2006: The Year in Review

Wow!!! Another year almost gone.  I swear they go quicker the older one gets.  This was my first official year living in my newly adopted State of Tennessee (I've already addressed this with humorous resulting comments in an earlier post).  So far most of my year was spent on various house projects.  Tile in the Master Bath, digging the Once and Future Pond (which is still a shallow hole in the ground), redoing the fence (still needs finishing), stripping wallpaper and painting (painted the living room, hall and part of the dining room) and that's it.  Wow....I'm truly a Homeowner.  Locally the housing development and retail center that were being built when we moved in is about done.  The retail, Providence Marketplace, has all of it's big anchor stores finished and opened.  The areas with the smaller stores are done, but all of the tenants have yet to move in.  There's about 25% of them in and open for business.  The restaurants that are there are all open now, so there is a choice other than Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesday or (Gaaahhhh!!!!) Waffle House.  We have Chik-Fil-A (I still haven't been), Wendy's, Red Robin (yay!!!), O'Charleys and Logans.  The housing portion is mostly done too.  We drove through there the other day and most of the neighborhoods are filled with residents.  All of these improvements have run some of the Rednecks out of town....darn.  There was a bar called "The Country Pub" which had the same 4 pickups parked outside of it all the time.  It's closed now.  The Music City Star, a commuter railway, stops in our City now on it's way to Nashville.  All these improvements make me glad we moved where we did.  All the Suburban sprawl makes me feel at home.  Statewide we had one of the nastiest Senate Races.  Both sides stooping to negative campaign ads just to make the other look the fool.  Nationwide the voters revolted and put the Democrats in power.  I guess even the staunchest Republicans couldn't stomach another year of a bunch of parrots.  Personally my relationship with my Step Kids has grown more solid.  My oldest has wonderful things to say about me; thank you Amanda.  My boy has become a good friend and I've become someone he can talk to.  My youngest is still my pal, even though she is 12 and her Mom and StepDad embarrass her now.  Cat and I have gotten into a wonderful routine in our lives, and we love it.  It's nice to be able to just sit with someone and talk about anything and nothing. My Grandson is getting bigger every day.  He's such a nut at 3.  My folks back home are doing good too.  Dad will be 68 come March, and the Doctors say he's as healthy as a horse.....makes me feel better.  Mom's doing well too.  Sis changed careers and is much happier and has less stress in her life than she did before.  My friends are doing great too.  Brian and Chrissy moved back to San Jose from Hawaii and Bri is going for his Phd in psychology.  Mike and Anne had their first child in August.  The GOG, as the Discourser likes to put it, is doing good too.  Except for Zeb who after only a month or two of marriage got a crappy surprise when he went home; the new wife took her crap and left leaving a lawyer bearing papers in her place.  Zeb seems to be doing okay though.  Jamie and Liz got married finally.  We always knew they would.  Duff is up in Oregon attending college trying to make something of his life...good for you Duff.  The GOG is still rolling dice every now and again, and I miss them.  Ah well.  The outlook for the new year seems to be on the upswing.  Cat is shooting for getting her Real Estate license soon and when we are able, we will be planning a trip out to Cali....I'll let you all know when I'm coming.

Movie Reviews

Time for the latest movie reviews.

1. Eragon.  A real good movie.  Lots of fun, and now my Step-Daughter and Wife want a pet Dragon.

2. Wickerman.  A cross between M. Night Shamalamadingdongs The Village, an Amazon Village, and a Lesbian Ren Faire.  I thought it was supposed to be a supernatural whodunit mystery thing.   Nope.  Don't bother it's just to odd, and not good odd but makes no sense odd.

3. Jet Li's Fearless.  Supposedly his last Martial Arts movie.  Real good.  Lots of action and Asian Mysticism.  Kind of a Hamletesque ending.  It's awesome watching Jet Li match his Wushu style against: bare knuckle boxing, saber fencing, English Pike, and a Samurai.  Great scene where he fights the Samurai with a three piece rod vs. a Katana.

 

We also rented "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Miami Vice".  From everything I've read about Little Miss Sunshine it's supposed to be good odd and very funny.  Miami Vice I will go into with low expectations......I like Jamie Foxx...he's gotten to be a good dramatic actor.

Christmas

Well Christmas is over.  We had a good one this year.  Cathy, Liv and I opened our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve morning then went to my In-Laws for dinner and to celebrate the season.  On Christmas Day, Liv's donor of genetic material was scheduled to have her for the day, plus the coming week because she is off of school.  We had a good Day all in all.  Liv was happy and excited as usual.  I understand now why my Folks never cared that we gave them anything at all for Christmas.  It's the joy of watching your Child's eyes light up as they open each gift and their stockings as well.  We got Liv so many stocking stuffers, she had to have two stockings this year!!  My Grandson was the funniest though.  He is three and he kept asking "Can I open my presents now?"  Even though he had been told that he had to wait for everyone to get there and until dinner was done.  His response to this "I don't want to wait."  He got more cars and trucks...just what he needs!!!  We got him some books and a set of magnetic building blocks....there are circles and straight posts that connect via magnet to each other......very cool.  The one gift I got for Cathy that I hoped would spark her creative side more did.  I got her a set of acrylic paints....she's very happy because now she can paint anywhere (as opposed to oil paints where you have to have a studio or paint outdoors because the fumes will kill you and everyone else around you.  I've seen a couple of her paintings and she is good.  I want to see more though.  I know it relaxes her and takes her mind off of the day's stressors.   Besides, we need some artwork to go over the mantel. 

So Long Joe we will miss you.

Joe Barbera has died at 95. The second half of Hanna-Barbera group that brought us some of the best cartoons in the world. The Flintsones, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear...the list goes on. We will miss you Joe.

High School Sports

I love sports as much as the next person, but don't believe that they should have such a high priority in our lives as they do.  Take some small Towns in this fine country of ours for example:  High School Football is THE biggest deal in these towns.   It's HUGE and everyone makes a big deal over it.  Why????  I can see if your kid is on the team, but half the time the people that crowd the stands don't have any kids.  What's the draw???  It's a bunch of teenagers playing football for Christ sake....big freaking deal!!!!  Sports is so popular, that some schools instead of cutting sports programs, cut the Arts and other such things that will actually help the Children later on it life when they get into the real world.   God forbid we cut the football team....let's get rid of the band.  Let's get rid of the drama class (which can help Children who go into the business world with public speaking, etc).  Unless you are phenomenal, being good at sports in High School gets you no where in the real world.  You don't hear "hey let's hire Billy for VP because he was the QB at is High School."  Sorry doesn't happen.  Out here in Tennessee it's a big deal.  I still don't get it.  I guess it's hard for me to see the importance coming from the San Francisco Bay Area.  We had 4-5 High Schools all within a few miles of each other.  Honestly,  no one cared.  And how can you care when you have the 49ers, the Raiders, the Giants, A's, Sharks, and the Warriors all within an hour from each other. 

 

 

 

Airsoft Whiners

As some of you may know, I am involved in a sport/hobby called Airsoft. We run around in camo with realistic looking bb guns shooting at each other. Kind of like playing "guns" when I was a kid except that our "guns" cost a lot more. I play at a field in Lebanon, TN called the Bad Karma Airsoft Field which is owned and operated by the Bad Karma Airsoft Team. A bunch of nice guys who are all honorable players; alot like the people I used to play with back home whenever Roundhouse had its "invite" only version of the public games they used to run. These guns are accurate up to a point. The bb's weigh anywhere from .20 grams to .25 grams and are made of plastic. They may travel at speeds up to 400 feet per second or more, but being made of plastic and weighing nothing they are subject to wind and other conditions. Our games are normally played without referees of any kind; it's the "honor" system. If you are hit, it is upon you to indicate you are struck by yelling hit, putting a red rag on your head, and either waiting for a "medic" or getting up and walking to a "respawn" point. At said "respawn" you are only there for 5 minutes then you can get back into the game. Unfortunately like in most sports (cough cough Baseball) you have cheaters. This is not a game you play for points or trophies, it is played for fun. There is a competitive aspect to the game, ie getting your mission completed, but it's generally considered okay if you really don't compete all that hard. Missions may include: search and destroy/rescue, base defense/offense, holding waypoints, etc. As you can see, competitive yes, but easy to be overtaken, shut out, etc, etc. Lately we have been having a few whiners on the field. At the all day game we had in September, I went off on the entire group of people in the one compound where a massive and intensive firefight was taking place. These guns have a motor that drives a piston in them. When one has them up to ones ear, as in the standard firing position for a rifle, then it is hard to hear someone you've just struck with a bb say in a normal tone of voice "hit". These people usually end up bitching and whining saying things like "Stop f**king hitting me I'm hit already!!". I know I usually scream "HIT!!!!" over and over again several times while waving my red rag above my head. The visual cue is what usually gets my opponent to stop shooting me. I heard so much of it I just had to tell the whiners to STFU!!!!! There are times you swear you hit somebody, but because of the above mentioned elements that affect bb flight, you are totally off target. Then there are times where you watch bbs bounce off of someone's goggles and they just ignore them. Not feeling the hit is also a common factor in not calling one's self out. BB's hurt less than paintballs and lose a lot of their kinetic energy over distances. You may be able to hit someone with your gun from 200 feet away, but when it gets to them it has slowed down considerably. Ah well, it's still a fun sport in spite of the whiny idiots we have to deal with.

The new addition has died

Yep, basically after two weeks the little Hamster Flara died. Kind of pisses me off. I mean I know they don't live very long, but 2 years as opposed to two weeks!!!! Apparently according to this Hamster Fanciers website hamsterific.com the bedding we bought from PetSmart may have killed her. I'm going to go visit PetSmart and ream them a new one. We will be burying the tiny critter in the yard.

