There Is No Art In This White House


By Elayne Griffin Baker

There’s no literature or poetry in the White House. No music. No Kennedy Center award celebrations. There are no pets in this White House. No loyal man’s best friend. No Socks the family cat. No kids’ science fairs. No times when this president takes off his blue suit-red tie uniform and becomes human, except when he puts on his white shirt-khaki pants uniform and hides from Americans to play golf. There are no images of the first family enjoying themselves together in a moment of relaxation. No Obamas on the beach in Hawaii moments, or Bushes fishing in Kennebunkport, no Reagans on horseback, no Kennedys playing touch football on the Cape.

I was thinking the other day of the summer when George H couldn’t catch a fish and all the grandkids made signs and counted the fish-less days. And somehow, even if you didn’t even like GHB, you got caught up in the joy of a family that loved each other and had fun. Where did that country go? Where did all of the fun and joy and expressions of love and happiness go?

We used to be a country that did the ice bucket challenge and raised millions for charity. We used to have a president that calmed and soothed the nation instead dividing it. And a First Lady that planted a garden instead of ripping one out. We are rudderless and joyless. We have lost the cultural aspects of society that make America great. We have lost our mojo, our fun, our happiness. The cheering on of others. Gone. The shared experiences of humanity that makes it all worth it. Gone. The challenges AND the triumphs that we shared and celebrated. The unique can-do spirit Americans have always been known for. Gone. We have lost so much in so short a time.

Vote Democratic all the way down the ballot on November 3rd.

Just goes to show that greatness knows no cultural boundaries.

I understand that it's theoretically possible to not like Bohemian Rhapsody, but I can't understand why you would want to live your life in such a joyless fashion. That song is just so much fun.

Still, it'd be interesting to get a similar aged white dude to listen to a hip hop classic ("Nuthin' but a g thang" maybe?) and see if there's a comparable reaction.

"Beef" almost had me, but my general joylessness saw me through

I hope John Simon has sought the intensive psychological counseling that he so clearly needs. Leading such a joyless life must be really truly awful.

>> ^Confucius:

>> ^EvilDeathBee:
There's always some joyless old bastard.
Hope they sue him for wrongful arrest. You cannot let people like that get away with misusing their power

Cop is a douche but he has a point. Cops being called and sent around all over the city to stop people from fake peeing. Sure hope im not getting robbed when that happens when someone is fake peeing.
I sure hope given 2 calls at the same time, a cop would pick robbery over pee. And I sure hope that 1 camera crew at one location would not over-exhaust a police department that some crime would have to go unaddressed. Otherwise these pigs should spend less money on donuts and drugs and hire more qualified officers.

What you don't get from this video, and is very likely the case, is that it likely took several hours, and involved dozens of interactions with cops and probably complaints. And likely with the same cops over and over again.

At a certain point, forcing one of the jackass trolls to spend a couple of hours in processing before being released unscathed and uncharged seems a very reasonable way to stop the idiots.

Of course, the trolls wouldn't cut their video to demonstrate how reasonable the police were over the course of the day, but would you really expect anything more? If he had actually been charged, or even just given a fine for idiocy and making a general nuisance of himself, you can guarantee he would have spliced it in at the end of the video.

There's legitimate shit to worry about. Especially where police/public interaction is concerned. This sort of stupidity muddies the water and embitters both sides while achieving nothing positive at all. It's not even funny.

In reply to this comment by EvilDeathBee:
>> ^Confucius:

>> ^EvilDeathBee:
There's always some joyless old bastard.
Hope they sue him for wrongful arrest. You cannot let people like that get away with misusing their power

Cop is a douche but he has a point. Cops being called and sent around all over the city to stop people from fake peeing. Sure hope im not getting robbed when that happens when someone is fake peeing.


I think the pranksters are twats, but the cop arresting without cause is unjustifiable. Besides, who calls cops for people taking a piss? The suspect would be long gone by the time they got there. That cop would've had to have seen them then and there, and then got all pissy that he got pranked

>> ^Confucius:

>> ^EvilDeathBee:
There's always some joyless old bastard.
Hope they sue him for wrongful arrest. You cannot let people like that get away with misusing their power

Cop is a douche but he has a point. Cops being called and sent around all over the city to stop people from fake peeing. Sure hope im not getting robbed when that happens when someone is fake peeing.


I think the pranksters are twats, but the cop arresting without cause is unjustifiable. Besides, who calls cops for people taking a piss? The suspect would be long gone by the time they got there. That cop would've had to have seen them then and there, and then got all pissy that he got pranked

>> ^EvilDeathBee:

There's always some joyless old bastard.
Hope they sue him for wrongful arrest. You cannot let people like that get away with misusing their power


Cop is a douche but he has a point. Cops being called and sent around all over the city to stop people from fake peeing. Sure hope im not getting robbed when that happens when someone is fake peeing.

There's always some joyless old bastard.

Hope they sue him for wrongful arrest. You cannot let people like that get away with misusing their power

So this might be for you if your interests include:

Maps
To-do lists
Stalking and/or being stalked
Unavoidable phone and e-mail messages beamed into your eyes all day
Unavoidable advertisements beamed into your eyes all day

What a joyless and unimaginative future we live in.

Your video, Steve Carell's "Joyless Laughing Guy" on Conan, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 29 Badge!

Link to Original Story
First of all its a school, I have never in my life known schools to be a place where you can say whatever you want. Kids usually got in trouble for saying anything slightly crude or that could be construed as being disrespectful. Hell, one time I was waiting in line to leave the lunch room for recess when I sneezed. It was 'determined' I did this on purpose to interrupt the teacher that was telling us the same shit she always told us when we left the lunch room. I ended up having to spend recess sitting in the dirt facing a chain link fence, where some joyless shrew would yell at you if you, spoke, moved, picked at the grass, or looked in the direction of the playing kids.

So in the continuum of shit teachers and administrators get butt-hurt about, some intolerant bigoted kids spouting their dumbass beliefs and then getting in trouble doesn't even move the needle on my outrage meter. Maybe if I thought for a second this was the most liberal school when it came to free speech I'd buy their argument for a day. But seeing as they bitch about the teacher violating the student's free speech rights in one breath and then bitch about the teacher wearing an anti-gay bullying shirt in the next I'm inclined to believe they're full of shit.

Was it completely fair for the teacher to remove the offending student from the class room for his intolerant views and not the others? Probably not, but it doesn't make it okay for a student to sit there and say what kinds of people he hates.

>> ^budzos:
To extend your Perfect Strangers buzz, I recommend this interview with Bronson Pinchot. Fun details about Tom Cruise's blatant homophobia in the early days, Eddie Murphy being a zombie during filming of Beverly Hills Cop III (most joyless sequel ever? possibly), and more.


That was a quality read. He seems like a good guy.

To extend your Perfect Strangers buzz, I recommend this interview with Bronson Pinchot. Fun details about Tom Cruise's blatant homophobia in the early days, Eddie Murphy being a zombie during filming of Beverly Hills Cop III (most joyless sequel ever? possibly), and more.