"
I can’t control what people think this was. I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.
But unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country’s 24 hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems but it’s existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold it’s magnifying up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic.
If we amplify everything we hear nothing. There are terrorists and racists and Stalinist and theocrats but those are titles that must be earned. You must have the resume. Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate. Just as the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe not more. The press is our immune system. If we overreact to everything we actually get sicker and perhaps eczema.
And yet with that being said I feel good—strangely, calmly good. Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a fun house mirror and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waist and maybe taller, but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass shaped like a month old pumpkin and one eyeball.
So, why would we work together? Why would you reach across the aisle to a pumpkin assed forehead eyball monster? If the picture of us were true of course our inability to solve problems would actually be quite sane and reasonable. Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution or racists and homophobes who see no one’s humanity but their own? We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is—on the brink of catastrophe—torn by polarizing hate and how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done, but the truth is we do. We work together to get things done every damn day!
The only place we don’t is here or on cable TV. But Americans don’t live here or oncable TV. Where we live our values and principles form the foundation that sustains us while we get things done not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done. Most Americans don’t live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do—often something that they do not want to do—butthey do it. Impossible things every day that are only made possible by the little reasonable compromises that we all make.
Look on the screen this is where we are this is who we are. (points to the Jumbotron screen which show traffic merging into a tunnel). These cars—that’s a schoolteacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high. He’s going to work. There’s another car-a woman with two small kids who can’t really think about anything else right now. There’s another car swinging I don’t even know if you can see it—the lady’s in the NRA. She loves Oprah. There’s another car—an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah. Another car’s a Latino carpenter. Another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan. But this is us. Every one of the cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief and principles they hold dear—often principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers.
And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile long 30 foot wide tunnel carved underneath a might river. Carved, by the way, by people who I’m sure had their differences. And they do it. Concession by conscession. You go. Then I’ll go. You go then I’ll go. You go then I’ll goOh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on your car? Well, that’s okay—you go and then I’ll go.
And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute, but that individual is rare and he is scorned and not hired as an analyst.
Because we know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light we have to work together and the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the promised land.
Sometimes it’s just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together.
If you want to know why I’m here and want I want from you I can only assure you this: you have already given it to me. You’re presence was what I wanted.
Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder. To see you here today and the kind of people that you are has restored mine. Thank you.
"— Jon Stewart’s closing remarks at the Rally
Reckless Hoverboarders careened into Hill Valley’s City Courthouse late yesterday afternoon, causing serious damage to the structure. The perpetrators received minor injuries and were immediately apprehended by Hill Valley Police. They are being held in the City lockup pending immediate trial. Jailed were Griff Tannen, 19, Leslie O’Malley, 18, Chester Nogura, 18, and Rafe Unger, 19, all of Hill Valley. Tannen claimed a 5th Hoverboarder had perpetrated the incident and escaped. The claim was dismissed by authorities upon learning that the accused, whose name was withheld, was a repeated target of harassment by the gang.
The incident occurred in the front of the courthouse when Tannen, on a “Pit Bull” powered model Hoverboard with his companions in tow, went speeding across the courthouse pond in violation of a local ordinance and apparently lost control of his Hoverboard. All 4 Hoverboarders were thrown into the front office of the building, causing some serious damage to the edifice. No one else was injured.
Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from—things like chicken nuggets and patties. Also, the processed frozen chicken in the stores is made from it.
Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this.
There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color.
EARTH-LIKE PLANET CAN SUSTAIN LIFE
A new member in a family of planets circling a red dwarf star 20 light-years away has just been found. It’s called Gliese 581g, and the ‘g’ may very well stand for Goldilocks.
Gliese 581g is the first world discovered beyond Earth that’s the right size and location for life.
“Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say that the chances for life on this planet are 100 percent. I have almost no doubt about it,” Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at University of California Santa Cruz, told Discovery News.
via soupsoup
"There is really no debate about climate change in China,” said Peggy Liu, chairwoman of the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Clean Energy, a nonprofit group working to accelerate the greening of China. “China’s leaders are mostly engineers and scientists, so they don’t waste time questioning scientific data.” The push for green in China, she added, “is a practical discussion on health and wealth. There is no need to emphasize future consequences when people already see, eat and breathe pollution every day.” And because runaway pollution in China means wasted lives, air, water, ecosystems and money — and wasted money means fewer jobs and more political instability — China’s leaders would never go a year (like we will) without energy legislation mandating new ways to do more with less. It’s a three-for-one shot for them. By becoming more energy efficient per unit of G.D.P., China saves money, takes the lead in the next great global industry and earns credit with the world for mitigating climate change. So while America’s Republicans turned “climate change” into a four-letter word — J-O-K-E — China’s Communists also turned it into a four-letter word — J-O-B-S."
Being an early adopter is fun, but not nearly as fun as creating something huge. How does one make the leap from predicting a certain technology will blow up to thinking of that technology?
Found this on ye olde Gizmodo. A pretty cool graphic demonstrating just how stupidly spoiled we are by technology now. Bonus: the left side of that graphic can more or less apply to most of the 90s.
Everything here is accurate except nobody watches Leno.
I just finished reading Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer’s non-fiction account of his quest to determine why we eat meat and how it is produced. This is information everyone should have and I highly recommend reading it or at the very least watching Food, Inc. But let me quickly summarize the reasons to stop consuming meat:
Environmental/Ecological
Meat production is the single greatest cause of global warming (more than all transportation in the world combined) and is leading cause of climate change. If you think you can save the planet by not printing an email you are ignoring the fact that most deforestation occurs due to animal agriculture. Nearly 1/3 of the land on the planet is used for livestock. Waste from factory farms is contaminating rivers, lakes and oceans as well as the air. We are also fishing so heavily that entire species are disappearing.
Health/Medical:
Meat produced by these farms is not natural. It comes from animals that have been so genetically modified that they could never survive in the wild. They can’t reproduce or even live past adolescence. They are fed diets they would never willingly eat. They are prone to sickness thus pumped full of antibiotics for their entire lives. This causes us to build a natural resistance without taking the drugs directly. Food borne illness has received so much press coverage that we joke about it, but E. coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter are serious concerns and the risk of influenza epidemics has never been greater.
Ethical/Moral:
Factory farms raise around 450 billion animals each year. It’s easy to dismiss these creatures as unintelligent, but the vast majority are as smart as the dogs or cats that we love and are being subjected to horrific lives and deaths (I won’t go into detail but you should see this video). This suffering is big business and continues because it’s in the best interests of these companies to produce meat in increasingly larger quantities. We let it continue because it happens far away where we can’t see it and can keep it out of our minds. You might think that we need all of this meat to feed the planet but it’s simply not true. We’re wasting food that should be used to feed the hungry by feeding all of these animals.
