My best friend died yesterday

I sit here, typing that, and it still seems hard to comprehend. We've been friends for nearly 28 years...half my life. I just don't know where to begin.

I've tried time and again to write this . . . and I just can't. Because this isn't a light a single candle moment for me, this is a rage against the darkness time in my life.

There is a whole world full of miserable, awful people who fall ass backwards into money, fortune, good times and the easy life. They rub our noses in it constantly. Smug superiority and self importance. These fuckers live on forever it seems, never called to answer for what they've done or whom they've hurt. I don't want to hear about God's plan or how it all works out in the end, or how I cannot comprehend His ways. Fine. Don't explain it all. Explain this! Please. Explain how this is right!

My best friend busted his ass his entire life. Worked hard to support and provide for his family. We talked often about how, at our age, we should be thinking about retiring instead of wondering how we would be able to do this job when we would be 65 or 67 or whatever the eventual push you out the door age will be.

There are people everywhere, and especially my workplace, that would laugh (not openly of course) or comment sotto voce about what a fool my friend was for working so hard. How dumb it is not to call in sick for those oh so necessary mental health days that crop up after the Super Bowl or St. Patty's or WrestleMania or something random horseshit excuse.

But my friend believed in the contract. Not that piece of crap between our union and the post office, but the real contract -- you pay me, I come to work and give you the best I've got. It's a vanishing ethic in this world of onesy wearing metrosexuals living in mommy's basement. But it is what built this country and this world and made it something special. The people who laugh at my friend -- you're the fucking joke! You aren't worthy to sweep the floor he walked on as far as I'm concerned.

My friend's wife had to leave the workforce early due to medical problems. And my buddy just dug harder. His youngest son decided he could do better in life with a college degree, so he quit his job and went back to school. My friend stepped up to help him financially. I've known others in my life who haven't raised anything more complicated than a house plant who always love to give advice along the lines of kick 'em out when their 18, if they fail, it's on them, that's what my mom and dad did. Yeah, well . . . I'm happy for you. But my buddy wasn't raised like that. He put his head down shouldered that burden and kept on marching . . . on two complete knee replacements!

I like the work I do. But I don't like my workplace. The post office is an unpleasant atmosphere to work in. The one thing I could always look forward to was seeing my friend. Talking racing or home projects or politics or food or whatever. Now that's gone. I've got nothing left. I have to work at a place that will happily throw me under the bus anytime a sheet of paper says I'm not working hard enough. Or I've missed one confirmation scan out of the hundred plus I have every day. I have to watch my slutbag ex-girlfriend throw herself at anything with a penis and be feted like she's Aphrodite in the flesh every day. And now I've got no respite from all of this. It's fucking purgatory.

My best friend is dead. And the world, and especially my workplace, is a dimmer darker place because of his absence.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A bit late with this, I know, but it's the thought that counts. Right?

And to make things better, here's my new favorite redhead giving us some warm St. Patty's feelings:

A prediction -- part 2

Back during the run up to the Iraq War, every intelligence agency in the free world knew for certain that Saddam Hussein had chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Even Hussein's own generals admitted in post war interviews that they were stunned that Hussein didn't unleash his unholy arsenal on the Coalition forces during the war.

But as President Bush tried to get the feckless U.N. to step in and do something about Hussein's repeated violations of the sanctions against him, many analysts pointed out that the lengthy delays would allow the Iraqi tyrant to dispose, dismantle or hide any illegal weapons of mass destruction before outsiders could take control of the country.

We know now that little or nothing was found within Iraq itself, but analysts have stated that the chemical weapons used by Syria is most probably the stuff Hussein shuttled over there to safeguard it from the invading armies.

I bring this up because as politicians and news agencies dither over Hillary's illegal home server (illegal because of how it was used, not the fact that she had one), there is little doubt in my mind that the drives and motherboards in that server have been exchanged for new ones and the originals, with their incriminating evidence, have all been destroyed by now.

So it won't matter if/when someone convinces her to allow a third party investigation into that device . . . it will not have anything older on it than this month. And Hillary will have some nod and wink explanation about why it was cannibalized just when someone wanted to check into it. And she'll skate once again, her corrupt small town politician façade unscathed.

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After insuring her gams for $40mil, Taylor Swift has really been working the leggy look around town these days and also doing her best to show off her ass not included whenever possible:

She keeps parading around in those shorty-shorts, I might have to change my opinion about that tiny tush of hers.

Chrissy Teigan is topless at the beach

Because . . . why not? I guess. It seems this has something to do with her husband John Legend, so maybe something for a video . . . who knows? Don't all couples zip down to the beach with a full entourage and camera crew to capture some intimate moments? Anyways:

And for the ladies, if I have any female visitors, here's John Legend airing out the moobs for your enjoyment:

A prediction

I was just watching the Kelly File. I can't remember the number of that separation form she was speaking about [Update: it's OF 109], but it basically would hang Hillary Clinton if she signed it and may be bigger trouble if she didn't.

