some incredibly WONDERFUL news

i am not a snob EXCEPT when it comes to movies (ok ok ok, i DO like animal house and the blues brothers but don't tell anyone). usually if a movie is in english i don't want to see it (except if it has star trek in the title)

in boing boing today i read the following (and i wept):

Alice in Wonderland movie from 1933 with Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, WC Fields, which Alice herself endorsed

By Cory Doctorow

Steve Silberman sez, "Holy Terry Gilliam prototype: The original, trippy 1933 film version of Alice in Wonderland by Norman 'Monkey Business' McLeod, starring Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, and W.C. Fields, now on DVD with a rave from Alice: 'A revolution in cinema history!'" But only one can boast the endorsement of the original Alice: the 1933 Paramount "Alice in Wonderland," being released to DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment ($19.98, not rated), the current rights holder. In a Jan. 7, 1934, article in The New York Times, Alice Liddell, quoted under her married name, Mrs. Reginald Hargreaves, expressed admiration for the film that Hollywood had wrought from the story Carroll had invented for her some seven decades before.

"I am delighted with the film and am now convinced that only through the medium of the talking picture art could this delicious fantasy be faithfully interpreted," she declared, her words possibly burnished by a Paramount publicist. " 'Alice' is a picture which represents a revolution in cinema history!".............

it is in my top five movies of ALL time (number one you ask??? well of COURSE it's juliet of the spirits

why? oh easy. i AM

giulietta and i AM betty

oh who is betty you ask? well here she is (NOT in full of course. watch the movie)
betty blue

Another Trippy Rabbit Hole

By DAVE KEHR

THE home video market is awash in versions of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” this week, all evidently intended to capitalize on the publicity surrounding Tim Burton’s new 3-D interpretation of the classic Lewis Carroll book, set to be released on Friday by Walt Disney Studios.

The reissues range from a 1966 adaptation directed for British television by Jonathan Miller and starring Peter Sellers, Michael Redgrave and John Gielgud (BBC Warner, $14.98, not rated) to a radically reconstituted miniseries, “Alice,” shown last year on the SyFy channel (Lionsgate, $19.98, not rated)...................

who loves edward everett horton more than i? the answer my friends IS NO ONE

via

who DOESN'T like doritos?

(well me for one, but who am i???)



via

one has to wonder.....

what these people feel inside. they MUST have feelings, no? one has to wonder if having reviewed genocides through history (oh and ONE is too many) how they can say shite like this.

one has to wonder if they believe in some type of god (and i'm guessing a lot of them do) why they think their god is ok with this shite



Harvard Professor's Shocking Proposal: Starve the Palestinians in Gaza into Having Fewer Babies

JuanCole.com / By Juan Cole

At a recent conference, Prof. Martin Kramer called for population growth in the Muslim world to be restrained and made a series of other outrageous claims.


Martin Kramer revealed his true colors at the Herzliya Conference, wherein he blamed political violence in the Muslim world on population growth, called for that growth to be restrained, and praised the illegal and unconscionable Israeli blockade of civilian Gazans for its effect on reducing the number of Gazans

[Commentator] M. J. Rosenberg argued that Kramer's speech is equivalent to a call for genocide. It certainly is a call for eugenics.

It is shocking that Kramer, who has made a decade-long career of attacking social science understanding of the Middle East and demonizing anyone who departs even slightly from his rightwing Israeli-nationalist political line, should be given a cushy office at Harvard as a 'fellow' while spewing the most vile justifications for war crimes like the collective punishment of Gazan children.......................

knock me over with a feather

this is stunning news (and not stunning in a good way either). wow. it's worse than i even thought

and just because obama is president now doesn't mean we're much better off

US military spied on Planned Parenthood, civilian phone calls
By John Byrne

United States military intelligence spied on Planned Parenthood and other domestic groups as part of US security preparations for the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, according to a recently declassified military document obtained by a civil liberties group Thursday.

The document (PDF - page 98), drafted by a Pentagon Deputy Inspector General whose name is redacted, was included in more than 800 pages released to the Electronic Frontier Foundation as part of a Freedom of Information Act Request. They include reports from the Pentagon's Intelligence Oversight Board that were submitted to the Defense Secretary from 2001 to 2007.

Referring to an incident where military intelligence personnel distributed information about FBI spying on the 2002 Olympics, the inspector general's office tersely remarked that an "intelligence oversight violation occurred."

"The document... contained US Persons data in referring to an reporting on organizations (Planned Parenthood, the white supremacist group National Alliance) and their involvement in protests and literature distribution," the inspector's office wrote. "Also noted was the report contained a large section labeled "GENERAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITY." Collection and dissemination of US Persons information by military intelligence assets is not allowed unless this information constitutes "Foreign Intelligence.".............

