Clarion Content

Donald looks like he should be dating, not bashing Rosie...

Nobody likes a good conspiracy theory better than Washington, D.C.'s inside the beltway crowd, always whispering and "Et tu?" intrigues afoot in that milieu. Here is the latest one the Clarion Content has picked out of the flotsam and jetsam.

We suppose that you, dear readers, have been hearing bits and pieces of it too, only not quite spun through this loony loom. Donald Trump, aka the Donald, is casting about, considering a run for President, perhaps as a Republican, possibly as an independent candidate. He has been stirring the pot on the Obama birther controversy. This is the what that we have all heard.

But is it a Trojan Horse? The inside the beltway conspiracy theorists note over the years that Trump has given more money to Democratic candidates than Republicans. Is this a Joaquin Phoenix thing? Is the Donald running for president as a hoax, a publicity stunt?

No, the conspiracy theorists have it down as even more sinister than that, the idea being that the Democrats and Obama want Trump to run, and run as far to the right as possible. That's right, the Democrats and Obama are behind the Trump campaign. The claim is that their calculus is that a Trump candidacy that can siphon off even 3%-5% of the right wing electorate that was likely to vote for the Republican party standard bearer, would tip the scales in Obama's favor.

Obama, in this theory, is deliberately playing along, releasing his birth certificate to keep the issue burbling. Give the far right crowd, for whom Trump is the red herring, a document that they have months and months to shred for inaccuracies, suspicious marks, blurs and other signs that it, the birth certificate, has been doctored.

Quite a conspiracy theory.

Ya like it?

Labels: Politics, Pop Culture

Who is the more self-absorbed jerk here...

A couple of notes from the Miami Heat's closeout win over the 7th seeded Philadelphia 76ers last nights. Philly was a .500 team in the comparitively weaker Eastern Conference of the NBA. Miami beat them 4 to 1 in the series and by six points last night. A couple of notes for basketball insider from the game: LeBron James no field goals and only three points in the fourth quarter. Delonte West not only stole his Mom, but his mojo, too. The Heat, as a team, no field goals in the final six minutes and forty-three seconds as mediocre Philly whittled a ten point lead down to one, save for a Wade breakaway dunk in final moments after the outcome had been decided.

Very solid, Miami. Very solid. Well done. Seven titles here you come...

Labels: NBA, sports

Storms raged across the American South last night leaving death and destruction in their wake. (Notice how no one jokes about 2012 and Mayans any more? We have been through a lot of late.) Reports indicate 170 souls lost their lives last night across several states.

And in a phrase that may sound all too eerily familiar from Japan, the storms knocked out power to three nuclear reactors, all located in Alabama and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Fortunately, unlike Japan, there was no damage to back-up systems. Diesel generators kicked in, cooling systems were maintained and core temperatures never moved. But don't let any of these nuclear power apologists tell you, "It could never happen here."

Bullsh*t. We are one unforeseen natural disaster away from sharing Japan's circumstances. America must move away from, not toward, nuclear energy.

Labels: energy policy, infrastructure, Politics, technology

Our look at what the teens and tweens of America are watching. We peer into their world through the lens of Youtube. You may have caught some of our earlier episodes, if not, follow this link [and scroll down past this post].

This video from Yung Humma is blowing up. He introduces the portmanteau "smang." We can't decide if Yung and his buddy, Flynt Flossy, are being facetious in the manner of the Steam Punk movement, ala Professor Elemental, or keeping it real.

Labels: music, Pop Culture, what they are watching

New dog, old tricks?

We can't believe how many times in the last two years we have had to ask the same question?!? How different is Barry Obama from King George the II?

Despite the craven slobbering of the Obama apologist crowd, the facts are he represents more continuity with George Bush II than we ever expected. This today from The Hot Air Archives,

"Obama’s new Afghanistan ambassador is... Bush’s old Iraq ambassador... That would be Ryan Crocker, of course. Please don’t confuse him with David Petraeus, Obama’s top Afghanistan commander who used to be … Bush’s top Iraq commander. Or with Robert Gates, Obama’s Secretary of Defense who used to be … Bush’s Secretary of Defense.

Gates, of course, is stepping down in a few months. At this rate, I wonder if O will replace him with Rumsfeld."

Oh wait, no we forget, Obama's policy is more nuanced. He is using more remote control drones to shoot missiles into Pakistani villages...

As the author of the Hot Air piece notes, the only saving grace of this appointment would be if it is political cover for the President to back away from his dangerously foolish pledge to keep United States troops on the ground in Afghanistan until 2015. The Clarion Content has long held that there is no political center with which to form a congruent Western style State in Afghanistan. There is no more right or reason to prop up a Hamid Karzai than there is a Muammar Gaddafi or a Bashar al-Assad. (Barry and Hillary are backing only one of those other two, this month.)

Labels: 2008 presidential election, 2012 presidential election, Central Asia, Middle East, Politics, war

Pioneer 11 approaches Saturn

The Clarion Content has not believed in the value of the manned space program since the Cold War ended. We support space exploration and experimentation. Un(hu)manned exploration is much, much, less expensive. There is still widespread world hunger, millions lack a daily source of clean water, not mention housing and disease, or America's desperate need for infrastructure investment. The Clarion Content cannot support the expenditure of the human crewed space program.

The final launch of the Shuttle program is upon us and with it some reflection on the massive waste. 133 Space Shuttle launches, which USA Today reports, NASA originally estimated $10.4 million per launch, ended up costing a hearty $1.5 billion per launch.

Want more? Those 133 shuttle missions conducted 2,300 experiments at a cost of $192 billion for the program. The cost per experiment? $83 million, 478 thousand and 260 dollars per experiment over the history of the shuttle program...

The most widely cited of those experiments according to Thomson Reuters' science information service, is a 1996 study of "anti-shock" shorts used to measure astronaut fitness. The circularity is self-evident. Human space missions yield little to nothing over uncrewed space missions other than the effects of space on humans.

USA Today quotes economist Henry Hertzfeld of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, "Economically, you can't make an argument for it."

What a tragic waste. Hopefully, this is the end of an era for such foolishness.

By contrast, the robotic space probes Pioneer 10 and 11 launched in 1972-73 yielded so much data that it has still hardly been tapped and continues to produce valuable experimental knowledge for a combined cost of $100 million!

Labels: economics, Politics, technology

The Zombie Sonics, as Clarion fave Bill Simmons calls them, were a popular second choice to win the Western Conference behind the two time defending champs, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Zombies had been holding true to form blowing the Denver Nuggets out of the water. The Nuggets are a collection of bit players and B-list stars and OKC should be pounding them. Last night, the Zombies slipped and they won't be getting to the Finals, let alone winning them, if point guard Russell Westbrook distributes like this: check out the brutal boxscore here.

30 shots attempted, five assists handed out. It is not possible to win titles with your point guard doing that. OKC fans hope it was an aberration not a sign Westbrook has been channeling his inner Calvin Murphy.

Labels: NBA, Sports Economics

Witnesses reported seeing a sixteen year-old girl, who has not been publicly identified, go over the side of the bridge at 10:56 a.m. Sunday morning. It has not been clarified whether she fell or jumped from the popular suicide spot. According to ABC News the girl survived the 220 foot fall off of the bridge span into the river making her the second teenager to survive the trauma this year. In March, a sixteen year-old male leaped, only to survive the experience unharmed when he was fished from the San Francisco Bay by a surfer.

Labels: Pop Culture

This is something we long suspected at the Clarion Content, and not just because we find it offensive to look at men's hairy toes all Summer long.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, there has been a lot of research conducted regarding flip-flops. Recent studies have found that flip-flop wearers tend to grip their footwear tightly with their toes, which causes shorter stride length and improper force when their feet hit the ground. This transfers stress up the leg. Overcompensation to fight against this trend can lead to painful plantar fasciitis.

The key, choosing flip-flops with good arch support, don't buy the cheapest ones you can. And don't wear them all Summer long, mix it up a little.

Read more here from Dr. John Whyte, Chief Medical Expert and VP, Health and Medical Education at Discovery Channel, writing for the Huffington Post.

Labels: health, Practical Advice

The SEC can always be counted on to top itself, that is to say, when you think that you have seen just how slimy it get can get, the SEC is happy to demonstrate it can go lower still. So in off-season where March saw four Auburn football players charged with first degree robbery, in an incident where students in an off-campus house were robbed at gunpoint, the University of Georgia is angling to beat that standard.

The Auburn robbers included the leading tackler on the national title team. UGA can trump that however, because this week they demonstrated that they like players who are criminals while they are still star high school recruits. Over at Auburn and Alabama, you have to wait until you get into school to become a felon, not at Georgia.

