Read this.

American Mullah Pat Robertson has come out in support of Liberian President Charles Taylor because “he’s a Christian.” Never mind the child soldiers, the death squads, and the bloodbath he’s presided over — he’s a Christian (and a Baptist!), so we ought to leave him alone.

Er, right, Pat. And this has nothing to do with the $8 million investment you’ve got in Liberian gold, does it? Who takes this bozo seriously?

Two RIAA-stooge lawmakers have proposed a bill to treat online song swapping as a criminal felony. Good thing the FBI and Justice Department have that whole homeland-security thing sewn up; otherwise, I’d wonder about priorities.

Here’s a transcript of Bill Moyers interviewing Jon Stewart on the curious niche the Daily Show occupies. How is it that a comedy program is providing some of the most acute analysis on television?

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Remember the pools of our childhood? Community pools or private clubs, they all tended to have a shallow end, say three feet, and then gradually increased the depth as one approached the other side. Some of those pools extended to 8, 10, or even 12 feet. High-board diving was a reasonable pursuit at the otherwise unremarkable club where I grew up swimming. But no more: the Deep End is a vanishing thing.

The Justice Department — whose name is becoming uncomfortably Orwellian under Ashcroft — has refused to comply with a judge’s order that they produce one of their witnesses against accused 9/11 accomplice Zacarias Moussaoui so that he may be questioned by the defense (in this case, Moussaoui himself, since he’s going the pro se route). Their excuse is “national security,” but I’m not clear on how that abrogates the right of the accused to confront witnesses. This refusal could open the door for a number of sanctions from the judge, apparently up to and including outright dismissal of the charges against Moussaoui.

In Nevada, a new type of adult entertainment involves men hunting naked women with paintball guns. It costs five to ten grand, so states the article. Somewhat more disturbing:

So why do women agree to strip down and run around the desert dodging paint balls? Nicole says it’s good money. “I mean it’s $2,500 if you don’t get hit. You try desperately not to and it’s $1000 if you do,” said Nicole.

Pat Robertson has started a prayer campaign designed to remove three Justices from the Supreme Court, since they had the unmitigted gall to rule that what goes on between consenting adults in their own bedroom is no business of the state.

In this case, have your own. (via JWZ’s Livejournal)

Not. Apparently, the first sanctioned US online voting will be done from Windows only. Are the folks behind this project even paying attention? There doesn’t exist a version of Windows that isn’t a security nightmare.

On the other hand, if you’re eight, something like this is probably pretty darn cool.

That’s why my dad called comic books — sorry, graphic literature. This guy’s site is a fantastic archive of vintage horror, war, superhero and romance comic covers from the Golden Age of the medium. Excellent coffeebreak fare.

They do nothing for everybody.

Why?

Here’s 101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that IE cannot. Issue One, at least for me, is reasonable control of popups and naughty scripting right out of the box. Issue Two is actual standards-compliant rendering of HTML (something Redmond would love to quash entirely). Internet Explorer can’t begin to deal with either issue, but Mozilla can — and so can Netscape, which is really just a version of Mozilla in corporate drag. Both are available for any platform IE runs on, and then some.

If you’re not happy with Mozilla/Netscape, which (admittedly) is/are a bit bloated at this point (including as they do a mail program; a news program; an HTML editor; a chat client; etc.), there are other, less-comprehensive, speedier options under the Mozilla project, including Camino (for OS X Macs) and Firebird (still beta, but available for lots of platforms). There are also plenty of other browsers outside the Mozilla family, including Apple’s very nice Safari (OS X only, which is a darn shame), Opera (for almost anything, but costs money), and others (I’m leaving out the whole Linux crowd entirely, but those folks can’t run IE anyway — besides, they have Galeon to play with). Don’t use IE just because you have it. Check out something else, if only to compare.

Really, I have. Someone posted it on the Well, and it’s been in my to-post buffer since like February. So here it is.

