CNN/ABC reporter: Corporate executives forced pro-Bush, pro-war narrative - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

One of the best news media analysts around, Glenn Greenwald, does it again with this list of atrocities, detailing multiple instances of corporate interference with reporting the run-up to war in Iraq and subsequent ass-covering by the media mush-heads themselves.

Expelled Exposed: Why Expelled Flunks

Just got around to listening to the Skepticality podcast interview with Eugenie Scott (4/29). Good stuff on the Ben Stein propaganda piece, Expelled. See Expelled Exposed: Why Expelled Flunks for more.

Equal time for the willfully ignorant | Philly | 05/22/2008

People who insist on remaining ignorant and their voting preferences--What a country!? Equal time for the willfully ignorant | Philly | 05/22/2008

Rudeness (the Rude Pundit)

It's rude, but goddamn if he ain't right:

You ever been to the mythical "rural communities" of Appalachia? The Rude Pundit has, hanging out with mule farm owners and miners and others. And they are xenophobic, suspicious, and poor - hell, these redneck fuckers hate white outsiders. Just about every Deliverance-style, Hatfield and McCoy, Ma and Pa Kettle inbred backwards ass country fuck stereotype you ever imagined exists there, complete with their trashed front yards and about a mouth of teeth for every three or four households. And they have every right to hate people who have ripped away the jobs and kept them in deep poverty and ignorance. There's been so many promises broken to the people of Appalachia that they may as well be Indians. Hell, the last time anyone in the federal government gave a happy rat fuck about the region was in the LBJ administration.

See the whole post here.

China's story: putting the PR into the PRC | openDemocracy

This is a great short article on China's public image problem as the Olympics cast a brighter light on that nation. There are some interesting solutions that are both pragmatic and relatively easy.

Megan McArdle and Dan Drezner's defense of the media - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Click the link for another dismemberment of the press by the inimitable Glenn Greenwald.

We are Iron Man!

We are Iron Man! A lowbrow literary mystery. - Brainiac - The Boston Globe

This article covers the origins of the Marvel character (who has a movie coming out soon) and Iron Man's connections with Black Sabbath and Ted Hughes. It has a wonderful anti-war twist at the end of the piece, too.

Bill Clinton

is a dick.

Treason and the Religious Right

This article from the Huffington Post argues that 1) the religious right have said and continue to say things far worse than Jeremiah Wright and 2) that the Clinton campaign is abetting the right-wing's smear against Obama. Good stuff.

The world's 50 most powerful blogs | Technology | The Observer

The world's 50 most powerful blogs
Alas, Historic Alley is not among them.

Hillary Clinton

I've pretty much decided that I'm not going to vote for Hillary Clinton should she win the Democratic nomination. It probably wouldn't have an impact anyway, as I live in South Carolina, which will be "in the tank" for McCain, but I voted in 2000 for Ralph Nader and even though it didn't have an impact on the "election" of Bush, I said I'd never vote for a third party candidate again. Now, I'm in a quandary, as Hillary's negative campaign has disheartened me so incredibly. If anyone who stumbles upon this entry can make a persuasive argument for why I should write in their name for President (should Hillary Clinton become the nominee), I will do so in November.

No links in this entry, but I'll be posting some about Clinton's negative campaign in the next few days. For the time being, though, I'll just put up this video from Countdown Monday night:



UPDATE (April 12, 2008): That was, obviously, posted in the heat of battle, and of course blog posts are like that. So what? Well, I've decided that even if Clinton were to win--though that increasingly less likely at this point--I will vote for her, or any Democratic nominee in November.

The Dungeon Master

I'm saddened today by the death of Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons and thief of many of my waking hours (many of which should have been spent sleeping or going to class) during my high school and college years.

The Lizard Man Returns!

Lizard Man attacks car in South Carolina? - Boing Boing

Writer William F. Buckley dies at 82

Although I shared very few (read: almost no) political beliefs with William F. Buckley, I admired his wit and his facility with language. He was one of the few true intellectuals. The public is rarely exposed to any depth of analysis, instead being subjected to endless streams of brainless pundits, some of whom have the audacity to consider themselves the spiritual and intellectual offspring of Mr. Buckley. I grew up, at least partially because of nothing else being on TV, watching Firing Line, and I learned a lot from it.

