Lest We Never Forget

1 Year ago today the people of Boston, Mass proved just how paranoid our Government has made the people of this Country. The above neon signs had been hanging on the pillars of a Freeway overpass for 10 days before someone freaked out and called in a "Terrorist threat". Yes someone saw the neon sign in the picture and said "OMG A BOMB!!!" For those that don't remember, the signs were a Guerilla Marketing campaign by Turner Networks to promote the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" Movie that was coming out. Like the caption says "If it's not an American Flag, it's probably a bomb..." Morons!!!

Save us from the EcoNazis......

Remember when plastic grocery bags started appearing? Remember why? "We need to save the trees....all those paper bags are destroying our forests. Plastic is much better." So said all the hippy tree huggers with an axe to grind (okay maybe not the best analogy to use but hey...). Now these same self-serving, holier than thou, tree hugging hippies (who were the cause of plastic bags being used for groceries) are now saying that "Plastic bags are evil. You should buy your own bags and bring them to the grocery store...." Excuse me? Let's see....to wash a bunch of cloth bags would require 1 extra load of laundry plus longer drying time (that heavy canvas doesn't dry real quick)...therefore using that much more water and adding that much more detergent to the water ways plus using more electricity. Yeah...saving the environment...sure we are! Pardon me EcoNazis, but if we were to all buy canvas reusable bags and bring those to our grocery store, would they charge us less? I've heard of a few giving you a break, but it's usually specialty grocery chains that are already more expensive than you Safeway/Kroger mega stores so they can appear to be "eco-friendly" while still making a killing (thus the nickname Whole Foods has; Whole Paycheck). Don't get me wrong, these are great stores if you want quality meats and breads and such, but for everyday grocery shopping they are soooo expensive. If Kroger and Safeway, etc were to require you to bring in your own bags, they'd still find a way to charge you for it. Plastic bags cost .02 cents a piece.....they spread this cost through the store with their markups. Reusable bags cost .99 a piece....okay let me get this straight; we usually buy 100 bucks worth of groceries when we go shopping for the 3 of us. That's about 10 bags of groceries say 12. The price of the plastic bags they are bagged in is included in the 100 bucks.....the extra 12 dollars in reusable bags is added on to the 100 of the groceries. I guess these EcoNazis want us to use more of the kitchen sized garbage bags for our small garbage and cat litter, etc when we do our weekly garbage night. Trust me folks, plastic garbage bags do not go to waste in our house. I use them for transporting lunch to work, we line the bathroom garbage cans (small wastebaskets) with them, scoop the cat crap and pee clumps into them. Lots of uses......saving this planet is going to kill us financially in the long run. Think about it folks. If the stores want us to use these reusable bags, then bag our damn groceries in them. Make grocery carts with a hook on the side so you can hang the bags off of them....imagine having to carry a dozen canvas bags into a store, then carrying them around with you while shopping. Some people may even put their items in the bags while they shop. You think it takes a long time at the checkout stand now......just wait until a cashier has to unload each bag then hand off the bag to the bagger to rebag the items in. Or better yet, if you are nice enough to unbag them for the cashier, just think how long that will take? What's wrong with us folks? By getting rid of plastic grocery bags, you aren't doing a damn thing to save the environment. You still use plastic garbage bags at home.....and if you don't, the garbage companies most likely tell you your garbage has to be bagged before being put in their collection bins. This whole idea of me providing my own bags when shopping is ridiculous. What's next? You have to package your own food too? Or when you go to the Department Store will you have to bring a canvas bag as well? Wouldn't that be great, the bag I bring home raw meat in is the same bag I will put a nice shirt I bought from Belk's in. MMMMMM nice. C'mon.....can't we see how silly this is? Yes, reuse the damn things folks, don't just throw them away. Plastic grocery bags are a small percentage of the landfills, lawn and kitchen sized plastic bags probably take up more landfill space than any others. People use them more often.

Edit: BTW, before I start getting comments from "angry hippies"...I should say that I think recycling is a good thing. It makes sense from a capitalistic standpoint. You save money by constantly reusing packaging instead of having to pay to dispose of it. Less landfills, more residential and retail developments for me to go be a happy little consumer at. Hee hee...... it also uses less resources...instead of creating plastic from scratch...we are taking old, sterilized and cleaned plastic and turning it into new plastic......why these grocery stores don't collect used bags is beyond me. Only Safeway does, that I know of. I'm sure these bags can be recycled....and if curbside recycling took them, we would't have to worry about them.

