Broadcast Brian

Mormon Baptism of the Dead

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:59:26 +0000

The Mormon Church has a practice called Baptism of the Dead. You can read about what it means within that church’s catechism here. The Vatican has ordered that parishes refuse to participate in any ostensible genealogical research by Mormon affiliated groups, and may go as far as sealing all parish genealogical records. Holocaust survivors are also demanding that the church stop baptizing dead jews.

Umbrella Protestors, Gay or Chinese?

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:15:47 +0000

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.

McDonald’s Packaging

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:49:31 +0000

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.

Tea Party Organizational Biological Analogues

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:40:26 +0000

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.

Oh man, I don’t want to post about this…

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:48:00 +0000

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.

Meme Alert: Thelma and Louise

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:51:12 +0000

Between deconstructing “Telephone” to appraising the import of Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar wins, the media is bumping 1991’s “Thelma and Louise” back into play in American culture this week.

Lady GaGa and Imagery of the Illuminati

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:29:28 +0000

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 ends China Censorship

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:28:27 +0000

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.

Texas School Board Attempts to Erase Tommy Jefferson

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:17:43 +0000

1984-ing 1776-ers: An official on the Texas School Board attempted to remove references to Thomas Jefferson from the curriculum. The live blogger that Andrew Sullivan quotes noted that President Jefferson was, unlike the other Enlightenment thinkers embraced by name by the official (como Aquinas), a Deist.

Ray Parker Jr is awesome

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:14:25 +0000