More Capitol Hill hijinks

The latest hyperbole uttered in Washington D.C. comes in the wake of the massive oil spill currently having its way with the Gulf of Mexico.  The background: executives from 5 major oil companies were hauled in front of Congress so representatives could flap their wings investigate the situation.  One congressman had some interesting words for BP America Chairman Lamar McKay:

Rep. Joseph Cao (R., La.), who emigrated from Vietnam, said: "In the Asian culture, we do things differently. During the samurai days, we just give you a knife and ask to you commit harakiri."

For those readers who may not be experts in Asian cultures, harakiri is a form of seppuku, which is a ritual suicide, historically performed by samurai.  While it's hard to deny that BP screwed up big time, it might be a little extreme to say they should just pull the plug on one of the largest companies in the world.

However, Mr. Cao's words do have an interesting ring.  According to Wikipedia, "seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies."  Given the fact that the Obama administration is trying to throw its weight around (most notably by blackmailing them into suggesting that they suspend their dividend and contribute $20 billion to a relief fund) with BP, maybe they should fall on their sword rather than become another US government experiment gone awry.

Winnebago Man

Stumbled across this the other day.....thought you might enjoy


http://winnebagoman.com/index.html

Stoked

What do you feel when you find out there's a new skate park in North Hempstead??

Stoked?

Yeah I thought so.

Magical and Revolutionary

Quick...think of something magical and revolutionary...

give up?

THE IPAD!

Ode to Minor League Baseball

Even though some might find it a little creepy that they're putting links at the top of your Gmail window based on what's in your emails, sometimes the links are pretty cool.  Case in point: it let me know there's a new minor league team: the Lake County Fielders.  Sound like an odd name?  Maybe the logo will ring a bell:

No?  Does it help to know it's in Iowa?  How about this:

Get it?  Field of Dreams?  Nice one.  That's one of the great things about minor league baseball.  You get goofy nicknames that reflect that character of the places they're in:
Kannapolis Intimidators (Dale Earnhardt was from Kannapolis)

Montgomery Biscuits:

Las Vegas 51s (as in Area 51):

Then, there's always the far less entertaining yet equally unique name of Dash.  That's the Winston-Salem Dash (One of the city's nicknames is "The Dash", in reference to the hyphenated name):

How about the Vancouver Canadians (Vancouver is in Canada...get it!?!?)

(That is not their logo but it is much cooler than the actual one)

And I guess for good measure, we can throw in the Lansing Lugnuts:

Sweet.  In my opinion, it's hard to beat a minor league baseball game.  Everything's (relatively) cheap, plenty of entertainment (outside the game, that is), great atmosphere, and all that's just in case the thought of relaxing in the sunshine and watching baseball isn't good enough for you.  So get out there and support your local oddly named baseball team!

ALERT: Guam about to capsize!

Many have probably already heard about this, but Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) actually asked a Navy Admiral about the possibility of the island of Guam tipping over and capsizing due to overpopulation.

Check it out
(No intent to deceive by skipping to 1:05 in the video, it's just that he spends the first 65 seconds wondering aloud exactly how big the island is)

Now, to be "fair", Johnson later claimed that he made the comment in jest:

On Thursday, the congressman said that he was merely being funny and used the “capsize” term in a metaphorical sense.

"The subtle humor of this obviously metaphorical reference to a ship capsizing illustrated my concern about the impact of the planned military buildup on this small tropical island,” he said in a statement.

Yes, because humor is such an excellent way to get your point across on Capitol Hill