Hardball.

Posted by: Ace at 11:29 AM | Comments (20)
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I'm sure this truce will hold. Don't they always?

Fatah has managed to retain control of the West Bank -- for now -- so the extreme extremists hold Gaza and the mainstream extremists hold the West Bank. Israel should be delighted that it now has two -- count 'em, two! -- "partners in peace," so really, it has double the peace it used to.

Allah's post focuses on what-happens-now, assuming Fatah and Hamas just don't start murdering each other again, which, personally, I don't assume. There's a debate as to whether the "Palestinian state" should incorporate with Jordan, but I can't imagine Jordan wants that headache.

The Palestinians' offer -- "Please govern us so that we're not constantly butchering and murdering!" -- isn't really all that appetizing.

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (113)
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Snapped Shot has the goods, but the catch was actually made by Aftenposten.

It's not the photoshop sort of fauxtography, but the staging of a photograph for propaganda purposes that's become so popular.

On the first photo that the Reuters photographer took after a shell hit the home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Hanieyh, it is Hamas' founder [and notorious terrorist -- ed.] Sheikh Ahmed Yassin that is hanging in a frame on the wall.

But when one of Hamas' cleaning guys was showing the shrapnel to the photographer from Reuters in an arranged photo in the same place in the house, the picture of Ahmed Yassin was suddenly gone.

Instead there was a picture on the wall, where the Palestinian Prime Minister has a prominent role.

Yup. No question about this one. Reuters photographer Mohammad Salem was caught dead to rights participating in, or at least permitting without alerting those who view his photos, Hamas to dress the scene of "his" photos in whichever way they thought would best serve their cause.

To be honest, I really have no idea why Hamas would prefer one picture over another; both feature Yassin, the second just has him pictured less prominently, and includes the Palestinian Prime Minister. But the fact is they did prefer one, and yet another Reuters stringer was perfectly willing to do whatever set decoration they liked before passing off his staged pictures as an honest record of the scene as he witnessed it.

The alteration itself is minor -- but the journalistic breach is major, and begs the question, "In what other ways is Reuters photopropagandist Mohammad Salem compromising his photos per Hamas' instructions?"

He's also got some darkly funny pictures of Hamas' idea of airport security.

Not a photoshop, actually.

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Comments (10)
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There's nothing that can induce codgerhood faster than modern music. Whether it's cloying synth-pop, the same damned hip-hop beat in every song, or Nickelback trying yet again to pass themselves off as a rock band, most of what's on the radio these days makes me start talking like my dad.

It is bad enough that these artists have to make their own music. But it's pure heart-ache when they start mining music history and covering songs that should just be left alone.

Cracked has a list of the "20 Worst Cover Songs in Pop Music History," with video and audio to make their case. And they make it compellingly.

Exhibit A: Celine Dion covers "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC. Not safe for those with weak stomachs:

Heh - Posted before. By ace. On a tip from me. Thanks to blaster for pointing that out.

UPDATE (By Jack M.): How about we serve notice on a kick ass cover by the one and only Paul Anka, so we can slice that Celine Dion taste out of your mouths. Like a hammer.

Here he is making "Smells Like Teen Spirit" his own. If you pay close attention, you'll notice they hit the cutoffs. Vinny Falcone made sure of it.

Posted by: Slublog at 10:42 AM | Comments (39)
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Since that long ago day when philosophers first asked the question "Does Art imitate Life, or Does Life imitate Art?" literally dozens of famous thinkers have expended their mental energy on trying to solve what, on it's surface, appears to be an unresolvable conundrum.

Last night, however, Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld and yours truly, Jack M., took up this eternal challenge and put this question to rest once and for all.

So now, if you are ever faced with having to read 300 translated pages of some boring French existentialist pondering this question, you can blow off this task simply by bookmarking this page.

Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? Our answer is "Yes".

Special Note: A big thank you to Andrew Levy for the surprise on-air plug, as well as thanks to Jim Treacher for the link at The Daily Gut.

By the way...tonight's show will be especially babealicious as Suzanne Sena, Alison Rosen, and porn star Savanna Samson will be appearing in between commercials for the hoveround and Head On! So watch.

Posted by: Jack M. at 10:25 AM | Comments (18)
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Please submit your funnies in the comments, and let us know if it's safe for work or not.

Dave in Texas kicks it off with this tribute to Bob Ross.
Safe for work.

