A friend pointed out that I not only got a picture of the Pope, but the gentleman (And I use that term loosely) accompanying him is none other than our fearless leader, President Bush. Laura Bush is just a few steps behind. You can see the large size here. So that’s pretty cool.
Tag: Politics
Trying to write about something other than baseball
So, I’m trying to think of something I want to write about rather than rehash yesterday’s Orioles game. No one wants to hear about it – O’s fans will just get depressed, and the Rays don’t have any fans. Maybe the players’ mothers. Anyway. So I thought I might write about Quacker of the House Nancy Pelosi advising the President to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies to protest China’s all-around unpleasantness, but then I was reading the article and my eyes started to glaze over. No one cares what advice Nancy Pelosi has for President Bush. She’d be more likely to get a reaction out of a large rock. Then I thought I should say something about IBM’s temporary suspension from getting federal contracts for some horrendous thing they did to EPA that no one will explain. This is huge news, but until we get some more details, it isn’t all that interesting. Or maybe it’s not interesting because my mind is refusing to grasp the massive incompetence or malice necessary to actually be disciplined by the government at all. But really, the most exciting thing about today is that I plan to go meet Charles Stross at the Brickskeller tonight. He’s one of my favorite authors, and he’s in town for something or other. He claims he’s trying to fend off jet-lag, but anyone going to a place with a beer list like this is merely fending off sobriety.
Ok, back to baseball. And politics.
Nats 3, Braves 2 What a heck of a way to break in the new stadium. I don’t think anyone could have scripted a better first game at Nationals Park. Cristian Guzman singled on the first pitch a Nationals player saw in the new park. The Nats scored two runs in their first inning. And then Nats golden boy Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run to win it in the bottom of the ninth. Never mind that the home run was just about the only ball any National hit hard all night, it was still a great win. And, perhaps more surprising, George W. Bush hung out in the announcer’s booth for a few innings after throwing out the first pitch, and actually sounded like a human being. He didn’t talk about terrorism, even when they brought up 9/11. He joked with the announcers, and just generally talked like a baseball fan. I wonder what would have happened (Bear with me here, I know this is a stretch) if he had become MLB Commissioner instead of the President of the US. First, it would save us from Bud Selig, who, despite his recent minor victories in the steroid battle, is still a schmuck and not good for the game. Second, I think many of Bush’s qualities that I hate in a President, I would love in a commissioner. I’d be fine with a preemptive strike into Florida (Or Baltimore) to bring about regime change before another Marlins fire sale. I’d be fine with tax cuts for the richest teams – I think these revenue sharing deals are dumb. if the Yankees and the Red Sox want to have payrolls that are twenty times that of anyone else, let them. The A’s and sometimes the Marlins have proven you don’t need to spend that much to compete, so poor teams shouldn’t be getting handouts. I’d be fine with the commissioner acting as if he were endowed by god with infallibility. The commissioner is supposed to be the final word, and while there are issues on which I disagree with god on how to run a country, I’m pretty sure I’m cool with the way god would run baseball (I’ll bet he’d raise the mound a little bit and abolish Coors Field, for example). As baseball commissioner, Bush wouldn’t be in control of the military, so there would be no waterboarding of Jose Canseco, as much as many people might like to see it. We would still have to deal with the pro-Texas bias, but I think that’s a small price to pay. Too bad no one thought of this about ten years ago.
You want to see something scary?
Go to Google and type in “mccain nude” without the quotes. You’ll see that, as of today, this is the very first hit. You may ask how I know this. No, I was not searching for nude pictures of John McCain, or of anyone else. But someone else may have been, because someone found my site with that Google search. I’m only sixth when you search for “mccain hates bears” without the quotes, but first if you include them. I’m first for “nude mccain hates bears”. Anyway, none of this is really that important, but it’s amusing.
I am literally floored by this stunning news flash
In Obama’s New Message, Some Foes See Old Liberalism – washingtonpost.com
But as Obama heads into the final presidential primaries, Sen. John McCain and other Republicans have already started to brand him a standard-order left-winger, “a down-the-line liberal,” as McCain strategist Charles R. Black Jr. put it, in a long line of Democratic White House hopefuls.
