The 13 Scariest White Guys in America (at Alternet).

Hmmm…TaxRebatePledge.org is asking Americans to pledge their upcoming +/-$300 tax rebate to fund the fight against the Bush agenda. Well, as I understand it, it’s not really a rebate, it’s an advance payment against our full tax refund (according to www.ustreas.gov). We’re not getting any additional money back—our tax refund next April will be reduced. The only thing the government is giving up is interest they could have earned on the money they give out before next April. I think I’ll spend mine on bills & salty snacks.

There is already a book out on so-called Bush Speak. It is not about how Bush mangles words, but is "meant to shed some light on the propaganda of our time." The author, Mark Crispin Miller, on the biggest misconception people have about Bush: "That he's a moron -- and a benign moron at that. Although Bush is indeed illiterate, bone-ignorant and generally illogical, he's not a cretin. At the nastier kind of politics, he is extraordinarily shrewd." We should pay attention. Read here, from our friends at AlterNet.

Customer: Yeah, I'll have a double-cheese burger, pickles on the side and hey, can you toast the bun a little more than usual? Fast-food worker: Sure, here's your burger.

They are reimaging, repackaging and rewriting the Narnia tales to catch some of the current money in children's literature. What a shame.
username: opensewer
password: iswatching

Are Nike’s tennis shoes back in style? Didn’t they go out of style for a while? Are they still called “tennis” shoes? What kind of shoes is it cool to wear right now? I’ve been wearing the same black kickers since ’94, and I don’t think most people think they’re very cool. We all wanna be cool.

In her paintings and prints, new artist Mirjana Ugrinov communicates in a unique language of expression: the language of light, texture, movement, geometry and their opposites.

(Just for the record, this is Megan’s blog, but she’s trapped behind her firewall at work today…)

In a startling show of corporate predictability (I mean, these guys just make our job so easy sometimes), Exxon Mobil Corp. shareholders sided overwhelmingly with management in rejecting proposals on the environment and gay rights. The story >>

Sorry for the lag. We’ve been on vacation. I think my brain is still on vacation—that’s the only explanation I can give for linking to this and this.

Did you carry your towel yesterday?

This is very good news indeed.

I think the comparison that many people are making between the Taliban and the Nazis is right on the money. Can I throw the KKK in there as well? Let’s hold up these groups as poster-children illustrating how not to live in the world. They’re a bunch of violent, isolated, dangerous, misled and spoiled children. More…

Unbelievable.

Just a quick thought on yesterday's Kaycee comments: Have these liars now ruined the opportunity for someone who is really dying to publish an online journal?

The story of "Kaycee Nicole Swenson," fictitious cancer victim. Amazing--an illustration of the "power" of using the internet to mislead thousands. All your common sense are belong to us.

Darwin racist? The Louisiana Legislature seems to think so. Geesh.

Ford is at it again. This is the second recall since the whole Firestone thing. Ford loves us, yes they do.

Oh, yeah: Molly Ivins on Working for Change discusses yet another type of corporate propaganda: Hard core pharma-porn.

Do we really need something like this? No, we don't.

Energy crisis? Not outside of California. Confidence crisis? Yup: "the energy plan Bush will release Thursday, crafted in near secrecy by a task force dominated by power-industry execs, with no environmentalists or consumer advocates, is likely to worsen that political crisis."

Wednesday is the day to ask fun questions: Where are we now? Is there anything that means anything? Cynicism is the order of the day. Morality is relative. Truth changes from person to person. Money is abstract. There cannot be any sweeping social movements anymore. When did it happen? Vietnam? The atomic bomb? Modernism? Can anyone say anything decisively about anything?

Gary Kamiya today in Salon.com: Modernism was the product of a uniquely cataclysmic change in society…Charles Peguy…said in 1913 "the world has changed less since the time of Jesus Christ than it has in the last 30 years." This accelerated change in all areas of society -- Einstein's rewriting of the laws of nature…the invention of the car, the plane, the phonograph, the triumph of industrialization, the city, bureaucracies and rationalized capitalism -- was unprecedented, and it will never happen again.

What a great article. It gets you thinking: what is “meaning?”

I promised, so I'm proud to report that I saw an SF Car Share car on the road yesterday. The program appears to be working out, inspiring!

Statement of corporate philanthropy, fiction?

It's time for another childish question: Why can't people just let other people be happy and do what they want, as long as they don't hurt anybody else? (link via Metafilter)

I'm sure this is the way to win back our seat on the Human Right's Commission and respect from other nations.

The term “working poor” shouldn’t be in our collective vocabulary. But it is.

"Scientists at the country's national laboratories have projected enormous energy savings if the government takes aggressive steps to encourage energy conservation in homes, factories, offices, appliances, cars and power plants." Wouldn't you listen to your own scientists?

“I have concluded that the whole misfortune of men comes from a single thing, and that is their inability to remain at rest in a room.” –Blaise Pascal

You know how we here at OS are always ranting and raving about how the United States has misplaced priorities and really doesn’t comprehend the big picture (i.e. the state of rest of the world)? Well, we’ll take this as evidence that we’re not crazy.

Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands is a film produced by the Independant Television Service which explores the the effect that global warming is having on Pacific Islands right now. Here are schedules for local public broadcast stations and links to great resources on global warming.