Digital Pretzel

Occupy Wall Street Statement

2011-10-05T23:01:00.000-07:00

Keith Olbermann reads the first community statement by the general assembly of Occupy Wall Street.

Certain Things are Too Expensive

2011-09-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Check out this slideshow. Feel free to spread this around.

Here is a breakdown of who has the money in this country; how much most of us have vs. the amount the wealthy have. These wealthy are the people the teabaggers think can't afford to create more jobs at a living wage, and should get further tax breaks.

World of Class Warfare

2011-09-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Buffett: "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich"

2011-09-06T22:13:00.000-07:00

Warren Buffett talks with Charlie Rose about his New York Times Op-Ed "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich".

Season's Greetings!

2010-12-23T09:54:00.001-08:00

‎"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

--Jacob Marley, from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

Happy Holidays!

Anson

Spirit of Christmas from an Atheist Point of View

2010-12-06T08:25:00.000-08:00

Ironic how Christmas is thought of by many as a Christian holiday (and that it's under "attack" by those godless pagans), even though most of the traditions associated with the holiday (gift giving, Santa Claus, decorated trees, etc.) are pre-Christian and pagan in origin. More ironic still, is that celebrating birthdays and decorating with trees is considered idolatry in some Christian traditions--i.e. celebrating Jesus' birthday with trees is breaking a commandment. The fact of the matter is that Christmas as a holiday is "Christian" in name only (it really has always been just a mixed up jumble of cultural influences).

Similarly the "holiest" of "Christian" holidays- Easter, is named after the ancient Germanic goddess of fertility, Eostre-- and to this day the symbols associated with Easter (Spring, eggs, rabbits) are all about fertility. Again, a mishmash of cultural traditions.

Halloween's wearing of masks and costumes and emphasis on the dead is also pagan in origin.

I don't believe in deities or spirits, Christian or otherwise, although I find the old traditions associated with Christmas and Halloween enjoyable and fun. I even enjoy much of the old traditional Christmas music, even with all it's Jesus-y themes in it.

The "Christian" aspect of the holidays doesn't weigh in any more or less to me than any of the ancient pagan stuff does, although the many of the entitlement claims by many modern Christians really does get up my ass sometimes.

--Anson Jew

What Happened to the Middle Class?

2010-10-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Warren:

Another good talk:

Robert Reich:
An interview on NPR.

Who are the Teabaggers?

2010-09-01T01:36:00.000-07:00

You always hear the teabaggers or "9/12ers" talking about the "original intent" of the constitution. This country already had that argument. It was called The Civil War. If you look at the Confederate Constitution, it would be a teabagger's paradise: almost identical to the US Constitution, except it removed the part about "promoting the general welfare" and replaced it with "invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God." It also diminished federal powers relative to state's rights, and restricted the vote only to native born citizens. In spirit, the teabaggers are really just a bunch of Confederate sympathizing sore losers.

Here's a real Confederate flag waving nut at a tea party:

I would never try to characterize all tea partiers as extreme as the people in the above video, but if you look at a lot of what the tea party movement espouses (or even just the right in general) it's reallly not much different from what the Confederacy stood for.

Here's a funny video of Sam Seder interviewing some people at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally that took place on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech:

-Anson Jew

Don't Be a Sucker

2010-08-21T22:00:00.001-07:00

An educational short from 1947.

The Last Whitewasher

2010-07-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

In August of 2009, a story surfaced about a Microsoft advertisement in which a photo of businesspeople of various ethnicities and genders was altered. The head of a black man was replaced with that of a white man. Microsoft later apologized for the incident.

* * * *

In August of 2009, a story came to light about Larry Whitten, a hotel owner in Taos, New Mexico, who ordered his Hispanic employees to Anglicize their first names. The name Marcos, for example, had to be changed to Mark. The employees were also forbidden from speaking Spanish in his presence.

* * * *

In June of 2010, a Prescott, Arizona principal decided to lighten the skin of black and hispanic students depicted on a mural at Miller Valley Elementary School following prodding by Prescott city councilman Steve Blair. Blair stated on his radio show that showing people of color on a mural in Prescott constituted some kind of "agenda." Some of the residents of Prescott drove by and screamed racial slurs at the mural. Fortunately the decision was reversed following an outpouring of criticism from people across the country.

