Banners are becoming more macabre.
Double Flee A
Friday
more loveliness from Washington
There is one -- count him, one -- Republican member of the House of Representatives who supports Freedom of the Press...
Freedom of the Press Loses 220-195
The weirdest thing ever to air on the tonight show. Jim Henson psychedelica.
Thursday
I amma fou sae muckle as tired deid dune
It's gey and hard wark coupin gless for gless
Wi Cruvie and Gilsanquar and the like,
And I'm no juist as bauld as aince I wes.
The elbuck fankles in the coorse o time,
The sheckle's no sae souple, and the thrapple
Grows deef and dour: nae langer up and doun
Gleg as a squirrel speils the Adam's apple.
Forbye, the stuffie's no the real MacKay.
The sun's sel aince, as sune as ye began it,
Riz in your vera saul: but what keeks in
Noo is in truth the vilest 'saxpenny planet'....
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
Wednesday
Let's rethink our plans to smoke crack later.
YouTube - Stairway to Stardom (1987) - BJ The Messenger
YouTube - Stairway to Stardom (1987) - BJ The Messenger
oh me, oh my
This is a very special video. Make sure you watch it until the end.YouTube - Stairway to Stardom (1983) - Precious Taft
Tuesday
comments
It's come to my attention that several people have experienced trouble lately with my comments. Haloscan is dropping people's comments like a bad habit, and I don't like how that makes me look. It's even caused me to be called a fascist. That's just not right.Therefore, discontinuing my longstanding relationship with Haloscan is on my list of things to do, right after "tell the spoonbender how to do a better podcast" (it's called a phase shifter) and before "learn to juggle cats".
All the old haloscan comments disappear, so I'm going to take advantage of blogger's comments function. If spamming starts I'll get rid of comments altogether.
classic
"I went to a party, had a few beers, woke up in a closet later on and my face stunk and my dick hurt."
overheard at the STD clinic:
City Pages - Talk Dirty to Me
Drop the pills and back slowly away. Comedian Rush Limbaugh detained at Palm Beach airport.
more: Rush Limbaugh Detained at Airport for Possessing Viagra - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime
mefi:
Part One of the Channel4 program where Richard Dawkins challenges faith calling it 'a process of non-thinking'. [~48 mins]
Part Two:
The Virus of Faith. [~48 mins]
How to Avoid being Arrested by Cops - Google Video
more: Rush Limbaugh Detained at Airport for Possessing Viagra - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime
mefi:
Part One of the Channel4 program where Richard Dawkins challenges faith calling it 'a process of non-thinking'. [~48 mins]
Part Two:
The Virus of Faith. [~48 mins]
How to Avoid being Arrested by Cops - Google Video
Monday
If men discussed their biological roles in the reproductive process the way women do where I work, with handy comparitive commentary:
Woman: I was morning sick and peeing four times during the night.
Man: You should have seen her, she was hotter than a two dollar pistol. I was like, Damn.
Woman: [rubs abdomen] You want to feel the baby kicks? Come over and see, if you want to. Go ahead. It's getting really strong.
Man: [grabs his junk] I don't want to brag, but my shit is huge. Seriously. You wanna see it?
Woman: [Whispers among other women, they all agree on something, eyes bulging, smiling.]
Man: [Same.]
Woman: The contractions were getting really close together and I was yelling at everybody.
Man: She's got one leg over here and I don't even know where the other one is, 'cause it's all I can do to not be a minuteman. I'm thinking about bicycles and shit like that.
Woman: And then the baby came out, and was like "Here I am!"
Man: Essentially, my brain exploded and I drowned the world in baby batter.
Woman: And then I was really tired but really happy, you know?
Man: I felt like I had been struck by lightning. My legs were like jell-o and I forgot where I was.
Woman: It was totally amazing.
Man: It was awesome.
Woman: I was morning sick and peeing four times during the night.
Man: You should have seen her, she was hotter than a two dollar pistol. I was like, Damn.
Woman: [rubs abdomen] You want to feel the baby kicks? Come over and see, if you want to. Go ahead. It's getting really strong.
Man: [grabs his junk] I don't want to brag, but my shit is huge. Seriously. You wanna see it?
Woman: [Whispers among other women, they all agree on something, eyes bulging, smiling.]
Man: [Same.]
Woman: The contractions were getting really close together and I was yelling at everybody.
Man: She's got one leg over here and I don't even know where the other one is, 'cause it's all I can do to not be a minuteman. I'm thinking about bicycles and shit like that.
Woman: And then the baby came out, and was like "Here I am!"
Man: Essentially, my brain exploded and I drowned the world in baby batter.
Woman: And then I was really tired but really happy, you know?
Man: I felt like I had been struck by lightning. My legs were like jell-o and I forgot where I was.
Woman: It was totally amazing.
Man: It was awesome.
via boing boing, it's Japanese little girls saying funny things and singing.
YouTube - The Laugh Song
I think I'll be watching this often.
YouTube - The Laugh Song
I think I'll be watching this often.
net neutrality
When I invented the Web, I didn't have to ask anyone's permission. Now, hundreds of millions of people are using it freely. I am worried that that is going end in the USA.
Net Neutrality: This is serious | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs
Sunday
before you commit
You can watch videos of various operating systems. (I'm about to upgrade to Dapper.) Here:Video Library
Whatcha gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside your trunk?
Do not inject shit into your body that you buy from a guy like this:
Detroit man charged in lethal heroin case - Yahoo! News
This dumb bastard killed all his customers by mixing fentanyl with his heroin. As a person who works with fentanyl dosing each weekend, I'd have liked to have been there when they mixed it together so I could see them coming up with the recipe. Whatever it was, it was stupid as hell.
Do not inject shit into your body that you buy from a guy like this:
Detroit man charged in lethal heroin case - Yahoo! News
This dumb bastard killed all his customers by mixing fentanyl with his heroin. As a person who works with fentanyl dosing each weekend, I'd have liked to have been there when they mixed it together so I could see them coming up with the recipe. Whatever it was, it was stupid as hell.
The average person in this country uses 20 pounds of coal a day:
'Big Coal,' by Jeff Goodell - Book Review
Nancy "Nostrils" Grace, as if to mock her audience for how intelligent they aren't, has a poll on her website.
Do you think there are terrorists in your neighborhood?
31 per cent answer Yes.
CNN.com - Nancy Grace
Read, apply:
Using Gmail as Your Universal Email Account
Saturday
Why didn't anyone tell me how great world cup soccer is?
I've been watching Brazil, because
A) I don't want to start out watch a country that gets knocked out early. It's a relatively large investment of time watching these people and learning how they all play together and the tournament only goes on for so long.
B) Brazilian women are the honey-colored and they love white guys. (If this is not the case please don't tell me, as it constitutes a large portion of what I think is good about being American abroad.)
Ronaldo is awesome. I just watched the Japan game (thanks bittorrent) and that guy can do whatever he wants. What a pimp. I think against Japan he tied the record for most goals scored by one person in world cup history. He scored twice; the goalkeeper was apparently ready to perform Hara-kiri.
Ronaldinho is the man, too. I haven't seen anyone make it look as easy as he does since Michael Jordan was bringing it down the court, beating all five defenders, and dunking over whoever was going to look the most criminally sedated on the cover of the sports section the next day. Ronaldinho's juggling the ball through traffic, passing all over everybody, everything but scoring. Great things happens when he gets the ball. All he has to do is get it and the crowd goes apeshit.
Conclusion: Brazil is so good they make awesomeness look almost accidental.
If you would like to tell me what a tool I am for thinking Brazil is good, now is the time. Be warned, though, that when he team you like instead gets beat by Brazil I will laugh at you.
I've been watching Brazil, because
A) I don't want to start out watch a country that gets knocked out early. It's a relatively large investment of time watching these people and learning how they all play together and the tournament only goes on for so long.
B) Brazilian women are the honey-colored and they love white guys. (If this is not the case please don't tell me, as it constitutes a large portion of what I think is good about being American abroad.)
Ronaldo is awesome. I just watched the Japan game (thanks bittorrent) and that guy can do whatever he wants. What a pimp. I think against Japan he tied the record for most goals scored by one person in world cup history. He scored twice; the goalkeeper was apparently ready to perform Hara-kiri.
Ronaldinho is the man, too. I haven't seen anyone make it look as easy as he does since Michael Jordan was bringing it down the court, beating all five defenders, and dunking over whoever was going to look the most criminally sedated on the cover of the sports section the next day. Ronaldinho's juggling the ball through traffic, passing all over everybody, everything but scoring. Great things happens when he gets the ball. All he has to do is get it and the crowd goes apeshit.
Conclusion: Brazil is so good they make awesomeness look almost accidental.
If you would like to tell me what a tool I am for thinking Brazil is good, now is the time. Be warned, though, that when he team you like instead gets beat by Brazil I will laugh at you.
Cheney on free press: "That offends me"
That's strange, I thought what was offensive was torture and wiretapping and the end of habeas corpus and cold-blooded murder of Iraqi civilians.Cheney Assails Press on Report on Bank Data - New York Times
Friday
hey, they asked
Each month, my hospital has an essay question on their intranet. Even knowing nothing else about it, this appeals to me.It's typical; you fill out a web form and wing it in, and if they pick yours for publication in next month's newsletter (hope of hopes!), you get a t-shirt and a bag of chips or something. This one in particular caught my eye, so here is my response to this month's "My Opinion Counts" question:
What is the most important lesson a child has taught you?
The most important lesson a child has taught me is "Don't think just because you're in Disneyworld that you can't get killed." I'm sorry it took a death to remind me of my mortality, but I'm hard pressed to think of anything else that quite does the trick. His name was Daudi Bamuwamye, and he was four years old. He is now in the big Disneyland in the sky.
I hope I win!
no wonder Bill O'Reilly loves Geraldo
He's insane.Geraldo Rivera: " I've seen a hell of a lot more combat than John Kerry"
/video
heavy-handed
Note to self. Print the following links and read them all. Also, forget the dream you had where you're the prisoner of "the tiny people" who you keep killing, who then call their friend "the giant king" to stomp you. Thinking about it isn't going to help you understand anything."an empty ritual that provides little or nothing of value."? Jesus's guys aren't going to like the sound of this. Marriage is under attack... by common sense.
The End of Marriage
/anthropology
Jedediah Purdy for Democracy: The New Biopolitics
NYT ed:
A Look at Republican Priorities: Comforting the Comfortable
...and Afflicting the Afflicted
Coal, glorious coal: Our Black Future
These Chinese dirt farmers don't like coal, either: The Not So Good Earth - New York Times
Here's a video of a kid dressed up like Hitler interviewing passersby:
YouTube - Beat Kids - Hitler
Excellent photography: HackelBury Fine Art - Alexandre Vitkine:
More people, same site:
Hackel Bury Fine Art - Artists
I like turtles and I like Darwin, so I was doubly saddened to learn that Darwin's pet turtle has died:
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Harriet the Tortoise dies at 175
She's only seven: Children's Comics by Alexa S. Kitchen - Alexa's Place
More kid art. This time they copy as closely as they can some really depressing paintings based on Winnie the Pooh. It doesn't look to me like they understand how depressing the paintings are.
Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight.
So much freedom, so little time. When you're living in America under the Bush administration, or as I like to call it, Freedomtopia, your privacy's still there, it's just a much more complicated kind of privacy that someone will (maybe) explain (someday). All your base are belong to AT&T: AT&T Revises Privacy Policy - Los Angeles Times
The best for last:
Boing Boing: Video mashup of Country Bears and American History X
This video by Lou Rawls is going to make you want to join the Navy, dig?
All Together (ca 1970s) - Google Video
All Together (ca 1970s) - Google Video
Thursday
interesting
I saw this when I was 13 and never heard of it again until now. Starling flocks take the strangest shapes:Earth Science Picture of the Day
You've always wanted it. Now you can buy Hermann Göring's personal touring car on ebay:
eBay Motors: Mercedes-Benz (item 4644098557 end time Jun-23-06 04:30:00 PDT)
eBay Motors: Mercedes-Benz (item 4644098557 end time Jun-23-06 04:30:00 PDT)
Yesterday the wife and I received a really great belated wedding present. Some very thoughtful friends gave us four tickets to a Saint Paul Saints game (minor league baseball, the kind that is actually outdoors and not in the marshmallow dome), specifically, tickets that allow you to watch the game while sitting in a hot tub, and they give you all kinds of stuff. Eight hot dogs and towels and so on. You don't have to bring four people, though. How cool is that?
Bad pun o'the day:
Yesterday I fixed a 1948 Babe Ruth watch for a friend. That afternoon we talked on the phone.
Neal: "Thanks to you, the Babe's still swinging."
Me: "The Babe will never strike out on my watch."
Name-calling, all grown up, is what the far right wing in this country got good at that the left, didn't. If you repeat the world "liberals" often enough and derisively enough, it becomes a bad word. The way the word sounds in your mind changes when the cool people rip on it. That's the whole story; the long and the short of how that word's meaning has changed in the popular consciousness. It's also important to know that the popular consciousness is very stupid.
Now take the Iraq war. By calling Democrats "cut and runners", Republican think-tanks and media personages have seemingly scored another touchdown in the game of "identify the other guy and stay popular". They're the terrors of the playground, basically walking around poking everybody with a sharp stick. If you've ever heard people in a name-calling contest, you may have noticed it's not the person who's right that wins. That's why it's "degenerated into name-calling." It's usually the catty girl or the thug who's intimidated people into casting them as the winner of the insult contest that comes out on top in those, and that's all the time you get to talk about issues in soundbite America.
That idiot Sean Hannity's future depends on the stability of this situation. If the average Joe starts wondering "hang on, who gets to decide what's "patriotic" and what isn't", the right wing of this country would very quickly begin to look like the island of Doctor Moreau after the cheetah guy gets a taste of cooked rabbit. I have no doubt whatever that that's all it would take to turn this situation around in a hurry.
But the constantly embattled Democrats do have to fight the cheerleader from Andover. Cheerleaders are notoriously good at catfights, and at yelling whatever is necessary to stay on top.
And yet they see a cowboy:
Rallied by Bush, Skittish G.O.P. Now Embraces War as Issue - New York Times
Bad pun o'the day:
Yesterday I fixed a 1948 Babe Ruth watch for a friend. That afternoon we talked on the phone.
Neal: "Thanks to you, the Babe's still swinging."
Me: "The Babe will never strike out on my watch."
Name-calling, all grown up, is what the far right wing in this country got good at that the left, didn't. If you repeat the world "liberals" often enough and derisively enough, it becomes a bad word. The way the word sounds in your mind changes when the cool people rip on it. That's the whole story; the long and the short of how that word's meaning has changed in the popular consciousness. It's also important to know that the popular consciousness is very stupid.
Now take the Iraq war. By calling Democrats "cut and runners", Republican think-tanks and media personages have seemingly scored another touchdown in the game of "identify the other guy and stay popular". They're the terrors of the playground, basically walking around poking everybody with a sharp stick. If you've ever heard people in a name-calling contest, you may have noticed it's not the person who's right that wins. That's why it's "degenerated into name-calling." It's usually the catty girl or the thug who's intimidated people into casting them as the winner of the insult contest that comes out on top in those, and that's all the time you get to talk about issues in soundbite America.
That idiot Sean Hannity's future depends on the stability of this situation. If the average Joe starts wondering "hang on, who gets to decide what's "patriotic" and what isn't", the right wing of this country would very quickly begin to look like the island of Doctor Moreau after the cheetah guy gets a taste of cooked rabbit. I have no doubt whatever that that's all it would take to turn this situation around in a hurry.
But the constantly embattled Democrats do have to fight the cheerleader from Andover. Cheerleaders are notoriously good at catfights, and at yelling whatever is necessary to stay on top.
And yet they see a cowboy:
Rallied by Bush, Skittish G.O.P. Now Embraces War as Issue - New York Times
Wednesday
The Hitler vs. Coulter Quiz: Can you correctly attribute the quotes?
refreshment!
I went to see X-men 3 a couple of days ago. Before it began, there were advertisements for some products, and as I've said before, this is a new and bad thing but I don't expect it to change. There were also previews for other movies, and I want to tell you about one of them.When you're at a theater to watch a movie other than an action movie, the previews they show you before your movie begins can be exhausting to watch. They show you thirty explosions and people running and screaming, and at times this can leave you feeling you've been brutalized by Tonya Harding's bodyguard and left for dead outside Liquor Lyle's. Having to watch these kinds of previews seems a bit much until I consider I'd still get there in time for a good seat even if they showed me a loop of monkeys smoking cigars. That might be better, really.
Anyway, because we were there for an action flick, the whole crowd had kind of a "bring it on" feel. We weren't going to be shocked into submission by any preview. We're a crowd who's seen the first two X-men movies and we're ready for another. You're going to have to hit us pretty hard to leave a mark. So they tried.
One of the other big blockbusters in the theater right now is called "The Omen", and they ran a preview for it. This preview was packed with more crosses and churches and holy-looking stuff than anyone (besides maybe a youth pastor) can possibly sustain any level of interest in, with this guy right here looking just like this:
Nothing against him, he's a good actor.
This man portrays a priest whose duties include explaining, while wind blows in his face, that some little kid is actually --ready for the shocker of a lifetime?-- the antichrist! Bet you didn't see that coming. The preview was all blacks and reds and graphic-art crucifixes. You know the ones, where it's like, "Is that Celtic or what?" Those ones. Finally, "The Omen" trailer drew to a close.
And then much to my surprise, my faith in humanity regained some of its footing in that unlikeliest of places, the modern American multiplex.
As the preview ended, the audience audibly yawned, sighed, and shifted impatiently. A good half of the crowd did this right together, in a way that we would have seen on a sitcom, but for real, and completely coincidentally. There were a couple of quiet chuckles at this.
It was like: we're here to see a movie about mutants with awesome super powers fighting each other and blowing shit up and you want to do this tedious religion thing? Again? Wolverine has two foot claws that can cut anything! A priest is gonna pray about a little boy and we're supposed to care? Rebecca Romijn left that lame Full House guy and is about to get buck naked! Right now!
It's nice to know the antichrist, part of the great disease called religion, is, like "Rent" and "Garfield", an idea whose cultural moment has passed, and even if it's just from an entertainment standpoint, I find that very, very refreshing.
Tuesday
the morning cull
Long before he became a frightened republican bed-wetter to soothe his poor, terrorized nerves, James Lileks was entertaining. In my opinion he had the best broadcast on KSTP, called "the diner". If you're into that sort of thing, it looks like he still does it.Podcast
Lots of great images today.
ThinkGeek :: Stonehenge Watch
Noteworthy collection: Flickr: Stick Figures in Peril
Gotta love that conservative humor:
More cartoonage: What If They Stole an Election and No One Cared? by Ward Sutton
Monday
not hateful enough
New US church leader says homosexuality no sin - Yahoo! NewsWhat kind of church is this, anyway? I'd expect all the real Christians, like my father, will be along to burn that place down any minute now.
Sunday
"...Addicted to oil as if it were crack, we are chopping down the world's tropical forests at an astounding rate--as much as 1 or 2 percent a year. When modern civilization finishes draining the world's resources, when this house of cards collapses, we will see ourselves stripped down to our essence and whimper for forgiveness like third-grade bullies caught by our teachers, unable to comprehend what went wrong. Against the floods, genetic pollution, bacterial onslaughts, radioactive infernos unleashed by human stupidity or aggrieved nature, our technologies will pop like toy guns. Watch the fun as the stock markets continue to seek profit, down to the last seconds of recorded history, betting on the margin calls of disaster relief and reinsurance agencies.
"What is 'profit' anyway? What is the greed that is motivating the frenzied humanity to destroy the planet and degrade itself? If a media mogul pockets so many hundreds of millions a year while leaving his children and grandchildren a world without clean air, Amazonian jungles, the purple splendor of coral reefs, or animals, where is his profit? If a chemical corporation profits by spreading toxins across the globe that will rematerialize as cancer in the flesh of their own anxious stockholders, where is the profit? To what Martian retreat or Lunar Club Med do these madmen--ourselves!--see themselves retreating when they have finished fucking this planet like an old whore?"
- Daniel Pinchbeck
amazing
Here’s how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, “Do not forward”, to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as “undeliverable.”
African-American Soldiers Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List
Last night the wife and I went to the theater and watched some advertisements, followed by X-Men 3. At one point, she leaned over for some sugar (who can blame her? man-beauty flows from me.) and I had to deny her. There is a time for smooching, and there is a time for exploding cars, and the two are separate.
I discovered that Grand Marnier makes the margarita, so in order to take advantage of my resourcefulness I have resolved to drag a flask of it to the tequila bar if and when I go, to transform the middling into the great, like the broke-ass I am.
I discovered that Grand Marnier makes the margarita, so in order to take advantage of my resourcefulness I have resolved to drag a flask of it to the tequila bar if and when I go, to transform the middling into the great, like the broke-ass I am.
typical
Boing Boing: Ten Commandments Congressman can't name them:In this video, Stephen Colbert nails Georgia Representative Lynn Westmoreland, a Congressman who's co-sponsored a bill to require the display of the Ten Commandments in the House of Reps and the Senate. After bantering with Westmoreland for a couple minutes, Colbert says, "What are the Ten Commandments?"
/links to video
Saturday
Friday
We had a storm tonight that blew the illegal mexican roofing job off an apartment building in our neighborhood. The poor bastards on the fourth floor are running around with every empty vessel they can find to catch the rain. That rain happens to be picking up in intensity again as I type these words. It's really a torrent. Those guys are hating it. They live here:
Check out the ratings their tenants have given them.
Channel 11 tried to interview my wife about the hail before they knew why the fire department was trying to get a good look at the roof, at which point they went inside to interview tenants about how it feels to have rain pouring in on them. I thought it would be fun if I took my shirt off and said it sounded like a freight train, but the moment had passed. That's what next time's for. I'm watching "night of the hunter". One of my favorite movies.
On to the feedreader.
Could it be... lies?
The Raw Story | Newly released emails suggest Army Corps lied about Cheney role in Halliburton contract
Print: The New Atlantis - The Promise and Perils of Synthetic Biology - Jonathan B. Tucker and Raymond A. Zilinskas
Check out the ratings their tenants have given them.
Channel 11 tried to interview my wife about the hail before they knew why the fire department was trying to get a good look at the roof, at which point they went inside to interview tenants about how it feels to have rain pouring in on them. I thought it would be fun if I took my shirt off and said it sounded like a freight train, but the moment had passed. That's what next time's for. I'm watching "night of the hunter". One of my favorite movies.
On to the feedreader.
