Renaissance Man

I'm sitting in my living room, blogging on my Blackberry, drinking a fantastic Australian Shiraz, reading my Wall Street Journal, listening to Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' on my Sonos.

You simply can not be this cool.

As long as the right people are in charge, everything will be fine.

There's a great post at CoyoteBlog on some confusion at the NOW website.

Apparently, they want your laws off their bodies, but want government run heathcare.

Seems to me, those two goals are incompatible. Government run healthcare means the government can tell you what you do (and what care you get) with your body.

Peace Sells

Through tht eprocess of burning all of my CDs to an NAS (for the Sonos), I'm rediscovering some great old stuff.

What I'm spinning today while getting things done around the house (Mrs. Stagg isn't home):

Megadeth - Peace Sells...But Who's Buying

I'm suprised not only how well this stands the test of time from a musical standpoint, but the lyrics are applicable today just as they were 21 years ago (I'm getting old). Frankly, this is still better than the pop/metal crap you hear on 'rock' radio these days.

Live - Mental Jewelry

While not the usual heavy shit I usually like, I still dig these guys (and again, 100 times better than what you get now). This 1991 album has a couple of killer tracks on it.

Whitesnake - Slide it in

Really, what else needs to be said. Grab a shot of whiskey, a beer, and a pack of Marlboros, and check out the blondes in tight acid washed jeans.

Dream Theater - Awake

1994. Just awesome. How can anyone not like this.

Hatebreed - Perserverance

This was in my training rotation for a long time. Really not groundbreaking mucisianship, but good to get you angry. In a positive way.

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.

Question

Listening to the induction ceremony for Cal Ripken Jr. this weekend, a question occurred to me:

How does everyone assume Mark McGuire used illegal anabolic steroids, but Cal Ripken didn't?

And why would the hall of fame care, given neither of them broke any baseball rules?

I hope Bonds destroys the record, so there's no question.

Prediction

In honor of the beginning of Ravens training camp, I would like to present my virtually meaningless, pretty much uneducated, and mostly just a shot in the dark prediction for this year:

12 - 4

AFC North Champs

How the government really works

Don Boudreaux explains the real politics of prohibition in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The most important thing to know:

So, if the history of alcohol prohibition is a guide, drug prohibition will not end merely because there are many sound, sensible and humane reasons to end it. Instead, it will end only if and when Congress gets desperate for another revenue source.

It's sad, but what the government decides you can and can not do has little to do with anything other than revenue. Gambling is exactly the same.

How you can tell for sure the American public is stupid

Daughtry has a record deal, and has sold 3 MILLION copies of their first album.

Who listens to this shit? I heard it on the radio the other day, it's like they rip off 3 other awful bands (Nickelback being the most obvious), and don't even do it well.

I hate pop music.

Must be nice.

A man's boss tells him to kidnap a man, take him to a ditch, and shoot him. The victim dies, and the shooters plant a gun near him to cover up the crime.

One of the shooters' punishment: he loses his job.

That's what happens if you are a Marine, and your victim is an Iraqi.

Charged with killing an Iraqi civilian, Marine Trent Thomas backed out of a plea agreement calling for a 12-year sentence to face a court-martial that could have put him in prison for life. He said Friday that it wasn't a gamble, but a leap of faith.

"God can do anything but fail," the 25-year-old from Madison, Ill., said shortly after a jury decided against giving him any prison time for kidnapping and conspiring to murder. "It didn't matter whether I took the 12-year deal or went to court. God's willing for me to get out."

Thomas, who spent 14 months in the brig awaiting trial, was reduced in rank from corporal to private and given a bad-conduct discharge. He could have received life in prison without parole for the crimes he was convicted of Wednesday, and one of the counts he was acquitted of, aggravated murder, carried a mandatory life sentence.

A jury of three officers and six enlisted Marines deliberated for less than an hour Friday before returning its decision.

Prosecutors had recommended Thomas be sentenced to 15 years in prison with a dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank and a fine for his role in the April 2006 killing of the retired Iraqi policeman in the village of Hamdania.

Thomas was among seven Marines and a Navy corpsman accused of snatching 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his house, marching him to a nearby ditch and shooting him after they botched an attempt to capture a suspected insurgent.

Prosecutors said squad members tried to cover up the killing by planting a shovel and AK-47 by Awad's body to make it look like he was an insurgent planting a bomb.

"I believe we did what we needed to do to save Marines' lives," Thomas said outside court, while declining to discuss the details of what happened that night. "I think anybody who understands what war is or what combat is understands."

Thomas' attorneys argued that their client was only following orders from his squad leader and asked that he be returned to active duty.

"We failed him as a Marine Corps, because under good leadership, this Marine would not be here today," Maj. Haytham Faraj told the court. "Consider where the responsibility lies."

Thomas had agreed in January to plead guilty in the case, but withdrew the guilty pleas on the eve of sentencing in February. His attorney, Victor Kelley, said that pretrial agreement had called for 12 years in prison.

Words don't convey how disgusted I am.

Some questions, answered

USA Today worries that the lighter unbanning on airplanes is an issue, because lighters might still be dangerous.

The TSA has a very helpful Qand A on the subject, but USA today has some questions only a smart person can answer. Lucky for you, I'm smart.

When and how was it decided (and who decided) that lighters were no longer a "significant threat"? Less a threat than 4 ounces of shampoo or toothpaste or breast milk? Help us out here, TSA.

Lighers never were a significant threat. They were banned in response to someone using matches to light his shoe, so naturally, they banned lighters, but not matches. This is what happens when you Must Do Something, you just come up with something to do.

• What's the deal with smokers? Why do they continue to pack lighters in carry-ons, knowing they'll be taken? Willfulness? Constitutional issues? Nicotine-induced amnesia? Or is it just addiction? (Are screeners also confiscating heroin-junkies' "rigs"?)

The article points out that over 11 MILLION lighters were confiscated last year. I flew several times last year, each time with a lighter. Only lost one. Why? Because airport screening is a joke. Smokers who travel regularly know that it's easy to make it through screening with your lighter. So you pack it, take some matches just in case, and you'll probably get to your destination with your Bic. In my case, my wife and I also made it to our destination with a screwdriver and a canister of mace (which was attached to my wife's keychain IN PLAIN VIEW).

• Why is breast milk not a threat? (See below)

It never was.