Archive for September, 2010

Open Thread, Remaking Goofy Edition

Thursday, September 30th, 2010 by Barry Deutsch

Post what you like, when you like, as you like it. Self-linking is so cool even the penguins shiver.

This shot-for-shot remake of a song from the Goofy movie is much more entertaining than I might have thought. I love that the girl in the crop-top shirt is missing her belly button, just like her animated counterpart.

  1. Political cartoonist Matt Bors has returned from Afghanistan with stories to tell and sketches and cartoons to show. After reading that article, check out Matt’s blog for more.
  2. Stop blaming the health care cost crisis on obesity.
  3. Susie Bright’s Post-Mortem on Craig’s List Sex Ads. I agree with Susie.
  4. A Libertarian’s Take on Basic Unconditional Income
  5. A new study by the Southern Poverty Law Center has found that school suspensions of black and Latino students are skyrocketing. The trend, according to researchers, has been triggered by zero tolerance policies set in motion in the 1970′s, and exacerbated by hysteria over youth crime in the decades-long fallout after the Columbine High School shootings.”
  6. I’ve often heard it said that we can’t ban anonymous donation of sperm, because they did that in the UK and as a result sperm donation dropped way down. Turns out that’s not true.
  7. A primer on privilege: what it is and what it isn’t.
  8. yogurt has culture, but what about geeks? Can anything as diverse and varied as geekdom be said to have a “culture”? Then again, it’s common enough for people to refer to whole countries as having a culture.
  9. Should We Avoid Race When Discussing Education Reform?
  10. Neo-Nazi Couple Find Out They’re Jewish. They then went and became Orthodox Jews. Some people do nothing in moderation, I guess.
  11. The War on Undocumented Immigrants’ Unheard Victims: Asian Immigrants
  12. I had never heard of 3-D architectural projection before watching this video, but there’s quite a few videos of it out there, and it’s awesome.
  13. This Dream Act Refresher sums up the issue pretty well.
  14. Teaching Scott McCloud’s Panel Transitions via Craig Thompson’s Blankets
  15. Gay Palestinian seeks humanitarian asylum in Israel
  16. The Ten Most Insane Ridiculous Jimmy Olsen Moments Of All Time
  17. Andrew Shrivell, Assistant Attorney General of Michigan, is pursuing a creepy, obsessive harassment of an openly gay college student.
  18. Why Maryland Doesn’t Have An Enthusiasm Gap
  19. If McDonalds really does cut out health care to employees (which they won’t) because of the Affordable Care Act, then McDonalds employees will be much better off.
  20. Is it just me, or does Samuel Beckett look a lot like an older Leonard Nimoy? Maybe it’s just me. Nice photos, anyhow.

This child has problems

Thursday, September 30th, 2010 by August J. Pollak

SEK over at LGM has probably the best assessment of the James O’Keefe fiasco (the latest one, that is). It’s also the scariest.

I noticed yesterday when this story broke that O’Keefe has definitely developed a theme in his “stunts” that involves dehumanizing and ruining the careers of women. He specifically targeted one of only a few female senators to wiretap; the ACORN fraud mostly filmed female (and black) employees all while dressing his associate up as a prostitute; now his latest scheme was, at best, best, to conspire to sexually harass a female reporter. The worser theories raise the question of why O’Keefe isn’t in jail right now.

Speaking of Fox News, to follow up on SEK’s observations, I suppose it’s little to no surprise that they haven’t taken an interest in this story at all. Funny, that.

Update: Speaking of “why isn’t he in jail,” that brings up an important question: really, why isn’t he in jail? This doesn’t have to do with the sex stuff at all; it has to do with the fact that according to the CNN story and O’Keefe’s own accounts, he initiated this “sting” by calling Boudreau from Baltimore and recording the conversation without her consent. Recording phone conversations without the permission of all parties is illegal in Maryland, and O’Keefe is already on parole for… umm… illegally trying to record peoples’ phone conversations.

Roohullah

Thursday, September 30th, 2010 by Matt Bors

The Pew Religious Forum Quiz

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by Barry Deutsch

How much do you know about religion?

And how do you compare with the average American? Here’s your chance to find out.

