33
POPSGiant Turkey Chases Boston Woman, Pecks Bottom Repeatedly When dispatched to the scene of a turkey, Verrier offers advice instead. He tells people not to feed them, not to be intimidated by them, and to keep their distance. Still, some people cannot help themselves. They need to be near the turkeys. Distance-shmistance, we want to be near the turkeys. I, for one, am against the city of Boston trying to regulate mutually consensual human-turkey behavior. A light ass-pecking never hurt anyone, am I right? Even though this incident happened right near my apartment, I have not been lucky enough to experience any super-sized turkeys on my errands, sadly. Look at the size of that sucker...he's gotta be like 12 feet tall! :)
22
POPSRediculous Propaganda from FEMA FEMA is a disaster all its own. The next president will need to give them a serious overhaul! Of all the people who shouldn't be afraid to face an ugly situation, it's FEMA's job to face disasters, not create them! Scolding is not enough for this. They should all lose their jobs. Immediately. Once again this shows that the administration only cares about pats on the back and looking out for its own interests, not in actually getting things done. Which is probably why in the last 6 years, Bush has achieved nothing except for ardent self-congratulation. These people are totally insufferable politicians! On a side note, the state department is having trouble filling positions at the Iraqi embassy. I can't think of a better place for Bush and his cronies to serve their retirements. Maybe they might actually do something for their country!
20
POPSSubcontracting Torture to the Terrorists You know, something occurs to me when looking at these three lovely destinations: it really does look like we are hiring the terrorists to interrogate potential terrorists. This is like Milo Minderbinder bombing his own base for the Germans!
16
POPSNothing Lasts Forever, Not Even Belgium Belgium: the country where other European countries go to fight their apocalyptic wars. Flemish: Somehow not quite Dutch, but only they can tell the difference. Waffles: Yum. Endives: Not as boring as lettuce. White asparagus: whiter than regular asparagus, I guess. Eels in garlic sauce: okay, now that's taking it a bit too far... Yes, for those who thought you could take things for granted, and who just assumed that such a stalwart pillar of modern nationhood as Belgium would be around forever: prepare for extreme-right xenophobic "Flemish" nationalist Filip (Philip to those filthy Wallonians) Dewinter to rock your world: "It's 'bye-bye Belgium' time!" Indeed, it is a sad day for humanity, and a bitter personal defeat for me, being as I had long argued that Chocolate and Beer were in fact enough to keep a nation of feuding and indistinguishable ethnic groups together. Guess I can't be right all the time!
14
POPSJapanese Fashion: Paranoid + Crazy + Stupid This is just weird on weird with weird sauce! I've always been amused by the fact that people who live in safe countries are often the most afraid of crime, but this goes far beyond the mere synchronicity of bourgeois ennui and paranoia. While this will probably be a big hit at the Peter R. H. Sellers Memorial School for Espionage and Sleuthing, I can't imagine how impossibly stupid someone would have to be to ACTUALLY fall for it. LOOK! You can see her sneakers sticking out from the bottom of the "vending machine!" Can you imagine someone hiding in this? There is something really messed up with Japan these days, on a monumentally surreal level!
13
POPSBut the Chinese Don't Eat Fortune Cookies!!!! The funny thing is that there are no fortune cookies in China. I just spent the whole day trying to explain them to a class full of Chinese college students, and they just could not understand what the point was. A number of them thought it sounded kind of dumb! I for one have always wanted cynical fortune cookies that say things like: "Confucius say: Vinnie will be waiting for you out front, take the back door!" "This is bad week for operate heavy machinery for you" "Now is good time to buy life insurance, while you still can." or simply: "Duck!"
11
POPSSNOW! In Iraq! Okay, so I'm pretty sure this one isn't our fault, but I gotta say, it just confirms my impression that this place is messed up on a cosmic level. Check out the Iraqi reactions to the strange frozen water falling from sky. They don't even know the word for snow!
11
POPSGiagantic Canibalistic Mongolian Trout! The best news is that conservation efforts now center on catch-and-release fly fishing! The Chinese utter lack of comprehension when it comes to conservation means I still haven't been able to find any good fishing around Beijing, but Mongolia, that ain't so far away! So that settles it, I'm headed to Mongolia! But first I have to learn to tie a fly that looks like a dead marmot... (Any tips?)
10
POPSReality Shows Bring Out The Worst in All of Us While relaxing on my day off work I just wanted to tune in and turn off. I got stuck in "A shot of love with Tila Tequila" marathon. All the elements here big time, but a new twist. Bisexuality and a "social experiment". Who would Tila pick? More importantly, who would want Tila I asked myself. But that's another question. Would she pick a woman or a man? Would she break out of her heterosexual world? Or would she stick with the safe, the familiar? Was she using her coming out of the closet for a gimmick? (debby thinks so) So, I had to watch the season finale last night. *LOL* I fell asleep and my poor husband had to endure it! Of course, she picked the guy. DUH. I could see lesbians being upset, and heterosexuals being vindicated. And bisexuals? OMG, this has done NOTHING for their image. I need to stick to PBS.
10
POPSImmunity for Blackwater and Torture for Muslims In case anyone out there is still wondering "Why do they hate us?" allow me to illustrate: American Blackwater guards, employed by the State Department, who are above the Iraqi law and beyond Military law, go on a shooting spree in traffic, leaving a dozen innocent civilians dead. The half-hearted US investigation is undermined by a reflexive offer of immunity. On the other hand, Arab Muslims, or anyone else more swarthy than Nathan Lane, can be abducted off the streets and tortured in secret detention camps or military prisons, with no legal recourse. Our government pardons its hiered killers and arbitrarily tortures people based on their race and religion. That's pretty damn shocking. So why is it so controversial to say "These people should go to jail." They haven't just broken the law, they've made a mockery of American principles. And yet, we feel no shame.
9
POPSOuyangwulong's Travel Plans Okay, so on my next bit of vacation, Marszal and I are going from Hotan, in Xinjiang, accross the Taklamakan Desert to Kashgar on the Pakistani border. We'll cross the Karakorum Pass, over the Pamir and Karakorum mountain ranges north of Nanga Parabat and K2, then chill out along the North West frontier by Afghanistan. That at least, was the plan, untill I checked the local news, and HOLY COW! I mean, I can deal with terrorism and anti-government riots, but dude, wolves eating children? That's just messed up! By the way, does anyone have any good restaurant recommendations in Northern Pakistan?
9
POPSLame Duck, or Just Lame? Okay, so there have been people like me on the left, saying that Bush is ruining the economy, and there have been people on the right saying the economy is great for the last 7 years. Very rarely has history been so swift to vindicate a particular side. What amazes me is that there are still people out there who are using the same rose-tinted glasses, taking the rose colored pills, and then drinking the rose-flavored kool-aide as the economy goes down in flames. And you know what bugs me? Even after all of this, unmitigated disaster, there are still going to be people who argue with me that Bush's economic policies have helped the country. If anyone checked, his vaunted "business experience" consisted mostly of driving profitable companies into Chapter 7. Guess what? He did the exact same thing with our country! Maybe next time we can pick a SUCCESSFUL businessman for president!
9
POPSMythos Justifies Pathos So, this surreal story has turned into a media spectacle, but it strikes me as sad, since it is being used by everyone to fulfill different cultural metanarratives that all happen to intersect at a single point in space and time. The Koreans are using it to illustrate Filial Piety and the importance of loyalty to blood relations (a national mania). Americans (including Christians who adopt children to indoctrinate them) feel smugly superior because we saved him from the pitiful life led by all those non-Americans. He fulfills his narrative of finding a physical source for his being. However, the post-modern punchline is that the "Daddy" failed the DNA tests. The two aren't even related! All of these different metanarratives we created are just delusions that superficially satisfy our desire for the confirmation of our presumptions and prejudices! Mythos justifies Pathos.
