U.S. ranks low, just above Iran on new peace index

:: LINK ::

"Democracy didn't actually correlate with peace, but a well-functioning democracy did. Efficient, accountable government seems to be the leading determinant of peace. Beyond that, income helps."

Lexie

Is back. Hurray.

It's all f-word this, f-word that (fuck).

I just watched a pretty sweet documentary about the f-word, appropriately titled Fuck.

I have been under the impression that it stood for 'For Use of Carnal Knowledge' and was displayed at the place where rapists were executed. I don't know, I think one of my professors told me that once. Well, that is incorrect. The word has been around for a long, long time and no one actually knows where it originated. Watch the documentary; it's interesting and has lots of good interviews. Also, it says fuck 857 times, or 9.52 times a minute-at least according to imdb.com.

"If we can't say fuck, we can't say fuck the government." -Lenny Bruce






Also, I'd like to welcome our newest neighbor in Blogistan.

The hits keep on coming

Got doored by a car today and left my ring on the beach after finding my kayak had been used the entire time I have been at school and my paddle has been stolen and replaced by some crappy wooden chunky thing and forgot to cancel my shrink appointment.

Can't wait to go away for the weekend. Maybe tragedy will lose my scent.

Polska

Poland to probe if Teletubbies are gay -click on 'probe' ;)

By the way, recognize that little guy to the left? I like to keep him as a reminder of days past, when you used to sleep on my floor and borrow my car. Those were simpler times.

See you in Vancouver!





And one more thing-Go Sens!

The blog.

By the looks of it I think I may want to start a new one, or perhaps an invite only one. I feel hesitation in making the next post as it is a personal whine, one that I have been on for a few days now.

At the moment I am sitting in my parent's garage on a buzz saw bench, it is 2:38am, I am locked out of the house. The windows by which I used to slip into my house are replaced with new ones, my phone is dead and I don't have keys to the car to go to my sister's. Thankfully there is an extension cord outside (!) that I am plugged into so I can blather about this on this spot of blog.

It's always amazing what the human body can do. Where once my night vision was keen and I could spy out the details of my house sitting only a few feet away from me, now I can't see a thing except a black blob. Damn you Visual Purple!

I visited my old favorite website that had gone to crap but this time contained a -Fun Fact-
A fun fact: The retinal used in the eye is derived from vitamin A. If a person's diet is low in vitamin A, there is not enough retinal in the rods and therefore not enough rhodopsin. People who lack vitamin A often suffer from night blindness -- they cannot see in the dark.

Since I don't actually want to share my pent up frustrations on this international gathering place I will instead post a video of Buzz Aldrin punching some idiot in the face. We did go to the moon Aaron. We did. And yeah. I said idiot. We all know that 9/11 is the biggest lie ever told, not the moon landings.

You're a Sex Bomb

Ron Paul on dissent in a time of war

"Our enemies say boo, and we jump, we panic, and then we punish ourselves. We are worse than a child being afraid of the dark. But in a way, the fear of indefinable terrorism is based on our inability to admit the truth about why there is a desire by a small number of angry radical Islamists to kill Americans. It is certainly not because they are jealous of our wealth and freedoms.

We fail to realize that the extremists, willing to sacrifice their own lives to kill their enemies, do so out of a sense of weakness and desperation over real and perceived attacks on their way of life, their religion, their country, and their natural resources. Without the conventional diplomatic or military means to retaliate against these attacks, and an unwillingness of their own government to address the issue, they resort to the desperation tactic of suicide terrorism. Their anger toward their own governments, which they believe are coconspirators with the American Government, is equal to or greater than that directed toward us.

These errors in judgment in understanding the motive of the enemy and the constant fear that is generated have brought us to this crisis where our civil liberties and privacy are being steadily eroded in the name of preserving national security.

We may be the economic and the military giant of the world, but the effort to stop this war on our liberties here at home in the name of patriotism is being lost." Ron Paul in his speech to the House of Representatives on 5/22/2007. Link to text.

Real Time

Bill Maher interviews with Ron Paul and Michael Moore via C&L. If you didn't catch them yesterday, they are both pretty good.

