Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thursday, December 04, 2008



ha ha fucking ha. REM is ripe for this treatment as well.

Monday, November 24, 2008

new laptop, 14 shows to produce, too much, too many people too much hahahaha too much, too many web content shows huh ha

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Contempt « THE TOOT

the world probably still hates george bush, but mostly the world just looks at him as a total fucking loser.

YouTube - meteor edmonton canada

meteor!!!!!!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Friday, November 07, 2008

Get Your War On: New World Order - 236.com - Video

there are going to be some serious changes around here y'all.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

get your war on

now

My Damn Channel » W. Kramer / D. Was

My Damn Channel » W. Kramer / D. Was "All Been Planned" the ballad of pat tillman great song great lyrics

jon oliver gets the truth out about community organizers

that's what happens. crack dealers.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

my two cents:

233 odd years ago, a bunch of landed white male gentry came together to create a document of such exceptional depth and flexibility that it continues to be the glue that holds one of earth's greatest societies together. that declaration, and the bill of rights that accompanied it, were so perfectly balanced as to allow for the creation of a non-monarchical country that has managed to last with little internal strife for all those years.

but. and it's a pretty big but.

at the same time, there was a flaw. the document was solipsistic. it was created by people who could only conceive of themselves as having grievances of merit. the grievances may have been universal, and were claimed as such, but most of the universe was defined as not having a vested interest in those very universal rights. if you were black, you had 3/5 of a grievance. if you were a woman, no grievance worth discussing at all. and while the poor landless folk were not going to be sent to debtor's prison, they nonetheless were not part of the universe these men considered as relevant. to read hamilton and madison and jefferson with this ex post facto knowledge can give one a bit of a headache. why didn't they get it? they were shutting the vast majority of the country out of their "universal" claims.

well, they created a mechanism, a series of mechanisms in fact, that allowed for that universe to expand, to become ever more embracing of the rest of those who would call themselves americans. first, more white men were embraced. then, with a little imbroglio black men managed to get a piece of the pie. and then we figured out how to make "the fairer sex" part of the franchise. i certain don't mean to belittle the brave men and women who fought and fought and fought and often died to make these things happen--they managed to do so in the context of that same document, and the idea of america survived. we again went back to the well to gives african americans the true franchise, and absorbed one wave of immigrants after another. and still we survived, and prospered. maybe even BECAUSE of these things we prospered.

we are near the end of the road. the franchise has been extended to almost everyone in our country. we have a few more details to iron out before we finally become the best version of what we always should have been--the country of inclusion, the country that draws strength from our difference as long as we all accept those things that those men wrote 233 years ago that bind us together. we are here. the time is now. our gay brothers and sisters need us to extend that franchise, to embrace them with both arms, and they need us to do so today and tomorrow and every day until november 5th, when that embrace can turn into the most joyful hug imaginable.

my sister is gay, and she has no interest in getting married, despite being in a long term relationship with a wonderful woman, and despite living in massachusetts where she to marry is her right. that is her choice, and she can make it freely. what could possibly be more beautiful than that? let's give our gay friends, gay colleagues, gay relatives and fuck it, while we're up, our gay enemies that exact same right: the right to say "I do", or, for that matter, "I don't" just like those of us who are straight get to do. let's extend that franchise until we can't extend it anymore, and then let's go about making the idea of america as perfect as we possibly can. all of those americans who are gay are just as american as those who aren't, and they cannot and must not face the kind of discrimination that has been their lot for far too long. i look forward to those hugs on november 5th--i think i will head down to santa monica blvd. and san vicente and throw a few around myself.


this post is for laura, my sister, who i love most dearly.

samantha bee smacks mccain right in the penis

hard. as it were.