Stuff White People Like

This--Stuff White People Like--is a great blog. The LA Times says it grew from 0 to 300k daily hits in six weeks. It's really excellent.

BIL Conference - Minds Set Free.

The BIL Conference - Minds Set Free. looks interesting. Alas, I'm stuck on the other coast.

Salon.com | News Wires

I think Castro stepped down because he won.
Salon.com: Court Rejects Domestic Spying Appeal

Cultographies

I love it when academe and one of my other loves come together, so see Cultographies, a new series of monographs about cult movies!

will.i.am video for Obama

On Wealth

Philip Slater: It's the Pathology, Stupid - Business on The Huffington Post is one of the best short analyses of wealth and the wealthy I've seen. I've not thought about the idea of the continuous pursuit of wealth as a pathology before, but it's an interesting argument.

Cinematic Titanic

Cinematic Titanic is the return of one of my all-time faves, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, or MST3K. Here's a link on the return. Yay!

San Diego

Here I am in San Diego, and I realize how long it's been since I posted. I'm posting some photos on my flickr site. Enjoy

LibraryThing | Catalog your books online

I f'ing luuv LibraryThing. I have cataloged all the books in my office. You can do up to 200 books for free. I'll be buying a life membership ($25) very soon. Check out my collection here.

Two Great Ideas

These great ideas were originally posted at one of my favorite new blogs, Rule the Web (named after the book by the same name by Mark Frauenfelder of one my other faves, Boing Boing)

Idea 1: Free voicemail from AOL, called AIM Phoneline. It's a free service if you settle for incoming calls. If you don't want to give out your main phone #, it's great. My number is 864-335-6221. Here's the link. You'll need an AOL or AIM (?) account to get the number and check your messages online, but it's free.

Idea 2: Using Twitter. I have a twitter i.d. (steplow) but it's pretty useless without a network of folks to interact with. Mark has a list of ideas for Twitter's actual real-life usefulness here. Let me know if you sign up.

Cheers!

home

I would live in one of these.

Check out the cozy living area:

101 Greatest George Carlin Quotes

Love the George Carlin. One of the first 8-Tracks I ever bought was one of his concerts. Yes, I said 8-Track.101 Greatest George Carlin Quotes

Ordinarily I hate these things, but:

Imus and hypocrisy

Salon.com has a selection of African American culture critics on the Imus issue. If you want something that's really worth reading on the matter, try this link. You may have to deal with advertising unless you subscribe to Salon already. One quotation from Greg Tate, author of Everything but the Burden: What White People are Taking from Black Culture: "Yet do I marvel at the power of hip-hop, still so marginal in American culture as a whole, if we use the minimal radio, television, film, news and even Internet space it occupies as a guide, to be the frame through which we will now attempt to grapple with the nation's racist-, sexist-, greed- and gossip-ridden soul."

From Joan Morgan, apropos of the issue of "where's the criticism of rap from the black community," as if Jesse and Al were the only recognized authorities capable of speaking for and to the black community: "Hip-hop has always had its own critics -- writers, scholars, activists, feminists, filmmakers like myself, Kevin Powell, Bakari Kitwana, Elizabeth Mendez Berry, Mark Anthony Neal, Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, Rosa Clemente, Byron Hurt, Tim'm West, MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, Davey D, Moya Bailey, Michael Eric Dyson, Greg Tate -- who have been dedicated to doing the incredibly gratifying, hands-on and unsexy underground work of critical self-examination and consciousness-raising in the last 20 years. Our motivation? We love hip-hop enough to hold it to its highest standards." How many of those people have even the most educated and erudite white people heard of? Other than MC Lyte, Dyson, and Tate (whose name I didn't know until connecting it with his book), I certainly hadn't heard them.

From the aforementioned Dyson: "Long before the Imus affair, there had been great concern in black quarters about the harmful impact of gangsta rap's lethal misogyny and its glorification of violence. But not until white bodies are at stake do black bodies become relevant or noticed -- and only then as a prop for a larger mainstream agenda, even if that is to prove how harmful black pop culture is and, by contrast, how even a powerful, arrogant white man like Imus can't escape its influence."

The significance of this discussion is that even enlightened media watchers like myself really don't know what's going on in black American outside of what the media is telling us. If we don't believe what the media tells us about the Bush administration (for example), why in the hell should we believe what they tell us about black America? Sort of a double standard, isn't it?

OUTRAGEOUS

Think Progress: Florida Legislature Forces University To Idolize Jeb Bush

More Battlestar, Season One Complete

Some thoughts on Battlestar: Galactica, Season 1. First of all, this show continues to disturb me. The moral ambiguity of which I wrote some time back (shortly after starting the series, in fact) continues, though it’s more clear who the “good guys” are—or at least it was until the cliffhanger. One of my friends (jec, who loaned me the series) asked about the significance of the fact that the humans are polytheistic while the Cylons are monotheistic. For a while, I thought it represented the impact of Judaism and Christianity in Europe and Asia Minor, where polytheistic religions gave way to the power of monotheism, even though it took a while. I gave up on this toward the end of these last two episodes because the series seemed to be heading in another direction. Some of this theme remains, however, in the form of the Moses-like Dr. Baltar, whose purpose appears to be to bring the Cylon plan, or God’s will, into fruition.

The symbolism of the Cylon-human “hybrid” has escaped me for the moment, though of course there are various pop-cultural references (The X-Files, Demon Seed) that come to mind. The Cylons, at least the female ones, feel love, as well as other emotions, and the fact that they’re genetically human—or close enough to reproduce with human—indicates something more than the standard alien vs. man trope that is common to the genre. The Cylons are us: they feel the same emotions, they have bone and blood, they can procreate with humans. But they are at the same time something else: born of computers, they are copies of each other. They also appear to be networked somehow.

I’m planning to rent season 2 tomorrow. . . .

My favorite Fark headline in a while

"Kerkorian offers $4.5B to buy moribund Chrysler. Unfortunately, what Chrysler needs right now is Kevorkian, not Kerkorian"

Here's a link to the CNN story.

Here's Fark.

American Freedom Agenda

The American Freedom Agenda is a group founded by (mostly) former Republicans who have grown disillusioned with the strategies and tactics of the current administration regarding prosecuting the War on Terror. Specifically, they have a 10-point agenda calling for limitations on secret evidence, restoration of habeus corpus, and basically the restoration and recuperation of the Constitutional principles upon which this country was founded.

George Bush's favorite historian. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine

Truly worrisome. George Bush shouldn't read so much.

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

Greenwald says "federal power is enlisted, and endlessly expanded, in service of an agenda of aggressive militarism abroad, liberty-infringement domestically, and an overarching sense of moralistic certitude and exceptionalism. This movement is neither 'liberal' nor 'conservative' as those terms are understood in their abstract form, but instead, is radical in its attempt to fundamentally re-define the American government and the functions it serves."

Greenwald's right most of the time, he writes well, and he uses evidence. The entry for today is but one example of his thoughtful thoroughness.

Salon should make him free to all, but if you don't have a Salon.com account, you'll have to view an ad.

10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed

10,000 Reasons Civilization is Doomed Have you seen this? Have any to add?

The man behind "Battlestar Galactica" | Salon Arts & Entertainment

The man behind "Battlestar Galactica" | Salon Arts & Entertainment

This is an interview with Ronald D. Moore about the show. I'm still in season 1, and have read numerous spoilers already. I can't wait to get to season 2. Anyway, as always with Salon.com, you either subscribe or you have to view advertisements to read. Cheers.

Popular Culture and Moral Ambiguity

Battlestar Galactica is a troubling program. I've just started watching the first season upon the recommendation of my friend jec. The moral ambiguity is something one doesn't see too often on network t.v. In the first episode (following the pilot/miniseries), the fleeing humans must decide if (possibly) killing 1300 people to save 47k is the right decision, and the decision must be made in scant seconds before another attack by the Cylons. The show's tone strikes me as somewhat supportive of the moral ambiguity of the war on terror. How many innocents are worth the lives of x citizens?

