Sesame Streets

Because sometimes it's time for a new view of what we're used to.

4Parents No Good 4 Kids

In a rather rare case of Ricky Shambles not going all the way down the rabbit hole, back when I posted the "Talk to Kids PSA," I neglected to investigate the reference made at the beginning that noted the video was in response to 4Parents.gov.

What is 4Parents.gov?

You can help your son or daughter make healthy choices, including deciding to wait until marriage to have sex. 4parents.gov can help you talk to your child, pre-teen, or teen early and often about waiting to have sex, what happens as he or she grows, and other important topics.

So 4Parents is a resource for parents to talk to their kids about sex? No.

It is a poorly conceived and designed site with content focused around why sex is bad, why sex is risky, and - if you don't heed your mother's words - why all contraception will fail you. Yes, seriously. Check out the Birth Control Chart and subsequent verbiage. In other words: this is an abstinence site.

Who is 4Parents.gov?

4Parents.gov is part of a national public education campaign to provide parents with the information, tools and skills they need to help their teens make healthy choices, including waiting until marriage to have sex.

As noted, this site is actually about not talking about sex.

4Parents.gov is sponsored by the Office of Public Health and Science, Office of Population Affairs, and the Public Health Service. "Teen Chat," and "Parents, Speak Up!" guides are the result of a collaborative effort between the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Population Affairs, Office of Public Health and Science.

And you probably guessed this from the whole ".gov" thing, but this is a United States Government website.

What does science say about abstinence-only education?

From the AP:

The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."
...
A spending bill before Congress for the Department of Health and Human Services would provide $141 million in assistance for community-based, abstinence-only sex education programs, $4 million more than what President Bush had requested.

What's the big deal?

Abstinence-only education is and has been the focus of this administration from the beginning because of President Bush's repeatedly revealed religion-over-science agenda. As the above-noted and other reports have stated, abstinence-only ed does not work. But having sex before marriage is a "sin," so government websites that purport to help parents and government programs aimed at educating children centralize around the ineffective church tactic of ignoring reality and attempting to scare kids away from sex.

The problem is in the repetition, with Bush consistently Jesus-izing government spending at the peril - and sometimes direct interference - of real, hard science. The Administration is failing parents and their children across America. And they're doing it with our tax dollars.

And that should be a pretty big deal for all of us.

Write congress. Stop the spending.

A Note to Republicans

This is a screen capture from the GOP Website front page:



Republicans: Are you retarded? Do you really have to hear this from a liberal? That this man is president is sinking your party (Democrats picked up even more seats in state governments on Tuesday). He will be no one in 14 months. Don't celebrate him. Jettison!

Bush: I Don't Know Nothin' 'Bout Birthin' No Oil...Iran!

From an AP transcript of the Bush-Kozy lovefest:

Q: Mr. President, with oil approaching $100 a barrel, are you concerned that your hard words for Iran on its nuclear program are helping drive up oil prices, which can end up hurting the U.S. economy?

BUSH: No. I believe oil prices are going up because the demand for oil outstrips the supply for oil. Oil is going up because developing countries still use a lot of oil. Oil is going up because we use too much oil. And the capacity to replace reserves is dwindling. That's why the price of oil is going up.

Now, I believe it is important for us to send clear signals to the Iranian government...

Blah blah blah... we need to attack Iran!

While dry-humping the new, Georgie-lovin' President of France in Washington this week, President Bush alluded to his complete ignorance of how our world works. Oil prices go up, in part, because of a basic supply/demand structure, but our recent surge is tempered in the forges of energy forecasters and traders.

All you have to do is watch the morning news and hear "Oil prices took a leap today because of fears of a possible storm in the North Sea" or "...because of fears that Bush may attack Iran" or "...because of fears that Wonka Bar production may move to Oompa-LoompaLand." Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick!

But the President is very good much sexy friends with people who make shit-tons of money all over the world trading in the everyday affairs of regular citizens and wants to make sure that when his caustic second term is over that he can jump back in the pimped out money pool with all the folks he allowed to benefit from his two terms in office. Between horrendous military contracts, education tomfoolery, and allowing Big Oil to rape America, he's going to be one of the richest bastards in the world by March of 2009. As long as he doesn't invest in the dollar.

