Katashi_itto
Katashi_itto's JournalAll Hail Vulvatron, GWAR’s Unlikely New Vocalist (nsfw)
The public face of GWAR — the all-singing, all-decapitating, blood-and-guts-drenched thrash metal horror circus of Richmond, Virginia — was always founding member Dave Brockie. He took the stage in the impossibly foul guise of ringleader “Oderus Urungus,” of course, but sans makeup, he was a much-loved fixture of the Richmond scene, and when he passed away from an accidental heroin overdose at the age of 50 earlier this year, a dark cloud seemed to pass over the metal community.
After a few months, GWAR began making moves to carry on without Brockie, a move he undoubtedly would have appreciated. The show must go on, after all. The lineup has been in near-constant flux ever since a ragtag bunch of punks and art students christened themselves Gwaaarrrgghhlllgh (later shortened) and released debut album Hell-O in 1988. Dubbed the Slave Pit, a rotating cast of lurid characters has come and gone over the past two decades, but never without Brockie.
Now, the band was left with a seemingly impossible task: finding a new front-person. How could anyone ever replace the outrageous, magnetic Dave Brockie? They couldn’t, and the GWAR crew knew better than to try, so they came up with something entirely different, and entirely unexpected. The band that has spent 30 years shocking the conscience of middle America might have made their most shocking move of all.
Meet Vulvatron, a spiky purple Amazon whose massive (prosthetic) breasts occasionally shoot geysers of blood out onto her hapless audience. Vulvatron is not dancing, or breathing fire, or keeping the slaves in line (though one assumes she’ll be adept at all three). For the first time since the departure of dancer and backing singer Slymenstra Hymen (Danielle Stampe) in 2000, GWAR has a female member, and she’s the frontwoman.
http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/vulvatron-gwar-new-frontwoman-metal/
Darth Vader is polling higher than all potential 2016 presidential candidates
On Tuesday FiveThirtyEight released the results of a poll of Americans' opinions on the "Star Wars" universe. Not surprisingly, Jar Jar Binks is the most reviled character in the series. As Walt Hickey notes, the Gungan from Naboo posted lower favorability numbers than Emperor Palpatine, "the actual personification of evil in the galaxy."
On the other hand, with a net favorability of -8, Jar Jar is considerably more popular than the U.S. Congress, which currently enjoys a net favorability rating of -65. In fact, the last time congressional net favorability was above that was February 2005. Incidentally this was just before the release date of "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," which marked Jar Jar's last appearance on the big screen.
But picking on Congress' unpopularity is a bit like beating a dead tauntaun. After all, the legislative branch has been less popular than lice, brussels sprouts and Nickelback for some time now. What if we compared the favorability of 2016 presidential hopefuls and other political leaders with that of "Star Wars" characters?
Hillary Clinton currently has the highest net favorability of any 2016 White House contender. But to put her 19 percent favorable rating in context, she's tied with Boba Fett, the bounty hunter who froze Harrison Ford in carbonite.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/23/darth-vader-is-polling-higher-than-all-potential-2016-presidential-candidates/
Luke, I Am Your President
Let’s see Putin try to pull this nonsense with a Sith Lord in the White House.
My dear Americans and future subjects,
As you know, a recent poll rated me more favorably as a potential candidate for the 2016 presidential election than Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chris Christie, or Jeb Bush.
Moved by such enthusiasm in a galaxy whose lack of faith is often disturbing, I stand before you tonight to announce that I, Darth Vader, am running for president.
It has been a long journey for me. Unlike my elitist opponents who are out of touch with 99 percent of America, I know what it is like to struggle. I was born a poor slave on the planet Tatooine, the son of a woman who worked from dawn to dusk for a cruel master. Yet despite the odds, my mother was determined that her son would enjoy the opportunities she never had. And so at a young and tender age, I was torn from my home to be apprenticed as a Jedi knight.
Life as a novice Jedi was hard. But I was fortunate to receive a Dark Side Scholarship, and from there I embarked on my long career of public service. While Barack Obama was just a community organizer in Chicago, I was organizing a galaxy-wide empire.
While Hillary Clinton dithered over terrorist attacks in Benghazi and Chris Christie was sabotaging bridges in New Jersey, I was leading the Galactic War on Terror against the Rebel Alliance. And while previous administrations tolerated incompetents who fumbled aid for flood-ravaged New Orleans or botched the rollout of a health care website, I assure you that no subordinate has ever failed me more than once.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/23/darth-vader-is-polling-higher-than-all-potential-2016-presidential-candidates/
Canadians Warned That US Law Enforcement Officers Will Pull Them Over And Seize Their Cash
From the US-outed-as-serial-abuser dept or Third-World-Nation-in-Training.The exploitation of asset seizure/forfeiture laws by law enforcement isn't anything new, but it is receiving a lot more attention thanks to an extensive exploration of the subject by the Washington Post. The findings are astonishing/sickening. Over the last 13 years, nearly 62,000 cash seizures have been made by law enforcement officers, resulting in a $2.5 billion haul. And that's just the cash. Depending on local laws, people who have had their cash seized may also lose their vehicles, houses and access to any bank accounts.
