If you think this is just the work of ultra-conservatives, you missed the Abramoff scandal. Do you know how much money from Indian gambling revenue heads into the GOP to be disguised as moral concern? But yes, this threatens to rob me of my temporary primary source of income. And the average "L...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_Fight All new. Enjoy. It could use fact-checking, as well as additions--but if you plan to add, be sure you're familiar with Wikipedia's general guidelines, or someone (maybe me) will probably revert it or re-edit it heavily. We could especially use more coverage o...

ME TOO! I got in so much trouble. But I have so many mummies now.

Ok, in order to get a couple of people I know to maybe see this flick, but without giving too much away, tell me the following: How much torture and rape is there in the movie? Not nearly enough, I'm sure. Really though, none at all. The worst torture scene is a head-dunking. It's really not a very...

Hoblit wrote:wait, depression is real? I thought Tom Cruise said it wasn't....or something.

Look, just being caused by aliens doesn't make it fake.

Yeah, I was a skeptic too. I read about fifteen pages of OotP and couldn't stop reading it. Stayed up all night to finish it. And that was with only the first film as a background for understanding. Needless to say, I went through the series pretty quickly from there. She's really not the best <i>wr...

I agree that people don't <i>want</i> to know, but I'd say that most of the time it's not because they're afraid of the consequences (as in the prom dress example) so much as because they'd just rather not have to think about it. Given a simple, relatively happy answer and one more realistic, more c...

Dude, what was that, a medley? It's only moderately accurate. Big Scary Government as Orwell saw it failed to account for the stupidity of man and the general inability of more than three people to ever agree on anything at once. Hanlon's razor comes to mind. Calling <i>bad</i> government Orwellian ...

Caravan Ray wrote: Mr Jones' "Kiss" was the best though

It was great, man, but it doesn't beat the original out in any way. I don't think any of those you listed do.

jack wrote:i'd rank tom jones (with the art of noise) cover of prince's "kiss" one of my favorite covers of all time.

That is fantastic.

The point isn't to actually fire Rove (though it would be nice). The point is to call for it until our lungs are sore, because it's probably the most just move at this point. And it won't happen. That's almost as good as if it did. Besides, Karl Rove is basically Obi Wan Kenobi. If you fire him, he ...

No, no. See, we lock up foreigners in our prisons <i>in their own country</i>. That trumps all.

I'm pretty sure terrorism is the only thing we need to turn the world into a haven for conservative authoritarianism. And not even the kind the terrorists are allegedly pushing for. Though I don't think Europe will ever really catch up to the American standard of xenophobia. We've got the geographic...

Naw, you're fine for a good month. Now, when it gets full again... that's when I'd worry.

Sorry, am I not helping? I rode the DC Metro a few days after 9/11, and it was pretty nice. You get to put your feet up.

On another subject, does anyone else sit around thinking about just how goddamn easy it would be to blow something up? I have very little faith in security measures outside their ability to protect specific, closed-circle events and locations. Scary, sure, but I think it helps to think that way. You...

This interview with Bruce Schneier is somewhat related to Spark's rant. He's a cryptology and security expert who has some very insightful things to say about security in a "war on terror" kind of world. Good article. to Sparks though - I still think if G8 was the main trigger - wouldn't ...

The kind of preparation that would have to go into this would probably make the Olympics decision more of an "unexpected bonus" than a matter of specific timing. You can't get four bombings (plus two for attempts) set up in a day or two. If you can, you've had them sitting on their thumbs ...

I used to get those in NC. They sting, but not that bad. Mostly they're just icky. Have you had any sprickets yet? That's some good old weird American wildlife, for you. http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4th/kkhp/1insects/bugpix/camelcricCU.JPEG (officially: "camelback cricket". Lear...

That's pretty much the issue--people love them, and so some fraction of the people hate them with ten times that enthusiasim. It's some kind of natural law, I think. They're really not <i>bad</i>--Parachutes was a fine enough little pop album, and it was pretty modest all around. The thing that turn...

I am pretty sure that's a rich-man's toy, hob, not meant to be a practical investment. Though I'm sure you could find <i>some</i> really great use for it, in some business (cost-effectiveness notwithstanding). Maybe as a mobile ladder, since it puts you 14ft up in the air. If they could get it up to...

Coldplay is doing U2 in the same way that Oasis is doing the Beatles: they focus in on *some* of the things that the earlier band did really well, but the previous band had such a wider variety of songs than the newer band ends up creating. That's probably the most accurate take on the subject I co...

Now here are some clips from a great graphic novel:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/theferrett/519211.html