Ann Coulter is trying to find relavence in a post-GOP world. I'm going to do her the favor and offer a link, so old time's sake.
It's like finding the kid who won the 100 meter at the Special Olympics and letting him beat you in a race to the kitchen for cookies. You know, just to make him happy.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
Your God Delusion Index
Mine is 0, although given the way one of the questions is worded, I could conceivably get as high as 5.
It gets funnier as it goes on, stay in for the punchline.
It gets funnier as it goes on, stay in for the punchline.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
A Failure of Terrorism
This is the most amazing sentiment I've ever seen from the GOP:
Perhaps Giuliani should blame Bush for his campaign’s demise. If Bush had not been so successful in preventing another domestic terrorist attack, Giuliani’s relevance to voters would be painfully obvious, and his deviations from party orthodoxy less compelling. Instead, he and Bush, the two public figures most associated with September 11, will watch from the sidelines as America turns the page.
more here
via
If only we had more terror so that everyone can see the danger of terror!! Too bad it's too unethical (and time consuming) for the GOP to actually cause some, in the public interest of course.
For me, the question I have never heard answered has always been, what did Rudy actually do during 9/11? He was mayor, yes. But it has always seemed to me that the fire and disaster recovery responded as they should to any major emergency, without a lot of prompting from Rudy. Other than being there, I dont know that he actually *did* anything more than anyone else would have done in the same situation.
I'm more than willing to change my mind on this, if someone has some pointers.
Perhaps Giuliani should blame Bush for his campaign’s demise. If Bush had not been so successful in preventing another domestic terrorist attack, Giuliani’s relevance to voters would be painfully obvious, and his deviations from party orthodoxy less compelling. Instead, he and Bush, the two public figures most associated with September 11, will watch from the sidelines as America turns the page.
more here
via
If only we had more terror so that everyone can see the danger of terror!! Too bad it's too unethical (and time consuming) for the GOP to actually cause some, in the public interest of course.
For me, the question I have never heard answered has always been, what did Rudy actually do during 9/11? He was mayor, yes. But it has always seemed to me that the fire and disaster recovery responded as they should to any major emergency, without a lot of prompting from Rudy. Other than being there, I dont know that he actually *did* anything more than anyone else would have done in the same situation.
I'm more than willing to change my mind on this, if someone has some pointers.
Alternative Universe
Korea yesterday and today. After a long day of presentations to an audience that is really only getting every other word we say, the Korea team offered to take us all out for dinner last night. Going out to dinner is a big part of the Korean business culture, so it was not an offer to be refused without it becoming a huge insult, so of course we went.
The team had been talking all day about the restaurant they had chosen, a “western” place since they thought some of our crew didn’t like Korean food. It turns out this is not true, but were not all exactly sure what they would have fed us, so we let them chose something non-Korean. Our (half-serious) joke all day was that it was going to be a “Country and Western” place.
It was not.
After a brief walk from the hotel (at 27F and I only brought clothes for KL and Sydney, like a dolt), we arrive at an Italian place in the building where our offices are located. The front is decorated in taffeta and bottles of red Italian wine, some of it quite good. The night was looking up.
We were seated at a long table, while the twitchy staff buzzed around us like flies on Seabiscuit. Our tables were set with chopsticks and beer steins but, what I had assumed to be bottles of red wine at first, turned out to be 750ml bottles of blended scotch. Odd.
We sat, still anticipating Italian, when generous pitchers of cheap beer arrived and everyone was poured. Okay. Then the shot glasses arrive. “Hmmmm”, I think to myself, “this is going decidedly pear-shaped”. Our “meal” soon come out, a hot steaming plate of what I first feared was tripe, but soon realized was a large plate of brats, sausages and hot dogs. This was followed very shortly by a football sized ball of aluminum foil which was found to contain bits of very spicy Szechwan beef and veggies. The westerns all looked at each other nervously, but there was nothing for it, so we shrugged and began to eat.
