12 disturbing vintage ads (and they really ARE)

via

week in review from media matters

hhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

b b b ba byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Gov. Palin Says She Will Quit, Citing Probes, Family Needs

By Philip Rucker and Eli Saslow

Washington Post Staff Writers
Sarah Palin, the Republican Alaska governor who captivated the nation with a combative brand of folksy politics, announced her resignation yesterday in characteristic fashion: She stood on her back lawn in Wasilla, speaking into a single microphone, accompanied by friends and neighbors in baseball hats and polo shirts. ..........


and from the brad blog
EXCLUSIVE: PALIN RESIGNATION 'DAMAGE CONTROL' FOR COMING 'ICEBERG SCANDAL' ... MORE: EMBEZZLEMENT INDICTMENTS COMING?

UPDATED: Alaskan reporter Shannyn Moore offers The BRAD BLOG hints about reasons for Alaska Gov's resignation

FURTHER UPDATE: Sources say embezzlement scandal, federal indictments may soon break concerning use of Wasilla Sport Complex building materials for Palin's home...

[See update below for exclusive source details from Alaska...FURTHER UPDATE now added below: AK sources say 'embezzlement' scandal related to Palin's house, federal indictments may be in offing. MUCH MORE now added below...]

Palin resigns. She was to have been in office until 2010. Something else is going on here above and beyond what she's saying, though I don't know what yet. Josh Marshall seems to agree, noting in his "first signs of what happened" coverage:

[T]his clearly happened so quickly that Palin hasn't even had a chance to come up with a coherent cover story for her resignation. ... Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor............

yeah she was 'targeted' all right. the woman has the brain of a gnat. she's like water. nothing sticks to her (yet).

i just got finished watching the seven episodes

of generation kill on hbo on demand

A TRUE STORY
AN AMAZING STORY
A STORY THAT HURTS TO WATCH


it's a seven episode series which takes place at the beginning of our (illegal and immoral) invasion of iraq. evan wright was a reporter with rolling stone magazine. he was embedded with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion‎ of the United States Marine Corps. i don't believe he ever would have been accepted by the men (at least as much as he was) if in the past he had not written for hustler magazine. that won 'em over as you can imagine.

it's not a story about heroes and villians (although i personally did think some were one or the other). just men who had a job to do and most of them tried their best to do it.

if you have hbo, i highly recommend watching it (it was on about a year ago, but it's on demand right now). if you don't, rent or buy the dvd. i certainly am going to buy the book.

Alexander Skarsgård (who played sgt brad 'iceman' colbert) and James Ransone (who played cpl. josh ray person) were the focus of the series. althought it did feature the entire unit. as i said, some were noble and moral, others were assholes.

imdb entry for generation kill
wiki entry for generation kill
generation kill the book
an npr report with evan wright from 2004

sometimes i forget just how much i love this song

via boing boing Posted by David Pescovitz,

wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

robo geisha trailer will leave you speechless

one of my all time favorite subjects

Scientists tour the Creationism Museum
Posted by Cory Doctorow,

Tony sez, "Recently, a group of paleontologists were in town for the North American Paleontological Convention at the University of Cincinnati, and decided to take a field trip to the Creation Museum just across the river, in Kentucky. My aunt went to cover it for AFP, and I had the doubly good fortune of living just a stone's throw away, so I tagged along to see what these guys were up to. It was an eyeful, to say the least. Gorgeous facilities with amazingly engaging displays and animatronics, and at least a few hundred cubic cubits of bad science and misinformation. One young lady stood, furious, and grumbled, 'It's bullshit. Bullshit pretending to be science.'..............

....................Daryl Domning, professor of anatomy at Howard University, held his chin and shook his head at several points during the tour. "This bothers me as a scientist and as a Christian, because it's just as much a distortion and misrepresentation of Christianity as it is of science," he said...................

i want to run away and join

the moscow cat circus


NOTE: i refuse to go to the circus if animals are involved. however, these cats look VERY well taken care of and it appears they are quite loved as well

oh smokin' wicked cool!

boym partners

history chess

yeah faux 'news' and it's guests

really ARE saying the only chance we have is for terrorists to blow our country to smithereens. what's wrong with THAT picture?

don't ask don't tell....but go ahead and kill 'em!

don't ask don't tell MUST be thrown out. if someone is a good soldier, sailor, airman, marine or whatever, they not only should be allowed to serve, they should be WELCOMED to serve. discrimination is steeped in fear and ignorance plain and simple!

president obama, STOP THIS SHITE RIGHT NOW. GET RID OF THIS STUPIDASS LAW/POLICY

As gay discharges continue, sailor is murdered

By John Byrne

A 29-year-old Navy sailor was found dead at a Southern California military base Tuesday in a suspected homicide that activists say may have been related to his sexuality.