According to this,

Several species of caterpillars have developed an interesting system for waste disposal; they fire their fecal pellets a distance of up to 40 times their body length away from their homes, at a speed of 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) per second. The equivalent distance for a 6-foot-tall (1.8 meter) human would be around 240 feet (73 meters).

Presented with no judgement or comment whatsoever, though I’m sure a few of you are thinking “Damn! I wish I could do that!”

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby takes a run at showing how gay marriage hurts heterosexual marriage. He fails, utterly. His main point seems to be that: (1) Vermont has allowed 5,700 “civil unions” between homosexuals; and (2) Of those, 2,000 involve at least one partner who was formerly involved in a traditional marriage. From there, he finds the deep end:

Just a shred – but a jarring one. Of course, it doesn’t mean that Vermont’s civil union law broke up 2,000 straight couples. It does mean that where there used to be 2,000 traditional marriages, there are now 2,000 ruptured ones – and 2,000 gay or lesbian unions in their place. Were some of those marriages doomed from the outset? Probably. But it’s also probable that some of them weren’t. In another time or another state, some of those marriages might have worked out. The old stigmas, the universal standards that were so important to family stability, might have given them a fighting chance. Without them, they were left exposed and vulnerable.

How’s that again? Was there a causal relationship between the availability of de facto gay marriage and the breakup of those 2,000 unions? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t even try to say — to do so, he’d have to consider the time frame; however, he doesn’t even bother to ask how many of them broke up in the months after gay unions were legalized in Vermont. Instead, he commits the sort of error that a freshman statistics student should be ashamed of: he confuses correlation — and weak correlation at that — with causation. I wonder if he thinks that the availability of second (and subsequent) heterosexual marriages weakens initial unions? Should we ban those as well?

It’s time for right-wing closet cases to stop trying to tell people what they can and can’t do, who they can and can’t love, and how they can and can’t fuck. These characters would do well to revisit the documents that form the bedrock of our nation, and note well how the purpose of government in the eyes of the founders was to preserve rights, not restrict them.

Silence of the Lambs. The Musical. (Via BoingBoing)

The new Foo Fighters video for Low has been rejected/banned by MTV. It stars Grohl and Jack Black. That is all I’m willing to say, aside from “ watch this” — you’ll need Real Player.

I love the Onion. This week: “ Bush Asks Congress for $30 Billion to Help Fight War on Criticism.” Spot on.

As I’m sure you’ve heard, the good news is that even our hard-right Supreme Court still admits there’s such a thing as the right to privacy, and struck down Texas’ sodomy law in Lawrence v. Texas — and with it most if not all similar laws nationwide. Predictably, the religious right promptly became hysterical about “protecting marriage,” a point of view perhaps finding its apotheosis in this quote from Colorado-based Focus on Family (James Dobson’s organization, I believe):

“With today’s decision, the court continues pillaging its way through the moral norms of our country,” Mr. Minnery said in an interview. “If the people have no right to regulate sexuality, then ultimately the institution of marriage is in peril, and with it, the welfare of the coming generations of children.” Mr. Minnery said the ruling violates the rights of Texans who can no longer decide “what they find appropriate in terms of sexual behavior.”

A more careful reading of the decision would, I note, point out that Texans are still free to decide this issue for themselves; what they have lost is the legal right to make that decision for others. The right-wing American Center for Law and Justice filed an amicus brief in support of the law; chief counsel Jay Sekulow said “By providing constitutional protection to same-sex sodomy, the Supreme Court strikes a damaging blow for the traditional family and will only intensify the legal battle to protect marriage.” Er, sure, Jay. I’m still trying to understand how B follows A in this picture. (Both quotes from this Washington Times story.)

What confuses me is this: why is it so damned important to these people to keep homosexuals from marrying? Why does that make one’s own marriage, or the idea of marriage, less viable or weaker? What’s the big fucking deal? It’s also pretty important to note that these cannards are pretty far from any legal or Constitutional argument in support of a law that (1) violates Privacy as understood and laid out by Griswold and Roe and (2) has even more blatent equal protection problems (the Texas law prohibited only same-sex sodomy, not sodomy between a heterosexual couple; Justice O’Connor stated that this issue alone was enough to support her ruling).