* * * *

Even before filming began of his live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan was informed of the racial insensitivity of casting Caucasian actors for all the lead roles, even though the source material--a popular American anime style cartoon-- clearly takes place in a fictional version of ancient Asia (everyone eats with chopsticks, the writing, costumes and architecture are authentically ancient Asian in style). Unfortunately, Shyamalan failed to rethink his his whitewashed casting (other than making one of the antagonists in the story an Indian when the originally cast white actor dropped out). On July 1, 2010, Shyamalan's The Last Airbender opened in theaters across the US. In Los Angeles and Seattle people of all ethnic backgrounds came out to protest Shyamalan's poor casting decisions.

allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true"
src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=&station=kabc§ion=&mediaId=7533315&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&site=">

This type of thing follows a long tradition of whitewashed casting in Hollywood in which roles that were clearly most appropriate for actors of color are given to white actors or are changed to accommodate white actors. John Wayne played Genghis Khan in 1956. Brian Dennehy played Kublai Khan in 2007. Mickey Rourke will play Genghis Khan in John Millius' upcoming film. No live action film depiction of Charlie Chan has ever featured an Asian actor in the many incarnations of the role throughout it's history. The same is true of Fu Manchu. The list for this type of thing goes on throughout film history and lasts even to this day.

Ask any actor of color or his or her agent: go for a role written for a white actor in a substantial role and more often than not, the result will be "No, thanks" but there's a role for you--"third tourist from the left."

It is sad, that in Los Angeles, a town that is about 10.4% Asian, less than 2% of roles go to Asians. In fact, Hollywood's record with people of color is pretty dismal. Paramount, for example, the studio making Airbender, is giving 89% of it's lead roles in the next decade to white actors, 94% of which will be males.

Now it's not hard to find people who will sympathize with you about the lack of good roles in Hollywood for Asians and other people of color.

The problem is, it's not true. There are plenty of good roles for people of color in this town.

Hollywood has just given those roles to white people.

Please don't allow your money to support these kind of bigoted hiring practices.

More on this topic:

Racebending.com

My brother Benton makes some very solid arguments on this subject.

And if none of this is enough to stop you from seeing the movie, watch this.

--Anson Jew

The Pope Song by Tim Minchin

2010-05-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

New song by Tim Minchin. Video by Fraser Davidson.

Intelligent Design Throughout History

2010-03-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite talks by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium. It's from the 2006 Beyond Belief Conference, an annual gathering of scientists and philosophers and academics talking about matters of secular humanism and science and society.

In this funny, entertaining talk, Tyson talks about how Intelligent Design has been invoked throughout history--even by some of the greatest minds in science: Sir Isaac Newton, Ptolomy...and how that kind of thinking has historically had consequences for mankind's progress.

Robert Frank: Economic Naturalism

2010-01-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

Darwinism as it applies to economics. But probably not in the way you'd think.

A Few Things You Can Take on Faith

2009-09-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

God knows ahead of time the exact place and moment of every person's conception and death. Therefore, committing murder and rape is just carrying out the plan of God (You go, Scott Roeder!)

According to the Commandments, rape and slavery aren't off limits, but heaven help you if you work on a Sunday or cuss.

I've already broken nine of the Commandments many times over and am surely condemned to Hell. What difference does it ultimately make if I break the 10th?

God forgives all in His eternal benevolence even when I once again take a crowbar to my neighbor's head and steal his money. Or when I kidnap another child and make her my sex slave.

The Earth is just a pitstop to a greater, more meaningful place. Do to it what you want.

Condoms are sinful. Just ask the Pope. Even here in this AIDS stricken part of Africa.

According to my religious leaders, I will be made a martyr and clear a way to heaven for all my descendants by crashing this airplane into this building built by infidels.

Some FACTS to consider:

According to a survey of developed democracies taken by The Journal of Religion and Society, societal dysfunction correlated strongly with religious belief, i.e. the more devout the country, the more societal dysfunction. This correlation was stronger even than factors like wealth, as the US, wealthier but more devout, had more dysfunction than poorer, less devout countries.

