Why Am I Not Surprised

What? Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann are drooling over the late (and great, if you ask me) Tim Russert's Meet the Press gig? I'm shocked.

Happy Fun Movie

Boner alert indeed. I watched Ong Bak and loved it, love Tony Jaa's fighting style and while I couldn't tell you a thing about the plot or even if there was any dialogue at all, it was an amazing film if only for this scene. Now that's what I call a long tracking shot - seven minutes of solid bad guy beatings.

Good Stuff

This is inordinately dirty/profane/gross/icky and otherwise objectionable. I absolutely love it.



I tried to warn you, and you still looked. Don't blame me for your prurient interest. But wasn't it fantastic?

Oh for Christ's Sake

Can we believe in any sport any more? Steroids/HGH/whatever in everything, boxing's been a fixed, faked pile of BS for more than a decade, the Olympics are a bad and boring joke, horse racing is just creepy (the damn horses' legs aren't even fully formed until they're 4 years old, which is the moral equivalent of infants having head-butting contests), the Patriots cheated their way to a number of Super Bowls, and now this?

NBA basketball has bored me since the 1990s, and even then Jordan got away with all kinds of illegal crap and never got called on it. But refs deciding games is beyond the pale. The only thing I buy any more is MMA/UFC fighting. The bouts are rarely decided by the judges, and I've yet to see a sketchy decision. Maybe that's why gladiators were so popular in Rome: it's hard to throw a fight when it means you die.

Mahmoud, You Sexy Bitch

I actually like this song, not to mention finding it funny. Thank God for Samberg and his friends, they're often the only funny thing about SNL these days. Sorry about the ad at the beginning, it's short but I can't find another source for it but the NBC site.



In case this doesn't work, hit this link.

Deeply Unsurprising

Of course war coverage is down 92% since the surge started working. They're using the economy to whack Bush with now, and Scott McLellan.

Memorial Day Madness

What fun we had, and what a little angel the sometimes aggressive Will (or is it Bill nowadays?) was almost the whole time. I hope they can be friends, these two cousins, and when they're left alone they almost always get along. Then the parents show up and they fight. Why is that?

This Will Never Happen

Al Gore will never debate anyone about global warming, much less the president of Czechoslovakia. And that's a real shame.

Link from Skinny Bean aka Timmler.

Yuck

I can't remember when I've been so repelled by a human being:

On Sept. 11, Wurtzel, who usually gets up at the crack of noon, was asleep when her mother called to say a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. “My main thought was: What a pain in the ass.”

Her apartment was at ground zero, on Greenwich Street, south of Chambers. She could see the twin towers from her window. Or she could have, if she had bothered to get out of bed.

Then the second plane hit, and more people called. Wurtzel finally hauled herself up in time to watch one tower collapse. “I had not the slightest emotional reaction,” she recalls. “I thought: ‘This is a really strange art project.’ ”

Wurtzel takes a tiny bite of monkfish and ponders the worst terrorist attack in New York’s history. “It was a most amazing sight in terms of sheer elegance. It fell like water. It just slid, like a turtleneck going over someone’s head.”

She takes another bite of monkfish. “It was just beautiful. You can’t tell people this. I’m talking to you because you’re Canadian.”

Then her windows blew in. Airplane chunks landed on her roof. Wurtzel crawled into the basement and was later removed from the building. To this day, she can’t understand why everyone else was so upset. “I just felt, like, everyone was overreacting. People were going on about it. That part really annoyed me.”

Wurtzel became hysterical only when she realized she wouldn’t be allowed back to fetch her cat.

Disgusting. I apparently missed this when it happened, she's noteworthy today for her lame and lamebrained attempt to defend Obama's friendship with Weather Underground dickwads Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Die in a fire, lady.

I Should Be Ashamed of Myself

But I'm not.

Breathtaking

I don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful in my entire life. Picture by one of the other Mommies in Sabrina's Mommy's Day Out group.

I Want One

Geekologie posted this Youtube video today, and I'm stealing it from them:



I'd pay $30 for that.

