Apparently, wingnuts disagree. Big surprise.
h/t: Ti-Guy
Update: To the lunatics of the Right, this is the equivalent of “surrender”… Some of the comments are simply amazing (e.g., “He’ll be assasinated [sic], most likely by the Clintons.”)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sounds Good to Me
The New Rulers of The World
Author and journalist John Pilager looks at the dark side of globalization in this documentary based on his book “The New Rules of the World.” According to Pilager “'Global economy” is a modern Orwellian term. On the surface, it is instant financial trading, mobile phones, McDonald’s, Starbucks, holidays booked on the net. Beneath this gloss, it is the globalization of poverty, a world where most human beings never make a phone call and live on less than two dollars a day, where 6,000 children die every day from diarrhea because most have no access to clean water.
“ The facts of globalisation are revealing, a small group of powerful individuals are now richer than most of the population of Africa just 200 giant corporations dominate a quarter of the worlds economic activity: General Motors is now bigger than Denmark, Ford is bigger than South Africa ...”
“.. secretly backed by the United States and Britain and by western business leaders it brought to power General Suharto ... within a year of the blood bath Indonesia's economy was effectively redesigned in America, giving the West access to vast mineral wealth, markets and cheap labour, what President Nixon called the greatest prize in Asia.”
Jackie Mason: English! Who Needs It?
Jackie on the hypocrisy, fraud and selfishness of pandering to the Latino vote.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tales of the Noise Machine®: Bill Cunningham
You have to love this in all sorts of ways... From the lying sack of shit radio host hired to warm up the crowd for Bomber McCain and was instructed to give the faithful partisans “red, raw meat” (and did he ever!), to unctuous Sean Hannity being a whiny, pandering douchebag, to St. McCain furiously backpedaling and disingenuously repudiating his shrieking mercenary attack dog, and finally, to Cunnigham’s subsequent meltdown, indignation and backstabbing treachery…
Colmes: On your radio show, didn’t you call him Barrack Hussein Mohammed Obama?
Cunningham: Well, I did call him that once because Mohammed is the greatest prophet of God according to the Koran…
Colmes: I see, so why did you add a name that wasn’t his name? You said you just said his name, but you actually inserted the name Mohammed to his name. Why did you do that?
Cunningham: I believed at the time that his confirmation and one of his names was Mohammed… and I rescinded the statement and I said Barrack Hussein Obama… I thought…
Allan, I made a mistake.
Later…
Cunningham: “He’s not my candidate… he’s not a conservative…. I’m going to follow the lead of Ann Coulter. I’ve had it with John McCain. I’m going to endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton for president because she will do a better job in the Oval Office I think than the liberal John McCain...
Quite the little passion play.
Six Trivial Things About Me
I’ve been tagged by this fellow to share six “non-important” things/habits/quirks about myself. What the heck, I’ll play along…
1) I don’t have a middle name. My father’s explanation for this decision was that he felt they were “inefficient” and served no purpose. That’s so typical of my father; he was such a prick, but also kind of funny in his own peculiar way.
2) I can’t stand using fine point pens or pencils with a harder grade than 2B. (Related: I’m an insufferable fusspot about cutlery and flatware too.)
3) I enjoy getting the flu. The bodily aches and pains involved are quite interesting to me. In part maybe that’s because it’s kind of novel experience. I haven’t had a cold or the flu in years…
4) I’ve never broken 100 playing 18 holes of golf. The closest I came was when I was stoned and shot 102. I’ve since given up the game for obvious reasons, but I did love its occasional moments of Zen-like serenity and the visceral joy of connecting just-so with the ball... A feeling I might suggest that is better than sex. (Related: Similar experiences with squash, tennis and baseball — limited ability, but much passion.)
5) I hate Starbucks coffee. It’s nasty, bitter and heinously overpriced (and don’t get me started on their baffling argot). The coffee at McDonald’s tastes better and is less expensive. (Related: I’ve never purchased a latté. Ever.)
6) I stopped wearing my glasses about a year ago. They became bothersome and I was curious to see what might happen without artificial correction.
Sorry to break with the meme, but I’m not going to post the rules or presumptuously impose this exercise on anyone else.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Mostly Harmless...
Such is the assessment of the Liberal brain trust regarding the latest federal budget.
Somewhat disappointing, but having already predicted quite a while back that there wouldn’t be an election until the fall, completely unsurprising.
Per Dan Arnold (Calgary Grit):
Dion calls it a “watered down Liberal budget” and “one mile wide and one inch deep”. Hmm... Either way, I don’t think there was anything in this budget that could easily have been turned into an election issue, even if the Liberals wanted to go to the polls.
Yep. Quite so.
Endophobia
It seems the definition of this hitherto unknown word “Endophobic” as coined by a certain Marginalized Action Wingnut, is as follows:
“Someone who prefers the ways of others or to be surrounded by others Or doesn’t like Canadians and wants to treat others better.”
Apparently, it’s a painfully lame effort to turn the word “xenophobic” on its head. Whereas the xenophobe suffers from an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers (fear of the “other” or the outside), the “endophobe” allegedly “prefers the ways of others” and by literal translation “fears the inside.”
Well, perhaps in some respects, the shoe fits. I do happen to prefer many characteristics of other countries and cultures to those of my own two native lands. In my whacky moonbat world, this is simply referred to as being “cosmopolitan” and “eclectic” — that however doesn’t in any way preclude the fact that I’m deeply attached to my heritage and reasonably proud of being a Brit and a Canadian.
