Ahmadinejad is SO over nuclear weapons

Courtesy of Mark Halperin at The Page:

Ahmadinejad also says repeatedly his country is not developing a bomb, and says “nuclear weapons are so 20th century.”

This quote comes from Brian Williams' interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad airing tonight on NBC.

Is this really a translation of what Ahmadinejad said? "So 20th century?" If so, that's hilarious.

Are we channeling the spirit of The Hills girls in our discussions of nuclear armament? Or perhaps Chandler from Friends.... Oh, I'm sorry...is that Friends reference "so 1997"?

As soon as I read this statement, I emailed my husband. I have to print his response email because I thought it was too funny not to share with my reader(s). Here's the conversation:

Me:

"Ahmadinejad also says repeatedly his country is not developing a bomb, and says 'nuclear weapons are so 20th century.'" (from Time magazine's "ThePage" politics page)

Do you really think that translated to "so 20th century"???
If so, that's freakin hilarious.

Tyler:

That is really funny…and he’s right…they are so 20^th century. In fact, I think I saw Michael Ian Black making fun of them on VH1’s "I love the Cold War."

"I Love the Cold War"....I'd totally watch that one, but I hear Ahmadinejad is so over nostalgic VH1 clip-shows.

Here's a link to the actual NBC interview if you want to see the whole thing.

Warning: Vegetarians Please Do Not Press 'Play'

A meat commercial from Estonia in the 1980s. It's AWESOME.



Now, I eat meat. I love meat, actually. I,too, think everything tastes better with bacon. (Well, almost everything.) However, after this video, I think I'll just have a salad for lunch.

My Man of the Week: Nas

This week the activist group Color of Change attempted to deliver a petition to Fox News headquarters that demanded that Fox end its continued use of racist and sexist slurs, especially with regard but not limited to Obama and his presidential bid.

Rapper Nas stood on a podium made up of the 620,127 signed petitions (my name is on one of those sheets of paper) outside of Fox HQ and made his pitch to Fox to "man up" and accept the petition. "Faux News" did not acknowledge the protest, but lo and behold -- Stephen Colbert did, as he invited Nas onto his show The Colbert Report on Wednesday, July 23rd.

Stephen, of course, began his segment with his usual satirical take on the whole petition and the"Of Course Fox isn't racist! bit" by showing clip after clip of evidence supporting the claims. ("Barack's 'Baby Mama'" anyone??) He then had a great interview with Nas, in which the rapper recounted his ongoing feud with Fox Host Bill O'Reilly. Nas made great points about the violence in rap/hip-hop lyrics and the importance of questioning the actual origins of such violence. He described violent lyrics as a symptom of a greater violence problem rather than the scapegoat cause of violence -- a theory to which O'Reilly subscribes. I encourage you to check out the video of the interview or watch the re-run sometime this weekend. It really was great.

In the meantime, I want to leave you with the video of Nas' performance at the close of the show. He wins my "Balls of the Week" award for this verbal assault on Rupert Murdoch's empire and the Comcasts of the world. It's a balls-to-the-wall, no-holds-barred teardown of everything from Fox & Friends to the NY Post to Myspace and on down the line. It's beautiful and spot on. Kudos my friend. Nas, you're my hero of the week. Enjoy.

Slacker Numero Uno

I have been remiss in my blog-posting duties. I apologize to anyone who keeps checking back to see if I've written anything new. Especially, in regard to the European Obamapalooza....shouldn't I have lots to say with reagard to that trip? Sure I do. The only problem is that I've been overwhelmed by a lot of things in my life right now, and blogging seems like a chore rather than a pleasure or form of stress-relief.

I really appreciate the few of you who do check in, and I urge you to stay tuned. I will try to update more frequently soon. In the meantime, I added a subscribe feature so you can add my RSS feed and see as soon as a post has (finally) been added. That might save you the hassle of meandering over here to "TGPN" only to find the same o', same ol'.

