What if?

Approach Anxiety » Blog Archive » The Worst Thing That Can Happen To You:

"If you stick with it and get rid of limiting beliefs that you have, you will avoid the one thing in life that you can’t do anything about… Deep, dark, crushing regret.

...It turns out that I WAS FULL OF SHIT!!

I was scared and making excuses...

The point here is….FUCK! All those wasted years...

I’m certainly making up for lost time and loving life–but the regret of what could have been is heavy.

...stop for 30 seconds and consider–what if all the things that you truly believe in your heart that are holding you back are just not true?

What if it is all in your control? What if it always has been? What if your problems... are not just cursed fate or bad luck?

It’s a damn hard thing to consider.

Don’t wait until you are 50 to figure out that you’ve missed 30 years... because you believed something that was not true about yourself and it was nobody’s fault but your own.

Trust me… it sucks.

...start! Do something! Get better little by little. And in a year you might not recognize your life. "

An adventure in rear naked choking.

I've seen Randy Couture, Joe Rogan and Frank Shamrock choke out radio DJ's before, but this is the first time I've seen any of them choke out a girl. Pretty funny. As Fightlinker said: "Is Randy Couture gonna have to choke a bitch? Yes, I think so."

Drift racing + dimensional sliding + dinosaurs + Egyptian archeology + lost family member quest.

So incredibly, intentionally bad it becomes teh awesome.

YouTube - Overdrift



Hat tip Boing Boing Gadgets.

Perhaps the most fucked up English lesson for Japanese ever.

No wonder everybody asks me if I own a gun, or if America is "safe."

Unbelievable.

So very, very wrong.

The song "Pedophile" written and sung by a 13 year old girl.

See, it just sounds wrong, dunnit?

But I laughed my ass off, as god clearly intended.

Hates brothers, hates whitey, loves him some dragons.

Asian hater explains his rampant racism via the evolutionary power of dragons.

I shit thee not.



It makes Bruce Lee say -



And makes me say, Kenneth Eng -

The miracle of the transubstantiated stupidity.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > French Cops Foil Catholofascist Terror Plot:

"...No bottles containing more than 100ml of liquid were allowed on board unless checked in, meaning passengers were forced give up the holy water they had just collected at Lourdes...

Many hoped to ferry the water back to sick relatives. My question: Which is more superstitious, the belief that Lourdes water can cure the sick or the belief that it can bring down a plane?"

"Wapanese" might be my new favorite word.

So, so good.

Wapanese - Encyclopedia Dramatica:

"The Wapanese (also called Japanophiles or 'Weeaboo') much like wiggers, are cultureless honkies trying to fill this cultural void by pretending not to be white. In this case, by humping the giant Godzilla leg of the Land of the Rising Sun until they are assimilated into its culture, as if being azn is some kind of acquired communicable disease. So badly do they wish this, in fact, that they are willing to dedicate whole afternoons to memorizing up to five common phrases in Japanese and then misusing them at the mall or furry conventions. They frequent sushi bars, the Panda Express in the food court and Sanrio stores on a weekly basis. Their bathing is inconsistent, as they have no time for this - they're usually too busy watching anime or buying plastic crap from the internets. They are the bane of American youth."

“They wanted them poor niggers out of there.”

Hey, lets use the cover of Hurricane Katrina to to screw people over even worse. What incredible fucking gall.

“They wanted them poor niggers out of there.” Greg Palast:

"We needed an answer to a weird, puzzling and horrific discovery. Among the miles and miles of devastated houses, rubble still there today in New Orleans, we found dry, beautiful homes. But their residents were told by guys dressed like Ninjas wearing “Blackwater” badges: “Try to go into your home and we’ll arrest you.”

These aren’t just any homes. They are the public housing projects of the city; the Lafitte Houses and others. But unlike the cinder block monsters in the Bronx, these public units are beautiful townhouses, with wrought-iron porches and gardens right next to the tony French Quarter.