YouTube - People in the Middle for Obama

errol morris! republicans for obama!! watch and learn!!!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

YouTube - YES on Proposition 8 (Prop 8) for our kids

prepare to vomit in your mouth. this is so gross you may end up vomiting in someone else's mouth.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Saturday, October 25, 2008

YouTube - Wassup 2008

charles stone still bringing it--funny poignant and painful.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

maverick john mccain

he's the real deal. or a puppet.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Friday, October 17, 2008

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Hayden Panettiere PSA: Vote For McCain (VIDEO)

she's my favorite. almost as good as her "don't kill dolphins" vid.

the penguin IS john McCain

and he promises no mudslinging!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Hate Talk Express

greenwald (robert) strikes again. mccain/palin are some serious haterz...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Monday, October 13, 2008

McCain and ACORN partying together

wait...so mccain was happy to take ACORN's good will in 2006? like 2 years ago? but today his campaign says they are evil? do they EVER stop lying? ever?

YouTube - McCain's YouTube Problem Just Became a Nightmare

nice one. eat it, johnny POW.

The Stupid Vote | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

they do. and they decide elections.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

john mccain--seriously out of touch

this is seriously funny. watch all the way to the end.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

smoking and global warming deniers

joined at the hip--liars all. watch this to get the story.

Monday, October 06, 2008

David Rees: What Would D. Boon Do?

just so much right about this post i don't know where to begin. the minutemen: our band could be your life. they were.

Get Your War On: The Surge - 236.com - Video

surge this, bitches.

zlatan!!!

this is as brilliant a goal as you will ever see. and he's done it before in the 2004 euros. the swedish genius zlatan ibrahimovic.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Some Primers on CDS

60 minutes does a great job of breaking down the credit default swap scam. funny story: it was rich people ripping off not-so-rich people.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Monday, September 29, 2008

bad mccain gambling monkey

this post contains no poo flinging.

Barney Frank is the cat: the republicans are the mouse

even so, i'm glad this bailout didn't pass. it sucks.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

the only funny thing about this clip are sarah palin's actual words

a) because SNL sucks. hard. and
b) because sarah palin and unintentional (yet mordant, let's remember the job she's up for) hilarity go hand in hand.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip on Vimeo


Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.climate change explained. brilliant.

biden!

nice one joe. where was sarah palin? not on TV. probably being hidden in a bunker somewhere

Friday, September 26, 2008

McCain and the Keating 5--a refesher course

old school. john mccain is a creep and a sleazebag. enjoy.

www.mnftiu.cc

yes! that baby eats...well, you gotta wait for it.

Monday, September 15, 2008

some facts about jill's photo shoot of mccain and other miscellany for any and all who want to comment intelligently...

1. jill owns the images of mccain. the atlantic had a (very) short embargo, and only for the purposes of selling said images.
2. jill's photo is on the cover of the atlantic magazine. i know this. i'm looking at it. she was asked to do a shot. she delivered on time and on budget. as always.
3. amy frickin' dresser IS NOT JILL'S PHOTOSHOP PERSON!!!!!!!!! she worked for jill YEARS ago, and learned her style from jill. ferfuxsake. the next person who guesses that amy is the "real talent" gets a slapping with some kind of wet noodle.
4. john mccain is a very powerful man who may soon become even more powerful. he can send people to war where they die, he can change tax law, he can press nuclear buttons. jill greenberg is a citizen of this country and can't do any of that stuff. and while notionally john mccain works for her in that regard, in fact we seem to be slipping ever more towards fascism here where Dear Leader Must Not Be Questioned. taking the side of the powerful against the less powerful is the character trait of the sycophant. (also, LEAVE JOHN MCCAIN ALONE WAAAAAAAHHHHHH)
5. jill has taken a significant chance of hurting her career in order to express her political beliefs. this used to be called courage. on strobist it is called "an opportunity for me to get a job that jill would have done." if there has ever been a bigger group of whiny opportunist yuppie-wanna-be bitches in history than non-working-photographers, please let me know where to find them. that i might kick them. nice solidarity, guys, but then you all underbid each other on a daily basis. stay classy.
6. i understand that part of being on strobist or such forums requires that you say "of course her lighting/photography/imagery sucks". i get it. it's the law. but, um, it makes you look like a bunch of jealous children.
7. the right wing in this country, or at least that portion of it that sends out e-mails en masse, simply cannot spell to save its life. it really is depressing. though oddly those e-mailers seem quite aware of how to spell "cunt" and "bitch". sexism is pretty much where they start: vitriol and death threats is where they end.
8. if michelle malkin, ann althouse, WND, Little Green Footballs, gerard "aware of all internet traditions" van den leun and strobist's publisher david hobby all hate you, you are obviously a good person.
9. any of those said right wingers who say "now i will vote for mccain, i was on the fence" are liars. like mccain and palin, lying seems to the main character trait of the far right.
10. if jill loses work because of this, so be it. it's a chance she's willing to take because she loves her country (she's an american citizen, she left canada when she was 2) and doesn't want to see it slide further into the abyss of neo-con stupidity. i support her in this, in all of this, 100%.


