Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa spoke at Thursday's Conservative Political Action Conference and stirred the crowd with his fiery truth telling. Finally, someone had the courage and conviction to speak out against the communist menace of energy efficient lightbulbs. For too long these tiny flickers of anti-Americanism have been allowed to spark throughout our land, lighting the way for pinko commies, secret Muslims, tax-and-spend Democrats, liberal Nazis, vegetarians and other terrorist groups to wash away our God-given liberties using the slow, corrosive trickle of nanny state tyranny from their low-flow showerheards "I want my liberty back," King bravely declared.
According to TheHill.com:
King compared the Capitol Hill janitors who replaced the lightbulbs in his office with lower-energy bulbs to the East German communist secret police, describing them as "Nancy [Pelosi]'s Stasi troops," and complained of a water-saving showerhead in his shower.
It's about time someone spoke out on this peril to our liberty. Liberals argue that energy efficient lightbulbs like LED (Light Emitting Diode, or as I like to call it, Liberty Eroding Disaster) and CFL (Compact Flourescent Light, or more accurately, Commie Friggin' Losers) save money over time as compared to traditional incandescent bulbs (the mom, baseball and apple pie of home illumination) and are better for the environment. They've even gone so far as to mandate that incandescents (the same kind our Founding Fathers would have used) be 30% more efficient starting this year. This amounts to nothing less than a full-on War on Liberty, threatening not just our desk lamps, but our entire way of life. We wouldn't stand for it if Hitler said he just needed to conquer 30% of Europe would we? What if Obama bin President dictated that 30% of America be governed by Shariah Law? What if his fascist health care plan called for 30% of our senior citizens to be summarily executed by doctors?
Of course, Nancy …More
After being overweight for the vast majority of my nearly 32 years, I recently began a diet and exercise program. It’s the first time in my life I have consciously and successfully lost weight, but it’s been long overdue. Being overweight is detrimental at any age, but now in my early 30s, I realize that with each passing year it becomes a little more difficult to lose the pounds and a little more harmful to keep them on. As of this writing I can proudly say that I’m down more than 20 pounds, and have enthusiastically taken up running and bicycling as hobbies to replace my old pastimes of drinking in bars and drinking in other bars.
So what finally brought about the change? First and foremost, I’ve had some powerful personal inspiration to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude, but there are other reasons as well. Health consciousness (I’ve struggled with high cholesterol), and a desire to look and feel better have all played a part. Those concerns have always been there, but prior to this they were never motivation enough to get my ass on a treadmill. I needed to make a profound mental shift in order to really commit to weight loss, and I eventually found my reason to do so: the opportunity to judge people.
As you might imagine, I’m in the habit of passing judgment. I’d like to think, however, that I take a more enlightened, humanistic approach to being an overly critical prick: I don’t judge people for what they are, I judge them for what they choose. And regardless of what that relative going for a second piece of birthday cake at a family party, or that coworker who thinks soda is an appropriate substitute for water, or that person spilling over into your seat on the airplane may say, being overweight is a choice. Every day I was overweight was a day in which I chose not to do something about it.
Now that I’ve made the choice to eat less and exercise more, it’s opened up a whole new world of …More
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go out on a date with one of the editors of your favorite magazine? Well, unfortunately the editors at Cat Fancy are currently spoken for, but one of our editors is available — and for a good cause, too. Tonight you can stop by McFadden's at 7:30 to meet the lovely and talented Erin Swanson, chat with her, maybe offer to buy her a drink, and then get into a bidding war with that meathead down the other end of the bar as you both vie for her affections by donating money to charity. Yes, Erin, ever the good sport, has agreed to auction herself off to help Children's Wishes raise money to make sick children's dreams come true as part of the organization's third annual Dream Date Auction. Tickets are only $10, and you get the chance to bid on Erin, as well as a number of other sassy ladies and dapper gentlemen. Last year's auction raised over $7000 to fulfill the wishes of deserving children. And maybe you'll get to fulfill your wish of dating a sexy magazine editor. Oh, all that hot talk about dangling participles and assonance...More
For the second month in a row, Vogue magazine has shot a cool, blonde, Oscar-winning Hollywood A-lister along the equally cool Rhode Island coastline for its cover. In December, it was Charlize Theron, shot in Newport...
This month, Meryl Streep kicks off the New Year Charlestown...
Who's next? Kirsten Dunst in Little Compton? Cate Blanchett in Watch Hill? Here's hoping they ditch the blondes and graduate redhead Emma Stone to big girl Vogue. Oh, Emma...