Or he's just - really - mentally retarded and doesn't even have a basic understanding about how the world economy works.

I'll accept arguments from either end. To paraphrase a British punk paraphrase: America is Dead...Long Live America!

The Adam and Eve Puzzle

Blue Gal had this image posted in that she actually worked on it with kids. I don't know how she held it together.



The joy of this image is several-fold in that it occurs in the fiction-lover's Latin in media res, or, "in the middle of things," where a story begins not at the beginning but beyond the expository events.

In this case, for those of you not up on your Genesis, this image is dramatic irony at its most dramatic. Dramatic irony is when what the character(s) thinks to be true and what the reader (or viewer) know to be true are contrasted.

In this case, we are in media res of the Fall of Man: Eve has already been tempted by the serpent, who is looking happily upon the couple coming together; Eve holds the "fruit" to help share the temptation with Adam, which we know is destined to happen; a large confluence of animals in Eden have come together to smile with their child-like innocence in preparation of this "who-knows-what'll-happen" event.

In reality, according to the Christian faith, this is the most destructive moment in the history of the human race and - in some denominations - the very reason God must send Jesus to redeem humanity by being crucified.

And there the kids are, putting a puzzle together. Wasn't there a Ouiji Board (that glows in the dark!) they could play with?

Oh, the humanity!

FOX Attacks: Decency

Oh, my gawd, tha whores! Change the channel! FOX Attacks has put together another film. This one is FOX Attacks: Decency.



And you, too, can sign the petition to demand a la carte cable viewing. So that you don't have to pay for FOX's smut.

Personally, I'd pay for FOX for the same reason I'm a Hannity Insider: Know thy enemy. But not everyone's as masochistic as I am.

Glenn Beck: Unrelated

[Note on this Unrelated note: This note was originally appended to a previous post, but as it was unrelated to anything being said in that post I felt it should have its own post, which makes it either completely related unto itself or completely unrelated in its ostracization.]


[Unrelated note: I'm listening to Glenn Beck's TV show and he's decrying Hollywood for "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" in their treatment of war. 1. Isn't that the definition of what we're apparently doing in Iraq and why it's not working? 2. The trite, mishandled, misquoted, mis-attributed saying is a representative symptom of Glenn Beck being a tremendous douchebag.

Like I said, unrelated.]


[Unrelated unrelated note (could we quit with the brackets already?): A few weeks ago I was out on a lunchtime jaunt and heard Rush Limbaugh spout that if global warming was to blame for the forest fires in California, it should also put them out because global warming causes flooding. That's right: flooding in the mountainous, forested regions of California. This is the twisted idiot junk science that we hear repeated and why the words out of Rush's mouth are a disease, spreading through the ignorant masses like the clap. Rush Limbaugh is also a douchebag, which, I guess, doesn't make this note so unrelated as I had anticipated.

Fin.]

Davis Fleetwood Kucinich Announcement

Davis Fleetwood (nocureforthat.com) has something to say:



I offer him congratulations and envious awe. Woohoo!

So now, just like me, you're going to have to subscribe not only to the Davis Fleetwood YouTube Channel, but the Kucinich 2008 YouTube Channel as well.

And then you'll be the coolest.

Best Vader Evar

This is quite possibly the best Darth Vader fan video I've seen. All clips, all James Earl. Hilarious. I laughed until I stopped.

6 Televangelists, Properly Probed

From CBS:

CBS News has learned Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating six prominent televangelist ministries for possible financial misconduct.
...
According to Grassley's office, the Iowa Republican is trying to determine whether or not these ministries are improperly using their tax-exempt status as churches to shield lavish lifestyles.

The six ministries identified as being under investigation by the committee are led by: Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Three of the six - Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar - also sit on the Board of Regents for the Oral Roberts University.

It's about time.

How long does it take to watch thousand-dollar suits wearing thousand-dollar jewelry driving absurdly expensive cars to say "Hey, while these people may be occasionally helping others in the name of Christ and 'their church,' where do we draw the line when they directly benefit from the money their followers generate?"

WWJD?

Jesus wouldn't purchase lavish homes (that's plural), lavish cars, jewelry, and outfits. "At once they left their nets and followed him" (Matthew 4:20) apparently does not apply to the messenger, just the listener, so that more can be turned into the fold, that more can donate almost everything they own, and more megachurches can be built to generate more income. Rinse and repeat.

