Your Prayers Make The Real Gods Angry

Crucifixion Nails From Jesus Found

2011-04-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

"an Israeli television journalist has produced a pair of nails he says may have been used to crucify Jesus Christ." -Dipshits at Time Magazine.

Just in time for Easter. What a coincidence. Also they found a horn from a unicorn. And the rabbit hole of the Easter Bunny. Santa Claus' igloo was discovered too.
It's another beautiful day for rationality and enlightenment.

Here's what is happening in ACTUAL religious news: Thanks to Joe My God's This Week In Holy Crimes

Texas: Pastor Julio Perez charged with murder for hiring a hit man to shoot his wife.
Mississippi: Pastor Eddie Prince charged with downloading child porn on a public library computer.
Washington DC: Whistleblower lawsuit filed against Catholic Charities for charging the poor for flu shots meant to be free under a government-funded program.
New York: Father Francis McCloskey busted in stolen car after attempting to elude pursuing cops. McCloskey is a renowned anti-abortion activist.
California: Father Alejandro Castillo charged with seven felony counts of child molestation.
New Jersey: Rabbi Mordchai Fish pleads guilty to money laundering.
New York: Pastor Jeremy Fulton pleads guilty to molesting five girls as young as ten years old.
Pennsylvania: Archdiocese of Philadelphia sued for wrongful death in suicide of molestation victim.
Oklahoma: Pastor Tommy Pitts charged with 70 felony counts of child molestation. The victims are his adopted daughters.
Wisconsin: Father John Dahlberg charged with embezzling from church fund meant for families in crisis.
Texas: Pastor Owen Davis charged with sexual assault of an undocumented woman he had forced to sign a contract agreeing to sex on demand.
California: Pastor Joe David Nelms charged with sexual assault on a child.
New York: Pastor Joe Flowers charged with molesting an 11 year-old boy.
Illinois: Father John Regan to face trial for embezzling $400K in church funds to support his gambling addiction.

This Week's Winner
Wisconsin: The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is accused of transferring $55M into a cemetery trust account in order to shield assets from suing molestation victims. The Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in January and this week proposed settling 22 molestation suits at $700K each. In February a lawyer for the victims accused New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan of hiding $130M while assigned to Milwaukee in 2008.

Alex Chilton

2010-12-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

hey buck

2010-12-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

Taliban Catholicism

2010-10-24T15:45:00.001-07:00

Taliban Catholicism

I like this phrase, wish I'd thought of it first.

Taliban Catholicism

2010-10-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

Taliban Catholicism

I like this phrase, wish I'd thought of it first.

5/13/2010 - 840,000 gallons per day

2010-06-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

May 13, 2010 - NYTimes.com

"Two weeks ago, the government put out a round estimate of the size of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico: 5,000 barrels a day. Repeated endlessly in news reports, it has become conventional wisdom."

"Ian R. MacDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University is an expert in the analysis of oil slicks, said he had made his own rough calculations using satellite imagery. They suggested that the leak could “easily be four or five times” the government estimate, he said."

"For several days after the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, the government and BP claimed that the well on the ocean floor was leaking about 1,000 barrels a day."

A small organization called SkyTruth, which uses satellite images to monitor environmental problems, published an estimate on April 27 suggesting that the flow rate had to be at least 5,000 barrels a day, and probably several times that.

The following day, the government — over public objections from BP — raised its estimate to 5,000 barrels a day. A barrel is 42 gallons, so the estimate works out to 210,000 gallons per day.

BP later acknowledged to Congress that the worst case, if the leak accelerated, would be 60,000 barrels a day, a flow rate that would dump a plume the size of the Exxon Valdez spill into the gulf every four days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14oil.html

5/6/2010 - 210,000 gallons per day

2010-06-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

NYTimes - May 6, 2010

NOAA has not estimated the total amount of oil spilled. But the spill has been unfolding for more than two weeks at an estimated rate of 210,000 gallons a day; a highly speculative estimate would be 3.3 million gallons so far.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/science/earth/07questions.html

5/5/2010 - 210,000 gallons per day

2010-06-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

NYTimes - May 5, 2010

"He works closely with BP, whose engineers are working on several plans to stop the gushing well, which is still spilling an estimated 210,000 gallons a day."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/us/06allen.html

5/1/2010 - 210,000 gallons per day

2010-06-23T14:31:00.001-07:00

NYTimes - May 1, 2010

"...the frantic efforts to contain the estimated 210,000 gallons a day still leaking 11 days after the rig exploded and sank."

"It doesn’t really matter, the admiral said, whether it is 1,000 barrels or 5,000 barrels a day that are leaking. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/us/02oil.html

5/1/2010 - 210,000 gallons per day

2010-06-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

NYTimes - May 1, 2010

"...the frantic efforts to contain the estimated 210,000 gallons a day still leaking 11 days after the rig exploded and sank."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/us/02oil.html

4/29/2010: 200,000 gallons per day

2010-06-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

NYTimes - April 29, 2010

"...a hastily called news conference to announce that the rate of the spill was estimated to be 5,000 barrels a day, or more than 200,000 gallons — five times the previous estimate."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/us/30gulf.html

4/27/2010: 42,000 gallons per day

2010-06-23T14:23:00.001-07:00

NYTimes - April 27, 2010

"An estimated 42,000 gallons a day are now spilling into the Gulf of Mexico"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/us/28spill.html

4/24/2010: 42,000 gallons per day

2010-06-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

NYTimes - April 24, 2010

"Roughly 1,000 barrels of oil a day are estimated to be emanating from the riser, officials said."

