Intellectual Poison

I just caught the Stuart Scott pimpolicious look ahead to college football and my only response is to ask when the fuck Stuart Scott was turned into a cartoon character and does he have to be so smug about it?

And nothing says Happy New Year like a fat man in leopard print tights. Now back to my mimosa. Now where's that cute little Anderson Cooper?
Tags: Happy New Year, Happy New Yaer, Stuart Scott

Brainwashed PETA drone Chris Garnett has legally changed his name to KentuckyFriedCruelty.com. To which I say, dude, chicks will so dig saying "Take me, Mr. Cruelty.com". I get passion and I get being committed to a cause but the dotcom thing was like five years ago, at best.

Oh yeah, KFC apparently treats the chickens they raise for food badly. Just ask PETA who thinks any "exploitation" of an animal is morally unjustifiable, unless its the exploitation of animals to develop insulin to help keep people alive, people like Ingrid Newkirk who happens to the founder of PETA and a raging shout monkey.

I'm not defending KFC because chickens are a nasty business. But, as was noted in the MeFi thread I read this on, these tactics serve to make a portion of the population intentionally go to KFC and buy their chicken.

And, last thought, Al Sharpton as a celebrity spokesman does absolutely nothing but encourage me to go eat a huge damned steak and then to take my son for a Pony ride and then get him a nice new leather jacket.
Tags: PETA, brainwashed, moron

It appears that 2005 is not going to go quietly into the night as it is doing its best to rip apart the house right now with high winds and driving rain. Enough so that it looks like the trees are getting down a funky beat and the umbrella on the deck almost took flight, if only for the 70 pound base keeping it grounded.

The wind is howling around the house, trying to find a way in. Our storage closet on the deck normally has its doors held closed by a little carabiner but without that biner in place, the doors had been torn open and the wind had actually started scooping things out of the closet to throw them all around the deck and yard.

In short, its storming like a mofo out there right. Looks like a good day to curl up and watch a movie or five.

Happy New Year, universe. I fully expect 2006 to surpass 2005 in many ways. And now I'm off to do some research on how expensive it is to have a bulldozer reshape a hillside.
Tags: storm, end of the year, Happy New Year, 2005, 2006, , terraforming

Shutting down a credit card is a cathartic action. It feels good to take a line of sugary sweet credit and turn it off and get it away as far as possible.

You see, for you who may not have come to this conclusion as I have yet, credit card companies aren't there to make life better for you. They exist because they make massive, massive amounts of money off of you. Really, its obscene what some credit card companies offer as "deals".

Is it a deal to get loaned some money at 23% interest? Is it a deal that spending $10,000 gets you a whopping $50 cash back award? Is it a deal that they will set the payment hounds loose on your slow paying sorry ass if you forget to send them their blood money for a week or two? Is it a deal when thier helpful phone maze is chock full of dead ends so you spend more time wandering around trying to find help than being helped (hint, for Discover, after they pick up hit **** to get connected alot faster)? Is it a deal when my request to shut the damned account was rebuffed four times by the first "closure expert" I spoke with, she just kept trying to throw little crappy "incentives" at me to keep the account open and then, when I got pissed off after asking her three times politely, on the fourth, I shouted at her to please just close the account, then she hung up on me. Where's the deal? After a call back and being connected to another call center hub, the account was finally closed after I registered a complaint against the persistent non-"closure expert".

Now it feels doubly good to close the account. And it felt good to shred their bill and it will feel good to chop up the card. And I will not mind in the least relating what a truly terrible job of customer service Discover did for me and that I'm sure there are other credit card companies that are much more deserving of your business.

I do like my USAA card. Though I should give them a call and see if they'll lower my rate just because its never a bad idea to see if they will. You'd be surprised what credit card companies will do if you ask.
Tags: Discover card, credit card, bad deal, bad customer service, bad company

This is one of those great weeks, evidenced by my lack of time spent online, the slow updating of my Flickr stream and keeping up on other blogs and news. But that's part of the allure of a vacation, its a break from all of it. And the week has gone by fairly quickly after the hubbub of Christmas day has passed.

We've made great strides in getting the shop ready for an additional tenant, which will be damned nice as they will help defray our rental costs each month. And, as a consequence of getting the shop ready for the new person, we've also had to get the garage ready for a whole bunch of new stuff to store. So now we've got a well organized garage that's holding more than before but is also alot more usable and not so cluttered.

But its not all fun and games, I've got a half day or so of work to get done today or tomorrow in advance of the new year. Lots of projects coming down the pike at work means that I've got alot of late nights, stress and not much in the way of thanks.

The New Year will also see me with another yearly performance review and raise. Things will be quite interesting this time around as I've taken on a tremendous amount more responsibility (thanks to a departed Marketing manager who's tasks have become mine) while still surpassing previous metrics for the company's public relations by more than 20% from 2004. Which is pretty damned impressive.

Next up is to figure out my goals for 2006 instead of resolutions.
Tags: vacation, 2005, retrospective

Got a few hours to kill? Or maybe a lifetime? Try Easy on Web Sudoku and see how you fare. If you've got a big set then maybe you should try Evil and weep all the live long day through.
Tags: sudoku, mind game, online

The hands down winner of this year's most valued present goes to the Ukulele. I knew it was a good one when he wouldn't let go of it to do anything else. One hand held the neck in a surprisingly strong near 18 month old grip. Always. For the rest of the day while we were home. And then again when we got back home. He threw a tantrum when I wouldn't let him sleep with it. And he's got ahold of it again this morning. Though he is more distractable since there are so many new and fun things for him to enjoy.