Raised up on high ground, with floors and walls of concrete, they were some of the only houses left salvageable after the Katrina flood.

Yet, two years later, there’s still bars on the windows, the doors are welded shut and the residents banned from returning. On the first anniversary of the flood, we were filming this odd scene when I saw a woman on the sidewalk, sobbing. Night was falling. What was wrong?

...With the help of Patricia Thomas, a Lafitte resident, we broke into an apartment. The place was gorgeous. The cereal boxes still dry. This was Patricia’s home. But we decided to get out before we got busted.

I wasn’t naïve. I had a good idea what this scam was all about: 89,000 poor and working class families stuck in Homeland Security’s trailer park gulag while their good homes were guarded against their return by mercenaries. Two decades ago, I worked for the Housing Authority of New Orleans. Even then, the plan was to evict poor folk out of this very valuable real estate. But it took the cover of a hurricane to do it.

Malik’s organization, Common Ground, wouldn’t wait for permission from the federal and local commissars to help folks return. They organized takeovers of public housing by the residents. And, in the face of threats and official displeasure, restored 350 apartments in a destroyed private development on the high ground across the Mississippi in the ward called, “Algiers.” The tenants rebuilt their own homes with their own sweat and their own scraps of cash based on a promise of the landlords to sell Common Ground the property in return for restoring it.

Why, I asked Malik, was there this strange lock-out from public housing?

Malik shook his dreds. “They didn’t want to open it up. They wanted them closed. They wanted them poor niggers out of there.”

For Malik, the emphasis is on “poor.” The racial politics of the Deep South is as ugly as it is in Philadelphia, Pa. But the New Orleans city establishment has no problem with Black folk per se. After all, Mayor Ray Nagin’s parents are African-American.

...So where New Orleans once stood, Mayor Nagin, in connivance with a Bush regime more than happy to keep a quarter million poor folk (i.e. Democrats) out of this swing state, is creating a new city: a tourist town with a French Quarter, loose-spending drunks, hot-sheets hotels and a few Black people to perform the modern version of minstrel shows.

Malik explained, “It’s two cities. You know? There’s the city for the white and the rich. And there’s another city for the poor and Blacks. You know, the city that’s for the white and rich has recovered. They had a Jazz Fest. They had a Mardi Gras. They’re going to have the Saints playing for those who have recovered. But for those who haven’t recovered, there’s nothing.”

So where are they now?

...Malik’s housing project? The tenants’ work was done this past December. By Christmastime, they received their eviction notices - and all were carried out of their rebuilt homes by marshals right after the New Year, including a paraplegic resident who’d lived in the Algiers building for decades.

Hurricane recovery is class war by other means. And in this war of the powerful against the powerless, Mr. Bush can rightly land his fighter plane in Louisiana and declare that, unlike the war in Iraq, it is, indeed, “Mission Accomplished.”"

Hey look! No accountability! Ever! Bwa ha hah!!!!

See, it was just the enlisted guys.

Didn't they tell you that? Directives about the inapplicability of the Geneva Conventions and the wink-wink nudge-nudge from everybody from the President to Rumsfeld to the DOJ had nothing at all to do with it.

...

Jesus, what cowardly douchebaggery.

Balloon Juice:

"And by the way, the only officer ever put on trial for Abu Ghraib was acquitted yesterday ... The cover-up is complete. The rabble-rousers who let the story out are all punished, those who orchestrated the behavior and set the policies in place and encouraged the behavior are still running the show. We’ll file that under “Thank Goodness the Adults are in Charge” and “Support the Troops!”"

Ever wonder just HOW your email gets there?

Pretty damn clever.

For Dad Snider.

Because he likes archery.

And archery is important.

Pic Via Dethroner: There Has to Be a Good Joke About Deer Hunting and “Racks” Here Somewhere

Congratulations Afghanistan!

