A Collection of Odd.

Before We Watched Them - Watchmen Prequels

2012-02-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

Before We Watched Them - Watchmen Prequels

I wouldn't be a self respecting comic book nerd if I didn't comment on this within 24 hours of the breaking news of it. But it seems that DC just can't keep from beating a dead horse. You see, they're getting the Watchmen team and getting the band back together for BEFORE WATCHMEN

This summer, DC Entertainment will publish all-new stories expanding on the acclaimed WATCHMEN universe. As highly anticipated as they are controversial, the seven inter-connected prequel mini-series will build on the foundation of the original WATCHMEN, the bestselling graphic novel of all time. BEFORE WATCHMEN will be the collective banner for all seven titles, from DC Comics.

“It’s our responsibility as publishers to find new ways to keep all of our characters relevant,” said DC Entertainment Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee. “After twenty five years, the Watchmen are classic characters whose time has come for new stories to be told. We sought out the best writers and artists in the industry to build on the complex mythology of the original.”

Stepping up to the challenge is a group of the comic book industry’s most iconoclastic writers and artists – including Brian Azzarello (100 BULLETS), Lee Bermejo (JOKER), Amanda Conner (POWER GIRL), Darwyn Cooke (JUSTICE LEAGUE: NEW FRONTIER), John Higgins (WATCHMEN), Adam Hughes (CATWOMAN), J.G. Jones (FINAL CRISIS), Andy Kubert (FLASHPOINT), Joe Kubert (SGT. ROCK), Jae Lee (BATMAN: JEKYLL AND HYDE), J. Michael Straczynski (SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE) and Len Wein (SWAMP THING).

BEFORE WATCHMEN includes:

RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Each week, a new issue will be released, and will feature a two-page back-up story called CURSE OF THE CRIMSON CORSAIR, written by original series editor Len Wein and with art by original series colorist John Higgins. There will also be a single issue, BEFORE WATCHMEN: EPILOGUE, featuring the work of various writers and artists, and a CRIMSON CORSAIR story by Wein and Higgins.

“The original series of WATCHMEN is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell. However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire,” said Dave Gibbons, WATCHMEN co-creator and original series artist.

“Comic books are perhaps the largest and longest running form of collaborative fiction,” said DiDio and Lee. “Collaborative storytelling is what keeps these fictional universes current and relevant.”

I'm not even going to start with the obvious question of "WHY?" in this, let's just jump over to the meat of it and talk about how there's a lot of talent wrapped up in this summer thing that no one except the DC executives ever asked for.

They got Azzarello on all the correct characters and I can see him doing a solid job on it. I sort of hate myself for wanting to read that Darwyn Cooke book as well because let's face it, I love Cooke's work. Then you have Amanda Conner on Silk Spectre? But then I realize that they put JMS on a book and any optimism I had is shattered yet again and I'm just assuming that it's going to be laughably bad and laughably late.

At the very least he's got nothing to worry about with sharing his toys during a cross-over event. Then again, JMS couldn't handle Superman, how the fuck does anyone think he's going to do anything but suck when he's asked to write for a guy experiencing every moment of time at once. I'm not sure who cried out for more poorly-conceived social commentary, but hey, you got it. But let's see what JMS has to say in this interview right here.

I sort of hate that there's so many top creators involved in this, because I really want to just flat out hate the idea on so many levels. And yet I still feel compelled to read an issue or two from those creators/writers/artist that are amazing. Darwyn Cooke on this? Yeah, I didn't expect that. JMS jumping on something like this.... and then jump directly off it 3 issues into a failed piece of work.

And of course, it's always good to know what the creator himself has to say about the matter. Though, if you know who Alan Moore is, you probably already know what he has to say about the matter. Mainly it's all grumpy old man yelling at the kids to get off his lawn. His lawn being Watchmen.

Mr. Moore, who has disassociated himself from DC Comics and the industry at large, called the new venture “completely shameless.”
Speaking by telephone from his home in Northampton, England, Mr. Moore said, “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.”
“As far as I know,” he said, “there weren’t that many prequels or sequels to ‘Moby-Dick.’ ”

Now I'm pretty sure comic fans are behind Moore on this one, but then there's those who think that Moore should shut up. And not because he just compared Watchmen to Moby Dick, but because in this case all he needs to do is shut up and let everyone else do the screaming for him.

I generally dislike when people claim that DC or comics are out of ideas as it comes off as really being smug. but he's pretty much objectively right in all this. Was there anyone who really wanted this? I don't even mean it will suck flat out, but why make it to begin with? I can't imagine what this will give us that I would even remotely care about.

Maybe if this was still 2009 and there was a movie on the horizon, this would be a good idea. I'd probably be more receptive to the idea. Rope in some new readers in with some fleshed out background on the characters, why not. But what are the odds that a prequel to a 25-year-old story is really going to bring in new readers?

Not to mention that Watchmen was already full of flashbacks to the characters' earlier days and filled in all the significant events of their lives. I don't see what prequels would accomplish. You know, aside from making money.

And even if Alan Moore gets up and yells at DC comics to get off his lawn, isn't Moore going to just go back inside and finish writing his commercially successful Dracula/Jules Verne/Robert Louis Stevenson/Arthur Conan Doyle/James Bond/Tijuana bible mash-up fanfiction? So you can say that he has no reason to complain about others using his work.

You sort of lose that ability when you yourself use characters such as Ishmael and Broad Arrow Jack, specifically from the example book you say has been respected enough to remain untouched by later authors. It is sort of difficult to say words against this when you built your career taking other people's creations and adding sex and violence to the subject matter.

Though that argument of "Well, Alan Moore does the same thing with other people's characters!" isn't really being fair to him. He generally offers radical reinterpretations of familiar characters, or incorporates characters in the form of new scenarios. None of his works are meant to be taken as Dracula II or Before Mr. hyde. So I give that point to that one group.. yeah. And there really is a distinction between creating a prequel in another creator's sandbox and incorporating and reinventing existing characters in new concepts of your own devising requirements come out.

The problem also is that the characters in Watchmen aren't very interesting as characters outside of the thematic context that they're presented in, as their backgrounds have already been adequately fleshed out in the original work, and their original use was almost entirely as tools to push ideologies on others. I just can't imagine that there is anything really interesting left to say with these characters aside from putting them in cool plots and bitchin' action scenes. Oh wait, can't forget the revealing clothing.

Everything that you needed to know about Rorschach was portrayed in the original book. Are we going to get an origin story about his cold beans habit? Oh god.. we are, aren't we? Well then, I guess I can't wait to read the story of how the Comedian knocked up the Vietnamese woman who he would later gun down......

...Oh...Oh God this is going to be in the story isn't it?

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised by this. Or maybe the surprise should come in the form that it took so long for this to happen. DC owns the property, which is one of the most successful in comic book history. Why wouldn't they want to try to capitalize on that? Creative control and proper use? pffft! All of the creative teams seem pretty solid except JMS. Because again, I have no interest in Doctor Manhattan walking around the country spouting Tea Party bullshit and then telling Rorschach that he doesn't fight enough street level crimes. But other than that, I guess it really is amazing that DC took this long to figure out that they can cash in crazy beating that dead horse some more.

Starting Black History Month

2012-02-01T14:12:00.000-08:00

Starting Black History Month

As I'm sure you'll be well aware of, February is Black History Month. It's the time of the year that we look at all those colored folks and honor their fight so that cracker spics like me wouldn't call them colored.... or worse. And yet here we are.

Seriously though, you often get a brief history lesson about Martin Luther King and then listen to his speech. The ones that aren't socialist as fuck, and then you'll move on to Rosa Parks and I'm sure Barry H. Obama. Cause he is all hope and change. But what about the Black History that you don't know?

Take for example Malcolm X.

Oh, you think you know Malcolm X. Mainly because of a film. But do you really? Do you really now?

Malcolm Fuckin X.

I'm about to drop some knowledge on your ass about Malcom X, yo. Because I bet you didn't think this dude owned a whole lot, well you probably did, but he owns a lot more than you probably think.

In 1943, the U.S. draft board ordered Little to register for military service.[29] He later recalled that he put on a display to avoid the draft by telling the examining officer that he could not wait to "steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers."[30] Military physicians classified him as "mentally disqualified for military service".

According to recent biographies, Little occasionally engaged in sex with other men, usually for money.[27][28]

In late 1945, Little returned to Boston. With a group of associates, he began a series of elaborate burglaries targeting the residences of wealthy white families.[31]

And apparently Malcolm wasn't all that fond of religion

While in prison, Little earned the nickname of "Satan" for his hostility toward religion.

But I guess he came around..

When Reginald came to visit Little, he described the group's teachings, including the belief that white people are devils. Afterward, Little thought about all the white people he had known, and he realized that he'd never had a relationship with a white person or social institution that wasn't based on dishonesty, injustice, greed, and hatred. Little began to reconsider his dismissal of all religion and he became receptive to the message of the Nation of Islam.

He also developed a love for books in prison, where he was sentenced for robbing white folks. Reading and his new religion made prison like NOTHING for this badass.

"Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life."[48]

I mean, knowing what I know about our shitty prison system, that's pretty hardcore.

The FBI had opened a file on Malcolm X in 1950 after he wrote a letter to President Truman stating his opposition to the Korean War and declaring himself to be a communist.[59]

Beside his skill as a speaker, Malcolm X had an impressive physical presence. He stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed about 180 pounds (82 kg).[62] One writer described him as "powerfully built",[63] and another as "mesmerizingly handsome ... and always spotlessly well-groomed".[62]

So Malcolm almost murdered all of the god damn cops when a few nation of Islam Muslims were arrested.

By this point, about 4,000 people had gathered; the police realized there was the potential for a riot and called for backup. Malcolm X went back into the police station with an attorney and made bail arrangements for the other two Muslims. The police said Hinton could not go back to the hospital until he was arraigned the following day.[67] Malcolm X realized things were at a stalemate. He stepped outside the station house and gave a hand signal.[67] The Nation of Islam members in the crowd silently walked away. The rest of the crowd dispersed minutes later. One police officer told the editor of the New York Amsterdam News: "No one man should have that much power."[67][68]

Boy did he pissed off some more crackers at that point.

The following month, the Bureau of Special Services and Investigation of the New York Police Department (NYPD) began its surveillance of Malcolm X. The NYPD's Chief Inspector asked for information from the police department in every city where Malcolm X had lived, and from the prisons where he had served his sentence.[69] In October, when a grand jury declined to indict the officers who had beaten Hinton, Malcolm X wrote an angry telegram to the police commissioner. In response, undercover NYPD officers were placed inside the Nation of Islam.[70]

So he was buddy buddy with Fidel Castro.

Fidel Castro arrived in New York to attend the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He and his entourage stayed at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Malcolm X was a prominent member of a Harlem-based welcoming committee made up of community leaders who met with Castro.[83] Castro was so impressed by Malcolm X that he requested a private meeting with him. At the end of their two-hour meeting, Castro invited Malcolm X to visit him in Cuba.[84]

He was one globe trottin' foolio.

During the General Assembly meeting, Malcolm X was also invited to many official embassy functions sponsored by African nations, where he met heads of state and other leaders, including Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, and Kenneth Kaunda of the Zambian African National Congress.[85]

What we need is another Malcolm X.

Malcolm X also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, and instead advocated that black people use any necessary means of self-defense to protect themselves.[91] Malcolm X's speeches had a powerful effect on his audiences, generally African Americans who lived in the Northern and Western cities, who were tired of being told to wait for freedom, justice, equality and respect.[92] Many blacks felt that he articulated their complaints better than the civil rights movement did.[93][94]

Malcolm X was equally critical of the civil rights movement.[104] He described its leaders as "stooges" for the white establishment, and he once described Martin Luther King, Jr. as a "chump".[105][106] He criticized the 1963 March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington".[107] He said he did not know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive".[108]

Fuck all these lame rappers these days, Malcolm invented Vote or Die.

In April, Malcolm X made a speech titled "The Ballot or the Bullet" in which he advised African Americans to exercise their right to vote wisely.

At that point he left the nation of Islam and shit started to get all ignorant.

As early as February 1964, a leader of Temple Number Seven ordered a member of the Fruit of Islam to wire explosives to Malcolm X's car.[148] In September 1964, Ebony published a photograph of Malcolm X holding an M1 Carbine and peering out a window. The photo was intended to illustrate his determination to defend himself and his family against the death threats he was receiving.[149][150]

Then he got shot and died.. and they named a street in Harlem after him. There. And while this whole thing is just literally a summary of his Wikipedia article, it's well worth checking out and learning more about this man, especially in Black History Month.

Shit Videos Say...

2012-01-31T14:15:00.000-08:00

Shit Videos Say...

And since there's still some life into this horse worth beating out of it, here's the final shit I will post about this stupid meme and I pray that it gets so beaten into the ground that it stays fucking dead. Just like it should stay.

Because really, these are god damn unfunny and super racist when you factor it all into it.

As a feminist, I have to say this one is just.. well, let's just see it.

So yes.. there. Hopefully the horse.. it be beaten to death. Fuck this meme.

I May Or May Not Get Some Tacos

2012-01-30T01:43:00.000-08:00

I May Or May Not Get Some Tacos

In a surprise situation the other week, Mayor Maturo defended four police officers who were charged for using excessive force against immigrants as the reporter asks "What are you going to do for the Latino community today?", you know, in light of the situation and the Mayor response with...

Why yes.. I have spent 2 years in Puerto Rico, I can spout out any bullshit I want to. He actually said those things. It's literally amazing that someone could talk like that and be completely confident with everything they are saying as if it was nothing at all.

It reminds me of a person I know who tries to excuse their blatant racism against other minorities by saying that they dated the race. As if that's a legitimate excuse for anything. But heya, that whole interview is beyond hilarious. What's even more hilarious is that he won his election by a simple 34 votes.

Though, where he hits the bingo on all his comments is when he talks about the racism he experienced as an Italian. Uuhhh, whites experienced racism, didn't you ever hear of Irish need not apply? Though I guess what I'm getting at is that saying Eating tacos isn't an appropriate response to the police brutalizing immigrants and this fucker should realize that.

One can only hope that he goes to a little Mexican cantina and I just pray to Jesus Christo that they saw this and made proper preparations for him. Maybe I just hope that he's killed by an angry mob. Or even a happy mob. You know, however they're feeling is really fine with me. Just make sure it's very mob-life and I'm good with that.

Or even worse, I hope he eats at Taco Bell and feels really bad. Like, you know, how I usually feel after eating Taco Bell. Though I wish the reporter mentioned how Taco Bell isn't Latino at all. Or, you know, how tacos are associated with Hispanics and not Latinos.

This whole thing is like an episode of the Office, but a lot more horrible in every way. So I guess it's just like the office but in a different way.. Or maybe I just don't know what's up and this kid needs to own me on this matter...

Well, I can't deny that many Mexians enjoy tacos. Why sure, stereotypes are true, so says the white person. I mean, look at what else he said;

most of the mexicans that matter, the ones working and being exploited, theyre too busy to think thats offensive

I have a dream. That one day a tiny Latino boy can go down to Wendy's, hand-in-hand with a white girl, and get a taconator super double combo deluxe with extra mayo and no tomatoes....

But hey, at least they did eventually give him his tacos.. cause you know he wanted them and now he has them.. all 2,000 of them.

An immigrants' rights group in East Haven delivered thousands of tacos to Mayor Joseph Maturo's office the day after he made comments that many are calling insensitive. In response to his commentary, reform immigration for America delivered more than two thousand tacos to his office along with a message
"We just delivered 500 tacos to the mayor's office as a visual of all those across the country who are outraged by his careless remarks," the group posted on their website earlier in the afternoon.

The group encourages those who found the mayor's comments offensive to text TACO to an automated number in order to send a taco to Mayro Maturo's office this week. They say that as of this morning, they'd gotten more than 3,300 texts.

Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut called the comments "racially insensitive", "repugnant" and "unacceptable. The mayor later apologized for his statements, saying that he was tired after a long day.

But, Reform Immigration for America says that's not enough. They'll continue delivering a taco for every text they receive.

"But what's happening with the tacos!?," you may be wondering. The group said earlier today that they'd arranged for them to be donated to a local food pantry -- a plan that they say the mayor is now trying to take credit for.

In a press release published today, Maturo said, "Recognizing that there are many in need in our State, we have arranged for all of the tacos to be donated to local soup kitchens and pantries."

I have to find it a bit sad though that the Mayor is trying to take credit for the tacos going to a food shelter. Either way, fuck this asshole.

You'll Die Alone

2012-01-29T02:32:00.000-08:00

You'll Die Alone

A lot of people fool themselves into relationships, especially during this time of the year with Valentine's Day so close, mainly because of the fear of being alone. I'd wager that it has a lot to do with more than just the fear of being alone, but with the fear of dying alone.

Why? Well, if you die alone it's more common that you have this notion that you will not be remembered. And in the end, isn't that what really matters? You can kill a person but you can't kill an idea after all. What they don't tell you and what we all know is that even though you can't kill an idea, it's pointless if it's not remembered.

And really, that's the biggest fear. Why the leaders erected great big statues of themselves to achieve godlike status. To be remembered. Because it's true. You can't kill an idea, but you can let it die out and never be forgotten.

It's no wonder we put our names on a tomb on a grave. Not for us. But for anyone who crosses paths with it in the future will read our name and even if that's all that's left, it's still something to last as a memory.

So when I post these pictures of mass coffins being put into the ground, I'm pretty sure it creates some sort of fear in the back of your mind. You really don't want to end up like this. That's why you get married. That's why you have a big family. So that you can have people around you for a long time and to remember you. To send you that Christmas card. To call you up on your birthday.

No one ever really wants to die alone.. Let alone have an unmarked grave. It's probably considered one of the saddest things to see an unmarked grave because you realize.. no one knows who's there.

Do you know what these are? It's the poor people. The box they're carrying in the above picture contains 24 stillborn fetuses. Yeah, tragic. I know. But it goes to show that even the poor need some respect when they die. It's what shows we are human. The ability to mourn for the loss of life. Even if we didn't know them. You can't just leave them out in the field. Which is probably where they died.

To be perfectly honest, I sort of want to be buried anonymously with 3 dozen strangers when I die. It doesn't sound all that half bad. At the very least I wont be lonely... in theory. But nah, I really just want to be burned or have a natural burial.

Just toss me on a boat, cover it with gas and other flammable items and just let me burn into to ocean forever. Die how I lived, all washed up.

Shit White People Shit...

2012-01-28T14:01:00.000-08:00

Shit White People Shit...

Didn't I tell you that we weren't done with this subject? True to my word. We're not. How about we look at the other side of the coin in what black girls think whities act like in Shit Girls Say To Black Girls

Ij these videos, a black woman caractures a white girl. She hits on a lot of things that black women experience. Stuff about hair, things about black men and what not.

This video is titled Shit White Girls Say to Arab Girls

These aforementioned videos address the racial ignorance of white people, but it's always based on a white female. That is not fair to white women at all. And Women in General.

It's not just gender and race they tackle, but also sexuality:

Then again, there's always the real dark side to all of this shit....

Unionized Teachers? Pfft, Fuck'em

2012-01-27T13:19:00.000-08:00

Unionized Teachers? Pfft, Fuck'em

Kentucky sounds like an interesting place that I will eventually want to drive through and spend a couple of days in seeing what it has to offer. Especially Harlem County. I mean, who doesn't like a little moonshine and U.S. Marshalling? I guess the one thing that Kentucky doesn't like is unionized jobs. Specifically those teachers. And who can blame them? I mean, they are ruining our youth and making them dumber. Know a great idea? Let's take money away from them!

When Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) proposed his 2012-2013 budget this week, he admitted that it was “inadequate for the needs” of the state’s people. “We should be making substantial investments in our physical and intellectual infrastructure to bring transformational change to our state,” Beshear said. “This budget does not allow us to do enough of that.”

Beshear’s assessment of his own budget is, unfortunately, correct. The budget makes $286 million in cuts, including a 6.4 percent cut to a higher education system that has been plagued by funding cuts and rising tuition for years. And though it attempts to preserve K-12 education funding, it will result in less spending on Kentucky’s students and schools, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports:[indent]
Although the main funding formula for K-12 schools wouldn’t be cut, population growth means spending per student would decline. Also, education officials say the current year’s population estimate was low, resulting in a cut of more than $50 million to that funding formula.

At the same time, the $43 million tax break Kentucky approved for a Bible-themed amusement park — which will include a 500-foot by 75-foot reproduction of Noah’s Ark — could go into effect for the first time under Beshear’s budget. In addition, the budget includes $11 million to improve a highway interchange near the park. Proponents of the park, Beshear included, have claimed it will boost tourism and create jobs, but those assumptions are based on a report done by the park’s developers.

While Beshear’s budget isn’t guaranteed to pass as proposed, it will likely go through mostly unchanged. Unfortunately, that means lawmakers could jeopardize Kentucky’s substantial gains in K-12 education and ensure ballooning tuition rates at its colleges and universities, all while they preserve tax breaks for what critics have dubbed the “Ark Park.”

It's odd that they're suggesting that we should be making substantial investments in our physical infrastructure to bring transformational change to the state.. Oh gosh, if only there was some sort of, like, governor, that could change that. Boy, that'd be hell of a lot more helpful, wouldn't you think?

But hey, fuck that I can't wait to visit the creation museum and the ark park in the same weekend. All thanks to Steve Besher (D), again... that D stands for democrat.

You know, why don't they just get it over with and replace all public education with Youtube lectures and web form standardized tests. Like those self checkout deals at the supermarket. Recess can be replaced by 30 minutes of xbox a day to cut down on grounds keeping and supervision. All you'll need then is like, 1 or 2 IT guys and maybe a few security guards and janitors to mop up the piss and droppings from this future rat cage.

Or fuck it, why the hell not turn the kids into janitors. After this piss poor education, one union janitor can be turned into 30 child janitor slaves. It's a win-win for everyone involved, especially a nice way to shit on top of those union jobs once more.

Just more fuel to add to the fire that is my stance that teachers are the least respected profession anyone can pick and I doubt this country will change its view on them as anything but the enemy that is keeping our kids "dumb" anytime soon.

To all you teachers out there, know that not everyone doesn't appreciate what you go through. Sadly Kentucky is going to be added to the list of places that just doesn't care..

You Wont Have Lucas To Kick Around Anymore

2012-01-26T14:36:00.000-08:00

You Wont Have Lucas To Kick Around Anymore

And on this day I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in relief and were suddenly silenced on who they could bitch about. For you see, George Lucas turning off his light saber and calling it quits. Retiring from this crazy rat race we call the industry..

“I’m retiring,” says Lucas. “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.” Rather the Star Wars creator is reputedly returning to the kind of esoteric art films which he has eschewed since his feature debut, THX 1138, failed to find any kind of meaningful audience.