New Addition to the Family

We have sold the Birds to one of Cathy's Co-Workers who has other Cockatiels and loves them, we were "given" them by Olivia's Grandma in Missouri. Yes, this Woman gave them to my Step-Daughter without calling and asking us if it was okay. Liv showed up at my In-Law's house with two birds in tow. It's better for the Boys as they are in a home where they get paid attention to. With the money from the sale, Liv decided she wanted a Hamster. She picked out the smalles and nicest one out of the bunch and "Flara" the Hamster has a cool cage with climbing tubes, etc. The Cat is still puzzled as to what this little thing is......I hope she doesn't figure out it's prey and try to get into the cage.....

Turkey-The Morning After!!

We went to the In-Laws for Turkey Day and it was a wonderous feast. I miss being with my own Family this year as they were gathered in one of the two usual places: My Cousin Maria's house or my Aunt Sudie's house. Aunt Sudie (Rosaria is her actual name) is my Mom's older sister. They are very close. I practically grew up with my Cousin's Maria and Ron. Maria is married to Todd and they have two boys, Drake and Dominic. Todd, Ron and I would always warm up pre-feast by playing football, etc. Then there would be the obligatory Football games which we would all watch together. Then there would be Todd's Grandpa and his stories. Dominic DiMaggio passed away a few years ago so there are no more stories. That's right, DiMaggio. He was the cousin of Jolting Joe DiMaggio and played Baseball as well. Dominic played on the Oakland Oaks, then on the San Francisco Seals. He would also tell us of his days in the Army back in WWII playing Baseball on the base when he was Stationed in Italy. History Channel has nothing on hearing the first hand account. At the In-Laws house was the usual crowd: Ruby and Doyle (my InLaws), Amanda (the oldest Step-Daughter), Jaylin (the Grandson), Drew (Amanda's Guy), Kevin (my Step-Son) and his Girl Sarah, Bonnie (Cathy's Step-Sister), her boys Shane and Tony, Jennifer Shane's Wife and their Daughter Courtney, Tony's Wife Matea and their Son Braden weren't there as she had to take her Elderly Mother to the Mother's Sister's House, Don (Cathy's Step-Brother whom she isn't overly fond of) his Wife Lisa and their Sons Matt and Mark. Lots of Turkey and Dressing (we Californians call it Stove Top Stuffing, but it's home made out here), mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, corn casserole (oh my God that crap is good...it's like a corn souflee), yeast roles and pumpkin pie. Whew!!! Good stuff. Yesterday I had to shampoo the rug since we are having our first Christmas Party at the house on the 2nd. Today the rug is drying and Panther (the Cat) is having a field day running around the living room devoid of furniture (she is confused as to where the big blue couch thing is....). Tomorrow we pick up the youngest Step-Child, Olivia, who has been off to Mississippi with her Father. I promised her we would do our own Thanksgiving dinner as a Family (Cathy, her and I) next week sometime.

Some people are idiots

So last Friday Sony finally released the PS3. Of course Microsoft released their XBox 360 a year ago and it is slowly eroding Sony's market, but they don't seem to care. Just like when the 360 came out, there were a bunch of folks with no lives who were camped out to purchase one. Now this is the first model of this machine, there are bound to be bugs that no one has discovered yet. There are only 5 games out for it, and if you really want to get your money's worth, you need an HD TV. A good portion of these morons paid 500-600 bucks for one of these things so they could turn around and sell it on ebay for thousands of dollars to bigger idiots willing to pay double or triple for something that will be in stores by the dozens come January. Morons!! The real morons though are the idiots who will pay some ebay guy 9K for one of these things!!!! I think I will wait a few years when they get down to 200 bucks.....the 360 will probably go there first.

Thanksgiving

A truly American Holiday. In the late 1600's a group of Puritanical Brits were angered at the only choice of religions to practice was the Church of England. Hmmm....a Government forcing one kind of religion on it's people.....hmmmm sounds a bit familiar doesn't it???? So these disgruntled Prudes hopped a ship called the Mayflower and set sail West. They landed on Plymouth Rock (Plymouth Rock didn't land on them....) and started a colony (the precursor to the Original 13). The local natives brought them food and helped feed these pale skinned people throughout the Winter. How did they thank them?? By stealing their land and eventually inviting more white people over to steal more land. How do we commemorate this event?? We gather at our Families houses and gorge ourselves on Turkey (BTW, the domestic Turkey is the stupidest animal known to man and deserves to be killed and eaten. Just saying.) but before that we watch a Parade sponsored by a Department Store with giant balloons, then watch football, then comes the eating. After eating, we usually pass out on the couch, unbutton the top button of one's pants, and slip into the bliss of a food coma. Then the next day we wake up at the butt crack of dawn and go shopping. We really don't need to do this, but yet we do. I simply refuse to go to a retail establishment on that day because I have no desire to deal with shoppers turned into agressive, infantile, rude jerks. This would be a day I got arrested for pummeling the crap out of some idiot. Ah the Holidays!!!

Open Letter to the Democratic Party

Now that you have gained control of the House, and it looks like you may have the Senate (at the writing of this, the Montana Dem just won, and the Virginia one is still up in the air but looks like the Dem will win there) please, please don't SCREW IT UP!!!!! Stop being the extreme, lefist whiners that you tend to be. Speaker Pelosi, stop the bickering and learn to get along. And for the love of all that is Holy, please, please tell the following Senators to Shut the Hell Up: Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. Better yet, just gag them now and forbid them to speak ever. Also, if you hope to ever see the Presidency again, DO NOT I repeat DO NOT give Hillary Clinton the nomination. You might have actually won the last time if you had made it the Edwards/Kerry Ticket instead of the other way around. You need to push the Borac Obama/Edwards Ticket, and big time. Or perhaps the Edwards/Clark Ticket. Keep Hillary away from the DNC...for the love of God please!!!!! Take a lesson from Obama and Harold Ford Jr; stop being liberal, and learn to be a Centrist. If you are someone that doesn't just pull out your Democratic Party Reply Flash Cards then you will do well.

Commitment to Sucking....

Yes. I am a Raiders fan. I have been for a very long time. They are my team and I stick by them through thick and thin, but this year.....oh Man!!!! Can we say "Suck"????? I blame Al Davis. He's one of the worst owners in Football (Jerry Jones of the Cowboys is right there with him....). He thinks that all the stuff he knew about Football in the 70's still applies today. WRONG!!!!!! Unfortunately the people close to him who should be telling him to sit down and shut up and just count his cash, don't. They are afraid to. So these "Yes" people sit around and blow sunshine up his butt and he thinks he knows what he's doing. The Raiders average age of their players is like the Giants....Old guys. The Raiders had a chance to get Vince Young from the Longhorns or Jay Cutler from Vanderbilt and opted to get Aarron Brooks. Huh??????? No wonder why they are losing. The Offensive line is made up of Ushers, not Linemen. Every down is like "hey come on in...the QB is right over there...". 9 Sacks or something like that the last game!?!?!?! I made it to the 4th Quarter when it was Whatever to 0 and that was it. I'm hoping they get their heads out of their butts next season.

City vs. Country

Now from my last couple of rants, you may think I just flat out hate all Country folk. Far from it. What I hate is stupidity, closed mindeness and intolerance. That's what I hate. I was born in San Francisco, but only lived there until I was 2. My folks moved to a Suburb called South San Francisco about 25 minutes South. We lived there until I was 4 because Mom was pregnant with my Sis and we needed a house and not an apartment. So we moved to San Bruno, the City directly South of South San Francisco. Now I will admit, I'm a City boy. But not really. I grew up in the 'Burbs. Cookie cutter houses with little sections of greenery called Lawns, sidewalk in front of the house, big back yard, and lots of fences. Each house also had these wonderful little Hedge rows that seperated your house from your neighbors. Everyone knew everyone else, and it was the perfect Nuclear Family community. People went to church, but not the same churches, and no one went around spouting Bible verses all day with every other word coming out of their mouths being "God" or "Jesus". There were lots of cars, and the only wildlife was cats and dogs and the occasional chicken (we had some Latino neighbors). There was a shopping mall about a 10 minute walk from the house. We had a public library and several schools. It was a very blue collar town. No we had our share of morons and idiots, just like everyone else. Yes, life was simple. Now some would say, "But Steve you grew up in a City with lots of advantages....". Sure I did. I grew up in San Bruno. The rich folk lived in the hills and only cared about their part of the City. I lived on "the wrong side of the tracks" as they say. Literally as there were two rail lines that ran past our house. The industrial area of San Bruno was a 5 minute walk from the house, and I lived in the flight path of SFO. Our neighborhood eventually became a ghetto (I moved out as did my folks long before that happened). Now I've always liked living with people next to me. I've always liked having a fence between me and my neighbors. I believe in the adage "good fences make good neighbors." Would I love a lot of land? Of course, but I would landscape the crap out of it, and build a huge house on it. It wouldn't just sit there. Could I live in the country? Not really. In the country, if you aren't raising your own food, you have to go get it from somewhere. This usually means making a trek to the next town (a trek of a good long distance) to shop. Now I know all Country folks aren't slack jawed yokels. They live simple lives; much like I did in the Burbs that I grew up in. There are sterotypes, that unfortunately are truly represented in both areas. Take my buddy Ricky Bobby from Algood. I equated Algood and Cookeville with San Bruno. Both are Cities (even though those that live in the County section of town sometimes think it's the Country) where there are schools and a University. Yet there are slews of people like Ricky Bobby. He went to school, he had every opportunity to become someone, yet he chose to be lazy and not bother to pay attention in class, etc. Hey chose to become a Southern Stereotype. My Wife grew up in Algood....she is intelligent, a much more creative writer than I will ever be, is a wonderful artist, has a great eye for artistic things (you should see her photography and scrapbooking layouts....). She went to the same schools as Ricky Bobby, grew up with some of the same people, yet turned out to be a Cultured Human Being. You should meet her Mom. My Mother-in-Law is an intelligent, Cultured Human Being as well. That's the other Southern Stereotype; the honorable, cultured types. They chose to be Civilized. They know how to use punctuation when typing; and use good grammar as well. The people like RB who choose to become dumb hicks are the people I honestly feel sorry for. You could have risen above it all, but you chose not too. I could have followed in my Father's footsteps and become a Teamster; I didn't. Not that there was anything wrong with being a Teamster, I just wanted to do something else. We as Human Beings have freewill. Our destiny is not set by God or economic status. We decided who we are going to become. Just because you grow up in the Ghetto doesn't mean you have to become a Gang Banger........it's a hard choice not to go that route, but it's a choice you can make.

