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Mmmm..... Full of gobbley goodness
The people at Jones Soda have done it again!

posted by DRH 11/19/2003 11:49:00 PM

What Causes Terrorism?
Scrappleface asks... Why do Terrorists Hate Muslims So Much?

posted by DRH 11/11/2003 12:48:00 AM

DaVinci and all that
Here's some helpful info... First, Envoy's examination of The Da Vinci Code. Mark Shea gives some basic facts on Jesus and Mary Magdalene. George Weigel recommends an alternative,
Resurrection vs. DaVinci.

posted by DRH 11/03/2003 08:46:00 AM

Whoopsie
Apparently, Matt Groenig was making a joke that was taken seriously by Terry Gross and propagated out to to the rest of the media. My guess is that it was easy to put one over on her cuz Fox News ain't exactly her favorite people.

I think Kang and Kodos are watching on their monitor and having a big laugh....

posted by DRH 11/03/2003 12:14:00 AM

Who's Afraid of "Corporate Media Concentration"
Heck, the Fox Corporation came close to suing itself over the Simpsons.

posted by DRH 11/02/2003 04:21:00 PM

Too Late for this Halloween
But your little dog could wear these next year. Could be funny on an old, floppy basset hound... If you are feeling suicidal, you could try to get these on your cat.

posted by DRH 11/02/2003 02:22:00 AM

Dean Wishes He Was in Dixie (hooray?)
What the heck was Howard Dean thining? "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks".

posted by DRH 11/01/2003 05:26:00 PM

OK, Time to TIme to Start Getting in the Mood
It's some great pumpkins, Charlie Brown! Here's some helpful hints for confusing the little nippers that show up at your door. What are you waiting for? Throw on your costume!!!!

posted by DRH 10/28/2003 08:19:00 PM

What, no Kung Fu Grip?
Introducing... the Ann Coulter action figure. What's next... the "Rock'um Sock'um Hannity and Combs"? Michael Moore extra-wide bean bag chairs?

posted by DRH 10/28/2003 12:40:00 AM

You know, I really should be getting work done.
And yet I am not. Sigh. You'd think it was Sunday or something.

posted by DRH 10/26/2003 04:02:00 PM

Update on New Toy
I have yet to use it... the current, post-move state of my kitchen simply didn't allow for quick setup. But on the plus side, I checked out Alton Brown's latest book on gadgets and it got a positive mention. 705 watts of power, Baby. I think my first project will involved the dough hook in some way.

posted by DRH 10/26/2003 04:02:00 PM

My Newest Toy

posted by DRH 10/25/2003 02:44:00 AM

EGBOK!!!
Just an acronym of encouragement form a geek who grew up listening to Ken-and-Bob on KABC.

posted by DRH 10/25/2003 02:42:00 AM

The Next Generation
In the wacky, quasi-Darwinian world of distributed, network-related thingies, the counter balance to the "Flash Mob" emerges: the flashmugging. Fair 'nuff.

posted by DRH 10/25/2003 02:40:00 AM

This Guy Makes Some Good Points
Check out this letter to Andrew Sullivan's blog.

posted by DRH 10/20/2003 07:02:00 PM

Must Something-that-rhymes-with-see TV

I ain't never seen Whoopi's latest fiasco sitcom, but... "a Very Special Episode of its new Whoopi Goldberg sitcom, in which the president stops by to take a leak...". Umm.. errr... um...?

posted by DRH 10/20/2003 06:53:00 PM

One Reason I Shouldn't Stay in Seattle Long Term
Wahington's complete lack of Art-O-Mats.

posted by DRH 10/19/2003 04:34:00 PM

Arab-American Comedian, etc.
I went ot the Arab Festival at Seattle Center today. It was fun, but there was definitely a lot less food that I had hoped (there were lots of pastries, but few main dishes. (My Kingdome for some kibbe!) Lots of traditional arab music and dancing. Some discussions of MIddle Eastern issues and a film on arabs/muslims/south asians detailed immediately after 9/11. One of the discussions was quite good, being made up of ex-pat Iraqis giving their feelings about their home and there relatives who are still over there. The film, Brothers and others, which I sat through, but was a bit annoyed by... it made some valid points, but it was so manipulative and so tied into a broader agenda, that I had to make a conscious effort not to just dismiss it entirely. It even had 30-60 seconds worth of Noam Chomsky footage, always a warning sign.

The schedule also featured three Arab-American Comedians. I caught Ray Hanania... not very impressive soem mild ethnic humor, some jokes that clearly were targeted to a fairly specific group, mixed in with some generic airport security jokes. I didn't really think his material or delivery were all that good. Oh well.

posted by DRH 10/19/2003 12:59:00 AM

A Survey!

Free poll provided by Poll Wizard

What is your favorite kind of music?

Anything but hip-hop

Anything but country

Anything but opera

Anything but punk

Anything but metal

Select an answer and click to vote Do not select an answer and click to view result

posted by DRH 10/18/2003 11:45:00 PM

Something to Ponder
How come you always hear about "full figured women", but never about "partially figured women"?

posted by DRH 10/18/2003 11:23:00 PM

Anglican Church Self-destructing?
Or maybe more accurately, the American/English/Aussie Anglican church self-destructing? I thoiught that this piece by George Will on the Anglican melt-down was interresting, in light of the fact that it's the "southern" branches of Anglicanism that are the ones that are rapidly growing, while the "northern" branches are rapidly shrinking. (As is true with most Christian denominations.) There seems to be a huge disconnect between this reality and the expressed views of the "gay agenda types" in the Episcopal Church... describing it as "evolution" and "progress", when it would seem that their end of their denomination is sitting at the wrong end of a process of Darwinian selection, dying like the Dodo Bird. Hm.

posted by DRH 10/18/2003 01:41:00 AM

Put on your thinking caps...
Time for a meat quiz!

posted by DRH 10/18/2003 01:15:00 AM

Science Marches On...
We now know nobody took Stan Laurel seriously.

posted by DRH 10/18/2003 01:10:00 AM

This is INSANE!
Please check out the Terri Schindler-Schiavo... she described as a "vegetable" and "comatose" in the Media, but she can react to the people she loves and tries to communicate. Her husband is supposed to get the final say, but he gets a big payday if she dies and who is living with his girlfriend. There's more... waaaaay more. This thing literally stinks to high Heaven. Write Gov Bush. Heck. write Bishop Lynch and other local bishops and encourage them to speak out!

posted by DRH 10/16/2003 11:40:00 PM

Arg, CNN Shows their Colors Yet Again?
So, I'm watching CNN on this day of Pope John Paul's 25th Anniversary. Maybe it was just the random time at which I tuined in, but it seemed that the best Paula Zahn could come up with was: [1] Jumping on some random Cardinal about the "pedophile" scandal (actually, the gay-priests-that-like-teenagers scandal) and [2] a superficial piece about "women in the Church" where, of course, the nun that is pushing for ordination of women was asked nothing but softball questions. Sigh.

posted by DRH 10/16/2003 11:30:00 PM

I Did Not Meet Dave Attell
... nor Lewis Black. I saw them at the Paramont Theater Sunday night (weird night to schedule something like that!). I could have bought mechandise of the disky variety: CDs and DVDs, all overpriced (like this for $20) and had it autographed. But... autographed discs? That just don't sound right somehow.

Very funny show tho'. While the heavily-student crowd way mainly there to see Dave Attell (what with Insomniac and all "Duuuuude ... PARTY!!!!", I was mostly there to see Lewis Black, he's kind of like the funny, loud version of Al Franken.

posted by DRH 10/13/2003 08:19:00 PM

Worth Readin'
Michael Kinsley makes some good points about hypothetical questions, and the avoidance tehreof.

posted by DRH 10/12/2003 12:50:00 AM

Okay, I Admit It

I think this is funny.

posted by DRH 10/11/2003 04:22:00 PM

Corndog's Travel Corner
The hotel on which Fawlty Towers was based.

posted by DRH 10/11/2003 04:10:00 PM

Book I am Least Likely to Buy...
What a surprise that dummies would have a hobby like that?

posted by DRH 10/11/2003 03:54:00 PM

I met Laura Ingrahm
And, of course, forgot to take my camera. Grump.

