Oh yes, the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York,” a tale of being locked up for public drunkenness on Christmas day. Sample lyrics: “You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot, Merry Christmas my arse, I pray god it’s our last!”
Author: Aaron Weber
Making My Home State Look Bad
First, there was the same-sex marriage ban written into the Virginia state constitution. Then, the Episcopals signing up with the Nigerian Anglicans rather than have gays ordained. And now Congressman Virgil Goode braying about Congressman Ellison of Minnesota and the Muslim hordes (see also this article).
What the hell, guys?
Hope in Dope
Marijuana is our nation’s leading cash crop, and the ONDCP says that’s a bad thing. After all, Colombia’s biggest cash crop is coca, and Afghanistan’s biggest cash crop is opium poppies, and it hasn’t gone well for them.
That’s a pretty stupid comparison. Afghanistan wasn’t doing any better under the Taliban, when opium was not a leading crop. Colombia’s problem is not coca, but the criminal activities (and near-civil-war) it funds.
Honestly now, if we legalized and taxed marijuana — and stopped locking people up for nonviolent drug crimes– we’d have enough money to pay for the war in Iraq and social security. I don’t see why the entire balanced budget lobby doesn’t get on that issue right now.
I have been looking for some new Christmas gift ideas…
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.
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.
Secretly Ironic 