29-12-05_2103.jpg
29-12-05_2103.jpg
Originally uploaded by Big DC.
Jesus bobblehead
29-12-05_1719.jpg
29-12-05_1719.jpg
Originally uploaded by Big DC.
Who's taping FSN? Ellie's on TV!
People Smarter Than Me
Bruce Schneier, security expert, is definitely someone smarter than me. He's now weighed in against the NSA surveillance program with an editorial in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. In it, he argues that President Bush has now established a dictatorial rule in the United States. My favorite chilling quote: "If the president can ignore laws regulating surveillance and wiretapping, why is Congress bothering to debate reauthorizing certain provisions of the Patriot Act? Any debate over laws is predicated on the belief that the executive branch will follow the law."
Heeeeeere’s Johnny!
There's two ways to take the title of that post: the Johnny Carson intro version, or the Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" version. I imagine there's people on either side. I'm going to go for the former though.
4 years, $52 million. That works out to $13 million a year. It's more than I would have liked to pay, but all things considered, it's not horrible. After all, Bernie Williams made almost $12.5 million in the same position last year, and Damon has to be an upgrade both offensively and defensively. With the price tags of the other possible centerfielders far too high, I think the Yankees did pretty well with this deal.
Oh, and don't forget they also signed Octavio Dotel. That guy could be good if he's able to recover from his surgery. Lord knows that Yankees need help in that bullpen.
Another Big Win
I hate to jinx myself, but our men's curling team is really good. We put the team together to compete for the Francis Dykes Bonspiel, which is a regional bonspiel for curlers with less than 5 years of experience. I actually play lead, which, like many people, is the position I first learned to play. I actually enjoy playing this spot as I have pretty good draw weight (leads play guards for the most part), and I'm the main sweeper for the rest of the rocks. This means that I'm pretty much in charge of deciding if a rock needs to be swept or not, and I've been getting pretty good at that too.
Last night, our team won fairly easily. The opposing team only managed a single point in each of their three scoring ends, and we took 3 and 4 points in our two big ends, and wound up winning 9-3. We played very well the whole time, never allowing the other team the chance to score a lot of points, and giving ourselves plenty of chances to score big (we actually had a chance at 5 points, but our skip sailed a draw through the house leaving us "only" 4 points instead).
I'm definitely looking forward to the big bonspiel. It's being held at our own club this year, from February 9th - 12th. It would be awesome to win the trophy in front of the home crowd.
Become Daniel Negreanu’s Protege
Daniel Negreanu is jumping onto the Apprentice bandwagon, offering poker players a chance to become his "protege." It's actually a pretty sweet deal if you manage to win, 4 $10k entries into major poker tournaments for starters. The catch is that qualifying can get tricky. There are ten ways to qualify, but most of them involve wading your way through basically a freeroll tournament with thousands of players. And then you are only one of ten finalists!
Still an interesting ploy. Whether you think it's worth it to be Daniel Negreanu's protege is up to you. For him, it's a can't-miss proposition. Anyone who manages to survive all the qualifying events is going to be a solid player already, and Daniel will probably look like a genius.
The Legality of NSA Spying
President Bush continues to assert that his authorization of an NSA progam to spy on people inside the US without a court order of any kind is legal. The Attorney General Alberto Gonzales points to the resolution authorizing force passed by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks, saying it "implicitly" allows such actions. But then there's also this quote from the Washington Post article:
"This is not a backdoor approach," Gonzales said at the White House. "We believe Congress has authorized this kind of surveillance." He acknowledged that the administration discussed introducing legislation explicitly permitting such domestic spying but decided against it because it "would be difficult, if not impossible" to pass.
So Congress implicitly authorized it, but if they had to vote on explicitly permitting it, it would not pass? Sounds to me like he's admitting that Congress intended no such thing, and the fact that they're scheduling hearings on the program confirms that.
Intelligent Design Struck Down in Dover
U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III has just ruled that "Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in the Pennsylvania public school district of Dover. I think this quote about sums up the entire affair:
"It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy."
Killing Baseball
The DC Council again postponed a vote on the stadium lease for the Washington Nationals. I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to call them the Washington Nationals. They may not be around much longer at this rate. Frankly, it shouldn't be a surprise. The council managed to push through a preliminary agreement before the newly elected members took office. Now, those new members are likely to vote against the lease agreement, scuttling the whole deal. Faced with this pressure, Mayor Williams asked to postpone the vote to change the lease language, AGAIN. Good lord man, if you couldn't get 7 votes up until now, I'm not sure what makes you think any changes you make now will matter.
The Nationals are already on the verge of turning into the Expos again next year. The novelty of having a team again is wearing off, and the team is not able to sign free agents without ownership or a stadium deal in place. It's a far cry from a year ago, when I was celebrating baseball coming back to DC. I only hope they can salvage something quickly and keep it here.
The War on Christmas
Target is now apparently selling "Holiday trees". I understand some points of political correctness, saying Happy Holidays, having holiday sales, etc. But you don't see them selling menorahs and calling them "holiday candelabras", do you? So why call a Christmas tree a holiday tree? It's pointless.
That said, that is the extent of my agreement with the zealots fighting the war on Christmas. Target and everyone else should run holiday sales, not Christmas sales, if they feel like it. As the Washington Post article indicates, much of the criticism leveled by Bill O'Reilly and the like is horrendously misplaced. A children's play did NOT change the words to Silent Night, the play says Christmas several times throughout, and the song just uses the tune of Silent Night that a lonely Christmas tree sings. There are plenty of other examples, but any apologies from the "fair and balanced" host? Not a chance. It's all about the anger.
Well, here's something that should make them angry: Christmas is a made up holiday that the Christians set at December 25th so that they could usurp the pagan festival of Saturnalia. Early Puritans in America even banned the holiday because of its link to the pagan holiday! There's lots more in the article, so I highly suggest reading it.
And none of this will stop me from celebrating Christmas this year, and I don't think it'll stop anyone else either. But it's darned close to driving me to celebrate Festivus instead. "A Festivus for the rest of us!"
Books
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GSI Outdoors JavaGrindLifestream
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Brian is back from the last day at the pool, having barely gotten wet.
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Brian is pretty sure the first day of school wake up call will be filled with grumpy.
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Brian Bitches Brew, Live Free or Die, Old Chub.
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Brian is coming to the realization that I am not a size XL. Or even a L. Time to donate some ill-fitting clothes.
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Shared The Thousand .
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Nordstrom's also has a free personal stylist, might trust them more than Banana Republic. (Can you tell I'm bored with my clothes lately?) [BrianDau]
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Who knew that Banana Republic had complimentary "personal styling appointments"? You know, if you go for that kind of style. [BrianDau]
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