In the pilot, when Dr. Gaius Baltar fingers a smarmy ass as a Cylon because he's afraid of getting turned in, it's truly abhorent, yet the guy actually turns out to be a Cylon--does this mean that the people we have locked up in Guantanomo actually are terrorists? Or is it even worse?: that since we don't know, we must lock up certain suspected people because their discomfort could mean the safety of many more.

It's interesting to me that pop culture seems to be moving in that direction, with shows like BG, 24, etc.--even Heroes--all inhabiting areas of shadow and uncertainty. Of course, these shows also have (relatively) clearly-defined "good guys" as well, in keeping with the Western tradition of having a protagonist for whom you can cheer.

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

This article says a lot about the authoritarian tendencies in the American right wing. If you're not a member of salon.com, you'll have to watch an ad to view the article, but it's worth it.

p.s. If there's anyone out there, other than jec, reading this blog with anything approaching regularity (defined as coming back a second time), let me know.

All for now.

McSweeney's: Alternate Xmas poems

Here

Randomness

Just a few quick notes. I haven’t posted in a while (not that the one viewer per week has noticed), but a few things have been on my mind over the last few days:

Item: Go to New Orleans. I was there a week ago and the place is empty and people are leaving. It’s too much a part of this country’s history and heritage to allow it to die.

Item: Martin Luther King, Jr. deserves a memorial, but I think the $100 million that will be spent on the one in DC would be better spent on predominantly (and in many cases exclusively) black schools in the inner cities and rural South, or as seed money for a foundation to continue the work that he was doing when he died. His family sure isn’t doing much of anything except trying to make a buck off of his name and good deeds.

Item: Governor Mark Sanford (Libertarian-SC) latches onto every possible handhold that comes up (the latest is an audit of the state’s DOT saying they waste money—welcome to government) to argue for his pet project, reorganizing state government to make constitutional, elected positions part of a cabinet. I think instead the governor should be calling for a constitutional convention to get rid of the racist legacy of the sorry “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, whose 1895 constitution was drawn up to disfranchise black voters as much as for anything else.

Item: James Carville needs some strange, because fucking Mary Matalin has addled his brain. Either that, or he should just sit back and raise the kids while the Mrs. runs the Republican party. If I were a Democratic leader, I wouldn’t tell him a damn thing about strategy or tactics, because Mary’ll just go down on him and he’ll ejaculate everything, literally and figuratively, right there on the living room carpet.

Visualizing Meaning � About the project

Faculty at Cornell were asked: "Of the many charts (graph, map, diagram, table and ‘other’) you have seen in your life, which has been the most important, remarkable, meaningful or valuable?" This site answers that question. Very cool.

www.dontclick.it

www.dontclick.it Don't click it. Seriously. Don't.

UP - United Professionals - Professionals deserve to earn a good living.

UP - United Professionals - Professionals deserve to earn a good living.
This new group founded by Barbara Ehrenriech looks to improve the lives of white-collar workers through attention to health care, debt, and displacement issues.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Last Outpost - TV Squad

Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has a wonderful blog (temporarily here), and occasionally reviews old TNG episodes, such as this one. Hilariously, I hasten to add.

The Blog | Jane Smiley: CEO President | The Huffington Post

The Blog | Jane Smiley: CEO President | The Huffington Post

Haven't posted in a while and will explain later, but this essay is astoundingly good.

del.icio.us

I've been using my del.icio.us site to organize my bookmarks online so I'll always (at least as long as del.icio.us operates) have access to them if I don't have my computer or my thumb drive. Now that you can upload and import your bookmarks file into del.icio.us, it's really easy. The other advantage is that I can share them with other folks with the same interests. I didn't share them all at first, so I'm going to have to go through them and decide which ones to share (probably the vast majority). If any del.icio.us users happen upon this entry, check my site out, and be patient. If you don't use del.icio.us, check out my site anyway: you might decide to become a user.

TruthVendor.com

The Truth about "John F. Kennedy."

James Wolcott: Hellmouth Sets out the Welcome Mat

James Wolcott has some excerpts from various sources that put the Lebanon issue in deeper context.

