"John McCain is Dr. Strangelove"

The title says it all.

Kimmel Versus Damon - The History.

Cindi posted up the absolutely hilarious Matt Damon/Sarah Silverman/Jimmy Kimmel vid over on her blog - check it out here profoundly perplexed: "brazilliant"

The history of the Damon/Kimmel War can be found in all its comedic glory with these vids.

Matt Damon on Jimmy Kimmel Live



Bourne Ultimatum on Jimmy Kimmel Live



Matt Damon gets blown off at red carpet event

...one can only hope.

Balloon Juice:

"It sure would be nice to think that the base of the dwindling GOP is not as batshit insane as the nutters at the NRO, Red State, etc., but I have not seen much evidence of it. The thing that needs to be said, over and over, though, is that Rush Limbaugh and those guys simply aren’t conservatives. They just aren’t. Radically restructuring government to create an unaccountable executive is not conservative. Building a security apparatus that is designed to spy on citizens is not a conservative principle. Runaway spending and bloated budgets are not conservative ideas. Torture and permanent aggressive wars are not conservative principles. Fearmongering and keeping the electorate scared is not a conservative principle. And on and on.

The fact of the matter is the self-styled loud-mouth conservatives just aren’t very conservative."

SWAT Raid, cop dead, guy in jail... over Japanese maple trees.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Back to Chesapeake:

"Ryan Frederick was arraigned today. He was charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and . . . simple possession of marijuana.

That's right. Though police still haven't told us how much marijuana they found, it wasn't enough to charge Frederick with anything more than a misdemeanor. For a misdemeanor, they broke down his door, a cop is dead, and a 28-year-old guy's life is ruined. Looks like the informant mistook Frederick's gardening hobby for an elaborate marijuana growing operation, and those Japanese maple trees for marijuana plants.

[Picture of a young Japanese maple leaf]



...A bad informant and bad police procedures then converge, resulting in police breaking down his door while he's sleeping. He fires a gun to defend himself, unwittingly kills a cop, and now faces murder charges.

...these raids need to stop.

You wonder how large the pile of bodies will need to grow before the cops stop breaking down doors and invading homes to enforce consensual crimes."

Ah, children.

Dad: You Know, Honey, He's Got a Point

Four-year-old to mom: Mom, you should get a new husband -- one that will do more stuff with us. And Daddy can get a new wife -- a skinny wife.

Orlando, Florida

via Overheard Everywhere, Jan 30, 2008

Look at that... actual facts that screw up their bullshit narrative of a fairy tale.

Crooks and Liars » That other terrorist attack on U.S. soil:

"In his State of the Union address last night, Bush boasted, “We are grateful that there has not been another attack on our soil since 9/11.”

Except, of course, that’s wrong. I’m not trying to play a cute semantics game; I know what conservatives mean when they talk about “terrorist attacks.” They’re describing devastating, cataclysmic events that kill a lot of people at once. I get it.

But about a month after 9/11, someone sent weaponized anthrax to two Democratic senators and several news outlets. Five Americans were killed and 17 more suffered serious illnesses. For reasons that I’ve never been able to explain, the incident — it’s entirely reasonable to call it an “attack” — is hardly ever mentioned. No one knows where the anthrax came from, who sent it, or why. It was a horrifying incident, immediately on the heels of another horrifying incident, but more than six years later, it’s almost as if the episode never happened.

...Every time I hear someone talk about the absence of 9/11 attacks, I twitch, wondering why the anthrax incident has somehow been downgraded in the national memory."

Mysteries of the Universe.

Wednesday One-Liners Join the AARP

80-year-old man: What is rough sex? Do I put her against the wall? I don't know.

via Overheard in New York, Jan 30, 2008

Yes, you. You, right there.

I Just Flew in from Wednesday, and Boy, Are My One-Liners Tired!

Flight attendant: Once again, please remain seated until the captain does turn off the 'Fasten seatbelt' sign... That includes all passengers in row nine... That includes all passengers wearing a blue polo... Yes, thank you, and have a great day.

--JFK

Pilot: Welcome to JetBlue flight 703 to San Juan... I'm from South Carolina. We do something special there -- we let our kids drive at the age of fifteen. I've got a 15-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter, so if you're thinking of driving to Florida, do me a favor and fly JetBlue -- it's safer than driving through South Carolina, and my car insurance for my daughter last year was 15 hundred dollars, and now I have to add my son, so I really need this job to afford it.

--JFK

Overheard by: alan b hutscar

Flight attendant: ... And if you do require anything during this flight, simply press the button located above your head. Do not approach the galley, as it scares the hell out of me and I am not emotionally prepared to handle that today.

