Monday, April 4, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Modus Operandi Podcast episode 53
The Drunkest Episode EVER!!!
Yes, it's also the shortest episode ever. Our entire discussion of the disaster in Japan was lost due to what I'm pretty sure could be categorized as drunkenness.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Linky Dinks
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.
-Thomas Jefferson
The Tennessee legislature considered a bill (SB 3229/HB 2972) that would have provided for the suspension or dismissal of any teacher or administrator who taught evolution as a fact rather than a theory.
Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....
That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000.
$50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.
Furlough
Episode 51 is "in the can" but still "on the shelf." Your courageous and handsome editor and producer is attempting to meet the RPM Challenge for the fifth year running and my back is up against the wall, time-wise. Dave and I may get together for a quick update after episode 51 is uploaded Monday or Tuesday but episode 52 will not be recorded until the end of the coming week. Maybe in the meantime Libya will have sorted itself out so we're not just floundering around in confusion on at least one topic. -Alan
Friday, February 18, 2011
Modus Operandi Podcast episode 50
This week Alan & Dave count down the ogreness of all 50 states in alphabetical order and come to the realization they are responsible for democracy in Egypt. Ah...
As soon as Dave types up the notes on the 50 states we will post them.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Linky Dinks
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Rape Victim Abortion Funding | ||||
| ||||
US aid to the dictator and torturer Hosni Mubarek 2009-2010: $4billion. US aid to homeowners facing foreclosure 2009-2010: $0.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Linky Dinks
"Sarah Palin doesn't seem to have a first language." -Dick Cavett
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive - Mike Mullen Extended Interview Pt. 2 | ||||
| ||||
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Talking Points in Honor of Ogrefest, 27 January 2011
Bears fans criticize dead people for not working harder.
Widespread anarchy in the Middle East attests to the success of U.S. foreign policy.
Americans' deficiency in science an encouraging sign for the future of advanced industrial society.
Obama's appeal to bipartisanship reinforces his rhetorical panache for the unpredictable.
Record deaths in Afghanistan in 2010 can only mean one thing: mission accomplished!
Widespread anarchy in the Middle East attests to the success of U.S. foreign policy.
Americans' deficiency in science an encouraging sign for the future of advanced industrial society.
Obama's appeal to bipartisanship reinforces his rhetorical panache for the unpredictable.
Record deaths in Afghanistan in 2010 can only mean one thing: mission accomplished!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Linky Dinks
Law enforcement wants to fly drones around to spy on the prisoners citizens.
Liberal Socialists for America on Facebook
Wikileaks soldier held in Marines facility, sleep deprived, solitary confinement, possible other abuse...
Yeah, when the former Grand Duke of the KKK is on your side, you might be racist.
Joan Rivers tells Fox News to go fuck themselves: 'I was cancelled from Fox for saying Palin is "stupid and a threat". Wait till I REALLY shock them with Aretha Franklin is a bit chubby!'
Kentucky decides to punish the poor even more with law to force random drug tests that could lead to suspension of medicaid and foodstamps for a positive.
Alabama governor says what so many right wing "Christians" like him feel in their hearts: "Fuck all you non-believers." (OK, that's not exactly what he said...)
Proving that it's a good idea for everyone to be armed, two kids shot in L.A. high school when gun fires by accident.
Who knew the Bible was based on He-Man?
Trickle down theory in action.
Liberal Socialists for America on Facebook
Wikileaks soldier held in Marines facility, sleep deprived, solitary confinement, possible other abuse...
Yeah, when the former Grand Duke of the KKK is on your side, you might be racist.
Joan Rivers tells Fox News to go fuck themselves: 'I was cancelled from Fox for saying Palin is "stupid and a threat". Wait till I REALLY shock them with Aretha Franklin is a bit chubby!'
Kentucky decides to punish the poor even more with law to force random drug tests that could lead to suspension of medicaid and foodstamps for a positive.
Alabama governor says what so many right wing "Christians" like him feel in their hearts: "Fuck all you non-believers." (OK, that's not exactly what he said...)
Proving that it's a good idea for everyone to be armed, two kids shot in L.A. high school when gun fires by accident.
Who knew the Bible was based on He-Man?
Baby tastes grapefruit.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Modus Operandi Podcast episode 46
Show Notes:
Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), he of "terror baby" fame, believes everybody ought to have a gun... all the time.
Yum! Center empty and Memorial Hall has nothing scheduled... why did we need this thing?
Our argument about whether average and below average people should be well informed continues. This Huffington Post post supports Alan's argument that people are easily manipulated and the manipulators are who we must fight against.
"They're being told by Fox News, they're being told by Rush Limbaugh that if they fight for the things that will make their lives better that they're fighting against their country... they're being lied to."
