AZspot

2010

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“The greatest transformation of our society will occur only...”
— Sam Harris
Dec 31st
nakedpastor
Dec 31st
“We have now shown that DNA is absolutely the...”
— J. Craig Venter
Dec 31st
Singularity Proponent Ray Kurzweil Reinvents...
Dec 31st
Mr. Fish
Dec 31st
The best films of the decade
Dec 31st
“The same sort of public relations wizardry that once...”
— A Convenient Delusion
Dec 31st
Stiglitz: 6 Harsh lessons We Failed to Learn
Dec 31st
Night
Dec 30th
“To convert! This great word has been diluted. The people of...”
— Jacques Ellul
Dec 30th
Why do so many terrorists have engineering...
Dec 30th
Matt Bors
Dec 30th
“If you really read the fairy-tales, you will observe that...”
— G.K. Chesterton
Dec 30th
After Branding
Dec 30th
“The measure of cultural literacy today is not whether you...”
— Three Tweets for the Web
Dec 30th
Establishing Christian America
Dec 30th
“…religious charisma is always routinized and bureaucratized...”
— Lonnie Frisbee and the...
Dec 30th
Why the health care bill is worth passing
Dec 30th
“This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted,...”
— Win Ben Stein’s mind
Dec 30th
“Our current response to terrorism is a form of...”
— Bruce Schneier
Dec 30th
Taxes: Let’s Just Go Back To A Simpler Time
Dec 30th
“If the health care bill written by the Senate is passed,...”
— Jane Hamsher
Dec 30th
“For every holiday party I attend, partygoers speak of job...”
— Berkeley Blog
Dec 30th

Next Door Rant

Located right down the street from my home address is a fabulous coffee shop. There you may enjoy an...
Dec 30th
Terrorism Still Less Deadly in US Than Lack of Health...
Dec 29th
“Nobody eat animals — not the whole things. Most of us eat...”
— Austin Dacey
Dec 29th
Panasonic’s new home battery could store a...
Dec 29th
David Levine, R.I.P.
Dec 29th
David Fitzsimmons
Dec 29th
“I think there will always be a gulf between the haves and...”
— Neil Postman
Dec 29th
“The Wikipedia of today is not the same entity it was 5 years...”
— Jason Scott
Dec 29th
10 FICTIONAL books that will f**k up your...
Dec 29th

Vice Magazine Interview with David Simon

VM: Why does reform seem so impossible?
DS: We live in an oligarchy. The mother’s milk of American politics is money, and the reason they can’t reform financing, the reason that we can’t have public funding of elections rather than private donations, the reason that K Street is K Street in Washington, is to make sure that no popular sentiment survives. You’re witnessing it now with health care, with the marginalization of any effort to rationally incorporate all Americans under a national banner that says, “We’re in this together.”
VM: But then the critics of a system like that immediately cry socialism.
DS: And of course it’s socialism. These ignorant motherfuckers. What do they think group insurance is, other than socialism? Just the idea of buying group insurance! If socialism is a taint that you cannot abide by, then, goddamn it, you shouldn’t be in any group insurance policy. You should just go out and pay the fucking doctors because when you get 100,000 people together as part of anything, from a union to the AARP, and you say, “Because we have this group actuarially, more of us are going to be healthier than not and therefore we’ll be able to carry forward the idea of group insurance and everybody will have an affordable plan...” That’s fuckin’ socialism. That’s nothing but socialism.
VM: It is, literally.
DS: So the whole idea of group insurance, which of course everyone believes in, like that fellow on YouTube, “Don’t let the government take away my Medicare…” You look at that and you think there’s only one thing that can make people this stupid, and that’s money. When you pay people to change their votes on the basis of money, the wrong shit gets voted for. That’s American democracy at this point. And you get to the Senate and you’re looking at 100 votes, which don’t represent anything in terms of popular representation. When 40 percent of the population controls 60 percent of the votes in the higher house of a bicameral legislature, it’s an oligarchy.
Dec 29th
“Then there are the politicians. Even now, it’s hard to get...”
— Paul Krugman
Dec 29th
“When I buy an audiobook on CD, it’s mine. The license...”
— Cory Doctorow
Dec 29th
“Most user-generated content is created as communication in...”
— Clay Shirky
Dec 29th
Tom Tomorrow
Dec 29th
7 Tipping Points That Could Transform Earth
Dec 28th
“The ambitions we have will become the stories we live. If...”
— Donald Miller
Dec 28th
Andy Singer
Dec 28th
“The mass media of the 20th Century were based on control:...”
— Dan Gillmor
Dec 28th
“Amazon and the Kindle have killed the bookstore. Why?...”
— Seth Godin
Dec 28th
“Most of the evidence is classified, but Hashmi is not...”
— Jeanne Theoharis
Dec 28th
“One wild card is how angry the American people might get....”
— James Howard Kunstler
Dec 28th
Matt Bors
Dec 28th
“Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the...”
— Schneier on Security
Dec 28th
World's Largest Solar Powered Creations
Dec 28th
“Scientists and technologists have the same uneasy status in...”
— Neal Stephenson
Dec 28th
“If you want to defeat the right, we must defeat corporatism....”
— The 1990s Are Over. Has Anyone...
Dec 28th
H-1B Bodyshop vs. U.S. First Amendment: The...
Dec 28th
The best foreign films of 2009
Dec 27th
“A Free society does indeed require some confidence in the...”
— Reinhold Niebuhr
Dec 27th
“Human development thus far has been fueled and guided by the...”
— Brian Eno
Dec 27th
“We went to see Avatar in 3D yesterday. The plot was...”
— Richard Bartle
Dec 27th
nakedpastor
Dec 27th
Homeland Security Considers Making People Fly...
Dec 27th
“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the...”
— St. Augustine
Dec 27th
“…letting go of inerrancy is an act of faith in the One who...”
—  The place of fear in our...
Dec 27th
Urbanist's Economic Prescription Might Make...
Dec 26th
“Although the effort to achieve health care reform has been...”
— Wendell Potter
Dec 26th
“Each time the U.S. bombs a new location in the Muslim world,...”
— Glenn Greenwald
Dec 26th
nakedpastor
Dec 26th
Global Warming vs. the Next Ice Age
Dec 26th
A Review Of The Best Robots of 2009
Dec 25th
“…I think it’s fair to say that since 1980, and it really...”
— John Perkins
Dec 25th
How the status quo can kill: the example of...
Dec 25th
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone...”
— Steve Jobs
Dec 25th
Calvin is freed!
Dec 25th
“…you cannot do anything with knowledge unless you know where...”
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Dec 25th
The ten best animated films of 2009
Dec 25th
nakedpastor
Dec 25th
“As an academic I am of course loathe to think about a world...”
— Marti Hearst
Dec 25th
“If there is to be peace on earth and good will toward men,...”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dec 25th
xkcd
Dec 25th
“Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the...”
— St. John Chrysostom’s...
Dec 24th
John Darkow
Dec 24th
“[David] Brooks is a perfect example of the kind of spineless...”
— Matt Taibbi
Dec 24th
worldometers.info
Dec 24th
15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at...
Dec 24th
“Christianity isn’t moving people’s lives today....”
— Joseph Campbell
Dec 24th
The betrayal of the smart sons
Dec 24th
Don’t be Stupid About Christmas
Dec 24th
“Christmas is therefore a Christian holy day that, when...”
—  John Stackhouse
Dec 24th
The Warriors: One of the Best Pure Action...
Dec 24th
“Will Obama reverse the Pentagon’s mission creep?...”
— John Feffer
Dec 24th
“American’s often judge George Washington harshly because he...”
