oh, i think we mentioned this in the moby.com 'news' section, but i'm mentioning it again.

'it' being that i'm going to new zealand and australia at the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. i've always been happy to go to new zealand and australia, but even more so when it's summer in the antipodes and freezing cold horrifying nasty winter in most of the northern hemisphere.

here are the dates:

December 29
Waiohika Estate, Gisborne
New Zeland

December 30
Marion Bay Falls, Tasmania
Australia

December 31
Lorne Falls, Lorne
Australia

January 3
Palace Theatre, Melbourne
Australia

January 4
Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Australia

January 6
Botanical Gardens, Brisbane
Australia

January 9
Sir Stewart Bovell Park, Perth
Australia

moby

so, the conservatives in the republican party have released a '10 things we believe' platform. and they're saying that if anyone disagrees with 3 or more of the things on their list they won't be eligible for republican funding. let's look at the list, shall we? and i'm going to be presumptuous and challenge a few of the things on the list (in parentheses).

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill; (even though the federal government grew faster and was at largest for the 8 years the republicans had control of the house and senate and bush was president??) 

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare; ('market based health care reform' meaning 'the insurance companies give us republicans obscene amounts of money so we'll let them do whatever they so choose'?)

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation; (ok, so that means no more government subsidies to oil and coal companies? how about that? yes? and clearly global warming is either a 'myth'(even though every scientist on the planet believes that it exists) or it's gods will, as god clearly hates coastal cities).

(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check; (the people who give you campaign money hate the unions, eh, whatever. old news.)

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants; (you hate brown people and you want a wafer-thin veneer of respectability on your xenophobia and racism. no surprises here.)

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges; (will you promise to stand up for this during re-election even if the surges don't work?)

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat; (the details here are amazing. containment how? or is that too complicated of a question for the red-neck republicans who have never actually left their home state?)

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act; (you hate gays, again, no surprises here).

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and (so, charging people for life-saving health care isn't 'rationing'? isn't that like medical darwinism? only letting people live when they can afford their medical bills?)

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership (that's working out really well, as the news is never filled with stories about people gunning down innocent civilians, is it? oh, that's right, americans go crazy and shoot each other on a daily basis. good thing the republicans want to protect americans right to buy guns at gun shows with no background check and then shoot kids in a playground. that's true patriotism.)

so, that's the republican platform in 2009. they left out 'believe that the world was created in 6 days in 6,000 b.c, although i guess it's understood that no republican could possibly win without supporting the creationist agenda. american politics are never boring, huh. well, at least not for me.

thanks

moby

ok, so sarah palin is releasing a book. and it's filled with some insightful, thoughtful gems, like: 'here's my philosophy on being a carnivore: If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?'  -sarah palin.

well, mrs. palin, let's look a bit more closely at what you've written. you believe that god intended for us to eat animals because they're made out of meat. ahem. i mean, i'm not a professional logician, but i can see that the extension of your logic might lead you to some places with which you might be uncomfortable. bear with me, ok?

your logic sort of stands as:

1 meat is good (due to the fact that you like it)

2 animals are made out of meat (which is obvious, as meat is the stuff that surrounds their bones)

3 thus eating animals is good (and divinely sanctioned).

the problem, of course, being that other things are also made out of meat. like, well, people. and doggies and kitties. and cute little human babies. so if we follow your logic, mrs palin, you are actually suggesting that god intended for us to eat humans and dogs and cats and human babies, as these things are all technically made out of meat. i'm not even being swiftian, i'm just exposing sarah palin's thoughts to some simple logic. which might be problematic, as she is also the person who once talked about looking out her window and seeing vladimir putin staring back (although he's technically 8,000 miles away, unless he's recently moved to kamchatka). or perhaps they do things differently in the palin household, who knows. perhaps she really does think that we're intended to eat humans and kittens and babies, as god did make them (aka-us, in some cases) out of meat. i meah, let's be clear, she's a crazy sociopath, so anything is possible.

-moby

the health care legislation has passed the house of representatives. finally. it's not a perfect bill. but it's a good bill. here's some of what it does (or will do, rather, when the senate and the president ratify it) -

1 it provides health care to 96% of americans (that's 35,000,000 more americans than currently have health care)

2 it prevents insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

3 it forces insurance companies to compete with each other and with the federal government in offering policies and coverage.

