The amazing anti-Scientology video work of Pelvidar is back! With outstandingly creative use of archive material and effects, Operation Fair Game: STOP hilariously debunks the claim that Anonymous wear masks to “intimidate”. Our own Damian is visible just after the twelve minute mark, in the Plymouth protest. As commenters on Enturbulation have suggested, these films are, hopefully, history books for the future.
Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone–a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive. … Eating on the street–even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat–displays [a] lack of self-control: It beckons enslavement to the belly.
Though it seems like it’s from The Chap magazine, in reality this was said by the GW Bush aide who was put in charge of the Council of Bioethics. The report uses similar social-engineering nonsense to advise against medical research that could save the lives or ease the suffering of millions. Stephen “How the Mind Works” Pinker takes them to task. The republican war on science continues.
I just found this care of the old faithful Stumbleupon. With the percussion composed entirely of munition sounds from the game Call of Duty 4, this is a fairly standard techno piece, but there’s something about it. The editing is quite clever, at least!
For those who remember Roy Walker’s prime time TV quiz show “Catchphrase”, an extract from Victor Lewis-Smith’s not-prime-time TV satire programme “TV Offal”:
Via the Guardian, the Register and a bunch of other media outlets including BBC London local news (below), the story of how City of London Police are trying to ban the word “cult” from anti-Scientology protests. UPDATE: there will be no court hearing - Total failure for the cult of Scientology! More details below the fold.
This blog had a bit of Stephen Colbert binge a couple of years ago and Paul A, who found this latest item, wasn’t going to blog it, but I think it’s just the kind of inspired silliness we’re after. I don’t think of Colbert as a dancer. Comedian, yes. TV presenter, yes. But someone has proved, by taking dozens of clips from his various TV shows that, yes, the man does dance. A lot.
Politicians including Jack Straw had remarked on the absurdity of legal protections for one faith in a multi-cultural society, and one solution that was discussed was extending the law to cover other religions. Taken to its conclusion, this would have criminalised defecating towards Mecca (blasphemous in Islam). Fortunately, sanity has prevailed.
I’ve thought about how to celebrate this event and, since the effect of censorship laws is usually to restrict our access to art, here’s the poem “The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name” (in tribute to the public figures including Iain Banks, Ludovic Kennedy, Claire Rayner and Philip Pullman who protested against the blasphemy law). I couldn’t find the banned film “Visions of Ecstasy” online, but Google Video offers this film student’s animated tribute.
BluBlu’s film MUTO is awesome not just because it is an inventive and surreal animation, but because it is drawn on public walls and pavements in two different countries. It’s one of those “has to be seen to be believed” things. Thanks to Steve_Ri for the recommendation.