Nice to see a nation getting back on its feet.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Opium-Induced Déjà Vu in Afghanistan:

"Yesterday the U.N. announced that opium production in Afghanistan hit a record level this year. You may feel as if you've read this news before: Opium production in Afghanistan also hit a record level last year. This year 193,000 hectares of poppies were cultivated, up 17 percent from last year's 165,000. Thanks to favorable weather that led to high yields, opium production rose even more, from about 6,700 tons in 2006 to about 9,000 tons this year, an increase of 34 percent. The U.N. says Afghanistan's opium now represents 93 percent of the world total, compared to 92 percent last year. The New York Times notes that U.S. opium eradication efforts have accomplished little except to move the poppies around..."

"Tiananmen Square minus the tanks, with non-lethal ammo ... for now..."

Amerika, 2007 by William Norman Grigg:

"Jonas Phillips is the third resident of Asheville, North Carolina to be arrested in recent weeks for displaying a pro-impeachment sign.

...While different considerations apply to protests on "public" property, it's significant that Asheville authorities are finding it difficult to identify a specific offense with which to charge Phillips. That difficulty is symptomatic of institutional dishonesty: The Asheville Police Department can't afford to admit that it arrested Phillips because of the content of his sign, rather than because of some danger he protest posed to the public.

Last Wednesday (August 15), Phillips was "standing alone with my [Impeach Bush-Cheney] sign for about 10 minutes, when I was approached by Police Officer Russell Crisp," he recounted. "He asked me how long I was planning to stay there and I told him just a few more minutes because I had to go to work at 8:00. He asked for my ID and I obliged. I asked him if I was doing something wrong, and he said that his Sergeant was on the way and he was going to wait for him. So, I went back to my sign holding over the interstate."

If Phillips had been obstructing pedestrians, or imperiling motorists, Officer Crisp could have addressed the problem by warning the cooperative protester to leave. He didn't issue such a warning.

A few minutes later the Sergeant, Officer Randy Riddle, "showed up with a paper in his hand," continues Phillips. "He spoke briefly to Crisp, then walked over to me and told me to put down my sign, put my hands behind my back, and that I was under arrest! I was shocked and almost thought he was joking until he told me again to put down the sign and put my hands behind me and I was under arrest. So I peacefully agreed and he cuffed me. I asked him why I was being arrested, he told me I was in violation County Ordinance 16-2 (the print out in his hand that he didn't bother to read to me or show me). He told me I was obstructing the sidewalk. I told him I was not and that officer Crisp had witnessed a guy walk by me moments before."

"Riddle yelled at me, 'You were obstructing the sidewalk!' and 'I'm sick of this sh*t!' then he said, 'Here's your 15 minutes of fame buddy!' I looked back to see his name plate and he said in a mean condescending tone, 'Yea, that's "Sergeant Riddle" get it right!' He then put me in Officer Crisp's police car. Riddle took my sign with him and I was taken downtown and booked by Crisp. I was never read my Miranda rights."

Two days later, the charges against Phillips had mutated from the relatively innocuous offense of "obstructing the sidewalk" – which would hardly merit being handcuffed and stuffed into a police car – to "endangering motorists."

...As I've noted before, many police departments increasingly operate under the "we'll find a reason" standard – meaning that when given an opportunity officers will contrive some excuse to cite or arrest individuals who have committed no immediately recognizable offense. Cases like those of Jonas Phillips, Kevin Egler, and the Kuhns – remember: three or more instances constitute a pattern – suggest that police are particularly prone to display their creativity when dealing with certain forms of political protest.

...in Miami, with $8.5 million in federal funding tucked into an $87 billion war appropriation, waged a literal street war against protesters during the December 2003 Free Trade of the Americas Summit. Police eagerly used tasers, pepper spray, rubber bullets, billyclubs, and other "non-lethal" weapons against peaceful and largely cooperative protesters.

At one point, riot police firing rubber bullets shot a female protester several times in the back; during the next morning's briefing, the black-clad champions of public order enjoyed a giddy laugh at the victim's expense...

