Intellectual Poison

Damn if the How Berkeley Can You Be Parade? isn't some funny ass and funked up shit. Yes, its got full on naked people walking in front of children and some horrified commentary but whatever. Get over it, Berkeley's going to do its own damned thing. Santa Cruz has a parade of the naked mud people, have some flippin fun and relax your backsides a bit, lads, that's how you get the cancer.

There are lots of other things to see in addition to big belly men with winkidy dinkidy's hanging out. Its worth a look.

I watched it from start to finish, not non stop but I watched every minute of it. I could pause it, rewind it and relisten to what either man said. And I did. I went back over alot of the points, I watched and listened to John Kerry respond to the questions with clear answers, directions, actions to take that haven't been taken.

And I saw George W. Bush squirm. I saw him stutter, sputter and mutter. If it was a dogfight then he's coasting home on his silk. He got beaten. He got beaten badly.

Where Bush offered the lame soundbites that his team has been pushing since the beginning, Kerry sideswiped and kicked his ass with a body blow after body blow. I need a transcript!

Bush trotted out the most ridiculous expenditure of the modern era, the missile defense system. Holy motherfucking shit, you simpering moronic little chimp of a man. You think the terrorists are going to use missiles?

You are deeply, deeply out of touch with reality. Terrorists would never use a missile, they'd smuggle in a bomb in a backpack and destroy downtown New York.

A fucking missile defense system? Who's he appealling to? Reaganites! He wants to evoke nostalgic sympathy in the geriatric set! Nice work, Mr. President.

Oooh, being President is hard. I seem to remember Will Farrell parodying you before you were elected saying "Being President is haaaaaard!"

okay, let's get back to the program at hand. Bush repeated time and again how Kerry has been inconsistent and was countered strongly each time. Kerry held his ground and spoke clearly, confidently and intelligently.

Bush hunched himself over the podium looking smaller than he already was compared to Kerry. Kerry looked stately, calm and capable.

Instead of supporting his claims, Bush would just give a look and nod. Yep, gotcha, boss. Oh wait, its a debate, you're supposed to make a premise, support it with other statements and arrive at a logical conclusion. Bush smirked and that was that.

On a bunch of occasions, Bush finished before time was up, the middle light, not the last 5 second light. When they got to the final closing talks, both my wife and I said there was no way he was going the full 2 minutes.

Reactions from the Bush side have been interesting. I will probably go out and read some sites and comments.

There's really not much denying that this was a big Kerry victory. I have read that people only listening to the debate gave it to Bush by a nose because Kerry sounded a little haughty.

And it has occurred to me that this could be a slick rope-a-dope. Let Kerry take the first two rounds and then deck him in the third. I don't think it'll go that way but that could be a strategy. It could also be what the new strategy is for them since this one's done and its a win for Kerry.

Now, does that translate into votes? It should. Why else would we have the debates if they didn't help people make up their minds? Maybe minds haven't been changed yet but maybe they've started to be opened. I'm very curious to hear what Ryan, Seed and Savage Henry have to say. What say you, guys? Anyone else?

Some interesting takes at the Allah Pundit (yeah, who knew?) which is serving as a central repository for thoughts about the debate. I haven't figured out if its solely committed to the GOP or if they are polling Democrats as well. But there are plenty of allegations of lies, slander, whatever. Kerry screwed up some points, Bush outright misrepresented his points. Calling this a draw is incorrect. Its just simply wrong.

Watch.

The Daily Show's take, "a retarded man held his own against a senator, you've gotta reelect him!"

More here and a very extensive thread on MeFi. The "Pundits" on CNN gave Bush mostly B's and Kerry got mostly A's.

And some excerpted responses from the other side of the fence.

"In tone and bearing, (Kerry) seemed calm, authoritative, and, yes, presidential. . . . this was critical to undermining Bush's constant assertion that Kerry is unclear, wavering and unreliable . . . it was Bush who was grimacing, furrowing his brow, almost rolling his eyes and at the very beginning, looking snippy and peevish." - Andrew Sullivan

"The Bush campaign miscalculated on having the first night be foreign policy night." - Jonah Goldberg, National Review

"(Kerry) was shockingly succinct and sharp . . . Bush was badly hurt by, yes, the podium height, which made him seem smaller, in comparison to Kerry, than he actually is. (Bush) looked . . . a bit like a gargoyle, or someone who needed the podium for protection. After an hour I'd had enough of Kerry's humorlessness. But I no longer had such a problem with him being humorless in the Oval Office." - Mickey Kaus, Slate

