Multi Medium

Look How Tiny My Yacht Is!

Bruce Bartlett has a great column on the obscenity of the 1% complaining about how recessions hurt them more than anybody else.  Please.

Whiny self-pitying rich people, meet Cracked.

Add comment March 7th, 2012 at 07:49am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

Welcome to the fastest-growing industry of the 90s!

Hi there.  We have a message for you in voice personals.

Add comment March 5th, 2012 at 11:27am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Great Moments In Journalistic Balance

From Michel Hiltzik’s column about how 501(c)4 “non-profit” organizations are used to bypass campaign finance disclosure requirements:

I don’t mean to pick on Rove or the Republicans here; Democratic Party operatives and the Obama campaign are certain to exploit the same dodge as fundraising for the November election kicks into gear.

“I can’t actually find any Democratic examples, but I’m sure there will be some eventually.”

Add comment March 5th, 2012 at 07:54am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Friday Quote & Lizard Blogging

This week’s quote is from The Forbidden Quest, a very surreal fake stock-footage documentary about a lost Antarctic expedition:

Sea lions are creatures with a loud pain.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s bearded dragons…

Ant Crusher definitely falls well within the standard lizard skillset.

Add comment March 2nd, 2012 at 11:47am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Little-Known Facts About Government

Did you know that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department is responsible for verifying the authenticity of presidential birth certificates?

[Maricopa County Sheriff Joe] Arpaio on Thursday unveiled preliminary results of an investigation, conducted by members of his volunteer task force, into the authenticity of President Obama’s birth certificate, a controversy driven by the so-called birther movement that has been widely debunked but which remains alive in the eyes of some conservatives.

At a news conference, Arpaio said the probe revealed that there was probable cause to believe Obama’s long-form birth certificate released by the White House in April is a computer-generated forgery. He also said the selective service card completed by Obama in 1980 in Hawaii also was most likely a forgery.

(…)

“I’m not going after Obama,” said Arpaio, who has criticized the president’s administration for cutting off his federal immigration powers and conducting a civil rights investigation of his office. “I’m just doing my job.”

And there you have it.  He wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true, right?

Add comment March 2nd, 2012 at 07:46am Posted by Eli    Permalink

The One Topic On Which Pat Buchanan Is Good

The money quote:

How have Americans benefited from all this war? How have the Chinese suffered these 20 years by not having been in on the action?

Excellent questions, for which I have yet to hear answers.

Add comment February 29th, 2012 at 07:56am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Mo’ Monday Media Blogging

Amazing what you can do with just 12,000 sheets of construction paper…

(h/t Laughing Squid)

Add comment February 27th, 2012 at 07:24pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

Probably my favorite Sparks song:

Add comment February 27th, 2012 at 11:27am Posted by Eli    Permalink

The New Elitism

Apparently wanting everyone to have the benefits of a college education is the height of snobbery now.  I’m sure Rick Santorum’s anti-sex, anti-education message would go over really well in a general election.

Add comment February 27th, 2012 at 07:30am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Obama’s Cunning Plan Revealed

Obama’s former budget director Peter Orszag accidentally spills the beans:

A weak labor market, like the one we’ve experienced since the financial crisis in 2008, imposes enormous stress on people. Given the added anxiety created by a weak economy, you might think life expectancy would decline. Oddly, though, during recessions, exactly the opposite tends to happen: Life expectancy rises.

Now we know: Obama’s stimulus was actually a stealth death panel!  Why does Obama hate Grandma so?

Add comment February 23rd, 2012 at 07:07am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Tell Me Again Who The Moochers Are?

Ah, the delightful Chris Christie.  Such a breath of fresh air:

During a discussion with CNN’s Piers Morgan about tax rates, Christie made it known that he’s just about had it with Buffett, the world-famous investor who lent his name to a proposed tax hike on the rich.

“He should just write a check and shut up,” Christie said. “I’m tired of hearing about it. If he wants to give the government more money, he’s got the ability to write a check — go ahead and write it.”

