Max: If You Don't Squawk, You Might Walk

Max: Apparently Illinois Is Free Of Real Crime

And their AG needs a hobby.

Illinois' attorney general blasted a coffee for glorifying drug culture and demanded the San Francisco company stop selling it.

In a letter sent this week to Doll God, Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked that the company immediately cease all marketing and sales of Meth Coffee in the Illinois, citing the devastating impact that methamphetamine has had there.

She said that if the company refuses, her office will seek injunctive relief and fines.

Max: For Your Safety

The checkpoint area was immediately closed as Bomb Appraisal Officer Timothy D. Smith inspected the item and spoke with the passenger. The item in question was determined to be an empty metal bottle and a home-made battery pack, consisting of 28 rechargeable batteries connected by multiple resistors and held together in two layers with a silicone-based adhesive.

The passenger was an engineer and said he built the battery to power his DVD player for the long flight to Hawaii. After recognizing that the item could be seen by other passengers as a threat, the man surrendered it to Supervisory TSO Raiford Patterson and was allowed to board the flight.

That is, the TSA determined something was not dangerous, confiscated anyway and is actually so proud of this they announced it on their website.

And BTW, despite the carefully staged photo, the battery pack was not wired to the bottle in any way.

Max: Going to Pot

Via CNN

The U.S. should stop arresting responsible marijuana users, Rep. Barney Frank said Wednesday, announcing a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, almost a quarter-pound, of the substance.

Max: Unamerican (Rational) Ideas

Via the Beeb

Kampang is proud of its toilets. Spotless, and surrounded by flowering tropical plants, they have won national awards for cleanliness.

But there is something else about them too. Between the girls' toilet and the boys', there is one signposted with a half-man, half-woman figure in blue and red.

This is the transsexual toilet, and outside, in front of the mirrors, some decidedly girly-looking teenage boys preen their hair and apply face cream.

...

"They used to be teased every time they used the boys' toilets," he said, "so they started using the girls' toilets instead. But that made the girls feel uncomfortable. It made these boys unhappy, and started to affect their work."

So the school offered to build the transgender boys their own facility, and they welcomed it.

Max: Cop Says He Was Assaulted By Bicyclist

Who are you going to believe? An honest cop or your lying eyes?

Max: Grow Hemp For Victory!

From the New Yorker

Most researchers agree that the value of the U.S. marijuana crop has increased sharply since the mid-nineties, as California and twelve other states have passed medical-marijuana laws. A drug-policy analyst named Jon Gettman recently estimated that in 2006 Californians grew more than twenty million pot plants. He reckoned that between 1981 and 2006 domestic marijuana production increased tenfold, making pot the leading cash crop in America, displacing corn. A 2005 State Department report put the country’s marijuana crop at twenty-two million pounds. The street value of California’s crop alone may be as [tee hee] high as fourteen billion dollars.

Jericho: They made a sequel? Now two? Why?

Some of our loyal readership are aware that I am a Robert Heinlein fan.

Some are aware that I hated the movie "Starship Troopers" because it barely reflected the book it was based on. However, I loved it because it reflected the general feeling and theme of most Heinlein fiction.

I wasn't aware they had made a sequel. Looks like they did.

Now there is a third one, apparently it went straight to DVD. Looks like they may finally have gotten around to including power armor - which was the core of the original book.

Bob is probably shaking his head and plotting his revenge ...

Max: Domino [Boolean Algebra] Theory

Max: Can Rush Play Tom Sawyer?

Max: Recreational Math Can Be Depressing

I was just running through some numbers and realized that unless I have a significant increase in income I won't ever be able to afford to retire.

As I spend most of my time at work, it's likely the last thing I will ever see is the inside of a beige cubicle.

Sometimes it's really hard not to scream.

Max: (Slow) Attack of the Killer Turtle

http://view.break.com/293055 - Watch more free videos

Max: New Graphic Novel Includes Syd Mead Designs

Max: Saving Us From Disabled, Bi-Racial Terrorists

From the BBC

A police force has apologised after a disabled child and his parents were detained at a Channel crossing point under the Terrorism Act.

...

[Julie] Maynard was separated from her husband and son, who is autistic and has cerebral palsy, and taken to a detention room for questioning.

