RIP Tim McLean

Just when I thought it wasn't possible to shock me anymore comes the news from Manitoba that Vince Weiguang Li stabbed fellow Greyhound bus passenger Tim McLean dozens of times with a hunting knife; while the rest of the passengers fled the bus in terror, the assailant then proceeded to gut and decapitate the 22 year-old carny, before calmly displaying the grisly trophy of his victim's head to those waiting outside.

Thanks to the quick thinking of the bus driver and several of the passengers, they were able to keep the attacker imprisoned in the bus until they were able to flag down a passing truck and call for help. Li was later arrested and taken into custody in Brandon.

So while Tim McLean's life has been ended, his story is far from over. Already a battle is brewing over at Wikipedia over the validity of the page created for him there, which battle I have already enjoined.

May the Pop Culture Institute suggest you join the Facebook group that's been set up in his memory; the link to it is behind the photo.
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"Sunday Afternoon" by Jon Lajoie

I've been meaning to post this for some time now, but ever since I took that ten days I took off at the beginning of June I've been madly playing catch up and I never got around to it. Well, as of right now I'm officially caught up, and since it also happens to be a Sunday afternoon as well, I figured Why the heck not?

The video is the work of bonafide Internet phenom Jon Lajoie, who hails from Montreal; his YouTube channel has been a go-to destination of mine ever since my friend and muse Leanne Padgett first told me about him. Lajoie seems poised to make it big, so unless you're like me and one of his rabid fans already, someday you'll be able to say you saw him here first.

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"Cuban Pete" by Ricky Ricardo and His Orchestra

I have no reason for publishing this video today except that it's time to post a video and this one fairly leapt off today's playlist and into my lap; like I need a reason to publish a clip from I Love Lucy, anyway.

The song was first featured in the 1946 film of the same name, which starred Desi Arnaz; it appeared on the show in its first season, as part of an episode entitled The Diet in October 1951, and features the abundant talents of the inimitable Lucille Ball.
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Shoes!

[I sent Seumas this once when I knew he was having a bad day. On my recent bad day, he sent it back. I could watch it again and again.]
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"American Idiot" by Green Day

I realize that Green Day's massive hit single American Idiot was especially written for the truly delightful George W. Bush, but it seems appropriate somehow to dedicate it today to the recently deceased Jesse Helms.

The song is the title track of the band's 2004 album American Idiot; at the time it first appeared it was the strongest condemnation of the Bush Administration in the allegedly left-wing media*, which was then sleepwalking through White House press conferences, neglecting its duty to ask the hard questions with regards to the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, flagrant human rights violations at home and abroad, and generally displaying an attitude of collusion towards this tyrant.

And yet, like most good art, it's entirely relatable to the man of the hour as well, who did his country the greatest honour he could have by dying on the Fourth of July; indeed, from now on the term "Independence Day" will have a slightly different ring to it thanks to the one and only good thing Jesse Helms ever did.

*"Left-wing media"... Hah!
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Happy Birthday America!

America's foremost perennial bigot - at least since the death of his girlfriend Jerry Falwell last year - Jesse Helms has died at the age of 86; although, given the political views and voting record of this dinosaur his wasn't so much a death as an extinction.

As we speak, event planners in Hell are planning the biggest event in the history of Hell, namely this creep's homecoming. Needless to say, it's all going smoothly, as there are almost as many event planners in Hell as there are lawyers. If you don't believe me you can ask any cater waiter to confirm this very fact.

It surprised me to learn (in the course of my research for this piece) that Helms was born in 1921, at the height of what is now called the Progressive Era; I only found it surprising because many of his ideas were born in 1821, in what we at the Pop Culture Institute like to refer to as "the bad old days".

Anyways, here's hoping that karma is not only a bitch but on a heavy period during a chocolate shortage today.
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