Raznor's Rants

Costarring Raznor's reality-based friends!

Friday, October 28, 2005

Friday Dog-Blogging


Ahhh- look at that little chest.

Well, here you go. I have most of the requisite hardware for a new dog blog, just need one of the pieces. But once again, look for a Wednesday dog-blog.

Thursday, October 27, 2005


God Has Sense of Humor About Four Horsemen

Posted by Ross

It would seem that God almighty, creator of the universe, has a sense of humor when it comes to sending the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, symbolic representations of the end of times.

"There was the 2000 election," God said, "that was the first.

"The Red Sox and White Sox, of course. They were two and three respectively."

Sources say God is still unsure as to the identity of the fourth horseman, though they say he is currently deciding between nuclear armageddon, a "Day After Tomorrow"-style deep freeze, or Harriet Miers.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Comics to check out
Posted by Raznor

The last couple August Pollak toons have been sheer brilliance, so don't forget to check out Ghostbusting Virginians for Truth and BIRD FLU.

And while I'm on the subject, don't forget to check out the recent additions to Get Your War On. My favorite:

Sunday, October 23, 2005

As the kids say - holy sweet living fuck!!!
Posted by Raznor

So after having 0 homeruns from April through September, Posednik hits his second homerun of October to win the game for the White Sox. Man- this could be the year. First World Series win in 86 years!!!

Wow. Just wow.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Da Friday Random 10
Posted by Raznor

Hooray for Lauren. Not doing the self-audit this week. Don't feel like it. Shut up. Go away.

Anyway here be da list:

1) "Christmas" - Remy Zero
2) "The Bends" - Radiohead
3) "Head" - Prince (man I have a lot of Prince on this laptop don't I)
4) "Grace Cathedral Hill" - The Decemberists
5) "Sam" - Keith West (from The Roots of Tommy - an awesome song - seriously)
6) "Cursed Diamond" - Black Crowes
7) "Reptile" - Nine Inch Nails
8) "Rael 1" - The Who
9) "Mr. Self Destruct" - Nine Inch Nails (hmm - two Nine Inch Nails songs in one sitting - I only have one album I swear! But fortunately I do really like this song)
10) "Homecoming" - Green Day - one of their massive 5-part songs in American Idiot.

Well there we go - wasn't that fun?

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT PARANOID...
Posted by the bekka

That's right, folks. Time for more incredible, but true tales about The Man's ever-diminishing locus of invasion into your very own living room. Own a color printer? This'll make you seriously consider switching to B&W next time. Spooky, or crime-preventing? The world may never know...

Sunday, October 16, 2005

OUR FUTURE MACHINE OVERLORDS: MAC OR PC?
Posted by the bekka

Definitely Mac.

However, our future machine overlords will eventually be thwarted by their lack of "home" and "end" keys. Victory for humans!

(These observations and more brought to you by the bekka's new iBook "Planet Earth," her 26th birthday present from Ross.)

Saturday, October 15, 2005

I am smitten by grief
Posted by Raznor

One of my favorite bloggers Jesse Taylor has called it blog-quits, handing over control of Pandagon to Amanda Marcotte. Jesse has always been reliable at providing a much needed laugh at the expense of wingnuts. His posting shall be missed.

Fortunately we still have Amanda's excellent fisking to fill the void.

Saturday Dog-Blgging
Posted by Raznor


Hermes sitting.

I'm not at the moment able to find the connector between the digital camera and computer. Too bad, as I had a perfect picture for this week's dog-blogging. Instead here's a bird's eye view-ish of Hermes sitting. Maybe I'll do a midweek dog-blog when I find that connector. Enjoy.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

A chilling look at things to come
Posted by Raznor

Via Ampersand you must click this link right now!

Tangled Webs and So Forth
Posted by Raznor

Maybe I'm hyperpoliticizing this, but today's Penny Arcade seems to be an allegory for the entire Bush Administration.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Republicans hate Democracy
Posted by Raznor

Are you not sufficiently pissed off? Well then check out how House Republicans kept a floor vote open for an hour and 45 minutes so they could twist the arms of two republicans into changing their vote so the "Let Oil Companies Do Whatever the Hell They Want" bill could pass.