The American Hockey League, the NHL minor league in which the Providence Bruins play, announced today that its All-Star Classic will return to Providence in 2013. This will be the third time the event has been held in Providnece; the first dates all the way back to 1956 at the old Rhode Island Auditorium. The event returned to our city at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in 1995 for the first AHL All-Star Game of the modern era. From January 25-28, the Dunk will host a variety of hot hockey action, kicking off with a P-Bruins home game on Friday, the 25th. The Providence Bruins Youth Hockey Festival will follow on Saturday. The All-Star Skills Competition and Hall of Fame Induction happen on Sunday, and finally, Monday brings the All-Star game itself. The weekend festivities are sure to bring a boost to Downtown in a typically slow month, and the AHL looks "forward to showcasing our brightest stars to capacity crowds at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and to an international television audience" -- possibly on "The Ocho"?More
The Garden City/Chapel View area of Cranston gained another attraction this month with the opening of Chapel Grille. The restaurant will feature a cathedral-like atmosphere reflective of the building’s history, with historic stonework and an ornate steeple, and will offer a panoramic view of the Providence skyline in the distance. The menu is built around Mediterranean-style hearth cooking with locally sourced ingredients, overseen by Chef Tim Kelly, formerly of Café Nuovo. The dramatic ambience is intended to convey grand ambitions and position the restaurant as credible competition to the Providence dining scene.More
One of our former "10 to Watch" honorees and a former "Most Eligible Singles" cover girl respectively, performers Kristen Minsky and Miss Wensday are heading out on tour. Their adventures in vintage jazz will take them from Providence, through Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, DC, North Carolina and back home, picking up cleverly stashed-away members of their band, The Cotillions, along the way. Of course, with the price of gas these days, it can be tough for a gal to make a living. That's why they've started a Kickstarter campaign to get their show on the road. In exchange for a little travel budget, they're offering everything from autographed prints to show tickets to command performances. We love to see PVD performers going out to conquer the world (or at least the mid-Atlantic), so check them out before the deadline on August 31.More
Who: Jonas Parmalee
What: Bass player, The Silks
When: 11pm, Friday March 2
Where: Local 121, Washington Street, Providence
Why: Not only does he “slappa da bass,” he makes a mean crepe
I spot Jonas in the crowd at the dark Speakeasy downstairs in Local 121, wearing a heavy coat and winter scarf. “Aren’t you hot?” I ask. (The room is packed like an overstuffed suitcase.) “Actually I’m freezing,” he replies. He brushes the hair out of his eyes and smiles shyly. “I’m always cold. I think it’s in my genes.” It’s one hour to showtime, and he’s drinking a Guinness while chatting with friends.
Jonas is a whiskey and stout aficionado – my kind of guy. In January, the band was given a bottle of Laphroaig as a thank you for playing a fundraiser for Trinity Rep. Jonas counts this his crowning glory with the band, but also says, “Every moment with The Silks is the best moment. It’s the type of band I’ve been dreaming of playing in as far as work ethic and approach to music.”
Jonas, who – at first glance – is a cross between a rock star and Woody Allen (in the most endearing way), has been a Silks member for about a year now. Burnt-out on the “whole punk thing” after touring the U.S. and England with his former band, The Midnight Creeps, he took a break from music for a while. Then, he happened to see Tyler-James Kelly doing a solo set. “I was floored and totally inspired,” Jonas says. ”I realized I needed to be in a working band again.”
As Rhode Island luck would have it, Jonas’ friend Matthew Donnelly was a mutual friend, and eventually Jonas got word that Tyler-James (“TJ”) needed a new bassist. “Nervous as hell” after not playing for a few years, Jonas called anyway. He got the gig. Soon after, when in need of a new drummer, Matt signed on. The chemistry that the trio shares is obvious, both onstage and off.
At 11:30pm, the guys head upstairs to the taproom for some (more) boozing …More
If there are two words that describe Foxy Shazam, they’re ridiculously awesome - because the six piece indie/glam/pop/rock band’s show last night at The Met was equal parts both of those things. The band isn’t that well known yet (and the crowd was smaller than it should have been) and the single that’s on the radio right now, “I Like It,” is fun, but not exactly indicative of what they’re about. I was expecting a catchy, tongue-in-cheek rock show: and at its core, Foxy Shazam provided that, but there was so much more. The band’s sound is something like an unholy brew of Spinal Tap and Hedwig and the Angry Inch with hints of Queen and The Darkness. Their look is completely over the top in a really good way: skin-tight pleather, denim jackets with gold lace, rhinestone-studded leather, Freddie Mercury moustaches. But what sealed the deal on this being one of this year’s best concerts to date was their commitment on-stage acrobatics. Lead singer Eric Sean Nally tumblesaulted across stage mid-lyric, smoked five cigarettes at once throughout a song, jumped on guitarist Loren Turner’s shoulders in the middle of a solo. Keyboardist Sky White alternately played with his hands and feet, and used the audience as a stand. Backup vocalist Alex Nauth completely stole the show during the band’s finale with his flying rock squats that he pulled off while playing the trumpet. Nally described the band best in one of his hilarious non-sequiters: “If Foxy Shazam were an animal at the zoo, we’d be the one who would bite your head off WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT.”More