Could it be... lies?
The Raw Story | Newly released emails suggest Army Corps lied about Cheney role in Halliburton contract
Print: The New Atlantis - The Promise and Perils of Synthetic Biology - Jonathan B. Tucker and Raymond A. Zilinskas
photo courtesy Yahoo news.
It used to be we were able to objectify hotties and then throw them away, via avenues like Playboy magazine. The story was always the same: woman makes centerfold, people look at her bush, we move on.
Somewhere along the line something else happened. Thanks to whatever it is, we are stuck in a kind of postmodern hell where people like this are seemingly never able to be cast completely aside. I find it ironic that these are some of the main benefactors of the struggle for equal rights; these two who have exploited femininity and done their best to cheapen it. They're "good people" now.
Didn't Madonna fuck Basquiat to get ahead? Is this not the same woman who famously got her pelvis pounded mercilessly by cross-dressing rebounder Dennis Rodman, not to mention hundreds of other dirty starfuckers? If she's not giving advice on how to fuck your way to the top, why would anyone care what she has to say? Her longevity is amazing and pitiful. Britney didn't do anything either, except what every other white trash piece of garbage does: smoke, have kids, and get fat. The cheap plastic dolls have built their own houses out of everyone else's boredom.
The gorgon cultural sensitivity rears its nine heads at my impertinence. These whores have become mothers now: don't dare indict the highest office holders in femininity, the diaper-changing, life-giving celebrities. And staring into the abyss, I realize my mistake: if I don't think they're worthy of my awe and adulation, I should simply consult the tabloid magazine rack.
Nacho writes in:
Wednesday
On September 10, 2001, I went to bed at about two in the morning. I was planning to wake up the next morning and go buy Dylan's new album "love & theft". Something else happened that next morning instead. I'll always associate Dylan's album release with tragedy, even though it makes no sense.
I was reminded of this when I saw old man Bob's got another album coming out. Brace for impact August 29.
I was reminded of this when I saw old man Bob's got another album coming out. Brace for impact August 29.
According to credit card statements of FEMA's post-katrina free money giveaway, nothing mends a broken heart like fancy booze and girls gone wild videos.
CNN.com - FEMA hurricane cards bought jewelry, erotica - Jun 14, 2006
CNN.com - FEMA hurricane cards bought jewelry, erotica - Jun 14, 2006
Tuesday
meet your pundits
Michelle Malkin!"and really, the reaction to the suicides should be, "Boo-freakin-hoo.""
video at Crooks and Liars
Violent crime's up. BBC NEWS | Americas | Rise in violent crime alarms US
BBC live popular stories: BBC NEWS | Most Popular Now | Live Graph
I went to court today because I love being late for school and honestly, where else can you pay fourteen bucks to park for two hours? I persuaded the court to see things my way and got out of a traffic ticket. Tempting as it was to convivially ask if they validate, I was satisfied that the ticket the big fat cop wrote me magically goes away, and not to the evil insurance company.
If you want to see (why would you) a good cross-section of the down and out in a setting where no physical harm is likely, hit a courtroom sometime. There are usually courtrooms attached to jails where the really good cases are. Murder, assault, domestic abuse, etc. Grab a thing of popcorn and check out the prisoners, who are sometimes behind glass, and their poor-imitation-Stevie-Nicks-trashy girlfriends out in the audience/congregation/whatever. In case you need to appreciate what you've got, it's easy to see these guys don't have much going for them. I guess they do have the hope of being released, and that has to count for something.
When I was in jail there was a guy who had been in there two weeks longer than he was supposed to be. He was a long way from home, didn't speak any English, and just had to sit there till they let him out. He couldn't do anything about it at all. He always thought he was going to get jumped so he carried sharpened pencils around in his fists. There was one bilingual Mexican guy --too apathetic for any good use to his countryman-- who told us his situation. Think of the lazy mouse who's Speedy Gonzales's friend. That mouse, to a whisker, was this bilingual guy.
There's comedy all the time in jail if you know where to look, like when the other guys in the cell tried to speak to the non-English speaking guy directly. They would raise their voices and say the English words slowly and loudly, as if that would make him understand. Not once did it occur to any of them how stupid and futile that was. Jail is exactly like that. When you see the guys in the orange suits, this scenario is a good example of their daily lives. Eventually one of the more outspoken meth dealers had a "hey, c'mere and check this out" meeting with a guard about it. Hilariously, the slight Mexican was freed later that same day. It was the only time anyone was released at a time other than seven a.m.
If you want to see (why would you) a good cross-section of the down and out in a setting where no physical harm is likely, hit a courtroom sometime. There are usually courtrooms attached to jails where the really good cases are. Murder, assault, domestic abuse, etc. Grab a thing of popcorn and check out the prisoners, who are sometimes behind glass, and their poor-imitation-Stevie-Nicks-trashy girlfriends out in the audience/congregation/whatever. In case you need to appreciate what you've got, it's easy to see these guys don't have much going for them. I guess they do have the hope of being released, and that has to count for something.
When I was in jail there was a guy who had been in there two weeks longer than he was supposed to be. He was a long way from home, didn't speak any English, and just had to sit there till they let him out. He couldn't do anything about it at all. He always thought he was going to get jumped so he carried sharpened pencils around in his fists. There was one bilingual Mexican guy --too apathetic for any good use to his countryman-- who told us his situation. Think of the lazy mouse who's Speedy Gonzales's friend. That mouse, to a whisker, was this bilingual guy.
There's comedy all the time in jail if you know where to look, like when the other guys in the cell tried to speak to the non-English speaking guy directly. They would raise their voices and say the English words slowly and loudly, as if that would make him understand. Not once did it occur to any of them how stupid and futile that was. Jail is exactly like that. When you see the guys in the orange suits, this scenario is a good example of their daily lives. Eventually one of the more outspoken meth dealers had a "hey, c'mere and check this out" meeting with a guard about it. Hilariously, the slight Mexican was freed later that same day. It was the only time anyone was released at a time other than seven a.m.