Well Said

I don't understand the universal pessimism I get from young people these days, and I talk to a lot of them, being a UT campus-area realtor. It is an election year, and since Iraq's going well enough to not bash constantly, the economy's going to be the main bad news vehicle for journalists and other Democrats, but it's gotten a little ridiculous. This WSJ column says it better than I can:

So why the long faces? Sen. Obama reminds them every day of how dreary things are. Here's what Mr. "Audacity of Hope" told workers in Ohio last week: "Everywhere I go . . . you see people who have worked in a plant for 20 years, put their heart and soul into building profits for shareholders. Suddenly, the rug's pulled out from under them; the job's shipped overseas." Not only that, he explains: "They don't have health care. They don't have a pension. They're trying to compete with their teenage kids for a job paying $7 an hour at the local fast food joint."

Times are tough in many old industrial areas of the country. And middle-class anxiety about the costs of health care and higher education is real. But new data from the Census Bureau reveal that Americans of all income groups have made enormous gains in their standard of living in recent decades. As late as 1970, air conditioning, color TVs, washing machines, dryers and microwaves were considered luxuries. Today the vast majority of even poor families have these things in their homes. Almost one in three "poor" families has not one but at least two cars.

Consumption in real per-capita terms has nearly doubled since 1970. The single largest increase in expenditures for low-income households over the past 20 years was for audio and visual entertainment systems -- up 119%. In 2007 Americans spent an estimated $1 billion to change the tune of the ringer on their cellphones. Eating in restaurants used to be something the rich did regularly and the middle class did on special occasions. The average family now spends $2,700 a year dining out.

Mr. "Audacity of Hope" indeed. Hey, what else can he do? He's never done anything, run anything, or made right anything that was wrong. He has to piss all over the economy to distinguish himself and make the Republicans seem incompetent by comparison. But I'll guarantee one thing: no matter who wins in November, the economy will miraculously recover, or at least we'll stop hearing doom and gloom stories all the time. Journalists will find something else to mope about, and we can all get on with our lives.

Thomas Sowell said it best: very few people understand economics, and none of them work in the news industry. You used to have to be an expert in a certain field before they'd let you write about it, but now you have to be an expert in news writing before they'll give you a chance to learn about the field you're supposed to report on. That's all kinds of backward and stupid. Don't believe the hype about anything, and especially not the US economy.

Link from Paul Katcher.

Hell to the No

What the hell is this crime against humanity? DO NOT WANT

Oh, Bawma

I didn't have a crush on Obama before, and I certainly don't now. He seems like a decent fellow, but shares the same ugly quality that so many people (I was going to say liberals, but I'm not sure that's entirely fair) do: a basic distaste for the average American, and maybe even for the average person. It's alarmingly fashionable to say "I hate people" while smiling or laughing, and actually mean it. It's a mark of cleverness, of sophistication. As someone once said, there are far too many good reasons to hate individuals to find reasons to lump them together in your disgust.

The Departed

We lost Oliver a couple of days ago. He was born with an undersized liver and it probably never really worked right, which caused a number of other problems, most notably bladder stones and later neurological problems. Seizures, toward the end. We feel as miserable as you might imagine for not adding up the clues, and there were many in the last few months, but even worse, there were more subtle ones for years.

I can't tell you how painful it is to realize that he suffered because of our affection for him. A small and malfunctioning liver doesn't process protein very well, and we stuffed the poor little fellow with doggie chicken jerky, meat from the dinner table, and even his fancy veterinary-quality food was probably poisoning him slowly. But we just didn't understand the signs, and neither did our veterinarian.

Even worse is the fact that toward the end he wasn't able to go the whole night without relieving himself once or twice, and in our most recent home we don't have a doggie door. Usually I'd get up a couple of times, a sort of mental alarm clock, and take him out, but when I didn't I'd patrol the kitchen first thing and usually find a couple of messes. He had the good nature to do it on the tile, but I have to confess to punishing him more than once, figuring it had to be malicious. Mind you, he'd leave similar gifts on the floor even if we just left him and Fred in the house for a half hour no matter how many times we let him out before, so it's not like he didn't have some doggie vengeance in his soul (the first time we moved after getting him, we left the dogs alone in the house for two hours and he took a dump on my pillow), but I'll never forgive myself for yelling at him, making him smell it and spanking him one morning recently when I'd had it with cleaning up the floor several days in a row. I feel like a monster. He couldn't help himself and probably felt like crap for months, maybe years, and instead of trying to understand why I just lost it and took it out on a sick dog who couldn't help himself.

