Best Phillies 2008 Postseason Highlight Video EVAR

Thinking a lot about last year since Harry Kalas passed away this morning, and I stumbled upon this great highlight video - complete with AC/DC soundtrack - of the Phils rolling through the post-season. PWNED.

RIP, HK. That one was for you.

Venn Diagram of the Day

The Shortest State of the Union Commentary You'll Ever See

Yeah. Pretty much.

ht: House of Eratosthenes

After Promising Not To, Obama Appoints Lobbyists to Key Administration Positions

Hey, you stopped paying attention to the campaign once the vote was cast and Obama won, didn't you?

Well don't look now, but it looks like it took less than two weeks for business as usual to return to the White House and to DC. This is "change?"

President Obama promised during his campaign that lobbyists "won't find a job in my White House."

So far, though, at least a dozen former lobbyists have found top jobs in his administration, according to an analysis done by Republican sources and corroborated by Politico.

Oops. Thought you voted for change, huh? The only thing that changed was the D's and R's. Washington, however, has not changed and will not change. Newsflash, I know.

Bet that just fills you up with a steaming cup of HOPE, doesn't it?

Recent Flyers Pwnage

The NHL has gone ahead and uploaded a ton of NHL highlight footage to YouTube. In other words, this is a perfect excuse to post some great Flyers games I've caught this year (and a few great endings from last year's playoff run).

The best Flyers comeback I've seen perhaps ever, and certainly the best third period ever - came just a month ago on December 11, 2008. The Flyers were at home and behind the Hurricanes 5-1 going into the third. That was simply unacceptable.



This is a gem from last year's improbable playoff run against the Capitals. Game 7 in Washington. Regulation ends tied 2-2. Overtime. Winner moves on to the semi-finals. Lupul. Do the math. Saw this in a hotel in Atlanta and nearly jumped out a window.



And in the semis, here is the clinching game in Montreal, when the upstart Flyers stunned the top-seeded Habs on their raucous home ice, 6-4. And RJ Umberger, who has since moved onto the Columbus Blue Jackets, dished out a massive EPIC WIN playoff scoring performance that will go down in the annals of Flyers history as one of the most memorable post-season performances in recent memory. Sweet.



I was at this brawl game versus the hated Penguins on December 11, 2007. In fact, I made a whole post about it. Nothing like an 8-2 stomping of the Pens on home ice when you have free box seats.

Phillies Win World Series

Best. October. EVAR.

VICTORY LAP:

Reflections: Seranading Kim Jong Il

*** What follows is an draft/book review I never got around to finishing. Guess I'll update it someday.
- - -

Christopher Hitchens once joked that it seems as if somebody had given Kim Il-Sung a copy of 1984 and had asked him if they could actually succeed in bringing about the society envisioned in Orwell's masterpiece. Il-Sing would reply, "Well, I don't know, but we sure can give it the old college try, can't we?"

As a minor fanatic about all things North Korea, this little item I found at Powerline (now several days removed), concerning the North Korean internal response to the historic New York Philharmonic concert in North Korea piqued my interest.

According to a press release from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, North Korea has taken actions to try to blunt the diplomatic significance of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's recent visit to Pyongyang.

In an apparent attempt to avoid overemphasizing the significance of the event, DPRK media have afforded relatively modest treatment of the 26 February New York Philharmonic visit.

Per the reported original agreement, Pyongyang broadcast the concert live via television to a limited domestic audience. According to UN data, there are approximately 55 TV sets for every 1,000 North Koreans, totaling an estimated 1.3 million TV sets for the entire country. By comparison, South Koreans own 347 per 1,000, approximately seven times more (BBC, 10 October 2006).

The concert was not broadcast on radio, Pyongyang's most pervasive public communications vehicle. In fact, during the performance Pyongyang radio aired instead two anti-US programs -- an attributed talk entitled "Dangerous US War Strategy Against Korea" and a dialogue entitled "Who Is the Ringleader Intensifying Tension?"

The party daily all but sidelined the performance, relegating the report on the concert to the bottom of page four with a short accompanying article and photo (Rodong Sinmun, 27 February). Furthermore, the picture, although not necessarily small, appeared to be deliberately cropped to remove the United States and North Korean flags -- one on each side of the stage -- the inclusion of which would have been an easy opportunity to suggest the importance the regime places on improving US-DPRK relations.

