By fnord12 | October 22, 2007, 1:49 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

Faith in government collapses (Updated)

Everyone's miserable.

Bush's approval rating: 24%.
Congress' approval rating: 11%.

"There is a real question among Americans now about how relevant this government is to them," pollster John Zogby said. "They tell us they want action on health care, education, the war and immigration, but they don't believe they are going to get it."

And yet people still flip out when a Ralph Nader type tries to give people another option.

Update: Here's some commentary by guest poster Chris Floyd on Glenn Greenwald's blog:

The prospect of a Democratic victory in 2006 was for many people the last, flickering hope that the degradation of the republic could be arrested and reversed within the ordinary bounds of the political system. This was always a fantasy, given the strong bipartisan nature and decades-long cultivation of greed, arrogance and militarism that has now come to its fullest bloom in the Bush administration. But desperation can crack the shell of the most hardened cynic, and no doubt there were few who did not harbor somewhere deep inside at least a small grain of hope against hope that a slap-down at the polls would give the Bush gang pause and confound its worst depredations.

One year on, we can all see how the Democrats have made a mockery of those dreams. Their epic levels of unpopularity are richly deserved. At every step they evoke the remarks of the emperor Tiberius, who, after yet another round of groveling acquiescence from the once-powerful Roman Senate, dismissed them with muttered contempt: "Men fit to be slaves." The record of the present Congress provides copious and irrefutable evidence for this judgment.

After 10 full months of Democratic command in the legislative branch -- 10 full months under the "liberal," "progressive," "antiwar" Democratic leadership -- where are we? The Iraq war, far from being ended or even curtailed, was instead escalated by Bush in the face of popular discontent and establishment unease: the first, and most egregious, Democratic surrender. Bush's illegal spying on Americans was not only not punished, it was formally legitimized by Congress, whose Democratic leaders are now hastening to give their telecom paymasters retroactive immunity for taking part in what they knew to be a massive criminal operation, as Glenn Greenwald has often noted here. The Military Commissions Act -- which eviscerated 900 years of habeas corpus, as even Arlen Specter admitted (before slavishly voting for the bill anyway) -- remains on the books, unshaken by the Democrats, despite all the cornpone about "restoring the Constitution" they've dished out for the rubes back home.

And now we stand on the brink of another senseless, useless, baseless war, this time with Iran -- a conflict that, as Juan Cole pointed out on Salon recently, is likely to make the belching hell of Iraq look like a church picnic. Dick Cheney's bellicose outburst Sunday in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies -- a reprise of many similar war dances he performed in the run-up to the unprovoked invasion of Iraq -- takes us one step closer to this new crime. But Cheney's assertions of Persian perfidy -- all of them unsubstantiated, and in the case of the nuclear program, refuted by the IAEA -- were simply the culmination of a remarkable bipartisan campaign of demonization in which the Democrats have actually taken the public lead, repeatedly castigating the administration for not being "tough enough" on Iran, and repeatedly vowing that "all options are on the table" against the mad mullahs: strong words indeed from the only nation on earth that has ever exercised the "nuclear option" against another country.

The Democrats have already overwhelmingly -- and officially -- accepted the administration's arguments for war against Iran. The first on-the-record embrace came in June, on a 97-0 Senate vote in favor of a saber-rattling resolution from Fightin' Joe Lieberman

To be sure, stout-hearted Dem tribunes like Dick Durbin insisted that their support for declaring that Iran is "committing acts of war" against the United States should not be taken as an "authorization of military action." This is shaky-knees mendacity at its finest. Having officially affirmed that Iran is waging war on American forces, how can you then deny the president when he asks (if he asks) for authorization to "defend our troops"? Answer: You can't. And you know it.

But Bush is not the only president -- or potential president -- who might seize on the Senate votes. Last week -- just a few days before Cheney's speech -- Hillary Clinton weighed in with a "major policy article" in Foreign Affairs that regurgitated the administration's unproven allegations against Iran as indisputable fact. This too is ominous stuff, coming from a strong front-runner who not only is leading in the opinion polls but is also way out in front among an elite constituency whose support is much more important and decisive than that of the hapless hoi polloi: arms dealers. Clinton has surpassed all candidates -- including the hyper-hawkish Republican hopefuls -- in garnering cash payments from the American weapons industry, the Independent reports. Obviously, these masters of war are not expecting any drop-off in profits if Clinton takes the helm.

