...And now for the more hardcore!

I need a Morphine drip...

Since the Bling is currently figuring ways back across the border, I figured I would try and put up a decent vid of the week. Enjoy...

HCP trying out for the UFC!

Good luck dude!

NAILED IT LORD BLING!!!

And you thought your high school senior pick was lost forever! Found it!

Video of the Week -- the greatest music scene in cinematic history

BTW, unless someone else wants to do it, there will be no Video of the Week for the next two weeks. I'll be on the road for work.

A Bridge Too Far?

I think that I speak for a majority of writers on this blog in saying that we were all excited, and greatly relieved, to have Obama elected as president. I think that I can also say that we all recognized that he was the type of politician that only comes around once in a 30 year span. The kind of smooth operator that makes you feel like you're not getting rammed in the ass, even though you still are. To preface what I am about to say, I am greatly appreciative of the kind of campaign that Obama ran, and that I still believe that he is doing what is best for this country.
However, I am beginning to wonder if he was bestowed too great a task for any one person to tackle on his own. I have been, on the whole, okay with what he has been doing to this point. But then I see this and it gets me to thinking. Have we set ourselves up for the big let down before we truly fix anything? Here is the real concern: have we, the most voracious of supporters, set him up to fail before he gets out of the gate? George W. Bush left a lot of shit to fix, I see that, but has there been so much left to fix that no amount of political capitol can get anything passed? And when that political capitol is spread so thin, do any of us get what we wanted? Peace of mind or prosperity?
Maybe here is the real concern. I see his "approval" numbers dwindling and worry that the everyday Joe "Shitpack" doesn't pay enough attention to see every hurdle and roadblock set up by every two bit jag off with an "R" next to his name that the next election swings back in the direction of those greedy little swine fuckers. Maybe the overriding concern isn't agenda, but attention span. Maybe we get the America that we deserve, but as for me, I guess it's eventually back to Mexico.

Odelay Vatos,

HCP

Video of the Week -- Lamb of God, smooth jazz style

Do you like Lamb of God?

No?

Okay, how about now?

UFC 100: The Redcoats are Coming!

I can't improve upon HCP's great post below, but I did want to share a great picture that someone sent to Dan Henderson, and he hosted and Twittered it:


I liked Bisping on his original TUF, but he's gotten really cocky, especially for someone who's had almost every single pro fight in his backyard. I hate him almost as much as I hate Lesnar, and that's saying something. Now if you'll excuse me, fuck you all, because I have to go drink a Coors Light. Not a Bud Light, because they don't pay me nothin'. And I might even get on my wife tonight too.

All hail King Douche Bag!

I'm not quite sure how many of you like watching MMA, more specifically the UFC, but I love to watch these fights. Guys that get to train all day to beat each others brains. It isn't the sweet science, for sure, but is entertaining nonetheless.
All that being said, I don't know how many of you watched the fight last Saturday, but the heavyweight fight between Frank Mir and Brock "Still riding the coattails of my WWE career" Lesnar was sub-par to say the least. The fight was good if you like watching guys basically hug it out. Lesnar won. No big deal.
But then, the worlds biggest nut sac proceeds to not only to taunt his fallen opponent, but to give the finger to the entire crowd in the Mandalay Bay event center; moreover, he proceeds to talk trash about sponsors and how he is going to climb on top of his wife later. All fine for a WWE event, but not worth a shit at a UFC one. He was already the most hated guy in MMA for the special treatment Dana White showed him coming in. (It's a business, and Dana needed a big name in the heavyweight division.) I just think this set the sport back more than it already was since it's seen as a low brow sport to begin with.
I hope that Dana can get his shit together or it's gonna be real tough to watch UFC events with this chode as a belt holder. Oh well, I guess there's always bum fights.

Adios,
HCP

Video of the Week -- Makin' It Rain

I don't really know what to add to this, other than a facepalm picture.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Thanks to the Yard Gnome for sending.

EDIT: Apparently, the guy was just goofing off in this video. There are other videos of him on YouTube being normal. Still though, it doesn't make the word 'umbrerra' any less funny.

R.I.P. Billy Mays

Apparently, some famous people died in the last week or so. However, the only one that I was even remotely saddened about was Billy Mays.


His schtick consistently made me laugh. Apparently, I'm not the only one who appreciated it:



After watching a couple of episodes of 'Pitchmen' on Discovery, I saw that he's just a regular guy who is capable of turning that schtick on and off. He wasn't full of himself, and he didn't have any delusions of grandeur about what he did. And, he also had a lot of good-natured fun with his producer and fellow pitchman (Anthony Sullivan) while making their infomercials:



Back in February, Billy and Anthony were on the Adam Corolla show and after a caller mentioned the ShamWow, Billy challenged Vince to a 'Pitch-Off'. It was mostly in fun, as you tell from the audio:



Continuing on the fun, Billy posed for this picture, and it started making the rounds online just a couple of weeks ago:


After seeing that picture, I'd hoped it would be enough to get Vince to agree to a pitch-off with Billy. Vince makes me laugh too, but I'd have been rooting for Billy, all the way. However, now I just hope that Vince has enough class to not show up at the funeral service for a similar photo op.

Now why didn't I think of that?

Nearly Naked Fireworks?


The guy who came up with this is a genius! Even if his name is dangerously close to Ricky Martin.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/331/story/797704.html?storylink=omni_popular

Video of the Week -- Don't let your kids play World of Warcraft

Temper temper!

See more funny videos and Technology Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Thanks to 'DIRTY GMR' for sending.

Chicago Cubs Cemetery?

As a Cub fan, I couldn't let this one go without some commentary:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/30306234/

This is a HORRIBLE idea. We're almost at 101 years straight without a championship. "I know! Let's go to the Cub cemetery, and see the graves and ashes of a bunch of people who didn't get to live to see them win a World Series!"


