tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54288247631825400392024-03-12T22:38:25.986-07:00Brain RageMusings of a Cynical Libertarian-SocialistJBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.comBlogger2304125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-54730732483644524402011-01-25T17:00:00.000-08:002011-01-25T17:31:05.245-08:00Something Someone Else Said<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyV57RkzQyAP_B1gaE30Z00WdSLtrlluvSoXAQSkcQqcQnKRZsl_i-_qpFcJaRbhjNefb8NvUv4oIXhCg-u8-zIEIPySk3wEYNftWMFT7d5rZt1_hiZjN0QwgOqOLZLDirF75nye3914M/s1600/foundingfathersmeme.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 500px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyV57RkzQyAP_B1gaE30Z00WdSLtrlluvSoXAQSkcQqcQnKRZsl_i-_qpFcJaRbhjNefb8NvUv4oIXhCg-u8-zIEIPySk3wEYNftWMFT7d5rZt1_hiZjN0QwgOqOLZLDirF75nye3914M/s800/foundingfathersmeme.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566299438866836594" border="0" /></a>"Lately I have been having issues with the term “Founders” or “Founding Fathers” because it’s pretty nebulous and undefined. There’s Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who signed the Declaration of Independence but had no involvement in the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison did a lot of the heavy lifting in drafting the Constitution but neither signed the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense and worked for the Continental Congress but pretty soon became a <i>persona non grata</i> thanks to his religious views. Patrick Henry gave the famous “Liberty or Death” speech but was also one of the most articulate voices <i>against</i> adopting the Constitution. Which of these are “Founders”? All of them? None?<br /><br />Even if we accept all of these men as “Founding Fathers” (which I think most would), to say that they disagreed on fundamental political principles is the height of understatement. And an attempt to put together the varying strains of conservative thought under the same “Founders” rubric is overly simplistic and misguided," -<a href="http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/blogging-liberty-and-tyranny-chapter-one-part-one/">Alex Knapp</a>, Outside the Beltway.<br /><br />I think the Founding Fathers would have agreed with this...JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-62433644960795675782011-01-21T05:47:00.000-08:002011-01-21T05:52:15.801-08:00Social Media Outruns Real LifeThe advertisement of the day:<br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZM0ptMqNhso" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="305" width="500"></iframe><br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/01/cool-ad-watch-3.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-71964127141391792582011-01-18T16:51:00.000-08:002011-01-18T17:06:26.276-08:00Your Tax Dollars At Work: Drug WarriorsImagine if this was your home <a href="http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2011/jan/18/brutal_drug_raid_killing_caught">these men came to</a>:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">That is how quickly lives are lost in the war on drugs. When police invade private homes in search of drugs, anything and everything can go wrong, and even the slightest misunderstanding becomes a matter of life and death. The victim in this case, Todd Blair, brandished a golf club in terror as armed men stormed his home in the night. We'll never know for sure if he realized they were police. But we do know that <a href="http://www.standard.net/topics/drugs/2010/10/29/family-planning-lawsuit-prevent-repeat-drug-raid-shooting-death">only a small amount</a> of drugs were found in the raid that took his life.<br /><br />That drugs and violence often go hand in hand isn't a mystery to many among us – the bloodshed gripping Mexico is old news by now – but this is a very different kind of drug war violence than the infamous turf wars of the cartels. This is a rare glimpse into the unbelievable level of force our own public servants unleash routinely in order to protect us from ourselves. This man was just a drug user. Whether he ever sold drugs is <a href="http://www.standard.net/topics/drugs/2010/10/29/family-planning-lawsuit-prevent-repeat-drug-raid-shooting-death">in dispute</a>, but there's no question that he lived and died in poverty, and not from drugs, but from police who gunned him down in his own home.</blockquote>Warning: you're about to watch a man get shot to death by his own government because he wanted to decide for himself what he could put into his own body:<br /><object height="305" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WV6Bq8xeQrU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WV6Bq8xeQrU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="305" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />Your tax dollars funded this man's death, and they pay the salaries of every politician in Washington who votes to continue their tragically unsuccessful War on Drugs against the American public.<br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/01/police-state-watch.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-28199152070491936342011-01-16T21:17:00.000-08:002011-01-16T21:30:02.863-08:00NASA: The Frontier Is EverywhereA stirring endorsement of the capacity for good within the human race, our collective drive to seek out the great unknown and the media-challenged governmental agency that will someday take us there:<br /><object height="305" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oY59wZdCDo0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oY59wZdCDo0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="305" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />Would I come off as too big of a nerd if I admitted that I already have the official NASA app on my iPad? Yeah? Well I don't care...<br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/01/better-media-for-nasa-.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-11117919375864297162010-12-25T02:17:00.001-08:002010-12-25T02:34:02.153-08:00Merry Christmas<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq-EeP2oOSQKlioBgk3uj_qCJ7CXqWh_PK3kk4JJ3BJVXpeoyJ4NIeyK6nABX7jmma85eDZvYNfknv1X6uJ5rh74Rzl1kd8S2ZJ4Gi72No3GF91YQIZyjSNvyG411qxu8I-AxauM60C74/s1600/charliebrownchristmas.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 322px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq-EeP2oOSQKlioBgk3uj_qCJ7CXqWh_PK3kk4JJ3BJVXpeoyJ4NIeyK6nABX7jmma85eDZvYNfknv1X6uJ5rh74Rzl1kd8S2ZJ4Gi72No3GF91YQIZyjSNvyG411qxu8I-AxauM60C74/s800/charliebrownchristmas.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554562733564760706" border="0" /></a>Amen. I always did identify more with Linus. And as a Christmas bonus, here's why Santa Claus is so kick-ass:<br /><object height="305" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BKIFpEUbnYg&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BKIFpEUbnYg&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="305" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />I totally knew that Jesus wasn't the only Christmas icon with magical powers and killer abs. Rock on, Santa.