Raznor's Rants

Quote of the Day

2008-08-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Here:

I’m consistently amazed at the ways our punditariat has of explaining why every good thing for the Democrats is actually bad. Hillary giving a good speech is bad for Biden and Obama. Biden giving a good speech is even worse for Obama. Obama giving a speech that makes John McCain break down into a quivering mass and announce that his running mate will be his blankie is horrible news for Democrats in general, for we are a people who, particularly heading into the colder months, appreciate and revere our blankies.

It's sure good to have Jesse Taylor back blogging.

What I don't get

2008-07-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

So apparently John McCain has an ad that says Obama "made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops," while showing an image of Obama playing basketball with the troops in Kuwait. And I'm thinking, if you're going to be that dishonest, why not just make stuff up? Why not just accuse Obama of being a baby-eater or something?

Hey look, another post

2008-07-18T11:36:00.001-07:00

Posted by Raznor

So just nonpolitical video blogging I guess, but I just love this song so much I must post it - "Love Me Dead" by Ludo.

Also, what the hell, this song always makes me happy - "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn and John.

I'm still alive

2008-07-07T11:29:00.001-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Just thought I'd post this primer on what's metal:

. . . and while I'm posting Adult Swim videos, here's something the mass media won't tell you:

And on the subject of dead celebrities, Pollak sums my thoughts well on his most recent toons here and here. Plus what he said about Helms:

Jesse Helms actually hated black people. And no one punished him for it. He retired, having been re-elected repeatedly by a majority of North Carolinians who decided that something like this wasn't racist at all, because they're fucking assholes. And when you watch that, keep in mind this isn't the remnants of a racist past that has advanced with the rest of the country. That ad was from 1990. And when it became socially awkward for Helms to openly degrade the existence of blacks, he switched to open hatred of gays.

He hated people who loved each other. He hated people who loved music. He hated parents who wanted a public education system and music programs to make them smarter and more artistic and more open to the beauty of this world than a vile person like him was ever capable of being. He hated art. He hated.

Anyway, so does this post mean a return to blogging. Maybe. I have a job htat doesn't require me to stand in a kitchen all day, so that gives me more energy. Maybe the blog shall return.

This may be the dumbest ad campaign ever

2008-01-25T14:49:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Okay, so the whole point of this ad campaign is that when Burger King stopped selling the Whopper for one day, people freaked out, since the Whopper is apparently the greatest burger ever made by man. And by "freaked out", I mean, "were weirded out that a major fast food chain inexplicably stopped selling their signature item".

Post Iowa

2008-01-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

As I said, I was hoping Edwards would win it in Iowa, and I still think Edwards is the best candidate, but still, I can't help being excited by Obama and the prospect of a black president.

I can't tell if Obama's rhetoric means he doesn't understand the partisan rancour of Washington and the level of corruption of the beltway, and will end up, a la Reid and Pelosi, caving in to every Republican demand, or if it means he understands it perfectly, and has the ability to package progressive change so that the establishment will accept it. I hope for the latter, but the last 7 years of politics have left me quite cynical with politics in general.

Still, I can't help but feel inspired by the Obama candidacy. It's an emotion that has no rational thought behind it, but it's there.

What I'm Hoping For

2008-01-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

I really hope Edwards wins in Iowa, and then ultimately the nomination and election. Amanda pretty much summarizes why.

But beyond that, I'm hoping for an Edwards/Obama ticket in November. Then if they pick George Clooney as Secretary of State, we will have the most handsome Administration in the history of time, previously held, of course, by Kennedy.

Santa's Evil

2007-12-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

For the hell of it, here's a couple of happy holiday videos for you.

Raznor Recipes #1

2007-12-11T19:12:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

So, I've been wanting to restart this blog for a while, but politics just makes me angry. But I was inspired by a post by Ezra to post what recipes I've invented, so without further ado, here is Raznor Recipe #1: Steak and Potatoes a la Raznor:

You will need:
approximately 16oz of steak, give or take, any cut, even buffalo if you so desire
1-2 potatoes, any variety
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
dried parsley
some amount of steak sauce

Cut up potatoes into half inch slices, put to the side. In a large saucepan on medium heat melt butter or heat up olive oil. Add parsley, mix into oil or butter with a spatula. Add potatoes, cover, and heat until potatoes are soft. Then, with spatula, push potatoes to the edge of the pan. Then add steak, splash on steak sauce. For medium rare to medium, cover for 5-7 minutes, then flip steak over, splash on steak sauce again, cover for another 5-7 minutes, then serve.

One of the benefits is the steak sauce and parsley soak into the potatoes, giving them a quite distinct and delicious flavor. I tend to like to steam some broccoli with this.

Anyway, there's Raznor Recipe #1, if anyone's still reading this, let me know what you think.

Easin' back into blogging maybe

2007-08-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

So, yeah, my life since April has been pretty hectic, but I wanted to try to get a few posts in and try resurrecting this blog.

So to start with, if anyone's reads this, I thought I'd link to this Cat and Girl comic and leave in comments your various names.

Me, my singer-songwriter name is Benjamin Berlin, and my trust fund name is Russ Grant-McKinley II.

Adendum to "Bummer"

2007-04-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Posted by Ross

The Sirens of Titan was the first Vonnegut book I ever read (and has a sacred place in my heart) and his work played a pivotal role in my intellectual development during my teenage years. I always dreamed of getting the chance to meet him, but I guess that one's gonna have to wait. I'm not saying I wouldn't be a writer if it hadn't been for Kurt Vonnegut, but I can say it wasn't until I started reading Vonnegut that I was inspired to dedicate my life to the craft.

I'm also not saying I wouldn't be a humanist if it weren't for Vonnegut. But when I learned that was what he called himself, I knew it was what I am too.

Peace.

Bummer

2007-04-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Kurt Vonnegut died. Probably the most unique American writer of the 20th century. He'll be missed.

My first Vonnegut book was what is considered his darkest - Mother Night. Vonnegut's warning in the introduction to that book is one that has always stuck with me. "We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be."

In high school, I read Cat's Cradle. If people ask me about my spirituality and I don't feel like getting into details, I tell them Bokononism. It's as good a description as any.

What I was wrong about in March, 2003

2007-03-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Brian Flemming has an interesting challenge for bloggers, look back into the archives from March, 2003 and find out what we were wrong about. For me this was an interesting trip down memory lane. Here's what I've determined by looking at my archives from March, 2003.

1) I was a much more avid blogger when this blog was still new.
2) But this was partially because I was used to reading huge amounts for college. I am stunned by how many articles I was reading back then. Plus I was treading through long comments threads at Alas, A Blog. I just don't read as much since college ended.
3) My html skillz sucked. They still aren't that good, but man, 3 years ago? Terrible.

Anyway, there was one thing that I was particularly wrong about. It was here where I was predicting what victory in Iraq would bring:

ut what if we win? Al Qaeda will get at least as many new recruits than from the loss, we're now proven to be on a Crusade. We'll likely use the victory to spur us onto more Imperial conquest of Syria and Egypt and Iran. Soon we'll be occupying, and we'll lose a lot of men for it, and acts of terrorism against the citizens of the US would likely reach unimaginable levels. We'll likely be at war with Turkey to keep them out of northen Iraq, and don't forget that we'll lose a lot of service men and women in occupying hostile territory. And if we keep attacking nation after nation, and I would not put it past the Administration to do so, if we keep getting victory after victory, our Empire will grow, and the greater the Empire the more unstable, and it will fall if history is an indicator.

Of course, what ended up happening is we neither really "won" nor "lost" but are still bogged down in a long occupation. But I was right about Al Qaeda. And I think the next paragraph was damn spot on, and really remarkably candid. (really, I'm impressed with 21-year-old me)

So maybe the best course we could reasonably hope for is a loss in this war. Something that will slap awake the American populace. Make us realize that war is never clean, it's a messy endeavor. Maybe, if that happens, a loss in this war will save more people than the war will destroy.

If Iraq had managed to repel our invasion, the fallout would have been immeasurably damaging, but I can't imagine it being significantly worse than the indefinite occupation and drain on our resources we're seeing now in Iraq.

Friday Random 10

2007-03-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Here's the list:

1) "Pink Love" - Blonde Redhead
2) "The Dark of the Matinee" - Franz Ferdinand
3) "Space Dementia" - Muse
4) "Dissident" - Pearl Jam
5) "Extraordinary Machine" - Fiona Apple
6) "16 Military Wives" - The Decemberists
7) "Misery is a Butterfly" - Blonde Redhead
8) "Close Edge" - Mos Def
9) "Hated Because of Great Qualities" - Blonde Redhead (Wow, third Blonde Redhead song in this random shuffle.)
10) "Wouldn't Mama Be Proud" - Jeff Trott (great rendition of Elliott Smith's original version)

Well enjoy that, I'll include a post with music videos later today (Youtube doesn't like me right now). In the meantime, make your own list in comments.

The most awesome Family Guy moment ever

2007-02-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

A recent episode of Family Guy, "The Road to Rupert" featured this:

And for those wondering just how well this syncs up with the original scene from Anchors Aweigh:

The big cliche is to wonder how creative types come up with their ideas. But I seriously want to know who was it who saw this scene and thought, "Hey let's put Stewie there."

I love George Takei and so do you

2007-02-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Takei on Hardaway, via JMG.

FR to da T

2007-02-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

It really feels like spring today. I'm sitting in a cafe in the U District in Seattle and the door's open and just a really nice day which puts me in a nice good mood.

