August 26, 2008
At Least She Can Point To Her Record Of Legislative Successes - Oops, Never Mind.
Let me get this straight - not only did the first female Speaker of the House not get a headlining speech at her party's convention...
"Now we have Nancy Pelosi bloviating, and I say that in an affectionate way, behind us," [Bill] O'Reilly said. "It doesn't seem like the crowd is on the edge of their seats."... the keynote address was given by the candidate's wife.
Fox's viewers weren't allowed to judge for themselves. Same thing for CNN at the time, where Wolf Blitzer was holding court as Pelosi talked. Among the cable news networks, only MSNBC gave Pelosi's speech any real attention.
Now *that's* respect.
August 25, 2008
To Me, The Biggest Surprise Was That The *ENTIRE CAR* Wasn't Glued Together
Did you settle for the Smart fortwo passion...
...because you couldn't justify the extra $26,000 for the Smart Crossblade Limited?
Well, don't despair, because if you bought one of the 43 fortwos recalled for defective paint, you could end up with a Crossblade at any moment:
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the faulty paint was applied to the Smart’s chassis and Tridion safety cell framework. Apparently, the paint is a delaminating risk, and if the paint comes apart near the portion where the windshield and roof are adhesive-mounted, they could separate from the rest of the car [emphasis added]. According to NHTSA, "This could cause a crash if the roof or windshield separated from the vehicle while in motion.”
New plan:
- Buy a fortwo passion coupe.
- Borrow a pressure washer.
- Apply pressure washer to windshield/roof adhesion areas until...
- ...you can sell the resulting "Krossblade" on eBay for $39k.
[first derivative H/T AutoblogGreen]
August 15, 2008
No, The Non Sequitur Is Not A Balance Beam Move Invented By The French
Memo to the U.S. Olympic women's Gymnastics team: your pratfalls in the team competition had absolutely nothing to do with the age of the Chinese gymnasts.
(not that it would have mattered - I think gymnastics is rigged worse than pro 'wrestling' and almost as bad as figure skating)
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if the allegations that some of the Chinese girls are underage is true, then that just makes it worse - you got waxed by a bunch of kids.
It's great that you got some redemption with your one-two in the all-around. Now go away and don't bother me again until London.
August 11, 2008
It's Getting Harder And Harder To Defend Them
Actual headline on the Fox News Channel, about five minutes ago:
What Can You Do To Protect Yourself From Vampire Bats?
July 10, 2008
The Law Of Unintended Consequences Has Been In Effect For A Lot Longer
California just enacted a new law requiring that people who use cell phones while driving also use hands-free devices. I wonder what happened to the accident rate last week, since all these people are now distracted by fiddling with brand-new (and unfamiliar) hands-free devices.
June 05, 2008
I'm Not Saying They Should Put My Name On The Cup... OK, I *AM* Saying They Should Put My Name On The Cup
I have this really really tattered Red Wings car flag. It's been with me since just after the '97 Cup-winning season. After the 2002 Cup-winning season, I bought a new car flag to succeed it. I'm as superstitious as the next hockey fan (maybe we get that from the players), so naturally I thought that my choice of when, where, and how I flew my new flag had something to do with the Wings' subsequent five-year Cup drought. This led me to perform a series of superstitionsexperiments from one postseason to the next about when to fly it: I tried waiting until the playoffs (didn't help), then waiting until the second round of the playoffs (didn't help), then waiting until the conference finals (totally didn't help (I mean. Anaheim. Really?)). Eventually, I decided not to fly my car flag again at all until the Wings won the Stanley Cup.
Well, last weekend I got a little cocky. After the Wings stole game 4 in Pittsburgh, I figured that the Cup was in the bag, so... I. Flew. The. Flag.
Of course, you all know how Game 5 turned out.
So I was sitting at a red light on my way to work yesterday morning. It was a warm morning, so I opened my other windows a bit while I was waiting (my A/C conked several years ago). I'm an attentive driver, and I didn't want to waste one second of the upcoming green light, so I kept my eyes forward and opened the back two windows without looking. The light turned green and I took off.
Clunk. Thump. I checked the rearview, and of course there's my flag - no longer held in place by the closed window - sitting on the street. I was all ready to pull over and run back to get it, 8:00 meeting be damned, when it hit me: THE FACT THAT I FLEW THE FLAG PREMATURELY WAS WHY THE WINGS LOST GAME 5!
And now I'm flying my tattered old flag again, thanks to the Wings... and Marc-Andre Fleury's butt.