<br /><br />(<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/12/thats_what_christmas_is_all_ab.php">via</a>, <a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/12/the-origin-of-santa.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-53973607353128268592010-11-20T02:01:00.000-08:002010-11-20T02:13:11.526-08:00TCR: Salvatore GiuntaI've been reading about and watching this guy all week after he became the first living soldier to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor since the Vietnam Conflict and he's always been the very definition of humility. We need to find some way to clone Giunta whilst imprinting his sense of duty and bravery upon the DNA:<br /><embed style="display: block;" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:366149" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" bgcolor="#000000" height="418" width="500"></embed>JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-83558781556147421932010-11-19T02:56:00.001-08:002010-11-19T03:08:28.395-08:00Something Someone Else Said<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNnjLWcG2bjNYN20O5uM-s5RC-WY9u_TEt3ApLc-SJXTlvk3HYjpxDQQX6Li-oQDroPeVir-2ySf6GsMutxUnif2ECmMq_-wFKEMtW878Z177nqpiDhn-QuBEHa9QQqFsyB1R6s4FxlNk/s1600/palinvictimcard.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 445px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNnjLWcG2bjNYN20O5uM-s5RC-WY9u_TEt3ApLc-SJXTlvk3HYjpxDQQX6Li-oQDroPeVir-2ySf6GsMutxUnif2ECmMq_-wFKEMtW878Z177nqpiDhn-QuBEHa9QQqFsyB1R6s4FxlNk/s800/palinvictimcard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541213196898751026" border="0" /></a>"I never cease to be amazed at what a festering bundle of resentments Palin is. Just a few years ago she was the mayor of a tiny town in Alaska, and today she's one of the most famous people in America. Despite her modest talents, there are millions of people who believe, and tell her constantly, that she ought to be the most powerful person on planet Earth. She's made millions of dollars in the last two years, for the easiest of things -- giving some speeches, having ghost-writers pen a couple of books, doing appearances on Fox, letting cameras trail her around while she goes fishing. And yet she can barely open her mouth without going on and on about how terribly victimized she is, and how everyone has done her wrong," -<a href="http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=11&year=2010&base_name=the_candidate_of_resentment">Paul Waldman</a>, The American Prospect.<br /><br />Posted because apparently my little buddy Donald Douglas of American Clown Shoes <a href="http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/four-lokod.html">has been lamenting</a> the fact that I've been letting the blog lie mostly fallow lately, and if anyone knows about being a professional victim it is most certainly he. Here's to you, Chubs.<br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/11/the-distillation-of-resentment.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-14547612275318396322010-11-10T21:56:00.000-08:002010-11-11T01:55:31.820-08:00FDA Proposes New Cigarette Warning Labels<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6BRrI1aNzHmlky2F2O0Mtm3Z1V-vvHy6VwGF-115YfzGwzX-PWF7LYJljp7ytBOXkrPWIVti06ZlBc1_ghLGVIMwWvDqaZvR7t0ZzgNCjUCqhBJXGEonu0wHfc4DHsxTNKOjPyYMtNc/s1600/CigaretteWarnings-1.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 384px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6BRrI1aNzHmlky2F2O0Mtm3Z1V-vvHy6VwGF-115YfzGwzX-PWF7LYJljp7ytBOXkrPWIVti06ZlBc1_ghLGVIMwWvDqaZvR7t0ZzgNCjUCqhBJXGEonu0wHfc4DHsxTNKOjPyYMtNc/s800/CigaretteWarnings-1.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538136242124069586" border="0" /></a>This is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/health/policy/11tobacco.html">a bit much</a> in my opinion:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">Federal drug regulators on Wednesday unveiled 36 proposed warning labels for cigarette packages, including one showing a toe tag on a corpse and another in which a mother blows smoke on her baby.<br /><br />Designed to cover half the surface area of a pack or carton of <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/smoking-tips-on-how-to-quit/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Smoking - tips on how to quit." class="meta-classifier">cigarettes</a>, and a fifth of any advertisements for them, the labels are intended to spur smokers to quit by providing graphic reminders of tobacco’s dangers. The labels are required under a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/business/13tobacco.html?scp=1&sq=Congress%20Passes%20Measure%20On%20Tobacco%20Regulation%20&st=cse" title="Times article.">law passed last year</a> that gave the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/food_and_drug_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the U.S. Food And Drug Administration." class="meta-org">Food and Drug Administration</a> the power to regulate, but not ban, tobacco products for the first time.<br /><br />Public health officials hope that the new labels will re-energize the nation’s antismoking efforts, which have stalled in recent years. About 20.6 percent of the nation’s adults, or 46.6 million people, and about 19.5 percent of high school students, or 3.4 million teenagers, are smokers. </blockquote>And yes, that's actually one of the proposed images above; you can see more <a href="http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/11/10-most-terrifying-proposed-cigarette.html">here</a>. Because just giving people the facts about cigarettes isn't enough, the government has decided that it's also necessary to appeal to one's emotions and fear of death and disease in order to control individual behaviour. My conservative counterpart Donald Douglas of <a href="http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/proposed-cigarette-product-warning.html">American Clown Shoes</a> accurately intuits my stand on this issue:<br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"><span style="font-family:arial;">I don't know. Maybe some folks are so stupid they actually need these warnings. Besides, what would folks like egghead JBW do without some Nanny Statism to gripe about? Get rid of warning labels and marijuana laws in one fell swoop!! Then everyone would have equal opportunity to death!</span></blockquote>Now I'm not a Republican so I don't consider the moniker "egghead" to be the epithet that Don does but I will admit that I do agree with him on this, at least partially: I'm absolutely convinced that some (hell, many) folks are so stupid that they actually need these warnings, there's no maybe about it. Even after several decades of government health reports stating definitively that cigarettes cause cancer and thus death, even after several multi-billion dollar lawsuits against tobacco companies for making false claims about the safety of their products all these years and even though cigarettes have had health warnings on them since the mid sixties <span style="font-style: italic;">people still smoke them!