It’s a potential move which has already found favour with the producer of that debut flop, Francis Ford Coppola – the Apocalypse Now director remarking, “Now that [Lucas has] demonstrated hos commercial moviemaking abilities, it’s time to show his other side.”

The source of this change of direction in his autumn shade could be interpreted as Lucas feeling he has achieved all he ever wanted to achieve with Red Tails. Or it could be he is sore that his WWII actioner was passed over for distribution by the major studios, with him being left to pick up the cost; with this and the production budget taken into account, the endeavour is reckoned to have cost him just shy of $100m.

So Lucas is retiring. I'm not sure how one can really retire from something they haven't been doing much anyway. You know his role was simple to stamp something with the "Cannon" or "non-cannon" stamp and just sit back while the checks came in the mail. That was fox's biggest problem, they only got distribution rights. So whenever a new version of the film comes out, it may not be due to Lucas wanting to show how it was originally intended by in fact to give Fox some new cash flow.

It's also not as if Lucas was actively making many movies. This whole notion that Red Tails was the film he's been trying to make for 20 years is crazy. Well, he may have wanted to, but at any time he could have. Remember, this is a man who used model X-wings to create what was the best damn space dog fight in film history. What exactly was he waiting for to make Red Tails?

Not to mention that we should just throw it out there, Red Tails may have been his passion film, the film that once ignored and overlooked in the January dumping ground was the straw that snapped this camel's back, but the marketing for it was horrendous at best..

Why yes, who would think that it was a good idea to add Dubstep music to a World War II period piece, why not.

So this victory can be said it's one for the books. The underdog finally overtook the evil empire. Much like how the Ewoks kicked the ass of the evil oppressors and how those snowed in rebels destroyed those AT-AT on Hoth.

But speaking on Hoth, can I get my nerd rage on for one second? Well, not so much nerd rage but nerd confusion. You see, when I was looking back at that in Empire Strikes Back, the film that everyone seems to think is the best of the series due to "the bad guy winning", some little flaws occurred to me.

"THAT ARMOR'S TOO STRONG FOR BLASTERS!"
*Blast cockpit of fallen walker, it explodes*

But to be fair, I'm pretty sure that young Skywalker disabled its shield with his strategically placed lightsaber strike somehow. For some reason as a child it all made sense to me that the AT-AT had been weakened by that fall. And sure enough from Wookieepedia, which I'm not sure if they went dark last week for SOPA

"The walker's strong external durasteel armor was virtually impervious to all but the heaviest of artillery weapons.^[6]^[9]
The most vulnerable part of the walker was a weak point found at its flexible neck, which was susceptible to lighter blaster barrages. The legs were also somewhat unstable and could be tripped, leaving the walker defenseless.^[2] While first appearing to be a slow, lumbering vehicle, the AT-AT would often times be on top of its enemies before they knew what had hit them.^[7] The AT-AT also lacked armor covering on its underbelly, leaving the spot vulnerable to mounted guns or portable missile launchers. To remedy this weakness, AT-STs were usually stationed around the flank of the walker to ensure nothing was given a clear shot at the AT-AT's weak underside.^[9]"

Don't you get it?! The shot from the Rebel pilot that destroyed the downed AT-AT was cleary in the above-mentioned weak point. That shot was probably made in celebration and the pilot probably had no expectation that it would have had such an explosive effectiveness.

The statement that Luke Skywalker made about the armor's resistance to blaster fire was made in the heat of a heretofore unseen battle against the best ground force in the galaxy, which until this point was deemed unstoppable. No army or group before it had faced a squadron of Imperial AT-AT's and survived, much less discovered their weaknesses or destroyed any of them. It is unreasonable to hold him canon accountable as at the time of his statement the Snowspeeder's mounted blasters seemed to be quite useless against such a mighty power.

It is amazing that the Rebels were able to down as many walkers as they did before the fortress was toppled. Especially given their own forces and the historical nature of the battle. This was a first, and without the skill, talent, ingenuity, and luck of people like Skywalker, the Rebel Alliance would have surly fallen on that cold day. So maybe I should show a little more respect to the matter. I know.

But all this does remind me that when I was a child. No, I mean literally a child, I bought all the Star WARS technical manuals and tech specs for all sorts of junk in the Star Wars universe. Which were basically these books where they did faux diagrams and tech specs for ships that will never see the light of reality from the star wars universe and they were chock full of fluff text. They basically served no purpose but to fill my child brain with idiot thoughts about space lasers.

I do wonder if I can submit those as patents and just fuck with Lucas even more. I mean, what does he care, he's retiring after all.. Or at least that's what he says. Even though he is working on the small screen with a new Star Wars program. Which they did let slip some info regarding.

They made it known that the Star Wars TV series was going to be set after episode 3 and highlight the underbelly of Corescant. Yeah, just what the Star Wars universe needed, a fucking CSI: Crime solving series set in the sci-fi universe. As if CSI doesn't already deal enough with science fiction when it comes to solving crimes.

It's perfectly fitting to put that after the prequels, you know, considering the high stakes awesomeness that the prequels brought in terms of political diplomacy and what not..

Detective Comics - New Logo

2012-01-25T14:18:00.000-08:00

Detective Comics - New Logo

Wait, Detective Comics? Really? You didn't know that DC stood for Detective Comics? Sure enough, the comic label that brought you a man in blue tights that can fly as well as a detective who likes bats is named after the genre of comic stories it told. Detective crime stories.

Which makes you wonder why they have a name that is pretty redundant. It's like saying ATM machine. The machine is already included as the M of ATM. And yet we have Detective Comics Comics. In any case, over the decades they've constantly changed their logo. And it appears it's time to do another regeneration of the DC logo that appears on the top left of the comics

We didn’t want a static logo, but a living identity that could capture the power of our characters and storytelling,” says Amit Desai, senior vice president of franchise management. “What is special about DC content is the notion of a dual identity. When you think about our DC Comics superheroes, there’s a secret identity. When you think about Vertigo, it’s this notion of good vs. evil in many of the stories. And so, in addition to flexibility, the new logo communicates this idea of dual identity: There’s more than meets the eye. You have to take a closer look to understand the richness of our characters and stories.

I have to say, that black and white version just does not do the comic logo justice. Compare that to the old logo and you're really left wondering who was behind this change as the old version looked dynamic on the printed page

So I guess you can take the first reaction after seeing this black and white version, which had to be black and white for the patent and copyright process as color doesn't matter. Or if you submit it with color then it ONLY includes a patent for the logo in that specific color.

But my first reaction to this was that the new DC logo looked so goddamn generic. I mean, it looks like a peeling sticker. DC should be more than that and should have something iconic with two whole letters. Much like how their logos appeared in the past.

But then you realize it's not for the printed books. As anyone in the industry can tell you, they're just about worried that the printed work is all but dead. The future for comic books is in digital. I'm sure this new logo has more roots for the future of digital than anything else. Just look at the designs again. This time with color and with their themes going on for each comic title.

I can honestly say that I can get behind the Green Lantern version. And suddenly with seeing it in color, I'm much more okay with the new logo. I was worried it was just going to be gray and boring or just non-existent blue and white. The whole 'dynamic logo' thing is actually pretty good when you see it in motion.

It also adds a new element to the books. Especially when it comes to digital as the new logo is going to be animated on the digital content. Like we'll see the D and it will peel back to show the C and end in the static image we see here

I mean, it still looks like a symbol for a paper processing company. Nothing really is "energetic" or "fun" about the static image of it. And I have to wonder on if DC is trying to bring back the 90's so much with the hiring and pimping out of Liefeld, why they just didn't go back to their old 90's logo?

So what can we expect this to look like on the comic page?

As you can see, it may look cool on digital comics, but on the actual printed stuff, it's going to look a little.. well flat. Not to mention that while the green lantern one looks neat, the Batman one just looks like it's generic. Oh, scary, some fog...

In the end, this doesn't effect the story and unless the new DC logo is the main villain of the next mega event, it's not going to have any effect and will be socially accepted into the comic world, even if it has to deal with a little good nature ribbing.

Come five to ten years from now when they change the logo yet again, I'm sure people will be complaining that they're changing it. Even if they hated it. Because in the end, that's what us comic folks do. We complain.

Mega-Mega-MEEEGA-UPLOAD!

2012-01-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

Mega-Mega-MEEEGA-UPLOAD!

A couple of days ago I mentioned Megaupload getting shut down and the CEO, Kim Dotcom, getting arrested for it. After realizing that he named himself that I had to look him up, because really, what kind of man renames themselves that after starting an uploading website?

Sure enough, this is what I found....

And I can't help but laugh my ass off at this. That has to be one of the gooniest motherfucking nerdy internet nerds around. Yeah, sure. He is making hundreds of millions, but at least I have some self respect. Enough to not call myself Kim Dotcom.

So what exactly does the feds have on him? Oh that will surprise you...

- The US government is clinging to evidence that Megaupload's owner, Kim Dotcom, shared the song "Nah" by 50 Cent featuring Mobb Deep in 2006. Seriously. This is one of their major claims. "On or about December 3, 2006, KIM DOTCOM distributed a Megaupload.com link to a music file entitled “05-50_cent_feat._mobb_deep-nah-c4.mp3."

- Kim is a resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand. He is also a citizen of Finland and Germany.

- According to the US government, Kim made $42 million off of Megaupload in 2010.

- Private emails between Megaupload employees make it very clear that they were were running an illegal operation but didn't really care. In one exchange, an employee wrote, “We have a funny business... modern days pirates” to which another responded, “We’re not pirates, we’re just providing shipping services to pirates”

- Megaupload spent $2.4 million on yacht rentals in June 2011 alone.

- The US is looking for at least 14 Benzes, a Predator statue, two 108 inch TVs, a Seadoo, a 1957 Cadillac, a Maserati, and a Mini Cooper.

-Kim owned a Rolls Royce Phantom with a license plate that read "GOD." Some of the tags on his other cars included: GUILTY, STONED, GOOD, CEO, MAFIA, and HACKER.

Ha ha ha ha ha, the fucker is probably the most out there person I have seen. Just look at those pictures. Most of all, look at those charges they got him on. But favorite picture of these has got to be this one:

Just look at that. Kicked back in his private plane... sippin on orange juice... flashing his digital watch...

It's just the best picture ever. I mean, I would probably comment on being health conscious, but then I think of all the people exploited for rich peoples' fads and just realize that this dude just really liked orange juice. Which is sort of funny because you don't expect that to be the thing someone with a private plane would like.

Black may be slimming, but it's not THAT slimming, bro. And while I thought the picture goodness couldn't get any better, sure enough this nugget dropped:

Would you check that out? And above all else, I can't help but notice that gourmet sauce dish filled with ketchup to the side of his plate. Which leads to the question of WHY?! As far as I can tell it's fried plantain slices. But is the ketchup for the slices or for the steak? And what the fuck is up with the coca cola? Coke with some steak? You would expect a rich dude like this to have coke.. just not THAT coke.

What sort of place is this? Well, I guess a $100 head restaurant's reaction to someone ordering "burger and fries and a coke" must be strange, but then again, I don't think they really care. It's more likely that this restaurant caters to wealthy diners and specializes in ripping them off, as if they're on a cruise ship or in a resort town.

But that still doesn't explain the facial expression. I'm trying very hard to give this guy credit and pretend that's just a poorly timed photo, but after a while I am having difficulty figuring out why anyone would ever make that face when they're not completely out of breath.

Which leads to the only conclusion I can deduce... He rant out of breath while sitting down. He's like a less grotesque Kevin Smith. I mean, this guy doesn't actually wear Jorts, after all. It sort of reminds me of a morbidly obese Doug Funny, if you are old enough to remember that Nicktoons gem.

Happy New Year

2012-01-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year

Wait, aren't I a good 23 days too late in telling you this? NOT IF WE'RE GOING BY THE MOTHERFUCKIN' CHINESE CALENDAR, YO!

Happy Year of the dragon. Being that I am a year of the monkey, I have no idea what any of this actually means. But since I post daily I figure that it's well worth digging into and letting you find out about why the Chinese just keep their old calendars for a few more weeks than we do.

You see, they too have 12 characters in their calendar, only they're animals in the order of Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Sadly cat was fooled that day by rat and didn't make it to become one of the zodiac symbols. These 12 Zodiac symbols cycle through every 12 years and it just depends on what year you were born that will be your Zodiac animal.

So what does the Dragon mean? Well, it's a water dragon. Which means that each year is an element-metal zodiac and this being water it goes with water, wood, fire and earth. The water calms the dragon and it is a year where we can see other points of view. The Chinese believe that the dragon is unpredictable and untouchable. All of this is pretty meaningless when you think about it. But it's nice to think about so there you go.

On this day you tell each other Gung Hay Fat Choy as it means best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year in Cantonese and is the proper way to greet people on New Year's Day.

Now what do you have to do to have a successful new year? No resolutions required here, just a simple check list of things to do:

1. Clean your home before the new year's day as it washes away the dirt of the year before.
-This is a lot like NYE for everyone else. Only it's puking it all out that gets rid of the bad of the year before.

2. Buy new clothes, get a hair cut, and shoes, for a fresh start in the new year
-Time to go to Chinatown to buy some cheap knock offs!

3. A red piece of clothing for the New Years brings good luck because it is the color of luck
-I always said this. One of the main reasons why I'm so darn attracted to redheads.

4. Prepare something sweet for new year's day. It helps bring sweet things to the year.
-Also diabetic comas.

5. Remember that the Chinese New Year is considered as the new beginning, which literally means, let bygones be bygones.
-It means that all those bridges you burned since your last reset on January 1st are now back to being good.

6. Red paper on your door will bring you luck. Chinatown sells the lucky red New Year's paper for doors, but if you can't get to Chinatown, a nice piece of red paper will do.
-Red on the doors for the Jews wasn't so lucky..

7. On New Year's Day, we are not supposed to wash our hair because it would mean we would have washed away good luck for the New Year.
-So go out and party with that stinky unwashed hair.

8. Go to Chinatown for the Dragon Dance and firecrackers. Firecrackers scare off the bad spirits so that only good spirits will begin the New Year.
-Don't rush out today. The celebration happens on Saturday.

So there you have it folks, Gung Hay Fat Choy!

It's Such A Perfect Day...

2012-01-22T13:24:00.000-08:00

It's Such A Perfect Day...

Just a perfect day,

Drink Sangria in the park,

And then later, when it gets dark,

We go home.

Just a perfect day,

Feed animals in the zoo

Then later, a movie, too,

And then home.

Oh it's such a perfect day,

I'm glad I spent it with you.

Oh such a perfect day,

You just keep me hanging on,

You just keep me hanging on.

Just a perfect day,

Problems all left alone,

Weekenders on our own.

It's such fun.

Just a perfect day,

You made me forget myself.

I thought I was someone else,

Someone good.

Oh it's such a perfect day,

I'm glad I spent it with you.

Oh such a perfect day,

You just keep me hanging on,

You just keep me hanging on.

You're going to reap just what you sow,

You're going to reap just what you sow..

McDonalds McBites

2012-01-21T17:26:00.000-08:00

McDonalds McBites

It's pretty funny that I don't have to do anything to that title and it comes out sounding like it's insulting McDonalds in some shape. Thanks Ronald, you made my job a whole lot easier today.

In any case, this is how long it has been since I touched a McDonalds product. I didn't even know that McBites existed. And why should I? It's not to sound like some prissy person who just snubs their nose at fast food, but let's face it, I have not had the itch to try shitty fast food for a long time.

To add to that, there already exist the notion of chicken in bite size form. It's called a chicken nugget. So when I saw a poster for McDonalds McBites and it looked like just round chicken nuggets, I was confused as all fuck. But sure enough, McDonalds McBites exist.

With rising beef and dairy prices forcing McDonalds Corp. to raise menu prices on Big Macs and other offerings, the world’s largest fast food chain is trying to find tasty alternatives for frugal shoppers.

The latest creation? “Chicken McBites,” a fried snack that is being billed as crispier than conventional chicken nuggets. The so-called popcorn chicken has been rolled out in Detroit, and comes with a variety of dipping sauces and starts at just $1.99.

But will consumers eat up the item, or will the simply see it as a way for McDonald’s to cut out meat to beef up margins?

It’s worth noting, too, that McDonald’s has made other recent attempts to expand its chicken menu. Late last year, McDonald’s began testing spicy chicken sandwiches by introducing Jalapeño Cheddar and Cheddar Onion McChicken varieties in San Diego. The sandwiches are being sold in other markets in California and, this week, were made available in Texas.

The article says a lot. The focus point should be that with Beef prices rising this is their solution. Sounds pretty funny if you ask me. A place known for its burgers is just going with the chicken items when times seem lean on beef.

Or is it that this is just another move McDonalds is making against the ever expanding Chick-Fil-A. I mean, what next, will McDonalds come out and say that they hate the gays as well? They copied Chick-Fil-A's sweat tea concept, "healthy" chicken sandwich option and now they're going after the Chick-fil-a looking chicken nuggets option?

But back to the real issue here. Why the fuck does McDonalds even need this? Again, they already have Chicken Nuggets. Was there really demand in the market place by people who felt that they weren't fully able to commit to eating a whole chicken nugget and thus needed, nay, demanded that McDonalds fill their request for a smaller, bite size breaded chicken option?

Someone answer me that because I'm really confused on the matter. What sort of conditions have to exist that you take something already small and you make it even smaller? I know the craze for sliders has been wild and makes everyone just stop and want to spend even more money on less meat products. Which I guess I still don't get, but hey, it's out there and I will gladly critique that when it comes to places like Burger King making slider options.

And even then, I can somewhat understand those a little more because if you get three small burgers that all have different flavor profiles or items in them, then at least you're sampling three different meals opposed to chicken bites, which is the same breaded and fried chicken flavor bite after bite. Only difference is that you need to take more bites or pay more for less meat.

Hell, Chicken Nuggets don't even get you laid anymore.

A Los Angeles woman was arrested on suspicion of prostitution after she allegedly offered sexual favors in exchange for Chicken McNuggets, Burbank police said.

Khadijah Baseer was seen opening customers’ car doors in a McDonald's drive-through on the 1700 block of Olive Ave. late Wednesday night, Officer Joshua Kendrick told the Burbank Leader.

A customer told police that Baseer asked for free Chicken McNuggets in exchange for sexual favors. The man said he declined the offer.

You know, I could probably make a lot of funny comments about that, but I'm choosing to not touch that one with a ten foot pole.

In the end, it's a stupid choice by the consumer and I can only pray that they go away. Though knowing the masses, it'll be a hit and McDonalds will take it away, at best, to create some buzz and hype around it ala the McRib.

Shit Shit Says To Shit

2012-01-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

Shit Shit Says To Shit

If you haven't been on Facebook or just about anywhere internet Memes exist lately, I guess you haven't been exposed to the latest craze that your friends are talking about. Which is "Shit _____ say to _______"

It's this new rage over on youtube with the kids these days. The thing that interests me the most is how people express how they see other races or genders. Or in many cases both. It's a hard and honest look at how someone sees someone else. In many instances it's not very flattering and in many instances the videos are played by actors who aren't of said gender or race.

Many of them aren't very funny. Not to sound like the old grumpy man who yells to his neighbor's kids to get off his lawn, but they aren't. Though I'll fully admit that some of them are. In fact, some of them, if you are around the environment, makes you relate to them. For other's, you may not be able to relate at all.

The whole meme started with this video, titled "Shit Girls Say"

As you can see, it is a man dressed as a woman portraying his views on how women are, in a comedic fashion. And because it was incredibly popular, it spawned copies left and right. Here is "Shit Black Girls Say":

It's pretty much the same thing as Shit Girls Say, but uses black female stereotypes. Oddly enough, for both videos, there are women that relate to it or find it funny. (I have to admit I laughed when he said "I always cry during the Color Purple", because I always cry during the Color Purple.

Another theme in these videos is the idea of giving oral sex and how the women deny it.

For the "Shit Black Girls Say", they make fun of physical abuse. Not funny. Then there's probably the only and best one out there. Shit no one talks about..

Or maybe Shit Cat's say

But perhaps someone should make "shit guys say girls say" by re-uploading the original video with that title changed. It could be very easy to make a Shit Assholes Say:

"I know! I'll make a video that stereotypes an entire group of people of some other gender/race than me and put on the 21st century equivalent of a minstrel show and it will be a youtube sensation because there's nothing funneir than tired-ass racism and misogyny."

Oh.. don't think we're done with this subject..

The Aftermath of a Blackout

2012-01-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

The Aftermath of a Blackout

Now anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time may know that I can come across as being.. well, a bit cynical. But I have to wonder if it's me being cynical or was Google and Wikipedia's "Strike" against SOPA in a sense laughably half-assed?

Like, at no point could you NOT use either service. As reported in yesterday's post, a slew of websites including Wikipedia's own site offered you ways to get around the blackout. Google's was especially shitty. They changed their logo and that's it. They seem to change their logo all the time anyway so I don't pay attention to that sort of things. Not to mention that if you're a chrome user you never even have to go to Google's homepage anyway since you can just type whatever it is you are looking up in the URL bar.

And even though Wiki's was better than Google's effort, It was all trivial anyway. I mean, yeah, it got maybe a handful of the attention of the few casual internet users who didn't already know about SOPA/PIPA. So on that account, Wikipedia did a better job at it.

Way to go nerds.

And yeah, it got around 13 senators to drop support in a day. So maybe it was a success on that aspect and did some work in spreading the message. In the end, the goal was just to raise awareness, and it did that. Maybe I'm just taking it too far. I'm a bit of an extremist. Maybe full on blocking the page would have taken would-be supporters and made them enemies.

Perhaps in your next attempt you should link this video to everyone you know to better educate them on the matter.

And while it was a success in spreading the word, is anyone else disconcerted by none of these protest actions being directed at the RIAA, MPAA at all? Everything was "write your senator" or "Call your rep," but nobody was talking about, say, boycotting movies or trying to address the real heart of the matter - intellectual property owners want to get paid for their shit, yo.

Basically everyone thinks that SOPA was the government's idea when this kind of action has been pushed before by the usual anti-piracy suspects and basically the only real push-back came from similarly large corporate entities.

What's the old saying? The fish rots from the head. So perhaps instead of cutting off the rotting pieces of the fish's body, we should cut off the head. Because as it stands, if I'm an RIAA stooge right now, I'm not sweating this protest much at all. There's no heat on me what so ever and there's no reason to be mad. Well, other than the fact that a handful of people not paying to watch my shit movies really really bothers me.

You have to admit, the whole movement avoiding that common sense is a bit weird. On the bright side, MPAA's twitter is basically a bunch of hilarious flailing about. You have to wonder how much hate mail and hate tweets they get. The scary thing of all this is the big picture being missed. This isn't the first time that the RIAA/MPAA has tried to do something like this and it's not going to be the last. All they have to do is get Google or Micorsoft to flip on their stance and go along with their lobbyist and once that happens it's curtains for the freedom on the internet.

Just look at what happened to MegaUpload..

