those rural pennsylvanians weren't bitter

...they just weren't drinking Keystone Light.

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neat pics

Anyone remember the Buran program?  Buran would have been the late Soviet answer to the US Space Shuttle Program.  The USSR started to collapse, and the Buran program was ended.  The flagship of this program, the Buran, made one unmanned test flight, but was grounded after that.  Sadly, in 2002, eight workers were killed and the Buran completely destroyed after the hangar they were under collapsed due to neglect. 

The only thing left from the Buran program is a test shuttle, called OK-GLI.  That test shuttle itself is in rough shape, an Australian company bought it and made it into a tourist destination.  That company went bankrupt, and the OK-GLI was left out to face the elements, and suffered damage from vandals.  After that, it was bought by someone in Bahrain, where a German museum tracked down the OK-GLI.  The OK-GLI is on its way to the museum now.  Here are neat pics of it being ferried up the Rhine.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 07:11 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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obama didn't just burn the bridge with the keystone state

...he just blew the damn thing to smithereens.  There is no way he'll ever recover from this in PA...a few weeks ago, I disagreed with Sockless Joe about Obama's chances here, but to be honest, I starting to think I might be doing a mea culpa, there was some evidence in the polling that the Messiah stood a small chance here in PA.

Sockless Joe's reaction is pretty much my reaction to this whole thing, and my guess is it'll be typical of most people in PA, except for the Soviet of Philly.

It shows a fundamental ignorance about who we are in PA.  We don't embrace religion and guns because we're bitter about economic woes.  We are a faithful people, we like our strong religious communities, and we like our guns, our shooting and hunting, these are not some product of bitterness, these are part of our culture.  Obama has shown a complete inability to understand who we are as people.

Huffington Post has the audio.  This may do damage to the Obama campaign beyond the state of PA.  I wish the audio were a touch clearer, but its good enough.  He's gonna be doing damage control for this until the election.

Nice Deb has a nice roundup of damning quotes from Obama.  These will likely get new scrutiny with this story.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:53 PM | Comments (30) | Add Comment
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trent lott: still a douchebag

...and still personifies why the GOP lost both houses.

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shooting black zombies is racist, part durrr

Some of you may remember this idiotic story a few months back, the Village Voice and some black blogger were throwing self righteous tantrums about Resident Evil 5, because the game is set in Africa, and the protagonist is white and there are black zombies.  Funny that the Village Voice would threw a shitfit over RE5 given recent events...

In any case, this time our grievancemonger is a tech guy at Newsweek who took this long to realize that crying racism and trying to make news out of a non-story is a good way of filling your story quota and pull in traffic.  Congrats, fucktard, you've got your wish.  This interview with the Newseek guy is now being linked to gamer news sites everywhere, most of the site editors seem to be crumbling and leaning toward taking his side.  Thankfully, it looks like a fair number of people in the comments are telling the guy to get bent, and are siding with Capcom. 

He swears he's doesn't think a white protagonist shooting black zombies is automatically racist, yet that's pretty much where he goes in this interview.  He goes on and on about how the trailer, yeah, not the game, a trailer released in July of 2007 hearkens back to old racist imagery and dehumanizes the African villagers.

Douchebag laments that us ignorant gamers are just too stupid to see it. 

It’s not as simple as saying, “Oh, they shot Spanish zombies in ‘Resident Evil 4,’ and now ‘black zombies and that’s why people are getting upset.” The imagery is not the same. It doesn’t carry the same history, it doesn’t carry the same weight. I don’t know how to explain it more clearly than that.

It is if you're looking for racism where there probably isn't any, and this douchebag is.

He then goes on about there being no black protagonists, despite the fact he hasn't played the damn game, and there may be black protagonists not featured in the trailer for all he knows.


He then bitches because the game, from what we've been told by Capcom, does take some cues from Black Hawk Down.

I don’t want to put down the Capcom team that’s working on it. I hope they did more research than that. But based on that trailer, it’s very difficult to tell. And Black Hawk Down was a very problematic film among a handful of critics and particularly among African-American viewers and African viewers when it came out because of the sort of narrow focus of its portrayal.

Why was Black Hawk Down problematic?  It was a dramatization of a real event, if any African and African-American viewers have a problem with a portrayal of a real event, they can go fuck themselves. 

I think, again, the point is not that Capcom can’t or shouldn’t make a zombie game set in what appears to be an impoverished country where the majority of residents are black. I’m not saying that. But what I am saying is that if I was Capcom, I wouldn’t have suggested to put out that trailer. I would have said, “You know what, this has tremendous capacity for being misunderstood, and we want to signal that this is not what you might think it is” — and they didn’t do that.

Well, gee, you seem quite interested in filling in the context for them, maybe they figured they didn't need to. 

This sounds like a veiled threat to me...

I think releasing that game is going to be very difficult. I think there are people and organizations who aren’t very understanding of games that if that imagery is brought to them they’re going to be like, “Wait, hold up. I don’t know how you could put that out.” Then you have to say, “Does Wal-Mart want to deal with that? Does Target want to deal with that?”

Read as, because these are black zombies, get ready for the black grievance lobby to throw a fucking tantrum and start bringing political pressure to censor it or lash out at the industry.  Don't cave to this bullshit, Capcom.

I’m not saying that censorship is the answer.

Yes you are.

I’m saying that the same rights that allow Capcom to put the game out are the same rights that allow people to bring pressure on people who might release that game.

In other words, you want to throw your weight around at a game developer who is developing a game you know nothing about in order to make them censor it, or else the grievance lobby will use it's political power to lash out at the industry, we gamers know what the fuck this is about. 

This is why it is important to whoever works in the American office of a company like Capcom to be able to show this is the history, this is where this comes from, this is where we need to be more sensitive. I’m not sure they’ve done that yet.

Read: Censor yourselves or else.

What is stunning is that during the first wave of the ZOMG!!!1! SHOOTING BLACK ZOMBIES IS RACIST!!1!1ELEVENTY!1 stories, both of the two sites I link to today came down on the side of the developer, but now that some tech guy from Newsweek has spoken the divine word, they all fall to their knees.  They'll sell out and join the grievance lobby like a bunch of lemmings, I guarantee it.  Worthless tools.

I do know this, I don't have a 360, and even if I never do buy one, if Capcom tells the race/grievancemongers to get buggered and put out this game without neutering it, I'll still buy a copy to show my support.  And if they do cave, I won't be buying Capcom for a looong time.

UPDATE:  Actually, I sat back and thought about this for a second...this guy might not the utter fucking retard I think he is.  What better way to get an inside scoop on a highly anticipated game then to stir up a long dead controversy by crying racism and declaring that the developer needs to reassure people that they aren't making some racist thing...or rather, assure one person, who happens to be the tech reporter at Newsweek. 

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Congratulate The Hostages for their 200,000th hit!

Nanny Staters on the attack in the UK.  Even more here, why harass this poor butcher?  How loud could his chopping really be?

Chad suggests a better target for that obnoxious wine critic's fashion critiques.

Nah...it ain't his style.  That said, I think I have that kind of story beat.

CB has the latest on Georgia's attempts to give people more of their 2nd Amendment rights back, and the opposition to it.

Why the hell was this not passed when we had a majority?

Blech.

Interesting.

Nothing we didn't know.

Cartoon for you.

Stash on the Marine fugitive and navigating through the Mexican legal system.

CT on the idiot brigades who are resisting the Colombian trade deal. 

I haven't had a chance to listen to this, but if it is real, it might be pretty damning.

The Gates of Hell Soviet of Philly lives up to their name by signing unconstitutional laws into effect.  Sorry Philly douchebags, we're not gonna let you erode our Second Amendment rights, leave PA and join Jersey if you want total Marxism...please?

Update on the stop Uwe Boll petition.

Chastity belts make a return in Indonesia.

An aggro leftist gets his.

Alright, has everyone been tagged?  Good grief.  I still have to do mine...

Yeah...I hope McCain doesn't totally screw up.  It's also good to know that people are apprehensive about handing over the health care system to the state.

Funneh.

Kadnine has an interesting take on the Bellavia flap.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:36 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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free dr. pepper for all?

Is Chinese Democracy really gonna happen?  There is a rumor floating that Guns'n'Roses has delivered the music for the loooong-awaited record to Geffen Records (H/T), now they just need to hammer out some legal issues.  For those confused about the Dr. Pepper title, Dr. Pepper started a promotion a while back declaring that if Guns'n'Roses gets Chinese Democracy to store shelves this year, that they'll give everyone in America a free Dr. Pepper.  In fact, Dr. Pepper has a site up, watching what happens with GnR.  Honestly, I don't give a rat's ass about GnR, but a free Dr. Pepper?  Hell yeah I want a free Dr. Pepper! 

Now Dr. Pepper just needs to pull a similar gimmick with Duke Nukem Forever and Boondock Saints: All Saints Day.  Dr. Pepper can be like masters of making shit that people have been waiting a decade for happen. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:29 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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UPDATE:  Beth at MyVRWC has a transparent background Moronosphere seal, which may be an improvement over the white or black for you.  Apparently though, transparent doesn't work for IE.  But that really shouldn't matter, because you should be using Firefox or something else.

More Jack Thompson pwnage! 

Not supporting Hillary, you're a misogynist!

These are just bizarre.

If you want to take a break from voting for Ace in that Time poll, here's a poll on the best NY Post headlines.

Ruwe says no on boycotting the Olympics. 

Bunk! Dugout!

New tech for our armed forces...a portable polygraph?

Top ten foods for when you're drunk.  I'm sure you morons have your own corrections you'd like to issue.  Relevant.  Also relevant.

Yeah, the PA GOP really is a bunch of fuckups.

Someone has read their Zombie Survival Guide, and someone else hasn't.  Blades don't need fuel, chainsaws are loud, and getting that close to a zombie is dangerous.  Of course, firearms are your best bet, but you should use sparingly because of the noise they make.

The Soviet of Maryland goes after their capitalists and kulak traitors.

Yeah, this has me a tad nervous too.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.  Seriously, this has to be one of the most harebrained idea in the history of mankind.

Why would anyone want credit for this crapfest?

Crikey!

Here you go, let USA Today know that you know your rights.

More blather from the Hollywood set.

Are you a statistic?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:08 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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why the hell are pennsylvania cops freaking out about this?

Breath mints called "Antipoleez."  The stupid things are being advertised as a mint that'll hide the fact that you're shit-faced if you get pulled over.  Why the cops are bugging out about this is beyond me, do these cops not watch Mythbusters?  Everyone knows you can't beat the Breathalyzer.  Guys, you have a lot more important things to worry about, just offer a friendly reminder to the public that breath mints don't fucking work.  Have some officer get drunk at the station, have him scarf down a handful of these mints, then have them do a Breatlalyzer on the local evening news.  Problem solved.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 04:14 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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canada moves to censor canadian dextrosphere

I have no idea if they're taking donations for a defense fund, but you may want to watch if they are.  Basically, the Canadian Human Rights Commission is a bunch of PC Nanny Jackboots, and are trying to bludgeon prominent Canadian conservative and dissenting punditry into silence with the Canuckistani legal system.  The Small Dead Animals crew, Kathy Shaidle, and Free Dominion, which is a popular Canadian conservative message board, I guess it might be functionally analogous to FreeRepublic(not necessarily analogous to content), but you know, Canadian.  Ezra Levant is also named in the suit.

This is something we should try and fight where we can...that, and we don't need our liberal Nanny jackboots getting any ideas.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 03:38 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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UPDATE:  Just scroll down to the pic of Obama, where you'll see another UPDATE if you're just here for the screencaps.

Looky, new banner!  Also, even more fun, we have the official Moronosphere Network Seal!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:51 AM | Comments (31) | Add Comment
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why the gop loses

Shit like this.  Nanny Bloomberg, when not trying to be an obnoxious patrician busybody elsewhere, continues playing Big Brother in New York.  In this case, he wants to levy a tax in order to limit traffic congestion like they do in London.  While the measure did thankfully fail in the NY legislature, Nanny Bloomberg tried to buy his way to the new tax by dropping half a million in campaign donations to GOP candidates, and made some progress in doing so.  How pathetic are these worthless tools that they allow themselves to be bought so easily? 

