Internet killed the teevee star

Doing surprisingly well without cable. My Olbermann-obsession is taken care of courtesy of iTunes - free podcast ftw! - and the gentlemen Colbert and Stewart are nicely represented on comedycentral.com

And after a friend (thanks Jeanette!) directed me to surfthechannel, I also revel in low solution entertainment, such as the jovial mass murderer Dexter, and those darn bloodsuckers in True Blood. YEAH!

While on the topic of home entertainment; the best thing in 2008 was finding La Belle Histoire included in a Canadian Claude Lelouch box-set. Happy happy happy.

The Great Appeaser

Oh gawd...
Chris Matthews nails a right wing nutjob, this one really is priceless!



Anywhoo.
Senator Biden calling Bush' Hitler/appeaser/Obama job for *bullshit* (literally) makes me <3 him a little, and thinking he'd be a nice VP.

Hillary's SNL-flirt backfires - big time!

Teresa and I :P

Heheh...
Well, I finally popped my Daily Kos cherry, and posted a comment on a "Diary" as they call the posts over there. The Diary in question was by Teresa Heinz, aka Mrs John Kerry, a woman I've respected for some time for outstanding humanitary work, and focusing on women's issues.
Issue in question, worthy retirement, focused on women. I viciously banged my The-Welfare-System-in-Norway-Is-Worth-Checking-Out drum, but in a side comment sidetracked onto the very very very cool children's books about the Moomin Trolls.
And lo and behold:


Yep yep yep, listen to the lady, and go forth and read up!

Emerging Illusions

No more factory meat (note to self)

Growing up on a farm with live animals, most of whom I knew by name, I've never felt bad about eating meat. Our pigs, chicken and cows had good lives, green pastures in summer, and as good medical care as any human could wish for.
Better medical care than millions of Americans, it seems.

Well. That was then, in a small, rich, northern European country.
Now I'm living in America, and it's time to realize I'm "not in Kansas" anymore, to use a movie phrase.

Much as I love to eat meat - and I don't eat a whole lot of it - I have to stop buying any meat that's not produced locally, organically and heavens knows what. And having a limited budget, I believe I'm about to go vegetarian for all practical purposes. Sigh.

From Reuters today:
Sickened pork workers have new nerve disorder
- Eighteen pork plant workers in Minnesota, at least five in Indiana and one in Nebraska have come down with a mysterious neurological condition they appear to have contracted while removing brains from slaughtered pigs, U.S. researchers and health officials said on Wednesday. Etc etc etc.

And the BIG article a while ago in Rolling Stones Magazine, about factory pig farming:
America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history. Welcome to the dark side of the other white meat.

Sure, there's a lot of things wrong in the world, but this is one thing I can do for myself. No more factory meat.

Bootleg

From YourDictionary.com:

Bootleg (verb)

Pronunciation: ['but-leg]

Definition: To produce and/or distribute legally prohibited products.

Usage: Today's word is used mostly as an adjective (bootleg DVDs) and a verb (to bootleg DVDs). It has settled into the US vernacular as a regular verb referring to the action of bootlegging, which is carried out by a bootlegger, who bootlegs.

Suggested Usage: Remember that the original meaning of today's word began in the days of rum-runners: "Izzy Russianoff got the capital to start his charity hospital bootlegging moonshine in the 30s." However, don't let that restrain you from applying it to any product illegally distributed, "Curt's avocation was bootlegging illegal fireworks up and down the east coast until a bolt of lightning caught up with his truck on a run through the Poconos."

Etymology: Today's word originated from the habit of men, when they wore high boots in centuries past, of smuggling objects across borders by hiding them in the legs of their boots. In the late 19th century, however, its meaning shrunk to the smuggling of whisky into counties and states that were 'dry.' During Prohibition, the word became even more popular as the vocation of smuggling alcoholic beverages into the United States from Canada or from, well, bootleg distilleries. However, the word did not go the way of Prohibition. Rather, its meaning has broadened again recently to refer to the distribution of any illegal product, such as copyrighted tapes, CDs, and DVDs that are widely produced and distributed illegally today.