Senator Harry Reid Calls For Michael Brown's Re-Resignation; Kanye West Seethes That "George Bush Doesn't Like French People"

City of Lights?

Youths ignored an appeal for calm from President Jacques Chirac, whose government worked feverishly to fend off a political crisis amid criticism that it has ignored problems in neighborhoods heavily populated by first- and second-generation North African and Muslim immigrants.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called a string of emergency meetings with Cabinet ministers throughout the day. He told the Senate the government "will not give in" to violence in the troubled suburbs.

"Order and justice will be the final word in our country," Villepin said. "The return to calm and the restoration of public order are the priority our absolute priority."

Sounds like "bring 'em on" cowboy-bluster, with no mention of an exit strategy and no help from the International Community.

Posted by: Ace at 01:28 PM | Comments (29)
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Now that's a BM you can proudly show your grand-children.

Okay, no, no one pooped a python.

But, Ananova says, a ten-foot boa had been living in Manchester (England) sewers for a while, eating rats, occasionally going up a pipe to pop out of a toilet.

Man, now that's the life for me!

I don't know... Ananova seems to run a lot of implausible stories. They attribute this to the UK Mirror, which frankly doesn't do a lot to increase my confidence in it.

Either way, thanks to Bohemian Conservative.

Posted by: Ace at 12:53 PM | Comments (15)
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I get this one all the time. Dave has the answer, and a link to the reasons why Hasselhof is the only idol you need.

He also has a list of WashTimes' reporter Bill Gertz's greatest "scoops," including New Advanced Chinese Jet Fighter Can Fly Above Ground, Through Atmosphere.

Those crafty, cunning Chinese. There's no end to their nefarious ingenuity.

And then he links to Demure Thought's round-up of shit you really didn't need to read, which notes that you can now buy a Vincent Gallo sperm sample on eBay.

What a ripoff. There are sections of SoHo that you can barely walk through without stepping into a Vincent Gallo sperm sample.

Thanks to utron for tipping me to this.

Posted by: Ace at 12:34 PM | Comments (8)
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On a high-terrorist-value subway? No bag searches. At NYCLU's offices? Definitely some major bag searching.

Okay, I tried pot a few times and I never liked it. Something about my brain chemistry made the drug just not at all enjoyable for me.

But for those who like pot-- man, that must be some good f'n' shit to cause all of this absurd righteousness about getting your bag searched.

My definition of a "good drug" is one that causes its users to immediately ask, of virtually every situation, "How does this affect my weed-bag?"

I'm surprised they don't have car safety-seats for bongs.

Posted by: Ace at 12:08 PM | Comments (19)
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Okay, it's not quite an alligator. It's a tegus, but it's plenty scary enough:

Via Fark, a monster reptile in the toilet scares a three-year-old:

The youngster was lucky that his mother had come along to open and raise the toilet seat. The startled woman found a carnivorous teju, or tegus, a large black and yellow South American lizard, lurking there newspaper Bergensavisen reports.

...

The Akvariet (aquarium) in Bergen was called, and reptile expert Remi Andersen paid a house call. He confirmed that the animal in the apartment in the Nordnes district of Bergen was a 1.5 kilo (3.3 lb) teju.

The teju is capable of holding its breath for half an hour, which probably explains how it managed to navigate its way through the sewer and up into the family toilet. The family is lucky they looked, rather than sat, first.

"The chances are greater that the lizard would have taken a bite out of someone's 'ham', than that it wouldn't have," Akvariet director Kees Ekeli told Bergensavisen.

In a follow-up story, the family has reported the three year old has decided to wear diapers until he's 40.

Actually, I have as well. Because the other day when I was going to the bathroom, this jumped out of the toilet:
more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:48 AM | Comments (15)
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The New York Post tells me today-- on the front page -- that the "puggle," a pug-beagle hybrid, is the new "hot dog" in Manhattan.

Okay, it's kind of cute:

There's also a buggle. (Boston Terrier-Beagle.)

And a dorkie. (Dachshund-Yorkie.)

And of course there are Labradoodles (labradors-poodles), which I've had the pleasure of petting, and which are cute too.

