In one of the greatest works of American Letters, Sylvester McMonkey McBean markets Star-On and Star-Off machines to unwitting Sneetches, who pay him for one or the other service until they’re all broke.

Kind of like billboard companies:

Atheists and Catholics have posted dueling billboards in New York City, creating a metaphysical face-off near the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. One, put up by the group American Atheists, proclaims that Christmas is a “myth.” The other, posted by the Catholic League in response, urges commuters: “You know it’s real. This season, celebrate Jesus.”

A word to our Comrades in Hell: Lay the fuck off. You can enjoy the snow, gifts, carols, even Linus reading the Gospel without fearing for your intellectual integrity. Joy to the World, assholes.

Atheist ad campaigns stir the pot during holiday season [Yahoo]

“Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five foreign companies including Halliburton Co. over a $180 million bribery scandal, a prosecutor at the anti-graft agency said.” [BusinessWeek]

Top Baby Names for 2010: “The names Quinn (and Finn) from ‘Glee,’ Betty from ‘Mad Men’ and Demi and Tiana of Disney princess fame didn’t crack the top 100, but they’re rising fast. So are monikers that became household names during the Winter Olympics: Bode, Shaun and Apollo. And so are the widely publicized names of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughters: Bristol, Willow and Piper. (But Palin’s sons’ names, Track and Trig? Not so much.)” [Today, via Sully]

It’s been a couple years since we frequented a Gawker Media blog. Back in the Golden Age, we were rabid followers of Gawker, Defamer, and Wonkette.

Or, more precisely: Jessica Coen, Mark Lisanti, and Ana Marie Cox.

They were witty companions throughout the day. They had distinctive voices.

We like distinctive voices. Might have something to do with radio, our first love. Seventies radio. Local radio, before stations got scooped up and homogenized by corporations.

But the voices left Gawker. They were replaced by other voices, some more companionable than others, and then, later, a lot more voices — a cacophony, really. Twelve posts a day, you can absorb. Beyond that, a blog becomes a newswire. If we want headlines, we’ll check Memeorandum.

So Gawker evolved away from our interest. And soon, it plans to evolve beyond blogging.

Read more »

So we are one month away from the handover of the House.  And the reality is starting to hit home.  Seems that the Smithsonian — those rabble-rousing anarchists — have decided to put up a special exhibition on portraits of homosexuals. 

ORANGE ALERT!

There are some very famous artists represented in the show: Andy Warhol, Walt Whitman and Jasper Johns, among many others. But the work that so far has been the most controversial is a provocative video from 1987 by the late artist David Wojnarowicz called A Fire In My Belly.

Martin Sullivan, director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, says the artist created the piece as a response to the “agony and suffering” of his partner who at the time was dying of AIDS. Using “vivid colors, and some fairly grotesque scenes, it’s more a meditation on the fragility of the human flesh,” Sullivan says.

[ants on crucifix, standard-issue rant from Bill Donahue, yadda yadda yadda]

At least one critic has accused the Smithsonian of caving in to pressure from Catholics and from two Republican members of Congress. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia called the exhibition “an outrageous use of taxpayer money.” A spokesperson for incoming House Speaker John Boehner told The Hill newspaper that “Smithsonian officials should either acknowledge the mistake or be prepared to face tough scrutiny beginning in January.”

[See what I did?  Orange Alert?  John Boehn… oh, you people are no fun.]

And thus we see the value of having Democrats in power.  With Dems in power, the GOP merely gets two-thirds of what it wants. The good news is that the truly wingnutty stuff is pushed to the side.  But when the GOP gets the keys?

Point: the first two weeks of January are going to see toxic levels of crazy.  Hang onto your asses, everyone!  (Just not too suggestively, thanks.)

And so Joe Lieberman has, apparently, forced the hand of Amazon, who has advised Wikileaks to get off of its cloud.

This does pose an interesting question for us here, concerning the Stinque Kickback box, on the right-hand side of your screen.

Admittedly: this is not a decision for me, but for Fearless Leader.  But the question has no good result.  Either we keep the Amazon link and reward Amazon for giving bandwith to a self-absorbed, nefarious gasbag, or we punish Amazon for caving in to pressure from… a self-absorbed, nefarious gasbag.

Your move, nojo.

“U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Tuesday that he won’t participate in Tulsa’s Holiday Parade of Lights until organizers put ‘Christ’ back in the event’s title. ‘Last year, the forces of political correctness removed the word “Christmas” and replaced it with “Holiday” instead,’ the Oklahoma Republican said. ‘I am deeply saddened and disappointed by this change.'” [Tulsa World]