Link round-up for 4 March 2018
Fear the power of the elf jihad donut.
Tortoise pwns wall.
This dude doesn't play by the rules.
A neighbor helps tidy up the trash.
This tree makes の sense.
A Shrek fan looks at Trump.
"I'm not a robot."
Gold smugglers resort to an unusual tactic.
Must be a scary movie.
Nice try.
You guys are eating your crackers wrong!
South Texas Republicans get big-bucks donations.
Learn the dark origin of Cookie Monster.
There must be a contest going on to design the most ridiculous clothes. I mean, good grief.
Ballistic gel can be repurposed, apparently.
What's the point of going through life with this big of a chip on your shoulder?
We might be useful rodents. If so, we should stop wearing polyester.
They're watching you.
Gross behavior leads to serious self-pwnage.
Put the needle on the record (if you're under 30, ask an old person to explain what that means).
A Texas church inadvertently makes the case for Satan.
Whenever gays win a court battle, wingnuts start ranting about "tyranny".
Apparently God granted a special right to Americans (found via Hackwhackers).
"To hell with the pearl, give me the healthy oyster."
Neil Carter looks at the latest godawful fundie movie. A Christian discusses why Christian movies are so bad (and some of them are really bad). Speaking of Christians and movies, they're freaking out over one of ours that hasn't even been made yet. But Black Panther may have been precedent-setting.
Art collectors are a bit like vultures.
An Alabama Republican calls for decisive action to stop school shootings.
Substitute Jews, blacks, atheists, etc. for Geminis, Leos, Cancers, etc., and you'll see why I consider astrology disgusting.
Stupid people are stupid. At least this one's honest.
Coal baron sues comedian, gets pwned by squirrel.
See Green Eagle's comment on farming in the 1920s -- some interesting history.
There's a double standard in police responses.
"The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave."
Trump has benefited one disfavored group -- sharks.
School massacres are God's way of saying he doesn't like gay marriage.
They didn't know any better.
Sorry, Wakanda isn't really plausible.
The NRA gets on board with Ajit Pai's divide-and-conquer tactics. If we can't save net neutrality, we can document the abuses. My city is considering municipal broadband.
Ex-fundies face a huge battle just to be normal.
It's the only way to fly -- not.
Texas anti-abortion nutbars are busy squabbling with each other (found via Susan of Texas).
This is what the effects of a bomb cyclone look like.
Guns have always been part of the black political struggle.
It must be cool, being able to commit a crime and have the victim face charges.
I'll never understand this stuff -- why do these people think making themselves miserable will please God?
These businesses are attacking your right to repair your own property.
Here's what it looks like when people think bigotry is acceptable because it's rooted in religious taboos.
Sometimes the good guy wins.
Bruce Gerencser looks at the misery wrought by the war on opioids.
Hecate Demeter has a few words for the people who are trying to push Dianne Feinstein out.
Members of the Country Music Association don't want a bigot on the board of directors.
The Republican tax "reform" is full of weird glitches. But as intended, most of the benefits are going to rich investors (found via Hackwhackers).
This editor thinks you're so dumb you should embrace bullshit if it makes you feel good.
A work requirement for Medicaid is much worse than it sounds.
"Thank God for slavery....." (found via Mendip).
Knuckle-draggers are sending death threats to Parkland survivors. Breitbart settles for insults. Then there's Erick Erickson.
Don't let the enemy divide us by generations.
Choose gobbledygook over science, pay the price.
A tragic "experiment" sheds light on the development of gender roles.
The AR-15 inflicts devastating injuries (found via Lady, That's My Skull).
A theocratic bigot and reactionary gets an undeserved honor once denied to a worthier man.
These people exist (scroll down a bit). And these people exist.
Santorum is a complete and utter asshole.
Trump may soon start cutting government spending -- especially on science.
Yes, there is a consensus.
This isn't a technology problem, it's a shitty-employer problem.
Ideology must never limit scientific inquiry. Universities are plagued by enraged science deniers.
We're not dumb, but a lot of us are ignorant.
Different cultures are different.
We need to listen to these people's experiences.
The Icelandic language is under pressure from the internet (found via Earthbound Misfit) -- in fact this is happening with small languages all over the world.
Finland isn't really called Finland (found via Miss Cellania).
Putin's tinpot fascist regime is a menace to democracy and freedom everywhere, and the US needs to act -- of course Trump is doing nothing. As for Putin's recent speech on nuclear weapons, there's less there than meets the eye. (And what planet is that from 0:24 to 0:31?)
There's a quiet but growing minority in the Arab world (found via Snowflake Collections).
