Sizzle vs. Steak?

Form follows function

Keep that in mind. I’m going to apply it in several different ways, but the connection to things, events, processes around you is something you’ll need to make on your own.

Form follows function.  It’s a central principle of good design.  For example, if a car body is designed without taking into account wheel travel and range of motion, there’s a good chance that, while it may look cool, it won’t drive right.

Simple, eh?  But it’s more than that, of course. Once mechanical aspects are taken into account, the form will affect the way something is used or interacted with by people in different ways. A minivan and a sports car are both designed to transport people, but that lil 2-seater Miata has its form designed for its function as fun transport, a playtoy, the same as the minivan’s form follows it’s designed function—getting a carload of kids to soccer practice and back safely.

The Bauhaus style of architecture was designed to suit a philosophy that viewed people as interchangeable cogs in an industrial society, and its blank, boxy, depersonalized look is well suited to inhabitation by blank, depersonalized cogs in an industrialized society (which is why it’s so damned ugly). See in apposition the gothic architecture that was designed around an entirely different philosophy: designed to inspire, to draw the eye, the heart, the mind upwards.

Form follows function: slutty womens/girls fashions (“Yeh, baby!”) designed to say loudly and clearly: “Here I am, nothing but a sex object.  Grab some ass, honey!”  It’s not just displays of flesh. No, it’s the crude display of secondary sex characteristics in a way designed to encourage men to think the least of the wearer, to see them as nothing but hookups for letting off a little sexual tension.

Yeh, baby, you’ve come a long way… Wanna come on back?  

Go ahead.  Apply the form… function principle to politics. Entertainment. Work. Family. Language.

Haphazard or not; designed for and by ourselves or not, our lives are strictured, pushed, tugged and stalled by the design of many, many elements that we normally don’t even think about.

Count on it.  Someone(s) is(are) thinking about the designs that influence your life. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to look into those designs for yourself?  Maybe you can make some modifications that would be more to your taste and suit who you are.

Sand in the gears…

Houston, we have a problem…

Earth to Nzinga, Earth to Nzinga; come in Nzinga…

Just listen to this to put yourself in the right frame of mind to watch this.

Un. Be. Lieveable. Lost in “the mother ship” somewhere, no doubt…

*tink tink*

[NOTE: while this isn’t my best post, by far—not even this week—it does contain my fav snarky graphic from any time in recent memory. It’s the second one in the post below… BTW, Note the linkfest at Stop the ACLU this weekend.]

Hellooooo! Has anyone checked Jean Fraud sKerry’s* hearing aid batteries, recently? (*The birth name of that mountebank known as “John F. Kerry)

Or, is he just completely tone-deaf and/or scared spitless [original word redacted]? What is in his records that he refuses to have them truly made public? The more he stalls, stonewalls and lies about releasing his records, the more it seems possible that he has something truly devastating to hide…

Or is it that he is simply to stupid to see how his behavior plays, too tone deaf to his own words to hear how they sound?

free180_02
Image courtesy of LindaSog.com

TMH’s Bacon Bits mini-fisks a speech Jean Fraud gave at Brown University the other night, pointing out once again the sub-par intellect and tone deaf thinking of Teddy-the-Lesser. Methinks Jean Fraud needs to enroll in an ESL course. Here’s the outstanding thought of the Junior Blowhard from Taxachussetts quoted by TMH:

The incompetence of Katrina’s response is not reserved to a hurricane. There’s an enormous gap between Americans’ daily expectations and government’s daily performance.

What a maroon. (If it passes you by, give yourself a break: coffee deprivation can do that sort of thing to a person. See TMH’s snarky mini-fisk of the statement above.)

But anywho… *sigh* Why do pols like sKerry get away with this sh— crap? Passing off subliterate, inane comments as “thoughtful” and “insightful”—you know, “nuanced”? Well, subliterate voters, malinformed** by a Mass Media Podpeople’s Army determined to remake reality in their own image, allow sKerry and his ilk to get away with lies, obfuscations, obscurantisms and other deliberate deceptions as well as simply world-class stupid remarks like the one above.

Nah, what’s needed now (and for the protection—or perhaps restoration?—of the republic) is an army of folks who will pledge themselves to the principle: No More Bullshit from politicians.

No More sKerry Bullshit2
Jean Fraud sKerry would be out of a job, for sure.

Join the advance guard of that army by joining in the Free John Kerry’s 180 blogburst.  Just  visit Cao’s Blog for instructions. And check out some of the others (listed under Free John Kerry’s 180 in my sidebar).

**no, not misinformed: malinformed because it’s at least in part deliberate and almost always harmful

“Pork, pork, pork, pork: a pirate’s life for me”—anonymous congresscritter

porkbusters
Aye, one o’ the hidden costs o’ pork barrel spendin’:

“[Senator Kit] Bond says that when he entered the Senate in 1987, Missouri received only 76 cents for every dollar sent in taxes. The new bill will provide 98 cents, and Bond will push for more. Full parity would return 100 cents expressed as a percentage of total funding; not as many actual dollars will be recycled because of inevitable costs of handling in Washington.”

Ahoy, in ither words, launderin’ money collected as highway taxes in Missouri through Washin’ton D.c. means that e’en if Missouri has e’ery dollar it collected for expenditure on highways “returned” it still loses, cos the real purpose o’ the Federal bureaucracy is full employment o’ Federal bureaucraps. Listen to th’ bureaucraps say, “Ye’ll ne’er get me buried booty!”

