Pieman in the Hole

It's my guess that an attractive man who man makes pies for a living shouldn't even spend a short amount of time in prison.

Emerson Cod in Pushing Daisies S01E08

Live for a good Death Notice

I realize that I am living the first sentence of my obituary.

C. J. Craig in the wanning days of the Barlett administation.

The Reason to Read Frank Magazine

I come to Frank for dirt and disrespect.

M. V., near nameless Frank Reader

19th Century Iron Casting for 21th Century

Here is a NY Times story and photo essay about how cast iron manhole covers are being made in India for New York City. I am trying to remember the name of a book I had about a Canadian who was hired to run a casting plant, much like the one describe, in China.

Is This Why Mercs are Used in Iraq

Will we still be paying for Iraq in 2100?

This is a blog post at Foreign Policy Magazine about the long term cost of mass mobilization wars. The biggest cost of having a war is the pension cost. The article points to a study looking at the true cost of the Iraq mess. the blog post has this interesting quote and and comment.

Suppose a drummer boy, age 14, became a soldier in 1861 and was disabled in that war. Suppose also that he married, had children, his wife died, and he remarried late in late, at say age 60 in 1907. Suppose further that his second wife was 25 years old at marriage and that at age 30 she bore him a child who was mentally or physically incapable of supporting himself. That child would be 57 years old today [that is, in 1969] and still drawing benefits — more than a century after the war ended.

Sounds unlikely, right? Yet Clayton nonetheless found that 1,353 dependents of Civil War veterans were still getting government benefits as late as 1967.

The problem with this economizing is the most mercs in Iraq, not the godforsaken Islamically motivated murderers, are actually American military veterans. There is little long term pension saving.

Why Grifting is Better than Fencing

I'm a con artist. It is what I do. I've tried fencing for a while but you fall in with a bad bunch of people.

Con Artist in Highlander S01E06

Expenience versus Expenience

Just because you trained a Peakness jockey doesn't mean you know how to sit on a horse.

New Term for ChiComs Fans

Panda Huggers

New and Improved - Oxygen

I found this cartoon following a link at Boingboing. It is from a archive of cartoon mentions of the elements.

Recycling Using Packrats

" what is the best way to recycle old tech in the US?""

Give it to a pack rat. They'll pile it up with their other...treasures. Soon you'll read about the guy who couldn't get out of his house because the doors and windows were blocked.

Anonymous Coward in a slashdot discussion about computer recycling. For the record when I last moved I had 2 computers besides my current one and 4 monitors. The theory was the other monitors and computers were "backups".

The Daily Show Writers from the Picket Line. Bonus Colbertian Material

In the comments to this piece someone mentioned that this version of NOT the Daily Show lacks only Jon Stewart and flashy production values.



Here also is a Colbert writer channeling his inner asshole, or entertainment executive. The biggest sob story is that his son had to settle for a "non-endangered birthday tiger".


Here is a blog from the writers, United Hollywood. There is also a video of the Simpson writers making pointed comparisons between Mr Burns and Mr Murdoch. There is a claim that Simpson profits paid for Rupert Murdoch's "throne of bones" and his "lake of blood".

Find the Books in this "Library"

A baronial library and family room with barrel-vaulted ceiling and stained glass has windows on three sides overlooking the grounds.

In a recent Globe and Mail Real Estate section there was a story about an Eaton estate that has been the subject of legal wrangling between architect and client. Photos are included in a slide show including the image above of the "library". What surprises me is that there is no books in this room or any of the other photos. I know these are rooms of set decorated but you think that the "library" would have at least some "books".

LA for the Miserable Writer

But are you truly happy, slouching around that sick-souled city of grimy palms and gridlock?

Charles Isherwood in an article about how live theatre
might pay less than Hollywood but is easier on the soul.

The Priorities of the Political Junkie Time Traveler

I love that you that you went to a wife swapping party and it was Nixon that turned you on.

