Tony Hawks is a British male model who gets email from thought-challenged kids around the world who think he is Tony Hawk. At first I thought Tony Hawks was just an ass (while Tony Hawk, I understand, is a really nice guy) but it turns out that he’s a funny ass.

peace tony
you are a werry good skateboarder.I come from Switzerländ.
I play your game every day.I hope you can rhite a e- mail to me. i am 14 years.(sorry i can not good English)
bye bye Fabian

Fabian
Your English is werry good.
I’m not surprised you play my game every day. I’m told that in Switzerland, unless you ski or launder money, there’s f—- all else to do.
Tony Hawks

Got this bit of intel from the Guardian.co.uk site.

the report’s four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction. All of them “preached a return to an idealised past and condoned inequality”

…added a disclaimer that their study “does not mean that conservatism is pathological or that conservative beliefs are necessarily false”.

funny stuff!

I’m insane about expense reports (I even subtracted John’s hotel ginger ale from our recent subsidized trip to San Fran), so this story caught my eye.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46973-2003Aug11.html

In my line of work I see so many ridiculous cases going through the system, it’s nice to know that you can still be fired for being an idiot.

From The Late Show

Top Arnold Schwarzenegger Campaign Promises:

10. To do for politics what I did for acting
9. Combine the intelligence of George Bush with the sexual appetite of Clinton
8. A heaping tablespoon of Joe Weider’s “Dynamic Body Shaper” in every pot
7. Every freeway gets a dedicated car chase lane
6. Seek advice from elder political statesmen like Jesse Ventura
5. Crack down on schools graduating students who can’t bench-press 180 pounds
4. Solemnly swear to support the Constitution of Gold’s Gym
3. Goofiest-named governor since Pataki
2. Raise the minimum age for dating Demi Moore
1. Speak directly to the voters in clear, honest, broken English.

Today’s profile in candidates, randomly selected as the first Google hit that came up, is Georgy Russell . Her platform includes the following:

One hundred square miles of solar panels would produce enough power to supply our entire state. Renewable energy sources create more jobs per kilowatt-hour than conventional technologies, are more environmentally friendly, and make us immune to the market manipulators that cost our state billions.

Only an area 10 miles on a side! I haven’t run the numbers, but I’m kind of skeptical. Although it’s an interesting proposition. I wonder how it compares with the footprint of the state’s current powerplants. Regardless, good luck to Georgy, BPB’s candidate of the day!

Instead of staying and fighting (and losing with honor), the mighty Dems ran to New Mexico to foil the evil Republican attemts to have (GASP!) a vote on an important issue. Turnabout is fair play – they messed with the rules and now they’ll get a taste of their own medicine. The Dems have to come back to work or face fines. I love it. I can’t decide if my favorite part of their response is the attempt to play the race card (“One by one, they stood up at a news conference to express their shock over the vote, which they called illegal and a return to the days of a segregated Texas. Only two of the Democrats-in-exile are white. All of the Senate Republicans are white.”) or the zen-like question – what is the sound of voting by not voting (“They’re charging us to vote for our constituents, and that’s the reason we left in the first place — to vote for our constituents.”)

The Senate wants to slap a finding requirement on the president before he uses special operations forces anywhere in the world.

I haven’t yet read the whole article (Thanks to Scrappleface for the link), but my initial thought is that this is on its face an unconstitutional requirement. Only Congress can declare war, true, but the Executive is specifically listed as the CinC.

I’m also concerned about the risk that such disclosures would pose to our troops. The probability of keeping a secret is inversely proportional to the number of folks who know it.

Regardless, it’s breaking, and I wanted to think about it while I sat on the Katy Freeway

A weekly column at Salon.com that has really caught my fancy, Match Made In Heaven, Match Made In Hell, features the “real”-life stories of dating, some horrific, some transcendent. Generally, all of the stories include a hook one way or other that reveals the human component in the cold non-human world of online (or newspaper personals) dating. The reason I am more drawn to this column than Becky’s favorite, Cary Tennis’ Since You Asked, is these letters show the expansive variety of humanity and a good balance of people who find discomfort and love.