Saturday, October 25, 2008

MK vs. DC gets nerfed.

As if people didn't think this would happen. It's a Mortal Kombat game going for a Teen rating! So, what was nerfed?

In the latest build, Joker still whips out his prank gun, a "BANG!" flag unfurling. Unfortunately, you won't see the follow up of Joker shooting someone in the face; that actually happens off screen now, the headshot safely out of sight.

Another Fatality that's seen some revision was Kitana's, one that involved her opponent being impaled by her trademark blade-fans. Initially, the first fan went into the torso, the other into the forehead. That second was a T-rating no-no. Double fans delivered to the chest, however, that's a T-rated way to end someone's life.

- Source



The funniest thing about all of this? When MK vs DC's The Joker fatality was first shown, the PR rep said, "for those thinking this would be MK Lite... The Joker actually blows Kitana's head off." So, now that we don't even get to see that, can we officially go back to calling it what it really is, MK Lite?


What The Joker's fatality was going to be

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

KoTOR MMO! Yes! 11A6MK87LLP30VDF54-E!










YES!



^^ hit the link ^^


NOW



vv and/or watch below vv



nothing after the jump




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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

America shows its true face.

All it took was a an uninformed and completely clueless governor from Alaska to electrify the GOP base. Once Palin was in tow, solidifying the Christian fundamentalists, it was time to give the crowd what they wanted. Meat. Red meat. So you had stump speeches from McCain and Palin saying Obama was "paling around" with terrorists. I vividly remember the freely frothing hatred that billowed from spiteful minds after 9/11, but this is reaching an even higher level of unbridled blood lust and mindless hatred than those days.

When the war in Iraq began gearing up, those of us who were against the preemptive strike were called unpatriotic, traitors and worse. Now, Obama supporters aren't just unpatriotic. Now, we hate America. We are no longer just supporting terrorists, but actually are terrorists. We are what is wrong with society and we are destroying the very basis of which civilization rests upon. It's not that we have an opposing viewpoint on issues, it's that we are pure evil fighting against the saviors of all that is right and good in the world. Delusion of grandeur doesn't even begin to describe the kind of mental disassociation that goes on here.

Palin and McCain put on their "awe-shucks, it's not our fault" routine whenever their shit-stirring is called out. "How is out our fault how people act?" they cry. Because you miserable fucks planted the seed, nurtured it along, and vigorously feed it to overtly engorged proportions. That's why. Years and years of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and the rest of the AM Talk Radio crowd sneering about those who hold opposing viewpoints as if they are vermin needed to be exterminated. It's no wonder that some wingnuts have already taken this message of hatred and personal piety (mayhaps even martyrdom) to the most extreme means, murder. The Unitarian Church shooting in Tennessee occurred because the shooter wanted to kill liberals "who are ruining the country." The same reason was given when Arkansas DNC chairperson, Bill Gwatney, was shot to death in his office.

The McCain/Palin excuse wears incredibly thin when you actually listen to them give these speeches. Yes, Obama pals around with terrorists and will make the country less safe, but he's not an Arab. An evil, amoral, murderous, unChristian, despot determined to destroy America? Yes, but not an Arab. What the fuck does this campaign think is going to come out of these people's minds? Obama's a horrendous piece of shit, but be civil about how much you irrationally hate him. What's the harm in that? It's just good, old-fashioned, unbridled, hate mongering. As pure American as Jim Crow laws and massive Native American genocide.

As if shouting "terrorist", "murderer", "kill him!", "hang him", "kill his family", "kill the libs", "liberals are homosexuals", "down with Islam" and all the other wonderful shit that these bigoted fucktards screech in such a shrill is just peachy-keen and merely a little bit of free speech. And it is free speech, but it is, more importantly, blatantly inappropriate for a candidate to run on the platform of "my opponent's an evil cocksuscker that hates you and wants to destroy you." It is fear mongering and spurring hate in a fashion that I thought I would never see play out on such a vastly public and open stage in such a supposedly enlightened era.




Jon Stewart on the monster McCain has created.


The type of hate I see the Right whipping up has moved far, far, far away from the "I disagree and you're an idiot" standpoint a few years back when Limbaugh first started Conservative Radio. It has now morphed into a battle call to eliminate the opposition. To burn, scorch, and destroy those who hold a belief against theirs. To purify so that the chosen ones may walk the Earth that they and only their ilk are deserved to do so.

