Sunday, January 24, 2010

Justin Bartha

We just watched the movie The Hangover. Not my cup of tea. Now, I didn't dislike it quite as intensely as Marc, but it still wasn't for me.

It did have a few redeeming elements, notably a few cuties and a pretty pussycat (can you call a Siberian Tiger a pussycat? Well, I just did).

My favorite part of the movie was Justin Bartha. In case you haven't laid eyes on him, here's a photo...



That is all.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The dangers of police power

Law and order is a good thing, but there are those of us who rightfully worry when some alleged "patriots" say that civil rights are secondary to fighting the terrorists. The problem is that bad people can hide behind such claims and trample the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike. Worse, some well-meaning people we'd ordinarily tend to trust will go too far and any of us could see our civil rights (even those of us with limited civil rights) go right out the window.

For the past several years, I've been concerned about things like the misnamed (politicians are such assholes) "USA Patriot Act." By the way, did you know that USA Patriot Act is an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism"?

How long did they work to come up with that load of crap?

More to the point, special powers granted to law enforcement are fraught with peril. Many conveniently forget this when they're scared (especially powerful white people who are unlikely to fall victim to the inevitable abuses), but perhaps if the mistakes are repeated enough times we might learn from them. Sadly, but not surprisingly, we have more evidence of what happens at times like these: F.B.I. Violated Rules in Obtaining Phone Records, Report Says

From the article: "On four occasions, the bureau made inaccurate statements to a court that authorizes national security wiretaps about how it had obtained calling records, the report said. And agents twice improperly gained access to reporters' calling records as part of leak investigations."

If that doesn't scare you, it should!

Also, the FBI "improperly obtained calling records for more than 3,500 telephone accounts from 2003 to 2006 without following any legal procedures."

I'm a very law-and-order kind of guy, but there must be a balance. Without protecting civil rights, law and order can quickly slide into a police state. This is just a reminder that it doesn't take much for things to start to go too far!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

NYE photos

And now, for your entertainment, here are a few photos from our New Year's Eve party...


Matt and John



Isn't John's tiara lovely?



Marc and John pose together



Yacov was there, and a good thing! What party is complete without a gay Orthodox rabbi?



Greg (Yacov's partner), Yacov, me and Marc


There were some other guests, but those are the only photos I got.

We had a great time!

Oh, by the way, you can't really see Greg's hotness in the photo above (although I'm pretty sure Yacov likes that look, and that's what really matters), so I stole this photo from Greg's Facebook page:



Honestly, that's not even the greatest shot of him. You can't really see his beautiful eyes (or beautiful thighs). When Greg first appeared on the rugby pitch, I heard a fair amount of "WHO IS THAT?!"

Really, he's a great guy. If he were ugly, we'd still adore him. That he's so hot is just a bonus!

Monday, January 04, 2010

NYE and other stuff

We had a fun New Year's Eve party here at the house. I have a few photos to share, but you'll have to wait for another post for those (because I don't have them uploaded to the right place for blog sharing). It was nice, even though some friends couldn't make it.

Other new things? Hmmm. Well, I bought Wii Sports Resort for our Nintendo Wii. I've been so obsessed with the swordfighting game that my shoulder hurt last night from all of the virtual battling! I also bought a charger for the Wii remotes. Yeah, I buy exciting things, don't I? :)

Not much else to report at the moment, but that's probably a good thing. A friend got laid off today, so that's not good, but he seems rather relieved for a variety of reasons. Having been down that road a few times, I know what he means. Sometimes work gets bad enough that being forced to move on is a relief. Hang in there, Greg. As you already have the wisdom to realize, life goes on and new opportunities come along!

On that note, I have three canines who need some assistance. Those darn doorknobs are a pain when you don't have thumbs, and they need to go out!