That's Blogdiculous!

Sigh...

2008-01-21T11:33:00.000-05:00

Suddenly my life has become a Dinosaur Jr. song...

2008-01-10T20:19:00.000-05:00

Reason #9322 not to vote in November

2008-01-05T12:56:00.000-05:00

Rock on, douchebag.

Congress...

2008-01-01T20:44:00.001-05:00

...is worthless...

2007-12-29T19:07:00.000-05:00

2007-07-05T21:50:00.001-04:00

* mediocrity rules *

Perfect Circle

2007-06-28T18:40:00.000-04:00

It's fitting that the undocumented immigration crisis that has made white Americans so shit-splittingly scared was dramatically accelerated by an amnesty bill that was passed and proxy wars fought under the administration of American conservatism's patron saint. What closes the circle is the current administration's pathetic inability to get a bill passed that might resolve uncontrolled immigration.

Good job, GOP.

Goddamn

2007-06-26T21:05:00.001-04:00

This summer's gonna be so fuckin' awesome.

2007-06-14T19:37:00.000-04:00

2007-06-12T19:55:00.001-04:00

Mr. Fish's cartoon's appear here...

Sign him.

2007-06-11T22:51:00.001-04:00

2007-05-30T21:58:00.000-04:00

ba da ba ba da da da

2007-05-29T22:51:00.000-04:00

2007-05-24T21:43:00.000-04:00

God Bless Mr. Andy Partridge

2007-02-15T22:06:00.000-05:00

2007's all about short blog posts.

Why the NY Times sucks

2007-02-14T22:51:00.000-05:00

Or maybe New York sucks

Let me be the last to wish you a happy 2007.

More Bowl Picks

2006-12-30T15:44:00.000-05:00

At press time, I'm 11-6, so I hope that I can continue the trend over the next 14 games...

Outback Bowl: Penn State 20 Tennessee 17

Cotton Bowl: Auburn 17 Nebraska 9

Capital One Bowl: Wisconsin 27 Arkansas 24

Gator Bowl: West Virginia 44 Georgia Tech 31

Rose Bowl: Michigan 38 Southern Cal 35

Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma 27 Boise State 20

Orange Bowl: Louisville 28 Wake Forest 14

Sugar Bowl: LSU 22 Notre Dame 17

International Bowl: Cincinnati 30 Western Michigan 7

GMAC Bowl: Southern Mississippi 34 Ohio 10

National Championship: Florida 29 Ohio State 23

Blogdiculous Bowl Picks

2006-12-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

I'll be back in 2007. Here are some final college football picks for the year.

Poinsettia Bowl: TCU 48 Northern Illinois 28

Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon 29 Brigham Young 24

New Orleans Bowl: Troy 47 Rice 41

Papajohns.com Bowl: You know, I've got some dignity left. Enough not to pick a winner in a bowl game named after papajohns.com. Sorry.

New Mexico Bowl: San Jose State 35 New Mexico 13

Armed Forces Bowl: Utah 23 Tulsa 17

Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii 36 Arizona State 27

Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan 19 Middle Tennesee State 17

Emerald Bowl: UCLA 22 Florida State 14

Independence Bowl: Alabama 24 Oklahoma State 10

Texas Bowl: Rutgers 28 Kansas State 21

Holiday Bowl: California 45 Texas A&M 35

Music City Bowl: Clemson 38 Kentucky 17

Sun Bowl: Missouri 27 Oregon State 24

Liberty Bowl: South Carolina 23 Houston 14

Insight Bowl: Texas Tech 34 Minnesota 17

Champs Sports Bowl: Maryland 16 Purdue 7

Meineke Car Care Bowl: Boston College 35 Navy 19

Alamo Bowl: Texas 21 Iowa 10

Chik-Fil-A Bowl: Uh, my papajohns.com rule applies here, as well. Sorry.

MPC Computers Bowl: Nevada 16 Miami 13

I'll be back next week to pick the other 11 bowls. Cheerio.

College Football Picks - Week 13

2006-11-23T10:25:00.001-05:00

Boston College 34 Miami 24

Southern Cal 48 Notre Dame 31

Arkansas 22 LSU 17

Nevada 44 Boise State 37

Happy No Music Day

2006-11-21T21:05:00.000-05:00

Fucking nihilists...

College Football Picks - Week 12

2006-11-15T22:14:00.000-05:00

Last week's picks weren't as clever as I thought they'd be. I just had a feeling that Notre Dame would lose, and I was plain wrong about Rutgers.

But what about those Ephs!

I now stand at 17-22, still five games below .500.

Ohio State 23 Michigan 17 - I think 23-17 is my stock score for a close game. Sometimes I give the losing team an extra field goal and push it to 23-20. I don't think Michigan would win this game even if it was in Ann Arbor. This is the true national championship. The Tostitos Bowl will be a victory lap for the Bucks.

Indiana 27 Purdue 24 - for the Old Oaken Bucket. I wonder if John Cougar Mellencrap is going to sing that awful song at halftime.

Virginia Tech 28 Wake Forest 27 - the Hokies aren't Florida State, Pt. II.

Beano's not dead

2006-11-09T21:46:00.000-05:00

It's verrry sad when one of the things that makes a blog interesting is a faux pas involving someone you said was dead in a previous post. I could've sworn that Beano Cook was dead, but I'm glad he isn't. But that explains the unholy stench that rose up when I channelled the ghosts of football prognotications past. Turns out the smell was just old man farts.

The Pasty Three

2006-11-09T18:13:00.000-05:00

College Football Picks - Week 11

2006-11-09T18:04:00.000-05:00

Hey, 2-1 last week. Not bad. Now I'm 15-20 and smelling .500.

Louisville 37 Rutgers 21

Air Force 27 Notre Dame 22

Southern Cal 41 Oregon 35

Williams 36 Amherst 28

College Football Picks - Week 10

2006-11-03T19:06:00.000-05:00

I spent my bye week channeling the ghosts of Jimmy the Greek, Pete Axthelm, and Beano Cook, trying to get a handle on the college football season. None of them helped, and their ghosts carry a funky stench. Hopefully they can lift me out of this 13-19 rut.

Back to football.

Tennessee 33 LSU 13

Wake Forest 27 Boston College 24

Oklahoma 28 Texas A&M 21

This just in!!

2006-10-31T22:24:00.000-05:00

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.....

The dead horse waterboards back - and gets waterboarded again in return

2006-10-31T19:06:00.000-05:00

I know your panties have been set aflame by the inexcusable comments of would-have-been President Kerry, and I'm sorry. I mean, the nerve, right? WHAT A FUCK!!

I seem to remember, though, a speech to students made by the real President back at Yale in 2001.