Anyway, here's the Friday Random Ten:

1) "Oh Well" - Fiona Apple
2) "Mama" - My Chemical Romance
3) "Days Like This Keep Me Warm" - The Polyphonic Spree
4) "Trap Door" - Heatmiser
5) "What You Meant" - Franz Ferdinand
6) "Splendid Isolation" - Pete Yorn
7) "Matinee Idol" - Rufus Wainwright
8) "The Engine Driver" - The Decemberists
9) "If There's Love" - Citizen Cope
10) "Carlos (Don't Let It Go To Your Head) (Live)" - Pete Yorn

Speaking of Pete Yorn, I got the pleasure of seeing him in concert this past weekend. It was my third time seeing Yorn live, and by far the best I've ever seen him.

Anyway, here's his music video for "For Us".

Comics I like

2007-02-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

I'll do a Friday random 10 again today, but I thought I'd post a few links to comics that cracked me up or are generally good.

First off, August Pollak's latest is utterly hilarious. The penultimate panel still has me giggling.

Secondly, check out this Cat and Girl about the manifestations of rich privelege.

Then there's Mikhaela's take on the "100% heterosexual" Ted Haggard.

And what Valentine's Day would be complete without some cards from Brian McFadden and Scott Ramsoomair.

. . . adding: Looks like August Pollak's toon I linked to above will be in this Sunday's LA Times. Rock on.

Oh and in for those of you who don't get the above VG Cats, the horrified man behind the desk is the genius behind many of Nintendo's most popular franchises Shigeru Miyamoto.

Also, I forgot to mention one of my new favorite comics, Alma Mater about the lives of students at an all girl private school. Just start here and keep reading. I absolutely love the artwork.

the tamale lady

2007-02-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Posted by Ross

My karate studio is about a ten minute walk from where I live. I go to karate usually three times a week, though have been going more recently because I am getting ready to test for brown belt. But I'm not writing this to talk about karate. I am writing this to talk about the bag of tamales sitting on my table.

When I was carrying that bag home, it felt like I was carrying a big bag of dog shit. Like from a Great Dane or something. And the fact that the tamales were still steaming didn't do a thing to enhance my appetite.

I generally see the tamale lady when I'm walking home from karate on Wednesday and Thursday nights, standing with her shopping cart full of tamales for sale. I speak Spanish so I always say something like, "Buenas noches."

And then she usually says, "Buenas noches, como esta?" (Always third person.)

And then I say, "Bien, bien, y tu?"

And then she says, "Bien, gracias."

And then I say, "Hasta luego."

And then she says, "Hasta luego."

Or sometimes I say, "Que te vaya bien."

And she says, "Igualmente."

I don't think the tamale lady is as old as I am, which is 30. And I know the tamale lady is considerably shorter than my wife, which is 5'1".

The point to all this has to do with the first time I said "hola" to her three years ago, after which point she asked me if I wanted to buy a tamale, and I said no. I didn't tell her that the reason I said no had to do with the fact that I just didn't find the prospect of buying tamales from someone's shopping cart particularly appetizing.

And now, three years later, there are dos tamales de pollo y dos tamales de queso sitting on my kitchen table still in that black bag so it looks like I brought the Great Dane shit into my apartment. And though I am hungry, I do not want to eat the tamales.

Which makes me wonder what happens next time I see the tamale lady. One possible thing I could do is never buy a tamale from her again. Another possible thing to do is that I always keep a dollar on hand and buy un tamale de queso every time I see her, and then throw it away when I come home. Another possible thing I could do is try the tamales, and who knows, maybe they will be amazing...or maybe I'll get some sort of parasite in my stomach...or maybe a fun combination of the two.

See what happened was I was walking home from karate tonight and she was walking to her spot with her shopping cart and I asked her, "Como estas?"

And she said, "Bien, bien, trabajando."

And it was the way she said "trabajando" that made me feel, not necessarily bad for her, and not necessarily responsible for her, but, well, I guess it made me feel generous (not that four dollars for four tamales is the hugest act of philanthropy or anything).

The only time I ever saw the tamale lady not at her little spot was this Sunday morning, like 8:45, when I was on my way to Sunday school.

She was walking down my street pushing her cart. And we said our greetings, and then she said, "Quieres un tamale?"

And I said, "Es demasiado temprano para tamales."

But I kept thinking, was she, like, out all night selling tamales? It made me think maybe I should buy a tamale at some point. It made me even think maybe they would be the world's greatest tamales. I mean, she's out there selling those tamales all the time, so she must have repeat customers, right?

So tonight I bought some. And she didn't really have a bag to put them in. Instead it was like one of those plastic bags from the grocery story that you put the fruit in. Except it had like been cut in half or something so that it was really just a thin piece of plastic. Only I didn't know that, so when I tried to put my change back in my wallet, the tamales slid all over the place and onto my karate bag and stuff, and I was doing my damndest to keep them from falling on the street, and then she was like, "Un momento."

And then she grabbed up the tamales in her bare hands and walked over to the little convenience store run by the guy whose car has an "Allah is Your Protector" bumper sticker on his SUV and he gave her a couple of those black plastic bags and she put the tamales in the bag and then gave the bag to me, and I said, "Gracias."

And she said, "De nada."

And then I said, "Hasta luego."

But I just don't think I can bring myself to eat them. Maybe I'll heat up some of those Trader Joe's turkey meatballs instead.

** Update: The tamales turned out to be good. **

Friday Random Ten

2007-02-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Why not?

1) "Jesus of Suburbia" - Green Day
2) "There There (The Boney King of Nowhere)" - Radiohead
3) "Big Man With a Gun" - Nine Inch Nails
4) "Together We're Heavy" - The Polyphonic Spree
5) "Why Did I Decide to Stay" - Heatmiser (Heatmiser, by the way, was Elliott Smith's band before he went solo)
6) "Division Day" - We Are Telephones (an Elliott Smith cover from To: Elliott, From: Portland)
7) "Hanging Around the Day Part II" - The Polyphonic Spree
8) "Yesterday Never Tomorrows" - The Stills (Side note: is that not the greatest title for a song ever?)
9) "Wake Me Up When September Ends" - Green Day
10) "Molly's Chambers" - Kings of Leon

And taking a page from Amanda's playbook, here's a music video of The Stills.

The National Media: A Summary

2007-02-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

I can think of very little that's caused me to laugh as uncontrollably as today's Penny Arcade.

Edwards does the right thing

2007-02-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

He's keeping Amanda and Shakes. Bully for him. Bully I say.

A note on Verb Tense

2007-02-07T13:10:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Just a further note on the faux outrage about the great and talented Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan being hired by the John Edwards blog - note that when this is discussed it's always "Edwards mired himself in a scandal", and yet when people talk about Iraq and Bush, it's always "The Iraq war hurt Bush's popularity", like poor Bush, he was just sitting along and suddenly there was a war in Iraq that went poorly. What's a guy to do?

Also, as a must read, check out Pam Spauldings' thoughts.

This has made me so angry that I can barely enjoy my new favorite webtoon.

Right wingers manufacture controversy, MSM dutifully recites

2007-02-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

It's going to be a long campaign season.

Day after Superbowl thoughts

2007-02-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

One word - BORING.

This is the problem with the Superbowl. It's one game. One game can be very exciting, but usually it's boring and one sided.

The others of the big 4 sports, on the other hand, have series, which are usually more exciting than the individual games. Although last year's World Series was a pretty boring one, think of my personal favorite World Series of 2001, where the D-backs kicked some Yankee ass in a thrilling 7 game series. But don't forget that Game 6 of that series was a yawning 900-2 D-backs blowout. If that had been the only game of that series the result would be the same, Diamondbacks would be world champions, but things would have been much less exciting.

City of Boston narrowly averts utter destruction at the hands of the Mooninites' quad-laser

2007-02-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Well, the Bekka already posted on this, but I had to put my two cents in on this most ridiculous of terrorist threats.

First of all, I agree completely with August Pollak here and Greg Saunders here. This is completely ridiculous. An overblown hyper-hysteria that ended up with the arrest of two young men because the Boston city government couldn't be bothered to take responsibility for scaring the shit out of the entire city because someone found a lite brite.

In the end, this just shows how fucking insane this country is whenever terrorism gets invoked. 50 years from now, people will look at this as a classic example of media-induced hysteria that really is equally responsible for the unprecedented erosion of civil liberties and the quagmire in Iraq as anything else.

All Involved in Cartoon Creation, Publicity Stunt Extremely High

2007-02-01T12:44:00.000-08:00

Posted by the bekka

Those mooninites are at it again.

HOLY SHIT!!! GIANT BABY!

2007-02-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

Posted by the bekka

It will eat us all!

Michelle Malkin's intrepid reporting: a summary

2007-01-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Courtesy of Sadly, No:

Breaking: The moon is literally made of cheese.

Like I said, the moon is made of really hard, rock-like cheese.

Here’s yet more proof that the moon is made of a soft rock which resembles cheese.

Breaking: According to Flopping Aces via Patterico (hat tip: Confederate Yankee), Gateway Pundit has posted a screen-capture of an AP story that says (and I quote): “Because I’m still in love with you, I want to see you dance again, Because I’m still in love with you, On this harvest moon.” So the moon has harvests. Will the MSM admit cheese? Wai-ting…
Liberals deny the similarity between the moon’s cratered surface and that of certain cheeses, for instance Neufchâtel.
UPDATE: Whoops, I meant Gruyère — the circular or wedge-shaped kind with craters in it from ancient meteor strikes.
As I’ve said many times, the real issue is that if the moon were cheese, the liberal MSM would attempt to sweep the truth under the rug, as is usual for them. As the present case clearly demonstrates.

