Saturday, August 9, 2008

Beautiful and cool

Whirring Blender weekly design challenge

Carly Monardo

Snowbound



Snowbound, by Donald Fagan.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Well Boo

Edwards admits to affair, lied as candidate.
In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

Well, this story certainly continues the Democrats have penises narrative that the press so eagerly salivates over (i.e.: Never mind the fact that McCain had an affair with Cindy before they were married.). It also shows a degree of hubris that is unbecoming: had Edwards been the one to secure the nomination, this could have been the October surprise that would have doomed the U.S. to four more years of Republican rule.

In other news, married people have affairs.

Freq'd



Freq'd by JJ Flores and Steve Smooth, from DJ Bad Boy Bill.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Destiny



Destiny, by Zero 7.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The Chad Mitchell Trio



The Chad Mitchell Trio live on the Bell Telephone Hour. Fast-forward to the 1:25 mark. The banjo player is Roger McGuinn, who would later go on to found The Byrds. From 1963.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Boten Ana



Boten Ana, by Basshunter. Scandinavian bubble-gum music.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Get Over You



Get Over You, by Sophie Ellis Bextor.

Quality Snark Watch

Jesse Taylor on Barack Obama as the black messiah.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Journalists, confidential sources, and irresponsibility

Glenn Greenwald today:
That is really the critical point here. Source confidentiality is premised on a model of journalism where the media is adversarial to the Government, and safeguarding the anonymity of sources is the only way to find out what the Government is doing. But these days, so frequently, the media serves as an arm of the Government -- the Government uses the establishment media to disseminate propaganda and outright lies to the public (Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman, Saddam's aluminum tubes) or even uses leaks to the media to commit crimes (as it did in the Plame case). When the journalists who are used to spread these lies or commit these crimes then conceal who it is who has done such things, they are complicit in the Government wrongdoing, key enablers of it.

By endorsing the sanctity of that Government-media relationship through shield laws and the like (which I've always supported in the past), it's actually -- perversely -- bestowing the Government with yet another tool to shield its misconduct from the public. Because the establishment media so frequently now serves as a tool used by the Government to amplify its false claims and promote its agenda, rather than as a watchdog against it, increasing the Government and media's power to keep that relationship secret is to empower the Government even further -- the exact opposite of what source confidentiality is intended to achieve [and, indeed, proposed federal shield laws provide large exceptions for national security leaks, which means that such a law would still allow the Governments to try to invade, and courts to destroy, the good kind of confidentiality (e.g., the CIA black sites and NSA leaks) while protecting the bad kind (where the Government uses the media to spread lies and other disinformation)].

Floating Chamber



Floating Chamber by Vince Watson.