Seven Georgia players were the victims of locker-room thefts of iPods, iPhones and other small electronic devices. Whodunnit? Allegedly, three top Georgia football recruits who stole the items during an open house event at the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall. Because the value of the property stolen did not exceed $1,500 the recruits in question were only charged with misdemeanor theft, clearly, leaving Alabama and Auburn free to argue that they recruit guys that are harder than that...

As ESPN SEC blogger Chris Low notes, this likely will hardlly even slow the recruiting of these kids in the scum filled pond that is SEC football, "Talent usually wins out, even when a kid has a troubled past." So that even after word of this incident broke, two of the three recruits involved were invited by Nick Saban and Alabama to attend their Spring football game.

Labels: college football, Ethically questionable, NCAA, sports, Sports Economics

Here are a couple of the fun and funny things that have crossed our Twitterscape today.

"Housewives experience the highest rate of sexual harassment in the workplace."

---Kelly Oxford

"If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of payments."

"Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman."

"Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake a whole relationship."

---Al Bergette

"To be hated for what I am is better than to be loved for something I am not."

---Girls & Her Deals of NYC

Labels: Pop Culture, Practical Advice, Sayings, twitter

Regular readers of the Clarion Content know how bitter we are about the Obama Presidency. Perhaps our hopes were too high. His administration has underlined and put an exclamation point on the premise that there is no significant difference between Republicans and Democrats. Obama was the first major party candidate that the Clarion Content endorsed and oh, how we regret it.

He is cut from the same cloth as Slick Willie and King George the II.

CIA assassinations up under the Obama regime.

Guantanamo still open.

Non-combatants being tried in military courts without the protection of the Constitution.

Signing statements still being used to sidestep the Constitution.

Dictators being backed against freedom fighters wherever it is deemed politically expedient.

Oh, and that rhetoric about helping the little guy, who has been buffeted by King George the II's wars of choice and blase, "Let them eat cake" attitude? Sorry that's out the window.

Tax cuts for the rich extended.

Massive tax breaks for the biggest corporation continue.

And is independent, Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders points out...

Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits, but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

Duck and Cover is on-point as usual. It is awfully hard to feel optimistic. There are no saviors over the American horizon, rather a passel of psychotic Nero's are vying for Obama's throne and scepter.

While bearing in mind, the first moment of violence co-opts the Revolution, it is time for radically new approaches.

Labels: 2008 presidential election, 2012 presidential election, corruption, Politics

The FAA has reported six incidents this year where FAA air traffic controllers have fallen asleep on the job. Nice. The latest was this week, when a Nevada air traffic controller fell asleep while landing a plane with a medical emergency on board. The near catastrophe has prompted the government to put an extra staffer on midnight shifts at more than two dozen control towers across the country, according to CNN.

The pilot of the Nevada flight attempted to contact their air traffic control tower seven times with no response. After repeatedly circling the field, the pilot elected proceed and landed safely anyway. The Feds says that in the twenty-seven major control towers staffed with only one controller during the midnight shift, it will be mandatory to add a second controller.

Hope so.

Labels: infrastructure

Derrick Rose and the Bulls will have to battle Hansbrough's Pacers for everything they get.

The NBA's Eastern Conference playoff match-ups have begin to come into focus this week. The Boston Celtics have continued to stumble down the stretch in the wake of the Kendrick Perkins trade. Last night it became official, the Miami Heat locked up the number two seed, ahead of the Celtics, in the Eastern Conference. The Chicago Bulls had already sealed up number one last week.

Strangely enough, the Celtics and Heats reversal of positions may help both teams. The Heat are lucky to avoid a match-up with the Knicks and their two high scoring star forwards. The Heat were the only Eastern Conference contender dumb enough that they might get lured into playing the Knicks and Coach Mike D'Antoni's run and gun style. No such thing will happen for the Knickerbockers against the Celtics, whose defensive will should crush the softies Melo and Amare. Rondo will make Billups look every bit of his fifty years old.

Ironically, the Heat will get a better match-up too. The Sixers cannot keep up with the Heat's offense. The Celtics low scoring ways might have allowed Philly to steal a couple of games with hustle and offensive rebounding. The Heat will simply blow Philly out of the gym on offensive talent.