So... Laura Ingrahm was having a signing for her book, Shut Up and Sing at Seattle Center. (It just occured to me.... is it called Seattle Center, or the Seattle Center? I'm still new in town. I'm still not sure if it's Ukraine or the Ukraine. But then, I don't live in Ukraine. Or the Ukraine. Whatever.) So I figured I'd pick the book up and get it signed. I'm a sucker for any excuse to buy books.

So, I'm in line a couple people behind this guy in a pricey suit. He introduces himself to Laura Ingram, who's quite a bit better looking than the photo on the cover of her book... she asks what he does for a living ("Investment banker"). Cool thing #1 : she says something to the effect that she has problems with investment bankers, but she won't hold it against him. Weird thing #1: he leaves his card with personal contact info written on the back. Is that a trick from Picking Up Celebrity Chicks for Dummies? It was odd.

Cool Thing #2: She likes Tom Waits.

posted by DRH 10/11/2003 03:48:00 PM

Some Hate Crimes are More Equal than Others
Have yiur heard about these death threats against an archbishop? Nope, me neither. "What a surprise", he said sarcastically.

posted by DRH 10/11/2003 03:27:00 PM

This is a hoot... commentary on... the Washlet (I found this link on Mark Shea's weblog, which is worth visiting on a regular basis. Anyhho, I saw an infomercial for these beasts in the wee hours of the morning the other night, while geeking around with my cable modem. I thought that maybe I dreamt it. Guess not.

Well, for the balance, he's a more back to basics link.

posted by DRH 10/11/2003 03:00:00 PM

For Once, a Usefull Thing
Travelling? Going be across town? Want to know when Mass is? Looking for Confession times? Check out Mass Times.

posted by DRH 10/11/2003 02:48:00 PM

The Great Pumpkin is Coming
Better start getting your costume ready!

posted by DRH 10/09/2003 11:55:00 PM

I can relate....
It's like a page from my own life.

posted by DRH 10/09/2003 11:45:00 PM

New Michael O'Brien book!

Finally -- another book from Michael O'Brien, A Cry of Stone, the latest in the Children of theLast Days series, a series that includes one of my favorite books, Father Elijah. Hot off the presses last month! So I suppose it's warm off the presses now. I really like the way he uses fiction as a vehicle for ideas and spirituality in previous books, and am sure Cry of Stone will continue to impress.

posted by DRH 10/09/2003 09:35:00 PM

Now That's a Keychain
The Russians now have a lucky yeti foot.

posted by DRH 10/09/2003 09:20:00 PM

Her blog.. it's like buttah!

Barbara Steisand has a blog!?! Check it out... can't you just picture her, hunched over her keyboard, can of (diet?) Jolt at hand, feverishly typing? OK, I can't either. I wonder who writes it for her... Now if only Melanie Griffith would hire that guy for her creepy website.

posted by DRH 10/09/2003 08:55:00 PM

Wally George is Dead
Okay, I admit that I was pretty surprised that Wally George was alive several months ago when I saw his book for sale cheap at the LA Festival of Books. Back in the 80s he seemed old as the hills, bad comb-over and all. He show was a jewel of cheap, local TV that could only be produced in Orange County. Essentially, he was a radid right-wing nut, who would invite people even more nutty than he, but on the looney left. Well, some might not have been "left" but still loony. The Looney of the Week would jabber for a while, Wally would bark at him... by strange coincidence, the the LotD would say something that would cause him to be thrown off the show right at the scheduled commercial break! Then, the entire studio audience would chant "Wal-ly Wal-ly Wal-ly!!!!!!!!!!!!" like a bunch of trained monkeys. (Think, "Jerry Springer" but more ape-like.)

posted by DRH 10/07/2003 01:09:00 AM

Turtles in the News

posted by DRH 10/07/2003 12:27:00 AM

Today is St Francis' Feastday!







Most High, Glorious God,

enlighten the darkness of our minds.

Give us a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity,

so that we may always and in all things act according to Your Holy Will. Amen.

posted by DRH 10/04/2003 01:13:00 PM

Viking Kittens!
Turns out someone archived the original Viking Kittens, featuring "The Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin. Enjoy!

posted by DRH 9/28/2003 02:35:00 PM

Opus is Back!
Opus T. Penguin, star of stage screen and comic strip, is back!

posted by DRH 9/25/2003 09:54:00 PM

A classic that deserves revisiting
All your base are belong to us

posted by DRH 9/24/2003 08:49:00 PM

Popped Culture Corner
Well, sorta. Reaction that add-water-and-stir cotraversy from the MTV music awards... from Stevie Nicks (!). She actually has some good points. ( I thought the bit about J.Lo was funny, too. )

posted by DRH 9/21/2003 09:42:00 PM

Cute Advertising Ploy
Way to get people to hit the Amazon website:

See more product details
New books by Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly have dramatically different prescriptions for what ails our society. Pre-order now and track their sales ranks at Amazon.com to see who is winning the pundit war.
Reference: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767913795/

posted by DRH 9/21/2003 01:41:00 AM

My New Toy

Just ordered in the wee hours of last night....

posted by DRH 9/21/2003 12:40:00 AM

What Lord of the Rings Character are you?



Glad you asked; here's the site for you

Hey! Being like Galadriel aint bad, she was patterned in part after the Blessed Mother!

posted by DRH 9/20/2003 05:55:00 PM

Overblown Rhetoric Award
Todays prize, a bronzed bag of hot air goes to Andrew Sullivan for his paragraph entitled AND THE BATTLE BEGINS. Among the gems crammed into these few sentences: the US is banning "married couples" from coming in and banning "gays". Well, um, no... the US government is simply requiring that people who are coming in fill out the right paperwork. Geeez.... And, to top it all off, he somehow ties this all to allowing people with AIDS into the country... as if there was some kind of logical link. Four stars!

posted by DRH 9/19/2003 12:32:00 AM

When Congressmen Ruled the Earth
Would these guys get more or less free plane rides? We'll never know.

posted by DRH 9/18/2003 11:24:00 AM

Anti-bono Legal Work
Lawyers will get one third of molestation settlement. Holy crap! Oops, unholy crap! Check this out:

Attorneys in the Catholic Church sexual abuse settlement yesterday defended their one-third share of the $85 million accord, saying their "lawyers' payday" is diluted by the enormous cost of suing the Archdiocese of Boston. "We have had as many as 20 people at one time working on these cases," said Roderick MacLeish Jr., an attorney with the law firm of Greenberg Traurig.

Let's see... $85,000,000 / 3 = $28,000,000

There were at most 20 people at any given time, but lets assume there were 20 full time.

That gives us: $28,000,000 / 20 = $1,400,000 per person on the team, even the flunkys working in the copy room.

Yeah, they're goin' broke at that rate.

posted by DRH 9/17/2003 12:59:00 AM

Help Save a Life!
Read the story of Terri Schiavo and please take the time to write to Gov. Jeb Bush to save her!

posted by DRH 9/17/2003 12:27:00 AM

Hooray!
Seattle's proposed espresso tax went down in flames. The idea was that they'd tax every cup of coffee if it contained espresso and gived the money to a preschool program for kids. What was the connection? None. But it was for the children. I will celebrate tomorrow with a latte from Peets.

posted by DRH 9/17/2003 12:14:00 AM

A horse is a horse, of course, of course? Nonsense!
Check out the poll at theonering.net. Vote Bill the Pony, early and often. Loyal, faithful Bill deserves the honor of coolest horse in MIddle-Earth. I has spoke.

posted by DRH 9/16/2003 11:49:00 PM

Recursion....
The state kills the killer of a killer for us. The sad thing is this: at each of these killings, someone was happy about it. Arg.

posted by DRH 9/04/2003 12:24:00 AM

Corndog's Geography Corner
I've neve been there, but I have a new favorite place: Useless Bay.

posted by DRH 8/23/2003 01:57:00 PM

Disturbing News from the Frontlines
yeeps.

posted by DRH 8/18/2003 08:53:00 PM

Dang, I am a geek
I came upon this exchange from Deep Space Nine on IMDB and actually thought it was really funny:

Odo: By the way, your gagh has arrived.

Ezri Dax: My what? ... Oh no.

Odo: Oh yes. And it's waiting for you in Cargo Bay Two.

