Hey, tax voters, check it.

When are you going to get it?

LES STRAPONTINS!

Russian Attack!

Michael: spam is actually a great description of your joke philosophy :P

Ned: I prefer to call it the Soviet Approach.

Give one gun to like 10 troops and make them run towards the enemy until they overwhelm the opposition.

Icelandic Odyssey

Tomorrow I'll be eleven days in Reykjavik.
Exploring democracy in its infancy.
Coming to know more of my Icelandic brethren.
Missing my Penelope.

Is this unpatriotic?

Well gee, thanks Uncle Sam! I'd like to fully love my country too. When I was a kid, I pretty early on recognized that I'd rather have been born here than anywhere else in the world. I felt honored to come into what was one of the most free and accepting societies that there ever has been, where the individual is mostly allowed to find their own way . Growing up I kept that love, even though hints of iniquity started to shine through from a past I had not previously witnessed until I encountered them in history class. Slavery, Civil Rights: "mostly" righted but still present. At least we're headed in the right direction.

While only tangentially studied American Military History via my other historical pursuits and a lot of late nights watching the History Channel, there have been few people on this earth that I am in awe of more than the common soldier. From the musket-wielders to those trudging through the beaches of Normandy. From those pressed into the thick jungles of Asia to those now fighting in penance of an arrogant president. There's is to jump, headfirst, into situations I would have nightmares about. To be a proxy for their friends and family, their towns and counties, their states and country, so that others do not have to die. They are a spiritual manifestation of the will of the country and the physical manifestation that gets it done.

"What the Iraqi fighter found threatened America's vital alliance with Sunni militia.

A week ago in a police station shooting range on Baghdad's western outskirts, the American-allied Iraqi militiaman found what one or more GIs had been using for target practice -- a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book.

Riddled with bullets, the rounds piercing deep into the thick volume, the pages were shredded. Turning the holy book in his hands, the man found two handwritten English words, scrawled in pen. "F*** yeah.""

I try not to let one bad apple spoil the basket, but when it is a symptom of a greater problem--that still after how many years the average soldier isn't instructed on proper keeping of the Quran, how important it is to remember that you're not only killing Muslims ("evil terrorists") but also working with them ("freedom loving police") or any damn thing about Abu Ghraib?!

I've seen video and voice recording of the soldiers in Iraq, of their "F*** Yeah" attitude, blaring death metal while shooting 50 calibers into buildings, unapologetic hatred for the enemy--all of course normal in such extreme circumstance. However, this is yet another example of complete lack of leadership and personal responsibility. Another shovelful of dirt out of the grave plot I might be forced to bury my patriotism in. This is not the soldier that I can or should believe in, and it saddens me that a position of such honor, that carries such a burden, could sully itself--and that those who command it allowed it to happen in the first place.

Of course, the story I quoted from today's CNN.com piece has a turn for the better, as the religious leaders in the surrounding town were gracious enough, wise enough and loving enough to accept a humble apology from the commanding officer when they could have very easily demanded retribution. It was a scene not unlike many before it, where the sins of the few were forgiven by the few and the world is better for it.

Thanks Wired!

Thanks Wired, for providing further evidence that the majority of people are ridiculous.

Invention by deletion.

I'm not a huge fan of just direct linking other people's ideas that I run across through my daily RSS feeds here. That's what shared Google Reader is for.

However, the idea behind "Garfield without Garfield" fascinates me. It is the true genius of Jim Davis--because, face it, Garfield him/herself has never broken the humor threshold.

It is the hidden story of Jon Arbuckle, which the "re-creator" puts perfectly:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle [Special props to those who "get" this link reference"]. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

The Good Kind of B.O.

So the last few of my admittedly-few-and-far-between blog posts have been about Barack Obama. I deleted them because I hate repetition in writing. This blog isn't only about politics, even if it is what I've felt moved to write about recently.

The first Obamapost detailed my excitement over him winning Iowa and my humble pleading of Iowa to forgive me for so diligently making fun of it and its Midwestern neighbors from my East Coast Ivory Tower. Go Iowa. The second lauded John Lewis, my local rep and long-time hero of mine, for switching his support to Barack. What took him so long, I don't know.

Well, plenty of other states have fallen suit. There's momentum. Fantastic momentum (excepting dumb Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island, the new "Midwests" for me).

Just when you thought the train was headed in the right direction...

Barack tosses a huge ol' shovelful of coal into the furnace and the train levitates off of the tracks, turns skywards, Autobots itself a bit, turns into a freakin Millennium Falcon and jumps to lightspeed.

See one of the best speeches ever here: A More Perfect Union