Intellectual Bubblegum

I read it for the articles. Alone. When nobody's watching.

Brooks — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:58:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Canadian scientists trying to find a control group (20-year old men that had never seen porn) couldn't find any. Apparently they don't exist. But what they did find.

"The research concluded that 90 percent of pornography is consumed on the Internet, while 10 percent comes from video stores. On average, single men watch pornography three times a week for 40 minutes. Those who are in committed relationships watch it on average 1.7 times a week for 20 minutes."

Do you want to quit?

Brooks — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:45:00 -0500

Chew on this,

It's for a designer, but it feelw like it applies to anyone frustrated with their job.

Beating your husband? I'd recommend a five iron.

Brooks — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:41:30 -0500

Chew on this,

The double standard. If the police came to a home where the husband, angry his wife may have had an affair, look like he hit her repeatedly with a golf club, wouldn't we be throwing around words like "abuse" and "domestic violence?

Can't you borrow a cup of sugar like everybody else?

Brooks — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:56:00 -0500

Chew on this,

According to Men's Health, 38% of women admit to trying to "poach" a man from their friends. Often, not for a relationship, but to serve a short-term connection or sexual need.

A last swipe at the whole Twilight thing…

Brooks — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:54:00 -0500

Chew on this,

I'm glad women have a franchise to enjoy like men enjoy Star Trek, so I kid in jest. But this is something to think about.

Why Bad Girls fall for Bad Movies.

Brooks — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:51:00 -0500

Chew on this,

A great page explaining the intense following for Twilight. Thanks to The Oatmeal.com. See it here.

Mmmmm. Secular progressives. My favorite!

Brooks — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:50:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Infidels are snack food for religion, cults and new shows.

Leaders of churches, cults, political parties and opinion-focused news shows have the same task: they need to keep members glued and excited. But a constant stream of your own beliefs gets boring after awhile. Kinda like being at a club and hearing the same beat to ad nauseam. The solution? Give your flock an enemy or threat to consume and sustain the passion of the group. It nourishes their allegiance to the cause. Best part, they don't need to be a real threat. Just present them as a boogeyman.

Christian infidel snack food:
Non Christians. Like secular people who are taking away things like Christmas and the Christian way of life. Hence, Fox's the War of Xmas.

Islam’s snack food:
Christians want to corrupt Islam and the women of Islam with their western values. Hence the motivation for moderates becoming radicalized in some versions of Islam.

Republicans snack food:
Democrats. Those people that will take your guns and freedoms.

Democrats snack food:
Republicans. Those people who will take your liberties.

The moral of the story. As some point, your love of God or values gets old. So hate for others keeps you going.

Able to make tall leaps on logic in a single bound…

Brooks — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:41:00 -0500

Chew on this,

I'm already on the beach by now,(hopefully) and probably getting too much sun. But something to enjoy. I will say right now, this is a little too mean, by half because finding that sweet spot between jabbing fun a floundering, simple thinking and simple speaking female politician and not piling on just for being a woman is hard. But there is a truth in this comic book spoof from MAD that is damn funny. Who knew MAD is becoming the new SPY Magazine? See you next week.

How Christian of you.

Brooks — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:39:00 -0500

Chew on this, as reported by Gawker:

Shirts and bumper stickers are cropping up with the phrase "Pray for Obama Psalm 109:8." As Gawker points out, the verse in question reads in part, "Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

Repent, the end is near!!!! The signs are all around us!!!

Brooks — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:35:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Eggos are in short supply. Kellogg's is rationing them out to stores. Oprah is quitting her show. And I can't find a matching sock. This is it. The beginning of the end of civilization. the Mayan 2012 prophesy is true!!!

It's American Logic and Values on Trial

Brooks — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:20:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Is the way some are decrying trying the 9-11 planners and enemy combatants now facing trial in the American justice system like the way many conservatives decry gays getting married? Marriage and the American justice system are so great and so right, that only certain people we like deserve them?