Lots of books for browsing before you buy or even check out from the library:
The National Academies Press Home Page
"Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in."
- Leonard Cohen from his album "the future", which is much better than any of his other music
Old valise found at tag sale, opened, looked at, and blogged. Hope dashed. Time to get a life.
SWAPATORIUM: A Man of Few Words
Things I learned:
"You don't want to put your tomatoes in the fridge." - the produce guy
"When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." - mom
"You can't help who you fall in love with." - some guy on Springer
Don't sharpen srewdrivers on the screw head polisher - Joe Juaire
"The worst thing you can ever do is kill your father." - dad
In the end, whiskey all comes down to smoothness. - uncle
That thing wiggling under the porch might be a tiger. - my dream last night
Lando wasn't that bad of a guy after all. - star wars episode 6
There's a great way to ventilate your beer can to make it work better. Stick the tip of a ballpoint pen in the middle of the rivet holding the tab on and tap it sort of hard. This also works if you want to shake it up and spray people with it. - my awesome wife
The mission was accomplished when George W. Bush said it was. - Rush Limbaugh
Today I go to court to try to show the judge that I got a ticket in some circumstances that were less than fair.
This reminds me of that Dale Carnegie book "How to win friends and influence people", which teaches sociopaths how not to seem like sociopaths:
Maximum persuasion & influence power | Exceed Global Ltd.
The National Academies Press Home Page
"Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in."
- Leonard Cohen from his album "the future", which is much better than any of his other music
Old valise found at tag sale, opened, looked at, and blogged. Hope dashed. Time to get a life.
SWAPATORIUM: A Man of Few Words
Things I learned:
"You don't want to put your tomatoes in the fridge." - the produce guy
"When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." - mom
"You can't help who you fall in love with." - some guy on Springer
Don't sharpen srewdrivers on the screw head polisher - Joe Juaire
"The worst thing you can ever do is kill your father." - dad
In the end, whiskey all comes down to smoothness. - uncle
That thing wiggling under the porch might be a tiger. - my dream last night
Lando wasn't that bad of a guy after all. - star wars episode 6
There's a great way to ventilate your beer can to make it work better. Stick the tip of a ballpoint pen in the middle of the rivet holding the tab on and tap it sort of hard. This also works if you want to shake it up and spray people with it. - my awesome wife
The mission was accomplished when George W. Bush said it was. - Rush Limbaugh
Today I go to court to try to show the judge that I got a ticket in some circumstances that were less than fair.
This reminds me of that Dale Carnegie book "How to win friends and influence people", which teaches sociopaths how not to seem like sociopaths:
Maximum persuasion & influence power | Exceed Global Ltd.
Monday
Discover music at musicovery. That's why it's there.
Audio: Listen to lots of magazine articles here: Assistive Media | Audio archives
God hates publishers. A rich guy has turned into an empty boat in Chesapeake bay:
BBC NEWS | Americas | US publisher in sailing mystery
Audio: Listen to lots of magazine articles here: Assistive Media | Audio archives
God hates publishers. A rich guy has turned into an empty boat in Chesapeake bay:
BBC NEWS | Americas | US publisher in sailing mystery
Sunday
Vocabularies die hard. I think most any atheist will tell you that the tendency to say "thank god", "go to hell", "god damn it", and "Jesus Christ" is as familiar and natural to them as it is to any believer. At least I'm an atheist and it's that way it is for me. "Thank god" is what I was thinking tonight.
After meeting Neal and some friends of his at the leaning tower three quarters of the way through their three day binge and "making plans to talk later in the week", it brought me much joy to think that this is the least binding of all plans that are made, and that it would actually be much worse to make good on these contacts than not to.
Sometimes "we'll talk" means never call me, and it's a good thing.
After meeting Neal and some friends of his at the leaning tower three quarters of the way through their three day binge and "making plans to talk later in the week", it brought me much joy to think that this is the least binding of all plans that are made, and that it would actually be much worse to make good on these contacts than not to.
Sometimes "we'll talk" means never call me, and it's a good thing.
Faced with mounting civilian carnage, both from war crimes committed by demoralized and broken US troops and from the raging civil war unleashed by Bush’s ill-fated illegal invasion of Iraq, the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee has decided to waste another $50 billion to continue the lost war for five more months. Our elected "representatives" are so in thrall to the powerful military-industrial complex that no amount of American shame, pariah status and military defeat can shut off the flow of taxpayers’ funds to the merchants of death.
Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing hard-pressed US taxpayers $300,000,000 per day! These wars are lost. Yet, imbecilic members of Congress are in the process of funding the war for another year. Multiply $300 million by 365 days...
War Criminal Nation by Paul Craig Roberts
Wow, if there was any doubt about where the contemporary art market is going, they were dispelled this morning at Christie's Baghdad, where the US Government paid a record-setting $286 billion--plus $240 for framing--for this portrait of the dead Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. [Note: Sale price also does not include KBR's premium of 17.5% on the first $200 billion and 10% thereafter or the 2,485 US soldiers killed as of press time.]
Congratulations, even though it's gotta suck a little bit; the Administration had been offered the portrait multiple times in 2002 at much lower cost [estimated in the low eight figures], but turned it down. Of course, at the time, the market was more intrested in Al Qaeda portraits, and Zarqawi was not connected to Al Qaeda.
- greg.org
intellectual dynamite
Yesterday I told myself to print this:Beyond Power/Knowledge: an exploration of the relation of power, ignorance and stupidity
And today I printed and read it, and it is probably the best thing I've read this year. I highly recommend slogging through the section about Max Weber and Marx (Is any paper complete without referring to Marx? It's like asking if Jim Duggar can leave one square foot of the earth's surface unpopulated by his children. At least this one calls him out for thinking bureaucracy works.)
