Michael Kindt's Blog, page 161
January 9, 2015
"Butter has been slandered by the dark agents of industry and...
"Butter has been slandered by the dark agents of industry and media, and maligned by the frantic fears of a fat phobic public." —Alton Brown
January 8, 2015
January 7, 2015
In the Wake of Charlie Hebdo: Why Satire Matters
If Charlie Hebdo were to close because of this senseless, horrific massacre, then we’re all lessened by its loss. The magazine stands for a lot more than just a few thousand subscribers and a few uncomfortable French politicians.
"If you are a believer and you believe that the God Who created the universe loves you, then I believe that you can probably conceive of a God who can handle humor, laughter, teasing, and — yes — satire. That’s the description of a Big God. A little God gets easily offended by the chattering of minuscule bipeds on a backwater planet at the edge of an insignificant solar system in the quiet suburbs of a very, very big universe."
@thescarfy reblogged this from early-onset-of-night and added:
The people saying that Islam is a...
@thescarfy reblogged this from early-onset-of-night and added:
The people saying that Islam is a violent religion seem to have never actually studied it. It’s a very peaceful…
The article makes mention of those fools who say Islam is inherently violent or that the theological content of the religion itself is to blame. I thought the article raised some interesting questions and its author, George Packer, is not just some guy watching tv about Muslims but a reporter who has covered the war in Iraq and issues in the Middle East for years. I was especially intrigued by his point that while we sit around trying to define these terrorists in the most delicate and politically correct ways possible, they have already done so: “They, at any rate, know what they are about.”
All terrorism is a form of totalitarianism.
It’s the imposing of one’s beliefs on others through violence. Therefore, it’s not just craziness or evil, but agenda-driven. The terrorist attack in Colorado against the NAACP was, like the Paris attack, also about silencing, about getting people to shut up. Totalitarians, even freelance ones, cannot accept an opposing viewpoint.
The Blame for the Charlie Hebdo Murders - The New Yorker
"They are only the latest blows delivered by an ideology that has sought to achieve power through terror for decades. It’s the same ideology that sent Salman Rushdie into hiding for a decade under a death sentence for writing a novel, then killed his Japanese translator and tried to kill his Italian translator and Norwegian publisher. The ideology that murdered three thousand people in the U.S. on September 11, 2001. The one that butchered Theo van Gogh in the streets of Amsterdam, in 2004, for making a film. The one that has brought mass rape and slaughter to the cities and deserts of Syria and Iraq. That massacred a hundred and thirty-two children and thirteen adults in a school in Peshawar last month. That regularly kills so many Nigerians, especially young ones, that hardly anyone pays attention.
"Because the ideology is the product of a major world religion, a lot of painstaking pretzel logic goes into trying to explain what the violence does, or doesn’t, have to do with Islam. Some well-meaning people tiptoe around the Islamic connection, claiming that the carnage has nothing to do with faith, or that Islam is a religion of peace, or that, at most, the violence represents a “distortion” of a great religion. (After suicide bombings in Baghdad, I grew used to hearing Iraqis say, “No Muslim would do this.”) Others want to lay the blame entirely on the theological content of Islam, as if other religions are more inherently peaceful—a notion belied by history as well as scripture.
"A religion is not just a set of texts but the living beliefs and practices of its adherents. Islam today includes a substantial minority of believers who countenance, if they don’t actually carry out, a degree of violence in the application of their convictions that is currently unique. Charlie Hebdo had been nondenominational in its satire, sticking its finger into the sensitivities of Jews and Christians, too—but only Muslims responded with threats and acts of terrorism. For some believers, the violence serves a will to absolute power in the name of God, which is a form of totalitarianism called Islamism—politics as religion, religion as politics. “Allahu Akbar!” the killers shouted in the street outside Charlie Hebdo. They, at any rate, know what they’re about."
January 5, 2015
nicolecc1:
comedycentral:
Click here for more of Jon Stewart’s...
Click here for more of Jon Stewart’s coverage of the recent House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing.
Dear lord…
John is totally right here, but still completely wrong, scientifically speaking. There is only so much water on Earth and whether it’s frozen or melted matters not one whit. There was a time in Earth’s past when all water was melted and not one cube of ice was to be found anywhere on the planet. Palm trees grew near the Arctic Circle, fer Christ sake.
And Earth was just fine.
What the climate change people are really wanting is to FREEZE Earth in this particular instant of its geologic history, with THIS much ice and THIS much water. It’s human chauvinism, nothing more.
It’s true. It’s very likely that one day Florida will be under water. I must ask you, though, how is that NOT good for humanity?
Oh, and by the way, we elected these idiots, so it’s our own damn fault.
According to HuffPo, Tara Reid posed nude on Instagram!
Cutting edge shit like this is why I always turn to HuffPo for my enlightenment and pre-packaged liberal opinions. But, yes, I went down the link trial to the “nude” pictures—actually semi-nude, but HuffPo is not above baiting for clicks—and I just have to say that Tara should fire her PR people immediately.
I’m starting to get the feeling that many people in celeb/pop culture (the only culture we’re aware of anymore) are famous because they’re famous—not for any talent or gift or body of work. They’re just…famous. The Great Big Mechanism That Makes Information And Entertainment churns them out on a virtual assembly line and we all start talking about them. Then, whenever they do something stupid or evil or, in the case of Tara, unfortunate, it becomes news and appears on HuffPo and we talk about them some more.
Nero, who fiddled while Rome burnt, has nothing on us.