Surprisingly, the toughest opponent for a Eastern Conference favorite might be the top seeded Chicago Bulls matching up with the eighth seeded Indiana Pacers. As noted in this space, the Pacers have benefited tremendously from a mid-season coaching change. They are playing smashmouth basketball and pounding it into the post with their huge front line. Roy Hibbert is a legitimate NBA center with post moves. Tyler Hansbrough is a never stop grinding, banging, hassling and hustling power forward. Danny Granger, back at his natural small forward position, is silky smooth and a match-up nightmare for most of the league because of his height. It will take Derrick Rose his full arsenal, plus a little bit of offensive help from either Boozer or Gibson, if the young Bulls are to get through the Pacers.

Labels: NBA, Predictions, sports

The Clarion Content warned more than a year ago of an impending secondary real estate bubble that could smack the American economy around, commercial real estate. We had read lots of analysis that said there were a ton of short term commercial real estate loans that were going to have to be refinanced, only with the new lower property valuations figured in. The slowing economy was also supposed to continue to hurt commercial occupancy rates.

This week we read that the less disastrous of these two dire predictions is indeed happening, this year malls and strip malls are supposed to see their highest vacancy rates in more than twenty years according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper reports, "Mall vacancies hit their highest level in at least 11 years in the first quarter." The expectation is that the worst is yet to come.

There is, as our sources suggested their would be, a glut of commercial real estate space. Reportedly, more than one billion square feet of retail space was built in the fifty-four largest American markets since the start of 2000. Many retailers that had been key mall and stripmall tenants, Borders, Blockbuster, Circuit City and Comp USA have nose-dived or gone out of business.

American cities already staggering under repeated economic body blows are losing lots of sales tax revenue as shoppers continue to migrate on-line. Big Box corporations are crushing mid-size competitors and specialty stores. The impact on the overall economy is very real. The base of pyramid that supports our massively indulgent and expensive lifestyles as Americans is having foundation issues. We must look at ourselves in the mirror carefully.

Labels: economics, infrastructure, thought

Our look at what the teens and tweens of America are watching. We peer into their world through the lens of Youtube. You may have caught some of our earlier episodes, if not, follow this link and [scroll down].

This fascinating video was filmed by students at East Chapel Hill High School. It tracks cultural recognition. It is an eye-opening look, don't get to caught up on the youthful respondents, ask yourself how much better your friends would do.

Labels: humor, music, Politics, Pop Culture, what they are watching

As we warned in these pages last month, there was no revolution in Egypt. All the protestors in Tahir Square were able to accomplish was regime change. They got old Hosni Mubarak out and insured that his fat cat son would not succeed him as ruler. The state apparatus did not change. The military remained in charge. Events yesterday in Cario continued to underline this dramatic and disappointing reality.

According the Washington Post, "Angry anti-government demonstrators returned to Tahrir Square late Saturday, some declaring that they were ready to face martyrdom, less than a day after Egypt’s military rulers used force to break up a protesters’ camp in the place where their revolution began. Angry anti-government demonstrators returned to Tahrir Square late Saturday, some declaring that they were ready to face martyrdom, less than a day after Egypt’s military rulers used force to break up a protesters’ camp in the place where their revolution began."

On the ground in Egypt, it is evident that the regime is being run by the same ilk as it has been for more than fifty years, military statists. This is why demonstrators refuse to simply fade away.

Read the whole ugly story here in the Washington Post.

Of course, the regime is backtracking and putting a PR cover into play.

Labels: Middle East, public protest

The famous 12th century Spanish Jew pictured above, Moses ben-Maimon, is more commonly known as Maimonides. The Clarion Content's editor has long been fond of the code of charitable giving that he wrote. Maimonides wrote a lot of things in his time, Abraham J. Heschel once said, "If one did not know that Maimonides was the name of a man, one would assume it was the name of a university."

The Clarion Content likes the code of charitable conduct because the by-laws of dignity imply there is a grace to giving charity properly. We like this guidance.

Maimonides on Charitable Giving (paraphrased)

The highest degree of charity, exceeded by none, is that of finding a person a job, gainful employment, a business or a craft, an opportunity to provide for him or herself, that leaves them henceforth no longer dependent on the aid of others.

The next step beneath that is anonymous charitable giving where the giver does not know whom the recipient is going to be (only that the cause is good) and the donor remains anonymous, that is, he or she does not take credit for the charitable giving done publicly, anywhere. It is anonymous charity.

The next step beneath that is anonymous charitable giving where the giver does know whom the recipient is going to be. The identity of the donor is still anonymous, but the donor has direct how, where, and/or to whom the charity is to be distributed.

The next step beneath that is where the recipient of the aid knows where it is coming from, that is to say the giver proclaims somewhere publicly that they are giving the charity, but they are not told the exact how, where, and/or to whom the charity is to be distributed.

The next level is a where the giver and the receiver both know each other, but the giver gives the charity, help, aid or assistance before the recipient even has to ask for it.

The next degree lower is the giver who gives charitably only after the poor person asks directly, e.g., they are shamed into it.

Maimonides says the next degree lower than that is the person who gives less than can really afford to or should give, less than charitably, but at least they do not begrudge what they give.

Finally, the lowest degree is those who give less than they can afford to give, and give that begrudgingly and morosely.

Of course, below that would be those who give not all.

Food for thought.

Labels: economics, Practical Advice, thought

The New York Rangers and the New York Knicks are both in the playoffs at the same time for the first season since 1996-97. Eons have passed. Whole careers in both sports have started and ended. How long ago was that? Boris Yeltsin was running Russia and Bill Clinton was running America, coincidentally with much the same methodology.

In the 1995-96 offseason, the Rangers had made the karmic sin of letting the Captain and the bringer of Lord Stanley's Cup to 8th Avenue, Mark Messier, walk, over money. It was stupid and petty. The Rangers and their fans paid the penance of seven straight seasons of missing the playoffs, plus a year lost to a lockout. It was a dark time in Madison Square Garden.

Shortly after the Messier free agency debacle, the Knicks dealt Patrick Ewing. Dave Checketts and Scott Layden came in from Utah on a mission to destroy the Knicks. They brought with them Shandon Anderson and Howard Eisley. They signed Allan Houston to deal that the franchise has still not recovered from, for it started the cataclysmic chain of events that led to the Isiah Thomas hiring, which spiraled to and through Starbury and Larry Brown. The Knicks have made the playoff once in the last nine years, getting swept out of the first round by the heartless Vince Carter and the ignominious Toronto Raptors in 2003-04.

By 2003-04 the Rangers had brought back Messier, but he was forty-three and not going to carry the team the way he once did. They missed the playoffs for a seventh straight year. They dealt away signature stalwart and future Hall of Famer, Brian Leech. The next season brought the NHL lockout and the league has never been the same. The Rangers have tasted to the playoffs a few times since, but the Garden faithful have been waiting on the Knicks.

This year has been one of revival for the Knickerbockers, though it was nearly snuffed out at mid-season though a disastrous deal brokered by owner James Dolan with a whiff of Isiah Thomas behind the scenes. Knicks fans are desperate, so desperate that any playoff appearance will make this season a success. The Rangers had to win the last game of the season, against their hated arch-rival, the New Jersey Devils, and then sweat out a Carolina Hurricanes loss to know that they had qualified for the postseason. As a reward, they get the top seeded Capitals and their star leader, Alexander Mikhaylovich Ovechkin.

Hey, Jim Mora, at least the New York teams, the tenants at the world's most famous arena, are in the playoffs!

Labels: hockey, NBA, sports

A couple of interesting baseball salary notes from legendary football writer Peter King. "The infield of the New York Yankees (Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez) makes more money than the 53 players on the Royals and Rays."

Wow!

And how about this one, "Peter Bourjos plays center field for the Angels. Vernon Wells plays left... After four games, Vernon Wells has made more money ($651,234) than Bourjos will make for the full season ($414,000)."

These statistics do answer a critique of basketball salaries made by Clarion Content fave, Bill Simmons. Simmons pointing out that the NBA's owners have made their own bed economically by over-paying fringe and mid-level players says

"In Hollywood, you don't pay "character actors" like Mike Miller or Travis Outlaw $30-35 million to appear in your next five movies. Why? Because it's bad business!!! Because it would be irresponsible! We're headed toward a lockout because NBA "character actors" should be paid like what they are -- character actors -- and because the dopey owners need to be saved from themselves. It's a broken system. Luke Walton and Ron Artest should not be making half as much combined as Kobe Bryant. Brandon Bass, J.J. Redick and Chris Duhon should not be making as much combined as Dwight Howard. If NBA owners ran Hollywood, the creepy uncle from "Winter's Bone" would be enjoying Year 1 of a six-year, $58 million movie deal."

Baseball, as one can tell from Peter King's salary statistics, has at least figured this one out.

Labels: baseball, NBA, sports, Sports Economics

Check out this bemusing modern take on how the exodus from Egypt would have gone down in our era of social networking revolts.



Hey Jews, recognize that Passover ditty playing in the background?

Credit to a denzien of Riverdale, NY for sending this our way.