Ms Maynard said the woman officer told her: "It's obvious he [Joshua] has nothing to do with you".

She said officers had told the family they had powers to hold them for up to nine hours under Section 7 of the Terrorism Act, but they were released after more than two hours.

If you give the government power to do something to someone, you give them the power to do it to anyone.

Max: Daily Headbang For Jericho And Other OAP's

Max: Your Daily Headbang

マキシマムザホルモン (Maximum the Hormone)

Max: How It All Ends

Max: The Metal Monk

Via the BBC

At first glance, Cesare Bonizzi looks like the archetypal Capuchin monk - round-faced, stout, with twinkling eyes and a long flowing white beard. But beneath his robes beats a heart of metal.

Brother Cesare is the lead singer in a heavy metal band which has just released its second album.

...

His second heavy metal album, "Misteri" (Mysteries) has just been released.

In a sign of Brother Metal's eclecticism, it drew inspiration from a group of women in southern Italy who sang about Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a heavy metal version of that song is on the CD.

Other songs talk about how alcohol warms the heart but excess drinking can damage the liver, and how important sex is to man.

Max: Wrong. So Very Wrong.

Jericho: Proof of God's existance!

Thank you, God!!

Max: Wow

The Moon orbiting Earth, as seen from 50 million km away.

Max: 20 Years of Stupidity

The thought just occurred that I am a little over a month away from turning 37 and I am still dealing with the consequences of the stupid things I did when I was 17.

I'll probably still be dealing with them when I'm 57.

Jericho: Billboard of Stupid

This is just great.

So, let me get this straight: this idiot thinks that if we put a Democrat in the Oval Office we'll have another September 11th-like tragedy. Interesting.

I love that this article is posted on FoxNews' web site. Why? Because both this idiot and FoxNews missed a vital point:

Bush was in office on 9/11!

That's right, a Republican. There was a Republican in office when 3000 Americans died. Was it his fault? Hmmm .... ?

I love how this guy also thinks the terrorists have something to do with high gas prices. Sir? Did you miss the boat? Ya know, the oil tanker that Chevron named "Condoleezza Rice"? Bush, Rice and many others in the Bush administration have major ties to Big Oil. Big Oil has been posting record profits in the last several years. And it never occurred to you, Mr. Billboard, that maybe, just maybe, Big Oil orchestrated all of this?

The perpetrators of 9/11 were in Afghanistan. Yet, we have five times as many troops in Iraq as Afghanistan. Why? I'll tell you why: Iraq has oil and Afghanistan has none! The hype and fear generated by 9/11 has allowed the Big Oil politicians to put together a war that not only uses untold amounts of oil but protects their oil interests. Meanwhile, speculators have driven up the price of oil on that fear.

In Iraq, they pay $.50 a gallon for gas, that's right, fifty cents - and those prices are subsidized with your tax dollars. We are paying nearly $5 a gallon and that includes taxes.

Big Oil is complaining that they can't use several areas that have been reserved, preserved for natural and human use. Yet, they sit on millions of unexplored acres. Why? It's too expensive, they whine! They have billions in profits, but it's too expensive to drill in ares that they have had left for years. Spend some money, Big Oil! Make some jobs, Big Oil! Drive down the price of gas, Big Oil! Or ... give up the rights to the land you are not using!

But they don't want that, do they? They want the market to remain up. They make more money and don't put out additional cost or effort.

So, I agree with Mr. Billboard. I believe the terrorists are in cahoots. I believe that they and Big Oil and the Automobile Manufacturers are have conspired to rob us all. If they haven't conspired, Big Oil has certainly taken advantage of this tragedy. They are profiting from 9/11 and from our dead soldiers. That's called Profiteering. It should also be called Treason.

Who is Big Oil? Look to the White House and you will see it's most obvious incarnation.

Max: Australian Coverage of the Apollo 11 Launch

Watch it here.

Max: Why Are People Dicks?

I frequent a bass oriented BB called TalkBass. It is an interesting site, full of bass porn. Unfortunately, it is also full of people and as I was recently reminded, people suck.

