Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Newt Gingrich on the billion dollar theft in Minneapolis.

- From the archives: The Purpose of Technology.

- Netflix to acquire Warner Brothers.

- Air Force hints at AI shift for B-21 Raider.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Are the Democrats waking the sleeping giant?

- Tom Brady has an A+ troll game

- Not a fan of Newt Gingrich but he makes very valid points. Is there anyone reputable from the Left who would dispute his argument? 

- AT&T having trouble selling DirecTV

- Statement from the President on the passing of Chuck Yeager (just seeing this now)

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Suddenly NFL people are wondering if Nick Mullens is going to do to Jimmy G what Tom Brady did to Drew Bledsoe... Any time I see Newt Gingrich - I picture him as Santa's gay half-brother to see if it makes him more likable... 10 Commandments of Irish Pub Etiquette... Quote of the Day: "I am an old man and have known many troubles, but most of them never happened." - Mark Twain... Heh Heh... Rental Soap would be a good name for a band (or a really bad business start-up idea)... When a bad guy with a gun meets a good guy in a cowboy hat...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Congratulations to the Cubs and the City of Chicago. I have the feeling that this is just the first of a few Championships to come... I love this poker story... Jut a reminder - the Red Sox magic number is now 163... Any time I see Newt Gingrich - I try to picture him as Santa's gay half-brother to see if it makes him more likable... Some good tips for better swimming... Not only is Tom Brady 1st in quarterback rating, he's also tied for 11th in TD's despite missing the first 4 games... Pretty sure Rape Whistle would be a horrible name for a band or a coconut rum drink... Henry Miller's 11 Commandments of writing... First it was the Chippendale Dancers, then it was the Thunder Down Under, now it's MEAT RAFFLE!... Should the Jaguars hire Tom Coughlin? I say yes (or hire Josh McDaniels)... I think if Mel Gibson came out and endorsed Hillary Clinton then most of Hollywood would forgive him en masse...  Heh heh...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Even if many on the left don't care that ISIS could easily slip in terrorists among the Syrian refugees - you would think at some point they would realize that so many new unskilled workers will be taking all those jobs that normally go to people with Philosophy and Women's Studies degrees... Got to love Gronk being Gronk... Every time my doctor talks to me about ADHD - I change the subject... Flippertigibbet is such a great word. We all know a flibbertigibbet... I'm going to start using the word "feisty" randomly this week. What a feisty potato chip! What a feisty gas pump! What a feisty use of language... Andre the Giant is soo cool... So if someone says, "You look familiar - were we in a police lineup together?" What's the proper response?... It's funny because it's true... Any time I see Newt Gingrich - I try to picture him as Santa's gay half-brother to see if it makes him more likable...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

Joe Biden - the gift that keeps on giving

Cutty Sark relaunched - as God as my witness I thought they were going to be talking about the whiskey but I couldn't figure out where archaeology came into the picture

Hemingway gives F. Scott Fitzgerald writing advice

You have to admit this is a great commercial

Just how small is an atom? Learning is fun.

Newt Gingrich's fever dream of what the 2012 General Election will look like

Next Up for Newt

Now that Newt Gingrich has finally suspended his campaign - I have an idea on what his next step should be. Newt has been famous for threatening to have a series of 3-hour Lincoln-Douglas style debates with just about anyone with nobody taking him serious. Well what some cable news network with low viewership should do (which I guess could be any of them except Fox News) is take Newt up on his offer.

Here's the deal.

Well known lefty lobbyists or personalities would pay $10,000 for a half hour debate with Newt on the subject of their choosing (approved by Newt). Newt would debate five such persons which would make up to 4 hours of original programming for the network (when you factor in pre-debate time and post debate analysis) and a $50,000 payday for Newt. A win-win. They could probably do about four of such debates.

I like the idea but I don't especially like Newt. The potential exists for the network to use Newt as a stand-in for Mitt Romney and use this format to make Newt and by extension Romney seem unattractive to the viewing audience. What I'd really like to see is someone like Victor Davis Hanson or Charles Krauthammer take on their opposite numbers from the Left. That would be great television.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

Newt Gingrich's campaign's check to get on Utah ballot bounces. Talk about your metaphors.

Gas prices will be President Obama's soft underbelly. He can't spin the story he's been telling and when / if he caves on the Keystone XL pipeline then he will have to answer for why he waited so long.

Shamefully enjoyable collection of people simulating masturbation at sport events. Sometimes I'm as mature as  a 12-year old.

