YouTube gets it right

Why haven't we seen more of this online?

Over the last year Korean TV stations have been opening up YouTube channels and offering a wide variety and deep catalog of their shows—everything from weekly dramas to K-Pop musical programs. The main three terrestrial broadcasters all have multiple channels with their top shows — KBS, MBC, and SBS. YouTube also has many top cable shows such as Pororo from Iconix animation studio andSonbadak TV. […] On the Shows page in Korea, you’ll find new programs like Infinite Challenge (무한도전) and classics like My Lovely Sam-Soon (내 이름은 김삼순), with subtitles in English, Spanish and other languages.

People always talk about the ways that the Internet exposes people to other cultures, but they seem to leave out the key point: most of that is illegal. Posting these shows and music videos on websites (like Hulu or YouTube) not only legalizes peoples' thirst for other entertainment, but it also makes it economically viable.

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Could drinking underage be healthful?

Interesting news via MSNBC:

Up until you're 21, you're told that drinking alcohol is bad. Then you're suddenly told that, really, it's drinking alcohol and driving that's bad. The latter is definitely true. But the former? Scientists aren't so sure. […] Case in point: During a five-year period, lifetime alcohol abstainers were 19 percent more likely to die than regular drinkers, defined as having one or two drinks, three or more days a week, say Virginia Tech University researchers.

[…]So what power does alcohol hold, besides making you awesome at karaoke? Past research has shown that alcohol can raise good cholesterol, lower bad cholesterol, and can reduce those blood problems that lead to clogged arteries. It can even lower your risk for diabetes. 

[…] The Virginia Tech study shows that heavy drinking, defined as at least three drinks, three or more days a week, is even worse for you than abstaining. (Although not by much, and non-drinkers were more susceptible to heart disease.)

While this is interesting on a social level, the importance of such studies cannot be understated. When people get an idea in their head (i.e. "drinking is bad"), it tends to shut their mind to any other possibilities. Conventional wisdom has an unfortunate effect of silencing thought.

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News Snap – Current TV fires Keith Olbermann

What the fuck:

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter breaks the news that Current TV has let go Keith Olbermann, and will replace him with Eliot Spitzer, who like Olbermann, did a stint on MSNBC. Olbermann had been dismissed from MSNBC when he signed his deal with Current, and though he was at one point a high-profile acquisition for the network, founded by former Vice President Al Gore to provide a more progressive take on the news, his ratings fell and his relationship with Current quickly foundered.

Let's not forget that Brian Stelter has lied about Keith Olbermann in the past, earning him a spot on the Worst Person in the World in 2009. There was even a Twitter altercation between the two earlier this year. However, rumors of Current TV/Keith Olbermann tensions have been floating around for a while now. I'm going to file this in the "maybe" category for now.

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Dr. William Petit cherry-picks Pope John Paul II to support death penalty

I have the utmost respect for Dr. Petit, his family, and the suffering they have gone though. Whenever I have spoken about the 2007 Cheshire home invasion, I have made this point abundantly clear. Attacks on him because of his political opinions pertaining to this issue are unacceptable. However, the truth must be told, regardless of the individuals involved.

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CT Death Penalty Repeal 2012, part 2

As this year's legislative session continues, anti-death penalty advocates are pleased with the progress of the state-funded execution bill making its way through the legislature. Let's check in with that fight, shall we?

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Santorum, Zimmerman, and audio accountability

Did Rick Santorum almost call President Obama a "nigger"?

"Match Game", wealth, and politics

Remember the game show called Match Game? If you're under the age of 40, then probably not. It aired in the 70s and featured a bunch of (b-list?) celebrities. Essentially, each show would feature two non-celebrity contestants. The host, Gene Rayburn, would present absurd Mad Lib-style fill-in-the-blanks, which the contestants would have to answer. They would try to craft responses that would match those of the celebrities. Once someone had six matches, they would be able to move onto the next round to win more money.

Link Roundup, 03/28/12

Good evening!

March 27!

Today is my birthday. Last year, my birthday present was that Glenn Beck was officially dropped from Connecticut airwaves. What will the news bring me this year? Probably nothing good. Under the jump, I have compiled a list of famous occurrences on March 27s throughout history. Enjoy!

Media objectivity, George Zimmerman edition

In a case of sadomasochism, I was reading an article on Big Government condemning Rick Santorum for condemning George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in February. Aside from perpetuating the conservative fantasy world, where race plays no part in anything at all (except when it does), the piece raised an interesting point about high-profile accusations.