Colonel Kira Nerys: [incredulous] Your *gagh*?

Ezri Dax: Jadzia ordered it. She was planning a party for Martok's birthday next week.

Colonel Kira Nerys: How much gagh did she order?

Odo: Fifty-one cases.

Ezri Dax: Each containing a different variety.

Colonel Kira Nerys: There are *varieties* of gagh?

Ezri Dax: Oh yes. I can remember what each one tastes like. And the way they feel when you ... swallow them. Torga'gagh wiggles. Fildin'gagh squirms. Michi'gagh jumps

Ezri Dax: ... Bethul'gagh has *feet* ...

[to Odo]

Ezri Dax: Flush it out the airlock. All of it.

Odo: [shaking his head] Environmental regulations.

Colonel Kira Nerys: Why don't you just give it to Martok?

Ezri Dax: He'd insist on sharing it with me, as a point of honor.
[sighs]

Ezri Dax: Wistin'gagh is packed in Targ blood.

[she looks down, nauseated]
Ezri Dax: I have to go now.

posted by DRH 8/17/2003 10:28:00 PM

Meetup.com
Is it just for Howard Dean supporters? I looked at the Catholic meetup and it has a mere 125 people world wide. Kind of odd considering that (1) there are a billion Catholics in the world and (2) there are 3980 atheists fer cryin' out loud. Not that it matters, I'm just puzzled.

posted by DRH 8/07/2003 06:50:00 PM

Laugh while'a you can, Monkey Boy!
! Forget IndiaThere is a new threat to the red-blooded, pasty-faced American programmer. Time to get that business degree... or worse, find some kind of honest work to do. The horror, the horror.

posted by DRH 8/04/2003 11:27:00 PM

My New Digs!
I signed my lease on Saturday... I am now officially a resident of the fabulous Fremont district of Seattle, self-dubbed the "Center of the Universe". My new apartment has easy access by foot to the Fremont Troll and the first free-standing Peets Coffee in Seattle... a beachhead in the home base of the evil Starbucks.

posted by DRH 8/04/2003 12:40:00 AM

New from My Ex-Governor
Looks like I'm missing out on much wackiness down California-way. Gray Davis is suing, because he claims the right to be on the ballot... to replace himself after he is recalled. His crack legal team also, seems to think that running the recall on the same machines used to elect him would somehow disenfrancise voters. It's like he wants to be California's (much less colorful version of Huey Long. Well, OK, maybe Earl Long.

posted by DRH 8/04/2003 12:28:00 AM

Tra la la la la la la la la la la la la la
It's.... The Banana Splits Show! Once again, reliving childhood. Ah..........

posted by DRH 7/22/2003 10:15:00 PM

Landlords are the Lonelist People
Now that I'm looking for a place to live, I realize once again that people renting apartments somehow think that it really isn't agood idea to post a sign with any kind of useful information on it... you know, needless trivia like how much it costs, how many bedrooms .. that kind of thing. My theory is that landlords are simply very, very lonely people. They would love you to call if you are looking for a bedroom, even if all they have available is an ity-bitty studio... they just want to talk to someone anyone for a few brief moments. Remeber... if the new anti-telemarketing list goes away it is probably the Loney Landlord Lobby that did it in. "Yes! Yes!! Pleeeeease tell me how I can save on long distance!!!!!"

posted by DRH 7/20/2003 11:04:00 PM

Back On the Air!
Yep, I finally remmebered my login for blogger and and ready to go. Dang, it's been hot in Seattle.

posted by DRH 7/16/2003 07:12:00 PM

Moving a bit Late...
Dang! I missed this year's Pug Gala in Seattle. I wonder if they all go out for a pug crawl after. It will be almost a year till I get to find out, it seems. Sigh.

posted by DRH 6/21/2003 11:24:00 AM

Resistance is Futile
Starbuck's continuing mission to assimilate the world goes on... Seattle's Best and Torrefazione Italia have bitten the dust. And nobody knows outside of Seattle, apparently.

posted by DRH 6/18/2003 10:31:00 AM

An idea whose time has come
Nuke the Moon !

posted by DRH 6/16/2003 04:01:00 PM

Living History
In the interest of history, check out this sample of Hillary's book. It is very moving.

Here's a related nice bit of sarcasm directed at Baba Wawa. One thing that caught my eye is the strange case of Greg Packer, professional Man on the Street.

Regarding Hillary's obviously-planned eventual run for the presidency, I think the view of Andrew Sullivan is fairly close to the mark; she would be an incredibly divisive President, even more so than her husband. Things are noty perfect now, but Bush inferited a much more divided American than he is likely to leave behind.

In other political news, one of the doofuses from MTV's Real World wants to run for Congress.

posted by DRH 6/14/2003 02:35:00 PM

Again with the Corndog's Culture Corner?
Without the star power of Leonard Nimoy, amatuer Patrick J. Collins has mananged to make a much more embarrassing video. A rap video. Starring CocoNelly the Cat. Yeeps.

posted by DRH 6/14/2003 10:16:00 AM

Corndog's Culture Corner
For those in Lord of the Rings mode, here's Leonard Nimoy singing "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins". With groovy go-go girls!
It's a little known triva fact that Leonard Nimoy jumped on the Bad Singing and Bad Poetry bandwagons much earlier and with much more gusto than William Shatner did. Unfortunately, Shatner was always better at being terrible, so Nimoy ended up being the Betamax of Bad Star Trek Singers, missing out on the huge priceline.com payout. Still, no discounting the badness that Mr. I-am-not-Spock-or-am-I was capable of ... submittend for your approval... "Proud Mary".

posted by DRH 6/13/2003 12:05:00 PM

A Feet of Daring
Click here for a big surprise!
[Warning: don't do this at work.]

posted by DRH 6/12/2003 11:51:00 AM

Too Much Time On Their Hands Award
Today's winner: TV Guide Grafitti

posted by DRH 6/12/2003 11:30:00 AM

Free speech? Isn't that cute?
Check out this experiment in academic freedom.

posted by DRH 6/10/2003 09:21:00 AM

Corndog's Culture Corner
Wing sings the Carpenters and such. Not your cup of ... um .. tea? What about punk songs for babies? Still no? Okay, some real culture "No Tears for Caesar" ... William Shatner doing a rap song based on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Happy now?

posted by DRH 6/07/2003 11:51:00 AM

Upperclass Twit of the Year Candidates
During debate, some members of the British House of Lords spam email with a Hormel product! OK, so that might be an exaduration, but it's still amusing.

Insane ebay Feedback
Check out this guy's feedback.

posted by DRH 6/06/2003 11:04:00 AM

Lookin' sharp!
Check this out... your name in cheese!

posted by DRH 6/05/2003 01:03:00 PM

Weirdness at Georgetown
It seems that people there... especially faculty members.. in theology yet... are offended that Cardinal Arinze supports Church teaching. Worse, he actually said so in a commencement speech at a Catholic university. (The horror!)

posted by DRH 6/05/2003 09:42:00 AM

Fair and Balanced
Someone sent me a link to "Busted Halo" ... apparently a site that takes great pains to seem happnin' to the Gen -X -Y -Z crowd. (By-the-by .. what comes after GenZ? GenAA? I hope someone is working on this problem now. I'd hate for us not to have a convenient label to tatoo onto the next demographic group comin' down the pike.

Where was I? Oh yes. The "Busted Halo" folks have a wacky survey question that reminds me of the publisher J. Jonah Jameson's headlines: "Spiderman: Menace or Threat" (geeky Marvel Comics reference). There are no allowances for any positive or even neutral opinon on Bush's environmental policy available. The closest is "always putting the economy 1st as it should be" .. which of course just says that it's good to rape the environment as long as that provides jobs. This kinda thing cracks me up. I thought I'd share.

Oh... weird
Looking over that "busted halo" site, I found something a bit disturbing. Someone sent a query to their "question box", asking whether Jesus had "biological brothers" (question 3). While the answer points out (correctly) that the word used in Scripture for "brother" also means "cousin" (thus, there is no support in Scripture for the idea that Mary gave birth to any children after Jesus, nowhere does Fr Hoover come out and say that Jesus had no such "biological brothers". He just mentions that that is "not as important" as other things. Wha...?

