Blurred Lines

As any of my friends can tell you, I'm not big on current music. My musical tastes tend more toward dated tunes from the 60s and earlier. Of course, I do also have a huge 4-hour long playlist of nothing but 80s chart toppers--but generally speaking it takes me a long time to get into anything new and popular.

So when I heard someone on tv mention this song "Blurred Lines" from Robin Thicke (featuring T.I. and Pharrell) as being the number 1 track of the summer, I just had to listen to it and find out what all the fuss was about.

Can You Hear Me Now?

You know, I know I'm going to take some flak for this, but I'll come out and just say it: I'm not all that disturbed by these recent NSA Prism revelations. Yes, I'm serious. I know, I know -- the U.S. government has been tapping into our mobile phone and e-mail content. Oh. Mah. Gurd!!!!

Really?

And???

How is this news? I've always figured my conversations, emails, and Facebook doings were being monitored somehow, somewhere. This blog, too, in fact. It's probably all being filtered through some government data analyst's server farm buried deep in the Black Hills of South Dakota. But do I think anyone cares about what I have to say or write? Hell no! I say: let them do all the snooping they want. Do you really think I'm dumb enough to put out there anything incriminating or of a threat to national security? Do I honestly believe anyone in the higher echelons of our cloak & dagger shadow government agencies actually cares about my Game of Thrones musings, or latest Facebook rant on men who carry around large shoulder bags?

Please, grow up! I don't exactly know why everyone's so surprised by these revelations. Or so afraid all of a sudden. Surely you couldn't have been that naive all these years, right?

Didn't think so.

Is it wrong that our privacy and basic liberties are being trampled upon? You damn right it is! And I'm mad as hell about that. Because if they can do this, then what's next? Don't answer that! It's scary as hell.

Look, ever since I first logged on to this here Interwebs of ours back in September of 1994 (when we were still using Mosaic for access, and the World Wide Web was in its infancy) I've done so with the express paranoia that some super AI or think tank out there would be eavesdropping, just waiting for certain keywords to pop up in all that digital noise and send the black helicopters out to pick me up in the middle of the night. So I just made sure I never put anything out there I wouldn't want my closest friends or family members finding out about. Plain and simple.

If, however, you're one of those pseudo anarchists who uses Facebook as a soapbox to rave about how badly you want the government to implode under an onslaught of a thousand terrorists' dirty bombs--well then, Jethro, you might want to keep you ears peeled for those super silent helicopter blades approaching your bunker.

I hear Guantanamo ain't so lovely this time of year.

So, New York . . .

Ya did something good for once, did ya? I'm glad, my home state you. And -- phew!

If you don't know, New York just passed a momentous law into effect that will make gay and lesbian marriages legal here. This makes it the 6th and largest state to do so.

I have to say, all the arguing back and forth over the past several weeks was really starting to make my blood boil. I think it's utterly ridiculous to disallow two human beings from marrying. This isn't marriage between a woman and her horse, or a man and his dog, after all. These are PEOPLE, people. Damn!

And, you know what? I don't give two shits what your religion says on the subject. Although I think if some of you go back and read your relevant sacred texts more closely, you'll probably realize that you're more wrong on the subject than you previously thought. But I won't get into that here.

No, I don't care about the religion angle because the law has nothing to do with religion. Read up on your separation of church and state sometime . . . our Founding Fathers explicitly put that part in there. The bible has a nice little comment about giving Caesar his due and what not, too. The point being, let the government handle the legal side of things while the church handles the spiritual side -- and neither the two shall meet!

And, at least for now, New York State has taken a major step in keeping those sides firmly apart. There's more that can and should be done, but that also is a topic for another day. For now, I'm proud and at peace. I'm happy any day justice and equality is to be had, and bigots get to go home to cry in their cups. I also expect that church services all across the land this Sunday will be a particularly lively event, which too makes me cackle with glee.

Ah, such are the amazing times we live in . . .

We Interrupt This Broadcast . . .

. . . To bring you this rare political-themed blog entry.

