My home state has opened up to its public the opportunity to brand the state with a new motto, and you can imagine what fun is being had on that front. Of course, there are the predictable Bada Bing references and references to us being frustrated not-yet-ready to be New Yorkers and are therefore churlish thugs, from “New Jersey: It Always Smells Like This” to “New Jersey: You Got a Problem With That?”

But here’s the thing. How odd is it that we Garden Staters are about the biggest proponents of the unpleasant stereotyopes about our home? Especially when any of us who grew up there know that the images of the oil refineries off the Turnpike represent a small percentage of the actual geography, and that much of it is quite beautiful. The Delaware Watergap, The Pine Barrens, Cape May, Princeton, Sandy Hook, Island Beach State Park, much of the rural south part of the state, are all gorgeous. And much of the south half of the state is rural. Not to mention, NJ has in recent years done a lot to preserve farmland and maintain the character of its farming communities.

But we continue to make fun of our state. Sometimes, I think, without intending to. Like when Tom Kean was our governer and our slogan was “New Jersey and You: Perfect Together” and was accompanied by a pink and white plush mascot that looked not unlike a popular cold medicine at the time and was called the “Perfy.” Or when Christine Whitman was our governor and our slogan was the oh-so-ambiguous “New Jersey: What a Difference a State Makes,” thus leaving open the possibility that we meant, “there’s a reason you only pay tolls to get out of Jersey to the neighboring states, and not to get back in.”

And then, there are the very intentional barbs. Such as the song, “I’m from New Jersey” with classic lyrics such as

“There are girls from New Jersey, Who have that great big hair
They’re found in shopping malls, I will take you there”

And yet, I’m as guilty as any other Jerseyan of this self-mockery. I mean, I can’t but help hoping that they adopt the slogan choice “Most of Our Elected Officials Have Not Been Indicted.” Because, well, you gotta admit that’s damn funny.

Perhaps it’s something similar to what someone once told me about how Iceland was named such, even though it’s beautiful, to discourage other people from moving there, and Greenland name thus as something of a ruse. I mean, we are already the most densely populated state, and frankly, we don’t need no stinkin’ outlanders moving in and eating all the good pizza and taking space up on our excellent beaches.

Nevermind everything I just said. Everyone else, Jersey sucks. Don’t go there. Those of us who are from there can deal.

But Bill O’Reilly suggesting they attack San Francisco is not, huh? Again, I say, some liberal media. Remember when Bill Maher lost his show and gained the scorn of conservatives all over the country for suggesting that the guys who hit the twin towers weren’t cowards? And yet, that was worse than actively encouraging them attack an American city.

So here’s the way I see it. Bill O’Reilly just invited al-Qaeda to attack an American city, which has got to be as much a treasonous act as anything any other Americans being held without being charged on terrorism-related suspicions. So he, too, should be picked up, and put in a cell with Hamdi and all those others, until the Supreme Court decides whether it’s constitutional to suspend Americans’ rights in the justice system. If they go with the constitution, then let’s charge him and try him. If not, then the one good thing to come of it is that that asshole O’Reilly will be behind bars indefinitely where he can’t publicly advocate the mass killing of innocent Americans.

Forbes writer Ed Edelson reports that Stanford University researchers have found a hormone they’ve dubbed Obestatin that suppresses appetitive in lab rats. This has major potential to lead researchers to the miracle skinny pill void that phen phen left us with.

When the researchers injected Obestatin into rats, “to our surprise, we found that treatment with it suppresses food intake,” Hsueh said. And so, he added, “it could have potential as an appetite-suppressing drug, by injection. Or it might be possible to deliver by nasal spray. It also allows us to screen for new drugs that might suppress appetite.”

If nothing else, my rats will look fabulous for this springs Versace line and the upcoming bathing suit season.

Full Article

Is that they never fail to remind us exactly why we call them freaks.

Seriously, Pat Robertson is insane.

One of the Bush Administration’s favourite talking points on the Iraq debacle is: sure, we were wrong about WMDs. But most people thought Iraq had WMD’s too. Even France thought Saddam had WMDs!

So that’s ok, then.

Of course, what they don’t point out is that there was plenty of evidence to the contrary before the war, but their arguments weren’t heard over the selection of pro-WMD arguments. This Kevin Drum piece explains it more eloquently than I can — read it. (via TPM)

Larry Buhl has and interesting article on why the porn industry is taking it’s time before jumping into the Video iPod.

