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| Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 | | 2:48 am |
So I watched New Moon (bootlegged, I'm not giving money to that franchise, but i need to know what I'm railing against) and then this made me feel better: YES THAT REALLY JUST HAPPENED! | | Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | | 10:38 am |
From Gallup
"Gallup Daily tracking from Nov. 17-19 shows President Barack Obama’s job approval slipping to 49% for the first time in his presidency. Among post-World War II presidents, only Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan dropped below the symbolic majority approval level faster than Obama did." So he's dropped in popularity almost as fast as the two of the most popular two-term-Presidents we've had since WW2 (possibly the two most popular, I'll need to check Eisenhower's stats as he'd be the only competition)? Not really mocking Gallup here as they're just reporting on statistics, but the way the Associated Press is acting like this is such an ominous sign for his presidency is a bit ridiculous given the aforementioned reality. | | Saturday, November 14th, 2009 | | 5:27 pm |
Word of Advise...
Don't find out someone you've idolized for years seems to be a closet Scientologist. It's extremely upsetting. What someone believes about the nature of the human experience & how they connect with divinity is between them & divinity, and all of the so-called "weird" beliefs of Scientology don't bother me in the slightest. However making massive financial investment in the Church a tenant of going Clear (via thousand-dollar an hour auditing secessions) THAT is obscene. The use of those supposedly confidential auditing records against perceived enemies (often ex-members) is obscene. Operation Snow-White was obscene. Operation Freakout was obscene. The deaths of people denied professional mental health treatment is obscene. And if this person I adored is financially supporting all of that, I don't know if I can ever financially support him again. | | Friday, November 13th, 2009 | | 8:39 pm |
Audra's cat Tinsel has given me stigmata! | | Friday, October 9th, 2009 | | 5:36 am |
... *blinks at Nobel committee* REALLY?!You don't feel the need to wait till he's actually accomplished any of the things you're honoring him for? Considering on dealing with the UN & Nuclear Anti-Proliferation he's just returning to the policies of the Clinton Administration, this has got to be pissing Bill off. Don't get me wrong, I like President Obama, I voted for him, considering the alternatives I'll probably vote for him next time, but he's been in office less than a year. Is it just the relief of not having George Bush that a remotely sane US President looks Peace Prize worthy to you? | | 12:42 am |
Bon Jovi
Did anyone else know that Bon Jovi has a song called "Shot through the Heart" that is emphatically NOT the song you're thinking of? The one you are most likely thinking of is actually called "You Give Love a Bad Name". This confused the hell out of me after I downloaded one album for "Shot through the Heart" and thought I had entered a parallel universe for about half an hour until I figured it out (most lyric databases make the mistake of labeling "You Give Love a Bad Name" as "Shot Through the Heart"). "Shot Through the Heart" was on the self-titled first album released in 1984 and opens with Shot through the heart it's all part of the game we call love
Would you be content to see me crying
After all those little games you put me through?
After all I've done for you you're lying
Wouldn't it be nice to tell the truth?
Didn't somebody somewhere say
You're gonna take a fall?
I gave you everything
Now here's the curtain call
Shot through the heart as I lay there alone in the dark
Through the heart it's all part of the game we call love It's one of the most beautifully ridiculous emo-whinefests I've ever heard. This is as opposed to the aforementioned "You Give Love a Band Name", which was first on their 1986 album "Slippery When Wet", and as I'd hope you know opens with: Shot through the heart,
And you're to blame
Darling, you give love
A bad name.
An angel's smile is what you sell
You promise me heaven and put me through hell.
Chains of love got a hold on me
When passion's a prison you can't break free.
