It Ain't That Complicated

Yep. Kids get it. It's crazy how intolerance just doesn't compute with kids.

Let's just all go play ping pong.

A Must Have in the Mibrary

Whether starting your own Mibrary (a Man's Library) or simply adding to your arsenal, The Modern Gentleman is an absolute must. Written by Phineas Mollod and Jason Tesauro, The MG is "a guide to essential manners, savvy & vice".

This guide covers every topic from jukeboxing and flaskmanship to bachelor parties to fitness and attire. More or less, it's a menu or do's and don'ts. No guy out there wants to be taboo. No guy wants to be the high school bookworm who got nailed in the glasses with the red, stinging dodgeball. Every guy out there wants to be Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery, Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, and Chuck Norris all rolled into one. To get off on the right foot, read PM & JT's The Modern Gentleman, a Talmud of Maniquette, if you will.

Get on Amazon.com and buy it for $5-$11, used or new. One of the cheaper books you'll ever buy and definitely the most bang for your buck. Here, read the back cover and make your own decision.

"I this sourcebook of manners and mischief, author raconteurs Phineas Mollod and Jason Tesauro offer a panoramic snapshot of the enlightened modern man: witty and poignant, tradition but spontaneous, flirtatious yet courtly.

And since it is inevitable that a gentleman will dabble in the friskier areas of excess, trouble, and chance, the book's naughty nucleus, "The Potent Gentleman," explores leisure and dalliance, from alcohol and snuff to recreational botanicals and sex.

All men aspire to be perpetually dapper, fluent in three languages, and able to hit 300-yard drives off the blue tees, as well as quote poetry and win a back-alley scrap. However, there is a dashing plateaus more desirable than Hollywood perfection, a level of gallantry that makes one stand out, even in the elevator. So knot up your ascot, pour a glass of sherry, and crack open THE MODERN GENTLEMAN: your Man Cycle is peaking."

INTERNET DATING? SERIOUSLY? STOP BEING LAZY!!

It has come to my attention lately that the dating scene isn't what it used to be. Being snatched up myself, I guess I haven't really noticed. It seems to me as of late that there is a whole slew of young professionals that can't seem to find Mr./Mrs. Right. So the recent solution/trend is to turn to the medium most responsible for shaping the 21st century, the series of tubes.

Along with the creation of the Internet came Google, Facebook, and Myspace. And of course cell phones, blackberries, PDAs, and iPhones had to get in on the action. So essentially, the way we communicate, deal in business, and simply "live" has gone through a mass overhaul. So as long as we are sucking on this electronic pacifier, we naturally turn to mother for all of our wants and needs. Need to find the best cross-country route, pull up Mapquest. Need a great chili recipe, Google it and pull up any numerous cookbook websites. So if getting a date seems just out of reach, where should you turn? Ah, of course! Good ol' Interwebs! Hence the invention of eHarmony.com, Match.com and Chemistry.com.

You can't get through an hour of nighttime television without seeing one of their commercials. Promises of an active, rather than passive, way to find your true love seems so comforting. Wait a damn minute! Let me get this straight...becoming hopeless and lazy by turning to the Internet to do your dirty work for you is an "active" method of dating and going out to meet live people is the "passive" route. Filling out an online survey how you see fit with inherent bias is active, while having a personal conversation is passive. Is this bass-ackwards or is it just me?

Ladies, gentleman, please!! Stop what you are doing, take a deep breath, and pull your heads out of your own asses! I don't really give a crap if you are busy with work, had bad luck in the past, or recently moved to a new city. Stop copping out and using the Internet as a crutch. For hundreds, even thousands of years, the human race has dealt with this issue and done just fine on its own. If you need evidence, look up population growth statistics.

So just when did going out to the club, the grocery store or the gym become not enough? What about your hobbies? Rock climbing? Running? Cycling? There are literally hundreds of ways to be social and to get your face out there in the open for your soul mate to see.

