'Drug czars are stupid, throw rocks at them'

'Drug czars are stupid, throw rocks at them'

Wow, it's like looking at my life.

Via Sinfest, as per usual.

Protests don't count unless somebody is inconvenienced. That's why it's called a protest.

Ah, the youthful optimism of still thinking it makes a difference...

The Field » Texas Early Voting Wave as Reaction to Systemic Disenfranchisement:

"Texas Republicans have worked overtime to make it harder for key Democratic voting groups to vote and be represented fairly. The redistricting games they’ve played are infamous. And for the Prairie View A&M University precincts, they put the early-polling place more than seven miles from the school.



So what did the students in this video do? They shut down the highway as they marched seven miles to cast their votes on the first day of early voting."

Where were you when I was in college? Huh?

Joe Francis's Spidey Sense Is Tingling

College girl #1: You're a total slut in college. I love it.
College girl #2: I know! I didn't get to be one in high school -- I'm making up for lost slut time.

--Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

via Overheard at the Beach, Feb 23, 2008

Well, you could... though it might have profound theological implications.

Jesus: How the Fuck Did That Rumor Get Started?

Girl #1: So, what's your idea of the perfect guy?
Girl #2: Oh, I know what she'll say! Jesus.
Girl #3, blushing: She's right.
Girl #1, rolling eyes: Ugh! But you can't go down on Jesus... can you?
Overheard by: J-Bake-Oh
via Overheard Everywhere, Feb 23, 2008

A candidate I think we can all believe in.

Campaign ad for Republican Congressman Richard Martin (R-Ohio).

Bio:

"Hello! Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior has delivered you to my site. Now let his spirit fill you and watch me answering questions about Republican policy at home or abroad. I hope my patriotism will show you that the best Christians are always from a gated community. I am grateful for my years as a civil servant because I’m now leveraging it in the private sector and the money is pouring in.



As CEO of Ohio Petroleum and Synthetics, I guided the stock to an all-time high before I left. It wasn’t easy to leave, but based on the advice of my wife, my children and the FBI, I knew it was time to go. When my golden parachute landed, I had quadrupled the share price*.

Do I regret secretly dumping in the Ohio river? No sir. May I remind you there was a drought and I was merely “contributing” in an attempt to raise water levels, and didn’t want to call attention to my patriotism. Jesus wouldn’t have. This act of charity was spun by the liberal media and the hysterical mothers of some very, very, slightly deformed children."

They would love Japan.

Does a Shih Tzu Really Count?

Chick, breaking long silence: Look! An Asian!
Everyone on bus, in unison: Yay!

High school bus
Englewood, Colorado
via Overheard Everywhere, Feb 22, 2008

Obama really IS like Kennedy.

Except they tried harder to kill Kennedy in Dallas. Maybe this was just a dry run?

I kid.

Reminds me of nothing so much as the old Eddie Murphy bit where, as the first black President, he has to give his State of the Union speech while constantly dipping and ducking around the stage... so no one can get a bead on him.

Star-Telegram.com: | 02/21/2008 | Police concerned about order to stop weapons screening at Obama rally:

"DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.

The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.

...Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came down to allow the people in without being checked.

Several Dallas police officers said it worried them that the arena was packed with people who got in without even a cursory inspection."

"The Last Lecture" is the best hour of video I've watched in a long time...

The first vid is about 9 minutes long and from ABC news... The second vid is the full lecture - about an hour long. If it sounds at all like something you're interested in, or you need a shot of Grade A pure optimism in your life, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Randy Pausch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Randy Pausch (born Randolph Frederick Pausch on October 23, 1960) is a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In September 2006, he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. He pursued a very aggressive cancer treatment that included major surgery and experimental chemotherapy; however in August of 2007 he was told that the cancer had metastasized to his liver and spleen. He then started palliative chemotherapy intended to extend his life as long as possible, which was then estimated to be three to six months. He remains vigorous and active six months later (February 2008.)



"Last Lecture"

Pausch delivered his "Last Public Lecture", entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", at CMU on September 18, 2007. This talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", i.e., "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?"

...During the lecture, Pausch was upbeat and humorous, alternating between wisecracks, insights on computer science and engineering education, advice on building multi-disciplinary collaborations, working in groups and interacting with other people, offering inspirational life lessons, and performing push-ups on stage.

"

Forget WWII... with this, Germany may conquer the world.

Honor system wine-bars in Berlin: drink all night, pay what you think you owe - Boing Boing:

"Jürgen Stumpf's Berlin wine-bars in the gentrifying neighborhoods of Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte run on the honor system: show up, drink wine, and pay what you think you owe on the way out the door."

Thugs, zombies and Merlin.

Clap If You Believe in Wednesday One-Liners

Thug: You know what, nigga? I think all them zombies are racist mothafuckahs. You notice they always eat the brotha first? What are we, covered in mothafuckin' chocolate? Do I look like a fondue fountain? That's some bullshit.

--189th & Bathgate

Overheard by: Lyle

Hobo, in false British accent: Of all the dimensions in the universe, I had to end up in this one! New York -- filthy, dirty, grimy. Greatest city in the world? Bah! I could have been fighting dragons with Merlin, but no! I had to end up here!

--6 train

via Overheard in New York, Feb 20, 2008

Amen.

Balloon Juice:

"...This morning brings the news that the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, has launched a new website where they are announcing how they are officially preparing to make the case that the rules of the Democratic nomination process should be changed.

--

Don’t like the rules- change them. Isn’t that precisely what has been wrong with the criminal Bush administration the past eight years?"

SSDD.

