At least this made me laugh through the pain

as did this:

Karma's Butt-Monkey is Back

I'm penniless broke. My heart is broken. My computer is broken. My arm is now broken, my shoulder dislocated, I have a concussion and a sprained neck/whiplash. Mom said let's get you out of the house, some change in scenery would do you good. Her car was sideswiped. She and my sister are fine, the driver of the other car has a little forehead bruising. Me, yeah, not so much.

WTF Universe? I didn't do anything wrong!

TPIF - Thank Prometheus It's Friday

Prometheus is a titan who had a knack for getting on Zeus' bad side. Zeus denied humanity fire, Prometheus seeing the brokeness of man stole some from the heavens and gave it to mankind. This allowed humanity to leave the dark ages and discover civilization, but also war. For this he is punished for all eternity by having his liver eaten daily by an eagle, only to have it regenerate overnight since he is immortal. It is a more benign treatment of the ideas in the story of Eve and the Serpent. Play with the fire of the gods and you will get burned.

err....don't feed the animals....

Misspelled tattoos are funny...for us anyway

Buffy's Swear Board

collection of amusing .gifs some are funnier than others and there are a couple that are NSFW

Live world statistics

Interesting graphic exploring language evolution and relation

Good life advice, and by good we mean, well just read it (click on the image to go to the next page)

Cool little art widget

A Guide to Christian Cliche's

Chuck Liddell is the face of ultimate fighting, so I'm gonna take his tips on how to win a barfight

Everything I need to know, I learned from Batman

Programming Note

My brain is a scramble right now, things have gotten a bit topsy turvy and so I'm gonna take some time to myself. There will be a link flog tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for their support and understanding.

Karma Pile-On

What a Fucking Shitty Summer.

It's Tunesday Again

Smoking Popes - "If You Don't Care" This is quite a catchy track from their new CD which I will have to get as soon as possible

Wrecx n' Effect - "Rump Shaker" A little old-school hip-hop for your Tuesday afternoon

Max Vernon - "Politburo Technocrats and Prophesizing Maniacs" - Manic lyrics and trippy backings are Max Vernon staples walking the very thin border between genius and terrible. This falls on the former side

update: fixed the link to the smoking popes song

Not All Gaffe's Are Created Equal

Running for the Presidency is a grueling endurance test of one's physical and mental faculties. From time to time there will be slip-ups and stupid things said. Some of these are just the little mental brain farts that all of us have on a daily basis. So the heavy criticism of John McCain's remarks about the "Iraq-Pakistan" border (while talking about Afghanistan) may belie his primary interest in Iraq, is understandable. As is his repeated reference to Czechoslovakia. I was 10 when the country broke up and I still slip up on it sometimes, so give the guy a break most of his life it's been that way. I can forgive Barack Obama's talk about visiting 57 states and things like that because they don't reflect on major policy flaws, or lack of knowledge they're just simple mistakes.

What can and does bother me are the more serious confusions. McCain being unable to tell the difference between Sunni, Shia and who is who in the region IS a serious mistake. That is not just the flub of a tired mind, especially when repeated on several occasions. That speaks to basic and widespread misunderstading of the region which has hamstrung US policy in the Middle East for a long time.

I won't then criticize McCain for those kinds of flubs, though the media loves them. I would be much happier if we focused on something like him calling the basic tenet of Social Security and "Absolute Disgrace" or why he has on several occasions forgotten his opinion on issues and had to get back to reporters. Those are indications of a mind that doesn't fully grasp what is happening and is perhaps not up to the job. Not that he slips up on the name of a second tier European Country


Added, unrelated note. An update to yesterday's post about how long it would take the RWingers to start slamming Maliki. I was right

The More You &%$*# Know

The String of nonsense that goes for swearing in comics is known as a Grawlix.

Bite the hands that feed

For the longest time the right wing media and bloggers have ignored Nouri Al-Maliki's ties to Iran because he and they provided some measure of stabalization. Iran does not want a chaotic Iraq to go with a chaotic Afghanistan and potentially unstable Pakistan on its borders so they have backed the moderate and order minded Maliki. Maliki wants what is best for his country which is US presence that is gradually withdrawing as Iraq becomes more capable of defending itself from internal and extrenal threats. Now that he and his official spokesperson have gone out of their way to clearly state (despite the WH and McCain camps attempts at saying it's a translation problem) that they see the US fully leaving in the next two years and mentioning Barack Obama by name I wonder how long until those yammering heads turn on him as a client and puppet of Iran. My guess is by tomorrow, but we'll see.