This shit isn't just sad, it's fucking pathetic. It reminds me of how (I know, Godwin's Law) the Nazis began to operate after Hitler took over. Stirring up irrational hatred and providing a scapegoat. When acts of violence broke out, the Nazi party would also play the card of, "but how is it my fault if a few listeners take things the wrong way?" The thing is, listeners aren't taking things the wrong way. They are reading right between the lines where they should be. Just like The Turner Diaries. The words may be that Obama doesn't represent small-town values and isn't one of us, but the real message is that Obama's a fag loving n***er terrorist who hates America and wants to personally destroy you.

As if to top things off, a bevy of McCain supporters took the time to heckle lines of black voters. How these pieces of human garbage weren't arrested, I don't know. It is illegal to threaten or intimidate voters. What is even worse is that McCain/Palin seem to have no problem with this. Instead they keep on going, whipping people into even more of a frenzy and lining people's minds with the purest of irrational hatred and innuendo.




McCain supporters heckle and jeer at voters.



It is times like this that I am more than just sad to be an American. Not only am I ashamed, sickened, disheartened and afraid for my country, but it is reasons like this that sometimes makes me despise the American people. I love what America once stood for and for what, when it wants, it still can be. But these times cause me to hang my head low and weep.



Eagles Become Vultures by `vhm-alex
(click the above image to visit vhm-alex's DeviantArt webpage. prints can be ordered from there, if interested)


-edit-

I got to catch up on Hardball. I knew Gen Powell had endorsed Obama from NPR, but I didn't know the full reason why. Turns out it is partly because of how similar to McCarthy-era hate mongering the GOP has become.




Hardball: Powell endorses Obama



In a later clip, Buchanan even admits that calling liberals "communists", "unAmerican", etc. is wrongheaded and fundamentally improper.




Hardball: Pat Buchanan admitting McCarthy-esque witch hunting




Just because, here's Bill Maher on Hardball

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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

B ioWare, LucasArts announcement.

I'm not a fan of monthly fee MMOs. I think it's an entirely BS format, much like episodic content. (you pay more for 3 episodes than a whole game) I can understand a small fee, say $5 per month, but $15-$20 is just way too much. I already bought your fucking game, why should I have to essentially buy it again every 3 months? I was tempted to buy Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), but held off and I think I'm better for it. The combat seems slow, clunky, and not as much fun as people bill it. (comparing to WoW PvP is like saying shit tastes almost as good as raw sewage)

I might have to eat my words, and my ideals, regarding monthly pay-to-play if this upcoming BioWare announcement is all that it's cracked up to be. I might not stick around forever, but I'll definitely have to check it out. Upcoming announcement? Oh, that's right... BioWare and LucasArts are making their big announcement as to what in the hell their MMO project really is on October 21st.

"LucasArts and BioWare invite you to attend the official unveiling of the game that's been rumored about for years," reads the invite before providing event-locale details. The gathering will be held in San Francisco on the afternoon of October 21, just more than a month after the release of the latest Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed. At a presentation at the Game Developers Conference this past March, producer Hayden Blackman said that the fast-selling game was settled on after a proposed third single-player KOTOR game was ruled out.
- Source

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Everyone said he was drunk.

Lyle Lovett
Family Reserve

you will need Adobe Flash to listen to the audio stream



lyrics after the jump



Family Reserve

When I saw the ambulance
Screaming down Main Street
I didn't give it a thought
But it was my Uncle Eugene
He died on October the second 1981

And my Uncle Wilbert
They all called him Skinner
They said for his younger ways
He'd get drunk in the morning
And show me the rolls of fifties and hundreds
He kept in the glove box of his old gray Impala

And we're all gonna be here forever
So Mama don't you make such a stir
Now put down that camera
And come on and join up
The last of the family reserve

Now my second cousin
His name was Callaway
He died when he'd barely turned two
It was peanut butter and jelly that did it
The help she didn't know what to do
She just stood there and watched him turn blue

And we're all gonna be here forever
So Mama don't you make such a stir
Just put down that camera
And come on and join up
The last of the family reserve

And my friend Brian Temple
He thought he could make it
So from the third story he jumped
He missed the swimming pool
Only by inches
And everyone said he was drunk

Now there was great Uncle Julius
And Aunt Annie Mueller
And Mary and Granddaddy Paul
And there was Hanna and Ella
And Alvin and Alec
He owned his own funeral hall

And there are more I remember
And more I could mention
Than words I could write in a song
But I feel them watching
And I see them laughing
And I hear them singing along

We're all gonna be here forever
So Mama don't you make such a stir
Just put down that camera
And come on and join up
The last of the family reserve


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The clown is down!

