New Movies I am Excited About.

In front of MurderBall I saw the previews for Thumbsucker with Keanu Reeves and Vince Vaughn, Broken Flowers with Bill Murray and directed by Jim Jarmusch, and the trailer for the Green Street Hooligans which I thought might have been directed by Guy Ritchie. I was wrong. They all look good.

Also I'm looking forward to seeing A Scanner Darkly by Richard Linklater, V for Vandetta written by the Wachowski Brothers of an adaptaion of the comic by Alan Moore and David Lloyd , and Domino staring Kira Knightley and directed by Tony Scott.

The movie scene is looking good ....

My Weekend So Far and A Must See Movie

So Friday I saw Murderball. A movie about the Quad Rugby at the Paralympics. It's amazing to see what these guys can do and how they overcome there disability. Most of these guys could whip my ass all over the place. The Local Nashville team had some guys there that where showing the wheelchairs and explaining how to play. The movie is playing here in Nashville at the Green Hills theater through next weekend I believe (click here for more info).

Yesterday I went to the Music City Brewers Festival here. They had some 40 odd beers there both local and national. Some good some bad. Lots of fun. They said that they sold 5000 pre sale tickets. Got to see Foggy Bottom and Mile 8 play there, both good.

Today I think I may just be lazy. Or maybe I'll get ou side I don't yet.

Man .. that Santorum...needs Bitchslapped

And there is talk of a presidential run by him.

So Senator, How does birth control hurt women (qtime)?

I swear this man needs slapped around a bit.

Found via Atrios and Santorun exposed.

Stuff From Harpers Index May 2005.

From Harpers:

Average amount the Bush Administration has spent per year on contracts with P.R. firms : $62,500,000[Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives]

Average amount spent during the second term of the Clinton Administration: $32,000,000[Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives]

Amount the Department of Homeland Security will spend this year directing research at U.S. universities: $45,000,000[U.S. Department of Homeland Security]

Percentage of U.S. high-school students who believe news stories should require “government approval” before publication: 36[John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (Miami)]

Percentage of Americans who say Bush is a “uniter”: 49[Gallup Poll (Princeton, N.J.)]

Percentage who say he is a “divider”: 49[Gallup Poll (Princeton, N.J.)]

Minimum number of U.S. adults who think Bush is “liberal” or “very liberal”: 11,800,000[The Economist/YouGov poll (London)]

Chance that a U.S. adult thinks a “conservative” is someone who supports affirmative action: 1 in 4[The Harris Poll (Rochester, N.Y.)]

Minimum number of cows whose skins are used each year for Major League baseballs: 45,000[PETA (Norfolk, Va.)/Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc. (Fenton, Mo.)]

Number of female U.S. soldiers disciplined this year for mud-wrestling at an Iraqi prison camp: 2[Detainee Operations, Multi-National Forces, Iraq (Baghdad)]

Percentage in 1950 of U.S. men over 65 who were in the workforce: 46[U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Percentage last year: 19[U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Minimum age at which Massachusetts allows boys to marry, with parental permission: 14[Massachusetts Department of Public Health (Boston)]

Minimum age for girls: 12[Massachusetts Department of Public Health (Boston)]

Year that Boise, Idaho, banned full nudity in public unless it had “serious artistic merit”: 2001[Office of the City Clerk (Boise, Ida.)]

Number of nights each week that a Boise strip club now distributes sketch pads and pencils: 2[Erotic City (Boise, Ida.)]

It's Official... I'm a Raging Liberal...

Dosen't really suprise me though.

Your Political Profile

Overall: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Social Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal

Your Political Philosophy The below is a way of thinking about your political philosophy by dividing your PoliticsMatch answers into "personal" and "economic" questions. It is only a theory - please take it with a grain of salt! Personal Questions: Liberals and libertarians agree in choosing the less-government answers, while conservatives and authoritarians agree in choosing the more-restrictions answers. Economic Questions: Conservatives and libertarians agree in choosing the less-government answers, while liberals and authoritarians agree in choosing the more-restrictions answers. Your Score You scored the following on the PoliticsMatch questions:
Personal Score	82%
Economic Score	10%

Where You Fit In

Where your Personal score meets your Economic score on the grid below is your political philosophy. Based on the above score, you are a Hard-Core Liberal .

