An Outsider in the Underground

So, where you last Sunday night? Normally, my answer would be "at home, studying, getting ready for work and school Monday." Typical.

Well, not this week. This week I put the kids down to bed, jumped in the Jetta and raced downtown to Deep Ellum. For those not in Dallas, Deep Ellum is the arts District east of 45 on and around Main, Elm and Commerce. No stranger to the area, it's the place where I first did public art as part of the group that painted murals along the Good Latimer Bridge. It's the place where I saw Texas Weather play the blues at The Bone and got hit on by a weed seeking cougar in college. (Ewwww!) It's also where I saw Jesus Jones, Nin and Ministry in concert.

So what could drag me out there at 9:00 on a Sunday with a 8:00 am class and a test awaiting me before work on the other side of town and Monday? I ask myself that same question.

I was out to see Illy Graham, Moses and Playdoh open for Grits. Now, while garage bands are a dime a dozen this is a totally different scene. More impressive in many ways.

Most bands are looking to "make it." Despite what is being told, they have a love for music that they wouldn't mind having turn into a full time job. These guys are rappers with a message and the message supersedes any real desire to "make it." If they got a record deal, hey, they'd take it, but if they don't they won't lose a lot of sleep over that. Why? They do christian rap.

Now I know most people hear the words "christian music" and their eyes glaze over while visions of stryper and Amy grant lull them to sleep with mediocrity. I understand really. However, in today's rap game if you don't skill your asking to be the other guy is someones Jordan dunking poster. These guys are in a realm where you can't fake it. Also, rap unlike other types of music struggles with image but it still embraces the lyrical message and the poetry that has been lost in today modern music. Face it folks, people like Brittany didn't become stars due to their depth. People like Tupac did.


Illy Graham, composed of Eric C and DJ Stibs, have a specific spot on my CD player. With an album out sometime soon and leaning on the work from their previous group Bonecircus they combine fluid beats, razor sharp turntableism and lyrical rhythms that are complex, thoughtful and entertaining. Not pretentious or arrogant, they let the music speak.

They were followed up by a local group called Moses. I couldn't find a site for them and I'll update with a link if I do but there guys were kinetic. While they threw some strong groves out there, the infectious nature of their upbeat rhymes left you impressed with the sheer stamina of their performance.


With Grits running a little late, we got a treat in Playdoh from Ill Harmonics doing some rhymes. Remember the "House of Pain" imagine that kind of delivery but 10 times the depth and ability. Pound for pound I've seen Playdoh 3 times now and he's one of the strongest freestyle rappers. Consistently avoiding the low lying fruit and pulling of on the fly lyrical feats that show a sharp game and complex vocabulary can be bent to his message any time or anywhere.


Grits has more national exposure and you can find out about them via VH-1. The writers of that article do some degree of justice to the complexity of message and the awareness that drives these guy to perform. Slick, smooth and authentic sounds are thier MO for a reason. With the depth of the evenings headliner and the underground work of local bands, a great set of performances provided an impressive and thought provoking evening.

The Christian rap underground is full of strong players at the local level. They lay out great music, strong beats and a good message. So the next time you decide that you want to give something a try visit these guys sites. Listen to their music. See if they can't give you a reason to go underground.

Easy enough for the biggest hypocrit!

**clicky**

Blah

Despite a lot of post-worthy politics going on right now, I'm pretty disinterested. It's not that the issues between the Democrats and Republicans have ceased to be important but I feel less than fixated on them at this time. Besides, aside from expressing some degree of frustration or agreement with the various stories of the day, there is very little that our blog does other than provide the middle east with pictures of Uma Thurmans thong, my half-assed post on body shots and images for people who google search "Hilary" or "green green."

It's just not that inspiring to be a blogger sometimes. I used to wish that we had adopted a few trolls to keep things interesting but now that I've seen what a hassle they are over at SayAnything or Protein wisdom, I think I'll pass. We've had the occasional pass through troll but thankfully none have settled here.

Right now, I have a decent case of writers block. I'm sure that it has a lot to do with the fact that I have a crap load of tests and other stuff going on in the personal life, but I just don't really have it in me to get really political right now. It has a tendency to get me too frustrated with situations over which I have no control. To write about it in order to relieve stress is one thing. To stress in order to write about it is another.

So, if you cross a subject that just really chaps your hide, I'm probably not going to be mentioning it for a while. Sorry. I don't want to let the readers down but Ace of spades, Protien wisdom, Say Anything and a lot of our blog roll do what we do politically speaking but better. I'd suggest checking them out.

I think I'm going to indulge in some photo posts or quasi-weird posts for a while. If something relevant manages to break this mood then I might post it but for now I'm just politicked out.

Inspired by today's Biology lab test

With very little fan fair and in poor taste, my personal revision to Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Crossing the Bar"

Sunset and evening star,
And one lab test for me!
And may there be much moaning in the class,
When microscopes I see,

But such a slide as Osscilitoria,
Too full for cillia and cells,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Becomes my testing hell.

Twilight and evening bell,
I study long past dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
Nor spots for me to park;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The class may bear me well,
I hope to recall fungi's reproductive stage,
But instead , suspect I failed.

My top ten reasons for not wanting to stop global warming

10. Meat thaws faster when you take it out of the freezer.
9. I hate wearing sweaters and I like girls in thongs
8. Polar bears need to drown because it's the "circle of life."
7. I'm from Texas. Driving on ice scares me.
6. Al Gore would quit his day job.
5. I'm too lazy to kill all the trees and cyanobacteria it would take to offset my CO2 emmissions
4. Letting the cows fart is the humane thing to do.
3. Glaciers have been adopted by the Gay and Lesbian League as their metamorphic complex of choice after I reclaimed volcanic intrusions with my motto "Inject her right with your porphry dike."
2. New York would be cool as an "American Venice", besides Jersey could use a bath.

And finally, my number one reason for Not wanting to stop global warming:
1. Leonardo DiCaprio is my sworn enemy.

Feel free to opine or add resons of your own.

As for that "civil war" triipe...

CNN loves to point out every death in Iraq in their never ending effort to report the "thuthiness" on the ground of what they want you to think is really happening. The fact that their coverage slants to provide only one side of a political narrative not withstanding, I can't see why they covered this particular bombing.

A car bomb exploded Tuesday at a soccer field on the outskirts of Ramadi, killing 18 children, Iraqi TV reported.

The soccer field is in western Ramadi -- capital of the Sunni-dominated Anbar province. The children were playing on the field when the blast occurred, Iraqi TV reported. No other details on the attack were immediately available.

The soccer field attack followed terrorist bombings in Baghdad at a popular ice cream shop, a parking lot and a restaurant that killed eight people and wounded 24 on Tuesday.

Iraqi police say they believe new coalition security tactics are forcing insurgents to shift bombing attacks away from parked cars in the streets to alternative locations.

The new U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown forbids parking cars on Baghdad's main streets.

Tuesday's deadliest reported bombing took place in a popular ice cream shop in central Baghdad's mostly Shiite Karrada district. A suicide car bomber slammed into the shop, killing five people and wounding 10 others, according to an Interior Ministry official.

In the city's Tayaran Square, another bomber hid explosives inside a restaurant, where the blast killed two people and wounded eleven, the official said.

In a separate attack, Iraqi police said a car bomb blast Tuesday in a parking lot in the Karrada district killed one person and wounded three others.

Is it newsworthy? You bet. Should it be known? Undoubtedly. Does it help CNN's continued efforts to show that Iraq is out of control? Possibly.

I'm sure that some editor thought that the emotional component of this would help to add a sense of compassion, and rightfully so, to a story because the bombing of innocents is horrific. It is even more so, when the innocents are children. Even the most callous observer understands that kids are not combatants. However, I have little doubt based on the anti-administration tone that CNN regularly embraces that this story passed the editor as important because it's emotional content was seen as an indictment of the President's war planning.

When I look at this I see a continued proof of the one element that CNN is loathe to cover. The enemy in Iraq specifically targets civilian, soft targets as a way to influence media coverage in the attempt to have our country's resolve shaken. Only an idiot can claim that these children had any value as a military target. They were not part of a Shia death squad. They were not part of a Sunni counter action. They were children who were specifically targeted as Psy-ops in order to influence American opinion. Were the US media not so set on partisan scrutiny and information manipulation these kids would have not been a target.