this post is necessarily not about the atlantic and the statements of their publisher, per the advice of counsel.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Monday, September 01, 2008

I know much of what follows may seem hard to believe, but links provided are all genuine.

SARAH PALIN IS NOT QUALIFIED TO LEAD OUR COUNTRY. She consorts with far right fringe groups. She lies about her public life. She lies about her personal life. This combination is far too risky for our country in these uncertain times.

There are dangerous forces at work trying to undermine the sovereignty of the United States. There are groups actively working to break up the United States, fringe groups that make it their mission to infiltrate major parties and break this great country into pieces.

And the Republican candidate for vice president supports these groups. The specific group is the ALASKAN INDEPENDENCE PARTY.

As GOVERNOR OF ALASKA, she stated that she was “proud of the contributions they made” to state politics. Their platform includes the hope that they create an independent Alaska, one that could hold the rest of the US hostage to their oil hegemony. http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/the_alaska_independence_party.php

SARAH PALIN, who didn’t even follow the war in Iraq until 2006 - and didn’t even have an OPINION about a cause our SOLDIERS FIGHT AND DIE FOR – is not qualified to lead our country. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/palin-surge-wha.html

SHE LIED about opposing the “Bridge to Nowhere,” and took the pork barrel money anyway. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-31-palin-bridge_N.htm?csp=34

SHE LIED about being a tax cutter as mayor of her hometown, as she raised the sales tax often. http://www.adn.com/sarahpalin/story/511471.html

SHE THINKS NOTHING OF CALLING OTHER WOMEN IN POLITICS “BITCH” and was party to making fun of another women’s breast cancer (LINK CONTAINS THE AUDIO, AND IT IS UGLY)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/31/palin-laughs-as-opponent_n_122776.html

SHE LIED about using her political office to exact revenge on her former brother-in-law. http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8933043

Do not succumb to the temptation to think that criticism of Governor Palin is anti-feminist. To choose such a manifestly unprepared and unworthy candidate for the possibility of serving in the highest office in the land shows John McCain understands nothing about women’s rights, or the struggles many of our own mothers went through to overcome every obstacle put in their way. Instead, he insults women with a move born of tokenism and desperation.

Thursday, August 14, 2008




liars and the lying lies they perpetuate.

Thursday, August 07, 2008




jill v lebron.  she dunks on him and he is ashamed.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

VIDEO - TIME

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1214055407/bclid1342094282/bctid1683827951


jill hangs out with lebron james.  he's...tall.  really tall.

cover out on monday.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Slate V - Can Ants Solve Traffic Jams?


nice one, danielle.  some good old fashioned e.o. wilsonian action going on there.

