Happy Belated Blogday to Me

My blog is 1 year old as of last Tuesday! So now it is one year and one week old.

woot

Thanks to all the people who stop by to read my rantings. I know that content has varied wildly in quality quantity and topic. I appreciate you tolerating me and not posting mean things about what a psycho I am.

Hamas Catches Car

Dilbert blog draws an interesting parallel with this whole Hamas election victory. (h/t ChrisB)

You know the old joke about the dog that chases cars – “What would he do if he caught one?” I was reminded of that when I read that Hamas won an election victory.

Well if Hamas is the dog, the answer to the question is quite simple. Hamas catches the car, and then it blows it up.

Well Darn

Apparently men don't like women who are funny. (Via Ace) Tragic. I'm really crushed.

This explains why the head of my department is an asshole to me every time I make a joke. I'm supposed to laugh at HIS jokes, not make my own. Got it.

Not that my jokes are actually funny anyway. So I don't see what the problem is.

Calling All Browncoats!

The Firefly Season 2 Project:Captain Mal and the crew of Serenity need your
help to stay flying.

We are looking to push the envelope of episodic television by
offering Season Two of Firefly in a groundbreaking new format. Each episode (or
the entire season) would be made available for purchase in Standard or
Hi-Definition.

It's possible that subscribers may choose one of three playback options;
monthly DVD deliveries, TV On-Demand using your cable or satellite provider, or
computer viewing via Streaming Download.

It's also possible that a box set of DVD's would be available at the end of
the season. In order for our plan to be successful, we need to take stock of the
browncoat recruits that support our cause. It will only take a minute, is
strictly confidential, and each profile will take us one step closer to
victory

Sign up here to tell Firefly how they should deliver Season 2 to us. (Via Balloon Juice)


Three cheers for on demand content! And Independance from the Network Alliance!

UPDATE: Anonymous pointed me to a couple of websites indicating this might not be on the up and up. But all the info in that form is optional if you want to fill it out still. Alas, wishful thinking.

Good Advice

Not that many "trolling for girlies" types read my blog (god, at least I hope not) but recently I have been the victim of far to many poor attempts at gaining my affection by trying to impress me, in manner of trying to be witty without actually being interesting. Usually there is a lot of treating me like some doe eyed girl just waiting to be overawed by some wonderful man so he can take me away to a fairy land where I can look pretty and be a warmer, significantly more skilled version of a Real Doll.

And while all of that sounds tempting, the Advice Goddess has some good advice for men looking to "score" that will probably be much more effective.

The Horror!

Harassment, or flirting?

Researchers found that 62 percent of college students experienced sexual
harassment, and 32 percent of college students said they were victims of
physical harassment.

"The primary form of harassment that we're seeing is actually non-contact: it tends to be remarks, gestures and jokes," Elena Silva, the report's co-author, said in a telephone interview. "But the fact that one-third of college students are experiencing some form of physical harassment is certainly a concern."

Now I hate to be insensitive to the feelings of others. But... to me... this sounds like flirting. How sensitive can society possibly be when people touching others or making sexual jokes is a form of harassment. Sex is all around us, and if you want to get a date chances are you flirt a ltitle, engage in some innuendo and occasionally do outlandish things.

But as long as the people doing this harassment are not people who can, hire, fire or determine your grades, don't be such a fucking wuss.

Also, everyone is drunk, it is college, come ON!

Or you can just sit in your dorm room and cry because people think you are sexually attractive. Oh god, the horror.

RPG

>GO HERE

You read something funny.

House Leaders

Some bloggers interviewed the three candidates for House Majority Leader today via conference call. The first two interviews with rep Shadegg and Boehner are posted at QandO and you can listen to the audio. They were both interesting and I think you should listen if you care.

Dale at QandO has posted a response to the Blunt interview:

And then there was Roy Blunt.
After spending a half hour listening to him, I
think...let's see...how do I
put this...

I would rather lick
fire ants off a stick than see Roy Blunt as Majority
Leader. I'm not at the
point of making a firm endorsement of either Reps.
Shaddeg or Boehner, but
the sun will set in a blazing red sky to the east of
Casablanca before I'd
want Roy Blunt as Majority leader.

Excellent! (Emphasis his)

He goes on to describe how Con. Blunt clearly has no understanding of how the blogosphere works, or rather what NOT to do in the blogosphere. This is a sharp contrast to Shadegg who was extremely complimentary to the bloggers on the phone and aknowledged their contribution.

At least now that Shadegg is in the race the republicans can choose something more dignified than a Boner or a Blunt. Though I think in places beyond the house of representatives neither of those are necessarily bad things.

The Gay Agenda

Finally it is out in the open. Check it.

Some girls just need....

There was a recent hubub at Feministe over some offensive bboard posting regarding the appearance of one of their posters. It was pretty ridiculous, and I think that they were if anything overly mild in how they handled this.

But NOW our Secretary of State is facing a similar slander. This is why women get pissed when their bodies are judged instead of their minds.

