tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72009762024-03-27T03:14:19.529-04:00The Disorganized Thoughts of SuperSteveListen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas. -- Bill HicksSuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-16977159150237448252007-04-11T09:31:00.000-04:002007-04-11T09:35:24.289-04:00Vacation PicturesHere is a link to the pictures of our trip to Israel and Egypt. It was a fantastic time, and I loved spending quality time with my Dad and Bro.<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/iamstevewalker"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pictures!</span></a><br /><br />Gracias por todo, Dad. Love you.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-52196450710875680892007-03-05T18:46:00.000-05:002007-03-05T18:58:05.520-05:00Eddie Van Halen Is Talented<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OK5jlZIbLrM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OK5jlZIbLrM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br />PS. Thanks to <a href="http://www.sampletheweb.com/2006/09/10/how-to-embed-youtube-and-google-video-without-breaking-validation/">C.K. Sample III for posting his YouTube embedding help.</a>SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-15294764775381376802007-03-01T18:19:00.000-05:002007-03-01T18:25:18.308-05:00What Changed?<blockquote>"I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire. Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shia government, a Kurdish government? Would it be secular, along the lines of the Baath party? Would it be fundamentalist Islamic?"<br /><br />"I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. It makes no sense at all."</blockquote><br />Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense for George H. W. Bush, in 1991 when asked why Operation Desert Storm had stopped short of deposing Saddam Hussein.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-6904585579731687102007-02-22T14:48:00.000-05:002007-02-22T15:01:44.823-05:00More Innocent TimesCompare the tone of <a href="http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2001/1007/1260805.html">this article from the end of Barry Bonds' record-breaking 2001 season</a> to the countless articles written about him in the years since then. Pretty striking. Not a single mention of steroids, drugs, personal trainers, perjury investigations, BALCO, grand juries, Victor Conte, Game of Shadows, or congressional hearings. Even Mark McGuire is mentioned in a positive context.<br /><br />My stance on Barry Bonds is pretty clear, but I think even the blindest Bonds supporter would have to admit that this quote makes him sound like a cheater trying to feign amazement:<br /><br /><span class="scopy"><blockquote> "This was a great, great way to end it with a victory and a home run. You can't ask for anything better," Bonds said after the game. "<span style="font-weight: bold;">I never thought I could do it.</span>"</blockquote><br /></span>SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-23268915103279082222006-12-08T10:55:00.000-05:002006-12-08T11:12:18.191-05:00Be Careful What You Lobby For<a href="http://blog.au.org/2006/12/falwells_flub_j.html">A group of right-wing Christians in Albemarle County ,VA</a>, fought for and won the right to distribute fliers for a Vacation Bible School in county public schools. Soon afterward, a local Pagan church distributed its own fliers in the same school promoting “an educational program for children of all ages (and their adults), where we’ll explore the traditions of December and their origins, followed by a Pagan ritual to celebrate Yule. Come for one or both parts and bring your curiosity.”<br /><br />Awesome.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-19067479793053338972006-12-06T13:55:00.000-05:002006-12-06T14:04:22.733-05:00To Be Read At My Funeral As Well...<a href="http://richarddawkins.net/">Richard Dawkins</a> <a href="http://richarddawkins.net/article,350,To-be-Read-at-my-Funeral,Richard-Dawkins">posted to his blog an excerpt</a> from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unweaving-Rainbow-Science-Delusion-Appetite/dp/0618056734">Unweaving the Rainbow</a> that he wants read at his funeral. I want it read at mine.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><blockquote>"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.<br /><br />Here is another respect in which we are lucky. The universe is older than 100 million centuries. Within a comparable time the sun will swell to a red giant and engulf the earth. Every century of hundreds of millions has been in its time, or will be when its time comes, 'the present century.' The present moves from the past to the future, like a tiny spotlight, inching its way along a gigantic ruler of time. Everything behind the spotlight is in darkness, the darkness of the dead past. Everything ahead of the spotlight is in the darkness of the unknown future. The odds of your century's being the one in the spotlight are the same as the odds that a penny, tossed down at random, will land on a particular ant crawling somewhere along the road from New York to San Francisco. You are lucky to be alive and so am I.