The Carrie Prank

Remember back in the 70s, when The Exorcist came out, and suddenly there was a whole rasher of "real life" stories (planted by the PR guys) that popped up in newspapers - about mysterious and unexplained behaviors that just maybe might be possibly "demon possessions"?

Well, taking it up several levels:



What do you think you can't be manipulated into believing?

hat tip = All In with Chris Hayes

Today's Movie

A morality tale, and a peek at the need for bread and circus as an empire begins to collapse.



If you watch this movie, you'll need something sunny and happy and cuddly afterwards - you've been warned.

What Happened

The wisdom of Bob Mondelo:

We have spent the last decade training the public to watch contests on television and then vote.

There Are No Walk-On Parts

Barry Lopez interviewed by Bill Moyers

BILL MOYERS: So, is the new metaphor not nature, but the stage? That's a powerful idea that we all- have walk on parts in this drama that never ends.

BARRY LOPEZ: But who is it, Bill, that says, one person has a walk on part? You know? That's a political question. Who is it that's standing there saying, that person, this person, that person, those are walk on parts. And this person over here will be the star of the show. I don't like that. I don't like to hear it. What happens if a person speaks imperfect English in a culture like ours, is not articulate, but can dance in a way that makes you shiver? Why is that a walk on part?...

I and Thou, not I and It

BARRY LOPEZ: We have from, you know, the beginning of the Holocene, you know, the raising, the creation of cities in the Tigris/Euphrates, we have created a world in which we marginalize that which we don't think serves us as well as it could. We've turned nature into a thing. You know, Martin Buber's wonderful I/it relationship and I/thou relationship. This is an "it." The book is an "it." It is soulless. It is utilitarian. I can throw it on the ground if I want. But if it's an I/thou relationship, you never make those kinds of presumptions. So a lot of what traditional people when you watch- when you're in their environment, everything is I/thou. The relationship to the wind; the wind is alive. It has a soul. It's part of the moral universe.

And we've created something in which we have excluded from our moral universe everything but us. And in fact, a lot of people have been excluded from this central White Western European dominant culture. Everything else is an I/it relationship. With African Americans or, you know, in Aboriginal people, whatever it's going to be. But when you-- with traditional people, the relationships with everything are about the holiness of the other, the mystery of the other. That's that I/thou relationship.

And what I would like to I guess encourage people to understand is that for the sake of our own convenience, we created an "other," and that other was nature. And we said, if it doesn't serve us, kill it, move it, destroy it, crush it. Make it serve us. And if it doesn't, it's no good.

(hat tip = JR, from a very long time ago)

The Power Of Myth

Seems like this shows up on facebook every few months.  I've debunked it more than a coupla times, and it just never sinks in - the same guys keep putting it up in ever so slightly different iterations.

"Conservatives" are usually pretty big on trying to boil down the problems (of government, or culture, or people) to one overarching concept.  You know the drill:
"the problem with the economy is too much government regulation"
"the problem with the schools is the Teachers Union"
"the problem with unemployment is that taxes are too high"

So here's mine:  The problem (with everything) is the insistence on remaining ignorant.

And btw, why do "conservatives" always cheer when Romney inveighs against "wealth envy", and then piss and moan about some imaginary retired senator getting a fat pension?

I'm The Slime

Nobody better'n Zappa. (hat tip = Democratic Underground)



I am gross and pervertedI'm obsessed 'n derangedI have existed for yearsBut very little had changedI am the tool of the GovernmentAnd industry tooFor I am destined to ruleAnd regulate you
I may be vile and perniciousBut you can't look awayI make you think I'm deliciousWith the stuff that I sayI am the best you can getHave you guessed me yet?I am the slime oozin' outFrom your TV set
You will obey me while I lead youAnd eat the garbage that I feed youUntil the day that we don't need youDon't go for help...no one will heed youYour mind is totally controlledIt has been stuffed into my moldAnd you will do as you are toldUntil the rights to you are sold
That's right, folks..Don't touch that dial
Well, I am the slime from your videoOozin' along on your livin'room floor
I am the slime from your videoCan't stop the slime, people, lookit me go
Copied from MetroLyrics.com 

Meme Wildfire

OWS Meme

Officer Pike has won himself a place in Mike's American Liberties Hall Of Shame.
(hat tips: Balloon Juice, facebook)

Turn That Shit Off

Grief And The Media

It's been a while since Gil Scott Heron died, and it's been a while since I first saw this video from Jay Smooth. I'm putting it up now because I think I'm kinda starting to get what Jay's talking about when he criticizes some of the affects that all of this new technology is having on our ability to relate to the world and to each other.

