Superhero Movie Physics

Cocktail Party Physics has a fun look at science in Hollywood. Worth a read through.

But this video from the U of M in the Twin Cities shows Prof. Kakalios, and his work in superhero physics. Including some of his attempts to help Hollywood.



I would suggest checking out his great book on superhero physics, if you haven't already.

Shutting down like it's 1995.

Talking Points Memo has a look back to the government shutdown of 1995.

Look back, and remember the good old days.

So many familiar faces.

The right kind of movie poster.

In the variations of posters produced to promote The King's Speech was one I found quite nice. It is one I am sure even Hitchens could like, though I know he has been critical of the history in the film.

Can't ALL movies do posters that note how shit gods are?

Awww.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Well, you will have to click and open it to see the animation I am afraid.

More Moyers?

There is talk of the possibility of Bill Moyers returning to PBS with a show he is currently working on.

Could it be? Is it possible?

Maybe he has something more to share and discuss with America?

Wait and see.

Personally, I wish Moyers would be asked to head up the FCC, or some similar agency. He would be great at cleaning up the mess in any of them.

April Fools Day

APRIL FOOLS....

...and why it can be a pain in the ass.

Best explanation of the Rebecca Black haters.

Charlie Brooker, a wonderful humorist and scathing media critic, has, what I think is the best look at the story of Rebecca Black.

To understand, this 13 year old's parents paid to make a video that would allow their daughter take a stab at music making. They picked an annoying pop song to use called Fridays. But it's a pop song. Make a list of all the pop songs in existence, pick one at random, odds are it will annoy you. That is the cost of you not being one of those dastardly tweens (god, I've used that word).

So parents lavished an expensive gift on there daughter I don't care. (Now there are shows like My Super Sweet 16 were teens get lavish gifts and act like asses. Not even that here.) In fact I was oblivious to all of this until a feminist twitter entity made note of all the shit she was getting, in comparison to the attention that people like Charlie Sheen get. Thought it was a good point. So I looked at the video, thought it was a little annoying, but I am an old grumpy fart (Hello! Jaded!). So after watching all I could think, why should I or anyone care? Well apparently a lot of sad online users did. Enough to mock a kid, ridicule her and try an tear down any positive self-image she had. Pathetic.

But before going on, it should be noted that this is quite sadly not a unheard of tale. No. Girls and women are constantly sought out online to be ridiculed, have their sexuality, body, etc ridiculed for...just having an opinion they dare share (Let alone women who build and run sites.). It can be sick and vicious. And sometimes people go to the point of stalking women online, finding other id's and sites they work or visit, and attack them there. It even gets to the point of physical threats, sometimes finding out information on where they live.

I was just going to just point to this scathingly funny clip, but it is important of remind people how nasty, continual, and pernicious these activities are. And people need to be aware and acting to right things.

From the British series 10 O'Clock Live:

Eating Brains at Work

Here is a video that takes John Coulton's great song to another level.



And if you do like Coulton's music, you can easily find more in iTunes, among other spots. It is all geeky fun.

Oh, god. Trump won't shut up.

Yeah. He won't shut up. And worse in not shutting up he keeps going back to this Birther beat he seems to love so much. I noted this much last time.

So after his debacle with the short-form yesterday, he has released the longer form for us. Yeah...still don't care. This is a non-issue. And only allows the crazies to come out and jump about.

I do love that the certificate issue bothers Trump so. When his businesses go belly up, he seems to barely care, before going on to the next. But on this, he's got a feeling. Based on his style and taste, I think we would all rather past on his gut and his instincts.

What can make this all the more annoying, and worse, make it a problem? Have the media jump in to join in. Now ABC is just asking questions. They are stupid questions, but...really this where you are now ABC? How sad.

Bring out your severely sick! Now, send them away!

Interesting story off the BBC website.

It is yet another story of miracle cures being sold. In Africa we can find many of these. But in this case it comes out of the hands of a retired evangelical preacher. What's for sale? An herb and water treatment that fixes what ails ya. He is so popular that people are lined up outside in the 1000's. At these umbers they are overwhelming him.

And they are coming in all sorts of states. Coming from home, from hospitals, and even some dragged out of hospital beds, they end up in this massive line (over 15 miles) to receive a cure made mostly of false hope. 

This isn't the sale of a fake hair growth formula. This isn't a miracle diet. No, this is a promise to cure whatever it takes to get you in. And the result has been death. Death while waiting for some. Death for some after getting help for some others. 

Now there is no indication that it is a poisonous brew. But like so many others selling snake oil and miracles, many come away with what they feel is their only hope. So many choose to abandon all other support that was still available. Like people who go to faith healers, and then rely on these results. Or, people who go to psychic surgeons, and assured afterward that there cancer has been yanked out. So they aren't being sold a poison. No, they are being sold on abandoning medical treatments which is the only real chance that they have.

