JOURNAL: ANECDOTES: CHILDHOOD: Chaotic evil taco salad experience

So one time in 7th grade (1986-87, age 12-13), I was eating the school lunch, which was taco salad that day. I always loved school lunches… Especially the taco salad and Salisbury steak. Anyway, I ate off a chip that was WAY TOO BIG.

OH NOES! The chip was cutting my throat from the inside. I could feel it. It was stuck. I’m pretty damn sure that if someone were to punch me in the throat at that moment — that my throat would be slit internally. Whether this would sever my jugular or not was immaterial to me — I knew I’d probably die if my throat was cut from the inside.

 

CLINT’S TIPS: How To Fall Asleep When You Can’t

My friends who have seen me pass out and take naps at parties (and in public) probably wouldn’t consider me an insomniac… But that’s because I always have some sort of bloodstream assistance to help me out in those situations. Give me sobriety, and I’ll show you someone who can’t fall asleep and rarely gets more than 5 hours in a night regardless of how many nights in a row that is. And that sleep is always interrupted every 2-3 hours. Oh, I can nap sometimes. But they’re short. And I get increasing energy throughout the day. Bedtime is my most energetic time of the day, it seems. Even if I only slept 2 hours, after being up for 20 hours, I will be at my highest energy point before bed. Unless bloodstream modification is involved. So I present:

HOW TO FALL ASLEEP WHEN YOU CAN’T:

For me, falling asleep means that I must occupy my mind enough to get bored. It can’t be occupied with critical thought, or the act of thinking will keep me awake and excited. Nor can it be occupied with the absence of thought, as the boredom drives me crazy. Nor can I sit in silence, as every sound that causes a variance in the silence will shoot my body full of adrenaline. (I’ve covered my hatred of silence previously.) Thus, I usually listen to music. But music isn’t always enough; sometimes I zone out and don’t pay enough attention to it for it to occupy me enough to fall asleep. Reading works okay, but the act of turning out the light once I’m tired enough to fall asleep usually wakes me right back up.

So here is my tried and true tactic, one which has only failed 0-1 times in my entire life:

Count backwards from 100 to zero, SPELLING OUT the numbers. Basically, in your mind, you “say” the following, one letter at a time:

N-I-N-E-T-Y N-I-N-E
N-I-N-E-T-Y E-I-G-H-T
N-I-N-E-T-Y S-E-V-E-N
N-I-N-E-T-Y S-I-X
N-I-N-E-T-Y F-I-V-E
N-I-N-E-T-Y F-O-U-R
N-I-N-E-T-Y T-H-R-E-E
N-I-N-E-T-Y T-W-O
N-I-N-E-T-Y O-N-E
E-I-G-H-T-Y
E-I-G-H-T-Y N-I-N-E
E-I-G-H-T-Y E-I-G-H-T
E-I-G-H-T-Y S-E-V-E-N
E-I-G-H-T-Y S-I-X
E-I-G-H-T-Y F-I-V-E
E-I-G-H-T-Y F-O-U-R
E-I-G-H-T-Y T-H-R-E-E
E-I-G-H-T-Y T-W-O
E-I-G-H-T-Y O-N-E
etc etc

Repeating the letters almost becomes a meditative mantra. But I know if I were to literally just think a mantra over and over — I would get BORED AS HELL, and the boredom would wake me up. I need to be OCCUPIED, but not CRITICALLY OCCUPIED. This is the perfect balance. You only need to change the first half (N-I-N-E-T-Y to E-I-G-H-T-Y) every 10 numbers. And the second half gets repetitive as well, but only 10 numbers later. Just wait til you get to S-E-V-E-N-T-Y-S-E-V-E-N,S-E-V-E-N-T-Y-S-I-X. That’s one of the most tiring parts of the 100.

Typically if I don’t employ any aids, I can spend an hour or more trying to sleep, then saying “screw this” and getting up and getting on the computer.  But I’m usually too tired to use that time wisely, I just putz around. Just having to clear my throat will transform me from falling asleep, to not able to sleep for another 10 minutes. In fact, it’s a challenge to fall asleep before my throat gets so dry I must clear it, and before drinking the water to stop the incessant throat-clearing makes me need to get up and pee. It can be a maddening cycle.

The backwards counting-while-spelling REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY works well. If I have ever made it to 0, it has only been once, but I wasn’t sure if it really happened (thus my “0-1″ failures listed above). I only make it below F-I-F-T-Y maybe 50% of the time. And you can always start over if you really reach to 0.

So try this trick next time. Did it work work better than counting sheep, or other tricks? This trick is tailored to my brain, but even Carolyn has used it to success before.

Happy sleeping!

 

CLINT’S TIPS: The medicinal value of Wendys Frosties

An important tip to share with anyone who is just had oral surgery, or possibly some teeth removed:

Wendys Frosties have high medicinal value!
Wendys Frosties have high medicinal value!
Wendys Frosties have high medicinal value!
Wendys Frosties have high medicinal value!

 

links for 2009-07-01

• MOVIES: Digg and Mininova Team Up to Seed Bruno extra content
  Get it here. Legal and direct from the creators.
  (tags: media video movies SachaBaronCohen Bruno p2p bittorrent Mininova digg extras mockumentary Q&A)
• PHOTOGRAPHERS' RIGHTS (TECHNOLOGYWAR): MTA employee sues city for $1 million after being arrested for taking pictures
  Not only was he arrested for something that is not a crime, but he works for the transit authority, and TOLD the police that photographing subways is legal.

  But they held him anyway.

  This is why we need lawsuits. Without paying, police will do whatever they want — even when it means arresting someone for a non-crime.

  (tags: politics Photographers'Rights photographers pictures TechnologyWar technology cameras subways trains MTA RobertTaylor lawsuits YourTaxDollarsAtWork arrests charges dismissed NewYorkCity Bronx NewYork NewYorkDailyNews news articles)
• COMEDY: nerd tombstone
  Does the monitor do anything? I'd love a solar-powered data-driven tombstone :)
  (tags: comedy nerd tombstones Haluze pictures)

 

links for 2009-06-30

• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Now-fired Leon County Deputy Mark Thompson's defense for almost beating his wife to death — get this
  Judge is asked to believe that in order to "defend himself and to remove the gun from his homicidal/ suicidal wife” Mark Thompson had to handcuff her, drag her across the floor, break two bones in her arm, break both of her eye sockets by punching her face repeatedly, crush her spleen to the point it had to be surgically removed, kick her up and down her body leaving multiple bruises.

  Anyone believe him? I sure as hell don't. His department fired him, so it seems like nobody else does either. Wow. What a scumbag. He's using "police logic", where you beat someone to help them.

  Police are 4 times more likely to commit domestic violence.

  And if he was so innocent — why did he threaten to kill himself during the police standoff to arrest him? Maybe the cops should have beat him just as badly to prevent him from killing himself? Haha.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority police beatings domesticViolence LeonCounty MarkThompson injuries brokenArm brokenEyeSockets EyeSockets spleen surgery hospitalized bullshit legal defenses standoffs)
• DRUGS: Study shows 1 in 25 deaths worldwide attributable to alcohol
  Wow. That IS a lot.
  (tags: alcohol drugs deaths research CentreForAddictionAndMentalHealth CAMH Canada Toronto E!ScienceNews news articles)
• CORPORATIONS: Wal-Mart finds a legal way to block Canadian union
  Wal-Mart hates its employees unionizing. They've gone as far as to close stores to prevent unionizing of its employees. We're not talking huge unions — we're talking one-store unions.