Puritans to Prohibition

Puritans to Prohibition

Alcohol in the Colonial Era.

Daily Kos: SC-Gov: The national implications

A good take on South Carolina's gubernatorial politics from a correspondent on the DailyKos site.

Mike Whitney: Is Cheney Betting on Economic Collapse?

Mike Whitney: Is Cheney Betting on Economic Collapse?

information

This is the coolest site I've seen in a while. You can get further into the pictures forever. It's an infinite mosaic.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Thirteen Writing Prompts.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Thirteen Writing Prompts.

Dear NSA

Dear NSA

Does hating rock make you a music critic? By Jody Rosen

Does hating rock make you a music critic? By Jody Rosen

An interesting rock v. pop analysis.

This Modern World � Blog Archive � Bush & Nixon photo finish

This Modern World � Blog Archive � Bush & Nixon photo finish

Interesting.

Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner-- President Not Amused?

Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner-- President Not Amused?: "Turning to the war, he declared, 'I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.'"

Elvis, the world's smartest cow. By Jon Katz

Elvis, the world's smartest cow. By Jon Katz

I used to love the cows that inhabited the pasture behind my grandparents' house and trailer. I would stare at them, and they at me, for long minutes at a time. I've always wanted a cow of my own (and enough room and money to keep it), and Elvis seems like the kind of cow anyone would love to have around.

The problem with the United 93 films. By Ron Rosenbaum

The problem with the United 93 films. By Ron Rosenbaum

Depressing, but thoughtful and intelligent, unlike most of the 9/11 "analysis" to which we're subjected constantly. Even Brian Williams of NBC "News" used the new flight 93 movie to "remind us that we're at war." What arrogance!

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!: "the absence of faith is not faith, any more than the absence of a sandwich is also a kind of tasty snack between two slices of bread."

Response to the article by Melinda Barton on Raw Story, which I posted in my previous entry. Myers took the time to analyze the Barton piece. I probably wouldn't have come up with quite as scathing a response, as it's not in my nature (or nurture: take your pick), but I think his decimation of Barton's article is right on.

But that brings up a different sort of problem. How do you deal with the political ramifications of "secularism"? There are a lot of people out there who perceive the Democratic Party as the party of godless license, and who vote otherwise or not at all because of this perception. These are people who vote against their own economic and political interests because they fear the outcome if some godless liberal managed to take office. How can Progressives build and maintain a "big tent" if we keep having these arguments over the nature and existence of god? Republicans seem somehow to have managed to bring together the Social (read, conservative Christian) Right and the Economic Right, despite their divergent interests, yet Democrats have difficulty appealing to groups with convergent interests because of divergent social views.

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!: "the absence of faith is not faith, any more than the absence of a sandwich is also a kind of tasty snack between two slices of bread."

Response to the article by Melinda Barton on Raw Story, which I posted in my previous entry. Myers took the time to analyze the Barton piece. I probably wouldn't have come up with quite as scathing a response, as it's not in my nature (or nurture: take your pick), but I think his decimation of Barton's article is right on.

But that brings up a different sort of problem. How do you deal with the political ramifications of "secularism"? There are a lot of people out there who perceive the Democratic Party as the party of godless license, and who vote otherwise or not at all because of this perception. These are people who vote against their own economic and political interests because they fear the outcome if some godless liberal managed to take office. How can Progressives build and maintain a "big tent" if we keep having these arguments over the nature and existence of god? Republicans seem somehow to have managed to bring together the Social (read, conservative Christian) Right and the Economic Right, despite their divergent interests, yet Democrats have difficulty appealing to groups with convergent interests because of divergent social views.

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!: "the absence of faith is not faith, any more than the absence of a sandwich is also a kind of tasty snack between two slices of bread."

Response to the article by Melinda Barton on Raw Story, which I posted in my previous entry. Myers took the time to analyze the Barton piece. I probably wouldn't have come up with quite as scathing a response, as it's not in my nature (or nurture: take your pick), but I think his decimation of Barton's article is right on.

