Monday, June 8, 2009

Open Thread - Babe of the Day

So I thought this would be a good idea: every day me and the Count will showcase a very attractive woman whenever we have either a "The View From My Ass" or "Open Thread" posting.

So to kick it all off, I present to you, the star from the upcoming summer hit, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Megan Fox.

I just don't understand

Apparently today woke, a vet of the Newshounds O/T, came back to the Forum, only to bet banned by Ellen. I don't know why he was banned...hell, I don't know why he was banished to begin with. The comments Ellen wrote on the woke thread started by Sergi, pissed me off, though.

Waaahhhhh,

I'm just so mean because I stood by my moderator with a commenter who has been repeatedly rude and disruptive. How could I?

Somebody quick! Call a Whambulance!!!

But just so you know, I just wrote to Woke and said he could come back if he cuts out the baiting.

Posted by: Ellen on Sun 6.7 8:18pm

Which makes me want to ask: what the hell is Ellen playing at?

Edit From The Count: No Posts from The usual trolls that contain either insults to the mods or the NH regulars will be allowed so don't bother to post them. In fact none of your posts will be allowed anyway.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

NBA Finals Game 2.

After one quarter it's 15-15. Maybe the shittiest quarter in the history of the NBA finals. Not sure that with ET, Jonathan, Yakki, Roachman, and myself starting and Zilla, Ellen, Chrish and Priscilla coming off the bench that we couldn't put on a more entertaining brand of Basketball. Hell just having Ellen and I on the same team would make for better TV than this shit.

Circle The Wagons - The Pagans Are Coming!!

Move over, Sean Hannity. Your worries about Obama and his suspicious references to all those American Muslims are tres passe. Newt Gingrich has topped you with his clarion call about those scary pagans coming to take you away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-ha...
"I am not a citizen of the world. I am a citizen of the United States because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator ... I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history. We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism."
Oh, dear. Where to even begin with this latest Festival Of Foolishness from the serial philanderer? Maybe with the "citizenship start[s] with our creator" malarkey. Unless he was talking about one parent (creator) or more being a citizen, and a party to a live birth happening on U.S. soil, this hardly holds perspiration, let alone water. What is he even trying to say? That babies born in the U.S. should be attended by a properly fundie minister as well as an OB/GYN at birth, so that they can immediately be baptized, thus guaranteeing full citizenship rights? Jewish babies? Sorry - must not count. (Well, maybe half-credit, for the Old Testament.) You, and any Muslim or Hindu or Sikh or agnostic or atheist babies, will have to take an extra exam in kindergarten - maybe even a blood test, to be sure it runs red, white and blue - before you get your provisional green cards and can go on to first grade and learn to read on the taxpayers' dime.

"Surrounded by paganism," eh? What, has Newt been watching a marathon of Charmed re-runs on some cable channel between his Fox News speaking gigs? Or maybe the horoscope in the daily paper is secretly trying to control his brain (or, more accurately, the vestiges thereof)? Fortune cookies are sending him coded messages, perchance?

Flip open any typical phone directory, Newt, or check out any newspaper listing for church services. I can pretty much guarantee you that apart from the odd drumming circle at your local Unitarian Universalist outpost, you're not going to see page upon page of listings for mammoth, threatening pagan observances. Those of us who are out there - and paganism/Wicca/all-things-related are gaining adherents, that is true - are gathering in small groups in living rooms or parks, maybe a couple of times a month at most; or we're observing our rituals in solitude, in the back yard or during a walk along the beach; or, in my case, in my library, where my altar occupies a vintage sewing cabinet and my cast resin wall plaque of Demeter came from Pier One Imports...on sale.

Your typical pagan is no Satanist, no terrorist, nobody who is going to snatch your Bible out of your trembling hands and thwack you over the head with it, much less gun you down like that anti-choice wacko in Kansas. We're on the whole quiet, unassuming people who seem to remember the creed of "do unto others" and "judge not, lest ye be judged" far more than you and your Fundie Friends do.

So, what's up with the scaremongering? This isn't the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and you're not Cotton-bloody-Mather. Do you really think you can frighten people into your selected brand of faith (which just coincidentally jibes with your political platform, if not your actual personal behavior - imagine that!!) by pointing at a whole group of people you don't understand and yelling about how terrifying and dangerous they are, stopping only just legally shy of demanding that there be hangings forthwith?

You may be forgetting that it was, surprisingly enough, during the BUSH administration (a factoid which still blows my mind: I mean, who saw that coming?) that pagan veterans finally won their years'-long quest to allow their military headstones to display the pentacle as a symbol of their officially-, governmentally-recognized faith.

And yet, while Christian denominations far outnumber every phone book listing or announced potluck or jumble sale going...you, Newt Gingrich, are "surrounded by paganism" and trembling in rhetorical fear.

