Furibundum

This is probably the most disturbing story I have ever heard! "A man aboard a Greyhound bus traveling across Canada calmly stabbed another man dozens of times and decapitated him, pausing briefly to display the head to horrified passengers before proceeding to disembowel his victim." Seriously, this is one of those stories that just reading it makes me cringe and wet my pants a little bit. Nightmare fodder for later on. The victim, apparently around 20ish or so, was snoozing on the bus with his headphones on when the dude next to him out of the blue began stabbing him for no discernible reason whatsoever. Calmly, even. Didn't really seem so much pissed off about anything. "We heard this bloodcurdling scream and turned around, and the guy was standing up, stabbing this guy repeatedly, like 40 or 50 times." The driver stopped the bus when he became aware of the melee and the passengers hastily clambered off. I would certainly suppose so! A bit later, this one pas

No, I'm not on drugs again . I'm just feeling all religiousy today and I do love this song. All you heathens can go to hell if you don't like it. Although I really can't imagine how even an atheist's godless heart might not be inspired by this ... at least a little bit. I could be wrong. The song is also so appropriate to my own goings on right now, I figured why the heck not share with the people? Hallelujah everyone! Mary Mary - Shackles

The Disabled American Veterans are holding their annual national convention next month at Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas. Crippled they are, many of course missing body parts lost since World War II up until the current Iraq and Afghanistan debacles. So they invite speakers, both keynote and some of lesser note. Hardly qualifies as a respectable convention without speakers really. Veep Dick Cheney made the key list, and RSVP'd to be there! Yes, he will be glad to speak as per the invitation at 8:30am, no prob. But only if the vets are sequestered for two hours before his arrival. And then not allowed to leave the room until he's done driveling. No matter that there are no bathrooms in the meeting room. Also not to mention that many of the attendees really can't be stuck in any room for so many hours because of health issues. David Autry, a DAV official said vets would have to get up "at O-dark-30 and try to get breakfast and showered and get their prosthetics on&quo

I suppose I'm not actually quite so hip to all the latest rages as I had fancied myself to be. Jeong-Hyun Lim (aka "funtwo") has apparently been quite the YouTube sensation for some time already, and me completely oblivious to the whole thing until now. Better late than never, this South Korean dude is fantastic! He's been interviewed by the New York Times and Reuters, covered on CNN, 20/20 and NPR. No doubt just the tip of the iceberg there. Like I said, I'm really late to this show by at least a couple of years. According to WikiGuitarist , his intention in posting his first video was simply to get peer feedback to improve his guitar playing skills. Until his fame (which he says is embarrassing), who knew his face? Always hidden in his videos. When the NYT asked him why come: "Main purpose of my recording is to hear the other’s suggestions about my playing. I think play is more significant than appearance. Therefore I want the others to focus on my fingeri

Surprise to me! I had a very unexpected opportunity this evening to actually watch the movie that I blurbed about the other day. The one about George W. Bush being shot dead. Fantastic flick, definitely deserving of every award won! I mentioned in the comments on that post that I thought it funny how despite hardly any commenting, traffic stats certainly did spike with that "Death of a President" movie title. Hmmm. Interesting. [ As an aside, did you know that from 1840 until now every president elected in a year ending in zero was assassinated or died while in office? Except for Reagan, of course, but even he at least took a shot. Tecumseh's curse might have been broken with that one. Then again, November is still months away and there are exceptions to rules ... so maybe to curses too? Okay, I should stop now. ] Anyway, back to the movie. Highly recommended! And muchas gracias to whichever of the Muñoz mailed to me the DVD! Going through my mail today there was this

A Greek court yesterday threw out the lawsuit brought by some folks from the island of Lesbos charging a gay rights group with demeaning its waterlocked citizenry by hijacking the word "Lesbian." They say the name of the group Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece "insults the identity" of the natives there. Dimitris Lambrou, the Lesbian dude who spearheaded the suit, is all wound up because he says, “My sister can’t say she is a Lesbian." I have no idea why not, but that's what he claims. Maybe she's just not ready to leave the closet quite yet. I'm just surmising. Yeah, evidently that's his main concern. Frankly I think he's probably got a bigger issue really when it comes to his own Lesbian pride than that of his sister's. Again, only a guess. He did deny that the suit was homophobic in any way, of course, but still pointed out that the use of the L-word "violates the human rights of the islanders, and disgraces them arou

