May 2009
40 posts
Socialist Democrat Party
I think just about everyone is happy with the recent Republican decision to rename the Democratic Party the Socialist Democrat Party. I’m no exception. While Democrats are happy that this underscores how pathetic and ridiculous the Republicans are and Republicans feel this, along with their tea parties, signifies their comeback or secession or whatever they’re doing, I’m just...
I just saw GQ’s feature on Rumsfeld’s cover sheets to Iraq War reports that mix bible quotations with Iraq-related imagery. This was disturbing to me, as I assume it was disturbing to many who saw it. The problem is that to many people, there’s nothing wrong with this. Many Americans staunchly believe America is a Christian nation and bible quotes aren’t out of place in...
Vegetarianism from an ex-vegetarian
For three years, I was a strict vegetarian. People used to ask me two things about it: Why be a vegetarian and what was the impetus of becoming a vegetarian?
To me, these sorts of questions seem a bit anachronistic in 2009. The reasons for being a vegetarian are abundant and it’s not some counter-culture affront to anyone’s sensibilities.
For one thing, it’s just plain...
Last night as I was with my friends getting money out of the cash machine, a guy approached me, said something I didn’t really catch, and punched me. As I was standing against a wall, my head supposedly hit the wall and opened a big gash wherefrom copious amounts of blood rushed forth. Police arrived, I got cleaned up, and details were taken. As it’s my last week of school, I’d...
#escandalogt
I’ve been reading the developing story of deadly political corruption in Guatemala lately, and it brings up some interesting points about the role of technology.
If you haven’t heard about it already, Khalil Musa was allegedly assassinated for refusing to embroil his bank (Banrural) in illegal activities. His lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenberg, was then assassinated, but not before Rosenberg...
“Guy crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was a comedy show.”
-Alan Alda on 30 Rock
It’s like they wrote that one just for me.
Detainee Abuse Reversal
The recent criticisms of the Obama administration from the left is very good news. Whoever manages to make it all the way to president these days isn’t going to be a stand-up defender of our core values, no matter how much hype they generate. It’s good that we’re realizing that in many ways, Obama is just as bad as Bush, because that’s reality. Once we can identify what is...
Citation for dummies (or, Citation for social...
The internet’s really great for boring people like us because on it, we can be a source of interminable content without producing a single thing. We’re all aware of this, and it’s okay. The problems arise when you screw it up, and oh boy do you screw it up.
Too many of you are stealing blurbs and articles and passing them off as original. Saying (via …) or “From...
I think my neighbor has lost his mind
It started with a few complaints to the RAs about stolen food from our kitchen. He must have been complaining a lot, because our entire corridor was dragged out for a meeting with the warden to suss out who the thief was. It turned out nobody’s food was going missing except Sho’s (that’s what I think my neighbor’s name is), and he could only cite some missing cheese. I mean...
Highlander-style list of people my personal blog...
In no particular order:
Julia Allison
Molls
Merlin Mann
David Karp
Nick Douglas
Tyler Coates
Caro
Bonerparty
Frangry
Matt Jordan
Time to put some ads up!
America or bust
Kapi asked a reasonable question about why Americans tend to be the most patriotic citizens. The answers were constrained to 140 characters, but they were still pretty interesting. The majority of them (so far) have been along the lines of isolation, arrogance, and propaganda. None of these are correct.
There are two questions that are really being asked here: “Why are so many Americans so...
Dear BBC News,
I know you’re used to low standards, traditionally stuck between Scottish soap operas and British humor (anti-humor) sitcoms, but now that you’ve grown up, you’re being presented to a wider and more discerning audience than the British public. You need to shape up.
BBC World is five minutes of information looped for 24 hours, so would it kill you to throw in a...
Curious Capitalism
This should be prefaced with the admission that I know nothing about economics. My knowledge of economics is derived from studying neoliberal international politics, Marxist theory of history, and one semester of macroeconomics that I understood less than a word of.
The curious capitalism to which the title is referring is, in this case, supermarkets. As many of us are patrons of supermarkets,...
"Experts worry about dangers of a swine flu-bird... →
(via brianvan)
Would these be marketing experts?
Hannity says Obama's an elitist...
“…for requesting spicy dijon on his burger yesterday.”
(via HuffPo, zisforzach, and brooklynmutt)
Come on, dijon is pushing it, but spicy dijon is just too far.
(Aside: Joe the Plumber is so populist he orders his burgers topped with urine.)
False sense of security
For over a year now, I’ve been publishing my email address online. That includes hyperlinking it with the complete mailto preface and everything. Any web crawler (trawler?) can happily index it and send me all the latest deals on pharmaceutical wonders it wants.
The thing is: They don’t.
I get about 100 spam emails a month, and 99% of them go directly to my spam folder.
To me, this...
Welcome to China: Felony Blogging
Jacob Sullum:
The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act would make it a felony punishable by up to two years in prison to transmit an electronic communication (“including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages”) “with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person…to support severe,...
Follow-up: On Hatred
whitenoiseinstereo:
You’ve written a good amount on terrorism, and so I’d ask you whether or not those who are willing to give their life in order to kill others simply dislike them, or do they hate them? Consider the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. There are a good number on each side that legitimately hate one another, literally launching rockets. It’s a reciprocal hate, not just a use of the...
On Hatred
I take issue with how words are used to describe things because, while a subject defines its word, so too does the word describe its subject. When do we deem it necessary to label a feeling we have or someone else’s expression as hate?
Most dictionaries will tell you that hatred is an intensity of dislike. The more we think about this, the less it seems plausible. Is love simply an...
Quotations
I came up with a little quip about intelligent people and their ability to be happy, but upon considering it, I realized posting it as some nugget of wisdom I was trying to pass off was rather uncharacteristic and a bit arrogant. Who am I to use terseness to express an idea as truth? I’m much more likely to spend a thousand words providing examples and exposition about my beliefs.
What are...
What happens when you mix John Lennon, May Pang,...
“Smart people can be happy, but only when they’re being stupid.”
-Kurt Vonnegut
10 Writing Tips
Presuming to be good enough to give writing tips, especially when practically unpublished, is admittedly deluded, but I’ve seen so many conflicting writing tips from so many good writers that I’m of the opinion that “tips” are something you should heed à la carte. Under this assumption, the more tips the better, which is why I’m providing ten I’ve found out for...
My recent search history as descriptive of my life...
all day, every hour, got a chicken nugget in my pocket
dutch oven
alan alda
apple jacks why do kids love apple jacks
barbie doll
black history month
bloodz
buearacracy
cabbage patch kids
canoe
canoo
cheap motion capture set
chicken costume
crips
dogfooding
dr jaffe
edward james olmos
feminist punk bands saxophone
freddie prinze jr dead
grammar a or an before words that start...
I was considering writing a post discussing the problems with our modern concept of terrorism, but I decided I’d rather write a post about Caprica. I just watched the pre-pilot or whatever it was and I was so let down. How could the people who made BSG make such a horrible product? Everything about it negated the things that made BSG so good. In an attempt to make it less sci-fi to appeal to...
Unfollow Friday Posting Criteria:
Yes, it’s true, the crap you see posted to Unfollow Friday is actually the creme de la creme and submissions are moderated. A good chunk of the submissions get rejected, so I thought I’d save people the trouble of wondering why and explain my criteria for posting things.
—First, this is why your submission got rejected:
Defamatory: This is where most rejections come from....
April 2009
34 posts
Rachel: whooa!
Rachel: cool!
Benjamin: i can never tell if you're being sarcastic
Rachel: niether can i