kendrak's attack

the culture wars in europe

salon.communist has an interesting article today about theo van gogh*, which only makes me worry about the decline of europe (and western civilisation) more than i did last week. it seems dramatic to me, but as an article, mentioned by andrew sullivan, reinforces the reluctance of many (hollywood in this case) to criticise fundamentalist and fanatics.

the new statesmen sees it part of a new "faith based alliance", which is transatlantic whether or not evangelicals (like bush) would like to admit it. i agree with the article in that this renewed fait is definitely a new (or revived) form of protest. npr had a story about muslim radicals in germany this week, and it supported the idea that people turn to radicalism as a means of self identity in a foreign culture. this is similar (in my estimation) to surges in radical right-wing parties at the moment. (ohhhhh... there's my thesis!) on man in the report said something to the effect, "i don't want their democracy, why are they making me live by german laws?" the muslim islands through out europe reinforce this ideal, and make it harder for them to integrate. i know this is a stupid question, but if they hate democracy so much and western laws, why move to a western democratic nation? it seems that there is a sense of entitlement that is just too much for me to sympathise with.

perhaps this is the end of liberalism. they, the social liberals of western culture, have tollerated themselves into a hole. i know larry has been railing about this for years, and i've fallen into the trap of the overly accepting liberal before, but what is there to do? should we tolerate those who want to destroy us because it somehow makes us better/more enlightened/more noble than they are? how can we prevent moderates from feeling threatened by radicals or becoming radicals themselves?

i don't know. i'm stuck in my liberal thought loop.

*theo van gogh seems to be an interesting charachter as a free speech martyr. as quoted in the salon article, ex-friend thom hoffman spoke about van gogh criticising his choice of some films;"he called me an s.s. officer with vaseline up my ass," hoffman said. "he sort of got stuck on second world war idioms." sounds like he had a way with words.

i'm so vain

i bought hand weights from target the other day, so i could pe productive whilst watching hours of variouis law & orders on tv. man, after two nights of intermitant weight stuff, my arms are sore. i'm also not enjoying my sit ups during commercials. oh well. it can only get worse.

frog found!

as if the hopkin green frog saga wasn't sad enough, boing-boing tracked down the real story, and it's just as touching:
Hopkin's bereaved owner is a 16-year-old autistic boy, who was very upset about the loss of his toy. According to his father, he's gotten over the loss of Hopkin and giving him a replacement Hokpin would be a bad idea, as it would re-open old wounds.

thinning the herd?

ok. that title is pretty bad. this story about a hunter sniping at other deer hunters is just too bizarre for me to really comment on.

my mind is becoming goo. i spent a lot of this weekend writing. a bit about the npd as neo-nazis and a bit about the tensions in germany and the hypocracy of tolerance in light of the ban on teachers wearing hijabs in bayern, hessen, the saarland, baden-w�rttemberg, and yes, niedersachsen. the rhetoric befuddles me.

anyhow. i keep buying clothes from target. i think i look more girlie, i mean, i buy women's clothes now. not that xhiliration bullshit either. i got me another isaac mizrahi shirt. ooh, how's that for a name? seriously- plain ass clothes just as i like them. and some girlie jeans that look like the jeans erin gave me in germany. kick those curves!

i'm going to sleep now. i'll dream of karaoke revolution. if only they had bl�mchen songs on that game. or heino. man... i love heino.

canteloupe

i love canteloupe. is that how you spell it? i love it. i used to eat it all the time, and i just had it for lunch. yum yum.

here's the meat:

chomsky a holocaust denier? it's not that simple, but oliver kamm (looks like oliver kahn) break chomsky's defence of holocaust-denier faurisson. i'm not quite ready to make the claim that chomsky implicitly supports holocaust deniers, like faurisson (or perhaps zundel and irving as well), and is a denier as such, but rather i think it shows how ridiculous chomsky can be. maybe he reminds me of myself in this regard.

and speaking of things people have't been talking about enough... debra saunders weighs in on the turmoil in the netherlands centering around the assination of theo von gogh. along with the killing of a belgian jew, it seems that the culture war in europe is worsening.