As for wanting “to treat others better” … well, isn’t that just sort of a slightly amplified Christian imperative… the Golden Rule and all that? Ah, but of course, the author, being a functional illiterate with a computer, can’t simply be taken at his word. What he presumably means by “to treat others better” isn’t at all an uplifting, aspirational or altruistic sentiment as one might be inclined to think, but to the contrary, instead means something along the lines of “to give unwarranted preferential treatment to those who are completely undeserving but for the fact they are non-white.” This attitude it would seem, can be traced back to a minor personal setback on the employment front that the Marginalized Action Wingut experienced 30 years ago and has festered like a boil ever since.
Yawn. How fucking tedious is that?
Talking to People of Marginal Intelligence…
Over at the LFR loony bin (sorry I can’t link due to property rights issues), “Marginalized Action Dinosaur” takes me to task for calling him a “loon” and stating that his non sequitur assertion about the employment policies of the Bahamas 30 years ago having anything to do with the Canadian experience in terms of social justice, is complete “nonsense.”
Apparently however, my terse response was simply proof of my “lameness” and clear-cut evidence that I’ve got nothing to say on this topic… Yes, I’m a “hapless” dupe of decades-long “socialist propaganda” and “MSM hate propaganda towards white males” that compelled me to “launch into name calling” prompting the marginalized one to ask: “Why is it ok to have hiring based on where you were born in the Bahamas but not in Canada?” If apples and oranges spring immediately to mind after reading that, I can’t say that I blame you.
First of all, I haven’t the slightest clue about the hiring practices of the Bahamian government. According to their Dept. of Labour, they subscribe to the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) which include “the Elimination of Discrimination in the workplace.” Whether that’s actually carried out to the letter in practice is something I can’t possibly be certain of given all I’ve got really got to go by is one anecdote retailed by someone who appears to be disgruntled about some unfortunate past experience in 1980 that may or may not be true.
But never mind that pesky reality stuff, Dino-Action-Guy has the answer: “The only logical conclusion is because RT is a bigot and hates white males if he thinks it’s bad here but good there.” Yes, why of course! The answer is plain as day: I’m a bigot who hates white males. Clearly, that’s the ONLY “logical” conclusion any sentient person could possibly arrive at. Oh, and not to mention that I’m a “fascist” too, at least according to Richard Evans, because… well, I’m not quite sure. Apparently, because I posted a video about British Nationalist racists and suggested that some of the more strident right-wing extremists here in Canada would feel quite at home with those folks.
But back to Dino-Action-Guy, who goes on to lavishly embellish the charge against me… Now I’m not just merely a bigot, but I’m a “socialist endophobic bigot!” I’m completely unfamiliar with the term “endophobic” by the way — it seems to be something of Dino-Action-Guy’s own coinage — but I’m sure it connotes some kind of absolutely wretched perfidy. And why exactly would I be an “endophobic bigot” you ask… Well, because Dino-Action Guy IMAGINED that I said “…we need bigoted hiring ie no males are allowed to apply at public works, but we NEED more boatloads of new Canadians while we have over a million unemployed.” Yes, Dino-Action-Guy made that up out of whole cloth — I never said or even suggested any such thing. In other words, he’s what one might indelicately call, A FUCKING LIAR.
In closing, Dino-Action-Guy calls me a hypocrite based on this pendulous question: “Why do you think it’s ok to be racist towards white males? And that not being racist towards them is loony.” Um, well first of all, I never said that racism of any sort was acceptable (although it’s a subject that could be explored with more nuance and context, vis-à-vis the issue of equity and so-called “affirmative action” — there may conceivably be instances of positive racism). As to the second “point” asking why not being racist towards white males is loony… this makes no sense at all to me. Maybe your decoder ring is working better than mine and you can decipher this. It’s lost on me.
So, my apologies for boring you with this absurd silliness, but just to recap… I called “Marginalized Action Dinosaur” a “loon” and said his stuff about Bahamian hiring practices was “nonsense”… Seems pretty spot on to me, but that’s just my entirely biased opinion. (Which is probably “endophobic” too!)
Dispatches: Supermarket Secrets – Part 2
From the Channel4 website: The second part of the series meets the organic potato farmer who feeds much of his crop to his cows because, he says, the supermarkets deem his produce to be insufficiently cosmetically pleasing. The film also hears from a toxicologist about the levels of pesticide residues in supermarket fresh produce; reveals how dairy cattle are now factory farmed and why packaged fruit and vegetables from your local supermarket may be more expensive that you think – and not as good for you.
“Giai” Blows A Gasket
What KKKate didn’t tell you:
The climate minister, Connie Hedegaard, is calling for an investigation to determine the cause of two violent wind turbine collapses in Denmark in the past week.
Both of the windmills were produced by Vestas, and Hedegaard’s request to the Energy Board comes after other breakdowns both here and abroad have been reported in the past two months.
‘The problems with the turbines abroad have had to do with poor maintenance, and if that’s the case here, then I expect a clear report on how we can ensure this problem is rectified,’ Hedegaard told Berlingske Tidende newspaper.
Her comments come on the heels of the government’s new energy agreement ratified by parliament last week, which calls for the country to have 20 percent of its energy produced by sustainable sources by 2011.
In first of the two collapses, near the city of Århus, a 10-year-old windmill began spinning out of control during high winds. A recording of the explosion-like collapse shows one of the wing blades breaking off, casting debris into the three other wings and shearing the 60- metre tower nearly in half.
Vestas itself will also now conduct an internal investigation to determine why the wind turbines have been breaking down.
