I am thoroughly convinced that the writers for MSN have no idea what they're talking about.

"By now you'd think scientists could close the book on caffeine and move on to other mysteries, like why anyone would ever order a chai latte." From their article on the benefits of caffeine, this makes me wonder if the author has ever tasted a good chai latte. Or if s/he burned off too many taste buds testing these caffeinated hypotheses.

"RICKROLLING (2008) — an online prank in which users are unexpectedly linked to the ghastly Rick Astley music video “Never Gonna Give You Up.”" This from page 3 of their explanation of memes. Now granted, it's not Meat Loaf or Devo, but I've seen a lot worse -- and I haven't seen that many. Unless they were rhyming with Astley -- to which I say, even Dubya knows that words mean things.

And these were articles I clicked on with genuine interest. Does it get worse?

Tot Tidbits: Leary's Autism Rant, Xtina's Procreation Plans. Abbreviating "Christ" as X comes from the Greek Χριστος -- so unless the author is writing in Greek, the letter of abbreviation should be C, not X. (Those who refuse to write out Christmas should take notes.) Also, since it's an abbreviation for "Christ", this would make her name Christtina. May we be blessed by the magic of her music. Or not. More from the article:
- "Denis Leary had better keep an ear out for the angry clacking of Jenny McCarthy's high heels." She's a woman, therefore she must wear high heels. And the Autism Society of America says Leary is stuck in the 1950s.
- (Yeah, it's awful on a variety of levels, but keep in mind he does mockingly list himself as Dr. Denis Leary on the book's cover and is the same guy who penned a song titled "I'm an A--h---.") Grow some balls. If it's "awful on a variety of levels," then you turn around and justify it, what does that say about you?

So, Jessica Biel is JT's "box". Well not really. Still, someone somewhere along the line should have seen this and sent up a red flag.

I just closed the tab when I saw an article titled "The failure of the American consumer". Message to MSN from planet Earth: Please bring your collective head back from Uranus.

It's been a very long time since I inundated Fark with a massive load of links. Be interesting to see if any make the pront page (probably not). Yes, that means I'm back to Farking, if for no other reason than I had nothing better to do today.

[Interesting] Helping Iran get nukes may help prevent Iran from getting nukes (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)

[Ironic] Iraq war increased likelihood of radiological bombing (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)

[Asinine] NY Times reprints defense of Bush wiretapping, ignores evidence that program monitors Americans with no terror ties. Darn liberal media (Media Matters)

[Asinine] Sleight-of-hand with poll numbers results in Opposite Day on "Meet the Press" (Media Matters)

[Amusing] Flowers defamation suit against ex-Clinton aides dismissed. In other news, time travel allows 15 minutes to seem like years (RCFP)

[Asinine] Army claims theft of photos is "financial injury" under hold-harmless release (RCFP)

[Interesting] Why Hamas Won (CounterPunch)

[Interesting] The other side of the civil rights movement. Or, "why so many white people love MLK." (PBS)

[Obvious] Guns Over Butter, Abroad and at Home (Common Dreams)

[Obvious] "The average Ford vehicle gets worse gas mileage than the Model T did almost 100 years ago." A 12-step program to correct our course (Common Dreams)

[Dumbass] No one knows what went through his mind in Mass. gay bar, but in Arkansas it was lead (Taipei Times)

[Obvious] You can close your eyes and you can plug your ears, but thawing Antarctica will bring water to our rears (Times Online)

[Scary] Nonproliferation abroad, proliferation at home (Dissident Voice)

[Asinine] Israeli PM discloses separation plan. Oh, and about halfway down, kids being wounded in Israeli airstrikes get one sentence. (Yahoo! News)

[Amusing] China rejects US 'threat' report, insists increased military spending is necessary to defend itself from Taiwan. "Amusing" beats "Scary" only because they think we're that stupid. (Aljazeera)

There've been a lot of people extolling the evils of PayPal for a long time. Like a lot of "bad" companies, I only paid moderate attention -- using them but limiting my exposure to the circumstances that would enable the badness to shine through.

Then PayPal loses its fucking mind.

Needless to say, not long after I saw this I closed both my PayPal and my eBay accounts (eBay being the owners of PayPal). I won't tempt the footsteps of the giants by recommending others do the same. Instead I leave you with a quote from Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka on the PayPal mentality.

"You see, Paypal's outlook is that every single one of their customers is a liar, a cheat, and a thief. It's your job as their paying customer to prove them wrong. While you spend time faxing them all kinds of proof, including drivers licenses, social security cards, bank statements, and credit card statements, Paypal sits on your money and earns interest on it, making them even more cash. They can close, limit, freeze, or take money from your account whenever they like and for whatever reason they like; when you join their service, you must click a box agreeing to this policy."

Y'know, sometimes I wish I were a fly on the wall when some of my headlines get submitted to Fark. Then I remember how little I actually used TotalFark when I had it (too many links in too short a time), and the whole "$5 makes me special" attitude as reasons why I'm not.

Anywho, if you're a TFer, and wondering who's submitting the slanted-to-the-left headlines (often from slanted-to-the-left sources), well, odds are it's me. And I have fun doing it. My submissions for today:

( Cut for those at 800x600... )