(This might interest) Maybe Just Me…

ppl are crazy

and not in a good way. is it just me or is everyone and everything getting SO much more extreme these days? i’m a victim of it too, but wow.

CNN.com - ‘Brokeback’ screening lands prison officer in hot water - Apr 8, 2006

okay, so here’s the summary intro paragraph/sentence from this article:

A Massachusetts correctional officer is being disciplined for showing the gay cowboy movie “Brokeback Mountain” to inmates at the state’s largest prison because his boss determined that the film includes content inappropriate for a prison setting.

this is from a reuters wire article. reuters is a news organization like the AP (though mostly a secondary/international source in the US). Here’s my problem with it. it’s all fun and games for comedians, late-night talk show hosts, etc etc etc to make the almost obligatory brokeback mountain jokes. to stereotype it as the “gay cowboy movie” when it’s not a gay cowboy movie. but to put the term “gay cowboy movie” in the lead of the article, that goes around the world?!?! that just propagates the whole problem. gives legitimacy to it, when it shouldn’t be.

Today is World AIDS Day. Things aren’t progressing as quickly as one would hope, but slow progress is being made, which is better than no progress.

This is a picture of people in Nepal celebrating World AIDS Day by donning condom costumes.

ESPN.com: Page 2 : A Turkey Day edition of truths

“It don’t matter who did what to whom. Fact is, we went to war an’ now there ain’t no goin’ back … if it’s a lie, then we fight on the lie. But we gotta fight.”

This is a line from Jason Whitlock’s column on Page 2 of ESPN.com. It’s referring to the feud between Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens, likening it to the HBO show the wire. (He also compared it to Ralph Tresvant versus Bobby Brown, New Edition era). At any rate, this line is how I feel about the conflict in Iraq (for one reason or another, I refuse to call it a war). We might not be there for the right, or even real/truthful/factual, reasons, but we are there now and are in it, can’t just up and leave. I think if the USA pulled out now, Iraq would just turn to absolute nothingness (kind of how Somalia did after the US pulled out).

CNN.com - Prosecutors: Drunk mom smothered baby - Nov 12, 2005

seriously, they should make ppl pass a test to have children. get a parenting license or something. jebus.

delay’s lawyer requests the judge recuse himself because he has shown some political leaning to the left

okay, first the link is to the nytimes.com site, so you’ll need to register or go to bugmenot.com to get a login.

second, is delay and his attorney serious? if you can get one judge removed for being “biased” because the judge is politically left, then technically you should be able to recuse the admin judge (who will decide whether the trial judge should stay or not) because he is a republican appointed by a republican governor. NEVERMIND that all judges are political in texas because they are appointed or (in a great majority of cases) ELECTED…

such a dumb tactic. there’s no such thing as a completely impartial judge. but they do the best they can to strictly adhere to established laws and precedent. if you want completely impartial, then you have to go to something non-human or something.

HoustonChronicle.com - FEMA to limit debit card program to Texas shelters

This morning, U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s visit to the Reliant Park this offered him a glimpse of what it’s like to be living in shelter.
While on the tour of a shelter with top administration officials from Washington, including U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, DeLay stopped to chat with three young boys resting on cots.
The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, “Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?'’
They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.

yes, fun… just like camp… yeah…

CNN.com - Utah Scout feeling ‘good’ after ordeal - Jun 22, 2005

“We’ve also told him don’t talk to strangers. … When an ATV or horse came by, he got off the trail. … When they left, he got back on the trail.”

“His biggest fear, he told me, was someone would steal him,” she said.

Brennan’s uncle, Bob Hawkins, said his nephew may have been afraid to contact the strangers because they weren’t using the password his family had adopted.