I love when people prove me right....

So this is a comment on my blog entry on my year living in the State of Tennessee.....Please note the lack of punctuation, horrible spelling and the fact that this Backwards Hick has me mistaken for someone else.........Now you know why I'm glad we moved from Algood.......allow me to deconstruct and translate for you....

I know this guy whats up steve you sure acted like you liked us sorry you felt that way i know you have a bad coccain habbit and we didnt want you around us while you were high is that why you hate us so bad see drugs do mess you up and i hope you find a place in your heart for god we know you and your family needs you to get clean i moved here from out of state to algood like you and i feel that algood is the home i never had i like having my church and the good people that go to church with me and my family ive got friends that i trust not people like you that judge us for how we live what do you want me to be sorry for saying i like this good ole boy system i wont i havnt met anyone that i havnt liked in algood yet and that little police department that closes at 10 does its job just fine it serves and protect its just to bad they didnt get you with a little coke on you and then you could have got the rehab you needed and as far as that goes how about those nights where you were so high that you beat your girlfriend up whos the good ole boy she still got that scar on her kneck

So Ricky Bobby here thinks I'm someone who hung out with a bunch of Hillbillies in Algood and was high on "cocain" all the time. (There's an e at the end of that RB.....Cocaine...see). Now Ricky Bobby here thinks I "hate" them. Such a strong word. I hate Hitler. I hate Kim Jong Il. I don't hate backwards, Hillbilly, Rednecks. I feel sorry for them actually. There is so much more to life than Budweiser and Nascar and The Vols......I've met my share of "simple" Country folks who are intelligent and can carry on a conversation; not a lot, but some. Now I feel sorry for Ricky Bobby here if he thinks Algood is the "home he never had"......Wow...you like your City being run by Cronyism??? I sure don't. Oh and Ricky Bobby, yes I'm going to judge you for how you live.....you and people like you have been judging me and my Home State and my Home Town for years. Hurts when the shoes on the other foot doesn't it? I lived in the SF Bay Area for 40 years and because of a vocal and visual minority I've been judged by every out of Stater I have ever spoken with (my Wife and a few others are exceptions to this of course.). I don't give a rats ass about whether you apologize for the way you live or not Ricky Bobby; if you had read my whole post you would have realized I don't try and change the way people are, I just tolerate you for your differences and leave you be. There's this thing called the First Amendment which says I can say whatever I want about who, what or where. Just like you did. Hell, I've even given your opinions a public showing so they could be heard. See, the First Amendment at work. Nice huh? Oh and Ricky Bobby, I have a Wife.....not a Girlfriend. If you had read the entire post you'd have known that. BTW (that's short for by the way...just to help you out there Ricky Bobby) I've never touched Cocaine (notice the e again...) or any illegal controlled substance in my life. Oh, I don't know if you've notice either Ricky Bobby, all these little commas and periods and use of Capital letters to start sentences; that's called PUNCTUATION......use it. It's your friend.

That Old Time Religion

In my last post I mentioned "my attitudes" on Religion. I will expand upon that comment and explain just what those attitudes are. To simplify, I am more Spiritual than I am Religious; there is a difference. As a Spiritual person I believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Heaven and Hell and all the rest that goes with it. I believe there is a hierarchy in both realms with Guardians who watch over us. Most of my Guardians are in Heaven.....there was some Mafioso in my Family background, and they may or may not be in Heaven. I've mentioned before about "Dead Italian Relatives" who I know watch out for me. I feel their prescence in as much as anyone can. I believe that what you send out, you get back in return. Essentially the Eastern aspect of Karma. (My Karma just ran over my Dogma....) I've always tried to treat people the way I've wanted to be treated. I take folks at face value, and do not try and change their lives or opinions. I don't force my moral values on others either. I may not understand certain lifestyles: Homosexual, swingers, open marriages, polyamory....but I don't try and change these people's way of life. If it works for them, and both parties involved (or all parties in the case of some) are okay with it, then who am I to tell them they are wrong? I wouldn't want anyone telling me my relationship with my Wife is wrong now would I? I also believe in keeping my Spirituality out of politics. Church and State do not have any business being bedfellows. Period. My problems with organized Religion stem from this very statement. Our President ran a campaign based on "Faith".......knowing he would get the Midwest and Southern vote. It has backfired now because alot of those folks are feeling duped. I was raised Catholic (hey I'm Sicillian it's a requirement) and my issues with organized Religion began there. No, I wasn't molested by some perverted Priest or anything; actually the Priests at St. Brunos Church were very Spiritual and devoutly Religious men. I've always believed God doesn't want us to bother him with our problems. He made this place for us, gave us the gifts of Reason and Free Will and is leaving us to our own devices. He gave us 10 guidelines to live life by and he will be waiting for us when our time here is done. I honestly don't think he cares if you go to some building on Sunday and sing songs and say prayers.....I also don't think He cares about all those prayers either. It's a matter of His wanting us to live a good life, be good to others, tolerate those who don't see things they way we do, and generally just enjoy the time you have on this round hunk of rock. Too many people sway too many others in His name (and that "name" runs the gambit from Allah to Buddha to Jehovah to God). Look at the Middle East for example. A "Religious" leader told 19 other people to hijack 4 airplanes and fly them into buildings. He told them that Allah (God) had said that this was the righteous thing to do and that if they sacrificed themselves this way they would go to Heaven. These people (Human Beings with Reason and Free Will) let someone else do their thinking for them to the point of killing innocent people. That's what's wrong with Religion. There are Christians who believe that being Gay is fixable. It's not...it's a choice and a frame of mind. They believe that you send people to camps where they get Commando Prayer and they will be "saved". Yeah, after having food and drink withheld and being locked in a closet I will say I'm saved too. Father Junipero Serra did that with the California Indians way back when. He would beat and torture them if they didn't accept God. After a bit of this, they accepted God. There are Baptist Preachers who get up in the pulpit and instead of preaching the Word, they preach their agenda. One example is the Harry Potter books. Now these are wonderful stories of Good vs. Evil with Good triumphing in the end. They are also books about coming of age and being different. The one thing I really like about them; Kids actually sit down and....are you ready for this....READ!!!!!!! Wait....you mean they actually turn off the TV and Video Games to READ A BOOK!!!!!!!!! Yes they do. According to some Baptist Preachers though, these books should be burned and banned because they are about "Evil Witches and Warlocks" who want to make our Children turn to the occult and the Devil!!! No, these idiots haven't read the books. No, they haven't talked to the author to find out what her intentions were. All they did was read the synopsis of the story and go from there. There's a guy who's last name is Chick that draws and publishes little Fundamentalist Christian Comics telling you what is "Evil" and what is not. One of his most famous ones is "Dark Dungeons". Google it and read it, you will laugh. It's a comic that tells the tale of an "Evil" game called "Dungeons and Dragons". Ah yes, that Evil game I used to play for long hours on end with my good friends every Friday night in High School. A game that was supposed to be a guide to the occult and a "Gateway Drug" to a life as a pawn of Satan. Yeah right!!! This Chick dude never played the game, nor did he ever read any of the source material or interview any players. It was like "Hey there are Wizards and Warrior Priests and Demons and Spells to be cast...therefore it must be the Work of SATAN!!!!" This Chick guy had to eat his words recently because years ago he had said that the "Chronicles of Narnia" was an Evil book too. Having seen the movie, and researched the books I can tell you that it is blatantly a Christian inspired movie. It even has a "Christ like" character who is killed and resurrected. Even my own Religion the Catholics have had their bad times. Latinos are traditionally Catholic. Very devout Catholic...to the point of abiding by all of the rules and regulations of the Church. The Catholic Church says that premarital sex is a sin. To further scare you away from having intimate relations before you are married they also throw in the rule that birth control is also a sin. They figured that unwanted pregnancies will scare you into celibacy. Wrong. Have you seen a small Latino Family???? It's not just Latinos, there are some Caucasian Catholics that believe the same thing. These people become burdens on society because they have too many kids than they can afford to raise so the taxpayers have to take up the slack for their lack of self control.

So now you know what I mean by my attitude on Religion. I have nothing against someone having Faith, but I do have something against people who let their minds be closed because of it. Here are some perfect song lyrics that describe what I have said perfectly.

Band: Tool
Album: 10,000 Days
Song: Right in Two

Angels on the sidelines. Baffled and confused.
Father blessed them all with reason.
This is what they choose.
Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground.
Silly Monkies given thumbs they make a club and beat their brother down.