<br /><br />We live on a planet that is all but perfect for our kind of life: not too warm and not too cold, basking in kindly sunshine, softly watered; a gently spinning, green and gold harvest-festival of a planet. Yes, and alas, there are deserts and slums; there is starvation and racking misery to be found. But take a look at the competition. Compared with most planets this is paradise, and parts of Earth are still paradise by any standards. What are the odds that a planet picked at random will have these complaisant properties? Even the most optimistic calculation will put it at less than one in a million.<br /><br />Imagine a spaceship full of sleeping explorers, deep-frozen would-be colonists of some distant world. Perhaps the ship is on a forlorn mission to save the species before an unstoppable comet, like the one that killed the dinosaurs, hits the home planet. The voyagers go into the deep-freeze soberly reckoning the odds against their spaceship's ever chancing upon a planet friendly to life. If one in a million planets is suitable at best, and it takes centuries to travel from each star to the next, the spaceship is pathetically unlikely to find a tolerable, let alone safe, haven for its sleeping cargo.<br /><br />But imagine that the ship's robot pilot turns out to be unthinkably lucky. After millions of years the ship does find a planet capable of sustaining life: a planet of equable temperature, bathed in warm starshine, refreshed by oxygen and water. The passengers, Rip van Winkles, wake stumbling into the light. After a million years of sleep, here is a whole new fertile globe, a lush planet of warm pastures, sparkling streams and waterfalls, a world bountiful with creatures, darting through alien green felicity. Our travellers walk entranced, stupefied, unable to believe their unaccustomed senses or their luck.<br /><br />As I said, the story asks for too much luck; it would never happen. And yet, isn't it what <em>has</em> happened to each one of us? We <em>have</em> woken after hundreds of millions of years asleep, defying astronomical odds. Admittedly we didn't arrive by spaceship, we arrived by being born, and we didn't burst conscious into the world but accumulated awareness gradually through babyhood. The fact that we gradually apprehend our world, rather than suddenly discovering it, should not subtract from its wonder."</blockquote><br /><blockquote></blockquote></span>SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-66696819443939727982006-12-06T09:41:00.000-05:002006-12-08T11:16:23.987-05:00KarmaPlease, PLEASE, for the love of God, baseball, and Hank Aaron...<br /><br />No one sign this man.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.zeprock.com/Bon1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.zeprock.com/Bon1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE:</span> The Giants just re-signed him. There is no God.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-89262362368025375792006-12-04T10:23:00.000-05:002006-12-04T10:36:52.357-05:00Worst President Ever<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101509.html">Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton professor of history at Columbia University, says W is the worst President in US history.</a><br /><br />In light of the seriousness of its assertion, the article is almost comically short and weak on supporting arguments, but the few points it does make are a good start to the conversation of Bush's legacy.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-19757895502065986112006-11-14T13:06:00.000-05:002006-11-14T13:10:52.101-05:00Message Boards!I took on the challenge of putting up a message board and serving it from my home computer, partly so my friends and I can have somewhere private and controlled to have discussions, but mostly for the nerd points.<br /><br /><a href="http://stevewalker.servegame.org">http://stevewalker.servegame.org</a><br /><br />It's probably going to be flaky until I can figure out a better way to host it, since my computer is in daily use and will probably not be 100% reliable. It's a great start though.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-46623466067078066352006-10-16T13:13:00.000-04:002006-10-16T13:23:21.637-04:00November SurpriseI guess it's only fair. The Democrats got the Foley scandal in the crucial weeks leading up to the mid-term elections, and it looks like Rove and the Republicans <a href="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061016/D8KPMFNO1.html">will get a verdict for Saddam Hussein on November 5th</a>, just two days before election day.