I am a big fan of the Seinfeld series. I watched every single episode, and I love them all. I haven't been a fan of Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up, but I've always had a relatively positive opinion of him. But this friggin' "Bee Movie" has been so overhyped, I'm not going to watch it, ever. I'm so sick of hearing about it already. And now I check my inbox and lo and behold, there's an email from "conservation international" (never heard of them) and they're hawking this friggin' movie that I'm already sick of and I haven't seen it.

So, in conclusion, I hate "Bee Movie" and I hate Jerry Seinfeld for spawning spam.

I have ranted enough. Peace!

Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but I can actually use this site:

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/category.asp?C=14504

live traffic cameras on a google map overlay. Sweet.

Yes, Blackwater murderers will get immunity. Jesus H. Christ on a Cracker:

U.S. promised Blackwater guards immunity, officials say

* Story Highlights
* Sources: Investigators said guards' statements wouldn't be used against them
* It's unclear if the State Department has the authorization to grant immunity
* Blackwater USA was involved in deadly shooting in Iraq September 16
* Blackwater has said shooting was justified; Iraqis called it "premeditated murder"

From Terry Frieden
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- State Department investigators promised Blackwater guards immunity from prosecution for last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to officials familiar with the matter.

That could potentially complicate any attempt to bring criminal charges in the case, the officials said.

The Justice Department and FBI refused comment on the investigation, which the State Department announced in early October. Blackwater also declined to comment.

this sludge was scraped from CNN. Mercenaries: cute. cuddly. like little kittens.

This is the only news story that said his Evilness had to "flee" France, but I hope they chase this rat-bastard down and put him on trial at the Hague for war crimes. Again, this is the only story that has him actually "fleeing," but I love the thought of that:

Rumsfeld Flees France, Fearing Arrest

By , IPS News
Posted on October 29, 2007, Printed on October 29, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/66425/

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of "ordering and authorizing" torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. military's detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.

U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush's "war on terror" for six years.

Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil.

According to activists in France, who greeted Rumsfeld, shouting "murderer" and "war criminal" at the breakfast meeting venue, U.S. embassy officials remained tight-lipped about the former defense secretary's whereabouts citing "security reasons".

Today I ran the Grand Rapids HALF marathon. That's 13.1 miles of pure awesomeness. It was cold and DARK at 7:00 this morning. I and a couple of other runners commandeered a Metro Health VIP tent with a heater in it and waited for the start. Normally I listen to music when I run, but the website said it wasn't allowed, and I, being a rookie, didn't bring my tunes. Of course, every other person had their headphones on. I did pretty good, or at least I thought I was until I realized an 80 year old man was pretty much beating me, and on mile 9 I finally caught up with this lady who was POWER WALKING! So with no music, I decided to improvise and I sang "Working in A Coal Mine" the DEVO version. That got me in a good rhythm; good thing too. I finished in 2:26:28. The guy who won the full marathon (26.2 miles) finished about thirty seconds after I did. At least I "beat" that guy.

Anywhoo, I am awesome. Oh yeah, they had beer and food at the end. That was cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsV50T5uEyw

Hi, this is a generic blog post. Today I did some stuff. Some stuff happened on the news, and I'm planning on doing some stuff later. When I do some stuff, or hear about something interesting, I'll post it here. Thanks for reading.

Woman's Arm Severed In Car Accident

A Letcher County woman suffered a horrible injury early Thursday when her arm was severed in a car crash on the Mountain Parkway in Clark County.

Jacqueline Dotson and her six-year-old daughter had to be cut out of their vehicle after the accident in which Dotson veered into the median and over-corrected, rolling her truck over the guardrail and landing upside down after flipping several times.

Several people stopped to help, and it turns out, the good samaritans may very well have saved Dotson's life. Sheila Vice, a nurse's aide, and an off-duty EMT from another county stopped to help, and put a tourniquet on Dotson's arm to stop the bleeding. Her arm was found near the accident still clutching a cell phone.

"Basically we stayed there and talked to them until the EMT drivers got there," said Vice.

Rescuers used the jaws of life to get the Dotson and her daughter out of the truck. Both were flown to hospitals, and Dotson is listed in serious condition at UK Hospital. Her daughter is not in the hospital, and sheriff's officials say they believe she's going to be fine.

Both were wearing seat belts.

thanks barry! link

The site doesn't actually host any copyrighted material. It just provided LINKS to it, the guy gets arrested anyway.

Probably the most popular video streaming site around has been busted by UK authorities.

It's a sad day for streaming video fans everywhere as news has been reported that TVLinks has been shut down and the owner, a 26yo man from Chelteham in the UK, was arrested.

Though not hosting an actual content himself, and rather merely providing links to where particular titles can be found, he was nonetheless apparently charged for the "facilitation" of copyright infringement.

"Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing, and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites," said a spokesman for Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) today.

