Monthly Archives: May 2017

“INTERNATIONAL EVERYBODY DRAW MUHAMMAD DAY” IS FAST APPROACHING!

Muhammad, the insane child rapist who founded Islam. May 20th will mark another celebration of International Everybody Draw Muhammad Day! The woman who founded it – Molly Norris – has been in hiding for years because of the Muslim fanatics trying to kill her. But hey, cowardly comedians continue to act like they’re “cutting edge” for going after Christians.

I’m an atheist and there’s no denying that if I wrote something about Jesus having sex with farm animals and corpses that would NO LONGER be daring. Christians have become the cultural “safe targets” so only the most gutless of hypocrites still think they’re being courageous by taking them on and watching them howl.

The truly untamed beast in the world’s religions is the superstitious savagery called Islam. Muslim fascists kill people simply for drawing pictures they don’t like. In the past there were plenty of depictions of Muhammad in Western art because non-Muslims sure as hell shouldn’t be bound by the rules of a religion they don’t belong to. Only recently has there been an obsession with making it taboo to draw the insane, blood-soaked child rapist who founded Islam. I can’t draw so I’m limited to showing the drawings of others.

Those of us taking on Islam are fully aware that if the Muslim fanatics who threaten us DO succeed in killing us the world is full of cowards who will claim our deaths are our own fault. We don’t care. I don’t follow ANY religion and I will not live according to the rules of the most homophobic, misogynistic and otherwise intolerant religion in the world right now. 

If you disagree with the spirit of this cartoon you're clearly too weak-minded to handle freedom of expression.

If you disagree with the spirit of this cartoon you’re clearly too weak-minded to handle freedom of expression.

WE ARE NEVER GOING TO STOP WITH THE PICTURES OF MUHAMMAD. Well, at least people with a backbone won’t. The weak and the cowardly will happily pretend they’re being “culturally sensitive” by shying away from Muhammad pictures. Then they’ll make a few Jesus jokes to pretend they ARE NOT afraid of religious fanatics. 

This man put it best:

“Once they started killing people for drawing Mohammed it became necessary for everyone to draw Mohammed – to show that there are too many to kill, and thus to teach Islam that, whatever its own proscriptions, they do not and will never apply to non-believers. Once you make drawing Mohammed a capital crime, it is necessary to make drawing Mohammed so universal that it’s no crime at all. If you claim the right to kill because you’re offended, then it is necessary to offend you all the time – until you accept the messy norms of pluralistic societies.”   Continue reading

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MANTIS 3: BELOW US THE BATTLE

FOR PART 1 OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF MARVEL’S SUPERHEROINE MANTIS CLICK HERE 

Mantis below us the battleTHE AVENGERS Volume 1, Number 115 (September 1973) Below Us The Battle 

Avengers Roster: THOR (Donald Blake, MD), IRON MAN (Tony Stark), CAPTAIN AMERICA (Steve Rogers), THE SCARLET WITCH (Wanda * last name unknown at the time of this story * ), THE BLACK PANTHER (Prince T’Challa), THE VISION (not applicable), MANTIS (* unknown at the time of this story *) and THE SWORDSMAN (Jacques Duquesne).  

BELOW US THE BATTLE

Synopsis: All of the Avengers listed above are in an Avengers Quin-Jet flying over the Atlantic Ocean bound for England. The Black Knight (Dane Whitman), in 1973 the only British member of the Avengers, has been out of contact for an alarming amount of time. Anticipating trouble the team has decided to check out the Black Knight’s castle for signs of their friend and colleague.  

In keeping with the usual levels of verisimilitude for 1970s Marvel Comics, the story presents the British branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. intercepting the Quin-Jet because of the presence on board of the recently reformed former supervillain the Swordsman.

Mantis and Swordsman (partial)Despite the Swordsman’s pardon and his status as an Avenger the Brits do not want the formerly wanted man allowed in the country. Thor – more worldly in the comic books than he is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – negotiates with the British and the Swordsman is allowed in England but the Avengers are responsible for his actions.  

