Tribute to Carlin

A friend sent me this link that was on a local radio station- said I'd like it. In fact I do. I can't agree more about all of it. Looks like Carlin was pissed off about the same things I am- talk radio, the stupidity of the public, and the absurdity of religion. He made a career by pointing out the obvious.

Carlin clip

holy shit, this one is better

Exxon Cuts Funding to Global Warming Denialists

I am sensing several turning points in the world today concerning climate change.

NASA global warming bigwig James Hansen is testifying to Congress that chief executives of large fossil fuel companies should be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, for actively spreading doubt about global warming just like tobacco companies did with smoking and cancer.

In news from just last week, "The oil giant ExxonMobil has admitted that its support for lobby groups that question the science of climate change may have hindered action to tackle global warming. In its corporate citizenship report, released last week, ExxonMobil says it intends to cut funds to several groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy."

"Nine groups have reportedly lost the company's support, including the George C Marshall Institute, the Washington DC-based think tank that asserts there is no scientific consensus on climate change, and that changes in the sun, not greenhouse gases, could be responsible for rising temperatures."

in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed $2.9m to 39 groups that the society said "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".

Locally, I notice everyone is beginning to realize that they need to alter their lifestyle, look towards the future, and realize that things are not going to be the same again. The local news stated that 2008 could be seen by historians as the year that gas consumption began a permanent decrease.

White House Releases Global Warming Report

After trying to weasel out of facing the facts, and under a court order, President Bush's top science advisors issued a comprehensive report Thursday that for the first time admits what every sane person already knows: that greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion "are very likely the single largest cause" of Earth's warming.

$20 billion in research was used to come up with this 271 page report (summarized here) , and for some odd reason, not a single one of Rush Limbaugh's talking points were discovered to be valid, thus demonstrating the Liberal bias of the Bush administration, which was finally forced to release this report.

Under court order.

Among the conclusions, delivered with perfect timing considering the epic midestern flooding right now, is that there has been (and will be further) overall increase in unusually high precipitation events and an overall increase in annual precipitation.

The 100 year flood now seems to be the 10 year flood.

Here is the ABC news report.

In other news, there was another casualty of the Midwest flooding seen floating down the Mississippi following the latest Newsweek poll which shows the racist, terrorist loving, America Hating- Barack Hussein Obama ahead by 15 points.

"Stoned Slackers" Know the Most

"You know the research on your show, 87% who watch it are intoxicated"
"Your audience is younger and left leaning....18-25.. the people who are on your intellectual level"- Oreilly to John Stewart

This is really old, but still just as funny as ever. Watchers of the Daily Show and Colbert report are more knowledgable about what is going on than any other news viewers according to research. This must have shocked Bill Oreilly, after he called Stewart and Colbert watchers "stoned slackers".

What makes it more interesting is that the Daily Show and Colbert don't focus on educating their audience about news stories very much like the other shows are supposed to be doing. It is assumed that the audience of the Daily Show already knows what is going on in order to understand all the jokes. Daily show lovers have received their news from elsewhere, and are just plain more informed to begin with.

Fox news channel is second to last, only worsted by morning news. How can this be? My guess is they are not only getting less information about what is actually happening, but inaccurate information. There was another piece of research that showed that Fox news viewers were more likely than any other newsers to have totally false beliefs about the events surrounding 9/11 and Iraq.

Oreilly and Limbaugh score 4th and 6th. Listening to their shows, you get a pretty good exposure to all sorts of different news stories, but you learn less and less about more and more. And if you are listening to Limbaugh, then you probably aren't at a job, and therefore have more time to gather news. Oreilly has the oldest demographic, lots of retired people who don't work and probably have plenty of time to learn the news. To be fair, maybe the stoned slackers don't work either, or are in college. But they are smarter.

Comedy From Comedian Rush Limbaugh

click to enlarge

May 28th 2008

Rush Limbaugh Show

"The oil price continues to fall today. It's 129, yesterday, 127, 128 in some places today. I've been monitoring it for you. "

Whew, and here I was thinking gas wouldn't be $4.41 across the street today. Thanks for the good news Rush!

Moyers at NCMR

"We now know that a neoconservative is an arsonist who sets the house on fire and six years later boasts that noone can put it out. You couldn't find a more revealing measure of the state of the dominant media today than the continuing ubiquitous presence on the air and in print of the very pundits and experts, self-selected message multipliers of a disasterous foreign policy, who got it all wrong in the first place. It just goes to show, when the bar is low enough, you can never be too wrong."

Anatomy of a Fox news Smear

Here's the Oreilly edited version of the Moyers incident completely mutilating the spirit of the exchange and making it look as if Moyers is afraid to go on Billo's show. As is par for the course, Oreilly avoids actually discussing the content of the event and brings on his body language expert who concludes that Porter handled himself well. This is just fucking incredible.

