Thursday, April 16, 2009

Raisin of Reason: A fictitious Barlow stirs controversy across the pond

From the BBC:

Angry Coronation Street viewers have complained to Ofcom and ITV after a character made "anti-Christian" remarks during an episode on Easter Sunday.

The broadcast watchdog said it received 23 complaints over Ken Barlow referring to the faith as "superstition" and God as a "supernatural being".

ITV said it received about 100 complaints over the remarks.

It added the soap was set in modern society and "represents views from all sides of the religious spectrum".

In the soap, while the Barlow family were preparing to go to church, Ken - played by William Roache - questioned his son Peter on why he was allowing his grandson, Simon, to be "indoctrinated" by the church.

He then went on to criticise Simon's school for teaching creationism.


Heh.

I SAID NO!

Posted without comment.



Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Matt Taibbi on the right-wingnuts

Poignant, as always!

But actual rich people can’t ever be the target. It’s a classic peasant mentality: going into fits of groveling and bowing whenever the master’s carriage rides by, then fuming against the Turks in Crimea or the Jews in the Pale or whoever after spending fifteen hard hours in the fields. You know you’re a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your shit. Whatever the master does, you’re on board. When you get frisky, he sticks a big cross in the middle of your village, and you spend the rest of your life praying to it with big googly eyes. Or he puts out newspapers full of innuendo about this or that faraway group and you immediately salute and rush off to join the hate squad. A good peasant is loyal, simpleminded, and full of misdirected anger. And that’s what we’ve got now, a lot of misdirected anger searching around for a non-target to mis-punish… can’t be mad at AIG, can’t be mad at Citi or Goldman Sachs. The real villains have to be the anti-AIG protesters! After all, those people earned those bonuses! If ever there was a textbook case of peasant thinking, it’s struggling middle-class Americans burned up in defense of taxpayer-funded bonuses to millionaires. It’s really weird stuff. And bound to get weirder, I imagine, as this crisis gets worse and more complicated.


Death and Taxes: A visualization

Excellent visualization by Jess of how tax dollars are spent. (Click to embiggen pic only, or here for nifty widget.)



Texas sucks! Reason #1159

Texas governor claims sovereignty from “oppressive” U.S. government
Posted by Jed Lewison • Apr 14, 2009 at 1:16 PM Pacific

Incumbent Texas Governor Rick Perry, locked in a GOP primary battle with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, wades into Glenn Beck’s loony bin, saying that the time had come to “draw the line in the sand” against the federal government. “No longer are we going to accept their oppressive hand in the state of Texas,” Perry said.

Here’s video:


I recall a certain Texan accusing me - just a lowly citizen - of being whacko for thinking California (the world's 7th largest economy) should secede from the Union. I wonder what he has to say about his governor.



Kos: Where we get our news

Great roundup of research by Markos on where we get our news. Money quote:

On the other hand, I will be gleeful when the AP goes out of business. I'm actually shocked at how little we depend on those jerks. - Kos


Required dress for Tea Baggers



Profiles in douchebaggery: Crazy about business cards

Someone should clue this clown in to the fact that business cards that don't fit in the Rolodex, usually find their way to fitting in the round file quite quickly and easily.



Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Renewable Energy Is Here. Now!

Instead of handing out billions to bankers, we could be creating jobs for thousands by creating renewable energy from existing technologies NOW!



Monday, April 13, 2009

If only I were in high school now

I may not be better at math, but I'd probably get better grades!

MS Live Search does algebra!