“We can’t blindly walk into this,” said L.R. Clinton Fayling, president of Brickhouse Mobile, a Denver company that is licensing adult material for mobile phones.

Let it never be said that the porn business walked blindly into anything other than plots and scripts. Go on to the second page and you’ll find that the City Council in Flint, Michigan, passed a measure imposing a $500 fine upon drivers who play pornographic movies in their cars. I can see how this would be troubling to a governing body and how they would want to protect us from the dangers. The lengths desperate people will go to watch free porn is amazing. If you watch porn in your car you can probably expect to have break ins and people tail-gating you for long periods of time.
Or maybe they’re trying to protect the people outside the car from seeing something offensive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pulled up behind a Lincoln Navigator only to peer in the window and see the latest Jesse Jane movie playing on their LCD.
I think if you have guts enough to watch porn in public like that, you should be allowed too. ;0)

The fine people of Dover, PA, have made their voices heard. They have declared loudly that they are members of the reality based community.

First off… I am alive and well! Sorry to have been consumed by travel and then a new job. Everything is going splendidly! I will return to blogging soon. In the mean time, can we all give a huge round of applause for Paulette’s return to Nonfamous.com!?

OK… on to the topic of my post… a request for help from my friend Trav. Take a moment, y’all!

We are looking for volunteers to participate in a research study on
how stories about political events are evaluated. Your participation
in this study is completely voluntary.

We are interested in learning about your opinion on different aspects
of a story explaining an event from the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign.

If you are interested in volunteering for this study, please visit
the website linked to at the end of this message.

If you participate in this study, you will be asked to complete an
anonymous survey containing questions about your opinions on a story
about a political event. You will complete the survey online using
a standard web browser. It will take you between 15 and 25 minutes
to complete the survey.

There are no anticipated risks to this study. You may decline to
answer any question that makes you feel uncomfortable. You will not
be financially compensated. Upon completing the survey, you will be
given an address for a website to visit after the completion of the
study for information on its results.

To begin the survey, please visit this link.

Email me with any questions and I can pass them on to Trav. Thanks!

From The Guardian:

A recent auction on eBay ended with a pair of leather trousers being sold for $102.50 (£58) after 22 bids. Buyers may have been attracted by the following short essay written by the owner:

You are bidding on a mistake. We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.

And we buy leather pants …

The full essay is hilarious, and appears below. Or you can read the essay and see a picture of the pants on eBay.
Read the rest of this entry »

Nonfamosi, let’s do our best to spread the word that the Supreme Court should not be packed with people trying to take away our hard-won liberties!

Excerpted from MoveOn.org:

Dear MoveOn member,

On Monday, President Bush buckled under pressure from the radical right and nominated the extreme right wing Judge Samuel Alito. MoveOn members leapt into action, blowing away our original goal and gathering more than 350,000 signatures in just over 24 hours—a new MoveOn record.

So today we’re aiming to boost the total to half a million signatures, and do it by tomorrow. If we can get there, we’ll run an ad in Roll Call, the newspaper that Congress reads, to show them the new total.

To reach our national goal, we need just 6,044 more signatures from Washington.

Please sign today, if you haven’t already, and remember to forward this note on to friends.

http://political.moveon.org/stopalito/?id=6255-5515978-TO.882dEPO2upX62dgRavw&t=3

Tomorrow’s an especially important deadline, because the so-called “Gang of 14″—a group of centrist Senators from both parties—will be meeting to discuss the possibility of a filibuster, and whether or not they’ll honor their agreement to keep the “nuclear option” off the table.2 We need to make sure those Senators, and all of Congress, understand that the public is fully engaged and prepared to defend our basic rights.

Can you help us reach 500,000 signers by tomorrow by forwarding this email on to your friends and colleagues? Below we’ve attached our original petition email, which provides some good basic information on Alito, to send around.

Thanks, as always, for all you do.

–Ben, Jennifer, Tanya, Marika and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Wednesday, November 2nd 2005

P.S. The case against Alito is growing rapidly. Check out this paragraph from Business Week:

“One group is breathing a big sigh of relief: Corporate America. Of the dozen or so names on Bush’s rumored short list of high court candidates, Alito ranked near the top for the boardroom set. In the 800-plus opinions he has penned during his 15 years as a federal judge, Alito consistently has come down on the side of limiting corporate liability, limiting employee rights, and limiting federal regulation.”2

Sources:

1. “Dems hint at filibuster” The Hill, November 1st 2005

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1094

2. “Why Big Business Likes Alito” Business Week, November 1st 2005

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1096