5.31.2007

Target The Rainbow Yarmulkes

Americans like to think of Israel as progressive--and it is compared to its neighbors--but that doesn't mean much. Take this news of the upcoming gay pride parade in Jerusalem. You have to love this triumph of religious fervor, the suggestions/threats by far-right Jews that they may respond by:
blocking the streets to haredi neighborhoods and physically striking out at gay businesses and venues that are open on the Sabbath
Cute. Isn't it strange how gay Jews marching in a parade is tolerated more in Birmingham, AL than in Jerusalem? Sure, there are protesters, but they don't throw feces or destroy businesses.

Why is "God's Holy Land" such a shit-hole? Jesus Christ...

Satanic Scientists And Their Devlish Man-Apes


While I despise the ghastly PETA fanatics and their silly assault on reason (not to mention my dinner and Joan Rivers' closet), I do advocate special protections for some animals. I think this article and the astounding video with it show why: some animals are uniquely intelligent and emotionally complex.

Bonobos are evil, of course. So the ones in the video are likely just infested with the same demons that make people believe that bonobos and humans are related.

Sci-Fi Writers save civilization

Geeks rule, again - Looking to prevent the next terrorist attack, the Homeland Security Department is tapping into the wild imaginations of a group of self-described "deviant" thinkers: science-fiction writers. - Sci-fi writers join war on terror.

I hope that Ahmadinejad, our "smart bombs willing", will find that HIS "foundations are shaking" pretty soon

From MEMRI TV

"Ahmadinejad: 'Let me tell you that with the help of God, they are done for. Like a battery about to run out, they muster the remainder of their power but Allah willing, nothing will happen. We've passed that. Wait one month, two months, three months... Allah willing, as soon as possible, we will pass that. Their situation is much worse than one can imagine. Their foundations are shaking.'"

To View This Clip, Click Here.


Portrait of a traitor

"Legitimate Demands"– A Video Speech by Adam Yahiye Gadahn Produced by as-Sahab Media
By SITE Institute


Al Qaeda's American Flack in New Video
By James Gordon Meek

"Osama Bin Laden's Jewish-American mouthpiece Adam Yahiye Gadahn, aka Adam Pearlman, aka "Azzam al-Amriki," is making a new appearance on video at this hour to threaten more attacks, which this century's "Tokyo Rose" promises will make America forget 9/11.

The short video, "Legitimate Demands," was expected for several hours. A teaser posted on jihadist websites by Al Qaeda's As-Sahab propaganda wing was caught by several private counterterrorism outfits, including the SITE Institute, IntelCenter and Laura Mansfield's blog."

The Same Old Threats from the American Face of Al-Qaida
By Evan Kohlmann

"Though Gadahn peppers his diatribe with clear references to recent events (such as the massacre at Virginia Tech), much of it appears to be the same old recycled propaganda. Arguably the most incendiary remark made by Gadahn in "Legitimate Demands" is taken almost verbatim from a similar video message he recorded of himself in September 2004: 'Your failure to meet these demands... means that you and your people will, Allah willing, experience things that will make you forget *all* about the horrors of September 11, Afghanistan, and Iraq--and Virginia Tech.'"

FBI: American Al Qaeda is a 'Tool'
By James Gordon Meek

"I quizzed Miller, with my colleague Lara Jakes Jordan of the Associated Press, about the emergence of Al Qaeda's Jewish-American spokesman, known as "Azzam al-Amriki," who grew up in California, converted to Islam, was recruited by Al Qaeda and was indicted last year in Los Angeles for treason and giving material support to terrorism.

Read more about the FBI's view of Gadahn at the Daily News' Mouth of the Potomac Blog."


Excellent analysis from Mr. Sheridan AND PM Blair

The reason we are losing the battle of information and ideas is because the coherent religious and ideological position that al-Qa’ida represents has an extraordinary degree of support within the Muslim world

"The truth will out, eventually. 'Extremists winning war of words, too,' by Greg Sheridan in The Australian, with thanks to JE:

SIX years after the 9/11 terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York and killed almost 3000 people, a majority of American Muslims do not believe the attacks were carried out by Arabs. And more than one-quarter of young US Muslims believe suicide bombings can be justified in some circumstances.

These shocking and tragic findings, which come from the Pew Research Centre, tell us much about why the war against Islamist terror is going to last for generations.

The West is losing the information and propaganda war against Islamist extremism. It is not losing because it is being insufficiently kind to Muslims at home or in the Middle East."

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

5.28.2007

In town


There's been an 'I'd offer you some' summit (with Paul arriving & leaving early, of course). Important issues discussed: our favorite - the Booklegger, topnotch burgers - Cheeburger, Cheeburger, the creepy Villages of Providence, a Mexican place that I want to be better than it really is - Maria Bonita. I won a little poker on Friday from the Schoolhouse Gang. There were a couple of quick trips to The University - the north side of campus has changed dramatically. Watched some great (& bad) stuff as well - Father Ted, Jaws, Jeeves & Wooster, bad (not good/bad) horror - Black Christmas and some Law & Order Pooh Bear. A fine start to the summer.

Lidsville

Charles Nelson Reilly, RIP.
Led me to Crow T. Robot and Matchgame host segment.

5.24.2007

LOL Prez ii

"The Michael Jackson of Manila"


Sunday night, the wife and I are heading for a concert by Gary Valenciano, probably the biggest recording star of the Philippines. He is a moon-walking, song-singing dynamo. When we saw him in concert a few years back, his performance was certainly a top-10 show for me.

I'll send a full report, assuming I survive the being one of a handful of 'Canos amongst the Horde of Happy Pinays.

LOLPrez


5.23.2007

It's a good thing we were already planning to expand the Turtle Corral©

Miss Fred once again attempts to propagate her species,
Terrapene carolina carolina.


Fred covering her eggs.

I assume that Fred had help from her occasional suitor, Merkava.


He's a handsome devil & a ladies' man.

This is the fourth clutch she's laid - the first two were eaten by snakes & the third (in which C. Squid was on hand to witness the blesséd event) never hatched. Results are expected in about 75 days. I'll keep you posted.


The potential progeny.

5.22.2007

Questions As Comments, And Comments As Questions

Given my review of The Fountain, and our collective disdain for most Hollywood sci-fi movies (for the big and little screens), why are so few sci-fi short stories/novellas snatched up by producers. Every sci-fi convention I have attended in the past few years declares that the best short-story science fiction is being produced now, yet almost none are being translated to film.

What would our collective group recommend as far as reading short-story sci-fi? And, given the 2-hour length of movies, why aren't more considered for movies? Especially by the SciFi Channel, who might at least pay homage to their name by forgoing their latest "Gross, Mutant Rip-off Animal(s) vs. Big Titties" intellectual debauchery to produce something of basic genre merit.

Thoughts, rants, and suggestions?

Do Dah Day

For those of you who don't know, Do Dah Day is a festival to raise money for animal-based charities. It takes place in my neighborhood, the Historic Highland Park district of Southside Birmingham. Here are some pictures from this year's event last Saturday:

The Greyhound Rescue float (Egyptian themed) from the parade...such beautiful, magnificent animals!

I now patron Firehouse Subs, for their support of dog rescue and for their somehow getting an antique fire engine for the parade.

A view of Caldwell Park, one of the 3 Highland Parks, 2 of which were packed on this occasion (the third, Rushton, is too "hilly," but sits beside the only place that makes a margarita I can drink, Rojo). There were bands, vendors, and lots and lots of cute doggies. They even had a turtle rescue group. It was all I could do to not adopt a dog, and one of my neighbors did just that: a very cute, criminally emaciated, abandoned--at the festival--yellow lab mix with the temper of the most loving human imaginable (the mere semblance to whom she had probably never been exposed until Saturday). By the way, this is half a block from my apartment! I [heart] Historic Highland Park!

While I didn't adopt a dog, I did take my niece, whose momma put her in a yellow sun dress.

5.21.2007

Yawn


I watched The Fountain. I had read all of the horrible reviews of it, and I had hoped that there was something in this movie that would make me at least abstain from joining the vast majority of detractors. Alas, it's a shitty movie. Like Signs, all the greatly directed "moodiness" in the world can't help a crap plot. The acting was admirable, but one could say that about a million poorly-made cinematic dumps.

Maybe this failure will help Aronofsky in the long run, as his previous movies clearly show he has great potential. But this movie was little more than pretentious, boring, metaphysical sci-fi slop, one that doesn't even match Disney's.

A Request of the Femme Radieux Who Runs This Thing

Can we get a bar on the side showing the recent comments? I would like to know who is commenting on the what I blather and when, without scrolling through others' lesser pontifications.

Just a suggestion, you salope fou.

5.20.2007

I love the internet

I'm making out my exam. I, of course, go off on tangents while fact checking and read about people & events that I'm interested in. That's what we do. I've always wondered about John C. Breckenridge. He was VP under Buchanan and the Southern Democrat who lost to Lincoln in 1860. I always kinda wondered why he was never considered for Confederate leadership, since he had been right there in D.C. I knew that he became a Confederate General and was at Shiloh. Well he was from Kentucky, which is why he was probably not considered for civilian leadership, and he was only 35! when elected VP. He was heavily involved in the fighting, and actually did become CSA Sec. of War in early 1865. He tried to bring an end to the thing and of note he made sure the Confederate archives in Richmond were captured intact by Union troops. He fled the country to avoid treason charges and then came back after being pardoned and was critical of the Klan. Okay, run-of-the-mill history geek stuff. Then it gets fun. I learned that his grandson was an actor, none other than John C. 'Bunny' Breckenridge, who played the Ruler in Plan 9 from Outer Space for his friend and fellow cross-dresser Ed Wood. Of course, Bunny was played by one of my all-time favorite actors, Bill Murray, in Ed Wood. I love the internet and wikipedia rules. Back to the test-making salt mine.

US History Final

37) This Kentuckian was one of the most influential politicians of the early to mid-1800’s. He was a strong nationalist who served as Speaker of the House, Senator, and Secretary of State. He was a founder of the Whig Party and five times an unsuccessful presidential candidate. He was known as the ‘Great Compromiser’ for settling difficult disagreements between North and South.
A) John C. Calhoun B) Henry Clay
C) Daniel Webster D) James K. Polk E) None of the above

5.19.2007

Photoshop Goodness for T.

How to turn your photo into movie-like effect using Photoshop.

Anyone Notice Someone Familiar?


This is not from a 90's-era Democratic Party fund raiser, it's a Wal-Mart board-of-directors picture from 1990. Seems like someone didn't think Wal-Mart was bad for 6 years 2 decades ago.

DJ, cue the "it was different back then" music if you please...

Best. Epitaph. Ever.

A follow-up to this post, you can find the full "debate" here. It's long and involves the odious Ralph Reed, so beware. My favorite line, the one that sums up everything I think about Falwell, was Hitchens' final shot (at ~ 9:40):
If you gave Jerry Falwell an enema, he'd be buried in a matchbox."
With room to spare.

As for Hitchens' (and my) "unkind" comments and their alleged affect on Falwell's family, I have a story. On September 11, a gay steward called his long-time partner/husband in what would be their last conversation. A short time later, his plane smashed into the WTC. What remained of his body had not even cooled to ambient before that sick, twisted snake-oil salesman had declared that the gay steward was partially to blame for the largest terrorist attack in American history...simply by being gay.

Baby Jesus ignores how his side's superstitious nonsense affects others (personally or through national policies that make condoms somehow worse than HIV); trivializes, scorns, and mocks those who recoil in horror at their callous, grotesque "faith-based" statements and initiatives or their unethical, anti-scientific, disastrous religiosity; but then demands that the same people whom the "Moral Majority" attacks as sinful, amoral, anti-American reprobates respect their dead because they were people of faith who did some good things sometime. If that's all it took to get "respect" in public discourse, few people would ever be criticized posthumously. All we could say of Hitler was that he built some nice schools and public infrastructure before making some unwise national and ethnic policy decisions.

Pope Panzer-Kraut I Needs To Loosen His Papal Phallus-hat

From the BBC:
Pope Benedict XVI told Latin American bishops in Brazil that American Indians had been "silently longing" to become Christians 500 years ago.
I'm sure those American Indians were "silently longing" while violently dying at the hands of Catholic conquistadors. What will he say next, that the Jews had it coming?

5.18.2007

Not as bad a Whiggery

I know, I know. I can't help it. I love this kind of thing. A Home That Heats and Cools Itself. I'd have one of these given the opportunity. Not for any whacko reasons, just because it's cool and the system works and it's essentially free and a way to stick it to the man.

Scatbucks

I'm willing to try most things, but coffee manually harvested from the feces of an Indonesian cat that is known to be a vector for SARS...I'll pass. But I do have an idea for how some special kitties can start earning their keep (NED!). $450/pound, and it's total shit! Go figure.

5.17.2007

I Don't Think This Is What The Fundies Meant


A new ad campaign for San Fransisco adoptions. I'm guessing this is not the kind of press the Discovery Institute was hoping for.

I wish he would move to a Huntsville station so we could watch him again

NASA…WE HAVE A PROBLEM…WITH YOUR FORECAST

'From the “global warming insanity department”….

By Meteorologist James Spann

I see that NASA has issued a release that they are forecasting daily
highs in July and August between 100 and 110 degrees in the summer of
2080 for cities such as Chicago, Washington, and Atlanta. This is
based on a “widely-used weather prediction model coupled to a global
model developed by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.” The
press release also says they “analyzed nearly 30 years of
observational temperature and precipitation data” for use in the
project.

Anyone have any problems with this other than me?

First off, the best global forecast models we have in operation now
struggle with weather beyond five days. Sometimes, their 24 hour
output is laughable. How in the world are these people issuing a
forecast for weather more than 70 years from now using model output?'

Read it all at ClimateBrains.com.

5.16.2007

Intollerable Cruelty Made Pretty






A must buy; too fucking good for words.

"He won't even know your name."


Great review here.

I [2xHeart] Christopher Hitchens

He's debating the Baby Jesus tonight. Please, no one tell my boyfriend that I have a new one...

Hitchens Skewers Falwell's Fat Dead Corpse

As promised.

Dog and Pony Time


Did anybody catch the "debate" on Fox News last night? Rudy had the best line on abortion (a TOTAL non-issue for me) that I've heard from a Republican. The Mormon-Scientologist had some nice fiscal rhetoric. The Manchurian Candidate was scary as always. The Libertarian was taken out of context and the former governor of Arkansas was reduced to hair jokes. Kurt was upset by the fact that the show had COMMERCIALS! T did see his sis in the background, a **ahem** staffer for the SC LtGov. The clarion call of isolationism from Paul does sound kinda good right now........

Until It Shows Up On YouTube...

...here's the transcript of Christopher Hitchens on Anderson Cooper last night. There are many gems, such as:
I think he was a conscious charlatan and bully and fraud.

And I think, if he read the Bible at all -- and I would doubt that he could actually read any long book of -- at all -- that he did so only in the most hucksterish, as we say, Bible-pounding way.

5.15.2007

I [Heart] Christopher Hitchens

But only because I view drunken snobbery as a virtue, not a vice

Immortal Combat

Sacrilegious arcade fun. Thanks to Eric for the link.

Jerry Falwell Finally Does Something I Agree With

He dies.

On behalf of, "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America" I say: Good fucking riddance, you ridiculous, prudish, superstitious fool.

Peter Popoff Re-exposed

No, I did not make this up

A Zimbabwean U.N.

"World Leadership: One hundred ninety-two members to choose from, and what nation does the United Nations come up with to head its commission on "sustainable development." Zimbabwe. We kid you not.

If the U.N. wanted to demonstrate how to destroy a once-prosperous country, it could have no better example than Zimbabwe. No nation has fallen farther and faster than Zimbabwe. It went from being Africa's richest country to a starving, failed tyranny under dictator Robert Mugabe.

With its 2,200% hyperinflation and 80% unemployment, only Mugabe and his murderous supporters have any security."

Read it all at INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY.

5.13.2007

From the Truth Hurts, Doesn't It? Department

Muslims unite on YouTube to censor the truth

"The Atheist Jew (thanks to Jan) has the story:

From Digg News:

Muslims on YouTube have formed several groups where users and videos that criticize Islam (which they define as "Hate Speech") are listed and mass-flagged as abuse. YouTube seems to remove videos and sometimes even ban users automatically. Muslims claim that they only flag videos that have violated YouTube's TOS, but this has been been proven false."

Read it all at Jihad Watch.

Please excuse the dorkiness of this post.

The song almost makes up for it.

Hilarious British Take On Thomas Paine

Download here.

For GateTree

Dover Publications: tons of good stuff here.

