Vote Like You’ve Never Voted Before.

Tuesday, 8 June 2010, is California’s Primary election. For those of you on the west coast, the ballot initiatives are probably the most important of the mess.

As for me, I’m voting NO on every initiative except for Prop 13. It’s a good measure, and has no opposition. Owners of existing buildings should not be penalized by property tax reassessment for seismic retrofitting.

As for the candidates, Meg Whitman gets my vote for Republican nominee for governator, and conservative Chuck Devore deserves to  go to the U.S. Senate. The other candidates for other seats don’t matter much.

Now, Steve Rocco is another story. I’m tempted to vote for him just for the hell of it because he pissed so many people off. Here’s a guy who was elected to the board of the Orange Unified School District without even campaigning. He beat out the other contenders with a pair of nothing, and once elected, it took weeks for the OUSD to find out who and where he was. He’s a bizarre dark stocking cap with black sunglasses who’s full of conspiracy theories, and was arrested for supposedly stealing a half-empty bottle of catsup from an OUSD cafeteria. Now he’s running for Public Administrator.

Sounds like a great candidate. Write in Bunk Strutts instead.

Show Us Your War Face

afa-maori-warrior-cover
[Image and quote from here.]

That’s Maori Priest Irrarangi Tiakiawa, keeper of secret Maori martial arts techniques, including death strokes:

“I think this (death point striking) art should die. It is too evil for today’s society. I once witnessed my grandfather having an argument with another man and the other man was in the wrong, so my grandfather just got up and struck him with one finger to one point and the man died… “

The interview is interesting, and includes what to do if confronted by a Maori showing his war face:

1. Stand still. If you run you’re gonna get hurt.
2. The warrior will likely throw something down in front of you. If you don’t pick it up and hand it back to him you’re gonna get hurt.
3. Don’t fight. If you do you’re gonna get killed.

Fortunately, you’re unlikely to encounter a Maori warrior unless you’re in New Zealand, but now you know how to react without bleeding– much.

[Crossposted here a while back.]

D-Day – 6 June 1944

Pure balls, guts and subterfuge displaced the Nazis, saved Europe and brought down the Reichstadt.  Here’s to those who fought to the death for freedom.

[Related posts here and here.]

Saturday Matinee – American Dialects, W.C. Clark & the Fabulous Thunderbirds

American regional dialects are curious, and when I hear one I haven’t heard in a while I try to identify where the speaker grew up. If you listen closely, you can hear the ancestral accents and phrasing as well: English to the north, Scottish and Irish to the south. As for me, I have no accent, but Mrs. Strutts says I do… I sound a lot like central Ohio mixed with some faint Texan stuff. (Here’s a simple online test if you’re curious what accent mix you have.)

W.C. Clark backed by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and featuring Angela Strehli is an awesome mix of Texas blues. Never heard of W.C. Clark? Try this:

Yep, that’s Stevie Ray Vaughan with W.C. Clark. Next question?

The .Gif Friday Post No. 130 – Golfball, Catlap, Blamegame

[Found here, here and here.]

Oh. I understand now.

Visual aids are so important to the presentation.

[Found here.]

Avatarize This.

This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands and you click on this and upload an image of a raccoon. It’s either an Avacoon or a Raccotar, but either way it has an uncanny resemblance to yours truly.

When you run out of important things to do, go play with it and email me your own creation(s) for a future post, the more outrageous the better.

[Avatarization from here, via Ms. Cellanea. Send submissions to BunkStrutts at Verizon dot net. Deadline for submissions is midnight, 7 June 2010.]

Chairman Wow

Looks like grampa’s a little tipsy again.

[Found in here.]

Memorial Day 2010

[Image from here.]

Bertha Dlugi’s Contribution to the World

Bertha Dlugi’s invention, patented in 1959, was intended for parakeets and other birds that are allowed to fly freely about the house. “It is … a general object of the present invention to provide a garment to be worn by birds for receiving their excremental discharge to prevent it from being deposited on household furnishings when the bird is at liberty in the home and thereby avoid the consequent unsanitary condition.”

[Image and description from here. Crossposted here.]