— Thom Hartmann
Dec 23rd
How to tell if someone is carrying a handgun
Dec 23rd
First, organize 1,000
Dec 23rd
“The world you inhabit is the world you make. Your reputation...”
— Rod Wagner & Gale Muller
Dec 23rd
“Communities built cathedrals over generations. Usually, no...”
— Frank Schaeffer
Dec 23rd
“So just consider the record here. The New York Times will...”
— Glenn Greenwald
Dec 23rd
The ten best documentaries of 2009
Dec 23rd
Metafuckers
Dec 23rd
Steve Sack
Dec 23rd
“So this is the fact: our consumerism is slowly killing the...”
— Drew Tatusko
Dec 23rd
“When all is said and done — and, yes, there is a bit...”
— Eugene Robinson
Dec 23rd
Max Baucus: The individual mandate is...
Dec 23rd
Matt Bors
Dec 22nd
50 most popular baby names of the decade...
Dec 22nd
“Christmas in colonial America did not resemble the brightly...”
— Nicole Harms
Dec 22nd
Save Social Security - 10 Questions for the Deficit...
Dec 22nd
“Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice and so they have no...”
— Garrison Keillor
Dec 22nd
“Some day all semiconductors will break down and therefore...”
— Anton Zeilinger
Dec 22nd
“Whether or not we embrace the ancient example of the early...”
— An Ancient Christian Response...
Dec 22nd
An E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy
Dec 22nd
Top Ten Worst Things about the Bush Decade;...
Dec 22nd
“I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest...”
— Maya Angelou
Dec 22nd
Explosm.net
Dec 22nd
“If labor can be summoned and directed from afar, fewer and...”
— Jonathan Zittrain
Dec 22nd
Sex Offenders Win Case, Allowed in Church
Dec 22nd
Watch Watch
Jonathan Zittrain: “Minds for Sale”
Dec 22nd
It's no wonder they don't trust us
Dec 22nd
“If you’re a serious consumer of information from a wide...”
— RSS readers are for...
Dec 22nd
Public Schools Outperform Private Schools in...
Dec 22nd
“Who is against jobs in the United States? The big banks,...”
— Fritz Hollings
Dec 22nd
U.S. Voters Oppose Health Care
Dec 22nd
“Well, the whole point of the public option originally was...”
— Glenn Greenwald
Dec 22nd
Letter to a Christian Young Man Regarding...
Dec 22nd
Steve Kelley
Dec 22nd
35 Ways To Fix The Bad Senate Health Bill
Dec 21st
“Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To...”
— Oren Arnold
Dec 21st
America’s Future: Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Dec 21st
Daryl Cagle
Dec 21st
“Early in his Peace Prize speech Barack Obama told the world...”
— Frances Moore Lappe
Dec 21st
“When the guys with all of the guns stop listening to the...”
— Why Maricopa County Matters
Dec 21st
This is disturbing
Dec 21st
“I think something’s happened—50 years of looking at screens…...”
— Ralph Nader
Dec 21st
Report: Bush Admin Raised Terror Alert Based...
Dec 21st
“The Constitution is clear: no person can be held without due...”
— Dred Scott Redux: Obama and...
Dec 21st
Energy scarcity and not peak oil needs global...
Dec 21st
The 7 Most Influential Actions You Took to...
Dec 21st
“As the end-credits rolled for James Cameron’s new...”
— James Howard Kunstler
Dec 21st
Obama's Af-Pak War is Illegal
Dec 21st
“For the first time in history, a civilian intelligence...”
— Scott Shane
Dec 21st
“Somehow the president has managed to turn a base of new and...”
— Drew Westen
Dec 21st
Matt Bors
Dec 20th
NFL to ask players to donate brains
Dec 20th
“When I first came to Afghanistan a month after the Taliban...”
— Hashem Ahelbarra
Dec 20th
Ten Science Stories That Changed Our Decade
Dec 20th
New Agers and Creationists should not be President
Dec 20th
“Republicans will have a series of easy targets to rail...”
