General Larry Platt sings "Pants on the Ground"

I've given up on American Idol, and not because this is Simon Cowell's final season (and if you ask me, Simon is among the most brilliant minds working in entertainment today). So I didn't see "Pants on the Ground", the original song performed on last night's show by 62-year old civil rights activist General Larry Platt of Atlanta.

But having seen it now... I can't get it out of my head!!

Here it is: "Pants on the Ground"!

If American Idol had allowed more stuff like this (and bumped up the age limit of contestants) a lot of people would probably still be watching it. Anyways, hat's off to Larry Platt for a great performance!

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Obama sending $100 million to Haiti... and why he's very wrong to do so

Haiti is still reeling from a 7.3 earthquake two days ago that destroyed Port-au-Prince. A half-million people there or more might be dead in the rubble. The tiny island nation was already one of the world's poorest economies and even that has been shattered beyond belief.

This is very much one of the worst natural disasters of modern memory. Some are saying that the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami pales in comparison.

As I wrote here yesterday, our thoughts and prayers should be with the people of Haiti. I have certainly held them up in my own time with God.

Just wanted to make it clear that I do have sympathy for what the Haitian people are going through. I can't say that I have understanding though, 'cuz honestly I've never been through something on this vast a scale. But does my heart break for the people there? Absolutely.

And I can understand why a lot of folks are going to think that it's mighty good of President Barack Obama to pledge $100 million from the United States government to aid in the recovery of Haiti.

So I can hear it now: "Chris you're a heartless bastard!" when I write that Obama should not be using our tax money to help out Haiti.

Longtime readers of this blog might know where I'm coming from. I can't think of a better way to articulate it than the story of Horatio Bunce, as shared by Davey Crockett. But if you want a synopsis: Crockett and some other well-meaning members of the House of Representatives voted $20,000 (a huge sum in those days) for relief for victims of a fire in Georgetown. When Crockett went back to his district in Kentucky to campaign for re-election, a well-respected local sage named Horatio Bunce harshly reprimanded Crockett for his "act of charity". Using the money of the public treasury in such a fashion was a violation of the citizens' trust, Bunce told Crockett: it was "not yours to give"! And as a result, Bunce told Crockett that he could not vote for him again.

Davey Crockett realized that Bunce was correct, and he never again voted for funds from the taxpayers to be used for anything other than what is called for in the Constitution. As for Horatio Bunce: he was satisfied that Crockett had learned his lesson, and promised to throw Crockett a fine barbecue and fundraiser the following week.

If only more of our politicians today had the wisdom of Horatio Bunce... or the humility to acknowledge that they are in the wrong, as Davey Crockett had.

I've never been comfortable with our elected officials sending our money abroad in the name of "humanitarian aid". For one thing, it's not a power given them in the Constitution of the United States. For another and far more practical reason: there is no accounting of how the money is being spent. Does anyone seriously believe that $100 million of American taxpayers money is going to all be used for disaster relief down in Haiti? If past history is an indicator, most of it will be wasted sloppily at best, and no doubt much will be outright stolen. Money that we barely have, that isn't our government's to give to begin with.

Now if you want to really help out the folks in Haiti, there are many worthwhile organizations that you can contribute to, if you choose to. The Salvation Army is one that comes to mind. These are agencies that have a tremendous interest in being accountable to the public. That is something that can not be said of the federal government. Indeed, I would dare say that $10 million of privately raised funds by the Salvation Army would go much further to sincerely helping the people of Haiti than $100 million from the United States government.

It's astounding that the United States still leads the world in providing disaster relief, in spite of ourselves (or our government anyway).

Kinda makes you wonder: if politicians like Barack Obama would not waste the citizens' money on "charitable" but unlawful expenditures, how much more could this country's people be able to give aid to those who need it most?

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Steve Ballmer celebrates 10 years as Microsoft CEO

It was ten years ago yesterday that Steve Ballmer succeeded Bill Gates as the CEO of Microsoft.

Mash down here for the story at Slashdot.

In honor of the occasion, software developers around the world will be throwing chairs across the rooms of their workplaces.

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CIVIL WAR-style Leno/Conan banners!

Inspired by Marvel Comics' "Civil War" storyline from a few years ago, I made these banners that you can put on your own blog or website or whatever declaring whose side you are on!