And indeed, beyond her "all options" thundering at Iran, Clinton has vowed to do the one thing guaranteed to breed more war, more ruin, more suffering, more "collateral damage," more terrorist blowback: keeping American forces in Iraq, come hell or high water. Clinton's "withdrawal" plan calls for retaining an unspecified number of "specialized units" in Iraq to "fight terrorism," train Iraqi forces and protect other American troops carrying out unspecified activities. Is it any wonder that she's the apple of Lockheed Martin's eye?

But in fact, the "antiwar" plans of the other "liberal" candidates -- the "serious" ones, that is -- are remarkably similar. In other words, the Democrats are promising a permanent (or in the current weasel-word jargon, "enduring") U.S. military presence in Iraq -- which of course has been one of the primary war aims of the Bush administration all along (even before it took office). Credible analysis shows that up to a million people or more have been slaughtered in this ghastly enterprise -- and still the Democrats will not act to end it or, God forbid, try to remove its perpetrators from office. Instead they will keep the red wheel of death rolling toward the ever-vanishing horizon.

So this is where we've come to, one year after the people spoke at the ballot box, fighting through government propaganda, media distortions, pundit scorn, terrorist scares -- and the Karl Rove vote-skewing, vote-suppressing, vote-stealing machine -- to deliver a strong call for a new direction, for an end to war and torture and tyranny and corruption and lies. They believed -- perhaps for the last time -- that their vote might make a difference, that the "consent of the governed" might still retain some meaning.

So they turned to the only serious alternative the system provided: the Democrats. And this is what they got: more war, more torture, more tyranny, more corruption, more lies.

What should the people believe now? What should they hope for from the system now?And what new nightmares await them in the second year of this perverse union between a power-drunk president and a cowardly, corrupted, complicit "opposition"?

By fnord12 | October 22, 2007, 11:35 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1) | Link

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Phrases not heard often enough in real life but fairly common in Oblivion.

"My life is drab and wretched in comparison."

"Well ain't you the High-Tom-Titty."

By fnord12 | October 22, 2007, 8:55 AM | Video Games| Link

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SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Mighty Avengers #5 - I enjoyed Ares quite a bit ("I'm the God of War!!"). I enjoyed it all quite a bit. People say Bendis can't write different dialogue for different people but that's clearly not true. People say Bendis can't write fight scenes but that's clearly not true. Why am i basing my enjoyment of a comic on what people say? Stop. It's good. I just wish it would come out on time.

Captain America #31 - The following is not a criticism of this particular comic, which was excellent, but someone needs to sit down and say "These are the circumstances under which Captain America and Bucky got 'killed'/frozen during World War II. Were they in costume or not? Were they knocked out and tied to the drone plane or did they drive up to the plane as it was launching in a motorcycle? Were they at an American airforce base or at Zemo's castle? Was Zemo trying to steal the plane or was he about to launch it against the Allies? I've read about four different versions of this so far. It seems like Roy Thomas actually took a crack at consolidating some of the various versions in one of his Avengers issues involving time travel, but then subsequent writers seem to have messed it up again. There's only one explanation: Marvel's writers suck, Marvel's editor's suck, and the Marvel Universe is broken. Or it's a bunch of nitpicky details that no one should really be too concerned about.

By fnord12 | October 22, 2007, 7:31 AM | Comics | Comments (4) | Link

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October 18, 2007

Random Lyrics Thursday

Dead Babies by Alice Cooper

Little Betty ate a pound of aspirin
She got them from the shelf upon the wall
Betty's mommy wasn't there to save her
She didn't even hear her baby call
(Waaah!)

Dead babies can take care of themselves
Dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well we didn't want you anyway
Lalala-la, lalala-la, la la la

Daddy is an agrophile in Texas
Mommy's on the bar most every night
Little Betty's sleeping in the graveyard
Living there in burgundy and white

Dead babies can take care of themselves
Dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well we didn't love you anyway
ma ma ma-ma, ma ma ma-ma, ma ma ma

Goodbye, Little Betty
Goodbye, Little Betty
So long, Little Betty
So long, Little Betty
Betty, so long

Dead babies can take care of themselves
Dead babies can't take things off the shelf
Well we didn't need you anyway
ma ma ma-ma, ma ma ma ma-ma, ma ma ma

Goodbye, Little Betty

By fnord12 | October 18, 2007, 11:29 AM | Music| Link

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And the Chinese Evolved from Different Apes than the Rest of the Planet

Better apes, it goes without saying.