I thought for once that, considering all the commotion going on over this latest "victory" in the war against terror, I'd chime in here with some really quick reactions to the news. But first, I'll encapsulate it all with just one humorously captioned Internet pic:

Teh LOLz! I imagine him pointing straight at Donald Trump, don't you?

So what are my reactions, exactly? Well:


1) I'm glad this one man was found and finally put to justice. And in his case, justice really could only mean a bullet to the brain. It's harsh, but hey . . . thems the rocks, kid.

2) No one in America truly believes that this is the end of Al Qaeda or U.S.-directed terrorism. So all the smarmy commentary I keep reading online from overseas instigators about how Americans should tone it down and face reality can go shove something sharp and lengthy into their left eye socket. Dudes, we know! Now can you just shut the fuck up and give us this moment? Jeez!

3) That being said, from one American to another -- yeah, we should probably not be shouting and screaming in the streets like a frat party gone wrong. Ebullient and proud? Sure. Toot off a few horns and chant USA at a baseball game? Hmmm, maybe. Burning effigies and name signs in the street while chanting ROT IN HELL? Eh, I can really do without that kind of behavior now. We're supposed to be the civilized ones, remember? Remember????

4) Stop telling us that this was only one man, and that the effort, cost, and time it took to get this done was so not worth just one's man life. This was more than one man, people! In our search to catch him, scores of top level Al Qaeda leaders, soldiers, informants, and sympathizers have been apprehended or otherwise put out of business over the past decade thanks to the dedication and hard work of an international coalition of top professionals. Was it worth all the money and time? You bet your ass it was! We truly are safer now than we were before these steps were taken.

5) Yes, this was largely symbolic. But you know what? So were the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. Only an idiot would have believed that our financial base could be negated by the fall of the former, or that our military might would be realistically crippled by the destruction of the latter. So, therefore, it was symbolic. And so is capturing and killing the head mastermind of said symbolic act.

6) No, Obama is not taking the credit from something started back in Bush's presidency. If you'd be willing to think back all of 5 years ago, the Bush administration specifically said they were scaling back CIA operations tasked with finding Bin Laden. Simply put: his capture was no longer being considered a realistic, attainable goal. However, when Obama came into office, one of the first things he said he would make a priority (after re-focusing our attention on Afghanistan) was the apprehension of one Osama bin Laden. He said this! And, guess what? He delivered!

7) If you honestly think this point will be forgotten come elections next year, you're either a crazy tea-bagger (heh, heh) . . . or FOX news.


And there you have it. Pretty much all I have to say, or will ever say, on the matter here on this blog. Life continues, and I can't say I feel any more safe than I was already feeling before the news broke (which was pretty darn safe, I might add). But it does feel like closure to have this monster no longer in our world, and for that a little part of me does sigh in relief. To our brothers and sisters fighting on our behalf out there . . . thank you for your sacrifice and dedication to protecting this nation.

And to SEAL Team Six, whoever or wherever you are: You guys ROCK! Thanks for a job well done. I look forward to playing an FPS game based on your mission sometime very soon. Because, let's face it, you know EA or Activision is already all over this!

I Just Have To Chime In Really Quick Here . . .

This isn't a political blog by any stretch of the imagination, but I felt I just had to take a quick time-out from tales of writerly woes and video games past and present to comment real quick on the Tuscon, AZ shooting tragedy over the weekend. Or, more specifically, comment on Sarah Palin's tragedy after the tragedy. Because, of course, she's the real victim here.

That sound you're hearing is the sarcasm alarm going off above your PC monitor -- I hope you changed the batteries within the last 6 months.

Anywho, I know I'm a little late in responding to the Palin video and Facebook page statement that's been making the rounds of, oh, just about EVERYWHERE in the past 36 hours. However, rather than dissect it piece-by-piece as has already been done by many bloggers much smarter than I . . . I thought I'd parse out one particular passage from her written statement below. The bolded sentence is what I find particularly ironic:

"After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event. President Reagan said, 'We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.' Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies … journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

This sounds reasonable, doesn't it? After all, she's only asking the rest of the country (i.e., the liberal media) to do as she has done. To follow by her example. Who can forget, when the now infamous "Ground Zero Mosque" debate was starting to boil over just before midterm elections, how Sarah Palin waded into the thick of the ignorant hatred and beseeched us all not to blame the entire Muslim world for the acts of those handful of extremist wackjobs responsible for 9/11? Don't you all remember that? How much the voice of reason Palin was during that whole ridiculous brouhaha? We shouldn't blame the many for the few, right? Right???