9
POPSThe Rise of Fascism in the 21st Century Jim Yardley is a very astute China observer, and this article hits the nail on the head. Surging Chinese nationalism is reaching frightening proportions. We seem to have forgotten that communism hardened by nationalism turns into fascism. I believe the current political climate in China of frustration, insecurity and aggressive racial pride is very very similar to the agitation for Fascism that took place in Europe and Asia in the 1930s.
8
POPSOh, the Glory of it All: Nuclear War and North Korea Coming on the heels of Bush's retro-active opposition to the ascension of Raoul Castro, we see another naive and anachronistic policy push from the extreem right wing: trying to intimidate North Korea. For all those who don't get cable news in their fall-out shelters, North Korea is already a nuclear power. Why are we so eager to provoke what would inevitably become a nuclear war? Because it won't hurt us. There's no way that N.K. could reliably hit the US, their first targets would probably be Seoul and Tokyo. So for Republicans like Bolton and his ilk, the nuclear destruction of Seoul (Population 30,000,000) would be "sad" but convenient, because it would provide us with the pretext to use our nukes and annihilate North Korea, which deep down they secretly think would be kind of fun. So, tell me again: Who is it that is Evil?
8
POPSHow To Tell If You're Being Followed Are you being tailed? How do you know what to look out for? Use this handy guide to see if they're really watching you or if it's all in your head. If you want to identify a tail, look at their shoes: they are hard to change. Move frequently between crowded and empty places: this forces them to keep closing for fear of losing you, drawing back, then closing again. This makes them conspicuous. But don't jump on or off trains just before the doors close--that's for the movies; and anyway, a good surveillance team will already have someone on the train, as well as on the platform. (Via Jason Kottke.)
8
POPSSad Sad Satire: Stephen Colbert & Fred Thompson Stephen Colbert is a master of pointed satire, but it's easy to lose track of the central point in all his showmanship. Lest we forget, there IS a TV personality seriously running for president, who announced his candidacy on a comedy talk show on the same network that carried his own program. By running his fiercely ignorant, populist, right-wing TV persona in the race Colbert satires the right wing preference for an unqualified everyman, and suspicion of education, experience and intelligence. Look at their criticisms of not just Gore or Kerry, but also Dukakis, Mondale, Carter, McGovern, all the way back to Adlai Stevenson! What makes this satire so sad is that there is just such a person actually running! Apparently, Democrats know running a TV personality is a joke, Republicans take it seriously.
7
POPSAll Out War Against Country Music Now, granted, as an old school punk rocker, I've made my own fair share of "hunting whiny country music singers for sport" jokes, but this crosses the line in a really creepy way. It seems like this is a movement to totally wipe them out! This surreal violence puts the artistry of music in an entirely new context. I for one am going to try to find and buy their albums as much as possible.
7
POPSRepublicans who like Spankings (a year of fond memories) Oh you sexy sexy conservative big boys, gay-bashing by day and lurking in mens bathrooms by night - so naughty! Good to know that deep down inside theres a little rainbow in all of you. Oh yeah and check out Haggards ripped boyfriend - would of figured him the top type but guess I called that wrong! This isn't mature content this is a serious trend in conservative politics. Seriously now, allegations and confessions are piling up I just picked out the four biggest profile cases, don't be surprised if there are more. Not all these guys are proved guilty but you read it and evaluate it. Look around - new republicans on the block? Do you feel safe as a homophobic straight man? By the way anyone wanna pitch in on making a Republican Hotties 2008 calender?
7
POPSCanada Apologizes for Saying America Tortures Prisoners Somebody sounds like they are afraid of getting water-boarded! Seriously, does this sound like a valid way of conducting foreign policy? America is doomed by our intolerance of criticism. No matter how many pictures are published of Americans torturing prisoners, America still expects everyone to look the other way. Kinda weird. Hopefully our next president won't be so bizarre when it comes to flaunting our morals while at the same time proclaiming them.
7
POPSRHETORIC OF HATE In case you didn't know this week is "Islamo-Fascist Awareness week on over 200 campuses" If that makes you as sick as it makes me wear green to show your support for the islamic world, muslim americans, and just being a human f*cking being. This is the rhetoric of hatred and intolerance - FIGHT IT.
7
POPSOops! Yahoo! could get me tortured! So apparently Yahoo! is named after the noise a journalist makes when the Chinese police break his arms in prison. Way to go you guys! Serriously, I don't know how these people sleep at night. I'll never use Yahoo mail and I don't suggest anyone else do it either. If they'll turn you over to the secret police in China, don't be surprised if they're willing to do it in your country too.
7
POPSIndifference, Negligence, Convenience & Media Bias Compare the dates. This was a story from February. These people knew that a village had been destroyed 8 months ago. Why was it not news then but it is news now? They sat on a story because massacring a village isn't important enough to break the news cycle, but now that Burma is a hot topic, they suddenly remember it! They are playing for ratings with people's lives. There is nothing sacred when it comes to the commercialism in the news.
6
POPSStop Cat Poaching Now! A Cause We Can All Support! Okay, so I think this will be my least controversial clip ever. I believe that the time has come to stop shooting other people's pet cats. You may call me closed minded. You may call me a radical. But is say there is right and wrong, and if you shoot other people's cats and then make clothes out of them, then you are wrong. Further more, from now on, I promise to boycott all Swiss garments made from cat fur, and I hope you all do the same! By the way, I'm dying to know the link between this and traditional Chinese medicine! Are they sure they didn't mean Cantonese cooking?
6
POPSTrue Political Waffling: Belgian Civil War Averted! Thank goodness Belgium has been rescued from political obscurity and irrelevance! Is anyone impressed by the fact that Belgium just didn't need it's government for 6 months? Imagine if that had happened in America? We'd be looting Wallmart on day 3. (Although I, personally, would be looting Wallmart on day 0, because that's what I do on my spare time.) At any rate, waffle lovers (and I suppose swift boat veterans for truth) can now rest easy. The feud between Flanders and Wallonia, ostensibly over why Dr. Seuss was allowed to name their territories, can finally be laid to rest! Except for that they hate each other, and there's a ridiculous wealth gap, and they are both presumably frustrated by their own irrelevance.
6
POPSGlobal Warming opens up new trade route? This is probably going to mean some positive feedback cycles in the albido affect and possibly mess with some polar bears...but on the other hand any bets as to when its going to get opened up for ecotourism? Also I wonder how this will affect the whole debate over ANWAR, with increased year round sea access?
6
POPSCase in point: Messed Up British People So, this guy is addicted to sex and drugs and doesn't know when to draw the line? And he's British? Hey, I bet he would love a nice vacation in Greece! But seriously, his perspective at the end, about comics helping the audience to empathize with something strange, is really insightful and good advice to all artists and writers.
5
POPSFlight Of Fancy I was just thinking about putting my feeder out this weekend so I could watch them. :) Aren't they simply amazing?
5
POPSPolice-State Style Olympics You know, it's a surreal sign of our times that the procession of the Olympic torch becomes a quasi-military exercise, where the flame passes through hordes of protesters only by police force of arms, with tear gas and hand-to-hand combat.
5
POPSApparently, India Rules, while the rest of us drool Check this out, you bunch of nomadic forest dwellers! You think you're all high and mighty just because you all invented toilet paper? Not only did India invent math, food and breathing, they also invented Snakes & Ladders! Take that, British Empire! And they never invaded a country in 10,000 years. It almost makes sense, if you can force yourself to think of India as a single nation with a single people.
5
POPSCoffee Corrupts America's Youth We can all laugh at Starbucks' typically popmpus token gesture of contrition. (Yeah, blame the barristas! Not whatever idiot designed all those weird factory-made collage panels on the walls of every Starbucks from Timbuktu to Taipei!) But what really frightens me is that American 16 year olds are using words like "stigma" while lamenting the metaphysical condition of the chain-cafe that provides the fix to keep their caffeine addiction at bay. Shouldn't they be busy drag racing hot rods around Dead-Man's-Curve? Or Rebelling without a Cause? Is the "stigma of commercialism" now one of the many bewildering social concerns brought on by puberty?
Most Pops
see Most Pops
14
Clips
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update