I would like to point out that I think the story that the previous comics were based on is emphatically NOT teh funny. Three hundred and eighty tons of high explosives is a lot. Really. The bomb that blew up Pan Am flight 103 was about one pound. There are 2000 of those in a ton.

As they say on the Internets, Get Your War On is teh funny.

Posts like this are why I still read Asymmetrical Information. An actual discussion on why people should vote for Bush or Kerry, who would have thought that this was important? There seems to be the occasional diversity of opinion, and open discussion, that are missing at most of the blogs I visit. In general, I prefer the posts of Jane Galt (aka Megan McArdle), but all in all it's an interesting blog.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Free Speeches - David Cobb: Corporatism and Culture This site looks interesting. It has links to speeches by political figures. This particular one has an interesting quote from Mussolini. “The first stage of fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power.” And he should know.

The PIPA report.

"Poll finds reality gap among Bush supporters" I've read the PIPA report and it doesn't paint a pretty picture. I'll see if I can dig up the link and post the link to the real report.

Weird. That's about all I can say about it. The future gets closer everyday.

Lie Down for America by Thomas Frank is a long, but to my mind, interesting article about why some poor people vote Republican. This is a question that has bothered me for quite some time. The answer given in the article is that the right has keyed in on certain cultural issues. What is ironic is that the article is so condescending about the situation.

The article would be more interesting to me if it would make some suggestion as to what could change the situation. I think that the most likely way to change the situation would be to have the Two Americas divide be between the rich and the poor (which I think is a much more accurate vision of what divides society.) An issue such as Affirmative Action is what prevents this.

Also via BoingBoing and The Smoking Gun there is this little story about Bill O'Reilly's sexual harrasment suit. My favorite quote so far is the part on page 8 where Bill O'Reilly talks about showing the "little brown woman" his penis and her being "amazed." Also included is molestation with a falafel. Links to other highlights on the first page.

I would like to direct your attention to Boing Boing: Drug-smugglers' coolest secrets mostly because I think that some of them are hilarious. Among some highlights (as it were) from the April 2004 bulletin. And I quote "This is the first report of the “Buddafingas” candy bar. The “Buddafingas” wrapper lists the product as “TaiNTed / Buddafinga / diggety, dankity, peanut-buttery!”

Presenteeism is a word that I hadn't run across before. It's a word whose time has come in my opinion. My workplace has an "informal" rule that you should use no more then half of your sick days. I think that's pretty messed up, personally.

The intersection of economics and religion.

I was thinking about this topic this morning. I think that capitalism may be the largest religion in the United States. I know that surveys would say that Christianity is the biggest, but if you went on to ask some specific individual questions the conclusions may be different. Questions such as "How much time every day do you spend thinking about God?" vs "How much time every day do you spend thinking about money?" Also a lot of people in the United States have faith in the power of free markets that verges on a religious faith.

Modern Christianity has largely strayed from it's original vision as a religion that was founded on some specific principles with regards to money. I think to the Jesus that we hear about in the Bible the idea of a wealthy Christian would be a contradiction in terms. And yet a great number of the wealthy in this country would identify themselves as being Christian. So should they be considered Christians or capitalists?