Tennessee: Year One

Well, it's been 1 year and one month since I arrived in my new home of Tennessee. A definite eyeopener I must say. When I first met Cathy, I was pleasantly pleased that she was a different person than I thought the typical Tennessean would be. She is intelligent, open minded and willing to accept different things about people and places. WOW!!! Not what you'd expect from a Right Wing, Bible Belt State. The first City I moved to was a little spit of a place called Algood. The Police Station closes at 10 pm, and WalMart is the biggest thing in town. It's a Town run by the Good Ole Boy club and with that same attitude. There are a lot of the Stereotypes represented there that we Californians expect to find in the South. The Rednecks with their Confederate Flags on their Pick ups (which by the way, are what all the jerk off drivers drive on the freeways around here......if someone is tailgating you....it's a pick up.), the enormously fat people waddling out of Billy Bob's Cholestrol Buffet. Then there are some good people too. They live in Cookeville, the town right next door. Algood would do well to let Cookeville annex it. Of course Cookeville has it's Redneck Hicks as well. It does have some culture though as it is the home of Tennessee Tech University. College Towns always have culture of some kind. The only problem with it, is the planning of the expansion of the City. It is sprawled, and things that should be in one part of town are next to things they shouldn't be next to. There is retail next to residential...literally right next door. There are parts of the town that are run down and ignored, then there are parts that are all spiffed up and new. It reminds me of my home town of San Bruno, CA. There are sections of San Bruno they concentrate on, then there are sections they ignore. Those sections have crime issues, abandoned businesses, etc. Cookeville has alot of that too. My In-Laws live there, as does my Oldest Step-Daughter Amanda and my Step-Son Kevin. They are great people....there are several folks in that town that need help. The one thing I noticed there was the word Buffet seems to be popular. There are no Salad Bar places like Fresh Choice or Sweet Tomatoes....those places would die a horrible death (much like the enormously huge people that usually eat at the buffets will one day). Aisian cuisine: forget about it!!!! It's some pretend Chinese crap that doesn't even remotely taste good. The thing that gets me is these places are run by Chinese people. Now you would think they would want to represent their cultural cuisine alot better than they do. Nope. I was so glad I got a job near Nashville. It gave me an excuse to move to a Suburban area much like the ones I've lived in in years past. Having been to Nashville on several occassions I became very fond of it. It was partly San Fran, and partly Oakland. This City boy was happy. We settled in a Suburb called Mount Juliet. A great City much like San Carlos or Belmont. We also got in at the perfect time as they are (still, but almost finished) building a brand new residential development of mid to high priced homes. Next to that they are building (and it's mostly finished now) a retail establishment called Providence Marketplace. Now in Mount Juliet you have a more Metropolitan diversity of people. There are your Rednecks....hey it's the South. It's hard to not run into your fair share here. For the most part though, it's nice, Family oriented people. I have met some really good people out here playing Airsoft. Decent folks who run the gambit of personality types and political, social orientation. I've also discovered something that there wasn't much of in California: Centrists. Politicians who's attitude is that both parties are full of crap, and both parties have their points to contribute to the Government in a Happy Medium. Yay!!!! Of course there are still your Good Old Boy Conservatives out here. The one thing I'm still getting used to, and honestly I don't think I ever will, is the overly Religious attitudes that run rampant through this State. Way too many people are somewhat hypocritical. They go to Church because it's what they've done all their lives. Some go because they don't want their neighbors to think poorly of them. I won't fall for this crap because of my attitudes towards organized Religions. Basically, out here you go to a Baptist church, where you are supposed to tithe 10% of your yearly income to the church. Excuse me???? I slipped a buck at the most in the basket at the Catholic Church I grew up going to, and that was if I felt like it. Why should I pay someone to preach at me and tell me how to think and how I should be spiritual? I have never understood that. I've also realized that the people I commute with every morning would not last 5 minutes on a Bay Area Freeway. They'd be shot instantly. God these people cannot drive. I do like the fact that we don't have a State income tax. Very nice......instead of two hits to my take home pay, there is only one. Oh yeah, and I could actually afford to buy a house out here. It's awesome!!!! My 1400 SF house that has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with huge front yard only cost me 130 K. Back home if the Bay Area it would be 900 K easy. I do miss my buds. I miss gaming and going to gaming conventions. Do I miss the Bay Area? Yes. Very much. But my Wife and kids are here and I love them very much. I don't regret my decision to move here, I really don't. Life is nice. The City I live in is a great town and it's great having to only drive 5 minutes away to buy anything I need. Clothes, home stuff, groceries, electronics, restaurants.....it's all there. It's also places I like to shop. Target for one....I love Target. I sure wish we'd get a Trader Joes, but I know the farthest East they have gone is Arizona. It's been a great year. I am very happy that I get to be with my Wife in the same State and same house, etc. Would I move back? Maybe.....it would have to be for a lot of money and a really good reason. That's my report for Year One as a transplanted California in Tennessee. Can't wait for years two and up.

Heroes: Can this show get any better?

(Click on the Blog entry title to go to the official NBC website.)

Save the Cheerleader. Save the World.

This is the key plot device so far in the TV Series "Heroes" for stopping an nuclear explosion in New York. I have already written about the basics of this show, and yes I'm writing about it again. Like I've previously mentioned, I wrote an open letter to Hollywood asking them to get their creative heads out of their collective butts. Apparently someone is listening. The writing and pacing in this show are top shelf. It just goes to show that you don't need a cape and tights or even a mask to be a Super Hero. As one of the cast, the character Hiro, says to his friend "You don't need Super Powers to be a Hero." The story telling is like that of a good suspense novel. You think you have the characters figured out, but no.....you don't. Total surprise with some, confirmation of your suspicions with others. SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!

A surprise like......Saresh's neighbor. I figured she was up to something.....she was way too nice to Mohinder and way to friendly with his Father (who was supposedly a recluse...). She, as we find out last night, works for indestructable cheerleader's Dad........who is another suprise. They have been portraying him as some kind of Villan, but as the show goes on, he doesn't seem so nefarious. He knows his adopted daughter is the Indestructable Cheerleader, but if he was so evil, he'd have killed her long ago. (At least tried too....she is indestructable after all.) More and more he seems like he is some kind of Government Agent who is in search of the Heroes. I suspect some kind of cloning program to make super soldiers or something like that.

SPOILER OVER:

The show harkens back to the days of Serials at the local theaters of yesteryear. I can remember my Mom and Dad telling me about Flash Gordon, etc and how you had to go to the theater like once a month or so because you'd miss a chapter. Heroes is like that. Each episode is a chapter. Sometimes they wrap up nicely, but there is always something unanswered, or left open that doesn't get resolved until later. It's a nice touch, and real good story telling. Lord knows we've had to sit through our share of stupid "Reality" shows. Honestly, these things have run their course. I know they are cheaper to produce than an ongoing series, but c'mon people. The viewing public has spoken; they want a good story. If you want me to park my butt for an hour or two and not constantly channel surf, then make it worth my while to stay on your channel and watch your efforts. Good job NBC....too bad it's the only show I watch on your network.

My Little Rachel Ray

Yep, that would be my darling Step-Daughter Olivia cooking away. She has started learning to cook, and she loves every minute of it. She thinks Rachel Ray is sooo cool so she wants to learn to cook just like her.....I'm glad she wants to. We had fun making Chili that night, tomorrow her and Cathy will be making cookies from scratch. Should be fun.

Blog Fun!!

Since I'm loving this new show called "Heroes", here's a little game for you (post answers as comments):

What would be your Super Power and why?

Mine is the ability to find a bathroom wherever I am. I have a knack for detecting plumbing I guess. I walk into a restaurant or theater and I can tell you which direction the bathrooms are without seeing the signs. It's not a power I wanted per se, but it comes in handy.

The Sissification of Today's Youth

Okay.....I think Parents and schools have gone far enough now. First comes the laws that say kids have to wear a bike helmet when riding their bikes....HAVE to...it's the law. Hello???? We didn't, and we did some crazy crap on our bikes....and we are all in one piece. I hear of organized sports leagues where "Everyone's a winner"......what the Hell is that??? How can you prepare kids for the Real World if they are told that mediocrity is OK???? That you don't need to try at all, that you will be rewarded for just showing up?? That's great...no wonder today's youth are a bunch of lazy, punk ass, porkers. When I was a kid and you played baseball, if you sucked (like I did) you didn't get to play that much. Yeah it hurt, but it taught one a good lesson: Try harder and get better if it means that much to you; or get out of it and try something else. Simple. Not everyone can be a great athlete. Not everyone gets to be an Astronaut when they grow up. I'm not saying don't encourage your children to try, just berate them when they fail. Be there to pick them up and dust them off and say "You tried your best. I still love you no matter what you do with your life." What we need to teach our children is that the World outside of their Family is a cold, ruthless place. Not everyone wins....and sometimes just showing up isn't enough. The real world teaches you that second place is the first loser. Now I read of a school in Massachussets where they are banning the game of Tag and any other chase/pursuit games at recess. Why? Because they don't want the kids to get hurt and hold the school liable. WTF?????? Has this world become that insane that parents would actually sue a school because little Johnny fell down and scwaped his wittle knee?????? Jesus Christ people???? What's next?? Wrap your kids in bubble wrap and foam???? Then I hear about schools banning costumes on Halloween and calling the Holiday a "Fall Festival". OK I'm lost now. Why? I know there are some Religious kooks out there who think Halloween should be banned as a Holiday because it's "Evil".....yeah....tell that to all the little Super Heroes and Princesses that come to my door to get Candy.....ooooo that's so EVIL!!!!! Hey Freaks...if you don't want to celebrate the Holiday, then shut your damn porch lights off and don't answer the door. Take your own responsibility....stop trying to force your morals and beliefs on me. Halloween happens to be my favorite Holiday. I love turning my front yard into a graveyard and putting spiderwebs all over the place and glow in the dark skeletons.......it's FUN!!!! Good clean scary fun. Oh wait...I forgot......the Religious Kooks don't know what FUN is....apparently enjoying life isn't in their Bibles.......FREAKS!!!!! Go away!! Makes me wish for a Jewish President, or a President of some Religion other than Christian. It would take the wind out of the Kooks' sails for awhile and maybe we'd go back to that old standard that's in our Constitution: The Separation of Church and State. Remember that?