Captain America is the only Avenger still suspicious about the Swordsman and his lady love Mantis, the enigmatic woman who will assume more and more importance as the issues go by, enroute to the Celestial Madonna Saga. Continue reading

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USCAA COLLEGE WORLD SERIES AND NAIA PLAYOFFS CONTINUE …

*** USCAA ***

newportnewsapprentice-school-builderDAY THREE, GAME ONE: The 4 seeds – the NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (Shipbuilders) – played the 2nd seeded Defending National Champions of USCAA Baseball, the COLLEGE OF SAINT JOSEPH’S (sic) FIGHTING SAINTS. After 2 scoreless Innings the Fighting Saints took a 1-0 lead in the 3rd, but the Builders went on top 3-1 in the 4th.

College of Saint Joseph’s added 1 run each in the 5th and 6th Innings while their opponents remained just out of reach with 2 more runs of their own. Newport News Apprentice School drove in another run in the 7th Inning and went on to win the game 6-3. Pitcher Steve Hux picked up the W. * THE BUILDERS ADVANCE TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME *

Cleary University CougarsDAY THREE, GAME TWO: The 5th seeded CLEARY UNIVERSITY PROWLING COUGARS squared off against the 6 seeds – the PENN STATE AT DUBOIS NITTANY LIONS. It was all Cleary University in this game as the Prowling Cougars put on a clinic on both sides of the ball.

In the 2nd Inning Cleary U took a 4-0 advantage, which became 6-0 in the 4th and 8-0 in the 6th. That also held up as the final tally as the Prowling Cougars notched an 8-0 shutout victory to send the Nittany Lions home. Rhett Holwerda was on the mound for Cleary for the entire game.  Continue reading

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THE NEW PEOPLE (1969): FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

TTHE NEW PEOPLE (1969) – It’s another Balladeer’s Blog look at a forgotten television program.

The New People was part of a brief and very odd experiment with television programs that ran just 45 minutes INCLUDING commercials.

These shows were always paired with a sister program that also ran 45 minutes total, thus the two back- to- back programs filled a total 90 minute block. In the case of The New People that sister show was The Music Scene

The New People was sort of like “Lord of the Flies Meets the 60’s Counterculture”. An airplane crashes on a desert island in the Pacific. Only one adult survives the crash but even they eventually pass away. Continue reading

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DAY TWO COLLEGE WORLD SERIES RESULTS IN THE USCAA PLUS NAIA PLAYOFFS

*** USCAA ***

Wright State Lake Campus LakersDAY TWO, GAME ONE: The 3 seeds – the WRIGHT STATE AT THE LAKE CAMPUS LAKERS – played an elimination game against the 7th seeded PENN STATE AT MONT ALTO LIONS. A 2-0 1st Inning lead for the Lakers became a 6-2 advantage in the 3rd.

The 4th Inning ended with Wright State at the Lake on top of the Lions 7-3 but in the 5th PSU-Mont Alto batted in 4 runs to knot things up at 7-7. The Lakers notched what turned out to be the winning run in the 6th Inning, eliminating the Lions in an 8-7 nailbiter. Carson Schuman pitched for the win.

newportnewsapprentice-school-builderDAY TWO, GAME TWO – The 4th seeded NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (Shipbuilders) battled the top seeds – the UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI AT CLERMONT COUGARS in this game. After 2 scoreless Innings the Builders managed a 1-0 edge over the Cougars in the 3rd.

From there the Pitcher’s Duel resumed, with Newport News Apprentice School driving in the final run of the game in the 7th Inning to hand UC-Clermont a 2-0 loss. Pitcher Robbie Watkins was on the mound for the entire game for the Builders.  Continue reading

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PRESIDENT TRUMP: INFURIATING ALL THE RIGHT PEOPLE

Trump doing rightHere at Balladeer’s Blog I am still having the time of my life watching as United States President Donald Trump, the Richard Channing of Presidents, continues overturning the ugly rocks of America’s cesspool of political corruption.

I will say once again that the 24/7 assault on Trump from both Democrats and Republicans continually validates his outsider status. WHETHER IT IS DONALD TRUMP OR ANYONE ELSE WHO TRIES TO DRAIN THE SWAMP THIS IS THE WAY A LEGITIMATE THREAT TO “CROOKED BUSINESS AS USUAL”WILL BE TREATED.

Mascot with demo and repub heads

The symbol of the nonexistent Balladeer Political Party

 

THE POWERS THAT BE ARE NOT GOING TO COME RIGHT OUT AND SAY “WE ARE ATTACKING THIS FIGURE FOR DARING TO SPEAK FOR THE WORKING CLASS THE WAY NO PRESIDENT HAS SINCE FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT.”  

