Obama to Republican's "Here, I believe this is your ass"

While I have my issue's with some of Obama's policies so far (especially his economic appointments). I do love it when somebody hands the shameless Republicans their asses. Especially when it's calling them out on their lies. So it's especially awesome when the president himself destroys a room full of them in open debate! Must see!

Obama Goes To GOP Lions' Den -- And Mauls The Lions

News report on Q&A -

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Full video of Q&A -

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The best democracy money can buy!

"The Supreme Court ruled [last week] against restrictions on corporations' spending to influence election outcomes."

The basis of this ruling? Corporations should be afforded the same rights as individuals! Great, well when they break the law we should throw the corporation in prison rather than the individuals within the corporation! This is insanity!

This has got to be the most under reported story of the year so far. The supreme court just handed over US Democracy to the highest bidder. This could be the straw that broke the camel's back. This is such an important moment that unless reversed (and I don't know how) future generations will look back and say this was the moment America resigned to fascism (a corporatist political and economic system) and the American Dream died.

This is a few days old (Jan 21st), but I have literary been so upset about this that I could not bring myself to write this up.

Here is Keith Olberman's Special Comment on this. Unfortunately his assessment is accurate -


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkbMM7bki88&feature=player_embedded

More articles on this that are worth reading -

Free Speech for People! - What did the Supreme Court just do to our democracy?

NYT: The Court’s Blow to Democracy

Feingold Fears "Lawless" Court Ruling on Corporate Campaigning

Dolphins: Second smartest animals?

I thought this was already common knowledge. Anyway, interesting read -

Discovery News

POPULISM - F**K YEAH! About time Obama!

Obama turns to populism!

This is what we voted you in for, this is what the people want. You better mean it this time or the Democrats will get slaughtered in upcoming elections.

Clinton nailed it when he said:-
"people would rather be with someone who is strong and wrong than weak and right."

New rule, be right AND strong!

Obama's problem right now is not that the right hate him (they always hated him regardless what he does), but that the independents and progressives that elected feel the administration's policies have been for Wall Street and Insurance Companies over the people so far, which is the opposite of what has been promised. That and the they spent so much time watering down bills to get bi-partisan support that the end bill's were useless and still the Republicans voted against them.

Another must read analysis of the Democrats failure's -
Senate staffer talks about recent loss

I think Arianna Huffington nailed it here too -
How Massachusetts Can Turn Out to Be a Blessing for Democrats

Rishloo - Progressive rock masterpiece?

I have been evangelising this band ever since I stumbled across them on Last.fm. And I feel like I should share them here too. If you like progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd, Tool & Porcupine Tree you owe it to yourself to check this great band out.

This is the first track from the 3rd album -



And here is the first two tracks from the second album -

Spider-man 4: A mercy killing?

If the information in this article is correct then maybe the death of Spider-man 4 was for the best.

"Raimi wanted to end the movie exactly the same as Spider-Man 2. With Tobey quitting his Spider-Man job Yet Again. He breaks up with Mary Jane and falls in love with a new woman — who turns out to be the Vulture's daughter. After Spidey kills the Vulture, she dumps him, and he's so depressed, he quits being Spidey again. I think we can all let out a collective sigh that this film didn't go through."

Source - io9.com 

Oh crap, that sounds horrible! Now I am a HUGE fan of the first 3 Spidey Movies*, and think Sam Raimi did an amazingly faithful job of bringing the comics to life. And I mainly blame the flaws of Spider-man 3 (plot holes and ret-cons) on the studio and the unrealistic deadlines placed on Raimi. But if this is true then it sounds like Raimi was going off the rails with Spidey 4 and we should be releaved he was stopped. Also sounds like Raimi probably was at fault for the horrible "Sandman really killed Uncle Ben" plot in Spidey 3, although I think it was handled very well, it was a bad idea and undermines how great those scenes are in the first movie (and how faithful they are to the comic).

Or this could be BS put out to help convince the fans that losing Raimi might not be the worst thing that could happen to the series (that would be casting the dude from Twighlight as Peter). Either way, really unhappy the new movie is a reboot, unhappy it's set in high school (less than 2 years of Spidey's 40 years history was him in high school!). And most of all I am unhappy at losing Tobey Maguire, not sure how anyone can fill his shoes. He really was so perfect as Peter Parker, and a fantastic actor. My favourite parts of Spidey 3 were his "evil Peter", especially the street dancing.

* See my original thoughts on Spidey 3 - Here and Here

Why is the news media comfortable with lying about science?

This article asks a pretty important question. If we are to survive as a species and to create a better world, we are going to need to start respecting and understanding science to a higher degree.

Why is the news media comfortable with lying about science?

Getting pretty sick of having to explain to people how science works in order to defend against anti-science beliefs. Especially when they have usually never even read a scientific paper and have no clue how the scientific method works.

Steps of the Scientific Method
Wikipedia: The Scientific Method

The scientific method is unbiased to any point of view and the scientific community is something we should be very proud of as a society. The very fact that any scientist can make a name for themselves by disproving commonly accepted beliefs in science keeps the whole discipline honest. Unlike other area's, there is no benefit to following the accepted doctrine (other than the scientific method itself).

First new strip of 2010

We finally got the latest strip up. Only 3 more to the end of this story arc and then it won't be too long before we start revealing something from our secret project.


Flat Life - Jan 15th, 2010

Doomsday Clock moves backwards for first time ever!

A rare peice of good news. The doomsday clock (heavily featured in the Watchmen book and movie) maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to represent how close the human race is to potential "catastrophic destruction" from global nuclear war, climate-change, or other life sciences that could inflicted irrevocable harm.

Those scientists decided yesterday that "For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material,". "And for the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable."

Very cool. I hope the assessment that we have taken a rare step in the right direction towards a more peaceful world is accurate.


SOURCE