 

Yes, it has come to this: the entire western world dividing up into Team Leno and Team Conan. There are natural disasters across the globe and corrupt politicians taking us for a ride... but thank God we have our priorities in order!

/sarcasm

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Same chemical composition... but different structure

How the heck is the chemical notation for a formula like this thing gonna wind up?!

From the abstract at the Royal Society of Chemistry's website...

Usually, you'd expect two compounds with the same composition, atom-to-atom connectivity and symmetry to be chemically identical too. But scientists investigating metal-organic frameworks have discovered a surprising exception to this rule by identifying two isomers with the same symmetry and bonding but different gas storage properties.

A team led by Shengqian Ma at the Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, US, investigated a rod-like tetracarboxylate molecule (ebdc) which can bind to a metal atom from any one of four binding points, one at each corner of a rectangle. When it was heated with a copper salt at 75 °C, a crystal phase formed (the alpha-phase) and at 65 °C a phase with different properties (the beta-phase) formed. So far, so normal. But when Ma carried out crystal analysis on these two compounds, he found that they had the same composition, the same atom-to-atom connectivity and the same symmetry. 'This type of symmetry-preserving isomerism has never been observed before in metal-organic frameworks,' says Ma.

In layman's terms, by changing the environment the researchers also changed how the substances bonded to each other. It's not uniform symmetry, as generations of chemistry books have taught.

So right there, before our eyes, a fundamental understanding of science has been drastically altered. And there ain't no telling yet what kind of neat-o applied technologies could eventually be developed from this.

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Pat Robertson says Haiti suffered earthquake because its people "swore a pact with the devil"

Oh crap. That demented fool is again engaging his mouth before using his mind (or what little is left of it anyway). This time Pat Robertson of The 700 Club is blaming Haiti's earthquake on how that country's citizens "swore a pact with the devil" to get free from the French.

I've said this from darn nearly the very beginning of this blog, and I'll say it again: Pat Robertson is, according to the strictest biblical definition, a false prophet. And if Pat Robertson seriously wants America and any other country to "turn to God" in the way that he espouses, then Robertson must be stoned to death. Literally.

That said, I am once again aghast at how a fellow "Christian" will use the name of God to exploit - in however minor a fashion - such a horrific tragedy.

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The trees of Mars

Not really trees, but an optical illusion captured by NASA's HiRISE camera in orbit around the red planet. What appears to be a scattering of pine trees is actually several trails of debris near Mars's north pole, left behind as the ice cap goes on its seasonal retreat.

Mash down here for more about the "trees" of Mars!

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Freaky news: Human-faced lamb born in turkey

Click here if you want to see the photo of it. I'm too wigged-out by it to post here. Consider yourself duly warned.

The story also cites a human-faced goat that was born in Zimbabwe a few months ago. The goat lived for a few hours before frightened villagers killed it (and the governor of the province it was born in insists that it was the result of a human man having sex with a female goat).

Crazy stuff, no doubt. But it does make me consider that perhaps all those stories we've heard about in classic mythology, like the Minotaur etc., might have been inspired by real-life examples of mutation.

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Please keep Haiti in your prayers y'all

Yesterday's 7.3 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti is fast shaping up to be one of the worst natural disasters of recent memory. I'm hearing that this is the biggest tremblor in two centuries to hit the area.

Here's asking this blog's readers to please hold the Haitian people up in your thoughts and prayers in the days and weeks to come. Lord knows, they're gonna need it.

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Most disturbing SESAME STREET clip I've posted yet

The innuendo in this song is so horribly bad. I have to feel sorry for whoever it was that wrote it. What was Sesame Workshop thinking??

Here is Baby Elmo's dad serenading his son about "Potty Time"...

"So here is your new potty!
When you have to pee or poo
It's where you sit to do whatcha gotta do-do!"

You've got to wonder: How does Elmo - or any Muppet for that matter - use the potty when someone's hand is shoved hard up their intestinal tract?

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Clint Eastwood as Batman... in a movie version of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS?!

It nearly happened, folks! While talking about their new movie The Book of Eli with MTV News, Albert and Allen Hughes revealed that years ago Warner Bros. offered them the chance to direct a film adaptation of Frank Miller's acclaimed graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns: the work most often praised for establishing the modern, grim take on Batman.

In case you've never treated yourself to it, The Dark Knight Returns depicts a 55-year old decrepit Bruce Wayne, ten years past his prime, taking up the cowl once again to fight crime in Gotham City.

