Off the beach

While browsing Tumblr recently, I sighted this somewhat curious variation of Neil’s once-elusive 1974 classic:

This cassette version reshuffles the running order considerably, for reasons I can only assume were about trying to make the running time of both sides nearer to each other (remember when that mattered with tapes?), otherwise I don’t see the point…

I actually just listened to it in this form to see how it works in practice, and, well, I’m not 100% sure. To be honest I’ve never been thrilled by the placement of “See the Sky About to Rain” as track 2, it feels a bit oddly situated there, but I don’t really know how else you’d redo it, cos side 2 is fine as it is on the original album. In this version, though, “Ambulance Blues” just doesn’t seem right to end side 1, and “Motion Pictures” similarly doesn’t seem like it should end the whole album… Maybe if you took this running order but flipped the two sides? Cos I read, too, that this was Neil’s original plan and so the cassette is actually nearer what he intended… but the version that ended up on the album feels (mostly) like the right one in a way that this cassette doesn’t. Or maybe it’s just familiarity that makes it feel that way. I don’t know. Must say I do like the cover font, though.

MyFuckwit needs to get off the crack (again)

Look, I don’t know if Mike Lindell is actually still a crackhead or not, but if he’s not he’s either using something else or he’s experiencing kind of amazing damage from the years when he did… Whatever the case, there’s a lot wrong with the guy, as his ongoing fellating of Donald Trump demonstrates, and the latter has come back to bite him in the arse. Mike has been particularly active in the whole “wah, the 2020 election was stolen from Glorious Leader” movement, to the extent of offering a $5m challenge to anyone who could disprove the data he offered to show Lord Dampnut was the real victor in 2020. And, well, someone did:

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has been ordered to shell out $5 million to an expert who debunked his data related to the 2020 election, according to a decision by the arbitration panel obtained by CNN.
Lindell, a purveyor of election conspiracies, vowed to award the multimillion-dollar sum to any cyber security expert who could disprove his data. An arbitration panel awarded Robert Zeidman, who has decades in software development experience, a $5 million payout on Wednesday after he sued Lindell over the sum.
CNN has obtained arbitration documents and video depositions, including a deposition of Lindell, related to the dispute.
“Based on the foregoing analysis, Mr. Zeidman performed under the contract,” the arbitration panel wrote in its decision. “He proved the data Lindell LLC provided, and represented reflected information from the November 2020 election, unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data. Failure to pay Mr. Zeidman the $5 million prized was a breach of the contract, entitling him to recover.”

“…Fuck.”

So Lindell refused to pay up, Zeidman sued him and won again, and now Lindell’s threatening another court case so he doesn’t have to pay up… the likelihood of Zeidman actually getting that money anyway is minimal, though, given that Lindell may not actually have $5m at hand; according to himself, he’s taken out twice as much as that in loans to stay afloat while battling various other lawsuits he’s facing over his election bullshit. Still, it’s a delightful spectacle… made even funnier by the fact that Robert Zeidman is a Trump voter. That detail just elevates the entire thing…

Elon goes off with a bang

Still not as bad as what he’s done to Twitter

Via. I suppose it may well be the first step on the journey to Mars, but it’s not exactly an auspicious first step, is it? Apparently they weren’t actually expecting a glowing success anyway, and the point of this test was as much about learning from anything that went wrong as anything else… at least, that’s their story and apparently they’re sticking to it, and in any case it looks like there’s plenty there for them to learn from. Hopefully they learn it before Elon’s planned private trip around the Moon (which was supposed to happen some time this year), cos you don’t want a spaceship containing a billionaire blowing up a few minutes into its flight. Or maybe you do.

Ann Coulter’s stopped clock moment?

