Rantical- the blog

Going Social Now shared this little treat:

… discovered via SomethingChanged.com.au.

Here’s a message I can get behind:

You probably don’t need another excuse to be thinking about beer on a Friday afternoon, but over at Salon, friend of CHOW Andrew Leonard reports on the fabulous news that Sierra Nevada Brewing Company has partnered with the inventor of a home-ethanol-making system to turn waste from the beer-making process into ethanol fuel for cars.

More information by clicking here.

(image courtesy of BuffaloBeast.com)

I support Barack Obama on a lot of issues. If he follows up on most of the ideas that he’s proposed, using intelligent leadership, he has the potential to be the best president to serve during my lifetime. (Note to myself: We’ve had some shitty presidents, haven’t we?)

That being said, I’m not sure about the big Detroit Bailout plan that he’s supporting.

BoingBoing shared these comments by Lawrence Lessig:

These bailouts are an awful idea — the worst of K St. capitalism (== kapitalism) inviting an insanely bad future for the industries affected. If there’s one thing worse than Detroit managed by the managers who have been driving the American auto industry into the ground for the past three decades, it is Detroit managed by politicians.
…
People speak about this as if not bailing out Detroit means automobile production in America ends. That’s not what failing to bailout Detroit means. Not intervening now would be these automakers would enter bankruptcy. And bankruptcy means the assets of these dinosaurs get reorganized: Someone else buys these companies, at a price the market sets, and runs them profitably, because of the price the market set.

Read the rest by clicking here.

Spencer Elden, the baby from the cover of Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” recently became an intern for Obey Giant, the company created by Shepard Faiery, the artist responsible for those cool Obama graphics.

http://obeygiant.com/headlines/welcome-spencer-elden

MTV News had a write-up about Mr. Elden:

Now, 17-year-old Elden is a high school student, who told MTV News last year that “it’s kind of creepy [to think] that that many people have seen me naked - I feel like I’m the world’s biggest porn star.”

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1598985/20081110/nirvana.jhtml

Speaking of Shepard Faiery & Obey Giant, there’s an art exhibit of his work in Washington D.C. that’s ending soon.

You can also get a free Shepard Faiery sticker from MoveOn.

UPDATE: Nerve.com recently posted an article entitled “The 40 Greatest Lost Icons in Pop Culture History,” featuring Spencer Elden, and various other individuals that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

(a posting also shared at Barack Obama NOW!)

Twenty years ago on election night, I decided to go out to the movies. I went to go see a new John Carpenter movie called “THEY LIVE,” which was a story about alien beings taking over the world, converting all of the human beings into docile puppets, and transforming the earth’s atmosphere into a toxic wasteland completely appropriate for visitors from the Andromeda Galaxy.

John Nada, played by Roddy Piper, is a recently-employed construction worker that discovers a special pair of sunglasses that allows him see the true faces of people. When he wears these sunglasses, he’s also able to see all sorts of subliminal messages on television, magzines, billboards, and other types of media- “OBEY”, “CONFORM”, “MARRY AND REPRODUCE”, “CONSUME”, “WATCH TELEVISION” and “SLEEP.” Without the sunglasses, the aliens from Andromeda are completely indistinguishable from the normal human beings. In many cases, political leaders are actually Andromeda aliens, providing leadership for the citizens that follow what they perceive as solid patriotic behavior.

The citizens don’t even realize that that their environment has been transformed into a poisonous toxic wasteland, and they’ve been programmed to believe some misinformation that will keep them permanently enslaved into an economic slavetown.

Some how or another…. don’t ask me why, but the events of the McCain campaign reminded me of this silly little movie.

There’s a lot of really nutty people out there, doing a lot of really stupid things to support John McCain. Idiots are coming out of the backwoods to share lies and misinformation about Obama.

Hunter at DailyKos had some good insights about how John McCain and Sarah Palin are focusing their energies on mobilizing the wingnuts:

Yeah, she’s firing up the wingnut base. Who cares. The wingnut base is the easiest group of people on the planet to fire up. They get fired up when they think gays might steal their marriages. They get fired up when they have to press “one” for English. They get fired up when some black guy gets all uppity and runs for president. They get fired up when their sub-sub-sub-version of Christianity isn’t the dominant religious ideal of the nation. Holding Sarah Palin in front of them is like teasing a dog through a fence, but that’s about it.
_
So ya know, McCain — by all means, if you’re going to throw this Hail Mary pass, then throw it in earnest. Let her pop on out there for interviews with real reporters — you know, as opposed to the biting “journalism” of people like Kristol and Hannity. Have her answer questions on the stump that haven’t been pre-approved in triplicate. Right now, “maverick” seems synonymous with “coward” — if the strength of your convictions extends only to inciting crowds against Obama, and you’ve got nothing else to run with, then I don’t think you can get too snippy when the public just starts laughing at you.

I’d like to believe that the American people are waking up to recognize the nonsense for what it is- nonsense. It is encouraging when I hear about lifelong Republicans deciding they can no longer support what is being called the “Republican platform” in 2008.

I’ve witnessed some really irrational behavior - relatives that tell me how Obama has so many “bad” alliances, yet they get extremely angry when I remind them of the questionable alliances of McCain and Palin. I’m told that “history matters,” but if I bring up certain information regarding the histories of their favorite candidates, then my information is “irrelevant.”

Sometimes, you just can’t talk politics with certain people. You love ‘em as human beings, but their political opinions drive you up the wall. You ask yourself “What planet are these people from?” “Am I actually related to them?”

Me, I’m just hoping for a smart president that has a better understanding of new economics in the 21st century; a leader that recognizes the relevance of an intelligent energy strategy, actual science concepts, and can deliver a coherent international policy. Oh…. I also want a leader with a plan to get our soldiers out of Iraq so we don’t have to spend $10 billion a month for an occupation of a country that doesn’t even want us there.

I wish I could order some of those sunglasses…

It appears that STARBUCKS will be shutting down 600 stores in the USA. So now, instead of a STARBUCKS on every single block of every major city, maybe it’ll be every other block?