The Perpetual Virginity of Mary is an infallible teaching of the Chirch! What gives here? Why can't he even mention that fact?

I'm also not quite convinced that the main reason Protestants dispute the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother is because it is a "closet argument for celibacy"; my perception is that they are usually targeting the honor which we give Mary as the Mother of God. (Which they misread as worship due only to God.

posted by DRH 6/02/2003 02:53:00 PM

Corndog's Culture Corner
One of my favorite films of all time.... Freaks! A movie set in a circus freak show that starred actual freaks! Can it get any cooler? No, it can't. It really can't. Just look at these cool pictures

posted by DRH 5/24/2003 12:31:00 AM

The Valley!
No, not geeky Sillicon Valley (yawn)... the Valley Girl Valley.... the San Fernando Valley! I found this cool site with all sorts of old photos of the Valley. Check it out... it's brought to you from the good folks over at CSUN.

posted by DRH 5/18/2003 12:26:00 PM

Job Search Weirdness
I have a meeting with a recruiter tomorrow which is business casual. In verifying my understanding of this common oxymoron, I found someone who has apparently devoted her life to business casual. I suppose I'm completely clueless, but why would you buy her biddness casual book (!) when you can get a general idea from this picture? For example, I'm sure this is not business casual.

posted by DRH 5/14/2003 11:03:00 AM

Leftists on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
The LA Weekly doesn a pretty good job of describing the nonsense that a lot of people are spouting these days. I've run across this from people that 90% of the time are as rational as can be. Something seriously weird happened, staring in the 90s and seriously unhinged American politics. It seemed to start with Clinton, but I'm not sure if he was a cause or a symptom. My running theory is that Clinton was a less that optimal pick for the Dems, but since they had been frozen out of the White House so consistently for so long, they stuck by him no matter how embarassing he was, because he had the ability to play to the crowds. This unhinged the Republicans, who went into constant attack mode.

Once Clinton was out, the Dems went unhinged, I supposed because the other side being unhinged gave them a gut feeling that the job of the opposition party was to be.. unhinged. So now they are in constnat attack mode, but in a weirdly modified way post-911 at the official party level.

posted by DRH 5/11/2003 12:48:00 PM

At Last.. SCIENCE!
Apparently, some enterprising folks over in the UK have set out to do a limited test of the Infinite Monkey Hypothesis. Way cool! Maybe next they can test the cat-and-toast perpetual motion machine! By-the-by, judging from the way they wrote it up, the dorks at BBC have never even heard of the Infinite Monkey Hypothesis before.

posted by DRH 5/11/2003 12:44:00 PM

Alternate Jobs for Geeks
Dang, I knew I should have studied that Conversational Klingon I could qualify for an important government job.

posted by DRH 5/11/2003 12:52:00 AM

Allegedly Funny Comedians
I stumbled on this cool breakdown of Dennis Miller's "style". Someone could almost write software to generate a Dennis Miller routine using this article as a basis. I'll have to remember to contact the GNU people and see if anyone is working on this.

posted by DRH 5/07/2003 09:40:00 AM

I Have More Free Time!

Well, in a manner of speaking. As of May 16th the company I work for goes away. Anyone know of a companies in California that are looking for a senior, object-oriented software engineer type? Tons of experience. I mean, Holy Moley ... I've been programming under Unix for twenty years. Doing C++ for fifteen. I'll be your friend if you find me a job. Send any leads to "jobsearch" at sizzlingweasel.com!

I can throw more buzzwords at ya, or even a resume if you want. Sample buzzwords: UML! HTML! Threads! CORBA!

posted by DRH 5/07/2003 12:05:00 AM

Doonesbury (sigh)
Yup, Doonesbury can now be classified as the Walking Dead, a soulless zombie of it's former self. I realized that when I saw this Sunday strip in the New Orleans airport. Gags about freedom fries, fer cryin' out loud? That's simply old news.. check out this article from March 13th! How un-topical can a "topical" cartoon be?

Trudeu seems to be trying to be up-to-date -- adding refences to e-bay and such -- but it just don't work.

posted by DRH 5/06/2003 11:29:00 PM

Coca-Cola presents... Nazi Robots!

Check 'em out.

posted by DRH 5/06/2003 12:47:00 AM

First News Article Read on Returning Home
Apparently, we now need to send peacekeeping troops to the UN building. It's a beautiful world.

posted by DRH 5/05/2003 12:14:00 AM

Look for me this Weekend!
You might find me at the OysterCam, JazzFestCam or the BurboCam. Email me a picture if you see me. I'm heading for New Orleans Thursday morning!

posted by DRH 4/30/2003 01:11:00 AM

Die, Gnomes, Die!

See lawn gnomes die a grisly death!

posted by DRH 4/30/2003 01:07:00 AM

Polls? In Iraq?
Moooo....

posted by DRH 4/29/2003 12:36:00 AM

It's Only a Flesh Wound
Yet another Iraqi Information Minister flash animation. An homage to the Black Knight. None shall pass! There are some very odd things on that site. I wish I could read me some of that foreign jibber-jabber. I'm relatively clueless as to what all that is about.

Here's one that lets you be more creative! Cast the IIM in his own scene!

posted by DRH 4/29/2003 12:28:00 AM

"Hello, My Name is... SCOTT"
This is cool. Some guy named Scott has apparently been wearing one of those "Hello, name is..." stickers for more than 900 days now. As with most things, I'm pretty sure there was a Seinfeld or Simpsons episode dealing with a similar idea, but I digress. Scott has even written a book about his experiences. That's crazy, and I can respect that.

posted by DRH 4/28/2003 11:41:00 PM

Corndog's Hollywood Haunt!
Sadly, the only decent cafe I know of in the L.A. area is the Bourgeois Pig in Hollywood. Happily, it is one of the best cafes that I know anywhere. Tasty coffee and funky surroundings. The occasional appearance of Dennis Woodruff and other such interesting folk. It could use just a touch more light in the front for those of us who want to read words on paper rather than an LCD screen, that is a quibble.

As an added bonus, the store attached to the Pig sells Mr. T soap-on-a-rope. Now that's cool.

posted by DRH 4/28/2003 10:30:00 PM

No Show for OJ!
Whew! That was close. The scary thing, though, is that apparently it's OJ that has the sense to refuse the "reality show deals, not the "creative" types.

posted by DRH 4/25/2003 09:05:00 AM

Another non-Scandal Scandal
Next up on the firing line, Sen. Rick Santorum. He's the latest to undergo the "trial by quote". The pattern is absurdly familiar. The press trumpets a single sentence, giving none of the immediate context; instead the accounts give a couple of paragraphs that properly bias the reader. In this case, they even go further and actually insert the word "gay" into the sentence! The "hurtfullness" of the statement comes from, it is stated the comparision of homosexuality and incest, but the most extreme person would have to admit that that only holds water if the word "gay" was meant to be in the sentence in the first place.

The transcript of the interview is available, and it's hard to squeeze the idea that Santorum is making some kind of blistering attack against gays. He's making a legal argument. Maybe the people that want to oppose him should put their energy into refuting it?

Without the magic extra word, the senator is obvious talking about the implications of the discovery of an absolute right to "consensual sex" being discovered in the Constitution. Interestingly, he seems to be logfically correct. If there is a Constitutional right to sex-between-consenting-adults, on what grounds does one ban incest (as long as eveyone is over 18), polygamy and adultery?

And now, the cartoon version of the story
Some random White House staffer apparently made some off-hand remark about Sen. John Kerry "look(ing) French. Sen. Kerry has equated this with (I kid you know) "the politics of personal destruction". Boo hoo hoo hoo.

By the way were the people that allegedly called Kerry "unpatriotic" ever named?

posted by DRH 4/23/2003 09:34:00 AM

Mmmrrrrooowwwww!!!!

posted by DRH 4/23/2003 12:57:00 AM

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

posted by DRH 4/20/2003 11:17:00 AM

IKEA Messes Up
.. and makes Germans giggle. On the other had, a Japanese company meant to do this. Then again, there's this Brittish product (recipe for homemade at the Beeb). It's a wacky, wacky world.

posted by DRH 4/19/2003 11:06:00 AM

Your Easter Ham
Very fresh!

posted by DRH 4/19/2003 01:59:00 AM

First Amendment 101
Arg. Yet another instance of someone that simply simply doesn't understand the first amendment. Unless the baseball Hall of Fame has suddenly become a government agency, being un-invited to speak there has nothing to do with the First Amendment. Well, I take that back. It does have a lot to do with the First Amendmendment. Barring Robbins from speaking is an excersize of the First Amendment rights of a private organization, the Hall of Fame.

Apparently, Tim Robbins thinks he has a constitutional right to force other people to listen to him. Sigh.

It is a tribute to his acting skills that he has managed to convincingly portray reasonably smart people. I heard audio snips of his speech and he certainly was putting on a Smart Person Voice... it seemed vaughly like an old recording of a 1920s or -30s politician. A Wilsonian/FDR-ish tone, very big on pronouncing every. word. separately.

posted by DRH 4/18/2003 08:41:00 PM

Mittens the Kitten!
Sniff ... sniff.... mmmmmmm....

posted by DRH 4/16/2003 11:57:00 PM

Doonesbury -- Voice of the Paleomedia?
Dang. I remember back in the 70s when Doonesbury was cutting edge. Well, some of it could be that that was just my perception as a relatively naive student. Let's say topical, anyway. Anyhow, every now and then, I take a look at Trudeau's latest and almost always come away disappointed. Take a look at this monday's strip Just after we find out that CNN was covering up news in Iraq, Doonesbury is taking cliche shots at Fox News.

One thing I've noticed is that way too many characters are in the media. Reporters, radio commentators, columnists, advertisers, web publishes, etc. It's amazingly media-centric. He's writing from a comfy place within the media and just can't see outside anymore. The "established" media tends to see Fox as an upstart, so Trudeau does too. CNN is "in the club", so why fret about them? That's my theory, anyway. Well... maybe not a theory, just something that popped into my head while reading the Doonesbury website.

Ah, I think I'll just go read Get Fuzzy, then go to bed.

posted by DRH 4/16/2003 11:18:00 PM

Young Dummies in Love
Next weekend in Vegas... a Ventriloquist Wedding!

Together with their dummies

Eyvonne Dee Carter

and

Valentine Vox 

Invite you to share with them

a celebration of love

on Sunday, the twenty seventh of April

Two Thousand and Three

at ten o'clock in the morning

at the Imperial Palace Hotel

posted by DRH 4/16/2003 10:42:00 PM

Quote of the Day (belated)
We will welcome them with bullets and shoes.
-- Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf

posted by DRH 4/15/2003 10:19:00 PM

Set that Bar low!
Nobody sane expects Bush to go on some kind of pre-emptive reverse jihad against random countries. So the announcement of a group to prevent exactly that is a cool idea. In a year or two, they can report that their organization was a complete success! (Kind of like my lucky keychain ... it repells bengal tigers. Not one tiger has attacked me in the 2 years I've owned the thing. Success!)

Tim Robbins' quote is amusing though. A few talk show hosts apparently made fun of him, so he speaks ever-so-darkly about ramifications. Ooooooo.... Tim's bravery will make their success ever so much sweeter.

By the by... has anyone actually called him "unpatriotic", or is he just pulling a Kerry here?

posted by DRH 4/15/2003 09:57:00 PM

Now these are cool movie titles!
Here's one and here's another.

posted by DRH 4/15/2003 09:34:00 PM

Gratuitous Technology Dept.
How long could you have this machine in your house before takin' an axe to it?

posted by DRH 4/15/2003 09:29:00 PM

Still Topical for the Next 15 minutes (maybe)
This might be one of your last chances to look at a cheesy Saddam video. Live it up while you can. Sorta like Saddam, I guess. They also have a dorky Dubbya video (it's very Bear Country Jamboree). Fair is fair, I guess.

posted by DRH 4/15/2003 09:20:00 PM

Artsy Craftsy!

posted by DRH 4/13/2003 11:11:00 AM

I was right
Check out ebay!

posted by DRH 4/13/2003 11:06:00 AM

The Protocols of the Elders of Goyim
This article caught my eye... it makes some good points about some of the spouting one hears in certain circles about Bush's alleged apocalyptic views. There is a small but significant wedge of the population that is completely out of touch with the bulk of the rest of the country. To them, anyone who is at all serious about their religion is automatically part of some dark, scary "other".

It's a minor-league version of the way a rumor about the early Christians (and later, Jews) were spread... that they were kidnapping children to make break with their blood. The removal of those hearing and repeating the rumor from the targets of the rumor was the key to its spread.

posted by DRH 4/13/2003 10:59:00 AM

Martin Sheen Welches on a Bet?
This is amusing. Has Janeane Garofalo bought the orchids yet?

posted by DRH 4/13/2003 10:49:00 AM

Saddam is... the Lady's Man!
Wowie! Saddam's swinging bachelor pad has been discovered! I like the Franzetta-esque "art". But does he have any black velvet Elvis? If so, there is surely a wall safe behind it where the WMDs are hidden.

posted by DRH 4/13/2003 10:47:00 AM

What did we Know and When did we Know it
Check out CNN honcho, Eason Jordan's admission that they covered up news so that they could have a Baghdad bureau. It's simply astounding .. Saddam's son Uday felt so confident in his "relationship" with the grand CNN poobah, that he told him ahead of time that he was going to try to asasssinate two of his own relatives who had defected to Jordan and even King Hussain! And check out this one:

I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.

So much for any kind of 'objective news"... no reporting at all? Why not just pull out of Iraq? If CNN couldn't report honestly, what is the point of having a presence "on the ground"?

Speaking of not letting us know, I found this little number from Scott Ritter, the arms-inspector-turned-antiwar-activist. Check it out. He knew all about the kids that Saddam had locked up, but didn't want to tell anyone just how bad it was. Why? They might want to try and free the kids.

You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?
[...] It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.

posted by DRH 4/12/2003 11:45:00 AM

Coming Soon to EBAY...

Limited Edition Saddam Cards!
Move over Magic-the-Gathering geeks! (Do they still exist?) Forget Pokemon!

posted by DRH 4/11/2003 10:04:00 AM

EU "Investigating" Iraq Contracts
Check this out. The EU wants to wet it's beak, so they are "investigating". [Coming up next: Burger King investigates the Big Mac.]

posted by DRH 4/11/2003 09:56:00 AM

Nancy Pelosi's Secret Plan to Win Iraq
Nancy Pelosi says that we "could have probably brought down that statue [of Saddam] for a lot less". Now wait just a minute... she came out against regime change. How the heck did she plan to bring that statue down, exactly?

posted by DRH 4/11/2003 09:52:00 AM

O, Canada 's a bit late
There's growing support for the war in Iraq among Canadians. Aboot time, eh?

posted by DRH 4/10/2003 02:37:00 AM

Office Fun!
Try the Virtual Stapler! I especially like the Stapler Haikus:

    Rough clippings gather

    Rustling in their loose embrace

    Stapler brings order

posted by DRH 4/10/2003 02:27:00 AM

The Arab Street?
The Washington Post had an interesting survey of the reaction of the Arab world on the liberation of Baghdad, as did Reuters. The link to the Arab News is particularly striking.

Now it’s obvious that the Iraqis aren’t going to put up a credible fight, and it’s equally clear that as a result the world has changed into pretty much what the Americans wanted it to be. The pride the Arabs felt in the initial stages of the invasion, before those legendary “pockets of resistance” halting the advance of the world’s only superpower were revealed as a myth, has been replaced by immense shame and humiliation.

It's as if it's completely beyond the beyond that maybe the Iraqis just didn't like their government. There's no hint that that even occured to John R. Bradley (nice Arabic name!) as even a remote possibility. Iraqis should oppose the US like good little mindless robots. Just like Mr Bradley should oppose the US because he just knows ahead of time that this is simply a colonial expansion, etc. "C'mon, people -- stick to the script!", you can almost hear him say.

posted by DRH 4/10/2003 02:26:00 AM

HAPPY FUN WITH CORNDOG!!!

posted by DRH 4/10/2003 01:08:00 AM

What a difference a couple of days make...
Check out the "conventional wisdom" from Newsweek, dated 4/7/2003. "Flawed war plan"? "Pyrrhic" victory? Better still... "arrogant blunder for the ages"?

posted by DRH 4/10/2003 01:01:00 AM

Whatever happened to the "No Litmus Tests" Mantra?
Apparently Sen. Kerry thinks that all that allegedly high-minded rhetoric from the Democrats about "no litmus tests" on abortion are crap. Well, at least that litmus tests are fine as long as the requirement is that the judge be pro-abortion rather than anti-abortion.