So the preacher man wants a break now. :Stop coming, people", he decries. He needs time to work the MILES of people standing under the hot Tanzanian sun, mile after mile of people. 


Yes, promise a miracle, and then expect people who are afraid of death, that they deem looming, to not come. Sure. When you promise a cure all, nothing will stop people from seeking you out. That is the magic of advertising. Convince folks they will die without your aid, and they are hooked. Ad men, religions, and quacks all know this well.

Interesting as well, the nation in question, Tanzania, has already banned old school healers, magic users. But selling a water concoction that is unproven...go ahead, and promise the moon when peddling it. Nice, Tanzania, nice. What exactly makes him different from tribal witchdoctors? Is it not coaching things in magic? Or is it being a former man of the clothe? Are you letting him do this...out of faith? Or out of him having the right faith?

Bring out your birth certificates! Bring out your birth certificates!

We all know the Birthers. Nutters.


Now would be hairy man, would be king of NYC, and would be would be wit (if not for the absence of wit), Donald Trump wants to be president of a country. Or he at least dreams of playing at it and wasting a bunch of someone else's cash. He's used to this (see his business career). He has hinted at times, now he is serious, sitting on talk show couches and even wintering in Iowa.

Part of his current plan is to attack the current president at the point of his legitimacy. His place of birth. So Trumpy wants to do magic, and play at being a Birther.

And like some others he is going the passive aggressive route. Just asking questions. Asking them in his normal pompous, know nothing manner.

Trump has long galled me, in truth. He walks and talks like an idiot. But he keeps getting money from people, and keeps making it (to some extent).

It's like the character of Boston Rob in the show Survivor. From what little I see of him, I have no idea what people keep listening and following. It defies reason.

But people like Trump get the following. He struts around in wealth, and people drool. He struts around on a truly silly reality show and people go, "Ooooooo."

So knowing this Trump has stepped part way into a run for the Republican nomination. And his plan, be the biggest Birther candidate running. Not that he is of course. He's just asking questions. And what does the president have to hide anyway? What's to hide? About his birth? Nothing. But playing his normal dull role Trump throws out already answered questions as if they remain unresolved. Granted his audience is one oblivious to this. They just want to have Obama "given the business." And he is apt to do this. He is a master of empty rhetoric. He is king of posturing. He comes out trumps in this arena.

And so Trump makes his silly attacks. He even has threatened the governor of Hawaii. Trump suggests that trying to show Obama is a Hawaiian by birth means

To try to show up, in his usual empty manor, the president Trump released his own birth certificate. But as AMERICAblog notes, it is the short-form certificate. This is the version of Obama's certificate out for people to see, and attacked for not being the long-form. Now Trump is in the same place as the president. Not that this will occur to the Birthers. Trump is rich, white, and conservative.

By the way, if you want to see a Birther rant, here's the Certificate of Live Birth.

Sylvia Browne, even reaching for the wallets in the sickbed.

Among others SkepChick notes that famed medium Sylvia Browne has had a heart attack. They do joke a bit, but most do, seeing as Browne has gone a long way to prey on the bereaved, and to use tragedy to enhance her fame. So I can understand, but I just don't like to mock people in the hospital, even when as loathsome as Browne is. I am sorry she is in the hospital, but I think she's a truly terrible person.

It is odd, I am a generally  pessimistic growly grump. But I just don't think it does me or anyone else good to pick on people who fall ill, or pass. Sure you shouldn't shirk being honest on wrongs and faults. But dancing on a grave, or hospital bed...we should be better than that.

Thankfully, as people like Sylvia often do, she and her lot raced to remind us of just how low a lot they are.

As noted by ShepChick:

And her organization has found the perfect opportunity to squeeze some more pennies out of the people who don’t realize that she’s a sociopath who regularly lies to the parents of missing children and the loved ones of the deceased. Their begging newsletter...

Yes, in the wake of her illness, her group (a group she founded) raced to pressure fans and followers to bleed cash for them. They say they rely on her for money, and now need others to jump in a help. Why? She is okay and heading home? So it is really about fleecing extra cash...cause. So she had a heart attack, and everyone saw a way to cash in.

Mediums, psychics, and televangelists. It is so hard to see any real difference.

An interesting look back at scientific and political history

The Superconducting Super Collider. In the 80's and early 90's it was a big deal. Slowly constructed in Texas there was a lot of excited talk about how it would further our scientific understanding...but issues in construction, budgeting, and in political interest led it to never see completion. Much of this work was later carried on via the CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

This is an interesting blog post that takes me back in time to the days of SSC. Some participants at a physics conference took a trek to the site, photographing and remembering back to another era in US scientific efforts.

Of course, of note in the story is that when funding was cut here, it went to the International Space Station.

