Is It A Potus? A Geotus? No, It’s Batrump!

Sometimes, things one sees on the internet constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and Liz ‘Red Shoes‘ Crokin is spreading one around. Prepare yourselves:

Some call him POTUS, others call him GEOTUS, I call him BATMAN!‬

‪Trump is a real life super hero!

‪No pedo is safe in Gotham anymore!

Photo via Yash Sharma.

:gag: I will never forgive Red Shoes for the image in my head of a massive team of people trying to stuff the Tiny Tyrant into a skin tight batsuit with built-in muscles and stuff.

Via FB.

Pointy!

From Charly, who I think is being much too modest:

This is the first knife I have made with the help of my out-of-scraps built belt sander and my drill powered lathe. Because this was a learning exercise for me, I took a bunch of old worthless stuff – a rusty file, rusty pipe, some old hinges, broken furniture legs and a piece of cow bone dug out of the ground in the garden. I have also deliberately used only the machines to do most of the work, including polishing – I wanted to see what kind of fit and finish I will be able to get this way.

Because it was learning exercise and because the materials were of bad quality (the pipes were a bit too rusty, I sanded through them at a few places) the result is not something too great, but it is sharp, pointy and dangerous. The design is a sort of hybrid between the Fairbarn-Sykes and a medieval rondel dagger and I freehanded most of it, with almost no measurements.

Stats: overall lenght 33,5 cm, blade length 22 cm, work time approx 12 hours (not including curing of the paint)

I am not intending to stab anyone, but it is extremely good letter opener. Click for full size!

© Charly, all rights reserved.

35 Degrees South: Fire & Rain.

From Lofty: The local parks and wildlife dept burnt a small reserve at the end of our road, and I took a few pictures a week later during our three day rainy patch, to see how the colours were progressing. I’ll be keeping an eye out to see how the bush regenerates over the next few months. Bonus birdie in the last picture, a magpie looking for fried grubs I suppose. Click for full size!

© Lofty, all rights reserved.

Lavender Files 27.

The Price of Salt and Spring Fire are both well known, especially Highsmith’s Price of Salt. Spring Fire started the Lesbian pulp genre, and the author, Marijane Meaker, was always unhappy about the forced ending she had to do. As for Satan Was A Lesbian, people may not know the story, but it’s probably one of the best known pulp covers, which has been reproduced on all manner of goods.

Angels Would Be Raped!

Three angels visiting Abraham, Ludovico Carracci.

Rick Wiles. Again. Never shuts up, this one.

Citing the biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah, Wiles insisted that that “sick, sick society” had nothing on modern-day America.

“I think, right now, if God sent angels to this country, homosexuals would attempt to rape them,” Wiles said. “I have read comments by homosexual rights activists—I don’t even want to say the words, I can’t even say it, what they want to do to our Lord, Jesus Christ. I have seen comments, it’s so wicked, so blasphemous I can’t even say it. I don’t want to even go there.”

“I’m telling you,” he continued, “if angels arrived in some major cities in this country, men would seek to rape them. We have become that wicked.”

Sigh. I’m starting to think of evangelical conservatives as bullshit faucets, always on full spew. First, that moronic bible story is not at all what most christians think it is, and whatever the ‘grievous’ sin of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah, that will never be known, because although Jehovah mentions it, he never says what it is. One thing is clear, and that’s Jehovah’s plan to destroy all the people long before they get there. He lets Abraham in on his little secret, and Abraham, not being an idiot, inquires if all the good people will be destroyed, too. Then Abraham starts bargaining with Jehovah, from 50 to 10, that if he can identify 10 good people, Jehovah will have to stay his hand. Abraham is never given that opportunity, though. The whole damn story is nonsense, from start to finish. You can read a basic summary here. One thing which happens a lot in the bible is a whole town’s worth of men always showing up when there’s a new man in town, clamoring to have him come out for a spot of gang rape. In most cases, Jehovah doesn’t seem to be terribly upset about it, so it’s hard to imagine everyone had to die for that one. You know a story christians don’t like? The Levite’s Concubine. That’s a nasty one. And the town of Gibeah wasn’t destroyed! Well, they weren’t looking to rape an angel. Maybe that makes the difference. Jehovah doesn’t care if people are gang raped, but hands off the angels! Besides, there’s the easy way to prevent men being raped – just toss them a woman or two. That’s biblical.