MegaUpload Shut Down by the Feds, Founder Arrested

MegaUpload, one of the largest file-sharing sites on the Internet has been shut down by federal prosecutors in Virginia. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom and three others were arrested by the police in New Zealand on request of US authorities.

An indictment unsealed today by the department of justice claims MegaUpload has cause the entertainment industries more than $500 million in lost revenue.

Just a few weeks ago MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom told TorrentFreak that his Mega ventures have nothing to worry about, as they operate within the rules of the law.

“Mega has nothing to fear. Our business is legitimate and protected by the DMCA and similar laws around the world. We work with the best lawyers and play by the rules. We take our legal obligations seriously. Mega’s war chest is full and we have strong supporters backing us,” Dotcom said.

You have to laugh a little about that name. Kim Dotcom. That's utterly amazing. That's like something a child would come up with. What's the president of Window Washer's incorporated? Why that's David Squeegee. But hey, at least it saves you the problems of having to work with Kanye West...

Swizz Beatz has Sean “Diddy” Combs, Kanye West and Will.i.am in hot water with their label by getting them to promote his site, MegaUpload. The CEO of the Internet company, Beatz — also a recording artist, producer and DJ — persuaded the stars to appear in a “Mega Song” video promoting his service, intended to send large media files. The catch is the music industry has been fighting against file sharing, accusing the services MegaUpload offers of supporting piracy.

there's a bunch more info here now http://torrentfreak....ut-down-120119/

I'm guessing that RapidShare must be terrified right now. It's so absurd that the Big Scary Number they cite is $500 million in lost revenue and generated $175 million "in criminal proceeds." Now let's see.. 500 million.. Compared to 7,700,000 million banks stole from the government.

All this just looks a lot like a criminal version of Viacom suing YouTube. With the exception of MegaUpload failing to remove copyrighted content per requested, if the indictment is to be believed.

At this point, I'm just wondering if someone can let me know when I should start wiping my hard drive of all non-legal content, that'd be swell.

I know this is vaguely related, but it's well worth noting. The Supreme court said that you can now re-copyright public domain works.

Congress may take books, musical compositions and other works out of the public domain, where they can be freely used and adapted, and grant them copyright status again, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

In a 6-2 ruling, the court said that, just because material enters the public domain, it is not “territory that works may never exit.” (.pdf)

The top court was ruling on a petition by a group of orchestra conductors, educators, performers, publishers and film archivists who urged the justices to reverse an appellate court that ruled against the group, which has relied on artistic works in the public domain for their livelihoods.

They claimed that re-copyrighting public works would breach the speech rights of those who are now using those works without needing a license. There are millions of decades-old works at issue. Some of the well-known ones include H.G. Wells’ Things to Come; Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and the musical compositions of Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky.

We may have won one for freedom yesterday, but it seems that they won one as well.

For all of you who are wondering how this was actually going to stop online piracy? You know, because a DNS blacklist wouldn't stop torrents, or p2p files sharingnetworks, or usenet, or ftps, or really anything that matters. It wouldn't. People would just be pushed into using shady DNSes that don't follow the law, which means that they could run their own phishing scams on you where you type in facebook.com and end up at their phishing fake site without any real way to tell that anything's wrong. That's one of the litany problems with the bill.

In all, the purpose of this sucker is to enable holders of intellectual property and those connected to them to harass people hosting websites with objectionable content on a whim--it will make piracy more annoying and troublesome for those who are used to typing Piratebay on their URL space while facilitating the censorship of political speech.

At this point, I honestly don't think the internet can be meaningfully censored, it's like part of its design principal.

The Great Internet Blackout...

2012-01-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

The Great Internet Blackout...

I guess this is one for the day, because while I support the black out in an attempt to get awareness of a serious issue out there, it seems like a lot of sites are just using the blackout as a means to market and plug their own site.

For example, take a look at the social media today DOT com. I'm not sure if this will last for long, or even past today, but they have blacked out their website.. specially at a point where they give you tips on how to browse wikipedia DOT ORG without the blackout.

That somehow seems counter productive to the cause. But maybe that's just me. In fact, a lot of places are running with this story of how exactly to get around Wikipedia's blackout. As if, you know, they still want to look up misinformation for their term papers but at the same time support said cause.

Those wondering how to get around the Wikipedia SOPA blackout can breathe a little easier: the crowd-sourced encyclopedia is still available through mobile versions, disabling Javascript or translating another language's version of it.
So really folks, there's no need to panic. You can still look up every little curiosity that crosses your mind if you try to following options (it helps if you have a smartphone or tablet):

Then again, Wikipedia gives directions on its own page on how to get around the blackout. So really, it's just sort of odd to see how a protest movement like this could just be created to make a statement, and then you can completely ignore the statement as anything more than just a minor inconvenience. Isn't this cause a bit more important that it could get a week's worth of blacking out. You know, to show what exactly is at risk.

Or perhaps that's why these sort of movements may work on paper or may delay it for a while, but in the end, it's still going to come. Big lobbyist money is still pouring in left and right against the cause and seeing as how the internet can't be bothered to do it for more than 12 hours, it seems like people just don't give a shit about it enough to sacrifice their convenience for the cause. Even if they already know the well advertised methods around it.

Then again, I'd imagine that a longer black out would cause a real loss in network traffic and that wouldn't make the website much money. Even if you could get around it by some little net hacking tricks. But the fact that I'm seeing this used as a marketing ploy is just all sorts of disturbing when I think about it.

Not to mention when I see people actually call the internet being on "strike". Why yes, an organization doing a thing that will cost them virtually nothing at no risk to anyone is far from what I would consider being on strike. The idea of a strike moving away from something that humans are doing to protest and enact change to something a corporation is doing to white knight for the people, but mostly protecting itself sort of scares me.

Mind you, not as bad as the fact that our government is trying to censor free speech because a bunch of intellectual property owners are losing a couple of bucks here and there due to piracy, but still, this whole thing scares me.

But hey, at least it's getting the message across to those who aren't aware of it..... oh what the fuck! Come on people, you can't be THIS stupid..

DaynaDelmastro Dayna Delmastro
Aight so congress is fuckig retarded? What the fuck do i do without google and wikipedia before midterms?

legaedtke luke gaedtke
Anybody want to explain in real people words what this SOPA thing is all about? I would just Wikipedia it but it is shut down... #confused
58 minutes ago

Zoe_Bentham zo bentham
But seriously, what's SOPA and why is Wikipedia gone? #confused

_dumbobee ♐Fuck You All
OMG I WANNA DO ENGLISH ISU BUT WIKIPEDIA ISNT WORKING :@@@@@@@@@@@@@
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

teebixtches Tiara Rosa-Lyn Oki
#wikipedia used to be my nigga, but fuck him

Riltoro Rilwan Toro
What the Fuck is SOPA and why are they trying to mess with Wikipedia

BeliebInCady Hooligan & Belieber♛
WIKIPEDIA IS PISSING ME OFF. IM TRYING TO LOOK SOMETHING UP YOU GAY ASS CUNTS

Oh, and on a comical note. I noticed that Demonoid took part of this SOPA blackout. Which is sort of odd considering the nature of the website. You see, I thought the point of the protest is that SOPA would censor legitimate websites while at the same time do nothing to prevent piracy. So isn't Demonoid shutting down for the day actually supporting SOPA then?

SOPA and You - The Internet Should Be Free

2012-01-18T01:11:00.000-08:00

SOPA and You - The Internet Should Be Free

As if you were going to be surprised on which side I came down on this one. Even if I get a paycheck from a Hollywood studio, I just can't fathom any reason why we should take steps towards a world like China and block, limit or restrict where and what people see on the internet in America. We are, after all, home of the brave and land of the free.

But with that said, I'm going off the assumption that you even know what the fuck I'm talking about when I say SOPA or NDAA is. Maybe I'm just giving the readers of this blog enough credit to follow current affairs. Especially ones that effect places like REDDIT and WIKIPEDIA.

Today you may notice that Wikipedia is currently down. I'm sure you found that out when you were trying to fact check something for your just started class project. The BBC news headline I read stated: "Wikipedia to shut down in anti-piracy protest".

Not to nitpick, but it does kind of make it sound like they're protesting piracy and not anti-piracy laws. Which again, is what all of this is about. Wait for it, I'll explain it soon enough.

So what is SOPA?

SOPA = anti-internet-piracy law that will allow for blanket shutdowns of sites with file sharing content. i think that's right anyway. the big internet companies (google/twitter/facebook) are freaking out over it and now internet people are trying to build momentum against it

NDAA = routine defense funding bill with a cool section that explicitly re-authorizes "enhanced interrogation" and allows the military to indefinitely detain terror suspects anywhere in the world, including us citizens on us soil. the original bill required the military to do this but i think that part was softened in the Bi-partisan Compromise

When you think about it, the entire process regarding SOPA is so fucking absurd. I mean, let's face it, the walls are crumbling and the lights are dimming and the world is in chaos. What do they do? Wring their hands about Mickey Mouse's intellectual property rights.

This is a list from Opencongress on those outside groups that supported SOPA:

AFL-CIO
Motion Picture Association of America
Independent Film & Television Alliance
National Association of Theatre Owners
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc.,
National Music Publishers' Association
American Federation of Musicians
Directors Guild of America
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Screen Actors Guild
National Cable & Telecommunications Association
Recording Industry Association of America
Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies
Comcast
NBC Universal
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
National Association of Manufacturers
Concerned Women for America
Viacom
National Criminal Justice Association
National District Attorneys Association
Council of State Governments
International Trademark Association
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
International Association of Fire Fighters
U. S. Chamber of Commerce
Americans for Tax Reform
Let Freedom Ring
Outdoor Industry Association
National Electrical Manufacturers Association
Ford Motor Company
Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association
Underwriters Laboratories Inc.
Society of Plastics Industry
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council
Software & Information Industry Association
Entertainment Software Association
American Association of Independent Music
Eli Lilly and Company
Merck
Specialty Equipment Market Association
Universal Music Group Inc.
Pfizer
Association of American Publishers
News Corporation
Xerox Corporation
Walmart
Dow Chemical
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
National Confectioners Association
Estee Lauder Companies
Sony Pictures Entertainment
CBS Corporation
National Basketball Association
Greeting Card Association
Advanced Medical Technology Association
Beam Global Spirits &Wine
Sony Music Entertainment
Adidas America
Acushnet Company
ABRO Industries, Inc.
1-800-PetMeds
1-800 Contacts, Inc.
Blue Sky Studios, Inc.
Bose Corporation
Warner Music Group
Major League Baseball
Burberry
Electronic Components Industry Association
HarperCollins Publishers
Kekepana International Services
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
Nike, Inc.
Taylor Made Golf Company, Inc.
Timberland Company
Time Warner
Sporting Goods Manufacturer's Association
3M Company
National Retail Federation
Retail Industry Leaders Association
Viacom
Philip Morris International
National Association of Broadcasters
Disney
MacMillan
Center for Individual Freedom
National Governors Association
National Football League
International Union of Police Associations
Graphic Artists Guild
International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition
United States Tennis Association
Associated Builders and Contractors
Christian Music Trade Association
National Narcotics Officer's Associations' Coalition
Elsevier
Ultimate Fighting Championship
United States Conference of Mayors
Church Music Publishers Association
Major County Sheriffs Association
Visa
Copyright Alliance
American Federation of Television & Radio Artists
International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees
National Songwriters Association
Minor League Baseball
Coalition Against Online Video Piracy
Letter of Council
Capitol Records Nashville
Church Music Trade Association
American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers
Country Music Association
Country Music Television
EMI Christian Music Group
Lost Highway Records
Gospel Music Association
MCA Records
Mercury Nashville
Provident Music Group
Republic Nashville
Showdog Universal
Sony Music Nashville
UMG Publishing Group
Warner Music Nashville
Word Entertainment
BMG Chrysalis
BMI
Cengage Learning
EMI Music Publishing
L'Oreal
Hachette Book Group
Publishers Worldwide, Inc.
Hyperion
McGraw-Hill Education
MPA - The Association of Magazine Media
Pearson Education
Penguin Group
Perseus Books Group
Random House
Scholastic, Inc.
W.W. Norton Company
Wolers Kluwer Health
True Religion Brand Jeans
National Sheriff's Association
COTY, Inc.
Major City Chiefs
National Troopers Coalition
National Center for Victims of Crime
National Domestic Preparedness Coalition
Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies
National Association of Fusion Center Directors
National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
Association of Talent Agents
Council of the Better Business Bureau
State International Development Organizations
Beachbody LLC
Tiffany & Company

Now you're probably wondering who opposed it: Specific Organizations Opposing H.R.3261

Creators’ Freedom Project
Engine Advocacy
4chan
Boing Boing
Creative Commons
Daily Kos
Disqus
Grooveshark
Hype Machine
Kickstarter
MetaFilter
O'Reilly Radar
Techdirt
Torrentfreak
Go Daddy
NetCoalition
Consumer Electronics Association
Computer and Communications Industry Association
Public Knowledge
Electronic Frontier Foundation
EDUCAUSE
Open Internet Coalition
Bloomberg
Google
Yahoo
Center for Democracy & Technology
Business Software Alliance
Twitter
Zynga
Facebook
AOL
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square
Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and Hunch
David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo!
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post
Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube
Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive and co-founder of Alexa Internet
Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal
Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist
Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay
Biz Stone, co-founder of Obvious and Twitter
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation
Evan Williams, co-founder of Blogger and Twitter
Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!
Progressive Change Campaign Committee
Tumblr
Mozilla
Union Square Ventures
MoveOn
Wikimedia Foundation
eBay
Men's Rights Advocacy Forum
American Civil Liberties Union
Consumers Union
American Library Association
Computer & Communications Industry Association
Human Rights First
Consumer Federation of America
Human Rights Watch
Microsoft
United States Student Association
Irregular Times
TechNet
Information Technology Industry Council
Association of Research Libraries
Entertainment Consumers Assocation
Writers Guild of America, West
Reporters Without Borders
Freedom House
Association of College and Research Libraries
Competitive Enterprise Institute
TechAmerica
TechFreedom
Demand Progress
U.S. Public Interest Group
Internews
New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative
Center for Media Justice
Center for Rural Strategies
Brookings Institute
American Society of News Editors
Benetech
Rackspace
OpenDNS

For the longest time I thought this wasn't much of an issue because SOPA was no way in hell going to pass and even if it did, it'll basically just set the stage for Google to kick off the corporate revolution to overthrow the US government.

And sure enough, we did it.

In a surprise move, Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA) announced that he will stop all action on SOPA, effectively killing the bill. This move was most likely due to the huge online protest and the White House threatening to veto the bill if it had passed. But don't celebrate yet. PIPA (the Senate's version of SOPA) is still up for consideration.

Sure enough, we win, right? Ha! Nah. PIPA is still alive in the Senate with 40 co-sponsors. It's just a situation of everybody knows SOPA, so let's just use PIPA now to get the same lobbyist to their final destination. And what does PIPA mean?

The Piss In People's Ass Act.. No, wait. That's one too many A's at the end. Hell if I know. You should just realize that it's something the intellectual property owners came up to fuck you out of your internet signal and free ability to pirate shit. And why shouldn't it pass? Every other law to help entertainment industry groups collect rent off other people's work has passed and their former lawyers have appointed positions at all levels of society to make sure it happens.

I know someone who is studying law and is taking a "constitutional law: individual rights and liberties," class. Which I guess is kind of like going to veterinary school and studying about unicorns.

For the time being for the rest of the day, if you try loading up Reddit, Wikipedia and hundreds of other websites today, it'll come up for just a split second before the blackout page shows up. But if you hit escape in that second, it stops loading and you can browse at your leisure...

So hey, you can cruise the net still. it's just a matter of making sure that this doesn't pass. Though even if it does, there's always Obama to carry out our hopes and change.. and veto this potential bill... right?

VETO the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information

"the more freely information flows; the stronger that society becomes" President Obama http://tiny.cc/rh5b1

By allowing free conversation it is so easy to drop a link

http://i.imgur.com/TD4Kq.jpg

It would be ridiculous for an ISP to block the entire whitehouse.gov domain on court order because a single user posted a link. It is difficult for any web administrator to know which links to copyrighted material are done with permission. This will kill the free flow of information and conversation on the internet.

SOPA is too blunt. Please veto.

Then again, I have as much thought that Obama would give any shit about any of this and I fully expect him to sign it all away the moment it comes to his desk. You know, to save up those political points and all.

I'm Justified

2012-01-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

I'm Justified

Tonight marks a brand new season of the FX show Justified coming back. Oh boy how do I enjoy that show. It's got all the marks I love. Trigger happy law men, Hillbillies, Moonshine, and it's all filmed in Santa Clarita. Can't get anymore Kentucky than that in Southern California.

So what is Justified? It's a modern-day western based on characters created by Elmore Leonard. The series was created by Graham Yost, who worked on Boomtown and had a hand in Band of Brothers.

The series is centered around U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (played by Timothy Olyphant, who got an Emmy nomination and a TV IV choice award for his performance last year). Raylan's a throwback to the 19th century's brand of lawman; he's cool and collected, at least on the surface. (As his ex-wife Winona explains to him, "You're the angriest man I know.") He's also got a fast gun and a true aim. He will shoot you dead if you pull a gun on someone you're not supposed to, and he will sleep soundly afterwards. He's the kind of guy that gives a Miami mob boss 24 hours to leave town, and guns him down after he fails to comply (even though the gangster pulled first).

After this stunt, Raylan is transferred from his plush post in Miami to one in Lexington, which oversees his old home of Harlan County. Harlan County might as well be the Wild West; years of distrusting authority has bred an environment of lawlessness and poverty. Of course, that makes Raylan the perfect man to come in and clean it up, one little bit at a time.

The primary conflict of the series is between Raylan and Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins, The Shield), though "conflict" is an odd word to describe their situation. Raylan and Boyd were best friends who worked in the mines, escaping some hairy situations together. After Raylan left town, Boyd followed in his father's footsteps and became a crime lord, leading a group of neo-Nazis in all sorts of criminal misadventures, usually involving a rocket launcher. (Boyd does not believe in the Aryan ideology; it's really a front that gets him attention.) However, the events of the pilot kick off a strange, fascinating journey for him, and both Raylan and Boyd tend to find themselves working toward similar goals, by different means and for different reasons. Boyd really is a funhouse mirror image of Raylan, and their interactions are often the best part of the show.

And after getting hooked on the show, you'll probably want to read more about these characters. The character is introduced in Pronto and Riding the Rap, but the star of those books is arguably the crafty aging bookie Harry Arno. As mentioned before, Raylan's big story is "Fire in the Hole", which can be found in Leonard's collection When the Women Come Out to Dance.

Also, Leonard wrote a new Raylan Givens novel, ten years after the publication of "Fire in the Hole". Raylan is currently scheduled to come out on January 31st. So join me, if you will, in drinking some Apple Pie and watching some Justified on FX.

Want To Avoid Minorities? There's An App For That

2012-01-16T00:43:00.000-08:00

Want To Avoid Minorities? There's An App For That

So you're some white kid who just moved into the city and now you're afraid to leave your house because of all those scary minorities. Well, don't worry about that. There's an app to help you avoid all of them.

With the grant of their US Patent #8090532 Microsoft may be attempting to corner the market on GPS systems for use by pedestrians, or they may have opened a fertile ground for discrimination lawsuits. We won't really know until actual devices incorporating the designs in this patent begin to appear.

Described as a patent on pedestrian route production, the patent describes a two-way system of building navigation devices targeted at people who are not in vehicles, but still require the use of such a device to most efficiently route to their destination. Microsoft feels that this patent addresses an unmet need for assisted navigation on foot.

Loosely the patent breaks down into three categories; gathering data, analyzing data and user requirements, and route generation. For example, the user inputs their destination and any constraints or requirements they might have, such as a wheelchair accessible route, types of terrain they are willing to cross, the option of public transportation, and a way point such as the nearest Starbucks on the route.

Any previously configured preferences are also considered, such as avoiding neighborhoods that exceed a certain threshold of violent crime statistics (hence the description of this as the "avoid bad neighborhoods" patent), fastest route, most scenic, etc. The system then analyzes potential routes, considers constraints, compares data sources, and delivers the appropriate instructions in the form selected by the user, such as a scrolling map, turn-by-turn direction, or spoken guidance.

I have to wonder, who the fuck is this shit useful to? People who just moved to Manhattan and are dumb as fuck and terrified of black people? I can't see a whole lot of people using an "on foot GPS" and I hope Microsoft gets bankrupted with this new venture of Patent squatting.

Because really, I can't really see much of any use for this other than basically doing some lawsuit-ing against Google or Apple with their phone mapping and navigating apps. But when you think about it, this App doesn't do shit for avoiding free roaming minorities.

Trapped in Starbucks, send backup
-Sent from my Windows Phone.

In reality, Patent law need to be fucking hamstrung for all the evils that they are. For example, Microsoft also has a patent on double-clicking a touch screen with a stylus. Which is why you don't see many stylus out there in the market these days. Oh, don't believe me? The onion has it right.

I should probably patent "A method whereby surplus value is extracted from laborers by means of an exchange of labor time for a wage" and refuse to give out licenses to people. Cause, you know, that's how I roll.

Or maybe, just maybe this would be good with people in Brooklyn and no one else. People who just moved to Brooklyn are the perfect target for this. They're the only bad neighborhoods in Manhattan are in places where white people would never live or go anyway.

I can see it now. "Okay guys, only ten more minutes until my friends band goes on at the silent barn, the L-train is on shuttle service from Morgan ave. So I think we'll have to huff it a bit. I've got this sweet new app that will make sure we find the safest way.

*app shows a sea of red around the mckibbin lofts*

Though this can lead to the most common situation for this:

Twenty yards... fifteen... ten
What?! that's inside the fucking coffee shop
*all eyes slowly turn upwards to look at vent system*

Pennies 4 Gold - You Dumb Investors

2012-01-15T03:03:00.000-08:00

Pennies 4 Gold - You Dumb Investors

So you know how the price of gold was going up up and more up and everyone was saying that you should invest all your cash into gold?

Yeah.. doesn't look so good. You might as well trade in all your grillz right now and cash out while the cashing is good.

Gold a safe haven no more

Not so safe haven, after all.
In recent months, the price of gold has rocketed towards the $US2000-an-ounce mark as investors bet the decade-long run-up in the value of the yellow metal had some way to go. All that debt in Europe and the US must only add to the inflationary pressures that make so-called stores of value like gold so attractive, or so the conventional wisdom went. In the space of a couple of weeks, though, another market certainty has been sunk. Gold, silver and other precious metals have seen their prices smashed, as rumours of a shift to selling by a handful of funds help prompt an actual stampede.

