The Funny Farm

Time For A Cartoon

^{Fryday, 2 Priming 2007}

Check out the latest from Keith Tucker over at What Now Toons:

Found In The Comments

^{Saturday, 26 Shivring 2007}

Many, many good comments have been popping up within my purview of late. Some often generate additional comments with the opinion that the comment itself is worthy of a blog post on its' own. I heartily agree with those sentiments, and I would like to point out a few of them to you from time to time.

This one was found in the comments over at Pandagon to a post written by Sheezlebub entitled Bigotry, thy name is fundamentalist: [slight spelling and grammtical corrections provided by the Funny Farm Editorial Staff]

The Funny Farm officially seconds that emotion! Although it is strikingly similar to sentiments expressed by some of the more fervent evangelical christians when trying to get the catholic tax exemptions removed from the various statutes. While concurrently (and this is what really bothers us, O My Brothers - the mental gymnastics of doublethink being practiced in real life) insisting that the tax breaks for themselves evangelical christians need to stay in place due to their faith being the true one, and their rules being the ones that all should obey. It should also be clear to most by now that I'm of the opinion that it matters not whether you're talking about a madrassa, a catholic, evangelical, christian, judaic, hindi, or other (cough) private penitentiary school - none of them should be teaching that any religion is the one and only True Word Of The Most Almighty. If they have a religion class, it should embrace the teachings of as many faiths as possible and when and where (and why, when they get older) they share common beliefs. Sort of a 'this is what most organized religious people (of this type of faith) believe' about things. Most definitely the ten christian commandments would be part of such a discussion at one point - and why they are not universal to all religions (for starters). Along with the many and varied ways that humanity has found to find a way to believe in something to help them get by in tough times.

Then again, maybe it's a good thing that this discussion is theoretical only; I would have no idea how to convince others that my hypothetical religious studies class would have more merits and/or benefits than what is currently being taught on the subject.

[Editors' Note: this entry is cross-posted over at the American Street]

And Now For Something Completely Different

^{Sunday, 27 Shivring 2007}

At least, it's new for me here. And I'm trying to add the same poll to two different web sites.Let's see how it works out.

It was inspired by today's CNN Quick Poll, which asks the truly crucial question: Who should decide where Anna Nicole Smith is buried?

Please vote in our little survey:

Update: I tried to post this on the American Street as well, but there's something funky going on with Snap Poll's table closing functionality. I kludged a fix over here that doesn't work over there - so the poll is only up on this site for now.

A Few Thousand Words

^{Fryday, 25 Shivring 2007}

It seems that there are many who let their artwork do their talking of late. Here's a few that struck our fancy. Among other things, our good friend Keith Tucker over at What Now Toons has once again given us all another cartoon to absorb. And our good friend Aislin in the Great White North definitely has provided an alternate viewpoint today as well. Enjoy!

Thanks to Jeebus' General for the pic and the pointer to The Right's Field.

Just The Facts, Mademoiselles

^{Humpday, 22 Shivring 2007}

Apparently the religiously insane rantings of William Donohue of the (cough) Catholic League for (cough) Religious and (cough cough) Civil (cough cough cough) Rights have significantly contributed to the (hopefully) temporary derailment of the careers of a couple of Stars of Left Blogtopia (y!sctw!). I hope that the Catholic League and all others who accept the blasphemous diatribe of this heretic as gospel will realize that Mr. Donohue only serves to incite hatred and bigotry instead of understanding and compassion by making statements of false witness against a fellow human being.

As far as I can determine from the evidence offered, Manda Panda was going to tweak the blog, do sysop and other organizational duties, and post in a calmer, but no less firm or strident manner, than what she had been doing over at Pandagon. And Shakes was doing tech advice. Part time. No posting for Edwards, and obviously a somewhat more politically correct attitude in the stuff at her blog - which, as always, might sound a bit fervent to some ears. Particularly the tin ears of sanctimonious blowhards who, in the public forum, engage in rhetoric that is easily more offensive than any of the blog posts at either Pandagon or Shakespeare's Sister. That they are not responsible for the entirety of the content in those sites, including comments from both sides of the equation, also seems to evade the perception of the (cough) righteously indignant.

But, hey - don't take my word for it. Go to Salon* and take a look for yourself at what Amanda Marcotte has to say on the subject.

To me it is yet another shameful example of the Reich Wing Noise Machine at its' usual most virulent self. It's too bad that the laws pertaining to the taxable status of supposedly non-profit non-partisan organizations such as the one that Mr. Donahue works for couldn't be enforced once in a while when they engage in such a blatant violation of the rules. At the very least it is extremely arrogant for this individual to feel that he knows what his Invisible Sky Fairy is thinking, much less feel he has the right to speak on behalf of that being.

* - Warning! you either have to be a member at Salon.com or watch a short infomercial** before getting to Salon's main page. Click the link again (at least I had to - YMMV) and you should get the full article. You might have to temporarily allow a few sites into your 'puter, too. Caveat emptor...

** - by the way, did you know that Real Time with Bill Maher starts up again tonight?

Parallel Inspiration

^{Tuesday, 21 Shivring 2007}

We our happy to show an even better creation, via way of blog lord The Poor Man yet again, who showed us to another swirl* of the bloggy whirlwind generated by Heywood J at The Hammer Of The Blogs:

As well as happy to take some time to welcome Needlenose and his Aggregator to the Links Zone. It's been a while since I viddied this site, and its' look and feel are quite different from the last time my glazzies took in the scene. Nicely done!

