Kleberg County, Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In 1997, Kleberg County Commissioners unanimously voted to adopt “heaven-o” as the official greeting of the county instead of “hello”. Kleberg County residents are now encouraged to use “heaven-o” to acknowledge one another. The reason cited for the change was the fact that hello contains the word hell, even though it is not etymologically related.
Wow, this is heaven-a genius! Just because of this, I might have to say “what the heaven” and head down there and find some pretty seas-heaven-s on the beaches near this heaven-hole to show my support.
The ultimate personality test
It’s not strange to disagree about movies that are wildly different, and there are surely a few random movies that are very polarizing. What I find most interesting is which movie people consider the best movie from a particular director, as it is usually very telling and polarizing in a different way, so to this point I will propose a new personality test where you reblog your favorite movie from each of these directors:
- Joel Coen: No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, etc
- Wes Anderson: The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tennenbaums, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, etc
- Hal Ashby: Being There, Shampoo, Harold and Maude, etc
- Kevin Smith: Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Dogma, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Clerks, etc
- Quentin Tarantino: Grindhouse, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc
My results: Miller’s Crossing, Bottle Rocket, Being There, Mallrats, Reservoir Dogs. Judge accordingly.
Instant gratification takes too long to say. —J. Adam Moore
Foreword from Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death"
We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions”. In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.
A whole new meaning to The Shining.
Photographer Robbie Cooper shows just how focused young video-game players can be.
(P.S. Fuck The New York Times and their unresizable, non-embedding/auto-starting video. It’s 2008, brah.)
(P.P.S. I’m allowed to say that because I am a shareholder, which was arguably not the smartest thing in the world to do.)
She’s like a cotton candy Cadillac driven by Abraham Lincoln with a beard made out of diamonds, so fuck you. —Get Your War On: The Day Traitors
Can’t touch this.
Apparently the overprotective mothers of today are not only having their kids take shots of epinephrine after every potentially threatening meal, but also creating such things as a weiner dog fannypack to carry them in.
This map of the map of number of residents per Waffle House laid over the map of America’s racist belt laid over the map of 1860 cotton production laid over the map of 2008 election results clearly proves that either Waffle House is ground zero for racism in America, or people like making shit up to gullible people. Don’t even make me plot Walmart store locations, people.
At one time, the President and Vice-President were given three-inch-high models of the Washington Monument to put beside their beds. They had simply to knock them over to summon the guards. But the models were abandoned after Vice-President Dan Quayle - noted for being clumsy - knocked his over late one night while making love to his wife. In seconds, the door burst open, the lights went on and Mrs Quayle was thrown out of bed to the floor as bodyguards flocked around her husband to ensure his safety. —Barack Obama: What life will be like for new US President
Damn that’s a great story… sort of even surprised it’s out there.
