From the same guys that brought you the ruder and funnier, I’m On A Boat (ft. T-Pain) …
The first single of The Lonely Island‘s 2nd album!!!
Featuring Akon, Jessica Alba, Blake Lively and John McEnroe!
The Lonely Island is Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Many times I’ve been in warm, sunny climes for close to Christmas.
The best was when Greg Chartier and I took a dubious “shortcut” hiking in New Zealand, … and ended up in a 5 star resort bar on Christmas Day.
There’s sometime zany about relocating a northern European December tradition to the tropics.
You can actually grow Christmas flowers …
But not Christmas trees …
I’ve heard a few gringos actually bring down a real Christmas tree to Baja.
more Feliz Navidad pics
I was close to declaring the highly entertaining American political scene dead to me.
A two party system constantly polarized is usually deadlocked.
Deadlocked in a fiscal death spiral.
Yet something happened:
… Eight Republican Senators voted in favor of repeal of DADT (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell): Scott Brown (Mass.); Richard Burr (NC); Susan Collins (of Maine, and a co-sponsor of the repeal effort); John Ensign (Nevada); Mark Kirk (Illinois); Lisa Murkowski (Alaska); Olympia Snowe (Maine) and George Voinovich of Ohio.
I’m impressed. Nevada. Alaska.
Those are politicians with guts. They could have taken the easy way out. As McCain did:
McCain’s vigorous opposition to the DADT repeal is not the first time he’s found himself swimming against the tide of history. As a congressman in 1983, he voted against the creation of a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — a vote he later regretted.
“On the Martin Luther King issue, we all learn, OK? We all learn,” he told NBC in 1999, discussing his vote. “I will admit to learning, and I hope that the people that I represent appreciate that, too. I voted in 1983 against the recognition of Martin Luther King….I regret that vote.” …
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was not the most important issue facing the USA.
This was the right decision. Let’s hope they can move forward with more good decisions, rather than continue to stagnate.
Baja, Mexico to Phoenix to Calgary.
Connecting from Mexico to Canada you still need go through immigration in Phoenix, dubbed America’s Friendliest Airport. And some weird “Agriculture” security.
The days of staying “in transit” are long gone.
But all-in-all, not that hideous an experience. My first backscatter “porno scanner” seemed no different than the old kind.
I looked but didn’t see anyone getting groped.
Calgary was efficient as always. I got flagged as the lone gunman type. Had to go have an extra chat with security.
US Airways didn’t charge me for luggage, after all. Perhaps it’s waived if you are coming from Mexico.
La Paz. Peace.
A great non-tourist town. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more relaxing holiday. … Relaxing aside from all those dentist needles.
(Actually I love anesthetic. Gimme the epidural!)
Love all the statues …
Can’t get enough of these sunset shots …
For the first time I hiked up above town to get the BIG PICTURE …
See the rest of my La Paz photos on flickr
Shout out for the most sophisticated and skilled author I read.
John Le Carré is “one of the finest writers of espionage fiction in 20th century literature”.
The former MI5 & MI6 operative published his first novel in 1961. He’s still going strong.
A pseudonym was required, way back when, because Foreign Office officers were forbidden to publish in their own names.
In 2008 he named his best books:
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Tailor of Panama
The Constant Gardener
For some reason The Little Drummer Girl is his novel I best remember. Perhaps because I liked the movie with Diane Keaton, too.
I recently listened to Absolute Friends (2003). Every 2-3yrs I feel obliged to read one of his books, to up the intelligence quotient of my average. (The Dune Franchise books are like kindergarten readers, by comparison.)
Next for me is The Mission Song (2006) as I want to learn more about the Second Congo War. (25 armed groups, 5.4 million dead).
I hear the narration of that book by David Oyelowo is superb.
In real life Cornwell’s a harsh critic of the Iraq War.
Oh, off the National Geographic Sea Bird, moored just outside this coffee shop.
That’s a tourist adventure that anyone with enough dinero can join.
Americans are now spending as many hours online as they do in front of their TV screens, according to a survey released by Forrester on Monday.
The average American now spends roughly 13 hours per week using the Internet and watching TV offline, Forrester finds, based on its survey of more than 30,000 customers. …
I still think network TV viewership could drop off a cliff some day soon. Tiered TV packages are crappy. TV commercials are crappy. It’s only inertia and bad internet access that’s keeping traditional TV alive.
UPDATE: … Some have contested the TV numbers, saying the average American is still watching the boob tube 4-5hrs/ day.
But many of those hours the TV is simply on in the background, me thinks.
If you head on over to my hiking site, you’ll find my trip report hiking Tecolote Beach, Baja.
Looks a paradise, don’t you think?
Even seagulls holiday on Tecolote.
The weather and beaches are excellent. But for several years now I’ve been recommending against travel to Mexico. I’d definitely not be here this year … if Canadian dentists weren’t so over-priced.
Why?
Cost is high. Most things in Baja now cost more than they do in Canada or the States. But not much of that money goes to wages. The rich are getting richer on your tourist dollar.
Quality is low. This beach looks nice. But it’s full of starving dogs.
When they die, nobody here bothers to bury the corpse.
The litter problem is actually better than when I first started coming to Mexico. But locals still litter frequently.
Mexico is right now in a rotten stage of development. It’s certainly not a developing nation, where you might forgive some injustice and growing pains.
But it’s not enough of a developed nation that you can trust food, water or services. (Happily I’ve yet to be shortchanged this trip, though. Nor hassled by cops.)
I recommend Guatamala and Nicaragua as excellent alternatives.
Rick McCharles 