Yeah, I couldn’t believe this wasn’t a parody either… Mind you, it’s not like she’s suddenly attained even a minimal degree of enlightenment and realised the hypocrisy of Republicans screeching against women being able to get abortions when they need them while having no problem getting them for their own daughters/mistresses/etc…

…she’s actually concerned that the Republicans’ obsession with abortion and reproductive rights control is going to lose them political power (all the other bullshit they’re currently trying with libraries and trans health care are another matter, perhaps?), so it’s not like she’s actually cool with people who are OK with abortion being able to get one. Loathsome person’s always got to be loathsome…

RIP Father Bob

Bob Maguire, professional crusty old bugger and much loved Catholic priest who made the critical error of taking his vocation seriously and caring for people, has left us at the age of 88, and he shouldn’t have done. By several accounts, he was ousted from his own Father Bob Maguire Foundation last week, and was apparently unaware of the fact himself until it was reported on social media. I feel there’s more to the story regarding what’s happened and why it’s happened now, but the foundation appears to have pulled off an absolute cunt act against an old man in declining health during his last days, and indeed probably helped make them his last days.

I think it’s appropriate to let John Safran have the last word, since he helped bring the old boy to the nation’s attention, and he shall miss him more than most of us.

EDIT: Well, actually, let’s give the p.s. to the Foundation themselves, who I’ve now seen issued a statement the other day:

“…The issues at stake were thoroughly canvassed and considered at a recent VCAT Hearing in which Fr Bob participated. The result of that hearing was that Fr Bob’s family were granted Guardianship in relation to where he lives and what care he gets. VCAT does not make such decisions lightly. It relies on a number of medical views of Fr Bob’s physical and mental condition.
Of particular relevance is that the VCAT decision means that Fr Bob is no longer eligible to be a Board member (or Chairman) of the Foundation. This is a legal dictate under the Guardianship and Administration Act 2019.

I don’t know about anyone else, but that reads to me like a tacit admission that, yeah, the Foundation kind of lied a bit in their previous statement about Bob “stepping down”. If this is a VCAT rule (and it may be, I don’t actually know) that he had to step down, why didn’t they say as much earlier? I also thought this was an interesting further remark after denying all the claims being made against them:

Those familiar with Fr Bob’s mental state are not surprised by recent comments attributed to him. Fr Bob has always been someone who ‘comes out swinging’ in any context. However, in recent times his opinions have taken on an eccentric flavour.

And, obviously, I’m not familiar with his mental state, which I’m guessing was indeed less than optimal, but I do smell a hint of well-poisoning here despite that.

Incidentally, it’s nearly 9.30pm as I write these last words and I find it interesting, shall we say, that I’ve seen no word (at least not on the SMH site, The Age, News.com.au or the Guardian) from any representatives of the Catholic church here in Australia, or from their representatives in the Liberal party, or from anyone in the Liberal party in general (all I’ve seen from the latter is a comment from the Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto) so far today. Weird how quick they were to praise that pedophile enabler a couple of months ago but not Bob now, eh. (I’d be a lot more OK with Bob getting a state funeral than I was the other guy, I must say.) Maybe the church’s media team are just trying to find a way of expressing sadness over his passing without admitting what they really thought of him…

Whoops

So some dickhead called Stephen Wolfe said something on Twitter about white evangelicals being the bulwark against “moral insanity” in America, and a company called Canon Press objected to this politely:

That’d be the same Norman Rockwell who underwent an unexpected leftening in the 60s and got hate mail from racists over his painting “The Problem We All Live With”, and who wasn’t a particularly regular churchgoer of any kind, let alone Evangelical

They are, I think, not wrong about this. But this is a little rich coming from Canon Press specifically…

To be clear, THIS is dumber

…given that they’re the right-wing Christian publisher who published Stephen Wolfe’s book The Case for Christian Nationalism. I feel like whoever’s looking after Canon’s social media is going to be reassigned shortly to a position where they can’t publicly call shit on their authors, even if they’re right…

The value-added home video release of the Christ

I’ve said on here before that I hate Passion of the Christ, so I was delighted to find this thing this evening:

It does have me wondering what a terrifying alternate ending to this story might be, though…

EDIT: OK, so I posted this on my Facebook and a friend made an addition to it that had to be shared: