Friday Vespers At The Institute

Hello and welcome to friday vespers at the Institute. Please join us for a beer and put the worries of the week behind you.

For those of you who adhere to the silly notion of only drinking when you have something to drink to, I give you a successful test of the missile defense system. We have noticed that when a test fails it get major run in the US press. We did a google search and discovered that very few American press outlets picked up the story but the Chinese picked up the story, and there is plenty in the military press.


Here is to Yankee Ingenuity.





This week USA Today ran a photo of President Bush speaking in Bratislava. The photo had been cleverly cropped to show the President under the word Brat. Heh, them so funny.

The Cranky Neocon points out that this happens to asshats as well, go check it out, it is excellent. No really, I am not kidding check it out, there will be a test later.


Tennis News


Tennis mega superstar Anna Kournikova won a court battle against a mentally ill homeless person when the court ordered him to stay at least 1000 feet away from her, provided he ever gets out of jail.

The homeless man William Lepeska stated that if they "were lovers we would have no need for other people, food or water".

Indeed no?***



Strange Twist Of Fate

I have been wondering today, how it came to be that I was born a middle class Midwestern white boy, instead of a whack job North African tinhorn despot Colonel (maximum leader) third world fabulously dressed dictator. Funny how that worked out, but if the roles had been reversed, rest assured, this is exactly how I would set up my security detail. Excellent reporting by Jeff @ Beautiful Atrocities.


Beer News

The field of 64 beers is set and the madness of the Battle of the Beers gets underway March 1st. Mark it on your calendar, you don't want to be disenfranchised, and whatever you do, don't let some big beer thug intimidate you.

Craft Brew Sales Grow 7%

Feb 22, 2005 - America's craft brewers sold 7% more beer in 2004 versus 2003, making craft beer the fastest growing segment of the US beverage alcohol industry, according to data gathered by the Brewers Association.

No word on the growth of small craft micro-blogs, but given some linkage fits and starts, we think they are growing nicely thankyouverymuch.


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*** This was an attempt to take a blog classic and give it a twist in an effort to keep it fresh. Here at the Institute we are all about keeping it fresh. Unfortunately, using it here was kind of stupid, I mean, being in love doesn't mean you won't need food or water, in fact it is quite the opposite.

Speaking of keeping it fresh we are now officially tired of the word "meme". We are just seeing way too much of it. We are not saying that if you use it you are stale, we are just saying it might be time to crack the thesaurus.