It's great great great. Read it!
LVMH, a company that manages luxury brands such as Tag Heuer, Luis Vuitton, Moet, and Dior, is suing retail giant Wal-Mart for selling knock-off Fendi purses. Their first hint was that they were being sold... at fucking Wal-Mart.
BBC NEWS | Business | Wal-Mart sued over Fendi copies
North Korea, the only country in the world that everybody wants to see get nuked, is complaining about US spy planes. They say they're going to shoot them down. So pretty much nothing new about that.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea in 'US spy plane' warning
BBC NEWS | Business | Wal-Mart sued over Fendi copies
North Korea, the only country in the world that everybody wants to see get nuked, is complaining about US spy planes. They say they're going to shoot them down. So pretty much nothing new about that.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea in 'US spy plane' warning
spin
mefi:Three of the clever, committed terrorists in Guantanamo Bay committed an act of war against the United States on Saturday morning.
Saturday
Friday
This watch is semi-affordable, which would be great except I only semi-semi have money.
eBay: TRIAS AUTOMATIC-DUAL-TIME T21754 TWO MOVEMENTS (item 8946264401 end time Jun-12-06 07:25:36 PDT)
eBay: TRIAS AUTOMATIC-DUAL-TIME T21754 TWO MOVEMENTS (item 8946264401 end time Jun-12-06 07:25:36 PDT)
word of the day
Master(-ed, -ing, -ful)I am boooooooooored with my job but I have to go do it anyway because hotshot bloggers don't get free groceries, and this will be a way to cope with my glut of unoccupied brain space. The game is to see if anyone notices that there is a word of the day by saying it a lot.
Thursday
today in history
632 - The Prophet Mohammed died in Medina.793 - (celebrated) The first Viking raid on British soil at Lindisfarne... a set date for the raid is known.
1861 - American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Cross Keys - Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George McClellan.
1942 - World War II: Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
1949 - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is published.
1949 - Red Scare: Such celebrities as Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
1967 - Six-Day War: The USS Liberty incident occurs, killing 34 and wounding 171.
1968 - James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder ofMartin Luther King Jr.
It's Francis Crick's (dec.) birthday. So for Babs Bush, Joan Rivers, and Bob Preston (dec.), who unforgettably played Professor Harold Hill in the music man. Kanye West turns 28 today. He has more money than you or I will ever make.
The Bush administration invaded Iraq claiming Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger. As much of Washington knew, and the world soon learned, the charge was false. Worse, it appears to have been the cornerstone of a highly successful "black propaganda" campaign with links to the White House
Ann Coulter
That Ann Coulter is constantly called out for her endless stream of bullshit is irrefutable proof of the media's liberal bias.Her exploitation humor act is selling validation to low-self esteem Republicans, and the market for that is quite large. Particularly irritating to me, even more than the character she portrays, is the chiaroscuro of venom she constructs with grafted-together words. It's a transparently backbreaking effort she makes to mischaracterize the other, even if she has to invent her own language. I find it, and people that do it, vile and reptilian. She's essentially a smirking, medicated clown; too patriotic for everybody else's own good, yet making it work. She's a sign of the times.
"I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much," Coulter writes in her book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," published on Tuesday, referring to four women who headed a campaign that resulted in the creation of the September 11 Commission that investigated the hijacked plane attacks.
Coulter wrote that the women were millionaires as a result of compensation settlements and were "reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis."
Reuters
Wednesday
crazy guy
Other than secret coded messages, I can't even tell what this is about.Ken-Welch.Com - Nuke Canceled
fyi
The Ténéré wastelands of northeastern Niger were once populated by a forest of trees. By the 20th century, desertification had wiped out all but one solitary acacia. The Tree of Ténéré, as it came to be called, had no companions for 400 km in every direction. Its roots reached nearly 40 m deep into the sand. In 1973, the tree was knocked over by a drunken Libyan truck driver. It has been replaced by a simple metal sculpture.
If I wrote a book of stories, this is the exact kind of stories I'd like them to be. The metal sculpture needs a description much different than this, and the whole thing needs to be fleshed out, but I love the concept. There's a kind of beauty in desolation that doesn't normally get a lot of attention.
the wiki entry
I can't do this because it would screw up all the watches I work on, but can somebody I know get one of these?
Boing Boing: Implanting a magnet in your fingertip adds a sixth sense
This man is a very frightening man, via somethingawful. Rowby does an improvised children's show. It's like being trapped inside his head. You probably won't make it through the entire video.
The Rowby Fan Club - Episode 01-24-2006-A - Google Video
Boing Boing: Implanting a magnet in your fingertip adds a sixth sense
This man is a very frightening man, via somethingawful. Rowby does an improvised children's show. It's like being trapped inside his head. You probably won't make it through the entire video.
The Rowby Fan Club - Episode 01-24-2006-A - Google Video
This guy was set to reveal the antichrist on his radio show, and I'm sorry there aren't more hours in the day for me to listen to funny shit, because judging by this, his site, SATAN'S RAPTURE, OFFICIAL SITE ESCAPE 666 BIBLE PROPHECY REVEALED, it was a real humdinger of a broadcast.
I enjoy pages like this, like Timecube, and like the one with Julie Andrews and the Nazis; the ones where crazy people learn to make their own web pages. It's nice to know that as in real life, they're represented online.
I enjoy pages like this, like Timecube, and like the one with Julie Andrews and the Nazis; the ones where crazy people learn to make their own web pages. It's nice to know that as in real life, they're represented online.
Tuesday
If you're around Saint Paul and you want a steak, hit Stasny's market on Western. They'll cut you a sirloin you have to call sir.