Bill's most recent blog on Huffington Post

Spogging toward the Cup

Senators: 10 Reasons to Believe

And to give this a decidedly Binghamton flavor, Former B-Sens chase Cup

A look back at the first three series

Weed, Beer and Air-borne Infants

Reefer

Guinness Beer


Flying Child

"keep your big mouths shut."

Bush set to launch CIA ops to topple Iran mullahs

Iran says it has uncovered Western spy networks

And here's Mitt with his own original take on why the media is in a lurch.

Toothpastefordinner.com

Hodgton or Coultman

Working Hard for Cats

Henrietta Pussycat says, -Meow, meow, meow, meow, no way, meow, meow.-

Bucolic Bonfires (yeah, I done did dat...it's called alliteration)

Everyone around me seems to be making permanent, life decisions-getting married, having babies, buying houses-while I went through a twenty minute long debate over what to have for dinner. To know that a significant portion of your time on Earth is mapped out to a certain, unchangeable degree is crazier than organized religion, Uggs (refer to picture), seat belt laws, the Hummer H2, and big sunglasses-at least, you know, in my humble opinion...I mean, IMHO.

I guess I'm just going to have to go back to watching this on a continual loop.
Mr. Bush was answering questions about terrorism when a passing bird relieved itself on Mr. Bush's left arm. The biological attack did not deter Mr. Bush, who brushed aside the bird dropping and continued with the question and answer session. In response to media inquiries, the White House released a response from Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino, who said, "It was his lucky day...everyone knows that's a sign of good luck." LINK



Right, anyway, I'm reading another Tom Robbins book.

"My dear Amanda," intoned the family lawyer, "it has come to my attention that you are increasingly seen in the company of extremely weird individuals."
Brushing a cigar ash from the attorney's somber necktie, Amanda corrected him. "There is no such thing as a weird human being. It's just that some people require more understanding than others." -Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins

Well, I'm off to continue to celebrate the permanent promise of an undying union, by which I mean marriage.

(absolutely alive with awesome alliteration!)

Also, I have a good idea for our next 'Open Thread' post. Contact me for further details.

A Post for the Hip, Edgy Teens Out There

I just read an article about Facebook and thought this would be an appropriate title for some reason.

Since I am Still in Paper Finishing Hell

I can't help but think about other things.

Namely, I think I am going to start an advertising network that allows subscribers a really large selection of advertisements and the ability to pick and choose ads to be displayed by the subscriber. In addition, banners and ads may be created and used by others under CC license. I keep thinking I should drop my education (aka, stop writing this essay) and become a dot-com millionaire so I can do what I want right now (buy a sweet apartment with a view, not press charges on the lady who hit me, donate to politicians who agree to kiss my polish ass, start a political movement and publish an illicit daily blog-zine).

Facebook Expands Into MySpace's Territory -from NYTimes

And Family Guy shows the perfect world where Al Gore is President -from Truthdig

This is a pretty cool blog.

Article about Turkmenistan and check out the rest of the magazine. I think it has an original layout that works really well for an online magazine.

Excellent Dkos article about oil in Iraq.

Elizabeth Kucinich Fan

Read her Wiki

Her MySpace

Elizabeth Kucinich for First Lady 08'

Coming of Age Post 9/11

Marty Kaplan does a dangerous thing...tries to get in the head of GWB.







I am so sick of stuff like this and this and the myriad other scandals and stupidities from the government. It amazes me that they can be so wrong for so long on things that seem so obvious. I don't remember a time that America had any real moral authority or credibility. I didn't really start paying attention until my senior year of high school, after 9/11, as I am sure is true for most people my age. I think this is a large reason why I feel the need to get out of the country for a little while. It's almost not possible to get angry or shocked at the stuff that goes on anymore; it's almost just expected.

"They are a threat to your children, David."

At least there is always this to keep me going...bird pooping on Bush (video at bottom of story).

The Ugly Mexican

Joe Rogan vs Carlos Mencia Carlos Mencia gets owned by Joe Rogan.

The Ugly American

From the back cover:

In the episode that lends the books its title, the "ugly American" is Homer Atkins, a plain and plain-spoken man, who has been sent by the U.S. government to advise the Southeast Asian country of Sarkhan on engineering projects. When Atkins finds badly misplaced priorities and bluntly challenges the entrenched interests, he lays bare a foreign policy gone dangerously wrong.