The Yale Daily News called it "humility". I'll bet all those smart kids who weren't blue-blooded enough to get into Yale or any other elite East Coast center of study saw things a bit differently. Maybe they even thought it was a bit of an insult.

Christ, the entire Election of 2004 was an insult to voters...

Bye week

2006-10-27T18:26:00.000-04:00

No picks this week. I know you're bummed.

He's not in your sightline

2006-10-25T18:19:00.000-04:00

One candidate who's not up for election this November is Dick Cheney. At least, not directly. Chances are he's going to get a lot more opportunities to cast votes as the President of the Senate in the next Congress, especially if we end up with a 50-50 tie after November 7. Since taking office in 2001, "Richard" has cast 7 votes in the Senate, not that the link is going to give you the skinny on what he was actually voting for.

The most noteworthy of the seven votes was the tie-breaking vote he cast in the spending bill last December. Merry Christmas, foster kids.

Cheney currently enjoys a popularity rating between 20% and 40%. If I were running ads in states with close Senate races, I'd have Dick up on the screen, complete with his greatest hits.

What if we had a war, and EVERYBODY came

2006-10-19T10:34:00.000-04:00

This editorial in today's Post got my attention. I find it a bit odd that the US military is facing such a shortfall in personnel that two noted policy analysts are putting forward the idea of recruiting foreigners to fight America's wars.

Refugees and other documented immigrants already serve in the national guard and in the armed forces. US citizenship is granted shortly after enlistment. This is fairly common, and I don't think that any rational person has a problem with it. (If you do let me know, and I'll acknowledge it, but only if you're a rational person.) And Boot and O'Hanlon note that the US military effort is bolstered by "mercenaries" (they focus on paid security contractors from other countries, but I would lump American non-miliary security contractors into the same group). The two commentators propose US citizenship after a four-year tour of duty, which seems like a lot to ask of someone who is already in desperate straits.

I think it's bad policy for the US to actively recruit immigrants from overseas to the US to fight American wars. It really opens the door to abuses on both sides. If we cannot accept undocumented immigrants elsewhere in our economy, then it's plainly wrong to send them to fight our wars. Any resolution of this issue would be linked to whatever immigration reform we get out of Congress, something the authors don't address.

I also think that recruiting from overseas would be a security issue. I don't share these concerns personally, and I don't even want to speculate on some of the crazy scenarios dreamed up by the xenophobes who are driving the immigration debate right now. So I'll leave it at that.

One sentence in the piece almost made me spray OJ all over the paper: "Nativists need not fear that this would lead to a flood of foreigners." I think that's a bit of an understatement. Anecdotally speaking, I've met only one immigrant (out of, I would estimate, 150) who supports the current US military campaign, and that one had recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. Most documented immigrants don't marinate themselves in American network news the way we do. Whether or not they're getting more accurate information is the subject for another posting, but most tend to have a negative opinion towards the war in Iraq. Perhaps illegal immigrants have a different viewpoint, but I doubt it (again, I invite someone to enlighten me, really, because I don't have any idea).

So I don't think that the promise of the opportunity to get sent to Iraq will light up the phones at American embassies across the globe. It's just not an appealing prospect, no matter what the reward is at the end of the line. If they want to come to America, and if they have the "spirit of resolve, adventure, hard work, and devotion to an idea bigger than themselves" then they will probably devote their resources to an alternate means of getting to this country, legal or not.

Sorry, Mssrs. Boot and O'Hanlon. Back to your marble-lined chambers in Dupont Circle. And don't come out until you have an idea that's more realistic.

College Football Picks - Weak Ate

2006-10-18T18:33:00.000-04:00

I finally got some good news last week, with a 3-1 return - I'm calling the BC game a loss because it was kind of a blowout. I'm still 11-17, but I've climbed out of KC Royals lousiness and into Cleveland Indians mediocrity.

Nebraska 23 Texas 16 - was it really ten years ago that the Big 12 balance of power shifted in the conference championship game? Yes, it was. Could this be another seismic shift?

Clemson 35 Georgia Tech 32 - this one always goes down to the wire

Boston College 28 Florida State 17 - this might be the best BC team since Flutie

Pitt 37 Rutgers 21 - I wonder if these Big East teams are for real

This is awful

2006-10-17T21:22:00.000-04:00

I won't get into my own personal opinion about CNN, except to say that Jack Cafferty and Lou Dobbs can't both get the part of Oscar the Grouch.

That's not the rub; behold, the hipster test. Just how indie are you, goddamn it??

Convicted Rapists for Steele

2006-10-17T20:55:00.000-04:00

College Football Picks - Week Whatever

2006-10-11T21:28:00.000-04:00

Oh, if I had the fiendish wit of, say Norman Chad (aka, the Couch Slouch - ugh) or that waste of newsprint Tony Kornheiser (I refuse to link to him), I could turn my prognosticating suckitude into some sort of self-effacing weekly shtick. Unfortunately, I cannot do that. I'm terrible at this and no humor can be milked from it.

My only option is to keep doing this week after week. It's like going to church every week, knowing that the incense is going to make you puke.

Well, I can start by telling you that I'm amazed that there are four, count 'em, four games this Thursday. I've got to pick one of them.

BC 27 Virginia Tech 20 - I think that the Superfans are the X factor in this one. No, I don't. I hate you yellow-shirted jerks! BC is the better team, however. The ACC is turning out to be kinda crappy this year.

Miami (Ohio) 31 Buffalo 14 - these two teams are a combined 1-10, with Buffalo getting the only win over the sublimely awful Temple Owls. MAC teams play tough early season schedules, so it's not like these are the worst teams ever. Still...

Auburn 34 Florida 30

Ohio St. 28 Michigan State 21 - another heartbreaker for the Spartans

Jupiter's been hanging out with some trashy planets

2006-10-11T18:50:00.000-04:00

Oh my.

Lingering worries in Kashmir one year after earthquake

2006-10-10T22:10:00.000-04:00

It was a year ago that a devastating earthquake killed over 80,000 (some estimates put the death toll at 100,000) and left almost 3 million people homeless. I hope that the folks at Church World Service will excuse the potty mouth occasionally displayed at this blog, so that I can bring some attention to the fact that about 400,000 people in Pakistan-administered Kashmir are still without shelter, as winter descends on the region.

This matter is important to me for two reasons:

1. People are suffering. That's a matter of concern in any context.

2. This is a huge opportunity for America and Americans to extend themselves in a part of the world that doesn't like us very much. Politics aside, it's common sense and a logical extension of our foreign policy to continue to direct attention and resources to a situation that has the potential to destabilize the region further.

College Football Picks - Week 6

2006-10-04T21:30:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, two straight college football pick posts. This blog isn't exactly melting your DSL cable these days, but the weekly predictions keep things going. I will claim that I went 3-1 last week (the margin of victory in the Boise St. game was way more than I had predicted), if only to keep the season from turning into a total disaster.