The DNA pioneer James Watson came under fire today from a government minister and his own research laboratory, as they rushed to condemn his claim that black people are less intelligent than whites.

...

He made the controversial comments in a Sunday Times interview, reportedly saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really".

Dr Watson was quoted as saying he hoped everyone was equal, but that "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true".

Link

So much for the scientific mind, eh?

By min | October 18, 2007, 11:20 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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Earth 2

They found a planet that is very much like Earth.

It's about 1 1/2 times the size of our planet and has perfect conditions for water. It might even have life on it.

It's pretty clear what our next step is. Invade the planet, claim it for our own, and exploit its resources. If the population objects to this, we can explain it to them by dropping free copies of Atlas Shrugged attached to Daisy Cutters on their anti-free market asses.

By min | October 18, 2007, 11:15 AM | Science | Comments (1) | Link

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October 17, 2007

Hepped Up On Mucenex

For those of you who love that xkcd so much, i bring you The Cutest:

More examples of injustice as a man texting while driving gets hit by a freight train but suffers no fatal injuries.

Delf said officers believe he was driving faster than the 35 mph speed limit as well as using his cell phone to send a text message. She said he tried to brake for the train, but it was too close.

"There are all kinds of ways to get distracted these days," said police spokeswoman Kerry Delf. "We don't recommend any of them while you're driving."

Another guy assaults his 81-year old father with a hammer so that he can put him in a nursing home, freeing him up to return to India.

"He was under a belief, we don't know why, that you can't go straight into a nursing home without being in the hospital," said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. "He thought, 'I can overcome that problem. I'll put him in the hospital.'"

After the Oct. 6 attack in the bathroom, the victim was unconscious for an hour and a half before Patel called paramedics, Wagstaffe said. The man has since been released from the hospital.

Patel was being held on $500,000 bail after being charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse.

The Hammer of Justice could not be reached for comment as she and Juicy Carmichael (kick) were out on a case. Sources close to The Hammer say that she is most definitely against elder abuse.

And for some random news on Catholics, we've got the Knights Templar and Elvis worshipping.

God, i wish i'd taken some Mucenex this morning before coming to work.

By min | October 17, 2007, 11:09 AM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (6) | Link

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October 16, 2007

I Am Teh Awesome

I now possess the +1 Miyagi Power-Up.

Longevitology [Chang Sen Xue] uses the human body to receive energy from the universe. Students...improve their health by sitting quietly (meditation) and making adjustment [sic] (healing). They can also use longevitology to improve the health of others.

I'm tapped into the goddamn universe, people! Who needs some laying on of hands action?

By min | October 16, 2007, 9:05 AM | My stupid life| Link

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Pirates, Har!

Not only do pirates still exist, har, they've been stepping up their attacks in the last year, har. Who knew, har?

Maritime pirate attacks worldwide shot up 14 percent in the first nine months of 2007 from a year earlier, with Somalia and Nigeria showing the biggest increases, an international watchdog said Tuesday.

While Africa remains problematic, Southeast Asia's Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest waterways, has been relatively quiet, the International Maritime Bureau said in its report.

A total of 198 attacks on ships were reported between January and September this year, up from 174 in the same period in 2006, the IMB said.

It said a total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 63 crew kidnapped and three killed.

In the July to September period alone, there were 72 incidents, up from 47 in the same period a year earlier, marking the second straight quarterly rise in attacks, the London-based IMB said through its piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Har!

By min | October 16, 2007, 9:01 AM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link

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October 15, 2007

I have dreams too, you know.

Me: Do you have enough power in you to do one last thing? Can you unlock the gate to the city?
Dying Fairy Princess: I cannot. You know i have sworn to never do anything that would directly harm my people.
Me: If you don't do this, we won't be able to defeat the Shadow King, and all your people will die.
Dying Fairy Princess: I... will try.
Me: Alright, you people. We're all out of weapons but we've got to storm the city. Here's the deal. Each of the fighters, get one of the carnivorous apes on a chain. Hawkeye, stand in front of them and taunt them. As soon as we get that door open, Hawkeye, you go charging through the city, and the fighters will let the apes loose to chase you. That ought to cause enough of a distraction. You fighters then sneak up behind any guards and hit them and take their weapons. The rest of you get off to the side. There's a guardhouse on the other side of the door, to the left. After the apes are loose and any leftover guards are taken out by our fighters, we run to the guardhouse and re-stock on weapons. I see that some of you aren't listening to me; you're just sort of milling about talking to each other. That's fine, but we're sticking to the plan and no one is going to be around to protect you if you're off doing your own thing. Alright, people, let's do this!

