Seriously, even as a Jew, I find this just full of WTF.
I get the entire thing about complaining about commercialism, but why the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster does every sort of complaint in Texas have to be solved with the excess applications of firearms?
Seriously, I think that DARPA needs to work with MTV to fix this:
Adventures in bad corporate damage control.
Specifically, because Wikileaks has said that they have a document dump from a Bank of Bank of America, Bank of America has started to buy up hundreds of nasty domain names in the hope of preventing the airing of criticism:
Bank of America has snapped up hundreds of abusive domain names for its senior executives and board members in what is being perceived as a defensive strategy against the future publication of damaging insider info from whistleblowing Website WikiLeaks.
According to Domain Name Wire, the US bank has been aggressively registering domain names including its board of Directors’ and senior executives’ names followed by “sucks” and “blows”.
For example, the company registered a number of domains for CEO Brian Moynihan: BrianMoynihanBlows.com, BrianMoynihanSucks.com, BrianTMoynihanBlows.com, and BrianTMoynihanSucks.com.
You know, I REALLY don’t think that this is going to help when people realize that you were smoking cigars lit from the original notes of mortgages that you have foreclosed on, and that you used homeless orphans as ash trays.
More seriously, if Wikileaks has your documents, then people will go there, or to one of its legion of mirrors, to get that information.
While I am in favor of clipping the Federal Reserve’s wings, limiting its scope to monetary issues, and taking regulation largely out of their hands, along with reducing the role of private banks in staffing the boards of the regional Fed banks, Ron Paul just went off the rails again, arguing that the Federal Reserve is an illegal cartel:
Rep. Ron Paul, (R-Texas), who will head a subcommittee overseeing the Federal Reserve in the new Congress, called the central bank a “cartel” and said it had “monopoly control” over the US dollar. “I think we should start ending the Fed by allowing competition. I don’t like the idea that they have monopoly control. It’s a cartel: They get to print the money,” said Paul, who wrote a book called End the Fed.
Paul said that he wanted to “legalize competition,” so that Americans can use gold and silver as legal tender.
The idea that the government, which is what the Federal Reserve is, in a completely f%$#ed up kind of way, should not have a monopoly on the idea of coining money is completely nuts.
I am so over agreeing with him yesterday.
The world is back to normal, though I do rather relish the idea of seeing Dr. Paul grill Bernanke on CSPAN.
You see, he said, “If Hillary gave up one of her balls and gave it to Obama, he’d have two.”
This is wrong to say.
He’d just have 1.
So, Pope Benedict XVI has now issued a tepid statement saying that gay male prostitutes might be able to use condoms, under certain special circumstances, because there is no possibility of procreation:
The Vatican today rushed out a “clarification” of the pope’s remarks on the use of condoms, reported in a book to be published this week, insisting he had “not reformed or changed the [Roman Catholic] church’s teaching”.
But the statement made clear that Pope Benedict XVI was prepared to consider the use of condoms in certain, limited circumstances.
And now we are seeing the walk-back from this, so I am uncertain if this is a real initiative, or one of those cases a game of academic what-if-ing is taken as something more.
So, it’s either significant, or it isn’t.
Blah, blah, blah!
I saw this at the Wholefoods Market™, and I saw this.
It’s called the “Buddha’s Hand Citron”, but I immediately dubbed it the “Cthulhu Fruit.”
I did not catch the name, but when I got home, I searched for “Cthulhu” and “Citron” on Google™ images, and this Flicker Stream was, not kidding here, the first image up, which shows that something are universal, at least for aficionados of the work of Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
There are a lot of people who call this “Cthulhu Fruit”.
You know, I’m generally not a fan of rap, and I generally find the genre of “weird Japanese videos” to be disturbing (see Pr0n, Tentacle), but this is very engaging, and completely work safe.
It is both universally engaging and truly Japanese at the same time.
H/t JR at the by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS.
