hater

I’m a hater…

By the dialectical playa on July 29, 2010

Adidas Crossfit Commercial:
(video)

Article
Video

Article
I’ll give them this: Crossfitters are fitter than most Americans. There, I gave you Crossfitters props. But I get wary whenever a pop-culture phenomena – much less an exercise program, or whatever Crossfitters consider their Crossfitting to be – has affectations of being a pseudo-religious, empowerment movement instead of just a training methodology. [...]

Posted in Physical Culture | Tagged Crossfit, Evil Crossfit Unbeliever, hater | Leave a response

Number One: Barack Obama. Can Barry be our number one wiener? Yes He Can! Since no person in government today more closely resembles the hot dog's phallic appearance, frequently indigestible contents, and questionable origins than Barack Obama; it's only fitting that Barry gets a dog as unique as he is. A massive two-foot frankfurter, this wiener was made - like wealth - to be "spread around." It's unusual size is achieved by utilizing a state-of-the-art processing system that pumps the casing full of hot air. This hot air causes a chemical reaction with the filler to occur, rapidly expanding the size of the wiener to over 24 feet at an uncontrolled rate until it collapses and shrinks down to a more manageable 24 inches. But after just one bite, you'll see that it's more than just sheer size that makes this dog unique! You'll savor every mouthful as you expectantly wait to experience its advertised phenomenal taste! That it never comes is precisely the point. Like his presidency, this wiener proves that we are definitely the ones we have been waiting for: waiting for a job, waiting for an unemployment check, waiting for BP to cap their ruptured well, waiting for Iran to get The Bomb, waiting for that stimulus to kick in, waiting for clean, sustainable, new energy, waiting for...

If Democrats were wieners…

By the dialectical playa on July 14, 2010

Time Magazine paid homage to the just completed World Cup by doing a photo essay on the “World Cup of Wieners”; listing the ten best dogs by city, beginning with – of course – New York. Your guess as to how Time made a correlation between wieners and soccer is as good as mine, but [...]

Posted in Satire | Tagged evil conservative, hater, Humor | Leave a response

apriljoygavaza: My Twitter Fans: @thekelliejane @wakepedia @theplayafeed @medic60 @kshaidle @fusionaddict @x_1013_x. Find yours @ http://mytwitterfans.com
7 hours ago from Tweet Fans

ThePlayaFeed: @dawnnell Or that people like me who overindulge, er, drink their beer love looking at those trippy manuscripts.
10 hours ago from TweetDeck

dawnnell: @ThePlayaFeed I think it's no coincidence those monks who produced beer also did those funky illuminated manuscripts #crazydrunkmonks
10 hours ago from TweetDeck

ThePlayaFeed: @dawnnell lol! Never. Especially when Trappist ale is at hand. God, I love those monks. And a good stout? *Sigh* Nectar of the gods.
10 hours ago from TweetDeck

dawnnell: @ThePlayaFeed thanks! Do beer festivals ever go anything less than wonderfully? *reflects deeply on the meaning of life*
11 hours ago from TweetDeck

Currently Reading:

Quite possibly the greatest work on England's Anglo-Saxon past ever written, this weighty tome is history's equivalent of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. In fact, Stenton exhibited an almost Tolkien-like obsession with this subject as he spent a lifetime revising and updating his monument to England's post-Roman and pre-Norman history.

______________________________

A Sample of Old English Poetry:

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum...

______________________________

And it's got something for everyone: You want blood-thirsty pagan religions? Anglo-Saxon England has got blood-thirsty pagan religions. You want a clash of civilizations? Anglo-Saxon England has got several. You want maps? Anglo-Saxon England has got maps. You want exotic sounding barbarian names? Anglo-Saxon England has got exotic sounding barbarian names. You want drama, betrayal, and violence? Anglo-Saxon England has all that and more in over 700 pages of densely printed text.

______________________________

Listen to a sample of Beowulf in Old English!