Katie Vasser on Journeyman S01E08

Rude Description of Rednecks

...inherited a troubled nation with the lowest per capita teeth in North America.

Mathew White in an Alternative History description
of the Confederacy in the 1960's.

Cult OSes and Cults

Alby is showing some business stuff to Roman on a schmancy PowerBook. This actually raises a good question: what is the preferred OS of polygamist cultists? I realize that the Mac does inspire cult-like behavior, and open source is its own religion, but I think there's something about the oppressive and incomprehensible nature of Windows XP that would make polygamist cultists feel right at home.

Television Without Pity commentator on Big Love

Role Playing Items in Real Life

On a NPR show somebody mentioned "Dragonskin Armor" a new form of flak jacket. It is also listed as +5 Dragonskin Armor in some old D&D reference.

Harper Orders Mulroney Probe(d)

Harper orders Mulroney probe

I love this headline in today's Grab and Maul. It brings to all the "Mulroney probes" we as a nation suffered in the 80's as our "glorious leader" simultaneously screwed us over and sucked up to Anericans. It also says something about the ethical standards of newly renamed Deformed Party of Canada that they liked Mulroney and hated Clark.

Rude joke alert:
Q - What is long and red and hangs down between Ronald Reagan's legs?
A - Brian Mulroney's tie.

SciFi and the Law

There is a story out there that we are obstructing justice and another we are in a Ray Bradbury yarn.

Leo McGarry in West Wing S04E21

Hobo Slang

Side door Pullman = Boxcar

Mentioned in Krazy Kat book.

America's Bush League Economy

Whenever a has reaches and stays at a current account deficit of 5% its currency is devalued. According to latest figures and The Economist the US current account deficit is now 5.5.%. Dollar devaluation should eventually get the current account deficit below 5%.

I like this line in the cartoon:

"Please take us to Fifth Avenue so we can purchase some of your quaint native costumes."

Counter Strike in Lego

Warning: Graphic Lego Violence.

Another in the long series of Lego Mashups.

Cats as Trojans

New Flesh Merchants in LA have Problems

Feel like I'm trying to sell semen in a whorehouse.

Christian Troy on the problems of establishing
a plastic surgery practice in LA

Zombies Game

...satisfy your daytime zombie-killing needs.

In a review of the web game The Last Stand.

Howl Snippet # 9

I'm with you in Rockland where the faculties of the skull no longer admit the worms of the senses.

Allen Ginsberg

Howl Snippet # 8

the whole boatload of sensitive bullshit!

Allen Ginsberg

Howl Snippet # 7

Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money!

Allen Ginsberg

Howl Snippet # 6

Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!

Allen Ginsberg

Howl Snippet # 5

What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?

Allen Ginsberg

Howl Snippet # 4

who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue amid blasts of leaden verse & the tanked-up clatter of the iron regiments of fashion & the nitroglycerin shrieks of the fairies of advertising & the mustard gas of sinister intelligent editors, or were run down by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality,

Allen Ginsberg

Howl Snippet # 3

...walked all night with their shoes full of blood

Allen Ginsberg

More Newspeak in the News

Islam is Peace

Polygamy is Equality

Jizya is Tolerance

Lapidation is Mercy

Burqa is Liberation

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength

Mulroney not Popular with Canadians or Canadian Criminals. However the "Business" Community still likes him.

Nobody seems to like to the guy.

Karlheinz Schreiber talking about the low opinion that the inhabitants of the Toronto West Detention Centre have for Mulroney. Mulroney was a character witness at Lord Black's recent trial. Shouldn't the Chin have the same solicitous concern for all the other fellow cheats and thieves, for his people.

Listen here for the full interview with Karlheinz Schreiber.

Billionaires for Bush

According to this chart nearly all Americans pay more taxes so that can be tax cuts for the rich. The top 0.1% of Americans get about $10 mil on average. From a NY Times article based on the work of Saez.

Halloween Encourages Vagrancy - Colbert

Trick or treaters = Prehobos

Stephen Colbert