So… in other words, Warren Buffett should give up more of his money to pay the freight for less-wealthy individuals who don’t want to contribute their fair share?  Isn’t that exactly the sort of thing Republicans are always complaining about lower down on the income scale?

Add comment February 22nd, 2012 at 11:27am Posted by Eli    Permalink

The Outsider

First it was former House Speaker and K Street lobbyist historian Newt Gingrich calling himself a Washington outsider, now it’s Rick Santorum:

Rick Santorum told a crowd of Arizona Republicans today that he was “an outsider when he was inside” Washington, arguing he fought corruption and wasteful spending during his 16 years in Congress.

(…)

Santorum said that despite his time serving both in the House and Senate, he was never part of the Washington establishment.

“When we came to Congress, we came and we shook things up to its very core,” Santorum said about himself and former Rep. Frank Riggs, who now serves as the campaign’s Arizona state chairman.

From Santorum’s own campaign website, right before his list of legislative accomplishments:

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 at the age of 32, and from 1995 to 2007, served in the US Senate.  In 2000, he was elected by his peers to the position of Senate Republican Conference Chairman.

The number three leadership position in the Senate Republican caucus doesn’t sound very “outsider” to me, but what do I know.

Add comment February 22nd, 2012 at 07:25am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Future Devices Like These Could Affect You In The Future

Here’s an interesting little tidbit from Engadget:

Well, it turns out Ubuntu now runs on multi-core Android devices and your handset can grant a full desktop experience when docked with a display and a keyboard. It’s a customized version of Ubuntu that plays nice with Android, the two OS’s sharing data and services while running simultaneously. So, you can still access telephony and texts from the Ubuntu environment while enjoying all the computing capabilities it has to offer, including: Ubuntu TV, virtualization tools for running Windows applications, desktop web browsers, and Ubuntu apps built for ARM. It isn’t clear exactly what hardware you’ll need to run Ubuntu on a handset, but Canonical has said it works on multi-core devices with HDMI and USB connections.

As the owner of a multi-core Android device, this certainly piques my interest, but other than the Oh Cool! factor, being able to connect my phone up to a keyboard and monitor doesn’t really buy me much unless it’s in the form of one of those Atrix-style laptop/docking stations.  Which means that this opens up a whole new market for third-party manufacturers to start making generic docking stations that any multi-core Android phone can use.

I don’t know if they necessarily will, but they can.  I’m pretty sure a bunch will make a go of it, but I can’t predict how successful they’ll be.  I know I would definitely be interested in being able to turn my phone into a netbook running a full-fledged (or close to it) desktop OS which can access the internet from pretty much anywhere.

It’s a funny thing: It used to be that smartphones ran scaled-down mobile OSes because they had tiny displays and nowhere near enough power to run a desktop OS.  But now modern smartphones have dual (and soon quad) core processors, and even GPUs, that give them more than enough power to run a desktop OS.  They just don’t have the screen real estate to display it (or in most cases, a keyboard to interact with it).  With a bit more RAM, they could probably even run Windows 7.

So if you have a phone with netbook-class internals (or better), then why not give it the ability to actually be a netbook when the occasion arises?  If my phone yearns to spread out and become a PC every once in a while, then who am I to deny it?

Add comment February 21st, 2012 at 06:33pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

This is simultaneously horrifying and awesome.

Wow.  Just… wow.

2 comments February 20th, 2012 at 11:11am Posted by Eli    Permalink

B&W Berkeley Duct Photoblogging

More Berkeley industrial grunge.

Add comment February 17th, 2012 at 11:29am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Thomas Sowell Sure Has Our Number

If only progressives could be as humble as conservatives, who are always so willing to admit that they don’t have all the answers, especially when spouting lies and outright nonsense.

I guess this is why only Democratic governments produce unintended consequences like endless military quagmires, increased Muslim extremism, and economic collapses.

Add comment February 17th, 2012 at 07:19am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Right-Wing Nuts Can’t Understand Why Mitt Romney Won’t Listen To Them

Perhaps Mitt is looking past the primaries and ahead to the general election, when being the NewsMax/Fox News/Weekly Standard candidate is just maybe not as great an asset as they think it is.

