Things have been a little glum around here lately. I’ll lighten things up with one of my favorite music videos of all time: Waddlin’ Around by The King Khan and BBQ Show. Enjoy!
It’s a little strange and a little silly but lots of fun.
There seems to me no question that the Batman film “The Dark Knight,” currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.
I say no concept of shame because no person with the IQ required to operate a keyboard could actually believe this. But it actually gets even worse:
“The Dark Knight,” then, is a conservative movie about the war on terror. And like another such film, last year’s “300,” “The Dark Knight” is making a fortune depicting the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.
Idlewild will disagree with me on this, but I saw “300″ as a long, sultry tonguebathing on the nutsack of totalitarian fascism. A glorifying handjob to the notion of a scared populace valuing protection of its miserable hide above all else.
You can always count cowards of this sort to fetishize the enemies of liberty as brilliant protectors.
A rogue parachutist veered off course yesterday and smashed into an unsuspecting military brass band in Kansas, injuring three musicians and destroying two tubas.
Members of the 1st Infantry Division band, which was ready to perform for thousands of spectators, heard nothing but a brief rustling of the jumper’s parachute before taking a direct hit from the human missile.
“We know that they’re going to be all right,” said General Charles Campbell, head of the Army’s Forces Command, who was overseeing the military event.
Sgt. Rachel Boggs was knocked unconscious and suffered a fractured jaw after the aerial assault. Her fellow band member Sgt Andrew Spinazzolla suffered a fractured ankle as well as minor neck and head injuries. Staff Sgt Mark Lucero sustained a minor leg injury.
July 23, 2008 Video games Videogame-Simulator-Job have evolved to the point where they fairly accurately depict what a real racing car driver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Driver experiences as they hurtle around the track. Gamers can compete against friends and strangers across the globe thanks to the Internet, but now BBC News is reporting on a new technology that will allow gamers to take on real opponents in real races in real time, using GPS data from the cars.
iOpener’s patented system, which uses an enhanced GPS system known as differential GPS (DGPS), takes real-time GPS data from racing events and sends it to compatible consoles and PCs. The DGPS system is commonly used for air navigation or shipping where precision is key and uses a network of fixed base stations to correct the GPS signal, which on its own may only be accurate to within 10m.
Mr. Hamilton? You’ve had it too good for too long. Watch out for Cangrejero.
And I don’t think you’re going to like it, you hack.
OBAMA FAKING IT
Tue Jul 22, 7:58 PM ET
Obama has a problem: What do you do when you’re a lightly accomplished one-term senator, a former state legislator from Illinois, a Harvard law graduate who has no substantive record of accomplishments, and you are running against a war hero whom polls show that Americans overwhelmingly view as far more fit to be commander in chief?
Pose, of course.
What else can a guy like Obama do?
Maggie Gallagher has a problem: What do you do when you’re a completely unaccomplished hacktackular writer, a former punching bag on Politically Incorrect, a Yale religious studies graduate who has no substantive record of accomplishments, and you are railing against a world which has left you and your gay-hating bretheren behind, when polls show that more and more Americans disagree?
Actually, this deserves more than a passing mention. Maggie Fucking Gallagher received money from the Bush DHHS and wrote overwhelmingly favorable articles about their policies. When confronted with that fact, she claimed to not remember being paid that money. Why the fuck should anyone ever listen to a fucking word this woman has to say about integrity? Anyone?
Anyway, back to the hackery
So the man who would be president of the United States of America flies around the world in the middle of a political campaign, enlisting the U.S. military and the Berlin Wall as free campaign commercial backdrops, to lend him the emotional weight and substance — the aura as a commander — that he hasn’t yet earned on his own.
Oh for fuck’s sake. You mean to tell me that after eight fucking years of watching the man who IS president do the exact same fucking thing, that now you have a problem with it? Eight goddamn years of a mental lightweight pretending to be president and you’re pissed because Obama dare go to Europe? The Entire fucking Republican party has been doing this and you haven’t given a damn, (presumably, as we pointed out earlier, because you’re on their fucking payroll.) There’s a word for someone who takes money to screw people that I’m too polite to use right now.