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"Obamaville"

I can't believe I'm posting about Rick Santorum for the second time today. However, a ridiculous new political advertisement of his is making its way across the internet and it is, well…check it out:

Quick note on the upcoming SCOTUS healthcare ruling

I don't really care if the individual mandate is upheld or struck down. It has never really thrilled me and, as the video below describes, President Obama feels (felt?) the same way. And, unlike Chuck Todd, I am not unconvinced that Obama could use either decision to his advantage.

In Defense of Santorum

Looks like someone has a potty mouth! Tsk, tsk, Rick:

From what I can assess, Jeff Zeleny was, indeed, asking a misleading question. Even Daily Kos had a front page piece which discussed how the NYTimes reporter was wrong. I'm not as convinced as Santorum that it was a calculated incident of Liberal Bias™, though.

Keeping the Sabbath Holy: March 25, 2012

Today, I should be home, recovering from what I hope was an amazing vacation. This is the last pre-scheduled post before I return to writing daily posts. While it may be sad to be saying goodbye to tropical weather, I am a little sad to be saying goodbye to something else: the Keeping the Sabbath Holy post.

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Louisiana Primary 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

Today, my cruise ship has returned to Port Canaveral, Florida. It's always sad when a good vacation comes to an end, but it's great to be left with good memories and good pictures. (And by that I mean the pictures that cannot be posted on Facebook.) Today's the Louisiana primary.

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Fresh Friday, 3/23

Today is the last day of the cruise and the last port of call. This is the Great Stirrup Cay, a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines, in the Bahamas. The ship anchors about one or two kilometers out and two or three shuttle boats take passengers to and from the island. It's quaint! Anyway, enjoy your Fresh Friday:

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Why HuffPo sucks, part 1 of many

I am back at sea today. On cruises, both spending time on the Internet and reading the newspaper cost money. I generally resort to watching to numbing my own mind by watching FoxMSNBCNews on the television in my stateroom. Sometimes CNBC is the only channel worth watching, but I somehow always get stuck watching Larry Kudlow's abomination of television program.

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Link Roundup, 03/21/12

Today, the ship takes a stop in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

Illinois Primary 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

Today, I'm taking a stop in George Town in the Grand Cayman Islands. I don't remember if I have been here before. I am probably looking forward to a nice beach day. In the United States, there is a primary in Illinois today. From what I can tell, it will be pretty uneventful.

This would be me if (a. I brought my laptop on vacation, (b. I lost a significant amount of swagger, and (c. I had a PC.

Twenty-first GOP debate TONIGHT!

Today, I am in Cozumel, Mexico. I've been here once before and it was absolutely beautiful. As the State Department puts it:

Excessive alcohol consumption, especially by U.S. citizens under the legal U.S. drinking age, is a significant problem. The legal drinking age in Mexico is 18, but it is not uniformly enforced.

I love contributing to the problem – legally! Speaking of doing things that my doctor would probably advise against, there's yet another GOP debate tonight!

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Keeping the Sabbath Holy: March 18, 2012 AND Puerto Rico Primary 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

Today, I am at sea! We set sail from Florida yesterday and we should be halfway to our first port of call. Unfortunately, I will not be making it to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico during my vacation. I visited it once back in 2008, and I adored it. There is also a primary happening there today. Full results will be posted when they become available.

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Missouri Caucus 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

Today, my cruise officially leaves from Port Canaveral, Florida. I have been on cruises from here before. It's really interesting that you're able to see where the space ships launch all the way from where the cruise ships launch. Anyway, on a less interesting note, today is the Missouri caucus. Below is an aerial shot of Port Canaveral because Missouri is boring.

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Fresh Friday, 3/16

Today, I am embarking on my spring break 2012 trip! From now until the 25th of March, Bloody Shrubbery will feature new content, but it is all written before I left for my trip. I am taking a week long cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line from Port Canaveral, Florida around the Gulf of Mexico. I will be staying on the Norwegian Sun ship. Today, I arrive in Orlando and make my way over to Port Canaveral. Anyway, enjoy your Fresh Friday:

Orlando, Florida, USA.

Meghan McCain's fantasy world

I have never liked Meghan McCain. Moderates tend to think she's great because she fully subscribes the to both sides are equally bad–disease, wherein both political parties share an equal amount of blame for everything. Anyway, Playboy decided to interview her in its latest issue. It was painful:

PLAYBOY: Visualize for a moment how America would be different had your dad won. 

MCCAIN: […] I think Dad would have made an incredible president. The recession wouldn’t have been as bad as it is now. We wouldn’t be pulling troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. I think morale in the military and in the country at large would be higher and we’d be much further on the road to recovery.