‘We’ve still got about 35,000 wind turbines across the globe that are operating fine,’ said Peter Wenzel Kruse, Vestas’s spokesperson. ‘But they’re not infallible. We’re doing what we can and learning from our mistakes.’
I guess by her implied logic, whenever a house is demolished by a hurricane, it means that houses are inherently dangerous structures and we should stop living in them…
Dispatches: Supermarket Secrets – Part 1
Journalist Jane Moore investigates how supermarkets have affected the food on our plates and reveals the tell-tale signs that the food we buy may not have been grown in the way we think.
Using a combination of undercover filming and scientific analysis, “Supermarket Secrets” investigates whether the food on supermarket shelves is really as good as it looks, whether prices are as good as they seem and what happens behind the scenes in the production of supermarket food.
The first part of this Channel 4 documentary deals with Factory Farming, chickens, and general quality of supermarket food.
Dr. Mark Jaccard: Why Carbon Taxes Matter
Dan Grice, Green Party Candidate for Vancouver Quadra, interviews Dr. Mark Jaccard about Carbon Taxes and what to do about the problem.
Meanwhile... on Jupiter.
h/t: Steve @ Far & Wide
BTs: You Bought It, You Own It
Let’s wrap up this BNP thing by jumping straight to the last part of the series.
Nick Griffin (BNP leader): “If they dared show this event on television, millions of people are going to think… Wow. We thought this was a party of back streets and smoky pubs and lager and the rest of it. Wow.”
It’s my belief that the BNP is pulling the wool over the eyes of many voters in Britain; all the pseudo old-school Labour window dressing about agricultural reform, the environment, law and order, etc., is just a politically correct façade to disguise their real agenda which at its root is nothing more than a manifestation of their virulent, xenophobic racism.
Richard Evans at the laughably named “Let Freedom Reign” website (that I can’t link to because it’s an infringement of his “property”) would have you believe that I’m a fascist and think the Conservative Party here in Canada mirrors the BNP, or as he said: “…there are fascists among us but it’s not the conservatives. It’s people like Red Tory…” And “…you believe the BNP represents Canadian conservatives.”
Well no, I don’t actually think that, but I can’t help but point out that there are some rather disturbing tendencies amongst both “The Blogging Tories” and “Free Dominion” — expressed by some of their leading lights, I might add — that appear to be more than a little sympathetic with the murderously hateful sentiments whispered privately by the BNP. I would sincerely hope that the Right in Canada can manage to get its house in order and excise this sort of malevolent filth from its ranks. Unfortunately, I suspect they won’t be inclined to do so for various reasons that will have to remain open to speculation.
But don’t think for a minute that whenever the next election rolls around, liberals and progressives won’t be quick to remind people of what supporters of the STEPHEN HARPER Party have had to say in the past about sterilization and eugenics for certain “undesirable” elements of society, their advocacy for apartheid with regards to First Nations peoples, their strident denial that anthropogenic climate chance even exits, their ridiculous anti-science positions with respect to evolution and their apparent belief in supernatural miracles; and finally, their relentless, merciless and wholly mean-spirited, disrespectful derision of women, immigrants and the working poor in this country. Oh, and as well, they will most surely mention the fact that Conservative supporters gleefully mocked the Holocaust and enthusiastically supported a deranged “full-time Nazi” promoting the notion of slaughtering homosexuals in the name of God…
The Politics of Funny
Personally, I thought Jon Stewart’s “Gaydolph Titler” joke was pretty funny and dealt quite nicely with the clumsy efforts of wingnut goobers and putative “conservative comedians” (an oxymoron, I know) to link Obama’s name to Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. Just a reminder that any right-winger attempting to employ that tactic here will have their comment summarily deleted — sorry, but there’s no further debate on the matter.
The Revolution is Over
Yep, it certainly seems that, for all intents and purposes, the Ron Paul “Revolution” is done for. It was entertaining while it lasted, but the show is over (there might still be a large public protest in the summer, however). So the question now is, where will his supporters go? Perhaps given their “outsider” status and obvious dissatisfaction with “politics as usual” if they don’t drop out of the system all together, they might very well feel right at home with the Nader campaign…
Monday, February 25, 2008
What’s in a Name? – Continued
Last week, I wondered why raving sociopaths select particular names for their Internet IDs. Specifically, this was in reference to a certain person calling him/herself “John West” that had commented over at “Canada’s Best Blog” with the following loathsome remark:
The theory that a result is more likely genetic than environmental is obvious when you consider the cushy up-bringing, educational opportunities and other advantages that so many Liberals experience in Canada, yet so many of them are still retarded, illogical, weak-spirited, dependent, unappreciative, small-minded, petty, arrogant fools who make the lives of millions a daily frustration.
Such flawed individuals can only be due to bad genetics. It's nearly impossible to learn to be such a waste of skin.
I’d joking suggested that this individual might be associating himself with the madcap character flogging a fishy product bearing the same name. But courtesy of P.Z. Myers at Pharyngula, it seems there’s another, vastly more intriguing possibility…
The Secret Agent: BNP Exposed - Part 4 & 5
Meanwhile, on the dark side of Uranas... Over at the laughably titled “Let Freedom Reign” (no point in linking because it’s BLOCKED) Bereitschaftsleiter Richard Evans has this to say:
“Well, don’t go feelin’ all special because I block links from CC as well. You see, I have the freedom to determine who I allow to link here.”
Some kind of “freedom”…
The Secret Agent: BNP Exposed - Part 1
With the help of a disgruntled party member, an investigative journalist from the BBC goes undercover with the British National Party (BNP). Disturbing to say the least.
In private conversations, it seems a fair number of them fantasize about mass murder and want nothing more than to “shoot Pakis” (as they indiscriminately refer to any Muslim or person of “Asian” extraction).
And if you feel that some of the more egregious racists from the “Blogging Tories” and “Free Dominion” would be right at home with this lot, you’re probably not far off the mark.
Update: Over at LFR, failed municipal politician, Internet malefactor and all-around witless dunderhead Richard Evans, goes to a great deal of trouble to arrive at a hilariously moronic conclusion, deducing along the way that I am, apparently, a fascist. Uh-huh.
Update2: Here's a laugh and a half. If you click on the link to “Let Freedom Reign” from this site, it’s BLOCKED. Oh, irony where is thy sting? NAMBLA luvin’ Richard Evans, ladies and gentleman… hypocritical douchebag extraordinaire!
Liberal Video Contest
Hey, WTF... they neglected to mention our unequivocal pro-sunshine, margarita (sorry, I don’t care much for lollipops) and rainbow stance!
Anyway, here’s the video I voted for over at the Liblogs viddy contest. Nice job, Annie! This was one of the very few entrants that wasn’t just another feeble, painfully tedious attack on Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. Not of course, I hasten to add, that plenty of criticism in that direction isn’t fully warranted (I’m sure most folks across the political spectrum can rattle off a well-worn list of their favourite grievances, both great and small, by heart), but in my opinion and with all due respect to the dedicated creators involved, the salvos presently on offer all missed the mark to one degree or another. Check them out for yourself and tell me if I’m out to lunch.
Of course, just as most people lie through their teeth to pollsters, telling them what they think they want to hear or parroting what they feel is the appropriately “correct” response, almost everyone decries “negative advertising” as being tawdry, degrading, and representative of a shameful coarsening our political discourse, and other such twaddle. Yeah, whatever (is there an emoticon for eye-rolling?). The fact of the matter however is that they’re effective; meaning that as with most things to do with politics we, the voters… the rubes, if you will, are absolute, two-faced hypocrites for the most part. If this wasn’t the case, then negative ads wouldn’t be such a perennial fixture in almost every political campaign you can think of. So for starters, let’s accept that this form of advertising is a perfectly legitimate part of the propaganda arsenal.
That said, there’s indelicate art of sorts to putting together an effective negative ad and some fairly straightforward rules that should be followed that I’ll attempt to explore in subsequent posts. With an election possibly looming at some time in the not-too-distant future, how best to take on the Harper Conservatives is kind of an intriguing and not altogether irrelevant line of inquiry. And who knows… maybe by mucking about with some ideas in this regard, together we could even come up with a really good line of attack that will save the cash-strapped Liberal Party some expensive consulting fees. In any case, there might be some fun to be had in the process.
Our “Progressive” Heritage: Part 1
A response of sorts to this painfully meretricious load of codswallop.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Another Quixotic Nader Campaign
The entrance of Ralph Nader into the presidential campaign certainly doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Just as predictable will be the howls of indignant outrage from many timorous Democrats and liberals who apparently are so insecure that they actually fear that he might siphon off critical votes in a replay of the 2000 debacle. Nonsense!
As I’ve said before, it’s hard not to have conflicted feelings about his candidacy, especially in light of the dubious motives behind some of his financial backers and promoters, but I believe Ralph is correct in maintaining that if the Democrats can’t pull off a landslide victory in the next election, they might just as well “wrap up” and “close down” for good or merge into some different form because such an improbable rebuke would be proof positive that they’re obviously serving no useful purpose whatsoever.
The reality of the situation is that given the labyrinthine rules of the American electoral system, the almost insurmountable barriers to ballot access and the innumerable bureaucratic obstacles needed for any third-party or independent to mount a viable campaign, there isn’t a hope in hell that Nader will make the slightest bit of difference on the eventual outcome of the election, certainly not any more so than his inconsequential run in 2004 did. Nader is no fool and he most certainly has no illusions that his candidacy poses any serious threat, but that said, it’s still an important opportunity (perhaps the last one he’ll ever have) to air his grievances about the sorry state of democracy in America, the de facto collusion of the Democrats and Republicans to stifle dissent and thwart opposition from independent third-parties, the corrupting influence of corporate patronage, as well as the unconstitutional, criminal recidivism, military adventurism, etc. of the current regime.
As someone who’s incredibly disaffected by the current state of affairs in America and who has been deeply disappointed by the shiftless trimming, waffling and spinelessness of the Democrats over the past eight years (and long before that, actually), I’m quite looking forward to Nader being a nettlesome bother, an outspoken crank and an equal opportunity critic of the status quo.
Ahhhh... The Insatiable Need for Speed!
Well, I finally broke down and got a new high-speed modem today and upgraded to my cable company’s “Xtreme-I” service. Très cool, to be sure, and long overdue. But as liberating as this is, I can’t help but be inclined to think it’s also a bit of a gigantic rip-off. After all, I already had what they laughably call “high speed” service, which in fact was a completely fraudulent misnomer.
Unfortunately, the only available choice in our neck of the woods is between what’s effectively tantamount to a duopoly; that being Shaw Cable and Telus. I don’t know… would deregulation solve this problem and perhaps allow for some more competition in the market, or is that naively hoping for too much?
In any case, never mind my whining. Enjoy this time-lapse “speed painting” exercise in Photoshop 7.0 (eat your heart out KNB!) by Nico Di Mattia
Obama vs Clinton: Foreign Policy Advisers
Via The Real News Network (TRNN), Brazilian journalist Pepe Escobar looks at the various foreign policy advisors for both Clinton and Obama. It leaves me going Hmmmmm...
h/t: Reader “Blackstar” (cool nic, btw)
Update: In the interest of being “fair and balanced” here’s the assessment of McCain’s foreign policy stance:...
Real Time: 02-22-08 (Matt Taibbi Reports from Youngstown, Ohio)
Taibbi: “In a place where you’d think people would be more critical of anyone who’s ever supported a free trade agreement, Hillary Clinton comes in here tonight and she campaigns against the same agreement she’s voted for consistently ever since she’s been a senator… and the crowd ate it up. So, what does that tell you about presidential campaigning in this country?”
Just out of curiosity, I wanted to find out more about this “four point plan” to “fix NAFTA” she’s disingenuously touting these days in the rust belt towns of Ohio. But unfortunately you can’t find it on her website. There’s nothing under the “Issues” section covering this topic at all and the “four point plan” is nowhere to be seen. However, there is a press release slamming Obama’s “misleading” fliers (which aren’t at all really) that cites one critical remark she made back in 2000: “What happened to NAFTA I think was we inherited an agreement that we didn’t get everything we should have got out of it in my opinion. I think the NAFTA agreement was flawed. The problem is we have to go back and figure out how we are going to fix that.” “Inherited”… Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha. Yeah, well technically that’s correct, but talk about misleading.
The fact of the matter is that Clinton (a former director of Wal-Mart, bear in mind) has been an enthusiastic supporter of NAFTA, and has been at the forefront of efforts to promote the elimination of trade barriers (she’s voted for every free trade agreement except CAFTA) around the world. So what exactly does she mean when she says “get[ting] everything we should have got”? By the way, Obama is no better. He too wants to “fix” NAFTA by some unspecified means.
Real Time: 02-22-08 (Monologue & Interview w/ Brokaw)
Why does Tom always sound like he has a lozenge stuck in his windpipe?
Brokaw (quoting John Osborne) on “anonymous sources”: We should characterize [them] by saying, “A cranky who lost his job as a result of his incompetence told me today about his boss…”
Obama Attacked as a “Far Left Ideologue”
Coming from Rick “man on dog” Santorum, maybe that’s actually a good thing. Nice little summary of Ricky’s career highlights at the end of the video...
You Go, Girl!
I’ll confess that I’m most certainly not a fan of Hillary Clinton by any means, for all sorts of reasons; but I have to say this plucky counterattack over some allegedly deceptive “Harry and Louise” type mailers (more detail here) distributed by Barack Obama to Ohio voters trashing Clinton’s proposal for universal healthcare was the first spark of really visceral, semi-genuine life her campaign has managed to generate to date (at least in my opinion).
Enough with the speeches, and the big rallies, then using tactics that are right out of Karl Rove’s playbook. This is wrong. And every Democrat should be outraged, because this is the kind of attack that not only undermines core Democratic values, but gives aid and comfort to very special interests and their allies in the Republican party, who are against doing what we want to do for America. Shame on you, Barack Obama. It’s time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That’s what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio, let’s have a debate over tactics and your behavior in this campaign.
I’m not sure how this will play with the bobbleheads, although you can bet they’ll all be talking about it later on this morning, but I sure as hell liked it. A bit counterintuitive perhaps, given hard pundit wisdom up to now has been that Hillary needs to tone down her rhetoric, soften all of her hard edges, expose her vulnerable side and “humanize” her image… Eeewww. Yuck. Well, maybe she’s realized that at this point, no manner of convenient emotional meltdown a la New Hampshire is going to save her ass in Ohio and Texas, so it’s better to come out brawling. Good! This is the kind of fighting spirit the Democrats need. More at C&L.
Update: Krugman puts the boot in. “So this is just poisoning the well for health care reform. The politics of hope, indeed.” Heh. Quite so.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
The Root of All Evil: Part 1 (The God Delusion)
Okay, enough of that brain-curdling tripe. (Way to go, Dave!*) Take a deep breath… let’s return to reality, shall we?
“The Root of All Evil?” is a television documentary, written and presented by that arch secular meanie Richard Dawkins, in which he argues that the world would be better off without religion. Perhaps after viewing the preceding film, you might be inclined to agree.
The documentary was first broadcast in January 2006 on Channel 4 in the UK. Dawkins has said that the title wasn’t his preferred choice — the notion of anything being the root of all evil being fairly ridiculous — but that Channel 4 had insisted on it to create controversy. His sole concession from the producers on the title was the addition of the question mark. This is a companion of sorts to his book, “The God Delusion” that explores the unproven beliefs that are treated as factual by many religions and the extremes to which some followers have taken them.
Dawkins opens the program by describing the “would-be murderers… who want to kill you and me, and themselves, because they’re motivated by what they think is the highest ideal” and goes on to contend that “the process of non-thinking called faith” is not a way of understanding the world, but instead stands in fundamental opposition to modern science and the scientific method, and is divisive and dangerous.
*I keeeed…
L’il Beauty Queens: Part 1 & 2
Let’s shuffle the deck a bit and introduce you to another bizarre form of “child abuse”… Yes, it’s the despicable world of beauty pageants for the little kiddie-winks. Any parallels with the pre-pubescent evangelists is wholly intentional. This is like a Christopher Guest film… but REAL!