Speaking of masturbation - the size of Internet porn sites is just staggering. Consider that YouPorn is six times larger than the networks owned Hulu. 

$45 million later - James Bond now drinks skunky beer

10 Famous actors who have advanced degrees

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

Gingrich Papers, Speeches Show Frequent Criticism of Reagan. It is also amusing that some of Reagan's positions today would be considered Liberal and Newt was to the left on some of those positions.

BetOnline is the first offshore to release MLB over/under win totals. I really like the Red Sox over of 87.5. Last year they completely collapsed in September and still had 90 wins.

I love this T-shirt 

Heh Heh - How to Write a Novel by Neil Gaiman

The Bell Centre in Montreal puts an image of Gary Carter's baseball card on the ice

Did Newt Resign in Disgrace?

I must admit that I found this article - Newt Did Not Resign in Disgrace by former Congressman Mark Souder pretty amusing. I especially found Souder sitting with fellow Congressman Mark Sanford during the vote on whether Newt would remain as Speaker to be unintentionally funny.

Why did I find this amusing? Well I couldn't help but remember that Souter later resigned from office because he was having an affair with a female staffer (basically at the same time Newt was having an affair with one of his female staffers). Then talking about agonizing about the decision with Mark Sanford who later resigned from the Governorship of South Carolina because he too was having an affair was just the extra bit of obtuseness needed to make me shake my head in disbelief.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

Coughlin and Belichick: Different cuts from the same cloth

Good ESPN story on 12 things we don't know about Tom Brady

Newt Gingrich's Wikipedia page hacked to more accurately portray his marriages

 Wow - a household of 4 making minimum wage has more disposable income than family making $60K

The 20 Most Beautiful Bookshops in the world

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Just saying but it has been over a month since Philly sportswriter Bill Conlin was accused of being a serial child molester but the story has completely dropped off the radar. That seems strange to me. Some would say that since there has been no court action there is nothing to report. Others would say that this is too close to home and too difficult for journalists to cover properly. I think that this is a cross between sportswriters wanting to wish it away and a situation similar to how cops don't write tickets on other cops... Heh heh - BetOnline calls Birdman's bluff on $5 million bet on the Super Bowl. The prop bets are awesome... If the only prerequisite for high political office was superior debating skills - Christopher Hitchens would have been Prime Minister of Britain... Happy 71st birthday to former Vice President Dick Cheney a man whose contributions to the United States have been woefully under-appreciated... Some smokers protect their pack of cigarettes in their hand the way others protect their smart phones. I guess different people have different priorities... Joe Scarborough remembers Newt Gingrich in Congress. I love the Steve Largent story... In the old days $6 million would get you a cyborg ex-astronaut superhero. Today that sort of cash only gets you Marco Scutaro...  Today is Christian Bale's 38th birthday which just serves as a reminder how much I want to see the next Batman installment - The Dark Knight Rises

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd shre.

4 Bizarre Experiments That Should Never Be Repeated - people who think they are Jesus and finding out a human can satisfy a dolphin's sexual needs - what more could you want from an article?

Ha Ha - Awesome

Very Cool - Horse racing handicapper wins $1 million

Newt's debate skills not all they were cracked up to be

8 Fairy Tales and Their Not-So-Happy Original Endings

Pub landlord suspended for serving pints "too full" of beer - if I were a rival brewer I'd step in and help these people out. I hope I never have a Samuel Smith's Brewery beer in my life - their owner is a jackhole.

Read the speech Nixon prepared in case the Apollo 11 astronauts died on the moon

History Lesson

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

It has been a while since Newt Gingrich threatened someone with a Lincoln-Douglas style debate. Do you think someone finally informed the historian that the historical record shows that Stephen Douglas - the guy who in the end defended slavery - won those debates?... Very cool - 50 Years of Doctor Who... It still blows my mind that Ronald Reagan was the original choice to play Rick Blaine in the classic Casablanca... Interesting - Pork barrel earmarks nearly doubled under Gingrich's tenure as speaker... Just for the heck of it - I am going to use the adjective "throbbing" on random words - "throbbing bacon", "throbbing muffler", etc.... The man who caught Billy Cundiff's missed field goal is selling it for a very good cause... On this day in 1986 the space shuttle  Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch. One of the very few times in my life where I could tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share. 

