News of the Restless

You HAVE noticed, yes? Good.

Well, here's the story: My best friend and geekus maximus has helped me improve this site with the latest edition of Movable Type. We did it to help secure the blog against hackers exploiting weaknesses in the original version I was using.

Unfortunately, the latest edition of Movable Type could use some improvements of its own, such as being able to recognize entries created with Tinderbox, which I use to write my entries before uploading them here. It currently doesn't, and we're both still scratching our heads trying to figure out how my last six entries could disappear into the ether (though they still show up on the post count, they aren't counted as current entries, so I can't categorize them or make them show on the main page anymore either), my blogroll became such a mess, and the mysterious date of "December 0000" has shown up in my monthly archives (I suspect that's where the "missing" posts were disappeared to, probably by the Chilean DINA or its Movable Type equivalent.)

For now, it looks as though I'll have to generate my posts on the "write entry" page of MT, which will take some getting used to. It's kind of sad to stop using the old Tinderbox Trainblogging template, which has served me so well up till now, but until we get this glitch straightened out, it looks like I'll have to post the "lame" way. Grrrr.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What century is this again?

Rev. Sergio G. Roman sounded the alarm against miniskirts in an online publication to prepare Catholics for a church family-values forum next year in Mexico City.

"When we show our body without prudence, without modesty, we are prostituting ourselves," wrote Roman, a Mexico City priest.

Continue reading "Yep, that Catholic church is sure progressing..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 6:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey y'all.

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth; I've just been a bit under the weather lately. Sick as a dog, too ill to blog. At least, anything that would make sense. Or anything other than how brutally Montezuma avenged himself on me the other day for eating fresh strawberries. 48-hour summer gut bugs are such fun, aren't they? And just to make things truly excruciating, two words: No Kaopectate.

Plus, my ear got waterlogged on Saturday, got worse on Sunday, and on Monday morning had to have a date with a dropperful of hydrogen peroxide and a squeeze bulb full of warm water. Yes, I think I got all the wax and there was (thankfully) no sign of infection, but I spent half of the morning feeling semi-deaf on the right-hand side, and a bit wonky as a result while I chopped veggies for my all-from-scratch chicken noodle soup. Then my ear finally drained--twice--and I finally got some blessed relief, but I think that before I retire I'll keep my date with the dropper and syringe, just in case.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

And so are you, and so is everybody else I know.

I'm talking about people who actually use the Web to read what they want, read JUST what they want, and not bother to give crapitalism its pound of flesh (or hour of eyeball time).

Web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online, reveals research.

The annual report into web habits by usability guru Jakob Nielsen shows people are becoming much less patient when they go online.

Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave.

Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention.

Continue reading "Yes, I admit it. I'm one of these too." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"Christmas begins now in August. Christmas has become the Beast that just cannot be fed!"

--Lewis Black

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OMG, this was just too good to pass up. Reuters is so Chavecito-obsessed lately, I think they're letting their secret fantasies slip...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would not shut up for Spain's king but, over the weekend, he heeded a higher calling to stop talking -- his bladder.

Surrounded by a throng of reporters at an OPEC summit in Saudi Arabia, the president, who enjoys the media spotlight and often answers questions at length, excused himself.

"Look I have to go," Chavez said in comments aired on Venezuelan state television. "For a while now, I have needed to go to the bathroom and I am going to pee ... Do you want me to pee on you?"

Continue reading "Forget Clinton's cock, Reuters has a new obsession" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The video of the tasering of Robert Dziekanski speaks for itself.

The videographer mistakes him for a Russian (unable to distinguish the language from the victim's native Polish). But what's unmistakable here is that the man was NOT so violent that he had to be forcibly subdued, let alone in the manner we see here. He was frustrated enough to throw some furniture--looking around to see if anyone was paying attention, meaning this was not done out of blind rage or that brand new bullshit excuse for Taser deaths and police brutality, "excited delirium", but with the intent of getting the airport authorities to help him.