So, fellow humans, how did you enjoy your time on the top of the food chain? I loved every minute of it. I hope you did too, because HOLY SHIT!
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — About 30 fish were spotted “walking” through a Florida neighborhood, shocking homeowners who said they’ve never seen anything like it.
“I was like, ‘No way there’s fish in the street,’” homeowner Dianna Fernandez said. “And I kept going further and further and seeing fish everywhere — in driveways. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The walking catfish were spotted in the road near a Pinellas Park subdivision Tuesday.
The fish used their pectoral fins to walk or shuffle around the streets. Video showed the fish moving through the neighborhood.
A scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the catfish can travel on land as long as they stay moist.
There’s a video at the link. I’ll leave jokes about that last line up to your imagination, you filthy bastards.
Back in November, I could barely contain my giddy excitement and amusement at the misadventures of Cocaine Smuggling Colombian Jacques Cousteau. So of course, I’m super excited to see that the Colombians haven’t given up on the whole submarine thing.
The green-colored submarine, carrying what was believed to be cocaine, was about 32 feet long and appeared to be a makeshift or modified vessel.
“The submarine traveled almost at the surface of the sea and when it came up we took advantage,” said Capt. Benjamin Mar, a navy spokesman. Special forces troops swooped on the submarine from a helicopter and subdued the crew of four, he said.
The Mexican government is increasingly using the military to fight drug smugglers who move South American cocaine through Mexico and into the United States.
President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to drug trafficking hot spots since he took office in December, 2006.
Smugglers have moved drugs in Mexico through tunnels under the U.S. border and hidden in canned food and dolls, but the navy said this is the first time it had seen them use a submarine.
I daresay the Mexicans should subscribe to the RSS feed here.
I was watching Jeopardy today when one of the questions reminded me of something that happened in high school many years ago.
First the question. It was something along the lines of “The Diet of Worms issued an edict addressing the heresy of this man” To which a contest correctly responded “Who is Martin Luther?”
All of a sudden, a memory of a day 13 years ago flooded back into my brain. It was my senior year in high school and I was sitting in Mrs. Joyner’s AP European History class next to my friend Brian. The prior day saw Mrs. Joyner give us a pop quiz. Brian hadn’t studied. Mrs. Joyner was handing back the tests and she gave me mine (100, of course). She then turned to Brian (who was normally a star pupil) and “tsk tsk”ed him as she handed back his test.
In the answer blank beneath the question “What was the Diet of Worms?” Brian had written:
“As punishment for starting the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther was forced to eat a diet of worms by the Catholic Church”
Underneath that, Mrs. Joyner had written
“Brian, if you don’t know the answer, please just leave it blank.”
(I am very happy to give this post the ‘food’ tag)
That’s how much creator of the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync will have to repay, at a minimum, for restitution on the fraud conviction for which he’s serving a 25-year prison sentence.
I assume the victims they are referring to are any unfortunate souls forced to listen to the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync?
I’m really enjoying the Cover Story series over at the RockPoP gallery. It’s a great series of articles with interviews of musicians and the artists who made their album art. The current entry is on The Midpoint’s 2007 Album of the Year: Mary Weiss’ Dangerous Game. The interior photos were taken by my favorite shutterbug not named Paul-Henri Cahier, Theresa Kerakes.
Theresa talks about how great it was to work with Billy Miller and Mary Weiss on that album. The recent Greg Cartwright interview in Razorcake suggests otherwise, but I guess they were working in vastly different capacities.
Our friend Brandy at Moue Magazine was kind enough to loan me a spare key to post in their weekly series of Moue Mix Tapes. The theme is Red State Music, go check it out!
We’ve done some bitching here at The Midpoint about poorly written headlines, but my faith has been restored by a certain man at Reuters who has a sense of humor:
ST. LOUIS - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who prides himself on his national security expertise, has twice in two days referred to recent Russian activities against Czechoslovakia, a country that no longer exists.