"I think Kerry did pretty well tonight, he was forceful and articulate." - Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard"

"Kerry was tougher than I had expected . . . Bush started off weak" - Glen Reynolds, Instapundit

"(Kerry) does not come across as arrogant and obnoxious as we believe him to be. . . The President is a dismally poor public speaker. - John Derbyshire, National Review

"Despite my partisan inclinations, I have to admit that Kerry has won this debate . . . Kerry comes off as the prosecutor accusing Bush of incompetence. Bush comes off as his Meet-The-Press, press-conference version - dogged, arrogant and unlikable. Kerry will get a significant bounce in the head-to-head poll numbers from this debate." - Polipundit.com

"I thought the President was repetitive and reactive . . . Kerry was smoother and proactive..." - Kate O'Beirne, National Review, The Capital Gang

"Kerry is the more fluid debater . . . I think he might have picked up some undecideds because I thought he looked and sounded plausibly Presidential." - John Hillen, National Review

"Tonight (Kerry) seemed to find his voice for the Democratic view of the world." - Tim Russert, Meet the Press

"This is the President's turf, this is the place that the President is supposed to dominate, terror and the war in Iraq. I don't think he really dominated tonight. I think Kerry looked like a commander-in-chief." - Morton Kondracke

"AND THE WINNER IS . . . Kerry. Five weeks, white knuckles." - Richard Brookhiser, National Review

[Update: I've engaged the opposition in discussing the debates over at A Small Victory. The discourse has been surprisingly polite and only very, very mildly combative. However, my comments are freaking huge. Truly like six pages each. But there was lots of stuff to refute. Come on over and join in. I can always use some allies with other news to add.]

Sent to me via the Kerry email newsletter pipeline and just posted to IP Politik.

We're at war, wars are won with preperation, planning and a solid exit strategy (did you miss that day of school, Georgie?). Let's win this one since the alternative is just too damned depressing to consider.

In WTF? News. Here's the Associated Press' Pre-Debate Wrap Up.

Slightly more here and a growing much more here.

Complete loss of journalistic integrity? Check. Now, on with the "show".

[Update: ABC has pulled the page already, now we're working on getting a copy online to re-link to.]

So P went to a new mother's class the other day to compare notes, see some other babies and basically get a little support going. Not that we're struggling, its just always nice to have a little sympathy and feedback.

What she learned is that we've got it pretty easy. We've got a pretty mellow and good kid who sleeps, doesn't cry excessively and for no reason, who isn't scared of random things (yet, I know its coming and I'll get to that part later).

Some of the new moms there were getting almost no sleep at all. They had babies that would scream half the night and just not let them rest at all. Or they cry for five hours straight. Or something that's just impossible to deal with or drags them down, down, down.

So we are lucky, we've got a wonderful, happy, healthy and beautiful baby boy who's the light of our lives and brings the both of us more joy than I could have ever thought possible.

I hesitate to say that I feel blessed because of the religious connotations implied by a blessing but if there's such a thing as an agnostic blessing then we've got it. A great baby boy, a wonderful dog, an awesome wife and a house of our own in a town we don't like. Oh well, three for four is pretty damned good.

The one shouldn't be posted with the other, I know, you'll know it but I'm doing it anyway.

I give you nice girls, competition and beer!
and
Penis shaped talking masturbation teaching toy for pre-teen girls.

I'm going back to the first link, I'm going to win. I'm going to win. Yeah, damnit!

CaptainNormal.org: If you vote for Bush, you are voting for THIS and a warning that the link is to a disturbing image.

The rest is here.

Last night was a bad night to begin our Nande training classes but it didn't make any sense to wait for the next go around again, in like three months.

Why was it a bad night? The full moon had already frayed my nerves, P was in the same state, Graydon was fussy and then we took our pup into a room with a couple of dozen other dogs in varied ranges of training and obedience.

It was tiresome at first and I was pretty truly in a foul mood.

But once we got our paperwork taken care of, got to our group and started working with the dogs a little bit. My shitty mood floated off to pester someone else and we had a good time starting down the structured training trail.

Nande was pointed out not once but twice as being the example dog, once because she was flopped on her side at my side with her belly exposed to me so I could rub it and then again during the first training as she was sitting perfectly still right next to me.