Oh, wait. My bad. No, that's not what she and others in her party said at all.

Oopsie.

So I guess this idea of not laying the finger of blame for the acts of one or more individuals on an entire race, demographic, or even political campaign applies only when it aims to benefit Mrs. Palin. Color me shocked!

No, no. There's nothing to be alarmed about here, folks. Why should her reaction make anyone upset? It's not like this is a "blood libel" against an entire religion and culture, right? She's just saying that Muslims in general shouldn't build mosques at all anywhere near lower Manhattan because of what "they" did on 9/11. That's all.

Yeah.

Oops! No New Life Form On Saturn's Moon

Two days ago I mentioned here a Gizmodo article concerning a NASA press conference scheduled for later this afternoon. At the time, the educated guess was that arsenic had been discovered on one of Saturn's moons, Titan. Further speculation generated the possibility that there may have also been evidence found of an arsenic-based bacterium living on Titan.

Well, looks like everyone was WRONG! The announcement, in fact, was about an experiment conducted on bacteria dredged up from a a poisonous, arsenic-filled lake in California, which had the phosphorous element of its DNA removed and replaced with arsenic. Bacteria have been known to process arsenic before, but never to actually be made from it. The fact that this bacteria was able to propagate after the replacement has broad implications for the possibility of life existing on other planets where Earth conditions are not the norm.

So, sorry. No alien life forms discovered. But, for biologists, this is actually a very cool moment. It was previously thought unlikely that anything could live based on arsenic. Now we know better, and thus we learn that life doesn't have to be unique to Earth.

That's pretty awesome in my book!

For more info, check out this article in today's Popular Science update.

Two Pics Worth The Price Of A Chuckle Today

Upon checking out Gizmodo this afternoon, I came across this article mentioning some important NASA press conference scheduled for this Thursday concerning a possible "astrobiology finding" on one of Saturn's moons. In this case, Titan, which we already know has liquid on its surface in the form of the hydrocarbon ethane. Could there actually be life on this moon?

Anyway, in the comments at the end of the article, I came across two embedded pics which had me ROTFLMAO -- and which adequately displays my frustration at NASA's previous "important" announcements:

That's so wrong . . . and yet, so RIGHT! LOL! On a tangent note, but also offering up equal hilarity is another pic I found in the comments, which so perfectly sums up my annoyance sometimes when I read my science magazines:

That right there is so on the money! I subscribe to three scientific mags -- Discover, Scientific American, and Archaeology -- as well as pick up the occasional Astronomy and National Geographic when the mood strikes my fancy. I can't tell you how many articles I'm starting to skip now because this is how they almost always turn out. The headline presents a provocative supposition of some potentially ground-breaking paradigm shift . . . only to end up being a "wouldn't it be cool if?" spec piece, or containing a flat out "yeah, keep dreaming" conclusion. ARGH!!! So aggravating! But such is the nature of the game of science journalism. Ground breaking discoveries are not made every day, and yet they still need to sell subscriptions.

Anyway, I guess I'll be keeping my ears peeled for Thursday's announcement. I agree with this Jason Kottke person that it will mostly likely be about the discovery of arsenic, which has already been theorized before as a likely candidate to be found on Titan. Don't get me wrong, this will be great news. Even better if they actually do have evidence of some kind of bacteria living off the arsenic. But then, NASA has gotten my hopes up before. So for now I'll just remain cautiously optimistic and wait to see what comes of it.

Are you excited by the possibilities?

