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The McCain campaign is currently mocking Obama by sending out “Obama Energy Plan” tire gauges to contributes. I suggest Obama also send out tire gauges to supporters. The tire gauges should read:
“Obama. Simple, common sense solutions to the mess republicans have gotten us into.”
Just an idea… not sure if it would fit on a tire gauge.
After all he didn’t even commit a crime, everyone knows that Valarie Plame wasn’t even covert…
Oh she was?
Well everyone knows that Scooter didn’t blow her cover… what’s that?
Oh, that isn’t why he was going to jail?
It was perjury?
Oh, Right, I forgot that…
Well, that doesn’t matter because he wasn’t guilty of perjury because he shouldn’t have been on the stand in the first place, since everyone knows that it was Joe Wilson that outed Plame…
What now?
I’m pretty sure it was Joe… that’s what Rush said.
Well, even if it wasn’t him then it was probably Richard Armitage so Scooter should go FREE!
Uh-huh…
You’re saying that none of that matters if he lied to the grand jury.
Umm…
Well, no I don’t know why he would have lied if there was no cover-up. But that doesn’t matter because I’m sure that with any other non-biased special-prosecutor the charges wouldn’t have been brought against him, he’s obviously completely innocent. This was totally political.
Oh…
That’s right… Bush did say he was guilty in his statement but his sentence was way to harsh. So yeah, I mean he did lie a little bit under oath but the sentence was OUT OF CONTROL so Bush let him out.
No, I don’t know why he didn’t just shorten the sentence then…
Well, Clinton totally pardoned people that were really criminals so this is totally OK.
Of course I was really pissed about that then, especially Frank Rich.
YES TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT! CLINTON DID IT FIRST.
I’M TELLING MY MOM!
*click*
Beware the ides of March he says. Well maybe in your lifetime Billy, but in my life I beware the ides of April more. Today is a day to be wary. Happy 420 all! And an unhappy anniversary of so much more. I have always heard 420 is the day it is because 420 is the police code for marijuana possession. But we must take the good with the bad I’m afraid so here’s a little list of what to remember to forget about today.
Do me favor, enjoy your holiday and forget what you’ve seen here today, but remember to be careful. And to smoke with a special friend today.
HAPPY 420!!!
It was just released on the washington post site that the “gunman” Cho Seung-Hui at V-tech had written “Ismail Ax” on the inside of his arm. This is some sort of reference to Ibrahim who used it in a violent manner to allow Islam to flourish.
This development will give this story a fairly long tail and really help the fear-mongering of the admin. In addition I’m worried that we’ll see further justification for some of the more odious aspects of the patriot act… It’s going to get ugly. Buckle up.
Vietnam raged and the affects of McCarthyism were still being felt. The country was dominated by fear and anger and hatred. Amongst this turmoil the largest generation America has known was coming of age. A highly educated generation and highly independent, forced to watch their friends kill innocent people. Forced to watch their friends die and they lived with the fear that they could be the next one called to a foreign land to fight for a bogus cause.
These young Americans began to speak out and rise-up. They gathered and wrote and sang and yelled and fought back. They obeyed few rules as they sat-in, smoked pot and challenged authority. They had their own artists and their own art. They had their own culture. They changed America and improved the world by getting us out of Vietnam.
It was as if the children of America were going through a collective adolescents. But something happened in the 80’s, 90’s and oughts. It felt like they had become complacent, as if they’d grown up and become the America they fought against. They got married, had children and their priorities changed from global to personal, they had to make sure their kids were safe and going to soccer, politics became less important.
Children are not children long and the children of the Baby-Boomers are out of college.
What do the baby-boomers do now? Maybe politics, for politics have become important again as again they watch their friends die—only not from war, but from poor healthcare or abysmal social support. This situation will only get worse as the old get increasingly older, the baby boomers will most-likely have an average lifespan of over 100, they’ll need something to do with all that time. And as they’ve proven before, politics is something they’re very good at.
As you may have heard a baby-boomer icon has leapt from obscurity. Bob Dylan’s new album “Modern Times” debuted at number one and although not as overt as Neil Young’s “Living With War”, “Modern Times” is still political and very powerful.
In addition it has been reported that drug use is up among Baby-Boomers, sitting around with friends post-retirement smoking a Jay doesn’t seem so far fetched when that’s how you sat around with friends pre-employment.
Does this mean the Baby-Boomers are becoming… dare I say it… LIBERAL once again? I believe it does, in fact I think that their little (albeit 30 year) selfish, money-hoarding phase is over. I think it has to be if they want to remain members of a respected nation that allows them to grow old with respect.
