BrianKaneOnline » Brian

Tea For Two

Brian — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:07:39 +0000

Required reading:

This Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin by Michael Joseph Gross hit the web yesterday. Let’s hope it does for her career what the VF profile of General Stanley McChrystal did for his.

Jane Mayer’s profile of the Kochs, David and Charles, in The New Yorker a couple of weeks ago also helps to put a little sunlight on the monsters behind the Tea Party. If nothing else, it shows that Rupert Murdoch isn’t the only evil supervillian trying to take over the world. Now we just need a real-life James Bond to take these motherfuckers out.

Matt Taibbi is up to his usual snuff with a Rolling Stone post about the recent primary elections and the influence the Tea Party did and did not have on the outcome, and the insidious race-baiting of Murdoch’s FOX News.

Christopher Hitchens proves that he isn’t dead yet by giving the ol’ one-two to the Beckapalooza of last weekend. As infuriating as he is, we are going to sorely miss Hitch when he is gone. (If you’ve got the time, I also recommend this long video featuring interviews with teabaggers at the Beckapalooza for an up-close-and-personal look at the terminally stupid)

The always-funny “stupid customer” website Not Always Right.com had a little precautionary tale about what happens when teabaggers show up to vote.

And here’s a little history lesson about the origins of the Tea Party and its ilk:

In The Cards

Brian — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:52:09 +0000

The always weird and sometimes wonderful EnglishRussia.com had a post featuring these excellent Ukrainian folk-style playing cards by the Ukrainian artist Vladislav Erko, best known in Russia for his rendition of “The Snow Queen”, and for illustrating the work of writer Paulo Coelho, but not well-known in the West.

A Minister And An Atheist Walk Into A Bar…

Brian — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:39:13 +0000

…well, not really. But this cartoon is pretty good. (via Friendly Atheist)

Why Sarah Palin Will Never Run For President

Brian — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:01:20 +0000

Who needs to when there are job openings like this one that she is just PERFECT for!

This Has Nothing To Do With Microsoft

Brian — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:58:23 +0000

That guy at The Oatmeal covers one of my pet writing peeves: the proper and improper uses of i.e. and e.g.

Crafty

Brian — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:51:54 +0000

WANT:

DO NOT WANT:

Your Daily Infographics

Brian — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:47:28 +0000

First a small bit of context for the first one: I was simply gobsmacked by this Huffington Post story (pointed out by Jack Cluth) that twigged out something that went unreported in the “20% of Americans think Obama is a Muslim” story from last week: 52% of Republicans believe that Osama “probably or definitely” wants to impose Islamic Sharia law on the United States. I will let you ponder the rank stupidity of that while you look at this Venn diagram (via Scott Underwood)

(original source)

Graphic #2 is, as I say, only marginally related, as it is more specifically about the Iraq War, but considering the lame bit of political theater from Obama last night, it’s worth recalling:

Make of these data points what you will, my friends.

The Keyboard Stylings of Johann Hari

Brian — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:52:05 +0000

Man, lately you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an article by Johann Hari somewhere. If, by some chance, you have been swinging your dead cat and missing, Hari is a young British journalist, who rose to fame while at Cambridge about 10 years ago, and, like a lot of contemporary journos, is known for his political activism and advocacy as well as his writing. He’s won a bunch of awards including the 2008 George Orwell Prize for political writing and the 2010 Martha Gelhorn Prize for war reporting.

Personally, I rather like his writing. He’s a lot more versatile than some older and well-established political journalists, but a lot less “watch me, I’m amazing” than people like Malcolm Gladwell. Here are thee recent articles in three different publications which give you a sense of his versatility:

This review in the New York Times of a new biography of Winston Churchill looks at the fundamental contradiction of Churchill’s own Victorian/Edwardian worldview versus the repudiation of the very same ideals as re-interpreted by Nazism decades later and Churchill’s seeming embrace of democratic ideals in response.

At his regular gig as a commentator for the British newspaper The Independent, Hari looks back at the Good Old Days of the 1990s and 2000s and the way management consultancy firms basically bullshitted their way to extreme profitability and helped to created the failed corporations that litter the landscape today.

And at The Huffington Post, he has this depressing piece that sort of restates an obvious situation: global warming is getting worse, but nobody is really willing to do a damn thing about it, even if they aren’t busy denying its very existence.

Area Man Knows What He Knows

Brian — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:29:29 +0000

The Onion isn’t even satire anymore, it’s straight reporting:

“Gentries, 48, said he had absolutely no interest in exposing himself to further knowledge of Islamic civilization or putting his sweeping opinions into a broader context of any kind, and confirmed he was “perfectly happy” to make a handful of emotionally charged words the basis of his mistrust toward all members of the world’s second-largest religion.”

Now Dancing The Merengue…

Brian — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:23:11 +0000

Oh, DWTS, how badly you have disappointed me. Thanks for leaking the story about Bristol Palin being a contestant over the weekend so that I had a few days to wrap my head around that, but the announcement of the rest of the cast last night leaves me weeping and in despair. The fat kid from “That’s So Raven”? Margaret Cho? Is she even ALLOWED on network television? THE SITUATION?!?!?!?!?!?!

And to top it off, Edyta quit! Now who’s going to be all naked ‘n’ stuff? It better not be Florence Henderson!

I’m seriously evaluating whether or not I’m even going to watch this season. At this point, I think I’d rather watch one of those midget/quintuplet/cake decorating shows on TLC.

Here’s a dog dancing the merengue in a clip that is bound to be better than ANYTHING Bristol Palin does:

Make Your Own Teabagger

Brian — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:21:31 +0000

Talk About Your Government Stimulus

Brian — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:11:29 +0000

Words To Live By

Brian — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:09:55 +0000

‘Maters

Brian — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:08:53 +0000

BrianKaneOnline » Brian

Tea For Two

See Also

In The Cards

See Also

A Minister And An Atheist Walk Into A Bar…

See Also

Why Sarah Palin Will Never Run For President

See Also

This Has Nothing To Do With Microsoft

See Also

Crafty

See Also

Your Daily Infographics

See Also

The Keyboard Stylings of Johann Hari

See Also

Area Man Knows What He Knows

See Also

Now Dancing The Merengue…

See Also

Make Your Own Teabagger

See Also

Talk About Your Government Stimulus

See Also

Words To Live By

See Also

‘Maters

See Also