Hooray for Hollywood

Now awhile back I blogged a rant about Hollywood not having an original thought to save their lives. This still holds somewhat true, but what they are doing now is coming up with a newer twist on an old theme. Big Kudos for that. The banner above is from one of the best new shows on TV. As my favorite TV Critic Tim Goodman says, "this is the year of the serialized drama". How true. Here's the premise of Heroes. One day you wake up and you have super powers. You are just regular old you, but yet you have an extradordinary gift. What would you do with this gift? How would you handle having this gift? Is it even a gift, or is it a curse? So far we have in this show:
1. The indestructable Cheerleader. This little blonde High school cheerleader cannot die. Period. She hates it, and just wants to be normal.
2. Mirror Girl. A single Mom who has a messed up life but is trying the best she can. Her husband is in jail (we find out later he isn't....oh yeah, and he works for the bad guys....) and she is doing whatever she can to get by. Her gift? She has an alter ego that is an Amazon kick ass machine (think Xena.....).
3. Future seeing guy. He can paint the future, but only when high on heroin. Poor guy.
4. Flying guy. Yep he can fly. He is also running for Congress.
5. Flying guys brother, Mimic Guy. He can mimic the abilities of any super he comes into contact with.
6. (My favorite) Time traveler/time stopper guy. Hiro a Japanese wage slave finds out he can travel through time and stop it. He handles it the best because he is living a Comic Book Geeks dream........and appears in the last scene of the latest episode as his future self....a bad ass psuedo-Samurai complete with sword.
7. Telepathy Cop. Yep, a cop that can read minds.
8. Mental JuJu bad guy. Mirror Girls husband DL. He seems to be able to read minds really well...hints that he may have the ability to stop other Heroes powers.
9. Indestructable Cheerleader's Adopted Father: The obvious bad guy......psycho bastard that seems to work for the Government.

Hooked yet? Watch an episode and you will be. It's a really well done show, and because it's serialized, you have to come back each week for more.....

Another show that is just as good is Jericho. A small town in Kansas witnesses a mushroom cloud off in the distance (the direction of Denver, Colorado). You find out most major Cities have been destroyed in the same manner. It's about a small town's ability to handle this situation. Good cast and some interesting developments.

Thank you Hollywood for listening. Now if you could just stop casting Jessica Simpson in movies they might not bomb.....just saying.....

Two in one day....

Just a funny little item to relate. One of my favorite comic strips is Wiley's "Non Sequitor". Besides some very biting commentary on current events, there exists in the Non Sequitor world an ongoing story about Joe Pyle. Joe is a single Father raising two Daughters, Danae the oldest and Kate the youngest. Danae is wise for her age, often making remarks that are very adult and show an unique outlook on the world. In one strip Danae is complaining to her Pet Horse Lucy that her Dad is making her read the paper everyday. Joe asks "What did you learn from reading the paper?" Danae responds with "Adults lie alot and say a bunch of stuff that has no meaning whatsoever..." Joe puts his head in his hands, shaking it back and forth. His Daughter asks "Did I say something wrong?" Dad says "Unfortunately no." Why the build up? Danae often times reminds me of my StepDaughter Liv. Here in Middle Tennessee there are two candidates running for the Senate seat that Bill Frist is giving up; Harold Ford Jr. and Bob Corker. There are constant typical political ads...."he's a schmuck, no he's a schmuck", etc, etc. Liv states to me and Cat on night that she just doesn't get it. "It's the same people in the commercials, and in one they are on that person's side, and in the other they are saying bad things about them. I'm confused!!" Just thought I'd share the unique outlook of Politics from the 12 year old mind. Unfortunately she's right........no matter which way you slice it in politics, it's always the same old Crap.

These Kids Today!!! Part Deux

So over on the airsoft boards I normally frequent we have had a rash of young guys joining lately and pretty much being stupid kids. No respect whatsoever and this Generations lack of grammar and spelling ability. When I was a kid if you didn't know how to spell something, the teacher you asked handed you a dictionary and said "look it up." Now these morons text, and chat and IM each other to death and use all manner of slang and abbreviations that when it's not called for, they use it anyway!!! Anyhow, that Rants already been done, new Rant coming. One of these "shining" examples of the Future of our Country posted that he saw the movie "Black Hawk Down" recently. He said, and I loosely quote: "Black Hawk Down is a great gun movie. If you don't want to go play some airsoft after seeing I don't know what will make you.". I was stunned!!! A "great gun movie"?!?!?!?!?!?! What they Hell do they teach these kids in school today? Has our recent "TV" war made them not realize what a real armed conflict is all about? This kid is about 14-15 years old. All he gets out of a movie like "Black Hawk Down" is how cool the guns are. We're talking a movie by Ridley Scott, and excellent director who captured the horror and emotions involved in a Military Operation gone wrong. A movie about Brotherhood under fire, sacrifice, misguided political decisions, etc that is obvious to even a simple minded person and all this kid gets is "OOOO cool guns.....". I have met a few real shining examples of the Future of this Country, but I should emphasize a FEW.........

These Kids today!!!

Yeah I know....never thought I'd say that....actually it should be these kids and their parents. As some of you may know, I particpate in a sport/hobby called Airsoft. We run around on private property, old army bases, etc out of public view, dressed up in military BDU's and shooting each other with plastic bb's from realistic looking guns. Now you have to be 18 to purchase one, and technically the same age to use one. Not the case. Welcome to the age of parents who "just buy little Johnny what he wants" without realizing the consequences of their actions. I live in the City of Mt. Juliet and the other night 20 teen boys (DUMBASSES) were gathered on someone elses propety without their permission in plain view of the public playing with airsoft pistols. The cops were called and got out of their cars, guns drawn because the call they were responding to was "Gang activity". It was all over the evening news and the morning news with the Chief of Police saying that the guns needed to be marked in some way to differentiate them from the real thing. Might as well play freaking paintball!!!! This pisses me off.....these dumbass parents bought these stupid kids these guns and didn't supervise them at all!!!! It is well known in the area that there is a field to play airsoft on, a 30 acre, in the middle of nowhere, out of public view, private piece of land that won't cause trouble. Makes me wish the cops would have shot a couple of the kids.......I call this Darwin in action.....

Reviews and Recommendations

A few movie reviews/recommendations for you as well as some great new shows on the Idiot Box you have to see! Movies. If you haven't seen the Pirates sequel, and you loved the first movie, you need to. Don't look for historical accuracy or any crap like that, just buckle yourself in and hang on for a rollercoaster ride of a movie. The Wife and I were discussing how versatile of an actor Johnny Depp really is. And to think this guy got his start on 21 JumpStreet. If you like Jason Stratham (The Transporter, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) then you have to go see "Crank". It's over the top, non-stop action. Don't even bring your brain in, just leave it at home you won't be needing it. My Wife actually likes his movies and we went and saw it. Lots of fun. Rentals: If you want a couple of surprisingly new story twists in a movie rent "The Matador" with Greg Kinnear and Pierce Bronson. Strange (not quite Donnie Darko strange, but weird enough) and unpredictable (someone in Hollywood actually making a unpredictable movie!!!!!). Also rent "Lucky Number Slevin" with Josh Hartnet, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Lucy Liu. If that cast doesn't make you want to see it, the plot line and story progression will leave you glued to the screen until it is over.

Now for TV: There are crime shows galore on TV now, but none better than the original CSI. It's always a good show. For a new twist on the crime genre, you need to catch "Criminal Minds" and "Numb3rs". Both have ensemble casts of great actors with each character being very distinct and memorable (with the exception of the one blonde on Criminal Minds...she's a background character almost who they are trying to give more screen time to lately but it's not helping). Now for what I call the Renaissance of TV: Jericho and Heroes. Mainstream TV has always screwed up Sci Fi.....either cancelled it prematurely, or it was way too intelligent for your average TV viewer to grasp. Good examples: Max Headroom and Firefly. Max Headroom was a way too critical view of the future of TV...to the point that I think it scared the execs at ABC so they cancelled it. (Bastards!!! I loved that show.) Then we have Firefly. Fox screwed around with the schedule, played episodes in the wrong order and generally did whatever they could to sabotage a great show. Now back to the review. As you may be aware of, Super Heroes are becoming a big deal now. We Comic Book Geeks are becoming mainstream and accepted now. Look at the box office receipts of the past 5 years....X-Men, SpiderMan, Superman.....plus a bunch more of our beloved spandex heroes on deck. NBC has developed a new TV show that explores the question: "What if you woke up one day and you had super human abilities?" They have explored that question very well in the new show "Heroes". So far we have an Artist that can see the future, and paints it. A highschool cheerleader whose healing factor makes Wolverine look like a chump....she gets hit by a football player, lands with her head twisted around backwards and then gets up and she is fine!!!! A wage slave in Japan who can bend space and time. Two brothers who can fly. An average beat cop with esp. A single Mom who has a "double" that acts independently of her (but she can only see the double in the reflection of a mirror). We also have the cheerleaders adopted Dad who seems to be "The Super Villan", but you aren't really sure if that's where they are going with it or not. Then we have on CBS a show called Jericho. The prodigal son returns to his podunk Kansas town after being gone for years, and he seems to be lieing about where he's been. To top it all, that same day in the direction of Denver there is a mushroom cloud. All communication has been cut off, and a kid in the town has an answering machine message from his Mom where you can hear an explosion in the background. You find out she is in Atlanta. That's two nuclear explosions. At the end of last episode, a man is putting red pins in a map on most of the large cities in each state.....you get the impression that they have been hit too.