You have to put yourself out there, be vulnerable. Don't be afraid of rejection. Don't be hesitant to spend the time, effort, even money to go out there and find what you are looking for. Internet sites work based on numbers. If enough people sign up and fill out surveys, tainted ones at that, of course they can find someone who "fits" your standards. So take a shower, shave the necessary body parts and take some care in your grooming. Get some self confidence and Suit Up! It's time to take control of what's yours...your life!

Brotion of the Day - January 26, 2010

The good gentleman's motion that Rosie Huntington Whiteley is hotter than Kate Beckinsale has been recognized. It is now up for discussion. Evidence is below:

Rosie Huntington Whitely

Agent Provocateur - "Love Me Tender" in HD from Greg Williams on Vimeo.

or

Kate Beckinsale

Kate Beckinsale shot for Esquire HD from Greg Williams on Vimeo.

The question has been called...what say you internets?

Yo Dems! Get Some!

Nuff' said...

The Yanks Can Exhale

The Deuce (aka Clint Dempsey) will be on the pitch for team USA at the World Cup this summer. This reality was in question following a knee injury suffered while playing playing for Fulham over the weekend. Early indications were that Clint had torn his posterior cruciate ligament and surgery would be required. Luckily for soccer fans on this side of the pond, it seems that the MRI has come back clean.

This is reassuring news for Coach Bob Bradley and Team USA who have been bitten by the injury bug since they punched their ticket to South Africa. The presence of Oguchi Onyewu (knee surgery) and Charlie Davies (injuries from his car accident) are uncertain putting the strength of both the front and back lines in doubt. The loss of a quality and aggressive minded footballer like Dempsey would have put the possibility of advancement out of the group stage in serious doubt.

Fortunately, you can exhale American soccer fans. The Deuce will be in South Africa. Don't Tread.

Time to Panic??

Establishment Democrats seem to be predisposed to panic. It is like they see a puddle on the sidewalk and instead of simply walking around it or stepping over it they decide to pull out the scuba gear, throw on the life jacket and pray that they can conjure up the specific instructions from their childhood swim lessons. People please...you are adults. I mean come on. Let's say that Martha Coakley does lose tonight. This will not be as a result of a referendum on health care reform. Massachusetts already has a universal coverage very similar to the bill being advanced through Congress. It will not be a rejection of President Obama and his "agenda". The POTUS has an approval rating in the 60's in Massachusetts. It will be the result of an arrogant candidate running an out of touch and entitled campaign. Not to mention the economic realities we face as a country.

Now here is the choice for Democrats...Man/Woman up or step aside. This isn't a time for panic. This is a time for resolve. This the the time to continue to move this country forward.

Andrew Sullivan makes the following points:

Chait is running around like a chicken with its head cut off telling the Dems to stop panicking. And it's working!

He notes how a ten percent unemployment rate in a race for a seat that seemed owned by one party is not exactly a recipe for electoral continuity. He notes that Obama's popularity remains remarkably stable and high for this kind of recessionary backdrop (especially in Massachusetts). But his strongest point is against the delusion that somehow Obama did not try for bipartisanship and that the polarization is his fault and that a more moderate stance on the stimulus or healthcare would have helped.

Look at the fricking stimulus plan, a good faith effort to stop the economic bleeding, of which one third was composed of tax cuts. How many GOP votes did he get after just being inaugurated? Zero. Scott Brown argues that it did not create or save a single job. This insane position is rebutted by ... AEI.

For Rovians, the entire game of politics is just that: a game. And it's a game we all have to resist being sucked into (excitable moi especially).

You create reality by spin and hysteria and a 24-hour propaganda channel. The actual reality - the anachronism of Reaganomics in our current moment, the need to cut spending and raise taxes, the enmeshment of the previous administration is war crimes, the crippling burden of a broken healthcare system, the role of carbon in unsettling our climate - is too complicated for them to grapple with. So they create a game and they play it, with no accountability for their own past, fear-mongering on terror, denial on torture, and recitation of the same bromides that were very relevant in 1980 but are part of the problem now.

Obama will stay cool, get his Senate health bill through the House, and move on to financial re-regulation and economic revival. If the Democrats in the House balk at this, they have to be nuts. They will be buying into the Rovian psych-out. And I don't believe that so many worked so hard for Obama so recently in order to restore the logic and priorities of Rovian cynicism. Sprung has more thoughts here.

If Coakley does lose that puts the Democratic majority in the Senate at 59 to 41. That is an 18 vote majority. Last time I checked, this by far exceeds any Republican majority that George W Bush had when he was, in the words of Jon Stewart, "doing anything the fuck he wanted".

So this is the message to all of the Dems out there. Turn off the TV, take some antacid, find some spine and conitnue working for the people of this country. Oh...and listen to that Obama guy. He's got this.

Douchebag of the Day - Rep. Steve King (R - Iowa) - "Send the Haitians Back!"

Republican Congressman Steve King said today that we should send the illegal Haitians back home so they might help dig out their victims. May God Have mercy on your heartless, gutless, xenophobic and bigoted soul. 

From the Des Moines Register:

Steve King: Send illegal Haitians back home right now

Posted By Jeffrey Bruner On January 15, 2010 @ 7:09 pm In Iowa Politics Insider, News | No Comments

When ABC News ^[1] wanted to find a congressman that opposed halting deportations back to Haiti, guess who they contacted?

If you answered Tom Harkin ^[2], try again.

Steve King ^[3]says the 100,000+ Haitian nationals currently in the United States illegally should be sent back home as their homeland struggles to house and feed hundreds of thousands following this week’s massive earthquake.

“This sounds to me like open borders advocates exercising the Rahm Emanuel axiom: ‘Never let a crisis go to waste,’” Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said in an e-mail message to ABCNews. “Illegal immigrants from Haiti have no reason to fear deportation, but if they are deported, Haiti is in great need of relief workers, and many of them could be a big help to their fellow Haitians.” ^[4]

The snarky types at Wonkette didn’t hold back on what they viewed as King’s insensitivity:

Iowa Rep. Steve King, the #1 (expletive) in Congress, is exhibiting the more compassionate side of his (expletive) today (gross) in response to the Haitian crisis. Like many wingnuts, Steve King does not support granting temporary protected status (TPS) to undocumented Haitians living within the United States — a.k.a. he don’t support none dem Mexicans gittin’ amnesty for their pact with Mister Satan, a known devil. But not because they’ll simply take more and more (if not all) of our seven remaining American jobs if we let them live here another 18 months! He just wants to deport them so they can help rebuild Haiti, as relief workers. It’s a win-win for no one, ceptin’ America. ^[5]

Help Is On The Way

The tragedy in Haiti is incomprehensible. It is one of those moments in life that pushes the individual to transcend tribalism, race, religion, gender, sexuality and petty differences to rediscover that we aren't as divided as our politics suggest. In this time of want and need and tragedy, I hope that we can once again come together as Americans and realize that we are a part of a larger global community. The world looks to the United States to lead with empathy and compassion rather than bombs and saber rattling.

We can start by living generously. Take action in one of the ways below:

• Donate $10 to the Red Cross to be charged to your cell phone bill by texting "HAITI" to "90999."
• Contribute online to the Red Cross.
• Find more ways to help through the Center for International Disaster Information.

Our soft power and influence has always been the uniquely American contribution to humanity for which the world continues to thirst. It is time for this great country to stand up and lead. Not with the threats and castigations and American exceptionalism, but rather with the humility, generosity and altruism that truly makes this country exceptional. The world needs us now more than ever. It is time. Let us, as Americans, be exceptional and join our President in saying to the world that "We are ready to lead" and "Help is on the way".

God Bless.

Girls vs Suits

Those of you on the interwebs who fancy themselves awesome certainly caught the 100th episode of HIMYM last night. During this episode, our great and enlightened Broda was confronted by one of the greatest existential conundrums that face Bro-kind...he had a choice, Girls or Suits. Displaying his quick wit and an omniscient grasp on the Bro Code, our fearless leader overcame many challenges and proved once again why he is legendary.

