Category: Everything Else

The network news’ long history of “If it bleeds, it leads” bears yet more fruit:

Via Talk Left I see that 44 percent of Americans think that we should limit the civil liberties of American Muslims. And, waddaya know:

The survey also examined the relation of religion to perceptions of Islam and Islamic countries and found the more religious a person described themselves, the more negative their views on Islam.

The amount of attention paid to TV news also had a bearing on how strongly a respondent favored restrictions.

“The more attention paid to television news, the more you fear terrorism, and you are more likely to favor restrictions on civil liberties,” said Erik Nisbet, a senior research associate with Cornell’s Survey Research Institute who helped design the survey

It’s gotten to that point in December where the incessant blasts of holiday music at work and elsewhere are starting to make me a little loopy. So this bit from No More Mr Nice Blog is particualrly apt:

The people who are complaining about the secularization of Christmas in contemporary America probably shouldn’t step into the Wayback Machine…

…looking into the past will not yield up any meaning of the Christmas holiday that most of us will recognize. The December date on the festive calendar two centuries ago was an occasion for public brawling by wandering crowds of inebriates.

Until Christmas was transformed in the 1830

For the third time in four years, the New England Patriots have clinched an NFL playoff spot.

I need to make sure I put in for time off so I can watch da boyz kick some butt in January.

Go PATS!

Over the years, Hormel has gracefully handled their flagship brand’s name becoming associated with the tidal wave of junk e-mail permeating the Internet. Now, they’re going one step better.

A play called “Monty Python’s Spamalot” is headed for Broadway, and Hormel Foods Corp. is laughing.

Based on the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the musical begins previews Feb. 14 at New York’s Shubert Theatre. It will run in Chicago from Dec. 21 to Jan. 23.

Hormel plans to issue Spam golden honey grail in a collector’s edition can. The product will be available in limited quantities at select New York City retailers in February.

For those who can’t wait, cans will be given to the first 100 customers who purchase tickets when the Shubert box office opens Dec. 6.

“Spam is the holy grail of canned meats,” Eric Idle, a Monty Python veteran and lyricist and book writer for the new musical, said in a recent statement.

“Spamalot,” directed by Mike Nichols, stars David Hyde Pierce, Tim Curry and Hank Azaria.

Idle has said the musical will be “as good as or quite likely better than any other show with killer rabbits and a legless knight opening on Broadway or in Chicago this season.”

Hormel spokeswoman Julie Craven said company executives who have read the script said it’s hysterical, and company leaders including chief executive Joel Johnson plan to attend the show’s New York opening.

Rock on, Hormel!

Fresh from the state that recently rejected removing segregation-era racist language from its state constitution, this latest bit of proposed bigotry:

An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries.

A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for “the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle.” Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the “homosexual agenda.”

“Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle,” Allen said in a press conference Tuesday.

Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed.

“I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them,” he said.

I started trying to compile a list of what might get pulled out of an Alabama library if this passes but it’s too depressing. Walt Whitman, Lillian Hellman, and Tennassee Williams all make the hit list, and that’s just the first few I thought up.

Came across a blogger who’s been giving a first-person account of the goings-on over in the Ukraine. Check her out.

And a hat tip to new Kos guestblogger David for the link.