LISTENING TO MOVIES

Blackfive found a site where you can listen to the movies from the site-host's personal collection. Matt's listening to Goodfellas. It sounds like a neat idea, but they don't have Pricess Bride :-(

YES, CONCEALED CARRY IS A GOOD IDEA

Jed, over at Boots & Sabers, has an excellent post on why all states should have concealed carry. It's very short and to the point. So short, in fact, that I can't excerpt it or give it an intriguing promo. Tell ya what. Click the link, read it, and if you find that afterwards you don't have an urge to quote the title of my post, drop me a line, and I'll e-mail you back the 10 seconds of your life you just wasted.

But if I'm right, leave a comment at B & S, thanking Jed for saying something that needed to be said.

CASHING OUT

My dad liked Johnny Cash, and had a couple of his albums (the 12" vinyl kind), which I heard as a lad. So I kinda learned to like him, too. Something about the way his voice just... resonated. It's hard to explain.

I never spent a lot of time in my adult life listening to Cash, but I never even considered turning him off or changing the station when he came on. He was obviously good, and I respect obvious talent. I also know that he had a very good wife, and had been through some very tough times.

He's the kind of guy I'd just like to stand up and salute for everything he's done. He had that kind of class.

After surfing around for the last few days, I finally found an obituary that does him justice at American Realpolitik. Read it yourself and see if you agree with me.

THE NEW BLOG SHOWCASE

Way back in June, when I was just an Insignificant Microbe with a crappy Blogspot Blog and a dream, I entered the Truth Laid Bear's New Blog Showcase, hoping to get some attention and launch me on my way to becoming the next IMAO, or USS Clueless, or Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, or PhotoDude, or Cold Fury, or someone cool like that. I didn't win that week, but my hit counter broke 10 for the first time ever, and I was pretty darn thrilled.

I've evolved since then, but I still remember my roots. So even though this is done partly to fulfill my Alliance obligation, the biggest part is to help deserving new bloggers, just as I was helped.

I found three entries that I really liked:

Argghhh! has this beautiful entry on a 9-11 hero that I've never heard of. I'm now officially pissed off at the media for spending the last two years NOT MENTIONING HIS NAME IN MY PRESENCE! (Friday, September 12, "Mudville Gazette: 911 Remembered: Rick Rescorla was a soldier" if PAB)

Blogfonte claims, in part, to be about "bad poetry". He's so full of shit. This poem, "George Galloway", not only has the occasional rhyme, it also manages to castagate the idiot/commie/peacenik left with great cruelty, while still holding onto that lofty level of abstraction that is a poem's proper venue. Nice work. (Thursday, Sept. 11, if PAB)

Machine in the Ghost understands the heart of the American Spirit, and proves it in his entry, "If Americans Ran the Afterlife" When I die, that's where I want to go.

FOR THE LADIES

I'm allowed to laugh at this, because my beloved wife forwarded it to me:

******************

 With the high rate of attacks on women in secluded parking lots,
 especially during evening hours, the Minneapolis City Council has
 established a "Women-Only" parking lot at the Mall of America.
 
 Even the parking lot attendants are exclusively female to create a
 comfortable and safe environment for patrons.  Below is the first
 picture available of the first women-only parking lot in Minnesota.

A DIFFERENT SENSE OF 9-11

Heather has a post on an aspect of the lingering effects on 9-11 that I'd never considered before:

(Thursday, September 11, if PAB)

****************

A few days after the eleventh, maybe the thirteenth or the fourteenth, I was driving across town for lunch. It was another beautiful September day. My car windows were open, and I thought to myself, "Someone has used far too much fertilizer on their lawn."

But it wasn't fertilizer. The wind was coming from the east, and it brought the smell of the remains of the twin towers burning. And though that was the first time, it was far from the last.

My birthday is November 15th. On November 15th, 2001, I went to dinner with friends. We had dinner at a favorite place of mine, Charlie Brown's, in Upper Montclair. As we left the restaurant, Brenda sniffed the air and asked, "What's that awful smell?"

It was the World Trade Center fires, still burning, two months later. Montclair is twelve miles west of New York City. Every time the wind was in the east during the months following September 11th, you could smell the towers burning.

****************

Since smell is one of the strongest triggers for human emotion, I can't imagine anything more horriffic.

WHY DOES THIS MAN NOT HAVE A BLOG?

In the comments to Frank J's excellent 9-11 post, I found this poem by Jon:

**************

To those who brought these events to pass,
we will bring to pass that which you least want -

We will bring freedom to every person,
in every nation, in every corner of this Earth.