Oliver was a sweet, exuberant little puffball of love, a one of a kind dog who I'll remember forever, just like I'll always remember Patton, the orange tabby who's grooming him in the picture above. Pattycake disappeared one day outside our condo in Travis Heights, and we don't know if he was bitten by a rattler, hit by a car, eaten by the grey foxes that lived in the empty lot next door, or kidnapped by the neighbors who moved away the day he disappeared. But losing both of these wonderful animals taught me one simple thing: when your sister the veterinarian gives you advice, take it. My sister Nancy told me a thousand times not to give my dogs human food or too many treats, and she told me just as many times not to let my cat outside the house. She was right on both counts, and I was a fool to think I knew better, that I was being kind to them by giving them what I thought they wanted, what I thought I'd want in their places. I just sped them on their way. I hope they can forgive me.

I'll miss you, Ollie Bear. See you on the other side.

UPDATE: See Deirdre's touching tribute here.

So a Guy Walks into an Agent's Office

I'm a sucker for magic, and particularly card tricks. I don't even want to know how they're done, because it would ruin them for me. I've got a friend who can't enjoy movies because he's always imagining the cameras, crew and set during every scene. That must suck, and I want no part of it.

I also enjoy profanity and lewdness. This video is from a documentary called The Aristocrats, which if you haven't seen you should, as long as you don't mind unbelievably foul language and imagery. You've been warned, so don't watch this part of it if you're liable to object to naughtiness:



You've got to see Bob Saget's version of the joke, not to mention Jason Alexander's, which features butterflied testicles. You heard me.

Sassy Fun Baby

Sabrina is the most delightful, giggly little girl, and I know that because when you tickle her, she bursts into the most amazing laugh, and when you stop she says "More." And then you blow a raspberry on her tummy and she laughs even longer and louder than before. Then you pick her up and hug her with a big grin on your face and the one of the warmest, happiest feelings you've ever known in your heart.

She won't put up with that for long, because that's not the game she's there to play. But she tolerates it for a while because she knows you can't help yourself, and after a few seconds it's back to work. You wipe the moisture from the corners of your eyes and get back on the job, and it starts all over again, and again, until you're exhausted and Mommy takes over for a while. It's hard to let go, but it all begins and ends with Mommy, and if you had to hand her over to anyone, it would be her. You're just grateful to be a part of it all.

Sabrina's Art, part 2

Sabrina chose the last one as her favorite of the five I had pictures of (my absolute favorites are some of her first paintings ever, and they're at the office just above where my laptop goes - I'll definitely take pics of those soon and post them), but I like this one a lot. She's so sure of what she wants to do, and she doesn't hesitate or think about it, it just comes out of her onto the paper. One day I hope to be as much of an artist as she already is.

Sabrina's Art

Take that, Monet! More to come . . .

Sabrina's Bed

This is the top bunk in Sabrina's new bed (thanks Grandmama AKA my mother!), which she climbs up and down with confidence. We've put pillows around the likely tumble-down areas, but no flying leaps yet, thank God. Below is the sleeping area, up top is for play and stuffed animal storage.

She loves to show off her bed to visitors, and they're all required to climb the ladder and get up under the canopy, which is covered with stars. It's very strong, but I'm usually worried about getting up there as it creaks a little.

We haven't yet succeeded in getting her to spend the night here on her own, and considering the degree to which she flails around in our bed, I'm a little worried she'll knock herself cold on one of the uprights, but we all have to learn such things the hard way. Mommy's quite good at bubble-wrapping sharp corners in a stylish and effective way, so I look forward to sleeping on a portion of our bed that's wider than 18 inches someday soon. Yay me! Considering I used to sleep from corner to corner of my king-sized bed and never touched the side for five years, that will be just unbelievably fantastic. The dogs are probably hoping to get back up there too, but no dice, piggies. You're still banished to your luxurious piles of pillows.

Worth Watching

Fitna, the film about Islam by Geert Wilders. Interesting but seriously graphic and difficult to watch at times. But probably good for you, so do it anyway. Link hijacked from Ace of Spades.

Nice Skirt, Mike

Hey, who knows when I'll be wearing a kilt again? I don't know if you can tell, but the tie kind of matches. Boo-ya, suckas.

Man That's Good Stuff

I'm a fan of David Mamet, who wrote the play that was made into one of my favorite movies, Glengarry Glen Ross. He may well have written the screenplay, but I'm too lazy to look that up. Mamet has apparently long been, in his words, a "brain-deal liberal," which considering his writing is bit of a surprise. He always seemed to have a conservative worldview, as liberals often do when you get down to it.

Anywho, he's written an interesting column for the Village Voice:

I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.

As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart.

These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly impracticable prejudices. Why do I say impracticable? Because although I still held these beliefs, I no longer applied them in my life. How do I know? My wife informed me.

It's a long column, but well worth the time. Mamet, a New Yorker (I think) in the entertainment industry, will catch a rash of sh*t for writing this, as the comments will reveal if you care to read them. He's probably not going to suffer financially, being one of the rich white males liberals love to hate already, but I foresee a lot of awkward encounters at award ceremonies, movie premieres, etc. He gets a little closer to the point here:

And I began to question my hatred for "the Corporations"—the hatred of which, I found, was but the flip side of my hunger for those goods and services they provide and without which we could not live.

And I began to question my distrust of the "Bad, Bad Military" of my youth, which, I saw, was then and is now made up of those men and women who actually risk their lives to protect the rest of us from a very hostile world. Is the military always right? No. Neither is government, nor are the corporations—they are just different signposts for the particular amalgamation of our country into separate working groups, if you will. Are these groups infallible, free from the possibility of mismanagement, corruption, or crime? No, and neither are you or I. So, taking the tragic view, the question was not "Is everything perfect?" but "How could it be better, at what cost, and according to whose definition?" Put into which form, things appeared to me to be unfolding pretty well.

My major problem with liberalism is the idea that perfection is attainable, but that evil conservatives are keeping it from us. I'm oversimplifying, but conservatism seems to me to take human nature into account more fully than liberalism. I found this section particularly interesting:

What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying up the ledger in those things which affect me and in those things I observe, I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow.

But if the government is not to intervene, how will we, mere human beings, work it all out?

I wondered and read, and it occurred to me that I knew the answer, and here it is: We just seem to. How do I know? From experience. I referred to my own—take away the director from the staged play and what do you get? Usually a diminution of strife, a shorter rehearsal period, and a better production.

The director, generally, does not cause strife, but his or her presence impels the actors to direct (and manufacture) claims designed to appeal to Authority—that is, to set aside the original goal (staging a play for the audience) and indulge in politics, the purpose of which may be to gain status and influence outside the ostensible goal of the endeavor.

I've excerpted more than is probably helpful, or even legal for all I know, but it's all well worth reading. Check it out.

One Sensible Voice in a Hurricane of Nonsense

Tim Blair, ever the Global Warming skeptic (good for him - we all should be, considering what people like Al Gore stand to gain from widespread acceptance of his nonsense), has found a story that, along with others and a common-sense view of the current state of climate science, helps non-brainwashed people make sense of the issue:

Miklós Zágoni isn't just a physicist and environmental researcher. He is also a global warming activist and Hungary's most outspoken supporter of the Kyoto Protocol. Or was.

That was until he learned the details of a new theory of the greenhouse effect, one that not only gave far more accurate climate predictions here on Earth, but Mars too. The theory was developed by another Hungarian scientist, Ferenc Miskolczi, an atmospheric physicist with 30 years of experience and a former researcher with NASA's Langley Research Center.

After studying it, Zágoni stopped calling global warming a crisis, and has instead focused on presenting the new theory to other climatologists.