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Monday, October 31, 2005
Posted
10/31/2005 05:53:00 PM
by Douglas
It's not the loudness of the graphics or the corniness of the regular segments or even the incessant use of American flag and bald eagle motifs that has made has made Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" appointment television for "The Daily Show"-loving cognoscente since it debuted two weeks ago.Even though I can't watch Colbert and not laugh my ass off, there are two things about him that trouble me. First, that people will confuse this program for "real" news (whatever that is), and will most certainly be the exclusive news source for anyone under 25. Secondly, It's kinda disheartening that the O'Reillys and the Scarboroughs don't realize that they look just exactly this rabidly stupid when they're on their own shows trying to be taken seriously. At least Colbert is trying to make you laugh at what a jackass he is.
Posted
10/31/2005 05:31:00 PM
by Douglas
A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning when he adjusted a nearby microphone while standing in water, a church employee said.Regardless of which Ecumenical statement you follow, you must agree that the microphone was a bit much.
Posted
10/31/2005 05:24:00 PM
by Douglas
Tracy Ward is in hot water again, charged with another drug-related offense.Not to put too fine a point on an absurd example, but is the same true for legal substances, like alcohol and tobacco? Are pregnant women, possibly before they knew they were pregnant, going to get prosecuted for contributing to the delinquency of a minor for drinking a beer? I hope the D.A. is ready for some over-time, because without beer, half the women in Texas wouldn't even be pregnant. Regardless of your opinion of Roe v. Wade, this reeks of an end run around the 30 year old opinion. If it's legal to dispose of this life, yet illegal to deliver a controlled substance to it, it's just a matter of time before that test case finds its way before the new court. But wait! Isn't it already illegal to smoke crack? So why are they prosecuting her for delivering it to her baby instead of just prosecuting her for buying/possessing/smoking it? Are they trying to get a test case out of Ms. Ward? As Carlin once said, "I don't know about the rights of the unborn, but I know being born again doesn't give you twice as many."
Posted
10/31/2005 05:02:00 PM
by Douglas
Conservatives lauded President Bush on Monday for his choice of Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, while liberals signaled a contentious confirmation hearing is ahead for the nominee.I don't have any idea what to think about this guy, but at least this time the fight will be from the Democrats and NOT the Republicans that can't stand Bush's appointment. But in looking at some of his more than 700 written opinions, it looks like they're circling the wagons for one hell of a fight, which should be interesting. Bush isn't very good at conceding. Friday, October 28, 2005
Posted
10/28/2005 05:44:00 PM
by Douglas
America's white supremacist movement has an angelic new face: twin teenage pop stars whose songs preach messages of racial hatred.What's almost as sickening as the vile they're spewing is the knee jerk reactionaries on the other side that say CPS should step in and stop their parents from "abusing" them by filling their blonde little uninformed heads with such hate. Guess what? Being stupid was never, and is still not a crime. You can still tell your kids whatever the hell you want to as long as a single shred of the first amendment remains intact. What I find most troubling about these two in light of the huge media attention they've received this week is, who the hell cares? There's always been racists, and the subversive "Skin-head rock band" isn't a new phenomenon. So what's so special about these two? Is this a big deal because they're young, blonde and cute? Where's the outrage for all the skin-heads that aren't cute?
Posted
10/28/2005 05:39:00 PM
by Douglas
The question that first came to my mind, besides the obvious, overarching, and resounding why is the more subtle how? If it really simulated human flesh, what the hell did they use to compare it to to ensure the alternative is realistic? Did they cook someone as a comparison and set up a blind taste test at the mall?
Posted
10/28/2005 05:37:00 PM
by Douglas
More than 1,000 Exxon Mobil employees received flu shots last week with a vaccine now being investigated by the FBI to determine its authenticity.The people at my office don't know how to clean the bathroom or cook a scrambeled egg. There's no way I'm going to let them give me an injection. Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Posted
10/26/2005 05:47:00 PM
by Douglas
What's funny is you can tell that these particular cassettes are well used. Wonder what's on them? I'm going to go with Cheap Trick. Maybe Bon Jovi.
Posted
10/26/2005 05:36:00 PM
by Douglas
Fortunately, history is not made up of daily headlines, blogs on Web sites or the latest sensational attack. History is a bigger picture, and it takes some time and perspective to measure accurately.Wow, just wow. I thought the Hussein = Hitler was played out from Gulf War I with Shurb 41. They must be getting desperate if they're trotting that one out again.
Posted
10/26/2005 05:07:00 PM
by Douglas
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL—NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has yet to respond to recent allegations that he used NASA space shuttles on as many as one dozen unauthorized outings to such destinations as New York City, the French Riviera, and his vacation home near Ketchum, ID.Ha!
Posted
10/26/2005 04:55:00 PM
by Douglas
The White House is not amused by The Onion, a newspaper that often spoofs the Bush administration, and has asked it to stop using the presidential seal on its Web site.Lighten up, man, it's a joke. This is kinda funny, too. Sunday, October 23, 2005
Posted
10/23/2005 05:53:00 PM
by Douglas
He may have been "of Happy", but he definetly wasn't a "happy" man that day.
Posted
10/23/2005 05:22:00 PM
by Douglas
Sex and romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail missions to Mars and should therefore be studied by NASA, warns a top-level panel of US researchers.This is nothing that the navies of the world haven't been dealing with for centuries. I don't think it's any more of an issue with people joining the 250,000 mile high club than in our modern Navy. But what can NASA do about it? "One could perhaps select for people who seem to have less need for sex, or at least don't use sex as a form of self-validation," Ellison says.Considering that most astronauts are engineers, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Beyond that, she adds, NASA should consider the practical issues of out-of-this world sex. "How do you have sex in weightlessness?" she ask. "And there's a lack of privacy – often they're monitoring pulse rate and temperature. I don't know how that would be handled."NASA doesn't like to acknowledge it, but they've already flown a married couple in space on STS-47. I believe they've since divorced, as their NASA biographies make no mention to their marriage. Thursday, October 20, 2005
Posted
10/20/2005 05:19:00 PM
by Douglas
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Posted
10/18/2005 05:47:00 PM
by Douglas
Posted
10/18/2005 05:06:00 PM
by Douglas
Posted
10/18/2005 05:04:00 PM
by Douglas
The driver of the bus that erupted into flames last month, killing 23 Bellaire nursing home residents as they were transported out of Hurricane Rita's path, now faces criminal charges for each of the passengers' deaths.23 counts? Not plain old negligence, but homicide?!? It's obvious that they want someone to nail to the wall on this one, but the driver is about as guilty as the passengers. How sad and totally pathetic that the DA went for the weakest, most indefensible person in this situation, instead of the ignorant asses that called for the ill-fated evacuation. Sunday, October 16, 2005
Posted
10/16/2005 05:30:00 PM
by Douglas
White Settlement may be on the way out.Have we become so freakin' PC that the we're so terrified of the word "white" that a small town is going to spend dollar one (much less between $25,000-$500,000) to change the name of a po-dunk town? What's next, egg whites to be called egg transparents? Don't laugh.
Posted
10/16/2005 05:13:00 PM
by Douglas
I had the misfortune of having to review a stack of National Geopraphics from the 70s a few months ago, and it was quite revealing. First off I had no idea how far to the Left NG was, but it was also interesting just how dire their prediction of the future actually was. Petroleum reserves were to be depleted by 1990, the earth would have an un-sustainable population by 2000, and global cooling (yes, this was their line in the 70s, look it up) was going to reap catastrophic climatological mayhem across the planet before we got to stop using the pre-printed 19__ on our checks. Oddly enough, detailed on the same NG pages, nuclear reactors and strip mines in the worker's paradise of Cuba were supplying essential jobs and needed income to local economies, but that's the rant for another day. Anyhoo, no one that's been paying attention would think that the average schmoe doesn't have it better than any of the crowned heads of Europe 500 years ago. But just because we're hitting a few snags doesn't mean it's all going to come crashing down on our heads now does it? Does it?!? You will enjoy a standard of living that would have glazed the eyes of the Emperor Nero, thanks to the 2% annual economic growth rate sustained by the developed world since the industrial revolution. You will have access to greater knowledge than Aristotle could begin to imagine, and to technical resources that would stupefy Leonardo da Vinci. You will know a world whose scale and variety would induce agoraphobia in Alexander the Great. You should experience relative peace thanks to the absolute technological superiority of the industrialised world over its enemies and, with luck and within reason, you should be able to write and say anything you like, a luxury denied to almost all other human beings, dead or alive.Well, yes and no. The natural state of any system is decay, but that doesn't necessarily apply to all of society because there's lots of people that are working to keep that from happening. In the middle of December, I can go out and buy a lemon the size of my fist, yet the possibility of this event is totally unheard of to the King of England a short 200 years ago. Why? Because of the market, and the technology that makes it possible, and the best part about the technology is that it's almost 100% unforeseeable to those that create it. No one can possibly imagine what it would be like in 100 years, so to sit back and prognosticate doom and gloom at the peak of mankind's achievements is somewhat akin to be the turd in the punchbowl and that ants at a picnic at the same time. But something tells me that this statement sums up the author's sentiment better than I ever could: The great nations just aren't throwing enough money at the problem.Holy crap. I'm hesitant to call this guy an ignorant Leftists, because I've seen this problem on both sides of the aisle, but geesh. The energy problems of the planet aren't cause by a lack of funding.
Posted
10/16/2005 05:13:00 PM
by Douglas
A Mansfield elementary school teacher resigned after school officials found she used her class computer to access a personal Web log chronicling sexual exploits and containing disparaging remarks about her students.Last time, folks. Blog about work, or even more specifically, about work, you're gonna get fired. Deal with it. Saturday, October 15, 2005
Posted
10/15/2005 01:05:00 PM
by Douglas
Friday, October 14, 2005
Posted
10/14/2005 05:31:00 PM
by Douglas
When Morgan Matlock was a young child, she experienced bullying firsthand. The first time was after a school concert. After walking offstage, a boy from her school ridiculed her singing and held his hands over his ears.I don't think there's anyone that's going to step forward and speak out in favor of bullying, but have we totally sanitized our children's lives that this bullshit is a big deal? I remember the good old days when bullying was rampant across the land, and most kids, oh, I don't know, dealt with it and became stronger people, some might even say adults, because of it. Now, we live in a world where it's a crime for anything negative to happen to a child, and a grown woman that walks around in a tiara shares her life experiences with little girls. Progress?
Posted
10/14/2005 05:15:00 PM
by Douglas
A student has filed an Americans With Disabilities Act complaint against a university because it won't let her keep her pet ferret at her dormitory.Maybe she her ferret Lily does provide therapeutic assistance with her panic attacks, but this just reeks of yet another abuse of the ADA, because for every college freshman that would benefit from this kind of activity, there are thousands more that would be grossed out about having to live in the dorm with a freakin' rat.
Posted
10/14/2005 05:06:00 PM
by Douglas
NASA managers said Friday that the space agency is working to resume shuttle flights as soon as next May, even as teams of engineers continue to analyze what caused a potentially critical problem during the Discovery's launch.Well that's good news, but since when did NASA Administrators start referring to the shuttle schedule in terms typically reserved for High School Sophomores boys describing cheerleaders? Sunday, October 09, 2005
Posted
10/09/2005 05:31:00 PM
by Douglas
The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.So much for the unquestionable holy word of god. I wonder who gets to pick which parts are accurate and which parts aren't? The same people that wrote it and got to pick what was included and what wasn't?
Posted
10/09/2005 05:20:00 PM
by Douglas
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Friday, October 07, 2005
Posted
10/07/2005 05:50:00 PM
by Douglas
Posted
10/07/2005 05:42:00 PM
by Douglas
On 5 June 1995 an adult male mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) collided with the glass façade of the Natuurmuseum Rotterdam and died. An other drake mallard raped the corpse almost continuously for 75 minutes. Then the author disturbed the scene and secured the dead duck. Dissection showed that the rape-victim indeed was of the male sex. It is concluded that the mallards were engaged in an ‘Attempted Rape Flight’ that resulted in the first described case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard.I have absolutely no idea what to think about this, but I will give it up for the rapist duck. He didn't do it half assed. He stuck it out for 75 minutes. Kinda makes ya wonder about the person that had to watch and time it, though. Thursday, October 06, 2005
Posted
10/06/2005 05:23:00 PM
by Douglas
I eagerly await the announcement of President Bush's real nominee to the Supreme Court. If the president meant Harriet Miers seriously, I have to assume Bush wants to go back to Crawford and let Dick Cheney run the country.And unfortunately for them, the same "conservative" sycophants would defend any Bush nominee. I wanna see a fight for this one! Monday, October 03, 2005
Posted
10/03/2005 05:32:00 PM
by Douglas
The Republican party has proven that they don't stand for a damned thing beyond keeping and wielding power. I can't decide if the Miers nomination was a wholesale cop-out by a wounded president who has lost all fight for what he claims to believe in, or yet another example of the rampant cronyism and arrogance of power of an administration that realizes it'll never again face accountability at the ballot box, and simply doesn't care anymore. Probably a little of both.Considering what a lasting legacy an SCOTUS appointee has for a president, I can see why Bush apologists are getting ticked at his middle of the road appointments. These blind, coprophagous followers stuck through the last six years, and this is all they get? Sure, most wouldn't be happy if Bush nominated Jesus himself, but still. Over at Althouse, I've been watching this link light on fire throughout the day. Good call, Ann! It was only four hits this morning, but now it's up over five pages.
Posted
10/03/2005 05:19:00 PM
by Douglas
Meanwhile, automakers quietly have started adding what amount to black boxes to their automobiles--sort of cheap, simplified versions of the black boxes found in commercial airliners.This one's going to get interesting. I can't imagine the recording device in a car being used to testify against its driver in court, but stranger things have happened. Labels: EDR
Posted
10/03/2005 05:05:00 PM
by Douglas
Holy crap, I gotta quit reading this. I just got to the women article. Specifically, the "women are useful for" part. Ouch. That's funny. Saturday, October 01, 2005
Posted
10/01/2005 04:21:00 PM
by Douglas
Boeing and its joint-venture partner Bell Helicopter apologized yesterday for a magazine ad published a month ago — and again this week by mistake — depicting U.S. Special Forces troops rappelling from an Osprey aircraft onto the roof of a mosque.Ya know, the Marine Corps didn't buy 'em to rescue hurricane survivors.
Posted
10/01/2005 04:19:00 PM
by Douglas
Posted
10/01/2005 04:10:00 PM
by Douglas
Using the Sabbath Feature.I found this a bit troubling at first. Does my new stove have some Jewish friends that are going to come over today? Who knows, but there are two aspects about this I find disturbing. First of all, I'm not one to question anyone's relationship with a divine being, but personally, my god wants me to have a hot meal on Saturdays, too. And finally, if at any point during my final judgment any features on my appliances comes into consideration for my salvation, boy howdy am I in big trouble. You can pretty much forget about the big stuff if the big guy upstairs is taking into consideration the light bulb in your oven.
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