Archive for 2010
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Why Is There A Nascar Track At The Oklahoma City Bombing Site?
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on September 3, 2010 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Friday, September 3rd, 2010Sure. Call it a “street”. That’s like calling a mosque an “Islamic center”. If we don’t dismantle this affront to our way of life, the rednecks have already won.
 Why did we let the rednecks build a Nascar track here? |
The other day I mentioned that I thought it was strange that given so many Americans’ universal hatred of Muslims because of September 11, I found it odd that we don’t hate all rednecks from Michigan for the Oklahoma City Bombing . Fortunately, some friends set me straight on a few facts. First of all, many Americans ARE rednecks. And secondly, the ones who aren’t, DO. Hate rednecks, that is. Ironically, that second point was made by a Russian friend of mine, who also said – on behalf of rednecks – that at least “they don’t go around burning the American embassy after we draw them in funny ways“. To which I replied with something like “yeah, they just blow up abortion clinics and stuff“. The irony in my Russian friend’s defense of rednecks being that not too long ago, Russians were the enemy. Which for me is the real bitch in all of this. Anyone who bothers digging deeper than the frothing idiocy of ratings-driven anchortainers or polarized partisan blog punditry knows very well that this irrational contempt for all things Muslim has its roots in the fact that when the Cold War ended, the military industrial complex had a serious problem on their hands, i.e., an enemy crisis. Who better to fit the bill than a culture that most Americans know nothing about? Which frankly could be just about any culture. But handily, most Americans – in spite of being incredibly ignorant of history in general – are experts on the wars between Christians and Muslims, and strangely eager to start them again, even if they don’t really believe in God. The level of ignorance swirling around the whole topic of “Islam as our enemy” is frighteningly depicted in the Onion satire Man Already Knows Everything He Needs To Know About Muslims. I say “frighteningly” depicted, because the satire is so close to reality as to be nearly indistinguishable. So if an Islamic center at “ground zero” is going to be a test of freedom and tolerance in America, I think we should at least be consistent and remove the Nascar track that’s in front of the Murrah Federal Building site, and ban all sales of Pabst Blue Ribbon in Oklahoma City, and eliminate any other redneck insults to the federal government in the area. And don’t try that “it’s not a Nascar track it’s just a street” argument on me. That’s like saying a mosque is “just an Islamic center“. I hope I’m sounding utterly irrational with what I’m saying here. Because it would be un-American of me to do otherwise.
This Viral Will Fizzle Fo Shizzle
[ 12 Comments ]Posted on September 2, 2010 by admin in Music
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Snoop Dogg’s campizzle with Norton Antivizzle is entertaining but probably won’t sell much software.
 You’d have a knowing smirk too, if all you had to do for this kind of exposure was give away two concert tickets. |
Whoever wins the new Norton Antivirus/Snoop Dogg anti-cybercrime rap contest over at HackIsWack.com is destined to be at least as famous as M. E. Hart. Oh. Sorry. You probably didn’t know he was the “rapper” in the 1994 Don’t Copy That Floppy campaign (video below). You know, the one you don’t remember. This marketing campaign by Norton is so full of fail in so many ways that I don’t know where to start. First, I’ll acknowledge that yes, I’m talking about Norton Antivirus, which is part of their goal. In fact, here. Go buy some
Wheeling & Dealing In Michigan – A Hemp Based Auto Industry?
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on September 1, 2010 by admin in Clean & Green
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Could legalized hemp solve Michigan’s economic woes? Even if it didn’t, the recreational use would sure take the edge off Michiganders’ trademark up-tightness.
I think the solution for Michigan’s economic woes is sitting right under our noses. Or perhaps in someone’s bong. You may have heard recently about the Kestrel, a new electric car with a biocomposite body being engineered by Motive Industries of Canada. What do they mean by biocomposite? Hemp. You may already know that hemp is a versatile material for manufacturing, but you may not be aware of hemp’s connection with the very origins of the auto industry. It seems that Henry Ford not only originally envisioned a world full of automobiles fueled by ethanol (with hemp as one of the primary sources of biomass) but even built a hemp composite car all the way back in the 1930′s . So weed and wheels have a long history. Given Michigan’s recent foray into legalizing medical marijuana, maybe the state should just go all the way and make a commitment to cannabis as an industry. The broad industrial uses are obvious, the medical benefits are becoming widely accepted, and if they then just decriminalized the recreational usage of the stuff, we’d have a powerful tool for dealing with the typical Michigander’s trademark up-tightness. Just be careful with your wheeling and dealing, even if you have a license to do both.
I’d Come To Your Parties But Your Parties Suck
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on August 31, 2010 by admin in Politics
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010Democrats, Republicans…who can tell them apart these days? That’s why I’ve decided to throw my own little party. The Punk Party. Help me with some bumper sticker ideas for the party you’re not invited to.
I was pretty excited about the 2000 presidential election. Which was quite a turnaround from 1980, when I was protesting the reinstatement of draft registration, and 1984 and 1988, when I didn’t even vote. I reluctantly voted for that horndog con man Clinton in ’92, but only because I was tired of having a warmongering former CIA director as president. And you can’t deny the 90′s were pretty okay in a lot of ways. In 2000, I was bummed that we were stuck with that stick-up-his-ass twit Al Gore as the democratic candidate, but I voted for the jerk anyway, because it was better than helping build the Bush oligarchy or wasting a vote on somebody like Nader. And then democracy was hijacked. The numbers are the numbers, and a court decided the election, not the voters. And anybody who denies that is, well, in denial. So of course, with the meat puppet GW Bush dancing on the strings of the militaristic New American Century neocons, before you knew it we’d been attacked by terrorists again, and had started two wars. I still find it interesting that half of America is out for Muslim blood for 9/11. I mean, why didn’t everybody develop an irrational fear and murderous hatred of rednecks from New York and Michigan after Oklahoma City? So 2004 rolls around, and America’s still in a state of fear and panic, mostly thanks to the neocons fueling it, and then we have another election hijacked. Even Chris Hitchens thought so. To me, the only thing more appalling than the brazenness of THAT little stunt was the fact that there weren’t riots the day after election day. So we endure four more years of paranoia, some failing wars, and a decimated economy, and then the weirdest thing in the world happens. America elects a black president. L~a~a~a~a~a [INSERT ANGELIC CHOIR SOUND]. Hallelujah. The world is born anew. Our savior has arrived! But wait… it turns out he’s the same-old-same-old rich guy in Washington, he just has a higher IQ than the last guy. Oh, wait. Hold on. What’s this? Fox has some breaking news. What? He’s a Muslim? He has no BIRTH CERTIFICATE? He’s a GODDAMN SOCIALIST hell bent on DESTROYING AMERICA? Shit. I bet he’s gay too. I have to confess that the only thing that creeps me out more than a politician these days is the people that vote for them. And by that I mean the average American voter. Never have so many had so much information available….and IGNORED it. In my opinion, Public Enemy Number One is Rupert Murdoch, with the citizens who hungrily devour his news machine’s crumbs of disinformation like they’re Big Macs or something running a tight second. I’m sorry, you don’t know who Rupert Murdoch is? He’s a foreigner. An Australian with a socialist background. And the owner of most of the biggest news sources in America. So. With almost every moderately intelligent person I know taking sides in the “Glenn Beck vs Keith Olbermann Sentiment Election of 2010″, I’ve finally given up. I’m forming my own party, and I don’t care if you join me. I wouldn’t mind some thoughts on taglines and graphics though, so feel free to share any ideas you have for the party no-one is invited to, the Punk Party. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Throwing Puppies In The River Bad?
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on August 30, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Monday, August 30th, 2010I think I may finally go fully vegetarian.
Be warned. The following includes some pretty grisly content. You may have seen or heard about the video of a girl taking a bucket of puppies and throwing them one-by-one into a river. Yes. A bucket of puppies. Unlike car accidents, which I’m pretty good at NOT stopping to gawk at, I had the misfortune made the mistake of watching this video (also below). It was incredibly upsetting. I was mesmerized by the tragic failure of humanity I witnessed. I really just felt sickened, and experienced a brief hopelessness that if a young girl could do this and video the whole thing and post it on the internet, what else are we capable of as humans? It seemed more horrible by an incredible magnitude than the woman in England who put the kitten in the wastebin recently. I’m not the only one to get upset; much like the vigilantism that took place with the kitty abusing biddy, users at 4chan have already initiated the hunt. But this raises two issues for me. First of all, sometimes these Human Flesh Search Engines end up going after the wrong person. And in the case of the girl and the puppies? As dementedly cruel as it seems, is it any more cruel than how the food industry treats the male chicks that we don’t want because they won’t provide eggs or enough meat? Or any of the other cruel acts against animals featured in movies like Food, Inc.
