This is a pretty clever video, and I’m sure NBC is congratulating itself on putting together an “edgy viral campaign.” But it’s 2006, and they’ve just discovered that they can say “dick” on the Internet, and Saturday Night Live had its best moments before I was born.
Author: Aaron Weber
Death will hold us up in the mirror and say we’re so alike we must be brothers
Now in Color
Those of you who read this through a feed, have a look at the actual page: all new and now in color. It’s not quite perfect yet– that picture of lychee nuts at the top of the page is misshapen and way too heavy a download– but it does have the advantage of being all WordPressy and colorful. Let me know if you have opinions.
If Immigration is Outlawed, Only Outlaws will Immigrate
A company contracted to build the fence along the US/Mexico border just got busted for hiring illegal immigrants. Again.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Jeff Jacoby can suck it
Shorter Jeff Jacoby: Without angels on Christmas cards, our society is amoral.
(See Busy Busy Busy for a long evolution of the “Shorter …” concept).
So Unpopular
Greenwald compares popularity, and finds that the war in Iraq is less poopular than every third rail issue out there: gay marriage, legalizing pot, banning handguns… everything.
I guess that tells you more about political reality and the fickle nature of human opinion than it does about the war, though.
Video About Blogs
After a bit of delay, Technorati finally unleashed its relaunched VLog, BuzzTV. What is it? A guy reading the top items from their website. In other words, they’ve has brought the internet and broadcast TV together, and formed something with the worst aspects of both.
Like a blog, it features minimal accountability or fact checking, low production values, slow downloads, and a host who is an ugly couch-potato. Like TV news, it caters mostly to people too dumb or lazy to read, is hosted by vapid talking heads, and makes you sit through ads and product-placement B-roll about dangerous wonder-drugs before getting to the real news about all those dead hookers in Ipswich.
The Opposite of A Recommendation
Studies suggest that friends having dislikes in common is just as important– if not more important– than having likes in common. I don’t remember where I read this, but I read it just this weekend.
Possibly in the same place I heard about the LibraryThing UnSuggester, which given a book you did enjoy tells you what books you should not read. For example, if you liked the Critique of Pure Reason, LibraryThing suggests that you avoid Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Although I have to say it strikes me that The Devil Wears Prada probably has a lot more in common with Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom than fans of either book would be willing to admit.
OMG: MK&A & StyleFeeder BFF!
For something started in a Watertown bedroom, StyleFeeder has come a long way. Today we’ve got our first serious celebrity endorsement: Mary Kate and Ashley use StyleFeeder for their wishlists.
Yes, the real Olsen twins.
Protectionism
Slate’s got an article up on Democratic trade policy which covers the stupidity of thinking that Republicans are “free traders.” They quote the Economist as asking “So is America headed for a bout of protectionist class warfare?”
That’s the stupidist question I’ve heard in months. What do you mean headed for? Have you been paying attention to European steel, Canadian lumber, or Brazilian sugar? Did you follow the collapse of the Doha round of talks? No. The US has been achingly protectionist for quite some time. And class warfare? Give me a fucking break. Social security, tax breaks for the ultra-rich, corporate welfare, etc. etc.
The Dems are not exactly free-trade advocates themselves, and most people– left and right– people confuse reasonable expansions in trade with giving corporations free reign to loot businesses at home and abroad. But anyone who thinks the Democratic majority is going to make it worse for trade is not just incorrect, but ignorant.
Secretly Ironic 