How to end poverty

The CEO of Goldman Sachs just got a $53.4 million bonus, on top of his $600,000 annual salary.
Was he having trouble living on the 600K?

That $53.4 million would have been better spent on fighting poverty and AIDS with the ONE campaign.

Or how about this...my father builds houses. He says he can build a 2-story, 3-4 bedroom home with a full-size basement for around $100,000. Think of how many families could be housed in the homes made possible by $53.4 million.

Big business - still doing whatever the hell they want and getting away with it

I came across this shocking tidbit of info on trademark infringement on Chilling Effects.

There is another type of infringement, too, called trademark dilution. Under this doctrine, the owner of a famous mark is entitled to stop you from commercial use of a mark or trade name, if that use begins after the famous mark has become famous and harms its distinctive quality. Walt Disney has used this concept to stop pornographers from using Snow White or Sleeping Beauty in their films. Fan fiction authors who distribute their work commercially may be accused of trademark dilution in addition to other intellectual property violations.

Uh, wait a minute. A large corporation can just up and trademark something in public domain under the guise that they are the one that made it famous? Riiiiight.

Product placement - at home? wtf?

Possibly the dumbest celebrity quote ever. I mean, is she on AMEX payroll or something?

"I don't leave home without him. Just like a new American Express card."
- Mariska Hargitay, on her son, August.

Bush not losing any sleep

People asked Bush if he takes sleep aids. He says no.

“I must tell you, I'm sleeping a lot better than people would assume,” he said.

Well, that's refreshing to know that he isn't losing any sleep over the state of the current US economy, the lives being lost in Iraq, etc.

He also thinks Mary Cheney will be a loving sould to her child. wtf?

Not to be outdone by her crackhead husband, Laura thinks single women can't have big fancy-pants jobs. Insanity!

more insanity here!

Schadenfreude

1. Judith Regan, who must have some sort of chemical imbalance for publishing that hideous OJ Simpson book, was just fired from her cushy job.
2. My department has over $800,000 to capitalize by March 31, 2007 and one of my co-workers quit today, Travis the Hobbit left earlier for a job interview (his 3rd in the past 2 weeks) and I plan on fleeing mid-January. muah haha
3. Nissan had a special employee car salon a couple of weeks ago and unveiled their newest model to some of us, the Nissan Rogue, which is a hideous looking beast of a vehicle. It's a cross between the Murano and the Versa - but all the ugly parts of those cars. The Nissan Rogue didn't just get hit by the ugly truck, it IS the ugly truck!

Jersey beat NYC in doing this? say it's not so!

Kudos to New Jersey governor John Corzine for his willingness to sign into law a civil unions bill passed last week by New Jersey's state legislature.

This makes New Jersey the third state, after Vermont and Connecticut, to offer civil unions, which extend to gay men and lesbians all the rights state law affords married people. Unfortunately, the bill does not recognize gay marriage.

Jersey - maybe it's not so bad after all!

Massachusetts gov. does not heart immigrants, well at least the illegal one

This is rich.

The skeevy prez-wannabe governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, signed an agreement (probably in blood) with the feds to allow state police to question and detain suspected illegal immigrants. I'll take racial profiling for $100.

Story here.

Essentially, it's nutritional pornography. It's so bad for you it's shocking

Americans are suckers for themes. From themeparks to different themed rooms in houses to themed restaurants.





This Heart Attack Grill in Arizona is actually kind of funny. I mean, look at the faces of these guys, they look like they're having a good time. Could be due to the 'naughty nurses' serving up their greasy burgers.

Christmas comes early!

December 17th as a matter of fact.

Rumsfeld's last day as Secretary of Defense. Hooray!

Is this a joke?

WASHINGTON - Faced with a decline in the number of overseas visitors and unpopular entry requirements, the U.S. government is turning to the Walt Disney Co. and other theme park operators to brighten the country’s battered image.

With security much tightened since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the visa and entry processes are so unpopular that the country was ranked as the world’s most unfriendly to visitors in a survey last month of travelers from 16 nations.

Rest of story here.

Say it's not so!

A crackdown on prostitution windows in Amsterdam!
story here

Democrat candidate #1

Tom Vilsack becomes the first Democrat to officially declare his presidential candidacy today.

Story here.

To this I say, Tom who?

File under: election 2008, Tom Vilsack

Jack Black & Adam Sandler - hotties?

I like Jack Black. He's a funny guy.

It's seems lately I haven't been able to escape advertisements for his new movie The Holiday, also starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. Just when I had finally thought I'd escaped....I wind up watching a talkshow that Jude Law is on promoting the film. Argh.

Like I said, I like Jack Black. But when would a babe like Kate Winselt ever end up with a sloppy bastard like Jack Black? This is one of the things I hate most about big Hollywood movies. Again I ask when would someone like Jack Black get a Kate Winslet? Only in the same alternate universe where Adam Sandler gets Kate Beckinsale (as in Click).

File under: crappy Hollywood movies, Jack Black, Kate Winslet, The Holiday movie

Thank you Captain Obvious

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has pulled the plug on the upcoming Regan Books title from O.J. Simpson, If I Did It. A tell-all of a different variety, the book, which was to be Simpson's outline of how he might have committed the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, was scheduled for release on November 30 and was to be accompanied by a two-part TV interview to air on Fox on November 27 and 29.
After the book was condemned by booksellers (many of whom said they would donate proceeds to the victims' families), media critics and even pundits from Fox News, News Corp. announced in a terse statement that the book and TV special have been dropped. Murdoch said: “I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.”