And here is the Olbermann version, which captures the spirit of the occurence the way it actually happened. Fortunately we know for once how things *actually* happened, since Moyers had his own cameramen.

Bill Moyers Schools Fox news Assassin

This is truly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. A Fox news hit piece is attempted for the Bill Oreilly show at a Bill Moyers speech for a media reform conference. The fake journalist from the fake news network gets a taste of his own medicine.

Coal

"The most important thing in the *world*..... is my family's money."

McClellan Schools Oreilly

This is absolutely nuts. If you watch this you will see that Scott McClellan easily refutes every one of Bill Oreilly's fake outrage laden talking points with simple facts that Oreilly has no comeback for. Oreilly is fully committed to being outraged at McClellan's book, but can't find a valid reason why despite trying his best to manufacture one.

Baghdad Bob gets Pwned by Lockhart

See Bob talk about everything other than the issues.
See Bob get pwned.

Rush "Baghdad Bob" Limbaugh

I've gone through and listed some of the BaghdadBobisms belched by comedian Thrush Limblow in his response to the McClellan contraversy. There's just not enough space to cover all of it. You can see the transcript here.
"Well, another day, another Republican turncoat. We have more so-called conservatives and Republicans abandoning the cause, seeking approval from the left. It just seems to be an endless tide."

["The right" is more important than the truth. Everyone has gone insane, but Rush, who singlehandedly holds the truth]

"The oil price continues to fall today." [LMAO]

"[The McClellan book] Sounds like a liberal blogger. It really does. Somebody got hold of him. "

[as if just saying so makes it true]

"The liberals and the Democrats are out trying to destroy this administration"

[and now that limblow calls even the republicans "liberals", he is telling the truth- *everyone* is calling this administration out]

"I've gone and checked out the Democrat blogs today, you know what? They're not particularly worked up about it because this is not new stuff. "We've known this since 2000. We don't care about this. You guys are just figuring this out. We've known this all along,"

[mmmmhhm. And even when Bush's own minister of public propaganda recants, it isn't enough to change your mind. It's only a motivation to develop several possible conspiracy theories to add to your list of ways to combat obvious realities]

"My memory, folks, is that McClellan was a little doughboy standing up there."

[thats not what you said then. But since he is a doughboy, I guess we can ignore what he said and just name call. Seems to be your favorite tactic when reality hits you over the head]

"There's another theory going around about Scott McClellan, and this is by Lee Cary from the American Thinker; "Scott McClellan's book is making big waves in the last election for Texas governor. ..."

[Ahhh, so THAT explains it. He writes a book breaking ties with his party and cohorts of decades condemning himself as a complicit propagandist in order to influence the Texas governor election. Good one Baghdad. Just throw enough shit against the wall and hope something sticks. This is not just a "theory", it is a *conspiracy* theory, and a laughable one at that]

Then Limblow strings several sentences together that are almost entirely true. Not just true, but great observations to boot. Here is Limblow kneeling on his stumped knees as the Black Knight, observing honestly his hacked off appendages, and spinning reality 180 degrees to the one conclusion about the situation which is the most unreasonable one possible:

" What liberals do, they search out people like McClellan so they can trash Republicans and conservatives [true, but they don't have to try very hard]. I mean, look at John Dean. John Dean, now a huge star on what, MSNBC? David Gergen. David Rodham Gergen used to be a fairly conservative Republican, roots back to Reagan. Now look at him. He's up there at the Kennedy School and he's on CNN, and his purpose is to bash Republicans because they, the Republicans, they went too far right, or they went too far south, or they got too extreme or whatever. And all these reasonable wise men decided that they could no longer be part of where the Republican Party was going. Richard Armitage, Colin Powell.....These people, now they're treated like liberal elites because they see the light. "

Now for perspective, back to Limbaughs opening statement as he stands limbless:

"Well, another day, another Republican turncoat. We have more so-called conservatives and Republicans abandoning the cause, seeking approval from the left. It just seems to be an endless tide. "

[When you are forced to define "the left" as virtually everyone in U.S. politics, it's time to drop back and punt or devise a new scheme. Limblow will never do that and this is why he sounds like he's about to have a nervous breakdown. The writing is on the wall. His days are numbered and he sees it. America has outgrown his brand of reactionary pornographic hyperpartisan politics, and nothing is better at showing how "irrelevent" and destructive to the discourse he is than his reaction to McClellan.]

The Baghdad Bob Syndrome

Does anyone remember this guy??? It's Saddam's press secretary, aka "Baghdad Bob". He was certain that Iraq was defeating the American troops and all was well (after all, it took 3 full days before a tank rolled through the heart of Baghdad, success!). I remember watching McClellan spin himself into an ataxic stupor during his press conferences and finding myself muttering under my breath "there's no way this guy can *possibly* believe what he is saying". I'm reading his book now and even still, despite his claims that he believed what he was saying at that time, I find it very hard to believe.

The Baghdad Bobs of the world are all over the media- Limbaugh, Hannity, Oreilly, Beck, and a few left wing ones most liberals are too embarrassed to listen to... They all have one thing in common. They know that just the act of saying something- no matter how ridiculous, outrageous or obviously warped it is, makes it seem like a potential reality to some people. It plants an idea in the mind. If Baghdad Bob goes 1000 miles into the outfield and he gets you to follow him only halfway into loony land, he's succeeded.

The job of the Baghdad Bob is that of the defense attorney. He is getting paid to defend a client. In this case, the client is a political ideology. Like a defense attorney, he is not so interested in the truth about whether the client is guilty or innocent in this particular instance. He is merely interested in winning the case in whatever way he can, and preserving the reputation of the client. Being wrong repeatedly is only a small price for Baghdad Bob to pay for preserving the reputation of the ideology.

And that, in a nutshell is exactly what is wrong with the one way conversation found in the "new media". It is not designed to inform anyone and it discourages the aperspectival awareness necessary for good critical thinking. In short, it is pure propaganda. It preys on every human weakness and seeks to eliminate every virtue involved in human rationality. It attacks depth and sincerity. It ridicules detail. It punishes brilliance and replaces it with cheap counterfeit soundbites.

Limbaugh, the Black Knight

I am sitting here listening to Rush Limbaugh go into a tirade over the McClellan book and several other issues. It's hard to imagine what it would be like to be demonstrably wrong so many times in a row on such a wide variety of issues from Iraq to global warming, and yet still have to get on the radio every day and pretend with a straight face that someone should care about what you have to say.



But I admire Limbaugh's creativity. I always look forward to seeing how the maestro weasels out of each development that crushes his beliefs in the eyes of everyone but himself and his uninformed brainwashed dittoheads.

Somehow Limbaugh managed to accuse McClellan of being a "lybrll". I guess anyone who states the obvious must be a "lybrll", especially if the truth denegrates the "Bwoooshhhh" administration. I said that the McClellen story couldn't be spun because he couldn't be blamed for being a "lybrll", but shit, Rush just proved me wrong! Now even McClellan is a "lybrll".

As I listen right now, Limbaugh is trying to sweep all of the republican problems under the rug by blaming them for transforming themselves into"lybrll" republicans. So in Limbaughs world, all the moderates and all the people left of center are "lybrlls", and now even the republicans are "lybrlls"! So because everything is so completely fucked up in U.S. politics, and conservatives can't possibly be responsible for it despite being in power for 8 years, then by definition everyone currently involved in U.S. politics who has any power whatsoever must be a damned "lybrll".

This effectively underscores Arnold Schwarzenegger's statement- "Limbaugh is irrelevent". But only 70% of Americans polled have a negative view of Rush Limbaugh. Who are those other 30%? Might they be the elusive "real" conservatives? I've heard they walk on water and shit roses but one has never actually been photographed in the wild.

A caller calls in and suggests Limbaugh finally abandon the Republican party as the representative of American conservatism. Rush ponders for a moment and says "no, 3rd parties can't win".

So now in Rush's little bubble of self-referential make-believe, the liberals are liberals, the moderates are liberals, and the republicans are liberals. Limbaugh stands on the stumps which were formerly his upper thighs and begs with all the car salesman vocal inflection that he can muster for the evil cowards to stand up and give a fair fight!

Lest you think the black knight only exists in conservative circles, think again.

Scott McClellan Punctures the Bush Echo Bubble

As I am sure everyone has heard, Bush's own press secretary has written a scathing book that could easily be mistaken for a speech by Cindy Sheehan.

First thing that went through my mind was "how in the world will Fox news and company spin *this* one?". But never fear, they are already on the attack.

Since Scotty was Bush's loyal right wing confidant, he presents a difficult challenge to the spinsters who typically just use the word "liberal" to sweep any and all credibility from an opposing point of view. What he has to say is obviously the truth from his own vantage point.

About 70% of the country already knows what McClellan has to say is true- that propaganda was used to trick the American people into accepting an unnecessary war. But frankly, I'm gonna have to fork out the money to buy this book. I can't resist seeing the inside story on one of the most tragic mistakes in American history.

More Foul Play by the Creationists

Of course, they have never been able to make a point without lying.
Less than 1 out of every 36,500 biologists rejects evolution.

Batman and Robin versus a Republican

I just had to steal this from onegoodmove.org. Too good not to share.