OH! You're a loaded gun ... yeah
OH! There's nowhere to run
No one can save me, the damage is done!So I've basically come to the conclusion the two songs are about the same relationship. The first was written when Jon & unknown-chick first broke up & he was a wreck over it. The latter was written when he came to the conclusion, "Wait.... SHE'S A BITCH!" Current Music: take a wild guess | | Thursday, October 8th, 2009 | | 6:14 pm |
I've realized in recent years that I'm hawkish for a current-day American liberal. I'm certainly not in comparison to the American Right - but I do believe our presence in Afghanistan is 100% justified, and we should be fighting the Taliban as much as Al-Qaeda (I'm a member of the National Organization of Women, we were calling for an end to the Taliban YEARS before 9/11). I think the President should do what it's clear that he's not going to, substantially increase troop levels in Afghanistan AND use it as an opportunity to push the repeal of Don't Ask/Don't Tell through Congress. This makes me uncomfortable though. It's not because I'm not ok occasionally disagreeing with people who I agree with on economic and social policy; I have no qualms about that. Rather it's because I haven't served in the military & I am keenly aware I'm calling for other people to give up their lives for me. I feel terrible about that, but I don't see an alternative, military service simply wasn't an option for me between my psychological issues, my general lack of physical skills (though perhaps that could be partially corrected by the basic training regimen; but it's not going to magically make me more coordinated), my orientation (I will NOT submit to a policy that requires me to hide who I am), and... and this is where i feel like an arrogant jack ass.... while I'm theoretically willing to risk my life for my country, I couldn't give up the ability to decide what constitutes "for my country" - I'd be willing to fight in Afghanistan (or to use a historic example - WW2) but not in Iraq (or to use a historic example - Vietnam). Maybe I should start volunteering at the VA hospital. | | Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 | | 6:56 pm |
Shit I Couldn't Make Up!
First of all, real world supervillain Constantine Xinos! (I know, great villain name, right? Part of the reason he'd never ever ever ever be believable in a story as anything other than a parody of a political strawman) http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=325508Telling her mother that she wanted to come to the aid of a library under attack, 11-year-old Sydney Sabbagha stood at the podium before the Oak Brook village board.
"I used to go to the library knowing there were people there to help me find a book. Now there is no one to help me," Sydney said solemnly. "It will never be the same without the people you fired."
Sydney nestled back into her seat, but that didn't stop 69-year-old criminal attorney Constantine "Connie" Xinos from boldly putting her in her place.
"Those who come up here with tears in their eyes talking about the library, put your money where your mouth is," Xinos shot back. He told Sydney and others who spoke against the layoffs of the three full-time staffers (including the head librarian and children's librarian) and two part-timers to stop "whining" and raise the money themselves.
"I don't care that you guys miss the librarian, and she was nice, and she helped you find books," Xinos told them.
"Don't cry crocodile tears about people who are making $100,000 a year wiping tables and putting the books back on the shelves," Xinos smirked, apparently referencing the fired head librarian, who has advanced degrees and made $98,676 a year. He said Oak Brook had to "stop indulging people in their hobbies" and "their little, personal, private wants."
Sydney was upset and "her little friend was in tears" after Xinos spoke at the meeting last week, says mom Hope Sabbagha.
"I wanted that kid to lose sleep that night," a grinning Xinos says Wednesday, as he invites me for a nearly two-hour interview in his Mercedes-Benz in the gated Oak Brook community where he lives. "This is the real world and the lesson, you folks who brought your kids here, is if you want something, pay for it."And then he twirled his mustache & broke into a song about kicking puppies. He campaigned, successfully, against a plan to bring subsidized housing for seniors into town by declaring, "I don't want to live next to poor people. I don't want poor people in my town."I have to at least give him props for saying it outloud instead of how conservatives (and a disturbing number of privileged liberals in places like San Francisco) beat around the bush... But still, if I put those words in a character's mouth no one would buy it! In other news, over on Conservapedia (the conservative alternative wikipedia's "liberal bias"), they've started a project to get all that commie shit out of the Bible, because OBVIOUSLY they were only put there as part of liberal conspiracy to neuter Christianity and the Free Market Economics it's based on: http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_ProjectIt's comforting to remember all of the horrible things that YHWH has promised he'll do these people for this... | | Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | | 4:09 am |
My advise to the President...