I am awesome in my dreams. Just like in real life.

By fnord12 | October 15, 2007, 10:00 AM | My Dreams | Comments (4) | Link

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And another thing!

Had another thought* this post from a month ago. Remember back in 2000 before Jim Jeffords left the Republicans, there was a 50/50 split in the Senate, which meant that Dick Cheney had the tie-breaking vote**? Well i guess if there was a Democrat in the White House, the Vice President would get the tie-breaking vote only whenever they had 59 Senators.

* I've picked up this really bad habit of saying "I had a thought" from some of the executives that have worked at my company over the years. I hate the phrase because it makes having a thought sound like some rare occurrence, possibly involving difficulty similar to having a baby or having a bowel movement. Which, for some of these executives, i suppose it was. But i swear i have thoughts quite often, possibly two or three a week. And i'm fairly regular, too. And no, i'm not equating having a baby to having a bowel movement.

**At the time i thought it was unfair that the Vice President got to break the tie. Remember, originally in the Constitution, the Vice President was the guy who got the second highest number of votes. So the person breaking the tie would be more likely to be associated with the minority 'party' (i know the framers didn't envision political parties, either). When they updated the rule on where Vice Presidents come from, they didn't update that rule, so the tie no longer goes to the runner, so to speak.

By fnord12 | October 15, 2007, 9:46 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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Digby On Ayn Rand

Interesting if you've read Ayn Rand, played Bioshock, or happened to be in the car with me the other day when we were talking about Objectivism.

By fnord12 | October 15, 2007, 9:20 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 - Other than the fact that this basic story has been done before (Rick Jones/Marlo) and the fact that there was a lot of filler, and the fact that i don't like where this is probably going, i didn't see anything actually wrong with this issue. I thought Dr. Strange was written well, and i liked the tie-in reference with a previous Strange appearance in JMS's Spider-Man. The art is really good (except i don't like Peter's face). But hey, did we pay the extra $1 for the partial reprint of an issue of Tom Defalco's Amazing Spider-Man?

Spider-Man/Red Sonja #3 - This definitely is better now that the action has picked up. You can't go wrong with Kulan Venom.

Fantastic Four #550 - I finally figured out why i don't really enjoy the FF anymore: Reed Richards isn't enough of a dick. Reed should be written as the quintessential 1960s super-scientist. Arrogant, dismissive, distracted, smoking a pipe. A real father-knows-best sort of character. I'd also like to see the Thing be written less as a cute, loveable guy and more of a somewhat unstable monster, but i know we're too far gone to go back to that. Reed, however, should still be a jackass. None of this has anything to do with this issue specifically, however. McDuffie throws a lot of great ideas at us and even sort of thematically ties up his run by bringing Gravity back.

Nova #7 - Mavel should do more events with related mini-serieses(eses)focusing on minor characters. I say this because i'm enjoying Nova as part of Annihilation Conquest, but i still don't want to read an ongoing Nova series after Conquest is over.

Punisher War Journal #12 - Another single issue story which was just fine. I have to admit something: you know how there were two sets of narrative captions, one for the Punisher and one for the stupid bug thing? I didn't read the bug thing's captions. Also, the venom suit was a cool one-time idea, but i'm uncomfortable with the possibility now that these suits can just be built any time now.

Runaways #28 - This was good, although i'm starting to feel overwhelmed by the number of new characters and factions that we're dealing with here. Maybe if it came out more often i'd have the story fresh in my head from one month to the next. Also the quality of the art seemed to vary a lot from page to page. Some pages looked really good, but sometimes characters looked really wooden and expressionless. I double-checked but there was only one artist, so i'm not sure what's going on.

