Words are funny things. I would, for example far rather live in a monarchy than a democracy. I would tolerate pure, corrupted communism to avoid a democracy. English is a very precise language; we have oodles of words to say precisely what we mean. And yet, all that I ever hear is how wonderful democracy is. Isn't that wierd?
There's a good reason that America was never and is not today a democracy. Iraq was a democracy. China was a democracy. Interwar Germany was a democracy. What did they get? Genocide every time. About the only place it has worked was the Greek city-states, and that may only be because I don't know any better.
Long live the Republic.

Dean's World - Pharmaceutical Phears

Dean Esmay takes a shot at the media for hyping the dangers of Painkillers (you know where the FDA originally tought there was a 1% increase in the chance of a stroke but it was really 3%).
He also gripes about the FDA, but I also agree with him there.
I'm starting to like Dean's World; it's worth browsing around.

I just started reading All the Trouble in the World, and have gotten to O'Rourke going off on Captain Planet.
It seems that someone should point out that, while the message may seem especially left-liberal; the series itself is an extraordinarly conservative response to problem solving: Ted Turner decided that there was a problem. He used his personal resources to address that problem, in a manner which specifically encouraged personal responsibility. That this series presents a caricature of reality isn't terribly suprising; it's targeted towards children.
I think oversimplification was the only real shortcoming here. Most of the villains were portrayed as evil and malicious instead of oblivious.
This has been a failing of "eco-villainry" across the board, come to think of it. Whoever the protagonist is, they must always find a way to force the villain to stop. In reality it's always better to entice people into doing things your way.
Anyway, you should go take a look at the Captain Planet cast list. It's an extremely impressive cast, and fun to look at.

by P.J. O'Rourke

I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat.

God is an elderly or, at any rate, middle aged male, a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and a great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for the material well being of the disadvantaged. He is politically connected, socially powerful and holds the mortgage on literally everything in the world. God is difficult. God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God's heavenly country club.

Santa Claus is another matter. He's cute. He's nonthreatening. He's always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who's been naughty and who's been nice, but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without the thought of quid pro quo. He works hard for charities, and he's famously generous to the poor. Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: There is no such thing as Santa Claus.

It could be that I'm the only one who didn't know, but I thught this was quite amusing.
israelinsider: diplomacy: Hospital concealment strengthens suspicion: Arafat died of AIDS


Also, if you look near the bottom of the commenst, you can find this gem:

Arafat Died of Tilex Poisoning?
mytwocents - Tx, U.S.A
11/12/2004 01:05 IT Coroner: by Scott Ott

(2004-11-11) -- The coroner for the Palestinian Authority today announced that former Chairman Yassir Arafat died from "acute Tilex poisoning," and blamed the CIA and Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.

"Infidel agents infiltrated Chairman Arafat's personal quarters and sprayed his bathtub with Tilex, a deadly toxin to certain lifeforms," said an unnamed spokesman for the coroner. "We believe the bathtub was poisoned up to two years ago, but Chairman Arafat's exposure came only recently, due to his personal hygiene schedule."

The coroner said his report "ensures Mr. Arafat's status as a martyr, which helps to overcome his shameful legacy as the man who signed a peace accord with Israel."

I'll echo MA, but guarantee to answer all questions.
(You might get a "none of your business," though.)

Well, I suppose I should be posting something.

First off, last night's Simpsons episode was pretty good, so I'm sorry I said all those awful things... for now.

Anyway, I found this over at Sipidation's blog, and I miss the times when people used to leave comments on my blog (or the times where I used to update my blog) , so leave a comment under this post, dammit!

A) First, recommend to me:
1. a movie.
2. a book.
3. a musical artist, song, or album.
[These weren't on Sipidation' blog, but I thought I'd add them]
4. a computer/video game.
5. a blog or website that I don't have on my blogroll that you think should be there.
6. a favorite quote that you think I should add to my quote generator on the top right.

B) Ask me three questions—no more, no less. Ask me anything you want.*

C) Go to your blog (if you have one), copy and paste this, and allow everyone to ask you anything.

*Answers to questions not guaranteed.

Okay, I know I'm far from the first person to say that The Simpsons has sucked lately, but after the last night's episode, on top of the already dismal showing the series has offered this season, I just have to say something about it.

First off, I am a very forgiving guy (past evidence to the contrary), especially when it comes to something I love as much as The Simpsons. Even after a lot of people had already started claiming that the series was beginning to suck, I still insisted that this was only by contrast to the show at its peak, and that they really have never put out a bad episode. I had certainly recognized over the previous two seasons that the show was in decline, but there were always a few great, laugh-out-loud moments per episode that would make them worthwhile. I haven't really had one such moment since the current season started in November. Watching the show has become less of a treat, and more of a routine where I simply go through the motions as a matter of a habit that I've built up over the last decade. There really is nothing in the new episodes that I can take away from them and cherish, that I'll be remembering years and years from now, like I do earlier episodes. I really don't know what I'm going to do now, since it is still the Simpsons, so it's not like I can not watch it, but all that these recent episodes leave me with is a grim unpleasantness through the entire course of the episode, and an impatient desire that this embarassing spectacle will end so that I can watch the new episode of Arrested Development* afterward.