A Rational Interlude
A debate from 1999 (LWT) regarding belief, hosted by Melvyn Bragg with Gore Vidal, The Reverend Keith Ward and Baroness Susan Greenfield. In stellar form, Vidal neatly dispenses with Kant’s hackneyed argument that religion is a moral necessity and puts a finer point on the difference between agnosticism and atheism. By the way, isn’t the good reverend just full of the most inane twaddle? Marcus Aurelius was some sort of quasi-Christian even though he was a resolute stoic. What utter nonsense. Oh, and in fairness, Vidal quite inexcusably is waaaay off base in his chronology there, but that’s another matter.
Baby Bible Bashers: Part 1 & 2
After watching this series of videos it’s hard not to side with Richard Dawkins’ contention that the indoctrination of children in the teachings of religion is a form of child abuse. Of course, these are extreme examples, much in the same way as the frighteningly zealous “God warriors” portrayed in the film “Jesus Camp” are, but they exist nonetheless and may perhaps be more prevalent than we might first think.
This notion of “child abuse” is one that, quite frankly, I still have some degree of difficulty coming to terms with, and certainly the backlash from the “faith community” has been one of furious outrage and indignation. A Google search on the topic will rapidly produce a balance of postings at least 50 to 1 from infuriated believers who find the whole idea insulting, “completely stupid” or otherwise beneath contempt.
Well, I’m not convinced by their acrimonious protestations. Funnily enough, in many of them, it seems there’s a good deal of moral relativism involved; the argument being that there are plenty of worse forms of “child abuse” (which undoubtedly there are, but it’s beside the point) or that, on balance, the benefits of religious indoctrination outweigh any conceivable downside. What benefits accrue from such teachings escapes me… a moral code, one presumes. But surely this is something that can be nurtured quite independent of religion.
Anyway, be amazed… and horrified.
Note: The video quality is a bit dodgy in parts.
h/t: Dave!
Tinkering
Trying to make things a bit more “reader friendly” or something of that nature. The site will probably look like shit for the next day or so. Bear with me.
Update: Ta da! Well, that’ll have to do for now. A lick o’paint, a lick o’paint… as Basil Fawlty’s hapless, cut-rate repairman would say.
MediaCurves: McCain’s Denial Presser
More on McCain's recent presser denying suggestions of impropriety made in the New York Times.
What is MediaCurves? From the company's website:
MediaCurves.com™ provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements.
MediaCurves.com™ conducts national studies to obtain Americans’ views on advertisements, talk show appearances by political figures, and controversial statements by actors, actresses, political figures and sports personalities.
Oh boy, with all the election coverage, this is going to be fun! By the way, quite interesting isn't it how closely the Democratic and Independent responses track almost exactly the same...
Friday, February 22, 2008
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
An independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture. The film discusses disparities the filmmaker sees in ratings and feedback: between Hollywood and independent films, between gay and straight sexual situations, and between violence and sexual content.
This is a rather long film, but well worth the investment of time, I think. The Kafkaesque nature of the MPAA is a truly bizarre anomaly in a “free society” (as it’s laughably called).
A Disregard for Science
ht: Red Canuck
From Persia to Iran: Part II
More slides of the country John McCain wants to "bomb, bomb, bomb..."
From Wikipedia:
In the early 1950s, there was a political crisis centered in Iran that commanded the focused attention of British and American intelligence outfits. In 1951 Dr. Mossadegh came to office, committed to re-establish the democracy, constitutional monarchy, and nationalizing the Iranian petroleum industry, which was controlled by the British. From the start he erroneously believed that the Americans, who had no interest in Anglo-Iranian Oil company, would support his nationalization plan. He was buoyed by the American Ambassador, Henry Grady. In the events, Americans supported the British, and fearing that the Communists with the help of Soviets were posed to overthrow the government they decided to remove Mossadegh from the office. Shortly before the 1952 presidential election in the US the British government invited Kermit Roosevelt of the CIA to London and proposed that they cooperate under the code name “Operation Ajax” to cause the downfall of Mossadegh from office.
In 1951, under the leadership of the nationalist movement of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the Iranian parliament voted unanimously to nationalize the oil industry. This shut out the immensely profitable Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was a pillar of Britain's economy and political clout. A month after that vote, Mossadegh was named Prime Minister of Iran.
Under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., a senior CIA officer and grandson of the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the CIA and British intelligence funded and led a covert operation to depose Mossadegh with the help of military forces loyal to the Shah, known as Operation Ajax. The plot hinged on orders signed by the Shah to dismiss Mossadegh as prime minister and replace him with General Fazlollah Zahedi, a choice agreed on by the British and Americans. Despite the high-level coordination and planning, the coup initially failed, causing the Shah to flee to Baghdad, later leaving for Rome. After a brief exile in Italy, the Shah returned to Iran, this time through a successful second attempt at the coup. The deposed Mossadegh was arrested, given a show trial, and condemned to death. The Shah commuted this sentence to solitary confinement for three years in a military prison, followed by house arrest for life.
With Iran's great oil wealth, Mohammad Reza Shah became the pre-eminent leader of the Middle East, and self-styled "Guardian" of the Persian Gulf. He became increasingly despotic during the last years of his regime. In the words a US Embassy dispatch, “The shah’s picture is everywhere. The beginning of all film showings in public theaters presents the shah in various regal poses accompanied by the strains of the National anthem… The monarch also actively extends his influence to all phases of social affairs…there is hardly any activity or vocation which the shah or members of his family or his closest friends do not have a direct or at least a symbolic involvement. In the past, he had claimed to take a two party-system seriously and declared “If I were a dictator rather than a constitutional monarch, then I might be tempted to sponsor a single dominant party such as Hitler organized”.