As Judge Snyder would say, "boys will be boys." Sometimes even if it involves dumping scalding hot, boiling water on others. Ha! Oh, those wacky frat kids.

NEW ORLEANS -
Prosecutors are not pursuing criminal charges against seven Tulane University fraternity members accused of burning pledges with boiling water during an initiation.

Tuesday's announcement by the Orleans Parish district attorney's office leaves three other members of Tulane's Pi Kappa Alpha chapter still facing felony battery charges, but a defense attorney expected those cases to be resolved the same way Wednesday.

Nayita Wilson, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said she can't comment on why prosecutors refused to charge the seven fraternity members because the cases against three others are scheduled to be heard in court Wednesday. Wilson also declined to comment on those pending cases.

Erin Hangartner, an attorney for fraternity member Oded Nissim, 20, of New York, said the district attorney's office told her that they aren't proceeding with any of the cases because one of the alleged victims "didn't want to move forward."

"My client is incredibly relieved," Hangartner said, adding, "This was just a tragic accident."


A tragic "accident," huh? Okay...

In May, 10 members of the Pi Kappa Alpha chapter were booked on charges of aggravated second-degree battery. Police said two students were treated for severe burns after they were scalded with water from hot crab boil.

The fraternity members whose cases were resolved Tuesday are: Joseph Lorono, 21; Graham Carron, 21; Jeremy Bendat, 22; Kevin Dunn, 21; Nicholas Maddern, 22; Danny Lazzeri Jr., 20; William S. Dougherty Jr., 21. Hearings are scheduled Wednesday for Nissim; Preston Gelman, 21; and Joseph Stephens, 23.

Both Tulane and the fraternity's national organization suspended the chapter after the incident.

A lawyer for Matthew Martin, one of the alleged victims in the case, declined to comment on prosecutors' refusal to proceed with criminal charges. Martin is suing the fraternity and several of its members in federal court.

In court papers, lawyers for Martin say their client and other pledges were participating in a "Hell Night" initiation and only were wearing shorts and shoes when they were scalded with boiling water and pelted with raw eggs.

- Source


Yeah, sounds like a big accident to me. Accidentally dumping scalding water on the pledges? How could they have known it would be hot? I mean, yeah it was water from a crab boil, but they're frat boys. They barely know their ABC's. Pelting them with eggs? All just a big mistake. They weren't trying to pelt them with eggs, they were trying to throw the eggs to hide them for an egg hunt and the poor scalded fellows just got in the way. Come on, boys will be boys. The clown is down.


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It's good to be AIG.

So, what happened after the US government bailed out AIG in the tune of over $80 billion? After securing 79.9% of AIG's equity in exchange for saving the company from certain collapse, AIG executives felt they deserved a reprieve from the stress of being bailed out. What better place to go than a spa?

Days after it got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown.

AIG sent its executives to the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles, California, even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy.

The resort tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees, according to invoices the resort turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The retreat didn't include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove AIG under, but lawmakers still were enraged over thousands of dollars spent on outing for executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary.

"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance," the committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, scolded the company during a lengthy opening statement at a hearing Tuesday.

"Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."

Former AIG CEO Robert Willumstad, who lost his job a day after the Federal Reserve put up the $85 billion on Sept. 16, said he was not familiar with the conference and would not have gone along with it.

"It seems very inappropriate," Willumstad said in response to questioning from Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland.

"Those executives should be fired," Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said at a debate with Sen. John McCain on Tuesday, referring to the retreat participants. Obama also said AIG should give the Treasury $440,000 to cover the costs of the retreat.

But Eric Dinallo, superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department, said he could see the value of such a retreat under the circumstances.

"Having been at large global companies and knowing what condition AIG was in ... the absolute worst thing that could have happened" would have been for employees and underwriters in its life insurance subsidiary to flee the company.

