The British are known to be a smart set. Indeed it is true.
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Liveblogging the first ever British debate (except for, basically, every week in Parliament)
3.35- Clegg opens. Fairness, greedy bankers, etc…Also, the background looks like a children’s show set from the 1980’s. The Early 1980’s. 3.36- Brown and Cameron spoke. Yawn. 3.38- This seems like a Senatorial debate in the States. NO CHEF’S FROM OUTSIDE THE EU!!!!, Really Gordon? Really? That is where you go, the food makers? Have you tried finding good Mexican food in Britain? It’s impossible, because of THE LACK OF FUCKING IMMIGRATION FROM OUTSIDE THE EU. 3.48- Cameron just talked about robbers burning down a house. Yikes. 4.31- Totally stopped watching. 4.32- Clegg doesn’t like bureaucrats. Really...
Continue reading...New Ways to Hate on Glenn Beck
Continuing on my poetry theme, I wanted to share this delightful recent discovery. As the friend who forwarded the website wrote, “poems, jewish stuff, making fun of glenn beck…I assume you were already aware?” I was not! According to their email blast, “Jewish Funds for Justice staged the Internet’s first “Twitterstorm” last week, flooding Glenn Beck’s Twitter account with some 3,000 haiku – Tweeted one by one, minute by minute – in support of social justice.” This was in response to Bleck’s (that was originally a typo, but on second thought seems apropos) tirade on churches that...
Continue reading...Polltracking the Revolution
Here’s a handy little interactive widget to play with to see how everybody’s doing in the horsey-race that is the upcoming U.K. election: http://cloud.del.co.uk/clients/betfair/betfairelection/tmg-tracker/tmg-election-chart.swf The important thing to know, for those not completely fluent in U.K. electoral politics, is to get a majority and build a majority government, a party needs to win 325 seats. Current polling seems to suggest that the Tories are closing in on 333-335, while Labour + Lib Dems are only at 286 (317 if you count all the “others”). Of course, Labour and the Lib Dems may not, or even probably won’t,...
Continue reading...Poem of the Week
As we all now know, April is being celebrated in some parts of the country as Confederate History Month. Luckily for those of us who enjoy four-week-long observances but prefer not to glorify the losers of the Civil War, April is also host to a number of other holidays. A quick Google search revealed that April is: National Volunteer Month, Jazz Appreciation Month, Facial Protection Month (what? yes. “Facial Protection Month can target anyone from construction workers to families to professional athletes.”), and the ever-important National Car Care Month. However, my favorite April occasion, aside from my...
Continue reading...Romeo, Juliet, and Twitter. Wait…what?
Mudlark and the Royal Shakespeare Company have joined forces to present Such Tweet Sorrow, a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that takes place in real time on Twitter. Actors are given a scripted outline and character diaries, and they generate original tweets based on what the character would be thinking or feeling at any given moment. I assume that the goal of this project is to use social media to attract younger audiences, and I applaud them for that. If students become interested in Shakespeare after seeing these tweets and pick up a copy of Romeo...
Continue reading..."This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff."
In honor of the upcoming premiere of Doctor Who‘s fifth season (Saturday, April 17 @ 9PM on BBC America), I thought I’d up the nerd quotient on this blog with my first Arts & Culture post. I’m a fairly new fan of the show, and I must admit, I haven’t seen a single episode of the classic series, which ran from 1963 to 1989. What I’ve seen from the new series, however, is unlike any TV show we have in America. The story follows the Doctor, who is the only survivor of a race called the Time...
Continue reading...Decoy proms: Just like the good old days
Well, speaking of outrage: To avoid Constance McMillen bringing a female date to her prom, the teen was sent to a “fake prom” while the rest of her class partied at a secret location at an event organized by parents. Let’s see what led to this. Itawamba County School District in Mississippi was going to have a prom. Constance McMillen wanted to bring her girlfriend to the prom. Consequently, school cancels the prom. The ACLU sues. the court rules on the side of McMilllen, but gives the school a pass because some parents organized an alternative prom...
Continue reading...Weapons of mass destruction
Sometimes you have to hand it to Slate to answer the questions you have but forget about too quickly to actually research. When reading about the arrests of the Hutaree militia group members who had planned an attack against law enforcement professionals, it was mentioned (in the headline and the body) that they were charged with attempting to use “weapons of mass destruction,” but the stories explained that they had planned on using Improvised Explosive Devices, which are generally conventional in nature. “Weapons of mass destruction” is a term that is generally used to describe nuclear, biological...
Continue reading..."Well now I feel the pain of racism"
I’d never heard of Doc Thompson until today. The only reference I can find of him in a very quick Google search is that he hosts some talk radio program out of Richmond, Virginia. However, apparently he was given the reins of Glenn Beck’s radio program yesterday and decided to make a name for himself. The type of name that will resonate with the Glenn-Beckers and Tea Partiers and nutters out there. Perhaps the type of name that will rescue him from Richmond and land him a gig on Fox News. That is, at the very least,...
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