Semi-busy today, although beer blogging will arrive on schedule for once. Two amusing news bits via BoingBoing:
* One of the funnier anti-419 scam vigilantes that I’ve ever seen.
* People act more honestly when eyes are watching them. Even when the eyes aren’t real.
Chat about whatever.
Steve
That 419 page is AWESOME.
srv
Checking if your traffic goes to the gov’t
h/t: reddit
RSA
The Big Brother article reminds me of the somewhat controversial work of Reeves and Nass, who give experimental evidence that people are so hard-wired for social interaction, we’ll treat almost anything that gives even the vaguest social cues as a social actor. For example, we’ll like a computer more if it flatters us, even if we know that the flattery is completely unjustified. Just as we do with other people. Weird.
The Other Steve
News of the bizarre…
The Josef Mengele of Philanthropy… Or so says the Pro-Life movement in America about Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, because they’ve given money to Planned Parenthood to help with birth control initiatives.
News of Russia…
Two coins in the fountain.
Russia is putting the Rouble on the world market. Yes, you’ll now be able to buy and sell Roubles against the Dollar and the Euro. This is a big move, as it means Russia will no longer be able to devalue it’s currency. It’s also a good sign for the citizenry, who have long valued the Dollar(and most recently the Euro) over the Rouble.
BTW… Russia is now a Lender nation, not a Debtor nation.
Don’t Fuck with Russia
Putin has vowed to hunt down and destroy the killers of four Russians in Iraq. Putin has offered a 10 Million Euro reward for information.
Rumors are, there are already Spetsnaz and FSB operating in Iraq, and they’ve now been directed to seek and destroy.
From Russia with Love
The State Duma has passed a declaration blaming the United States for the deaths of the four Russian diplomats, stating that “all responsibility for the situation in Iraq, including the security of its citizens and foreign specialists, continues to rest with the occupying countries. We believe they could have prevented the tragedy.”
The Other Steve
News from Whitehall
Tony Blair is polling at Bush levels, actually possibly below Bush levels.
The Tories are out polling Labour.
Although that’s kind of interesting, because the Tories to Blair are kind of like Goldwater to Johnson. It’s not that they are against the war, they just think they ought to have used more nukes.
Nutcutter
Want to see where Western (US?) politics is headed? A glimpse of a dark future ….
And to think that Italian food has long been my favorite ….
Nutcutter
As Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006, media impresario Berlusconi owned or controlled all six of Italy’s national television networks — 90% of the country’s airwaves. The author, whose previous books include an illuminating history of the Italian Mafia, Excellent Cadavers, artfully documents the raw might of Berlusconi’s media to warp public opinion by ignoring and distorting the truth or broadcasting outright lies. For example, Stille shows how
(Business Week).
Does this kind of politics remind us of anything?
Stormy70
I just saw Superman Returns. Loved it.
Men stop reading now. Krista et al, pay close attention.
This Superman is Hot! Hawt! Haute!
Revel. Just revel.
That is all.
Nutcutter
He looks exactly like every Superman I’ve seen since 1953.
The Other Steve
Should we tell Stormy that the new superman is gay?
Punchy
And probably Mexican
Richard 23
Truth, Justice and all that other stuff. Huh, no more American Way?
Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex
Humerous essay by science fiction author Larry Niven on the problems of procreation for Superman & Lois Lane. A scientific approach.
Perry Como
Oh, look. Christian tolerance:
Otto Man
And definitely an illegal alien.
Nutcutter
I guess having a close presidential advisor “escape indictment” isn’t the big accomplishment that the apologistocracy took it for?
Next, the idiots in charge are going to try to turn the disapproval of the Supreme Court into a political advantage for themselves.
Aren’t these just the cutest people?
Krista
Oooo…Thanks, Stormy. You just made my Canada Day that much brighter. :)
The Other Steve
Who fucking applauds after a prayer?
Seriously, these sick fucks disgust me. God is probably right now debating whether to bring a second flood just to wipe the earth of their heathen presence.
The Other Steve
BTW, my representative is having a town hall meeting here soon. I’m going to go and try to ask him if he supports this latest move by Republicans to try to turn the SCOTUS decision on gitmo into a political issue, or if he’s gonna have the guts to stand up there and say enough’s enough.
The bastard is Republican, but he pretends to be independently minded. He always votes the party line though.
Stormy70
Oh, honey. I am pro-Amnesty. It is practically the only issue on which ppgaz and I agree.
Ahem. Right this way, Superman.
(Superman is not gay. I could care less if Brandon is gay, and or Mexican. Although, it would be to his advantage if he was Mexican, since they are very attentive to the ladies. ;)}
I may have to see it again after The Devil Wears Prada.
