FRIDAY FOLLIES: From Orly Taitz to Gabby Giffords: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

When the whole SOPA/PIPA blackout was going on, most of us, like the sheeple we are, just grabbed something someone else did and closed up shop,  but The Oatmeal, like the creative peeple they are, got creative.  You can see it here.

Carlsberg Beer, like the creative peeple they are, (I didn't know that about Carlsberg, did you?) pulled a stunt involving tattooed bikers in a movie theater.  You can watch it here.

 I'm always looking for writing gigs (paid writing gigs--hint-hint) but this isn't exactly what I had in mind:

 Magazine Editor, Yorkshire - WEC International
Submitted: 10/01/12 ; Closing Date: Open
Editorial of WEC magazine (Worldwide) and other publications. Involves planning, commissioning and editing articles, within Media and Communications team.
A part-time role, perhaps from home, or at Leeds centre with other editorial/journalistic tasks (compare: Journalist/Press Officer vacancy).
Skills required: planning, organisation and gifted with words. An English qualification preferred.
This post is unsalaried as all WEC workers trust God to meet their personal needs. 
www.wec-int.org.uk/magazine
 

 There's a state senator in Oklahoma I think Newt Gingrich might like to meet.  Newt may think he's the king of zany ideas, but this guy Ralph Shortey could just give him a run for the money:

Oklahoma GOP State Senator Ralph Shortey is on a mission to finally put an end to his state’s allegedly rampant cannibalism problem. Alarmed after his own research, which consisted of reading a nameless report stating that companies have used stem cells in the production of food, Shortey introduced a bill that would prohibit the manufacturing and sale of food “which contains aborted human fetuses.”
Shortey explained his reasoning to local radio station News Talk Radio KRMG in Tulsa:

There is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors.

Shortey was unable to provide any specific examples of the problem he’s trying to curb, and admits that it’s possible there aren’t any human fetuses in Oklahoma’s food.

I don't know what's in the water in Newt's Georgia, but a judge there ordered Barack Obama to court to defend himself against more birther allegations.  He didn't show and neither did his lawyers, but guess who did?  Right!  Orly Taitz!

On Thursday, lawyers raised two arguments for why Obama should not be on the ballot. One contended an 1875 Supreme Court opinion says only a “natural born citizen” -- someone born in the U.S. and whose parents were U.S. citizens -- can be president. (Obama’s father, who was from Kenya, was not a U.S. citizen.) The other alleged Obama’s birth, social security and passport records are forgeries.

California lawyer Orly Taitz, a leading proponent of challenges to Obama’s candidacy, made the latter argument. She turned and faced the gallery -- and the TV cameras -- during her opening statement, prompting Malihi to tell her: “Counsel, please address the court.”

During closing arguments, as Taitz began referring to documents that were not in evidence, Malihi pointedly asked, “Counsel, are you testifying?”

Taitz abruptly halted her arguments, took the witness stand and began testifying. Malihi soon cut her off.

Those Moments Sublime:

 

Free Press photo

Jim Fitzgerald, one of Detroit's best and favorite columnists ever,  died on January 11.  He was the writer I most emulated and tried so hard to imitate when I was writing columns in Detroit area papers in the 1980s. What a foolish nut I was! But I blame Jim for what I did.  He made it look so easy breezy.

Elmore Leonard wrote in an introduction to Jim's book, "If it Fitz":

"The thing that amazes me about Jim Fitzgerald's columns is they can veer off in unexpected directions, appear to be topic-hopping, observe llamas and Lee Iacocca in the same piece, but always manage to get back in time to arrive at a perfectly logical conclusion. Within this sometimes astonishing structure is an essay composed of clear, expository sentences."

Yes, all of that, but he could be screamingly funny, too.  He was quite a guy.  I hope he knew that.

I found an interview where Jim talked about his writing and how he does it.  The interview took place in 1987, when I was writing in Detroit, but I've never seen it before.  I don't know why it surprises me, considering how dutifully I studied his style, but my working methods are very similar to his.  Sort of here and there and everywhere until it all comes together.
Now if I only had his talent. . .


This was the week when Gabrielle Giffords stepped down from her place in the House.  This is what a politician who loves her country more than herself looks like:



And this is how the house expressed to her how we all feel about her:

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Cartoon of the week:

Bruce Plante - Tulsa World