Britney Spears Credits God For “Moonmen”
This year, the MTV Video Music Awards lost all credibility when Britney Spears improbably cleaned-up, winning three awards. Even if she has spent the last few years living a sinful lifestyle filled with drug use, divorce, child endangerment, and indecent exposure, it wasn’t going to stop Ms. Spears from thanking God for the awards:
A year after her disastrous comeback attempt at the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears swept the event on Sunday, winning the first three “Moonman” statuettes of her career.
The pop singer, whose career has been overshadowed in recent years by a litany of personal woes, took home the awards for video of the year, best pop video and best female video, all for the tune “Piece of Me.”
“I’m in shock right now,” the 26-year-old starlet said, after taking the stage for the third time to receive the coveted award for video of the year.
In her brief acceptance speeches, she doled out multiple thanks to God, her family and her fans.
“The Resentment Strategy”
Here’s a well written article regarding the election with some interesting thoughts I figured were fitting for this blog…
The author talks about how the Republicans are trying to portray Obama as “flashy” which is funny if you look over my last post.
…But don’t be fooled either by Mr. McCain’s long-ago reputation as a maverick or by Ms. Palin’s appealing persona: the Republican Party, now more than ever, is firmly in the hands of the angry right, which has always been much bigger, much more influential and much angrier than its counterpart on the other side. What’s the source of all that anger?
Some of it, of course, is driven by cultural and religious conflict: fundamentalist Christians are sincerely dismayed by Roe v. Wade and evolution in the curriculum.
And when Mr. Bush turned out not to be that smart after all, and his presidency crashed and burned, the angry right — the raging rajas of resentment? — became, if anything, even angrier. Humiliation will do that.
Church Depresses Latino and Asian Teens
A new study shows that some teens who attend religious services are less depressed than is typical, yet teens from some minority groups are more depressed:
Previous research has shown that teens who are active in religious services are depressed less often because it provides these adolescents with social support and a sense of belonging.
But new research has found that this does not hold true for all adolescents, particularly for minorities and some females. The study found that white and African-American adolescents generally had fewer symptoms of depressive at high levels of religious participation. But for some Latino and Asian-American adolescents, attending church more often was actually affecting their mood in a negative way.
Asian-American adolescents who reported high levels of participation in their church had the highest number of depressive symptoms among teens of their race. Read more
How can she relate to us?
Cindy McCain
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100The fact that this can become our ‘first lady’ is sickening. How can she relate in the slightest to anyone but the upper class? What point is she making by ’showing off’? …Spare us please, my gag reflex has weakened from 8 years of GW! Is that what McCain’s ‘experience’ gained them…that and 7, 8.. who knows how many houses? The brief story is brought to you by the Vanity Fair, very fitting title! I think it is quite tacky to wear that to a publicly televised political ANYTHING.
Cruising For Homosexuals With The Iraqi Morality Policy
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s secular regime, Iraq has become a very dangerous place for homosexuals. The morality policy, composed of Islamic hard-liners, are literally hunting and killing any gays they can find. The London based organization Iraq LGBT estimates that over 430 gay men have been killed in Iraq since 2003.
It’s unlikely that gays will be safe in Iraq any time soon, as much of Iraqi culture see nothing wrong with killing them. In fact, homosexuality has an entirely different definition there than it does in Western countries:
Persecution of gays will stop only if Iraqis can abandon centuries-old prejudices. They would have to acknowledge that human rights don’t cover only the humans they like. Insisting that gays are just a few undesirable perverts who “should be killed”–as one Iraqi who works in journalism put it–encourages an atmosphere of impunity no matter the offense. Killing gays becomes “honorable.” And raping them is OK because it isn’t considered a homosexual act–only being penetrated or providing oral sex is.
That’s some interesting logic. An Iraqi man can rape another man and then kill him, but that doesn’t make him gay or a criminal.
Playlist: Why do people laugh at creationists?
This is a great video series from tunderf00t on Youtube. I highly recommend watching this.
The only people so stupid as to not understand the answer are the creationists themselves.
Happy Ramadan!
Even though it just started, I hope everyone is having a remarkable Ramadan so far. I always like to spend some time during Ramadan to reflect and be thankful that I’m not Muslim. If I were Muslim, I would have to spend the entire month fasting during daylight hours, which doesn’t make it sound like one of the more festive holidays. But I’ll give credit where it’s due, and admit that Muslims show great discipline this time of year.
This Ramadan promises to be one of the most confusing ones for people in some areas of the Middle East, because there are all sorts of time zone changes:
The start of the holy month of Ramadan . . . is causing clock confusion in the Middle East. Egypt and the Palestinians are falling back an hour far earlier than usual, trying to reduce daylight hours for Muslims fasting until sunset in sweltering summer temperatures.
Politics is also adding a twist. The Palestinian militant group Hamas is ending daylight-saving time at midnight Thursday in the Gaza Strip, which it controls — while the West Bank, run by the rival Fatah faction, is waiting until midnight Sunday. Read more
Strawberry Jam Is More Regulated Than Cigarettes
ScienceDaily — “While jams and other consumer products are strictly regulated and are required to pass stringent tests before they can be sold, tobacco has no restrictions and manufacturers can, and do, add anything they want into the product.”
Despite the complexities of regulating cigarette manufacturing, the Tobacco Regulation Study Group, or TobReg, has proposed practical means to begin the progressive process of tobacco regulation. As a first step, it has suggested setting mandatory levels for some of the major carcinogens and toxicants in cigarettes. In addition, regular reviews must also be conducted as initial toxin levels are considered generous by industry standards for many countries.
CNN’s Campbell Brown pwns McCain aide
Dalai Parting the Hospital
Dalai Lama leaves hospital with a smile
Many Tibetans fear the death of the current Dalai Lama would be a major setback in their fight for more autonomy within China or independence, creating a leadership vacuum that Beijing is expected to exploit. In a bid to circumvent this, the Dalai Lama has long suggested his reincarnation would be found outside China.
He has also suggested Tibetans should start to consider how they wanted to address the succession issue, perhaps by electing a senior lama to succeed him or doing away with the institution altogether.
China maintains that the next Dalai Lama will be born in Tibet and chosen by them.
The Dalai Lama, who was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, has been living in exile since 1959 after a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.
Time For Politics
I’m not the most seasoned out there when it comes to many things, politics being one, but that is more of a reason to share my thoughts…I am probably about average for the general voting public. I began thinking about this and about Obama’s campaign and how they are sort of the same message. So I’ll explain that and more of my thoughts. —Nice picture below Ron—
The fact remains that Obama received a huge amount of financial support throughout his campaign as he still does; while McCain has largly tapped into interest groups and religion. Obama IS changing this, so that the little guy can be heard, can be a part of the process. So why can’t some normal guy speak about politics?
McCain lost his ‘I’m more experienced’ argument when he chose his running mate. I mean, he could kick the bucket any second.
McCain WAS a maveric, that got old and realized that if he wanted to accomplish his dream, he had to sell out.
Good News: Frog Jesus Gets To Stay!
Hey everyone, it’s a crucified Frog Jesus!
An art museum in northern Italy said Thursday it will continue displaying a sculpture portraying a green frog nailed to a cross that has angered Pope Benedict XVI and local officials.
The board of the foundation of the Museion in the city of Bolzano voted to keep the work by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger, the museum said in a statement.