</span> Why do they do this despite all of the warnings and evidence about how dangerous it is? Well, even though I'm an egghead (which is defined as being "elitist" and "out of touch") I understand a truth about myself and my fellow humans that Don does not: human beings have a fundamental need to alter their brain chemistry.<br /><br />Ever wonder why the War on Drugs has been such an abject failure? Or why people smoke or chew tobacco, drink too much alcohol and eat too much fat, salt and sugar? Of course you don't because you know why people do these things: because it makes them feel good, and no amount of warning labels and government babysitting is going to make them stop doing so. Now this isn't to say that I think cigarettes shouldn't have warnings on their packages. I have no problem with the small amount of government intervention that is required to force companies to provide adequate information to the public about their products but these pictures of diseased lungs and choking children seem to me political correctness run amok.<br /><br />Now I have no doubt that they'll have the desired effect of convincing a certain number of people not to smoke who weren't deterred by a mere written warning but how far should we as a society be willing to take this? Should the winery that produces my Pinot Noir be forced to place a picture of a hardened liver on every bottle? How about forcing fast food companies to print pictures of a guy having a coronary or having his leg amputated due to diabetes on their cheeseburger wrappers? Or we could even up the ante to things that still hold an element of danger yet don't even alter brain chemistry or directly affect our health, like forcing car companies to place pictures of bloodied corpses on their windshields or forcing the airlines to print pictures of a crashed burning fuselage on every ticket. Hell, we could force companies to put a graphic warning about the worst consequences of every product and activity under the sun on their respective packaging and advertising, <span style="font-style: italic;">then</span> nobody would ever do anything stupid and we'd all be safe from ourselves, right?<br /><br />Wrong. We could do all of that and more and people would still do stupid things that are dangerous to their health but we've decided as a society that we're OK with that because it's the price of personal freedom in this country. Full disclosure: I don't smoke, in fact I hate cigarettes. One of my great laments is that almost every cute girl I know in California is a smoker but I still defend the rights of smokers to do so because I believe in the principle of individual liberty. Being a hypocrite Don is comfortable letting his government dictate ever more restrictive advertising codes for tobacco and positively draconian anti-drug laws because he doesn't smoke or use illicit drugs, hence he could care less about the individual freedoms of people who do. I would imagine that he's quite all right with the recent San Francisco ban on toys in Happy Meals (gotta protect the kids, you know) and the massive sin tax that California has placed on alcohol and tobacco products (I missed that part last time I was reading the bible), all while he squeals incessantly about big government running wild and Obama ramming his health care reform down our throats.<br /><br />What this ultimately boils down to is personal responsibility and the philosophy that adults, even stupid adults, should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to engage in behaviour that is dangerous to themselves and their health. Children are obviously different and because their reasoning skills are not yet mature they require additional governmental protection but even then I doubt Don and the rest of his tea partying ilk would want the government telling them how to raise their children in most respects. But telling an adult like him that he can and cannot ingest certain substances and chemicals because in the eyes of the government he's essentially too stupid to decide these things for himself? Well, maybe <span style="font-style: italic;">he</span> needs these warning labels to protect him. Perhaps then despite varying levels of individual stupidity our societal "opportunity to death" might not be equal, but at least we'll all be safe from our own behaviour.<br /><br />Well what do you know, I wrote this entire post without invoking the phrase "nanny state" even once. You're welcome, Don. Now go do what your government tells you like a good little drone.JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-48481645874859937042010-11-01T22:16:00.000-07:002010-11-01T22:21:14.694-07:00My '10 Election Predictions<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KDlgF_MM4YjWZ4fQtEfyOq1vIOkAQIQqPpVKwiqojy6Db4OxsStKYV4vNPfMhqcqSb64Z-RI1aYD8LRcthUYr1tjTEbwGxyCvpBbUrtwL9XUZgmGBxlN-4YqXRuLozNZLY2fhfocfR4/s1600/Corporatedemocracyflag.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 327px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KDlgF_MM4YjWZ4fQtEfyOq1vIOkAQIQqPpVKwiqojy6Db4OxsStKYV4vNPfMhqcqSb64Z-RI1aYD8LRcthUYr1tjTEbwGxyCvpBbUrtwL9XUZgmGBxlN-4YqXRuLozNZLY2fhfocfR4/s800/Corporatedemocracyflag.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534712033304101778" border="0" /></a>Continuing my <a href="http://brainrageblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-08-election-predictions.html">biennial tradition</a> of making a mockery of the democratic process by treating it as a sporting event to be wagered upon I've made my predictions for tomorrows midterm elections. The Republicans need to gain 39 seats in the House of Representatives to take control of that body and I have no doubt that they will get them. In fact, I'm predicting they'll take 50-60 with no more than 75. They also need to gain 10 seats in the Senate to take control of that body as well but I just don't see that happening. I'm predicting that they'll take 6-8 with a high of 9, leaving Democrats with a slim majority.<br /><br />Despite <a href="http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/democrats-for-dope.html">delirious prognostications</a> about Democrats getting "crushed" tomorrow I think that this will be a net positive for President Obama, whom regular readers know I like much more than his party as a whole, going into the 2012 elections. These past two years have been rough ones for Americans but I think Obama has done a fairly good job playing the hand he was dealt coming into office, despite pussified Democrats, obstructionist Republicans, Bush's tanking economy, Bush's two unfunded wars and the myriad of other albatrosses hanging from his neck. Now the Republicans will have two years to propose something, anything substantive that will help get America back on its feet and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has <a href="http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/10/25/bonus_quote_of_the_day.html">already stated</a> the central plank of their bold new strategy:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.