Breaking: The moon is literally made of cheese. Big surprise, eh, MSM? Blue Crab Boulevard reports that Flopping Aces writes that Confederate Yankee finds that Gateway Pundit reports that Dan Riehl writes that…
UPDATE: Whoops. The AP story actually reads, “The [Rev. Sun-Myung] Moon[’s hairpiece] is made out of [the pubic hair of North Korean 13-year-olds, and his office smells like the Incredible Hulk just cut the] cheese.” Story developing…
“Hi, this is See-Dub guest blogging while Michelle ~~hides out for awhile~~ is traveling on journalism business. Say, how about those liberals? Pretty unhinged, huh?”
I have many emails now from people, and I will now respond. Liberals dishonestly claim that no cheese is not never unmade of not-moon. Yet despite their best efforts to embolden terrorism, no amount of wild, unhinged ranting by the left can [mumble-mumble] about the [mumble-mumble], because okay, lunar rock, as I’ve said many times.
Ha ha! Sneer! For certain the MSM has no credibility left, but are they willfully ignorant of the commonality of double vowels in the center of the words, ‘moon’ and ‘cheese’? Oo! Ee! (Hat tip: Gateway Pundit)

Burning questions remain in the evolving moon/cheese double-vowel controversy.
With the moon having been proven to be possibly cheese, I have decided to go to the moon to personally report on the cheese which is there.
I came to the moon a darkening cheese-skeptic, but left with unexpected hope and resolve. Sure enough, here’s a picture of some rocks on the moon.
[etc.]

Read the rest.

(Technical html note: I didn't know how the good D. Aristophanes did his nice enumerated list, so I just copied the source code. Apparently how my template is set up instead of the list being itemized by numbers, I get flower-shaped bullet points. I have no idea how to fix this, and I have homework to do. So there you go.)

Music blogging: The Thermals

2007-01-28T15:24:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

The Thermals are simply an awesome band from Portland. I first heard of them because they did a great cover of "Ballad of Big Nothing" on To: Elliott, From: Portland. Here's "A Pillar of Salt".

Genarlow Wilson update

2007-01-26T11:16:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

See my first post on this here.

Via Scott Lemieux there's a new article on Wilson. And in case you didn't think this was a grave injustice, check this out:

The District Attorney -- who makes the decision on how to handle cases: which ones to prosecute, which to drop -- charged Wilson with rape and aggravated child molestation. The jury found Wilson not guilty of the rape charge.

According to the jury forewoman, the jury did not know that by convicting Wilson of the aggravated child molestation charge that they had just sentenced him to a mandatory 10 years in prison. “People were screaming, crying, beating against the walls,” she recalls. “I just went limp. They had to help me to a chair.”

Yet right down the hall, Alexander High School English teacher Kari McCarley was standing trial for "carrying on a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student." She was married, with children. This wasn't a one-time sexual encounter. Her sentence? Three years probation and 90 days in jail.

But lest you think this has nothing to do with Wilson being black, check this out:

Atlanta Magazine points out the inconsistency when the Douglasville defendant is an adult white male:

But there are also other cases of adults—white adults—prosecuted by the Douglas County District Attorney’s office for sex crimes involving minors and received far lighter sentences than any of the teens in the Douglasville Six case.

Case in point: Jack Stewart, a 24-year-old volunteer coach at Heirway Christian Academy in Douglas County, who received 30 days in jail and 10 years probation for fondling the 15-year-old daughter of a couple whose house he was living at temporarily. McDade notes that he objected in court to the “inappropriately light” sentence.

In the case of 26-year-old George Tsimpides, First Offender status was extended in a sex crime. Tsimpides received 20 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to luring a 15-year-old girl he’d met on the Internet to Arbor Place Mall with the intention of engaging in sex with her. McDade says he publicly objected to that sentence.

The DA is white. At any time, previously and currently, he could change this. Maybe his decision to completely destroy the life of a young black man who did nothing wrong has nothing to do with his race, but I doubt it, and really would that make it better?

Wilson was 17 when he went to prison. He'll be 27 when he gets out. I'm 25 now. I think of everything I've done with my life for the past 8 years and simply shudder to think what my life would be like if I were incarcerated for that time.

An Anniversary come and gone

2007-01-26T11:08:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

So ~~three~~ four years ago last Saturday I posted my very first blog post. Pretty exciting beginning to this humble blog.

I do feel that I have had moderate success with this blog. I'm not sure how much of a readership I've retained but there was a period in there, shortly after starting the blog and before graduating college, where I had some measure of success, in that people I've never met would regularly read my blog. Then of course came the blogger burnout. I don't know what keeps some of these regular bloggers going. So, what modest fame I had was mostly lost. But hey, what the hell. I originally started blogging so that I didn't have to e-mail everyone I knew important news items. Anything beyond that is just icing.

. . . adding - holy crap, four years? Really? Wow.

Bask in my reflected glory. Bask!!!

2007-01-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

For only the second time, my hilarious comment was included in the Comics Curmudgeon's weekly round up. Check it out. And the rest of that site. It's a damn fine blog.

Haven't you heard? Real is brown.

2007-01-19T10:59:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

There are so many levels on which I enjoy the latest installment of VG Cats.

Note to pundits - stop pretending sophistry is seriousness

2007-01-12T11:06:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Glenn Greenwald points to a Peggy Noonan column that is really quite indicative of the level of cowardly posturing that is considered "serious" by today's pundit class. Greenwald notes:

Among the political and punditry establishment, there has emerged a consensus that there is only one way to show that one is a truly respectable, mainstream, Serious Thinker about the war. It is to do this:

(1) acknowledge (reluctantly) that the war is going very poorly and wrinkle one's foreheads to show grave concern over the problem;

(2) oppose escalation (but respectfully, acknowledging what a serious, thoughtful -- even resolute -- option it is);

(3) oppose withdrawal (categorically, dismissively, snidely, as though any person with a grain of responsibility would never think of such a thing, given how patently reckless it is).

It all really is a disgusting exercise. And it's not just Noonan. This is a standard for political pundits, even, and especially, the so-called "liberal" pundits, like Joe Klein and Richard Cohen, who go on about the illiberal left, but don't have the cojones to actually offer a solution.

But really, I wanted to respond to Noonan's concluding paragraph:

What is paramount, it seems to me, is a hard, cold-eyed, even brutal look at America's interests. We have them. I'm not sure they've been given sufficient attention the past few years. In fact, I am sorry to say I believe they have not.

Really? That's nice because I and many other war opponents have been saying this for the past four years while you've been blindly triumphing Dear Leader's resolve. But let's take a "hard, cold-eyed, even brutal look at America's interests."

Iraq is a quagmire. There were so many mistakes made early on (not least of which was invading Iraq in the first place) that there really is no way to repair the damage. As soon as we leave there will be a blood bath. I expect that the government that we installed will partake in a massive ethnic cleansing of Sunnis, then act as a puppet government of Iran, then there will be another bloody war as the Kurds seek secession from the Shia government, which, if we're lucky, will result merely in a bloody conflict that is negotiated to a partitioning of Iraq to allow for a Kurdistan. Of course, it could also suck in Turkey and Iran who wish to prevent a Kurdistan from existing, and spiral into a massive regional war. The only possible winner of this war can be Iran, and lo and behold, Iran will emerge as a new great power, just as Japan emerged as a great power after the Russo-Japanese War.

But this is a worst case scenario. The only thing up there I'm more than 50% certain of occurring is the ethnic cleansing, but I hold out some hope that that can be prevented. The thing I'm 100% certain of, though, is that Iran will emerge as the most powerful nation in the region, whose chief regional rival will be Israel, since Israel has vastly superior military technology. But what Iran lacks in hard power it makes up for in soft power, or do you think the population of of Central Asia and the Arab Penninsula trusts Israelis more than Persians?

What I'm also certain of is that there is very little chance that there's anything America can militarily do to prevent this. We best damn well start normalizing relations with Iran, because we'll have to deal with them one way or another. We do not have the ability to occupy Iran, and I'm not entirely sure we could even overthrow the Iranian government if we were to invade. What is also certain, is the longer we stay in Iraq, and especially if we escalate to invade Syria and Iran, the weaker we'll be, and the more leverage we give to Iran.

And all this is not based on an unserious frivolity, it's based on a "hard, cold-eyed, and even brutal look at America's interests." There is nothing to salvage in Iraq. The only thing to do is to ignore our damn national pride and get the fuck out of there as soon as possible. In fact, I would even remember Bismark's advice to stay out of the Balkans and apply that to the Middle East. Get as far away from the Middle East as possible. Find alternative fuels to oil so that we can stay out and let it work itself out.

But for now, get out of Iraq. Of course, to Bush, his ego is more important than America, so we'll have to wait at least 2 years until that happens. I hope we still have a military after that.

I'm as firm as red clay and as constant as . . . drinking. I'm constantly drinking.

2007-01-11T16:22:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

In lieu of any substantive posts by me here, I thought I'd post an episode of Squidbillies. Because, why not?

The Darkness From Gitmo

2007-01-11T09:19:00.000-08:00

Posted by Ross

A devastating letter from a current detainee was published in today's LA Times.

Concerning "Borat"

2007-01-10T12:34:00.000-08:00

Posted by Ross

Raznor's and my mom didn't really like "Borat" because she felt it was too mean-spirited. And I understand what she means. There are times you really feel bad for the people he's lampooning, and reading interviews later I couldn't help but feel sympathy for some of the subjects.