But the ukulele is the winner. And that's pretty cool. I'm still working on getting him to hold it properly but he's already plucking decently. But the AC Cobra Matchbox car is pretty sweet too even if he doesn't know it so much.
Tags: christmas, presents, winner, ukulele

Happy Birthday, Nande! Today you turn two big loopy years old. You're an extraordinarily free spirit with your play gear permanently set to frolic and bounding.

And you're one of the cornerstones of my life. I love the fact that you don't have the slightest problem with your birthday two days before Christmas since all you know is that you get goodies on both days.

Thanks for adding a boundless enthusiasm and joy for existence and exploring to our lives.
Tags: Happy Birthday, hound, dog

What is one of the dumbest thing you could do after getting fired for not being very good at your job?

Why, send emails to your customer contacts telling them what a raw deal you got from your ex-company, that would certainly qualify is exceedingly stupid.

Don't think people are stoopid enough to pull that grade school payback moronacy? Think again. My company is currently doing a small amount of damage control from an ex-employee who not only sent emails to his previous clients but made it appear that he was sending the emails from our company. So that, if the clients responded, the emails came right into the company where they were read by my boss.

Who let us know what was happening and then called the cops. From what I understand (and mind that this is all speculation and may not be wholly true but I try my best), this ex-employee used contact information he had when he was working with the company to send slag emails to several clients. His emails basically said he got a crappy deal and that he has a family and that they, the client, shouldn't do business with us anymore because he got a raw deal.

Notwithstanding the flashing retardedness of his grade school antics, he's in a pretty serious pot 'o shit now because he's committed at least one crime in this, fraud and I'm sure there are several more laws he's breached with his dumbass. So now the question is what happens from here.

Stay tuned and let's find out together.

The kicker? He asked for a reference for him moving forward. I'd happily give him a reference. Here's one he can have right now:

This is a deeply creepy, disturbed and angry man with many insecurities and neuroses. He can be incredibly condescending about commonly understood things. He will assume that you are an idiot without any evidence either way. He'll relentlessly hit on women in your office who are 20 years younger than he is and know he's married. He is not the kind of person you want on your payroll.

It could be worse, of course, he could have come into the office with a couple of pistols and killed everyone.
Tags: disgruntled, moron, slag, shockingly stupid

My email client at work, Thunderbird, is acting fairly retarded lately and so I check into the Mozilla.com support site to find out this incredibly stupid bit about Compacting folders: "When you delete or move e-mails from a folder, Thunderbird and other e-mail programs really only 'hide' them (i.e., mark them as ready for permanent deletion), and these hidden e-mails still actually remain in the folder. Even emptying the Trash does not permanently delete them. These hidden e-mails remain in the folder until it is compacted. If you don't compact folders, your mail folders can grow very large and erratic program behavior can occur (see below), so it's a good idea to do it periodically."

Yes, deleting your email doesn't actually delete your email. You have to throw it in the trash and then compact the folder for some absolutely stupid reason. And how do you find this out? Well, you use the program for a while, it starts to behave stupidly and then you get to look around the Mozilla support site until you stumble upon this stupid shit about compacting folders. When I delete a goddamned email, I want the email deleted, not hidden so I have to go back and "compact" it. Who's fucking brilliant idea was that? They should get a good kick in the nuts.

Nice work, Thunderbird, you've just dumbed your way off my computers. And, truthfully, I'm a little sick and tired of the wonky crap FireFox keeps pulling too.

[Update for Chuck: What's happening is Thunderbird keeps telling me there are more new emails than there are and two spams just cannot be deleted. They reappear every single time I check my email and I make very sure to mark them as spam, move them to the trash and (now) compact the folder. But they are right back the next time I check the mail. Its infuriating really.

I've never had an email program that had to be coddled like this piece of shit. Emptying the trash should do what it says and empty the trash, not require another step to really, really, really delete the emails. Maybe they've got a good reason for doing it that way but I can't fathom it.

Thunderbird's also hanging on start up while it builds a summary in-box or something. Its slow to change folders and the address book has no way to check over all the emails I've sent to a particular person as in a real contact management program. The program is pretty weak from my experience and I'm likely to go back to using Goldmine or, yuck, Calypso. I've never used Outlook because I can't stand MS products and will refuse to use them if at all possible.]
Tags: Thunderbird, compacting folders, utterly retarded

As President and Commander-in-Chief, I have the constitutional responsibility and the constitutional authority to protect our country. Article II of the Constitution gives me that responsibility and the authority necessary to fulfill it. And after September the 11th, the United States Congress also granted me additional authority to use military force against al Qaeda.

So I was able to watch the president swear that he has and had the authority to order wiretaps of American citizens without court approval. This is shaping up to be a wee bit more of a boondoggle then I think he thought it would be.

He invoked Article 2 of the Constitution as the root seat of his authority. And what's article 2 got to say? Well, among other things it says...