Nebula Awards

In my quest to to assimilate all things sci-fi I'm aiming to read as many Nebula & Hugo winners as I can. This weekend the 2007 Nebulas came out, so we've got new entries on the list - 2007 Winners & Nominees and yearly winners. For good measure, just about every Science Fiction award you can think of is here.

5.12.2007

Worth reading for the term "kooky Chomskyites" alone

Al Qaedism, Again
Another straw on the back of the proverbial American camel.

by Victor Davis Hanson

"About a year after 9/11, I made use of a word “al Qaedism” in a National Review Online essay to describe such seemingly isolated terrorists, both amateurs and the more organized, both the deranged and the more focused. At that time we were all discussing the careers of those like John Williams, John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla, or Richard Reid (or rather John Mohammed, Abdul Hamid, Abdullah al-Muhajir, or Abdel Rahim).

Yet, both then and now, we waste our time wondering whether such terrorists are al Qaeda-controlled or not. The question is academic. It matters little whether they were explicitly ordered to kill by central terrorist command (they probably were not) or were inspired by CDs, the Internet, or the local mullah.

The point is simply that, for purposes of harming America, lone-wolf jihadists need only to feel the same rage and perceived grievances — al Andalus, Israel, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir, etc. — as their pin-up heroes like bin Laden or Zawahiri.

But, again, why do these residents in our midst, who have voluntarily come to America, and some of whom have had America itself spend billions abroad on their brethren, wish to kill us?

Such questions are nonsensical. The aggrieved Islamist, whether born here or abroad, lives in a world of emotion, never reason, in which pride, envy, and a sense of inferiority always trump logic."

Read it all at VDH's Private Papers.

It makes me wonder if the AP stringer is a member

Yes, wildfires are raging, but don't despair: Muslims are praying for rain

"Charles at LGF has discovered a completely gratuitous reference to CAIR in "Second Wildfire Breaks Out in Georgia Swamp; Florida Fires Still Raging," an AP story.

As of Friday, the number of active fires has dropped from 236 to 223, with about 140 square miles —- over 87,000 acres — burnt. Seven homes in the state were destroyed.

Other large fires are burning in Bradford and Collier County.

Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations says Florida Muslims are offering special prayers for rains at mosques on their religion's day of rest.

In northern Minnesota, high wind fanned a fire around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, prompting more evacuations."

Read it all at Jihad Watch. And for a little background on the Council on American-Islamic Relations: CAIR Watch.

5.10.2007

Tony on the way out

Tony has thrown in the towel, it's Gordon Brown time now. Reading this piece I couldn't help but think that the money for honors scam is going to dredge up a lot of crap.

VDH, Daniel Pipes & Robert Spencer....

Jihad in Jersey
A Garden State reminder we’re at war

"Based on what we’re learning about the plot, the cell, and how their plans were averted, National Review Online asked a group of experts: What’s the most important lesson we should take from the averted terrorist attack on Fort Dix?"

Read it all at NRO.

I Can Prove That God Doesn't Exist In Less Than Two Minutes

5.07.2007

At Which Point I Concede That I Was Wrong

I have always been against torture. To me, our country should be beyond it morally, and I never felt that it could result in positive intelligence.

I concede I was wrong in believing this, thanks to Sam Harris's book The End of Faith. In it, he justifies torture thus: would the suffering of millions by a terrorist attack be abated by the moral stance against torturing a single terrorist, one that had admitted that he/she had planted a bomb that would end the lives of millions and cause a long, painful death to countless more? Regardless of how much "true" intelligence you gain from such an individual, how can a moral society not use torture to counteract those who would willingly heap on unfathomable suffering to others. While it's a hard pill to swallow, I have to admit that I would willingly watch and advocate extreme torture for individuals for whom it was justified (ie, ones who had actual intelligence that would prevent the death and suffering of others).

And while I will concede the point, torture of a human being can be justified, I will qualify my acquiescence with this: I do not trust our current administration to administer such torture morally. It takes a truly moral society to torture morally, and we simply don't have that now. Morals derived from a series of Bronze-age stories which advocate stoning disobedient children are hardly the best starting point for dealing with barbaric terrorists with 21st-century weaponry. But that's what got us here in the first place, isn't it?

Who Put This Asshole In Charge Of Anyone's Money Anyway

Paul Wolfowitz, the same asshole who told Congress that the Iraq campaign would pay for itself, is found guilty of a conflict of interest by the World Bank, for which he now works.

