Barack Obama "I inhaled frequently... that was the point"



Nice to see that kind of honesty... this site is rapidly becoming an Obama love-in, and I don't care.

Christian clown training

This is pretty close to the definition of a bad idea... if I was an elderly person, this would scare the living hell out of me.




Part One:



Part Two:

Oh good lord...

LONDON -- Authorities are considering taking an 8-year-old boy who weighs 218 pounds into protective custody unless his mother improves his diet, officials said Monday. Social service officials will meet with family members Tuesday to discuss the health of Connor McCreaddie, who weighs more than three times the average for his age.

"The worst case would be Connor getting taken into care. He is well cared for," the boy's mother, Nicola McKeown, told ITV television.

Look. Lady. That kid is not well cared for, I don't care what you say. Either he has a medical condition leading to his immense gut, in which case you should be addressing it, or you're feeding him sewage laced with crisco. Which is also not so good. Either way, the kid needs to get the hell away from you ASAP.

"Child abuse is not just about hitting your children or sexually abusing them, it is also about neglect... He's really at risk of dying by the time he's 30" a British social worked was quoted as saying regarding this case. I couldn't agree more.

The newly designed Coca-Cola can, right, will go on sale in Japan
TOKYO — Coca-Cola Japan Co has redesigned its cans and bottles as part of its "The Coke Side of Life" marketing campaign. The beverage maker said Monday that the new look can will hit the Japanese market on Jan 29 before its introduction to the world market in March. "We live in a world where we make choices every day and 'The Coke Side of Life' encourages people to make those choices positive ones," said Marc Mathieu, senior vice president for carbonated soft drink core brands, marketing, srategy and innovation. "This new campaign invites people to create their own positive reality, to be spontaneous, listen to their hearts and live in full color."

WTF?

You are in the business of selling brown fizzy sugar water. This is not the definition of creating ones own "positive reality"... maybe its just a bad translation, but good lord.

Your love for these is destroying the planet

And so comes that most lovely time of year, when lovers kiss, the bees and birds have sex, and those already depressed from the bad weather and failed New Years resolutions get further depressed. Valentines Day is upon us ladies and gents, and I'm sure the ol Saint would be proud to have his noble named affixed to such a commercial (albeit fun) worldwide venture.

Yet now this hallowed institution (that, after all, is only around to spread love. And sell cards) has come under fire, not from cynical nerr-do-wells, but rather from planet loving environmentalists. It seems that one of the most cherished aspects of this occasion is horrible for the environment, namely the giving of roses. Specifically, they take offense at the fact that (given the chilly climate of most westernized areas this time of year), the flowers in question must travel quite some distance, using an uncalled for quantity of fuel.

"In the past three years, the amount of flowers imported from the Netherlands has fallen by 47 per cent to 94,000 tons, while those from Africa have risen 39 per cent to 17,000 tons. Environmentalists warned that "flower miles" could have serious implications on climate change in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from aeroplanes."

Alright. This complaint isn't totally without base, but come on now. The same could be said for virtually any import that isn't 100% necessary... cars, a number of textile products, various spices and foodstuffs, furniture et al, have all been imported via airplane for quite some time now. To pick on flowers (the growth of which, by the by, should offset at least some of the carbon dioxide emitted by the airplanes that carry them) seems somewhat foolish, and basically opportunistic, given our Valentines leanings these days. Do you really have to make us feel bad for giving our sweethearts flowers? Surely there are more relevant environmental points of interest on which you can concentrate.

Besides, does anyone seriously think the excuse "but honey, roses are bad for the environment" will fly? At all?

Yeah, not really.

Barack to the Future

This previous weekend, Barak Obama finally made official what everyone already knew for months beforehand: he's running for President of the United states.

I for one cheer this development, as we can now all get on the bandwagon in earnest, and praise our new God. Honestly, the man seems to have joined politics just to save the world, and I say we let him. Further contributing to his status as saviour reborn is the fact that he can evidently see the future (or at least has enough common sense to reasonably forsee the inevitable).

Check out this speech from 2002, imploring the American people not to stand behind a pointless and unjustified war in Iraq. Sure rings true today, all the more thanks to his fantastic oration:


"Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances.

The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil.
I don’t oppose all wars.

My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton’s army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain.
I don’t oppose all wars.

After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this Administration’s pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again.
I don’t oppose all wars.

And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income – to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.

That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.

Now let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.

He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn’t simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil.

Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair.

The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not – we will not – travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain."

DAMN I hope he wins.