Most people don't have an appreciation of the scale of the fires, other than seeing the incredible and frightening images of those fires - they seem like on a Biblical scale.

I wanted to learn more exact details of the status of the fires, and BBC put together a great page that summarizes everything -

This is an amazing picture from space -



Now that is a smoke trail.

Also, it appears that the fires may have been started deliberately - where is the ELF when you need them? This link has some really striking pictures of the devastation. I wouldn't be surprised if arson was the cause, but it has to be said that the whole of SoCal is essentially a desert to begin with.. natural fires occur every year.

PS - a completely unrelated note. I had a random thought this morning - I wanted to know how it is that the American accent has developed into what it is now. So during my random web surfing this morning I was on Wikipedia, and I learned something today. Its no longer "ebonics" folks - now its "African American Vernacular English!" Behold.

Now NPR has a phrase to use so that they can avoid the blushes!

Today one of my co-workers is making weird girl noises (pouting, etc.) - her knuckle on her ring finger is the size of a walnut and she can't get her ring off! It looks really red and painful - I fear bad for her. I looked up potential solutions on Yahoo! Answers - I feel dirty for using a service put together by a bunch of communist collaborators, but I think my conflicted feelings will subside by dinner time. In any case, I think she is going to have a jeweler cut it off today.

What would you do if you saw a car try to beat a yellow light by making a sharp turn, and in the process make an old lady try to run across the street and fall on her face, potentially injuring her?

I'm not saying this happened, but on Sunday I couldn't help but wonder why it is that an elderly lady with bags would be compelled to try to run across the street at the corner of Delevan and Elmwood. During halftime on Sunday I went to ETS to get some food for my brother and I, and I arrived only to see a crowd of people surrounding this poor elderly lady, who had fallen right on her face and wasn't moving. A gentleman, bless him, was sitting on the pavement rubbing her back and comforting her until the ambulance arrived.

It absolutely broke my heart seeing her like that. No exaggeration - my eyes started welling up and I was desperate for the lady to be okay. Thankfully, she got up once the paramedics arrived and hopefully her injuries are only limited to her forearms. I hope that she simply slipped and her accident wasn't the cause of a reckless driver... which in all honesty, having lived in my apartment for seven years in this neighborhood, I would never rule out. We have to protect the elderly that live around here - please keep an eye on elderly folks crossing the street!

Have you ever felt the urge to write in your journal despite the fact that you really don't have anything to say? Granted, I'd stay quiet rather than gossip like a tabloid magazine. Trust me, if you ever needed to tell someone a deep, dark secret I'm like the fucking CIA. I will either deny any knowledge or run misdirection.

(e:jbeatty)'s latest journal entry reminds me of why I like to cook, and also why I wish I would spend more time trying to find cookbooks that suit me. I've always taken an interest in cooking. At first it was a matter of principle - I simply wanted to know as much as I could so that I wouldn't have to rely on anyone but myself to cook. Women love guys that can cook, or so I'm told, but I've never cooked for a date before. I'd rather do something more interesting... such as take a cooking class together. How would that be for a date surprise! I suppose that I should watch what she does with the knife...

For me, its the learning and doing aspect of cooking that I enjoy. Cooking does for me what playing musical instruments still do - it provides an escape and you're really only torturing yourself. That is, of course, assuming that you are by yourself and you are the only one listening/eating! There is also a creative aspect to cooking that I enjoy, as well as the flexibility that cooking allows you to explore. I also find pleasure in cooking for my friends - on occasion I am struck with a moment of culinary brilliance such as my teriyaki chicken. Other times it works out miserably, but the magic with cooking is that failures are edible.

I don't particularly have any fears of trying new recipes and my interest in this is insatiable. My only problem is that I can't drink up the entire culinary world in one gulp. It will take my entire life to do what I want to do with the culinary arts. However, for the mean time, I think I should focus on half a dozen recipes to master in a handful of cuisines.

Or soccer... but I'm with the world on this one and call both sports football. Its this crap that makes Americans hate the sport.

Last week Dida, the Brazilian national goalkeeper and keeper for AC Milan, played against Celtic in a Champions League (prestigious European club tournament) group stage game. A fan ran onto the pitch, gave him a "mocking touch" (or a "little tickle" if you like) and ran away. Dida began to run towards him then dropped to the pitch dramatically, and was then carried off on a stretcher. Of course the guy could have easily had a box cutter in his hands when it did it, which is why the club were fined $50,000 for the incident. Dida ended up getting a two match ban for his play acting.

Check out this video - you'll see the incident, and the bonus is that it only makes my desire to be able to pull off a Scottish accent even stronger! It also made me think that it might be a good idea to dress as a bagpipe player or a Scottish football hooligan for halloween.



The best part of the whole fiasco is the British papers and their predilection for allowing readers to submit some Photoshop love to commemorate the occasion.







He's milking it! Ort ort ort. *seal claps*

And people suggest that allowing gay people to marry somehow mucks up the "institution." I think that hetero couples have ruined the institution plenty well on their own.



I seriously want no part of it.

All that coke has finally caught up to him!



On a rather "inconvenient" note, it appears that Albert Nobel Gore is having trouble in England.



I remember hearing a whisper or two about this last week, but it appears that a judge in England has an unfavorable opinion of the movie and may advise the government that it is unsuitable for kids to see in school... on the basis of exaggeration, alarmist tendencies and political partisanship. In the past I've claimed that his movie is a bit of a farce for the exact same reasons. I have to admit, seeing this come about is highly amusing to me since so many people are ready to preemptively strike and give Gore the Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking of farce, Rush Limbaugh is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee as well - he was nominated by the Legal Landmark Foundation, which is a law center founded by Mark Levin... yet another conservative radio talk show host. The thing about these nominations is that, according to the Nobel people, they are kept secret for 50 years. What is the point? Its not a state secret and most of the nominees are so obscure that there isn't a word in the English language that could describe a more profound lack of relevancy.

If any of you are on OiNK, or have a friend who is - send me an invite por favor. I'm gagging to be as cool as everybody else, and I have a vast, high quality MP3 collection. I'm fucking anal when it comes to my music.

jjlarson@hotmail.com

Democratic Dynamics

The dynamics of the Democratic Party have changed over the past 6 years. The most noteworthy shift has been the discrepancy over where the base lies, which factions in the Democratic camp are more vocal and better funded, and how that ends up affecting who the big time candidates are blowing kisses to.

Today the far left wing of the party are the best funded and best organized, and through the use of mass media and the internet exert an enormous amount of control over what the talking points and agenda for the party will be. Long gone are the days where Daniel Patrick Moynihan (a former Democrat Senator from New York, and a man I've always felt was truly brilliant and a credit to the political class) is electable. We now live in the days where the big Presidential candidates skip the DLCC conference, which is the largest group of grassroots political organizers in the country and have always been regularly attended by Democratic candidates, only to attend utter drivel such as YearlyKos. The reasons why are appalling - it has to do with money and which group has more of an ability to affect the campaigns negatively. What the candidates haven't realized is that they snubbed the actual base of the party, who do the dirty work to get candidates elected, only to placate the self-important, delusional people who blog therefore feel they influenced an election.

Take a quick look at our political class - we have no more people like Daniel Patrick Moynihan in Congress. Granted, Senator Moynihan would not be electable these days despite his brilliance, because as a New Yorker he supported restricting abortion, but nevertheless our current political class consists of, in comparison, people who are relative embarrassments. Its a sad time for those of us who take politics very seriously because the net effect is that we lack leadership during one of the most critically dangerous times in our country's history.

FDR is a man who did some extraordinarily controversial things to protect our nation - some of which would have gotten him impeached had he been President today - but without leaders like Churchill and FDR, would we have been better off in the fight to stamp out the Nazis? Without talismans like these two men, I think we would have lost. At this point in time, we desperately need a talisman again! The question is, who will that be? I see no viable candidates.

Hillary and the anti-war left - is the honeymoon over?

Last week, while responding to (e:dcoffee), I suggested in his comments (and in my own journal on previous occasions) that Hillary will almost certainly throw the anti-war crowd under the bus once she gets the nomination. Lo and behold, here is your first taste of a very bitter beer -



What happens when you ask the Queen a question she isn't comfortable responding to? She accuses you of being a plant, accuses you of being ignorant about the legislation you are referring to, then quickly apologizes once she realizes that she indeed just acted bitchy and dressed down an honest voter in public. Its rare to see Hillary step out of the character her campaign has put her in, but there you have it. Towards the end, she did manage to put it back together.

Woe be to those who don't step in line. I actually feel really bad for the guy - although I doubt I agree with him on anything, I think he has a right to put Hillary in an uncomfortable position if in fact she is doing something that people who might vote for her don't like.

