Swish ee lawn ju vee

DEJA VU!

You guys really should watch this all the way to the end.

Also, yay!

yer a towel

marduk lord of the fifty powers

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured a glint of light reflecting from the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, which confirms the presence of a lake filled with liquid.
The discovery makes Titan the only place besides Earth known to have a body of liquid on its surface.

"We live in an economic period which is widening the class gap between rich and poor, and cutting out the middle. From this reasoning, if a kid in Silicon Valley with a $3,000 silver laptop has the privilege from his Palo Alto technical education allowing him to figure out how to go on ZTorrent (a file exchange program), and download away to his hearts content -- without paying Owl City for Fireflies, or a Mad Men episode, or for the $1,000 Final Cut Pro Suite -- the act of the file showing up on his hard drive speaks more of his societal privilege than of his moral ethics.

"In contrast, a large portion of my student body at Wayne State University graduated from Detroit Public Schools and have no concept of how to go about downloading files illegally. Why should an underprivileged student in one of my Detroit classes say she is going to spend $4.50 to go rent a video for my course? She is being blatantly penalized for her lack of a technical education provided by her schools, peer group, and larger community. Her life does not need another penalty."

"Perhaps it is a good idea to have the music industry give some power back to the people. I think the working class, not the most privileged, need a vitamin B12 shot of support. As of the January 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, corporations can now provide endless funding to political candidates and now more significantly than ever alter the influence of the individual citizen in the democracy. If that's the case, I am going to make the assumption that corporations have more than enough clout in my society.

"Author and media critic Douglas Rushkoff argues in his book, Life, Inc., that, in fact, corporations trump humans in all kinds of ways. They don't die. They don't get sick. They can wait out a new political election to get officials (who they can legally buy off now) into office to amend legislation to fit their needs and bottom lines. Nearly always the changes corporations make to society take power and control away from average citizens for the end goal of providing a higher rate of return for the company shareholders.

"Case and point: the RIAA in 2008 convinced Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen to sign a bill (SB 3794) into law which requires colleges in his state to exercise appropriate means to ensure that computers on campuses are not being abused for distributing copyrighted material. Although the 2008 legislation looked to be the start of something big, IFPI released its report on digital music as of 2009. The report says that despite initiatives by the music industry, 95% of music downloads continue to be illegal. This is one of the rare cases in society where the masses are winning against the corporate elite."

Full Article

You Know You're In Trouble...

...when you get harder hitting questions from babies than members of the mainstream media.

Hiel Y'all

I'm on tour right now but GDDMMMN is this one fucked up cake

"Spontaneity and the 'let it all hang out' attitude of indulging in excessive freedoms belong to those who can afford it - those who have nothing have only their discipline."

Professor Noam Chomsky, an American linguist and left-wing activist, was denied entry into Israel and the West Bank on Sunday.

No reason was initially given for the decision, but the Interior Ministry later said immigration officials at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan had misunderstood Chomsky's intentions thinking initially he was also due to visit Israel.

Chomsky, who is on a speaking tour in the region, was scheduled to speak at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank on Monday.

Chomsky said inspectors had stamped the words "denied entry" onto his passport when he tried to cross from Jordan over Allenby Bridge. When he asked an Israeli inspector why he had not received permission, he was told that an explanation would be sent in writing to the American embassy. "They apparently didn't like the fact that I was due to lecture at a Palestinian university and not in Israel," Chomsky told Reuters by telephone from Amman.

In a telephone interview with Channel 10, Chomsky said the interrogators had told him he had written things that the Israeli government did not like. "I suggested [the interrogator try to] find any government in the world that likes anything I say," he said.

His Palestinian host, lawmaker Mustafa al-Barghouti called the decision "a fascist action, amounting to suppression of freedom of expression."

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel slammed the Interior Ministry for "using detention and deportation to prevent a man from expressing his opinion", calling it "characteristic of a totalitarian regime."

"A democratic country where freedom of expression is a guiding principle does not close in the face of criticism or ideas that are not comfortable and does not deny entry to guests only because it does not accept their opinions. Instead, it deals with these opinions through public discussion," said ACRI in a statement.

Full article here

Also, which green arrow indicates your favorite sex act to perform while preserving your virginity? I'm a belly button man, myself.

I'm on tour but GOD DAMN this is one fucked up CAKE

anti-book

Tea Bagger of the Week

Haha, wow. "I will take one crazy pills please."