Google Reader (393)

Among the most high-profile Jews in Congress, Lieberman is viewed far more unfavorably than the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to a new poll. Only 37 percent of Jews view the Connecticut Independent in a favorable light compared to 48 percent who have a negative perception. As for Obama, 60 percent of Jews view him favorably while 34 percent view him unfavorably.
Google Reader (393)

as tommmy friedman once said:

suck. on. this.

i am in love with this fact as listed above.  it is a STFU to so many people i know both of the liberal worry-wort persuasion and right wingers as well.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Enquête sur les dangers de la télé au berceau - Le Monde 2 - Le Monde.fr

Enquête sur les dangers de la télé au berceau - Le Monde 2 - Le Monde.fr

jill's work on the cover of le monde's sunday magazine!!!!

supercool, as they might say.

The (Annotated) Gore Energy Speech - Dot Earth - Climate Change and Sustainability - New York Times Blog

The (Annotated) Gore Energy Speech - Dot Earth - Climate Change and Sustainability - New York Times Blog

not that i agree with everything revkin adds here, but this is a superb speech from the great visionary public policy statesman of our era.  when gore was VP he seemed ok but not necessarily a world-changer.  but between his absolutely spot-on speeches in 2002 about iraq (speeches which enraged pretty much every jerk-off in american politics and the media) and his proselytizing on climate, he has risen to the occasion more than anyone else in my lifetime.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Cheney's third term | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

John McCain takes the "conserve" out of "conservative." His entire energy efficiency strategy would fit on one side of a very small file card and can be summarized as follows: Ban Porsches, green federal buildings, and applaud homeowners who do stuff on their own!
Cheney's third term | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

sad and beautiful

Embedded Video


Monday, June 16, 2008



john mccain, sexist asshole.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

bad producer in action

    while i enjoy moyers smacking the crap out of this poor idiot, i much more enjoy the last line of this piece:  "we are going to put up an unedited version of your interview.  it will be on the internet in an hour."

take that, dinosaur media FNC asswipes.

Embedded Video

Monday, June 09, 2008



jill on canadian tv.  nice piece.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

YouTube - McCain Endorser Pastor John Hagee: God Sent Hitler



john hagee--john mccain's buddy. a hundred times worse than jeremiah wright.

we must keep pounding away at this.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008



barack obama. he better be the next president.

Friday, May 16, 2008



move on with a nice one. mccain, surrounded by the worst kind of lobbyists, pretending he doesn't know that. real class.
See more funny videos at CollegeHumor


"troglodyte homonculous"

brilliant.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

mind-boggling.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

A Photo Editor - SPD Photography Winners 2008

jill won an award from the SPD for her GQ spread!

Sunday, May 11, 2008



did you know that we consume 200 billion hours a year of TV in this country?

and that all of wikipedia, in all its languages, and including all its edits/talk pages and so on, totals in human hours 100 million?

pretty mind-boggling. this discussion by clay shirky is well worth following all the way through.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008



tragedy + time = comedy

Thursday, April 24, 2008


http://view.break.com/491919 - Watch more free videos

fuck the fucking earth before it fucking fucks you.

Monday, March 24, 2008



great video from sea studios about business getting ahead of government on climate change. inspiring and gives one a sense of hope in an increasingly frightening confluence of data points (glacier reversal, heat cycle, oil depletion and so on).


i'm sorry for each and every space invader i killed. frankly, now that i know what i know, we might been better off acceding to the invader hegemony.

Friday, March 14, 2008



no john, you can't be president. my children depend on your failure.

Climate change is back, baby! | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

Climate change is back, baby! | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

Let's start with the temperature. NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has their monthly global temperature dataset out through Feb. 2008 (it starts in Jan. 1880). January was only 0.12 degrees C above the 1951-1980 mean (for that month) and a full 0.74 degrees C colder than Jan. 2007 (the warmest January record).

