Yesterday I walked to one of the four Starbucks in a three block radius of where I work (really) and took up Starbucks on their recent instant coffee, sorry--"microground Via"--challenge.  I have this to report.  It tastes slightly better than Folger's Instant Coffee. Slightly.

But thi…

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Snowmaggedon was never that clever, but the way it rolls off people's tongue in the mid-Atlantic would make you think they'd just discovered gift of gab. But Snowmageddon wasn't the only invention from the recent snow storms. Snowpocalypse was another word-meld that gained in popularity.

For…

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I remember walking around the Baghdad square where 17 civilians were killed by Blackwater employees.  The Iraqi Security Forces who overlooked the square looked like they wanted to shoot me.  I'm not really sure I blame them.

 I remember the Blackwater helicopters that buzzed over the… Read full post »

It's been just over two months since the Fourth Corner relocated from Washington, DC to Alexandria, Virginia. A first home was purchased, tax breaks obtained (god willing), and mortgages packaged and sold. Then sold again.

To understand where our mortgage is requires an economics degree. Our…

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From the Greek playwright who was crushed to death when a bird dropped a tortise on his head, all the way to the nine poor souls who died in the London Beer Flood, Wikipedia has catalogued the world's most unusual deaths from Ancient Greece through the present.

 Many of the… Read full post »

To the Fucker Who Broke Into My Car (Again)

I'm not one to get into the daily rigamarole of Open Salon.  I think it's a pretty neat idea and a very clever way for people like you and me to meet without meeting and confess sins out loud without saying a single word.

 But, with all the cartoons and… Read full post »

In an age when mergers and acquisitions happen right in front of Justice's blindfolded face, company brand names are becoming increasingly meaningless.

Northwest Airlines is no longer Northwest Airlines. Instead its Delta, though you wouldn't know that by looking at its website.

General Electric owns… Read full post »

 

 

He's what would happen if Bob Dylan could actually sing.  He's what would happen if Bruce Springsteen were from Texas, not New Jersey.  He's what you would get if you crossed the two of them, backed it up with the guitarest from the Black Crowes, and… Read full post »

The Swedes have taken the concept of biofuels to an entirely new level in recent weeks: culled rabbits are now being thrown into the furnaces to heat the colder parts of the country.

While burning rabbits for energy may not be the most popular concept for Americans, they… Read full post »

The plot thickens on South Carolina governor's unexplained hiatus. With his wife and staff in the dark about where the Governor has been for the past four days, yesterday republican Mark Sanford simply reappeared claiming that he took a hike along the Appalachian Trail.

But now he claims he wasn't hik… Read full post »

Our new President has been in office for just over six months now, which means the 2012 election campaign is heating up.

With unpaid stimulus bills and rising unemployment, the kinks in President Obama's armor are starting to show. On the first day he created the heavens and earth, and on… Read full post »

So Dick Cheney, a man we've all grown to fear, raised the ante on Fox News Sunday when he admitted that in the waning days of the Bush Administration that he was pushing for a military strike on Iran's nuclear program.

I'll argue Iran is probably the most American country… Read full post »

Embrace the Wikipedia "Random Article" Button

It's like pulling a random book off a library shelf. Or putting your finger on a spinning globe and seeing where you end up. Only now, randomly searching for things isn't nearly as cumbersome as it used to be. Libraries are…

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Stephen King once noted that good horror reacts to the common fears of the people.  In the nuclear 1950s, the films were about attacks of the fifty foot ant, crab, or spider or woman because most Americans were afraid of the unknown future of the atom. 

From there, with/… Read full post »

My (hot) wife and I are sitting at the settlement office down in Alexandria, Viriginia.  We're ready to close on our first home and have been signing a litany of papers that some stranger who I'm paying good money assures me is all legal and routine.  As I'm filling this stack… Read full post »

A homeowner's association in Virginia was recently scolded by none other than White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, for threatening a lawsuit against a resident World War II Medal of Honor winner.

The Sussex Square homeowner's association said the 90 year-old's flagpole wasn't aesthe…

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As news of another coordinated bomb attack comes on the day Ba'athist Chemical Ali is killed, Americans and Iraqis alike are wondering how insurgents can continue to outsmart millions in training and bomb detecting equipment.

The answer? Very, very easily.

The Iraqi government recently…

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With the upcoming release of Bloom Energy's mind-blowing, life-altering fuel cell system that will bring our country's climate and energy crisis to an end, the Fourth Corner went looking for an explanation of what the hell a fuel cell is. We turned to our friend and contributor, Gene, who is a/… Read full post »

Happy Birthday, Mr. Obama, from Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris published a birthday greeting to President Barack Obama this morning. Mr. Norris, who provided an eloquent, well-supported argument that Mr. Obama should show the world his birth certificate, provided an eloquent, well-supported argument,…

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North Korea's Arirang Festival kicked off this week for the sixth year in a row.  The large, choreographed dance and festival is one of the largest in the world and will be preformed every day but Sunday through October, meaning that 100,000 North Koreans will have a job for the next… Read full post »

Governor Mark Sanford has announced he intends to try to keep his job as South Carolina's governor. This, after admitting to secret flights to meet his 'soul mate' down in Buenos Aires behind his state (and his wife's) back.

But it might not all be Sanford's fault. He might just have… Read full post »

Imitation, they say, is the greatest form of flattery, but it's no way to turn a profit.  There are folks on Open Salon and on blogs across cyberland that love to imitate the folks at the New York Times or the Washington Post, and while I'm sure the journalists there are… Read full post »

Yes, the war in Afghanistan rages on.  Yes, the Empire State Building, symbol of American capitalism was bathed in communist China's colors.  Yes, Sarah Palin does exist.  

This isn't what you should be afraid of. 

You should be afraid of Brian Schweitzer, a Montana man who just… Read full post »