The really good thing about the class (aside from the fact that there are seven more) is that I've learned a few things we've been doing wrong and things we can do better to strengthen the bond and trust between Nande and me. Things like, anytime she comes up to me and makes eye contact, no matter what I'm doing she is to get praised for doing it. I also learned that the walks down in the slough on the long retractable leash aren't conducive to helping her learn to behave properly. So now I'm not supposed to take her out for those walks, I can play with her in the backyard or throw the ball for her for exercise but were are not ready for long leash walking yet (which sucks because we've been doing it for like 7 months now).

I was also told that she shouldn't be off leash on the beach but I think we'll be breaking that rule so she can get her ya-ya's out good.

And a side note, I'm contemplating kicking all of the political posts onto one of my other blogs, they take up too much space, there aren't really Intellectual Poison's main fare and I think they detract from the rest of the blog. But I am often compelled to post or respond or whatever so they're not going all the way away, just probably into the Feeds on the right there.

The Lone Star (Crawford, Texas) ICONOCLAST - Kerry Will Restore American Dignity

Another one bites the dust.

Fuck, the exodus has begun.

This is not good.

I just came back from a quick lunch walk to get a slice of pizza from the good place on the other end of the block here. Its good pizza, a good deal and they've got a full bar for sprinkle on toppings too. Add in a $5 lunch deal that includes a free t-shirt and you've got a bargain. I get the shirts to send back to my nephews (Andrew, the next shirt is Nic's, not yours, don't make me come back there and explain it to you!).

Anyway, on the way back, I happened to notice a very angry looking young woman with a nose ring. And I got to wondering. Does anyone look good with a nose ring? Has ANYONE looked good with a nose ring?

Or is it just a way of telling people to leave them the fuck alone?

Also, will someone please tell Mr. Aging Hipster guy that pony tails, long dangly earrings, goatees, leather hats and tie dyes should never, never, never be combined into the same outfit. And super triple never combine all that with a beat up Mustang rag top and a Marlboro red. Unless you're filming an episode of Lorenzo Lama's "Renegade".

Yep, its true, we did have a little case of the morning shakes today, check out the Latest Quake Data for more info.

We felt it in Santa Cruz, nothing too serious but it did feel like I was drunk all of a sudden. What with the world doing a little undulating and all.

And, as I've already noted, I'll take the surprise earthquake over hurricane season anyday!

Governor signs ban on smoking in state prisons which means that there's just one less thing to do, one less commodity to trade, one less distraction.

Fine by me. Cigarettes are poison. You smoke, you poison yourself and those around you. You cost more to care for medically, you smell bad, you support an industry that kills its customers.

Cigarettes are nasty, smoking them is nasty. Good riddance and another good step by the Governator. I still wouldn't vote for him for California Governor though and don't even think about trying to make it legal for him to run for President!

And the requisite MeFi thread.

I came across Ted Kennedy speaking at George Washington University the other day and was compelled by his speech to find the transcript for it online and repost it here along with his 13 Failings of the Bush Presidency. Here is the full Speech Transcript.
Let's count the ways that George Bush's war has not made America safer. For the sake of space, I've chopped them down quite a bit and its still a good sized post. All of these points are filled out more completely in the full transcript. I don't pretend to know all of the angles but much of what he has said resonates with me and I think it should resonate with all Americans everywhere.

1: Iraq has been a constant perilous distraction from the real war on terrorism.
2: The mismanagement of the war in Iraq has created a fertile and very dangerous new breeding ground for terrorists in Iraq and a powerful magnet for Al Qaeda that did not exist before the war.
3: Saddam Hussein may be behind bars, and that's a significant plus for America and the world, as President Bush says. But the war in Iraq has clearly distracted us from putting Osama bin Laden behind bars-- and that's a huge minus.
4: Because of the war, the danger of terrorist attacks against America itself has become far greater.
5: and most ominously: The Bush Administration's focus on Iraq has left us needlessly more vulnerable to an Al Qaeda attack with a nuclear weapon.
6: The war in Iraqhas provided a powerful new worldwide recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.
7: Because of the war, Afghanistan itself is still unstable. Taliban and Al Qaeda elements roam the country.
8: We've alienated long-time friends and leaders in other nations, whom we heavily depend on for intelligence, for border enforcement, for shutting off funds to Al Qaeda, and for many other types of support in the ongoing war against international terrorism.
9: Our overall military forces are stretched to the breaking point because of the war in Iraq.
10: The war in Iraq has undermined the basic rule of international law that protects captured American soldiers.
11: While President Bush has been pre-occupied with Iraq, not just one, but two, serious nuclear threats have been rising-from North Korea, and Iran.
12: While we focused on the non-existent nuclear threat from Saddam, we have not done enough to safeguard the vast amounts of unsecured nuclear material in the world.
13: The neglect of the Bush Administration on all aspects of homeland security because of the war is frightening. We're pouring nearly five billion dollars a month into Iraq - yet we're grossly short-changing the urgent need both to strengthen our ability to prevent terrorist attacks here at home, and to strengthen our preparedness to respond to them if they occur.

