First-look pics of Josh Brolin as George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s controversial up-coming movie W. (or dub-ya). For those of you who don’t recognize him, Josh Brolin is the actor who starred in No Country For Old Men. (he also started out his career as Brand in the movie Goonies)
Filming begins in less than two weeks according to EW.com. The movie follows Bush’s rise to power. This should be a pretty interesting one…
Today I am sure many of you will enjoy your favorite Mexican food at your local Mexican restaurant, perhaps enjoying a nice chilled Mexican beer, perhaps a Margarita, or maybe even a shot of Tequila to get your work week going. El Cinco de Mayo though is a holiday that I don’t think many truly understand.
So if you can’t wow your waiter tonight with some rudimentary Spanish perhaps you can show them that you at least understand why you are enjoying your 1.50 Pacifico.
Sometimes El Cinco de Mayo is thought of as Mexico’s Independence day. Please don’t assume this it is vastly inaccurate. Mexico declared independence on September 16 in 1810. Some 50 years later on May 5th in 1862 is when the events that make El Cinco de Mayo historic take place. Mexico struggled in its early years and had recently been defeated by the United States in the war of 1846-48. A struggling economy led President Jurez to declare that Mexico would not pay any foreign debts for two years in an attempt to get themselves as a country together. The French, English, and Spanish all took exception to this and sent troops to Mexico to collect their debts. The English and Spanish were able to settle there debts relatively quickly and easily, but the French decided they wanted more. The Napoleon army was known as the best in the world at this time and they were on quite a high horse.
On May 5th in 1862 the battle of Puebla took place in which a group of Mexicans fought and defeated the Napoleon army which was was equipped and trained as the best in the world. It was an incredible showing of patriotism and courage by the Mexicans lead by General Zaragosa. They won the battle but the French troops returned later and this time with even more troops and were able to take over Mexico and implant Emperor Maximilian of Hapsburg of France as the new ruler over Mexico. He ruled until 1867 when former President Jurez’s troops surged and took back control of Mexico again.
So El Cinco de Mayo is not really a landmark day that declared independence or even one that won a war, but it is celebrated because it stands for the courage that man can show when faced with losing his/her freedom. The Mexicans had no business even being able to win the battle that they won being outnumbered, undertrained, and having less sophisticated weapons, but they found a way to do so anyway.
I’m sure i missed some facts here and there but i think that gives everyone the gist of the Holiday. Which by the way is much more popular here in the US then it is Mexico.
So enjoy your cervaza today and do so knowing what you are celebrating!
In light of George W. Bush’s latest approval ratings, I started thinking about this damn “W The President” sticker. Only a short time ago, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing either the above sticker or the Bush/Cheney ones. They were everywhere. People who donned the sticker also seemed to be so “proud and patriotic” because of it. They used to sneer at anyone who didn’t respect it.
So my question to of all of you is, “Where did all the stickers go?” The last time I saw one of these (besides putting one at the top of this post) seems to have been eons ago. And the part that really pisses me off is wondering when the embracers of the sticker revolted and removed theirs. Did they do it under the cover of night to act as if it was never there to begin with? Did they announce to their coworkers and neighbors that they were “tired of this shit” and then ripped the sticker off in one epic and violent motion? Or was it such an empty gesture that they forgot about it up until the point when they started seeing less and less of them and finally realized that everything about themselves was taboo?
Over the past several weeks we have seen peaceful (and not so peaceful) protests regarding the Beijing Olympics. We, as Americans, have the right to protest, although I believe that a peaceful protest is more dignified and potent than attacking runners who carry the Olympic torch. They are, after all, engrossed in the Spirit of the Olympics. When we attack an innocent person, we ourselves are no less tactless that the ones we are protesting, right?
I have read many articles that call for an all-out boycott of the Olympics, circa 1980 in
Believe me I understand the dilemma here, a complete boycott would deprive some of the world’s top athletes the chance to compete on a global stage; but a partial boycott (say boycotting the opening ceremonies) would send a subtle yet unmistakable message to the world that we hear, we understand and we will not ignore.
I have always been a huge fan of the Olympics. I remember watching Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson break into super-sonic speed around the track. Greg Louganis coming back and winning gold after cracking his head in the diving platform and The Dream Team’s dominance over the world in 1992. I’ve never missed an opportunity to watch the Olympics, but this year I will Boycott. I will not watch any coverage of the Olympics. It sucks, but I think it’s the right thing for me to do. Will it make a difference? Maybe only to me.