  Basically, the existing union is dissolved because, while Wal-Mart stalled things for years, the labor laws have changed. Nice legal wrangling from a huge corporation that tramples on many rights just to give us slightly lower prices. (Remember the pickle story?)

  (tags: politics corporations Wal-Mart unions legal Canada Weyburn legalWrangling workers laborLaws)
• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: King County deputy Paul Schene, who beat 15yo girl in holding cell, could face federal charges
  She threw a sneaker at him and was charged with 3rd degree assault.
  He pounced on her, kicked her, punched her, dragged her down by the hair, planted his knee in her back, and punched her a couple more times and was charged with 4th degree assault.

  Fancy that?
  But the Justice Department has intervened, and will not allow his plea bargain.

  This guy also shot a mentally ill man 11 times in the back during a traffic stop, and has been stopped for driving wile drunk and on prescriptions.

  Let's hope he fries.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority CaughtOnVideo ThinBlueLine beatings teenagers brutality police policeBrutality excessiveForce unnecessaryForce CarlosMiller blog articles PaulSchene KingCounty JosephPellegrini shootings assault 3rdDegreeAssault 4thDegreeAssault)
• ISRAEL: Israel ignores Obama demands, permits 50 new settlement homes, with plans to steal another 139 sq km from Palestine territory
  Yup. 40 years after the illegal 1967 borders that are still not recognized by international law, Israel is still expanding and stealing more land from the Palestinians. Terrorism or not, they wont ever stop, because religion tells them that God promised this holy land to them.
  (tags: politics Israel Palestine settlements Judaism Jews Muslims Arabs Islam religion WestBank landGrabs Al-Jazeera news articles)
• CONCERTS: Clint's SongKick.com gigography
  Phew! Finally finished converting my list of all concerts I've ever been to ( http://clint.sheer.us/media/concerts.htm ) into my songkick profile. It's completely redundant, but it's nice to have a social angle. Carolyn has created a profile and can simply go through my list and click "I was there" on the concerts she was it.

  Songkick is pretty good. I'd recommend anyone who goes to concerts sign up at this site. I learned things about shows in the past I never knew. I forgot venues, I forgot dates. This site saved me in those cases!

  (tags: media music concerts Songkick Clint gigography)

 

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Strange Brew aka The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew (1983)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] What?! Carolyn hasn’t seen it? Even as a non-alcoholic kid, I thought this was something *everybody* had seen.

PEOPLE: The two main characters/writers/directors are Rick Moranis (who most people know, tho this was his *debut*) and Dave Thomas (who’s surprisingly been in Weeds, The Simpsons, Arrested Development, King Of The Hill, Justice League, Mission Hill, That 70’s Show, Duckman, Animaniacs, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, SCTV).

QUIRKS: Technically a spinoff of SCTV, which laid the foundation for much of the comedy we watch today. (Larry David, Michael Richards, etc.)

POLITICS: Drink beer!
MORALS: Drink beer! Mind control is bad!

EXTRAS: Get the DVD. There’s an failed animated pilot for a Strange Brew animated series! Unfortunately they hadn’t caught on that they should probably sell this to AdultSwim, and not the “Saturday Morning Cartoon people”. If I was a trillionaire, I’d totally fund this. This series was eventually produced, and was quite funny!

BAD STUFF: Low production values and a bit dated. Some people might find the humor a bit corny. It’s not cutting-edge. Think of them as Cheech & Chong, but with alcohol instead of marijuana, and Canada instead of America/Mexico (yes I know Chong is actually asian. Have you seen his wife? Smokin’. And pretty funny.)

CONCLUSION: This is a great movie; an iconic classic. It should be as well-known as Cheech & Cong, Animal House, Revenge Of The Nerds, and other such “wasted”-comedy that was pouplar in 1983.

RECOMMENDATION: I consider this a basic film staple that most people would have seen. If you haven’t seen it — see it. It’s THE iconic 1980s beer-drinking caper comedy.

And if you saw it again, but can’t whistle the song that makes the hockey people go crazy and fight (I could)… It’s time you need to see this again.

ANECDOTES: The movie was a re-run to me last time I watched it, not in 2009, but in 1994, on the Virginia Tech campus. With Dan, and Chris Holm, among others. Beer was bonged (I did not participate in that, but did drink). Dramamine was taken to prevent puking (I never puke anyway). People had to vomit. I had to help them find the bathroom. This may have been the time people crawled under the seats, left the movie, and passed out on the hill by the ROTC dorm. I had the pleasure of watching Dan vomit into his mouth and then swallow it, since he was sitting in the movie seat next to me. I bet he would deny this. Then he walked around with a bit on his face. The best part was when he said Hi to girls that walked by. Good times! But Carolyn missed out, so she really needed to see the movie. Too bad it couldn’t be as chaotic as our glory days.

MOVIE QUOTE: Doug McKenzie: “Yeah. OK, well, uh, we found, uh, this mouse in a bottle of YOUR BEER, eh. Like, we was at a party and, uh, a friend of ours – a COP – had some, and HE PUKED. And he said, uh, come here and get free beer or, uh, he’ll press charges.”
It’s safe to say Beavis & Butt-head probably had some influence from this movie. At the very least, I would think Mike Judge a fan of Strange Brew.

COINCIDENCES: (The Girl Who Lept Through Time, Strange Brew) Two movies in a row where written on a chalkboard/wall is the phrase, “Time waits for no one/man.” So the Japanese translation changed “man” to “one”. Same difference. First coincidence of 2009!

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Glen hated it. Predictable.

 

links for 2009-06-29

• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Officer Tony Pirone called Oscar Grant "bitch-ass nigger" TWICE before Officer Johannes Mehserle shot him dead in front of hundreds.
  What excuse did Tony Pirone given to the courtroom? That Oscar Grant (black) called Tony Prione (white) a "bitch-ass nigger" first — and he was merely "parroting" it. Twice. Before holding him down and having him shot to death.

  Are there really people who are capable of believing such bullshit? A man was summarily executed in front of people while sitting down and surrounded by cops. Cops who used language that nobody in the public sector should ever use. (Or people in private, for that matter!)

  Anyone who takes issue with me using it — It happened, and I'm not going to censor it, because the full weight of the situation needs to sink in. THIS HAPPENED, and it's fucked up.

  At least it's one of the rare cases where an officer is actually charged with murder. But you can be damn sure that the only reason that happened is due to people's cell-phone videos. If they did this in a dark alleyway, they'd get away with it. 100%. These are some of the lowest scum in our society.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority police shootings murders OscarGrant JOHANNESMEHSERLE TonyPirone CaughtOnVideo nigger racism excessiveForce court testimony Bart Subway SanFrancisco California SFGate news articles)
• MUSIC: TSRocks
  A good lyric website that automatically tries to load a YouTube video of whatever song you are viewing the lyrics too. This is how I found out a bunch of The Church videos were on YouTube [they weren't when I searched for them 6 months ago].
  (tags: music lyrics videos musicVideos YouTube TSRocks)
• OVERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENTS: Wife sues after Offiocer Paul Carrier shoots and kill unarmed Roy Glenn Jr. looking for drugs that he didn't have
  Yup. Running from the police is NOT a crime that carries the death penalty.
  Police can only shoot if they feel threatened — much like civilians.
  This guy was running away. Not a threat.
  They say the police yelled "where's the drugs?" before shooting him.

