Broadcast Brian

I’ve always considered myself a fairly moderate to liberal person, politically.  However, maybe I just don’t know what liberal means, like Elena Kagan doesn’t know what progressive means.  I was consequently shocked to see, quite a while ago, gay protestors using the same techniques to limit conveyance of views in a public assembly as those used by Chinese secret police to hamstring legit reporters in Beijing.  They had to know who they were aping.  Perhaps that’s their message after all.  So yeah, a bit on the nose, but, WTF.

Okay, so, um, maybe it’d been a while since I’d been to McDonald’s.  But, I noted that they have wonderfully attuned, illustrative packaging now for their burgers and fries.  Here’s a great fast food blog post about it: link.

Yeah, I realize it’s a bit British to add the ‘u’, but this is the Tea Party we’re talking about here.  In any case, NPR national has a fascinating biomorphic comparison based upon undersea life to describe how the Tea Party, and, verging on the ironic, Apache tribes have organizational characteristics akin to starfish.  Here’s the link.

So, there’s a detail about the Irish priest abuse scandals that is compelling me to post something.  The NY Times reports that children were forced to sign oaths to not disclose what happened.  This is straight-up Columbia House, Scientological nonsense.  Did they bring in special attorneys who could tell the children what they were supposedly signing away?  I sense that the Vatican is correct when it charges that the timing and tenor of the latest allegations are fueled by those who would benefit from the papacy and church losing stature, but why give them ammunition?  Why enter into contracto weirdo molesto (original latin I believe) with 10 year olds?  The whole thing raises more questions than it answers.  Jack Donague’s ex-girlfriend Maureen Dowd thinks that this indicates a need for the first female pope…a nope.  Probs a nod to Amy Poehler’s character from Parks and Recreation, though, perhaps, a Neal Stephenson reference.   Weird time to be Catholic, I’m just saying.

The editors of The Vigilant Citizen finally get the recognition they deserve for the absolutely delightful breakdown of Lady GaGa’s videographic imagery.  The Atlantic picked it up (yes, this has been an Atlantic heavy day) and toasted it as a favorite screed.  The Vigilants have been working on their theories about Lady GaGa’s video imagery since last August, and they manage to at least make sense of Bad Romance in a way that would certainly impress a professor of Formalist Film Studies.

Google has apparently ended its censorship of its China portal, google.cn, despite an order from China just hours ago.  MSNBC reports that the famous Tank Man photo is now available through that portal.

The Upper House of India’s Parliament passed a measure that would create a ‘reservation’ of 1/3 of the seats in government for female candidates, reports the New York Times. The Congress Party spearheaded the measure, which critics claim will disadvantage Muslim and poor candidates. That’s interesting, as the BJP opposition party has, in the past, claimed that the CP’s were too pro-Muslim. There is already a problem of proxy candidacies, where big men put up relatives, often daughters or sisters, in their own stead for election to an MP seat. The Lower House has yet to vote.