“I have an iPod with Beach Boys, Roy Orbison – I have a varied taste in music between very good music and not-so-good music, but most of my advancement in music appreciation stopped the day I was shot down in October of 1967.”
|
|
Subscribe to PBH RSS
PBH RSS Feed
Subscribe Via Email
Recent Comments
PBH Email Updates
-
Search PBH & Google
Longtime Scientologist Nancy Cartwright — best known as the voice of Bart Simpson — last year gave the church $10 million to help spread the word of founder L. Ron Hubbard across the globe. It was all part of Scientology’s Global Salvage effort, which aims to “de-aberrate” Earth — meaning to rid mankind of psychological ills and other “aberrant” behavior. Surprisingly, Nancy, 50, forked over twice as much as the Scientology’s most prominent member, Tom Cruise, who only gave $5 million in an installment plan.
Here are some of the celebrity gifts to Scientology from 2007 and their corresponding awards:
Nancy Cartwright, 50, Patron Laureate Award: $10 million.
Kirstie Alley, 57, Diamond Meritorious Award: $5 million.
abjure – v. to renounce a claim, a belief, or cause
Build your vocab with PBH!
Many people still think it’s a tight race between the two candidates. I on the other hand think the point of no return was the hit in South Carolina, and it’s only a matter of time before more states and more politicians throw their support behind Barack Obama instead of Hilary Clinton. First, let’s break down a few of Hillary’s weaknesses; not because I personally am trying to bring her down, but these are all points that would be exploited against this so called front-runner.1) She’s a Clinton, and she will be attacked for maintaining a dynasty in a way that never seemed to stick on George W. Bush. And voters are very aware that we have been Bush/Clinton/Bush for 20 years, another four of the same pattern is a hard sell. Especially when so many feel the country is on the wrong path.2) She’s still a Clinton. As we’ve seen in South Carolina, Bill is using all his influence and tricks to keep her on top. The Clinton’s (even with all the good they did get done) have never been known as a force for co-operation, so much as leveraging and manipulating others to their view. We’ve seen where 8 years of a political cudgel got us, it’s seems likely that her opponents will see and use this too.3) Hillary claims experience is one of her greatest defining traits, and even went so far as to say that she’s been fighting in Washington for the past 35 years, oddly this is
Dearest Comrades:
It seems that I have fallen on tough times. My wheel is empty, my testicles have swollen up to ungodly proportions, and my food bowl contains foodstuffs that only the most deprived West Coast vegan would consume. I do not have much left in me, but what I do have left, I will share with you. Thusly, I present, Hamsties as Celebrities and Politicians:
The Article: The Truth About Jena: Why America’s black-and-white narratives about race don’t reflect reality by Amy Waldman in the Atlantic.
The Text: In the fall of 2006, Mychal Bell was a football hero, and his hometown, Jena, Louisiana, loved him for it. As his high-school team posted its best season in six years, Bell scored 21 touchdowns, rushed for 1,006 yards, and was named player of the week three times by The Jena Times. The paper celebrated his triumphs in articles and photographs, including a dramatic one in which Bell, who’s black, stiff-arms a white defender by clutching his face guard. But within weeks after the season’s end, Bell was transformed into a villain, accused of knocking out a white student, Justin Barker, who was then beaten by a group of black students. The parish’s white district attorney charged Bell and five others with attempted second-degree murder. Six months later—after the DA had reduced the charges against Bell—a white jury convicted him, as an adult, of aggravated second-degree battery, a crime that carried a possible 22-year prison sentence. By then, he, along with his co-defendants, had been transformed yet again: together, they’d been dubbed the Jena Six and had become icons of a 21st-century civil-rights movement.
The artist of the day is Your Black Star [ yourblackstar.com ] [ myspace ]
“I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.”
- Albert Einstein (and you can listen to him say it and there is more on Einstein’s views and correspondence with Gandhi here)
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
- Martin Luther King
The Article: Was Democracy Just A Moment?, part of Robert Kaplan’s collection of essay’s from The Coming Anarchy.