First published in 1958, The Ugly American became a runaway national bestseller for its slashing expose of American arrogance, incompetence, and corruption in Southeast Asia. In linked stories and vignettes, the book uses gripping storytelling to draw a devastating picture of how the United States was losing the struggle with Communism in Asia..






The book is fiction, but as the authors say, based in fact. Anyway, you really need to read this. Even though some of it is a bit dated and mostly deals with stopping the spread of communism, it is hard not to read it as a scathing criticism that can be applied today as well. In fact, it's a bit disturbing that so many of the lessons from this book have not been learned and are still being ignored (though the countries and situations differ) by the administration today, making it just as pertinent and important a book now as it was then.

I can easily see why this has been an inspiration for Peace Corps volunteers and expats since it first came out in 1958. It's only about 300 pages and can be easily read in a long afternoon by anyone planning to live overseas, even if only as an example of what not to do in a foreign country on an individual and institutional level.

"What we need is a small force of well-trained, well-chosen, hard-working, and dedicated professionals. They must be willing to risk their comforts and - in some land - their health. They must go equipped to apply a positive policy promulgated by a clear-thinking government. They must speak the language of the land of their assignment, and they must be more expert in its problems than are the natives. If the only price we are willing to pay is the dollar price, then we might as well pull out before we're thrown out. " -from the Factual Epilogue

(Amazon link in title.)

Treat your elephant right

Baby Elephants Dance

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Dancing elephants.

Colbert helps us help our president.

Oh Screech...

Dustin Diamond vs. Sgt. Harvey

I don't know about you but I used to watch Saved by the Bell all the time when I was younger. His new stuff is a bit more controversial, but he is still the same lovable Screech.

Abba with a Message

-They- have Batons of Mass Destruction (BMD).

Well, I guess I never bookmarked the blog I was telling you about but here are some sites dealing with the same topic.

Laptop Hobo

Frontier Club

Nu Nomad

22 Logical Fallacies

In case you missed this one...

Vegetables of Mass Destruction from D-Kos

Open Thread

While reading Atrios today I thought we should maybe periodically post these and see what peeps have to say.

Checking out the blog on a rainy Saturday night? You've got a minute and 44 seconds

One of my favorite Rush songs

A few things...

'The world’s next generation of Donald Rumsfelds will soon have a place to study and grow...' from Think Progress. They do end with one of the best Bush quotes though.

Also, Hillary Clinton and Wal-Mart: A Love Story
(I was unaware of her former connections with W-M until I heard it mentioned in passing today and had to come home and google it.)

History's history from the Huffington Post




And for some good news...a cure for baldness?

Question of the Month

Literally two minutes after our conversation via the intertube messaging system I read this in Lewis Hyde's Trickster Makes This World:

How much control can we have before the good life we're guarding ceases to be good in any conventional sense? Can we reduce contingency to zero, or must we always have some exposure to things we cannot control? Is the life that has no risk a human life?

Rather apropos, I thought. Perhaps I'll add more to this later.

Ben is an equal and valued member of this team. I support and respect his blogging efforts.

Falwell gets PWNED!

Christopher Hitchens is not someone I always agree with but I like him. He speaks from the gut!

Twin Peaks

This is my favorite show. As a result of my late night watching of the show I came up with a verb, to Tweak (notice capitalization for differentiation from the regular non-capitalized version), to describe the experience.

Season 1

Relevant Movie
Best Watched Between Seasons 1 and 2

Season 2

Update straight from PoUgHk33Psii3

Having taken a small stroll down memory lane I came upon an old comment.

Jun3 is having diiz babi fo real.

All joking aside, good luck with everything!

And Since I'm Sooooo Not Busy Right Now

I love this show and all the episodes are free on youtube.

In case you didn't know...? Stephen Colbert is one of the producers. I chose this episode because Colbert gets to mouth off about his show.

Dean Kamen

Somebody I think is pretty freaking cool demonstrating why he is pretty freaking cool.

On turtles and fat people

Bill Seeks to Lift Ban on Baby Pet Turtles
...though I'm not sure who would want a turtle anyway


{HOP}



Also, when I am running why do people feel the need to fuck with me from the relative safety and comfort of their house/car/yard/group of friends? Just because I try to keep in shape and stay healthy and you look like (to borrow Bill Maher's words) 'a snowman-shaped sausage casing' doesn't mean you need to yell or make noises when I run by. Go be fat and lazy somewhere else! The only thing worse is when people needlessly honk the horn when I am riding my bike. That's not annoying; it's just dangerous (as perhaps you can attest to), especially if I'm not expecting it.