It also goes to point out the plain reason that we must fight the element that would do things like this now. If we retreat form Iraq and allow the pressure on these people to dissipate it will only be a matter of time before attacks like this happen here on US soil. In Iraq, the options of targets in their efforts to oust the US military are bases and convoys and patrols. The common element to those targets is that they all fire back and are fully capable of destroying attackers. So who do they attack? Soft civilian targets. They go after malls, markets, schools and ice cream parlors.

If that is their tactic of choice there, just what do you think that they attack over here? You think they'll go after US bases? Of course not, 9/11 proved that.

People in the media point toward the conflict in Iraq and call it a "civil war" under the auspices of believing that in labeling it that people will believe that we don't have a dog in this fight. As far as the conflict in their religion, we don't. However, they are soldiers trying to overthrow factions or combatants trying to control territory when they bomb soccer games and ice cream parlors. They are terrorist. They are using attacks against civilians to promote panic in a attempt to influence groups. They people that would do that have no place in leading any country and we have a obligation to make sure that we don't let them. Not there in Iraq and not anywhere else. And if our country can't understand that then I question whether our lack of morality has finally eroded the meaning of our liberty.

Things that I learned in school that are only good for Trivial Pursuit but still kinda cool

Europe's largest mushroom coveres about 35 football fields and is calculated to be about 1000 years old. Here's a 2004 BBC story on it.

Wierd.

Jesus' "actual" tomb is found and Monkey's fly out of my butt.

No that's not a typo. That's what director James Cameron and the Discovery Channel are claiming.
From Discovery's own site:

New scientific evidence, including DNA analysis conducted at one of the world's foremost molecular genetics laboratories, as well as studies by leading scholars, suggests a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.
The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced a son named Judah.

The DNA findings, alongside statistical conclusions made about the artifacts — originally excavated in 1980 — open a potentially significant chapter in Biblical archaeological history.

A documentary presenting the evidence, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," will premiere on the Discovery Channel on March 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The documentary comes from executive producer James Cameron and director Simcha Jacobovici.

Well geez, I guess they got us Christians dead to rights now. I mean, they even have supporting statistics. STATISTICS!!!!!

A possible argument against the Talpiot Tomb being the Jesus Family Tomb is that the collection of names on the ossuary inscriptions could be coincidental.

But Andrey Feuerverger, professor of statistics and mathematics at the University of Toronto, recently conducted a study addressing the probabilities that will soon be published in a leading statistical journal.

Feuerverger multiplied the instances that each name appeared during the tomb's time period with the instances of every other name. He initially found "Jesus Son of Joseph" appeared once out of 190 times, Mariamne appeared once out of 160 times and so on.

To be conservative, he next divided the resulting numbers by 25 percent, a statistical standard, and further divided the results by 1,000 to attempt to account for all tombs — even those that have not been uncovered — that could have existed in first century Jerusalem.

The study concludes that the odds are at least 600 to 1 in favor of the Talpiot Tomb being the Jesus Family Tomb. In other words, the conclusion works 599 times out of 600.

How can you argue with that? Hollywood and the Christaphobes had it right all along! I guess I should just renounce my faith and vote for income redistribution, gay marriage and get a sex change so I can have an abortion because they have DNA and statistics. Woe is me.

Oh wait, I almost forgot. To do a DNA comparison to have to have something to compare it to. So we can just grab our previously scientifically verified Jesus DNA and .... oh... wait. We don't have any previously verified Jesus DNA. Bummer.

But those statistics, you can't beat those right? Let's see. The probability that The Romans hated the Christian, since they fed them to lions is 100%. And the probability that the Jews hated Jesus, since they Crucified him is about 100%. And the fact that the Muslims hated the Christians during the Crusades is about 100%. And the fact that that tomb didn't just build it's self is about 100%. And the fact that Jesus and the tales of his Resurrection are a polarizing event that have caused a lot of people a lot of grief, so that they would therefore love to disprove it, rests at about 100%. So based on that, I'm statistically submitting that this cave tomb could go undiscovered until 1980 in a land that has encompassed several wars between several factions with literally billions of people that would love to discredit the Christian faith but somehow be magically discovered by James Cameron and his pal 27 years after it's discovery is equivalent to the odds of him making a Titanic/Terminator sequel in Mandarin while wearing a Christian Dior evening gown and swimming in a hot tub full of flesh eating bacteria. Of course this statistics I'm presenting are based on the same science that James and his pals use in which rampant speculation and previously biased viewpoints are allowed to go unchallenged and postulates are considered a fact, unless proven guilty or if they play lacrosse at Duke.

So to sum up my reaction to what I'm sure Hollywood will coo over, considering they just got finished sucking off Al Gore last night: YAWN

James said "It doesn't get bigger than this. We've done our homework; we've made the case; and now it's time for the debate to begin."

OK, well let me launch my initial counter: Whatever.

From the trash bin of my gmail

-----Original Message-----
From: Johansson, Scarlett [mailto:SeXyJuGs@ColumbiaPictures.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 1:45 PM
To: Rob B.
Subject: I must have you!!!

Please, Rob! Please!
I know that you're married but I simply must have you. Your receding hairline and razor sharp wit are simply too much for me. Run away with me to the orient where we can live in a Kathmandu of sexual fantasy!

Awaiting your embrace,
SJ

To which I reply

-----Original Message-----
From: B., Rob [mailto:thatdamnrob@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 1:48 PM
To: Scarlett Johansson
Subject: Re:I must have you!!!

Sorry babe, but my woman is too much for you to replace. Besides, she's a redhead and your a blond. I have bad luck with blonds. Redheads on the other hand... Whew, don't get me started on how hot they are. However, so as to not be a cad, I could set you up with my pal Hoodlumman.

It just won't work, Chica
Rob

To which she replies

-----Original Message-----
From: Johansson, Scarlett [mailto:SeXyJuGs@ColumbiaPictures.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 1:52 PM
To: Rob B.
Subject: Re: Re: I must have you!!!

Oh never mind, I just stick with this lame ass, Justin.

Sadly rejected,
SJ

Sorry, man. I tried to hook a brother up.

Friday's Mineral porn: It's a double shot

Today's mineral porn is being simualcast into Asia so we have a double shot. A veritable "East meets West" set up.

First, for our Asian visitors we have Azurite.


Chemistry: Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2, Copper Carbonate Hydroxide
Class: Carbonates
Uses: ornamental stone, pigment, minor ore of copper, and jewelry.
Azurite is a very popular mineral because of its unparalleled color, a deep blue called "azure", hence its name. Azure is derived from the arabic word for blue. The color is due to the presence of copper (a strong coloring agent), and the way the copper chemically combines with the carbonate groups (CO3) and hydroxyls (OH). Azurite has been used as a dye for paints and fabrics for eons. Unfortunately, at times its color is too deep and larger crystals can appear black. Small crystals and crusts show the lighter azure color well. Azurite is often associated with its colorful close cousin, malachite
Green malachite is closely associated with azurite in many ways. Not only do they frequently occur together, they also have very similar formulae. Malachite can also replace azurite, making a pseudomorph, or an exact copy of an azurite crystal (only now instead of being blue, it would be green). Compare their formulas:
Azurite's formula: Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2
Malachite's formula: Cu2(CO3)(OH)2
The oxidation is persistent and actually ongoing, although very slow. Azurite paints made centuries ago have undergone the transformation much to the imagined horror of artists whose paintings of beautiful blue skies now have a most unusual green hue! Thankfully for mineralogists and collectors, this transformation is one of the most asthetically pleasing in the mineral kingdom. Although the malachite may soften the sharpness of the azurite crystal, it generally leaves the specimen intact and a whole range of transformations from pure azurite to pure malachite can be obtained. There really is no comparison to any other mineral to mineral transformation in terms of overall beauty.
(BTW, the picture. I know. But I searched "Asia" and "Sexy Girl" and google spit that out so let's just give em' what they want.)

Our western contrabution is one of my favorites, and a slight nod to a certian biochemical person that visits here, Halite


Chemistry: NaCl, Sodium Chloride
Class: Halides
Uses: Major source of salt and as mineral specimens.
Halite, better known as rock salt, can easily be distinguished by its taste. Since taste is an important property of salt, there is a right way to taste a specimen of halite (or an unknown mineral that is similar to halite) and a wrong way. The right way is to first lick your index finger, rub it against the specimen and then taste the finger. This limits the amount of the mineral that actually gets in your mouth, an important consideration when you consider that there are poisonous minerals that resemble halite.
Halite is found in many current evaporative deposits such as near Salt Lake City, Utah and Searles Lake California in the U.S., where it crystallizes out of evaporating brine lakes. It is also found in ancient bedrock all over the world where large extinct salt lakes and seas have evaporated millions of years ago, leaving thick deposits of salt behind. The cities of Cleveland and Detroit rest above huge halite deposits that are mined for road salt.

Perfectly formed cubes of halite are typical of the habit of this mineral. However it does form some unusual interesting habits that are much sought after by collectors. One habit is called a hopper crystal which forms what has been termed a skeleton of a crystal. Just the edges of a hopper crystal extend outward from the center of the crystal leaving hollow stairstep faces between these edges. Hopper crystals form due to the disparity of growth rates between the crystal edges and the crystal faces.

Another habit of interest is the vein filling fibrous habit found at Mulhouse, France and at some other locallities. Often specimens are brightly colored purple and blue and with the silky luster due to the fibers, they represent a wonderful and a very uncharacteristic variety of halide.

Sadly Accurate, with a side order of salty response

Fuck the mall, I'm still on your side.
Semper Fi.

(h/t Swac Girl)

Political Biology

The "American Partygutter" is unique to most species of carp in several ways. While speciation is always possible in the population, the species commingle in such a way as to suggest interbreeding. This, however, has been shown to be untrue. In fact, the taxonomy of the group may later be divided as the behavioral separation drives groups to compete in the environments they attempt to thrive in.

All of the member have the same indicative markings of the "common Democrat carp," in that, they show signs of erratic reaction to stimulus given off by the Republiophyus porkulous, or the "American Lost Conservative Bass." All Partygutters exhibit the same feeding frenzy in the presence of the "Taxous surplusoda" and the "Socialia entitlementia." All have the thick, layer of slime that allows for camouflage from all the members of the predatory "Networkosa media" and are able to have their erratic behavior escape notice, with the noted exception of the media Sub-species group "fox newsuem." Studies suggest that "fox newsuem" show a preference for attacking the Partygutter, although that has been a subject of some debate.

In the picture above are the 4 major subgroups of the Partygutter. The first is a subgroup we have designated as "Goreian." Prone to almost self-destructive efforts to buck the hierarchy of the carp, this member is the most traveled. It will expend enormous amounts of energy and show incredible amounts of warning behavior in order to be noticed. Typically, this notice is short lived as signs of danger are rarely present. It's also a "bloviate" in that is calls allow for no response. Unlike typical Democrats, the warning behaviors of this carp steadily increase with or without notice. Even in cases where the group responds to the Goreians control, the Goreian shows a lack of ability to lead. As a result, Goreian's are usually shunned by the common democrat at any level deeper than indicating notice.

The second fish is of the subgroup "Edwardian." This fish has an incredible capacity for bottom feeding. While incredibly productive at living off of the muck, like the "common Ambulancechaser," the Edwardian tries to pass it's self off as a common democrat. This rarely works as the Edwardian has a tendency to allow for offensive parasites, like the "Feminista marcotta" or the "Feminista mcewenia", to damage his relations with the larger population.

The 3rd fish is of the subgroup "Obamariferous." A newer arrival to the population, this subgroup seems to have carved a heirarchial niche by simply being unremarkable. Due to coloring, and a degree of articulation which the group clearly desires but outwardly refuses to exhibit preference to, the Obamaiferous has shown it's skill in seeking dominance by not standing out from the landscape unless it's in a totally safe and guarded environment.

The final fish shown is of the subgroup "Haggas." This group was once thought of as a mutual symbiont that swam in the shadows of the Bubbairian. We now know that this subgroup is not commensual but instead somewhat parasitic. An underrated aggressor in the population, this subgroup has gotten ahead by hiding in the shadow of the Bubbairian and then attacking viciously from behind. This subgroup is also noted because it was once believed to possess both male and female reproductive organs but clearly no heart. We now know this is not true. It has a heart but is smaller and blacker than the rest of the species.

While such diversity is usually a sign of positive evolutionary strength, these subgroups of Partygutters actually increase the possibility of extinction due to their individualistic efforts to achieve dominance. While this may not mark the end of the common democrat, it may allow for a resurgence of the Republiophyus porkulous, or the "American Lost Conservative Bass," which would be equally unfavorable for the phyla Americana.

College induced Haiku

"A haiku in honor of the Welfare mother in my biology class who argued with our lab instructor in her efforts to get to retake a quiz she missed because she "works 40 hours a week, too."

Boo Hoo Hoo
Wah wah wah wah wah
Damn! Shut up!


A haiku for the conceited blond girl that sits at the table with the nerdy guy who does all her lab work for her.

Thin legs and
hot body aside,
you're stupid


A haiku for the Iraqi Freedom vet in my biology class

Yes, they're young
Yes, they're ungrateful
Still, good job.


Finally, a haiku for the older, balding, sarcastic blogger in the class

Your Haiku
are biased by your need
for coffee

Lou Dobbs: Why I hate him so

Here is today's Lou Dobb's column off of CNN. What I'm going to do is that everytime Lou points out something that it wrong with America or asks a question I'll put it in italics. Every time Lou gives a solution to a problem or says something good about America, I'll put in bold. Let's see what Lou has to say:

Dobbs: Will the Democrats save their souls?
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is under way. And the outcome of this battle will likely not be determined by any one of the rising number of candidates for the party's 2008 presidential nomination, but rather by the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill.

The House of Representatives passed important legislation, designed, at least politically, to focus on the needs of our middle class, beset by stagnating wages, failing public education, destructive so-called free trade policies, skyrocketing health care costs, out-of-control illegal immigration and the soaring price of higher education.

So in Congress' self-proclaimed first 100 hours, speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered on her promise to have the House pass bills raising the federal minimum wage, cutting interest rates on student loans and helping bring down the cost of prescription drugs. But none of that legislation has passed the Senate.

The ascension of the so-called Lou Dobbs Democrats in the November election gave hope to many that our representatives and senators were awakening to the need to represent the largest single group of voters in the country, 150 million working men and women and their families. The reality is, however, corporate America and special interests still dominate our legislative and electoral process.

A successful Democratic candidate running for his or her party's nomination is as dependent as any Republican seeking the nomination of his party, and $100 million is the price of the ticket. Who has the money? Corporate America and Wall Street, of course.

Corporate America will fight as hard to control the Democratic agenda as it has to control the Republican agenda in Washington. Of great service to their efforts will be the "think tanks" bent on preserving the status quo and the all-but-absolute domination of corporate America over our political process.

The Democratic Leadership Council is obviously frightened that my brand of independent populism is a threat. The council claims that I, and those who agree with me, "are simply, factually, decisively wrong about the strength of the U.S. manufacturing economy itself," and that the more than three million jobs lost in manufacturing are a testament to corporate America's technology-based efficiency, not outsourcing and offshoring to cheap foreign labor markets. Then why are foreign-produced imports rising so dramatically and taking an ever-larger share of many of the most important sectors of our economy?

The Third Way, which is supposedly a "strategy center for Progressives," has just published a new study called "The New Rules Economy: A Policy Framework for the 21st Century." Third Way's conclusion that the struggling middle class is a myth requires it to avoid the fact that the share of national income going to wages and salaries is now at the lowest level on record. At the same time, the share of national income captured by corporate profits is at its highest level in more than half a century.

In fact, wages from 2000 to 2006 for working men and women in this country increased at half the rate they normally do in a recovery. And, not surprisingly, corporate America's profits are increasing at double the historic rate in that six-year period.

The Third Way adds: "...While economic conservatism is premised on the myths of an infallible market and incompetent government, neo-populism is premised on the myths of a failing middle class, a declining America, and omnipotent corporations." I call that independent populism, not neo-populism. And I also call that truth.