Defending your journalist, until you don't

Back to far more serious matters. Journalistic support. 

Do I mean defending constitutional rights, defending integrity, defending their physical safety? Oh, no.

We are talking about the HuffPo (Huffington Post).

See, it and Huffington herself, have a long friendly history with one Andrew Breitbart. You may remember him from any of many dishonest attempts to smear, discredit, and destroy the careers of liberals. You may also remember his erstwhile occasional lackey James O'Keefe. Huffington and Breitbart are actual friends, and in the early days of her HP site, he wrote on it.

Well, the years have passed, she has expanded her online empire, and he has expanded the scope of his douchiness. 

The prominence that has been announced and bestowed on Breitbart has annoyed many who see HuffPo as a liberal leaning news source.  (He was being linked and written up on the sites front page, meaning people would easily know and access his work and ideas.) To some, his die hard conservative thoughts getting promotion was galling. To many others the fact he is a dishonest shill getting this prime space and press was the issue. It was a reward to someone commonly seen as a RW villain. 

But Huffington and her staff have a right to hire, use, and promote who or whatever they want. And we have a right to bitch and moan over it. We have a right to protest it. And we have a right to not give her and her site views. It is up to you.

But that is not where this story comes to rest. Oh, no. Breitbart then chose to be Andrew Breitbart. A choice few sane people would make. At this juncture, having been given cover and support, and a nod from Huffington, that she was his defender, he now chose to rip into a favorite punching bag of the lowest common denominator of RW punditry, Mr. Van Jones. (Van Jones was in the Obama admin, before being driven out by mischaracterizations, and smears, which continue to this day. See Andrew Breitbart.)

That is when Huffington let loose and allowed the proverbial shit to hit the fan. With the nasty, as is the norm from Breitbart, comments shared with the world, mocking and deriding Van Jones, Huffington Post announced that Ariana's good friend was off the front page. He was welcome to stay, but he would be in the back with the rest of the work a day bloggers, slaving away for HuffPo.

Everything he says about everyone else, no biggie. The injury to the president, the dishonesty in his work...eh. Slag off her DEARER friend....you're out of here.

That's nice.

Now if you go to the science and medical sections of HuffPo, you will find compromised work, with the likes of AntiVaxers and Chopra peddling bull to the masses. I do expect a lot more from the political end. There are fine people who work there, like Howard Fineman. But to let Breitbart get that kind of elevation is both sad and wrong. And then to yank him back only after he hurts you're friend...? ...Fuck that speaks so poorly of you.

It is akin to NPR and Juan Williams. Based on every statement, claim he made on FOX News, and how he went on seemingly as a rep of NPR, the brass at NPR had a right to dump him. Waiting until after William’s comments on Muslims were made just helped make NPR look petty.

Ariana now looks petty. HuffPo looks petty. And this follows on looking more like a joke with the endorsement given to Breitbart.

Badly done HuffPo.

The hell? I left a blog in here?

Well there has been a break since my last...oh, hell...I got distracted...then busy...

,,,Anywho...

What was I talking about before...doesn't really matter, so let's just get a post in, hmm?

Kind of have to like this photo op for the president.

He is getting ready for a meet and greet. But to me it says, when you're the president of the whole damn country, and have to go, you are the front of the line.

Cue rim shot. Wacka wacka.

The unintentional humor of religion and bureaucracy.

This is a funny picture.

In 1973 the Catholic Church, the Youth Movement had a simple little logo. It is just so 70's.

Oddly, in looking at it now, it could easily be thought to be NSFW. The change of perspective and perception.

More Mitchell and Webb coming

New series of there show is coming. The promo just makes you want it all now.

Another review and snark.

Another fun review source is from That Guy With The Glasses, and particularly, the Nostalgia Critic. He's a little weird and plenty goofy, but wit and snark are always a joy to behold.

A look at part 1 of the the reviewing of Hook.

Bond...Snark Bond

The Agony Booth does some good reviews, picking apart movies and TV with humor and snark. And some are some nice lengthy articles that are a hoot.

They have also started some video reviews. This one from Mr. Meno, looking at 007 in The Man with the Golden Gun. Not the finest outing from Her Majesties best.

Glenn Beck: Fleecing the god fearing, the armed forces supporters, and the rest of the country.

Crooks and Liars:

...

Well, he's really stepping in it this time. He's asking his fans to make donations to a military charity to fund a rally in Washington D.C. - the only problem is that the rally is nothing more than a release party for his new book and well...I'll let GottaLaff tell the rest of the story, keying off this audio report from Bill Press:

[audio at link] ...

Classy, classy Glenn.

...

Yes, you heard right. Beck doesn’t even have a permit for The Big Rally yet. They’ve applied, but they’re still in negotiations. Yet, they’re selling merchandise as if it’s a done deal. He’s selling stuff for an event that may never take place.

