10:00:00 +0000

This pretty much sums up the Brian Williams lying liar fiasco. I'm pretty sure his pants are on fire...

h/t the incomparable Iowahawk:

You say tomato and I say...rollerskate?!

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 23:57:00 +0000

We all know the meme...but Ace of Spades had the original clip, and hoo boy! That George Gershwin...

The fact that they could both sing and dance just kind of takes your breath away.

Wait...tapping on roller skates? What? What?!

Please Wecome The Next President of the United States: Scott Walker

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 04:44:00 +0000

Watch this and tell me that this man is not the right person to turn this country around.

Is there one sour note in the whole address?

No.

That is why the evil ones have worked so hard over the last four years to defeat him.

The minutes he spends talking about death threats to his wife and children will resonate with every American with a family. That's a lot people, from all walks of life.

I believe the title of this post will be what people say after the first Tuesday in November next year.

File Folder: Phoenix Weather Forecast

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 19:13:00 +0000

Day before the Super Bowl and it's 60's and overcast...Phoenix weather can be funny...like this...

File Folder: Hanukkah Music

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 19:10:00 +0000

I am a big fan of Matisyahu, despite his recent life changes. The sounds he makes with the Dub Trio (and sometimes Aaron Dugan) are magical!

Just so I can find them next December, here are his two Hannukah songs:

First, Happy Hannukah:

Nice Holy Land scenery.

And here is a live version to validate my point about the live sound.

But that's not all!

As Monty Python used to say: And now for something completely different! Miracle:

I'd like to comment, but that video renders me speechless...

Suor Christina in the Finals...and the winner is....

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 22:09:00 +0000

Suor Christina is in the finals in The Voice Italy 2014!

For her final tune she sang "Beautiful That Way":

She also sang a new song "Lunga La Riva", setting up a possible gospel/county crossover recording angle:

She also did a duet with her coach, rapper J-Ax. I thought it provided a poignant contrast between music sung to glorify God and the garbage that tries to pass itself off as contemporary music, namely rap:

And here is the moment of truth:

Gotta love that she closed the show by reciting the Lord's Prayer!

As for her future, she said she'd let her superiors decide if she should continue her public singing ministry (she won a recording contract with Universal), noting that she'd be happy to go back to the life she had before this all started.

You've heard the saying that God works in strange ways. Enter this into evidence...

Earlier posts on her journey starting here and continuing here.

Has The Long-awaited Reincarnation of Liberace Been Identified?

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 10:42:00 +0000

Some souls (e.g., the Dalai Lama), are reputed to reincarnate when the previous body has died. I'm not sure if any such dogma exists around Liberace, but I believe the new incarnation has now been identified!

Iowahawk called him The One Man Spinal Tap of Pipe Organ Music, which this video clearly proves to be correct:

The haircut! The attitude! The self-aggrandizement! The sparkly shoes!! (He decorates his own shoes with Swarovski crystals!)

But if you dig a little deeper into YouTube, there's more...

And if you really want the full treatment, here's 40 minutes from German TV. Turn it up to 11!
~~Two~~ six drink minimum to enjoy! You have been warned!

"And behold the power of this fully operational Intergallactic Battle Organ!" says Emperor Liberace

When Blondes Make Stupid Jokes, Who is the Brunt?

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 21:47:00 +0000

A mystery wrapped in a conundrum wrapped in riddle...

Now revealed!

On Thursday May 29, 2014, State Department Spokedunce Jen Psaki told the assembled press that President Obama just doesn't give himself enough credit. Even members of the sycophantic press corps couldn't stifle their giggles at that level of disconnect with reality. Watch:

Q: What does Jen Psaki say if you blow in her ear?

A: "Thanks for the refill!"

Q: How do you get Jen Psaki on the roof?

A: Tell her drinks are on the house.

Q: What did Jen Psaki name her watch dogs?

A: Timex and Rolex.

Q: What can strike Jen Psaki without her even knowing it?

A: A thought.

