I didn't really plan on it; it just happened. But just nothing in the (thin) news the past couple of days has seemed worth linking to me.

Here's something cool. I went to the Comedy Cellar Sunday night to catch Colin Quinn, Greg Giraldo, and Dan Naturman (the funny comic who got screwed on series 2 of Last Comic Standing). A little drunk and with an extra tab of klonopin in me, I talked to Colin Quinn for a few minutes and, suddenly remembering I had a webcast show, asked him if he'd be on. "Sure," he said. "What the hell do I care? I'll do anything."

So... supposedly he'll be doing the show. He seemed genuinely not to care whether he did it or not, which is, you know, a positive sign. Best I could hope for, really.

Feeling my oats, I got similar semi-commitments from Giraldo and Naturman.

So, we'll see.

Posted by: Ace at 07:10 PM | Comments (17)
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As usual. And guess what? You're paying them for this service.

The other interesting thing here is that Snopes -- usually a reliable debunker of Internet hoaxes -- once again deems a story that smacks up liberals "False" despite the fact that it's actually, you know, true.

I've noted before that Snopes tends to slap a "False" on stories that cut against liberal causes, not because they're factually inaccurate, but because Snopes doesn't think the proper "context" (i.e., arguments demonstrating why this is actually "good for America") is provided.

Posted by: Ace at 08:44 AM | Comments (78)
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Karol's pimping the repeats. I thought we were better this time, she thought we weren't. Ah, well.

Next week we have Herman Cain, former Republican candidate for Senate and author of They Think You're Stupid: Why Democrats Lost Your Vote and What Republicans Must Do to Keep It, and Charles Johnson, better known as Mr. Little Green Footballs.

After that we plan on changing the format a bit. We'll only have one guest, and we'll spend the last fifteen minutes talking about the news ourselves and taking calls (if anyone bothers to call). We also might bring in guest-bloggers to comment on the news with us (not formal interviews; just another guy offering his take).

Hopefully we'll be able to work in a little more humor into that last segment.

Posted by: Ace at 08:37 AM | Comments (6)
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Even better than the other one. This one contains several minutes of the training sequence from the other trailer, but a lot more than that. It veers dangerously close to the "telling the entire movie" problem, but it looks so damn good that doesn't put me off.

A review of the teaser:
more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:09 AM | Comments (25)
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My sitemeter seems to be telling me that sometime over the next few days, maybe tomorrow, I'll be breaking the two million mark unique visitors mark.

I plan to celebrate by relinking old posts I've already linked six bazillion times.

Just kidding. To thank you for reading, I won't relink anything at all. I'll just do what I usually do on a Memorial Day weekend -- shoot bottle-rockets at the neighborhood cats, and then, when the cops come, blame it on a Puerto Rican kid.

You just have to say "Puerto Rican" and "bottle-rockets" and the cops just start nodding with sage understanding.

Thanks for reading.

And thanks to all of you who donated, too, although I'm just getting to thank-you letters now. I apologize for the delay. The account (yahoo, where paypal notifications are sent) has been balky again and tends to crash when I open mail. But it's working well enough now.

Posted by: Ace at 12:33 PM | Comments (25)
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Two more Japanese WWII soldiers -- hold-outs, still fighting the war, in between watching re-runs of Matlock -- are found in the Philippines jungles.

Liberals whining about a quick end to this war -- featuring guys even more fanatical than Japanese suicide-torpedo pilots -- ought to bear in mind that some people just will not give up. Ever.

Sorry if that interferes with your plans to write nothing but columns about Will & Grace for the rest of your diminishing career, Maureen Dowd.

Thanks to both NickS and Brak.

Posted by: Ace at 11:18 AM | Comments (78)
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Controversy, eh?

The exhibit also features the Pope -- with swastikas -- and, get this, the Statute of Liberty -- with swastikas.

Very original.

Artists tell us piously they exist to "challenge dogma" and "question assumptions" and the like, but it's no great trick to challenge the dogma or question the assumptions of others. Real rebellion, and real free-thinking, comes from challenging your own beliefs, and the beliefs of your peer-group.

But they never seem to get around to that, do they?

Nope, just challenging the imputed straw-man beliefs of people they don't know (but think they do, 'cuz they have a whole raft of stereotypes about them) over and over again.

I've been challenged enough, "artists." Challenge yourselves for a change.

What would be truly controversial -- perfect for an exhibit on Controversy -- would be a picture of voting Iraqis with the legend, "Bush was right."

That would be controversial to this crowd. That would satisfy the artists' self-styled mission of "shaking up easy assumptions."

Odds of that happening? Pretty f'n' small.

Thanks to Hubrisblog.

Posted by: Ace at 11:02 AM | Comments (37)
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A pic of Phil Spector on trial.

Let's be honest: the judge should permit that hair to be entered into evidence and then proceed directly to the sentencing phase.

Thanks to NickS.

Posted by: Ace at 10:29 AM | Comments (25)
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Again, I don't really care, except that if these jerkweeds want it, I want it to fail.

All I want is turmoil and disarray, as I said yesterday.

Sometimes life is good:

French in disarray as they admit EU treaty vote is lost

THE leader of France’s ruling party has privately admitted that Sunday’s referendum on the European constitution will result in a “no” vote, throwing Europe into turmoil.

“The thing is lost,” Nicolas Sarkozy told French ministers during an ill-tempered meeting. “It will be a little ‘no’ or a big ‘no’,” he was quoted as telling Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, whom he accused of leading a feeble campaign.

Although Europe would be thrown into disarray, the Government would be greatly relieved if M Sarkozy were right.

Ministers have privately told The Times that Britain is prepared to ditch its commitment to a referendum if France, or the Netherlands next Wednesday, vote against the constitution. They believe that if the French say “no”, President Chirac will have to declare the constitution dead or promise a renegotiation.

Sweet, you guys.

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (10)
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...to say the least:

Controversy: In October 1990, Ford was charged with shooting at a trucker on Interstate 40 near Lexington. He was indicted and pleaded not guilty.

Outcome: In a jury trial the next year, he was acquitted.

I'd like more facts about that. Was it a case of mistaken identity, or did he claim he was shooting at a grouse or something that had landed on the truck? It sort of makes a difference.

Also, the one Republican state rep so far named in the scandal turns out to be one of those Republicans that jumps at the orders of the Democratic Speaker of the House.

Just sayin'.

Thanks to Matthew.

Posted by: Ace at 10:20 AM | Comments (3)
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