— Bruce A. Dixon
Dec 20th
The greatest rock and roll Christmas songs of...
Dec 19th
“New Age beliefs are the Creationism of the Progressives. I...”
— Roger Ebert
Dec 19th
bartcop.com
Dec 19th
“Think about it, the difference between social insurance and...”
— Robert Kuttner
Dec 19th
“But there is a deep conceptual issue that he [President...”
— Stanley Hauerwas
Dec 19th
“In the old testament and in the Jewish Interpretive and...”
— Reesa Grushka
Dec 19th
Illegally Park-ed
Dec 19th
The Public Option: Been There, Done That
Dec 18th
“What defeated Roosevelt in 1938? In part the peculiar...”
— The Edge of the American West
Dec 18th
“The life of actors and actresses in the mid-19th century was...”
— 19th century Theater Life
Dec 18th
Where is Happyville, USA?
Dec 18th
“Here is a Roman emperor who never set foot in Italy; a great...”
— William Rosen
Dec 18th
Is it possible to create your own country?
Dec 18th
nakedpastor
Dec 18th
Blood diamonds from Zimbabwe
Dec 18th
Ten Movies From '70s Hollywood You Need To...
Dec 18th
“The creation is not in any sense independent of the Creator,...”
— Wendell Berry
Dec 18th
Steve Sack
Dec 18th
“Destructive means cannot bring constructive ends, because...”
— Martin Luther King
Dec 18th
“In less than a century, Christians have gone from opposing...”
— Skye Jethani
Dec 18th
“There was a time in American history when Christians could...”
— A Reply To Those People
Dec 18th
“What if instead of Reinhold Niebuhr being Obama’s favorite...”
— Jarrod McKenna
Dec 18th
The Best and the Worst Tech of the Decade
Dec 17th
Public Option Please
Dec 17th
“There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth...”
— Tolstoy
Dec 17th
“I can’t imagine a terrorist training camp lasting long...”
— Scott Adams
Dec 17th
John Sherffius
Dec 17th
“So take right now, for example, there is a right-wing...”
— Noam Chomsky
Dec 17th
“In the evolution of civilization, if it is to survive, all...”
— General Douglas MacArthur
Dec 17th
All-Criminal NFL Lineup: Defense
Dec 17th
Meat may be the reason humans outlive apes
Dec 17th
“There are two ways that industrialized nations have achieved...”
— Without A Public Option, The...
Dec 17th
Getting Real: Ten Myths Behind Progressive...
Dec 17th
“A man may have the heart of a Pharisee, while his head is...”
— John Newton
Dec 17th
If Health Reform Fails, America’s Innovation...
Dec 17th
“Most serious news stories are peppered with information that...”
— Chuck Klosterman (via marco)
Dec 17th
Watch Watch
The Rebel Jesus - Jackson Browne
Dec 17th
“Despite the fact that God’s heart for the poor is...”
— Christians losing their way
Dec 16th
“Of some thoughts one stands perplexed — especially at the...”
— Dostoyevsky
Dec 16th
Jeff Danziger
Dec 16th
“…let me repeat a point I made a number of times back when...”
— Paul Krugman
Dec 16th
“[T]he “ism” aspect of Christianity is not...”
— Jacques Ellul
Dec 16th
“You know what offends me? It’s not whether someone says...”
— Stand up for “christmas”?
Dec 16th
Sweatshop Hall of Fame 2010
Dec 16th
“And Obama can say that you’re getting a lot, but also...”
— Hullabaloo
Dec 16th
“The sentiment behind Obama’s campaign vow to close...”
— Glenn Greenwald
Dec 15th
“The first rule is that the economy as a whole must grow. A...”
— Glimpsing the Apocalypse
Dec 15th
nakedpastor
Dec 15th
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without...”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dec 15th
“No one has an inalienable right to tell the majority of...”
