Nuanced Differences

"A riot is a spontaneous outburst. A war is subject to advance planning."

-Richard M. Nixon

Sunshine Empire Top Ten Comic

In the forthcoming Ten Part series "Top Ten Comics" of The Sunshine Empire, Daniel Tosh will be a featured member. Here he is on some awful morning zoo crew bullshit bandwagon. It's brilliant his segment. Enjoy.

On Politics and Football

"There is not much difference in basic temperament between a good tight end and a successful politician. They will both go down in the pit and do whatever has to be done --- then come up smiling, and occasionally licking blood off their teeth."

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72

Tetris in the wild

I've been playing too much Tetris.

Is is rabbit season, or duck season?

Arguing about this country's conflict in Iraq is getting to be as normal as baseball season and American Idol. But as long as the war has been going on the fog of history is starting to obscure what some were saying in 2003. Our friends at Jolemite Blog have long since spoke of how almost everything that the anti-war movement had said would happen, has happened. They stated that there were no illegal weapons stockpiles, there was no connection between Iraq's government and the September 11th attacks, that it would cause regional instability, and that it would make terrorism worse before better. My great country's own weapons inspectors have determined that there were no weapons, Tony Snow stated on the White House lawn this morning that they have never claimed that there was a connection between Saddam and 9/11, and the State Department released a study today stating that worldwide terror attacks where up 29% this past year. But one that was stated was that the conflict could possibly spill over into other regional allies' countries. Most conservatives almost uniformly belittled these beliefs as coming from a "pre-9/11" mindset. All of this nonsense has all come to this evening. I was watching CSPAN tonight because my life is a pinata filled with electric dynamite, and Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona was speaking on the floor of the Senate. He was making a pronouncement about Iraq as new as the Macarena on VHS, but I was struck by one thing he said. He claimed that one of the dangers of pulling U.S. troops out of the civil war zone was the risk of spillover. The argument has gone on so long that it has looped itself. It's as if a vital and historic national argument has become that Bugs Bunny cartoon when both he and Daffy are looking down the barrel of Elmer Fudd's shotgun. "It's rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season, duck season, duck season, It's duck season!" Kyl's argument essentially was predicated upon a key pre-war claim of those opposed to the incursion. We've got our finger in the dike and we're either there forever, or somebody's going to get wet.

Washington On Government

"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth, as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts."

George Washington

Bill Moyers with Jon

More Wisdom from David

The Sunshine Empire Remembers

"Memory is often less about the truth than about what we want it to be."

-David Halberstam

Bush vs. Lincoln

Robot Chicken is loved in The Sunshine Empire.

Sunshine Empire Presents:

Biggus Rickus and I went drinking with a girl named Sabrina and my sister on Friday at Jax Beach. I couldn't get this song out of my head. I wish I could watch this British guy's show, he has great taste in music.

The Past Days

I am finally back in business after an outage to a major piece of your computer puzzle. Namely the monitor. I now have a monitor that has such a bizarre shape I feel I'm trapped on the set of some mid-morning CNBC show about bonds. But I can see my work as I type it and not have to trust The Force.

Our Boy Tom

“I cannot support a failed foreign policy. … President Clinton has never explained to the American people why he was involving the US military in a civil war in a sovereign nation, other than to say it is for humanitarian reasons, a new military-foreign policy precedent. Was it worth it to stay in Vietnam to save face? What good has been accomplished so far? Absolutely nothing.”

— Tom DeLay on the House floor in April 1999, when US troops were a month into their three-month mission in Kosovo

and today he calls Democrats treasonous.

Another great mind that will be missed

Please join all of us here at The Sunshine Empire in mourning the loss of David Halberstam. This accomplished reporter and historian covered such divergent topics such as the Vietnam War, 9/11, and Michael Jordan. He was, to steal a line from his most legendary work, on of our best and brightest. Although he had lived a full life having he taken in such a violent manner has shaken us all. Please keep his family in your prayers, and may we have more like him in the future.

These Kids Are Funny

Literary Obituary

The Sunshine Empire mourns the death of Kurt.

This guy was good at smoking cigars

"When asked to name the chief qualification a
politician should have. "It's the ability to
foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month,
and next year --- and to explain afterward why it
didn't happen."
- Sir Winston Churchill

Flea and Chad Put Their Weight On it

There was a time when this was the only music played in The Sunshine Empire.

