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8.30.2006
This State Is Made

Oh my goodness.

(YouTube / Ohio politics / don't watch without a sense of humor)



8.29.2006
Kneel

For those of you who didn't see it, the very best part of the Emmys from Sunday night: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert presenting the award for Best Reality Series.




8.28.2006
Floater



8.25.2006
Arrrrr

'Tis a pity, matey, that I do not live in Iowa's First Congressional District, and therefore do not have the opportunity to cast my ballot in November for James Hill, Pirate.

[via David Weigel, guestblogging over at Sullivan's



8.23.2006
Don't Download this Song

In a confession that will surprise absolutely no one who's ever met me for more than five minutes, the first album I ever owned was WEIRD AL IN 3-D. Although I spent a lot of time in choir and music class during elementary school, I'm fairly certain that everything I know about singing I learned from "One More Minute" off of DARE TO BE STUPID. Oh, how I love that man.

Thus and so, the internet bestows upon me the gift of a new Weird Al single, "Don't Download This Song", all about the evils of music piracy:

Weird Al Yankovic - Don't Download This Song (mp3)

God bless Weird Al.



8.21.2006
Franklin (Countaaaaaayy)

There are, very simply, no words:




8.15.2006
We Shall Overcome



Late Summer Reading

Okay, this is mean AND funny, all at the same time (particularly for those of us of a certain age and demographic, shall we say):

ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN AND THE MYSTERIOUS PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. BUSH (PDF file)

(last political gag/snark for a while, I promise.)



8.13.2006
Fair Waffles



Aug13_0001



8.11.2006
Redraft

Offered without comment:

War Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution

The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.

Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean.

The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking.

Left off the list would be what the Geneva Conventions refer to as "outrages upon [the] personal dignity" of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating acts -- such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of women's underwear seen at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq -- that fall short of torture.

"People have gotten worried, thinking that it's quite likely they might be under a microscope," said a U.S. official. Foreigners are using accusations of unlawful U.S. behavior as a way to rein in American power, the official said, and the amendments are partly meant to fend this off.

[more]

Via Sullivan.



8.10.2006
Corporate Cornhole



Corporate Cornhole



Corporate Cornhole


Aug10_0003

Ron and Val Ives (with additional child labor provided by Olivia) made these boards for my associations as a gimmick to promote our industry "Team Building Night" for the regional construction specifiers conference and trade show. (even though I realize that Cornhole is barely a team sport which is why it took some real pitch work to get it approved as the game/giveaway for the exhibit)

They were a huge hit (which I totally knew they would be) and we were far and away the most popular booth in the entire place. (except with our neighbors whose exhibits kept being hit by errant throws - by a miracle no one was injured)

I wanted to make sure they got posted so Val and Ron could see how great they looked after they were lettered and everything. When I called FastSigns to have them lettered I told him I had something weird for him to do, and after hearing what I wanted, he told me that they letter those boards all the time. Evidently, I'm behind the curve, again. But not too far behind since scads of folks told me last night that they had seen it, but never played.

The set now has a new home with an association membership prospect and many more were converted to the game having tried it on such awesome boards! - Great job, Ives!




Late Night Phone Call

ESPN's Tom Friend is reporting that Maurice Clarett called him Tuesday night at about 11 pm to "thank him" for running January's ESPN story on Clarett's drinking problem and its effect on his career in the wake of the January robbery charges -- and notes that the phone call came about two hours before Clarett's latest arrest. Friend goes into a LOT more detail, though -- an incredibly interesting read (and Clarett claims he called Tressel right before that!)

Via weColumbus.



8.09.2006
AOHell

I've been using the internet, in one form or another, for about twelve or thirteen years, now -- ever since I went off to college, and the use of email exploded and commercial service providers sprang up all over the country to get people connected. America Online was always the big black sheep of that bunch, a faceless, monolithic corporation who made it very easy for people to get on the web but whose many, many users quickly gained a reputation for an inability or unwillingness to learn and abide by the internet's established societal norms. It became very easy to point and laugh at the internet giant, even after it ballooned and was absorbed by Time Warner -- AOL was often seen as the lowest common denominator of internet services out there.

While we were out last week, I saw in the news that AOL has decided to stop charging ufor access to its services, allowing anyone with a broadband connection to check their AOL email and use AOL's software. Smart -- but then I laughed out loud when I saw that in order to get rid of the fees, AOL users have to call a customer service number, and CAN'T get rid of the charges online or via email -- i.e., by using AOL's services. This, on the heels of at least one account of AOL's horrible customer service refusing to easily cancel a user account and what appears to be a brand new instance of their customer service refusing to cancel a dead man's account.

So yeah, I thought I'd seen it all. Then I saw this, which I apparently missed.

Holy. Crap.

Why the big deal, you ask? Let's see. From this "anonymized" data dump, which AOL apparently pulled from the web mere hours after letting it loose (too late!), there's been at least some tentative identification of criminal behavior -- and now, at least one of the "anonymous" searchers has been positively identified, all in a little less than three days.

But no. Don't worry about Google or Yahoo or Microsoft turning over their search logs to the government. I'm sure that there's nothing in there that might positively identify or embarrass you (or worse) -- and even if there is, the federal government will take every precaution to make sure that your personal information isn't lost or stolen.



Where's the Bottom?

Dude, how many guns do you have to have in your car before it's considered an arsenal?

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Police said they used Mace and a Taser gun to arrest former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett Wednesday morning after they found an arsenal of weapons inside an SUV he was driving.

Clarett was taken into custody at about 3 a.m. in a restaurant's parking lot off Brice Road following a brief chase, NBC 4's David Wayne reported.

..."(Clarett) was resisting to the point that they felt it was necessary to try to use a Taser," said Columbus police Sgt. Mike Woods. "He had a bulletproof vest on and the Tasers would not penetrate that, so they used Mace. It took several officers to get his arms behind his back and get him under control and handcuffed."

Police then found an arsenal of weapons inside the SUV, including a loaded assault rifle and three loaded handguns. A hatchet, clothing and an open bottle of vodka were also taken from the vehicle, Wayne reported.


So, three handguns and an assault rifle, then. Good to know.

...and also, a hatchet.

More, obviously, here and here.



8.08.2006
Aug08_0001



8.07.2006
To Be Happy

Received in email this morning:

Call out Gouranga be happy
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga!
That which brings the highest happiness...



Ah, the joys of spam. Hello again, internets.



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