Take our short, 15-question quiz, and see how you do in comparison with 3,412 randomly sampled adults who were asked these and other questions in the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey.

I got 14 out of 15, or 93%. This puts me above the US average, as I expect most people reading this are. Higher than average scores are also typical for a Jewish atheist like me, since apparently Jews and atheists scored better than all other Americans (I expect because we’re more likely to have gone to college).

Really, though, the test results as a whole are pretty depressing — not because I want Americans to be more religious, but because so many Americans lack what should be basic cultural knowledge. The US is supposed to be one of the most religious countries on the planet. So how come atheists are more likely to know the Ten Commandments than other Americans?

Charles (who got 100%) told me that at least one of the questions seemed to have two correct answers, although Pew would only accept one as correct.

Spoilers below, so go take the test before reading on, if you’re going to.

This is the question Charles questions:

Which of these religions aims at nirvana, the state of being free from suffering?

()Islam
()Buddhism
()Hinduism

The answer Pew wants is “Buddhism.” But “Hinduism” would also be a correct answer, according to Charles.

Oh, and the question I got wrong was question 15, in case you’re wondering. I know nothing at all about The Great Awakening!

An early Billy Dare

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by Ruben Bolling

and one of my favorites…

Chapter MCDXXI: "Hot on the Trail!"

 

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Back in the political cartooning game! (sort of)

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by Mikhaela Reid

Hey readers, it’s been a while, but … I’m actually drawing cartoons again! Keep your eyes peeled for a few new pieces for Lambda Legal’s Life Without Fair Courts Project. They’ll be on immigrant rights, and available in both English and Spanish.

And I still haven’t been able to fix my old blog feed. Some day I’ll have time to do that…

P.S. Here’s a random bonus photo of Cartoonist Baby, aka Baby Z… in a hoodie I sewed for her adorned with Masheka’s doodles:

Blue Doodle Baby Hoodie (worn by Baby Z, 12 wks)

Note her natural faux-hawk (or fro-hawk, really)–she’s totally punk rock.

THIS WEEK’S COMIC on Boing Boing

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by Ruben Bolling

Can you spot the subtle racism in this thrilling episode of Billy Dare?

 

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Javid

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by Matt Bors

Delicious, delicious narrative

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by August J. Pollak

Article title: “Pelosi ethics pledge falters.”

Paragraph twenty-two… I’ll repeat that. Paragraph twenty-two: “While no member of Congress has been criminally charged or found to have violated House rules, outside ethics watchdog groups have criticized the lawmakers’ conduct. “

Look, don’t get me wrong here and think I’m excusing unethical behavior. Congresscritters who broke the law should go to jail and certainly not be in office. But it’s ridiculous how much the media loves the “Democrats are corrupt” narrative, or in this case the “Democrats have not accomplished the ethical standards of Jesus Christ, ergo Nancy Pelosi is the most failed Speaker of the House ever” narrative. If anything, it’s pretty stupid in retrospect for Pelosi, or for that matter any Speaker, to pre-emptively take responsibility for over two hundred people who all took jobs based on the lure of the self-promotional power it instills.

Meanwhile, probably worth reminding folks for the seventy thousandth time or so that Republicans in Louisiana are about to re-elect, by an insane margin, someone who isn’t even accused of ethical violations. He flat-out broke the law and got caught doing it.

Americans in their own words

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 by Matt Bors

Hi there.  I just read your comic Afghans in their own words.  If these are the real words of the Afghan peopl then I would hope that you are educating them on the truth.

Yes Pres. Obama was raised a Muslim. Yes he claims to be a Christian but his life does not reflect Biblical truth.  Christians do not believe in abotion and they especially do not vote against a measure that would allow doctors to perfom life saving techniques to save a baby who had survived an abortion.

Christian do not believe that Homesexuality is natural.  President Obama does. Christians would not be freinds with un-repentant terrorists. Christains do not believe in Socialism.  They see it as enslavement.

I hope that you are teaching the Afghan people these truths about our president whom is the least qualified president ever elected.  I hope that you are teaching them that a president whoim tramples on the rights of his own people is no better then the Taliban.

Pat
Beaverton. OR

“No better than the Taliban.” All I do is give voice to the people.