The Kurt Cobain Christmas album

See, in my America, we have freedom of religion and no official State religion

Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.

He should not be allowed to do so — not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization.

Bigoted, much?

For that matter, why the hell does anyone have to swear on any book at all? The entire setup is ridiculous and unconstitutional from any rational (that is, non-Christianist, non-Scalia) point of view.

Just another day in right blogistan, of course, but this way of thinking is entirely antithetical to the supposed American ideals of freedom of and freedom from religion, not to mention freedom of expression, personal responsibility, and personal integrity.

Thanks to Prager and Clownhall for demonstrating what it is they believe in yet again - authoritarian, bigoted, christianity. Good on ya.

Now you do (or you can read about it, I guess).

That’s one athletic mofo. If you start searching on YT, you might want to give yourself a few hours to explore.

The one who started the sport is David Belle:

Remember when I linked to the worst vanity cover song in the history of ever? Well, they made a video:

If you listen to the original, you’ll notice something… autotune is Katie Price/Jordan’s best friend. BEST friend. (actually, check that, they’ve removed the mp3. Tragedy!)

Well at least my ears aren’t bleeding any more. My eyes on the other hand… (that shower scene is HIGHlarious!)

As an update to a previous post, the Houston janitors who were striking for better pay and benefits and who were attacked by the police… won!

City-wide union contract will more than double income for more than 5,300 janitors and families, latest victory in national fight for good jobs with health care

And that makes this a very good Thanksgiving for us all. Happy T-day, everyone!

I can’t think of a better consumer guide to top notch cameras than Flickr’s new Camera Finder utility.

Looks like the Canon EOS Rebel XT is the hands-down winner. The others are the Nikon D50, Canon EOS 20D, Nikon D70, and the Canon Digital Rebel (non XT version).

Guess where I’m looking first when I get my digital SLR camera? Man, I want one of those bad boys.

Because it’s been in my head all day

RIP, Bob. You made some great movies that I enjoyed immensely.

Following Henry’s following of Jim Henley’s following of Adrienne Aldredge’s meme:

What authors have you given up on for good? And why?

Now, we’ve got two people saying Dan Simmons so I can’t use him. Which is unfortunate, since he certainly deserves to be on the list, both because of the GWOT malarkey and his horrible second-novels in each series he’s done. So… here’s my list of authors that started off great. Our relationship was perfect and my love for them burned brighter than two suns … only to fizzle when they kept publishing past their expiration date. These authors are dead to me, our love a dry, barren, scorched earth of place where only the unlikeliest of seeds may take root henceforth:

Chuck Palahniuk. Invisible Monsters, Fight Club, and Survivor were fantastic. Choke was good. But Diary, Lullaby, and Haunted were all empty nothings that lacked the energy, vision, and genius of his earlier work. I was pretty sure I was done after Diary, but I’m certain I’m done after Haunted.

Neal Stephenson. There, I’ve said it. Quicksilver was such an awful book that it overwhelmed the truly awe-inspiring works of Snow Crash and Diamond Age. and I liked the Big U, Zodiac, and Cryptonomicron as well. Interface… not so much (it was a long way to go just to get a black woman as president). Visionary, meth-and-death-metal fueled genius… toppled under it’s own weight and affectation of writing three massive tomes longhand.

Orson Scott Card. Three of his works were fantastic - Ender’s Game, Seventh Son, and Red Prophet. Some were pretty good (like the first two in the Homecoming series), but every book after the second in each of his series was just awful. The returning to former glories with Ender’s Shadow and the like is just pathetic. The well is dry, Orson. That and the freaking incessant pounding of the Mormon mythology drums just gets tiresome.

On the bubble: Neil Gaiman, Greg Bear, George R. R. Martin, Jim Butcher, Stephen King
Definitely on the list, but too trite to mention: J.K. Rowling, Robert Jordan, Michael Moore, Anne Rice

Update: Just found out about OS Card’s warporn book. Feeling very secure with my pick there.

but Nicaragua is now officially on the Grumpy boycott list

Hopes among women’s groups in Nicaragua that President Enrique Bolaños would stop one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Latin America from taking effect have been dashed, as the president signed it into law late Friday.

Abortion has been illegal in Nicaragua for more than a century, and most women who decide to end unwanted pregnancies seek procedures at underground clinics. But the new law strikes out a clause that made it possible for a woman to obtain an abortion legally when three doctors certified that unless she did, her own life would be in danger.

For months, the proposed law has drawn fierce criticism from several local women’s groups, the country’s association of gynecologists, the United Nations, the World Health Organization and Human Rights Watch, among others.

“This is a throwback to the Middle Ages for women’s rights,” Juana Jiménez, the leader of the Women’s Autonomous Movement in Nicaragua, said after the law was passed.

Book, TV show cancelled

News Corp., the parent company of book publisher HarperCollins and the FOX network, has canceled publication of the O.J. Simpson book and television special “If I Did It.”

“I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. “We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.”

In the book, the one-time football superstar tells how he would have killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman if, in fact, he had done it.

A dozen FOX affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special, planned for next week before the book’s publication.

One station manager who had said he wasn’t airing the special said he was concerned that whether or not Simpson was guilty, he’d still be profiting from murders.

It’s still not going to stop me from running my picture again, though.

More from the Obama files

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who is contemplating a run for the presidency, on Monday called for a “gradual and substantial” reduction of U.S. forces from Iraq that would begin in four to six months.

Feh. Decisive action is always 6 months away for these people (it’s a good idea… just not… right… now). Less talking, more doing please. Until you’re coming with a solution and action rather than words, go away. Again.

New York Post edition

Jennifer Lopez is about to be spoofed in a new porn flick that takes obscene liberties with her hit song “Jenny From the Block.” The XXX flick, titled “J-Ho: Jenny on the [Rhymes with Block],” will be an adults-only parody of her career. Playing J.Ho will be Jasmine Byrne, a Lopez look-alike who previously starred in “Britney Rears 3″ and “Angels of Debauchery.” “I always loved . . . J.Lo, doing her singing and acting and . . . I jumped at the chance to do it,” gushed Byrne.

That I didn’t think of “Britney Rears” is bad enough, but that I wasn’t the first one to think of “J-Ho: Jenny on the Cock” is just criminal.

I’m sorry, my peoples. I have failed you.

I just saw the teaser poster for Hot Fuzz:

The guy on the left? That’s Simon Pegg. You know, that hilarious guy from Spaced and Shaun of the Dead? The guy on the right? That’s Nick Frost Ed from Shaun of the Dead. Ed!

I’m psyched for Hot Fuzz just based on Pegg’s involvement, though I really think they need to get working on Day of the Ed.

Bonus points for elbow grease, risk-taking, and inventiveness

Tipped off by three plastic pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean’s surface, authorities seized a homemade submarine packed with 3 tons of cocaine off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.

Four men traveled inside the 50-foot wood and fiberglass craft, breathing through the pipes. The craft sailed along at about 7 mph, just six feet beneath the surface, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said Sunday.