And after more than ten hours of unexplained delay and waiting and inability to contact his mother who was supposed to meet him at the Vancouver airport, it is quite understandable that he'd be anxious. Who wouldn't be, as a new immigrant in a country whose language he couldn't speak, whose customs (and immigration procedures) he didn't understand, and whose authorities apparently couldn't be bothered to dig up an interpreter and help him out?

We are not a police state, but things like this make me wonder what's becoming of us.

Robert Dziekanski was buried today in Kamloops, BC.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Behold, the Complaints Choir of Helsinki:

"And the Finnish language is bloody difficult to learn!"

Happily, there could be a chapter starting near you--clicky here!

Posted by Sabina Becker at 7:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Better still, let the Rude Pundit enumerate the ways he would NOT have sex with that ghoul.

"Perfect" THAT, bitch.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, I didn't die, although it certainly feels like I just came back from the dead. My high-speed modem kacked out on the night after the provincial election. Hence, no FLFB (or any other B for that matter.) Meanwhile, I'll be playing catch-up...AGAIN. Let's hope this is the last of the computer emergencies for this year (or any other.) I hate being offline!

On the off chance that anyone missed me--thanks, your concern is aways appreciated.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"Way to support the troops, Boil Butt!"

Anthony from Sweden, aka Malmo Blue, calls in at about 5:30 in this YouTube (which he made and posted.)

Way to give ol' Boil-Butt the red-ass, Anthony and Mike!

Posted by Sabina Becker at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ahem. To the tune of Depeche Mode's "People Are People":

Continue reading "Bullshit is Bullshit" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New York firefighters (and bereaved relatives of dead firefighters) shatter the myth of the then mayor's "heroism" on 9-11:

The terrible truth is, Giuliani did not even meet the minimum standards of acceptable conduct. The non-functioning radios that cost over 300 brave souls from the FDNY their lives are just the tip of the iceberg. The disposal of their bodies in the Fresh Kills "landfill" (that's a garbage dump in plain English!) and the strange business with the Scotiabank gold (worth more than firefighters, dead or alive?) is certainly damning.

Any Repug who thinks he can run on his 9-11 record can now think again. The party that made 9-11 the disaster it was, from start to finish, should frankly be buried in Fresh Kills along with all those firefighters.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sorry, folks, no Festive Left Friday Blogging today. I had nothing prepared, and worse, I had my first moment of pre-senile dementia. I forgot what day it was in my state of general discombobulation. Must be all that negative Falwellian karma reverting on itself that's got the Earth's magnetic field flipflopping, or something.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh lordy, here we go again. One Delores Williams, writing for Associated Content, horks up a hairball composed of some of the most poorly reasoned propaganda I've seen yet:

At Midnight, President Hugo Chavez took control of privately run oil fields in order to gain control over the four Orinoco Belt crude projects. These oil fields were held by American companies such as Chevron, Exxon mobile, BP PLc and ConocoPhillips. This means that Chavez's government can decide tomorrow not to send any more oil to America, and there would be little these companies could do.

Well, well. Only one paragraph in, and already the urge to shout BULLSHIT! overcomes me. That's gotta be a new world record.

Continue reading "Hello, what part of sovereignty do you not understand?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Namely, a HACK. See why, before greedhead Viacom pulls THIS, too:

Continue reading "Let's call Barbara Walters by her right name" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 1:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I first heard the "We are all (insert name of plucky little hard-done-by country here) now" meme, I was put out by it. It was a little too simplistic an expression of empathy for the victims of the 9-11 tragedy, and besides, it was a bit bass-ackwards, seeing as 9-11 was more like a cold shower of welcome-to-the-world reality for Americans. So when Le Monde proclaimed that "we are all Americans now", my first thought was, I'm unspeakably sad for those whom this has affected, but count me the fuck out of "we". I'm still a Canadian and a citizen of the world, and no amount of terrorism is gonna change that!

Continue reading "We are all shitheads now" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 2:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

The Pentagon has just informed the world that the 2,500th US military death in the Iraq pillage has occurred.

That's right: 2,500 dead US military for the sake of a lie. And OIL.

And in the meantime, there's no end in sight.

The Unknown Soldier is dead. Long live the Big Lie.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I say BULLSHIT.