Labels: humor, Pop Culture

They say never the twain shall meet. Are they right? Or can we close this energetic web that is our time defiant singularity?

Labels: music, Pop Culture, thought

This coach is in the title game for a second year in a row...

There was a strange dichotomy in the two NCAA Final Four games played last night. In game one, there were two gritty, mid-major teams that few expected to be there. In game two, there were a couple of storied programs with long but sordid histories. It made for a strange rooting dynamic, in game one we felt sad that one of these gallant underdogs had to lose. In game two, we felt perturbed one of those cheaters was going to win.

Who do you root for one when on one bench is a coach who has had to vacate both of his previous two Final Four appearances and on the other side is a coach who the NCAA has cited for multiple violations, including lack of institutional control? Blech.

The narrative was undermined and we predict the television ratings reflect it.

Labels: college basketball, Ethically questionable, NCAA, Predictions, television

Charlie Sheen is not standing still. He has yet to recover his "Two and a Half Men" gig, and at the Clarion Content we like Bill Simmons suggestion that Rob Lowe would be a near seamless replacement.

Meanwhile Charlie and team #tigerblood had their first live show last night. It was widely panned by the critics and apparently booed in Detroit. Tough crowd in a downtrodden city, Bree Olsen and Natalie Kenly making out to open the show was applauded, somewhere shortly after that Charlie lost his way. At the Clarion Content we do not see this is a reflection of Sheen's lack of talent. Rather, the way we read the reviews, Sheen was punished for his lack of investment in good writers. People did not like his impromptu rants and Sheen admitted too much of his material was unscripted. Reshowing clips from his interviews, sounds and feels stale.

Sheen needs a good team of writers to channel his neurosis. He should be free flowing in an unremittingly self-parodying way. If he is going to get up on stage, he cannot be Sean Penn ranting his opinions at people. The masses are far more delighted by the Reality show paradigm, from Jersey Shore to someone like Kacey Jordan publishing her life and adventures on Twitter. When Charlie was #winning he was a firehose of moments, events, and adventures, the culture was participating in the Sheen experience. What was he going to do next? Society just couldn't look away, we had to know.

Can he recapture that? Probably not. But could a team of good writers do him up a brilliant self-parodyingly funny one man show that he could do every night? Definitely. Sheen can act. Team #tigerblood just needs to find the right sharp pens and it will be #winning again.

Labels: Pop Culture, thought

Seven New York State IT (information technology) workers had asked that question many, many times in the course of doing their jobs. Now after revealing that the seven of them are who bought the $319 million dollar winning Mega Millions lottery ticket, the question will be put to them. All their friends, neighbors, acquaintances, co-workers and relatives will now be asking them, "Can I help you with that?" referring to the $19.1 million checks the state employees will each receive after taxes. Anyone in Wisconsin jealous?

The winners range in age from twenty-nine to sixty-three. The ticket was bought in Albany, New York.

Read more here, including the crazy side story about the man who almost purchased the winning ticket.

Labels: Pop Culture

Amateur skywatchers have tracked down America's latest spy plane the X-37B. The plane which looks like a miniature version of the space shuttle is pictured above this column. It is unmanned and flown remotely. According to Wired, "The X-37B has generated intense interest, long before it ever left the ground. Boeing originally developed the twenty-nine foot ...craft... Then, the military took over in 2004, and the space plane went black. Its payloads were classified, its missions hush-hush."

Why it has such a cargo sized hold has been a matter of intense speculation. Space observers have tracked the plane following its second launch into orbit last week. Reportedly, "The X-37B is traveling in a slightly elliptical orbit more than 200 miles up, swooping from 43 degrees north latitude to 43 degrees south." According the expert Wired talked to, Brian Weeden, a former Air Force Space Command officer, now with the Secure World Foundation, the X-37B is orbiting around the fat middle of the planet, flying over the Middle East, Africa, and much of China, giving up global coverage, but getting more frequent passes. The orbit suggests that the space plane is spying.

Labels: Central Asia, Middle East, technology, war

The ink was hardly dry on the Clarion Content's last critical post about Auburn football, four of their players were charged with armed robbery and kicked off the team, before HBO was airing a scandalous documentary about the university.

HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" aired an episode that included four former Auburn football players saying they were paid during their time at the school. Does this shock anyone? Is their any meaning left in the phrase institutional control when it comes to the state of Alabama, home of the last two college football national champions?

Labels: college football, Ethically questionable, NCAA