A friend of mine forwarded me a mess of video clips - kind of a menage of 'can-you-top-this' viral videos.
I hate to admit it, but I'd be hard pressed to top this:
I'm the last one to get on a 'up-with-people' bandwagon, but this totally made my day.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
PETA at Work
Very cool chart displaying what PETA does with their budget (after you click the link, click once more to enlarge). I've always hated PETA — from their holier-than-thou spokesmodels, to their ridiculous comparisons of chickens being caged with Jews in the holocaust, it always seemed to me that their ad campaigns have always created such a backlash, that for a while I was convinced that they were secretly funded by the National Beef and Cattlemen's Association.
While I do support reducing our consumption of meat as it's ultimately better for our health and our environment, I've never bought into equating an animal's rights with that of humans. Back in 2003, PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, wrote a letter to Yasser Arafat, imploring him not to use animals in terrorist attacks. Really, if you're going to kill people, please don't kill any animals while you're at it.
(h/t ilovecharts.tumblr.com)
While I do support reducing our consumption of meat as it's ultimately better for our health and our environment, I've never bought into equating an animal's rights with that of humans. Back in 2003, PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, wrote a letter to Yasser Arafat, imploring him not to use animals in terrorist attacks. Really, if you're going to kill people, please don't kill any animals while you're at it.
(h/t ilovecharts.tumblr.com)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
We’re All Fundamentalists Now
Some Muslims consider illustrations of Mohammed offensive . The U.S. has now crossed that rubicon in that whether or not we realize it, we’ve fetishized 9/11.
The opposition to the proposed Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero has now trumped the First Amendment, property rights, and the rights of the local community to determine zoning issues. The A-list of the community center opposition is pretty much the usual suspects – vapid attention whores (the former half-term governor of Alaska), prospective, hypocritical presidential candidates (Newt), and the usual idiots who consume large amounts of Fox News.
Ironically, this is what Osama bin Laden has been striving for – a holy war. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush made it a point (other than a poorly worded reference to the Crusades) to make this not about Islam. He visited a mosque and let imams know that his quarrel wasn’t with them, but rather with those who had “hijacked the Islamic faith.” So while Bush probably kept a lid on islamophobia during his presidency, Republican party opportunists (no, I’m not being redundant) have now allowed islamophobia to become a major theme of the 2010 (and probably 2012) elections. You can see a handful of Republicans take a stand for religious freedom (here and here), but you’re more likely to see a Democrat capitulate to this new form of ecclesiastic bullying.
Do a Google search. As of today, August 24, 2010, ‘mosque’ will net you 27,500 news hits. A search for ‘U.S. jobs’ nets about 45,000 hits. The fact that the building of a community center in Manhattan gets about 60% of the coverage as the dearth of jobs in the largest economy in the world should give anyone pause, particularly as the U.S. economy is in its worst downturn since the Great Depression.
We are now, officially, a nation of victims. 9/11 dictates our domestic policy. It dominates our national discourse, with its own set of rules – don’t have the mainstream newsmedia cover the latest TSA trampling of individual rights (specifically enumerated in the Constitution), fetishize ground zero (it’s now considered hallowed ground), and demonize any political candidate who dares to question our foreign policy prior to 9/11. Welcome to our new theocracy. It’s not Christianity, it’s 9/11.
Maybe the next generation of Muslims will see past this.
The opposition to the proposed Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero has now trumped the First Amendment, property rights, and the rights of the local community to determine zoning issues. The A-list of the community center opposition is pretty much the usual suspects – vapid attention whores (the former half-term governor of Alaska), prospective, hypocritical presidential candidates (Newt), and the usual idiots who consume large amounts of Fox News.
Ironically, this is what Osama bin Laden has been striving for – a holy war. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush made it a point (other than a poorly worded reference to the Crusades) to make this not about Islam. He visited a mosque and let imams know that his quarrel wasn’t with them, but rather with those who had “hijacked the Islamic faith.” So while Bush probably kept a lid on islamophobia during his presidency, Republican party opportunists (no, I’m not being redundant) have now allowed islamophobia to become a major theme of the 2010 (and probably 2012) elections. You can see a handful of Republicans take a stand for religious freedom (here and here), but you’re more likely to see a Democrat capitulate to this new form of ecclesiastic bullying.
Do a Google search. As of today, August 24, 2010, ‘mosque’ will net you 27,500 news hits. A search for ‘U.S. jobs’ nets about 45,000 hits. The fact that the building of a community center in Manhattan gets about 60% of the coverage as the dearth of jobs in the largest economy in the world should give anyone pause, particularly as the U.S. economy is in its worst downturn since the Great Depression.
We are now, officially, a nation of victims. 9/11 dictates our domestic policy. It dominates our national discourse, with its own set of rules – don’t have the mainstream newsmedia cover the latest TSA trampling of individual rights (specifically enumerated in the Constitution), fetishize ground zero (it’s now considered hallowed ground), and demonize any political candidate who dares to question our foreign policy prior to 9/11. Welcome to our new theocracy. It’s not Christianity, it’s 9/11.
Maybe the next generation of Muslims will see past this.
Friday, April 9, 2010
TV Haiku
Mike Stivic broke the
television remote
again. That meathead!
Mike and Carol worried.
Veterinarian thinks
Tiger has boner.
'BJ and the Bear'
Name alone scandalous, but
that Sherrif Lobo...
television remote
again. That meathead!
Mike and Carol worried.
Veterinarian thinks
Tiger has boner.
'BJ and the Bear'
Name alone scandalous, but
that Sherrif Lobo...
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Infomercial as Performance Art
Last night while surfing our very limited over-the-air channels, we happened upon an informercial for the 'Shoedini'. Incredibly, it was being pitched by annoying voice-over artist and stand-up comedian Gilbert Gottfried - which made it absolutely hysterical. Here's the thing, though: the local channel played the commercial with Gilbert Gottfried's voice-over:
And the regular commercial with a standard voice-over:
With Gottfried's out-take sandwiched in between:
Intentional or not, I never would have come across the out-take version without seeing all three strung together. The out-take is just so absurd, it's brilliant.
And the regular commercial with a standard voice-over:
With Gottfried's out-take sandwiched in between:
Intentional or not, I never would have come across the out-take version without seeing all three strung together. The out-take is just so absurd, it's brilliant.
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