Shameless Self Promotion

(or, buy my stuff ;)

A few days ago, while idly perusing a website (recommended to fans of H.P. Lovecraft) which I had discovered while idly surfing the web some weeks prior, I came upon a second website where the proprietors of the first were selling goods.

The second website (as you already know if you clicked on or placed your mouse over the "second website" hypertext above) was CafePress.com: Shop, sell or create what's on your mind.

I ended up buying a t-shirt, thereby following the first directive of the CafePress.com tagline. Intrigued by the CafePress twist on commerce, I also opened an account and set about pursuing the final two directives: sell or create. . .

I have created several products, placing my (outsider) artwork on shirts, mouse pads and more. Just what the world needs, right? More useless junk. Well, I flatter myself to think that some of the items actually look pretty cool. But then I am, perhaps, my biggest fan.

In any case, if you have enjoyed the doodles I have displayed in this space previously (here, here, here, here and here , for instance), you might consider popping over to my "shop" at CafePress and adding some of my lines to your wardrobe or housewares, thereby helping me to realize the remaining directive of the CafePress triad: sell.

(I have raised the prices only minimally above the CafePress base price. I make only a dollar profit from each item sold.)

Get the goods at Troubled Mind Designs.

Governor to quit 2nd job

Schwarzenegger said he will relinquish his title as executive editor of Muscle & fitness and Flex magazines and give up the multimillion-dollar salary that went with it.

- Mark Martin, SF Gate -

Perhaps this loss of income will spur Schwarzenegger's motivation for development of that hydrogen powered Hummer he's been promising. It can't be cheap (these days, especially) to keep the tank of even one Hummer full, let alone the pack of the oversize action toys which the governor owns.

Turn Up the Heat

Rove under fire
White House won't answer questions on new evidence in leak

Nearly two years after stating that any administration official found to have been involved in leaking the name of an undercover CIA officer would be fired, and assuring that Karl Rove and other senior aides to President Bush had nothing to do with the disclosure, the White House refused on Monday to answer any questions about new evidence of Rove's role in the matter.

- Richard W. Stevenson, New York Times (via SFGate)-

Well, it is surprising, isn't it, that the White House - once full of confident denials - is now so reticent regarding the possibility of Rove and/or other Bush Admin. muckety-mucks playing roles in the outing of Valerie Plame. Surprising because this is an administration that has never let the truth, or lack thereof, get in the way of whatever evil agenda it was pushing (two small examples: Official altered reports on links to global warming and, of course, those infamously missing WOMD in Iraq). Why not simply continue to deny that Rove ever spoke to Time magazine at all, despite what Rove himself, or his attorney claim? That would certainly be in keeping with the Bush Administration's habitual refutation/distortion of the obvious.

Rove Told Reporter of Plame's Role But Didn't Name Her, Attorney Says

Rove had a short conversation with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper on July 11, 2003, three days before Robert D. Novak publicly exposed Plame in a column about her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV. Wilson had come under attack from the White House for his assertions that he found no evidence Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger and that he reported those findings to top administration officials. Wilson publicly accused the administration of leaking his wife's identity as a means of retaliation.

- Josh White, Washington Post -

So rove mentioned Plame's role in the CIA but not her name mere days before her cover was blown? Even with the high levels of dopamine in my brain, that is stretching the bounds of coincidence just a bit. Still, it is possible that Rove is innocent as a fluffy bunny (unlikely but possible). It must be underlined, however, that if Rove did not name Plame, somebody in George W. Bush's administration did.

And even if it was only one person who spoke Plame's name to the press, the whole corrupt Bush gang is complicit.

three

I loved a girl wild and free
who loved in return but not just me.
“You suit me best,” she said
“On a Tuesday in my bed.”

She loved six other men
and then

I loved a girl sweet and tender
in gowns soft and white and lavender
as the Hydrangea growing along the way.
If she loved me or not, I cannot say.

A girl like a flower
but until my final hour

I love the girl who stands over me
full of fire and iniquity,
explaining where she learned the trick
of concealing the arsenic.

She loved me with poison
and there won’t be another one.