An unnamed individual is being held as a “person of interest” in the case.

Navy seaman August Provost of Houston, Texas, reportedly complained to his family that was he being harassed; his sister told a local newspaper that they’d advised him to tell his supervisor. If Provost revealed his sexuality, however, he could have been discharged from the armed services.

The news comes on the heels of the military’s recommended discharge of gay Arabic translator Daniel Choi, and discontent within the gay community about the Obama Administration’s actions on gay rights. President Obama says he will not stop the military discharges, which have resulted in the expulsion of more than 250 servicemembers since he was inaugurated in January.

A spokesman for a group that provides legal counseling to gays in and out of the military said the federal law that mandates discharging gay servicemembers certainly didn’t help............

one of my favorite songs of ALL times

skip to 2:30 so you don't have to hear her blather. shite the woman CAN sing (so can mary j of course)

VERY cool ad

via gizmodo

By John Herrman,
Amnesty International has installed a new anti-domestic-abuse ad fixture in Hamburg, Germany which is equal parts clever and shocking: when you look at the photo, it's a smiling couple; when you look away, it's a dude punchin' a lady.

The billboard works by scanning its proximity with an eye-tracking camera, which triggers an image switch on the display panel when it senses someone looking at it. The change only occurs after a brief delay, so that observers understand what's going on, and get the message..................

holy shite

via tywkiwdbi

another - different kind of - post it note video:

via

sally kern....do you know what i have to say to you?

you're one fucked up bio-tch. that's what i have to say to you.

what does being gay have to do with the downfall of the universe? 'splain that to me lucy sally.

what IS morality sally? what is it i ask you? to me it's being concerned about your neighbors. yes sally even if that neighbor is jewish or black or a lesbian or muslim or asian or short or fat or blue eyed or bald.

hey sally did god talk DIRECTLY to you and tell you to be stupid? i was wondering that. why else would you say ridiculous shite like you do?

did god tell you to ignore poverty and disease and lack of food and shelter for some and poor education for some and lack of medical care for some and the loss of jobs for some and our men and women in the military being used for target practice for years in the middle east...did your god tell you to ignore all that and just go around talking shite? sally, i want to know

Oklahoma Rep’s ‘proclamation’ blames gays, porn, abortion for economic woes

By Daniel Tencer
Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern, probably best known for her comparison of homosexuality to toe cancer, has ignited controversy once again with her “Oklahoma Citizen’s Proclamation for Morality,” a document that blames America’s current economic crisis on “our greater national moral crisis.”

The document (PDF) blames “abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse and many other forms of debauchery” for the country’s economic woes.

To rectify the problem, it suggests the following solution: “BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, humbly call upon Holy God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer, to have mercy on this nation, to stay His hand of judgment, and grant a national awakening of righteousness and Christian renewal as we repent of our great sin.”

Though Kern’s proclamation reads like a latter-day version of a tribal appeal to the gods for rain, it is being taken very seriously, especially among gay-rights groups...........

doesn't anyone understand the enormity of

what we have actually done here? how we illegally and immorally invaded a country who posed no threat to us (nor ever attacked us OR EVEN WANTED TO ATTACK US)? we made countless enemies not only in that country but many others. WE LITERALLY CREATED TERRORISTS OUT OF ORDINARY CITIZENS. we destroyed millions of lives by our invasion of iraq. not only the lives of strangers but the lives of american women and men who, if 'lucky' enough to survive being sent over there ONCE, TWICE, THREE TIMES, FOUR TIMES OR PERHAPS FIVE TIMES, certainly are coming home either physically fucked or mentally fucked (how could you NOT be?)?

why did we allow those mad men (king george and his court) to do this to the ENTIRE world? we did. we allowed it. there is NO taking backsies either

Iraq's 'Milestone' Day Marred by Fatal Blast
Car Bombing Kills at Least 34 in Kirkuk As U.S. Combat Troops Pull Out of Cities

By Ernesto Londoño and Ann Scott Tyson

Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, June 30 -- At least 34 people were killed in a car bombing Tuesday in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, marring a national holiday declared to celebrate the departure of U.S. combat troops from the country's cities.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of four soldiers Monday in an attack south of Baghdad, a grim reminder of the vulnerability of U.S. troops as more of them are deployed to rural outposts.

