WallStreetJackass

what a difference a year makes

Bummer the Zeppelin reunion was a headfake though... 

GOP - the Party of the Apocalypse.

and it's not just Republican freakshows, a majority of Americans voted for this guy in 2004 knowing he had a bearded imaginary friend telling him how to conduct foreign policy.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the [George W. Bush] appealed to their "common faith" (Christianity) and told him: "Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. ... The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled. ... This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins."

just nuts.

Obama as Felix the Cat

Niall Ferguson, testing his reputation as a historian...

President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat. One of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black. He was also very, very lucky. […] Even Felix the Cat’s luck ran out during the Depression. His creator Pat Sullivan drank himself to death in 1933, baffled that audiences now preferred mice like Mickey and Jerry. President Obama should take note.

still pretty funny though

1940 Tour de France

book recommendation

Piers Brendon who wrote a great book on the 1930's has another on the decline and fall of the British Empire. An example of his great writing...

"[Prime Minister Eden] misled parliament and the press [about the assault on Suez], though he did confide in the gentlemen of The Times, rightly thinking that they regarded discretion as the better part of journalism."

rightwing Christian nutcases.

please, no more of them in the White House.

POTUS

now that he's president, I'm certainly no cheerleader for Obama. But his grasp of issues in this interview is nothing less than remarkable. 

After 8 years with a president who reveled in his own ignorance, I still find it hard to get used to I guess.

P.A.K.I.S.T.A.N?

according to the book I'm pretending to read while drinking, "Pakistan" is an acronym created towards the end of the British Raj; it stood for Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sind and the last last letters of Baluchistan.

the most famous man in the world

One day at school, a second grade teacher said to the class, "I'll give $10 to the child who can tell me who was the most famous man who ever lived."

A little Irish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St. Patrick." The Teacher said, "Sorry Sean, that's not correct."

Then a little Scottish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St.Andrew." The Teacher replied, "I'm sorry, Hamish, that's not right either."

Finally, a little Jewish boy raised his hand and said, "It was Jesus Christ."

The teacher said, "That's absolutely right, Marvin. Come up here and I'll give you the $10." As the Teacher was giving Marvin his money, she said, "You know, Marvin, since you're Jewish, I was very surprised you said 'Jesus Christ'." Marvin replied, "Yeah. In my heart, I knew it was Moses, but business is business".

books

I read Thomas Ricks' "The Gamble" about the Iraq, well, gamble and it's well worth the day or so it takes. But for a truly remarkable book (hard work, but fascinating) you have to read "The Decline and Fall of the British Empire" by Piers Brendon. A quick excerpt about the ANZACs...

 - [the Australian PM] did obtain an australian mandate over German New Guinea, though when [US president] Wilson asked if the natives would have access to missionaries Hughes assured him that they would because as it was "these poor devils do not get half enough... to eat" -