New Avengers #35 - Hmmm. Kulan Venom. Punivenom. And now Wolvervenom. Except... Wolvervenom was not actually in this issue, was he? The cover lied to us. What we did get was still good, though. A "real world" look at what a Masters of Evil might be, and it also serves to explain where all the bad guys went during Civil War. I wish Yu's art was better so i could clearly pick out who all the villains are*. Also, it's definitely hard to reconcile the Hood who appeared in Beyond with the one who beats up Tigra this issue. Easy answer: it's a Skrull! More probable answer: He's a guy that knows how to get along with people but that doesn't mean he's not an amoral thug.

*Best i can do:

• Jigsaw
  
• Some guy in crusader armor
  
• Nitro
  
• Griffin
  
• The guy in the blue and green costume with the hood and mustache. I feel like i should know him.
  
• Tigershark?
  
• The girl in the blue and purple outfit wearing a black jacket over the costume.
  
• Chemistro
  
• Mr. Hyde?
  
• Mr. Fear?
  
• Purple Man?
  
• Grey Gargoyle?
  
• Mandrill
  
• The U-foes
  
• The Wrecking Crew (back from Canada already? Or haven't left yet.)
  
• Armadillo (back from the MODOK's 11 story already...?). (And how did a guy that appeared in like 2 issues of Gruenwald's Cap and then reformed wind up getting used in so many places recently?)
  
• Controller
  
• Is that the Boomerang in the red and white costume behind the Purple Man? That's not his classic costume but i think he did have a costume like that.
  
• Constrictor
  
• Fixer
  
• Mentallo
  
• Is that Sunder from the Morlocks? No, he's got a skull-white face.
  
• Who is the guy that looks like the Red Skull? Buddies with the Sunder-looking guy. I'm betting they're from Gruenwald's Cap.
  
• The Answer? Really?
  
• Blackout (90s Ghost Rider Blackout, not Marv Wolfman's Blackout)
  
• Guy in the turquoise body armor and brown hooded trenchcoat
  
• Gimpy-guy
  
• Guy in the white and purple costume with the horns.
  
• Wizard
  
• Madam Masque
  

Actually, it seems my problem with identifying the villains has less to do with Yu's art and more to do with my own lack of familiarity with some of these minor characters.

Overall, happy to get seven good comics in a week. Keep 'em comin'.

By fnord12 | October 15, 2007, 7:23 AM | Comics| Link

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October 12, 2007

You just don't see ads like these anymore

By fnord12 | October 12, 2007, 2:59 PM | Comics & Ummm... Other?| Link

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October 11, 2007

Mine was better

OK, not really. Hopefully i'll remember to post the picture of the helmet min made for me when i get home, but here's Tom Brevoort as Galactus.

Update:

By fnord12 | October 11, 2007, 9:16 AM | Comics | Comments (2) | Link

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Random Lyrics Thursday

Shadows in the Rain by the Police

Woke up in my clothes again this morning
Don't know exactly where I am
I should heed my doctors warning
He does the best with me he can

He claims I suffer from delusions
Yet I'm so confident I'm sane
It can't be no optical illusion
So how can you explain
Shadows in the rain?

And if you see us on the corner
And we're dancing in the rain
I join my friends there when I see them
Outside my window pane
Shadows in the rain
Shadows in the rain

By fnord12 | October 11, 2007, 8:53 AM | Music| Link

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FYI

The headline of this article is not "Stalin helps prevent heart attack". Unfortunately.

By fnord12 | October 11, 2007, 8:52 AM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link

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October 10, 2007

Rocket-powered X-Wing Update

Here's a video of the X-Wing's flight and demise.

By min | October 10, 2007, 12:48 PM | Star Wars | Comments (4) | Link

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October 8, 2007

What is it with this Steve Gerber?

I'm not up to the 70s yet in my Marvel Comics reading project, but my opinion of Steve Gerber from what scattered issues i have read is that he's... ok. And i certainly couldn't make my way through the Essential Howard the Duck the first time around although i do plan to try it again when i get to that point. But whenever one of the characters he created while working for Marvel is used, certain people... react. The range of emotion goes from outrage to nervous apprehension. And i'm not sure i get it. The question of individual creator rights in a shared universe setting is a tricky one that i don't want to get into right now, but what i really want to know is why is using characters created by Gerber an extra-sensitive area, as opposed to, say, using a character created by Marv Wolfman?

P.S. - i like the new look for Howard.

By fnord12 | October 8, 2007, 3:28 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link

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SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

MODOK's 11 #4 - Only one book for me this week but it was a good one. And that's all i have to say about that.

