Free iPods?
I have my doubts, but enough people out there on tha Intarweb have reported that this actually works, so I signed up for it. Here's the way it works. You sign up by clicking on my referral link. You sign up for one of their offers (I recommend the infone offer. They don't charge a monthly fee, there's no free trial period after which they charge you 2 bazillion dollars, and your credit card doesn't get charged unless you use it. Plus, you get credit instantly!). Then get five friends to do the same (like I'm doing right now). Once they all get credit, you get a free iPod! Sound good? Cool, now click my referral link and sign up so I can start working on my free iPod!
Dennis Hastert may be a pedophile
I mean, we just don't know for sure that he's not. And considering he's willing to go on Fox News Sunday and assert that George Soros is a drug dealer, I think it's fair to throw out unsubstantiated accusations about his own character.
"You know, I don't know where George Soros gets his money. I don't know where
Flip flop
President Bush's comments on winning the war on terrorism...
April 13: "One of the interesting things people ask me, now that we are asking questions, is, 'Can you ever win the war on terror?' Of course you can."
July 14: "I have a clear vision and a strategy to win the war on terror."
Yesterday: "I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world." If that's not a flip flop, I don't know what is.
When asked if he thought the war on terror could be won, John Kerry replied, "Absolutely."
Unfortunately, I gotta go with Bush on this one. There's no white flag for the terrorists to raise, no peace treaty to sign to signal an end to the "war." But you can make them irrelevant and cripple them enough to render their acts insignificant. However, this is not America's war alone. We need the cooperation of the world community to make it work, and that's something we don't have right now.
Update:
As quick as you can say "waffle", President Bush is back to saying we will win the war on terror. I thought they would be trying to keep a tight message during the week of their convention, but that crafty interviewer Matt Lauer (of that stellar "news" show, the Today show) somehow managed to sidetrack him, if only for a day.
An Olympic marathon debacle
As I am sure everyone has heard by now, an otherwise great Olympic marathon was marred by a nut job pushing the leading runner from Brazil into the crowd on the side of the course.
A few thoughts from my vast experience in marathoning (1 completed marathon).
1. The guy would not have won the gold. The Italian and American runners behind him were cranking pretty hard and would have gotten him even if he hadn't gotten run off
2. He shouldn't get a duplicate gold. The appropriate gesture is the one he's already gotten: the Pierre de Coubertin medal.
3. An American actually won a silver medal!?!?!? Wow, never saw that coming.
4. Oh yeah, he was born in Eritrea and became a US citizen in 1998 because he wasn't sure if Eritrea would be competing in the Sydney Olympics. Welcome to the USA, Meb! Good to have you here.
5. I don't care if you finished 65th like Dan Browne did, coming into that stadium had to be the highlight of your career.
I’m on Gmail
Thanks to my man Lance, who hooked me up with a Gmail account. Lovely 1GB of storage for all my spam.
I'm still mainly using my the-ds.com address though, but if you feel like it, shoot me an email at brian-dot-dauernheim-at-gmail-dot-com.
Dumb crook, or genius crook?
50000 cans of beer are missing after a truck driver disappeared with his cargo in Canada recently. They've arrested the driver, but haven't recovered the beer. Since it was labelled in English and Spanish for sale in Mexico, it would be impossible to sell in Canada, leading a Moosehead spokesman to say, "It's one of those classic dumb-crook stories."
As Homer Simpson might say, "Dumb crook, or genius?" These guys have 50000 cans of beer! Can you say toga party?
More NCAA genius
With the Jeremy Bloom situation now behind them, the NCAA turned their sights on another unfortunate individual to draw their ire, Mike Williams of USC. After the courts ruled that Maurice Clarett should be allowed to enter the NFL, Williams hired and agent and declared himself eligible as well. Then the appeals court ruled against Clarett. Williams immediately separated from his agent and signed up for summer school at USC to reestablish his academic eligibility. Too bad, says the NCAA, you can't go back. But he can't go to the NFL either. So now he's left with what? The CFL? Arena League? Nicely done once again, NCAA. Slap down another kid who was completely innocent.
Cover songs
Recently, I started tuning in to Yahoo's Launch music service, thanks to a particularly abrasive co-worker to whom I would rather not listen. They have a cool station: 1980's cover songs. It's a lot of fun, and leads me to this ranting analysis of cover songs.
If you're going to take the time to do a cover song, please don't try to sound like the original. If I wanted that, I would listen to the original band, or go to a karaoke bar. It's just boring, and many bands fall into the trap. I just listened to the Presidents of the United States covering "Video Killed the Radio Star." They sounded exactly like the original, including the reverb effects, and the singer even inflected his voice to sound like the original (female) singer. Boo! Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, and Jessica Simpson should be banned from every ruining any 80s song by covering it. And what is the obsession with people covering "Boys of Summer"? It wasn't that great of a song.
On the other hand, Save Ferris did a fine cover of "Come On Eileen." It was a ska beat kind of remake. Very cool. One of my favorite covers ever was "Money" by the Flying Lizards. The female singer just deadpanned the lyrics the whole way through, and it was so different from the original, I may like it better than the Beatles' version.
If you tune in to this station, look for the Pet Shop Boys covering "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You"... in the same song. Also, George Michael doing Roxanne is unique. And if you haven't heard Johnny Cash doing covers of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus", you are missing out.
Rant over.
Amusing side note: On right now is The Bacon Brothers (with Kevin Bacon, of course) doing a live cover of "Footloose", the theme from the same titled movie Kevin Bacon starred in. And it ain't bad either...
A great mile runner
In his third attempt to get Olympic gold in the 1500 meters, Hicham El Guerrouj finally succeeded and laid his claim to being perhaps the greatest miler ever. World champ, world record holder, and now, Olympic champ.
It was a phenomenal race. The pace was extremely slow to start, as they passed through 800m in just over 2 minutes (for reference, I used to be able to run pretty close to 2 minutes for the 800 in high school). Then, El Guerrouj decided it was time to move. He took the lead, and the field started to thin out. Coming around the final turn, it was only El Guerrouj and his chief rival, Bernard Lagat. Lagat made his move to pass, and it looked like he was going to leave El Guerrouj behind. But then it seemed that El Guerrouj remembered Sydney, where he lost in the final stretch as well. He refused to let Lagat by, and outsprinted him to the line. A wonderful display of running. It was not his favorite way to run the race, but he won anyway. Alan Webb, the supposed next great US miler (of which there has never actually been since Jim Ryun, just a bunch of choke artists), could take a lesson from this race. El Guerrouj won in a still slow time of 3:34 (Alan Webb won the Trials in 3:32), but made it look fast by eliminating the field with half the race left to go. Brilliant racing.
Communion? Hope you’re not allergic to wheat
Another sign of how screwed up the Catholic Church is (and yes, I am still a Catholic): An eight year old girl was denied Communion because she has a wheat allergy, and the Church insists the host must contain gluten. Forget that she could die. The important thing is that things are done exactly the way the Church says. Ugh.
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