Philosopher Ken Wilber Almost Died

I am amazed to find out today that Ken Wilber almost died- in 2006. Somehow I hadn't heard. He had 12 Grand Mal seizures in a row in one day which led to cardiac arrest and a 4 day coma. The doctors "paddled" him back to life. The doctors admitted later that they didn't expect him to make it and it was because of his excellent health going into it that allowed him to survive.

Wilber claims to have had a couple of classic NDE's during the experience and he claims to have been conscious during the coma. The seizures are a common part of a condition he has which was once misnamed as "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" and is now commonly referred to as REDD or EM.

His account is fascinating to read, and I was truly saddened to hear that it happened (as well as amazed it happened 2 years ago). The world would be missing something without Ken Wilber, regardless what you think of his ideas. I think he has fully recovered now.

This is a great new interview with Wilber where he mentions the experience.

This is his personal account of the experience.

Head in the Sand Liberals

Chris Hedges is the poster child for Sam Harris' essay "Head in the sand Liberals". Hedges embodies the straw man liberal who gets the stuffing beat out of him daily on right wing radio and punditry and then equated with anyone who is not staunchly conservative. In typical fashion I agree with Sam Harris that people like Hedges have their heads firmly buried in the sand. on this religion/society issue.

People like Chris Hedges are committed to being tolerant of the intolerant. He embodies what Wilber would call the "mean green meme" or liberalism gone insane.

I have watched the debates with Hedges and to my mind he has been trounced each time. The only thing he does is go on and on about how much more knowledgable he is of Muslim society because he lived in it for years as a reporter, but dodges specifics. Then he will claim that atheists are fundamentalists, but when questioned about how they are like fundamentalists he stammers and stutters grasping for some absurd comparison with no compelling weight behind it. He has called Sam Harris a racist in debate, apparently because most Muslims have brown skin? Harris easily countered by pointing out that he was equally against John Walker Lindh, the white American who joined the Taliban. In typical mean green meme fashion, Hedges searches desperately to find a way to call people he doesn't agree with "racist", "sexist" etc...

In this Point of Inquiry interview, Hedges pulls his same tactic out on D.J. Groethe and whines on and on about how he understands Muslims better than everyone else, as if this alone is a powerful argument.

Point of Inquiry Website

Stroke = Bliss

This is an interesting video brought to my attention by What is Enlightenment Magazine. I have experienced this bliss momentarily before myself. The most vivid experience I had of it did not come from a formal meditation but from a process called "image streaming" where you verbally describe your mental imagery. It is a good mental workout that is supposed to synchronize the brain's hemispheres.

We are constantly worrying even when we don't know what we are worrying about. This is an important apparatus for our survival as it keeps us wary and it drives us towards innovation and preparation for perceived or imagined threats. But this process exist even when we feel like we are not worrying there is a continuous loop of time mapping/identity formulating/ future speculation/danger monitering of the environment that goes on behind the scenes and keeps us in a tense state. When the input is overridden it is shockingly freeing (as was the case with the woman's stroke).

We are constantly seeking this experience in various forms of entertainment, fantasy, drugs, etc... We know we can over-ride that neural circuit, but for most of us it only happens in degrees and only rarely. Some people can train themselves to do it at will, but it is so far not possible to know whether this is a genetic trait that only some are capable of or all of us can do. I strongly believe only a few are capable of it, in the same way that only 1 in 50 million people (a guess) can throw a 98mph fastball for a strike. You are either born with the potential or not.

I believe that this state of peace is one of the primary rewards in the reward/punishment system that nature uses to funnel humans down to specific behaviors. When everything is right with the world (we have our sex, status, and protection of our offspring) we are at ease. And being at ease makes us appear even more attractive because others see us as successful. When we don't have these things, we live in a more tense state which is our body's way of telling us "you will not get the reward of freedom and peace until you figure out a way to aquire sex, status and protection of your offspring".

Drugs, fantasy, meditation, spirituality are ways to tap the reward without aquiring the darwinian currency. We were designed by nature to be obsessive worriers. Our ancestors who were not, did not survive long enough to breed as much as those who were. (Hitchens comes to mind here-"created sick by Gawd and commanded to be well"- an indictment not only of the Abrahamic religions but also of Buddhism which exists under the same complete lack of acknowledgement of human evolution).

Even the Dalai Lama has speculated about a future technology that could induce this state. Even just a taste of it made available for everyone on a regular basis could change the world more than a trillion prayers, sermons or holy books. Just a specific electrical current in the brain (imagining this were safely possible with some device) could truly be the next big advancement in human technology (a new paradigm larger than the computer, the atom bomb, or the microscope).

I suspect that such a device would be unfathomably difficult to construct due to the variation in human neuroanatomy, but it is without doubt theoretically possible.