MetaFilter

Green screen or not? The latest advertisement for incumbent Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota is raising questions about whether his wife (actress and model Laurie Coleman), shown drinking coffee with him presumably in their home, was anywhere near her husband during the shoot. The controversy might amount to nothing more than the many terrible photoshop disasters we've all seen before if it weren't for all the rumors about the state of the marriage between Senator Coleman and his wife, where she resides, and the growing internet accusations and general political hackery over the new advertisement.
comment posted at 1:47 PM on Jun-20-08

"This film is so bad that I feel compelled to make a spoiler-laden list of its most laughably terrible parts rather than review it." - Christopher Orr reviews spoils M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" to save people from having to watch it. The film is getting the worst reviews of Shyamalan's career. Which is saying something.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Jun-18-08

"This all would have never happened if their windows were closed." Runner up: "I didn't feel like a creep," he said. "I didn't feel like a Peeping Tom. I felt like this type of thing happens a lot."
comment posted at 1:17 PM on Jun-12-08

U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals Chief Justice Alex Kozinski [wiki] is currently adjudicating a remarkably hardcore obscenity case.  He is currently facing his own obscenity case as well, having allowed public access to NSFW or illegal-for-minor-viewing material posted on his own vanity website, as reported in the LA Times.  Although he maintains that the material's posting was just innocent fun, he clearly knows his way around the internets.  Kozinski is a prolific and well-regarded essayist, and is occasionally mentioned as a potential Supreme Court nominee.
comment posted at 2:37 PM on Jun-11-08

Impeach Bush. Dennis Kucinich has introduced 35 articles of Impeachment against George W Bush on the floor of the House of Representatives.
comment posted at 7:18 AM on Jun-10-08
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Jun-10-08

Is it Art? The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama
comment posted at 12:57 PM on Jun-4-08

"I can only answer in the negative: I want them not to read The New York Times, while subscribing to The Financial Times." The New York Times book review asks various writers for their suggested required reading for each of the three presidential candidates.
comment posted at 2:22 PM on Jun-3-08

"After a period of collective indigestion induced by the 2004 documentary Super Size Me and the 2001 book Fast Food Nation and its subsequent film adaptation, much of the industry is returning to its traditional customers—men—and its traditional food—meat—served up in ever-greater quantities. Although CKE's signature behemoths—the Carl's Jr. Double Six Dollar Burger and Hardee's Monster Thickburger, both introduced in 2004—out-calorie all comers, Burger King narrowed the gap with its Triple Whopper With Cheese (2005); Wendy's unveiled the Baconator (2007)...and Taco Bell awakened the industry to new possibilities with its 2006 campaign, which urged customers to enjoy a "fourth meal" each day."
comment posted at 7:58 PM on Jun-1-08

Scott McClellan wrote a book. The former Press Secretary admits some of his answers to White House Press Corps questions were badly misguided. One section of his book accuses George W. Bush of deluding himself about his alleged cocaine use. Of course, part of the blame for the entire mess should fall on the liberal media for being "too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war...".
comment posted at 12:29 PM on May-28-08

"Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone ... This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if WE feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior." Leon Kass, former chair of the President Bush's Council on Bioethics tells us what he really thinks of modern America.
comment posted at 8:01 AM on May-28-08

RelationshipFilter, 1873. An online archive of letters from a wife to her husband, which include an intimate look at their relationship crisis.
comment posted at 7:05 AM on May-27-08

The Most Curious Thing (follow-up of sorts) by Errol Morris. Fuzzed up indeed.
comment posted at 10:54 AM on May-21-08
comment posted at 11:35 AM on May-21-08

The Last Roundup. "Is the government compiling a secret list of citizens to detain under martial law?" [Via]
comment posted at 2:38 PM on May-20-08

People can handle the truth about war. Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas reflects on how the media's willingness to show the horrors of war has changed since Vietnam.
comment posted at 1:58 PM on May-15-08

NewsFilter: The California Supreme Court has just overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriages. Read the decision.
comment posted at 12:10 PM on May-15-08

Things Younger than John McCain.
comment posted at 10:49 AM on May-13-08
comment posted at 11:42 AM on May-13-08

Blow is an energy drink.
comment posted at 10:32 AM on May-12-08

When Brad and Amy got married, Amy's "Man of Honor" got up to give his toast -- a musical toast. Other friends and family joined in, much to Amy's surprise, and the result, captured here on video, is pretty darned delightful.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on May-5-08

"The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class"
comment posted at 7:38 AM on May-1-08

Bill Moyers interviews the Reverend Jeremiah Wright in his first broadcast interview with a journalist since he became embroiled in a controversy for his remarks and his relationship with Barack Obama
comment posted at 12:02 PM on Apr-28-08
comment posted at 1:06 PM on Apr-28-08

Matt Taibbi goes undercover in one of pastor John Hagee's "Encounter" weekends. Yes, the Hagee who recently endorsed John McCain. Published in Rolling Stone, and a part of Taibbi's forthcoming book The Great Derangement.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Apr-28-08

@mateurdart is a French-language blog on erotic art in a wide variety of eras and styles. (NSFW)
comment posted at 6:31 AM on Apr-25-08

Are golf courses bad or good for the environment? Chances are the answer you give depends on whether you are actively involved with the game. Representing anti-golf we have the Organic Consumers Association, the Journal of Pesticide Reform (pdf), and the Global Anti-Golf Movement. Speaking on behalf of golf course management the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (pdf) and the United States Golf Association. A group of leading golf and environmental organizations have jointly developed Environmental Principles for Golf Courses in the United States.
comment posted at 12:12 PM on Apr-24-08