Your daughters will have Barbie(r) Dolls and Levis(r).
Your sons will be educated and help free others.

From your seed, we will grow an olive branch.
Your actions have killed thousands, ours will free billions.

*************

Jon, get your ass to Blogger NOW, and get youself a free soapbox on Blogspot. After a few weeks, when you're sick of broken permalinks, then get a domain and Movable Type. Susie can help you with the move (or hand you to someone who can).

STARSHIP TROOPERS, HERE WE COME

Via the Carnival, I found this intriguing post at WeckUpToThees! speculating on possible future avenues of development for personal battlefield technology. (9-5 if PAB)

Made me go hmmm...

REAL MEN DON'T GET DIVORCED

Via the Carnival, I've discovered that Aardvark is contemptuous of Lance Armstrong's decision to get divorced after five years (September 4, if permalinks are blogspotted). I tend to agree. "We're just not as happy together as we used to be" is a bullshit excuse. Aardvark goes on to describe the risks and rewards of a truly committed marriage. If you've ever been angry with your spouse for longer than 24 hours, you should probably read this.

F'N EBAY SPOOFERS

I am forever getting spam that tells me that there's trouble with me eBay account, and I need to go to "this web site" to re-enter my credit card number and other vital personal information.

Yeah? Blow me.

But this one was a really vicious variant:

****************

Below is the result of your feedback form.  It was submitted by
 (Suspended@ebay.com) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 at 13:04:09
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

: Dear eBay Member,

We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended due
to concerns we have for the safety and integrity of the eBay community.

You have been indefinitely suspended from eBay because our records indicate your account was involved in activities that violate our policy governing seller non-performance.

Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are
prohibited from using eBay in any way. This includes the registering of a new
account.

Please note that this suspension does not relieve you of your
agreed-upon obligation to pay any fees you may owe to eBay.
If you feel this is in error please go Click <A HREF="http://ebaynotice.8m.com">Here</A> To Verify Your Account -

Regards,

Safeharbor Department,
eBay Inc

******************

This actually sounds fairly plausable, and might fool some people who've recently dealt with problem customers or sellers.

Of course, considering my feedback rating, my reaction was:

 Blow me.

TRICK ON DICK

What happened to Richard Nixon after he died? Quibbles & Bits has the answer, and now I can't get that waitress transformation image out of my head.

Drink alert in effect.

BAD OL' SPAM

If I were to write about what to do about spam, it'd be a pretty short post.

"Just delete it."

American Digest, however, goes on at some length on the topic and, as is usually the case over there, bigger is better.

Put the beverage down & go read.

Or at least go look at the pictures.

CRITICIZE THIS

Lynn reflects, with her usual insightful d minorness, on how silly it is reject all criticism of your group per se, instead of simply responding to a specific criticism. A very good point, and a nice antidote for the MANY unfocussed arguments flying around the news and the blogosphere every day.

Me, I just use comedy.

"Republicans are Nazis!"

"Fine. Then Democrats are the French. My stereotype can beat up your stereotype."

Don't respond, just mock. It gets 'em all kinds of pissed off.

And isn't that what REALLY matters? 

STUPID REPORTER TRICKS

Right Wing News' mockery of CNN's cowardly & biased Iraq reporting is spot on.

Drink alert in effect.

GANGS OF NEW YORK

Owen saw Gangs of New York recently and was unimpressed. I saw it a few weeks ago and I have to concur. It was too long, the dialogue was crap, and the squalid theme of human misery was depressing. However, I did like the swaggering, bouyant confidence most of the characters displayed. A refreshing change from the over-emotionalized indecision and "being human" that passes for characterization in a lot of movies.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Tomorrow at 6:06am, I turn 37. I tried to think of something special about this age, but could only come up with 2 things:

1) 37 is a prime number

2) 37 is year during which, at least theoretically, I could have my first legitimate grandchild (assuming I got married on my 18th birthday, immediately impregnated my wife, and the resulting child did similarly).

Too bad I don't live in West Virginia. I could've done this 8 years ago.

Anyway, suggested presents from the blogosphere include:

1) brief congratulatory comments

2) gratuitous linkage

3) links to pictures of large quantities of money.

Jen's having a birthday tomorrow, too (I'm not sure which one). She likes pictures of scantily clad hunky firemen.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

You know there's something really wrong if you ever find yourself having the following thought:

"I seem to remember having pants last night"