Just in case you’re missing Reddit during their outage I’d like to share a lovely screenshot that came from there thanks to the fine folks at the pen forum. Besides, it kind of fits in with what this site is sometimes known for… dirty old men and incest.

(Click the image for the full size).

So… Why are there protests?

That’s the interesting thing. It started with collective bargaining rights, and has moved on to a scandal with the Koch brothers, giving direct control over the most liberal state University campus to the governor, potential fraud with supreme court elections, recall elections for both parties, health care and pension scandals, school funding, wind farms, voter ID, child support collection, tax breaks for the rich, and claims of vandalism to the state capitol. Those are just the ones I remember!

I thought I’d share some of the pictures I took of Madison protests during the weekend of March 12th when 100,000 people were there. I have also included pictures of the capitol itself from three weeks later.

I’ve been to a number of the Saturday protests since this started, and went back a few weeks ago (April 2nd) mostly because I wanted to see for myself the7.5 million in damage to the building from protests… supposedly from tape damage to soft stone walls. Of course I didn’t see any at all. The damage estimates have since been lowered to more realistic numbers.

Anyway, I don’t have much to say about the protests, elections, or recalls at this time. Its still too hard to sort the fact from the rhetoric, plus I have to clean spittle off my monitor whenever I start to type about it. For now just enjoy the pictures. Or make fun of them. Or ignore them.

The pictures can be found here.

I’ve also included a few links below in case anyone needs some background:

Interesting article about how the state has become divided.
Article about potential petition fraud
The push to get legislation through before the recall elections (including Voter ID)
The Wisconsin Supreme Court recount disaster.
Breitbart tells Madison to go to Hell

Finally, I just want to say that I wish the best for people in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and any other state where there has been a major neocon/teaparty power grab to take power away from municipalities and give it to corporations.

So I was a little confused when I saw an article stating that the show had caused a 15 hour standoff between an elderly drunk man and the police:
Click here for the story.

Steven N. Cowan, 66, railed at the television as the daughter of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin appeared on the ABC program, his wife told police Monday after she fled from the town of Vermont house, according to a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court.

[...]

According to the complaint, Cowan and his wife were watching “Dancing with the Stars” when Cowan jumped up and swore as Bristol Palin appeared, saying something about “the (expletive) politics.” Cowan was upset that a political figure’s daughter was on the show when he didn’t think she was a good dancer, the complaint states.

According to the complaint:
Cowan went upstairs for about 20 minutes and returned, demanding his pistols, which had been taken by his daughter about a month ago for safety reasons. He was carrying a single-shot shotgun, which he loaded and fired into the television.

Now I see that the opinion-news shows this morning are full of stories that Bristol Palin was due to be kicked off the show, but that the cell phone vote brought her back in with an overwhelming majority.

So I’m left thinking: Maybe this guy had the right idea. Or maybe its a sign that our television shows have become so focused on profits that they’ve lost any artistic merit. Maybe its a sign that news has become nothing but entertainment. But maybe, just maybe, its a sign that I need to turn off my fucking television and find something productive to do.

Right after this episode of NCIS.

I suppose I should be hoping that it turns out to be bad. After all, this man has made a living out of raping the working class and then charging them for lube. But I have to believe that his deal with Satan allows for a few more final hurrahs. Why Satan? No one could get away with being that fucking ballsy without help from a supernatural power.

So I have my own theory. I’m guessing that the cause of the discomfort was his erection finally getting too large and bursting. With news that an oil-financed judge ruled that deep water drilling had to resume I don’t think that his already-strained penis could take it and just popped. Its a good thing too… if his balls got any bigger they would have had their own gravitational field.

First of all, how fucked up is it that we’re all calling him Balloon Boy when he wasn’t even in the damn balloon? How is this kid going to end up being known as balloon boy his entire life? At least Baby Jessica the Well Girl was actually stuck in a well.

But the biggest reason I need everyone to stop talking about Balloon Boy is because I keep getting “Up Up and Away” by the 5th Dimension stuck in my head every time someone mentions it. In fact, I’m beginning to twitch a little every time the chorus goes through my head.

As such, I must subject you all to it as well:

My mother called me today to chat, and happened to bring up this little tidbit. She then subjected me to a tale about accompanying my father to a showing of Behind the Green Door “In a real theater, not in a booth or from VCR”

When I failed to act shocked she told the story again, emphasizing that it was in 1973. Finally she told me that she would have to subject my sister to the same story soon because she would be completely scandalized. I encouraged her to go ahead and do that right away, since I really didn’t want to hear the story again.

The thought of my parents going to an adult theater (one year before they were married) does not shock or scandalize me. It just kind of creeps me out and makes me want to find a teddy bear to hug while I drink away the memory of the conversation.

Stories like that are similar to videos of old and saggy people fucking… once it has been seen it can not be unseen.

Still, Marilyn Chambers death fills me with sadness. I haven’t been this sad since Linda Lovelace died in April of 2002. Although, mentioning that does give me yet another chance to resurrect this old picture…

RIP, Marilyn. Here’s hoping that somewhere up there you’re getting a seven gun salute that would sell millions in Japan.