Tasteless TikTok Take on Osama Bin Laden

 TikTok: Where the Abnormal Relax

Ah, TikTok, the 21st Century home for hostile odd people. In keeping with their standards, TikTokers have recently discovered a new crush: Osama Bin Ladin. Why the architect of the 911 attacks is now viewed as cool will be discussed by future historians—I hope.

Jest Videos

From the River to the See Ya Later, Jews

Work Makes You Free

Arbeit Macht Frei. That was the sign on the Sachsenhausen—and other—concentration camps set up by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews. The popular Palestinian slogan From the River to the Sea has the same ominous flavor since the fate of the Jews in a Palestine extending from the Jordon River to the Meditteranean Sea is left conspicuously unsaid.

John P. McCann Channel

The Marvels Sold for Fertilizer

 Lessons Learned?

Disney no longer knows their audience. Thankfully, non-tradtional markets exist for their products.

Jest Videos

Killer Giraffe Caught in the Act

 

A Long Neck Can Hide an Evil Mind

Another day, another video on the eerie qualities of giraffes. They are tricky creatures and conceal malice behind affection. Don't be like a giraffe.

John P. McCann Channel

Happy Nostalgic Thanksgiving!

Note: Here's a post from 18 years ago. This is before all my operations and various disorders when I enjoyed the fine health of early middle-age. No complaints. Glad to be around.

clipartpanda.com

So back in the day, I wrote . . . 

This morning I met some chums from Team in Training. We ran a 5K (3.1 mile) race in La Cañada, a northern LA suburb. I'd driven through there several times. The little hills sloped gradually, so it appeared. I predicted EZ running.

Oh, they were sly, unpleasant hills. Steeper than they looked. Finish-time eaters. If it were possible, I'd cuff them sharply.

This was very much a neighborhood race: families, parents with strollers, teenage girls running five across, and people running with leashed dogs — which I don't get. Walk the dog or run the race. 

Later, Ronald MacDonald — clown, spokesman, bon vivant — led youngsters in a warm up prior to a children's race. After that, a child warmed up Ronald MacDonald prior to a fast food spokesman's race. 

In any event, Happy Thanksgiving!

Rare African Fire Giraffes

 Tall, Graceful, and Full-of Flame

What if you could be all those things? How different would your life be?

Jest Videos

Hollywood Squashes Wall-E

A Robot Learns There's No Business Like Show Business 

Tinsel Town can be oh-so cruel. Watch the rise and fall of a robot star.

Jest Video

Unsubtle H.P. Lovecraft Video and Book Promo

 

The Father of Cosmic Horror and a Lessor Acolyte

A gauche plug for my writing wrapped in the mantle of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. 

Jest Videos

Cracked Magazine Article on the Rise and Fall of Freakazoid

I should know. I WAS THERE!!!

Thanks to Brian Van Hooker for the terrific article on one of my very favorite TV animation shows ever. Tom Ruegger, Paul Rugg and I are interviewed regarding our recollection of those ancient times. 

Go forth and read at Cracked. 

Making TV Animation Back in the Day

 Astounding and Anti-Informative

A short fun clip from a longer video The Making of Freakazoid, made back in the mists of time. 1996, perhaps.

John P. McCann Channel

'Nam Killed Kurt Over Time v.4

 

Photo: Life Magazine. Kurt's unit patrolled these hills. (Mutter's Ridge and the Rock Pile.) 

Some veterans die in battle while others return home to perish on the installment plan. My friend Kurt passed away in 2003 from liver cancer. He went quick, maybe a hundred days. The cancer was partially brought about by PTSD-inspired drinking coupled with hepatitis from a bad blood transfusion he underwent in Vietnam. Kurt could have skated on that particular war, but extended his enlistment in order to fight. Serving in Marine Recon, he won a Navy Commendation medal for helping his unit battle clear of an ambush.

Several Purple Hearts later, Kurt joined an ultra-secret outfit that probed the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. Hacked out of the jungle, the Trail was a highway for the North Vietnamese to funnel men and supplies into South Vietnam and Cambodia. Because of our odd political posturing, Laos was officially off-limits to U.S. ground forces. That meant Kurt and his unofficial comrades were forced to ditch the bodies of their dead. The fallen would be listed as "Missing in Action in South Vietnam." It always bothered Kurt that families would be denied the closure of burial—or the recognition of bravery from a schizophrenic government.

A good portion of Kurt's post-war years were spent in alcohol and drug-fueled rage and self-destruction. In time, he made peace with his past. Little by-little, Kurt cut a trail over to serenity from which he rarely strayed. Despite a Master's Degree in electronics, he took a job driving a truck and fixing vending machines. (Kurt worked well unsupervised.) Getting married, buying a home, his last ten years were good ones.

I was a pallbearer at Kurt's funeral. He received a Marine Corps color guard, taps, and a view of the 2 Freeway stretching below in the distance, flowing past Forest Lawn Cemetery on its way to Eagle Rock. (Transportation played a big role in his life.) I recall Kurt when I drive past and often wish he could call down artillery on erratic drivers.

This Veteran's Day Kurt came to mind. And while he's at peace, I send prayers and best wishes to those still struggling with the silent baggage of war.

Happy Veteran's Day to all who served. You are remembered.

(This is a 2014 repost from Veteran's Day 2010 reposted once more in 2021, and now reposted in 2023.)