The middle class is also working more hours than ever before: Thirty years ago Americans worked an average of 43 weeks, but now U.S. workers are putting in an average of 47 weeks per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's in stark contrast to the rest of the industrialized world, where the number of hours worked in all other countries except for Canada has decreased over the past 30 years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported.

About one-third of the families in this country bring in less than $35,000 of income each year, according to the Census Bureau, a figure that's nowhere close to ensuring the quality of life and standard of living to which many Americans have grown accustomed. I fear the American Dream may finally become the American Pipe Dream.

These families at the bottom of the wage scale are really struggling. According to the Federal Reserve's most recent comprehensive Survey of Consumer Finances (released every three years), average family income from 2001 to 2004 fell 2.3 percent, and the median net worth of the bottom 40 percent of families declined as well. And real median wages declined by more than 6 percent during the same period.

Why are the partisans of both political parties so committed to denying the economic and social reality we face? In the case of the Democratic Party, there seems to be a rising fear that more Lou Dobbs Democrats are on the way and are going to demand truth over slogans and an improving reality for working men and women rather than ideological posturing that will salve the corporate masters of both parties.

At least the Democrats still have a chance to save their souls.

Mind you, I marked the "good news" as Lou sees it, not how I'd define it as good. Still, it doesn't take but a second to see that Lou is pretty negative. In fact, he's mostly negative. If you really want to have fun, go back and see what his answers to the problems he identifies are. There are none. Not one bit plan aired here. It seems that the Loud Dobbs, I mean Lou Dobbs, Democrats' MO is to aimlessly bitch but have no plan to fix anything. It's almost like they would enter office and do something stupid like pass non-binding resolutions about real problems that focused on what they saw "bad policy" as opposed to offering up a meaningful alternatives. Of course, who'd ever do something so foolish, right? After all, he cares about middle America.

It was my son's birthday today.

I took him out to dinner and gave him money.

Over dessert, he reminded me that he's half my age.

Bastard.

Messing with "de Jesus"

Cnn had a story that I just had to comment on. Look at this:

The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm. But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.

"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.

De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God.

"He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people," says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers. "De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones."

Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?

You know that phrase "Drinking the koolaide?" We have Jim Jones to thank for that.

De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict. De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.

"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years," de Jesus says.

The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:
~ Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.
~ De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.
~ The church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth" and uses a seal similar to the United States.

"His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes." Boy, talk about the ideal American religion.

If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts traditional vows of poverty.

He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers.

And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm?

Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.

The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.

"Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross."

And de Jesus says that means him.

So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin.

He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones. Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose.

"If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's not true. We are already in heavenly places," follower Martita Roca told CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle.

Honestly, it's almost like this is the church Bizzaro superman would understand. It's also the kind of cult that causes authorities to surround compounds until tax-evading psued-prophets set the house on fire. It's a cult. I'm just waiting for the law enforcement foot to fall because it always does on these shallow on the fly self promoters.
Besides, as Walter said in the Big Lebowski:



I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

Where is everybody?

Someone asked me where my blogmates have gone. Actually, they said "Why do we have to listen to you so much, where are the smart ones at?"

Well, slave that I am to public opinion, I did some extensive research as to why I've been dominating the blog posts and why their post are less frequent.

Diana has been less of a presence of late because of her new gig. She's finally achieved her dream of becoming the goal scoring light operator for the Ottawa Senators. She told me that when Jason Spezza scores she flips it on twice just to add some pizzazz. I, for one, support her in this endeavor and ask that all "red light" jokes be constrained to hockey jokes, such as my favorite: "Why did Hasek leave the Sens? Because he kept getting sunburned by the goal lamp."
She's also teaching a class in "The snow angel: Temperature Temporal northern visual arts" at the Y. Here's Diana's prize student. Notice her use of Diana's form. Stunning.



JR has not been posting often because he joined a commune. I know it sound impossible to imagine but he did it for the best of reasons. By stalking Brittany Spears through the depths of Kabbalah he was able to hold the clippers that shaved the pop diva's head and was thus able to secure the DNA that will allow him to clone his own army of Brittany slaves. Sure, they'll all be dumb, with him cloning them at adult age, but he considers that an improvement over the original model. He sent pictures from Brittany's initiation ceremony.



Dave is really at a secret CIA prison, known as "the meadows", where he is designing mind control devices that penetrate tin foil. Once he nails that we're going to go back to hiding all the hydrogen car technology that we had to "un-discover" from some poor soul. That guy with the french fry oil car engine is next.

Hood's is the weirdest story. First, I got an email about "dinosaur eggs" and then "unintended butterfly effects" and "Nancy Pelosi's dinosaur head." I called him but I just got his machine. Then later, I came outside one day and saw a blinding light and heard his voice telling me to "stop Turok from getting to the flux capacitor." But I ignored it, I figured it was just the concussion and the booze talking. Finally, this week, I was contacted by this guy saying that he could get Hood back from the past and into the present. Here's his ad from the paper.



My guess is that Hood's on vacation.

So all that goes to say that most everyone has a good reason for not posting and until then you're just stuck with me. Sorry.

Theism

As anyone who reads this site regularly could tell you, I'm a Christian.

(I know that the new "thing" is to say that you're a "follower of Christ" because it sounds all "inclusive." Well, crap on that. "Christian" means "little Christs." Dogs and bugs and east African ground squirrels can "follow" Christ, or at least they could when he was alive, but he called us to be like him. Besides, that whole " Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me," that's about as exclusive as it gets. Sorry. That's how God rolls. So inclusiveness is in the fact that he loves all of us, not that you can just willy nilly "follow" him.....Can you tell that the language is sometimes my pet peeve?)

Luckily, a pretty decent chunk of our blog buddies are of the Christian persuasion.

(The rest of you we're going to convert at the end of our sword. Allah might be against that, in theory, but I haven't seen anything in Psalms that keeps me from it, so It's ON! After all my motto is "I'm going to heaven, and I'm taking the hostages with me.")

Ok, ok, all of my aside comments aside, for those that read here I'm just going to throw a chunk of various concerns up here for you to pray about. For those not prone to pray, I'll take whatever positive vibe you want to give.* These are just some things that I have a concern for that I have no problem with sharing. If you have an additional concern dump it in the comments and I promise that I'll pray for it.

~ Pray for my wife. Now we're down to about a month until the baby comes. We've gotten a lot done on preparing for Drake's arrival but she's really getting to that uncomfortable stage. Seriously, take Nicole Kidman and shove a basket ball under her t-shirt and that's my wife right now, except a basket ball is a little small. Also, we haven't nailed down the new childcare arrangements for when she works and we had a major glitch in finances.

~ The glitch, aforementioned, was a variation that managed to underpay my taxes for this last year. That, along with a few other things, and the end result is that I owe Uncle Sam a couple grand. So instead of getting a nice lump of cash to help extend my wife's post-delivery leave from work, I'll be eating PB & J sandwiches for lunch so I can pay off the IRS, unless I can claim my dog as a livestock subsidy.

~ Another one is that a guys in my office, Danny, just lost his mother to a bout with a very painful, sudden prognosis of lung cancer. In the same week she died, her brother had a heart attack and died. So now, he has 2 funeral's on his hands and his last aunt who is pretty much too truamatized to deal with anything.

~ Also spend a moment praying for Duffy, Chris LaValle, Eric Plemons, Fiu's own Dave, Sgt Bishop and Becker who are all in Iraq of Afghanistan, respectively, as well as their families back here. No matter the politics, those guys deserve all the things that they are missing over here and none of the crap they deal with there. Also pray for RTO, SSG Pooh and Major John. I'm sure that there are people, both deployed and stateside, that need to be on this list, add them please.

~ For myself, I have a devastatingly tough Chem test today. I've studied but I won't lie, this stuff isn't my forte and I want to do well. You don't take night classes and miss your kids because you want to goof off, I want to hammer this test, pass this course and move on to the next. Also, the combo of work, school and studying is wearing me and the spouse down physically, so a prayer for continued health would be nice.

I know that the blog world is rife with anonymity and that personal stuff on blogs is a risk for some but , well, I just don't care. I'm asking for your prayers and offering you mine. See, I'm inclusive. :)




* ~ For that occasional random "hater" that might troll by, we will alter and mock anything you post because we reserve the right to make you look like a dufus for my entertainment.

