Sterling Morrison on Dylan

Over at the Well, Ed Ward ( of Creem magazine fame) had this nice memory of Sterling Morrison:

I remember being in some stupid symposium at UT with the weirdo music
prof who had the rock and roll course there, and Sterling was on the
panel. He contributed nothing, just sat there kind of pissed off he'd
been asked to do it. Then some student asked him a question about
Dylan. "I don't know anything about Dylan," he said. "For me, it's
either rock and roll or fuckin' folk music, and Dylan's fuckin' folk
music." End of discussion.

Been So Long......

....But, in the wake of the tragic Tiller killing, it seems like a good time to quote Larison's formulation of why I don't believe in abortion.

As I understand it, abortion is wrong because it violates the dignity of the human person, desecrates the image of God and ignores the obligations we have to the weak and defenseless. It also sunders in the most violent way the obligations of parents to their children; it is a kind of impiety directed toward children. In the end, competing rights claims are competitions over power, and unborn children can never effectively contest for that power because they are dependent and helpless. The very dependency that serves as the basis for denying the child the rights of a full person is the thing that obliges us to protect that child. In my view, it is ultimately far more effective and much more true to think of this question in these terms. I have not encountered many pro-lifers who share that view as of yet, but I will keep working on it.

The Watchmen For Real: Total Eclipse Of Civilization

What's worse than being a nerd? Being a nerd that has gone completely insane, put on a costume and decided to become a crimefighter. I presume his secret power lies in disabling his opponent through inducing paralyzing mirth.

It is well worth one's time, particularly if contemplating suicide, to pay a visit to the World Superhero Registry. Some of these guys seem to be directly inspired by the character Rorschach which is, um, disturbing.

Between this and the recent story about the woman who fell in love with the Eiffel Tower, I am really feeling like at some point I woke up in a Phillip K. Dick novel. A really nasty one.

"We Are America. We Don't Fucking Torture."

Do we have to pay some kind of ransom to get this guy out of there?

Since Lent Is Over....

....It's time for the video that got Lawrence Lessig in so much trouble.

Kinda Sweet

Quote For The Day

“In America there is no anti-status quo media,”says Smith. “It’s all the same four big companies, and they’re all afraid of losing Budweiser so it’s just like, there’s no voice. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is the most watched ‘news’ program by people under thirty-five and it’s a spoof comedy show. There is a huge market out there of disenfranchised kids, and we do these political things which aren’t Republican or Democrat, but more like how a punk would look at things, which is more like ‘This is absurd. It’s not right, left, center, whatever, it’s just fucked.’”

Shane Smith, quoted in Matt Mason's excellent book The Pirate's Dilemma.