Things Just Got Real
“Mr Sarkozy, repeatedly accusing Mr Hollande of lying about the state of the economy and his policy proposals, said: ‘In your determination to prove the unprovable, you lie.’ Mr Hollande spat back: ‘You are incapable of making an argument without being unpleasant.’”
lol
“Nodes represent Twitter users, and directed edges represent retweeted posts that carry the meme. The brightness of a node indicates the activity (number of retweets) of a user, and the weight of an edge reflects the number of retweets between two users. (a) The #Japan meme shows how news about the March 2011 earthquake propagated. (b) The #GOP tag stands for the US Republican Party and as many political memes, displays a strong polarization between people with opposing views. Memes related to the “Arab Spring” and in particular the 2011 uprisings in (c) #Egypt and (d) #Syria display characteristic hub users and strong connections, respectively.”
Not sure which is more revealing: these recently released doodles made by Ronald Reagan at the 1981 Ottawa G7 summit (of what appear to be Dostoevsky, Butthead, a California Raisin-fied Reagan, and investigative-reporter Reagan) or these LBJ ones. Is it safe to assume Bill Clinton’s doodles were all titty-centric and shredded accordingly?
Right around the 46 second mark Ceauşescu is dead but he doesn’t quite realize it
Bashar Assad needs to take note
Why I Feel Bad For The Atlantic
“I see John Pike as a casualty of the system, too. Our police forces have enshrined a paradigm of protest policing that turns local cops into paramilitary forces. Let’s not pretend that Pike is an independent bad actor. Too many incidents around the country attest to the widespread deployment of these tactics. If we vilify Pike, we let the institutions off way too easy.”
- excerpt from “Why I Feel Bad for the Pepper-Spraying Policeman, Lt. John Pike” by Alexis Madrigal in The Atlantic
Absolutely no one angered by this incident believes that Pike was acting in a vacuum. The above quoted article is the kind of obviousness posing as contrarianism that’s become the norm in The Atlantic’s bid to transform itself into a HuffPo-like content factory (complete with SEO juicing article title at the expense of the very officer that the author purportedly “feels bad” for). Let’s not forget that John Pike made $110,000 this year in his position as second in command of the PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS UNIT whose function is to coordinate “complaints alleged against employees and be responsible for review of police department policy. Routine review of policy must occur to ensure the department complies with current law, community needs and industry standards [and] will ensure all complaints are fairly and thoroughly investigated.” If that doesn’t sound like someone who should know better, who’s actually in a position to act independent of expected behavior, I don’t know what would. So yes, by all means, vilify this man. The Occupy movement is doing a fine job of indicting the entire system, if there’s any danger of letting institutions off too easy it comes from the watering down of politics by pageview chasing “Third Way” rags.
UPDATE: a more thorough takedown
Top 25 Psychiatric Prescriptions for 2009
These are the top 10 of the top 25 psychiatric medications by number of U.S. prescriptions dispensed in 2009 as well as the percent change from 2005 according to IMS Health. Note that the total U.S. population rose approximately 4% from 2005 to 2009.
- Xanax, used for anxiety, up 29%
- Lexapro, used for depression/anxiety, up 13%
- Ativan, used for anxiety/panic disorders, up 36%
- Zoloft, used for depression/anxiety/OCD/PTSD/PMDD, down 28%
- Prozac, used for depression/anxiety, down 9%
- Desyrel, used for depression/anxiety, N/A
- Cymbalta, used for depression/anxiety, up 237%
- Seroquel, used for bipolar disorder/depression, up 88%
- Effexor XR, used for depression/anxiety/panic disorder, down 13%
- Valium, used for anxiety/panic disorder, up 16%
“The biggest declines we see are drugs that have gone off-patent, including Wellbutrin (a decline of 73 percent in prescriptions) and Paxil (which didn’t even make it on this year’s list). Strattera — prescribed for ADHD — lost 42 percent of the prescriptions it had in 2005. And despite Zoloft’s strong showing in 4th place — down from 2nd place four years ago — it also lost 28 percent of its previous prescriptions.”
Doctors immediately discontinue prescribing drugs once they become unprofitable to pharmaceutical companies, meaning they are pushing drugs for personal financial (and sometimes sexual) gain at the expense of patients’ health.
“During World War II, the Soviet Union’s news agency, TASS, enlisted artists and writers to bolster support for the nation’s war effort. Working from Moscow, this studio produced hundreds of storefront window posters, one for nearly every day of the war. Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad, 1941–1945 is a monumental exhibition centered on these posters, which have not been seen in the United States since the Second World War.”
Kukryniksy
Russian, 20th century
The Metamorphosis of the “Fritzes”, January 15, 1943
Ne boltai! Collection
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has determined that in order to run for President he has to head off rumors that he is a homosexual. To do this, he has decided to call for national day of prayer in one of the most shameless examples of exploiting religion for political gain I have ever seen. I follow elections for the lulz so needless to say I’m excited about his potential entry into the race.
Art Thoughtz: Institutional Critique
Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Le Nouvel Observateur [1998]
- Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the National Security Adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
- Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
- Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
- Brzezinski: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
- Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?
- Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
- Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
- Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
- Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
- Brzezinski: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
USA! USA!
“Binney, for his part, believes that the agency now stores copies of all e-mails transmitted in America, in case the government wants to retrieve the details later. In the past few years, the N.S.A. has built enormous electronic-storage facilities in Texas and Utah. Binney says that an N.S.A. e-mail database can be searched with ‘dictionary selection,’ in the manner of Google. After 9/11, he says, ‘General Hayden reassured everyone that the N.S.A. didn’t put out dragnets, and that was true. It had no need—it was getting every fish in the sea.’”
Word clouds based on words used in television advertisements for boys’ and girls’ toys