As could be expected. The North Korean communist regime will not allow the unbroken stream of anti-American government propaganda to cease just because some group of musicians visited the country.

I'm torn on this issue. On the one hand, we want North Korea to come out of the Cold War/Korean War-era mentality it has locked itself into. We want its doors opened to scrutiny, democracy, abundance, scientific and commercial success, and many of the other things that we in the West and in free societies take for granted.

No doubt, fans of this cultural gesture would argue that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and they might indeed be correct on this point.

Then again, we're talking about North Korea here. I'm not sure such altruistic well-wishers who favor such reconciliatory gestures as the proverbial diplomatic carrot are aware of what exactly North Korea is. North Korea is a sworn enemy of the United States.

Their soldiers and much of the general population re perpetually training for all-out war. The only people in North Korea that appreciate or even have a kind word to say about the United States are no longer living in North Korea, for obvious reasons concerning their safety, or have been erased. Schoolchildren are raised to read write, and to worship at the alter of 'The Great Leader' and 'Eternal President' of the DPRK, Kim Il-Sung. There is no choice - either you live a life of servitude and adoration of the government, or you can subsist on rifle butts to the chin and several kernels of corn per day in the concentration camps.

The problem for the Party leadership highlighted by this press release, of course, is that the DPRK oligarchy and Kim Jong-Il know what any kind of genuine good will generated in the collective consciousness of the populace (to the extent that one can exist independently of the Party consciousness) by this trip would mean in the context of the steady diet of propaganda the North Koreans have been fed by the government for five decades.

Allowing such news to continue on a semi-regular basis, or even to reach and sink in with the general population at all not only would mean the end of the Korean Worker's Party, but the end of North Korean society as we've come to understand it. The entire political, economic and cultural framework of the DPRK is based on old-style Stalinist communism. Endless (and I do mean endless) streams of government propaganda coupled with comprehensively restricted and government-controlled media makes the assimilation of information from outside of their system virtually impossible.

The catastrophic collapse of such a meticulously constructed communist dictatorship by the simple introduction of something as simple as the freedom of the press could cause a humanitarian crisis not even rivaled by the wars in the Middle East. I've read several different pieces on the possible collapse of North Korea and it's potential impact on the religion and indeed the world. There would be millions of refugees flooding across the border of China. Heaven help them if they make a break for the de-militarized zone. This is all not even considering the significant loss of life and destruction that would no doubt erupt between the two sides if the system goes bust and the prevailing wound of the Korean War gets torn open again.

I've finished The Aquariums of Pyongyang, a horrifying testimonial from a former inmate at the Yodok prison camp named Kang Chol-Hwan. After moving to North Korea from Japan years after the Korean war (pushed to do so by their grandmother's militant communism and activism), the family spends a short time living a 'normal' life in Pyongyang. Without warning one day, the family is arrested by secret police and is sent off to Yodok for failing to be sufficiently subservient and adoring of the Great Leader, Kim Il-Sung. What follows is ten years of hard labor, squalid living conditions, starvation, disease, torture, brutality, indoctrination, public executions and merciless killing. Somehow, Kang survived and managed to escape the prison state of North Korea through China. He's currently living as a journalist in South Korea.

He was one of the lucky ones. North Korea doesn't take kindly to defectors. According to the AFP, they recently executed a group of people trying to escape to China.

It became apparent after watching videos like the ones linked in this post and piecing together bits of the limited information we can get out of the country that the vast majority of people living across North Korea are starving, dying of disease, politically enslaved and are otherwise suffering in some way. They have no idea they are being lied to, and if they do, they are powerless to do anything about it. They don't know that there is an outside world other than what the Party has been inculcating within the population from its collective birth.

Any attempt to insert 'counter-revolutionary' information into the North Korean system will be distorted, filtered, or more likely never shown at all. When the West (even their brothers across the 38th parallel) makes a reconciliatory gesture, the Korean Worker's Party swings into action and "corrects" the reality, so that the people (save high party officials controlling the information flow) will never know what is happening. It is almost a moot point anyhow - citizens in North Korean society would be unable to safely ask any questions of any government official or even their neighbors without being snitched on. A visit from the regime's secret police, even if they should choose to spare you from a trip to the concentration camps, seems to be enough to keep everything under control.

So what of it?