An American girl faces, then escapes, the nightmare of forced marriage.
If you think I'm too hard on the religious nuts, here's how some of them talk about people like me.
The US supports Saudi aggression in Yemen, but some Senators are trying to end that.
De-nuclearizing North Korea is not worth a war. The Kim regime's new conciliatory stance may be based on realizing it's doomed if a war starts (found via Earthbound Misfit) -- which greatly improves the odds of a peaceful resolution if Trump will just STFU and let South Korea handle things.
Chinese censors go nutzoid, even temporarily banning the letter N.
South Africa's parliament votes to copy the policy that caused agricultural collapse in Zimbabwe.
Trump's wall has become Schrödinger's wall.
Shower Cap blog amusingly surveys the wacky world of Republicans (found via Roosterville). Corporations are Marxist, etc., etc., etc. Seriously, CPAC showed what they've become. Millennials are turning away in droves.
Almost everybody hates Trump's tariff plan. Europe plans targeted retaliation.
Democrats will put up a fight for Texas this year.
A law professor argues that Trump can, in fact, be indicted while in office (found via Green Eagle).
Even when Republicans win, they lose.
Here's a story illustrating the depth of Trump's narcissism (found via Progressive Eruptions).
I can hardly remember not being sick of it.
Want more links? Try here and here.
[409 days down, 1,053 days to go until the inauguration of a real President!]
posted by Infidel753 at 5:16 AM
7 Comments:
Re: "Why Christian Movies are BAD" ...
In addition to what's noted in the video, I'd like to suggest something else: There's not much motivation to create quality films. Why? Because the preachers (not filmmakers!) who produce them know that other Christians will still flock to see them, without regard to whether they're good or bad, if for no other reason than that they're "Christian" films. They have no incentive to produce a movie good enough to draw in an audience; the audience is already "baked in" as it were. In a lot of cases the producers use churches as their marketing engines.
Another reason they have little motivation to create good films: If they produce something really good that's recognized, well, that's terrific; but if they produce garbage that gets lambasted by critics, all they have to do is whine about "persecution!" and snivel that film critics hate Christianity.
Man, that was quite a list this week, Infidel. You know I understand what a painful thing it is to wade through all of this, so I just want to thank you for going to the effort.
Going through some of this stuff here, and leave a few comments. Some stuff here I never even heard of, but I havent kept up with as much as I should I guess.
I did know about Bernie and Mike Lee's push to do something about our intervention in Yemen ... Yemen is a bloody mess, and hardly getting any MSM coverage. You already know how I feel about us being flunkies to the Saudis anywayz, so I'll spare any further on this.
Silver- 89 short read concerning poverty ... IT IS so twisted in what we are thinking (at least some of us). The most twisted in todayz new poverty, is the expansion of it in many areas, YET ... there is more wealth than ever ... how can this be?
Excellent piece concerning Portland pushing the municipal broadband ... and I would love to see a major U.S. city pull off something like this with success, and set a new wave of change in how internet access is handled, and PDX is the kind of town that can spark something like this, although some may see it as difficult. All we are seeing today is a rise of monopolization, no one will say it hardly, but it's clear as day. Too much rise in corporate dominance, and frankly, despite all the good things they provide, they sure f*ck up alot of our society and politics. Let corporations take over anything, it turns everything to plastic or like generic shit.
As far as the war on opioids ... my heart goes out to these folks, I know a couple guys that have chronic pain (back problems and joint problems type shit) ... I never had chronic pain of any kind, but I listen to these folks and what they have to go through. This is another thing very difficult for me to even have an answer to. I know how heavy the street pharmaceuticals are in my town, and it comes from pill mills. I also know the profit end and what pharma companies do to flood the markets. I also know of folks personally, that went from opioids to street tar heroin, after they lost their line, script cuts, jobs, insurance or whatever. I received scripts like after surgery, I used like 2 pills, and blew it off ... doctor asked if I wanted refills, etc, on follow up visit ... NO THANX. But if I ever needed them, I certainly would not hesitate to use them, I'll be damned if I would want to go through some of the pain, that folks have described to me.
Vox on Dems competitive in Texas ... I think Texas will see a shift in the near future. I went out of my way to try to vote for some of the most progressive ones that I could find this election.
