Someone vandalized the Wall Street Bull today in just the right way to illustrate Wall Street's current situation.
Check it out here. (Possibly NSFW.)
October 10, 2008
October 9, 2008
"We will draw the curtain and show you the picture."
Someone is putting on a steampunk version of Shakespeares' Twelfth Night.
October 8, 2008
Are you threatening me?
My lovely girlfriend is a major Beavis and Butt-head fan.
Yesterday, while idly text-messaging her, I happened to discover a new (to me, at least) emoticon. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The Great Cornholio.
I_O_I
Through malarkey like this, we share our love.
self-observation
I just realized, I seem to swear more in my campaign liveblogs than in all the rest of my blog posts combined from all my years of blogging.
I guess politics just brings out the obscenities in me.
October 7, 2008
Super Master Debation Bros III
Oh goody, this thing again. I'm watching with Nicky, and I shall add to this post as the event events.
9:00 PM - Hello, title card!
Hot damn, Tom Brokaw is moderating! I like him.
Yay, pre-screened pre-approved pre-washed pre-sanitized pre-shrunk questions. What an opportunity!
I like that the moderator is already accusing and tectchy-sounding.
First audience question comes from Donald Pleasance. Die, Pumaman!
Obama slips comfortably into his spiel, like an old pair of shoes.
Nicky: "The first question wasn't why does Bush suck, it's what you're gonna do about it."
9:07: Holy pants, does McCain look old.
Aaaand, he leaps back into Palin's energy stump. You are not your running mate, dude..
Look at McC lurching around the crowd, like the one guy at the playground who didn't bring his own kid.
9:10 - Nicky: "Companies and corporations?"
Nicky: "I find it hard to believe that 1.3 million people make their living off of eBay. What're you smoking?"
O invokes the first Reaganism of the night with "trickle down," but luckily for him it was in the negative.
Brokaw puts his thing down over the time constraint. Go get 'em, Tommy!
Nicky: "STOP saying that it was a 'good thing' that you suspended your campaign! Not only did you not suspend your campaign, but it was a bullshit move in the first place."
O: "I've got to correct a little of McCain's history, not surprisingly..." Ohh snap!
9:16 - Nicky: "Are we interested in watching politicians point fingers? No. Are they going to do so as part of their nature? Yes."
Me: "This is a debate, pointing fingers is sort ofthe reason they're here."
Nicky: "Yeah, but Senator McCain doesn't want to go back-and-forth. We learned that at Ole Miss."
McC wants to go around and buy up all the bad loans. What with, snowballs? Ben-Gay?
Nicky: "Yes, America's got a lot of good workers, we know. But are you saying America had bad workers during the Great Depression?"
McC is totally Senor Cardgage.
9:20 - Brokaw looks and sounds like he hates his goddamned life.
O is invoking Kennedy. This has all the charm of when Lindsay Lohan posed nude in a Marilyn wig.
Brokaw: "I have our first question from the Internet tonight..."
Me: "How do I shot web?"
Nicky: "30 seconds ago McCain was talking about how we have to cut all the bad stuff, and now he's saying we have to cut the good stuff. Hello, bait-n-switch..."
McC: "...and we can get 'em all done."
Me: GIT'R DONE!
9:31 - And O becomes the first of the evening to invoke 9/11.
Nicky: "He said 'quick and specific.' Waxing poetic about easy money is neither quick nor specific."
9:37 - You can actually see the spare numbers dropping incontinently out of McC's pant cuffs. I can't wait for tomorrow's FactCheck.org...
Nicky: "How do you set a date to reform Social Security or healthcare? 'Yes, social security will be fixed by October 25th!'"
O is totally jamming the fucking radar right now.
NEVER LAUGH AGAIN, MCCAIN. You sound like a wheezing, dessicated cat corpse that's just been stepped on with a bunny slipper.
Nicky: "'Green jobs?' What's a 'green job,' playing the Grinch in your Christmas play?"
9:49 - A Manhattan project or 100,000 garages? What the cocking shit does that question even mean, Brokaw?
Nicky: "We are NOT electing this moderator."
9:50 - Is that woman's hair made out of pudding?
