Suck it, Gang of Twenty!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:22 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Henry Earl is a hobo living in Kentucky. So far, that is not postworthy.

But his Hobo Hall Of Fame resume is.

Well, Henry has earned something of a cult following (he's even been mentioned in Newsweek/MSNBC). The Fayette County jail posts mug shots of their offenders, and of course, there's plenty of Henry. Most of them are very amusing. Some more than others, but there are a lot of them. To make a long story short, Fark picked up on Henry and now he's fast on his way to becoming an Internet Legend. And why not? Henry's exactly the right balance between extremely pitiful and incredibly amusing. You feel bad for him on one hand, but then the guy looks so strangely happy in (most of) his mugshots. And if you read the stories about him, you'll see that he's got an awful lot of personality. Certainly more than your basic town drunk. Henry is an icon, a work of performance art. He's like an Otis Campbell for the 21st century. He's our schadenfreudic touchstone of intoxication.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:31 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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The fascists in DC are unhappy about this, of course.  The DC House delegate was throwing a tantrum about it.  It still has to be passed by one of the most worthless legislative bodies in human history, but we'll hope it happens.  A lot of Democrats in rural and conservative districts supported the measure.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:12 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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A German man received a fine of €292.92 for smuggling letters for a prisoner.  He paid the fine...in pennies, or whatever the hell one cent pieces are called over there.  The weight of said coinage was about 139 pounds, a local bank counted the coins up, and indeed, the total was exactly €292.92.  The court accepted the payment because shipping the coinage back would have been too much.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:47 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Apparently, some sort of tourist charter company based out of England went belly up recently, stranding a shitload of tourists around the world.

Well, it appears as though the stranded tourists are starting to return to England, thanks in no small part to Bruce Dickinson, who not only is the frontman for Iron Maiden, but also a pilot.

The lead singer of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, who works as a pilot for the UK charter airline Astraeus, flew a plane back to the UK from Sharm El Sheikh. He said people had given up leave to get a crew together for the flight.

In Alicante about 522 passengers had been stranded after three flights to Glasgow, Gatwick and Manchester were cancelled.

Many have now found their own way home, but a replacement flight was also been chartered by the CAA.

The 747 was due to pick up 33 passengers from Tenerife before boarding about 200 of those left stranded in Alicante, and fly on to Gatwick overnight.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:58 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Told you Obama was going to struggle here in PA, and sure enough, he is.  Obviously, it's a Zogby poll, but given the other recent polls, we do know Obama is facing the possibility of losing PA.  At the very least, he's going to have a very tight race in PA.

I don't know how Obama wins without PA, Democrats don't usually win without it.  It'd be an oddity if he did, the first time since Truman.  In any case, I really doubt he's gonna play well in Ohio either, Zogby's poll reflects that too.

Oh, and Obama's losing in Florida too.  In fact, he hasn't polled ahead of McCain at any point in Florida, he may not even be competitive there.  I'm guessing that idiotic ad sneering at McCain for not using email isn't gonna play well in the most elderly state in the union  either (Oh, and PA has the second oldest population, good job Obama campaign!).

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:20 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I just can't seem to focus on politics or anything serious, so let's just step into my Hyundai...

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I am losing what little hair I have left. In fact, my daughter routinely feels compelled to point out the fact my bald spot is growing geometrically.

Well, I might be able to make some cash off of my *ahem* maturity*ahem* by becoming a walking billboard for an airline.

Air New Zealand said it wants 70 recruits to stand in lines in three airports—while wearing temporary tattoos on the back of their heads so the displays can be seen by people lining up behind them.

The airline would pay 1,000 New Zealand dollars ($660) for each walking billboard, a company official said.

The tattoos will promote a new system that is meant to reduce check-in waiting times.

Air New Zealand marketing manager Steve Bayliss described the campaign as "a bit of fun."

While not as awesome as bacon-flavored vodka, this is another idea that targets me.

*weeps tears of joy*

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:40 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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In honor of DPUD's reference to Cartman's Hippie Plowing Machine and Slayer, here goes:

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:10 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Screw this politics shit!!1!1! Let's talk about the serious stuff in life, namely booze and bacon. And, praise be to Gaia, some enterprising lad in Massachusetts decided to market a product after my own heart (attack):

Bacon-flavored vodka!

“Everything is better with bacon. It’s one of my favorite foods,” said Don Yovicsin, the owner of Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse in Waltham. “So when one of my friends mentioned the idea of bacon and vodka, it piqued my curiosity.”

He fried a batch of Niman Ranch thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon, added the crispy bacon to a large infuser jar with Absolut vodka, then let it sit for four weeks. After the liquor was smoky, he filtered out the bacon pieces with cheesecloth, chilled the vodka to congeal the bacon fat, then removed it via coffee filter.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:15 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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Matt Marolis says that 37.2 million people watched Gov. Palin's acceptance speech. 

Obama?  38.3 million.

Update (CB): This is another reason to watch McCain's speech tonight. The main reason? McCain is energized and I think his speech may bring on more enthusiasm for his candidacy.

Oh, and I guess we could have a drinking game for each time he says "my friends."