<br /><br />Last time it was a new Osama bin Laden recording that urged the American people not to re-elect George Bush (the most priceless non-endorsement imaginable). Now that the GOP is doing everything it can to divert public attention away from bin Laden and accentuate the "successes" of the Iraq War, what news could be more favorable than a guilty verdict being read to Saddam Hussein and his crew?<br /><br />Expect a media orgy.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-23192038638170328372006-10-16T09:57:00.000-04:002006-10-16T10:06:41.841-04:00I'd Wear It!<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=410642&in_page_id=1770">According to this article</a>, Toshiba has come up with a way to present an individual user with a full 360-degree panoramic display. The downside? Take a look:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/10/virtualPA_468x335.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/10/virtualPA_468x335.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />So you get sweet 360-degree video and audio immersion, but the tradeoff is you have to look like a freak with a television for a head. I'll take that deal any day, sign me up for two!SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-73360954351839050232006-10-04T13:04:00.000-04:002006-10-04T13:11:02.306-04:00Oops...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/208/879/1600/Foley-BO-Dem.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/208/879/320/Foley-BO-Dem.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>There is simply no way that an established news source gets such a simple, well known, and <span style="font-style: italic;">extremely relevant</span> fact this wrong on accident. No way.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-69013431844209583862006-09-26T11:55:00.000-04:002006-09-26T12:34:25.014-04:00Falcons-Saints Fix JobBeth and I watched the MNF game last night between the Falcons and the Saints. Division rivals, both 2-0 and looking to take an early division lead. Of course, the Saints had an advantage that the Falcons couldn't possibly overcome: it was their first game back in the Superdome since Hurricane Katrina. The Saints won in a blowout, 23-3. The Saints dominated from start to finish, and the Falcons looked like a bad high school team. The fans in New Orleans got their team back, got their stadium back, and the big win on the national Monday Night Football stage gave them their pride back. After the game and still today, New Orleans has been the darling of the media, and the NFL is basking in the great PR.<br /><br />Fixed. Rigged. Crooked.<br /><br />There is simply NO WAY that the Saints are that much better than the Falcons. The Saints moved the ball with impugnity, and the Falcons were lucky to grind out the few first downs that they got. Atlanta insisted on running the ball up the middle when it had become perfectly clear that the holes weren't there. Dunn ended up with 40-something yards, the Atlanta receivers all of a sudden got a case of the drops, and Vick was sacked 5 times. The Saints seemed to have ALL the calls go their way (I distinctly remember the refs waving off a flag for pass interference on NO... I guess the line judge didn't really see what he initially thought he saw). The Atlanta defense, which had gone the first two games without allowing a touchdown, spent the entire night in a deep zone that Brees picked apart. NO blocked a punt AND a field goal (took the punt in for a TD).<br /><br />The fact that they are in the same division made it all possible. Division rivals play home-and-home, so there will be a rematch later in Atlanta. The Falcons dump this game to the Saints and the Saints can return the favor in Atlanta. That way neither team takes an advantage in the division.<br /><br />It was an opportunity for positive press that the NFL could simply not turn down. The media raves about the Saints (and the league indirectly). The Saints franchise, which before the hurricane had been in serious danger of relocating, gets a HUGE boost. The league has expressed a strong desire to keep that team in New Orleans, and the owner wouldn't dare even <span style="font-style: italic;">think</span> about moving them now. Conversely, the Saints <span style="font-style: italic;">losing</span> that game would have greatly diminished the impact of the reopening of the Superdome, and would have deadened the press coverage of the game, the New Orleans area, and the Saints franchise.<br /><br />Go ahead, call me crazy. But if I had any money, I would bet the farm on the Falcons on November 26th.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-42375150678439773782006-09-21T11:51:00.000-04:002006-09-21T11:59:55.483-04:00Unlimited NonsenseHere's the response of Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. military officer in the Middle East, to the question of whether the United States is winning the war in Iraq:<br /><br /><blockquote>"Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we're winning the war."</blockquote><br /><br />That response crossed a threshhold of absurdity that I am having trouble fathoming. I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or break something.