Ah, fuck it. I can’t seem to get the video to embed properly, so just go here.

I guess it’s all MAVERICKY like the McCain/Palin ticket.

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Seriously. He’s one of those high-falutin’ talking Hollywood Chihuahuas. And he’s a rescue dog, to boot. Kind of blows that “shelter dogs are broken dogs” myth of of the water, no?

Via Best Friends, who notes:

We all know what happens when a new “dog movie” comes out—lots of people decide they must have a dog just like the one in the movie. But what people might not realize is that shelters and groups across the country have plenty of Chihuahuas, for ADOPTION. In fact, Chihuahuas are the 5th most-posted breed of dog for adoption on Petfinder (after Labs, Shepherds, Pit bulls and mixes of those breeds).

Check out our star-studded PSA video (with actors from the movie) that encourages adoption instead of buying.

Watch on the Best Friends website (higher quality)

Watch on YouTube

We wanted to share a poster made by Best Friends that can be easily printed and hung up around your town to let people know that they can rescue a Chihuahua on Petfinder instead of buying one from a pet store, newspaper ad or the Internet. In fact, the star Chihuahua of the movie was rescued from a Moreno Valley shelter, outside of L.A. just days before his “time was up.”

Download poster by clicking this link.

For more information visit our web page: www.dontbuypuppies.com

Feel free to use link to the video on your own websites.

On behalf of the ‘Puppies Aren’t Products’ Campaign Team, thank you for helping us spread word!

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This is part nine in a nine-part series on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. A full TOC, complete with links for easy navigation, is included at the bottom of each post.

Spoiler alert: Danger ahead, oh the horra! Plot spoilers abound! If you haven’t yet read the book, consider yourself warned. In fact, back away from this blog asap, go borrow The Handmaid’s Tale from your local library, and come back when you’re done. We’ll still be on the internets, promise.

The Handmaid’s Tale, The Dramatization (BBC Radio 4, 2000)

The dramatization of The Handmaid’s Tale produced and aired by BBC Radio 4 in 2000 is more than a direct reading of the novel. Rather, it’s a full-cast performance, complete with sound effects, that puts the film version to shame.

In direct contrast to Volker Schlöndorff’s 1990 film effort, the producers of the 2000 BBC 4 radio dramatization of The Handmaid’s Tale succeed in creating a moving reenactment of the novel - without sacrificing any of Margaret Atwood’s vision. Granted, the BBC audio recording is a bit lengthier than the film; it spans three CDs, totaling no more than 4.5 hours (the film clocks in at 109 minutes), allowing extra time for Kate’s narration to unfold. Still, even the producers of the BBC dramatization had to cut several prominent sequences in order to condense the story. Unlike Schlöndorff and company, they chose wisely, and also reworked other aspects of the dramatization to compensate for the lost pieces of the novel.

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Oh, Tina Fey, you are a fooking genius! (And Amy Poehler, you’re no dubya, either.)

Seriously, Hitch, suck on this shit:

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As part of this week’s Countering the Right assignment, I had to sit through this “trailer” for the Family Research Council’s 2008 Values Voter Summit. Before I embedden the vid, let me just note that the featured speakers include Stephen Baldwin, Michele Bachmann, “independent” Lou Dobbs, Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schlafly, Sean Hannity, and - well, you get the idea. They bring the loony, is what I’m sayin’:

First of all: Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!? What are they doing, advertising a monster truck show? Ahem. Anywho.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but - isn’t that Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” playing in the background?

(Word to the wise: listen to this video, don’t watch it. It’s absolute dreck.)

Like, WTF FRC / VV08?

I’m not a big Colplay fan, but I do lurve this particular song. (Maybe because it reminds me of Lost, what with the British accents, fallen Catholics and wanna-be island kings. But that’s neither here nor there.)

And it doesn’t take a music critic to detect its anti-establishment undertones. Just check the lyrics:

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
“Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!”

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can’t explain
Once you go there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can’t explain
I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can’t explain
I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

Ostensibly, it’s about a corrupt, fallen king whose reign on earth has been so tainted by sin that, upon death, he’s not fit to cross the gates of Heaven. No?

Yes, explains bassist Guy Berryman:

It’s a story about a king who’s lost his kingdom, and all the album’s artwork is based on the idea of revolutionaries and guerrillas. There’s this slightly anti-authoritarian viewpoint that’s crept into some of the lyrics and it’s some of the pay-off between being surrounded by governments on one side, but also we’re human beings with emotions and we’re all going to die and the stupidity of what we have to put up with every day. Hence the album title.