There are 42 gallons of oil in one barrel

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25rig.html

4/23/2010 - Zero gallons of oil leaking into the Gulf

2010-06-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

NYTimes - April 23, 2010

"Earlier in the day, the Coast Guard conveyed optimism about the situation in the gulf, however. Remote-controlled underwater surveillance units indicated that there was no crude pouring out of the well beneath the ocean’s surface. The possibility of such leaks and their potentially devastating impact on local fisheries had been a major concern since the first explosion, only 50 miles from the Louisiana coast"

"with the catastrophe beneath the waves contained for now, government and oil industry forces were able to concentrate their efforts on cleaning up the estimated 180,000 barrels of oil and water mix that resulted from the explosion. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/24spill.html

4/21/2010:312,000 gallons per day

2010-06-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

NYTimes - April 21, 2010

"Admiral Landry estimated that 13,000 gallons of crude were pouring out per hour."

2.5 million gallons of oil spilling every day

2010-06-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 23, 2010, 12:48 pm EDT - Associated Press

"Before the problem with the containment cap, it had collected about 700,000 gallons of oil in the previous 24 hours. Another 438,000 gallons was burned."

"The current worst-case estimate of what's spewing into the Gulf is about 2.5 million gallons a day."

Random - Nov, 09

2009-11-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

Switch - Amon Tobin - Permutation 1998
Funny Things - Shack - The Corner Of Miles And Gil - 2006
Let's Go Driving - Barzin - My Life In Rooms - 2006
Police & Thieves - Joe Strummer & The Latino Rockabilly War - 11 Aug 1988 - Coasters, Edinburgh (Rock Against The Rich)
Sam Hill - Merle Haggard - Down Every Road (Disk 1)
Salvation - Elton John - Honky Chateau - 1972
Closed Captioned Demo - Fugazi - Instrument Soundtrack 1997
Chicken Wired - Ronnie Lane - Anymore For Anymore 1971
Beside Me - Dean Martin - Dino - Like Never Before - 1952
One More Night - Can - Ege Bamayasi - 1972
Georgia on My Mind - Willie Nelson - Willie and Family Live - 1978

S'Kcorratiug - Schneider TM - Skoda Mluvit - 2006
Little Twig - Neil Halstead - Oh! Mighty Engine - 2008
Maybe Sparrow - Neko Case - Live, Orange House, Munich, Germany, May 11, 2006
Each Of Her Silver Wands - Robyn Hitchcock - Surfer-Ghost - 1994
World On A String - Neil Young - Tonight's The Night - 1975
It's About Time - The Pandoras - Children Of Nuggets: The Second Psych Era 1976-1996
Six - Ignaz Schick / Dawid Szczesny - The View Underneath - 2007
Get Up And Use Me (Version) - Fire Engines - 1980
News Headlines, More Wrong Cues, Top 10 Countdown, Etc - Negativland - Over The Edge Vol. 4: Dick Vaughn's Moribund Music Of The 70's - 1990
Stop That Thing - Sleepy John Estes - Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1- 1935

Baby Let Me - Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Bavarian Fruit Bread - 2001
Slaughter Killing Carnage - A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar - 2009
Song Of The Bayou - Martin Denny - Ultra-Lounge Vol. 11: Organs In Orbit - 1960
Congo Part 1 - Twistin Kings - Derek's Daily 45 - 1961
Paris Smith - Prefab Sprout - Jordan: The Comeback - 1990

randoms

2009-06-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Stateless - Crash

The Dukes of Stratosphear - collideascope

Robyn Hitchcock - Ghost Ship (2008-04-11 - El Rey Theatre)

R.E.M. - Sing For The Submarine

Barzin - Just More Drugs

Mercy Arms - On and On

Cassino Simpson - Tea for Two

The Beach Boys - All I want To Do

Carlo Savina - Il Charleston Di Giulietta

Autechre - Bronchusevenmx24

Señor Jimenez y Los Taquitos - Shake The Can

PJ Harvey - Cat on the Wall

Dog Faced Hermans - Mary Houdini

Anja Lechner, Vassilis Tsabropoulos & U. T. Gandhi - Vocalise

Rolling Stones - Take It Or Leave It

Ugh. Wow I don't like any of these songs. Ghost Ship is ok, but the recording isn't great - it's a bootleg. Barzin is ok. Savina and Autechre are ok, but this is a terrible run of tracks, and proof that I really don't need to keep this much music on my computer. Granted, I've never even listened to REM's Accelerate, but I'm pretty sure it's shit.

I believe the robots are our future.

2009-03-26T22:11:00.001-07:00

1988

2009-03-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

Wow. I always thought it was 1991, but 1988 might have been the better year.
In the real world, this year was an utter disaster of epic proportions.

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Happy Mondays - Bummed
Keith Richards - Talk Is Cheap
N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
Morrissey - Viva Hate
R.E.M. - Green
The Smithereens - Green Thoughts
Dinosaur Jr. - Bug
My Bloody Valentine - Isn’t Anything
Crowded House - Temple of Low Men
Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session
Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Camper Van Beethoven - Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart
The Pogues - “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” 12"
The Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death
The Pogues - If I Should Fall from Grace with God
The Waterboys - Fisherman’s Blues
Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking
The Mission U.K. - Children
Skinny Puppy - VIVISectVI
Dead Can Dance - The Serpent's Egg
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
The Church - Starfish
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
Beat Happening - Jamboree
Galaxie 500 - Today
Front 242 - Front by Front
The Stone Roses - “Elephant Stone”
The Wedding Present - “Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?”
The Sugarcubes - Life’s Too Good
Fugazi - Fugazi
The House of Love - The House of Love
Loop - Fade Out
Throwing Muses - House Tornado
Leonard Cohen - “Everybody Knows”
Danzig - “Mother”
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - Globe of Frogs
The Dead Milkmen - Beelzebubba
The Dead Milkmen - “Punk Rock Girl”
Eazy-E - “Boyz-n-the Hood”
The Wonder Stuff - The Eight Legged Groove Machine
Julian Cope - “Charlotte Anne”
Laibach - “Across the Universe”
The Jesus and Mary Chain - “Sidewalking”
Violent Femmes - 3
Fugazi - “Waiting Room”
Wire - A Bell Is a Cup…Until It Is Struck
Eleventh Dream Day - Prairie School Freakout
The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane

Most on the list taken from allmusic, though they missed a few, including Skinny Puppy. Some of these I didn't hear until later, like Eleventh Dream Day, Happy Mondays, and Beat Happening. It's also clear from this that I spent every penny I made on music. I still have at least half of these on vinyl.

