Tomorrow Will Never Come Again

They have canceled Little Orphan Annie.

"They" in this case turns out to be Tribune Media Services, which announced on May 13, 2010 that LOA would cease to publish on June 13, 2010.

I'm not sure how much lead time the creators of a newspaper strip need, but apparently LOA didn't get enough because the strip stopped abruptly with Daddy Warbucks believing Annie dead and fed to sharks, while actually she was rescued by a notorious Eastern European terrorist war criminal, who press-ganged her into helping him.

Sheesh.

The creators are hoping that some other syndicate buys the strip and starts publishing it, but at the end there Annie was running in 20 newspapers across the nation, including, apparently, the New York Daily News, which has published the strip for the entirety of its 86-year run.

If I had a hat, I would remove it and crush it to my chest as though watching a funeral procession.

Congratulations on running almost 90 years, Little Orphan Annie.

RIP: Ed McMahon

Paradise Clearinghouse: You may have already won!

Farah Fawcett

The next celebrity mortality on this grim trip through the mortuary which it seems is the whole of my blog lately is Farah Fawcett, who actually died close to a week ago of cancer.

It is human nature to ignore problems until they become personal; who in this world pays any attention to cancer until someone they know and care about is told their body is killing itself? Farah funneled a lot of attention and money into cancer research in her last years; call it enlightened self-interest, perhaps, but her refusal to go quiet into that good night has helped find a cure.

I also wanted to post a picture of her that wasn't that dumb swimsuit pose, which started to look painful to me after the fiftieth blog post. So here she is looking a lot more candid. Fifteen seconds on teh Google, it took me: bloggers, take note.

RIP, Michael Jackson

MSNBC is reporting that Michael Jackson has died of undisclosed causes in Los Angeles.

He had a stellar career in the 80s, followed by a crash and burn so hard he was only now coming out of it. He was apparently rehearsing a comeback performance in London later this year.

Whatever he was searching for, whatever demons were riding him, I hope he has now found peace, at least.

One Of The Old School

They broke the mold after they made him:



(Watch at YouTube.)

Ricardo Montalban, 1920-2008.

How's the Corinthian leather in heaven, amigo?

Bettie Page, 1923-2008

Rest in peace.

This Telegraph article is the obituary I found via Pharyngula. It's pretty detailed about her life and times up until she found Jesus and started following Billy Graham in 1958, then it glosses the next 50 years, as though her modeling career were it.

Also: Her photos may be considered tame by today's standards, but there is still toplessness if you google Bettie Page, even with safe search on. Just FYI. Also, I was hard pressed to find a photo of her that didn't involve ropes or spanking or something. Here I thought she was just a bikini pinup.

November 22, 1963: Never Any Words

Bush the Tyrant

George W. Bush has arrogated to himself the power to violate the Constitution. Among other things, like suspending due process and free speech, he has claimed the ability to open and read your physical mail, and to intercept and read your e-mail. In short, he is violating the Fourth Amendment, which has been in effect since 1791.

And our Glorious Representatives in Congress, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are going to let him get away with it, and soon, because they're recessing after the 4th of July.

It seems that making Congress show up to work 5 days a week instead of 3 is the extent of the Democrats' reforms after their election in 2006. There is no political price to pay for standing up for the Constitution, but somehow the Democrats in Congress have become afraid of actually getting dirty. The Republicans might call them liberals! Soft on terror! Traitors! That's bad for our image!

Well, Nan, Hal, it's bad for your image to rush through President Bush's wish list because you want your fucking vacation. You are enabling the biggest tyrant in American history since we threw off the yoke of George III. This domestic spying program is illegal and unnecessary, and the only reason Bush (or someone pulling his strings) is pushing for it is because he cannot bear the idea of fettered power. That's right. He doesn't like the program that's already in place to allow him to spy on you, because that makes him get a warrant after the fact. He doesn't want that much hassle, man, writing a letter to a court that'll rubberstamp it and have it back on his desk within 24 hours. Don't you know he's got three rounds of golf to abstain from in support of the troops?

President Bush wants to know what you're saying in that Christmas card to dear old Aunt Letitia. He wants to know what you're saying in that email to your brother about your weekend at that couples resort in Jamaica. Does he deserve to know those things? Can any third party ever deserve to know these things without probable cause?

No!

That's why Lambert at Corrente has declared today National Fourth Amendment Defense Day.

Maybe we can't change Nan's mind, or Hal's, because that vacay is just so fucking important to them, and Bush won't let them go to Florida until they cave in, but we can perhaps influence our freshman senator from Illinois. He has recently said that the War on Terror will be his number-one concern in office. Perhaps we can wake him up to the fact that losing our liberty in defense of our liberty is defeating the purpose.

Obama's voicemail: (202) 224-2854
Obama's fax: (202) 228-4260