  No drugs were found.

  (tags: politics WarOnDrugs police shootings deaths murders OverlyHarshPunishments AbuseOfAuthorioty brutality excessiveForce policeBrutality lawsuits drugs freedom RoyGlenn RoyGlennJr. PaulCarrier Humboldt California JacksonSun news articles)
• SEXUAL FREEDOM/CENSORSHIP: Scottish gay activists arrested over 'sodomy' sign, T-shirt
  So an "I love sodomy" t-shirt is grounds for arrest?
  You gotta love what religion has done for sexual freedom over the past few thousand years.

  It is a shame people are still being prevented from fulfilling their natural nature, due to obscenity laws made in the name of a god that doesn't exist.

  (tags: politics SexualFreedom censorship religion sex freedom Scotland Edinburgh QueerMutiny arrests sodomy FreedomOfSpeech speech PrideSource news articles)
• RELIGION: Thousands of haredim protest opening of J'lem parking lot
  How dare you open a parking lot on a day the sky fairy says you should not! START THE RIOT!

  Now… these are riots caused by religious beliefs. Can the absence of religious beliefs cause riots like this? If so, how?

  (tags: politics religion Judaism Jews riots parkingLots Sabbath protests police protesters Shabbat Jerusalem Israel JPost news articles)

 

links for 2009-06-28

• MUSIC: The Church: MUSIC VIDEOS: stevekilbey2's Channel
  A seemingly (but you never know) official channel of videos from The Church.

  Just in time for us to watch before today's concert :)

  (tags: media audio music video musicVideos bands TheChurch YouTube channels)
• THIN BLUE LINE: Lying NYC cop Henry Tavarez admits to faking report and trying to frame 2 men for cocaine — faces a mere 5 days in jail
  5 days? FIVE FUCKING DAYS?

  Why is it that conspiracy to commit a crime gives the same sentence as the actual crime? If you just talk about getting cocaine, even with no drugs being found, you can spend SEVERAL YEARS in a federal penitentiary.

  Yet when an officer tries to lie and get people put in jail for years — he only faces 5 days?

  This pretty much sends a message to cops: Lie all you want when falsely arresting people. You wont really get in much trouble if you're caught.

  wow.

  (tags: politics ThinBlueLine policeState liars HenryTavarez WarOnDrugs drugs freedom cocaine NewYorkCity NewYorkPoliceDepartment CaughtOnVideo)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: The Internet Helps Iran Silence Activists
  As I've said before… Technology is an excellent enabler, but an even better oppressor. East Germany could not control the communications of their people nearly as easily as Iran… And we have the internet to thank for that.

  Think twice before you support internet censorship in the name of porn, child porn, or identity theft. Having the government have final say over everything you read and do is NOT good. Let Iran serve as a lesson here.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar technology internet censorship government Iran EastGermany Germany Slsahdot news articles oppression corporations Nokia Siemens freedom DeepPacketInspection privacy communications connectivity BigBrother Slate Slashdot)
• RELIGION: Still More Things Atheists Didn't Do
  No amount of good makes up for things like that. Amazingly, secular people don't run into any of these situations.
  (tags: politics religion Chrisitans Christianity Jews Judaism Muslims Islam Jehova'sWitnesses Hinduism Hindus killings violence pedophiles children molestation negligence torture SexualFreedom gay exorcisms downings starved shootings blinded stabbings lists)

 

links for 2009-06-27

• CENSORSHIP: Australia to ban all adult online games, inluding Second Life
  SecondLife isn't even necessarily an adult game — it's just a second… life-life-life. NASA, companies, many things have a presence in second life. There are adult areas, just like in real life. Australia is effectively saying that life is illegal when experienced on a computer.

  Way to go. Internet censorship for all.

  (tags: politics censorship internet SecondLive Australia games blacklists MinisterForCensorship adultGames videoGames SecondLife)
• THOUGHTCRIME: Tennessee man charged in 'virtual pornography' case
  No children were hurt. He merely placed the heads of children onto the bodies of adults. How is that even pedophilia? Some people have young faces. Children do not have adult bodies. This is not explotiation.

  One was Hannah Montana, lol. She's 16, which is old enough for consent in many states. (But not Tennessee.)

  This has nothing to do with any exploitation of children whatsoever. This is pure thought crime — you thought something the government doesn't like, so you're going to jail.

  (tags: politics thoughtCrime BigBrother WontSomebodyPleaseThinkOfTheChildren? Tennessee aggravatedSexualExploitation children ChildPorn childpornography HannahMontana MileyCyrus CNN news articles)
• CENSORSHIP: UK Ministry of Defence blocks Wikileaks
  Of *course* the government wants to control what you can see and read! I'd argue they all do; some just go farther. Internet blacklists are pushed out using child porn as an excuse, but the end result is censorship.

  You gotta love the B.S. War In Iraq being used as an excuse!

  Cat's out of the bag. Anyone who cares has those manuals. You can't put the cat back in the bag.

  (tags: politics censorship internet UK Wikileaks MinistryOfDefence leaks WarInIraq Iraq manuals military)

 

links for 2009-06-26

• WAR ON DRUGS: VICTORY: Strip Search of Junior High Girl for Ibuoprofen Unconstitutional, Supreme Court Rules
  And it only took 5.5 yrs for justice. She's 18 now. She had this hanging over her her entire public school career.

  No shit — strip-searching children for ibuprofen is just fucking ridiculous. Safford Middle School is full of assholes. Kerry Wilson should be fired, and move to Saudi Arabia.

  Of course, SCOTUS reversed a lower ruling saying the officials who actually did this are liable. It's funny how "just following orders" was not deemed acceptable in Nazi concentration camps, but it's deemed acceptable in America. From the CIA agents or waterboarded people repeatedly, to strip-searching school officials, "just following orders" seems to be a valid excuse in America.

  Thank yo ACLU!

  (tags: politics WarOnDrugs victories drugs freedom children searches 4thAmendment FourthAmendment stripSearches legal rulings SCOTUS SupremeCourt Arizona SaffordUnitedSchoolDistrict SaffordUnitedSchoolDistrictV.Redding SavanaRedding honorRoll honorStudents students teenagers Ibuprofen KerryWilson humiliation 9thCircuitCourtOfAppeals unconstitutional ConstitutionalRights rights SaffordUnifiedSchoolDistrict SaffordMiddleSchool Safford JustFollowingOrders immunity ACLU StopTheDrugWar DRCNet news articles)
• UNDERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENTS: Officer T.O. Dudley shoots moving vehicle in front of school IN VIOLATION OF POLICY, then LIES ABOUT IT to investigators
  If you shot illegally, and lied about it to the judge — you'd be charged and sentenced.

  But when a cop does it? 20 day suspension.

  And of course the Fraternal Order Of Police says he should be trained, instead of suspended?

  So is the Fraternal Order Of Police, through their mouthpiece Paul Daragjati, are implying that a) cops aren't trained, or b) it's okay to lie? Do not donate to this corrupt organization!

