NPR Story

Yesterday on NPR I heard a story about a contest...

In six words, give him guidance.
Offer ideas for his inaugural address.
Six memorable words for January 20th.

In six words, a President can say a lot: "To bind up the nation’s wounds" (Abraham Lincoln, 1865) "Pay any price, bear any burden" (John F. Kennedy, 1961)

So give your speech writing a try.

Alas, the contest was over by the time I heard... my suggestions:

I'm president? Scarlett Johansson? - call me
Cheney! Who's the man now dog?!
Doctor King? Malcolm X? Mission Accomplished

I don't think i'd have won.

Signs of the Times

The Love of Money... Nortel No More - considering how much of dallas commercial real estate was leased by these guys, i dont imagine that's going to go over well

A New Revelation... Obama to emerge from the belly of the Beast next week... *cough*

An Eye for an Eye... following up on my irony story... i understand the sentiment - but this somehow seems a bit much.

Being my Brother's Keeper - or not. Close the libraries to kids? sure - why not... after all there wasn't much outrage after the announcement that 'baby clothes/toys/cribs/things' cannot be resold on ebay/craigslist unless tested for lead. Nanny state wins again! Seriously - i want to market an alchemical spray that will turn the minuscule amounts of lead in paint in toys to gold. Call it 'Newton's Wonder Spray' after the greatest alchemical genius of all time. As Colbert would say, no one likes lead - but everyone likes gold!

The Bauerization of America

Let's talk about torture.

i know i know... these are monday conversations... but today is special - because yesterday "The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a 'life-threatening condition.'"

Ok. Now first off... this guy was a very very very bad person. He would have been on the planes if he could've been. There's very little question that this is 'one of the bad guys' - so let's not argue that. The question is - how do we choose to treat the bad guys? He isnt 'convicted' - he hasn't been tried - but he's guilty in that he certainly materially participated in bad things - and he'd do it again if we let him loose. No 'out on bail living in his multi-million dollar penthouse in manhattan' for him (he's not wealthy enough - let's not mention that 9/11 had a direct cost of $27.2b and Madoff did nearly twice as much damage).

So we know he's a bad guy... and maybe he knows things about other bad people. Maybe he knows things about other plans. What would Jack Bauer do? There's the problem. See - breaking out the feathers, thumbscrews, goats, and Cardinal Biggle's soft cushions doesnt actually get you truth. Ask John McCain. Professional interrogators will tell you this - just as our propaganda ministers will tell you that stories like this go a long way to seriously damaging our ability to gain cooperation from those abroad.

W said we do not torture yet his own "convening authority for military commissions" has admitted as much. WE HAVE LAWS - people MUST be tried over this. Obama cannot just ignore the high crimes of the Bush administration. We cannot have a government that pursues perjury charges against baseball players but not against those guilty of imposing stalin-esque ideological purity tests upon the department civil rights enforcement at the department of justice. Yes the wounds are ugly - but they are not resolved by saying 'it's different now' and slapping a bandaid on it. Criminals MUST be punished - or there is NO DISINCENTIVE FOR THEM DOING IT AGAIN. We are not ready for 'the healing process' - we have yet to cut out the cancer that has infected this government and this nation.

Now all that said... this is a BAD person. He doesn't need to be out there killing people - but there is a proper process for putting this guy in a small cell for the rest of his life - just as there is a process for putting those responsible for torturing him in similar cells. We need to follow it.

The More You Know

It's good to see who's running our government.

Apparently we arent even allowed to coordinate peace when it comes to these guys.

Happy Monday

Sometimes we struggle with the concept of irony...
fat people complaining about fat people - meh...
but then there are stories which bring it home.

Just... wrong.

Tiltshift

I've played with HDR photography in photoshop - but honestly I've spent so much time playing in channels that it's only a rare HRD photo that makes me go 'wow' (usually something industrial for some reason). I'd played with tiltshifting as well - but this site has a very nice simple interface that does all the work for you (and does a great job with the color enhancement).

For example - here's a shot I took in Gibraltar several years ago.

hmmmm

i know another team that beat oklahoma by 10 this year....

btw - fox news coverage? unbelievable crap
"if you are fortunate enough to spend 5 min, or 20 min, with Tim Tebow - you're life is better for it" - yeah... sure... only if there's a tire iron involved

hmmm

is it wrong that when i read stories like this
i think of this

hard question

Why isnt this guy in a cell with this guy?

When you know people who've been given 18 year sentences for stealing meat out of a refrigerator - you'd think stealing $50b might count for a little jail time.

Anytime people tell you that the American justice system is something to be proud of - something we should be thankful is looking out for us - something positive in our collective lives... i gotta ask 'then why dont people like that dickhead go to jail instead of being "under house arrest and 24-hour surveillance at his luxury Manhattan apartment"'.

Someone needs to be telling Bernie 'watch your cornhole buddy' - and his wife?! hah! she's an accessory if nothing else. The very least they should do to her is give her a cardboard box and a sharpie and send her into the subway.

Then again - the "police" in this country aren't much more than uniformed thugs these days.

Just Watch

at 1:00...
this...
where do i find one of those...

if the camera hadn't been rolling...

to be expected

I've been to 2 score countries in my travels - and there are only a few that are on my list of places I absolutely wont go. South Africa is at the top of that list.

There's a good reason - and at some point international football is going to really truly regret putting the game in such an absolute shithole country. If you go - make sure you take the bulletproofed limos from the airport, wear kevlar, and stay at hotels with very large armed guard contingents.

Happy Monday Redux

I'd make this joke again - but this whole thing just isnt remarkably funny. Honestly - this will breed another generation of hate... as you sow so shall you reap.

It's Monday

Happy Monday

You know... if there weren't enough reasons to avoid Hooters to begin with, this one is priceless. Too bad there's not an Akiba Hooters - because she'd be a hit. Did the manager really think that this would stand up? How dumb do you have to be to manage a Hooters? Where's the common sense? Ok - yes - it's a sexually oriented business - but i dont think you're allowed to fire someone for being an assault victim in any business. If things that happen to a person outside of work count towards their work-capacity, then aren't you saying all injuries outside are still workplace related? Shouldn't their insurance be involved? If a hooters girl gets pregnant - and she's not "styled as if you're going out on a big date on a Saturday night, as if you're preparing for a photo shoot" - does that mean you should be fired?

There are days I wonder about this country... then i realize that it isnt just us.

hmmmmmm

With 4 minutes to play and Minnesota driving and down by 9 things weren't looking good for them... but the line was Minn +3...

Something had to be done

Did the long snapper hike a ball into Jackson's feet on purpose?

Long snappers always pull shit like this at the end of important games where the score would make a difference vs the line... i've seen it a LOT... guys who're normally rock solid - in this case a former Pro-bowl center - who just suddenly do something so out of character. Until the WaPo runs a story looking into the widescale impact online sportsbook has had on professional sports - and showing how crooked it has become - their tip of the iceberg garbage on poker cheating will always be just that.

New Years Eve Crawl

When you ask the world to text your new years eve messages to appear on the crawl - this is what you get when the /b/tards get involved