Article 2 Section 4
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

But I couldn't see anything in there that says a president can invoke superpowers and break the law. Stuff about appointing judges and requesting opinions of leaders but nothing that would appear to grant him any power to circumvent the rule of the Constitution just as any other citizen. Oh yeah, maybe he means this part, the stuff he actually says as he's sworn in, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." But that's not tacit permission to break the law, not in any way at all.

It will be interesting to see who's wire was being tapped without court approval. That ought to make for an interesting day, especially if its readily obvious that the "suspects" are not terrorist suspects at all. Such as, I don't know, political opponents, business competitors to cohorts, etc.

So who was the last president who ordered wiretaps without court approval? And he didn't go on national TV and admit that he approved of them either. Not like George. Nope. You see, George's government is (ab)uses the Freedom of Information Act too. The FoIA contains this little gem, “ specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy” and “trade secrets” to “ clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” [III - Section 552 – (b) 1, 4 and 6] which is like a cheapass loophole (specifically, Executive Order 13233 that locked up Reagan and Bush Sr.s records among others ostensibly because to reveal them would weaken the nation though its eminently suggestible that the revelations in the records would be far more damaging to the current Republican power structure in this nation).

And then there's the question of the Supreme Court that would hear, eventually, this case. The newly shuffled Supreme Court with a couple of, hey crazy how this works, Bush Jr. appointees. So there's instantly a, how shall I say it, clear and substantial conflict of interests in the involved parties? Yeah, that'll work.

So there are a couple of questions that should be answered.
One, what is the constitutional legality of presidential privilege as is being invoked by Bush?
Two, who were the people being spied upon that are so important that Bush couldn't get a court's permission to spy on?
Three, is wiretapping via presidential decree an impeachable offense?
Four, can Bush fully articulate his position of how he arrived at the legality of implementing wiretaps without the benefit and review of a court?
Five, at what point is a full and complete examination, investigation and clarification of every decision the Bush presidency has made warranted in order to determine the full extent of and damage caused by presidential "privilege" as Bush interprets it?
Six, what's Fitz up to these days?
Seven, how does one impeach an entire administration?

[Update: President Bush gave a speech in April of 2004, here's a link to it in which he states (about two thirds of the way down the page), emphasis is mine:

Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.

This is a man who firmly believes his vision is enough of a reason to warrant the trampling of our rights as Americans and the document that he swore to uphold and protect. And he made this speech after authorizing illegal wiretaps for three years. Keep that in mind.]
[Second update: One of the FISA judges has resigned in protest of Bush's use of illegal wiretaps. More cards will fall.]
Tags: Article 2, Constitution, wiretap, Bush, freedom of information act, executive order 13233, Republican, Nixon, Watergate, impeachment

Bush vows more eavesdropping in spite of the fact that its against the law but that's not stopped him before.

The spying program, under which the National Security Agency was given the authority to intercept the communications without court approval, was first disclosed by the New York Times last Friday. A 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, makes it illegal to spy on U.S. citizens in the United States without court approval.

Alberto Gonzales, he of the pro-torture stance and without even the tiniest shred of public credibility, has defended his master's decree (I can imagine Bush patting his head and telling him he's a good boy afterwards) by saying its helping to keep us safer. Just like torturing people is helping to secure our freedom (and helping to recruit more and more and more people who have nothing but the deepest hatred and loathing for all things American even though most Americans are as appalled by these disgusting creatures posing as our country's leaders) by systemically denying POW's the rights they have according to conventions that the US signed and is supposed to be adhering to. Who's next? Dick Cheney saying he solemnly believes snooping on Americans is the right thing to do and why not let the CIA legally torture detainee's even while Bush says the US doesn't torture POW's.

And, by the way, the Patriot Act has nothing to do with patriotism unless you call the removal of your freedoms some sort of twisted patriotism. Good on the Senate for rejecting and forcing Bush to work on it and not make it the equivalent of a civil rights mudslide.

Bush went on to complain most angrily about the person who leaked the information of him not only intentionally violating the law but doing so more than 30 times since 9/11. Which is, as we know, par for the course, its not the crime being commited that's wrong, its the leak of the news to the media and the country that's wrong. Or so they would have you and me believe. But I don't believe anything they say anymore, they've no credibility with me and I hope they have no credibility with you. And if they do then maybe you should ask yourself why? And if you say 9/11 then maybe you should be reminded that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had NOTHING to do with 9/11.
Tags: invasion of privacy, erosion of rights, Patriot Act, privacy, no credibility, 9/11

or Even Homeless People Send Presents Home at Christmas
Santa Cruz is a haven for "characters", from the ass who wanders (at a pace a snail would laugh at with his ridiculous tiny steps) up and down the Pacific Garden Mall in a women's flower print dress and a tinfoil lined umbrella to the guy who sits on the corner I cross to go to the post office every other day.

And then there's one homeless guy I've seen for the last couple of years. He's a dude without any manners when it comes to social graces, he's walked into my path several times, cut me off in businesses and is, from what I can tell, a fucking dutchbag in need of a skull tap.

The worst part? I know exactly what this asshole stinks like before I get within range of his aura. Its not good, a combination of fermenting body stink, cigarettes, bad weed and general filth.