The car bomb in Kirkuk detonated shortly after 6 p.m. at Shorja Market, wounding scores of shoppers and damaging several shops, Iraqi police officials said. Farhad Aziz al-Barzanji, a physician at Kirkuk's Azadi Hospital, said 91 people were injured.........

I have no idea what this is about, but I like it.

I have no idea what this is about, but I like it.
Originally uploaded by WilWheaton

this is wicked smile inducing

don't know if you know this about me or not

some people have mirrors over their beds. I HAVE TAP SHOES

(i'm a guerrilla tapper)




via boing boing

it was a dark and stormy night the results

are in! man i LOVE this contest. it always has me in tears. i've not read them all yet, but i will throughout the day

if you're in need of some cheering up, you should read them as well

Screamin' seafaring tale wins bad writing contest
The Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A shambling sentence about screaming seafarers on the sturdy whaler Ellie May stood shoulders above the rest in an annual bad writing contest. David McKenzie, 55, of Federal Way, Wash., won the grand prize in San Jose State University's annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with this:

"Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the "Ellie May," a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests."............

and here are the rest of the bulwer-lytton 2009 results oh heck here's the runner-up in the science fiction category:

George scratched his head in abject puzzlement as he tried to figure out where he'd parked the rocket this time in the 100-acre parking lot of Nallmart 75B, but then he remembered that a ship-boy had taken his DNA key-but which one, the kelly toned humanoid or the atmosphere-of-Rylak-hued android; scanning the horizon, he at last turned to Babs and asked "how green was my valet"?

Leigh A. Smith
New Douglas, IL

wow or what?

how scary is this?

Comics artist Mark Sable detained for Unthinkable acts

By Ian Randal Strock

May 13, 2009

Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable. Sable was detained while traveling to New York for a debut party at Jim Hanley's Universe today. The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type "unthinkable" terrorist scenarios that now are coming true. (See this article for more on the series.) Sable wrote of his experiences: "Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for 'extra screening'. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then 'discovered' the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated...........

ht: boing boing

water brain

Water Brain Complete Edition（16：9） from Johann.Poo on Vimeo.

via

here is my take on things

i don't want to speak ill of the dead, but i also am angry and surprised and shocked at the reaction of the world to the death of michael jackson.

there is NO doubt in my mind that man could move. that man had more talent in this little finger than most of us have in our whole body. even when that man was a boy, he was a phenomenal performer. he gave the world something special

yet to me EVERYTHING, all of his talent was negated by two things

1) his changing from black to white (and there is no way you'd ever convince me it was a physical medical condition). why is that acceptable to not only the whole world but to the black community?

and

2) his sleeping with young boy children (or even girl children but that was rare). let's say he didn't even touch them like he claimed. let's just say that. well there is STILL something very wrong, very perverse, very evil about a GROWN MAN sleeping with the pretty children of strangers in a place directly out of peter pan.

it is unacceptable to forget this about him. it just is and i personally won't forget

why is the world accepting of this?

yeah!

via

i wish i could play

12 cool chess sets



We'll never tire of featuring Lego products, like this official Lego Chess Set. Measuring in at a considerable 17”/24cm squared, this official, medieval themed Lego chess set comes complete with thirty-one mini figures, two giant trolls, two horses, two skeleton horses and two dragon heads all of which come complete with accessories such as armour and weapons and all of which need to be constructed prior to the game commencing. The Official Ultimate Lego Chess Set retails for around £140 (circa $300).

(Source)

from oddee

Great articles on other blogs...

a good take on all of this shite

i feel the same way as the author.