Do we continue to facilitate by North Korea's isolation, fearing perhaps an irrational and aggressive response from the nation? As evidenced by Kim Jong-Il's behavior in recent years, he remains an unpredictable and dishonest broker in diplomatic affairs, and is openly hostile to the United States. Who knows.

Do we continue to transmit the message that as long as they remain a repressive, Stalinist regime posing a threat to regional stability, they will no be rewarded in any way? They don't seem to be listening, and the international community, predictably, will take no action and will offer tacit support and de facto approval of the regime's activities.

Do we at least make a consistent effort to fight a quiet, subversive cultural war against the DPRK propaganda machine until we can get it to break apart from the inside? We sure as hell will try, but when one factors into account the archaic information and electrical infrastructure in North Korea, this seems less likely. The system hasn't been updated in decades, power outages are nightly, there is no Internet, an outdated phone system, no independent media, no commerce, etc. It is a society stuck in a different time, and has fought bitterly to preserve this antiquated system from another era.

Do we continue on the path we're currently on, which has more or less enabled the status quo to continue unabated? Neither option is particularly palatable. Looks like that's what we've been doing, save some quiet diplomacy. No wonder nothing ever changes.



For more information and some good documentaries about North Korea, check out these recent BlogoVault posts: Welcome to North Korea, and A Spectacle Like None Other.

Mooooving

Moving to a new home in Pennsylvania.

Will resume blogging when settled. After marriage. After move-in. After honeymoon.

When settled.

This is The End, My Only Friend, The End

At this point, it looks like better luck next year, boys. They'll be lucky to take one game the way they're playing (save Richards).

It's just the Pen's year.

Next year should be fun, though.

Olympic Park, Atlanta

FLYERS RALLY TO STUN HABS, ADVANCE TO EASTERN FINALS

I thought the previous headline couldn't be topped in terms of the sheer joy I gathered from typing it.

But last night's header is better still. And the game was one of the best I've seen from the Flyers in recent memory.

Now the Habs can go home, golf, and have nightmares about one man:

RJ Umberger. After having a low-key season with just 13 goals, Umberger roared out of nowhere in this series and scored 8 goals - tallying at least one goal in each game including two last night (on his 26th birthday) along with an assist, and the opening goals in most of the games for the Flyers. That's the stuff of legend.

We got a little Pennsylvania Polka with the Pens comin' up.

LET'S GO FLYERS

Post 1,500: FLYERS WIN GAME 7 IN OVERTIME IN WASHINGTON 3-2

You didn't really have a doubt, did you?

LUPUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At this point, I consider the season a success. I don't expect them to beat Montreal, who is a much deeper and more capable team.

But who knows. Just last night, I thought the Flyers were done. Hell - in the third period of this game I thought they were done.

And they weren't.

UPDATE: Front page of ESPN.com!

Flashback to Junior High: Kitchenware and Candybars

One of my favorite songs off one of my favorite albums by my favorite band of the era.

Flyers Clinch Playoff Spot

My Philadelphia Flyers, against all conventional wisdom, completely PWN3D the NJ Devils 3-0 (a constant thorn in their side) and clinched a playoff spot tonight.

Considering where they were at this time last year - that is, dead last in the NHL - this is about as good as anyone hoped it would be.
LETS GO FLYERS

It was a wild sports night in Philly tonight - the Sixers also continued their remarkable turnaround by clinching theyselves a playoff berth, and Chase Utley went yard twice against Cincinnati in a solid Phillies win, 8-4.

WOOT!

Nice One Tonight, Four in A Row

Thank God Briere is finally scoring - putting Prospal on the line with him has upped his game a lot. I'm literally in danger of dying of a heart attack with every Flyers game for the next week and a half.

The hated Rangers, up only one point after tonight's rally by the Flyers, get PWN3D in front of a near-sold out Madison Square Garden. Few things in life are better.

And what a great photo.

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30), and teammates Sean Avery (16) and Marek Malik
react after Mike Richards scored in overtime on Tuesday night.
Flyers won 2-1. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Geno's - 1, People's Republik of Philadelphia - 0

In a story that illustrates perfectly the left's inability to tolerate free speech and the rights of private business owners, a Kafkaeqsue "Human Relations panel" voted 2-1 that hanging a sign in your business's window that says to speak English when you order is not "discriminatory" or "intimidating."

PC police denied. Chalk one up for the First Amendment and individual rights.

