Geek Soap Box

I was walking down a very dark and deserted street in bucolic Hoboken, New Jersey, at around 1:30 AM Sunday morning, heading from a local bar to where my car was parked seemingly a mile away.  Nothing bad happened, rest assured, nor did I expect it to, honestly.  But it started an intellectual exercise in [...]

“I, [name], do solemnly swear, that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.” It’s a simple and elegant turn of phrase, actually, and succinctly sums up the essence [...]

Blog Maverick: Tax the Hell Out of Wall Street and Give It to Main Street It should always be the natural reaction of any lover of freedom and liberty to be inclined towards opposing any new proposed tax, especially those proffered in the name of the public good.  This blog post from Mark Cuban, though, [...]

Every so often, we the people are reminded of our civic responsibilities in this great society of ours and are called to serve a greater duty, a symbol of our individual, inalienable liberty. I speak, of course, of being called to jury duty. Nothing says democracy like spending a day or two sitting in a [...]

While on vacation this past week, I happened to become involved in conversation with an individual of, shall we say, a different political persuasion.  Now, this is rarely a big deal for me; growing up and living my entire life in a supermajority left-leaning region, I know how and when to pick my fights and [...]

Let’s face it, our lives are pretty decent, and for that we should consider ourselves blessed.  We in the United States and other nations of the “West” are not torn apart by political strife, genocide, or cataclysmic natural disasters.  For the most part, we all are able to wake up each morning, safe and sound, [...]

The imperfect end to an utterly putrid baseball season for fans of the New York Mets has reached its bittersweet crescendo: a fall un-classic pitting the hated Bronx Bombers against the cocky, arrogant, and despicable defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.  What is a man, so filled with contempt and loathing for both franchises, supposed to [...]

We live in a world unlike any other witnessed before by human civilization.  Unparallelled prosperity (current recessions notwithstanding) and access to information have left us with the entire world at our figurative fingertips.  No piece of knowledge is beyond a Google or Bing click away, and news from the farthest corners of the planet feel [...]

Browsing through the usual chatter on Twitter this AM, I was struck by random speculation and questions everyone has related to what is currently happening in Iran, and how/if the United States should respond. Let’s start with the Middle Eastern nation itself: while I have not yet seen Jimmy Carter personally step forward and endorse [...]

I usually read Hope n’ Change mostly to chuckle at its pithy, on-point cartoon critiques of the follies plaguing the current presidential administration. Today’s content, though, chills my bones and makes me ponder terrible thoughts. And though the media keeps saying that the (ahem) former terrorists will be in Palau’s “custody,” the men will NOT [...]

Few works have as much cachet of geek-cred as Alan Moore’s 1985 classic miniseries for DC Comics, Watchmen.  The story is one of a distopian present filled with worries over nuclear war and sex and pornography and a handful of semi-retired, outlaw costumed vigilantes caught up in the middle.  It is truly not your father’s [...]

The semi-famous utterance above originated with Joe Schmo himself, Matt Kennedy Gould, as he looked around and found himself the only hint of reality ensnared within an otherwise completely fabricated world.  Looking around at today’s incredibly whacked-out political scene, I can’t help but ask the same question.  Did the rest of the world take stupid [...]

Never one to miss an opportunity to analyze the potential outcome of any situation in the name of preparedness, the US Air Force has made public its actual, 100%-legitimate “Rules of Engagement for Blogging.” And you know what? It positively reeks of awesomeness. Amazing, and scary-accurate as a portrait of the overall blogosphere. Let it [...]

Seven thoughts from the mini-movie 24: Redemption, which aired tonight on FOX: 1) Mixing It Up: It’s great to see that the year-plus layoff has given the writers an opportunity to come up with a storyline that does not appear to involve Muslim terrorists or nuclear weapons; as “real” as those issues may be, we’ve [...]

I may forever either lose or completely regain my conservative bona-fides with this statement: Freakonomics recently had its readers interview former presidential candidate Ron Paul, and damned if it didn’t prove fascinating and thought-provoking. There are many aspects of the “Ron Paul Phenomenon” that utterly frighten me. His take on monetary policy and isolationism could [...]

Bill O’Reilly can be a little…over the top…sometimes in his firebranded and self-righteous crusade of populism, but every now and then he and his staff tackle an issue nobody else in the left-leaning mainstream media is willing to and hot damn, if it doesn’t make me chuckle with glee. Take this stalking of noted terrorist [...]

I fully confess that–as I type this at 7:47pm Eastern Daylight Time–I expect Sarah Palin to lose tonight’s Vice Presidential Debate. Even if she holds her own, the narrative has already been carefully crafted and repeated ad infinitum throughout the mainstream media: Palin is an inexperienced, not-ready-for-primetime gaffe machine with little national experience and even [...]

A loyal friend and reader with independent political leanings sends a recent article from CNN regarding Iraq’s $3 billion deal with a Chinese oil company, along with the pithy commentary “Just sayin’.” It was the first time in more than 35 years that Iraq has allowed foreign oil companies to do business inside its borders. [...]

According to Barack Obama, someone set us up the bomb back in the early days of World War II. “Throughout our history, America’s confronted constantly evolving danger, from the oppression of an empire, to the lawlessness of the frontier, from the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor, to the threat of nuclear annihilation. Americans have [...]

The natural reaction to hearing the United States National Anthem? Why, hoot, howl, and give the Nazi salute, of course! For groups such as World Can’t Wait and Code Pink, that is… I’ll bet they think this actually helps their cause, too. H/t to Moonbattery.

The faux Presidential seal is already no more (via Alarming News), so I guess Obamarama doesn’t really have those brass ball afterall. In fact, the more one looks at it, the more one could say that the esteemed Senator from Illinois is actually a flip-flopper of the highest order, and a colossal coward who runs [...]

There’s a reason why I have always had a “blog tag” called “signs of the apocalypse.” Actually, there’s been a bunch of reasons today alone! EXAMPLE: E.D. Hill teases an Obama fist-bump as a “terrorist fist jab.” I’m sorry, but what the fuck? Hey, I still love FOX News as any good old Republican does, [...]

Aww, Dubya, where have you been? I wish you always had this fire and determination and…dare I say…eloquence?