I turned to Brian, one of the guys I’m traveling with and said, “We’re sitting in an Italian restaurant, eating German brats, with Japanese beer and chopsticks, what the hell is going on?”
“Maybe they are trying to show us what the world would have looked like if the Allies had lost WWII”
and we havent even started on the scotch yet...
The team had been talking all day about the restaurant they had chosen, a “western” place since they thought some of our crew didn’t like Korean food. It turns out this is not true, but were not all exactly sure what they would have fed us, so we let them chose something non-Korean. Our (half-serious) joke all day was that it was going to be a “Country and Western” place.
It was not.
After a brief walk from the hotel (at 27F and I only brought clothes for KL and Sydney, like a dolt), we arrive at an Italian place in the building where our offices are located. The front is decorated in taffeta and bottles of red Italian wine, some of it quite good. The night was looking up.
We were seated at a long table, while the twitchy staff buzzed around us like flies on Seabiscuit. Our tables were set with chopsticks and beer steins but, what I had assumed to be bottles of red wine at first, turned out to be 750ml bottles of blended scotch. Odd.
We sat, still anticipating Italian, when generous pitchers of cheap beer arrived and everyone was poured. Okay. Then the shot glasses arrive. “Hmmmm”, I think to myself, “this is going decidedly pear-shaped”. Our “meal” soon come out, a hot steaming plate of what I first feared was tripe, but soon realized was a large plate of brats, sausages and hot dogs. This was followed very shortly by a football sized ball of aluminum foil which was found to contain bits of very spicy Szechwan beef and veggies. The westerns all looked at each other nervously, but there was nothing for it, so we shrugged and began to eat.
I turned to Brian, one of the guys I’m traveling with and said, “We’re sitting in an Italian restaurant, eating German brats, with Japanese beer and chopsticks, what the hell is going on?”
“Maybe they are trying to show us what the world would have looked like if the Allies had lost WWII”
and we havent even started on the scotch yet...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Science is a Hot Knife Cutting Through the Very Sexy Butter of Religion
If you swap the points of view, I would agree with the Pope.
Also, I thought this was a level of deniability and delusion other politicians can only look at with envy:
Students and teachers at Rome's La Sapienza university – which was founded by a pope more than 700 years ago – cited such views when they protested so loudly during a papal speech scheduled for Jan. 17 that it had to be cancelled.
In particular, they criticized his views on science, saying a speech he gave in 1990 showed he would have favoured the church's 17th-century heresy trial against Galileo.
The Vatican said the protesters misunderstood that speech, made about 17 years ago when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Don't quote me, I was someone else! Also, if I wasn't, you misunderstood me.
Also, I thought this was a level of deniability and delusion other politicians can only look at with envy:
Students and teachers at Rome's La Sapienza university – which was founded by a pope more than 700 years ago – cited such views when they protested so loudly during a papal speech scheduled for Jan. 17 that it had to be cancelled.
In particular, they criticized his views on science, saying a speech he gave in 1990 showed he would have favoured the church's 17th-century heresy trial against Galileo.
The Vatican said the protesters misunderstood that speech, made about 17 years ago when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Don't quote me, I was someone else! Also, if I wasn't, you misunderstood me.
2333 Days
since 9/11 and OBL is still at large. It's nice to know that in the 6 years since then, we've made a lot of progress on finding the most wanted man in the world.
"If we could find the cave he is in, I promise you - he would be brought to justice or wherever he's hiding."
"If we could find the cave he is in, I promise you - he would be brought to justice or wherever he's hiding."
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
The Affin Bank
Affin Bank is a customer in Malaysia we've worked with quite extensively. A lot of their infrastructure is running on our product and sometime back they agreed to do a customer video for us. They are a great and successful partner, and a point of pride for the account team, the region and the company. During the conference yesterday, the account team decided to show us the result of their installation and it had a terrific impact, especially on the English speakers. I almost had to be removed from the room.
