Daily Archives: July 11, 2011

11 posts

Pimp Your Social Networks

Admit it, you all want more friends, followers, circle fillers and re-posts.  The best way to do that is simply to ask.  In the comments give links to social networking sites that you want others to follow you on.

Please keep in mind that this will cause your Crasstalk username and whatever social network you post to be easily linked together.  If you’re trying to stay anonymous then you should not post your real life Facebook account here.  Comment.

Jury Rejects Rape Allegations Against KBR/Halliburton

While the trial of Casey Anthony enthralled the country, another very important trial was going on as well. Jamie Leigh Jones claimed she was drugged, brutally gang-raped, and held captive by co-workers while working in Iraq for KBR/Halliburton. Like many others, she was influenced by the company’s claims of a safe working environment for women, while being able to earn a decent income. When she arrived in Iraq, she was housed in a trailer surrounded by men, even though she was promised to be housed with other women. Not long after her arrival, she states that she was drugged with Rohypnol and attacked in such a brutal manner that she required reconstructive surgery. According to her claims, when she reported it, she was taken to a shipping container and held while she begged to be released. Continue reading →

How to Deal with a Quarter-Life Crisis

Maybe you’re in your mid-twenties and you’ve just discovered that you don’t really like becoming an adult, and all of your friends have moved away for grad school, and you feel kind of aimless. Apparently, that feeling is not just nostalgia for when you could wear pajamas, drink all day and watch cartoons. It’s got a name (and Wikipedia page): quarter-life crisis. Continue reading →

Ultra-Right Nationalist Groups Find Recruits in Serbia’s Frustrated Youth

A decade after the start of the Yugoslavian Civil War, Serbia is still grappling with extreme nationalist groups that advocate violence against their opponents both within Serbia and in neighboring countries. The groups also participate in violent activities and have battled with police during political protests.  This is especially troubling because these groups are not hold-outs from the war in the 1990s, but rather are are increasingly made up of young people who barely remember the conflict. Continue reading →

QOTD: The Takedown

Nothing feels quite as good as ripping someone deserving to shreds, does it? Really destroying someone who seriously and unquestionably had it coming. God, isn’t that the best? I mean, besides helping the poor and hungry and stuff. That’s totes better. But second to that, there’s just nothing like an epic takedown.

Of course, not all of us are pros at The Takedown. Some of us are too nice, some of us just aren’t clever enough, and some of us just have better things to do. (Not me, obviously. I don’t even have better things to do than write a blog post about takedowns, so, there ya go.) Fortunately, there are some people out there who are simply fantastic at knocking people down to size, whether it’s with an epic rant (shown beautifully here by the blog 2birds1blog, in the greatest rant about Bobby Flay known to man, with a h/t to EPuff) or a blissfully perfect impersonation of idiocy, as exemplified by the wonderful Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. Continue reading →

What’s Up, Doc? How to Choose a Personal Physician

Well, he or she should be hawt, like clueless wolf cub Dr. Karev from Grey’s Anatomy or Dr. Robin Scorpio from General Hospital.  Kidding! I kid! By ‘hawt”, I mean that he or she should take your health plan as payment, and accomodate the preposterous rules about using Flexible Spending Accounts for co-payments.  If you have neither insurance nor an FSA, the general principles below apply anyhow. Continue reading →