"6-Year-Old Gives 10 Reasons NOT to Vote for Obama", all 10 are dishonest

There's a new viral video from Patriot Update making its rounds on the web, featuring a 6 year old spouting right-wing talking points. It's nothing particularly special, but these 10 common criticisms of President Obama will likely be repeated ad nauseam over the next few months. Let's break these down, shall we?

"Need a moment?"

CROSS-POSTED AT OUT OF INSPIRATION.


The Twix candy bar uses the catchphrase “need a moment?” to suggest that it can be used to pause awkward situations, “chew it over” with the aforementioned candy bar, and emerge as an enlightened individual. For an example, one popular Twix commercial features two heterosexual gentlemen reading a low-brow book on “how to score a mega-hottie” in a bookstore. When a “mega-hottie” actually approaches the duo, she inquires what they are reading in a judgmental fashion. One of the men takes out a Twix, takes a break by eating it, and then emerges with a witty retort. Having adequately utilized the break, his unmatched cleverness wins him the “mega-hottie”, as opposed to the other heterosexual man who did not the break.

On celebrities and culpability

By Sara Lim


On July 24 at 2:30AM a car accident occurred in Gangnam, South Korea, one of the drivers under the influence of alcohol. His BAC was reportedly 0.056%, and as a result of the accident, his driver license was suspended. The reason that this is news, however, is that the driver was Nichkhun, a member of the Korean pop idol group 2PM.

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“The Dark Knight”, Indeed, “Rises” to the Occasion

CROSS-POSTED FROM BLIND MOUSE ENTERTAINMENT.


With all of the unfortunate news coming out of Colorado, The Dark Knight Rises has received more press about being shown in Aurora than about its substance. I managed to see the film at a midnight showing in southern Connecticut, but it has taken about a week to collect my thoughts on it. Warning, the following review contains spoilers.

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Batman would not want Aurora shooter James Holmes executed

James Holmes kills 12 innocent people and injures 58 in a shooting spree in Aurora, Colorado during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. The state of Colorado still has not abolished the death penalty. The district attorney says the the victims' families will be consulted to see if they believe that the state should try to put James Holmes on death row.

In the upcoming weeks, we'll hear perspectives from the folks against the death penalty, and we'll hear perspectives from the folks in favor of the death penalty. And we'll hear the perspective of the weak-minded folks who are usually against the death penalty, but are in favor of its usage now.

But, since Batman has played such a huge role in this shooting, isn't it only fair to ask what Bruce Wayne would do?

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The Gender Games

By Helen McDonald


In August of 2009, South African runner Caster Semenya won gold in the 800 meters at the Track and Field World Championships. With a time of 1.55:45, Semenya set the fastest time of the year in that event. Shaving off nine seconds from her personal record should have been a source of pride for an athlete of that caliber, but instead her success became a source of contention.


The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) subjected Semenya to gender testing to verify if she “had a rare medical condition giving her an unfair competitive advantage.” Essentially, Semenya did not deserve her success if she was sufficiently a “woman.”

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Facebook commenting has been enabled!

Editor Justin Zheng and I worked on finally re-enabling commenting (more so the former than the latter), this time using the Facebook plugin. We would love feedback on the system, particularly if there are any glitches.

"There's a storm brewing, Mr. Wayne"

In all seriousness, there's a pretty bad storm brewing toward the western border of Connecticut. Flights in Newark Airport and JFK International Airport are not allowed to depart until 8PM at the earliest. The radar shows intense gusts of wind just about to reach Fairfield County. WFSB superstar meteorologist Gil Simmons reports "all of Western Connecticut needs to prepare now for damaging wind gusts and incredible lightning coming in FAST!" Yikes.

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America's apathy toward science

By Kelvin Gonzalez


Let's touch on some old news: "Researchers have successfully developed a key technology in developing an experimental fusion reactor".  When I first saw this story about a week or two ago, for some reason I felt uneasy while reading it. Then I saw the publication date and noticed why – the story was written in early June, and come mid-July I still hadn't heard much about it. This is a problem.

