TLATL Tale

Check out these shanastas:

A sign in Soulard, MO may find itself at the heart of a Supreme Court decision. Freedom of Speech, as ruled by the Supreme Court recently, apparently is more important than decency or common sense as it was recently ruled (8-1) that a bunch of people from a "Christian Church" could "protest" a soldier's funeral by alerting the mourning family members that "God hates fags" and other relevant, constructive stuff like this. I wonder how they'll side when business, not a devastated, private family, has a stake in "free speech". I could see how anyone could start a business, but I can't see how anyone can just start a "Christian Church".

One of the main reasons we invaded Iraq was an informant source named "Curveball". Well, it turns out he was a liar as well. There was a great video about this on CNN, but they have since taken it down, since the 24 hour news cycle has expired. Here's a related link anyway. Again, I'm not into whining or pining, but let's not forget the past. As Stephen Colbert says, "There's an old saying about those who forget history. I don't remember it, but it's good."

This link seems innocuous enough but indicates a couple of indirect, really important points: 1) Despite the misty eyed proclamations of Obama worshippers, GITMO is still alive and functioning, and 2) Despite some concern earlier, apparently the CIA now believes that Osama is still alive.

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
- Mitch Hedberg

As of February 17th, Belgium has not had a government in 249 days, which they believe is some sort of record. It's sort of a reality check for us, as our governments -- state and federal -- face shutdowns behind claims that this would lead to disasters beyond our imaginations. But let's settle down a bit and realize that maybe we don't need our governments as much as they need us. How do the Belgians do it? Looooooots of syrup and beer.

St. Louis is again the most crime-ridden city in the nation. Where's Nelly when you need him? However, I heard today on the radio that Chicago was the fifth most miserable city to live in. [don't know how to link to radio]

A product of the evil corporation IBM, code-named "Watson", has defeated the equally evil Mormon Ken Jennings in a contest of Jeopardy that not even Alec Trebec, the evil Canadian, could ruin. Actually, none of them is evil, or comes from evil (though I wouldn't vote for a Canadian Mormon), and Watson represents a pretty incredible feat in a constrained problem in the field of computer science called Natural Language Processing. Deep Blue. Watson. If IBM can develop a machine that can hit a curve ball, I'll be worried.

Uh, you know how AT&T's phone network stinks? Isn't it awesome that Verizon now supports Apple products? Well, it appears that Verizon may have dropped approximately 10,000 emergency calls in one night in one area. Hmmmmm, makes me wonder how that network will handle the flood of users converting away from ATT, especially in big, dense cities.

Sometimes, famous guys get a bad rep. But aren't there those kinds of guys where you still think, Man, it would be fun to hang out and have a beer with that guy at least. Hank Steinbrenner is not one of those guys. In general, I don't want to transform baseball into a sea of equality like the NFL, and I'm not happy with teams like the Royals who pocket their welfare checks and are in the black by opening day rather than competing, but when the Yanks are spending more in luxury tax and revenue sharing than most teams in baseball spend on payroll, something is wrong there. And like I said, Hank doesn't exactly seem like a guy who's in any way decent to hang out with.

Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to come back soon, try not to be overwhelmed with all the choices out there on the web.