Rania and I were talking about butchers, and this one has my vote for sharpest cleaver. Just a hop and a skip from I-94, it's meat paradise, which I am now convinced is much better than regular paradise. Knowing what you're asking for will get you far; little is more satisfying than seeing the butcher reach into a pile of steaks and pull out the best looking one in the case.
Rania and I were talking about butchers, and this one has my vote for sharpest cleaver. Just a hop and a skip from I-94, it's meat paradise, which I am now convinced is much better than regular paradise. Knowing what you're asking for will get you far; little is more satisfying than seeing the butcher reach into a pile of steaks and pull out the best looking one in the case.
stable
I don't remember where I got this one either, but I youtubed it and here it is. A different take on the killing of JFK. In my opinion, more unsettling than the original.general wiki:
The Zapruder film is the 8 mm home movie footage shot by Abraham Zapruder in Dallas, Texas, within Dealey Plaza while standing next to the grassy knoll during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. It is the definitive, most authoritative film of the assassination.
print:
2006 Commencement Address Stephen Colbert, June 3, 2006
2006 Commencement Address Stephen Colbert, June 3, 2006
thankfully Congress is acting and soon English will be the official language of America. Because if we surrender the national anthem to Spansih, the next thing you know, they’ll be translating the Bible. God wrote it in English for a reason! So it could be taught in our public schools.
BBC:
must be an election year: The rootin' tootin' president renews gay marriage ban call
the paving of the ocean: Biggest cruise ship "freedom of the seas" begins work
nine severed heads in plastic bags found roadside in Iraq
U.S. Troops start Mexico border duty
must be an election year: The rootin' tootin' president renews gay marriage ban call
the paving of the ocean: Biggest cruise ship "freedom of the seas" begins work
nine severed heads in plastic bags found roadside in Iraq
U.S. Troops start Mexico border duty
This is a slideshow of photographs of Dubai. I am interested in your reactions to seeing this, if you have the time to register them in the comments.
Boudders' Worlds Fastest Growing City slideshow on Flickr
Boudders' Worlds Fastest Growing City slideshow on Flickr
Monday
one less wacko
A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.I put this up on youtube this morning. I thought it was gorgeous, forget where it came from. It's the aurora borealis seen from space.
Link to bigger.
Are you going crazy? No, it's
YouTube - THE GREAT DARYL NATHAN performing his own composition, spinning wheel, and showing you how to do the dance he made up to go along with it. There are other Daryl Nathan videos on the page, in case you for some reason can't get enough.
YouTube - THE GREAT DARYL NATHAN performing his own composition, spinning wheel, and showing you how to do the dance he made up to go along with it. There are other Daryl Nathan videos on the page, in case you for some reason can't get enough.
Sunday
foaming republicans
Do American troops really need core values training on moral and ethical standards on the battlefield to know it's wrong to shoot children?
more
The way Americans like their war
[Genesis 1:26 and other passages] in the Bible have established a mindset that is now so ingrained in the being the modern democratic capitalist, that it seems a function of heredity.
Christianity, Capitalism, Corporations, and the Myth of Dominion
Wars of Conquest and Capital
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
The Threats to Sustainable Democracy
The Four Fundamentalisms
Saturday
Calling itself The Police Bay, The Pirate Bay is back up after its equipment spent a few days in the pokey. They're not lobbyists' bitches like the U.S. government is. Hats off to the freedom fighters at Pirate Bay.
to do
Get a musician and write a rock and roll theme song for Marlon Smith, high-tech motivator, which is so kick-ass, and motivating, and over-the-top, that it collapses hilariously in on its own awesomeness.I'm thinking
"He's Marlon!"
-guitar BWAAAW-
"the high-tech"
-whammy bar FREEOW-
"MOTIVATOR!!"
-insane crescendo-
"He will MOVE YOU!!"
Or something to that effect. How is writing that song NOT a great way to spend half an afternoon? Any interested musicians, get in touch.
Friday
If you're a zombie who is fifty five or over in good health and doesn't smoke or take blood pressure medications, you should consider term life insurance from Zombie mutual. Wilford Brimley here. I was famous for being old and now I'm dead, just like many Americans over the age of fifty five who no longer receive medicare benefits. Take it from me because I know; geriatric zombies need more time for the things that matter most, like sharing human brains with your loved ones. Give Zombie mutual a call today and ask one of their friendly phone personnel to walk you through your options. You'll be glad you did. It's one easy telephone call that can help you live a better life.
Wilford speaking with a helpful zombie staff member.
Wilford speaking with a helpful zombie staff member.
Drug for Bones Is Newly Linked to Jaw Disease - New York Times
Hmm. According to my 2005 edition of the AFHS drug book bisphosphonates have been known to be linked to that since at least last year... it's almost as if people should PAY ATTENTION WHEN THEY TAKE PILLS. Guess what else? This family of drugs kicks around in your system for at least ten years after you stop taking them. If you're Roche, the ensuing orgy of lawsuits could make you glad Boniva was late to the party.
Hmm. According to my 2005 edition of the AFHS drug book bisphosphonates have been known to be linked to that since at least last year... it's almost as if people should PAY ATTENTION WHEN THEY TAKE PILLS. Guess what else? This family of drugs kicks around in your system for at least ten years after you stop taking them. If you're Roche, the ensuing orgy of lawsuits could make you glad Boniva was late to the party.
Thursday
ah, the culture of life
U.S. troops kill pregnant woman in Iraq - Yahoo! NewsThe baby would probably have grown up to be an insurgent anyway.
bowling green sewing machine
retina barbecue
- learn something
- popurls
- 0tv.com
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- new betty
- concrete tv
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- exile
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- today's front pages
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- air america
- sleepbot
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- watchmaker podcast
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eustachian justice league
many moons
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toys
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