I Mail Myself The Constitution : The Sushine Empire Celebrates 300 Posts

The Victim In Culture

The horrible tragedy in Blacksburg has brought out the usual media roving plague of Satellite trucks and plastic people. The Sunshine Empire understands that in our new culture of media warfare the opinions have come from the talking heads. Wing nuts say this proves guns are good, and the liberal wack-jobs say it means to ban them. There again we are witness to yet another George W. Bush tragedy speech. When discussing the speech with our friend Jolemite it occurred that he seems to have made twice the average of a normal president. Reagan had the Challenger, Clinton had Oklahoma City. George W. Bush has presided over September 11Th, The Columbia, Hurricane Katrina, and now this. They are not his fault but they do seem to give his presidency a somber mood. They seem to fit the pattern of things out of control. But there are even those who have blamed the victims for not seeming to have fought back. Many have correctly criticized the left for worshiping at the alter of victim hood. There are big evil bad guys lurking to destroy you. But it seems the right has a nasty opposite to this. Individualism made my country great, but this is militarized individualism. If you did not get out of Katrina's way, it was your fucking fault. You may not have the luxury of spending a week out of town by way of your car that you don't have, but fuck you you should have worked harder. If you didn't get out of that gunman's way then you must have been week. He cant possibly been a good shot, he only killed 32 people. But those people were weak, and deserved to die for their sheer un-adulterated meakness. The meak are supposed to inherit the Earth, but you would not know it looking at us today.

The TSE gets sucked into talking about Sanjaya, but still refuses comment on Imus.

I fully believe the terrorists have won. How could I come to such a position? The below video is why. This girl is doing this over a stupid fucking singing contest. These are the same people that made Jessie Ventura the Governor of Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger the Governor of Kali-fonia. I mean why not, their work in Predator just made you walk away and say they needed to be leading the Governments of major states. Yet as my good friend Biggus Rickus observed, "I just figured she was doing it to lose weight."



Please laugh at her.

College Football from those you love and trust

After a long layoff for various business purposes I would like to introduce you to another friend of The Sunshine Empire. Along with our friends over at The Thoughts Of Biggus Rickus Blog we will be presenting another blog called Poll Position. As much as that may bring to mind bad Nintendo driving games it will be dedicated to the College Variety of American Football. Football is a religion in the South and Championships abound in our area of the world. So look for us in the links section of this blog and enjoy the offseason with Poll Position.

A Fond Look Back

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting up and the 2004 Stanley Cup Champion Lightning taking on '03 Champ New Jersey, I thought a look back at Ruslan's great game one would be nice.

I love Jesus, and you love Jesus, but....

"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine."
-- George Washington

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson

This next quote is downright Orwellian

"One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. The P.S.U.C. militiamen whom I knew in the line, the Communists from the International Brigade whom I met from time to time, never called me a Trotskyist or a traitor; they left that kind of thing to the journalists in the rear. The people who wrote pamphlets against us and vilified us in the newspapers all remained safe at home, or at worst in the newspaper offices of Valencia, hundreds of miles from the bullets and the mud. And apart from the libels of the inter-party feud, all the usual war-stuff, the tub-thumping, the heroics, the vilification of the enemy—all these were done, as usual, by people who were not fighting and who in many cases would have run a hundred miles sooner than fight. […] Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him."

-- George Orwell
Homage to Catalonia

Shirley's Just Paranoid

One of the best performances I've ever heard was this entire show that was on Fuse. This is just one song but the entire show was astounding.

Drama Queen

More on the field

I sat down this evening with the express intent on discussing the weaknesses of the Democratic field for President. I had focused two posts on candidates for the Republican nomination, so I decided to write something that was a drawback to Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. I could not find anything bad about him politically, but to be honest I could not find anything. The Wikipedia entry read like the menu of a family style restaurant. He's Joe Lieberman as a Catholic, with exception being Dodd does not prostrate in utter fealty to whatever the Bush Administration approves of. His father Thomas Dodd was one of the lead prosecutors at the Nurenburg trials after World War II. He was Chairman of the Democratic National Committee when the Republicans took over in 1994. But that's about it. He's just been a chair filler for most years since he came to the Senate in 1981. Now he aims to be the President. One thing that could make him a dark horse is the fact that he's bland, and that he seems to be able to raise lots of money. He's not polling with Clinton and Obama, but as long as he has the money he could be waiting once we're sick of them. He's not a bad guy Dodd, but I want something more than Blandy McVanilla of Plainsville.