Fuck.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

You Crazy, LD

I found this gem from way back in 2005 (there weren't even iPads back then! and Obama probably didn't even exist!) at Huffington Post this morning, courtesy of Larry David, entitled The Roving Thoughts of a Liberal Insomniac:

The other night I was awakened by my nine-year-old. I remained in the room with her for ten minutes, whereupon she fell back asleep. Unfortunately, I had no such luck. I did manage, however, to keep a record of my brain activity. I present it herewith, strictly in the interest of science.

I wonder how long I've been up. It feels like at least forty minutes. Maybe I should look at the time. No, don't look at the time. How's that gonna help? I'm just curious. Don't look. DO NOT LOOK…three- thirty. Are you happy? Idiot. I told you not to look but you know everything…I can't stand this quilt. The comforter inside always slips down. I’m grabbing at nothing here! I haven't had a good quilt in a long time. Where'd this quilt come from anyway? Tomorrow I'll mention the quilt. She's not gonna like that. She'll say there's nothing wrong with the quilt and that'll be that. It's sad I can't have a quilt I rove…Rove, damn it, that’s the second time today I’ve done that. God, I hate that man. See, this is what he wants. He wants to get in your head. He wants to keep you up. You’re giving him what he wants! If he keeps us all up, we’ll be too tired to fight them. That’s their strategy, and you’re playing right into their hands. We have to start keeping them up. But how? The only things that bothers them enough to keep them up are fetuses. They love that fetus. The fetus and Jesus. Sounds like a comedy team. “Ladies and gentlemen, give a warm welcome to Fetus and Jesus…” Stop thinking about them. I can’t. Try! …Okay, I’m going to think of something else. How about that juicy nectarine I had today. Yum-my. That was dee-licious. The problem is fruit is so inconsistent. When you get a good one, it’s all luck. Fruit is like blackjack. The casino wins most of the time. But at least the casino’s not fixed. I trust the slot machines in Vegas more than the voting machines in Ohio. Even sleazy casino owners in Vegas have more credibility than this bunch…I have to stop killing insects in front of the kids. Am I setting a bad example? What’s my option? Am I supposed to start ignoring flies and ants and let them wander around like they own the place? I guess liberals aren’t supposed to kill insects. See, Rove? I kill them and I rather enjoy it. Maybe you want to sign me up. I like how if you criticize the war you don’t support the troops. You’re the ones sending them over to die, so how is it I don’t support them? If the army was made up of child molesters, then I’d support them. If we went to an all child molester army, I would be their biggest supporter. “Please don’t bring the troops home. Stay the course. Keep them there a long time.”

The rest here.

appropriate.

by C. Kipfer

Anyone digging the new Ariel Pink?

I have some not nice things to say about it but at the end of the day I know I love it.

wtf?

DIP STRONG

later friends im goin on tour i will see you in a bit keep it posi while im gone and skramz.... keep it skramz

truth.

Times Square Bomb Fail Round-Up

First of all, this from Think Progress, which is news to me, and probably should be added to the long list of reasons why the mainstream media is atrocious:

"Much of the media has latched onto Shahzad’s Muslim faith and his Pakistani identity, making inflammatory remarks and suggestions about Muslims and Pakistanis:

– CNN contributor and Redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson complained that the words “muslim” and “Islam” are “not mentioned” enough in stories about Shahzad. He wrote, “It really is pathetic that you’re more likely to see the words “racist” and “Republican” together in the newspaper these days than “terrorism” and “Islam.” [5/4/2010]

– Hate radio host Neal Boortz tweeted, “OMG! The Times Square Bomber is a Muslim! Shocker! Who would have believed it?” [5/4/2010]

– The cover of today’s Washington Post-published Express features a black-and-white photo of Shahzad with the sensationalist headline “MADE IN PAKISTAN” [5/5/2010]

"Yet one fact being ignored in the American media’s sensationalist narrative about the failed bombing is that the man who was responsible for police finding the bomb was Muslim. The UK’s Times Online reports that Aliou Niasse, a Senagalese Muslim immigrant who works as a photograph vendor on Times Square, was the first to bring the smoking car to the police’s attention:

Aliou Niasse, a street vendor selling framed photographs of New York, said that he was the first to spot the car containing the bomb, which pulled up right in front of his cart on the corner of 45th street and Broadway next to the Marriott hotel.

“I didn’t see the car pull up or notice the driver because I was busy with customers. But when I looked up I saw that smoke appeared to be coming from the car. This would have been around 6.30pm.”

“I thought I should call 911, but my English is not very good and I had no credit left on my phone, so I walked over to Lance, who has the T-shirt stall next to mine, and told him. He said we shouldn’t call 911. Immediately he alerted a police officer near by,” said Mr Niasse, who is originally from Senegal and who has been a vendor in Times Square for about eight years.