4 it prevents insurance companies from charging more based on the gender of the applicant and here's the great one:

5 it will remove the anti-trust exemption that insurance companies have 'enjoyed' for a long time. this means that insurance companies can be sued for collusion the same way companies in any other industry can.

it's a good day for the 35,000,000 americans who are currently uninsured, and it's a bad day for the insurance companies. hopefully you, like me, are on the side of the 35,000,000 americans who will now have health insurance. and hopefully you, like me, are on the side of the 200,000,000 americans who will no longer be denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions. unless you're a republican, then you're on the side of the insurance companies who have been funneling money into republican campaigns for decades. and if someone says 'i don't want my insurance provided by government bureaucrats' you can say, 'ok, so you'd rather your insurance be provided by insurance company bureaucrats who make bonuses by denying people coverage?' there's been so much misinformation circulating around this legislation (misinformation spread by republicans who have received hundreds of millions of dollars from insurance companies), so it's nice that the bill has finally passed the house of representatives.

thanks

moby

This is bella. I'm not sure any more need be said. The primary purpose of the internets: sending pictures of pets in bumble-bee costumes:

so on the flight from nyc to geneva i watched 'mary and max'. it's a claymation movie that is one of the best movies i've seen in ages. beautiful and funny and emotional and great.

i assumed it had been released recently and somehow i hadn't heard about it. but it turns out it was released in 1999. am i just ignorant? how is it that i'd never heard of this amazing movie? i rarely recommend movies, but 'mary and max' is amazing, and whoever owns it should re-release it as far and wide as possible.

i even looked it up on rotten tomatoes and it had a 96% positive rating from hundreds of reviewers. ok, go watch it, please.

thanks

moby

ok, republicans won governorship in virginia and new jersey. bummer. but not the end of the world.

the real comedy is in new yorks 23rd district, a district that has been republican for over 100 years. everybody was supporting the conservative (read: lunatic right wing) candidate, doug hoffman. rush limbaugh, sarah palin, fred thompson, sean hannity, glen beck supported him, and republicans spent millions of dollars on his candidacy.

rush limbaugh said this 2 days ago:

"When Hoffman wins the race there it will be dismissed as an outlier... Folks, I want you to print these words out. I want you to get the transcript off my website. I want you to print these out, I want you to distribute them, I want you to carry them with you, and we'll just see how close I am to being right when Hoffman wins." - Rush Limbaugh

so with all that money and the support of rush limbaugh and sarah palin, what happened? what happened in this district that has voted for a republican congressman for over 100 years? the democratic candidate won.

notice to republicans: following rush limbaugh and sarah palin isn't necessarily such a good idea if you actually want to win elections. ok, time to play a show in lausanne.

moby

yes, sometimes i write about politics and weighty issues. and other times i feel it is incumbent upon me to draw attention to truly sublime works of art. like this song/video from 1977. arguably the finest music video(and song)ever made. i mean, why else was the internet invented if not to share videos from 1977 about animated american potatoes?

moby

Just leaving calgary, headed to edmonton. Kelli and joe and kelli's dad and I have rented a car, so we're listening to johnny cash and talking about sturgeon. When I was 8 years old I was obsessed with sturgeon, and the fact that they were seemingly unchanged since the ye olden dinosaur times. And ceolocanths. Even though I don't remember how to spell ceolocanths. In general I think its pretty amazing that there are creatures who have been hanging around unchanged for 500 million years (or 6,000 years if you're a creationist).

Alligators, sturgeon, sharks, dragonflies, etc. And they all live in the us and a. Especially the alligators. 2 million wild alligators in florida and louissianna, eating dogs and golfers. I'm a bit alligator obsessed. America is the land of impending disaster. What other country routinely deals with: hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, 3 million alligators, lyme disease ridden ticks, lethal heat in the summer, lethal cold in the winter, poisonous snakes, and mudslides and fires? No wonder we're all insane.

To wit: I think there's a song on the radio called 'ragin' cajun'. And it looks like its starting to snow.

Moby