Great News! Iraq War Over, Economy Fixed, Everybody's Got Health Care, and We No Longer Torture

[filkertom]

Must be so, if there's actual news time and space available to devote to this.

Give me a fucking break. This isn't even as bad as the Terrible Baseball Steroid Scandal that Congress spent actual time on yesterday, holding athletes and sports teams to far more stringent account than, oh, I dunno, our lying, warmongering president and his cronies.

Hahhhhhh.

So. What asinine "news" have you [headdesk]ed at lately?

Comments

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

So. What asinine "news" have you [headdesk]ed at lately?

You mean there's another kind? =)

[smegabyte.livejournal.com]

Apparently Scientology is declaring that Anonymous (the folks protesting their human rights violations) have, as their two main inspirational books: The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. Yup. Communist Nazis. (Excuse me. Communist German Nazi psychiatrists.)

Not perhaps the kind of asinine news you intended, but considering that 1) it's a total lie and 2) it's being printed in newspapers all over the place, I figured it was relevant.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Actually, considering that the annoying little blighters run around in Nazi, Soviet and Red Chinese uniforms in their Internet incarnations, that's not an unreasonable conclusion.

The unreasonable conclusion is that they actually READ. Mostly, they get their jollies by annoying people and watching the monkeys dance, on and off the internet. Anything for shock value.

[smegabyte.livejournal.com]

"Actually, considering that the annoying little blighters run around in Nazi, Soviet and Red Chinese uniforms in their Internet incarnations, that's not an unreasonable conclusion."

...what are you referencing here? Whenever I've run into Anonymous on the web, they're rallied under the picture of the black business suit and tie.

"Mostly, they get their jollies by annoying people..."

Actually, I believe they get their 'jollies' nowadays from shutting down a manipulative, violent cult. I'm inclined to agree with them on the points that religious salvation should not cost upwards of two hundred thousand dollars and that people shouldn't die of neglect while in their church's care.

www.xenu.net and www.lisamcpherson.org are my sources here.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

OH I like their attention on Scientology just fine. I'm just not forgetting that these are the same little sociopaths that try to shut down Second Life every night with pre-programmed racist/sexist/scatological-laden particle generators, visit people's houses and scare their children, send death threats. Like the ones I got.

They're not devoted to the cause of shutting down a dangerous cult [although that's an attractive by-product at the moment]. They are just out for "lulz". They have targetted Furry conventions, Jewish groups and anybody who gets in their way. The Afro+Tuxedo look is a pastiche of Malcolm X and his followers. The big 70's afro hair and the hate rhetoric suggest to me that it's not sincere.

I suggest you have a look through EncyclopediaDramatica.com [preferably through an anonymous proxy or a public computer] and decide for yourself. Jolly rebels or hate mongers?

[smegabyte.livejournal.com]

I looked through your link.

And while Anonymous may have started out like that, the Anonymous-anti-CoS movement no longer supports those things. There is an astonishing amount of emphasis being placed on being legal and being moral. (They hang out at enturbulation.org if you'd like to check it out for yourself.) They're taking the name of Anonymous in a new, positive direction. And yes, there are a certain amount within the group who are out for 'lulz'...law-abiding, moral lulz that consist of the cult falling apart as well as the inevitable references to lolcats or Rick Astley.

I'd also like to say that the afro wigs are mostly in place to cover up hair, since that's a distinguishing feature that could allow a Scientologist to identify a protester and harass them at home. (Like they did to Mark Bunker of xenutv.com as well as many, many others, especially Paulette Cooper who was the target of Scientology's Operation Freakout.) The wigs are also goofy, which is a big draw for the interweb crowd. If you have to cover your hair, why not look ridiculous at the same time?

I found a quote on the ED Project Chanology page that pretty much sums up the change in policy: "Every time /b/ has gone to war, it has been for our own causes. Now, gentlemen, we are going to fight for something that is right."

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Nice idea. Let's see if they're for real, or if it's just more lulz. *shrug* My personal experience has made me cynical, I'll own up to that.

[smegabyte.livejournal.com]

Given their history, particularly if they'd involved themselves with me, I'd be skeptical too. All I can say is that I agree - let's wait and see what happens.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

bayushisan's most recent post is on this noise. I have to give it a more-in-depth look later today or tomorrow, but I thought I'd give it a heads-up here.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Many thanks :) I did write about it because, after literally stumbling into a couple videos on youtube I started doing my own research. All I can ask is that people here read what I wrote then research and decide for themselves.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, the EDiots; one of those groups out there which actually consider driving people to suicide to be a laudable act. For teh lulz, of course.

Whoever loses in the Anonymous/Scientology debacle, society wins, anyway. ;)

[ladyskada.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23F5_oPUuNY&NR=1

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Why is that a headdesk? Something that fscked up needs to be publicized (the teens getting away with robbing girl scouts). The only "headdesk" IMHO is that the report didn't explain why the teens weren't being prosecuted.

[ladyskada.livejournal.com]

It's a headdesk because they show no remorse and can't understand WHY they're being prosecuted.

Actually, the blond was arrested 2 days after, on her 18th birthday. She was arrested because this was a violation of her probation. Probation due to her aggravated assault on an ex-boyfriend. Charges for the theft are pending.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I thought the "headdesk" stuff was supposed to be about news stories that didn't merit coverage, and IMHO this one did, hence my confusion over the "headdesk" aspect. I totally agree with you that the aforementioned blond is beyond headdesk. If you need money, do something to EARN it.