WITHIN the US, crime and social dysfunction is higher along the Bible Belt than in less devout areas.

In the general US population, 8-16% identify themselves atheists, within US prison populations, 0.21% identify as atheists, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Republicans tend to be more devout than Democrats.

--Anson Jew

How to Spot a Libertarian

2009-05-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Libertarians, Laissez-Faire Capitalists and their ilk all share some common traits...the chief one being they are convinced that they are the hardest working, toughest mofos in the world, and that everyone one else in the world who isn't as bad-ass as they perceive themselves to be are just a bunch of lazy, whiney, sissy, weenies. An example of their brand of tortured logic goes something like this: I am successful, and I worked hard. You are not successful. Therefore, you did not work hard (said the millionaire Britney Spears to pauper Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart).

Usually these guys are themselves pampered little weenies who have never experienced real hardship nor acknowledge real hardship in others, but have gained a little success, and then buy into their own hype (to paraphrase Ann Richards: born on third base, act like they hit a triple). Their smug, over-inflated sense of self worth and entitlement drives a lot of their right wing political agendas, like their attitudes toward business, taxes, the poor, minorities, women, the environment ("my water doesn't make me sick, you whiner!") and even our policies on torture.

I recently found a couple of videos that clearly show some of these guys in their natural habitat.

Fox Business Channel's Stuart Varney:

WLS's Matthew Erich "Mancow" Muller:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Mancow's little experience taught him his lesson. Maybe Varney should be forced to do his broadcasts with a Chinese accent and he'll learn his.

Related Articles:

Robert Frank's original NY Times article.

More on Huffington Post

--Anson Jew

Deregulation for Dummies

2009-03-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

How we got here in a nutshell.

Daffy for President

2009-03-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

Someone should have shown this to George W. Bush.

44 Presidents in 4 Minutes

2008-12-07T07:05:00.000-08:00

I'm Obama. I'm McCain.

2008-11-02T05:33:00.000-08:00

Holy Political Debates, Batman!

2008-10-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

No further comment needed.

The Enchanted Republican Forest

2008-10-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

Featuring McCain Girl, Don't Tax-Me Turtle, Single-Issue Eagle, and Homophobic Platypus.

Geo-Greenism

2008-10-05T20:00:00.001-07:00

A good interview by Terry Gross with Thomas Friedman about "Geo-Greenism", including a comparison of Obama and McCain's energy/environmental plans. From NPR's Fresh Air a while back.

Lil' O'Reilly

2008-10-04T16:49:00.001-07:00

http://view.break.com/581294 - Watch more free videos

The Story of Stuff

2008-10-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

I like to post information on this blog that is presented in an entertaining, visual, and easy to understand way. This is from a very nicely done animated Flash presentation that actually looks a lot better in its original Flash form on it's website (http://storyofstuff.com) than it does here, but check it out; it describes the process by which stuff gets made in this country from the extraction of resources to production and distribution to consumption and disposal and suggests that there may be a better way.

Keith Olbermann: The Trademarking of 9/11

2008-09-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

As promised, a Special Comment about our sad anniversary tomorrow.

Or, more correctly, what our sad anniversary tomorrow has been turned into by the presidential administration, and the current Republican candidates for President and Vice President.

This is supposed to be a day of remembrance. Remembrance of the attack, remembrance of the national unity which followed it.

Most important of all, remembrance of the dead.

But 9/11 has become a brand name. A Republican campaign slogan. Propaganda of the lowest form. 9/11 has become 9/11 with a trademark logo.

9/11 (TM) has sustained a president who long ago should have been dismissed, or impeached. It has kept him and his gang of financial and constitutional crooks in office without — literally — any visible means of support.

9/11 (TM) has made possible the greatest sleight-of-hand in our nation’s history.

The political party in office at the time of the attacks, at the local, state and national levels, the party which uniformly ignored the warnings and the presidential administration already through twenty percent of its first term and no longer wet behind the ears, have not only thus far escaped any blame for the malfeasance and criminal neglect that allowed the attacks to occur, but that presidency and that party, have managed to make it seem as if the other political party would be solely and irredeemably responsible for any similar catastrophe in the future.

Thus, Sen. McCain, were you able to accomplish a further inversion of reality at your party’s nominating convention last week.

