Below are simple links to other interesting stuff I've come across on the web in the last day or two; they may or may not concern literature or photography, or indeed the arts at all. You can click here to learn more about how I compile this list and what software I use, if you're interested.

Taplin: "Rush Limbaugh is effectively now running the Republican Party"
So did you hear? After standing up for himself the other day in the face of bullying by fascist talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, conservative Congressman Phil Gingrey was forced by the Republican Party to apologize to him on his own radio show, for daring to suggest that the man is a loud-mouthed goosestepper who has deliberately been trying to pick an unfair fight with President Obama since the day he took office. As futurist Jon Taplin points out here, it's effectively proof that the radical, racist, Evangelical nutjob wing of the GOP is still firmly in charge of things over there, and that they're effectively getting their cues from a pill-popping drug addict who has freely admitted that he has studied the propaganda lessons of the Nazis in the past, so to learn how to use the lessons in the present day. What a fascinating moment in that party's history to be a witness to, a moment when cartoonishly evil mustache-twirling villains seem to have so completely taken over.

Unbelievable quotes from Congressman's forced public apology to Rush Limbaugh
Here's yet another article about how Rush Limbaugh is now effectively running the Republican Party, as proven by the apology GOP Congressman Phil Gingrey was forced to give him on his own radio show the other day, for daring to criticize him for deliberately picking arbitrary fights with President Obama. But I wanted to link to it because it includes a quote from the actual apology, that is so brazen as to actually sound like some prisoner-of-war propaganda thing being read at gunpoint: "Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich, and other conservative giants are the voices of the conservative movement's conscience. Every day, millions and millions of Americans -- myself included -- turn on their radios and televisions to listen to what they have to say, and we are inspired by their words and determination." He actually SAID this! Can you BELIEVE it? What kinds of crazy, cartoonishly evil things exactly are happening behind closed doors at the GOP these days? "Read the statement, Congressman, or we kill the puppy!"

Will we finally stop worshipping Super Bowl ads this year?
I was mentioning this last November, how in the last thirty years of late-stage capitalism we seem to have unofficially developed two new holidays in the US, both related to consumerism: Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when nearly every store in the nation throws a sale; and the Super Bowl, a day devoted to the literal worshipping of ultra-expensive commercials. But the NYT argues this might all change this year: many traditional Super Bowl advertisers have cut back, plus we're seeing the first "direct-market" (i.e. cheapass) Super Bowl commercial this year (for Cash4Gold.com), plus with most of the traditional clients left going for feel-good this year instead of spectacular and impressive. It couldn't come sooner, I say; in fact, I argue that was a big part of the problem of the Bush Years, was the level of unthinking consumerism worship we had gotten to by then.

Americans officially too incompetent to flip a f-cking switch
So it's four years now since the US first officially decided to eventually switch over to a digital television signal, and guess what? Two weeks before the switch is officially set to take place, turns out that maybe as many as 20 million homes still aren't ready (i.e. have analog TVs and no converter box), and that the country has collectively run out of converter boxes, AND that the government has officially run out of free vouchers for said converter boxes, prompting Congress to try to pass a bill this week officially delaying the switch until at least June. And guess what? Even THAT's all screwed up, because of new GOP overlord Rush Limbaugh's order this week to Republican members of Congress to spend the next four years voting against anything that President Obama wants, no matter what it is; turns out they're even blocking the effort to acknowledge how incompetently this has all been handled in the first place, much less fix it. All this to press an 'on' button. Unbelievable.

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