***********

ACCORDING TO YOUR ANSWERS,

The political description that
fits you best is...

.

LIBERAL

LIBERALS usually embrace freedom of choice in personal

matters, but tend to support significant government control of the

economy. They generally support a government-funded "safety net"
to help the disadvantaged, and advocate strict regulation

of business. Liberals tend to favor environmental regulations,

defend civil liberties and free expression, support government action

to promote equality, and tolerate diverse lifestyles.

The RED DOT on the Chart shows where you fit on the political map.

Your PERSONAL issues Score is 100%.
Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 40%.

Take Quiz here

Thursday Beer Blogging

So I am taking tomorrow off to relax so this is my Friday. Woo hoo. Had a pretty productive week things at work are good. Life is good. I'll drink to that.

Yellow

I don't normally like nike product's or how they do business, But I do have to give them credit for their commercials. The have some awesome ones ... Like this one here. Click on TV spot. I saw this commercial while watching a lat night Daily Show on my TiVo.

A few days ago I saw this one too. Click on TV Spot. Great Commercials.

NASA and the Commander of the Enterprise.

I missed the Shuttle launch today while I was at work but I went over to NASA's site to check it out(in Real Video). They have a flash enhanced site that gives an over view of the mission, crew, and the new safety stuff. Make sure you watch the videos. The have Scott Bakula narrating in his Star Trek: Enterprise uniform. How funny.

I'm excited to see the Shuttle go up again. Follow the coverage here.

There are More Important Things

So .... a sex scene, in cartooish video game style, is causing a uproar?

The House of Representatives voting 355 to 21 for a federal investigation to determine if the companies behind San Andreas intentionally deceived the industry's ratings board.

I know there are more important things that this that we should be dealing with in the Halls of Congress. Shouldn't the Industries Rating board be the one initiation this? Plus I have seen better, non-computer animated, sex scenes on regular TV.

Anyway shouldn't the focus of this such of a game be the violence, blatant crime motives, and mis treatment of others?

So what is the difference in a "mature" rating and an "adult only" rating? One year?

This is ridiculous. Look what happened to everything else that was explicit in nature that people tried to stop. Didn't Sales go up?

The Number 7

So has Artificial Intelligentience and Robotics been advanced further then we actually know? Have Aliens landed on this planet and we where not told?


Either way he's still doing good.

My favorite song right now.

I get asked a lot by people who don't know me the common, "So what kind of (enter pop culture reference here) do you like?" So I'm going to give an answer here.

I don't have a specific type of music that I like best just well done, well written music. But I would have to say that right now my favorite is Mike Doughty's "Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well" Mike used to be in Soul Coughing, a band of which I was a huge fan of. I'm glad Mike's got a new record out.

Mike Doughty's Blog

Check outMike Doughty's New Album Haughty Melodic

A Moment Not listed and a Great Picture of a Great Athlete

Mohammad Ali v. Sonny Liston Fight, "The Ghost Punch".



I saw this poster at the Flea Market yesterday, almost got it. It is one of those pictures that sparks a emotion inside.

10 Greatest Sports Moments of All Time

From the sports writers at SI.com:

1. Joe Montana to Dwight Clark: Some still swear that Montana was throwing the ball away when, under pressure and scrambling to his right, he let it fly for the back of the end zone. Instead, Montana was putting it where only his man could get it, and Clark skied to snatch the ball along the end line. The catch earns extra points for historical significance as it enabled the 49ers to beat Dallas 28-27 in the 1981 NFC Championship Game and start their run of titles.

2. Miracle on Ice: This is one highlight that is as much about the audio as the video. With the final seconds ticking off during the U.S. Olympic hockey team's shocking 4-3 win over the powerful Soviet Union in 1980, Al Michaels bellowed, "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" The U.S. squad later clinched the gold by beating Finland while countless sportscasters have tried to spawn their own versions of Michael's golden call.

3. Carlton Fisk waving it fair: Fisk's pleading with his shot down the left field line at Fenway Park to stay fair is as memorable as the hit itself, which caromed off the foul pole for a game-winning homer. Fisk's blast earned the Red Sox a 7-6 victory in the 12th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, though the Reds won Game 7. The foul pole was fittingly renamed after Fisk this season.

4. Christian Laettner's buzzer-beater: Kentucky seemed poised for a stunning upset of the defending champs from Duke in the 1992 East Regional when freshman Grant Hill stood (unguarded) at the far baseline in the closing seconds. Hill heaved a long inbounds pass to Laettner, who calmly caught the ball, took a dribble and made a turnaround jumper just outside the free-throw line at the buzzer for an unlikely win. Laettner didn't miss all game, from the field or the line, but this is the shot that everyone remembers.

5. Bill Buckner's E-3: The Mets had already tied the score in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series when Mookie Wilson squibbed a grounder toward the gimpy Buckner, who had not been removed for defensive purposes. That non-decision by manager John McNamara would long be second-guessed in Red Sox Nation after the ball scooted through Buckner's legs and allowed Ray Knight to score the winning run. Watch Buckner's head droop when the ball gets by him and you'd swear you can still hear the curses echoing from New England.

6. Willie Mays' catch: The Indians were heavy favorites in the 1954 World Series after winning 111 games, but that all changed when Vic Wertz blasted one 450 feet to straightaway center in the Polo Grounds in Game 1. Mays caught the ball over his head on a dead run and, perhaps more remarkably, whirled around and unleashed a powerful throw back to the infield in one motion. With the score tied at 2 in the eighth and runners on first and second, Mays' catch and throw kept the game knotted until the Giants won it in the 10th to open a remarkable sweep.

7. Immaculate Reception: Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw was trying to get the ball to Frenchy Fuqua in the dying seconds of an AFC playoff game against the Raiders when a defender clobbered Fuqua and the pigskin ricocheted away. Running back Franco Harris snatched the rebound off his shoetops and outraced the Oakland defense down the sideline for the winning touchdown. The play earns extra credit for its catchy name.

8. The Play, Cal-Stanford: Cardinal quarterback John Elway seemed to have engineered one of his earliest last-second victories until the Golden Bears stole the show on the ensuing kickoff. Kevin Moen grabbed the last of five laterals to score the game-winning touchdown, and slam-dunk a Stanford trombonist in the end zone.

9. The Shot Heard 'Round the World: Bobby Thomson's three-run blast against Dodgers' pitcher Ralph Branca in the bottom of the ninth of the finale of a three-game playoff capped a remarkable late-season surge by the Giants. Any sports fan can tell you what the home run meant: "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"

10. Jordan's Last Shot: OK, it didn't turn out to be the last shot of Michael Jordan's career, but the 17-footer he nailed with 5.2 seconds left in an NBA Finals game against the Jazz in 1998 led the Bulls to their sixth title with His Airness. Jordan created room for his jumper by, depending on your point of view, either faking Bryon Russell to the floor or helping him there with a well-disguised push.

Honorable Mention: Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series homer against the A's; Henry Aaron circling the bases with two young "friends" on homer No. 714; Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass to Gerard Phelan in 1984; Lorenzo Charles dunking an airball to give N.C. State a shocking national championship victory over Houston in 1983; Brandi Chastain whipping off her shirt to display her sports bra after her penalty kick beat China in the 1999 World Cup.

I may have placed them in a diferent order but a very good sampling of the best. ( I so hate Christian Laettner, I picked Kentucky that year, you bastard)

Buzznet

So I was looking at my Buzznet photo blog site and I noticed they added a few pretty cool features. They added a journal entry section similar to the blog type part of the Myspace.com site. But the coolest thing they added is the ability to order photo books or posters of you photos via Qoop.com. Pretty cool I may spend most of my day today organizing that site a little better. In the mean time go check it out and comment on my pictures. Most of them where taken with my Samsung Cell Phone Camera.

My Saturday

On my way to see March of the Penguins and I had this thought: are escalators for making you get up the stairs faster or are you supposed to ride them up?
Sent via My Blackberry 6230 handheld

Friday Beer Blogging!!!

Man. What a week. I have been quite busy. I have been having rough time with PCR's at work. But hey it friday. I think that I may see March of the Penguins this weekend. One of the bartenders told me to go see Rob Zombie's Devils Rejects. I will probably check that out.

Ok, Happy Friday.

Bastard

From the AP:

"If this (terror attack) happens, and if, in fact, we can prove that it was perpetrated by some fundamentalist Islamic -- "Islamo-fascist" is really I think what we should call them -- then you might think about this as a threat, the retaliation on their holy sites," said US Representative Tom Tancredo...

*snip*

When asked if he was "talking about bombing Mecca," Tancredo reportedly replied, "Yeah."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called for a retraction and an apology but i really don't think that is enough. What he said is already out there. He needs to be expelled from Congress. Thing like this are uncalled for and very disrespectful of a person in a position such as his.

Here is his contact to voice your opinion of what he said.

Email: http://tancredo.house.gov/contacttom.asp
Phone: 202.225.7882

Supreme Court Nominee

I have been out of the loop lately some due to being busy but I will work on posting more.

So Bush has nominated someone to the Supreme Court. Now would call my self a Liberal and would love to see a liberal nominated and actually placed on the court. But I realize the judiciary is supposed to be independent and non partisan. I understand the reasoning for that. Therefore I would like to see someone on fitting of the stature of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. What the court needs is a true centrist. I would back a true centrist. But the nominee up is not a centrist. He's far right leaning. So here is why he needs not to be confirmed:

1. "We continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled."
2. Roberts voted with an unanimous three-member appeals court panel last Friday that put Bush's military tribunals in the war on terror back on track, clearing the way for the Pentagon to resume trials for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
3. Judge Roberts is indisputably a Republican: He advised Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida during the 2000 presidential vote recount; gave $1,000 to George W. Bush that year; and contributed about $2,700 to various Republican candidates over the years.
4. Roberts joined Sentelle in questioning whether the Endangered Species Act is constitutional
5. When he served as principal deputy solicitor general of the United States from 1989 to 1993--under Solicitor General Ken Starr
6. As the deputy solicitor general, he argued for a "gag rule" that prevented physicians working with family planning programs that were recipients of federal funding from discussing abortion with their patients.
7. "The president is a man of his word," said Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. "He promised to nominate someone along the lines of a Scalia or a Thomas, and that is exactly what he has done.

That enough for now. I could keep going but I wont. You get the picture. I understand that I won't agree with every view a nominee may hold. But there a limits and this nominee crosses that limit. I personally cannot support this nominee.

The Wonder of DNA

I am reading Carl Sagan's book The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence and I was struck with the following passage:

"..The book of life is very rich; a typical chromosomal DNA molecule in a human being is composed of about five billion pairs of nucleotides.

…

The information content of any message is usually described in units called bits…The simplest arithmetical scheme uses not ten digits …but only two, 0 and 1. Thus any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit – 0 or 1, yes or no. If the genetic code where written I a language of two letter rather than four letters, the number of bits of information in DNA is four times of nucleotide pairs. Thus if a single chromosome has five billion nucleotides, it contains twenty billion bits of information….

How much information is twenty billion bits? What would be it equivalent, if it where written down in a an ordinary printed book in modern human language? Alphabetical human languages characteristically have twenty to forty letters plus one or two dozen numerals and punctuation marks; thus sixty-four alternative characters should suffice for most such languages. Since 2^6 equals 64, it should take no more than six bits to specify a given character.

…

Therefore twenty million bits are equivalent of about three billion letters. If there are approximately six letters in an average word, the information of a human chromosome corresponds with about five hundred million words. If there are three hundred words to an ordinary page of printed type, this corresponds to about two million pages. If a typical book contains five hundred such pages, the information content of a single human chromosome corresponds to some four thousands volumes." pp23-25 Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan.

Wow!! Now ponder that for a few minutes. Humans have 23 of these chromosomes in each cell.

Sunday Sunset

I may live in a not so nice part of town in an apartment complex that kinda sucks but the views from my 3rd story porch are amazing sometimes.

Apples I Tunes/ Yahoo music

So my roomate has got his album on Apple's iTunes and on Yahoo's new Music Download Sevice. How cool is that? His album is called Zen and the Art of Guitar.

This album is also listed for purchase on CDbaby's website and Towerrecords.com

His new band Fendernugen is also playing locally, so go check them out.

Link to a prior post about his band playing at the Jazz at the Mall Series and pictures posted here, here, and here.

