Month: October 2009

Photographs of Tibetan monks at Longwu monastery

[From Photographs of Tibetan monks at Longwu monastery – Telegraph]

Hollywood is a cruel place that traffics on the looks of big stars. Which makes it insane there are actually working actors out there who have hideously ugly faces. Well, ugly stars out there… we salute you. Here are the 10 Ugliest Faces In Hollywood

[From Bullet Points: The 10 Ugliest Faces in Hollywood – 4/25/2008 ]

[From The 28 Creepiest Taxidermy Creations : COED Magazine]

Insurers Spending $700K a Day to Kill Healthcare Reform
by mcjoan
Digg this! Share this on Twitter – Insurers Spending $700K a Day to Kill Healthcare ReformTweet this submit to reddit Share This
Tue Sep 15, 2009 at 03:10:04 PM PDT

Wow, that could be providing a helluva lot of healthcare.

Washington, D.C. – A campaign finance watchdog’s analysis of insurance and HMO political contributions and lobbying expenses found the industries spent $126,430,438 over the first half of 2009 and $585,725,712 over the past two and a half years to influence public policy and elected officials. The group, Public Campaign Action Fund, found that in the first part of 2009, the industries were spending money at nearly a $700,000 a day clip to influence the political process and that the monthly pace of political spending this year has increased by nearly $400,000 over the average spent per month in the previous two years.

In addition to PAC contributions to our “public servants,” that’s funding 875 registered lobbyists for the insurance industry, and 920 for the HMOs. Which really is hardly a drop in the bucket for the industry, when you take into consideration their CEO compensation, which ranges from $3 million to $24 million.

Nice to know what our premiums are paying for, huh? We could cut out the middleman here. We could start giving all the money we’re spending on premiums directly to our representative and Senators. Maybe then they’d listen to us, the people who hired them, when it comes to vote.

Yeah, right.

[From Daily Kos: State of the Nation]

A Collection Of Pre-1930 Awkward Family Photos
CULTURE BUZZ These pictures should give you a pretty good idea of what AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com would’ve looked like 100 years ago. It starts out cute, but turns ugly and creepy fast…

[From A Collection Of Pre-1930 Awkward Family Photos: Pics, Videos, Links, News]

Brad Laner’s Eichler house
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Some of the artwork comes from Laner’s mother, Judy Koenig. She painted the triptych in the living room while getting her master’s degree at Cal State Northridge in the 1990s. Laner commissioned her to paint the geometric piece on the other wall.

[From Brad Laner’s Eichler house in Granada Hills – latimes.com]

1. The Mystery of Picasso (1956) Renowned French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot follows his dear friend – Pablo Picasso – through the creation of twenty pieces, in a film that is a work of art within itself.

[From Ten Must-See Art Documentaries]

NEWTON, Massachusetts (CNN) — For Laura Geraghty, April 1, 2009, started out just as any other day. It was sunny but cool, she remembers.

[From Doctor says near-death experiences are in the mind – CNN.com]

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — The actions of a justice of the peace in Louisiana who refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple have prompted some top officials, including Gov. Bobby Jindal, to call for his dismissal.

[From Governor calls for firing of justice in interracial marriage case – CNN.com]

Top 10 Creepiest Ghost Movies
12.10.09 # 9:48 # Top Ten # 19 Comments
It is fast approaching that unique portion of the year when all true matters arcane and diabolical are given the festive treatment, as Halloween prompts folks to deploy their broomsticks for something other than sweeping up after the household pet. Although we have recently seen cinematic quotas of the supernatural gobbled up by vampire and zombie flicks, it would be remiss to overlook the genuine chills instilled by the most successful exponents of the ghost movie genre. So here are ten of the scariest ghost movies to put the frighteners on us poor, trembling cinema-goers

[From Top 10 Best Ghost Movies (Horror Movie List) – With Clips | Movie Moron]

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — President Obama will visit New Orleans on Thursday for the first time since taking office, to address rebuilding efforts in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina four years ago.

President Obama will visit New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday to talk about rebuilding efforts.

During his trip, Obama will visit a charter school and host a town hall meeting to hear residents’ concerns, the White House said.

The president’s visit will focus on efforts to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, including cutting red tape and easing funding so residents can become self-sufficient.

“The president made a promise to come to New Orleans and wanted to fulfill that promise as soon as his schedule allowed,” said Nicholas Shapiro, White House spokesman.

