If you’ve ever had to watch a training video for a job, you know that by about minute five you’re looking for sharp objects to jab into your own eye to get out of continued viewing. A German training video for forklift drivers guessed that the attention span of their intended audience was 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Up to that point in the video, the instructional seems like standard fair. After that point, it gets damn entertaining (and a bit gory).
It is amusing to watch the Fox News anchors refer to McCain’s campaign suspension as if it was anything other than a stunt with “epic fail” stamped on it. I know they’re Fox, but doesn’t it seem like they might be screwing with him a little?
The House rejected the $700 billion bailout plan yesterday, sending the DOW into an impressive dive of over 700 points. 218 votes were needed for the plan to pass but only 205 were secured. The affirmative votes consisted of two thirds of the Democrats and one third of the Republicans.
The Republicans are blaming their non-votes on a speech given by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The speech (full transcript) was slightly partisan but…so what? The Republicans get their feelings hurt by a few (accurrate) words and decide to go the legislative “I’ll hold my breath until my face turns blue” route?
This change of heart looks especially bad on John McCain, who foolishly put all of his chips on the economic table when he pulled his campaign suspension stunt last week. It was clear immediately that McCain’s involvement didn’t help negotiations (and may have damaged them). He had aligned himself with the House Republicans from the start- the very group whose hold out kept the bailout measure from passing. And McCain knows the situation is not good for him, evidenced by his lashing out at Barack Obama:
“From the minute John McCain suspended his campaign and arrived in Washington to address this crisis, he was attacked by the Democratic leadership: Senators Obama and Reid, Speaker Pelosi and others. Their partisan attacks were an effort to gain political advantage during a national economic crisis. By doing so, they put at risk the homes, livelihoods and savings of millions of American families.”Barack Obama failed to lead, phoned it in, attacked John McCain, and refused to even say if he supported the final bill.
“Just before the vote, when the outcome was still in doubt, Speaker Pelosi gave a strongly worded partisan speech and poisoned the outcome.
“This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country.”
Congress is on recess until Thursday and there’s a chance something will happen then to resurrect the bailout. But John McCain skated out onto cracking ice last week and he’s surely nervous about falling through.
Alaska based Doggy Decadents is a bakery devoted to creating fresh, preservative and additive free treats for canines. Products range from cinnamon flavored “dessert” bones to veggie or cheese snacks. Each product page includes the full list of ingredients so you know exactly what your dog will be eating.
Friday night, a chemical irritant was sprayed into the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton (Ohio) where three hundred people had gathered in celebration of the last ten days of Ramadan. The unknown chemical caused some inside the building to have coughing fits, tearing and shortness of breath. Two individuals had to be taken to the hospital while the rest received treatment on site. A child witnessed two men spraying the chemical into the building through a hand held can.
Ismail Gula, ISGD secretary, said people were praying during the weekly service when some in the audience began to cough and experience breathing troubles, then left the building. Once outside, several of them called 911, Gula said.
Tarek Sabagh, a member of the ISGD board, wasn’t present when the incident occurred.
He said his daughter called and told him to stay away because of the possibility of remaining fumes. Sabagh arrived shortly after and watched from the mosque’s steps as members were allowed back inside about 11 p.m. to collect belongings.
“It’s very disturbing,” Sabagh said. “Something like this has never happened before.”
Sabagh said members moved to a Beavercreek school to finish their prayer session as police continued to investigate.
“I don’t know if people will have the feeling of trust to come back tomorrow or next week or next month,” Sabagh said. “I don’t know how people will feel.”
If this had happened at a Christian church, there would be search teams out looking for the responsible parties. It would be the top news story on every national publication and news show. But it didn’t happen to Christians. It happened to Muslims.