Color me fucking surprised. It's hard to fight the "War on Terror" when you have one party using the books of Revelation and Daniel to justify an ill-planned invasion, all compounded by debase "intelligence" and solidified by poorly thought-out optimisms for moral, sociological, and monetary advancements in an un-Enlightened country. Then you have the other party taking every opposite point, regardless of its moral actuality, and declaring it valid by the failure of the former. But strip all that away, and you still have this administration installing a provable lying sack of worm-ridden filth to a position of moral and monetary power and expecting something different from what has been done before.

Republicans deserve to be out of office; Americans deserve better representation; the world deserves a better America. To Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, I apologize for our country: we should be better. Where are the "Truman" Republicans? They certainly weren't at their last debate...

High Art From the Interwebs


New Chick Tract


A fairy tale is true when you say 500 people saw someone come back from the dead. Jack Chick is great!



5.06.2007

Creationist Debate Update Part 3: The Evolution Of A Pepsi Can


An attendant of the Comfort/Cameron vs. RRS debate has a rough breakdown of the event here.

Comfort used his "can" argument, which is so absurd that it bears repeating. Basically, it says that it is improbable for the big bang to have formed a Pepsi can. Therefore, the can was designed. Since humans are more complex than Pepsi cans, they are designed as well. And design=designer.

There are several major problems with this argument:
  1. Cans do not replicate. Humans do. When I look at a can, I know it came from a factory (from experience). When I look at a human, I know that it came from a union of a sperm and egg. Analogizing randomly mutating replicators to cans is like comparing apples and...cans. Whenever creationists pull this kind of argument out, I simply shrug. It's one that wouldn't pass muster in a junior high debate team match, and it's been refuted so many times that all defenders of science are exhausted repeating the obvious: life produces offspring genetically different from itself, cans/watches/747's/cars do not.
  2. Design does not equal designer. Cans are the product of a design process, not a "designer." No one person designs any can you may find. It's the result of countless marketers, fabricators, chemical and metallurgical engineers, and government public health officials. To say that any can has a single "designer" is obviously ridiculous, and the analogy to this design process would raise some uncomfortable propositions for evangelicals (ex, how do you know we were designed by a single designer and not by committee? Wouldn't the latter, given all of our flaws, make more sense?). Evolution is a design process as well: species change due to survival and reproductive advantages that naturally arise among genetically different offspring. Again, the analogy is so piss-poor, so egregiously illogical, one wonders how its proponents can get through the day without their brain leaking out of their nose.
  3. The argument that evolutionary theory states that complex life arose through a random, spontaneous event is a blatant straw man argument. Simple life took billions of years to develop, and it did so through a series of chemical processes. And that's not evolutionary theory. Once it did develop, it took off, and species have changed dramatically over the span of life on earth. The only explanation for these changes is evolutionary theory. Comfort's "can" argument dishonestly implies that scientists believe that complex species rose from a primordial soup randomly out of the blue. I can't help but point out that people like Mr. Comfort believe that a pro-Semitic space genie created a human male from dust and a human female from a human male rib! To believe life arose spontaneously without evoking a magical sky-daddy would be difficult, but evoking magic makes it no less absurd. Perhaps Mr. Comfort should read what scientists understand about how life arose, and then how it evolved after that, before he starts telling other people how ridiculous science's explanation is.
There may be other flaws as well, but 3 is enough to bury any proposition. The big question now is: how do we teach people to detect and reject poor logic?

Guilty Pleasure

For most people their guilty pleasures are the things we have no qualms about liking best: horror movies, scifi novels, bourbon, and our various proclivities. A guilty pleasure I admit to is Groundhog Day. I love that movie, unequivocally.
I have a new guilty pleasure to add to the list for you guys, Night at the Museum. I know, it's a kids movie (PG no less), & that the hated Ben Stiller is the star and Robin Williams is the #2. It's a sappy movie about a divorced dad & his son. I know, I know. But...
History and the museum is the framework, Mickey Rooney calls Stiller 'hopscotch' & 'snackshack' & more (I have a thing for giving nicknames), Owen Wilson and the Alan Partridge-guy play a cowboy and a Roman legionnaire (from dioramas). I think the key is that Williams plays Teddy Roosevelt, one of my all-time favorite men, who tells Stiller that the key to success is self-reliance (shocking).
I discovered today that the whole thing was written by Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, Deputy Junior and Lieutenant Dangle on Reno 911!, which makes me feel a little less guilty. I know it's out of character, and I hate to admit it, but - I really enjoyed it. Your mileage may vary.