Simply to unbelievable to not be true, Ohio rejects 1000s of voter registration applications due to paper weight. via DailyKOS and also posted on MetaFilter.

The skinny: Ohio sends out voter registration cards on 40 lb paper, then they declare all those registrations invalid because they are supposed to be on 80 lb paper. And they magically expect that people will forget that they, the governmental agency, are the ones who sent out the bad cards in the first place. And the kicker is that it might be able to get fixed before the deadline. Electoral fraud, its what's being rammed down our throats.

What's that? You wish to have more electoral outrage? Okay, how about Illegally Adding Felons to a Vote because they happen to be Hispanic Bush supporters? More, more and more.

Johnfucious say.....

If you are what you eat then it is best to not eat poop.

Johnfucious say.....

Travelling under the speed limit in the passing lane is much more likely to result in "bird" sightings on the highway.

Johnfucious say.....

It is not mean to laugh when your infant son accidentally pees on his own face while being changed. It is mean to not clean him up.

Johnfucious say.....

Until you are a parent, you have not even the first clue about what it is like to be a parent.

Johnfucious say.....

Sowing hatred will harvest death.

Johnfucious say.....

If you did not vote then you have no right at all to complain about the government.

Johnfucious say.....

The impact of corrupt police officers extends far, far beyond the immediately affected area and goes to undermining their authority to safeguard the populance.

Got any to add?

Well, yeah, there's obviously been a few changes made to the blog. I'm still in process on it but I like the more compact nature of it now. And the feeds from the other places I'm writing, that may change and grow as I use it more and get my own feeds sorted out.

I really like the Flickr Daily Zeitgeist. I'm still loading pics up to it but I like the ever changing nature of it. And the ability to show other people's pics is pretty cool. I might get tired of it but its good for now.

Let me know if there are any issues with the layout as it comes out on your browser. I use and recommend FireFox because IE (used by 75% of the surfers who hit Intellectual Poison) sucks, badly. Really. Ditch it and try a modern browser.

Anyway, I'm liking it so far but always appreciate feedback.

MacAlly BT Mini Mouse Review � I�ve only been using this mouse for about twelve hours now and I�ve only formed some initial impressions about it but here goes anyway.

First thought upon pulling it from the container, its heavier than my regular mouse, a nice and reassuring heft. Not too heavy but a nice weight. I also think that it would make a superbly �huckable� mouse, especially without the cord to arrest its flight. It better not piss me off too much or I will see how far I can throw it.

Second thought, product manufacturers, if your product costs more than $20 and needs batteries to function, then you should damn well include them in the package. MacAlly did and it was a simple and easy matter to pop them in and start the process of pairing it with the laptop.

Third, MacAlly should realize that their instructions for setting up the mouse make a logical fallacy. You can�t have the mouse turned over, pressing the Connect button and still see the blue LED light up on top.

The cool thing is that it works, it works well and looks cool too. And at $40, it was a bargain, it even said so on the package which had a $49.99 sticker on it that was crossed out.

Several days later....

I've had a chance to get used to using the mouse and so far have found just one single issue with it. Its a little slow to "wake" up when the computer's been drifting with the screensaver playing. I suppose that its actually a good thing because I think it means that the mouse had gone to stand-by which saves battery life.

The end result is that the mouse gets a thumbs up good recommendation from me. If I didn't already have one, I'd go and get one.

I just saw this article on Reuters, Marijuana Smoker Beheads Two Women. Apparently the guy overdosed on marijuana (which I've read is an impossibility) and then went on a murderous rampage?

While high?

I don't think that smoking dope is going to be the root cause of his rampage. Of course, I'm sure that matters not in the least to the families of the two women he beheaded.

Nobody asked me and I didn't catch anyone laughing out loud at me on the slough walk this morning with the dog.

