We're 634,925th!

Woo Hoo!

In other news, congrats to Colin and Kathleen. I was honored to be a guest at their beautiful wedding.

Coming soon: A review of a place that is actually hotter than Houston in the middle of summer.

News Flash!

Woody Allen is Neurotic!

We'll be sure to keep track of details in this breaking news story...

Done Deal

I know that many readers of this blog were very concerned about this so I wanted to update you...the JETS have signed their 3 main draft picks in time for camp!!!! Click here for deatils.

Tim and Tommy 4; Kingfish 2

Two got away... Although, according to Tommy, the sharks got 'em. Aside from its proximity to New Orleans, the next best thing about living in Houston is that it is nearby to the Gulf and the great fishing there. We caught these about fourteen miles out near an offshore rig.

Just wondering

What are the thoughts on the current middle east situation? I was laying in bed, not able to sleep, and was could see how if Syria enters the fight and we move to defend Israel it would be very easy for Iran to move into Iraq and link up with the Shittes in an attempt to create a greater Persia and push us out. Maybe this was just 3:00 am rambling but it made sense. Thoughts?

I hate to see such a great guy lose....

Oh wait I love seeing Ralph Reed eat it. I guess being tied up in scandal won't help the repubs this year.

Grasping the tenth dimension...

Via Frinktank,

When I was much younger, I studied physics quite a bit because I was interested in its theoretical side. Specifically, I wanted to understand how the universe worked. Of the many theories devised by physicists seeking to explain the observed universe, string theory is the leading candidate. Unfortunately, string theory also requires some math well beyond anything I was ever able to wrap my head around. More specifically, I never had any luck conceiving dimensions beyond the four that we are able to perceive.

Well, if you've ever wondered just what is meant when scientists are talking about the tenth dimension, then you should check out this video that purports to explain it all. It won't clear up the mathematics at all (and you certainly don't need any math skills to watch it) but it will give you a framework to get a handle on the subject.

Warning: I was only able to get the video to play using Internet Explorer.

Vote Early, Vote Kinky!

From the article:

Smoking an illegal substance, Kinky Friedman heads for the Flying Saucer.

Kinky -- nobody calls him Friedman -- is a comic country singer, mystery novelist and Texas humorist. The illegal substance is a fat, stinky Cuban cigar. The Flying Saucer is the Fort Worth bar where Kinky is about to deliver a speech in his campaign for governor.

But first he removes the cigar from his mouth and reveals the wisdom that his old friend, country icon Willie Nelson, imparted when Kinky began his campaign: "No pedophile jokes till after the election."

Update: Thanks to The American Prospect's Midterm Madness blog for pointing me towards this New Yorker profile of Kinky.

How many bugs are too many bugs?

Via Pharyngula...

This is too many...

Fighting the good fight

What kind of country do we want?

Think a little bit about that question because this is what they want.

Stabbed in the Back; The Reactionary Rights Perpetual Bogeyman

Lots of blogs have linked to this article so, I figured this blog would too.

The article is an incisive rumination on the nature of reactionary movements and their cultivation of the notion that any setback is the result of treasonous actions by liberals. The most prominent examples it cites are the genesis of the phrase in Germany where the reactionaries adopted this idea as an explanation of Germany's loss in WWI and the American post-WWII right wing as their explanation for 'losing' central Europe.

Take some time and read it.

Worst Idea Ever

Forget about the war in the Middle East...

Forget about deciding the world's biggest sporting event with Penalty Kicks...

This is the worst idea ever. If this becomes successful, go ahead and bring on the apocolypse. Life just wouldn't be worth living anyway.

Not just conservatives like Yanni are against soccer

See Yanni? Even some prominent liberal bloggers have a beef with soccer...

The career of Frank Sinatra Jr. has always fascinated me.

OK. Saying it has always fascinated me is an overstatement, but whenever I have had occasion to ponder his career, I have been fascinated.

Here you have a guy who is the son of a man who isone of the most iconic figures of the late twentieth century; a man who is reknowned worldwide even after his death for his distinctive voice; a man who personified the cool charisma that all other celebriteis were inevitably affected by and...

Well, you have his son who, with the same name, has been following this luminary, for years, in the same field.

So, is Frank Sinatra Jr. a novelty act? A pretender riding on his father's coattails?

Not at all. He's just a hardworking guy doing the best he can with what he's got, and we should acknowledege that he does have a lot more than the rest of us, who has fashioned his own show, reconciling himself with his profession and his father's legacy.

Making fun of the pope...

Via Pharyngula, this juxtaposition is pretty amusing...

So what if I AM going to hell?

The degradation of the American polity, as brought to you by the Radical Right

Go ahead and read it...

Anything to add, Yanni?

Soccer v. Baseball

A few posts further down the page, Canon and Yanni engaged in a spirited debate about the popularity of Soccer in the United States. Appropos of that discussion, I point out this article which posits the notion that America's erstwhile national pastime is an intrinsically more appealing diversion than the so-called 'beautiful' game.

Texas High School English Curriculum Reform

Or, since one of the three people who ostensibly write on this blog is a teacher and one of the four people who read it is married to a Texas educator, I thought this article might draw a commment or two...

The next steps in the FireFox v. Internet Explorer battle...

Here's an interesting inteview with one of the developers of Mozilla's Firefox web browser.

Of particular note, he acknowledges that the upcoming update to Internet Explorer is much better than the outgoing version and he promises that the new Firefox release will be a world beyond IE. Well worth the read if you're interested in the ins and outs of a company goes about successfully challenging Microsoft's hegemony.

I'll be canceling my TNR subscription by and by but until then...

I thought people would appreciate this post on their blog about Bush's detail orientated presidency.