However, by 1975, he abolished the multi-party system of government so that he could rule through a one-party state under the Rastakhiz (Resurrection) Party in autocratic fashion. All Iranians were pressured to join in. The shah’s own words on its justification was; “We must straighten out Iranians’ ranks. To do so, we divide them into two categories: those who believe in Monarchy, the constitution and the Six Bahman Revolution and those who don’t… A person who does not enter the new political party and does not believe in the three cardinal principles will have only two choices. He is either an individual who belongs to an illegal organization, or is related to the outlawed Tudeh Party, or in other words a traitor. Such an individual belongs to an Iranian prison, or if he desires he can leave the country tomorrow, without even paying exit fees; he can go anywhere he likes, because he is not Iranian, he has no nation, and his activities are illegal and punishable according to the law”. In addition, the Shah had decreed that all Iranian citizens and the few remaining political parties must become part of Rastakhiz.
What's in a Name?
It's always something of a mystery why raving sociopaths choose the names they do... I leave it to you to ponder why SDA's virulently racist commenter "John West" selected this particular handle.
Optical Illusions
Courtesy of reader Dave, check out this dazzling site filled with some really marvellous, and sometimes infantile, optical illusions. (Warning: Make sure you've taken your Dilantin® first.) On a semi-related note, allow me to recommend a wonderful book "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter that plumbs the interrelationship between form and content.
"These pages demonstrate visual phenomena, and 'optical' or 'visual illusions'. The latter is more appropriate, because most effects have their basis in the visual pathway, not in the optics of the eye."
Blogging Tories: Pro Eugenics!
Keen observers may have noticed a disturbing and rather alarming trend amongst a number of Stephen Taylor’s “Blogging Tories” towards openly supporting the loathsome and generally discredited notions of “eugenics” of late. It may be something of a stretch to suggest that this hideous vogue dovetails rather neatly with their overt support of “full-time Nazis,” their joyful glee at the thought of murdering homosexuals, their sympathetic hearing of the rants of Ernst Zundel, their rabid Islamophobia, and their dismissive mocking of the Holocaust, but indeed, this seems to be the case.
Yes, the irony is most bountiful, given the unfortunate “liberal” and “progressive” lineage of this hideous strain of thought that seeks to eliminate socially “blemished” and unacceptable genetic strains from the human gene pool. What on earth is going on with these people?
Behold this amazing comment of one "John West" at SDA:
"The theory that a result is more likely genetic than environmental is obvious when you consider the cushy up-bringing, educational opportunities and other advantages that so many Liberals experience in Canada, yet so many of them are still retarded, illogical, weak-spirited, dependent, unappreciative, small-minded, petty, arrogant fools who make the lives of millions a daily frustration.
Such flawed individuals can only be due to bad genetics. It's nearly impossible to learn to be such a waste of skin."
This is today's Conservatives, ladies and gentlemen. This is the virulently hateful, genocidal "mainstream" of thought over at "Canada's Best Blogger"...
Dead Ringers: Labour vs Conservatives
Easy to make parallels to our own situation... Liberals, Conservatives... Really, what's the bloody difference? The Afghanistan file is a brilliant case in point.
Slang Time with Stéphane Dion
Some definite comic possibilities here...
Surely some Lib whiz-kid can come up with something better directed at Harper along these lines. The effect is pretty amusing regardless, but I'm sure we can do better.
UPDATE: Come on Libs... Visit this pathetic site and tell me you can't come up with something more devastatingly funny, cutting and viscously honest.
Hitler Wasn’t an Atheist
It’s perhaps somewhat ironic that doltish Christian apologists insist on characterizing Adolph Hitler as an “atheist” when, in fact, he enthusiastically advocated an alternative “religion peculiar to our race”; a "religion of blood" that would “throw off the veneer of Christianity” and be devoted to the occult mysteries of blood and soil (nationalism). Far from being an atheist, Hitler was a self-declared “enemy of intelligence” and might be more properly described as a pagan deist. The notion that Christianity is little more than a superficial veneer that masks these powerful emotional undercurrents of irrationality and unreason in the guise of a different set of ritualistic obsverances is, as they say, “provocative”…
The Republicans' Fear Factor
This latest melodramatic ad by the GOP complaining about expiration of The Protect America Act is, as Glenn Greenwald points out, Republican politics in a nutshell. "Impressively, the ad dramatically packs every component of GOP politics into one minute: There are dark, primitively omnipotent Arab Terrorists lurking darkly and menacingly, planning to slaughter you and your whole entire family right now. You have only a few seconds to live, literally or metaphorically. The clock on your life is counting down right now. You are in severe danger." Thankfully, it seems many Americans are growing sick and tired of this fear-mongering bullshit.
The Prisoner (Video Companion)
Some interesting trivia and factoids about the famous British cult TV series from the 60s. Arguably one of the best television series ever...? This won't be terribly edifying to devoted fans, but it does include some nice clips.
Doris Kearns Goodwin on Abraham Lincoln
The always delightful Doris Kearns Goodwin shares details from her most recent book, "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln."
Maybe, like me, you've sometimes amused yourself by putting together an imaginary dinner party in your head and have wondered which five (or ten, or whatever) famous people you would invite... Well, Goodwin would definitely be on my list.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Guy Fawkes & The Gunpowder Plot
Nick Knowles explores the facts and the fiction behind the legendary Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot in this lighthearted historical mockumentary.
Kooky Christians: Cartoons Are Evil!
It seems the Christofascists don't like competition when it comes to pedaling ludicrous nonsense to children.