The Text: In the fourth century A.D. Christianity’s conquest of Europe and the Mediterranean world gave rise to the belief that a peaceful era in world politics was at hand, now that a consensus had formed around an ideology that stressed the sanctity of the individual. But Christianity was, of course, not static. It kept evolving, into rites, sects, and “heresies” that were in turn influenced by the geography and cultures of the places where it took root. Meanwhile, the church founded by Saint Peter became a ritualistic and hierarchical organization guilty of long periods of violence and bigotry. This is to say nothing of the evils perpetrated by the Orthodox churches in the East. Christianity made the world not more peaceful or, in practice, more moral but only more complex. Democracy, which is now overtaking the world as Christianity once did, may do the same.
…for Presidential Candidates…
Today sees the drop-outs of both Fred Thompson and the tomorrow announcement of Dennis Kucinich now bringing this race to nine candidates in total.
January 2007 marked the official start of the unofficial election with nearly 20 politicians from the two major parties filling out paperwork for exploratory committee, or just being trumpeted by the media and online groups (Al Gore)….
But this time last year still had Vilsak, Hagel, Biden, Hunter, Dodd, Bayh, Tancredo, and Brownback among all the other casual names that were tossed around like trading cards. Looking at those that have come and gone it’s interesting to see who we have left.
The Article: A 1994 Atlantic article by Robert Kaplan entitled The Coming Anarchy. Weaving together elements of a world facing new demons, including environmental scarcity, renewed ethnic and tribal divisions, and the failures of the modern nation state, Kaplan writes a prosaic yet troubling outlook on the post Cold War political atlas. Many of his predictions have borne fruit, including his insights on the destabilization of Pakistan and the rise and entrenchment of the Islamic movement. A revistation of the Coming Anarchy provides one with relevant and timely perspectives on a world increasingly dominated by the stark divisions between the have’s and have not’s and the battle over scarce resources.
The Text: The Minister’s eyes were like egg yolks, an aftereffect of some of the many illnesses, malaria especially, endemic in his country. There was also an irrefutable sadness in his eyes. He spoke in a slow and creaking voice, the voice of hope about to expire. Flame trees, coconut palms, and a ballpoint-blue Atlantic composed the background. None of it seemed beautiful, though. “In forty-five years I have never seen things so bad. We did not manage ourselves well after the British departed. But what we have now is something worse—the revenge of the poor, of the social failures, of the people least able to bring up children in a modern society.” Then he referred to the recent coup in the West African country Sierra Leone. “The boys who took power in Sierra Leone come from houses like this.” The Minister jabbed his finger at a corrugated metal shack teeming with children. “In three months these boys confiscated all the official Mercedes, Volvos, and BMWs and willfully wrecked them on the road.” The Minister mentioned one of the coup’s leaders, Solomon Anthony Joseph Musa, who shot the people who had paid for his schooling, “in order to erase the humiliation and mitigate the power his middle-class sponsors held over him.”
On June 16, 1918, Eugene Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio in opposition to World War I and was arrested under the Espionage Act of 1917. He was convicted, sentenced to serve ten years in prison and disenfranchised for life. Debs appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. In its ruling on Debs v. United States, the court examined several statements Debs had made regarding World War I. While Debs had carefully guarded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act, the Court found he still had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and recruitment for the war. Below is the excerpt from his speech detailing his opposition to World War 1:
Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war.
“Disgraced today throughout the four corners of the globe, America would in a single leap resume its lost grace, its capacity to inspire the imagination, that combination of myth and reality that makes it the country of all possibilities – the democracy par excellence that has such power of seduction and likeability, despite all of its gaping flaws.”
From an editorial of the French newspaper Libération (and via Ablogistan)
No, seriously. Come see how good I look.
A new year, a new Most Loathsome List from Buffalo Beast. Not as good as last year, but man, still pretty fucking good. Some gems include:
38. Steven Moore
Charges: Mo Rocca’s evil twin and founder of the election-law-breaking PAC Club for Growth, Moore’s the Wall Street Journal’s most brazen corporate apologist and free market sycophant, who’s trotted out on TV to manicure the invisible hand every time it chips a nail squashing the poor.
Exhibit A: “If you don’t want to buy a Chinese toy, don’t buy it at Wal-Mart. But you know why people buy these things? Because they’re cheap and, for the most part, they’re pretty good products.”
Blog Roundup, this week in an easy 1 to 10 fashion. This better keep you god damn occupied!
1. Why the media hates Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.
Did you notice a pattern? Both Paul and Kucinich are against the influence of lobbyists, war profiteers, deficit spending, and big government, to name just a few.