battle of little big head

this is giada de laurentis. she is affectionately known as "little big head," and i'm sure you can see why. this picture is from the food network all-star turkey bash. she's nothing compared to the psycho-troll rachael ray. ick.

anyhow, television without pity has some message boards with fine shit talking about the food network people. and they all hate rachael ray. (and sandra lee, but that's a whole other rant.)

scum

ron silver makes me sick. he bugged me when he was a democrat, and now he's just filth. blech.

i've been looking for a transcript of clinton's speech today. it was good. clinton will always be "mr congeniality" where ever he goes. chelsea clinton wounded really awkward and something of a southern robot. she needs to be groomed like her parents.

shake it up!

i must say... i think i'm becoming alarmed about goss and the cia shake up. it's not the most reassuring thing in the world.

fantastic footy

check this out!
ecuador beat brazil!

hahahahahaha.

this makes england's loss to spain much more palatable.

oh, and poor jamaica won't be going to germany in 2006.

a petty horror!

my favourite site to get corrie from, the only site to get corrie from, can't get it anymore!!! somebody stopped capturing it! no more new corries! argh!!!!!!!!!!!!

the headache never ends...

wednesdays seem to be the day for headaches. it's weird. i remember last fall i'd always get horrible headaches during my history seminar. well... here's to continuity.

the more blogs i read discussing this election, the more confused i am. i think i'm tyring to be too liberal and too conservative all at once, if that makes any sense. i guess i'm more dissastisfied with popsicle stick liberals who sound like bratty kids because thye lost. i'm also sick of the wannabe revolutionaries who talk about moving away, as if that's the answer to all their problems. oh well. perhaps it's this blasted bay area bubble that's doing my head in. there's an interesting discourse going on about that on dr frank's blog. not that i'd ever consider fat mike worth bothering about (sorry, but nofx always struck me as a band for idiot boys), but he does nothing for "the cause" by talking that kind of trash. but then again, he sounds just like so many other petulant losers who threw their dummy out of the cot.

oh... and speaking of berkeley doing my head in... today i was called a racist for not being thrilled that condi rice is the new secretary of state. huh? my criticism is that she's not really a moderate and seems to be behind bush's unilateral view of america as world police a little too much, nor do many foreign countries seem thrilled about this appointment. anyhow, that's nothing new. i was stunned when this accusation was lobbed at me in ernst. maybe the bubble made me crazy, but is it not safe anymore to criticise anybody based upon their policies because they happen to be a minority? the whole thing has made me wonder what the hell is going on.

so ist das leben. my life is nothing buy snot and hot water.

i can try...

but i just can't sing.

testing, testing, 1-2-3...

mental note:

creamed corn looks like vomit, or does vomit look like creamed corn?

nazi raccoons!

oh man... europeans know nothing of raccoon horror.

nazi raccoons march through belgium.

it happened today...

9 november is a pretty major day in german history. not only did the berlin wall fall, but kristalnacht as well.

i also found this- deutsche welle for klingons. who knew that the klingons needed a terran news source?

the bitterness continues...

i'm upset by the results of the election. i'm upset that america is so divided, and that so many people don't seem to see this as a problem. there are ideoligical diferences that are ripping us in two. there are lost of people who are bitter about the loss that are playing the red state/blue state game. that is- how are blue states better (more enlightened/fair/wonderful/etc.) than red states. this new one seems a bit arrogant to me.

blue states are smarter

this may be true, but it doesn't seem to have point. yeah, ok. stupid people vote for bush. the daily mirror said that, but to belabour that point won't help for american unity. do you think people in kansas want to be called stupid? it's not like they even care about the coasts anyhow.

i know you've all seen this...

but it's pretty funny all the same.

oh yeah.

dedicated follower...

this is sorta cool

what's wrong with america...

red state, blue state, which state do you fall in?

as many liberals are further outraged by the outcome of the election, like how bush declares he has a mandate, people are trying to figure out why so much of this country loves the new ultra conservative fundamentalist right.

