politics | puppet wrangling

Wednesday various

If you’re out of work, it’s not because the economy’s bad, it’s because you’re a bad person. Or at least so says Ben Stein. Remember when he seemed like kind of a nice guy? [via]
“There’s a human tendency to resent anyone who disagrees with our pleasures. The less mature interpret that as a personal attack on themselves. They’re looking for support and vindication.” – Roger Ebert
It gets a little repetitive after awhile without the rest of the track, but there’s something fascinating about this isolated audio of Keith Moon playing drums on “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
I love these re-imagined Batman covers [via]
And finally, every Doctor Who villain since 1963.

I have to say, Todd VanDerWerff does make the death throes of ‘Til Death sound much more interesting than it probably was:

This was television made by consummate professionals who were pretty sure no one was ever going to see it, and it was somehow gloriously awful and compellingly watchable all at once.

He does, of course, stop short of saying the sitcom ever got good.

Susan Orlean’s tale of editorial alphabet soup sounds perfectly believable to me. [via]

It’s not particularly reassuring to realize that BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is more than rule than the exception: More oil spilled in Nigeria “every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico” [via

Two from Roger Ebert: on racial intolerance and on why he tweets.
On the set of David Lynch’s Dune with Sean Young. Weirdly fascinating. I wonder if it’s at all worth revisiting that movie. I keep thinking I’ll re-read the book, but I think I’m worried it will just encourage me to read them all. [via]
Charlie Stross on the iPad [via]:

The iPad doesn’t feel like a computer. It feels like a magic book â€” like the ancestor of the Young Lady’s Primer in Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. It’s a book with hypertext everywhere, moving pictures and music and an infinity of content visible through its single morphing page. The sum is much weirder than the aggregate of its parts. Criticizing the iPad for not doing Netbook-or laptop-like things is like criticising an early Benz automobile for not having reins and a bale of hay for the horses: it’s a category error.
The Sea of Galilee is out of fish. [via]

Entire Dog Lost, Delta Offers $200 Credit. That figure has apparently gone up to $600 (plus the cost of the vaccinations), but it’s still a pretty horrific story, and Delta’s initial attitude seems pretty callous. If I ever need to travel with an animal, remind me to drive. [via]
Can we strip Joe Lieberman of his citizenship? (Then, I dunno, drop him off somewhere in Arizona?) [via]
Arrested for not Tweeting fast enough? [via]
Today in weird celebrity news: Stephen King to guest on Sons of Anarchy. And Michael Jackson used to prank call Russell Crowe.

White Castle aromatherapy candles? I’ve never eaten there, but this doesn’t sound like a good thing at all. [via]
Stephen Hawking says: don’t talk to aliens. But what if they offer us candy? Space candy! [via]
Digital Domesday book unlocked, underlining the dangers inherent in digital archiving. [via]
By now you’ve seen Jon Stewart’s interview with Ken Blackwell, right? If not, you really should. Mostly, Stewart just has to let Blackwell talk.
And finally, I got a kick out of this Super Mario Bros. clone: Enough Plumbers. [via]