So if it's determined that she's better off having signed it and didn't, I expect it will turn up signed first thing tomorrow morning. Because I'm sure there's no way to determine when these forms are signed.

And if they determine it's less destructive to her politically to have it disappear, then no one will ever find it. Because this so-called most transparent and ethical administration in history isn't. Not by a long shot. And neither are the Clintons. We've seen that for years. No depth to low for them to plumb if it satisfies their political goal/agenda.

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And I'm thinking this is a fake, because Emma Watson doesn't do saucy like this. But if it is, it's good one, and I appreciate the workmanship in creating it:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns for the second half of the season

AOS is back after its mid-season break, and isn't wasting any time pouring on the storylines or adding intrigue. There have been plenty of fans, myself not included, who have bemoaned the seemingly glacial pace at which the show's writers were bringing along the characters or opening up the MARVEL universe for television.

That ain't the case now.

We know now that Skye is actually MARVEL character Daisy Quake. Originally conceived as a mutant, she is now the product of a millennia old Kree attempt to create a race of warrior/killers to help them in a war they were fighting. Skye/Daisy's abilities are that she is able to create seismic tremors around her or in various objects. As her character is fleshed out in the comics, her abilities become more pinpoint to where she can destroy internal parts of devices or in some instances, the internal organs of living beings. She is also able to protect herself from psychic attacks, presumable via surrounding herself with force waves of some sort.

Interestingly, the look of her character in the comics is based on Angelina Jolie and her appearance in the movie Hackers (a guilty pleasure of mine . . . the movie, not Jolie):

As Skye is revealed to be Daisy, her father is revealed to be Calvin Zabo or Mister Hyde, a sort of evil version of The Hulk. Raina, who was in the temple when the Terrigen Mist was released, has morphed into a sort of porcupine creature. I'm not sure if there's a MARVEL character that she's approximating, but whatever.

We also got another hint that Bobby Morse (Mockingbird) may be doing something covert for either Nick Fury or someone else as we see her and Mack discussing how they cannot bring Bobby's old boyfriend into their scheme. Whatever that is.

There's also a nice bit where Fitz finally lashes out at Simmons for abandoning him as he explains why he attempted to shield (no pun intended) Skye's metamorphosis from the others out of fear that they would turn on her. As they sort of do at the end of the episode. Hints at a bit of a supervillan/mutant attack under the direction of Zabo on the Coulson's team and much, much more.

Like I said, they've taken the training wheels off the show and are proceeding at a furious pace to tie the show into the various movies that are in production. I've complained plenty about the bastardization of various character mythologies, particularly as it has applied to the X-Men movies, but Whedon and company seem to be doing this fairly well here. Inhumans, Kree, Asgardians, tie-ins to Captain America, Thor, The Avengers . . . there's a lot happening here and it's fun to watch. The special effects are quite good. The acting, casting and writing are as good as anything else on television at the moment. It's worth watching.

Cutie Chloe Bennet has been maddeningly frugal in her saucy appearances, so that makes these few glimpses of her even more fun:

Hailee Steinfeld is 18 . . .

. . . and looks like this is a recent photoshoot:

At first I thought she had pulled a Kendall Jenner, who put out this pic about 5 seconds after she turned 18:

But on further review, I think that's just a shadow from the nude underlayment on that lace top she's wearing. It only caught my eye because I only know Hailee from Ender's Game and she since she never appears in the tabloids or celeb blogs, I assumed she wasn't the shameless famewhore type. So a saucy see-thru thing seemed out of character and frankly, I was a bit disappointed. But it's nice to see at least one young actress isn't ready to give it all up for the sake of notoriety. At least not yet.

Kate Hudson is 35 . . .

. . . and looks like this:

I'm not saying 35 is old, far from it. But in a Hollywood world where plenty of twenty-somethings look like this and demand that you be turned on by it:

It's pleasing that Kate, a talented actress who also has a young son, is still totally rocking her hotness:

P.S. Sorry for assaulting you with that Lena Dunham pic

Why is anyone surprised by this -- part 3

As President Obama steams ahead with yet another of his I'll do it on my own moments, this time being a horrible treaty with Iran, conservative pundits are shocked, shocked, I tell ya that the Prez is going to bypass Congress once again and do this deal on his own.

Am I the only one who was paying attention during the 2008 elections?! Let me bring up two things here . . . once again, for the so-called professional political writers:

First, during the primaries, then candidate Obama, supposedly a Constitutional scholar, stated the the Constitution was a fundamentally flawed document because it doesn't contain entitlement language. As I've stated repeatedly -- this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Constitution is. It is, simply put, a firewall between the citizens of this country and the federal government. If you know the history of the founding, and this is why history is important to school children, you would know why the Constitution is written the way it is and what the framers were protecting us from -- an over-reaching government that could curtail your freedoms on a whim. The framers believed that the citizens, freed from an oppressive government would flourish and prosper and didn't need entitlements to survive. The phrase pursuit of happiness that is so frequently thrown about by spoiled millenials and liberal pantiwaists is not about unemployment compensation and free health care and federally subsidized retirement, it is about the freedom to pursue your life as you choose without the government micromanaging every jot and tittle of that life.