In their pursuit of hetero-only marriage, would these matrimonial Chicken Littles barter away this right to privacy? Would they allow the government into their own bedrooms to regulate birth control, as Connecticut was doing prior to Griswold? It would seem so; hopefully, the American public will see this for what it is, and make clear that the State has no right to tell them how to fuck.

Anyway, now the bad news — which is really only bad if you thought Bill Frist was any better than his bigoted predecessor. Yesterday Reuters reported that the good Doctor would support a Constitutional admendment banning gay marriage. Look closely at this. Twice in memory the GOP has disliked some SCOTUS ruling, and then tried to patch the Constitution to do an end-run around it — here, on sodomy laws, and prior to this, on flag burning. In both cases — and here’s the part most worth noting — the proposed amendment would take away rights that SCOTUS says the Founders wanted us to have. Make no mistake; this party of less-intrusion and smaller-government actively pursues an agenda contrary to both points in order to pander to the religious right, and the White House is right there with them. Watch these people. They’re the biggest danger our country faces right now. We know the terrorists want to hurt us; at least they’re honest about it.

Don’t know what to wear? Here’s just the thing.

It’s true. I’ve been too busy to attend to this little exercise in public onanism. However, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and I have reason to believe it’s not just a train.

Until then, I offer this, which I have reason to believe will amuse many of you readers, especially those named Chris (Misters M. and J., this is for you).

…they actually thought they could sell stuff with these flexi-disk jingles. Don’t miss the Schaeffer Beer entry.

All sorts of, um, Unusual Barbies. I’m sure Mattel will sue them forthwith, but enjoy it while it lasts. As a resident of Montrose, I think I find “ Tattoo Artist Barbie” the most amusing.

None of these hold a candle to the “Laura Palmer” Barbie a friend of mine had years ago; she was naked, with blue lips, and wrapped in cellophane.

I mean, if you live in Houston, anyway. Things Are Afoot at KaldiCafe.com.

He doesn’t get on the net much, but would he if he knew there was a whole site devoted to John Green?

“Female Muslim Comic.”

[T]he Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed everything. Initially, she ceased performing on the logic that this might not be the time for gags about Ramadan or, for that matter, anything funny a Muslim had to offer. Three weeks later, though, she took the stage in a Soho club called Amused Moose and, with a single joke, found the very, very thin line between acceptable comedy and abominable taste: ”My name is Shazia Mirza,” she said. ”At least that’s what it says on my pilot’s license.”

Excellent.

. . . swipe Alton Brown’s omlette pan. You see, it’s a weapon.

Remember the stories recently about the world’s standard for the kilogram actually losing weight over time, and the resulting efforts to find another, less ephemeral standard?

Tell them not to bother.

You know those pendulum-over-sand desktop curios? I’m sure you do; you swing the pendulum, and it writes a pattern into the sand below, kind of like a spirograph.

Ever wonder what might happen do one during an earthquake?

IT’S THE DEVIL’S WAY NOW
THERE IS NO WAY OUT
YOU CAN SCREAM & YOU CAN SHOUT
IT IS TOO LATE NOW
BECAUSE
YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION

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The Internet has made it possible to find all sorts of scary things, but this woman may go too far. Doubt me? Listen to this, or even this (Can’t get enough? there’s more.)

This right here is the best damn Eighties Ending you’ll ever see.

In the Eighties Tarot, would it surprise you to find that Grace Jones is the Devil?

I want a wireless monkey.

The king of Swaziland has announced that pants are the root of all evil. Specifically, women wearing pants. He’s also convinced that “human rights” are an abomination before God.

Do not miss the last paragraph.

