MMM

I've often wondered if Shepard Smith's recent un-Fox News-worthy attitude was a result of his legitimate differences with the network - which seem to be growing - or simply a case of moral posturing, as I believe the case to be with Glenn Beck. It's tough to believe in its sincerity (I mean, he was the host of A Current Affair...) but this outburst seems to be free of pretense. He ends up looking a little foolish in this clip, but I sympathize with him. Torture is just fucking wrong, ok? Sometimes the debate beyond that - especially a biased one - does not really help matters. There have to be some things that are simply taboo in our society despite their inevitable gray areas.

In the torture debate, people often bring up the Alan Dershowitz argument: a bomb is set to detonate in a large city in an hour, we have the terrorist, does it make sense to torture him to find the bomb's location? Probably. Does that mean we should do it? No. This is a completely hypothetical question with no basis in history. Hypotheticals could be drawn up to question any one of our values, that doesn't mean we should base policy on fiction. Example: Is is ok to punch children in the face when they're naughty? No. But what if, this one time, this child was actually not a child and he had the Gary Coleman disease and you didn't punch him and then he stabbed you. Yeah, good point. Open season on punching kids? No. Punching kids is fucking wrong, case closed.

There are always opportunities for relaxing our moral boundaries and there are always justifications, but it really just comes down to sticking by those decisions. I never cut in line. And I actually kinda consider peoples willingness to cut in line to be demonstrative of a certain sociopathy. Does it make sense to cut in line sometimes? Of course. Would it benefit me on occasion? Yes. But I'll never do it, I simply will not allow my brain to go there. It's unfair and fucking wrong. That's all there is to it.

Somebody really needs to drop a death metal soundtrack over this.

Tilly and the Wall - Bad Education

(view original)

Here is a very cool interview for anyone who is interested in new business models for making money in music. NIN has probably the most progressive attitude for getting their music out there than any mainstream group, and they're still raking in the cash. It's fascinating to watch Trent Reznor geek the hell out about the "NIN brand" and revenue streams and all that. He's a pretty smart dude. Every musician would be smart to listen up.

Fox News thinks Mr. Rogers ruined a generation of children:



Yeah, um if there's one problem with the kids of today it's that they have too much self-esteem. Sigh... Is there really a need to argue this kind of psycho pseudo-social-darwinistic bullshit? Apparently there is, since Fox News is now instructing a generation of idiot parents to teach their kids that, what, believing in yourself is wrong?

I really hope the recent surge in crazy that's been coming from the right is just the last gasp of a dying movement.

P.S. and I love how they vaguely link it to some "study" to add legitimacy. The conclusion of the "study" showed what? The young adults of today watched Mr. Rogers as children. The researcher believes the young adults of today have a sense of entitlement? Well then, case closed!

Finally somebody eviscerates Glenn Beck, and I'm glad it was Stephen Colbert.
Get your Joe the Plumber hate on here.
Musikmesse 2009, the worlds' leading electronic music trade show, is currently blowing my freaking mind. I'll do a sum up post on my favorite new pieces of gear when it's all wrapped up.
Watchmen's Rorschach as the Randian ideal.
More Inglourious Basterds pics.
The FBI, getting its priorities straight.
peoplewhositinthedisabilityseatswhenimstandingonmycrutches.com

"The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman taken in adultery as she looks out of a window at the rain, but to describe four hundred people under the lights reaching for a foul ball. This is ceremony."
-John Cheever

"A RED STAMP. If lilies are lily white if they exhaust noise and distance and even dust, if they dusty will dirt a surface that has no extreme grace, if they do this and it is not necessary it is not at all necessary if they do this they need a catalogue."
-Gertrude Stein

"The death ... of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world"
-Edgar Allan Poe