So internet...what would you choose? Girls or Suits?

Obama: Year One

Let's break it down like a fraction...

The substantive record is clear enough. Torture is ended, Gitmo still remains enormously difficult to close with the Christmas Day Crotch Lighter making complicating the situation further and rendition continues to be extremely hard to police. The Bush/Cheney unitary executive, claiming vast, dictatorial powers over American citizens, has been unwound. The legal inquiries that may well convict former Bush officials for war crimes are underway and the trial of KSM will reveal the lawless sadism of the Cheney regime that did so much to sabotage our war on Jihadism. It is also now clear that the actions of our former POTUS (GITMO, torture, etc) have contributed to the increased radicalization of and recruitment for al Qaeda groups around the globe. The most clear illustration being the group that orchestration the attempted Christmas day attack citing those actions specifically in their charter.

Military force against al Qaeda in Pakistan has been ratcheted up considerably. The US has given notice that it intends to leave Afghanistan with a bang - a big surge, a shift in tactics, and a heavy batch of new troops. Iraq remains dodgy in the extreme, but at least March elections have been finally nailed down and we are getting our courageous men and women out.

Domestically, the new president has rescued the banks in a bail-out that has come in at $200 billion under budget, the economy has shifted from a tailspin to stabilization to economic growth and some prospect of job creation next year and the Dow is at 10,500 a level no one would have predicted this time last year. A stimulus package has helped undergird infrastructure and probably did more to advance non-carbon energy than anything that might have emerged from Copenhagen with more funds available to continue the progress out the ditch that our former POTUS left our country.

Universal health insurance that will REDUCE the deficit by $150 billion over the next decade and allow access to affordable health care to 95% of Americans while reducing premiums for those who have it and codifying safe guards so that insurance companies cannot deny coverage for those with preconditions and prevent them from canceling policies when people get “too sick” is imminent. To those out there that rail against reforming the “status quo” citing to that the government must keep its hands off my Medicare and that this is a plot to insure illegals and kill babies and senior citizens can be rest assured by the fact that NONE OF THIS IS IN THE BILL!! Granted it is your right to have deep seated apathy that 45,000 Americans die every year as a result of not having access to health care. It is also your right to claim that you don’t owe anything to your fellow Americans because you “earned” your money and you shouldn’t be forced to “sacrifice” what you have worked hard to acquire. Again, you are well within your rights to believe this, but I would advise thinking twice about taking for granted the down payment paid by the millions of Americans that have fought, died, bled and sacrificed in order for you to have the freedom to feel that entitlement. PS...illegal aliens already have access to health care. The problem here is not increasing access to healthcare…it is reforming our immigration laws so that businesses cannot take advantage of cheap illegal labor while simultaneously allowing those who want to come to our country and work legally the opportunity to come out of the shadows and begin to "contribute" through a pathway to citizenship which will include paying taxes. Let’s not mistake the forest from the trees here.

Relations with Russia have improved immensely and may yield real gains in non-proliferation; Iran's coup regime remains far more vulnerable than a year ago, paralyzed in its diplomacy, terrified of its own people and constantly shaken by the ongoing revolution; Pakistan launched a major offensive against al Qaeda and the Taliban in its border area; global opinion of the US has been transformed; the Cairo speech and the Nobel acceptance speech helped explain exactly what Obama's blend of ruthless realism for conflict-management truly means. In short, America has reclaimed its position in the world and is back on the long road to regaining the respect of the world that is necessary to hold the leadership on the international stage.

Our great country has encountered and persevered through the muck and grime left behind from eight years of Bush/Cheney leadership. There is still much to overcome, but we are now coming out of that ditch and moving forward. Finally...the sun is rising and soon it will be morning in America again.

So yeah...I will take that the first year under this POTUS.

Know Hope