I asked a technical question about acrylicized wood and how it differed from pressure treated wood. I was briefly excited to see my first reply was from a manufacturer of acrylicized wood. Then I read his reply. If you read only his reply, you might have assumed I had asked, "Why do you make shitty products and when are you planning to stop raping children?" He completely lost his shit because I mentioned pressure treated wood and acrylicized wood in the same sentence. Literally. It didn't matter that I was asking about the difference. It didn't matter that I hadn't even really addressed him in particular, mentioned his name or the name of his bidness. I had defamed his precious product and was now lower than Hitler in his estimation.

Naturally I responded by pointing out that he is clearly insane and that he could feel free to fuck off. But then a friend of his (someone whom I have recently developed more than a little respect for) jumped in and explained that my newfound enemy had problems with trolls making comparisons between his acrylicized wood and pressure treated wood. I figured that he was understandably touchy and explained that I was not trolling, just trying to acquire information. The dickhead replied by twisting my words around, calling me a troll and accusing me of engaging in a one sided pissing contest. Or maybe a pants wetting contest. He wasn't clear on that point.

Shortly thereafter one of the site mods closed the thread. So, for looking for a little bit of info I have made a new enemy, got publicly upbraided for something I clearly didn't even attempt to do and still don't have an answer to my question.

And people wonder why I hate people.

Jericho: Good Weekend!

Friday night my wife was busy and all my friends had their own lives so I decided to treat myself to something fun. I did dinner out and went to not one but two movies!

I decided to go to Kent Station near my home. I had dinner at Chipotle - which equaled some quick Mexican inspired food. Then off to see The Incredible Hulk. I didn't see the last one - the previews were so bad I didn't feel a need to waste my cash. However, this one was, well, incredible! The effects were seamless. The cast was brilliant. The story, action, acting was all top notch - more than one might expect from "a comic book" movie. And, no real spoilers here, Marvel is doing what they should have done a while back - but it's good they are doing it now. This movie, like Iron Man and the X-Men and Spiderman movies, was a two hour comic book. Better, like Iron Man, they have positioned this movie not only for a sequel, but for crossovers with future movies. (Am I the only one thinking they need to have a Capt. America movie in the works? They mentioned the Super Soldier program!)

I had some time between movies, so I hung around outside. Seattle and local area have a strange weather pattern - it's called "temperate". Seattle weather forecasters have it pretty easy - it's "Partly Cloudy with a chance of Showers" 300 or so days out of the year. We have a brief, warm, summer, then back to the PCwacoS. Well, we are in that Summer stretch right now. When you are used to 50 to 75 degrees, 90 feels damn hot! Friday evening, approaching 10 PM, it was still somewhat light out. The mall was busy, the sky was spotlessly clear and the temp was holding around 75 with a breeze. I was surrounded by people having a good time (with the exception of the Christian Evangelists trying to sell Ja-EEE-us to anyone who would listen.)

After looking around for a while, I started to feel very white and very old. The median age was 18. The median skin tone was mocha-latte. A friend of mine just moved to Downtown Seattle. I tried to get her to look at Kent, arguing she would get more bang for her buck. Her desire was to be around more black people and a higher density of services. I told her she was not going to find that anywhere in the area - she needed to move to the Midwest or even further east. I was wrong - to a degree. Kent and Kent Station isn't exactly the density and funky old neighborhood feeling she was looking for, however, the Kent area (and that night in the mall in particular) definitely had a feeling of diversity. I easily saw 10 ethnic groups represented (probably several others I didn't recognize), several obvious religious affiliations were present, which must of rubbed the Evangelists the wrong way. Certainly not Soho, but not where I grew up either. Very cool.

I lined up to be let into the late show of Hellboy II. It was okay. I wasn't terribly impressed with Hellboy, so Hellboy II wasn't a shocker that it wasn't great. Don't get me wrong, it was a very pretty movie, the effects were spectacular all around. Excellent fight scenes. It just seems like if they had spent a few dollars less on effects and a few more on writers, they would have had a stronger movie. I don't care how good your effects are, if you don't have a story, you don't have a movie. Is it worth your money? If you liked the last one, this is more of the same if not better. There were some great scenes and the effects were impressive. I did like one scene in particular, I don't want to spoil it, let's just say that I needed a beer after seeing it ... :)

Saturday I spent the day with an old friend. We were putting together characters for an upcoming event. For her birthday, she asked for a D&D game, DMed by another friend and attended by a good portion of her friends that love RPGs. I thought that was a great birthday wish! We had a lot of fun, some good Chinese food and lots of laughs. Looking forward to playing this game next Saturday!