Honestly, the GOP leadership works way too hard at maintaining their Stupid Party title.  Guys, I promise, no one is gonna take that title away from you in the near future.  Let loose a bit, act like conservatives or Republicans every once in a while, you'll be fine!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:52 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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mccain to set up committee of fifty to focus on religious voters

Let me know when McCain makes a Committee of Fifty to reach out to conservatives (H/T)...actually, upon reading it closer, this sounds less like a outreach effort and more of a "find evangelical leaders who will pick up the pom poms and cheerlead for Straight Talk Express" type operation.  As always with McCain, it is about McCain,

The list is still in development, but the bottom line here is that the McCain camp has no desire to start a dialogue with folks who want to beat up the senator over some of his views. They're looking for people who are open to listening to him, convinced that they will like what they hear.

So in other words, this is basically more of the same McCain.  McCain doesn't want to hear concerns or criticism from the evangelicals, he's just trying to reshuffle the deck in order to make "Hop onboard the Straight Talk Express, or you can go fuck yourself!" into something slightly more palatable for evangelicals.  It isn't so much outreach as it is an empty gesture to make it look like he's doing something beneficial.  A long career in Congress has made him fairly adept at that, I guess.

Let me put on my Allah hat for a second and ask an Exit Question:  How bad is it that Camp McCain feels they have to play this game with evangelicals before they feel they have to with conservatives?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:20 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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wwe star gets a dui

I'll forego making the obvious "Sobriety Test" play on his nickname, however, I reserve the right to make fun of the bad dyejob.  C'mon dude, a DUI? Booooo-ring!   You're gonna have to do better than that buddy, this week alone, we have a story about a huge stash of 'roids, and neither one of you clowns came close to the forced prostitution ring of Harrison "Hardbody" Norris.  I can't help myself,

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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mets to be rickrolled?

Looks like we'll get our Rickroll.  Nice!  Speaking of Rickroll, I see Allah has the video of the Phelps vermin getting Rickrolled.  Old!  We morons at doubleplusundead had that video in our comments a few days ago.  Speaking of Rickroll, this is probably the best one ever.

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around the moronosphere in 80 iq points

Today's links!

Karl at PW has an excellent post on Spike Lee's racial demagoguery.

The Pulitzer circle jerk.

Foulmouthed parrot!

Some catharsis for those bitter about McCain being the nominee.

Agreeing with Hillary, and a gratuitous smack at McCain.

Interesting story about an old prank and an older cannon.

Keep Austin weird!

FAIL

An Egyptian mosque uses its speakers to harass a nearby Coptic church.

Mike on the new Cern-developed super intarwebs thingy.  Something he highlighted that hit me is the energy needed to run this system.  I immediately think of our already decrepit energy grid, the stupid hippies that are holding it back, and the problems that's already causing.  On a related note, an interesting thought on energy and civilization. 

Of course:  Scientist blames shortage of barley on Global Warming.  I mostly blame Global Warming hysterics for most of the supply shortages for brewers.  The handy thing about liberalism and Marxism is that their policies usually turn their windmills into the monsters they claim to be fighting, which then "justifies" their policies...its a vicious cycle. 

Have a bottle of Absolut you need to dispose of?  Be creative, send a pic, and maybe win a free shirt.

Steamboat McGoo has some fun with Pravda. 

An update on a group that I'm guessing the Feds watch pretty closely.  An update on someone else that the Feds are probably watching closely.

About the only reason to vote for McCain instead of voting against the Marxists that are slugging it out now.

If you haven't seen it...

A possible VP choice?  Anyone in or near Rhode Island wanna comment?

Vets take the Hill!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:05 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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you can send uwe boll packing!

For those that don't know, Uwe Boll is a director who is known for making terrible movies based on popular video game franchises.  He's also well known for being a total dick. 

In a recent interview, the interviewer made mention that there was an online petition with 18,000 signatures calling for him to never make another film again.  Boll dismissed it, but!, Boll says with a million signatures, he'll never make another film again. 

I'm sure he'd backtrack as soon as they hit a million, but that would kick so much ass if this petition hits a million.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:37 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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homeowner finds steroid stash of wwe star

Steroids in the WWE, nevah!  The 'roids were found in two shoeboxes in the corner of the attic, there were also a bunch of WWE letterhead addressed to the wrestler who used to own the home.  Police are testing the substances, and are going to question the wrestler about them.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:11 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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around the moronosphare in 80 iq points 4/7

First, the Moronosphere has been called to service, Time has a poll up rating your favorite blogs, and AoS is on there, just slide the thing to ten and hit submit.  Now, the links!

