BlackFive

I'm sitting here, sipping from a glass of Johnny Walker Gold, and watching the 10PM NBC Chicago news.

It's been cold here, really cold, but not like the last chill up in the Northeast. Cold enough that I stayed home today and stripped wallpaper.

The broadcaster lady, Anna Davlantes, says: :The cold weather is causing complications for the city, especially for those without heat."

...

...

...especially for those without heat?

Sip of Scotch.

...Really?

I always love a pub when it gives you that something extra. Food, peanuts, free shots are all good.

I also like pubs and bars that recognize their good customers. Years ago, when US Army Officer's Clubs were actually used for boozing, there would always be a plaque with some Warrant Officer's name on a bar stool where the guy sat every single night for three or four years (until his tour was over).

My favorite pubs and bars in Chicago always take care of a good customer: Durkin's, Dublin's, Pippin's, O'Neil's, Dugan's, Kincade's (anyone else noticing a trend here?), Marie's Riptide Lounge, and my all-time favorite - The Burwood Tap. But none of them, NOT ONE, do this for their customers:

Pub Offers Regulars a Pint and a Plot
Fri Jan 30, 9:27 AM ET - United Kingdom

A game of darts or a packet of peanuts are what most British pubs sell customers to go with their beer, but one landlord is offering them something rather more lasting -- a final resting place.

Regulars at the Church Inn need not leave their favorite drinking spot even when their time on Earth is up, because landlord Julian Taylor has turned a field next door into a cemetery.

"The idea came about when my dad was ill," said Taylor, who bought the country pub near the northern city of Manchester 11 years ago.

"We are in a beautiful spot at the top of a hill and he said he'd like to be buried looking down into the valley."

Locals liked the idea and have started buying plots themselves, he told Reuters.

"One regular has even asked his friends to take their pints out into the cemetery on Friday nights after he dies -- in memory of his happy nights in the pub," Taylor said.

I haven't been able to do too much linking to interesting posts this week (due to work and hang overs and letter writing to the Asshats at the Chicago Tribune). Here are some posts that I found interesting:

Pejmanesque expresses some disdain for the planning of a Congressional visit to Iran. I don't get it, either. Not that Arlen Specter has ever been long on great ideas, but I don't the Bush Administration is happy about this. And we may wind up with some kidnapped Congressmen. Hey! Wait a minute! Maybe that's why GW ain't protesting this one, too much. Hhhmmm...

Pejman also talks about why he likes Edwards over Kerry.

I didn't even know the debate was on so I missed Donnie's live blogging of it. I read it the day after and it was still a good (and funny) run down of the whackos and Lieberman.

Andrew Olmsted has a great post about something that I had completely forgotten about...the left-wing WAS all over Kay for being a partisan hack when he took the job to find WMD.

Heather at Angelweave has a funny post from a Commenter. On a side note, my old room-mate is a biologist and we had a business plan put together to make healthy beer. We were going to put vitamins and minerals into the beer after fermentation but before bottling. I am sure that Physics Geek may know why that wouldn't work.

Update 8pm CST:

If you haven't seen the grand finale Dean-O, yet, you're in for a good laugh. Drink Alert et. al. Allah is one funny MF.

Hugh Hewitt and Joshua Micah Marshall are going at it over John Kerry. It's pretty interesting stuff.

Speaking of John Kerry - who, by the way, served in Viet Nam - Bill Hobbs has an answer for him.

Damn, I'm glad we have Americans like these...

Cause...and effect.

My best friend has had 3 serious girlfriends, in the last 8 years, switch teams and dump him for a woman. So, when voting in BlogMadness 2003 for Greyhawk (I have linked to his Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy series in several posts - check it out) and Joe Carter, I came across an older post by Joe of the Evangelical Outpost. It's a good one.

Smash asked for predictions of the Super Bowl:

I said Patriots 21, Panthers 17. (Since I predicted that the Chiefs would be in the Super Bowl, maybe you shouldn't rush to bet on my prediction...)

But what I want to know is what are you going to do during the (always) lame half-time show?

I will probably either be playing high-stakes poker ($1 ante - hey, we're big-time Players) or the Man Show Drinking Game. A bunch of my friends think they know how to play poker after watching Celebrity Poker - had one even ask if we were going to be playing Texas Hold 'Em?!

It'll be like taking candy from a baby...

I had seen this done at several blogs (but John Kalb of Kalblog was the final straw). Here's where I've been around the world (red) - most thanks to Uncle Sam or my brother (college in Japan). More importantly, one of these days I need to get myself down to Australia and New Zealand.

create your own visited country map

Here's where I've been in the United States. I've got to get myself to Hawaii (North Dakota can wait) - one of my Army buddies is the Seagrams distributor for Hawaii...

create your own visited states map

My vote for the New Blog Showcase is

Democrats give conservatives idigestion - Why Special Forces Weren't Used Prior to 9/11

There's a bit more to the story from Zeyad of Healing Iraq about the 19 year-old Iraqi boy alledgedly murdered by a US Patrol. I posted about it here, here, here, and here.

Instapundit links to a Slate article where the reporter talked to both the American Commander in Samarra and the murdered boy's family and cousin (the only live witness).

The American Commander conducted his own investigation and doesn't think anything was done wrong by his troops, the Iraqi ICDC Commander thinks the Americans killed the boy, the Iraqi family members believe that the Americans killed the boy. It's a big mess.

Now the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division is looking into the matter. They spent four hours with the survivor. I have a lot of faith that they'll get to the bottom of this to determine if the American soldiers killed the Iraqi (unlikely) or something else happened.

First, here is Andrew Gilligan's (BBC) resignation letter. It's pretty weak for an apology and just shows how horrible and slanted his writing can be...

This is important if you use Peer file sharing networks like KaZaa or Morpheus...apparently, MyDoom originated (in Russia) via KaZaa and can still use peer to peer file sharing to spread.

Please consider signing this on-line petition that calls for the governments of the world to declare the Islamic Clerical Regime of Iran as illegitimate and unfit to govern and therefore call for a free and fair referendum to be held in Iran now by well-respected international organizations. As well as also demands that all top level regime officials be investigated and prosecuted for the crime of genocide and many other crimes against humanity.

Stephen Green has a run-down of Saddam Iraqi oil contracts by country and by person...

Update: Tony the Oriental Redneck has more information on the corporations behind the people with the oil contracts.

Here's a nice story about terrorists seeking asylum in Germany...these guys are part of the prisoner swap between Hezbullah and the Israelis.

Via Instapundit, here's one about the political preferences of the Belgian Defense Minister.

My response would be like Richard Boucher's in this article...

The Cult's "Fire Woman"...the Cult - one of my favorites. The only bands that I have seen more concerts of than the Cult are U2, Aerosmith, and the Smithereens.

Hey, it's Friday morning and I had a long night last night so I am on about my fifth cup of coffee. So it's a hard rock mornin'.

I'll have to play "Peace Dog" next and break out the air guitar...yeah, I'm THAT cool.