I found this Guardian article over on Fark. Basically a children’s rights group over in the UK wants to ban an “ultrasonic teenage deterrent” that keeps teenagers from loitering in public places, and is said to combat antisocial behavior.

… What? What?

First of all, yes, that does violate human rights. It is a cruel and unusual punishment for something that is generally punishable by getting chased by a cop for five minutes and a small fine. Plus, I kind of thought the whole point of being a teen was to hang out in public spaces that you weren’t invited to. Maybe if there were actual things for kids to do, besides going to the mall every other day and smoking lots of pot, there would not be the kind of gang violence and “hoodies” as they call them in Merry Old England, that we have now. If anything, this measure will increase the amount of gang violence and increase the general unruly-ness of kids. Imagine walking to school and having to avoid all of the places where a high pitched squeal turns your brain and ear drums into mashed potatoes for a few seconds.

I certaintly would not want my kids growing up in that kind of world.

Do my eyes deceive me? Is that John Mellencamp? If so, this post is already off to a bad start.

Who on the John Edwards’ campaign staff thought appearing at a John Mellencamp concert was a good idea? Was Bruce Springsteen busy? Was Bruce Springsteen tied up in John Mellencamp’s basement sleeping off a sedative when the campaign’s communication staff called artists? “Hey, John here, John Mellencamp.” “Hi John, I’m calling on behalf of John Ed…” “BRUCE IS BUSY I’LL DO IT.”

If Mellencamp was running for president and he appeared at his own concert, he’d lose votes. This is assuming that he’d have votes left after the “America’s Just One Big Small Town”, “Terrorists Don’t Suck Chili Dogs”, and “We Need A Cougar In The White House” campaign slogans.

You know, like a swarm of bees or a horde of gerbils or a movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr.

When I posted about the new Counting Crows tracks up on their website, I didn’t realize that the Internets had become home to an entire flock of new tracks off the coming album. Apparently I’m not much for detective work, and by “detective work” I mean “using Google.”

I’m really lovin’ the track Cowboys that I found over on Myspace. Oh, I know, as if we needed another reason to visit Myspace. I’m spending virtual days there already just taking in the atmosphere, conversation, and fine graphic design work.

I also like the lead single You Can’t Count On Me that was just released for Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings.

Following up the bunch is Come Around, a countryish mix of mellow …melody. There’s a taste of The Fhiz’s music review prowess right there.

So, go snack on those with your ears. And don’t forget the digital 45 still playing at CountingCrows.com

(image flickred by Hryckowian)

I was digging this morning, and I stumbled upon (If it’s possible to “stumble upon” something on “digg.” Both companies probably have trademarks on the terms) this article on the Environmental Graffiti blog.

The gist is that Kraft is working on a food with a pesticide rich formula to combat the rampant intestinal worm problem of Asia, South America, and Africa. I’m thinking it’s some kind of cheese; if it tastes horrible, Kraft can claim it’s just the natural cheese flavor …while some exotic swamp platypus lactates in a big jar at the Kraft lab.

But isn’t this a step backward from society’s “organic, no hormones, no msg, no irregularlly shaped salt, and made from the pubic feathers of angels” food craze? Or maybe it’s a step forward? This could be the start of a bold future. Soon they’ll be Kraft foods with radioactive isotopes. I can see the commercials nows. “Kraft Krumbles will glow with a mellow heat as they “krumble” on to your salad!”

(image flickred by merfam)

January 30thwas the date of another round of Republican debates between the four remaining contenders: Ron Paul, John McCain, Mitt “Who-The-Hell-Names-Her-Kid-Mitt?” Romney and Mike Huckabee. The debates were held in the Regan library, Air Force One parked behind the four candidates, and Nancy Regan flanked by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the audience. It doesn’t get more patriotic than that. As with all CNN mandated debates Anderson Cooper moderated, and speaking from a completely objective point of view he has got to be the worst moderator in the history of presidential primary debates.

The debate was rather unremarkable and there isn’t so much one could say about it. Cooper clearly favored giving McCain and Romney the most camera time. He would occasionally throw a question at Huckabee and actually cut off Paul’s answer to a question in favor of letting McCain answer. From what I could gather, because let’s face it, political rhetoric is kind of hard to decipher and is almost a language unto itself, Romney and McCain pretty much agree on everything except the war, an issue that everyone is doing their best to avoid. As far as other issues, the economy and immigration took center stage, and the answers were basically, “What economic crisis? Oh yeah, the one that over 60% of the nation says we’re in. Well, let’s kick all the immigrants out. That’ll solve everything.”

I’ve been saying for a while now that the Republican party is in trouble when the only two people who make a damn bit of sense or McCain and Paul, and given that more time was spent arguing with Romney over some quote for almost five minutes, which, for you non-debate team nerds out there, is an eternity in an hour and a half debate, and trying not to fall asleep, McCain has left that pedestal.

I’m not quite sure what the Republicans hope to accomplish by invoking the ghost of Reagan. The final question of the debate speaks for itself I think: would Ronald Reagan endorse you for president? It quickly turned into a “mine is bigger than yours” match between Romney and McCain, however, McCain wins as far as an entertaining answer. He did not so much answer why as much as drop Reagan’s name about two dozen times (I’m not kidding) and eventually got lost in own rhetoric. Ron Paul cited Reagan as a vessel of change and aligned himself with that. Huckabee, however, was the only candidate smart enough to play the humble card and said that it was pretentious to guess weather Reagan would endorse him or not. Maybe they all had to be nice because his widow was in the audience. I don’t know.

I am not trying to come across as harsh just because I don’t vote Republican. What I fail to understand is why these multi-million dollar media spectacles have so little substance behind them. In light of the obvious short changing of speakers to asking trite questions about who Ronnie would love more, the sham is becoming pretty see-through. The democrats are guilty of this as well, making the overall assessment of the debates very bi-partisan.

If you missed it, check out YouTube for the debates and go watch yourself some politics in action.