Or is a disturbing trend I see, particularly among Republicans. Freedom and rights are a one-way street. I deserve them (freedoms and liberties). You don't. From Mrs. Prejean, who claims her freedom to express herself is under attack, while hitting every broadcast outlet to express how she so attacked, you can see her tell you that on every channel. While the beauty pageant company who fired her is attacking her and stunting her free speech by firing her - no way could that be related to her not living up to her contractual obligation as Mrs. California. Mr. Prejean who claims to love the freedoms the country affords her while actively trying to take the right she has, to be married in the eyes of the state, from others.

To hear Republicans like Sarah Palin who say it's okay to profile Muslims because of the Muslim Fort Hood killer is more than likely advocating such a call because she and people like her are not Muslim. If a Christian killed all those people at Fort Hood because he felt his faith and the Bible that war was wrong, it still not likely we'd hear calls for profiling Christians. Because, that's the cool religion. And such profiling and scrutiny would be persecution of "our" faith.

If values that you say you cherish stop when they could be used by someone you don't like. It's not a value you have. It's a luxury. LIke wanting the bigger plush chair while refusing to give one to the people you don't like. A value is something you believe in, it should be universal if possible. For example, it's a value not to steal. That's why you'd likely raise eyebrows if you said, "we can steal. You can't." It's a value to tell the truth. It would sound ridiculous to say, "don't lie. Except gays, you can lie." It's just as silly to say the system of justice we believe in isn't good enough for some people. Or the principal behind marriage only works for people you approve of.

Yes, some things are as simple as black and white.

Brooks — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0500

Chew on this,

According to the BBC, in the UK, 40 years after the introduction of color TV, almost 30 thousand people still watch black and white TV. Some just refuse to switch.

I used to rely on the Magic 8 ball before this...

Brooks — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:34:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Again from HolyTaco.com, a handy flowchart to help you determine whether or not your going to have sex at the end of your date:

I got B 11...

Brooks — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0500

Chew on this

From Holytaco.com, a weekend in Vegas Bingo card.

How does the GOP get rid of an unwanted problem? Abort it.

Brooks — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:25:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Isn't this essentially an abortion procedure? An abortion procedure to stop abortions?

Reported and excerpted from the Boston Globe:

"The GOP is doing its darndest to quickly move on from an embarrassing revelation -- that even as congressional Republicans insist that the health care overhaul does not cover abortions, the national party's own health plan covers elective procedures."

Welfare state of mind.

Brooks — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:23:00 -0500

Chew on this.

Government is to liberals what God is to Christians. Liberals and progressives tend to look towards government power as first response to ask for redress of grievances. Government is the sugar daddy that provides a stream of gifts meeting personal needs and desires. A well of government-based miracles.

Christians look to God, which for Christians is the sugar daddy of wishes and desires. Why work for it yourself when you can just ask God to do your bidding. From desires of wealth to winning hockey games. To winning wars and punishing enemies.

In short, Liberals and social conservatives both shun personal responsibility and the idea of the action of the individual. One may choose big government. The other chooses Big God.

Hot Jesus

Brooks — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:06:32 -0500

Chew on this,

First Jesus was tortured for his beliefs. Now it’s a beauty pageant contestant.

Carrie Prejean is the gift that keeps on giving. And a symbol of the hypocrisy in the social conservative movement.

Miss Prejean says she is a “Christian” dedicated to upholding Christian values, except when she made sex tapes and was caught lying about them and apparently asked the person she originally sent them to lie about her age when those were taken. So besides violating God rules for fornication, lying, and bearing false witness, she’s cool with God.

She fights for her freedom to say what she feels, but becomes annoyed when others express their ideas or their questions to her – even going so far to tell Larry King he was being inappropriate for simply asking why she dropped her lawsuit against the Beauty Pageant officials who fired her. Instead she threatened to walk out as if Larry King said, “whip those boobs out baby!” on national TV. If he said that, that would be inappropriate. But being asked questions on an interview show? Not so much.

She proclaims she loves America and the freedoms afforded to us, and that like her grandfather who served in wartime, we should fight to keep those freedoms. At the same time, she actively works with social conservative groups to take liberties away from others. Particularly people who want to marry people of the same sex. Because, apparently for Miss Prejean, freedom is so great, so important only the people you like should have them.

To be honest, she can break these rules and be caught in contradictions simply because she wears her values the same way a college mascot wears their costume. A set a values to be put on to rally Christians and to be taken off when the game is over. It’s only an act.

