Every 10 or 11,000 years I make a horrible mistake.

This is in response to Dr. Zaius' response to Randal Grave's post on the same subject.

Where do you think big words come from?

Headlines that make more sense without a colon--

"Bush: Inaction on FISA endangers U.S."

That's the thing about salted down possum, it's just as good the second day.

As evidence that high school English teachers have too damn much time on their hands I give you this hillbilly cover of AC DC forwarded to me by one of the smartest guys I know; my buddy Jon.

When joyful, when joyful for highly vocal drunkenness. But joyful is how I hope you'll remember him. Not stuck in a box in a church.

What is it with conservatives and funerals?

First there was the memorial to Paul Wellstone which conservatives cynically morphed what was actually a joyous celebration of a political man into some sort of anti-Republican Nuremburg rally. Al Franken, who led the charge in refuting that nonsense writes about it here.

Then there was the funeral of Coretta Scott King in which conservatives jumped all over the remarks of former President Jimmy Carter regarding wiretapping as somehow disrespectful to President Bush who was sitting behind him.

Now we have the spectacle of Republican Congressmen interrupting a service to recently passed congressman Tom Lantos on the House Floor in order to try and stop the looming contempt vote later in the day on Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten. In other words they had ants in their pants to cover Bush's ass.

Conservatives seem to be either telling others what is or is not the appropriate manner to celebrate the passing of their loved ones, or acting in a manner wholly disrespectful on their own during funeral services. In either case they're obviously completely unclear on the concept. (Whether this disrespect born of willfulness or ignorance seems an unnecessary distinction although I suspect they just ultimately just don't give a rat's ass.)

People are free to celebrate the lives of their loved ones in the manner of which they want and they think appropriate without interruption by bloviating busybodies. Someday we'd hope they'd learn this. I won't be holding my breath for that day.

You're not the man I knew 10 years ago.

Good quality bootleg Indy trailer can be found here.

Official, high-quality trailer will be here later today.

The rational, grown-up part of me thinks about all the crap that went on behind the scenes plus the involvement of George Lucas and doubts. Luckily the twelve year-old boy in me grabs the grown-up me, puts him in a sleeper hold and stands on his prone, incapacitated body while he screams "Indy's back! Indy's back!"

Once the Raider's score kicks in he kicks the grown-up me for being such a douche in the first place.

The trailer has a perfect retro, old-school feel that makes be believe this movie is going to flat-out rock.

Speaking of douches: MSN published a list of the ten sexiest movie kisses this morning. They got a bunch of the greats but left off THE sexiest kiss of all time:

I wish I didn't love ya; maybe I can enjoy life again.

So many cool things flying around the interwebs---

WGA Strike Over. Hooray for the writers! Does this mean American Gladiators will now be going away? Please?

Mike Huckabee says he doesn't want to be Vice President. That makes him and 300 million other Americans that agree with him. Or President for that matter.

Tomorrow is Indiana Jones 4 Trailer Day. I may even call in sick to work. My fourteen year old daughter is as excited as I am (she sent me a camera shot of the poster the minute she saw it in a theater lobby.)

M.A.S.H. set being rebuilt as possible camping site. Cool. How much fun would it be to have a drunken martini party in "the swamp?"

This Sick Astronaut story has an "Apollo 13" vibe to it. All I can see when I read about it is Tom Hanks peering out of a porthole at the moon. So close - yet so far.

Cthulhutech? What a really, really stupid idea. Still - it's nice to know Lovecraft has fans who don't even get his stories. It's called chaos, baby.

Blue Gal enjoys a bowl of Wild Animal Crunch for her morning-after-election breakfast.

I was serenely independent and content before we met! Surely I could always be that way again...

In celebrating black history month yesterday President Bush said we "purge the country of symbols of intolerance."

Silly President. That's what we're doing this November when we vote your party into oblivion.

Even as a dog! And I'll stay till the end. I'll live and I'll die under this rock!

Congratulations to Donna Edwards and Senator Obama. Great wins for both last night.

The consensus of political analysis I've seen shows Senator Clinton would need at least a 60% margin of victory in all the remaining contests to catch Obama in the pledged delegates. Of course that's not including the Supers or Michigan and Florida so there are still a lot of factors still up in the air.

I toodled around the progressive blogs after the returns came in and I have to say that I find the debate between Clinton and Obama supporters that've really consumed most of the forums on the left-side of the blogsphere to be partly amusing but almost entirely annoying.

To begin with this debate has a silly Swiftian air about it with Clinton and Obama supporters at war over which end of the egg to open first. Both Clinton and Obama are establishment candidates with very little policy difference between them. As an example the big argument over the last couple of weeks has been whether Clinton's health care plan has mandates or whether Obama's plan relies to heavily on private insurance. Both plans are comparatively modest to what we need in health care reform. Neither would bring the sea change necessary to truly fix this issue.

But what's really chapping my suspenders is the "I'll take my ball and go home" attitude among some of the Clinton supporters I've read in comments sections on big lefty blogs. Here's the journey I and a lot of progressives had to take already during the course of this election-

Me: "I really like Al Gore. He's the most articulate when it comes to slapping down the excesses of the Bush years. Run, Al run!"