TSE 2008 Candidate Series

The editorial board of The Sunshine Empire does not have a position on abortion, but it is a polarizing issue in today's American. The Republican party and it's candidates have almost always been against abortion in any way. Again we would like to point out a candidate for the Republican nomination who seems to have a sized himself up for a pair of John Kerry sized flip-flops. Mitt Romney is a political shape-shifter that can take on any position at any time. He's almost insidious enough to be a villain of The Tick. Here, 1994 Mitt Romney will contradict 2007 Mitt Romney. Enjoy.

The Two Masters Of The Interview Desk

Not a one world governent? Gasp!

"Our alliances should be understood as a means to expand our influence, not as a constraint on our power. The expansion of democracy and freedom in the world should be a shared interest and value with all nations."

Chuck Hagel

Chuck Talks To George on The Constitution.

Stuck behind a train waiting to get on the Racetrack

When The Metal Ones Come For You

A For Sale Sign on the House of God

I'm generally heartless when it comes to massive commercial garbage like the movie Titanic's attempts to pull at my heartstrings. Yet there is sadness that you can observe in regular life that lives just below the surface and is never to be heard from. Like the dog that goes under the porch to die. But I was thinking of one such thing while talking with a friend in Colorado. She showed me pictures from an establishment called "The Church." This was a club that you could turn the lights down, play harsh house music, walk through in a trench coat and feel like you were balls deep in the movie Blade standing next to Wesley Snipes. But it made me think of how churches lose their flock. When was the last time you remember seeing a closed church, other than every science fiction movie with a team of people fighting evil always having a base in an old abandoned church. Not the old sanctuary that sits next to the gleaming new Church tower. This is the lone church house that sits with a for sale sign out front. I used to live on Sunbeam road, and their was a small church not to far from my place. One day their was a for sale sign in the front lawn of the church. It later became an annex for a Hospice in the area. From the house of God, to a storage facility. Now for clarification one must know that it is hard to throw a rock from anywhere and not strike the broadside of a church house in Jacksonville. If you miss you'll hit the 9Th green.

On World Governments

"You can't get good Chinese takeout in China and Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba. That's all you need to know about communism."

- P.J. ORourke

Birthday

I hope you will join us in pausing for a moment to pay respect to one of the most legendary actors of any generation, whose birthday is Saturday. Of course I'm talking about James Garner. Who else could have given us such American treasures like Rockford Files. So think about that on April 7Th. I know I will.

Emerson Lake and Palmer practice in our garage.

These guys could rock the crowd like a lion in a cage. And they're British.

What Really Happened.

The Hand That Feeds

When they played here, they had the best ending of any concert that I've seen. They played this song, destoryed their equipment, and left the stage. Perfect.

Question Time

Is there a body wash or soap primarily for men that does not center their product's commercial around having random half naked women rape you? It really does make you wonder that there was a time you could not say pregnant on network television. Now the term "an erection lasting four hours," is as common as "where's the beef" was during the '80's. One of these fantastical body sprays once had a commercial that boiled down to women were coming close to having sexual intercourse with common household items because too many men were recycling the cans that this body spray came in. That is a ballsy claim for a commercial. And body spray is a mannish word for dude perfume. It's just two steps removed from mango watermelon kiwi body splash at Bath and Body Works. It is a hero story those body wash commercials are. To think that the stock clerk could bang four rabid Swiss models is an uplifting story.

Back To Back

2006 and 2007 NCAA Basketball Tournament Champions,
Back to Back

Florida 41 Ohio State 14 2006 Football National Title
Florida 85 Ohio State 74 2007 Basketball National Title
Ohio State has also been P4wnd Back to Back

It's a bad ass fact.

Go Gators

Britian v Iran

UF v. OSU

Here it is again. Florida vs. Ohio State for the National Title.

The Sunshine Empire is picking the boys from The Sunshine State.

Go Gators.