I totally remember when your roommie did that with the mac n cheese!! SO HILARIOUS! And I like your take on it, too. :) Nicely done.

This is a beautifully written post and to be quite honest, I will never see or think of fireflies the same way. Thanks. Wonderful to learn about this blog.

I have read those books, and I anxiously await the next one. I loved them, and so did my boys.

You're hilarious. Great post - not to mention imagination and way with words!

You are funny, and right on, as usual! So many people are foaming at the mouth over it, and yet I can't see why they should be. I don't think it will make any difference to me, but if it helps someone out there not go bankrupt from getting chemo bills met, I'd say it's a good thing. The trouble is that it is hard to be SURE that's what the bill will *someday* do.
On a lighter note, I think I know which pants you are talking about, and I had them for awhile. No. I really did. You gave them to me at the roller rink. You took pity on my misery and saved me by sacrificing your MC Hammer pants. I then loved them enough to not care about style (I never did) and wore them to SCHOOL. Seriously, did I provide any entertainment by doing that? Cause I'd like to go back in time and make sure I did provide some humor. Some of those days needed it!

Beautifully expressed through image and word. Thanks.

Nice blog. Only one comment. Toughen up. Don't let the lawyer jokes get to you. It comes with the turf and the stories lawyers can truthfully tell about the incredibly stupid people they meet in the course of their work is far funnier.

In 100% agreement with Mr. OSC, who states it better than I can!

As usual, right on the money, Michaelbrent.

ROFL! The refrigerator bothered me, too. I missed the next few minutes of the movie because I was sitting there thinking, "Really?!! REALLY!!??? COME ON!"
I'm glad you are going to take us into a better decade, one where your protagonist does not get saved from a nuclear blast in a fridge that should have suffocated him/her!
Thank you, Michaelbrent, for a good new decade, I'm sure you've qued up a great one for us...
WHAT?? When did I become responsible for my own happiness and life? Crap.
thanks anyway for the effort.
I guess I can make my decade great on my own ^_^
I'll stock pile brownies just in case, though, cause I DO like a good brownie.

And on top of all of this there are several thousand people who are so sad (and not in the healthy, spleen-removing sadness that you have endured, but the neurotic, "I'm going to wear this pizza as a tie clip"kind of sadness) that there are SUPPORT GROUPS for them! Their cause of sadness? That they have seen Avatar, and have been sent spiraling into a whirling vortex of depression because they look around and "see only a dying world" instead of the glory that is Pandora. Apparently they missed the manic homicidal rhinoserii and the nasty fact that they would most likely have to eat tentacled grubs and relieve themselves into convenient tree root nooks. There are some that are so far gone that they are suicidal, hoping to be reborn to the beauty and grace of the Pandoran Na'Vi. Nevermind that IT'S A MOVIE!!!!! I'm less enthusiastic about the movie simply because people are taking it so seriously. I have to wonder if Mr. Cameron is going to go the way of Hubbard and create a religion.....just IMAGINE the possibilities!

That was hilarious. I love blaming Hollywood for our personal problems... well put!

May The Intercourse Be With You...Always.

whatever that means.

you've obviously seen this but if you haven't it's priceless (and naughty)...

http://tinyurl.com/yg4rlve

Thanks for posting this, was exactly what I was looking for, thanks.

In my opinion, material of this article is very useful.

You make some good points about one of the key differences between WWII (and WWI) being the "all in" nature of support. Sacrifices were made to supply materiel and soldiers that have not been made to date in the so-called "War on Terror."

There is more than one reason for this, in my opinion. Part of it was economic, started under Bush, that our patriotic duty was to spend, not to sacrifice. A larger part is that we've changed the very nature of the way we fight our wars. We use proxies (both unmanned drones and hired "contractors") to do our fighting further away from the enemy.

Petraeus rightly saw that this was not effective in the long term (he's one of those, I believe, who sees large numbers of civilian casualties as excellent recrutiting sources for Al Qaeda). And I believe he's rightly hesitant about a surge being as effective in Afghanistan as it was in Iraq. Completely different country, completely different terrain, completely different leadership.

Another key difference is even if we go "all-in," our allies for the most part have not and will not. This begs the question as to whether or not this is America's war or a truly global effort to shut down terrorist groups. Is it a war we should fight (essentially) alone and is it one we CAN fight alone?

Last little point, I'm sure that Obama wishes he had the level of control over the press that you seem to imply. Palin versus soldiers is more a reflection of the status of our "news" organizations, our national preference for gossip over serious issues, than it is of Presidential control over the media.

At least with Obama, we see the soldiers who have lost their lives on behalf of the country (and the world)...they're not hidden in extra-budgetary items or barred from being photographed.