And the Hughes Brothers' choice to play the older, "decrepit" Batman? It would have been Clint Eastwood.

I think everyone who's read The Dark Knight Returns has at one point or another envisioned Eastwood playing Batman. Especially with the latter part of the book when Batman and his retinue are on horseback, riding hard through the streets of Gotham: now sitting dark and helpless following the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear weapon knocking out all the electrical power.

And from the sound of it, we almost got it! Just... wow.

Personally, as much as I would enjoy seeing The Dark Knight Returns get the big screen treatment, I'd much more love to see somebody take up the challenge of adapting Kingdom Come (and I'm thinking animated particularly). That is hands-down my favorite version of Batman ever.

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STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC dated for spring 2011

What is perhaps the most anticipated computer game is going to be a bit longer in finally arriving. BioWare confirmed today that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be released sometime in the spring of 2011. It was fall of 2008 when BioWare announced that it was developing the massively-multiplayer online RPG.

Some people are saying this is too long a time to wait for this game. But I remember the winter of 2000 when LucasArts told us that we'd be getting Star Wars Galaxies, and that didn't come until the summer of 2003. And we all know how that turned out to be (okay, to be fair it was a great game at first before Sony Online Entertainment messed it up with "New Game Enhancements"). But this is BioWare we're talking about: the company that gave us Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to begin with. If I have to wait a little longer to play this game, I can do that 'cuz I've got faith that it's just gonna make Star Wars: The Old Republic even better.

So be of good cheer y'all: soon we'll get to be play Jedi and Sith and smugglers (with - gasp - actual smuggling!) like never before :-)

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Miep Gies, protector of Anne Frank's family, has passed away

The second bestselling nonfiction book of all time - surpassed only by the Bible - owes its publication to this fine lady...

Miep Gies and her husband Jan were the Dutch couple who hid Otto Frank and his family in an Amsterdam office building's secluded annex from 1942 to 1944. For more than two years, Miep and Jan Gies smuggled food and other provisions to the Franks and other Jews, protecting them as they could from the Nazi regime that was controlling the Netherlands.

In August of 1944 (not long after the invasion of Normandy) the Gestapo discovered the hiding place and captured everyone. Not long afterward Miep Gies was allowed to return and while there she gathered up numerous personal belongings in hopes of returning them. Scattered on the floor were pages of Anne Frank's diary. In 1947 it was published and became a worldwide sensation for all time.

For her heroism, Miep Gies was decorated by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and declared a "Righteous Gentile" by the Israeli government.

Miep Gies, last surviving protector of Anne Frank and her family, passed away yesterday at the age of 100.

If only more people had the courage of this woman, this would be a far better world.

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Federal health care will violate First Amendment on religious grounds

Old Order Mennonites - more popularly known as the Amish - will be exempted from being required to have health insurance if the so-called "health care reform" going through the House and Senate passes. According to the above-linked story in the Watertown Daily Times out of New York state, there's a "religious conscience" clause that allows Amish and other religious groups to opt-out of the mandated insurance.

How does this not run afoul of the First Amendment, which clearly dictates that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"?!?

If one group of people is allowed to get out of federal health care because of sincere convictions against such a thing, then all people who object to federalized health care have the moral right to reject it.

I am a follower of Christ who belongs to no particular denomination. And I say from the bottom of my heart that federal government-run health care sucks donkeys balls to no end.

I'm gonna be exempt too. And if Obama and Hillary want to fine me for not playing with them, then I'll kindly tell them that they can go to hell.

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Needed: Humble leaders, not confident ones

Michael Hyatt has written an intriguing essay on leadership over at his blog. As Hyatt puts it, we are wrong to seek leaders who are confident in their own abilities and knowledge, when instead we should find leaders who can and will admit that they don't have complete understanding and are far more humble because of it. Hyatt cites the example of Joseph Hooker during the American Civil War...

"Fighting Joe Hooker" was a major general in the Union army. He was exceedingly smart. He set up an elaborate spy network and knew more about the Confederate army than the Confederates did themselves.

Hooker found himself squared off against General Robert E. Lee in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville. Because of the detailed intelligence he was able to gather, he positioned his troops in such a way that he had Lee surrounded on three sides. In addition, his troops outnumbered Lee's two-to-one.

