Eh... not so much

Science!

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:12:06 GMT

Mythbusters marathon all day today on the Discovery Channel! Enjoy!

(Yes, I'm at work, but I am not sad, for lo, I am DVR'ing the hell out of these.)

Well, it SHOULD be a national holiday

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:37:34 GMT

Happy birthday to theferrett!!! Long may you write, sir.

Yum!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:38:44 GMT

I made fresh pesto! First time ever! With basil I grew on my own deck! NOM NOM NOM NOM!

I'm going to scramble eggs for dinner, and put the pesto on it. :9

HEE!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:46:51 GMT

I bought Amy Winehouse's 2003 Frank album (thank you, Amazon MP3 downloads) a while back, but never got around to listening to the whole thing. So I am a latecomer to the hilariousness of her song "F**k Me Pumps." This is 100% pure AWESOME!

When you walk in the bar,
And you're dressed like a star,
Rockin' your F me pumps.

And the men notice you,
With your Gucci bag crew,
Can't tell who he's lookin' to.

Cuz you all look the same,
Everyone knows your name,
And that's your whole claim to fame.

Never miss a night,
Cuz your dream in life,
Is to be a footballers wife

You don't like players,
That's what you say-a,
But you really wouldn't mind a millionaire.

You don't like ballers,
They don't do nothing for ya,
But you'd love a rich man six foot two or taller.

You're more than a fan,
Lookin' for a man,
But you end up with one-night-stands.

He could be your whole life,
If you got past one night,
But that part never goes right.

In the morning you're vexed,
He's onto the next,
And you didn't even get no taste.

Don't be too upset,
If they call you a skank,
Cuz like the news everyday you get pressed.

You don't like players,
That's what you say-a,
But you really wouldn't mind a millionaire.

Or them big ballers,
Don't do nothing for ya.
But you'd love a rich man six foot two or taller,

You can't sit down right,
Cuz your jeans are too tight,
And you're lucky its ladies night.

With your big empty purse,
Every week it gets worse,
At least your breasts cost more than hers.

So you did Miami,
Cuz you got there for free,
But somehow you missed the plane.

You did too much E,
Met somebody,
And spent the night getting caned.

Without girls like you,
There'd be no fun,
We'd go to the club and not see anyone.

Without girls like you,
There's no nightlife,
All those men just go home to their wives.

Don't be mad at me,
Cuz you're pushing thirty,
And your old tricks no longer work.

You should have known from the jump,
That you always get dumped,
So dust off your fuck me pumps

This is so excellent. God, she's so talented, and she's just a total train wreck now. This kid isn't going to last to push 30.

Happy birthday

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:16:26 GMT

This week is just a marathon of birthdays, both RL and LJ. So have a great day, redstapler!!!

Aw darn

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:12:51 GMT

Thanks to lucia_tanaka for letting me know about this one:

With great sadness we must report that veteran actor Don S. Davis passed away on June 29, 2008. He was 65 years old.

Don co-starred on Stargate SG-1 for the show's first seven years, helping to launch the enduring science fiction franchise. Davis played Major General George Hammond, base commander and a father figure to many of the show's characters.

He is also well-known for his portrayal of Major Garland Briggs in Twin Peaks.

Me again. And of course let's not forget Scully's dad on X-Files.

Sigh. RIP, sir.

Mega birthday post!

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:14:18 GMT

First of all, happy birthday to my younger brother!

Secondly, happy birthday to my real-life friend The Perfesser! (Who is not younger, bwa ha ha ha ha)

And finally happy 30th birthday to guinastasia!

Huzzahs all around!

Power to the people, baby!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:06:34 GMT

We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix

Well, thank you very much! I appreciate being heard.

Heh

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:45:13 GMT

From Newsweek: True or False - Having Kids Makes You Happy:

The most recent comprehensive study on the emotional state of those with kids shows us that the term "bundle of joy" may not be the most accurate way to describe our offspring. "Parents experience lower levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers," says Florida State University's Robin Simon, a sociology professor who's conducted several recent parenting studies, the most thorough of which came out in 2005 and looked at data gathered from 13,000 Americans by the National Survey of Families and Households. "In fact, no group of parents—married, single, step or even empty nest—reported significantly greater emotional well-being than people who never had children. It's such a counterintuitive finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life, and they're not."
Simon received plenty of hate mail in response to her research ("Obviously Professor Simon hates her kids," read one), which isn't surprising. Her findings shake the very foundation of what we've been raised to believe is true. In a recent NEWSWEEK Poll, 50 percent of Americans said that adding new children to the family tends to increase happiness levels. Only one in six (16 percent) said that adding new children had a negative effect on the parents' happiness. But which parent is willing to admit that the greatest gift life has to offer has in fact made his or her life less enjoyable?
Parents may openly lament their lack of sleep, hectic schedules and difficulty in dealing with their surly teens, but rarely will they cop to feeling depressed due to the everyday rigors of child rearing. "If you admit that kids and parenthood aren't making you happy, it's basically blasphemy," says Jen Singer, a stay-at-home mother of two from New Jersey who runs the popular parenting blog MommaSaid.net. "From baby-lotion commercials that make motherhood look happy and well rested, to commercials for Disney World where you're supposed to feel like a kid because you're there with your kids, we've made parenthood out to be one blissful moment after another, and it's disappointing when you find out it's not."

Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha.

A little weird though to have an article about being childless written by a parent, isn't it? Wouldn't a companion piece by a childless person help? But I do like articles that show childless people not as three-headed freaks.

Have you clicked today?

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:14:07 GMT

Hey guys, if The Breast Cancer Site reaches their goal today of 8 million clicks for the whole month of June, one of their sponsors will donate $10,000! So go over and click your heart out!

Well, check me the hell out!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:12:25 GMT

I have posted every day this month!

This is the first time I've done this in roughly forever. Yay me!

Good thoughts please

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:58:09 GMT

Morning, y'all: our friend Dr. M's dad is going in for surgery to help minimize the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease this morning. All good thoughts, prayers, chants, candle-lightings, and rain dances that all goes smoothly would be appreciated. Thank you!

Updated at 3:35 PM: Dr. M texted from Florida to say the surgery went well. Thanks everybody!

My name is Charity Hussein Froggenhall!

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:05:24 GMT

Obama Supporters Take His Name as Their Own

Emily Nordling has never met a Muslim, at least not to her knowledge. But this spring, Ms. Nordling, a 19-year-old student from Fort Thomas, Ky., gave herself a new middle name on Facebook.com, mimicking her boyfriend and shocking her father.

“Emily Hussein Nordling,” her entry now reads.

With her decision, she joined a growing band of supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who are expressing solidarity with him by informally adopting his middle name.

The result is a group of unlikely-sounding Husseins: Jewish and Catholic, Hispanic and Asian and Italian-American, from Jaime Hussein Alvarez of Washington, D.C., to Kelly Hussein Crowley of Norman, Okla., to Sarah Beth Hussein Frumkin of Chicago....

...Mr. Obama is a Christian, not a Muslim. Hussein is a family name inherited from a Kenyan father he barely knew, who was born a Muslim and died an atheist. But the name has become a political liability. Some critics on cable television talk shows dwell on it, while others, on blogs or in e-mail messages, use it to falsely assert that Mr. Obama is a Muslim or, more fantastically, a terrorist.

“I am sick of Republicans pronouncing Barack Obama’s name like it was some sort of cuss word,” Mr. Strabone wrote in a manifesto titled “We Are All Hussein” that he posted on his own blog and on dailykos.com.

So like the residents of Billings, Mont., who reacted to a series of anti-Semitic incidents in 1993 with a townwide display of menorahs in their front windows, these supporters are brandishing the name themselves....

...Mr. Obama may be more enthusiastic, judging from his response at a Chicago fund-raiser two weeks ago. When he saw that Richard Fizdale, a longtime contributor, wore “Hussein” on his name tag, Mr. Obama broke into a huge grin, Mr. Fizdale said.

“The theory was, we’re all Hussein,” Mr. Obama said to the crowd later, explaining Mr. Fizdale’s gesture....

Heh. You good kids.

I r not l33t

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:51:44 GMT

Srsly?

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:53:59 GMT

This cat's expression is full of the win:

more cat pictures

I tawk reel gud

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:30:55 GMT

Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test...

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 87% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy

Friday night link dump

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:25:49 GMT

Many excellent postings on Cheezburger today, make sure you check 'em out! I love this one! Oh, and this one! This one is so cute! Anyway, yeah, banner day for the LOLcats today.

If you're trying to eat gluten-free, Shauna Adams -- the Gluten-Free Girl -- is putting together a blog just of recommendations. Not just food, but pretty much anything that takes her fancy.

Including these beautiful necklaces from SuperHero Designs. I may save my pennies and get some. They are super fun!

Did you see Ted Koppel on Daily Show the other night? Besides slaying us with his adorable puppy, he talked about his new special on Discovery premiering in a couple of weeks, all about China. Definitely sounds intriguing.

Hey, and while we're pointing to the Daily Show site, enjoy this bit of adorableness.

That was to gentle you in to the rest of these, cuz they get a little depressing.

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. Let's repeat that: NO GODDAMN ICE AT THE NORTH POLE. IT'S MELTING.

This is more cynical than funny, but this is a column by Jill Porter at the Philadelphia Daily News.
I don't know about you, but I'm going to spend my tax-refund incentive check to buy a gun.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that individuals - and not just members of militias - have the right to bear arms, it's the least we can do.

Really.

I was going to buy a dining-room rug, but that won't boost the economy nearly as much as having more guns in circulation.

And finally, sadly: A man being sought for shooting his estranged wife to death while she watched one of their children swim at a YMCA had been ordered in October to have no contact with her, authorities said Friday. I'm sure that having the restraining order will be a great comfort to her children.

OK, I can't leave you on such a down note. Boomdeyada your heart out and enjoy your weekend.

SQUEE!

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:12:37 GMT

Thanks to birdseyeview for pointing to this!

I have an announcement to make

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:01:39 GMT

Why does this administration hate our wounded soldiers?

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:58:16 GMT

Keith Olbermann mentioned this on the show last night:

Soldiers risk ruin while awaiting benefit checks

By MICHELLE ROBERTS – Jun 16, 2008

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — His lifelong dream of becoming a soldier had, in the end, come to this for Isaac Stevens: 28, penniless, in a wheelchair, fending off the sexual advances of another man in a homeless shelter.

Stevens' descent from Army private first-class, 3rd Infantry Division, 11 Bravo Company, began in 2005 — not in battle, since he was never sent off to Iraq or Afghanistan, but with a headfirst fall over a wall on the obstacle course at Fort Benning, Ga. He suffered a head injury and spinal damage.

The injury alone didn't put him in a homeless shelter. Instead, it was military bureaucracy — specifically, the way injured soldiers are discharged on just a fraction of their salary and then forced to wait six to nine months, and sometimes even more than a year, before their full disability payments begin to flow.

"When I got out, I hate to say it, but man, that was it. Everybody just kind of washed their hands of me, and it was like, `OK, you're on your own,'" said Stevens, who was discharged in November and was in a shelter by February. He has since moved into a temporary San Antonio apartment with help from Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization.

Nearly 20,000 disabled soldiers were discharged in the past two fiscal years, and lawmakers, veterans' advocates and others say thousands could be facing financial ruin while they wait for their claims to be processed and their benefits to come through.

Classy, huh?

Whoa!

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:18:10 GMT

Did you know that Dwight from The Office is in House of 1000 Corpses???

Dude, that's effed UP!

John Cole says it well

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:11:24 GMT

John Cole at Balloon Juice sums up the FISA flip-flop very well:

Flame away:

“The bill has changed. So I don’t think the security threats have changed, I think the security threats are similar. My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people.”

Before, when he accepted the compromise but promised to fight for removing immunity, it was one thing. This is a total collapse and a rapid abandonment of principle. From a voting perspective, nothing really changes. McCain is for it, Hillary would have been, now Obama is. Obama is still the better of the three on a wider range of issues.

As to whether I like it, no. I could understand the politics of supporting the filibuster and voting for the bill, but I don’t understand or accept getting out in front of this piece of shit and giving us more of the same “You can’t handle the truth.” It is a craven capitulation, and failure to support the filibuster tomorrow really is deciding the politics of fear trump “change.” We all know there are threats- the question is one of constitutionality and the Imperial Presidency. We are against it.

This was a test, and Obama is failing. It is of little solace that McCain refuses to show up and Clinton would have, too.

Obligatory Troll Protection: No, I don’t have buyers remorse, yes, he still is better than Hillary or McCain, no, I am not disillusioned (I never thought he was a flaming liberal in the first place). I am, however, disgusted, and I will caution the Obama campaign that “better than McCain” is not much of a rallying cry. We all remember how “anything is better than Bush” turned out in 2004.

Distorting the Bible for fun and profit

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:14:12 GMT

Oh Jon Stewart, you national treasure, you:

From HuffPo: Obama's Non-Promise Not Broken

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:34:20 GMT

Finally! John K. Wilson writes on the Huffington Post:

This week, one attack by John McCain on Barack Obama has become an article of unquestioned faith repeatedly declared in the mainstream media: that Obama broke a promise to accept public financing in the general election. There’s only problem with this claim by the press: it is demonstrably untrue and fully refuted by the facts. Yet the mainstream press has been nearly unanimous in falsely claiming that Obama had broken a promise to take public financing.
...Even progressives fell into this trap. Rachel Maddow declared on June 20 that his stand was "a reversal from his previous position." Joan Walsh of Salon.com proclaimed that Obama "flip-flopped on campaign finance law."(Race to the White House, June 20) Nick Baumann of Mother Jones wrote, "Obama is making a politically expedient decision and essentially going back on his ‘Yes’ answer to a questionnaire that asked whether he would forgo private financing if his opponents did the same."
So what’s the truth. Below is every single case I could find reporting in the media about Obama’s comments on public financing:
Even in February 2007, before Obama’s massive fundraising became evident, Obama’s staffers were explicit in stating that public financing in the general election was an "option" and not a commitment.
The March 2, 2007 New York Times reported Obama’s campaign saying that he would "aggressively pursue an agreement."
So from the very beginning, the Obama campaign stated over and over again that public financing in general election would require an extensive agreement that went beyond merely having both parties accept the funding.
In response to a November 2007 questionnaire to the Midwest Democracy Network and Common Cause, Obama wrote: "My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election....If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."
No one could read this answer as suggesting that Obama would accept public financing under any condition. Obama explicitly "requires" a promise by the Republican to adopt a "fundraising truce"–meaning not using the parties or 527s as a way to cheat the system.....

Go read the whole thing. It's very thorough!

This falls under "childish but kinda awesome"

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:39:41 GMT

From the NY Times:

An Honor That Bush Is Unlikely to Embrace
By JESSE McKINLEY
SAN FRANCISCO — Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital (and a state, too). But President Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.
From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.
The plan, naturally hatched in a bar, would place a vote on the November ballot to provide “an appropriate honor for a truly unique president.”