- Don't sign the Baucus bill under any circumstance, but use it as leverage to get an up or down vote on it AND the House version (i.e. get Blue Dogs to agree to vote to close debate, even though they'll vote against the House bill) If you sign the Baucus bill, we're through. - I know it's to late to back out, but a personal pitch for your home town to the Olympic committee is beneath the office, Mr. President. Michelle doing it was perfect, but now if they choose Rio, you look weak. Just for future reference when this sort of thing comes up in the future... - You have to send more troops in to Afghanistan. Otherwise any lack of success in the future will be "your fault." This is not Vietnam, this is not the Soviets in Afghanistan, this is not Iraq. Unlike all three of those cases, you can justify this to the populace - we are at war with the people who attacked us on 9/11. As a note though, to take an opportunity, and appease the left - include the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the appropriations bill for the increased military spending. We can argue to the right it's a necessary security & man power measure for the troop increase (if nothing else, we need the translators); and we need to get this done before the 2010 election (we are going to get are ass handed to us in 2010, the anti-Obama numbers will be out in force, while the pro-Obama multitudes won't be mobilized without him on the ballot). - When Ginsberg retires, please keep at least one non-Christian on the Supreme Court. Considering the Church/State issues they have to deal with, that perspective is important. | | Thursday, September 17th, 2009 | | 4:51 pm |
So in addition to the countless negative effects on gender politics by inundating young girls with messages to total submission, the awesome power of obscene infatuation, abstinence-until-marriage (immediately after high school to said infatuation, so you can finally have sex - sacrificing your entire life & potential to him), all while calling it "good morals".... I had to concede yesterday that there was one positive effect of Twilight on gender politics in the Western world - that is that it has helped break the Dr. Phil promoted myth that teen girls don't have libidos. Just a warning: conceding a positive effect of Twilight on the world causes dizziness, nausea, disorientation, and potential black-outs. | | Monday, August 17th, 2009 | | 9:38 pm |
Is it to late to vote for (then) Senator Clinton to be the nominee?
Once you concede you'll sign a weaker health-care bill, it becomes impossible to pass a stronger one. The Blue Dogs will NEVER back a public option now. I swear we've gone from one extreme to another - a president who wouldn't change his mind in the face of overwhelming evidence that he was wrong, to a president who will cave on virtually anything to make sure people still like him. Between this, the upholding of the Bush Administration surveillance policies, as well as the substance of the defense of DoMA.... I mean I'll still vote for him against a Republican in the general election, but if there's a good protest candidate in the primary they'll have my vote. | | Thursday, July 16th, 2009 | | 9:47 pm |
| | Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | | 2:08 am |
So the white supremacist who opened fire at the DC Holocaust Museum apparently is a frustrated artist who has blamed Jews for his constant rejection of his work from galleries... Really?!Seriously, if I read that detail in a story I would mock it as heavy handed and clumsy. | | Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 | | 9:57 pm |
Seriously? What did I think was going to happen? It's American Idol. Of course they went with the safe, comfy, inferior singer as opposed the option that actually mother fuck'in rocked! And I am ready willing and able to call homophobia on this just as I did on Crash beating Brokeback Mountain before it. | | Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 | | 4:23 pm |
| | 9:19 am |
| | Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 | | 6:42 pm |
Stardust
I love Neil Gaiman's work with all my heart, but there's a little thing I need to complain about. Cut for spoilers for both book and movie: ( Read more... ) | | Saturday, April 18th, 2009 | | 3:05 pm |
Off hand thoughts...
Real life transhumanism (as in the philosophy, not the scientific breakthroughs) really creeps me out. The idea that these breakthroughs will somehow erase human failures rather than ENHANCE THEM is patently absurd! You really think that lower economic classes are going to have access to genetic engineering? All that transhuman-evolution will accomplish is to turn the class divide into a species divide. Actually the author I dealt with this issue best was probably Roger Zelazny in "Lord of Light" where the transhuman class had become god ruling over the rest of humanity. And its all well and good to reject the notion that death gives life meaning & label it a literary coping mechanism. Fine. But don't ignore the social value of generational change. One generation giving way to the next is how social progress occurs. Look at the dying out of the racism that once openly permeated American culture (its not gone by any means and we shouldn't pretend it is, but obviously each generation has been less racist than the last for the past century so it's been a positive trend)! Look at the generational breakdown on issues like Gay-rights! Social evolution requires the old guard to die out and the young who can learn from their predecessors mistakes & build on their hard-work to take their place. So don't spin me a story about immortality as an objective universal good, alright! (for the record, it's not the science I have a problem with. I'm all for using genetic engineering to address degenerative diseases, cancer, etc. cloning organs, advancing A.I. technology, exploring the workings of the human mind, and the like; I'm just getting tired of my fellow geeks talking down to me because I don't reject the human condition as a bad thing) | | Thursday, April 16th, 2009 | | 4:16 am |
| | Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 | | 12:48 am |
For the curious, Amazon has explained the mistake as a programmer error falsely equating the sexuality-tag with the adult-tag. They're fixing it. |
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