</blockquote>That's their plan: politics over governance. No serious proposals to reinvigorate the economy or reduce the debt or deficits, just a party-wide retrenchment and digging in of heels with a constant refrain of tax cuts (which is hardly a serious proposal based on the massive deficits we're dealing with). You see, there are only two ways to reduce government deficits: increase revenues (raising taxes) or reduce spending, and since they wouldn't even consider the possibility of the former if Fort Knox was on fire that leaves the latter. But what have they proposed cutting?<br /><br />As I've said, nothing substantial or specific, just vague platitudes about reducing spending and eliminating waste. 75% of our federal budget is used to pay for only three things: Social Security, Medicare and military spending; everything else, <span style="font-style: italic;">everything else</span>, makes up the other 25%. Any serious proposal to reduce our deficits and steer us back towards fiscal solvency <span style="font-style: italic;">must</span> address the fact that cuts have to be made in those three areas. And even though cuts to these areas will be hard to make and less than popular with voters, any proposals by either party that do not do this should not be taken seriously. And what has the latest proposed spending cut by the so-called party of fiscal conservatism been? The <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/125225-in-wake-of-williams-firing-republicans-want-npr-funding-examined">1.5% of NPR's funding</a> that they get from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPR">three million dollars</a>. Our national debt is around thirteen and a half trillion dollars, about four million times that.<br /><br />"So how does losing the House help Obama?", I hear you asking. Well, if the Republicans win the House and are actually serious about reducing deficits and making spending cuts then they will compromise and work with Obama's bipartisan deficit commission to shore up the economy: win for Obama and more importantly, win for Americans (and many of those Americans will be voting in 2012). If however they do what I expect and continue to try to derail everything he proposes whilst simultaneously proposing to repeal health care and financial reforms that are popular with Americans and even possibly shut down the government, I think it will become fairly clear to voters that Republicans are more interested in regaining power than in trying to help the country: win for Obama and more importantly, huge loss for Americans (and many of those Americans will be voting in 2012).<br /><br />The president inherited a full plate when he came into office and he needed a strong party that controlled both houses of congress to have his back as he tried to institute his ambitious agenda for America. Unfortunately for him and that agenda, he's had to make due with the Democrats, who to their credit and despite all the shit I talk about them have done a lot of things right over the past two years. But they've also done a lot of things wrong and that, combined with a recessed economy, high unemployment and allowing the Republicans to consistently control the narrative in Washington, is why they're going to lose a substantial number of seats in tomorrows midterms.<br /><br />But those losses come with a silver lining: in the minds of the voters Republicans will finally be forced to own part of the economy Bush left on his desk two years ago and if the only solution they have for the next two years is still merely "NO!" then they should enjoy tomorrows victory while it lasts because they're gonna have a hell of a time running a presidential candidate on that nihilistic platform. Voters will have two choices when they enter their voting booths: one party that irresponsibly spends your tax dollars like hell and another party that irresponsibly spends your tax dollars like hell whilst simultaneously and hypocritically swearing up and down that they do not. The main difference between them at this point is that the first party has an actual adult as their leader. Please make sure you vote tomorrow everyone.JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-62834723347271454992010-11-01T14:30:00.000-07:002010-11-01T15:12:23.799-07:00I'm Back<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0YGpvUvyNRye7iqTcVNUYwYH4N8n5utUWmPzNGpsyPR67cnU_7_YPvENidksOmY8iSDMadL9h0pm6oxqspb_IduLwcVrfXcImikLW-Z-G70QKH_GfAGsZARg4ugmvmxSq72qVz9FDss/s1600/terminatorjames.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0YGpvUvyNRye7iqTcVNUYwYH4N8n5utUWmPzNGpsyPR67cnU_7_YPvENidksOmY8iSDMadL9h0pm6oxqspb_IduLwcVrfXcImikLW-Z-G70QKH_GfAGsZARg4ugmvmxSq72qVz9FDss/s800/terminatorjames.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534697362699935570" border="0" /></a>Read my blog if you want to live... OK, OK, I obviously can't help myself at this point and I'll be honest: I was genuinely touched by the outpouring of support and positive words I received in my <a href="http://brainrageblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/brain-fatigue-and-rage-deficiency.html">ostensible last post</a>. I really did appreciate it and I must admit that blogging can be a fun enterprise as long as one does not put too much pressure on one's self to produce, so here's the deal: this blog will remain up and active but I make no promises about either content or frequency. I might post ten times in a day or just as easily let it lie fallow for weeks at a time; I might rant lengthily about how the Senatorial filibuster has paralyzed that deliberative body or I might just post a video of a cute kitten trying not to fall asleep (note: there will be <span style="font-weight: bold;">no</span> videos of cute kittens, as an addendum to my long-standing rule banning lolcats). Basically I'm reprioritizing several things right now and while the blog isn't going to the back of the line it has lost some prominence in my everyday life. So that's it. Thanks again to everyone who reads what I write here. I'm gonna get some lunch now.JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-90936111687631594642010-11-01T00:14:00.000-07:002010-11-01T00:18:17.598-07:00TDS: Negative CampaigningCase in point:<br /><embed style="display: block;" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:363651" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" bgcolor="#000000" height="418" width="500"></embed>JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-34451336554208544832010-10-18T04:20:00.000-07:002010-10-18T04:26:14.161-07:00Brain Fatigue And Rage Deficiency<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7iu2BPxuMaXVDGwSBawLcG7SwPdWLZnDFBjGY2BUUF207gFibgxxnHEBEEDCStolLK47c9IfLg89AmB8QY5FM89gcxaACJSBuIuKPBrzVhOq1DDWuPrr0AP9o0GUnIJu0WZ95xWOwnk/s1600/campaignsigns.