Asking the right questions

The headline: 47 Million Americans Without Health Insurance, Census Report.

Wow. That sounds bad.

But no one asks the following questions:

1) How many of those 47 million choose to self insure?
2) How many of those 47 million choose to not purchase health insurance, and instead opt for cable TV, the NFL package, and HBO?
3) Why should I have to provide health insurance by force to these people who have chosen to not have it?

Shouldn't we at least have the first two down before we decide this is good or bad news?

I trust strippers more than the majority of the US population

And you should, too.

I've always said to train where the strippers train. Here's one more reason to pay attention to what they are doing when they are away from the pole.

Seriously?

Life imitating a story straight out of The Onion, Administrators at Payne Junior High suspend a 13 year old for drawing a gun.

Not drwaing as in pulling out of a holster, but drawing as in with a pencil on paper.

Lines in the Sand

Saw Dream Theater last night. Unreal.

Simply the best rock band on the planet.

But all I hear on the radio is Nickelback. I'll never get it.

Not a cheap war.

I love the internet. Without the internet, this video wouldn't be foating around.


Too bad it wasn't floating around 3 years ago. Maybe we could have voted these maniacs out of office. These are the people killing your children. In 2003, what made the additional 3000 US troops lives worth it, given the rest of his predictions were absolutely true?

Via The Agitator.

Real Bigots

The 'Black Community' is questioning Barack Obama's "blackness".

With puzzlement and a touch of humor, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama weighed in Friday on a question posed by some in the black community about whether he's ''black enough'' to represent them in the White House.

Speaking to a packed ballroom at the National Association of Black Journalists convention here, Obama said he found the question curious because it appeared to go deeper than his brown skin or his record as a U.S. senator from Illinois or a member of that state's legislature.

''It's not my track record. It's not that I can't give a pretty good speech; from what I've heard I can preach once in a while,'' he told the audience. ``What it really does lay bare, I think, in part: We're still locked into the notion that somehow if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong.''

I thought we were shooting for color blindness? Why is it ok for the 'black community' to question someone's 'blackness'. Can you imagine the uproar if the 'white community' considered someone's 'whiteness'.

Congratulations.

To Barry Bonds, who may be the greatest player in baseball history.

Your Government in action

We really don't make this stuff up.

The letter instructs me to send the city a check for $7 ($30 if the animal is "unaltered", $17 if it's been more than 45 days since the rabies shot) along with "a copy of the current rabies vaccination certificate." All this may seem reasonable, in light of the threat that rabies poses to people and other animals, but it makes little sense to me. The city knows I have a cat (three, actually) only because I took him to the vet and had him vaccinated. So in what sense is the city monitoring compliance when it tells me to send a check and a copy of the vaccination certificate? It already knows my cat is vaccinated; it says so in the first sentence of the letter.

"This is a huge victory in hairstyles"

This is freaking hilarious.





Via Rob the Bouncer

Lebanese Taverna

This week was restaurant week in Baltimore. Unfortunately, we were only able to take advantage of it one night - Saturday - at Lebanese Taverna.

Other than at the Prime Rib, our restaurant week experiences in the past have been positive. Always freshly made, just like you ordered off the menu, often things we wouldn't otherwise try.

Lebanese Taverna was a bit of a dissapointment. As an appetizer, had Shrimp Arak, which tasted to me like thawed shrimp out of a bag, cooked with butter. OK, but not fantastic. J had grape leaves, which had obviously been pre made and pre plated (the plate was ice cold), and just weren't very good. We both chose Sharhat Ghanam (sliced grilled lamb), which was very much like what you would get at a banquet where they make 200 at a time. It was OK, but not great. The house wine (red or white) was OK, but I don't even know what it was.

Dessert was Creme Caramel, which was good.

Service was dissapointing, through little fault of the waiter. He had too many tables, and was struggling to keep up, even when most were ordering off the fixed menu. The building is cool - the bar area is really cool, but the room is way too loud and a bit cramped. It was also not as clean as I like to see.

Given all the raves we've heard, we are going to give them another chance at some point, but based on our experience last night, there are lots of much better places to go, and life is too short.

Overall: Food - 5 out of 10, Service - 6 out of 10, Ambiance - 7 out of 10.

Someone's talking tough on terrorism

Barack Obama. Yup. Now, I'm not really a fan, but I think it's about time someone said something about attacking a country that actually has something to do with helping those who attacked the US.

And, frankly, I don't care what they think.