What you are doing is twofold. On the one hand, you are trying to gin up outrage in the fundamentalist "base" within the GOP. Ooh, look here, these scary kinda-Goth-seeming people are going to take away your hymnals and turn you all into vampires when your backs are turned...if you don't vote the way I say.

It's stupid, and baseless, and sadly might actually play with a narrow element of that target audience.

The larger thing you are trying to do, with a larger audience, is cast yourself and the GOP as presently constituted as victims. Oh, woe is us. Look, we lost the House and the Senate and the White House. Now the nasty pagan Democrats are going to run roughshod over us and everybody who is sticking up for you, the ordinary working-class folks who depend on us (even though we stick it to you time and again when we're in power, by giving the ultra-rich and the corporations tax breaks and loopholes; but, if we didn't do that, you could never honestly aspire to achieve the same breaks, now could you?). They're going to destroy your life and your livelihood, and only I and my party stand between you and the Chaotic Void. So step up and vote against your own self-interest, because I say that any other course leads to damnation.

But the third thing you're doing, Newt - thankfully - is what so many of your other RW spinsters are doing in this post-Bush environment in which spin seems to be gaining so little traction.

You continue to expose the bigoted, self-interested, greedy, morally-corrupt, and oh-so-cynical underbelly of what today's GOP has become, with every single utterance.

Rachel Maddow has it pegged to a "T" in her "GOP-in-Exile" segments. Nobody, in the broader picture, is listening to you and your ilk. Nobody gives a shit what you have to say. Nobody feels moved to act on your non-policy policies or your budget proposals so devoid of actual numbers. With every one of these non-reality-based statements you all collectively make - hoping that they will work as well as they did during the past 8 non-reality-based years - you dig your party's hole a little deeper, as one that is out of touch, out of ideas, and out of its depth.

The current issues are the economy. Jobs. Climate change. International stability. The financial sector. The morepart of the electorate gets this, in spades. They're not about to get exercised about "encroaching paganism." That's like pointing to a shoddy paint job when the problem is termites. Excuse me. WAY bigger fish to fry.

Nobody's listening to this kind of crap, Newt. Nobody who matters or whose votes matter, at any rate. Somebody in the know even seems to have said so to Michele Bachmann (pity - she was becoming so reliably entertaining!)

But, please. Keep on keeping on in this vein. Continue addressing yourself to an increasingly marginalized constituency.

Every step you take along this path takes you further into the wilderness. And there couldn't be a better place for the kind of divisive, reactionary mindset you and your adherents represent.

We're Not In The Top 100 Of Most Influential Political Blogs!

Seriously congrats to Newshounds for making 84th on the list. Though that is too low in a just and sane world. What really blows my mind is Maglalang is 7th and Instaputs is 8th. That these blogs are popular is a bad enough that they are influential is just down right criminal.

On a completely different topic new editions of 2 of Ian Fleming's 3 non James Bond books Diamond Smugglers and Thrilling Cities are being released later this year. I suspect I will have to go through Amazon Canada to get them. Diamond Smugglers is pretty blah but Thrilling Cities, a collection of travel logs Fleming wrote for The London Sunday Times and is quite a fun read. Though obviously it is quite dated so I am not sure I would take his advice on where to eat and stay. American publishers worried about Americans reactions to Fleming's fairly blistering view of New York City asked Fleming to write a short ( very short about 7 pages) James Bond story and add it to the American Edition so Fleming wrote James Bond in New York.

The third non Bond Story Fleming wrote is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which he wrote for his son while recuperating from a heart attack. It's never been out of print.

Friday, June 5, 2009

May Nights

Movies, Best: It's a no brainer. Star Trek, a movie franchise thought to be left for dead after the fiasco that was Star Trek Nemisis and the atrocious TV show prequel Star Trek Enterprise rises from the ashes to provide the film to beat this summer at the movies. All the actors excel, notably Chris Pine capturing the swagger and charm of Captain Kirk, Eric Bana as Nero the Romulan villain with an ax to grind against the Federation, Simon Pegg is a gut buster as Montgomery Scott; but the scene stealer is Zackery Quinto as Spock. From the pointy ears right down to the first officer's actions, he scores every scene he's in. But the real credit goes to director J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible 3) for injecting explosive action, humor and heart into a franchise who's best days (The Wrath of Khan, First Contact) seemed long behind them.
*** 1/2 stars our of ****