Two Notes

Condoleeza Rice issued strict warnings hours before Barack Obama's departure on his overseas trip, to US Embassies to give as little help as possible to the candidates. Such a warning was not issued ahead of John McCain's recent foreign trips. Politics no longer ends at the shore I guess.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley will not be attending the Republican National Convention as a voting delegate in Minneapolis because Evangelicals in Iowa are angry at him for pushing an investigation of fraud by evangelical ministers in Iowa. A big slap in his face and proof of the disarray that Republican Party is in there.

The Dark Knight

Went to see The Dark Knight today and it is indeed fantastic. Superb performances throughout, though I think it drifts a bit from the course the first one set and underused Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. It is without a doubt one of the better movies of the year. I also thought Christian Bale underwhelmed a bit compared to the conflicted and complex Batman he produced last time round. Definitely an excellent movie, but it doesn't quite live up to the ridiculous hype surrounding it thusfar.

Heath Ledger's performance is indeed excellent, though I would not buy all the Oscar-buzz that will surround it. Certainly, he was a talented actor finally starting to break from the mold Hollywood had placed him in at the start of his career, it is a sad thing for the movies that his life ended so abruptly. If he gets the sympathy vote it wouldn't be the worst Oscar ever awarded, but without his death he would be a dark horse candidate at best.

Go see it, but don't rate it the best movie of all time

Today is National Ice Cream Day.

Enjoy!

Peoples Front of Judea or the Judean People's Front?

I was raised a very liberal Catholic, but with the years I have become more and more disgusted with the church. My community was always a very open and welcoming place for all people and I recognize that mine was not the traditional Catholic way of being raised. I was raised ecumenically and have fashioned a view towards religion that it is like a car. At different points in different people's lives one type of vehicle is more useful than others. As long as you are true to yourself I see no reason why you should not believe what you want to believe. That includes atheists and agnostics. The freedom to believe one type of church over another is centered in the freedom NOT to believe if one so chooses. I do not see however, why you need to be offensive to those who believe things differently than yourself. Which brings us to the reason for this post.

University of Central Florida Student Webster Cook, stole a communion wafer and has been "holding it hostage" in a stupidly offensive and ridiculous stunt. Several Catholic groups have threatened Cook for his attention-whoring act which brought to his defense many Atheist groups. Most notably Professor PZ Meyers who has put out an open call to anyone who can get him a "frackin' cracker" and that he would then " show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won’t be tempted to hold it hostage… but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web. I shall do so joyfully and with laughter in my heart." He is well within his rights to act in such a way and everyone else is free to call him what he is. An Asshole.

Certainly the Catholic church and many other religions have much blood on their hands, as do nonbelievers throughout history. I am generally more receptive to the feelings of the atheist/agnostic minority in the face of the vocal minority of believers who cause so much disruption in our nation. However, I have no time for idiocy nor the persecution complex felt by some on either side. I wonder how Mr. Cook and Dr. Meyers would feel if someone dug up their dead relatives and mutilated the corpses. After all, they're only rotting meat. Or if someone were to photoshop a family member into particularly degrading pornography? Just because that wafer has no meaning to you does not mean that it doesn't to other people. The Golden Rule is a beautiful thing for anyone to live by believer and non alike. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You can't constantly complain about the rudness and attacks by believers and turn around and pull shit like this. And the beauty of this country is that it protects people's right to believe whatever they want. God, Allah, Vishnu or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You can believe it's just some unleavened wheat or it is the body of a 2000 years dead Jew. But you should have the common decency to not be offensive to others.

Voltaire, one of the first openly atheist thinkers and biggest opponents of the Catholic Church in all of Western European tradition once said "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend unto death your right to say it." For me, that has always been one of the sentiments I try to live by. I don't agree with religious people's offensive attacks on nonbelivers and sinners. Those people have a right to live in our society. And, I don't agree with atheists offensive attacks on things that are considered sacred to believers. Those people have a right to live in our society too.

You Don't Have To Go Home, But You Can't Stay Here

Nour Al-Maliki in an interview with Der Spiegel says that Barack Obama is right. The White House, which had called similar comments from a month ago a transcript error, mistakenly forwarded this to all journalists.

"U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes." He went on to note "Whoever is thinking about the shorter term is closer to reality. Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops would cause problems."

This would present quite a problem to John McCain who 2 years ago said that the will of the Iraqi people should be respected and if they asked us to leave we should because we would then become imperialist occupiers instead of liberators. But Maliki gave McCain an out saying "The Americans have found it difficult to agree on a concrete timetable for the exit because it seems like an admission of defeat to them. But it isn't." There, can we claim victory and go about our merry way now, to maybe concentrate on, you know, the guys who really attacked us.