What BadAss are YOU?

Senior NoGators World Political Correspondent Ear O’Corn provides today’s story about a guy out of work, unemployed, and living with his mother.

We keep hearing about the Harken deal and what may or may not have been insider trading. Nothing will come of it, of course, and perhaps rightly so. But Christopher Caldwell in the New York Press has something to say about the pattern of opportunities Shrub enjoyed, and how that is potentially much more troubling than his fortunately-timed stock sale:

What kills the President is that every time Harken comes up, Democrats get to retell the story of how he made his money. And this, basically, is the story of the spectacular unfairness with which moneymaking opportunities are lavished on the politically connected. It is the story of a man who has been rewarded for repeated failures by having money shot at him through a fire hose. It is the story of a man who talks with a straight face about having “earned” a fortune of tens of millions of dollars, without having ever done an honest dayâs work in his life.

(Link)

I’ve just discovered One Thousand Blank White Cards, an improvisational card game. Check it out here and here and especially here. I have this feeling this is going to happen at my house sometime soon.

I’m not sure I can follow all of this guy’s ideas, but some bits are weirdly compelling.

So I rebuilt most of the site, including the Heathen templates, mostly to divest myself (finally) of some awful cut-and-paste code I started using before I had a clue about stylesheets. The HTML under all this should actually make sense now. Feedback encouraged.

No, really.

Which is to say not jokes about comic geeks, but jokes for comic geeks.

This whole site is great, but it’s this one that really kills me.

This whole site is great, but it’s this one that really kills me.

First, this: I had a great weekend. My brother got married. I was best man. It was a fantastic, wonderful, incredible experience, and I couldn’t possibly be happier about it. My new sister-in-law just rocks, and she makes my brother happier than I’ve ever seen him. It’s great.

BUT: Last night, at their fabulous enormous beautiful reception at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, their band did not show up. No calls. No messages. Nada.

So, if you happen to be in the market for a Motown/R&B act in the Mississippi/Alabama area, there are a number of fine options. However, you should avoid at all costs a group called 24-7, whom Aubrey’s father reserved through Frasco Entertainment in Jackson.

Did I mention that my little brother and most of his friends are attorneys?

Anyway, we all still had a good time, but good GOD, to not even SHOW UP to a wedding gig. . . wow.

Thai officials have their collective knickers in a twist over an advertisement for a bar in Philadelphia.

This article from Business 2.0 has been passed around a bunch lately, but it’s really worth reading. The Columbian cartels have apparantly gotten tech-savvy, and have IT infrastructures that would make most Fortune 500 firms jealous. And of course: they’re in an intensely competitive business with high regulatory pressure and absurdly complex supply chains; their business domain is an IT consultant’s dream because they’ve also got a license to print money.

Stop for a moment and think about how much taxpayer money is being used to fight these guys, and how futile that is. Not because the Columbians are rich, but because the market wants their product despite decades of this “War on [Some] Drugs.”

Overheard in a mail forwarded to me yesterday:

This nation has come a long way from its origins, 226
years ago today, when our rights were being violated
by an unelected, mentally deficient, hereditary dictator
named George.

Fly your flags proudly!

In the wake of Bush’s selective condemnation of those responsible for the recent spate of corporate meltdowns, it’s come to light that he himself has some skeletons in that same closet.

The Supremes are at it again.

Hunter Thompson is my hero.