Yearly Archives: 2006

Brad Pitt: I’ll marry when everyone can

via Shakesville, this article on Yahoo:

“Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able,” the 42-year-old actor reveals in Esquire magazine’s October issue, on newsstands Sept. 19.

That is pretty awesome. I have to admit that at each of the three weddings we’ve been to in the past year, although I was deeply supportive of the happy couple, there was a part of me that resented their ability to get married.

It’s also pretty awesome that Zack, contributor to Shakesville, is proposing a “band together in solidarity” pledge for straight couples to not get married until we can. That is not only helpful, but necessary if we ever hope to make change.

But the most awesome thing of all is what some of the people said in the comments to Zack’s post — how their 80-year old parents got divorced with the help of lawyers for family charges in protest that their gay kids can’t get married. Man alive! That’s cool as hell.  You can contact attorneys help for your family law claims to help you out in this situation. As divorce has negative impacts on child growth,they have suggested that you can consult child custody lawyers serving Richland to help you legally. Hire a Schaumburg divorce lawyer to handle the legal aspects of your divorce while you sort out personal issues.

Continue ReadingBrad Pitt: I’ll marry when everyone can

links for 2006-09-09

Continue Readinglinks for 2006-09-09

Friday Random Image Blogging

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Memes
  • Post comments:0 Comments

I haven’t snapped a picture of any of the cats or the dog this week, so instead of the interweb’s ubiquitous Friday Cat Blogging, you get this lovely picture instead, chosen because I bought a wand just like that from Target at lunch.

Glinda the Good Witch
Glinda the Good Witch

Isn’t she lovely? Sigh. Yeah, I now have Glinda’s wand, so watch the fuck out, people.

Continue ReadingFriday Random Image Blogging

International Literacy Day!

Hey, it’s International Literacy Day, according to a UN resolution. I know we don’t take those very seriously here in Amurika, but literacy is important! You too could grow up to get in a readin’ contest with Karl Rove.

My Pet Goat
FAHRENHEIT 24
Is Our Children Learning?

But in all seriousness:

International Literacy Day takes place on September 8 every year to raise awareness and concern for literacy problems that exist within our own local communities as well as globally. International Literacy Day was founded by proclamation of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, in 1966 “to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights.” International Literacy Day brings ownership of the challenges of illiteracy back home to local communities where literacy begins, one person at a time.

Continue ReadingInternational Literacy Day!

Secret Cameras in Downtown Indianapolis

With a WISH-TV headline like “Secret Cameras Could Help Keep Indianapolis Safe” — gee, I don’t know what I’m supposed to think about that. I guess, maybe I should feel safer? Whereas the alternate headline “Secret Cameras Could Help Keep Indianapolis Under the Thumb of Big Brother” would be equally accurate, but I guess it wouldn’t telegraph the same “soothing the sheeple” message.
I agree that more needs to be done to make the circle safer at night. But the answer to that isn’t cameras, it’s policemen. Police are a deterrent. Cameras are a tool of the prosecution, for use after the crime has already been committed. And SECRET cameras? Won’t deter a thing. You’re not going to be safer unless the cameras climb down off the wall and attack the mugger for you.
And that all this footage is collected under the guise of “crime prevention” but then is stored for use by the goverment for any number of other activities — no. Sorry.
Are all the people who live in this city who give quotes to news crews so stupid they don’t think things through? Who the hell are Matt Brookshire and Jessica Bell, and did they give the question any more than a passing thought? And how do I avoid having anything to do with them? Because I’d hate to be an innocent bystander when they suddenly received their Darwin Award.
Sigh. Now I have to do more reseach to figure out what’s actually happening with these cameras, and how to get it stopped.
Weird graffiti
This gives me a better idea what this stencil graffiti I snapped a picture of is about.

Continue ReadingSecret Cameras in Downtown Indianapolis

Local News and Online Reporting

WTHR has this story on their website:

Study: Omega 3 can save lives
Experts say beefing up intake of Omega 3 fatty acids can save lives more than AED’s and implanted defibrillators. Omega 3 is found in foods like fish and nuts, and some experts believe they can lower the risk for heart attack because of their ability to reduce inflammation.
By using a computer simulation, experts measured how well AED’s, implanted heart defibrillators and Omega 3 nutrients prevented sudden death. They found raising the levels of Omega 3 fatty acids in people’s diets would prevent sudden death eight times more than widely distributing AED’s, and two times more than implanted defibrillators.

That’s fascinating, and I immediately wanted to know more. But you know what? I can’t find out any more than that from the WTHR, because the above is all the web page shows. The story is okay if they’re just reading it on the evening news (although they really should be identifying who the “experts” in the story are) but it’s not fine online, where they have plenty of space to round out the story with more information. They SHOULD link off to the study in question at the very least. Presumably they got the information somewhere. Tell us where it came from. I guess it’s a short trip to google to figure out more detail, but I shouldn’t have to do that.
I remember journalism classes from college where we had to take the same story and write it in 10 different ways – one to be broadcast on the news, one to be a front-page newspaper story, one to be a featured article in a magazine, etc. There were standard elements that had to appear in each format, and the stories had to be “trimmed” in different ways to fit the alloted column inches of space. I get the impression that journalists don’t do that anymore.