What makes the charges so odd is that he was again, only providing LINKS to pirated content, and never actually hosted anything. Can linking really be considered "facilitation?" If I link to TVLinks am I then a co-conspirator?

found here

I woke up at 5 this morning, couldn't get back to sleep.

So, do you hate YouTube comments as much as I do? It makes me realize how stoopid other people are.

Well, I searched "script to remove youtube comments" and I discovered this:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/review/7981

it lets you view YouTube videos without the annoying comments. I use Firefox and a plugin called Greasemonkey. You geeks out there have probably known about this forever, but I'm kind of slow on the uptake.

So anywhoo, just thought I'd share that with out. Comments suck.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

found at zefrank.com

This is a good one:

#38 The Roald Dahl Omnibus

Roald Dahl

1993

* * * *

This is a book of short stories by the author of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach. But these aren't children's stories. These are stories about sex, poachers, cannibalism, murder, and a host of other adults hating or loving each other too much. The stories each have unique twists and surprise endings. These stories are entertaining and written in a way I've never seen before. ~ October 21, 2007

See all my reviews at http://www.danmanning.com/37.php

I love it when I'm sitting on my ass watching football and a beer commercial tells me to "Live Life to the Fullest." Hey, I am living life to the fullest! I'm watching football aren't I? I mowed the lawn earlier, and put some Liquid Plumber down the tub drain earlier. I'm living large! I have a bottle of domestic lager and a bowl of chips, the remote, and a basket of unfolded laundry nearby. I'm ignoring the phone and family, I'm watching football. I am living life to the fullest, you pompous beer commercial! Who are you to judge? Don't judge me!

Anywhoo, I'm just chillin' out today.

My lastest podcast (#113: lucidity) is out. download and listen!

The file is here:
http://www.danmanning.com/sounds/DMDC-113.mp3

Podcast page is here:
http://www.danmanning.com/19.html

RSS link is here:
http://www.danmanning.com/24.xml

check out

http://planethiltron.com

where they morph celebrity faces on regular people's photographs. weird.

Here are some new terms I saw on a CNN piece:

Agnorant: Someone who is simultaneously ignorant and arrogant.

Bluetool: Someone who wears their bluetooth thing in their ear all the time.

Multislacking: Slacking at multiple things at the same time.

Leave Britney Alone: If someone is bothering you, just interrupt them and say "Leave Britney Alone" and hopefully, they'll get the hint.

I dunno, I thought those were funny.

I've received thousands upon tens of emails from anxious fans wondering when I'm going to put out some more podcasts. Well, don' t worry friends, I just ordered a voice recorder, and I should be able to post more life-giving podcasts.

My PDA internal battery went tits-up a few months ago, and so I haven't had a recording device in Taurus Studios.

But now you may all relax your sphincters. I'm going to be podcasting soon. And to all my fans in South Korea and Japan, I'm afraid I won't be providing translated versions of my podcast. I don't know your crazy languages. Sorry.

Until then, you can listen to all of my podcasts at the following all-important address: http://www.danmanning.com/19.php

#37 Of Human Bondage

William Somerset Maugham

1915

* * * * *

Best book about a club-footed person ever! Seriously, this masterpiece captures the scope of human emotion, delves into the metaphysics while reading like a well-written tortured love story; love the meaning of life, the reason for art, the play of class and religion, the meaning of freedom. I have never read a book this boundless in its ability to move and inform the reader. This is a magnificent literary symphony of thought and emotion.

read more reviews at http://www.danmanning.com/37.php

~ ~ ~

We were civilians.

The war didn't rage really; there was just a steady flow of dead and dismembered soldiers whose names were on the Internet and on the news programs. The soldiers were black, Hispanic, white and Asian. Some of us paid attention and some of us didn't and some of us were devastated. If you didn't know any of the unlucky ones, then they were only statistics.

These statistics were given on the network news between the school shooting and the celebrity scandal stories. The numbers were tallied with somber patriotic video graphics. Maybe it was an American flag waving slowly, or maybe a combat boot-rifle-helmet combo. These graphics looked great on our high-def wide screen televisions. "What a shame," we said, shaking our heads. When the story about the latest breakthrough in the treatment of osteoporosis came on, we changed the channel to VH1 or ESPN and forgot all about the war.

We were civilians.

Some of us didn't think about the war at all.

With no draft, it was a voluntary thing to go to Iraq and get blown up. It was okay that those brave men and women were getting mangled because they were volunteers; no one was forcing them to enlist and reenlist.

If you could get a job and make decent money, there was no reason to go. If you came from a wealthy family, it didn't make any sense to go. And with the advent of yellow-ribbon car magnets, we had a convenient way to ease our conscience and support the troops at the same time.

That was our attitude anyway, and we went on with our lives as if nothing was wrong. Those were fascinating times, and we couldn't fit it into our busy schedules to enlist. We played newer and better video games, we surfed more rich and interactive websites on ever shinier and faster computers. If we didn't like the war, we could always say so on our blogs. We carried fancier, more feature-rich phones. We drove more technologically advanced cars, and while those cars were all built overseas, we didn't care because they had Ipod docks to give us music, GPS to give us direction, and DVD players to give us a break from the kids. Some of those vehicles got decent gas mileage, but most of them did not.