Up: Let's get to the obvious - the wizards at Pixar are to movies and animation what Radiohead is to rock-and-roll, and music in general: neither have put out a godawful piece of shit; even the weaker works (A Bug's Life, Cars, and Monsters Inc. for Pixar; Amnesiac and Pablo Honey for the Oxford quintet) stand alone as a unique work of art. Does Up stand with works like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and last year's WALL-E? Hard to tell. But Up is one of the funniest - and most poignant works the animation company has made. You can feel the love between Carl (a superb Ed Asner) and his sweetheart Elle even from the time they first met. The opening sequence that takes the lovers from childhood to marriage to Elle's death is a whirlwind of joy and pain and is a study of undying love that has never flamed out. It's one of the most moving scenes in years and is more real than the forced charm tossed out in movies these days (yes, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, i'm talking to you). And the rest of the movie doesn't miss a comic beat.
*** 1/2 stars out of ****

Disappointing, most: X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Talk about a huge let down. What was supposed to be the balls-to-the-wall, sucker-punch kickoff to the summer movie season left me feeling cold and betrayed. Hugh Jackman, back as mutant with the killer claws keeps intact the humor and the badassery status he earned throughout all the X-Men movies, but it's still not enough to overcome a bland script meant to excite, intrigue and tie up all lose ends, which instead confuses (Wolverine and Sabertooth are brothers?!). Wolverine is a clear demonstration of two things: that too much can be a bad thing (see Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix, and High School Musical) and as kickass Logan is, he still needs the rest of the X-Men at his side.
** stars our of ****

Surprise, biggest: Spock returns! No, not Quinto. Lenord Nimoy playing Spock in Star Trek. Confused? Don't be. just sit back and be amazed. Not to be outdone, the Governator returns to the screen as the Terminator?! OK, it was a CG Arnold, but it still was cool to watch him throw Christian Bale around like a rag doll in Terminator Salvation.

Performances, best: The cast of Star Trek. Not a weak performance from any of the leads and supporting actors. Everyone from Chris Pine, to Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike to John Cho (yes, Jon Cho from the Harold and Kumar movies) as Commander Sulu to Winona Ryder (WTF?!) playing Spock's mother, everyone has a chance to shine and everyone is dynamite. Runner-up is also a surprise: Porn queen Sasha Grey as a Manhattan call girl in Steven Soderbergh The Girlfriend Experience. As good as Grey was, it has been reported that the 21 year-old porno actress has plans to keep doing movies and continue to have sex for the camera. Take that, Hannah Montana!


Underrated, highly: Angels and Demons. Lost in the Wolverine, Star Trek and Terminator shuffle is a thrilling, faced-paced sequel to the 2006 blockbuster The DaVinci Code, that never lets up. Director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks, reprising his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon caught a log of flak from the critics last time around: DaVinci was too talkative and too boring and Hank's haircut sucked. This time Hanks ditches the hair-don't and Howard moves at a faster, edgier pace. The plot is a mess (Langdon returns to Rome to stop the Catholic Church's old enemy, the Illuminati, from using the stolen antimatter from blowing Vatican City to Kingdom Come, but the group has infiltrated the walls of the Vatican and everyone is suspect. Huh?), but the action sizzles and the actors are solid, particularly from Ewan McGregor as Father Patrick McKenna. It may be more religious psychobabble, but its still a great time even if Star Trek and Up are sold out at the box office.
*** stars our of ****

How About An Open Thread

So The Contessa likes to say "if you get bored you can clean out the dishwasher" So I asked her tonight what would she say if I ever said "you know I just never got bored so the dishes are still in there" She said I would say "then take them out asshole". :)

Even though Oprah (God) saw fit to have winter last until well into April she has redeemed herself by giving us a glorious May and so far June. With a few days exception it has been in the 60's and 70's since the start of May instead of say 957. But amazingly there are people who want 957 degree weather. Having your shirt stick to you as you struggle to breath and fight the urge to puke appeals to these people. It does not to me. As for the clowns who are complaining it is cold...give me a fucking break.

I still don't know what to make of this David Carradine story. was it a suicide? was it an accident brought on by some sort of odd self sex act?

as the AP article states...

Police Lt. Gen. Worapong Chewprecha told reporters that Carradine was found with a rope "tied around his penis and another rope around his neck."

"The two ropes were tied together," he said. "It is unclear whether he committed suicide or not or he died of suffocation or heart failure due to an orgasm.

"

There's got to be easier and safer ways of pleasure ones self.

Game one of the NBA finals sucked Monkey nards.

At what point to Rush's words become acts of sedition?

Anyway open thread Friday.

Oh P.S. I see from the results of the last poll I am the last "Brunette" man around. :)

Thursday, June 4, 2009

NBA Finals Game 1 Thread

Pau Gasol ponders the answer to what is 3+3?


I say the Lakers win in 6 but I hope I am wrong.

Off Topic...but It's OUR Blog!

EtJtObama is the most obnoxious troll on Newshounds. far mor obnoxious than even Damail...