Only one-sixth of those whose cash has been seized have engaged in the expensive process necessary to retrieve their money. Nearly half of those who make this attempt have their funds returned, which indicates that many of the cash seizures are predicated on tenuous legal ground (to put it very nicely). But even more bad news awaits should a citizen fight an uphill battle against an infinitely-funded opponent: in many cases, the responding governments only offer back half of what was seized and force citizens to sign a release agreement promising not to sue before they'll hand over the check.
The abusive farce that is asset forfeiture has now reached critical mass: CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has issued a warning to Canadian travelers. Senior Washington Correspondent Neil MacDonald posted this bluntly-titled article late last week. (via Boing Boing, which also gives us this great phrase: "robbery at badgepoint"
American shakedown: Police won't charge you, but they'll grab your money
In it, he cautions Canadians that visiting the US with a bunch of cash on hand is a good way to end up short on funds. He points out that the Canadian government has no law limiting the amount of cash Canadians can take into or out of the country, but that has no bearing on what any local police force inside the US would consider to be the "legal" amount of cash a person -- especially a foreign citizen -- can carry. After all, half the seizures were for less than $8,800 and that number includes a college graduate (with no criminal record) who was relieved of $2,500 given to him by his parents to make a trip to California for a job interview.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140915/09500928521/canadian-news-outlet-warns-canadians-that-us-law-enforcement-officers-will-pull-them-over-seize-their-cash.shtml
Think we need some more "police are great people threads"
Oklahoma 'Educational' Satanic Black Mass Sells Out
(Wish I knew about it sooner!)
Oklahoma Civic Center Pic: Rough Tough, Real Stuff
The Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall is hosting the event
By Sky News US Team
A satanic black mass to be held in Oklahoma later this month - featuring a reverse exorcism - has sold out.
All 88 tickets have been bought for the September 21 ritual to be led by a devil-worshiping group, the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu.
Church leaders have expressed alarm at the gathering, which they say will be a perversion of the Catholic liturgy.
But Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall, which is hosting the event, promised on its website it would be "enlightening but educational".
All attendees must be at least 16 years old.
http://news.sky.com/story/1334837/educational-satanic-black-mass-sells-out
Palin Money Laundering: Boys Will Be Boys: Media, Morality, and the Coverup of the Todd Palin
Palin Shailey Tripp Sex Scandal.
Note: It points the finger directly at the McKenna Bros Paving Company. Looks like there's some big money laundering happening. Wonder if it's all part of Todd Palin's alleged prostitution ring?
Boys Will Be Boys: Media, Morality and the Cover-up of the Todd Palin Shailey Tripp Sex Scandal is the true story of how Shailey Tripp, a young single mother of two special needs children became sexually involved with Todd Palin, husband of former Alaska Governor and 2008 GOP Vice-Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.
This book explains the many factors that culminated in Shailey becoming not only the mistress of “ Alaska’s First Dude” but also a prostitute working for him which ultimately resulted in Shailey being arrested in March of 2010. However, the story doesn’t end there. After they received an anonymous email, The National Enquirer contacted Shailey regarding her relationship with Todd Palin and even ran a couple of stories about her liaison with him with several follow-up interviews scheduled.
All that changed, when at the behest of the Palin’s lawyers, the Anchorage Police Department issued a press release which stated that they had found no evidence of Todd’s involvement with Shailey.
From that point on, Shailey was unable to get any media, with the exception of some internet bloggers, to tell her side of things despite the fact that she had proof of her truthfulness and had passed polygraph examinations. Boys Will Be Boys tells the whole story from Shailey’s viewpoint and includes the evidence. A true expose of how the media and even law enforcement agencies kowtow to the wealthy, politically powerful people, Boys Will Be Boys: Media, Morality and the Cover-up of the Todd Palin Shailey Tripp Sex Scandal is a must read.
http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Will-Be-Morality-Coverup/dp/147009102X
Like Dogs? Then Watch this..."OK Go - White Knuckles"
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine - Official Video
Stephen Hawking: Research on the ‘God particle’ could cause space-time to collapse
In the preface to a new book, Starmus, acclaimed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking writes that the so-called “God particle” could become unstable and cause a “catastrophic vacuum decay” that would lead to the collapse of time and space, The Sunday Times reports.
“The Higgs potential has the worrisome feature that it might become metastable at energies above 100bn gigaelectronvolts,” Hawking writes. “This could mean that the universe could undergo catastrophic vacuum decay, with a bubble of the true vacuum expanding at the speed of light.”
“This could happen at any time and we wouldn’t see it coming.”
The successful discovery of the Higgs particle has led to calls from within the scientific community to create larger, more powerful supercolliders than the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, where scientists discovered the Higgs boson.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/07/stephen-hawking-research-on-the-god-particle-could-cause-space-time-to-collapse/
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