Gold, which ended last week with its biggest two-day plunge since 1983, has dived further today, losing another 7.5 per cent, or about $US124 an ounce, to as low as $US1532.72 in spot trading. Silver fared even worse, sinking another 18 per cent, or $US5.61, to drop to $US26.07. Today's tailspin adds to silver's 18 per cent drop on Friday, then the biggest one-day dive for the metal since at least 1979, according to Bloomberg data.
The jolts for the gold and silver bulls come as little has improved in the basic economic issues that had previously driven prices of the metals to record levels. Gold, for instance, peaked at $US1921.15 on September 6 as investors bet the flood of debt and the danger of sovereign defaults left few other safe places to park money.

US appeal
Those issues haven't abated - in fact, have become worse - but what's changed is that US assets, particularly the greenback and US treasuries have suddenly become more appealing. The rising US dollar alone has helped push US-dollar-denominated commodities lower.
"Support for the US dollar has promoted natural weakness across the commodity space with the safety of gold not even immune to the decidedly risk-off atmosphere," said Go Markets currency analyst Christopher Gore.
As sentiment shifted, though, investors have jumped on a bandwagon - selling off commodities - that's gaining momentum if anything.
ANZ Bank commodity analyst Natalie Robertson said gold had suffered because of the volatility of its prices through August and September and more archane issues, such as changes for metals investors announced by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday.
In perhaps a symptom of gold's rising popularity, the CME lifted the minimum requirements of investors trading in gold on the market.
The decision by the CME caused "a whole heap of forced-selling," said IG Markets analyst Ben Potter.

Aussie loses friends
"The heightened risk aversion is actually being reserved for the ultimate safe haven of US treasuries and cash rather than gold," said Ms Robertson.
The jump to US debt is coming despite the downgrade of its top rating by Standard & Poor's in August. Even comments by the US Federal Reserve last week that the global economy was worsening hasn't put investors off buying US assets - partly because most other assets have become even more unattractive. These assets include the currency market's favourite until recently: the Australian dollar. The Aussie dollar has lost another US cent to drop to 96.3 US cents - a fresh nine-month low today.

Investors in Australian mining stocks have also been pummelled with the ASX sub-group of gold miners dropping almost 10 per cent. Newcrest lost 8.5 per cent to $32.86, making it the largest single drag on the ASX200 benchmark share index.
ANZ's Ms Robertson chalked up the falls in gold prices to a short-term factors that may soon tempt investors back into the precious metals.
"These falls are the result in a shift in sentiment rather than a shift in fundamentals and should represent very attractive buying opportunities," Ms Robertson said. "Certainly a lot of speculators have been washed out the market and once prices do start to bottom, things should bounce quite hard."
Mr Potter agrees that the forces making gold an attractive investment have not been dimmed by the short-term falls.
"The fundamentals that gold has been rising on are still firmly in place," said Mr Potter.
In perhaps unfortunate timing, an Australian-based exchange for precious metals will begin operating month, allowing buyers and sellers to trade online as well as offering storage in its Brisbane vault. The Australian Bullion Exchange, scheduled to open on October 24, will cater for trade in investment-grade gold, silver and platinum, the company said. Let's hope there are some buyers around when it opens for business.

Ha! I guess the smart thing to do right now.. well, not RIGHT now, but in the coming weeks when it sinks even further is to buy more gold as it's got nowhere to go but up!

Hmm, maybe instead of investing all the extra cash you had in gold, stocks or whatever other investment your finical planner told you to, maybe you should have given it away to the people who actually needed it. You are aware that hoarding is not how you make capitalism work after all. Alternatively, you could have just bought up a shit ton of bullets and hide out in the wilderness.

But then that would be teaching you about going for rational self-interest. And even though I don't have any money, I do enjoy seeing the gold fanatics flailing around about all this. But if I did own a shit ton of gold, maybe I could have hypothetically made a fortune selling it at 80% of its price and then riding the short on it the entire market down. You know.. hypothetically...

Fuck Da Police - 2012

2012-01-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

Fuck Da Police - 2012

To be perfectly honest, I have never felt more safe in the presence of a police officer than in the absence of one. As an adult, the only times I have felt completely unsafe were when one or more police officers were nearby. Such is the life of a minority.

So I guess it's time for yet another message that should be repeated loud and clear for the new year. That message is: Fuck Da Police. I mean, seriously, did you think 2012 would be any different when it comes to this message?

If that shows anything it's that the cops should be nothing more than safety patrol people who walk around the perimeter of a construction site and tell people "Whoa there, folks. Now it's a bit dangerous in there, please avoid it."

In fact, one of my real fears besides shark attacks is being tortured to death by police. Guess which of those two things is most likely to happen. I can give you a clue, it's not the shark attack one.

I know what you're thinking, uh, maybe don't do illegal shit and you won't have anything to worry about from no cops, Javier. Ever think about that? I swear, some of the people who have recommended that I just stay on the clean and narrow..

Regardless of the situation, you will never walk away better off after contact with police. Never. That's even if you are able to walk away at all. You should treat the police with a sort of frightened disgust. As though you just had been walking in the dark, felt something squish under your bare foot and realized that you stepped on a massive insect of some kind. Coincidentally, the police would like to do that to you as well.

You should also never let the police inside your house, for any reason what-so-ever. If you are expecting them, which I would question why exactly you would "need" to talk to them, you're better off going outside to do so. Don't let a cop into your home. Don't open your door if they are there and you are not expecting them. Especially if you aren't expecting them.

I've come to the conclusion that like many other things in life, dealing with the police is a no-win situation. I just sort of fear that one day the cops will knock on my door, and I'll be all Mr. tough guy with the "come back with a warrant" and then they'll just flat out murder me in cold blood and get off scot free because I'm a Mexican and obviously I was smuggling drugs into the country.

And why not? Well, do you remember that kid in high school who called everyone homophobic slurs, harassed people in the locker rooms, and spent his time beating up the kids who were smaller and more passive than he was? Yeah, that kid is now a cop.

The only sentences to ever say to a police officer if you are under suspicion and they wont let you go is:

"am i being detained in any way?"
if so: "am i being arrested" (asking if you are arrested first can be considered an admission of guilt)
if not: "am i free to go" get the fuck away
if arrested: "give me my lawyer"

You can also keep asking them "Am I free to go", then if you're taken away, only "Give me my lawyer." Because everything you say not only can, it will be used against you in every way possible.

It's not like they're out to hurt you or anything, well except for the proof that they very well may be. You know, like when a situation comes up when a cop killing a dude at a bar just cause. Though maybe that officer had probable cause. You know, a dart can be used as a weapon. Though there isn't enough information here to know for certain, but I don't put much stock in that witness statement. It sure sounds like there is information being omitted...

But then, of course, you didn't die because the cops beat you to death, you died because while you were being arrested, you suffered from excited delirium and died of a heart attack. Much the same, you didn't get robbed because someone broke into your house, you were robbed because while a burglar was in your home, your possessions suffered a case of grabby hands.

Much the same, your car didn't get wrecked because someone swerved into you, your car just had a moment of kaboom-pow-wham! when his car beeped into yours. And you didn't skin your elbow because someone pushed you, you got a boo-boo during shovey-time.

See how this is working out to be like?

On that note, can I get into a new topic. You know the thing about attacking the cops is that unless everybody in the area is doing it too, you're looking at many years in prison at a minimum, and that's assuming that you actually survive the situation.

The general rule of thumb is to never touch a cop at all. Ever. Period, For any reason, EVER. Unless you are 100% confident that you can immediately disappear and never be seen again for the rest of your life, like if you turned into some roaming hobo or something, you just shouldn't touch a cop.

Why is this advice good? Well, take for example the cops on the bay area train system.

They just walk around and through trains like this as a show of force. They do this all day, every day. Day in and day out.

And if that wasn't enough to scare you, a year or two ago the supreme court ruled that remaining silent doesn't qualify as invoking your right to remain silent.. Which.. I don't know how that works, because really, someone still needs to explain to me how that works in reality, but know that you remaining silent is not as good as you remaining silent...

So again, never talk to cops.

It's also pretty sad that this Onion news article sounds closer to reality than what is being printed up on the cover of your daily newspaper:

On a final note, I do like it how a cop is always the first to say "I don't pick and choose which laws I enforce" and I guess he's accidentally telling the truth there. It's really culture that picks them for him. For example, in our culture sexual assault is actually pretty much a-okay in the eyes of the privileged and powerful and yeah, the police will occasionally do their nominal jobs with regards to specific cases here and there, but the consensus right now is that actually trying to get justice for that crime through our current system is just a terrible, terrible nightmare for survivors.

Someone smarter than me can maybe talk about how we can fix that in more specific terms, but fundamentally I just don't think the police really involve themselves in crime so much as in preserving the status quo of whatever community they operate in. So I don't know if we succeed in extracting all the toxic shit from the culture and manage to institute something like a sincerely democratic regime that's perfectly ideological pure are cops a necessity then? It's difficult to see how or why, but all I know right ow is that I don't want to deal with any fucking police any time soon in this current state of society.

Socialism - A New Year Of Futile Attempt of Social Change

2012-01-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Socialism - A New Year Of Futile Attempt of Social Change

In 2011 we had a lot of social change but chances are... socialism isn't part of that change. In fact, little has change in the way the public's response to socialism compared to capitalism. Even if capitalism has pretty much shown its ugly head to us all in the past few years.

Here are some very interesting charts and words about how Americans view these systems.

Attached with these was a nice little article about it. Though if you don't want to read it, you can skip over it and I'll sum it up for you.

The recent Occupy Wall Street protests have focused public attention on what organizers see as the excesses of America’s free market system, but perceptions of capitalism – and even of socialism – have changed little since early 2010 despite the recent tumult.

The American public’s take on capitalism remains mixed, with just slightly more saying they have a positive (50%) than a negative (40%) reaction to the term. That’s largely unchanged from a 52% to 37% balance of opinion in April 2010.

Socialism is a negative for most Americans, but certainly not all. Six-in-ten (60%) say they have a negative reaction to the word; 31% have a positive reaction. Those numbers are little changed from when the question was last asked in April 2010.

Of these terms, socialism is the more politically polarizing – the reaction is almost universally negative among conservatives, while generally positive among liberals. While there are substantial differences in how liberals and conservatives think of capitalism, the gaps are far narrower. Most notably, liberal Democrats and Occupy Wall Street supporters are as likely to view capitalism positively as negatively. And even among conservative Republicans and Tea Party supporters there is a significant minority who react negatively to capitalism.

These are among the findings of the latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Dec. 7-11, 2011 among 1,521 adults that tests reactions to words frequently used in current political discourse. Another term in the news, libertarian, continues to receive a mixed public reaction: 38% have a positive view, 37% negative, and nearly a quarter (24%) have no opinion either way. Interestingly, some of the most positive views of libertarianism come from groups on both the left and the right of the political spectrum. People who agree with the Tea Party movement see libertarianism positively by a 51% to 36% margin, as do liberal Democrats by a 47% to 32% margin. And while the word libertarian receives a very positive reaction from younger Americans, older people tend to view it negatively.

Both of the ideological descriptions used most frequently in American politics – conservative and liberal – receive more positive than negative reactions from the American public. But the positives for conservative (62%) are higher than for liberal (50%). This gap mainly reflects the balance of what people call themselves; more people consistently call themselves conservative than liberal in public opinion polling. Those who think of themselves as politically “moderate” give similarly positive assessments to both words.

As many Democratic strategists have argued, the term progressive receives a far more positive reaction from the American public than the term liberal (67% vs 50%), though the difference is primarily among Republicans.

For those of you who feel that it's too much to read, here's how it breaks down. Socialism will never happen in America because we are plain and simply too dumb. Unless we call it Progressive-ism or something, but it's really Communism in disguise. The simple words Communism or Socialist are just too tainted in America.

It makes you wonder what the polls really mean. Does it show how people feel about a concept/ideology/economic system or about a word that they may have heard sneered a few hundred thousand times anywhere they turn. Makes you wonder.

I know of writers who do columns for their school paper and make it a point of never using the words marxism, Communism, Socialism, and so forth. But it shouldn't come to any surprise that ideology runs deeper than branding.

I don't think it really matters what we call it, but it still won't happen for the reason that we are dumb in America and this is the center of the empire of capitalism and simply must be the last to fall.

To be perfectly honest, I have to say that 31% positive reaction to socialism seems shockingly high to me, all things considered. If you told me to guess what the number was, I would have to honestly say that it couldn't be more than 20%.

Also, on a side note, when I read 55% of black people in America are supportive of socialism I'm not in the least surprised. I guess it's something to do with being enslaved, lunched, imprisoned and neglected by capital that tends to do that to you.

I do want to learn more about the 6% of "conservative republicans" who have a positive view of socialism. That really interested me in the whole polls. But I guess that might fall into the margin of people messing with the surveyor.

But hey, it's worth pointing out that at least one poll showed there were some Americans who believed Obama was Muslim, but who approved of their Muslim President's job performance.

Then I remember having a conversation with other Obama volunteers in 2008 about how Obama was really our secret Socialist candidate, but of course he had to deny it in public. Least he would be electable.

It makes you wonder what all us Americans are going to do when the glorious revolutions begin succeeding in non-US countries. I'm guessing the majority will just pout and stomp their feet. Or maybe they'll just invest in sheep futures and enclose the fuck out of some commons.

I know what I will do. And I also know that I'll make it through it alright once the neo-feudalism begins in earnest. I just have to find the right patrons to latch onto and they'll find some use for my technical skills, like helping them figure out which parts of their estates will be contaminated by pollutants from various local sources so they can figure out where to put their homes and where to dump the serfs' quarters in. The end of late capitalism will probably represent the peak of market irrationality's hold on the economy.

This American Life - Should We Feel Bad About Capitalism?

2012-01-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

This American Life - Should We Feel Bad About Capitalism?

This past week on This American Life, the episode was about a guy who flew to Shenzhen and interviewed workers at Foxconn who made apple products. You can listen to the full episode here.

As I listened to it in the car, I was just thinking, wow. This would be a great tool to play to someone that doesn't really follow politics because it lays out the horrible exploitation and daily suffering of the people who make our toys in a clear and matter of fact manner and more importantly, it connects the product to the work.

what he found was things we're all aware of

13 year old kids working in the factories
hours of work that approach 16 a day when a new product is coming out
dorms with 15 to a room
factory floors where youre not allowed to utter a word
dangerous neurotoxic chemicals harming the workers
crippled 20 year olds who can barely manipulate things with their hands due to the repetitive motion of putting these tiny electronics together
massive turnover rates due to these conditions
low compliance rates to apple's own working standards that haven't improved year to year

Which, all of this should make your average liberal Iphone using hipster feel pretty disgusted with themselves. But then it happened and from the slow monotone voice that I had been hearing for the past 40 minutes, I did not expect such a turn. You could almost say that the second act hit the towers..

In Act 2 of the program Ira Glass really wanted to know if we should feel weird about utilizing these products that are manufactured under such harsh working conditions. If you just want to be spoiled, it happens 54 minutes into the show.

"and the mainstream view that we hear from lots of economists is no, we shouldnt feel weird"

Which he was citing noted liberal Paul Krugman since as a result of these conditions people are moving up from abject poverty to something still awful, but still better. I have to vent this out, but saying that sweatshops are better than nothing is like shitting in someone's mouth because they don't have any food.

Then Nicholas Kristof is interviewed to say that grimness of the factories is better than the grimness of the rice patty. I, at this point just didn't know what to think. He then goes on to read part of his article "Two Cheers for Sweatshops" Which, I guess is a perfect way to make yourself feel better about playing Angry Birds on your iphone.

At this point Ira Glass really gets to the point here and flat out says "So sweatshops are bad, but we should feel okay about it." Which I guess just white washes this whole issue and makes you feel like the most effective way to fight poverty is to create sweatshops. You know, instead of actually paying a fair wage that someone can live on.

I'm not sure why I should even feel any better about any of these things. Industrialization might be good, but that doesn't mean we should support lower standard labor practices than what we would have in our very own country.

Hmm, I guess this didn't happen on the rice paddies so much;

As American consumers ogle over shiny new gadgets at this week's Consumer Electronic's Show, the workers that make those products are threatening mass suicide for the horrid working conditions at Foxconn. 300 employees who worked making the Xbox 360 stood at the edge of the factory building, about to jump, after their boss reneged on promised compensation, reports English news site Want China Times. It's not like this is the first time working conditions at Foxconn have made news outside China. But iPhone and Xbox sales surely haven't lagged in the wake of those revelations and neither Apple nor Microsoft has done much of anything to fix things.

Instead of the raise they requested, these workers were given the following ultimatum: quit with compensation, or keep their jobs with no pay increase. Most quit and never got the money. That's when the mass suicide threat came in. The incident actually caused a factory wide shutdown, reports Record China.

After the incident, Microsoft gave Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft the following statement.

Foxconn has been an important partner of ours and remains an important partner. I trust them as a responsible company to continue to evolve their process and work relationships. That is something we remain committed to—the safe and ethical treatment of people who build our products. That's a core value of our company.

Sympathetic corporate statements aside, the conditions haven't much improved. Beyond this threat -- the mayor eventually talked the angry workers down -- suicides persist. Apple has given similar responses, saying it ensures safe working conditions and fair employee treatment.

That translates to making employees sign "no suicide" pacts and letting 13 year-olds work half-day long shifts, as Mike Daisey, a self-proclaimed Apple fanboy, details in this week's This American Life. Daisey goes to Shenzhen, China, where Foxconn employs over 400,000 workers. He talks to both factory workers and businessmen, gathering chilling information about the situation at the factory, discovering suicide nets, 36-hour shifts, 27-year-old burn outs with dismembered limbs and underage workers. Wouldn't Apple, a company obsessed with details -- so obsessed it even programmed Siri to avert uncomfortable questions about its origins, as host Ira Glass discovered -- pay attention to these very problematic details, wonders Daisey.

I guess one of the differences between our era and the Dystopian images in Sci-fi literature is that we have soulless word machines like Krugman, Kristof and glass to tell us that these murderous, anti-human institutions are actually good for everyone involved and win the highest prizes from the establishment for their efforts.

Krugman thinks a return to 1984-65 is possible for the united states. He also thinks the path to prosperity in a capitalist context is free market plus high taxes and social spending which is pretty much true. So maybe he's not all wrong. But I know for damn sure that suggesting a shit situation is made better off the blood of slave labor is wrong.

Though, I guess it's getting better, right? Apple is switching to Pegatron apparently. Not that it fixes any underlying problem. Which is, if you buy a computer or a phone ever, it's not manufactured by Dell, HP, Apple, HTC or whoever the fuck it has on the label. There are about 8 ODM companies that handle all of the manufacturing of computers. The different brands just handle final assembly. But you sure can bet that parts of that product were from the following:

compal
quanta
wiston
foxconn
pegatron (spin off from asus)
inventec
flextronics
elitegroup

From that list Foxconn is far and away the worse of them in their treatment of workers. Their mainland China factory has been called "Mordor" by their foreign partners since they basically opened. Foxconn also had a plant in India they had to shut down after they poisoned the entire workforce with the pesticides they were spraying on the grounds.

Basically this means that the Apple contract is now going to the best of the worst instead of the worst of the worst.

It's still very discerning that very serious people who make policy believe that sweatshops are an incremental step towards "development"

The lesson learned from all this is that most people who feel something about capitalism don't feel weird so much as they should feel exhausted or sick or in pain towards that system.

The real answer I was looking for, and that everyone should feel towards capitalism is "Bad"

I guess it was just that the show tried to be 'balanced' and ended up on the side of pro sweatshop. Which rubbed me the wrong way. Then again, the show is called This American Life. So it's accurately reflecting the mindset of its listener-ship

I listen to NPR a lot. It's a whole lot better than Fox News in terms of sources to get your information from. But sometimes I have to dig my nails into the steering wheel with some of the things they say.

The scary thing is that the average listener is convinced that they are listening to the the left wing politics, which I guess is the worse part of it. Most of what is happening on the programs is cheerleading for war in Iran and why the president is still a pretty good dude. Oh and that the economy is really not as bad as we think it is. At least Marketplace is honest about their position.

But even with this episode, This American Life is not irredeemable. It's not like NPR news or something where listening to Steve Inskeep toss softballs to some health care industry spokeswoman in an interview about why single payer will never work is enough to grow tumors in the back of your skull.

But it's like Ira is American Liberalism personified

There were a couple of good episodes of This American Life discussing and explaining the financial crisis and the conclusion of both was basically that the banks that were failing should have been nationalized instead of bailed out.

If there's one thing that is really bad about This American Life, it's the ads. You would think that it being on Public radio it wouldn't matter, but oh how wrong you are. The ads are the worst part. They're all for insurance or "ethical" investment firms or hospital companies plugging new sci-fi treatments or shit like monitoring services for your online reputation and I feel like I'm in the movie Robocop.

Shit like Support for NPR comes from *Beat* MetLife. Or maybe even Angie's list - Which is really just yelp for old white people. Or maybe reputation defender can defend your online rep on Facebook. But among the worst are the plugs for Nova Nordisk. Every time they play, I think of the company's business practices in greece (and their subsequent resolution) and i get so angry.

But maybe I need a half ass morning edition story about "those darn hackers" punctuated by a plug for Palantir before I can truly feel like I'm living my cyberpunk fantasy.

For what it's worth, This American Life does have some good episodes and it's just a case of being hit or miss. And while the misses make me cringe, they do have a lot of interesting and entertaining stuff. If you never heard it, perhaps you should listen to the one episode that was about the field trip to the Reagan Museum.

But to get back to the question at hand - Should we feel weird about sweatshops? I say we shouldn't just feel weird about capitalism. I think we should feel far worse. It's like being complicit in death and exploitation and just brushing it off as some awkward moment in a Seinfeld episode.

Then again, you can't eat anything, wear anything, use anything or go anywhere without being complicit in death and exploitation. So maybe we should just get used to it. Because even if you kill yourself, you're still complicit in death.. your own.

Really makes you think, doesn't it?

Lady Hoggers - Catching Pigs

2012-01-11T05:53:00.000-08:00

Lady Hoggers - Catching Pigs

I used to be one of those people who disliked reality tv. Not because it was all bad. But because on a business stand point, it was sort of cutting my job out of it on all fronts. Above the line, it killed the writing aspect of it. You don't need a script, or at least a fleshed out one from a writer, when you have the stupid yokle making up whatever he's saying.

Then on a production aspect of it, as a grip, It doesn't really require me to do much. Your average reality show has a very bare bones production crew working it. So I wasn't all that keen on them. And yet here I am writing about them. Who would have thunk it.

Then we get to stuff that the A&E shows....

At one point in time A&E meant Arts and Entertainment. I guess the second part can be said about this, but I'm not sure by how much. It's seriously one of those really bizaar shows that you really don't know what to think about it.

They don't even try to hide the formula for this show. It's a simple matter of Tits + Hogs + Rednecks = Ratings Gold.

Or at least they hope for it to be that way. The description makes it sound as if wild hogs are just too out of control and need to be killed on sight. Saying that at the moment there's an estimated 4-5 million feral hogs running wild across the country. A lot of them are mainly centered in the Gulf Coast and if you've seen the promotional clips, they're mean, destructive and brutal creatures that devastate agriculture, infect livestock with disease, destroy entire ecosystems and even attack humans.