And while there are those that give hope appropriately (like Joel Olsteen who doesn't take a salary from his parish but has a very successful book following), there are those, like Benny Hinn, who finds his prey by lack of hope and gives them nothing more than his version of mass-delusional, "witch doctor" healing. Benny Hinn needs to be figuratively crucified (by the government). Here's some crazy to back that up:

Benny Hinn, for real:
(Note: "Suicide Nerve" is not a valid reference.)



Benny Hinn, Let the Bodies Hit the Floor:

(Note: all the video of this "healing man" is real. But the music gives it perspective.)



I'm a very big believer in the power of the human mind to monitor and fix what's ailing you, but this man is a psychological-religious predator, and he is shredding the actual message and healing power of Jesus in what is little more than a glorified (and subsidized by the government) freak show.

Want to go crazy? This man is either feeding on the mass psychological group dynamic or he's channeling some source of electromagnetic shutdown that makes people drop by interference of their brainwave patterns. Like I said: crazy.

And he eats money like the devil eats souls.

Jesus wept.

Talk to Kids PSA

Some days, when the martial law of Pakistan as an off-site dry run of what Busheney is planning to do to America gets you down, you can always turn to viral video. In this case, high quality viral. It's a "Talk to Kids" PSA. And it made my day. Enjoy.

Life, Liberty, and the Fursuit of Happiness

Thank you and damn you BoingBoing.



And yes, I will watch this when it comes out.

This, Too, Be the Internets

I have never pretended that Cause for Concern is high-end or hoity-toity. For as much time as I spend on the internet, it is not uncommon to wander down a shady alley or, in this case, into a fifty-acre circus of energy-drink-induced, brain-scrambling wonder.

This is Reymon14's video entitled this is true. No, you will not get these ten minutes of your life back.



And if you should have some time to spare, Reymon14 has 284 more videos posted, most of them teetering across the chasm of 10 minutes.

Ay, here there be monsters. I venture so that you need not.

Moonbatty Malkin Shuts Down Motivation, Inspiration

Michelle Malkin thinks that showing kids that it's okay to march to the beat of a different drummer, that empowering children and showing them that they can make a difference in the world is liberal, commie indoctrination. Especially if this devil indoctrination comes from Nickelodeon.

Then again, Michelle Malkin also thinks that anyone who doesn't chin-up and open wide for the Bush-Cheney teabag is a traitor to America. She has trouble accepting that bloggers have power, let alone children. You see, bloggers and children and Americans should know their place.

Sweatshops, torture by America, absurd standardized tests, circus animal cruelty, and the tragedy of displaced children in Iraq are the highlights of the video in the above Nickelodeon link. And kids are making a difference. This is not something to rail against but to be inspired by. I have an 11 year old daughter and am far more worried about her watching piss-poor sitcoms than watching something that might get her interested in the world around her, something that might allow her to see beyond herself and get out in the world to change it for the better.

If Michelle and her cadre of goons doesn't like Nickelodeon or kids effecting change to stop suffering in the world then they can pay attention to what their kids are watching for once and change the fucking channel. Pop some popcorn, put in a copy of Jesus Camp, and revel in the indoctrination and brainwashing you condone.

(h/t to Blue Gal)

The Bastard's Bastion: Out of Context!

Larry Craig played footsie under an airport bathroom stall in the hopes of fellating some man meat, or having his meat fellated. Then, when it turned out that his courting overtures were directed towards a man of the law, in order to cover it up, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. At least that's what the devil liberal media says. Obviously, his actions were totally taken out of context (and that's okay because the GOP has decided that under the rug and back in the closet is good enough for them - despite a conviction - good enough for America, and good enough for earmarks).

Rush Limbaugh made an outward, generalized claim that any member of the U.S. Military - past or present - who was or is against the war in Iraq is a "phony soldier" (complete transcript and audio). But this is even more of an outrage: the liberal media is not only taking it out of context but is just plain lying.