We were civilians.

Some of us drove massive pickup trucks and SUVs with shiny grills, and those things take gas. What a sense of awesome power these behemoths bestowed upon us as we moved between desk and cubicle and home and hearth. These machines carried us back and forth to work so we could pay our crazy mortgages.

We were civilians.

We didn't have time to go fight a war. Reality shows were coming up with more interesting twists. Starlets and singers were in and out of rehab. These were interesting times.

There were new drugs to keep us thin and happy. They put us to sleep at night. They calmed our restless legs and gave us everlasting erections. We had a pill for everything, so we were happy.

We were civilians.

Were other people making sacrifices? Sure, but we were willing to pay that price. Now we had a military base over the precious, sweet, life-giving Middle East oil.

With no draft, the rest of us could take it easy. There were sporting events to watch and alcohol to drink. We were civilians, and we did what our President asked us to do.

We went shopping.

“Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of your beard,” Leviticus 19:27

Read it and weep asswipes! If you cut your hair, you aren't a Christian. Ha ha ha ha ha. The bible says it, so let it be done you heathen bastards! Start growing it out boys and girls, or you will burn in the everlasting fires of Hell. Ha!

DETROIT -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan won a religious liberty lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of a ninth-grader who refused to obey a school’s dress code that required boys to maintain “closely cropped” hairstyles.

Judge Kathleen Macdonald at the Wayne County Circuit Court ruled on Wednesday that Claudius Benson cannot be expelled and will return to the public charter school, Old Redford Academy in Detroit.

Benson, 14, was enrolled in Old Redford Academy for three days when he was suspended on grounds that he was not in compliance with the hair provisions of the school’s dress code.

Benson’s mother said she strictly abides by various Old Testament provisions, including a passage in the book of Leviticus that forbids the cutting of hair: “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of your beard,” Leviticus 19:27

My Fellow Americans (In Traffic)

by

Dan Manning



I see you hurry in trucks and cars
And wonder who you are.
You're on the phone,
You drive alone,
Annoyed at the red lights.
I see you tailgate at breakneck speed
In pickup trucks that have never seen a farm.

I see your careworn sunglassed faces
And sagging flesh gone fat.
You sit on your ass
And imagine the sass
You will give your Corporate Masters
If only you could hit the Powerball.

Your Credit Cards and Mortgages
Move you back and forth along the road;
Day after day to Keep Up, burning your
Dearly bought gasoline.

At Christmas you
Empty your checkbooks for crappy plastic
Toys made by smirking Chinese children armed with
Lead Paint in sweatshops.

Your bumper sticker says you voted
For Bush.
For Gore.
For Kerry.

I see your Jesus Fish when you cut me off.

It's a Jeep Thing, who gives a rat's ass?
Your votes are meaningless. Your cars are foreign.
Just shut up and pay your Taxes.

Perhaps next year you will still have your job,
Or maybe not, I don't really care, just get
Out Of My Lane
If you're going to drive so friggin' Slow.

I'm going to a chili cook off next month, hope nobody brings this recipe:

A pot of burning chilli sparked fears of a biological terror attack in central London.

Firefighters wearing protective breathing apparatus were called to D'Arblay Street, Soho, after reports of noxious smoke filling the air.

Police closed off three roads and evacuated homes following the alert.

Specialist crews broke down the door to the Thai Cottage restaurant at 1900 BST on Monday where they discovered the source - a 9lb pot of chillies.

Nam Prik Pao recipe Heat garlic and shallots in oil and remove to a bowl Place red chillies in the pan with some oil and fry until they go dark in colour. Then set aside Mix shrimp paste with the rest of the ingredients and pound in a mortar and pestle Return the mixture to the heat until it becomes a thick dark coloured paste

The restaurant had been preparing Nam Prik Pao, a red-hot Thai dip which uses extra-hot chillies which are deliberately burnt.

But the smell prompted several members of the public to call the emergency services.

Alpaslan Duven, a Turkish journalist based in the restaurant's building, said: "I was sitting in the office when me and my chief start coughing and I said this was something really dodgy.

"I looked out of the window and saw people rushing and then we heard the sirens."

Supranee Yodmuang, the restaurant supervisor, was above the restaurant when she received a phone call from her boss.

"It was about 4pm when I saw the police who were closing off the roads but I didn't know why.

"My boss rang me and said I had to get out of the building because of a chemical attack."

She added: "Because we're Thai, we're used to the smell of chillies."

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The street was closed off for three hours while we were trying to discover the source of the odour."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7025782.stm

Check out this awesome Nintendo themed scarf. She only made one, otherwise, it would make a great gift.
























Found at http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/30/mario-villains-scarf.html