Second, and to the point of the Iran deal, then candidate Obama said on many occasions that he should be able to sign treaties on his own, without the consent of Congress because he wanted to just cruise around the world writing and signing treaties he felt served his agenda. As we've seen with his extensive executive actions, this President prefers to be a King rather than a servant of the people of this country. A rank amateur with no foreign policy or legislative experience, he believes he knows better than everyone else in the country how to do things. What arrogance!

And like I said . . . why are you surprised by this? Look at the man's own words. He has given us every indication from day one of how he would prefer to rule this country, and he's going about it without any hesitation. We've got two more years of this nonsense. Boehner and McConnell better gets their heads out of their asses and start doing what we voters have given them the power to do, or 2016 might be too late to correct the damage President Obama does to this country.

Megan Fox had a rough night

Damn! Someone looks like they're just getting back from an all nighter or something.

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This might be Case Solved part 2, 'cause looking at Chloe Sevigny here, I'm thinking she had a pretty brutal night out too. So maybe these two were hangin' together or something:

eesh!

Don't ask me what's going on here

Supposedly, this is Taylor Swift, though I'm always dubious when you cannot see someone's face in the pictures. But at first blush, it looks like this dude is walking her over to the wall in that parking garage to get a picture of her ass in those tight shorts:

What I'm thinking is that maybe these are stills from a video shoot rehearsal or something. At least that's what I'm hoping 'cause these are some stalkerific images to be sure.

Update:
Case solved! Whew! We can all sleep easy tonight. Apparently, what's going on here is that Swifty's bodyguard is walking her backward from her car so that she can avoid/thwart the paparazzi. Not sure about the efficacy of this maneuver since what she's doing is giving the paps many more pictures of her "ass not included" this way than if she had just left the garage like a normal person parking her car. But hey, the rich & famous . . . they're different from you and me.

Cosmo doesn't do my Duffster properly

So Cosmo had my Duffster on their cover recently. Good choice for a cover girl in my opinion, but they missed the mark conceptually:

Hilary's way too hot just running errands, they don't need to Photoshop cheekbones and slim her down to make her look like the typical skinny model type. It's her solid hotness that we love, to wit:

Perfection. Why mess with it?

Why is anyone surprised by this -- part 2

Trey Gowdy's Bengazi Select committee has now turned up the fact that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a private e-mail account to conduct State Department business while Secretary of State. A clear violation of the transparency rules that are in place for government officials.

Why is anyone surprised?

The Clintons are the perfect examples of crooked small town politicians. From back in their Arkansas days with the Rose Law firm scandal, the Whitewater scandal, Bill using State Troopers to truck hookers to the Governor's mansion . . . they believe the rules don't apply to them. They believe they are entitled to whatever they want, whenever they want it.

Hillary applied for that private account the day of her confirmation hearing. She never had any intention of leaving her correspondence where others could look at it. As we've seen with her dubious fund-raising/influence peddling, who knows what kind of shading dealings she had going on while working as one of the highest ranking public officials in the country.

When Bill was running for President, Hillary made dismissive remarks about women who stayed home and baked cookies while their husbands work, implying that she was better than them because she was out there doing "real" work. Her eyes always on the prize, Hillary sat idly by, perhaps not baking cookies, but doing nothing while her husband banged anything with a vagina in both Arkansas and Washington. The ends justify the means to her, so what's a little ejaculate on some chubby intern's dress when she could become the first female President?

Watching the White House and State Department spokespeople try to cover Hillary on this is depressing. Setting aside their childish comments about how the recipients of Hill's e-mails were expected to maintain copies, what about those that didn't go to other State Dept. employees? And what about the fact that she was transmitting classified information via a non-secure account? That to me seems an actionable offense.

I've said repeatedly that I think Hill's a stalking horse for Elizabeth Warren, but fauxcohontas might not be a lock either. Warren is the Dem equivalent of Ted Cruz -- someone's who's viewed as a far left bomb thrower who might appeal to the extreme wing of the Dem party but would alienate centrist Dems and Independents.

Lefty pundits like to mock the Republican party and say it is fractured, but I think the Democrats are in a real bad spot here. Their inevitable candidate is one arrogant gaffe/stumble/scandal after another. It'll be interesting to see how the Dems try to recover from this.

Kelly Rohrbach is new here

Kelly Rohrbach is the new SI Swimsuit issue rookie that folks are now noticing. She may be a bit hard on the wardrobe, but might just be worth paying attention to: