Such as this video, which wins forever.

After a long, hard summer of legal work, today is my last day, which means I’ll be back to full-time posting. 

Also, Amanda and I and sundry other funny fuckers have a panel tomorrow at Netroots Nation on being snarky after winning elections, which is the most useful thing you will ever encounter.  In life.  Sorry, CPR classes.

I made my case to readers why I should get to sail, but alas, I’m coming up short… With only one day left to vote, and it looks like there was a lot of movement for Mike Lux in the last couple of days; looks like he'll be packing his bags soon…

In a seemingly Herculean lift of support, Mike Lux from Open Left has superseded the strong lead that Joe Jervis nearly locked down earlier on in Round Two.

First place - Mike Lux (45%)
Second place - Joe Jervis (26%)
Third place - Karl Frisch (12%)
Fourth place - Pam Spaulding (11%)
Fifth place - Digby (6%) 

It is starting to get cold outside. A vacation in sunny Mexico is certainly looking pretty good right about now for these bloggers eager to be named Air America's favorite progressive blogger and win the free seven-day trip. 

With over 4000 votes so far and 24 hours left in the cruise competition, will there be yet another surprise before it is all said and done?  You tell us. Vote now for your favorite progressive blogger.

It suffices to say that between exams and various personal issues, I’ve been virtually absent lately.  After next Monday, that should change.  For those of you who are cursing this news, I look forward to antagonizing you in comments repeatedly.

Anyway, the long-awaited redesign should come at the beginning of the year.  And to that effect, our new header/logo is after the jump.  For the first time in Pandagon’s long, panda-themed history, we’re going to have a black and white design…which is kind of remarkable, when you think about it. 

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No real reason.

I almost forgot, because I’m a terrible blog parent - today, Pandagon is seven years old!  Wish it a happy birthday in comments.  It’s almost big blog age…

In case regular readers haven’t noticed, I like the band Devo.

My friend that I went to San Diego with to see Devo play a horse track (which is so devo) and who was also with me and Marc to see them play SXSW, well, he convinced me to go to England with him to see them play at another installment of the ongoing concert series All Tomorrow’s Parties.  Now Naomi Wolf can really feel justified in hinting that “young” feminists of 31 are unserious people who spend their time hanging out with Austin hipsters at three day concerts.

This is cool on many levels, including one I just thought of yesterday as I was listening to “Sound Opinions”, and the hosts were talking about how hard it was for so long to get any albums from the Velvet Underground at all.  And now there’s a concert series named after one of their songs.  A small but satisfying justice.

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I love Twitter.

I receive way too much email from people who are in serious need of education, counseling or both. Take this gentleman, who took the time to type up this insanity and mail it to me (and Amanda and Auguste; I guess Jesse’s not on his mailing list). He felt the need to educate us on evolution, because we don’t have THE REAL STORY.

It starts off with the usual Genesis story and quickly jumps off of the rails into incest, transvestites, midgets, racist BS incorporating bestiality, and Bigfoot. I’m not kidding.

Subject: The Real Story About The Bible And Evolution
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:41:32 -0700
From: billsim
To: amanda, pam, auguste

The following story is what I believe to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the Bible and Evolution. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth and all the animals upon the earth. Then he created a Garden of Eden in which he created man from the dust. And he called this man Adam.

Then God saw that Adam was lonely so he put Adam to sleep and he took one of Adam’s ribs and he created a woman and he called this woman Eve. Now all God wanted was Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the animals on the earth. Adam and Eve would never destroy the Garden of Eden and the animals would never destroy the earth. And that would have lasted forever.

So when God created Adam and Eve they had no knowledge of evil. God only created them with goodness. God did not give them power to have sex and create. Because that would be evil and bad. God did not give Adam the power to have sex with his own flesh. God is a God of goodness not evil. They had no knowledge of kissing or sex. It was just Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the animals on the earth.

Now everyone thinks of Lucifer as the devil or satan from hell. Well there is no devil or satan from hell. That is a fairytale that has been handed down through generations. The real truth is that Lucifer was one of God’s angels. Lucifer rose up in evil and God drove him out of Heaven. And it was Lucifer who put the evil in the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When God saw the evil he warned Adam and Eve not to eat from it or they would surely die.

Then God went away and while he was gone Lucifer tried to get Eve to eat from the evil. She told Lucifer that God said that they would surely die. Then Lucifer lied and told her that they would not die and they would live forever. And that he would make them into Gods. What he was saying was that God created you now I will give you the power to create. So Eve did eat from the tree of evil and then she got Adam to eat from it. When they did their eyes were opened and they saw they were naked so they covered themselves up.

Then they ran and hid from God. When God found them and he found out what they had done he condemed them both and drove them from the Garden never to return. Then he turned Lucifer into a snake to eat the dust of the other animals. Now when Adam and Eve were outside the Garden of Eden they had a choice. They could go with the goodness of God and not have sex and create and grow old and die or they could go with the evil and the power that Lucifer gave them and have sex and create. So they chose the evil and the power that Lucifer gave them. But when Adam had sex with Eve he was having sex with his own flesh. She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.

It’s off the rails at high speed below the fold…

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Heads up: due to the proliferation of name-stealing trolls, we’re now requiring that all commenters register in order to post.  It’s short, it’s quick, your e-mail is shared with absolutely nobody, and it also ensures that we have actual discussions rather than twenty-comment threads about some moron stealing your screen name. 

Other respectable liberal websites are beating out our respectable liberal website in a largely meaningless online vote-stuffing contest.

This must be rectified by your stuffing the ballot box for us.  Go forth!

We were nominated for Best Very Large Blog in the Weblog Awards this year.  Is that a voting page I linked to?  I think it is!

It was essentially unavoidable that it’d be pandas that killed off Fuck You, Penguin:

The only question was when.

[And the answer, by the way, was “until tomorrow.” Just in case you were panicking.]

Just after the new year, Twenty Most Annoying Conservatives of the Year will be making its long-awaited return.  This is the nomination thread, and here are the criteria:

1.) The person nominated must have either been an avowed conservative or substantially advanced conservative aims (as annoying and terrible as Mark Penn was, he was still - theoretically - trying to get a Democrat elected).

2.) Provide a reason or two why the person is so annoying, and the substantial part of the justification must have occurred within the calendar year of 2008.

3.) Individuals must be nominated - if you want to nominate an organization, nominate a person on behalf of the organization.

4.) Jonah Goldberg’s already on the list. 

My friend Shannon McCormick has a weekly improv theater-thingie going at the Salvage Vanguard Theater here in Austin.  Tonight, they’re adding a show called “Couching Out”, and the first guests for this experimental new show are myself and Lars Nilsen, who curates Weird Wednesdays at the Alamo Drafthouse.  You can get the address here.  It’s 10:30 tonight, and it’s $10 to get in.  Because there’s money on the line, I promise to wear cute shoes, due to the fact that everyone likes to see cute shoes. 

Seriously, it should be entertaining.  Shannon and his co-host Buzz Moran have promised that Lars and I will be quizzed on trivia about cult movies and politics, but not necessarily based on our subject of expertise.  Other suggested topics of conversation include trade theory, 70s and 80s rock music, and whether or not it’s worth $625 to buy the gold badge to SXSW music this year.  (I have one for film and interactive, but you have to buy the music one separately.)  Here’s the theater’s website for more information.