I don't regularly smoke pot. Not anymore, anyway. There's some weird tainted shit out there these days. Hardly the weed of my youth, that's for sure! Okay, yes, I'll admit to having indulged even in recent years from time to time, but very rarely and only when I know firsthand the source. Trust me, one single most unpleasant PCP-laced experience even from 1984 makes one a bit wary forever. Still I do miss it, what can I say? The Zig-Zags, the roach clips, the bongs. Laughing, everything funny, the munchies. Good times. But I'm much more responsible now, of course. So my point here is in truth to simply validate my overall personal betterment and growth. And to also confess my backsliding this evening. I'm a little bit stoned, but to my credit just by a toke or two is all. Or maybe a few. The guy I was with is coming back over, too. On his way now. I don't really like him much and I think I pissed him off because he's a Republican and I went off on a Geor

Pope Pick-A-Name-Any-Name Benedict XYZ (better known as Joey to his Nazi homeboys) today started off his claptrap in Australia urging those down under to forsake the spreading of whatever spiritual desert and to embrace Christianity in order to build a new age free from greed and materialism . Free from greed and materialism? That pointy hat on his head no doubt costed more than my monthly, maybe annual or even lifetime income! And I'm pretty sure there are more hats where that came from, stashed up somewhere in the Holy See's hat closet. Speaking of closets ... That lace gown thing. Pretty maybe. But really, despite being so very J. Edgar Hooverish for sure, I'd bet money probably not a Target buy. Okay, in fairness, the red misshapen poncho might well have been a discounted purchase from some clearance bin of irregulars (no other reasonable explanation I can consider) but still ... the old dude does happen to live in the fucking Vatican palace , for Christ's sake! A

Is it wrong that I want to see this movie? Maybe. But it is an award winner after all, and I am a film buff. That's my reason why, I swear! Comment at your own risk, people. I'm already on the watchlist. Death of a President - 2006

I saw that on a tee shirt and I wanted it. I did find one online and I would buy it, too, if I had not had to blow today a big chunk of what little cash I do have dodging jail for at least another week. Hopefully. But that's neither here nor there. Parenthetical commentary. The reason I want the shirt is because I do! Seriously. Not want the shirt, but talk to myself, I mean. Out loud. Yep. And sometimes even in public places. Admittedly quite an embarrassing disorder. Living alone for many years does strange things to one's psyche, though. I don't even know when it began that thoughts that were once kept in cranial check started leaking out in a verbally incontinent sort of way. To be honest, it is rather disturbing. Kind of like when you get you get old and pee a little bit when you laugh or sneeze. That's what they said happens on Oprah today. Fortunately I haven't gotten to that point yet. Sphincters still fully functional, praise the Lord. Fingers and legs cr

Really no big surprise, I suppose. Introducing exhibit evidence here.

The United States and Israel (our adopted 51st) last week condemned mutual arch enemy Iran after it test-fired long-range missiles capable of reaching so far as Tel Aviv. A senior US state department official said the launch was "provocative." Probably gave him a boner even, I'd guess. Both the US and Israel do seem to have an explosives fetish. Warmonger kink I'll never understand, but to each his own. Or maybe on second thought he didn't really mean provocative in that way. I'm just presuming, though, all things considered. Calling Iran out on the strikes, however, does of course add more fuel to the propaganda fire to maybe help garner support of enough idiots to justify bombing the crap out of yet another country. I think just possibly the Iranian government might too have felt a wee bit provoked themselves this last month, after Israel dispatched those more than a hundred F-16 and F-15 jets to take part in that "exercise" in preparation to b