It’s also not being held at the Lincoln Memorial, but at the reflecting pool, across the street. Glenn Beck is lying about the location of the rally.

And finally, he’s exploiting a charity by soliciting contributions to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. But see, the fine print says all contributions will first be applied to the rally, the one with Sarah Palin. All contributions in excess of the costs will go to the troops.

Let’s recap:

–He’s desecrating the memory of Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln;

–He’s lying to the (gullible) American people who still choose to give him an ounce of credibility, and

–He’s using a charity set up to raise money for members of the military, and then stealing the money he raises to pay for his little get together. Read on...

...

If only he could stay classy and go back to mocking children and women who lose there children. Remember the good old days he was just happy to openly fear and have contempt for minorities.

Happy Time with a puppy

Here is a bit of joy, in watching a pup meet and challenge itself. "Who is that!"

Conservative Charm Offensive

Republicans and those other conservatives they continue to woo are quite a lovely group, except for all of their positions and statements...and so much else.

There is the great hope Sharron Angle and her great ideas. She has finally done an interview (vid at link) where she has walked back some of her claims, and tried to justify others, including the kinda sorta dismantling social security. It is great to see her face challenges to her claims.

Boehner wants to join Sharon Angle in going after Social Security, the nation's social safety net. Still with the myth that system is broken and doomed...and in the way of war. Love Boehner's frankness. It is great to see how full of it a loathsome Reps are at heart.

And the Senate continues to choose the needs of the rich over the survival of those that are poor or in straits, between jobs. What champions. George Will loves this position, holding that unemployment support is not stimulative. Those poor people will never work if they aren't starving on the street...guess we know how will picks his manor staff. Will continues to amaze with his clear detachment from reality. But it is the conservative axiom, to help the poor is to weaken the workforce. Now, of course, when their is an oil spill and conservative jobs go bye bye, they really love that socialist support mechanism...cause...


Conservatives are so much those of the people...just richer and safer and able to ride out their ideologies impact. Lucky them.

Dog doing his thing

Here is a cute video of a dog blind since a pup, and suffering other ailments, out playing fetch in the backyard. Lacks a sense, but living life and happy.

Finding the Gold Monkey

Don't know if it makes me sad, a nerd, or just old...but I am giddy that the Tales of the Gold Monkey series is available now on DVD.

It was a short lived, but fun action show, with a bit of comedy from the late 80's. It starred Stephen Collins. Along with his adventurer pilot were spies, barmen, mechanics, tricksters, and all sorts you expect in a fun pulp tale.

Personally I loved the show, as it gave some of the period fun much like what was available through Indiana Jones, and other pulp adventure stories.

This show takes place in that fun magical near nonexistent time of the 20's, where major war was seen as a memory, and adventure, mystery, and  the future were exciting.

I do really like this particular period. It is, as said a magical time. The big memories (world wars) of the age are around it, a decade out from WWI, which colors most every character in stories, but is far enough in the past that most have moved on and have built lives again, had kids, lived their dreams, etc., but it is part of the background forever. And another war is looming. Scary Germans. Aggressive Japanese. Officious Italians. And so on. And the tales that is told is smack dab in the center, the world oblivious of what is to come.

For stories like Gold Monkey, it is a story of the South Pacific, drawing on a variety of Pulp (with natives, traders, explorers, etc.), and the history of expanding Japanese power, and the colonial interest. Another shows I love that's like this is Tailspin. It also took this time and made it playful use of the related tropes. I loved the island home and its defenses (large guns guarding high mountain walls with a narrow pass for planes to get through), Baloo and his plane, and definitely that version of Shere Khan (an enjoyable Charles Foster Kane/Lex Luthor with big claws). It is a fun show to take a chance to catch when you can.

Then other tales that used the period are Anastasia (animated), which used a fantasy evil wizard with a lost princess and a mystic and wondrous Europe that never really was. I really liked the film. It had good animation, and I enjoyed the songs. Also it gave us a 1920's fairy tale. We need people to play with fantasy in history in this fun way more often.

As well, there is the Universal Horror series, like Dracula, Wolf Man, Frankenstein, etc. On into the war years these also made use of this long gone idea of a foggy Europe that was fool of werewolves, not Nazis. But it is an impossible time, kinda Victorian and kinda modern (for the day). It marks are ideas of the sorts of movies til this day.


Crimson Skies offered a alternate America of the time, with a disrupted nation, with sky pirates, zeppelins everywhere, and independent and fun states and site.

It is a fun period to enjoy. So I am glad to have this series out for me to enjoy again after all these years.

New season of Warehouse 13, YIPEE!

I am eagerly anticapting the new seasons of scifi fun with new Eureka, and Warehouse 13. Both of which will be crossing over into each others series this summer. Both are starting up in the coming weeks.


