Sympathy for the Persecuted Christian Minority

In light of the latest pro-gay-marriage judicial rulings, I deeply sympathize with members of the persecuted Christian minority here in America. But, take heart! I don't mean to get y'all's hopes up unreasonably, but: If you are very very good and say all the right prayers, you might -- just might -- live long enough to see an openly practicing member of your religion elected to some high political office. Maybe Congress, or even the White House! And if you get luckier still, you might go so far as to have the federal government recognize your religious holidays enough to turn them into actual legal holidays, too.

Health Update: All The Latest Stuff That's Fatal

Been too busy working to keep up with the blogging, but I wanted to take a moment to warn you guys--after reading the 1,593 latest spammy press releases in my work email box, about all the latest foods discovered to cause health problems ranging from cancer and diabetes to gout and ennui, I've realized maybe General Ripper had the right idea: protect your purity of essence by subsisting off filtered rainwater and pure grain alcohol, because everything else on Zod's earth is going to kill you.

Creeped Out By LinkedIn: TSA Friendship Edition

A couple days ago I received and accepted a LinkedIn invitation from a guy I knew back in college, which reminded me I hadn't been to my LinkedIn page in quite awhile. So I visited my profile and made some half-assed updates a la "include my current job which I've had for five months now," then scrolled down its list of "People I might know." Some of them were obviously from my email; others were listed because we had one or more connections in common, or the same employer at one point or other.

Further down the list were names that appeared completely random -- no connections with me, not even in the same field or from the same area, I've no idea why LinkedIn might have suggested them -- but then I saw one name I most assuredly recognized: Thedala Magee, the loathsome TSA agent who became infamous when she tried suing Amy Alkon after Alkon complained about being molested at the hands of Ms. Magee, thus inspiring me to write a couple of scathing blog posts about Magee at the time ... and somehow LinkedIn has enough awareness of this to suggest I might want to "connect" with Ms. Magee.

(Incidentally, I've heard legends of people offered wonderful and legitimate jobs via LinkedIn. I have been unable to confirm them. From my own personal experience, LinkedIn helps you find a job in the same sense that having an email account helps you find a date -- sure, you'll get scads of unsolicited offers, but none anyone in their right mind would ever actually consider.)

Your Annual Post-Super-Bowl Manufactured Controversy

I celebrated the Super Bowl in my traditional manner by watching something else on TV, so not until I went online this morning did I see a bunch of articles allegedly written by angry right-wingers, complaining that a multilingual Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad is trying to "Balkanize" America -- those are actually satires written by humor-deficient left-wingers who hacked into sites like Brietbart.com, right?

Please tell me they are, as even my misanthropic self can’t believe the writers are sincerely be such ignoramuses as to overlook the fact "The Balkan Wars basically happened because a bunch of people decided 'If your religion/ethnicity/lifestyle are in any way different from mine, we cannot peacefully co-exist; we can only hate each other." Seriously: if you want to "Balkanize" America, then griping about this Coke commercial and taking umbrage over the fact that anyone other than English-speaking heteros might be considered 'real Americans' is a damned good way to start. 

(In other news: yes, I know I've been neglecting the hell out of this blog lately.This is partly due to assiduously working as a consumer journalist, and partially because I visited a doctor expecting to be diagnosed with, at most, a mild allergy, only to learn I had an infection bad enough to require powerful antibiotics. I've been swallowing them down with water, but the brouhaha over their Super Bowl ad almost makes me want to buy a Coke. Except if I try downing such enormous horsepills with a carbonated beverage, they'll hear my belches on the moon.)