One of the great things about Facebook is that it tells you when a friend’s birthday is coming up. My informal observations have shown that there’s a big spike in mid to late September. I’m used to having 1 or 2 birthdays everyday among my friends, but in the past weeks I’ve seen many more 4,5 or 6 person birthdays. It turns out that September and August really are the most fecund months. My own naive hypothesis is that the influx of births has something to do with the Christmas-New Years run 9 months before…
Garance Franke Ruta has been investigating the legal background of Senator Craig’s lewd conduct/soliciting/cruising snafu, and found out that “in State v. Limberhand, [the Idaho Court of Appeals] ruled that (solo) masturbation within an enclosed restroom stall was constitutionally protected behavior as the individual within the stall had a reasonable expectation of privacy within the stall.”
Yes, you read that right, the man who went to the Idaho Court of Appeals to protect his right to masturbate in a bathroom stall was named Limberhand. Just like Wordsworth was destined by his name to become a poet, or Chris Moneymaker was destined to become a poker player, so Limberhand was destined to….well, you can figure it out.
Gosh Chris Matthews, professional talk show hosts aren’t supposed to creepily come onto their colleagues live on air. The lack of professionalism Matthews displays is pretty shocking, and he should probably apologize. While I’ll be the first to admit that Erin Burnett is quite attractive, it’s simply offensive to treat a fellow anchor that way. And besides, doesn’t Chris know that borderline inappropriate commentary on female journalists appearances is the tried and true realm of, oh I dunno, young male bloggers. Where have people’s sense of propriety gone these days?
Here’s the clip - WARNING - extreme creepiness, in all seriousness, I stopped watching at the 15 second mark around six times before I managed to finish the entire thing. It’s like The Office except not funny, just creepy.
While my brother was looking up the great Swedish rock band Kent on wikipedia, he ran across this little factoid, which just might be the greatest sentence in the history of the internet:
Sweden Finns (ruotsinsuomalaiset in Finnish, sverigefinnar in Swedish) are a Finnish speaking minority in Sweden. The Finnish-speaking Swedes are not to be confused with the Swedish speaking Finland-Swedes in Finland.
OK, loyal readers, raise your hand if you have ever confused the Sweden Finns with the Finland Swedes, I know a few of you have to be guilty. Here’s the video to my favorite Kent tune - Karleken Vantar. The best part about listening to their songs is convincing yourself that they’re actually singing in English and trying to decipher the words. I guess this video is a little racy, so consider yourself warned.
Nothing too exciting, but a 4.2 magnitude quake woke up everyone in the house. Epicenter was only three miles away from where I live. We don’t have awful weather during the summer, so I guess this is how we even it out. Here’s all the USGS info.
It’s a hard knock life for a west coast blogger…especially if you get up at 11 or later everyday. You’ve already missed everyone’s morning posts and are just way behind the curve. Of course, there are advantages to blogging three hours behind the DC crowd. You get the first whack at new content that goes up at midnight for them, and 9 for us and most importantly, you don’t live in a swampy, bug infested, humid hellhole that isn’t fit for human habitation. Ahh, California really is the best.
According to Mingle2, I have an “NC-17″ rated blog.Turns out saying “torture” 15 times, “ass” three times, “meth” twice and “vagina” once is enough to push you off the cliff. I’m calling shenanigans on this entire operation, this BS says that people only slightly younger than me shouldn’t read my blog. It’s not all bad though, hopefully this blog is the Clockwork Orange of the blogosphere, instead of Showgirls.
Will this stop people from constantly referencing my age when discussing what I say? Probably not.
Creating armor that renders a soldier invisible. Stimulating the brain to suppress sleep for days. Arming sharks with chemical implants and cameras to work as spies.
This year the Pentagon will spend $78 billion — about half of all government research and development dollars — on a variety of projects, according to the American Association for the Advancement for Science (AAAS).
Via Auguste, we have can what only be described as a great headline that is only matched by an equally crazy/disturbing story. Again, kids, don’t do meth. Here’s the headline:
Of all the places in Texas I didn’t expect Austin to suddenly resemble, well, what some people think of Texas.
A crowd attacked and killed a passenger in a vehicle that had struck and injured a child, police said Wednesday. Police believe 2,000 to 3,000 people were in the area for a Juneteenth celebration when the attack occurred Tuesday night. The man who was killed had been trying to stop the group from attacking the vehicle’s driver when the crowd turned on him, authorities said.
So, the kid didn’t even die, “The child was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries,” and they didn’t kill the driver. If you’re gonna do mob justice, at least do it right
Via Yglesias, the Clinton Campaign decided to make a spot portraying Bill and Hillary as Tony and Carmela in the infamous final scene of the Sopranos. Call me cautious, but I don’t think it’s the best idea for a couple who spent the better part of the 90s fending off accusations that they ran something of a mafia in Arkansas to pretend their America’s most famous mob couple.
In case anyone cares, the Hillary campaign picked Celine Dion’s “You and I” as the official campaign song. Hillary just lost my primary vote, well, that is if I could vote in the California primary. I mean, she’s clearly decided to orient her campaign to half deaf, muscially retarded, weepish middle aged people who are responsible for the 1997 Oscars Best Original Song travesty, you can hardly blame for feeling a bit alienated from the cause.
…and maybe your talking dog will be ashamed of you. Check out Seth Stevenson’s review of the most recent anti-Marijuana ads floating around the tube, though they may seem ridiculous, they are more effective, subtle and realistic than classics like the dude not realizing his Dad’s gun is loaded or the guys running over a little girl onher bike.
Note - The black text that shows up when the alien goes away with the girl isn’t in the original spot.
I was getting a bit unhappy with my current visual template, and I’ve been messing around with it. I think I like this one the best, but may soon change it. If you’re really unhappy with this and want a return to the old one, please comment. If you like the change, please say so. If you think there’s another WordPress theme I should pick, please comment. Remember, my average post gets a bit more than 1 comment, so if you do decide to say something, you’re likely to have quite a bit of influence.
PS - If you’re reading at the time I’m doing all this changing (between 130-140 PST) you’re either an insomniac (like some libertarian bloggers…) extremely dedicated or just got lost looking for a late night fixin’ of “pornxxx” (my most popular search term, a story that requires a post all its own) I’m sorry for the theme constantly changing - such is the price of progress.
What the hell is the difference between an “article” for a magazine or newspaper and a “piece” for a magazine or newspaper. Any journalists who read the blog (all two of you, on a good day) please enlighten me as to the nature of this seemingly unexplainable distinction.
Via Matt Yglesias, by way of Ann Friedman ( blog attribution is so much fun) Barbara Ellen slams the marketing of “for women” pink products as infantilizes women. Not being a woman, I can’t really say much of substance about the entire issue.
I can, however, admit that I’m a total sucker for pink things - well, mostly shirts. I love, love, love pink shirts (don’t worry, pictures are forthcoming). At last count, I think I have five, more than any other color besides white. I like to think it compliments my olive skin tone, at least that’s what people tell me. I usually get nothing but compliments when I’m sporting some pink apparel. I also have a pink polka dot breast cancer awareness ribbon pinned to my backpack (which is mostly baby blue, because I just love ‘masculine’ colors). I’ve even had fleeting thoughts of wanting the infamous pink RAZR, but the iron curtain of social expectations and norms crushed that desire.
I wouldn’t be the first guy to have a hankering for pink - it just looks really good. I don’t know the social or cultural significance of my like of a traditionally “female” color, but it’s worth pointing out that pink doesn’t always equal feminine - the Sex Pistols used a lot of pink and influenced it’s dual-sex use in punk fashion.
So yeah, if anyone wants to buy me a birthday (Feb 24) or Hanukkah present - a pink t-shirt, polo, or button down would be much appreciated (smallest adult size possible, except American Apparel… regular small is fine).
I’ve been sitting here for the last two hours or so trolling the web trying to find something to write about…and failing. I don’t think the Times of the Post really puts out their best stuff on Saturdays. TNR, which is usually the place to be for late night/early morning blogging (they post the next day’s articles at midnight - exactly) just has some movie reviews. So, I got nothing. One could say “Dude, it’s Friday night, why are you trying to find something to blog about.” Who knows, who knows. WEll, in lieu of anything to blog or write about, I give you this.
