Peter’s Blog

#91 San Francisco « Stuff White People Like

Though they live in a world class city, San Franciscans have a crippling inferiority complex about New York and even hinting at that will make them very sad or very defensive.Fortunately, there is a fool-proof method for quickly returning the conversation to a positive, trust-building tone. No matter how much you have offended someone from San Francisco, you can always make them feel better by asking them how they feel about Southern California.

igakunogakusのi » The most entertaining trial ever

Counsel: On the contrary, you are not here to indulge in cut and thrust with me. You are only here to answer my questions.Chrysler: Was that a question?

Counsel: No.

Chrysler: Then I can’t answer it.

Judge: Come on, Mr Lovelace! I think you are still being given the run-around here. You can do better than that. At least, for the sake of the English bar, I hope you can.

“It’s in Iceland” answers The Economist. =)

The above-the-fold front page article in today’s NRC was about SecDef Gates saying that many NATO armies weren’t good at counter-insurgency operations and it was accompanied by a very large version of this image:

(Aside: it’s a rather odd photo to use, considering both the subject matter and that the photo was taken in November)

What is the first thing I noticed? Canadian soldiers have major facial hair! Check out the ’staches on those dudes! And it’s just just them. Here’s one of their colleagues:

Is the Canadian Army taking the whole lumberjack stereotype a little too far? =)

Proof again that things are more liberal up north: among US troops in Afghanistan only Special Forces are allowed to have beards. But what beards!

I don’t know if this is a still the case, as it seems that the beard policy wasn’t popular higher up. From one account, Special Forces operators (that’s right, they’re beyond soldiers, they’re operators!) played all sorts of charades to protect their officially-sanctioned beards from the wrath of senior officers.

At least they don’t look as funny as these Dutch Special Forces troops, though I’m sure Jack would tell you a light orange beard is the height of style:

On a more serious note, the Reuters website is very good and has lots of incredible pictures from around the world. While looking for the first image, I found this striking photo:

From The BEAST:

9. You

Charges: You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at your pharmacy asked you to press 9 for Spanish. You cling to every scrap of bullshit you can find to support your ludicrous belief system, and reject all empirical evidence to the contrary. You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism — it’s nationalism when foreigners do it. You hate anyone who seems smarter than you. You care more about zygotes than actual people. You love to blame people for their misfortunes, even if it means screwing yourself over. You still think Republicans favor limited government. Your knowledge of politics and government are dwarfed by your concern for Britney Spears’ children. You think buying Chinese goods stimulates our economy. You think you’re going to get universal health care. You tolerate the phrase “enhanced interrogation techniques.” You think the government is actually trying to improve education. You think watching CNN makes you smarter. You think two parties is enough. You can’t spell. You think $9 trillion in debt is manageable. You believe in an afterlife for the sole reason that you don’t want to die. You think lowering taxes raises revenue. You think the economy’s doing well. You’re an idiot.

Exhibit A: You couldn’t get enough Anna Nicole Smith coverage.

Sentence: A gradual decline into abject poverty as you continue to vote against your own self-interest. Death by an easily treated disorder that your health insurance doesn’t cover. You deserve it, chump.

doodlemonkey - Yeti vs Big Foot comments:

the yeti zei…

sasquatch,

stop. you embarrass self.

you no big foot. you big baby.

me beat you anytime, anywhere. name place.

-the yeti

9:26 AM
BIG FOOT zei…

FINE!

TOMORROW. 3 PM. THE TUNDRA.

WE PLAY MILLE BORNES.

DECIDE WINNER ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Flames at US government building:

The fire was centred around raging near Vice President Dick Cheney’s ceremonial office.

Did Cheney forget to close his portal to Hell?

Even spineless liberals can get vicious, or at least own vicious dogs. But will the Times’ Baghdad correspondents get in as much trouble as Michael Vick? =)

From JLog

Wikipedia administrators are preventing the creation of a page on the horrible video ‘2 girls 1 cup’, claiming “Repeatedly recreated nonsense vulgarity article”. The videos sounds horrible (I haven’t seen it) but the thousands of video reactions on YouTube showing people throwing up on seeing the video are hilarious. Surely this phenomenon deserves a Wikipedia page as much as other random pop-culture pages.