A Good Little Movie

I admit it - I like romantic comedies. And a good one is Music And Lyrics

It pokes a funny stick at '80s pop music and their aging stars, as well as the new breed of pop stars.

It made for a nice date with the Steener. We ate too much popcorn and candy, then went to the Junction for a good old fashioned late-night breakfast. Mmmmm! The Trailblazer - eggs over medium with white toast, and pancakes instead of potatoes, please! I woke up around 3:30am and thought I was gonna die!

Stupid Me

Holy crap! I have been a neglectful blogger.

Walking to and from work today, I took another listen to some of the Drag the River that I have. I wanted to because I told EdP ChrisB the other night that I really didn't care for it. I thought about that while listening to it, and I've come to this conclusion: I don't like one of the two singers. I don't know which is which, I don't know their names, and frankly, I'm too lazy to look it up right now. But, I know WHY I don't like that singer; he sounds like he's faking it. I don't mind a little bit of a put-on for the sake of getting a sound, but it smacks of fakey, jokey "Hey, isn't this funny? We're sounding COUNTRY!"

I could be way off base, and that this is how the guy really is, but that's just what I hear.

Now, the other singer: I really like his singing. It's much more natural, and I'm not distracted by it. Plus, I like the music itself, and many of the songs.

I decided to revisit, re-evaluate and re-...I listened to it again, because of a very stupid indulgence of mine lately - Hayseed Dixie. I thought that if I can enjoy the humor of this joke band, then I ought to give a fairly serious band the benefit of the doubt, and maybe not be such an asshole when it comes to listening to new stuff (new enough to me). It's that "I don't like this NEW stuff, it sucks!" mentallity that I have that has left me with a really piss-poor knowledge of and taste in music.

Ugh.

Just keep drinking. You'll have plenty of time to think about it all later.

Do The Terrorists Care About Da Bears?

My good friends, I believe that we have overlooked the greatest crime committed by those who wish to topple our civilization and replace it with an Islamic tyranny. That is the crime of showing disregard for our beloved Chicago Bears. The days and weeks prior to the game that will once again bestow upon the Chicago Bears their rightful title of world champions, the Al Quaeda leadership and its ancillary cells have made no offer to suspend evil doings in order to pay honor to our monsters of the Midway. Nor have they threatened publicly to disrupt the event. A lack of support in the absence of a direct threat constitutes the ultimate snub.

For shame, Al Queada!

This is the straw that broke the... Well, you get the idea.

What A Stupid Question

Our own doubting Thomas asks...

The Return Of "Ask The Old Dog"

It's back!

Feel free to remind me how bad it sucked the last time. This time around, it has it's own blog (I don't want to soil the splendor of The New Old Dog Blog with that crap!).

Direct your attention to the sidebar under "Feature".

What A Character!

Since I first heard the story about the guy named Michael Devlin who kidnapped those two kids, I've been trying to figure out why the name "Michael Devlin" sounds so damned familiar. Searching today I found that there is:

Michael Devlin, private equity investor
Michael Devlin, musician
Michael Devlin, kidnapping suspect

The name is also that of 3 different fictional characters, including a Marvel Comic character, otherwise known as "Knight of St. George".

It seems to me, though, that the name is also attached to some T.V. character from way back when, but I just can't think of from what show. I get a "Knight Rider" type feeling from it.

Anybody out there have any idea about that?

Creepy, huh?

What do you think of the creepy guy with the specs?

Sometime soon I will get around to a real post. In the meantime, get hypmotized by the profile image.

Hangman

So, he and a few henchmen have been hung. I feel a little icky.

No Cameras!

Foreman Elf enforcing the strict "NO PHOTOGRAPHY" policy at Santa's workshop.

Christmas Central

This year's tree and the winner of the creepiest ornament on the tree award.

Christmasification Of The Dog And Steener House

We've been turning the apartment into Christmas Central. Although, we're not going full guns this year. By that, I mean that not all of the Rudolph figures will be displayed.