On Having A Black Name "I am a white woman, a blond, blue-eyed white woman, and I have a first name strongly associated with black women. My mother, a southerner by birth, never stopped telling me she made the name up. The fact that she truly could not remember ever hearing the name before, is a testament to the strength of southern segregation. It is likely she heard it once or twice, and simply forgot it until later. And so, even at 50 years old, I have a name that makes people do a double-take. "You're _____?" is something I have heard all my life. "Yes, that would be me," is what I say, as they look confused. I have upset the social order. Names, I have learned, are a big, big part of it."
comment posted at 11:20 AM on Apr-24-08

Arthur Mole first developed his technique of collective portraiture in a religious context, photographing fellow church members gathered together in the shape of religious symbols. When the United States entered World War I, Mole and his colleague John Thomas turned to patriotic themes. They choreographed thousands of soldiers into formations such as the Liberty Bell and the Statue of Liberty. Their largest production was the U.S. Human Shield, photographed at Camp Custer, Battle Creek, Michigan, which comprised 30,000 men. Wiki.
comment posted at 8:53 AM on Apr-24-08

This has not been a good week for woman of color blogging. About two weeks ago, Black Femi Power, a well-read woman of color blogger, resigned her blog in protest to an incident wherein Amanda Marcotte, a notable white feminist blogger, was accused of appropriating BFP's ideas. On the heels of the controversy that had reverberations in the feminist blogosphere which are far from forgotten, Marcotte is releasing and promoting a new book, with a new cover to replace the old one after outcries that it was racist.
comment posted at 1:20 PM on Apr-23-08
comment posted at 1:46 PM on Apr-23-08

ascii....the original images! We don't need no stinkin' img tag!
comment posted at 9:25 AM on Apr-23-08

Sure, it's kind of a pat post, but I'm a sucker for web trends. And it does raise the interesting question of why this presidential campaign has been so lacking in serious debate over policy issues that voters (okay, residents) are seeking information about. (I'm talking about in TV Land, not MetaFilter [here, for example].
comment posted at 7:36 AM on Apr-22-08

The Video Nasty Project seeks to watch and review all 74 "video nasties" effectively banned in the UK in the 1980s in a moral panic over the subversive new video cassette technology. 39 videos were successfully prosecuted, initally under the Obscene Publications Act 1959, then the Video Recordings Act 1984.
comment posted at 9:16 AM on Apr-21-08

Abortion as Art To quote: "she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process."
comment posted at 10:06 AM on Apr-17-08
comment posted at 7:45 AM on Apr-18-08

"As American as Apple Pie" is an oft-repeated remark on the innate "Americaness" of the dish - but when was the last time you actually had apple pie? When was the last time you had General Tso's Chicken?

Jennifer 8. Lee gives an interesting talk on the cultural phenomenon of Chinese Food.
comment posted at 7:48 AM on Apr-17-08

Enough bad news, enough gloom and doom. You remember that Asteroid 99942 Apophis that we were afraid might hit Earth in 2029? Ain't gonna happen. But it will get close enough for Earth's gravity to alter its orbit and there's a chance it could hit the next time around in 2036. But only a tiny chance: "less than 1 in 45,000 using standard dynamical models". according to NASA. Oh wait... NASA just got skooled by a 13-year-old German Astronomy Geek who says the chances are more like 1 in 450. Still a tiny chance, and the official numbers were only off by a factor of 100. Oh yeah, we're doomed.
comment posted at 6:42 AM on Apr-16-08

The Confederacy of Dunces. The Village Voice's comprehensive election-season guide to right-wing political bloggers, by Roy Edroso of alicublog.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Apr-16-08

A Saudi national has made a short film intended to illustrate how all religions can be depicted as preaching violence. The Daily Telegraph reports that "Schism" is Raed al-Saeed's answer to Geert Wilder's "Fitna".
comment posted at 9:53 AM on Apr-14-08

The things they teach kids in school today. Details in the pdf. From science to history to law, evidence of increasing political bias in education.
comment posted at 6:54 AM on Apr-8-08

Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear. "Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination."
comment posted at 2:30 PM on Apr-3-08

The Assembly of Space Shuttle Discovery
comment posted at 9:27 AM on Apr-3-08

"When you have a TV at full blast, and there's a talking head, you hear his intake of breaths in between sentences really, really clearly. Ha-ha! And if you listen carefully for those, as though that was the important part of communication, you wind up not really hearing anything else! It is just a person gasping for breath! Ha-ha. The effect is especially great with Nancy Pelosi." Gene Weingarten spends a day with the media firehose.
comment posted at 9:58 AM on Apr-1-08

Jayci is ten years old. She's about to die of an incurable brain cancer. Her dying wish is to see her daddy one last time. But daddy in prison on a drug charge, and won't be released until August. By which time Jayci will be dead. Federal prison rules allow for furloughs in "a family crisis." But only at the warden's discretion. "They say it doesn't constitute an extraordinary circumstance".
comment posted at 8:12 AM on Mar-20-08
comment posted at 8:17 AM on Mar-20-08

Federal Court rules Drug-Free Workplace Laws are unconstitutional. A federal appeals court ruled Thursday a city can't require all job applicants to be tested for narcotics and must instead show why drug use in a particular job would be dangerous. Decision here (warning PDF)
comment posted at 7:49 AM on Mar-14-08
comment posted at 7:52 AM on Mar-14-08

Ever want to watch a comics page get drawn at ridiculous speed? I've been reading Mer's comics since day one, but seeing an entire strip drawn and inked as a movie is almost better than watching an animated cartoon.
comment posted at 8:57 AM on Mar-13-08
comment posted at 11:04 AM on Mar-13-08