Over the past few decades America has gone from dominating the world of science and engineering in nearly every field imaginable to a disheveled version of its former self. This isn't to say that America doesn't remain a scientific juggernaut, but America finds itself very quickly losing ground in the field of scientific exploration.

Link Roundup 07/25/12

You know, the film The Immortals is quite awful.

WSJ writer questions whether the three Aurora boyfriends' sacrifices were worth it

James Taranto is a disgusting individual. In response to the news that three brave boyfriends used their bodies to save their respective girlfriends from gunfire, the Wall Street Journal writer took to Twitter to question the sacrifice:

I hope the girls whose boyfriends died to save them were worthy of the sacrifice.

Here's a screencap, just in case:

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Three updates!

1. I am currently writing this on my iPhone 4S. The new version of Mac OS X (called Mountain Lion) drops tomorrow, so I am currently backing up my MacBook Pro.
2. I am absolutely giddy to hear what Mitt Romney has to say about foreign affairs, but, most importantly, how he thinks that he differs from President Obama on them.
3. On Thursday, a posting by a new weekly contributor will debut. Please say "hello!" to Kelvin Jose Gonzalez, Bloody Shrubbery's latest addition! 

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"Dream On"

CROSS-POSTED AT OUT OF INSPIRATION.


In 2008, singer Robyn released the music video for her single “Dream On” to the iTunes Music Store for free. While I immediately jumped at the opportunity to download a free video from iTunes, it took me months (if not longer) to actually watch it. However, when I did, I was pleasantly surprised:

"If only someone in the theater had a gun!"

In theory, I can understand why someone would say that they wish another person at the theater in Aurora, Colorado had a gun. Neutralizing the threat of James Holmes, the shooter, seems great when put in hypothetical terms. However, would a bunch of gun-wielding, confused movie-goers in a dark theater (during a loud action sequence in the film) shooting wildly really have solved the issue?

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I'm pleased to introduce…

To add to our ever growing staff here at Bloody Shrubbery, I am extremely pleased to introduce our newest writer: Sara Lim. She is a blogger over at the English-language website BigBangUpdates, using her knowledge of the Korean language to translate media related to the popular k-pop group BIGBANG.

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‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is not some liberal plot to defame Mitt Romney

CROSS-POSTED AT BLIND MOUSE ENTERTAINMENT.


There’s an up-and-coming right-wing conspiracy that The Dark Knight Rises is somehow anti-conservative. In the newest Batman film, the lead antagonist is a horrifying fellow named Bane. And Mitt Romney had a semi-evil company named Bain. Thus, Bane is a homophone for Bain, which I guess is evil, or something.

Racial Paradise

By Helen McDonald

As a gringa carioca (an American in Rio de Janeiro), I am informed at least three times a week that “there is no typical Brasilian”. Along with the beaches, a source of great pride seems to be Brasil’s self-proclaimed status as a rainbow nation.

“Brasilians are white, black, yellow—like the Indians—everything!” a teacher told me yesterday. “Even you could be Brasilian.”

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Family Research Council makes a great case AGAINST the Boy Scouts' ban on gay members

A lot of people are unaware that the Boy Scouts of America is a conservative, religious organization. The group not only forces its members to take an oath to "god and my country", but also it goes as far as to ban atheists and agnostics from joining. It should come as no surprise that an organization that discriminates on the basis of religiousness (or lack thereof) has no problem with discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

And that's just what it does.

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A new writer!

I am extremely glad to be able to introduce you all to Bloody Shrubbery's newest contributing writer, Helen McDonald.

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Rick Santorum, move over: Mitt Romney is the anti-porn candidate of 2012

Morality in Media, a right-wing religious organization, is probably best known for its strong stance against "illegal" pornography. I put quotation marks around the word illegal because their definition of illegality is highly suspect. They consider all hardcore pornography (any sexual content showing penetration) to technically be illegal under U.S. obscenity laws – a position long rejected by the federal government.

Today, the group sent out an intriguing message to its followers about Mitt Romney:

Click to enlarge.

Link Roundup 07/18/12

Like a star!

