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Horrible, for sure. Like that chimp attack from a couple years ago. It amazes me how badass animals are. Gigantic bites to the *head*??!?! These animals go for the head and neck and just chomp with their huge teeth. How did we ever survive long enough as a species to build tools and buildings that protect us from them?
Details emerge in SF Zoo tiger attack (w/video) | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
A worthwhile read.
Oooooh this site’s a doozy! Goes right back to my previous post about figuring out where the $$$ comes from for presidential candidates’ campaigns. I’ll have to see what sort of credibility it has—it could be legit, but I always have my BS detector set on High, so I’m not sure yet.
Anyhoo, check out the love fest for this gem of a president: George W Bush – Money, Politics, George W Bush, Campaign Contributions
I see excited, loyal GDub “fans” and their posts, and I can’t help but play a soundtrack of derogatory banjo music in my head, interspersed with the sound of NASCARs flying by. ALL CAPS, screaming at the top of their lungs about Jesus and how God put Bush in office.
It really scares the shit out of me. Really.
I mean, I realize a lot of the world believes in the Judeo-Christian god—I was raised Catholic—but these fricken creation monkeys really kill me. Sure, I totally understand believing in God. It seems to be a big part of the human make-up. I personally am not so sold on organized religion, but there are plenty of people I respect that do. So OK, believe what you believe and do your thing. What does bother me, however, are the craz, dogma-spouting idiots that seem to lack even the tiniest sliver of ability to state arguments logically, persuade with arguments, and convey cohesive believable ideas. They all seem to be reading from the same script! As an educated person, it really blows my mind.
It’s sooooo frustrating to think that there really are people like this—people that seem to only understand and accept the narrowest regurgitated view of the world. I don’t understand, but I want to understand. I want to see what they see, think how they think and fully grasp why they can move through this world living as they do. So far, I just haven’t been able to get it.
A friend of mine feels there are basically a huge percentage of idiots out there. And that’s just how it is. The Sherri Shepherds of the world, if you will. Whatever they do professionally, wherever they live, whatever family they’re from, some people are just stupid. And, in his view, these folks are much more numerous than smart people.
Me, I’ve always tested high. I’ve gone to good schools, I’ve gotten good grades. I’ve scored in the top 5% in intelligence and academics tests.
But I just feel normal. I feel like I establish the “C” average. I generally assume that everyone else is as smart as me, and the difference is in what we know. Academically, some folks are math people, some folks are science people; some people are great with languages, some people are amazing artists. We’re all smart—just in different ways.
So…can I reconcile my worldview with what I see? Can I say these lunatics that are dyed-in-the-wool loyal to Bush’s regime in the face of all we’ve learned—SIMPLY DUE TO their belief that their god put this man there—can I say that these people are as smart as I am? That they just know something different than I do?
Mabe my main gripe is that I believe these people are out of their element. Say some redneck dumbfnck loves the shit out of Bush, loves God with all his heart, loves NASCAR. God bless him. He can sing Travis Tritt songs and mean it. This guy is an equal of mine. Let’s say his intelligence—his area expertise—is selling Toro lawnmowers. He can sell more Toro lawnmowers than anybody. He knows their parts, their tolerances, their horsepower—everything.
So far so good with my theory. He is a smart, capable equal.
HOWEVER, the problem arises when this lawnmower salesman starts asserting himself in neighborhoods he does not belong. Namely, logic. Political discourse. “Bush is the best president ever and was put there by God!!!”. To this, all I can say to the lawnmower salesman is “boy, you’re out of your element”.
He may be smart. At selling lawnmowers. But just as I know nothing about mulching features, he knows nothing about logic. He cannot make a rational, educated proposal and back it up with facts. All he can do is come in all passionate, guns blazing, and start yelling and screaming because someone on a comment board doesn’t echo what his preacher says on Sunday mornings.
I think that’s it. He’s not stupid. He’s not worthless. He’s just out of his element. And, painfully, he doesn’t seem to know it.
A problem with all of this is that guy’s vote counts (just about) as much as mine does. Sure, we have the electoral college jacking up the whole system, but in a nutshell my vote and his vote is equal.
Admittedly, I’m not studious poli-sci student; I’m no socioeconomics Ph.D. I’m just your average guy, making an effort at being a decent, responsible citizen. I want to read about candidates, weigh my options and make my decision. I realize that—more than any other choice we make in life—choosing a candidate is going to be a compromise. No one out there is going to represent my beliefs to a T. And frankly, given my limited knowledge, that’s probably a good thing in the long run. To some extent, we have to find someone that appears to be legit, appears to represent what we believe, and appears to be a credible leader. Once we do that, we have to trust that we’ve made a good decision.
