Hot Air

A new poll says that, while a majority of the public still believes global warming is a serious issue, an increasing number believe that it's exaggerated. I love public opinion on matters of a scientific nature. We live in a culture where the general population hardly reveres intelligence to any noticeable degree, taking pride in being referred to as "average" Americans. People say they want leaders who are "just like them" (which entirely negates the definition of "leader"), where nonsense like intelligent design gets intermittent footholds in public school systems, and one-third of Americans say they believe in the existence of angels. But when it comes to a consensus from the majority of the world's environmental experts that global warming is a very real and impending threat, the jury's suddenly out for lack of "evidence". I guess we'll just have to hope that our guardian angels are fireproof. And can swim.

More Loco

Muy caliente. Dig it.

Hara-Creepy

This is a performance by a 3D hologram in Japan. I only wish the Japanese spent their considerable imagination and technological know-how working on shit that could actually improve life beyond simply keeping club kids rolling. That being said, this digital chick is still more lifelike than Ke$ha.

The Green Mile

The glassy eyes of the nation were on California yesterday as Prop 19 (legalization of marijuana) was defeated by 52% of the electorate. Had it passed, it would have served as a barometer for other states to pass similar legislation. Despite marijuana being the number one cash crop in California- a state that is deeply in the red, financially- legalization opponents still adhere to archaic misinformation about the war on drugs, draping themselves in platitudes about a "public health issue". Numerous studies over the past two decades have revealed alcohol to be far more damaging to society than most other drugs combined, yet no one is even remotely suggesting that we return the nation to Boardwalk Empire status. God forbid there are any anti-pot advocates who get cancer, glaucoma, ALS, or a hundred other afflictions whose symptoms are easily ameliorated with marijuana. Seeking refuge in the financially crippling Big Pharma will surely make them feel much better.

Erection Day

Well, that was a fun week. As of yesterday, the military's archaic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was reinstated after a brief period of judicial sanity. The various judges hearing the cases on the basis of their constitutional merits evidently don't see eye to eye, so it goes back for another volley. And what luck! Just in time for politicians terrified of losing their seats to use it as another cultural wedge issue. Oh, I almost forgot: a leak from a new Pentagon study reveals that the troops really don't give a shit if someone's gay or not and top brass admits that the ban is bad for the esprit de corps. (That, and we're now behind Libya in letting gay soldiers openly serve.) I guess people running for office are too worried about taking "getting behind the troops" too literally. What a proud day to be an American.

Pride Of The Yank-ees

Middle Men is a new film about the guys who first made money off of boobies and snooch on the interwebs. Luke Wilson must have really wanted to get out of doing those AT&T endorsements.

Exploding Christmas

Happy Independence Day, everyone.

Oh, Man. I'm Screwed.

Guess I won't be getting any work done for the next five hours.

80's Drum Keyboard

Oil Of Oy Vey

It's time to stop referring to the greatest environmental disaster in history as a "spill". When I reach across the breakfast table and knock over my orange juice, that's a spill. Oops! To equate that with tens of thousands of barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico per day is engaging in denial of the highest order. BP contends that their current solution (#459, I believe) has reduced it to a "relative trickle", but we also know they're really bad at math. However, the seductive language is far from accidental on the part of those who contend that this is a minor mishap; the cost of doing business. It creates a subliminal connotation that it's all gonna be just fine. It's not. Because, among all the sturm und drang on both sides of the political aisle, efforts to continually prop up big oil (clearly at any cost) is an effort in continued futility. There are three industries that employ most of the residents of the Gulf Coast region: tourism, oil, and fishing. After Obama's moratorium on drilling in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon debacle, jobs are being lost in all three. Plans to resume drilling in order to restore those jobs can be considered a pyrrhic victory, at best. It's also hard to recall a time in recent memory when the public reaction to corporate incompetence has been so tepid. We live in a nation where parents will pick up torches against Wendy's when their kid gets the wrong CD in their happy meal, yet the reaction to BP has strangely been along the lines of, "mistakes happen". I suppose even the dimmest among us realize that outrage over this disaster would force us to look ourselves in the mirror and willfully ignore a very basic truth: oil is simply not the future. Sadly, as long as it remains cheap, we will do nothing to face that fact. The cover of the latest issue of Newsweek says, "What The Spill Will Kill" above a picture of a sea turtle. Taken in the larger context, that turtle might as well be us.

Winter Of George

Seinfeld fans know that a sad piano is all that separates comedy from tragedy.