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27 April 2006
One more reason we invaded the wrong country:
We would never link to a UPI story under normal circumstances, but when this is the lede, you gotta spread the news (italics ours):
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 26 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia released 500 al-Qaida sympathizers after they underwent religious counseling to bring them back to the moderate path of Islam.
See It Now
While we sympathize with the anti war movement, Standing Eight would, with a gun to it's head, ha ha, align itself more with the anti-wrong-war movement. In fact, had Bush decided to handle Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia instead of Afghanistan and Iraq, there probably wouldn't even be a Standing Eight, since railing against Bush is our stock-in-trade, and we would not rail against doing something about Saudi Arabia.
And what is even considered moderation in Saudi Arabia? "Death to Israel and a very bad case of pneumonia to America!!! God is Great!!!"
Yeah, we feel safer already.
(We don't mean to imply with our little joke about moderation in Saudi Arabia that muslims can't be moderate, we are very pleased to know a few moderate muslims, and even a few liberal ones. It's just that none of them are from Saudi Arabia.)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 26 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia released 500 al-Qaida sympathizers after they underwent religious counseling to bring them back to the moderate path of Islam.
See It Now
While we sympathize with the anti war movement, Standing Eight would, with a gun to it's head, ha ha, align itself more with the anti-wrong-war movement. In fact, had Bush decided to handle Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia instead of Afghanistan and Iraq, there probably wouldn't even be a Standing Eight, since railing against Bush is our stock-in-trade, and we would not rail against doing something about Saudi Arabia.
And what is even considered moderation in Saudi Arabia? "Death to Israel and a very bad case of pneumonia to America!!! God is Great!!!"
Yeah, we feel safer already.
(We don't mean to imply with our little joke about moderation in Saudi Arabia that muslims can't be moderate, we are very pleased to know a few moderate muslims, and even a few liberal ones. It's just that none of them are from Saudi Arabia.)
25 April 2006
This Cannot Be Good
For persons who think the Iraqi Civil War is not yet underway, most of whom probably don't read Standing Eight:
Shiite Militias Move Into Oil-Rich Kirkuk, Even as Kurds Dig In
Our own experience of early '03 should teach us that once large groups of military (or paramilitary as the case may be,) personnel deploy to a place , it's hard-to-impossible to get them back without fighting.
Of course, that's all moot if, like Standing Eight, you think the Civil War started when that one mosque went boom a while back.
Shiite Militias Move Into Oil-Rich Kirkuk, Even as Kurds Dig In
Our own experience of early '03 should teach us that once large groups of military (or paramilitary as the case may be,) personnel deploy to a place , it's hard-to-impossible to get them back without fighting.
Of course, that's all moot if, like Standing Eight, you think the Civil War started when that one mosque went boom a while back.
24 April 2006
Two Sports Notes
#1: A prediction W/R/T Barry Bonds chasing the Babe:
Having admitted that he is probably not in the physical shape to catch Hank Aaron, we think the likelihood is high that Mr. B. will hit #715 at some point in the near future, walk off the field, into the clubhouse, and disappear forever a la Tom Seaver, never to be heard from again. We are admittedly romantics, and so this prediction comes from what we'd like to see as much as what we think might happen. It would be in keeping with Bonds' contention that the media has ruined his life and that all he wants is to be let alone.
(Sub note: Hank Aaron had to deal with a lot of overt racism as he was chasing Ruth 30 years ago, which should shame all baseball fans, but we at The Eight are even more ashamed of the covert racism Bonds is facing. Many of the fans are using the steroid scandal as an excuse to "root" for Babe Ruth, but we think that in reality, many of these fans are just fat white guys who like the idea that the babe was a fat white guy like them. There, we said it.)
(Sub Sub note: Baseball legend and John Goodman movies remind us that as Ruth was in the 701-714 range, he was falling apart as a body, and famously did not even round the bases for his last few dingers, letting a pinch runner tag all four for him. This is eerily analogous to the grimace we see as Barry rounds the bases now, and we think both of them deserve our thanks for leaving so much of themselves out there on the field for our enjoyment.)
#2: Regarding Keith Hernandez:
It pains us to say this about one of our all-time favorite first basemen, but Keith Hernandez needs to be fired from his Mets broadcasting job in light of his recent comments: See It Now. Why? Because firing Rush Limbaugh from MNF was the right decision and Keith's untoward comment is the same exact thing. Free speech, which Standing Eight are absolute defenders of, does not enter into the picture for sports broadcasters on the job. He's allowed to be biased toward the Mets, but not against anyone, especially any class of people.
Having admitted that he is probably not in the physical shape to catch Hank Aaron, we think the likelihood is high that Mr. B. will hit #715 at some point in the near future, walk off the field, into the clubhouse, and disappear forever a la Tom Seaver, never to be heard from again. We are admittedly romantics, and so this prediction comes from what we'd like to see as much as what we think might happen. It would be in keeping with Bonds' contention that the media has ruined his life and that all he wants is to be let alone.
(Sub note: Hank Aaron had to deal with a lot of overt racism as he was chasing Ruth 30 years ago, which should shame all baseball fans, but we at The Eight are even more ashamed of the covert racism Bonds is facing. Many of the fans are using the steroid scandal as an excuse to "root" for Babe Ruth, but we think that in reality, many of these fans are just fat white guys who like the idea that the babe was a fat white guy like them. There, we said it.)
(Sub Sub note: Baseball legend and John Goodman movies remind us that as Ruth was in the 701-714 range, he was falling apart as a body, and famously did not even round the bases for his last few dingers, letting a pinch runner tag all four for him. This is eerily analogous to the grimace we see as Barry rounds the bases now, and we think both of them deserve our thanks for leaving so much of themselves out there on the field for our enjoyment.)
#2: Regarding Keith Hernandez:
It pains us to say this about one of our all-time favorite first basemen, but Keith Hernandez needs to be fired from his Mets broadcasting job in light of his recent comments: See It Now. Why? Because firing Rush Limbaugh from MNF was the right decision and Keith's untoward comment is the same exact thing. Free speech, which Standing Eight are absolute defenders of, does not enter into the picture for sports broadcasters on the job. He's allowed to be biased toward the Mets, but not against anyone, especially any class of people.
22 April 2006
How much do we love John Dean?
More than Nixon did, most likely. Here's Dean's latest spot-on analysis of the state of the presidency:
See It Now
It pains us to see, though, that among the "Active/Negative" presidents Dean groups with Bush is Woody Wilson, the official favorite 20th century president of Standing Eight, though we'd be the first to admit how far from perfect he was.
(NB: Dean actually writes for a site called "findlaw" which is where we'd have linked to if we could "find" it.)
See It Now
It pains us to see, though, that among the "Active/Negative" presidents Dean groups with Bush is Woody Wilson, the official favorite 20th century president of Standing Eight, though we'd be the first to admit how far from perfect he was.
(NB: Dean actually writes for a site called "findlaw" which is where we'd have linked to if we could "find" it.)
04 April 2006
Homeland Security Official Arrested - Yahoo! News
You can bet everyone will be talking about this by late-night talkshow time tomorrow.
Homeland Security Official Arrested - Yahoo! News
(Editor's Note: Sorry, if there's anyone out there who noticed or cares, about the low-volume output of late, we've been having a software or OS related posting problem that only recently got answered, and like all good answers, it only led to more questions. We hope to be up and publishing regularly by tax-day.)
Homeland Security Official Arrested - Yahoo! News
(Editor's Note: Sorry, if there's anyone out there who noticed or cares, about the low-volume output of late, we've been having a software or OS related posting problem that only recently got answered, and like all good answers, it only led to more questions. We hope to be up and publishing regularly by tax-day.)
03 April 2006
Fitzgerald Knew Identity of Leaker From Start
We'll post this RawStory/Truthout article without comment, for now:
Fitzgerald Knew Identity of Leaker From Start
Fitzgerald Knew Identity of Leaker From Start
22 March 2006
Video Daily Double
We don't generally post links based on reader requests, which has until now been a result of never getting reader requests. Here are our first two, both of which exemplify the sort of commitment to individual art that landed Van Gogh, Pollock and about a hundred others in asylums. Alert reader Dan Mullin sent us this link of a really good guitar player with a lot of time on his hands (shocking how often those two go together:)
See It Now
Our second link comes from Don Chappell, who was rightly impressed by the music-sync'd juggling of one Chris Bliss:
See It Now
We know at least one of the Flying Karamazov Brothers has read the Eight before, and we don't want to place anyone above you guys on the juggling totem pole, so if you have free links to video online, let us know. But this guy's pretty good.
See It Now
Our second link comes from Don Chappell, who was rightly impressed by the music-sync'd juggling of one Chris Bliss:
See It Now
We know at least one of the Flying Karamazov Brothers has read the Eight before, and we don't want to place anyone above you guys on the juggling totem pole, so if you have free links to video online, let us know. But this guy's pretty good.
11 March 2006
Bad Things Comma Very
So called because the damn Firefox kept freezing up for some reason when we tried to title the post Very Bad Things.