2. Conveniently, it seems everyone in Washington has forgotten that the National Intelligence Estimate says that Iran is a virtual non-threat in regards to a WMD program. Ablogistan covers the 2008 Defense Authorization Act:
A vintage poster from 1911 printed by the Industrial Worker:
“I’m very concerned because I think the Jews want to drive the elephants to extinction because the trunk of an elephant reminds them of an uncircumcised penis… I’m absolutely serious about that.”
American chess-great Bobby Fischer, who died today.
This is part one, and this, ladies in gentleman, is part two:
“I’m not convinced that Paul is just “halting and uncomfortable on gay issues, like a lot of 72-year-old conservatives, but not hateful.” His denunciation of the Lawrence decision (a denunciation that is emphatically at odds with basic libertarian principles) as well as his rather extreme opposition to gay marriage suggest (though they do not prove) much more than mere discomfort on his part.”
“If you have a social need, you’re with Hillary. If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you’re young and you have no social needs, then he’s cool”
- A Clinton advisor to the Guardian, via Andrew Sullivan
Perhaps only one word can be used to describe all of the leading presidential contenders: multimillionaire.
Important things I learned:
- A kiss begins to sexually stimulate a man instantly.
- If a Christian man is kissing his date and it gives him an erection (often just the possibility of a kiss can do this), is God or his date being honored?
- Is this healthy for the man to get sexually aroused time after time without sexual release? When men become sexually aroused a large amount of blood flows to the genitals. If ejaculation does not occur; the build up of blood can become painful. That just can’t be a good thing for anyone! Ouch! :O)
- Just think how magical that first kiss will be if it is saved for your wedding day!
- The goal in any Christian relationship is to honor God. Prayer is intimate communication with God and can draw couples together in ways not intended if you are not careful. It’s better to pray together when you are with other Christians. This will help keep the focus on God and not allow thoughts and emotions to wander to prohibited areas.
#1. Novelty Boxer Shorts
Unless the woman you’re trying to seduce has a fantasy about fucking a clown, there’s no reason to ever be wearing underwear covered in images of Snoopy and Charlie Brown. “But it’s a holiday theme!” Terrific, but that doesn’t change the fact that the girl I’m undressing in front of is now trying to decide whether to fuck me or read me a Bernstein Bears story.
#2. Whatever “For Dummies” book pertains to the career I’m actively pursuing
I know that certain scientific laws make it impossible to give gifts that aren’t tangible like “running” or in this case, “spitting in my face,” but I must say, you’ve come close with your choice to give me this, “For Dummies” book. I know you don’t understand what I do for a living, but just because Michael Douglas didn’t pay for a limo to drop me off at the party you shouldn’t assume that I’m failing miserably. Your lack of faith wouldn’t be more obvious if you just gave me a job application to Wal-Mart.
“Who likes Burt’s Bees now that it’s been bought by Clorox?” Alison Stewart, a host on National Public Radio, said in November. “You know, just slap some bleach on your lips, it’ll all be good.”
From Can Burt’s Bees Turn Clorox Green? in the New York Times.
I am in London. I am a graduate student. I am increasing my vocabulary. I am writing lots of things like this. I am meeting new people. I am intentionally neglecting the past. I still feel divorced from the present. I promise to be better in the future. I look like this:
Knock knock
Oh hi, how’s it going? It’s me! Every girl ever. I’m really looking forward to this date. I’m not nearly as attractive as you remember me being because when we met the bar was dark and you were drunk. Come on in.
Let’s start off with the unavoidable tour of my incredibly typical post-college-girl apartment.
You’ll notice that I went ahead and purchased everything that Ikea and Pier 1 have ever produced. There’s my decorative birdcage over there even though I don’t have a bird, and there’s my gay wicker basket with bamboo poles in it. I don’t know what the hell that’s thing’s all about, but I bought it.
Well I took a few months off, and I’m sure I’ll be taking a few months off in the near future, but for now, your blog roundup is back in town!
This may be the greatest paragraph from the greatest post in human history, which caused quite the shit show over at Drunken Step Father:
For the record, I think that’s a bad idea, because unlike Jews, Jewish outfits bring good to the world and don’t hoard all their money in hypo-alergenic mattress after ripping non-Jews off, but instead is the closest thing a girl can be to being pantless and shows off her legs, ass and even mound, whether 13 or 35 and that’s a Jewish Christmas miracle that lasts all year.
PBH on Reddit |
PBH On Digg |