HCR Debate

You can watch it live on C-SPAN.

This is better sport than most of the NCAA games I have seen so far.

Winterpills & Big Star

I wrote about Winterpills earlier in the week.

A couple of days after that Alex Chilton passed away.

Now, in honor of Chilton, Winterpills has covered Big Star's Thirteen.

It is worth the listen and/or the download.

Via Facebook

Follow Up To The Ohio Tea Party Attack on The Man With Parkinson

Chris Matthews interviews the President of AFP which is reference to this post from earlier.

How many people who are Tea Party Patriots or adherents to Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project identify as Christian? Would you venture to say that it is a majority? The reason I ask is because far too many Christians are cafeteria Christians, taking one verse from the Old Testament and another from the New Testament and the combining them to for something that does not fit within mainstream theology which they couple with a spurious understanding of American History and Political History.

I am looking forward to this being over one way or another.

If you want another perspective, The Young Turks covered this incident. Hearing Brian Unger say that, "You just can't reason with these douchebags," made me happier than I care to admit.

(Link to the MSNBC hosted video)

The Tea Part Patriots on HCR

Another video that is worth the 9 minutes. It makes me laugh. Zealots of any type are banal at best and terrifying at the very worst.

(Via VodPod)

Handcuffed in Blindsight

My favorite piece of speculative fiction in 2006/2007 was Blindsight by Peter Watts, which was a darkly rich piece about the nature of thought, what it means to be human, where (as individuals) we fit in the larger world around us.

I saw this on the Awl and io9 on Friday and BoingBoing yesterday.

What it comes down to is the Watts questioned how he was being treated and then was beaten by Border Partol guards.

Yeah, we are a kinder, gentler America right now.

I suppose there is something that say authors can be beaten because they have no actionable intelligence.

The temptation to go off on a rant and demand to see the alleged video tape of the encounter and to demand that there is as judicial review process, as well as the hope for the Canadians to get involved to protect their own...

But...it would be futile.