Add comment February 16th, 2012 at 07:31am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Wanker Of The Day

Shorter Rick Santorum: I’m not familiar with that quote because I put my wife to work writing the chapter about how women shouldn’t work.

Add comment February 14th, 2012 at 07:58am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

Sparks is (are?) just terribly under-appreciated.

Add comment February 13th, 2012 at 11:27am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Fair Is Fair

If the anti-taxes, anti-spending conservatives can tell pro-tax billionaires to voluntarily pay the government more money, then surely we can tell them to voluntarily forgo all the government benefits they’re sucking up, right?

Add comment February 13th, 2012 at 07:54am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Friday Quote & Porcupine Blogging

This week’s quote is from one of the Coen Brothers’ best films (which is saying something), Miller’s Crossing:

He’s just a cheap political boss with more hair tonic than brains.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s porcupines…

Teddy is awesome.

Add comment February 10th, 2012 at 08:16am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Wanker Of The Day

Obamacare shill Jonathan Gruber, on Bell Curve author Charles Murray’s latest book about the moral decay of working class white America:

Charles Murray took the economic concept of moral hazard – the concept that if you reward people for bad behaviour then they behave badly – and turned it into prose. Reading the book moved me a notch to the right. It posed a challenge to liberals – to get more rigorous in our analysis. It showed the simple facts didn’t look so good for us and that we needed to address questions like, “Is welfare causing women to become single mothers?” Murray really challenged the way I thought.

What about questions like “Are bailouts and deregulation causing corporations to become more reckless and criminal?”  Or “Are lax campaign finance laws giving politicians more incentive to betray their constituents than to represent them?”

Add comment February 8th, 2012 at 07:23am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

Conclusive proof that the 1980s were the ultimate pinnacle of American civilization.

Also, New York Giants Superbowl champs WHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Add comment February 6th, 2012 at 11:31am Posted by Eli    Permalink

More B&W Berkeley Factory Photoblogging

More grungy industrial goodness.

Add comment February 6th, 2012 at 07:06am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Friday Quote & Cat Blogging

This week’s quote is from Overnight Delivery, which I have absolutely no recollection of watching…

And when I went home, I looked up the word “remiss.” That’s when I knew I was in love.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s throwing cats…

Fetch: You’re doin’ it wrong.

Add comment February 3rd, 2012 at 07:21am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Not Concerned

Well, this should certainly help Mitt with his image as an uncaring 1% patrician…

“I’m in this race because I care about Americans,” Romney told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien this morning after his resounding victory in Florida on Tuesday. “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.”

“I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation.”

It’s kinda hard to believe that he has any intention of fixing the poor’s safety net if he’s not concerned about them.  Not to mention the fact that he is, well, a Republican, and cutting up the safety net is kind of what they do.

Also apparently the very poor are not the heart of America, and are not struggling. (True, he says the very rich aren’t the heart of America either, but unlike the poor they have our entire political system at their beck and call, so I think they’ll be okay.)

Add comment February 2nd, 2012 at 07:26am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Funny How That Is

Why is it that when it comes to spending, no cut is too petty or small for Republicans, yet when it comes to taxes, any increase that doesn’t instantly wipe out the deficit in one stroke isn’t worth the bother?

Add comment February 1st, 2012 at 11:23am Posted by Eli    Permalink

The New Birtherism?

This little snippet jumped out at me from a story about how Republicans hate Obama’s decision to defer a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline because he hates America:

Add comment February 1st, 2012 at 07:23am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

New York Magazine was kind enough to compile 90 seconds of highlights from Lifetime’s Drew Peterson movie. Having watched the whole entire epic, I can assure you that, yes, it really is that awesome.

Now if only someone would do the same for Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus, Mega Piranha, and Return Of The Living Dead 5: Rave To The Grave.

Add comment January 30th, 2012 at 11:30am Posted by Eli    Permalink

B&W Berkeley Industrial Photoblogging

Further proof that Berkeley has factories and stuff.

Add comment January 30th, 2012 at 07:45am Posted by Eli    Permalink