Lazy Sunday afternoon blogging

Sunday Afternoon laziness, hanging out at Provence eating Tira Misu and a skinny latte. My friend had a Marquise Chocolate Cake and a cup of coffee. This was dessert form my Sunday brunch at Bosco's. My god is Annie Sellick awesomely beautiful. I am heading to Davis Kidd book stores after this.

Cat Blogging

My cat Marley. Aww.. isn't she cute?

Harry Potter Beer Blogging

So I came out to Opry Mills to see Charlie and the Chocolate factory on IMAX but it was sold out. I will probably see Fantastic 4 instead. There are a shit load of people dressed up in Harry Potter outfits. The new book comes out today. I am enjoying a nice pint of Guiness.

Happy Bastille Day!!

yeaaaaa!!! Bastille Day!!

All rebuilt

Man so I spent most of the day after work rebuilding my template. I added a few things and changed the colors. Look at eh lower right columns. I have added a recommended viewing section where I will put link to movies think people should see with links to movie website and trailers. Do you like it?

Anyway my new modem didn't stop the "pausing transfer" problem my DSL connections is having. So I guess ill have to mess with my computer some and see if I can fix it.

Ok well I'm going to bed and I will eave you with a link to Kevin Smith's (Silent Bob) Online diary. Is it really his? I don't know.

freaking finally

So I finally got my new modem in today. I really hope this works like its supposed to.

I am going to redo my blog template since I really don't like the one that up there now.

No post today.

We'll no post today. I have been kinda busy with my new job anf with my computer problems it been kinda hard. Anyway I will resume regulart posting soon.
Sent via My Blackberry 6230 handheld

Education

Taken from Pharyngula:

So Toyota passed up subsidies offered by several Southeastern states to open up a new plant…in Canada. Why?

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.

"Most people don't think of our health-care system as being a competitive advantage," he said.

Education and health care. Hey, those sound like Democratic issues!

But really, this stuff matters. I know the Libertarian argument—why should a janitor subsidize the educational system with his taxes—but this is exactly why. A poorly educated citizenry reduces the opportunities available to everyone.

Why Tennessee sucks so bad.

Computer problems update

Well, after 5 calls to earthlink they are going to send me a new DSL modem since this one seem to be hanging on some transfers. This hanging has cause me to lose my last template that I used to have. Since I dint have a back up copy I have to start over with it again. So it looks like that what I will be doing this weekend.

Friday Beer Blogging

I am sad. The Glacial pale is done. The new one isn't so bad. It's the BBXXXPA (Boscos Balentine XXXPA very hoppy and bitter yet light ans very smooth finish). Not sure if I will drink this as much. May have to go bacl to the old trusty Scottish Ale.

What a Fucker....

Fox New's Brit Hume 7-7-05:

"My first thought when I heard - just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, 'Hmmm, time to buy.'"
- Fox News's Brit Hume, 7/7/05

found via Huffington Post

Brit's email address is brit.hume@foxnews.com and his office number is 202-824-6300

Whole Quote:

HUME: Well, maybe. The other thing is, of course, people have -- you know, the market was down. It was down yesterday, and you know, you may have had some bargain-hunting going on. I mean, my first thought when I heard -- just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, "Hmmm, time to buy." Others may have thought that as well. But you never know about the markets. But obviously, if the markets had behaved badly, that would obviously add to people's sense of alarm about it. But there has been a lot of reassurance coming, particularly in the way that -- partly in the way the Brits handled all this, but also in the way that officials here handled it. There seems to be no great fear that something like that is going to happen here, although there's no indication that we here had any advance warning.

My beliefs...in a small quiz?

I caught a quiz on you beliefs from Beliefnet.com from Christian Dissent. Here are my results:

1.	Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.	Secular Humanism (86%)
3.	Liberal Quakers (85%)
4.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (78%)
5.	Bah�'� Faith (75%)
6.	Nontheist (71%)
7.	Theravada Buddhism (70%)
8.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (69%)
9.	Neo-Pagan (68%)
10.	Jainism (56%)
11.	New Age (54%)
12.	Mahayana Buddhism (53%)
13.	New Thought (53%)
14.	Hinduism (52%)
15.	Orthodox Quaker (52%)
16.	Taoism (50%)
17.	Scientology (49%)
18.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (46%)
19.	Jehovah's Witness (46%)
20.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (46%)
21.	Reform Judaism