"I do agree there is some profligate spending there, but the concept of bringing all the major employees together ... to ensure that the $85 billion could be as greatly as possible paid back would have been not a crazy corporate decision," Dinallo told the House committee.

The hearing disclosed that AIG executives hid the full range of its risky financial products from auditors as losses mounted, according to documents released by the committee, which is examining the chain of events that forced the government to bail out the conglomerate.

The panel sharply criticized AIG's former top executives, who cast blame on each other for the company's financial woes.

"You have cost my constituents and the taxpayers of this country $85 billion and run into the ground one of the most respected insurance companies in the history of our country," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York. "You were just gambling billions, possibly trillions of dollars."

AIG, crippled by huge losses linked to mortgage defaults, was forced last month to accept the $85 billion government loan that gives the U.S. the right to an 80 percent stake in the company.

- Source


more...

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Israeli morality ushers in a new Iran.

If some of the hard-line Orthodox Jews get their way, it will be. No longer will it solely be the Islamic world that many secular progressives deride for their treatments and oppression of womens' rights. In a country that makes no qualms about maintaining heavily theocratic leanings, Israel is risking alienating itself from the rest of the world that views religious-supported oppression ans a dismal and disturbing trend.

Just as Iran has Morality Police, so is Israel following in their place. TA first the Morality Police of Iran were not officially sanctioned, but over the years the volunteer forces' grip of fear and control began to bleed into the official government. Now, the Morality Police is a legitimate wing of the official Iranian Police Forces.

Each step that Israel allows vigilante morality enforcement they come closer and closer to becoming a mirror image of their hated extremist Islamic neighbor.


In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.

In recent weeks, self-styled "modesty patrols" have been accused of breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for allegedly consorting with men. They have torched a store that sells MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography.

"These breaches of purity and modesty endanger our community," said 38-year-old Elchanan Blau, defending the bearded, black-robed zealots. "If it takes fire to get them to stop, then so be it."
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews are dismayed by the violence, but the enforcers often enjoy quiet approval from rabbis eager to protect their own reputations as guardians of the faith, community members say. And while some welcome anything that keeps secular culture out of their cloistered world, others feel terrorized, knowing that the mere perception of impropriety could ruin their lives.

"There are eyes and ears all over the place, very similar to what you hear about in countries like Iran," says Israeli-American novelist Naomi Ragen, an observant Jew who has chronicled the troubles that confront some women living in the ultra-Orthodox world.


The police chief in Tehran recently warned that anybody caught involved in what he called social corruption would be punished, the BBC's regional analyst Sadeq Saba says.

Reports from other major cities suggest that similar harsh measures are being adopted there, he adds.

In the historic city of Isfahan, police recently banned women who were improperly veiled from entering public places, the country's official news agency Irna reported.

It said police in the city also banned the playing of live music in reception halls and at public events.

Since February's victory, Iran's conservatives have been putting pressure on the authorities to fight what they call the erosion of Islamic values, our analyst says.

The hardliners are angry that women are progressively defying the rules by wearing shorter, tighter and brighter coats, especially during the scorching summer months.

- Source


Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the modesty police are not an organized phenomenon, just rogue enforcers carrying out isolated attacks. But Israel's Justice Ministry used the term "modesty patrols" in an indictment against a man accused of assaulting the Jerusalem woman.

The unidentified, 31-year-old woman had left the ultra-Orthodox fold after getting divorced, according to the indictment filed by the Jerusalem district attorney's office. The indictment said her assailant tried to get her to leave her apartment in a haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem by gagging, beating and threatening to kill her. He was paid $2,000 for the attack, it said.

A 17-year-old who moved to Israel from New York five years ago said she was hospitalized after being attacked with pepper spray by a crowd of men outraged that she was walking down a Jerusalem street with boys.

"They can burn in hell," said the girl, who would identify herself only as Rivka.

She lives in Beit Shemesh, a town outside Jerusalem where the vigilantism has been particularly violent. Zealots there have thrown rocks and spat at women, and set fire to trash bins to protest impiety. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly — spelled out as closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.


Women who refuse to wear a veil and otherwise adhere to the strict Islamic dress code will be banished from the capital for up to five years, authorities threatened yesterday after launching a new coverup campaign.