Heh!You know, based on personal experience, I think that this might be a very lucrative market, but I need to ask Sharon* if it’s prudent for me to offer a more thorough analysis of the potential dynamics of such a publication.
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
In Wellington, New Zealand, a group of pro cannabis protesters pushed a cart of burning weed into a police station:
Police in the New Zealand capital of Wellington were weighing charges Friday against a group of pro-cannabis protesters who invaded the cop-shop with a cart full of burning marijuana, according to a report from the scene.
I wonder who had the fig newton concession at what was described as, “one of the happiest protests the political precinct had seen in some time.”
Andrew Shirvell has been fired as assistant Michigan Attorney General for stalking University of Michigan student Chris Armstrong.
Armstrong was the first openly gay president of the Michigan Student Assembly, and this sent the already right-wing Shirvell into a delusional hissy fit.
As a private citizen, it would be creepy, but as a supporter and confidant of Michigan’s right wing Attorney General, it took on some rather disturbing overtones.
Background here.
But this one in Washington State is prize:
Ballot Measure Summary
This measure would require the Seal of the State of Washington to be changed to depict a vignette of a tapeworm dressed in a three piece suit attached to the lower intestine of a taxpayer shown as the central figure. The seal would be required to be encircled with the following words: “Committed to sucking the life blood out of each and every tax payer.” The illustration would be selected from submissions submitted by taxpayers.
Just when you thought that the silly season could not get any sillier………
H/t DC at the by invitation only Stellar Parthenon BBS.
Say what you will about Sarah Palin, but she does not currently get drunk and engage in one night stands:
Three years ago this week, an intoxicated Christine O’Donnell showed up at the apartment of a 25-year-old Philadelphian and ended up spending the night in his bed. Here’s his story—and photos—of his escapade with the would-be Delaware senator.
When one finds a public who makes their mark with sexual “morality,” it does appear that they are railing against what they want to do themselves.
I wil note that the source is Gawker, with all that that entails, and the account is fairly stomach churning, not because of anything that Ms. O’Donnell did or said, but because of the attitude of the source.
Lines like, “When her underwear came off, I immediately noticed that the waxing trend had completely passed her by,” do not make kindly disposed to whoever he is.
In fact, it makes me feel a bit, and only a it, of pity for Ms. O’Donnell.
Getting drunk on Halloween and getting to 2nd or 3rd base really should be nobody’s business …… Unless, of course, you are a very public campaigner against any form of sexual activity out of marriage under all circumstances.
Still, it reads like a bad letter to Penthouse forum.
Laurence Klotz relates what might be the worst mdeical lecture of all time.
You see, before there was Viagra, there was an injectible treatment for erectile dysfunction developed by Professor G.S. Brindley, and at the lecture where he revealed these techniques, he dropped trow to reveal that he was sporting an artificially induced erection:
Professor Brindley, still in his blue track suit, was introduced as a psychiatrist with broad research interests. He began his lecture without aplomb. He had, he indicated, hypothesized that injection with vasoactive agents into the corporal bodies of the penis might induce an erection. Lacking ready access to an appropriate animal model, and cognisant of the long medical tradition of using oneself as a research subject, he began a series of experiments on self-injection of his penis with various vasoactive agents, including papaverine, phentolamine, and several others. (While this is now commonplace, at the time it was unheard of). His slide-based talk consisted of a large series of photographs of his penis in various states of tumescence after injection with a variety of doses of phentolamine and papaverine. After viewing about 30 of these slides, there was no doubt in my mind that, at least in Professor Brindley’s case, the therapy was effective. Of course, one could not exclude the possibility that erotic stimulation had played a role in acquiring these erections, and Professor Brindley acknowledged this.
The Professor wanted to make his case in the most convincing style possible. He indicated that, in his view, no normal person would find the experience of giving a lecture to a large audience to be erotically stimulating or erection-inducing. He had, he said, therefore injected himself with papaverine in his hotel room before coming to give the lecture, and deliberately wore loose clothes (hence the track-suit) to make it possible to exhibit the results. He stepped around the podium, and pulled his loose pants tight up around his genitalia in an attempt to demonstrate his erection.