  You lie in official capacity? You should be fired. He should be charged with filing a false police report, too. Fuck you, T.O. Dudley.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority UnderlyHarshPunishments police shootings T.O.Dudley suspensions FraternalOrderOfPolice apologism PaulDaragjati schools violation policyViolation ProvidenceSchool Jacksonville Florida news articles lies liars TechnologyWar)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: Australian Web Filter To Censor Downloaded Games
  This is the technological equivalent to your mailman opening up EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF YOUR MAIL, to make sure you aren't receiving illegal items in the mail.

  This is the technological equivalent to recording EVERY PHONE CALL and running it by automated scans to see if you are talking about terrorism.

  This is the technological equivalent of going into your library and removing books they don't want you to read.

  But few will probably understand or realize this. Don't let the boogeyman of child porn and identity theft trick you into thinking internet blacklists are a good thing. They aren't. Ever.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar technology internet freedom censorshiop Australia AustraliaCommunicationsMinistry filters blacklists ElectronicFrontiersAustralia games videoGames Slashdot news articles)
• MUSIC: Screeching Weasel/The Ramones – Beat Is On The Brat (1998) – Ramones tribute album by Screeching Weasel
  One of my favorite punk bands, Screeching Weasel, did an Ramones tribute album. Actually — tracks 12 and 15-18 aren't Ramones coves.

  Strangely, even though I'm a big Ramones fan … I tend to like Ramones songs better as performed by Screeching Weasel.

  (tags: media music bands ScreechingWeasel Ramones TheRamones albums covers tributeAlbums BeatIsOnTheBrat)

 

MUSIC VIDEO: D.O.A. – Police Brutality – from their 2009 album Northern Avenger

Not only is D.O.A. one of my favorite punk bands… But their latest album has a song, Police Brutality, that is relevant to what I frequently post about!

Buy their new album, Northern Avenger, at Sudden Death Records.

And D.O.A.: Please get over your fear of touring on the east cost! We need to see you here! Stop touring in Canada in California only! I want to go!!

 

links for 2009-06-25

• COMEDY: World Of Warcraft kid freaks out when his mom cancels his account
  To be fair, his character just hit level 80.

  Even if this is fake, it's kind of funny.

  (tags: comedy media video reality games videoGames MMORPGs WorldOfWarcraft CollegeHumor freakingOut teenagers)
• COPYRIGHT: HYPOCRITES: If Downloading A Song Is Just Like Stealing A CD, Why Won't The RIAA Allow Reselling MP3s?
  DAMN good point. You can resell your CD — though the record stores did of course fight used CD sales and try to band them. But First Sale Doctrine says that once you buy something, it's yours, and nobody can tell you what to do with it. This was established long ago, back when copylords tried to stop the resale of books.

  So why can't you resell an mp3 you legally bought? Especially since the RIAA says that an unauthorized download is just like stealing a cd?

  It's funny how their logic changes. It's like a CD if you download it illegally, but it's not like a CD when you want to resell it. Hypocrites must die.

  (tags: politics copyright RIAA media music mp3s FirstSaleDoctrine hypocrisy used CDs intellectualProperty GeekPolitics Techdirt articles)
• POLITICS: New batch of Nixon tapes released
  I wonder if as many people would think he was a scumbag if he wasn't impeached?

  He sounds like a racist, intolerant, homophobic bastard. Ahh, Republicans.

  (tags: politics NixonAdministration tapes released RichardNixon VietnamWar Vietnam war intolernace republicans racism sexism GeorgeH.W.Bush GeorgeBush LATimes news articles)
• 911: Architects & Engineers For 9/11 Truth
  I hadn't heard about these guys.
  (tags: 911 architects engineers activism)
• CARTOONS: Sons of Butcher (TV series)
  If anyone knows where to get Season 2… Let me know…
  I haven't watched Season 1 yet, but it looks very promising: obscure Canadian adult cartoon created by a "mock rock" band.
  (tags: media video TV shows cartoons Canada SonsOfButcher music bands)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR/OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Cyber Security Czar Front-Runner No Friend of Privacy
  Yay, the Democrats are so much better than the Republicans! Rah rah! Our team will win!

  (That was sarcasm.) (And yes, I realize this guy is a Republican. But if Obama is planning to appoint a pro-Bush Administration-wiretapping person to be in charge of protecting our privacy… It looks like we got another thing coming.)

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar technology privacy Democrats republicans ObamaAdministration TomDavis Virginia Wired news articles government BarackObama security cyberSecurityCzar)
• OVERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENTS: 2 UK women jailed for 4 days for asking officer for their badge number
  …which they are required to give. But didn't. Bullshit charges filed, which were of course dropped. But that didn't stop the police from taking away 8 days or freedom from law-abiding citizens using b.s. charges. No judge, no jury, no sentence — the cops get to do it all, here.
  (tags: politics OverlyHarshPunishments AbuseOfAuthority UK police bullshit charges dropped arrests FITwatch surveillance CaughtOnVideo EmilyApple ValSwaine Kingsnorth Guardian news articles)
• iPhone: A Polished Turd
  An extremely tech-savvy friend's recount of his experiences owning an iPhone.
  (tags: hardware phones cellPhones iPhone DanielHagan blog reviews)
• UNDERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENTS: If you illegally entered someone's house and tasered them 4 times — you'd go to jail, right?
  If you're an off-duty cop doing it in a way that even your department finds is a violation of policy — you get a 20 day suspension. No jail. No charges.

  It must be great to be above the law. Sgt. Bryan Selzer of Jacksonville, Florida, sounds like a real asshole.

  (tags: politics UnderlyHarshPunishments ThinBlueLine policeBrutality off-duty tasers taserings excessiveForce brutality polie BryanSelzer suspensions Jacksonville Florida inconsistentStatements News4Jax news articless)
• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Domestic abuse victim beaten, hospitalized, accuses Logan deputies of setting house, car on fire in retaliation
  There are so many different things wrong with this!
  West Virginia seems to have some backwater good ol' boy cops. Like Deputy Jeffery Robinette and "Deputy Carter".

  And as usual, when police beat someone, they often file charges against the person they beat, to cover their ass in court. And such charges are almost always dropped, like they were in this case.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority OverlyHarshPunishments police brutality ContemptOfCop badgeNumbers excessiveForce domesticAbuse domesticAbuseVictims arson lawsuits Logan Charleston WestVirginia BrendaWilliamson deputies JefferyRobinette DeputyCarter RandyVinson AidaSloan choked chokings cameras hospitalized beatings bullshit charges obstruction ObstructionOfJustice disorderlyConduct dismissed complaints retaliation LoganCounty LoganCountySheriff'sDepartment WestVirginiaRecord news articles)

 

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: The Girl Who Lept Through Time aka Toki o kakeru shojo (2006)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] The first movie we watched in 2009. After noticing we had hardly watched any anime in 2008 (2-5 movies, 0 series), we decided to kick off the new year with an anime movie.

QUIRKS: Time travel. Anime.

BAD STUFF: Like most anime, the middle is good, and the ending is unsatisfying.

CONCLUSION: Generic pass. If I could, I’d rate it like 2.5-2.75 stars on Netflix, so it will scrape by with 3 stars via rounding up. 5-6/10 on IMDB. Just another anime. This is why I don’t watch anime. Carolyn says it was more interesting than the average anime. With the time travel, it definitely was. But there were no huge robots or tentacle-laden monsters raping women until they explode. It was basically a highschool romance anime, with a sci-fi angle.

RECOMMENDATION: See it if you like highschool romance animes. If you’re only watching it for time travel, it will be kind of disappointing.

MOVIE QUOTE: “Time waits for no one.”

 

links for 2009-06-24

• HEALTH: American Health Insurers Revoke Policies Retroactively To Avoid Paying High Costs
  And we're the only "civilized" society to treat our people like this. I swear, America values life less than most countries. We've dropped nukes, we start unnecessary wars, we kill more civilians than any terrorist organization. And we let our own people die in the name of corporate profit. (then we bail out corporations that don't profit enough, but that's another story)
  (tags: politics health medicine USA insurance HouseEnergyAndCommerceCommittee capitalism corporations recession retroactive cancelations healthInsurance Congress CEOs)
• SCIENCE: Human Brains Make Their Own 'Marijuana'
  Interesting.
  (tags: science drugs brains marijuana biology ScienceDaily news articles Brazil)
• SEXUAL FREEDOM: Seme-Sex Marriage Debate Flowchart
  neat!
  (tags: politics SexualFreedom sex marriage gay debates flowCharts)
• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: COP ON COP: Bad cop Jason Jones arrested for beating his estranged policewoman wife (lost hearing in 1 year) who had another man with him
  If this story sounds familiar — You're right. I basically posted the same story with different people 2 days ago!

  Hot off the heels of Athony Abbate only getting probation for drunkely beating a bartender, we have TWO incidents in Chicago TWO days apart where TWO different male cops broke into TWO different estranged wives' houses, pistolwhipping TWO different policemen (this time it was his wife, last time it was his wife's "guest") such that they needed surgery, because they dared to have another man over. SWINE TESTERONE.

  How can 2 stories so similar come out just 2 days apart? The obvious answer is that Chicago police are very corrupt, and this type of thing happens all the time — even with non police.

  But keep in mind that studies have shown domestic violence is MUCH MUCH MUCH higher among police. They think their job is to kick ass and take names later. It's not. They are subject to the same law as the rest of us.

  Until we get them under control, our freedom is arbitrary.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority policeBrutality copOnCop brutality police beatings excessiveForce pistolWhipped Chicago arrests injuries JasonJones aggravatedDomesticBattery battery CookCounty lostHearing pistolWhippings)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR/COPYRIGHT: VICTORIES: Norwegian Lawyers Must Stop Chasing File Sharers
  Yay! Victory! No more RIAA-style litigation allowed in Norway.

  Privacy > Artists.

  In private, people are going to break laws. They're gonna grow pot — does this mean we search every home for pot plants?

  I xeroxed books and copied cassettes in the 80s. Is the government going to watch every xeroxed page, and retain data on every copied cassette?

  Just because it's possible to do something similar with the internet, doesn't make it right. And using the artists is just an excuse; that extra money goes to the corporation, it doesn't go to the artists unless it is the artist themselves suing.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar technology freedom internet privacy IPaddresses legal rulings victories surveillance SuddenOutbreakOfCommonSense p2p fileSharing dataProtectionDepartment ISPs Slashdot news articles intellectualProperty copyright GeekPolitics)
• RELIGION: Let's try to look at the Holy Bible as though we have never seen it before
  definitely worth a laugh
  (tags: politics religion HolyBible Christians Christianity funny comedy satire)
• MUSIC: Misfits (new Misfits, not "The" Misfits) hospitality rider
  "Pity they didn't ask for at least one box of 'still being a good band'."

  Amusing! Thanks, Ian.

  (tags: media audio music bands Misfits riders hospitality amusing fromIanB)
• CARTOONS: FUTURAMA: The real truth about Bender
  Informative.
  (tags: media video TV shows cartoons Futurama characters Bender robots comicBooks comics StartlingComics)

 

links for 2009-06-23

• MUSIC: THE CHURCH: Boston-Phoenix > Music Features > Cult classic – The Church need you to come to their party
  Another article about The Church, who we are seeing live very very soon now.
  (tags: media audio music bands TheChurch BostonPhoenix articles)
• SEX: 25% of South African men are rapists, according to survey
  “It’s getting kind of rapey in here. Let’s go tour some other country, honey.”
  (tags: sex rape surveys SouthAfrica rapists WTF gender)
• IPHONE: Apple bans Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone
  Ahh, the joys have owning hardware that has a nanny company tell you what you can and cannot do with it. The Apple crowd has succeeded in making most of society’s portable devices be controlled by a central authority.

  Imagine if everyone wanted a certain brand of TV, and the company that made that TV got to choose which shows you want.

  There’s really no difference between the 2 situations. But somehow the Apple crowd eats the iPhone up.

  Yea, it does some neat stuff. But any device that cannot live up to its potential — cannot truly live up to its hype, either.

  (tags: hardware phones cellPhones iPhone Apple corporations TechnologyWar technology freedom Commodore64 emulators software)
• WAR IN IRAQ: Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq
  As if we didn’t know this already — but hopefully this will help put a nail in the coffin of people who are still, do this day, screaming “Iraq had WMDs! The war was justified!”

  The only possible justification for the Iraq war would be to remove Saddam, something we promised the Iraqis when the 1st Bush invaded Iraq the first time. Then we left our “allied” forces in the dust to be killed by Saddam’s forces, and let sanctions kill millions of Iraqis over the next decade. Real nice.

  (tags: politics WarInIraq GeorgeW.Bush GeorgeBush BushAdministration TonyBlair confidential records meetings UnitedNations UN Iraq war Guardian news articles provocation WMDs SaddamHussein UK GordonBrown)
• WAR ON TERROR: US court frees innocent Guantanamo prisoner who was tortured and held by Taliban for 18 months
  And after the Taliban held him for 18 months, we held him for 7 yrs. Who did more evil against him? The US, not the Taliban. Who denied his rights longer? The US, not the Taliban. It’s amazing that there are still people out there who support this “enemy combatant” made-up legal bullshit, and support Guantanamo and torture as well.
  (tags: politics WarOnTerror GuantanamoBay Guantanamo terrorism innocent EnemyCombatants prisonersOfWar torture AbdAlRahimAbdulRassak Syrians Taliban prisoners AlQueda government legal rulings Al-Jazeera news articles)
• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Spokane cop Karl Thompson indicted for tasering developmentally disabled man to death for not dropping 2liter bottle of soda
  Why were the officers telling him to drop the soda anyway?
  Shoplifting?
  What, shoplifting carries a death sentence now?
  Would love to know the full story, but I don’t need it to know this is completely unjustified.

  Anyone want to claim that pre-taser they would have shot him?
  Didn’t think so.

  Hey Karl — next time be a man, take a risk, and wrestle the guy down instead of being a taser-wielding coward. If you’re still scared, wear a bullet proof vest.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority tasers policeBrutality deaths OverlyHarshPunishments 2liter bottles soda OttoZehm mentallyDisabled KarlThompson lawsuits indicted)
• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: DUI officer pulls girl over; she’s not drunk. She then calls her mom, so he tasers her unconscious, and then “allegedly” slams her head in the wall.
  He also filed charges against her to cover his ass (battery on an officer — when he hospitalized her?), but guess what? ALL CHARGES WERE DROPPED.

