Amusing political ad
Steve Novick, a U.S. Senate candidate from Oregon, stands only 4'9" and has another prominent physical disability, which he puts to good use in this commercial:
The Life and Opinions of Adam Villani, Gentleman
Steve Novick, a U.S. Senate candidate from Oregon, stands only 4'9" and has another prominent physical disability, which he puts to good use in this commercial:
Um, this hotel with tiny rooms is just a refurbished and gussied-up SRO, right? There are a ton of those places in downtown L.A., as long as you don't mind staying with transients on Skid Row. With the name "The Pod," I thought it was going to be a capsule hotel. That would have been much cooler.
Happy Easter! Alleluia!
Geography buffs, take heed: The Netherlands Antilles will be dissolved on December 15 of this year. Curaçao (home of Dodger Andruw Jones) and Sint Maarten will become their own countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, similar to Aruba's current status (and the current status of the Netherlands Antilles as a whole).
Charles Murray, co-author of the notorious The Bell Curve, tells his fellow conservatives who dismissed or mocked Obama's speech on race to get their heads out of their asses and actually listen to what the man said:
Of course you can go after him in all the ways that people have gone after him—if what you want to do is go after him. But suppose you approach Obama’s text under the twin assumptions that (a) he is trying to communicate with you, and, (b) your obligation is to make a good-faith effort to understand his meaning.He goes on to say that he's not going to vote for him because he doesn't agree with his politics. That's a perfectly legitimate position. But this notion that Obama is some kind of slick-talking huckster is just wrong. Imagine a politician actually being honest!
Because that's what blogs are all about, right?
A great deal of modern thought consists of secular myths - hollowed-out religious narratives translated into pseudo-science. Dennett's notion that new communications technologies will fundamentally alter the way human beings think is just such a myth.3. Here is a big, comprehensive superdelegate tracker.
Diogenes scorned not only family and political social organization, but property rights and reputation. The most shocking feature of his philosophy is his rejection of normal ideas about human decency. Exhibitionist and philosopher, Diogenes is said to have eaten (and, once, masturbated) in the marketplace, urinated on some people who insulted him, defecated in the theatre, and pointed at people with his middle finger.Also, be sure to periodically check my list of links on the right; you never know when I'll have added something new that will strike your fancy.
Hyperactive TV investment guru Jim Cramer was perhaps less than prescient about Bear Stearns:
Here's the full text of Barack Obama's rebuke of the offensive racial comments his pastor made and his further thoughts on race in America. It strikes exactly the right tone and hits many very good points; it's so much better than the standard defensive, unilluminating "I denounce this" speech that public figures so often give. It could become a key point in his campaign, but will the public listen? I hope so.
Dick Cheney visits Baghdad and declares the Iraq invasion a "successful endeavor." Meanwhile, a female suicide bomber in Kerbala kills 25 people and wounds 50 others.
1. Ryan Wu lays it all out for you here. Basically, pre-campaign, Clinton and Obama were roughly equal. Then, Hillary runs one of the most dispiriting, scorched-earth primary campaigns we've seen, and Ryan's (and my) opinion of her takes a nosedive.
Do you remember the Drifters, the doo-wop singing group from the 50s and 60s (actually, they're still active today) whose biggest hit was "Under the Boardwalk?" I guess their name is supposed to evoke an airy, easy feel, like they're drifting on a cloud or something. But what about the more common meaning of the word "drifter?" You know, somebody who moves aimlessly from town to town, job to job? It seems that would be more suitable for a punk band, or maybe a group of hobos with harmonica. It's a very different image.(Drifter illustration by Gavin Hargest.)
This is both very strange and very sad... a woman in Kansas had to be pried from a toilet seat by emergency responders because she had a phobia about leaving the bathroom and had stayed on the toilet for two years.
Not content to grin her way through her daytime talk show, magazine, regular Food Network shows, and the rest of her lifestyle empire, tonight the TV Food Network will bring you Rachael Ray Feeds Your Pets. FYI, this involves her cooking food for dogs, not being fed to them herself. NOOOOO!!!!
For that campaign commercial in which Hillary Clinton asks you to believe that she's the one you want answering the phone at 3 A.M., she used some stock footage of kids sleeping, apparently just waiting to be pounced upon by terrorists Barack Obama can't stop. One of those kids will be of voting age next month, and is actually a precinct captain for Barack Obama's campaign.
WHY DOES IT TAKE HER SIX RINGS TO ANSWER?
Paul C. just added a comment to an old post:
Did you hear that the courts recently decided that Airborne was essentially useless, and now they'll have to reimburse buyers to the tune of roughly $23 million? When you're right, you're right.Oh yeah. Sweet, sweet victory. What is it about human psychology that makes so many people trust this stuff while at the same time vilifying the companies that make actual lifesaving medicine? Maybe people wouldn't believe the pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo about vaccines causing autism if instead of getting a painful shot you had an exciting fizzy pill that came in a box with nice, reassuring art by Lloyd Dangle.
So, Gary Gygax died today. Officially, he was merely the co-creator (with Dave Arneson) of Dungeons and Dragons, but considering that he wrote the core rulebooks and many other items for the game, co-founded the company, and has persisted as the public face of D&D even 23 years after he left TSR, there's no question that he's the one man most responsible for the existence of role-playing games as a hobby.
Apparently this is real. Jack Nicholson endorses Hillary Clinton in a collection of clips, and the effect is pretty weird. Surely Nicholson must realize that he creeps people out, right? That's what he built his career on. Is creeping people out an effective way to support your candidate?