Get Cynical

Via: Riffat

From CNN.com:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Republican Sen. John McCain on Thursday became the second presidential contender to back away from saying the war in Iraq had “wasted” the lives of U.S. troops.

During a Wednesday night appearance on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman,” McCain announced that he would enter the 2008 race but said a formal announcement would come in April.

He also said the nation had paid a “grievous price” for mistakes made in the first years of the nearly four-year-old war in Iraq.

Americans “are very frustrated,” he said, “and they have every right to be. We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives, over there.”

The truth can be painful sometimes. War is always wasteful, unless you own stock in Halliburton.

See if you can name all of the states in less than 10 minutes. It’s more difficult than it sounds. (Sigh, I forgot Iowa and Minnesota)

(via Digg)

From Toothpaste for Dinner:

Yesterday I downloaded something called Second Life. It is like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, except you can’t shoot anyone, and you can’t hit people. You just walk around. There are no prostitutes, and everything costs real money, and you can’t rob anyone to get money. You have to use your credit card, with real money, to buy fake money to use in the game. It’s not actually like Grand Theft Auto at all.

Second Life is free to play, and I keep seeing people referring to it in the news, so I had to take one for the team and just dive on in. I knew it probably wasn’t going to be intriguing when I got to the signup part and couldn’t even make a one-word name. I had to use some fantasy-ass last name and I couldn’t even use cusses. The best I could do was call myself Wenis.

(Thanks Andy)

From The Straight Dope:

According to a fascinating tome called The Hitler Fact Book by Thomas Fuchs (like I say, I get the most amazing stuff in the mail), “the first Reich was the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages; the second, the one established by Bismarck and ended by Germany’s defeat in 1918.” The term was a favorite of Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. Hitler himself wasn’t that crazy about it, Fuchs notes; he outlawed the term at the beginning of World War II and referred to his realm merely as the Reich.

(via Reddit)

From I Did Not Know That Yesterday:

Wepner, who calls himself “The Real Rocky,” had been a professional pugilist for many years when he challenged Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight title in 1975. An ex-Marine, Wepner was asked before the fight if he thought he had a chance against the Greatest of All Time. Wepner allegedly answered, “I’ve been a survivor my whole life…if I survived the Marines, I can survive Ali.”

In fact, Wepner did more than just survive. In the ninth round, he actually introduced Ali to the canvas. Wepner eventually lost, but he was the only fighter to ever knock down Ali while Ali was the champ.

Stallone watched the fight and soon went on to write “Rocky,” the story of a down-and-out boxer who gets his shot at the heavyweight title and goes the distance against a boisterous and beloved champion.

Related:

Wikipedia’s entry for Chuck Wepner

Best friends….until the tigers get older and try to eat the Orang-utans. But awwwww.

(via A Welsh View)