Give Me a Break!

Marvel: With Great Power Comes Great...Lip Gloss?

So guys get to be superheroes, and girls get to be . . . "perfectly pouty?" According to Lotta Luv's licensing coordinator, yes:

With a branded line of make-up from Marvel, girls will be able to feel as if they are going from ordinary to extraordinary just like the superhero characters in the stories.

I don't know about you, but a mask and some Lycra makes me feel way more extraordinary than fruity lipgloss. Unfortunately, the Marvel store's only girl superhero offering is a costume called Spider-Girl Sassy Deluxe. In the Marvel world, deluxe means shiny. I'm not quite sure how a halter-top helps you fight crime.

Fascinating Drug Reading

. . . To gain political asylum, applicants must prove they have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution because of their political opinion or an "immutable characteristic" such as race, religion, or nationality. When it comes to people fleeing Mexico, the United States has quibbled with claims of immutability, telling Mexican cops running from the cartels that they should just stop being a cop, move to another part of Mexico, become a plumber. But Emilio can't hide from the Army. Those three stories he filed in 2005, the opinions therein, they created an immutable impression on the Army. After that he apologized. He ceased writing anything bad about the Army even when he witnessed them killing people in his town in February 2008. None of this helped. When the Army swept the area again a few months later, they came after him. . . .

There are two Mexicos.

There is the one reported by the US press, a place where the Mexican president is fighting a valiant war on drugs, aided by the Mexican Army and the Mérida Initiative, the $1.4 billion in aid the United States has committed to the cause. This Mexico has newspapers, courts, laws, and is seen by the United States government as a sister republic.

It does not exist.

There is a second Mexico where the war is for drugs, where the police and the military fight for their share of drug profits, where the press is restrained by the murder of reporters and feasts on a steady diet of bribes, and where the line between the government and the drug world has never existed.

The reporter lives in this second Mexico. . . .

He is immediately jailed, as is his son. They are separated. He is taken to El Paso and placed in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center run by Deco, Inc. He is deloused, given a blue jumpsuit, and set to work scrubbing floors for a dollar a day. He is denied bond, and no hearing is scheduled. Had he entered the United States illegally and then asked for asylum, he would be eligible for bond. But since he entered legally and asked for asylum at the port of entry he is kept in prison because the Department of Homeland Security declares that Emilio has failed to prove that he "would not pose a danger to the community. . . . "

We Bring Fear

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Not my issue, but one of the best impartial considerations of the issue I've seen: The Patriot's Guide to Legalization

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. . . Rangers and game wardens say pot growers are a major threat to California's 23,500 square miles of wilderness (which doesn't include state or regional lands). "These guys literally create cities within your national forests," says Laura Mark, a special agent with the US Forest Service. Growers clear land year-round, plant crops in the spring, and haul out the harvest in the fall, often leaving behind mounds of trash and dead animals, denuded hillsides, and streams full of sediment and human waste. . . .

High Sierras: The woods are lovely, dark, and...full of gun-toting narcofarmers

So I guess all that's left to be determined is which Astana rider wins it all

Not really--there are still 17 stages, hundreds of miles, and all of the mountains to go, including an epic mountain stage on the second to last day. Anything can happen yet. BUT. But Astana won the Team Time Trial today and now sit second through fifth. Fabian Cancellara is first because he's the world's best time trialist, but he won't be able to keep pace in the mountains. Second is Lance Armstrong, who's won the last seven Tours he's ridden. Third is Alberto Contador, the overwhelming favorite and winner of the last three grand tours he's ridden. Fourth is Andreas Kloden, who has finished second in the Tour twice. Fifth is Levi Leipheimer, who has finished third in the Tour and second in the tour of Spain while riding as Contador's top Lieutenant. Even with some bad luck and form, I can't see all four of them getting overtaken by the competition.

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 10:38:07
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:19
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:00:23
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0:00:31
6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:00:38
7 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa) Astana 0:00:51
8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:52
9 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:06
10 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:07
11 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por) Astana 0:01:16
12 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
13 Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:22
14 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - HTC 0:01:29
15 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 0:01:31
16 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - HTC 0:01:32
17 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC 0:01:36
18 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Astana
19 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas
20 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:41

Stuff

Since I waited all weekend just to learn The Daily Show and Colbert Report are on vacation this week, I'll settle for this nice skewering of Sarah Palin.