OMG, I am totally in shock. The Washington Post is breaking the staggering, unforeseen, and totally unbelievable news that Barack Obama is a liberal! Tomorrow, they plan to announce that water is wet, the sky is blue, and George W. Bush is a miserable excuse for a President. Does this come as news to anyone? Really? And then the Clinton camp is jumping on the bandwagon and saying he’s too liberal. That’s like the Yankees complaining that the Red Sox spend too much money on player salaries. I can’t speak for all of the Obama supporters, but I can speak for me. I am not supporting Obama because of where he falls on the liberal/conservative spectrum. I often don’t agree with him on policy, especially fiscal policy, because I think he’s too liberal. I support Obama because I like where he is on the reasonable/unreasonable spectrum. I like where he is on the trustworthy/untrustworthy spectrum. I like where he is on the “I can see this person as the leader of my country”/George W. Bush spectrum. I think Obama understands that his policy isn’t always what’s right for America, and that sometimes, you have to listen to the other side and make some major concessions. I think if you can’t concede that there are times when liberal view is the right one, and times when the conservative view is the right one, then you aren’t being honest with yourself. More than either of the other candidates, I think Obama understands this, too. When Obama is President, I believe he will push for policy that I think is a bad idea. He will probably implement some policy that I think is a bad idea. But that’s okay. I think he will be a good President, and I certainly think he will be a better President than Clinton or McCain.
Unfortunate name, interesting product
I’m quite intrigued, as I’m always trying tools that will blunt any attempt by myself to surround myself and read only people who think exactly like I do. I think of all the outraged liberals in ‘04 who thought there was no possible way Bush could win because they didn’t know of anyone who was going to vote for him. Or conservative friends who still think Bush has been the greatest president evar!
I keep hearing about this Microsoft Blews thing, and, as Buckell says, this could be the coolest thing Microsoft has ever done. I’d add “since Windows 3.1” to his statement, but whatever. I have mentioned before that I’d like a nice unbiased news source that leans in the direction of exactly none of the political parties. I’ve tried foreign publications, since they probably lean towards parties I’ve never heard of, and I figure that’s better than ones I have heard of. But foreign news always seems to have this undercurrent of, “Oh, jeez, look what the Americans did now”. Maybe that’s just me – I do have a not-entirely-irrational fear that the entire world laughs at us all the time. Anyway, the one thing that I don’t see anywhere is whether it’s a website or a desktop application. If this is going after Google Reader or some other web-based news aggregator (My Firefox dictionary doesn’t have “aggregator”?), then I think it could be very successful. However, if this is some desktop application (Windows only == fail), then I’m getting interested for nothing. Desktop applications are best suited for things that are too resource-intensive to be done in your browser. Consuming news articles through a desktop application is only a half-step above (shudder) reading a newspaper.
Yay, Nashville!
I wrote about this a little while ago, and now Boing Boing says, Copyfighters beat down Tennessee bill. Well done, Tennessee. People in the comments point out that this is not a total victory – it still requires universities to police their students, which is a dumb idea. But at least it’s no longer a horrible, despicable idea.
Spitzer hates our hookers
Spitzer Linked To Prostitution Ring by Wiretap – washingtonpost.com
New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer’s political future was thrown in doubt yesterday after he was identified as an anonymous client heard on a federal wiretap arranging to pay money and buy train tickets for a high-priced New York prostitute to meet him at a downtown Washington hotel.
Dear Eliot Spitzer: You’re a jerk. You got busted because OUR PROSTITUTES WEREN’T GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU. I hope you’re happy. Love, Washington DC
John McCain hates bears
McCain Sees Pork Where Scientists See Success – washingtonpost.com
“Approach a bear: ‘That bear cub over there claims you are his father, and we need to take your DNA.’ Approach another bear: ‘Two hikers had their food stolen by a bear, and we think it is you. We have to get the DNA.’ The DNA doesn’t fit, you got to acquit, if I might.”
The title of the article on the Post RSS feed is better – “McCain Criticizes Bear Study”. Of course he does! None of the bears even had degrees! Anyway, I think he’s upset that we spent the equivalent of the budget for 48 seconds of the Iraq war on something that didn’t involve shooting at or otherwise endangering Muslims. Was that a cheap shot? Oops. Honestly, I do not understand the planet that John McCain lives on. I don’t know how rational human beings can listen to him and think, “Yeah, okay, President McCain, that would be cool”.
Imus
I can’t believe how much attention this stupidity is getting. _place_holder; Is Imus an idiot for calling the Rutger’s basketball team a bunch of “nappy-headed ho’s?” _place_holder; Definitely. _place_holder; Do I think it is important to rake this guy through the coals and allow both Al Sharpton’s coalition and the conservatives to dwell on the importance of this idiocy and expand it to a matter of national import? _place_holder; No. _place_holder; Imus deserves to be punished by whatever means his company decides (and not by what anyone else says). _place_holder; After that, let it go. _place_holder; Focus on something of real value. _place_holder; Choose Darfur, climate change, the income tax system, or anything that has value. _place_holder; Ignore the comments of a has-been radio host who was trying to drum up ratings and aim higher.