"We are exceptional, everyone is wrong except us."
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Linky Dinks
[Wow, it's been a long time since I posted linky dinks. Let's go!]
Baby Preacher Subtitled - watch more funny videos
Thursday, January 13, 2011
OGRE-ON!
OGREFEST, U.S.A., JAN. 1-DEC. 31
This motto, a satirical version of the German Oktoberfest, has shown to be prophetic here just two weeks into the "new" year. It may be a new year calender year, the hubris of clock time may keep the illusion of "progress" propped up for the masses, but, like an American convenience store, it matters not what hour, day, month, or year--the Ogre-oids pile on, the shelves of self-destruction full of ready-made, instant insanity.
How does one find common ground with hate? Is not the essence of hate something intensely opposed to what it does not like? If one objects to "hate rhetoric," then why find common ground with it? Doesn't that automatically make one at least "half-hateful," and if so, how does that express any virtue of common ground? How can anything "common" be compatible with "hate," unless, of course it is our collective obsession with hating ourselves?
Sarah Palin has taken her repugnance to a new level, while Barack Obama remains as flaccid and mute as ever, even with yet another prime rhetorical opportunity to expose the venomous agenda of those who oppose him. Again I think of Yeats, and his own prophetic verse: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." The only problem, now that I think about it, is that this line of reasoning implicitly equates Obama with "the best." I would say he is a complacent, insulated figurehead, who wouldn't know how to improve the lives of everyday people even if he wanted to, which does not appear to be the case.
Palin hypocrisy: How can she claim journalists "serve only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn" while simultaneously rejecting the possibility her own speech could do the same? What else does mass media communication do if not influence--which includes incitement--the masses? Isn't that the point? Evoking the Grand American Lord Ronald "God" Reagan, Palin echoed the mainstream American sentiment that individuals should be held responsible for their actions, including crimes, and that the idea that society influences individual behavior is a cop-out. If this is true, then how can journalists who don't like her be capable of "inciting hatred and violence", while a loud-mouth spotlight hog like herself could never be capable of such a thing? And what, may I ask, is the point of talk-radio and TV icons like Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly and their ilk if it is not to perpetuate a social influence on how others think and behave? Yet Ogrefest never stops--their is never a renewal or reawakening--that might make for an uninhabitable habitat for the continued spawning of more ogre-oids. So, of course, Americans will endorse the idea that society has no influence on individual behavior, even when that behavior is using a gun to shoot a politician.
I would point out that if Palin and the rest of Republicans really believed their own words, there would be no war on terror. It would be an individual responsibility for all us to protect ourselves from the wrath of terrorists. With our 2nd Amendment Rights, there would no room for excuses, right?
Meanwhile, Obama responds once again to another episode of American dysfunction with more bland, stale words. He calls for a "more civil discourse." How about we stop shooting each other and stop letting mentally ill people get their hands on guns? How eerily does this Loughner resemble the psychopath who took out over thirty people at Virginia Tech in April 2007? If I didn't know any better, I'd say Americans couldn't care less about gun violence or what to do with the mentally ill. And I'm betting that this call for "more civil discourse" entails neither that the Democrats will start calling out the Republicans to cut out their hateful, dishonest, psychotic diatribes against everything and everyone they think shouldn't exist in this world even they admit God--not themselves--created.
Americans, meanwhile, remain in their sterile, etherized dreamworld, holding up signs like "We Will Heal" during the Tuscon memorial. Sorry, but the six dead people are past the healing stage. Not even House, M.D. can get them back on their feet. And I like House--watched six consecutive hours of the show over Christmas break . . .
Speaking of dead people: insurgent attacks on international NATO forces in Afghanistan continue, bringing the total of dead to 16 this year. That's more than one death per day. Perhaps my impressive skill with numbers will lend me more credibility, as my expertise in discourse and language has long been consigned to obsolescence . . .
But the local media here in Kentucky continue their Walt Disney depiction of yet another deployment of "heroes" off to Afghanistan, saying good-bye to their families to slog on in a battle that never gets old. Nine year olds who die from a right-wing psychos bullet don't get old either.
This motto, a satirical version of the German Oktoberfest, has shown to be prophetic here just two weeks into the "new" year. It may be a new year calender year, the hubris of clock time may keep the illusion of "progress" propped up for the masses, but, like an American convenience store, it matters not what hour, day, month, or year--the Ogre-oids pile on, the shelves of self-destruction full of ready-made, instant insanity.
How does one find common ground with hate? Is not the essence of hate something intensely opposed to what it does not like? If one objects to "hate rhetoric," then why find common ground with it? Doesn't that automatically make one at least "half-hateful," and if so, how does that express any virtue of common ground? How can anything "common" be compatible with "hate," unless, of course it is our collective obsession with hating ourselves?