Aye, it seems t’ me that at the ‘ery least, those “handlin’ costs” could be eliminated by Not funnelin’ thin’s through the feds. Gar. Aye, surely e’en that little would have a beneficial effect when it came time for federal expenditures for thin’s like Katrina. (Aye, they might need t’ spend less cos more was already already at the state le’el, for one thin’. Aye, me parrot concurs— e’en parrots have the better o’ politicians, it seems.)

See GM Roper and Michelle Malkin Arrr, for more extensi’e presentations o’ how t’ handle pork better, and a call t’ identify pork in your own state so that you can contact your congresscritters and politely suggest that those funds be di’erted t’ Katrina relief. Aye.

Arrr, tis’ a good thin’ Me’d be thinkin’

Ahoy! Th’ friends o’ th’ jolly Third World Countyâ„¢. Gar.

tlapdbanner2
Ahoy, talk like a pirate, all day long. Ye’ll ne’er get me buried booty!

Aye, let the trackbacks begin, gar!

Arrr, har’s one from Woody at Woody’s News and Views Aye.

Arrr, and har’s a new mate at Horizon Zero. Gar.

Aye, tis’ not piratical, but tis’ lootin’. Click o’er t’ Boudicca’s Voice t’ see what wasn’t worth lootin’ at Walmart. Gar, Where can I find a bottle o’rum?

Gar, and whate’er you do, be sure you don’t misst’ Pants Based Random Pirate Phrase Generator (PBRPPG) h.t. t’ th’ original “Talk Like a Pirate Day” pirate.

Aye, Christine o’ Mornin’ Coffee and Afternoon Tea chimes in with some pirate treats, gar! There’s me grog!

Kat, at Keep the Coffee Comin’, has the well-known (well, well-known t’ anyone who’s been t’ Disneyland or Disney World in the last 20+ years or so, Me imagine) Disney ‘ersion o’ Yo, Ho a Pirate’s Life for Me, up as her offerin’ for TLAP Day. Arrrr!

Arrr, Diane (at, uhm, Diane’s Stuff, o’ course) has her Talk Like A Pirate Day post up, includin’ a link t’ translate whole web pages int’ pirate-speak. (Gar, gimme my rum!)

Aye, well, although the posts themsel’es didna show due rev’rence t’ TLAPD, the comments sections for these posts get int’ the spirit at Dr. Phat Tony’s and at GM’s Corner

Yo Ho! And, o’ course, thar’s this post by The Dread Pirate Richard at Random Rambling (Aye, sorry it took so long t’ get the link up, bub. Gar, Where’d me bottle o’rum go agin? 🙂

Aye, trackback t’ this post (or any other “pirate” post) with yer own piratical fare, ‘n I’ll link ye up fore har. (Aaarrhhh, me parrot!) Fail t’ trackback ‘n ye’ll ne’er get me buried booty Arr.

Aye, ‘n for a little fun, me heartys, har’s a link t’ a pirate chantey for ye from Tom Smith:

“Talk Like a Pirate Day”

(Note: opens in a new window and plays with any properly-configured mp3 software.)

Keelhaul ’em!

[Introducing guest poster, Cap’n Ozark]

Capn Ozark

Arrrr!

Scurvy dogs! Homeland Security gi’es a free pass t’ illegal aliens and is still snubbin’ Minutemen who seek t’ be good citizens and help protect our borders. Aye. Aye, click the links abo’e an’ below for more info on foreign outlaws gettin’ a pass from Homeland Security Aye.

Arrr, “Homeland Security”? Keelhaul ’em. They’re good for nothin’ but cabin boys on garbage scows, Me say. Aye, me parrot concurs.

Arrr.

(This has been a Piratical Productionâ„¢ for Guard the Borders)

Aye, and har’s the jolly crew o’ Guard the Borders A pence for an old man o’de sea?

Euphoric Reality**
TMH’s Bacon Bits**
Part-Time Pundit**
Social Sense
Cao’s Blog
Ogre's Politics and Views
In The Bullpen
Ravings of a Mad Tech
America Is Not A Pinata!
NIF
Kender’s Musings
Gribbit’s Word**
NYgirl**
Team Swap**
Curley’s Corner

[Arrr, updated t’ include the blogroll for Guard the Borders Aye.]

It’s the right thing to do

What’s the REAL reason the terrorists at Guantanamo are engaging in a hunger strike?

A Precision Guided Humor Assignment from the Alliance of Free Blogs

Yeh, minor Mass Media Podpeople-generated kerfuffle. It’s really so simple, I kinda hate to burst the bubble. *sigh* You see, someone finally slipped up and actually tortured some of the Gitmo detainees.  Yep. Showed a video of Michael Moore-on accepting an Oscar for his last “great” mockumentary to recieve a fraudulent Oscar (even the bowling was fake) and ever since, those who saw that face, that body, have not been able to keep any food down.  They’re losing sleep (it’s the nightmares), and becoming inexorably more sane.  Naturally, this has only increased their self-hatred and… now they cannot bear to do anything that would prolong their own existence.

For once in their lives they are doing the right thing. The only kind, decent, honorable thing to do would be to honor their desire to end their own lives by starvation.