In my Mass Media class, we were talking about protests, and how they are successful. I think that some people (**cough**anti-WTO folks**cough**) could use to hear what my class came up with. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for February, 2007
I Love Troll-Baiting
Check out this exchange between me (and some other enlightened folk) and a lonely troll.
Cheney Despondent
Cheney’s crying his eyes out, not for the 23 people that died in explosion that was meant for him, but because he won’t get that newest, bestest toy that he’s been wanting forever: war with Iran. Turns out those “super IED’s” (or EFP’s, explosively formed penetrators) that could only have been made in Iran, were in fact made in Iraq, from parts bought on the open market in many countries other than Iran.
Our President. Sigh.
I forgot the academy awards were last night (not having a TV will do that to you), and just found out that our President the man who got the majority of the population to vote for him in 2000 but wasn’t actually elected because of our fucked up election system, some corrupt officials, and a conservative Supreme Court, won Best Documentary Feature, and Melissa Etheridge won Best Original Song for her piece in it!
In related news, some drunk from Texas President Bush got his picture taken with some scientists, what appears to be pickled eels, and a toy car. Because he’s so serious about alternative fuels.
Note that he’s the only one wearing lab goggles. Bill Nye he ain’t.
The Catholic Church Has Jumped the Shark
Apparently Catholic clergy have fallen from denouncing Nazi war crimes, fighting totalitarianism in the USSR, and going to jail to protest the Vietnam war to fighting against our right to look at naked women on 1″ screens. Yes, that’s right, the Canadian cell phone service Telus has dropped their soft-core porn downloads for cellphones in response to a boycott led by Archbishop Raymond Roussin of Vancouver. So, it’ll only be available online, at adult stores and movie theatres, and on cable. And, oh yeah, on cellphones. Because 90% of Tellus’ customers use cellphones that can access the internet, and therefore, online porn.
Almost Heaven
Despite the weather here in Salem (gray), I’m feeling good this morning, so here’s a treat for everyone who loves ’70s folk.
A Huge Step Forward
Great news out of Egypt tonight. The Grand Mufti of Egypt (one of the most respected scholars of Islamic law) has issued a fatwa saying that premarital hymen reconstructive surgery is halal (religiously permissable), and that women don’t need to tell their future husbands about it. He even went so far as to say that a woman is under no obligation to tell her husband that she had premarital sex if she has repented. I can’t be sure, since I can’t find the actual fatwa, but the newspaper article made it seem like this applies even to adultery.
The best part? Another scholar (Shiekh Khaled El Gindy) has chimed in, saying that the reason for this fatwa is that “Islam never differentiates between men and women, so it is not rational for us to think that God has placed a sign to indicate the virginity of women without having a similar sign to indicate the virginity of men.” Apparently he also has a similar sense of humor as I do, since he added that “Any man who is concerned about his prospective wife’s hymen should first provide a proof that he himself is virgin.” (I want to meet this guy!)
So, next time someone tells you that Islam is inherently misogynistic, point them here. It’s happening slowly, but it’s making strides.
Apologia for Evolution
A departure from politics today. I’ve encountered a barrage of anti-evolution comments and websites recently, so I felt like I had to respond. The easiest way seems to be to debunk some of the worst and most common arguments against evolution. Just a note, I’m feeling snarky today, so edit out the snark if you’re actually arguing with a creationist.
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Meet the Candidates: Willard Mitt Romney
I’ve gotten into my galloshes and waders, which can only mean one thing: time to wade through the muck that is Mitt Romney! (Don’t worry, I’ll get to McCain and Giulianni, but hazmat suits were on backorder.)
If you read the last issue, you know that I rate the candidates five ways:
Chance at Nomination (Out of 10)
Electability (Out of 10)
Main Strength
Main Weakness
Good or Bad (The higher the better)
So, let’s get to it! Introducing Mitt Romney, the Stormin’ Mormon! (With intense apologies to Jackson and Nathan)
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A Meme
I felt a need to post something, but I’m too tired to rant, sooooo… I found a meme to write about: six strange things about me:
1. I talk like a professor. As far as I can tell (and as far as my friends can remember) I’ve always sounded like I’m giving a lecture, even if I’m talking about what I did on the weekend. Of course, it gets worse if I’m talking about politics or birds.
2. I’m addicted to cranberry juice. I’ve been known to go through a half-gallon in a weekend.
3. I waver between pantheism and agnosticism, sometimes daily.
4. I sing (under my breath) unconsciously wherever I go.
5. I spent 20 minutes today battling wind and rain to get pictures of Canada Geese. I’m still not sure why—they’re all over around here, and they’re not the prettiest birds in the world. Ah, well, I have some decent ones to show for it.
6. Also related to photography, I went to Wallowa Lake for a weekend last summer, and in three days came back with over a thousand pictures. I think I need professional help.
Obama’s Like Me!
From Rolling Stone:
On a recent day, as Obama made his way through the Capitol’s corridors, his fellow senators seemed like good-natured sportscasters, jolly and easy with their power, bantering about the fortunes of baseball teams in their home states. Obama is aloof and quiet. He prefers to listen, attentive as a rector, not quite of this world, silently measuring it.
I Have to Gloat
Normally I don’t talk about my life, except insofar as it relates to politics, but I have to be a little egotistical today. I was at a speech and debate tournament Friday and yesterday (with five hours of sleep in between), where my partner and I took 4th in open Worlds Style overall, and I tied for 2nd in speaker points. Not bad for a freshman! Best of all, we won one round by taking the position that art is bad. (Well, at least that high art is bad)
I’ll be back to politics tomorrow, but I have a fair amount of homework to do.
Meet the Candidates: Hillary Rodham Clinton
Election season comes earlier every year, or so they say. I personally have been around for so few (four, aware of two) that I haven’t noticed much of a difference. However, since the candidates are already turning beautiful colors declaring their candidacies, I’m going to analyze each of the major candidates earlier than most. (But one at a time. I’m only human.) Each has a few parts:
Chance at Nomination (Out of 10)
Electability (Out of 10)
Main Strength
Main Weakness
Good or Bad (The higher the better)
This edition (as it says in the title) is about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Queen of the Cold Pricklies.
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No Shit, Joe
Joe Lieberman wants a “war tax.” This is where my high school English teacher would have written “NS.”. Duh! Every war we’ve been in, we’ve raised taxes, and it’s controversial whether we should raise them now? We’re spending billions a day on Iraq, and the debt is up $3 trillion since Bush entered office, and it’s controversial? We have become the ultimate taxophobic society, willing to sell our children into slavery to China rather than pay another 4 or 5 percent in income taxes. The Scandinavian countries have income tax rates approaching 80% and some of the most stable and productive economies, while the U. S. has an obscenely low maximum rate of 35% and an economy that tanks at the slightest ripple.
Okay, got that venom out.
**Correction**
As Alon Levy pointed out, I screwed up a bit. I originally said that Scandinavian countries have income tax rates approaching 50%, rather than 80%.
Top 5 Reforms Nobody’s Talking About
Well, Nanci Pelosi’s first Hundred Hours were a success, now we wait for the Senate to pass the six reform bills. Of course, the reform bills really just cleaned up some of the mess that Republicans have left in their 12 years in power, and really weren’t that radical. So, Madame Speaker (I love saying those two words together), I have a few suggestions for you. Yes, they’re liberal (in the sense that they don’t benefit big business), but really, they’re the sort of thing that you ought to be able to get all of the country behind. So, without further ado, the Top 5 Reforms Nobody’s Talking About:
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