The Good Citizen's Alphabet

This book is something I have adored for quite some time. I just noticed you are reading him.

It's a series of illustrations that are humorous so don't shy away from it, dear readers.

Rise up with fists!

Congressional Food Stamp Challenge

WaPo article

Congressman Ryan blogs about it.

(Link in title too.)

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
by Wallace Stevens

Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.


II

I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.


III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.


IV

A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.


V

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.


VI

Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.


VII

O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?


VIII

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.


IX

When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.


X

At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.


XI

He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.


XII

The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.


XIII

It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

Clogging

Poetry class is a slow-motion collision. Trepidation and fear course through my veins as I seem to disagree with the class on interpretations of poetry every other point we make.

Heated Debate

Ptake that!

Jerry Falwell's hit parade

The Right's Holy Fool by Timothy Noah

Also, Hitchens has something to say

Make Some Time

We're all Falwells today!

Go Ottawa Senators! A bit o' Spog

Don't let the grey hair fool you, that is one mean motherfucker running with the puck. Winning the third game in this series, the Ottawa Senators have almost clinched an appearance at Stanley's Cup. This team of hardy warriors sure can get it done!

Coming from a humble background the team describes itself as:
We're an Over-40s bunch of rugby guys based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and we regularly play within the Montreal-Toronto-Ottawa triangle. Founded in 1981, we frequently venture further afield for matches, including occasional overseas tours.

Who would think that this team would be going after Stanley's cup? After watching last night's game I sure won't miss the fourth exciting one when the Senators clinch an appearance with Stanley! Oh yeah! Clinch it baby!

My right pedal went missing somehow in the exchange of information I had with that automobile.

This one goes out to Rachel

An advert. I saw on politico.com today.

Link to the website.

My friend Rachel Pagliocca, the lovely and talented front office manager for John Hall, was herself personally involved with this legislation. My patriotism is stirred! Get your thrice-damned French fingers off my country's horse!

All the cosponsors

This morning's phone call gave me all sorts of confusing thoughts. I guess when everything else seems to be out of whack with reality I can always turn to look at someone who's life may actually be more surreal than my own.

I was looking up the word -Chav-, which is British English for wigger. That may no longer be the acceptable word around these parts but wev. So while perusing for a good chav-star to feature on the blog I came across this BS picture. I chose the picture due to the tumultuous last 24 hours which have rocked the blogosphere and parts of the real world. I allude to it through this picture while hopefully maintaining a sense of dignity and composure that is often times lost in a hail of paparazzi. Still though, I await the first set of pictures, in early September, with bated breath.

Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog by Clive Thompson

Theremin

LINK

Umm...could you please point me to the bathroom?

"I could not wait until the debate got off so I could go to the bathroom." - Tommy Thompson on GOP debate. LINK









Sometimes when I have to go I forget that gay people have rights too.

Remember 1/31/07

Well, the criminal charges were dropped in Boston and the two artists charged will not receive a moon spanking. The Mooninites will live to Christmas carol in the woods once more.




Previously blogged about by Jerzy here and here.

Spogging a Sens Update

The Senators scored in the second overtime period to take a 2-0 series lead over top-seeded Buffalo. They head home to Ottawa for the next two games where they will hopefully end the series.

Bangladesh

The Spice Islands on Bangladesh

Dhaka City Blog (Note: It was working last night but doesn't seem to be up anymore.)


Customs and Etiquette in Bangladesh
Meeting & Greeting

• Greetings usually take place between members of the same sex.
• The hand shake is common although they may feel rather limp.
• Women will only really be met within business contexts and even so, it is best to wait to see if a hand is extended before doing so.
• The traditional greeting for Muslims is Asalamu alaikum to which the response is wa alaikum salam.
• Naming conventions are very much based on the hierarchical nature of Bangladeshi society.
• Bangladeshis will append a suffix to a person's name to denote respect and the level of closeness between the two people.
• In general, age dictates how people are addressed.
• If people are of the same age, they use first names.
• If the person being addressed is older than the speaker, the person is called by their first name and a suffix that denotes the family relationship.

There is this thing in Brooklyn called Heart of Brooklyn, right around where P-money lives actually.

The Link

Scroll down and check out the second to last entry on there. Polishness!

YES!

Anyway, they're good people. Their employee(s) visit Boston from time to time to attend Noam Chomsky lectures which is the tops. I will donate parts of the ad revenues from this site (when we finally reach $100 and get it) to the organization and not just because I know somebody who works there or that I'm very very excited about Polish arts and crafts activities but because I care. Crown Heights Represent!

What Would Jesus Do?

Probably spank Mary Magdalene for being such a whore.


I realized that some of the people visiting here, from the Bronx (hi Amy!), from Canada (hi Ben's friend), Cyprus! and Barcelona (hola amigo), may really want to see this video. There is some sort of problem with it so here is a direct link:
LINK
Baby and Cobra

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Could be the most linked to image on the intertubes this day

If this isn't proof there is a God, then I don't know what is.

Did you see that on the same day you put up this blog entry, Kirk Cameron went on Nightline to debate members of the Truth Squad?




LINK

Statisfaction

New Functionality has arrived via 3rd parties!

Check out our Statisfaction link at the very bottom of the page.

We now know where our readers are from.

With this information Ben and I plan to custom tailor our posts to meet the emerging demands of our demanding readers in various demanding parts of the demanding world. Strategic blogging, or Stragging, has brought a paradigm shift to how you will view our blog. This is a brave new blog! Pass me the Soma.

Spogging

The Sens just beat the Sabres 5-2 in Buffalo and it was sweet.

Of course, all the talk going into this series has been about this:



...but all the players have commented that it is in the past and they are looking to the future.

The Sens took control of this game early with 2 quick goals before the Sabres tied it up. Then the Sens put in a 3 goal 3rd period (one on an empty net) with the Sabres not able to get anything going on offense, even on the powerplay. Drury and Briere were held off and if it wasn't for Miller, Heatley would have had about 4 goals. Winning the first game of the series, especially an away game, is big. If any team can beat the top-seeded Sabres, it's the Sens.

(I have been trying not to post about hockey too much but it's just too exciting tonight not to do so.)

Too much fun in the sun. Or, why I haven't been posting for the last week.

It's just too nice not to be outside.





Zoe (yellow lab) and Jessie (golden retriever)

And now for some vidjas.

Float and Unfold

Thanks neatorama.

Moody Ramble!?

-Excerpted from an email I sent last night

I am reading a great biography of Nikola Tesla. He was really something else even pared down from the pedestal upon which everybody seems to stick him. Previously, I had read a biography of Marcel Duchamp. I don't know what it is about the turn of the century but that time period has produced some great people. I am curious if this is merely a phenomenon of a maturation of appreciation and the ability of people that would normally be reserved about a living person to allow an outpouring of posthumous admiration that has a touch of remembrance seeing that the people have died so long ago that their commemoration is -fitting-. My other thought is that perhaps the world will not see these people again until the next paradigm shift (that may be happening under our noses) and if perhaps the continuing development of physics and other arts will also spew forth a bevy of here-to-fore unappreciated folk into star status as we age the post-Modern era. Tesla's book stars many of the greats of the time, Mark Twain, Edison, Lord Kelvin, Teddy Roosevelt and various socialites, these elite parties are not in our world purview as they were not at the turn of the century. Their details have been gleaned from studying the journals and diaries of the participants ad nauseaum. Perhaps one day great stories will be told of the time Brin and Page (from google) had a party with all those famous people and how they slept in the lincoln bedroom, Dana Carvey may even get thrown in there as a -luminary-....who knows. This world is crazy and each person that chronicles the past seems to lose their own sense of human introspection and build a framework that they then proceed to romanticize or take to an extreme to make something interesting. The book tells of Nikola Tesla working 20 hours out of 24 each and every day but yet he manages to find time to go to dinners and give lectures and have events and stuff, it even goes on to describe a contemporary with Tesla newspaper biography of him as being -slouched and not having the blood of the peacock- but then showing a picture of Tesla -standing tall as a peacock-. So lets laugh at those silly fools for reporting something and then turn around and do it ourselves. Loves it!

