Great New Yorker article about the Bond franchise.

Bond. James Bond.

From favorite to least favorite, here's how I rank the actors who have played Bond: Connery, Brosnan, Dalton, Lazenby, Moore.

During Communication and Popular Culture I lectured on cultural representations (archetypes, stereotypes, countertypes). I don't think I've seen a better example of a racist cultural representation:

Vato Loco

The public controversy concerning the Separation of Church and State continues:

Ten Commandments Trial

Roy Moore, the chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, feels it's appropriate to display the Ten Commandments in a state building? Better yet, the chief justice also makes the argument that the Ten Commandments function as the moral foundation of American law. Chief Justice Moore, there's a certain federal document which serves as the foundation for American law. It's called the Constitution. I'm sure you encountered this document during law school. Erecting a monument to a particular piece of religious doctrine borders dangerously close to State sponsored religion.

Do we really need to conduct medical studies to determine the cause of U.S. American obesity? The following story says it all.

Fried Twinkies

A new study of religious affiliation in the U.S. suggests some interesting trends.

Religious Landscape

The 2002 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Jimmy Carter. While his presidency will go down as mediocre, at best, his accomplishments over the last twenty years have been remarkable.

Peace Prize
Committee Honors Carter, Disses Bush

As of this morning, the DC sniper has killed eight and wounded two others. It's time to find a scapegoat! I know, let's blame tarot cards and violent video games.

Sniper & Popular Culture

Tarot cards and video games? How about placing the blame where it belongs: guns. Please don't feed me any of that, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." How about this: I'll hand a person a deck of tarot cards and see what kind of damage they can do. Look out, he's throwing the Ten of Pentacles! Better yet, how about an Xbox or Playstation2? Why don't I hear about anyone bludgeoned to death by an Xbox? Guns have one purpose: to inflict damage on living beings. If people need an answer, they need look no further than guns.

A few days ago, President Bush decried Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapon on the Kurdish people of northern Iraq. Only a monster like Saddam would use chemical weapons on his own people, right? Guess again. Recently declassified documents reveal that the U.S. military used "bioweapons" on unsuspecting U.S. Troops.

Bioweapons

Advertising Among Friends

An interesting new poll regarding military action and Iraq

Poll

Joss Whedon's new sci-fi TV show is one of the few programs, along with Buffy and Smallville, that I watch regularly.

Firefly Review