In other news, the Human Rights panel will take up the issue of bumper stickers and their "intimidating messages" to drivers who might not like the messages on the stickers. Psych.

Anonymous v. Scientology II - The Ides of March

** This is cross-posted at the Jawa Report and posted here for historical preservation purposes. **

The Jawa Report brought you limited coverage of the last installment of the war between Anonymous and Scientology. I tried to augment the coverage here at Mein BlogoVault. But now, it is time that you Jawaheads get the real scoop on this whole thing going on around you without your knowledge or concern. Rightly so.

The EPIC WIN of the last round of Scientology protests went off without a hitch, with lulz reaching levels over 9000 shared by all. Well, except the Church of Scientology, who proceeded to file failed lawsuits against various elements of Anonymous.

Today's round, held during the ominous Ides of March and dubbed "Operation Party Hard," was the next salvo from Anonymous in its ongoing battle with the pyramid scheme / cult Church of Scientology. The battle is part of an ongoing struggle known as Project Chanology.


Now, you may be saying to yourself- Hey, Good Lt, the numbers aren't that impressive. A few hundred here, a few hundred there, maybe a worldwide total in the tens of thousands. What's the big deal?

Well, SHUT THE HELL UP THAT'S THE BIG DEAL. (thanks, Ace.)

For those completely unaware of this story (as I expect all sane people with lives to be), a loose-knit coalition of people that frequent sites like the massive repository for all things hilarious, offensive, tasteless, vulgar hilarious, infuriating, tedious, and teh awesome known as Encyclopedia Dramatica (ED), that do...well...see for yourself. This is important to know the flavor of ED, because it allows you to sample the gestalt and flavor of Anonymous and the movement at hand. ED is sort of like if we here at the Jawa Report (and most likely everyone at AoSHQ and the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler), and a sh*tload of anarchists, nihilists, bored people and cynics, had our own Wikipedia in which we informed you about everything in the world and on the Internets.4chan, to make this worldwide event happen. They upload their videos, pictures and reports of the events either as they are happening or shortly after. They snip media coverage and upload that to a page designed to hold all of the videos from all over the world dedicated to this project. There's even an enclave in my hometown of Philadelphia, which was part of the Eastern USA chain of protests:

I will make every effort to keep you all posted as to the progress being made by either side on this clash of titanic forces on the fringes of mainstream culture.

And for those of you who don't care, I don't care.

Just Marking The Occasion...

A Quick and Hearty Tribute to YouTube

I just wanted to take some time out and give a tribute to YouTube.

Everybody knows that it is perhaps the coolest, most revolutionary technological development in recent memory, matched perhaps by the advent of the Internet itself.

Again, everyone who is familiar with what YouTube is knows this already. What sparked the sudden introspection was viewing my YouTube profile for the first time in a long while and realizing that I've watched 1,421 videos since I joined about one year ago. That's a lot of time mining the vast troves of YouTube video obscurity. I've come to the conclusion that I can find nearly anything that I might want, and even some things that I didn't.

A few examples.

Let's just say, I wanted a prime cut of Ron Hextall's first career goal. Famous in the hearts of Flyers fans, Philadelphia and perhaps in NHL circles and the sports world, but not to the world at large. YouTube's got it.



How about...some pirated video of North Korean work camp, which is leaked from a country that has no Internet, antique phone lines, few real connections with the outside world, a totalitarian communist dictatorship, and an oppressive atmosphere for a stray video camera. A place where information is not supposed to escape from. YouTube's got it, with a purported translation in the comments.



John McCain farting and laughing at an obviously confused Hillary Clinton? Heh.



How about something historical? Say, Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" stemwinder?



How about the wall itself coming down?



George Gershwin playing I Got Rhythm?



The laughtastic Futurama clip: Global Warming (or None Like It Hot!):



And...this guy:



You get the idea. I just wanted to accurately convey the notion that you can find almost anything if you dig enough. You used to be able to get even more before the crackdowns on pirated content began. The underbelly of YouTube is a terrifying and mysterious place where only the bravest and most bored souls travel.

But it's there if you seek it out. And I have. Oh, yes.

Nevertheless, YouTube has replace television or me in many ways. I watch what I want, when I want, at no cost. Any time, any where. It is truly the giant video Borg of our time.

But you already knew that.

So carry on, brave children.

Keep digging for those gems.