"Reflecting on Niasse’s good samaritanism Muslim-American author Sumbul Ali-Karamali writes, “It’s somewhat consoling to know that the man who first noticed the smoking Nissan Pathfinder and sought help is also Muslim, a Senegalese immigrant. … I grew up Muslim in this country, with Muslim friends and non-Muslim friends, and there was very little difference between the two groups. We were all American.'”

Secondly, you should really click on that otherwise easily ignorable patriotic sentiment at the end, because it is an insightful editorial about Islam being dragged in the mud as an inherently hateful religion when, in reality, Islam is just the soil from which this particular reactionary movement at this particular point in history has risen. Here's a little taste:

"Terrorists are not "jihadists," though they want you to believe they are. The U.S. government has stopped calling terrorists "jihadists," because so doing legitimizes the terrorists' violent behavior and makes it easier for them to recruit people. This is not political correctness - it's just smart strategy. We correctly don't describe the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups as "Christian holy warriors," (even if they base their actions on the Bible); rather, we dismiss them as fringe extremists, and we don't legitimize their actions by accepting their religious characterization of them.

"The Islamic doctrine of jihad means many things, including taking arms in self-defense, against an oppressor. Even the British take-over of India was not considered oppression enough to warrant jihad, according to prominent Muslim scholars, for the reason that the British were not actively preventing the practice of Islam. (Though if a foreign power were to take over the United States, I suspect Americans would not calmly submit.) And if, historically, some Muslims have interpreted "self-defense" more broadly to allow them to make war (as people of other religions have, as well), other Muslims have interpreted jihad to mean only nonviolent resistance. A modern example of the latter was Badshah Khan, a Pashtun who led unarmed, nonviolent protests against the British, basing his actions on the Qur'an."

So, yes, terrorist activity aimed at civilians is a bad thing (and, while we're at it, so is religion in general), but by no means a new thing or an exclusively Muslim thing. One need look no further than Arizona to see the dangerous slide this already fucked up country is taking into feverish nationalism, and we all know where that leads. Scary!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!

Snuffaluffagus' "Brazil Wood Poetry" June 2010

Live Horn and String Sections being Recorded in the next couple weeks!

"Brazil Wood Poetry" Track Listing available @ wizardspit.blogspot.com

I know this blog has become a place for our friends to post witty and political finding mostly via the web, but I still think its a good place to keep everyone up to date about our artistic ventures, especially because that is the bond that have brought so many of us closer together.

LIMBAUUUUUUGHHHHHH

"The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there," Limbaugh said. "It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is."

creed LIVE

the "fags" graphic at the end is a bit unnecessary. a great video nonetheless.

Happy May Day Ya Bunch of Commie-Anarchist-Lefties

The (reactionary) news of the day comes from Greece. Which shouldn't strike anyone as surprising, given their current financial situation.

"Wielding red flags and hurling crude gas bombs, dozens of militant youths clashed with Greek riot police in central Athens on Saturday, signaling swelling social unrest as the cash-strapped government here prepares to announce additional austerity measures required to win rescue loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

"The clashes came during massive May Day protests unleashed by Greece's powerful trade unions and left-wing political parties in a desperate bid to block government designs to press ahead with additional wage cuts, tax hikes and pension reductions.

"'The bill should go to those who looted this country for decades, not to the workers," blared Spiros Papasirou, head of Greece's powerful Adedy civil servants union. "This is the most savage, unjust and unprovoked attack workers have ever faced.'"

"Saturday's protests drew nearly 20,000 workers to the streets of the capital, bringing traffic and trade to a standstill as demonstrators filed by the country's finance ministry chanting hostile slogans against the government, the EU and the IMF.

"But fighting erupted when youths tried to punch through a police cordon blocking access to the nation's sprawling all-marble parliament. Riot police retaliated, firing at two least rounds of tear gas that sent militant protesters into a retreat, hurling rocks against authorities, setting dumpsters ablaze and targeting two television vans with petrol bombs."

"In other capitals across the world, hundreds of thousands of workers engaged in spirited but generally peaceful May Day rallies. In Turkey, about 140,000 people gathered in Istanbul's, Taksim Square, and hundreds of thousands marched through Havana's Revolution Square, most in red shirts and many waving red flags.

"In Moscow, a rare protest by hundreds of opposition activists was held, with a crowd yelling slogans comparing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. And in Macao, at least eight people were injured when police employed water cannons and pepper spray on protesters."