Abortion is just another divisive issue to keep us bickering over the details, when our country is being destroyed in front our own eyes. This decision is for the mother to make, she knows better than anyone, what kind of life she can or cannot give to a child. Meanwhile we should be concerned about:
>Our eroding rights.
>Our emptied treasury.
>Our Corrupt media.
>Our soldiers, before they are destroyed by our military.
>Our country's murderous ways.
.
To name only a few. Meanwhile consider reminding the pansy-assed Vets, that they have an oath that they are sworn to. Something about protecting us, from the enemy within.

The pot will call the kettle black

It really is becoming too easy.

Is Obama an idiot?

…the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.

We have 57 States and we’re one of the largest Moslem nations in the world…this from the supposed genius known as Barack Obama. Ok, I’ve played along for a while now, but I don’t want to play anymore - I want to know if Obama is just a moron who can read a speech well off the teleprompter. I want him given an IQ test, in public. I want to quiz him, personally, on some of the basic facts of history. I don’t trust this guy to know poop from shinola, anymore.

To be fair, the number of Muslims living in the United States is unknown, as Wikipedia states:

There is no accurate count of the number of Muslims in the United States, as the U.S. Census Bureau does not collect data on religious identification. There is an ongoing debate as to the true size of the Muslim population in the US. Various institutions and organizations have given widely varying estimates about how many Muslims live in the U.S. These estimates have been controversial, with a number of researchers being explicitly critical of the survey methodologies that have led to the higher estimates.[35] Others claim that no scientific count of Muslims in the U.S. has been done, but that the larger figures should be considered accurate.[36] Some journalists have also alleged that the higher numbers have been inflated for political purposes.[37] On the other hand, some Muslim groups blame Islamophobia and the fact that many Muslims identify themselves as Muslims but do not attend mosques for the lower estimates.[38]

The following are a few of these disputed estimates:

* 1.1 million (2001) City University of New York - American Religious Identification Survey [0.5% of national adult population][39]
* 1.6 million (2000) Glenmary Research Center [0.5% of national population][40]
* 1.8 million (2007) 0.6% of population (2007 est.) The World Factbook[41]
* 1.9 million (2001) American Jewish Committee [0.6% of national population][42]
* 2.0 million (2000) Hartford Institute for Religious Research [0.7% of national population][43]
* 2.4 million (2007) Pew Research Center[44][45]
* 4.7 million (2005) Encyclopædia Britannica Book of the Year [1.5% of national population][46]
* 6-7 million (2001) Council on American-Islamic Relations - The Mosque in America: A National Portrait[47]
* 6.7 million (1997) J. Ilyas Ba-Yunus [2.2% of national population][48]
* 7 to 8 million (2008) Newsweek[49]

But onto the hypocrisy at hand: Mark, you're calling Barack Obama an idiot?

This is coming from someone who supported a president who made it a habit of butchering the English language constantly?

3 Easy Payments of $13.33


So I am sitting here watching Ron Popeil's 6 star bullshit infomercial where he and the audience repeats several times... just 3 easy payments of $13.33! Shit what a deal! So I got on the Ronco website...


Six Star+™ 25-Piece Set(Black)
Color: Black
In Stock 39.99 39.99

Shipping and Handling 21.70

1 Six Star+™ 25-Piece Set(Black) FREE
Color: Black
In Stock 0.00 0.00

FREE!!! But Wait There's More!

Shipping and Handling 21.70

Yes if you want the free knives you have to fork over another $22

Grand Total
$83.39

But Wait There's More!

You'll need a knife block. Who the hell buys knives with out the block?

Wooden Knife Block Holder
Product# : KN300100GEN
In Stock
29.95
29.95

TOTAL $29.95
Shipping & Handling 11.90
SUBTOTAL $41.85


Well you get 2 sets so double that. $83.70

So 3 easy payments of $13.33 is really in fact...
$167.09 What a great deal Ron.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

If only some wild animal ate Heidi and Spencer...

Then I wouldn't have to listen to their nonsense. Here they are on NBC's new "reality" TV show "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!" praying with Mrs. Blagojevich.

She got emotional defending his track record as governor and talking about the cost of the scandal on her family, to which Spencer said he would have voted for Blago for president given the chance and called them "the Heidi and Spencer of politics."

Following the Rod Blagojevich defense portion of the show, Heidi and Spencer called over Patti for a joint prayer to Jesus. "I pray that the truth will be revealed.. and they will be delivered from this evil."

Your husband my have done good in the State of Illinois, but the fact remains that he's an out-and-out scumbag who got caught trying to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

More to the point, why in God's name are these two attention whores famous? Why do we keep giving assholes like Heidi and Spencer praise when they deserve our silent contempt?

Total Pageviews