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 399px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7iu2BPxuMaXVDGwSBawLcG7SwPdWLZnDFBjGY2BUUF207gFibgxxnHEBEEDCStolLK47c9IfLg89AmB8QY5FM89gcxaACJSBuIuKPBrzVhOq1DDWuPrr0AP9o0GUnIJu0WZ95xWOwnk/s800/campaignsigns.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528520291260677666" border="0" /></a>My sincerest apologies to anyone and everyone who comes here to read this blog on a regular or even semi-regular basis and a special thank you to those who have emailed me to make sure that I've been OK over the past two weeks. I'd like to tell you that I've left the blog sitting idle because I've been too busy with various wacky adventures and sexy hi jinks but the truth is that I've recently realized that I'm extremely tired, so much so that I don't think that I can go on any longer. Don't worry, I'm not so tired of life yet that I'm going to eat a bullet or anything like that but rather I'm actually bewilderingly and completely tired of American politics.<br /><br />I watch and read about the various races across the country lately and I struggle to give even a modicum of a fraction of a damn. Every campaign commercial I hear now sounds exactly the same to me: "I'm tired of career politicians and business as usual in politics. Our elected officials have forgotten who they work for. Help me send a message to Washington that we're not going to put up with partisan politics any longer. Together we can change the tone in D.C. and take our country back." Blah, blablabbity blah, blah, blah. You've heard it all before; I've heard it all before and you obviously don't believe it any more than I do. I consider this type of boilerplate populist tripe to be no more than insultingly simplistic rhetorical masturbation for the ignorant masses (and I hold the entirety of modern media and journalism specifically responsible for this phenomenon, but that's neither here nor there at this point).<br /><br />"But James", I imagine you retorting to your computer screens, "I thought you were a big supporter of President Obama! He's all about change and ending the partisan divide in Washington. Have you given up on that message and his seemingly earnest attempts to make America a better place?" No I have not, but I have realized that political culture in this country is so disturbingly corrupt and hopelessly mired in a system of failure and inaction that I no longer possess the zeal to believe that it can be significantly changed within my lifetime, short of a national tragedy or a similarly significantly-sized event to shake the average asshole out of their chronic complacency. In short: I give up, and I just don't care anymore. I'm sorry but it's the truth.<br /><br />I finally understand what so many of my friends and acquaintances have been telling me over the past several years about politics, about how it's just not that important to get so worked up over people and events that are largely and almost completely beyond the control of the average American. I get it now. It's all a game (as so much of life and society is but that's a topic for another time) to make you feel like what you have to say about how this country is run makes a difference and actually matters to those in power. Now I can imagine many of you similarly retorting to your computer screens, "But James, one man/woman <span style="font-style: italic;">can</span> make a difference! The people still have the power of the voting booth!" I wish I could still believe that matters, but I just cannot.<br /><br />That isn't to say that I'm going to stop voting or anything as ludicrous or ignorant as that. Hell, I've already registered and the county's going to try to nail me for jury duty as a result so I might as well flex my citizen rights every two years but I've realized that the amount of energy and stamina it takes to remain emotionally invested in American politics is hardly worth the meager reward, either emotional or electoral. I'm reminded of one of my favorite lines from the movie <span style="font-style: italic;">Blade: Trinity</span>. Blade (who is a vampiric vampire hunter played by Wesley Snipes, for the woefully uninitiated) is in police custody and a government psychologist is questioning him to assess his connection to reality and concurrent level of sanity:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">VANCE: What about the President? Do you know who's in the White House at the moment?<br /><br />BLADE: Some asshole...</blockquote>Now of course I don't think that Barack Obama is personally an asshole (the movie came out in 2004 so draw your own conclusions as to their nonspecific target...) but it does speak to a larger problem within our society: most people who decide to go into politics are either self-involved assholes or self-important assholes or both. Yes, there are some legitimately good men and women in Washington earnestly trying to make this country a better place but the vast majority of people who eventually gain any significant amount of power there, and thus have the ability to institute any significant amount of change within the system, find themselves so endlessly mired within it that they eventually become everything they ran against, if they even made any attempt to portray themselves as such in the first place. Again, in short (and with all due apologies to Orwell): power corrupts, and I'm finally sick of it.<br /><br />So, the next obvious and obviously self-involved question here is: does this spell the end of Brain Rage? I would very much like to answer in the negative and say "Hell no! Are you fucking kidding me?!" but the more honest answer is "I just don't know". Continuing on the honesty kick, I have to say that it's been fairly liberating not worrying about what I'm going to write here day to day and it's been even more refreshing not paying much attention to the 24 hour news cycle as if it were my job to do so, despite the nagging voice in the back of my conscience urging me to do just that on a continuous basis. I'd be lying if I said that I don't enjoy writing about current events here but I'd be lying even more if I said that I find the entire enterprise of caring about most of those said events more fulfilling than I do taxing of late.<br /><br />So again, where does this leave us? And again, I just don't know. I've always been one to follow my intellect over my instincts on most matters because I've realized over the years that my instincts amount to exactly jack shit when compared to my intellect (which definitely says more about my instincts than it does my intellect) and I'm not planning on abandoning that line of reasoning anytime soon but I have been known to change my mind on occasion. Regardless, I plan to spend the vast majority of my time in the immediate future concentrating on real world plans that've been fomenting for some time now outside of the blogging world, i.e. dressing up as a masked crime fighter by night and solving mysteries. So if these are indeed my last words here, many thanks to those who have taken the time to read the meager thoughts I've committed to cyberspace over the past few years and <span style="font-style: italic;">bon chance</span> in your own future endeavours. I'll be around, somewhere.