The frightening warning comes as police are carrying out their toughest crackdown in 20 years on young women who do not abide by Islamic law, which requires them to cover their face and hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothing to conceal their figures.

The possibility of exile to the Iranian hinterlands comes on top of stepped-up enforcement of existing penalties for flouting the clothing rules that include lashes, fines and imprisonment.

Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi told an Iranian newspaper that if the current punishments are not effective in preventing women from showing some skin, those who repeatedly violate the law could be expelled from Tehran for five years.

- Source


The state, catering to religious sensitivities, subsidizes gender-segregated bus routes that service religious neighborhoods. Ragen and several other women challenged the practice in Israel's Supreme Court after an Orthodox Canadian woman in her 50s told police she was kicked, slapped, pushed to the floor and spat upon by men for refusing to move to the back of the bus.

Another Beit Shemesh girl, who asked to be identified only as Esther, said zealots threw rocks, cursed and spat at a friend for wearing a red blouse — taboo because the color attracts attention.

Yitzhak Polack, a 50-year-old Jerusalem teacher, is one of those who deplore such behavior.

"They are stupid troublemakers who are bringing shame and disgrace on this holy community," he said.

But the rabbis are afraid to condemn them, says Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, another community member.

"They can't come out against zealots who champion modesty. Here and there they write against violence, but the militants ultimately set the tone," he said.



Iran's latest crackdown on women who do not strictly observe rules on Islamic dress has found an unlikely critic in the head of its judiciary, press reports have said.

Iran has issued 3,500 warnings nationwide and detained about 200 women in the new drive launched on Saturday, according to police figures quoted by local media.
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who is appointed by the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned police against heavy-handed actions with women found to have broken the country's dress code.
The reformist Etemad Melli newspaper quoted Shahroudi as saying: "Hauling women and young people to the police station will have no use except to cause damage to society.

"Tough measures on social problems will backfire and have counter-productive effects.

"Of course, we need to act against organised crime and thugs but when there is no necessity to take someone to a police station, there is no need to do it

- Source


In August, a Jerusalem man was placed under house arrest on suspicion he set fire to a store in a haredi district of the city that sold MP4 players.

"It started about six months ago. They would come into the store, about 15 of them at a time, screaming, 'This store burns souls!' and they would throw merchandise on the floor and threaten customers," said 31-year-old Aaron Gold, a haredi worker at the Space electronic store.

One Friday night, just before the Sabbath was about to begin, "they smashed a window, doused the place with gasoline and lit a match," Gold said.

Now, a big sign behind the counter says, "All products sold in this store are under rabbinical supervision. By order of the rabbis, no MP4s are sold here."

Clothing stores that sell clothes regarded as provocative have been vandalized, and bleach thrown at merchandise.

- Source

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Friday, October 3, 2008

Gamer Grub = Game Fuel = patronizing BS.

Seriously? A product marketed as, "designed for hungry gamers who want to continue playing games while consuming snacks." Well, thank the gods, because I was having a hard time with beer and pretzels. This is going to be about as effective as Mountain Dew's "Game Fuel" shtick was. As in, it's going to backfire immensely.

The thing is, the vast majority of people who are passionate about video games don't identify with the title of "gamer" that was foisted upon them as some kind of mindless mass-marketing demographic. Originally, the term was applied to those that played and enjoyed video games. Now it's twisted into meaning hardcore ravenous 12 year-olds that play Halo all day/every day, screaming bigoted bile into their headsets and generally souring the way many of us other video game players are perceived. To treat all "gamers" as the same is idiotic. The hardcore crowd of FPS players are immensely different from the hardcore puzzle crowd who are different from the hardcore RPG crowd. Even then, many who are fans of those games vary vastly in lifestyles and other hobbies. Being a "gamer" is not a solid demographic. It's like trying to market to "readers."

Jerry Holkin writes over at Penny Arcade,

In the Tom's Hardware interview, we learn that the snack's creator is a "sometime gamer," which is a bizarre turn of phrase. One either plays games or they do not. If they do not play games, but have instead discerned that "gamers" are a discrete "target demo," there's a word for them: carpetbaggers.