  Inevitable lawsuit ensues. Let’s hope she wins. Not signing a ticket is NOT a taserable offense. Tasers were introduced as an alternative to guns. If you’re telling me that pre-taser, he would have shot her — you’re crazy.

  Officer Jerry Davenport: You’re a douchebag. What kind of person writes 3 speeding tickets, anyway? Have fun with the lawsuit, asshole.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority police tasers brutality excessiveForce policeBrutality lawsuits LisaThomson JerryDavenport UniversityOfMiami students tickets signingTickets signing speeding proofOfRegistration hosptialized beatings batteryOnAnOfficer resistingArrest charges dropped)
• COPYRIGHT:| ASCAP Wants To Be Paid When Your Phone Rings — if your ringtone is a song, that is a public performance. YOU OWE ROYALTIES.
  Yes, ASCAP. The folks who sued the Girl Scouts for singing around campfires.

  The folks who made it so most restaurants sing a stupid song instead of Happy Birthday, because Happy Birthday is copyrighted. (even though the people who created it are DEAD, and the song wasn’t copyrighted until decades after its existence)

  The folks who claim “protect the artists”, but cannot possibly know how to dole out the money to the artists, since a) there’s no records of what songs are played everywhere, and b) many of the artists are DEAD.

  Hey — My dad wrote computer code. Can I buy the royalties to that? Maybe everytime computer code that my dad or his dad runs, I should get royalties? Did your great-grandfather paint a house? Maybe everytime someone looks at that house, you should make money.

  They also sue karaoke bars. And now ringtone makers. Nevermind that you paid for the ringtone — You didn’t pay ASCAP a license to publicly perform that ringtone! YOU PIRATING SCUM! YOU MUST HATE ART!

  (tags: politics copyright intellectualProperty media music ASCAP AT&T Verizon lawsuits hardware phones cellPhones publicPerformances ringTones GeekPolitics Slashdot news articles FairUse FirstSaleDoctrine TechnologyWar technology SonyBetamaxRuling legal briefs arguments)
• AUBSE OF AUTHORITY: COP ON COP: Bad cop Carl Sain arrested for beating Waukegan police chief (broke face bones) who dared to be in his estranged wife’s house
  If the victim wasn’t a cop, and this happened in Carl Sain’s jurisdiction — you can be pretty sure the victim would have been the one arrested.

  But when you beat a police chief with a witness — YOU get arrested.

  Officer Carl Sain is an idiot! You don’t go beating people because you feel like it! That makes you a CRIMINAL. You are sworn to uphold the LAW. Carl Sain should now face the same police brutality he feels that he can dole out.

  Testosterone-driven male jealousy is so ugly.

  And this guy was named North Chicago Police Officer of the year. Mostly because bad cops tend to get awards to try to detract from their bad behaviour. And also because Chicago is a particularly brutal area, police-wise.

  Scum like this is what we pay cops to put behind bars!

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthorioty policeBrutality copOnCop brutality police beatings excessiveForce pistolWhipped NorthChicago Chicago Waukegan ArtisYancey CarlSain arrests injuries brokenFaceBones charged aggravatedBattery battery AggravatedAssault assault SuburbanChicagoNews news articles)
• HEALTH: US House Democrats Unveil a Health Care Plan — GOOD
  I love all the people who put up the bullshit anti-universal-healthcare propaganda posts, only to be shot down by people who live in other countries. International forums rule! Good comments here!

  We’ve reached the point in our civilization where it’s time to make sure everyone can get care. We already spend more of our GDP on health care than most countries do — despite the fact that those countries give it to everybody, and our Medicare/Medicaid systems only give it to the elderly and those on welfare.

  American Health Care = a big fail.

  Though it’s great if you have more money than everyone else — it’s the best system to use if you’re rich.

  (tags: politics health healthCare Democrats Slashdot socializedMedicine medicine medical news articles InterestingComments)
• VIRGINIA: VA State Police Say Anti-NWO and Gun Rights Activists are Terrorists – campus student organizations listed as terrorist groups in official report
  Despicable. Let’s make everyone a terrorist.

  Here’s the “report”: http://www.dhrm.virginia.gov/workerscomp/presentations/safetyday2004/CrisisControllAssessPotentialThreatViolence.pdf

  If you make graffiti for a political purpose — you’re a terrorist. (pg 22)
  If you practice civil disobedience, like the civil rights movement in the 1960s — you’re a terrorist.
  Narcotics? You’re a terrorist (p.34)
  In a gun rights or tax protest group? You’re a terrorist (p.49)
  Don’t like globalization, world trade, or military? You’re a terrorist (p.50)
  Do you have lots of visitors or like your privacy? You might be a terrorist (p.67-8)

  And if the Democrats have their way, no one on any watchlist will be able to own a gun, even though that’s a constitutional right and a necessary check & balance.

  It’s like people ignored everything Thomas Jefferson ever said…

  (tags: politics fear terrorism YourTaxDollarsAtWork terrorists gunRights VirginiaStatePolice Virginia police reports BlacklistedNews news articles)
• UNDERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENT: Cop shoots unarmed man (fires 8 rounds) through his driver side window — may serve 5 years maximum
  How exactly is shooting an unarmed person car-to-car self-defense anyway?

  I wonder what the family of Ronald Jamison Jr. thinks about how their tax dollars are spent. Paying Donny Aaron to kill someone for parking.

  It all started because the cop got mad that he parked “on or near” his property. Wow. Certainly sounds like yet another road-rage cop incident to me.

  So in the land of the free, you can get a taxpayer-funded death sentence for parking somewhere a cop doesn’t like. Good to konw.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority police shootings murders negligentHomicide manslaughter convicted DonnyAaron roadRage parking RonaldJamison RonaldJamisonJr. Shreveport AmyMuller unarmed ShereveportTimes news articles Greenwood UnderlyHarshPunishments)
• HARDWARE: A Noisy Ceiling Fan? Find Out the Methods to Stop
  I tried this out and got my fan to shut the fuck up for at least 5 minutes so far :)
  (tags: house hardware fans ceilingFans noisy noise howto reference handyman)
• SCIENCE/COMEDY: 7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics
  Cracked sure makes funny lists!
  (tags: comedy lists science man-made artificial substances Cracked ferrofluids aerogel perfluorocarbons elastic conductors elasticConductors non-newtonian non-newtonianFluids transparentAlumina transparentAluminum aluminum carbon nanotubes carbonNanotubes)

 

VIDEO: DOCUMENTARIES: REVIEW: PFFR: Hands Of God – Christian puppeteers are freaking SCARY!

[Not listed in IMDB] [Not available from Netflix] A PFFR film by Alyson Levy.

PEOPLE: This is a PFFR production. You might remember PFFR from their groundbreaking shows Wonder Showzen, Xavier:Renegade Angel, or Delocated. Or possibly from their albums, such as United We Doth. They are a musical band that branched into television comedy.

Or maybe you just don’t know that you’ve been influenced by PFFR members — one of them, Vernon Chapman, is the voice of Towelie in South Park, and is listed as a producer in later episodes of South Park. He also wrote for The Chris Rock show, Conan O’Brien, That’s My Bush!, and Doggy Fizzle Televizzle. Check out PFFR’s website — crazy.

