We have two more years of this buffoon in office while there is a significant gathering threat. This guy is so incompetent that he brags that there was only one 9/11 on his watch. Could you imagine FDR bragging that there was only one Pearl Harbor while he was Commander in Chief? How many does there have to be before we declare you asleep at the wheel? My God man, there was a memo telling you they were coming and you stayed on vacation for another month! Do you care at all?

This is quote jumped out, but it's midway through the article. In the beginning, Uygur makes the point that Christianity has done a lot of wrong in the name of religion, just like Islam. My thought? *Monotheism* is wrong. It breeds exclusionary, self-righteous, violent behaviour. So much wrong has been one in the name of a "one God" that I can't see how they can justify there IS a one God.

Zealotry in any form is bad. Fanaticism leads to destruction. It closes minds and shuts down ethics and morality. Anyone or any group can be prone to this. It just appears that religions get it in spades. It's a shame.

How hard is it to follow a general golden rule, basic ethics and morals, and not put hard core religious twists and spins and guilts and such on it? Treat others well. Respect and accept their differences. What happens between consenting adults is their deal.

That sort of thing. Why is this so hard? The world be such a better place, if we could all just follow this.

~Heathyr

The Blog | Cenk Uygur: Vicious Muslims and the Americans Who Help Them | The Huffington Post

Given his sunny assessment (loved that his response to the Iraqi prime minister visiting Iran was a chipper, "It's a neighbor."), if the VP had had more time he might have added that completing the mission in Iraq would include purple unicorns taking sips from the Euphrates, and Sunnis and Shiites flying hand-in-hand down the streets of Baghdad on magic carpets on their way to that happiest place on earth, Disney Fallujah.

Disney Fallujah. Hmm. Now there's one themepark I won't be visiting any time soon! Our ambulance rep did his second tour there, and he's about to get called back to do yet another tour apparently. I bet he's hoping he can avoid Disney Fallujah as well!

~Heathyr

The Blog | Arianna Huffington: Memo to Democrats: Stop Buying into the GOP Framing on Iraq | The Huffington Post

thanks to the actors and filmmakers who made the porn, and the audiences that packed the Northwest Film Forum

That's about all I can quote from this page without it being quite possibly too graphic for y'all. I can't believe I missed out on tickets for this though. How fun would this have been? I've got to keep my eyes peeled for next year's contest so I can drag the boyfriend over to Seattle for it. (Well, it's porn, so I don't think drag would be the proper verb, but that's a whole other story)...

~Heathyr

The Stranger's Amateur Porn Contest!

Lonelygirl15 appears to be an innocent, home-schooled 16-year-old, pouring her heart out for her video camera in the privacy of her bedroom. But since May, her brief posts on the video-sharing site YouTube and the social networking hub MySpace have launched a Web mystery eagerly followed by her million-plus viewers: Who is this sheltered ingenue who calls herself "Bree," and is she in some sort of danger — or, worse, the tool of some giant marketing machine?

I'd totally missed out on this little cultural phenomenon. Then again, I miss out on most cul-phenoms, being a bit out of the loop. I found this interesting, and hey, if it is a marketing ploy, it's a darned good one.

Sadly, if it is, it will be successful probably, then *everyone* will feel they have to do it, and then it will become an annoyance instead of a brief percolation in the bubbling pot of creativity.

~Heathyr

Mystery Fuels Huge Popularity of Web's Lonelygirl15

The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, a children’s book by Saunders recently reissued by McSweeney’s, is as close to a wholly alien ecosystem functioning within a book that you’ll ever see.

I haven't read anything by these authors, but this article makes me want to. I did see the movie Secretary and loved it. I need to snag the short story.

~Heathyr

Tied Up in Crazy | Stranger

For Don Rumsfeld the problem isn't that we are not winning the war in Iraq, the problem is that we are not properly spinning the war in Iraq.
Along with comparing his critics to Hitler appeasers, the beleaguered Defense Secretary has spent the early part of this week making the case that the horrific state of affairs in Iraq is really just a case of bad PR.

Pity someone couldn't shut Rumsfeld up by telling him he invoked a verbal Godwin's Law and he was required to flagellate himself in the corner as punishment.

~Heathyr

The Blog | Arianna Huffington: What Keeps Don Rumsfeld Up at Night? Hint: It's Not the Body Count in Iraq | The Huffington Post

A crowd of thousands cheered Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson for calling President Bush a "dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights violating president" whose time in office would "rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure."

Utah might be my idea of hell on earth, but this guy I like!

~Heathyr

Salt Lake Tribune - Salt Lake sounds off in protest and support

Some movies need the big screen. The Abyss comes to mind--nothing like feeling totally surrounded by water in the dark with a huge screen towering above you. So, when all the hype about this great scary movie, The Descent, was going on, and I figured I was due for a fright (I can only handle one every so often, being overly imaginative. Saw about did me in for two years), my boyfriend and I took the plunge and went to see The Descent. We both figured it was "big screen worthy" (sort of like being sponge-worthy, I suppose), since you want to feel swallowed by the cave.

Was I ever disappointed. I'm shocked with the IMDB ratings and the slew of "wow, greatest thing ever" reveiews. I don't want to offer up spoilers to prove my points, so I'll just rant thusly:

1. Other than an initial "shock value" moment at the start, there isn't anything special about the scares in this movie.

2. I hate people that don't learn from their mistakes. You run away and get separated and you might get picked off. So, after doing something that stupid once, don't you think you wouldn't do it again after regrouping? Yeah, that's what I thought.

3. Make up your mind--are they going to be tough chicks who are logical or are they going to be illogical, whiny, grudge-holding, screaming women. Flip flopping between the two extremes whenever it's convenient for the plot just irritates me.

4. DO NOT USE FLARES IN A CAVE. Duh.

5. All of the inconsistencies, stupidities, etc made it so bad that I actually was hoping for them all to die horrible, horrible deaths (I won't tell you if they do or not). I wanted to laugh, not jump, and I came in there wanting to be truly terrified. I wanted to be so scared that going out to my car in the dark for the next few weeks on my way to the gym tripped me out (this happened with Saw. I thought I was going to die I was so fidgety in the dark for weeks. Yes, I'm a wuss).

6. I got creepier "oooh scary" feelings from the Ted the Caver story on the internet (http://www.holyshiite.com/caver/) which I had read prior to going to this movie. So I was hyped up and ready. Pity it couldn't live up to it.

/rant

I honestly don't get it why everyone's saying it's such a masterpiece of horror and a "gorefest". It's really not. Too many errors. Too many inconsistencies. I just can't believe so many people find it great. I'm sincerely boggled by it.

~Heathyr

The Descent (2005)--Just So Not Worth It

"The Americans are more action-oriented. They want to see the puppets beating each other up. British audiences are more intellectual. They like to see it sick and twisted but in an intellectual way."

I like intellectually sick and twisted action! Actually, I just like the idea of muppets behaving badly. There's something as wrong and amusing about it, as there is about all the dirty cartoons with the Jetsons that I find when I peruse "certain sites" if you catch my drift. Nothing says "adult entertainment" like your childhood buddies going wrong...

~Heathyr

Muppet creators go adult - Yahoo! News

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested four Frenchmen for jumping in front of cars on a busy road so that they could film them and post the footage on the Internet, the newspaper El Pais said Tuesday.

I say hit the freakin' idiots and if they aren't dead, beat them with their camera until life leaves or sense arrives! Why endanger the rest of the road by swerving? Morons.

~Heathyr

Dumb has a new definition... - Yahoo! News