I think people are breeding these mutants just for an excuse to come up with painfully-cutesy names.

All these dogs are nice and all, but... if you want a mutt, why not just get yourself a good old fashioned American mutt? Maybe from the pound, maybe from a neighbor.

"I was increasingly disheartened with breeding German shepherds," said Manners. "These dogs, like other pure breeds of the show world had been bred for looks, and health was largely ignored. German shepherds, for example, are plagued with 89 inherited disorders."

Top winning dogs are often highly inbred—siblings are interbred, and fathers are mated with daughters. The result is a tiny gene pool that is saturated with bad traits.

And thus: mutts are best. But those with money to burn just can't have any mutt; they need a designer mutt.

I like dogs, but... $800 is an awful lot to spend on a mutt that comes with papers. Couldn't that money be spent on something more spiritually satisfying, like a down-payment on a widescreen HDTV?

Pic of Puggle boosted from PuppyParadise.com.

A Man's Hybrid: Cute as they are, the "hot hybrids" seem to be based on the assumption that the only thing wrong with poodles, Yorkies, and terriers is that they're not quite gay enough.

For the men, nothing beats a wolf-dog hybrid. Nice looking animals, and they can fuck any other dog they like up the ass. Not in a gay way. But like a hybrid Viking.

Posted by: Ace at 10:46 AM | Comments (30)
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I got my dad a new lure and my mom a marble duck. There are still people on the list, though.

And for crying out loud, Festivus is right around the corner!

What do you guys think on the Festivus Pole? I know for tradition it's supposed to be steel, but I'm looking at some lighter, cheaper aluminum models. They're supposed to last longer.

Festivus Memories... from Sue Donhim.

Festivus is so commercialized now. Back when I was a little girl, we were happy with just one pole in the house, we aired our grievances without needing any electronic equipment to record it, and the feat of strength was the strictly traditional pinning of the head of household to the ground.

Of course, the pole was a stripper pole that Mom danced on, the airing of grievances involved my Dad yelling nasty things at Mom, and Mom pinned Dad to the ground afterward for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

Remember the reason for the season, people!

You know what bugs the shit out of me? Stores start putting up Festivus banners two months before the actual holiday.

Posted by: Ace at 10:36 AM | Comments (30)
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Amazing what high oil prices can do for a cause.

The new tactic: attaching ANWR-drilling amendments to budget resolutions, which cannot, by Senate rules, be filibustered.

I always wondered why they didn't do that. The government would receive income from the drilling, so it's not exactly dirty-pool to include such a measure in a budget bill. If it has to do with money coming in or money coming out, it's a fair part of a budget.

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (12)
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Very interesting photojournoblogging from Michael Totten about an abandoned city, still standing, but surrounded by barbed wire fences and forbidden to enter.

Via the Shrill Shill, who just added an update to his post noting that the FMA is "slap in the face" much like that "silly 'Holocaust' kerfuffle" was.

(Ummm, not really.)

Update: Ghost City Detroit.

I just got a totally cool idea for my next GURPS campaign.

Thanks to Thanks to Marc of Hubs and Spokes.

Posted by: Ace at 10:08 AM | Comments (11)
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Truly, it's Selma all over again:

The White House officially regards the Poe-Cheney partnership as no more solid or worthy of recognition than Jenna's latest boyfriend. Here's how the guest list appeared for last night's royal state dinner:

Ms. Mary Cheney
Ms. Heather Poe (Guest)

Miss Jenna Bush
Mr. Henry Hager (Guest)

Married couples need no "(guest)" attached to their spouse's name. It's a trivial slight, of course. But so, from one perspective, is a bus seat.

And from whose perspective would it be a "trivial slight"? Bull Connor's?

Rosa Parks' crusade began over a "trivial slight"? News to me. I know a lot of people who think it was kind of a big deal.

Andrew Sullivan

The Martin Luther King, Jr. of The Digital Age, except with beagles and better-defined glutes.

What a silly bitch.

I don't mean to be cruel, but I think we have to start to ask: Has Andrew Sullivan actually become brain-damaged from all that Ecstacy?

Posted by: Ace at 09:59 AM | Comments (44)
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