Friday, May 16, 2008

The Turning of the Tide

The tide is turning: Whatever the hell that means. You would think that with something as huge and amorphous as a tide, it would be impossible to know if it was turning or simply adjusting itself in its comfy tidal recliner. Who comes up with these things anyway? I digress.

Here's the latest, just in from DC. The House (yes, that's the US House of Representatives) voted today to cut off funding for the war in Iraq without some evidence of an exit strategy. The House resolution also calls for the beginning of troop withdrawals -- though my sources aren't saying exactly when that might start. Still, it's the first sign of a backbone seen from Congress as a group. But there's still the matter of getting it through the Senate, which people much more informed than I am say could be a tough fight. Apparently it's likely that the Senate will reject the resolution outright or at best try to strip it of the most important bullet points (pun intended).

What's encouraging about this is that it suggests that the members of the House have started to remember what the word "representative" means. And perhaps realizing that another blank check for the war doesn't "represent" the views of the American people. You know, those people they were elected to represent. Now if only the sycophants in the Senate (Bob, Liz, are you listening?) could only get the message.




Where Was I?: Turning to entertainment news, I once again find myself in the "am-I-the-only-one-who-didn't-know-about-this" section. Somebody recently tuned me in to a Canadian singer/songwriter named Kathleen Edwards. Now in case you were somewhere in the A.I.T.O.O.W.D.K.A.T. section yourself (sorry, I didn't see you there) she's been putting some great music out there for us since around 2000. And after a handful of downloads of ahem questionable legality, I was sold. Sold enough to order her entire catalog en masse from Amazon just about as soon as the last of these finished playing. The newest of her efforts came out in March of this year, and you can find a sampling of it here. My favorite will still be this one though:



The girl absolutely rocks. Her music is phenomenal and you should buy it.




Knowing Hockey From Shineola: If you go back a few entries you'll find a whole dissertation on the NHL playoffs I wrote back in April during the first round. So far I'm roughly 50% right. It looks for all the world like Pittsburgh will rule the Eastern Conference, but as things stand right now Dallas (my pick in the West) is on life support, down 3 games to 1 to Detroit (bastards!). If things take their usual course, the Penguins will face the Red Wings for Lord Stanley's punchbowl this year. Which should make for an entertaining series at least. Just not the one I projected.

Along the same lines (sort of) I'm actually looking forward to the newest Mike Myers movie The Love Guru. Myers plays a guru from India who comes to America, then gets hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs to help them win the Stanley Cup. Don't worry, it's just a movie. It could never actually happen. But it may be the closest we come to seeing the Leafs break the curse in this lifetime.

In case you're interested, here's a trailer.






The Latest Craze: Have you ever noticed that spam seems to have its own set of fads? Years ago it was ink jet cartridges. Then bust or genitalia enlargement schemes. More recently discount "pharmacies" are flooding in-boxes the world over. And the latest trend seems to be in "Faux-lex" watches. That, and preparations that "cleanse your colon". Okay, I could understand the fake watches, the discount Viagra, and even this gem that turned up in my mail this morning from someone claiming to be called "Adela Lowery": Please be informed that you should be extremely careful in choosing your penis enlargement method. (Thanks Adela, I'll do that.) Those aren't all that unusual. But this whole "colon-cleansing" thing is just a little too-o-o creepy for me. As someone I know used to say, "When the conversation turns to shit, you've skipped a few topics." I really feel sorry for these people who have hung their hats on cleaning out the intestines of the world. What a crappy way to make a living. (Come on, you couldn't see that one coming?) I shudder to think what the next spam-fad might turn out to be. I can't imagine anything creating quite the scary mental images that this scheme does.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd really rather keep my colon to myself. I'd rather you did too.Stumble This!

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