Four years ago today, Joe Strummer died from a congenital heart defect. While I certainly don’t agree with his politics, he made some great music and seemed like a genuinely good guy. He’ll always be most famous for The Clash, of course, but he also fronted The Pogues for a while and made three solid albums with the Mescaleros.

The last Mescaleros album was released after he died and included his cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” Here’s the tribute video.

The mural is still there in NYC; I snapped this pic of it last summer:

I don’t think it’ll do a damn thing for world peace, but I’m willing to give it a shot…

Global Orgasm Day

In preparation for my upcoming move to my own hosting, I’ve been looking at a lot of blogs lately. One thing I see way too often is the “give me a dollar” pitch; people putting their paypal account and Amazon wishlist right on the main page of their blogs.

I’m not talking about charity sites or uninsured folks whose kids need chemotherapy; I’m talking about regular, gainfully employed (or employable) people BEGGING on the INTERNET. Do you people have a sense of shame? Do you rattle a change cup when you go to the mall? Do you really expect me to buy you a season of Seinfeld on DVD as a thank-you for your ongoing 13-part series of posts entitled, “Why I Hate my Job?” Do you realize how fucked-up you are when you’ve got ME trying to teach you something about decorum?

Look, if you’re old enough to be blogging, you’re old enough to realize that there are RULES about begging. I have a good friend who hits me up every year to sponsor her in an AIDS walk; that is perfectly fine and I gladly help out when I can. As I mentioned before, it’s also alright to ask for help when your family has been hit with an unexpected tragedy, though it helps if the tragedy is one that you can’t take reasonable precautions against. And I personally make a special exception for webcam whores; after all, I loves me some boobies, and that community college tuition has to be paid SOMEHOW.

Outside of that, though, go fuck yourself. Seriously. Why should I give you perfectly good dollars to buy ammo and booze when I can use said dollars to buy MYSELF ammo and booze? Speaking of ammo, there’s one particular gunblogger who seems to have elevated blog beggary to a high art and a career path. The first reader to guess who I’m thinking of gets to touch the beer-can hat (airfare to Detroit not included).

Oh, and before anyone gives me shit about it, I did post something a couple days ago about rifles I’d gladly accept as Christmas presents. It was a joke and an excuse for linking to some truly awesome rifles. I don’t really expect anyone to drop 10 large on a handmade single-shot for me. Even if I show you my boobies first.

You’re goddamn right I wear it.

I gotta say, this one doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

At least we can all look forward to muzzleloaders and Contenders with lots of MIM parts and integral trigger locks. Oh joy.

Tip of the beer-can hat to Tam, btw.

I’d really like to see someone with money and brains buy Colt and get that company turned around. While we’re at it, how about new Miroku-made Winchester Model 70s? The Miroku folks have already shown ample talent when it comes to reproducing classic designs that are “too expensive to make” in this country. Give them the blueprints to the old Model 70 (the REAL pre-64 design, not the “Classic” action) and turn ‘em loose. Hell, throw in the Model 94 while we’re at it. And they already know how to build Model 12s; they just need to crank out a run in 12 gauge.

Man, I’m turning into one of those cranky old bastards who only likes old guns and turns up his nose at 95% of what comes out of the factories today. Cool!

… any of my loyal readers still haven’t decided what to give me for Christmas, this would be appropriate.

I’d also accept this one.

One of the stars of the best Christmas movie ever, Bad Santa:

I just happened to look up A Christmas Story on Wikipedia this afternoon and was surprised to learn that the DVD cover is slightly misleading:

Ralphie?!?!? (NOT safe for work!)

Tam had a good post about this the other day.

Reason’s Radley Balko writing in Playboy.