I think it's alright to feel sympathy for some of the subjects in the film, while simultaneously thinking it's funny as hell when Bortat expresses, in front of a crowd of cheering rednecks, his hopes for Premiere Bush to drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq.

I love how Borat can draw out such incredibly ignorant, hateful, sexist, racist, anti-semitic remarks from otherwise patient, kind, hospitable people. And I think that's incredibly important to notice.

I'm a huge fan of the Morgan Spurlock show "30 Days." I've showed a couple episodes -- the one where a Christian man has to live as a Muslim and the one where a Christian man who believes homosexuality is a sin has to live with a gay roommate in the Castro district -- in my Sunday school class and it's just so amazing to see these people transcend small-mindedness and bigotry simply by living in close proximity with that "unpleasant other."

It's not that we should point and ridicule these folks because they say things that have been deemed "wrong" by the slow and strange evolution of thought, but rather that we recognize our own horrible selves in them, as well as the extraordinary capacity for a person to learn, grow and change...while all the while laughing our asses off.

Sunday Music Blogging

2007-01-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

I believe this needs no introduction.

Transgendereds and Feminism

2007-01-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

I've been wanting to write the great American blog post on transgenedered people and feminism, but my lack of knowledge on both subjects, especially in comparison to any number of highly qualified bloggers, has prevented me. Fortunately Ampersand is on the case. The entire post and following comments thread is highly worth a read.

I may soon post my own thoughts on the subject but I need to organize them a little better. So go ahead and read Amp, as well as the thoughts of regular Raznor commenter Little Light.

Better keep your story straight

2007-01-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

When I read this gem by Cliff Kincaid (via:

He [Barack Obama] had wanted this “drawdown” to begin by 2006. Now he wants the “drawdown” in 2007. [ed: this was written on December 29, just fyi]

I immediately thought of this:

Take pity on poor Donald Rumsfeld

2006-12-29T14:38:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

He will soon lose a dear friend.

"Vengeance is mine," quoth Alvis. Then he shot that guy right in the frickin' face.

2006-12-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Here's hoping you and yours had a merry Feast of Alvis.

Quite possibly the happiest music video ever made

2006-12-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Man, it's been a while since I've listened to Dave Matthews Band, but for some reason, I was suddenly reminded of this video. Enjoy.

Children of Men

2006-12-24T14:08:00.000-08:00

Posted by Ross

This movie is so insanely fucking awesome.

These might be SPOILERS...

...but one thing I thought about was that this world in the movie could actually exist within the logical axis (if not the stated dates) of Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos, which simply happens to tell its story of worldwide infertility from a different part of the globe.

Also, as I hadn't known anything about the film before seeing it, I didn't know about those epic tracking shots, so I just found myself in the middle of one of those shots thinking, when was the last time there was an edit? A friend of mine who was at the film with the bekka and myself commented that this action-non-editing was sort of the opposite of the gold-standard Michael Bay a-million-edits-a-second style. And it's just so relentless to be on Clive Owen (with shaky hand-held; at one point the lens is even spattered with blood) and never cut throughout these horrific sequences. An edit in this case wouldn't make the scene more exciting, but would instead be something of a relief.

Music blogging

2006-12-24T00:45:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

So I recently went to see the Deck the Halls Ball here in Seattle. Eight bands were there, I stayed through 6 - in order: Pete Yorn, Angels and Airwaves, Jet, Gnarls Barkley, Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance. I regret not staying for The Shins, but at that point, I was beginning to worry about leaving the dog in my apartment.

Anyway, of the bands I hadn't really listened to before (those other than Yorn and My Chemical Romance) I was most impressed with Angels and Airwaves. Here's their video for "The War". Seriously, this is their video. Weird, huh?

The song is great, but man, dark as hell.

A question

2006-12-23T14:42:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Inspired by this post by Nitpicker, I wonder: If someone from Al Qaeda released a video stating that the fact that America has indoor plumbing is a victory for jihadists, how soon would right wingers start advocating for outhouses?

Big surprise of the day

2006-12-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

In Georgia, a 17 year old boy was sentenced to 10 years in prison for consensual oral sex with a 15 year old girl. Here's a picture of the boy from his website:

Wow, what a surprise. Georgia has decided to destroy the life of a young black man. How much you wanna bet the girl was white? How come I looked at this case and in two seconds knew the boy was black?

This kid had no criminal record. He had good grades and was a good athlete. He had consensual sex with a girl 2 years younger than him. And now his life has been utterly destroyed. And why? Because he was black. You never hear of this sort of sentencing in the case of good ol' American whites having good ol' American heterosexual sex. But once you've offended the delicate sensibilities of the southern racists, you're screwed.

Bob Dylan said it best:

If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
Less you wanna draw the heat.

How sad that that's still as true today as when it was written.

You can sign a petition here.

Update: Scott at Lawyers, Guns and Money has more. The girl was in fact also black. The prosecutor was white. And, as zuzu points out, the jury didn't realize, when finding Wilson guilty, that the law held a minimum of 11 years in prison, 10 without parole. Also, zuzu points to why Wilson didn't take a plea bargain:

The prosecutor, David McDade, the district attorney in Douglas County, west of Atlanta, says he has repeatedly offered Mr. Wilson the opportunity to resolve the case with a plea deal, adding that he would have to be treated similarly to the other defendants in the case, who are serving five- to seven-year prison sentences with a chance at parole. They, too, will have to register as sex offenders.

Mr. Wilson is adamant that he will not plead.

“Even after serving time in prison, I would have to register as a sex offender wherever I lived and if I applied for a job for the rest of my life, all for participating in a consensual sex act with a girl just two years younger than me,” he told a reporter for Atlanta magazine last year, adding that he would not even be able to move back in with his mother because he has an 8-year-old sister. “It’s a lifelong sentence in itself. I am not a child molester.”

Add this to the dumbest shit I've ever heard- CNN edition

2006-12-12T17:19:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Via Josh Marshall, here's a little fashion commentary on Barack Obama:

The senator was in New Hampshire over the weekend, sporting what's getting to be the classic Obama look. Call it business casual, a jacket, a collared shirt, but no tie.

It is a look the senator seems to favor. And why not? It is dressy enough to suggest seriousness of purpose, but without the stuffiness of a tie, much less a suit. There is a comfort level here that reflects one of Obama's strongest political assets, a sense that he is comfortable in his own skin, that he knows who he is.

If you want a striking contrast, check out Senator John Kerry as he campaigned back in 2004. He often appeared without a tie, but clad in a blazer, the kind of casual look you see at country clubs and lawn parties in the Hamptons and other toned (ph) locations.

When President Bush wanted in casual mode, he skipped the jacket entirely. Third-generation Skull and Bones at Yale? Don't be silly. Nobody here but us Texas ranchers.

You can think of Bush's apparel as a kind of homage to Ronald Reagan. He may have spent much of his life in Hollywood, but the brush-cutting ranch hand was the image his followers loved, just as the Kennedy sea ferry look provided a striking contrast with, say, Richard Nixon, who apparently couldn't even set out on a beach walk without that "I wish I had spent more time at the office" look.

Okay, kinda irrelevant but interesting. Obama pulls the "man of the people" look beter than Kerry, and Bush, like Reagan, is seeking to appeal to a different demographic. You got me so far, but wait what's this?

But, in the case of Obama, he may be walking around with a sartorial time bomb. Ask yourself, is there any other major public figure who dresses the way he does?

No really, you'll love this.

Why, yes. It is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, unlike most of his predecessors, seems to have skipped through enough copies of "GQ" to find the jacket-and-no-tie look agreeable.

And maybe that's not the comparison a possible presidential contender really wants to evoke.

Eeeeeeeeeek. Obama and Ahmadinejad dress similarly!!!!1! Certainly he's unfit for public office! And certainly the American electorate is parsing how candidates dress as compared to foreign officials. So this is political suicide.

The best thing is we get to look forward to 2 full years of commentary as enlightening as this.

When crazy videos happen to great music

2006-12-03T02:37:00.001-08:00

Posted by Raznor

So I went shopping at Target today to pick up some stuff for my apartment, and afterwards, I was already kinda irritated because I hate big box stores in general, and traffic was atrocious, but just as I was getting pissed, suddenly The Killers' "Bones" came on the radio. I tell you, happiest song ever made. You cannot stay angry or sad or whatever when you listen to this one.

Meanwhile, "Supermassive Black Hole" is possibly the best song on the new Muse album, but I've got to say: the video kind of weirds me out.

. . . and it certainly doesn't help that the video makes Matt Bellamy kinda looks like Rene Auberjonois.

More on the day after World AIDS Day

2006-12-03T02:12:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Though I guess by now it's more like two days after. I'm saying up late to try to get my apartment a bit more organized. But in the meanwhile, I thought I'd post this.

Rude Pundit commemorated World AIDS day with an appropriate quote from Angels in America. In a similar vein, I thought I'd post what is my favorite quotation from the same play.

"But still. Still.

Bless me anyway.

I want more life. I can't help myself. I do.

I've lived through such terrible times, and there are people who live through much much worse, but . . . You see them living anyway. when they're more spirit than body, more sores than skin, when they're burned and in agony, when flies lay eggs in the eyes of their children, they live. Death usually has to take life away. I don't know if that's just the animal. I don't know if it's not braver to die. But I recognize the habit. The addiction to being alive. We live past hope. If I can find hope anywhere, that's it, that's the best I can do. It's so much not enough, so inadequate but . . . Bless me anyway. I want more life."