The careful reader of this esteemed weblog will notice that my math was wrong - the losses were piling up so fast and furious that I lost count. After last week, I was 4-12, which sounds a lot worse than the KC Royals butt-tacular 8-16.

So now I'm 7-13, going into a week where there seems to be a lot of easy pickings. It must be homecoming at a lot of places because there aren't too many intriguing matchups.

Clemson 23 Wake Forest 13 - Wake is 5-0 - did you know that? They'll lose on Saturday.

Auburn 39 Arkansas 10 - I was running in my neighborhood last week, wearing an Auburn Track and Field shirt that I picked up at the Champion outlet a few years ago. Some guy yells out "War Eagle!" and I had no goddamn clue what he was talking about until about fifteen minutes later.

Oklahoma 20 Texas 17

LSU 33 Florida 24 - I should know better than to try to pick this one.

College Football Picks - Week 5

2006-09-28T20:51:00.000-04:00

Man, another clunker last week! I'm counting it as 0-4, even though both Michigan and Notre Dame won - the margin of victory in those games was a lot different than I had predicted. So here I stand at a Kansas City Royals butt-tacular 8-16. I need to go on a tear over the next few weeks.

Boise State 48 Utah 41 - both of these teams love to score points, so it should be fun to watch.

Ohio State 24 Iowa 14 - if they can beat Texas in Austin, I don't think the bright lights of Iowa City are going melt the Buckeyes.

Minnesota 28 Michigan 24 - upset of the day.

USC 38 Washington State 15 - this is the only other moderately appealing game this weekend, at least on the surface.

Take heart, Utes, Hawkeyes, Wolverines, and Cougars fans. Given my record, things are looking pretty good for you.

2006-09-26T20:47:00.000-04:00

After the October Surprise ('06)...

2006-09-26T20:31:00.000-04:00

...typhoid will be renamed Freedom Fever.

And they'll say bin Laden died of complications from Freedom. Freedom, as it turned out, killed him.

From the Blogdiculous Rumor Mill

2006-09-26T19:13:00.000-04:00

Right wing online rag has the scoop.

If there's an October Surprise, I think it'll be that bin Laden's dead. I mean, putting on my tin foil hat, I see a coupla things: Karzai and Musharraf together in DC, a report that bin Laden died of typhoid, and, well...nothing else, besides the fact that the Republicans are cagey like that.

NewsMax and Al Jazeera linked in the same post. As Prince would have said in 1987, "Crucial."

College Football Picks - Week 4

2006-09-20T22:11:00.000-04:00

What a disaster last weekend. I was dead wrong about Louisville, and then I was just plain unlucky with BYU and Tennessee. I'm going to be a man, and take the Auburn win as a loss for me because I had picked a much larger margin of victory. The result is a big donut and four fish sticks. I'm 8-12 on the year.

Baylor 26 Army 14 - Army played A&M tough last weekend in their home away from home, San Antonio. Their tour of Texas continues this weekend in Waco. Baylor's actually not bad.

Notre Dame 33 Michigan State 10 - I was sooo happy when ND lost to Michigan last week. It was the Spartans who pulled a similar ambush last year, but not again.

Michigan 28 Wisconsin 27 - This one feels right to me. Wisconsin's schedule is a joke, and this game is clearly the highlight of their season. I picked them to win vs. Michigan at Camp Randall last year and nailed it, so let's see if I can do it again.

Kansas State 27 Louisville 24 - You think I would have learned my lesson, but I can't resist picking one upset, at the gayest sounding stadium in college football.

Seven Second Delay Blog

2006-09-14T18:52:00.000-04:00

Go on over and visit the Seven Second Delay Blog. Actually, I'm sure the 7SD blog gets 5,000 times more traffic than this sick plate of poop.

Happy Birthday, News Crawl

2006-09-13T21:33:00.000-04:00

I feel like a sap even writing about this. The television news crawl is celebrating its fifth birthday this week. Oh, sure, news tickers existed before 9/11, but now they're a fixture on cable news channels, and sometimes on network news shows. I think that TV news tickers existed on foreign news shows prior to scrolling onto American news programs. (This isn't a very well researched posting, I'm sorry. If you want facts, go to Powerline or Snuff Film Fans for Truth.) But with the massive amount of breaking news and information on 9/11 and the days and weeks following, news programs brought out the crawl, and it has remained at the bottom of our screens, distracting us from the main news stories (just the way they want it...). And the crawl on Middle Eastern news programs moves in the opposite direction, offering a graphic illustration of the epic clash of civilizations currently being waged. One time I was watching CNN and they showed a clip from Al-Jazeera. The site of the two scrolling news crawls moving in opposite directions gave me a seizure. Not really, but I'm going to sue Al Jazeera if their news crawl harms me in any way.

College Football - Week 3

2006-09-13T20:42:00.000-04:00

Hey, not bad last week. I went 3-1, and my only stumble was on the game that I thought was a "cute" pick (UNM-NMSU). Tables turned, lessons learned, as they say. But I'm right back where I started, and even .500 at 4-4.

There's some tough ones this week.

Miami 21 Louisville 10 - this is technically an upset, but I just can't consider Louisville a powerhouse, and I can't see Miami going 1-2. Prove me wrong, Cardinals.

Auburn 38 LSU 14 - the SEC always proves difficult for me. This is the first of two SEC picks for the week. I generally go with the home teams in this league, but Auburn is extra tough. One thing is for sure, the Tigers will win. (high hat - ba dum bum)

Tennessee 32 Florida 31 - this might be the game of the year. I don't think Tennessee will run the table, but Vols fans will remember this one for years. Florida is the better team, but sometimes things just bounce in the other guys' favor.

Brigham Young 23 Boston College 20 - BC loses one like this every year. Superfans will be surprised to learn that they're all automatically Mormons when they lose this one.

Thank you, and I will be back next week at this time to accept your plaudits.

2006-09-07T19:17:00.000-04:00

In a development completely unrelated to nine-eleven, President Bush spoke with Charlie "Breeakkking Neeewwwws" Gibson aboard Airforce One. One mindbending exchange had the President defending the invasion of Iraq as a means of confronting the terrorists on a principle battlefield in the war on terrorism (I added the boldface - do you like it?):

Bush: No, I understand that people ask, "How can this be a connection, between the war on terror and," you know, "How can Iraq be a connection when Saddam Hussein didn't order the attacks?" And you know, I understand that concern, because he didn't order the attacks. The enemy, however, believes that Iraq is a part of the war on terror. Osama bin Laden has called Iraq central to the war on terror. And if we lose, if this young democracy fails, the enemy will be emboldened. They will have resources in which to launch attacks. They have declared their desire to have a caliphate throughout the Middle East, and one of their targets is to topple modern governments.