I eagerly await Montana's secession and the 2nd American Civil War.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Montana: Wrong Heller Decision Would Violate Its Compact with the United States:

"An interesting wrinkle in the gun-rights controversy: Various Montana politicians have signed a resolution arguing that anything other than an individual-right interpretation of the Second Amendment (at issue in the forthcoming Supreme Court case Heller v. D.C.) would violate the compact between Montana and the U.S.

...THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the undersigned members of the 60th Montana Legislature as follows:

1. That any form of "collective rights" holding by the Court in Heller will offend the Compact; and.........4. Montana reserves all usual rights and remedies under historic contract law if its Compact should be violated by any "collective rights" holding in Heller."

Unbelievable...

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Exoneration in Michigan:

"An Ingham County prosecutor and a detective knew before trial that video evidence showed Claude McCollum was in another building when a Lansing Community College professor was killed, according to a state police report obtained by the Lansing State Journal.

Still, prosecutors went ahead with the case, and McCollum was tried and convicted of murder."

Choose your friends wisely.

Translation: I'm About to Start Crying

Jock #1: Dude, that bitch broke my heart.
Jock #2, eating a burrito: I know, man. You were always so unhappy, and I wanted to, like, slap you around and make you happy.
Jock #1, singing softly and staring blankly at the ground: I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you...
Jock #2: Look, man, we boys, aight? But when you start singing cheesy-ass love songs to a chick that cheated on you, gave you an STD, and shit on top of your car because she's crazier than a fucking monkey on crack with a banana up its ass, something's wrong with you, and maybe we shouldn't hang out anymore.

University of Washington
Seattle, Washington

Overheard by: Sam

via Overheard Everywhere, Feb 21, 2008

GW Bush is #1!

At sucking, apparently.

Lowest Presidential Approval Rating Ever.

In other bad news, 1 in 5 morons still think he's swell.

The National Economy:

"Among all Americans, 19% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 77% disapprove. "

Attytood: Worse than Watergate: Bush scores lowest presidential approval rating EVER!:

"Here's a pretty good compilation of [historical low] poll numbers from Roper. To summarize the highlights:

Clinton low: 36 percent, May 1993 (early missteps like Zoe Baird)

George H.W. Bush low: 29 percent, August 1992 (recession)

Reagan low: 35 percent, January 1983 (recession)

Carter low: 28 percent, July 1979 (high gas prices)

Ford low: 37 percent, January 1975 (economy, Nixon pardon)

Nixon low: 23 percent, January 1974 (Watergate)

Johnson low: 35 percent, August 1968 (Vietnam)

Lowest ever? That would be Harry Truman during the Korean War, in February 1952, at 22 percent."

"..you can‘t sue over being secretly wiretapped because you can‘t prove you were secretly wiretapped because it‘s a secret. "

'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Feb. 19 - Countdown with Keith Olbermann - TODAYshow.com:

"... the [Supreme] court refused to hear the case of ACLU V. NSA, the National Security Agency. The agency Mr. Bush had wiretapped Americans without court warrants, in violation of U.S. law, including the FISA act, specifically designed to curb government intrusions into Americans‘ privacy. The ACLU also asking in vain for the high court to issue a ruling definitely affirming and I‘m not really dumbing this down by a lot - The president of the country is not allowed to break the law - The Supreme Court denies to do so. That means a lower court dismissal of this stands... I‘m joined now by Jonathan Turley, professional of constitutional law at George Washington University. Thank you again for your time tonight, sir.



JONATHAN TURLEY, PROFESSOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Hi, Keith.

OLBERMANN: That is the gist of it, right? I mean you can‘t sue over being secretly wiretapped because you can‘t prove you were secretly wiretapped because it‘s a secret.

TURLEY: That is it in every ridiculous detail. And unfortunately, that is a standard that is not unique. Why courts continue to use it is a very good question because they have the ability, if they really wanted to, to force the government to make some minimal showing, even under seal that would allow plaintiffs to get a ruling on the merits..."

I've finally figured it out... "Gambatte" REALLY means "Suck it up."

It came to me in a flash just the other day, as I said "Gambatte" to yet another person for what seemed to be the millionth time since I've been in Japan... what it really means.

Gambaremasu, literally, translates as 'to persevere' or 'to endure.' But it's used hundreds of times a day - gambare, gambatte, gambaremasu - over and over, time and again. It, along with 'kawaii' [cute] can, in many ways, sum up the whole Japanese ethos.

Since, in English, we don't go around wishing endurance and perseverance on one another, it's colloquially translated, usually, as 'Do your best!' or 'Good Luck.'

But what it really means, in English, is "suck it up." That oh so encouraging phrase that most likely originated in the military* and crossed over to civilian life at some point.

Now, every time I hear "Gambatte" I hear "Suck it up."

This will be difficult, don't complain, work harder.

Yep, that's Japan.

*Sources differ on the origin of the idiom "suck it up." Some sources place its origin in the military in the 1930s where "suck up your gut [and stick out your chest]" became "suck it up." Others say it started in military aviation, where, at high altitudes, if you vomited into your oxygen mask, you had to "suck it up" in order to maintain airflow.

Options in Schools.

Via reason.tv:

"Vikki Reyes has had it with Locke High, the school her daughters attend in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. She walked in on class one day and recalls “the place was just like a zoo!” Students had taken control, while the teacher sat quietly with a book.

Frank Wells has also had it with Locke High. When he became principal he says gangs ruled the campus. He tried to turn things around but ran into a “brick wall” of resistance from the school district and teachers union.

Locke seemed destined to languish in high crime and low test scores until Wells, Reyes, and many reform-minded teachers joined with a maverick named Steve Barr in an attempt to break free from the status quo. Their battle is just one example of the charter school education revolt that’s erupting across the nation."

...and I support this message.