Here is a fun bit dealing with one of the artifacts held in the warehouse.

Rush standard class act and Beck's self love society

These two are charmers.

Following on the Beck example Limbaugh decided he needed to ridicule Obama's one daughter. I am startting to wonder if there other daughter is starting to feel slighted by the far right. Here for more or listen to the ass below.



Then Beck haw been on a role in a number of ways, but to see him declare himself great is a marvel. He is a great man, as he writes fiction, he is great as he is a truth speaker, or as his god talks through him to others.

But to see him declare that he is a new Martin Luther King Jr? Come on. He will be apart of the reclaiming of the Civil Rights Movement.

Really. He will reclaim it? Much like his country...when was the movement taken? While conservatives barred blacks and others from drugstore counters, while they were barring them from schools, or while they were setting dogs on blacks and others striving for civil rights? That is just lame on his part.

He compares himself to King, to Parks, and to Ghandi. And it makes me laugh. Because I could imagine him being around them in there day, and bringing them on his show. On the show he would yell at them for what they did and spoke out for. He would also be sure to challenge them as potential communist. Then, of course, he would be sure to challenge them on whether they were terrorist, or going to be trying to kill or harm people like him. Really cringe worthy media. NO doubt. But he has his little dream. Like the one were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine would be his equals and respect and revere him...and not at all pants him, mock him, and denounce him as a troubled man.

So watch for 8-28 when he reclaims civil rights...for white people? I don't know...

Bad texting advise from Mitchell and Webb

Another vid from Mitchell and Webb, and BBC Comedy.

Jason Bateman - Prom Date

Bateman gets to team up with his old TV bro Will Arnett for an odd little short promoting Orbit gum.

It is odd, quirky, and a real laugh.

Orbit Dirty Shorts gives us - The Prom Date



We do need more Arrested Development. Or, at least, to bring the cast back together with the writers of the show to do some good comedy.

Being a wonder, Wonder Woman

The top tier of women heroes, and in the top tier of the DC Comic heroes, she doesn't always get the respect she deserves from the fan base. More focus is put on her outfit, her looks, and how she sometimes gets seen as a dominatrix type. Not fair for a character with so much potential.

Here you can find a good list of collected stories of Wonder Woman to get into the character and her continuing story.

DC Women Kicking Ass

And some cool shoots of the warrior and inspiration for plenty of young girls.

She is cool, when written well. A vast pool of potential.

More Mitchell and Webb

Some more from the Comedy pages of BBC.

Pit Ponies - The excitement never ends.


Knobshead Morning Visited - The tricks of the temperature knob and showerhead.

Scientology is not pro-Choice.

There is no choice, only the rules. And the team players will enforce those rules, no matter what you think.

The troubling story of what happens to Sea Org members that become pregnant.

Vid from story.

Reading Orphan Annie?

Have you been reading Little Orphan Annie? Probably not as it has been cancelled from the last of the papers it was carried in. Bye to that era.

Here is what was going on.

Yeah. Held by a Genocidal ex-soldier and lost.  Remind you of the red dressed kid with the dog?

Read more.

Good luck Annie. You will need it.

Conservatives and Feminism

There has been a new push for the idea of this being The Year of the Woman. Cue the fanfare. And it is a little odd as it is not as if women don't win primaries, and then multiple ones. Though this time the newbies are Reps, and that may be why. They are good at getting media to run in their preset rings. This is a push by Reps to push up minority members for government to try and seem more big tent, though we have not seen yet if this is more change or ploy. So we will see, and as we do the media is thrilled to have a new event for the moment to chat up.

This has also been a time that Palin continues to try and put herself up for a role as feminist extraordinare. She doesn't really get what feminism is or feminist are eager to work for. She definitely has no record to prove her claim, other than the one from birth stating she is female.

Is that enough. Femocracy looks at this in a series of post that just started. Look at the feminists and the conservatives.

...

And I've watched as Sarah Palin was first declared the final nail in the coffin of "liberal" feminism, only to pull a 180 and become the reviver of a "new kind" of feminism, as dubbed by the media. After the victories of Nikki Haley, Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman and Sharron Angle, I've watched as women candidates winning became the culmination of feminism's efforts, yet was a "huge blow " to feminism since the outcome helped Republican women. And I've held off writing about it, mainly because the majority of commentators did what the media practically exists to do now, which is to vacillate wildly between extremes with little measured commentary or careful analysis. (I may be biased, but I think the only thoughtful commentary I've read is on websites with a feminist bent, or op-eds by actual feminists, who really focus on these issues and are better positioned to be experts on this sort of thing.) Since this is important to so many women, to the whole country really, I thought it wiser to take a step back, watch it unfold and think about it more deeply. That is, until I read Ross Douthat's column today and decided maybe it's time to formulate my own perspective.

