That's interesting

Ice Cube pretty much takes over a Lil' Jon video

I didn't realize it until I found these videos, but Crunk is a damn spooky offshoot of rap. Sure, rap has had the function of scaring the shit out of whitey (or making white people feel tough because they listen to it) with gangsta, but it wasn't until crunk that you had the image of the gangbangers crawling out of their graves and eating brains before pulling drive bys.

Medeival Literature

Reading The Romance of Tristan (aka Tristan and Yselde) by Beroul for next week.

What a couple of filthy two timing lying whores they are.

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Don Rumsfeld Squirms. Fox News tries to spin him right.

Another classic Daily Show clip.

Well so how was my weekend

Had a great Shabbos dinner with my friend Gavriel and Marius. I didn't manage to get out of work soon enough to cruise over to Zabar's and get sourdough bread and pesto, but I brought two wine bottles and one Maker's Mark the night before. So we had a nice chasidic type dinner - without all those baal shem tov stories that bore me senseless. And Gavriel knows me well enough to throw in a Big Band era tune in the middle of the nigguns. By the end it was five of us just kind of out of it. Which is the way a good shabbos meal should go - well not all the time - and definitely not that drunk.

On Saturday I just went to shul, said hi to friends, went home and slept. Good sleep. Read some Julius Ceasar. Rome is reviving my love for that play - although it does still seem like a letdown after Julius gets killed. Most of it is senators bickering - with an off-stage death for Cicero. Poor egotistical windbag Cicero - but really not as bad as most and at least he had style.

Watched more Rome. I have only one disk left with the last two episodes. Looks like there will be some trouble between Julius Ceasar and Brutus, but I think Brutus will stay loyal to his friend and help him root out the conspiracy for the last episode. That's how the last episode of the Sopranos went down.

And they were showing Kill Bill on TNT. I only saw volume 2. I liked it better. I still get chills when she sees her daughter for the first time.

And now I'm at work. I've done what needed to be done. I'm waiting. I should go to lunch or something.

Um...yeah

Just found Steve Hofstetter's commercial for his new album "Cure for the Cable Guy" where he goes on for 7 minutes saying that Larry the Cable Guy is an asshole. Apparently he's trying to sell comic albums with that.

I don't find Larry the Cable Guy all that funny (maybe one or two jokes kind of make me smile). I don't find him particularly onerous either. I figure if someone is going to build their career on a feud with another comedian, then at least that other comedian should be noteworthy. Now if only he named his comedy album "Fuck George Carlin" or "Margaret Cho can Kiss My Ass." Granted he was going after a perceived rightwing comic but I can't think of any of them offhand - beyond Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken covered that territory nicely.

And the only other clip I could find of him was him talking about The Mets on some sports show.

I don't think it was even the desperate plea for attention that bothered me so much as the didactic tone in his voice and the way he was trying to teach the world a lesson. I don't know if this actually works on stage, but it sure as hell doesn't work in these clips. Well not as comedy. As "please regard me as an overly serious dickwad" sure, but not as comedy.

At least Larry the Cable Guy lets off a fart joke once in awhile (ok by reputation, more than once in a while - more like 500 times in a while which is why I don't think I'll be watching those clips any time soon either)

Oh wait. Found his stand up. Beyond the Larry crap, there's the fast food bits. Ok, this is the THIRD time I heard the joke about throwing the food directly in the toilet. When Scott Thompson said it about White Castle it was almost funny. When the Hot Pockets Guy said it about Hot Pockets it was disappointing. Now I just want to see someone put the next asshole that uses that punchline in the toilet - little piece by little piece.

Too harsh?

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Bush's father's Vice President mispelled Potato. Bush's VP shot a man in the face.

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Once again homais has an excellent post about a stupid world obsession. It's a little too long for me to read now, as I'm going home, but I did note one of his points when discussing the Pope's speech:

Reason without the divine, on the other hand, is blind and unable to even justify itself on its own terms. It's a variant on the old 'science is sterile' argument.

And I'm more inclined to think about the way that the old Reason vs. Divinity is similar to the Religion vs. Spirituality. While there are subtle differences there does seem to be a Rational vs. Irrational dichotomy going through many of our debates. Whilst it is a false dichotomy, it's a dichotomy that reaches through many of our belief systems. Most recently I heard it expressed in Crown Heights when I was told that the Misnagdim (non-Chasidic Jews) were too intent on studying to the point where they lost the "joy of Torah" and while that's utter crap, it does point to this weird way that we love our irrationalities even as we see the need for the Rational. In fact, the Rational is so important that we fight against it tooth and nail as an ideal state. Utopia is only a parody when the society is in chaos, but when there's stability then the parody of choice is Dystopia because we don't like to be in well ordered places.

So a group that emphasizes freedom and irrational is going to be more inclined to castigate its opponents with these false charges, all the while losing much of its own "freedom" in slightly more subtle ways. Yes, Christianity is more "free" than Judaism because Christians can eat pork, but Christians must also believe in Jesus and everything that Jesus says. Even ex-Christians cannot draw a parallel between Jesus and modern cult leaders like David Koresh or Charles Manson - not that Jesus = Manson but on the basis of his ministry the main proof that he is whom he says he is is pretty much the same as Manson's. Because he said so. Screw the pharisees. Jesus claimed to be this, so he is it. End of story and we can all see that he's full of peace and love and teddy bears.

And as the main target of Catholicism was Protestantism, the Pope is in an interesting position of defending doctrine and tradition in a religion that was started as a break from tradition. But how many times can one break away - and for how long? And when does it stop becoming anything like its source. I can see that as the Pope's position and I can see where Martin Luther was going with his position when he set out to purify the Church. Of course, right now I'm losing my train of thought because Martin Luther is his own creature - one of the last philosophers to use the ad hominem to great effect. After Luther, you aren't supposed to use the ad hominem. Even though one of the main examples given of the ad hominem is a priest's position on abortion or sexuality - from the basis of him being a priest and not knowing much about sex - well sex that doesn't involve altar boys.

Of course, I'm using that example because I'm not entirely pleased with it. I'm not going to ask a shilah concerning pets from a rabbi that fears cats. And there are many rabbis that fear cats. And you know I wrote that line and even I read it as a Rabbit that fears cats - which is a very rational rabbit indeed.

Anyhow I have to go home and clean my apartment. It's filthy and the cousin to the Super never showed up to clean the kitchen. She said she was going to do it for $30. And that really has to be cleaned. It's just really nice to have a maid come in and clean for me. They always do a better job of it. And it looks so great when it's done.

Oh and I guess I do appreciate order - even as I know my irrational nature will never go away. I just know that even in the most "orderly" of philosophies, there's room for my irrational nature to play - and in fact the more orderly the system of belief, the more free I feel with my irrational nature - so I suppose all those parables my Agudah Rabbi back home used to tell about Judaism being like a guy in a space shuttle or tied up to a pole so he can do his job kind of hold true.

Either way, homais had a lot more to say about Islam, but I ran out of time.