There is bad news today, and it comes in the form of Bill Maher's leadoff monologue joke: The Dubai firm that had arranged to buy the port management contract (or whatever, frankly this was a nothing story until today and we are for once proudly ignorant of the details of the whole thing,) has backed out of the deal due to pressure from the public reaction in the US, thanks to Lou Dobbs et al. Which is maybe a neutral fact. Until you learn that in the absence of that firm to make the deal now the port management contract will apparently go to "an unnamed American entity." And that the semi-official scuttlebutt is that the unnamed entity is in fact wait for it Halliburton.
Not hard to imagine what that decision making moment in the Veep's office was like: "They don't want me to sell the ports to Dubai? F*** 'em, I'll give it to Hally. (Because you just know he's got a pet name for his baby.)
-.- (or "dash dot dash," "K" in Morse code, which is telegraph operator code for "switching tracks.") (lame historical tidbit courtesy of the Standing Eight Pompous Pedant Foundation.)
-This is The Eight's 60th post, which we only mention by way of demonstrating that we passed 50 a while back without making any fuss.
-Over the next week, Standing Eight may or may not post our usual, oh what's a fancy word for it, "stuff," from glamorous International Waters. And you know that once you get CQ miles out from shore there are no rules.
There is bad news today, and it comes in the form of Bill Maher's leadoff monologue joke: The Dubai firm that had arranged to buy the port management contract (or whatever, frankly this was a nothing story until today and we are for once proudly ignorant of the details of the whole thing,) has backed out of the deal due to pressure from the public reaction in the US, thanks to Lou Dobbs et al. Which is maybe a neutral fact. Until you learn that in the absence of that firm to make the deal now the port management contract will apparently go to "an unnamed American entity." And that the semi-official scuttlebutt is that the unnamed entity is in fact wait for it Halliburton.
Not hard to imagine what that decision making moment in the Veep's office was like: "They don't want me to sell the ports to Dubai? F*** 'em, I'll give it to Hally. (Because you just know he's got a pet name for his baby.)
-.- (or "dash dot dash," "K" in Morse code, which is telegraph operator code for "switching tracks.") (lame historical tidbit courtesy of the Standing Eight Pompous Pedant Foundation.)
-This is The Eight's 60th post, which we only mention by way of demonstrating that we passed 50 a while back without making any fuss.
-Over the next week, Standing Eight may or may not post our usual, oh what's a fancy word for it, "stuff," from glamorous International Waters. And you know that once you get CQ miles out from shore there are no rules.
10 March 2006
Kofi Annan (and on and on)
The headline tells the story here:
UN Staff vote no confidence in Annan management
Don't you wish we could do that with our leaders?
UN Staff vote no confidence in Annan management
Don't you wish we could do that with our leaders?
Vernon Robinson, Playa Hate-a
If you like being outraged by the bald-faced ballsiness of the right, don't miss Vernon Robinson's newest ad in his North Carolina House race. It's got to be the worst since Max Cleland was compared to Saddam Hussein. Which unfortunately probably means that Robinson is going to win.
See It Now @ Crooks and Liars
See It Now @ Crooks and Liars
09 March 2006
Talkin' Baseball, 'cause we never really played it very well
One hears a great deal of jabber in the wake of this SI article about Bonds/Steroids about should he be booted from the game a la Rose, Shoeless Joe et al, or should he have his records removed or ignored a la Maris' 61* or just what on Earth are we to do about this Bonds fellow?
This is not strictly a sports opinion website, but our slugline does mention sports, so the Editorial Board of The Eight have developed the following official position on the 'Bonds Thing.' To wit:
Let him keep playing, let him juice if he thinks he can do it without getting caught, and one of two things will happen, MLB will catch him, and he'll get tossed, or he'll catch Ruth and then maybe (probably not, we'd wager,) Aaron. Here're two reasons that go a long way to explaining why this is our official position:
1) The unanimous consensus of the board held that Ruth would have taken steroids if they'd had them then. He ate like a pig to give himself bulk to hit more home runs, because he understood better than anyone before that time the connection between the two.
2) Records were made to be broken. Bob Beamon doesn't hold the long jump record anymore, the 100m record keeps getting ticked down, those low-TV-rated skis at the Olympics get a little waxier every four years. Athletes are getting better due to Sport Science and Sport Medicine, not to mention the ability to view one's swing in eight different speeds on five different cameras in hi-def. If you want to keep the old days alive, walk six miles in the snow to work, don't bitch about a guy who plays baseball for a living.
That's that about that, but we did, at the Board meeting, have one other observation about this and all situations like it: The greatest thing about these sorts of stories is watching to see how many sports reporters cannot consistently and correctly pronounce the word 'asterisk.' Check it out and see if it doesn't provide a certain glee akin to the dread we all feel when Bush says 'nook-you-lar'.
--Full Disclosure-- This is a Late Update, reason number 1 above has been edited for clarity and the removal of stupidity, ours.