Sunday, Steph and I hid from the heat (it was 89 degrees! We just aren't used to this!) We spent the morning at home under the fans and then in the afternoon, we hit the air conditioned theater and saw Get Smart. This movie had a lot of things against it. First, movies based on old teevee shows are always questionable. I don't like Steve Carell for the most part - the guy is just freekin annoying. Mel Brooks, in the last few years, hasn't done as well in the movie sphere as he once did - he's doing better recreating earlier work. However, Mel was only a consultant on the movie and Steve Carell was only over-the-top and not terribly annoying. On top of this, the cast was pretty impressive, the writing was good and the acting was excellent. Result: hilarious romp! I had a great time! I laughed my ass off twice!

This weekend was topped by this morning. While I knew I would be preforming a shit duty at work that I get about once a month and never look forward to - I weighed 499. Yea me!

Max: Another Pawn Falls To Canadian Propaganda

Max: Art of Noise: Close (to the Edit) - Live(?!?)

Max: The Greatest Musical Pairing Ever

Lionel Ritchie and Rob Zombie

Max: TSA: Abusing You For Your Own Good

Ask The Pilot

"Is this yours?" she wants to know.

"Yes, it's mine."

"You got a knife in here?"

"A knife?"

"A knife," she barks. "Some silverware."

Indeed I do. Indeed I always do. Inside my roll-aboard I carry a spare set of airline-issue cutlery -- a spoon, a fork and a knife. Along with packets of noodles and other small snacks, this is part of my hotel survival kit, useful in the event of short layovers or other situations when food isn't available. Borrowed from my collection of airline silverware (some of us really have such things), it's the exact cutlery that accompanies your meal on a long-haul flight. The pieces are stainless steel, about 5 inches long. The knife has a rounded end and a short row of teeth -- I would call them "serrations," but that's too strong a word. For all intents and purposes, it's a miniature butter knife.

...

Now, do I really need to point out that an airline pilot at the controls would hardly need a butter knife if he or she desired to inflict damage?

Max: Oh My

Max: Fat (B)Ass

Max: Hot Piece of (B)Ass

Max: When Mascots Attack

Max: Thank You Bond & McCaskill

For voting away my 4th Amendment rights.

Max: Peekaboo, Gov't Spooks See You

Via Baltimoresun.com

With Congress on the verge of outlining new parameters for National Security Agency eavesdropping between suspicious foreigners and Americans, lawmakers are leaving largely untouched a host of government programs that critics say involves far more domestic surveillance than the wiretaps they sought to remedy.

These programs - most of them highly classified - are run by an alphabet soup of federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies. They sift, store and analyze the communications, spending habits and travel patterns of U.S. citizens, searching for suspicious activity.

The surveillance includes data-mining programs that allow the NSA and the FBI to sift through large databanks of e-mails, phone calls and other communications, not for selective information, but in search of suspicious patterns.

Max: Same Old Story

Via the International Herald Tribune

A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

Max: A Tout Le Monde x 2

The same song, the same (at least in name) band, completely different centuries.

Max: Who Needs The Skinny String Guitar?

Max: Familiar, Yet...

Max: It Doesn't Matter That He Is A Scientologist

I want this bass.

Max: The Rantings of a Terrorist

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Max: The Universe Is A Cold, Twisted Bitch

Rush Limbaugh just signed a $400,000,000 deal with Clear Channel.

Jericho: My body is in rebellion!

Still on the diet.

My body has decided that no matter what I do, I will not get under 500, or at least not for long. I was really hoping to be under 500 pounds by the end of the month. So, Sunday, Steph got me on the scale. I had done it. I was 499.

Monday, I stepped on the scale and I was 501.
Tuesday morning I was 502.
This morning I was 503.

I haven't been on the treadmill this week. But, I've managed to stay on the diet and added 5 pounds since Sunday.

Before, I would have allowed this setback to lead to a donut fueled binge, ending my diet. But, even at 503, I'm 14 pounds down and I'm not giving up that progress.

However, I am giving up getting on the scale for a while. That thing hates me!