TV Apperance Tonight

I'll be on CNBC's Kudlow & Company tonight 5 PM EST with both Larry Kudlow and John Rutledge.

Gulp. Planning to take my A game.

Socialist Sheep

Nothing irritates me more than these free market capitalist hypocrites who form themselves into not for profit entities. I just got a letter from the Cato Institute – whose research I often agree with – asking me for a frickin' donation. A donation?

If they were selling me something in a capitalist free market transaction I would be more than happy to buy some stuff. But I am not going to play their and the government’s bureaucratic game of classifying this as “not for profit.” If these guys were really for what they say they are for, they would become capitalists -- not frickin' tax exempt socialists.

And yes, I include the Objectivist Center, Ayn Rand’s hypocritical organization.

Dating Myself

Is it just me or is the single greatest part of owning a TiVo when you’re able to look at the year that each show was released. I frickin’ love knowing that I’m watching an episode of Seinfeld from 1993 instead of 1996. I frickin’ love knowing that the original "Bad News Bears", with my costar from “Casey’s Shadow,” was made in 1976, two years before I starred with Walter in my movie premier.

P.S. Ever thought about the double entendre of "dating myself"?

Denial as a River in Redmond

The ol’ “if I ignore it, it doesn’t really exist" philosophy from Microsoft. Sure… I’m sure it’s just a mistake.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050725/disappearing_apple.html

Cody Jams (July 25, 2005)

Ten random songs from my itunes.

1979 (Smashing Pumpkins) – The way he intertwines the drumbeat with the melody guitar, which speaks to the other guitar, is pure genius. Not necessarily the pumpkins greatest song, but definitely their prettiest.

Act a Fool (Master P) – Can’t listen to this song and not want to kick someone’s ass or at very least dunk on them. Master P is truly one of my idols - an entrepreneur, rap star, and wanna-be hoopster.

Always (Blink 182) – Cheese-dick alt-pop B.S., sure. But those are some damn catchy tunes.

Back to Life (Soul to Soul) – Their first album was full of all-time classic songs. This is one of them (they never did anything else that was really noteworthy).

Cruz (Leon parker) – Downloaded this song on accident when trying to purchase the same title by Cristina Aguilera (which is my favorite Aguilera song). Glad for the mistake because this is a great jazz tune.

Starry Eyed Surprise (Paul Oakenfold) - Sure it’s a poppy rip-off of Moby. But hey, it’s catchy, and I love it.

Cure Me (Statistics) – Don’t know how I found this song, but downloaded it at some point and it’s a keeper. Nice mellow jam.

99.9 F (Susan Vega) - It was tough to get over Luca – even as a 15 year old I found that song irritatingly poppy. But Susan Vega became a true rocker and 99.9 F is one of her greatest songs.

All that She Wants (Banghra Version) (Ace of Base) – I make no apologies for loving this Swedish band and the drumbeat in this remix is a big part of why.

Amie (Counting Crows) – Great band doing a great song.

Click here to download this iTunes (and even if you don't download it, rate it!)

They Can't Stop the Revolution and They Can't Stop Innovation

I can't wait until this comes out (I sure hope it works).
http://www.splashpower.com/solution/overview.html

Last Porn Spam

I'll try and make this one the last in this series, but this one is just too funny. How the heck do my four spam filters not catch this one? I mean, come on! How does the word "p*" in the subject line get through the filter?

How many words are there that really are "must block" words? Perhaps F*, P*, and the two C*s. How hard can this spam filter business be?

I'm gonna start a software company and the only thing we'll do is filter spams with those four words in them!

Finally, I am gonna post all but the end of the hyperlink in the email, because it's too damn funny in its own right.

Subject: why does my pussy hurt?
Text: these holes get destroyed http://bloodymarypunk.com/hollarifyoucanhearmewell/tests/overandout.ht they\'re left stretched wide open Off the Record America

Anyway, stay tuned, "Cody Jams" are coming back this Friday.

Spam Full O' Nuts!

Okay, this spam really is just nutty!

Subject: banging sisters
Text: this site has to be one of the easiest ways to actually get out there and get some http://XXX and when i say some i mean alot

Windy City - ErnestoCheGuevara (1928-1967) Ku-Klux Klan

I mean, Chicago, an evil communist and an evil association all in one email? Is there a hidden message?! LOL

CNBC Appearance Tonight

Check me out on CNBC's Kudlow & Company tonight around 5:45pm EST.