Nicky: "It's scarecrow.. broom.. mop.. Pantene hair!"
McC: "Sennerobamma will find you!"
9:55 - McC made a hair transplant joke at his own expense. The resulting sound of nobody at all laughing warmed me.
O hits the nail on the head on the problem of that whole "states' rights" healthcare argument.
10:00 - McC is in full George W "America, fuck yeah" mode. Nicky: "Why not spend some time on actually being great, instead of trying so hard to convince everyone how great we are?"
Once gain, O pwns McC on Iraq. Nicely done.
10:10 - At least we get to hear O say the word "Pakistan" some more. "Pahhkistahn..."
McC needs to get off General Petraeus' junk, seriously. I'm very tired of hearing his damn name spoken in McC's reedy voice.
10:15 - Nicky: "Tom Brokaw has just given up."
Me: "Yep, it's official."
My router died for about ten minutes, and I missed a chunk. I got it back in time for the end, but nobody made a damn lick of sense during any of it. Blah blah buzzword blah. Ye gods, do I ever hate politics.
October 6, 2008
OMNOMNOMnivore
Meme from Katie...
Bold what you've eaten. Strike what you wouldn't ever consider eating.
My Omnivore's Hundred (64/100):
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar37. Clotted Cream Tea
38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O/Jell-O Shots39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. kaolin (not sure what this is)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang Souchong
80. Bellini81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu (not sure what this is)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
Basically this confirms what I already knew; I'm teetotal, but otherwise pretty much a try-anything-once omnivore.
Most of the more exotic choices can be blamed on either my love of random ethnic restaurants in New York City, growing up in a multiracial family, being fed by one or another of the various immigrant babysitters I was left with as a kid, or the fact that for a while my mom was a member of some weird meat-of-the-month club that would send her things like ground crocodile.
October 3, 2008
October 2, 2008
Master debation II: Electric Boogaloo
Sarah Palin vs Joe Biden in a steel cage match to the death a Vice Presidental debate. Once again, I've got Nicky on Skype and we’re going to check it out together. I’ll add to this one post as it goes.
9:01 - Jim Lehrer totally looks like The Cheat.
Gwen Ifill seems suitably no-nonsense.
9:03 - "Can I call you Joe?" Sarah Palin has obviously been duly coached to correct McC's biggest gaffe from last debate, and actually acknowledge her opponent's existence.
9:06 - And McC's other big gaffe of not wearing a flag pin is made up for by giving P the mother of all gaudy flag pins.
Nicky: "The barometer is going to be resounding?" Hi, mixed metaphor!
9:08 - Biden is trying very hard for "affable."
Nicky: "I don't trust her wink."
P claims she's "joined a team of mavericks." I don't think that word means what she thinks it means.
Ifill just totally gave P all the answers to her first finance question, allowing P to basically say "Yes, that" followed by a string of soundbites.
B needs to step up his game. He's coming off as a bit slow, while P is coming off like a perky talking doll with its string repeatedly pulled. Neither of them are really saying much, but he's doing it more slowly.
Drinking game: take a shot every time P spouts a very deliberate "heck" or "darn" to sound all small-towny.
9:13 - They're full into the first round of did not/did too. Factcheck.org is going to be very interesting tomorrow.
Gwen is coming off like a substitute teacher on her first day.
Nicky: "Now Biden drops the R-bomb? At least he's doing it ironically."
9:19 - Nicky: "Of course (McC's health-care plan) doesn't cost the government anything, it's making you buy your own!! I'm seeing red."
Now B's hitting his stride. The fed-up-ness seems to be helping.
Nicky: "There's something deeply troubling about the fact that Biden can provide a better explanation of McCain's health plan than Sarah Palin can."
"Characterize-characterism-characterized." Oops!
P responds to being furiously pwned by B on the healthcare issue by moving onto a completely unrelated energy issue and some rambling about Alaska.
Has anyone actually informed Palin that Alaska is not the entire country?
Ifill kicks major ass by putting the question P just whizzed past back in front of her. P responds with a bunch of stammery rhetoric involving McC basically being a superhero and fixing everything somehow. Nicky: "Then he puts on his robe and wizard hat..."
9:29 - Why the CRAP does P keep answering every question by going back to her energy issue? THAT IS NOT THE QUESTION YOU WERE ASKED, LADY.
Nicky: "Don't vote for Biden, he's a button-down East-coaster! You can trust me, I'm from Alaska! Drill the hell out of our state! Woo!"
9:32 - B: "The cause is man-made." ORLY?
Who the crap is "Senator O'Biden," P?
9:34 - Me and Nicky in unison: "SHE SAYS 'NUKULAR' TOO!!!"
Biden comes out loud and clear for the rights of same-sex couples. YES. I can't wait for P's response...
Aaaaand she dodges it all to hell while alienating everyone. Yep.
9:43 - Fun. Damental. Difference.
P seems to think ending the war is the same as surrendering. Hasn't anyone actually explained how these things work to her?
P just tried to use B's own son to score cheap points him. How very fucking charming.
Nicky: "Ohh, he just lumped McCain together with Dick Cheney. He just went there!"
I detest when people can't pronounce "nuclear." But she can pronounce "Ahmadinejad." Nice job, coaches...
9:52 - "Second Holocaust?" WHAT THE CRAP. PLEASE STOP SAYING DUMB.
9:55 - Asfdsdfzdfxcv,kh? P's ignorance pains me.
P: "A safe, stable way to use 'nukular' weaponry." Yeaaahhhhh.
Nicky: "We need a surge in Afghanistan? Did she just say that??"
10:00 - Nicky: "Hi, I'm Joe Biden, and I can pronounce the word 'nuclear.'"
Nicky: "I'm glad to hear him say the words 'Barack Obama.' I haven't heard the words "Barack Obama" in like 20 minutes."
Me: "Does 'Senator O'Biden' count?"
What the Billy Shears is a "stomach for success?" Because apparently America has one.
B does not, however, have a "stomach for genocide." What other stomachs will be invoked tonight?
10:06 - Nicky: "She can't cite her own evidence, she has to wait for the pundits to do it tomorrow morning. Brilliant."
Nobody who claims to be a "maverick" is an actual maverick. It's just not a title you can grant yourself.
How TF did she hop from terr'ism to taxes?
P keeps accusing B of being stuck in the past, whenever he talks about how bad things are under Bush. NEWS FLASH: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS NOT IN THE PAST. WE'RE STILL IN IT.
Nicky: "Yeah, the Bush administration is in the past, but she's going to do such great things under 'no child left behind.'"
10:15 - WTF do children with special needs have to do with what the Vice President does for a living??
Nicky: "When she talked about the Vice President having 'more power,' all I could think of was Tim 'The Toolman' Taylor."
B knows how to read the constitution. Major points from me for his taking Cheney to task.
Once again, P answers a non-energy question with her energy stump soundbites. OPEN YOUR EARS.
P says "America is a shining city on a hill." Nicky: "If that doesn't sound like George Bush, I don't know what does."
Me riffing on B: "Why yes, I am made of awesome."
Nicky: "At least he admits he's made of flawed awesome."
B totally WENT THERE with the single-parent thing. Wow.
Nicky: "Gee, somebody's actually taking ownership of Joe Lieberman."
B finally stomps on the "maverick" thing. Freaking THANK you.
10:24 - VERY good question to ask.
B: "It didn't take me long to change, it took about five years." lolwut?
P is not talking about things she changed, she's talking about things she wishes she could have done better. Nicky: "We don't ever have to change our beliefs in Alaska!"
Aaaaand again she goes off on the energy thing instead of answering the question. Nicky: "Yes, we know your state has a fuckton of oil, now shut up."
Aaaand she's invoking Reagan again. ARGH.
She had to sneak a sly "our children, and our children's children" in there. Shoot me.
Nicky and I burst out into a quick "Tubthumping" chorus during B's closing.
And that's that.
Nicky and I agree that Biden mopped the floor with Palin. That was a very good debate, unlike last week's. As Nicky said, we're not left facepalming and wanting to elect the moderator.
Nicky: "Maverick! Maverick! Maverick! Ahmadinejad! Maverick! Maverick! I have a special-needs child! Maverick! Maverick! I'm Sarah Palin, and I approve this message."