Gore decides not to run.

Supporters of the other candidates: "Get behind somebody else for the good of the party."

Me: "Fine. This Kucinich guy seems to be the most progressive."

Kucinich drops out.

Supporters of the other candidates: "Get behind somebody else for the good of the party."

Me: "Sigh. Well Edwards is right about the war and social justice."

Edwards takes a hike.

Supporters of the other candidates: "Get behind somebody else for the good of the party."

Me: "Grrrrr. At least Obama didn't vote for the war."

Obama starts to sew-up the nomination.

Supporters of the other candidate: "I'll NEVER vote for Obama."

Me: "What the fuck?"

If the rest of us can compromise and compromise until our compromiser is worn out those of you who support Senator Clinton can, at the very least, start to back down of the rhetorical ledge you've talked yourself out onto. The rest of us have absolutely no sympathy.

We might even shout "jump!"

What do they call it when everything intersects?

If you prefer a little deeper take on our current situation and the philisophical underpinnings of same, you might want to take a look at don snabulus' series "The Invisible Civil War Within" in which he takes on Hegelian dialectic, the Trilateral Commission, Straussians and the Tick.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Yesterday I wrote a complicated, intricately sourced counter-argument to don's posts but it was on my Blackberry so ce'st la vie.

I stick my neck out for nobody.

Just to expand on my comment below on Lieberman and McCain.

Your average, run of the mill politician personally ranks the things that are important in their life something like this:

1) Political party

2) Self

3) Major donors

4) Lobbyists

5) Congressional pages

6) Office staff

7) Accountant

8) Personal lawyer

9) Personal trainer

10) Goldfish

11) Mistress

12) Wife and family

...95) Constitution, country, patriotism and all that other nonsense.

Whereas guys like Joe Lieberman and John McCain rank things a little differently:

1) Self

2) Political party

3) Major donors

4) Lobbyists

5) Congressional pages

6) Office staff

7) Accountant

8) Personal lawyer

9) Personal trainer

10) Goldfish

11) Mistress

12) Wife and family

...95) Constitution, country, patriotism and all that other nonsense.

So in the world of professional politics where egomania is a prequisite Lieberman and McCain make the rest of the narcissistic political class look like amateurs.

Of course this colossal self-centeredness is actually taken as political independence or leadership by our chattering classes. When one considers that egomania is also a necessary trait to advancement in journalism it becomes clear as to why the average member of the media would be so enamored of these knuckleheads. They remind them of themselves.

We continually have the narrative forced on us that, because these guys aren't putting their political parties first they must be some sort of messianic moderates that are above politics. Nobody ever stops to notice that constitution, country, patriotism and all that are other nonsense remain at the bottom of their lists.

I'll just take my ego for a walk.

Things that make you spit milk out of your nose when read them.

Dan Gerstein, an architect of Lieberman's re-election campaign two years ago, said McCain and Lieberman share a bond as independent-minded "statesmen" who put their country's interests ahead of their party.

(Weird thing is I wasn't even drinking milk at the time.)

How bout I answer your question with another question; how many abo-digitals do you see modelling?

What's funny about this FOX News interview with President Bush is that you really do get the sense the guy sees himself as some sort of sagacious elder statesman dispensing wisdom to the ignorant masses rather than the guy who struggles with the cap on his toothpaste and almost chokes to death on pretzels. Not all of us spent the first forty years of our lives on a coke binge, Mr. President. Some of us have actually been interested in how the world works since we were children.

"If John (McCain) is the nominee, he has got some convincing to do to convince people that he is a solid conservative, and I'll be glad to help him if he is the nominee," Bush said on "Fox News Sunday.

If McCain's the nominee won't he at that point need to focus on convincing people that he's NOT conservative or crazy? Won't he have to put on his "uniter" costume?

"In his first expansive public discussion of the 2008 election, the president also depicted Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as a political mystery whose muddled foreign policy would have the United States attack an ally and coddle an enemy."

"Muddled?" As in the rational discharge of U.S. influence through diplomatic and military means? Realpolitik? You know; the thing you threw out the window the minute you were sworn in.

Bush brushed off their high-profile disagreements over the years on issues such as taxes and interrogation policies, depicting them as natural for any senator. "The question I asked myself, and I hope voters ask, [is] what are the principles by which this person will be making decisions?"

Actually this is a good point. If the next President will be making decisions using the same bedrock principles President Bush utilized then voters would be cautioned to run screaming in the other direction.

As for conservatives who doubt McCain, he said: "If you're seeking, looking for perfection, you'll never find that person. I certainly wasn't a perfect candidate for a lot of folks."

As bad a candidate as you were you were an even worse President.

Of course President Zoolander finishes his interview with this wonderful Bushian question:

"The American people have got to know that what we did in the past gained information that prevented an attack," he said. "And for those who criticize what we did in the past, I ask them, which attack would they rather have not . . . stopped?"

The one involving the abo-digitals, Mr. President.

I can do anything; I'm the chief of police.

I just watched Jaws again last week so this is even more of a bummer than I usually find the deaths of actors. Schneider is absolutely phenomenal in that film.

I know Schneider had a large body of work that he could be proud of but for me this will always be the moment I'll remember him for...