Speaking of comedy,

Check out the results from Google images when you search for "Bill Kirchenbauer".

As Usual,

I hate this guy. It just fries my ass when the untalented stumble onto an exploitable idea...

File under: Culture War!

Our faith has always been in direct conflict with the values of the world. We are, after all, a society that provides abortion on demand, has killed millions of innocent children, degrades the institution of marriage and all but treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition.

Well, that's clearly untrue. It's a first-rate superstition.

But we do treat those who want to force their beliefs onto others like second-class citizens. Thom, believe anything you want. Justify it to yourself anyway you want. But when you want to start legislating what your bearded pal in the sky tells you, then you've got trouble. (Of course, it's not what the bearded guy says at all, it's what some sweatty preacher tells you He said. But the man with the nice suit and the nice haircut wouldn't lie, would he?)

Speaking of the sweatty guy in the nice suit, The Reverend State Senator James Meeks is daring the citizens of Illinois to beg him to run for governor. I happened to be watching his preaching on TV one Sunday morning. This guy is a hack, an arrogant, power hungry panderer of the lowest kind. Isn't there some rule about political language and tax exempt church organizations?

(This is funny. Couldn't they come up with any better pictures than a water tower and a train? (I can't identify the rest. The school might be Bloom Township.))

Ukraine!

Remember that girl who did the photojournal of riding her motorcycle through the areas evacuated due to the Chernobyl disaster? She's got more stuff on her site, including some stuff about the Orange Revolution. Read the whole thing.

File under: Smokescreen!

What is the GOP hiding by inciting the immigration-rights community? Or are they simply creating the wedge issue of 2006?

I was watching the news last night, and a young lady was being interviewed out in the street at a protest. She was labled as an illegal immigrant. She said, among other things, that she wasn't a criminal. Except that she is a criminal. Maybe she shouldn't be, but she is. That sort of attitude is not how to win a fight.

I don't pretend to know the insanity the legal immigration process must be, I'm sure it's terrible. But I can't have too much respect for someone who violates the law, no matter what it is. Stand in line like everyone else.

File under: The Internet!

Check out ajaxWrite. Ajax is a new web programming technique that allows for cool shit to happen in a decidedly non-java, non-sucky sort of way. This is a MS Word-like application done as proof of concept, it seems. I believe ajax is a mishmash of a couple of languages and techniques, including java, but done in such a way that it just seems to work. Let the wikipedia tell you! This technology is going to be "the thing". I also believe Google Local uses the technique to do that drag the map around thing.

(NOTE: I just noticed that it required Firefox 1.5.)

Deliciously Creepy

The VW Commercials with this guy as some kind of wacky futuristic German engineer. (Which coincidentally, when input into google, yeilds the first result. Huzzah!)

EDIT: How did I not recognize him as Slippery Pete, (once again, the first google result) of the Frogger episode of Seinfeld??

(It happened again: search for slippery pete seinfeld jpg and you get another VW commercial. (Watch this one and watch Slippery Pete's facial expressions- hilarious). Weird.)

The Internet redeems itself one more time:

The Museum of HP Calculators

Donut review:

Sierra Mist Free [Slice? Upper 10? I love Wikipedia]

Anyhow, that is a tasty soda pop beverage. I detect a bit of a tangerine note. Though Diet 7up (now with Splenda) isn't bad either.

From the Washinton Office

AKA, the Post. An op-ed from Feb. 20th, talking about testing in the classroom.

And today, another from a pie-eyed idiot. I really tried to see his side, and I do. It must be nice to believe what he does about education. "This guy has been working for 24 years as a teacher, maybe his method does work," I thought to myself. No tests and the kids are still graduating? Hmmm. But then I parsed a little more, and made the following discoveries: he has *volunteered* for 24 years, and he teaches *nonviolence*. Well, that's just great. You keep going with that, and the adults will try to figure out how to teach little Tony how to READ and BALANCE A CHECKBOOK.

How does Coleman McCarthy support himself? I always want to know that about these criticizers. Ahh. He's retired.

Too funny

What do they tell you in counterfeiting school? That's right, "when in doubt, go big." So this guy figured why not go for the $1,000,000,000 note? Sure, the US hasn't made a currency larger that $100 for forty years, but why should that stop him?

The Smoking Gun has the rest of the story. With pictures!

What I especially like, besides the ridiculously crammed-in nine zeroes in the lower numbers, or the impossibly bad OfficeMax certificate paper, is the laser printer image defect that is obviously visible. Look at the bill, there is a blue line at about the left third. Could be a securtiy strip, but then it continues down the page. And you can also see it on the (page 3) certificate. Seriously- soon enough you'll be at Best Buy collecting your $999,994,500 in cold hard change, with your giant plasma tv and iPod in tow. You can afford to pop for that new toner cartridge. Hell, with just one of the notes, you could purchase 200,000 sweet color laser printers. If hp.com takes cash, anyway.

No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to Dive!

Didn't Blofeld have one of these?

Yikes

This is an unfortunate story. There seems to be a lot of irony in the story, and in some of the word choices. Did they really have to put in the "dignity" quote? Because there's nothing dignified about getting hit by a train.

Kitty Blogging!

I'm pretty sure I promised not to do this, but I feel the need. My mother finally had to put her/our cat Rita down. She was at least 21, since she showed up on our doorstep as a fully grown stray sometime in 1986. She then proceeded to have kittens and never left. I learned a lot from her, especially watching her hunt and teach her kittens how to hunt. Nature is beautiful, but brutal. In her dotage, the cat has had problem after problem, and never let out a peep as to being in any discomfort. It was almost impossible to believe. Until Friday, when she just started "crying" and my mom knew it was time.







(Yeah, that's a shoebox. She was a tiny little thing. I've personally seen her catch and eat a rabbit at least her size. Also, note the gold Legend of Zelda box just out of frame. HA!)


And, just to complete the kitty bloggin experience, here is Felix, one of the above mentioned kittens. He was more of a lover than a fighter, and thus has long since departed, a victim of the FIV.

Death

Dana Reeves dies of lung cancer.

It's funny that they keep harping on the fact that she wasn't a smoker. But I'm pretty sure that statistics show that most smokers don't get lung cancer.

Let's get nuts!

South Dakota bans most abortions

While I feel that abortions should be legal, safe and rare, and thus disagree with this law, I have to (almost) hand it to them for not being (too) hypocritical. What I mean by that is that many, many "pro lifers" are quick to exclaim that they find abortion perfectly acceptable in cases of rape of incest. Apparantly, those babies' lives aren't precious. In this case, they've made the following exception:

In his statement, however, Rounds pointed out that the bill does not prohibit doctors from prescribing contraceptive drugs before a pregnancy is determined, such as in a rape or incest case.

That would seem to be a wink, wink, nudge, nudge exemption.

If you're going to be against abortion on the grounds that every life is precious and that life begins at conception, you have to go all the way and ban the practice completely. Otherwise, it's not really about "life", is it?

But I digress.

It's good that somebody did this. This is a purely political move on South Dakota's part, since I'm pretty sure I read that there is only one place in the state where abortions are performed anyhow. So it's good to get this out in the open. I'm betting the Supreme Court isn't going to reverse Roe versus Wade, and maybe this will shut some of the people up a little. Or make them nuttier, which wouldn't be so bad either. Good, anyway, except for all the people who have to travel out of state to get their abortions.

And let me tell you, I picked the wrong week to start up my chain of abortion clinics in South Dakota.

Information Rich

This article about space is neat.

A working elevator would reduce the cost of launching anything into space by roughly 98 percent. The $500 million it takes to launch the average satellite (insurance not included) would be a thing of the past.

Satellite internet porn for everyone!

Nuts!

Wasn't this story the "what about the children!!??!" story last fall? Every precious little Fauntleroy was going to die of peanut allergy.

Just how in the hell does a person live to 15 with a deadly peanut allergy anyway?

What?

What was once one, torn asunder, is now one again?

Dorkwad! Part II!

High from my previous soldering success, I embarked on another project I've been meaning to do: replace (or add) an LED to my Vonage box so I can actually see it. The box is manufactured in such a way that you cannot see the green light unless you are looking straight on into the light area. Try to view it from more than about 20 degrees off of center and you got nothing. I, with soldering iron, led, a bit of wire and gumption, added another light to the front lip of the device so that I can see it when it's sitting on the shelf. It was a minor inconvenience, yes, but that's how I roll. The more minor the inconvenience, the harder I'll work to fix it.

The Simpsons!

Enjoy!

The

Good stuff

The folks over at Product Dose do a nice job of rounding up new stuff on the market, or weird stuff, or just neat looking stuff. Good stuff.

Big Pimpin'

Doctor Bill O'Reilly, ladies and gentlemen.

Sweeter than Condi?

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice take reporter Barbara "Beggin' Strips" Harrison on a tour of her daily exercise routine. Keep up the good work!

Dorkwad!

This is something I've wanted to do since they invented the blue LED. I busted out the meter and soldering iron and replaced the flashing red security light in my car with a blue one. Blue car, blue interior, blue light. Huzzah!