Happy Nos Galan Gaeaf !!

Well, that's what it's called in Welsh, which is the nationality of my Druid persona, so we'll humor him. . I told our HR Department that today's festivities were an affront my Wiccan heritage, but they laughed it off. Pumpkin-carving. Cubicle-decorating. Costumes. All were offensive and insensitive. Except for the catered-in lunch. I was cool with that.

Felicitations !!

The Phabulous Phils, the only professional team to have more than 10,000 losses to their name, are WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS !! . Next year, it's the Texas Rangers' turn.

Indexed

From www.thisisindexed.com, another cool website that has a new post daily and shows that some of the boring high school math class actually sank in.

Penn State 13 - Ohio State 6

Sweetness !!!!

And we won't even talk about my other alma mater, Arizona State, ranked 15th in the nation in preseason, who now is 2-5, and mired in a 5-game losing streak. :-(

Sunday Silliness

Not all taggers are ignorant.

Cuff 'em, Dan-o !!

A 58-year-old woman from the group Code Pink tried to make a citizen's arrest of Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove on Wednesday. You can read about it here. She attempted to cuff him, but of course Security got her, and as seen above, Rove wasn't overly frightened. Still, we can only hope that Code Pink's vision (below) comes true once the elections are over and the filth that is the Republican party is washed out of Washington by the Obama tsunami.

The ultimate dream is below. BTW, Code Pink's website is at http://www.codepink4peace.org/

The Scarlet Letter (by Ashley Todd)

We've already introduced you to Frizz-Ball and Sleaze-Ball here. Now meet Goof-Ball. This is Ashley Todd, a volunteer for the Republican party in Pennsylvania who decided to concoct a phony assault - robbery - mutilation story and blame it all on a made-up six-foot-four, black Obama supporter. You can read MSNBC's report about it here.

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The dittoheads were having a field day with it, until it turned out to be a hoax. Alas for Miss Ashley, making a false report to police is a crime. So her reward for this bit of goofiness (besides the ridicuously-backward "B" she scratched into her own face) was a pair of handcuffs.

and now a word from our sponsor...

Something witty, cute, and apolitical. BION, there are advertisements out there that are a joy to behold. This is one of them.

Undecided Voters

A quote from David Sedaris, one of the wittiest present-day writers, concerning the undecided voters in 2008... "I look at these people and can't quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention? . "To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. 'Can I interest you in the chicken?' she asks. 'Or would you prefer the platter of sh*t with bits of broken glass in it? . "To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked." (courtesy of www.dailykos.com) .

** UPDATE **

The complete David Sedaris article is available here. Many thanks to UndecidedMan (see the comments) for the link!

The Truth Fairy visits John McCain

There are so many excellent political cartoons about McSame and Saracuda; and only two weeks until they are relegated to political limbo.

Trivia Question For The Day

The 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature was announced last week - going to Jean-Marie Gustave LeClezio of France. Since 1901, 10 American authors have won this award. The TQftD : when did an American last win it, and who was the author? Hint : That's her picture above. (No fair looking this one up).

Colin Powell Endorses Obama!

Dear Colin. Thank you very much for the endorsement. It's a little late, and a little weak, but it's an endorsement all the same. Colin, the trouble is - you sold your soul to the devil when you gave that speech at the UN about Saddam and his WMD's, biological weapons, and "yellowcake". All the time knowing the allegations were totally bogus, and you were pushing us into a war under false pretenses. . I suspect you're hoping for some redemption here. Are you dreaming of what it would be like to be Secretary of State in an ethical administration? Remember, the blood of more than 4,000 American soldiers killed-in-Ieaq stains your hands. To say nothing of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. You have a long way to go to reclaim your soul.

It sucks to be in Journalism

Our local newspaper, the Mesa Tribune, announced recently that as of the new year, they will stop putting out a daily newspaper. Instead, it will come out four times a week, and in "long-tabloid format", whatever that is. . In fairness, it has to be said that they will also become a free publication. That's nice, but I get the newspaper primarily for the sports section and the comics. For the news, I rely on Msnbc.com. So the Trib is really going to become irrelevant to me.

For me, it's a philosophical issue. I will probably subscribe to the Arizona Republic. Frankly, their sports and comics are already better than the Trib's anyway.

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But if you happen to have a career in Journalism, life sucks right now, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. And if you happen to work for the Trib, it's going to be an especially depressing Holiday season.

Chess Under The Influence

I can't recall ever playing chess while inebriated. But in my 20's, I played lots of rated games while "under the influence".

I'm not saying all dittoheads are idiots...