So Impressive that it made me cry

Friday's Mineral porn

CHALCANTHITE
Chemistry: CuSO4 - 5H2O, Hydrated Copper Sulfate.
Class: Sulfates
Group: Chalcanthite
Uses: A minor ore of copper, various chemical uses and as mineral specimens.

Chalcanthite loosely translated from the Greek means copper flower. An apt name for this attractive mineral. Synonyms include "blue stone" and "copper vitriol".

Taste is a test that is used for some minerals such as halite and can be used on chalcanthite. Chalcanthite has a sweet metallic taste that is distinctive. However, it is not recommended as a test to be done casually for as was stated, chalcanthite is poisonous! If it is necessary, use a tip-of-the-tongue technique to minimize the risk.

Chalcanthite is one of only a few water soluble sulfate minerals. This fact drives much of what is interesting about this mineral. It forms in the near-surface secondary oxidation zone of copper deposits usually late in the development of these deposits. Since it is so soluble, it may crystallize, dissolve and recrystallize again and again before the deposit is discovered.

In wetter regions, chalcanthite is not found in large amounts (originally), but in arid regions, such as in Chile, chalcanthite is a major ore. Any sulfate rich ground water that might leach out copper from other copper minerals, will crystallize chalcanthite when the water has a chance to evaporate. In many copper mines, chalcanthite is an ongoing precipitate forming blue encrustations, crystal aggregates and stalactites right on the sides of the mine's shafts.

It is this ease of crystallization that is the bane of natural chalcanthite crystals, at least with respect to mineral collectors. More often than not, excellent crystals for sale from mineral dealers are fakes or more specifically, artificially grown crystals from a solution of copper sulfate in someone's house or shop. If they are natural, they often have such a wonderful color, striking form and beautiful clarity, that they are then deemed too perfect to be real and thus regarded as fakes when they actually are not. What's a dealer to do?

Muzak

I have accepted that I'm old. I'm not "old" old yet, but I'm defiantly not young. I know this because all the college kids listen to music on their I-pods made by groups that I haven't heard of. That's a somewhat painful revelation because I used to be the guy that educated his friends to new and obscure music.

I'd love to defend that I've lost my taste for that by pointing out that most of today's musicians sound like wussy, 3 chord playing bitches and that made me lose interest, but there's no way to do that and still explain that I have every Sheryl Crow CD. I like Sheryl Crow, so sue me. I do think that it's part of aging in that you get pretty good at spotting the flash in the pan groups that have one good song in a big bag of nothing and the groups that can actually pull together a meaningful grouping of songs.

So as my Catharsis, I'll admit that I listen to veggie tales in the car far more than I dial up the crap that they have on the radio station now. I mean, seriously, "Chasing cars" is the kind of song that they play for insomniacs that don't respond to medication.

Does anyone else want to chime in with a musical opinion or am i the only one in the blogosphere that would rather drive around listening to the combo of Johnny Cash and Rage against the Machine than listen to this "Bowling for Soup" crap.

For Cullen and the Like, it's Ironic that our old people gripe will be "WHY are you listening to that crap, you can't play it loud."

Understatement of the year: 'I'm a bit of an idiot for doing it'

A MAN who caught a 1.3-meter (4-ft.) shark with his bare hands off an Australian beach said on Friday he only tried the feat because he was drunk on vodka.

Phillip Kerkhof was fishing off a jetty at Louth Bay, a town on South Australia state's Eyre Peninsula 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) west of Sydney, when he spotted the bronze whaler shark swimming in the shallows, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

"I just snuck up behind him, and eventually I went for the big grab and I fluked it and got him," Kerkhof said.

"He was just thrashing around in the water ... starting to turn around and try to bite me and I thought 'well, it's amazing what vodka does'," Kerkhof said.

The shark bit a hole in Kerkhof's jeans, but he was uninjured.

"It's not something I'd recommend to do. When I sobered up I thought about it and I said, 'I'm a bit of an idiot for doing it'," Kerkhof said.

Most people that sauced just wake up next to a coyote, but he's an over achiever.

Grand Theft Auto: Malaysian Thief whacker

MALAYSIA'S main ruling party has volunteered to help curb street crime, offering new motorbikes to gangs of illegal street racers if they spend their time catching thieves instead.

Illegal racing and bag-snatch robberies are twin scourges of Malaysian streets.

Bag-snatchers are usually men who grab women's handbags as they race past them on motorcycles, often dragging them head-first into the pavement and sometimes killing them.

"Once they catch at least 30 snatch thieves, we will reward them with a motorcycle each as an incentive," Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, head of the party's junior wing, told the Star newspaper.

The United Malays National Organisation party has tried to reach out to illegal racers, usually jobless or lowly paid youths, to persuade them to give up racing and join the party.

"Instead of wasting their time, they might as well help police combat crime," Abdul Azeez said.

You have to admit, that story has video game idea written all over it.

The sweet, sweet sound of homophobia

If you haven't seen this yet then let me point it out to you. Tim Hardaway, former NBA player has written a tell all book in which he is quoted as saying the following:

The five time All Star was asked how he would deal with a gay teammate.

"First of all I wouldn't want him on my team," said Hardaway. "Second of all, if he was on my team I would really distance myself from him because I don't think that's right and I don't think he should be in the locker room when we're in the locker room."

Le Batard took Hardaway to task, pointing out that his comments were 'flatly homophobic' and bigoted, but that only seemed to stir up the former point guard.

"Well, you know, I hate gay people," Hardaway said in response to Le Batard. "I let it be known I don't like gay people. I don't like to be around gay people. I'm homophobic. It shouldn't be in the world, in the United States, I don't like it."

Let me tell you, I'm loving this for two reasons. The first is that Tim Hardaway didn't leave a lot of room for nuance. That's going to burn up liberals because for years all the effort at achieving equality and erasing hate has been expended on one demographic, white males. It was almost considered laughable that anyone else was racist or bigoted because we, the white males, are the great oppressors.

This always confused me because, while working in college, I had a job where I was the sole white guy in a predominately black mall. I heard my coworkers and customers rail against Mexicans, Asians, Indians, Muslims and gays and never drop a beat in considering that what they were saying was equivalent to the conventional concept of racism, unless they were church goers. It was like historical racism justified all of that, and it was even weirder that they'd express that to me because I was the one they called a "cracker." Yet, somehow, I was just supposed to over look that.

So any way you paint it, this is going to cause a problem in that for years the liberals have cobbled together an uneasy alliance of progressives, abortionist, homosexuals and ethnic groups under the common banner of socialist government styles and fighting against the white oppressors. In that, they overlooked and skirted the fact that almost every ethnic group they pander to is opposed to their issue based and lifestyle based supporters. Tim Hardaway may have been the most recent to say it but the black community, the Latin community and the Asian community don't have any more acceptance for homosexuals than the white community does. In fact, because they haven't been at the receiving end of the concerted efforts of social engineers, they have less and they feel that the racism they have endured justifies their views and their ability to dissent to those who the SP's feel that they need to accept.

The 2nd issue that I'm loving is that "homophobic" is getting tossed out in front of the individuals that aren't white. This will be interesting. Any way you cut it, people of ethnic backgrounds can't hide their genetic make up and they will hammer that point home if you try to compare racism with homophobia. So if the gay rights crowd is going to try to equalize their calling card issue with that of the race relations crowd they are going to have to either say that homosexual behavior is a choice, in which case it won't be deemed equivalent, or they are going to have to get it pronounced as a born trait or condition. Gay people aren't going to like that.

And, for what it's worth, if the right gasoline hits that fire, the internal debate on that is going to get toxic fast. If you thought the occasional controversies between the Jews and the African American groups can get heated wait until you get a African American vs Homosexual throw down.

As a parting shot, the dictionary is currently defining "homophobe" as "unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality." With "antipathy" being defined as " a natural, basic, or habitual repugnance; aversion." By the standard of that definition, anyone with a natural aversion to homosexuality is a homophobe. So I guess I'm a homophobe, if we're all going to start labeling, because I have a natural attraction to heterosexual behavior and an aversion to homosexuality. Of course, conversely, homosexuals, by that same standard, are heterophobes. So I guess the bisexuals and the abstinent people are going to get the moral high ground this time around, but I have no idea what you'd call their political advocacy group.