There was the former Mayor of the City of New York, the one who took no counter-terrorism measure in his seven years in office between the first attack on the World Trade Center, and the second attack.

Nothing, except to insist, despite all advice and warning, that his Emergency Command Center be moved directly into the World Trade Center.

Yet there was this man, Sir, Rudolph Giuliani, quite succinctly dismissed as “A Noun, a Verb, and 9/11,” and repudiated even by Republican voters, transformed into the keynote speaker, Sen. McCain at your convention.

And his childish, squealing, braying, Tourette’s-like repetition of 9/11 (TM), was greeted not as conclusive evidence that he is consumed by massive guilt - hard-earned guilt, in fact but rather as some kind of political tour-de-force, an endorsement of your Vice Presidential nominee, a rookie governor , a facile and slick con artist.

The blind endorsing the bland, to a chorus of 9/11 (TM), 9/11 (TM), 9/11 (TM.)

Your ringing mindless cheer of “We’ve Kept You Safe Since Then.”While nobody asks “doesn’t then count?”

All of this, sadistically disrespecting the dead of New York, and Washington, and Shanksville. Endorsed, Sen. McCain. Exploited, Sen. McCain. Trademarked, Sen. McCain by you.

And yet of course the exact moment in which Sen. McCain’s Republicans showed the nation exactly how far they have fallen from the Better Angels of Mr. Lincoln’s Nature, came the next night.

The television networks were told that the Convention would pause, early in the evening, when children could still be watching, for a 9/11 Tribute, and they were encouraged to broadcast it.

What we got was not a tribute to the dead of 9/11, nor even a tribute to the responders, or the singularity of purpose we all felt. The Republicans gave us sociological pornography, a virtual snuff film.

Years ago, responsible television networks, to the applause of the nation, and the relief of its mental health authorities, voluntarily stopped showing the most graphic of the images of the World Trade Center, except with the strongest of warnings.

And yet, the Republicans, at their convention, having virtually seized control of the cable news operations, showed the worst of it.

This is all anyone with a conscience can show you of what the Republicans showed you. The actual collapse of the smoking towers.

A fleeting image of what might have been a victim leaping to his death from a thousand feet up. And something new. From this angle, ground-level, perfectly framed, images, of the fireball created when the second plane hit the second tower.

It was terrifying. After all its object was to terrify. Not to commemorate, not to call for unity, not to remember the dead. But to terrify.

To open again the horrible wounds, to brand the skin of this nation with the message — as hateful as the terrorists’ own, that you must vote Republican or this will happen again and you will die.

And just in case that was not enough, to also dishonestly and profanely conflate 9/11 with the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, to stoke the flames of paranoia about another Middle Eastern Nation.

This was a 9/11 Tribute. Not to the dead, nor to the unity. But a tribute to how valuable 9/11 has been as a political tool for the Republican Party. 9/11... (TM.)

Sen. McCain, you had promised us a clean campaign. You could be Snow-White the rest of the way, Sir, yet that manipulative videotape from your convention should tar you always in the minds of decent Americans.

And still, as this seventh 9/11 (TM) approaches that, Sir, is not the worst of your contributions to the utter politicizing of a day that should be sacrosanct to all of us.

Hard to believe, but the Senator has done worse with 9/11 and the evil behind it.

We heard it last week in Minnesota, we’ve heard it off and on since January but Senator McCain said it most concisely in June.

“Look,” he said. “I know the area, I’ve been there, I know wars, I know how to win wars, and I know how to improve our capabilities so that we will capture Osama bin Laden — or put it this way, bring him to justice. We will do it. I know how to do it.”

Sen. McCain seems to be quite serious, that he and he alone, not the CIA, nor the U.S. Military, nor the current President can capture bin Laden.

Thus we must take him at his word, that this is no mere ludicrous campaign boast.

We must assume Sen. McCain truly believes he is capable of doing this, and has been capable of doing this, since last January. “We will capture Osama bin Laden… we will do it. I know how to do it.”

Well then, Senator, you’d better go and do it hadn’t you?

Because, Sir, if a man or woman in this nation, Democrat or Republican, had a clear and effective means of capturing or killing Osama bin Laden…

If that person had been advertising his claim, Senator for eight months.

