News & Media

I’m not a religious man by any definition of the term, but I’ve always had a place in my heart for Psalm 107:23-31, especially at times like this.

South Carolina representative Chris Corley has sent a heartwarming Christmas card to his colleagues urging them to repent for their sins. Specifically, for voting to remove the Confederate flag from the state’s Civil War memorial after a racist lunatic slaughtered 9 people at a church. Corley’s heartwarming missive invites recipients to think of “a happier time when South Carolina’s leaders possessed morals, convictions and the principles to stand for what is right” and invited them to “take this joyous time as an opportunity to ask forgiveness of all your sins such as betrayal.” Corley concluded his message of holiday cheer by quoting Dante’s Inferno

The Man in the High Castle is a piece of alternative history fiction. It imagines an alternate future in which fascist forces won World War II. The Nazis occupy the eastern part of the United States, while the Japanese take up residence in the west. The Italians are non-existent in the series. You would think that they would get Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey… but I digress. So there is an alternate future in which America loses its civil liberties and fascist forces occupy it. There is a surveillance state. Political dissent is not tolerated. Hmm… add in a

Bilgin Ciftci is a Turkish Blogger who posted a meme of Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) comparing Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to the fictional character. He stands accused of insulting a public figure, which is a crime in Turkey. The judge reportedly has now called in a team of five experts to determine whether this is, indeed, an insult. Ciftci faces up to a month in jail if he is convicted.   His lawyer Hicran Danışman joked that the trial has now turned into “a case of saving the pride of Gollum”. (source)  

I don’t care if you’re a sports fan, Pats fan, or neither… this is fucking genius. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcassBXCkZc]

by Jay M. Wolman   Next Sunday night, December 6, marks the beginning of Chanukkah.  The tl;dr version of the story is that Judah Maccabee and his brothers beat back the occupying King Antiochus, restored the Temple, and the oil lasted 8 days.  And, thus, we eat latkes, spin dreidels, light menorahs, and give presents.  Except… Judah and his band of brothers were religious zealots.  Their father, Mattathias, kicked off the whole rebellion when he killed another Jew for sacrificing to a Greek god.  When they won, they founded the Hasmonean Dynasty, acting as both High Priests in the Temple

This weekend I wrote about how LA Councilwoman Nury Martinez wants to use, promote, and expand the surveillance state – all in the name of discouraging prostitution.  (post here) If that wasn’t enough for you, Mimesis law has even more analysis on it, here.    

Martin Luther King knew that institutional racism was about “them” fucking “us” over, but making sure that “we” split into at least two fragments — fragments that don’t get along with each other.  “The Southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow,” King said in 1965. “And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than a black man.” Scott Greenfield

I wrote a somewhat vituperative screed (who me???) about the Saudi justice system a few days ago. And now, perhaps just to spite me (heh), they’re considering pardoning a blogger that they imprisoned for criticizing Islam. A Swiss newspaper is reporting that imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi could have his sentence of 1,000 lashes suspended, but Amnesty International has yet to confirm the news. The Swiss Secretary of Foreign Affairs Yves Rossier told the Fribourg daily newspaper La Liberté that Badawi’s sentence was suspended. “A royal pardon is in the works thanks to the head of state, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud,” he said. (source) If this is true, I will have some apologizing to

The newly politically correct Canadian government, citing security, will not allow single Syrian men into the country.  Single women are ok though.  Because now even the left is using “terrorism” as its bullshit boogeyman to push its agenda. (source)  Remember when that was just a right-wing thing?  Ah, the good old days.

I’m not going Christian on you. But, looking at the leading nations when it comes to executions, that verse resonated with me.

An attorney representing “War Machine” a.k.a.Jonathan Koppenhaver, in his trial for kicking the living shit out of his girlfriend, adult actress, Christy Mack (a.k.a. Christine Mackinday) raised an interesting line of defense. He reportedly argued that you can’t rape a porn actress, because, she’s a porn actress. In court on Monday, defense attorney Brandon Sua said that Mackinday’s career in adult films constituted consent and that her job instilled in her “the desire, the preference, the acceptability towards a particular form of sex activities that were outside of the norm.” The sexual assaults Mackinday charges Koppenhaver with, said Sua, were a consensual

And it is hilarious… as is the fact that the stupid fucking media didn’t notice that they were cocks.  (source)

Massachusetts has given the world its fair share of musical greatness.  From the Dropkick Murphys back to Jonathan Richman, The Cars to the Pixies, Aerosmith to Mission of Burma.  Bim Skala Bim to the Lemonheads.  The Unband to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.  Lets put it this way, your musical life would fucking suck without the 617.  (Fine, we apologize for New Kids on the Block.  That abomination cancels out the points we gained from Til Tuesday and Billy Squier.) But, I gotta be honest.  Like any Patriots fan has to admit that the Pittsburgh Steelers are, to date, the better

A Los Angeles City Councilwoman is pushing for a plan that would use license plate reader technology to log visits to areas that are “known for” prostitution.  She then wants to use that database to send letters to the vehicle’s registrants, explaining that the car was in such an area. Councilwoman Nury Martinez seems to have the typical statist mentality about this. In a statement issued by her office Wednesday, Martinez said, “If you aren’t soliciting, you have no reason to worry about finding one of these letters in your mailbox. But if you are, these letters will discourage you

Last year, Sabrina Erdely wrote an article for Rolling Stone story about a gang rape in a UVA frat house.  It turns out that she made up the story, and that seems to have caused serious harm to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.   Now the bill is coming due, as Phi Psi sued Rolling Stone for defamation.  (source) The story initially exploded, largely because of the salacious details and a narrative that many wanted to believe.  I was one of the many who bought the story at first, as I confessed in an article last December. As I wrote then: 

In what is reported to be the largest demonstration in Polish history, 170,000 Poles rallied against the “Islamization of Europe.” (source)  (the source is somewhat suspect though).  I don’t need to provide sources to show that there are similar sentiments in the United States. I am both in support of this xenophobia and against it. When it comes to the United States and Canada, I believe there is no room for such xenophobia.  We are immigrant nations, and if we are “overwhelmed” with a flood of these strange people, with strange customs, and strange languages, and strange beliefs, so what?  

This Australian woman came up with a great way to deal with it — tell the little shits’ mothers! (source)  1) It is effective, 2) the kid is likely to actually learn something from his mother, 3) it doesn’t scream to authority to go and throw someone in jail for his thoughtcrime.