Thursday, August 30, 2007

Republicans: Yeah, we only care about Straight White Males


Film at 11

UnivisiĆ³n planned to air the first presidential debates in Spanish on Sept. 9 and 16, one for Democrats, the other for Republicans, trumpeting a national coming-out party for Hispanic voters.

Except Republican candidates aren't coming. Only Ariz. Sen. John McCain agreed to participate in the event at the University of Miami.
...
All eight Democratic candidates are slated to show up Sept. 9, and party leaders plan to highlight the contrast.


Seriously, they don't wanna do the youtube thing, they can't stomach the idea of the logo debate, and now they don't feel like reaching out to latinos.
What's left?
Well, what do they care. They don't need those snotty tech brats, or those disgusting fags and man hating dykes. And they especially don't need those fucking wetbacks.


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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Romney On Craig


"I think it reminds us of Mark Foley and Bill Clinton,"

Yes, soliciting prostitues and sexually harassing underaged aides is exactly the same thing as having sex with a consenting adult.

Craig, gays, and self-loathing


The logic is that if you're gay, you must therefore support gay marriage

No, you twit.
The logic is that, if you are gay, and you don't support gay rights in general, you are, in fact, pathetic.
The right's objections regarding homosexuality aren't at all limited to gay marriage. Thats just the most recent outbreak (mostly because the gay rights movement is winning, as freedom and civil liberties always do, eventually).
And here's Craig hiding frm his own fears again:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/29/craig.arrest/index.html
Craig also has opposed expanding the federal hate crimes law to cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias and, in 1996, voted against a bill that would have outlawed employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, which failed by a single vote in the Senate.


If you go through the whole article (which is a very good overview of how opinions on Craig have changed now that the election has passed), it becomes apparent that the real problem the right has with Craig is that he was having illicit GAY sex. Vitter, on the other hand, appears to have just been too manly for one woman.

Anyhow, Craig has shown himself to be a self-loathing hypocrit who puts his desire for power ahead of everything. Even his own nature. He has, in fact, sold his soul to those who would see him burn.

I'm reminded of a character from The Boondocks cartoon.
Rufus.
He is, of course, the modern day version of...well...a particular class of slave who worked in the owner's mansion.


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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Boycott Amy Winhouse


Good tactic

It isn't my place to determin if Ms. Winehouse is an addict, but I do think that this tactic should be followed either way.
The fact is that Amy has been screwing her fans by, y'know, not showing up for concerts.
Concerts people paid money to attend.
Again.
And again.
So, one of a couple of things is going on here.
1. Amy figures she can get away with this shit. This requires a sizable ego as well as a complete lack of understanding of the music world. Amy can and will be replaced, just like every boy band, the moment people get tired of her crap. Very VERY few people can go the distance. Alienating your audiance can cut the suffering short.

2. Amy is completely and totally ungrateful for what she's been given. A tiny fraction of people in the world get what she's gotten. I wonder how much she'll like, y'know, working at Tower Records for the rest of her life.

3. She's nine kinds of sick. Addiction, bi-polar, or just plain old crazy.

Not buying her albums will either cut short her career now and get it over with, or it will wake the girl up (in the case of 1 and 2) or will at least stop financing and enabling her addiction.

Keep helping me drink and I'm gonna keep drinking.

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emu emu emu emu emu emu


EMUS, I TELL YOU, EMUS!!!

Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter used shopping carts to corral a wayward emu outside the store Monday about 6 a.m., West Bend police said.

Which, really, is what Wal-Mart is good for. Herding ugly, but speedy, animals.

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Monday, August 27, 2007

Vick's issue is what, exactly?


Vick: I need to grow up

He said that he was "disappointed in myself" and that "dogfighting is a terrible thing and I ... reject it."

He said, "Through this situation I've found Jesus."

OK, can I say how SICK I am of people 'finding Jesus' just in time to try and make the public forgive them their trespasses?
The thing that kills me here is Vick's understatement.
Vick doesn't just need to grow up.
To me, what he's saying is, 'I screwed up and put my career at risk.'
And, more so, 'I got caught'.
(I'll put aside for the moment the fact that Vick is one of the most fortunate men in the world. He, basically, has EVERYTHING, and instead of being a worthwhile, grateful human being, he decides to make dogs slaughter each other).

Vick's issue isn't one of maturity, per se. It is one of moral development.
Let's remember. Vick didn't just take part in dog-fighting, which is reprehensible in and of itself, and is basically torture. He killed the dogs that didn't do well. With HIS hands.
Torturing and killing mammals for pleasure is a very interesting characteristic.
It's one of the surest signs a child will grow up to be a sociopath.
What does it say about an adult?


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Friday, August 24, 2007

Heavenly Sword!!!


So, IGN UK just released a review of Heavenly Sword!!!

Unfortunately, it is far less than stellar.
From skimming the review, it looks like the game is absolutely wonderful as eye and ear candy.
But gameplay...
This is really not good for the PS3.
The console needs a couple games worth buying the system for (killer apps).
Heavenly Sword was the first hope (ok, I can't speak to racing or sports games).
Next is Lair.
Then, I think, its skate, Folklore, then Ratchet And Clank Future:Tools Of Destruction.
Lair could be huge, I mean who DOESN'T want to fly a fire breathing dragon?
But I am not setting my hopes too high.

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Yes, people being persecuted certainly is odd...