Though this is Obama’s first trip there while in office, he has been to New Orleans five times since Katrina, Shapiro said.

[From Obama to make first visit to New Orleans as president – CNN.com]

Wall Street On Track To Award Record Pay

[From Wall Street On Track To Award Record Pay – WSJ.com]

Rachel Maddow first came on my radar in the spring of 2004, when she, along with Lizz Winstead and Chuck D of Public Enemy hosted an early morning radio show called Unfiltered on the newly minted Air America, an attempt to counter rightwing talk radio with liberal programming.

Radio has this ability to make the listener feel like they share a secret with the hosts and the few, hard-to-know listeners out there. I hoped people tuned in to listen to the hosts trade jokes and talk about politics and music, and mostly I wanted other people to learn about this Maddow character, who brought to every episode a dynamic mix of sparkling good humour, intelligent analysis and a broad view of what issues should matter.

Unfiltered didn’t make the first round of reshuffling at Air America, but Maddow hung in, hosting her own eponymous radio show and eventually moving to television, first as a guest pundit and now as a host of her own night time political talkshow on MSNBC.

Before it happened, most American liberals would have never imagined that Maddow could have her own programme on any cable network, much less the same network that had, just a few years before, tried to pull in a rightwing audience by giving hard right nut Michael Savage his own show (before pulling it after he told a gay caller to die from Aids).

It’s not just that Maddow is a liberal. After all, MSNBC had already given a spot to liberal commentator Keith Olbermann and his frequent, angry rants. It was mostly hard to imagine a cable news network rewarding a pundit for being sober-minded and nuanced in her analysis, as well as suspicion that homophobia would prevent it from promoting a lesbian who favours a more masculine way of dressing.

But 2008 was a year for re-arranging American expectations about who gets to have a voice in public. The Democratic candidate was not only black, but also overtly professorial, and this didn’t diminish his popularity with the public. Hillary Clinton and, yes, even Sarah Palin normalised the idea of more female authority in politics. In a very short period of time, the unthinkable became the reality, and Maddow had her very own MSNBC programme.

Maddow’s audience is still small, but she inspires devotion in her fans, because she doesn’t fit the tedious mould of most political talkshow hosts. Maddow openly identifies with the wild world of the liberal blogosphere, and even went so far as to wear pajamas on her show to cheekily demonstrate solidarity with bloggers after Palin denounced the netroots.

Like bloggers, Maddow knows that the key to building rapport with your audience isn’t making yourself into an aloof portrayal of authority, but to show your human side and sense of humour. To this end, Maddow lets her idiosyncrasies become known, such as her obsession with classic cocktails.

But what really endears her to American liberals is the way she takes her job and the authority it gives her seriously. Maddow is less interested in the shouting fests that dominate most cable news and instead favours in-depth interviews with experts who are permitted to show their expertise on air without being interrupted. Hers may be the only show on cable news were feminists come on air to speak their minds without being paired off with belligerent sexists who dominate the conversation by yelling over their points.

But Maddow isn’t opposed to fair-mindedness. She often brings on conservatives for the same kind of in-depth interviews, and even when she strongly disagrees, she always gives them a chance to air their views (and generally hang themselves with those views). Her show is the exact opposite of Bill O’Reilly’s show. Where he cuts people off for saying things he doesn’t like, Maddow digs in deeper.

She also gives far more coverage to issues other hosts avoid because they’re big downers. Maddow is the only reliable source of televised information on the growing problem of domestic terrorism in the US, and the only mainstream pundit to pay attention to the network of anti-abortion activists that quietly support the few that work up the courage to shoot doctors or bomb clinics. She doesn’t treat the rapid growth of the extreme right in America like it’s a joke or a minimal issue, as do other hosts, but as a serious threat to our democracy. In her transition to the mainstream media, the only thing Maddow seems to have given up is the thick-framed glasses she prefers to wear off-camera.

Unfortunately, the Maddow magic might not have much of a lifespan. During the US election, there was a hunger for televised liberal content, and no one does it better than Maddow. It seems that now, most liberals have turned off their TVs and returned to getting most information from the internet, and Maddow’s ratings have plummeted as a result.

Video clips of her shows are routinely traded on liberal blogs, but that doesn’t translate into ad revenue for MSNBC. Hopefully, the next round of US elections will push her ratings back up again, because we can’t afford to lose the sole voice of intellectual liberalism in the cable news desert.

[From Rachel Maddow, voice of America | Amanda Marcotte | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk ]