'Vegeta, what does the hit counter say about our total page views? It's over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAND!
We all like internet memes right? For some reason, Henry and I really love this one even though it's clearly run its course and has become obsolete, along with the hamster dance and the Rickroll.
To those who missed out on this one, "Over 9000" is a reference to a "youtube poop" video from 2007. (Youtube poop is the equivalent of a remix, only with videos that are usually funny or at least intentionally annoying. They usually involve really old cartoons like Sonic, Mario, and the Legend of Zelda).
The video features a loop of incredible overacting on the Dragonball Z television show, mixed in with random video clips of I don't really know what, slowed down, sped up, chopped up, and overall completely ridiculous and nonsensical.
It's based on about 20 seconds of Dragonball Z, wherein the primary antagonists of that season completely overreact to an arbitrary number assigned to different fighters that supposedly represents strength or martial arts ability. Apparently, the protagonist, Goku, has a "power level" that is "over 9000". This infuriates Vegeta so much that he destroys his "scouter". I later went back and watched the whole episode to see if this scene makes any sense. It doesn't.
This led to a cult internet phenomenon, with some hilarious parody videos. I enjoy this one, this one, and this one.
But I digress. Oprah Winfrey made herself look ridiculous on her television show when she repeated a claim from an anonymous spammer that there was a secret organization of 9000 pedophiles.
It's always fun when the internet can warp popular culture, turn it into something ridiculous, and then it finds its way back into pop culture again. Kinda like the Rickroll parade.
And of course, anything funny can be turned into a techno remix.
The Obama administration will be hard-pressed to find any individual of Souter’s intellect, convictions, and integrity. The worst thing this administration could do, under these circumstances, is appoint someone too conservative (like Clinton). David Souter is among the most liberal our current Court has to offer. However, Before engaging in speculation regarding who Obama will appoint, I think it would be apt to mention the timing of this appointment.
The Administration is currently planning on reforming health care sometime in late summer. I would hazard to guess the first week of August, based on many reliable sources. This gives the administration between six and nine weeks to make the appointment, and get herconfirmed. I would therefore expect a nomination by the end of May and conformation to be finished by June. Since Obama has made no nominations to the Court of appeals himself, his pool of likely nomination comes principally from Clinton era Democrats. SCOTUS blog has ,what I believe to be, the best 'short list' available:
My bet is that - this early on - it’s a big and diverse list. It would have some very well known judges (for example, Diane Wood and Sonia Sotomayor), academics (Elena Kagan (now Solicitor General), Pam Karlan, and Kathleen Sullivan), and politicians (Jennifer Granholm, Amy Klobuchar, Claire McCaskill, and Janet Napolitano).
If I may add my personal preference to that list, it would be none other than Eric Holder. I doubt Obama can find anyone more liberal or qualified than Holder. However, he lacks what seems to be a necessity in this nomination, having a vagina. So Eric and I will sit and wait for John Paul Stevens to either die or retire. And I will wait for Holder to shave off that horrid mustache.
I will keep this blog updated on all things concerning this nomination as the summer continues. This is the among the most important issues the Obama administration has addresed since the his term began, and it is important that the left get excited about the Supreme Court. For too long we have let this become a conservative issue, as we watch nominations like Clarence Thomas and Sam Alitocontinue unabated. We must demand that whomever replace Souter be in the mold of Brennan, Marhsall or Douglas. We have waited since Roosevelt for a liberal President to play ball with the Supreme Court. It is now up to President Obama to shape the future of our Court.
...unless you happen to be in a confined space such as an airplane or subway, lest the Mexican pig plague cross our red, white and blue biological borders and infect us all, just like those terrorists south of the dividing line planned all along!!!!!!!
We all love Joe Biden, but you've got to admit that polishing jobs like the one the White House press team did today of smoothing over his morning's incendiary call to alarm can't happen with any sort of frequency. We've seen too often in our country's history what happens when panic supercedes reason.
Political science students as many of us here at Lefty's are, I'm breaking out the literature on this one. I'm reminded of how in Thucydide's Peloponnesian War it is ultimately the plague in Athens that unravels the order in the polis, not the war with the Lacedaemonians at all. Faced with a health crisis in which their fellow Athenians are dropping like flies and the very act of caring for each other is enough to further the contagion, our legendary inventors of democracy give way to panic, anarchy ensuing.
Don't get me wrong, though. A simple Google search will reveal to you that the swine flu, or the H1N1 virus (as th wise among us are working to relabel the sickness), carries with it no more than the basic symptoms of common influenza strains. It's not a plague; at this point, there has been one death from it on American soil, and the unfortunate one of a Mexican infant who crossed the border at that. But the message we're getting from many media sources and leaders across the political spectrum - knowlegable men and women who should know better - is one of great alarm:
Dear America,
PANIC!
Cancel travel plans, stop buying pork, and close the schools! We have Jack Cafferty wistfully proclaiming midst his sniffles that had we done more to secure the U.S./ Mexico border post-911, “all these illegal immigrants who we let come in, . . . (some of whom) may have brought this in,” would be less of our concern. Representative Duncan Hunter, R- California, among many others with anti-immigration initiatives to their names, is calling for a border seal to further prevent the spread of what threatens to be a global pandemic.
The swine flu was brought to the United States initially by a group of high school students spring breaking in Mexico...
We don't need to close the border, and to turn this unfortunate health scare into an argument about immigration policy is, for lack of a better word, sick.
Just wash your hands, folks. Wash them of the contagion of ignorance while you're at it, too.
An extremely important piece of legislation nicknamed "The Matthew Shepard Act" is currently under debate in Congress that would expand hate-crime laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Indiana Equality has asked for your help in enacting it.
This bill, and recognizing that crimes against GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans) people based on their real or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation are hate crimes, is sorely needed.
If you don’t need much more convincing on this matter please take the time to help out by making sure your representatives and senators understand how important this legislation is. For more information on how to help visit the Indiana Equality blog as well as the Human Rights Campaign's dedicated pages.
**UPDATE** The bill just passed in the house 249-175! However, I was greatly disappointed to see that Brad Ellsworth, and Lefty's congressman Joe Donnelly voted against it.
On what I would argue may be the biggest day in news (for Lefty's and America) since January 20, 2009, I'd like to mark today as the historical landmark beginning of a painful and pathetic collapse of the Republican Party (just check Wikipedia 15 years from now). This may end up (over time) being as big as the moment that Teddy Roosevelt jumped ship for the Progressive Party in 1912. The analogy isn't perfect, but we might be witnessing a major shift in American politics.
In typically Lefty's fashion, I went hunting for articles to support my claim... and I ran into a heap of blog waste all saying the same thing. So to lighten things up, I went looking for things that made me laugh. Here's what I found:
You may have heard the sound of propellers over your dorm room. This is because the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform is beginning a campaign to have airplanes fly over Notre Dame carrying banners with pictures of aborted fetuses and the URL for their webpage. It was up high enough so that I couldn't tell what the image was on the banner, but I made out the URL well enough and was able to do some research. If you haven't had a chance to see it, I'll provide you the URL
If you're at all squeamish I suggest pausing the video after you get on the page.
Here's a spokesman for the group explaining why they're doing this:
In response to the decision by the University of Notre Dame to honor Barack Obama, America's first infanticide-supporting president, with an honorary degree and an invitation to deliver their 2009 commencement address, The Center For Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) has begun displaying large abortion photos on the sides and backs of a fleet of billboard trucks which will operate in the South Bend area between now and the conclusion of graduation ceremonies.
Because the pro-life community at Notre Dame has relentlessly covered-up the horror of abortion, CBR has decided to fly enormous aerial billboards over the campus. If the Secret Service and the Federal Aviation Administration impose Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) for a longer period than is typical for a presidential appearance, or which restrict more airspace than is typical for a presidential appearance, CBR will also fly its aircraft at Notre Dame during the fall semester, 2009, during an aerial campaign which will last far longer than is typical for a presidential appearance.
So this group is mad at ND's Right to Life groups don't display images of abortions, so they're going to teach them all a lesson. Executive Director Gregg Cunningham's statement makes a point to that effect as well.
Arlen Specter’s joining the Democrats today is an exclamation point on a long string of events that show that the Republican Party is crumbling. Obviously in the last two elections they were soundly defeated, but I think that this is more significant that just a few bad elections, this is a fundamental shift in American politics away from the Republican Party.
Specter belonged to the moderate/liberal wing of the GOP, and his leaving the party is a symbol of the GOP’s shrinking appeal among moderates. 21% of Americans currently consider themselves Republicans, compared to 35% Democrats and 38% independents. As moderates leave the party, there will be no internal opposition to the GOP’s swing to the right witnessed in the past few elections. The current main wings of the GOP are the moderates like Arlen Specter who are leaving the party in droves, the Mitt Romney-type fiscal conservatives and economic libertarians who often also adopt socially conservative policies in order to get elected, and the fundamentalist religious and xenophobic politicians in the mold of the populist Sarah Palin. Unless Republican leadership realigns the party, the first wing will leave the party, and there will be an increasing split between the other two wings. The fiscal conservative wing will blame the overemphasis of the culture wars by the populist wing for electoral defeats. The populist wing will energize a small but very vocal minority of Americans, but will probably ultimately be just a flash-in-the-pan movement with little national significance. I think it would not be too much of a stretch to say that the second wing of the party might realize that the culture war will no longer win elections, and will abandon the GOP for the Libertarian Party, leaving the GOP to be controlled by populist culture warriors and to fade into obscurity. The culture wars will become largely irrelevant, and the real political debate will become economic.
There will almost definitely be a realignment of some sort—perpetual Democratic control is unlikely—but it will take a long time before the GOP and conservative movement gets its act together and becomes a viable nation-wide movement once again, rather than just becoming a regional Southern party, unless a split actually occurs and the Libertarian Party will be the main opposition to the Democrats, as the Republicans become politically irrelevant social conservatives.
Just got an email from university health services. I'll post it on the off-chance that we have readers that check this blog more than their own email:
The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed that a Notre Dame student tested positive for swine flu. The student has fully recovered and is in good health after suffering flu symptoms last week. The University is continuing normal operations; classes and final exams continue as scheduled.
Complete information about the incident is available at http://newsinfo.nd.edu and information about how to avoid communicable diseases is available at the University Health Services Web site, http://uhs.nd.edu
Students who experience flu symptoms such as a sudden fever, cough or sore throat should visit Health Services in Saint Liam Hall. Faculty and staff with symptoms should consult their personal physicians.
University Health Services is working closely with state and federal health officials to monitor and respond to this situation.
But I got a flu vaccine last semester, so I'm safe. Right?
Update: If you haven't checked out the link from the email, here's the full story from ND's Dennis Brown:
April 27, 2009 The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. President University of Notre Dame
Dear Father Jenkins,
When you informed me in December 2008 that I had been selected to receive Notre Dame's Laetare Medal, I was profoundly moved. I treasure the memory of receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1996, and I have always felt honored that the commencement speech I gave that year was included in the anthology of Notre Dame's most memorable commencement speeches. So I immediately began working on an acceptance speech that I hoped would be worthy of the occasion, of the honor of the medal, and of your students and faculty.
Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you that I would have to rewrite my speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the task that once seemed so delightful has been complicated by a number of factors.
First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops' express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" and that such persons "should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution's freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it.
Then I learned that "talking points" issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event:
* "President Obama won't be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal." * "We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about."
A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame's decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops—to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church's position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.
Finally, with recent news reports that other Catholic schools are similarly choosing to disregard the bishops' guidelines, I am concerned that Notre Dame's example could have an unfortunate ripple effect.
It is with great sadness, therefore, that I have concluded that I cannot accept the Laetare Medal or participate in the May 17 graduation ceremony.
In order to avoid the inevitable speculation about the reasons for my decision, I will release this letter to the press, but I do not plan to make any further comment on the matter at this time.
Yours Very Truly, Mary Ann Glendon
Mary Ann Glendon is Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University. A member of the editorial and advisory board of First Things, she served as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, 2007-09.
GOP Senator Arlen Specter is going to switch his affiliation and officially become a Democrat! This is a big deal for many reasons.
Once Franken is finally sworn in, this will give Dems a 60-seat majority.
This will put more pressure on the final two liberal Republicans to follow suit and join the Democrats (Snowe and Collins)
This keeps Arlen Specter, a long-time Senator who, for the most part, deserves to keep his job from facing a difficult primary challenger in 2010
The Democrats just look like their tent is getting bigger and bigger, continuing to push the GOP into the fringes of conservatism and making them ostensibly a regional party.
With all the stress of the last week of classes (and rapidly approaching finals) here at ND, I don't have a whole lot of time to blog, but as I'm sitting here in LaFortune sucking down some caffeine real quick in between classes, here are a few interesting headlines that grabbed my attention this morning...
FAIL - The New York Times has a new conservative Op-Ed columnist. If you thought the boundaries of stupidity had been reached, think again! (Spoiler alert: Dick Cheney for President. No, not kidding. ROFL!!!) As far as I'm concerned, if Republicans want clowns like this framing their party's message, keep 'em coming! ...I'll just snuggle up on the couch with some popcorn and gleefully watch their ship sink.
FAIL - Secondly, a great NYT piece on how a shoddily produced ABC interview in '07 on torture shifted the debate.
I couldn't help but be inspired by Kate's post below and just had to share this little gem of the Secretary of State walloping Indiana's own Mike Pence on foreign policy:
Summary: Pence: Omgz y prezdent shakin satanz hand??!! Hildawg: The U.S. has had tons of diplomatic success in the past by engaging in talks with hostile figures. Pence: But we're gonna get cootiez!!!! Hildawg: Ignoring problems won't make them go away Pence: LalalalalalalalaIcanthearyoulalalalalala! Hildawg: You guys lost for a reason...
At a hearing last week, Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) asked Hillary Clinton if the Obama administration was planning to attempt to weaken the pro-life laws of Latin American and African countries and if the terms "reproductive health", "reproductive services", and "reproductive rights" included abortion.
Her response:
All I can say is, it feels pretty damn good to have a feminist secretary of state. Finally, an administration that actually makes it a priority to protect women's rights in the U.S. AND abroad. Thank you to Hillary and a big thank you to the Obama administration.
Here's a little entertainment to serve as a nice Sunday evening study break. I love this band's humor, they're really off the wall. Check them out here.
This is an E6 tribute to a classic Queen song.
Happy studying Domers! One more week, then finals!!!
Celebrating a landmark achievement
And I will wait for Holder to shave off that horrid mustache.