1) i really do NOT care who is boinking whom. i don't. it's not my business
UNLESS
2) you profess everyone is a sinner who doesn't abide by the 'sanctity' of marriage. marriage between a man and a woman. that's 'sacred' and special and beautiful and on and on and on and on
3) you vote against gay marriage because 'straight' marriage is sacred
4) you vote to impeach or demand resignations from certain other individuals who were caught cheating
5) you ignore certain other individuals indiscretions (especially if they are members of your own party)
6) you are caught in an outright lie

the main stream media doesn't treat republicans who are caught with their pants down worse than democrats caught with their pants down (edwards, clinton, etc). they don't

the liberal media may treat them a bit more harshly. why? for the reasons i listed above (and more). most republicans that were caught coincidentally were some of the loudest professors of the importance of heterosexual marriage and marriage vows being akin to achieving rapture. the louder they preach, the guiltier i think they are. there are SO effing many republicans that have stepped out on their wives (and it's been PROVEN) that the media don't touch. it's sickening. well sanford deserves to be gutted (figuratively as you all know i don't believe in wishing anyone harm)

and oh by the way, mika was a local hartford newscaster for a bit back in the day

Mika Brzezinski's double standard

In the wake of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's admission of an affair with an Argentine woman, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski complained of a "double standard" in the way affairs by politicians "are judged," insisting that Republicans are treated more harshly than Democrats. Brzezinski didn't explicitly say the media play a role in that alleged "double standard," but that's the only plausible interpretation of her comments -- surely she isn't accusing the American people of bias.

Now, if Brzezinski wants to say that the media should leave Sanford alone, I won't take issue with that. There is a pretty good argument to be made that Sanford's marriage is none of our business. (There is also a pretty strong argument to be made that you forfeit privacy in your own extramarital affairs when you tell others who they can and can't wed, and when you insist that other politicians caught in affairs should resign.)

But Brzezinski's claim of a double standard in which the media make a bigger deal out of the affairs of Republican politicians than Democrats is pure bunk and cannot be allowed to go undisputed.

Nobody would expect an affair involving a senator or governor or even a speaker of the House to garner as much attention as one involving a sitting president. But nobody who was paying attention in 1998 can plausibly claim that the media give Democrats a pass. The feeding frenzy set off by the Lewinsky story that January is simply unmatched in history. It was the dominant topic in newspapers, on evening news broadcasts, and on cable news every day for a year. ............

it's english beat sunday

because we can't forget iraq

and we sure as shite can't forget we still have people there AND we have veterans and civilian contractors back home who were effected by being in iraq.

and unlike the previous story i posted the link to, i sure as shite am NOT surprised to find the name kbr (or halliburton) bandied about

Did toxic chemical in Iraq cause GIs' illnesses?

By SHARON COHEN
AP National Writer

Larry Roberta's every breath is a painful reminder of his time in Iraq. He can't walk a block without gasping for air. His chest hurts, his migraines sometimes persist for days and he needs pills to help him sleep.

James Gentry came home with rashes, ear troubles and a shortness of breath. Later, things got much worse: He developed lung cancer, which spread to his spine, ribs and one of his thighs; he must often use a cane, and no longer rides his beloved Harley.

David Moore's postwar life turned into a harrowing medical mystery: nosebleeds and labored breathing that made it impossible to work, much less speak. His desperate search for answers ended last year when he died of lung disease at age 42.

What these three men - one sick, one dying, one dead - had in common is they were National Guard soldiers on the same stretch of wind-swept desert in Iraq during the early months of the war in 2003.

These soldiers and hundreds of other Guard members from Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia were protecting workers hired by a subsidiary of the giant contractor, KBR Inc., to rebuild an Iraqi water treatment plant. The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases.............

i really didn't think i could be shocked any more

but it seems like i CAN be

you know there are innocents out there who can't even board an aircraft (because they're WRONGLY on some sort of terror watch list OR because they have the wrong name) let alone PILOT ONE. but these people still get to keep their licenses? one was CONVICTED of terrorism even. how fucked is that?


6 Considered Threats Kept Licenses for Aviation
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON — At least six men suspected or convicted of crimes that threaten national security retained their federal aviation licenses, despite antiterrorism laws written after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that required license revocation. Among them was a Libyan sentenced to 27 years in prison by a Scottish court for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie.

In response to questions from The New York Times, the Transportation Security Administration, which is supposed to root out such individuals, announced that the Federal Aviation Administration suspended the licenses on Thursday.

The two agencies appeared to be unaware that the men were among the nearly one million people licensed as pilots, mechanics and flight dispatchers. They were identified by a tiny family-owned company in Mineola, N.Y., demonstrating software it developed to scrub lists of bank customers for terrorism links.............