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she left us too soon

just SHUT THE HELL UP (so to speak)

isn't this rather like the pot calling the kettle black? YOU are the ones who hate. YOU are the ones who wish ill will on EACH AND EVERY PERSON who doesn't believe EXACTLY what you believe. you're the ones who HATE your neighbors. YOU are the ones who have a cancer eating at your souls.

so as i said, SHUT THE HELL UP


Right wing slams White House for meeting with atheist ‘hate groups’
By Daniel Tencer

Some conservative commentators are accusing the Obama administration of inviting "hate groups" into the White House by holding a meeting with a coalition of secularist and atheist groups.

Officials from the Justice and Health and Human Services departments met Friday with representatives of the Secular Coalition for America, an umbrella group that includes American Atheists and the Council for Secular Humanism. The coalition called it "the first time in history a presidential administration has met for a policy briefing with the American nontheist community."

President Barack Obama was not scheduled to make an appearance at the meeting, nor were any policy changes to be announced, McClatchy news service reported.

But that didn't stop a number of religious conservative groups from attacking the meeting as a sign the president has an anti-religious agenda......///////////////

i want to live here

via

beautiful but haunting

ON EXHIBIT///DETROIT’S “ICE HOUSE” ART INSTALLATION

The ICE HOUSE, located at 3920 McClellanon the east side of DETROIT, is an art installation by architect Matthew Radune and photographer Gregory Holm designed to bring attention to the dire state of the city’s urban infrastructure while simultaneously breeding optimism for its future. Located in a vast neighborhood once densely populated with working families, the house is now just one of the thousands of abandoned homes that line the city’s streets like tombstones:.............

wtf???????????

i have so much to say but none of it is coherent. i'll just link to and post part of the story

Citibank Shuts Down Gay Entrepreneur’s Bank Account Over Blog’s Content

By Megan Carpentier

Jason Goldberg is the CEO of a company called Fabulis, which is developing a website, iPhone app and social media application targeted at gay men. His company — which is at least his third start-up — is funded by investors including The Washington Post and the venture capitalist Allen Morgan, and they just launched their beta version this month. You would think he would be the kind of customer Citi would want — but Citi decided otherwise after a compliance officer reviewed his site and decided that a social networking application for gay men was “objectionable.”

Without notifying Goldberg or anyone at Fabulis, Citi shut down their bank accounts for objectionable content on Fabulis’ blog, though it refused to specify which content. After hours of phone calls, several articles and a threat to take their banking elsewhere, Citi finally called Goldberg to say that the three Citi employees who had decided Goldberg’s social networking site was objectionable were “wrong to have said what they said.” Note that the bank did not say they were wrong to have suspended his account without notification, or to have flagged his blog as objectionable because it talks about the gay-themed (but not pornographic) company that he is starting, but just that the three employees statements to him were wrong..........

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the fucker is smiling

when he's talking about a terrorist flying a plane into a building on purpose KILLING someone.

iowa, you're good people. DO THE RIGHT THING. when this piece o' steamin' shite comes up for re-election, PULL SOMEONE ELSE'S LEVER

or are you going to advocate terrorism like king is doing? up to you

Rep. King Justifies Suicide Attack On IRS: Sympathizes With Hatred Of IRS, Hopes For Its Destruction

On Thursday, a man flew a plane into a Texas federal building in an apparent domestic terrorist attack. The suicide bomber, identified as Joseph Andrew Stack, was allegedly a right wing extremist who wrote on a website that violence “is the only answer” and expressed anger at the IRS, the federal government, and health care reform. Some on the fringe right have declared Stack a hero.

ThinkProgress caught up with Rep. Steve King (R-IA) at CPAC to talk about the attack in Texas. Asked if the right-wing anti-tax rhetoric might have motivated the attack, King implicitly agreed, noting that he had been a leading opponent of the IRS for some time. He noted that although the attack was “sad,” “by the same token,” it was justified because once the the right succeeds at abolishing the IRS, “it’s going to be a happy day for America.” He sidestepped the question of the legitimacy of the terrorists’ grievances, but sympathized by saying that “I’ve had a sense of ‘why is the IRS in my kitchen.’ Why do they have their thumb in the middle of my back”:.....

Technorati Tags:rep. steve king, cpac, joe stack, irs, domestic terrorism,
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no more coat hangers

no more secret unclean back rooms. no more whispering. no more infections. no more dying from loss of blood. no more hiding. abortion IS legal. i understand and accept your point of view if you think it's an ugly alternative. fine. i really DO understand. i think it's an ugly alternative. but i am also vehemently PRO CHOICE. it's a woman's body. she has a right to say what happens to it.

why don't we preach more comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence? why don't the people who protest outside of clinics providing women's health services care about anything AFTER the birth? by anything i mean the mother AND the child. (they don't. you know it and i know it).

i am pro choice. i am proud to be pro choice. i am NOT pro abortion nor have i ever been.

Minnesota abortion provider helps meet need in South Dakota

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Carol Ball's day begins in the dark, in another state. By the time she arrives at work, crosses a snowy parking lot and enters the austere one-story Planned Parenthood clinic here, she has flown 200 miles to do something no South Dakota doctor will do.

