City on a Hill

Southpark premiere blew my mind

Great show in its 23123th season just keeps getting better. The new episode ran with the connection between God always watching us and how the NSA is always watching us. So Butters prays to the government to keep him safe..causes its watching us to keep us safe right? Same reason people pray to God..cause they expect God to step in when something bad happens. There is a joke there..but one wonders how different our expectations are of Government and of God. They seem to have similar roles as both are mostly called on to pull our butt out of a fire in an emergency and be ethereal whenever else. In order to calm hysteria about spying and privacy Butters turns the DMV into a confessional. Interesting thing confessionals. Wouldn't it be great if you could go to the government and PRIVATELY talk to someone about all your problems with the promise that they would stay secret and that you would be absolved of accountability (if you followed through with atonement assignment)? How many problems would this fix in our society? . Supposedly the government already knows about all you personal problems since they spy on you..there are just so many scofflaws and "criminals" out there they havnt gotten to you yet.Bad people no longer fear eternal damnation, they fear loosing their freedom. So why not go and talk with the jailer and since you were honest about it they wont follow up with the swat team or 70 consecutive life time sentences. We sort have stuck with our puritan roots regarding incarceration and punishment rather than reform and atonement and it clearly hasnt worked for us. I know..it only will be as good and benign as the people running it. But a serious idea to chew on from South Park.

Teenage Mutant Koopa Troopars

Cute vid.  (via topless robot)

Video shows Fukushima radiation spreading across ocean

More of Joe's Interesting news links

Couple extra that were on my phone

5 year after financial meltdown banks have little oversight
Jews who pray like Muslims growing in number
Public school defunding driving many to religious education
police shoot, kill unarmed black man for asking for help
Police shoot wealthy black man for "breaking into" his own home
Black man arrested in Jax for walking on "wrong side" of road
who are these coptic christains dying in Egypt
Entire behavior health care system in New Mexico ruled a scam
Cleveland police refuse to protect gay bars
4th amendment being completely ignored by government
Jewish community caught in vote buying scheme
US goverment giving private data on Americans to Israel
Various ways you are being spied on by the UK

Joe's interesting Sept.news links

Google Map cars caught hacking into local Wifi networks
National textbook panel want more creationism, less evolution
Leaked gov doc's show NSA spying on Brazil oil companies
Study shows money causes people to care about others less
Nicotine declared a drug by Florida; banned in some counties
McDonalds to import its Mcnuggets from China
School district passes rule requiring teachers to wear underwear
Florida AG wants shirts with drug names made illegal
Rich have gotten richer under Obama than any other president
Navy weapons test expected to kill 100s of whales
Record set for worlds tallest LEGO structure
Sharks learning to walk with fins on land
Church sign claims Jesus had two dads
Parents post picture of toddler drinking beer;no charges filed
Florida has 6% of its underground water left
Cops caught distributing pics from women's jail changing room
FBI is Seattle break laws, making stuff up to arrest people
16 things you didnt know about the Ocean
The various philosophies of Chris Rock
Greeks building their own intranet
NY Times reviews Dwarf Fortress

Government isnt being honest about Syria attacks

Great article about how various governments are spinning what they we know to justify aggression in Syria