Zeitgeist, the Movie

Ok, this one covers most of what you need to know about politics and religion. If you have never been exposed to this information before I guarantee it will blow your mind. *



* Even if you have, it will anyway. Click the screen icon for full screen viewing and enjoy!

.

Republicans Love Porn

Republicans are known for: Family values? Clean livin'? Above prurient interest? Er... not so much. Republicans are the most voracious consumers of porn in the US. Expensive porn, too. The kind you have to go out of your way and pay for in order to get. The study is based on credit card purchases of porn website subscriptions.

Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

It only wasn't ten-out-of-ten because McCain lost the election.

Iraqis Don't Mind If You Kill Their Families

Iraqi's don't care much if you destroy their cities and slaughter their families, according to this guy, Fredrick W. Kagan. Fred's just one of the highly paid human pustules at the American Enterprise Institute.

Human Pustule Fred Kagan

It really is a shame there isn't some way to slaughter this guy's family, destroy his country and demolish his home and then put an assault rifle to his temple, just to see if he does any "bitching" about it. You know, to determine a baseline. To see if this non-bitching thing is only endemic to Iraqis like he says it is.

.

But of course the madness will go on anyway

Oh, wow man, Immanuel Kant is completely full of shit.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2008) — Ohio State University scientists are finding that specific elements of marijuana can be good for the aging brain by reducing inflammation there and possibly even stimulating the formation of new brain cells.

Their research suggests that the development of a legal drug that contains certain properties similar to those in marijuana might help prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Though the exact cause of Alzheimer’s remains unknown, chronic inflammation in the brain is believed to contribute to memory impairment. Wenk’s work has already shown that a THC-like synthetic drug can improve memory in animals. The most recent research on rats indicates that at least three receptors in the brain are activated by the synthetic drug, which is similar to marijuana

Any new drug’s properties would resemble those of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, but would not share its high-producing effects.

Or you could, you know, smoke some pot now and then.  If science took just half the energy they spend trying to take the magic out of pot and spent it on real problems the world would be a better place. But it's progress of a sort. I guess.

.

Are they sure they want to go to Mars?

This occurs to me frequently when I try to plug in a cable and it won't reach where it has to go, or I drop it and it catches on the one thing behind the desk that could possibly snag it: If this happened in space, we'd all die.

Space is full of stuff that stands a good chance of killing you even if it's working correctly as far as you can tell. They've got another tube of lubricant so the whole mission might not be wasted over a trifle, but it emphasizes how far away the repair shop is when you're in space, even if it's only 100 miles up. And land 'o' goshen, but what makes them think they can build a spaceship that will last all the way to Mars and back when they can't even make a grease gun that works?
And I wouldn't want to be the one who lost her tool kit first day on the job. What a rookie... ah ha ha ha haaaa! With luck it won't drift back into the station and knock off anything important.

And speaking of science, there's some cool x-rays over at Wired. I had some fun with this one:

.

Remind me: what century is this?

Did I say century? Because I meant millennium. From CNN:

Holocaust survivors to Mormons: Stop baptisms of dead Jews

Not that I care. According to my religion you are *all*deluded fools condemned to miserable pseudo-life.
.

Never thought I'd see the day.

Congratulations to 52% of American voters.

I have said it before and I'll say it again. Gary Trudeau is a genius. His cousin was P.M. of Canada, you know. Oh yes, for a long time.

.

THINK!

Expect long lines. Be firm. Bring ID. CHECK your ballot. 

It's up to you, citizen. Good luck.

.

Something?

What lives 20 picoseconds, travels one centimeter and then explodes in a shower of muons?

What the hell?

Don't know? Don't feel bad. Science doesn't know. Nobody fucking does. This mystery thingie has appeared in the detector (the old one) at Fermilab and science is baffled. If the result isn't some kind of screw-up then this appears to be a new particle with heavy implications for the Standard Model.

So what could it be? As it happens, Weiner and Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and colleagues have developed a theory of dark matter – the enigmatic stuff thought to make up a large proportion of the universe – to explain recent observations of radiation and anti-particles from the Milky Way.

Their model posits dark matter particles that interact among themselves by exchanging "force-carrying" particles with a mass of about 1 gigaelectronvolts.

The CDF muons appear to have come from the decay of a particle with a mass of about 1 GeV. So could they be a signature of dark matter? "We are trying to figure that out," says Weiner. "But I would be excited by the CDF data regardless."

Anyone feel a draft?

If you're old enough to vote, you are old enough to be drafted.

From Juan Cole:

The Coming McCain Military Draft

There has been almost no discussion in the press about the broader implications of John McCain's military policies.

McCain wants to keep a large military contingent in Iraq for some years to come.

He agrees that more US troops should be sent to Afghanistan. (Obama wants more troops for Afghanistan but will draw down the ones in Iraq so that is a wash).

