Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Dustin Lance Black and Us


So we also got a picture with Dustin Lance Black. He won the Oscar for writing "Milk" two years ago. He was col. He presented with the star of "White Collar" and they presented 3 awards to young people who were amazing. One started a homeless drop in center in Baltimore after getting kicked of her house because she was gay. One boy is working with other runaways in DC. And one young lady is working in the Bronx to get schoolarships for troubled youth. These kids were inspirational - and all were helped by the Trevor Project hotline (a suicide call line for in trouble youth - started for Lesbian / Gay /Questioning youth - but takes calls from those and more being bullied or just freaking out).

Monday, June 28, 2010

Trevor Project

So, you all know Eddie and I give money to Trevor Project. Well we went tonight and had a great time. Here is a picture with us and Vanessa Williams - she was amazing.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

My commute


This is leaving my house (with Joey, Norman and Eddie today). The building with the Red Arrow - if you clikc and it gets bigger you see it says Thomson Reuters. That's where I work now.

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Sweet

Friday, June 25, 2010

Leyton Lunging from Reuters

I get pictures from Reuters at my new job. I add this only because LeyLey is the Mascot of the month. He's old, but still giving it his all.

This is so cool. I was all quoted at 59E59 Theaters

So this is so cool.
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I gave a great review to a show Freed, because I really liked it. I wasn't alone - but my review was good (it's here).

This is my review totally blown up inside the theater (there are 3 theaters in the complex).
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My name!
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This is the 3 part review section (mine is in the middle).

The one sheet outisde.
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My site on the big poster!
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Anyway, I thought this was totally cool.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Trevor has a Boo Boo


Trevor has a boo boo and has to soak his paw in Epson salts and take antibiotics. That is the problem with walking in New York.

Hot Hot Hot

It's hot and humid in New York - but that is okay.
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One fun thing is that Thomson Reuters shows the World Cup in the office, so that is knd of cool.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

With apologies to my friends that have them, but...




These are silly and not sexy. And the latest craze in New York. Sandalboots.
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Not the Sandalboot with a heel, which - while silly - is marginally less objectionable. No, I refer to the Sandalboot flat which is truly a tribute to marketing savvy over common sense.
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They only possible reason to wear these is that you have some hideous rash on your cankle that needs fresh air to recover.
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I admit, the first time I saw these, I said, "Humm. Those are kind of cute." And then - 3 seconds later - I thought, "Well dumb and cute." And 30 seconds later - after encountering my 12th pair - and they thunk thunk thunk'ed in front of me. my opinion moved on to "Nope. Just dumb."
They look like an old lady that wears socks with her sandals. They have the odd ability to make you look shorter, with fat ankles and heavier. Remember when pregnant women would bitch about how their ankles would swell up up and made them feel fat. You do remember? Then don't do it on purpose because some marketing man told you to!
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My god, even crocs are better than these things - these add uncomfortable to ugly. (Really, if it is warm enough to wear open toes, are your ankles freezing?)
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But if you have them and loved them more power to you. You are definitely dressing for your friends, because men will tell you they are silly.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Supreme Court Nincompoopery!