By fnord12 | October 8, 2007, 2:46 PM | Comics| Link

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They Say You Can Die In Your Sleep

This one wasn't weird or anything (i mean, compared to the sorts of dreams i've had but it scared the bejeezus out of me.....actually, that happens alot, too.....

Oh well. Still, i will subject you to it.

It's pouring rain. I'm sort of not sure where i'm going. I'm on the highway and get off at the wrong exit. So i'm trying to figure out how to get back to the right exit. My visibility's poor due to the rain so i'm partially scared of hitting an oncoming car. Next thing i know, i'm driving up a hill that inclines sharply. By the time i get nearly to the top of the hill, the truck is almost past vertical. So, here i am, in my dream, afraid of one of two things happening: 1) gravity takes over and the car falls off the road or 2) gravity takes over and i start rolling back down the hill.

Number 2 is actually what happens. As i have the heart-stopping realization that even if i hit the breaks, i won't be able to slow the truck's acceleration, and i will crash into every other car that had been coming up the hill behind me, killing them and possibly me, i wake up. And it was not easy falling back asleep, let me tell you.

No wonder i grind my teeth in my sleep. My brain obviously prefers me to stay in a constant state of tension at all times. Like squirrels.

By min | October 8, 2007, 2:34 PM | My Dreams | Comments (1) | Link

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Good article on the housing market bust

From the AP, believe it or not, and yet the paragraphs actually seem to be sequential and related to each other.

Think this means in the future, reporters will be more likely to listen to economists who had it right, like Dean Baker and Paul Krugman, and less likely to those who spouted optimistic bullshit all throughout the housing boom? No, i don't think so either.

By fnord12 | October 8, 2007, 1:45 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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One day it might even affect us!

Walruses:

Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska's northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice.

...

It looks to me like animals are shifting their distribution to find prey," said Tim Ragen, executive director of the federal Marine Mammal Commission. "The big question is whether they will be able to find sufficient prey in areas where they are looking."

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, September sea ice was 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000. Sea ice cover is in a downward spiral and may have passed the point of no return, with a possible ice-free Arctic Ocean by summer 2030, senior scientist Mark Serreze said.

Starting in July, several thousand walrus abandoned the ice pack for gathering spots known as haulouts between Barrow and Cape Lisburne, a remote, 300-mile stretch of Alaska coastline.

The immediate concern of new, massive walrus groups for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is danger to the animals from stampedes. Panic caused by a low-flying airplane, a boat or an approaching polar bear can send a herd rushing to the sea. Young animals can be crushed by adults weighing 2,000 pounds or more.

Longer term, biologists fear walrus will suffer nutritional stress if they are concentrated on shoreline rather than spread over thousands of miles of sea ice.

...

Deborah Williams - who was an Interior Department special assistant for Alaska under former President Bill Clinton, and who is now president of the nonprofit Alaska Conservation Solutions - said melting of sea ice and its effects on wildlife were never even discussed during her federal service from 1995 to 2000.

"That's what so breathtaking about this," she said. "This has all happened faster than anyone could have predicted. That's why it's so urgent action must be taken."

And Japan is suffering from giant killer jellyfish:

Since last summer, Japanese waters have been inundated with the massive sea creatures, which can grow 6.5 feet (2 meters) wide and weigh up to 450 pounds (220 kilograms).

Though the jellyfish are more common in Chinese and Korean waters, their numbers have grown a hundredfold in some areas off Japan, causing a crisis in the local fishing industry.

The invertebrates are choking fishing nets and poisoning the catch with their toxic stingers, fishers say. And although reports of serious human injury are rare, there are records of people dying from the creature's noxious sting.

Also: Top Five Nastiest Creatures Getting Stronger Due to Climate Change

By fnord12 | October 8, 2007, 1:38 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (5) | Link

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I Before Me

It really peeves me when people misuse "I" and "me". When it's misused in speech, that's fine. Far be it for me to expect anyone to speak perfectly when i can barely get through a sentence without mispronouncing some one-syllable word. But in the printed form, there should be no excuse for getting it wrong.

Today, Tycho from Penny Arcade does it (Gabe is a frequent culprit, as well).

This is today's comic, which represents an authentic conversation between my son and I.

Arggh!

