Category Archives: Politics

jackbooted Chinese authorities finally get SOMETHING right

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don't expect these two to be hugging soonThey’re arresting the street hug thugs.

Reuters via Fark

Chinese appear not to have warmed to a “free hugs” campaign aimed at cheering up strangers by hugging them on the street, with some huggers even being hauled away by police for questioning, media said Monday.

The campaign hit the streets of Beijing, Changsha and Xian this weekend, with participants opening their arms to embrace passers-by and brandishing cards saying “free hugs,” “care from strangers,” “refuse to be apathetic,” the Beijing News said…

“Though some people refused (to be hugged), I hugged 20 people in one minute,” one girl was quoted as saying.

The Free Hugs campaign started in Australia and gained fame with a music video this year.

Well that explains it; any woman who’s ever been in a bar with Aussies knows they can’t keep their hands to themselves. They probably promised those Chinese Hug Thugs free work visas in exchange for promiscuous stranger-fondling.

Go Team Authoritarian Crackdown! They must never reach our fair shores.

new Michael J. Fox hospital story

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Michael J. Fox, the hawtnessWell, it’s not new if you’ve been to Gawker or Defamer recently and trolled through the Fox-related comments, but it’s new to the larger world, and it’s original to my mother, so here it is, straight from the foal’s mouth.

My mother used to work at the Children’s Hospital here in Vancouver, and the story she heard (and she heard it the same day, from people in the room) was that Michael was getting a tour and saw one of their scanners. He was told that there was a several months long waiting list for scans, because they couldn’t afford to buy a new one.

He asked how much it was…something like $20,000 (this was in the Eighties).

He wrote them a cheque.

Also, his sister(? or in-law, can’t remember) gave Greenpeace $200 when I was doing door-to-door for them. She was very nice.

yet ANOTHER Feitelberg against the war

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the director asked if it would matter if she left the politics out of Marie Antoinette 

I was quoting this for some jaded youth on Boris‘ blog when I thought I might as well post it here. It is the winning essay from last year’s Vanity Fair Essay Contest, and the subject was, basically, what in tarnation is up with kids today? the real cris de coeur coming from the fact that, like frogs in a slowly warming braising pan, nothing at all, no matter how severe, seems to bother them.

I cannot understand why prophylactic tranquillizer sales are so high when, in fact, nothing seems to upset these people because nothing whatsoever seems to register. Maybe the answer is in here:

Another Feitelberg Against the War

…We are spoiled realists. History has funneled us into deeply individual, almost solipsistic lives. We’re a generation that doesn’t expect, in its wildest dreams or worst nightmares, to be directly affected by something so oblique as politics. When my sister’s reserve unit was called up to serve in Afghanistan, I was flabbergasted that her life should change or suffer because of her moment in history. Not particularly optimistic (as our 60s-era parents were), nor particularly well equipped to deal with hardship (as our grandparents were), we have learned history’s lessons about the way things really work, yet have no real need to put that knowledge toward any great cause. Oh, sure, we have plenty of promise, but, as yet, haven’t been given a screen to project it on.

We don’t have a common enemy with a greasy handlebar mustache, although Dick Cheney does come close. Not that we want one. But, as a result, we don’t always know who the bad guy is.

We do know from our parents’ divorces that marriage actually isn’t forever.

We know that free love isn’t a great idea and can kill.

We know that Democrats lie and Republicans lie. We know that good presidents lie as much as the bad ones do.

We’ve learned from cheap furniture, the sprint of technology, and the pendulum of fashion not to get too attached to anything…

Which is as good a point as any to note that Vanity Fair no longer has this essay on its website. This link goes to the Google Cache version, and how long that remains useful is anyone’s guess.

Things get unsurprisingly complicated, and still our rage is bloodless…

YouTube’s “We’re Killing Kenny” letter

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You're on notice!

Here’s a copy of the actual demand letter YouTube sent YouTubers who’d posted Colbert Report, Daily Show, or South Park footage to YouTube. Got this via Idealog. It has a copyright notice on it…wonder what they’ll do to me. If I don’t post in 48 hours, call the cops…no, call the UN. Note also that it was removed simply on receipt of the complaint, not after investigation of the complaint. Looks like Gawker‘s (and mine! and Christopher Walken’s Mother‘s) boring YouTube Cassandrizing is starting to manifest.

YouTube

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Comedy Central claiming that this material is infringing:

Stephen Colbert Interviews Steve Wozniak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-whFuN0S0M

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube’s copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, to be effective it must be a written communication provided to our designated agent that includes substantially the following (please consult your legal counsel or see 17 U.S.C. Section 512(g)(3) to confirm these requirements):

(A) A physical or electronic signature of the subscriber.

(B) Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.

(C) A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.

(D) The subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriberis address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection©(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

Such written notice should be sent to our designated agent as follows:

DMCA Complaints

YouTube, Inc.

1000 Cherry Ave.

Second Floor

San Bruno, CA 94066

Email: copyright@youtube.com

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,

YouTube, Inc.

Copyright © 2006 YouTube, Inc.

Pentecostals want to spend taxes de-gaying Norwegian bunnies

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Gay dogs do it doggie styleThat’s about it, really.

Except that the Lutherans, by contrast, simply wish the Norwegians to burn in Hell, rather than waste any time in attempts at animal re-heterosexualizing first.

I guess they don’t like waiting.

A Lutheran priest said he hoped the organisers would “burn in hell,” and a Pentecostal priest lashed out at the exhibition, saying taxpayers’ money used for it would have been better spent helping the animals correct “their perversions and deviances”.

To be fair, this one looks like he's on the DLGot this from ArchieArchive‘s report on the Oslo exhibition of animal homosexuality. It’s a really interesting report, and the links provide some much-needed insight into the very nature of human character.

Big horn sheep “need to have sex with their own fellows just to be accepted. And by being accepted they are making up very important social relations which later give them better access to females,” says Mr Soeli. 

So Hollywood really IS run by sheep. That would explain why nobody’s bought my script yet. Maybe I should have my agent fuck them…oh right. Anybody know a pretty, gay agent? 

And look, here’s Annie and Susan, explained:

Among swans and flamingos there have been cases of two females living together using sexual contact with males purely to reproduce.  

And, look over there, behind the bearded moss: Tom and John!

Strap in!

Or is it Lance and Matchew?

It has been reported that in certain bird species males double up, allowing them to control a larger territory than a heterosexual couple, which in turn serves to attract more females.

Looks like it’s working…

Tom Cruise, So in love