...oh, who am I kidding?! Yes, they are. All of them. From the hate-mongering frizzball (above) that McCain had to quickly yank the microphone away from when she started ranting about Obama being an Arab... . ...to the hate-mongering sleazeball (below) that proudly showed off his single-digit IQ this past week in Ohio. Folks, I work with a dittohead who honestly believes Obama is an al-Qaeda operative. And is sure I'll eventually come around to his way of thinking if he just forwards me enough of his hate e-mails.

BTW, the lower photo is used by permission (Really! I asked first.) and was taken by one Brett Marty, who has quite the shutterbug eye. You can see a whole bunch of his campaign-trail photos at www.brettmarty.com/index.html?Ohio.

A word on piracy...

Pirated (naturally) from http://www.xkcd.com/.

Hobnobbing with the Gov'

That would be our most-excellent governor, Janet Napolitano (wearing her spiffy "Tim Nelson for County Attorney" sticker), rubbing elbows with the hottest Democratic campaign manager in Arizona right now (looking dashing in his "Elect Rae Waters" t-shirt), Jason Ludwig.

I had a dream...

Oh, what could've happened in 1972 if the right-wing death squads hadn't assassinated Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy four years earlier.

Guess which one.

Proposition 102 is the anti-gay marriage initiative this year in Arizona. It seeks to amend our state constitution to define marriage as being between "one man and one woman". It is a blatant attempt to prevent same-sex marriages here. The pic above is of my next-door neighbors yard. The pic below is of my backyard neighbor's yard. The pro-102 signs appeared on their lawns the same day. Which is also the same day these signs popped up on a whole bunch of other neighborhood lawns. . My next-door and backyard neighbors both go to the same church. Wanna take a guess which one it is? Hint : their grand poobah gave a televised speech the day before all these signs cropped up.

Personally, I believe any religious denomination that gets involved in politics should lose its tax-exempt status. And BTW, this same gay-hating initiative was on the ballot last time, and Arizona voted it down by something like 56%-44%.

An Affinity for Divinity

If you yearn to return to the days of Odin, Hera, and Astarte (and Hamilcar does), you'll be happy to know that we have a bona fide goddess living among us. Indeed, Taleju (the deity) just jumped into a new body last week, a three-year-old girl from the Shakya caste in Nepal. You can read Msnbc's article on it here. . The article implies Hindus and Buddhists alike worship little Miss Divinity, but that's misleading. Actually, it's just a cult that attracts a hodgepodge of whackos of various religious persuasions, mostly in Nepal. Thankfully, the Tibetian Buddhists, with whom I was involved with briefly in my 20's, have nothing to do with this silliness. Interestingly though, the cult is also encouraged by the Nepalese monarchists and Maoists. . The whole thing is rife with goofiness. The 3-year-old girl (who first had to pass a series of bizarre tests) is taken from her parents to live in a monastery. She's treated like a ...well... goddess until she reaches puberty, at which point Taleju dumps her like damaged goods and takes possession of another body. She gets sent back to her village with a small stipend (from the government), and a gold coin, and a piece of cloth from her royal robe (from the monks). Oh, she also gets a curse - the man who marries her is prophecied to die within six months from coughing up blood. It's not nice to take up with someone spurned by the gods. . The Wikipedia article is here. And you can order a book written by one of these former goddess-girls from Amazon here. It's titled "From Goddess to Mortal", and you can purchase this 152-page book for the low, low price of $58.26. If you read it, you can write the first review at Amazon.

(Sigh). Well, it's nice to know religious ignorance and superstition are not something that Western religions have a monopoly on. BTW, the pics here are not of the present 3-year-old Kumari.

From my family tree...

This is my great, great, great - (insert 160,000 or so "greats" here) - grandmother. Her name was Lucy. She lived in Africa. I am very proud to have her in my family tree. The phrase "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle" doesn't bother me at all. I think she's beautiful.

The Ayatollah McCainey

Well, that's the vision I get anyway. Which is pretty disturbing.

RIP - Nick Reynolds

Nick Reynolds

b. : 27 July 1933

d. : 01 October 2008 .

2008's been a rough year for Kingston Trio fans. John Stewart passed on last 20 January; now news arrives that founding-member Nick Reynolds passed away last week at the age of 75. . For the record, Nick is the "short guy" in any Kingston Trio pic. In addition to playing guitar and singing "third" high harmony, when you hear any bongo drums or congas in a K3 song, that's Nick doing the percussion. . Of the original Trio, only Bob Shane remains now. He lives here in the Phoenix valley, and I got to see him last year in a cameo appearance when the present-day, third-generation Kingston Trio came to Arizona. Dave Guard, the other part of the original K3, died in 1991. . The Kingston Trio will always be my favorite folk group, being most famous for Tom Dooley and M.T.A. Alas, they chose in the 60's to shy away from politically-themed songs. They were in good company in that decision. Popular (at that time) singing groups like The Lettermen, The Association, and The Vogues went down the same road. Ultimately that turned out to be a career-killing dead end.

Debate Tonight!

A quick post, so I can watch the presidential debate tonight. Or parts of it at least. Liz says more than 15 seconds in a row of McCain makes her nauseous. . McCain's in desperation mode. The polls are trending Obama's way, and the Dow Jones dropping 500 points today didn't do him any favors. He needs to score zinger after zinger against Obama tonight. He'd like to cop an "in your face, suckah!" attitude with Barack, but that cost him big-time with independent voters in the last debate. . Anyhoo, here's a couple of takes on last week's Veep debate.

As for Failin' Palin, the rumor at MSNBC.com today is that she's going to appear in an upcoming Saturday Night Live show. Before the elections. Hmm. Do you get the feeling she wants a night off from the trainwreck called the McCain Campaign?

Death Magnetic - Metallica

Album : Death Magnetic (2008)

Artist : Metallica

Genre : Thrash Metal

Overall Rating : ***** ** (out of 10*)

. This Week I'm Listening To... Death Magnetic is Metallica's latest release and will probably earn the laurel of Thrash Metal Album of 2008. Metallica Maniacs are raving over it, calling it their best effort in more than a decade. . What's To Like... 75 minutes of high energy. Some fantastic guitar work by Kirk Hammett. There are some great tracks here : The Day That Never Comes, The Unforgiven III, The Judas Kiss, and Suicide & Redemption. That latter track is an a mind-blowing 10-minute instrumental that really shows what Metallica can do if they want to. . What's Not To Like... The rest of the tracks are standard Metal mishmosh. You could do a mash-up on them and not tell any difference. The lyrics are the usual Metal themes - suicide, betrayal, angst, etc. . The singing is so-so. I guess I shouldn't complain since at least it isn't grunting. The drumming is high-schoolish. . Don't Forget To Take The Thrash Out... My Metal tastes trend towards "applied Metal" such as Folk Metal, Symphonic Metal, and yes, even Polka Metal. For the most part, Thrash Metal to me verges on being garage-band stuff. It's what teenage bands play before they become adept at playing musical instruments, writing coherent songs, and learning to sing. . I have to admit Metallica does an excellent job here. Unfortunately, it's still Thrash Metal. It's kinda like Vladimir Horowitz (who?) playing Chopsticks on the piano. It may be superbly done, but it's still Chopsticks. So we'll give Death Magnetic seven solid stars, recognizing that if this kind of Metal is your thing, you're likely to rate it a lot higher.

Sunny Sunday

First of all, we having positively gorgeous weather this weekend (highs in the mid-80's), including a rare cloudy-all-day Saturday. Second of all, my Redskins went into Philadelphia and plucked the Eagles 23-17. Look out, Dallas and New York. There's a new Beast of the East.

Thirdly, our hometown Arizona Cardinals demolished the previously-unbeaten Buffalo Bills 41-17. We don't talk much about the Cardinals because frankly, there usually is little worth mentioning. But they were out for blood today. Starting with Trent Edwards (above), the Bills' quarterback, whom we sent packing with a concussion. And for the record, there was no foul on the play.

Well pimp my goth

It never ceases to amaze me what the pros over at www.worth1000.com can do with the American Gothic painting.

More Chemistry Humor

From the zanies over at www.toothpastefordinner.com. Where you can even buy a t-shirt with this image/message.

He ran circles around her!

But then, we kinda expected that. Biden repeatedly tied McCain to Dubnutz, while all Sarah could do is evade answering the questions and reciting her memorized lines. Which usually included "by heck" and "main street". In fairness, it has to be said she exceeded expectati0ns. She improved on her cretinous performance in the Katie Couric interview. But Biden was suave, intelligent, well-versed, and obviously the class of the two. BTW, I got to watch this because my racquetball partner, on point #3 of the first game, smashed his head forcibly into the front wall. Which would've been okay, EXCEPT he was wearing safety goggles. The frames of the goggles tore a gash into his scalp, which bled profusely and probably needs stitches. So the racquetball session was over by 5:30.

Veep debate tomorrow!

Doonesbury ran an excellent series on a "Sarah Palin" doll last week. You can access all of them via MSNBC.com or any number of comics websites. Shown below is my favorite. I really should watch Palin-Biden, if only for the entertainment value. But Thursday night is racquetball at the gym for me. And there's playoff baseball to boot. Besides, I think Fox News has already written an article, declaring Palin the winner of the debate.