Sigh.

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"The Great One"?

At the end of the day, conservative talk radio is mostly heard by conservatives. It doesn't really serve progressives to whine and moan about what they say or do because, at the end of the day, conservative talk radio listeners will never vote for our candidates. However, some things just get on my nerves. Cue Mark Levin:

The best part of that clip (and, consequently, the most infuriating) is how Mark Levin simply refuses to believe that there are people in this country who cannot afford health care. To him, poverty is just a myth and the caller on the phone must be some lazy jackass.

Fake liberal Bob Beckel whines about people calling him a fake liberal

UrbanDictionary for "Fox News liberal":

1. A person who describes themselves as a Democrat, but is actually quite conservative […]

2. Someone on FOX News who is actually a liberal, but either dumb or weak, and exists primarily as a punching bag for the conservatives on the show. Alan Colmes is an example.

Roll the clip…

Rough roads ahead for Thailand

In late 2011, exiled Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra got his Thai passport back. While out of the country in 2006, Thaksin was ousted in a military coup and had his passport revoked in 2009 by his political opponents. His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, came into power late last summer, and never hid the fact that she had plans to allow him to return.

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BONUS Weekly Roundup, 03/15/12

But, wait, there's more!

Weekly Roundup, 03/14/12

Hold the press!

Before I forget…

Happy birthday to Bloody Shrubbery! Yesterday was its first birthday. While I technically posted before last March 13th, those were mostly miscellaneous postings and snow day predictions (a little competition my friends and I had in boarding school). It was a year ago from yesterday when I wrote the first post entitled, "Bachmann + History = ???? PROFIT!".

I tried to make one of those pointless word clouds using the text from the RSS feed of the last year, but all I got was this:

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#TeamiPhone seems to be #winning

I'm not one for anecdotal stories attempting to prove a point, so I'll throw this source in to justify this post. Tonight, I decided to go through my contact list and see how many of my friends have gotten iPhones. The new version of iOS (the iPhone operating system) allows for something called iMessage – an iOS-specific built-in messaging capability. When you send a regular text message to a non-iOS user, the "Send" button stays green. But, when sending to an iOS user, it turns blue.

I cannot count the number of times that damned little "Send" button turned blue tonight.

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Don't worry, we're safe

I tried logging on to Bloody Shrubbery today, only to be met with this:

American Samoa, Alabama, Hawaii, and Mississippi Caucuses and Primaries 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

Two caucuses and two primaries today! There are primaries in Alabama and Mississippi and caucuses in Hawaii and the American Samoa. Below is a map of the American Samoa, because I doubt many people know where it is.

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News Snap – Keith Olbermann's father dies

via Baseball Nerd:

My father died, in the city of his birth, New York, at 3:50 EST this afternoon. […] He was my inspiration, and will always remain so. His bravery these last six months cannot be measured. He is as much my hero now, as he was when I was five years old.

My thoughts go out to the Olbermann family.

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The myth of an unpopular Obama

Yesterday from Gallup:

President Barack Obama's job approval rating rose to 49% in the three-day period from Friday through Sunday, building on an upward trend that began the middle of last week. Obama's current approval rating is the highest measured since early February, and before that the highest since June 2011.

Doesn't exactly fit the GOP narrative of the most unpopular president ever, does it?

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On 'Sukiyaki Western Django'

Last night, I took some time to watch Takashi Miike's 2007 action film "Sukiyaki Western Django."(スキヤキ ウェスタン ジャンゴ) The movie is shot in spaghetti western style, but takes place in Japan. Despite being a Japanese movie, Miike decided to have all of the dialog (except for one or two lines) in English. The only Caucasian actor was Quentin Tarantino. I would attempt to give a synopsis of the plot-line, but I can't – and that was a part of the problem.

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Right-wing blogs: Do sluts deserve health care?

From Jill Stanek:

Liberals feel that prostitution should be legal, but don’t consider all the regulations, cost of contraceptives that we’re gonna have to pay for. 

Hey! If prostitution is being legal, you can bet your naive, liberal behind that people like Sandra Fluke can get contraceptives and abortions for prostitutes paid for with our taxes! 

When Jill posts shit calling Sandra Fluke a prostitute, it kind of makes you wonder what kind of conservative "feminist" she is, doesn't it?

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Keeping the Sabbath Holy: March 11, 2012

James Inhofe, super genius:

Well actually the Genesis 8:22 that I use [in the book] is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’ my point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous. […] 

I would say that the other Scripture that I use quite frequently on this subject is Romans 1:25, ‘They give up the truth about God for a lie and they worship God’s creation instead of God, who will be praised forever.’ In other words, they are trying to say we should worship the creation. We were reminded back in Romans that this was going to happen and sure enough it’s happening.