______________________________

The only complaint I have is the poor quality paperback edition that Oxford University Press has condemned this magisterial work to languish in. When I first encountered this book - it was at a local library near NOB Norfolk during my Navy days (it may have been the Old Dominion University library, but I can't remember) - I beheld it in all its hardcover, dust-jacketed glory. Tragically, the current OUP paperback edition is a poor - and overpriced - substitute. If you can, try to locate it at a nearby library, or better yet, you can purchase a used copy in very good condition through Alibris or Amazon for less than the paperback. So be a barbarian hero like Beowulf by living vicariously through Frank Stenton's masterpiece!

This book is absolutely terrifying and should be required reading for everyone in America. It's essentially a history of the Ottoman Empire and how it utilized imperialism to fulfill Islamic tradition, which essentially means Sharia. It's a brilliantly written, 128 page book by a Bernard Lewis-type former professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. And what I mean by "Bernard Lewis-type" isn't good as Itzkowitz also minimizes the "Islamic" in the Ottoman Empire. However, in attempting to do so, he instead amplifies it. Highly recommended, this is an outstanding supplemental source when reading anything by Bat Ye'or and illustrates the dangers the West - especially Europe and Russia - faces from a resurgent Turkey.

It took me a while to get around to this book as I just finished up Itzkowitz's Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition and have gotten through about a quarter of Stenton's Anglo-Saxon England. So far, I've gotten to page 25 in Quicksand and I have to say that Wawro is definitely my kind of historian: accurate, precise, to the point. However, while Wawro condemns one hundred years of American Middle Eastern policy and is unsympathetic to the state of Israel's existence (he contemptuously places its founding within the context of Theodore Herzl, Zionism, and the power politics of imperial Britain), nowhere does he mention that what is occurring there is actually part of the historical process. All I can say is read Stenton and you will quickly learn that what defines a nation and its history IS the Clash of Civilizations. Intellectuals have a risible double-standard in regards to Israel, whose very existence they impugn as an example of American colonialism and/or imperialism. Yet these same geniuses never demand that Turkey return Cyprus to Greece, that the Turks who were settled in the Balkans by the Ottomans in order to replace the native non-Muslim populations should "go home" to Asia Minor. Or even better, for the Muslims of Central Asia, North Africa, and the Levant to return those areas to Christianity. The Jews reclaimed Israel and Judah for themselves and the Muslims couldn't stop them. William the Conqueror's Normans conquered England in 1066 and the English couldn't stop them. Cnut and his Vikings conquered England from the Anglo-Saxons in 1016 and the Anglo-Saxons couldn't stop them. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes conquered Britain from the Britons in the 5th century and the Britons couldn't stop them. Yet in 1066, Harald Hardrada of Norway and his Vikings attempted to conquer England and was defeated. And then in 1588, the Spanish attempted to invade England and met the same fate as Hardrada. Notice a pattern? Here, let me spell it out for you: If you don't want to be some other culture's bitch, then don't lose to them. Therefore I have no sympathy for the Muslims as I won't for the Israelis after they get bred out of existence in Palestine within a hundred years because they want to act like self-absorbed, 21st century Europeans. To paraphrase Sherman, History is hell.

Currently Watching:

This movie is the best movie of 2010. In fact, it's the best movie I've seen since J.J. Abram's Star Trek. Sure, it lacked all of Avatar's stylistic and special effects appeal, but conversely it proved that exceptional characters, exceptional actors, and an exceptional story are still what make movies exceptional. Toys with a real message of friendship, loyalty, duty, commitment, honesty, love, and the consequences of hate; the most permanent and basic elements of the human condition marvelously - and creatively - presented as only Pixar can. I'm still laughing over the accidental discovery of Buzz's Spanish-language setting and the resultant pandemonium that ensued as he attempted to "seduce" Jessie the Cowgirl with his sexy tango/seizure hybrid. I can also say with pride that I didn't cry or even get misty-eyed at the end of the flick. I'm not sure if this is the end of the Toy Story franchise, but if it is, what a way to go.