Random Dude Belts Out Rach 3 Cadenza

It is an interesting thing to appreciate - the fact that some where, at some time, some random dude could possibly be playing this and pwning the world.

A Spectacle Like None Other

I might as well post this while I’m on a spell of reluctant fascination with North Korea. These mass games things.

I will tell you true. Sure, it’s mindless worship of the personality cult of the idiotic “Dear Leader” and his cronies. Sure, the time they spend doing things like this could probably be spent doing other things that might help the population. Sure, North Korea is an ashtray of a tyrannical prison state that routinely engages in the most egregious violations of civil and human rights in the world by far.

Forget that these displays are nothing but reflections of the absolute conformity and rigidity imposed upon the helpless population at the hands of their disgusting communist dictatorship. Forget that these ‘games,’ which the children prepare for six hours per day, six days per week, for months on end, every year, all the time, are performed because the participants are forced to do so.

Forget all that, difficult as it may be, for just a moment. Take one step back, and just marvel at the sheer spectacle of this bizarre cultural tick. The aesthetic beauty of exacting execution and performance. Everything you see is people. Thousands and thousands of them, all performing in perfect synchronization and pulsating as one gigantic and colorful organism. It’s unbelievable.

And be advised that the video is dotted with periodic shots of the Kim Jong Il looking like an dumbass and his commie henchmen being all totalitarian-communisty.



And check out the kids. The kids...



It's so well done (be it a bit hokey) that it's a bit frightening and unnerving.

(shiver)

OK. Now that you’ve done all that, you can go back to being nauseated at what North Korea represents, the threat they pose to regional and world security, and everything else we’ve come to know and hate about the Hermit Kingdom.

Why do I get the feeling that this is what an Obama presidency would look like?

Cross-posted at the Jawa Report.

Welcome to North Korea

I watched this outstanding documentary last night. Extremely creepy, ominous and required viewing for all adherents of Marxist philosophy. In fact, later in the documentary, you can see a picture of Karl Marx hanging on a government building along with the "Great Leader" Kim Il Sung. Under their eternal gaze, the citizens go through their daily six-hour drills and rehearsals for their bizarre mass-worship/celebrations.


The second is a National Geographic documentary called "Undercover in North Korea." Equally as terrifying, it documents a team's visit to NorK with a doctor who's going there to help thousands of patients blind from cataracts. They also interview a prison cmp worker who defected to the south who lays out, in vivid and horrifying detail, some of the things he and his fellow thugs used to do to prisoners in the camps there.


Each is lengthy (about an hour), but both are totally worth your time.

Cross-posted at the Jawa Report.

Anonymous v. Scientology: The Epic Struggle Continues...

You may or may not have noticed a seemingly innocuous new item that bubbled up through the Intrawebs over the past few weeks. I posted about it here previously.

Now, you may think that these are just a bunch of Internet nerds. You may think they're a bunch of emo or goth kids with no lives and too much time on their hands.

You may be right. But it is more likely that you're wrong, my friends. I think we may have finally found the antidote to the idiocy that is Scientology.

What started out as a half-joking idea on a few message boards has erupted into a worldwide battle between the forces of Anonymous and the Church of Scientology. The young struggle is characterized by swarms of lawyers, protests in cities all over the world, arrests, threats, private detectives, lulz, EPIC WINS, and an ongoing feud that promises to be one of the more interesting and frankly hilarious online-wars-gone-real-life in memory.

Legions of Anonymous foot soldiers on several continents have been taking to the streets with whatever garb they can muster. They carry fliers, bullhorns, gas masks, cameras, and the hopes and dreams of rational people everywhere. The Church of Scientology, thrown back on their heels by the worldwide nature of the Anonymous operation (codenamed 'Project Chanology'), has been desperately doing what they're used to doing when someone poses a serious "threat" to their ongoing-ponzy scheme- sicking the lawyers, sending the cease and desist letters, infiltrating the protests with undercover private investigators and cult members to get their personal information, dubbing Anonymous a terrorist organization, etc. The usual.

Not sure what to make of all of this? Wondering why the relative peace and calm of the world was rather abruptly upended? Just trying to make sense of it all? Not trying to make sense of any of it?

Make sure you visit the massive wiki pages at Encyclopedia Dramatica for the latest developments. They've even got a mammoth protest page set up as a hub for pics, videos, endzone dances, victory laps, photoshops, protest organization and other goodies for the curious passer by. Here's a ginormous collection of protest vids.

