Saturday, May 20, 2006

Nakakahiya

via pcijblog
"the outgoing DAP president, reading from a prepared statement, explained that he could not vote for Kalaw who, he said, had subverted the selection process and could not “lead the academy to new heights.”"
How can newly elected Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) president Antonio Kalaw Jr. even occupy the position with this kind of "endorsement" from the outgoing DAP President? Kapal ng apog na lang talaga pag umupo pa siya.

Punta tayo dito

sa Presidential museum ni Erap para manood ng pelikula (Bankang papel sa dagat ng apoy)
"The museum itself features a 65-seater amphitheater which will screen Estrada’s almost 145 movies made while he was a popular actor from 1957 to 1989."
Hindi ko alam kung maiiyak ako o matatawa.

Nagtanong lang nakalaboso pa

via in(s)ane ramblings

Ask for directions, go straight to jail. How can this happen?
"WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said Joshua Kelly and Llara Brook, of Chantilly, Va., got lost leaving an Orioles game on Saturday. Collins reported a city officer arrested them for trespassing on a public street while they were asking for directions ."

The Sports Guy on Kobe 2

From his mailbag
"If Kobe truly thought things were hopeless in the second half, he should have punched Raja Bell in the face early in the third quarter and gotten himself kicked out. Not only would he have saved himself the "you quit on your team heat," he would have gotten the satisfaction of punching Raja Bell in the face. No downside there. But he packed it in, proving once and for all that he's not MJ and never will be. So Kobe, stop stealing MJ's patented fist clench after big baskets, and stop pretending that you "tried" in the second half of Game 7, or that you were "just trying to get everyone else involved," because neither of those things were true. You quit."
and on Lebron
I think LeBron comes through tonight.

I think he finishes off Detroit. I think the crowd in Cleveland gets behind him and carries him to another place. I think this will be one of those rare games when you know something momentous is happening as you're watching, even though it's not finished happening yet. I think LeBron seizes the moment, embraces it, crushes it, makes it his own.
update: 2 points!!!
"the Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 84-82 on Friday night to even their series 3-3"

"James finished with 32 points, 11 rebounds and five assists."

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Da Vinci Code (3rd hirit)

Sorry, I just can't resist quoting Ian Mckellen
"When I read the book I believed it entirely," he said.

"When I put the book down I thought what a load of potential codswallop. That's still going on in my mind.

"But I'm very happy to believe that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. I know that the Catholic Church has problems with gay people. I thought that would be absolute proof Jesus was not gay."

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Chutzpah

I can't wait to see if they push through with this.
Venezuela is considering selling its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to another country, perhaps Iran, in response to a U.S. ban on arms sales to President Hugo Chavez’s government, a military official said Tuesday.
Update (5/18/2006)

Wimping out or voice of reason? I vote for the latter.
Venezuela's defence minister said on Tuesday that there are no immediate plans to sell US-made fighter jets despite a dispute over replacement parts- backing away from one general's statement that the planes could go to Iran.

What a SHAM!

Michael Shermer writes about the Self-Help and Actualization Movement (SHAM) scam.
"If you need to pay for someone's help, why is it called "self-help"?"
"If what we sold worked, one would expect lives to improve. One would not expect people to need further help from us--at least not in that same problem area, and certainly not time and time again."

Friday, May 12, 2006

Da Vinci Code (2nd Hirit)

It occurred to me that maybe, this brouhaha over the "Da Vinci Code" is a function of the Catholic church's collective consciousness having flashbacks over two novels published in the late 19th century that led to (1) its flock losing their faith in the church which eventually led to (2) the formation of the Philippine Independent church which led (3) to the Catholic church losing its monopoly on Filipino souls. The influence of the novels also led (4) to the institutionalization of the separation of church and state thus (5) weakening the secular influence of the church.


And for those not familiar with Philippine history, I am talking about the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo written by our national hero Jose P. Rizal.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Da Vinci Code

From Inq7.net
"'The Da Vinci Code' is a clever and dangerous book suffused with lies, distortions, Satanic imagery and historical inaccuracies, all designed to cast doubt in readers' minds about the deity of Jesus Christ," said Robert Knight, the director of the CWA's Culture and Family
The book is FICTIONAL It says so in the cover where you can find the words "a novel". A novel according to wikipedia is "an extended fictional narrative in prose." And fiction is "storytelling of imagined events and stands in contrast to non-fiction, which makes factual claims about reality."

How stupid is this brouhaha? How stupid are experts who dispute assertions made by a fictional book? And how stupid are organizations trying to stop the movie version from being shown in the Philippines?

To quote Albert Einstein
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the former."

Saturday, May 06, 2006

A word from our sponsor

The Ateneo de Manila University School of Government is now accepting applicants for its Master in Public Management Program.

You can view the procedure for admission in the website or call 729-6869 or 899-7691 local 2405 and look for Mr. Manuel Gregorio.

It they ask how you found out about the program please DO NOT mention my name.

The Sports Guy on Kobe

"...if Kobe doesn't completely eviscerate Bell in Game 7, everyone on the planet is banned from making any more Kobe-MJ comparisons. We all know that MJ would have dropped 55 on Bell, shut down Nash on the other end and disemboweled D'Antoni for good measure. Kobe, if you're going to steal MJ's fist clench/shake from Game 1 of the 1998 Finals without asking, you need to take this all the way. You cannot lose Game 7. You can't. Even if you're playing 4-on-5 and Jax keeps refusing to play Vujacic."
read the whole article

Update (May 7, 2006)

Suns torched the Lakers 121-90 in Game 7

K. Bryant
Points: 24
Reb: 4
Ast: 1
Stl: 0
Blk: 1

1st Salen-ga Award

The first Salen-ga Award is given to Dr. Edgardo Escultura for contributing to the development of Filipinos interest in the fields of Mathematics and Physics.

We congratulate Dr. Escultura for winning the award.

Friday, May 05, 2006

In other (Supreme Court) News

via Pharyngula through Exploding Aardvark from Reuters

Despite slapping down unconstitutional missives from the Executive Department in the PP 1017 case, the Calibrated Preemptive Response case, and the E.O. 464 case, the Supreme Court has also been busy cleaning the judicial system of incompetent judges.
"Floro was sacked last month and fined 40,000 pesos ($780) after a three-year investigation found he was incompetent, had shown bias in a case he was trying and had criticized court procedure, a ruling showed."
This would not be news except that our good judge
"claimed he could see into the future and admitted consulting imaginary mystic dwarfs".
He asked to be reinstated because
"They should not have dismissed me for what I believed"
Hooray for the Supreme Court.

Update:

I started digging in the Supreme Court's website and found the Court's resolution regarding Judge Floro and the press release issued by the Supreme court regarding the resolution.

The resolution reveals that as early as 1995 when Judge Floro applied for Judgeship, he was already considered unfit because
"the required psychological evaluation exposed problems with self-esteem, mood swings, confusion, social/interpersonal deficits, paranoid ideations, suspiciousness, and perceptual distortions."
He was still admitted however because of
"his impressive academic background" and "a second opinion from private practitioners".
I wonder who these private practitioners that gave a favorable opinion in favor of Judge Floro. I think the government should bar them from practising again or conversely, ask them to reimburse the government for the expenses incurred because of Judge Floro.

Thursday, May 04, 2006