Friends, moderates, reformers across the Middle East will say, "Where was the United States?" And so the stakes are incredibly high here, Charlie, and yes, this is a part of the war on terror. It is a central part of the war on terror.

Gibson: But the point that I make and that many of the critics make is that Iraq wasn't a part of the war on terror until we went in there.

Bush: I think we … (overlap) Gibson: Now because of Iraq, they're being produced, because (crosstalk)

Bush: I … I … listen, I understand it's dangerous and troublesome, but I think it's very important for the American people to ask, "Why, why is it that Osama bin Laden wants to drive us out of Iraq before this democracy can sustain itself?" One reason is they want a launching pad, another launching pad, a safe haven similar to Afghanistan. And the other reason is because Osama bin Laden recognizes that this is an ideological struggle, and the way to defeat an ideology of hate is with an ideology of hope, and that's liberty and democracy.

Some say, "Well, it's impossible for democracy to take hold in the Middle East." Well, that's true if we leave. But the Iraqis themselves have said, "We want to live in a land of liberty, we want to be free," and that's why 12 million people voted.

This … this struggle is akin to the Cold War. And what I'm not going to let happen on my watch, Charlie, is to concede and cede territory to an enemy that wants to hit us again. An enemy that has made their intentions clear — that is, drive the United States out of the Middle East, and the first place to do so is in Iraq: "Let us defeat the forces of reform and moderation, let us have oil from which to punish the West economically, and let us have a weapon of mass destruction." That is their desire, and their goal, and we must not let them succeed. And so absolutely, Iraq is tied to the security of the United States.

Gibson: A very good argument, that you just made for what you did in Afghanistan and what you did in working with the Pakistanis, to go after the Taliban, who were at the center of this, but Iraq was not, until we went in.

Bush: Charlie, I just told you, the president's job is to confront a threat, and … and if … if I can walk you back in history, uh, Saddam Hussein was clearly a threat. He was a sponsor of terror, he was shooting at American airplanes, he had invaded a neighbor, he had killed thousands of his own citizens, he had used weapons of mass destruction. We have learned since that he did not use them, but he had the capacity to use weapons of mass destruction. He was paying for suicide bombers, the families of suicide bombers.

It wasn't just the United States that saw a threat — Republicans and Democrats saw a threat. The international community saw a threat. He was given a last chance, and it was his choice to make.

Presidents don't get do-overs. But I did. … I'm going to make this statement to you: This world is safer and better off without Saddam Hussein in power, and now the challenge is to help the reformers and moderates fight off the extremists in Iraq and develop a … and help a country grow that can defend itself, sustain itself, and govern itself, and will be an ally in the war on terror. Victory in Iraq is a major defeat toward the extremists and the radicals who want to do America harm.

************************

I just don't see it.

Call in sick.

2006-09-07T19:11:00.000-04:00

My own opinion: watching CNN's presentation of original (as it happened!) coverage of the events of 9/11/01 is a bit twisted. Still, I'll bet millions will do it.

They never forget who they're working for, either

2006-09-06T22:12:00.000-04:00

And that's where the similarities between Lockheed Martin and Touch & Go Records end. The label is celebrating its 25th anniversary this weekend in Chicago. Some of my favorite Touch & Go bands are Big Black/Shellac, Didjits, the Mekons, Man or Astroman, Killdozer (the only record that got me reprimanded when I was a DJ, and my Mom threw out my pig-with-bloody-knife Frank Kozik t-shirt), Rachels (I'm pretty sure they're on Touch and Go), Bad Livers - if you're going to extend the franchise to Quarterstick, Calexico, and Don Caballero.

Check out this short documentary, courtesy of youtube (it's nine minutes long).

And I missed the Shellac show last week. I could have gone, but I would've had to go alone, and going to shows in DC is bad enough when I'm with someone - one of those deals where I need to share my misery.

College Football Picks - Week 2

2006-09-05T20:52:00.000-04:00

Well, I don't think ND covered the spread against Georgia Tech, so I put up a lousy 1-3 in Week 1. I screwed the proverbial pooch with Cal and Bowling Green, and I'll have to atone for that in Week 2.

Ohio State 24 Texas 16 - against my better judgement (which usually isn't great to begin with, so maybe this is a good move), but I feel like things even out in college football.

New Mexico State 44 New Mexico 10 - long day for the Lobos.

Akron 23 NC State 20 - I don't know if this counts as an upset or not, but it's the best chance the MAC has for a big road win on Saturday.

Northeastern 29 Holy Cross 13 - Northeastern goes from Va. Tech to Holy Cross. Nuts, huh?

Accept it.

2006-09-05T20:07:00.000-04:00

Watching American foreign policy stumble further into ineptitude in early 2003 was a pretty bitter pill to swallow. Especially knowing that it would have been (and would still be) inhumane at best and treasonous at worst to think or say "I told you so" as the plan and rationale for invading Iraq dissolved into a confused defense of "liberty" , "freedom", or some synonym thereof.

I admire those who still defend the war, particularly in the face of the decline in support, resulting from relative lack of success. And steadfastness has its rewards: nobody has benefited from the invasion quite like the investors of defense contractors and construction firms with sweet deals in Mesopotamia. Seriously, I'd love to be in on that action, but I'd suffer a major crisis of conscience.

But this is all white noise. No one has an original thought left on the war in Iraq or the alleged war on terrorism. Not even the vice president:

"I know some have suggested that by liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein, we simply stirred up a hornet's nest. They overlook a fundamental fact: We were not in Iraq on September 11th, 2001, and the terrorists hit us anyway."

Was this line really such a winner the first time he used it?

I grudgingly agree with the National Review that the Post took the line out of context (though I'd hardly consider it a "mangling"), but anybody who cries foul over Eugene Robinson's selective use of Cheney's words overlooks something that has been generally accepted among pundits and diplomats alike: Iraq had little if anything to do with September 11. Linking the two in this context is "intellectually lazy" as they say.

I don't know if any of this matters anymore. The guy at the National Review's blog concludes his post on Robinson's journalistic "blunder" (my quotes), "Some people will never accept the argument that confronting Iraq was an essential part of dealing with the threat from Islamic radicalism." Again, he's right. Dammit.

College Football Picks - Week One

2006-08-28T22:17:00.000-04:00

Holy clams, I cannot believe it's time to pick college football games again. It seems like yesterday I was brooding over the Poulan Weedeater Independence Bowl and the Carquest Bowl. I think that I ended up around .500 last year, but I don't really remember. Things sort of fell apart for me at the end of the season, sort of like they fell apart for me at the end of the Scrabble game I played last evening. I was beating my girlfriend (before you call the police, please read on) by seventy points, and she came back and edged me on the last turn. To exorcise the demons from my Scrabble collapse, I must pick some come-from-behind wins in week one.

California 27 Tennessee 25 - whenever I had a close game last year, I think I chose this score; it just sounds nice

Bowling Green 18 Wisconsin 17 - vive le MAC!

Holy Cross 45 Georgetown 35 - I'm actually going to this game, so I feel obliged to pick it. If we're dealing with Ernesto on Saturday, then I'll say HC 22 Georgetown 14.

Notre Dame 38 Georgia Tech 9 - GA Tech will be up early, and the game will be close at the half.

Dumbest CNN poll ever

2006-08-24T18:08:00.000-04:00

This might not be it, but it's pretty close. Unless, of course, there are 68,000 (as of 6pm on 8/24) astronomers out there jonesing to make their opinion known.

Back

2006-08-23T22:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I've completed my summer hiatus. Now I'm back in the land of self-denial and reverse communism. The trains don't run on time in our utopia. Stay tuned for more cheerful dispatches.

"We never forget who we're working for"

2006-08-23T22:05:00.000-04:00

Stock prices, July 2003:

Boeing $33
Halliburton $22
Lockheed Martin $52
Fluor $34

Stock closings, today, August 23, 2006:

Boeing $76.36
Halliburton $33.41 (Halliburton's stock split 2:1 on Monday, July 17, 2006, after it closed at $73.90 the Friday before)
Lockheed Martin $84.32
Fluor $85.06

These companies are the main beneficiaries of the war in Iraq. More information and commentary on this phenomenon can be found in the latest Harper's Magazine.

Waterboarding a dead horse

2006-07-21T13:11:00.000-04:00

"This administration prided itself on molding history, not just reacting to events. Its a normal foreign policy right now. It's the triumph of Kerryism."

- Kenneth Adelman, conservative

Amazing that John Kerry (who is not the president right now) is able to exert such overwhelming control over American foreign policy.

Speaking of molding history, check out these ideas for great jello molds. I think that one of these cool summertime desserts would cheer up good ol' Kenneth Adelman.

The unlukiest people in the world.

2006-07-19T19:29:00.000-04:00

Or close to it. I'm talking about the 20,000 Iraqis in Lebanon.

We need a new synonym for liberty.

Some music highlights from youtube

2006-07-11T22:07:00.000-04:00

One of the coolest bands of the eighties, Pylon, in a scene from Athens, Ga., Inside Out (I think - please correct me if I'm wrong). Popped collars and xerox copies were big in the '80s, kids.

Some classic Robyn Hitchcock. Speaking of Robyn Hitchcock, here's a cover of one of his songs with the Soft Boys.

This is another great video that never saw the light of day, except the light of hipsters' days.

Why aren't there more bands like Shonen Knife? Oh, wait, there are.

Lastly...

If only Neve and Gliz were here to see this....

2006-07-09T22:26:00.000-04:00

All the people with the funny accents are appalled, but I thought it was the play of the game. Hell, it's all anyone can talk about afterwards. So toot your Vespas and wave your "national" flag, but I'll take a vicious headbutt over penalty kicks anyday.

More Eno

2006-06-28T21:57:00.000-04:00

Good God, this is fine stuff. I only listened to the second half (the second file listed) because I couldn't stand to listen to "I Zimbra" slowed down to what sounds like 16 rpm (if you listen to the first half you'll see what I mean). Anyone who is interested in the history of recorded music will find something meaningful in this interview.

I wish you could find more interviews like this with musicians actually talking about their craft, as opposed to the part they played in whatever "movement" they were in. I guess Fresh Air delves into it a bit, but Terry Gross always ends up on a goofy tangent and it kills the interview*.

For all of you living outside of DC, the flooding is not as bad as they say it is, which is not to say that some people don't have it really bad right now. But ABC news made it sound like Bangledesh. And then my mom calls all worried. Charles Gibson, I shake my fist at you! And uvulate!

*like when she asked Stephin Merritt if he ever serenades his lover(s)

One-third of Democrats are nuts

2006-06-28T18:59:00.000-04:00

Well, if the Democratic Senate delegation is any indication.... 14 of the 45 Senators who vote with the Democratic caucus voted for this.

The next time some kid DNC volunteer accosts me on the street, I'm going to remind them of this.

Fucking crazy.

Correction

2006-06-20T22:37:00.000-04:00

In a previous post ("Pure Gold," June 20, 2006) I said:

"I guess I can entertain the idea that not fully supporting the war undermines the efforts of the most powerful military force in history, but how does Bill come off not undermining his boys when he praises the ruling style of the guy we've spent $300 billion getting rid of?"

I meant to say:

"I guess I can entertain the idea that not fully supporting the war undermines the efforts of the most powerful military force in history, but how does Bill come off not undermining his boyz when he praises the ruling style of the guy we've spent $300 billion getting rid of?"

That's Blogdiculous apologizes for the error.

Pure Gold

2006-06-20T21:50:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not talking about the new $50 gold coin that's coming out. Sweet. They should've put William Jennings Bryan on the coin (that goes out to all you late nineteenth century time-traveling political junkies). Is it me, or does it seem like a great idea to buy a bunch of those gold coins and just hold onto them until they're worth gazillions?

Anyway, the "pure gold" to which I'm referring is none other than the nightly shtick of Bill O'Reilly. He's kind of faded into the background lately, because a lot of people saying a lot of crazy things, and he no longer corners the market on lunacy. You really need to start watching his show, though, because I think that he may go nuts very very soon. Although, along the lines of my theory about Ann Coulter, I think that Bill might just be a po-mo soucier of jingo-talk. If so, he's a genius, I'll give him that. But he's getting a little sloppy, in ways that his colleague Ms. Coulter is not. His latest rant is that Iraq should be governed in the very way that Saddam ruled it.

He's talking about Saddam Hussein, right? Not Saddam Holcomb, or Saddam Thompson? I guess I can entertain the idea that not fully supporting the war undermines the efforts of the most powerful military force in history, but how does Bill come off not undermining his boys when he praises the ruling style of the guy we've spent $300 billion getting rid of? Wait, could he mean Saddam Wallingford?

I always thought he was a true believer, but lately Bill O'Reilly comes off sounding like a wrecker, of the Kamenev-Zinoviev sort. When can we arrest him?

Pilotless Drone '08

2006-06-15T18:52:00.000-04:00

Flip flop this, bitches.

Speaking of Cuba

2006-06-13T23:15:00.000-04:00

Things got a little testy earlier today. I wonder why this didn't make any news headlines. Has the long-running US-Cuba dispute gotten boring??

The Road to Guantanamo

2006-06-13T23:07:00.000-04:00

Coming soon. These guys have filed suit against the US government. I'll take a wild guess and say that they won't win.

