Saturday meme, pork and beans...

Pork and Beans by Weezer. I love this video.

Faster Kill Pussycat

Faster Kill Pussycat, by Paul Oakenfold. Get those muscles moving...

Unobvious note

There actually is a bank that isn't first: The Fifth Third Bank.

Does this mean they were the fifth bank to come in third?

Transcendental comedy

The writing on the Colbert report is probably the sharpest there is on TV.

Programming note

Here on out, I will be posting a new music video every morning at 9:00.

Inside and Out

Feist does a wonderful BeeGees cover.

Here I go again, pissing off would-be commentators...

Muslims against Sharia is pissed off at me.

I think this individual is a troll, and may even be properly considered a concern troll.

Here are a couple of things that don't add up in Muslims against Sharia's comment.

First: "We admit that most terrorists are Muslims [...]"

This statement is bogus. Most of the terrorists that we see on the nightly news are Muslim, but that's because most of the terrorists that American forces are dealing with are in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also this stereotype is further emphasized by Palestinian and Hezbollah attacks on Israel that receive press coverage in the states.

Look around. There are terrorists everywhere. Until recently there were terrorists in Ireland (Christian). In the 1970s and 1980s there were terrorists in Germany and Italy (both communist and US-sponsored). Currently in Sri Lanka there are the Tamil Tigers (Hindi). In Colombia there is the FARC (communist). There are lots more elsewhere. They usually don't make the nightly news because their political aims and political targets aren't sufficiently newsworthy for American audiences.

So right off the bat, this troll feeds anti-Muslim stereotypes.

Second, this troll makes a sweeping statement: "Where are all the so-called "Islamic civil rights groups" like CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, MAS, etc. who are quick to defend every Islamic terrorist, but are silent when Muslims in general are being denigrated?"

Now, I'm not personally familiar with these organizations, but I've at least heard of a few of them. I cannot believe that they are all terrorist sympathizers. This statement doesn't pass my BS-meter, and actually strikes me as a smear against these Muslim-American and Arab-American organizations.

Third, this troll denigrates several people who have been associated with Senator Obama and makes a claim that "Mr. Obama's website is insulting to hundreds of millions of people." Looks to me like someone is engaging in disingenuous hyperbole, and that the whole point of this comment is to smear Obama.

Update: If you feel the need to respond to my characterizations, please go to where the hubbub is.

Live with me

From Collected by Massive Attack.

Time to update Firefox

I'm always late to the party, even when I receive an invitation; but Firefox 3.0 is here.

Now that we have $4 a gallon gas...

You might want to read the essay where I wrote this:

Economically, suburbs and exurbs are not sustainable, as their very existence requires both a thriving metropolitan area and cheap fuel. Well gasoline is not going to become cheaper--although we might save on our long term costs by switching to hybrid cars. But... well I don't want to derail this entry too much by going into the state of our cities. Let's just say that my city, Rochester, gets by... but barely. Also, it is used to wearing a lot of hand-me-downs.

The truth is, off-shore drilling will do nothing to lower fuel prices in the United States when the main force driving up fuel prices is increased demand in the so-called third world (especially since there really isn't much oil off our coasts).

Link rot

Just a note: sometimes links expire.

Sulu to get married

George Takei and Brad Altman first to get marriage license in West Hollywood

One of the best songs of the 20th century

Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy.

Huh?

The Associated Press wants bloggers to pay $12.50 to quote as few as five words from an AP article.

Not only does this show a level of cluelessness about the culture of the internet, it also appears to fly in the face of copyright law: everyone is entitled to fair use quotations of published works.

From the U.S. Copyright Office's web-site:

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.” (emphasis added)

I doubt that most of the AP's claims for remit from bloggers on the internets will pass legal scrutiny. The Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center's web-site is v. informative and has a good section on Fair Use.

Update: Mark Glaser on all of this. (h/t Atrios)

Making a note

for future reference: Glossary of Poetic Terms.

Fever

A Guy Called Gerald, from 2000.

USA wins 8-0

Team USA is competing for one of 3.5 slots for the 2010 World Cup. They just won their first qualifying game 8-0.

Here are the current standings.

Vive le point-virgule

Encouragingly, a Committee for the Defence of the Semicolon appeared on the web (only to disappear some days later, which cannot be a very good sign).

Projected projection changes

Poblano tweaks his methodology, and explains his changes. Regardless, the electoral landscape is looking good for Obama. Hopefully this keeps up

One Evening

I love this song, One Evening, by Feist.