To be honest I’ve never followed the plight of the Tibetan or Chinese people, but I feel like protesting (or Boycotting) the Olympics will bring to light the situation to educate people like me on the travesties that are occurring in
I hoped, although it was an empty hope, that our government would take a compassionate stance and stick up for the “little guy”, but needless to say our “leadership” has disappointed me. I really don’t think our President gets it. I read an interview that states he considers the Olympics only to be a sporting event….Really? Mr. President ever heard of Jesse Owens, Tommie Smith or John Carlos?
The Olympics are only a “sporting event” where the entire world is watching and what we do (or don’t) speaks volumes to our character as a nation.
A Russian tank crashed into a villager’s house when the crew stopped in a small town to buy more vodka. Someone caught the whole incident on a video camera phone (below).
Footage from the phone shows a drunk-ass tank driver walking towards the tank and awkwardly trying to climb into the tank holding two bottles of vodka.
According to the Reuters article entitled “Hey Tanks Alot“, the army promised Friday to pay compensation and said the tank must have been broken and fallen behind a column heading to a test site for exercises. Earlier it said the vehicle slid on melting ice.
I think they are full of shit, but you decide for yourself….
I was driving from the office to a client this morning when I happened to switch the channel from XM’s Opie and Anthony to the Glenn Beck show. To my suprise, there was a guest talking about global warming. But, this wasn’t your typical global warming guest. It wasn’t a guy screaming about how all of the algae is going to die and the world is F*&Ked if we don’t all sell our SUVs and go buy a Hybrid Prias right now! He wasn’t calling for everyone to reduce their carbon footprint, recycle, or even carpool.
In fact, he was discussing something that I found particularly interesting (as an accountant who deals with compliance issues about 70% of my work-time): the rules and guidelines used by NOAA temperature reading sites.
If you don’t know, NOAA (the National Oceanic Atmospheric Adiminstration) is the agency that compiles lots of weather data for the US. This data is used for all sorts of things, especially research (I have used NOAA data before for several litigation support cases I’ve worked on to prove things like how much it rained in a particular location over a couple year span, and hurricane weather activity). And this data is very instrumental for researchers across the globe in determining the Earth’s climate changes and climate activites. There are a little more than 1,200 weather stations around the US that record and trasmit weather data in the NOAA network.
So this guy was looking to do some research, and he wanted to study the effect of a policy change by NOAA which resulted in the re-painting of its temperature reading stations in the 1970s. Many of these stations were built and designed in the 1800s, and were designed with the typical “Tom Sawyer” white-washing exterior. In the 1970s, it was decided that they would be re-painted with latex paint. This researcher was hoping to study if the new paint had any real affect on the temperature readings being measured at the locations.
So he located 3 stations and set out to see first if they had been re-painted. When he got to the first one, he did note that it had been re-painted, but he also noted that there was tons of electrical and computer equipment within feet of the thermometor providing the temperature reading (odd, in that why would you place equipment that produces heat near something you’re trying to get an accurate climate reading from?). Surely this was an anomoly, he thought. But, he ran into the same thing on at the third station, and his research took a turn in its scope.
From this innocent discovery came Surface Stations.org: an organization of volunteers dedicated to examining weather stations for poor conditions. To date approximately 40% (500) of the 1,200 stations have been examined, and most have been found with violations of NOAAs own station guidelines. Things like not having an official thermomiter within 100 feet of asphault, automobiles, electrical equipment, and such. In fact, 69% of the stations examined so far have been found to have deficiencies in conditions that could result in differences in teperature readings of at least 2 degrees. 14% of the stations have conditions so poor that temperature readings could be overstated as much as 5 or more degrees!
What does this mean? Well, this whole global warming thing could be a result of nothing more than poor conditions used in keeping temperatures for the past 20 or 30 years! As cities and counties have sought to find new uses for their weather stations, and ignored guidelines for correct and accurate placement of temperature reading devices, they have perhaps created a larger problem by inadvertantly manipulating temperature data….resulting in the national phenomenom …or epidemic…known as global warming!
Now it appears that the voices of those scientists claiming that the global warming issue is not as conclusive as the media or most people think might be gaining a little bit of credence.
Of course, as someone who’s not sold on the whole global warming issue, I’m not suggesting that people not try to be conscious of their actions and try to make the environment a better place. Honestly, it really couldn’t hurt, and it’s probably the right thing to do. But in today’s world of shock-journalism and researchers trying to get their name out there, is it any suprise that the data surrounding global warming would be suspect to manipulation (inadvertant or not)?