I just began reading the book “The Elegant Universe” by Brian Greene as suggested by E and Nikki. I’ve really enjoyed it so far and it’s allowed me to get my head around some aspects of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity that I’ve understood only fleetingly before. I’m still early in the book (I read many books at the same time and very slowly) and already I’ve had a really revelatory moment and I’d like to share that with everybody.
As we all know time moves more slowly the faster we move. This has been experimentally proven and has been something I’ve always just accepted but never understood. In his book Brian Greene does an exceptional job of explaining this phenomenon… and it goes a little something like this, hit it:
There are three physical dimensions (up-down, left-right and forward-back). Time represents a fourth dimension, for example if I want to meet you somewhere not only do I have to tell you where (physically) but also when (where in time). Of course we all know what speed we travel through our physical universe 75 mph is common on a highway, but Einstein said we are also moving at a particular speed through time and that speed is the speed of light (I don’t think there is experimental evidence for this but there may be). So as I sit here typing this and as you sit there reading this we are shooting from second to second at the speed of light. Einstein also told us that nothing can move faster than the speed of light (there is experimental evidence for this) which means that as we sit zipping through time we are traveling at maximum speed. If we get our heads back into our more easily understood three dimensions we know that moving in one particular dimension (left-right) at five miles an hour gives us a speed of… five miles per hour. If we start moving in another direction at five miles per hour (forward-back) we have to add both speeds together to get our total speed which would be ten miles an hour. Since time is a dimension as are our other directions we need to consider the speed at which we travel in that direction (forward through time) and add that to the speed at which we are traveling through the other dimensions. So now we’re moving five miles per hour in one dimension (left-right) and we’re moving at the speed of light in another dimension (through time). To calculate how fast we’re moving we’d need to add the two speeds together which gives us the speed of light plus 5 miles per hour. Here’s the rub: We can’t move any faster than the speed of light (there is experimental evidence for this) so there is no way to add that 5 miles per hour to it. Therefore we have to slow down a little bit from our light speed travel through time, thus we move the speed of light minus five miles per hour through time, or we could say that we are moving through time more slowly than someone not moving five miles per hour. Of course the faster we go the more we need to subtract from our speed of travel through time all the way up to moving at the speed of light in which case we would have to subtract the speed of light from our travel through time which would mean that we would cease traveling through time and for us moving that fast time would stop.
That’s the big thing that I’ve learned from this book so far. I’m curious to know if any more sciencey-minded people than me find this to be a solid characterization of what occurs. Also, I’d like to know if there is any experimental evidence for the speed in which we move through time or if that’s something Einstein deduced and we just accept.
As everybody on earth knows in what has to be the fastest spreading news ever to spread in the history of the earth, Nintendo has announced that the name of the here-to-fore called revolution is to be: Wii (pronounced “we”). And everyone seems to hate it. Of all of the editorials I’ve seen on game sites most say Wii is a bad idea while others say it’s stupid. Of comments on stories about the name change 90% of them are negative (not a formal %–an estimation). Ever since I first saw the Wii controller I’ve believed Nintendo has a big winner on their hands, and the more I read about people’s experience with the controller the better I think they’re going to do. The insane amount of publicity that this name change has generated is also a bit of a coup for Nintendo–yeah, it’s mostly people saying that Nintendo has gone nuts, but it’s publicity none the less. Additionally, I like the name.
Along with the name change Nintendo published the following in their site:
Introducing … Wii.
As in “we.”
While the code-name “Revolution” expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer.
Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else.
Wii will put people more in touch with their games … and each other. But you’re probably asking: What does the name mean?
Wii sounds like “we,” which emphasizes this console is for everyone.
Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
Wii has a distinctive “ii” spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.
And Wii, as a name and console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.
So that’s Wii. But now Nintendo needs you.
Because, it’s really not about you or me.
It’s about Wii.
And together, Wii will change everything.
That’s what Nintendo had to say and I buy it. I think Wii will change everything. I also think its going to outsell the 360 within a year and PS3 will have trouble keeping up with it (even in America). I don’t expect Nintendo’s initial sales burst to maintain a market lead because I expect MS and Sony to adapt and catch up pretty effectively (the 360’s announcement about a depth sensitive camera for mo-cap is already a concession to Nintendo).
So welcome to the next great console (the last one was the DS (get brain age if you haven’t)) it’s name is Wii and it’s going to be more fun than wii’ve had playing video games in a very long time.
Recently a federal appeals court in San Fransisco has ruled that a school may ban students from wearing certain t-shirts. This case stemmed from an incident where some students were kicked out of school for wearing t-shirts that say “www.godhatesfags.com” of course my first instinct was to get to that site and see what might be interesting or inflammatory enough to get students to wear not just an offensive slogan but actually do some advertising for an anti-gay website.
