I am back for the time being. I found a program that cleans off your computer screen. Just click this link.

This is from Grass Roots Media Specialist Jack Link. It’s a stirring nature documentary!

Follow the LINK!

Sarah Silverman’s farewell to George Bush:

OBAMA, DAY 2!

I heard they did another swearing in ceremony and audio recorded it just so there would be no question of whether or not he took the correct oath. There were limited media present to confirm it. INTERESTING!

They announced the Oscar nominees today. “Benjamin Button” got something like 14 nominations. Looks like Brad Pitt is still Brad “It!” (he still has the “it” factor)

Inauguration day. Seems like a good day to start up the blog again.

For some reason I thought this Inauguration was going to be the largest gathering of people throughout human history, but really its just the largest gathering of people in the US.

What are some other large gatherings? Mostly religious pilgrimages in India.

Cheers to Brijul for giving us all a good reason to get beyond wasted on Saturday night. Haven’t done a keg stand in a really, really long time. Oh the power of people chanting your name over and over again! Have a blast in India, we’ll miss ya buddy.

Here’s some links for today:

• If you’re like me, you love taking power naps in the middle or at the end of your day. Now there’s a website with specially designed 20 min mp3’s for you to get your power nap on. Check them out here.
• Isn’t Nickelback the best band ever?
• Here’s some signs of the economic slowdown as reported by readers of the Freakonomics blog. You have to scroll down to the readers comments. Some interesting ones: 1) A teacher reports no parents around to coach 3rd grader sports teams because they’re all taking 2nd and 3rd jobs, 2) Camcorder sales dropped last February, which is supposedly the “canary in the coalmine” of economic rececession, 3) The mall is like a ghost town, 4) The return of “layaways,” and 5) When you call a plumber, they come over in 30 minutes instead of 2 days later!
• Unhappy people watch more TV.
• Want to feel smart at the Thanksgiving table this year when, inevitably, the economy comes up in conversation? Check out this list of all the major reactions to the Citigroup bailout. Pick which opinion you agree with!
• Bruce Lee plays Ping Pong with Nunchucks!
  
  

Does this make you feel bad for Bush? Or is he getting what he deserves?

I know your brain is probably fried from just barely making it over the hump this week, but I’m introducing a new “Thinking Thursday” segment to this blog. It will be complete with links to interesting articles that making you go “Huh!” (and hopefully not “Huh?!” LOL)

• For those of you who like Malcom Gladwell (the guy who wrote “The Tipping Point” and “Blink”), his new book just came out this week, “Outliers.” It’s about the very small percentage of people who become wildly successful (i.e. The Beatles, Bill Gates, etc.) and what it is about them that makes them so unique. Check out his blog post for more details and links.
• I like liberal blogs and MSNBC quite a bit, but I realize I’m not getting a good smattering of political perspectives through these sources. So, I’ve been branching out and looking at conservative blogs and whatnot. If you’ve been following the liberal push for the Detroit automaker bailout, check out the argument against the bailout as given by the Intellectual Conservative blog. (Although it already looks like the attempts to pass a $25 billion bailout in congress have been stymied by Republicans and the Democrats are giving up).
• A smart guy from the University of Chicago writes about the “Bigot Belt,” a swath of the American south that actually increased its margins in Republican voting from 2004 to 2008.

Yeah, Bill Maher is kind of a dick. And he can go to stereotypical stand-up comic material (he made a “Sanjaya” joke on the last Real Time). But, all things considered, he’s still a funny dude and I love when he delivers the TRUTH with a side of LAUGHS.

Check out the end of the Season Finale of Real Time last Friday. He does his standard “New Rules” segment, but then launches into a really good monologue about America. Start it at 1:58 if you want to skip most of the “New Rules.”

So, maybe you noticed I rarely post on this blog anymore since the election. I suppose I’m finding it harder to get excited about posting without a intense political campaign to use as fodder for loudmouth political rants. I suppose SNL might feel the same way about now having to write decent original sketches to maintain their viewership, rather than rely on super-topical political satire. I predict there will be a giant shift in the public consciousness when, during an upcoming “SNL Digital Short” segment, all of America collectively realizes how much these shorts fucking suck. Some will think, “Hmm…if I mentally remove all the slick editing and the cool musical soundtrack, the premise of this short is miserably bad.” Some might even think, “Wow. Have I really not noticed that Andy Samberg is a total douchebag?”

So to sum up, my political rants will now morph into rants about other things that do not please me.

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News item:

Pirates!

They stole this ship!