On Wednesday morning, Fox and Friends Brian Kilmeade blamed the sexualization of children on I Dream of Jeanie: "Barbara Eden lowered the bar by wearing that sexy outfit, traumatized me as a child and then every kid wore the Barbara Eden outfit, and that's when times were good." Jon Stewart poked at Brian Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, the FnF trio chuckled about how the Liberal Media has an agenda to take FOX out of context. Brian, after admitting to getting Jon Steward's "traumatizing myself" joke only after hearing it for a second time remained sheepishly silent about the previous day's comment, as those taken "out of context" are generally prone to do.

Also on Wednesday, it was revealed that when Arnold Schwarzenegger said that marijuana was not a drug, you guessed it, it was taken out of context.

Thursday, Dog the Bounty Hunter was heard (or beeped, at least) repeatedly dropping the N-bomb in a message telling his son to break up with his black girlfriend, Monique Shinnery, ironically because he doesn't want her "drunk" ass hearing him say "nigger" and going to the press (it's an ugly word and I do not hide behind euphemism). Preliminary reports emerged that the phone message was taken out of context.

None of the previous instances of heinous misinterpretation were, in fact, misinterpreted. But the right wing is slowly dissolving the idea of context as a whole. Out of context is the new black, and unless we try to counter-act this trend, context will eventually be another casualty of a dying system of accountability.

Notes on the Philadelphia Democratic Debate

I swear that with each debate my resolve to cover debates weakens just as my consciousness falters relative to that single pint of blood on donation day. We keep turning to issues that are not issues and leaving the real issues to hold up their hands crying "hey, pick me, pick me! Awww...."

Note on this week's non-issue related issues: Mike Gravel didn't have enough money, so MSNBC wouldn't put him on TV, and GOP disses black voters, yes, again.

So without further adieu, those notes:

• Barack Obama says he's like Rocky and Hillary's Apollo Creed. There is five more times the significant symbolism in what he said than in reality. Really, Barack, this is not that epic.
  


• Obama, on Iran, discusses the "carrots we can provide," delivering a new dimension to the America as Master of the World language that the President loves and that some of us thought the Democrats were not going to embrace.
  


• Hillary Clinton, not to be outdone by Obama, declares sanctions as a form of diplomacy and touts "both carrots and sticks," simultaneously ramping the rhetoric up to Team America status and raping the analogy of "a carrot on a stick." Ms. Clinton, if you're beating Iran with the stick, there is nothing to support the motivating carrot they're never going to get.
  


• John Edwards: why was his mic fuzzy? Why did Glenn Beck have John Edward of real-life mysticism and medium fame on his show the day after the debate? I call shenanigans.
  


• First audience applause: Kucinich as the only voter against Iraq and Iran is not an option.
  


• And Joe Biden says Pakistan is way the hell out of control. Wait, what? Aren't we talking about how we shouldn't...attack...huh?
  


• Obama is still having a lot of trouble banishing the UMs and is easily the worst public speaker on stage. Clinton, while not nearly as pause-y, has minimized it even further by going with AHs.
  


• Bill Richardson: You're no Jimmy Smits. Even if you saved a guy in Iraq who's sitting in the audience. If you were Jimmy Smits, you'd be in the middle of the stage and you'd be asked many more questions.
  


• Could we have one single debate without something stupid to distract us from the already-distracting format of "hump the front-runners?" While MSNBC's font graphics were informative and stylish, did we really need the "whoosh/shwoosh" extension noise for each one? As I was trying to focus on audio, this was even more distracting than the flashy lights in the FOX Repub debate.
  


• Edwards: Attack, attack, attack, um, just don't vote for Hillary.
  


• Clinton says we don't just need to turn the page but "throw the whole book away" on the Bush/Cheney administration. This was easily the best line in the "why I should be president" category as opposed to "this is why everyone else shouldn't."
  


• Obama speaks, but everyone is staring at Hillary drinking a glass of water. What did he say about special interests? Hilarious.
  


• I'm guessing many of these male candidates are uncomfortable around a strong woman as Bill Richardson stuttered through some of his delivery like his mom was watching over his shoulder. It was only Hillary.
  


• Joe Biden says that everything Rudy Giuliani says is a noun, verb, and 9/11. Overall most delicious line. Tru dat.
  


• Hillary, yet again, during her answer about the Alternative Minimum Tax, owned Tim Russert.
  