I was truly surprised by what awaited me and honestly I found it pretty entertaining. Www.godhatesfags.com is the website for the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. The church was established in 1955 by the, in-my-opinion, bat-shit crazy Pastor Fred Phelps. The thing about his anti-gay philosophy is how completely obsessive he is about it. It’s apparently the only sin that he really cares about and he associates every other sin with it.
He seems to believe that not only should every “fag” be killed but that everybody in America should be killed because they are not actively killing the “fags”. His anti-homosexuality stance is so pervasive that it has become an anti-America stance. He goes as far as thanking god for soldiers dieing in Iraq because the army is infested with sodomites (news to me, but that might not be a bad recruiting message to try to boost enrollment–I’d consider signing up for sure, I’ve always found sodomites to be really entertaining to hang about with).
I want to be clear that I could not disagree with a person to a greater degree than I do with Pastor Phelps and the following quotes are in no way the opinion of myself or any member of 8&5. I’m putting them here because… well… in a way their pretty funny.
Some of my favorite quotes from www.godhatesfags.com:
“God loves everyone, the greatest lie ever told”
“Conversations on a daily basis ought to include conversations about Sodom!”
“You have got to tell your children all there is about Sodom” (same link as above)
“Going after anal-copulating fags” (also same link)
“Take a good look, America. Here are your typical fag-ass American soldiers”
“Thank God for three more dead troops.”
And my favorite headline “Scarborough Country = Brokeback Mountain“. Now I’ve seen Brokeback Mountain and when I want to hear some lies I watch Scarborough Country and although I do think Joe Scarborough could be a closeted homosexual I am sure he’s not a cowboy. I do, however, relish in the idea of him being attacked by what can only be called an extreme conservative.
Some people may find what I’ve posted here offensive, and I think they should. But we (everybody on earth) need to be aware of what a crazy guy who claims to be preaching the word of God is capable of. The beauty of Pastor Phelps is that even if you truly believe homosexuality is a sin you have to disagree with the rest of the crap he says. Thus it allows people who consider themselves fundamentalists to take an assessment of their beliefs and realize that where they thought was a solid line between right and wrong is actually just something some dude made up and perhaps they need to put some thought into why they believe what they believe.
P. S. The way Pastor Phelps seems to be limited to preaching about homosexuality and nothing else leads me suspect that he’s actually gay.
This is just a bit of a conversation Sarah and I had a couple of day’s ago regarding feminism. Nothing too profound, but there are some good observations. Sarah is nearly complete with her MFA in theatre and has approached her art from a feminist perspective ever since I’ve known her so she has become a bit of an expert on the subject and I consider myself a strong feminist as well. We talk alot about theatre and mention some plays including “Third” by Wendy Wasserstein and two by Martin McDonagh, “Six Shooter” (an Oscar winning short available from iTunes) and his great play “The Lieutenant of Inishmore”. We also touch on Shakespeare and a bit of Tarintino. We spoke while we walked through the beautiful and poor East Missoula where every house has a fence and a dog behind it, thus the barking.
The picture is from the Rythym Method Actors production of Lysistrata done here in Missoula last summer.
I’m sure we all fear and rue the inevitable knocking on the door (we’re either in the shower or our pajamas) of the occasional Jehovah’s Witness. I too have never much liked them and growing up my family would often hide out of site of the front windows and wait until they went away. I understand that I have some relatives (a great grandpa I believe) that would invite them in and proceed to argue with them for fun. It’s always something I’ve wanted to do but never really had the opportunity… until today. About two weeks ago some nice ladies came to my door and we talked about the bible for a bit and I explained how I was working on reading it out loud as an audio blog (I have yet to publish) and the more assertive of the two loved the fact that I was interested in the bible and asked if it would be ok if she came back. I said sure. This morning 4-3-06 at about 10 am MST she came back with another lady who sort of stood back and listened. As they stood outside my front door they began to really put the teeth into the intelligent design argument–and I have a big problem with this so out of exasperation I pardoned myself cleaned up the house, started my MP3 player recording and invited them in. The following is what I recorded. We got completely off the topic of intelligent design but still hit some great points and I did some pontificating that I’m particularly proud of.
Since this was so impromptu the sound quality is lacking and Vincent interjects a couple of times. For this I apologize.
Oscar vs. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Round 1
Girl Talk. Download - pay what you can. - #
Phish reunites to tour in 2009. - #
Here's a helpful and depressing tutorial on the current financial crapstorm, in cartoon form. I'm having a hard time figuring out who did the video, but it was linked to on Cosmic Variance. - #
MoveOn.org is giving away free Obama buttons. Almost 2 million ordered so far. - #
If I had married Tea Leoni and starred in film and TV with Gillian Anderson, I would have the exact same problem. How many love children do you have David? - #