It happens on tv all the time, too. This is scripted dialogue. Again, no excuse for using the wrong word. And i'm not talking about incorrect grammar and dropped consonants because it's part of the person's characterization. It's more like people who are trying to speak correctly but don't know what the grammar rule is so they toss in "I" because mebbe it sounds more correct?

I don't know why i'm the grammar police. As i said before, i can barely piece sentences together in a coherent manner. But my mother did always call me Professor Higgins. Just another facet of my inherent need to always be right.

At least i'm not alone.

"I" is a pronoun that must be the subject of a verb. "Me" is a pronoun that must be the object of the verb. The easiest way to decipher the two is to remove the other noun from the sentence and see if it still makes sense.

And don't go shoving "myself" in there like i'm not going to notice! It's still wrong!

By min | October 8, 2007, 1:38 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link

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October 5, 2007

Archbishops have a right to their opinion, you know.

Readers of this blog may have pieced together the fact that i am no fan of Giuliani. But then i read this:

Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke, who made headlines last presidential season by saying he'd refuse Holy Communion to John Kerry, has his eye on Rudy Giuliani this year. Giuliani's response: "Archbishops have a right to their opinion."

Burke, the archbishop of St. Louis, was asked if he would deny Communion to Giuliani or any other presidential candidate who supports abortion rights.

...

Asked if the same would apply to politicians who support the death penalty or pre-emptive war, he said, "It's a little more complicated in that case."

No, it's not any more complicated, you hypocrite. Either you follow your church's beliefs or you don't. Why does one belief, which is not even mentioned in your bible, get more weight than Thou Shalt Not Kill and turn the other cheek?

But i liked Giuliani's response:

"Archbishops have a right to their opinion, you know. There's freedom of religion in this country. There's no established religion, and archbishops have a right to their opinion. Everybody has a right to their opinion."

And later in the article:

As for Giuliani, when a voter in Iowa asked him in August if he was a "traditional, practicing Roman Catholic," he said: "My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not-so-good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests."

Also:

"But I think in a democracy and in a government like ours, my religion is my way of looking at God, and other people have other ways of doing it, and some people don't believe in God. I think that's unfortunate. I think their life would be a lot fuller if they did, but they have that right."

That last line isn't what i'd love to hear, but it's a far cry from George Bush I's "I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God".

Giuliani may wind up being a fascist dictator, but at least he won't be a religious zealot. And he's more direct about it than the Democratic candidates, who blather on about their "faith" to an audience that now and always will considers them to be godless heathens regardless of what they say or do.

By fnord12 | October 5, 2007, 5:01 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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Rocket Powered X-Wing

I don't care that it might fall apart on its first flight. It's still pretty awesome. The wings open and close. And it's full of rocket fuel. That's automatic awesome points.

Julia (who so kindly sent me the link in the first place) points out that it also comes with a built-in R2-D2.

By min | October 5, 2007, 8:56 AM | Star Wars | Comments (2) | Link

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October 4, 2007

Random Lyrics Thursday

Orion by Metallica

By fnord12 | October 4, 2007, 8:42 AM | Music | Comments (1) | Link

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October 3, 2007

Oi!

Where's my friggin' hot chocolate, eh?

By min | October 3, 2007, 1:42 PM | My stupid life| Link

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October 2, 2007

How long does it take you to read this?

30 seconds? Two minutes?

Well, everyone at my company has to take harassment training (required joke: and you all know i don't need to be trained to harass people) and if we run through the whole thing in less than 2 hours, it doesn't count and you have to do it all over again. It works out to me having to stare at these slides for upwards of 5 minutes each. And it's smart enough to know when the window loses focus (so you can't just keep it up in the background), and it times out if you stay on any one individual slide for too long (like if you left the window up while you went to lunch). This is agonizing. As you can see, i finished all of Module 1 and part of Module 2 in less than 15 minutes (required minimum time for Module 1 = 45 minutes), and i am "in the red". I swear i've read every word, and i answered all the questions right at the end, but i still don't get credit because i read it too fast. I don't understand it. Am i being punished for being a faster than average reader? Is everyone at the company being punished for harboring naughty harassment thoughts? It's aggravating and it makes me want to go out and yell at someone for being stupid.

Update: (i really did try. i even kept the damn pages up and stared at them while i was on a 45 minute conference call).

By fnord12 | October 2, 2007, 9:52 AM | My stupid life | Comments (4) | Link

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But we're just reporting on what the public is interested in!

