August 2009
44 posts
“Time Bomb” - The Format
Argentina rules that it's unconstitutional to... →
“The Argentine court ruled that: “Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state.”
Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said private behaviour was legal, “as long as it doesn’t constitute clear danger”.
“The state cannot establish morality,” he said”
4 tags
Meta-Humor- Wikipedia →
Metahumor as humor about humor. Here meta is used to describe the fact that the joke explicitly talks about other jokes, a usage similar to the word metadata (data about data), metatheatrics (a play within a play, as in Hamlet), or metafiction.
“Three blokes walk into a pub. One of them is a little bit stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability.”—Bill Bailey:[4] ...
“Our data shows substantial support for a cognitive theory known as ‘motivated...”
– How We Support Our False Beliefs (via elvira) (via ambivalence)
Real Time: Jeremy Scahill Calls Out Chuck Todd for... →
Todd tries to argue that we shouldn’t investigate the executive branch’s role in CIA torture, assasination and other malfeasance because it would turn into a “political food fight.”
Time for Washington state to decriminalize... →
Op-Ed by guest columnists Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Wells, D-Seattle, and former state Rep. Toby Nixon, R-Kirkland
“ONCE again, the Seattle Hempfest drew tens of thousands to parks along the waterfront this weekend. In its mission statement, the all-volunteer organization that produces the event says, “The public is better served when citizens and public officials work cooperatively in order...
2 tags
Obama's War
ambivalence:
[In Afghanistan, the Choice Is Ours by Richard Haass]
“But even if the United States were to succeed in Afghanistan — with “success” defined as bringing into existence an Afghan government strong enough to control most of its territory — terrorists could still operate from there and would put down roots elsewhere. And Pakistan’s future would remain uncertain at best.
Moreover,...
2 tags
WatchRep. Barney Frank talks to town hall protesters about health insurance reform
“At one point, confronted by an audience member holding a picture of President Obama defaced to make Obama look like Hitler who asked how he could support Nazi policies, Frank asked “on what planet do you spend most of your time?” When asked if he would respond to the question, he said “trying to...
“[Mike] Huckabee knows that the Republican base lives in its own alternative,...”
– Glenn Greenwald (via azspot)
National Secular Society: New report on what it... →
retropolitics:
A new survey by the Center for Inquiry entitled “Profiles of the Godless”, examines both the preferred labels that non-believers attach to themselves and the personality types that tend to be connected with those labels.
The study raises doubts about the “overly simplistic” claim that greater religiosity tends to produce greater personal happiness, and suggests that younger...
WatchMicro sculptor Willard Wigan on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
“It’s hard to make a man understand something when his paycheck depends on him...”
– Upton Sinclair (via poortaste)
Brad Pitt comes out for the legalization and... →
katharinec:
For what it’s worth
Brad Pitt is a big hero in New Orleans where his charity has helped victims of Katrina, but he doesn’t want to run the town. Pitt, 45, reluctantly said he would take the job if it were foisted on him, but then stated a platform that might well make him unelectable.
“I’m running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of...
“ARMED with explosives, two men are heading to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert to...”
– Journalist hunts for acid-spitting Mongolian death worm | The Courier-Mail (via 2020)
Recovery.gov Project Totally Redacted
ambivalence:
It’s the perfect irony, right up there with Amazon dekindling Orwell’s 1984. Seems the contract details for the Smartronix (yes, some baboon named a company Smartronix) deal with the government to create a new recovery.gov website has been so redacted that it’s useless to read.
Stimulus Transparency Watchdogs Keep Contract Details a Secret - ProPublica by Christopher Flavelle]
...
CNSNews.com - FCC’s Chief Diversity Officer Wants... →
My dad just sent this to me. He thinks it’s a terrible idea. I’d like to see PBS and NPR get more funding, but I can understand the private broadcasters’ reluctance to fund their competition.
5 tags
3 tags
WatchThe Daily Show’s Sam Bee, John Oliver and Aasif Mandvi discuss how to best implement Obama’s “death panels.
5 tags
“There comes a point when the public imbibes the ultimatum of the plutocracy....”
– Ralph Nader (via azspot) (via poortaste)
5 tags
Myths About High Times in America →
buchino:
Californians fretted loudly in 1996 that the state’s new medical marijuana law would lead to an increase in teen pot-smoking, so the state studied it closely. The attorney general’s first look a year later found no effect. The office looked again a decade later. Teen use had collapsed. Among seventh- and 11th-graders, the number of kids saying they’d smoked in the last month fell by a...
“We are not called to love our enemies in order to make them friends. We are...”
– John Howard Yoder (via azspot)
1 tag
Drug Czar Clarification: ‘Smoked Marijuana’ Is... →
U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowski “clarifies” his statement that “marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit” by explaining that he was referring only to “smoked marijuana”
3 tags
US Still Paying Blackwater Millions →
jeremyscahill:
From my latest story in The Nation:
Just days before two former Blackwater employees alleged in sworn statements filed in federal court that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” the Obama administration extended a contract with Blackwater for more than $20 million for...
2 tags
1 tag
thinking about getting LASIK surgery
I’m considering getting LASIK vision correction in a couple weeks, but I’m a little worried about the risks/complications. The doctor said I’m a good candidate for the surgery, but it’s hard to take his word for it when it’s not his eyes or his money on the line. Also, I’m only 23 and I’m worried that my eyes are still changing.
Anyone have some advice?...
THC To Any Plant Just Got Real Easy. And The... →
buffleheadcabin:
(via elleedee)
Categorized as “too good to be true”.
1 tag
WatchConan O’Brien helps an associate producer find a new home.
“Let’s pretend it’s the end of a long day. You’ve creeped out your quota of people for the day. You come home, heat up a spring roll and ask God why he made you this way. Now lie down.”