Improbable Movie Plots

I will start by saying that I'm a huge fan of escapism movies.  Transformers, The Rock, The Transporter, LOTR, etc etc..... big, epic, fun roller coaster ride type movies.  Yes parts of them make you go "yeah right...." but you can work past it as the rest of the movie has you drawn in.  I also like comedies...true comedies not this Epic Movie crap or Meet the Spartans lame assness that's coming out.  Tangent:  I like parody...don't get me wrong.  I'm one of Weird Al's biggest fans, but these movies take no talent at all to make.   The Naked Gun movies were parodies of Police Shows...and they all stuck with a police show theme.  This latest piece of crap, Meet the Spartans, is supposed to be a parody of 300.....okay, that could be funny.  From the previews they took the "kicking the messenger down the pit of doom" too far..apparently everyone in the film is kicked down the pit from Train Wreck Spears to whomever.....sounds like one of the new SNL skits.....never ending and not really funny. Then we somehow get Spiderman and Donald Trump into the mix plus Rambo??????  It's directionless and pointless.  At least in Hot Shots the story was consistent even with it being a parody.  Now back to your regularly scheduled Rant.

 

As I was saying, I am a big movie fan.   I love a good escape, a good trip to another realm.  But, I also love it when the author/filmmakers make that other realm somewhat plausible.  The TV show Babylon 5 is a good example....BSG is too.  Humans have managed space flight, space station technology, etc..... all tech that we have now....take our space shuttle and the International Space Station and add 50 years.... We still haven't managed to make a hand held laser weapon that doesn't have to warm up between each charge, etc.  In these shows, they are still using pseudo projectile weapons.  Like the Space Marines in Aliens.....they didn't have lasers...they had assault rifles and miniguns.  That I like.  Helps my enjoyment of the piece by keeping those "yeah right" moments to a minimum.  What is prompting this is this new movie "Untraceable".  I'll get to it in a minute.  Script writers really need to ask themselves questions....logical questions....as they are writing plots for movies.   In the Terminator series of movies the storyline goes:  AIs take over the world and seek to exterminate mankind (gee just insert Apes or Alien Race for AIs and you have the basic plot for a lot of movies).  Mankind gets pissed and rebels, because as Humans we tend to do that.  Boss AI (Ape, Lord Xenu...you get the picture) finds time travel and sends an "unstoppable agent" back into the past to kill the Rebel Leader before he/she is ever born.  Rebel Leader gets wind of plot sends back agent of his own on a suicide mission to stop "unstoppable agent".  At the end of the first movie the UA is destroyed (not very unstoppable was he...). In the next, it seems that sending the UA back in time is what caused the AI to be created in the first place.  A processor chip from the UA's skull and his hand are being studied in a Super Secret Government lab.  UA comes back again...but this time he's the good guy, and he and the chip and hand are all melted down to slag in a steel mill.   Then we get the Third movie.  Ah yes....yet again the AI's are trying to kill Rebel Leader before he becomes Rebel Leader.  At the end of the movie we find out that no matter what the humans do, AI is going to take over the world.   Here's the explanation....AI isn't "software" its on the internet and therefore everywhere so you can't stop it.  BULLCRAP!!!!  Improbable Plot time.... The internet isn't a magical place that exists alongside our own reality.  The internet is webpages, graphical screens that exist on a server somewhere that you can connect your computer to so you can see this screen.  In other words, every www address you visit lives on a physical machine called a Server in a building somewhere plugged into a wall running off of electricity.  What makes it so you can "see" what's on that Server is a information sharing program (software) that connects your computer via a digital cable, coaxial cable, phone line or wirelessly to that server.  There's internet 101...there will be a test later.  So for a computer system/network to be an AI, or Artificial Intelligence, it needs to have a piece of software written or hardware created that makes it thus.  AI is basically a computer that makes it's own decisions.  