You can also add me on Facebook, if you haven't already. I was forced over there by friends and my brother, so there you have it -- I'm a late adopter on that one. Peer pressure, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Stay tuned....the good part's next. Promise. ("Crossies" may or may not be behind my back right now.)

I DID it!

Well...this is what I wrote a week ago:

And that finally leads us to the "fishing and beer" lure I referred to in the beginning of the post. We'll spend the holiday weekend in Savannah with our friends, Phillip and Jonathan. (I can't even begin to explain how nice it is to have friends with parents that live in such a wonderful place.) I learned this week that their dad has arranged for a deep-sea fishing trip for us on Saturday. Can I TELL you how EXCITED I AM??!?! I'm psyched beyond belief. I'm not sure why.....I don't think I've been so excited about something like this in a while. Does that make me weird? I'm not sure. All I know for sure is that I am GOING to catch some Amberjack and am going to have my picture taken with my catch like this chick (minus the big boobs).

And I DID it!! Here's my loot (my biggest prize of the weekend):


It's a 45-pound Amberjack, and it took about 10 minutes (maybe more?) to reel it in. I caught it about 35 miles off the coast of Savannah. I also caught a beautiful Queen Triggerfish, which is in danger of becoming extinct, so we quickly let it go back to its business in the ocean. The next day I caught a 2-foot shark. Here's a picture of me, freaked out by the shark I just caught. (Please excuse my "double-chin" look in this picture. I was too busy freaking out to care what I looked like on film.)


I told everyone I was going to do it, and I did. And it was fun. If I could carry that kind of ambition with me in all aspects of my life, I'd be set for a pretty darn good life.

List #4: Top 5 "Goldilock-Moments" at a rock show

Ever felt like the odd-man/woman out? Ever felt like you don't quite belong? Ever feel like "This one's too big...this one's too small?" I have. These are my top 5 "Goldilocks" moments at an indie rock (or other genre) show.

5. Phantom Planet (8/30/2004), The Cotton Club (Atlanta):

• Reason #1 = Too Old.
• Reason #2 = Too far behind on my OC knowledge. (see also Reason #1)
• RESULT: Stayed until the end. Laughed at myself & my friend. Sang along to "California."

4. June of 44/Rex/Him ( 11/?/1996) The Rec Center Antioch College (Antioch, OH):

• Reason = Too Sober. (For the weirdness that went on that night, that is... JO44 was one of my favorite bands at the time, but that was one WEIRD show.)
• RESULT: Someone pulled the fire alarm, and the show ended early. We left Antioch shaking our heads, and are still confused to this day.

3. Reverend Horton Heat (9/4/2004) The Cotton Club (Atlanta):

• Reason = Too Indie Rock. (The show was awesome, and I enjoyed it. If you could see the fans there, you'd know what I mean. For a visual think "forearm size"....think of the size of an indie rocker's wrist and an ironworker's wrist. Got it?)
• RESULT: Drank many tall-boy PBR's for courage, stood next to my tall friend, and loved it.

2. The Gossip (2/?/2006) The Drunken Unicorn (Atlanta):

• Reason #1 = Too Straight.
• Reason #2 = (possibly?) Not Drunk Enough.
• RESULT: Stayed for the whole show & was hit on by my tiny-lesbian friend who attended my wedding. She was, in fact, "drunk enough." I didn't mind much. I take what I can get. (Kidding!)

1. Modest Mouse (12/16/2007) Gwinnett Center Arena (Atlanta):

• Reason #1 = Too knowledgable about the band's "personalities"
• Reason #2 = Too old/cynical to enjoy it anymore (and therefore, mad at myself)
• RESULT: Left after 3 songs. Vowed to love them as I remembered them, but won't see them live again. (For more on Modest Mouse shows, stay tuned to my upcoming "Top 5 Shows of All Time" and perhaps the more-entertaining "Top 5 Reasons NEVER to Visit Cleveland.")