Yesterday, in a highly mischaracterized case, the Supreme Court took away an essential right.
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It has been INCORRECTLY headlined in the media as “Supreme Court upholds terrorism support law” which is simplistic in the extreme.
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“Support” here is the key word. The challenge was NOT to material support (like money or guns), but to legal advice. And the legal advice here was how to move to non-military negotiation given to two civil war combatants (the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers and Kurdistan Workers Party) and humanitarian aid to civilians with access provided by the Kurdistan Workers Party. So here the Supreme Court has identified speech designed to reduce the prospects of violence to an illegal status.
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It also makes pro-bono legal work for anyone accused of terrorist ties illegal. So, if your sister was arrested for loaning her boyfriend $1000, and her boyfriend was actually a member of a organization that also uses terrorism (say one that supports freedom for the Basque Section of Spain) – your sister could be arrested for given material support to a terrorist organization. Fair enough. But it also means that you couldn’t hire a lawyer for your sister. Because then you would be giving “material support” to terrorist organization and you could go to jail.
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Also illegal is any pro-bono legal work for American groups classified as terrorists. I don’t approve of the Michigan militia, but I find it a little un-American to prohibit any legal work for their defense (apparently that whole innocent-until-proven-guilty is SO 1800s).
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This new law, just upheld, was introduced in the Patriot Act.
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Here are other things that would have been illegal if this law was in effect.George Mitchell’s negotiations with Sean Fien for a resolution to the Northern Ireland Civil War. Sean Fien supported the IRA and terrorism.Anyone who did not answer to Joe McCarthy at the House UnAmericans Activity commission. Communists included armed insurgents in China, Korea, Italy and Vietnam at the time.Any Jewish legal support for the David Ben-Gurrion’s fight against Britain for the founding of Israel. The Zionists were waging an insurrection against Britain at the time.
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We all got a lot less free and safe yesterday. We are becoming the enemy of our own freedom.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Idiotic "Opinion" Piece in the New York Times


Ross Douthat. Idiot.
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In a truly asinine opinion piece today in the New York Times, some knee-jerk Democratic Inside Washington Kiss Ass hack has taken the “liberals” to task for demanding more from Barack Obama. This is part of a new “inside Washington Democratic” chorus. Here is the money paragraph….
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This is the same Barack Obama, after all, who shepherded universal health care, the dream of liberals since the days of Harry Truman (if not Thomas Paine), through several near-death experiences and finally into law. It’s the same Obama who staked the fate of the American economy on a $787 billion exercise in Keynesian pump-priming. It’s the same Obama who has done more to advance liberal priorities than any president since Lyndon Johnson.
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To which one can only say... Wha....?
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One can argue or not about the “universality” of universal health care, but I will give you that. As for the economic work, that was great – although not liberal or conservative – just good government as shown by both W Bush and Obama were for it. As for the laughable line that he has advanced liberal priorities more than anyone since Lyndon Johnson, I call bullshit Mr. Douthat.
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But I did NOT elect Obama to “advance liberal priorities”. I elected him to do what he said he would do and believed in. During the campaign Mr. Obama said he would close Gitmo – he hasn’t. He said he would roll back Bush’s executive oversteps – he has grabbed even more power. He said he would get us out of Afghanistan because it was an unwinnable war, but he has escalated this into what is now the longest American War in history – still with no clear strategy to win – except send more troops. He said that the Gitmo prisoners would get trials – there are multiple pathetic examples that he has abandoned this (here) (here) and (here) to name a few. He said that the executive branch overstepped the law in spying on Americans – he has defended this and expanded it. He promised to protect whistleblowers – but he is prosecuting them! He said he would be a “fierce advocate” for equal rights for gays – instead his justice department filed a brief that compared fags to incestuous child molesters to justify keeping us from getting married.
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Unlike the cheap ass shots the writer takes at those of us want to hold the President to his promises, I am not hitting Obama for things he needs Congress for. I elected him because I liked what he said he would do. He has – at best – not done it, at worst done exactly the opposite. That is - oh what is the word for it - LYING! So don’t set up straw man arguments to explain that we non-Washingtonians are children who don’t understand how the big world works (which is EXACTLY the same line Ann Coulter used on Bill O’Riley – which just proves the contempt that all Washington insiders consider how non-insiders think).
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Don’t put words in my mouth – especially simpleminded words to make me look petulant. I am angry because I was lied to by the man I elected. And, I made my decision based on large part by NOT voting for the liar. I certianly do not expect politicians to not be able to keep all their promises, but I did not expect the 180 degree turns from this man. And dispite what Ross Dipshit says, thatis a valid reason for disillusionment.
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PS - I told you Hilary would be better!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Tight Race in the Pool (Phil on Top Joey Racing Up)

So, except for yours truely, it is a tight race in the pool...
This is how it shakes out right now;
1. Phil
2. Andy
3. Art
4. Joey Gonzales
5. Eddie
6. Julie
7. JM Plautz
8. John
9. Scooter (yours truely)
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Bit I will pass John if he doesn't finish his second round picks :-).
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PS I plan to kick ass on the semi-final rounds!