Computer Strategy games and First Person Shooter games are like that.  When you play these games against a computer opponent, the computer reacts to what you are doing in billions of ways...to the point where the computer seems like it's thinking for itself....... True AI is a computer that transcends it's programming and becomes it's own entity; another form of life.  The Droids from Star Wars and Data from Star Trek are good examples of this.  So with this background, they could have stopped the AI Skynet in Terminator....they were in the main complex where the main server was.....shut down the main server and it severely limits the AI's abilities.  Yes the AI acted like a virus and replicated itself onto the world's computers, but it could still be stopped by shutting down the main server and disconnecting it from the network.  Create a virus of your own and upload it to the main server.  Hook said Server back up to the network and the virus is spread to all the computers controlling the world.    Oh wait....then the movie would be 20 minutes long.....sorry, my bad.  This is the reason I hated that movie so much...made me scream "NO NO...WRONG!!!".   Another movie that had a bad plot hook from the beginning was "Reign of Fire".  We thought "oh cool a Dragon movie".  It pissed me off from the beginning.  Here's the Improbable part.  The reason these Dragons took over the world was because we humans were in disbelief to the point that when we decided to believe what was happening it was too late to do anything about it.  HUH???????  Sorry idiot scriptwriter.....if myself and about 100 other people see a freaking Dragon flying over....Hell a crapload of them....then pretty much the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy, etc etc saw it too and Stealth Fighters, Bombers, Tanks, Destroyers, etc would be dispatched to take them out.   The movie Independence Day was a good example of how to react....you're not sure if they are bad or good so you approach cautiously......keeping certain things in reserve just in case the poop hits the whirling cooling device.   ROF didn't.  The Dragons just kind of came in and took over.  Oh and the reason they breathe fire? (You're going to love this) They eat ash.  Yep....that's why they burn stuff up with fire so they can eat the ash.   Kill the man/woman who wrote this stupid piece of drek now.  Other improbable movie that knowing the plot made me not even bother.  Stealth.  Ever hear of this piece of poop?  Jaime Foxx and Jessica Alba are fighter pilots who are testing a new form of plane that has an AI.  While out flying in a storm a bolt of lightning hits the plane with the AI and scrambles the programming of the AI system making it self aware and EVIL!!!!!   Let me stop laughing so I can finish..........  First off, surges of electricity don't "reprogram" computer chips.  No, surges of electricity turn computer chips into melted pieces of mangled and useless silicon.   If lightning were to reach the circuit board of the onboard computer of that plane, it would cease to function and most likely crash.   Not become EVIL and go around trying to kill people.  Punch this writer right in the head.  Now for "Untraceable".  There's a new serial killer in town and he uses the Internet!! OOOOOOOOO Scary!!!!  Yes apparently you can use a webpage hit counter to control a "device" hooked to a hapless victim to kill him/her.  Yep, that's right...Mr.. Boogeyman of the 21rst Century now can take a piece of simple software and use it to kill.  NO!!!!  To be able to speak to another computer and act on it I need some kind of Peer to Peer connection.  A counter is just that; a counter.   Then apparently this guy can somehow hack into anything in this movie....including the main character's car.  Yes, somehow this guy can hack into her car and make it stop.   Even with electronic starters, push button starters, etc you cannot hack them.  Yes cars have the equivalent of an onboard computer, but said computer does not have an open connection to the Internet!!!!  The only one that does is the OnStar system but really that only connects to certain parts of the vehicle, door locks say or airbag sensors.......The friendly OnStar people cannot start your car for you........they can open your power door locks in case you lock your keys in the car but they can't start it for you.   Stupid plot device....makes me not want to see movie.  Simple.......Honestly do these people think we are that dumb???  Oh wait..........nevermind, I know that answer to that one.