...

Conservative Bad Sportsmanship Olympics

The World Cup is here. Time for some football, or soccer. The varying nationals from across the world are vying to be the winner of the cup. And over the passed so many cups, USA has been in the running, not in the long run, but their is hope.

So with America taking on the world for glory, honor, and bragging rights...you'd think conservatives would be racing to join in. But if you have seen the reaction to the Olympics...their team spirit is meager at best. Hell their Christmas spirit only persists so as to force it on to others.

So the World Cup...not eager? Worse, they are going after it like it has oil it wants.

From Media Matters their is a collection of the attacks, one more loopy then the last.

Beck looks at the World Cup like Obama. Nobody wants it! Go away! We don't like you!  Yeesh! Could Beck be more pissy? The answer is yes, but this is lame. How dare soccer exist! How dare they compete! How dare any American would be involved! But those 3 sentences do fit the opinion of some many of us about Beck.

Liddy (the thief, liar, and advocate of murdering federal agents) calls the game primitive and unAmerican. Meaning lying, thieving, and threatening people's lives is true Americana. And the guest on his show called soccer a game of the violent and unruly.  How much cheaper can you get in trying to imply the lesser humanity of those outside your own borders? This is a lovely look at the face behind the dull mask of conservationism.

And the temp Limbaugh went further down the road of conservative minds declaring soccer the game of the poor. Really. First, huh? American football or baseball, the sport of kings? Hockey, the game of the urban elite?Yeah, many kids who love and play soccer around the world are poor. So? My dad was a poor kid cobbling together a ball to play with, and that makes the game bad? The multitude taking sticks to stand in as the edges of goals are lame? Are the kids finding a stick to act as a bat proof of the lameness of baseball. Or is that part of its greatness?

This is just what conservatives are up to these days. You can't just disagree. You have to hate your opponent. You can't just hate your opponent.  You have to hate and fear everyone not you in the world. And you can't just hate the person you have to hate the sport that there young kid plays and anything and anyone tied to it. There is little that is not sick or messed up with modern conservatism. It is hard to understand how they let themselves get here, or how they can go back to sanity,

BP Fat Cats

Respectful Insolence points to this cute and funny vid:



Those fat cats.

The Cantina just got weirder

Adidas ad using Star Wars.



Hate when the kids come during Spring Break.

That pious reaction to gays

It is odd to see how the more ethical and moral see homosexuality.

Andrew Sullivan:

Here's a charming editorial in the official paper of the Archdiocese of Boston arguing in defense of barring the children of same-sex married couples from Catholic schools. One of the uglier passages:

The third reason is that it seemed a real danger that the boy being raised by the same-sex couple would bring to school something obscene or pornographic, or refer to such things in conversation, as they go along with the same-sex lifestyle, which--as not being related to procreation-- is inherently eroticized and pornographic. He might expose other children to such things, as he might easily have encountered them in his household.

Really? One wonders whether the author has ever spent any time with a married same-sex couple with children. Well, one doesn't wonder. But here's the real kicker:

It was inevitable that either the teacher, or some parent, would deal with the two men in such a way as implicitly to teach my son, or other children in the class, that there is nothing wrong with same-sex relationships. But this is scandal: that is, leading a “little one” astray in some serious matter by the example you set.

Yes, this is what "leading a 'little one' astray" conjures up in the mind of a theocon in the archdiocese once run by pedophile protector - and curia member - Bernard Law. More reaction here.

Abusive priest aren't a problem. The presence of a child aware of how complicated sexuality, love, or family is...a horror.  Lovely.

Then we have our representatives. One congressional chairman, and a Dem, is disturbed about informing kids about gays.  He pondered, "what will mommy and daddy have to say"?  When kids have question...they might need answers...and then then parents will need to teach and share their values and understanding...again...

THE HORROR!!!!

And the idea of sex ed in school where it would be handled and inform kids in a calm and honest manner, that is a HORROR!!! as well.  I can't help but see these people as plain scared of there kids being informed about how other social structures work, or how their own bodies operate.  EEK!

Maybe it is time for them to just say that they are scared of change, differences, and things they do not understand.  Maybe then those with some more compassion can help them out.

David Mitchell and Authenticity

David Mitchell's Soapbox allows him to spend a few minutes wittily discussing things that confuse and vex him, while give us all a laugh.

This week he is troubled by the quest to be authentic.

A Hypatia tale

I do want to see this film, Agora, a nice tale about the historical figure, Hypatia.

Mitchell and Webb hijinks

Here are some humorous vids done by Mitchell and Webb for the BBC.

Almeratron - Less than Meets the Eye




Flightless Bird - Evolution might have been a bad idea.