Today's well report for a undisclosed locale

Subject: Feb 15th Workover Status Report

Not a creature is stirring - not even workover rigs.
Extremely cold and ice is on the roads.

Will report as temperatures warm and conditions improve.

Trust me, as far a rig humor goes, that the most articluate I've ever seen a roughneck be.

(Oh, and I guess I have to apologise in advance, in case the roughneck in question is actually Barrack Obama because that "articluate" compliment is just my latent racism.)

FIU Valentine's Day 2006

Scroll down for regular FIU content!

Last year we did a Valentine's Day where every FIU post was related to love or "anti-love" as our former contributor Tom H. showed us. Check our 2/06 archives for that experience.

This year, I'm just gonna sticky this post as a V-day open thread of sorts.

And I'll leave you with this haiku, to start us along:

Love is often a
Thing of unmatchable worth
And no itching crotch

Happy Valentine's Day!!

The big V-day

Everyone has been asking me, what are you getting your spouse for Valentines day? Well... nothing. We decided a while back that we didn't want to do Valenitnes day presents, Instead we just wanted to spend time togather. So this Valentines, since I have night classes, we're going to push our planned date back until the weekend, if we can secure some childcare for Saturday night (Mom? What do you say?)

What will we do on this romantic eve? Well currently we planned to go eat somewhere and then go see Ghostrider. Slick, isn't it? How many guys can pull that off?

So how did I do that?? Mostly skill and picking the right girl to begin with. My suggestion to those looking for marital bliss and this degree of male freedom is simple: God.

God was the one that put me with my wife, a person uniquely suited to me, therefore God wants me to see Ghostrider because he gave me a spouse that wants to see it too. Is that some loose logic, I don't know and furthermore don't care. It's my story and I'm sticking to it.

For the rest of you, try using some Bremelanotide. I mean, not everyone can be as lucky as me.

Feminism and me

Actual conversation from back stage at a school play ,circa 1993. Young Rob is moving100 lb sand bags, stage platform sections and lighting equipment when the 98 lb feminist aspiring actress attempts to help by picking up 80-90 lb spot light.

Me: That's OK, I'll get that. You don't have to mess with it.

Her: What? You think just because I'm a woman that I'm incapable of doing work. You think I'm not good enough or strong enough to the do the same work as a man? You think that I need some strong, over muscled he man to keep me from showing that I can do anything that you can do. Well maybe you need to look at your subconscious fear that women don't have to be subordinate and that we are everything that a man can be and more. What do you think about that?

Me: I think that because your a woman and I'm a man doesn't mean that you can't do it, it means that you shouldn't have to.

Chivalry: It's not just for Valentine's, you live it.

Non-binding resolutions

Today, the House is debating a "non-binding resolution" regarding the war. Are they going to pull funding, stop the war, limit troops, bring our troops home or any of the things that the Democrats promised before the election? Are they going to provide a new direction, put forth a new plan, start up diplomacy or show us how they have "a better way?" Let's see. Here is the proposal, in it's entirety:

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. SKELTON (for himself, Mr. LANTOS, and Mr. JONES of North Carolina)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on ______

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That—

(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and

(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

Take note, Democratic voters, this is what your vote got you for the 06 elections. Their whole plan has boiled down to "we disapprove of the President." All the stuff that they promised you, they knew they couldn't do it. Oh sure, they might really care about the troops and they might really want to stop the war and they really might have a better idea, but we haven't seen it exicuted. Have we? Either they lied to you or they don't hold the strength of their own convictions to stand up and fight for it. That's between you guys and them, though.

Me. I'm stuck with the House full of people who's sole response is a non-binding resolution that expresses disapproval. Well pardon me for being underwhelmed by their efforts. This is nothing more that Domestic politics in the face of a international issue in which their own words damage the reputation of our country and embolden the enemies of our nation, thereby endangering our troops. It's sad and pathetic.

I may disagree with the Democrats on a lot of issues but I do wish that they were the party of John F Kennedy instead of Teddy Kennedy. At least JFK had the conviction and patriotism to stand in the face of the Cuba missile Crisis and not play with the domestic political agenda instead of dealing with the business at hand. You're a pale shadow of what you used to be, Democrats. Find your love of the country and consider it closely because this, non-binding partisanship, is not what you promised us, nor what we need.

Defining the interloper

I love Irony. More deliciously, I enjoy when things go my way. For that reason it is even better for me when I am enabled to serve my own bias while gaining a respective ally.

As today's example, I hate Justin Timberlake. Why? Two reasons and both are paltry but I believe totally justifiable. The first is he gained his fame via a boy band. If you don't understand why that's bad then I can't help you. Maybe with a lot of classic rock and some free time, but not within the confines of this post. The second is that he's scored with both Brittany Spears and Cameron Diaz. Now mind you I'm not the biggest fan of either, but as a fairly conservative guy I prefer to be a cock blocker to all boy band members. If you love them so much, boy band boy, why not have the balls to marry them? See? I told you, I'm a hater.

That's why it give me such sweet pleasure to ensure that Hood will forever be in my camp on Justin Timberlake hating.

Justin Timberlake has been linked to dating Scarlett Johansen.

Scarlett Johansson has addressed the constant speculation that she is Justin Timberlake's rebound girl.

After breaking up with Josh Hartnett and Cameron Diaz respectively, the cute duo has been labeled the next "it" couple in Hollywood.

However, Johansson has skirted around the possibility of a romance with the sexy singer.

Despite being seen around Los Angeles and Miami together, for the moment the "Lost In Translation" star is insisting they are just friends.

She told E! News at the Grammy Awards, "We have a lot of friends in common, and Justin's a sweetheart, and it's always good to see him. But there's a lot of speculation and I try not to read that stuff. I think when two people are single and are seen together, it's immediately like a crazy feeding frenzy."

The stars enjoyed a week of partying in Miami during the Super Bowl and Johansson has been spotted at JT concerts.

Timberlake has also been rumored to be romancing Jessica Biel.

Now, I have no intentions of giving up Jessica Biel to this ass clown and I know Hood's going to go mental, so if anyone wants to get in on the road trip that's going to end in a former boy band member drugged, tattooed, bound and shipped to a rabid cheetah game preserve in Africa, now is the time to buy some beer and some ammo and sign up for the trip. And before anyone else says it, "SHOTGUN!", you guys can fight about who rides where in the back.

interpersonal communication

Even though the Internet has been around for a while, the mass access and use as a tool of personal communication is still pretty recent. Things like facebook, xanga, myspace, gmail and blogs have changed the way that we live. Consider the amount of media that you absorb in an average day. Think about all the IM's, emails, text messages and pod casts you interact with. It's fairly incredible the amount of information that we deal with daily.

While the ability to contact, organize and keep in touch is the most useful by product of this information revolution, the worst byproduct is that people have a tendency to forget that there is an actual person at the other end of the message. Now, does that matter when I call Lou Dobbs, from CNN, a moron. Not really. I don't know Lou. He Doesn't know me and even if we met I doubt that he'd give a tinkers damn about I thought. However, If I'm emailing someone I work with or someone I blog with or someone that I do know and deal with then I need to make every effort to be clear and less inflamitory than the Lou Dobbs example.

For that reason, I have a personal rule: If a conversation is important or over any emotional topic, I try to have that conversation in person. So much of interaction is based on body language and tone of language that it's better to do that. Likewise, real time interaction allows for feedback that you can make adjustments to as opposed to having to make assumptions about people's motives and responses.

I mention this as a word of caution because right now I know more than a few people involved in flame wars with people that they know and it would be far better if these conversations left the virtual world and happened in real time.

On the 11th day Of Februray in the 2007th year of our Lord...

My eldest son was baptized.

To say that I'm an incredibly proud parent is an understatement of epic proportion. This was a decision that he came to on his own. Yes, I talk about God and yes we go to church but my wife and I determined from the time that we discovered that she was pregnant that we would not do anything to "guide" our children to this decision. We would only answer questions that we were asked.