I'm pissed off again, what else is new? Israel sucks, in an American sort of way. But you know what? I'll save that one for tomorrow. Instead, because I know I've been either overly snarky as of late or just a real total downer, I've elected to take a fluff breather today. Ticked off or not, I can still enjoy happy. Truly I can. I'm actually a pretty happy guy overall, believe it or not. Ask anyone. Well, maybe not just anyone, but references are available upon request. So for today, to prove my cheerful mettle, here's the dealio. This video makes me happy. If it doesn't do it for you, then suck it! (Bad Doug rears his ugly head from time to time, my apologies.) I like pretty much anything Nickelback puts out anyway, not to mention that Chad Kroeger is pure hottiness. Just my type. But I digress. Give me a moment ... Okay, I'm done. I do love this particular video, though. I like the transitions from nobody kids and nobody old people, and just plain nob

I've kind of been obsessed with reading the blogs of Iraqis these past few months. Some good, some bad, some ugly. Just want to hear whatever inside scoop is out there from, well, the insiders. Weirdly enough, however, the one blog that I've followed most religiously is from a guy who, despite his love for country, actually chose to leave Iraq after we all invaded and stuff. I mean, liberated. Tomato, tomahto. So he really wasn't even in Iraq very much of the time. Apparently we shocked and awed him into Jordanian exile. Go figure. Anyway, for whatever reason, I kept up with his blog nevertheless. He started it up just in February of last year. He's dead now. He recently went back to Baghdad to help take his family out, too ... but was killed in the process. Bad timing that was. I still re-read his old posts. He haunts me somehow. I kind of wish he'd just leave me alone, it's rather disconcerting. February 18, 2007, Ahmed - "Hi everyone, This is my first

ABC News' David Wright, reporting just this last Wednesday: "McCain became visibly angry when I asked him to explain how his Vietnam experience prepared him for the Presidency. "'Please,' he said, recoiling back in his seat in distaste at the very question. "McCain then collected himself and apologized for his initial reaction. "'I kind of reacted the way I did because I have a reluctance to talk about my experiences,' he said. "'I am always reluctant to talk about these things.'" By the way, have you seen John McCain's latest ad? Message duly approved, of course, by the shot down, bayoneted maverick himself.

Not feeling so patriotic this weekend despite all the fireworks hullabaloo. Last night was more scary than not, really. Just sounded like maybe a busier than normal night in the 'hood around here. Gunshots and firecrackers sound remarkably similar, FYI. So I spent a lot of my time ducking, better safe than sorry. I do hope that whatever advantageous mayhem the holiday may have elicited is over and done with. Not to mention that it was plain annoying. And those "big event fireworks displays" trumpeted about town all week here ... yeah, I caught a few of those live coverages on the local news. Lame, lame, and lamer still. At least I gave it a shot. Seems to me there really wasn't so much to celebrate this Fourth of July, all things considered, what with this intended to be our annual orgiastic blowout in honor of the greatness of all things America! What a farce these last few years, each one more so than the last. Rather than those danged noisy fireworks, yesterday sho

Hey, corporate Viacomic assholes. Save yourselves some time wading through that undoubtedly exhaustive court-mandated turned in YouTube viewer roster. My log-in ID is "scorpiokc," and my IP address is 75.87.110.228. And just in case the password might come in handy, too, that would be "lebanon." Hope that helps to track me down. You're welcome. Of the 5,634 videos I've watched to date, I'm sure I've probably been party to infringement of some copyright or another. So I surrender. Bring it on, bitches. I'll be here waiting, albeit still watching. " Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled. "The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement. "The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address and video clip details. "While the legal battle b

Here's something that has annoyed me to no end for quite some time (again, let me admit up front that this trying to quit smoking thing certainly has without doubt made me more rant-prone lately versus my usual docile self.) Blogs are all the rage, of course, and that's a good thing. That's why we're all here, right? I mean, I read dozens actually ... which now that I think about it probably doesn't reflect so well on what I apparently consider time well-spent. Whatever. Real folks, candid considerations and ruminations, intelligent dialogue (well, some maybe not so much, but usually at least amusing) all out there in the sphere of blogo. What irks me is this, though. These days, you can't turn on the television without some (seems like most, really) of the mainstream media talking heads closing his or her daily diatribe sans directive: " ... and be sure to check out my blog at www.myassistantwrotethisshit.com/ihonestlyhavenoclue ." The networks' b