Kill Vader

Fans of Kill Bill (and Lego), beware:

Bill O'Rielly's Right to Privacy

Here Jon Stewart does a masterful deconstruction of Bill O'Rielly's unconscionable hypocrisy:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Bill O'Reilly's Right to Privacy

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Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

So Fox News is doing fair reporting? Riiiiiiiiiight.

True, true

The original:


And eight years later:

Pruden's Law

As I was watching the debates last night, I had to laugh when McCain invoked Ronald Reagan. Mine was neither a scoff nor derisive chuckle, merely an amused reflection. At the Republican debates, I remember how almost every candidate cited Reagan, much in the same way that Democrats cite Kennedy.

Even so, it makes me think of Godwin's Law:

As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

I'm not comparing anyone to Hitler, so don't even. But it does make me laugh how frequently Republicans invoke Reagan as, supposedly, a tactic to remind the Old Guard of the Jellybean Days. Meaning, "Vote for me... because I'm like Reagan!"

The intent of naming something is not simply to call attention to it, but to take away its power. At the beginning of any historical/political discussion, if someone were to say, "Okay, so we're going to defy Godwin's Law, riiiiiight?", then nobody wants to run the supertanker onto the beach.

If we were to do the same for Reagan, I'd call it Pruden's Law and define it thusly:

As a debate among conservative political candidates grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Ronald Reagan approaches one.

If any of you decide to add this to Wiki, call it Pruden's Law! Because you heard it here first.

Class of 2012

I remember the first of these lists in 1998, and they never cease to amaze and amuse me. Perhaps the most unsettling news is how this generation has always experienced privacy as being under threat... it makes films like Minority Report, where personal freedoms can be infringed at the government's whim, tragically plausible.

I find this list always helps to remind me how the world looks to the youngest of generations, who will one take take the reins. As the Indian adage goes, "We are not inheriting the world from our parents, we borrowing it from our children."

---

This month, almost 2 million first-year students will head off to college campuses around the country. Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990 when headlines sounded oddly familiar to those of today: Rising fuel costs were causing airlines to cut staff and flight schedules; Big Three car companies were facing declining sales and profits; and a president named Bush was increasing the number of troops in the Middle East in the hopes of securing peace. However, the mindset of this new generation of college students is quite different from that of the faculty about to prepare them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The List is shared with faculty and with thousands who request it each year as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
   
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
   
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
   
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
   
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
   
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
   
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
   
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
   
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
   
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
    
11. All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
    
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
    
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
    
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
    
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
    
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
    
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
    
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
    
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
    
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
    
21. Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
    
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
    
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
    
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
    
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
    
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
    
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
    
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
    
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
    
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
    
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
    
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
    
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
    
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
    
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
    
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
    
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
    
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
    
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
    
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
    
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
    
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
    
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
    
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
    
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
    
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
    
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
    
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
    
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
    
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
    
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
    
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
    
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
    
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
    
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
    
56. Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
    
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
    
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
    
59. There have always been charter schools.
    
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

Link.

That's okay... Daddy was going to get an iPhone.

At every turn, parenthood is frought with peril... if this ever happens with my iPhone, I may have to look into adoption.

Cliff Golfing

Cliff Golfing Gone Wrong

The Lyre Bird (unseen footage)

This video had me, quite literally, rolling on the floor with laughter:

Dr. Horrible is Dr. Awesome

Joss Whedon does it again—his 45 minute musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog is hilarious. Not only is the entire idea to make a modern musical intriguing, it's also quite clever and Neil Patrick Harris' vlogs have pitch perfect comic timing... when Dr. Horrible adjusted his goggles toward the off-center video camera, I just about peed myself.

If you don't want to buy it from iTunes for $3.99 (which I did), then check it out here, courtesy of Hulu:

Jibjab: satire done well

I love Jibjab—they realize poking fun at everyone is the best way to not appear partisan:

Oh YEAH?? Well, I did THIS!!

Dishwasher soap and dishwasher detergent are not the same thing.

Now I know.

You had a bad day

Humans in furry suits. Oh, the joy is limitless.

26 Words... and Counting

Not including any sign language she's picked up, my daughter has amassed an impressive vocabulary thus far. We can't be sure, but "Uh-oh" may have been the first word she ever learned. That must mean something, although I'm not sure what, and I'm even less sure I want to know.

We're also pretty sure she learned "elbow" last night... but then she points to the cat and says "elbow", so who knows.

1. Mama
   
2. Dada
   
3. Baba (bottle)
   
4. Up
   
5. Dau (down)
   
6. Thath (that)
   
7. Thith (this)
   
8. Papa (i.e., Grandpapa)
   
9. Puppy
   
10. Rara (Raja, our cat)
    
11. Sta (Star)
    
12. Baa (Bear)
    
13. Truck
    
14. Caa (Car)
    
15. Hi
    
16. Bye
    
17. Wawa (Water)
    
18. Babth (Bath)
    
19. Bau (Ball)
    
20. Books
    
21. Wow
    
22. Ow
    
23. Rath (Rat, her stuffed animal)
    
24. Yeth (Yes)
    
25. Wak (Walk)
    
26. Uh-oh

Be a Facebook Fan

I'm geeky, but I own it. Now come be my fan on Facebook. I can promise many pictures and silliness.

2nd Row, Far Right

Thanks to my geeky friends, we now have a Wii Urban Tribe, too:

Fans of Lost: Meet Kevin Johnson

Tracie and I saw this sign the day after we saw last week's Lost episode, "Meet Kevin Johnson". We gave each other that look that says, "No effing way!"

Am I bad, sick, and wrong...

...for laughing at this?

No, you can't.

Satire is the most aggressive form of flattery.—Charles Poore

Oh My God

Ha! I finally found an embed link to John Bryant's macabre short Oh My God, which I mentioned over a year ago. Some people don't find it funny at all, which has always puzzled me... anyone should be able to pick up from the film's silly credits that it's not meant to be taken seriously.

Remember, this is extremely dark humor. You have been warned!

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

Celebrity Collage

John Goodman? I can see that. But JOEY FATONE???



Why not do it yourself?