According to Rothschild, Miami Police Chief John Timoney, who insisted that his troops had acted with proper "restraint," won praise nation-wide "for what is being called the 'Miami Model'" of protest management.

The "Miami Model" could be described as Tiananmen Square minus the tanks, with non-lethal ammo ... for now..."

I never saw anything that cool in church.

Via Postsecret.

One guy who can fight versus four who can't.

Including one guy doing the gayest flying jump kick ever.

Jackie Chan has a lot to answer for.

"You are safe. I am safe. This nation is safe. Quit being such a damned pussy. All of you."

Preach on, brother. Preach on...

TheAgitator.com: Hashers Arrested: Comments:

"Hashing is a crazy, sometimes exhilarating mix of running and drinking (yes, drinking). Two 'hares' set out on a 3-5 mile course through the city, and mark it with flour or chalk....

Anyway, two hashers were arrested this past weekend [and charged with a felony - Rob] for marking a trail with flour through an Ikea parking lot in New Haven. I suppose the initial overreaction is somewhat understandable, though a cursory investigation should have told police this wasn't a terrorist attack. That they're now being charged with felonies is sheer idiocy. Why can't local officials ever just admit that they screwed up? Someone's always gotta' pay.

I'll defer to John Cole now:

It is absurd. You are safe. I am safe. This nation is safe. Quit being such a damned pussy. All of you."

More from John Cole here - Balloon Juice:

"This is the real legacy of the last 7 years- a nation so whipped up into a frenzy over terrorism that you, me, anyone could be charged with a felony as long as some hysterical bedwetter somewhere thought we were committing an act of terrorism in our daily life.

The Salchow’s are just lucky they are white. If they had biked back to the scene wearing brown skin and attempted to make their way through the crowd to talk to the cops, they probably would have been shot.

The fact that this sort of shit is happening with increasing regularity just emboldens politicians to make more laws, take more of your rights, and spend more of your hard earned money in the name of security.

...It is absurd. You are safe. I am safe. This nation is safe. Quit being such a damned pussy. All of you."

The correct response should've been "no" and walking on.

Avoid the government. Especially the ones in uniform. No good will come of it, I'm telling you.

wcbstv.com - Would-Be Samaritan Instead Busted By Police:

"A New Jersey woman trying to be a Good Samaritan was instead busted by police. And the whole troubling incident was caught on tape.

Monica Montoya, 25, happened to be walking by the scene of an accident in Roselle Park, N.J., when police asked her if she spoke Spanish and could help interpret for a woman who had just been struck by a van. Montoya tells CBS 2 News that she agreed to help, but moments later, the 25-year-old's attorney says his client was bullied by police and placed under arrest.

Police, however, claim Montoya was being uncooperative, so they cuffed her and put her in a squad car."

Just. Awesome.

ESPN - Couture retains UFC crown with TKO of Gonzaga - MMA:

"Forty-four years young, facing a larger heavyweight 16 years his junior whose style appeared to mix like oil to his water, UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, a perpetual underdog throughout his storied mixed martial arts career, entered his eighteenth bout in the octagon Saturday night and did exactly what he said he was going to do: dominate.

Why would anyone be surprised at this point?

Less than two minutes into the third round of a compelling fight, Brazilian challenger Gabriel Gonzaga, who earlier this year earned his way into the title shot by brutally knocking out Mirko Filipovic with a head kick, lay beaten and blooded as a crowd of 11,118 inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center eagerly cheered Couture for having just vanquished another would-be king."

Pics Via 411Mania.com

I'll give that an oorah.

And it's been a while since I oorah-ed anything, let me tell you.

Overheard in the Office | The Valedictorian Was a Cinderblock:

"Ex-Army: I'm dumb as a rock and I still graduated number two in my class.
Ex-Marine: That's the Army for you.

250 South Country Fair Drive Champaign, Illinois
Overheard by: zundian"