QUIRKS: This is a documentary, but also sort of a mockumentary. A lot of the interviews with Christian puppeteers appear to be real — you really can’t make shit like this up, even if you try. But it is interspersed with clips of someone (probably Vernon Chapmon?) making fun of the Christian puppeteers by acting like one. So parts of this documentary are actually mocking other parts. I’ll christen it a docu-mocku-mentary.

VISUALS: Creepy looking Christians in all weird shapes and sizes. None of these people really look normal.

MORALS: These people think they have morals by helping to convert children to Christianity via puppetry. Some of them actually believe they were not able to perform ventriloquism until they were touched by god and given the power to be a ventriloquist.

CONCLUSION: This was pretty damn funny — but insanely scary as well. In fact, I started to freak out while watching it. My pulse quickened, I started to break out in a sweat, breathing rapidly, and filling with adrenaline. Watching horror movies doesn’t do that to me. Watching actual people actually die in real life [on my tv] doesn’t do that to me. Faces Of Death doesn’t do that to me. Saw doesn’t even do that to me — it just makes me squirm for a bit.

But this shit? Fucking terrifying that there are people so deluded and devoted by fictitious sky fairies. I almost had to look away. The old guy just had a creepy-shaped face. I could barely take it.

RECOMMENDATION: If you can find this, it’s quite the gem to watch. Think: Jesus Camp, but less militant. And with a Wonder Showzen-style puppet making fun of the other puppets.

SIMILAR MOVIES: Jesus Camp?

If you’re lucky, you can find this on bittorrent. Especially on the tracker that rhymes with the name of a human organ. PFFR is brilliant, and everything they do must be experienced.

 

links for 2009-06-22

• CHANGE?: Obama Administratoin's Justice Department tells judge that future presidents/vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations due to late night TV satire
  Wow. The Obama Administration seems to be taking douchitude to a higher level. "We might not cooperate because we don't want The Daily Show to make fun of us."

  Even the Bush administration never stopped to such low levels. "We don't want transparent government because you might make fun of us."

  Didn't Obama say something about wanting to make the government more transparent? And didn't he appoint the current head of the Justice Department? Obamans, please explain this away as a Good Thing(tm).

  Wow. Nice job, Eric Holder!

  (tags: politics ObamaAdministration JusticeDepartment DOJ DepartmentOfJustice satire EmmetSullivan BushAdministration DickCheney CIA FBI ScooterLibby ValeriePlame JosephWilson leaks government transparency)
• IRAN: A must watch video from Iran (and why copyright law almost prevented you from watching it)
  Good ol' copyright law. BBC unwittingly helps Iranian oppressors!
  (tags: Iran media video reality protesters government copyright GeekPolitics BBC YouTube TheDailyBackground)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR/CORPORATIONS: Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology – Siemens, Nokia
  If your internet routes through your government, your government can effectively control your communications.

  Remember how mad everyone was at the illegal wiretapping? Now imagine every electronic communication in existence going through your government. Do you see the problem?

  If you support anti-child-porn blacklists, you are basically asking for the exact same thing. Instead of having a nanny-state government, why not simply lock up those criminals that get caught and that actually hurt people?

  Freedom isn't free. It comes at a cost. Always. Ours will rapidly slip away without us even realizing it if we allow ourselves to descend down the same path as Iran, Germany, Australia, Thailand, and other countries that practice internet censorship.

  And our attorneys general have already been trying to force us down this path…

  And we have the greed of huge, amoral corporations to help support us on this path.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar corporations technology communications connectivity Nokia Siemans Iran protesters censorship government AbuseOfAuthority SiemansAG DeepPacketInspection privacy surveillance BigBrother NannyState revolution GeekPolitics WallStreetJournal news articles)
• HAPPY FATHER'S DAY: The Worst Father Ever Imagined
  Heh.
  (tags: holidays father'sDay fathers dads God religion Christianity Chrisitans)
• OVERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENTS: Cops still say it's okay to shoot someone dead if they "look menacing" and "reach for something" — even when the video doesn't show that
  It's amazing that a police department would say the video clearly shows the men were "looking menacing". Is that a crime now, to look menacing? Is reaching for your beer bottle a capital offense? Is the fact that it's a high-crime area mean all people are deprived of due process and that a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy is best?
  Hell no.

  Personally, I think Officer Husien Shehada needs to be put on permanent desk duty.

  And funny how the police chased off all witnesses that might not be on their side. And that the only one who says "he did reach for something" (as if that makes it okay?! it doesn't!) was someone who had applied to be an officer himself.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority OverlyHarshPunishments police shootings murders brutality policeBrutality CaughtOnVideo MiamiHerald NBC MiamiBeachPolice MiamiBeach Miami Florida CarlosMiller news articles HusienShehada AdamTavss witnesses)
• MUSIC: The Church: Q&A with the Church's Marty Wilson-Piper
  another interview
  (tags: media audio music bands TheChurch interviews MartyWilson-Piper UntitledNo.23 Untitled#23 guitars)
• MUSIC: The Church: recent concert review
  including setlist
  (tags: media audio music bands TheChurch concerts reveiws DenverWestworld blog articless)
• MUSIC: The Church: We're not finished yet – interview
  (tags: media audio music bands TheChurch interviews Untitled UntitledNo.23 Untitled#23 Mlive news articless)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowldge reluctantly drop lawsuit for ACTA info after Obama Administration reaffirms Bush Administration stance
  Just how many Bush Administration stances is the Obama Administration going to reaffirm? Change I can believe in? Hardly.

  Have fun getting your iPod searched–Have fun voting for the "lesser" of 2 evils. Here's an idea: Stop voting for evil.

  But hey… nobody bothers following anything related to their rights, do they? And that's why we can get away with so much less today than in the past.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar technology freedom BushAdministration ObamaAdministration BarackObama change? dropped lawsuits ACTA EFF ElectronicFrontierFoundation PK PublicKnowledge rights counterfeiting Anti-CounterfeitingTradeAgreement Slashdot news articles intellectualProperty copyright GeekPolitics corporations internet filtering internetFiltering government transparency censorship patents surveillance privacy treaties legal law InternationalLaw BusinessAsUsual SameShitDifferentPresident)
• ART: Ben Tolman
  This guy had some super-detailed artwork at Artomatic… This stuff looks amazing full-screen @ 52-inches! Mark I was a fan and remembered his name, so we looked it up afterward.
  (tags: media art BenTolman detailed drawings images Artomatic)

 

links for 2009-06-21

• TECHNOLOGY WAR: Proposed Law To Block Gun Sales to Over a Million Americans – those that appear on error-prone terror "watchlist"
  What a fucking idiotic idea. The watchlists now have over 1 million people on them — and are incredibly error prone. Remember when Kennedy was on one?

  How would you like your freedom of speech taken away for appearing on a watchlist? Wouldn't that make you angry? Shouldn't that make every american angry?

  Well, owning a gun is listed as the next amendment right after that… And the Supreme Court has reaffirmed in the past couple years that yes this means people get to own guns.

  But because bleeding heart liberals and democrats are like "guns==bad", this may very well pass.

  If so, that is complete and utter Tyranny of the majority. You don't just selectively enforce the constitution when you feel like it. You enforce it at all times — even if it means allowing the dispicable KKK to hold a hate rally.

