this just in...

Puxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. More winter, folks. However, I'm still up for celebrating Groundhog's Day, that most Freudian of all holidays.

new ways to discriminate

Just ran across an article that some apartment complexes in Texas are refusing to rent to people who have extensive tattooing or multiple piercings. Apparently this policy is perfectly legal...but it's still pretty sad.

In a world where most people seem aware that outright racial prejudice and stereotyping are wrong (although not all...there are still schools that hold segregated proms), I'm always slightly disgusted at the new ways which people find to let their hateful sides out and be nasty to large chunks of the population for no apparent reason. This is just another example.

I'm not surprised, however. Every day when I walk around the campus where I teach, there's a great chance that I'll hear someone refer to someone they don't like as either "retarded" or "gay"...and every time I hear someone struggling for a new way to prejudge or oppress, as if they are actions necessary for life, I fear for the future of humanity a little more.

We've got a lot of work to do.

good news

I did my dissertation on 80s culture, so during the course of my writing, I read a whole lot of stuff about people who were particularly scummy. So, when I read about Reagan budget director David Stockman being charged with fraud, I just had to giggle.

greetings on this, the most Freudian of holidays.

Even the damn groundhog's in on global warming...Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow, so even less winter this year.

Hope your day doesn't keep repeating.

warming up to the truth

I'm sitting in my home office, looking at the massive Ohio snowfall. So far, we've hit 1/4" for the year. My first year in Ohio, I was hit by a 10" blizzard right on New Years. This year, I"ve only had to break out my thick jacket once so far. This clearly is not right.

Personal experience tells me that this whole global warming thing is definitely not a myth. The research backs all this up. The vast majority of scientists at the American Meteorological Society agree that global warming is caused by human pollution.

Personally, I think that global warming is the nuclear war of the 21st century.

Our president seems uncertain, however, and many people who don"t think these things out on their own and just parrot his language like to avoid the evidence and research. This scares me, and you see this manifest in the tremendous number of high rise pickups, humvees, and minivans on the road.

You know what cares me the most, though, is an article from Reuters that outlines how a coalition of major corporations (including Alcoa, General Electric, and DuPont) are petitioning W. Bush to tighten environmental standards. Even major companies are willing to go through major regulation and expense? Global warming must be worse and more imminent than we thought.

Break out your speedos, because those oceans are rising!

John McCain Wants To Regulate Blogs

from MetaFilter at http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/57002

Senator John McCain (R. - AZ) has introduced legislation that would hold blogs responsible for all activity in their comments sections and user profiles. Provisions of the proposed bill include: (1) commercial websites and personal blogs "would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000," (2) bloggers with comment sections may face "even stiffer penalties" than ISPs, and (3) any social-networking site must take "effective measures" to remove any Web page that's "associated" with a sex offender. "Because 'social-networking site' isn't defined, it could encompass far more than just MySpace.com, Friendster and similar sites." The list could include any site that allows comments, authot and personal profiles. Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that this proposal may be based more "on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts." "McCain’s legislation could deal a serious blow to the blogosphere. Lacking resources to police their sites, many individual blogs may have to shut down open discussion."*

My take: I think it's interesting that McCain is justifying limiting freedom of speech in the name of "saving the children." This man is becoming more and more conservative by the day.

I pull my shirt off and pray...

Today is election day in the US. For all of our sakes, get out there and vote.

The number to keep handy is 1-866-OUR-VOTE, which goes to The National Campaign for Fair Elections. Please keep an eye out for any irregularities in the election proceedings. Anything out of the ordinary, call them.

You want news on the election? Check out BBC News's site...they're generally fairly unbiased on such matters.

a cultural pioneer is gone

Man Who Helped Branson Thrive Dies at 76.

HST RIP

Hunter Thompson apparently committed suicide yesterday...the orbituary is online on Yahoo news

Once I get caught up on my work, I'll post a little more on this.

comics for history!

Interesting article about a forthcoming comic which is an illustrated history of the state of Israel. I can't help but thinking that this would make a perfect companion to the comic of Pope John Paul II's life and childhood that came out a few years ago...

goodbye, Carson

Johnny Carson passed away this weekend. Late night television has not been the same without him. Favorite Carson anecdote: he said that the one type of joke he could never pull off was an Abraham Lincoln joke, and he could never figure out why (Culture Studies scholars? Theories?). So of course, Carson kept trying them. One of the more memorable was when he did a sketch of Lincoln as a stand-up comedian...it ended with someone shooting off his stovepipe hat.