Yep. He really said that.

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Kansas, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands Caucuses 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

On March 10, there were caucuses in Kansas, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam. Below are maps of the last three places (top to bottom: N.M.I, U.S.V.I., Guam) on top of a picture of Kansas.

Source, source, source, source.

"Is K-Pop the Next British Invasion?"

My latest in The College Voice:

Viewers of The Late Show with David Letterman frequent the program not only for the recognizable host and for the pithy comedy, but also for the musical guests. From Eminem to Madonna, a plethora of different performers have all graced the show during its over two-decade long run. Earlier this month, a lesser-known musical guest made an appearance on the iconic American show — Korean female pop group Girls’ Generation. 

Sonyeo Sidae — SNSD, for short, or Girls’ Generation in English — is one of many pop artists breaking out of South Korea in recent years. The “Hallyu Wave,” what journalists have dubbed the increased popularity of Korean entertainment — specifically its music — outside of South Korea, has been gaining traction in recent years due in part to the growing influence of the Internet.

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'Fresh' rhymes with 'stress'

Me, this week:

"So many stress, so, so many stress. I need a club banger. I must go. I’m so many stress. Please." - Seungri

Fresh Friday will be back next week - with more freshness such as this:

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Mother did steal son's, education does deserve a punishment

From Norwalk, CT:

McDowell was sentenced to 12 years in prison, suspended after five, and must pay back up to $6,200 to the city of Norwalk for stealing her son's education. 

McDowell's 12 year sentence also includes four counts of drug possession and sale charges, which she pleaded guilty to on Wednesday. 

McDowell was homeless when she was charged with felony larceny last year. Authorities allege she enrolled her son in kindergarten in Norwalk using a babysitter's address when he should have attended Bridgeport schools, where her last permanent address was.

It goes without saying that sending a single, poor mother to prison for over a decade – only to owe $6,200 – for lying to get her son into a better school truly helps no one. On the most basic level, it is morally wrong. However, the case is more complicated than just that.

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"Both sides are equally bad" disease, Limbaugh edition – Part 2

After writing my original post on false-equivalency between Rush Limbaugh and liberal pundits, I came to another conclusion, which gets really to the heart of a lot of these issues –  liberal and conservative media is different.

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iPads, Links, and Me

I'm downloading the new version of iOS (namely 5.1) as we speak. Expect a Weekly Roundup of links later this week. I'll be pretty busy until Friday. Have a good week, everyone. Some Apple related links are below the jump.

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"Both sides are equally bad" disease, Limbaugh edition

This shit is too much:

BIGBANG (빅뱅) releases "FANTASTIC BABY" MV

Released moments ago on YouTube:

SUPER TUESDAY 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

If you live in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, or Virgina – then today is SUPER TUESDAY! Expect to hear nothing else on the news about this tomorrow or, really, for the rest of the week.

When I am hyperbolic, I do it right.

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter? Nazis in Space?

I'm not sure how to feel about these two trailers:

Keeping the Sabbath Holy: March 4, 2012

I will likely devote a longer post to this sometime in the future, but the religious influence over Ireland's politics always surprises me:

Washington State Caucus 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

There was a caucus last night. Results below the jump.

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Wyoming Caucus 2012 - Huge post, with updates!

Apparently, it happened on March 1st. It was a really small event – so small that I forgot to post about it. Results below the jump.

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Sam Harris, time, and the 2007 Cheshire home invasion

I don't always agree with Sam Harris–even if I enjoyed his 2006 book Letter to a Christian Nation–but his most recent article was fascinating for me. The entire post seems to be a long advertisement for his new book, which follows the general lines of:

A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion.

In the post, he illustrates his point with the example of the 2007 Cheshire home invasion.

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One of those days…

This is me, except I have a MacBook Pro. 

And I'm not a dog.

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Was Andrew Breitbart assassinated?

Sometimes you don't even need to read the article to know how stupid it will be:

Andrew Breitbart has died at age 43

I'm not even going to pretend to be one of those liberals who now sees Andrew Breitbart with rose-colored glasses. During his life he was a serial liar who used his privilege to smear ACORN into oblivion and to get an innocent black woman fired from her job. His only moment of semi-vindication was when he posted the infamous Anthony Weiner images. While I send my personal regards to his family, friends, and children, I see nothing untoward about recalling his life's work.

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