Rex's Fimoculous has returned after taking the summer off. He follows Neale from last week who took a bit more time off.

Just FYI, I've come by a scoop on the new Bret Easton Ellis novel that is in the works. Sounds interesting.

Why spam will revolutionize technology. Its a serious enough problem that technology needs to be revolutionized if it hopes to deal with it in any significant way. I'm not holding my breath just yet.

IP has yet another reason to dislike the Olympics - they don't allow the athletes to blog. Or even to post pictures they take while at the games - even after the games are over without prior permission.

Overplaying your hand is perhaps the single most irritating aspect of politics to me. I realize that to some extent, its necessary because to not overplay is often to not draw a clear enough line in the sand. But, it always seems to degrade into something like this from Dem strategist .Mary Anne Marsh. [via Jeff]

George Bush betrayed his country by sending us to war on false pretenses, and George Bush betrayed his country by not fighting in Vietnam.

Is it OK to watch the Olympics now that we have a Russian villian again? Previously discussed here.

Liberals have discovered Donnie Darko style wormholes that allow them access to the future! Hit & Run takes Harpers to task for claiming to have already seen the speeches at the Republican convention. Here's the offending paragraph:

The speeches in Madison Square Garden affirmed the great truths now routinely preached from the pulpits of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal--government the problem, not the solution; the social contract a dead letter; the free market the answer to every maiden's prayer--and while listening to the hollow rattle of the rhetorical brass and tin, I remembered the question that [Richard] Hofstadter didn't stay to answer. How did a set of ideas both archaic and bizarre make its way into the center ring of the American political circus?

Perhaps taking M. Night Shyamalan work a bit too seriously? Teachers using purple instead of red ink to correct papers because...

Purple stands out, but it doesn't look as scary as red.

The Kerry campaign is disappearing items from its website. Its notable, because the item missing had to do with Kerry's military service again - or actually somebody elses military service (Edward Peck), that the Kerry website was misrepresenting.

First he co-opts Bob Kerrey's record, now Edward Peck's. For a guy who is so proud of his service, he sure isn't very sure of what it is that he actually did during his service.

Finally with a chance to pass Tiger Woods in the world golf rankings, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els both choke what may be their best opportunity away. Vijay shoots only 1 round under par and finishes T32, and Ernie finishes T65, 19 shots behind Tiger.

As a result, Tiger moes out in front by about 3/4 of a point.

UPDATE: ESPN has more, seems Tiger's birdie on the final hole was the only thing that kept him at #1 - despite Vijay and Ernie playing like crap.

FlauntingIt has yet another reason to dislike the Olympics [link NSFW] - they tried to get Playboy yanked off the shelf because it 'offended the games'.

Neale Talbot is back blogging again. I was beginning to think all that metal the doctors had fused to his spinal column had simply taken over his body and he was locked in a death-match over whether he was machine or man.

Alas, I was mistaken. Glad you are back Neale, we missed you!

Interesting turn of events. Kerry has filed an FEC complaint against the Swift Vets alleging that they are illegally coordinating with the Bush admin's re-election folks. Combined with the Drudge story from earlier today (now gone, so maybe it was bogus) that Kerry has suggested to the Swift Vets publisher that they ought to pull the book off of shelves - this is about as close to scortched earth as Kerry can get on this issue.

Will it work, or will it backfire? As a current government official, I think he's treading dangerously close to where he could be accused of censorship (though it seems to be a trend for the Dems).

I don't think it'll work. If anything, it'll bring even more attention to a group that Kerry would probably rather have the media ignore. I can't wait till the debates!

Another NFLer gets suspended for drugs. Is this the year that the NFL finally starts to look bad because so many of its players are getting stoned? Seems we are headed in that direction.

Oh the irony. It seems some Germans has suddenly realized just how important out military is to their economy.

Kerry's new Cambodia story still isn't flying - even with his supporters (read the last 5 paragraphs).