In short, like her “phone buddy” Sarah Palin, who left being governor to write books and tour, she’s merely in the business of being a social conservative. Because she found a decent paycheck in making speeches, writing books. And for her the role of “hot Jesus” a woman “crucified” by the media for loving God and standing up for Christian values plays well. It’s the best of both worlds; Jesus and you get to look at a pretty woman.

The sex tape scandal may hurt her. Likely not. Christian don’t tolerate being gay, or liberal. But like a boys club, they tend to whip out the forgiveness for buddies that in general think and act like themselves. So don’t be surprised if Little Miss Contradictions, star still rises in the social conservative moment.

Clue phone, line one.

Brooks — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:19:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Take away the pundit spin of the elections of last week and one thing is clear: Americans are pissed.

Awakened by the near financial collapse, loss of jobs, lower 401Ks, loss of houses, being soaked by fees from credit cards, people are scared. All while seeing the government that was didn't protect them help the financial community that caused the problem roar back to profitability. Government, not Republicans or Democrats are going to be whipping boys for a while. And like a gopher, any incumbent that sticks their head up and in public view in the way of elections will likely get it taken off.

The short of it. Get something done, it you want to keep your job.

Sometimes a horrendous crime is just a horrendous crime.

Brooks — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:15:00 -0500

Chew on this,

For those who are turning up the anti-Muslim rhetoric about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim an Army psychiatrist who killed the soldiers at Ft. Hood, think about this: if the person who shot everyone was a fundamentalist Christian? Would you be so fast to single out and condemn all Christians for possibly being evil?

Know your douchebags

Brooks — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:21:00 -0500

Chew on this,

From HolyTaco.com, a diagram of the types of douchebags across the country.

The girls in Kindergarten just stare.

Brooks — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:19:00 -0500

Chew on this,

5-year-old Giuliano Stroe has been bodybuilding for most of his life and is now is a new entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

Don't let the facts get in the way of your decision

Brooks — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:16:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Only 39% of us believe in Darwin and evolution - despite physical and empirical evidence that makes it hard to dispute as strong viable explanation. Yet more people believe there a man in the sky that watched everything you do with no physical evidence except a book other people wrote.

Not putting on your best face on FaceBook

Brooks — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:11:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Last week, the GOP posted a fan page on Facebook in order to present the GOP as a hip organization in touch with the moods of Facebook folks. Well, the mood of some of the pages users isn't so pretty. Users posted multiple offensive images including those below. To the GOP's credit and awareness of the PR problem, it took down most of the inappropriate photos and offensive comments, but left up a few crude Photoshopped images including one text graphic that read “OMG, Just Shut Up Obama.

If this was a person, not a company, this would be called stalking.

Brooks — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:07:00 -0500

Chew on this,

A blog article about the merits of giving store clerks your zip code when they ask for it during a credit care purchase, shows what companies can do with that information.

According to a recent court case in California (Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma Stores Inc., Cal. Ct. App., 4th Dist., No. D054355). Giving the zip code allows the store to "enhance" the information they already have about your (your name from the credit card) and determine your home address.

The blog written by Chris Hoofnagle and his description of the facts behind this case…

"Jessica Pineda visited a store in California owned by Williams-Sonoma Stores, Inc. (the Store) and selected an item to purchase. She then went to the cashier to pay for the item with her credit card. The cashier asked for her zip code, but did not tell her the consequences if she declined to provide the information. Believing that she was required to provide her zip code to complete the transaction, Pineda provided the information. The cashier recorded it into the electronic cash register and then completed the transaction. At the end of the transaction, the Store had Pineda's credit card number, name and zip code recorded in its databases.

After acquiring this information, the Store used customized computer software to perform reverse searches from databases that contain millions of names, e-mail addresses, residential telephone numbers and residential addresses, and are indexed in a manner that resembles a reverse telephone book. The Store's software then matched Pineda's now-known name, zip code or other personal information with her previously unknown address, thereby giving the Store access to her name and address."

Foxed up News

Brooks — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:40:00 -0500

Chew on this,

Jon Stewart once against hits it on the head as to Fox's bleeding of opinion and fact into the consumer mindstream.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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For Fox Sake!

www.thedailyshow.com

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