This is not democracy. This is tyranny. This is one party pissing on the face of any democratic traditions. The only thing that makes this better than El Salvador in the 80's is that the house republicans didn't kill 3 of the aye votes to get their way.

Via August.

Saturday Dog-Blogging the "Holy fuck I can't believe I forgot Friday Dog-blogging" edition
Posted by Raznor


Hermes is too cool to care about an upside down ear.

Well, here's an adorable picture of Hermes for you. I swear I won't forget next week. Honest!

Friday, October 07, 2005

Friday Random 10 with coolness self-audit
Posted by Raznor

Requisite praise to our leader - she is wise and powerful. And now the list:

1) "Coast to Coast" - Elliott Smith 10/10 - anything by Elliott Smith gets a requisite 10/10. It's that simple. Don't question it.

2) "Rearviewmirror" - Pearl Jam 8/10 - sure I got into Pearl Jam late, but even 10+ years later this song remains rockin'.

3) "Lola Stars and Stripes" - The Stills 9/10 - loses one point because if a song I love this much could possibly score a perfect coolness score the combination would likely lead to the armageddon. My god, it must be one of the best guitar lines ever.

4) "My Hometown" - Bruce Springsteen 7/10 - the requisite 6/10 for a baseline Springsteen song, plus one point for being a live recording.

5) "Shockadelica" - Prince 6/10 - remember what I said last week about losing 2 cool points for not having any actual Prince albums. Plus this is the first time I've even heard this song.

6) "Holiday" - Green Day 8/10 - I better start being hard on myself but the awesomeness of the album American Idiot means 8/10 is the lowest I could justify giving this song.

7) "This Fire" - Franz Ferdinand 5/10 - It's a fun one. But now that everyone's heard of Franz Ferdinand I must maintain my music snob credentials by reserving high cool scores for songs like "Jacqueline" or "Van Tango".

8) "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City" - Bruce Springsteen 7/10 - minus one for repeating - this is the second week in a row where two Springsteen songs came up. Hmm.

9) "Extraordinary Machine" - Fiona Apple 8/10 - would be 9/10 except now the album is actually getting released. Damn - missed my awesomeness window on that one.

10) "No Name #4" Elliott Smith 10/10 - remember what I said about Elliott Smith songs. No repetition penalties for this.

So my average was 7.8/10. Yeah, beat that Jonah Goldberg! You heard me!

Thursday, October 06, 2005


HOLY FUCKING SHIT! PLANET EARTH TRYING TO KILL US ALL!!!!!

Posted by Ross

You know what scares me? Desperation. Because it's one of those purely human traits that leaves a path of pure devastation in its wake. You know what scares the holy living crap outta me? 5 billion desperate people.

Corruption brings out the worst in humanity. It must stop or this planet will continue to find new ways to kill us.

And before we are wiped from existence, we will be rendered a planet of very desperate people. Billions of desperate people. Many with guns. Some with nukes.

If the only things we see are death and destruction, then those will be what we create.

But if we can unite around a vision that makes up happy, that gives up hope, that makes us proud to be human, we can bring out the best in people.

What we need is a global paradigm shift. And I know what you're saying, quite cynically I might add, that we people keep getting worse and we're too greedy and too lazy and too damn crazy to ever actually make any changes whatsoever for the better.

But consider this:

If you read the lovely book ISHMAEL by Daniel Quinn, you will be reminded that we humans have lived much longer on this planet in harmony with nature than we have raping and destroying it, and overpopulating to every corner of the globe.

What if the true evolutionary advantages of our big beautiful brains and our nifty opposable thumbs are to give us the vision and the ability, for the sake of the survival of the species, to adapt in a way that encourages our planet, our home, to heal.

That can only be accomplished with humble and incorruptible leadership, which certainly, sadly, is not the climate of the time. Hopefully it will be soon, when, instead of Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby whispering the nation's agenda into the president's ear like some horrible two-headed Grima Wormtongue, it will be someone a little more reasonable, someone a little more in touch with the peeps, someone like... Pat Robertson.

God, we are so fucked.