Joke source: http://www.jokes4us.com/ShortBlondejokes.html

I think the ultimate joke on Jen Psaki is that she thought she was auditioning for the new White House Press Secretary job. She'd heard that Jay Carney was leaving, and so decided to go all out in showing how low she would debase herself in the president's defense. Sadly, she lost to a guy named Josh Earnest. As Iowahawk might say, if only she'd changed her name to Yahoo Serious or Clown Voxsplain or Squirrel Changetopic or Feign Eagerzeal (that's Jen to a tee), she'd have been a shoe-in!

Q: How do you keep Jen Psaki busy all day?

A: Put her in a round press briefing room and tell her to speak in the corner.

What Pops Into Your Head When You See This Image?

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 20:02:00 +0000

My first thought: And me with no Hershey Bars or Graham Crackers!

Second thought: Awesome! But who thinks of something like this and then can execute it? If we could only channel that creativity for the greater good...

Third thought: Note to self: If you ever manage a project in New York, add this to your risk register!

Fourth thought: There's an old saying that if you put 100 monkeys at 100 typewriters for 100 years, one of them would write Shakespeare. I don't believe it, but I will say this: If you put 1,000 moneys at 1,000 computers with Photoshop and an internet connection for 1,000 years, none of them will create this!

Fifth thought: Uh oh, that last statement may seem to some 'activists' as extremely speciesist...

Sixth thought: Then again, if those activists get outraged enough, they may make me sell this blog for $2 Billion! I'd be morally outraged, but in my current demented state I'd have to acquiesce to my wife making the deal.

Seventh thought: It's Bush's fault!

Eight thought: Is that supposed to be the Chrysler Building in the background? If so, I think one of those monkeys may have a puncher's chance of creating that!

Ninth thought: One frame is not enough! We need the whole scene!! Is there a Kickstarter for that?

Tenth and final thought: How is this categorized within standard P&C underwriting rules? Does an 'Act of Gozer' qualify as an Act of God?

What thoughts popped into your head (and yes, I realize that is a very weak reference to the original Ghostbusters movie)? Leave a comment...

Suor Christina Update

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 21:15:00 +0000

Last time we checked in on The Voice Italy, Suor Christina was still in the running!

Eliminations occur within each of the 4 teams until the finals (according to this wiki page), so for the three-way elimination for Team J-Ax, she sang Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer"...a long stretch to connect to religion, but here it is:

She survived, and went on to the semifinal where she sang two songs, one in Italian and one in English: We'll start with "Sally":

For the final song she sang "I've had the time of my life", which I suppose is appropriate for someone facing the end of her Voice run:

And now it's elimination time, with voting split between her coach and the Italian public. Her coach weighted his vote: Dylan Magon 55, Suor Christina 45 (Boo! Hiss!!), but he doesn't have the last say...

And the Italian public declared Suor Christina the victor! She's on to the finals...

Commencement Address of the Year, Perhaps the Decade

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sat, 31 May 2014 14:18:00 +0000

Admiral William McRaven gave the commencement speech at the main graduation ceremony of the University of Texas at Austin (his alma mater). His topic is life lessons from Navy Seal school. Unlike most commencement speeches, there aren't any platitudes, just hard lessons learned from a hard existence.

It's a fascinating insight into the hardest training in the world, and he pulls universal truths out of various challenges that he and every candidate have faced in order to become a Navy Seal. I find it awe inspiring that we have men who are willing go through such privations in order to serve us!

This had been all over the internet, and chances are that you have already seen it multiple times. If you haven't invested the 20 minutes to watch it, DO IT NOW! You will thank me when you do.

I put this up so that I can easily find it when I invariably want to watch it again. :-)

Hook 'em, Horns!

