Hahaha

This Is a Real News Headline

Backup punter may have stabbed starter

I love it when the real news is more funny than the fake news--just another sign that our country really is going to hell. SOON.

Hey Folks

Hey Folks, sorry there haven't been any new entries this week--it has been a busy one, and I promise something new in the near future.

Evan

Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice

This one stands the test of time

Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin, Rest in Peace

The Five Year War (And Counting)

Five years ago, the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil was in its final stage of preparation, while we went on with our daily lives without a care in the world. By the time September 11th rolled around, a lot more people cared--one such man being our President, George W. Bush. While it is acceptable for U.S. citizens to get complacent, particularly during times of peace, it is inexcusable for our President to feel that way.

In all honesty, I think Bush felt personally responsible for what happened on 9-11. He KNEW that there was more he could have done, and because of this guilt, he completely mis-handled the entire situation by starting his "war on terror." I have the same question today that I had five years ago--How do you fight a war against an idea? In truth, it isn't possible. History has shown us that one cannot kill ideas and dreams. In fact, the death of one terrorist, in my mind, is just as likely to create two "new" terrorists to fill the void.

The facts back this idea up. Since the War on Terror began, there has been an increase in the levels of terrorism throughout the world. An estimated 72,265 lives have been taken, most of whom were Iraqi civilians. That leaves, according to U.S. figures, about 30, 626 people who have been killed as the direct result of terror attacks and the following counter-insurgency actions by the United States and its allies. In short, we are killing almost as many innocent people as the terrorists are, and yet the President continues to make us out to be the heroes of the situation.

The problem is that the United States really was able to wipe out the Taliban regime and Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party in a matter of weeks. This is a problem because it gave the world the impression that the United States had already won the war on terror, when in fact it had barely started. As I have said before, you cannot fight fire with fire when you are dealing with terrorists, because terrorists are not afraid to die, and if you kill one, his son, and his son's best friend are going to take up the reigns themselves. In other words, terrorism is a vicious cycle that cannot be broken via open warfare.

Speaking of vicious cycles, try this one on for size: Terrorists hate the United States because the U.S. puts itself in the position to police the world. They attack the United States because the U.S. presents itself to the world as a model society that believes that everybody should live as they do. So what do you think the terrorists think about our war on terror? To them, it is much of the same--simply another reason to want to commit acts of terrorism, and as I said before, the facts confirm this idea--since this "war" began, the terrorism levels around the world have soared.

So, next week, as we observe the five year anniversary of 9-11, try also to remember that the United States is not always right. In fact, in this case, the United States is completely wrong. If we really want to end terrorism in the world, we need to be more tolerant of all cultures in our world. We need to stop acting as though we have the power to police EVERYBODY. If we are nice to everybody, then nobody will have a reason to terrorize us.

The End of an Era

Andre Agassi's on-court speech to the crowd after the final match of his pro career, a loss to Benjamin Becker in the third round of the U.S. Open on Sunday:

"The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn't say is what it is I have found.

"And over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I've found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed sometimes even in my lowest moments.

"And I've found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could have never reached without you.

"Over the last 21 years, I have found you. And I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life.

"Thank you."

Check This Out

For the first time in my life, I think I have found a music-streaming website that is good enough to give a chance. Upon searching for many artists, most turned up, and had decent to great playlists. Hopefully, it will prove to be a good way to discover new music down the road.

Blogmusik

Agassi

Last night, Andre Agassi gave us yet another tennis match for the ages, and as always, when he hit those impossible shots, the announcers could merely say "Agassi," because that is all the explanation needed.

This match went the distance, despite the fact that Agassi took a 2 set to love lead, having never lost after being up by 2 sets at the US Open in 58 matches. THAT is an absurd fact, but by the time the fifth set rolled around last night, it was looking like that stat was going to end up at 58-1. Then Agassi got his break--his opponent, the formidable Marcos Baghdatis, started cramping up in his legs, and when he took a medical break in the fifth, it allowed Agassi to rest a bit and come up with a better game plan. From that point on, Baghdatis didn't even have a chance, and Agassi went on to win the set 7-5, after being broken in the very first game. THAT is the Agassi we will remember. The Agassi that always fights until the very end, and more often than not somehow pulls off the miracle in the process.

Andre's third round match should be a bit easier, and if he does win it, he will most likely have to face Andy Roddick in the fourth round. Perhaps we will get another match for the ages, or perhaps the torch will finally be passed. Either way, Andre Agassi will be going out on top in my mind.

Legal Free Music Downloads?