--LaGuardia

Overheard by: Sheffler

Flight attendant: ... And be sure that you lock your tray tables and place your seat backs in their least comfortable position for takeoff.

--JFK

Overheard by: Ardbeg78

Pilot: Well, folks, I'm sorry about the delay, but, uh, airplanes are complicated machines, you know? And sometimes they break.

--United flight, JFK

Overheard by: clueless about electronics

via Overheard in New York, Jan 30, 2008

Parker and Wayne!

From the "I'm a Marvel. And I'm a DC" guy.

Comic book-y genius.

"The debate isn't security versus privacy. It's liberty versus control."

What Our Top Spy Doesn't Get: Security and Privacy Aren't Opposites:

"We've been told we have to trade off security and privacy so often -- in debates on security versus privacy, writing contests, polls, reasoned essays and political rhetoric -- that most of us don't even question the fundamental dichotomy.

But it's a false one.

Security and privacy are not opposite ends of a seesaw; you don't have to accept less of one to get more of the other. Think of a door lock, a burglar alarm and a tall fence. Think of guns, anti-counterfeiting measures on currency and that dumb liquid ban at airports. Security affects privacy only when it's based on identity, and there are limitations to that sort of approach.

Since 9/11, two -- or maybe three -- things have potentially improved airline security: reinforcing the cockpit doors, passengers realizing they have to fight back and -- possibly -- sky marshals. Everything else -- all the security measures that affect privacy -- is just security theater and a waste of effort.

By the same token, many of the anti-privacy "security" measures we're seeing -- national ID cards, warrantless eavesdropping, massive data mining and so on -- do little to improve, and in some cases harm, security. And government claims of their success are either wrong, or against fake threats.

The debate isn't security versus privacy. It's liberty versus control."

It's like a conversation in my head.

9AM She Drinks to Forget

Female student #1: I dunno -- maybe I should give up drinking.
Female student #2: That's never a good idea.
Female student #1: It's just that I'm older, y'know? The drinking scene is so played...
Male student, joining them minutes later: So, what are you guys doing this weekend?
Female student #1: Getting fucking hammered.
Female student #2: What happened to giving up drinking?
Female student #1: Oh, please, that was so two minutes ago.

University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
Canadia

Overheard by: the iPod was just a front

via Overheard in the Office, Jan 28, 2008

Memorial Service for Jiichan.

This year being the seventh anniversary of Jiichan's death, tradition holds that a memorial service is to be held.

So this morning a Buddhist priest visited Baachan's home for the proscribed rituals.

Sandy called the pic below, the "suitcase o'Buddhist ceremonial goods."



And the cheerful looking fellow to the right is our friendly neighborhood Buddhist priest.

Who drove one of those nifty little smart-eco cars that are all the rage in Japan and Europe.

[I dig those rides.]

Buddhist Priest Drives Car of the Future.

Gotta love Japan.


Then Sandy, grandma and Aunt Kiko went ohaka-mairi [visiting the family grave] with flowers, sembei, tea and mikans.

And then they went to Costco.

Today was quite a mix of the new and the old, the traditional and the modern, apparently.

Japanese Pizza.

God bless them, those magnificent bastards.

Scrambled egg and spicy chicken toppings.

No tomato sauce.

Tiny little sausage links in the crust.

[And it was good, too.]

We are all. Free. To do. Whatever. We want. To do.*

[There will, of course, be consequences.]

Rule # 9.

*From Illusions, by Richard Bach.

"Southern racists adopt "Canadian" as a euphemism for "black""

You know, I'm one part disgusted, one part fascinatingly confused and one part shake my head in shame at how amazingly stupid people are.

Southern racists adopt "Canadian" as a euphemism for "black" - Boing Boing:

"The Canadian National Post looks on with mild horror as American linguists report on the growing trend in the American south to use 'Canadian' as a masking euphemism for black people, so that white racists can say socially inappropriate things without tipping listeners off about the cancer in their souls."

My kinda guy.

Whatever It Takes

Religious lady: Here's a flyer to educate you about Jesus.
Teen guy: I'm agnostic.
Religious lady: That's the wrong religion.
Teen guy: It's not a religion.
Religious lady: Accept Jesus Christ and be saved!
Teen guy: Fuck Jesus.
Religious lady: What?!
Teen guy: Fuck Jesus.
Religious lady: You shouldn't say that -- Jesus will forgive you.
Teen guy: You're ugly. Now leave me alone.

--Delancey St

Overheard by: Used to this shit

via Overheard in New York, Jan 27, 2008