But Feb. 2007 was 0.26 degrees C above the monthly mean, and a mere 0.37 degrees C colder than Feb. 2008. The "legitimate science writer" David Appell explains the staggering implications (if we used the same reasoning as typical delayers):

... the world is warming up at 0.14 degrees C/month, or 3 degrees F per year, or a dramatic 30 degrees F per decade! By 2018, Fairbanks Alaska will be like Atlanta was this year. Atlanta will be ... well, like Hell ...

More seriously, this February ripped the tornado record books to shreds as if they had been caught in a giant whirlwind whose intensity had been amplifed by global warming. The country suffered through a stunning 232 tornadoes -- almost triple the previous record, a mere 83 tornadoes in 1971. (Reliable records go back to 1950.)


right. so what is it about climate change that turns rational people into raving anti-science assholes? i've noticed a trend amongst "soft" global warming deniers (non-scientist fox news watching folk) and the "hard" ones--the CEI types, the Bjorn Lomborgs etc. they all tend to be older white males, typically wealthy or at least upper middle class. perhaps there's something there: perhaps these older relatively wealthy men know something. they know they have lived off the fat of the land, and that rather than handing their children and their grandchildren more land and more fat, i think they know on a deep level they've stripped the land bare. and you know what? denial is a perfect way to deal with the fact that your lifestyle has done a ton to contribute to the potential charred hellscape of your grandchildren. because (and here i'm speaking from personal experience) even wealthy white men who watch fox news 24/7 love their grandchildren. so rather than deal with reality, it's easier to make nonsensical claims about climate, rejecting science in most cases for the first time in their adult lives.

it's sad, but if the cause of this stupidity is a sense of hopelessness, then they should get over it. there are things that can be done, and i've noticed that wealthy older white men wield a lot of power in this world.

so--get over yourselves, and get on the stick. because otherwise the kid below is going to smother you in your sleep when he gets a bit older.



Thursday, March 13, 2008



these people are funny. i will find and post more.

Bush Tied to Child Prostitution - Resignation or Impeachment Expected! | Democrats.com

Bush Tied to Child Prostitution - Resignation or Impeachment Expected! | Democrats.com

eliot spitzer--asshole, hypocrite, and self-destructive fool.

george bush, war criminal.

it's all about emphasis.

Monday, March 10, 2008


In The Know: How Can We Make The War In Iraq More Eco-Friendly?
U. of North Carolina students say no to Smithfield pork | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

an inspiring story of how students can be the engine of their own change (just like we were in the 80s with apartheid). living the change you believe in--a beautiful thing.

Friday, February 29, 2008



more republican thuggery. called out on it by republicans.

who knew that dan abrams didn't suck?
Fox importing two British sitcoms - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety

Look, ma, I did it!!!!

fine, others were involved. indeed, some of them may have been as if not more integral to getting this pilot shooting ready than me. possibly.

but is this their blog?

no, no it is not.

so nyah nyah to them.
TPM Cafe | Talking Points Memo | The Lying Despicable Campaign To Turn Jews Against Obama

The reason I refer to chickens coming home to roost is because I believe that Russert would not have mentioned Farrakhan if segments of the Jewish community had not raised this rather insignificant Muslim preacher into prominence. They did that by publicizing every nasty comment about Jews or Israel the man ever made, as if he had a huge following, was a candidate for high office, or was successfully instigating pogroms.

But that is what some segments of the community enjoy doing. It is as if our identity is only secure when we can point to enemies. Unfortunately, and predictably, our well-publicized responses to Farrakhan's attacks gave him national prominence he does not deserve.

In that sense, it is our own fault that Tim Russert asked Barack Obama about his non-existent relationship with Farrakhan. But it is Russert who asked the question and he is the one who needs to be called out for it. It is also worth noting that Farrakhan is seriously ill with cancer and has been out of the limelight for years -- at least until Russert decided to make him a story when he no longer is one.

exactly. i've received some of the hate mail being circulated by jews against obama, and all i can say is: the crap is ridiculous, self-destructive and ultimately self-hating.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Iraq war 'caused slowdown in the US' | The Australian

but what does joseph stiglitz know? i mean, other than winning a nobel prize and being a VP of the world bank.

the linkage between the war and the subprime mess is interesting. and depressing.