— Ben Witherington
Dec 15th
Monte Wolverton
Dec 15th
Why We Lost Healthcare
Dec 15th
“Senate Democrats on Monday evening dropped the plan to...”
— Thom Hartmann
Dec 15th
“And I think that there is another moral question—one...”
— Susan Jacoby
Dec 15th
Jeff Danziger
Dec 15th
“Rather than furthering the U.S. cause in the “war on...”
— Scott Ritter
Dec 15th
Joe Lieberman's Healthcare Bill Is Worse Than...
Dec 15th
“Google gets a lot of criticism (often deserved), but it’s...”
— Aaron Swartz
Dec 14th
Shot or not, dead or alive? Two men's fates...
Dec 14th

Genie Mac

As I wrote previously, I ordered the new 27 inch iMac from apple.com/store. It took a few weeks to...
Dec 14th
What Matters Now: get the free ebook
Dec 14th
nakedpastor.com
Dec 14th
Jobs, Jobs, and Green Jobs
Dec 14th
“Central to the problems we face is our reluctance to see...”
— William Vitek
Dec 14th
“The Constitution ties the ongoing use of military force to...”
— Glenn Greenwald
Dec 14th
The uneasy truth behind Tim Donaghy’s...
Dec 14th
“Obama uses the veneer of intellectualism to promote the...”
— Chris Hedges
Dec 14th
Why Go to Copenhagen?
Dec 14th
Pat Bagley
Dec 13th
“The difference between you now and you in five years will be...”
— Charles Tremendous Jones
Dec 13th
“What gives our Great Recession its particular darkness — and...”
— Hollywood’s Brilliant Coda to...
Dec 13th
Paul Samuelson, R.I.P.
Dec 13th
Andy Singer
Dec 13th
“Social media literacy is going to change many games in...”
— Howard Rheingold
Dec 13th
“Almost no false prophecy, erroneous doctrine, rank...”
— John MacArthur
Dec 13th
AT&T Takes the Fall for the iPhone’s Glitches
Dec 13th
Mike Luckovich
Dec 13th
“When people become broken, they cannot act on truths of...”
— Bruce E. Levin
Dec 13th
Vanishing glaciers jolt smokestack China
Dec 13th
“Nationalism saturates American life – it is just the...”
— Vox Nova
Dec 12th
“Modernity believes in equality, and friendships, unlike...”
— Faux Friendship
Dec 12th
The Millennials
Dec 11th
Wondermark
Dec 11th
A Framework for Impunity
Dec 11th
“One of the great mysteries of the mind is how we are able to...”
— Lera Boroditsky
Dec 11th
Rob Rogers
Dec 11th
The perfect way to slice a pizza
Dec 11th
“In 1957 Vance Packard wrote The Hidden Persuaders to unmask...”
— Helen Fisher
Dec 11th
Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret Raids by the...
Dec 11th
nakedpastor.com
Dec 11th
“Even as we use experimental science and mathematical logic...”
— Kenneth Miller
Dec 11th
“Our leaders are aren’t giving us Hopenhagen -...”
— Johann Hari
Dec 11th
“As Howard Zinn has often pointed out, history told from...”
— Viggo Mortensen
Dec 11th
The Joy of Tech
Dec 11th
Matter of life, death
Dec 11th
The War President’s Peace Prize
Dec 11th
“No human being created in God’s image and of sacred...”
— Ben Witherington
Dec 11th
“We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not...”
— President Obama
Dec 11th
“Despite all the terrifying evidence before our...”
— Dave Lindorff
Dec 10th
“…in times like these, for an artist not to devote her/his...”
— Artists: Raise Your Weapons
Dec 10th
Change in Honesty and Ethics Ratings of Professions,...
Dec 10th
Employment-to-population ratio among men 25-54
Dec 10th
How a Few Private Health Insurers Are on the...
Dec 10th
The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus
Dec 10th
“So the old system of inefficient bureaucracies and...”