Yeah, I know, that's supposed to be "pro-choice" in the vague, politically correct lingo that keeps from sating the word "abortion" ... but I choose to write clearly on this. Kerry is pro-abortion in exactly the same way that the NRA is pro-gun. In fact, very much more so.

"Huh?", you say? Well let's look at it. Kerry is for the government paying for and encouraging abortions. The gun nuts over at the NRA only want to be able to buy a gun with their own money. The nuttiest of gun nuts doesn't demand that the government give guns to citizens "on demand".

posted by DRH 4/09/2003 09:55:00 AM

BBC Considered Harmful
Apparently the government run BBC is so biased against their own government(!), that the British flagship has decided to turn it off. One of their main correspondents covering the war complained about glaringly false reports being broadcast. The BBC has, according to several sources, done an amazingly poor job in reporting the news in an even-handed fashion, actually being biased in favor of the Iraqis! See Andrew Sullivan's weblog for lots of examples.

posted by DRH 4/09/2003 01:48:00 AM

You've Come a Long Way, Baby
Women can officially enlist in the Islamic jihad. Al Quida has opened training camps so that women can become suicide bombers and martyr themselves just like their male colleagues.

posted by DRH 4/07/2003 01:05:00 AM

A Tale of Two Websites
So here's to celebrity websites the creepy Melanie Griffith site and the cheapy Julie Newmar site. You get the feeling that if Julie Newmar had a fraction of the budget that Griffith had, she'd have a way cool website. But the Griffith site... no amount of money could make it less creepy. It's like being trapped in a high tea with 50-something female new age enthusiasts.

posted by DRH 4/06/2003 12:48:00 PM

How Davis can save his Job!
The incompentence of Gov. Davis might actually reduce smoking in California by raising the price of cigarettes yet again. The driving for this time is Davis' mismanagement of the state budget. There's a strong recall effort against him.

He can save himself. All he has to do is claim that this is a grand strategy toi reduce cancer and... viola! ... he stays in.

posted by DRH 4/06/2003 12:30:00 PM

Wacky Animated Cartoon
Yakkity-Yak, Bomb Iraq I'm fairly sure that the song is mostly a rip-off of one from the Gulf War, though.

posted by DRH 4/06/2003 03:24:00 AM

Sounds a Bit Premature to Me
Apparently, the new govenment for Iraq might be set up in the next few days.

posted by DRH 4/06/2003 03:16:00 AM

Big Test for the UN Coming Soon!
North Korea has explicitly stated that it will completely ignore any resolution from the UN. Saddam's already shown that the UN can be gamed into irrelevance... pretend to go along, get away with doing as little to comply as possible and wait for the UN to get bored and go home. Now we'll find out if the UN will be able to get off its butt for soemone in blatant non-compliance. Could get scary.

posted by DRH 4/06/2003 03:00:00 AM

Homeland Security Pyramid Scheme
Lookee!

posted by DRH 4/05/2003 06:00:00 PM

So, now I'm listening to KNEW-910...
... and there's some talk show where they have the founder of Code Pink ("Medea" something). Apparently, this was recorded 6 days ago. She's saying that she's certain that Iraq will be a quagmire and the battle will go on and on. (What a difference a week makes.) What strikes me is that she's presenting herself as some kind of expert because her group popped over to Iraq for a couple days to "talk with Iraqi women", etc. ... when will people learn that a weekend trip simply doesn't make you an expert? Cheez...

posted by DRH 4/05/2003 01:35:00 AM

Some Analysis of the Rumsfeld Flap
Yeah, that issue is soooo last week, but this article is a good last look...

posted by DRH 4/05/2003 01:11:00 AM

I just realized something...
So I'm reading this article about John Kerry, who's violated the traditional taboo against criticizing a war once it's underway. So now he's making all sorts of noise about how "questioning the war isn't the same as being unpatriotic"... but what public official has called him "unpatriotic", exactly? Being critical of John Kerry isn't the same as calling him unpatriotic.

One thing occurred to me; right now Democrats are despirate to be called unpatriotic right now. They want to be able to portray themselves as martyrs victimized by a new McCarthyism. That's my theory, anyhow... it's kind of a double reverse McCarthyism. If true, it's an interesting strategy...

And another thing ... it occurs to me that the mantra I've been hearing, "dissent is patriotic" is simply wrong. Some is, some ain't. I think the correct formulation is "dissent can be patriotic".

posted by DRH 4/05/2003 12:24:00 AM

Multicultural Humor Corner
Up for a wacky Swedish political cartoon? I know I am!

posted by DRH 4/05/2003 12:05:00 AM

Mmmmm..... Japanese Ice Cream!

Hungry?

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 11:48:00 PM

Man Bites Dog!
Only public radio station in the country where hosts can't "take positions on controversial issues" found!

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 09:48:00 AM

NO NO NO NO NO
....no no no no...

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 02:19:00 AM

The Cry of the Opressed Iraqi!
The following quote is just all over the media today... wouldn't it be great if it ends up being in the standard history books?

What would the Americans bring? "Democracy," the man said, his voice rising to lift each word to greater prominence. "Whiskey. And sexy!" -- NY Times

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 01:59:00 AM

Prepare to be Very Annoyed
If you click here.

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 01:36:00 AM

Weekend at Saddam's

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri says Saddam is alive.
Place your bets.

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 01:00:00 AM

What is going on here?
This article by Robert Fisk showed up on the news sites a few hours ago. Does thism man live in some kind of parallel universe? Everyone is reporting on the airport being attacked and he claims nothing happened? At all? How could everyone else be lying? What would be their motivation for doing so?

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 12:43:00 AM

My Imitation of Robert Fisk
British marines routed by Iraqi civilians! Activists all over the world are seeing this and rising up! How can the Ango-Americans stand up to such force?

In the face of such passion, Leading Airman Dave Husbands said the marines were beaten from the start.

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 12:31:00 AM

Who Armed Saddam, Again?
A blogger called "The Dissident Frogman" presents an informative graph that drives the point home.

posted by DRH 4/04/2003 12:21:00 AM

Life Imitating Simpsons!

A New York restraunt serves tomaccos!

posted by DRH 4/03/2003 02:20:00 AM

More on the Military Dolphins
tee hee.

posted by DRH 4/03/2003 02:02:00 AM

Phesheya "Scoop" Dube, cub reporter
Not the journalist he seemed to be...

posted by DRH 4/02/2003 02:08:00 AM

That's it.. the French are Hopeless
Just read. I'm pretty much convinced that no amount of diplomacy could have gotten them to even deal honestly with us. This seems a heckuva lot more deep-seated (and long-term) than any dispute that might have arisen recently over Iraq. Something has been festering for years, and we just didn't notice. The popularity of that French book claiming that the US orchestrated 9/11 probably was a tip-off.

posted by DRH 4/02/2003 01:38:00 AM

Cute Joke
The Pope was visiting DC and President Bush takes him out for an afternoon on the Potomac...sailing on the Sequoia, the presidential yacht.

They were admiring the sights when, all of a sudden, the Pope's hat (zucchetto) blew off his head and out into the water.

Secret service guys start to launch a boat, but Bush waves them off, saying "Wait, wait. I'll take care of this. Don't worry."

Bush then steps off the yacht onto the surface of the water and walks out to the Holy Father's little hat, bends over and picks it up, then walks back to the yacht and climbs aboard. He hands the hat to the Pope amid stunned silence.

The next morning, the New York Times carries the story, The banner headline is:

BUSH CAN'T SWIM

posted by DRH 4/02/2003 01:25:00 AM

You May Bristle at the Suggestion, but...

