Quote of the Day

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day

Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.
- W. C. Fields

95% of My Life is Spent Doing Maintenance For My Life

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.
- Ellen Goodman

These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For

This year it seems like since the entire country is fed up with the destruction the republicans wrought on this once greatest country in the world, the GOP seems to have gotten the idea that its best strategy is to run on the platform of:

"The last 8 years of Republican policies have been disastrous! Elect John McCain to throw the bums out and fix America!"

And if someone were to ask, "hey but wait, John and Sarah ARE Republicans, and in fact their ideologies align perfectly with all of these policies they now claim to be against."

And in response to such a a voter getting so "wise" to their ploy, they then try the Jedi mind trick and basically just say, "these aren't the Republicans you're thinking of. Move along."

The One Stock That's Up: Campbell's Chicken, Beef, & Vegetable Stock

Colbert v Paulsen Debate

Clucsterfuck to the Poor House

Stop Saying Sarah Palin is Hot

Really? Do you REALLY think she's hot, or is it just kind of fun to be able to talk about a political candidate that way? I mean, she's not ugly, but hot? I mean her voice is like nails on a chalkboard, even if you find her physically attractive, that squeaky Fargo accent has got to be a double digits point deduction. Anyone that actually thinks she is 'hot' under the same standards that we normally judge hotness in celebrities, has been spending too much time in isolation in the Alaskan wilderness with only moose to look at. The character we refer to as Ugly Betty is more attractive than Sarah Palin for christ sake.

The Financial System is... Very Interconnected

Governor at First Sight

Reformed Maverick

Generic Off

How Dare You

McCain's Big Acceptance Speech

Jeffrey Toobin on Bill Maher

Sarah Palin Gender Card

Quote of the Day

The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it.
- HG Wells

Quote Of The Day

An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
- Henry Ford

We Won't Screw It Up This Time

CAT 5 Shitstorm

The Circle of Life

Quote of the Day

He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
- Abraham Lincoln

In the 21st Century, Nations Don't Invade Other Nations

I reccommend making webisodes for John Edwards

Curveball and Haboush.

N'uff said.

Wow John Edwards is way more of a douche-bag than I ever imagined.

Spanish Basketball Team Ad

A Real Blog Post for Once: The Hamdan Case

Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver, was convicted of providing material support for terrorism but found not guilty of conspiracy by a panel of six military officers at Guantanamo Bay.

Hamdan, a Yemeni who faces up to a life sentence, held his head in his hands and wept when the verdict was read. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Hamdan, who was captured in November 2001 at a roadblock in Afghanistan with two surface-to-air missiles in his car, was never alleged to be more than a minor figure in al-Qaida, a chauffeur to bin Laden.


Ok, so of all the al qaida 'employees' who get any kind of regular face time with Bin Laden, this guy was about as low level as you can get. I'm happy he wasn't convicted of the conspiracy charges, he obviously wasn't involved in any kind of strategic planning of al qaida operations. And I certainly can't argue that he did not provide material support to al qaida, because he did--he was busted while transporting weapons for them. However, don't call me a terrorist sympathizer yet, because clearly HE IS NOT A TERRORIST. What can they justly charge him with? What did he do that was actually illegal? Why, being employed by the enemies of America of course! Its illegal in America to be employed in another country by an organization hostile to America, even if you break no laws of that country.

But the guy was transporting missiles right? He clearly knew they were to be used to attack US forces, that makes him effectively an enemy soldier right? No, it makes him a convoy driver. The guys that drive around Iraq with trucks full of US missiles are NOT military personel, they are not combatants, the are non-military contractors doing a civilian job. Even if he was doing military stuff, Hamdan is the equivalent of an al qaida Blackwater agent. Blackwater, remember, are immune from prosecution in Iraq or America even if they go on a raping and killing rampage of innocent Iraqis, which as you may know, Blackwater agents HAVE DONE.

They couldn't charge him for the missiles because they couldn't prove that these missiles weren't going to be used "legally." Although its pretty obvious they were not because uniformed soldiers would have had to fire them and there are no uniformed enemies in Afghanistan, but regardless they can't prove it, so the missiles had to be thrown out.

So what is this guy really guilty of? Thought crime? Can anyone reasonable blame some poor Yemeni driver who has never seen anything outside of his dirt patch, for taking a job with al qaida as a driver? I'd say he's about as innocent as a child solider in Africa. Can we seriously expect the guy to have much a choice in this matter? Everything he's ever been exposed to indicated that al qaida are the good guys and America are the bad guys. What do they expect him to be, a conscientious objector?

But there's a more important point I want to make. If America is able to capture and try non-combat support staff of foreign entities that we label terrorist organizations, even if they've broken no law in their own country and are guilty only of doing clerical work for their regional power, don't we then have to round up every secretary and file clerk that works for the Hamas government? And half of the Lebanese parliament for being members of Hizballah? Everyone in the Iranian military? They are all guilty of no crimes other than providing material support for an organization that the US decided to label as "terrorist." And for that matter, the CIA is actually arming and training al qaida affiliated militias in Iran simply because they are Sunnis that want to overthrow the Shiite government. As part of "The Awakening," the US military has been arming and bribing Sunni terrorist groups in Iraq who the week before were shooting RPGs at US convoys. So the CIA and US military are directly providing material support to terrorist groups and even al qaida groups, giving them money, weapons, and training that will surely be used against US interests some time in the future. Why aren't we going after all these people? Because some poor chauffeur makes a much better scapegoat? So we can say, we don't have Bin Laden, but we've got his butler!

Think of it this way, in China its illegal to write publicly about democracy, regime change, or Tibetan independence. Such writings are a threat to Chinese national security in the eyes of the Chinese government. If the Chinese military and a US blogger were to cross paths in a 3rd party country like Sudan where Chinese troops and US aid workers both currently occupy, would the US stand for that American to be captured, thrown in a Chinese dungeon for 7 years, and then convicted in a Chinese military tribunal of seeking to overthrow the Chinese government? What if he was a Halliburton driver transporting missiles to the Tibetan resistance group in Sudan (assuming there is one,) is he an enemy combatant against China? That would be a pretty weak argument.