I mean, who really notices when some sleep numb fool is wearing two different shoes?

I may have said it before but I'm going to say it again. There is nothing sweeter in the entire world than picking up my son and feeling him settle back down into sleep, feeling his heart beat slow down from a race pace to the slow thump-thump of good sleep.

He is just too sweet for words.

So I did a little blog hopping tonight. But via a less travelled route. I started on blogs in Blogshares that I owned and traced back through them. Occasionally coming across a good blog, one with a semi-coherent message and some semblance of formatting skills.

Lots of what I think of as crayon scribbling blogs, the ones with wild characters, very creative spelling and a sort of hodge podge approach to punctuation. They've got a message though (usually) and they've got opinions and they've got justifications.

But what impresses me about some of those blogs is their persistence. The content may be pretty unappealling, the one I'm thinking of was a pretty hateful and unrelenting diatribe against all things Democrat and things that he concluded after much introspection were Democrat but were not really Democrat in reality, but damned if he didn't just keep cranking it out. Non stop, nary a comment in sight and he still churns out horridly skewed and erroneous screeds against Kerry, Edwards and Ted Kennedy.

Month after month and year after year, he had a stack of archive links going back years. Why? I'd look back on a record of nothing but a stream of hate with a lot of regret. I rant here, I rave but I don't think I dwell in hate, do I?

There's something admirable in persistence, even if the toil at hand is a fool's errand.

SF is Safe Haven for Nude Yoga. Unless said naked yogist impedes traffic (note that its not "pees in traffic") or accosts pedestrians or blocks the sidewalk.

"Simply being naked on the street is not a crime in San Francisco," said Debbie Mesloh, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

Otherwise, get into SF, find a nice sunny spot, strip down and start working through your poses.

I do love the fact that its not illegal to just be naked in San Francisco. There's something cool about that, not that I'm heading that way anytime soon to drop trou but I like that I can if I want to.

But I do like nude beaches. And skinny dipping is damned fine fun.

And, most importantly, a kid who mooned people from a moving car was found to have no broken the law! Yes, that's right kids! It is LEGAL to moon people! Now get out there and start exercising your legal rights to bare your backside!

When the motorcycle cop is ahead of you as you roll down the entrance ramp to the freeway.

When said motorcycle cop is carrying around 80 mph of speed which means I can safely carry 79.5 miles an hour.

When said motorcycle cop catches up to a knot of traffic.

When you see that cop pull someone else over, immediately raising the rest of the cars and trucks and my lone bike's average speed by about ten miles an hour.

When I get to roll up on a Harley who's stuck in the traffic because they're back end is so large as to make lane splitting a fool's errand. Nothing like all the demerits of a bike and very few of the merits, eh?

The bad commute includes lots of oblivious fools in oversized trucks wandering all over their lanes and making sliding past them in the center lane alot more dangerous than it needs to be. I tell myself that they are oblivious because the alternative, that they are intentionally moving their vehicles to impede my passage, means that there are an awful lot of jackholed wankers around here.

A bad commute involves an all traffic panic stop and that one car that is compelled to swerve in towards the center of the highway instead of off to the shoulder.

A bad commute includes at least one or two random lane leaps by cars without signals, without any prior indication and without remorse as they nearly get mounted by me and the motorcycle.

A bad commute can mean getting stuck behind a newbie biker who's splitting lanes at less than half the speed I normally go. And, because they're new to biking or just rude, they don't slide over to let other, faster, bikers pass them up. I get stuck behind one guy pretty regularly and it isn't a huge hassle but it is kind of rude to do.

Has anyone else seen these really terribly stupid commercials for McDonald's new "premium" Chicken Selects? Okay, first off, does the premium mean that there's no more bovine growth hormone in the end product because that's a good step.

But let's get back to the ads and overlook the incredibly overpriced fried chicken chunks in high fat dipping sauces.

The commercials feature a guy sitting all by himself in a random business break room. He's holding a conversation with no one and telling them to keep away from his Chicken Selects. He's all cool and hip and slingin' slang but he's all alone and when someone does walk by he tells them to move along.

The other commercials in the series are similar. One person, all alone, making up imaginary people with bad manners who keep trying to get at those amazingly delicious, packed to the rafters with fat Chicken Selects strips.

What message is McDonald's sending with this ad campaign? Eat Chicken Selects and play with your imaginary friends? Lonely losers eat Chicken Selects? Got a split personality? Then you should be having Chicken Selects for lunch.