Beware of Brush Monkeys!

posted by DRH 4/02/2003 01:11:00 AM

Cool EBay Auction (but long gone)
Look anyway.

posted by DRH 4/02/2003 12:46:00 AM

Sargent Schultz Alert!
In the "I see nooooothiiing" department, here's a scary example of unremarkable behavior, at least according to the Times of London.

posted by DRH 4/01/2003 01:28:00 AM

Orwell Alert!
Stanford students attempt to shut down people they disagree with ... in the name of "academic freedom"! Wha...?

posted by DRH 4/01/2003 01:21:00 AM

Iraq War Kitch Alert!

This should not exist.

posted by DRH 4/01/2003 01:15:00 AM

What if the USofA Loses the War?
Peter Arnett's America

posted by DRH 3/31/2003 11:54:00 PM

That was quick
MSNBC says buh bye to Peter Arnett. I was sure there'd be a circling of wagons, at least for a while. Impressive. It lwon't harm Arnett's wallet, he's now an official martyr of the left and will be getting some serious speaking fees and such. And the viewers of MSNBC will hopefully be getting better news coverage. Everybody wins.

posted by DRH 3/31/2003 08:37:00 AM

Peter Arnett
What the heck is up with this guy? It's really hard to come up with a reasonable excuse for the guy. According to the article in the Washington Post, here's what he said:

He said the United States is reappraising the battlefield and delaying the war, maybe for a week, "and rewriting the war plan. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan."

"Clearly, the American war plans misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces," Arnett said during the interview broadcast by Iraq's satellite television station and monitored by The Associated Press in Egypt.

Arnett said it is clear that within the United States there is growing opposition to the war and a growing challenge to President Bush about the war's conduct.

"Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States," he said. "It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments."

The obvious things here is that he's on the state-run broadcasting arm of a enemy government... which in and of itself isn't horrible, but what did he say? Well, first, he said that the Allies are in trouble (based on what? a week?). Second, that the anti-war movement in the US is strengthening (based on what? he's in Bagdad, for crying out loud!). Essentially, what he's doing is acting as domestic propaganda for Saddam's Baath regime. Now he's supposed to be taken seriously as a journalist?

posted by DRH 3/30/2003 11:18:00 PM

Saddam pulled a knife on Papal Envoy!
I'm amazed I didn't here about this before. Here's the story:

When Saddam Hussein met with papal emissary Cardinal Roger Etchegaray in Baghdad a few weeks ago, the Iraqi dictator responded to questions about why he wasn't cooperating with United Nations weapons inspectors by drawing a long knife. Holding it for the cardinal to see, he ran his finger along the sharp edge of the blade--it was an obvious gesture at intimidation.

But Mr. Etchegaray wasn't stricken with fear. He simply reached into his pocket and drew out a rosary.

"We Christians have weapons too," the cardinal told the dictator.

posted by DRH 3/30/2003 01:02:00 PM

Poll!

Who would win in a fight?

Ronald McDonald

The Burger King

Select an answer and click to vote Do not select an answer and click to view result

posted by DRH 3/30/2003 12:16:00 PM

Ever wonder how google works?

Find out!

posted by DRH 3/29/2003 12:34:00 AM

I Really Want This Video

"Uncle Saddam"... check it out!

posted by DRH 3/29/2003 12:20:00 AM

AntiSemitic Nut Jobs at it Again
It seems like the big protest places like San Francisco and France. It probably shouldn't be surprising, given the anti -Israel and even -Jew nonsense that is spewed by some "peace" activists.

posted by DRH 3/28/2003 02:14:00 AM

Remember to Pray for Me!
Mary Beth Bonacci, writing in Envoy Magazine, says something I've wanted to say, but haven't:

"If anyone stands up here and announces that I’m already in heaven, I want that person removed — forcibly — from the room." And "odds are quite good that, if I did as well as I hope to, I’m currently in purgatory. And I won’t be getting out without some help.

"So pray for me. Keep praying for me. Don’t stop until you’re ready to join me. If you’re Protestant, pray for me anyway. Humor me. Consider it one final favor."

She expresses it a heckuva lot better than I would, as well.

posted by DRH 3/28/2003 12:37:00 AM

Optimus Prime Goes to War!

Read his inspirational story!

posted by DRH 3/28/2003 12:14:00 AM

Warning!!!
Only 4 more shopping days 'till April Fools!

posted by DRH 3/27/2003 11:53:00 PM

OK, So Maybe All Flash Isn't Evil
Just 99%.. this one cracked me up. It's a quiz! I'm disappointed that Wheat Thins weren't involved somehow, though.

posted by DRH 3/27/2003 11:49:00 PM

Pacifism: That Old French Passion
I came accross an interview of a noted French intellectual, Pascal Bruckner, during my evening surfing tonight. It struck me as an interesting take on the perspective of France regarding the world in general and the US in particular. A brief quote to get your interest:

We have just gone through several weeks of almost Soviet anti-interventionist unanimity, in which the internal French debate over Iraq has consisted in maintaining, throughout the media, that war is the supreme evil. All the French moral and intellectual authorities thought they were obliged to speak up and assure the prince [i.e. Chirac] that he was right to oppose Washington's war machine.

It's encouraging to see that there is some kind of diversity of thought in France, especially with the cartoonish looneyness to which their government officials have sunk.

posted by DRH 3/27/2003 11:10:00 PM

Asked what he was doing, Sheen stated: "Mmrrffrrfll"

posted by DRH 3/27/2003 12:28:00 AM

PETA Disses Patriotic Dolphins!
Well apparently PETA thinks that those nice dolphins helping to get ships full of humaitarian aid to Iraq safely are a bunch of slackers. According to PETA, it's a bad idea to depend on dolphins, since they will do a half-assed job. Apparently they slack off unless they understand that lives are at stake... standing around on the gulf floor, eatin' donuts and such.

Maybe PETA is just cranky because they just lost yet another frivolous lawsuit.

What will really be fun is when PETA funds out that
Morocco has offered us 2,000 monkeys, trained to detonate land mines. The fur will fly then. So to speak.

posted by DRH 3/27/2003 12:02:00 AM

Misty watercolor memories of the way we were (in 1999)
Sigh... it was so much fun back in the day a company like this one could have actually gotten funding. Those were the days, my friend!

posted by DRH 3/26/2003 01:32:00 AM

An Iraqi Exile's Take on the War
Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi exile and author of the Democratic Principles Working Group report for the State Department's Future of Iraq Project
has been writing a journal on the war for The New Republic. Check it out, he has some good insights as to what's going on in regards to the planning for post-war Iraq and his hopes and fears about the same. Also his perspective on the bombs being dropped where he has many friends and relatives is striking:

I am worried. Like every other Iraqi I know, I have friends and relatives in Baghdad. I am nauseous with anxiety for their safety. But still those bombs are music to my ears. They are like bells tolling for liberation in a country that has been turned into a gigantic concentration camp. One is not supposed to say such things in the kind of liberal, pacifist, and deeply anti-American circles of academia, in which I normally live and work. The truth is jarring even to my own ears. -- Kanan Makiya's latest update

posted by DRH 3/26/2003 01:09:00 AM

Moore Booed? (Gasp)
So Michael Moore was booed quite widely when he went off on his diatribe tonight. I'm honestly surprised ... I would have thought that the industry audience would have just clapped like trained monkeys. Is there actually some diversity of opinion there? Interesting...

I'm still not sure how some of that was supposed to parse, though... "ficticious duct tape"? Wha..? Does he not believe in the existence of duct tape? Maybe he asked for "duck tape" my mistake?

posted by DRH 3/24/2003 02:15:00 AM

Human Spam!
Using cellular/web connections, protestors have been coordinating swarming and re-swarming after each time the cops break them up, according to the San Jose Murky News. Essentially, they have become human spam. Think about it. Batches of unwanted messages(protestors) clog up your mailbox(roads) making it impossible to get to work. It's just a matter of time before people with cell phones descend on major cities with signs that read "DISCOUNT VIAGRA" and "EARN MONEY FAST".

posted by DRH 3/24/2003 02:05:00 AM

Quote of the Day, Runner Up
"This is Bullshit!" -- worker at a homeless agency on Turk Street. Read the context.

posted by DRH 3/23/2003 12:23:00 PM

Quote of the Day
"The lesson for the children of Columbine this week is that violence is an accepted means by which to solve a conflict" -- Michael Moore. Amazing how a producer of "satire" is blissfully unaware that he sounds like Maude Flanders. "What about the children? Won't somebody please think of the CHILDREN?"

posted by DRH 3/23/2003 11:03:00 AM

Fun Thing to Do
Go to www.google.com. Then, type "french military victories" into the text box
and click "Im feeling lucky"...

posted by DRH 3/22/2003 02:47:00 PM

"Shocked ... Back to Reality"
A group of anti-war American "human shields" have crossed into Jordan with 14 hours of video. Here is a quote:

Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head." -- UPI

posted by DRH 3/22/2003 01:43:00 PM

Call the Wahmbulence!