Father's Day (An Ode to "Mitch", "Big Dick", "Flicker" - my dad) (UPDATED)

So it’s Father’s Day, and I wanted to say Happy Father’s Day to my dad – even though he is long dead.

I had a odd relationship with my father – who was a confused young man. When he wasn’t married (between wives), he was a kick. He was always more of a friend than a dad – but that was fine. He was a pretty damn good friend. He always worked to convince me not to make his mistakes, but as an older friend – he had no problem owning up to them. Selling pot, driving cars of questionable legal ownership, driving in an impaired state, relationships with women with boyfriends (although married women were acceptable - less prone to get you beat up) – these were all things he warned me against as a pal.

And he played when he wasn’t married. Not like “toss the ball with your son” play, but like let’s pick up girls, let’s go cause trouble, let’s crash a party, let’s climb on the roofs of buildings downtown. Granted this was in the short period from 7 – 11 years old (when he married my nemisis), but it was great fun.

On the other hand, when he was married, he was a bit of a spineless chameleon. He tried to be the husband and father – but having no sense of how to do it, he would follow the lead of his wife. And for a long time he was as Deanna, a woman as uptight in public as she was a pot-smoking sex vixen in private.

He could never please her publically, as you can see from the body language in this picture of her and her family. But then Deanna could never please her mother (who I think was born with a cranky disposition and the name LaVon). The youngest son hit the drugs and didn’t try, which just made Deana try harder and LaVon judge her worse.

But reliving life with the ice-queen isn’t the point of this post. The point is that my dad was a lot of fun sometimes – even though he stole money from me and would forget me for days on end. (Hey it taught me to be self-sufficient!) I am not complaining.

We spent two weeks one year flying kites in Palos Verdes because he got into kites (and he pulled me out of school to do it – because he wasn’t working and was bored – and because I was ahead of the class anyway). We surveyed downtown from the Bonaventure Hotel roof before it was open. He’ld pick me up the middle of the day for a road trip to San Diego where he would drop me off at the Sand Diego Zoo for 3 hours. Now granted, he used the 3 hours to go across the border to score a shopping bag of pot for reselling in Inglewood – but hey, he didn’t take me with him over the border - that's count for good parenting in my book :-). And I had Grandma Early’s number in San Diego if he got picked up.

He was a lousy father, but a great friend. I tried to tell him that, but he only heard the bad. I even started with the good – but if I didn’t start “you were a great dad”, he tuned me out. I so he never heard my thanks or my “I appreciated what I had”. Too bad. I don’t think he ever really learned why I did love him.

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FYI, My mother, not wanting to appear mean, wrote me personally to question the nickname "Big Dick". I have to explain. Zela (my grandmother) once told me that while he was in High School a friend called the house and asked for "Big Dick". My Grandmother explained they had the wrong number. My father raced to the phone to say that was his new nickname (self-given). When Zela and my grandfather couldn't stop laughing at him and telling his friends it was inappropriate "Mitch" dropped that name :-).

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Unintended Consequences: Alvin Greene