McCain has joked about bombing Iran, accuses Iran of sending insurgents into Iraq, and pledges to stop Iran's nuclear research program. McCain has said, "There is only one thing worse than a military solution, and that, my friends, is a nuclear-armed Iran."

McCain has all but pledged a war on Iran. (In contrast, Obama says he will conduct direct tough diplomacy with Tehran).

McCain is also a hawk on Georgia in the Caucasus and if he is to remain credible he'd have to increase US troop presence in the Greater Middle East.

Although US military re-enlistments in the ten combat divisions have not fallen in the way some observers had feared, that statistic only speaks to the ability of the US military to maintain the status quo. Even that ability is in long-term question, as African-American enlistments, traditionally a significant proportion, slip.

But McCain is not about the military status quo. He is ambitious for further conflicts. The current US military is too small to handle yet another front, and to maintain, as McCain insists they must, the current ones.

My friends, there is only one way for McCain to make good on his hawkish foreign policy and his virtual pledge of more wars.

McCain will need to institute a draft for young American men (and, given the times, maybe for women as well).

If you are in your late teens and early twenties, or if you are a parent of a person that age, and you have strong views on a renewed draft, it should come into your decision about whether to vote on Tuesday and for whom.

.

Bien fait.

Some days it is a proud, proud thing to be a Canadian.

.

America: Freedom to Fascism

You are a slave to private banks.




Do something.




*Note to Canadians. This concerns you, too. Pay particular attention to the last segment...

From Russia, with Love

.

Low interest helium turns to hydrogen, fuses.

Greenspan: Wow. I didn't see that coming.

Another fuckin genius. 

.

Do you know what money is?

Seriously. Do you really know, or do you just have a kind of fuzzy idea that the government creates money  based on the value of goods and services produced by the country or something? If the latter,  you should take the time to watch this video. If it doesn't make you sick to your brain, you're not grasping the facts.

.

So, who goes to jail?

One thing you can be sure of, there is a paper trail. This wasn't a hurricane, or 36 exploding volcanoes. It wasn't tsunami and it wasn't bad luck. It wasn't Martians that came down in invisible spaceships and stole all the money. No, this seeming mother-of -all-fuckups was engineered and the engineers names are signed to each and every piece of this gigantic fractal of legalese bullshit hocus-pocus paper.

There is no question of guilt. All the guilty are still cashing their cheques. What will prevent anyone but a sacrificial goat of some sort from ever facing any music is that there simply cannot be enough forensic accountants that are not already in on the scam to unravel it all. Like any proper fractal, it disappears into it's own horizon faster than you can chase it. It is infinite in every direction at once. It is a masterpiece.

It is the concept of capitalism taken to it's logical conclusion.

A Message From the Ministry

I pass along this message from the good Reverend Stang:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear American

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship
with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country
has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of
800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it
would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gramm, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my
replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you
may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation
movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the
funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds
in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under
surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a
reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the
funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund
account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to
wallstreetbail...@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission
for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond
with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to
protect the funds.


Yours Faithfully,

Minister of Treasury Paulson



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Special thanks to secret author Rev. Giles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Easily bored by the common excitements of everyday life that everyone else seems to find so fascinating and important? You may be a mutant.  Click here for your diagnosis.

A ROOTY-TOOT TOOT TO-AHHH! Nice work!

Ok, good work, all who toiled to prevent Harper from having the guns to ram bad shit down our necks for the next four years. Take a bow.

.

CANADA: Stephen Harper wants to put YOU in FUCKING JAIL

This asshole wants to put you in fucking jail.

Because you smoke pot. It has been 35 years since the LeDain commission report. Do you know when Stephen Harper will act on it? He has mde his position perfectly clear:

'NEVER'

What's that? You don't personally smoke pot? You don't care if human beings are put in fucking jail for the possession of a few flowers that grow wild nearly everywhere on earth?

You should care. I guarantee you that people you know, people you respect, people who's value and contribution to Stephen Harper's country and the world is undeniable--doctors, lawyers, indian chiefs and a hell of a lot more--do smoke pot. And every one of them would be put in fucking jail if Stephen Harper had his way. 

Nice guy, eh? Of course, he's also BFF with this blatant war criminal:

Look forward to Canada becoming a more 'manly' more 'muscular' country with a lust for blood like Big Brother. Get used to body bags and get used to the sight of the Maple Leaf on airplanes that drop cluster bombs on children.

 Stephen Harper wants Canada to participate in murderous American adventurism and Stephen Harper wants to put people you know and love IN FUCKING JAIL.

Remember this when you go to vote.

UPDATE: Deadline for Anti-Harper Vote-Swap registration is tonight! Do it NOW!

.

McCain Accepts Nomination

Dow plummets 350 points.

.