And I had the misfortune to have to get stuck behind him at the Post Office again, the holiday crowded Post Office, this afternoon. With some a-hole behind me who kept trying to inch his way ahead of me, and in retrospect I should have let him go so he could buffer the stench from the big haired homeless wanker.

I don't get how you could be that unaware of your own massive reakitude that you'd willingly go into a crowded place where you will literally turn stomachs with your stench. 'Tis the season to disgust strangers with your absolute lack of hygiene, tralalalala la la la la.
Tags: homeless, stink, stinky, stinkier, stinkiest, Post Office

Okay, I admit that sometimes a decently funny spam subject line will get me to actually open their stupid spam. The latest winner to slip in for a moment's view before deletion? A single word in the subject line, MASTERDICK! with a nice little breakdown of all the pills they purport to sell and what they'll do for me. Pretty funny.

But does a spam that lives an extra eight seconds have any more real value than spam that's easily identifiable and deletable (yes, folks, the Cheap Drugs xjv subject line may be easy for you to remember and use but its even easier to set up a filter for auto-deletion). My position has not shifted in the slightest, serial spammers should be fed, feet first and live on webcam, into a large chipper/shredder and their remains should be spattered over other spammers as they wait their turn to be stuffed into the shredder. Spammers add nothing, cost billions and are nothing but lazy crooks, at least muggers have to get up off their asses and go outside.
Tags: spam, crooks, funny subject line

Its not a one shot commercial, I just saw it again and presume that its being shown with greater regularity on channels that I don't watch.

To the tune of Stacey's Mom, a song about an infatuation with a schoolgirl's ridiculously hot mother (I believe played by supermodel Rachel Hunter in the video to excellent effect), a soccer mom type pulls up in her minivan. She's drenched in the rays of the sun and has a whimsical and knowing smile on her face. A flash of the wind blowing her shirt open at her belly for some reason, I'd make guesses as to the symbolism but its a freaking soda commercial.

As the boys, a group of boys around 12-14 years of age, with bikes, skateboards and other boy stuff, catch site of the mom, she clicks the remote and the minivan's side door opens up to reveal a glowing from below ice chest filled with Dr. Pepper. Of course, it might as well be filled with crack pipes and meaty druglord style lines of coke for the message its sending.

The boys go wild. They drop everything, literally. Bikes fall over, skateboards tumble to the ground in the mad dash for the goodies in the van. The final scene is of these boys, all right at about boob height coincidentally, milling around the mom who's got a very pleased with herself look on her face like a shepherd tending her flock of nubile young, impressionable boys.

Yep, its kind of creepy.
Tags: Dr Pepper, Mrs. Robinson, creepy marketing

Okay, so after screwing with this stupid Linksys wireless router for a day and a half and not doing anything that I haven't already done three times, it decides that it will start to function properly again.

Somehow I'm not made any more confident by this stupid Linksys router's magical recovery and I think I will be looking into replacing it. Especially since it has never played well with my Tivo wireless USB adapter (which is made my Linksys so you'd think they'd work well but they do not).

Maybe I'll look into a cable modem and get off the DSL altogether.
Tags: dsl, modem, recovery, magic

How can you tell when your wireless router is crapping out? You can't, you'll just spend many, many hours trying to get the piece of shit to work when its done. Or maybe you can and they just don't want to tell you how to check.

I don't know but I spent my night last night trying to revive a stupid Linksys Wireless G router/gateway. To no avail.

And I love that a good portion of the help files on located on their website. Which makes no damned sense at all, if you can get access to the website then you don't need the friggin' support.

Anyway, I've got instructions printed out and several tacks to take on this piece of shit router. And if they don't work then I'm going to smash it to little pieces with my mini-sledge. That will, at least, be satisfying as I nearly through the fucking thing through a wall this morning.
Tags: tech, wireless, Linksys

Bush takes responsibility for invasion intelligence, sort of. He still says it was the right thing to do but that the intel used to coerce the nation into war was bad and that's his fault.

Which isn't really news aside from his admission of screwing up but then he deflects that responsibility on the intelligence community which isn't really taking responsibility at all, is it? Taking reponsibility means resigning in disgrace and apologizing to each of the families of the 2100+ US soldiers (and many, many more Iraqis) who have died because of your "faulty" intelligence.
Tags: Bush, lied about Iraq

Because Intelligent Design supporters have no arguments that do not presuppose the existence of the supernatural (pretty much the antithesis of a scientific theory) they appear to have to resort to violence as a means of getting their point across.

The latest battle for the minds of kids in school was recently waged in Kansas where a Professor assaulted by angry intelligent design supporters even after he'd already withdrawn plans for discussing ID in a religious studies course.

Why religious studies? Because ID isn't science and has no business being taught alongside evolution. Its farcical to be forced to consider a system of belief that begins with the conclusion that God exists because of the complexity of the universe. Sorry but that shit might have worked when the majority of people couldn't read or reduce arguments to their logical premises and, sometimes, illogical conclusions.

Nope, instead of rational debate, we now have religious vigilantes attacking people who speak out against their holy theory (no wait, that's holey theory). How very Christian of them to use violence to get their point across. Same thing with Al Sharpton preying on poor people and being the frontman for a con-game scheme that charges more than 370% annual interest on lame ass loans.
Tags: intelligent design, false science, assault, religion, Christian values

Do you know how many cellphones were discarded in the US last year?

