So, you think you aren't easily offended?

Think Again.

LESS POPULAR THAN NIXON!

Well, there I was thinking the American people would never get it.

According to this poll, Americans have REALLY gotten a clue about Iraq.

"In view of the developments since we first sent our troops to Iraq, do you think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, or not?"

In March 2003, 75% of Americans said we did NOT make a mistake going into Iraq.

Aug 2005: Only 44%

Here are some more numbers.

Oh, and people don't care much for Dick Cheney either.

Not exactly surprising.

And a movie geek.

This site has a a collection of lists of the best movies ever made.

And best movie quotes.

And highest grossing movies, and most daring movies.

A film buff can get lost in here for hours.

Here's one just for fun.

Did someone mention The Daily Show?

Take this write up on it in wikipedia.org

and let's compare it to the write up of...

Oh, I dunno...

How 'bout The O'Reilly Factor

The Daily Show has the following in it's "Awards" section:

The staff members of The Daily Show won a Peabody Award for their presciently titled "Indecision 2000" coverage of the 2000 United States Presidential Election. A second Peabody was awarded for the show's "Indecision 2004" coverage four years later. In 2003, both Stewart and the show won Television Critics Association Awards: Stewart for Individual Achievement in Comedy and the show winning for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. In 2003 and 2004, the staff won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, and for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program. In 2004, the show won the TCA award for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information, beating out traditional news shows in the category. Later that year, America (The Book) (see below) was critically praised, winning a nod as Book of the Year from Publishers Weekly. The audio book form won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 2005.

And now let's compare it the "Awards" Section for The O'Reilly Factor:

Um...

Pat Robertson...

...what a fucknuts.

Calling for the assassination of a Head of State.

Dude REAGAN didn't even do that, and he called the Soviets "The Evil Empire."

And he was senile.

Now, why should we care what he has to say anyway?

Well, Pat Robertson is of course the guy who kinda speaks on behalf of much of american heartland christianity.

And he owns his own TV Network.

And he is the founder of the Christian Coalition.

And this isn't the first bat-shit insane thing he's ever said.

From the above link:

On his The 700 Club television program, Pat Robertson has sharply criticized elements of the United States government. In interviews with the author of a book critical of the United States Department of State, Robertson made suggestions that the explosion of a nuclear weapon at State Department Headquarters would be good for the country, and repeated those comments on the air. "What we need is for somebody to place a small nuke at Foggy Bottom,"

also:

Among his more controversial statements, Robertson has described feminism as a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." Robertson's views mirror those of the controversial evangelical activist Jerry Falwell, who has made frequent appearances on The 700 Club. He agreed with Falwell that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were caused by "pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the ACLU and the People for the American Way." After public outcry regarding the dialogue, which took place only days after the attacks, Robertson stated that he had not understood what Falwell was saying during the interview, which was conducted via television monitor.

As usual, The Daily Show mops the floor with him.

Of course you knew I was a geek, right?

I mean after the Star Wars admission(s) and the geek links post and of course there's that weird Penelope Pitstop thing, so it should come as no surprise that I have at least a passing interest in comic books, right?

Here are a couple of observations...

1) Movies based on comic books almost invariably are inexcusably expensive to make and at least kind of blow chunks, regardless of box office receipts, as the average hollywood target audience has the artisitic sensibility of a bonobo ape (thought I'd forgotten about them did you?).

• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Um, what the hell is going on?)
• Fantastic Four (Turd burger)
• The Hulk (Ang Lee is NO Stan Lee)
• Batman II, III, IV (Gov Arnold plays an Evil-Genius?!?!)
• The Punisher (straight to video, Dolph Lundgren, 'nuff said)
• Daredevil (Ben "do I come off as gay to you?" Affleck)
• Superman II (Kneel before Zod!), III, IV
• Hellboy (Like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, except even more confusing)
• Mystery Men (Ok, kinda funny and cute, and Greg Kinnear gets turned into a smoldering nothing, and Eddie Izzard is in it, and Pee Wee Herman is awesome in EVERYTHING... Aw hell, we'll let this one slide)

2) Live action TV Shows based on comic books, however, almost invariably are low budget, campy and surprisingly fun.

• Wonder Woman Linda Carter... Rowr.
• Spider Man remember him on the old "Electric Company"?
• The Hulk Obligatory "did you know that Lou Ferrigno was deaf?" joke.
• Batman ADAM WEST, DAMMIT!

3) Every single one of the heroines in comic-dom looks like Dolly Parton in zero gravity, usually with some kind of exhibitionist/latex/spandex fetish. And sometimes... green skin.

4) MAN! Comic book fans are TOTAL PERVS! Do you have ANY idea what it's like trying to find four pictures of the She-Hulk on the internet where she ISN'T naked as a jaybird?!?! IT'S FUCKING HARD!

-ed. note: The above 2 sentences have the words "pictures," "She-Hulk," "naked," "fucking," and "hard." If that doesn't get traffic to the ol' blog-a-roonie, I don't know what will.

How hungry would YOU have to be?

That's right.

Cannibalism.

More.

Of course, for the vegetarian who wants to still enjoy a morsel of the "long pig" you can try Hufu^TM, the healthy human flesh alternative.

I don't call this blog "It's a mad mad mad mad mad mad mad mad..." for nothing folks.

Excuse me while I go shoot myself in the fucking head.

Got some money?

Some people actually invest responsibly.

Some people don't.

More on "big box" retail.

This link has resources to multiple publications that talk in great detail on the effect of these retail behemoths.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, you know what Wal-Mart does with a store after it's done with it?

And by done with it I mean it closes one location in order to build another, BIGGER store often just up the road...

It abandons it.

Nice huh?

Now I live in the beautiful and generally economically viable South Puget Sound region of Washington State, but I used to live in the Mid-West and for a while the south.

If memory serves, there were HUGE SWATHS of this country that pretty much looked like this.

And it was usually because of economic collapse.

Either from the depression of the 30's or the recession of the 70's-80's.

So, draw yer own conclusions, but if this is the sign of a successful store, well maybe we outta change our definition of "successful" a bit.

Neo-Liberalism.

Funny that I, a Liberal, find Neo-Liberalism so disturbing.

Neo-Conservativism is pretty out there too.

Maybe "Neo" is code for "isn't at all."

Or maybe just code for "Bat-Shit Insane."

Oh great, now my BLOG is getting spammed.

Well, that's what I get for putting the word "Christ" in a blog post tile.

I have blasphemed and my penance is to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous spammers.

OH FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST!

Don't these idiots have someting better to fucking DO?!?!

Like education, or unemployment, or gas prices, or foreign policy, or city revitaliztion, or... I dunno, ANYTHING FUCKING ELSE?!?!

AT ALL?!?!

These video games are dirty. Dirty. Dirty. Dirty.

That's it.

I want off this ride.

Did you know that pbs puts all it's Frontline episodes up online and you can watch them for free?

Wal-Mart.
Karl Rove.
Donald Rumsfeld.
History of Credit Cards.

There's (lots) more.

Enjoy, and don't say I never did anything for you.

A "technical" review of cats.

Made me chuckle.

Get used to it.

My Mini cooper gets 35 mpg, still costs me almost 40 bucks to fill the tank, tho'.

From the link:

"The soaring prices stir memories of spikes in the late 1970s and early 1990s. But adjusted for inflation, regular gasoline [hasn't risen above] the 1981 high of $3.11 a gallon, according to the Energy Department."

...Yet.

Yeah, yeah, we all hate Wal-Mart.

Well, it ain't just Wal-Mart.

Jesus is everywhere!

"Jesus loves the little children."

Man that song CREEPS ME OUT.

Uh-oh....

Somebody's approval numbers are dropping.

Nationwide: 43%

Texas is still holding strong at a tepid 52%.

Har.

New york is 33%

California 39%

Blacks in california: 10%

Blacks in Michigan (my birthplace): 8%

Ouch.

Hopefully this is reflected in the mid-terms.

GEEK CHECK!

The story of Mel.

If you are not laughing out loud by the end of this, then you are NOT a proper computer geek.