Good Old Neon

Is it the perpetually shifting accent or that her eyes are ever so slightly off plumb?

I thought the same thing about Michael Jackson.

If we could somehow manage to capture and harness all the, let’s face it, just plain dumb juice emitted by the electorate of this country, we’d pretty much have ourselves a perpetual source of renewable, lost cost (in monetary terms. The actual costs to a functioning democracy is really too costly to calculate)energy. Palin is quite possibly the least qualified politician to ever grace the nations stage. I didn’t think it was possible, but the GOP went and found itself someone who actually makes Bush look stellar by comparison. And the absolute worst part, she has a better than average chan

From Politico - For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff." The offer — which essentially turns a

Calm down - aren't you the guy who predicted we'd all pretty much be living under martial law right about now? And are you not the fella who insisted the swine flu could be contracted by by eating pork?

An artists’ rendering of the US embracing (quite lasciviously I might add) the Amero.

Nope, just this one:

This is my favorite Michael Jackson story. From Time magazine: ...Nirvana's alternative rock opus Nevermind hit the racks and its first song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," went into heavy rotation on MTV. When it knocked Michael Jackson off the number one spot on the Billboard charts... the link - http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,169666,00.html

Or maybe it’s because for about two-thirds of his career, the music took a back seat to Michael Jackson, the spectacle. And most of the spectacle was engineered by Michael, for Michael - with little to no value related to music or entertaining, outside of tabloid fodder.

That’s one way to look at it – and to some extent, I agree. But there is another way, and for that I give you George Saunders awesome fucking essay entitled, quite simply: Thought Experiment Imagine the following scenario: Two babies are born at precisely the same moment. Baby One is healthy, with a great IQ and all its limbs and two kind, intelligent, non-dysfunctional parents. Baby Two is sickly, not very bright, is missing a limb or two, and is the child of two self-absorbed and stupid losers, one of whom has not been seen around lately and the other of whom is a heroin addict. Now im

For me – Jackson’s death hasn’t really elicited strong feelings. With the exception of his work with the Jackson 5, I was never a fan of his music. The Thriller video was fun to watch, once, but then grew tedious. His music, along with the endlessly recycled dance moves quickly grew stale. His metamorphosis from vapid entertainer to one-man-three-ring-freak-show was interesting for a little while, but that too quickly grew tiresome. As for the pedophilia, I don’t know what to think. As bobbob pointed out, the families involved were every bit as creepy as the charges – they seemed a littl

He’s doing exactly what he was hired to do, preserve the status quo. All that stuff about change and transparency and a new kind of leader, that was just marketing. The sorry state of the two-party system, a state in which both parties are beholden to their corporate benefactors, first, and everything and everyone else, a distant second, pretty much guarantees that the candidates they foist on the public will never rock the boat in any meaningful way. Editor’s Note: The following rant is, admittedly, a gross over-simplification, but in essence, no less true. Edit: As the New York Times, B

I would add “If your unborn child has any chance of growing up to be Richard Nixon” to Richard’s list of appropriate situations in which abortion should be considered and/or exercised.

This nifty little site might be of interest to the photographers out there - or, anyone interested in creating a miniature effect. http://tiltshiftmaker.com/

That’s ok, we’ll just turn you into international enemy number one, compare your new leader to Hitler, point to your citizen’s arsenal (the one you Texans are always bragging about) as a source of wmd’s, and then like, invade occupy your asses. See also, Iraq.

This is just folks talking tough. When we were acting up in the car, my parents used to threaten to drop us off on the side of the road, and we were all like, yeah right, whatever, we could find our way home. And then the day finally came when they made good on their promise, we were sobbing while still under the influence of the taillights glow. Go ahead, secede, you’ll come crawling back once you no longer have access to the federal teat. Edit - Or maybe it’s more like that episode of the Brady Bunch, the one in which Greg (aka – Johnny Bravo) think’s he’s too cool to attend the family

I have mixed feelings about this – on the one hand, restrictions like this are a little too draconian for my liking, but on the other hand, it sort of fits in my soon to be unveiled, “Shut the Fuck Up and Drive, You Have Nothing Interesting to Say, America!” campaign. Given the frequency with which people use their cell phones nowadays, I’m not sure if their primary objective while on the road is actually like, driving, or just talking on their fucking telephones.

I’m usually pretty much enamored with the McSweeney’s treatment, but that book is just fugly.

It’s the Chris Hedges types that continue to push me further and further away from the far left. The dude’s been prognosticating worst-case scenarios for years, fortunately, 99% of the time they never come to fruition. And for the record, Chomsky’s use of “New World Order” has nothing to do with nefarious plots and pyramids and the Illuminati and/or Nicolas Cage.

I’ve been following developments all weekend – inspiring stuff. Sullivan’s website appears to be suffering sporadic blackouts, he seems to believe it is due to some sort of digital attack. From his blog: This blog has long been interested in Iran, especially in its younger generation so open to the West. Part of it is that I've long believed that Iran was much more likely to become a democracy than its neighboring Arab states - and that this might be the key to unwinding the clash of civilizations that was hurtling us toward apocalyptic scenarios. Part of it is that being immersed in onli

Your lack of commitment and admitted unwillingness to take it all the way to eleven has me a bit concerned – had you said the completion of this record ended in the dissolution of your marriage, followed by catastrophic, irreversible liver failure, well, I would have agreed to review it. But, as it stands, I no longer believe you are possessed by the rock’n’roll spirit, as "almost" is not a part of its vocabulary.

From The Onion: Geek obsession: author David Foster Wallace Why he

But that

With help from Newegg, I could literally build a half dozen (or more, admittedly bare bones) Windows’ based PC’s for the cost of one Mac – and still have enough left over for like, a Happy Meal or something. Based on my experience, the problems associated with Vista have been blown all out of proportion, which has always been the case whenever Microsoft releases a new OS. I’d say a good 90% of the problems commonly associated with Vista have more to do with the operator, and less to do with the operating system. Here’s what you’re really buying when you purchase a Mac – a brand. For folks h

And is it just me, or did everyone's avatar pics disappear? It's like, I don't even know you people anymore...