Sarah Palin has taken her repugnance to a new level, while Barack Obama remains as flaccid and mute as ever, even with yet another prime rhetorical opportunity to expose the venomous agenda of those who oppose him. Again I think of Yeats, and his own prophetic verse: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." The only problem, now that I think about it, is that this line of reasoning implicitly equates Obama with "the best." I would say he is a complacent, insulated figurehead, who wouldn't know how to improve the lives of everyday people even if he wanted to, which does not appear to be the case.
Palin hypocrisy: How can she claim journalists "serve only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn" while simultaneously rejecting the possibility her own speech could do the same? What else does mass media communication do if not influence--which includes incitement--the masses? Isn't that the point? Evoking the Grand American Lord Ronald "God" Reagan, Palin echoed the mainstream American sentiment that individuals should be held responsible for their actions, including crimes, and that the idea that society influences individual behavior is a cop-out. If this is true, then how can journalists who don't like her be capable of "inciting hatred and violence", while a loud-mouth spotlight hog like herself could never be capable of such a thing? And what, may I ask, is the point of talk-radio and TV icons like Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly and their ilk if it is not to perpetuate a social influence on how others think and behave? Yet Ogrefest never stops--their is never a renewal or reawakening--that might make for an uninhabitable habitat for the continued spawning of more ogre-oids. So, of course, Americans will endorse the idea that society has no influence on individual behavior, even when that behavior is using a gun to shoot a politician.
I would point out that if Palin and the rest of Republicans really believed their own words, there would be no war on terror. It would be an individual responsibility for all us to protect ourselves from the wrath of terrorists. With our 2nd Amendment Rights, there would no room for excuses, right?
Meanwhile, Obama responds once again to another episode of American dysfunction with more bland, stale words. He calls for a "more civil discourse." How about we stop shooting each other and stop letting mentally ill people get their hands on guns? How eerily does this Loughner resemble the psychopath who took out over thirty people at Virginia Tech in April 2007? If I didn't know any better, I'd say Americans couldn't care less about gun violence or what to do with the mentally ill. And I'm betting that this call for "more civil discourse" entails neither that the Democrats will start calling out the Republicans to cut out their hateful, dishonest, psychotic diatribes against everything and everyone they think shouldn't exist in this world even they admit God--not themselves--created.
Americans, meanwhile, remain in their sterile, etherized dreamworld, holding up signs like "We Will Heal" during the Tuscon memorial. Sorry, but the six dead people are past the healing stage. Not even House, M.D. can get them back on their feet. And I like House--watched six consecutive hours of the show over Christmas break . . .
Speaking of dead people: insurgent attacks on international NATO forces in Afghanistan continue, bringing the total of dead to 16 this year. That's more than one death per day. Perhaps my impressive skill with numbers will lend me more credibility, as my expertise in discourse and language has long been consigned to obsolescence . . .
But the local media here in Kentucky continue their Walt Disney depiction of yet another deployment of "heroes" off to Afghanistan, saying good-bye to their families to slog on in a battle that never gets old. Nine year olds who die from a right-wing psychos bullet don't get old either.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Modus Operandi Podcast episode 45
We start 2011 with a look back at 2010 exactly one year to the day from the very first MOpod. The top two Ogre-oids were the BP disaster and the mid-term elections, we discussed Ogre-ball, took a gander at the earliest blog posts, and ended up with some cat talk and perhaps a new sign off?
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Ogre-oid: Arizona Mass Murder
Details are still coming out about the shooting of Rep. Gabriel Gifford (D-AZ) but it appears she survived a point-blank gunshot to the head that passed through her brain. 20 people were shot, of these six died including a Federal judge and a 9 year old girl that planned on running for class office. Fox News is reporting* there is a strong link between the shooter and a right wing extremist hate group known as American Renaissance. There is no direct link between him and the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, or Fox News' stable of frothing hate mongers, but it is early yet. I would like you to read these quotes from Sheriff Dupnik's news conference last night (Dave & I were watching the direct feed after the horrible Saints game and were both astonished to hear this):
And Keith Olbermann names names and points his fingers:
*For a real "through the looking glass" experience, read the comments that follow this article.
[just before he started answering questions] When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be ou...trageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.
It's not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included. And that's the sad thing of what's going on in America. Pretty soon, we're not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people who are willing to subject themselves to serve in public office.
[at the end of the press conference just before he handed the podium to the doctor] Let me just say one thing, because people tend to poo-poo this business about all the vitriole that we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech.... But it's not without consequences.
And Keith Olbermann names names and points his fingers:
*For a real "through the looking glass" experience, read the comments that follow this article.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Ed Show Psycho Talk of the Year
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