Did you guess 130 million cellphones? Many of these cellphones end up in landfills where the lead, mercury and cadmium eventually leach into the soil and groundwater causing contamination problems.

Until the rest of the country catches up with California and its new(ish) legislation regarding recycling of cellphones, it would be best to use CollectiveGood, cell mobile phone recycling to help cut down on the massive pile of useless cellphones. And that would be a good start.
Tags: recycle, cellphone, california

Sometimes I hate being in my line of work and sometimes I just dislike the reality of a business. And then, there are other times when its mildly bittersweet when someone loses their job. And then I think about the holidays that are coming up and how much extra free time the newly dismissed would have to get things done.

One of our sales guys was let go last week. For a variety of reasons but the main one being that he just wasn't producing. Of course, its hard to do the job under the best of circumstances but its even harder to do it when you have a complete dutchbag for a manager who thinks shouting and threatening are perfectly acceptable management styles.

There's something cold about firing someone three weeks before Christmas. Not that I'm a religious person by any stretch but its a tough time to have your livelihood taken away from you. Though I have noted that this is definitely a case of better him than me and yes, that does make me feel a little guilty and a little dirty.

But then I think about the kind of person the recently dismissed was and then I realize that there is a reason that bad things happen to fairly bad people. I can't get into the sorts of things this person did, not only because its rude to slag on people who aren't around anymore but I also need to maintain a wall between work and blog. Suffice it to say that, upon reflection, he got off easy.
Tags: youre fired, sales, shitheel, Christmas, unemployed

Note, I am a death penalty supporter. You may not be and that's your choice but I am and I have very strong reasons for being one. Skip this post if death penalty discussions elicit irrational opinion holding or fury or whatever. You are entitled to your opinion, just not here.
I'm working on a larger post about capital punishment in relation to Stanley "Tookie" Williams' imminent execution for the brutal murders of 4 people some 26 years ago.

There's alot of rhetoric flying around about this case and the chances that Governator Asshat will grant clemency.

Well, I'm a Californian and I do not see any reason why Tookie should be granted clemency for his crimes. He killed four people and laughed about it afterwards. Nothing he has done before or after can relieve him of that burden of guilt. He ended four lives by his own hand. Locking him up forever isn't a solution, its letting nature take its course when he ended four lives. Not one, four.

Sorry, Stanley, if your rehabilitation and redemption are truly real then you will be going to a better place (if you buy into that mythology). But I cannot understand how you could be redeemed for a crime you say you didn't commit? I don't understand how you can be rehabilitated for murder if you're still breathing. How is that justice? How is that fair?

I've yet to hear how allowing him to live is in, in any way, just for the families of those four people he murdered. Why should he be allowed to live? Why should he be allowed to live out his days in prison when he took away four people's rights to live out their days with their families and loved ones.

By the way, there are fears of riots in Southern California if Governor Asshat doesn't grant clemency for him. Which makes absolutely no sense. He's guilty, that's no in question here, the question is whether he dies now or later for his crimes.

[Update: Clemency denied.]
Tags: execution, death penalty, clemency, murder, Stanley, Tookie, Williams,

Yes, last night was the season finale of Survivor: Guatemala and it was a good one. Aside from the mildly anti-climactic ending where it was all but assured that Danni was going to win because Steph had stabbed too many people in the back.

Danni was my second choice to win but Gary had been voted out several weeks ago and he was no longer an option. So I was happy about the outcome. Even more so in that the world got to see, again, what a freakin' tool Judd is/was/and always shall be.

And, sorry Rafe, I'm glad you weren't a factor, you're syrupy sweet personality starts to get kind of annoying after a while. Danni made the right choice in taking Steph. But then she made the very, very wrong choice in the collagen injection in her lips or whatever the hell she did between the jungle and the tv set because damn if her lips didn't take on a life of their own. Weird.
Tags: Survivor, finale, Danni

Recently Chinless Joe Lieberman, the most Republican of all the Democrat Senators, spoke out (yeah, that's a story in and of itself) and said

"It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he'll be commander-in-chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril."

Now, what does ol' Chinless Joe mean? He means that the Democrats, ostensibly his own party, should shut up and just enjoy the ride that George W. Bush and his crony's are forcing upon this nation and the world.

Mr. Lieberman, you are a traitor to the ideals of democracy if you want to stifle debate. You are a seditionist of the highest order if you are truly telling the Democratic party to shut up and show unflinching support for an administration that has engaged in partisan attacks from day one, has dismissed dissenters rather than encourage an open and transparent government and has a long history of extremely questionable decision making on flimsy pretenses. Mr. Lieberman, you are a disgusting and filthy excuse for a Democrat and I will no longer refer to you as a part of my party. You're a pre-jump Zell Miller without the passion of your convictions to step over the aisle.

I can only hope that your constituents see you for the Republican in Democrat's clothing that you are they summarily relieve you of your duties so you can become a full-time GOP pole-smoker without the distraction of the Senate.

Are you outraged by Lieberman's public call to silence opposition to the Bush agenda? I sure as hell am and I signed the petition calling on Joe to explain himself at Democracy For America. I'd encourage you to as well.
Tags: Joe Lieberman is a traitor to the Democratic, party and America, Democracy for America

Not sure why but my hit meter's been spinning rather rapidly all weekend. Around four to six times as much traffic as on a normal weekend. Which is fine and all, I mean I like the company and all.