In what is probably not a coincidence, the DVD ”Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” was distributed last Monday via advertising inserts in the newspapers in the area (and nationwide in other swing states). Distribution of the Islamophobic film was handled by the Clarion Fund and Endowment for Middle East Truth. The Clarion Fund has ties to a pro-Israel organization and may face a FEC investigation due to a pro-McCain article they posted (then retracted). The board of the Endowment for Middle East Truth includes James Woolsey (one of John McCain’s foreign policy advisers) and Frank Gaffney (neoconservative extraordinaire). There are many neoconservative/Republican fingerprints on this DVD project that aims to stoke fears of another terrorist attack. The fearmongering itself adds fuel to the fires of domestic terrorists like those that sprayed chemicals into that Ohio mosque. The irony is thick.
The religious community of Dayton is gathering in solidarity around those effected by this incident and are speaking out about the message of the DVD:
Also on Sunday, members of several Dayton religious groups were scheduled to view and discuss a DVD about Islamic radicalism mailed to some area homes and circulated with newspapers here and around the country.
“Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” was a paid advertising insert in the Dayton Daily News, Springfield News-Sun, Hamilton JournalNews and Middletown Journal, all owned by Cox Ohio Publishing, on Monday, Sept. 22. It appeared in more than 70 other newspapers nationwide.
The Rev. Gary Percesepe, executive director of Greater Dayton Christian Connections, characterized the DVD as “fanning the flames of fear and prejudice against Muslims, with the potential to inspire hate crimes.”
The Particle Zoo sells plush toys based on subatomic particles (with a subset based on antiparticles). A perfect gift for your incredibly nerdy child or physicists that are still children at heart. The toys are handmade and aren’t recommended for children under five because of small parts that are attached. The toys filling depends on the weight of the particle. The heaviest are stuffed with polished gravel, the middle weights with poly beads and the lightest with polyfill.
The subatomic plush toys are divided into quarks, leptons, force carriers, nucleons and theoreticals. I’ve featured one of each below.
In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.
Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”
Part of me wants this to pleasepleasepleeeeeeaaaaaasssseeeee be true. In addition to being yet another McLame campaign stunt that will backfire horribly, it will yet again give the lie to the idea that Republicans give a rip about genuine family values at all, only seeing said values as fodder for marketing. And, as helpfully pointed out by the nameless McCain insider, the Straight Talk Express would once again be brought to a screeching halt.
On the other hand, the whole idea makes me a little more than slightly nauseous. I mean, seriously, what kind of parents would even contemplate this for a nanosecond, let alone seriously consider it? And if it really does happen and I leap all over it as the comedy gold that it surely is, am I merely perpetuating the misery of two kids who’ve already had their intimate lives plastered all over the airwaves?
Actually, now that I think about it, since Palin herself has shown no similar qualms whatsoever about making a three-ring circus of her own daughter’s life and is seeking the highest benchwarming seat in the land, I could probably live with the guilt.
Fort Mill, South Carolina was the site of the last Confederate Government Cabinet meeting. It was also home to a Christian theme park opened by Jim Bakker. So it isn’t shocking to find out that their current mayor, Danny Funderburk, is a complete moron:
Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk says he was “just curious” when he forwarded a chain e-mail suggesting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is the biblical antichrist. “I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.”
Funderburk apparently sent the e-mail from his business account at Gastonia Sheet Metal where he works as a business agent.
The e-mail, which has circulated in the last six months since Obama secured the Democratic nomination, claims the biblical book of Revelation says the antichrist will be in his 40s and of Muslim ancestry.
There is no such scripture. And Obama is not a Muslim. But that hasn’t stopped the e-mail.
The urban legend Web site Snopes.com first exploded the myth in March. Funderburk forwarded the e-mail this month.
When asked if he believed Obama was the antichrist, Funderburk replied, “I’ve got absolutely no way of knowing that.”
On the upside, Funderburk’s investigations into the veracity of his junk mail have turned up a woman in Nigeria who is willing to give him a cut of $16 million dollars if he provides his bank account information. He can’t miss!
(As the title would suggest, this post is mildly NSFW. I’ve put the more blatantly NSFW stuff under the fold but don’t play the video if you have a conservative boss standing over your shoulder.)
I found out about All About Sex- a Belgian sexual education website- via this advertisement that Flea posted at One Good Thing.
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