A Few Recent Observations

Actually these are things I've noticed before but haven't ranted about in awhile/yet.  First off is Hollywood and it's need for odd camera work to compensate for a weak story or crappy acting.   Something being shot from "a different POV" does not a good movie/TV show make.  Take "The Blair Witch Project" for instance.  Lot's of hype, and they had some folks believing it was an actual tape found in the wilderness.  I saw it on video and I must say it was the lamest movie I've ever seen.  I love how so many people were "oh it's soooo scary".  It was??  It was lame.  Shot with a handheld camera with herky jerky images......just lame.  Which leads me to the newest "handheld" camera movie; Cloverfield.  Mike on the Bad Karma Airsoft forums asked (I summarize) "When you see a Monster movie do you root for the monster as he destroys the Town or do you worry about the people on the ground and the poor soldiers fighting the Monster?"  Me, I loved watching Godzilla vs. (insert Monster(s) name(s) here) as they trashed Tokyo over and over again.  I could care less about the poor soldiers or people getting crushed.  If you are like me, then Cloverfield isn't for you.  It's (as Mike put it) a Love Story interrupted  by a Monster.  Meh.  It's filmed as a handheld cam because it's supposed to be some guy's video camera footage.  It would be okay if you saw the Monster, but apparently all you see are glimpses, a portion of leg, etc.  That worked in Alien because of the suspense being built up before you saw flashes of the Alien take someone out.  It really worked because you were rewarded with a full glimpse of the Alien at the end of the movie.  If you are going to start the tease.....at least finish with a good result.   Speaking of lame camera work..... there was a show on USA a long time ago called G vs E about Angels and Devils battling it out in the modern world.  I watched the first episode, but because the camera work was so herky and jerky and more akin to a music video than a show, I just couldn't stomach watching it again.  Seriously, the damn thing was getting me motion sick watching it.  I'm that way with a poorly coded first person shooter game.  If the turning movements of the character aren't smooth at all, I can't play much of it for very long.  This show had potential, but the quick zoom in zoom out weird angles, etc just made it unwatchable.   I'm not sure what someone is trying to prove with this "cool and cutting edge" camera work......whatever it is...STOP!!!  The camera is supposed to record the event/story etc, not be part of it!!  I've seen a ridiculous trend in commercials that annoys the Hell out of me lately.  This side angle shot....ever see this?  If you are trying to sell me something, have the spokesperson look at the camera (ie ME) and film them that way.  Don't film the person giving their pitch from the side where it looks like they are talking to someone else.  If they aren't supposed to be trying to sell me something (because if they aren't look at me and talking then they are talking to someone else) then get the damn commercial off of my TV.  The TD Ameritrade ads do this as well as this new Bally fitness ad.  Oh BTW, Bally, the women you show looking in the mirror depressed at their looks....don't need your service.  I hate this ad because it's helping to perpetuate Skeletor women everywhere.  They show a woman who isn't fat, and is in good shape but she looks depressed....then you hear a voice over "Ready for a new your???" NO! She shouldn't have to be ready because there's nothing wrong with her now!!  She looks healthy.  You want to make her a skeleton???  They seriously need to show fat people on these ads....like me......we are the one's that need it.   Oh wait, some fat person's advocacy would probably sue.....I forget we live in the "no responsibility for one's actions" society.   I do like it when directors have the actors break down the 4th wall (the audience).  I loved those scenes in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when he talked to the screen.  That's not a camera trick but a directing trick.  The only camera trick that works is when actors are talking in a different language with subtitles, then the camera zooms in slowly towards one of the characters mouths, then as it zooms back out the character is talking in English.  Red October did this as has many other films.  It's a visual cue that tells the audience "yes the character is still speaking another language, but we are in his head now and can understand it in English".  It's a subtle trick and you accept it.  Although I must say the best use of first person handheld style was in Children of Men when the battle is starting and the cameraman is running along with Clive Owen and someone gets hit and blood splatters and it hits the lens.   The whole movie was filmed normally up to that point and that little bit of camera trickery was just for that one scene.  In that case it was just enough to relay a sense of you being in the battle.  

 

What is our fascination with High Maintenance, stuck up bitches?  Seriously......WTF????  We have Porus Whoreton, then this Kadashian chick.....??? Who??? yeah I had to Google it.  She's the daughter of one of OJ's Dream Team of Lawyers.   Why is she famous?  A video of her having sex found it's way on the net....... I'm sorry, so apparently being a Porn Star is now enough to vault you to stardom.   So I guess all the legitimate Porn Stars must be doing something wrong.....oh yeah...they don't have famous Parents/Family to allegedly be embarrassed by their little Snowflake having sex for the world to see.  If my Step-Daughter did that and was under 18....the next video the world would see would be me shooting the guy and then grounding her for life........ The latest Bimbo waste of time is this Kimora chick.  Apparently she has a line of clothes/shoes called Baby Phat????  Yeah if this craps so good, then why are they selling her shoes in Ross???  It's some of the most gaudiest crap I've seen.   I see glimpses of her show or commercials for it and basically she's a whiny, prissy nothing's is good enough for her, pain in the ass bitch who makes dealing with her a freaking chore.  God I hate people like that!!!  A former friend of mine was like that.  I'd call him on it alot too.  I remember we went car shopping and the guy at the dealership asked him to sign a paper saying that the initial price that was discussed was X dollars.  When they do that it's really for your benefit because it keeps the guy from being a shyster.....in that way they have others, but at least when they quote you a starting price of 10K say and you sign it and they sign it, then they can't come back and say "I never said that price....".   This former friend about lost it.  He stood up saying "I'm not signing shit...what the Hell is this...you ain't pulling a fast one on me...I'm in sales and I know all the tricks...."  The dealer got up to talk to his manager and this former friend looked at me as I was shaking my head.  He said "What?"  I replied "You are an ass.  The guy is doing that for your protection and you lose it and act like a dick.  You are the worst customer ever."  He was too.  He would order something, then after they had left to put in the order, he'd change his mind and when the waitress was less than enthused would get pissed off.  I guess he didn't realize that he had just wasted food and potentially lost the restaurant money.  I hate these wishy washy folks.  Once the Order is in, its in...too late pal wait until next time to change your mind.   I wish TV would stop making a big deal out of nothing people.  Sorry, these folks don't entertain me nor do they add anything to the world or life in general.   These people take and suck the life out of everything but don't give back.  Put 'em on an island somewhere where they can be impressive to each other because frankly, I'm not impressed. 