One hog can wipe out an entire acre of property in just one night and an entire pack of hogs can do far worse. They cause billions of dollars in crop and property damage every year. They can grow to be 700 lb beasts with 6-inch razor sharp tusks. They're an invasive species with no natural predators... except for two chicks with massive breast...

Introducing Christine Chreene

By the ladylike looks of her, you’d never think Texas native Christie Chreene’s greatest passion in life was hog hunting. But it’s undeniably in her blood. On the hunt since she was just a 3-years-old, all it took was one father-daughter hogging trip and she never looked back. Now blazing the swamps of Florida, she’s been proving that this fine-looking southern woman can take a hog by the hinds like no other.

Then there's Julie Snead

Jule Snead is a quick-witted small-town gal and the daughter of a Yankee in Texas, is new to the sport and caught the hogging bug recently from her husband and some friends who showed her that pretty girls can hog just as good as any—if not better! And with Julie’s fearless rookie skills and Christie’s flawless intuition, this tag team is unstoppable.

Oh yeah, there's also a guy who shows up in the episode whenever the camera isn't focused on breast. But who cares about that dude anyway?

The anouncer of the show is also a bit odd. He has a weird mix of Charlie and the Guy from Dukes of Hazard going. It really makes you wonder if it's being stated like that in an ironic way or if it's serious for serious sake. Because it's a bit strange.

The show consist of Gary's hunt, which isn't all that interesting and then shows the girls with a comedic side kick of a random red neck that the show could not afford top billing for, I suppose.

So what makes this show so great? Well... nothing. It's not great at all. I only watched it cause it was the only thing on and the concept was so out there. Besides that, boobs. Also whenever they catch a hog and tie it up they always have to state that it's going to go to a good family. I can imagine those families wondering why people are dumping live hogs in their property.

Well, at least they get a shit ton of pork related products free of charge and get to visit with some really strange hog hunters every now and then.

Art Is Pain. Art Is Torture. Art

2012-01-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

Art Is Pain. Art Is Torture. Art

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this picture is worth a thousand of your career's salary combined net worth.

When you think about it, you're left wondering how exactly. I mean, I guess it makes for a surprisingly good desktop background, which is more than I can be said for a lot of artist these days, but how exactly is that worth so much?

Well, basically it's a bunch of obscenely rich dudes continually buying art at obviously absurd prices to keep the values up on their already established hordes, with some auction house complicity. This is a sort of fun documentary about it from around 2008, but I'm actually surprised people still even pay attention to the art world anymore.

Besides that, until it's the cornerstone of my 401k, I probably could give two shits about what some rich fuck does with their piles and piles of money. I mean, really. Unless you actually want a bunch of intentionally vacuous ugly paintings, it doesn't seem likely to have any effect or hurt anyone. But hey, it's another amusing item on how once people get to a certain amount of wealthy, they just print their own money for the fuck of it.

Which I guess is why the art world is so sad.. nothing more sad than this specific scene from a recent Doctor Who episode last season which encapsulated my entire feelings towards the art world, and can be a perfect example of why I choose NOT to continue in my degree in the arts in college:

Doctor Who 2005 5x10 Vincent and the Doctor 3 by IDavros

And because we know the broad strokes of Van Gogh's tragic story -- that he never actually sold a painting, that he lived in despair and died by his own hand -- and because the actor playing Van Gogh is so perfect, just this stupid little clip from a silly BBC television series made me tear up a little, because I am a giant self-obsessed baby, and the "artistic condition" just glorifies my narcissism and neuroses in a delicious way. So I went and watched the episode again and again and it was a lot of silliness, but interrupted by this immense, tragic, deeply personal appeal to the situation of every struggling artist.

I guess it hit me hard because when I read and studied art history books and run into footnotes about how the artist knew each other, or their mistresses and debts and failures and tantrums, I was just reading about myself and my peers at the time. I was, and to the most part still partially am a scrubby loser who realized I wouldn't make anything of myself and get very little done in that world.

They stuck around in the art life. They figured that they just had to keep cranking shit out and maybe someday they'll be a footnote in a coffee table book as well. To be honest, all my favorite artists are pretty much unknown and I don't say that in an indie band/hipster ironic way. They're just a bit obscure and I can't imagine them working in a broad appeal at any point of their careers. They just say Fuck it.

You could make the argument that Van Gogh's "genius" sets him apart. Like a Bukowski, if you will. Compared to the zillions out there making Dragon ball Z fan art on DeviantArt, but art is nothing if not subjective. So fuck it. We're all a little Van Gogh. Make paintings and webcomics and write shitty blogs on blogspot that no one will read. Draw doodles on cocktail napkins and spread them far and wide and someday, long after you're dead, someone is going to find one of your shitty creations in a bin at the Goodwill and they are going to study your signature and google you and just love the ever living shit out of the bullshit you create.

To me, that's worth the whole idiot process, in my opinion.

And that's what keeps me posting day in and day out.

And To The Victor Goes The Gaming Rights

2012-01-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

And To The Victor Goes The Gaming Rights

It seems that there's a new war porn game coming out every few months for the xbox, ps3, computer system or whatever other addiction electronics. All of which are the same. You see the U.S. troop kicking major ass from whatever third world.

A lot of the times it's just circle jerking of past wars we were the victors in. So I suppose that's one of the benefits that comes from winning the war - you get to get the bragging rights of making a video game out of it. Which I guess is the main reason why you haven't seen many war porn games made out of Vietnam.

Well, not many till now...

If that's not just some strange shit right there. I'll tell you, it would be pretty crazy if there is a mission where you pop up from a little hole in the jungle floor, shoot an American invader and then pop down quickly and watch as they all lose their shit and call in an air strike on a random part of the jungle.

I imagine some of the commands are in the area like PRESS AND HOLD "X" TO UNLOCK "FECES SMEARED SPIKES" for punji pit.

It does look pretty crazy to see someone else's take on the whole war porn stuff. Though the sad thing of all this is that you only fight the french in this one. No American invaders in this just yet. But hey, fingers crossed for a sequel, right?

Is There A God?

2012-01-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

Is There A God?

No.

None.

There is no god. Besides that, it's all irrelevant to the way I live my life anyway. But I just felt the need to tackle this tough question because it's 2012 and that's when many morons believe the world will end. Know why? Cause they're morons. Also because they follow the words of some Aztecs and what not.

Besides that, if I were to believe in a higher power, there damn well better be more than one of them. Because seriously, just one is fucking boring.

If gods exist, they probably got bored with us a long time ago, much like my PC running a program or Civilization simulations. I just leave those suckers on for days and days cause I forget to turn them off. Yup, that's probably the best you can hope for.

Wasn't it Richard Dawkins or someone like him, that contributed the idea of a teapot floating far away in space as a metaphor for a deistic god. There's really no way of proving that it's there, and if it was there it wouldn't matter at all to anyone ever, but it might be there. You just never know!

Which I guess confuses me about agnosticism. It's an epistemological statement about the possibility of knowledge of the existence of god, while atheism is a metaphysical statement about the actual existence of god. You can put them together in any combination you like.

"god does exist, and he has constructed a universe in which even the most imaginative of his creatures cannot logically conceive of his existence as both omniscient and omnipotent, because the two concepts appear to them to be mutually exclusive, and any attempt to prove or disprove his existence is impossible."

That right there is conceivable circumstance under which God could exist, and you cannot disprove it, and any attempt to do so is utterly futile because the concept of god delineated within it operates beyond the realm of proof by its very definition. Now, I do not think that this is a very likely scenario, and in fact I am so convinced that it is not likely that I actively shun any structure through which I could attempt to gain insight into god because I think it's a waste of time, but logically, the concept of god is completely limitless by its very definition and thus un-disprovable.

Which is why it makes the discussion about the actual existence of god, like, the least interesting philosophical questions I can imagine, despite its very profound consequences in the real world. With all that said, God very obviously does not exist, but I'm still going to argue for that stance because answering back to those with the simple "prove to me that god doesn't exist, absolutely 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt." people is the worse and throwing that question back at them usually results in the worse answers ever heard.

If you really think about it, an omnipotent God is funny because it means you can just ignore God entirely since it's impossible to figure out the wishes of a being that is impossible to observe or explain logically. Even if many people still try to.

Other metaphysical entities aren't really the same since they don't have that qualifier. And even though an omnipotent being could choose to act in a logical manner, if you ever read any part of the bible for more than a sentence or two, then you would realize that the fucker contradicts himself so many times. So again, logical is not in the beings vocabulary.

The whole notion of omnipotence is internally contradictory, so we can either dismiss it and live in a sane world or give up all hope and retreat into completely disordered thinking based on whatever we want. Which is almost certainly how we work anyway, but that's not a reason we would accept for anything else, and the only reason we do it in this case is because of the historical inertia of the idea, which is not, in my honest opinion, a good idea.

Reframing it as "Is God useful to believe in?" also doesn't address the argument which is "does God exist?". Which you cannot with absolute certainty declare one way or another on.

You Sunk My Battleship.... THE MOVIE

2012-01-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

You Sunk My Battleship.... THE MOVIE

I'm pretty sure that decades of sitting in front of the idiot box called a Television followed by even more time spent in front of this computer screen has killed anything remotely close to resembling an imagination. Because when I see the trailer for Battleship: The Movie, I have no fucking idea what sort of drugs the writers had to be on in order to come up with this:

I'll tell you what, those writers must have had some really interesting games of Battleship in their youth. No other way to explain how they came up with that happening. Typically when I got frustrated with the game I would just kick over the game board and walk away. I would not have come up with some sort of alien situation like that.

I'm seriously going to need massive amounts of drugs to ever see that film.

Don't Have A Cow - Predator Drones And Your Livestock

2012-01-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

Don't Have A Cow - Predator Drones And Your Livestock

So all this time talking bad about the predator drone targeted attacks and the use of them domestically had me overlook the obvious - That there's some use for them. Just take a look at how they were used domestically to crack the case of the missing cows.

Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said.

Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.

He also called in a Predator B drone.

As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.

But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.

"We don't use [drones] on every call out," said Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks. "If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don't call them."

The drones belong to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country's northern and southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. The previously unreported use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public acknowledgment or debate.

Congress first authorized Customs and Border Protection to buy unarmed Predators in 2005. Officials in charge of the fleet cite broad authority to work with police from budget requests to Congress that cite "interior law enforcement support" as part of their mission.

So 12 hours of drone surveillance to find $6,000 of missing cows. Oh and terrorizing a sheriff. Sounds like a good enough use of tax dollars. I guess you should get used to this as this will be the glorious future under the benevolent gaze of the Google Homeland domestic intelligence surveillance system.

I mean, just look at this quote.

This time, Janke watched the live Predator feed from his office computer, using a password-protected government website called Big Pipe.

If that's the case, the balls in your court, Anonymous. I mean, just think about how easy that shit must be to hack into. It's probably hackable with a cantena and a laptop like the real military drones that Iran took to that airport that one time.

But hey, maybe these cows are ruining the environment. But if we're getting rid of man power looking for them they are at least killing American jobs if we have to unleash the robots on them! I can't wait for when they accidentally kill a slew of kids around the found cow like most predator drones do.

I really don't get how even the most complacent person could not be worried about police and security forces monitoring everything with flying camera robots in the sky. It's just so cartoonishly Orwellian and evil.

I mean, even the British had protest over the bus cameras and the British are fascist as fuck. Yet we can't have even one civil unrest over the course that our country seems to be taking? But maybe people just assume that this is the only domestic use that these drones will ever be put to. Looking for fucking cows in a field. And not, you know, monitoring your every movement looking for crime.

We Were All Rick Rolled

2012-01-05T14:05:00.000-08:00

We Were All Rick Rolled

Okay, stop this ride, I want to stop this ride at once because I want to know what kind of America I'm in when this:

turns into this sort of candidate

Yes, this is Rick Santorum. The dude whose last name means lube and shit mixed together. He is our new GOP's contender to do battle with the Nobel Prize Winner Barack H. Obama. There are two debates later this week and man will that be hilarious to watch what happens after the Iowa caucus. But man will that be some funny shit to see this new crown prince, New Gingrich, Willie Mitt Romney and Ronald Paulson. Because really, where the fuck did Santorum come from?

Perhaps his power lies in his sweater vest..

But you just have to remember, that even a sweater vest can not do much when you're trying to hide a gut..

Oh, who am I kidding. There is no way Santorum wins New Hampshire, Romney has got that on lock, right? I mean, it's not like Mitt spent way more than Santorum and anyone else and barely won by eight fucking points.

And when you think about it, with Bachmann and Perry out of the race, those supporters will most likely go to Santorum since both of them were pushing for the evangelical conservative Christian vote. Which I guess we should stop and reflect on that - that Bachmann is all over with. I guess that just means more Ron Paul to focus on.

If I can touch back to that 8 point difference for a moment. You know, it's not like Santorum, Romney and Paul all got the same number of delegates or anything like that..

But hey, that doesn't matter because ROMNEY WON!!!... by 8 votes in a state he's been in for 5 years. But again, none of these losers are electable. At the very least we'll now have Santorum under the spot light so we'll be getting some nicely crazy quotes to savor before he slips back into obscurity.

Oh, what am I saying, he's already putting that foot firmly into his mouth. Just look at these choice quotes Rick Santorum has said:

"It just keeps expanding. I was in Indianola a few months ago and I was talking to someone who works in the department of public welfare here, and she told me that the state of Iowa is going to get fined if they don't sign up more people under the Medicaid program. They're just pushing harder and harder to get more and more of you dependent upon them so they can get your vote. That's what the bottom line is."

Santorum then added, "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."

Rick Santorum said:

“There are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren’t anymore. I don’t know if that’s the similar situation or that’s the case for anyone that’s black. It’s a behavioral issue as opposed to a color of the skin issue, and that’s the diff for serving in the military.”

Rick Santorum said:

“We are not fighting a war on terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic. We are fighting a war against radical Islam...What all the radical Islamic leaders are saying is just ‘Wait America out. America is weak, they will not stand for the fight… we will be the strong horse in the region.’ President Obama, by making political decision after political decision about timelines and constraints on rules of engagement has validated everything these radical Islamists are saying.”

Rick Santorum said:

“There are no Palestinians. All the people who live in the West Bank are Israelis. There are no Palestinians. This is Israeli land.”

Rick Santorum said:

"I believe the earth gets warmer and I also believe the earth gets cooler. And I think history points out that it does that and that the idea that man, through the production of CO2 -- which is a trace gas in the atmosphere, and the man-made part of that trace gas is itself a trace gas -- is somehow responsible for climate change is, I think, just patently absurd when you consider all the other factors."

And to think, we're just getting started on all this. Hell, just recently Rick Santorum, with his daughter dying of some rare illness, has spoke of her as if she were already dead.

And once more, going back to those 8 votes, It's probably a dumb thing to get all mad about, but all day long yesterday I wanted to grab and shake all of those pundits and media morons and yell at them that THE FUCKIN' MARGIN OF ERROR IS NOT IN THE SINGLE DIGITS! So 8 points means jack shit. There's no way to suggest that Mitt won that when it's only a difference of 8 votes. They just got tired of staying up till 1 am and called it.

Though election season always makes me wish I hadn't sold my old statistics textbook for some Top Ramen money because I would love to go around beating people with it.

At the very least this whole situation is going to be comical during those upcoming debates. It's going to be a situation where Newt Gingrich's sole goal for the rest of the election is to tear down Mitt Romney and destroy him for destroying Newt's chances.

Newt knows he is not going to win, but he is going to make damn sure that he sinks Romney in the process of going down himself. Because hell hath no fury like a Newt scorned. Which, in the long run means that we're going to end up with President Santorum. Which is only fitting that our elected official carry that name and represent our nation given what Santorum means....

Obama... Man, What The Hell

2012-01-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

Obama - Man, What The Hell?

So I just got this in the mailbox

Dear Javier,

The new year has just begun and we've already got our first big challenge. On New Year's Eve, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law. It contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision. And it has no time or geographic limits. It can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.

Despite initial assurances that he would veto this outrageous bill, President Obama will now be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law.

Whaaaaa...

Oh, there's more?

On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed a law known as the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2012 fiscal year, or the H.R. 1540. Congress passes this act every year to monitor the budget for the Department of Defense. However, this year the NDAA bill has passed with new provisions that should have the entire country up with pitchforks.

Normally, this is just an act which details the monetary calls of the Department of Defense which is passed every year. However, the act passed for the 2012 fiscal year changes the bill and can be seen as an extension of the Patriot Act. Now, the indefinite detention has been extended to U.S. citizens as well. If people are spied on and suspected of being terrorists, they may be detained indefinitely without trial.

Buh...

Supporter of the NDAA, Representative Tim Griffin stated in the Daily Caller:

Section 1022's use of the word 'requirement' also has been misinterpreted as allowing U.S. citizens to be detained, but this provision does not in any way create this authority. This provision must be read in the context of Section 1022's purpose, which is reflected in its title and relates solely to 'military custody of foreign al Qaida terrorists.' The term "requirement" does not mean that detention of U.S. citizens is optional under this provision.

Wait that doesn't... even make any sense.

What does Obama have to say about it?

Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation. My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law.

Hmm this sounds familiar....

Interesting, isn't it, that both the executive and legislative branches felt compelled here to explicitly reassure Americans that they cannot be given indefinite military detention if they become terror suspects? This has everything to do with the language of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's 5-4 majority opinion in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the 2004 Supreme Court decision which held that the due process clause of the Constitution prohibited the government from indefinitely detaining a U.S. citizen under military custody. The signing statement, like the language of Section 1021 itself, are designed to help shape the legacy of Hamdi the next time the matter comes before the justices. And there will be a next time.

Why are you signing this Obama, even though you don't agree with the first part... okay what about the other part? Do you agree with that?

I reject any approach that would mandate military custody where law enforcement provides the best method of incapacitating a terrorist threat. While Section 1022 is unnecessary and has the potential to create uncertainty, I have signed the bill because I believe that this section can be interpreted and applied in a manner that avoids undue harm to our current operation...

... As my Administration has made clear, the only responsible way to combat the threat of al-Qa-ida poses is to remain relentlessly practical, guided by the factual and legal complexities of each case and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each system. Otherwise, investigations could be jeopardized, our authorities (sic?) to hold dangerous individuals could be jeopardized, and intelligence could be lost.

Okay, why are you signing this then? What's in this section.

Section 1027 is the provision through which Congress has reminded the White House that it will not tolerate the transfer to the United States of any of the detainees currently held at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Wait a minute. Don't you disagree wit that, Obama?

I continue to oppose this provision, which intrudes upon critical executive branch authority to determine when and where to prosecute Guantanamo detainees, based on the facts and the circumstances of each case and our national security interests... Moreover, this intrusion would, under certain circumstances, violate constitutional separation of powers principles

Then why the fuck did you sign it then, Obama!?!?!

Even worse, there's a new section to it. Section 1029. Oh, what's that?

But the White House evidently is willing to pick such a fight with Congress over Section 1029 of the new law, which seeks to require the Attorney General to consult with the Pentagon before filing criminal charges against a terror suspect. No dice, says the President:

Wait a minute, you're actually against this?

Section 1029 could impede flexibility and hinder exigent operational judgments in a manner that damages our security. My Administration will interpret and implement Section 1029 in a manner that preserves the operational flexibility of our counter-terrorism and law enforcement professionals, limits delays in the investigative process, ensures that critical executive branch functions are not inhibited, and preserves the integrity and independence of the Department of Justice.

What the hell is wrong with Obama? It's pretty clear that he's really not a good president. But hey, in the positive sense I'm sure this has finally got a lot of his liberal followers to admit that Obama has done a lot of bad things.

At this point it's as if Reagan is walking among us again. Though Reagan was probably more liberal than Obama at this point. You know, what with Reagan actually raising taxes at one point. Reagan raise FICA taxes to shore up social security and medicare; Obama keeps cutting FICA taxes and proposing stuff like pushing back medicare eligibility by two years.

But hey, Obama will likely be way more worse than Reagan considering he has a good 5 more years to fuck things up even worse. It just leaves the question of why?

I have to believe that the reason why Obama has so gleefully followed in the footsteps of his predecessors was because he was confronted with the reality of the office that he took and gained a greater understanding of the way the world works.

It's really difficult to particularly be vigilant in protecting American civil liberties if you're constantly having to address the threats that the goa'uld pose to the whole world. But hey, it's not like we shouldn't have seen this coming. Not with the whole promise of HOPE and CHANGE...

For those who aren't nerds, that is Tzeentch. He is the Choas God of Hope, the vitality and volatility of CHANGE, He is the Great Mutator, the Changer of Ways, the Great Sorcerer...

Not saying Obama is the antichrist... Because as an atheist I don't believe in such silliness. But perhaps we should use this as a cautionary tale - Sometimes when we're hoping for change, we don't know exactly what we're going to be getting in the new try..

Your Role Models Had Faults But History Glossed Over That

2012-01-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

Your Role Models Had Faults But History Glossed Over That

Those trailblazers into paths unknown into American history and folk tale lore aren't all they were made out to be. Even today they're still inflated tales that overshadow the real person behind them. But even stranger is the fact that we keep pushing them up on that mantel. Take Martin Luther King Jr. He just got a statue placed in Washington D.C. Which I have to admit, came at some really awkward unveiling.

Just think about it. The King statue is now installed in the Mall's constellation of national symbols, located halfway between the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln and Vietnam War memorials. So in a sense, King's visage glares across the Tidal Basin at the temple of Jefferson, slave owner and empire builder, who embodied all of the contradictions against which King struggled with in his life time.

In back of him is the Vietnam War memorial, which honors those killed in an imperial esculation that King opposed with a fervor that even his followers would like to forget how adamant he was opposed to.

But this all leads to my point in that I would never want to be a civil rights leader because people will just take your corpse and piss on it repeatedly. Jesse Jackson lamented the celebration of King's legacy coming at "a sad time" with widespread unemployment, congress in rebellion against the idea of helping the jobless, and the first African-American president facing unprecedented "retaliation, and venom."

Just look at who you had at the statue's unveiling:

Tommy Hilfiger took the podium to remind the crowd that King provided “inspiration” for his foundation to do good deeds. Diahann Carroll, star of a television show only Google can recall, spoke of her own very significant encounters with Dr. King which had “inspired” her. The chairman of General Motors said King had “inspired the GM family.” In this comforting perspective, King is welcomed as a motivational speaker just slightly ahead of his time, not as an agitator against the existing economic order.

How dare any of these people even speak of Martin, Martin Luther King was a communist, you fucking morons and he would hate Obama for being so piss poor of a leader unwilling to take control and allowing congress to dictate the will of the people for those fucking 1%.

