The Deets

I mentioned previously that Carly and I are going to do 30-day challenges in 2007. It turns out that was no BS. Here’s a breakdown of the first 6 months goals:

The early morning wake-ups will coincide with early morning trips to the gym. It will be good to see the folks back at the gym again. Is Jan 1st the busiest gym day of the year? If not, is it the 2nd of Jan?

I face two big challenges with the no-alcohol month in January: a trip to Las Vegas and Broomball season. It’s not clear which one’s more enabling. Friday’s our season opener for broomball, so that will be the first big test. Oh, and Carly wants to take a wine tasting course around the 25th.

Carly thinks I’m going to lose a lot of weight by booze out of my diet for a month. Maybe I should have picked up these Nichole Ritchie style sunglasses in Miami?

The 100-mile mt. bike match-up between Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis is off, according to BikingBis:

Armstrong announced at The Paceline website that he will not be racing in the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race on Aug. 11, 2007, as previously indicated due to a “scheduling conflict.”

This makes sense. What would Armstrong gain from losing to a doper?

Determining superhero status is spreading like a virus in the blogosphere and I’ve caught it. Here’s my diagnosis:
You are The Flash

The Flash 95% Superman 75% Spider-Man 70% Iron Man 70% Robin 60% Catwoman 40% Supergirl 40% Hulk 35% Batman 35% Wonder Woman 25% Green Lantern 25%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero are you?” quiz…

Jackalope Ranch raises an interesting question about the subtle differences between two popular nudie and running magazines mid-”Who buys nudie magazines at airports?” rant:

“And part of my routine is to marvel over all the selections and how one goes about choosing one magazine over another. Are the differences between Playboy and Penthouse as subtle and nuanced as the differences between Running Times and Runner’s World (or Newsweek vs. Time)?”

I think the answer is obvious and Jackalope is either showing or feining ignorance on this one. Here is how it breaks down:
Playboy is to Runner’s World as Penthouse is to Running Times. Same basic topic but the latter in both cases caters to a slightly more hardcore audience.

It’s not clear from this angle what Kyle was doing behind Andy’s back, but it appears to have effected Andy’s shot, causing him to scratch HARD.

The Saddest Year End Round Up You’ll See

• The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.

• Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.

• The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.

• The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.

• An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country’s ‘Golden Years’.

• Your country is purportedly ’selling’ 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.

• For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it’s going to cut back on providing that hour.

• Politicians who supported the war spend tv time debating whether it is ’sectarian bloodshed’ or ‘civil war’.

• People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that’s been missing for two weeks.

The only time I truly felt threatened by Saddam Hussein was when Colin Powell went to the United Nations and lied about weapons of mass destruction. If it wasn’t for Powell’s compelling yet completely dishonest presentation to the United Nations, I don’t believe we would have invaded Iraq.

Colin Powell, I hold you personally responsible for the death of every American soldier who’s died in Iraq and the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens.
Had Powell not lied to the United Nations, there’s a very good chance that Saddam Hussein would still be alive. While I’m pretty indifferent to the health of Hussein, I think it’s dispicable that 3,000 American soldiers have lost their lives in a trumped up war justified by making Saddam Hussein seem like an imminent threat to America. We now know that we were fed a load of crap, yet more soldiers will die tommorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the day after that. In fact, our president would like to increase then number of American soldiers in harm’s way.

Would Saddam have been a threat to America if we surrounded Iraq militarily, put sanctions on the country, and built up a world-wide coalition of countries opposed to any aggresive moves by Iraq? Of course not. And this could have been done without dropping a single bomb. Without sacrificing a single soldier’s life. But it would have involved maturity beyond the capability of our current president.
Do I feel better knowing Saddam Hussein is dead? Absolutely not. He presented no threat to me sitting in jail, so killing him simply makes a martyr out of him leading to even more hostility against the United States.

Square Cut Pizza, originally uploaded by edkohler.

“The Mrs.” prefers square-cut pizza, like this beautiful Jack’s Cheese pizza we’re enjoying for lunch.

Personally, I’m a slice shape flip-flopper. I like the utility of pie slices since they’re easier to eat without getting your fingers dirty. But there is something special about the corner slices found on a square-sliced pizza.

Via Pharyngula, an interesting concept from Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism:

“Much of what has gone disastrously wrong in American policy, especially foreign policy, in recent years can be attributed to a reliance on blind faith rather than evidence. When The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward asked President Bush whether he had consulted his father before going to war in Iraq, Bush famously replied that he had consulted a “Higher Father.” Isn’t it fascinating that the voice of God always sounds suspiciously like one’s own voice?

When politicians start citing God as the authority for whatever they want to do, they are usually promoting some policy that defies human reason.”

God does seem to be able to justify just about anything for people, from charitable goodness, to justifying genocides.

Minnesota Network for Progressive Action put together the list:
Minnesota’s Top 10: Worst Political Persons in the State!!!!

We have an All-Star line-up this year….and feel free to nominate your own. Politics in Minnesota can really be a strange brew and the players listed below have stirred up the pot…considerably.

If I added one to the list, it would be convicted Minneapolis city councilperson Dean Zimmerman. I think Dean is a great guy who got caught up in some bad stuff, and is now going to serve some time because of it. The problem I have is his with his early denials, which essentially mislead his supporters about the truth of the issue.