Hooker was absolutely confident that he would destroy Lee's army. Lee's only choice was to retreat to Richmond. The night before the battle, Hooker told his troops, "God Almighty could not prevent us from victory tomorrow." He was bold, audacious, and (as it turned out) overly confident.

According to Gladwell, more information does not guarantee better decisions. In fact, we tend to overestimate the value of additional information. He cited the work of Dr. Stuart Hopkins, who did extensive research on this topic. What he discovered is that when people are given more information, they grow more confident in their ability to solve the problem. However, their actual results are not better. Sometimes, they are worse.

Overconfidence is "the disease of experts." They think think they know more than they actually do know. In fact, they make mistakes precisely because they have knowledge. This is what happened on Wall Street. This is what also happened with Hooker.

When Lee realized he was surrounded on three sides, he began moving his troops south. Hooker assumed Lee was retreating to Richmond. His men relaxed. Some of them started celebrating. What they didn't realize was that Lee was flanking their position.

Hooker was arrogant and over-confident. He didn't prepare for this possibility. Even though Lee was surrounded on three sides and outnumbered two-to-one, he was able to defeat Hooker. It was a stunning and demoralizing defeat for the Union army.

The lesson is this: In times of crisis, we think we need leaders who are bold and confident. This is completely wrong-headed. What we really need are leaders who are humble and willing to listen.

I have been thinking much the same for quite some time now. It seems that every aspect of our culture, from government to business to even the realm of religious worship, is plagued with people demanding that we give them extra heed because "we know better". And far more often than not, we take them at their word.

All we get are "leaders" too proud to admit that they've made mistakes... and we keep giving them more power because we're too proud to admit that we were wrong to install them in leadership positions in the first place.

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Woman declared dead by government must prove she's still alive

And just think: these are the same people who might soon be in charge of our health care!

"I'm not dead yet! I don't want to go on the cart!"

Terri Thompson of Maynardville, Tennessee has been classified as "dead" by the government, because she has successfully fought off a disease for most of her life in defiance of every prognosis by her physicians. Thompson had been told years ago that she wouldn't live to see age 25... and she's about to celebrate her 49th birthday.

According to the United States Government however, she should be dead...

An East Tennessee woman has spent her entire life fighting a disease, living more than 20 years longer than doctors told her she would.

But on Christmas Eve, she found out the government classified her as dead, cutting off all her coverage.

Leaving Terri Thompson to face one of her toughest battles.

She calls herself a fighter, finding out at 6 year sold that she has a rare and incurable blood disease.

Terri says, "It's called Hypogammaglobulin Anemia." "It affects my immune system, when I don't have enough white blood cells." "It's caused many of my organs to stop on me."

"I've been a fighter, and a fighter, and I've had 6 doctors give up on me," says Terry.

Laying in her Union County apartment, hiding from the germ-ridden world, she leaves every 3 weeks for treatment.

But, on Christmas Eve, she needed to go by the bank to take out money for dinner with her son.

"When I showed that lady my license, she turned white as a ghost." Terry says the bank employee, "said, I got a note that you died, that you're dead. So, I sent your Social Security back to the Social Security office."

Then when she got home, she found a letter in her mailbox saying her medical coverage ended.

"That letter stated to my family my condolences, and sympathy at the death of Terri Thompson, and I'm reading that myself."

Tearfully, she called the Social Security Administration in Knoxville. "They really couldn't tell me nothing. They told me I've got to come into the office and talk with somebody, and that they didn't have an opening until the 14th."

That's 3 weeks from the date of the call, and in between, Terri has a treatment, and several bills, that she can no longer pay for.

"I can't understand how they can make a mistake like this," as Terri chokes back her emotions.

Now she faces two fights: one to keep her life, and the other to prove she is still alive.

"I'm taking a chance at losing my life over somebody else's mistake."

So... anyone else feeling confident about health care "reform" now?

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First trailer for THE A-TEAM

I gotta say something here: already I'm sold on Quinton "Rampage" Jackson playing B.A. Baracus for this movie. Judging by the trailer he's not trying to imitate Mr. T and that's a good thing! Mr. T is one of those unique people that, you just can't get away with trying to channel. I'm totally down with Jackson doing his own thing with the character.

With that noted, I'll also say that The A-Team is officially marked as my first "must-see" movie for 2010. Here's the first trailer for it...

The A-Team escapes to the big screen on June 11th.

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