<br /><br />I remain, as always, James B. Webb. <span style="font-style: italic;">Adieu</span>.<br /><br />P. S.: I would be remiss here if I didn't take a moment to address my conservative counterpart and constantly comedic foil Donald Douglas of <a href="http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/">American Power</a>. Don, I've tried to find even an iota of entertainment within your posts or even from one of your sycophantic commenters over the past few weeks as I have in the past but I've woefully come up short on both counts. To say that you're a caricature of your side of the aisle, again as I have many times in the past, is still entirely accurate but unfortunately it's no longer nearly as entertaining. To happily quote one of my fellow nihilistic bloggers: "You're fucking clown shoes". I'll be around two years hence to collect my one hundred dollars when Barack Obama is successfully reelected as our president. Enjoy rhetorically beating off to your big victory this November: it will almost assuredly be short-lived. And good luck with that whole "leftists hate America and are trying to destroy it" schtick. I can think of no more suitable nor entertaining epithet for this blog. Please have someone explain the concepts of humor and irony to you at some point before you shuffle loose this mortal coil. And again, <span style="font-style: italic;">adieu</span>.<br /><br />[<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Update</span>: There's no way I'm going out on a down note by addressing Don. Here's something a thousand times more kick-ass: Sgt. Adam Sniffen from the 101st Airborne Division delivering the game ball via parachute before the Michigan vs. MSU game at Michigan Stadium two weeks ago:<br /><object height="305" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UnJX2FiW-ik&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UnJX2FiW-ik&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="305" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />Too cool. <span style="font-style: italic;">Adios</span>.]JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-87004014752641764202010-10-05T11:47:00.000-07:002010-10-05T11:47:00.174-07:00Something Inspired Someone Else Said<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZH9IIt3l2gRzE-TPh6r-Lxznuf9XJXaZhq0kLipXcpUQQZrL_ajYvfDJeXZuDYWKBRTEoYbcdWEW-hYePh8x3W-kln3Nz94pr0rHzZicotqgSxLqJllPi_tGrCLhkjHFSX6Rl5dV2j1w/s1600/endangeredpleasurescover.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 758px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZH9IIt3l2gRzE-TPh6r-Lxznuf9XJXaZhq0kLipXcpUQQZrL_ajYvfDJeXZuDYWKBRTEoYbcdWEW-hYePh8x3W-kln3Nz94pr0rHzZicotqgSxLqJllPi_tGrCLhkjHFSX6Rl5dV2j1w/s800/endangeredpleasurescover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524450234234209394" border="0" /></a>"Then, knees touching, neck muscles relaxing, brow drying in the cold dry air, we should drink. Certain things were put upon this earth for our enjoyment, and it’s wasteful and wicked to condemn them," -<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/10/cigarettes-baths-and-more-advice-on-the-good-life.html">Barbara Holland</a>, "in praise of the happy hour, the darkened bar, and the winding down of the day<span>".<br /><br />The <span style="font-style: italic;">New Yorker</span> article I took the quote from begins thusly:<br /></span><div><div style="overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;"><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">A few weeks ago, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/books/14holland.html" target="_blank">headline of an obituary</a> in the <em>Times</em> caught my eye: “Barbara Holland, Defender of Small Vices, Dies at 77.” A “defender of small vices”—what a fine title by which to be remembered, the kind of informal, appointed job that you didn’t know exists but then seems essential once you do.<span></span></blockquote><span>I never knew Ms. Holland, nor did I even know <span style="font-style: italic;">of</span> her before today, and although we were divided by forty years and a vast swath of the United States I already consider her a kindred spirit. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Endangered Pleasures</span> I think I may have just found the next submission for my book club.<br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/10/in-defense-of-naps-bacon-martinis.html">via</a>)<br /><a style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153);" href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/10/cigarettes-baths-and-more-advice-on-the-good-life.html#ixzz11StVoZT1"></a></span></div></div>JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-14454374769534367042010-10-05T05:45:00.000-07:002010-10-05T05:45:00.481-07:00Political Connotations<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdjfddvcn0E6FlKtdeZ3dUdab80ziIi9VQVPsYhctkJ1PdzF39FCft9F5Nips-6mwuyZ-aMocY4WxU18u7G2v3CJCNYhmKAuNBWy4pzIPx4X6LmrvGHGj8hxzttDZQm9qQhOz247QB56s/s1600/obamaosamamuslim.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 391px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdjfddvcn0E6FlKtdeZ3dUdab80ziIi9VQVPsYhctkJ1PdzF39FCft9F5Nips-6mwuyZ-aMocY4WxU18u7G2v3CJCNYhmKAuNBWy4pzIPx4X6LmrvGHGj8hxzttDZQm9qQhOz247QB56s/s800/obamaosamamuslim.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524467891803701122" border="0" /></a>Shankar Vedantam <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2268667/?from=rss">talks about</a> studies of both campaigns from the 2008 presidential election:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">The researchers found that when they subliminally flashed the name <em>Obama</em> before [McCain] volunteers—the flashes were so brief that the volunteers did not notice the flash—this unconsciously activated words such as <em>Arab</em>, <em>turban</em>, and <em>mosque</em> in the minds of McCain supporters. Likewise, subliminally flashing the word <em>McCain</em> unconsciously activated words such as <em>senile</em>, <em>dementia</em>, and <em>Alzheimer's</em> in the minds of Obama supporters. The same thing did not happen when volunteers were flashed the name of the candidate they supported. The slur-related words were activated only by unconsciously reminding them about the candidate they opposed. </blockquote>This is why I always say that "both sides do bad things" and that if anyone says that their side does not that they are inveterate liars. But I also say that "one side is better at saying bad things and making them stick". Ask yourself which is more likely to be true: that John McCain is losing control of his mental faculties because he's growing old or that Barack Obama hates America because he's a secret Muslim?