April 2009
34 posts
My work process:
I’m writing my presentation on the UN’s Alliance of Civilizations program in relation to Islamism. In discussing the root causes of conflicts amongst civilizations, I alluded the chicken or egg dilemma. This led me to the chicken or egg Wikipedia page. This led me to learn that the chicken is a direct descendent of the Red Junglefowl and that in Indochina, the Red Junglefowl subspecies...
Politicians and foresight
I love how politicians treat their Twitter handles like they do their old AOL email addresses. It’s probably not going to be 1995 forever, so don’t put it your name. In four years when Palin is the president, how silly will she look still tweeting from her current Twitter account?
“lol its just somthing i picked a long tiem ago brb aerial hunting Osama xx get r done”
...
Torturing our intelligence
This may be unpopular, but Cliff May came off much better than Jon Stewart in that “debate” about torture. I didn’t particularly agree with May’s positions, but it was like he was arguing against an angsty college kid who has no understanding of normative constructions of society and politics.
I think torture is something we shouldn’t be doing, but May is correct in...
Retaking American Political Language
American political language has evolved to have more social meaning than political meaning, and this is confusing and corrupting our political discourse. How do we explain that our conception of the political spectrum ranges from large socialist government to large fascist government? Are those our only choices? Was George W. Bush, the anti-intellectual cowboy, secretly a liberal? Which political...
Whoever wrote this summary is the harbinger of...
“Reno 911! is a satirical comedy show where most of the scenes are improvised by the actors. Almost every situation that has to do with police work gets mocked. The main joke of the show is their incompetency to do their jobs. We see the staff of the Reno Sheriff’s Department terrorizing citizens, partying with confiscated drugs, recklessly using their guns and caught in hilarious car...
The folks who wrote this fascinating ABC News piece about UAE torture made me reconsider ABC as a respectable and intelligent news source. They’re also, dare I say it, rather witty:
Sheikh Issa’s lawyer, Bristow, has moved to have the case, which also involves allegations surrounding their business dealings, transferred to courts in the UAE.
Wherever it is heard, said Bristow,...
We are cool
Becca: I have never listened to a 50cent album
Ben: i bought a hall and oates album for 50 cents
I can tell the audience of Unfollow Friday is expanding into the general population when I start getting submissions that use the term “internet blogs”.
I’d write more about that here, but I decided to save it for the blog I keep in my spiral notebook.
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
Ben: 2000 more words to write
Ben: I hate my life
Becca: it'll be over eventually
I could read the internet all day
“several of my friends are in gangs and i lost 2 of my friends who got shot to death by the cops i hate cops who just shoot people FOR NO REASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats why i hate cops anyways because of that im in a gang now and im trying to get out but im scared!!!and im trying to get my friends to do da same thang what do i do please HELP ME”
“all i wanna do is watch louis theroux and you make it absolutley impossible and then have an entire page with some bullshit explanation that has no explanation, your doing a lousy job of informing anyone of anything and doing a great job at making buttloads of cashmoney. then you make it impossible to complain about your dumb site without being some dingdong member. theres some radbutt...
Longest comment I've ever seen on Unfollow Friday:
“My girlfriend follows this blog and I often have the misfortune of sitting beside her as she checks for updates. She told me about this message board and I had to jump at the opportunity to speak my mind. Never in my life have I encountered such an attention junkie. Its easily the most severe form I’ve ever witnessed and I’ve worked in a psych ward. Allow me to further...
Did you know that the guy who wrote that song at...
Bad Sign by Brad Sucks
You know your terrorism essay is taking a turn for the worse when you end up using it as a platform for deconstructing reality.
Since I don’t have to pay American taxes, I’ve been feeling particularly left out on this whole tea party hullabaloo I keep hearing about. So in solidarity with my American brethren, I have assembled a team including Teddy Ruxpin, Midge Hadley, Dana (née Sugar Shoes), Pikachu, and other tiara and feather boa-bedecked dignitaries to join me in a consolatory tea party.
An internal error has prevented Google Docs from...
Google, I’m writing the next 8,500 words of my essays on Docs, so I feel sorry for whoever has to sort through all of these errors I’m racking up. Was it my horrible analogy of Palestinian terrorists to angry parents at little league games that made you not want to save my essay? Was it that I compared Hermann Göring to a web developer?
I’ve just written 500 words of my (5000 word) terrorism essay, and I realize I’ve spent a good portion of those 500 words comparing terrorism to hardcore pornography.
PETA does what?
I keep seeing all this monstrous anti-PETA stuff, and it disappoints me to see so many people on Tumblr buying it. All the sources are either consumerfreedom.com or petakillsanimals.com (two well-known industry front groups) and the two circularly link to each other for “evidence” of their claims. This is (at best) the equivalent of those high fructose corn syrup ads (“but...
Pittsburgh is the Paris of Western Pennsylvania
-Smart People
outofprint →
unfollowfriday:
You are intelligent, relevent, and like BSG, but you KEEP ON with this hating and calling-out of the same people. People who don’t really seem overly concerned or bothered about it. Your “hey look how I answered Jakob’s question post” was the final straw. We all know what they are like - the vapids, the narcissists, the empty shells. you know you are right, relax, but why keep this...
“I think that people given the opportunity to give negitive feed back is dangerous because people can push some to bend to there will and not that of their own.”
I love the responses that Unfollow Friday provokes.
How to soften the impact of your death:
Do it today.
Oh I get it,
Tumblr is replacing everyone’s posts with kitsch artwork, pop culture references from our childhoods, bad topherchris jokes, questions being asked for the sake of asking questions, and inspirational quotations for April Fools Day.