A World Transformed

Keith Olbermann Special Comment on Sarah Palin

I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here... but in case there is anyone reading this who still thinks Sarah Palin is even remotely competent, please watch this. Even if you already know how pathetic and dangerous she is, it's still a good watch.

Sarah Palin debate flowchart

phun with phishing

I've received my share of phishing scam emails, most of which are pretty obvious, but today I got one that is head and shoulders above the rest for it's sheer stupidity.

This one purports to be the IRS emailing about a refund they want to put on your credit card. But the email sender is the "Internat Revenue Service". What the hell does 'Internat' mean? Gotta love it.

The text of the email, under the actual IRS banner copied from their website, reads:


One would think that if someone is going to all this trouble to create a scam, create a website to harvest credit card numbers from victims, and obtain a list of email address to spam, that they would at least spell check their text and use proper grammar. But perhaps my expectations are too high.


Update: I just received another email from the same people. This time they fixed the spelling of the sender to "Internal Revenue Service." But now the subject reads "Tax refound (28371231) $620.50". Sigh.

why i should be vice president

Apparently, anyone can be Vice President now. The bar has been lowered so much that even I could be Vice President. In fact, I absolutely should be Vice President. Here's why:

I lived for nearly half my life in Michigan. You can see Canada from parts of Michigan. Thus, I have the necessary foreign policy experience for this office. Now that I live in California, who borders Mexico, my foreign policy experience has doubled! Plus, when I'm out surfing, I always see those container ships heading towards Oakland from somewhere in Asia. Thus I am involved in trading missions with Asia. From my surfboard. Impressive, no?

One of the most important qualification of being Vice President is being able to not blink. I can not blink with the best of them. I'll beat anyone in a non-blinking staring contest. Bring it on, blinkers!

The 1992 campaign proved that someone who smoked pot can be President. Well, I once smoked pot. I even inhaled. Probably more than once, but who's counting?

Sarah Palin took six years and four colleges to get a journalism degree. I took ten years and two universities to get a computer science degree. Enough said.

Conventional wisdom says that you have to be religious to be elected to office. I am an atheist, but since the current Vice President is the anti-Christ, an atheist is a step up.

Dan Quayle marred his term in office by taking on Murphy Brown, a fictional TV character. I wouldn't make that mistake. I will only take on animated characters. My platform will consist of condemning Papa Smurf for promoting Communism and going after Elmer Fudd on gun issues.

I expect to hear from Obama or McCain any day now...

played by a third grader

Last night as I was cooking dinner and Jeffrey was hanging out and eating pretzels while asking his usual series of odd questions, he asked if he could put some pretzels in the water I was boiling for the pasta. Of course I said no, but he went on about how he thought boiled pretzels would be a good thing. Finally, I told him that I would boil a pretzel for him if he agreed to eat the whole thing even if he hated it. He agreed and so I boiled a pretzel for a few minutes for him.

While it was boiling, he asked if I would please try one too if he liked it. There was no way I wanted to eat a boiled pretzel, but since we are struggling to get Jeffrey to try more foods, I felt that it would set a bad example to refuse to try something he liked.

Of course, at this point, I knew he would claim to like the damn pretzel no matter what. Sure enough, when he tasted it he went on about how awesome it was and that I had to try it.

I knew he was playing me. I knew I was being punked by a third grader, but there was nothing I could do about it. I had to boil a pretzel and eat it.

Boiled pretzels taste exactly like you would expect. Soggy and warm with the salt boiled off. I can safely claim that boiled pretzels are just a bad idea.

At least I can say that the next time Jeffrey is reluctant to try something new, I am better armed than he from this incident. Is that worth eating a boiled pretzel? Probably, but the jury is still out.