Unintended Consequences: Alvin Greene
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There was no big conspiracy to put up one of the worst possible candidates as the Democratic candidate in South Carolina. It is the unintended consequence of the internet and free media access to all.
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Access tends to cluster around things people want to read. With people rarely paying for content (say like newspaper subscriptions) - people view what is hot in the moment. And a Democratic State Primary Race in South Carolina is not really important. Jim DeMint is going to win, and probably would win no matter who the Democrats put up. No free content follows this race. And since newspapers and local news have fewer and fewer resources, they don't investigate everything. So you have someone with a better name - not bigger - just more appealing - win a primary. No cheating, just the unintended consequences of a voracious, but headless, media.
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I feel for Vic Rawl. The Democratic former South Carolina state representative and former Circuit Court judge is eminently qualified to represent the people of the Palmetto State. And, yet, 59 percent of Democratic primary voters chose Alvin Greene. He's the unemployed guy who somehow paid the $10,440 filing fee, who has been discharged from two branches of the military, and who faces felony obscenity charges. Greene's interviews, particularly those with The Post, Keith Olbermann and Time magazine fueled speculation that he is a Republican plant. But as we learned yesterday Greene is the beneficiary of electoral ennui and an alphabetically advantageous name.
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Stripping Greene of the Democratic nomination because he's probably the worst candidate ever to grace a ballot would have been an abuse of power. It would have reversed the will of the people. And if the people want to make dumb mistakes, well, they're just going to have to live with the consequences -- and perhaps another six years of DeMint.

Friday, June 18, 2010

A Hep 'O New Reviews


I got a heap'o new reviews at http://www.reviewsoffbroadway.com/. Take a little and see. Including "Freed" (loved it), "When We Go Upon The Sea (didn't) and Sister Myotis's Bible Camp (which is how it is spelled inthe program, but wrong - right?).

Humidity blows in like Santa Anas


Yuck. It was nice at 1PM and disgusting at 2PM. The humdity blew in like a Santa Ana on beautiful LA night!

For Lynn: (Done Without the "No One Morns the Wicked.."

Shakedown? Apparently he was miscontruticated.

Joe Barton apologized to BP yesterday in Congress for the White House's "Shakedown".
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Shakedown definition: Slang. Extortion of money, as by blackmail.
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Extortion is, by the by, "Illegal use of one's official position or powers to obtain property, funds, or patronage." or "An excessive or exorbitant charge."
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First, the money is going into an escrow account to pay people effect by the spill, and so of course since this isn't going to the President Crazy Joe is wrong on multiple counts.
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Michelle Bachman claims this is wealth redistribution, but she is so freakin' crazy it doesn't really count.
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Since then Joe Barton has apologized for his apology in the most bizarre statement I have seen in a while. "I want to be absolutely clear that I think BP is responsible for this accident, should be held responsible and should in every way do everything possible to make good on the consequences that have resulted from this accident," he said. "And if anything I said this morning has been misconstrued to the opposite effect I want to apologize for that misconstrued misconstruction."
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Misconstrued misconstruction. Really? What the hell does that mean. I think he is saying, if I can parse this, when he apologized to BP for the illegal extortion of money by the White House; what he meant is "I mean the opposite of the following statement - I did NOT apologize to BP for the White House NOT conducting a shakedown."
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By the by, this is the man that the Republicans want to be in charge of over site of oil companies. Sweet!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Sister Myotis: Funny Funny Funny

I saw this woman's show last night for reviewing.. Loved it.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Very Very Busy with Friends and Shows


So I haven't posted much, but I have been very busy what with friends (first Char(lene) and Kelly, they Peter from Germany) and shows. I have seen 2 shows on Sunday and one each on Tuesday and Wednesday for reviewing.
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Last night I saw "Freed" and it was AMAZING (my review on my site here).
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Eddie leaves tomorrow morning to list our Palm Springs house for sale. wa-whaaa

Monday, June 14, 2010

Art still in 1st, by others closing in (but not me :-(


Art is still in the lead, but Eddie, Jull and Jack Henry are moving up quickly!
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Also just in, I still suck at this :-).

Vuvuzela: The Annoying Sound of the World Cup


These are the mosquito sounding Vuvuzelas (vuvuzeli?).
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FIFA would not outlaw them, but we (lucky us) have the mute button. They are totally annoying.

Hard to Compete with a Memory

(from my other site, but reposted here as well)..
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Lee Blessing has a new play out that I will review when it opens (June 17th) about George Bush and my expectations were too high. Rather than pull this into the review, I am going to try to explain why now.
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I saw Lee Blessing's A Walk In The Woods in London. It was the first play I ever saw in London and maybe my first grown up play ever. I had seen Agnes of God in New York on a trip, but it was Carrie Fisher's first night and I sat in back of Paul Simon (dating her at the time) and Art Garfunkle and it was a "thang" more than a show.
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No, A Walk In The Woods was a half price show I walked into blind, my first time in London and alone. I saw Alec Guiness! Alec freakin' Guiness! And after 20 minutes, he wasn't Obi Wan, I was mesmerised by this play.
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It covers a year of negotiations between the US and USSR (this was right after during Ronald Reagan) and shit yes the world teetered on the edge.
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And this play showed so much of the "game" of nations..
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I was young and felt that a a curtain had been pulled back showing me the Truth with a capital T.
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Well with that remembrance (and a Pulitzer prise finalist), anything else he does has a high standard of excellence. I expected too much from his new work I fear.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

OMG!! Promises Promises was freakin' GREAT last night

This is picture from Friday night. In order it is Ed, Char(lene), 22 year old waiter from Montreal, Kelly and me. We had a fun meal at HK, then saw "Next Normal" - which was amazing.
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Then, last night we all went to see "Promises Promises."
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Now, Eddie and I saw it a few weeks ago with Gavin and Mickey and it was really good. Well last night, Kristen Chenowith was on (she was sick last time) - and the show ROCKED!!! Literal, every single person was more fun and "on" and funny! and sang beautifully. It was wonderful.
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Then Char, Kelly and I walked home and we saw Sean (Hayes) in our building and he was charming spoke with the girls. Generally it was an amazing night.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Cup Standings (that is me at the bottom)


Well well well.... Laura you could not have done worse than me!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Yeah: We had a 9 year winning streak against them WITHOUT cheating!!


Boo De Who...

Entertainment Weekly Agrees with Me on Hegal - but blames the script..

Well Entertainment Weekly does place the blame a lot with the writing of this CARC (Crappy Action Romantic Comedy - a term I thing she will copyright), but it is Hegal's fault for taking the Harpy role!
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But I prefer to go with a dissection of the wreck that is Heigl's character, Jen. In the course of 100 minutes, Jen is presented as
1) a lonely, uptight loser (disguised by the flawless body and blonde prettiness of the star who plays her) who has been recently dumped by a man;
2) an infantilized adult woman whose parents micromanage her life;
3) a ditzy girl-woman who knows how to wear sexy lingerie but not how to own her sexuality;
4) a competent working woman (she does something corporate that requires her to wear sleek, feminine office-wear) who gets flustered when asked to make an important presentation;
5) a stereotypical girly-girl who unhelpfully screams EEEEEEEEEEE!!! when she and her husband face danger and who demands answers to her questions at really inopportune times like when the couple are being shot at;
6) a woman who's too gullible;
7) a woman who's impractical;
8) a female character who chews noisily on junk food in the movie world's universal lazy symbol for unladylike behavior;
8) a woman who handles a firearm as if it were a snake;
9) a wife who requires ''managing'' by her husband;
and
10) a female character stapled together with every dispiriting, routinely accepted trait so popular and so soul-killing in the female characters we find in CARCs like Killers

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Prop 14 and New York Primary Madness


So the election is over and Proposition 14 won in California. I like it.
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It makes the primary completely open and the top 2 vote getters proceed to a run off. The parties hate it, but that is because they divide up the state into safe districts. My favorite argument against Prop 14 was some ad that only 1 incumbent in Washington was set out after they putting something like this in place. Hey, that is 1 more than California!
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New York's primary is not until September, but we don't get to vote on anything. There is this weird "Party" conference where they decide who gets to be in the primary. For governor there will be 1 choice for the Republicans and 1 choice for Democrats. So we are stuck with the Party choices no matter what.
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Whatever.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

LAST CHANCE to enter World Cup Pool PS To the Harrises

It's almost time up to enter the World Cup Pool. Simply select here
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You have created a group called Nincompoopery and added your pick set, nincompoops. To allow other people to join this group, send them the Group ID# (22112) and the password (scott).