A fine Mississippi fella named Herb, who posts as GoldenEagle53 on Mike Malloy's board, shared this with us last night:

As you can see, this is nothing but a thinly veiled bit of right-wing racism.

Continue reading "And they say they're not racist?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Pardon the indelicate and unladylike language, but when you see what follows, I'm sure you'll agree with me for using it:

Possibly even more earsplitting than the chatter about Katie Couric's plans to leave her post at NBC's "Today" show for the "CBS Evening News" is the talk about whether she can cut it. Again and again commentators have mouthed off on whether they think she has the "gravitas" to handle the position. An article in the New York Observer asks an interesting question: What is gravitas? It's not Couric's oft-cited attributes (or weaknesses, depending on whom you ask): her legs and perky giggle. (Never mind her interviewing skills or ability to hold her own on-air for three-hour stretches.)

How exactly has the term gained traction as the defining characteristic of a worthy evening news anchor? It seems that "dignity" or "trustworthiness" would be sufficient. If you ask Connie Chung, gravitas requires something more specific: balls. Well, the Observer says that "delicacy prevented" Chung from actually defining it as such, but the suggestion was made nonetheless (leave it to Broadsheet to throw delicacy to the wayside). She did say that "it is essentially a chauvinistic word."

Continue reading "Okay, this really fucking pisses me off..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 1:19 AM | Permalink

Here's a little free advice for y'all: Don't EVER watch "1984" all in one sitting. It will depress the shit out of you.

In fact, even in two sittings, it's damn near unbearable.

That's what I've been up to in my spare time, these past couple of days. Getting the shit depressed out of me. By a goddamned movie.

Continue reading "A shot of Victory Gin (and tonic)" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm trying very hard not to laugh over this...honest I am. But get a load of the latest bizarre directive from the FAA:

Space tourists must be screened to ensure they are not terrorists, according to proposed regulations from the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The draft report's suggestions aim to prevent a terrorist from destroying a spacecraft or using it as a weapon.

However, the report has no strict proposals on the health of any would-be space tourists.

Continue reading "Space tourists = space TERRORISTS?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

More and more, the "miserable failure" Google-bomb of George W. Bush's biography is looking like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Every which way you turn, that man is going nowhere but DOWN. His overall approval ratings are headed for the sub-basement; the war on terror is costing the citizens more than it's saving; the war on Iraq has lost popular support; the way he handled the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe--or rather, didn't--is getting the blood up both above and, at long last, below the Mason-Dixon line. Anecdotal reports from friends behind enemy lines tell me the Bush bumper stickers and magnets are fast disappearing from cars all around them, and surely it's not just because the price of gas is in the stratosphere (and racing for the ionosphere). No, it's not the vicissitudes of the marketplace, no matter what the diehards may say; something much more momentous is at work here: People in America are finally waking up to find their house gone.

Continue reading "It takes a hurricane to level a whorehouse" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...a rant about little yellow ribbons.

Ever notice how something so innocent and innocuous has been completely HIJACKED by the evil, filthy warmongers? I have. For the past couple of days I've been noticing around my hometown, a proliferation of bumper stickers--little yellow ribbon loops with black writing on them.

Well, I hate to say it, but I automatically jumped to the conclusion that my town--on the north shore of Lake Ontario--had suddenly spawned a proliferation of pro-Bush wingnuts.

WTF???

So I resolved to do two things: (1) Find out, first, what the writing on those little yellow ribbons says, and (2) if it IS a pro-war statement, start printing flyers and fact sheets to slip under the windshield wipers of any parked vehicle I see sporting such a sticker.

Well, today I finally got a chance to do #1. And it turns out that the yellow ribbons are NOT pro-war, but pro-cancer-research. They're issued by the Relay For Life, which raises funds for the Canadian Cancer Society. The same that recently helped my mom, a breast cancer patient, make a confident choice of lumpectomy, radiation and tamoxifen to treat her early-stage disease.

I guess I don't have to print up any flyers now, but I'm still angry at the warmongers for hijacking an innocent symbol and causing so much confusion.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)