It is clear to me that Hillary has been using her husband's "triangulation" strategy to perfection ever since she announced her candidacy. Now that this has happened, and the press is bound to be horrendous, I am predicting a very strong anti-war, "we're getting out of Iraq ASAP once I'm elected" sort of message - which I've been warning you anti-war liberal types, is a complete and utter lie. Do not believe Hillary when she says this - I'm being honest and not Machiavellian about this. If you are anti-war and think Hillary is going to pull all of the troops out, you'll be deeply regretting your choice. Also, do not think for a second that Hillary will take military options off the table against Iran (or anyone else, for that matter), which is what the poor sod that she berated was worried about. Granted, I think literally the only people who are paranoid about us attacking Iran are the netroot kook types that she placated at YearlyKos, but these mixed messages are clearly beginning to make anti-war folks nervous... and to be honest you should be if you are so inclined.

Where the anti-war left get it utterly wrong is when they accuse Hillary of being a war monger. For God's sake, I'm not asking the world of people to be able to discern the difference between being a war monger and refusing to eliminate military options against a dangerous state. Taking part in the latter does not make you the former.

Now, the particularly entertaining part of this read is the comments in the bottom of the blog. Some people accuse the media of being sexist because of how the headlines are phrased (laughably absurd), some actually believe that the guy was a plant (paranoid clintonoid), some accused the questioner of being sexist himself (riiiiiight....), some people are just getting in shots because its easy (Republicans, or possibly Obama supporters). Reading Dem on Dem violence, I have to say, is a very weird experience.

Politics is becoming more of a sport/soap opera every day.

(e:LC) told me that she met a guy out there that is a carbon copy of me, except that he has a Scottish accent. I have to say I think that version of me would be way better! Now I want to learn how to speak with a Scottish accent - think about how utterly confused people would be in a loud bar. I think the potential for big fun to be had is enormous and for my friends I will do almost anything for a laugh.

(e:jason) and I managed to score tickets to the Ice Bowl on January 1. If you live in this city and don't know what I'm talking about - shame! Shaaaaaame. *shakes head* I'm excited about this because its a difficult ticket to have gotten, so this is a good opportunity to repay Dad for all those games he's brought us to over the years. Of course the question is - do you sleep or do you not bother and just head straight to tailgate?

The Sabres start their season tomorrow against the New York Islanders. I'm happy because now those miscellaneous nights where there is nothing to do, yet you don't feel like going out, are now going to be occupied by watching the greatest hockey team in the NHL. I don't want to hear any of that fucking bullshit about the Senators, (e:lizabeth)! The flag is going back up tonight - you'd be surprised how many people know where we live by reference of the flag alone.

I rarely comment about other peoples journals in my own journal, but I was thinking about a few things -

A) (e:jim)'s tech setup is confusing me. Are 4 external hard drives entirely necessary? Fucking hell man!

B) I now believe that a cheese assortment is now some sort of requirement if you want a second date with (e:hodown). Who fucking sends a lady a cheese assortment, anyway? Its not Christmas and its not time to be "getting our Pepperidge Farm on." You say to me, "Josh, c'mon, who doesn't like cheese?" I'd say, "most girls, as a gift after the first date." The fact that I could go on a cheese tangent like this based off of an innocuous photograph and a comment is a testament to her and her journal's greatness.

C) Where did (e:ktmuffin) go?

D) Where did (e:cindy) go? (girl I know you're out there)

Thinking about going to the Halloween party reminds me of one of the first (e:strip) parties I attended, where I was sitting on a couch with (e:terry) then all of the sudden geoffrey/jeffrey ran up to him and jammed his hand up his backside - I laughed so hard. Then (e:hodown) got really, really upset and was desperate for someone to kick him out, but nobody would. Eventually she had enough and if I remember correctly she did the dirty work herself. I refused to do the dirty work on the count that it wasn't my house and other people were closer to the owners than I was. I can't remember if that was the night that she had made sangria, but it seemed like people seemed to be drinking liquor that didn't belong to them... I think that was the night somebody drank (e:matt)'s special stash and I felt really bad for him. People were like, "wow, are you really a Republican?" And I'm like, "WTF am I supposed to look and sound like, Bela fucking Legosi? I VANT TO DRINK YOUR BLOOD!!" Slurpslurpslurp.

Bye for now -

Josh