Google, I Yabba Dabba Love You!

Google's logo-blending tribute to the Flintstone's 50th Anniversary!

I was once scolded by the boss for having a plastic dinosaur on my desk (a Jurassic Park raptor).

Here’s one of the most powerful companies in the world blending their logo with The Flintstones!

Employers of the world, please take note…

What Me Worry? Barack Obama finds MADdening common ground with George W. Bush

In an odd political pairing, Obama and George W. Bush have both been redefined by the MAD magazine’s mascot. Astoundingly, Obama compared his protruding ears to those of Alfred E. Neuman’s at the annual Al Smith political dinner in Manhattan. Bush as been hammered as a guy who’s way too lackadaisical in a crisis.

How long will it be before President Obama is slammed with the “What Me Worry?” image?

If you like offbeat political and pop culture memorabilia like this, then please check out my new Slate magazine slideshow devoted to the fake presidential bids of Archie Bunker, Fred Flintstone, Snoopy, Charile Brown, Lucy Van Pelt, Linus Van Pelt, Barbie, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mr. Clean, Captain Morgan the Rum Pirate, Fonzie, Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Huckleberry Hound, Magilla Gorilla, and MAD magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman!

Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone body meld with John McCain at the Democratic National Convention

What are the Democrats going to do after they humiliate the 72 year old at the ballot box?

Perhaps they’ll need to find more old people to ridicule.

This unauthorized Flintstone’s body morph was a big seller at the Democrat National Convention.

If you like offbeat political and pop culture memorabilia like this, then please check out my new Slate magazine slideshow devoted to the fake presidential bids of Archie Bunker, Fred Flintstone, Snoopy, Charile Brown, Lucy Van Pelt, Linus Van Pelt, Barbie, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mr. Clean, Captain Morgan the Rum Pirate, Fonzie, Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Huckleberry Hound, Magilla Gorilla, and MAD magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman!

Political Button of the Day: Obama Prays for Victory

Gearing up for Election Day, I will occasionally share a favorite button from my modest-but-quirky political memorabilia collection.

Imagine a fortune cookie made with 2,000 pound slabs of Jerusalem stone and crumbling on one of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam. It’s a tradition to cram a note to God in the Western Wall (also referred to as the Wailing Wall) to the point that the crevices look like they are jammed with centuries of spitballs.

This button surfaced on a souvenir table at the Democratic National Convention, perhaps an effort to sway Jewish Americans on the fence to go for Obama.

The backstory is quite bizarre. A young rabbinical student swiped Obama’s prayer note after he stuffed it in the wall, causing a national uproar when it was published by a major Israeli newspaper.

Here’s what Obama’s scribbled note said:

“Lord — Protect my family and me,” reads the note, first published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv daily. “Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”

Pretty standard stuff, although where’s the traditional Miss America contestant call for world peace?

If you like offbeat political and pop culture memorabilia like this, then please check out my new Slate magazine slideshow devoted to the fake presidential bids of Archie Bunker, Fred Flintstone, Snoopy, Charile Brown, Lucy Van Pelt, Linus Van Pelt, Barbie, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mr. Clean, Captain Morgan the Rum Pirate, Fonzie, Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Huckleberry Hound, Magilla Gorilla, and MAD magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman!

Political Button of the Day: Dick Gregory Plays the Retro Race Card

Gearing up for Election Day, I will occasionally share a favorite button from my modest-but-quirky political memorabilia collection.

1960s comedy and activist icon Dick Gregory, also well known for his “Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat,” has been back in the public eye recently as a political commentator on the Don Imus radio show.

Gregory has never been anything but blunt when addressing race relations, going as far as to title his infamous autobiography, “N****r,” and he wasn’t bashful 40 years ago. Vote for me, I’m the black guy, his buttons said.

Can you imagine Barack Obama taking that approach?

On a side note, Gregory recently chimed in on the Bill Ayers-Obama controversy with some refreshing moral clarity. If Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist, he asked Imus, then where have all Obama’s critics been when it came to challenging Ayer’s cushy position and title at the University of Illinois at Chicago?

Our tax dollars have been subsidizing a university that embraces a retired domestic terrorist and gives him academic legitimacy. Where was the outrage before Obama entered the presidential race, and why is there hardly any outrage directed at the university now (compared to the focus on whether Obama is just Facebook friends with Ayers or really is his BFF)?

I know the answer to that last question. It’s because the powers that be in academia are absolutely delusional and have a double standard about tolerating right wing vs left wing extremist ideology. Check out the new documentary, “Indocrinate U.”

Oh, off the soap box and back to the button. It’s a gem, isn’t it?

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In case you are wondering why I would mock FOX News for deleting letters in Jesse Jackson’s profanity, but won’t just write out the name of Dick Gregory’s autobiography, it is because I don’t want to turn up in the search engines for that word along with every racist kook on the Internet.

If you like offbeat political and pop culture memorabilia like this, then please check out my new Slate magazine slideshow devoted to the fake presidential bids of Archie Bunker, Fred Flintstone, Snoopy, Charile Brown, Lucy Van Pelt, Linus Van Pelt, Barbie, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mr. Clean, Captain Morgan the Rum Pirate, Fonzie, Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Huckleberry Hound, Magilla Gorilla, and MAD magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman!