BunkBlog

I suppose I should have read the books or even have heard of them, but what the heck, I’ll play along.

Randall Tobias, the abstinence-only advocate, hires escort service!
Here’s a guy who has been telling people for years that nobody should be having sex outside marriage, but he gets “massages” from the notorious escort service in DC. Ah, can you feel the hypocrisy?

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut has died. The world has lost a truly great wit and author.

Kurt is in heaven now.

The Palm folks have announced that they will be building machines using their own homebrewed version of Linux with Palm OS 5 compatibility, by the end of the year.  Good thing I didn’t buy a T|X this winter, eh?  What seems to be missing from all commentary is the question of non-Treo Palm machines.  I’m one of those people who have no desire nor need for a cell phone.  Since my Clie has a battery that is now only capable of holding a charge for a few minutes, is my only choice for handheld geekery going to be a UMPC?  I hope not.

Every few weeks, the weather does something strange enough to make me really wonder about the movie The Day After Tomorrow.  Right now, it’s snowing.  Thursday, the high was 80.  What’s next week, typhoons and firestorms?

Speaker Pelosi went to Syria Tuesday, and that made the Republicans scream that she was overstepping her authority and confusing the Syrian government. So, when Republican Representatives Wolf, Pitts, and Aderholt met with the Syrian president on Sunday, how was that different?

The Democratic-controlled Congress is talking quite loudly about finding ways to defund the war in Iraq, with the caveat that they will never allow the soldiers to be less defended than they are now. This, predictably, means they are Defeatocrats and are giving up, micromanaging the war, and otherwise overstepping their reasonable place in the government. In 1993, when the Republican-controlled Congress voted to defund the war in Somalia, with the caveat that the soldiers would be well-defended during their redeployment, how was that different?

Is it really so much to expect some sort of consistency from people in public office? Do they really think that nobody will notice? Do they forget about videotape? Astounding.

It’s apparently a very good week for twisted videos from YouTube.

Hey, bloojanuary! It was over 85 degrees today. 🙂

And I thought the Ricky Skaggs version of “Super Freak” was unusual…

I have no words.

Man, I really wish this tie were real, and not just one of ThinkGeek’s annual jokes.

I don’t think anything can top last year’s Wireless Extension Cord – that even got written up in the real press. Amazing.

Happy April Fool’s Day.

If you haven’t heard of the controversial art show featuring a giant chocolate Jesus figure, posed as if being crucified but minus the cross, too late. It’s been canceled. The hotel where it was being shown says they cannot guarantee the safety of the show, as they’ve received threats of violence and even death threats against the artist and the show backers. That’s how you convince people you’re reasonable and have the power of right and goodness on your side – threaten them with death. So, are we going to hear anyone say that Christianity isn’t really a religion of peace, as we’ve been hearing about Islam?

Of course, the entire art exhibit would have languished in total obscurity if not for the protests against it. Apparently the protestors’ parents never told them, “ignore him, he’s just trying to get attention.”

Family Guy quotes of the night:

It’s a scarejew. Protect Jon Stewart, he’s our most important Jew!

It’s an “On the Rag”edy Ann doll. I can still play with her three weeks of the month.

Thank you for tearing up my carpet. All right, we’re going Brazilian!

This is weirder than that rap video by MC Escher.

We’re watching Grey’s Anatomy… That sounds awful.

As expected, the Boy and I watched The Last Mimzy today. The source story is very different from the movie. Spoilers ahead…
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From the inestimable ikilled007, I give you – the definitive LARP movie.  Of course, there aren’t really any others, so the field is not all that competitive, to be sure.

This photo essay points out a few of the problems I have with the pro-war movement. They trust the central government and they love the flag, and they believe that patriots love war.

The pro-war group equates being anti-war with being anti-soldier. Considering how many soldiers and veterans are anti-war, that seems unlikely. Although we were trained to go to war, no sane person yearns for it. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

The trust of a strong central government goes against the themes we see in the Constitution. You might have heard of the Constitution; it’s what helps define the rights of the citizenry and what powers we, the people, allow the central government to have. If you’ve ever actually read the thing, you may have noticed a strong distrust of elected representatives, and particularly a distrust of a strong executive officer.

And the co-option of the American flag as being a symbol of war and something which no anti-war demonstrator is permitted to hold is just shameful. Not only is it shameful that the pro-war folks believe that the flag is something to hide behind while you kill people, it’s shameful that the anti-war folks don’t have the guts to use the flag themselves. We the people not only have the right but the duty to question our elected representatives. The decisions made in Washington are our decisions, as a country. And when we disagree with those decisions, it is our job to make our employees account for themselves. Those people in DC are not better than us, they are not superior to us, they work for us. When we willingly bow to them and say their decisions cannot be questioned, we invite them to do what they will in all things. When the Iraq War has over 70% disapproval from the citizens of this country, if we didn’t see people calling for a pullout, we’d be telling the people inside the Beltway that they can run roughshod over all the less important opinions as well.

Although I really only grabbed October Road because it starred Laura Prepon (growl), it’s actually a pretty good tale so far. The protagonist returns to his home town after ten years away and after writing a book obviously based on the town, which was apparently unflattering to its residents.

Some folks think it’s a ripoff of The Book of Joe, by Jonathon Tropper. I’m thinking the premise is probably common enough among writers that it’s been told dozens or hundreds of times. Heck, it’s not too far afield from the concept behind Ed. Ironically, Tom Cavanagh from that show is rumored to be starring in a movie version of Joe. Anyway, big success who returns to small town is not really too magical a premise.

It’s often said that everyone has a novel in them. We all have some rather unique combinations of events happen in our lives, no matter how unremarkable we think we are. My Aunt Lois has told me before that I really need to document better some of the strange folks I met in the Army. I don’t see how that becomes a book, but that’s only because I lack the essential gene possessed by all good writers. You know the gene; it’s the one that forces them to write, forces them to make their story concrete on paper. There’s always ten other things to read or watch or bake or . . . .

Oh, and Laura Prepon is still hot.

Every so often, I refresh the default playlist on my MP3 player, usually by checking out the playlists from KROQ and KNDD.  So, I’m adding the song “Satellite” by Guster and I notice that there are a lot of songs named the same.  I’ve got 11 tracks named “Satellite” by various artists, from Anna Nalick to Collective Soul to Smashmouth.  That doesn’t even count the variants like “Satellite Ecstatica” by PWEI or “Boom Boom Satellite” by Sigue Sigue Sputnik.  Wonder why it’s such a popular word for a song title.  Must be a lot of folks that were brought up in awe of the space race.

Since I’m not much for bad beer (and what good beer would you color green?), I’ve never done the St. Pat’s thing at a bar.  We made corned beef & cabbage last night, and corned beef hash for brunch today.  Big hits, both, for the boy.  And, I’ve got some corned beef for sandwiches too!  Mmmm…

I realize that many ads are sent to newspapers with “camera ready” art and the paper merely places it on the page.  Still, the egregiousness of some errors makes you wonder if anyone who knows English reads the paper before thousands of copies are distributed.  In a supplement today, I learned that a man with a Masters in Education was the Principle of a school.  I also learned that Don Oscar’s restaurant was Formally Little Mexico.  I guess it’s informally Don Oscar’s.

The local signmakers are no better. There’s a billboard that has been up around town for a month or two now, in several places. It says that “Being a First Lady has it’s privileges.” No wonder our kids can’t spell – the adults aren’t even trying!