At this point, I, and I believe everyone else in the room, was agog. I could scarcely believe what was occurring on stage. But Prof. Brindley was not satisfied. He looked down sceptically at his pants and shook his head with dismay. ‘Unfortunately, this doesn’t display the results clearly enough’. He then summarily dropped his trousers and shorts, revealing a long, thin, clearly erect penis. There was not a sound in the room. Everyone had stopped breathing.
But the mere public showing of his erection from the podium was not sufficient. He paused, and seemed to ponder his next move. The sense of drama in the room was palpable. He then said, with gravity, ‘I’d like to give some of the audience the opportunity to confirm the degree of tumescence’. With his pants at his knees, he waddled down the stairs, approaching (to their horror) the urologists and their partners in the front row. As he approached them, erection waggling before him, four or five of the women in the front rows threw their arms up in the air, seemingly in unison, and screamed loudly. The scientific merits of the presentation had been overwhelmed, for them, by the novel and unusual mode of demonstrating the results.
It does sound like something that you would see on an HBO comedy, doesn’t it?
We see yet another senseless crocodile disaster:
A stowaway crocodile on a flight escaped from its carrier bag and sparked an onboard stampede that caused the flight to crash, killing 19 passengers and crew.
The croc had been hidden in a passenger’s sports bag – allegedly with plans to sell it – but it tore loose and ran amok, sparking panic.
A stampede of terrified passengers caused the small aircraft to lose balance and tip over in mid-air during an internal flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The unbalanced load caused the aircraft, on a routine flight from the capital, Kinshasa, to the regional airport at Bandundu, to go into a spin and crash into a house.
A lone survivor from the Let 410 plane told the astonishing tale to investigators.
Ironically the crocodile also survived the crash but was later killed with a machete by rescuers sifting through the wreckage.
We live in a very strange world.
The tree is known as the Pterocarya fraxinifolia, though its common name is the Caucasian Wingnut.
It turns out that this tree, which originated in Iran, is actually way smarter than your average teabagger.
You kow what the final serial comma is, don’t you?
It’s the last comma used on a list, so you see, “Item1, Item2, Item3, Item4, Item5, and Item6.”
Some people believe that this is an anachronism that can be discarded, and that, “Item1, Item2, Item3, Item4, Item5 and Item6,” is acceptable.
Well, Patrick Nielsen Hayden believes that this shortcut is in error, and I agree:
With the final serial comma, it is clear that Merle Haggard’s ex-wives, as well as Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall were interviewed.
Without the final serial comma it is clear that Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall are Merle Haggard’s two ex wives.
To quote Emo Phillips, “Ambiguity, the Devil’s Vollyball.”
Elvira takes on Christin O’Donnell, and amazingly enough, it’s safe for work:
Right wing activist, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas just called Anita Hill demanding an apology:
Nearly 20 years after Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Justice Thomas’s wife has called Ms. Hill, seeking an apology.
In a voice mail message left at 7:31 a.m. on Oct. 9, a Saturday, Virginia Thomas asked her husband’s former aide-turned-adversary to make amends. Ms. Hill played the recording, from her voice mail at Brandeis University, for The New York Times.
“Good morning Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas,” it said. “I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.”
Ms. Thomas went on: “So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. O.K., have a good day.”
Ms. Hill, in an interview, said she had kept the message for nearly a week trying to decide whether the caller really was Ms. Thomas or a prankster. Unsure, she said, she decided to turn it over to the Brandeis campus police with a request to convey it the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Seriously, there is all sorts of pathology here from a woman who is both the spouse of a Supreme Court Justice and an amazingly well funded political activists.
One can only imagine what the Thomas’ dinner table conversation is like.
It starts with a survey of the concepts, but at about 2:20, it gets hysterically funny.
H/t Juha Boren for the tip.