Naturally, willfully ignorant, hateful, bigoted christians just love that story. Now Wiles claims he’s read comments by gay rights activists, but of course, he won’t say which activists, what organizations they represent, or where he’s read these awful things he just couldn’t possibly repeat. Providing a source would not force him to repeat anything. I guess he didn’t think of that. So, we can be fairly safe in assuming that Mr. Wiles has been trawling places he shouldn’t be, or is just making shit up. Most likely the latter. I can’t think of a single LGBTQ activist who would say anything so gosh darn awful it would be unrepeatable. I know they aren’t going around advocating rape, angels or no.

As for this: We have become that wicked. No. Speak for yourself, Mr. Wiles. You wouldn’t find me raping anyone, ever. I also wouldn’t protect or defend rapists, like you do.

Since there’s no convenient way to identify an angel, perhaps we should just concern ourselves with people. I figure angels could fend for themselves. We have, if not a rapist, a serial sexual assaulter sitting in the white house. I’d like to do something about that. Be nice if you mouthy fuckin’ goddists were concerned about that, too. Because that sends a message, doesn’t it? But not only are you asshole christians supporting the pussy grabber, you’re busy supporting people like Moore, too, and his skeevy, sleazy pursuit of teenagers over the years. Of course, that sort of thing doesn’t upset you types, does it? That’s being all manly and godly. :spits: Go the fuck away, Mr. Wiles. Go become an angel hunter, and you can be an angel bodyguard or something.

Via RWW.

A Russian Art Connection.

Leonardo da Vinci, “Salvator Mundi” (c.1500), oil on panel, 25 7/8 x 18 in.(65.7 x 45.7 cm) (image courtesy Christie’s).

There was an astonishing sale at Christie’s, the last privately held da Vinci, supposedly, for an unprecedented amount of money: over $450 million dollars. The Russian connection is of interest, as is the doubtful provenance of the painting. There’s also the problem of such a painting, if it’s a true da Vinci, going into private hands. No museum could possibly have coughed up over 400 million for it.

Last night, Christie’s auction house sold “Salvator Mundi,” which it claims is the last painting by Leonardo da Vinci in private hands, for an astounding, record-setting $400M (the final price was over $450M with fees). The sale was controversial for a couple of reasons: that mind-numbing number itself, but also the fact that there are a lot of questions — and serious doubts — about the painting’s authenticity, restoration, and provenance.

One can therefore be forgiven for initially overlooking another elephant in the room — the identity of the seller. When there’s this much money involved, though, it usually pays to follow it, and here the money leads directly back to the Russian billionaire Dmitry E. Rybolovlev. Rybolovlev’s family trust sold the painting, through Christie’s, to an undisclosed buyer, but if his name sounds familiar for other reasons, that might be because in 2008 he paid (through a company he controlled) $95M to buy a Palm Beach mansion from Donald Trump.

You can read more about this at Hyperallergic, and there’s an earlier article too. The earlier article is disheartening, to say the least, as half of all the world’s wealth is in a very small circle of people, while little money ever goes to all those things which make for a healthy society. Once again, I’m reminded of A Perfect Circle’s new beatitude

30 Brumaire.

Today marks my 60th birthday. Rather surprised I made it this far. I also have to be at Pain Clinic today, so I’m taking the day. TNET will be open, as always. Have fun, and don’t burn down the blog or anything. See you all tomorrow! Well, scratch that. Just got a phone call canceling my appointment for the second time this month, so you are all stuck with one very cranky person for the day. Who has matches?