I liked the post. I agree with most of what you said. I think a problem for Obama is he is trying to spin this to positively effect his politcal goals where as Bush wanted to get the job done. Now Bush focussed on Iraq over Afghanistan but Bush did "win" the Iraq war. There is a lot of clean up to be done but for the whiners we still have military bases all throughout Europe from WWII...we should and will be in Iraq for a long time. It is a great staging ground to keep tabs on Iraq and Iran. Obama has no experience nor does he want to offend his anti-war liberal pals so I think that is his problem right now. The generals want more troops but Obama is caught in his promise to the troops to provide what they need and his promise to some of those who elected him who dont want to be in Iraq or Afghanistan. Unfortunately we are there and our troops are dying. I say if we are not in this to win then pull everyone home. If you leave anyone there, then surge our troops and kick butt but stop the half hearted political crap. Our troops are dying.

Totally agree!!

First of all, I hope that you know I've no intention of "calling you ignorant." Secondly, "My Little Thoughts" is mostly just me vomiting out random observations, so have less than the standard level of research for, say, a med paper.

That being said: best argument against the doc: the newscaster saying he'd interviewed three other docs in three days and ALL of them said they'd give it to their kids. As for the problems with the possible interactions between the vacccine and certain genetic or blood disorders (we've already disproved the autism thing), the question isn't whether there is a link, the question is whether you have a better CHANCE with or without the swine flu. REGULAR flu kills about 36,000 people/year (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu-related_deaths.htm). Worldwide, the number is obviously MUCH higher. Whereas the number of deaths or injury related to interaction between ANY mass market vaccination in the US as compared to the number of deaths or injury related to the disease itself shows a staggering disparity. I'd rather bet that my kids don't have mitochondrial dysfunction (only 50,000 people have it in the US TOTAL - http://www.mindbodyfocused.com/articles/body/fatigue/mitochondrial-disease.php - which means in only two years you have way many more flu fatalities) than that they won't get the flu, particularly not a virulent strain like swine flu.

Best argument against the girl: "Rare, 1 in a million" neurological disfunction. Again. That means that if EVERYONE in the US got the shot, we'd have around 400 people with this problem (if it is, in fact, linked causally to the seasonal flu shot, which the newscast implied but never came out and said... editorial indication that they could not find verification for the implication or you can bet they'd have had a doctor on that intervieww). 400 people with a neurological disorder versus the confirmed THOUSANDS that are saved each year by the flu shot. Additionally, dystopia can be caused by many different factors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystonia), and again, though there was a correlation between her flu shot and the manifestation of her symptoms, there were no sources on that news piece that causally linked them to the shot itself... but saying "She got it because she inherited it as a genetic disorder" may not have been as interesting a take on the story. Leading me to my second response to this piece: its source. Inside Edition. Infotainment, not a great source for legitimate news information.

Finally, on a more personal note: Mark, we're buds and I'm sorry if I pissed you off. I write my blogs with an intent to make people a) laugh, b) think, or c) do a little of both. Unfortunately what may be funny or thought-provoking to me may come off as crass, tasteless, or even "lacking in humility or balance" to you. Sorry to tread your toes, my friend. I do actually believe what I said in the piece - the point of it, anyway - which is that given the actual statistics of cost/benefit ratios to taking the shot versus not taking the shot, it's irresponsible not to if you have the chance. But another person may see it differently. I have my statistics and studies to support my position; others may have their own. And in a week or a month or a year I might come across some study that makes me whack my forehead, cut my kids' arms open, and do my best to suck out the vaccine (my wife will attest that I've been wrong before... the good news is I try to admit it when it happens).

But again, no name-calling intended. Just a laugh and/or some thinking.

Some thinking has occurred here - at least, I've had to look at some more counter-views and see how they stack up against my own, so I'VE been forced to think (and you know I hate that, Mark) - so I guess this column succeeded for me. Whether it did for anyone else I cannot say. But I CAN say I've appreciated your pointing out other viewpoints. If nothing else, it proves that you're still Mark: I've never known you to back down on calling someone an ass when you thought they were being an ass.

So, proud to be your ass of a friend,
Mb

;o)

I want you to argue with this doctor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXJDMSAaSU0

I want you to argue with this girl:... Read More

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh5F5wP8RdU

For starters, the vaccine hasn't been shown to stop the so-called swine flu!!! What's the rush?? Each time my wife or kids received a flu shot, they got the worst flu of their lives. i don't believe in injecting my body full of toxins, especially neurotoxins and staggering levels of mercury. I know there have been plenty of studies that disprove the autism link, but I'm not arguing about autism. And I really don't see the point of having a debate about which side is more ignorant on this issue. This is obviously an issue that is very personal to the individual, so I'm not sure why you would want to get into it. I would've just kept this to myself but you basically called me ignorant or irresponsible.
In the end, I would respect your opinion if it were delivered with a little more humility and balance. I don't care if you get the shot or not and you should afford me the same respect.[reprinted from FB threat with Abernathy]