Sports, movies, politics and life. All rolled up into a nice, if not necessarily neat, package. PS: The opinions expressed on this website are exlcusively my own, and are not shared by my employer, friends, family, or acquaintances except where they explicitly say as much ;-).
Bidding adieu to the home that has served my blog so well for so long. I will not be importing the blogger posts into the Blue Parrot, so if you wish to read past witticisms and criticisms, feel free to come back here any time. Mean time, come on over to my new digs at The Blue Parrot.
posted by Hankblog @ 5/02/2005 09:53:00 AM
Going to start posting again starting Thursday 4/28 both here and at The Blue Parrot. Comments will be turned off here, but on at The Blue Parrot. This should go for about a week or so, and then the transition should be complete.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/28/2005 09:22:00 PM
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Lindsay at Majikthise linked up to this photo essay. It highlights the transport of some penguins from Sea World San Antonio. The pictures are amusing enough, as the penguins had to clear security like any other passengers.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/28/2005 05:35:00 PM
You get something like this query letter over at Query Letters I Love:
"I propose you a film about the greatest possible position: the President of the World (who is expected to come).Believe it or not, it gets even MORE rambling and insane. Read the whole thing.
Free Masons and Jews want to unify the whole planet in a single State, a Planetary Republic which will be leaded by a King/President. An Arabian terrorist group threatens Jerusalem with a nuclear bomb because Jews want to make Jerusalem the Capital of a world ruled by Jews, the place where they will set the throne of a Jewish King/President of the Planet.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/28/2005 05:25:00 PM
Via The Poor Man, this story in the Nashua Telegraph:
A man convicted of stealing more than $600,000 in a business loan scam received an award from the National Republican Congressional Committee honoring his business leadership and party support.This dude sounds ripe for Haliburton's recruiting efforts. They can use a man like him in Iraq. For once, we get honesty from the RNCC. They reward people who rip others off :-).
Ira Stern, 56, of Milford was among hundreds of people nationally to receive the 2004 Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal award, Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Alex Burgos said Wednesday.
[snip]
“I believe the Congressional Committee gives that to people who support the Republican Party. I made a very small donation to them, and next thing I know, I was being nominated for businessman of the year,” he said.
Public records show Stern gave $250 to the NRCC in 2004.
Stern urged The Telegraph not to report his prior conviction, saying it was in the past. He is now trying to rebuild his life and support his family with his business-consulting firm, he said.
[snip]
Stern was sentenced to 2 ½ to five years in prison and ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to felony theft charges in 1996 in Hillsborough County Superior Court.
Stern admitted to bilking 14 local businesses and individuals out of a total of more than $600,000 through an “advance fee loan scam.” Stern admitted at the time he took the money as fees, claiming he would arrange venture capital loans, but never made any loans.
As part of his plea bargain, Stern read a two-page statement in court admitting various aspects of the allegations.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/28/2005 05:05:00 PM
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On the heels of Norbizness' Comedy Movie bracket, won handily by Dr Strangelove, Norbizness has a post highlighting Scamboogah's classic video game bracket (pre-1990 defining classic). Round 1 was split here and here. Skip all the way to the Final Four here. Highlighting some of my favorites from the original list:
posted by Hankblog @ 4/28/2005 04:06:00 PM
My friend Patrick tuned me into the idea that George Lucas really has sold his soul to Satan:
Two Star Wars TV series will follow the latest movie in the hit film franchise, director George Lucas has said.Animated show Clone Wars, currently broadcast as three-minute episodes, will become "a 3D animated" series of 30-minute shows, he said.
It would be followed by a live-action series featuring characters from the six Star Wars movies, he added.
Patrick's response:
Star Wars has already gone from a cherished childhood memory to a joke. You’ll only make it worse. My little Jawa action figure, the only one to survive from 1977, now just makes me sad. Go make a romantic comedy, an action thriller, anything. Maybe, like your buddy Francis, you could get a hobby. Spend some of your money. Have fun. You’ve already killed part of my childhood, please stop pissing on the corpse. I don’t care how much they’re paying you to do it, it’s just not nice.Having long ago ditched cable and lost faith in Lucas, I personally can't get that emotionally invested in this. I will say if we wind up with something like Queer Eye for the Jedi, I might have to rip the antenna out of my TV set that my brain may never be contaminated. EVER.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/28/2005 03:40:00 PM
Again Fafblog provides the surreal:
answerI'm not terribly sure I want to know what the question was.