Some people can still say and mean things like this:

Speaking with Pravda this week, Zhirinovsky chastised Rice for calling on Russia to "act responsibly" in supplying natural gas to Ukraine.
The fascistic pol attributed that "coarse anti-Russian statement" to Rice being "a single woman who has no children."

"If she has no man by her side at her age, he will never appear," Zhirinovsky ranted on. "Condoleezza Rice needs a company of soldiers. She needs to be taken to barracks where she would be satisfied."

And this isn't the girl down the street or the chick in the office. This is the Secretary of State of the United States of America. And if she were a man, there is NO WAY that the leader of another country would come out and say that she was saying these things because she basically "Just needs some deep dicking" (well really... who doesn't?) But that's not the point, whether or not she might enjoy getting laid has NOTHING to do with her policies on Russia.

"Condoleezza Rice is a very cruel, offended woman who lacks men's attention," he added. "Such women are very rough. … They can be happy only when they are talked and written about everywhere: 'Oh, Condoleezza, what a remarkable woman, what a charming Afro-American lady! How well she can play the piano and speak Russian!'

"Complex-prone women are especially dangerous. They are like malicious mothers-in-law, women that evoke hatred and irritation with everyone. Everybody tries to part with such women as soon as possible. A mother-in-law is better than a single and childless political persona, though."

What a cock. I'm so angry I can't even form rational sentances. Whew...

This is the reason feminism isn't dead,a nd is still needed. Because there are still some people who feel they can dismiss strong women by saying they are crazy or critisizing them for not having kids. If she were a mother I'm sure he'd have a whole other set of criticism involving her being a puppet of her husband. These personal attacks are way below the belt, would he say things like this about her if she were a man? Or would he criticize her policies instead?

I know I shouldn't dignify this with a response. But I am so mad. Feministe was much more politic about it.

Radio for Charity

Today is friday, and today AccuRadio has said that they will donate a percentage of Friday's Revenue to charity today. The percentage that they donate will be based on the increase in listeners they have today. So go listen!

I personally like AccuBroadway, (I know, I know) but they also have jazz, and rock stations and some electronica stations. Mostly commercial free, and you can skip songs you don't like. Check it out and do something good for charity.

How Annoying

It is now illegal to annoy people via the internet, especially if you use an assumed name.

(I'm screwed)

The Ultimate

Massive battles for your weekend entertainment. (Via my flatmate)

Debt and Taxes

A monthish ago I posted regarding Congress's tax cuts and expressed my displeasure that they would go and cut taxes after we just barely managed to push through some budget cuts. I expressed my displeasure that Congress would do something to unbalance a budget that was so recently pushed in the general direction of balanced. But others commented (not inaccurately) that these tax cuts might in fact create more revenue. Which can be justified using the Laffer Curve, depending on what side of it one thinks that we are on.

The New York Times discusses paper put out by the Congressional Budget Office that examines the effects of tax cuts

The recent analysis by Mr. Page at the Congressional Budget Office
dismisses the idea that tax cuts may actually improve the government's fiscal
situation. Even in his most generous scenario, only 28 percent of lost tax
revenue is recouped over a 10-year period. The United States, it seems, is
firmly planted on the left side of the Laffer Curve.

Recent experience corroborates this prediction. In the second quarter
of 2001, just before the first of President Bush's tax cuts took effect, federal
receipts from personal taxes accounted for 10.3 percent of the economy. By the
end of the post-recession slump, receipts had dropped to 6.4 percent. But in the
third quarter of 2005, with the economy booming, they were still under 7.5
percent - an enormous difference. In dollar terms, federal receipts from
personal income taxes, at $802 billion in 2004, are still lower than they were
in 1998 ($826 billion) and much lower than in 2001 ($994 billion).

Jon Henke at QandO has a post that makes the important point that while from a big picture perspective the whole US might be on the left of the laffer curve, certain sectors may not be, and so cutting their taxes might actually increase revenue more than across the board cuts. And well, taxes are bad, so I can get behind that.

I just hope our politicians think about the importance of a balanced budget today and seek to acheive that without blindly hoping that we are on the right side of the laffer curve, because there is a 50% chance that we aren't.

Flip Flopping?

The Agitator dug up some info on Bush's medical marajuana policies while he was Texas Governor. (h/t Jon Henke)

Gov. George Bush said he backs a state's right to decide whether to allow
medical use of marijuana, a position that puts him sharply at odds with
Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Clearly someone stole his bong not long after this article was written (1999) and now he's using the SWAT teams to help him find it. Good luck George, Man, that's gotta be rough.

But of course, this flip flop only matters to the evil denizens of society (cancer and glaucoma patients). Much better that he follow the crowd, eh?

SHOCKING News!

Chic blogger who defines the Stereotype publishes Stereotypical Chick Book

Rich white guys can be friends! Even when they don't have anything in common. (oh, except being rich white politicians... yeah... but nothing else in common, they are sooooo different)

Bush Signs torture amendment and then states that he's going to ignore it.

Reality needs to be Censored so that innocent 13 year olds can be protected.