That was monotonous. But ROTK deserved it.
Not much for Fox News to froth at the mouth about; very few, mild political comments. Just Errol Morris and Sean Penn (which I didn’t hear, but was told about), if I didn’t miss anything.
Haven’t done this for a while, so here goes:
Trish Wilson has a couple polls to vote on. We’re losing on one! Go!
New World Blogger has a link from Slate about video games in countries where the enemy is your country (or something, I can’t figure out how to describe in succinctly; think Japanese playing Medal of Honor: Rising Sun). Just to point out, the Medal of Honor game sucks horribly on Xbox. But this is something that doesn’t surprise me. Too many people take these games too seriously, missing the point that it IS just a game. I’ve played violent video games for years and I’m almost a pacifist.
Bryant discusses free trade. Incidentally, there’s some kind of talk here going on right now on the FTAA. I’m lazy, so I’m here.
Mercury has a contest: create your own Constitutional Amendment!
edwardpig has a letter to his reps about the marriage amendment.
Keith is apparently trying to rid himself of Microsoft products. Not a bad idea. I’ve got Firefox for browsing and Thunderbird for email, but otherwise I’m completely beholden. I’m just not up for going Linux or getting a Mac (not that I could afford it).
Amy dives into Laci and Conner’s Law.
Sheesh, I’m missing what’s going on right in my backyard. I commented earlier on the Darby school board decision; now some students are protesting. Good for them.
Upyernoz on gay marriage.
Lord of the Rings and it’s meanings, or lack thereof.
Jesse creates the Republicons
Andante on the latest Maureen Dowd column
Smith and Wesson chairman replaced over Jesse James past
NEW YORK (AFP) – Legendary US gun manufacturer Smith and Wesson said it had replaced its chairman following newspaper revelations that he had spent up to 15 years in prison for a series of armed robberies.
…
Minder, 74, served time in prison in the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately confessed to eight armed robberies and an attempted prison escape, according to the Republic.
Goodness. Eight armed robberies and a prison break. Quite the youthful indiscretions. At least it appears that he cleaned up his act, but jeez.
I wonder if he used a Smith & Wesson?
Actually, I doubt it; I don’t think Smith & Wesson has ever made shotguns.
Go, now, read PZ Meyer’s A lesson plan for Oklahoma. Good stuff.
On a couple of the weapons, the RNC report cites H.R. 5803 and H.R. 2126. Look those up. They turn out to be votes on the House-Senate conference committee reports for the defense appropriations bills in October 1990 (the same year as S. 3189) and September 1995.
In other words, Kerry was one of 16 senators (including five Republicans) to vote against a defense appropriations bill 14 years ago. He was also one of an unspecified number of senators to vote against a conference report on a defense bill nine years ago. The RNC takes these facts and extrapolates from them that he voted against a dozen weapons systems that were in those bills. The Republicans could have claimed, with equal logic, that Kerry voted to abolish the entire U.S. armed forces, but that might have raised suspicions. Claiming that he opposed a list of specific weapons systems has an air of plausibility. On close examination, though, it reeks of rank dishonesty.
I think that’d be a good line for Republicans. Vote against Kerry, he wants to abolish the military! Then we can get Ted Sampley to put up a fake photo of Kerry with a pacifist group, which would prove he hates America.
President Bush called Tuesday for a constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage, joining a bitter dispute that is heading through the courts, dividing the nation and shaping the presidential election.
You just kind of expected it. I could rant about the hypocrisy towards state’s rights, the silliness of imposing your religion on someone else, but it’s just not surprising. It’s just ludicrous. This cartoon says it pretty well.
There’s just no argument for it, as far as I can see. Is marriage just for continuing your bloodline, as Rush Limbaugh suggested a few days ago? Only if you’re banning straight couples who can’t have kids for physical reasons, choose not to have kids, and adopt kids. Does it open the door for polygamists? I can’t see it – there’s no natural orientation towards being committed to more than one person. Against Christianity? Well, when you can ignore the command to father a child with the brother of your deceased husband, and you can ignore the command to stone adulterers, why not ignore this one? And of course, there’s the whole idea of imposing your religion on others. Are gays going to wreck marriage. Can’t do any worse than heterosexuals, specifically heterosexuals in the Bible Belt.
http://mirrored.flabber.nl/hit.the.pinguin.2/
Hit the penguin with snowball, try to get it in the center of the bullseye. Not as cool as the first one, but fun. I’ll post my high score later.
UPDATE: 490.2
If anyone remembers, a while back there was a site you could sign up for a portion of the settlement in an antitrust lawsuit against the major record labels (for overcharging consumers on CDs). Well, my check came yesterday: $13.86. Whatever will I spend it on?
Either on The Radio Factor or Limbaugh’s show, I heard this quote from Ah-Nold:
MR. RUSSERT: But if someone’s been a citizen for 20 years, they should have the right to run for president, don’t you think?
GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Oh, absolutely. I think that, you know, times have changed. I think this is now a much more global economy. I think that there’s so many people here in this country that are now from overseas, that are immigrants, that are doing such a terrific job with the work, bringing businesses here and all this, that there’s no reason why not. I mean, the key thing is it’s just that you understand the political system, how it works. And, you know, maybe people can be great contributors. I mean, look at the kind of contribution that people like Henry Kissinger has made; Madeleine Albright. I mean, there’s many, many, many people here that have worked within the government and have done an extraordinary job and not have been born in America.
Henry Kissinger?
Of course, the host of the show (damned if I can remember which show), took issue with the example of Madeleine Albright.
But Henry Kissinger?
Via Altercation:
A Wall as a Weapon
by Noam Chomsky
Well that’s new.
Sheesh, two posts in a row on Chomsky. I think you go to hell for things like that.
That is, if hell exists.
Which, it doesn’t.