More on Obama's pitiful attempt to bullshit PA voters into believing he isn't an enemy to the Second Amendment.

No, leftist douchebags, you can't have a moral equivocation, NOT YOURS!

The Democrat primary really is entertaining.

Weasel offers a sendoff to Charlton Heston as only she could.  Heh.

Hillary's chief strategist Mark Penn gets his ass thrown out of Camp Clinton, and Michael Yon's book is out.

Locusts & Honey has a link to celebrity D&D characters.  This of course is obligatory.

This looks like a story to watch.

Never underestimate the disabled.

bmac eviscerates George Clooney, Hollywood's quintessential sanctimonious prick.  It really is amazing how everyone loves this guy, just not enough to drop $8-12 to watch his stupid movies.

Hey Ladies!

Honestly, there is a lot of good stuff at IB today, so I'll just tell you to drop by there and pick what you like.

Mike at CF on Chuck Heston and the vile Nutroots.

NPR did a story on Eric Cartman, sweet you guys.

A good capture in Afghanistan.

Assault with a hedgehog? Was it this guy?

Heh.

Awesome.

WickedPinto drops by mesa's.

GTFO!  But don't question their patriotism...dear God let there be audio or video.

No, I don't live in Reading, and I'm not even 30 yet.

Funneh.

Muslihoon on people's reactions to the LDS church.  To be honest, I was stunned by the visceral negative reaction some people had to Romney because he is a Mormon.  I knew that sentiment existed, but not to the extent I saw.  I know I could never be a Mormon, I'm too much of a foulmouthed smartass who likes his cigars, alcohol and caffeine too much, Mormons are just way too clean for a guy like me, they're just too nice.  And yes, I mean that as a compliment.  I have nothing ill to say about Mormons as people, obviously I have some doctrinal differences with LDS, but the frothing, rabid reaction to the LDS church by some is way over the line.

Sockless Joe says no to Condi, and I agree, for exactly the reasons he lays out.

Horsey punch?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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why obama will never win in pennsylvania

I am wholly convinced that Obama cannot win in PA, and his horrendous record on Second Amendment rights is one of the key reasons why.  Obama is now trying to get local politicians to smooth over things, and trying to backtrack from his horrendous legislative record on Second Amendment rights.  My guess is he's hoping to move and bullshit his to the center enough to appease or convince some of the Fudds in PA to support him (first definition in link is good definition of a Fudd). 

“Guns are a cultural lens through which they view candidates,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a progressive think tank. “If you are seen as way off on that issue, then you seem way off on everything. If you are seen as OK, if the lens is clearer, then they continue to look at you and size you up on other things.”

“For Obama, who is less known and is from Chicago, a city guy and an African American, the feeling is that he is anti-gun,” Kessler continued. “By handling the Second Amendment correctly, he starts to get a hearing among these folks.”

Kessler has it absolutely right in the first part, in PA, if you aren't considered friendly to gun owners, you're a political non-starter outside of the Soviet of Philly.  And when it comes to Obama's record on the Second, that ain't a feeling, Jim, that would be truth.

Obama’s approach is similar to one advocated by Third Way, which issued a seven-step blueprint in 2006 to close the “gun gap” with Republicans. In a memo on its website, the group urges progressives to avoid silence on gun issues, and instead “redefine the issue in a way that appeals to gun owning voters.”

Among the key steps, according to Third Way: “Own the Second Amendment” and “Take Your Message Directly to Gun Owners — Don’t Let Your Opponent Define You.”

You can read this as, "try to bullshit and peel off as many Fudds as you can."  Basically, make the Dem politician promise to limit their Nanny Stating to spooky looking weapons.  And yes, it can and does sometimes work, but I don't think Obama's legislative record will allow it to work for him, all but the densest Fudd is gonna know Obama is not a friend to gun owners, not even Fudds themselves.  At this point, I'm about 95% sure that Obama can't take PA in April or November.  Unless McCain totally flames out, McCain'll take PA, and Democrats usually need PA to win the White House. 

And to give you an idea of why the Second is considered such a big issue in PA, and why Obama is sweating on this issue,

The pitch from Obama may prove to be a tough sell with this state, where polling shows four in 10 voters  — with higher percentages in rural areas — own a firearm. But it is a requisite if he hopes to expand his appeal beyond the state’s metropolitan areas.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:58 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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