The funny thing is that I thought the IP universe would break the 300,000 hit mark late next week rather than later tonight or, most likely, tomorrow morning.

Anyway, its not really all that interesting except to me. By the way, 85%+ of the visitors are using Internet Explorer right, FireFox used to get up to 16-18% but not since the Wal-Mart is Pure Evil page became a blog. So, thanks for stopping by, don't forget to say hi to our sponsors and leave a note if you feel so compelled.
Tags: hit meter, 300,000, wal-mart is pure evil

So last night's Survivor episode was the car winning episode that is the kiss of death for the winner, in ten seasons the winner of the car has never won the game. So the producers of the show offered Zookeeper Cindy, the one who won the challenge, an option out of the curse of the car.

If she chose to, she could have given up her car and given a brand new car to the other four players. Two of which had no cars of their own and one of which had a son who was coming of driving age.

From a game strategy standpoint it was a no-brainer. From a Utilitarian standpoint, it was a no-brainer. But from Cindy's viewpoint, she was a strong competitor and would overcome the curse so she took the car and that was it. But the worst part of it was that, after the night away with lots of food and a nice place to sleep, she wouldn't shut up about her new car and how fantastic it was. She was crowing about her new car to the same people she had been given the option of giving a new car to but didn't seem to grasp that she was rubbing their faces in it.

Which kind of tells me that she's a dipshit. If you're that incapable of recognizing that you're being an asshole then you don't deserve to be there at all.

And, not surprisingly, she was the next one voted out.

She could have played it totally differently and ended up in a better place WITH her new car. But she was stupid about it and then couldn't shut up about it. And then tried to make Rafe the bad guy in a last ditch attempt to save herself. Oops.

She could have talked about her present car being a deathtrap or something. Or that the new car would be wonderful to be able to give to her mom who was driving around in a deathtrap. Or she should have just given up her car so that the four others could get one and pretty well be assured of making it into the final four.

So, Cindy, was your $30,000 car worth losing out on a chance for a million? I hope so because that's what it cost you.
[Update: I forgot the other argument we had for her keeping the car, if her current car really is a total shit bucket then I can understand her keeping it. But, even so, it was a dumb move as you can buy a rather nice ride with a million bucks and she knew the odds were against her if she kept it.]
Tags: Survivor, reality tv, bad strategy

Mark Morford's latest column, Long Needles For Large Butts discusses the cultural changes that are having to come about because America is, by and large and larger, getting fat, fat, fat. Fat enough to need a longer needle to get through all that extra ass padding.

He links to a USA Today story about airlines having to spend considerably more on fuel because of fatness. I heard an anecdotal tale about a co-worker's flight where they had to get out the seat belt extender to get it across this guy's enormous gut.

America is becoming soft, fat and ripe for assault. We're complacent and more than happy to let others do for us what we can and should be doing for ourselves. Its easier to sit and watch The Biggest Loser (which is among my favorite shows for a variety of reasons but not the least of which is the overwhelmingly positive environment in which people learn how to live a healthier lifestyle) and gobble a family sized bag of pork rinds and comment on how they're still fat instead of getting up off your ass and doing something about your own corpulence.

Corpulence, its a beautiful word really. Of course, it means a great big fat ass and all but its a lovely word, has a nice pace and harmonic component.

And then, last night on the news, they announced that Americans are healthier than ever because the average lifetime now lasts 77.6 years. Which has little to do with health and alot more to do with medical advances. America is well on its way to become the land of the fat and the home of the corpulent.

Don't forget that this year's NFL Super Bowl is Super Bowl XL and that's about the most appropriate one yet.
Tags: fat, fatter, fattest, needle, The Biggest Loser

A brilliantly simple concept will allow anyone who needs (a small amount of) power to generate their own just by walking around while wearing this special backpack. By mounting the pack's load on springs connected to a rack and pinion device that is, in turn, connected to a small generator, the wearer's natural walking motion can generate up to 7.4 watts of power. Plenty enough to keep your Nofriendo DS charged. Or your sniper rifle's night scope.

The bonus? By having the pack's load on springs, the backpack is more comfortable than a traditional backpack too.
Tags: generator, backpack, battery, energy, conversion

'Tis the season for everyone selling anything to proclaim that their merchandise is THE PERFECT GIFT. Even if its a toilet scrubber or suppositories. Or, no joke, a gift card to 7-11. Nothing says I love you like a gift card you bought five minutes before arriving at your in-laws for Christmas.

Have I mentioned lately that the crassness of Christmas is one of the main reasons I thoroughly hate this fucking holiday? Well now I have. And I'm sure there are a couple more bah humbug posts to come in the next few weeks as the incessant Christmas "cheer" and music starts to infect my mind.

And if you'll excuse me, I'm heading out to buy my wife a $5000 diamond necklace and new Lexus to PROVE that I love her. Nothing says love like massive debt, does it?

The only good thing about Christmas this year is that Graydon should have a blast.
Tags: crass, Christmas, commercialism

I was riding home from work last night and, while sitting and waiting for a light to change so I could get on the highway, I noticed a truck with the name of some mobile car service on the side and exhaust pipes pointing straight up so it looked like a mini-semi.