It ain’t easy.
The current wisdom seems to be “figure out where they get their money from and you’ll know what they’ll do as president”.
I think there’s some logic in that. In some preliminary digging around I found some resources; here’s a link for Ron Paul: FEC Candidate Summary Reports – Candidate ID P80000748
I would like to dig up a reasonably comprehensive list of corporate contributors. Also, I suspect that individuals within corporations will be doing some contributing as well, so I’ll probably have to figure out who’s who and what their agenda is. This site shows individual contributors, so it would probably be easy enough to start with the big $$$ contributors and then track down who they work for or what their deal is.
This’ll take some doing I reckon.
In the meantime, I happily welcome comments. Yeah, with my current traffic, that’s essentially yelling into the wind, but hey maybe people will comment if I ask ‘em to.
So: leave your comments, monkey!
At first glance this looks like a wacky illustration. Uh, no such luck:
#4: Sexual Preference
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
I guess there’s *somebody* out there that would put this on their resume. Or, put another way, I bet there are some jobs where this is a *good* idea.
The customer is, frequently, a complete jag-off.
“…One day he relayed a story about how that morning on the way to work, a bike messenger had punched him through his open window…”
Question Of The Day: Who Is The Worst Driver You’ve Ever Met?
When I saw that Jens Pulver was fighting Cub Swanson in his WEC debut, I got a little nervous for the guy. Frankly, I imagined a Ken Shamrock-like showing, where a past-his-prime fighter was brought in for a young fighter to work over like a piece of meat. It sucked seeing Shamrock get mashed by Rich Franklin. And Ortiz. And, well, Ortiz again. Not that I’m a Shamrock fan, but it’s just sad. It’s like watching a dog get hit by a car, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I didn’t really want to see Pulver’s hopes get dashed in the same manner.
Instead of coming in to fanfare and getting his ass handed to him, Pulver pulled out a quick, decisive win. It was great on a several levels.
First, he beat a rising competitor.
Is WEC the same caliber promotion as the UFC? I don’t think so—at least for most weight divisions. Virtually any name UFC light heavyweight would destroy that Rhino guy, no problem. Carlos Condit is an appealing welterweight in that he looks like a college kid who’s going to get his ass kicked, but in the end he smokes his challengers. Could he compete against GSP or any other top-tier UFC guy? Again, I don’t think so. Lightweights? Again, I don’t know; there’s some tough UFC lightweights now.
But WEC’s featherweight division is pretty happening. Uriah Faber is a dominant cat and looks like pretty unstoppable. I’ve seen a few WEC featherweight fights and there seems to be some competition—if not for Faber, then at least among contenders. Cub Swanson has had some battles and seemed like a legit challenge for Pulver. I didn’t see it as a walk-through or warm-up debut match-up by any means.
Second, he got to show his personality and charm after the fight in the decision announcement and interview. Stupid, yeah, I know, but I think flavor is an important element to this sport. People that are goons or idiots (see: Diego fncking Sanchez) are just not interesting. Granted, there are a lot of dumb people in this world (see: Harley Davidson’s booming apparel and retail expansion) and maybe they connect with idiots. I know Diego has his fans. I, for sure, am not one of them. I’m no Jens “nuthugger” either, but the guy has some flavor. His backstory is crazy (see: father holding gun to his head), and the fact that he seems to by-and-large be a kind-hearted person is pretty fascinating. He’s essentially the consummate underdog. He’s small, he’s from a fncked up family and he’s probably not exceptionally intelligent (see: Mensa). But he’s got a sort of kid-brother charm and it showed. Folks that saw it like I did probably got the same feeling after his win.
Third and most important, he won quickly by submission. Jens got smoked by BJ Penn, a bjj expert, and everyone in the world expects Jens to rely entirely on his striking. Sorta like a mini Chuck Liddell. In this fight, Jens won quickly and cleanly with a smooth 10-finger guillotine. That’s pretty slick. It showed his maturity and his ability to learn and grow.
Homeboy’s a seasoned pro. If he’s capable of continuing to grow and diversify his skill set, I think Jens has a few more good years in his fighting career. Can he defeat a cat like Uriah Faber? My money would be on “no”. But not everybody gets to be the champ, you know? He’s had his time in the sun, he’s been champion, and if he can keep on competing then more power to him. I’m just glad he didn’t get embarrassed in his debut.