The painful separation of artist and art

2006-12-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

Posted by Ross

Joseph Campbell has the best footnotes. This is Otto Rank from 1943, as footnoted in The Hero With a Thousand Faces. It holds a strong personal resonance:

If we compare the neurotic with the productive type, it is evident that the former suffers from an excessive check on his impulsive life. . . . Both are distinguished fundamentally from the average type, who accepts himself as he is, by their tendency to exercise their volition in reshaping themselves. There is, however, this difference: that the neurotic, in this voluntary remaking of his ego, does not go beyond the destructive preliminary work and is therefore unable to detach the whole creative process from his own person and transfer it to an ideological abstraction.

The idea of the "average type" always strikes me as a bit strange, because it seems like it's saying it is somehow normal or "average" that a person would "accept himself as he is," whereas I kind of think most people have trouble accepting themselves for who they are, if they even know how to figure out an honest way of ever even discovering who they are.

And that's something that appeals to me as an artist, the grasping at abstract concepts to piece together a greater truth. Not to replicate the world, but to interpret it. And in doing so, the artist's creation is left vulnerable to other people's opinions of this unique interpretation, which is invariably painful because it's just so damn hard sometimes to feel a separation between who I am and something I made.

Yesterday was World AIDS day

2006-12-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Well, I didn't post anything, but really I don't know what I could have said. But I do highly recommend this post over at Joe.My.God. And while you're there, if you happen to be a gay or bisexual man living in San Francisco, or know someone who is, read this post:

Today is World AIDS Day. The San Francisco Public Health Department contacted me and asked that I help publicize their new HIV prevention study, Project T.

"Project T, part of the HIV Research Section at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, is studying whether a commonly used HIV drug, tenofovir, is safe for healthy, HIV-negative gay and bisexual men. The same study is happening in Boston at Fenway Community Health and in Atlanta at the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta.

Project T will evaluate the side effects and tolerability of daily tenofovir in healthy gay/bi men (biological safety) as well as whether taking a daily pill will affect men’s risk taking behavior (behavioral safety). If tenofovir is proven to be safe then it may be tested in future studies to see if it will prevent HIV infection. It is currently unknown whether tenofovir can prevent HIV infection.

Right now they're looking for gay and bisexual men in San Francisco to do this study. The details and links are here.

Tycho explains recent Seattle weather

2006-11-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Sounds about right:

The weather here is pretty screwed up, slush and ice (with a chance of late afternoon blood) which kept us both home today. In Spokane, there would be gravel out and other public safety measures, but when snow falls over on this side of the state people don't see it as weather, it's seen as a portent - evidence of an angry pantheon. A single snowflake will fall on their windshield, and they will immediately swerve their SUV into a truck hauling fuel.

Seriously, though, this November's weather has been fucked up. I move to Seattle for two months and am greeted with what appears to be a penchant of the end of days.

Oh well, things seem to be clearing up now.

Yes, My Chemical Romance does in fact rock

2006-11-26T15:14:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Following up on this post, I just got the new My Chemical Romance album The Black Parade and I must say, it rocks. Hardcore.

That is all.

On Succeeding Unless We Quit

2006-11-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Bush's comment in Vietnam (see the post below) was one of the most banal, idiotic, and, in this context, outright evil comments someone could make. What I never got was what would victory in Vietnam look like? What would victory in Iraq look like? Bush speaks of "one last push" and McCain says we need 20,000 more troups there because, I guess, when we get 20,000 more troups the magical Democracy Fairy will sprinkle her peace dust in the region.

But let's take a closer look at the lessons of Vietnam. I would say there are two lessons that directly relate strategically to Iraq.

1. The US military will win every major battle, but that is not enough

Really, the only major military battle the North Vietnamese Army won before their successful 1975 invasion of the South was Dien Bien Phu, which is the battle that essentially kicked the French out of Vietnam and led to the partitioning of French Indochina into North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Once the US military became directly involved, anytime the military faced NVA (North Vietnamese Army) or Viet Cong in open battle, the US won handily. The battle of Tan Bac, the first major conflict in between US and North Vietnamese, proved that the NVA could not hope to match the US militarily. And 5 years later, the Tet offensive resulted in decimating the Viet Cong.

But the problem is, winning the major battles wins the war if both sides are using conventional methods. In World War II, the battle of Stalingrad was the beginning of the end of the Nazi war machine, and the Battle of the Bulge was really the final nail in the coffin. But major battles like that made the difference in World War II because both sides were seeking to take and control territory militarily. Insurgencies are intrinsically different. The North Vietnamese wanted only to control all of Vietnam, and the US military's objective was to prevent the North Vietnamese from taking South Vietnam. But the NVA already had many supporters in the South, and had spent 15 years before America's involvement building a complex infrastructure of tunnels throughout South Vietnam. They couldn't win the big fights, but they could control the fighting. And with the population of North Vietnam, the NVA could add up to 200,000 fighting men to their forces per year. So long as they prevented taking casualties greater than that, they could keep going indefinitely. This brings me to my second point:

2. Without political solutions, you cannot win in counterinsurgency with superior military, you can only prevent defeat indefinitely

The last US troupes stopped fighting in Vietnam in 1973. In 1975, the North Vietnamese invaded the South. That interim of 2 years can be interpreted to mean two things: 1) that fighting against the US military had significantly weakened the NVA enough that it required two years for them to rebuild their forces to the point that they'd be able to mount an attack against the south, and 2) no matter how long we would have stayed in Vietnam, the NVA would have invaded and taken the South after we left.

This means that in Vietnam, and in Iraq, policy makers must make the cold calculus - is maintaining the status quo worth the cost in dollars, material, and lives it will take? In the case of Vietnam, and to Nixon's slight credit, the choice was made that it wasn't. In Iraq, I have a hard time believing that what benefit we can receive from maintaining a military presence in Iraq is worth the costs in dollars and lives required to stay there, not to mention the damage to our entire foreign policy that the loss in national credibility has created.

Bush has made the decision that his own ego and his insecurities are far more worthy of being taken seriously than our national security. And that will be the defining aspect of his presidency.

A must watch Olbermann commentary

2006-11-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Tristero has a really good take on this here.

Stranger Than Fiction

2006-11-21T23:59:00.000-08:00

Posted by Ross

Maybe some SPOLIERS ahead...

The Bekka and I saw this followed by a Q&A with the writer Zach Helm. We both really enjoyed it. I guess one of the reasons we liked it so much was that it had tonal remnants of a lot films we've liked over the years like "Punch Drunk Love," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Adaptation," "I Heart Huckabees," "Science of Sleep," "Fight Club." And also my favorite Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast of Champions, with quite possibly my favorite of all literary devices in which our protagonist literally meets his maker.

I thought the interview ran a little long, and I sort of stopped being able to pay it my undivided attention and started doodling in my notebook toward the end, even though Zach Helm had a lot of great stuff to say. Bekka was sort of like, wow that guy's been really lucky. And I guess that's true, but I kept saying, he's just good. I mean I think he's lucky in that he's both found his voice and been able to channel that into his writing career. That, as far as I'm concerned, is the ultimate artistic achievement for a writer. Well, maybe the ultimate individual artistic achievement for a writer, as I would say the ultimate artistic achievement for a writer is to sustain a lengthy career out of channeling that aforementioned found voice.

The other thing about Zach Helm is he seems to really take his time writing his scripts, which is something I am personally working on. I mean, when I'm on assignment, part of the reason I'm hired is because I can write quickly. And I usually use this mentality when I'm writing my original stuff, and I think it suffers because of it. And also, I'm going to try writing non-sequentially like Helm does: when I have a good scene for my story I'll write it and then I'll just put the thing together like a puzzle.

I love when a movie like this gets made. It's so unconventional, breaks so many rules, and, at least in my case, inspires originality.
__________________

GREAT Tom Waits Interview

2006-11-21T16:32:00.000-08:00

Posted by Ross

Robert Siegel interviews Tom Waits today on All Things Considered. Well worth a listen.

Well, it's not like anti-abortionists ever put much thought into the consequences of their actions anyway

2006-11-21T16:10:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Via an Ampersand link thread, comes this post over at Well-Timed Period about parental notification laws leading to coerced abortions. [note: the article linked to at WTP has since been removed]

The conventional wisdom about parental-notification and consent laws was that they would cut down on abortion, which is why anti-abortion activists loved them. But earlier this year the New York Times ran a jaw-dropping analysis that found the laws had no significant impact on teenage abortion rates.

The statutes did, however, have one unintended consequence. "We have parents who come in and want to force their daughters to have an abortion," Chelian says. "Their attitude is, "If I can prevent you from having one, I can force you to have one.' And we have to tell them that that's not so. The mother will say, "She's 14, I'm already taking care of her sister's baby, I can't take care of another one.' You know that it will be really hard for everyone."

This, to me, makes sense. At least if we're to accept the twisted logic of Parental Notification Laws. If girls under the age of 18 don't have the cognitive ability to understand the consequences of an abortion, they sure as hell don't have the ability to grasp the consequences of undergoing pregnancy, childbirth and then have the ability to raise a child. Or, to put it another way, if girls are to be treated as the physical property of parents to the extent that parents have the right to enforce childbirth, then certainly this right extends to the parents being able to enforce termination.

Or maybe it's time we just decided to do away with laws that treat women and girls as nonhuman property, and admit that anyone who's pregnant has a better idea than anyone else what to do about it.