The worst Mitt Romney ad thus far?

Barack Obama gives a long speech in Virginia. The Romney campaign cuts out 2.5 seconds of it and replays it six times in a row. They then upload it to YouTube. I am not making any of this up. It's like they aren't even trying:

Could Mitt Romney pick Tim Pawlenty as his VP running mate?

Despite Forbes posting a great article about "35 Questions Mitt Romney Must Answer About Bain Capital Before The Issue Can Go Away", Mitt Romney will likely answer 0/35 of the questions and the issue will eventually slip away. Nate Silver is incredibly skeptical concerning whether the Bain Capitol controversy is even hurting Romney. Still, someone seems to be leaking rumors about whether Tim Pawlenty will be the pick to distract the media. 

I'll say this much: it's more likely than Condi being chosen.

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"Finding Inspiration"

CROSS-POSTED AT OUT OF INSPIRATION.

During a recent trip to South Korea, I took a quick bathroom break in a gogi (meat) restaurant. After arriving and situating myself at one of the subsequent stalls, I looked up to a most unusual sight – I was met with a Benjamin Franklin quotation staring down at me. Admittedly, I was a bit perplexed: thousands of kilometers away from anywhere old Ben Franklin traveled, yet I’m being met with his wisdom in a urinal.

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Politics as usual? Not quite

I'm generally not one to talk about politics in incredibly broad terms. I'm never one to throw ad hominem attacks at congress for all of America's ills. Many folks complain about "politics as usual", which might sound good on a bumper sticker, but I'm not quite sure that it's entirely accurate.

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News Snap – PSY (싸이) drops "Gangnam Style (강남스타일)" music video

A hilarious video, dropped a couple of hours ago:

Frank Ocean never said he was gay

CROSS-POSTED AT BLIND MOUSE ENTERTAINMENT.


You might have never heard of him before, but this week everyone learned that R&B singer Frank Ocean is gay. It made every headline, from hiphop blogs to progressive publications, all proclaiming the news. Take the Chicago Sun Times: “R&B star Frank Ocean makes media waves with admission he’s gay”. The only problem? Frank Ocean never said he was gay.

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Condoleeza Rice will not be Romney's VP

There are more rumors today that the Romney campaign is considering Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state in the Bush administration, to be his vice presidential running mate. However fun as it might be to pair them up in our heads, I cannot see this coming into fruition. My top three reasons are below the jump.

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Some Notes

First and foremost, I am going to begin to post on my good friend's blog, OutOfInspiration. I may have criticized the site in the past, but that does not mean that I do not support its overall goal. I'm excited to see what flair I can bring to the site.

Link Roundup 07/11/12

A slight revision in the title!

Narrative v. Reality

Rachel Maddow featured an excellent segment on her program last Friday about how much the Democrats will be outspent this year. It's a bit disheartening, but, in my view, it really drives home the point that Democrats need to learn how to craft a powerful narrative if they want to stand any chance of winning.

Youth, the media, and body modification

I just finished reading this article from CNN about children and body modification. It was an okay piece–we are talking about CNN–however, it repeated something that I would consider a horrible mistake: it featured no children.

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On Google, homophobia, and international politics

I am incredibly intrigued by Google's recent move:

Google is launching a campaign called "Legalize Love," which will fight homophobia and lobby against legal oppression of homosexuals all over the globe. […] A Google spokesperson told msnbc.com that the Legalize Love campaign is a way to "promote safer conditions for gay and lesbian people inside and outside the office in countries with anti-gay laws on the books."

From one of the world's most powerful, popular, and influential websites – this campaign will no doubt make quite a splash.

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Why iTunes User Ratings Are Meaningless

CROSS-POSTED AT BLIND MOUSE ENTERTAINMENT.


Realizing that YouTube is over seven years old makes me feel incredibly old, but those of us who remember it when it launched probably remember a YouTube significantly different from the video-sharing site today. Videos never had advertisements preempting playback. Users used to not be able to pick the quality of their video. Vevo had not yet been conceptualized. However, to me, the best change comes from the YouTube rating system.Today, users can decide whether they “like” or “dislike” a video.