Tweety Sandbags an Obama Supporter
An Obama supporter (State Sen. Kirk of Texas) isn't up for "Hardball" but Matthews is utterly stumped when asked to name one significant legislative accomplishment of the Senate as a whole. Zing!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
From Persia to Iran
The first part of an elegant slide show by Farhad Nabipour that combines marvelous images of Achaemenid architecture, sculpture and artifacts juxtaposed with pictures of modern Iran, together with a soundtrack by Pink Floyd. An odd mixture perhaps, but surprisingly effective. Probably even better when slightly stoned.
Fiat Empire
A interesting documentary film that maintains the Federal Reserve's practices are a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Seems to make a lot of sense to me, but of course, that doesn't mean much. I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to economics; confuses the dickens out of me.
Great Moments In Presidential Speeches
A compilation of some of Bush's more hilarious moments. Many are genuinely funny, and not necessarily in a mean-spirited way.
Faux News: Fair, Balanced... And Credible!
Ah, Bill... What a poltroon. He really needs to get a grip on his irrational loathing of NBC News.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
It's Over, Hillary
After tonight's results I'd be quite surprised if she managed to pull a win out of Texas, and even Ohio that supposedly plays to her lower income demographics, is starting to look iffy. Time to face facts: Hillary is through. She's fallen and she can't get up. Let's hope Dr. Dean pulls the pull on this trainwreck before too long.
UPDATE: Despite several days of coverage on CNN suggesting that Hawaii (a plum assignment) would be "competitive" Obama blew Clinton out of the water by a margin of 3-1. So much for the prescience of reporters in the field.
UPDATE2: Oh no. It seems I'm in the same camp with the likes of Larry Kudlow. Maybe there's hope for Clinton yet. Larry's almost always wrong about absolutely everything.
Newsflash: Brit Hume, Still a Douchebag
Oh my God, Michelle Obama is a liberal! And even worse, she might be that most heinous and treasonous kind... an "Arts liberal"! Heaven help us all. Gee, I wonder what Alexander Britton Hume, Sr. studied at the University of Virginia... Any guesses?
And Now For Something Completely Different: Brainy Barbarians
So you think you know everything about the Romans, do you? They gave us sophisticated road systems, chariots and the modern-day calendar. And of course they had to contend with barbarian hordes who continually threatened the peace, safety and prosperity of their Empire. Didn't they? Terry Jones' "Barbarians" takes a completely different approach to Roman history. Not only does it offer us the chance to see the Romans from a non-Roman perspective, it also reveals that most of the people written off by the Romans as uncivilized, savage and barbaric were in fact organized, motivated and intelligent groups of people, with no intentions of overthrowing Rome and plundering its Empire.
This episode focuses on the inventiveness of different peoples that the Romans regarded as "barbarians," Although that's perhaps stretching the term a bit beyond its conventional definition because in this case it's applied mainly to the Greeks of Syracuse and Rhodes, and to the Parthians (successors to the Persians).
The first part of the series is available at Guba.
A Bumpy Ride Ahead
Unsurprising results so far, but as noted by Khan, it may make little difference if, by manipulating the constitution, the powers of the prime minister have effectively been transferred to the president.
Castro Steps Down
Fidel Castro announced his resignation as president of Cuba and commander-in-chief of Cuba's military today, according to a letter published in the state-run newspaper, Granma. It should be interesting to see what position the various presidential candidates take on this new development with respect to future Cuban-American relations.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Happy "Family Day"
I almost forgot. (We don't celebrate the family out here in B.C., being the heathen degenerates that we are — on the coast, at least.) Anyway, here's an old favourite.
Trailer Talk: Business Advice
Speaking of pecans... I just love this guy. He really cracks me up for some goofy reason. I wish he'd make another video to update folks on what the status of the Butter for President campaign is these days.
Vote Hucklebee!
I don't know whether to laugh or cry over this. Good grief, what catastrophically stupid people. No wonder Jerry Falwell felt right at home in Lynchurg (home to the esteemed Liberty "University" folks — you know, the one that's populating the ranks of the Bush administration's bureaucracy).
h/t: Crooks & Liars
Correction: My bad. I just remembered that Liberty-U and the Thomas Road Baptist Church are in Lynchburg, VA, not Tennessee. Well, whatever... These loons are still as nutty as a pecan pie.
Blogroll Housekeeping
I’ve revived the old blogroll, but it’s from an saved copy of my old template from a ways back. If I’ve inadvertently left you off, please feel free to let me know. As well, if you want to recommend a worthwhile site to include that I might have overlooked, that would be appreciated also. Note that there won’t be any “huns and vandals” on it this time however. Screw them.
Canadia?
More of that fabled "conservative humour" we hear so much about...
p.s. It's Canuckistan, you morons!
Persepolis Recreated
Starting with the work of the German scholar Friedrich Krefter, who spent decades creating a model for a reconstructed Persepolis, film maker Farzin Rezaian and his team have produced a documentary that presents a virtual reconstruction of parts of the Persepolis palace complex. The film that includes commentaries by many of the leading authorities on Achaemenid architecture and history, brings to life and reveals the splendour of the Persepolitan palace complex before its destruction by Alexander the Great.
Please take note the Blogging Tory (that I won’t name to spare him embarrassment) who boldly said these completely hilarious words last month: “Tribal wars between pagan peoples had made the peoples of the Middle East unable to rise up as a unified force and create an empire as had the peoples of Rome, Constantinople, and Cairo.” Uh-huh.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Hmmmm...
Somehow, I don't think this situation is going to go well at all. Does anyone have a clue what our government's position is on this? I certainly haven't heard a peep out of them about it. It would be most interesting to know.
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