Whitening America

Roger Ebert wrote a very nice piece considering the new controversy in New Mexico, where a school mural is under attack for having racial diversity.  The attitude of many local residence to the mural and the diversity in town and in school is a sad reminder of how we are truly not in a post racial world.  You see a push is going to whiten the mural and remove all that unnecessary ethnicity.

Ebert gives us some good thoughts to read through and reflect on.

How would I feel if I were a brown student at Miller Valley Elementary School in Prescott, Arizona? A mural was created to depict some of the actual students in the school.

Let's say I was one of the lucky ones. The mural took shape, and as my face became recognizable, I took some kidding from my classmates and a smile from a pretty girl I liked.

My parents even came over one day to have a look and take some photos to e-mail to the family. The mural was shown on TV, and everybody could see that it was me.

Then a City Councilman named Steve Blair went on his local radio talk show and made some comments about the mural. I didn't hear him, but I can guess what he said. ...

Sacrifice the Weatherman!

Armstrong and Miller sketch on the plight of weathermen and the public voice at the BBC.



Text now on sacrificing the weatherman.

Blocking moves

Juan Cole takes note of another attempt to circumvent the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

This time from a Jewish group in Germany.

What I found interesting is how Israel seems to be actively working to prevent Jewish immigration to places like Germany.  It seems strange to try and force everyone of  the Jewish heritage that wants to immigrate to feel obliged to go exclusively to Israel.  Currently the Jewish population of Germany is burgeoning, which seems to trouble officials in Israel.

Seems like a strange attitude.

Astroprank

Great prank at Carleton College in Minnesota.

Turn the observatory into R2D2.

Holmesian Skeptism

Among the enjoyable aspects of the latest variation of Holmes is the maintaining of his skeptical and logical view. As he faces the fear of many that demonic forces are at work, he looks beyond it all to the truth. It is nice to see, as it is in the case of the Baskervilles and of the Sussex Vampire.

Another one I didn't know before now is within the 1944 film, The Scarlet Claw, with Bail Rathbone. He faces an assumed phantom out to ripe the throats of his victims.

Best is how Holmes enters the story. In Quebec, he is meeting an Occult Society. He is talked down to by the groups leader. He is seen as a skeptic. He is closed minded. He won't see the facts. Sound familiar. Holmes takes it all with humor and calm repose. He tries to make clear that he wants to just see facts, as without them there is no reason to believe the idea of the supernatural. And when he is given "proof", that a bell is known to have wrong in a given village, then the next day sheep were found murdered, he is unimpressed. In fact he deduces the events that would follow the tolling bells, heck as a lover of scary stories many of us could. He excepts that the bell did ring. He accepts the sheep were slaughtered. But how that proves the supernatural? Well? That action only confirms the true believers contentions about him.

It shows me why I have loved the character, and like this outing all the more. As Rathbone's Holmes does say, "It is elementary, my dear Watson." A skeptical Holmes is a great Holmes. We need more!

Oz is gonna blacklist you

AMERICAblog notes the changes to access that are coming to Australia.

The government's $128.8 million Cyber Safety policy includes forcing internet service providers to block access to a secret blacklist of website pages...

A new policy to enact a listing that all providers must use. A secret list? Why secret? So people won't complain, or know the focus?

...

Web pages will be nominated for blacklisting by Australian internet users who come across illegal or ''unacceptable'' websites.

...

Great so people will nominate. Almost Athenian. So a site that gets a complaint is all it takes to be wiped from the Aussie net? Wow. How is this considered good?

Sinkhole or Superweapon?

WOW!

It looks like a doctored image, but it is not.

Guatemala City, rain, and sink hole.

And not being able to see the bottom just plays with your head.

So the Silurians striking, the Mole Men in revolt, Mole Man seeking the FF, Darkseid enacting a plan?

Just the environment doing its thing. But always a bit creepy to imagine opening before you or under you.

How she learned to love not being respected.

Hathor Legacy took note of a pretty sad case of a woman who ran afoul of traditional marriage.

See she thought she was "feminist" about her relationship, which she seems to mean she actually expected to be respected, and treated with equality.

...

A female graduate asked to speak about what her time at SCSL meant to her, said she had felt that she was “pretty much all right” when she came to SCSL and came to get closer to god and learn about faith.  “But,” she said, “I used to be kind of a feminist about relationships, because when I was a child, I saw women being weak in relationships and I decided I didn’t want to be like that, and then when I went to the marriage class, I learned how marriage works best when the man is the head and women are submissive and that’s not being weak.”

...

What a great thing marriage classes are. You learn so much, like how to not look your husband in the eyes, and walk behind them. It's just better that way...apparently. I guess some guys will stop hitting you if you do. Not really a good argument.

But it reminds me of so much from conservative thinking. Women should be at home. Women need to focus on kids. No gay families. No birth control. No ability to choose and control what happens with ones (ladies only) body. It is a strange patter, by which I mean troubling. Some in society need to change, for conservatives. And those people (in order of needed change) are women, minorities, men who don't want to "restore" society, Just charming.

It's all just charming.

Newt Gingrich: The Crap Historian and His Friends

Not a historian of crap, I can respect them. But Newt Gingrich, who claims to be a man of knowledge and thought, has proven himself just that a crap historian. I won't comment on his alternate history fiction, as I have never read it. But in dealing with politics he seems to deal with yet another alternate reality. He should leave it in the fiction isle.

But he does not, he peddles it at podiums, on TV, and in the papers. He is so quickly to throw out comparisons to Nazis. Beck does to, but he is an acknowledged twit. Gingrich likes to play as the better man of conservatism.

Gingrich: “The Secular Socialist Machine Represents As Great A Threat To America As Nazi Germany”

Wallace: You also write this on the screen: “The secular socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.” Mr. Speaker, respectfully, isn’t that wildly over the top?

Gingrich: No, not if by America you mean….Just listen to President Obama’s language. He gets to decide who earns how much. He gets to decide when it’s too much.

This is all just crap. Obama decides how much you or I make? Bull. Maybe he's worried about the bonuses of those poor BP execs. Maybe he is scared for the owner of the Massey mines, and his estate. Maybe he is worried about having to pay his own taxes. Pathetic playing up of fears.

And secular socialist? The two chimes of our modern conservatives. Evil secularist, not good Christians. Socialist, not true Capitalist Conservatives. Oh, those banes on us all.

Really, Newt? This is what you peddle. What a sad weasel he is.


PZ Myers has some good thoughts on this lot. Read the quote he has from Sinclair Lewis. It is amazing how apt it is in comparison to today.

...

The book can be summarized in this misattributed quote (Lewis didn't actually say it, but it is a perfect description of our situation):

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

Look at America today, and we're seeing this phenomenon in progress: think tanks, ideologues, and religious fanatics are insistent that we are a Christian nation — when we are most afraid of external threats, what do they do? Entangle the country deeper in the web of the sacred. ...

A wrapped in the flag, with a cross over the shoulder? That is Newt, that is Beck, that is O'Reilly, that is Hannity, and so many others. They cry out for their Christianity, their Christian nation, and their Christian god.
They do harp on and demand special respect for it all...for the sake of all Americans. And when the other is acknowledged, or when faith is not heralded is just the right manner, it is a true state offenses. Ridiculous. And also not new.

Also I like that Myers notes the history that goes along with this religious fervor. Like with the National Day of Prayer, God on money, etc. It is of interest to me as so often I see the pious seek to talk about the various presidential proclamations or Congressional declarations requesting prayers goings back through the centuries. And it is true, these request have been made. But the National Day of Prayers, and other pushes to acknowledge Christianity have come from the likes of the Cold War terror and paranoia, not the wishes of the Founding Fathers, despite some wishes that it were otherwise. These choices made in government during the middle of the 20th century were wrong, made in error and out of fear. Lines were crossed. And for some pious it is a fear they hold as they lay down for the night...the lines may be recrossed...and the country may truly be a secular one, that won't put there interest over that of the whole.

Quack Toon

A funny little comic strip look at the UK Anti-Vax Quack Andrew Wakefield.

The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield

Untraditions

From Cracked.com a list:

6 Supposedly Ancient Traditions (That Totally Aren't)

Thanksgiving, The Pledge, Bushido, etc.

Trouble on the waters: Flotilla edition

Troubling business on the3 way to Gaza. A series of ships were heading to Gaza with the stated claim of giving relief support to an embargoed people. Israel responded poorly to this, and sent forces to stop them. Dropping troops on a ship fighting broke out leave around 19 of those on the ship dead.

Some coverage:

Badass Israel

There is a move to portrait Israeli forces as victims, attacked as they boarded the ship. But the trouble is that the boarded a private ship, in international waters, in violation of no laws. And they boarded armed intent on taking over the ship. They started in the wrong, and proceeded to escalate. 

Videos Of The Raid

Video has been released to show how those aboard acted. And they were definitely violent in reaction to the Israelis. But the Israelis were highly trained, highly disciplined, highly armed, and highly resourced opponents. They had all the advantages. They could sink the ships, knock out there propulsion, tow them off, give political pressure, etc. But they flew out, threatened and dropped down into a throng of angry and resentful folks. They sought a fight, or to scare.

Israel Meets Its Own Fist

The trouble is that Israel wanted to show its strength and resolve. And they have. But it has been in a way that has created disgust and anger in many places around the world. Turkey has now turned upset, as the originator of the ship, and some of its nationals injured. And there is news Americans were aboard and at least one was injured. And the UN will be meeting on this.

It will be curious to see how Israel changes its reaction and stance, and how its allies and enemies as well.