Good insight

TNR has a good article on the new Secretary of Education and how his pick offers insight in the the coming Obama administration.

Also a neat video

In a hurry

I want to get home so you get to have the short short version of my thoughts today.

1. I can think of a million things to do with this. The Erisian potential abounds!
2. One of my favorite places to go on the internets is Worldchanging. Here they have another good article, this one about "Enlightened Capitalism". Mental note: forward this to my uncle Steve.
3. Good article about the future of communication by security consultant Bruce Schneier (what a sucky name to spell, bleh!) who I've referenced before.

What games should have been called

Nice collegehumor article about more descriptive names for famous games (most of which you need to have played to get the joke unfortunatly)

I'm linking to the boingboing post because I love the comment "Monopoly, when played properly, should end in tears." hehe

Really silly

This game is scarily like Super Mario Brothers, it's even a little fun

Ok... this is getting silly

Ok, a little background first.
1. According to Slate the idea for Congressman Santos's character on the West Wing came from a series of conversations that West Wing had with David Axelrod about Barak Obama. Barak Obama has gone on to win the election in a very Santos-like fashion
2. Some sources say that the character of Josh Lyman was modeled on the very real life Rahm Emanuel

We now learn that Rahm Emanuel has been picked to be Obama's chief of staff (for those television trivia nuts Rahm's brother Ari was the model for the Entourage character of the same name), WTF?????? This is life imitates art going nuts (if Maggie Williams becomes Michelle Obama's chief of staff and marries Mr Emanuel I will hide under a desk)!

I'm actually not very glad about this, for why start with this NYT article. Here's what I think.

1. After looking at the profiles around I think you could safely characterize Emanuel as a partisan hack.
2. He is fairly high drama, just look at the press around this announcement as an example compared to "No-drama Obama".
3. The chief of staff is an incredibly important position in the White House, s/he determines who gets access to the President and often gets in the last word in any debate (Cheney being somewhat of an exception in recent years). Maybe Emanuel has changed, maybe Obama will choose other moderate advisers who will counterbalance him. However, having disclaimed myself, I don't think is the pick of someone who genuinely wants to reform. Think of Josh, when he talked about reform and how Washington needs change, he often simply meant Washington needs more democrats. I knew that Obama would have to pick people I don't like, but as someone who supported him for his post-partisan rhetoric, this bothers me.

On the bright side Emanuel is intelligent, experienced, talented, and relentless. With him in the White House, things will get done. Whatever Obama sets as the agenda, it will be a lot more likely to become reality with Rahm as the chief of staff.

Dept of Precient Articles

I've loved the Onion for years but I had no idea they would be so on the money about Bush's performance in office. Nor that they could predict 2008 campaign personalities.

TRON!!!!!!

Enter your own 80s fantasy! Be Tron!!

I'm speechless...

Possibly the best political ad aimed at twentysomethings of this campaign, I give you... Wassup

I sooo want to do this

BoingBoing shows us what vegan zombies eat

Wait, Obama can be funny????

As CNN has noticed both Barack Obama and John McCain were REALLY funny last night at the Alfred E. Smith dinner. Both videos are great but I think Barack Obama's was better if only because he's historically had such a dearth of humor. Whoever wrote their jokes deserves a big bonus.

This is really funny

Everyone who watched Dr Horrible this year should enjoy this post. As you may or may not know the Evil League of Evil sent out a request for new applications a few months ago. Tilzy.tv picks their top 5 favorite responses (DO NOT forget to look in the comments section lower down on the page, I particularly loved "The Vengeful Vegan".

Scaaarry

This video is really scary.... and somewhat funny

Great David Brooks column

In some ways this blog was started so I could say "Dammit, this man's a genius!!!" every Tuesday/Friday :)

But seriously folks, he has an insightful column up today.


P.S. For your amusement; Heinlein's fan-mail solution

My brain is melting

I saw this article title: "Colbert's DNA to be shot into space" and I HAD to know. After reading it, all I have to say is thank you CNN, you've truly outdone The Onion today.

I think my favorite is the sentence: "In the unlikely event that Earth and humanity are destroyed, mankind can be resurrected with Stephen Colbert's DNA," Garriott said in a statement. "Is there a better person for us to turn to for this high-level responsibility?"

Issues

Sometimes (in economics, foreign policy, civil liberties) I find myself disagreeing the "liberal" positions (I'm toying with the idea of self-identifying as a progressive) on those issues but on social issues I almost never come down on the conservative side of issues. So here are some good pieces that I just found that I agree with.

Sarah Vowel in an NYT op-ed on John McCain

Jacob Weisberg in a Slate article on abortion

And just for chuckles take a look at this video from comedienne Sara Benincasa

AWESSSOOOOME

Wired's top 10 physics videos!!!!!!!!

They're breeding!!!!

A new and horrifing species is spreading: fear the movie trailer announcers!!!

This tickled me

From the Onions department of "oh so wrong, but oh so funny" I give you this article

I have to get this USB stick for someone

The increase in strange USB sticks has amused me but this one is really funny. Maybe I'll give it to someone as a gift

Kitties on Treadmills!!!!

SILLYYYYYY