Saudis want WHAT?

This story in today's NY Times says that the Saudis and some other oil producing countries think they deserve compensation from the rest of the world if oil consumption declines as a result of a global warming agreement. I can imagine only one sane response to this request: "GO FUCK YOURSELVES"!!!

Maybe the oil producing world could make that claim morally if, in fact, any of the billions they receive every year ended up helping the average resident. But most oil producing countries are in fact kleptocracies, where the few, well connected get rich off the oil, and the rest of the country goes poor, uneducated, unfed, and unhealthy. Very little of that money is invested in human capital, and human capital is what lifts a country from poor to rich. And I'm not even going to go into the fact that some of the oil money we send them goes into the pockets of jihadist terrorists!

So, we should say to these rich Saudi sheiks, "Fuck off you greedy, selfish, backward bastards". Not that I feel strongly about this or anything.

Calvin Trillan has the answer.

I've been a fan of writer Calvin Trillin since I heard on "Imus In The Morning" back in the early 90's. He has the kind of clever, understated, sophisticated since of humor that you seldom see any more (If you want to see it in films, watch the old "Thin Man" movies!).

In today's NY Times, Trillin has a piece speculating on what went wrong on Wall Street. The problem: Smart people started working there. Very funny, and possibly even true. Enjoy it HERE.

Nobel Committee "havin' a laugh"

As everyone knows by now, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday. This has given the mouth-breathing morons like Rush more reason to hate him, since those Nobel guys are pussy Euros who don't understand that the US was granted the power by God to tell everyone else what to do, so of course they love Obama, who, as we all know, hates America and wants to surrender to Al Queda.

However, this has left even many supporters confused. The only thing he has done to deserve this award is NOT be George W. Bush. While not being Bush is something anyone should be proud of (unless they are named Rumsfeld, Cheney, or Rove), it hardly qualifies Obama for this award. He's only been in office for 9 months, and was only for 1 month when nominated. It is pretty hard to defend his winning this award.

So the question is: What were the Noble people thinking?

I have a theory. I don't know who these Nobel pickers are, but they have this image as a bunch of very serious people who gather to give out serious prizes. But what if they are instead a bunch of guys who read Dave Barry, watch football, and enjoy a good laugh. They decided that, without anyone really doing anything to further peace in the past year, why not give it to Obama and see if we can make Glenn Beck's head explode, and maybe Hannity's too. It would also explain that they usually give the literature prize to the most depressing book they can find. As the English would day, they're "havin' a laugh"!

The Invention of Lying

When I went to check on the showtimes for the Ricky Gervais film "The Invention of Lying" on Yahoo movies, I was surprised to see that the general public's grade of the film was lower than the critics. Usually this is the other way around, as people don't tend to go to films they don't expect to like, whereas critics have to see them all.

What was the problem? If you've seen the coming attractions, you expect a story about a guy who tells the first lies ever, mostly to get women. What the coming attractions don't cover is that the big lie in the film is that there is an "invisible man in the sky", and that after we die we go to this wonderful place and get a mansion. Understandably, most of the very negative reviews on Yahoo were the result of people seeing the film and being pissed that their faith in the invisible man in the sky was being challenged and mocked.

I found the film mostly witty and clever, and very enjoyable....but then, I am in the 12% of Americans who already know that the "invisible man in the sky" is a lie. But I do understand that 1) the marketers of this film did not advertise this story line, as questioning God in a religious society like ours is not the path to boffo box office and 2) that religious people were upset that they found out after paying their $9 that they were being mocked.

That said, I would ask the question to the religious: If you are afraid to have your faith questioned, how true can your beliefs be?

Good Luck Signing Free Agents, Rush!

Word is out that Rush Limbaugh wants to become one of the owners of the St. Louis Rams. Recall a few years ago Rush's short-lived tenure on ESPN's "NFL LIVE", where he was fired for saying that the media loved Eagles QB Donovan McNabb because he was black (It is a shame Tom Jackson didn't jump over the desk and strangle him!). Then there are Rush's constant racist rants against Obama and,....well, anyone else who is famous and black. Can you see a problem yet with this guy owning an NFL team?

I find it pretty hard to imagine that any African-American star on the free agent market will be anxious to sign with a team owned by a famous racist. I'm guessing about half the players in the NFL are black, so that is going to make the Rams one really bad, white team. I don't think many black fans would be wanting to give Rush their money either.

Of course, Rush would just claim that the black players were racist for not wanting to play for him, and his followers, with their Dittoheads up the Dittoasses, would believe him.

I bet you thought Boulder had healthy food!

A couple weeks ago I was in downtown Boulder looking for a snack, and stopped into a shop called Tea & Cakes that specializes in cupcakes ( and sells them for nearly $3!). One of the offerings was a chocolate bacon cupcake.....and no, I am not making this up or having a Homer Simpson hallucination! They make a cupcake with chocolate icing and bacon bits on top. For some reason I didn't try it, which is too bad because now it appears that this cupcake has made them famous. Watch the video below from The Food Network.

Go Rox!

Kudos to the Colorado Rockies for making the playoffs. In April and May they couldn't hit or pitch, and looked like a complete disaster. Then Clint Hurdle was replaced as manager by Jim Tracy and they went from playing way below their potential to way above it. Tracy will surely be named NL Manager of the Year. Somehow he got talented young players like Troy Tulowitzki, Ubaldo Jimenez, Seth Smith and Carlos Gonzalez to play up to their potential.

It's great fun being a baseball fan in a city with a team in the playoffs. Maybe this will create enough excitement that the local sports bar will actually put the Rockies Sunday games on one of their many TV's (unlike last Sunday!).

I can't imagine the Rox getting past the first round of the playoffs.....they swing at too many bad pitches and the bullpen has shown it's vulnerable. But, I really hope I'm wrong.