Elite

e·lite (noun) - representing the most choice or select; best

Doesn’t elite mean good? Is that not something we’re looking for in a president anymore? . . . Not only do I want an elite president, but I want somebody who is embarrassingly superior to me.

Why is the only sensible political commentary these days on Comedy Central?

This is the best we can do?

It’s hard to pick just one quote from this piece on TV pundits, politics, and orange juice:

There is no spin possible that turns “asking for orange juice” into an issue of elitism or snobbery: there is, in an infinite sea of alternate realities, not one in which asking for orange juice demonstrates an important negative aspect of character. It is stupid. It is aggressively stupid; it is soul-burrowingly stupid; it is mind-fuckingly stupid. It is the kind of stupid that seeps into the rug so that the entire building stinks of stupid for the next ten years whenever the air conditioning comes on. It is the kind of stupid that wounds all those who come into contact with it. It is a stupid that has been rendered physical: it leaves a scar.

. . .

It is difficult, after all, to do anything but just plain laugh at the political “experts” shoved in front of us, experts so incompetent and up their own esteemed asses, at this point, that they really can’t report on anything more substantial than orange juice stories. They can’t do it — it is not a matter of secret bias, they are just not capable. The top “pundits” of cable television weren’t hired for their smarts on the hard issues, they were hired to make ridiculous, off-the-cuff pronouncements on the petty trivialities of the day. They know no more about the concerns of small town Americans than they know about roping cattle or performing a colonoscopy, and yet they will sit on television, in suits costing more than some of the used cars the rest of us drive, and claim expertise on all three.

Read the whole damn thing, and then demand better.

We’re Screwed

Media Matters wonders where the serious debates have gone

Not one question about renditions. The words “habeas corpus” have not once been spoken by a debate moderator. Candidates have not been asked about telecom liability. . . . But NBC’s Brian Williams did ask the Democratic candidates what they would “go as” for Halloween.

Paul Krugman agrees that there’s a problem:

Just 12% of stories examined were presented in a way that explained how citizens might be affected by the election, while nearly nine-out-of-ten stories (86%) focused on matters that largely impacted only the parties and the candidates.

How do we fix our broken media?

Civil War in Four Minutes

Click through to youtube and use the full screen toggle if you’re having trouble making out the details.

The third battle on here is listed as “Jefferson City”, but I can’t find any details on that battle. Could that be the Battle of Boonville? Any Civil War Buffs out there?

Dipshits

From the “This is going to backfire” category:

A Brussels court said Google Inc. violated copyright laws by publishing links to Belgian newspapers without permission and ordered the company to remove them, setting a precedent for future cases in Europe.

. . .

The journals lose advertising revenue when Google uses snippets of articles and links directly to stories, bypassing ads on their Web sites, said Bruno Vandermeulen, a Brussels-based lawyer at Bird & Bird.

The journals are going to lose a hell of a lot more advertising revenue when no one reads their online paper anymore. Generally, the people who access your site through Google News are those who aren’t going to click through several pages of your site to find the stories they’re interested in. Google wasn’t stealing the content, they were giving a short snippet and linking to your site. With as big of an audience as Google News reaches, that’s driving a hell of a lot of pageviews your way.

Example #837 of why print media companies don’t understand the web. I won’t shed any tears when they’re gone - the companies that evolve to fit this pervasive new medium will be the powerhouses of the next century.

Lite-Brite Music Video

If the robots win, we’ll have to listen to techno.

Twangers

I never saw a kids’ show like this when I was growing up…

Homomyms are a bitch

Watch the movie first:

Turns out that this was a real appetite suppressant candy in the late 70’s and early 80’s, before the epidemic. Sales dropped precipitously in the later part of the decade, as people became familiar with the autoimmune disease by the same name. The company’s response? “No problem! We’ll just change the name to Diet Ayds.”

Somehow, I don’t think they thought their cunning plan all the way through.

source: Museum of Hoaxes

Scary Mary

Short Film

Sexual Consent is pretty freaking funny. In case the title wasn’t enough to warn you, it’s probably NSFW, though it doesn’t contain any nudity.

Right on the Money?

The Daily Show addresses the oft-abused use of question marks in TV news:

It’s also a good reminder of the editorialism that seems to be infesting TV news more and more.

Good Night, and Good Luck

Go read this fantastic monologue given by Keith Olbermann, at the closing of his show tonight. (or better yet, watch the video here)

He borrows a few of Edward R. Murrow’s words, and a whole lot more of Murrow’s style and journalistic excellence. This is what journalism should be.

He’s a Curious George

Remix

Recently, a contest was held to see who could do the best remix of a motion picture trailer. The twist? They had to make the movie seem like it was from another genre all together.

Here’s a pair of the best ones:

Props to Waxy for the links.

Great Video

A very cool video from Hexstatic. The song is “Distorted Minds”.

If you’re like me, you’ll have to watch it several times to catch all of the subtle things that fly by.

Land Mines

This 60 second clip about land-mines is one of the best PSAs I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, it’ll never be seen in the US.