Obama's West Point Speech on SP-117

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:21:00 +0000

What if Barack Obama had given his West Point commencement address after taking Truth Serum? You don't have to wonder; Richard Fernandez at the Belmont Club has posted that speech in his blog post Brother Rat. It begins:

Thank me. Thank me so very much. Even though this is ostensibly a graduation speech it is really about me. My ratings have been slipping of late and my media advisors said a photo-op in Bagram and a speech at West Point will boost the polls by about 3 points. Among you is the first all-female command team, which I mention as an accomplishment, since there’s nothing else I can boast of. You are the first class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in Iraq or Afghanistan though you will probably see action elsewhere, as everything is going to hell in a handbasket. But I mention it as another kind of fake accomplishment, the only other thing I can think of other than the all-female command team.

And he goes on, including:

The world seems to be going down the tubes with accelerating speed. The Chinese are expanding in the South China Sea, the Japanese are rearming, North Korea is preparing another nuclear missile test and Iran’s supreme leaders has just said America must be destroyed. But under these appearances everything is going to plan. Power is being redistributed at rate never before known in history. And that’s how you make things better. It will be your generation’s task to accept temporary sacrifices, in which for the first time you will seem poorer than your parents; be the first generation of West Pointers to be everywhere on the defensive, be the first Americans whose fundamental duty is groveling in public.

It goes on in damning fashion, concluding:

We have been through a long season of war. And I managed to lose them all. I just want you to remember, in case you feel like blaming me, that it’s Bush’s fault.
The long gray line has never failed us though the long line of gray politicians always has. The twilight is here. The country you once fought for has vanished – tone and tint. It has gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. And we stand upon a the threshold of a new era. A fundamentally transformed America. But in the evening of my administration I come back to West Point to borrow from you some vestige of the luster and honor which I have never had myself.
Always there echoes and re-echoes in my ear: “three polling points, three polling points”. Believe me when I say I need you more than you need me. But I want you to know that when I board the plane to attend the next fundraiser, my last conscious thoughts will be those another West Point Graduate said here 52 years ago. ”These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.” Yours not to reason why, yours but to do or die.

Fernandez does to Obama what Satan did to Mohamet in Dante's Inferno. Read the whole thing.

“By my apostolic authority I command you… RISE!”

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Fri, 30 May 2014 01:55:00 +0000

Father Z is always a great read, but this made me laugh out loud!

The Ultimate Two Minute Tour of Wisconsin

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sun, 11 May 2014 22:21:00 +0000

Gov. Scott Walker needs to add these guys to the Dept. of Tourism payroll ASAP!

This video highlighted many of the reasons to vacation in Wisconsin, including:

- Lambeau Field
- Fishing
- Shooting guns
- Swimming
- Golf
- Kegs
- Observation posts
- Giant Muskelunges
- Capital (Brewing)
- Ducks
- and more beer than you can imagine!

The thing is a virtuoso performance all around. They went all around the state (check the map montage) and passed a whole lot of beers with only one incompletion (did you spot it?).

Bravo, men!

h/t Vanderleun who really should have given this the Something Wonderful monicker!

Update: Sweet mother of cheese curds! There is an outtake real:

Did you spot the Hodag?

Suor Christina - God works in strange ways

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Fri, 09 May 2014 03:23:00 +0000

There's an old saying that "God works in strange ways". It may sound trite, but if you pay attention to life, you will see those strange ways everywhere.

Here is a fun one that popped up in Italy a few weeks ago:

What? The Voice Italy? Really? That is strange, but Tell me that didn't move you. I watch it now and it brings me to tears. Wow!

And did you notice the effect it had on her eventual coach, J-Ax. Tell me those tears aren't a religious experience!

The next week...

Suor Christina offers a fist bump? Those tricky Papists and their mind games! It seemed pretty close until the last note, when Suor Christina blew the top off of it! And who can resist the Sisters in the crowd?

As to the choice of songs (Girls Us Want To Have Fun), it is The Voice, and the producers make a lot of those choices.

Mariah Carey's Hero allows Sr Christina to show off her talents. Not religious, but not sacrilegious. Her competitor was pretty good, but not good enough. And completely unfortunate posture during the judges' comments... I felt sorry for her, because she had that look like she knew she was beat, but had to spend 5 minutes on stage before hearing the final verdict.

