"The blog has made Glab into a hip town crier, commenting on everything from local politics and cultural happenings to national and international events, all rendered in a colorful, intelligent, working-class vernacular that owes some of its style to Glab’s Chicago-hometown heroes Studs Terkel and Mike Royko." — David Brent Johnson in Bloom Magazine
Our expectations are so low these days. To wit: all the huzzah-ing over the failure of the Indiana Senate to pass HJR-3 as it stood. Now Hoosiers won’t get to vote in November on denying citizens who love those of their same sex the right to marry.
Same-sex marriage advocates whooped and hollered as if Lincoln had come down from the clouds and issued a new Emancipation Proclamation.
“You Are Free”
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Breaking news: He hasn’t.
See, the only reason the vile bill wasn’t passed was because State Senators disagreed over whether it should contain language barring civil unions and domestic partner benefits. So, it wasn’t a sudden upsurge in human decency or a thirst for freedom that caused our august Sens. to nix the bill.
No, they were afraid of teeing off the thousands or hundreds of thousands of hetero couples who [The Pencil voice lowers to a whisper here] live in sin.
God forbid this ugly bill should discomfit anybody who digs man-woman sex!
Straight Guys, Apparently, Get Off On Cyborgs
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And, by the way, it ain’t so long ago that the antediluvian, troglodytic wing of the body politic was up in arms about straight people living together without the benefit of marriage. They called it “shacking up” and women who did it were dirty sluts and their men were dishonorable.
“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.” — BF Skinner
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GEEK LOVE
Rick Dietz‘s Humanetrix outfit started up The Combine three years ago to help Bloomington area tech geeks get even geekier.
Rick Dietz
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Humanetrix is a non-profit dedicated to helping technology savants meet each other and find opportunities to grow and earn in this crazy, mixed-up world. The Combine is an annual weekend orgy of gamers, hackers (in the positive sense of the word), electronics wizards, and other advanced forms of life getting together and listening to big shot entrepreneurs who’ve rolled sevens in their chosen tech fields. With luck one or two of them might interest a venture capitalist into funding their idea to wire everybody’s cerebral cortex into a worldwide network.
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The Combine starts tonight at The Atlas Bar (no website) on South College Avenue with bunches of cerebra on legs giving 5-minute presentations on their utopian, wild brain children.
Dietz et al call the weekend “3 days of tech-y goodness.” You ought click over to Humanetrix to see what’s what with local efforts to foster cutting edge creativity. You might even want to pitch in a few bucks for the cause.
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DUALITIES
Sex-positive cool chick Susie Bright points out a story that illustrates how different people can look at the same snapshot and see two different things.
Here’s the shot:
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Yeah, it’s two guys holding hands and smooching in front of the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s their official engagement picture, taken by a professional photographer. See, they love each other and probably will have sex at some time in the near future at the moment the shutter is clicked. It’s all happy and, well, gay.
And that sickens too many folks in this holy land.
Among the nauseated many who’ve viewed this tableau were the prigs of some holier-than-thou gang that calls itself Public Advocate of the United States, although it must be noted I never asked these dopes to say anything for me. PAUS essentially stole the photo and turned it into a couple of polemic campaign mailers against some godless commie liberal abortionist Satanist Democratic candidates in backwater states. Here’s what the photo looked like after PAUS got their lily-white hands on it:
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The Jean White in the doctored photo’s overlay was running in the Dem primary in Colorado earlier this year. PAUS PhotoShopped the New York City skyline to a more Colorado-friendly pine vista. Because, you know, those sick New York fags are gonna be taking over our virgin forests before you know it unless you vote against civil-union advocates like Jean White.
Someone had to do a lot of thinking about men kissing and having sex together to come up with this piece of work.
Which reminds me of a neat Tweet put out by the voice of god, Morgan Freeman:
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THAT ORANGE GLOW
Good news from Sarah Sandberg. Her sister Susan, a charter-member Pencillista and political animal around town, came out of thoracic surgery yesterday morning alive and kicking.
Well, as much as anyone emerging from general anesthetic can kick.
Sarah sez sis Susan is going to lay low for a time till she gets her jungle cat strength back. Susan already is prowling hospital halls even though she’s still hooked up to enough tubes and wires to make her look like a deep sea diver.
Actually, according to Sarah, because Susan hasn’t had the opportunity to wash the surgical Betadine off herself yet, she looks sort of like an Oompa-Loompa.
Where’s Susan?
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In any case, Susan was a Chicago chick for a time in her callow youth, so that means she’s tough as nails. Can’t wait to see her at the Book Corner again.
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SUSAN
From one of my fave 60s garage bands, The Buckinghams. Dedicated to you know who (NB: I only like Susan, so don’t take the band’s lyrics to heart — plus, I’d hate to have The Loved One clunk me on the head with a frying pan.)
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The only events listings you need in Bloomington.
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Thursday, September 27th, 2012
Brought to you by The Electron Pencil: Bloomington Arts, Culture, Politics, and Hot Air. Daily.
ART ◗ Ivy Tech Waldron Center, outside WFHB Studios — Participate in the construction of “The Messenger,” recycled metal sculpture to be installed at B-Line Trail; 9am-5pm
FAIR ◗ Monroe County Fairgrounds, Commercial Building West — 29th Annual American Red Cross Book Fair, +100,000 used books, CDs, DVDs, games, maps, sheet music, etc.; 9am-7pm, through October 2nd
WORKSHOP ◗ Monroe County Public Library — It’s Your Money: Talk To an Expert, free, confidential consultations with financial professionals; 4:30-6:30pm
WORKSHOP ◗ Monroe County Public Library — Artists After Hours: Digital Artists & Web Designers, presented by Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington; 6-9pm
SEMINAR ◗ Various venues — The Combine, 3rd annual display of talent , innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit, featuring speakers, workshops, idea pitches, and mixers; through Sunday, September 30th, today’s event:
❐ The Atlas Bar, 209 S. College Ave. — Ignite Bloomington #9 — 5-minute presentations by area tech geeks; 7pm
POLITICS ◗ Ivy Tech-Bloomington — League of Women Voters Candidate Forum, candidates for Monroe County Community Schools Corporation board; 7pm
FILM ◗ IU Memorial Union, Whittenberger Auditorium — UB Films: “Katy Perry: Part of Me;” 7pm
