In case you haven’t heard, Iran got so busted yesterday when they clumsily photoshopped a picture to make it look like four of their missiles launched when only three left the ground (who’s to say any of them did?). Looking slightly less dumb were the credulous newspapers that plastered the doctored photo on their front pages.
Sensing opportunity, many bloggers took up their mouses and created some truly hilarious parodies, like the one above.
Archive Page 6 of 25
Apropos of nothing … entirely unrelated to the heavy conversation on judicial philosophy in the comments section of the Obama post … here’s a funny video. Yay!
Disclaimer: the following post is my unfiltered opinion on matters political. Read it at your own risk.
I stand to the left of Obama on a lot of issues. So you’d think I would be troubled by his recent veer to the center.
Rejecting public financing; issuing wishy-washy statements on court rulings on gay marriage, capital punishment and guns; affirming Bush’s practice of allocating taxpayer money to religious charities; and airing uber-patriotic television ads—it has been quite a few weeks for Obama. The Economist referred to his recent behavior as “posturing, hedging and outright flip-flopping.”
Those things don’t bother me. They don’t because they make it clear that he is in it to win—and thank god for that, because I don’t think the country can afford—literally, figuratively, politically, militarily, diplomatically, environmentally, spiritually—a McCain presidency.
Obama is a pragmatist (that word has positive connotations for me). He knows that unwavering public commitment to every item on the progressive agenda will result in one thing: our country’s rapid movement away from every item on the progressive agenda.
NGOs, lobbyists, pundits and party apparatchiks derive strength from their strident adherence to a specific agenda. Candidates for president do not. When liberals ask Obama for total progressive purity, they essentially ask him to alienate 80-90 percent of the electorate. They ask him to lose.
I know what you’re saying—winning isn’t everything. But I would argue that this is a special case; it’s special for a number of reasons, but I’ll pick just two: the global climate and the U.S. Supreme Court. Both are inching toward the point of no return.
The Supreme Court: All of the liberal judges are, to be blunt, really, really old. Even crotchety Scalia is spry by comparison. And then there’s Thomas, Alito and Roberts, who have decades in front of them and seem to still exude a youthful extremism. If McCain is given the opportunity to replace any of the aging liberals on the bench, it could take half a century or more before the court regains a semblance of political moderation.
The Global Climate: We might be too late, but if we aren’t, it’s essential that we elect a president who believes in doing something about global climate change—not someone who merely uses the issue as a marketing tactic to differentiate himself from President Bush.
And then there’s the “Who is more likely to start another war in the Middle East?” test. We all know who fails that one.
Lest it be interpreted otherwise, please understand that I have a lot of positive reasons for supporting Obama, but above all of them, there is the fact that he is not John McCain.
I hold no personal animus toward McCain—just a strong conviction that he would be a terrible president.
It wasn’t until we suspended our subscription for the summer that we realized—to our embarrassment—how much low-level pressure we felt to watch movies in order to get them back into the mail so we could get more movies. Ridiculous? Yep.
From Bike Hugger:
When Le Tour turned into a political battle like the former Indy Racing League, I don’t exactly know, but this year I’m out. If it’s on great, but I’m not planning a big time investment to make sure I’m catching the big stage, or the green points jersey, or whatever. It’s not that I don’t care, more I find it exhausting. Least of which, all my heroes — except one — are dopers. The system seems so corrupt, it has to die, redefine itself and then maybe it’ll call me again. And we’ll talk. Get caught up.
My sentiments exactly.
From Adventures in Stock Photography:
First, you need to make sure you’re not about to dispense a thumbs-up in an inappropriate situation, such as a funeral* or sawmill calamity aftermath. Peep around or over something - a corner, bush or riot shield - so that you can confirm that what’s going on is definitely something to which you want to give your approval and/or encouragement.
Thanks to Megan for the link.
WALL-E
Idiocracy. Children of Men. Now WALL-E.
Is it me or are there more dystopian movies being made? Heck, even Disney is making them now.
Here’s Wikipedia’s plot summary of WALL-E. Note the none-too-subtle social commentary:
[Looking for Mike Judge in the credits ... ]
Apparently WALL-E is doing incredibly well at the box office—a mystery if there ever was one, since summer movies (well, movies in general) are usually more about temporary escape from social ills than satirical commentary on them. I suspect kids are dragging their unwitting parents to see the movie.