<br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/10/us-versus-them.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-70051852038771284702010-10-02T16:39:00.000-07:002010-10-02T16:47:04.620-07:00Something Someone Else Said<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGeQSrZ34LEUsfOzGSxBiGEoBDa1-7EHLYV_sILgD23u2L_lKpuFBaGMPDutVi0Y40fysNYASgSKp6dXqkpiSR4Meuago02PN-7uvbDJDZ8ZXEd9o9WEFTVkwx4VVKalQDggaTd5q48o/s1600/aurora-indica1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGeQSrZ34LEUsfOzGSxBiGEoBDa1-7EHLYV_sILgD23u2L_lKpuFBaGMPDutVi0Y40fysNYASgSKp6dXqkpiSR4Meuago02PN-7uvbDJDZ8ZXEd9o9WEFTVkwx4VVKalQDggaTd5q48o/s800/aurora-indica1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523597912845820674" border="0" /></a>"In the Western world today, there is a group of people who live in a haze of unreality, and are prone at any moment to break into paranoia, hallucinations, and screaming. If you try to get between them and their addiction, they will become angry and aggressive and lash out. They need our help. I am talking, of course, about the Drug Prohibitionists: the gaggle of politicians, bishops and journalists who still insist that the only way to deal with the very widespread drug use in our societies is for it to be criminalized, where it is untaxed, unregulated, controlled by armed criminal gangs, and horribly adulterated," -<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/drug-warriors---its-time_b_743107.html">Johann Hari</a>, The Huffington Post.<br /><br />Illogic is indeed powerfully addictive.<br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/10/the-other-addicts.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-75070716196351174932010-10-02T05:02:00.000-07:002010-10-02T05:20:17.411-07:00Maher's New Rules: Barry WhitehouseLast night Bill Maher laid out why people need to stop their whining and remember everything President Obama has accomplished thus far when they go into the voting booth in November:<br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="+id+" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/swflash.cab" height="420" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://embed.crooksandliars.com/v/MTgzMDktNDAzNDQ?color=C93033"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://embed.crooksandliars.com/v/MTgzMDktNDAzNDQ?color=C93033" wmode="transparent" allowfullscreen="true" name="clembedMTgzMDktNDAzNDQ" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" align="middle" height="420" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />Things haven't gone as smoothly as many would have liked but these are tough times and I believe that we're better off with Obama than we would have been without him. I still can't stand the Democratic party but in a two party system with these choices I don't consider it much of a choice at all. I realize that my perspective is somewhat skewed leftward but I still think the majority of honest intelligent Americans would agree with me on this. November will be rough but I don't think it will necessarily be as bad as many are predicting. Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-83183420974144967982010-10-01T14:22:00.000-07:002010-10-01T14:25:19.034-07:00Amazing Musical InstrumentAn obviously fictional musical instrument favoring process over product:<br /><object height="301" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pjGtbv5R3WE&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pjGtbv5R3WE&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="301" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/09/mental-health-break-22.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-50103841284128080322010-09-30T04:32:00.000-07:002010-09-30T23:29:48.431-07:00RIP, Greg GiraldoI can't say he was one of my favorite comedians but I really <a href="http://news-briefs.ew.com/2010/09/29/greg-giraldo-comedian-dead-at-44/?hpt=T2">liked this guy</a> (no homo):<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">Comedian Greg Giraldo — well-known for his work on such programs as <em>Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn</em>, <em>Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil</em>, several Comedy Central roasts, and NBC’s <em>Last Comic Standing</em> — has passed away. Both Comedy Central and NBC confirmed the comedian died Wednesday in a New Brunswick, N.J., hospital, just days after being <a href="http://news-briefs.ew.com/2010/09/27/greg-giraldo-hospital/">hospitalized</a>, reportedly for a prescription pill overdose.</blockquote>He was 44 years old. Giraldo was known as the King of the Roast in regard to the Friar's Club roasts routinely broadcast on Comedy Central. His set at David Hasselhoff's roast a few months back absolutely killed (warning, this is a <span style="font-style: italic;">roast</span>):<br /><object height="401" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6o6DF2qKucg?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6o6DF2qKucg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="401" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />[<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Update</span>: The video has already been taken down. Fucking Viacom. Wait a few days and then try to find it again; you won't be sorry.]JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-55931484681779347142010-09-28T15:25:00.000-07:002010-09-28T15:32:40.952-07:00That's Gay: No HomoWhen I was in Vegas a few weeks back I was surprised to learn that none of my buddies were familiar with this particular homophobic term made popular by rap culture. Of course after I told them about it we used it about every five minutes for the rest of the weekend because we're all totally not gay:<br /><object height="301" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TBkYdUgl3-M&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TBkYdUgl3-M&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="301" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/07/no-homo.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-25566344889226718502010-09-28T12:12:00.000-07:002010-09-28T12:22:12.465-07:00Touchdown Jeebus Wins Fantasy Week 3<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgssvrdcmimBhlaP8fMtHawxKjUZfUbyljnsDLvyUPi-a3-4gmkmN0XSXRjyG1CoPZGt4_WDQ8e6UwIaHbNE1pC78ttYglBZGPUezjSezrCv0bYpt1DuEMSoilJPvG1Iw-9MHBMPuWIrNo/s1600/fantasywinweek3"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 254px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgssvrdcmimBhlaP8fMtHawxKjUZfUbyljnsDLvyUPi-a3-4gmkmN0XSXRjyG1CoPZGt4_WDQ8e6UwIaHbNE1pC78ttYglBZGPUezjSezrCv0bYpt1DuEMSoilJPvG1Iw-9MHBMPuWIrNo/s800/fantasywinweek3" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522045725045292930" border="0" /></a>I'm not trying to brag or anything but I totally killed my fantasy football league this week (OK, I'm bragging just a bit), and the Dallas Cowboys finally put one in the win column. This is me smiling.JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-19845391719762316282010-09-28T08:11:00.000-07:002010-09-28T12:09:46.141-07:00Many Americans Know Little About Religion<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRturDBTJOJ3VvE5mDYzEbgOAAtXHsMieBLMJaRyPL6AdwU_rrt6zUZjIz30KxLxIBbw4x6sskSd8-Cr6wMGvvNshXPYpEh5iN3bz1IjRQvHYXifV53zUfr9D5Vujz0Zz3IzL1cUheZoU/s1600/hanukahham.