We have been to the opera. And by "the opera" we mean "the post office" and by "been to" we mean "thrown buckets of fish at" and by "we" we mean "people who are not us."
posted by Hankblog @ 4/28/2005 03:24:00 PM
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A great deal has been made in the left blogsphere about Ann Coulter's cover story on Time Magazine this week. Billmon at Whiskey Bar has an interesting theory on what might have motivated it.
So just what does this have to do with Time?When I was pissing on the chowderheads over at Time the other day for their infotainment treatment of Ann Coulter, I argued that the limo liberals at Time Warner were essentially offering protection money to the conservatives.
Something I read in the Wall Street Journal yesterday makes me suspect that statement might be more literally true than I originally thought:
Perhaps it is only fitting that broadcasters gathered here for their annual convention are obsessed with indecency.Facing possibly higher fines and tougher enforcement over profanities or sexual content, members of the National Association of Broadcasters are wondering: What will Kevin Martin do?
Martin, of course, is the new FCC chairman -- compared to whom baby Powell was a flaming libertine with his mind squarely in the gutter. Since taking over, the new guy's been very vague (ominiously vague, from the NAB's point of view) about just how far he plans to take the New Censorship. But the industry clearly fears the worst.
Ah, now everything becomes clear. Anway, give the whole thing a once over if you're so inclined.At first, I couldn't quite fit Time Warner into this hypothesis, since the company isn't all that big in broadcasting -- and, in fact, just upped its bet on cable distribution by buying Adelphia.
But of course it didn't take me too long to realize that if the broadcasters are scared of being left at a decency disadvantage, they're probably already lobbying to have the cable guys shackled and chained too. And so it turns out:
Broadcasters anticipate a move in Congress this year to raise fines for indecency. Some industry executives argue that if they can't stop that, they will at least try to persuade Congress to extend the rules to cable and satellite broadcasters who are now exempt. Senate and House leaders have signaled interest in extending indecency rules to cable and satellite providers, but there has been no agreement on timing for doing that.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/22/2005 01:36:00 PM
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Image courtesy Feministe.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/22/2005 12:16:00 PM
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I tipped my girl onto the online comic Questionable Content a ways back, and she and I both read it regularly now. She linked to today's comic because the phrase "Oedipal marshmallow bits" just made her giggle. Sadly that got my brain going in a very bad direction. Therefore, O-pun season has begun (most of these are in her comments, but I had to share):
posted by Hankblog @ 4/22/2005 12:01:00 PM
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Jackie very rarely sits still for pictures, so I had to get this one while I could:
posted by Hankblog @ 4/22/2005 10:00:00 AM
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The decision to migrate off of blogger is a done deal. I have registered a domain name, and purchased server space for hosting purposes. I have been getting a crash course in Word Press from my friend Patrick. He migrated over a month or so ago and the move has been a good one for him by all appearances.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/21/2005 09:40:00 PM
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Actually, I'm not quite sure what to call this, so I figured this was as good a place to stick this incident as any.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/21/2005 09:34:00 AM
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I've not been in a good mood today. I had an interview for a possible new job/position switch scheduled for this afternoon. When I came in today, the first thing I found out was that it had been rescheduled. Needless to say, I was a bit put out. I'm gonna have to iron twice in a week for crying out loud :-).
posted by Hankblog @ 4/20/2005 08:51:00 PM
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Some of the problems I've been seeing some people have with Blogger has got me thinking about finding a new home for my rants. I've got a friend who's talking with me on the pros and cons of Word Press, and I may register my own domain and brush some things off if I do. I'll note here of where I'm moving to as soon as I know more. Should be within the next month or so if I do take the plunge.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/18/2005 04:31:00 PM
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Norbizness has moved on to the next round. Voting here.
posted by Hankblog @ 4/18/2005 10:07:00 AM
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