This is not strictly a sports opinion website, but our slugline does mention sports, so the Editorial Board of The Eight have developed the following official position on the 'Bonds Thing.' To wit:
Let him keep playing, let him juice if he thinks he can do it without getting caught, and one of two things will happen, MLB will catch him, and he'll get tossed, or he'll catch Ruth and then maybe (probably not, we'd wager,) Aaron. Here're two reasons that go a long way to explaining why this is our official position:
1) The unanimous consensus of the board held that Ruth would have taken steroids if they'd had them then. He ate like a pig to give himself bulk to hit more home runs, because he understood better than anyone before that time the connection between the two.
2) Records were made to be broken. Bob Beamon doesn't hold the long jump record anymore, the 100m record keeps getting ticked down, those low-TV-rated skis at the Olympics get a little waxier every four years. Athletes are getting better due to Sport Science and Sport Medicine, not to mention the ability to view one's swing in eight different speeds on five different cameras in hi-def. If you want to keep the old days alive, walk six miles in the snow to work, don't bitch about a guy who plays baseball for a living.
That's that about that, but we did, at the Board meeting, have one other observation about this and all situations like it: The greatest thing about these sorts of stories is watching to see how many sports reporters cannot consistently and correctly pronounce the word 'asterisk.' Check it out and see if it doesn't provide a certain glee akin to the dread we all feel when Bush says 'nook-you-lar'.
--Full Disclosure-- This is a Late Update, reason number 1 above has been edited for clarity and the removal of stupidity, ours.
07 March 2006
What about the atheists in the foxholes?
If you saw a headline that read: "Seminaries threaten to stop sending chaplains to military" you might suspect that the seminaries in question were some of the more liberal ones that dot our fine nation's blue-state coasts, GTU in Berkeley, Union in Manhattan, and so on.
That's certainly what we assumed until we hit the link below and saw that the seminaries Army Times' article refers to are about as far from liberal as you can get: Temple Baptist Seminary (Chattanooga,) and GWB's own controversial '00 campaign stop, Bob Jones University.
See It Now
So let's have a big Standing Eight cheer for TBS and BJU, for being willing to admit that one's Christian faith can be incompatible with American Imperialism, and that when it comes to hypocrisy, a finite number of straws can break a camel's back. Or to quote either Rozencrantz or Guildenstern, which is to say Tom Stoppard:
Consistency is all I ask
Opportunity is all I seek
Give us this day
Our daily week
That's certainly what we assumed until we hit the link below and saw that the seminaries Army Times' article refers to are about as far from liberal as you can get: Temple Baptist Seminary (Chattanooga,) and GWB's own controversial '00 campaign stop, Bob Jones University.
See It Now
So let's have a big Standing Eight cheer for TBS and BJU, for being willing to admit that one's Christian faith can be incompatible with American Imperialism, and that when it comes to hypocrisy, a finite number of straws can break a camel's back. Or to quote either Rozencrantz or Guildenstern, which is to say Tom Stoppard:
Consistency is all I ask
Opportunity is all I seek
Give us this day
Our daily week
RIBH (Rest In Baseball Heaven) Kirby Puckett
We are saddened to learn today of the passing of Kirby Puckett following complications from a stroke he suffered on Sunday. You'll get no home run totals or career summing-up here, only the following sincere compliment, which may be equally true for about a billion baseball fans: though we've never especially liked the Twins, we have always especially liked Kirby.
ESPN.com
NYTimes
Knock Ty Cobb on his ass when you see him. He deserves it.
--LATE UPDATE-- Actually, after reading the Times obit above, Standing Eight officially has no dog in the Puckett/Cobb fight in Baseball Heaven, they may both 'deserve it.' Whatever 'it' is. This could be the first time Standing Eight has 'spoken too soon,' and if our ombudsman recommends it we'll correct or retract at the appropriate time.
ESPN.com
NYTimes
Knock Ty Cobb on his ass when you see him. He deserves it.
--LATE UPDATE-- Actually, after reading the Times obit above, Standing Eight officially has no dog in the Puckett/Cobb fight in Baseball Heaven, they may both 'deserve it.' Whatever 'it' is. This could be the first time Standing Eight has 'spoken too soon,' and if our ombudsman recommends it we'll correct or retract at the appropriate time.
05 March 2006
Greatest Post Ever
We will link to the article, which offers you the tripartite choice of QT, Real, or WMP, but whichever way you can, see this video:
The Sun Online - Bizarre online: The Simpsons come to life
Genius. How did we not think of it first? (By 'we' I mean Americans more than Eighters.)
The Sun Online - Bizarre online: The Simpsons come to life
Genius. How did we not think of it first? (By 'we' I mean Americans more than Eighters.)
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