Hitler Bad, Stalin Good

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Couple of interesting thoughts brought up while talking over a beer with a buddy of mine after quizzo last night. I told him that I had watched Hitler: Tyrant of Terror on the History Channel earlier in the day. First of all, he said, “What if Hitler has a relative who ever comes forward to claim royalties off of all the Hitler shows they air? They’re not going to be able to sustain the station. They’re gonna owe this guy a lot of money.” Then the topic turned to one I’ve had numerous times before. Why is it that Hitler, who killed 6 million of his fellow countrymen in death camps, is held up to be the most evil man of the 20th century, while Stalin, who killed 20 million of his own countrymen in death camps, not considered the most evil? Is it because we realize that victory in the European theatre would not have been possible without Stalin’s help, and we were fighting Hitler in that war? Is it because, at the time, the concept of a bunch of dead Russians wasn’t all that bad of a thought? Or is it because Stalin looked like our sweet old grandpa, while Hitler looked like some sort of backwoods sheep solicitor? Is it worse to kill one particular group of people than to kill any random person who pisses you off?

Now, before you get your panties in a bunch, don’t read this as a freaking endorsement of Hitler. He was a sick, twisted bastard, and he deserves all the villification he gets. I’m just wondering why Stalin doesn’t get the same treatment .
RELATED: Who was worse, Hitler or Stalin?
RELATED: 16 dictators battle it out to find out who was the most evil.

Happy Birthday, Homeboy!

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Philly’s favorite homie, Ben Franklin, turns 300 today. Here’s everything you need to know about the baddest dude to ever rock the illadelph.
Here’s a really good bio of Franklin, not too long and not too short.
Here’s some Franklin quizzes I did last week: Who said it, Franklin or Confucius? And here’s a regular quiz on Franklin.
Here is a write up about Franklin’s famous(and not so famous) inventions.
Here’s some of Ben’s maxims.

Nate Wiley to Please Crowd at Quizzo Bowl

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Nate Wiley and the Crowd Pleasers are back, and will be filling the World Cafe Live with their sweet jazz and blues sounds during Quizzo Bowl 2. “They were a huge hit the first time around, and when I did a poll on the website asking if people wanted them back for Quizzo Bowl 2, over 90% of respondants said yes. So this was a no brainer.” Johnny added that he has also added an act for halftime that he will be revealing later. Tickets for Quizzo Bowl 2 are available by either clicking here or by attending one of JGT’s quizzoes this week, where he will be selling them for only $10 a pop.
RELATED: City Paper article about Nate WIley and the Crowd Pleasers.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

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I saw that only 14% of white americans plan to observe Martin Luther King’s holiday. Well, that’s unfortunate, though let’s be honest, it’s not like we sit around and think about George Washington all day on presidents day. I think it has more to do with us as Americans being so focused on the future that we tend to think that thinking about the past is a waste of valuable time. But I do suggest you take just a few minutes today to reflect on a man who was as flawed as the rest of us, but who was willing to risk and ultimately sacrifice his life for a beautiful ideal. And I dare you to listen to the “I have a Dream speech” and not tear up a little bit.
Related: Video of his famous speeches.
Transcript of his “I Have a Dream Speech”
Learn more about Martin Luther King
Some great Martin Luther King quotes. Check these out. There are some really great ones.

Whoops!

By now, everybody knows that Colt cornerback Nick Harper was stabbed in his knee by his wife. According to her, it was an accident. Now I have been in arguments with signifigant others. Plenty of them. And I don’t ever remember one time where, during the course of the argument, somebody might have been accidentally stabbed in the knee. But apparently I’m the only one: “What makes this different is who this person is,” the sheriff, quoted by the Star, said. “These things happen every day.” People are accidentally stabbed in the knee every day???? Where are the anti-knife coalitions? Where is the outrage?

Speaking of outrage, the referee overturn of Poliamalu’s interception in the fourth quarter of the Colts game was an absolute joke. In fact, it was such a bad call, it made those of us who have been around gamblers at least a little bit suspicious. It also made the Steeler’s Joey Porter suspicious, as he said that the refs cheated the Steelers. And he’s absolutely right. And this play came only a few plays after the refs called, for the first time in NFL history, a “do over”. They couldn’t figure out which team had jumped offsides, so they literally just pretended like it never happened. It was amazing.

Final Thoughts

I’m heading out to go see the McCarthy movie, but here are a few final things. First of all tickets are selling exceptionally well. In the first three days, over 60 tix were sold, and numerous teams are putting their teamas together and still plan to buy, so I think we’ll have a great crowd. And yes, things will move more swiftly than in Quizzo Bowl One. I am still in negotiations with a few different acts for a halftime show. That includes the infamous Killdozer, Jr., who sent me this unprovoked e-mail a few days ago.
Dear Johnny Goodtimes,
I graciously accept your offer to perform at Quizzo
Bowl II.
You probably will not regret this decision.
Thank you.
Killdozer Jr. (Acoustic)

Finally, we need a good slang term for Benjamin Franklin in the Urban Slang Dictionary. The ones they have so far are kind of weak. See what you can do.

Who could divorce this?

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The whole mess started when she told him not to do that pay per view concert. Now she wants a divorce.
This from the AP report on the Hasselhoff split: He also starred in the 1980s TV series “Knight Rider,” in which his character, Michael Knight, teamed with a talking Pontiac Trans Am sports car to fight crime.

That sentence, taken on it’s own, makes the premise of the show sound ridiculous. But those of us who were seven years old when the coolest thing our brains could have possibly conceived was a “crime fighting talking car” realize that nothing could be further from the truth. That show ruled.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: So does this Hasslehoff-KITT video. You are going to love it. Trust me.
RELATED: Did David Hasselhoff end the Cold War and single handedly reunite East and West Germany? He thinks so.

Happy Birthday Mad Monk!

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OK, so I’m two days late on this, but nobody is really sure when he was born anyway, so who cares. Regardless, I am a huge Rasputin fan. His story is so unbelievable that it’s hard to believe it’s true. This filthy peasant religious man supposedly helps the young prince’s hemophilia, so the royal couple keeps him around the Royal Palace. They can’t let out why he’s there, because they don’t want the prince to be perceived as weak. So the citizens of Russia are like, “Why in the hell is there some bum chilling at the Royal Palace?” Not only is he a bum, but he’s banging all the upper class babes in town, raising the ire of the upper class. It is said that his eyes transfix women, but if this display at a St. Petersburg shows us anything, it’s that it was his monster hog that drove the babes wild (Warning, if anyone at work sees you looking at that link, there are going to be a lot of questions asked). He was also a wild partier, getting wasted, acting inappropriate in public, and picking up hookers. He was unquestionably a black eye on the Royal Family, and with the Czars approval rating hovering even lower than Bush’s, a member of his family decided to act. The cross dressing Prince Felix Yussopov tried to kill Rasputin, but this proved exceedingly difficult. Or did it? New evidence shows that Rasputin wasn’t as hard to kill as previously believed, and that he was actually killed by the British, who were scared that Rasputin would convince the Tsar to pull out of WW One, gravely hurting their cause.
Related: Original press release concerning Rasputin’s death.
Below: Grigs kicks it with some honeys.
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