More on Rupert Murdoch from Bill Moyers since my post the other day: "He is to propriety what the Marquis de Sade was to chastity."

In case you didn't know: Bill Moyers rules.

From the New York Times:

Written and directed by Brad Bird and displaying the usual meticulousness associated with the Pixar brand, "Ratatouille" is a nearly flawless piece of popular art, as well as one of the most persuasive portraits of an artist ever committed to film. It provides the kind of deep, transporting pleasure, at once simple and sophisticated, that movies at their best have always promised.

I am so looking forward to this movie.

Just seen on Lifehacker: if you don't like the driving directions Google gives you, you can just drag the route around until you do. It updates the directions automatically.

Just managed to resist clawing out my own eyeballs long enough to read a few paragraphs of this story about Mitt Romney tying a dog carrier, with the family dog in it, to the roof of his car. I think it speaks for itself, so I'll not comment.

Wait, yes I fucking will. What the fuck is wrong with you if you are a grown man and you tie a dog to the roof of a car and fucking drive it around? What the hell is going on in your brain when you do this?

Please, do not give this man the nuclear launch codes. I apologize for needing to resort to profanity. Thank you, that is all.

Today I checked out Crisis in Darfur, which is a joint project of the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Google. It provides Google Earth layers that document the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

It's a pretty remarkable effort; the vast scale of the genocide in Darfur has never been more apparent. The overview screen is littered with red and yellow icons; each one represents a village that has been partially or utterly destroyed. The project has collected photos, videos, and testimonials from victims and displaced people, in addition to high-resolution satellite imagery that provides undeniable evidence of the destruction.

It's all part of the Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative, which seeks to collect information on potential genocides and present it to world governments and humanitarian organizations. That's the worthiest use of technology I've heard of in a while, and I'm in the business.

Kudos to these folks for an incredibly moving and compelling piece of work. See for yourself - go get Google Earth, install the Darfur layers, and get educated.

Just read Ken Auletta's analysis in the New Yorker of Rupert Murdoch's proposal to buy Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. The burning question is, if he promises to keep the Journal independent as a condition of its purchase, can he be expected to keep that promise?

Auletta looks at his past newspaper acquisitions for the answer:

[Murdoch] persuaded the Carr family of London to sell him the sensational tabloid News of the World, and promised to run the paper in partnership with the family that had owned the paper for nearly eighty years; he abandoned this pledge after learning, he said, that to honor it would harm shareholders because the Carrs had created "a total wreck of a company." When he bought the New York Post from Dorothy Schiff, in 1976, he publicly pledged to leave its liberal editorial stance unchanged, saying, "The New York Post will continue to serve New York and New Yorkers and maintain its present policies and traditions" - and promptly reversed course.

And:

Within a year of acquiring [the Times of London and the Sunday Times] and promising not to interfere in the editorial operations, Murdoch fired Harold Evans as the editor of the Times and transformed the paper into an often-partisan voice on behalf of Margaret Thatcher. Evans had been the twelfth editor at the Times in nearly two hundred years; Murdoch hired and fired five editors in his first eleven years.

Said Bruce Page, formerly of the Sunday Times, "There's a lot to be said for Rupert Murdoch the man. There's nothing to be said for Rupert Murdoch the journalist."

The article has some pretty extensive documentation of just how far Rupert Murdoch has gone to protect his own political and economic interests, including some very questionable news coverage decisions in China. It's not surprising, or even new; the documentary Outfoxed has interviews from several TV journalists that describe how the management would dictate which stories were covered, and how they would be framed.

I don't particularly like the Journal - I'm not exactly a free-market capitalist with strongly right-leaning ideology - but I recognize that there is a big difference between the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. There's enough consolidation already. Independent newspapers - regardless of ideology or affiliation - are absolutely essential to a healthy democracy. I will take an independent voice from the right over a conglomerate any day of the week.

If Dow Jones' shareholders care about the Journal's independence or journalistic integrity, they'd be crazy to sell to Murdoch. We'll see if they take a stand, or if it comes down to cash on the table in the end.

Yesterday's New York Times contained a horrifying story. It laid bare the shocking conditions under which some are forced to live. It gave a voice to those who had once been silent. Its importance cannot be understated.

Consider the story of Eleanor Weiner - a retiree on a fixed income. One night, as she prepared dinner in her home, her peaceful existence was shattered. She was nearly injured as a golf ball smashed through her kitchen window and - if you can believe it - narrowly missed her head.

What prompted this vicious assault? As it turns out, Ms. Weiner's home borders on one of the most dangerous areas of Palm Springs, California, where gangs of men armed with blunt instruments roam freely, terrorizing the local populace. This forgotten place where the locals live in fear is known as Rancho Las Palmas Country Club.

This courageous article shines the light of truth on the terrifying existence of the residents of "El Rancho del Diablo y el Fuego de los Muertos con Queso, and please pass me a Corona Extra," as these brave souls call it. And it's not just Palm Springs - there are thousands of lost souls across the country. Maricopa, Arizona. Rehoboth, Massachusetts. St. George, Utah. Hardyston, New Jersey. Who will step forward and bring these people into the light?

One can only imagine living in such terror. Carefully cultivated feng shui principles - violated! Backyard patios - uninhabitable! Landscaping crews - forced to wear hard hats! 70-inch picture windows - smashed to smithereens!

Even the owners of the country clubs have been victimized by this rash of suburban violence. Unable to control the thugs who roam their property, they must assume the legal burden of making restitution for residents' shattered lives. Consider the words of Pete Cuppels, owner of Middlebrook Country Club in Rehoboth:

"I've already had to take $50,000 from my retirement account to pay for legal fees, both the plaintiff's and mine," Mr. Cuppels, 68, said. "We modified the hole before the settlement, and we've already seen a big drop in return business. I feel worse that my name is on a ruling that could be like the Roe v. Wade of golf law. If the precedent is that golf course owners are responsible for every crooked shot hit by a novice or a good golfer, we're all in trouble."

Shocking. Will no one intervene to restore peace - nay, human dignity - to these beleaguered communities?

Just to brighten your day a little, here's a slideshow of photos tagged "inexplicable" on Flickr. Enjoy.

So it's official - Bush has vetoed the most recent attempt to restore vitality to stem cell research in this country. He's also introduced his own lip-service "research initiative." He knows the American people want federal funding for stem cell research, but he doesn't care. He won't even fund his own program.

It is vitally important that the scientists we currently have do as much research as possible before the children that are now being taught religion in the science classroom grow up and become scientists, at which point no further research will be possible, even if we wanted to fund it at that point. Run-on sentence? Yes, but the Bible has them too. I win.

Remember when these guys were all about slim government?

Just did the Political Compass questionnaire… kinda interesting, not too surprising. Apparently I'm at 7.88 of 10 toward the economic left and 8.67 of 10 towards social libertarianism (graph). This means that I would like the government to take a great deal of our money to provide lots of nifty services, and otherwise leave us alone. I believe this political philosophy is known in Europe as "what everyone thinks," and in this country as "damn dirty hippie." Just so you know who you're dealing with.