Truly, Sarah Palin has come a long way. When she ran for vice president, she frequently became disjointed and garbled when she departed from her prepared remarks. Now the prepared remarks are incoherent, too. . . .

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And this:

Her statement was incoherent, bizarre and juvenile. The text, as posted on Gov. Palin's official website (here), uses 2,549 words and 18 exclamation points. Lincoln freed the slaves with 719 words and nary an exclamation; Mr. Jefferson declared our independence in 1,322 words and, again, no exclamation points. Nixon resigned the presidency in 1,796 words -- still no exclamation points. Gov. Palin capitalized words at random - whole words, like "TO," "HELP," and "AND," and the first letter of "Troops."

Gov. Palin's official announcement that she is resigning as chief executive of the great state of Alaska had all the depth and gravitas of a 13-year-old's review of the Jonas Brothers' album on Facebook. She even quoted her parents' refrigerator magnet. (Note to self: if one of my kids becomes governor, throw away the refrigerator magnet that says: "Murray's Oyster Bar: We Shuck Em, You Suck Em!") She put her son's name in quotations marks. Why? Who knows. She writes, "I promised efficiencies and effectiveness!?" Was she exclaiming or questioning? I get it: both! And I don't even know what to make of a sentence that reads:

*((Gotta put First Things First))*

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An interesting list of facts and information about newspapers:

43% of Americans say it would hurt civic life "a lot" if their local newspaper closed. Yet when asked if they'd miss their paper, 42% say "not much" or "not at all."

About 80% of news is originally reported by newspapers, according to former Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll.

In 2006, 62% of all reporters worked for newspapers.

Nearly 1 in 5 newspaper journalists has lost his or her job since 2001. . . .

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11 Health Myths That May Surprise You

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Excess Pounds, but Not Too Many, May Lead to Longer Life

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WoW Account Cancelled Freakout - Watch more Funny Videos

A BK BJ?

Lots of commentary like here and here and here.

My Travels

Unless I'm forgetting some childhood trips, I've never done New England or that big driving tour of the west I've always wanted to do. Not pictured: The Canadian side of Niagara Falls, Chihuahua City in Mexico, and a couple of Western Caribbean cruises.


visited 32 states (64%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project

Zoe Bell

I just watched Death Proof the other night and really enjoyed it. As much as I loved the whole experience, what made the biggest impression on me was the athleticism of Zoe Bell. In a major role, she plays herself, a stuntwoman from New Zealand. I had to see more, and found this on YouTube:

Another Nice Zinger from the Daily Show Writers

Just another politician with a conservative mind and a liberal penis.

Am I the Only One Who Sees a Resemblance?

My FaceBook Updates Tonight

Degolar: Yay!!!!
Degolar took the Which Spaceship Captain Are You? quiz and the result is You are Malcolm Reynolds

Practical, pragmatic, and slightly amoral, you are a gun for hire who will take on any job, honest or otherwise. Despite your mercenary exterior you do live by a code of honor that often gets you into trouble. Your idea of diplomacy is making sure you get paid. You know how to get the best out of your crew, whether it requires bullying, coddling, or threatening to throw them out the airlock, and you return their loyalty by seeing any attack on them as a personal attack on yourself. You specialize in smuggling, petty theft, and getting beat up a lot.

Degolar: CNN keeps showing camera phone video of the protests in Iran, including on-camera death.

Degolar
Stuff
90 minute rain delay for the Royals-Cardinals on Saturday, but ended up being a beautifully sunny game. The makeover at the K is very nice (thus some wanting to call her "The Kougar").






Degolar: Been getting acclimatized to summer with a two-hour, mid-afternoon sun hike at Kill Creek Park.
Degolar:
Duncan almost stumbled over a very large copperhead during a drink break, but he escaped ignorant and unharmed.
Leslie:
omg how did you know it was a copperhead? We see snakes lots by the creek.
Degolar:
I'm not 100% because I was too busy trying to get him to climb back out of the creek a different direction than he went in, but the coloration was right and at a glance it appeared to have a diamond-shaped head. http://scienceblogs.com/clock/upload/2007/02/copperhead.jpg