My dad has joked for years that my personal motto is "Once on Simpsons...". I consider it a mark of a truly great show/movie when you find yourself quoting lines from it in your everyday speech and referencing events from it whenever you see an even slight relation to your current situation, and I don't think anything has ever done this as well as the Simpsons has. However, there really isn't a damn thing on any of these new episodes that I have found to be worth repeating. The only reason for this show to be on the air anymore is for Matt Groening and FOX to collect the giant sacks of money they draw in, and (in the case of FOX) not have to worry about taking further risk with any original ideas (*cough* *cough* *cough*). I suppose it doesn't hurt that idiots like me keep watching the damn thing, hoping and praying for the inevitable (or not) return to its former glory.

I have previously slammed the Simpsons for being too preachy, and trying to push a left-wing agenda in recent seasons, but hell, if the show could once again become as funny and memorable as it once was I wouldn't care if they were bought out by the DNC and used as a propaganda device for delivering Democrat talking points. Hell, they could be pushing the agenda of the Communist Party for all I care, just bring back the Simpsons I know and love, goddammit!

I don't know what in the hell FOX was thinking when they decided to cancel Futurama instead of the Simpsons. The Simpsons has had its run, and it was one hell of a run, but it should have been allowed to die with dignity, so that it could be fondly remembered as it deserves to be remembered. The current writing staff needs to be fired in its entirety. If there are writers on staff that have been with the show for a while, they are burned out and completely tapped for fresh ideas. Any writers hired during the last few seasons are apparently so embarassingly incompetent that they can't even make Homer-friggin'-Simpson funny, and thus fully deserve to be thrown out on the streets where they belong. There are quite a few people out there who are capable of far funnier writing, who are more than willing to do it for free on the internet (just check out some of the links on the right-hand column of the blog).

I never thought I'd see the day where I took such a hostile attitude towards The Simpsons, which is a show I've always loved to an absurd degree, but there's really no other way to say it, the show has become crap that's just as instantly disposable as 99% of everything else on television. It's just plain bad.

*highly recommended by me

UPDATE: I just remembered a Simpsons episode from last season where they criticize George Lucas for forgetting what made his original Star Wars movies so great. While this criticism accurately describes the Lucas's recent prequels, it is even more true of recent Simpsons episodes. How oblivious did the show's writers have to be to not realize that their own fans had been saying the same thing about them for a while now. While there's tons of stupid stuff in the Star Wars prequels, they at least contain the bare minimum of what you'd expect from a Star Wars film (i.e. Jedi's and action-heavy lightsaber fights). I wish I could say the same about this season's Simpsons episodes, living up to the bare minimum of what I would expect from them. Seriously, is anybody watching these episodes before they're aired?

I just found that the movie Serenity, based on the excellent but short lived sci-fi show Firefly (which, if you are unfamiliar with the show, I have previously described it in this post), has had its release delayed from April 22, 2005 to September 20th. That's five goddamn months, based strictly on a marketing decision! Gawd-fucking-damn! I've been waiting for this movie for forever.

To give you an example of the brilliance contained in this show, the following is a quote from an episode where the crew of Serenity scavanged some cargo from a long abanodoned ship floating in space. They are later boarded by members of the Alliance, a sort of cross-galaxy government that is trying to force the entire galaxy under unified rule. The Alliance commander ends up taking the scavanged cargo, which some of the crew members gripe about after all the Alliance soldiers leave,

Jayne: "You saved his goddamn life, he still takes the cargo. Hwoon dahn."
Mal: "He had to.... Couldn't let us profit. [sarcastic] Wouldn't be 'civilized'."

Is that not the most pro-capitalist statement you have ever heard on a broadcast television show? It is such a terrific mockery of the nanny-state, "profit is evil" socialist and quasi-socialist dunces on the left. For more quotes from the show, check out the post where I previously talked about Firefly, linked to above.

One of the great things about this show is that the bad guys are not entirely bad, and the good guys are definitely not entirely good (I refer to them as "guerilla capitalists" in my previous post, but there are times where they're just plain thieves). Rather than depicting another struggle between good and evil, the show depicted a struggle between freedom and government. While I've seen shows that tackled issues of freedom before, I've never seen anything in movies or television that so perfectly embodied the spirit of economic libertarianism. The spirit of this show is pretty much the antithesis of everything you've come to expect from Hollywood. Check out the DVD.