Abuse of cross-dressers, maybe jailtime

So, it isn't that I think cross-dressing as a crime is insane (though it is)
and it isn't that I think that sharia law is an abomination (though it surely is).
Its that Reuters put this article in the 'Oddly Enough' section.
I wonder...
Do honor killings go in that section?
How about..."Woman, raped, accuses brother who also raped other sister!" HAH! Boy, that sure is odd.
Oh...wait...I think I meant to say 'horrific', not odd.




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The Cult Of The Amateur

So, Andrew "I'm not really self-serving elitest" Keen has been making the rounds of late, thanks to his scheme to actually get paid to troll, called The Cult Of The Amateur.
(no, I'm not gonna link to the book...)
If you've missed this, the basic premis is that because the internet allows everyone to voice their opinions and/or their art/music/whatever, it is destroying the opportunities for people of real talent and real intelligence.
Lets break that down into two groups, which, I beliece, is how Mr. Keen sees it.

1. Artists: I'm not sure what Andy thinks the art world was like BEFORE the internets, but I can assure him that since the demise of patrons, being an artist of any kind has always been an uphill battle. It is difficult to imagine that blogging and such have had any negative impact on this. Are more people pumping out music? Sure. But it also means that you don't need to go bankrupt to put together an album and distribute it. Think of how people like Ani DiFranco would have LOVED to be able to tap into this network! Had all these tubes been in place years earlier, perhaps we would have been spared Fiona Apple's pathetic tirade at the grammies.
I'm also not certain Mr. Keen is aware that, even before this technology, a large number of artists were putting out crap. The interwebs haven't changed that, either.

2. Journalists and the media: He's right on this topic, in that we do have to read our news critically. Bloggers are formally answerable to no one. Atrios could put up posts saying that "Bush may be contemplating invading Iran within the next two days" and there's not alot that would happen. I mean, jeez, go look at Little Green Footballs and Michelle Malkin if you want to see how poorly some sites report 'news'. I'm not saying that they are out-and-out lying, but...
The thing is...the MSM has CAUSED this to happen. When the nightly news, the NYT, the white house press corp, etc. all become mouthpieces for the administration, when they report virtually nothing of substance, when they become sheep because they are afraid to step on anyone's toes, well, what did they expect to happen?
Its like Jon says...its almost as if the mainstream media has completely abdicated its responsibilities.

I could go on for a while more on this, but I won't.
I will relate a quickie here, though.
Caught Sir Keen on CSPAN2 this weekend. He was just doing a panel thing back in June. The other guy on the panel was Lev Grossman, writer for time magazine (and, incidentally, someone I went to school with a gazillion years ago). The conversation would go something like this:
Keen: 'The real problem is that there are so many people who are trying to X'
- make a living on the internet
- think they can get rich on the internet
- think that everything any blogger posts is true
- etc.
Lev: 'Um...where are all these people you keep talking about?'

heh
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Friday, August 17, 2007

LOOK AT MY NEW IDEA!

So, I saw this ad on craigslist.org for someone looking for writers to help create an internet sensation.
Yes, I assumed this was some scam or whathaveyou. But I emailed anyhow.
Its some guy looking for a writer to help write the video blogs that tell the story of a set of friends. And the hook? No one will know that they are being scripted!
OH MY!
You mean people will think that they are REAL???
How will you market this??
Well, I have this new theory called viral marketing...

I attempted to explain to the guy that this is, in fact, already old. I explained the whole lonelygirl15 thing, and how people just aren't likely to fall for this anymore, or at least not like they have before.
Then I tried to explain how the internets are filled to overflowing with gimmicks and perhaps it is time to let go of gimmicks and, instead, produce quality content (which is much harder than gimmicky content).
He complained that no one would watch the early episodes cause they'd be dull.
To which I replied, why not stop thinking of this in terms of novel or movie.
This is a new medium.
Think in new ways.

I doubt I'll hear from him again.

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Sunday, August 12, 2007

My onlineness sucks

The fact is, I'm out of control, online.
No, I don't mean I'm downloading 5 gig of porn an hour.
No, I don't mean I'm going broke on ebay.
No, I don't mean I'm the guy who sends you all that email about your penis falling out of your girlfriend's mouth.
I mean I'm drowning in info-soup.
Its not that I can't process the metric gazillion feeds I have on google reader.
Its that I don't actually care about most of them.
I think I should care about some of the feeds dedicated to economics, but I don't. Really, I don't understand much about economics at all. I'm OK with that. It looks to me like big picture stuff is pretty much hit-or-miss for the guys with PhDs anyhow.
(I understand two and only two things about macro economics:
1. Trickle down economics doesn't work. I know this because I lived through two terms of Reagan and one term of Bush Sr.
2. If an economy is helped by money moving around from person to person and business to business, then the best possible idea is to make sure poor people get more money.
And I say that as someone who is making a lot more than most people.
Oh, OK, I understand one more thing. Rich people who bitch about their taxes should be made to live without any of the things taxes pay for. I make a good living, but I ain't rich. In reality, taxes probably screw people in my pay range more than just about anyone else, and I pay them. Every year. Without complaint. Because that's the rent for living in the US. And it is a small price to pay.)


So, as of today, I am cleaning up.
I'm down to under a dozen feeds, and I'll build from there, slowly.
I'm cutting down to just this blog.
All email lists go to another email account where they will probably be ignored.

Just because you CAN take it all in, doesn't mean you want to.

Sunday, August 05, 2007