But that brings up a different sort of problem. How do you deal with the political ramifications of "secularism"? There are a lot of people out there who perceive the Democratic Party as the party of godless license, and who vote otherwise or not at all because of this perception. These are people who vote against their own economic and political interests because they fear the outcome if some godless liberal managed to take office. How can Progressives build and maintain a "big tent" if we keep having these arguments over the nature and existence of god? Republicans seem somehow to have managed to bring together the Social (read, conservative Christian) Right and the Economic Right, despite their divergent interests, yet Democrats have difficulty appealing to groups with convergent interests because of divergent social views.

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!: "the absence of faith is not faith, any more than the absence of a sandwich is also a kind of tasty snack between two slices of bread."

Response to the article by Melinda Barton on Raw Story, which I posted in my previous entry. Myers took the time to analyze the Barton piece. I probably wouldn't have come up with quite as scathing a response, as it's not in my nature (or nurture: take your pick), but I think his decimation of Barton's article is right on.

But that brings up a different sort of problem. How do you deal with the political ramifications of "secularism"? There are a lot of people out there who perceive the Democratic Party as the party of godless license, and who vote otherwise or not at all because of this perception. These are people who vote against their own economic and political interests because they fear the outcome if some godless liberal managed to take office. How can Progressives build and maintain a "big tent" if we keep having these arguments over the nature and existence of god? Republicans seem somehow to have managed to bring together the Social (read, conservative Christian) Right and the Economic Right, despite their divergent interests, yet Democrats have difficulty appealing to groups with convergent interests because of divergent social views.

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!

Pharyngula: Look, Ma, I'm a "secular whackjob"!: "the absence of faith is not faith, any more than the absence of a sandwich is also a kind of tasty snack between two slices of bread."

Response to the article by Melinda Barton on Raw Story, which I posted in my previous entry. Myers took the time to analyze the Barton piece. I probably wouldn't have come up with quite as scathing a response, as it's not in my nature (or nurture: take your pick), but I think his decimation of Barton's article is right on.

But that brings up a different sort of problem. How do you deal with the political ramifications of "secularism"? There are a lot of people out there who perceive the Democratic Party as the party of godless license, and who vote otherwise or not at all because of this perception. These are people who vote against their own economic and political interests because they fear the outcome if some godless liberal managed to take office. How can Progressives build and maintain a "big tent" if we keep having these arguments over the nature and existence of god? Republicans seem somehow to have managed to bring together the Social (read, conservative Christian) Right and the Economic Right, despite their divergent interests, yet Democrats have difficulty appealing to groups with convergent interests because of divergent social views.

The Raw Story | The left's own religious whackjobs

The Raw Story | The left's own religious whackjobs

I don't know if I support all the contentions in this article, but I wanted to go ahead and blog it. I'll edit this post later, maybe, after I ruminate on the main points some more.

John Dean's latest

Dean follows up on his 2004 piece.

John Dean on Bush's personality

FindLaw's Writ - Dean: Predicting Presidential Performance

Dean wrote this piece nearly two years ago, in May 2004. Amazing prescience.

Disturbing thought exercise from Billmon

Whiskey Bar: Mutually Assured Dementia
tackles possible outcomes if the U.S. attacked Iran with nuclear weapons.

I never knew this

Alan Smithee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

one of the most prolific motion picture directors of our time.

The Movie Timeline

"The Movie Timeline is the history of everything, taken from one simple premise - that everything you see in the movies is true..."

Intellectual Property Run Amok

One of my pet peeves is the misuse of intellectual property rules, and the creation of such rules solely to add to the bottom lines of the current owners of the "rights" rather than to encourage the creation of new works. This article in Mother Jones outlines some of the stupidity involved in overprotecting, i.e. preventing access to, so-called "intellectual property."

Car Guy Stuff

I should have known about this site before, but I didn't. Now if you didn't, you do. If you're lucky enough to click on my site, that is.

Leftlane News - Car News For Enthusiasts

Parallels Between My Living Through Two Years of Middle School and the Two Terms of the Bush Presidency.

