If you’ve read here over the last year, you’ll know that I’ve pretty much lost all hope that Obama is going to fix things–I’m willing to live with “won’t make it worse”, and clearly he was a better choice than the alternative, but I am labouring under no illusion now that he’s going to actually undo all the evils of… Read more →
Tag: disgusting
Scary Creatures From The World Of Science
Reading a story about a colony of billions of amoeba, a colony so big that it was visible across a 40 foot area is pretty spooky. Reading further in the article about: the fact that these are “clonal” amoeba–all genetically identical copies, the fact that these amoeba can apparently work together and function as a kind of hive organism, the… Read more →
Cheney’s Assassination Bureau
You’ve probably seen the story by now: Hersh replied, “After 9/11, I haven’t written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it yet.” Hersh then went on to describe a second… Read more →
Aside
It’s not every day that I scoop William Gibson by more than two years–apparently I am pretty far ahead of him on the gross cheese curve. (It is terribly common for me to see things a couple of days before they end up on Boing Boing though.)
Way To Go America, Part 2
While I’m at it, here’s a little something Will clued me in to. There are other human rights that the UN is trying to craft declarations of, as part of its continuing efforts to establish some baselines for civilized national behaviours. These are two quotes from what are essentially meeting minutes from a committee meeting wherein 8 such new resolutions… Read more →
Way To Go America
Did you read where earlier this month, as part of the celebration of the anniversary of the U.N.’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, France and the Netherlands sponsored a new non-binding UN declaration extending the rights guaranteed in the UDHR to homosexual and transgender people? Out of the 192 countries in the UN, only 66 signed. This is perhaps… Read more →
Me & Julio, Day 8: Tragedy
There was, as you may have noted, no Day 7. Last night I didn’t get to explore any of my stash, since I dined with a friend, and he provided me with samples of Dragonslayer Imperial Stout from Middle Ages Brewing Company, Saranac‘s Black & Tan, and Dogfish Head‘s Palo Santo Marron–it was kind of an east coast night, with… Read more →
Sunday Night Gallimaufry
You know the drill, this is the miscellaneous tab closing ceremony. Since I’m tired of politics today, there will be none in this list. I have had several discussions about this recent article on a particular form of elective surgery. All that I can conclude from these discussions is that I have different aesthetic than many of the people I’ve… Read more →
Aside
As a general rule I am entirely in favour of freedom of speech and thought, and I look askance at any government attempts to curtail them. I can go on for quite a while about how hate speech legislation is probably a mistake, especially in a country where the current government wouldn’t think twice about blasting down that slippery slope, but… well, there’s one particular group that I don’t mind at all being on the shitty end of that stick. I’m a complicated man–I can live with some shades of grey.
Hypocrisy on parade
There’s an evil tableau for you: the callous torturer stands up with blood on his hands and a lie in his teeth, while the priest draped in gilt reassures him of his righteousness. How often has that scene played out in history, I wonder? You know, I wouldn’t change a word in what Paul Myers says about the President-Pope meeting.… Read more →
A throne is a throne…
You know, the Pope-throne in the Vatican press room, or wherever it is, reminds me of something… (photo source) Oh yeah, I know what it is. It reminds me of the stage at the No Rest For The Wicked concert I saw in Milan. (As an aside, I know I shouldn’t be shocked at hypocrisy here, but doesn’t seeing that… Read more →
I used to enjoy Christopher Hitchens
…but over the last few years this has become less and less true. I’m a pretty rabid atheist, but when someone makes Dawkins look like a moderate on religion, they might have gone a bit too far, you know? And ever since he went pro-war on Iraq, his writings on foreign policy have taken on a continually more defensive and… Read more →
This stuff is deadly and it is spreading
You are about to hear Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (sallykern@okhouse.gov) speaking when she thought that only 50 highly-targeted people were listening. Every time I start feeling good about humanity, something like this comes along to remind me that we’re basically ten minutes away from hitting each other with sticks. How can people this hateful still manage to exist in… Read more →
Nasty
It should not be possible for a child that small to produce so much vomit. Apparently my hard-earned parenting experience has made me blase about all other possible organic messes, but has not really protected me from child vomit. I mean, I can do what needs to be done, but that stuff is nasty. Back in the diaper days there… Read more →
Good Friday, Part 5
Here’s some irony for you: an article about Fred Phelps cheered me up today. If you don’t know who Fred Phelps is, you can do a little Googling. If I were feeling really snarky, I would list some quotes from Phelp’s church to illustrate the beauty and majesty of religion, but I’d feel dirty linking to him, or his charmingly… Read more →
