EckerNet.Com

Pancake Day?? Of all the stupid things. What’s next? Rubber Band Day?

Of course any reason is enough for Hewitt to pick on our own Chad the Elder of Fraters Libertas. He’s been running a photoshop contest to make fun of the Elder, which was apparently enough motivation for Triple “I whine cause I can’t win” A to totally rip off my Super-Cool Exciting Contests.

Heh, Hewey, can I call you Hewey, Chad is OUR punching bag. Keep your mitts off unless you’ve paid the tax deductible donation of only $29.95.

After all, I think your show needs a bit more prep. I mean for one that claims to be such a fan and expert on pancakes you don’t know butter from syrup. Otherwise how do you explain chastising a caller for challenging you on the claim that pancakes were an American invention, originating in Cleveland??

Heh Hugh, there are plenty of pancake recipes dating back to the early 15th century. That was BEFORE Christopher Columbus was even born. And it was certainly before the city that forced Drew Carey upon us was born.

So stick with what you’re good at Hugh….uh, you’re gonna have to remind us what that is. Meanwhile, leave the picking on the Fraters to the MOB, it’s what WE are good at.

Ok, I’ll admit it, I occasionally indulge in some ego-stroking by looking at what my traffic has done for the day. Although there is also a legitimate reason as well. It’s nice to see what is drawing people in, since it’s obviously not excellent writing and sound analysis.

I’ve noticed some definite trends. A consistent spike at 8 or 9 am, and then another spike around 4 pm. Which leads me to one conclusion. My core audience is people who hate their job.

So to all of you who are slacking off and spending their working hours surfing the net. Welcome!!

I gotta admit, I can’t wait for the DiVinci movie to come out. I was pretty happy when I saw the casting because each of the roles was cast with an actor that looks pretty damn close to how I pictured the character in my mind. However, I honestly don’t have real high expectations because I can’t really see how they could make such a book into an entertaining movie. Alot of the thrill of the book was not the action, it was reading the explanation of the religious symbology and how they supposedly connect. It was a damn good book and I loved reading it. Loved Angle&Demons even better.

Now while I realize it was fiction, I can still enjoy it. And I can’t understand for the life of me, people that get upset and have to cry out to everyone how fake it is. It’s fiction. No shit.

Honestly, I have yet to meet a single person who thought the book was a factual telling of the story of Jesus Christ. Yet, if you listen to some people rant and rave about how fake it is you’d think there were entire cities of zombie hordes calling information asking for the phone number for the heir to Jesus Christ.

It’s a book people. It’s a fictional book, that many people happened to find entertaining. For you to rant and rave and take horrible offense is a parody of yourselves. Granted you aren’t burning down embassies but there are similarities to be drawn to the Danish cartoon hubbub. Stop taking yourselves so seriously. If your faith is so fragile that a simple book threatens to destroy it, how do you manage to cling to it?

We at EckerNet would like to endorse the Official Airline of EckerNet.Com. It’s the airline we all use for all our official EckerNet.Com needs….which mostly involves trips to odd destinitions to get drunk or shoot stuff, and occasionally take a goofy photo for our super-cool photo contests.

[H/T : The NightWriter]

Now that McCain and Ted “Chappaquiddick” Kennedy have teamed up to granted amnesty to all illegal aliens, I thought these quotes by Rep. Tancredo (R-Colo) were appropriate

The Democratic Party looks at massive immigration, legal and illegal, as a source of voters.

The Republican Party looks at massive immigration, legal and illegal, as a source of cheap labor, satisfying a very important constituency.

Just so you understand their incentives and motives….and where their priorities are.

The Rankings Are As Follows::
Triple “I Whine Like A Child” A : 2
Aelfheld : 2
Dan S : 1
Sola-Man : 1

For this contest you get to make up your own answers!! That’s right…just pretend you’re a real life journalist and just make shit up. Post answers in the comments. They will be judged on creativity, plausibility and humor.

Question : Which feature of Kim’s new custom car is being explained to him?

Past Contests :
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

“Strange it is, that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free discussion, but object to their being ‘pushed to an extreme’; not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case.”

John Stuart Mill

I have to admit, I’m coming around on this Dubai port thing. A couple days have gone by and more details have emerged. I still have my reservations but I guess I would no longer classify myself as “strongly opposed”. Probably “disappointed” would be a better term. Mostly because of the fact that I have changed my position after a few days.

The fact that it took several days for some fairly basic information to emerge is a little concerning. At the very least there is the impression of poor planning and absolutely no forethought. At this point it appears as if some restrictions were imposed on the sale, which is encouraging. And had the administration related that from the very beginning it is likely that would never have become what it has. At this point while there may be no security reason why the sale shouldn’t go there, there is certainly the perception that there is a security problem. And in politics, that’s all that matters.

I still have my doubts on the actual sale, however. I fully realize that Dubai is not in charge of security or inspections or anything like that. Essentially they are just unloading the ships. And while they may currently be a major US ally in the War on Terror, at one point UAE leadership at least sympathized with Bin Laden. That alone is enough to raise a red flag and require special caution to be used. The type of caution were this is more than a decision made by a couple interns in a meeting over lunch.

For my employment, I’ve had to go through basic training on the legalities of international sales regarding secret, or even “sensitive” information. I know there are roughly infinity-1 hoops you have to jump through just to have lunch with someone. The fact that this deal doesn’t indicate (at least at the present time) to have involved any special considerations, and didn’t even involve the President until after the fact is a bit disconcerting.

Essentially, my disagreement with the sale at this point is more regarding the process that lead to it, than the actual sale itself. From what we’ve heard so far, this receive only the most cursory examination with no involvement by the highest levels of the administration. And there was little to no communication with members of Congress. Both of these have resulted in a perception of haphazard sale resulting in a security problem. And while this administration is infinitely superior to anything the Democrats could cobble together regarding national security, it has made poor progress so far in securing our ports, borders and airports.

This deal may end up being the right one, but the path that brought us here was definitely the wrong one. And much like in the Miers fiasco, instead of working with his party to smooth things over, the Bush administration has instead dug in it’s heels and prepared to fight it out. And just like in the Miers battle, I doubt this is one they can win…to the detriment of us all on the right.

Posting may get a little light in the weeks to come. Apparently I’ve inherited a puppy. This one is a 11-week old German Shepherd named Timber. House training is still a work in progress.

So sleep has become a valuable commodity, which means blogging may suffer. Amuse yourselves here. I gotta go put up a sign in the front yard that reads “Ecker’s Animal Sanctuary - No Live Cats Please“.

It’s all tied up:
Triple_A : 2
Aelfheld : 2
Dan S : 1

For this contest you get to make up your own answers!! That’s right…just pretend you’re a real life journalist and just make shit up. Post answers in the comments. They will be judged on creativity, plausibility and humor.

Question : Pick a name for the band

Past Contests :
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5