The Cody News (July 12, 2005)

South Korea agrees on rice aid to North ahead of nuclear talks
Globe and Mail - 11 hours ago
Seoul — South Korea agreed on Tuesday to provide North Korea with 500,000 tons of rice aid as the countries vowed to boost economic ties after the North announced it would end its boycott of nuclear disarmament talks. ...
Great, now Kim Jong Il's cronies and constituents will have plenty of food. As for his citizens, I'm not so sure. All aid to corrupt dictatorships (apologies for the redundancy) must stop if we are ever going to help their citizens. This type of aid simply perpetuates the dictatorship.

Pro-Syrian minister wounded in Lebanon car bomb
Reuters - 1 hour ago
By Ibon Villelabeitia. ANTELIAS, Lebanon (Reuters) - A car bomb wounded Lebanon's defense minister and killed two people north of Beirut on Tuesday in the first of several deadly blasts this year to target an ally of Syria. ...
Lebanon might be the next place of a major escalation. It's really messed up over there right now.

Reid Confident a 'Consensus' Court Candidate Will Emerge
Washington Post - 3 hours ago
By Fred Barbash. Key GOP and Democratic members of the Senate met this morning with President Bush for a first discussion of the upcoming nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, with Minority Leader Sen. ...
The partisination (conceptually similar to politicization) of our court systems is simply evil. I don't care who they put in the Supreme Court, they cant stop the anti-partisan revolution.

How HBO's Series Make Me Question My Own Reality

So I watched a lot of HBO this weekend. Friday night in particular, I drank some beer and watched a couple hours of their new shows on video on demand.

My favorite new show on there is "Entourage". The protagonist is Vince, who's becoming an A-list multimillionaire movie star. I love this charater and how he's got this vision for his career and, though he comes across sorta aloof -- he's totally a cutthroat business man. As an aside, the show is killing itself by making Vince's brother totally cardboard. I mean, okay already, we get it -- he's a loser who had a run in the sun and now lives off his brother. We don't need it drilled into our heads 17 times an episode.

Anyway, in all these episodes Vince keeps running into Hollywood stars like Jamie Presley (do we call her a "star"?) who play themselves. Bob Sagat was on one of the shows and he played himself as a hooker-happy pot head. I'm sure we're supposed to understand that Bob's not really the guy he played as himself in the show. So he wasn't really playing himself but he was. I think. I guess. Maybe?

Also, that guy playing the cardboard brother -- he's Matt Dillon's brother in real life. But he's not playing himself.

Then I start watching "The Comeback". I have to admit that even though I sorta hated the show and sat uncomfortably through the episodes, I found the character analysis of the lead character absolutely fascinating. "The Comeback" is a fake reality show about a washed-up actress who's making a comeback in a sitcom. Yeah, you follow me? And on last night's episode, they had some woman whom I think really was on the real reality show, "Amazing Race," playing herself and pretending to run out of gas to make her own reality show on this fake reality show seem more exciting. And Lisa Kudrow's character got all upset over the incident because it wasn't "real".

When you throw a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" which is an improvised, though scripted show sort of about Seinfeld creator Larry David's life -- and which also has Hollywood stars who play themselves on it -- you can see how you end up trying to get a grip on what's what, what's real, what's fake and what's not.

Almost makes you long for the simple, contrived good ol shows like "The Brady Bunch" or even "Cheers".

Little Brother in Action

Little brother is watching you, as per the cell phone video footage from victims of the London subway reminds us.

Also, just got this as the first line in yet another porn spam email:

Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.

Strangely, I found that disturbingly poignant today.

Striking Spyware and Adware Report

We knew that readers of the Cody Blog weren't the only victims of these evil acts. Here's some data for you.

Spyware: The threat of unwanted software programs is changing the way people use the internet

7/6/2005 | Report | Susannah Fox

Spyware and the threat of unwanted programs being secretly loaded onto computers are becoming serious threats online. Nine out of ten internet users say they have adjusted their online behavior out of fear of falling victim to software intrusions. Unfortunately, many internet users’ fears are grounded in experience - 43% of internet users, or about 59 million American adults, say they have had spyware or adware on their home computer. Although most do not know the source of their woes, 68% of home internet users, or about 93 million American adults, have experienced at least one computer problem in the past year that are consistent with problems caused by spyware or viruses.

