This one is not safe for work and may well not be safe for your mental health.

An exhibit in LA with art inspired by and featuring the Golden Girls (Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty) called Golden Gals Gone Wild. Some of the pieces are of an erotic nature.

You've been warned.

A fine example of government-run education.

I caught a bit of flack for my recent screed on national medical care but I'll repeat my salient point.

I don't think the government, especially the feds, are capable of doing anything right. They have repeatedly demonstrated their incompetence, no matter which of the "two major parties" is in charge.

I don't understand why people keep wanting to hand more power to them.

Marcel Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, has died.

He had no last words.

R.I.P.

Lots of talk about a national health care system nowadays. The Democrats are especially vocal on the subject and seem hell-bent-for-leather on making it a deciding issue in the 2008 presidential race. We're often told to check out the Brits and the Canadians and such. How wonderful they have it.

If you disagree with the concept you're labeled a heartless bastard and immediately dismissed from thought.

Well, I disagree with the concept, at least as so far presented.

In the first place, I don't think the government can do anything right. I'd like to point out that the current HMO mess was the result of gov't meddling.

But if you really think it's the bees knees why don't you pop over and read this article on a man who's being denied needed surgery because he's a smoker.

"Oh, but I'm not a filthy smoker!" you may be (self-righteously) proclaiming, "so I have nothing to worry about."

Yeah? You like a beer? Maybe a pizza? Tsk. Very unhealthy. We can't treat you as long as you continue such behaviors.

How about you play a contact sport or rock climb or some other high-risk hobby? How long do you suppose it'll take before they decide you can't get your injuries treated when they're caused by such things?

And gods help you if you're overweight.

They'll still be happy to take the money out of your paycheck though.

Welcome to national health care.

(hat tip to The Agitator)

If you're a busker with a uke you should probably stay away from Avon Lake, Indiana. According to today's Chronicle-Telegram police blotter:

Tuesday, Sept. 4 10:37 p.m. — 32700 block Walker Road, police responded to a suspicious condition after a resident reported seeing a "vagrant with a ukulele" playing music outside a building.

Our illustrious trombone slider and guitar picker, Thaddeus Spae, recently purchased a Zoom H2 digital recorder and brought it over to the last Snake Suspenderz rehearsal to test it out. Amongst other things he captured is a little jam in G (that he's cleverly named "gjam") and, after a bit of post-production mixdown and sweetening, it's here for your delectation.

It's available for hifi and lofi streaming play or you can choose to download the hifi version.

Just as an experiment, I'm going to try the new embeddable player that ezFolk.com is offering (Flash Player plugin required). It's working for me (thanks, Richard!). Let me know if it works for you!

No ukulele on this one. Thaddeus on guitar, Andrew Hare on drums, Dean Hedges on bass and me on harmonica.

For those of you interested in the nitty-gritty tech details, he set the H2 to record two stereo tracks (basically a track for each of the four mikes in the little unit) and put it on a camera tripod reasonably centered amongst the four of us in my living room. Hit "record" and off we went.