And I thought to myself that it was kind of cool truck. Until I noticed the bumper sticker the owner had affixed to the window right behind the driver. It read

Looking for your cat? Try looking under my tires.

Now, I know there are people that don't like cats in the world, heck I'm allergic to them (though I still like cats alot). I know there are people that think they're barely better than vermin. But, I also know that if that asshole came to my house to work for me and I saw that hateful crap on his truck, I'd tell him to leave. There are plenty of people who could do the same job that do not advertise their disgusting feelings about other people's pets. It just sort of amazes me that people would think that's acceptable behaviour when they work with strangers all the time.

It reminded me of Bob Parsons, the asshole who runs GoDaddy.com, cross posting his personal beliefs that the Gitmo prisoners and terrorist POW's should be tortured MORE from his personal blog to the GoDaddy.com business home page. Its just inappropriate and incredibly stupid.

How would you feel if that jerk came to your house to work on your car two days after some prick ran over your cat? Exactly. Why support people who hate?
Tags: hate, cat, killer, rude and stupid

Makes you just want to go and sign up right now, doesn't it? The thought of some asshole screaming in your face, getting his spit all over you to get his point about the proper way to make your bed or the right way to shine your shoes home. Is it any wonder why the military is having so much trouble making their recruitment numbers with these lovely gentlemen out there spreading their high decibel love?

Aside from the whole people will be doing their damndest to kill you aspect, the training aspect of people screaming in my face relentlessly just doesn't really compel me to want to sign up or encourage others to do so.

It's nice too, can you see the fury in that drill sergeant's eyes? Can you see how much he'd love to just kick the snot out of that lowly puke who can't make his bed right or didn't have his belt buckle shined up just right. You can't let anything slide because you just know how important being able to make your bed is when you're in a firefight.

You know what would help the recruiting effort? If the kids of some high profile chickenhawks signed up. Let's see the Bush twins in uniform, let's see Dick's kids on the frontline, let's see Karl Rove at basic training (and he could sure use the exercise the jowly asshole).
Tags: military, recruiting, scream

I just chaught the tail end of Monster Garage where they were having folks around the country with monster somethings perform challenges to win schwag (nice sets of sweet tools).

The last one they had was the world champion punkin' chunker. They launched a pumpkin three quarters of a mile two years ago with an air powered cannon.

And, for Monster Garage, they were shooting at stacked up cars about a hundred and fifty feet away. The pumpkins were going straight through the sides of cars. No wait, think about that for a second. These pumpkins were going so fast they went right through the metal side of a van and out of the other side. And when one hit the door pillar it was like a grenade went off. The door was destroyed and the left part of the dashboard was gone with wires and metal jutting out. Un-freaking-believable.

And the guys riding the buzzbomb jet bike were kind of cool in a 31 miles per hour top speed kind of way with a home built jet engine on a stripped bike frame. Interesting and the fire was pretty and I liked seeing the glowing jet in the night shots.

But when I lay me down to sleep tonight. I will dream of punkin' chucking and the wonderful things I could shoot a pumpkin through. I wish they made a portable version. And I wish I had an mpeg of it.
Tags: pumpkin chunking, punkin' chunking, air cannon, monster garage

Need cash fast? Own your car? Take a loan against it and don't forget to pay it back right quick at their ridiculous interest rate (The interest rate? Try a whopping 372 percent per year) or the buggers will repossess your car and you'll still owe them money. Its about the sickest and most disgusting thing I've read today.

Al Sharpton should be so thoroughly ashamed of himself for signing his X to this newest and ever lower predatory tactic. Car Title Loans the Latest Predatory Lending Tactic.

From the article, “Title loans trap borrowers in perpetual debt through unaffordable balloon payments, high interest costs, and the threat of repossession,” said Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection for Consumer Federation of America.

Al Sharpton, you should go into your bathroom right now and stuff your head in the toilet and drown yourself, you contemptible scumbag. You are beyond grotesque, you are a mockery of decency and integrity and you should be put down like a rabid dog (but slower and with alot more electroshock to the balls). Look at that photo of this prick and tell me he wouldn't mug you while you were unconscious and probably feel you up while he's at it.
Tags: disgusting, title loan, scumbag, Al Sharpton, preying on the poor, predation

I don't know who Vincent Gallo is (and his IMDB profile didn't help though he appears to specialize in making awful movies and being a drunk) but he's certainly got a rather large idea of how important he is. Otherwise, why would he be offering to sell his sperm for a million bucks? Oh yeah, if you need him to inject it into you, that'll be another $500,000 (and no, there are no gaurantees of mutual satisfaction but I'm guessing he thinks women have orgasms just being near him).

Anyway, want to pay a million bucks for his wank juice? Scroll down to the bottom of this page, Vincent Gallo Merchandise | Miscellaneous, PayPal the money on over and then brace yourself. And, oh boy, he's got an 8 inch penis! Woohoo, but he's not into mulatto children so people of color are not invited. Though he does offer a $50,000 discount to any woman who can prove she's a natural blond and blue eyed babe. And the purchaser cannot use his name.

