highway robbery
Over the years since he ascended to the pinnacle of the House leadership, however, Hastert's fortunes have improved substantially. Last year, he and two business partners sold a parcel of land west of Chicago for a very tidy profit -- only months after he'd "earmarked" hundreds of millions in federal funding for a new highway near their property.From Salon
Anyone else reminded of Whitewater? The key difference being that Hastert diverted government money to his personal benefit while the Clintons lost money on the deal. So I assume that the Republicans that were all up in arms about Whitewater will demand an investigation on this. Hmm...not likely.
network television in its underpants
The fascination of raw feeds—the useless video stream bounced off satellites before and after the "real" video stream appears on live programming—is an old story. As long ago as 1985, the writer David Owen marveled in the Atlantic about a phenomenon he called "network television in its underpants," wherein owners of home satellite dishes could eavesdrop on, say, an unsuspecting Max Robinson—now deceased, but until 1983 the Chicago anchor for ABC's World News Tonight—as he yelled at colleagues, told dirty jokes, and purchased consumer goods by phone.From Slate
Interesting look into the secret world of the TV talking heads. I'm reminded of this Kurt Vonnegut quote. I imagine seeing the taking heads in their real day-to-day mundane glory would be like running into your 8th grade teacher in street clothes. You almost forget that they actually live in the real world.
Blaise Pascal Quote
Words differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings differently arranged have a different effect.
-Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)
cylons
Knowing that my software errors haven't lead to the destruction of mankind does wonders for my self esteem. Well, they haven't yet lead to the destruction of mankind.
Ann Coulter, project much?
From Ann Coulter Reaches Out to 9-11 Widows - Gawker
She assumes that the Jersey Girls want media attention and are cynically using the death of their husbands to get it. She assumes that they are willing to say or do anything to get that media attention. She claims that the Jersey Girls were sent by the left. There is a one thing comes to mind when I see this. Coulter is projecting.
Pirate Annie has a history of saying or doing anything to get media attention. She has a history of being involved in right-wing media operations. Why wouldn't she think that everyone is as big a media whore as she is? Why wouldn't she think that no one speaks their mind out of conscience rather than for what political gain they might receive?
Tensions High in Somalia as Thousands Protest
Tensions were high in Somalia's capital today as the Islamic militants who seized control of Mogadishu the day before vowed to set up a religious state, but thousands of people allied with the one of the country's largest clans held a rally to protest that move.From New York Times
Bad news in the Global War on Terror as Somalia falls to Islamic militants who want to set up an Theocracy. And yes, this is where Black Hawk Down happened.
smokescreen
Maybe I'm a cynic but I can't help but think that the gay marriage debate is a smokescreen to keep people from noticing repeal of the estate tax. Just a thought.
Why else would they be working this hard on an amendment that won't pass? They won't get 67 votes in the Senate. They won't get 37 States to ratify it. But if you look at Google News you can see the following:
| 1,880 news articles for: | Estate Tax |
| 3,530 news articles for: | death tax. |
| 9,690 news articles for: | gay marriage |
| 7,420 news articles for: | same sex marriage |
So it looks like something that won't pass is getting four times the coverage of something that will pass.
why does CNN grant an open forum to this particular whack-job and not others
When Coulter is invited to spout her putrescence on Larry King Live, the legitimacy granted to her is CNN's fault, not Coulter's. After all, there's no shortage of desperate attention seekers willing to say and do outlandish things to get noticed. The question is, why does CNN grant an open forum to this particular whack-job and not others?The Grit: The Bleating of Cowards: Hannity, O'Reilly, & Co.
Can someone name a left-wing loony that gets as much TV time as Coulter? Someone who has joked about killing a supreme court justice with rat poison or insulted our troops the way Coulter has? For the life of me, I can't.
the tip of the freakberg
On a projection screen at Stanford Law School, an auditorium full of nerds stared at a picture of a guy who'd done himself up like a cat—not with makeup, but with tattoos and surgery. The guy's whiskers were implanted. His nose had been converted to a cat nose. His teeth had been filed into the shape of cat teeth. His head has been flattened, and he was looking for a doctor to implant a tail. And that's just the tip of the freakberg.From Cyborgs, self-mutilators, and the future of our race. By William Saletan
Not sure I agree with the term freakberg. But this really seems odd. Why would a doctor do something like this? This isn't like Lasik or even something more radical like sexual reassignment. The result of a cat-person's surgery isn't a human with better eyesight or alternate plumbing. It is a person that isn't quite human anymore. One would think that a doctor would stick to the principal of first doing no harm.
The Purpose Driven Life Takers
Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.Talk To Action | The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Updated)
It is stuff like this that really tests my faith in free speech.
An Inconvenient Truth
I saw An Inconvenient Truth over the last weekend. I liked it. Mr. Gore does a great job at providing a layman's review on Global Warming. With that said, he does a bunch of things that drove me absolutely nuts.
First off, why were so many of those charts not to scale? I realize that's something that only people like me care about, but if you don't want to be dismissed as an alarmist, you need to remove anything that might be viewed as biased. Second, he doesn't come close to adequately explaining the time table for the damage. One could get the impression that a 20 foot wall of water will hit the Florida coast any day now. That is hardly likely. Lastly, while the background and biographical segments were a really nice break from the lecture-format; please stop pretending that those segments aren't meant to be a campaign video.
Head over to metacritic here more reviews. And yes, the right wing is already on attack. Those are worth watching too.
For what its worth, at this point we have to start looking at people who dismiss Global Warming the same what we might look at someone who dismisses evolution as just a theory. Or perhaps we should view them like we view people who voice the various Ocean's 9/11 style conspiracy theories that can be readily debunked. To suggest that hundreds of climate scientists, from all over the world; are all falsifying evidence and passing on bogus theories to some unknown end is just plain nutty. Can anyone name a single thing they have to gain from this alleged conspiracy? These people would have use believe that only people we can trust just happen to work for Exxon Mobil. Pure coincidence I'm sure.
The next question that comes to mind, is Gore tan, rested and ready?