“Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals
have an intimate connection.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Brrr. On these cold days we've been having I really appreciate a nice, hot cup of coffee. I will also admit that my coffee tastes have become more refined in my latter years. I actually didn't become a coffee drinker until I was in my 20s and a girlfriend got me started. She also gave me my first gravity filter for brewing coffee, which is still my generally preferred method. Our all-time favorite method is using a French press, but this is for special cups or occasions as it's a bit messier to clean up after — ah, but the taste! There's simply no way to get a richer tasting cup of coffee.

I tend to favor the darker roasts though my wife likes to mix in the lighter roasts as well. The Mall Diva goes for the much lighter blends, or "wienie" roasts as I call them. Nevertheless, we all love "A Proper Cup of Coffee" as performed by Trout Fishing in America in the video below (don't worry, the Abba album is just one of the visuals and not part of the performance).

Enjoy!

From Chris Muir's Day By Day web-comic:



Boy, and I thought Keanu Reeves creeped me out.

The total cost of the 2008 bailouts compared to past government programs, via The Lumberjack, with numbers from Boing-Boing:



I've got a couple of hundred dollar bills and I'm going to go get in line for the color copier at Kinko's. Sure, they won't be exactly like the ones the government is printing, but they'll be worth the same. The only question is, can I print enough? Good thing Kinko's is open 24 hours, and they take credit cards!

A few years ago Jeff Kouba introduced the "Steven Seagal IS..." game on his blog, Peace Like a River.

Seagal’s earlier movies all could be used with the phrase “Steven Seagal IS…”, and indeed movie trailers often did just that. “Steven Seagal IS Marked For Death.” “Steven Seagal IS Hard To Kill.” And so on.

Well, now you can join in the fun. Just put the phrase in front of today’s movies, and you too can have buckets of entertainment.

Now Jeff is one of the gang blogging at Truth vs. The Machine and, on the heels of some new Steven Seagal news, has brought the game back for the waning days of 2008. Go here to get in on the latest game; it is, as Jeff would say, "fun for the whole family."

Here are my entries (so far) in the latest game:

Steven Seagal IS The Lord of the Rings!
Steven Seagal IS Cinderella Man!
Steven Seagal IS The Pursuit of Happyness!
Steven Seagal IS Knocked Up!
Steven Seagal IS The Queen!
Steven Seagal IS Stranger Than Fiction!
Steven Seagal IS The Last King of Scotland!
Steven Seagal IS Sideways!
Steven Seagal IS An Inconvenient Truth!
Steven Seagal IS 300 (pounds)!
Steven Seagal IS Dan in Real Life!
Steven Seagal IS The Bourne Identity!