And while I'm on the subject, let me just add a big fuck you to John McCain. Please dear God, if 2008 results in President McCain, then I give up on America.

Glenn Beck isn't afraid to be a racist asshole

2006-11-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

How come every time a cable news channel has a clear bigot they advertise him as being "unafraid to speak his mind." Well maybe you should be afraid to speak your mind when what's on your mind is racist bullshit like this.

And a respectable network devoted to news should make sure assholes like this aren't representing them. But then it seems like the only network left that has any respect for journalism is Comedy Central.

Cadbury Eggs and the Festival of Matzah

2006-11-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

Posted by the belated bekka

I've been toying with the notion of eating my annual Cadbury Egg at my family seder this year. I thought about what types of ritual objects would be meaningful for me at such an occasion, and I realized that every year I eat approximately one Cadbury Creme Egg when they come into the stores...for Easter...in the spring...which is also when Passover happens. Ever wonder why Jews eat eggs and Christians hunt for them (and eat them in chocolate form) every year in March or April? They're both spring festivals, celebrating rebirth after the cold of the winter, the renewal of life and growth. Eggs, bunnies, green vegetables - all symbols that connect back way far in our history, not only as Jews (okay, maybe not the bunnies), but also as human beings. Our ancestors couldn't afford to take spring for granted - when you've witnessed the harshness of the elements winter after winter, surviving until spring is something to celebrate. And so I shall. By eating Cadbury Eggs.

Selah. So shall it be.

What's real in Borat

2006-11-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Via Amanda Marcotte Salon has a good article up about the people who appeared in Borat. Very much worth the read if you've seen the film.

Should we impeach the President?

2006-11-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

The short answer is "not yet".

Look, if anyone deserves to be impeached it's Bush. Bush makes Richard Nixon look like - I dunno - some good, law abiding guy. But simply stated, we can't impeach him right now. You need a 2/3 majority to impeach a president, and since the entire Moderate Senate Republican Committee (sometimes known as "Lincoln Chafee") was defeated, raise your hand if you think one Republican lawmaker will vote to impeach this President? Okay, everyone raising your hands, have you just not been paying attention for the last 6 years?

But what the Democrats can do is vigorously investigate the President. And as Glenn Greenwald writes, it looks like they will do just that.

So what do we do? We let the investigations go on. You think this Administration looks bad now? Just wait until a Democratic Congress actually investigates them. Eventually, and I'd optimistically say before 2007, Republicans are going to have to make the choice, stand by this President, or hope to salvage their party. Because unwaivering support of a President whom the public overwhelmingly view as critical is enough to kill a political party - just take a look at what happened to the Federalist party after 1800, and John Adams and his Alien and Sedition Act got nothing on the current Administration.

At this point, Democrats should seek to impeach not just George W Bush, but Dick Cheney. (Do you really believe that Cheney isn't responsible for the crimes of this Administration?) Then with a President Pelosi, we can get out of Iraq and begin the crucial and difficult work of restoring America's international reputation.

Maybe overly optimistic (we've come to a point in this country where "optimistic" is hoping for the destruction of a Presidential Administration - wow we're fucked up), but it is a distinct possibility. Step one was last Tuesday. Step two will be Democrats actually acting like Democrats now that they have control of Congress.

No more Senator Santorum nor Representative Hayworth

2006-11-08T00:15:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

That news alone is enough to make me happy about this election

Election Day

2006-11-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Mostly I'm in a state of dread. I want to gloat over a Republican loss, but this is an election over whether Bush will easily get everything he wants for the next two years, or will he have some difficulty in ultimately getting what he wants anyway.

Anyway, if you haven't voted yet, for God's sake man! Seriously!

I've officially gotten into My Chemical Romance

2006-11-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

I think you can see why.

Why Borat will rock

2006-11-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Posted by Raznor

Since moving to Seattle, I've been able to listen to The Adam Carolla Show during my morning drive - I recommend it if you get it in your area. It's made my morning commutes extremely enjoyable, even during heavy traffic.

Anyway, today there was a bit of a surprising interview. Since the Kazakh government has apparently threatened a lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen, Carolla interviewed, via phone, a spokesperson for the Kazakh embassy in Washington. When asked what he thought about the movie, the spokesman said he liked it, and thought it was funny. And, what I think is the most important fact, the fact that it wasn't demeaning to Kazakhstan since the only fact about Kazakhstan in the movie other than its geographic location. (note: doing this by memory, since I couldn't find a transcript)

And really, therein lies the genius of Borat. Sacha Baron Cohen plays what is essentially an over-the-top stereotype of what Westerners consider "the other". He is unbelieable ethnocentric and racist (starred in the movie "Kill the Jew" and is a formal "gypsy catcher"), he speaks in a nonspecific but distinctly foreign accent, he carries a suitcase full of live chickens, and he speaks fondly of particular despots (in an episode of Da Ali G Show, Borat helps a Republican Congressional candidate canvass door-to-door and tells one woman "this is a great leader, he is like Stalin"). And while playing to stereotypes isn't in itself very creative or funny, what makes Borat a brilliant social commentary is that he fools people. A man claiming to be from Kazakhstan and conforms to all the most egregious, ridiculous and downright offensive stereotypes of how Americans expect people from the Middle East and Central Asia to act like has made a film showing Americans falling for it.

This is by no means an anti-Kazakhstan film - because Borat doesn't portray traits that are indicative of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is just a convenient location that allows him to play to "the other". It could just as easily be Kyrgyzstan, or Uzbekistan, or Chechnya, or Cambodia for that matter. Anyplace most Americans are unfamiliar with, but know it's far away and different. And it should embarass every Western person watching even as we're laughing our asses off. Ask yourself honestly, if you didn't know what Borat specifically was, and he approached you, would you fall for it?

Vegeta, what does the scanner say about his power level?

2006-10-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Click here for the answer.

Via VG Cats.

Duncan Not Allowed in On-field Dog Pile

2006-10-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Posted by Ross

As the St. Louis Cardinals celebrated their first World Seriels victory in more than two decades in front of tens of thousands of delirious, screaming fans, one player was notably absent from the traditional on-field dog pile:

Right fielder Chris Duncan.

Duncan, who wouldn't have been able to crack the lineup at first base, his primary position, because of incumbent superstar Albert Pujols, had to learn right field on the fly this season, and it's been an adventure from beginning to end, including two gigantic miscues in last night's World Series-clinching fifth game.

Fresh from the dog pile, mouth still tasting of Yadier Molina's jock strap, slick-fielding centerfielder Jim Edmonds commented on Duncan's exclusion: "Sure we held on to win despite his two bone-headed plays. But what if we had been the Cubs, what then? Hell, I'd probably be dead right now."

Duncan himself was unavailable for comment, and there were uncomfirmed reports his father, Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, had sent him to his room and took away his Play Station priviledges for two weeks.

Just as I was getting back into regular blogging . . .

2006-10-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

My iBook is on the fritz. It's currently in the shop being repaired, but in the meantime, I don't have the regular access to internet. If I have any regular readers, I try to read Glenn Greenwald every day, and I suggest you do too.

In the meantime, I'm finally putting some work into a first comic that I hope to have online sometime in the near future. I anticipate having all the artwork done by the end of the year, and the technical aspects of doing a webtoon are new to me, so it may be some time after that before I get it available online. But Raznor shall be a webtoonist. Dammit!

Comment by Keith Olbermann

2006-10-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Transcript:

We have lived as if in a trance.

We have lived as people in fear.

And now—our rights and our freedoms in peril—we slowly awaken to learn that we have been afraid of the wrong thing.

Therefore, tonight have we truly become the inheritors of our American legacy.

For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.

We have been here before—and we have been here before, led here by men better and wiser and nobler than George W. Bush.

We have been here when President John Adams insisted that the Alien and Sedition Acts were necessary to save American lives, only to watch him use those acts to jail newspaper editors.

American newspaper editors, in American jails, for things they wrote about America.

We have been here when President Woodrow Wilson insisted that the Espionage Act was necessary to save American lives, only to watch him use that Act to prosecute 2,000 Americans, especially those he disparaged as “Hyphenated Americans,” most of whom were guilty only of advocating peace in a time of war.

American public speakers, in American jails, for things they said about America.

And we have been here when President Franklin D. Roosevelt insisted that Executive Order 9066 was necessary to save American lives, only to watch him use that order to imprison and pauperize 110,000 Americans while his man in charge, General DeWitt, told Congress: “It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen—he is still a Japanese.”

American citizens, in American camps, for something they neither wrote nor said nor did, but for the choices they or their ancestors had made about coming to America.

Each of these actions was undertaken for the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.

And each was a betrayal of that for which the president who advocated them claimed to be fighting.

Adams and his party were swept from office, and the Alien and Sedition Acts erased.

Many of the very people Wilson silenced survived him, and one of them even ran to succeed him, and got 900,000 votes, though his presidential campaign was conducted entirely from his jail cell.

And Roosevelt’s internment of the Japanese was not merely the worst blight on his record, but it would necessitate a formal apology from the government of the United States to the citizens of the United States whose lives it ruined.

The most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.

In times of fright, we have been only human.

We have let Roosevelt’s “fear of fear itself” overtake us.

We have listened to the little voice inside that has said, “the wolf is at the door; this will be temporary; this will be precise; this too shall pass.”

We have accepted that the only way to stop the terrorists is to let the government become just a little bit like the terrorists.

Just the way we once accepted that the only way to stop the Soviets was to let the government become just a little bit like the Soviets.

Or substitute the Japanese.

Or the Germans.