Touch and Go is nearly gone

2009-02-18T17:44:00.000-08:00

Doin' the crystal, baby
Diggin' the glory scene
Eel McGreel beach comber
I'm gonna shoot my friends
I'm lyin' to Jesus Christ, man
He won't forgive this sin

I promise not to get too uptight
And I promise not to kill anybody

-Didjits

Excuse me, monsieur eight ball
Who told you to get me high?

Happy 200th Abraham Lincoln

2009-02-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

Brad...

2009-01-17T20:15:00.001-08:00

MGMT/NIN

2009-01-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

Rockafire Explosion

Never Forget

2008-12-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

What I'm Getting Rid of - thanksgiving edition

2008-11-25T16:33:00.000-08:00

Another big batch of vinyl, maybe 25 LPs worth:
All Love & Rockets LPs and 12" singles, including Kundlini Express and Ying and Yang the Flower Pot Man
Police: Ghost in the Machine
Tones on Tail: Pop
Bubblemen 12" single
Bauhaus: Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape
Roxy Music: The Atlantic Years
Ramones: Pleasant Dreams
Soft Cell: 12" Tainted Love and an LP.
New Bomb Turks: Some 10" colored vinyl import
Claw Hammer: Hold Your Tongue
Boomtown Rats: MondoBongo
Bob Geldof: 1st solo album and the promo only Q&A interview disc
E*I*E*I*O: That Love Thang (Frontier records alt-country band that I rad a Rolling Stone review of in 1986.

Also sold a Kinks BBC Sessions CD set, the out of print Rhino edition of the Plimsouls' album, and the original edition of the Love & Rockets self-titled CD.

Standing behind me in line to sell stuff was the former head buyer of the Virgin Records store on Sunset. Thought about using the trade to buy the new Robyn Hitchcock box set or some of the new KMFDM reissues. Then took the cash.

Olbermann on Prop. 8

2008-11-11T12:41:00.001-08:00

And oh yeah: NC too.

2008-11-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

N CAROLINA

Obama Speech

2008-11-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

338

2008-11-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

COLORADO
NEVADA
FLORIDA
VIRGINIA
CALIFORNIA
WASHINGTON
OREGON
HAWAII

Iowa

2008-11-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

IOWA

Ohio

2008-11-04T18:23:00.001-08:00

OHIO
MSNBC calling the state.

NEW MEXICO?

2008-11-04T18:08:00.000-08:00

NEW MEXICO??

Fox News is calling the state for Obama. Also Udall over Pearce as a Senator from the state.

Michigan et al

2008-11-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

MICHIGAN
NEW YORK
WISCONSIN
MINNESOTA
RHODE ISLAND

NY Times County Bubble map

2008-11-04T17:37:00.000-08:00

Big blue bubbles in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio

NEW HAMPSHIRE

2008-11-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

NEW HAMPSHIRE
SHAHEEN OVER SUNUNU

North Carolina

2008-11-04T17:18:00.001-08:00

KAY HAGAN - NC

MASSACHUSETTS et al.

2008-11-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

MASSACHUSETTS
CONNECTICUT
NEW JERSEY
WASH DC

MAINE et al

2008-11-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

MARYLAND
DELAWARE
ILLINOIS
MAINE
VERMONT

PENNSYLVANIA

2008-11-04T17:02:00.001-08:00

PENNSYLVANIA

Election Day

2008-11-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

Yea!

2008-10-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

o rly?

2008-10-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

BELLS, Tenn. (AP) — Two white supremacists charged with plotting to behead blacks across the country and assassinate Barack Obama while wearing white top hats and tuxes were likely too disorganized to carry out the plot, authorities said, and their planning was riddled with blunders.
...
Among the blunders: They drew attention to themselves by etching swastikas on a car with sidewalk chalk... and a friend ratted them out to authorities.
...
"Certainly these men have some frightening weapons and some very frightening plans," said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who studies the white supremacy movement. "But with the part about wearing top hats ... it gets a bit hard to take them seriously."

America

2008-10-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

japanese cat weightlifting

2008-10-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka on Racism and Obama

2008-10-02T10:39:00.001-07:00

David Foster Wallace

2008-09-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Gooey hideous horrible retrograde cynical stuff

Hehhehhehheh

2008-08-31T21:30:00.001-07:00

From three years ago. Now all of a sudden he gives a shit.

Zombie McCain

2008-08-26T21:14:00.001-07:00

zombiemccain.com

One Spouse

One House

Obama

Ginned Up a Little Bit

2008-08-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Barbados Blackbelly Sheep

2008-07-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

Applesauce!

2008-07-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

Doing some shopping at the PX.

Ronnie Lane Rules

2008-06-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

Anymore for Anymore

How Come 1973

Debris 1974

Ooh La La 1974

Don't ever talk to the police. Ever. For any Reason

2008-06-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

1 2 3 4!

2008-06-25T22:20:00.001-07:00

Bastard

2008-06-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

Withdrawal in 12,008

2008-06-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

WHAT?

WHAT?

sumo post

2008-06-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

Grand Sumo Tournament
Sports Arena, Sunday June 8, 2008

Even if you know nothing about Sumo wrestling (and I don't), it's incredible how quickly and deeply involved in the spectacle you can become by watching it live. I'm not alone. For many people here, this is their first experience with live professional Sumo wrestling. It's not like the chance comes around often — the last time a tournament of this sort was held in Los Angeles was 1981.