A Christian Freaks Out

The lady seems pretty calm at first - and the recording has nothing about what leads up to her tantrum - but then she gets just a little nuts.

I do wonder about the affects of all this constant exposure of our behavior to millions of people via the inter-tubes.  Seems like everybody has a camera, and there's an awful lot of casual surveillance going on.

What's Wrong With The South?

We've had more than our share of cringe-worthy moments of late; especially here in Virginia where we get to stand in slack-jawed stupefaction every few weeks watching our Governor and our Atty General make themselves (and the rest of us) look like complete dicks.

They started out by issuing an executive order telling the whole state bureaucracy that they don't have to worry all that much about discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Next up: Ken Cuccinelli decides to sue the Obama Administration to prevent implementation of Healthcare Reform.  And to top it off, his office then says it only costs us the $350 filing fee.  I called his office 6 times and can't get anybody to answer any questions or call me back.

Then Governor Bob issues a proclamation designating April as Dumbass Redneck Month.

Most recently, any ex-felon in Virginia who wants to get back his right to vote has to write a letter to the government in Richmond explaining why he deserves the same rights as everybody else, now that he's paid his debt to society.  Can you say, "literacy test"?  I knew you could.

I get a weird feeling that there's something about the culture down here that makes this kind of Fantasy-Land-Alternate-Reality thing more probable.  It's certainly not particular to The South, but maybe Southerners are a little more susceptible to the temptation to revise the parts of their history that don't fit well with the basic human need for self-esteem.

A few examples:
Slavery was and still is often referred to as "our peculiar institution".
Secession and armed rebellion (aka Treason) becomes "defense of our homeland against an invasion from the north".
Rob't E Lee - a slave owner fervently in favor of beating slaves to keep them in line - is later said to be an abolitionist.

I think it also has something to do with wanting to let yourself off the hook.  If the truth about who you are and where you came from always seems to point up the fact that you're just the latest in a long line of assholes, you have to be looking for a little relief.  If somebody comes along and spins out a version that helps you feel a little less shitty about it all, then you're probably not going to be overly concerned that he's just makin' shit up.

It still makes me a little nuts, but I think I can understand it.  And that gives me a slightly better chance to counter it.

Read this from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Smartly Sexy

If there's anything hotter than a smart chick being smart, it hasn't been discovered yet. Wouldn't it be nice if we got this kind of programming on TV instead of crap like Judge Judy and Jersey Shore?

Dodge Charger Commercial & Response

If the Opposition Party in Congress could make their SOTU responses like this, we might have a chance to get somewhere.
First the ad that ran during Super Bowl, then the response:

Seat Belts

Because I just think it's a really good ad.

Anatomy Of "The News"

Cougars

I Lied

One more - but then I'll stop - for sure this time. (see Matt Taibbi's blog at True Slant)
(Palin) is the country’s first WWE politician — a cartoon combatant who inspires stadiums full of frustrated middle American followers who will cheer for her against whichever villain they trot out, be it Newsweek, Barack Obama, Katie Couric, Steve Schmidt, the Mad Russian, Randy Orton or whoever. Her followers will not know that she is the perfect patsy for our system, designed as it is to channel popular anger in any direction but a useful one, and to keep the public tied up endlessly in pointless media melees over meaningless nonsense (melees of the sort that develop organically around Palin everywhere she goes). Like George W. Bush, even Palin herself doesn’t know this, another reason she’s such a perfect political tool.

InfoMania

Current TV popped up on my Dish Network box a couple of years ago(?). They do some interesting stuff.