Or the Socialists.

Or the Anarchists.

Or the Immigrants.

Or the British.

Or the Aliens.

The most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.

And, always, always wrong.

“With the distance of history, the questions will be narrowed and few: Did this generation of Americans take the threat seriously, and did we do what it takes to defeat that threat?”

Wise words.

And ironic ones, Mr. Bush.

Your own, of course, yesterday, in signing the Military Commissions Act.

You spoke so much more than you know, Sir.

Sadly—of course—the distance of history will recognize that the threat this generation of Americans needed to take seriously was you.

We have a long and painful history of ignoring the prophecy attributed to Benjamin Franklin that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

But even within this history we have not before codified the poisoning of habeas corpus, that wellspring of protection from which all essential liberties flow.

You, sir, have now befouled that spring.

You, sir, have now given us chaos and called it order.

You, sir, have now imposed subjugation and called it freedom.

For the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.

And — again, Mr. Bush — all of them, wrong.

We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who has said it is unacceptable to compare anything this country has ever done to anything the terrorists have ever done.

We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who has insisted again that “the United States does not torture. It’s against our laws and it’s against our values” and who has said it with a straight face while the pictures from Abu Ghraib Prison and the stories of Waterboarding figuratively fade in and out, around him.

We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who may now, if he so decides, declare not merely any non-American citizens “unlawful enemy combatants” and ship them somewhere—anywhere -- but may now, if he so decides, declare you an “unlawful enemy combatant” and ship you somewhere - anywhere.

And if you think this hyperbole or hysteria, ask the newspaper editors when John Adams was president or the pacifists when Woodrow Wilson was president or the Japanese at Manzanar when Franklin Roosevelt was president.

And if you somehow think habeas corpus has not been suspended for American citizens but only for everybody else, ask yourself this: If you are pulled off the street tomorrow, and they call you an alien or an undocumented immigrant or an “unlawful enemy combatant”—exactly how are you going to convince them to give you a court hearing to prove you are not? Do you think this attorney general is going to help you?

This President now has his blank check.

He lied to get it.

He lied as he received it.

Is there any reason to even hope he has not lied about how he intends to use it nor who he intends to use it against?

“These military commissions will provide a fair trial,” you told us yesterday, Mr. Bush, “in which the accused are presumed innocent, have access to an attorney and can hear all the evidence against them.”

"Presumed innocent," Mr. Bush?

The very piece of paper you signed as you said that, allows for the detainees to be abused up to the point just before they sustain “serious mental and physical trauma” in the hope of getting them to incriminate themselves, and may no longer even invoke The Geneva Conventions in their own defense.

"Access to an attorney," Mr. Bush?

Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift said on this program, Sir, and to the Supreme Court, that he was only granted access to his detainee defendant on the promise that the detainee would plead guilty.

"Hearing all the evidence," Mr. Bush?

The Military Commissions Act specifically permits the introduction of classified evidence not made available to the defense.

Your words are lies, Sir.

They are lies that imperil us all.

“One of the terrorists believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks,” you told us yesterday, “said he hoped the attacks would be the beginning of the end of America.”

That terrorist, sir, could only hope.

Not his actions, nor the actions of a ceaseless line of terrorists (real or imagined), could measure up to what you have wrought.

Habeas corpus? Gone.

The Geneva Conventions? Optional.

The moral force we shined outwards to the world as an eternal beacon, and inwards at ourselves as an eternal protection? Snuffed out.

These things you have done, Mr. Bush, they would be “the beginning of the end of America.”

And did it even occur to you once, sir — somewhere in amidst those eight separate, gruesome, intentional, terroristic invocations of the horrors of 9/11 -- that with only a little further shift in this world we now know—just a touch more repudiation of all of that for which our patriots died --- did it ever occur to you once that in just 27 months and two days from now when you leave office, some irresponsible future president and a “competent tribunal” of lackeys would be entitled, by the actions of your own hand, to declare the status of “unlawful enemy combatant” for -- and convene a Military Commission to try -- not John Walker Lindh, but George Walker Bush?

For the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.

And doubtless, Sir, all of them—as always—wrong.

JD Hayworth - dumb and evil

2006-10-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

So the best way Hayworth could think of to counter charges of anti-semitism was to send a surrogate to say unbelievably offensive shit to a room full of Jews while another surrogate responds to Jews being offended by offensive bullshit by cleverly quipping, "No wonder there are anti-Semites." No, that's brilliant.

How does is it that this guy's been in Congress for 12 years?

If you believe in the Iraq War hard enough, maybe 100,000 troups will just materialize

2006-10-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Glenn Greenwald has a good post about John McCain's entirely incoherent plan for winning in Iraq.

So, to recap McCain's position: (1) in order to win in Iraq, we need to expand our military by 100,000 more troops; (2) we don't have anywhere near 100,000 troops to send to Iraq, and nobody suggests that we do; (3) a draft is absolutely unnecessary.

Read the rest. It is really amazing how completely unwilling any Republican is to advocate anything resembling sane foreign policy. Greenwald also notes this interview between Powerline's John Hinderaker and Senate candidate (emphasis mine).

HINDERAKER: Let's talk about the war in Iraq. What's the difference between you and your opponent, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, when it comes to the war in Iraq?

KENNEDY: You know, I've been consistently focused on adapting to win - whatever it takes to make sure that we prevail against an emey that has stated that their goal is to - y'know - eliminate us from the face of the earth.

My opponent came out on Meet The Press and twice said that the approach should be a diplomatic and political solution - that we should negotate with people who would just as soon kill us as look at us. We need to make sure we prevail, but we can't just get there by wishing it would go away. We have to make sure we support our troops and do what is necessary to achieve victory.

HINDERAKER: How about the economy?

Nice strategy. Kinda reminds me of "we can't just sit by and wish Tinkerbell would get better, we have to clap really hard and believe we can make her better."

NLCS prediction

2006-10-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Thanks to yesterday's rainout, Glavine is pitching tonight on 4 days rest. Due to this fact, I predict the Mets will win this series. That said, I wouldn't be too surprised, even if Mets win tonight, to see the Cardinals take 2 games in New York, but I don't think that'll happen.

In any case, I'll also go ahead and predict Tigers beat the Mets in the World Series in 5 games.

This is why I love Pearls Before Swine

2006-10-15T15:14:00.001-07:00

Posted by Raznor

30,000 in perspective

2006-10-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

If you haven't heard, a recent study found that the number of Iraqi deaths caused by the US's war is 655,000. Bush, speaking in his defense, claims that the number is only 30,000.

Punkass Marc reminds us that 30,000 is still a huge number.

I'm seeing Dresden Dolls tonight

2006-10-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

I'm stoked.

Friday Random 10

2006-10-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Hurrah, it's time for another FRT. So pop up your fave music playing software, put it on random, and let's see what 10 songs you get!!

1) "(Section 11) We Sound Amazed" - The Polyphonic Spree
2) "Down on the Corner" - Credence Clearwater Revival
3) "Helden" - David Bowie (the German version of the song "Heroes". Hearing Dave Bowie sing German is just . . . wow. Even if, for those who watch The Venture Brothers David Bowie and Brock Samson are bitter enemies.)
4) "When I was Cruel No. 2" - Elvis Costello
5) "Turn of the Century" - Pete Yorn
6) "All Over Again" - Johnny Cash
7) "Steve's Last Night In Town" - Ben Folds Five
8) "Inward Singing" - Tenacious D
9) "Gender Bombs" - The Stills
10) "Add Some Music To Your Day" - Brian Wilson

There you go. Have fun with that.

This just seems like it's going to be eternally significant

2006-10-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Holy Fuck- Muse is the fucking rockingest band ever!

2006-10-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

So I just saw Muse perform here in Seattle. Greatest concert I've been to in my life. They didn't play Citizen Erased, which is my favorite Muse song, but still incredible. The concert finished with a great performance of Knights of Cydonia.

Here's the playlist they did. I'm doing this from memory:

Main set:
1. Take a Bow
2. Hysteria
3. New Born
4. Butterflies and Hurricanes
5. Map of the Problematique
6. Muscle Museum
7. Starlight
8. Time is Running Out
9. Invincible
10. Bliss
11. Stockholm Syndrome
12. Plug In Baby
13. Supermassive Black Hole

Encore Set:
1. Apocalypse Please
2. Feeling Good
3. Knights of Cydonia

Babies are tiny, stupid people

2006-10-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Posted by raznor

Read this comic by Brian McFadden.

If I were at the press conference

2006-10-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Congressman Reynolds knew for a year that Foley was soliciting underage pages for sex, even going so far as to interrupt a floor vote to have cybersex with a teenager.

So what does Reynolds do to avoid questions? Surrounds himself with children.

he Upstate media today is all about Tom Reynolds' bizarre press conference yesterday, at which he surrounded himself by small children. At one point, reporters asked if he could make the children leave so they could as adult questions, and he refused.

As August Pollak notes, it shows a cowardice of the press as well as complete craven cowardice by Reynolds, and suggests one of them saying something like "Mr. Reynolds, it's our job to ask questions about this, so if these parents aren't allowed to let their children leave the room they're going to have to deal with hearing questions about pederasty."

Oooh, how I wish I were there. Here's what I would have asked when Reynolds refused to tell the children to leave the stage:

Question: Okay, this question is for the children who you've surrounded yourself with. Children, raise your hand if Representative Mark Foley has ever molested you or sent inappropriate e-mails. Okay, same question, but now for Representative Reynolds.