A comparison to Mana Potion is instructive: mana potions are magical energy drinks, so an energy drink called a "mana potion" is internally consistent. In the case of Gamer Grub, its twisted progenitor has named each regrettable salvo after both a flavor and a genre, in a suite of tin-eared constructions that I couldn't even parse at first. "Action Pizza" is incoherent. "Sports PB&J" is nonsensical. The words "Strategy Chocolate" go together like caramel and genocide. I'm literally buffeted by these names, psychically assaulted. They are like the ceaseless, apocalyptic horrors of a prophetic dream.

- Source


The Tom's Hardware piece gives us a bit more insight.
but two features will set this snack apart from the chips, pizza, popcorn, and similar snack foods on which gamers are known to subsist: a proprietary mix of vitamins and other supplements, and a unique “delivery system” that will enable one to consume the product in the midst of gaming without leaving one’s fingers, keyboard, and mouse slick with grease.
- Source


So, what does that mean? It's basically snack mix with a vitamin water sprayed on top of it. The "unique delivery system"? It's in a fucking tube so you can grab it and pour snack mix into your mouth. Wow, that sure as fuck is unique. This is like calling a bottle a "unique delivery system." No longer do you have to dip your face into a bucket to enjoy your beer, getting your hair and shirt wet. Enjoy our unique delivery system that pours beer clearly and cleanly into your mouth. (BTW, beer actually was sold in buckets (pails) before the advent of mass bottling and canning)

If you're ever thinking, "wow, sitting on the couch and playing all this GTA IV is really burning up some essential vitamins and nutrients that my body needs to be able to press these buttons as best as I damn well can. I better get some vitamin-enriched snack mix!" then you really need to rethink your idea of essential nutrient intake. Don't patronize shit like this. Go to Whole Foods or wherever, get some of the various snack mix blends they have, dump it into a cup, and throw in some daily vitamins. There you go, you just made Gamer Grub.

The site for Gamer Grub supposedly has a blog with the intent of "don't bend our servers, just tell us how you really feel." I certainly would, but I keep getting an "Error establishing a database connection" message. My guess is that they have heard how many of us feel, and it didn't go over very well.

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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I'm not a Jew.

I'm not a Jew and none of my family is Jewish, but this Daily Show clip is eerily true of many of my parents' friends.




nothing after the jump




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Palin is either even dumber than we thought, or flat-out lying.

Oh, man. Here's some more goodness from Kid Dynamo, Duncess Supreme, Sarah Palin. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

In between her debate-prep sessions here, Palin called into the conservative Hugh Hewitt radio program Tuesday, decrying the lack of journalism ethics and repeatedly referring to herself as “Joe Six Pack.”

The interview comes amid new concerns that Palin is losing support among conservatives, as several prominent commentators have suggested she is unqualified for the vice presidency. The conversation touched on many of the key issues that made Palin popular in conservative circles when she was first named -- including her faith, support for Israel, and her decision to have a baby born with Down syndrome.


Okay, look it's great that she didn't take the Spartan approach and throw the baby in chasm of Mount Taygetus, but those are not key political issues. Except for supporting Israel, those are lifestyle choices. Even the support of Israel is vague. If Israel attacked Syria and Iran, would she still support them so vigorously?


Palin linked herself to the financial situation many Americans now face, telling Hewitt: "I know what Americans are going through. Todd and I, heck, we’re going through that right now even as we speak, which may put me again kind of on the outs of those Washington elite who don’t like the idea of just an everyday, working-class American running for such an office." The governor of Alaska received a salary of $112,895 in 2007, according to stateline.org. The McCain campaign has not released the Palins' financial records.

“We’ve gone through periods of our life here with paying out of pocket for health coverage until Todd and I both landed a couple of good union jobs,” she added. “Early on in our marriage, we didn’t have health insurance, and we had to either make the choice of paying out of pocket for catastrophic coverage or just crossing our fingers, hoping that nobody would get hurt, nobody would get sick. So I know what Americans are going through there.”

She said her family probably took a $20,000 hit in the stock market last week, mostly through Todd’s 401K plan.


Oh noes! That is just like me! Oh, I'm so glad Palin can identify with everyone else who is struggling right now, living off the bread crumbs that a meager governor salary of over $100,000 provides. And to think, they lost $20,000 (which they actually haven't, unless they cash the 401k) due to fluctuations that will probably go back up and mean that they never lost any money at all... oh, the humanity! Do they really think people are that stupid? Of course they do, because most of America is that stupid.

