The General “Beck” Turgidson Christmas Special
At about the halfway point of The Glenn Beck Christmas Special (and, yes, I found myself unable to not wade through the second half, too), it occurred to me that the Beckster isn’t pulling a
At about the halfway point of The Glenn Beck Christmas Special (and, yes, I found myself unable to not wade through the second half, too), it occurred to me that the Beckster isn’t pulling a
GOOD magazine reports on the decade in environmental advances. Having spent the latter half of the decade in the green trenches, I’m not quite sure what to make of this. I worry that this decade, while it was clearly the “Tipping Point” on the environment, was largely a decade of greenwash and back-slapping. The results of the Copenhagen conference are a case in point. Time to get it together, instead of running business as usual with a green Smilex smiley face painted on.
This decade will be remembered, first and foremost, as the time we finally came around to understanding climate change?
Lou Engle, the GOP’s new it-kid spiritual leader, is banging on the gays and how they are possessed by “demons.” Predictably, this has been received positively. (By demons, do they mean the unholy trinity “Bed, Bath and Beyond”?)
As the Rachel Maddow Show has recently showcased, on December 16th the Family Research Council sponsored a “Prayercast” event, attended by GOP luminaries including Senators Jim DeMint and Sam Brownback, and House Representatives Michelle Bachmann and Randy Forbes. But FRC head Tony Perkins did not lead the prayer event. That honor fell to Lou Engle, Founder of TheCall. Besides leading the capstone stadium rally for pro-Proposition 8, antigay marriage organizers last November 1, 2008 at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, Lou Engle could also be found, at a special ceremony at a Virginia Beach megachurch last summer, anointing and blessing GOP presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich.
Meet the Republican Party’s new spiritual guru, Lou Engle:
“My son Jesse, he’s nineteen years old. God has given him dreams, to go to San Francisco to launch a house of prayer, one block from the Castro District - where the homosexuals boast the dominion of darkness. He’s going there with weeping in his heart. With the dream that prayer is stronger than the dominion of that spirit.
...He said to me, “dad,” he said, “as long as I’m there I don’t think the Lord will judge San Francisco.” [boos, angry murmur from Engle’s audience]...
He’s nineteen years old. He’s starting to cast out homosexual spirits out of our new converts. It’s scary*. The whole thing’s scary. But fathers are to send their sons into the darkest places.”
(AlterNet: GOP’s New Prayer Guru Says Gays Possessed By Demons)
This CHRIST-mas Tree by Boss Creations can be yours for just $299.99.
Our collection of inspiring trees, wreaths and other decorations are designed to remind us of the true meaning of the Christmas holiday. Let us help you to put Christ back into Christmas this holiday season.
(via J-Walk Blog)
A new YouTube video purporting that the recent attack on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has Italian conspiracists all a twitter by advancing the theory that the attack was a set-up to gain sympathy for the politician. Oh really? From the Daily Mail:
TV footage of the politician showing him bleeding profusely from cuts to his lips and gums went around the world in a matter of seconds and were seen by millions.
However, today a video posted on You Tube suggesting the attack in Milan was faked had received almost 500,000 hits in just a matter of hours.
Called ‘Was the attack on Berlusconi a montage?’ the video lasts eight minutes and is on a par with other past conspiracy theories such as the attack on the Twin Towers being a CIA created plot.
The video’s author is unidentified but using footage and still photographs it raises questions regarding several key moments in the aftermath of last Sunday’s attack in Milan.
It asks why the blood on Berlusconi’s face appears to be ‘thick and already’ set and also asks why if as the hospital later said he had lost ‘half a litre of blood’ is his suit and shirt not drenched.
This makes no sense to me. The simplest explanation is usually the best one and it’s not at all difficult to imagine why someone would want to attack and harm Silvio Berlusconi, is it? What would he stand to gain by having someone violently attack him, on purpose? Popularity points is a terrible theory. He’s a millionaire in his 70s known to cavort with hookers! He does not care what the public thinks of him. Certainly not enough to have his teeth bashed out. What a terrible conspiracy theory! Yawn.
Take a listen. It’s sorta hypnotic.
Bacon or Beer Can
(via Not Cot)
I’m so glad Richard hepped me to the fact that it’s Frank Zappa day. It’s impossible to overstate how much FZ meant to me as a teen. Here’s my contribution to the festivities in the form of his 1967 masterpiece “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It”. I think I learned to both loathe and champion my mundane suburban surroundings via songs like this and much of his other work. But this piece has it all : filthy rocking, experimental tape work with nods to his serial composition and doo-wop heroes and of course naughty satirical humor. Viva Zappa !
The city of Baltimore declared today Frank Zappa Day in honor of the iconoclastic rock musician and composer, who was born there 69 years ago on Dec. 21, 1940. Last week the city’s public art commission also announced that a bronze statue of Zappa would be erected outside of a public library sometime next year. When will Los Angeles, where Zappa raised his family and lived most of his adult life, follow suit? Maybe a nice statue somewhere in Laurel Canyon?
Also in Zappa news, today marks the release of a previously unheard concert from Philadelphia in 1976 on two CDs. The liner notes for “Philly ‘76,” taking a cue from its bicentennial date, reproduce the Declaration of Independence, but with a twist: Endeavoring to show how history repeats itself, the Founding Fathers’ claims against the King of England are highlighted, drawing parallels that probably would have made the independently minded composer smile.
It will be a bittersweet holiday season this year for sci-fi fans around the globe. On one hand we’re getting two new “Doctor Who” specials (I don’t count “The Waters of Mars” because it aired in Britain a while back. Any Who fan worth their salt downloaded that one on BitTorrent five minutes after if aired on the BBC!). On the other hand, we’ll be seeing the last of David Tennant as the 10th Doctor, when the Scottish actor hands over the keys to his T.A.R.D.I.S (that’s what his time machine is called, the one that looks like an old British pay phone booth. Long story…) to incoming Time Lord, Matt Smith.
Over at the LA Times Hero Complex blog, Robert Lloyd has an interview with Tennant that includes the surprise announcement of a U.S. TV pilot for NBC titled “Rex Is Not Your Lawyer,” which costars Jane Curtain and Jeffrey Tambor. There’s also an exclusive extended trailer for next Saturday’s special, “The End of Time.” (On reading the final scripts for his character, the actor said: “I was nervous they would somehow disappoint, but of course they didn’t. I read them in my trailer and had a wee cry. They are so beautifully written. I was just delighted to be going out with such a bang.”)
This week (see above), you can view my own interview with David Tennant and Doctor Who (and Torchwood) executive producer/writer Russell T. Davies (now a Los Angeles resident). I met up with Tennant and Davies in Pasadena in early August when I interviewed them for Boing Boing. The duo had just come from the San Diego Comic Con where both experienced what can only be compared to a geek version of Beatlemania. During the interview Tennant discusses what it’s like to walk away from the part he wanted to play his entire life and the responsibilities of taking on such an iconic role.