Okay, I've started caring about the midterm elections again

2006-09-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

As pissed off as I am by the spinelessness of the Democrats in Washington right now, I fully agree with Glenn Greenwald here:

But that's all besides the point at the moment, because -- right now -- everyone has to answer for themselves these questions: (1) do you believe that the incalculable damage imposed on this country by the Bush administration and its followers (including in Congress) can be impeded and then reversed and, if so, (2) how can that be accomplished? For those who have given up and believe the answer to question (1) is "no," then, by definition, there is nothing to discuss. You' ve decided that there is no hope, that you're done fighting and trying to defend any of your beliefs and principles, and you're ready to cede the country to those who are in the process of destroying it.

But for those who believe that the answer to question (1) is "yes" (and I believe that emphatically), then the answer to question (2) seems self-evidently clear. The most important and overriding mandate is to end the one-party rule to which our country has been subjected for the last four years. Achieving that is necessary -- it is an absolute pre-requisite -- to begin to impose some actual limits on the authoritarian behavior and unchecked powers of this administration -- because, right now, there are no such limits.

Frankly, I fear that the answer to (1) is "yes". But that doesn't mean that I should act under that assumption.

Right now, I suspect that Democrats have simply handed the Republicans a victory in November by deflating their base. And I'm unsure if even Democratic control of both houses would do much to prevent Bush from doing everything he wants.

But I know with utter certainty that 2 more years of Republican control of the government is more than this country can afford. On one path lies certain death. On the other, merely near-certain death. The other is the path we must take.

Bush and the Republican Party have finally destroyed America

2006-09-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

I don't know what a country that tortures people, a country that suspends habeas corpus, and a country whose leader has unlimited power is called, but it sure as fuck isn't America.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

You know what - I no longer give a fuck who wins the midterm elections

2006-09-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

What Jack Balkin said.

Seriously, judging from the reaction of Senate Democrats and Democratic leadership, I see no reason to believe that Democratic control of one or both houses will in any way inhibit the power grab by the Bush Administration. Bush says the word "terrorism" and Democrats fucking shit their pants.

Show me one prominent Democrat -just one - taking the moral highground here. The future of this nation is at stake moreso than at any other time, and they sit by and let Bush and the Republicans do whatever they want.

When it's evil vs spineless, evil will always win, no matter the election results.

Good News - we now live in a country where torture is legal!

2006-09-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Best analysis I found is here.

It's nice to know that when the going gets tough, McCain buckles under and publicly fellates Bush. A true maverick, that man.

But the good news is, if the terrorists hate us because of our freedom, well, we're one step closer being their buddies.

Raznor - Seattle Blogger

2006-09-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

So, if you were wondering why blogging's been light here this last week, no it's not due merely to laziness. I've spent the last week moving to Seattle, which involved packing, driving for three days, unpacking and now that my futon/bed has arrived, I consider myself totally moved in. So, yeah, I'm a Seattler, or Seattlean, whatever you call it. Huzzah for me.

Keith Olbermann's 9/11 commentary

2006-09-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

Very much worth watching.

Transcript here.

Big day

2006-09-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

So tomorrow's the eighth of September, which will be my 25th birthday, and the day I defend my Master's Thesis. Joy.

Report Dan Glickman!!!!

2006-09-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Bitch Magazine has a good interview with Kirby Dick, director of This Film is Not Yet Rated. Included is this interesting little bit (emphasis added):

Before I submitted the film, I called up the administration of the ratings board, and I said, “Can you assure me that there will be no copies made of this?” And they assured me, in writing, in e-mail, and on the phone, that not only would no copies be made, but that only the raters would see it. Well, I subsequently learned that an MPAA attorney had seen it. I learned that [MPAA president] Dan Glickman had seen it…

I got a call from an MPAA attorney who said “Look, Kirby, I have to tell you, we have made a copy of your film. But you don’t have to worry, because it’s safe in my vault.” [Laughs.] I can tell you that wasn’t reassuring. In a way I wasn’t surprised, but on the other hand, there’s such hypocrisy there. The MPAA has launched this huge antipiracy campaign, and on their website they define even one act of unauthorized duplication of material as piracy. And that’s exactly what they did.

Ampersand notes that the MPAA has a number you can call to report piracy: 1-800-662-6797. Or you can fill out this this web form. Are we going to let Dan Glickman get away with this blatant act of piracy? Me, I'm filling out the web form, and I urge all of you to report this as well.

Why I Love Perry Bible Fellowship

2006-09-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

More here.

Keith Olbermann's Takedown of Donald Rumsfeld

2006-08-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen this yet, you must.

The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.

Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.

Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis—and the sober contemplation—of every American.

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence -- indeed, the loyalty -- of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants -- our employees -- with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as “his” troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.

It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile it is right and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.

In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeld’s speechwriter was adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis. For in their time, there was another government faced with true peril—with a growing evil—powerful and remorseless.

That government, like Mr. Rumsfeld’s, had a monopoly on all the facts. It, too, had the “secret information.” It alone had the true picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in terms like Mr. Rumsfeld’s -- questioning their intellect and their morality.

That government was England’s, in the 1930’s.

It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone England.

It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all treaties and accords.

It knew that the hard evidence it received, which contradicted its own policies, its own conclusions — its own omniscience -- needed to be dismissed.

The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth.

Most relevant of all — it “knew” that its staunchest critics needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile, at best morally or intellectually confused.

That critic’s name was Winston Churchill.

Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.

History — and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England — have taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty — and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

Thus, did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy.

Excepting the fact, that he has the battery plugged in backwards.

His government, absolute -- and exclusive -- in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis.

It is the modern version of the government of Neville Chamberlain.

But back to today’s Omniscient ones.

That, about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely.

And, as such, all voices count -- not just his.

Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience — about Osama Bin Laden’s plans five years ago, about Saddam Hussein’s weapons four years ago, about Hurricane Katrina’s impact one year ago — we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their “omniscience” as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to the entire “Fog of Fear” which continues to envelop this nation, he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies have — inadvertently or intentionally — profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.

And yet he can stand up, in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emporer’s New Clothes?

In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused the United States of America?

The confusion we -- as its citizens— must now address, is stark and forbidding.

But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note -- with hope in your heart — that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light, and we can, too.

The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a “new type of fascism.”

As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that -- though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.

This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute, I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow.

But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could I come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed: “confused” or “immoral.”

Thus, forgive me, for reading Murrow, in full:

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” he said, in 1954. “We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”

And so good night, and good luck.

Filliam H. Muffman

2006-08-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

Posted by Ross

I can't stop laughing about the Tabloid-ese nickname Stephen Colbert gave to celebrity supercouple William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman.

Fox News Ratings "Way Down"

2006-08-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

Posted by Ross

Interesting article on Huffington Post.

2006-08-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

Posted by Elyce

Recently seen on a church sign:

"The vitamin Christians most need: Bl"

I must agree - a dose of bisexuality would do many Christians (especially Southern Baptists) a lot of good.

Oh, B1...Be One...oh, I get it.

I still think bisexuality would do them more good.

Music Blogging

2006-08-25T01:24:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

You can listen to Pete Yorn's new album here. My favorite track so far is "Undercover".

2006-08-17T19:48:00.001-07:00

File Under "Blatant Abuse of Mother Nature"
Posted by the Bekka

Hello everyone.
Welcome to another installment of the latest liberties M&A (that's marketing and advertising, I don't know what the hell you were thinking of) have taken with dear old mother nature. Many of you (or possibly none of you, if anyone is in fact reading this at all) will undoubtedly recall with no small amount of pleasure my unforgettable post of 7/9/05, "NOW INTRODUCING: NEW & IMPROVED NATURE." Well, file these on in with the weird and the wacky, coz here we go:

Number one: The LifeGem (tm).
This ingenious company will happily make you a laboratory (read: fake) diamond out of a lock of your loved one's hair. Why say goodbye when you can wear the crystallized carbon remnants of your beloved, living or dead, in a tasteful 1 carat princess setting forever?

Number two: The Message Plant (tm).
Did you ever grow a bean plant in your 3rd grade science class? Then the basic mechanics of The Message Plant should be familiar to you: a bean, pre-planted in a soda-like can and watered, sprouts out of the drinkin' hole. However, it is the more wondrous and unexpected mechanism of this product that makes consumers weep and beg for more: a message, of your choice, printed on one of the cotyledons (a term you'll also remember from 3rd grade science class...if not, it's the little halves of the bean that the growing plant feeds on...feeds, yes...feeds...). Suddenly, I feel a great disturbance in the force.

Number three: The Message Egg (tm).
Okay, I admit, this is a bit of a stretch. I ran across it when googling for The Message Plant, and I figured, "Hey, a list with three things in it looks way more impressive than a list with only two things in it." So I added it. Pretty much the same thing as The Message Plant (see: Number two) {heh heh...I said number two} (oh yeah, huh huh...me too) except the sprout comes out of a little egg. You see, it's more for that special egg-lover in your life than the average, ordinary, downright boring bean plant enthusiast.

Regardless, all this manipulatin' an' makin' jewelries from dead peoples and writin' on lima beans an' whatnot, well, to be honest it gives me the hibblety-jibbleties. And we're worried about bio-terrorism? Frankly, I'm more worried about bio-tainment.

Wishing for peace

2006-08-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

Posted by Ross

I thought this article from the Opinion page of today's LA Times was beautiful.

If you read just one article about Lebanon . . .

2006-08-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

Posted by Raznor

Via Berube, this column by Hazem Saghieh is a must read.