According to the NY Times online, Universal, the world's largest record label, is going to start offering free music downloads from its rather extensive back catalogue. The catch? It will take 90 seconds to download each track, no matter what connection speed you have, and during that time, ads will be displayed. That's it, and if this works, I think iTunes and Napster might have some changes in store.

While I think that this is a potentially good idea, I have very mixed feelings concerning how this may affect the music business. Let me start by saying that my opinion on music downloading has changed a lot over the last six years or so. When I was a freshman living in the dorm, I was so excited by the high speed connections and the popularity of Napster-like programs that I downloaded huge quantities of music without paying so much as a dime. At that time, I had no issues with getting music for free, and I still believe that today, to a point. I'm all for being able to try music for free, but I also think that once you find something you like, you should help support that artist by purchasing their albums.

That brings me back to Universal, whose new music-downloading program sounds to me like a good idea, assuming that the artists receive at least some of the money from the ad revenues. SpiralFrog, the company that will be handling the website feels confident that they will make enough money from the ads alone. Robin Kent, the chief executive of SpiralFrog, said, "We are absolutely confident we'’ll be able to make money through ads alone. Notice that he does not mention the artists themselves, though for the time being I'm going to assume that it is an issue thataccidentallyly" slipped his mind.

So there you have it--the music industry may finally be starting to understand how they can use the internet to their advantage. They wasted several years, not to mention millions of dollars trying to fight something that is simply too widespread to fight. If you allow people to download free music according to your terms, people are much more likely to steer clear of more illegal options that could potentially get them in trouble. Perhaps the label execs aren't as stupid as I once thought.

Best card trick in the world

Pretty damn cool

GO DODGERS!!

The Dodgers are entering a crucial time--they start a three game series with the Reds tonight, and starting at the end of next week, they have a four game series against the Mets. In short, they play two of the toughest opponents in the National League in a period of less than two weeks, and the outcome of these series' could very well make or break the Dodgers season.

This year, the Dodgers have been a team all about the streak, particularly since the All-Star break, when they started off something like 1-14, only to turn around and lose only two games in their next 19. Since then, they have fallen back into a somewhat more normal pattern, which is ok when facing lesser opponents. Ok will not cut it against the Reds and the Mets. The Dodgers simply must play their best to win these games, and if they do, they WILL win the west. If they struggle through these games, well, there will still be plenty of hope, but it'll be a much more difficult road. I have faith they can pull it off.

GO DODGERS!!

Even Stevphen- Medical Marijuana

Vintage Daily Show

Who Cares

Based on the attention this story is getting, you would think that there is little else going on in the world (of course, we know this to be untrue). A bunch of scientists gathered in Prague to re-define exactly what constitutes a planet, and under their new rules, our solar system loses one member--Pluto.

This seems to be a highly contested issue, to which I reply, "who cares?" Personally, I didn't care about Pluto when it was a "planet," so why would I care now that it is not a planet? It is still the same frozen orb of rock and gases that it always was--it just has a different classification. Considering that Pluto is actually smaller in size than Earth's moon, I actually found myself wondering how it was ever classified as a planet in the first place.

OK, perhaps I care a little bit.

As it turns out, Pluto should never have been called a planet, even under the now out-dated system. When the planet was first spotted from Earth, it was initially thought that it was considerably larger in size than it actually is. Thus it was called a planet, and so when scientists were finally able to accurately define Pluto's size, it was too late. Until now. Under the new guidelines, scientists can now pretend that the mistake never happened in the first place.

On a side note, I imagine textbook publishers are REALLY happy right now, seeing as how they stand to make a shitload of money off of all the new "updated" textbooks they will be selling to replace the old "outdated" editions.

Well there you have it--Pluto is not a planet. It never really was a planet. Do you care? Probably not. It would seem that a bunch of people do however--I'm just yet to encounter a single one of them.

Daily Show (Threat Down)

CNN, I love you, but you gotta stop this shit. This whole "Target USA" mess sounds like something FOX News would create to prove why us liberals are all going to die because we value our basic rights to privacy and freedom of speech. CNN, I will keep watching, but please stop trying to scare us. There is nothing to be afraid of.

I Saw This One Coming

Well, it took a few days, but somebody has finally released snakes into a movie theater during a screening of "Snakes on a Plane." While I don't personally find such an act to be at all amusing, I am amused that it hasn't happened in more locations that have been reported. To me, this seems like the perfect prank (although one even I would probably not attempt), and so I really expected a whole slew of similar occurrences. Oh well, there is still time.

Anyways, as you may (or may not) have noticed, I have been very quiet lately, after promising to post more often about more topics. Whoops. My bad. Things have been a bit on the hectic side of late--classes started today, and I wasn't registered for any of them until two days ago. That in and of itself was a challenge, since many of the classes I need in order to graduate were already full, and thus I had to register in person, which is never a fun experience to those of us with the nasty habit of putting stuff off until the last minute. Needless to say, there were lots of people trying to talk to one woman, and it took a long time.

I had the same experience when I (attempted to) see my academic advisor, who basically told me to leave unless my needs were immediate. Sadly, they were not, and since there were a million people waiting to talk to the senior advisors, I said "fuck this" and went on my way, but not before wasting a good two hours of my day. Hence, it is now Wednesday, well over a week from my last post, and I still don't really have anything to say, because I have been busy enough to not really follow the news.

On that note, I will take my leave--I have little to do this afternoon, and so within a few hours, I should have ample material to bitch about. I'm sure you can hardly wait.

...

Liquids On A Plane

Snakes on a Plane hasn't even come out yet, and already I have a great idea for the sequel. "Liquids on a Plane," starring Samuel L. Jackson. I mean honestly, what could be more frightening than being attacked by a bunch of common household liquids? Led by their fearless leader, TerrorPaste, him and his army of shampoos and beverages would wreak absolute havoc on screaming, pathetic airplane passengers, who have no place to hide, because they are on a fucking airplane, flying at 30,000 feet.

As I write this, my travel bag across the room has started to edge towards me--I think my deodorant can read my mind, and is out to get me

Of course, Samuel L. would save the day (doesn't he always?), but not before a whole host of innocent men, women and children die horrible deaths at the hands of their own hygiene products. I mean come on, is this really any more absurd than a bunch of fucking snakes on a plane? OK, maybe, but aren't sequels always even more stupid than the films that they follow?

I should note that I intend to see "Snakes on a Plane," merely because it looks so
stupid that I can't help but feel that the trailers are leaving something crucial out,
something that will make the entire premise suddenly make sense.

On a serious note, I am glad that the potential terrorist threat was stopped, though I am concerned about the fact that many are claiming this as a victory for Bush and his whole Homeland Security budget busting terrorism fighting bullshit department. Let me put it this way--Terrorism happens. It sucks, but it happens. I think that terrorism is horrible. However, Americans don't seem to realize that we have it pretty good here in America--Europeans have been dealing with this problem for far longer than we have, and for the most part have had very little success in halting the spread of terrorism. If enough people really want to perform terrorists deeds, than eventually they will succeed. In mind, this is not a victory at all, rather another example of a high-profile news even that makes it look like we are winning the war on terror. (Which of course, we are not, because you cannot wage war on a fucking IDEA)

What Bush and his oil empire buddies don't realize is that the reason terrorists want to attack America is because we are assholes who aren't living up to the American Ideal in any way, shape, or form. We claim to be the defenders of liberty, when in reality we are merely the defenders of our own damn interests. That is why we are at war in Iraq. That is why we support Israel, even though there is no rational reason so assume that they are the good guys. To truly fight terrorism, we first need to get rid of our current system of politics, because it is broken, and it needs to be fixed.

Terrorists hate us because we as a nation are hypocrites--In short, we claim to the tolerant of all beliefs (Hell, it is in our constitution), but we put ourselves in the position to determine what beliefs are worth fighting for, and what beliefs should simply be drowned out, merely because they aren't Christian enough. We need to fix out problems here at home--doing that will go a long way to fixing our problems with the rest of the world, and the logical result of that should mean less terrorism all around.

Mr. President, there is still time to redeem yourself. Don't fuck it up. In the meantime, I'll be on the lookout for killer liquids. They could be anywhere.

Note: In the hours since I went on this rant, I realized that I used the F-word a few too many times, even for me. Thus, you may find a few of them to now be missing--I think my deoderant may have been involved.

I'm Back (And Well Rested)

I have rejoined the online universe, after a blissful week at the beach, where I was so far away from the internet and tv news that I didn't even know about the terrorism ordeal in London until my mom told me about it on the phone the next day (more on that in future posts).

It was particularly nice to get back to Charlotte just in time to catch the Panthers first pre-season game, and to see our first string offense and defense be as dominant as they were. My only worry is that our second string seems to need some work, but hopefully we can simply remain healthy this year, and not have to worry about that.

(By the way, now that the NFL is in full swing, you can expect more posts about the Panthers than most of you probably care to see--if you have a problem with this, oh well. Not my fucking problem)

I'm also thrilled to report that the Dodgers continue to rock the NL West, having won 14 of their last 15 games, and taking over first place, albeit by a mere 1.5 games. You can expect many more posts about the Dodgers in the coming weeks as well.

Anyways, now that I'm about, I intend to expand the "Intent and Purpose" universe a bit, so expect to see an exciting new array of topics in the coming weeks.

Peace out.