3.3 trillion, for those who won't click through. that's how much it's cost us.
Media Matters - The proud son of Buffalo ...

charles pierce pointing out the obvious:

tim russert is teh suxxor times infinity.

as it were.
Canada's Toxic Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth

O! Canada!

why?

tar sands oil from western canada--tied with monstrous new coal plants in china for the coveted "world's most devastatingly deadly idea" trophy.

canadians are just as bad as americans when it comes to lacking forward-thinking leadership, and this cements that fact.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008



the republican party is a party by for and of organized crime.

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

damn it i knew this would happen.

military-industrial complex, i'm shaking my fist at you!!!!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Time is up for coal: environmental analyst | Environment | Reuters

goodbye, coal world.

don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

maybe, just maybe, we can a) save appalachia while b) stopping some of the effects of global warming while c) promoting other energy technologies and efficiencies while d) paving the way for china and india to find alternative sources of energy.

or we can kill ourselves, pretty much.

tough choice. to paraphrase bill hicks: "anyone here work in the coal industry? (applause) great--go kill yourself. seriously. now."

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

i've said it once, i've said it a thousand times: anyone who thinks the right won't try to rip obama's heart out and show it to him, still bleeding...well, you are a naive fool.

Glenn Greenwald - Political Blogs and Opinions - Salon

Glennzilla:

Most importantly of all, the guardians of our political discourse -- the Chris Matthews and Howie Kurtzs and Mark Halperins and The Politicos, all of whom dwell in Matt Drudge's kingdom -- traffic almost exclusively in puerile, vapid fixations with these types of petty conflicts and substance-free controversies. They're the decadent ringleaders of the freak show which dominates our political discourse and dictates the outcome of our elections.

Just this morning alone, Howie Kurtz's entire column is filled with quoting the likes of The Weekly Standard, Captain Ed, Kathryn Jean Lopez and David Brooks in order mindlessly to re-circulate every slimy, small-minded attack from this week on Obama. None of them is going to change in the slightest, because slothful, empty, small-minded chatter, driven by their Matt Drudge overlords, is all they are told to do, all they're capable of doing, and all they want to do. No matter who the nominees are, the behavior of our media stars won't change, because it can't.

Nor, contrary to what appears to be the unduly optimistic belief of some Obama supporters, will the sleazy right-wing noise machine change its tactics in the slightest. Immediately before I read Lisa Schiffren's "half black/half Jewish, red diaper baby" rant, I watched Mike Gallagher on Fox News explain, to a sympathetic host, that Sharon Stone ought to be "charged with treason" for pointing out that insufficient attention is paid to the death of Iraqi civilians.

It's vitally important to remember that our political life is suffuse with lowlifes and hatemongers like this. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter -- the heart and soul of the right-wing -- aren't going anywhere, nor are the media-connected, Swiftboat-spewing operatives who function in the shadows and the sewers. As Digby pointed out yesterday, the Right has already created a new, extremely well-funded organization -- overseen by the incomparably slimy and truth-free Ari Fleischer -- preparing to unleash exactly this sort of bile. As Digby said, the Democratic primary is exceedingly polite when compared to what is coming: "Just wait until you see what Ari Fleischer and his quarter of a billion have in store for us."

So the question isn't whether Obama will be relentlessly pelted by the sprawling appendages of the Right-wing edifice and its media allies with the most grotesque, bottom-feeding, substance-free, personality-based attacks. Of course he will be -- ones as ugly as, if not uglier than, anything we've seen yet.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

An animal lover in the lion's den - Los Angeles Times

factory farming of meat. is. evil.

read this one and weep.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

watch this from theo jansen, clearly an extremely brilliant man.

wow.

if you are a coke addict, bluefields, nicaragua is the town for you!