You may remember the Heaven Nose versus Trainwrecks saga, in which one blog succeeded in slaying (eliminating) another. The war of Anonymous v. Scientology is another thing altogether. And it's even funnier.

John Petrucci Will End Your Life, Noob

EPIC LULZ in these videos.

You are not worthy:


And this one bears an uncanny resemblance to my dreams (and sometimes reality) as a teenage music nerd:

Biofuels Will Increase Global Warming?

Assuming you buy into the religion of anthropogenic global warming, this hilariously ironic little tidbit is something you might want to take note of. According to a study, you environmentalist fundamentalists are the ones actually exacerbating the problem of "man-made" global warming by plowing up land to plant crops for inefficient, expensive, unreliable "biofuels."

Maybe we should throw these environmentally conscious do-gooders in jail, as one radical global warming disciple in Canada recently suggested.

Or maybe, before they do irreparable harm to our environment, the worshipers at the alter of Gaia could just take a step back, dry their powder and wait for the evidence proving man is actually causing historically cyclical climate change to come in.

And, of course, there's always global cooling to worry about.

Everything old is new again.

Jawa Report Radio

I was co-host of Jawa Report Radio along with Vinnie, Rusty, Vicki, and Bluto tonight. If you want to visit our radio show homepage, it's here.

I've also embedded an audio player all the way at the bottom of the sidebar for your convenience. Just click the Play icon to get rolling with Jawa Radio's premier broadcast!

How do I...Where does it...uh...WTF

On McCain Derangement Syndrome

UPDATE (2-3-08): If you sort through the comments for this post, you'll see what I'm talking about when I say McCain Derangement Syndrome. I'm routinely called out for being "a McCain supporter," when I rather clearly stated several times in the comments and in the original post that I am a Romney supporter reluctantly acknowledging the political reality unfolding. Apparently, McCain Derangement Syndrome makes it hard for you to read English.

Deep breathes, guys. Count to ten and exhale. There you go.

<- - - - -Original Post below - - - - ->

The no doubt legions of folks bristling at the idea of a John McCain nomination, the thought often seems too much to bear. Proclamations of surrender, spite, paranoia and (as much as I hate to say it) borderline hate for the man are a routine occurrence on many large dextrosphere blogs.

McCain Derangement Syndrome is a good name for it. The rhetoric and invective needs to come down a notch. You can be angry without acting like some BDS-addled fringe moonbat. I'm not going to single out commentors or posters, because I'm not trying to get into a pointless pissing match with others on the evils of John McCain and the sudden awesomeness of Hillary Clinton.

Chill, my brothers and sisters.

I think many in the dextrosphere should take a few deep breaths and calm down. Calling McCain a traitor, a liar, a liberal, and any number of real or perceived epithets does nothing to change the record, or the fact that Clinton and Obama are simply not suitable for the White House in any way. McCain is light years better than either of them, and we all know it.

I'm taking the "best option" at this point. Hillary is simply not an acceptable option to me. Clinton, a member of the most corrupt and scandal-ridden administration in recent memory, is a lying, socialist criminal. Clinton's cronies are lying, socialist criminals and fools. Obama, while the most charming of the candidates, is way too liberal under all that hype and glitter. He was actually ranked the most liberal member of the Senate last year.

Neither are options.

So what is my option? Romney?

As much as I like the guy and think he's actually the most qualified and credentialed man left in the race, it just doesn't look like he's going to be able to pull it out. I want him to, but I'm being a realist.

As such, we're left with McCain. For the conservatives about to jump from window ledges, McCain has something like an 80% lifetime rating from the ACU. Rusty's done the heavy lifting on this point.

It's not even a choice. McCain is the only way complete and destructive socialism is going to be held somewhat at bay while the party regroups. Ann Coulter is wrong. I can understand the sentiments perfectly. I can not stomach throwing the country into the hands of a bunch of leftist wingut crackpots.

I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said already. Count me in the hold your nose category.

One Minute Chess Match Sets New Standard for TEH AWESOME

PWND!

BlogoVault Poetry Jam (with Updated Reprise!)

***Exclusive Mein BlogVault content, culled from one of my music and literary notebooks from college. The name of the author shall remain anonymous, but he was an old fraternity brother of mine.

Yuban

Dear Yuban
It's 1:26 am and you're my sole caretaker.
Who art thou, Yuban? Why do you
stand by my side?
You are cheap, Yuban.
You are unwanted.
By your existence we suffer, Yuban.
You are schwag coffee.

-J.S., 2001

UPDATE: After conversing with the author by email, I was indulged with an impromptu reprise of the above poem. Thus, the chain of the saga of Yuban remains unbroken even seven years after its inception:

Yuban (a reprise)

To Yuban it may concern:

I have finally found another.

so we're through.

If you treat someone like dirt they'll stick to you like mud.

And I was stuck on you.

Stuck on you because I had to...I thought there was no one else.

In the darkness of the night,

you kept my soul awake

-- sole caretaker...soul caretaker --

But now that you have run from me

I'm finally free to say goodbye

Goodbye schwag coffee,

I have found another.

Another soul sucking cup of dirt,

though it taste more like volcanic ash

I always thought she was too superficial for me

But now that Starbux stock has dropped below $20/share

She's down to earth enough for me...for me to use

I'll use her and throw her away at $40/share

The way you used me Yuban

Paying it forward with bad karma

one bad taste in the mouth after another

because SBUX frees my soul and my bowel

a symbioses of convenience and temporary relief

forever freed from you, YUBAN, schwag coffee

- J.S. 2008

Today's Proverb

Via LC DJ Allyn:

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous “yes.” The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things–your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions–things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else–the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. “Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.

The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers.”

Rusty Gets TEH PUBLICITY!

Head jawa and co-blogger Rusty Shackleford gets a mention in this Australian article, played up as a 'cyber vigilante.'

One online counter-insurgent who has successfully tracked extremist sites for the past four years told NEWS.com.au like many Western forums the extremist discussions include sharing secrets on how to pirate anything from operating systems to mobile ring-tones.

But the vigilante – a US resident who wishes to be identified only as “Rusty” – said the most common software discussed were image, sound and video editing applications – the sort used to produce propaganda with high production values.

“The quality of the videos and the propaganda is just so much better than it was two years ago,” Rusty said. “They’re savvy - cyber-savvy.”

LOL!

Great Fark Photoshop Thread

God, I love these things.

The original:

My favorite, among a lot of good candidates:

Unchained Hartnell

Flyers take sole possession of first place in the Atlantic with a close match-up against the LA Kings.

Scotty "Best January Ever" Hartnell delivered a crushing, sliding goal with 28 seconds left in overtime to give the Flyers the 3-2 win (pic below).

(photo: Ron Cortes, Phila. Inq)

Outstanding. Give 'em their props, commentariat, and don't forget to tack tonight's overtime thriller on to the end of this:

A short word of praise for the Philadelphia Flyers as the NHL schedule resumes again tonight after the All-Star break. No single team did as much to turn around the fortunes of their franchise in the past 12 months as the Flyers did. A year ago, they’d managed just 27 points in 47 games up to this point in the season and were running away with last place in the overall NHL standings. A well-orchestrated trading deadline fire sale, a smart pre-emptive strike before the official free-agent signing period began and then one smart buy on the open market helped them turn it around so dramatically that they had accumulated 59 points in 48 games heading into tonight’s meeting with the Los Angeles Kings – or three more than they accumulated all of last season. The Flyers on an 11-2-1 run, look as if they’re going to make the playoffs; and when they get there, who knows what might happen? It didn’t hurt their cause that a few important pieces of the rebuilding puzzle (Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, R.J Umberger) were already in place before general manager Paul Holmgren began his work, but the Flyers provide a template for how quickly change can happen in the post-lockout, salary-capped NHL – just in case anybody else out there might be looking for a blueprint.

PWN3D!!lol!!1

Ghost Town Being Swallowed by Dunes

Some travelers visited Kolmanskop, a ghost town in Nambia, that was once a hub for diamond fever in the first part of the twentieth century. As the diamond craze died following World War I, the population of the town slowly dwindled until it was abandoned in the 1950's.

Since then, Kolmanskop has wasted away, being ever so slowly swallowed up in the shifting sands of the desert dunes.

Eerie pictures and video.

Hilarious: Eric Lindros vs. Matt Barnaby

Barnaby no doubt was asking for it. He's one of an elite group of NHL vets that has spent pretty much every second of his career begging to have his ass kicked.

It's also one of the few times I can remember that I wasn't disappointed in Eric Lindros.