Wow. Did they really not know this was a bad idea to begin with? Rupert Murdoch hasn't made all that money by being an idiot.


File under: OJ Simpson

George Bush doesn't read the Guardian. Often. Probably never.

Can he even read at all?

Story here.



File under: George Bush-can he read?

America - land of the prudes, where flight attendants are scared of boobies

In the movie Eurotrip when one of the characters exclaims that America was founded by prudes, he wasn't just whistling dixie...a woman in Vermont was actually kicked off a plane for breast-feeding her baby. She was seated by the window in the second to last row and her husband was on the other side of her. Full story on MSN.

As I was reading the article I kept waiting to get to the part that explained to me why she was really kicked off the plane. I mean, surely she did something - went to the bathroom with a boob out for all to see, gave her husband a taste...something like that...but no. All she was doing was feeding the baby discreetly, but apparently that was enough to get the flight attendant all up in a tizzy. What's the big deal and why did a glimpse of a boobie bother the flight attendant so much?

File under: boobie fiasco

What happened to the progress? Gays & lesbians lose again.

I'm a bit more than disturbed to see that the UK is deporting a Ugandan woman, who faces persecution in her home country merely because of her sexual orientation. The UK was making strides in equality for gays and lesbians, yet now they are knowingly going to send this woman back to endure only god knows what because she is gay?!?

The article mentions that she will get sent back if the judge rules that it is safe for her to return to her country of origin. Surely they will not send her to a place where the country's President actually called for the arrest of all homosexuals and then modified it to wishing to go to a time when gays and lesbians were either"ignored or speared by their parents." SPEARED?!? This seems to me like the epitome of unsafe.

I cannot wait until the day I am afforded the same rights as my heterosexual counterparts.

File under: gay rights equality

President Obama? Will the U.S. elect a black man to the presidency?

It's impossible to deny the popularity of senator Barack Obama. He's been on a whirlwind book tour with his The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. A recent appearance at a book festival in Austin, Texas saw him selling a whopping 1,000 copies of said book, breaking a previous record set by President Bill Clinton. There has been a lot of talk about the possibility of Obama becoming a U.S. president, possibly the next president, with Obama himself saying he would consider a 2008 campaign.

In an article in the Washington Post, there is some speculation on whether or not he could make it in a presidential race. While I think the man should strike while he is clearly hot, I also do not think that this country would elect a black man to the presidency, and that is sad. Harold Ford Jr. couldn't even pull off a senate seat in the recent election in Tennessee, which would have made him the first black senator since the Reconstruction.

While I do not think Obama could successfully reclaim the presidency for the Democrats, I do think he would be the best candidate for vice president. I'd love to see a Clinton-Obama ticket on my ballot in 2008. And yes, I think the U.S. would elect a white woman president before a black man.

File under: Barack Obama election 2008 politics Hillary Clinton Tennessee sucks

Does the average TV viewing American get Ugly Betty?

One of my favorite new shows of the season is Ugly Betty, which of course usually means the seal of doom for a show. Last season my favorite new show was Out of Practice. Right when it started gaining word of mouth viewers and winning its timeslot, CBS pulled it for a try at that new Jenna Elfman show. It did poorly, so Out of Practice was back...until they put The New Adventures of Old Christine on. A glance at the CBS lineup will show which show survived. I still swear that people were tuning in for Out of Practice and that is how The New Adventures of Old Christine got better ratings. Notwithstanding the fact that Out of Practice was a far superior show. I think maybe the humor was a bit too intelligent for the average beer-chugging, Cheetos-munching, Nascar-lovin' American television viewer. Of course, CBS also stupidly put it on after Two & a Half Men - hello idiots at CBS, different target audiences!

Another of my favorite shows last season, Sons & Daughters, was promptly cancelled. Teachers - cancelled! And the most devastating cancellation of a show occurred prior to last season with Wonderfalls. Damn those wankers at FOX. (Thankfully it came out on DVD - but Sons & Daughters will not due to expensive music licensing issues.)

But, back to Ugly Betty. Having watched some telenovelas on Telemundo (hooray Gitanas!), I find Ugly Betty's attempts to mock telenovelas rather hysterical. It's comedy at its best. And I doubted the average American's ability to see the humor in this show. I love it + I don't think most Americans will get it = it's doomed.

Imagine my surprise to read this article crowning Ugly Betty homecoming queen. Apparently Ugly Betty is the most watched new series on U.S. television this season. I still have to wonder if most people actually get it...and is it a coincidence that this article came out after Salma Hayek and her ta-ta's made their shirtless appearance on the show?

File under: Ugly Betty tv shows

This is rich

My girlfriend works at a company that bills Medicare for nursing homes, I don't know how she has put up with this job for almost 2 years...she just sent me this nugget describing her morning....

I am oh so tired of these people, of this job, of people’s stupidity and their need to bully someone to feel better about their pathetic lives and small pebble brains. I am oh so tired of their stupid phone calls. Example: (and this is a real call that just happened. These are quotes. I’m not paraphrasing.)

I got your papers you faxed yesterday saying that you haven’t received these confirmations.
Mm hm.
Well I’ve got news for you. I faxed them back on the first.
Okay.
You didn’t get them?
No. (‘obviously’ is the parenthetical here)
Well, I’ve got the transmission result right here saying that it went through. Is your fax number 771-0062?
That’s one of them.
Well that’s what I faxed it to and it went through. It took 44 seconds to transmit.
Okay.
What’s going on over there?
I don’t know.
Someone’s buzzing me. Well, I’m going to fax them again, but it has to be on your end.
Okay.