Ball performs elective abortions. She is one of four doctors who travel anonymously, for security reasons, to the lone clinic in a state that has seen some of the nation's fiercest battles over reproductive rights. The work is framed by worry and frustration -- and the knowledge that the politics remain as unsettled as ever.

This is a difficult time for Ball and her colleagues. Last month, Scott Roeder told the jury in his Kansas murder trial that he stalked George Tiller, the nation's most prominent abortion provider, for years before he walked up to him in a church and shot him once in the head..........

Technorati Tags:anti-abortion, abortion providers, pro-choice, planned parenthood, south dakota, carol ball, dr. george tiller, women's rights, women's bodies
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kinda cool interactive

go to the 'snake oil' link to see the actual INTERACTIVE diagram

Which supplements really work? An interactive guide to evidence

Maggie Koerth-Baker


Snake Oil?

what a dick

TV chef dropped for cat recipe comments

By Jim Clancy, CNN

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Italy's state-owned television broadcaster has dropped a popular chef for sharing a recipe with viewers to cook cat.

Beppe Bigazzi told CNN that while he would miss collaborating with the RAI-Uno TV network, he would not apologize for his comments because they reflected historical facts, not just his opinion.

He blamed the furor on animal rights activists saying "It's their problem, not mine!"

During a live broadcast February 10, the grandfatherly Italian cooking expert noted that in decades past, Italians in the region of Tuscany did eat cat meat.

Bigazzi, 77, told viewers there was a saying for this time of year that "if you don't have meat, kill the cat."

The popular TV chef then went on to describe how you can tenderize the meat by letting it soak for three days in running spring water.

As Chef Beppe continued, his co-host of 'La Prova del Cuco,' Elisa Isoardi looked aghast.

The young hostess declared "My Othello in a stew? No!" Othello is the name of her pet cat. But Beppe wasn't finished..............

hmmmmmm fake christians?

“We Pretend We Are Christians”

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER

The Freakonomics e-mail inbox constantly produces interesting material. Like this one, from a reader we’ll call G.D.:

I loved your books! I have found my thoughts drifting to some of the subjects over the past few days, especially altruism and apathy. I was curious if any of the experiments took into account the subjects’ religious beliefs. I don’t know how one would logistically test that but it would be interesting to see how those claiming to follow a religious doctrine teaching altruism would do in the tests.

This thought led to another about myself. How would I do in the tests? We are agnostics living deep in the heart of Texas and our family fakes Christianity for social reasons. It’s not so much for the sake of my husband or myself but for our young children. We found by experience that if we were truthful about not being regular church attenders, the play dates suddenly ended. Thus started the faking of the religious funk.................

thursday cool pic

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i have no comment

Nicaragua prevents treatment of pregnant cancer patient
Rory Carroll, Latin American correspondent

Nicaraguan authorities have withheld life-saving treatment from a pregnant cancer patient because it could harm the foetus and violate a total ban on abortion.

A state-run hospital has monitored the cancer spreading in the body of the 27-year-old named only as Amalia since her admission on February 12 but has not offered chemotherapy, radiotherapy or a therapeutic abortion, citing the law.

The decision has ignited furious protests from relatives and campaigners who say the woman, who has a 10-year-old daughter and is 10 weeks pregnant, will die unless treated. The cancer is suspected to have spread to her brain, lungs and breasts. They have petitioned the courts, government and the pan-regional Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to intervene.............

whoa

via

a spot of GOOD news now

NCAA pulls Focus on the Family ad over complaints about the group’s homophobic positions.

By Amanda Terkel
After trying to reach out to football fans by airing an ad during the Super Bowl, Focus on the Family is now targeting college sports. This week, LGBT blogs reported that NCAA.com was running a Focus on the Family banner advertisement. The site has now pulled the “Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life” ad, citing concerns by NCAA members over Focus on the Family’s homophobic positions:

The NCAA made the decision after some of its members – including faculty and athletic directors – expressed concern that the evangelical group’s stance against gay and lesbian relationships conflicted with the NCAA’s policy of inclusion regardless of sexual orientation, [NCAA spokesman Bob] Williams said. [...]

Williams said the decision to pull the ad was based not on the message but on the messenger.

Advertisers “should be generally supportive of NCAA values and attributes and/or not be in conflict with the NCAA’s mission and fundamental principles,” according to NCAA standards. The NCAA may exclude ads or advertisers “that do not appear to be in the best interests of higher education and student athletes.”.............

another one of those things that sound like

they're from the onion but they're not. they're real

Fox guest blames Obama for rise in domestic violence
By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer

A conservative talk show host says President Barack Obama is "partly" to blame for a rise in domestic violence because of the deteriorating job situation over the past year -- and because the president has criticized Las Vegas.

In discussion on Fox News about Sen. Harry Reid's comment Monday linking unemployment to growing domestic abuse, James Harris told host Gretchen Carlson:

"If this is all about jobs, we have this massive job loss and ... we have domestic violence problems in Nevada, what we need to do is lay this right at the feet of Obama, who in the last year twice slammed Nevada, slammed Las Vegas, so we can say that this is partly Obama's fault for causing so much job loss in Nevada."...............

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