Perhaps the most ridiculous things are that one, "providing material support to terrorist organizations" wasn't illegal at the time of his arrest, and furthermore, even if Hamdan had been acquitted of all charges, he is still technically an "enemy combatant" and can be held indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay. I wonder if he had not been found with missiles would he still be a "combatant?" The Kafka-esque answer is almost certainly "yes."

My point in all this is not that Hamdan is a saint and should go free, clearly he sees himself as an enemy of the US and no one is disputing his allegiances to al qaida, my point is that there are SO many people on the US side that are equally if not far more guilty of the same charges Hamdan faces.

Monica Goodling

How To Fix The Economy? America Should Join the EU

FOX: Not only is he a terrorist, he's a NAZI too

Could CNN be any more ironic?

Its Official: They Lied

Barack won't fit in at Applebee's. Can I vote for him twice?

The Procrastinator

The Equation

The EPA Email

The Word

Quote Of The Day

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
- HL Mencken

Quote Of The Day

Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.
- Oscar Wilde

Quo Of The Day

Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.
- Laurence J. Peter

Quote of the Day

Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose.
- Evan Esar

Books to the ceiling,/ Books to the sky,/ My pile of books is a mile high./ How I love them! How I need them!/ I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel

No one can earn a million dollars honestly.
- William Jennings Bryan

Why shouldn't things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together.
- George Santayana

Quotes Of The Day

He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.
- Douglas Adams

A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.
- Robertson Davies

The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.
- Frank Herbert

The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers.
- Lewis Thomas

Quote of the Day

I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized as wiser than oneself.
- Marlene Dietrich

Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears.
- Robert W. Sarnoff

Efficiency is intelligent laziness.
- Anonymous

Obama Makes History

The Economy - Not Unbad

Jeremiah Wright Part 3

Jeremiah Wright Part 2

Enemy Plus Enemy Equals One Ally

Clinton's Primary Message

javascript:void(0)

Jeremiah Wright

War of the Words

Gaffe In

Fucking Fox...

____________________________________________________________

Quote of the Day

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
-Voltaire

Quote of the Day

Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat.
- Sir Julian Huxley

Quote of the Day

"With or without religion you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

-Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

Quote of the Day

After explaining a chart that correlates education and intelligence with atheism and agnosticism, and polls that reveal the vast majority of the American electorate would not vote for an openly atheistic candidate:

"So we've reached a grotesque mismatch, between the American intelligentsia and the American electorate. A philosophical opinion about the nature of the universe which is held by the vast majority of top American scientists, and probably the majority of the intelligentsia generally, is so abhorent to the American electorate that no candidate for popular election dare affirm it in public. If I am right, this means that the highest office in the greatest country in the world, is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it, the intelligentsia, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs. To put it bluntly, American political opportunities are heavily loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest."

-Richard Dawkins

Quote of The Day

War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
- Thomas Mann

1994 DICK CHENEY

YOU DON'T KNOW DICK - Emails

Dick Cheney: Non-Executive Decision

Quote of the Day

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.
- Augusten Burroughs

Quote of the Day

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

Bertrand Russell

How Many Bush Administration "-gates" Can You Count?

Let's give it a shot then shall we?


Lying about being a compassionate conservative, being against national building, being a uniter not a divider, and everything else Bush said on the campaign trail
Stealing the election
Kyoto
Stem Cell Research
Waiting 7 minutes on 9/11
Throwing out the Clinton Administrations Intelligence on Bin Laden and al qaida
The Patriot Act
Tax cuts for the rich
Record defecit
Domestic political/activist organizations spied on with Homeland Security funding
Ahmed Chalabi
General Shinseki
Lying about how much it would cost
Lying about WMDs
Lying about links to al qaida
Lying about Jessica Lynch
Lying about Pat Tillman
Botching the capture of Bin Laden at Torah Bora
Botching the capture of Bin Laden the rest of the time
Haditha, Hamdaniya, and probably several other places
Halliburton
No bid Contracts
The missing 9 billion
Blackwater!
Invading Iraq
Losing Iraq
Losing Iraq to Iran
Losing Afghanistan
Losing our credibility to the world
Losing our moral authority to our enemies
LEGALIZING TORTURE
Guntanamo
Abu Graib
Secret CIA prisons
The Canadian guy we tortured in Syria
Rendition in general
WTF is going on in Waziristan?
AQ Khan
Dubai Ports World Inc.
Jeff Gannon (remember that fucker? They guy they planted in the press core?)
Stop Loss
Extending the tours to 15 months
Deploying the National Guard to foreign wars
No body armor
Not passing Jim Webb's expanded GI Bill
Walter Reed
Fudging PTSD psych evaluations to maintain troop levels
Not properly funding severe head injury care
Broken VA System
Breaking the military
Exploiting the military
Jack Abrahmoff
Tom Delay
Harriet Myers
Terri Schaivo
Outing Valerie Plame
Lying about outing Valerie Plame
Acquitting Scooter Libby
Warrantless wiretaps
"The jury is still out on evolution."
Katrina
Billions embezzled from Katrina cleanup funds
July 2008: New Orleans still basically the same as it was 1 month after Katrina
National Security Letters
Trying to legislate unlimited Executive power for wartime.
Allow de-regulation to crash the economy
$150 a barrel oil
Bush hanging out with the likes of Ted Haggard, every week.
155 Administration officials are graduates of Pat Robertson's unaccredited "law" school
Alberto Gonzales lies about federal prosecutors
Alberto Gonzales lies about everything in the conceivable universe
George Tenet knew it was bullshit
Scott McClellan new it was bullshit
A hell of a lot of people knew it was bullshit and didn't say shit
They all didn't say shit because their careers would have been assisinated
Everything Dick Cheney has ever spoken
Everything Karl Rove has ever done
...
there's more I'm forgetting.

The DC Madame / Wolfowitz

Using Bill's closing joke there as a sedway, let's talk about the hypocrisy of who was exposed in this latest DC madame scandal. Not that I think there SHOULD be a scandal about powerful people using the services of prostitutes, but when one of those people is Randall Tobias, the staggering level of hypocrisy is a scandal. In case you don't know a woman in Washington was arrested for running a high level prostitution ring that serviced the DC and capitol hill elite, which she claims was a legal escort business. She claims the girls don't actually touch in a sexual way, they do massages or dress up and do fantasy role playing or SM or whatever, but the guys have to get themselves off. Why its the case that its perfectly legal for a guy to jerk off to a prostitute but if she jerks you off its illegal is another debate. I just wanted to highlight that this Randall Tobias, who was outed as one of her clients, was in charge of the Bush administration's program to crack down on prostitution and favors abstinence only education.

I'd also like to point out how unbelievably "ironic," as John Stewarts says, the Bush administration is. Just in recent news alone, we've got another ridiculously ironic scandal, Paul Wolfowitz. This is the scandal in which Wolfowitz's girlfriend was moved from her job at the World Bank to a job at the State Department when Wolfy took over there, so as to avoid a "conflict of interest." So after a short time in her new job in the State Department, Wolfowitz saw to it that she got a promotion and 30% raise, making her one of the highest paid officials in the State Department, earning more per year AFTER taxes than Condoleeza Rice, head of the State Department, makes before taxes, again, so as not to create a "conflict of interest."

Wolfowitz has been asked to step down. As has Alberto Gonzales. As did Donald Rumsfeld. Both of whom Bush said have done "a terrific job." Oh he said that about "Browney" too, the FEMA guy, after Katrina. In Rumsfeld's case Bush lauded Rummy's performance only days before he fired him, which was the day after the Democrats took control in the November elections. When asked why he commented in favor of Rumsfeld's perfomance to the press when he must have already known he was going to ask him to step down, Bush responded, "because I couldn't have done that right before the elections." That's right, the President openly admitted to lying to the press to influence elections. Oh yeah, and Mark Foley was in charge of the program to curtail online sexual predators, And Ted Haggard, the evangelical preacher who gave weekly sermons at the White House and who was famously outspoken about the evils of homosexuality was exposed to be a homosexual meth user by his homosexual meth dealing prostitute of five years.

Haggard in "Jesus Camp"
Haggard Still Lying
Haggard Confesses

France

I don't know enough about health care models to know if France's system could just be transplanted to the US, but I'm guessing probably not. Trying might still not be such a bad idea though. I also don't think the French turnout was high was because of the reasons Bill gave, but that was really intended as more a sedway. I actually think the reason the turnout is so high is because there is a great deal of social unrest in France; they have a raging immigration problem, their health care system is actually in the red, unemployment is high, and the poor and lower class are so pissed about the conditions they live in that they rioted all over the place last year. However the points Bill makes about France's social maturity compared to America's are right on.

Quote of The Day

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
- George Bernard Shaw

Who Cares That 32 People Were Shot at Virginia Tech?

Since my role on this blog is to play devil's advocate of political and social issues, I'll have to be a little insensitive here and say that relatively, this massacre at Virginia Tech is barely newsworthy. The key word in that statement being relatively. Of course its a horrible tragedy, even 1 person being violently murdered is a horrible tragedy. But I'm sorry, this event has dominated the news all week, will be the cover story on every weekly news magazine, and has all of America talking about everything from gun control to race issues to mental health to our prescription drug culture, (he was on mind altering anti-depressants.)

But you know what happened in Iraq yesterday? I don't know either, but I guarantee you that way more than 32 people died in a violent horrific tragedy. You know why we don't really know, because it happens EVERY day. So why is this Virgina Tech thing such a huge issue? Because it was Americans? There have been days where 32 American soldiers died in a 24 hour period. It never makes headlines for more than 24 hours though. The only mention something like that will garner is, "and in Iraq today, 32 American soldiers were killed, making this the bloodiest day in Iraq since last July." Whenever scores of Americans are blown up in Iraq, its always just, "the bloodiest day since" a few months ago. And in other news a cat got stuck in a tree, and yet another member of Bush's cabinet is stepping down after being proven to be incompetent, totally corrupt, and a liar.

So is all this hubub because this happened IN America? Why does the location of a tragedy rank so heavily in how tragic a tragedy is perceived to be? What happened in Virginia happens 10 fold in Iraq every day. Hundreds of bodies found with electric drill holes in their kneecaps and foreheads. A hundred people blown up in a crowded market, a few thousand leave their homes and all their possesions and become war refugees. Everyone is asking how this horrible tragedy at V-Tech occured; why didn't the school take earlier action, why didn't his mental health practitioners see this coming, why was he able to buy a gun when he had a history of mental health problems?
Why isn't there an army of guards with kevlar vests and M16s positioned in every hallway and classroom in an average college?

When something like this happens everyone scrambles to point the blame, and every scrambles to ask how did this happen and why didn't we prevent it. WHY? Because there are hundreds if not thousands or wierdos that have stalked chicks on campuses, or were picked on or abused, or were depressed and on heavy medication, or are mentally unstable and own guns, but NONE OF THEM GO ON SHOOTING SPREES! They're supposed to know that of the thousands of wackos out there like Suong Hui Cho, this particular guy was going to go on a rampage? They say, "jeez, there were warning signs, why didn't you know he was going to do something?" Which is like saying, "jeez, there were warning signs, why didn't you tell us it was going to rain today?" No, its actually more like, "Why didn't you tell us it was going to rain in the Gobi desert today?"

I digress, but I just can't stand the hypocrisy, because we DO know exactly why and how the far greater tragedy of Iraq came about. Its was chosen willfully! Everyone said that what is happeningin Iraq was GOING to happen! Long before the invasion! But the Bush administration said, "no that's not what's going to happen, so we're doing it anyway... Oh whoops! We'll admit, some mistakes were made." Yeah of course they were, because they are exactly what was fucking predicted. So you can't really call them, "mistakes" now can you? Blunders maybe. Hubris definitely. But if someone warns you not to put your hand down the garbage disposal and turn it on, and you turn around 5 seconds later an do it, your mangled hand is not a fucking "mistake," its the fucking height of idiocy and arrogance.

So let's just put things in perspective here. Over the next few decades, (which is the least amount of time it could take for peace to settle over that region,) Iraq will be Virginia Tech time a million in terms of the lives destroyed. Or let's put it another way: How many people die of starvation in America every day, or of some easily curable disease, or freeze to death, or are murdered in violent crimes for that matter? I bet you that on most days, any one of these categories exceeds 32, and combined, easily exceed 100.