Krista – we also have this to look foward to this week.
I have noticed a dearth of pop culture threads lately here at Balloon Juice. It is summertime, and the living is easy.
Krista
I noticed that too. Cat blogging and dog blogging have also gone by the wayside. I think John is too busy being politically disillusioned to think of froth.
That movie looks like so much fun. Can’t wait to see it.
Nutcutter
Well, there’s also the barbeque thing. I think that good Texas barbeque is a gift from the gods.
There’s a little roadside shack out there somewhere between Dallas and Denison …..
Nutcutter
I thought he was doing fine until the “damage done” thread.
Even a small amount of research would have revealed the true nature of the damage done by NYT: None.
The damage he was talking about, of course, is in terms of terrorists. But the real damage done here is to privacy, liberty, and freedoms of speech and press, by a cynical government. Apparently it never occurred to John that a government that would deliberately put on a show consisting of worthless flag burning and defense of marriage initiatives would also put on a show of “outrage” over a newspaper story that revealed basically nothing new and affected basically nothing about a program that had already outlived its usefulness …. in order to deflect from news that reflected badly on the government. Such as the complete lack of any “threat” represented by its sham arrest of seven “terrorists” in Miami a few days before. Or the flatline approval numbers they are getting even after their showy kill of Zarqawi earlier in the month. Or a smackdown by the US Supreme Court of their clandestine Tower of London operation in Guantanamo.
Apparently John thinks that assessment of “damage done” is to be found out on the blogosphere, where appearance and snark trump reality, every day.
There has been damage done … to freedom, by the government sworn to protect it. Again. When do we think we’ll see THAT thread around here? When do we think that the BJ contribution to this struggle will be anything more than providing a place for fucking Darrell to shit all over the facts and the truth for a few more days?
Slide.
there was some polling posts in this thread so I thought I’d post this one which polls our closest allies, the UK, on how they view Geroge Bush’s America. Not pleasant reading. The damage this criminal president has done to our great country can’t be over estimated.
capelza
Is Darrell posting as “dipshit” over at Glenn Greenwld’s blog?
The whole NYT Travel section treason thing has brought the loonies out in force.
Punchy
Apparently, if you publish photos of the oceanfront house, you’re a traitor b/c you’ve shown the terrorists what beach they’re supossed to land on. If you publish photos of Pitt and Jolie, you’ve aided the terrorists by taking the focus of Americans off the duct tape and plastic sheeting.
If you post pictures of child porn, however, you’re a godsend, at least at the Dept. of Homeland Security.
capelza
My personal favourite is, when it is pointed out that the Clinton’s home and goings about were published in much greater detail, that was different because the Clinton’s support Al-Queda. I kid you not.
And of course the fact that Newsmax published pretty much the same thing last year, about Cheney and Rumsfeld’s little getaways..well they just don’t have an answer for that.
It would be funny, but it is the “big-wigs” of the Rightie blogoshpere and pundits that are going with this. Not to mention the whole publishing the address of the poor travel photographer and siccing the minions on her and her kids.
Slide.
capelza rightly points out:
but forget to add that THE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN WITH RUMSFELD’S PERMISSION. I’m getting real tired of the right wing fucktards that find terrorists and conspirators under ever bed. How scared are these little cowards. What kind of fucking bedwetting chickenshit punks would publish the address and phone numbers of the NYT’s photographer and say that they should be “hunted down”? RUMSFELD GAVE THEM PERMISSION ASSWIPES..
Link.
The Other Steve
Ok, the only difference between this and the poll taken when I was there in 2000.
Is that in 2000, we weren’t being led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing.
The Other Steve
Let ’em keep going.
These crapping in their britches Republicans are doing more to discredit the party than anything we could ever say, even as a spoof.
There’s a guy over at some blogspot.com blog who recommended going after the children of NYTimes reporters. I can’t remember the link right now, but it was mentioned over on dKos.
Nutcutter
Here’s an experiment you can do at home:
Find and count the number of references that Darrell made to NYT revelations of “classified” information wrt to the Swift story.
Then, find and count the number of actual classified pieces of information contained in the NYT story. Use any sources you like.
Your result should look something like this:
Darrell references to “classified” information: 30-50
Actual classified facts contained in NYT story: 0
Now, count the number of times Darrell was challenged on this by any righty here, or by the blog proprietors.
This is approximately the same as the ratio you’ll find out “there” where the story has made its rounds the last week or so. Talking heads and blog pundits galore, bloviating endlessly about “classified” information.
Only, there wasn’t any.
scs
Is Ken Lay REALLY dead? Or did he just pay off a hospital attendant to switch bodies, so that he can flee to a tropical island unsuspected and escape his jail sentence? Enquiring minds want to know.