my mother, the CIA agent, the Filipino forger, and the meaning of Christmas presents

I’m kind of disappointed my blogging diploma isn’t from Miskatonic, but that’s nothing a little hacking won’t fix.

The University of Blogging
Presents to

raincoaster


An Honorary

Bachelor of
Self Portraiture

Majoring in
Cutting

Signed
Dr. GoQuiz.com
®

 

Blogging Degree
From Go-Quiz.com

And this reminds me, it does, of the time my mother wanted to buy me a Doctorate from Harvard.

She was living in Saudi Arabia, as one does, shacked up with a CIA agent whose job it was to teach battlefield communications to the Saudis. As one does.

Islam was the bane of his existence, as five times a day no matter what they’d all pull out their rugs and face mecca and present a nice, juicy target to the Israelis. No indeed, this did not take him to his happy place, for yea, he was a very conscientious battlefield communications instructor. Over and over he lectured them, over and over he proved that the Israelis could wipe them all out at any of those five, widely known and unvarying times of day. And over and over they happily replied “if the Israelis kill us we will go straight to Paradise as martyrs,” and I believe one of them even made a reference to that bugger, I can’t kill him when he’s praying scene in Hamlet, obviously stretching to try to find some common ground with Jerry the Baptist, out in the wild Arabian desert.

As a sideline, Jerry ran the local casino and house of ill repute, which brought in several times his salary, and which he was allowed to keep because what his bosses were truly interested in was the blackmail material gathered by the tiny cameras placed strategically around the premises. He also had the local distribution rights for Johnny Walker, which was as the mines of King Solomon in terms of putting out the gelt.

Where was I? Oh yes, about to get to the religious police.

Naturally, Jerry was quite conscious of the activities of the religious police. The main trouble with the religious police was, as you can imagine, that they tended to be quite…well, there’s really no way around this, I’m just going to have to come out and say it… quite religious.

And the whole living-in-sin-with-a-Canadian-and-a-socialist-at-that thing was exactly the sort of thing with which they were Not Cool.

At. All.

Now, Jerry and my mother were by no means originals in their living arrangements, which did tend to give a rather louche reputation to even the primmest Mormon that the Yanks sent over, and so, as always happens where there are problems and lots of money around, a man materialized with a solution.

He materialized at the same time every year, swinging through the Middle East like an olden days tinker would swing through, say, Simcoe County, offering his wares.

He was a Filipino forger, and he was a very busy man.

They took one of the American marriage licenses for $250, which is really cheap for a piece of paper that you show the religious police and they don’t have you stoned, when you think about it, really, and my mother pondered long over the very tempting Harvard Doctorate, but decided that even she was not overpaid enough to spend $500 and besides, what would she get my sister, eh? Answer me that!

That year she got a camel saddle and I got a silver veil. Gee, I guess Mom DID love me best, even if she thought I was ugly.

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Halifax: it’s in your lungs!

Now this, ladies and gentlemen, is the way you do a promotional video. Kicks the ass of that sad-sack wigger squirrel, don’t it?

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headline o’ the day: the Guardian

Scribe, Blogger, same old same oldSeriously!

And I can’t get a job at this bloody paper?

Police shoot dead woman waving gun at officers in car park

Well actually, she wasn’t dead when they shot her, although she was dead shortly afterwards.

So that’s all right then.

Are they comma-rationing in the UK again?

Actually, I suppose that it’s possible she was some sort of zombie revenant, although everyone knows zombies can’t be stopped by bullets. Maybe Bobbies are using silver bullets now?

And hey, Gawker ran something I sent them. That never happens…they must not have gotten Denton‘s memo.

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Paris Hilton’s Prison Music Video!

Heartlessly stolen from Sicarii at Obiter Dictum. Yes, Paris has not only done an interview with Baba Wawa since she’s been in prison, she’s also released a music video!

Obviously, the girl has been taking voice lessons.

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Albania strikes again…at George W. Bush

Remember Albanians? We’ve had Albanians around here before (scroll down to the 110 comments on this post for a blast of old Albania). We know what they’re like.

And now, apparently, so does the Decider: watch at about 54 seconds in and see the expensive timepiece on Bush‘s wrist. Then see a friendly Albanian hand wrap right around that wristwatch and see that same Deciderish wrist at minute 1:04, now a watch-free zone.

Nothing says “Borat Doesn’t Live Here” like a stunt even Borat wouldn’t pull.

Also, please do NOT miss the self-congratulatory text from Albania on the YouTube page. A sample:

10th June 2007
A historic date for all Albanians

President Bush is given a hero’s welcome in Albania. This is the first visit ever of a serving president of USA to visit Albania and will be remembered long time, even though it only lasted eight hours.

Albania is the only country where no one has seen any protests against USA or the President. Some even say the Albanians are the most proamerican people on the planet. This is not a hoax. This is a real deal and there is a reason for it.

Why Albanians love Americans? Simply because americans are a freedom loving people and they showed this love in practice many times in the history of Albanians (and other small nations) by defending the Albania’s right to exists as a state despite the appetite of many world powers and neighboring countries to carve and erase the country from the map. e.g. USA’s President Wilson in 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, was a crucial voice that saved Albania from being ceased as a state…

p.p.s. Bush dropped his watch, time 00:54!
As you may notice in the video, Bush’s wrist watch dropped at some point, but it has been confirmed by media (VizionPlus TV) that it was found by the bodyguards who handed it over to Lady Bush later on. And you will see in many other videos Bush wearing his watch again while entering Air Force One during departure as he waives back to us. If he had a spare watch, most likely it would have been inside the airplane, therefore, there is no doubt that Bush got his original watch back and everything was accidental. So, don’t worry, be happy, time is still ticking on and everything is in Bush’s hands! Kosovo will be Independent soon, think of 4th July 2007 as the day of happening, where we can celebrate together with Americans, The Independence Day.

Of course, the Times and the Guardian are both reporting that the watch was indeed stolen, but hey, if VizionPlus TV says it was lost, then you can bet your bottom lekë it was lost!

Or can you? Check out this theft-corroborating video from Dutch tv, taken at a different angle. If I’m not wrong, you can actually see the thief flourish it in the air before vanishing into the crowd in time-honored thiefly fashion. The plot, if not the welcome, thickens.

Update: The White House says Bush simply put the watch in his pocket, which would be a nifty trick more suited to someone of the flamboyance of David Blaine or at least Siegfried, if not Roy, given that both his hands were in full view at the time and neither ventured anywhere near his pocketses. And where did that guy on the Dutch video suddenly get that watch? Was Bush just passing them out or something?

Snow also said the crowd was “euphoric because we helped make them free….if there was a problem, the Secret Service would have dealt with it. Trust me.”

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