But if that person not only refused to go to responsible authorities in government and advise them of this plan to catch bin Laden, but further announced he would not even begin to enact this secret plan to corral the world’s most hated man until the end of next January.

What would be your description of such an individual, Senator? Charlatan? Do-nothing? Opportunist? Sen. McCain, if you have, if you have had a means of capturing Osama bin Laden, and you do not immediately inform some responsible authority of the full scope of that plan, you are to some degree great or small aiding and abetting Osama bin Laden.

If you could assist in capturing him now, Sen. McCain, but you have chosen not to you, Sir, have helped Osama bin Laden stay free.

Free to inspire and supervise the terrorists. Free to plan or execute attacks here.

You, Sir, are blackmailing some portion of the American electorate into voting for your party, by promising to help in the capture of bin Laden only if you are made president!

I’d rather win an election than catch bin Laden! No more cynical calculation has ever been made in this nation’s history, Sir. If you lose the election, Senator, are you not going to tell the President-Elect?

Are you intending to keep this a secret until the next election and your party’s next nominee? Senator, as you and your Republicans shed your phony, crocodile, opportunistic tears tomorrow on 9/11 TM, in front of the utterly disingenuous banner “Country First,” the fact is, you have shown that it is John McCain first, and the country last.

The fact is, Sir, by holding out on your secret plan to catch bin Laden by searing those images into our collective wounded American psyche at your nomination last week, terrorists are not what you, John McCain, fight. Terrorists are what you, John McCain, use.

McCain's Third Party Competition

2008-09-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's satire, but really, this actually isn't that far from the real world--this guy's not a heckova lot different from Fred Thompson or McCain. None of them fancy schmancy three-syllable words...straight talk!

From The Onion.

In Honor of the RNC...

2008-09-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

...a couple of songs by Randy Newman.

Interestingly, this first song "Political Science" was made into a little video (not this one) by a poster on YouTube. He apparently didn't understand the satiric intent of the song and presented the video as a screed AGAINST THE LEFT(!). Just goes to show you that in a country where absurd extremes are the norm, irony and satire are dead, and probably says something about the attitudes of a lot of nutcases on the right.

"Rednecks" don't just live in the South....

Barack Obama: "Enough!"

2008-08-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama accepts the nomination for President at the Democratic National Convention.

"...the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change."
-Barack Obama

Al Gore: "It's Time for a Change"

2008-08-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

Al Gore talks about why your vote matters at the Democratic National Convention.

"Eight years ago, some said there was not much difference between the nominees of the two major parties and it didn’t really matter who became president. Our nation was enjoying peace and prosperity, and some assumed we would continue both, no matter the outcome. But here we all are in 2008, and I doubt anyone would argue now that election didn’t matter."
-Al Gore

Bill Clinton: "Barack Obama is Ready to be President"

2008-08-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Bill Clinton talks about Barack Obama's qualifications to be the next President at the Democratic National Convention.

"People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than the example of our power."
-Bill Clinton

Hillary Clinton: "No Way, No How, No McCain"

2008-08-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

Hillary Clinton urges her supporters to get behind Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention.

"We don't have a moment to lose or a vote to spare. Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hangs in the balance."
-Hillary Clinton

The Public vs. John McCain

2008-08-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

Video by Cartright Dale.

A Comparison of the McCain and Obama Tax Plans

2008-08-29T21:03:00.001-07:00

Income and Wealth Inequality in the US

2008-08-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

Working people are working harder and longer, resulting in greater productivity and thus greater company profits. Yet workers incomes have been flatlined or declined for years, benefits are being taken away, and the cost of living is skyrocketing. Oftentimes these workers are getting laid off or having their jobs sent overseas. Meanwhile CEO compensation has gone through the roof exponentially over the years. Yet Republicans continue to give new tax cuts every year to these wealthiest Americans. This was one of the first things the Bush administration did once it got into power claiming it was necessary to "stimulate the economy". Seven years later we're still waiting for the trickle to come down.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont breaks it down here:

The Oreo Cookie Cartoon

2008-08-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a little flash cartoon by True Majority about our country's spending priorities. Using Oreo cookies. It's a little dated. But you get the general idea.