This is a Dane from the Danish National Team.


And, of course, this is Renaldo from the Portugese National Team (for Armani).
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PS - You would THINK the Brits would be good at this... just saying

Did you hear this: Quantum Teleportation


I don't know WHY this isn't bigger news, but China did Quantum Teleporation the other day.
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Again... Quantum Teleportation!!!!
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Kids, this is Star Trek shit!
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Here is what QT is ... "Quantum teleportation is not the same as the teleportation most of us know from science fiction, where an object (or person) in one place is “beamed up” to another place where a perfect copy is replicated. In quantum teleportation two photons or ions (for example) are entangled in such a way that when the of one is changed the state of the other also changes, as if the two were still connected. This enables to be teleported if one of the photons/ions is sent some distance away.
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In previous experiments the photons were confined to fiber channels a few hundred meters long to ensure their state remained unchanged, but in the new experiments pairs of photons were entangled and then the higher-energy
of the pair was sent through a channel 16 km long. The researchers, from the University of Science and Technology of China and Tsinghua University in Beijing, found that even at this distance the photon at the receiving end still responded to changes in state of the photon remaining behind. The average fidelity of the teleportation achieved was 89 percent. " .
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It isn't moving stuff yet, but it is totally cool.
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links.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Giant Baby Anteater


This is fromthe Zoo on the Isle of Wight.
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I've been tot he Isle of Wight, and I didn't know there was a zoo.
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Apparently the Giant Baby Anteater stays on moms back except when it climbs on the front feet to nurse.
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Lynn, not that is a Big Baby.

On the Hunk and Hottie Scale

So last week-end we saw "Killers" with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Hegal as well as Prince of Persia with Jake Gyllenhaal. We did not expect, but it turned into kind of a Hunk off.

Hard as it is to believe, Ashton won. Not because he was huge or really muscled, but because that man is suave as hell. He is totally wasted in this movie - he acts circles around Katherine Hegal - but that isn't tough at all. I really think in some of the scenes they just put a blowup doll in a wig and had her dub in screaming later.
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She also looks like 20 years too old for him, but you can't every forget he is really porking Demi Moore who could honestly be his mother - so the age thing doesn't bug you.
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Tom Selleck is kind of wasted in this movie. It is a cross of his older sexy guy from "Friends" and Katherine Hegal's wooden performance. It isn't pretty. Catherine O'hare spends the entire show drinking - and I think she had the right idea.
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But Ashton is playing this thing like he is Cary Grant with abs.

Jake is very cute and works very hard in Prince of Persia, but he never really has a chance to slow down and act. Which is the opposite of "Brokeback Mountain" where all he did was act (and he acted the hell out of that movie).
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He is quite studly in it - but the work shows. Ashton's is more fun.
As for the girls. I can't even bring myself to post a picture of Katherine Hegal. She is the only thing that kept me from enjoying that preggers movie. She is like the movie version of Debbie Downer. She comes on the screen and you hear the mental "Waah Wah!" She is, totally, like, Renne Zwllwiger version 2.0.
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Gemma Asherton, on the other hand, is a British Hottie that you believe is exotic. She smolders up the screen with anger, dirty tricks, a wicked smile, and nice big fake ones (you know how I love fake ones).

Although together, Jake and Gemaa tear it up better than Ashton and Katherine - but I put all the blame on Mame there.

Monday, June 07, 2010

El Rushbo and Wife number 4



Glen Greewald makes some interesting points about Rush Limbaugh and his costant push for "Tradional Marriage" (El Rusho pictured here with new wife (#4).
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As always happens when this issue is raised, there are several people in comments and elsewhere confusing the point. The issue here is not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is when someone preaches "nobody should do X" and then proceeds themselves to do X -- such as preaching that "nobody should break the law or consume illegal drugs" and then proceeding to consume huge quantities of illegally obtained oxycontin. That's hypocrisy. That's not what this is.
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Hypocrisy occurs when there's a disparity between the actions one advocates and the actions one undertakes. Here, the disparity is between (a) what same-sex opponents such as Limbaugh claim they advocate (the law's recognition of only Traditional Marriages) and (b) what they actually advocate (having the law recognize completely untraditional marriages, such as Gingrich and Limbaugh's multiple, serial unions). They don't really advocate the law's recognition of Traditional Marriage, as they claim; rather, they only advocate that the law bar the untraditional marriages they don't want to enter into (same-sex marriages) while recognizing the ones they do (multiple, serial "marriages"). The point is that one cannot oppose same-sex marriage on the ground that the law should only recognize Traditional Marriages, while simultaneously demanding that the law recognize third, fourth and other multiple marriages following divorce: at least one cannot do so coherently.

Sunday, June 06, 2010

World Cup Hotties (and game)

So I join my World Cup Fantasy Pool - it will be fun because we know very little. Details here: You have created a group called Nincompoopery and added your pick set, nincompoops. To allow other people to join this group, send them the Group ID# (22112) and the password (scott). Remember, it is the Group ID#, not the group name, that other people must use to join your group.


If you want to vote by cuties - The Daily Beast has a nice wrap up here...
The boy above is the American (Carlos Bocanegra) our captain.
The hottie below is a EyeTie.

"Bang Bang" in "Bloom"; Rinko Kukuchi


So last night we watched "The Brothers Bloom" from Netflix. A twisted story that had just my sense of humor (until the ending which left me slightly unfufilled). Anyway - although she is a nearly mute sidekick - my favorite character was "Bang Bang", Rinko Kukucki.


In looking Kukuchi-san up, I see she is Japanese and this was her only English picture. I do not have any idea why she was chosen for this role. But she was fantastic.



Obviously, Bang Bang blows things up.

Humidty: The Sweet Smell of Sweat In the City

Yuck

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Coach Wooden Joined Wife of 53 Years, Nellie, In Heaven

Coach Wooden passed away last night.
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Goodbye.

Coach Wooden (nearly always "Coach" to everyone in Pauley Pavilion) had retired the year before I graduated High School.
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But, even before I went to UCLA as a student, I went to UCLA Basketball games and Coach and his wife were sitting in the stands. Lower level, a few rows above the UCLA bench.
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I don't think there were many games where he wasn't there - a touchstone for the Bruins. He didn't hold press conferences and complain about his legacy, he didn't go coach somewhere else and coach for a zillion dollars. He was always charming and supportive. When interviewed about the Bruins he was always positive about the school and supportive of whatever coach was there.
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He was a gentlemen decades after it had moved from sweet to quaint to obsolete.
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The UCLA family, the basketball family and sporting family has lost a hero in him.
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His wife Millie attended each game with him until she was too ill. She passed away in 1985 after 53 years of marriage. Right after that, we named the court for him (there is a "Wooden Center" as well) and he was pleased, but he never looked for fame.
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Long after he left, he continued to hold Camps, both in Basketball and Leadership (he felt they were the same). Many of my friends, but most of all Steve Coyne, attended these and he (like my friend Clay) brought Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success into his life.
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Take a look at Coach Wooden's pyramid - it is a legacy as important as the Championships - and just as familiar to true Bruin fans (although we don't brag about it nearly as much as the 10 National Championships ;-) .
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I remember pointing John Wooden out to Ed at our first game. Ed was a little surprised to see him in the stands the first time - the guy was just sitting there - not mobbed - no huge amount of attention. After Nellie passed away Coach Wooden sometimes came with family, sometimes with famous players and coaches he knew - but always just as a fan of the game and the school. Eddie quickly got used to the quiet gentlemen. Coach Wooden made everyone (even a Badger) a member of the family.
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Friday, June 04, 2010

Bizarro Jerry Day in New York

It is bizarro day in New York. Ed worked from home and Scooter went to work at the office!!!
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PS - One week done, 51 to go.

