Memes, mementos and missives by Macauley
Want a chicken in every pot? Do you think Arbor Day should be a statewide bank holiday? Why not put it on the ballot? The NPR satire troupe Rewind (produced by KUOW in Seattle) spoofs the initiative process.
AUDIO (Running time: (2:47):
Free Pony!
Source: NPR Morning Edition, November 3, 2000
Pretty hard to categorize this video, other than to say, fairly awesome. How they managed to so carefully choreograph the sheep is beyond me. Weird and amazing.
Two instant classics from Jon Stewart & co. As usual his media critique is spot on and hilarious at once.
Morning Joe’s Sarcastic Starbucks Sponsorship (03:47)
Not one of Jon’s 90 writers picked up on Joe Scarborough’s sarcastic Starbucks sponsorship.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Morning Joe’s Sarcastic Starbucks Sponsorship | ||||
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“i” on News (05:37)
Fox News insinuates, MSNBC hates Rush Limbaugh, and CNN wants to hang out with us at a slumber party.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| “i” on News | ||||
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Taking 24-hour news networks to task for sensationalist fear-mongering. “We’re not trying to freak anyone out,” they insist.
Oh really!?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Snoutbreak ‘09 – The Last 100 Days | ||||
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From Flu Schmlu:
We’re at the tail end of the flu season right now, and it happens to be that at this time a new strain of flu has been detected. The Mexican authorities seem to think it can cause unusually severe disease, but that has not been observed elsewhere and it is not clear whether that is really true in Mexico City either. When a small number of young men in Mexico City suddenly die of pneumonia, my first thought is HIV, not pandemic flu. (And it is a small number. The Mexican authorities have attributed 100 deaths to this virus, of which only 18 have been confirmed as actual swine flu infections. 20 million people live in Mexico City.) Influenza normally cannot survive in warm temperatures, which is why flu season ends in the spring. Unless this virus has some as yet completely unknown properties for which there is no evidence whatsoever, this outbreak is almost certainly going to die out on its own in no more than a couple of weeks. Even if it does not, there is no particular reason to think it will ever be much more than an annoyance.
Unless, of course, we proactively make sure that it is more than that. Which is exactly what is happening. I am not going to accuse the Mexican authorities of overreacting because I don’t have the information they do, they have difficult judgments to make, so they did what they did. Undoubtedly, however, they have imposed a huge economic cost on the country, with the political and economic capital completely shut down, tourism effectively suspended, and small businesses without customers.
Here in the U.S., the TV is wall-to-wall flu, with the hair hats screaming and yelling about 40 cases of swine flu in the U.S. — every one of which has so far resulted in perfectly normal, mild, self-limiting illness. The Secretary of Homeland Security, no less, has held a press conference on national television to declare a Public Health Emergency. How do you expect people to interpret that? Of course it’s upsetting and I’m sure people with the sniffles will be clogging emergency departments in the days to come. (I hope not, but I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t happen.)
The Onion: Bush Tours America to Survey Damage Caused by Presidency
President Bush will seek to comfort victims of his presidency as they try to make sense of the destruction he has caused.
Gotta love The Onion!
I’m in the mid-west U.S.A. for a week, but had to share this bit of awesomeness. Matt is back, dancing the world away. It will invariably leave you grinning!
Matt could learn one thing, however, from ZeFrank, though: How to Dance Properly.
Much higher quality version at YouTube.
In a new special report by The Onion, the big issues won’t be health care, Iraq, and the economy. It’ll be straight up bullshit, like the candidates’ relationships with their current or ex spouses, what their religion is or if they’re patriotic enough to be President.
Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
The first day of ICC’s Chess.FM webcast coverage of the Dortmund super-tournament started a little differently from the rest. But you wouldn’t know it from the ICC Chess.FM OnDemand replay (ICC membership). Ostensibly due to “sound quality issues” my intro was cut from the archived show. Yes, I know it was unorthodox, and clearly a little silly, but I hope some people were amused at least, and to that end I’m pleased to present the way the June 23rd show REALLY started…
***UPDATE – July 7***
ICC has now added this video version to their current Chess.FM offerings… 
I just joined a “group” on Facebook:
Group InfoName:
Gay Marriage Killed the Dinosaurs
Type: Common Interest – Self-help
Description: More like “Common Interest – Self-preservation”.
This group is for people who understand the grave risks of gay marriage. Some suggest gay marriage will merely undermine one of our most fundamental societal institutions, causing countless straight couples to get divorced because exclusion of gays was the only thing holding their marriage together.
But we know better. Gay marriage killed the dinosaurs. If we let liberal activist judges in Massachusetts and California set the course, the blood will run in rivers. Mixed with molten lava.
The group includes this helpful primer for the ironically challenged:
Top 16 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong
16. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
15. There are plenty of straight families looking to adopt, and every unwanted child already has a loving family. This is why foster care does not exist.
14. Conservatives know best how to create strong families. That is why it is not true that Texas and Mississippi have the highest teen birthrates, and Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire have the lowest. This is a myth spread by the liberal media.
13. Marriage is a religious institution, defined by churches. This is why atheists do not marry.
12. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why our society has no single parents.
11. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.
10. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
9. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.
8. Gay marriage should be decided by the people and their elected representatives, not the courts. The framers checked the courts, which represent mainstream public opinion, with legislatures created to protect the rights of minorities from the tyranny of the majority. Interference by courts in this matter is inappropriate, just as it has been every time the courts have tried to hold back legislatures pushing for civil rights.
7. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because “separate but equal” institutions are a good way to satisfy the demands of uppity minority groups.
5. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
4. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
3. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
2. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
1. METEORS and VOLCANOES.
