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By Kiran, February 4, 2009 4:48 am

A long but highly insightful conversation between acclaimed authors Salman Rushdie and Irshad Manji on the nature of belief, Islamism, the history of Islam and Quran, and what to do in a world full of crazies on both the Islamist side and the racist westerner side. Rational, thinking people of all varieties will enjoy this video… please watch in full, it’s worth it. Intelligent comments are welcome.

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By Kiran, October 2, 2008 2:32 am

There’s been so much negativity surrounding Sarah Palin’s VP candidacy, I thought I’d try and find something to thank her for….
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Thank you, Sarah Palin
for taking women – and men -
back a few notches so fast
we all got whiplash.

Thank you Sarah Palin for proving feminism right;
For showing that men and women are truly equal.
That women can be just as stupid
as the stupidest of men.
Like the men running the country
for most of the past decade.
And of course, Condi too.

Thank you Sarah Palin,
for flashing your girly smile,
and throwing back that silly Northern twang;
Your beauty queen charms warm the limp, lonely hearts
of Bill O’Reillys and Karl Roves everywhere.
Thanks for being the prettiest beard
for frustrated Republicans still in the closet.

Thanks Sarah Palin for charging rape victims
for their own rape kits, while preaching to us all
the joys of cherishing our rape babies.
Because life is precious -
until hunting season, that is.

Thank you Sarah Palin for helping intelligent women
realize they are intelligent first, women after.
Thanks for helping smart men appreciate
smart women more than ever before.

Thanks Sarah Palin for making George W. Bush
look educated by comparison.
Thanks for making Cheney look saner -
at least he shoots at things at close range and
doesn’t make couch covers from their bodies.

Thanks Sarah for not blaming us mortals for climate change -
None of us was around 6,000 years ago
when you believe the Earth was created…
How could we know what caused climate change?

Thanks Sarah.
For everything you do.
With everything you say,
you are a reminder
for every girl and every woman
of the choice inside each of us.
The choice…
to be a smart, savvy, self-aware human being
or to be
just another jackass, with lipstick.

~Kiran Mehdee, 1 October, 2008

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By Kiran, July 28, 2008 9:52 pm

1. Live for the past.
2. Live for the future.
3. Think everything is always about you.
4. Think that you just don’t matter at all.
5. Believe that pills will solve all your problems.
6. Believe that pills are stupid and useless.
7. Do not let yourself change.
8. Believe that it is all your fault.
9. Believe that it is all other people’s fault.
10. Accept all the bad things you have heard, read or thought about you.
11. Deny any good things you have heard, read or thought about you.
12. Never think about other people’s problems.
13. Think that because you can’t do everything, you shouldn’t do anything.
14. Roll your eyes while reading this list.
15. When happiness comes, greet it with fear or guilt or resentment.
16. Think that you are or have bad luck.
17. Don’t express yourself creatively in any way.
18. Keep on trying to please and/or piss-off Mom and/or Dad.
19. Wait for someone else to come and save you.
20. Exercise only sporadically and only out of guilt.
21. Don’t make friends with silence.
22. Watch a lot of TV.
23. Stay away from Nature.
24. Think of everything in terms of black or white.
25. Take all, give nothing.

~Kiran Mehdee [June 2008]

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By Kiran, April 1, 2008 2:34 pm

Journalist Mark Glaser has an article up on the pbs.org MediaShift blog about the changing face of media in the 21st century. He talks about how both traditional media and new media must learn from each other, and merge the best practices. I like the point he makes about the techno-genie… once it’s out of the bottle, no one can put it back in. We’ve seen the same phenomena with all technological breakthroughs: TV, radio, Film, Nuclear weapons, cell phones, you name it.

No longer do people rely on TV Guide to program their lives around their favorite TV shows. Now they can use a digital video recorder or watch shows on-demand online and fit their TV watching into their lives. The people are taking control and watching, and listening to what they want when they want — and on the devices they want. And that goes for TV as well as radio and audio, with podcasts allowing people to listen on their own time and fast-forward or rewind shows at will.

What do we gain? We get more control of our lives and our media experience and we are no longer slaves to programmers. But what do we lose? We are losing shared experiences, where we all watch the same shows at the same time, or watch the same sporting events together. And our “water cooler” talk has a new etiquette, where we must tell people not to ruin our favorite shows because we’re taping it to watch later!

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By Kiran, February 12, 2008 1:39 pm

I stumbled across this little brain candy in Wired.com’s archives.

One of my favourites:

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison