God, why do you hate me?

Not only do I pray for our troops to "win," but I also pray that Chris Wallace finally raises enough money to pay for that obstructive cranialcolonectomy surgery he so urgently needs.

He used to bring beautiful women here... eat fine meals, drink fine wine, listen to music... but it always ended with screaming.

If this is true it could finally be the Lovecraft movie fans have been hoping for. "At the Mountains of Madness" set in 1939 directed by Guillermo Del Toro? That is all kinds of sweet.

Only don't tell me you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.

When Thurgood Marshall retired in 1991 he held a short press conference which I was lucky enough to catch. As the conference started Marshall worked his way slowly up to the microphone leaning heavily on a cane like some aging Yoda, ready to impart final wisdom learned during the course of his incredible life. I especially remember one exchange with a reporter because one of the big stories of the day have brought it to mind.

QUESTION (6/28/91): Do you think President Bush has any kind of an obligation to name a minority justice in your place?

MARSHALL: I don't think that that should be a ploy, and I don't think it should be used as an excuse one way or the other.

QUESTION: An excuse for what, Justice?

MARSHALL: Doing wrong. I mean for picking the wrong Negro and saying, "I'm picking him because he is a Negro." I am opposed to that. My dad told me way back that you can't use race. For example, there's no difference between a white snake and black snake; they'll both bite. So I don't want to use race as an excuse.

President George Herbert Walker Bush went on to appoint Clarence Thomas to Marshall's seat. Marshall, who by then had passed, seemed to have predicted what was to come.

One of the things I learned growing up admiring the Civil Rights movement and the giants like Marshall and Martin Luther King is the idea that the content of one's character was the sole arbitrator of one kind of person you ultimately turned out to be. The superficial is just that, the color of one's skin meaningless towards gaging moral character. Conversely: when it comes to snakes they come in all colors and they'll all bite.

If one travelled back to 1991 and watched first hand the Anita Hill/ Clarence Thomas confirmation brouhaha he seems so eager to revisit in his new book one might find oneself confused. Here are two outstanding and, by all accounts, principled African-American professionals both thrust into the spotlight at the same time who shared wildly divergent views of what had taken place between them.

An objective eye on the proceedings might lead one to conclude that the allegations of harassment and the questions of Thomas' fitness to sit on the court for life might be ultimately inconclusive. How could we tell who was telling the truth? Wouldn't it be impossible to judge who was the more credible of the two?

It might if the whole mess hadn't been preceded by Thomas' actual (now largely overshadowed) confirmation hearings in which he lied, obfuscated and completely distanced himself from a lifetime of outspoken fringe conservative views.

Thomas wants to over simplify all of this by claiming his critics opposed him almost entirely because of his views on abortion. This isn't a very realistic take on his part. It wasn't his views on abortion per se that so enraged those of us who watched his confirmation questioning, it was his willingness to openly and brazenly lie about his views on abortion that so angered his detractors. Remember; this was a man who was in law school at the time of the Roe v. Wade ruling who testified under oath during his confirmation hearings that he "cannot recall engaging in discussions on that issue" at the time. Right.

By the time Anita Hill was reluctantly dragged into the spotlight (after being ignored by Democratic Senators I might add) Thomas had already fully demonstrated the true content of his character. He was a man that was willing to do or say anything in order to win a seat on the Supreme Court. He was a man without principles. He was a man unfit to take the place of Thurgood Marshall.

Thomas could do us all a favor and spare us the righteous indignation and all the drudging up of the past. He's lucky he's on the Supreme Court. By any fair estimation he doesn't belong.

They will all suffer for this outrage.

I'm with Jane.

Jabba has no business on Armed Forces radio.

If you shoot him, you'll just make him mad.

This strikes me as the perfect way to address leaders of countries we have a problem with. Remember when we didn't used to go "Ohmygodhesoscary!" every time a foreign leader visited the U.S.?

Kirk. You're still alive, old friend.

Kirk.

MuppetTrekbabies.

(P.S. - Aaron - the pecs are real.)

Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you.

It was just a matter of time before the O.J. raid to recover his memorabilia inspired copycat crimes. I'm disappointed in Jonathan Frakes for this.

Frakes' “crew” known only as “The Away Team” consisted of several grips, cameramen, and one makeup artist from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Frakes' plot centered on hotel patrons and employees not recognizing his "Romulan counterpart" disguise. Donning Picard's Romulan make-up from ST:TNG episode 108: Unification, Frakes stormed into the hotel demanding, among other things, his old uniform, a phaser on display, and a copy of the Playboy with Denise Crosby in it.

Riker, we hardly know thee.

I'm the Horned One. The Devil. Let me give you my card.

If you didn't get a chance to catch the CW network's new show Reaper the pilot is re-running tonight.

It's pretty damn quirky and funny for a network show which is reason enough that it'll probably be cancelled by mid-season so check it out while you can.

A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help.

Am I a masochist because I do business with at least two of the 10 Worst Customer Service Providers?

Verizon would be the top of my personal list. Any sort of billing problem and you find yourself descending into the lowest level of Dante's hell with no escape in sight. I literally spent upwards of 12 hours total trying to work through a problem with them last month. They have the art of not fixing a problem down to a science.

The problem is NOBODY does customer service any more so there aren't a whole lot of alternatives.

If you get a chance read through some of the forums linked above where customers detail complaints. It's pages of pages of similar issues followed by a comment from some "customer" of that service named "Verizonrokz" taking everybody else to task because they're too stupid to understand what a great company they're dealing with and that we're all lucky just to be able to send them our checks every month and use their services. **Cough** PLANT **Cough**

You have a kind of sick desperation in your laugh.

The real danger of the Democratic party refusing to lead-

I was going to write something about the tempest over Ahmadinejad's visit to New York and how the media have bought the administration's push for war hook line and sinker but what would be the point? The Administration can do whatever it wants including a war with Iran because the Democrats will just roll over.

Then I was going to write something about the Treasury Department's report on Social Security which is clearly another attempt by the Boy King to try and kill the program but what would be the point? The Democrats don't have 60 votes in the Senate so clearly Social Security is at the mercy of the Republicans.

In fact it's hard to find anything that I personally think is worth fighting for right now. My squad is the Washington Generals and rooting for them or giving them pointers or expecting them to put points on the board is pointless.

I can't motivate myself to support losers and the things I care about politically are too damn important to watch jackasses go through the motions barely pretending they care.

Screw 'em. I'm going to blog about sports, movies and Star Trek for a while. Sorry CB.