Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

10 Oct 2010 09:43

tags

Politics: Pamela Geller, on drawing attention to that whole Park 51 saga

  • ‘I gotta be me. I gotta be free.’ I’m serious. I haven’t thought about that song in a million years. But it’s really true.
  • “Atlas Shrugs” blogger Pamela Geller • In a lengthy New York Times profile on the woman who enabled the Park51 controversy to spread like wildfire. Geller, whose hard-line anti-Islamic stances once got her banned from PayPal, has been a longtime critic of the religion and has pushed more than her fair share of hatred into the world. And she’s built enemies along the way, such as Charles Johnson of “Little Green Footballs,” a former friend who had this nice thing to say: “When people like Pam Geller are the loudest voices out there talking about it, it drowns out everything else and makes everyone look crazy.” (On a side note, this article about Johnson is equally entertaining.) Geller’s next project, by the way? Boycotting Campbell’s soup. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Oct 2010 20:33

tags

World: Good to know: Guards at U.S. bases in Afghanistan have Taliban ties

  • Let’s say that you’re the Pentagon, and you’re fighting a war in Afghanistan. Now let’s say that you have bases for your soldiers. And let’s say that they need guards. Who do you hire? If the answer is private Afghan security firms with little oversight, *ding ding ding* you’ve won a prize. Now, let’s offer up an extra wrinkle for you guys, and this is the one the Senate is getting all caught up on. Apparently, some of these guards have ties to the Taliban, that nebulous enemy that you’ve been fighting for almost a decade. (That’s not even to mention the guards with ties to Iranian intelligence or the ones with criminal ties.) Whaddya do? You get really pissed off, that’s what. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Oct 2010 10:39

tags

Politics: So, anti-immigration firebrand Lou Dobbs is a hypocrite

 

  • hm… Lou Dobbs basically built his career with CNN on his anger over immigration issues.
  • hmm… Dobbs, who dramatically quit his job last year, may be planning an electoral run soon.
  • hmmm…
     The Nation found out that he has a bunch of illegal workers on his property. Uh-oh. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Oct 2010 22:49

tags

U.S.: The Supreme Court has a field day with the Westboro Baptist Church

  • This is a case about exploiting a private family’s grief.The question is: Why should the First Amendment tolerate exploiting this Marine’s family when you have so many other forums for getting across your message?
  • Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg • Asking the best question of the day to Westboro Baptist Church lawyer (and member) Margie J. Phelps, who represented the church in their case against the family of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, whose funeral they protested way back in 2006. While wanting to favor free speech as much as possible, the justices clearly struggled with this case, with many trying to find a narrow path that allowed them to limit the private-person-damaging hate speech of a group like Westboro while not affecting other kinds of speech. Fortunately, Phelps made it easy on them, suggesting that wounded soldiers shouldn’t have a cause of action if they’re being protested against by a group similar to hers. At that point, the justices jumped on her. It’ll still be a number of months before we know how this one plays out, guys.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 22:43

tags

Politics: Max Headroom: In memoriam of Rick Sanchez, a really weird anchor

  • look, CNN’s covering it!Gotta love Howard Kurtz’s comment at the beginning here, mentioning how he had to tear up his programming plans to cover Rick Sanchez’s firing from CNN. Kurtz goes over the Rick’s history with the network, including that bit where our boy got tased.
  • Mr. Twitter himselfOK, while the often-showy Sanchez probably made a lot of mistakes on the air at CNN, one really good thing he did was basically own Twitter before any other major news personality tried. Here, he discusses his experience hosting the tweet-obsessed 2009 Shorty Awards.
  • Behind the scenesEver wonder how “Rick’s List” was made? Neither did we. But in case you were wondering how the low-rated CNN show was created, here’s a clip. As you can see, Rick wears a chef’s hat and says, “I’m a big guy. I can take it.” If that were true, he wouldn’t be in this mess.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 03:15

tags

Politics: Andrew Shirvell: Insane Michigan bureaucrat stalks gay U of M student

  • Anderson Cooper, eat your heart out. The guy he’s talking to in this episode of “Anderson Cooper is Awesome” is Andrew Shirvell, an assistant Attorney General for the state of Michigan. In his free time, Shirvell runs this blog. “Chris Armstrong Watch” is basically this guy freaking the hell out over the fact that the University of Michigan’s student-body president is gay. Shirvell’s reasonable reaction to this news is to draw swastikas on Armstrong’s face and stalk Armstrong and all of his friends on Facebook. Because that’s what reasonable people do. Anderson Cooper turns Shirvell, who gets paid money from checks that taxpayers indirectly write, into a laughingstock halfway through the first question. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

27 Sep 2010 11:31

tags

Culture: Octomom yard sale: How desperate has she gotten, anyway?

  • $100 to mug for a photo with her and the kids source
  • $85to buy a fridge that once held her many kids’ formula
  • yesshe also tried to sell an autographed nursing bra
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

24 Sep 2010 11:37

tags

Culture: Months after Conan screw-up, NBC head Jeff Zucker is out

  • You win, Conan fans. And TV fans in general. It took a few months to hit, but Jeff Zucker – a.k.a. the guy who set up the disastrous Jay Leno lineup switch last season – is headed out the door in the wake of the Comcast merger, and not by his own choosing. “in the last nine months it became increasingly clear that they did want to put their own team in place — and I didn’t want to end up being a guest in my own house,” he said. While NBC’s cable networks did great, the mothership struggled, and as a result, Zucker’s out. Good riddance. You deserve it for what you did to Conan O’Brien. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Sep 2010 20:27

tags

World: Three crazy things Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at the UN today

  • one9/11 took place in part “to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order to save the Zionist regime.”
  • twoAhmadinejad says “The majority of the American people as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view.”
  • three“It was carried out by a terrorist group but that the American government supported and took advantage of the situation.” source
  • » The craziest part?: Ahmadinejad said these things one right after the other, in succession. For understandable reasons, the U.S. and a few other countries walked out on him. What a tactless scumbag, what with his conspiracy theories and all.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

20 Sep 2010 09:21

tags

World: Swedish anti-Muslim party does well in elections

  • 5.7% of the vote for far-right anti-Muslim group source
  • » In the U.S., that percentage means you lose. But Sweden uses a parliamentary system. In Sweden, that means that they just won 20 seats in parliament, enough to affect the country’s balance of power. A harbinger of bad things?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>