For You Jane's Readers


The USS Hawaii, a Virginia-class nuclear submarine, officially becomes an active weapon system today at a commissioning ceremony at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton,CT.

I'm sure you guys know all about it, but it comforts me, somehow, to know that we're still making this sort of vessel, despite it all.

(PS - Does this one work?)

5.05.2007

Top notch sound bite


Hitchens is hawking his new book and his opening sound bite is one for the ages. Also, check out the other interview to see trash. here

I Hope I Don't Die Between Now And Then

The debate between the hapless Kirk Cameron/Ray Comfort and the Rational Response Squad took place today, but it won't be broadcast on the ABC website until Wednesday at 1 pm.

Comfort stated that ABC was originally only going to give him 4 minutes to make his case, but changed and gave him 13 minutes instead. He then stated that he could easily scientifically prove his god(s) exist(s) without referencing the bible or requiring faith.

It only takes 13 minutes to prove something that scientists have worked centuries just to find ONE FUCKING SHRED OF EVIDENCE FOR? One has to wonder why Ray is so callous as to wait for a web debate to enlighten the entire secular world of his findings? What if I die before then?

Of course, in all likelihood his argument will be so illogical, so silly, and so full of holes that 13 minutes won't be enough rebuttal time for the Rational Response Squad to pick all of the meat off the carcase.

Bromide Beware.

Cash-for-grades scandal rocks campus at Diablo Valley College
More than 70 current and former students at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill are being investigated for allegedly paying bribes of up to $600 to have their grades raised on official transcripts, officials said Thursday.
$600 bucks. I thought the going rate was much higher!

5.04.2007

GateTree Better Hide The Brown Party Liquor

Apparently teachers, or soon-to-be teachers, can't have fun. Even legal fun. Who knew that 21st-century technology would be used to enforce 19th-century morals?

5.03.2007

Poor Business Plan

If your business, say HD-DVD, is based on a simple string of numbers, say 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0, and you think no one is ever going to figure this out, it's amazing you still have a business at all.

5.02.2007

Altered State

After a few too many shots of Glug, Tobermory and I flew into a bev-rage and manufactured an image of our patron squid, Early Cuyler, to provide us with inspiration. Then our pinecone-liquor-fueled dementia led us to do a few dozen lines of CSS/HTML cut&paste and some hexadecimal, psychedelic, color tinkering, man. After a few hours of consorting with the members of the robot race we were able to make the new link box appear just ever so. You can't fax coffee. Enjoy.

As if we didn't know

Mitt Romney is a bigger idiot than I thought. In an interview on FoxNews he said his favorite novel was Battlefield Earth. Oh my... (Link)

I didn't know the Keystone Cops were in Pakistan

Via Jihad Watch:
Pakistan downplays radioactive ad


Pakistan's nuclear authority has said there is no cause for concern after it published press adverts for information on "lost" radioactive material.

The adverts urged members of the public to inform officials if they found any "lost or stolen" radioactive material.

They were published in major Urdu-language newspapers in Pakistan.

A spokesman for the nuclear authority said that there was a "very remote chance" that nuclear materials imported 40-50 years ago were unaccounted for.

International concern over the safety of Pakistan's nuclear programme was expressed in 2004, when the country's top nuclear scientist, AQ Khan, confessed to leaking secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Dr Khan was subsequently placed under virtual house arrest, and is now suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Read it all at BBC.com.

Summer Project


Trevor and I have a half-idea for the summer:set up a teletype for our place. It's one of the few forms of media not available at the house. The goal is to have the AP all the time.


5.01.2007

One word....

SQUIDBILLIES CENTRAL

(Well, damn that party liquor, 2 words then)



Worm Dirt



This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow in Salon.

Secularism rules the day in Turkey

Turkey's presidency vote annulled

"The constitutional court in Turkey has annulled last Friday's parliamentary vote to elect a new president.

The only candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, failed to win the required majority after a boycott by secularist opposition parties.

The parties, which accuse Mr Gul of a hidden Islamist agenda, asked the court to rule that there was no quorum."

Read it all at BBC News.