NO, THEY WILL DO EXACTLY WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN DOING TO TRUMP. IT IS STILL WAY TOO EARLY TO SEE HOW THIS WILL ALL TURN OUT, BUT IT WOULD ACTUALLY BE BAD NEWS IF THEY LOVED TRUMP BECAUSE IT WOULD MEAN HE HAS SOLD OUT. 

AND HEY, REMEMBER THE ONE AND ONLY THING TRUMP HAS BEEN PRAISED FOR BY BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES WAS LOBBING SOME MISSILES INTO SYRIA. If that didn’t put things into clearer perspective for overseas readers I don’t know what will.  

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USCAA COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: DAY ONE RESULTS

*** USCAA ***

Marygrove College MustangsDAY ONE – GAME ONE: The 10 seeds – the MARYGROVE COLLEGE MUSTANGS – faced the 7th seeded PENN STATE AT MONT ALTO LIONS. The Mustangs surprised the Lions by seizing a quick 3-0 lead in the 1st Inning, then making it a 5-0 score in the 3rd and 6-0 in the 4th.

PSU-Mont Alto at last got on the scoreboard in the 5th Inning to make it a 6-1 game. The rest of the way Marygrove College added 3 more runs but gave up 6 to the Lions. The Mustangs won the game 9-7 with Pitcher Daniel Bailey on the mound for the entire game.

Bluefield State Big Blues logoDAY ONE, GAME TWO: In this game the 8th seeded BLUEFIELD STATE BIG BLUES took the diamond against the 9 seeds – the CENTRAL PENN COLLEGE SILVER KNIGHTS. The Big Blues got off to a 1-0 edge in the 1st Inning but the Silver Knights put up 2 runs each in the 2nd and 3rd to take a 4-1 advantage.

Neither team scored in the 4th Inning but Bluefield State tied things up at 4-4 in the 5th. The 6th Inning saw the Big Blues explode for SIX runs, following which they shut out the Silver Knights the rest of the way for a 10-4 victory. Addison Meeks inherited the Earth as the winning Pitcher. Continue reading

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PYTINE aka THE WINE FLASK (423 B.C.)

CRATINUS

Cratinus

Welcome to another Balladeer’s Blog post on ancient Greek comedies. If Pytine was an episode of Friends it would be titled The One Where Cratinus Fires Back At Aristophanes. This play is also known under English language titles like Wine Flask, Flagon, The Bottle, and others along those lines.

Cratinus, seen at left posing for the Attic Old Disco soundtrack album for Saturday Night Fever (Travolta stole all his moves from Cratinus, by the way) and galvanized by the tongue-in- cheek caricature that Aristophanes presented of a drunken, washed- up Cratinus in his previous year’s comedy The Knights, turned that caricature into the premise of his final comedy.

THE PLAY

From the fragments of Pytine that remain it seems Cratinus had an actor portraying himself (Cratinus) as the booze-soaked Grand Old Man of Attic comedy at the time. I always picture the character as a cross between Dudley Moore in Arthur and Tom Conti in Reuben, Reuben. Anyway, in the play Cratinus is  married either to Thalia, the Muse of Comedy or to simply a female personification of Comedy.  

Comedy complains to Cratinus’ friends, who make up the chorus, that she wants to take her husband to court for abandonment. She states that he is neglecting their marital bed because he has been spending too much time sleeping around with Methe, in this comedy a personification of  Drunkenness.

Academic opinion varies on whether or not Methe is supposed to be a hot young woman or a hot young man, and since this is an ancient Greek comedy it definitely could go either way. Not enough of the comedy survives to make it clear so Methe’s gender will remain a controversy.

Cratinus’ friends plot to save their buddy’s marriage by stopping him from drinking. They enact their “intervention” by smashing every last one of his containers of wine, and some of the comedy came from how many different types of vessels Cratinus had been hiding his booze in.

Cratinus counters the destruction of all his drinking vessels by purchasing a pytine, a very durable wine flask reinforced with wicker. The pytine is so strong it will withstand all the friends’ attempts to destroy it, thus foiling their plan to save Cratinus’ marriage to Comedy or the muse Thalia. 