 

 

Stupidity Abounds

From an email sent to me by Cat this morning.....her comments are in quotes.

 

"This is in the Cookeville paper's "letters to the editor".  I'd expect no less stupidity from people in Algood.  The paper itself should be reprimanded for even printing this insulting garbage."

 

We don't need Chinese businesses here

Made in China -- I'm sick of seeing that on about everything on any store shelves. How about stocking some made-in-U.S.A. merchandise?

China is a communist country trying to destroy us. They tried by poisoning everything from pet food to baby food, neither of which should be imported from any other country. We can make everything we need at home, but that wouldn't make the rich richer, would it? It's all about greed.

Gov. Phil Bredesen had to go to China to get his Christmas cards again last year, so he takes a bunch of cronies with him to cuddle up and "make nice" with people who were trying to kill us. And now he's wanting to bring Chinese business to Tennessee. His bud George Halford trotted along and can't brag enough about China -- how smart they are and just a bunch of brilliant things they're doing.

Why wouldn't they, Mr. Halford? We gave them technological help, among other things, such as outsourcing jobs of Americans. We helped Japan, too, and they thanked us by bombing Pearl Harbor.

Mr. Halford said (quote H-C) there are 160 Japanese business in Tennessee. He wants to see that many Chinese businesses here also -- to bring the poison to Tennessee?

We have 95 counties so that would be two and two-fifths foreign business in each county. Way to go, Halford. Maybe you ought to go to China and enjoy yourself. I believe our community could find another Chamber of Commerce president. A bit of advice -- better hire a taster. China seems to have a liking to flavoring their food with formaldehyde.

Virginia Byrd

Algood

 

As you can see, this is a OpEd piece from an Algood, TN newspaper.  Algood is where I lived when I first moved here.  I quickly did what I could to move my Family out of there.  It's a small Mayberryesque town that is adjacent to Cookeville.  They honestly should let Cookeville annex them, they'd be better off.  The above opinion is not just exclusive to un-educated/under educated people in Tennessee.  No, I bet back home there are people with the same attitude.  I agree with some of her points.  We can make everything we import here, but people like Ms. Byrd won't buy them because of the price tag on those Made in the US products.  China is not trying to destroy us.  Would you try and destroy your employer?  Would you try and destroy/sabotage the Corporation that gives you economic freedom?  I may not like the way my company does certain things, but hey they pay me and that money they pay me goes to put a roof over my Family's head and food on the table.  I survive because of the income of cash.  So do they.  We didn't give the Chinese tech help.....they already have that from their years of association with the rest of the World.  I liked her comment how "we helped Japan too, and they thanked us by bombing Pearl Harbor".  I'm not sure what help we gave them, but they bombed Pearl Harbor because we stated "We are not involved in this war" but yet helped our allies by blockading the Pacific so the Japanese couldn't freely move about.  The Japanese basically saw that we were double talking so bloodied our nose.   Noticed we learned from it.  Don't park your entire Navy in one freaking place.  They bombed one small town; we nuked two major cities of theirs.   Things between us have been real good for years.  What Ms. Byrd and a lot of Americans don't know is that the British are the biggest foreign land holders and business owners in our Country.  It's just that they are white so therefore not the "usual" suspects.  Yes Virginia, let's blame those darn F'rners.......they want to poison us.... No, let's blame Clinton for and Congress in the 90's for passing NAFTA.  Let's blame people like you Ms. Byrd who shop at WalMart; the fine purveyor of Made in China.  Ms. Byrd does touch on the point "it won't make the rich richer, it's all about greed".  Yes it is.  Welcome to Capitalism.  I don't like shopping at Wally Mart, I avoid it at all costs.  But yeah, sometimes they have great deals.  If Ms. Byrd were so adamant about changing things then she would buy from local produce stands, or raise her own food.  Shop at Kroger say, or go find a Whole Foods or other grocery chain.  Most people don't know it, but the Kroger canned veggies are made by Del Monte......they just have the Kroger label and therefore a can of corn can cost .88!!!!  I just love how Chinese people are out to Poison us!!!  OH NOES!!!!  EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!!!!!!!  Education is your friend Ms. Byrd......but you will never realize that because you probably voted for Bush....the man who let's his Corporate buddies get away with outsourcing etc.   NAFTA, on paper, was a good idea.  It was supposed to promote free trade between Canada, the US and Mexico.  The sinister Sith Lords of Corporate America found a loophole that didn't stop them from initiating free trade in labor as well.  Who do you think pays the Coyotes to bring the illegals to the US from Mexico????  You've got the Tyson Chicken plant in Monterey, TN which is almost exclusively manned by Latinos getting 8 bucks an hour.  It used to be a Union Shop where folks made good money.  Not no more.  But hey, the price of frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts is low......wonder why????? 