Sweet Lou was a sweet two years old the last time this team even participated in a World Series. And with the injuries they've had this season, and with the free-swingers like Soriano and Bradley whiffing like they're trying to cool off the fans in the bleachers ... ugh. Unless something changes quickly, I'm already saying 'Wait 'Til Next Year'. Or rather, 'Wait 'Til Who Knows When?'

Props to warm_machine for sending this article.

Why home schooling doesn't always work out

Maybe #3 should have been a little higher?

I also like the other sign "Be the hammer, not the nail!". I think that's the rapist's creed.

VotW -- Summer Slaughter 2009

I shot some video from the Summer Slaughter festival in Dallas (at the House of Blues) last Sunday. Here is one of them, a solo from a Necrophagist song:



Sweep-picking FTW.

I also shot an entire song from Dying Fetus. This style of music may not be your thing, but it's hard to deny the talent and stamina it takes to play it.



Finally, here's part of a song from Suffocation. I liked the intro speech (about old-school pit etiquette):



And I took a few pictures and made them wallpapers. This first one is the vocalist from Suffocation, in the middle of a headbang. The unintended motion blur actually worked really well in this picture. My dad said it looks like it's from a horror movie. Considering their lyrical content, I thought it was fitting.


Here's a wide shot of Necrophagist on stage:


Lastly, here's a mosh pit during the Dying Fetus set. Again, I didn't intend for the motion blur, but it works.


Eight hours of death metal. Yeah, it ruled.

VotW -- Siskel and Ebert's review of 'Billy Madison'

Who looks for things like character motivations in a film like 'Billy Madison'? Apparently, these two did:



So, Adam Sandler can't carry a movie? Roger, I think the public proved you wrong on that one, just like they did on The Usual Suspects and Fight Club.

Now, let me qualify this post by saying that I owe Roger Ebert a huge debt of gratitude. When I was in college and looking to feed my expanding love for cinema, his annual review books were a great tool. I found that I agreed with his opinions a large majority of the time. He wrote his reviews with a passion that most other film critics didn't possess, and it earned him a Pulitzer (still the only film critic to have received this award). And without him, I may have never tracked down masterpieces like Fellini's 8 1/2 or Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. But one place where I know not to trust his opinion is with stupid comedies. He, and most other film critics, fail to recognize that sometimes we just want to see people get hit in the balls for no reason. 'Billy Madison' is exactly that.

Stop looking at me swan!

Like Bill Frist with Terry Schaivo, I ain't letting this bitch die without a fight

I realize it's been a long time since I posted anything here, and for that I apologize. Thankfully, Lord Bling has managed to keep something novel up here during the past few months, while I spin further and further into the downward spiral that is my career and PhD program. One particular topic has pissed me off enough that I figured it was time to post again.

We all know Oprah, and the power that she wields over the opinions of soccer moms across the nation. Newsweek recently published one of the first major pieces of criticism about Oprah that's been made by a major media outlet. Oprah gets plenty of criticism, but hardly ever from mainstream media sources. In particular, the Newsweek article criticized Oprah for giving air-time to ideas that have seriously questionable scientific validity and promoting them as though they were viable medical treatments.

Oprah responded in the way that she always does, stating that she tries to give equal time to competing ideas, and has featured the opinions of doctors and researchers on health issues in addition to quacks and celebrities. Katie Wright, who has appeared on Oprah to discuss her experiences as a parent of a child with autism, defended Oprah on Age of Autism using the same "equal time for both sides" rationale and that Oprah doesn't endorse one side or the other, and lets viewers make up their own minds based on the "evidence".

The problem with the idea of "presenting two sides and letting people decide" is that it starts with the faulty premise that different viewpoints are equal in terms of their validity. Using the do routine vaccinations cause autism in children example that Oprah has presented both sides of on her program as an example, the two competing viewpoints are:

1) There has been no established link between autism and vaccines in any of the numerous scientific studies that have looked at this issue. Nearly 20 studies looking at thousands of children have concluded that there is no link between these two things.

2) My child manifested the symptoms of autism within hours of receiving routine vaccinations. Therefore, all of the previous research on thousands of children must be invalid.

The problem with presenting competing viewpoints here is that one of these viewpoints is substantially inferior to the other. Not because one belongs to a parent and the other to a physician or scientist. Rather, the idea that the opinion of a small but very vocal group of parents is anywhere close to on par with blinded, multiple randomized controlled trials is asinine. On Oprah, both viewpoints are presented as though they are equally likely to be true in the interest of fairness, even though there's way more evidence to support one versus the other.

If you're having a political debate, opinions from both sides can be informative when reasonable people disagree on issues. That doesn't also mean that unreasonable and illogical opinions deserve the same amount of attention as those with more data behind them. You'll notice that not even Fox News invites the KKK Grand Wizard to share the stage with Ann Coulter when discussing Obama's job performance, although lately it's not been clear that their opinions would be all that different.

I refuse to let this site die

With Cowboylaw working 90 hours a week, and the Midge trying to get his PhD, the responsibility of keeping this site alive has fallen squarely upon my shoulders. But rest easy, blog fans! I will answer the call, by posting random thoughts and stupid Videos of the Week, like this one!

If there was ever any doubt about Bo Jackson's abilities in Tecmo Super Bowl, let them be forever squashed by this video:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I will return soon with more random brain diarrhea. Until then, keep one foot in the gutter, and one fist in the gold.

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009

I'm gonna be at E3 this coming week, so the rest of you are gonna have to step up and hold down the blog fort while I'm gone. Midge, HCP, Cowboylaw ... I'm looking at YOU! Who will step up and end this long streak of Bling blog dominance?