Go F*ck Yourselves Now

You've probably heard about Muhammad being represented in a South Park episode. You've probably heard about it being censored by Comedy Central because some assholes (ie. Revolution Islam) said that Matt Stone and Trey Parker would "probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show". You may have even heard that the website for Revolution Islam now bears several images "offensive" to Islam, including one of the famous Jyllands-Posten cartoons drawn by Kurt Westergaard. But now you've seen what must be considered the best response to the whole mess: Jon Stewart's Go F*ck Yourselves Choir.

In summary, I'll leave you with the immortal words of Camus:

"Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear."

America, the Hypocrite

From Wikipedia: "According to the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), there are 1,138 statutory provisions in which marital status is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges."

The U.S. government's definition of marriage is not inherently the same as that of any religious institution, nor should it be. Voting to deprive same-sex couples equal rights under the law simply because you disagree with their lifestyle is against the quintessential idea of America: freedom. Keep your churches separated from my states.

Sherman Alexie

I did a project about Sherman Alexie for a poetry class in college. My favorite poems of his are "Evolution" and "On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City." I remember joking about him having a mullet.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to see him on the Colbert Report. It seemed odd to me that, in searching for a video of the interview, I came across this footage of Alexie speaking shortly after 9/11. Maybe because the poetry class that I didn't go to the morning of 9/11 was the same poetry class in which I gave my Alexie presentation. I could gush about how cathartic his words are for me now, but I'll let Alexie speak for himself.

Parts Per Million

It's no secret, people love cold hard facts. Scientists can huff and puff about global warming all they want, but it's hard for other people to care about something on such a vast scale if they have nothing for comparison. We can't all go to Antarctica or Greenland and see the ice melting for ourselves. Even if we could, many of us probably wouldn't fully understand, while others would chock it up to a natural phase of weather (ie. interglacial).

Unfortunately for all of us, we've already exceeded the recommended 350 Carbon dioxide parts per million (ppm) that all the experts are getting excited about. Right now, we're hovering around 387 ppm. 350.org seems to be running a successful multimedia campaign to raise awareness, centered around a Global Day of Climate Action on October 24th.

I think it's a great idea to get people organized in their communities. I just have a nagging question in the back of my mind... If 350 is the upper limit, shouldn't we be aiming for something below that?

Hell, I'm moving further inland soon. You coastal people can deal with it.