The Hypocrisy Is Strong In This One

LOL! I love The Daily Show. Jon Stewart and crew should charge us admission to watch them make utter and complete fools on a continual basis out of those ignorant bigots over on FOX News. The show could be about nothing but this and I would happily watch. Check out this clip from the latest episode, and tell me he did not get them but good! Especially watch for that one dumbass, Eric Bolling, with his index cards and yellow highlighted "facts". Yes, "facts" that just happen to have question marks after them:



I've decided not to say anything here on the blog over this ridiculous issue re: the Cultural Center/Mosque *near* Ground Zero. I've said enough on Facebook, for better or worse. So this video will have to suffice as my officially endorsed mouthpiece to the thoughts churning around furiously inside my head this week.

And of course, because this is Jon Stewart, it's full of the funny.

Trending This Week . . .

I don't usually do this, preferring to leave such things to my Facebook account . . . but this one time I will ignore better judgment and bring to you on this here blog the latest funny vid of the week that's been making the rounds. A month ago it was that ridiculous "Double Rainbow" vid. Remember that craze? Click on the link if you need a refresher.

Well, now the craze is the "Woman wakes up to find an intruder in her bed" vid. This was taken from a real live news story on WAFF48 out of Alabama, in which a would-be rapist climbed through a second-story window and tried to attack a young woman asleep in her bed. This normally wouldn't be funny news, but OH MAN you have *got* to see the woman's brother when he's interviewed at the 1:00 minute mark. I swear, it's friggin HILARIOUS!



Now, as these crazy Interwebs trends go, somebody already went ahead and remixed the interview into a catchy auto-tune beat. It, too, is equally hilarious:



I implore you all to check out both vids. Yes, you'll feel dumber in the process by doing so, but sometimes you just have to sacrifice a few thousand brain cells to the gods of Internet hijinks. Oh, but don't blame me if--like a horrible car wreck you can't take your eyes off of--you find yourself returning to that second vid over and over again.

It's okay, I won't think any less of you if you do. It'll be our little secret.

Promise.

Feeling A Tad Inadequate, Are We?

*sigh*

When are people going to learn: when you don't got it, you don't got it?

I'm getting sick and tired of this whole gender "debate" over Caster Semenya, the South African 800 meter world champion who's been in the news a lot lately over stupid people claiming that she won only because she's really a man. Or at the very least, that she has male sex genes.

Are you serious? Really? Is that how lame international sports has become? Because a black woman is dominating a given field, she obviously must be a man or some sort of freak of nature? Let's get real, people, and face the truth: your country's runners just can't cut it any more.

I mean, just look at the above photo. Does nothing look more pathetic than that one white woman trying so desperately not to let the master race down?

Okay, okay . . . I'm being snarky now and I apologize. After all, Semenya isn't just dominating flabby white women the world over, she's dominating the sport of running period! No matter which country you hail from -- Denmark or Kenya -- Caster Semenya is going to make you look stupid. But at least, as this article demonstrates, she seems to have a good attitude about it all. She knows she has nothing to prove to anyone else beyond the evidence her feet provide out on that track.

So instead of celebrating this young phenom, why are we wasting time with nonsense about her gender? What, because she doesn't fit some people's Westernized ideals of "beauty" she's suddenly a man? Well, who asked you? To me the very fact she kicks ass in her profession makes her ultimately beautiful in my eyes. Nothing's more sexy than a champion, as they say.

And with today comes new images taken from an upcoming issue of You magazine, showing Caster out of her usual track gear and wearing what her detractors would consider more appealing feminine garb. You is definitely trying to make a point, but personally I don't see why this much was even necessary. Only paranoid white people seem to be getting up in arms over her gender. Not South Africans, the magazine's intended readership, that's for sure.

As for the rest of us . . . she looks just fine. Just fine indeed.

So keep up the good work, Ms. Semenya. I look forward to seeing you embarrass more European and American nations at the 2012 Summer Olympics. You've got my cheers.

Well Iran And North Korea Have More In Common Than Just Illegal Nukes

They're also very quick to brand outsiders as "spies" whenever someone wanders by accident over their vague borders. Seems to me if you were concerned about spies slipping into your country, you might do a better job of policing said borders. At least put up some signs, sheesh!

