Pop Culture Cuisinart

since the Iraq conflict started. And when you turn on the news today you will hear about one death, that of Anna Nicole Smith. In fact I haven't found a single thing today talking about the number of dead soldiers in Iraq. But I have found stories on Anna's relevence. Smith's complicated legal entanglements and lots of speculation on who her child's father is. Between the lawsuits, the drugs, and the possibility of multiple paternity tests, I feel like I'm watching a supersized episode of Maury.

But in all honesty I can't help but feel a little mortified about the priorities of our nation. We who honor celebrity over sacrifice, and glamor over honor. If this isn't our modern "bread and circuses", I don't know what is.

Yes, the New York Times is reporting that Fox has plans to launch a business channel. Yes apparently business news nowadays just isn't fair and balanced enough for Rupert Murdoch. Roger Ailes head of FNC floored us with this bit of wisdom

"Many times I’ve seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and profits as they should be."

He added: "We don’t get up every morning thinking business is bad."


Those CNBC commies! How dare they try actually reporting on corporate scandals! Why that could affect profits!

It is striking to me, that Ailes doesn't even really conceal the fact that they'll be distorting business news in favor of corporations. They used to try to keep the appearence of being even handed.

Personally I'd have told them to suck it. The gory details, if you were enough of a simpleton to believe that a day glo light toy featuring a cartoon character was a bomb, you deserve any scorn that is thrust upon you. I'm sure actual terrorists are disappointed to know that they won't be able, to put NEON LIGHTS on their bombs in Boston. This has TOTALLY screwed up their plans, I suppose.

As for the ATHF, they have a movie coming out, here's the trailer...



I wonder how it will do in Boston?

This weekend's with Drew Barrymore was actually quite funny. Check out this sketch featuring the Amy Poehler portraying the preternaturally mature Dakota Fanning as the host of a talk show.



Also a commentary from weekend update on the proposed California spanking ban... (it's not d**k in a box funny, but hey, what is)

The Headline on the AP newswire this morning is: Edwards healthcare plan raises taxes. Most news organizations have run the story with similar headlines that emphasize the taxation aspect. The first paragraph then notes that the plan could cost up to $120 billion a year. Excuse me but there are two things wrong with this. 1) 120 billion was the upper number in the range of potential healthcare costs. It very well could cost less than that, and the plan includes coverage for ALL Americans. 2) Big Chief Clusterf*** just asked for $240 billion(or at least twice what healthcare would cost) to keep running his Mesopotamian misadventure. I dunno but if for half this year's Iraq cost the ENTIRE F-ing country can get health insurance, where do I sign up?

The other misleading thing about the article is they wait until paragraph 5 to note that most of the revenue required to put his healthcare plan in action, will be gotten from tax increases on those making more than $200,000 a year and by more aggressively pursuing wealthy tax cheats. So in other words he's proposed healthcare for everyone and a viable way to pay for it right now, sounds like sensible government to me. But this article paints a picture of people making $40K getting slammed by the taxman to pay for healthcare. This is what the HMO's want you to think, but don't believe the hype. Look for the truth, ignore the "truthiness"(Colbert rules!).