Lots of the San Francisco protestors broke the law and we thrown in jail overnight. Now they are crying about it. That's what civil disobediance is, guys. You violate the law and willingly pay the penalty. My favorite line: "When they did get fed, they got cheese or peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches that didn't taste great". Boo hoo hoo hoooo....

posted by DRH 3/22/2003 11:23:00 AM

BLOG Recommend
Check out this Bay Area high school student's blog... great stuff!

posted by DRH 3/22/2003 02:59:00 AM

Going the extra mile to support Democracy

Something occurred to me last night... whatever happened to all other people who, just after the 2000 election, were decrying the Electoral College and the "winner take all" system that the states use? Why did they fall into silence so quickly?

posted by DRH 3/22/2003 02:44:00 AM

Iraq News
The impression this article in the Guardian gives is not that Iraqis didn't want us to go in and topple Saddam, it's that they are (1) disappointed that we didn't do so sooner and (2) worried that we will decide not to. It reminds me of an article from the New Republic not too log ago, that talked about how the Iraqi people were diappointed last time we said we were going to liberate them.

posted by DRH 3/22/2003 01:18:00 AM

Research about things that matter
I don't quite know what to make of this. Heck, I like the classic hourglass. But then, I don't read Playboy, either. No, I don't look at the pictures either. Weasel words? Moi? Where was I? Oh, yes.,, hourglass. This bodes well... let those other compete for the women built like 13 year old boys. BWAH HAHAHA HA....

By the by.. how does one go about getting a grant to research such things?

posted by DRH 3/22/2003 12:42:00 AM

Meanwhile, back in the States...
Celebrites thevast majority of which have been going on about how there is no link between terrorism and Iraq, are freaking out and demanding armored cars for Oscar night or just won't travel to them. And the Democratic National Committee is urging Democrats to drink Daschle's Kool-aide; I suspect that the majority have better political instincts than that, if nothing else. Meanwhile, even the salad dressing industry has been thrown into chaos!

posted by DRH 3/21/2003 08:07:00 AM

Homeland Security Fashion Tips


Something for the ladies!

posted by DRH 3/21/2003 12:29:00 AM

The BLIXkreig Continues...
Iraq has launched the missles they don't have. Lets hope they don't used the biological weapons they don't have.

posted by DRH 3/21/2003 12:22:00 AM

Trainwreck du Jour

Monica can use the word "genre" in a in a sentence and gets her own "reality show" as a reward! You just know it's going to su... Sorry, that would have been a cheap shot. One can hope that at least it will provide some academic loser with a job.

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 11:55:00 PM

Larry "Bud" Melman's Evil Twin!

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 11:49:00 PM

Way to Pressure for Disarmament, Guys!
Apparently even last year, France and Germany were trading like mad with Iraq.

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 11:40:00 PM

Eeeewwwwwwww......
San Francisco, the Athens of the West Coast. Sigh.

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 11:08:00 PM

What is it good for?

http://www.protestwarrior.com

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 08:44:00 AM

William Shatner has a BLOG
E I E I O

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 01:10:00 AM

Get you mind off the war

How about a nice game of Ro Sham Bo, Dr. Falken?

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 12:55:00 AM

Quote of the Day
"In response to Bush's ultimatum, Saddam's son, Uday Hussein, said Bush was stupid. He said Bush wanted to attack Iraq because of his family. And he said American boys would die. At least someone is finding the New York Times editorial page helpful these days." -- Ann Coulter

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 12:36:00 AM

Hopeful News!
Reportedly, 2/3 of Iraqi troups are ready to ready to surrender without a fight! Let's pray that the Republican Guard does the same.

posted by DRH 3/20/2003 12:32:00 AM

An odd article in the New York Times
I suppose that, as a native Californian I should be flattered that on such a big news day (war starting and such) the NYT takes time to cover what "we" think. To be honest, it didn't even occur to me to fret about what New Yorkers think and feel on this day... at least no more so than what, oh, Virginians, Texans, Alaskans or Arizonians might think. In retrospect, I should have, though.. since the 9/11 attack happend there and it's natural that they be more freaked out than the average bear.

But why would the Times decide top cover SF and LA today? Is it the assumption that, as prime "blue" area and having been as far as possible from the 9/11 attack, "we" can be counted on to agree with their editorial board? Is it a reflection of the "only the coasts matter" mindset? Much is made of how differnet the West coast is from the east coast... but both are probably more diffeent from, say, anywhere in-between... so contrast doesn't seem to be the big thing. Though I suppose it could be to re-enforce tehir self-image as the "serious" side of the country? The Hollywood jackasses they mention in the article sure don't make us look all that bright: "During some lunchtime and office-cooler chatter there has even been longing for President Clinton, a Hollywood favorite, who, the reasoning goes, would never have allowed a war to play havoc with Oscar night, one of the state's most hallowed traditions."
Arg.

posted by DRH 3/19/2003 11:39:00 PM

Starved for Entertainment?
Here's a nice way to waste 25 bucks.

posted by DRH 3/19/2003 11:30:00 PM

Who says all Canadians are BOOOORRRRIIIINNNG?
One W.R. McDougall is apparently quite the excitable looney. Not a rare thing on the 'net, of course... but he's Canadian. It's like finding a jalepeño in your nonfat vanilla yogurt.. you just have to take notice.

Now I really, really enjoy a good rant. Maybe it's a character flaw, but they just crack me up. I picture the little flecks of white spittle flying from his mouth as he speaks the words in his jerimaid. I picture his tin foil hat Read it aloud in wacky accents. It's fun.

I could go on, but Cops is starting and I have a big bag of Mickey D's to eat, as I sit on my special extra-wide chair. Then, I'll get in my SUV and do donuts in the Safeway parking lot. Maybe get a pie as long as I'm there. It might sound boring, but I'm just killing time 'till the government nukes me so it can blame terrorists.

posted by DRH 3/19/2003 09:19:00 PM

Whoa...
I found a link to this on Andrew Sullivan's blog. A peace activist on some radio call-in show had to confront and actual Iraqi who was driven from his country by Saddam. Apparently, he called to question her on her alleged concern about "the Iraqi people". It's hard to listen to when she goes into giggle mode without being terribly embarassed for her.

posted by DRH 3/19/2003 12:16:00 AM

Got Milk?
See who does!

posted by DRH 3/19/2003 12:03:00 AM

Is This Real?
Could a stalking service be not only legal, but legit? How does one pick the right comeplete stranger on which to blow their thousands of dollars?

posted by DRH 3/18/2003 11:54:00 PM

Mel Gibson's Passion
Wow! Read this article by Raymond Arroyo of EWTN on the movie that Mel Gibson is making, focussing on the Passion of Christ. There are stories floatindg around that Mel is associated with some odd anti-Vatican II splinter group, though... what a shame, if so.

posted by DRH 3/15/2003 05:26:00 PM

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!!!!

Just a friendly warning.

posted by DRH 3/15/2003 01:25:00 PM

Eat an Animal for PETA DAY!!!!

Today is apparently Eat an Animal for PETA Day. I'm glad I saw that before it was too late to participate. It's Lent and I've given up meat, so I guess I'll have to eat salmon. Or maybe I'll take it literally and eat a trout, crab or other entire critter.

Take a look at that sick ad that PETA is running... the Nazis considered Jews to be on the level of animals... and so does, PETA apparently. Come to think of it, Hitler was a vegitarian (he refered to broth as "corpse tea") and Göring threatened to throw vivisectionists into concentration camps. (See The Nazi War on Cancer, especially p. 129)

posted by DRH 3/15/2003 12:28:00 PM

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