Why does the Man media insist on trying to shelter Americans? Are we that self-absorbed jingoistic incapable of dealing with reality?

Via Boing Boing. (Video mirrored locally, because the original host was dying under the load).

Gannongate

Conason weighs in:

Imagine the media explosion if a male escort had been discovered operating as a correspondent in the Clinton White House. Imagine that he was paid by an outfit owned by Arkansas Democrats and had been trained in journalism by James Carville. Imagine that this gentleman had been cultivated and called upon by Mike McCurry or Joe Lockhart–or by President Clinton himself. Imagine that this “journalist” had smeared a Republican Presidential candidate and had previously claimed access to classified documents in a national-security scandal.

Then imagine the constant screaming on radio, on television, on Capitol Hill, in the Washington press corps–and listen to the placid mumbling of the “liberal” media now.

SLCM indeed.

Torture

I’m sure that there are some hard-hitting assholes out there who think that ‘torturing the towel-heads’ is okay. The vast majority of Americans, not to mention ALL Christians, should be vehemently against it. It’s illegal in this country, it’s illegal under international law, and it sure as hell isn’t a moral thing to do, regardless of the stakes.

Sadly, Republicans seem to be okay with it. Bush’s proposed new Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, played an integral part in the authorization of torture at Guatanamo, Abu Gharib, and other places:

The request by Mr. Gonzales produced the much-debated Justice Department memorandum of Aug. 1, 2002, which defined torture narrowly and said that Mr. Bush could circumvent domestic and international prohibitions against torture in the name of national security.

This goes all the way to the top, folks. There’s plenty of evidence to show that Bush knew what was going on, as well. And despite a huge outcry, both domestically and internationally, Republicans continue to defend the practice:

In the afternoon, I was treated to Sean Hannity and Mark Levin defending torture against a well-informed but out-shouted caller. They fell back on two ideas: one, that what we did was not torture (there are pictures and sworn accounts that makes this only a semantic argument that won’t fly in the long run with decent folks) and two, that it was necessary to get information. This second point is easily debunked (torture does not provide reliable information, and what prosecutions have resulted from this oh-so-critical information?) None of these excuse torture.

In case you haven’t picked up on the problem thus far, try this:

The Republicans are defending torture. Torture is not legal, not effective military policy, and disastrous as a policy within the war on terror. It is not Christian, and it’s fundamentally unAmerican.

But the GOP is the party of moral values…

Senate Democrats, fight this guy’s appointment with everything you’ve got. He could be worse than Ashcroft.

Link

Brilliant

A while back, a fellow by the name of DJ Danger Mouse performed a little experiment. He acquired a vocals-only track of Jay-Z’s recent release, the Black Album. He then sampled from the Beatles’ White Album to create backing beats, and the Grey Album was born. And it was surprisingly good. It contains some of the best mash-ups I’ve heard. (My personal favorite is still the Beastie Boys “So Watcha Want” over ODB’s “Got Your Money”.)

Dj Danger Mouse released it for free on the internet, because it was a derivative work, and he wasn’t looking to make money off the track. To him, it was a pure expression of artistic creativity. Unfortunately, word spread a little too fast, and his work recieved a death blow: a copyright infringement notice, ordering him to take own the music immediately. Unfortunately for the goons over at the RIAA, it was too late. The music had made its way onto P2P networks, and a huge number of websites participated in a ‘Grey Tuesday‘ where they hosted the music. These advocates, and I, believe that his non-commercial use of sampled music to create derivative works was fair use.

This would normally be the part where I launch into a critique of the copyright system in the US, and espouse the awesome possibilities of a system like Creative Commons. Others have already covered this case pretty well, though. Do a search for “Danger Mouse Grey Album”, and you’ll get about 8 million relevant articles.

So, why am I bringing up this old news, you ask? Well, it’s because someone just created a video mash-up of the Beatles and Jay-Z, which is almost as brilliant as the album itself. Check it out, be impressed, and remember that this kind of creative endeavour is an endangered species if copyright law continues down the wrong path.

UPDATE: Waxy has mirrors and a torrent link. Enjoy!

Don’t Believe Everything That You Read

This is the kind of asinine reporting that makes me sick.

The setup:

Study: Living in the Suburbs Can Make You Sick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Living in the suburbs may have once been part of the American dream but it can lead to nightmares such as high blood pressure, arthritis and headaches, researchers reported on Monday.

What is this? Some kind of crazy suburban viral epidemic?! Or maybe not…

We know from previous studies that suburban sprawl reduces the time people spend walking and increases the time they spend sitting in cars, and that is associated with higher obesity rates. This probably plays an important role in the health effects we observe.

Aaaahh. So the real issue here is that suburbanites are just really goddamn lazy, and their environment reflects that. Why waste money on sidewalks or bike lanes, when everyone just takes their SUV anyway? People who do care about such things tend to lead a more urban lifestyle, where they can live close to work and/or public transportation.

Now look back at the headline. Is it the suburbs that are making people sick? Or is it the lifestyle choices of the people who live there?

Remember folks, a correlation does not equal a cause.

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