Best Regards,

(: Tom :)

* - originating at Hairy Fish Nuts

Thanks To An Inspiration Or Two

^{Sunday, 20 Shivring 2007}

We are happy to show you our latest creation, via way of blog lord The Poor Man, who showed us to the center of the bloggy whirlwind generated by Heywood J at The Hammer Of The Blogs:

DoughBob LoadPants

As well as happy to take some time to thank the Editors for their fine inspiration over the last little while, and their creation / hosting of the Winger awards in their various forms, to name a couple subsets of the many bits of wondrous infotainment found at their site.

Best Regards,

(: Tom :)

[Editors' Note: this post was temporally enhanced]

Quick Question For IE (version 7.0) Geeks

^{Saturday, 19 Shivring 2007}

This site looks the way I want it to in Firefox. But, when I bring up the page in IE Carumba! Internet Explorer version 7 (.0.5730.11), I get this funky sequence of events:

1. The banner at the top loads.
2. The links side bar loads.
3. The main page area (where the posts can be seen) loads.
4. As the main page loads, it wipes out the side links, so now there's some empty space to the left of the main page area (which is just a bit narrower than my links) where all the links used to be, and the links are gone from the page.

I'm using Movable Type 3.2 with a few basic templates that have been somewhat tweaked over time. I believe the main area is set up to fill in the rest of the space, after the links area gets written to the page, and that I've set up the sidebar to be 205 pixels wide. I've experimented with changing the side bar width, the monitor settings (up to the 1600x1200 range or so), and the details of the blog header fields (both how and what to display), in the stylesheet and main templates, without changing the event sequence.. I've also searched the Movable Type help and user forums and got one hit on internet explorer 7 which was not pertinent to the issue at hand.

Any ideas on solving the problem and keeping the site looking the same in FireFox (and NetScrap, Opera, etc.) would be greatly appreciated.

Time For A Cartoon

^{Fryday, 18 Shivring 2007}

Check out the latest from Keith Tucker over at What Now Toons:

Monsoon Bowl Update

^{Friday, 10 Shivring 2007}

Brought to you from the wilds of Michigan, where I drove through a blizzard to get back home in time to watch the Super Bowl (This one, number XLI, is taking place in Miami, Florida as I type this) sprawled on my own sofa.

I can't believe the entertainment value that I've gotten here. The first time in a long time that I decide to watch the half time show - and it's Prince doing a spectacular show. Purple Rain being done in actual purple rain is quite impressive. The ability to stage the show in the middle of a monsoon even more so.

Oh, and the opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown by the Chicago special teams monster Devin Hester - so Indianapolis has squib kicked almost every kickoff since then. The Keystone Kops decided to let Rex Grossman wear one of their uniforms from time to time during the game, twist Cedric Benson's (and John Tait's) knees on one of Chicago's early series, and stepped in and helped out with a record number of turnovers - in the first half.

Right now there's a lull in the monsoon, and a lull in the game. It's Indianapolis over Chicago 29 - 17 at the two minute warning, and Peyton is handing off to Dominick Rhodes, who's scored a touchdown and ran for more than 100 yards in the rain. The groundskeepers, and audio and visual tech geeks are also among the stars of today's broadcast. They took a bunch of grown men playing in the rain for a couple of hours and turned it into one of the largest grossing spectacles in modern mass theatre.

But the best thing was that the entire drama took place in the pouring rain. From start to finish - I didn't make it in time to hear Billy Joel (so my roommate says) massacre the national anthem, but I got to see the kickoff replay just after it happened live, and watched the rest of the slip sliding, rip roaring, wildly entertaining spectacle. Except for the time spent getting this spot report from the Funny Farm Sports Burro ready for you, dear reader. Hope you managed to check some of it out for yourself!

Last Word: It's all over but the shouting, and the cleaning up . Final score 29-17 Indy. Congrats to the Colts for finally getting back to the show and taking the Super Bowl rings this year!

This entry cross-posted at the American Street.

Internets Time Waster

^{Thursday, 9 Shivring 2007}

I am: Arthur C. Clarke Well known for nonfiction science writing and for early promotion of the effort toward space travel, his fiction was often grand and visionary. Which science fiction writer are you?

More Creativity In Action

^{Humpday,8 Shivring 2007}

Our good friend Keith Tucker over at What Now Toons has given us all another cartoon to grok:

Is it just me, or is Keith picking up the pace lately?

We're Not Worthy!

^{Tuesday, 7 Shivring 2007}

His Exalted Rudeness shows us the way to this bit of prime Molly Ivins writing, and laments the ravages of time on his mentor pool. I was particularly stunned* with the loss of Peter Boyle myself. But that sort of thing will be happening with increasing frequency to us all, I'm afraid...

Random guerrilla blgging starts early for this week, and may or may not take place in various locations within the greater North American midwest.

* - Belgian Banty Roosters stun easily. Almost as easily as the Norwegian Blue...

Creativity In Action

^{Tuesday, 7 Shivring 2007}

Well, it's time to let the cat out of the bag here at the Funny Farm: we've been tapped to help out a bit at the American Street whilst Kevin gets his mojo back and focuses on more consumer satisfying profit oriented activities. So the awesome quality (cough), reliability (cough) (cough), and quantity (cough) (cough) (cough) of vintage Funny Farm infotainment should adjust itself appropriately. And hopefully we can keep up enough repetetive exercises to make that frelling irony alert siren stay off for a little while longer.

Although, right now all that can be heard in this zone is tinged with a mournful dirge. I have recently been informed that Molly Ivins just died.