Before the tournament begins though, there's a lot of pre-game festivities. The opening ceremony is followed by a group of small children in sumo dress going one on one against some of the rikishi. One wrestler, Aminishiki, greeted his five-year old competitor with a bellowing yell that filled the arena. Believe it or not, the kid actually won that match, which leads me to believe that some of the fights may be fixed. Just kidding. Other wrestlers swung their child opponents through the air by an arm and leg.

The kid matches are followed by Shokkiri, a comedic run-through of illegal wrestling moves. Shokkiri only takes place before exhibition matches (or Jungyo) like this one, and involved a kind of Laurel and Hardy routine between a big wrestler and a small(er) one, demonstrating eye gouging, kicking, hair-pulling and threatening the referee.

Eventually all forty-one of the rikishi were introduced and proceeded to the ring, and from the crowd reaction I realized there were home-town favorites. First, anyone from Mongolia got huge cheers, and there are several Mongolians in the group. Second, Asashoryu at 325 lbs is by far the fan favorite. The first Mongolian to reach the highest rank in Sumo, Asashoryu has been a controversial wrestler which you can learn more about here.

Apparently the popularity of Sumo wrestling is one the wane in Japan, and part of that is attributed to the large number of non-Japanese competitors. But in Los Angeles, it's the Mongolians who are getting the big cheers.

On to the matches!

The first bout of the tournament featured a very thin (well, it's all relative) Mongolian fighter named Hakuba going up against the Japanese wrestler Kotokasuga. A "backward pivot throw" which is quite possibly known as utchari was enough to end the match.

It's surprising how many Sumo wrestlers are not Japanese, though they take traditional Japanese Sumo names, so it's not always obvious. Roho, in the second match is Russian, and notches a fast win against his Japanese opponent Tamanaoshima.

The pacing of the matches is quite nice. Though the action is often short, there's a 3 or 4 minute break between each one with a quick ad for a Japanese law firm, or a Little Tokyo restaurant. It's the right amount of time to try to figure out the names of the next wrestlers and if I've already seen them before, and if they might be Mongolian.

A lot of the Sumo in the first round go against significantly stronger fighters in the second round. So very few of the first round winners become second round winners. The first match of the second round features Asashoryu who won the Saturday match. He's Mongolian AND a previous winner and though the stadium's not filled, the cheers are huge for him. He's wrestling Kakuryu:

Or rather he's lifting Kakuryu out of the ring. And that's a win. That's pretty amazing.

Roho the Russian, who I've already developed a fondness for due to the low number of syllables in his name as much as anything else, is now going against the also easy to remember Ama. But Ama is Mongolian, and he gets all the crowd love. Until today I don't think I've ever seen a real Mongolian flag before. Now I'm seeing at least half a dozen waved through the stadium. Ama is also relatively light compared to many of the other wrestlers. But he's fast.

Ama not only defeats Roho and goes on to beat his next opponent: Futeno from Japan, who is much larger than Ama.

Asashoryu on the other hand is going against the very large Baruto from Estonia. Twice Asashoryu lifts Baruto off the ground in an effort to move him out of the ring. Here it is:

On the second lift, Asashoryu succeeds and moves on. But this pits him against Ama in an All-Mongolian Spectacular. And Ama isn't anywhere as big as Baruto.

Really. I thought this was it for the little guy. Asashoryu had won the previous day's tournament and had had little trouble this time with Baruto (Estonia) in the previous round. But check the tape: Ama wins!

McCain 2008

2008-06-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Originally from here.

McCain on those television typewriter machines he's been seeing lately.

2008-06-11T12:40:00.000-07:00

My dad is ten years odler than McCain and HE knows how to use a computer.

McCain IS too old for this job. He's admitted it, everyone knows it. Old old old. And disabled. And confused and sleepy and cranky.

Bottled Hot Water to Dehydrated Babies.

2008-06-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

My guess is that this was some sort of folk remedy for curing whooping cough back in the 1800s when McCain was a young man.

Death of the Arcade

2008-06-05T13:22:00.000-07:00

Video Arcades' Last Gasp

By Christopher Borrelli | Tribune reporter

Diana Thompson hears Space Invaders in her head. She hears them in her sleep, marching ever downward, clomping ever closer. She hears them on her way to work. She hears them at work. And when they stop, for even a second, when there's the slightest glitch in their relentless stomp, when their incessant dun-dun-dun-dun hiccups, she hears that too. Thompson has worked at Gameland in Lake Geneva, Wis., for 12 years. Most days, most hours, especially during the off-season, she's alone with this cacophony of ancient coin-operated arcade games—beeping and wheezing and clanking and blasting and marching. And maybe a customer or two. And that's about it. Each blap and zap bleeds into the next and congeals into a digital orchestra, and like a conductor with a keen understanding of dense compositions, her ears prick up at the tiniest bum note.

But not for long.

Come September, when the tourists head home and school begins, this dimly lit room, awash in garish blinking Day-Glo— boasting machines so authentic they still bear the cigarette burns of 1982—will go silent. Donkey Kong will lay down his barrels, and Ms. Pac-Man will cease to chomp. And Gameland, a block from the lake, a charming staple of Chicago day-trip culture since it opened in 1944, will close for the season, and for the last time. So go now. The machines will be auctioned off. The plugs pulled. Its demise was inevitable. Its problems are the problems of any arcade—the rise of the Xbox, old machines, big electric bills, an overwhelming lack of youthful interest—and its lonesome decline more prolonged than a bad actor's death scene.

"Teenagers haven't come in a long while," said Thompson, who manages Gameland with her husband, Carl. "The people we get now come out looking to remember something from their past. They look around, they play a bit, then they leave."

This is not a news flash: The video game arcade, as a neighborhood meeting spot, as a one-stop shop for the latest in entertainment technology, is slightly more vibrant than an Edsel parts supplier. Indeed, ye olde vintage video arcade is so rare these days that—well, try finding one in Chicago at all. One by one, over the past 20 years, they have fallen away: Diversions, Treasure Chest, Mothers (in Mt. Prospect), Chicago Game Company, Rubus Game Room. All gone—a sad reality in a town that basically served as headquarters for the arcade industry.

