Great episode of 24!

So I was watching 24 tonight and I thought it was great! Tony! Tony! Tony! He saved Jack! Also, another man dies for not listening to Jack (poor security guard). TerrorMom tries to do the right thing and save TerrorTeen. And of course, per usual for this show, there's another bad guy above our assumed bad guys. And who is our mole talking to anyway?

Two very different essays

While surfing tonight, I came across two very different essays on vastly different subjects that I thought were interesting.

The first is an essay by David Neiwert of Orcinus. I've never been all that gun-ho on hate crime laws but this letter to the editor that David wrote has made me look at them differently. I recommamend that you read it and tell me what you think.

Secondly, I found an essay by Paul Graham titled "What You'll Wish You'd Known". It is a speech that he was going to give to a high school but he gave had a shot to give it. So he wrote it out and posted it. It's a good speech but I'm not sure how I feel about it. By the way, it is a long speech.

Still here...really

Disappeared for a short while. Work got busy. Not doing anything mind, just meetings, our annual re-org, quarterly review, etc. Plus, Dad visited on Thursday bringing gifts. I got the NordicTrack that was in their basement. Now I can lose about 5 or 10 lbs I wanted to lose. I tried it out this morning, once you get used to the rythmn, it's not bad.

Went out on Friday with a few friends. One just got divorced recently and he was asking me where the good or cool bars were. As if I've ever known that!

Vote no on Gonzales

I sent emails today to my representatives, not that sending an email to LaHood will help but I did it. I asked them to vote no on Gonzales as Attorney General. We can't just stand by and approve torture as an American value. We (the country) are better than that! Anyone who reads this (basically you Jim) should tell our Senators to vote No on Gonzales.

Please!

More on SpongeBob

Orcinus has more on the whole "SpongeBob is gay" bit. I had the first couple of ideas but I didn't flesh them out as far as David from Orcinus has. Read it, it is a very disturbing post.

Now they go after SpongeBob?

So the conserative Focus on Family is now focused on the most dangerous item in America and it has picked SpongeBob SquarePants. So the largest conservative religious group is now focused on SpongeBob because they believe that he's gay? Wait, SpongeBob's gay?!?

How the fuck could you believe something so insane as that? By the way, I was just checking the Wiki page on sponges and it appears that sponges are neither male nor female so which you think would cause more problems to Focus on Family? His "gayness" or his lack of maleness?

To end this in happier note, I'll steal a post I saw on this in the Daily Kos:

First they came for Barney,
And i did not speak out
Because i fucking hate Barney (so I was secretly happy),
Then they came for the Teletubbies
And I did not speak out
Because my son was never really a Teletubby fan.
Now they come for Spongebob
Because it appears there are no other helpless fun-loving cartoon characters to pick on!
Next thing you know they'll be going after Mr.Roger's legacy!

Comments?

Nerd! Nerd! Nerd!

I found this quiz at lunch today. Just thought that someone else would like it.

We're done! Halleluiah!

Earlier tonight, my team at work finally finished our project. Or at least parts 1 and 2 of it. There will still be a 2 month long pilot but the big parts are done. We will still be working on performance related issues this week but at least: We're Done!!

IPod

What these guys are doing.

Turn off the Light - Nelly Furtado
Lean On Me - Al Green
I Will Buy You A New Life - Everclear
The Chanukah Song 2 - Adam Sandler
Zoot Suit Riot - Cherry Popping' Daddies
It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube
Rollout - Ludacris
In My Pocket - Mandy Moore
I'm Real (Murder Remix) - J. Lo.
In The End - Linkin Park

I'm so ashamed about the J. Lo. song appearing. I'm not even ashamed about the Mandy Mooore one but J. Lo.?

The Poor Man

Once again the Poor Man has the best summary of the Rathergate "controversy."

I loving "24" right now.

Look a non-political entry. How'd that happen? Anyways, I've seen the first four hours of "24" the last two nights. This season so far has been great although a little familar. Jack is trying to protect the women he loves who becomes kidnapped. So far, he's shot a man in the leg for info, used the location of a witness as leverage to go into the field, used a hostage situation to try and find other kidnap victims, and preteneded to rob a gas station to delay his suspect until he could have him tailed.

Not bad for four hours into the day. Also, the Araz Family is being very creepy. Can we give the wife (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo) her Oscar now? She's just as good as Lady Macbeth (aka Penny Palmer).

Daily Kos :: Newsweek: U.S. considering "Death Squads" in Iraq.

Newsweek: U.S. considering "Death Squads" in Iraq. Kinda says it all doesn't it?

According to Newsweek, Rumsfield is considering starting "Death Squads" in Iraq. These guys go from town to town and terriorize the locals so that they will turn in insurgents to the USA. Notice how I wrote that: They are paid to terrorize the local population. But hey, at least we're not as bad as Sadam or anything, right?

I mean, we're not, are we? Are we?

Capital Games

The link at the Nation is by David Corn who was on Faux News discussing how a conservative pundit was paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars in taxpayer money to gather support for No Child Left Behind (NCLB). David Corn ran into the pundit (Armstrong Williams) after the show and Williams says that there are plenty of others who accept money like this.

So my question is should we assume that all conservative pundits are on the take? Anybody?

James Wolcott: Captain Video's Visor Yields Poor Visibility

James Wolcott: Captain Video's Visor Yields Poor Visibility is an incredible essay by someone I really have to add to my blogroll.

Short version: The bloggers who have been supporting the Iraq war are slowly seeing the black smoke coming from Iraq. Some think this war was a bad idea and other think that "Death Squads" (paid killers working for the US, see El Savador ~ 1983) would be a good idea.

Dumb Question...

but just prior to the election there were stories about how nearly 400 tons of explosives went missing from a base in Iraq. There was video evidence of us finding the explosives and then just leaving them unguarded and unlocked. Soon they were missing. Based on the number of explosions we keep hearing about in Iraq on a daily basis, it is safe to assume that some of those explosives are being used against us in Iraq.

Now for my dumb question -- Has the media even discussed the missing explosives since the election? I don't seem to recall any discussion about that since Nov. 2. You'd think that our "Liberal Media" would be slobbering over a story that shows how fucked up our President's administration is. So, why haven't we heard about it?

Any thoughts or ideas?

Steve's Outrage of the Day (Morning Edition)

This post at the Daily Kos shows why we should call or write our Congress persons and tell them to not approve Gonzales. We have thousands of pages of military reports of torturing prisoners and they are shown to have started in Fall 2002. The "torture memo" was written in August 2002. That seems rather coincidental, doesn't it? Call or write your Senators now!

Steve's Outrage of the Day (Cold Evening Edition)

Do anyone remember when John Kerry mentioned how Bush said to a private audience in October that Bush told them he was planning on destroying privatizing "reforming" Social Security? Kerry was ridiculed by the media since no one was discussing Social Security during the election. So why is the media not mentioning that Kerry was right? About, well, everything!

...Changed title of post.

Happy New Year

Just wishing everyone a happy new year!