Security

Lately here in Tennessee we've been having some major lapses in Security with people that know better; or should.  I guess Federal Employees, or those with Top Secret clearance, are so used to handling sensitive material that the sensitivity of the subject matter wanes.  They treat information, in an age of Information Crime, like it's a cup of coffee to be left on a table and forgotten about.  I remember back in the Nineties at Lawrence Livermore Labs when the big news out of there was some Scientist had his laptop stolen.  He carelessly just left it sitting unattended somewhere and figured no one would take it.  On it were sensitive files of a Top Secret nature.  I understand the man was probably working on the project, and needed access to those files, but why did he have copies of them on his portable computer???  Yes he has Top Secret clearance but that doesn't mean he should have the actual files on his harddrive!!!! This is a man with a PhD...oh wait I know a PhD Scientist that couldn't figure out how to open a can of regular old household paint...nevermind.  The recent screw ups out here have been of a similar vein.  First we have a laptop stolen from a desk at the offices of Davidson County (that's Nashville and it's immediate surrounding cities....not mine, I'm in Wilson County) that contained lists of Voter Information on it.  That info contained SS#'s.  Why was this list sitting on someone's harddrive?  I can understand a Registrar of Voters needing access to that database of info, but shouldn't that have been stored on a server somewhere?????  I have access to sensitive info here at work, but I can only access it through a gateway program that pulls it from the Database.  There is no reason nor anyway that I know of to download it to my harddrive.  Frankly, I'm glad.  Then there was a recent incident at Tennessee Tech University (where my StepSon Kevin is a student currently) where a Flash Drive containing student records went missing.  Why the Hell was student info on a FLASHDRIVE!?!?!?!?!?  This, of course, includes SS#'s.  Who trains these people?  Are there not rules in place saying "Don't download sensitive crap to your harddrives." ????  It's like these people don't think.  Wake up folks.  People are going to start suing your assess right and left if you don't watch it.  The idiots responsible tell folks to contact the three credit agencies and have them put a fraud warning on their information.  Don't those agencies charge for that?  If so, are the morons responsible for the screw ups going to pay the fees?  I sure hope so.  You should take it out of the dumbass employees check and his/her supervisor's as well.  Now as you may know from previous entries, we have a new mall near our house.  Providence Marketplace.  Recently the Police raided an apartment in Mount Juliet and found a crapload of shoplifted goods.  3 guesses as to where they were stolen from.  I've see the Security at that place.  3 cops driving around; that's it.  I don't see any Loss Prevention folks (trust me, I'd know....having had a best friend who did just that for years.....) so I can see how easy it is to shoplift.  How many times have you been in a store and the alarm thing goes off as someone is exiting.  Obviously a security tag hadn't been removed or something, but 9 times out of 10 the person is just told "oh don't worry it's okay".  No, it's not okay.  You never know when that person exiting is not someone that just came from the register.  What's next....they start posting our SS#'s on the nightly news????