Another one:

UPDATE: Hilarity after the jump. more...

Posted by: LauraW. at 05:42 AM | Comments (63)
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Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know that mee.nu has hit version 1.0, and it's now open to all.

This is the same software platform that the mu.nu blogs will be moving to, so this means that you can get in before Ace does! Just hop over to the registration page and sign up.

Right now it's primarily a blogging system; we will be adding forum, photo album and podcast features over the next few weeks.

You can find the documentation - incomplete as it is - at mee.nu/docs.

The help area is at mee.nu/help, or you can email help@mee.nu. Or post here.

Note that if you have ever been created as a mu.nu blogger, your username will already be reserved at mee.nu. Email me at andrew -at- pixymisa.net and I'll get that sorted out for you.

Mini-FAQ:

Q. Is this free?
A. It's free, but ad-supported. There will be an ad at the top of each public web page (but not in the user interface). Paid accounts with no ads will be available in the coming weeks; pricing will be posted early next week.

Q. What do I get?
A. A web site to do with as you will - as long as you respect the terms of service. Full control over your CSS and templates. 100MB of disk space for photos and files (more with the paid accounts).

Q. Are there any other templates/styles/themes available?
A. Our designer is working on a new set of styles. When they're ready, we'll be enabling a style chooser, and you'll be able to choose whichever takes your fancy.

Q. How much bandwidth do I get?
A. With ad-supported accounts, you don't have a fixed amount of bandwidth, but since there's only one ad on a page, we need that ad to pay for the bandwidth the page uses (at least on average). If you load up too many large pictures and files, you might be asked to either reduce the size of the files or move to a paid account.

Q. Does this mean that the mu.nu sites will be moving to mee.nu?
A. No, the mu.nu sites will remain at mu.nu, but we will be sharing a server cluster. mu.nu has two dual Opteron servers, while mee.nu has four quad Xeons, so this will be for the best.

Q. What can I post?
A. What you like - as long as it complies with the terms of service.

Q. Can I import my blog from (X).
A. I have an import module - I imported my blog from Movable Type - but it's still a bit buggy. It will be available for importing from (at a minimum) Blogger and Movable Type before the end of the month. Other software that can export in Movable Type format should also work.

Q. I have a free blog from the beta test. Do I now get ads on my blog?
A. No, your blog is ad-free; it counts as a paid blog in all respects except that you don't have to pay for it. So if we later add features that are only available to paid users, you will get those features. Oh, and thanks.

Please post whatever questions you have, and I'll answer them and/or add them to the FAQ.

One Tired Pixy

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:36 AM | Comments (29)
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From Hugh Hewitt, this quote from Trent Lott:

"I'm sure senators on both sides of the aisle are being pounded by these talk-radio people who don't even know what's in the bill," Lott said. He added that the "leadership will have to be prepared to do what needs to be done."

Voters are just so darned inconvenient, aren't they?

Posted by: Slublog at 05:15 AM | Comments (44)
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Oldest living mammal on earth.

Was.

Got a little too big for its britches and we had to remind 'im whom God said would have dominion over the earth. Eat that, Blubberhide. Score another one for Team Biped.

A giant bowhead whale caught off the coast of Alaska had a harpoon point embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt – more than a century ago.

Biologists claim the find helps prove the bowhead is the oldest living mammal on earth.

They say the 13-centimetre arrow-shaped fragment dates back to around 1880, meaning the 50-ton whale had been coasting around the freezing arctic waters since Victorian times.

Because traditional whale hunters never took calves, experts estimate the bowhead was several years old when it was first shot and about 130 when it died last month.

...

It is rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts now believe the oldest were close to 200 years old.

The weapon fragment lodged in a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade comes from a 19th century bomb lance.

A Message To All The Creatures Of Earth

You're all our bitches.

Posted by: Ace at 03:09 PM | Comments (117)
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It's just life-like enough to be terrifying.

I got this from some lefty blog claiming Maya Angelou's endorsement "humanizes" Hillary!

Well, yes. By comparison, it does.

She's really got that everything-I-say-is-steeped-in-folk-portentiousness thing going, doesn't she?

Why, you'd almost forget that all she's done is written the same poem about rivers, rocks, trees, and and other one-syllable nouns in six thousand slightly different ways.

Posted by: Ace at 02:56 PM | Comments (61)
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