Part of the video shows a small, shy woman in Islamic dress, talking nervously to the camera about how great our products are, and about how much they have been to Affin Bank. She's clearly a little afraid of the camera and is probably using cue cards because there are some odd pauses in her dialog. For example:
"SQL Server has really helped us raise the customer satisfaction .... at the Affin Bank."
"Microsoft ... makes a good partner... for the Affin Bank"
"The Affin Bank has the largest ... community of users in Malaysia"
"I'm proud to part of the ... Microsoft community for the Affin bank"
I laughed so hard at this, I nearly peed. The other English speakers seated next to me were no help at all because they were hardly keeping it together. Several people had to leave the room, clearly on the verge of busting a gut.
Just about the time a few of us got control, just a hair shy of embarrassing ourselves in front of the account team, our partners and the other team members in the room, after a few deep breaths, I turned to the guy next to me and said,
"I need some cab fare, do you know where the Affin ATM is?"
And that threw us over the edge!
Why is this funny? What's so hilarious about a small Islamic woman repeating the name of her bank every 30 seconds?
The name is pronounced "F-in"
Part of the video shows a small, shy woman in Islamic dress, talking nervously to the camera about how great our products are, and about how much they have been to Affin Bank. She's clearly a little afraid of the camera and is probably using cue cards because there are some odd pauses in her dialog. For example:
"SQL Server has really helped us raise the customer satisfaction .... at the Affin Bank."
"Microsoft ... makes a good partner... for the Affin Bank"
"The Affin Bank has the largest ... community of users in Malaysia"
"I'm proud to part of the ... Microsoft community for the Affin bank"
I laughed so hard at this, I nearly peed. The other English speakers seated next to me were no help at all because they were hardly keeping it together. Several people had to leave the room, clearly on the verge of busting a gut.
Just about the time a few of us got control, just a hair shy of embarrassing ourselves in front of the account team, our partners and the other team members in the room, after a few deep breaths, I turned to the guy next to me and said,
"I need some cab fare, do you know where the Affin ATM is?"
And that threw us over the edge!
Why is this funny? What's so hilarious about a small Islamic woman repeating the name of her bank every 30 seconds?
The name is pronounced "F-in"
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sweet (Potato) Jesus
The Sixth Seal has broken, and Jesus has come.
I'll pause in this inspiring story so you can go to MyFoxColorado to see these remarkable likenesses of Jesus on the Cross in the rotten potato for yourselves, here and here. Please do. I'd put them up here but Fox copyrighted the pics. Apparently Jesus on the Cross is a Fox property.
I'll pause in this inspiring story so you can go to MyFoxColorado to see these remarkable likenesses of Jesus on the Cross in the rotten potato for yourselves, here and here. Please do. I'd put them up here but Fox copyrighted the pics. Apparently Jesus on the Cross is a Fox property.
Image Fault
I was reading about Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Obama, much to the annoyance of the Clinton campaign, and was wondering if this was a turning point in the nomination. Teddy's a big voice for the Old Democrats, which have been a huge support to the Clintons, so this endorsement may move part of her base.
I was thinking about other singular campaign turning point, the most obvious being Dukakis in a tank.
In theory this should be fine, a presidential candidate appearing to support the military. The reality however, was that this image sunk his whole run for the presidency. I wonder if this is that moment for Hillary.
BTW, I'm in a lecture hall in Kuala Lumpur, listening to a partner talk about "critical impacts to business". I searched for the above image and while it was prominently displayed on my screen, the guy next to me leaned over and whispered,
"Stop looking at pornography!"
I was thinking about other singular campaign turning point, the most obvious being Dukakis in a tank.
In theory this should be fine, a presidential candidate appearing to support the military. The reality however, was that this image sunk his whole run for the presidency. I wonder if this is that moment for Hillary.
BTW, I'm in a lecture hall in Kuala Lumpur, listening to a partner talk about "critical impacts to business". I searched for the above image and while it was prominently displayed on my screen, the guy next to me leaned over and whispered,
"Stop looking at pornography!"
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