• Bill Richardson says teachers should have a $40K minimum salary. Awesome. At least someone is talking about education.
  


• Dennis Kucinich follows up with the huge strides we could make in education if we ended our waste in Iraq and moved even a small amount of that money into teaching our kids.
  


• Clinton makes a good point in that our first teachers are our parents.
  


• Dodd: Did you just say "accident of birth?" Yes you did. Ask Gravel to save you a seat in the pub for the next debate.
  


• Clinton says a driver's license for illegal immigrants sounds like a good idea. This is a slippery slope, but bhfrik has some reasonable understanding of the issue.
  


• And yes, Dennis Kucinich said he saw a UFO. But so did Carter. Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think this is crazy. Remember: our current president says he talks to God.
  

In Post
- The language and the ticker focused on attacking Hillary Clinton. Did I sit on the remote? Is this FOX?

Remarks
- For as much filth as I've heard in the last two days, I didn't think Hillary Clinton did poorly at all: she was easily the best speaker on the stage and maintained a command of the debate despite constant attacks.
- Chris Matthews should keep a keen eye on the spit on his lower lip. Gross.
- As I said, I'm becoming disillusioned by the whole debate schedule, especially when it comes to the Democratic Party; I want to hear about the issues I care about (besides the war, because they're relatively clear on that): education and health care. The candidates need to stop attacking Hillary and start attacking the issues.

GOP Says "Meh" to Pesky Black Voters

Last month, you may remember that the GOP frontrunners decided not to appear for the African-American voter forum in Baltimore, putting into action the oft-cried "unfair" stereotype that white bread Republicans don't care all that much for the affairs of African-Americans.

Well, the crazy Whitey GOP is at it again. From the Huffington Post:

The Congressional Black Caucus Institute announced in September that it had scheduled a debate for November 4 on Fox News for Republican presidential candidates. But a spokeswoman for the group confirmed to the Huffington Post that it has now been postponed, with no new date set.

"The debate will not take place on November 4, and we're still considering the debate schedule," said CBC Institute spokesperson Georgella Muirhead.

Republican candidates have cited scheduling conflicts in resisting new proposed dates, Muirhead said.

There's really nothing more to say about this except it neatly coincides with the the report on Dick Cheney and his priorities:

A proposal to help the poor or sick would be presented at a White House meeting, but Vice President Cheney’s office or the budget team or some other skeptical officials would shoot it down. Too expensive. Wrong priority.

Sidenote: The Democratic boycott of the CBC forum (due to its airing by FOX) was quickly rescheduled on CNN for January 17th.

Lego Jesus and the Lego Bible

Only in Sweden:

Stockholm - A Swedish pastor has urged members of his congregation to help collect pieces of Lego, plastic toy bricks, in order to build a statue of Christ, reports said Monday.

Pastor Per Wilder believes some 20,000 Lego pieces are needed to build the man-high statue, based on a model by Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen from 1839, the VLT newspaper said.

At first I read this and thought "What kind of wacky shit?" and then I hunted down the statue they're trying to copy.



If they can pull this off, that would rock something fierce.

And then I did some more searching and discovered something not entirely new but massively impressive and thorough: The Brick Testament.



From Genesis to after Jesus, I'm amazed by the detail and thorough work.

I say Thumbs Up to Lego Jesus!

UPDATE: Thank you dear readers. New post on the completion of the statue is here.

Hillary Knew

I'm not against Hillary Clinton, but this video is well-produced, raises a good point and it's put together by Democrats. Warning: explicit language and violent (war) images.

Bush Cronyism Must End

From the Center for American Progress:

Are you tired of Bush cronyism? Have you had enough of the ineptitude? Are you concerned that the way this administration has handled the war on terror is making us LESS safe?

The Bush administration treats the war on terror as a way to pad the pockets of friends, such as Halliburton and Blackwater. These companies are making a killing on the taxpayer dime and failing to deliver on services and products promised... or worse, destroying our reputation by their “malfeance” (make that malfeasance). We need oversight in Afghanistan, the real front in the war on terrorists. With Osama bin Laden and the Taliban roaming free in the Afghani countryside, bungling reconstruction there will only help them recruit more terrorists hell-bent on attacking us.

Click the link. Take action now.