I guess the point which I will fictionally make here to cover for my lack of one is one that is politique. I'm glad I've met a bunch of the people I have. Upstate NY, Boston and NYC have all been fertile grounds for genius before and I'm sure that someone amongst us philistines of the 21st century will get their act together, some day, and create something truly new and unique.

My friend Seth sent me a link to the Blasphemy challenge on Youtube....I don't really condone it. Whatever. Make your point about it sucking that religions terrorize children. Fine. I get it. It just seems like if I start denouncing it that means I at some point in my life was actually a believer. Magic is fun, that's why I watch Penn and Teller and leave the religious warfare to the atheists and religionazis who feel a need to evangelize.

Me. I am an agnostic and believe in lower-case god.

Here's a link to Pascal's Wager. I should add that I am not agnostic because of this. I am agnostic because I know enough to know that I know not enough, I risk sounding Rumsfeldian there but wev.



This is the kind of denunciation I like.

After having completed my morning grapefruit peel ablutions I looked into an article about King Herod's tomb that was...ALLEGEDLY...found. I say allegedly because there is no inscription, there are lots of highly irregular things about the placement of the burial site in relation to the rest of the castle in which it lays and some hypothesizing that this could very well be an important relation of Herod's and not the man himself.

What REALLY struck me though, and I do not use capitalized letters in vain, is this King Herod biography snipped from this article:

BIOGRAPHY

The man, the king, the legacy

Origins: Herod the Great, who ruled the kingdom of Judea from 37 to 4 BC, ascended the throne as an appointee of the Roman empire, and established what became known as the Herodian dynasty. Born about 73 BC and made governor of Galilee as a young man, he fled from Jerusalem to Rome during the invasion of the Parthians in 40 BC; he later returned to fight and conquer Judea on Roman orders.

Jewish tradition: Known as a powerful ruler, his longest legacy is a series of elaborate palaces that he used as fortified retreats at different times of the year. He approved a massive renovation and expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and built palaces at Jericho and Masada and the port of Caesarea as well as the hilltop palace complex he named for himself, Herodium, also known as Herodian.

Christian tradition: He is perhaps best known as the leader who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents. The New Testament says that he learned of the birth of Jesus as the new king of the Jews and ordered the slaughter of all male children under age 2 in Bethlehem; an angel came to Joseph to warn him of the plan and told him to flee to Egypt with Jesus and Mary.

Death: After years of powerful and often bloody reign - he dodged an assassination attempt and executed a wife, three sons and a brother-in-law, but also saw his people through drought and hunger and built Judea into a prosperous kingdom - he took ill and died in Jericho in about 4 BC.

---------

So basically Herod ordered the -Massacre of Innocents- to kill Jesus (born 0 BC) but died in 4 BC. What the shit is that about?

Falling Asleep...Or not.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Late Nite Dkos with JerzyD

Harpoon

Brewery Visiting Hours

Brian Daly. This is a test. Do you read this blog?

Wow. What a great post!


In other news, it looks like my agent provocateur from Saturday has decided not to pay for a new bike for me leaving me with the recourse to get it via her insurance. I really do not want to do this and have tried to avoid the situation since I truly dislike dealing with the insurance overlords but I am poor and need a bike to get around here and in Europe and the work I put into that last bike over the last month and a half has gone kaput. I really really don't want to do this but my wrist has been hurting all weekend and my big toe is nice and swollen from the impact and I'll be going to a clinic to get it documented. Just what I freaking need at finals time.

Family Guy Meets Street Fighter The new Street Fighter has Peter Griffen as a character option?

Another way of looking at it: 30% of Resnug candidates for Preznit believe in MAGIC

Which brings me to an editor's note.

Christian Fundamentalism, in my view, is two steps away from stoning women. Two thousand years of patrimonial perversion by successive generations of perverted priests has taken some fairly simple teachings and twisted them to fit with the demons that haunt the minds of men. I always wonder what it may have been like in a polytheistic world where men and women existed as gods and had under their control the different domains of life. Could we be alive today and have a society that mirrors that of the bonobo? Would the tempo of progress and the engines of industry have been slowed by the lack of the Protestant ethic and the repression of our feelings inducing a channeling of energy into other pursuits? Could TS Eliot have written the poetry that he wrote without the gnawing uncertainty and emotional restraint bred into him by his culture that caused the conflicts that gave him inspiration? I don't know. I guess what I'm trying to say is, please somebody find me some fucking weed and make these thoughts go away.

Gross. Gross.


Jennifer Pozner. I hope you see this and blog about it. This is horrendous.

Possibly my favorite person doing something I enjoy immensely.

Word of the Day

sprachgefuhl \SHPRAHKH-guh-fuel\ noun

: an intuitive sense of what is linguistically appropriate

Example sentence:
One review of the book praised the author's sprachgefuhl and her graceful, literary style.

J-Poz sighting via Daily Show

Republican debate

Just because I missed the debate doesn't mean I can't blog about it.

Being against Iraq might just be enough from FP Passport




Also, John McCain is old.







P.S. I dedicate this post to Mindi.

Pan0ply:

First off, my friend Seth sent me a random missive. Strawberry Cough

Secondly, this is pretty sweet (just a set of pics and a few lines of text)

Thirdly, can't believe the Obama Myspace thing made a newscycle. That is so weak. I'm here to say: I told them so

Fourth, I love my Barrista.

Fifth, BONNNNAROOOOOOOOO

The Police • Tool • Widespread Panic • The White Stripes • Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals • Wilco • The Flaming Lips • MANU CHAO Radio Bemba Sound System • The String Cheese Incident • Franz Ferdinand • Ornette Coleman • Bob Weir & Ratdog • Damien Rice • Ween • Gov't Mule • Ziggy Marley • The Decemberists • The Roots • Kings of Leon • Michael Franti and Spearhead • Wolfmother • Regina Spektor • The Black Keys • Galactic • DJ Shadow • Gillian Welch • Spoon • Keller Williams (WMD'S) • Sasha & John Digweed • STS9 • Old Crow Medicine Show • North Mississippi Allstars • The Hold Steady • Lily Allen • Fountains Of Wayne • Hot Tuna • Feist • Hot Chip • John Butler Trio • El-P • Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys • Aesop Rock • The Richard Thompson Band • Dierks Bentley • James Blood Ulmer • Xavier Rudd • David Bromberg and Angel Band • Gogol Bordello • Junior Brown • Tortoise • T-Bone Burnett • Mavis Staples • Clutch • Pete Yorn • Cold War Kids • Dr. Dog • Paolo Nutini • Brazilian Girls • RX Bandits • The Nightwatchman • The Slip • Girl Talk • Railroad Earth • Martha Wainwright • Yard Dogs Road Show • Rodrigo y Gabriela • Annuals • Tea Leaf Green • Sam Roberts Band • The National • Elvis Perkins in Dearland • Charlie Louvin • Sonya Kitchell • Mute Math • The New Orleans Klezmer Allstars • Apollo Sunshine • The Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians • Uncle Earl • The Little Ones • Black Angels • Ryan Shaw

In the comedy tent

Lewis Black & Friends • Dave Attell • David Cross • Flight of the Conchords

Faisceau-F@#k au Palais de L'Elsyee

JNSQ means what?

Wolf on Tbogg

West

An icon has fallen. Ben, you should've blogged this.

The Hobbesian Hell of Iraq

How Many Dead Equal a Failed Government? by former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson

My kind of guy

I AM ABOVE THE LAW

I will own a crow one day....and a wolf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d9R4ACGHRQ

Just to be a little grisly:

Step 1: Cut a hole in the box.

Step 2: Put your junk in that box.

Step 3: Make her open that box.

Was Timothy Leary Right?...well, Harvard is going to find out.
As Mark Morford said, "Tim Leary is probably smiling wildly right now -- though that might be due to all the mushrooms he's been sharing with Kerouac and Einstein and Mary Magdalene. Mmm, heaven."

Related.





And speaking of drugs...here's Maher on Matthews.


One more thing: La hoja de coca no es droga.

How Henry Protests the War

I think if more people know who Henry is and what he does, the world will be a better place. I mean, the guy is well-traveled (he recently went to Iran), intelligent, funny and angry-very angry-over what he sees wrong in the world.

EDIT 4/2: Here is one of the best speeches ever and he has a similar, albeit more refined, message. Elie Wiesel 'The Perils of Indifference'