The highly successful Facebook meme “25 Random Things about Me” has now – for good or ill – made it into the major news media. Time, Salon, and newspapers like the New York Times and the Boston Globe have all carried stories on the trendy epidemic and how it’s vectored.
It’s only a variation of the memes bloggers have been playing with for more than five years now, but considering the viral theme I think it’s kinda neat that I’m third on Google.
Things I’ve done are in bold.
Things I am indifferent towards or actively would like to avoid are crossed out.
Things in normal type face are things I’d like to do.
I got this version from Quod She.
Totals:
Did: 51
No Thanks: 9
Would Like: 40
Wow – fantastic video. Americans – do not despair.
How You Ended The War
The National Black Republican Association has paid for Florida and South Carolina billboards that show a photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. and claim that he was REPUBLICAN.
That’s a claim that really takes some nerve – or desperation. Could it be that there’s some worry about losing the South after all? Now they’re trying to claim MLK – now? Unbelievable.
Memes to you all… because there’s no real argument or justification left to vote Republican except fear of the demonized left wing, right? Please tell me that there is only a very very minuscule subset of the voting population that could in any way fall for this one. I wish I had more confidence in my countrymen, but discernment has been lacking in the last couple of elections.
Thanks to Rob Kall at OpEd News.
” Told about the billboards, the Rev. Joseph Lowery let out a soft chuckle that grew stronger as he began to think more about the idea.
“These guys never give up, do they?” said Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King. “Lord have mercy.”
In a statement released through the King Center, Martin Luther King III said, “It is disingenuous to imply that my father was a Republican. He never endorsed any presidential candidate, and there is certainly no evidence that he ever even voted for a Republican. It is even more outrageous to suggest that he would support the Republican Party of today, which has spent so much time and effort trying to suppress African American votes in Florida and many other states.”
Read the entire AP story.
Lady Fortune the Absurd of Greater Internetshire presents – Your very own eccentric British aristocratic title:
For my real name:
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My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Entirely Miss Reverend Lady Heidi the Abrupt of Withering Glance Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
For my internet name:
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My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Empress Virushead the Gnomic of Lardle St Earache Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
For a couple of my aliases:
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My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Grace Lady Melody the Decent of Divine Intervention Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
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My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Reverend Countess Faelily the Blossoming of Mousehole by Sea Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
This quiz has some great possibilities… comment and tell me your own historical lunatic!
Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.
You are Joshua Abraham Norton, first and only Emperor of the United States of America!
Born in England sometime in the second decade of the nineteenth century, you carved a notable business career, in South Africa and later San Francisco, until an entry into the rice market wiped out your fortune in 1854. After this, you became quite different. The first sign of this came on September 17, 1859, when you expressed your dissatisfaction with the political situation in America by declaring yourself Norton I, Emperor of the USA. You remained as such, unchallenged, for twenty-one years.
Within a month you had decreed the dissolution of Congress. When this was largely ignored, you summoned all interested parties to discuss the matter in a music hall, and then summoned the army to quell the rebellious leaders in Washington. This did not work. Magnanimously, you decreed (eventually) that Congress could remain for the time being. However, you disbanded both major political parties in 1869, as well as instituting a fine of $25 for using the abominable nickname “Frisco” for your home city.
Your days consisted of parading around your domain – the San Francisco streets – in a uniform of royal blue with gold epaulettes. This was set off by a beaver hat and umbrella. You dispensed philosophy and inspected the state of sidewalks and the police with equal aplomb. You were a great ally of the maligned Chinese of the city, and once dispersed a riot by standing between the Chinese and their would-be assailants and reciting the Lord’s Prayer quietly, head bowed.
Once arrested, you were swiftly pardoned by the Police Chief with all apologies, after which all policemen were ordered to salute you on the street. Your renown grew. Proprietors of respectable establishments fixed brass plaques to their walls proclaiming your patronage; musical and theatrical performances invariably reserved seats for you and your two dogs. (As an aside, you were a good friend of Mark Twain, who wrote an epitaph for one of your faithful hounds, Bummer.) The Census of 1870 listed your occupation as “Emperor”.
The Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, upon noticing the slightly delapidated state of your attire, replaced it at their own expense. You responded graciously by granting a patent of nobility to each member. Your death, collapsing on the street on January 8, 1880, made front page news under the headline “Le Roi est Mort”. Aside from what you had on your person, your possessions amounted to a single sovereign, a collection of walking sticks, an old sabre, your correspondence with Queen Victoria and 1,098,235 shares of stock in a worthless gold mine. Your funeral cortege was of 30,000 people and over two miles long.
The burial was marked by a total eclipse of the sun.
What a character!