S L O W

2006-06-12T22:25:00.000-04:00

Has it really been two weeks since I last vomited up some thoughts here? I guess there's nothing going on right now. I mean, they killed Zucchini or whatever his name is over there in Iraq, that was big news. When are you ever going to see the Corner and David Rees be happy about the same thing at the same time (too lazy to link - you should know how to get there by now)?

The World Cup is interesting, but I'm not one of those American guys who gets all soccer crazy all of the sudden every four years, and then mothballs his Galatasaray scarf once the damn thing ends (I know there's no reason to wear a scarf in June, but I've got nothing else here).

I do exhibit perverse interest in Ann Coulter, partly because I have a theory that she is some sort of post-modern comic actor (kind of like Sarah Silverman, but much punchier, and perhaps building towards a punchline that has been years in the making). No one can actually act the way AC (hey, same initials as another punchy bro, Al Cowlings!) does and get away with it. She's a bit like the kid you knew in high school who used to go up to girls and declare that "tits are beautiful" or say something else really stupid. You thought at the time, "Wow that's really ballsy. I could never get away with saying that. They'd kick me in the balls, or worse, tell my Mom. Then my Mom would kick me in the balls." But now you understand the joke was on you (and the girls, whose tits may or may not have been beautiful: that's the genius behind the statement). I'm digressing here. My point is that I don't think that Coulter believes what she says, but I don't believe that she doesn't believe it either, you follow me? I think she can say that some 9/11 widows who voted for Kerry are a bunch of harpies ("harpies"?), and get a bunch of people all upset and sell some books. I lack the imagination to predict what will be her next outspoken stance, but it might involve a knife, fork, some A1 sauce, and a certain "holy book". Someday, she may disclose to some hapless political junkie, who wasted years of his or her life hating Ann Coulter, that it was all a joke. Think about it.

So I guess that's interesting. I'm also interested by the fact that people will walk all the way up the escalator and then stop right before they get to the top, just to ride out that last four or five feet. In some parallel universe, that is the moral equivalent of killing your entire family.

The worst article ever written in a major newspaper

2006-05-31T21:58:00.000-04:00

Don't say I didn't warn you. This article is bad on so many levels. I didn't read the whole thing (it made my teeth hurt), so there's a chance that the author crafted a bit of Dostoevskyan wisdom towards the conclusion. I doubt it.

Bacon burger dog!

This is the best take on the article.

Unreal

2006-05-30T18:42:00.000-04:00

So Washington State Republicans have officially abandoned compassionate conservatism and family values.

Fucking newborns....trying to sneak into the country through the birth canals of their protoplasmic mules.

Yo La Tengo - Tighten Up

2006-05-21T22:44:00.000-04:00

This is fun.

I don't buy the idea that YLT is calling their new album "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass." Here's a song from it. The album comes out in September, but by then it will probably be renamed to something like "The Return of Moid".

Give the conservatives some

2006-05-21T14:59:00.000-04:00

I don't give enough space to good conservative print, mainly because there are like a bizillion conservative blogs out there to post it. Oh, and I'm not a consservative, at least not by the conventional standards for conservatism. But I thought that this essay from The Washington Post went much further than the 1650 words the author used. I would recommend reading it, especially if you consider yourself an outsider on this topic, as I do.

There's a huge leap between maintaining one's personal ideals and putting stock in a leader or governmental entity to project those ideals and put them into practice. That should be a standard disclaimer whenever somebody is going to call out bureaucrats, lobbyists, and generals for not doing what they were supposedly elected to do. One guy's (or lady's) reason for voting the President into office is, in a situation where the President gets 50 million-plus votes, going to differ from another guy's. In any case, some conservatives think that the current administration has betrayed core conservative ideals, those most personified by Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and the like. I guess the challenge of politics is to stay true to your principles and figure out the number of people needed to influence or change the state of affairs without watering down your ideals.

Anybody who thinks that the current party system in this country will preserve their moral and civic ideals will likely be disappointed when they see opportunists and hangers-on clamoring for the very things that distract and even contradict these ideals.

At the same time, however, elected officials have to serve more than the people who voted for them; most of them take an oath that implies serving the entire "nation" (or jurisdiction under their reprsentation). That could be a hell of an "out" for politicans that fall out of favor with their core supporters.

Thank you, Judicial Watch!

2006-05-16T20:51:00.000-04:00

“We fought hard to obtain this video because we felt that it was very important to complete the public record with respect to the terrorist attacks of September 11,” said Tom Fitton, the President of the conservative public interest group, Judicial Watch. “Finally, we hope that this video will put to rest the conspiracy theories involving American Airlines Flight 77.”

Somehow I don't think he means the theory that Saddam did it.

Looks like they win

2006-05-15T21:10:00.000-04:00

Can you see it yet?

Here it is...

2006-05-11T18:54:00.000-04:00

Oh, yeah....

This is what we call a "teaser"

2006-05-10T22:32:00.000-04:00

Coming tomorrow on Blogdiculous:

**Kinky airplane antics**

Stay tuned...

Time zones

2006-05-08T21:23:00.000-04:00

Earlier today as I was completing the digestive process (going number two), a weird thought popped into my head. I wondered which time zone in the world is the most populous. After a brief web search I think I have my answer:

Since all of China is located in one time zone, you've got more than a billion people in one zone.

In the US, the Eastern time zone has more people than any other, and about half the country's population lives in the land of 9 pm Monday Night Football.

Go here for all your got-to-have-'em-now time zone facts and help avoid awkward silences the next time you and your lady are out for a malt. This page will tell you what the earth currently looks like to a lunar cartoonist.

And of course, there's Negativland's classic song "Time Zones". I don't have a link to that, but I did find this, which sums up all the time I wasted on this post.

Post-modern cheekiness writ large.
Sweetlike nightmare corresponds.
Motherless wrecking desperation.
Thorniest simperer acknowledges.

Free Comic Book Day

2006-05-04T20:45:00.000-04:00

Saturday, May 6 is Free Comic Book Day. I always read some of the more dorky comics when I was growing up, Archie, Peanuts, etc. I never got into the fantasy crap. It all seemed a little too creepy and unnecessary, considering I had some fairly bizarre people to observe in real life.

What if everyone in the United States got their free comic book on Saturday? Would the comic book industry go bust? I'm guessing that Stan Lee sweats this one out every year. With a big gulp and some store-bought taquitos by his side, of course.*

Free Comic Book Day 2006: it's readiculous!

*shameful stereotype of cartoonist.

May Day

2006-04-28T13:00:00.000-04:00

So it's that time of year again. When those who protect you humbly accept their credit. Crowds gather spontaneously in the square, in front of the television, and heroes emerge a bit stunned, for they weren't anticipating such an impressive display of love and affection, directly from the hearts of the people.