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091900459.html">Full article here.</a>SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-32136887458838260582006-09-20T15:14:00.000-04:002006-09-20T15:15:19.922-04:00Funny Pic Of The Day<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/208/879/1600/coffeeposter.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/208/879/400/coffeeposter.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-77552207207383166272006-09-20T13:32:00.000-04:002006-09-20T14:00:54.643-04:00Steve Irwin - Man's Man? (Part 2)Steve Irwin's posthumous status as a Man's Man, which I personally thought was an open-and-shut case, has recently been called into question by several authorities on the subject. But today the best argument yet was made <span style="font-style: italic;">in favor</span> of his canonization in the most unexpected of ways: inadvertently, and by a Frenchman.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/19/D8K88DO80.html">According to </a><span class="story"><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/19/D8K88DO80.html">Jean-Michel Cousteau in this article</a>, Irwin's touchy-feely approach to nature was inappropriate:<br /><br /></span><span class="story"><blockquote>"[Irwin would] interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things. Of course, it goes very well on television. It sells, it appeals to a lot people, but I think it's very misleading. You don't touch nature, you just look at it. And that's why I'm still alive. I've been diving over 61 years _ a lot many more years that he's been alive _ and I don't mess with nature."</blockquote></span><br />I don't think there can be a more convincing argument than the one Mr. Sissy-Boy Frenchman just accidentally made. The stark contrast between the two men's tactics when dealing with animals that could kill them with one swift motion leaves little doubt as to each man's Manliness. If cornered by a pissed off cobra, Steve Irwin would have grabbed that sonofabitch by the throat and then kept it as a pet. Cousteau would have put his hands in the air and said "I surrender!".SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-34925041708577250262006-09-19T09:41:00.000-04:002006-09-19T10:06:55.583-04:00The New McCarthyism<a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18316511.htm">Canadian citizen wrongly arrested, deported, imprisoned, tortured as suspected Islamic "extremist".</a><br /><br />Apparently this man's crime was being seen talking to another man who was under investigation for possible al-Qaeda links. Just like the Communist witch-hunt in the 50's, except that now instead of being forced to denounce your treasonous ideals and provide a list of your Communist comrades (whether you actually were Communist or not), they ship you to Syria where they beat you with electrical cords.<br /><br />The authorities, both in the U.S. and in Canada, will spin, downplay, and point fingers. The liberals will foam with self-righteous outrage ("This would NEVER happen if we were in power!"). Meanwhile, this guy had his freedom and dignity taken from him without due process, and was surely beaten to a bloody stump for information he didn't have, all in the name of Homeland Security. Sorry about that. Our bad.<br /><br />How easily could this have happened to me, you, or anyone else?? All you need is a <span style="font-style: italic;">single</span> Middle Eastern acquaintance with active ties to the region, and you're on The List. Your phone calls are being recorded, your email is being read, your Internet activites are being monitored, and your bank accounts are being watched. And Allah help you if you <span style="font-weight: bold;">are</span> of Middle Eastern or Muslim descent...<br /><br />I have a feeling this is going to get MUCH worse before it starts to get better...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">UPDATE:</span> According to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800883.html">this article</a>, Maher Arar's questioners in Syria were successful in extracting information from him using "tough interrogation techniques"; under coersion, he confessed to having trained in Afghanistan, presumably as a Terrorist.<br /><br />The problem? <span style="font-style: italic;">He had never even been to Afghanistan.</span>SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-40658439744099379652006-09-14T15:36:00.000-04:002006-09-14T15:43:45.141-04:00Sounds Familiar...<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5346524.stm">The IAEA claims its findings with regard to Iran's nuclear activities were distorted in a recent Congressional report.</a><br /><br />A "madman" Middle Eastern head of state, ultimatums, deadlines, UN sanctions, nuclear weapons inspectors, conflicting reports...