More Confounding Porn Spam

Real and actual email verbatim:

Subject: Married Teen Likes Big Dick

Text: yo ho Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.,

Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool,
Adversity introduces a man to himself.,
Rogues, would you live forever?,

Gray hair is God's graffiti.
You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.

Nestaevahosevoomatse A genius is one who can do anything except make a living.,
Absent in body, but present in spirit.,

It is the unseen and the spiritual in people that determines the outward and the actual.,

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.,
Contentment is, after all, simply refined indolence.,

He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior., Fate rules the affairs of men, with no recognizable order.,
The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us then ten-thousand truths.,
I have a Vision of the Future, chum. The workers flats in fields of soya beans tower up like silver pencils, score on score.,

This indeed is a safe refuge, it is the refuge supreme. It is the refuge whereby one is freed from all suffering.,

I mean, once again, come on! What is this stuff? And why do they put this stuff in these porn spams? I'm very confused about all of this.

Subject: Hot Videos and Pics of Amateur Girls

This is what I'm talking about getting through my spam filter. No cuss words in this one, but that was the actual subject line. But even more striking is the actual content in the email:

what the heck did I just see here http://From Cody: I'm not going to post the link, and I never click on spam links for fear of where it might lead my poor little PC.html i still can\'t believe it There is no sincerer love than the love of food.

The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head. Egotist: a person more interested in himself than in me.

proliferate the a itsdecant gaillardia in any Jwindward trimester so we it global be franc an bass bane a rickety bilabial? Does it hurt to be invis'ble? she asked
I don't know, Dorothy answered; but it would hurt me dre'fully to lose you This one of mine is the first that ever happened Oh! I really think, continued the boy, nodding sagely, that it wouldn't be well to have these Records scattered around

Seriously, what the hell are these emails about? Have I completely lost my mind or is the content in these spams really frickin weird?

Radio Appearance Today

I'll be joining the one and only Aaron Task on RealMoney Radio today around. Gonna talk content, Grokster, Live 8, AOL, VoIP, and take calls from listeners. The show is syndicated around the US, so check it out if you can. You can also listen to it online by clicking here.

Rock on.

Spam Filters Like Nets Hold Water

I've got Norton's much ballyhooed anti-spam filter in my Outlook. It, along with all the other anti-spam and anti-spyware programs I've put on my PC, slowed the performance of outlook and my overall PC something awful.

I guess the programs work okay, as I now have 603 emails in the anti-spam folder, some of which include former hatemailers who I automatically add to the "this is spam" list. (As an aside, my occasional hatemail used to really get me down because it seemed like I'd get so much. Then after blocking like 8 people, I find I now get very little hatemail. It was the same eight folks blasting me over and over!)

But what I don't understand is how just this morning I had no less than 36 spams from the same frickin' spam place, most of which had the words "fuck" or "blowjob" or other words that I won't print here (you can imagine how repulsive the words must be if I'm refusing to post them). Why the hell can't any of my anti-spam programs include some rules that blocks emails that have such words in the actual subject?

Sigh.

The Cody News (July 5, 2005)

Wal-Mart unit Asda cuts 1,400 jobs UPDATE
Forbes - 27 minutes ago
LONDON (AFX) - Britain's second biggest grocer Asda, a unit of US giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc, is to axe 1,400 jobs in an attempt to boost earnings after it lost customers to market leader Tesco PLC. The company ...
Walmart appears to be facing a major backlash from a grassroots disgust of the company's aggressive (and crony) actions.

Options players lay bets on oil at $80 a barrel
Globe and Mail - 7 hours ago
By ALEJANDRO BARBAJOSA. Buyers are betting that oil prices could climb to $80 (US) a barrel this year, according to options contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That pessimism is based on concern ...
Wasn't the time to bet on oil when it was at $30 just a year or so ago? Momentum hounds dominating the oil market.

Bush won't sign Kyoto - It would "wrecked" US economy
EITB - 37 minutes ago
Bush describes climate change as "a significant, long-term issue that we've got to deal with" and acknowledged that human activity is "to some extent" to blame. President George W. Bush begins his fourth trip ...
Had to flag this one just because of the grammar mistake in the title.