Swimmer's Gotta Eat Too Man!

As anyone who watched the Olympics at all this year probably has a pretty good idea, by way of Michael Phelps, as to how much a swimmer must consume to survive.

This is the best defense I can give for Kirsty Coventry, who recently took 100,000 USD from Zimbabwean President Bobby Mugabe. In case anyone has been in a coma the last few years, here is a little taste of the current situation. Price Controls and other idiot moves have pretty much left the country's currencey worthless and their economy in shambles.

But don't get mad at Kirsty. Get mad at Mugabe. For many things. Not just this. But also for this too, because if you can shell out 1ook to an Olympic swimmer, you ought to be able to throw a little bit of that towards not killing the rest of your country. Story here.

Intro/Two Party System Biases

Hola, I'm Garland as Rachel so graciously described in her previous post. Although, she did forget some of my previous incarnations such as Howard Hughes, Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III, and of course, my most famous stint as Martin Luther King Jr. I have tried to spread fair independent ideology throughout the ages which i will continue with on tonight. The libertarian party, recognized as a legitimate third party as well as the largest political party outside of Democrats and Republicans, has been prevented from putting their candidate, Bob Barr on presidental ballots in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. In Oklahoma, a lawsuit was filed due to its restrictive ballot access rules, which "are contrary to the First Amendment right to petition one's government for a redress of grievances."(Bob Barr Wiki Page). Also in Pennsylvania, the issue lies with the GOP filing a lawsuit to prevent Barr from taking his rightful place on the ballot; they claim that the Libertarian Party waited too long to place his name on teh ballot. The hypocritical notion of this is that in 2000, when Bush lobbied unsuccessfully to get McCain's name off the primary ballot, McCain said of the situation, "I would never consider, ever consider, allowing a supporter of mine to challenge Governor Bush's right to be on the ballot in all 50 states." Now, how is this any different from challenging Bob Barr's right to be on the ballot? And why challenge it? Because he filed it past the deadline. However, the Democratic and Republican Party have not even submitted their packages to be on Texas' ballot and by the own logic of the GOP Party, McCain's name should not be on the ballot there as well. Also, there is a lot of debate, about just that...the presidential debates and whether or not Bob Barr should be allowed to participate in these debates. Why should a legitimate political contender in the presidential election not be allowed to participate in debates and get his party platform and help get the main parties to adopt parts of their politicies? Over 70% of independents polled say that he should be allowed to take party, and a majority of Republicans and Democrats agree as well. This country needs more of a challenge to the two party system if we are to maintain any kind of political integrity and more importantly, to get more and exceedingly diverse ideas and solutions to our nation's problems.

我們歡迎你！！

I would like to take this time to official welcome my dear friend, partner in crime, Minatory Swimmers personal poet and now co-blogger, Garland, to Minatory Swimmer.

A brief Biography:

Garland has always been. It is possible to trace his many incarnations throughout history. From that little mishap with the dinosaurs, to helping integrate baseball as Jackie Robinson, Garland has left his footprint on the course of existence.
Famed for his great, and sometimes dangerous, sense of humor, Garland made perhaps some of his most lasting impressions as the great wit, author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin and in perhaps his most famous avatar, Yeshua , sometimes known as Brian, the prominent early CE carpenter and stand up comedian. Due to some unintended consequences, Garland does not like to talk much about the former persona, but if you are interested, a biographical film may be found here.
As for his most recent incarnation... well, I'll let him tell you about that. To be sure his poetic accomplishments ( see Theodore Seuss Giesel) and numerous other talents will be a marvelous addition to this establishment. We are lucky to have him.

Change of Plans

I originally planned on writing a lovely piece on censorship (or Censorshit as I like to call it) and the Chinese censors recent infatuation with website blocking but got halfway through and lost interest. So instead I give you this, which is much more entertaining:



In other news, cable.

Recently we just got our cable "upgraded". We did not ask for this upgrade, I believe I speak for my entire household when I say that we were perfectly happy with our old cable. This new "upgraded" cable however, is crap. It keeps on restarting itself, taking several minutes out of program watching and deleting things off the DVR. I would like to take this time to express my great displeasure with Time Warner Cable and with the government. I know it is more convenient to have a cable monopoly but I can't help but feel like we would get better and cheaper service if the consumer had more choice. There was an article in the paper about the numerous complaints the companies have received regarding the new service, but thus far nothing has been done to fix problems. We are not amused.

On a happier note, OLYMPICS!

I have yet to decide whether or not I want Phelps to make history... I keep going back and forth on the issue. All I know is that holy crap!?!?! Where did the Chinese Women's 400 Free Relay come from?