<br /><br />Haven't we been here before??SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-33561938712813842812006-09-14T10:42:00.000-04:002006-09-14T11:21:07.904-04:00Bad DayI was going to post today about Bush and his unabashed <span style="font-style: italic;">ballsiness</span> in trying to make his administration's illegal acts legal, but f*** it, I don't have the energy to be outraged right now. I just had (and hopefully got out of) a fight with my lovely ladyfriend, so I want to post about <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">H</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">A</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">P</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">P</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Y</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">T</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">H</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">I</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">N</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">G</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">S</span>!!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/gallery/images/ipodnano03_20060912.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>NEW IPODS! The big iPod is the same, just with a bigger hard drive, and the Shuffle now has a smaller form-factor and a brushed metal casing with an attached clip. But the nano is where Apple really <span style="font-style: italic;">nailed it</span>. Finally, a worthy successor to the mini! The soft plastic "look-at-it-wrong-and-it-scratches" casing is replaced with a seamless brushed metal enclosure inspired by the mini (Apple's best seller, for good reason). That's the biggest feature, and frankly it's the best decision Apple has made in a long time. The nano has always had the potential to be as big as the mini was, but it was held back by poor design. Hell, used minis have been big sellers on ebay, probably in direct competition with the last-gen nano. No more!<br /><br />Nice work, Apple. It's been a long time coming, but it's good to see you were listening!<br />------------------<br /><br />In the interest of not letting these freedom-trampling fuckers completely off the hook just because I'm having a rough day, here are the links to the stories I was going to write about:<br /><br /><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_CONGRESS?SITE=LYCOS&SECTION=home&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Bush and his team pressuring Congressional Republicans to "approve greater Executive power".</a><br /><br /><span class="body"><blockquote>"Bush's proposals would narrow the U.S. legal interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in a bid to allow tougher interrogations and shield U.S. personnel from being prosecuted for war crimes."</blockquote></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71778-0.html?tw=wn_index_1">Senate Judiciary Committee approves bill that expands gov't ability to spy on U.S. citizens without warrants, reduces Congressional oversight.</a><br /><br /><blockquote>"Specter's bill concedes the government's right to wiretap Americans without warrants, and allows the U.S. Attorney General to authorize, on his own, dragnet surveillance of Americans <span style="font-weight: bold;">so long as the stated purpose of the surveillance is to monitor suspected terrorists or spies</span>."<br /><br />...snip...<br /><br />"Specter has moved to have his bill voted upon next week by voice vote, called a unanimous consent motion, according to the ACLU's Graves. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Such a procedure would leave no record of who voted for or against the bill</span>."</blockquote><br />My skin is<span style="font-style: italic;"> crawling</span>.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-89044163103331483142006-09-12T10:15:00.000-04:002006-09-12T10:25:59.689-04:00Stingray RageIn hindsight, we all should have seen this coming. You can always count on a handful of dumbshit caveman-types to "cope" with tragedy in the most retarded way possible.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2353742,00.html">Stingrays killed in "revenge" for the death of Steve Irwin.</a>SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-2553729706281093452006-09-11T13:19:00.000-04:002006-09-11T13:27:25.420-04:00Better Off<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=RSIPZSHQM0ZW1QFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2006/09/08/wiraq08.xml">Presenting the new Iraq, same as the old Iraq.</a><br /><br />The only thing I can think to say about this story: At least they aren't <span style="font-style: italic;">torturing</span> the prisoners anymore...SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-9915779117290278112006-09-08T15:08:00.000-04:002006-09-08T15:15:59.834-04:00Useless Stat of the CenturyFrom the (1)Ohio State vs. (2)Texas section of ESPN.com's <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/overview">Top 25 Overview</a> for this weekend:<br /><br /><blockquote>The past three regular-season 1 vs. 2 games have been won by the No. 2 team. But the Buckeyes are 2-0 all-time in 1 vs. 2 games.