The Devil You Know

Here's a great example of why public attitude toward President Obama's pricey health care proposal is somewhat tepid. It's not that people think the current system is so great. The "Cash for Clunkers" program should have been a no-brainer to administer.

Never underestimate the propensity for well meaning individuals, acting in haste, to make a fucked up status quo even worse.

From WCBSTV:

Government Suspends 'Clunkers' Program

At Current Rate, Giving Out $3,500 Or $4,500 Per Vehicle Would Burn Through $1 Billion Allocated In No Time

NYC Car Dealers: How Could Obama Administration Mess This Up?

"Cash for Clunkers" came to a screeching halt Thursday, after only six days on the road.

In a shocker, the government announced it would suspend the program at midnight because demand was too great.

..."If they can't administer a program like this, I'd be a little concerned about my health insurance," car salesman Rob Bojaryn said.

Read more!

The Arresting Truth

Judge Napolitano (no bleeding heart) on Fox News is critical of the Cambridge PD.


Read more!

The Last "T" Stands for "Tease"

You win this round Professor Moriarty.

From The Consumerist:

AT&T Charges You A Fee For Getting A Discount

Reader "ValentineHumphrey" has a part-time job with a company that gets a 25% discount from AT&T. It sounded like a good deal until she found out there was actually a fee for signing up for the discount. What?

I call the 800 number for AT&T and ask the nice gentleman on the phone if there is anything he can do, can he add the discount even though I already signed a 2 year contract? YES! You (the consumer) can add a discount at any time. He is unable to do so, however, due to the computer program (they do not have access) but he is more than willing to walk me through the process. "Do you have a work email?" No, I'm out of luck online. I can add the discount myself with the discount sponsor code, but without an employee email for employment
verification I will have to go to a store.

No problem, there is a store near my home. I called on Wednesday, and went to the store on Friday. I know they will want employment verification so I bring my name badge, photo id, the paper with the discount code. Go in and the man at the desk goes about setting me up. Then he says this "There is an activation fee of $36 to add this discount to your account."

Read more!

The Sweet Smell of Success

Failblog.org is exactly why the web was invented!




Read more!

Devil's Due

I feel like telling The New Yorker to go to hell after seeing the results of the 200th "Cartoon Caption" contest.

My submission fit the cartoon AND wasn't obvious:

"The big guy wants you to show him how to use his new iPhone."

The winners were ALL mediocre (at best):

• "Oh, yeah, we go way back." - the receptionist is the one doing the talking AND it's not a funny line
  
  
• "He says he is known by many names." - weak
  
  
• "Sir, the competition is here to discuss the merger." - sucks

Read more!

Quitter

Time has healed no wounds for me. I'm still pissed at Barry Sanders for bailing on the Lions without any warning right before the start of training camp. So, forgive me If I'm not celebrating his career today.

From The Detroit Free Press:

Ten years ago, Barry Sanders ended great career abruptly

He knows his sudden exit wasn't popular; he and his teammates talk about his days

...One day his likeness graced skyscrapers in downtown Detroit, and the next day he was on a plane to London. At least it seemed like that. The shock of his abrupt retirement rippled through metro Detroit, both among fans and media. Sadness, frustration, disappointment and in some cases even anger greeted news that Sanders had called it a career.

Read more!

Sunk

As usual, the 199th New Yorker's "Cartoon Caption" contest left me breathless.

My entry:

"Well, just what does SCOTUS mean then?"

Okay, I guess the guy in the picture is dressed for snorkeling not SCUBA diving. But I hold the "winners" in contempt nonetheless:

• “You think Alcatraz can hold me?” - sucks
  
  
• "Go ahead, waterboard me." - sucks
  
  
• “Well, the menu did say ‘Choose your own lobster.’” - sucks

Read more!

My God, It's Full of Stars!

Something "amazing" must be about to happen.

BTW, why did it take an "amateur astrononmer" and not NASA to notice this?

From The New York Times:

Amateur Finds New Earth-Sized Blot on Jupiter

NASA has confirmed the discovery of a new hole the size of the Earth in Jupiter’s atmosphere, apparently showing that the planet was hit by something large in recent days. The impact mark was first spotted on Monday morning by an amateur astronomer in Australia, who then drew the attention of scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the dark mark on Jupiter’s south polar region.

Read more!

The Space Procedural

My pals at The House Next Door once again allow me to vent my overactive spleen. This time I list some of my favorite space flicks on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Actor and avid sailor Sterling Hayden once said that no film has ever really captured the true essence of sea travel. On the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, it occurs to me that the same thing could be said about cinematic depictions of space travel. For the most part, movies set in space use it as a backdrop for stories about aliens or Earth threatening phenomenons (or Earth threatening aliens). Even if you discount schlock flicks about hot women on Venus or the Star Wars/Star Trek genre, it’s hard to find a space movie that focuses on the mechanics of the journey itself.

Full post at The House Next Door.
Read more!

Not Fast Food, Good Food Fast

If KFC can make an old Southern "Colonel" work as their spokesperson in urban areas, maybe Pizza Hut can make food served in a hovel sound good.

From isdgn:

Pizza the Hut

With a significant decline in sales, Pizza Hut is responding to the tough economic times by launching a new branding strategy. Will ‘The Hut’ make you want to eat out again?

It's no secret, more consumers are choosing to dine at home and avoid 'junk' foods to save money. The largest player in the pizza industry is trying to win back pizza fans with a new image and menu items like all-natural multigrain pizza, lasagna, and wings.

Read more!

Franking Privileges

Wow. I actually got an email from Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation.

I don't know HOW I got on that list. She's fundraising because changes in postage rate structures are hurting The Nation more severely than their competition.

Here's some background: in 2007, a postal rate restructuring pushed by Time Warner lobbyists saddled The Nation with a $500,000 annual increase, while some big corporate publishers saw their rates stay steady or even decrease. This year, we're facing another $100,000 on top of that. Corporate publishers are working the system, but like many independent publications, The Nation is in dire straits.

I'm not inclined to send The Nation any money. But, I wonder if I should let her know that I've always found her kinda hot.

Read more!

Gone Baby Gone

Anyone want to bet their middle class tax cut that President Obama doesn't get skewered like Senator McCain did when he said the very same thing in Ohio a year ago?

Let's HOPE he's wrong.

From Reuters:

Obama says some lost auto jobs not coming back

President Barack Obama took a dose of reality to Michigan on Tuesday, saying that thousands of jobs lost to the auto industry's downturn are not coming back and it is time to prepare for new industries.

Traveling to Michigan, a state hit hard by job losses as Detroit's Big Three automakers have reeled from the U.S. recession, Obama planned to promote a $12
billion initiative to boost community colleges and increase the graduation rate.

"(The) hard truth is that some of the jobs that have been lost in the auto industry and elsewhere won't be coming back," Obama was to say, according to prepared remarks released by the White House.

Read more!

Gives Great Head (of Beer)

Daddy's little girl...all grown up now.


Read more!

Yaba Daba D'oh

My guess is that most of the greenhouse gases back then were caused by Fred driving the Flintstone mobile right after eating that large order of Brontosaurus ribs at the diner.

From Breibart:

Mystery mechanism drove global warming 55 million years ago

A runaway spurt of global warming 55 million years ago turned Earth into a hothouse but how this happened remains worryingly unclear, scientists said on Monday.

Previous research into this period, called the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, estimates the planet's surface temperature blasted upwards by between five and nine degrees Celsius (nine and 16.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in just a few thousand years.

The Arctic Ocean warmed to 23 C (73 F), or about the temperature of a lukewarm bath.

How PETM happened is unclear but climatologists are eager to find out, as this could shed light on aspects of global warming today.

What seems clear is that a huge amount of heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases --natural, as opposed to man-made -- were disgorged in a very short time.

The theorised sources include volcanic activity and the sudden release of methane hydrates in the ocean.

Read more!

Attention, Interest, Desire, Ack

Retro Comedy lists "The 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads Of All Time."

I wonder if it's too late to incorporate any of these into the new season of Mad Men?

What do murder, pedophilia, suicide and a baby tiger have in common? They have all been used to sell stuff in these amazingly disturbing vintage ads!

These are real, untouched advertisements from the good old days. It doesn't matter if it's lovely ladies or adorable clowns, somehow these old-time ad wizards found ways to traumatize us while pedaling everyday products.

Read more!

What a Pair of Beauties

Since I posted a photo of Obama at the G8 Summit where he seems to be checking out a girl, I thought I'd be fair and add something for the ladies.

Sophia Loren sneaks a peak at Jayne Mansfield (I'm still scouring the Internet for the infamous Zero Mostel/Shirley Temple pic).

Read more!

Barack That Booty

Timing is everything in this photo of Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy at the G8 summit in Italy.

Now THAT'S a stimulus package even I can get behind!

Read more!

The Manchurian Toddler

These "Your Baby Can Read" ads creep me out. Couldn't this technique be used for nefarious purposes?


Read more!

Ghostwalk

The most dramatic of the YouTube's purporting to show Michael Jackson's "ghost" caught on tape during a Larry King special. It's really just a live person's shadow in another room.

This YouTube has gotten over seven million views. CNN wishes that many people actually watched their network.


Read more!

Fun With Numbers

It's a bit of stretch, but entertaining:

From Politico:

Buon giorno! SOMETHING TO TELL YOUR KIDS: Today (7/8/09) at 34 min and 56 sec past noon (12:34:56), the time and date together will be 123456789. (hat tip: Tommy Boy)

Read more!

World of WTF?

There's an anonymous jackass (could be a bot I guess) who keeps posting comments to my January 2008 review of the Law and Order episode "Baby Boom." The comments always tout World of Warcraft stuff (links deleted):

vfdvgf said...
Our website are the reliable wow gold and wow power leveling wow gold

I'm not sure why.
Read more!

Life Imitating Art

As this Mirror story points out, Michael Jackson played the
scarecrow who needed a brain in the movie version of The Wiz.

Michael Jackson to be buried without his brain

Michael Jackson will be buried this week– without his brain. As his family tries to finalise details for the King of Pop’s funeral on Tuesday they have been told it will be held back for tests.

They faced the grim choice of waiting up to three weeks for Jackson’s brain to be returned to them or go ahead and bury him without it – which they have decided to do.

Los Angeles Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey confirmed that neuropathology tests will be carried out to see if it holds any clues to the exact cause of his death.

But the examination cannot begin until at least two weeks after the death when the brain has hardened sufficiently to slice it open.

Jackson died from a cardiac arrest at his Beverly Hills mansion on June 25 after a suspected overdose of painkillers.

Read more!

A Picture Is Worth a 1000 Words

"Certified" personal trainer Alex Stewart describes "7 Sex Secrets To Keep The Doctor Away."

The beefcake shots of himself he uses to illustrate each reason are, er, interesting. Like this one for item two:

Greater Frequency Of Ejaculation Decreases The Risk Of Prostate Cancer In Men By Up To 33%.

Read more!

She Outta Know

Maureen Dowd may be correct in her column that characterizes Sarah Palin, the soon to be ex-Governor of Alaska, as "nutty" and "narcissistic."

But, then again, people in glass houses...

Now, Sarah’s Folly

Sarah Palin showed on Friday that in one respect at least, she is qualified to be president.

Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy.

Usually we don’t find that exquisite battiness in our leaders until they’ve been battered by sordid scandals like Watergate (Nixon), gnawing problems like Vietnam (L.B.J.), or scary threats like biological terrorism (Cheney).

Read more!

How Do You Say "Poseur" in Spanish

If Paltrow loves "old" things so much, I know where she can get a '77 Buick LeSabre REALLY cheap.

From MyWay.com:

Gwyneth Paltrow says Spain changed her life

Gwyneth Paltrow speaks almost perfect Spanish - and she does it with an Iberian accent.

The Oscar-winning actress says she traveled to Spain as a teenager, fell in love with the country, and embraces the culture to the point that she visits at least once a year and makes sure her young children, Apple and Moses, also speak the language.

..."It is so different from the United States. It seemed to have a history, and the buildings are years and years and years old. Here in the United States an old building is about 17 (years old), and over there it's from 500 B.C., it's incredible," she said.

Read more!

Momma, They Took My Kodachrome Away

With apologies to Paul Simon...

From Kodak.com:

KODACHROME Discontinuation:

Eastman Kodak Company announced on June 22, 2009 that it will discontinue sales of KODACHROME Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. Sales of KODACHROME, which became the world's first commercially successful color film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to other films or digital capture. Today, KODACHROME represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak's total sales of still-picture films.

Read more!

1 Girl, 1 Browser

I honestly don't know if this is an actual Microsoft "viral" video for IE8 or not. But I found it amusing nonetheless.

Am I wrong to wonder out loud that if the wife didn't vomit at the sight of whatever freak show the husband was browsing, maybe he wouldn't have been browsing it in the first place?

I'll answer that: yes, it probably is.

Read more!