Jonathan's blog

Studio 60 was back on this week, and there was some news about Sorkin talking to a bunch of TV critics on the set (summary and some commentary here; a transcript of sorts here). I recently happened to catch the second episode of Dirt on FX and liked it enough to keep watching. It stars Courtney Cox as the head of tabloid-ish entertainment mag. Somehow it reminds me of Studio 60...maybe the witty banter...maybe the female head of a media organization. FX is basic cable, but with a 10 PM time slot FX allows much more profanity and sexual content than you would normally expect. Also, Rick Fox, former Tarheel and Laker, has a recurring role on the show.

I thought this, from Mark Elrod's Lame-O Weblog, was cute:

Three couples - one elderly, one middle-aged and one newlywed - wanted to join the local church. The pastor told them that the church had a special requirement for new parishioners. He said that each couple had to abstain from having sex for two weeks as a sign of their commitment to the Lord's work. They all agreed and returned to the pastor's office at the end of two weeks. The pastor went to the elderly couple and asked, "Were you able to abstain from sex for the two weeks?" The old man replied, "No problem at all, Father." "Congratulations! Welcome to the church!" said the pastor. The pastor went to the middle-aged couple and asked, "Well, were you able to abstain from sex for the two weeks?" The middle-aged man replied, "The first week was not too bad. The second week I had to sleep on the couch for a couple of nights, but, yep, we made it." "Congratulations! Welcome to the church," said the pastor. The pastor then went to the young couple and asked, "Well, were you able to abstain from sex for two weeks?" "No Pastor, we were not able to go without sex for the two weeks," the young man replied sadly. "What happened?" inquired the pastor. "Well, the other night, my wife was reaching for a can of coffee on the top shelf and dropped it," said the young man. "When she bent over to pick it up, I was overcome with lust and we had sex right there on the floor." "You understand, of course, this means you will not be welcome in our church," stated the pastor. "That's okay," said the young man. "We're not welcome at the Wal-Mart anymore either."

In a Sunday school class I was in recently someone commented that radical Islam in flourishing in our prison systems. I guess I had heard that Islam was flourishing, but didn't realize it was the radical flavor. For example, see articles here and here. Anyway, this reminded me that the US is the country with the highest percentage of its population incarcerated.

From the current issue of The Week magazine:

Sacramento
A watery death
A woman who entered a water-drinking contest to win a video-game console for her three children died last week from water intoxication. Jennifer Strange, 28, was a contestant in the "Hold your wee for a Wii" contest held during the "Morning Rave" program on Sacramento FM radio station KDND. The station offered a $250 Nintendo Wii game console to the person who could drink the most water without a bathroom break. Strange drank 2 gallons of water in three hours. Several hours later, she was found dead at her home by her mother. KDND took the morning program off the air and suspended the three DJs who host it. Excess water consumption can disrupt the body's internal chemistry and cause fatal swelling of the brain.

There was an intersting op-ed piece of the same title in the NY TImes on Sunday written by Army captain Luis Carlos Montalvan describing corruption in Iraq:

The most prominent forms of corruption I saw were Iraqi commanders pocketing the paychecks of nonexistent troops in the Iraqi Army and officers in the police forces, and customs officials abetting the smuggling of oil and precious rebuilding supplies across Iraq's porous borders. These are vast problems, but some relatively simple solutions could tamp them down considerably.