No, the surprise is that a place like Gameland, this dingy blinking testament to our pre-PlayStation days, has clawed its way to 2008 at all, 25 years after the video game arcade peaked in popularity, at least two decades since the industry's implosion.

Step into Gameland now—and if you wasted your childhood and drained your parent's pockets of quarters, plugging coin after coin into Defender and Tempest, then stepping from the dark of Aladdin's Castle into the sunlight like a junkie emerging from a lost weekend—there should be a shock of recognition. The squat brown machine that converts $1 bills into four tokens. The wood-paneled walls. There's a Track and Field machine. And a Jungle King. The logo on the side of Galaxian has faded. The sound on Donkey Kong is nonexistent. And the joystick on Tron sticks. Asteroids eats my first token. I bang Qix to get the color back. But the vintage racing game Pole Position—the sit-down version!—works just fine. The floor is dotted with milk crates—for those shorter gamers. The vibe is sullen. And the radio at the front desk is even (no joke) blasting "We Are the World."

It's glorious. Nothing has changed.

But the crowds.

Or lack thereof.

At Star Worlds in DeKalb—also every inch the classic arcade—the room resembles a never-ending kiddie birthday party, with balloons lingering on the ceiling and games that spit out tickets to be redeemed for T-shirts and toys. But the Lady Bug and Centipede machines sit dormant (though the games themselves are impeccably kept up). "This is a nostalgia business now," said Patrick O'Malley, who started Star Worlds in 1985 when he was just 15 (with the help of his parents). He decorates the walls with album covers by bands like Squeeze and Kenny Loggins. To remain solvent, his tiny brick arcade partly makes its money back selling machines on eBay and repairing games in people's basements. The arcade's motto is "Play Today the Games You Miss From Yesterday"—but that's mostly wishful cajoling.

Closer to Chicago, in the Golf Mill shopping mall in Niles, the Replay Arcade sits across the hall from a JC Penney. On a weekday, after school has let out, a handful of teenagers wanders in and they play Dance Dance Revolution (which is giant and loud and hard to replicate on a PlayStation), then wander out. Dig Dug is shoved into a corner. There's a Whac-a-Mole and redemption skee-ball machines and an ancient puppet show that shakes and jiggles its marionettes for a couple of minutes then goes silent. This used to be an Aladdin's Castle. Then a Namco Cybertainment. Now, you're just surprised to stumble on it at all, intact.

"I think it's tragic," said Roger Sharp, director of marketing for WMS Gaming, formerly Williams, once a leader in pinball and video games, now a leader in slot machines. "This is part of our culture. And the arcade industry has always prided itself on being recession proof. But, then, this has never been an industry full of brain surgeons. For years they didn't have to do a lot of work to get customers, then when they were faced with competition, they lost them. It's pathetic."

For many Chicago gamers, the final coffin nail arrived last December when Dennis' Place for Games, on Belmont Avenue, closed after 28 years. Dark and tiny, it had character, and was full of characters, competitive players, large bouncers, threatening locals. It stayed open until 4 a.m. Dennis Georges, who served in the Greek navy and wore a peacoat most of the day, put a visage of his younger self on the sign out front (which still hangs). Dennis' stayed afloat as long as it did, she said, because it became a test site for many new games. Of the three dozen it generally offered, at least 20 percent came from video game companies based in the Chicago area. Williams, Bally, Midway, Data East, Namco—all were either started in Chicago or had a North American headquarters based here. Dennis' would get a game for free; then pay for it later at discount. But eventually, Dennis himself said, "We couldn't compete with home systems. We did our best, but our customers buy a game for $300 and play on big TVs. We're asked to pay $14,000 for one machine."

Ironically, what put Dennis' out of business is partly what kept it going. Arcades, faced with Nintendo and Sony, decided to go big or die, "to make coin-op games that offer an experience you can't get in the home," said Andrew Eloff, co-founder of Skokie-based Raw Thrills, one of the few arcade game manufactures to thrive in recent years. The physically enormous Fast and Furious driving games, the shotgun simulator Big Buck Hunter—thank Raw Thrills, which sells many of its machines to family entertainment centers, "the spiritual successors of the old-style arcade," said David Bishop, senior vice president and COO of Namco Cybertainment, based in Bensenville.

Like the games they offer, family entertainment centers are large, immersive. And Chicago, bereft of traditional arcades, is awash in family entertainment centers: GameWorks in Schaumburg, Fun Time Square in Alsip, Enchanted Castle in Lombard, Brunswick Zone in River Grove. Most have a modest selection of old arcade games. But it's not quite the same. They're almost too upstanding. Nickel City in Northbrook has a snack shop and party room—inversely, ESPN Zone and Dave & Buster's are more like large scale arcade-themed restaurants than real arcades. (Indeed, at Nickel City, the old-school games are free because nobody plays them anyway.)

"The nature of the arcade has changed," said Gary Stern, president of Stern Pinball, based in Melrose Park. "I don't agree they're going away. It's just different. We don't even consider ourselves in the arcade business now—we're in bowling alleys and pizza parlors and family entertainment centers." That said, Stern Pinball is also the last company (on the planet) that still makes pinball machines.

"See, it's not that the industry is gone," said Mike Rudowicz, president of the American Amusement Machine Association, which represents manufacturers and distributors. "It's that we're a cottage industry now. We have around 3,000 family entertainment centers, but those are mostly not arcades. A vestibule in a movie theater—that's an arcade now." Indeed, Raw Thrills was launched in 2001 by developers at Williams who recognized that fewer companies (including their own) were making fewer games for an ever dwindling number of arcades. They had grown up hanging around Dennis' and didn't want to the classic arcade experience to fade away completely, Eloff said.

But that's probably irreversible.