(god, bush is on the tv talking about the bipartisan success of "no child left behind." ugh! i've yet to meet a public school teacher who thinks it's a good thing.)

back to the states... this shows the hypocracy or idiocy of many voters around the counrty. they think the bush administration (i.e. lack of goverment services) is good for them, yet their states get more federal money and aid than they contribute. blue states get less back than they pay. where's the fairness in that? maybe, if the blue states adopt the federalism that the republicans claim to want, they can use the money to pay for welfare and farming subsudies in the midwest and spend it on welfare and other social programmes in their own state. if that pisses of kansas or alabama, so what. it's the result of the ideology they keep voting for.

how's that for bratty? i learned it from bush.

thinking about good times...

third post in a day? oh my!

i'm trying to put myself in a good mood. i watched a bad sitcom on cable about parents taking their kids to see the wiggles live show. it reminded me of when i saw seasame street live as a child. it was awesome. i saw it at memorial auditorium and i was super happy about getting some seasame street pennant. my grandpa took me. he took me to see snow white in the theater too, which i didn't like so much, and then land before time, which i was so engrossed in he thought i died or something. my grandma took my brother and i to disney on ice. despite reagan, i had a pretty good childhood.

it also reminds me of a quasi-nickname i used to have. remember the golden books with the seven-inch record that told the story? i had the one with the pokie little puppy. i loved that song, it was catchy. then my mom started calling me her pokie little puppy. she had a point (hell, anybody who goes anywhere with me knows this)- i'm easily distracted, slow, and, well, pokie. but for some reason, i felt like "pokie little puppy" was something i couldn't shake. it's still something i can't shake. for some reason, i was never really upset by it though, and i'm sure if i was called "pokie little puppy" in a harmless way, i'd be sorta happy about it. weird, eh?

only cowards desert.

you know what i find the most infuriating now that the election is over? whiny people talking about fleeing the counrty. i admit last night i thought about ditching joe for my bald-retarded-elton-john looking friend in cornwall, so that i may legally emmigrate to the eu, but seriously, no.

if you run away, the newly empowered religious right has won more than they did last night. it's so easy to just give up and say, "i'm running away to canada." like canada wants you! they have just as strict immigration laws as we do. instead, get active and work on making this country better. sure, there was a lot of red last night, but that's not to say bush won each state with a sweeping two-thirds majority. bush is perhaps the least popular president to be re-elected, and the democratic party rolled over and let it happen. clinton called it when he said they had to be mean like the republicans. i hope the left/progressives/moderates learn from this. it's no use to let this country fueled by hate, which is what so many of these so called victimised winners want.

i'm upset and angry, but i'm not giving up. i said this before, but living aborad made me see who good we have it in america. democracy sucks when you're the loser, but people can't be on the winning side all of the time. if they are, they're bandwagon jumpers, lacking in all character and moral fibre. but yeah, a true democracy may not be pleasant, but it's what we as a nation fight to protect. so yeah, i may not be happy, but i don't want to be a sore loser.

i guess it's over...

word is kerry conceded. i had some hope when i woke up, and i still think it could have held out.

oh well. i'll hope that the election was fair, and that bush realises he doesn't have a mandate, and half the country wanted him out. i can't recall an incumbent being re-elected by such a narrow margin. bush isn't reagan, though he might like to think he is.

i just hope people don't regard american as so irrational and stupid. it can be a good nation.

have you wondered?

is jenna bush the upstanding citizen the republicans want her to be? is she a virgin? i know this is a bit crass, but man. you gotta wonder.

i'll be upset next week. now i'm just numb.

wahltag

it's election day, election day. the day where we electorate. i woke up this morning freaked about my thesis. yes, my thesis. blargh. oh well. my professor didn't hate it too much and my classmates didn't really care. i was worried about my wasted weekend over nothing.

anyhow... enough about me. let's get on the vote!!!!!
at work today all i did, aside from some shevling and labeling, was read the blogs. who? oh, you know... all the cool ones. not ben weasel's, but.... andrew sullivan is pretty good, though not as aktuelle as daily kos. yeah, i know all you kids read these sites, but i still think they're good reads. oh, add boing-boing to the list too. though i must warn you, these things are getting slammed. thanks msnbc and your hardblogger.

watch the daily show. it's very uplifting. apparently you there's "poo poo and vaginal juices" on voting curtains, but you can't get genital warts from voting. good things to know. al sharpton also clowned former ma governor weld, which was very entertaining. since when did sharpton become reasonable?