From McSweeney's

Franz Ferdinand Frontman Shot By Gavrilo Princip Bassist | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Franz Ferdinand Frontman Shot By Gavrilo Princip Bassist | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Sploid: America hates atheists

Sploid: America hates atheists

How wonderfully, typically, quintessentially American.

How to spot a baby conservative

Hint: it's the whiny, insecure ones.

If Bush ruled the world

If Bush ruled the world - News & Features - International Herald Tribune

Cheerleading: a sport in crisis

An interesting take on the quintessentially American "sport."

Sport | Cheerleading: a sport in crisis

Clooney's a Liberal!

and he takes on Democrats, who so deserve to be knocked upside the head for being wussy, wimp, chickenshit assholes for not standing up for something.

The Blog | George Clooney: I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It! | The Huffington Post

God angry at Blair

Terry Jones, Python and Medievalist, has a scoop. Sources close to the Almighty report that He's quite pissed at the British PM.

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | God: I've lost faith in Blair

MAKE: Blog: Street-legal jet powered VW Beetle

I gotta get one of these! My kids already think I drive too fast.

MAKE: Blog: Street-legal jet powered VW Beetle

Lost Civil Rights Photos

Negatives found in a box in an equipment closet are lost photos from the Civil Rights Movement.

al.com: Unseen. Unforgotten.

Where to Stay in Nairobi

On a lighter note than usual:

Africa, East Africa Safari adventure Accommodation Giraffe Manor, Nairobi

More Greenwald

See this post for more Republican hypocrisy.

Folk Songs of the Far Right Wing

Folk Songs of the Far Right Wing

Daily Kos: Science Friday: A Trillion Worlds for the Taking

Asteroids!

Daily Kos: Science Friday: A Trillion Worlds for the Taking

Challenging conventional wisdom on Israel/Palestine

BOOKFORUM | Feb/Mar 2006

CD ripping isn't fair use

More on the perils of DMCA. Does anyone else see pervasive anti-fair use technology coming soon to a medium near you?

Boing Boing: RIAA: CD ripping isn't fair use

Doing Business with China

The recent dusting of ire toward China by members of Congress belies an essential reality: China represents exactly what Capitalism needs: huge markets populated by an oppressed people who have cash. China is capitalism without liberty, an ideal system for business: it allows profit while ensuring that there won’t—or can’t—be significant instability. If businesses can be sure of a climate that supports them while at the same time prevents worker unrest, “excessive” democracy (in the form of taxes on businesses, for example), then the environment for doing business is perfect.

Key U.S. technology and internet companies have been complicit in helping China achieve this objective. Limiting access to the ’net through “commercializing” it—ending internet neutrality—is a step on the way to developing means of silencing critics of business and government. Boingboing has been keeping track of a lot of this. For one of the recent entries, see here. For a good rant, see John Batelle here. I’ll be interested in seeing what, if anything, comes out of this hearing.

China’s defense of its position is based on the old playground defense: the West did it first, so it’s okay for us.

This model or theory applies mostly to large corporations, but I’m afraid that the future will bring more restrictions on personal and internet freedom as those corporations exert increasing control over how we live our lives and enjoy the fruits of our labors. DRM is but one example, one that I will leave for another post.

Two in a row gets Greenwald on my blogroll

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Why Ann Coulter matters

Cheney should have had this on hand

Visual Hunting Aid | Needlenose

I don't know if I'm there yet, but this is interesting

BAY AREA / Out of the retail rat race / Consumer group doesn't buy notion that new is better

I know my friend and fellow blogger jec will enjoy this, though.

I just think this is cool

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Furnished home found in storm drain

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Do Bush followers have a political ideology?

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Do Bush followers have a political ideology?

This is a great post. I haven't posted anything in a while, but this is certainly worthy.

Slideshow of musicians who did too soon

NBC 4 - Slideshow

The Forbes Fictional Fifteen - Forbes.com

Ordinarily I don't have much time for Forbes (the individual or the magazine) but this is pretty interesting.

The Other I.D.

Seed: The Other I.D.

The Claremont Institute: Rebels Without a Clue

A review of Nation of Rebels, a critique of the Left by commited Leftists

Carter: the best ex-President, ever

See James Wolcott on Carter's latest book.

Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal

Typical