Suuuurrre It is......

My Wife saw a bumper sticker on what was obviously an assbackward, country hicks pick up (gee in Tennessee....say it isn't so???) the other day that we discussed this morning. Picture this truck; big sticker on the back window for Remington Fire arms. It had a bunch of ducks flying and it said "If it flies, it dies." Nice huh? I have no qualms about duck hunting, etc (not my thing but whatever) but Jesus dude!?!?!? Way to be a blood thirsty bastard. Damn Hick! His bumper sticker had a Confederate Flag on it and the words "It's not hatred, it's heritage." I love this attitude out here. I've actually called someone on a message board about his "Confederate Heritage" before. You know folks, the KKK says that what they do is their Heritage too. Oh, and they love to wave the confederate flag (from now on to be put in lower case as it doesn't warrant any capitals). So I guess your heritage is what exactly? Losing a war, having a bunch of uneducated farmers thinking they could spank the US Army? Being so lazy of a bastard that you get pissed off at the President to the point you go to war because he won't let you keep brown skinned people as property???? Nice heritage Dude....really. Way to go. So which part of that is the "not hatred" part? I've heard explanations that the South went to war because of Cotton Tariffs mostly.....Bull Shit! Cotton Tariffs are worked out by a State Representative in Congress; cotton tariffs are no reason to go to war. But, when the President of the US basically destroys your "way of life" by putting and end to Slavery (and thusly the Plantation System), that is usually a reason to go to war. People don't like change, we get that. But it being so ingrained in a people's psyche that people with dark skin are less than human and should be treated like animals (Hell sometimes the animals got better treatment) is just stupid and wrong. It's one thing I've noticed about the South though; narrow minded, short sighted folks with blinders on (oh wait...those are the members of the Jesus Squad.....I forgot....). Southern States tend to be "red states" which has never made much sense to me. Republicans HATE the working class. They don't give two rat's asses about the working class, and often make it so the rich stay richer and the middle classe become poorer. But yet the Repugs like Jesus, think that we should all be Baptist or Fundies, hate Abortion, don't want to talk about sex, hate fun oh yeah, and like War.....and guns.....and booze....... all the things the working class in the South Love and subscribe to. But yet they forget that their lives could be so much more with a Political party that caters to them. That one bad doesn't seem to outweigh the perceived good. In fairness (something not often found in this blog..hee hee) not all middle class Southerners are like this, just the ones of my generation or older ones. I see promise in the generations to come. Not all of them buy into the "Rebel Pride" BS. There is a Nursery, Needhams, in Mount Juliet that Cat and I will never go to because he proudly flys the confederate flag. What's funny is he also flys the State flag and US flag. So let's see the message here: I'm a proud American, I live in Tennessee and I'm a stupid racist bastard....oh sorry....A Rebel....because it's "My Heritage" or some shit like that. What's even funnier is if this moran was to think about what he's doing, he'd realize that during the time period of "his heritage" it would be a killing offense to fly the US flag as it was the "flag of the enemy". Just a dumbass.....probably drives a pick up with a "If it Flies it dies" sticker with a gunrack and wears Real Tree cammo like it's in fashion or something.

This Woman Deserves a Medal

(I will be posting the entire article here from SFGate.com. Link to article by clicking on the title...you have to read some of the idiots comments on this event.....)



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Mom Sells Rule-Breaking Son's Car
Wednesday, January 9, 2008



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(01-09) 09:55 PST Des Moines, Iowa (AP) --
Jane Hambleton has dubbed herself the "meanest mom on the planet."
After finding alcohol in her son's car, she decided to sell the car and share her 19-year-old's misdeed with everyone — by placing an ad in the local newspaper.
The ad reads: "OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."
Hambleton has heard from people besides interested buyers since recently placing the ad in The Des Moines Register.
The 48-year-old from Fort Dodge says she has fielded more than 70 telephone calls from emergency room technicians, nurses, school counselors and even a Georgia man who wanted to congratulate her.
"The ad cost a fortune, but you know what? I'm telling people what happened here," Hambleton says. "I'm not just gonna put the car for resale when there's nothing wrong with it, except the driver made a dumb decision.
"It's overwhelming the number of calls I've gotten from people saying 'Thank you, it's nice to see a responsible parent.' So far there are no calls from anyone saying, 'You're really strict. You're real overboard, lady.'"
The only critic is her son, who Hambleton says is "very, very unhappy" with the ad and claims the alcohol was left by a passenger.
Hambleton believes her son but has decided mercy isn't the best policy in this case. She says she set two rules when she bought the car at Thanksgiving: No booze, and always keep it locked.
The car has been sold, but Hambleton says she will continue the ad for another week — just for the feedback.



