How to Catch an Atheist

Best Song About Thin Ice Since Yoko Ono Took on the Issue

The vocorder makes me think of Imogen Heap, and I'm really smitten by Andrew Gregory, who is featured in the duet with Katie Couric. Apparently his main gig is as a folk singer in Brooklyn, but he does well as someone terrorized by global melting.

Anchor's Away

Channel 2's Dennis Richmond is gone, baby, gone as evidenced by Flickr user tingley at 24th Street at Osage Alley.

Here is his final broadcast and his sign off. I don't think Taralyn Jo's departure garnered such response nor will the inevitable farewell of Katie Couric.

UPDATE: Here is Junk Thief's take on the same scene this afternoon (May 25) on his way back from Noe Valley, complete with a musical Requiem.

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Cats

I am embarrassed to admit I've not been keeping up with The Pinky Show the way I should. Maybe all those fascinating things Jeremiah Wright has been saying that have distracted me. So when I got an email from Bunny this morning, I headed straight over there to learn about Oceans of Trash, Peace for Korea and domestic violence. Pinky always manages to get interviews with leading scholars and analysts that Barbara Walters only dreams about.

If you want more feline world view after visiting Pinky, you might want to visit Cat News where Julie Klausner's life partner Smiley Muffin tackles topics such as people that move things and lesbians.

I Want You to Hear It From Me First

I don't think CNN or the Times have picked up on his yet, but I wanted to let you know that there was a little incident between this old broad and me that was all over the local media while I was in BCN (what those who know he place well call it). I could have done without all the attention, but at least they chose to show her age and no mine.

How to Solve Illegal Immigration

I’ve made a vow not to post more than 3-4 YouTube videos a month on this blog unless they are ones that I create. I consider it to be lazy blogging or mimicking a sloth to just keep zapping the “post it” button on YouTube and sharing it with everyone.

But the new episode of The Pinky Show merits being posted here. After an absence of more than two months, Pinky is back and brings in her wise friend Daisy to provide the most intelligent analysis I’ve seen to date on the immigration “debate”. What a pathetic commentary on contemporary journalism that a cartoon cat has far more intelligent insight on this issue than CNN, the New York Times and The Nation combined. Too much of the media thinks that balanced news or a debate means bringing in opposing sides to scream at each other. Sometimes you do need an analysis like this with a decided slant to move true discourse and understanding forward.

JUNK THIEF EXCLUSIVE: Bin Laden Signs 5-Year Contract with 'Just for Men'

Film at 11; new video now in heavy rotation on VH1.

Love Child of the Week

Is it a hebra, zorse or zebrula? Scientists are saying that their biggest concern about the accidental offspring of a zebra and horse is that it will have trouble making friends and finding a mate. I am thinking about naming it as my source animal.

Music up, Cher lets loose with "Half Breed." Ohm. Ohm. Ohm.

This Morning at Safeway

Man, I tell you, just when I thought it was all about fruits and cereal, I am reminded that Safeway is truly my window to the world. I watched 60 Minutes and the 11 o'clock news last night and didn't hear a single mention of this. I bet that once Aunty Christ hears about this she'll want them to start a mammoth daycare center down there (if you're not already aware of how she feels about the wee folks). Who needs the lame writing of The Onion when you have the Weekly World News?

I Know Why

Oh, that crazy San Francisco Chronicle. Just when you think they could not come up with a more banal topic, they manage to top themslves by pondering this mystery: why are there so many folks in the park on a work day? Why are they there? Uh, I think I know. They used to work at the Chronicle.

Retreat of the Damned?

Is there actually positive change in the wind or something? The likely exit of Wolfowitz from the World Bank the same week as the death of Jerry Falwell might sound like just too many nasty vultures leaving to be true. But as with Falwell's demise, it's not as if it's a signpost of positive change. Just that one jerk died and another lost his job. If there were any hope it would be of Wolfowitz leaving when there was a new regime in the White House. It's hard to believe that the World Bank will ever be anything than what it has been for 60+ years, a cash source for perpetuating and extending poverty, supporting corrupt regimes, a plum political appointment.

Wrong

Even in this instant information, blogasphere/vlogasphere era, NBC crossed the line with its release of those videos sent to them Monday by Mr. Cho. I gained absolutely nothing from having that angry, self-indulgent killer thrown at me. It did nothing to inform, educate or enlighten the viewers, especially so soon after the event. It was inevitable that the tapes would surface and could justifiably be aired on a mainstream outlet at the right time. But timing is everything. There is such a mad rush and flooding of information to help the public "understand this tragedy."

There is not that much to understand or walk away with other than the fact that it was a tragedy, a pathetic waste of life.

Kudos to the families that have boycotted being interviewed by NBC.

EST and Guns

If there is one thing most disturbing about today's violence on the Virginia Tech campus, it's the rush by media outlets to categorize it as the "est" of all campus shootings -- deadliest, biggest carnage, greatest body count -- and trying immediately to put it into perspective of other shootings. It's not surprising that they compared it to the Texas massacre in the 1960s with another lone gunman. What is interesting is that they also mentioned Kent State. Was that an admission that it was another case of crazed individuals?

What I DIDN"T Miss

A week away from the U.S., and what news gripped the nation -- two fat guys ate a candy bar on the Super Bowl, Anna Nicole died, Gavin went into rehab, the Dixie Chicks were redeeemed. Geez, and people wonder why the world hates this country. Even stranger is that I have been asked more than once if I felt people in Guatemala were ignorant and cut off from the rest of the world. What was really spooky was that the first thing on TV when I was reuinted with TV in Guatemala City on Sunday was Geraldo doing some two hour special on "Anna Nicole: Death of a Tragic Beauty" as if it were some epic tale. I was pleased to find a French language news channel to make me feel I actually could find out what happened in the world while I was off the grid for a few days.