I've got a serious question as this week winds down...

How is it that I totally missed the news surrounding Hillary Clinton's recent move to bring in Karl Rove as her campaign director?

I just got totally destroyed by a Metro gate

As I approached the ticket turnstile this morning in Cleveland Park, I realized a train was just entering the station, so I prepared to make a run for it. I swiped my card, heard the gate retract, and began to haul ass...

Unfortunately, the right gate either did not retract or retracted much slower than the left one. Also unfortunate was the fact that it was the wider wheelchair entrance with a lower gate height. So instead of simply ramming into unretracted right gate and bouncing off the left wall, I was somehow fully launched -- like in the movies when someone steps on a landmine. Or perhaps, more accurately, like a skier going off a jump badly. I am not at all kidding. I went completely airborne, swiveled in mid air, and landed flat on my back a solid four or five feet beyond the gate.

As I laid there completely stunned for a moment, several people began stopping to gawk, surely asking themselves "What the fuck just happened?" It was at that moment that I realized there was an even greater urgency for me to catch the train... because if I didn't, I was going to have to deal with a bunch of strangers alternating between laughing at me and checking to see if I was okay. So I got up and ran for it. I jumped down the last seven or eight steps to the platform in one leap and just barely squirted through a closing train door.

It was the perfect escape. I caught the train while none of the other five to ten people who had witnessed the incident were able to recover in time to make it.

The biggest pantload yet

It was only a matter of time before this sort of thing appeared.
(via Crooks & Liars)

Obama is a commie!!!!! You know... because he was born in 1961 and he had a white mother and a black father. And as we all know, that combination means you are directly related, by blood, to Joseph Stalin.

An amazing thing happened today...

I figured I might as well take a break from not-blogging for this one. It's not every day that two wonderful human beings like this









turn into super-parents! Seriously, though, we all know Anat and Aaron are going to be the best parents ever. It's not even open to question.

Anyway, big huge mega-congrats to both of you guys. And while I'm posting pictures, I might as well throw in a couple real ones.




You two were always a beautiful, loving, caring, amazing couple... Baby K is a very fortunate little kid.

a pit stop in Bladensburg, MD before summer league yesterday



Yep, I finally made my fanboy pilgrimage to one of the twelve 7-11s that was turned into a Kwik-E-Mart earlier this month. Even though it's already been a couple weeks, the place was still jam-packed. And there were at least three other people there taking pictures, so I didn't feel that silly when I took out my camera. As for souvenirs, I brought home a six pack of Buzz Cola.

Adding on to my previous post

I also 700% agree with the adoption of this new terror alert system.

Right on target

I 700% agree with this assessment.

Sorry trees!

Bad day here at work in the wasted paper department. I've been printing mountains of documents which I am pretty sure will go to waste. And I really don't have any say in the matter.

I wonder if anyone has ever conducted a comprehensive environmental study of big American law firms. Between the large empty spaces air conditioned down to insanely cool temperatures, the lights and computers left on everywhere, and the never-ending printing of junk documents, it seems pretty bad to me.

the dumbest thing I've heard on the radio in a while

Apparently while I was away in Belgium, DC's WTOP sold the naming rights to their building... to a local pizza chain. So now they come in and out of commercial breaks by saying things like "live from the Ledo Pizza glass-enclosed nerve center" which of course sounds absolutely ridiculous for a 24 hour news/traffic/weather station.

Sure, I love Ledo Pizza (especially the original one near College Park), but what's next?

"Live from the Applebee's media center in Atlanta, this is CNN news"

or maybe "Live from the Arby's studio in New York, this is the CBS Evening News"

wow, this is pretty bad (good)

I loves me some Pat Buchanan (once in a while)

Sure, I really don't care for most of Pat Buchanan's views. But over the years I've actually come to enjoy the way he operates even if I hate what's coming out of his mouth much of the time. He just seems like a straight-shooter to me. And his style does occasionally lend itself to saying things that are wildly unpopular with other right wingers.

I remember him basically agreeing with Gore's folks back in November 2000 when it became fairly obvious that he had received thousands of extra votes intended for Gore in Palm Beach County, Florida thanks to the infamous "butterfly ballot." Appearing on the the Today Show, he said, "It's very easy for me to see how someone could have voted for me in the belief they voted for Al Gore." He was also highly critical of the Iraq war well before it became fashionable among right wingers to dump on the Administration's handling of the situation. And beyond the mere handling of the war, he has also spoken about the underlying foolishness of the whole endeavor.

I was reminded of all this over the weekend in Germany, of all places. When I checked into my hotel on Saturday, I flipped on the TV for a few minutes and wound up watching a bit of the June 16th McLaughlin Group show on their English-language channel. They were talking about Scooter Libby when Buchanan said all of the following things:

Look, this was an open-and-shut case of naked perjury again and again and again. And I don't think there's an argument for the president of the United States interceding, other than the fact that this was a loyal servant of his, and he would be giving special treatment if he did it now...

... Well, yeah, he's got to go [to prison] -- look, if Paris Hilton's got to go to prison for 45 days for driving without a license, Scooter can't walk....

... What would you have the president of the United States say when he stands up there to say, "I've just pardoned Scooter Libby?" Why?...

... He [the President] could [pardon Libby], but he should not interfere with the course of justice unless there's some overriding interest. And there is none here. The man was convicted. Twelve jurors said he was guilty...

... He [Libby] was loyal. But a lot of our guys [during Watergate] were loyal and went over there and told the truth to the grand jury, and others didn't, and they paid the price. You've got to pay the price if you break the law. I mean, Republicans have got to believe in that, and conservatives have to believe in that. And I think Libby did not tell the truth again and again and again.

Pretty strong stuff, eh?

recap of this past weekend in Germany





Okay, so I decided I was entitled to snap a few dumbass tourist pictures after months of shooting serious travel photos. But seriously, when I get around to picking a few good ones out, I'll post a recap and some pictures from Köln and Bonn.

Friday links n'at

So I've got one week left here on Belgium trip #3 before heading back to DC. I'm going to Germany to check out Köln and possibly Bonn this weekend. And then I'll really be looking forward to getting home late next week.

Anyway, it's time for the clip show:

- What's up with every Space Shuttle mission needing a NASCAR-style pit stop for repairs???   I've written about this before. I just can't believe we'll be using the Space Shuttle through at least 2010. The thing was designed before I was even born... and I'm not exactly a youngster now.

- Did you ever wonder if satellites catch sun glare while imaging the Earth? Okay, I had not either. But check out this Google Maps view of a building near my work here in Bruxelles.

- Mary passed this human-Tetris-like video along to me last week. Will Japanese game shows ever stop being awesome? I hope not...


- We have no way of getting an A&W rootbeer float in Washington, DC. Yet folks at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (possibly even including the detainees) have themselves an A&W. WTF?!?

- A three-pack of goodness from BoingBoing: funny, crazy, and right on.