The NSA is so totally tapping my phone now
25 May 2006
Seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they really were.
No, it’s not that I’m really just that cynical and jaded about the Executive branch’s amorality wrapped in the Imperial cloak of Christian fundamentalism, though of course I am, but I seriously suspect recent events in my life just might have tripped an alert wire somewhere.
The Price of Propaganda
25 May 2006
I received an email recently with this text:
Read the following explanation before looking at the picture! This picture is not doctored. Most Syrians struggle to even read Arabic, much less have a clue about English. So, how do a group of Syrian protest leaders create the most impact with their signs by having the standard “Death To Americans” (etc.) slogans printed in English?
Answer: They simply hire an English-speaking civilian to translate and write their statements into English. Unfortunately, in this case, they were unaware that the “civilian” insurance company employee hired for the job was a retired US Army sergeant! Obviously, pictures of this protest rally never made their way through the Arab TV networks, but the results were “Priceless.”
which was then followed by this “authentic” picture:
I hope everyone got a good chuckle out of this…
You’re laughing at the person who wrote the explanation, not the picture, right? See, everything here is a lie.
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Thoreau was a Buddhist
28 March 2006
The April issue of Harper’s Magazine features an essay by Curtis White entitled “The Spirit of Disobedience: An Invitation to Resistance” that everyone should read immediately1.
White begins the essay by establishing the problem:
According to our leading wise men, the great contemporary moral and political question of the age is: Are we fundamentally a Christian or an Enlightenment culture?
Problem? How is that statement a problem? And it’s true, insomuch as the recent debates over stem-cell research and “Intelligent Design” can now be stacked on the shelf alongside other, more well-worn luminaries such as school prayer, abortion rights, capital punishment, et al, that the debate of faith versus science, specifically as it relates to matters of national character, has long been a feature of Western discourse.
Of course, we should know better. The length, volume, or even ferocity of any argument is no sure indicator of its importance or even relevance.
1 Harper’s does not publish their content online and, as a subscriber and supporter of their mission (and they’re a non-profit to boot), I won’t link directly to the article, even though I have downloaded a copy from the FCC Library. If you’d like a copy of the article I’d recommend a trip to your local newstand/bookstore. Barring that, if you have access to a decent library that has good database access, that’s a viable route to go as well. Lastly, and in following Harper’s copyright guidelines, I will gladly email the article to anyone who asks. Just drop me a note or leave a comment. Thanks for understanding.
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Cheney's Got a Gun... Yep, it's still funny
23 February 2006
Ok, so it’s funny in a sad, ashamed-of-my-country, the world’s most powerful government is run by a bunch of narcissistic war-mongering power-hungry jerks kinda way, but if you’re tired of crying then try laughing.
No, less deranged. There, that’s better.
Anyway, though the jokes about the Vice President shooting a man in the face are getting worn, while listening to JackFM the other day I heard something I couldn’t quite believe at first: Cheney’s Got a Gun (3MB MP3, right click and “save as” to download). I wasn’t even entirely convinced that it wasn’t actually Steven Tyler singing (oh how his cool-factor would’ve sky-rocketed if that were so), but alas it was not. I did, however, locate the source of this masterful little parody: The Bob Rivers Show, one of those morning shows of which it seems classic rock stations are so fond (this one hails from Seattle).