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News Snap - 2NE1 releases "I LOVE YOU" music video

Dropped a few hours ago:

What happens when you ask an anti-abortion person a policy question?

I have a long-winded theory that relatively few anti-choicers actually believe that abortion is literally killing a human being– a thought that I will save for another post –but, these folks seem to exemplify my point exactly:

Restaurant review: Paperback Café in Old Saybrook

It was 3PM on my day off and I had an urge to explore another shoreline café. A friend of mine works at the Turtle Café in Westbrook, but when I called ahead to check for wifi, I was informed that it closes at 2PM. So, instead, I decided to hop over to a popular local joint called the Paperback Café located at 210 Main Street in Old Saybrook.

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Smartphone makers just don't get it

Exactly right:

I'll also just observe more broadly that it's really impressive how much Microsoft and Google are, in their different ways, spending on an unwillingness to leave well enough alone. The Search/Maps/Mail troika of advertising platforms is a great business for Google and Windows/Office is a great business for Microsoft. But Microsoft is determined to get into search and Google is determined to get into social networking both for reasons that don't strike me as particularly well-articulated.

While Matt Yglaesias wrote this in reference to Google's acquisition of Meebo, I think the same can be said for websites rushing out to make their own smartphones. It's safe to say that Facebook will, at some point, release a smartphone. Today, a report came out claiming that Amazon will be producing a smartphone. In my view, both actions are "for reasons that don't strike me as particularly well-articulated."

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A quick thought on Rupert Murdoch's criticism of Mitt Romney

I know that the media loves to play the game of "a rich person just said something, so it must be important", but the faux-controversy surrounding Rupert Murdoch's recent comments seems incredibly asinine. Rupert Murdoch holds extreme influence over politics in the United Kingdom due to his media power. However, will the right-wing ideologue's at Murdoch's Fox News or Wall Street Journal dare to go against Mitt Romney in a significant substantive way?

Even an editor needs an editor

In the recent weeks, Bloody Shrubbery has undergone some changes. It was a pleasure to add Katie Liang to the roster, making her the first contributing writer in the site's history. However, today I would like to introduce a new editor.

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Should Texas end its state-run lottery?

I think that the following controversy raises some interesting questions:

Link Roundup, 07/04/12

Déjà vu?

Restaurant review: Comfort Café in Old Saybrook

I decided to kickoff my Old Saybrook café reviews by going somewhere I had never been before: the Comfort Café. Located at 90 Essex Road, the exterior of the establishment is certainly nothing to marvel at. (Neither is the website, for that matter.) However, I choose not to judge a restaurant by its cover outside looks.

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Cafés in and around Old Saybrook, CT

Many of my readers know that I spend half the year residing in Cheshire, CT (where I am currently registered to vote) and the other half in Old Saybrook, CT. While Cheshire is nestled in-between the cities of New Haven and Waterbury and next to the large town Southington, Old Saybrook is surrounded by small towns and the ocean.

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News Snap – Andy Griffiths has died

Remember that Drake song Best I Ever Had? It was pretty much his first hit song. In this chart-topper, he raps:

She call me the referee 'cause I be so official
My shirt ain't got no stripes, but I can make your pussy whistle
Like the Andy Griffith theme song

This song refers to the opening theme (featured below) to The Andy Griffith Show, an extremely popular sitcom in the 1960s. It featured Andy, a sheriff in North Carolina, Don Knotts as a maladroit deputy, and Ron Howard (yes, that Ron Howard) as his son. Sadly, Andy Griffiths died this morning.

Link Roundup, 07/02/12

I forgot to post this last week. Whoops.

Investments in prison, the criminal justice system, and CT-N

Last weekend, I was over my friend's summer home, in which he has not yet upgraded to the new digital cable box, leaving him with two television channels: C-SPAN and CT-N (which is essentially local C-SPAN for Connecticut). While the former had live coverage over the U.S. House of Representatives' debate on the 2013 transportation bill, the latter was showing taped parole hearings.

Cheshire Correctional Facility (Source)