Thursday, February 07, 2008

the WGA strike is over! so sayeth michael eisner!

everybody back to work.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

if these people are right, there is no other topic of import to discuss other than global warming. maybe dr. james hansen is a crank. or maybe he's just so smart we can't keep up. i suspect the latter. his suppositions and theories about where we stand re the earth's temperature and how much carbon we can continue to put out are frightening. and how we respond, or rather what paradigm of human social interaction we use in order to literally save our skins--all of them--that becomes the key question. probably the key question in all of modern human history.

it's...food for thought, though maybe not my cup of tea.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

this article from Greg Mitchell at Editor and Publisher is extraordinarily important to read. it discusses press and mainstream opinion maker reaction to colin powell's presentation before the UN 5 years ago today. this presentation, more than any other moment, led us into gulf war II.

there has been much discussion of "what he knew and when he knew it". was powell mendacious or just unprincipled (there isn't any better option i'm afraid, given what we now know from powell and lawrence wilkinson) when he gave the speech?

but it's not the important question. governments lie--it's what they do best. gulf of tonkin incidents are the rule, not the exception. there is one extremely important question that does need answering, however: how does an elite opinion maker consensus develop on an issue, and how can it be that so many "insiders" with special knowledge, allegedly, can be so horribly shockingly wrong.

to whit: there were no WMD's in Iraq and there was a strong body of evidence at the time that this was the case. though many try to ass cover with "clinton thought so too, and germany, and even france" it's all bullshit: scott ritter existed. mohamed el-baradei existed. hans blix was not a figment of my imagination. three people with the most direct knowledge of the situation were quite clear that something was very wrong with US intel, and yet this fact did not penetrate the op-ed pages, nor the salons of washington, nor the idea factories there either. and many of my ostensibly liberal friends bought into it too (or my dad's friends, people like michael walzer, who essentially threw away a lifetime of good work with his argument for the war from the left).

the thing about consensus when it comes to ideas, to memes, is that it seems that any meme that gets all of them: AEI and the WaPo op-ed page and richard cohen and george will and NBC and Fox and on and on and on--should of course be part of a fact-based narrative. but it's not necessarily the case. i often say that truth is the enemy of drama when i'm developing a script based on "actual events"--if the lead character in real life just decided to back away quietly from the situation but we can write him in as having come in guns blazing, guess which one hollywood will choose. every time. and here we see this writ large: war is more interesting than UN inspections. anything can happen! cool visuals!!! embedded reporters!!! realtime hot death action, now with 30% more blood!!!! so fuck the truth, what we wanted was a narrative that would deliver a satisfying kick, and we got one from powell, a man who should be permanently banned from polite society. he was doing the bidding of some evil people, but then he knew that (and he did the same thing in my lai, putting his career on its upward trajectory).

anyway, don't trust the consensus. it's often just a shared hallucination. and never trust anyone who says they know something because "insiders" told them so--the closer you get to power the more necessary it is to share that hallucination (or create it) in the first place, and the less chance you will know what you've done.

UPDATE:
an excellent refutation of powell's presentation, showing that we knew then it was all a crock.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Organic food is better for your children.

but that's not really a surprise. what is a surprise from that article is how quickly you can get horrible chemicals out of your children's systems--as little as 5 days!

anyway, another reason to start thinking organic. now the question remains: how can organic food become as available and abundant for those less well off as for those fortunate enough to be able to afford whole walletfoods?

it reminds me of the introduction of airbags into the US marketplace--first only people who could afford fancy cars (mercedes, IIRC) were able to have this life-saving device. in fact, lee iacocca swore they would never catch on, by which he meant "i can still sell crappy unsafe cars to my american customers."

it took 10 years before airbags became legally mandated. i'd like to see organic methods become legally mandated as well.