Oh yeah, and we can't forget "The Unit". Definitely a guy show.

The Ballad of Steve and Cathy

Well, okay not a ballad, but a story. In my last rant I promised to tell the story of how someone who was born and raised in the Paradise called the SF Bay Area found himself transplanted to Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Let's go back to 1999. An Evil, vile being who we will refer to as PITA decided she wanted to not be married to me anymore. So we got a simple, quick and non-contested divorce. I was angry, depressed etc. I found internet chat rooms as a great release to get back in to the "Dating Game". Flirting was fun, etc. About February of 2000 I joined a Yahoo divorced folks support group called "Divorced, Single and Looking". Got to know alot of people in there, it was fun. One of those people was a shy, retiring Southern Belle by the name of Cat. I liked her the most. We started off as friends, first IM chatting then on the phone. In 2002 the gang decided to all meet somewhere in the Country that was centralized for most. Cat set up the meet in Nashville. I went out the week before to spend it with her. This was June of 02. We really hit it off. In September of that year she travelled to SF and we did the tourist thing. She loved it. Over the next couple of years we had talked bout it being permanent. She wanted to move out to California and then we were going to get married. Well to help out her case of trying to move to Cali, her lawyer advised we get married before hand. So on January 22, 2004 in a nice little Civil Ceremony at the Redwood City Courthouse we were married. We spent the first year of our marriage in two different states, until we got word in August of 2005 that our appeal was denied and I would have to move to Tennessee to be with my Wife and Step-Kids. The rest is history. We are going on 3 years of marriage and it is great. I have found the woman I will spend the rest of my life with and I am Happy as can be. The moral of this story? "Embrace change because it may be better than you think."

Weird Al

Weird Al has a new album out.....I will be getting a copy soon. It's called "Straight outta Lynwood". You can play the latest video by clicking on it on the bottom of the blog. Also click on the title to go to the Official Weird Al website.

Rant Time

I know, it's been awhile. I've been saving this one up. Fine tuning it if you will. Now as some of you may not know, I'm a transplant from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Nashville Area in Tennessee. Reasons for moving here in another entry.....we are focusing on a Rant right now. I lived in the Bay Area for 40 years; for two of those I commuted across the Bay Bridge. Talk about painful. Being from a Freeway culture, I can appreciate people who know how to drive their cars correctly. Now that I live in Nashville, not a Freeway culture by any sense of the word, I am going insane!!!! People in this town would not last 5 minutes on a SF freeway if their lives depended on it. First off, too many trucks. Remember several years ago when Reagan deregulated the trucking industry? The result of that is any Moron with a pulse is driving a Semi now. These "knights of the roadway" have become the Assholes of the roadway. They tailgate you, blow past you barely making the lane change in front of you. The pass each other....dangerous is a nice word. Then we have the idiots who cannot who can't merge onto the Interstate!!!! They get in the merge lane from the on ramp. Usually you would speed up so you can integrate into traffic....not out here!!! They get on the interstate, you try and back off a bit to let them in....they keep tooling along at 35!!!!! The speed limit is 70......these folks ain't getting there for awhile......then when you go to pass them because they are driving like Grandmas...they speed up!!!!! Then traffic gets a bit crowded....I weave around the lanes of traffic only to find a GAP THE SIZE OF CALIFORNIA between the lead car and the back of the pack ahead of us. People are content to sit there going 50 in a 70 MPH zone with a gap big enough to land the space shuttle in ahead of them!!!!!! Praise the Lord and pass the ammo!!!!

5 Years ago today.

Click on the title and you will be taken to the main page of the Airsoft field I play at. The owner of the field always replaces his main site with a 9/11 tribute. It's very nice. 5 Years ago today, several cowards attacked Civillian targets and shook us out of the delusion that we are safe here in our own Country. Today is not a day for finger pointing or political debate (see my previous blog about that); no, Today is a day for remembrance. A day for reflection on what our World has become and how we as individual beings on this rock we call Earth can work together to stop these insane Religious Zealots from destroying all life in the name of a Belief. Do you remember where you were that day? I do. Getting ready for a day's work when my roommate and good Friend Mike called me in the living room. On CNN was a picture of one of the World Trade Center towers smoking!!!! I said, "There's one pilot who screwed up big time." Then we saw the second plane hit the other tower and knew it was no accident.

Justice is Served

As you will recall, I've been ranting about the rape of our Civil Liberties since the horrible attacks of September 11, 2001. I'm about to make a comment of some good that has come of the attitude change in our Society since. Let's recall years before that, in the late 80's-90's (I forget when it was). We were watching TV when the news cut to a white Ford Bronco driving slowly on an LA Freeway being followed by a mass of Policemen; a slow speed pursuit if you will. Apparently ex-Football star Al Cowlins was driving another ex-Football star OJ Simpson out of town. OJ was apparently threatening suicide, thus the slow speed chase. Well the rest is History. The biggest media circus trial ever. Racist LA cops, slacker hangers-on named Kato......two dead people: Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and the infamous "Dream Team" of Lawyers defending OJ Simpson. The evidence against Simpson was overwhelming, but yet OJ was found...get this....not Guilty!?!?!?!?! The opinion of this verdict is still divided today: a small percentage think it was a just ruling while the rest of the World thinks he's guilty as sin!!! (The fact that an autographed picture of OJ only goes for 150.00 nowadays says it all.)

Fast forward to 2003. Two years after 9/11 happened. People are suspicious of everyone!! A man named Scott Peterson is in the news. His 8-month pregnant wife is missing!!! Her name was Laci. A media circus erupts.....people line up in the community of Modesto to help search for her. Scott, sheds a few tears on TV, but then is seen on the night of the vigil for Laci yakking on a cell phone happy as could be.....like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Fast forward a week or two later. He's sold his SUV, and has a For Sale sign on his front lawn. The Police haven't ruled him out as a suspect and it sure looks like he's getting rid of evidence and cutting and running. The SUV is found, and Scott becomes Prime Suspect #1. Then a miracle happens......Laci's body washes up on shore as does her unborn son. Where's Scott??? In San Diego with his hair bleached blonde, a goatee, and 1,500 cash in his pocket on his way to Mexico. Busted!!!!! He is brought to trial in 2004 to the Redwood City Courthouse (it is determined that he would not receive a fair trial in Modesto so it is moved to Redwood City). The case against him consisted of a few fibers, a plastic tarp, some needle nose pliers, and a drop of blood in the SUV carpet. Remember in the OJ trial there was a bloody glove, shoe prints, hand prints, gallons of blood, a knife......and he got off!!?!? Scott Peterson (pretty much on the testimony of his mistress Amber Frey) is now spending his days in San Quentin's Death Row awaiting his one way trip to Hell. Too bad we can't retry OJ....I bet he'd be on Death Row too. The same goes for a man named Perry March. They haven't found the body of his Wife Janet yet, but it has been determined in 3 different trials for three different crimes that his is a guilty bastard. He will now reside in the State of Tennessee's correctional institutions for the next 56 years. I guess something good has come out of 9/11 now hasn't it....

G'Day Mate...Rest in Peace

Yep, by now you've all heard the news. Steve Irwin has died. He was a nut, slightly annoying at times, but he made you actually interested in what he was all about; conservation. He truly believed Man and Animals could live in harmony on this big ball of rock we call Planet Earth. He may have done a foolish thing (the baby incident....still wasn't the smartest thing he could have done, but the man was an expert...still...) but all the other times he did foolish things, it was just his life in the balance. You'd expect the guy to be croc food, or get bitten by a snake.....no. He gets stabbed through the heart by a nine inch barb from a stingray. And he did nothing to rile it up like he used to do with other animals!!! Maybe it recognized him and was being a bit preemptive???? The World will miss you Crocidile Hunter; Rest in Peace.

See I'm right sometimes.

Check my post from the 22nd regarding New Agencies. In it I mentioned John Karr. This idiot comes out of nowhere 10 years later and says "I killed Jon Benet Ramsey." Everyone was so sure he was the man that news agencies were publicly apologizing to the Ramsey's for painting them in such a bad light. Two days after this guy confessed, the doubts started. He said he drugged her; the coroner found no such substances in her body. He said it was accidental; the condition of the body says it was deliberate and brutal. His ex-Wife said he was in Alabama with her and the family during that time, being that he never missed a Christmas with the Family. He is whined and dined on a plane ride home to "loosen him up so he will talk..." Oh yeah, he talked, about nothing. They run hand writing analysis, and all these experts say "Oh yeah it looks like his writing." Yet one of these experts has had his expert testimony over turned in about 4 or 5 cases. After running a DNA test on him from DNA found on the body they have concluded that Karr is a lying sack o' poop. (Here's where I am proved right..... :D) Just like I said. He only said that so he could get extradited back to the US because he didn't want to spend any time in a Thai jail. Does the News Media actually listen to the crap they spew every night????? Do they realize that they have just made collective asses of themselves, yet again!?!?!?!? I still think the parents had something to do with it and that Patsy Ramsey died of guilt and not cancer.

The Demise of the Hollywood Studio System?

Click on the title to link to my previous "Open Letter to Hollywood". It seems like my predictions are coming true. Paramount and Tom Cruise had a major falling out recently. The bottom line, Cruise made more money and put up no financial risk than Paramount Studios which put up all the financial risk. This is because Tom Cruise has become the poster boy for Scientologist Freakazoid and has run his mouth and couch-jumped his way behind the 8-ball. Have fun back there with Mel Gibson Tom...he needs the company. I read an article today about how the studios aren't backing alot of pictures because DVD sales have gone flat. Hmmmm let's see. For the past several years now 2 - 3 out of 10 movies to hit theaters are worth seeing. The rest are crap. Of course your DVD sales are going to be flat. If people aren't willing to pay 10 bucks to see a turd on a big screen, what makes you think they will pay 15-25 dollars to own said turd so they can not watch it at home?????? The last theater movie I saw was Pirates 2. It was worth the cash and a lot of fun. I wanted to see Clerks II, but it left theaters before I got a chance. Other than those two movies, there isn't anything playing at our local cineplex that I remotely am willing to pay money to see. Even Mutha F***n snakes on a Mutha f***n Plane (as great a B movie as I hear it is). This latest news just proves my point that the Hollywood creative still has run dry. Too many remakes of movies that were so-so at best or didn't really need to be remade. Too many TV shows made into movies that should have just been left as TV shows (Dukes of Hazard for one.....and they are talking about making Chips into a movie.....what is Erik Estrada going to come on and sell some cheap vacation property to us in BFE during the credits?????) Too many Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson (Hell too many Owen Wilson movies.....dude sucks as an actor and he's just not funny). I mean c'mon...you make a 70's serious cop show "Starsky and Hutch" into a comedy.......of course no one is buying the DVD. Disney is whining about flat sales too. Let's see, you wait freaking forever to release a beloved movie on DVD....so long in fact that when you release it amidst a huge marketing fanfare all the fans turn their backs on you and just don't care anymore.....(see Lady and the Tramp release for a limited time....) We don't care anymore Disney. Just release them all......don't make a huge deal out of it because we are unimpressed. Same for Lucas.....Star Wars fans waited forever for idiot George to relase the original movies on DVD.....we get the special edition versions and he changed a critical aspect of the ending of Revenge (Return) of the Jedi.......I knew someone that was chomping at the bit to buy it until I told him about the change.....he downright refuses now. Now they are saying private investment firms may approach these actor run production companies (Cruise/Wagner for example). A few have done it, but it's been hot and cold so far and that's keeping the others away. What these actor production companies don't realize is that the first big chunks of change come back to the backer in these deals.....

News Media: Bored or Just Unispired?

The 24 Hour News channels used to be a good idea. You could get your daily news at whatever time of the day. That's what they used to be. Now they have become lame and useless. The latest "Breaking News" that required some lame graphic artist to come up with a quick and dirty logo with some cheesy tagline and just as cheesy music to go with it is this Karr guy. CNN and Fox News had "round the clock" coverage of this guy. Let's see, you've got cameras following a guy getting on an airplane, cameras on the airplane as he sits in a seat, watches a movie, and drinks and eats. Then you have some reporter trying to make the fact this guy drank beer and champagne and ate King Prawns (Whatever the Hell a King Prawn is....) sound exciting and oh so important. They are at this for at least 4 hours!!!!! Why??? It's obvious this guy is full of crap. He didn't kill JonBenet Ramsey; his "confession" is so full of holes it's like Swiss Cheese. They had the typical split screen arguing session going on "Hannity & Colmes" or whatever those lame asses are called where they had two attorneys arguing over whether or not he is guilty or just a serial confessor. The one woman used the arguement that there was a connection because they "lived in the same place a the same time...." Really??? I lived in California when Scott Peterson killed his wife Lacey. Does that mean I had something to do with it too???? That's the lamest excuse I have ever heard. Notice though that when the Supreme Court found the NSA Homeland Spying to be illegal, it didn't get around the clock coverage??? I honestly can't watch these News shows any more. They are biased and basically cowardly. They are afraid to say anything contrary to popular opinion. These morons won't put W in a bad light (he is already doing that himself) but yet they'd crucify Clinton for getting a BJ in the oval office. Hmmmm......I think I'd rather have the President have an affair than leave young men in a place where they are dying daily. I watch the local news now, and that's it. We've got more and more news people getting taken hostage because they want to get that "scoop"....the exclusive. Too bad so sad. You walk into the Lion's den wearing raw meat, you're going to get hurt. Hell the only other news I watch is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It and the Colbert Report are winning Emmy's and have higher ratings than CNN and Fox combined. Which of course cause Geraldo "I'm a useless waste of oxygen" Rivera to go on Bill "I lick W's Butt because I wish I was his gay lover" O'Reily and spew a bunch of hateful crap at two political satire shows!!!! Has Geraldo nothing better to do? Or is it that after Moron Rivera's little stunt of drawing a map in the ground during the Iraq War and basically all but giving the coordinates of the unit he was embedded with to the enemy he isn't on the best of terms with anybody? Yeah, they don't watch CNN??? Dork ass. The KGB admitted that American news broadcasts were the best source of information. He's one guy that I don't know why keeps getting jobs. I remember the whole Al Capone's vault thing. Big build up, and nothing there. What a Moron. I'd have opened it first and filmed it; then if there was something there, I'd broadcast the thing as "Live" and impressed the World. If there was nothing, I'd have written an article on how disappointed I was. Give me the giggly, jovial local folks any day.

My Step-Daughter

She's a wonderful child, but she has some bizarre views of the world. My stubborn child thinks she has to be popular at school. To the point where she is proably overlooking some real good long term friends to try to fit in with the "cool" kids. She isn't one, nor will she ever be; and I'm glad. She isn't selfish; she's kind, caring, helpful. She thinks of others first then herself. The "cool" kids only thing of themselves. She has figured that she has to be a cheerleader. We have finally convinced her that she needs dance classes at least to be able to have a chance when she tries out. She won't listen to us when we tell her that only a small portion of those that try out make it, and it's usually a popularity contest. She is stubborn like I said. We've figured the best way to deal with this is to let her try out and fail. We are trying to protect her and she doesn't see it. I never thought it would be so hard to let someone rise and fall on their own merits, but it's hard when it's your child. She tries so hard to be independent, and for the most part we let her.....under supervision of course. So Friday night we decide to go to the County Fair. Liv wanted one little girl from school to go with her, but she couldn't go so she ended up bringing along HellGirl. Now this child came over to our house before, but showed signs of being a....well a bitch then. This kid has freaks for parents. They don't want to drop her off at peoples houses, but when they do (after much prodding) they pull up and basically dump her out. This HellGirl basically treats Liv like she is a leper in school. I got the impression that HG was going with us because she wanted to go to the Fair but her asshole folks wouldn't take her. Needless to say, HG is a slut, a potential drug user (she was telling Liv about sucking on air cleaner cans...basically inhaling freon...oooo that's smart, and my wonderfully naive Daughter was giving her looks like "WTF??") basically a user and loser. She was kissing and hugging on a dozen boys at the Fair...some in High School.....(dude!!! When I was in High School I wanted High School girls not 12 year olds.....). Basically this child(?) is not allowed at our house or on any outing ever again. My wonderful Wife will be explaining this to Liv, something she has insisted on doing, and hopefully the child will see Cat's point.

Home Improvement: Final Stages

As you can see, the toilet is in it's correct place now. It ain't done yet though!!!! Notice the hose that connects the water supply to the tank?? Now that the toilet sits higher, the hose doesn't reach!!! ARRGGGGHHHH!!! Off to Lowes for a new hose.....I used the shower for the first time today....woo hoo....we almost have our bathroom back. Notice the nice transition panel on the doorstep.....nice huh? The big blank area to the right of the door is where we are going to put in a pedastool sink. Don't have one yet....so we are still using the other bathroom for sink functions....although I'm becoming adept at shaving in the shower so I don't think there will be much of me using the other sink save to wash my hands. Anyway....we are pretty much done except for the molding and the sink. It took some time, but it's lots of fun.......

Rant Time

By now I hope you have read the article. So as I suspected, you can't just make a bomb from harmless chemicals by pouring some of this into some of that. Apparently the chemical compound that the British authorities said was to be made would have taken an act of God for someone not to have noticed. Funny how this crap becomes front page news when we are getting up in arms over the Government's incompetence (NSA spying on us has now been deemed unconstitutional....no shit really????) Notice how this stuff makes front page news and it's the cry of "OH NOES THE EVIL TERRORISTS...EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!!" when W's approval rating is in the crapper???? So law abiding citizens going about their business are now subjected to further inconvenience at the hands of the Department of Homeland Gestapo and the Evil TS(s)A. The British police knew about these schmucks weeks ago....months ago.....and finally made an arrest that stopped them cold in their tracks. But we announce that it was stopped and it's "Dump all your liquids folks...." Yeah, hold this cup Mr. TSA I've got some liquid for ya....... It's bad enough they take 90 year old granny with a walker who can barely move at 1 mph out of line for a "random search". Oh give me a break!!!! Like you needed to do that. Why not do Random Searches on dark haired males between the ages of 28-35....those are your Terrorists. Yes that would have included me, and I would have been an ass but oh well. Honestly, I do not feel safer at the Airport than I did before 9/11. Now I feel paranoid, annoyed and frankly pissed off. It's to the point where I hate to fly. All of this security has raised the cost of everything. Screw it I'll take the train or freaking drive...oh wait...Gas is 1 million dollars a gallon so I better just stay home and not spend any money.....yeah the economy is doing just dandy...... Welcome the the War on Terror....which is more like the Rape of our Civil Rights...the Constitution....oh that's just a guideline.......