A good OWS sign would be "Google 'Poor People's Campaign'" or something similar because people need to realize that at the time of his assassination MLK was organizing the beginning of what could only be described as a national (and possibly international) workers movement

Then again, most good people are communist. In fact, you probably should listen to all of it. And I mean all of that speech.

I say god damn. Though I do have to give it up to a different historical white washing. My favorite civil rights tragedy is how helen keller's story is widely known up until she goes to college or so, and then the collective consciousness seemingly blacks out. because she became a socialist and fought for the rights of women and the disabled

Not to mention all the contemporary papers which had so eagerly trumpeted her as an inspiring story for people of all ages blah blah turned around and said, well clearly now she doesn't know what she's talking about, she's deaf and blind (and a woman)!

So you see, your role models were great people to follow, but if you do so to their letter then you'll be doing plenty that would piss off the wrong people.

Financial Crisis In A Nutshell

2012-01-02T04:12:00.000-08:00

Financial Crisis In A Nutshell

Before we get into 2012 all that much, perhaps we should take a look back at what caused the last few years worth of financial hardship. Namely from the 2008 financial crisis and what really caused it.

As it stands now, it has become apparent to me that lots of people, even those on the ground protesting, still don't really understand the 2008 Financial Crisis. Not everything to it and certainly not the cause of all of it. And much like the saying goes, those who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them, here's my best attempt of a straightforward explanation that will be easy to bear with and understand.

The 2008 Financial Crisis

You are an American looking to buy a home. 40 years ago…
…when you needed a home loan, you gave a local bank a mortgage. A mortgage is an agreement where the bank lends you money to buy a home, and you agree to pay back the money with interest; if you give up paying it off, they will foreclose and take the property as collateral, which they can then sell to recoup the loss. Over the life of the loan (generally 30 years), you made your mortgage payments to the bank, and the bank made money off the interest it charged you. The rate of interest depended on how risky the loan was, i.e. how likely you were to continue making your mortgage payments. Less risky borrowers got lower interest rates. This basic lending structure has been around for centuries. However, circumstances changed drastically in the 2000s.

You are an American looking to buy a home. Five years ago…
… when you needed a home loan, you gave a local bank a mortgage. The local bank then turned around and sold that mortgage (the mortgage, remember, is an intangible agreement, and freely transferable) to an investment agency (e.g. Goldman Sachs). The same investment agency also bought other debts, for example: student loans, credit card debt, and business buyout debt from other lenders. They combined these debts, along with your mortgage and thousands of others like it, into bundles called Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs). CDOs were then sold to investors. Investors were often retirement funds, pension funds, as well as regular foreign and domestic investors.

Because investors were buying debt that had come through three steps of restructuring (you to local bank, local bank to investment bank (who combined it with other forms of debt), and investment bank to them), it was impossible for the investors to tell how risky a CDO was just by looking at it. This is where credit rating agencies came in.

Credit rating agencies (e.g. Standard & Poor) rated CDOs based on their risk of default—the risk that you and all the people whose debt was in the CDO would stop paying your debt. AAA was the highest rating a credit rating agency could give, and were usually reserved for government bonds, which were the most secure investment available. Governments don’t usually default on their debt, and if they do it’s a big flippin’ deal (see: Greece). Rating went down through BBB to BB to C to D; anything BB or below was considered “junk.” This is the technical financial term. A CDO with a BB rating would have been a CDO comprised largely of risky subprime loans. Investment banks paid credit rating agencies to rate their CDOs so investors would feel confident buying them. We’ll come back to this.

Now the investors, the “retirement funds, pension funds, as well as regular foreign and domestic investors” from before, after they bought a CDO, took out insurance on their CDO from insurers like AIG. This worked like regular insurance: the investors paid AIG a comparatively small amount of money every month, and if the CDO defaulted, AIG would pay them the amount they lost on their investment. These insurance policies were called Credit Default Swaps.

However! Because there was no regulation in this sector, AIG could give out credit default swaps to multiple people for the same CDO. In simile form: say you bought a car, and took out auto insurance on it. I could also take out an insurance policy on your car. You and I would both pay the monthly insurance premium, and if your car got totaled, we’d both get paid the full price of the car. You’re making your car purchase safer; I’m gambling that your car will get totaled. Back in the non-simile world, speculators would take credit default swaps out on CDOs with companies like AIG and get paid if the CDOs defaulted. This didn’t affect the original CDO investor’s credit default swap, but it did mean AIG was on the hook several times over for every CDO out there, because every CDO had several credit default swaps attached to it.

If you haven’t already figured it out, get ready to say “Mother Fucker” out loud to yourself. The investment banks, seeing a way to make more money, paid credit rating agencies to rate what were actually crappy CDOs as AAA; they then sold these trumped up CDOs to investors, and got credit default swaps through AIG against the exact CDOs they sold their investors in hopes that they would fail. Goldman Sachs and other investment agencies mislabeled bad CDOs as good, then sold to them to someone else, then took out essentially an insurance policy against them. Back in simile world, it’s like this: your car company sells you a car which they have designed to blow up if you get a fender bender. Then they take out an insurance policy on your car and wait for you to screw up trying to parallel park, and when the car blows up, which, again, they have designed to blow up, they get paid its value. Probably not a super good way to structure lending.

At the local level…
…local banks were no longer collecting money on the mortgages they gave; remember, they were flipping them to investment banks right away. Their incentive is now to get as many mortgages as possible, even from people who don’t have much money and will probably default. After all, it’s no risk to them, and they actually make more money on bigger loans.

Meanwhile, real estate agents and brokers get paid based a percent of every house they sell. Their incentive is to get prospective homeowners into as big a house as humanly possible. After all, it’s no risk to them, and they actually make more money on bigger sales.

This resulted in local banks and real estate agencies openly colluding to get people into huge homes that they couldn’t afford for basically no money down and at insane interest rates. They gave what are called Stated Income Loans, where the bank wouldn’t even run a credit or employment check on the buyer; for the “annual income” box on a loan application, there was literally just a blank for the person to fill in. Real estate agents called these “Liar Loans.” They were also able to spring higher loan rates on people by using what’s called an Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM), a mortgage that starts off with a low rate, but can be raised at any time. An ARM that starts off with a 3% interest rate can jump to 15% literally overnight. People could take out bigger and bigger loans to pay for bigger and bigger houses, which spurred on a huge McMansion construction boom.

I think you see where this is going…
…right? Millions of people bought millions of houses that they couldn’t afford, and then collectively defaulted on their mortgages. All the CDOs that held their mortgages defaulted, and all of a sudden AIG, which had insured the CDOs several times over with credit default swaps, was on the hook for like, a trillion dollars in defaulted loans. These credit default swaps were held by investment banks like Goldman Sachs, who had created the bad CDOs and then got TARP bailout money to keep them from going under, and retirement plans and pensions and regular foreign and domestic investors, who sat on a dick and died. Millions of people lost their homes, millions more lost their entire savings, people lucky enough to still be in their homes saw the value of their home collapse, so now they had a $400,000 loan outstanding on a house worth half as much, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Meryl Lynch, and a couple others went bankrupt or sold themselves, and the entire global financial system collapsed. And that brings us to today, where people upset about this are getting gassed and beaten by police for peacefully protesting a system that is self-destructive by design.

Who is responsible for the collapse?
The Investment banking industry: Does this even need to be explained? These guys pumped huge amounts of money into the political system in support of deregulation, controlled the Federal Reserve and the SEC, set up the system as it existed in the 2000s basically top to bottom, deceived their own investors, then ran the whole thing to its logical end – complete collapse – and got paid for their time by the taxpayer to the tune of close to a trillion dollars with no repercussions besides a couple embarrassing visits to the House of Representatives.

The rating agencies: These guys took money to cook books, plain and simple. Their dishonesty ran so deep that they actually created a market among themselves where, if they wouldn’t take the investment banking industry’s money to rate bad loans AAA, one of the other agencies would with 100% certainty.

The insurance agencies: These guys gave multiple credit default swaps out on the same CDOs. This multiplied their revenue when CDOs were doing well, but basically set them up for the tidal wave that resulted in their own bankruptcies.

The Fed: Nothing that happened was illegal – none of it – and it’s entirely their fault.

Congress: Congress was actually pushing homeownership at this time, and didn’t see this situation as a bubble but as an expansion of homeownership. Usually homeownership creates stability—people stay employed when they have land, markets are built on a tangible asset, crime goes down, etc. Even the “good ones” advocated this system, not because they were financial industry cronies, but because they thought it would help get Regular ‘Mericans into houses. As usual, Congress wasn’t evil, just totally, totally oblivious. Also they repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which had created a firm division between commercial and investment banks. None of the CDOs and transfers would have been possible without that repeal.

The Local Bank and Real Estate Agencies: These guys were completely complicit in the investment banking industry’s bad loan extravaganza. They cultivated relationships with the homeowning public that suggested they were their representatives (they weren't) and would do them no wrong, put millions of people into much, much, much bigger houses than they could afford, made a quick buck off the loan, then flipped it to someone else.

The Foolish Average Joe Who Has Had Home Ownership Imprinted Into His Brain Let's face it, the American dream of having a home, a white picket fence and all that other bullshit you have been told to want growing up is all just that. Bullshit. You probably shouldn't have been looking to take a loan you clearly couldn't pay back to begin with.

But I can't blame them specifically. No-one, not even dumb ass Americans buy homes that they don't think they can afford. They were specifically told they could afford it by the bank, and moreover, they were constantly bombarded by propaganda saying they were an idiot for not getting on the property ladder as prices would only go up u and up. The notion that renting is like burning your money or throwing it away always persist as well.

In fact, we are still told this and the common idea that you're better off owning than renting keeps growing. Though I guess it can be said that they had the option to take the loan to a lawyer and say "what's the deal with this crazy loan I'm getting?"

Which would be nothing more than the worse kind of weaselly libertarian argument to that. Let's face it, the average person doesn't have that option. In fact the average people don't even know you can go to a lawyer for stuff that isn't criminal or family law. Even if they did, finding a lawyer in their area that practiced the right type of law, was taking new clients, and had affordable rates is all a pretty tall order. Not to mention the total lack of freedom during business hours that most families suffer through means even scheduling that meeting is next to impossible. It's really easy to say "they could have just....!" about something a victim did, but it is almost always a sign that something ignorant is about to follow.

Most people come to trust bankers. I wouldn't, but most people do under the assumption that they know the law and the procedure and they sure as hell wouldn't want to do something stupid with their money like lend it to someone who isn't approved to be able to pay it back. And even then, a $200 lawyer wouldn't have spotted the problems in the deals made because the problems were entrenched and structural like so.

There you have it. If that wasn't some sort of awesome explanation that deserves a AAA rating, I don't know what is.

You're Letting Me Down, Humanity

2012-01-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

You're Letting Me Down, Humanity

I thought that with 2011 over with, we could be like the myth of the phoenix and rise from the ashes of our former shitty version of humanity. I've come to realize that it's not just a matter of alt+ctr+del'ing the past year and pressing the hard reset to achieve such an act.

Especially not when I come across a lot of the following random assortment of pictures I will post and comment on in today's very lazy day sort of blog post. Consider it a clip show or a glorified tumbler posting. Speaking of which, a new years resolution I plan on keeping is to continue not being on Tumblr.

Anyhow, on to the shooting gallery. It's really a sad day when I wake up and realize that I agree with 50 cent.

More horrifying is when I actively think that voting for him would probably get more accomplished than what we ended up getting out of Obama. And this isn't me being some sort of converted republican. I hate the republicans good and plenty. But by no means is this two party system anything more than a smoke screen for us feeling like we have a choice and continuously getting bent over, taking it from all angles.

How could I ever be a conservative or even republican. It would require some sort of religion to be a staple. And I know that one thing I never want to do is agree with anything anyone who has this bumper sticker has to say about any subject matter.

But hey, that's capitalism and we're all here in this free market. Just floating along and singing our song while we make and dance to the tune of dollar signs. As long as someone pays for the shit, right? It'll continue to get things like this going on. Which, by goodness, I know will not change in 2012, but man do I hope it does.

First off, what the hell is wrong with his face? I guess the answer to that is too much gamer food. Which just leads to the next question on what the fuck exactly is gamer food? Maybe there's some instructions with the packet:

Do not overfeed your gamer with GamerFood Pellets^®. If your gamer does not eat all of the pellets, remove them from his cage.

Because really, what sort of moron would buy gamer food? Is calling up for mom to bring you some hot pockets too difficult? Or maybe it's due to the fact that someone wanted the license to "gamer food" and hoped that it would take off. But hey, I guess it's just another way for Jonathan FATAL1TY Wendel to make a quick buck.

On a side note, the real answer as to what's wrong with his face is that his nostrils are abnormally bulky for his nose. Maybe he has found a way to store gamer food pellets up there. Just the same way that Tony Hawk found a way to milk money out of skate boarding for decades after when a grown man shouldn't ride a piece of wood and four small wheels.

But again, this is capitalism and in such a society, we need to accept these sort of things. We also need to accept how shitty health care is in our country. Much like what this girl needs to do in order to fight her cancer

This right here. This is why you're letting me down, Humanity. Fuckin' America. Only here must a 21 year old woman pose nude for internet creeps to pay for her chemotherapy and then if that isn't bad in itself, she has to apologize for shaving her hair off.

I know, you free market folks must be thinking that it sounds like a situation where her lack of access to healthcare allowed her rugged individualism to shine through, all thanks to the wonders of capital.

But to me this is all the shit that keeps us down. Healthcare in this country is so fucked up that I can't even think about it properly and I doubt that 2012 will do anything more than fuck it up in a different direction. It's probably a small thing, but getting a letter of rejection because you have a pre-existing condition is itself such a demoralizing experience which no one should have to deal with.

Why hell there, you are too fucked of a person to take part in the normal process of living a healthy human life that most people in this country enjoy, get fucked, sincerely, a faceless corporation.

Then, you know, when you get so desperate and broke trying to treat such illness like a brain tumor, there's every hill ahead of you. Not that I have a brain tumor or anything, but my god I can't picture a worse thing for someone who has a serious condition than to have to worry on when their healthcare provider is just going to up and drop them because they aren't making money hand over fist on them and actually, you know, have to act like a healthcare provider.

But hey, at least we can relive our best Dr. Pepper moment of the year..

Be better, 2012. Be better..

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Hopefully this one is a lot better than last year's shit storm

Don't Drink And Walk

2011-12-31T15:42:00.000-08:00

Don't Drink And Walk

You would think that I would be advising you to not drink and drive this weekend. Well, that too. But did you know that you're eight times more likely to die walking drunk than you are driving drunk. It's strange, I know, but oddly enough true.

Add in that January 1st is the deadliest day for pedestrians. And of those deaths, 58% of those people who died were drunk.

Let's take into account that in 2009, 34,000 people died in traffic accidents. Half of them were drivers and 41% of those were drunk. Now consider that in that year 4,000 pedestrians were killed and 35% of them were drunk. Thanks to Freakonomics for this stuff:

In the 2009 book “Super Freakonomics,” authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner argued it was more dangerous to walk home drunk than drive home drunk — although they don’t recommend doing either.

Yes, more drunken drivers die every year than drunken walkers. But based on the ratio of miles driven drunk and miles walked drunk, and the number of deaths in each category, “on a per-mile basis, a drunk walker is eight times more likely to get killed than a drunk driver,” the authors argue.

The analysis comes with the major caveat that “a drunk walker isn’t likely to hurt or kill anyone other than her- or himself. That can’t be said of a drunk driver.” And the authors clearly state the safest choice would be to drink less or take a cab

But it highlights the dangers of what many consider to be the safer alternative.

Those who are intoxicated and decide not to drive home should be applauded, Jordan said.

“But walking home alone is a terrible idea when drinking, especially with the cold weather,” Jordan said.

People often underestimate just how far the walk is and can be unprepared for the winter weather. Dark streets and one too many drinks make it all too easy to trip over sidewalk cracks and curbs.

“You’re putting yourself at risk for other bad things to happen,” Jordan said of walking home alone.

Just like those who have to drive home, Jordan said party-goers should plan ahead if they want to walk home. Among the alternatives in Lawrence is the Tipsy Taxi, a free service that runs from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. tonight and takes people safely to their homes. Those who want to use it should call 842-TAXI at least 45 minutes ahead of time.

Several pedestrian fatalities in Lawrence speak to the risks involved.

So what's the solution to all this problem of not knowing exactly what to do when your drunk since both options of driving and walking are out the door? Why not call AAA? I'm serious. They're willing to tow your drunk ass home after a long night of drinking.

One way Santa Clarita Valley residents can cope with local law enforcement wrangling drunken drivers this holiday season is to take AAA up on an offer to tow their vehicles home free, a AAA official said Friday.

The program is called "Tipsy Tow," and it offers drunken drivers a better alternative than trying to drive their cars home after drinking, said Nichole Walker, AAA representative.

"The first seven miles are free," Walker said. "After that, the individual pays the rest of the way."

Any money AAA expends on this program will be offset by the cost of towing after seven miles, Walker said.

Sheriff's deputies across Los Angeles County have made 1,849 DUI arrests between Dec.16 and Friday, officials said. The number was up from this time last year, when 1,720 arrests for DUI were made.

And make no mistake, the cops will be out in full force today. Just the last few days I have seen them pulling over people left and right on the roads. It is not a good time to be a motorist. They really are out there working their pens over time to see how they can make the streets "Safer", or in other words, squeeze the final tax revenue from anyone before 2011 ends.

Though seriously, you shouldn't be out there drunk driving nor should you be putting anyone else at risk because of your shitty inability to multitask. This includes people on the phone. Because regardless on if you have or haven't been drinking a single thing, you best be careful in how you're driving today. The CHP has warned that they will have a zero tolerance for anyone who is driving while being distracted.

If you are holding your cellphone and talking or… weaving in and out of your lane while eating a cheeseburger, the California Highway Patrol says it will be handing you a ticket. Officer Adrian Quintero says the department got a grant from the Office of Traffic Safety and figured this weekend would be a good time to put that grant to use.

QUINTERO: "The number one concern we get from members of the community every time we go to one of these meetings is 'What are you guys going to about it. We see all of these individuals on the cell phones nowadays". It's a sense of complacency I think with a lot of these drivers now. So, we're going to be very active.""

Quintero says officers will be focusing on handing out distracted driving tickets today and tomorrow.

He says officers have already handed out a half-a-million tickets statewide for violations of the hands-free law and nearly twelve thousand tickets for texting and driving.

So even if you're not drunk or don't plan on drinking, you probably should put down the cheeseburger or just make sure all your make up is applied on your face long before you hit the open road as they will cite your ass and it will be an expensive ticket.

A Year In Tubes

2011-12-30T11:09:00.000-08:00

A Year In Tubes

When you look back to the year for Youtube clips, you'll see that there was one clear winner of the most watched category. Mind you, this does not mean that it is by any account the most enjoyed. But it is the one that has generated the most eyes to be watching this mother fucker.

The winner? Oh you guessed it:

Rebecca Black's Friday is indeed the most watched video of 2011. What else made the list for 2011? Here is the complete list via the YouTube blog:

1. Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

2. Ultimate Dog Tease

3. Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton)

4. Talking Twin Babies - PART 2 - OFFICIAL VIDEO

5. Nyan Cat [original]

6. Look At Me Now - Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes (Cover by @KarminMusic)

7. The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters)

8. Maria Aragon - Born This Way (Cover) by Lady Gaga

9. The Force: Volkswagen Commercial

10. Cat mom hugs baby kitten

It's only a question on what stupid inane shit will distract the attention spans of those in a cubicle for 2012. I'm pretty sure it'll have something to do with the whole doomsday prediction of the end of the year.

2011 - Goodbye You Shitty Year!

2011-12-29T12:52:00.000-08:00

2011 - Goodbye You Shitty Year!

What a piece of shit year. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say! Oh, you don't believe me when I say 2011 wasn't much of a year to smile about? Well then, let's review all the horrible things that happened in the past 12 months because I hate myself and want everyone else to feel just as bad, if not worse than I. It's what I do to get off.

Norway massacre

Gabrielle Giffords got shot

American Republicans systematic war on women and their reproductive rights (though this has been going on forever, it seems to have had major triumphs this past year)

Jerry Sandusky and the people who covered up for him and still defend him are out there alive and well.

28 men rape an 11 year old girl in Cleveland and film it.

26 men rape a 13-year-old girl in Turkey. Then the judge rules she consented.

An Italian girl sleeps with boyfriend; claims raped by gypsies; enraged mob burns gypsies camp to the ground; 2 were arrested.

This movie turned a profit:

Which is pretty much like ALL women getting raped at once.

Greece taken over by literal fascists

Sarkozy and Merkel are still free

Job free recovery somehow.

Duke Nukem Forever comes out

The second coming of Newt Gingrich

Rick Perry wonders why there are queers when our troops are out there dying.

More Americans were politically radicalized this year than any other in the last three decades. Which says something about out shitty political system.

Obama cut social security and medicare and compared it to not buying a new set of golf clubs.

“In my house,” Obama noted, “if I said, ‘You know, Michelle, honey, we got to cut back, so we’re going to have you stop shopping completely. You can’t buy shoes; you can’t buy dresses; but I’m keeping my golf clubs.’ You know, that wouldn’t go over so well.”

R.I.P Osama and Amy Winehouse (though you never saw the two in the same place at the same time...hmmmm)

Increase in drone strikes, PMCs in Iraq, Afghanistan is still occupied.

McRib came; McRib went.

Occupy Wall Street

Revolutions and uprisings shook global power and capitalism's crisis worsened.

It's also been a pretty impressive year for nuclear disasters, earthquakes, and fish die-offs.

Steve Jobs died and suddenly became Horatio Alger and is brought up in every context.

We could solve the Social Security crisis if WE HAD GUYS LIKE STEVE JOBS INNOVATING our system!

We could stop global climate change in it's tracks if we had a STEVE JOBS working on the issue!

Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack H. Obama's murderous tax policy is probably preventing the next STEVE JOBS from starting the next APPLE and changing the way the world works forever!

Two major European countries had their leaders replaced with unelected financial professionals within the same week

2011 was the year in which the least worst thing about the DSK case was that it might lead to a former head of the IMF becoming president of France

But hey, I'd also like to remind everyone that there were other countless wonderful things that happened this year and perhaps focusing on the bad ones is a curious habit to say the least. But maybe I just needed to flush it out of my system so that I can reset and prepare for how bad 2012 is going to suck... um.. I mean, kick major ass. Yeeeeah.

2011 Nostalgia Sneaking Up - At The Movies

2011-12-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

2011 Nostalgia Sneaking Up - At The Movies

Well, it's that time of the year already. People are over the whole Christmas shopping and we're ready to get it over with. For those who do celebrate Christmas it's already time to move on to the nostalgia stage.

You know, that's when everyone gets all wide eyed about the previous year and you see the slew of "Best of.." and "Worst of..." for the year. Though there's often far less Worst of's since people generally like to keep it positive to some degree. In any case, this all means one thing. The year is ending and you will be swamped with those god damn stupid list reminding you of shit that happened just within the last few months. It's really terrible on all accounts.