And then this: What A Feeling from Flashdance

(Secret HD Link) You have to love the energy of this song, even if you don't love the dancing. This video was posted Wednesday, and she wasn't eliminated, so To Be Continued!

The NFL Abandons the National Anthem

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 18:18:00 +0000

I just turned on the NFC game between the Satan spawn cats and San Francisco 49ers. Instead of singing the National Anthem, they had some dude playing the trumpet. What part of "singing our national anthem" does the NFL not get? What next? Tonal farting?

Probably just following orders from our great leader. Fuck you, nlf; you don't deserve capital letters.

Cue Fonzi on the Waterskis - Register For Your Wedding at Obama's Campaign?

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:28:00 +0000

A few days ago I read an article stating that President Obama's staff must surely despise him, because they keep making him look loopier and more out-of-touch with every passing day. I thought it was jolly good satire, but now I'm not sure.

Today I learned about Obama's newest web site: The Obama Event Registry. I cut my chin on my desk when I saw it:

NO WEDDING PRESENTS FOR YOU! COMRADE OBAMA NEEDS THEM MORE!

Does anyone doubt that in a second term, "when he has more flexibility", that he won't go all Bamameister Meisterbama and declare wedding presents illegal, like in Santa Clause Is Coming to Town?

(Pardon my lack of Photoshop skills, but you get the idea)

Resist the Tyrant! And mock him mercilessly!

If I Wasn't Catholic I'd Give Up, But I'm Not, But We Need To Address This

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:50:00 +0000

Charles Murray has a very prodigious intellect, and the courage to speak what comes into it, regardless of the political incorrectness.

In his latest book 'Coming Apart', he looks at how white culture is increasingly fracturing so that the citizenry our founders required for a functioning republic may no longer exist.

The American experiment can only succeed when the populace maintains a certain level of morality. Unfortunately, Antonio Gramsci's satanic "long march through the institutions" has largely succeeded in much of the United States. There are very few institutions of higher learning that have not been thoroughly poisoned with the intolerability of political correctness. Universities that pretend to be bastions of enlightened thought have be transformed into gulags of radical conformity. And their potential for self-reform is nil.

Lower levels of education have become bureaucratic killing fields of nascent male potential. There will be no next generation of great men if they are all cowed for years for the sin of being boys instead of conformant student-bots.

But I believe that the seeds of overthrowing this dystopia are already sprouting. I will explore these in future posts, but I believe that we will see grandparents in these United States will rise up and homeschool their grandsons in defiance of the evil education cabal.

The Forgetting Pill - The Scariest Thing in History?

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Wired had an article recently that both fascinated and unnerved me. Unnerved as in 'This could be abused to destroy the human race'. Imagine if you could nearly instantly remove any memory you ever had. Imagine if someone could slip you a 'mickey' and induce you to erase one of your memories just by asking you to recall it?

It's possible with current pharmaceutical technology. That's the scary part. Read the whole article, because you need to think about this topic before someone springs it on you like a date rape drug. This a very complicated topic, because there are seemingly obvious benefits to erasing some memories...or are there? You read and decide and comment.

Wait - Dino Farts Caused Catastrophic Global Warming?

mdewitt@alum.mit.edu (Michael A. DeWitt) — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:18:00 +0000

Well, according to the Daily Mail they did. And here I bought into that whole Chixulub meteor thing...

Incidentally, how did those artists know what color the Chixulub meteor was? I'm pretty sure it would be fairly well blackened by the time it hit the Gulf of Mexico. And I'm certain it would have a great big green flaming tail behind it. C'mon! Armageddon comes in Technicolor!! Stupid artists...

Anyway, it seems that dinosaur flatulence is an appropriate topic for mainstream climate scientists, since honestly analyzing contemporary data series seem beyond their cognitive abilities. I suggest we go to Toys R Us and buy the researchers mountains of plastic dinosaurs for their 'analyses' of data regarding extinct creatures. Note to climate scientists: don't stand behind the purple ones without a hazmat suit!