Author: Jeff

politics

French Compliment?

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Quote from today’s NY Times about Lance Armstrong and his preparations for the Tour de France (Lance is set to win his record 6th Tour de France tomorrow):

“It’s an improvement in the method of approaching the Tour de France — more professional, more rigorous, more methodical,” race director Jean-Marie Leblanc said. “In a word, more American.”

Gotta love it. More professional + more rigorous + more methodical = more american. What is the French formula? More picky + more existential + more irascible = more french?

politics

A Day at the Pool

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Bill Gates was spotted at Wild Waves in Seattle – check out the photos that a STAR 101.5’s listener took! Funny that he doesn’t have his own wave pool in the backyard – I mean, its not like he’s the richest guy in the world…wait, he IS the richest guy in the world…cheap ass

ramblings

Two Heads are Better Than One

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You’ve heard the phrase “two heads are better than one” at some point in your life. In order to prove it, why don’t you check out a two-headed turtle? Okay, not convinced…how about then a two-headed snake? Okay, okay, so you don’t believe that adage. Well maybe two heads are not better than one – but six legs have to be better than four, right? Check out this six-legged cow – the extra two legs come out of its chin! How awesome is that?! Okay, okay, I got it…its not that two heads are better than one or that six legs are better than four, its that two bodies are better than one, like this fish that has two bodies!.

If you want to check out the rest of nature’s oddities, the Texas Reptiles web site is for you. Don’t mess with Texas – or else it’ll sick a six-legged cow and a two-headed turtle on your ass!

ramblings

Art Imitating Life Imitating Art – or – My New Favorite Baseball Team

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My co-worker Jason will be taking a trip out west in a few weeks. One of the things he likes to do when travelling to different parts of America is to seek out and go to minor league baseball games in those areas. In looking for minor league baseball clubs around Sante Fe, New Mexico, he discovered the greatest baseball club throughout the land: the Albuquerque Isotopes. This club, the Florida Marlin’s AAA club, was named after, yes, you guessed it, the Springfield Isotopes from “The Simpsons.”

This is the second pro-franchise that I know of that has been named after a fictional team. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks were named after the Disney movie of the same name (and not the other way around as some would like to believe) but the ‘Topes are a hell of a lot cooler. I’m hoping that Jason will pick up a tee shirt for me. Ever since learning of this club’s existence, I cannot get the Simpson’s version of “Talking Baseball” out of my head:

We’re talking softball, from Maine to San Diego
Talking softball, Mattingly and Canseco
Ken Griffey’s grotesquely swollen jaw
Steve Sax and his run ins with the law
We’re talking Homer, Ozzie and the Straw….

Even the ‘Topes mascot looks like the mascot from the Simpsons, the one that “Dancing Homer” took over for. I wonder if there are any merchandising tie-ins at the park. I’ll have to wait for Jason to return with his report. I can’t wait…

politics

“Outfoxed” Movie Clips

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The Center for American Progress has provided two great clips from “Outfoxed” – a new movie which dissects the Fox News Media organization and shows how blatantly unfair and unbalanced this “news” organization is in reality. The way that O’Reilly abuses his guest in the second clip is repulsive however Jeremy Glick knew that going on the show is like going into a cage with a wild beast. If it snaps at you, if it bites you, its your own fault because you should have known better.

If you would like to buy the video, Amazon is selling it on DVD. I’m sure it will have a very limited theatrical release – not sure when and where it will be playing though so if you can’t wait to be even more angry, get it today. “Outfoxed” seems at first blush to be much more well researched than “Fahrenheit 9/11” which is a good thing.

ramblings

Druids In the News

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It seems that a a 26 year old druid was arrested in England today for carrying his sword into a local hardware store. news.com.au has the full story.

“The 26-year-old was charged with possessing an offensive weapon after a security guard saw him with the sheathed 90cm blade draped over his shoulder as he browsed through a branch of Wilkinson Hardware.

About a dozen fellow members of the Insular Order of Druids sat in the court’s public gallery, while chief druid King Arthur Pendragon, wearing white robes with a red lion emblazoned on the front, acted as Williams’s legal adviser.

The sword, named Talisen, has been confiscated by police as evidence.”

I’m wonding if anyone I met at Tree’s wedding last summer is English. Thanks go to Chris DiClerico and his Blah Blah Blog for finding this piece of gold. He shall receive a +2 dagger along with a flask that restores 25 hit points for the effort.

ramblings

Note On a Scrap

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Originally from 6/24/01:

“The universal themes addressed in his works – life, love, war and religious faith – speak directly to the twenty-first sentry mind” – last sentence of the intro to the Met’s William Blake exhibitions. What strikes me the most is the sense of immediacy that the statement represents – and how everything these days is clamoring to be “super relevant” because of the date change. So we are in the new millennium and now everything is starting a new – therefore everything is relevant to the individual looking to refocus, refine, rediscover or reinvent himself.

ramblings

This Judge Pumps It Up

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It looks like Donald D. Thompson, a district judge in Creek County, Oklahoma is now on the wrong end of the law. If he goes away to jail, he’s going to make a very attractive mate due the reasons for his incarceration. Read the full complaint at the Smoking Gun’s site. You’ll never look at our legal system the same again. If only Night Court was still on air, it would have a field day with this one.

Thanks Phyllis for sending this along.