And, while I don’t claim or even care to know much about Coldplay’s politics, singer Chris Martin is married to Gwyneth Paltrow - who, along with her mother Blythe Danner, has campaigned on behalf of Planned Parenthood (in a Mother’s Day fundraising push that threw the anti-choicers into quite the tizzy). So I very much doubt that the guys in Coldplay consider themselves “Values Voters” - or rather, they don’t share the “values” of the evangelical crowd. (Hey, just because I don’t swing right, doesn’t mean I don’t have “values.”)

And yet the Family Research Council, with all their woman-hating, gay-bashing, war-mongering, nation-building, stone-throwing authoritarian spitefulness, chose this song to promote their “Values Votes” Summit. Oh, sweet irony!

I wonder if Coldplay will have the dubious honor of inclusion on the Reich Wing’s next conservative song roundup? (Fortified with unintentional irony, natch!)

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Tagged: frc family research council vv values voter values voter summit 2008 elections coldplay Viva la Vida music video youtube irony conservative right wing uncool evangelical pop culture

This is part eight in a nine-part series on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. A full TOC, complete with links for easy navigation, is included at the bottom of each post.

Spoiler alert: Danger ahead, oh the horra! Plot spoilers abound! If you haven’t yet read the book, consider yourself warned. In fact, back away from this blog asap, go borrow The Handmaid’s Tale from your local library, and come back when you’re done. We’ll still be on the internets, promise.

The Handmaid’s Tale, The Film (Volker Schlöndorff, 1990)

If you’ve never read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the 1990 film adaptation by Volker Schlöndorff might seem an interesting enough movie. Set in a future in which Christian fundamentalists have overthrown the government, the film paints a terrifying picture of an American theocracy. Women, homosexuals, religious minorities, people of color, political dissidents - all suffer under the oppressive thumb of The Republic of Gilead.

Those familiar with the 1985 novel will see that much of the basic story remains the same in Schlöndorff’s on-screen adaptation. The former United States is in the midst of a Civil War; The Republic of Gilead holds much of the East Coast, while dissenting religious and secular groups wage war to the South and West. Within the Republic’s borders, a strict social structure is enforced. Men are ranked according to prestige and merit (Commanders, Eyes, Angels, Guardians, and businessmen and professionals), while women are grouped according to social function, which is primarily determined by their reproductive health and racial makeup (Aunts, Wives and Daughters, Econowives, Handmaids, Marthas, and Unwomen). While no Gileadean citizen is truly free, it is the females who bear the brunt of Gilead’s religious tyranny.

It is in this context that we meet Kate (Offred), a Handmaid who has been assigned to Commander Fred (”Of Fred”) and his Wife, Serena Joy. The Handmaid’s Tale is Kate’s tale, told in her very own voice, through a disjointed series of flashbacks and present-day narrations. Through Kate’s eyes, we reflect upon “the days before”; we learn how the Sons of Jacob were able to destabilize and eventually topple the American government and institute their own patriarchal theocracy; and we get a glimpse of what daily life in the Republic is like.

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The new season of 30 Rock doesn’t begin until October 30 - that’s bad. But Tina Fey guested on SNL this weekend - that’s good. Better still, she and Amy Poehler starred as the Vagina Dream Team, otherwise known as “MILF” Sarah Palin and “flurge” Hillary Clinton. Comedic genius, I say!

Swoon. Tina Fey, will you marry me?

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Tagged: tina fey snl sarah palin hillary clinton feminism misogyny sexism msm politics 2008 elections girl crush

The most shocking revelation to come out of the mini-kerfluffle over Toby “we’ll put a boot in your ass / it’s the American way” Keith’s ode to lynching? Not that a man who prides himself on being “White Trash With Money” is, at best, an ignorant fuckwit (or, at worst, a racist fuckwit); nor that he managed to pull Willie Nelson (!) down into the muck too; but rather, that Keith “holds the distinction of being the only musical artist to have received a five star rating from Stephen Colbert on I-Tunes.”

Suffering through Stephen’s fanboy drooling over Keith was bad enough, but imagining him air guitaring along to racist and misogynist ditties like Getcha Some, The Taliban Song and - of course - Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue? Well, that just breaks my heart. Or puts a boot in my ass. Whichever is more painful, I guess.

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Tagged: the colbert report stephen colbert toby keith willie nelson racism lynching beer for my horses

This ep is playing on the teevee right now, and I just couldn’t resist.

By the by, when I think of the Democratic caucuses, this is almost exactly how I imagine they went down.

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Tagged: south park barack obama change 2008 elections video

I am.

Then again, you probably are too. I don’t imagine cults are particularly…particular.

(Via.)

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Tagged: lost tv dharma initiative