  Guns aren't about killing. They're about empowerment and self-determination. I bet the citizens in Iran could use a few right now…

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar technology guns GunControl WarOnTerror terrorism government watchlists freedom Democrats TyrannyOfTheMajority NewJersey FrankR.Lautenberg legal legislation NewYorkTimes news articles ConstitutionalRights rights 2ndAmendment SecondAmendment)
• WAR ON DRUGS: Philadelphia council to consider smokeless tobacco ban
  Here's looking forward to cigarette smokers and marijuana smokers all beating treated equally — as criminals — so that they can politically unite against the tyranny of the majority.

  "We'll force you to be healthy!" Guess what comes to mind? The televisions in George Orwell's 1984 that watch you — when you don't do your morning exercises well enough, they call you out by name and lecture you.

  What else comes to mind? The opening scenes in the movie "The Island".

  Freedom is not being forced to live up to someone's health standards. We're individuals, not a hive.

  (tags: politics WarOnDrugs drugs freedom WarOnTobacco tobacco nicotine cigarettes smokeless snuff chewingTobacco dippingTobacco Philadelphia Pennsylvania legal legislation considering health Philly.com AP news articles)
• WAR ON PORN: FBI files show wide 'Deep Throat' investigation
  Yes, fellow americans. In a country that pretends to have free speech, your own tax dollars went to preventing you from seeing porn the government didn't like.

  The FBI seized copies of the movie, analyzed negatives in labs, interviewed actors, producers, even messengers who delivered reels of the movie to the theatres.

  And who were FBI agents in 1972? Basically, the previous generation. They've taken a lot from us. But good luck taking our porn! Hah!

  (tags: politics SexualFreedom sex WarOnPorn porn pornoraphy video movies DeepThroat FBI unconstitutional AbuseOfAuthority FirstAmendment 1stAmendment FreedomOfSpeech freedom speech Miami Florida Yahoo news articles AP FreedomOfInformationAct FOIA L.PatrickGray WilliamRuckelshaus ClarenceKelley MarkFelt obscenity censorship)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: Appeal to constitutional court over 'hacker clauses' inadmissible
  Lame. Germans don't have the right to use software that their govenrment doesn't approve of. Total bullshit. I have tons of tools that would count as "hacker" tools.

  This is "gun control mentality"… The idea that people should not have anything that can create harm. Guess we better ban knives and cars while we're at it.

  (tags: poliitcs TechnologyWar rights ConstitutionalRights Germany legal losses)
• PICTURES: The Incredible Century Old Color Photography of Prokudin-Gorsky
  Nice science angle on how color photos were made possible 100 yrs ago.
  (tags: media pictures Russia photography colors colorPhotography SergeyMikhaylovichProkudin-Gorsky)
• TWITTER: Girl electrocuted to death trying to Twitter in the bath
  Somebody get the Darwin award!
  (tags: Twitter deaths TheInquisitr news articles Romania bathtubs baths bathwater water electrocutions)

 

links for 2009-06-20

• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: cops "allegedly" tase-and-shoot unarmed mentally-disabled homeless woman as she retreats away from them… then lie and say she attacked them
  No, holding a metal skewer is not grounds for deadly force. Especially when they submitted a video showing her taking 14 steps away from her. The homesless lady took 14 steps back, said "no one's going to get hurt here", so how did the cops respond?

  "Just shoot her already", they said. ("Allegedly.")

  And shoot her they did. In the stomach. She was hospitalized for 22 days. They charged her and locked her up!n She couldn't make bail, either.

  "First degree terrorist threatening"? Really? Hah.

  Her name is released. Why aren't the officers' names released? I'll post them when I find them.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority policeBrutality police brutality tasers shootings mentallyDisabled homeless women lies CaughtOnVideo YourTaxDollarsAtWork Honolulu Hawaii retreating hospitalized bullshit charges arrests terroristicThreatening)
• THIN BLUE LINE: 2 Gwinnett cops resign over Waffle House tasering incident that resulted in cop in jail
  So… A cop did something bad.

  The cops with him? Didn't report him. Christopher T. Parry, 41, and Joey T. Parkerson, 39, were on duty when douchebag Gary Miles Jr. "allegedly" used a taser for no reason on a Waffle House employer.

  Did they report the bad cop?

  No. Thin blue line.

  Now they are resigning — but most likely only because they were caught! Not because they are people of proper conduct and morals.

  At least they're doing the right thing now.

  Hope it was worth 13/14 years of employment just to cover up for your douchebag buddy, guys.

  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority tasers police brutality policeBrutality ThinBlueLine resignations ChristopherT.Parry JoeyT.Parkerson GaryMilesJr. WaffleHouse misconduct AJC news articless)
• IRAN: Protest torrents
  In case anyone wants to collect Iran footage for historical / gawking purposes…
  (tags: p2p bittorrent torrents Iran protests police brutality policeBrutality excessiveForce beatings murders media video reality AbuseOfAuthority)

 

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: You Don’t Mess With The Zohan (2008)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

PEOPLE: Director Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore) brings us Adam Sandler starring in a script co-written by Judd Apatow (who seems to somehow be involved in every top-rate comedy coming out lately) and Robert Smigel (Saturday Night Live). Also starring John Turturro and the exquisitely beautiful Emmanuelle Chriqui (who was in Detroit Rock City? really?). And keep an eye out for Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock, Mariah Carey, and even George Takei (aka Sulu from Star Trek) who is finally able to play a gay man, even if only for a few seconds.

QUIRKS: The whole movie is one huge quirk!! An Israeli counterterrorism operative who wants to go to America to become a hairdresser? Ironically, he’s based on a real hairdresser who used to be an Israeli soldier: Nezi Arbib. And of course, lots of Israel Vs. Palestine jokes, jew, and arab jokes. And Adam Sandler’s huge… Well, you’ll see. I’m glad I know what faygelah means… And I’m glad I know what hummus tastes like. I’m surprised there would be people who don’t know what it is, but after having to explain falafel to an inordinate amount of people, it’s not as unrealistic to me that someone would not know what hummus is (see MOVIE QUOTE below).

Anyway, it’s not a serious movie, it’s a comedy. There are romantic elements, but it’s NOT a romantic comedy, it’s a straight-out comedy. With jokes pretty much throughout the whole movie. We were surprised at how funny it was, even if the humor was not perfect.

BAD STUFF: Some might put Adam Sandler in this category, but we wouldn’t. Some people might be offended by the various racial jokes, too. Too bad for them.

CONCLUSION: Frickin’ funny. I gave this 5 stars on Netflix, as keeping me laughing throughout a movie is pretty much the best case scenario for any movie. Gave it an 8/10 on Netflix, but if I were to rate it against other comedies, it would be a 9/10 or higher. Carolyn agrees.

RECOMMENDATION: If Adam Sandler doesn’t make you vomit, you’d have to be crazy not to laugh throughout this movie.

But some people are turned off by the ridiculous, and even want their comedies to be serious. Those people should put this back on the shelf and go watch a romantic comedy instead — because non-ridiculous, non-romantic comedies are rare. (Unless you count dramedy and black comedy.)

MOVIE QUOTE: Exec 1: What’s ‘humus’?
Exec 2: It’s a very tasty diarrhea-like substance.

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Christian D really liked it. I think a lot of my friends would like this, actually.