I was just reading a brief account written by Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two Korean-American journalists who were detained in North Korea and charged with being spies before being set free. You can read the details of their ordeal over at their employer's website, Current.com.

I hope the N. Korean authorities are feeling rightly stupid about now. I mean, they couldn't have asked for more attention brought to the issue of defection if they'd paid good money for it. LOL, what dumbasses!

The report by the two women probably would have languished in moderate obscurity if they'd just let them stay on the other side of the border that fateful morning. By detaining them and thus bringing international attention to the ordeal, they've effectively ensured that a great deal of people will be paying attention to anything these two women say now about the plight of N. Korean refugees in China and abroad.

Nice going, guys. Seriously. You've made the jobs of humanitarians the world over a tad easier virtually overnight.

Thanks a million!

Who Reads The NY Post Anyway?

There's been some uproar recently over a political cartoon published in the NY Post which some have taken to be a racist slant against our President.

Now, look, I'm all for calling out racism when it rears its ugly head. I would be the first to throw down if this were in fact a truly racist cartoon. But, folks, seriously . . . come on now? You all can't be *this* stupid!

Before I go on, for those of you living under a rock and who haven't read the cartoon in question, here it is:




Now, keep in mind that this cartoon is coming out a couple of days after a poor woman was attacked and viciously mauled by her friend's chimpanzee, an incident in which police had to shoot and kill the chimp. Combined that with the recent brouhaha over the stimulus bill making the rounds in Congress over the past few weeks, and you see the backdrop against which this silly cartoon was painted.

And, yeah, if you *want* to act really ignorant and choose to look at the cartoon in a certain light, yeah it *might* seem overly racist. The knee-jerk reaction being that the cartoon is comparing Obama to a chimp gone crazy.

But hold on here. Is this really what the cartoon is saying? I offer that it is not. First off, Obama is not the author of the stimulus plan. He didn't write the thing out himself by the dim light of the midnight oil in the oval office. The bill was drafted by a number of authors, all of whom work in Washington. What the cartoon is satirizing here is not the President, but the chimps in Congress who drafted and ok'd the bill. Yes, President Obama backs and endorses the bill, but he did not write it. And even if he did, the cartoon is saying that the bill is so lopsided and full of nonsensical holes that it MIGHT AS WELL have been written by a bunch of chimps.

And let's be honest here, folks, it kinda does seem like it was. I'm a huge supporter of Obama and a tried and true voting Democrat, but I can't lie and say I'm entirely put at ease by this huge stimulus package. For now I trust Obama and his advisers, but at the same time I can appreciate the need for and the execution of a wee bit of humor at the expense of those backing the bill.

Come on, people. Let's not make a mountain out of something that is definitely not deserving of this much attention. It was silly, maybe a little bit in bad taste (considering the poor woman who now needs facial reconstruction because of the chimp), but was in no way comparing our President to a simian.

I just wanted to be clear here. Let's all move along now and get back to our normally scheduled programming.

Overheard On The Elevator This Morning

Two guys on the elevator with me. Guy 1 is holding today's Wall Street Journal in his hands. The other guy looks over and points to the front page.

Guy 2: "Shocking!"

Guy 1: "Yes, isn't it? Our President gives his first prime time television news conference, and the Journal puts A-Rod's face on the cover."

Ain't that the truth, brother!

What I find even more unbelievable is that Obama's speech actually had something to do with the, you know, economy and what-not. Seems like something the WSJ should be just a tad bit more interested in, no? To be fair, all the major newspapers followed similar suit this morning. Even the New York Times.

*sigh*

Huh? Does It Never Snow In London?

I've been hearing about some huge, mutant snowstorm that totally brutalized the U.K Sunday night and Monday, with words being tossed about like "crippling," "devastating," and "disastrous" among many. Seems London in particular was hit pretty hard, with much of the workforce staying home, the infrastructure brought to a standstill, and all schools closed. So I clicked on this article to read the details . . .

. . . And I have to admit I was at a loss for words. 8 inches of snow? That's it? WTF?