The family explained that Brennan was born prematurely and he is socially immature as a result.

i seriously don’t know what to think about this. let’s go in order. umm, if you are lost for more than a DAY out in the “wilderness” why the hell would you hide from people passing on the trail? why would you think that they want to “steal” you? and if they do steal you, at least there’s a higher chance you’d get water and food than if you stayed just wandering in the wild.

second, the boy isn’t immature because he was a premie directly. he’s immature because his parents are too overprotective. he hid from strangers because he thought they’d steal him? he didn’t talk to people on the trail (mind you he’s been wandering and alone for 3-4 days) because they didn’t know the fucking password?

the article also says during a press conference at his house the kids “sat at his mother’s feet behind the microphones until the end of the news conference.” yeah, this is a socially awkward kid and now nothing will change that because his parents will not coddle him even more.

HoustonChronicle.com - Bike couriers risk necks in pursuit of fun, profit

i have to be honest, i’ve lived in houston for 3 years now and only this past year did i really see bike couriers regularly. and i live downtown.

50 Coolest Websites 2005 - TIME.com

i’m not even c-list on blogebrity. haha, i have single digit readership even. but shouldn’t i be one of the 50 coolest websites of 2005? come on? who’s cooler than me? i kid i kid.

i will say any list of the best/coolest blogs that DOESN’T include engadget (the best tech blog out there) is a crock. even though i regularly visit a LOT of the blogs on this list.

CNN.com - Found Scout back home with family - Jun 22, 2005

Brennan “was in no mood to give us a lot of details” about how he came to be lost or what he did during those four days

if i’m this kid’s parents, i’m making him tell me how exactly he got lost. why he was out by himself (a question i’d angrily pose to the cub scout people too).

btw, aren’t gps locator things cheap enough that when sending kids (cub/boy/eagly/brownie/girl/etc scouts) out on these camping trips that people can afford to get enough to tie them to the kids’ shoes or something? i mean you can get gps locators for your dogs! we cant just use something similar and cheap for camping?

CNN.com - FBI: Bride ‘just wanted to disappear’ - Jun 21, 2005

but she did not feel like she had done anything wrong

wtf? she didn’t think running out on this guy was wrong? fine. but running away and not telling ANYONE, knowing full well that people are going to expect foul play post-scott peterson, and you don’t think that’s wrong?

and i love how she wanted to go to austin because of matthew mcconaughey talk about it.

and what’s up with keeping the old romantic ex-bf txt messages on her phone? regardless of the runaway bit, did her fiance know about them? because that might be enough for me to at least think “maybe this girl isn’t ready for marriage” beyond running away.

i think she shouldn’t be allowed to make money off this. i think her movie deal proceeds should be used to FULLY pay back the county for the search and to set up counselling. that she will profit from this really makes me sick.

how old is this lady that her MOTHER is still doing her banking? so ridiculous on so many levels.

CNN.com - Royals cost each Briton $1 a year - Jun 22, 2005

value-for-money monarchy

haha, the brit royals cost their subjects just over $1/year. that’s nuts! it’s funny to me they still have royalty. and that the royalty is still so dependent on the people. you’d think they were all independently wealthy, but you’d be wrong (except for william and harry who inherited a ton from princess diana).

CNN.com - Russia: Solar sail launch fails - Jun 22, 2005

actually i have nothing against russia. but it’s just funny to think of this in communist, cold war russia terms. sure the solar sail “failed” and is “lost.” meanwhile their super secret spy agency is currently using it to do something nefarious. hahaha.

CNN.com - Saddam prison fare: Doritos, Raisin Bran — but no Froot Loops - Jun 21, 2005

undoubtedly the GOP will find some way to use the he thinks clinton was okay and didn’t like both bushes to their advantage (but truth be told, if i were the former leader of a country, i wouldn’t like the presidents of another country who were president at the time they kicked my ass in military engagements)

btw - more salient to me is this appears in this july’s gq, which according to the article hit newsstands on monday. why the f do i subscribe if i don’t get the magazine until on average a week after its on newsstands? do i really save that much money on a subscription versus pay per month (actually yes, but i still should get the magazine relatively the same time as newsstands)? and it’s not like i subscribed via some other service (which i could at least justify, if incorrectly, in my head for the delay), subscribed right through gq.