I work at San Jose's news radio station, and we used to simulcast CNN Headline News during prime weekday hours. Unfortunately, some of what is on CNNHN is ridiculous, such as when they went "wall to wall" with Britney Spears coverage. Eventually we started running CNN Radio and adding national and international stories from CNN and AP.

I thought

[capplor.livejournal.com]

the shift in programming came suspiciously soon after the "Nothing but Anna Nichole Smith" incident. The working announcers were apologizing for it, as they cut to CNN for a detailed description of where the autopsy was.

Re: I thought

[figmo.livejournal.com]

You're right; that came before Britney.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I do think the MSM has a nefarious plan to distract everyone from the stuff that actually matters :/

[pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com]

MSM?

[eta] Never mind, I get it - mainstream media.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Mainstream media :)

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Only sometimes?

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Okay, about 90% of the time :( If you keep people in a perpetual state of stupidity and/or fear, you can get away with an awful lot.

[jss]

As we've seen for the past 7 years.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Ahem. Yes :(

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Alas, I work in MSM and can tell you there are some really brilliant people and some serious idiots in the field. The most frustrating to work with, IMHO, are the ones with an "agenda" they want to push via their news reporter or producer status.

[gavroche42.livejournal.com]

This is actually quite amazing news, because if you read the article:

"According to 2006 data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 58.2 percent of all rear seat fatalities involved passengers who were not wearing seat belts, compared to 32.7 percent of fatalities for rear seat passengers who were wearing seat belts."

Which means 9.1% of all rear seat fatalities involved passengers in a Schroedinger-Cat state of both wearing seat belts and not wearing seat belts simultaneously!

[ericthemage.livejournal.com]

I have an aunt that would hold the seatbelt down so that it looked like it was latched, but it wasn't. She did that because latching it would mess up her clothes. I wonder if that's what they're referring to.

[nomaddervish.livejournal.com]

Although it's completely tangential to the point of that article, I really hate the modern marketing/media use of "tweens" to refer to pre-teens, with complete disregard for the word's previously established meaning:

At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

I saw a headline in the Yahoo Top Stories module about an 89-year-old woman using an axe to break into her own house after she'd accidentally locked herself out. Why is this a news story at all, much less "headline news"?

Oh yeah, and Mel Gibson is complying with the terms of his parole. Or is it probation?

[figmo.livejournal.com]

There was an even dumber one out here about a beaver that was swimming around endlessly in circles near a dam it had built. Someone "rescued" it and took it to a vet, who determined the beaver was old, blind, and brain-damaged.

This story was all over San Francisco's radio and TV stations until the animal finally croaked.

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

You on Fark? Because thanks to Fark I more accurately sift through asinine news and real news thanks to the funny headlines people attach to it.

But lately I was laughing at this little chestnut: "Prison Warden: "Drunken Orgies Tainted System."

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

Jane Fonda dropping the C-bomb on the Today Show fits the bill.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it.

Another thing I really hate about "news" these days is the indiscriminate mixing of substantive news -- you know, things that might actually affect public policy, or our lives -- with entertainment/gossip. I stopped watching the local news program when they started giving previews of each night's TV shows as if that were just as important as, say, how the legislature was spending our tax dollars.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Jayzus. Isn't, y'know, the point of the play to re-introduce words like that to the language, to get people talking and not being afraid of them?

(One of my best stick-in-a-quick-joke moments was when we went to see that show at The Power Center. The woman did the, er, climactic bit at the end, the audience applauded wildly, and just before the actress could continue with the wrap-up, I managed to slip in, "Encore!")

[jss]

I don't understand. Why go see a boring play about a bunch of monologues about the state of Virginia? I mean sure, it's got some nice country and history and tradition and all that, but yeesh.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

*imagines Emily Litella doing this one*

Never mind.

[jss]

Ding!

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

*bows* I still miss Gilda :(

[jss]

Me too. Damn that cancer. :-(

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Anything to do with Britney Spears or Angelina Jolie.

[lariss.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed there were this many comments before "Anything Britney."

[baphnedia.livejournal.com]

Well, a succinct version of my latest post, WTF2;

There was a proposal made to effect sweeping changes across the Armed Forces; that bring to light just how hilarious war must be... they're looking at scrapping the Active Duty retirement system, to line it up with the retirement systems of the rest of the federal gov't.

What we have now: After 20 years of active federal service, you are entitled to 50% pension that begins paying immediately upon retirement from the Armed Forces.

What was proposed: 10 years of service would be rewarded a retirement pension (percentages were not mentioned) that would begin paying out at the age of 62 (six months prior to that person drawing social security). 20 years of service would have a pension that would begin paying at the age of 60, 30 years of service would give you a pension starting at the age of 57.

[baphnedia.livejournal.com]

I found the source of this one:
http://www.cngr.gov/Final%20Report/CNGR_ExecutiveSummary.pdf

The retirement thing begins on page 50 (and the Army Times discreetly failed to include that those of us on the current retirement system would be grandfathered). Page 50, according to Adobe.

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

More interesting to me was the report of the death of actor David Groh. He didn't have much of a career after "Rhoda", but I remember that TV show fondly.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

We have a fatal, head-on collision between two horses. (http://tinyurl.com/ysoszo)

The amazing thing this story has garnered 53 comments.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

How about the usual Roe v. Wade anniversary news coverage of "both" sides? 1) The foaming misogynist fundie dominionists who use the term "partial birth abortion" without being corrected; and 2) Two women who had abortions and Now Regret Their Empty Arms With Aaaalll Their Hearrrrt -- complete with lots of referrals for "abortion regret" and "abortion trauma" counselors.