So maybe we should not worry so much about a crazy guy who goes on a rampage from time to time, because that shit will always happen in an free society, and there's really nothing we can do to prevent it, short of closing the open society. Maybe we should worry about the hundred plus people that die every single day because of policies that are consciously chosen, and because of steps that could be more or less easily enacted if there were just the political will to do so and maybe the amount of money directed towards them that we spend on a couple of tanks that we'll never use again, or at most, an aircraft carrier. If we were down just 1 aircraft carrier, I wonder how many American lives could be saved with that money.

We could use this money to save the lives of a several thousand people, but instead, we're choosing to let them die, and use this money to buy stuff for killing even more people. Ah, the American way.

Quote of the Day

Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
- William Safire

Im Gonna Have to Defend Don Imus

Don Imus has become a lightning rod for tons of shit that's wrong with our culture that he maybe tapped into but certainly isn't responsible for. There is plenty of really heinous racism in this country. I really don't think Don Imus has much to do with any of it. What he said was pretty distastful. But I really hate when someone draws a bunch of fire for basically telling the truth that happens to be politically incorrect or offensive to certain parties. The Rutgers women's basketball team are not hoes. But they pretty much ARE nappy headed, they pretty much ARE mannish and I'm guessing they probably DO more closely resemble the Toronto Raptors than they do the Tennessee women's team. If he made a joke calling muscular female atheletes lesbians rather than hoes, no one would care.

Its just ridiculous that he should be fired. He's made plenty of other racist comments before, like calling Arabs rag heads, and Jews money grubbers. If stereotypes weren't true, they wouldn't persist. Most arabs DO wear cloth on their heads, most Jews are wealthy and very tight with their spending. Most white people are stupid, have a terrible sense of personal style, and can't dance as well as black people. Most Mexican people, whatever, you get the idea. Why are people offended by things that are predominantly true?

Again, I'll say that calling them hoes is unfounded, but Rush Limbaugh says things 10 times as outrageous every single time he's on the air, why isn't anyone firing him?

A Traditional Blog Post, WMC 2007

I guess a lot of traditional blogs are about the latest developments of their cat, or people's daily journal of what happens in Spokane, or what people did on their vacation. So for probably the 1st and last time, I also will document my recent vacation here, but only for documentation purposes because I would like to remember it, as it was something of a blur.

WMC 2007







WEDNESDAY
11:30pm LA time: Depart LAX

THURSDAY
7am Arrive at Miami Airport

8am Arrive at Shelbourne Hotel, they tell us we can't check in until 3pm. We've had a cumulative total of 2.5 hours of fitful neck crinking coach sleep.

8:30am set up camp in lobby, watch addled up all nighters rolling through, watch EC features of Inconvenient Truth on laptop, fall asleep on couch.

9:30am Woken by hotel staff, "sir you'll have to sit up, we can't have you sleeping in the lobby." Have Breakfast.

10am Check to see if rooms are available, score. Try to sleep with eye shades. Get some nice meditative shut eye, but no real sleep. Keep getting pumped up thinking about Sander, boat parties, and events of years past.

12:30pm Nicole: "I can't sleep." Chris: "Let's got to a party then." Take shower, get ready to rock.




1:30pm We walk down to see some good breaks at the Catalina Hotel. Have some Mojitos.

2:30pm Walk down to the Chelsea to see some great SF house DJs. Have a few beers and shot of patron. Kent joins up with us.

4:30pm Return to our hotel because some English bloke we met in the Shelbourne lobby while waiting to check in told us that he's promoting a party in the lounge later with Desyn Masiello. Run to liquor store for a few 6 packs, have a few beers in room and a puff while watching the Shelbourne pool party (not Desyn) out the window.



5:30pm On way to elevator, we spot a rocking party on the rooftop of the building across the street. Kent: "Wait, see that bald black guy, that looks like Freddy."



Chris: "Dude, it does! I'll call him." Bald black guy on adjacent rooftop lifts phone to his ear. Laughing ensues. He tells us to come there instead. The party is at capacity but he promises he can get us in. While waiting, Klyce arrives. The party was off the hook. Free food and drinks. Music by Masterkraft and Justice. We got just a little drunk.




Scion Party at Raleigh part 1

Scion Party at Raleigh part 2

Scion Party at Raleigh part 3

Scion Party at Raleigh part 4


8:30pm We return to the room for break, then Nicole, Matt, Kent, one of Kent's friends, and I, all have dinner at Jerry's Deli. I'm tired and drunk, bu the food is a much needed recharge.










9:30pm Jared has invited us to a party at a mansion up in Miami Beach somewhere. The mansion is amazing, but the party is winding down. Pretty good music if not a bit hard. Free drinks are a nice perk. Make a stop in the bathroom to find it is walls and ceiling, covered with mirrors. Its actually disorienting to step into. Some guy in kitchen is snapping pics of a porn star lifting up her dress for another to lick her kitty. Two other guys standing there chatting are not really paying attention.






10:30pm Cab back to Delano to meet Clint and Aldo. More drinks, good times. Aldo is a fucking maniac.

12am Jared has gotten us comps into OM at the Y Ultra Lounge downtown. Feeling very exhausted but also a bit obligated by the comps, so we cab it to downtown. Ultralounge is exactly that. The most amazing club I've ever seen in my life. They must have spent 20 million on this place. Its huge and decorated super classy and high tech. Its a maze. Room after room with yet another DJ, and oh look out here's a huge patio where DJ Heather just came on. Some of the best house music I've heard in a long time. Heather fucking killed it. At 3am, we decided that we have a big day tomorrow and its time to turn in. Get to bed at about 4.


FRIDAY

11:30am Feeling pretty well rested, we wake up and start getting ready for the day. Since I take 15 minutes and Nicole take an hour+, I tell her to keep going while I run out and take care of some things. Last weekend in Mammoth I seemed to have lost my bank card and drivers license, leaving me with only a passport for ID, and no way to get money other than credit cards. So I go to the bank, withdraw $500 cash, call Klyce because we both need to meet up with a friend to have some biscuits for later.


12:30pm Klyce and I take care of that business, but I need a new pair of sunglasses because the nose rest pad thing broke off my old ones. Stop at Walgreens to pick up a new pair of shades.

1pm Meet up with Nicole at hotel, go grab a slice of pizza to fuel our bodies before we have to be at the Scion Boat Party with Masters at Work and DJ Jazzy Jeff at 2.

something we saw along the way

2:15pm Arrive at the docks 45 minutes early, because we have no tickets and we're trying to crash. Talk to the Scion guys up front and they say we have a pretty good chance of getting on. Jared, Kat, Kat's brother and his girlfriend all arrive. We're 7 deep.

2:30pm The line starts moving, there are about 40-50 people ahead of us, they start playing some dope hiphop on the boat, I've got a good feeling.



Miami Harbor Hopeful

2:40pm The attendants, door men, whatever you call them, have a problem. The dock master, "is a dickhead," they say, and wants everyone off the dock. Meaning the 300 people all lined up and waiting orderly on the dock, now have to be lined up and waiting orderly back up on the concrete before the dock, and they will admit people at the entrance of the dock. "You won't lose your place in line, just everybody back up, keeping the same order," they tell us. What happened next was the most poorly managed thing I've ever seen. Rather than having everyone do an about face and march off the dock, they start telling everyone at the very front of the line to back up. Rather than pulling the rope from the back, they tried to push the rope from the front. And what happens when you do that? It bunches up into a tangled mess.

2:50pm The result was 300 people in a huddled angry mob all crowding and pushing to be near the gate to the dock. The doormen are frustrated and yelling and screaming at people, "you fat guy! Back the fuck up! You! Guy with the big nose, back up!" Everyone was so pissed. "Well, I guess I'm not buying a Scion!" and, "FUCK SCION!" are heard. Some guy smooshed next to me said he'd been waiting since 11:30, 3 hours, had now lost his place and gave up and went home.

4pm We give up and go home. Well actually after trying to find a way to sneak onto the dock from a back route, which would have entailed jumping over a 6 foot gap from a higher dock to a dock 4 feet lower, we gave up. The girls never would have been able to make the jump, but I could have gotten on if it was just me. Luckily there was a harbour club restaurant and bar right there, so we decided to go cool our tempers with some margaritas and appetizers.

5:30pm After a maragrita, a corona, and a shot of patron, the word is that the Radio One party at Surfcomber is going off, so we hop in a cab to go check it out.

5:45pm Barak was right, its going off. We arrive, Jared gets us wristbands, and we enter to about 1500 people rocking out at this pool party. Pete Tong is spinning, doing a live Essential Mix. Its so funny to actually see him speak the words, "Coming to you live from Miami for Radio One's Essential Mix, up next we've got the Chicago House legend, everybody give it up for Mr. Frankie.... KNUCKLEEEEEES!!" Frankies thrown down some high BPM house, we go up to the VIP area and Jared gets a bottle. We stay through DJ Dan's amazing set, and watch the 1st couple tracks of James Zabiela as the sky turns dark. We decide its time for a nap before we go to Space for Sander Kleinenberg.









8:45pm Nap time. The Shelbourne pool is at capacity for Paul Oakenfold, the earplugs reduce the noise by about 5%. Somehow we fall asleep.

11:45pm Cellphone alarm. Get ready for a long night of the best set I'll probably hear all year. I've missed this the past 3 years in a row and everyone says its just the best ever. I'm further pained by these raving because Sander is pretty much my favorite DJ. I have a text message from Klyce, who didn't buy a presale, who says he went down to Space at 10:30 to wait in line and they turned him away saying no general admission until 5am. He's downstairs at the Salted party with Miguel Migs. "Oh well," I tell him, "there's worse places to be, meet some chicks, get wasted, see you tomorrow morning."

1am Jump in a cab to Space. Walk right in. Head up to the Terrace where Rene Amesz, Sander's protege and the man he calls, "the best producer on the planet right now" is playing a wicked set. Many of the tracks are his own. He's just like Sander, baby faced little dutch guy who keeps a huge smile on his face the whole time and dances around in the booth whether anyone is looking or not.

4am Sander comes on. Memory fuzzy from about 3 to 6am. I just know that its 95% as good as I expected. Which is amazing, because when something has been hyped up to you for 3 years as the greatest most unbelievably earth shatteringly sick thing you'll ever experience in your life, usually the reality of it is a bit of a let down. I wasn't let down. We made a lot of dance floor friends, including this hilarious clown named Mitch. I can't remember what he was doing, but he was hilarious. His friends we're saying, "oh you've never met him before? I apologize in advance then."

I love when they do the nitrogen

I remember this track

we left before this, damn!

That disco track

SATURDAY

10am As amazing as Sander was, were getting weary and sober and decide to call it a night, er, day. Actually we decide to go to the beach and relax. We cab it home, grab the ipod, doobie, 12 pack, and head to the Century Hotel to reunite with Jared and Kat.

12am We arrive at the beach. Klyce meets us there. He did exactly as I instructed, met chicks, got wasted, went back to room with them for after party at 6am. We rent some chezs and an umbrella for something outrageous like $150. Continue to sip beers, puff, relax and come down from the rush of the night before. Usually I feel like a disgusting piece of shit zombie after staying up until the next afternoon, but I feel remarkably good. Klyce finds some perfectly intact fish carcass washed up on the beach, so it joins us to hang out for a while. At some point here I put my cellphone in the pocket of my board shorts. No further explantion needed.








Puffer Fish
2:30pm We decide to go home and rest, but need to get some food 1st. We're looking for a cab. "Oh look, there's one letting someone out." Lo and behold, its Kent, just getting back from Sander at 2:30pm. "Holy shit, yo are a rock star dude." We find a place we can sit down outside and order a bottle of chianti. I have an awesome refreshing salad.

4pm We make it back to the room for some much needed sleep. Of course, there a pool party going downstairs again. There's pretty much always a pool party going on downstair. Earplugs are of little use, but the little is better than nothing.

8pm Rise and shine, we have to go see Kent spin at the GIANT hotel. Im really groggy.

9pm Kent and Jockton tag team on a nice set of house, progressive and breaks. The only way to keep going at this point is to drink. I have a Corona but quickly shift gears to vodkas with a splash of redbull.




Kent & Jockton

Kent



10:30pm We're hungry again so Nicole, Matt, and I head to the 11th Street Diner, a place in years past where Jared knew the owner and we got free food. Jared and Kat and Christian and Cindy all join us, Klyce tells of some funny stories and decides he wants to pick up the tab for all of us. Thanks Matty!

12am Lee Burridge is doing his 8 hour set at BED tonight, we we cab over there to see if we can get in. We can't, so we decided to go listen to some great SF house at the Jay J and Friends party down the street.

12:30am I don't know the name of this club but it was really cool. Small, but set up nicely. It had an outside area where they had another DJ set up playing what I can only descibe a downtempo house. Inside Mark Grant is killing it. I'd really love to see this guy again. Jared starts talking to the manager like they've known each other for a while, and we get a booth and a bottle of Grey Goose. We have a few drinks and get warmed up, I'm really tired and kind of just hanging in there because it not only be socially lame for me to do what I'd like to do which is go home and sleep, but I'd also kick myself and regret it too. So I have a couple vodka cranberries and try to perk up. The music is amazing but sometimes no matter how good it is isn't enough to get you on your feet shaking you ass. Pretty soon the manager steps behind the decks, he's not the managers, he's Jay J! He continues to kill it with high bpm bangin' yet sexy, soulful gospel house. Two black guys are dancing up a fucking storm, not like, gay or anything, just destroying it in a kind of battle with each other.

Jay J is dancing around, smiling, lip synching every single word to the the vocals. Nicole and Matt and I get up on the floor right in front of the booth smiling and fiving Jay J and dancing and generally having a great time. The fire had been lit.

3am This generally continues until about 4:30. Another bottle of Grey Goose and bottle of Veuve Clicquot are ordered. (Thanks Matty!) We get pretty drunk. A duo came on after Jay J playing really fucking hard bangin' house but either because we were shit faced drunk and having a blast, or because the night built up to this tempo in just the right way, hard house never sounded sound fucking sick. At one point we were all sitting around on the top of the back rest of the booth, smiling at eachother with wrinkled noses and holy shit expressions, pumping all our fists into the air just going, "ooooh ho ho hooo!" when they'd drop the bass of the next track.










Jay J

4:30am We decided its tme to go, the place is clearing out a bit, the booze was tapped out, I forgot my ear plugs and knew it was going to be bad the next day, so we all call it night and try to get a cab home.

5am Anyone whose done conference knows that half the cars on the road in South Beach are cabs, but hailing one at 5am is like trying to win the lottery. We walked about 15 blocks back to the Shelbourne and crashed.


SUNDAY

11:30am We wake up and pack out bags because we have to check out at 1pm. I'm hurting.

1pm Klyce had to change hotels to the Loewe's so we check our bags with the concierge and meet him in the lobby for a drink to kill time before Niki Beach. We walk down there and meet him, he has quite a story for us. It may not be fit for print so pending his authorization I'll just say that some little 5' 4" Puerto Rican crackhead tried to jack him on his way home so, Matt, being the aggressive brute that he is, breaks the guys nose and kicks him down a flight of stairs, and retrieves the crinkled wad of stolen money, minus 1 dollar that had AIDS blood on it.

1:30pm We finish our 16 dollar margaritas and head to Niki Beach. They are asking $40 each at the door and the guy who Jared told me to ask for is inside. We wait for about 20 minutes until the door girl feels sorry for us and offers to let Nicole in for free. We figure its either this or nothing, since we have to leave for the airport in 2 hours, so we pay and go in.

2pm Niki Beach is still jsut getting started, we walk around, have a couple beers, chill out at a table until the waitress tells us to buy a bottle or leave. So we cruise around a bit more, snap a few pics of a trio of really beat porn stars, and decide to head to the beach to finish off the roach I still have.









3:30pm We say our goodbys and hop in a cab to pick up our bags at the Shelbourne and head to Miami International Airport. I spot Olivia as we're boarding the plane and she trades seats so that she can sit next to us.

we were on the plane when Klyce shot this at Pawn Shop, but its too sick to leave out

We missed Sander at the Shelbourne too


More Sander at Shelbourne

8:30pm LA Time Ah, its good to be back in LA. WMC just keeps getting better.

MySpace? My Arse: Better to be a Luddite than virtually connected to thousands of idiots

From Arena Magazine:

by Justin Quirk

When Tom Stephens was arrested in connection with the Suffolk murders, much was made in the tabloids of the fact that he had a MySpace profile. As the Daily Star pointed out, having 3,000 virtual friends and posting up bizarre pictures of yourself was clear evidence of being a fantastic weirdo.

Sadly, the red-tops couldn't be more wrong. In Internet 2.0, there's a constant inference from MySpace's drone like users that if you don't have an online profile you're an isolated Luddite, missing out on an exciting range of Murdoch-owned digital fun and opportunities. The peer pressure to join in the western world's biggest electronic love-in is palpable.

All of which would be understandable if MySpace wasn't so dire on so many levels. The satirical, wikipedia-esque website, Encyclopedia Dramatica, succinctly nailed it as, "a lethargically coded piece of shit." Although if you're not bothered by machine freezing media files, stupid animated gifs, and songs that never seem to play when you want them to, then it might not be a problem. Visually, its a useful illustration of what you get when you democratize design: pixellated wallpaper, unreadable-colored text, pages that are twice as wide as your monitor and so much pointless flashing information that eventually you have to check your eyes into a rape crisis center.

MySpace has been loudly trumpeted as an innovation that breaks new bands and makes you new friends. But every A&R I know spends about 19 hours a day on the site, and still hasn't stumbled across a single band worth signing. Despite the repeated assertions to the contrary, artists are still making it through traditional means - the Arctic Monkeys and Enter Shikari gigged endlessly; Lily Allen spent two years on a development deal perfecting her 'Mungo Jerry ina big frock' routine. It does make contacting bands nice and easy for people in the industry though - as the previous route of going to Google and finding their homepage was a real time consuming struggle. As for 'social networking', the fact that every person has 8,000 friends means you might as well just walk into a pub and start yelling at the person next to you as contact someone in your extended network; you'll have about as much connection to them.

Arguably, I only think all this because I'm an embittered 30 year hack who's too old for MySpace. But the site is full to the bursting point with people like me. I look at it and every single fucking person I know is 'Online Now!'. Somehow, they've all got time to sit around commenting on each other's pictures like sniggering Japanese school girls and writing cringey little testimonials saying "Love You, Dan xxx ;)". It's like watching 3,000 of the most useless people in the country all standing in a giant circle jerk masturbating before running forward for a group hug.

I think my career and life can survive not joining up. I've got a hunch that in the long run, being able to use the English language correctly and having a functional brain might be more useful than being virtually connected to thousands of idiots who want to send me fliers, chain letters, and spyware. And if I ever become really desperate to get laid, you'll find me over at Faceparty, that's where all the younger fitter women hangout.

New Rule: Traitors Don't get to Question My Patriotism

From Real Time with Bill Maher


What could be less patriotic that constantly screwing things up for America? Just this month we've had Libby, the FBI abusing the Patriot Act, Walter Reed, and now Alberto Gonzales, you know its literally hard to keep up with the sheer volume of scandals in the Bush administration, which is why I like to download the latest scandals right onto my ipod. That way I can catch up on this weeks giant fuck up on my way into work. In fact Bush has so many scandals he could open a chain of Bush Scandal & Fuck Up themed restaurants.
"Hmm, should I get the Harriett Myers Meatloaf or the Katrina Crabcakes?"

Not to generalize but the 29% of people who still support President Bush are the ones who love to pronounce themselves more patriotic than the rest of us, but just saying you're patriotic is like saying you have a big cock, if you have to say it, chances are its not true. And indeed the party that flatters itself by saying they protect America better, is the same party that has exhausted the military, left the ports wide open, caused more people to hate America and Americans than ever before in world history, and outed a CIA agent, Valerie Plame.

That's not treason any more, outing a spy? Did I mention that it was one of our spies?! And how despicable that Bush's lackeys attempted to diminish this crime by belittling her service, like she was just some chick who hung around the CIA, "an intern really, groupie if you wanna be mean about it." NO. Big lie. Valerie Plame was the CIA's operational officer in charge of counter proliferation. Which means she tracked loose nukes. So when Bush said, as he once did, that his absolute number 1 priority was preventing terrorists from getting loose nukes, that's what she worked on. That's what she devoted her life to. Staying undercover for 20 years. Maintaining two identities, every god damn day - this is extraordinary service to your country. Valerie Plame is the kind of real life secret agent George Bush dreams about when he's not too busy pretending to be a cowboy or a fighter pilot.

CIA agents, are troops. This was a military assassination of one of our own, done through the press, ordered by Karl Rove. He said of Valerie Plame, quote, "She's fair game." Fair game?

George Bush likes to claim that he doesn't question his critics patriotism, just their judgement. Well, let me be the 1st of your critics Mr. President to question your judgement, AND your patriotism. Because lets not forget why they did it to her. Because Valerie Plame was married to this guy Joe Wilson, who the Bush people hated because he busted them on one of their bullshit reasons for invading Iraq. He was sent to the African country of Niger to see if Niger was selling nuclear fuel to Iraq -- they weren't, it was bullshit, and he said so. In fact his report was called "Niger? Please!"

Valerie Plame's husband told the truth about their lie, and so they were willing to jeopardize an entire network of spies and possibly America's safety to ruin her life. Wow. Even the mafia doesn't go after your family. Mark Twain said, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." I say Valerie Plame is a patriot because she spent her life serving her country; Scooter Libby is not because he spent his life serving Dick Cheney. Valerie Plame kept her secrets, the Bush administration leaked like the plumbing at Walter Reed.

In the year 2008 I really think that Hilary Clinton should run for President on the platform of restoring honor and integrity to the Oval Office.

Water Cooler Culture

What is the deal with these expressions about "around the water cooler tomorrow," people will be talking about LOST or whatever. The water cooler? IS that something that people really frequent? Do people hydrate using only the provided 4 oz. Dixie cups at a time? Don't they go fill up their plastic bottle, at most twice a day, and drink water at their desks out of that? Not that I'm advocating even less social contact for these poor souls. To the contrary, the point I want to make in this post is: Are people's work environments so slavish and devoid of humanity that they only opportunity they have to socially interact with eachother is when they cross paths at the water cooler? I work in a corporate enviroment now, albeit a creative one, but still, I feel compelled to not come in with shorts a t shirt and flip flops most of the time, there is no refidgerator stocked with snacks and sodas and beer, (which was a shock at 1st), we have a cubicle garden for the assistants, we don't have scooters to ride around on, there's no ipod playing over the speakers, (there are no office-wide speakers.)

Yet should I want to talk to a co-worker about what happened on Heroes last night, which I never do, or say I want to show Jerome something on Youtube, I just walk into his room and say, lemme show you something.

In these enviroments where these people apparently can only socially interact at the water cooler, why can't they just go hang out in eachother's office? If the boss catches them there they're busted but if they're at the water cooler, fair game? Look at porn, play practical jokes, whatever? The water cooler is the Holland of the office?

New Rule: Stop Saying America is the Greatest Country in the World

From Real Time with Bill Maher

America must stop bragging about being the greatest country on earth, and start acting like it. I know this is uncomfortable for the faith over facts crowd, but the greatness of a country can, to a large degree, be measured. Here are some numbers:

Infant Mortality Rate - America ranks 48th in the world. Overall Health - 72nd, Freedom of the Press - 44th, Literacy - 55th. Do you realize there are 12 year old kids in this country that can't spell the name of the teacher they're having sex with?

Now America, I wil admit, has done many great things: making the new world democratic comes to mind, the Marshall Plan, curing polio, beating Hitler, the deep fried Twinkie, but what have we done for us lately? We're not the freest country, that would be Holland, where you can smoke hash in church and Janet Jackson's nipple is on their flag. And sadly, we're not a country that can get things done either, not big things like building a tunnel under Boston or running a war with competence. We had six years to fix the voting machines, couldn't get that done. The FBI is just now getting e-mail! Prop 87 out here in California is about lessening our dependence on foreign oil by developing alternative fuels, and Bill Clinton comes on at the end of the ad and says, "if Brazil can do it, America can too."

Excuse me, but since when did America have to buck itself up by saying that it can catch up to Brazil? We invented the airplane and the light bulb, they invented the bikini wax and now they're ahead?

In most of the industrialized world, nearly everyone has health care, and hardly anyone doubts evolution. And yes, having to live amid so many superstitious dim wits is also something that effects quality of life. Which is why America isn't going to be the country that gets the inevitable patents in stem cell cures, because some people think Jesus thinks that its too close to cloning. Oh and did I mention we owe China a trillion dollars? We owe everybody money. America is a debtor nation to MEXICO. We're not on the bridge to the 21st century, we're on a bus to Atlantic City with a roll of quarters.

And this is why it bugs me that so many people talk like its 1955 and we're still number one in everything. We're not. And I take no glee in saying this because I love my country and I wish we were, but when you're number 55 in this category and number 92 in that one, you look a little silly waving the big foam #1 finger. As long as we believe being the greatest country in the world is an inalienable birth right, we'll keep coasting on the achievements of earlier generations and we'll keep losing the moral high ground, because we may not be the biggest, or the healthiest, or the best educated, but we did always have one thing that nobody else did: we knew soccer was bullshit.

And, we had one other little things called the Bill of Rights. A great nation doesn't torture people or make them disappear without a trial. Bush keep saying, "the terrorists hate us for our freedom," and he's working damn hard to see that soon, that won't be a problem.

No More $ for War = End of War. Keeping Troops at War Without Any $ = Unsupportive/War Crime

The Bush administrations latest response to the Democrats' threat of cutting off funding for the war is essentially this: "see! They don't support the troops. They would leave troops on the battlefield without ammo and armor and properly maintained vehicles."

"Um... no, YOU would leave them there.
We assumed that no more resources for war would bring an end to it. We didn't think you'd actually be evil enough to continue keep them there anyway."

Never the less, it seems to be working, the Democrats ARE afraid to cut off funds for the war because they are afraid it will make them look unsupportive.

All I have to say is: FOR THE MILITARY TO CONTINUE TO USE THE TROOPS WHEN THEY KNOWINGLY DON'T HAVE THE MONEY TO PROTECT THEM, IS THE ONLY THING THAT'S UNSUPPORTIVE.


Any time a Republican says that the Democrats don't support the troops because they cut off funds to them while in theater, the answer, assuming one day they DO cut off funds, is this:

We gave plently of notice before the funds were going to run out, it was your decision to keep the troops at war despite that fiscal reality. It is YOU who don't support the troops.

If you are gambling in Vegas and losing repeatedly, and your last stop at the ATM finds that you're overdrawn and it won't dispense any more cash, yet you continue to gamble anyway, is Bank of America not being supportive of you? Who's in the wrong here, the bank, or the compulsive loser?

Journalismianese

I was just listening to Jocelyn Ford on Market Place, and noticing that she has a particularly strong Journalism accent. Which made me think, how and when did this originate and... what's up with it?

In the old radio and newsreel days, they had a very different dialect of journalismianese. I can't replicate it in writing, but it is most similar that "meeaah, see here coppa," Jimmy Cagney prohibition gangster accent. Ah! Thank God for Youtube. Newsreel

I don't even know how to describe the modern journalismianese, but you know what it sounds like. Samantha Bee and John Oliver parody it quite well on the Daily Show. I understand that it is what it is for clarity and emphasis, but how does one acquire such an accent? Who decided that sing-songey-ness was the best way to convey information? Surely these journalists turn the accent on for the mics and cameras, and then go back to talking normal to their colleagues, family and friends. Is this accent something that they get coaching or training for? Do the practice in from of a mirror with a tape recorder? I guess its really not that hard. Try reading this paragraph in your best journalismianese, but add a 'comma, Wolf?" at the end.

my_attempt_here

Country Stuff

This is a two parter. It started out with the question of: What is the rhyme or reason that determines which suffix the people and language of a particular country are referred to by? -ian, -an, -ese, -ish, -ic, -i, are all the ones I can think of. It seems to be loosely logical. Most strongly correlated seems to be what letter or phenome the country ends with, however there are a lot of cases where it could just as easily go a different way, Iranian could just be Irani, Icelandic could be Icelandish, etc. There also seem to be some regional associations, Asian countries are all -ese, almost all of South American countries are -ian. You might think this is because almost all South American coutries end in -ia, and you'd be close. At 1st glance it looks that if its an -ia country it gets -ian, and if its just an -a country, it gets and -an. As in, Bolivia-Bolivian. Cuba-Cuban. But Brazil get -ian. Ecuador gets -ian, Paraguay get -an. Peru gets -vian. And Argentina gets either Argentine, or Argentinian, I could never figure that one out.

So I began looking at the map of the world on Google. Which brings me to part two. Why is every country spelled in its English tranlation, except a handful of random countries? Every last country in Africa is labeled under its English translation, even though I'm sure that the people of Mozambique, when speaking Mozambi, or Mozambiquian or whatever, refer to their own country as Mumbotumbokutamandimbio or something like that. So when making a map for the English speaking Western world, it makes sense to not put all this weird shit that no one will be able to identify, but rather put it all in English.

Why then, do they sporadically put all this weird shit that no one will be able to identify? They especially seem to favor the Eastern European countries for this treatment. Its says Deutschland instead of Germany, Polska instead of Poland, Ceska Repub. for Czech Republic. Some country of which I have no idea is called Magyarorzag. Turkey is Turkiye. Greece looks like a fucking fraternity. Russia is Poccnr, with backwards letters.

Japan is spelled in English along with Japanese characters, but why not Nippon? Why are China, and Saudi Arabia, and Central African Republic referred to as China, Saudi Arabia, and Central African Republic, yet Italy gets Italia? They use the Cyrilic alphabet in Russia, hence the Poccnr, yet I'm rather certain that in Kyrgyzstan they don't use the English alphabet.

So what the fuck google, you guys racist or what?