Morning reading

Please read this article by Al Giordano.

Here's a snippet to whet your appetite:

"Actually, I have to correct myself already: the highest calling of patriotism is not dissent. It is smart dissent, that based not on self-indulgence or the blurting of one's frustration's out in ways that seek to share the panic or the misery, but based on - even sometimes against great odds - building the objective conditions by which we will win the important battles worth fighting."

To all the fighters out there, keep up the good fight. To all the fighters in my family -- whether you "held the sign" or not -- never forget that you're still a fighter. I'm proud to know from where and whom I came.


"A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come." - Eric Hoffer

List #3: Top 1 Thing You DON'T want to find in your mailbox

A top 5 list could be boring....bills....a wedding invitation from an ex....etc.

But I only have one thing on my list: A Black Widow Spider.


YEP. I FOUND one on top of the mail I pulled out of the mailbox tonight. It was just sitting right there on top of my water bill!

Needless to say, I threw my mail in the air in a [slightly, but deservedly so] melodramatic fashion and then proceeded to stoop down and take a look at the thing. That's when I observed its two little red dots in an hourglass shape on its bloated black belly. I then commenced scolding the spider and said, "Please Don't Come Back to My Mailbox Again." At that point a jogger ran around me and my scattered mail mess in the street. For effect, I stomped on the intruder. (The spider, not the jogger.)

UPDATE 7/2/08: Tyler found ANOTHER ONE on our driveway today. It was alive and well and appeared to be happy, "post-kill" of an unsuspecting bumblebee. You will be pleased to know that the spider is no longer "alive and well" (much like the bumblebee), and the proper authorities (i.e., Decatur Pest Control) have been alerted of the problem.

Fly the friendly skies

So, you're saying it's your right to carry a gun from home into the Atlanta airport (up to the security checkpoint), but yet I can't even carry a bottle of water or a mug of coffee from home on my flight?

So people can have guns at the ticketing counters and around the security lines where tensions run highest? Neat. Maybe if we're all afraid that everyone else is "packing, " though, we'll be more well-behaved toward those airline employees and fellow travelers. Right?

Hmmm.

[WARNING....may offend older viewers....younger viewers...viewers who value proper grammar....well, pretty much anyone....]


Oh, and after watching the YouTube of this [lovely] young lady on MARTA, I'm not sure I feel any safer knowing guns are cool on trains now either. Grandma (I mean "Shawty/George Bush/Shawty/Ho") may have said, "Know what, baby girl? I don't like your tone OR your poor Soulja Boy rendition.....BLAM, BLAM." Or it could be the freaked out suburban kid in the back of that train that did it just because he felt "threatened" by her bad rapping.

I'm not sure what to say. I understand 2nd Amendment concerns and arguments, but are people that afraid ALL the time? So afraid that they have to carry their handguns to the airport to pick up the wife & kids? If so, I think they make drugs for that. And meditation. And church. Or whatever it is you need to feel sane and protected. Now, I think I need all of the above because I'm feeling pretty spooked. Hmmmm.

List #2: "My top 5 beers"

I'm sure I'm forgetting something here. There's really nothing fancy on this list, but here goes:

1. Beck's Light
2. Red Stripe (also good with a lime)
3. Dos Equis Lager (the Amber's a delight, too)
4. A tie between Leinenkugel Red and Abita Amber (the Abita is a new discovery & much easier to find around here than the Leine's Red)
5. Blue Moon Honey White (not so much a fan of the Belgian White)

These also almost made the list: Sam Adams Summer Ale, Brooklyn Brown, Stella Artois (have to be in the mood...), Lone Star Beer (for the puzzle bottle-tops alone), and that Oatmeal Stout from Brownings Brewery in Louisville.

Okay, open thread now....everyone post your faves....I'm in the mood to experiment.

UPDATE: I hope to god that no one references the new Michelob Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry.
I like pomegranates. I like raspberries. I like beer. Do NOT, however, combine all three.