Rant Coming....Read the article first

Original URL: http://www.theregister.com/2006/08/17/flying_toilet_terror_labs/
Mass murder in the skies: was the plot feasible?
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Published Thursday 17th August 2006 09:42 GMT
Analysis The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air; And a loud voice came forth out of the temple of Heaven, From the throne, saying, "It is done!" --Revelation 16:17
Binary liquid explosives are a sexy staple of Hollywood thrillers. It would be tedious to enumerate the movie terrorists who've employed relatively harmless liquids that, when mixed, immediately rain destruction upon an innocent populace, like the seven angels of God's wrath pouring out their bowls full of pestilence and pain.
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The funny thing about these movies is, we never learn just which two chemicals can be handled safely when separate, yet instantly blow us all to kingdom come when combined. Nevertheless, we maintain a great eagerness to believe in these substances, chiefly because action movies wouldn't be as much fun if we didn't.
Now we have news of the recent, supposedly real-world, terrorist plot to destroy commercial airplanes by smuggling onboard the benign precursors to a deadly explosive, and mixing up a batch of liquid death in the lavatories. So, The Register has got to ask, were these guys for real, or have they, and the counterterrorist officials supposedly protecting us, been watching too many action movies?
We're told that the suspects were planning to use TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, a high explosive that supposedly can be made from common household chemicals unlikely to be caught by airport screeners. A little hair dye, drain cleaner, and paint thinner - all easily concealed in drinks bottles - and the forces of evil have effectively smuggled a deadly bomb onboard your plane.
Or at least that's what we're hearing, and loudly, through the mainstream media and its legions of so-called "terrorism experts." But what do these experts know about chemistry? Less than they know about lobbying for Homeland Security pork, which is what most of them do for a living. But they've seen the same movies that you and I have seen, and so the myth of binary liquid explosives dies hard.
Better killing through chemistry
Making a quantity of TATP sufficient to bring down an airplane is not quite as simple as ducking into the toilet and mixing two harmless liquids together.
First, you've got to get adequately concentrated hydrogen peroxide. This is hard to come by, so a large quantity of the three per cent solution sold in pharmacies might have to be concentrated by boiling off the water. Only this is risky, and can lead to mission failure by means of burning down your makeshift lab before a single infidel has been harmed.
But let's assume that you can obtain it in the required concentration, or cook it from a dilute solution without ruining your operation. Fine. The remaining ingredients, acetone and sulfuric acid, are far easier to obtain, and we can assume that you've got them on hand.
Now for the fun part. Take your hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and sulfuric acid, measure them very carefully, and put them into drinks bottles for convenient smuggling onto a plane. It's all right to mix the peroxide and acetone in one container, so long as it remains cool. Don't forget to bring several frozen gel-packs (preferably in a Styrofoam chiller deceptively marked "perishable foods"), a thermometer, a large beaker, a stirring rod, and a medicine dropper. You're going to need them.
It's best to fly first class and order Champagne. The bucket full of ice water, which the airline ought to supply, might possibly be adequate - especially if you have those cold gel-packs handy to supplement the ice, and the Styrofoam chiller handy for insulation - to get you through the cookery without starting a fire in the lavvie.
Easy does it
Once the plane is over the ocean, very discreetly bring all of your gear into the toilet. You might need to make several trips to avoid drawing attention. Once your kit is in place, put a beaker containing the peroxide / acetone mixture into the ice water bath (Champagne bucket), and start adding the acid, drop by drop, while stirring constantly. Watch the reaction temperature carefully. The mixture will heat, and if it gets too hot, you'll end up with a weak explosive. In fact, if it gets really hot, you'll get a premature explosion possibly sufficient to kill you, but probably no one else.
After a few hours - assuming, by some miracle, that the fumes haven't overcome you or alerted passengers or the flight crew to your activities - you'll have a quantity of TATP with which to carry out your mission. Now all you need to do is dry it for an hour or two.
The genius of this scheme is that TATP is relatively easy to detonate. But you must make enough of it to crash the plane, and you must make it with care to assure potency. One needs quality stuff to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale," as Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson put it. While it's true that a slapdash concoction will explode, it's unlikely to do more than blow out a few windows. At best, an infidel or two might be killed by the blast, and one or two others by flying debris as the cabin suddenly depressurizes, but that's about all you're likely to manage under the most favorable conditions possible.
We believe this because a peer-reviewed 2004 study (http://www.technion.ac.il/~keinanj/pub/122.pdf) in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) entitled "Decomposition of Triacetone Triperoxide is an Entropic Explosion" tells us that the explosive force of TATP comes from the sudden decomposition of a solid into gasses. There's no rapid oxidizing of fuel, as there is with many other explosives: rather, the substance changes state suddenly through an entropic process, and quickly releases a respectable amount of energy when it does. (Thus the lack of ingredients typically associated with explosives makes TATP, a white crystalline powder resembling sugar, difficult to detect with conventional bomb sniffing gear.)
Mrs. Satan
By now you'll be asking why these jihadist wannabes didn't conspire simply to bring TATP onto planes, colored with a bit of vegetable dye, and disguised as, say, a powdered fruit-flavored drink. The reason is that they would be afraid of failing: TATP is notoriously sensitive and unstable. Mainstream journalists like to tell us that terrorists like to call it "the mother of Satan." (Whether this reputation is deserved, or is a consequence of homebrewing by unqualified hacks, remains open to debate.)
It's been claimed that the 7/7 bombers used it, but this has not been positively confirmed. Some sources claim that they used C-4, and others that they used RDX. Nevertheless, the belief that they used TATP has stuck with the media, although going about in a crowded city at rush hour with an unstable homebrew explosive in a backpack is not the brightest of all possible moves. It's surprising that none of the attackers enjoyed an unscheduled launch into Paradise.
So, assuming that the homebrew variety of TATP is highly sensitive and unstable - or at least that our inept jihadists would believe that - to avoid getting blown up in the taxi on the way to the airport, one might, if one were educated in terror tactics primarily by hollywood movies, prefer simply to dump the precursors into an airplane toilet bowl and let the mother of Satan work her magic. Indeed, the mixture will heat rapidly as TATP begins to form, and it will soon explode. But this won't happen with much force, because little TATP will have formed by the time the explosion occurs.
We asked University of Rhode Island Chemistry Professor Jimmie C. Oxley, who has actual, practical experience with TATP, if this is a reasonable assumption, and she tolds us that merely dumping the precursors together would create "a violent reaction," but not a detonation.
To release the energy needed to bring down a plane (far more difficult to do than many imagine, as Aloha Airlines Flight 243 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_Flight_243) neatly illustrates), it's necessary to synthesize a good amount of TATP with care.
Jack Bauer sense
So the fabled binary liquid explosive - that is, the sudden mixing of hydrogen peroxide and acetone with sulfuric acid to create a plane-killing explosion, is out of the question. Meanwhile, making TATP ahead of time carries a risk that the mission will fail due to premature detonation, although it is the only plausible approach.
Certainly, if we can imagine a group of jihadists smuggling the necessary chemicals and equipment on board, and cooking up TATP in the lavatory, then we've passed from the realm of action blockbusters to that of situation comedy.
It should be small comfort that the security establishments of the UK and the USA - and the "terrorism experts" who inform them and wheedle billions of dollars out of them for bomb puffers and face recognition gizmos and remote gait analyzers and similar hi-tech phrenology gear - have bought the Hollywood binary liquid explosive myth, and have even acted upon it.
We've given extraordinary credit to a collection of jihadist wannabes with an exceptionally poor grasp of the mechanics of attacking a plane, whose only hope of success would have been a pure accident. They would have had to succeed in spite of their own ignorance and incompetence, and in spite of being under police surveillance for a year.
But the Hollywood myth of binary liquid explosives now moves governments and drives public policy. We have reacted to a movie plot. Liquids are now banned in aircraft cabins (while crystalline white powders would be banned instead, if anyone in charge were serious about security). Nearly everything must now go into the hold, where adequate amounts of explosives can easily be detonated from the cabin with cell phones, which are generally not banned.
Action heroes
The al-Qaeda franchise will pour forth its bowl of pestilence and death. We know this because we've watched it countless times on TV and in the movies, just as our officials have done. Based on their behavior, it's reasonable to suspect that everything John Reid and Michael Chertoff know about counterterrorism, they learned watching the likes of Bruce Willis, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Vin Diesel, and The Rock (whose palpable homoerotic appeal it would be discourteous to emphasize).
It's a pity that our security rests in the hands of government officials who understand as little about terrorism as the Florida clowns who needed their informant to suggest attack scenarios, as the 21/7 London bombers who injured no one, as lunatic "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, as the Forest Gate nerve gas attackers who had no nerve gas, as the British nitwits who tried to acquire "red mercury," and as the recent binary liquid bomb attackers who had no binary liquid bombs.
For some real terror, picture twenty guys who understand op-sec, who are patient, realistic, clever, and willing to die, and who know what can be accomplished with a modest stash of dimethylmercury.
You won't hear about those fellows until it's too late. Our official protectors and deciders trumpet the fools they catch because they haven't got a handle on the people we should really be afraid of. They make policy based on foibles and follies, and Hollywood plots.
Meanwhile, the real thing draws ever closer. ®

The Room is done

Now that we have finished the Child's room, we can get our toilet back in our bathroom and start using it again!!!!

More New Room Goodness

Of course you notice Kitty in one of the Pictures. Such a little camera hog....Notice the addition of some furniture. The bookshelf (classic wood colored tall one) it going to be replaced by the white modular furniture you see. There is also another green stool (to match the chair) coming as well as a blue fuzzy lamp.