What people want to hear from presidental candidates:

What Tim Russert asked Democrats at the last debate:

1) Russert found time to ask John Edwards (for the ten millionth time) about his troubling haircuts.

2) He found time to present the latest 24-style hypothetical - and to play "gotcha" with Hillary Clinton, employing an old Sean Hannity trick. (You get your guest to disagree with a quote. Then, you try to embarrass your guest when you reveal who said it!)

3) He found time to bore the world with a question (to Dennis Kucinich) about a municipal problem in Cleveland - a problem which occurred in Cleveland in 1978.

4) He found time to collect a Bible passage from each of the hopefuls - after leading with the latest RNC-scripted suggestion about the troubling lack of faith among these bad vile Democrats. ("Before we go, there's been a lot of discussion about the Democrats and the issue of faith and values. I want to ask you a simple question...")

By fnord12 | October 2, 2007, 9:28 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link

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October 1, 2007

Thor vs. Hippies

Tonight's images are all from Thor #154 (Jul 68)

By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 8:04 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link

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The Awesomeness of Jack Kirby

By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 8:02 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link

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What a rip-off

Where's my S P E C I A L privileges and family ties? I want SUPER KUNG-FU!

By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 7:58 PM | Comics & My stupid life & Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link

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No, no. No. No no. No.

Don't get me wrong: BioShock is a pretty good game. It's got a great story that comments on Ayn Randian political theory (and how many games can claim that?) and it's got cool character improvement paths. But my god if half-way through the game i didn't feel like i was fighting the same damn bad guys over and over again. And over and over again.

Being charitable, there are seven types of bad guys in the game. Four of those seven are the same type of guy with different weapons. One is a stationary turret. Only one is a really unique and interesting opponent (the Big Daddy) and while they are terrorizing early in the game, they're pretty much a joke once you've powered up a bit. But it's not the challenge level i'm complaining about (if i wanted a challenge i could play the game using a guitar hero controller); it's the variety.

I know this just reinforces my cranky old man status, but i judge all FPS games against Doom II. And they all are found... wanting.

Just for fun, here's some of the enemies from Doom II. They all looked cool, they all had very different attack styles which required strategies, and best of all, the designers often put them in interesting places and/or designed the levels so that even if you were fighting the same guys, the tactics involved were totally different. FPS have improved in some ways since then, but they are all* missing the variety of their grandaddy.

*except for Serious Sam

By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 3:13 PM | Video Games| Link

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Here, here

By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 3:08 PM | Comics| Link

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Rat Poisoning - Always A Classic

Must have been some kiss for him not to notice her dumping a foreign object in his mouth that wasn't her tongue.

A Chinese woman who killed her lover with a rat poison-laced kiss when she suspected him of being unfaithful has been sentenced to death, a newspaper said Thursday.

Xia Xinfeng, from Maolou in the central province of Henan, passed a capsule with rat poison from her mouth to her long-time lover, Mao Ansheng, during a kiss, the Shanghai Daily said.

Mao swallowed the capsule and died soon afterwards.

"The couple had said that if either one of them cheated on the other, he or she would have to die," the paper said in explaining the mouth-to-mouth assault.

Xia found Mao had been "talking" with another woman and deemed that he had broken their promise.

By min | October 1, 2007, 11:13 AM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link

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SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Starlord #3 - Still waiting for the Groot/Rocket Raccoon ongoing to be announced. I also might be in love with Mantis.

Iron Man #22 - Good twist, i guess. But how come Iron Man doesn't dance any more?

Iron Fist #9 - While this was all very good, the 2 panels with Luke, Misty, and Colleen were the best. And i'm disappointed that E. Honda didn't use his thousand hand slap.

Iron Fist annual #1 - I was hoping for backstories on all the people Iron Fist will be facing in the tournament since that's sort of what #9 implied it would be, but backstories on the previous Iron Fist isn't bad either. I felt like the writing wasn't quite as good on this, and i see that Fraction is listed above Brubaker here as opposed to vice versa in the regular series, but it could also have been the different artist. I'm also interested in the idea that Hydra was around prior to World War II. We all know that Baron Strucker formed Hydra at the end of World War II but he did so by taking over a previous secret society, so we can consider this version of Hydra part of that. The Hydra ties to K'un-Lun are intriguing, in any event.

By fnord12 | October 1, 2007, 7:45 AM | Comics| Link

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