In any event, I have to say that if Drive isn't on the top list of best films of 2011 I'm going to be really upset. Okay, I'd probably care as much as I care for Time's Person of the Year. In that, I don't.

With that said, DRIVE may very well have been the best movie I saw in 2011. The main reason? Every frame of the movie just makes sweet sweet love to L.A. If films like Taxi Driver embodied New York, DRIVE tapped into that Michael Mann and made a film that had L.A. as a pivotal and great character.

tribute to drive from tom haugomat & bruno mangyoku on Vimeo.

If you really want to be like "the driver", you can get yourself a snazzy official jacket like that with the scorpion on it from Steady Clothing. It will run you back a pretty penny though. Around $150 for the jacket. Talk about pricey. But then again, if you want to relive the 80's style, which seems to come back in 20-30 year cycles anyway, then perhaps it's the way to go.

I do have to say though, I thought the style of the film and the clothing in it was just utterly amazing. You can read a lot about how they choose what they choose and how they got the look down in this little article about it..

But enough about fashion, what about the sound? Now I'm not going to say the soundtrack wasn't amazing. It really was great. But when people generally say something has a great soundtrack what they usually mean is that it has a couple of amazing songs. That is the case for this.

It has some really awesome songs up front, but after that it's just keyboard instrumental stuff that belongs in a film to help with the setting/mood. You'll probably not want to listen to that stuff while driving on the road. Incidental music isn't typically something you listen to on its own, because it loses a lot of its appeal once you strip the visuals away.

So yeah, if this film isn't one that is on your top list of the year then I have nothing to tell you other than you need to watch it. And if you have watched it and didn't care for it - what's wrong with you?

All I Wanted For Christmas Was War Crimes

2011-12-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

All I Wanted For Christmas Was War Crimes

Is pretty much what your kid was asking for when he was hoping for that Blackwater video game to be under that murdered tree you have sitting in your living room. Because if there's nothing more fun, it's pretending your hand is a gun and moving around and getting your cardio while killing those towel heads..

But there's some good to come out of this. While I say never read comments, this one is well worth going against my rules with:

Great looking game guys, can't wait to play as a Blackwater badass on release!

Just two quick questions if you'd please: Where are all the women and children, and why do so many of the people he's shooting have weapons?

Well played, Youtube commentator. You have done very well.

No, seriously. Fuck this game for everything it is worth. What a terrible game and the people playing it are terrible persons for doing so.

i'm reading a review of that game and this is great

If you play with the kinect control scheme, you'll likely feel a bit like tom curise near the start of minority report. You stand facing the screen and you hold out your left or right hand to direct the aiming reticle. If you want to fire on an enemy, you let the onscreen reticle hover over for a moment, triggering a burst of gunfire. It's all too easy to fire on a nonthreatening target by accident as you swing your weapon around toward a primary target (helpfully highlighted in red so that you know it's a threat). The result: wasting ammo on civilians, and having to pause and reload while still being fired upon by enemies positioned above you or to the side.

Sorry, Blackwater, gonna have to take some dings off your score because it's too easy to murder civilians.

That phrase just kills me. "Wasting ammo on civilians." Man, talk about no trigger discipline and dying of stupidly. I guess this makes it the most realistic war game ever.

How Many Slaves Do You Own?

2011-12-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

How Many Slaves Do You Own?

Just in time for Christmas it's nice to find out how many slaves you actually have doing your bidding. What? I thought slavery was abolished?! You say. Well, after you watch The Help tonight (new on DVD!) you can find out how many slaves you currently have working for you with this helpful new guide.

HOW MANY SLAVES WORK FOR YOU?

It's the feel good link of the year. Now if only someone would create a "How many Slavs do you have" website and my life can be a little bit closer to being complete.

The defaults for technology are all sorts of messed up. I clicked gamer because you know, I'm a male that uses the internet even though I haven't played a game for ages, and then whittled it down to the technophobe and still had to delete half of the shit on that list.

For a moment there I was going to give up because I got to the closet part and I literally had no idea what clothes I own.

Oddly enough, according to this I'm a middle class white piece of fucking shit. Over all I got 24. I know I could fine tune it with a couple of more minutes of tweaking around with it but does it really matter? Especially after I did one fine tune of it to account for rum and alcohol consumption and my slave count jumped from 24 to 35.

I'm curious as to where is the part I can put in that I'm a CEO of a fortune 500 company and then watch as the results just blow up in themselves trying to figure out how many millions of slaves are under me.

In retrospect, I'm guessing that their findings showed that the average person who'd actually use this and feel uncomfortable about this website are mostly college educated liberal, white middle class, so they've tailored their options accordingly as per google/facebook advertisement assessment of their possessions. Because it's literally impossible to be poor according to that website.

Or maybe what I'm getting out of this is that we need to relax child labor laws to compete in today's global market. The website just assumes that all the seafood everyone eats comes from South East Asia. Like, there's literally no domestic fisheries in existence to them.

Though it is important to address both ends of the slavery system - It's creation and our cultural dependence upon it. The machine is never going to come down until The People are willing to bring it down, after all. I don't think that happens just through people shopping at Goodwill and asking for fair-trade coffee at Starbucks, but consumer choices are certainly a step in the right direction.

I don't think that your average American is necessarily to blame for the fact that they depend upon slave labor, and it is going to take a massive change from within the industrial complex to eliminate these problems. I don't judge the millions of people (including myself) who can't afford an all-local, all-organic, all-fair-wage lifestyle. But I do judge wealthy people who willingly engage in hyperconsumption of slave-made commodities, even when they are financially capable of buying fairer goods.

The Tiny Tim Graph

2011-12-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

The Tiny Tim Graph

It's Christmas and since I'm probably horribly depressed... (or maybe I'm just eating some Chinese food with my fellow Jews), I figured I would take some time to toss out plenty of reasons why you should feel very lucky to have what you have on this day and not bitch about a lack of PS3 or Xbox games you wish you did have.

But in the event that you're a bit of a snot noised brat, here's a helpful visual that shows you exactly why you should be thankful. They're a good graph showing you exactly who is the Tiny Tim's of the U.S.

Last month, the Census Bureau released what is arguably one of the most alarming statistics of the year: In 2009, the number of Americans living in poverty reached its highest level in 51 years. The poverty rate was 14.3%, up from 13.2% in 2008, much – if not all – of that increase attributed to the recession.

So where are America’s poor? In this interactive infographic, we take a regional look at poverty. Roll over each state to see its poverty rate, along with those for children ages five through 17 and for children under the age of five.

Would you look at that belt of poverty in the south right there. That sure is something alright. Also, the dark spots in Wisconsin and the Dakotas are all right on reservations. So, you know, take that for what it is.

Sort of crazy when you think about it the level of poverty that is going on. If those graphs didn't depress you enough, try clicking the site for a ROLLOVER ACTION of all the hard hitting stats on how the break down of poor is even better (or should I say far more depressing)

In those areas around 32% of children 5 and younger live in poverty in Mississippi. 25% from ages 5-17 live in poverty. And yet we call ourselves the richest country in the world. Crazy world we live in.

I was sitting here looking at that and wondering why the percentage of people under poverty level wasn't higher and then i remembered that even "only" 20% is one in five. My local boys and girls club volunteer base is a weird mix of professional older white men and young native/black mothers, it's fun to go to events just to see the two groups together.

On an unrelated note, why are there no squiggly lines or circle districts? Come on, map makers, spice up county lines a little.

But back to poverty; There's plenty of reasons not to ever read the comments section of anything, but here's just another

douglass "A lot of people arfe not poor they just do not know how to manage money"

Just try to manage money from a 6 dollar an hour job. I dare you.

I really want to make an effort post in the coming year about the horrible shit we handle regarding how backwards this country is towards child welfare and juvenile justice and my frustrations in talking with politicians and policy makers.

Reminder; The coal miners of Appalachia wages one of the largest battles of the class warfare against the American capitalist system with a 5 day standoff against the US military. And they are now paying for it with systemic poverty and no one gives a shit. How bad was it?

Private planes were hired to drop homemade bombs on the miners. A combination of gas and explosive bombs left over from the fighting in World War I were dropped in several locations near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. At least one did not explode and was recovered by the miners; it was used months later to great effect during treason and murder trials following the battle. On orders from the famous General Billy Mitchell, Army bombers from Maryland were also used for aerial surveillance, a rare example of air power being used by the federal government against US citizens.

It's remarkable how America is considered the richest country on earth because, like, 20 people have all the money ever and just so happen to live here when they're not chilling in their beach house in some other country.

And by remarkable I mean horrifying and we should kill them immediately.

No wait. I shouldn't say that, it is after all Christmas. And when you think about it, the poverty rate in the south (mainly black communities) really shouldn't be surprising to anyone though and we should all go back to just mindlessly being numb to the social inequality that every has towards one another.

Merry Christmas

Bad Christmas Music

2011-12-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

Bad Christmas Music

It seems like a redundant statement to make since let's face it, all Christmas music is essentially bad. But there's some songs worse than others. That even though they may stick to your mind like some awful tar filled glue, they are many that are far worse than others. Some that insult the intelligence of anyone with anymore than a single cell to think with.

First off I have to say that animals shouldn't ever fucking sing. There's many things animals can do. Die for my meal. Squander food for the winter. That sort of shit. But singing is just not one of those things. From Barking Dogs to silent night cats and even those fuckin' Chipmunks. Animals and singing do not go well together. It's just not right and should be a crime against humanity.

I just pray that helium runs out on earth sooner rather than later in order to make sure that no animal ever sings again. But even worse than that is another song that.. well, let's just say that there's Christmas Shoes

If you don't know why this song is disturbing, then let's have Patton Oswalt explain it:

But at the very least that one doesn't get into sexual situations. Not like the clear cut elephant in the room. I speak of course of the date rape song long before Sublime had their own date rape song. The ultimate white washed date rape song - Baby It's Cold Outside

Let's look at those lyrics again:

I really can't stay - Baby it's cold outside
I've got to go away - Baby it's cold outside
This evening has been - Been hoping that you'd drop in
So very nice - I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice
My mother will start to worry - Beautiful, what's your hurry
My father will be pacing the floor - Listen to the fireplace roar
So really I'd better scurry - Beautiful, please don't hurry
Well Maybe just a half a drink more - Put some music on while I pour

The neighbors might think - Baby, it's bad out there
Say, what's in this drink - No cabs to be had out there
I wish I knew how - Your eyes are like starlight now
To break this spell - I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell
I ought to say no, no, no, sir - Mind if I move a little closer
At least I'm gonna say that I tried - What's the sense in hurting my pride
I really can't stay - Baby don't hold out
Ahh, but it's cold outside

C'mon baby

I simply must go - Baby, it's cold outside
The answer is no - Ooh baby, it's cold outside
This welcome has been - I'm lucky that you dropped in
So nice and warm -- Look out the window at that storm
My sister will be suspicious - Man, your lips look so delicious
My brother will be there at the door - Waves upon a tropical shore
My maiden aunt's mind is vicious - Gosh your lips look delicious
Well maybe just a half a drink more - Never such a blizzard before

I've got to go home - Oh, baby, you'll freeze out there
Say, lend me your comb - It's up to your knees out there
You've really been grand - Your eyes are like starlight now
But don't you see - How can you do this thing to me
There's bound to be talk tomorrow - Making my life long sorrow
At least there will be plenty implied - If you caught pneumonia and died
I really can't stay - Get over that old out
Ahh, but it's cold outside

Baby it's cold outside

In the event that you don't see the pretty blatant narrative of this song, it's about a girl who is finding every excuse to say no and get the hell out of the rape den she's in and gets convinced to stay.

So what makes a good Christmas song? Rap, of course.

Taking The Christ Out of Christmas

2011-12-24T03:30:00.000-08:00

Taking The Christ Out of Christmas

It's Christmas eve and all around the world.. people are... well, probably shopping. It is a busy shopping day after all. Gotta get those last minute gifts and what not.

I, for one, am all in favor of taking the Christ out of this silly holiday. It was, after all, the church that hijacked this holiday from the pagans and other cultures that were celebrating the winter festivals long before the church decided to tackle on the birth of some made up messiah on to it. To be honest the whole birth of Christ never made any fucking sense to begin with. Why would he be born in December in the desert? I mean, let's be real here. There's no way that it would have happened as those winter nights in the desert were tough.

If he actually did even exist, Christ would have been born in the summer. You know, during the time when Shepard would actually be tending to their sheep and not killing them trekking along the desert during the winter. Just sayin'.

But perhaps I should be careful with what I say because it seems that Christians are the most persecuted people ever in the history of mankind. Or at least they fucking act like they are.

No running in the halls -- and no Tebowing either.

That's what one Long Island administration said Wednesday when it suspended a group of high school athletes for replicating Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow's popular pose in the hallway at school.

Jordan Fulcoly, Wayne Drexel and brothers Tyler and Connor Carroll of Riverhead High School were all handed a one-day suspension Wednesday, after three days of taking a knee with their foreheads resting on their fists, the same way Tebow does in the end zone and on the sidelines. The news was first reported by Yahoo! Prep Rally earlier Thursday.
Riverhead superintendent Nancy Carney said that two of the students' suspensions were later rescinded, citing that administrators found that those students were not given the same warnings that the other two were.
Tebow has made headlines for the move, a display of his devotion to his Christian faith. The students were not suspended for bringing religion into the school, but instead for clogging the hallway.

Carney said that she supported the administration's efforts to maintain a safe environment and was surprised that the incident has received this much attention. Since the news broke, Carney said she has been receiving hate mail from people charging that the suspension is due to religious prejudice.
"It's very unsettling," she told ESPNNewYork.com on Thursday. "It's a shame that people out there are so ready to judge when they weren't there to see what happened."
Reports said that the students had been Tebowing all week, starting Monday. It was meant to be a joke, only paying homage to one of pro football's newest stars. But other students started joining in and administrators claimed it had become a disturbance. District officials reportedly told the students that the celebration was making it unsafe for students walking the hall in between classes.

The incident saw about 40 students engaging in the popular Tebowing. Only the four students, all athletes, were suspended. Caroll told Prep Rally that the administration told them "that our Tebowing was blocking the halls and could potentially cause a riot, because they were growing in number and if the wrong kid gets pushed a brawl could ensue."
Carney said students have three minutes to reach their next class.

"It's just high school kids being kids and administrators doing what they do on a daily basis -- keeping kids safe," Carney said, "and with today's world and cell phones and people taking pictures and video, it can be taken out of context."

Tyler and Connor Carroll are on the football team along with Drexel.

Oh man. It sure does take a lot of courage to be a religious person these days, doesn't it? Now just imagine if it was 40 students bowing to Mecca in the middle of the hallway.

What confuses me is that he always has a bible passage on his stupid war paint face. What's the deal with that? Is it because he wants to be like In&Out and have bible passages on himself? Maybe it's because he's a miracle baby. For you see, his mother was going to abort him but had a last minute change of heart..

Someone should tell her that it's not too late to finish the job.

But apparently this warrior for the lord has some power. Back in 2008, presidential hopeful Nobel Peace Prize winning Barack H. Obama wanted to make a campaign stop and speech in Gainesville but Tim Tebow made a passionate appeal to the UF board of trustees against hosting a candidate with anti-christian views. And they were like "Anything for you, Tim!."

Again, it had to be the war paint on his face displaying to all that he is a Christ warrior and his face paint reflects that inner aspect of himself. Besides that, if the Broncos win the fucking super bowl this year, I'm going to be kinda mad. I don't think it's likely, but I just want my thoughts expressed just in case it does happen.

I have to say, there's something especially vile about Tebowing at Macchu Picchu. Why not just go all the way and strap on a rapier, cuirass, and conquistador helmet while you're at it.

Anyhow, back on to the main subject about being persecuted and then pointing the finger at someone else, you know what I miss the most? Moral panics over dungeons and dragons as being attached to satanic cults or some shit like that.

Or maybe it's just that the moral panics over DND went out of style when people were driven away by inferior systems like 3e/4e, but that still doesn't explain why satanic cults aren't getting the same level of attention anymore. On the flip side, there still is "rainbow parties" going on regularly.

Which I guess all makes sense because at this point anything else feels like such little a threat and far less scarier than Islam is to middle America.

It's not like they're actively trying to get other religions to be off the air or anything.

Lowe’s, the national hardware chain, has pulled commercials from future episodes of “All-American Muslim,” a TLC reality-TV show, after protests by Christian groups.

The Florida Family Association, a Tampa Bay group, has led a campaign urging companies to pull ads on “All-American Muslim.” The FFA contends that 65 of 67 companies it has targeted have pulled their ads, including Bank of America, the Campbell Soup Co., Dell, Estee Lauder, General Motors, Goodyear, Green Mountain Coffee, McDonalds, Sears, and Wal-Mart.

“’All-American Muslim’ is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law,” the Florida group asserts in a letter it asks members to send to TLC advertisers.

“The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to the liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish,” the FFA’s letter continues.

It was not clear whether the companies cited by the Florida Family Association, which has also targeted shows like MTV’s “Degrassi,” stopped advertising on “All-American Muslim” because of pressure or for other reasons.

Emails from Home Depot and Sweet’N Low posted on the Florida Family Association’s website suggest the companies had simply bought one commercial spot, and didn’t cancel any commercials.

A spokeswoman for Amway, also cited by the Florida group, denied the company pulled advertising from “All-American Muslim,” and said those reports were “misleading” and “falsely named” Amway.

Lowe’s acknowledged pulling commercials from “All-American Muslim” following consumer complaints, but denied they came from one group.

“We understand the program raised concerns, complaints, or issues from multiple sides of the viewer spectrum, which we found after doing research of news articles and blogs covering the show,” said Katie Cody, a Lowe’s spokeswoman.

Cody declined to specify whether the complaints were anti-Muslim, and whether Lowe’s advertises on shows with Christian, Jewish, or other religious characters or themes. “It is certainly never Lowe’s intent to alienate anyone,” Cody said.

“Shame on Lowe’s, and shame on every one of these companies if they really did cave in to such bigotry and hatred,” wrote Sheila Musaji, who blogs at theamericanmuslim.org. If the Florida Family Association and other reports are misrepresenting these companies, she added, “then they need to speak up.”

The first of eight weekly episodes of “All-American Muslim,” which follows five Lebanese families in Dearborn, Mich., premiered on Nov. 13.
A TLC spokeswoman, Laurie Goldberg, said the network could not comment about the alleged advertising defections, but that the show maintained “strong” advertising. “There are no plans to pull the show. The show is going to continue as planned,” said Goldberg.

You see that, they're offended because the Muslim family appears to be normal and isn't firing off rockets at Americans terrorizing them like a cartoon character of what the average terrorist fearing American thinks is a Muslim.

Or perhaps Lowe's just realized that they bought one commercial that they didn't really have any money for anymore and are just going through the worse P.R. possible. These persecuted religion want the TV networks to believe that Palestinian would be more obsessed with British Sci-fi television shows than plotting on how to kill more Jews. How dare them!

It has gotten to the point that some many completely evil organizations, especially the ones that are religious, have the word "Family" in their name that I want to invent and spread a new word to refer to a person's relations because the word "family" has been tainted so much.

The Cost Per Pour - A Discussion About How Much Booze Cost

2011-12-23T18:50:00.000-08:00

The Cost Per Pour - A Discussion About How Much Booze Cost

It's the holiday season and if there's one thing that happens more than anything else, it's alcohol is consumed. And consumed in great amounts. So perhaps it should be worth noting the actual cost per pour.

Let's take a look by comparing alcohol to other beverages.

The price of beer (per 12 ounce serving):
Cheap crappy macro: 50 cents per serving
$10 6-pack: $1.65 per serving
$10 bomber: $~5 per serving

Sure does get pricey, doesn't it? And I'm not even going to jump into the world of rare and highly sought after beers that get released around this time of year. Now compare that to the following every day drinks:

Milk: ~30 cents per serving
Soda: ~75 cents per serving
Tropicana Orange Juice: ~$1.20 pre serving
Starbucks Coffee: ~1.50 per serving
Red Bull: ~2.75 per serving
House Wine @ Olive Garden : ~$6 per serving

*Prices may not be completely accurate since your mileage will vary when buying them at the store.

So when your cheap crappy beer option cost as much as a cup of milk and less than a can of soda and your expensive $10 6-pack cost about the same as a cup of orange juice or coffee, I guess you really can't complain about that, right?

But what about the other alcoholic liquids that we consume during the Holiday? It's probably worth noting how much that bottle of wine breaks down per serving. How about that whiskey or aged bourbon?

$10 bottle of wine (750ml) = $2.00 per 5oz serving
$30 bottle of wine (750ml) = $6.00 per 5oz serving
$150 bottle of champagne (750ml) = $30.00 per 5oz serving

$15 bottle of vodka (750ml) = $0.74 per 1.25oz serving
$50 bottle of single malt scotch whiskey = $2.46 per 1.25oz serving
$200 bottle of PVW = about $10 per 1.25oz serving
$2000 bottle of Louis XIII = about $100 per 1.25 oz serving

Gotta say, it's all relative and whether you are drinking some beer or throwing back that wine, it's all still a luxury that you have the option to drink or not drink. No one is making you buy it and by all means, you should be careful about the amount you drink as police check points and DUI patrols are in full scale alert. Many people who don't normally drink often don't realize how quickly they can get intoxicated with that spiked eggnog.

So perhaps what I'm saying is that you should be aware of how much you're drinking and just realize that you can spread this love out all throughout the year.

A Very Merry CIA Christmas To You

2011-12-21T04:53:00.000-08:00

A Very Merry CIA Christmas To You

If there's one thing that I like about working in the movies is that we can make up our own shit at random and eventually people will accept it as truth. Take for example the CIA. I love it when movies show the CIA as the good guys. It's nothing but pure fantasy when you really think about it.

What, you actually think the CIA is the good guys? HA! Oh how wrong you are.

WASHINGTON — One of the CIA’s most important secrets in the war on terrorism was hiding in plain sight, on a leafy residential street along a busy set of train tracks in Romania’s capital. There, tucked in the basement of a government building, the CIA ran a clandestine prison, former U.S. intelligence officials said.

[...]

Unlike the CIA’s facility in Lithuania’s countryside or the one hidden in a Polish military installation, the CIA’s prison in Romania was not in a remote location. The building is used as the National Registry Office for Classified Information, which is also known as ORNISS. Classified information from NATO and the European Union is stored there. Former intelligence officials both described the location of the prison and identified pictures of the building

[...]

The basement consisted of six prefabricated cells, each with a clock and arrow pointing to Mecca, the officials said. The cells were on springs, keeping them slightly off balance and causing disorientation among some detainees.

[...]

During the first month of their detention, the detainees endured sleep deprivation and were doused with water, slapped or forced to stand in painful positions, several former officials said. Waterboarding was not performed in Romania, they said.

