Social Commentary
grrlscientist | March 9, 2010tags: movies, oscar-winning movie trailer, Academy Awards, spoof, humor, funny, parody, offbeat, social commentary, streaming video
This video is an amusing trailer for every Oscar-winning movie ever made!
"It's not gonna be an entirely dramatic film. 'Cause we laugh there."
j7uy5 | March 8, 2010A few days ago, there was a minor ripple in the political world, when a
media person tried to get John McCain to say that Obama is a
socialist. Even though McCain had hinted at that several times
during the campaign, he would never state directly that Obama is a
socialist. Well,
href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587772,00.html">he still
won't (as reported by Fox):
DAVID GREGORY, HOST, "MEET THE PRESS": Do you think that
goes too far? Is it a socialist agenda from the president?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.: There is no doubt in my mind America's a
right-of-center nation, and this…
grrlscientist | January 31, 2010tags: Seven Words, shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits, fart, turd, twat, television, social commentary, cultural observation, George Carlin, humor, comedy, fucking hilarious, streaming video
When the contractors were once again in the flat, trying unsuccessfully to fix the IKEA kitchen fiasco that has cost my spouse many thousands of euros, I said to one of them (who claimed he didn't know any English); "I'll bet I can name at least three English words that you do know: shit, fuck and damn."
His speechless laughter was confirmation enough.
grrlscientist | January 28, 2010tags: Rights and Privileges, ethics, social commentary, cultural observation, George Carlin, bible, humor, comedy, fucking hilarious, streaming video
Rights are cute ideas. Rights aren't rights at all if someone can take them away. 'God-given rights' are due to the god excuse: if god really gave you rights, he would have given you the right to have food every day and a roof over your head. But god is not (obviously!) taking care of you at all.
grrlscientist | January 26, 2010tags: Story of Stuff, environment, pollution, climate change, global warming, recycling, social commentary, cultural observation, planned obsolescence, perceived obsolescence, fashion, advertizing, social psychology, streaming video
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental…
j7uy5 | January 15, 2010The earthquake in Haiti is only the most recent in a series of
catastrophes stretching back over two centuries. It was not
always like this. Haiti, in fact, was once the most prosperous
colony in the New World. When it was a French colony, known as
class="bc_2">St. Domingue (
also called The Pearl of the Antilles), it
href="http://www.blackcommentator.com/71/71_robinson_haiti.html">generated
more wealth that the 13 British colonies that were to become the
United States.
Foreign Policy magazine has a timeline of the modern-day disasters that
set the stage for the
href="http://…
j7uy5 | December 7, 2009This is a
href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=41500">high-resolution
photo of Pearl Harbor (click to enlarge). When I saw that it had
been posted to the NASA Earth Observatory, I wondered -- momentarily --
why they would post a photo of Pearl Harbor. Then I remembered:
December 7th.
style="display: inline;">
My father was 14 on 7 December 1941. He studied in high school, got
good grades, and enlisted when he turned 18. Didn't think about it.
There was nothing to think. Every able-bodied young man did it,
unless there was a compelling reason to do otherwise.
He…
grrlscientist | December 7, 2009tags: Stephen Colbert, Joseph Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund, comedy, funny, humor, satire, fucking hilarious, social commentary, streaming video
I admire Stephen Colbert because he looks like a relatively conservative man, but inside his suit-clad body is trapped a brilliant but twisted eight-year-old, as you will notice during this video of his interview with Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione.
"Well .. you made it .. ugly."
(screaming with laughter)
Full interview:
The Colbert Report
Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a Lobby - Ploughshares Fund
www.colbertnation.com…
grrlscientist | December 6, 2009tags: speech, Public School, Don't be an Individual, Paideia School, Nick Kocher, comedy, funny, humor, social commentary, streaming video
This is an (obviously) amateur streaming video of a speech given at the Paideia School Senior Dinner a few days before graduation. I think many of us can empathize, and those of you who cannot, well, why are you reading my blog?
Like Nick, get pimples and dry skin at the same time, too. My skin is a never-ending battle. But I should mention that a particular shade of purple really is my favorite color.
Incidentally, if you wish to learn more about Nick…
j7uy5 | November 20, 2009Reasonable persons still wonder why some others insist that permitting
gay marriage will threaten heterosexual marriage. Now we find
out: it happens as an unintended consequence. Take Texas (please):
href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1340136.html">Texas'
gay marriage ban may have banned all marriages
By Dave Montgomery
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Posted on Wednesday, 11.18.09
AUSTIN -- Texans: Are you really married?
Maybe not.
Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for
attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005…
j7uy5 | November 18, 2009
style="display: inline;">
A meme making the
rounds in some circles is this: Prayer for Obama, Psalm
109:8. This is what is known as an imprecatory prayer,
that is, a prayer that expresses ill will toward another.
This particular bit of verse is one of the less appealing and less
inspirational found in the Christian Bible:
Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are
opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought
against me without a cause.
For…
j7uy5 | October 21, 2009I spend a lot of time working with gang kids.
One of the amusing things, is to see some of these kids strutting
around,
feeling like a million bucks, because they are so smart. In
actuality, they have IQs in the 90-100 range. But the rest of
their crew is down in the 70-80 range. Such is the life of a
genius.
style="display: inline;">
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2009/10/21/the_warning.jpg">
Tonight I watched the PBS Frontline special,
href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/">The
Warning. It's about the warning that
href="http://en.…
j7uy5 | October 12, 2009This is about chronic fatigue syndrome and the association with
XMRV. I apologize in advance for the provocative title, and the
subsequent gratuitous references to the Nobel Prize, but there is a
point to this.
Take a look at this summary of the "old-fashioned disease":
During the nineteenth century general paresis of the insane
emerged as a new psychiatric disorder which was extremely common and
completely devastating. While retrospective studies have found earlier
instances of what may have been the same disorder, the first clearly
identified examples of paresis among the insane were…
j7uy5 | October 2, 2009This is a bad sign. Specifically, it is an instance of the mainstream media starting to hint at the truth. I take this as a sign that things are getting worse, as the effort to keep up the pretense is no longer even remotely credible.
What this article shows, is that the economic models are wrong. That in itself is not news. Regular visitors know that all models are wrong. But they can be useful, if the underlying assumptions are correct, or nearly so.
U.S. Job Losses May Be Even Larger as Labor's Model Breaks Down
By Carlos Torres
Bloomberg
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economic…
grrlscientist | September 29, 2009tags: Blasphemy Day International, religion, politics, free speech, human rights, streaming video
Blasphemy Day International is a campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for the freedom to challenge, criticize, and satirize religion without fear of violence or reprisal: murder, litigation and other forms of intimidation. It is the obligation of the world's nations to safeguard dissent and the dissenters, not to side with the brutal interests of those who demand "respect" for their beliefs (i.e., immunity to being…
j7uy5 | September 15, 2009There is an interesting parallel between the fight over rural
electrification, in 1935, and the current health insurance debate. (HT
href="http://dangerousmeta.com/site/comments/newwestnet_if_you_read_nothing_else_today/">dangerousmeta)
href="http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/how_fdr_enacted_his_public_option/C37/L37/">
href="http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/how_fdr_enacted_his_public_option/C37/L37/">How
FDR Enacted his "Public Option"
By Bob Simmons, Crosscut.com, Guest Writer, 9-13-09
...President Roosevelt had decreed a public option in 1935,
putting the federal…
j7uy5 | August 27, 2009The health care reform process is getting extremely ugly.
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/healthcare/la-na-healthcare-insurers24-2009aug24,0,6925890.story">
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/healthcare/la-na-healthcare-insurers24-2009aug24,0,6925890.story">Healthcare
insurers get upper hand
Obama's overhaul fight is being won by the industry, experts say. The
end result may be a financial 'bonanza.'
LA Times
By Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger
August 24, 2009
href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090823_this_isnt_reform_its_robbery/">…
grrlscientist | August 21, 2009tags: New Rules, Bill Maher, humor, funny, satire, fucking hilarious, social commentary, streaming video
This video below the jump features Bill Maher's social observations, including his comments about the relationship between raising animals for food and global warming.
j7uy5 | August 9, 2009The way that the debate over health care is being conducted is brazen and disturbing. If it turns out to be a flashpoint for violence -- as it may -- it will be profoundly ironic: our efforts to improve health care delivery, end up being a catalyst for generalized thuggery.
j7uy5 | July 23, 2009This is one of those sickening things that is
href="http://www.pamshouseblend.com/tag/Tasers">all too common:
href="http://www.cnjonline.com/news/tucumcari-34303-year-chief.html?wap=0">
href="http://www.cnjonline.com/news/tucumcari-34303-year-chief.html?wap=0">Tucumcari
police chief Tasers 14-year-old
Girl recovering after dart surgically removed from her head
Friday, Jul 3 2009, 7:08 pm
By Chelle Delaney: Freedom New Mexico
A 14-year-old Tucumcari girl is recovering at an
Albuquerque hospital
after being shot in the head with a Taser dart by Tucumcari Police
Chief Roger…