This lady rocks!!! It is sad when a Parent being a Parent makes the news. I guess little punk boy forgot the saying "My House, My Rules." Of course I think Mom's being a bit naive by believing his "it's not my booze it's a friends..." defense but hey. Maybe Junior will now think twice before having alcohol in the car. Dumb ass.......

Nice Try Ahmedijan....

Yesterday the Iranian Republican Guard's "Navy" attempted to draw the US Navy into an act of war. With laughable results. So these Morons in fishing boats pulled up in International Waters dropping white boxes and saying over the radio (and from the broadcasts I've heard it's actually quite humorous) "We are coming for you." "Soon you will expolde." The US Navy responded in kind; Battle Stations, evasive manuevers (hey you never know what could be in those white boxes....improvised mines...) by bringing to bear every gun they had onto the small fleet of fishing boats the Iranian's call a Navy. Just as the US commander was about to give the order to fire, the fishing boats bugged out....with their tails between their legs. Yeah....Asshatmajedian....nice try. I've read some scathing criticism today...it was in the New York Post which is about as fair and balanced as Fox News....about how the Navy chickened out. Excuse me??? Assmahedijan has been trying to provoke all out war with the US for as long as he's been in office. We aren't biting. It's a sad ploy by a Country's "Leader" to prove just how bad ass he is. It's like that little dog annoying the big dog. The big dog ignores the little one until he's gotten to be annoying...then the big turns on the little one and pins him to the ground, teeth around his throat. I commend our Navy...they reacted perfectly. They didn't let themselves be goaded into a fight, but were ready to end one if it was started. I honestly think we should make a glass parking lot out of the whole region........it's just too damn much.

They are Guilty of what crime exactly?

Bonds, Maguire, Sosa, Canseco, Clemons...etc etc..... These are the names of the new Public Enemy Number 1 that a Congressional committee is spending our tax dollars on trying to bring to justice.  Their crime?  Taking performance enhancing drugs/supplements while playing Professional Baseball.  Yep.  Guys taking roids to make their muscles bigger and hitting a small ball with a wooden club are the epitome of EVIL and should be flayed alive in the public square.  Forget the fact that Gangs are becoming a nightmare epidemic again.  The Russian Mafia, Triads, and now the Mexican Mafia who are brutal bastards that will kill you if you blink in their direction; these folks are ruining lives and our Country but yet we exert a tremendous amount of energy trying to indict Barry Bonds for rubbing steroid cream on himself.  What in the Hell is the matter with us????  Is Steroid use a crime???  I think what this task force needs to do is to take that energy and money and declare all Gangs as Terrorist Organizations.  This way we can have Homeland Security, NSA, etc involved.  If we treated gangs like terrorists, we may actually put a stop to all this crap.  But no, instead we waste our tax dollars trying to take an achievement away from someone because he used steroids.  Like he was the only baseball player/Professional Athlete to do so.  Lord help this country.

Happy 2008

It's New Year's Day. Yeah I know, I don't get excited about it either. I do know one thing, W will be out of office at the end of this year. Now that's something to get excited about. Here's hoping that this Country wakes the Hell up and realizes that the person we put in the White House we are stuck with for at the least 4 years. Remember that. I honestly think that the Office of President should be reviewed by the People every year; like you get at your job a performance review. If the review is in the extreme negatives, then that President should be demoted to VP and a new President elected. That will make them actually do something now won't it. It might actually make them part of that whole Government for the People, by the People. You know, that passage that is on that 200+ year old document sitting in Washington DC. The one that starts off with "We the People.....". The one with great Men's signatures on it, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, that big show off John Hancock (notice he had to write his name bigger than anyone elses.....). Since 9-11-01 our Government has forgotten all about that document, and "We the People" have let them. Let's make 2008 the year we take back our Civil Liberties that have been stolen from us. No more snooping on random phone calls. If you suspect that Muslim group of being terrorists; fine bug their damn phones. Don't pull Grandma's out of line for a random security search at airports, or kids, pull people like me: dark skinned, dark haired between the ages 0f 18-40 something. I don't care.

Happy New Year.