Silenced Majority Portal

Is Twitter Narcissistic?

I don't even give out my cell phone number! Facebook is about as far as I want to take it!  Daniel Schorr laughed at it and sure he's 92 or so, but I agree that it's really goofy. 140 keystrokes! I already belong to MySpace and Facebook and they can be black holes of time consumption. I get invitations to other social networking sites and now I delete them. Do we have any idea how much data these people are collecting about us? Doesn't Rupert Murdoch own MySpace? Doesn't he own FOX News? 

I can see text messaging someone but the whole world? Our "followers"? Or "following" someone? I can't stay on top of emails!

I agree with Lee Woodruff at Daily Beast who said:

How far are we from the minutiae of someone’s stomach virus, a lost button on a favorite pair of corduroys or, to steal loosely from the late John Updike, the announcement of a perfectly coiled bowel movement in the bowl after the morning’s first cup of Joe?

I do enjoy the fact that Greg Palast follows this blog, and that I am a Facebook "friend" of people like Ann Magnuson and Max Blumenthal, who I think are intensely cool! That is enough for now.

More from Lee (Is there a way I can be her "friend?!")

I don’t need to know that someone just visited their office vending machine for Doritos or that they are about to take their Shit-zu for a walk. I don’t want to know that kind of info about my own husband.

Again, who are these people who are Twittering back? If they are employed, shouldn’t they be (particularly in this economy) putting their noses to the grindstone? Shouldn’t they be concerned for their jobs, laboring away at their desks, working the phones, hopping to, rather than twittering away about last night’s bad Chinese food? And what if they aren’t employed? What if they are kicking about at home, maybe a wife or hubby just hanging out while the kids are at school, or someone in transit on a train or bus. Don’t these people have better things to do then telegraph their where-abouts? Isn’t there laundry to throw in, some real news to catch up on online or a good book to read? Books. Remember them? They came off a printing press. What about a little do-gooding in the community, English as a second language to teach, a PTO board to assist. How about, God forbid, an honest good old-fashioned moment of repose and reflection?

I am not embarrassed to post this and be all "uncool" and not Twitter (or is it "Tweet" ON Twitter?. So far I just can't face the fact of having a sea of messages on my cell phone or having to do anything social in real time (other than in person) and I don't have a great attention span in the first place! I can't even send pictures! 

More from Lee:

I’m not gonna go all retro on you here. I know I sound a bit like Archie Bunker. I’ll be the first to admit that instant communication has a premiere place in my universe. My BlackBerry enables me to stay slightly on top of the pile while out of the office. And I’m not saying I’m never, ever going to join Twitter—I learned long ago never to say never. But people—let’s use a little moderation here. Get back to your desks. Go read an article in the New Yorker. You remember those, don’t you? Magazines?

Except magazines are going monthly (US News & World Report), upscale (Newsweek), small (Rolling Stone) and newspapers are going online or extinct (SF Chronicle, Seattle PI, Rocky Mountain News.)  Is it because everybody is too busy "communicating?"

(slugbug)

Obama: Bring It On

Apocalyptica : Metallica on Cellos

This is by no means new, but I didn't know about these Finn (corrected by a reader - I had German) string rockers til a couple of teenagers showed me. This band is actually a favorite of their dad. (Slugbug)

In the Hall of the Mountain King

Joe the Plumber Implies Some in Congress Should Be Shot

He lays down his preconditions for bashing in heads. Then he says:

Back in the day, really, when people would talk about our military in a poor way, somebody would shoot ‘em. And there’d be nothing said about that, because they knew it was wrong. You don’t talk about our troops. You support our troops. Especially when our congressmen and senators sit there and say bad things in an ongoing conflict.

Jindahl's Volcano Monitoring Remark Upsets Vancouver WA Mayor

Just imagine if this clod WAS President! He maintained that federal spending to monitor volcanoes was frivolous but this did not go down well with a mayor whose town is in the path of a fuming volcano that has already had a devastating eruption in 1980. He asked why "something called volcano monitoring" was icluded in the stimulus bill. "Does the Governor have a volcano in his backyard?" asked Vancouver's Mayor Pollard - "We have one that's very active, and it still rumbles and spits and coughs very frequently."

The U.S. Geological Survey, which received the money Jindal criticized, is monitoring several active volcanoes across the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii, CNN said. One of those is Mount St. Helens, about 70 miles north of Vancouver, Wash., and neighboring Portland, Ore. The volcano killed 57 people when it erupted in 1980.

Van Halen's Synthesizer MessUp in Front of Thousands

This happened a few months ago in North Carolina, as they tried to play their anthem "Jump"- synthesizer was sampling at 48K instead of 44.1k. Guitarist tries to transpose but is still 1.5 semitones off - they soldier on trying to fake it through the atonal mess.  (Thanks Kayakbiker)

John Bolton Suggests Terrorists Nuke Chicago

Michelle Obama's Official White House Portrait

Hooray!  Those workouts really do amazing things - I'm inspired!

Quick Poll

Michelle Obama going sleeveless at the Presidential address: Appropriate or not appropriate?

Appropriate

68.55%

Not appropriate

31.45%

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Quick Poll

Michelle Obama going sleeveless in general: Appropriate or not appropriate?

Appropriate

78.99%

Not appropriate

21.01%

(polls at Huffington Post)

Is it appropriate for Michelle Obama to go sleeveless so often?

40%: Yes, she's a modern first lady.

11%: No, it seems too informal.

49%: Who cares? It's her decision.

(USA Today)

CPAC Closeted Wingnuts on Craigslist

Such as this: (I removed some of the more specific information)

Republican at CPAC - 21 (DC)

Yo... young Republican guy here, attending CPAC this weekend. Looking for a discreet, masculine guy to fool around with. Conservative, closeted guys preferred... would like to meet someone attending CPAC (there are plenty of guys looking for action there), so we have something to talk about. Into making out, jerking off, oral... maybe fucking. I'm 5'9, masculine, 7"uc, brown/ blue.  Be in good shape, under 30, and drug/ disease free. Send pics in first email. 
Would prefer to meet up at your place, since I'm sharing a room....Location: DC

Michele Bachmann Speaks Hip Hop to RNC Chair Steele

RNC chairman Michael Steele spoke to the annual conservative conference Thursday. He's the guy who wanted to make the Republican Party more appealing to the hip hop crowd. At his talk at the CPAC Conference in DC, he said that the GOP is alive and well, and went on to say that Obama's stimulus package was fightening. He then took a moment to honor fellow Oreo and election integrity violator Kenneth Blackwell as well as Michigan GOP Chair Saul Anuzis. "Alright Saul, stop Twittering," he said, in a display of technological savvy. 

As he concluded his remarks, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann — the event's moderator — bizarrely called out, “Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man.”

I did not make this up.