Palin’s chat with Hewitt was on much friendlier terrain than the Republican vice presidential nominee has appeared on in recent weeks, with evening news anchors Charles Gibson and Katie Couric. Hewitt asked about the “virulent opposition to you on the left” because of her position on abortion, and asked whether “the mainstream media and the left understands your religious faith?”

Palin was asked in the interview about her reaction to “extreme hostility” from the media. “I think they’re just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying you know what -- it’s time that normal Joe Six Pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency,” she said. “And I think that that’s kind of taken some people off guard, and they’re out of sorts, and they’re ticked off about it, but it’s motivation for John McCain and I to work that much harder to make sure that our ticket is victorious.”


Yeah, that's it. We're not used to "Joe 6-Pack." I mean, look at the highfalutin elitist that we got in the Presidency right now! Listen up, you pea-brained twit, the "extreme hostility" is the media asking legitimate questions. We knew Hillary, we knew she had experience, we knew her positions. We don't know anything about Palin other than she loves to lie about her positions and then ignore the issue altogether once her lies become apparent. Hostility? Whitey, please. You haven't faced an ounce of the hostility that you deserve for the bumbling, mumbling, nonsensical drivel that you've put forth and the massive gaffs that you, yourself, have created. If you were a male candidate, you'd be torn to shred from here to eternity.

The only thing about Palin that has taken the media by surprise is how completely clueless and inept she is.

Also in the interview, she told the conservative radio host that she does not belong to any church -- in an apparent attempt to separate herself from several of the churches she has been known to attend, one where she received a blessing against witchcraft and another under fire for promoting an event to convert gays and lesbians.

“I think that there’s a lot of mocking of my personal faith, and my personal faith is very, very simple,” she told Hewitt, according to a transcript released by the campaign. “I don’t belong to any church. I do have a strong belief in God, and I believe that I’m a heck of a lot better off putting my life in God’s hands, and saying hey, you know, guide me.”

The senior pastor of Wasilla Bible Church told Newsweek magazine earlier this month that Palin and her family regularly attend church there and have for six years. Another pastor said her youngest child, Trig, was “dedicated” at the church before she was nominated for vice president. But several Internet videos have shown Palin speaking and receiving prayers at Wasilla Assembly of God, where she said the war in Iraq was a "task that is from God" and received a prayer from a guest preacher asking she be protected from witchcraft.


So, now she's lying about her church? Just like she lied about the support for the Gravina Island bridge and that her administration never contacted Monegan about her ex-brother-in-law? (she did support the bridge, her staff contacted Monegan over 2 dozen times about Wooten)

Palin also reminded Hewitt of her own background as a reporter, but said she learned things differently. “Well, I have a degree in journalism also, so it surprises me that so much has changed since I received my education in journalistic ethics all those years ago,” she said. “But I’m not going to pick a fight with those who buy ink by the barrelful. I’m going to take those shots and those pop quizzes and just say that’s okay, those are good testing grounds.”
- Source


* Que Laugh Track. Okay, first off, yes Palin does have a communication-journalism degree that she got from University of Idaho. But, a journalist? That's a bit of a stretch. She was a local Anchorage TV news sports reporter. Not to disparage sports reporters or even local reporters, but to compare a local TV sports reporter, the person that goes on the screen and reads the teleprompter (not the people actually compiling the stories, mind you), to that of a nationally viewed, nationally printed news journalist is a huge stretch.

What exactly has changed so much about ethics? That they're not supposed to ask you anything more than BS fluff questions? What the hell is wrong with you? If you could actually form a coherent thought and make a full sentence, then you wouldn't look like such a damn fool! The media IS doing its job. (finally!) YOU are the one not doing YOUR job by not being able to answer important questions that affecting the national stage. How is it Couric's fault that you can't name a single news magazine or a even a single newspaper? Here, I'll list a few that I browse periodically, USA Today, New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, The New Yorker, Newsweek, The Nation, National Review, Times, The Weekly Standard, Reason, Slate, US News & World Report, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Star Tribune... hell just name a local paper like whatever the equivalent of the Roanoke Times or Richmond Times Dispatch is. See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?

This complete and utter idiot seriously, actually thinks she is ready to be VP and to take the national stage? I pray to Lord Ao that a McCain-Plain ticket does not pass. Not since the Time of Troubles has the world more needed your divine intervention.

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