Wednesday, April 16, 2008
It turns out that the Senate in incapable of passing a bill without including tax breaks for businesses. The housing bill they passed last month that was designed to prevent people from losing their homes also contained massive tax breaks for real estate developers, automakers, and airlines. Next up on the Congressional schedule is a proclamation honoring Jackie Robinson that contains a bailout for GM.
President Bush has proposed stopping growth in US carbon production by 2025 in what he calls a “realistic” step to fight climate change. Of course he doesn’t say is that the lynchpin of his plan involves the carbon savings the US will get when the East Coast is swallowed by rising sea levels.
The Olympic torch will be travelling through India and Pakistan today. I would never have guessed that they would have more trouble getting the torch through San Francisco than they would through Kashmir.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Petraeus-mania swept Washington yesterday, as Senators were lining up left and right to question the good General on troop levels, pullout dates, and if he’s married (watch out, girls – he is!). Petraeus held the line, saying troop reductions need to be paused to hold onto our “significant and uneven” progress. All three presidential candidates left South Dakotan babies unkissed as they tried to prove themselves worthy of a 3am phone call – McCain and Clinton played the ‘Congressional insult’ version of phone-tag, and Obama just talked for a while. And then a while longer.
The increasingly controversial Olympic torch arrives in San Francisco today. The logic behind the choice of American city almost makes sense – “Hey, they’ve got a big Chinatown and stuff!” – but then you realize, oh yeah, it’s still San Francisco, naked hippie capital of the world.
A Finnish tourist was fined $17,500 for chipping the earlobe off of one of the infamous Easter Island statues. Just saying, that’s some pretty inexpensive cosmetic surgery.
Finally today, my prayers have been answered: Mary-Louise Parker broke off her engagement to Weeds co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Now, to knock off Tina Fey’s husband.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
9:30 – In Treatment (HBO)
TV’s most addictive nightly series is drawing to a close, and tonight we say goodbye to young gymnast Sophie. Will Paul carry her away into the sunset of sanity, Bela Karolyi style? Or is she just plain nutso?
10:00 – South Park (Comedy Central)
Tonight’s new South Park is apparently an homage to the animated flick Heavy Metal. I do not know anything about this movie, and didn’t even read the Wikipedia page I just linked to. But I mean, South Park‘s usually pretty funny, I suppose. Right? Sure.
10:30 – Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil (Comedy Central)
Caught the Donald Trump vs. Viagra episode of Black’s new show, and aside from feeling a bit too rehearsed, it was pretty damn funny. Tonight’s episode tackles the age old question: which is more evil, beer or weed? Because, you know, crystal meth doesn’t qualify because it’s good at heart.
Late Night
Personal man-crush Brian Williams is on Letterman tonight (as is the great comedienne Judy Greer), Leno is hosting John Krasinski and Joe Torre, Kimmel has John Cusack and the disgustingly virginal Jonas Brothers, and the good hosts (Conan, Colbert, and Stewart) are all still off.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The photo above is of one of the biggest badasses alive, Oscar Pistorius. He, as a double amputee, was deemed too fast to compete in the Olympics. According to the International Association of Athletics Federation, Pistorious does’t actually run too fast, he just runs too efficiently. He could run using Cheetah Prosthetics “at the same speed as the able-bodied sprinters with about 25% less energy expenditure” and “the mechanical advantage of the blade in relation to the healthy ankle joint of an able bodied athlete is higher than 30%.” Pistorius is appealing the decision, and it is still up in the air. I, for one, welcome our new “double transtibial amputee athlete” overlords.
via Engadget
It turns out that the Senate in incapable of passing a bill without including tax breaks for businesses. The housing bill they passed last month that was designed to prevent people from losing their homes also contained massive tax breaks for real estate developers, automakers, and airlines. Next up on the Congressional schedule is a proclamation honoring Jackie Robinson that contains a bailout for GM.