Firesign Theatre, Sony's QRIO

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 14 Jan 2004 13:00:00 GMT
# We're back in the deep freeze again. It was -12°F outside my house this morning. Plus there's a good breeze. The radio weather forecasters are calling the wind chill at -20 to -30. Highs today in the single digits. Highs tomorrow below zero with more wind. Then it'll warm up a little. Burr!

# Peter Bergman at FiresignTheatre.com - ABeCeDery - a little rhyming alphabet fun about current politics. Hehe. Flash animation. lrtdiscuss

# Peter Bergman at FiresignThreatre.com - The Night before Bushmas - a drastic repurposing of the old Christmas poem. Hehe. Flash animation. [lrtdiscuss]

# FiresignTheatre.com contains clips from 25 Firesign Theatre albums. Wow. I haven't listened to these guys since college. "Antelope Freeway 1/4 mile". "Hello, uh, Clem." "Why does the porridge bird lay its egg in the air?" "Shoes for industry. Shoes for the dead." "How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?"

# Steve Sack at Star Tribune via Marc Brands Liberty - Welcome to the land of the free - cartoon commentary on new "security" regulations on visitors to the U.S. I want to laugh at this, but it's too sad. [smith2004]

# Kim du Toit - Zoning Free Speech: Final Thoughts - Bravo! [kimdutoit]

Lest anyone forget, our Constitutional rights are critical to the survival of this republic, and to the survival of ourselves as a free people. In a nutshell:

Our First Amendment freedom is more important than my life, more important than your life, and more important than the President's life.

People, many people, have risked all and died for our freedoms, and now we're expected just to hand those freedoms away?

We do not exist for the convenience of government, and I for one refuse to have my rights infringed just so the Secret Service can have an easier job.

# Kim du Toit - Debating Skills Disappear - how Quayle should have responded to Bentsen's brilliant, "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" line, and Howard Dean's proper retort to race-baiting from Al Sharpton. [kimdutoit]

A similar thing happened last night, when I was watching the Donk debate, and "Reverend" Al Sharpton asked ex-Vermont Governor Howard Dean whether Dean had ever had any Blacks at important positions in his administration.

Dean hemmed and hawed and tried to slip away from the question, but Sharpton nailed him to the floor.

What Dean should have said was: "Look, Sharpton: there are only a few hundred Black people living in Vermont, and there were no qualified Blacks who applied for any jobs, which is why I didn't appoint any. Unless you can come up with a specific instance where I denied an appointment to a Black man who was qualified, shut up. Oh, and how many White people occupy positions of power on your staff?" [Dean should have known the answer to that question before he ever got to the debate, or else his staff should all be fired.]

# Frank Worley - Operation Unification is an attempt to bring together freedom fighters on a number of issues: The Drug War, Parental Rights, Marriage and Sex, Rights, Tax Reform, Social Security, Medicare and unemployment, Smokers Rights, Education, Gun Ownership, The Internet, Defense. [lrtdiscuss]

OPERATION UNIFICATION is an organization designed to bring together a broad based coalition to pressure government through legal means to change the focus of government and return to the basic ideals of freedom.

The biggest problem facing the nation today, outside of terrorism; is the governments insistence in acting in our best interests, instead of letting us make our own choices.

# QRIO is Sony's newest robot. Here's what Mike Rivero wrote about it: [whatreallyhappened]

I went to a presentation by SONY today, and the surprise stars were a pair of these robots. Now, we've all seen the HONDA Robot walk around and manage a flight of stairs, but these robots not only walked and ran, they DANCED, did martial arts kata, and even the Hula, without any indication of imbalance! They understand spoken words, recognize faces, and can have conversations. Move over C-3PO, the real world just caught up with you!

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