Update: Yes, my commenters are absolutely 100% correct. Earlier I had horribly misspelled “Grover” as “E-L-M-O”. I don’t know how frackin’ spellcheck missed that one. I’ve updated the post title so I stop confusing people.
*****
HIGH-larious. Thanks to @bug_girl for posting this on twitter this morning.
It’s Halloween weekend!
I am entirely too jealous of several friends who are on the way to tomorrow’s Rally for Sanity in DC. I can’t wait to hear all about it, and to see the awesome video footage and photographs that will come out of the event.
I am also very much yearning to go to The Gathering of American Gods at the House on the Rock, but that is this weekend, so that is not happening.
In other news, Greg Laden’s Blog made me happy tonight. Well, not the video of Michelle Bachmann expounding on science, but everything else was pretty interesting. And this video made my night:
It’s Halloween weekend!
I am entirely too jealous of several friends who are on the way to tomorrow’s Rally for Sanity in DC. I can’t wait to hear all about it, and to see the awesome video footage and photographs that will come out of the event.
I am also very much yearning to go to The Gathering of American Gods at the House on the Rock, but that is this weekend, so that is not happening.
In other news, Greg Laden’s Blog made me happy tonight. Well, not the video of Michelle Bachmann expounding on science, but everything else was pretty interesting. And this video made my night:
Seriously, stop with all the awesome, I’m trying to work!
I love that the people shown here didn’t get mad and seemed to genuinely think about the question and the implications of the answer.
And this one is just good fun.
You go, Mister President, Sir. You smoke that cigarette!
Last night I was reintroduced to the name of Professor Philip Zimbardo. I remember discussing his Stanford Prison Experiment in college, but I couldn’t have told you that he was the one involved with it.
I saw this video of one of his lectures yesterday. It was remarkably engaging! The lecture is fast-paced – he jumps from topic to topic, and along the way manages to hit on differences in world and regional cultures, teaching theory, business, multi-tasking, family values, and many more. The visuals are unique and kept me rooted to my seat. After it was over, I couldn’t believe that I had been watching this video for 10 minutes.
A cursory google search tells me that Dr. Philip Zimbardo has only worked on about a gazillion and a half projects, including a couple dozen books and articles. A youtube search for “Philip Zimbardo” brings up 237 videos about the man. So I know what I’ll be doing tonight!*
Thanks to Aaron M. for posting the Secret Powers of Time video on Facebook.
*Well, tomorrow night, maybe. Tonight I’m going to see Michael Shermer at the University of Minnesota!
Act on Principles is a group promoting “Full LGBT civil rights now. No delay. No excuses.” The group is currently attempting to get the American Equality Bill (AEB) filed in the Senate. The AEB would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as federally protected statuses.
Queer SOS is an activist project of the Act on Principles group that is focusing their attention on Senator Gillibrand of New York. Queer SOS wants Sen. Gillibrand to file the proposed American Equality Bill. Last Friday Queer SOS hosted “Flash Mob: Homophobia Kills Die-In” in Grand Central Station:
Aside from hosting energizing flash mob art-performances-with-a-message, Queer SOS is demonstrating daily outside of Sen. Gillibrand’s offices. This is part of the the communication that the AEB Project sent to Sen. Gillibrand on 9/17/10 (bolding is original):
Dear Senator Gillibrand,
I’m writing to request again that you commit to and file a Civil Rights bill for our community immediately.
As you know, it is the prime duty of Government to protect its citizens from discrimination and Congress has failed over 30 million LGBTQ people in this regard.
We can not wait any longer for action to redress this.
To press this issue, activists will be launching a daily, friendly vigil outside your campaign offices starting Sept. 27th until the American Equality Bill (AEB) is filed. If no bill is filed as of October 11th we plan to go 24/7, and then on Nov. 2nd to begin group fasting.
This is a very serious matter as people will be risking their health standing outside and fasting for basic human justice. We should not have to take these steps, but talking about this has failed and there is no other option.
We will broadcast our work daily, seek as much media attention as possible, and try to join you at other public campaign appearances.
Please know that this is not an opposition action in any way and that we are very happy your campaign is doing so well! But we NEED YOUR HELP now! We need this bill to organize around and there is no excuse for not filing it immediately.
rest of letter omitted
I support public demonstrations that do not harm or unduly inconvenience the audience to the point where they are coerced into taking action. Get out there, make your message known, go first amendment-protected speech!
But group fasting?
It appears to me that threatening a fast is a coercive action – Hey Senator, I’m going to hurt myself unless you do what I want you to do. I support the goals of this group and I want to support the group itself, but I have reservations about fasting as a political statement. I know that hunger strikes aren’t new, but why are they okay? Why is holding one’s health hostage an acceptable means of political pressure? Can anyone tell me why hunger strikes are appropriate, or give me arguments about why they are not?
You’re welcome.
And I’m sorry.
All together now: Baby Monkey! Baby Monkey! Riding on a Pig, Baby Monkey!
I dare you not to choke up – I double dog dare you.
Thanks to Toward a Moral Life for introducing me to this video.
This is not an SNL skit or other parody group’s work. This is fo’ real.
This movie will be loved by some people, but in the light of recent events and the us vs them mentality going on with the Ground Zero “Mosque”, the planned burning of the Koran, the Pope’s visit to UK, Tea Party candidates calling for less church-state separation, et cetera, et cetera, I think the majority of people will see this for this movie for the divisive piece of crap that it looks to be. And since this Christmas with a Capital C is straight-to-DVD, I don’t think the majority of the mainstream will ever even know about this movie.
Go go gadget optimism!
And to be clear, Christmas with a Capital C is the movie’s official title. But I think How the Atheist Stole Christmas is more appropriate and filled with truthiness. Or, as Balk from The Awl suggested Bullshit Resentments Fomented To Somehow Convince The Practitioners Of America’s Most Widely-Followed Faith That They Are Under Siege: The Movie
Via BlagHag, Joe My God, and a gazillon billion other rationality, atheism and skeptical websites.
Oh, and check out the movie’s namesake – a video about Go Fish, the Christian rock band that wrote and performed the song “Christmas with a Capital C”. It’s pretty great when the lead singer says that Christmas didn’t used to be about religion, it was about culture and everyone used to participated in the holiday even if they disagreed with the religion because it was good for all of us. Say what? And I love the part where they make fun of people who say Happy Holidays by lisping the “s” and speaking in a soft voice (read: speaking like The Gays). It’s FAB-ulous!