War of word conflict in Texas anti- abortion movement ... SO TRUE ... I have never seen nothing like it today, in all my years in Texas! I'm seeing tele ads in primetime with republicans calling each other liberals or being too lenient on choice rights ... I see democrats trying to paint themselves as right leaning liberals (WTF!!??**) I am so disgusted with this push to the right, while again, no one asking anyone to move even a bit to the left, the total imbalance, and not just Texas, but the whole goddamn bloody country. I avoid more now, because of how predictable and plastic this shit has become as far as our politics. The ONLY way to challenge this is with hardcore progressives ... I dont care about the bloody talk about, well, their too far left or whatever (you know, like f*ck them democrats who push the right agenda) ... NO ... the f'n problem is ... this whole country is too f'n right. And the most sickening, is so much of the right, aint even conservative at that.
Off duty cop kills baby in 94mph crash and the mother gets charged ... first I even heard of this, and insanity, but this is what this country is becoming too, more and more.
I been keeping up with this bomb cyclone ... I was explaining this to a lady yesterday who was talking about this with me, she has kin up in Maine. I told her that THIS IS a result of global warming, it never even crossed her mind. I myself have blogged about the east coast and flooding etc ... why? because scientists have been telling us this FOR YEARS. Not one bloody damn thing in all the MSM coverage is even talking about global warming in this, and I told this gal ... dont expect them to either ... with the corporate control of today over media and politics.
Massacre theology in the Oklahoma Senate ... it's the truth! Another big problem, is the growing talk like this in America ... the alt right and fundamoralists are like on f'n steroids right now, and this Trump character has them all pumped up (and he flip flops like day and night changes, he already has broken more campaign promises than you can shake a stick at). Another reason why there needs to be a strong force from the hardcore leftists ... either do it NOW ... or pay the price later.
Guns vital to the black political struggle ... absolutely. Malcolm X made it clear as day as well in his Ballot or Bullet speech ... being they expect whites to be all well armed in America ... why not blacks? But this goes way back, I have postings on this myself as far as the black history and challenges.
Trump officials and Medicaid requirements. I been hip to this for some time on this one coming ... some of it is insane, and many cant even work ... this is all designed to abolish anything that helps folks, making it too difficult for folks, and to turn everything over to charities, churches, donations, etc ... all this shit is connected. We need more goddamn requirements on members of Congress who legislate this trash. ... Later guy ....
PsiCop: That's probably true. Of course they would probably claim that they want non-Christians to see these films as well and (hopefully) be recruited for Christianity, but they surely know not many will actually do so.
Propaganda movies of any kind are usually crap. Most old Soviet propaganda movies are as laughably bad as the Christian ones, and for similar reasons. Real movies can have a message, but to be successful, they focus on being good movies and keep the message more subtle and organic to the story.
Green: Thanks. Actually almost all the material in the link round-ups is just stuff I ran across on the net during the week, but putting these postings together is getting to be a fair amount of work.
Ranch: The internet is so ubiquitous and necessary that it really should be a public utility. My only concern is that government, too, might be motivated to discourage access to certain kinds of content. There's some hope that technological work-arounds can ultimately defeat that problem, though.
The war on opioids strikes me as a failure in the human capacity for pattern recognition. Even people who have seen through the "war on drugs" seen to be getting caught up in it.
The fundies are on steroids all right, but I think they're walking into a trap. They can get away with that kind of insanity as long as their party (Republicans) is in power. But they're making themselves look like bigger loonies than ever in the eyes of the cultural mainstream, and they'll pay a price for that in the end.
"You guys are eating your crackers wrong!" There is a comment on this about kneeling in front of a priest while he puts something in your mouth reminding them of the trauma this has caused so many. The following commenters say it is about the act of doing it, not the person. This reminds me of why I am not religious.
Re: "Real movies can have a message, but to be successful, they focus on being good movies and keep the message more subtle and organic to the story."
You're right that messages have to take a back seat to quality. And as you point out, this is true of any kind of propagandistic or "message heavy" material. Way back in the day, for example, when M*A*S*H was in its original run, some of their worst episodes were the "message" ones that made a big deal out of how horrific war was.
Most rational people already know that wars are bad. Also, many (or perhaps most?) rational Americans were against the Vietnam War (which was the true issue of the series, not the Korean War which was its overt setting). But nobody needed to be beaten over the head with it in the course of what was, otherwise, a sitcom/drama. Yeah, a little "anti-war" messaging, during the course of a dramedy, is OK, but some of the eps took it a bit too far, and were just too sanctimonious about it.
Perhaps the worst of the bunch was an ep in which Hawkeye went to the site of the cease-fire negotiations to read the riot act to everyone there because they weren't working fast enough to end the war. Sorry, but that was just absurd, in every imaginable way, and (as I said) way too sanctimonious. The show was, otherwise, quite good, and conveyed an ambient anti-war message. They didn't need to be heavy-handed about it. But, apparently, the producers went there, from time to time. More's the pity.
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