[...]

After the initial interrogations, the detainees were treated with care, the officials said. The prisoners received regular dental and medical check-ups. The CIA shipped in Halal food to the site from Frankfurt, Germany, the agency’s European center for operations. Halal meat is prepared under religious rules similar to kosher food.

Former U.S. officials said that because the building was a government installation, it provided excellent cover. The prison didn’t need heavy security because area residents knew it was owned by the government. People wouldn’t be inclined to snoop in post-communist Romania, with its extensive security apparatus known for spying on the country’s own citizens.

[...]

For the CIA officers working at the secret prison, the assignment wasn’t glamorous. The officers served 90-day tours, slept on the compound and ate their meals there, too. Officers were prevented from the leaving the base after their presence in the neighborhood stoked suspicion. One former officer complained that the CIA spent most of its time baby-sitting detainees like Binalshibh and Mohammad whose intelligence value diminished as the years passed.

For those of you who don't like reading... why the hell are you here? But once we're past that part and you're still not sure what that wall of selected text means, here's the short of it. The CIA tortured people, but they gave them halal food so it's alright. And it's not like the CIA agents that performed the torture lived in better conditions that their prisoners, all things considered.

Just look at that. They had to do 90 day tours in sleeping in the same sort of conditions. It must have been pure torture on them to endure such levels of not ideal living conditions while carrying out acts of torture.

I do wonder why it was a secret though. I'm not sure how keeping it a secret deters the citizen on the street who is thinking about poisoning my neighbors dog to not carry that act out or he'll be tossed into a prison he doesn't even know exist.

And even with it being a secret, I'm pretty sure that the CIA would find a way to fuck things up somehow. Remember that time when the 3 CIA agents tried to infiltrate an inner circle of a crime organization and were brutally murdered because of it? And that one guy in Pakistan shot 2 people and got jailed. The CIA fucking sucks at actual spy work when you think about it. They haven't successfully overthrown a regime that hasn't come back to bite them in the ass. Their only effective at waging death from above using unmanned air drones and chances are the kills they get from that are all going to be civilians as well.

The CIA, for all its claims, is an absurdly bloated and enormous intelligence organization compared to basically any other country in the world. In some strange way it mirrors the population it recruits from because the CIA is generally filled with insanely stupid people that are protected from the consequence of that stupidity by secrecy.

It's not like these people are some dudes in suits with cold calculating plans to take down foreign governments like some giant chess game. They're mostly just educated racist shitheads who happen to have an unlimited secret budget and the world is their playground.

That's really what the CIA is all about. They're like the only child of rich parents that tries to start a business chain which inevitably fails horribly. And then mom and dad are there to pick up the pieces and let them try stupid shit all over again like opening up a pizza parlor chain.

It's the only way to explain shit like that time when they tried to topple the French government with paratroopers and failed because the CIA failed to recognize that the country and its army loved its current benevolent generalissimo.

How about the time when that Al-qaeda double (or was it triple) agent set off a suicide bomb in the middle of a CIA camp and killed a half dozen CIA officers, including some really high ranking people. Do you remember that those CIA officers had baked him a cake and were just about to present it to him.

Furthermore, I man, didn't they just invent crack anyway? War on drugs are just a way to cover up the clear sign that the CIA is more harmful than any sort of drug or pregnancy.

A Very Doctor Who Christmas

2011-12-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

A Very Doctor Who Christmas

You know, it just wouldn't be a proper Christmas without Doctor Who. In fact, I think I base my enjoyment on all holidays depending on if I can watch a new episode of Doctor Who. So perhaps this little prequel to the Christmas day movie should peak your interest in what will come of he Holiday with Who...

Oh man, I can't wait. Just a few more days!

To Il For This World

2011-12-19T03:20:00.000-08:00

To Il For This World

Ding Dong, The Il is dead!

A tearful television announcer dressed in black said the 69-year old had died on Saturday of physical and mental over-work on his way to give "field guidance" - a reference to advice dispensed by the "Dear Leader" on his trips to factories, farms and military bases.
Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il's youngest son, was named by North Korea's official news agency KCNA as the "great successor" to his father, which lauded him as "the outstanding leader of our party, army and people."
Video from Chinese state television showed residents of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, weeping while KCNA reported people were "writhing in pain" from the loss.

He was indeed to Il for this world, and now our glorious leader is dead. What's the reaction?

Oh wait. That was actually for his father. So what will be the reaction of King Jong Il? Well, I imagine it'll be something like this.

"Meanwhile, the Yonhap news agency said the South Korean military has been placed on emergency alert, as shares on the stock market in Seoul fell nearly five per cent"

Huh, looks like somebody's panicking. Though overall, let's take a count on the bad guys of the world. Bin Laden, Ghaddafi, and Kim all go down inside of 7 months of each other. It looks like 2012 is set to be a "rebuilding year" for bad guys. Till then I guess we can have some fun with it. Much like what you should do whenever anyone popular dies... Have a drinking game for them:

HEY KIDS ITS THE KIM JONG IL POST MORTEM FACEBOOK DRINKING GAME

okay here's the rules:

1. get your beverage of choice and a shot glass
2. log in to facebook
3. take a shot every time you see the word "ronery"
4. get alcohol poisoning and join your brother in juche heaven

And if you're sober enough after that, maybe we should look to the future. For example, is there any hints on what a Kim Jong-un glorious leadership will look like? Not yet, but oh man, I can kind of imagine him hanging out with Nicolas Cage's goth son.

But this does mean that one of my favorite websites to browse has seen its last update. Goodbye Kim Jong Il Looking At Things

At least it's not some Atlas Shrug sort of bullshit....

God fucking damn it. Why yes, for twelve years everyone has been asking "Who is Kim Jong-il?" This is King Jong-Il speaking. I'm the man who's taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world...

You would think that his death would have, you know, done something to reunify, free capitalist Korea and create a Kpop version of this classic:

Instead all it has done is this:

That's some crazy Stockholm syndrome they got going on there. Oh well, they're going to love the abusive man they'll love. As for me, I guess there's nothing left to do than to pour out a 40 for my nigga King Kong Jong-il!

The Great Muppet Caper

2011-12-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

The Great Muppet Caper

So.. apparently Fox News said a crazy thing about the Muppets. Yes, the Muppets. While I collect a pay check from the Rupert company, I will say that this is just... well, I have no words to express how not-surprised I should actually be about all this.

Watch.The.Whole.Thing.

Now pick up your jaw on how bad they've got to be grasping at straws to actually allow this to pass as content on Fox News. Then again, that news story that Fox News viewers are, on average, dumber and less informed than those who watch no news makes a little more sense now.

You know, I wish the Muppets really were anti-capitalist radicals. It would be a much better thing to my life than realizing that what the Muppets represent is nothing more than cashing in on nostalgia working that money machine.

All I have to say about this is that even the two elderly muppets, Statler and Waldorf, who you would think represents the 1% sitting up their on the balcony wouldn't be as evil as your average fox viewers. In fact, I think they would say something like this:

these kids say they're right-wing

they're reaching for even half-right

dohohohoho

For God And Country: An Illustrated Account of American War Porn

2011-12-17T03:26:00.000-08:00

For God And Country: An Illustrated Account of American War Porn

I'm pretty sure that later in the month you'll hear endless amounts about how this was the year. How we finally got him. Oh, you remember the guy. Osama? Yeah, that guy. Well remember how we ended up finding him and a skilled group of armed force went in and instead of capturing him to face a jury for his crimes, he was killed in cold blood?

Yeah, well apparently Matt Fraction made a comic book about it AND YOU CAN SEE IT BY CLICKING THIS LINK---

The commentary in the panels that pops up when you mouse over it is utterly insane. They tell the story about how all this came about. This little nugget just stood out

In the end I wanted to see OBL face the ultimate sanction. Fifteen minutes trapped in the room where he knew he was going to die. Fuck it. Maybe one day I'll be more evolved.

I guess I should at least give Matt Fraction a tiny bit of credit for admitting that he's being a sub-human cretin for making this shit. But over all I'm just going to go with "Fuck everyone involved in the creation of this thing" as my stance for this.

Not because I in any way remotely close to agree with the terrorist. But because the sad fact is that this sort of thing exist as nothing more than a celebration of what happened that pisses me off as making me feel pretty disgusted to be an American. Aren't we better than this? I mean, isn't this something that we should all consider below us?

The info in the panel sickens me to a level. Shit like "The women here could have both be wired". That made me lose it. Are you fucking serious? Are you really going to go with that story? There's no way anyone can believe that shit and it shouldn't even be tossed out there like that.

Not to mention what was in the comments, that it's nice for Osama Bin Laden to keep himself looking exactly as he did from that one photo taken in 1991. Which is very true. Either way, Matt Fraction, your last comic arc of Fear Itself was a complete waste of my Marvel reading time. Fuck this guy.

Ding Dong The Hitch Is Dead

2011-12-16T11:17:00.000-08:00

Ding Dong The Hitch Is Dead

Yesterday the world lost a liberal asshole when Christopher Hitchens died.

British-born journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died on Thursday at the age of 62.
Hitchens died in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of cancer of the esophagus, Vanity Fair magazine said.
"Christopher Hitchens - the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant - died today at the age of 62," Vanity Fair said.

Well, at least he is in heaven now.....

Oh. Wait.

As an atheist myself I have to say that this guy gave us all a bad name. And I can't say his views with atheism were wrong, but man he sure said a lot of fucked up things and had an opposing opinion on just about anything else. I mean, the asshole said women can't be funny

I saw Hitchens in a TV interview say women should have just stayed in the kitchen because they are dainty, fragile creatures, or something. Th female interviewer looked justifiably annoyed.

But again, that wasn't the first or the last of the moments he just put his foot straight into his mouth and loved every inch of that stinky shit. Let's take a trip down memory lane and look at other Christopher Hitchens quotes.

War Monger!

"Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age" was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals... But an instant's thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed OUT of the Stone Age.

It must be obvious to anyone who can think at all that the charges against the Hussein regime are, as concerns arsenals of genocidal weaponry, true.

If you examine the record of the so-called the anti-war movement in this country and imagine what would have happened had its counsel been listened to over the last 15 and more years, you would have a world in which the following would be the case:

Saddam Hussein would be the owner and occupier of Kuwait, he would have succeeded in the annexation, not merely the invasion, but the abolition of an Arab and Muslim state that was a member of the Arab League and of the United Nations. And with these resources as we now know because he lost that war, he was attempting to equip himself with the most terrifying arsenal that it was possible for him to lay his hands on. That's one consequence of anti-war politics, that's what would have happened.

In the meanwhile, Slobodan Milošević would have made Bosnia part of a greater Serbia, and Kosovo would have been ethnically cleansed and also annexed. The Taliban would be still in power in Afghanistan if the anti-war movement had been listened to, and al-Qaeda would still be their guests. And Saddam Hussein, with his crime family, would still be privately holding ownership over a terrorized people in a state that's been most aptly described as a concentration camp above ground and a mass grave underneath it.

Now if I had that record politically, I would be extremely modest, I wouldn't be demanding explanations from those of us who said it's about time that we stop this continual capitulation to dictatorship, to racism, to aggression and to totalitarian ideology. That we will not allow to be appeased in Iraq, the failures in Rwanda, and in Bosnia, and in Afghanistan, and elsewhere. And we take pride in having taken that position, and we take pride in our Iraqi and Kurdish friends who are conducting this struggle, on our behalves I should say.

(He doesn't like Chomsky)

He [Chomsky] has now been impeached by his own standards, since scrutiny of the evidence does not bear him out on Serbia or Afghanistan or Iraq. It didn't bear him out on Cambodia either, though he was never a "Holocaust denier" or anything like it. And he has, I think, ceased to be of any use to young people who might pardonably doubt the official story. The position he took, comparing the attack on the World Trade Center to an admittedly criminal Clintonian strike on Sudan (and virtually concluding that the latter was worse!) showed the absolute exhaustion of the glib "double standards" school, as I point out extensively in Love, Poverty and War. But his decline and fall is a loss, and you miss the point by denying it.

On Moslems:

They ("Islamo-fascists") gave us no peace and we shouldn’t give them any. We can't live on the same planet as them and I'm glad because I don’t want to. I don’t want to breathe the same air as these psychopaths and murderers and rapists and torturers and child abusers. It's them or me. I'm very happy about this because I know it will be them. It’s a duty and a responsibility to defeat them. But it's also a pleasure. I don’t regard it as a grim task at all.

If you think that the intifada in France is about housing, go and try covering the story wearing a yarmulka.

Their [antiwar movement] mantra was: "Afghanistan, where the world's richest country rains bombs on the world's poorest country." Poor fools. They should never have tried to beat me at this game. What about, "Afghanistan, where the world's most open society confronts the world's most closed one"? "Where American women pilots kill the men who enslave women." "Where the world's most indiscriminate bombers are bombed by the world's most accurate ones." "Where the largest number of poor people applaud the bombing of their own regime." I could go on. (I think No. 4 may need a little work.) But there are some suggested contrasts for the "doves" to paste into their scrapbook. Incidentally, when they look at their scrapbooks they will be able to reread themselves saying things like, "The bombing of Kosovo is driving the Serbs into the arms of Milosevic."

And something about Michael Moore

I have noticed in observing and debating him [Michael Moore] that he is an addict of crowd-pleasing and demagogy, and also an addict of "secret financial government" rhetoric. He also affects a certain plebeian and blue-collar style. When he thinks it will work, he will pretend to believe that "American jobs" are migrating to Mexico, or that "American boys" are being duped into war by hidden cabals. This combination of nativism and populism (stirred in with a nauseating dose of sentimentality and an absolutely breath-taking contempt for objective truth) reminds me very much of the dolts who joined the SA. But then, those guys were probably as surprised as their dumb Stalinist counterparts when the Hitler-Stalin pact was signed. By the way, that was the only treaty he signed that Stalin didn't break. With much of the remaining Left, I have to say, there is a certain immunity from Moore's gruesome posturing, if only because they don't think it was a good idea to have General Motors, or the city of Flint, Michigan, in the first place. And some of them are genuine pacifists, while Moore is an open supporter of the Islamist death-squads in Iraq.

There's a lot of things that can be said about this douche. Sometimes he was an imperialist in sheep's clothing, sometimes he was just an obvious parasite. But hey, we did at least get to see him get tortured.

The torture thing made him out to be a coward, not a hero. The fucking asshole advocated for it, until he tried in extremely controlled settings it. Here's the difference. I know waterboarding is torture because I can imagine it happening to someone else. Not being able to grasp a concept until it affects you personally isn't the sign of a brave and courageous intellect, it's a symptom of being a fucking sociopath.

Which is probably my biggest problem with him. That he presented an "enlightened" support for western intervention, twisting the language of equality and human rights to support criminal actions.

But maybe that's just my inner hate for him talking because I feel that his corpse should be desecrated for simply being someone I thought was really cool until I found out he wasn't.

Tis The Consumer Season

2011-12-15T16:54:00.000-08:00

Tis The Consumer Season

Ho ho ho. I hope you've raided the stores for those gifts cause it's... well, no. Let's face it. I dislike capitalism. The whole season is a complete wash for me and I don't care if it's helping the economy. There has got to be nothing more depressing and sad than what happens in the following video.

I know what you're thinking. I must be crazy. Just look at that man child. He's playing video games and then he gets called by mommy to go open a gift.. let alone two gifts.

Just look at that video. You'll probably think me crazy as that dude looks as if he's experiencing more joy in those few moments of the video swinging around those light sabers than I have had in the last decade....

And you know what, that's what makes it so sad.

2011-12-14T10:39:00.000-08:00

Random Thoughts That Will Get Me Sent Away

Every now and then I like to just spew out a random assortment of shit. I mean, more so than I normally do every other day of the week. These are like little shotgun blast. Sending out a random assortment of thoughts without actually hitting the targets or getting to thorough with the subject matter.

The odds and ends, if you will.

Tolerance

Did you know, that according to official FBI recruitment material, “all new special agents must visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to see firsthand what can happen when law enforcement fails to protect individuals.”

Why yes. The Holocaust: A Failure Of Law Enforcement.

I seriously wanted to write more about that but I couldn't stop laughing at the very notion of that. Why yes, let's waste a day of our police state workers time by making them watch other police states doing what they're gonna to do. If anything, the Holocaust was a product of law enforcement not questioning commands and doing what they were told without every stopping to think.... should I be doing this?

$Money$

I have to say, looking at my wallet is pretty depressing. Not because of the little amount of money I have in there, but the actual look of said little amount saved up. Some would say that all money that isn't American money looks like a neon or pastel joke with clowns on it with bad 90's comic book holographic foil on it.

To that I answer that American money looks like filthy tissue paper with murderers and slave owners on it. But I suppose it's only fitting to keep the tradition of all respectable imperial currency to highlight such oppressors forever more.

Tom Clancy.. an asshole

So the new rainbow six game is coming out. While I am planning on doing a huge piece on this later one, I figured it's worth noting that Tom Clancy is a huge asshole and his product line is nothing more than reactionary scare mongering at its worse. And insulting at its best.

Just take a look at the following clip of NOT the game play, but at the very least the outline of the story to this otherwise certainly shitty game:

I wonder if the 99% is getting any sort of royalty for being featured as the comically bad villain of this game. Why yes, the masses who want, nay, demand justice for the crimes of corporations should be painted as the bad guy extremist. Fuck man, that is just bad all around and I want to beat someone for it.

Russia

2011-12-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

Russia

So some crazy stuff has been going down in Russia the last few weeks. First off, their elections have sparked some intense situations.

Results showed that Putin's party reached a low in the region of Yaroslavl, taking just 29% of the vote. It got a boost, however, in Chechnya, which is ruled by ruthless leader Ramzan Kadyrov. With nearly 100% of voters turning out, United Russia took 99.48% of the vote, results showed. It also took more than 90% in neighbouring Dagestan.

The New Region newspaper noted that "the record in central Russia was brought by patients of psychiatric clinics, who gave more than 90% of votes to United Russia".

Russians continued to register cases of falsification through the night and into Monday. News reports on state-run television appeared to show results that implied turnout in some regions was as high as 146%.

http://exiledonline....k-of-oligarchy/

And Monday night Moscow time, the protests against election fraud swelled in size to as high as 10,000+ according to some reports I’ve read, overwhelmingly young students and post-Communist Russians in their 20′s and 30′s. Watching this video, shot near the Kremlin, makes it clear that a tipping point has been reached in Moscow: Discontent over living under oligarchical rule is spilling into the open. It’s no longer enough to be “better off than under Yeltsin”–Russia’s youth wants more democracy, more people power, and more justice. The idea is spreading in Moscow, and this has got to make Putin and the Kremlin nervous:

Then we have an official at a polling station filling out ballots:

And then there's the whole situation of washable pens fitted in polling booths:

Well, good for Russia! They seem to have taken very well to democracy. I sincerely hope they get somewhere with this.

The city of St. Petersburg recently passed a law that banned lesbian gay bi-sexual transgenders pride parade because they were homosexual propaganda that could be viewed by minors. Russia is the single most depressing industrialized country that exists and even thinking about it makes the world seem more devoid of color.

I sure hope that by 2100 the saying becomes "Stalinism was the worst form of government, except all others we tried."

Penn State And Lawyers

2011-12-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

Penn State And Lawyers

I'm pretty sure that by now you've heard every Penn State joke that there ever was, is, or ever will be. But what isn't a joke is the future road show attraction that is the pending court case of Jerry Sandusky considering what his lawyer is saying

Jerry Sandusky's lawyer said he's looking forward to questioning the witnesses against his client , including any alleged victims who testify at next week's preliminary hearing.

"Although the preliminary hearing is not a trial, but simply a probable cause proceeding ... we will, for the very first time, have the opportunity to face Jerry's accusers and question them under oath about their allegations," Joe Amendola said in a statement released Monday.

"We look forward to this opportunity."

So the alleged, "face Jeryy's accusers and question them under oath about their allegations", "we look forward to this opportunity".

Maybe it's just me, but perhaps we need a Batman or a Dexter to go around and take care of piece of shit scum like Sandusky. He should be put into a prison for the rest of his life and his lawyer Joe Amendola should join him on account of him "looking forward to face Jerry's accusers and question them under oath about their allegations." Which means, "I look forward to making them relive the horror of being molested as a child and try to trip them p while they go into a dark scary place."

And if at this point you still don't know who Jerry Sandusky is, he was a Penn State blah blah person who.. fuck it, just read this:

Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse stemming from a grand jury report released last month that alleged the former Penn State football coach had illicit contact with eight young boys over a 15-year span.

In interviews, Sandusky has denied sexually assaulting children but has acknowledged showering with and embracing boys

As you can see, a Batman is really needed. Though Batman would probably just beat him up and leave him tied up outside a police station.... In which case Batman's so fucking useless in retrospect.

"I wonder if I should use my technology to see if there are any corrupt cops on the GPB.. NAH! I'm sure they're all cool."

If anything, we need a fucking Punisher.

Okay, less superhero talk and time for more gawking at the audacity of Sandusky's lawyer and his ability to be a slimy asshole is in order. Because really, you'd have to have chutzpah to defend the most notorious child raper in America's history.

Though perhaps it would be worth noting that Jerry Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, impregnated and later married a 16 year old girl at the fine age of 49. She was also a client of his, which I wonder if that isn't an ethical No-no for a lawyer. Though in PA, sixteen and forty nine is legal, but it sure as hell isn't right. Which just goes to show you that PA is really bad.

But worse of everything Jerry Sandusky went on national TV and said he "horsed around with kids," "showered with them", and "touched them", and said he "enjoys young people." in response to direct questions about "loving children."

I obviously never heard Sandusky speak before, but holy shit if his voice in that video is not the voice of a man in serious mental health crisis. Totally flat affect, totally separated from reality, totally disengaged with the person he's talking to. His lawyer is a horrible person for even thinking of defending this clearly insane person.

How else can you explain the classic move that any criminal uses in these sort of cases by the only way they know how - Sandusky is heading up his own investigation to find out who really raped those kids in the shower. not him. no sir

Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach accused of sexually abusing boys over a 14-year period, is working with a private investigator in his quest to prove his innocence, his lawyer said Monday.
Attorney Joe Amendola said his client, who is free on $100,000 bail, is conducting his own

investigation, someone stop this train cause I want to get off on this crazy ride. All these fucking rape cases are beyond reprehensible to me. My personal breaking point was the rape trial that got dismissed because the victim was wearing skinny jeans, on grounds that no one could ever remove tight pants without your consent.

Or maybe it was when the rich French guy raped the maid and then hired a PR firm run by former CIA employees to character assassinate her and then deport her, while he returned to France where he faced similar claims.

The proof that she was lying was when she associated with her boyfriend, A criminal, and asked "what should I do about this rape" because, you know, why would she ask that was she afraid nobody would believe her and she would get deported or something? Heavens no.

In any case, all these rape cases just make me feel... so dead inside. Fuck it.