December 2006 Archives

"To the musicians I was saying, here's a new bag. Here's a new direction. Here's one that represents the people, not just Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss or Mantovani....It was a revolution that became a universal sound, and it's still universal today."

-James Brown

They say important deaths always come in threes. This past week saw the passing of James Brown, Gerald Ford, and Saddam Hussein.

I got to see James Brown for free at the end of a SAP laptop swap contract I had before getting hired back on at Aristocrat. It was a good, if short, show and the Godfather of Soul had as much energy into this paid corporate event as anything else he had done I imagine. He just couldn't endure for as long as he used to. That's alright, the beer was free and the show was rocking.

Gerald Ford was the first president I remember. Not really memorable, but not loathed in my family like Nixon was.

Problem is that he turned out to be a snake in cahoots with Nixon. All I've heard this week is how he "saved the country" when he pardoned Nixon. I'm beginning to think otherwise. I think all he saved was the GOP. Look at it this way. Without the pardon, Tricky Dick likely goes to prison. Hence, no Reagan, no Bush I in all likelihood.

No Iran-Contra. No Bush II. No Cheney disgracing the office of Vice President. No Rumsfeld ignoring and sacrifing the military. No Iraq. No Condi. No a lot of very bad things. No ill will towards the US by like 75% of the planet. No "legal" torture or wiretapping.

Rest in peace Gerald Ford. I don't think even in your worst nightmares imagined you would bring this upon this nation. But you did and I hope the blame is passed from you to those who committed evil for evil's sake.

Finally, there's Saddam Hussein. A rat, a dictator, a mass murderer. A comic figure found in a hole in the ground looking like a post-modern Rip Van Winkle. A stage actor discracing two war crimes trials with his shenanigans.

A puppet for the GOP that could not be controlled. Now executed by yet another Iraqi government propped up by the Republicans. A right bastard to the end. You won't be missed.

So, the Iraqis got a hold of Saddam Hussein today and couldn't get a rope fast enough.

Yeah, that was a Pace Picante sauce reference. And if you get on my butt about the New York City thing, I'll have you know it started out as New Jersey and you're just wrong.

Anyway, one GOP-aided and -supported mass murderer killed, many more to go.

We stopped by PetsMart the other day and they had a Santa there. We figured we'd get a picture of Mono in and then they let us in too. Pardon the flannel.

In any event, Merry Christmas to all of you from us.

Click here for full image.

We're off to Illinois starting tomorrow morning. Between my AAA membership and all the travelling I've been doing we've got some discounts going. Hopefully we sneak between any major weather events. Wish us luck.

So, the Marines have found a practical life-saving use for Silly String. Good for them.

Japan is turning its back on pacifism. Not so good for anyone in the general neighborhood.

Marijuana is America's biggest cash crop. This news should surprise me more, but it doesn't.

News flash: Bush is stubborn. No, really, apparently people think this is newsworthy.

Bush still muzzling scientists, letting our best minds stay silent when we should be leading the world in new ideas.

Newt Gingrich, back from the political backwaters and wanting to take away your rights. Oh yeah, he's considering running for president.

FAUXNews is trying to hire a "Freelance Fact Writer." Look, you have to at least *pretend* you're lying, okay?

The Army is moving to increase its troop strength, in the face of the strain of Iraq, amongst other deployments. Plus, more trouble with Guard and Reserve deployments.

Complaints about how the Army mistreats those who endure mental anguish during their service overseas.

Fundamentalists taking over at the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, a posthumous plan to solve our Iraq problems created by a US officer. Get past the stick figures and realize that this makes more sense than anything Bush and his cronies have come up with.

Women losing rights in Iraq. Just like home I guess.

Torturing American citizens, another proud Bush moment.

Want to know where Santa is? You can let NORAD track him on Christmas Eve.

(Incidentally, site is running really slow today. Trying to figure out why.)

So, Time magazine has decided that YOU are the Person of the Year. That is, you as a Web 2.0 evangelist, even me and my little blog.

That probably pleases the more egotistical of you. Me? I think the bastards got a-feared that the Bushites would send them to Gitmo to rot if they'd chose Mahmoud "Adolf" Ahmadinejad or Fat Boy al-Sadr or Kim Il Runt, or even Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. So they wimped out and did some feel-good issue.

Morons. Here are some of the choices they could have made that wouldn't count as a collective hand job to the American people.

Incidentally, I remember seeing this somewhere.

Oh yeah! In the movies:

Cheeseheads at war: two Wisconsin residents fighting, with unusual weapons.

From the Three-Eyed Fish Department: Also from Wisconsin, "tasty" mutant deer.

I've got a random collection of really odd stuff to pass along. If you're sick minded, you'll follow the links.

* 9 Things A Man Should Never Tell A Woman

* 9 Reasons To Get Drunk

* Things Every Man Should Do Before He Dies

After receiving tons of spam comments, I turned up the junk filtering to a severe level. Turns out that works great as a spam filter tool but it doesn't let any of you post comments. So I've lowered the severity and turned on a "you must have e-mail to register as a commenter" thingy.

Let me know if that doesn't work.

Incidentally, I didn't know this until Stacy Whitman let me know about it. Everyone who knows her say "hi!" as she's been off in the wilds of the NorthWest working for Wizards of the Coast.

Seeing as I probably contribute half a percentage point to their bottom line with all the gaming crap I buy, I find her job to be really cool. Then again, mine keeps sending me to the Caribbean so I'm not exactly whining as much as respectfully admiring.

In any event, check out her professional LJ here. And yes, I'll pull it down if I'm asked to so don't go crazy with that people.

So yeah, two things. One, let me know if the comments work. Two, keep me on my toes. I know the main site still is dead linked to a fair-thee-well and the message board has cobwebs the size of small trucks.

And I'm really behind on getting pics uploaded.

And about ten other things I haven't done. And yeah Jacinta, I know I still haven't linked your gallery yet.

Gah. Well, at least I'm home long enough to know what needs done. Maybe I'll jump on some of that this weekend.

Have a good one.

He Be Strokin'

Compassionate conservative blogging over Tim Johnson's surgery

A Democratic Senator goes into brain surgery and the Repugnican'ts starting salivating about taking over the Senate in a back-handed manuever; which, admittedly, is about the only chance they have these days.

Plus, a San Franscisco Chronicle article on the harsh reality of the Iraq debacle.

Bonus: a man banned from an airplane for wearing this shirt:

I normally don't have a lot of good words to say about Republicans anymore, but I encourage you to give a listen to Terry Gross' interview with Lincoln Chafee, recently voted out of office as senator of Rhode Island (link to audio).

More conservative religious types committing sex abuses on children. Unfortunately, no big surprise.

Iraq as Vietnam to the GOP.

And India is drinking the BushCo kool-aid, saying that its greenhouse emissions do not harm the environment.

Oh, and the whole "only 2 in 10 Americans buy what Bush is selling about Iraq" thing? Laura Bush just blames the media. You know, as if we just stopped reporting all the bad, maybe it would all just disappear.

Here's a lollipop Laura. Now go run off to your fantasy land and dreams those silly dreams.

Pulled another couple projects since my last post...and had a successful and very nice Thanksgiving in between.

I apologize for the lack of post since then. Guess between the post-election breather and getting my butt kicked around this part of the globe I just got worn out.

So, I'm just glad to be home. Too bad I could sleep for a week and not feel caught up. Ah well, soon we're off to Illinois for the holidays.

Just to get you primed for the season, here's a story about eggnog. And another on holiday CDs.

Good news. One evil bastard has left the planet. Augusto Pinochet has finally died. Another dictator aided and abetted by the Republican Party. Big surprise.

More proof that my dad is right about George Bush. More so than the rest of us. Here's the background on what I mean by that. When Bush started running for president talking about his born-again conversion that stopped him from drinking, Dad knew it was crap from the get-go. One, according to Pops, NO alcoholic who has gone through a twelve-step program could even *have* as much of an ego as Bush does. The man has no shame, admits no faults, and doesn't even attempt to grab the concept of humility. Alcoholism, as with any addiction, means you have failed somehow, and failed those around you. So basically, Bush may think he's religious, but he sure as hell has never properly addressed his addiction. He has only, if you believe him, stopped drinking liquor.

So anyway, recently a study has come out showing that power is both an aphrodisiac and an addiction. And who you think of when I say the word "power"? Probably the same guy you should think of when I said "addict", "alcoholic", and "unhinged". George Bush.

Yeah, I'm biased, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Speaking of people who think like Bush and his cronies, NPR spent a week covering the rise of racist, right-wingers in Europe. And don't exclude the English as Blair insists that immigrants adopt British cultural values.

Richard Leakey is fighting fundamentalists in Kenya, who are trying to hide our evolutionary fossil evidence.

In Iraq, the insurgents have found a way to finance themselves, with additional reports that the Saudis are financing Sunni groups.

Tom DeLay tried to start a blog, and quickly found out what Americans think of him and his kind. The site was pulled down, but you can go here to see what the initial post was, and its response.

And this I just found funny: The Fighting First Family.