Mall real estate is too expensive now, considering this was once a $50 billion business and it's now around $7 billion. There aren't enough new games to bring repeat business, let alone cover overhead. The explosion of new water parks/family entertainment centers like KeyLime Cove in Gurnee has helped somewhat, said Ron Malinowski, the former vice president of Aladdin's Castle (now director of sales for Sega Amusements, based in Elk Grove Village). But if you're a gamer who missed the old bedraggled iconic arcade experience, you probably don't go to water parks, said David Bishop of Namco.

"See, The real arcade is almost a niche now. It was part of the fabric of society for a short time. It had a seedy undercurrent. But it was so cool. I'm sad to see it go. I miss those days. You will never see them again. Which is sad, but evolution. What can you do? Enjoy while you can—if you find one. You're not going to see them much longer. The arcade is done. Game over."

I don't even know what this is.

2008-05-26T17:47:00.001-07:00

A Moral Compass, A Spiritual Guide

2008-05-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

So what 20th Century Man's excuse for this? Did he just not know what any of the pastor's messages were about? Does he just call people "A truly great leader in America" because his staff of lobbyists tell him to do that? Did he know and just think it didn't matter?

McAmazing McCain Predicts the Future!

2008-05-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

"Saddam Hussein [is] developing weapons of mass destruction as quickly as he can," Fox News, November 2001.

"Hussein has the ability to ... [turn] Iraq into a weapons assembly line for Al Qaeda's network." Feb., 2003

"I believe that the success [in Iraq] will be fairly easy," Larry King in September 2002.

"We're not going to get into house-to-house fighting," to Wolf Blitzer in 2002. "We're not going to have a bloodletting."

"There's no doubt in my mind ... we will be welcomed as liberators." March 2003.

"There's not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shias," he explained confidently on MSNBC in April 2003, "so I think they can probably get along."

Ugh.

McCrazy

2008-05-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

Former Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, a Texan who is among the McCain campaign’s most important advisers and fundraisers, has resigned as a national co-chair over lobbying entanglements, a Republican source told Politico on Sunday.

It’s at least the fifth lobbying-related departure from the campaign in a week.

The officials who have left include:

Doug Goodyear, who was McCain’s top liaison to the Republican National Convention;

Doug Davenport, regional campaign manager for mid-Atlantic states;

Eric Burgeson, an energy policy adviser;

Craig Shirley, a prominent Republican consultant who was a member of McCain’s Virginia Leadership Team.

Loeffler’s departure followed a report this weekend by Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff that Loeffler’s “lobbying firm has collected nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002..."

Doug Goodyear resigned his post on Saturday after a magazine reported that his firm had lobbied for the military junta that runs Myanmar.

The United States has denounced the Burmese government as one of the world’s most repressive, and Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, has long been critical of the government as well. During the campaign, he has called for Myanmar’s leaders to halt human rights abuses.

The appointment of Mr. Goodyear was sensitive for Mr. McCain. It came after the senator had been criticized by some Republican primary opponents for employing several lobbyists and former lobbyists to run his campaign

WE AM SPACE CLOWNS!

2008-05-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

One can must destroy all!

wtf.

2008-05-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess that he does seem pretty sane compared to his mom. However, I think McCain's 122 year old grandmother must have felt kind of left out. Then again, her husband fought for the Confederacy, and that might be a liability if she starts yapping.

27 bottles of scotch indeed.

Here Comes The Planes. They're American Planes

2008-04-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

goats are cute!

2008-04-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

IDIOT!

2008-04-19T15:20:00.001-07:00

John McCain: Cut Taxes on Horseless Carriage Fuel Oil

2008-04-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

McCain urged Congress to institute a "gas-tax holiday" by suspending the 18.4 cent per gallon federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from late May to early September. By some estimates, the government would lose about $10 billion in revenue. He also renewed his call for the United States to stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and thus lessen to some extent the worldwide demand for oil.

Combined, he said, the two proposals would reduce gas prices, which would have a trickle-down effect, and "help to spread relief across the American economy."

Above, John McCain campaigns in New Amsterdam, showing off the latest invention by beloved American Jew-hater Henry Ford. The contraption displays the technological and manufacturing know-how that will fuel America's unfettered growth for the next 100 years.

John McCain: A lover AND a fighter

2008-04-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

The website Raw Story obtained a separate anecdote from Schecter's book, in which McCain berated his wife in the full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop.

In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

Photo: John McCain teasingly puts Cindy in a headlock cutting off the flow of oxygenated blood toher brain through the carotid artery.

John McCain: Fightin' Mad

2008-04-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most remarkable story of McCain's temper involved Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi. Two former reporters covering McCain relayed it as follows: In 2006, the Arizona Republican congressional delegation had a strategy meeting. McCain repeatedly addressed two new members, congressmen Trent Franks and Rick Renzi, as 'boy.' Finally, Renzi, a former college linebacker, rose from his chair and said to McCain, "You call me that one more time and I'll kick your old ass." McCain lunged at Renzi, punches were thrown, and the two had to be physically separated. After they went to their separate offices, McCain called Renzi and demanded an apology. Renzi refused. Apparently this posture made McCain admire him, as they became fast friends.

McCain once "scuffled" with the Senate's then oldest member, Strom Thurmond, during a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing in January 1995. Three years later, the Associated Press article reported that McCain dropped F-Bombs on at least three fellow Republicans.

"I'm calling you a fucking jerk!" he once retorted to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.

And in a opinion piece last year on Salon.com, Sidney Blumenthal, now an adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton, wrote that McCain once told Sen. Ted Kennedy to "shut up" on the Senate Floor, referred to a fellow Republican as a "shit head" and offered a downright vicious and doubly-offensive joke in 1998 Republican fundraiser about then first daughter Chelsea Clinton.

"Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly?" he asked. "Because Janet Reno is her father."

John McCain: 100 Years in Iraq

2008-04-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

Republicans Try to Falsely Spin McCain's "100 Years" Comment Away Entirely

On the Senate floor today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "one of the things that we will be debating this fall, Mr. President, is whether our troops need to be in Iraq for another 50 or 100 years. I think that will be a pivotal part of the debate that takes place for the presidential election.”

Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, took issue.

“Mr. President, of course no one has said that," McConnell said. "And my dear friend, the Majority Leader, knows that. That's a swipe at Senator McCain, who was talking about troop deployments overseas, not the continued engagement in warfare. And the mainstream media, which has not been particularly friendly to the war, has hammered those who have accused Senator McCain of saying we were going to have a 100-year war in Iraq. That is a deliberate misrepresentation of what he has said."

If anyone should know "100 years" comments it's John McCentury of Arizona.

Airlines suck.

2008-04-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong airline Oasis stopped flying today stranding hundreds. Another budget carrier, they were known for offering flights from Hong Kong to London for $65 and also recently launched a Vancouver / Hong Kong schedule.

Bymy count they are the fifth airline to go under this month.

It's not just airlines that suck. Boeing does too. "Boeing announced on Wednesday the third major delay on its 787 Dreamliner, citing slow progress on assembly and continuing problems with suppliers, putting the program about 15 months behind schedule."

Boeing blames foreigners: "Boeing also has had difficulties with a program that leans unusually heavily on overseas suppliers." But of course they're the ones who decided not to make the parts within the U.S.

So how is American Airlines doing today?

American Airlines cancels 850 more flights

Nice. Good job.

Airlines blow.

2008-04-08T16:54:00.001-07:00

How horrible do things have to get before most normal people just decide not to put up with flying any longer?

Last week, Terminal 5 at Heathrow was an utter clusterfuck of mythic proportions.

Yesterday a huge report came out that showed how terrible the airlines are at performing their most basic functions, to say nothing of comfort, service, decent prices and so on.

Today: American Airlines cancels 500 flights. No advance notice. Not scheduled maintenance. But the wiring on the planes may be fucked, and it's bad enough that they just decided to leave literally thousands of people stranded.

They're going to cancel a lot more tomorrow.

I no longer fly unless it's completely necessary. It's utterly misery-inducing. I was about to book a cross country flight over the weekend - my first in a long time that wasn't for business or to visit family - when suddenly the airline announced it was closing its doors forever.

Excellent. That's one down. Or four this weekend actually (ATA, Skybus, Aloha and Champion). Now if all the rest would go to hell, we could start over from scratch and have someone devise a pleasant way of air travel that doesn't involve being treated like cattle and criminals by retarded federal officials and exasperated airline employees. Suck it airlines.

Marc Maurer is an idiot.

2008-04-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

Bill aims to protect blind people from dangers of hybrids

The Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind has pushed for the legislation to protect those who rely on their hearing to know when to cross the street.

While the organization is not aware of people being struck by cars they couldn't hear, NFB President Marc Maurer has said he fears it's only a matter of time.

idiots.

donut of sleepiness

2008-04-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

I woke up tired.

I will be more tired in two days I'm sure.

WHile mailing my taxes I stopped at 7-11, which I do fairly often. I look at all the terrible food, then usually buy nothing. Sometime I buy a donut. Today I bought a donut.

Not one of these donuts, but one bearing a partial resemblance to this donut.

Now I'm worse than tired. I'm exhausted. I blame the donut.

This.

2008-03-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

Even more gone.

2008-03-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

Another stack of vinyl, maybe 50 or 60 LPs, including all Boomtown Rats LPs, most Guided by Voices, all REM, old crappy punk. Most of what I have left now is worthless and will hopefully go away in a yard sale. Then what's left goes to Goodwill, except for some Robyn Hitchcock and Tom Waits.

Also went through my closet and got rid of six bags of old clothes, including a 1990 black Gap long-sleeve hooded t-shirt, and a black trenchcoat with metal studs on the shoulder.

What's next? More CDs I guess. Some books too probably. It's not just books and LPs that are gone: The stock market is very depressing. It seems unlikely we will end 2008 with as much as we started with, even if we continue to work for the whole rest of the year.

reading: Perfectly Legal, an in incredibly depressing book about how rich companies avoid taxes and stick working people with the bill.

oh yeah - also

2008-03-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

Also sold vinyl copies of:

Portishead 2nd LP

Jim O'Rourke: 2 Drag City LPs.

2 LPs by Link Wray.

Beastie Boys electronica side project LP on Grand Royal: BS2000

The Big Itch Vol. 5

Several garage comps from Crypt Records.

What DId I get rid of Today?

2008-03-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Albums! Long players. that went long unplayed. Many of these have not been played since I was in college 17 years ago. Others since high school. Yeah, really - high school. There was very little I don't have on CD or some digital version of, and even the stuff I didn't - I don't need it. so, what went away?

Husker Du: Candy Apple Gray.

REM: Automatic for the People.

Velvet Underground: First LP, and White Light/White Heat

Bauhaus: Burning from the Inside

Elvis Costello: Impreial Bedroom, King of America

Sisters of Mercy: Floodland (I kept the way rare Reptile House EP, for now.)

Pole: 1

Tones On Tail

Beck: everything except the Bong Load vinyl which I had already sold to people in Japan and Germany for hundreds of dollars

Sting: Bring on the Night

U2: 12" singles form Joshua Tree

I'm still terrified of becoming a packrat, living in an apt piled high with books, newspapers, trinkets, three million CDs and who knows what else, so that I have to wander through various pathways among the mess. (shudder).

The 'middle-class millionaire'

2008-03-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

Story

Trickle-down effect:

These traits may differ from those in the middle class but their offspring, in the form of goods and services, are making their way "downstream."

"From life coaches to luxury vacation rentals, concierge medical care to high dollar prep course into the Ivy League [these things] are making their way downstream, steadily becoming available to a much broader population," Prince and Schiff say. "What was once the province of only the super rich is now being created and packaged for the 'downline' population or for those with fewer zeros in their net worth, but similar aspirations."

It's a whole new level of keeping up with the Joneses.

Take the OnStar navigation system. It began as an emergency road service for high-end luxury vehicles. Now it's even offered on midrange trucks. Similar trends are occurring in real estate, vacations, airline travel and other services.

---

In other words, people are being told that ridiculous, pointless luxuries that the rich used to waste their money on, are now being marketed back to people who are definitely not rich. But they're told these things are now necessities, and of course people believe them. So instead of saving their money, they'll spend it on these things, then complain they can't get ahead.

No one really seems to want to get off of the treadmill.

Americans poorer than a year ago

2008-03-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

Despite the slowing in mortgage debt, households' equity in their homes fell for the third straight quarter, dropping by $286 billion, or an 11% annual rate.

Household equity fell to a record low 47.9% of home values. Over the past three quarters, the bank or lender owned more of the average house than the "homeowner" did -- the first time this has happened.

Total household assets fell by an annualized $308 billion to stand at $72.1 trillion, while liabilities rose $226 billion to $14.4 trillion.

http://federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/Current/

Third Term

2008-03-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

First he was for the war, then he was for the war.
Don't give these fuckers another four years.

Old balljaw and the howlin' monkey.

Swarthy Panamianian John McCain to infiltrate White House and Destory America

2008-02-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

---

Who really knows anything about this Jose McCain character other than he has has come crawling out of the steamy, snake-infested jungles of Panama, likely full of Typhoid and Yellow Fever.

Above: Sean Connery in a Panama Hat: A real American. Why not elect him?

Now, I'm no expert in the manners and whims of the uncivilized, savage peoples of Panama, but I honestly hope that el Presidente Vincente McCain doesn't start holding human sacrifices on the White House steps and build giant temples to his SUN GOD.

Above, Senor Alberto McCain wearing a Panama hat.

It makes sense now that he has chosen PHOENIX as his casa while taking advantage of the hospitality of our fair land. He probably worships the Phoenix - or some other flaming bird god.

Above, an artist's rendering of the possible innauguration ceremony of Senor Manuel McCain. The following day, we will learn that American has been turned into a mere colony of the growing Empire of Panama.

Beige

2008-02-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

brilliant!

2008-02-25T13:59:00.000-08:00

pizza

2008-02-13T14:31:00.001-08:00

Also: Got rid of another box full of old Harper's magazines, Kendra Smith CD, two Robyn Hitchcock CDs, 15 others I can't remember. They did not take: Jewmongous CD.

Throw a couple of Lincolns to Obama: $5.01

2008-02-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

A fiver and a penny in honor of Lincoln's birthday.

Today is a money bomb for Barack. In honor of Lincoln's birthday throw him two Lincolns - the five and the penny (or any multiple thereof). This is a direct link to the main donation page.

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/yeswecan?source=grassroots

July 2007

2008-02-07T12:41:00.001-08:00

What crap is on this shelf I haven't listened to in 10 years?

2008-02-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

5 Nurat Fateh Ali Khan CDs
4 John Lurie CDs
3 Medicine CDs (I have always hated this band)
2 Lullaby for the Working Class CDs
1 Kiss CD (Destroyer)
1 B.B. King CD (Lucille)

I miss my cat.

What am I getting rid of?

2008-02-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

Why do I have five CDs by Everything But The Girl? And four CDs by jazz piano junkie Brad Mehldau? Soon I will rectify that problem. Giving a quick listen to "Love Not Money" reminded me why I dug Tracey Thorn's voice, but jeez.

Not just crap though, I'm also jettisoning Band of Horses (it's on the computer, don't worry), Turbonegro's latest, and an old Ninja Tune CD of Antibalas. (I always preferred the Daktaris).

Here's Bobby Seale taken a week ago. Not doing well here.

Bobby Seale

2008-01-28T15:15:00.000-08:00

What am I getting rid of today?

2008-01-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

Another 15 or so CDs onto Amazon to sell, mostly old blues albums and some Alan Lomax recordings from the Bahamas 1935, England 1940s, Sarah Vaughan box set, gospel CDs, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk...

Also tossing away another half dozen VHS tapes: Spider Baby, Communion (It was Christmas?!), Fishing with John, Traffic...

Last weekend I ditched about 3 or 4 years' worth of Harper's Magazine. Great stuff. Now at the recycling plant hopefully. Part of this is preparing to be able to move. If I"m faced with 10 or 20% less "stuff" when we decide to move away from here, then that will be a good thing. It's very hard to get rid of this stuff though. I no longer bring home CDs or music, but I do still bring home books. I need to get rid of more clothes, more CDs, more books and and more tapes/LPs/movies/stuff I've not looked at in 5 years or more.

is it a game of Backgammon ye be playin'?

2008-01-09T17:20:00.000-08:00

test

2008-01-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

Meet the Gammonmaster II

2008-01-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

With this futuristic, electronic brain capable of calculating dozens of moves per minute, the Soviets won't stand a chance against us at the upcoming Backgammon season in Monte Carlo.

Why isn't God Making me rich like the TV man said he would?

2007-12-27T14:25:00.000-08:00

Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches. And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Fla., area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist.

She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher, Paula White.

Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn't strong enough.

"I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them," she said. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't watch anyone on TV hardly."

The prosperity gospel continues to draw crowds, particularly lower- and middle-income people who, critics say, have the greatest motivation and the most to lose. The prosperity message is spreading to black churches, attracting elderly people with disposable incomes, and reaching huge churches in Africa and other developing parts of the world.

Some ministers hold up their own wealth as evidence that the teaching works. Atlanta-area pastor Creflo Dollar, who is fighting Grassley's inquiry, owns a Rolls Royce and multimillion-dollar homes and travels in a church-owned Learjet.