Monday, January 28, 2008

from the american prospect (via the poorman) comes the following fun facts and comments of american talibanical fascist vermin mike "nice lunatic" huckabee:




3. Huckabee Compares America to Nazi Germany

In a speech to the Florida Renewal Project Monday night, which in an unprecedented move was live streamed on the American Family Association's Web site, Huckabee compared America to Nazi Germany. He first implored the audience to renew their "commitment to Christ" and "to our nation, to its heritage, as well as to its future," adding "do we expect the seculars [sic] to do it? Do we expect the unbelievers to lead us, and if so, how will they lead us and where?" He then engaged in an extended description of his visit to the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem with his 11- year-old daughter, who asked, "why didn't somebody do something?" Huckabee, who has called abortion a "holocaust," then issued a dire warning:

... I pray that no father ever stands over the shoulder of his own daughter and after her witnessing the decline and the fall of a great nation, writes, and sees her write these words, "why didn't somebody do something?" You see, I believe the reason we're here is because we are the somebodies. And we're to do the something and if we don't, who will? And if we don't act now, when will it happen, and will it be too late? You leave this conference with this haunting question, and pray that no one would ever ask of you or of me, why didn't somebody do something.

You read that right. Huckabee thinks if the "seculars" are allowed to rule America, our country could suffer the same fate as Nazi Germany. A resounding insult all around from this "Christian leader."

4. Huckabee's Christian Constitution

Huckabee has been consistently cagey about answering questions about his views on biblical law and Christian Reconstructionism. In the Times this weekend, Oran Smith, a conservative Christian activist in South Carolina, portrayed Huckabee as "Houdini," but he really is more like Zelig, adapting his answers to particular audiences to satisfy his radical fans while assuaging his critics.

Huckabee has offered his view that the Bible prohibits marriage between people of the same gender, and hell, between humans and animals, and hence the Constitution should be clear on that point, too. He slaps his opponents around for their lack of support for a federal marriage amendment and a human life amendment. Many supporters of a human life amendment believe that birth control pills cause abortions, and therefore should be outlawed under such an amendment. In a meeting with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register last year, Huckabee sidestepped answering the question directly but strongly suggested he thinks at least certain types of birth control pills should made illegal. In his Renewal Project speech Monday night, on the eve of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Huckabee made yet another inappropriate and insulting comparison, maintaining that overturning Roe is "not good enough," and that letting the states "handle something that is a moral issue is the logic of the civil war."



given how often "secularists" (whatever the hell that mean) are accused of having some sort of specifically "anti-religious" agenda, i would like to throw one out there:

i propose the following:
  1. those bastards have to start paying taxes. period.
  2. no more blue laws--they should be unconstitutional.
  3. hammer the living fuck out of any preacher who ever says anything about politics. they should never be allowed to preach again.
  4. absolutely no religious schools of any sort should be allowed, and there should be an even greater attempt to stamp out any religious influence in public school.
  5. no allowance for religions such as lubavitch "judaism" or mennonites and so on to separate themselves from their surrounding societies.
  6. all televangelists to be non-profit, and to be audited on an ongoing basis. any televangelists who make any money in excess of a living wage (set at the same level as the local living wage and not a penny more.
  7. all religions must open their "spiritual" books to the scrutiny of neutral scholars, and must be put on the internet for the perusal of all at any time. no more bullshit secrets.
  8. no special privileges for any prelates or officers of any religion. they must be treated like regular citizens, not like doctors or lawyers. or people who actually deserve respect, like janitors or laborers.
  9. US to become an asylum for anyone trying to escape religious persecution anywhere in the world.
i'm sure i can think of more, or feel free to e-mail some other ideas of your own. given how often we are being told on right-wing and evangelical websites that there is a "war" coming, it's time for our side to actually give a shit.

also, as usual, where is the ADL when this creep uses the holocaust in such a perverse matter? nowhere, of course, because huckabee may be psychotic but at least he's pro-israel!