Cratinus defends his drinking by saying wine is the source of all his poetic inspiration (the comedies were all in verse). This line of reasoning sets up the most famous line from Pytine when Cratinus says “You’ll never write great poetry if all you drink is water.”   Continue reading

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PSI CASSIOPEIA (1854): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

Star by C I Defontenay betterPSI CASSIOPEIA, or STAR: A MARVELOUS HISTORY OF WORLDS IN OUTER SPACE (1854) – Written by Dr Charlemagne Ischer Defontenay, a French M.D. and author. Long before J.R.R. Tolkien churned out obsessive amounts of fine detail about his fictional Middle Earth, Defontenay produced this volume of history, poetry and drama from his fictional planets in the star system Psi Cassiopeia.  

The narrator of the story is supposedly translating alien documents which he discovered in an artificial meteor that crashed in the Himalayas. The documents were from a planet called (incongruously enough) “Star.”

Star by C I DeFontenayThe system where that planet is located is a three-star system. Ruliel is the large, white star at the center, around which orbit the two lesser stars Altether (green) and Erragror (blue). The planet called Star is orbited by large planetoids/ moons named Tassul, Lessur, Rudar and Elier. Throwing all science to the winds the planet is also orbited by a small red star called Urrias.  

Star and its satellites are inhabited except, of course, for Urrias. The translated documents cover a roughly 1,000 year period of events regarding these worlds. The ancient Starian humanoids formed a united world-wide culture which started as an Empire before becoming a socialist planet economically and politically. The documents also claim that their culture boasted beautiful architecture, incredible feats of engineering and awe-inspiring works of art.

At one point a plague swept the globe, reducing the proud Starian civilization to chaos. A Nihilist Cult formed as the plague kept whittling away at the population over the course of years. In the post-apocalyptic ruins the Nihilists formed a fanatical religion devoted to ending all life on Star. The zealots formed armies which exterminated millions of Starians with the intention of taking their own lives when all non-members of their cult had been wiped out. Continue reading

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DEMOCRATS AND THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOCKED TO LEARN THAT LEGAL IMMIGRANTS OPPOSE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

latinos-for-trump-4-came-here-legallyBalladeer’s Blog has often covered former Democrats like myself who left the Democrat Party because of how out of touch they are with the real world.

The polls that Democrats, Carlos Slim’s New York Times and Left-Wing Archie Bunkers from the 1960s generation live by showed that LEGAL immigrants were crucial in defeating the attempt to extend Illegal Immigrant Colonies  – propagandistically called “Sanctuary Cities” by Democrats and La Raza (Racists Without Borders) to Maryland.

Democrats are such condescending fools that they were ESPECIALLY stunned that LEGAL Hispanic Immigrants overwhelmingly opposed Illegal Immigrant Colonies. Last year’s election results still haven’t sunk in to the snobbish, pompous Democrats and their virtual House Organ the New York Times.  

latinos-for-trump-3Stephen Crowder had a terrific look at this. The link is below but first some excerpts:  

“Democrats have gone all in as the party of illegal immigrants. You know who has an issue with that? Legal immigrants … ”

“It bears repeating because many a leftist twit conflates illegal immigrants with legal immigrants. But as this story shows, ’tis not so.” (Note from Balladeer: I’m sure we’ve all gotten plenty of laughs from the grand and pompous way that Democrats love to say “We are a nation of immigrants,” conveniently forgetting the difference between legal and illegal immigration.) “

“The New York Times is shocked and appalled that folks with different racial backgrounds, hailing from different countries, aren’t rubber-stamping the idea of “All people welcome here with nary a process.” This erroneous liberal thought process is likely due to an expectation that all brown people believe whatever a Democrat tells them. Which, dare I say it, is a teensy bit racist. But hey, I’m not here to insinuate.”

latinos-for-trump-2Cluelessly expressing their exasperation with LEGAL Hispanic Immigrants the New York Times continued in this same condescending vein: “Their objections stunned Democratic supporters of sanctuary here and helped bring about the bill’s demise in March. A similar proposal for the state collapsed this month in the Maryland Senate, where Democrats also hold a two-to-one advantage. Some of the same immigrants spoke out against it.”

And the crowning stupidity from Carlos Slim’s Times:

“The failure of the sanctuary bills in Maryland reveals a potentially troublesome fissure for Democrats as they rush to defy Mr. Trump. Their party has staked out an activist position built around protecting undocumented immigrants. But it is one that has alienated many who might have been expected to support it.” ONLY AMERICAN LIBERAL MORONS WOULD EXPECT  THEM TO SUPPORT IT! Continue reading

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