Nice math trick - if you divide 1 by 998,001 you get all three-digit numbers from 000 to 999 in order 

Example of life imitating art or vice versa  "As God as my witness - we will have casinos on the moon" 

Who said it: Steven Wright or Mitch Hedberg?

This was so unnecessary - LA Confidential was made into a TV movie in 2003

So it looks like I have 50 brands of beer I need to try -  RateBeer top 50 best beers 2012

Unlikely to recapture the Monty Python magic but I do like the idea of the gang getting back together

Comparisons like this are what the Internet was made for - Exploring the strange parallels between the writing of mythologist Joseph Campbell and the first 4 Police Academy films (HT Big Stupid Tommy)

Kool - 6 Hugely Successful Products Originally Invented for Something Else

So jealous -   Wes Welker is engaged to this woman:

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Just a reminder but when President Obama took office he was boasting about being able to stop the oceans from rising. Now three years in he's down to bragging about making it easier to clean up milk spills... Canadian teens launch Lego man into (near) space... Paul Newman would have been 87 today... Just saying but Boston College will have more players in the Super Bowl (6) than any other college... As a reminder - Rex Ryan will have to go 7-9 next season to equal Herm Edwards record in his first 4 years as New York Jets coach (35-29)... Very cool - FDR's 52nd birthday party was a Toga Party... The world's largest feet belong to Brahim Takioullah who sports a size 58 shoe (making my size 13's look pretty puny in comparison)... On this day in 1978 - New England was buried in snow as the great Blizzard of 78 was underway... Tweet of the Day from @pourmecoffee - "Goodnight Moon. Goodnight Newt colonizing the moon." I just find that so very clever and funny... Happy 51st birthday to Wayne Gretzky - the best hockey player who ever lived...

Newt Didn't Support Reagan - Newt Only Supports Newt

Very interesting look at how Newt Gingrich was more prone to criticize President Ronald Reagan than support him. I am glad that finally people are calling Newt on his hyperbolic boasts. Listening to Newt you would think he was Ronald Reagan's right hand man - not a guy who was publicly questioning his policies every step of the way.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

It should be noted that the Patriots have now won 10 games in a row. The last team to beat them was actually the New York Giants... Had a dream last night that the Red Sox made a huge trade with the Marlins for Josh Johnson. I hope that dream comes true... Gov. Chris Christie calls Newt Gingrich an embarrassment to the Republican Party and I agree... So where does Rex Ryan watch the Super Bowl? No network would want him because how would he be able to answer the question of how do you beat the Patriots or the question of how to beat the Giants. Gasbag... I wonder if on the show Blue Bloods they ever show Tom Selleck and a sandwich and waterfall in the same scene. That would be a special episode... I wonder if Tiki Barber still thinks Eli Manning lacks leadership skills?... Definition of badass... So is Brian Orakpo banging the Geico cavemam? That's the takeaway I get seeing the caveman in the locker room in a cheerleader outfit... Just saw a guy with a "Will Work for Food" sign who looked just like Craig Kilborn. Pretty sure it wasn't him... I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that the Red Sox trading both Marco Scutoro and Jed Lowrie will lead to a desperation move of switching Dustin Pedroia to shortstop. I also wouldn't be surprised if Ben Cherington's next move is to trade Mike Availes for another middle reliever.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I don't think it will come to this because I think Newt Gingrich will either self-destruct or people will see him for the ego-maniacal fraud that he is but if it did come down to Gingrich vs. Obama in 2012 - I might just skip voting altogether to catch a movie... Very cool - the scale of the Universe... Vinny Testaverde was also only mentioned once in Reagan's diary. I would much rather vote for Vinnie than Newt Gingrich... Pretty amazing - Tom Brady has played in 10 full seasons (he did not play in a game in 2000 and only 1 game in 2008) and today will be his 6th AFC Championship game. If that's not Jordanesque I don't know what is... If Gingrich was President - would a "Wag the Dog" scenario involving Newt starting a war to cover up a mistake surprise anyone?... On this day in 1973 LBJ passed away taking with him to the grave the secret of how he had JFK killed...  Who knew? According to Mental Floss: "Cheerios and Circus Peanuts Candy" may not sound like a winning formula but that's the combo that inspired Lucky Charms... Today is Baltimore Ravens' Ray Rice's 25th birthday. I'd like to wish him a Happy Birthday but instead I really hope his playoff hopes are dashed by an onslaught of Patriots offense. Besides - his first name isn't Ray - it's Raymell. What kind of name is Raymell?