Sometimes I have way too much time on my hands, ok well, all of the time. You may ask, HallDad, if you have so much time on your hands, why don't you update MitCoBL more? Well, because I'm usually looking at sites like this. Occaisionally, however, it pays off. Like today, I stuble across this gem:

How true. How deliciously true. [Cheshire cat grin]

Todd Palin: 'first dude' or 'shadow governor?'

WTF?

Watch and listen (Skip ahead to 14:45 for the good stuff). I defy you not to get the chills. Amazing. The old lion still has it after all he's been through. Text here.

As chronicled in a pervious post, I'm something of an Olympics junkie, and with the closing ceremonies tonight, I'm a little sad to see it all end. Sad, and a bit outraged that China was even allowed to host the Olympics in the first place. A few interesting thoughts from various media outlets:

That’s what this country is about. Here, the government, not the people, controls what you say, what you read, what you do and how many babies you can have (one).

A million and a half residents expelled. Free speech strangled. Elderly women jailed. That's what it means when a police state like China hosts the Olympics... That's what happens when the free world cons itself into believing that China's Communist rulers, who sustain genocide in Sudan and torture nuns in Tibet, will refrain from doing whatever it takes to turn the Olympics into a vehicle for totalitarian self-glorification.

Along the way, government critics were pre-emptively rounded up and jailed, domestic news outlets tightly controlled, foreign journalists denied full access to the Internet and thousands of Beijing’s least telegenic residents were evicted from their homes and out of camera range. On Friday, the Chinese police confirmed that six Americans protesting China’s rule in Tibet had been sentenced to 10 days of detention.

So now that our fellow countrymen (and presumably women) are the ones being trampled on, do we care? Probably not. There are many Americans being deprived of basic human rights in our own country and no one cares; why would we care now? It's nice to hear about how much people want to change the way things are in China, but by giving them the Olympics, haven't we just validated their actions? That is what makes me really sad.

HENCHMEN NEEDED

(+1 for use of the Queen's English)

The pineapple is a harmonious place because Spongebob checks that shit at the door.

Latest bit of China Olympic failure: Seems like all of the national anthems they've been playing are pirated versions of copyrighted arrangements from the 2004 Olympics.

I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul.

This is absolutely priceless. Some highlights:

"Fred Lewis’ face apparently caught on fire and they put it out with a bear trap."

"Cody Ross’ face froze in 1986. The face he was making: ‘dipshit’."

and finally,

"Big Papi is not the most handsome of men. Great hitter. Head shaped like a trash can."

HA! Love it!

Some of you are familiar with New Hotness:



Well, New Hotness and I are registered for our first ride, the 12th Annual Scenic Schuylkill Century, 25 miler on Saturday September 13.  Pretty awesome, I'm totally stoked. More excited, however, for this ride.

I'll be putting up a fundraising link soon, and would greatly appreciate your support.  My dad has lived with MS for most of his adult life, and the things he has to go through everyday can't even compare with what it will take to push my fat ass 150 miles.

Here's hoping that Philly is next for this.

Oh, and I can't ride my normal training route today because it is closed for the filming of Transformers 2... I might be ok with this, so long as it doesn't suck as much as the first one did...

"It isn't exactly the dream I had about how I wanted to go out," Lutes said. "But there was a lesson that we all learned. People may think that sports is their life. But when you see somebody's life flash before you, you realize there are bigger things in the world than a baseball game."

So, apparently I'm really bad at keeping blog-related promises. This is actually somewhat surprising, considering that I like to think of myself as a fairly dependable guy. I mean, I even have extra time on my hands now that classes are over, and I'm just studying for my comps. It would seem, however, that every time I make a promise of something funny in this here forum I fall into some random existential funk. Seriously, it's not cool. So rather than lay a big literary turd on all of you, I'm still working on getting the manifesto off the ground. Look for it soon-ish, I hope. Once I'm done dealing with my own shit, I'll get right to it. In the meantime, keep yourself entertained here, with a debate about friendship and the sexes, and here, because hey, everyone needs to know a little more about whiskey.

Some thoughts from the world of sports:

- On Saturday C and I drove down to Baltimore for the 2nd Face-Off Classic, which consists of two college lacrosse games played by four of the best teams in the country.  We watched Syracuse and Virginia battle it out in an overtime thriller, won by Virginia 14-13 after a back and forth overtime period.  And the second game featured #1 and defending national champs Johns Hopkins beat the holy hell out of Princeton 14-9.  The score is not indicative of how close the game was, JH was up 10-1 at halftime and took their foot off the gas in the second half.  Two observations: Virginia's Bratton twins are the real deal.  They came in on the same midfield line and hooked up for a great goal mid way through the 2nd that was an absolute thing of beauty. I'm predicting four productive years for them down at UVA.  And I've never seen someone dominate a game in person like Paul Rabil did for JH: Three goals and four assists, and it didn't even look like he was trying that hard either.

- Patriots re-sign Randy Moss for three years, at $9 million per, $15 million guaranteed, $12 million dollar signing bonus.  My reaction? What the hell took so long? Let's just see if we can piss off Tom Brady and weaken the team a little more next time, ok Bill?

- Bruins lose 10-2 to the Washington Capitals, and Alex Ovechkin scored three goals in the first period.  For such a good defensive team, this is just embarrassing.  Even if they do make the playoffs, they're going to get killed.  I guess it could be worse... they could be the Buffalo Sabres. Let's just get to free agency and sign Marian Hossa and call it a day.

- Update from this season's sign of the apocalypse,
  Bartolo Colon is close to making the Red Sox pitching rotation. 

God help us all.