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 374px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRturDBTJOJ3VvE5mDYzEbgOAAtXHsMieBLMJaRyPL6AdwU_rrt6zUZjIz30KxLxIBbw4x6sskSd8-Cr6wMGvvNshXPYpEh5iN3bz1IjRQvHYXifV53zUfr9D5Vujz0Zz3IzL1cUheZoU/s800/hanukahham.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521988838081978002" border="0" /></a>I'm rarely surprised when I learn that Americans know little about anything but I think that this is <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/28/survey-americans-know-little-religion/?test=latestnews">somewhat telling</a>:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.<br /><br />Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.<br /><br />More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four in 10 Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis and intellectuals in history, was Jewish.<br /><br />The survey released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.</blockquote>I was not raised religious as a child but rather than leaving me ignorant on the subject I was encouraged to learn more about it and then decide for myself what I believed. I would explain the results of this survey by positing that many of those who are raised so are not similarly encouraged to think for themselves and question authority but are rather told what to believe from an early age when a child's brain is very similar to a sponge as it relates to knowledge and information. They're told what to believe and they do so without thinking any more about the subject.<br /><br />This line of thought always reminds me of two of my favorite quotes about thinking for one's self. The first is from Homer Simpson:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">Kids are great, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate and they practically raise themselves now-a-days, you know, with the internet and all.</blockquote>And the second is from comedian David Cross:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);">I don't have kids but I might someday and if I do I think that I'd like to raise them Amish. You know, instill in them those hard working Amish values and beliefs. And I'm sure they'll eventually have some questions: "Father, how come you get to watch television, and we can't? And how come you get to play video games and read with the lights on and we don't get to?" And I'll get down on a knee and gentlely say to them, : "Well, Sweetie, that's because Daddy's not Amish, and you are. You see, that's what <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> believe. Now hurry off to bed, you have to get up early tomorrow to harvest my breakfast. Ahh, Amish kids..."</blockquote>Think for yourself and question everything, especially what you've been told and what you think you already know.JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-86181282863814850682010-09-27T06:37:00.000-07:002010-09-27T06:37:00.058-07:00Something More Hilarious Someone Else Said<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OHCNFx2S7xw3hhpz9JFAXnh31WnsUYri84-R78xTiwhQNH-ddJdmvra7E9ZzAIvUbcs6pkbsD0qz2ft1x8kf7yxn_sg6ZDfrOH5G3cyhROpntZdABWvHDYQO4jFF5YuEZz8JpE321i4/s1600/kurtcobainquote.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OHCNFx2S7xw3hhpz9JFAXnh31WnsUYri84-R78xTiwhQNH-ddJdmvra7E9ZzAIvUbcs6pkbsD0qz2ft1x8kf7yxn_sg6ZDfrOH5G3cyhROpntZdABWvHDYQO4jFF5YuEZz8JpE321i4/s800/kurtcobainquote.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521479032799102370" border="0" /></a>Now <span style="font-style: italic;">that's</span> funny.<br /><br />(<a href="http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2010/09/kurt-cobain-quote-of-day.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-65651504623610537332010-09-27T06:18:00.000-07:002010-09-27T06:18:00.106-07:00Something Hilarious Someone Else Said<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAw1u8APsRp07co3BH1W3q6fpf6FQJzHQgbdpP1N1-GaRqFZMl3a_KnUvV_djetp03wTo5OpTh7oodH3TLaIioKcL_lAySCkkBgpznT_UnwmQ85U944Iz7zbIpckZW8wU-io6egWJTFwg/s1600/justinbieberquote.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAw1u8APsRp07co3BH1W3q6fpf6FQJzHQgbdpP1N1-GaRqFZMl3a_KnUvV_djetp03wTo5OpTh7oodH3TLaIioKcL_lAySCkkBgpznT_UnwmQ85U944Iz7zbIpckZW8wU-io6egWJTFwg/s800/justinbieberquote.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521474264937841874" border="0" /></a>Perhaps he should also chow down on a shot gun and complete the analogy? I'm just kidding, I know absolutely nothing about this kid other than that he looks like a lesbian and little girls want to fuck him. I understood Cobain's popularity; this kid's, not so much.<br /><br />(<a href="http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2010/09/justin-bieber-quote-of-day.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-2889519086541098302010-09-24T15:23:00.000-07:002010-09-24T15:30:44.881-07:00TDS: Postcards From The PledgeSo, you don't like the way things are going in America today and despite the fact that many of our current woes originated during the last Republican administration you're still thinking of voting them back into power for some new leadership and fresh ideas. Jon Stewart takes a look at their new Pledge to America and finds a few things that might look a little familiar:<br /><embed style="display: block;" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:360001" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" bgcolor="#000000" height="418" width="500"></embed>JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5428824763182540039.post-24688080976501981102010-09-23T14:43:00.000-07:002010-09-23T14:43:00.096-07:00Health Reform Hits Main StreetIf you really want to know what's about to start happening in American health care reform do yourself a favor and watch this nine minute long video. Relax, it's a cartoon:<br /><object id="flashObj" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="424" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=608833805001&playerID=1875349721&playerKey=AQ%2E%2E,AAAAAG_HivY%2E,sgDjaI7wvsueyxYvBTnH9ElGyGMdLEbW&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true"><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com"><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="videoId=608833805001&playerID=1875349721&playerKey=AQ%2E%2E,AAAAAG_HivY%2E,sgDjaI7wvsueyxYvBTnH9ElGyGMdLEbW&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" swliveconnect="true" allowscriptaccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" height="424" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />(<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/09/the-basics.html">via</a>)JBWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13293642610215334516noreply@blogger.com0