So this weekend, Erin and I capped a long couple workweeks with a trip to Austin to see one of the Alamo Drafthouse‘s Rolling Roadshow events: the 10 Year Reunion Party for Dazed & Confused. Richard Linklater‘s 1993 film starred a big pile of folks who later became much more famous, including Parker Posey, Milla Jovovich, Joey Lauren Adams, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, and (of course) Matthew “Naked Bongos” McConaughey (not to mention somebody named Ben Affleck). Since it was such a big deal for them, all of the above (minus Jovovich and Affleck) attended, which was nice. We ha da great time, and (as she will tell you given half a chance), Erin got to shake McConaughey’s hand.

Now, this same weekend, the aformentioned Drafthouse was showing a fan film in its downtown location. This wasn’t just any fan film: it was a 6- or 7-year labor of love by three kids from south Mississippi with time on their hands and a perhaps-unhealthy obsession with Raiders of the Lost Ark. Over the course of, well, the bulk of their youth, Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolis remade the 1981 film shot for shot using materials they could find and use, but also with astonishing fidelity to the original. Harry Knowles covers them here (and links to a trailer by Drafthouse maven Tim League), and the Austin Chronicle has more. That’s just pretty damn cool, if you ask me.

Here’s where it gets weird. Saturday, while waiting in line at the Dazed event, someone hollered at me. No surprise; I know lots of people in Austin. Of course, the person hollering wasn’t actually from Austin — she was Mrs. Eric Zala, of the Raiders-remake Zalas. But 11 years or more ago, way back at UA, she was my college girlfriend (see file photo from NoGators companion site). The world is very, very small, notwithstanding the distances from Tuscaloosa to Florida to Texas.

It was nice to see her, since I haven’t in about 10 years. It was nicer still to see she’s doing well, and that she’s ended up with somebody cool. They’re expecting, so we at NoGators want to with them luck. Erin and I were going to head back to the Alamo with them to see the midnight showing of Eric’s film, but, well, we’d been in the Austin sun all day, and by midnight the hotel became an unavoidable destination. I am, however, eagerly awaiting a Criterion DVD.

Paul Wolfowitz has been all over the news this week noting that “ WMD was just the reason we could agree on,” apparently even in the absence of credible evidence that Saddam had such. Don’t tell Rummy, though; he’s still insisting they exist, or at least existed up until the war — at which time Saddam trashed them to make us look bad.

Rummy wants to go to Tehran.

The Pentagon has declared space is for US use only. Oh boy.

Best. Beer. Ad. Ever.

I may want one of these more even than a new iPod. It’s a networkable stereo component that reads your digital music collection and spits it out as RCA analog stereo or fiber-optic digital, suitable for consumption by any decent stereo rig. Pair it with the Linksys WET11 and really large RAID array, and I might never have to touch a CD again.

So very wrong. So very, very wrong.

The U.K. has had, in general, far better coverage of the war and its surrounding events than the overwhelmingly-rah-rah-rah US media. Here are two stories you may find interesting, not in the least because they provide starkly different information on two war-related topics.

First, this coverage of the events surrounding the dramatic rescue of Jessica Lynch.

Second, another story concerning some (non-fissile) nuclear material, and the US’s failure to guard said even after we knew it was there. While you can’t make a true nuke with this stuff, it’s perfectly fine for a “dirty bomb.” If we care so much about stopping these things…

Salon answers the question. After all, you can’t expect Clear Channel to report on Clear Channel, can you?

Lance Bass and Paris Hilton to star in Great Gatsby remake.

Some folks out in Arizona (with the requisite white-supremacist ties) have taking to patrolling the Mexican border and shooting at those attempting to cross. Anti-immigrant folks are forming vigilante squads to address what they see as the authorities’ failure at protecting us from immigrants. They appear to have missed the part about how they themselves are also immigrants, unless their names are “Red Cloud” or “Running Bear.”

What’s happening to my country?

Copied, verbatim, from jwz’s livejournal:

A talk given at the Directors Guild of America. He says some interesting things about the history of mass media, dead people, the music industry, and then goes totally gonzo at the end: keep reading until you get to the part where he starts talking about the ubiquitous-computing vaseline and the dog heads.

It’s a fine day when you read something like that. It’s even better that it’s a link to William Gibson.