Monday? Yeah it is… so, time to get busy.
And for today’s Monday salute, we’re going to go with !!!!!SEX!!!! as the theme.
This isn’t sexy, but it’s funnier than hell (click on the pic):
And here’s some beauty to help guard against the week’s upcoming bullshit:
Sometimes, I wonder why we bother trying to create any new art at all, when it’s not only been done, but been done better. In my wanderings along the Intertubes, I happened upon this little Art Deco piece:
It’s called The Swing, and was painted in the 1920s by Georges Barbier.
Alert Readers may recall that there’s been another artwork on the same topic (and title) featured on these pages, to wit, the one painted by Jean-Honoré Fragonard back in 1767:
Sorry, but I prefer the rococo playfulness of the later over the spartan coldness of the former — and I love Art Deco, generally speaking. (For those interested, I talked about the Fragonard piece here — note the post date.)
That’s not to say that Barbier is a bad artist, of course. Note La Jambe (“The Leg”), for instance:
I’m not generally into sketches, but I’d have that one on my wall in a heartbeat. And his Le Grand Décolletage (“The Backless Dress”) is absolutely brilliant (and the man’s expression is priceless):
See what I mean about Now And Then? That “fashion” is very popular nowadays with celebrities; but they did it back then too, and better withal.
From Insty:
…also: “Whom do you vaccinate first?” [takes off Grammar Nazi armband]
That irritant aside, the question is a good one and is especially troubling in a case such as now, when the quantities are likely to be quite limited at first — especially when viewed against the global population of some six billion.
I’m going to be completely on the side of civilization here and say that whichever country developed the vaccine should have first call on the stuff (the dreaded “nationalist” worldview, fuck off, snowflakes). The fact that Brits, Americans or Europeans (i.e. Western civilizations) would end up being likely ahead of the hapless denizens of sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia… c’est la vie. So that’s easy: Western civilization (as the creators) benefits its members first, the rest later.
Let’s look at the situation within two countries who might develop the vaccine (needless to say, at huge cost in terms of research).
Ordinarily, vaccinations start either with children or with the most in need of vaccination — i.e. the populations at greatest risk from whatever pox is being vaccinated against.
Doesn’t work today, though. In the first place, kids are the ones least at risk from Teh Chinkvirus, so there’s no need to start with them.
Of course, the population group most vulnerable to death from the Chinese Pox is that of the elderly; but in today’s culture, where we Olde Pharttes are but a step or two away from being shoved onto ice floes by politicians and State institutions (cue: granny-killer NYGov Cuomo and Britain’s NHS), there would be fainting fits all over the place at the thought of “wasting” the vaccine on people who don’t have long to live anyway. So those two groups are, arguendo, excluded. Which leaves the rest.
Then the “meritocracy” argument begins. In Britishland, it’s easier at least for the first half-dozen or so available doses: the Queen, and those members of the Royal Family closest to the line of succession. [cue the Socialists’ and republicans’ grumbling]
Over Here… well, that’s a little problematic, isn’t it? The thought that a President (any President) should get the first shot is justifiably abhorrent to us egalitarians, ditto any members of government — and of Congress, we will not speak. (“Fuckem” would be the most common sentiment, I suspect, and rightly so.)
Then we come to the closest group we have to British nobility: Teh Rich. Uh huh. In twenty words or less, explain to me why Bill Gates, some Saudi “prince” or that asshole who runs Google are any more deserving than the guy behind the counter at your local 7-11. [hands out popcorn]
And the same is true for anyone else whom society may deem “special” and worthy of being at the head of the line. The thought of Kim Kardashian being more worthy of the vaccine than, say, my Son&Heir… [hands out more popcorn]
The simple truth is that nobody “deserves” to get the vaccination ahead of anyone else: not in the U.S.A., anyway. So what’s the solution?
Actually, the answer is really simple: hand the job over to Social Security.
Social Security numbers are arguably the closest thing we have to a national ID (I know, I know), and it would be the work of a few hours to create a lottery system which would rank the universe of SocSec numbers into some random order which would leave the delivery of vaccinations to pure chance. Unfortunately, this would exclude all those in this country who are here illegally and thus don’t have a Social Security number, but I see that as a feature, not a bug.
When it comes to survival, life in Earth is pretty much a crapshoot anyway, so why should this situation be any different?
No politics, just silliness… and a happy note to start off with:
…hey Chinky: if you have a moment, I have a list of similar scumbags you can take care of.
Okay, just one political thing:
…what you get when Beetlejuice and Don King have a baby.
…finally, scientists do something worthwhile. Although waking up next to Lori Lightfoot (see above) would probably work even quicker.
…like arguing over whether zombies are more dangerous than poltergeists.
…sorry, kids, but the Romans pretty much defined White supremacy, with their roads, bridges, aqueducts, public buildings, plumbing (to name but some)… none of which any other “civilizations” south of the Sahara ever managed to build.
…no wonder Brit politicians are such ineffectual assholes, when they spend four times as much on wine than on beer.
And finally:
…although they should probably have taken our guns away first, before deciding who goes on the cattle cars and into the “reeducation” camps.
Ah, the hell with all that. Here’s some Heidi:
My Readers have been on fire recently. From MarkD:
“If the American Right were half as nasty as we’re portrayed, there wouldn’t BE an American Left.”
No shit. We’d have local chapters of Air Pinochet in all 40 states in the U.S.A. (That’s not a typo, btw. CA, NY, CT, NJ, MA, IL and some others have long since lost the right to call themselves part of our republic.)
Your suggestions in Comments.