— Matt Taibbi
Dec 10th
The Insurance Industry's Lethal Bottom Line...
Dec 10th
“Technology may change everything, but it’s impossible to...”
— Steven Pinker
Dec 10th
Obama Sends Predator Drone to Pick Up Nobel...
Dec 10th
Top Things that would Redeem Obama's Peace...
Dec 10th
“Very few people are happy with the amount of money they...”
— The delusion of always wanting...
Dec 10th
“…vast amounts of digital memory will change the relationship...”
— Charles Seife
Dec 10th
Jim Day
Dec 9th
“A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so...”
— Bruce Schneier
Dec 9th
“Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and...”
— Ray Bradbury
Dec 9th
“When every useful discovery made at one end of the earth...”
— Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Dec 9th
You Missed It: Most Unfairly Overlooked...
Dec 9th
“Today, one might well advise the young person planning to...”
— Leo Chalupa
Dec 9th
bartcop.com
Dec 9th
The 1st Human to Live to 1,000 is Alive Today
Dec 9th
“Today’s world, its economy, industry, environment,...”
— Haim Harari
Dec 9th
The New Identity Politics Party
Dec 9th
“The argument frequently made by Malthusians is that there’s...”
— Who’s afraid of billions...
Dec 9th
Holy rage at the ‘Spring
Dec 9th
“If, as reported, the Democrats have dropped the public...”
— Some Assembly Required
Dec 9th
“There are many scary things about today’s world. But...”
— Chris Anderson
Dec 9th
R.J. Matson
Dec 8th
“On health care, one wonders if his heart was ever in it....”
— Rogue Columnist
Dec 8th
How the Taliban Take a Village
Dec 8th
Arctic threats and challenges from climate...
Dec 8th
Steve Benson
Dec 8th
Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140...
Dec 8th
“Today, virtually every climatologist agrees that average...”
— Jared Diamond
Dec 8th
This decade ‘warmest on record’
Dec 8th
The Next Surge - Counterbureaucracy
Dec 8th
“Much of the misery in the world today — as it always has...”
— Karl Sabbagh
Dec 8th
August J. Pollak
Dec 8th
Stuff You Can’t Make Up
Dec 8th
“Will Americans ever rise up in defense of their own common...”
— Joe Bageant
Dec 8th
Israeli Scholar Disputes Founding Myth
Dec 8th
Google Upgrades Chrome To Beta For OS X,...
Dec 8th
“Somewhere in a cave between Louisiana and Mississippi some...”
— Republicans & Big Pharma
Dec 7th
nakedpastor
Dec 7th
“FEW subjects rival the federal budget deficit in its power...”
— Robert Frank
Dec 7th
“A new Rasmussen poll shows the Tea Party movement is way...”
— Thom Hartmann
Dec 7th
“Once a movement becomes an institution, it is lost.”
— Jacques Ellul
Dec 7th
56 newspapers in 45 countries published the...
Dec 7th
“Pearl Harbor was revived as a milestone in the American...”
— James Carroll
Dec 7th
Homosexual selection: The power of same-sex...
Dec 7th
bartcop.com
Dec 7th
In Polls, Much Opposition to Health Care Plan...
Dec 7th
“Liberals are a useless lot. They talk about peace and do...”
— Chris Hedges
Dec 7th
“Around twenty years ago, I was an IBM Systems Engineer,...”
— cnewmark
Dec 7th
“…a weak public option is worse than no public option at all,...”
— John Cole
Dec 7th
Why Homicide Declined in American Cities...
Dec 7th
Two-thirds of Americans don’t understand the public...
Dec 7th
“Going green” is now a trick to get you to consume more...”
— Drew Tatusko
Dec 7th
FDL Book Salon Welcomes James Hoggan, Climate...
Dec 7th
Pat Bagley
Dec 7th
“Chuck Heath’s quip that his daughter Sarah Palin...”
— Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Dec 7th