John Cleese on Creativity (by bedroomstudiotube)
And third, and maybe most of all—the country has changed culturally. Four years ago, conservatives, liberals, and centrists alike all assumed that middle-of-the-road Americans were, while not Dittoheads, pretty conservative by default. Among the political class, this has meant—for pretty much my entire adult lifetime—that your average American was likely to embrace conservative arguments about the culture, and that Democrats had to be crazy to do anything but meekly suggest that they more or less agreed with a caveat or two.
But no more. With each new day that the election recedes into the past, it becomes more and more apparent just what a watershed it was. No, it wasn’t a realignment election according to the standard political science definition. But it was in a way even bigger than that. The election was a cultural watershed moment. All the old dog-whistle tricks, hating on gay people and all that, failed utterly. After decades of struggle and activism and fights and losses for the liberal side, a switch got flipped in November. Middle-of-the-road voters just stopped buying right-wing fear-mongering.
We are very disappointed that PBS became a political target in the Presidential debate last night. Governor Romney does not understand the value the American people place on public broadcasting and the outstanding return on investment the system delivers to our nation. We think it is important to set the record straight and let the facts speak for themselves.
The federal investment in public broadcasting equals about one one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget. Elimination of funding would have virtually no impact on the nation’s debt. Yet the loss to the American public would be devastating.
A national survey by the bipartisan research firms of Hart Research and American Viewpoint in 2011 found that over two-thirds of American voters (69%) oppose proposals to eliminate government funding of public broadcasting, with Americans across the political spectrum against such a cut.
…we do find consistent evidence that elected officials become slightly more conservative once Fox News enters their district.
“Yep, those anti-gay conservatives were really conflicted on Barack Obama before, but thisjust pushed them over the edge. Conservative homophobes were this close to voting for the suspiciously black possibly Muslim possibly Kenyan Democrat, but then Obama went and blew it. Sure thing, breaking-news guy.”
Frank Zappa on Crossfire (by WorldRevolutionTV)
Great writers, dazzling filmmakers and musicians, brilliant philosophers and scientists — you can now hear and see them in their own words. Here we present audio and video that captures the words of our greatest cultural icons.
“I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.” ~ Carl Sagan
Rick Warren was on ABC’s This Week yesterday, and Jake Tapper asked him what he thought about President Obama’s suggestion that God tells us to care for those less fortunate than ourselves.
“I do not believe in wealth redistribution, I believe in wealth creation.” -…
I like how Dubya presented his budget on a tablet 11 year ago and Paul Ryan is just waving a stack of papers around. What’s that saying about politics and driving? “D to go forward, R to go back”?
(via.)
Also if we could pass a federal budget that includes banning use of that font, I’d appreciate it.
-Jess
Predictions of the Future, circa 1900
American civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins, Jr. published this set of predictions in that eternal home of futurism, Ladies Home Journal. In it he nails the following:
- Americans increasing height
- Central air conditioning
- Prepared meals
- Color photography and mobile sharing
- The internet
- Speed trains
Unfortunately we have yet to see the strawberries as big as apples. C’est la vie.
The short haired policewoman made me uncomfortable just something about the look of her and the other officers was blackened and. DarkShort documentary about rainbow gatherings <3
I’m crying over the beauty of these people, I want to hug every single one of them.
so so beautiful… except when suppression of freedom & expression is played out by shooting rubber bullets near the children’s camp…
these seem more free, less structured than Burning Man, which in some aspects would take more getting used to. (i like to know what’s expected) on the other hand, being in a forest environment means less hard core preparation for the trip. thoughts anyone? there are pros and cons to each i guess; and both are equally now on my bucket list. :)