Update (DPUD): CB sends me these too,

First, McCain now tied with Obama, he was down eight last week in the same poll.  Wonder what happened...

Second, Palin's acceptance speech pulled in about 1.1 million less than Obama's, and was only shown in six networks to Obama's ten. 

Weasel in comments notes the power outages in the Gulf Coast due to Gustav taking down lines would have caused a significant drop in potential viewers too.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 04:02 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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You know, I'm not exactly sure what this is, but I find it...very compelling.

Oh, yeah, I should also mention: Extremely Bouncy Bouncy Content Warning!

(h/t)

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I like the sentiment of this idea a lot, but it might raise some complications down the road (link in the original):

Bristol Palin's husband-to-be, the father-to-be, Levi Johnston, will be in attendance at the Republican Convention tomorrow night. I hope they give them a separate entrance, so they can get a separate, deafening roar of applause from delegates, a sign of support that not everyone wants to see them turned into a political football. The MSM will be stunned; they're expecting the pair to be forced to wear Scarlet Letters...

I think that would be perfect.  Bristol and Levi could even approach the podium together and give a brief word of thanks for the moral support they've received and ask for the continued prayers of those gathered (or something to that nature). 

The problem is that Bristol and/or Levi may not even want to be in the spotlight in this way.  Secondly, it may give credence people like Rep. Barney Frank, who say that Gov. Palin's family are "fair game."

Whatever we do, I hope that Bristol and Levi know that we're behind them 100%.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 08:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You remember Jurassic Park, right?  Of course you do, Jurassic Park was inescapable when the movie came out!  You remember how they took DNA samples of the various dinosaurs by drawing tiny blood samples from mosquitoes trapped in amber, and used them to revive the various species? 

Yeah, some biologist actually did that, except he did it with a type of prehistoric yeast, among other microbes, and extracted DNA from a type of ancient weevil.  He wanted to try and use the revived microbes for medical applications, but they offered no advance in medical science, so he went on to do other research. 

But he kept his samples, and at some point, an idea hit, and he did what anyone with any sense does with yeast...he made beer.  He's started a brewery to make his beer.  Yes, you can drink beer made with a (I'm assuming long extinct) strain of yeast that was preserved in amber for tens of millions of years and revived in a modern laboratory. 

Apparently, the yeast gives the beer a unique, spicy, almost clove-like taste.  I have to try some.  If you're in California, you might be able to track down a bar that is going to serve it, you lucky bastard.  This will be one of those very rare times I envy you people living in the Soviet of California.

I was looking for a picture of Barney drunk, but good enough...

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:55 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Admit it, you want to blast that damned snickering dog too.  I haven't actually played the real Duck Hunt, I'm guessing that this doesn't quite meet the experience of using an NES Zapper, might be good if you have a few minutes to kill...some ducks.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:14 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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The Pure WIN that is encased in these videos needs no further explanation.

Posted by: eddiebear at 11:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What does an 85 year old woman do when her neighborhood has seen a string of burglaries? She packs heat.

What does an 85 year old woman do when she catches a burglar attempting to rob her home? She gets her gun, confronts the thug and then makes him call 911 to report himself.

What does an 85 year old woman say after it's all over?

“It was exciting,” [Leda] Smith said. “I just hope I broke up the (burglary) ring because they have been hitting a lot of places around here.”

Posted by: conservativebelle at 04:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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He writes on The Corner about how effective John McCain's ads using the Barask-as-celebrity meme have been (emphasis mine):

It has done what is extremely difficult in politics: taking an opponent’s strength – in this case, the excitement and energy Obama created – and turned it into a liability. Obama is seen as hip and cool, but he is also increasingly viewed as strikingly self-centered, presumptuous, and a bit prickly. On a deeper level, and for a combination of reasons, he’s beginning to look somewhat shallow, untested and unready for the presidency, and, on several key issues, quite radical (his unwillingness to support a bill against infanticide being just the most recent example).

[....]

The problem for Obama now is that, in “fighting back,” in promising not to be “swift-boated” and in his determination to prove he really, truly is a Tough Guy, Obama is eviscerating whatever was left of the New Politics he once stood for.

[...]

The Obama campaign, having seen their lead collapse when everything should have been working in its favor, must now harbor serious concerns about their candidate and his appeal. And often when deep doubts emerge, campaigns and candidates begin to do foolish things. It’s worth recalling that Obama has never faced a serious Republican before. He is now.

This is what I've thought since Obama began to make strides against Hillary Clinton at the end of December 2007.  He knows how to fight against Democrats, who will largely keep their gloves on for the sake of party unity.  This is a man who represented a deep, deep blue state senate seat on the South Side of Chicago.  When running for his U.S. Senate seat in 2004, he just had to knock off incompetent carpetbagger Alan Keyes.

Now he has to fight, and it's not going as he'd hoped it would. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 05:14 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Hopefully this gives the cause some publicity.  Juliette is truly doing a great thing, and I hope that all my readers try and support her efforts to aid the Senator Obama School, whether you do a post about it here or there, make note of it in comments or even donate.  The goal now is to raise $10,000 by the end of September.  That shouldn't be too difficult, but she'll need help.

*Bumped!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Posted by: eddiebear at 10:21 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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