We came to that because I was baptized about the same age as my son. However, unlike a lot of my friends, it was a decision that I made on my own. There was no one there helping me along or guiding me in the criterion of faith. I just simply realized that there was a hole in my heart that nothing seemed to fill. And I knew that God was the only thing that could fill it. I wanted that so much so that I asked him to do that, on my own.

Years later, I watched several of my friends struggle with the idea of whether or not they really committed themselves to God when they were baptised as younger children. I never did and I know that it's because I can remember putting all the pieces together and making that decision on my own. I wanted that for my sons.

And now, thanks to the Holy Spirit, his mother's love, and the collective work of the people we go to church with, my son has taken the things that he learned and put them together on his own.

I'm always quick to assume that most people, with Internet at least, have had access to the bible and the message of Jesus Christ. I also know that a lot of our lurkers are people who go to my church and know me, and my family, personally but out of solid commons sense choose not to comment. I'm not as worried that they are unaware of the importance of this step in my son's life. However, some off our traffic are Middle Easterners, South Americans and Chinese and come from people who cruise this site for pictures of Uma Thurman's thong. While I do gain some degree of happiness if I get a shot at shattering the preconceived notion that all Christians are uptight people that have no sense of humor and judge everyone, I'd like to suggest that you challenge yourself to know first hand about Jesus and what God says in the Bible. I did it with Islam. I read the whole Quran cover to cover because I didn't want to take someone's word on it. Make an effort to know enough to make an informed decision on who Jesus Christ is and how he fits into your life.

Finally, I'd like to take a moment to lay a myth to rest. Since today was the day my eldest son was Baptised, I can honestly say this is not a video of my kid below, despite the fact it fits my family's MO.

Zsa Zsa?!?

What's going on?


I KEED, I KEED!

5 minutes before class

(The paraphrased conversation, 5 minutes before class, between myself and the resident 18 year old smartass of the class.)

Him: So, hey, old dude. Are you a donkey or a elephant?
(Yes, I let these kids call me "old dude." I think it's funny. Besides, it justifies me calling them "kids.")

Me: I'm actually a social/fiscal Conservative, but I guess I'd say I fall more in the Republican camp. Why?

Him: I just wondered. I'm a donkey. Does that bother you?

Me: Not really.

Him: So what does "social/fiscal Conservative mean?"

Me: It means that I support government that regulates business as little as possible, doesn't try to control markets and doesn't overtax companies as a form of supporting income redistribution. It also means that I fall in the Conservative section of social issues. I'm pro-life, anti-gay marriage, anti-drug and for the Conservative ethics in society. I'm not a "pure Republican" because I'm unhappy with some of the things that they have done in regards to bankruptcy code, earmarking and un-unified support of the war but, I'm still closer to them than the Independents and the Democrats.

Him: Well, what's wrong with income redistribution, for example, shouldn't we help the poor?

Me: Which poor?

Him: All the poor.

Me: And by "we" do you mean ethically or governmentally?

Him: Both.

Me: No. We shouldn't, as a government, force people to give up property to help someone else. If you work for it, it's yours. Now, ethically, that's a discretionary decision. I go to church and I give to a lot of different charities, but that's by choice.

Him: I know that people say that they do that, but I don't know a lot of peopled that do. Most of them are full of it.

Me: Do you, or the people you know, go to church?

Him: No, why?

Me: Because, statistically most people that go to church out spend non-churched people in giving to charity by a pretty hefty margin. If you knew some church people, then I think you'd see that people do give to charities by choice.

Him: Well, I still think that the government should do it. They need tp pay to help the poor.

Me: With who's money, yours or mine?

Him: Ha ha, yours. They need to stay out of my cash. Besides you white folks are rich.

Me: See, that's the problem, everyone wants to help but no one wants to pay. However, unless you're going to college to stay poor, you might want to reconsider because the more you make the more they tax you.

Him: But if it isn't mandatory then no one would do it. I still think that if people are poor that the government should help them out. A lot of these big companies have a lot of money so why shouldn't they pay to help people out. If people have more money then it's better for them any way.

Me: Ok, let me ask you this. If I gave you a million dollars right now and told you that it was your money but that you had to take it and spend it all on investments and not touch it for 10 years, would you do that?

Him: Would I loose the money if I didn't do that?

Me: No, but you would be ignoring what I want you to do. What I know is best for you. I know you'd be better off with $1,000,000 and 10 years of market growth, but I won't make you do that. So would you do that? Would you put all of the money in investments?

Him: Well, no, I'd probably pay some bills and get a new car and pay for my school and stuff. Why?

Me: You just proved my point on why income redistribution doesn't work. Wealth has to be earned. And because it's difficult to earn, people protect their wealth. The rich have a bunch of wealth and the poor have very little. But, if you give the poor wealth that they haven't earned they won't treat it with the same respect or care that the people who earned it do. They'll spend it off because it came easy. It's human nature. People don't care for stuff that they didn't earn like people that do.

Him: I don't believe that. People care for stuff regardless.

Me: Oh really, so you like using gas station restrooms? No? Ok then, people don't care for things that aren't tied to them.

Him: Yeah, but money and bathrooms are totally different. If you gave me a million bucks I'd be set for life. Besides, you don't know what's best for me.

Me: Maybe you would be set for life but it's more likely that you'd spend your way through it getting stuff that you don't need until the weight of your new debt pushes you under.

Him: No one's that stupid.

Me: Tell that to MC Hammer.

(And then we go in the class)

Ladies and Infidels,

The silky smooth sounds of Islamic Rage Boy...

Articulate this

Everyone is crapping a cow over Biden's statement about Obama. When asked about Obama he said that he was "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

You could actually hear the sound of air displacement across America as tight assed offense brokers shook in their perpetual rage at the "backhanded compliment." Seriously, though, Biden sounds stupid with the "clean" part. I'd have to assume he mean "clean cut" or something because normally hygiene isn't a trait to campaign on. But whatever. The real kicker was "people of color" have wigged out over the fact that Biden called him " articulate."

I shit you not. Read it for yourself:

While most people were aghast that Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, would remark on Obama's cleanliness, many of them missed the significance of the word "articulate." Clueless to nuance, whites who are called to vouch for a black person's job performance regularly mention that the candidate is articulate and poised.

What's wrong with that? "It's a classic backhanded compliment," says John Odom, owner of Odom and Associates, a human resources firm. "The assumption is that most African-Americans are not or cannot be articulate, so this person is a notable exception.

"It's the whole notion that the same standards that apply in the larger community are to be reduced among black people," Odom says. "It's a lowering of the bar: the idea that anybody who is wealthy, stylish, well-mannered, graceful, appropriate - all those notions of being classy or cultured - if any black person has these qualities, then he or she is a notable exception."

Educational consultant Barbara Golden agrees. "It is a common perception among whites that African-Americans can't be understood," she says. "People look at you as an African-American person and assume you won't be able to speak Standard English.

"The easiest way for them to get around it is to say, 'You're articulate,' but the unspoken meaning is that you're articulate for a black person," Golden says. "Sure, some people use hip-hop language - that's a teenage culture. But it doesn't make any sense for educated adults to speak that way."

You know what? I had a girlfriend that thought like this. If you said "I like your shirt." She took that to mean "I like your shirt, as opposed to everything else about you , you worthless stupid tramp whore." It took me about 3 nano-seconds to identify that as "her problem." Despite what these people seem to think, any judgement you make on what I say that is based on what you perceive the meaning of my statement to imply, as opposed to what I say, is colored by your mindset, not mine. In short, your inner Don Quixote is looking at every windmill as a racist monster.

But, if this was the end of it, I suppose I could stomach it. It would just be a story about people getting offended over something. Whoopity doo, I can throw a rock in this day and age and find someone who offended at something because people as so thin skinned. No, the kicker is that now, Biden's comment is supposedly some type of media license for every person of color to have a nice "tell the white people how to think" time. I saw it on TV, the blogs, the news and in this article. For example:

So how do white employers and colleagues avoid damning African-Americans with faint praise? Richard Davis, a UW music professor who also directs Madison Institutes for the Healing of Racism, offers some tips.

First, think of the standards you'd expect of whites. Before you use an adjective to praise an African-American employee or colleague, ask yourself, "Did you ever hear that in reverse?" Davis says. "Did you ever hear a black person saying some white person is clean or articulate? Did you ever hear one white talking about another white that way?