Continue ReadingLocal News and Online Reporting

links for 2006-09-08

Continue Readinglinks for 2006-09-08

The Best of All Possible Worlds – Cate’s CD Club Mix

The CD mix I’m working on for my friend Cate’s CD Exchange Club. I still need to finish the liner notes, print them all out and slice up the paper to fit the cases, burn the CDs, and put everything together. And I’m considering substituting in a different song from Hogeye Naavy for one song or another. The picture included is a sculpture in Münster, Germany, where Cate lives. Every ten years, Münster holds an art festival in which sculptures are installed throughout the city. The best become permanent parts of the city landscape.

The Best of All Possible Worlds

  1. Best Of All Possible Worlds | The Little Willies | The Little Willies | 3:06
  2. Sister Kate | The Ditty Bops | The Ditty Bops | 2:26
  3. Coin-Operated Boy | The Dresden Dolls | The Dresden Dolls | 4:47
  4. La goualante du pauvre Jean | Édith Piaf | Éternelle | 2:04
  5. Give a Little Whistle | Michelle Shocked | Got No Strings | 2:22
  6. Shoefly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy | Ella Fitzgerald | | 2:38
  7. Organ Grinder’s Swing | Ella Fitzgerald | Ella Fitzgerald: The Early Years, Pt. 1 (1935-1938) | 2:51
  8. Smiley Faces | Gnarls Barkley | St. Elsewhere | 3:05
  9. Ramalama (Bang Bang) | Roisin Murphy | Ruby Blue | 3:36
  10. Steady, As She Goes | The Raconteurs | Steady, As She Goes – Single | 3:36
  11. Ooh La La | Goldfrapp | Supernature | 3:25
  12. Suddenly I See | KT Tunstall | Eye to the Telescope | 3:21
  13. You Are the Light | Jens Lekman | When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog | 3:23
  14. Rock & Roll Queen | The Subways | Rock & Roll Queen | 2:52
  15. Unwritten | Natasha Bedingfield | Ice Princess | 4:18
  16. Mary Jane | Rick James | Anthology | 4:57
  17. Foxy Break Beat | Jimmi Hendrix vs. Propellerheads vs. Death in Vegas | DJ Moule | 4:11
  18. Dont Hold Back (Sweet Jane) | R. Kelly Vs. Velvet Underground | Go Home Productions | 4:16
  19. Butterfly | Dance Dance Revolution | Dance Dance Revolution | 2:57
  20. Standing In The Way Of Control | The Gossip | Standing In The Way Of Control | 4:17
  21. Walk Away | Kelly Clarkson | Breakaway | 3:08
  22. Put a Lid On It – Big Brother Remix | Maxwell/Mosher | Maxwell/Mosher | 2:45
  23. Hips Don’t Lie | Shakira ft Wyclef Jean | Oral Fixation Vol. 2 | 3:39
  24. Buttons | Pussycat Dolls / feat Snoop Dogg | PCD | 3:52
  25. Dirty Little Secret | The All American Rejects | Move Along | 3:16
  26. I Write Sins Not Tragedies | Panic! At The Disco | A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out | 3:07
  27. Kate’s Song | The General & Duchess Collins | Calling Earth | 2:38
  28. Molecular Love | The General & Duchess Collins | Calling Earth | 3:19
  29. One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young | The Ark | State Of The Ark | 3:31
  30. Lady Loves Me | Maggie Moore & Yvette Narlock | The L Word – Season 3 | 3:45
  31. Crazy (Live Lounge) | Nelly Furtado | 2006 june mix | 3:25
  32. Promiscuous (Radio Edit) | Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland | Promiscuous – Single | 3:43
  33. Fish to Fry | The Ditty Bops | Moon Over the Freeway | 3:06
  34. Bye Bye Love | The Ditty Bops | Moon Over the Freeway | 2:34
  35. DJ Teds Techno Tubes | Paul Holcomb | The Bold Headed Broadcast | 3:05
  36. Dear Mr. President | Pink | I’m Not Dead | 4:34
  37. Free To Be… You And Me | New Seekers | Free To Be… You And Me | 3:14
  38. You Don’t Own Me | Lesley Gore | 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Lesley Gore | 2:32
Continue ReadingThe Best of All Possible Worlds – Cate’s CD Club Mix

ABC’s false “Docudrama”

The ABC television network unleashed a promotional blitz in the last week for a new “docudrama” called “The Path to 9/11”. ABC has thrown its corporate might behind the two-night production, and bills it as a public service: a TV event, to quote the ABC tagline, “based on the 9/11 Commission Report”.
That’s false. “The Path to 9/11” is actually a bald-faced attempt to slander Democrats and revise history right before Americans vote in a major election.
The miniseries, which was put together by right-wing conservative writers, relies on the old GOP playbook of using terrorism to scare Americans. “The Path to 9/11” mocks the truth and dishonors the memory of 9/11 victims to serve a cheap, callous political agenda. It irresponsibly misrepresents the facts and completely distorts the truth.
Join me in telling Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger to keep this propaganda off the air.
Read a great deal more about the controversy here.

Continue ReadingABC’s false “Docudrama”

30 year-old virgins

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Art
  • Post comments:0 Comments

Shakespeare’s Sister has a great post (Who’s Afraid of Virgins?) critiquing this wholly lame Salon article on the “tragedy” of virgins in their 30’s.
I don’t have a huge amount to add to the subject, other than “what she said” but I wanted to link to it because I know several people who would find the subject matter interesting. And I’d point out that the fact that I know several people who would find the subject interesting sort of reinforces the point that Salon’s take is pretty damn lame. And I’d also point out that the idea that someone would run screaming if they found out their date was a virgin is pretty simplistic and shallow, too. The cite some examples of guys who “backed off” — they were jerks, and probably not worth wasting time on anyway.

Continue Reading30 year-old virgins