This is very similar to how I feel these days…
ST. PAUL, Minn. - In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy.
Craig, of Idaho, is asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let him withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct stemming from a bathroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport.
The ACLU filed a brief Tuesday supporting Craig. It cited a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms “have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
That means the state cannot prove Craig was inviting an undercover officer to have sex in public, the ACLU wrote.
The Republican senator was arrested June 11 by an undercover officer who said Craig tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex. Craig has denied that, saying his actions were misconstrued.
The ACLU argued that even if Craig was inviting the officer to have sex, his actions wouldn’t be illegal.
“The government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Craig was inviting the undercover officer to engage in anything other than sexual intimacy that would not have called attention to itself in a closed stall in the public restroom,” the ACLU wrote in its brief.
The ACLU also noted that Craig was originally charged with interference with privacy, which it said was an admission by the state that people in the bathroom stall expect privacy.
Craig at one point said he would resign but now says he will finish his term, which ends in January 2009.
What the fuck is up with this Larry Craig guy? Why won’t this senile old man just admit that he is a flaming butt-sexual and move on. And why is the ACLU jumping in to argue the “privacy” of a bathroom stall? The fact that they call these places “Public Restrooms” should be all you need to know when privacy comes into question. How many of you have gone into a ”Public Restroom” only to find that some turd-wrangler has just “set up shop” in a neighboring stall and has already begun to dominate the atmosphere with his shit-mist? If that stall was private, he would be keeping it to himself. Also, let’s not forget that Larry Craig was accused of touching the foot of a man that was not in the same stall as him. The privacy issue is null at that point. I will end this rant here before the sex issue is brought into the mix.
Is sex in a bathroom stall private? What’s your opinion?
Al Sharpton is amazing. The man is endless in his zealousness for media attention and is willing to flock to the cause of any minor or major atrocity to the African American Race. Now if a Caucasian, Oriental, Muslim, Jew, Hispanic individual was crucified across the street from his house he might just walk on by and not give notice. If an African American was spanked in a classroom in Alaska too hard as part of punishment Al Sharpton would be on the plane holding a press conference immediately. This is Al Shaprton and he is here to save the African Americans
You probably want a little back story on why Al has me fired up this morning. Have you all seen the news about the Golf Channel’s anchor Kelly Tilghman? Probably not who the hell even watches the Golf Channel. Let me fill you in quickly:
Kelly is doing a segment with fellow anchor Nick Faldo about the possibility of some of the up and coming Golfers Challenging Tiger for the Number 1 spot in the world. They both agree it is crazy and no one currently has the combination needed to knock Tiger from his perch. Nick goes as far as saying “Maybe if they gang up against him” . Kelly then laughingly says “Yeah maybe they can Lynch him in a Alley”. A comment that was surely in poor taste. Even I can admit that, but no harm was meant from it and actually it was a compliment to Tiger’s skill. Afterwards realizing the statement was in poor taste Kelly issued a personal apology to Tiger. Through his agent Tiger has said it was a non issue and no offense was taken. Also Tiger and Kelly are on good terms. They have known each other for 12 years and consider each other friends.
This passed with not much being said for the first day or so, but unbeknownst to all the normal people in the world Al Sharpton heard the call deep in his Afro American Cave. I mean seriously the guy is like Batman. A word is said about an African American and BOOM its like the Bat Signal over Gotham Al is on the case. Al calls for her to be fired immediately from her job because of this statement.
So it was a minor statement that was meant as a compliment, but perhaps poorly worded. It was said by someone who is a long time friend and already apologized. That apology was not only accepted, but was called a non issue by the offended party, but Al still felt he had to swoop in to protect the African American victim Tiger Woods……
Maybe it is just me but this kind of bullshit irritates the hell out of me. As Tiger said this is a non issue. Where was Al last Fall when the Indian couple in New York were accused of keeping their servants as slaves???? Not only were they accused these folks were found guilty. I did not hear a peep out of Al. If those poor folks who were forced to endure beatings with brooms, hot water scoldings and forced to eat hot chili peppers by their Masters were black Al would have been there so fast he would have broke the speed of sound getting there.
Al champion the cause for good for everyone not just African Americans and pick your battles for the ones that will count and help to cause change. Not the ones that will put you in the media the most and get you the most exposure over trivial issues. If the best thing you have to do with your time is protect the fragile Tiger Woods from an off color comment made by a friend of his in a joking manner perhaps you need to find something better to do with your time. I hear there is a conflict in Darfur that might warrant a little more attention then Tiger’s comment.
/end rant