"Some whites are in a state of identity in which they can't recognize some people are as bright or brighter than themselves," Davis says. "They are oblivious to anything that is not like them."

Let's get real, here. Webster's defines "articulate" as "able to speak" and "expressing oneself easily and clearly." Would any of us want our boss to write a recommendation saying, "Mary is able to speak?" No, we'd consider it demeaning if the employer even mentioned it.

Now imagine what you'd expect of a presidential candidate with a law degree from an Ivy League university. Take Hillary Clinton, for instance. Would voters be impressed if you said she was articulate? Hardly. So why is it any big deal that Obama is?

Let me poise this to the writer of the article, as well Richard Davis, do you do that in your interactions with whites?

When you have the desire to compliment a white person do you stop and think "Wow, that was pretty damn cool of Tom. Now, how would I compliment Tom if he was black. Let's see, I'd say it was "pretty cool", so I guess I'll go with that. No... Wait. Tom's last name was Kennisngton and that's an English name. The English were conquered by the Vikings and he might be sensitive about that. I better nix the "cool" part because it might remind him of their reign of frozen death. I better just stick with 'nice' because that's an OK black and white word." If you do, I would submit to you that you probably look like a moron when you pause for 3 minutes to say "Gee, Tom that was.....(3 minutes later).....nice."

Likewise, I might suggest that some blacks are in a state of identity in which they can't recognize some people are as bright or brighter than themselves. They are oblivious to anything that is not like them. Like, for example, getting compliments from white people.

Be that as it may, let me give you some advice, of course it's not based on my knowledge of how blacks, and I figure we can just go with just "blacks" since I'm just inclusively dumped in with "whites", receive compliments. No, it's more based on art school. I know, art school doesn't make me any expert on the subject, but you're the ones that opened the door to music Professors divining racial intent in compliments, so I figure that my BA and my Philo equip me to be able to make a suggestion.

My advice goes like this:
When I did art, not everyone liked me. (Yeah, I know: "Shocker.") When you don't like a person in art, you go after them in critique. Under the guise of constructive criticism I've seen people totally eviscerated as the dissecting critic can stay civil and smile the whole time. However, I was very good in critique. I learned the tricks very early on how to take a would be critic apart with his own criticism if it wasn't a constructive criticism. Did it help? No. But it forced people to change tactics. Enter the perceived or real "back handed compliment." This is where we are now.

So how do you defeat and stop the backhanded compliment, or possible backhanded compliment. Graciously accept it and move on. It's that damn simple!
If they really meant it, you were polite and showed class. Bonus points for you.
If it was backhanded and you graciously accept it and don't react, you come off as polite and showing class. You also get the added bonus of diffusing the attackers effort. The more public, the better because then everyone sees even more that they are the ass and that you have class.

It's the oldest art rule because it works.
ACE. Accept compliments everytime.

The other art rule is this, and you might want to note this one and pass it around because it, too, is universal: “The fear of criticism is the kiss of death in the courtship of achievement.”

I say that because if you decide to pause like a deer in the headlights every time a person gets "complimented the wrong way" then your movement for racial understanding is going to be a laughingstock. Consider that.

And the fact it makes you look like candy asses.

Carnival of Crazy 35 - Put Down the Scissors

Welcome to week 35 of the Carnival of Crazy.

Week 35 is a bit misleading. The CofC was never actually weekly. But tradition is tradition and I don't feel like changing it to 'Episode.'

Enjoy this edition of the Carnival. I think it's especially goofy. And I haven't forgotten about re-categorizing the three categories. Bear with me.

• Creepily harmless (and obviously right at home in the politics department)...
  
• ... which could segue into describing former President Carter's actions
• Not surprising considering how many dim bulbs are in California
  

• Perturbed property proprietor plans porcine protests
  
• Artwork with your ass (SFW) - thanks, Diana! (YES DIANA FOUND THAT LINK)
• When doing an exit interview, always be honest
• Since this event, Tampa has rightfully changed procedure
  
• Tempting Darwin's law
• How not to rob a liquor store
  
• WND has quite the chronicles of the apparent student/teacher sex epidemic
• The oddest way to impress a stripper
  
• Crazy, colorful hair: the stylish side of meth addiction
• Moronic retards? Or genius kids studying Newton's third law?
• This makes me proud to be an American and a Texan
  

• A really bad case of misplaced empathy
  
• Hilarious roundup of crazy underthings
• A helluva long vacation
• Two-faced piggy
• The English just found the most PC way to waste tax dollars

Featured Crazy of the Month: Bride-to-be does the unthinkable...

Texas goes bananas ....

Arts councils give $65,000 to see giant fruit fly ... Montreal artist designing huge blimp that will hover over Texas for month

Roger Collier, The Ottawa Citizen

Texas is the home of three of the U.S.'s largest cities, two George Bushes and, come summer 2008, one giant, floating banana.

Cesar Saez, the 38-year-old Montreal artist designing the 300-metre-long, banana-shaped blimp that will sit in the Texas sky, says many people think the project is a hoax. It isn't, he insists. But the skepticism doesn't bother him. "The issue of hoax -- is it true or not? -- I like that the project is playing with that," he said from his Montreal home.

Mr. Saez has at least made believers of the Canada Council for the Arts, which has given him $15,000, and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec, which has given him $50,000.

"He seems to be quite serious about pursuing his project," said Donna Balkan, senior communications manager for the Canada Council for the Arts.

"He's a very experienced artist with a strong track record of doing public art performances, not only in Canada, but all over the world. He also holds a bachelor of fine arts and a masters of fine arts from Concordia University, so he has a very strong arts background."

Beatrice Pepper, director for public relations at the Conseil des arts et lettres, said Mr. Saez is a serious artist whose funding was recommended by a jury of his peers.

"The project is being appreciated on its artistic excellence and on the credibility of what he has been doing so far," she said.

"We've known this artist for 10 years," said Ms. Pepper.

[...]

Regardless of Mr. Saez's reputation, some think putting fruit in U.S. skies is a waste of Canadian money.

"We think it's a silly use of tax dollars," said Adam Taylor, a spokesman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. "It shows there is more money in Ottawa than common sense."

Even if it is possible, there is still the question of whether Mr. Saez will be allowed to launch his banana into U.S. airspace.

[...]

One can only hope it will make for some great target practice and that the FAA has some common sense.

Here's a plan .... how about we fire the Arts Council and recover our tax dollars.

I got nothing

Today, I just can't seem to get "blog motivated." Nothing really has me all that excited. Nothing really has me all that pissed. Today, if it was a color, would be brown. Possibly with a granite texture.

Like this:


Yup, that would be today.

Remind Me Never To Use This Gym

Just....ick.......

A DUTCH gym is to introduce "Naked Sunday" for people who like to work out in the nude.

Patrick de Man, owner of Fitworld gym in the town of Heteren, got the idea from two of his customers who are avid nudists.

If I'm going to dog on the alarmist, then lets laude the realist...

Star-Telegram | 02/06/2007 | What we knew already is a great article by the Ft. Worth Star Telegrams writer, Don Erler.

Bonus points for Don for money shots like these in his story on the Global Warming report:

Thirty years ago, many climate scientists predicted that human activity would soon create a new ice age. Six years ago, newly emerged "global warming" enthusiasts projected rapidly rising sea levels. Today, most of the IPCC scientists warn of lower increases, while some fear even higher rises in the average ocean level.

In other words, on the IPCC's own showing, there is no "scientific consensus" on anything except the nearly self-evident proposition that human activity affects climate.

Add this little nugget of joy....

Earth scientist Fred Singer, co-author of the book Unstoppable Global Warming -- Every 1500 Years, has noted that sea levels "have been rising steadily since the peak of the last Ice Age about 18,000 years ago." In fact, during the last 5,000 years, they have risen some seven inches per century.

Hmm. Seven inches (see above, paragraph No. 5).

and what was paragraph 5?

The AP report said that sea levels are now projected to rise by "7 to 23 inches by the end of the century," drastically down from the "2001 report [that] projected a sea level rise of up to 35 inches."

Read the whole thing. It's impressive what actual reporting, as opposed to alarmist posturing, can do with a perfectly good point. Why, it's like "the news" or something.