I don't get it, I don't get the point of these losers having conversations with themselves about how fabulously wonderful their chicken chunks are.

The message I get from these commercials is that you have to be damaged goods to order Chicken Selects and I'm not sure I want to think of myself as damaged just to get some artery-clogging, over-priced chicken-like food products.

Yeah, yeah, I know I shouldn't be going to fast food places for sustenance. I'm trying to break away from it but its so much easier when you've got an attention needy baby boy. At least there's an excellent taqueria nearby that's got a drive thru! But the kitchen is coming back into shape so we'll be able to cook at home more often. Although now we're considering extending the new floor all the throughout the downstairs. But that's another post.

By way of that little Next Blog button up on the top of the screen there, I came across Sister Barb's Commentary on Many Issues and have to say that, for a blog based on commentary of many issues, Sister Barb must have taken a vow of silence since there's not a single post there.

Oops.

[Update: Sister Barb has busted out her comment stick and has started populating her blog. And, actually, the first post is a pretty good one about insurance-less people falling through the cracks in our health care system. Right on, Sister! And thanks to Melanie for letting me know Sister Barb has left the starting gate.]

I've been thinking about this one for a little while and I would like to officially designate the last Friday of every month as Freeball Friday, as in, go commando for the day, sans unders, letting the kids roam free, I think you get the idea.

Think of it as an extra casual Friday dress code.

Its not just for the men folk either, ladies, feel free to leave your underwear at home on the last Friday of the month.

Freeball Friday, spread the word. Or grab the graphic and help spread the word.

[Update: An anonymous commenter posted a link to Utilikilts and I have to say that I've yet to see anything as cool for a Scotsman/handyman to have. I want one.]

[Second Update: Lily raises an interesting point, what should Freeball Friday be called by women since Freeballing makes no sense in relation to them? I thought about Freedom Friday but its a little vague, Freethong Friday is too narrow. Anyone got any ideas?]

So, I guess I'm starting to think that Bush may have had a plan before launching us into war in Iraq. The only problem is that his plans were on a set of cards that somehow got shuffled.

He spoke to the UN today and asked for help in defeating Iraq?

What in the fuck? He basically told the UN to go fuck themselves (or, as is now fashionable, to go Cheney themselves), headed off to war and promised that we'd have those pesky terrorists dead in a couple of months.

And now, now he's going asking for troops and funds because he knows that the US is getting damned tired of footing the entire bill for both resources and soldiers who keep dying.

We're up to our chins in shit in Iraq and now Bush is going to the UN and trying to be all chummy? Chirac didn't even show up to listen to Bush! Hello? Earth to Bush, you've burned your bridges around the world, you've fucked over people who aren't auto-charmed by your smarmy grin and lame bullshit. You want help from the same people you already showed such open and rude disdain?

Nice fucking work, chico. Nice fucking work. Cheney'ed us all, didn't you?

Let's back up and see where you went wrong, bucko. Oh yeah, right here, right here, that's right. You know when you decided to tell the UN to suck it and we were the US of muthafuckin'A and we're going in to get our vengeance on someone who didn't really have much of anything to directly do with 9/11...... No wait, it'll make sense. It'll make sense, it has to. Damnit, God willed it so, he said it to me in a dream I had after taking all those vitamins, now wait. Aww fuck, I'm gonna have to go kill something to remember.

We'll see, maybe some of those same leaders will publicly endorse Kerry and offer support contingent on his being elected. No, its not buying an election, its backing your horse. World polls have shown a very large and distinct preference for Kerry over Bush. Not because they're necessarily overjoyed with Kerry but because they know Bush and they know he couldn't give the first Cheney about any one of them. They see it, they know that Bush barely gives a Cheney about Laura and the kids, much less anyone else.

I'd like that. I'd like to see the world rise up against Bush. That might send the wrong message to much of a America though. I'm not sure. I don't know. I do know that its time for anyone who's not for Bush to get together and beat him.

I needed to upgrade my service at eHostPros as I keep butting up against my 200 meg limit with all the pics, archives and other stuff I've loaded up over the last couple of years. So I went to the site and saw that they are running a very nice promotion right now, pay for a year up front, get a month free and they double bandwidth and space. That's a pretty damned fine bargain and I was only too happy to sign up to keep the space going.

For five bucks a month, I've got alot more space and can even handle some of those Kobe picture surfing spikes as well (I only used something like two months of throughput in three days during that insanity).

