3.24.2008

So True. Oh, so true.

From the always awesome xkcd.com. Although my embarrassing songs would probably be random chapters of various audiobooks...or traditional Christmas music from the Shetland Islands... or 80's hair metal power ballads... or Hungarian folk music done with sitars... or minimalist trance techno. I have some odd music.

3.20.2008

Lane Myer: Ohhhh. Tentacles. N-T. Big Difference

1PM Must've Been Talking about Jellyfish

Visiting sales rep: Wow, that aquarium is really cool! Is it a lot of work?
Desk owner: Thanks. It's not too hard once it's set up for a while.
Visiting sales rep: I've never seen one with all those things with testicles in it before.
Desk owner: [Silence until sales rep obliviously boards elevator.]

75 Battery Street
San Francisco, California

Overheard by: We didn't buy her product.


via Overheard in the Office, Mar 18, 2008

3.18.2008

Obama: I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

I have been avoiding politics lately, mostly because I was fighting off teh killah strep bacteria of pain. So, I've really kinda missed the whole build up of this Obama/Wright (his pastor) brouhaha. But now I'm paying attention and I won't lie, I'm very nervous about Obama's speech. On the one hand I like to see a Democrat who is going to aggressively and substantively attack the skewed narrative of the corporate media. But on the other hand, he is talking about race and racism which is alive and well in America. And unfortunately there is a lot of nuance required to walk that fine line of race discussions in this country. I am worried about the ease with which that nuance can be ignored or twisted. Will the voting public take the time and effort to hear what Obama is saying and embrace it or will they continue to let the corporate media interpret things for them? I fear the latter but hope for the former, because, dayummm, that's one of the best speeches addressing race I've ever heard.

Full text here.

Some commentary:
Firedoglake
Talking Points Memo and TPM Election Central
Daily Kos Open Thread here, here, here and here.

And of course Glenn Greenwald exposes how badly the corporate media is about discussing this kind of issue here.

And Clinton or a Clinton surrogate belittling this speech in 3...2...1...

Update: One thing that went through my mind after seeing this speech was, "Who the hell are Obama's speech writers? Whoever they are they are awesome and deserve a raise." According to one source the name of the speech writer is Barack Obama. Other people are beginning to comment on this although I haven't seen any sources other than Marc Ambinder. Something else, it seems that he has 3 speech writers, the oldest of whom is 30.

3.12.2008

Reason # 5975 why Clinton is unacceptable

Seriously, Ickes, you're right, those states are never going to switch...UNLESS YOU FIGHT FOR THEM. Dumbass.
clipped from www.nytimes.com

“Most of those states haven’t voted Democratic in a presidential since the Johnson landslide over Goldwater in 1964, and we don’t see that changing,” said Harold Ickes, a senior adviser to Mrs. Clinton. “They’re great states, but Idaho, Nebraska and the Carolinas are not going to be in the Democratic column in November. He’s winning the Democratic process, but that is virtually irrelevant to the general election.”

 blog it

3.11.2008

Hallelujeh and why Grunge failed

A pretty interesting albeit somewhat rambling discussion of the progression of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujeh which evolves into a discussion of the pop significance of "The OC" and why Grunge and other "indie" rock movements don't stay true.

3.07.2008

3.03.2008

Stabby

I wouldn't say I'm a "good" feminist. I haven't read many books on the subject and sometimes I have a hard time with the rhetoric used. But I definitely reject most of the "men are better at X than women" and even more so the "men are smarter than women" arguments. So imagine my disgust when I read this craptastic opinion piece in the Sunday Washington Post. I don't have time to destroy the piece point by point, I'll let Jezebel do that here and Feministing here, but I will say two things.

First, once again the Washington Post exposes itself as the pathetic, lame, dare I say it, right-wing publication that it is. Ok, ok, that's over the top. The most egregious instances occur on the opinion page and there are occasionally more progressive pieces, but... I'm just saying this piece would have been more appropriate in some right wing religiousy publication, maybe the Washington Times.

Second, hey, Charlotte Allen, project much? Just because you have bought into the theory that women are less intelligent than men, maybe in an attempt to explain your own shortcomings, doesn't mean all women are inferior. Yeesh, do you pull the knife out of womankind's back cleanly or do you relish twisting it as well?