Bad Idea # 621

Caption:"A man dressed in a red and yellow costume representing the devil, known as "El Colacho", runs through the streets chasing a boy during traditional Corpus Christi celebrations, in Castrillo de Murcia June 3, 2010. This northern Spanish town has for centuries chosen to protect its young from evil spirits with an unusual ritual in which a man dressed as the devil leaps over mattresses each holding four or five babies. "

(from Wikipedia: Baby jumping (El Colacho) is a traditional Spanish practice dating back to 1620 that takes place annually to celebrate the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi in the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos.[1][2][3] During the act - known as El Salto del Colacho (the devil's jump) or simply El Colacho – men dressed as the Devil (known as the Colacho) jump over babies born during the previous twelve months of the year who lie on mattresses in the street.
The Brotherhood of Santísimo Sacramento de Minerva, who organise the festivities chase people around the town throughout the day.
[4][5][6] The festival has been rated as one of the most dangerous in the world.[citation needed] The origins of the tradition are unknown but it is said to cleanse the babies of original sin, ensure them safe passage through life and guard against illness and evil spirits.[7][8][9] Pope Benedict has asked priests in Spain to distance themselves from the El Colacho, or La Octava Festival")

Arghh!!!!!!!

John Wodden is gravely ill. He is a class act...

Ahh... Joys of Geography Majors

Laura sent this screen shot. And there is a link to the site - it is about the World Cup - not a South African Team in the cup.
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The joke here is that South Africa (which is explicitly named on the poster) is NOT in South America (which is explicitly named on the map) - and no one catches this.
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In the news caster's defense, it includes two things Americans don't really care about, geography and the world cup.
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In the new caster's offense however, this is Chicago's WGN - a superstation that claims to play with the big boys.
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Ahh... geography trips us up again....
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Just don't ask me to spell the countries' names right.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Oh how stupid they think we are..

The New York Times is running 2 opinion pieces about the Israel attack that are almost hilarious in their assumption of our stupidity.
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They are by Israel's Ambassador to the United States - Michael B. Oren (An Assault Cloaked in Peace) and by Damiel Gordis, A Vice President of the Shalem Center (A Botched Raid, A Vital Embargo).
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There are some misstatements and misinformation - starting with a graphic that shows a ship bursting with missiles - of which there were none.
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Then look at this compound sentence from the Ambassador. There is little doubt as to the real purpose of the Mavi Marmara’s voyage — not to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, but to create a provocation that would put international pressure on Israel to drop the Gaza embargo, and thus allow the flow of seaborne military supplies to Hamas. I say part 1 is true, but part 2 (and thus allow the flow of seaborne military supplies to Hamas) is not. A lot people believe that starving an innocent population is wrong. In the article itself, they blame Hamas for the takeover put are starving the entire population of 1.4 million for this.
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I do love the explanation that they are letting in 100 truckloads of food and medicine a day. That is 1 truck for every 14,000 people - plenty of food and medicine. And some of the items they embargo'ed, wheelchairs (which can be turned into metal clubs).
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Then Mr. Gordis' comment that "Israel’s attempt to enforce a blockade becomes an international crisis, while most of the world shrugs when North Korea sinks a South Korean ship." This is a common and incorrect refrain. The "shrug" included new military ties between Japan, South Korea and the US, discussions in the UN Security Council and the fall of the Japanese government. Bitching at Israel is not an "international crisis".
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He also says, "Our problem is that though most Israelis want peace with two states — one Jewish and one Palestinian, living side by side — we cannot find anyone to make a deal with us. A decade ago, President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak, tried, but Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, walked away. Now the supposedly moderate Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, refuses to negotiate, as of course does Hamas. " True - Yasir walked away. But since then the PLO has had elections in Palestine (as called for in the treaty - we just didn't like the results), stopped the intifada (credit to Israel primarily - but Palestine too) and Israel built a walk across territory it had agreed to give back and continued to build settlements on disputed land after agreeing not too. Blame is a too way street here. Israel's promises are no more followed than Palestine's.
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I am not saying that we should turn our back on Israel - but let's have an honest discussion - not pretend that Israel is the saint of the Mideast.