I did come up with a crafty little way to display Christmas cards: Tie loops on a string at 6 inch or so intervals, punch a hole in the corner of the card, push a loop through the hole and then pass a small green or red pipe cleaner through the loop, then bend the pipe cleaner into a bow shape. I'm a freakin' genius!


I think that week in high school when my mechanical drawing class switched with the home-ec class had a profound effect on me. Come to think of it, I was the only guy in the class who knew how to grease and flour a pan...

Grover and Yoda

Am I the only one who sees that Grover and Yoda have the same voice? Whenever I watch Empire Strikes Back, I can't get the image of Grover running around in the swanp with Luke out of my head.

Guten Tag, meine Turkische Freunden!

I'm glad to see that Benedict XVI is not backing down from his assertion that we need to move away from violence in religious expression in the face of violent expression of relious beliefs. If you're inclined to think that his visit to Turkey will only stir the pot, then you're missing the point: What better place is there to continue a diologue that has the potential to do some real good? Now it's Istanbul, but it once was Constantinople. Why did Constantinople get the works? It's nobody's business but the Turks - and maybe soon, France's, Germany's and the rest of the EU's business. This is significant because Turkey, while not a Muslim state, is a culturally Muslim nation that has a long history of living in the East and the West, and benefiting greatly from that duality.

While the Pope seeks to give a shout out to Turkey's Christian minority, he also wants to strengthen the bonds between peaceful relious people in the world. Turkey is a good backdrop for cementing a building block toward that goal, particularly between Christians and Muslims (we kinda need that right about now). Having been the seat of the Islamic Caliphate and then that of Christianity in the East, Istanbul is a very special place on this earth. The Hagia Sofia in Istanbul was a Christian church, then a mosque and is now a museum. Its Christian adornment, long hidden by plaster placed by Muslims, has been painstakingly uncovered by the Turkish government. Ironically, the effort to obscure those paintings has preserved them. It's a monument to both struggle and peace. Much like the rest of Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal (aka Ataturk, who I like to believe is called that because, after forming the state was patted on the back and told "Ata Turk!"), while being one tough SOB, formed a democratic nation out of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. The lynchpin of that democracy: a fiercely secular government. It's military, while not a controlling force, is the guarantor of the secular government, and is very ready to exercise its options, though it has rarely done so militarily; it only needs to strategically offer its opinion. They have a professional army that produces some of this worlds most capable technocrats, adept at administration and internal politicing. Does this secularism in government diminish or constrain the religious life of the Turkish people? No. There is tremendous freedom for Muslims to worship openly, often, occasionally or seldom. Is Turkey particularly hospitable to Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians or what have you? Eh. It is primarily Muslim. At least you don't hear much about non-adherant Turks being offended by the star and crescent on their flag. Either they aren't offended, or nobody really cares that they're offended. They're fighting their own battle against the psuedo Muslim extremists. The Pope knows that, and is not there in spite of the wishes of the Turkish government.

I lived in Turkey for two years as a wee lad. I saw firsthand how present the connections to the West and Christianity are. I walked in the sandstone caves in Goreme where Christians hid out from Muslims. I saw the Roman ruins at Ephesus. I watched men slaughter sheep in the street during Ramadan. When I saw that, I thought about how ancient the whole religious experience is for them, and about how amazing it is that a Catholic kid from the States can have the opportunity to witness that. Being the kid of an Air Force officer who was involved in security matters, I got a bit of insight into the very close cooperation between the U.S. and Turkey. I visited the offices through which all of the U.S. military aid to Turkey flowed (JUSMAT). The chief of police in Ankara took us on a personal tour of the houses of government (I rang the bell in the parliament chamber). Turkey was also where I first saw people passionately exercise their political freedom in the streets during an election; I watched hundreds of people cram the streets with signs while shouting support for their candidates. I had mostly European and American friends, but I also played with Turkish Muslim and even a Turkish Christian kid. My point is that we weren't all trying to kill each other over there. Sure, there were some reminders of problems (we celebrated mass in a room with tape on the windows; in case of a bomb blast, the window would tend to stay in big pieces on the tape, rather than becoming deadly shards) and there were a few dicy moments (the night that we moved out of temporary housing when first arrived, a car bomb went off in front of the hotel; the bedroom my brother and I would have been in was covered with deadly shards). But for the most part, I remember things being pretty cordial and pleasant from day to day. Even at a very young age, I walked about fairly freely in my little few city blocks in Ankara.