How is that even worth mentioning? I mean, NYC also misses out on all the truly epic blizzards (boo!), but even we don't act like a bunch of panzies when it eventually snows 8 inches. I mean, sure, some people do -- and I'm sure schools do close -- but that's about it. Traffic still flows, the subways still run, and my sorry ass still has to come in to work like everyone else.

How is this the largest snowstorm they've had in 18 years? I just can't comprehend this. I mean, it's winter right? And it snows in winter, yes? How was this such a big, major event?

I'd appreciate it if anyone can clue me in. Kthxbye.

Some "Journalists" Are Just Itching For A Fight!

I used the word journalist in quotes because sometimes I have to wonder how these people have jobs. I mean, who fact-checks this stuff? Clearly this is a case of someone needing to meet a quota or something, because to think that he wasted time that could have been spent on more newsworthy items instead of this fluff, there has to be no other explanation.

Here's a link to the article in question, about the use of Barack Hussein Obama's name today. And here's an excerpt:

"An announcer welcomed Barack H. Obama to the Capitol's west steps. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to Barack Hussein Obama, who repeated his full name. And the ceremony ended with the Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction for Barack Obama. The various names reflect the delicate approach that Obama's campaign took, when aides tried to de-emphasize the middle name that reminded many of deposed and executed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The campaign also battled unfounded rumors that Obama was secretly a Muslim."

Like, WTF? Were we watching the same inauguration? Because I watched it live from beginning to end, and I clearly heard them use former President George Walker Bush's full name, as well as VP Joe Biden's full name. In fact, quickly looking back at W's first inauguration, his full three names were evoked during the oath of office part as well. But on the announcement preceding the oath--when they introduce the people coming out onto the stage, they used just the middle initial when introducing the man. Exactly as was done today.

In other words, it's ALWAYS done like this. When announcing the arrival of the VP- and the President-Elect, their names and middle initials are used. When swearing in on the bible, the full three names are spoken. And when the media reports on the event, they use either format they choose for the moment, preferring for the most part to only use the first and last name.

That's all it is. Conspiracy's over, people. Go look elsewhere to start a fight. There's nothing to see here.

Sheesh!

This Sickens Me

Thanks to advances in technology like camera phones with full video capabilities, it seems more and more the police forces of the world are unable to mask their dubious activities behind the blue wall of silence. Now don't get me wrong, I'm usually on the side of the police when it comes to disputed shootings and rough-handling of suspects while in custody. My way of thinking is this: you have no idea the pressures these people are under when constantly put in life-and-death scenarios. My natural cynicism allows me to instantly distrust any two-bit punk I see on the streets of NYC, so I can only imagine this is doubled for officers of the law.

However, that being said, sometimes the police do go way over the line of wrong. In NYC recently we had the case of the peacefully protesting cyclist in Times Square who was tackled off his ride for no reason at all by an oafish NYPD officer. Since the incident was completely caught on someone's cell phone camera, it was kinda hard for the police to deny that the officer was completely in the wrong here. Rather than the usual: "the suspect was antagonizing the officer" bull they usually try to pull. This is why sometimes YouTube is a good thing.

And now we have this. This is just plain disgusting. The family has every right to sue and get millions from the city. And this officer needs to see the inside of prison for like, life, if not worse.



I have no doubt in my mind that this young man was acting out and deserved to be cuffed and maybe spend some time in lockup overnight. From what I've been following, the guy was no saint like his family tries to paint him out to be. But this? Shot point blank execution style? WTF is this, Dodge City?

Come on, this is just plain injustice clear and simple. This is a tragedy! I'm so mad right now. No one -- and I mean NO ONE should ever be treated like this. I can only imagine what the excuse would have been if this was not caught on video by a bystander. Something like: "Oh, the suspect was acting unruly and waving what looked like a gun in our direction. We had no choice but to act to save our lives."

Hmm, where have I heard this excuse before? If only we had video phones back in the day of the Amadou Diallo shooting. Could you imagine the shit storm that would have caused if clear, undeniable footage had been obtained and released to the public? The Bronx would probably not be standing right now.