I also enjoyed a little tidbit about Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia story that I had missed previously:

Kerry said in a 2003 interview that after the Christmas Eve 1968 engagement, he asked his crew to write a caustic telegram to the chief of naval forces in Vietnam, Elmo Zumwalt Jr., to wish him "Merry Christmas from the troops that weren't in Cambodia, which was us. We were."

That was sure a nice embellishment to his made up story. Kinda makes the whole 'he misremembered the dates' thing seem silly.

Oh, and Tom Harkin (D-Senator from Iowa), who has been running around criticizing Dick Cheney of late has a history of lying about his Vietnam service record as well.

Glenn is right in where he ultimately points the finger here - at the media for not reporting on these stories. I rather expect this behavior from the politicians, but I expected better from the media. I feel this particular issue is related to laziness/incompetance rather than any bias in the media, because there is plenty of conservative media that should have jumped on the chance to report these stories, yet they didn't do it either.

Tough week for the Kerry campaign - what with the Swift Vets ad, the Christmas in Cambodia story falling apart, and now the Kerry campaign has claimed Kerry served as Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [alt link here in case they disappear it]. The trouble with that is that it appears that it was actually Bob Kerrey, Senator from Nebraska who held the Vice Chairman seat. Oops!

UPDATE: The Kerry website has disappeared the Vice Chairman boast. It only took them 11 days to figure out that they were conflating Kerrey with Kerry. Maybe it was wishful thinking.

Further proof that the Olympics suck. They've got a draconian linking policy for their website. Here's a snippit of the conditions [link via Say Anything]:

a) Use the term ATHENS 2004 only, and no other term as the text referent

b) Not associate the link with any image, esp. the ATHENS 2004 Emblem (see paragraph below)

c) Send a request letter to the Internet Department stating:
* Short description of site
* Reason for linking
* Unique URL containing the link (if no unique URL than just the main URL)
* Publishing period
* Contact point (e-mail address)

Seems as if not many people want to watch the Olympics. Both attendance in Greece and the TV audience is way down from 4 years ago. I lost interest in the Olympics back in the late 80's - I'm not sure why, but they just got boring. Maybe its because there were no villians left with the fall of the Soviets.

Just an FYI, I've added a forum to Everything Tarantino.

Best.Golf.Outfit.Ever.

I've got way too much stuff going on right now to keep up with this site (as you can tell from the infrequent updates). I think I'll just take the rest of the week and the weekend off and return here Monday - hopefully refreshed.

One word: mismatch. (Though the little guy won)

Finally! Seinfeld is going to be released on DVD. But, at probably $50 a season, this is going to cost me some serious cash.

Oh, and somebody remixed the Star Wards Kid video in with scenes from Kill Bill. Good stuff.

Romeo & Juliet live! Just barely.

Just so we're all clear here - when Linda Ronstadt get fired for pissing off her employer, the NY Times editorializes about how horrible the decision is, a true threat to her (and other artitists liberties). So now that the UPI is reporting that a group of 38 Dems & Independents from Congress sent Fox News a letter complaining about 'biased' coverage, and their spokesman threatened legislative action against the channel [via OTLM], will the NY Times come to the defense of Fox? We can hope, but does anyone want to hold their breath on this one?

A spokesman for Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said there were legislative avenues that the group could pursue as a secondary measure but declined to speculate on what those might be.

Uh oh, we nabbed a couple of terrorist helpers up in NY. How long till OW questions the timing - he hasn't had a very good week to be sure. It would appear, now that he's getting paid to say it, he'll say about anything if it 'advances his cause'.

Why the USA will not win medal in b-ball at the Olympics. Makes sense to me. Simmons also lays out who should have been picked for the team and why.

John & Teresa Kerry - the buck doesn't stop here. Lots, and lots of examples.

No, what looks goofy, even mildly paranoid, is this habit of attributing everything that goes a bit wrong to the "dirty tricks" of others, presumably the all-powerful and ubiquitous "Republican attack machine" whose tentacles extend from NASA all the way into Teresa's kitchen.

The ESPN all NFL-weed team has a strong backfield and receiver core, but gets pretty weak after that.

The more Kerry talks, the more ridiculous he sounds.