Hadn't heard about this...

2006-04-23T22:19:00.000-04:00

According to the Chicago Tribune they're trafficking people to rebuild Iraq.

2006-04-23T21:44:00.000-04:00

I think that I'm going to start getting with it and post pictures. You know, to make the stupid crap that I write more interesting.

Don't be afraid. And don't get fat!

2006-04-23T20:45:00.000-04:00

Those are the lessons that I draw from my father's life, which ended seventeen days before the date above this post. I wish I could write something eloquent about the grieving experience, but, sadly, it's boring, and it certainly doesn't make for good blogging. Everybody goes through it.

My dad was a regular guy who had faults aplenty, but also a good heart (literally, his heart was in excellent condition when they did a post-mortem; he was felled by blood clots, related to his bad knees, which themselves were related to his long-term obesity). I think fear was his primary motivator, and it kept him from achieving great things. Granted, he sired seven kids, so his risk-taking was at times limited to such over-the-cliff dilemmas as chocolate or rainbow sprinkles. One time he just couldn't decide, so he got two cones. But still, no kid is going to begrudge a parent who wants to take a risk in the search for fulfillment. My main regret for my dad is that, in his mind, he never achieved great things. He had a damn long line at his wake, though.

I made a flip remark last year about April (sort of paraphrasing the old bit about it being "the cruelest month"). This year it came back to bite me in the ass, just as my old man would have wanted.

A little vay-kay

2006-04-13T22:35:00.000-04:00

I'll be on vacation from the blog until next weekend. While I'm away, enjoy some "Classic Blogdiculous". And while you're at it, visit her 'new' blog.

All

2006-03-27T22:13:00.000-05:00

From the longest song in history to the shortest, courtesy of The Descendents.

John Cage piece cranks into overdrive

2006-03-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

Relatively speaking. The 639-year project, organ2/ASLSP, is slowing down a 29-minute organ piece by avant garde-ist John Cage (the guy who did 4:33 (in Ogg Vorbis format, but does it matter?)), so that it's going to take over six centuries years to play. It all started on September 5, 2001 with a year and a half of silence (I wonder if anyone needed to be sitting at the organ for that), and then the song burst into full effect on February 5, 2003. A chord change occurred in January, and I think another one is set to occur in May, at least according to this schedule.

Maybe Rick Wakeman will get wind of this, break into the church, and blow us away.

Why I want George Mason to lose

2006-03-26T17:13:00.000-05:00

I've usually rooted for the underdog, in sports and in other facets of life. When I watch a game, I tend to back the team that has the odds stacked against them.* Okay, like you really care which teams I like.

In most cases, watching a team like George Mason go to the Final Four would be really exciting for me. They've played as a team throughout, and knocked down one giant after another (they got a bit of a breather with Wichita State, but they've knocked out three NCAA champs from the previous decade, which is most impressive). Their coach is likeable, and one of their assistant coaches went to my high school. Mason has all the things that I like about a team.

Alas, I can't root for them. I want them to lose. I've wanted them to lose for the past week and a half, and it hasn't happened, and I'm beginning to believe again in a theory that I've bounced back and forth in my head for years.**

I used to work at George Mason. A lot of the students and faculty that I met there were good, honest people, although my department was rife with dishonesty (and in a couple of cases, criminality), not that I was any shining light. Every administrator that I encountered in my work at George Mason was detached, condescending, and/or dishonest. It was my first professional job in higher education and because of my experiences at GMU I'll probably never go back into the field.

The people in charge over there, in my opinion, are morally bankrupt. And they're the ones that benefit most from athlete-students' endeavors.

Go Gators.

*Exceptions to this rule (there are always exceptions) include instances in which one of the teams is from Boston. I root against Boston - always have, always will.

**That Jesus hates me.

Give 'em Helen

2006-03-21T20:56:00.000-05:00

Here's the whole exchange. Media outlets have been editing it, but I think it deserves a full reading:

THE PRESIDENT: Helen. After that brilliant performance at the Grid Iron, I am -- (laughter.)

Q You're going to be sorry. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Well, then, let me take it back. (Laughter.)

Q I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet -- your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth -- what was your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil -- quest for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was it?

THE PRESIDENT: I think your premise -- in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist -- is that -- I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect --

Q Everything --

THE PRESIDENT: Hold on for a second, please.

Q -- everything I've heard --

THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me, excuse me. No President wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it's just simply not true. My attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We -- when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life. And I'm never going to forget it. And I'm never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.

Part of that meant to make sure that we didn't allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that's why I went into Iraq -- hold on for a second --

Q They didn't do anything to you, or to our country.

THE PRESIDENT: Look -- excuse me for a second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That's where al Qaeda trained --

Q I'm talking about Iraq --

THE PRESIDENT: Helen, excuse me. That's where -- Afghanistan provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That's where they trained. That's where they plotted. That's where they planned the attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans.

I also saw a threat in Iraq. I was hoping to solve this problem diplomatically. That's why I went to the Security Council; that's why it was important to pass 1441, which was unanimously passed. And the world said, disarm, disclose, or face serious consequences --

Q -- go to war --

THE PRESIDENT: -- and therefore, we worked with the world, we worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world. And when he chose to deny inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did, and the world is safer for it.

Q Thank you, sir. Secretary Rumsfeld -- (laughter.)

Q Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: You're welcome. (Laughter.) I didn't really regret it. I kind of semi-regretted it. (Laughter.)

Q -- have a debate.

THE PRESIDENT: That's right. Anyway, your performance at the Grid Iron was just brilliant -- unlike Holland's, was a little weak, but -- (laughter.)

***********************

So, parsing the President's response, it seems as if he still thinks that there was some sort of scheming going on in Iraq. The key passage is right after Helen Thomas says, "I'm talking about Iraq--". The President once again makes the leap from nine eleven to Iraq (by way of Afghanistan, of which about 90% of Americans supported invasion - a steady platform from which to launch a quantum leap).

I hope that Bush is at least entertaining the idea that he was wrong, if even for his own sake. I mean, I picked Pitt and Iowa in my Final Four, and, full disclosure: I was wrong. I'm not crazy - I don't keep talking about the Hawkeyes as if they'll be playing on Thursday. Poor guys have been ousted. Likewise, the President's principal reasons for going to war have not proven to be true, so the average thinker is left to conclude that they were false. So he was wrong.

I wonder if he'll ever tangle with HT, aka the Nine of Clubs, again (good lord).

Another one

2006-03-20T19:48:00.000-05:00

Add to the list of ladies who like to expound on the quirky and hip East Coast culture one Ana Marie Cox whose Time gig started this week with a forgettable article about DC power couples. Snore.

