Confusability

Sex, Lies and Videotape

The Lie Girls

Eminems Mosh

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the Republic for which it stands
One nation under God
[People
It feels so good to be back..]

Scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel, reenergize, and rewind
I give sight to the blind, mind sight through the mind
I ostracize my right to express when I feel it's time
It's just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight you take it as I’m gonna whip someone's ass
If you don't understand don't even bother to ask
A father who has grown up with a fatherless past
Who has blown up now to rap phenomenon that has
Or at least shows no difficulty multi task
And juggling both, perhaps mastered his craft slash
Entrepreneur who has held long too few more rap acts
Who has had a few obstacles thrown his way through the last half
Of his career typical manure moving past that
Mister kiss his ass crack, he's a class act
Rubber band man, yea he just snaps back

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

To the people up top, on the side and the middle,
Come together, let's all bomb and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
Don't matter what color, all that matters is we gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the weather
If it rains let it rain, yea the wetter the better
They ain't gonna stop us, they can't, we're stronger now more then ever,
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go,
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push up, mush, fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home come on just . . .

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors, come on

Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us,
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's trying to tell us something, maybe this is God just saying
we're responsible for this monster, this coward, that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head nodding,
How could we allow something like this, Without pumping our fist
Now this is our, final hour
Let me be the voice, and your strength, and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply it by six
Teen million people are equal of this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al Quaida through my speech
Let the President answer on high anarchy
Strap him with AK-47, let him go
Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes, it's all lies, the stars and stripes
They've been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And Replaced with his own face, mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fight

So come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

[Eminem speaking angrily]
And as we proceed, to mosh through this desert storm, in these closing statements,
if they should argue, let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences,
and assemble our own army, to disarm this weapon of mass destruction
that we call our president, for the present,
and mosh for the future of our next generation,
to speak and be heard, Mr. President, Mr. Senator

From the new album Encore | Amazon .com | .uk| .ca | .fr | .de

The Armchair Protesters

As well as helping to organise off-line protests, broadband and the internet have fuelled a massive increase in the number of online protests taking place. We have South Park style animations from JibJab as well as dozens of interactive flash games.

One of my favourites is Tamatipoco (Your virtual flexworker) from Molleindustria.

Molleindustria is an italian team of artists, designers and programmers that aims at starting a serious discussion about social and political implications of videogames. This will involve media activists, net-artists, habitual players and critics and detractors of videogames. We chose to start with online gaming in order to sidestep mainstream distribution channels and to overcome our lack of means. Using simple but sharp games we hope to give a starting point for a new generation of critical game developers and, above all, to experiment with practices that can be easily emulated and virally diffused.

You can watch an interview with some of the people involved at the BBC site at ClickOnline.

From Video games find their political voice (BBC 30 Aug 2004)

The producers of these games are developing a sort of gaming counter-culture, seeing themselves as the latest in a line of political satirists playfully poking fun at passers-by or at those in power.

One of the main targets of such games is the US because of the internationalisation of its culture and more recently the war against terrorism.

But Americans themselves, indeed none other than the Republican Party, are using video games to score political points.

The Republicans' version of space invaders is Tax Invaders. It depicts Republican President George W Bush as the only hope in the battle against high taxes.

Video games are normally a form of escape, a way to tune out from the troubles of the world.

However, the producers of this new breed of game have shown they can also act as an effective vehicle for political expression.

In the interests of balance the BBC have obviously tried to find a right-wing example of this on-line activisim. And what did they come up with?

Tax Invaders.

Now, this is probably the worst example of a political game I have ever seen. The production values are abysmal and don't Republicans realise that in space invaders the player is taking on the role of a defender who fights valiantly against the evil horde of invaders, but is doomed to failure due to the overwhelming numbers on the other side.

Rupublicans could learn a few lessons from the Anti-Bush Game.

Looking for new talent?

I am as Anti-Bush (and Kerry) as the next lefty, but I think that Republicans should be able to find something better than Tax Invaders. Perhaps Tom Clancy could come up with a free flash game?

MIT Strike

A display of Vietnam-War-era protest posters at the MIT Museum offers a colorful glimpse into a tumultuous time at the Institute. The exhibit, Telling It like It Is: Student Activism at MIT during the Vietnam War, was prompted by an unusual gift from Lawrence Linden, SM ’70, PhD ’76—a bedsheet decorated with the iconic fist symbol and the words “MIT Strike.” The banner hung on campus during the national campus strike in May 1970, a nationwide protest against the Vietnam War. Linden, who was a member of ROTC, was not a protestor. Nevertheless, he cut down the banner after the strike and held onto it until the end of 2002, when he paid for its restoration. Several months later, after conservators touched it up, Linden donated the banner to the museum.

Technology Review

What they say

"It was grim, it was grim for me, grim for TB and there is this huge stuff about trust."
Alastair Campbell confides about the Kelly affair in his diary more...

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Ali al-Khatib from Baghdad on the US power cuts more...

"We've heard about phones that overheated, melted and, in the worst case, exploded."
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"The way I see it, there are two elephants in British Airways' rowing boat. One of them is the pension, the other is the debt."
Rod Eddington BA's chief executive more...

"If you are a Tory MP you will be told, repeatedly, by people you will have never clapped eyes on before, that you are a 'Tory tosser'." more...
Boris Johnson Tory MP for Henley

"I feel proud and empowered. I'd rather it was a political reason that brought us down off the top of the charts than a musical one." more...
Natalie Maines member of the US group Dixie Chicks, attacked for being anti-war