</blockquote><br />OMG, what an incredible conflation of incongruent, meaningless, and wholly irrelevant statistical trends! Something's got to give!SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-17740527836744230882006-09-08T13:18:00.000-04:002006-09-08T13:26:47.008-04:00Spin This!According to a 2005 CIA report released today by the Senate Intelligence Committee, there is <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/08/D8K0PV600.html">no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda</a> prior to the start of U.S. military action there in 2003. The report states that Hussein's Iraqi government <span class="story">"did not have a relationship, harbor, or turn a blind eye" with regard to </span><span class="story">Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or his al-Qaeda associates.<br /><br />WH spokesman Tony Snow called it "nothing new" and spun it thus:<br /></span><blockquote><span class="story"><br /></span><span class="story"> "In 2002 and 2003, members of both parties got a good look at the intelligence we had and they came to the very same conclusions about what was going on..."</span></blockquote><span class="story"></span><span class="story"><br />Meanwhile, Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) put it this way:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span class="story">"[The Bush administration] </span><span class="story">exploited the deep sense of insecurity among Americans in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, leading a large majority of Americans to believe _ contrary to the intelligence assessments at the time _ that Iraq had a role in the 9/11 attacks."</span></blockquote><span class="story"><br />Predictably, we have one side claiming that <span style="font-weight: bold;">everyone</span>, not just them, bought into faulty intelligence, while the other side claims innocence and points the finger. The way I see it, both sides have something to answer for. The Democrats, out of fear of looking like unpatriotic appeasers, let themselves be swept away in the current of Rove/Cheney/Rumsfeld's efforts to parlay the momentum of the successful operation in Afghanistan into the execution of a far more questionable mission in Iraq. But in the end, it's those in power (the Republicans) who should be held to final account for the screwups of the last four years. The buck always gets passed up, not down, and the guy at the top wears red.<br /><br />This brings up an interesting question to ponder: Who is more wrong, the offender or his enablers?<br /></span><span class="story"><br /></span>Just a small dose of reality to counteract the upcoming pre-election 9-11 propagandathon.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-9769917963876994822006-09-08T09:42:00.000-04:002006-09-08T09:45:56.686-04:00Office A**holesI'd love to see someone conduct a study on the psychology of the type of person who fills his coffee mug, then puts the pot back on the heater <span style="font-style: italic;">bone-effing-dry</span> and walks away.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7200976.post-55637945038031055402006-09-07T21:31:00.000-04:002006-09-07T23:14:40.375-04:00Fantasy Football<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/208/879/1600/todd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/208/879/320/todd.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I'm in a fantasy football league with some of my college buddies, and it turns out that we have a FF n00b. My good friend Todd Bridges emails the group today with this message:<br /><br /><blockquote>to be honest, i have no idea how this fantasy football thing works. i've signed up and stuff, after that it seems kind of boring, what is the big deal? sell me on why this is exciting.</blockquote><br />Another good friend, Tom Carpenter, obliges him by explaining that it gives you a reason to watch and enjoy games that you would otherwise not care about, the lineup strategy, trades, trash-talk, etc.. Todd's classic reply:<br /><br /><blockquote>yeah, but i don't like any of the players on my team. i enjoy the mind-numbing relaxation that is a futile meaningless NFL match-up. will any of us actually do trades? i'm really going to try to get into this, but it might take a few weeks. <span style="font-weight: bold;">i thought fantasy football was a writing contest. i thought we would all write first-person narratives about how we all used to dream about being football players when we grew up.</span> oh well.</blockquote><br />Todd has always had a penchant for priceless off-the-cuff comments. It's <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> hard to make me laugh out loud through a text-based medium, but that one did it for me.<br /><br />Plus he's in a kickass band called <a href="http://www.myspace.com/actress">Actress</a>.SuperStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07764049888322335823noreply@blogger.com0