Um yeah, Vincent Gallo? You're a collosal dutchbag. Have fun wanking into a specimen jar and hawking it. I wonder how much you have to pay him to shave before he does you the honor of having sex with you? Or how much to have him shower? Or brush his teeth?
Via the far too fantastic for words, Gallery of the Absurd.
Tags: sperm for sale, gigolo, Vincent Gallo, racist, asshat

Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project and asks for a song or artist to build from, then builds you a personal radio station based on that input and will start streaming new music to your browser, just like that.

Cool beans and a great way to find new music that's along the lines of music that you already know and like. Just don't use it if you're on a skinny pipe in your office as that'll tend to piss folks off.

I punched in "Pablo Picasso" (which is actually titled Nite Becomes Day) by Citizen Cope and am listening to the first suggestion, "Deep" by Citizen Cope. I'm curious as to where it would go if I just let it play and play. I'd also like to see the playlist at some point, not sure if that's built in or I've gotta note songs as they play.

But its pretty cool. Even if it doesn't have a back button, just a pause and jump forward next to a volume slider.
Tags: pandora, internet radio, personalized

USB Powered Air Darts. Can I get a hell yeah? Did you notice the firing mechanism and aiming is controlled by your mouse? As in, remote firing platform?

I can't be the only juvenile mind in the house.

Because of CHiPs I have completely lost the ability to look at anything with CHP on it and not think of Ponch and Jon riding the highways savin' lives, riding motorcycles and scoring with the ladies (you did know that Erik Estrada launched the teeth whitening industry, don't you?).

Warning, Fanboy post dead ahead, veer off, take evasive action or just settle in for impact.
Last night was among the most satisfying Survivor's yet. I particularly like it when the bully gets blindsided and tossed off the island. Judd, the liar who lies to himself about his lying, got kicked out and its really about time. The guy used his size to intimidate the other players and, upon his dismissal, he showed his true colors by wishing that a crocodile bit every one of the players who was left.

Boo hoo, you big baby. Try not to be such an asshole to people and you won't get blindsided. Try not to lie like a rug, get caught at it and then say again just a day or two later that you've never lied. Good luck with that cognitive dissonance. And I'm sure you're bright and sunny attitude and grace in defeat will open many doors in Hollywood, maybe we'll see you as one of the soon to be executed Sopranos. But I kind of doubt we'll see anything of you again after this season's over.

And now they're down to five, four women and Rafe. Danni's probably my odds on favorite to win because she reminds me a little of my sister and she's got a great smile. Steph's the most dangerous one left now and, if she doesn't get immunity next time, they would do well to vote her out sooner rather than later. And, if Steph gets immunity, they should boot Rafe as he's won too many immunity challenges and is a serious threat. Lydia's likely to be carried along now because she'd be a pretty easy target in the final two. Cindy was just cast out into the cold with the loss of her main ally, that and they've been showing more of her comments on the side that kind of show she's sort of a mean person (denigrating other people's intelligence publicly is an asshole thing to do). Rafe is dangerous only because he's a pretty nice guy and would be tough to beat in the end. He's also the sole male left which makes him a target if the women get a girl power wild hair going.

I'm glad Judd's gone though, he was an ass and proved it with his parting comments.
Tags: Survivor, true colors, Judd

In the time before the War on Terror, I would have thought nothing at all of a box sitting on top of the mailbox in which I'd dropped two movies to go back to NetFlix.

But this is a whole new era and I approached that mailbox with some substantial trepidation about the non-descript brown box sitting on top of the blue mailbox. It appeared to have been left there by the sender with proper postage but why would he have not taken it to the Post Office a few hundred feet down the street? Who would leave their package on top of the mailbox where it could be stolen or thrown into the street easily?

One of the unreported casualties of the War on Terror is the loss of the ability to trust in your fellow man to not leave a bomb on top of a mailbox. And, in some quarters, that is a defeat all on its own.
Tags: terror

Imagine my joy upon awaking this morning (on the couch as I wanted to give my kidneys a rest from the kicking toddler who loves to sleep in the big bed) and seeing the world covered in a wet grey blanket of rain and fog.

But, being the solid dog owner guy I am, we got up and headed down to the slough for a walk in the rain (I'm not completely crazy as I had my morning coffee with me to help fend off the chill). I knew it would be a short walk this morning because I just didn't have any interest in getting soaked.

So we were working our course rapidly, trying to get Nande's ya-yas out as quickly as possible. I didn't expect anyone to come through the slough in the rain but two of the regular boys came pedalling through on their bikes.

And that's when Nande became the unintentional asshole. When they approached, she charged at them to say hello but was an idiot, ran right in front of one of the boy's front wheels and brought him down. On to the wet, muddy ground.

So incredibly not cool that I bet there was steam coming off the top of my head. And that was the end of the walk. Nande and I came back up, she was sent to lay on her bed until I decided she was ready to have some freedom again.

I'm incredibly angry with her for being so stupid (yes, I'm aware that its stupid to remain pissed off at her when she's already forgotten what she did to make me pissed off and I'm trying to let it slide off of me but its a little stickier this morning because she could have, unintentionally, hurt that kid).

We need to move to a place where I can walk her without having to worry about other people getting in her way. She's not a mean dog in any way but she is incredibly obtuse as to the consequences of her actions at times. This morning was one of those times. I'm just glad the kid was alright and, the next time we're down there, she's going to be kept under a much, much tighter rein.
Tags: bad dog, rain, takedown