I'm sure there are other spots with just as good deals going but they've been good to me and I'd like to see them get some more business. And it is one heck of a good deal!

I moved the post over to Sarcasm Incorporated but have to excerpt a couple of good ones. But head over and read them all, they are worth it even if I did keep the best ones here.

10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.
9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.
8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.
3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.
1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

from iWon

In about the dumbest help entry ever, here is Apple's professional advice on How to pick up and carry your iMac G5.

Um, okay, you mean "pick it up"? Whoa, the insight is, um, insightful.

I knew that there would be moments like tonight. I knew the moment I found out that we were having a baby. I knew that he was going to get banged up, scraped, cut, bruised and probably worse over the course of his life. I knew that he was going to have scary moments and I knew that they would come without any warning whatsoever.

And tonight I had my first real scare since my son was born. Tonight, Nande, in her desire to get more attention from me, swung her body around in between me and Graydon laying on his playmat. I saw her put her foot down squarely into his belly and start pressing down to reposition herself. It was kind of in slow motion and I had enough time to reach over and pull her up and off of him before she put much of her weight on his stomach.

Nande now tips the scales at 75 pounds, she's not delicate or dainty. Luckily, I'd reacted in time and there was no damage done to the boy. Nande got a long and stern talking too and she kept her ears flat and looked very, very sad but was happy when it was over.

In the end, Graydon was okay, Nande may have learned a new reinforcement of rank (I did let her know that Graydon was number 1, we all cede to him) and I got to practice my don't freak out skills. But at least I had my route to the emergency room planned out already.

Because another one has bitten the dust. One of the people I've worked with the longest at this company has just given notice. The position will be very difficult to fill and the void will make my job much more difficult as well as adding on extra responsibilities.

Damn! Oh well, its a good move for the soon to be ex-co-worker. But it means the rest of us are going to have to work that much harder to gather up that slack. And things never stay the same for too long and that is a shame.

[Update: Thanks to the ever vigilant Leblanc, I've come to realize that I'm an idiot loser who can't even quote songs properly anymore. Obviously, AC/DC didn't sing Another One Bites the Dust, thanks for pointing it out so nicely!]

Warning, religious bashing rant ahead, plan accordingly.

MeFi had this article about two utter scumbags posing as religious leaders, Paul and Jan Crouch live like royalty off of the money they've fleeced from their flock of sinners trying to get to heaven. Pastor's Empire Built on Acts of Faith, and Cash and this choice bit "even viewers who couldn't afford a $1,000 pledge should take a 'step of faith' and make one anyway".

What does that mean? That means that these two, Paul Crouch and his wife, Jan, think that you should go into debt to help them buy a new church that they could have purchased without any help at all. They want you to give money you don't have so that they can continue to live like Sultans. Why? Because God will return it right to you, yup, that's what they said. And people seem to believe them for some truly unknown reason, is this that infamous leap of faith that religous types like to talk about? That giving money to people who say they rep for God is their faith that those fucks aren't going to spend that money on coke and hookers and another luxury villa in the south of France? Ooh, faith. I have faith that people who send their money to any "religous" jackoff on the television might as well be setting fire to their money and inhaling the smoke for all the good it will do them.

These two are the very definition of what's wrong with religion. In the name of religion they are fleecing people again and again and again. They are pimping God's name in order to bring Christianity to India, a land that's not really lacking for religious fervor already. Does India want them? Hell no. Do the Crouch's give a damn? You must be kidding, the only thing they care about is making more money for themselves and taking more money away from their "followers".

And are they pious in anyway? Fuck no, ol' Paul had to just pay nearly a half million in shut up money to a former employee because Paul liked to sodomize him or get sodomized by him. That's right, Paul had a homosexual affair that he paid off on to keep from getting into the press too much.

You know what? Give these crooked fucks your money if you think it'll buy your way into heaven. You deserve to have your money taken away from you if you're so stupid. These two won't be in heaven when you get there though, they'll be spinning over a hellfire pit with red hot pokers jabbed through their bodies as they slow roast to sin-perfect perfection.

They make $170 million a year, 2/3 of which comes from viewers in donations of less than $50 each mostly. That sickens me really. So many people reaching out in good faith in an effort to get closer to whatever spirituality they can.

Paul and Jan, enjoy it while you can because I hope there is a hell and I hope you get to spin and sizzle for eternity.