While this ad from an Indiana beeper salesmen is amusing, it really just makes me miss JJ, the King of Beepers, who was unavoidable for a stretch in the 90's before cell phones obliterated the pager market. While the Phoenix New Times ran a feature on the guy during his heyday and there's a Flickr set of images of a store from a former employee, it seems weird how little there is out there about the guy. What's he doing now? Where can I listen to recordings of his old ads? This is Arizona history that needs to be preserved, people.

Noted political philosophers/contenders for worst band ever Korn have weighed in on the 2012 election:

The metal band, which rose to fame in the 1990s when its “Follow the Leader” album, spoke with Billboard.com to promote their new album, “The Path of Totality,” and explained the meaning behind some of their songs, including “Illuminati.”

Frontman Jonathan Davis says: “I feel like Obama’s an Illuminati puppet. He’s basically dragged this country down into the worst it’s ever been. Like I say about the White House, ‘You’ve built this house of shame.’ Everybody looked up at the White House and America and now I think it’s like a house of shame. I miss the old days when people were proud to be American.”

Yes. An Illuminati puppet. Thanks, Jonathan Davis. Personally, I miss the days before I had heard of Korn, but we all have our own wishes and dreams.

The latest edition of Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable, featuring a look at how Newt is beating Mitt among Arizona Republicans, an examination of the legal fights over healthcare in the state and partisan elections in Tucson, and a talk with new Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. Republican strategist Jonathan Paton and former Pima County Democratic Party chairman Paul Eckerstrom talk about the issue with Arizona Public Media's Andrea Kelly and moderator Jim Nintzel.

Attorney General Tom Horne suffered another big defeat in Maricopa County Superior Court today. Judge Dean M. Fink ruled that the Independent Redistricting Commission is not subject to Arizona's Open Meeting law, which eliminates an entire line of prosecution that Horne had hoped to use to remove members of the commission.

From Fink's ruling:

Applying the Open Meeting Law to the IRC would subject it to political influence from two sources. The first source, obviously, is the legislature. If the legislature can, through its plenary legislative power, dictate how the IRC is to conduct its business and impose penalties for non-compliance, that power cannot be limited to open meetings; it can be used to harass and hamstring the IRC. The second source is the executive, specifically prosecutors such as the Attorney General and the various county attorneys, all of whom are empowered to investigate alleged Open Meeting Law violations. The threat of prosecution, even a baseless one, can be reasonably expected to intimidate its target.

The Court therefore concludes that the Open Meeting Law, A.R.S. § 38-431 et seq., cannot be applied to the Independent Redistricting Commission.

Also from Fink's ruling:

The State’s argument that immunity would open the door to evils like bribery and embezzlement is not persuasive. Legislative privilege does not shield those who misuse public office for personal gain. But no such accusation has been made against any of the IRC commissioners. The allegations against them are that they failed to perform their official legislative acts in the proper manner. This is fully within the scope of the privilege.

Therefore, the Court finds that the Open Meeting Law, A.R.S. § 38-431 et seq., does not apply to the IRC, which is governed instead by the open meetings language of Article IV Pt. 2 § 1(12) (the Open Meetings Clause). It further finds that neither the Attorney General nor the Maricopa County Attorney may proceed in their investigation, except as provided by the Rules of Procedure for Special Actions.

While appeals are still possible, this is a major setback to Horne's efforts to find a way to remove chairwoman Colleen Mathis from the IRC. Horne had already been removed from the case for ethical reasons; it was being handled by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

These allegations that Mathis had violated the Open Meeting law formed much of case against Mathis lodged by Gov. Jan Brewer when she attempted to remove Mathis last month, only to have the Arizona Supreme Court reinstate Mathis because Brewer acted illegally.

The minute I saw that Katy Perry would be hosting Saturday Night Live with Robyn as the musical guest, I could already feel the angst filling in my soul. I love Swedish popstar Robyn, but I despise Katy Perry. I didn't like her Christian pop record when I cared about such things, I don't understand how someone who wrote the song "UR So Gay" turned into some pseudo-champion of self-esteem for "Firework" and I can't stand her weird attempt to be adorable and sexy at the same time because I think it makes her seem like she's suffered a brain injury.

So, I was already cringing that I would be forced to DVR the entire ninety minutes of SNL just to catch two performances by Robyn, but the promos for this week's episode make me want to just wait and see the musical performances on Hulu later or something. How could you ruin Robyn for me by putting seemingly the least funny celebrity on earth on your show, Lorne Michaels? How could you?

In this installment of our music recommendation series, our music writers suggest songs by the Ghost Wolves, Colin Stetson, Kathleen Edwards and the Dirtbombs.

The secret of the cloak is the magical fabric, an ancient Mayan rite handed down through the centuries. Deep in the rainforests of what is now called Guatemala, a small, colorful, yet invisible to the naked-eye of most unenlightened people... lives an ancient bird called the Xylxacyxjan. Don't bother trying to pronounce it, it is a word inaudible to the human ear, though worth a ton of points in Scrabble™.

Tomorrow in London, women will be marching on Harley Street to protest "designer vaginas", partially by attaching large furry things to their (clothed) crotches. While admittedly I'm not up on the latest in vaginal plastic surgery, I think men might owe women an apology for whatever we've done to their collective self-image that this is an actual industry:

At its most modest, the Muff March is against the pornography-influenced obsession with removing pubic hair. But it's also about protesting against the sort of surgery that makes you cross your legs. Typical procedures on offer include labiaplasty (trimming or removing the labia) and vaginal rejuvenation (tightening — usually referred to by "designer vagina").

In the US this industry is worth $6.8m (£4.4m). In the UK the latest figures come from a 2009 report in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. It revealed that in 2008 the number of operations increased by 70% compared with the previous year: 1,118 labiaplasty operations on the NHS. (There were 669 in 2007 and 404 in 2006.) And that's just the NHS. The Harley Medical Group reported over 5,000 inquiries about cosmetic gynaecology last year, 65% for labial reduction.

[...]

I recently heard of a woman GP very concerned by the number of girls in their mid-teens coming to her worried about what their genitals looked like: she thought it was becoming an issue largely because of the fashion for shaving off pubic hair, which made them more self-conscious. Of course, there are rare cases where there is an underlying medical reason for this surgery, but they are just that, extremely rare. A doctor who has treated women seeking labiaplasty told me: "When you examine them, they are completely normal."

In part four of the series no one asked for (part one: Wings; part two: Wilco; part three: Mariah Carey), I suggest five songs from an act that will be featured at the three day (and one afternoon) music event The Great Cover Up, happening December 15-17 and benefiting the Tucson Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance. Today, I pick five songs I'd like to hear on Thursday the 15th, as part of the "Heaven at 27" set.

• Why don't conservatives love this man?!?

Earlier this week, Dan Gibson posted about Experian Simmons' most recent poll examining political ideology and TV watching habits. A similar poll was released last year.

This whole thing is fascinating to me, because as much as anything else, the entertainment we consume speak to our vast ideological divides. The most interesting question, to me, is a chicken and egg proposition: does art alter our perspective, or are we drawn to art that reflects our personality and world view?