Going to Turkey, and not backing down from a message that fundamentally is about love, is a wise and courageous thing for the Pope to do. The message is simple and should not be unstated, simply because attempts have been made to twist its meaning. Let the nay sayers in the West who don't like him anyway have their nay say, but when they call the guy in the funny robe a criminal who only seeks to enrich his powerful organization that is all about banking and keeping people from getting piercings and sleeping with each other, blah, blah, blah - they aren't helping anybody. It's about time we had some serious efforts at winning hearts and minds. I don't need to ask how many battalions the Pope has; I only need to know that he's trying to spread the love.

I think I need to change...

No, not my underwear, not my socks and not my brand of peanut butter. I think I need to change the look of my blog. It's too, blahhhhhhhh. I don't want to have to change all of my crap, though. I always screw something up when I try to change too much.

All the other kids have cool blogs!

Mmmmmm! That's Good Spam!

I have fun reading all of the stupid generated spam mail titles. Today I received my favorite to date:

Pork Soda

If we hadn't already settled on Big Drag, I might suggest it for the band. I guess Dev will have to use it when he launces his new porn site.

Rumsfeld and Robert Culp

Eventually, there will be a movie about the 2 terms of G.W. I've got a head start on the casting. I submit Robert Culp as Donald Rumsfeld. I think that G.W. would be proud to have the part of his defense secretary played by someone who truly did aide The Greatest American Hero.

If I Only Had The Money to Burn

Let me start by saying that I'm fully prepaired to take your jabs and barbs for this one, but I would totally buy this if I had the change lying around! The John Taylor Signature Peavey Bass.

To make it even more gay, you have to buy it from Neiman Marcus, because it's issued by Juicy Couture (his wife founded Juicy Couture, and he designs the men's line).

My birthday is December 19th.

No Noose Is Good Noose

So, I see that the judiciary of the fledgling democracy has sent down a verdict on its former leader. Can we all agree that the next time we depose a dictator, that we completely destroy the enemy in his piss-ass country, and then shoot the bastard in a military operation, so that we can call it a combat death? Or, after we've muscled in, give them the choice of accepting a set of laws that we would want to live under or leaving them alone in a smoking rubble.

I'm opposed to the death penalty, and not because the process to get to it is flawed, but because it's wrong. The fact that we put our stamp of approval on the set of laws there makes me feel somewhat a part of putting that piece of shit at the end of a rope. The world will watch as a good old fashioned hanging goes down while thousands of our troops are present to protect the regime that's doin' the deed.

Yes, I know that we shot our way in there, and that we kill in war. I don't want to have that debate. I know that war is different than execution as a legal outcome. Yes, you can argue the legality of this war, but when you've put our military in that position, it's war for them. The guilt is placed elsewhere.

When you're watching the video, try to think about all that we have here in the good ol' USA, and try to imagine it without the stink of THAT being carried out within our own borders. While you're at it, think about China and their recent "reforms" regarding the death penalty and how much you don't want to be even anything like those crazy bastards.

If you want the prospect of death to be a deterrent to crime, then make it more likely that criminals will face it during the commision of their crime, when the victim really has something to gain from it, not many months or years later.

Duran F'in Duran

Big Duran Duran show last night at the brand spankin' new Sears Centre. Loads of good fun. No Santi sighting, but I'm sure he was busy yelling at people all night.


We did run into a few friendly faces, most notably JMoo and hubby.


I think I am the only person to have ever given the rock horns to Duran Duran.