I came to the conclusion that Cox is fairly typical of the snoots you find behind every rock in DC when I saw her on CNN's Reliable Sources with liberal scourge Howard Kurtz, plugging her book. She said something about how most blogs are crap (the implication being that her mostly derivative and, admittedly, occasionally funny blog (which I guess isn't hers anymore) is not crap). Cox's blog isn't that great, although I guess it got her the coveted book deal and the Time gig, which payz the billz, I'm sure. But shit, you could've slapped "Maureen Dowd" or "Tina Brown" on that byline and no one would've known the difference. There'$ $afety in $amene$$ and it $eem$ to $ell.

2006-03-17T18:06:00.000-05:00

We should ask assholes to wear green every day. Makes 'em easier to spot.

"Operation Swarmer"?

2006-03-16T19:35:00.000-05:00

I swear there's a group of 8-year old kids holed up somewhere in the Pentagon whose sole responsibility is to name these operations.

Happy almost-third birthday, war!! I suppose those who consider birth to occur at conception must consider this war about, oh, eight years old by now.

"Operation Schwimmer"

Year of the Panther

2006-03-15T22:11:00.000-05:00

I didn't fill out a bracket this year, and I haven't given it a lot of thought. But I'll take a stab at the Final Four:

Pitt
Iowa
UConn
Florida

I think Pitt is going to take it.

Bad Music Radio

2006-03-11T18:38:00.000-05:00

The bad album covers have been going around for a while. But here I finally get to hear Devastatin' Dave.

Via Beware of the Blog.

Good news...

2006-03-11T14:52:00.000-05:00

...for people who like the idea of having their next leader chosen by a group of people called "Super Rangers".

Bush and Kerry collectively raised over half a billion ($US 500,000,000) during the last presidential campaign. That money went to, among more constructive things, misleading television ads, press releases full of half truths, and dirty tricks intended to keep other voices out of a campaign (lest someone introduce Royal Crown Cola to the Coke vs. Pepsi Challenge).

As the Washington Post article points out, presidential candidates take in contributions from big and small donors alike. Most of the small donations come after the primary season, when the party’s candidate is all but nominated. During the primaries, the big donations from the aforementioned Rangers and guys like David Geffen provide the foundation for the unbridled Babbittry that is life on the hustings.

I don’t know what can be done about it. You can’t begrudge people for the decisions they make in a democracy. However, if those decisions are made without a full airing of the facts, there’s a problem. You could argue, even, that such a system is not a democracy at all. But to do so (and be taken seriously) you’d have to prove that there’s deliberate suppression of information by the main political actors. That amounts to a conspiracy theory, and no one who comes forth with such an idea is taken seriously.

Personally, I don’t look to the DNC or RNC for leadership on the issues that matter most to me. It saddens me that most people who engage in the political process in this country feel otherwise.

Any historian will tell you Cleopatra was her own sister-in-law

2006-03-09T19:39:00.000-05:00

One of my idols growing up was none other than L.M. Boyd. The man had a way with words and with twisting the garbage of common knowledge into a beautiful sculpture of esoteric nerdiness. The last time I looked up Mr. Boyd on the Internet, which had to be a couple of years ago, there wasn't much out there about him. But since he retired in 2004 a bunch of webpages have sprung up with his nuggets of trivia. Here's a sampling.

Lovin' it

2006-03-08T22:33:00.000-05:00

One week into my undeclared boycott of political blogs, and I've no complaints.

Well don't read me, go out and throw a goddamn frisbee or something. Better yet, make babies - we need more of them....

Go on...(hand motioning you away)

Stick Insect

2006-02-26T19:23:00.000-05:00

Anyone out there know of any links for the band Stick Insect? I have the feeling they don't get together too often, but they played at the Teenbeat Records anniversary thing a few days ago, and I thought they were the best band there.

It was also the CD release for Flin Flon and the new album, Dixie. After a few listens, I would say it's just ok. It's not awful, just not as good as the previous three discs. Go out and get it.

Movie deaths

2006-02-26T18:11:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of the most welcome movie deaths. I'm more interested in the deaths that don't occur in the movies when you want them to.

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers - partly because they were bad; partly because I just wanted them to shut up

Tom Cruise in anything (after All the Right Moves)

The entire cast of What About Bob?

John Cusack in High Fidelity. I put Cusack in the Cruise category, but definitely not as much of a real-life menace to society. I also thought that Lloyd Dobler should have died of some disease at the end of Say Anything. Chicks love that movie now - can you imagine if he had died???

Mariah Carey in Glitter. No, I never saw Glitter.

This whole exercise is a little weird. I'm not in the business of wishing death upon anyone, real or fictional. Carry on.

Do a mitzvah!

2006-02-22T20:41:00.000-05:00

The best radio station in the world is holding its annual fundraising marathon next week and the week after that.

If you don't already listen, you should.

If you do listen, please donate some cash. You'll get some cool shit in return.

Tender Roni

2006-02-21T22:14:00.000-05:00

Growing up in Upstate New York in 1980, you saw Roni, the Olympic raccoon, everywhere. And then you saw the little bastard on pins, stickers, t-shirts, and signs for years afterwards. I'll bet there are still some Roni window decals crustified on the doors of my old school. I think that the idea of an Olympic mascot is a bit strange, perhaps an attempt to get little kids to enjoy the Olympics.

Olympic mascots are supposed to go away after the games are over. No one wants to see Heidi and Howdy again, right?

I don't even know if there's a place for mascots outside of the venue. When Neve and Gliz were rolled out, someone typed a gag-inducing, yet impressive 19-page press release. Um, yikes.

Still I have to put those cute li'l Italian marshmallows up there as one of the best mascots. They're certainly cute as fuck. I also like Schuss, dubbed "a little man on skis", from Grenoble in '68 (the first official mascot) and Cobi from Barcelona in '92, because I feel like he's laughing at the humans.

I'm not a huge fan of Amik, from Montreal '76, who looks like a furry turd (sorry, Bruce Jenner and beavers everywhere). Izzy from the Atlanta Olympics was an overblown nightmare.

Suddenly I've become the Mr. Blackwell of the Olympic mascotting world. I'll stop now.

Football fields

2006-02-16T20:23:00.000-05:00

Everybody uses the American football field as the standard reference for measuring something big.

Great Wall of Breakfast!

2006-02-13T19:25:00.000-05:00

My cool sister (I have four sisters, only one of them is cool) and I used to laugh at the prospect of Andy Partridge and Robyn Hitchcock recording together. Actually, I think that last sentence disqualifies both of us from being cool.

And while I wallow in nerddom, here's Dave Gregory's Ten Favorite Films.

"The Civil War made them outlaws, the people made them heroes..."

2006-02-11T19:24:00.000-05:00

I can't describe this. I just can't (sob).....