They just aren't even trying anymore are they?

Not sure if you've noticed, but the price of gas is going up again.   What's the excuse this time?  We haven't had any hurricanes in the Gulf in awhile, no pipelines have exploded, it's not summer, so what's the excuse?  The excuse is the Dollar isn't doing well against other currencies.  Um...Oil Company Guys I've got news for you, the Dollar hasn't been doing good against other currencies for a long time now.  Do these guys even try to come up with legitimate excuses anymore?  Seriously, what the Hell.  The Dollar hasn't been doing well since the European Union formed and we went to war with Iraq.   The Euro has been kicking the Dollars pathetic ass since it was first minted.  Not sure how the dollar being weak against other currencies has anything to do with the price of gas.   Last week gas was 30 cents a gallon cheaper and the economic status of the Country and the value of the Dollar were the same as they are right now.   Why don't you Oil Company bastards just come out and tell us the real reason: we are being punished for buying more economical cars.  Plain and simple.  The Oil Companies aren't making their record profits lately because more and more SUV owners are getting rid of those gas guzzling pieces of crap and buying more fuel efficient cars, and the President is wanting to make it standard that all cars get 30+ miles to the gallon.  That will put a cramp in their style now won't it.  So to the Oil Companies I say "F**k You!!".   Here's hoping you go the way of the Dinosaur real soon.

The Person Under the Stairs.....

Well okay, Under The House is more like it.  As I've mentioned before, our house is freaking ancient.  It was built in '73 and it shows.  One place I cannot stand to go, but have to, is under the house.  I hate our crawlspace, I really do.  If I had the extra income I'd pay someone to go under there and cement over the dirt.  Thank God whomever owned the house previously put plastic down under there in the main crawl through areas.   The reason I had to play Tunnel Rat is our dryer has been sucking on doing its job.  It takes 3-4 times a load to dry things.  Obviously a clog somewhere.   One would think that the smart way to vent the dryer would be to run the pipe out to the wall closest to where the dryer is.   Nope.....not our house.  The dryer is in the front of the house and the vent is in the back....30 feet back.  For the most part there is a 4-6 inch diameter hard pipe attached to the back of the dryer by a flex hose.  The flex hose is where the clog was; a big clog, a wet clog, a nasty clog.   The flex pipe was obviously old as it tore as I was cleaning it, facilitating one of 4 different Lowe's runs that day.  Suffice to say with the new flex pipe and the clog removed and, with the judicious use of my leaf blower, the hard pipe cleared out the dryer is working like it's brand new (which it sort of is...about 2 years old now). 

Is It Just Me?

I wanted to remark upon something I saw on the news this morning.  Tonight across all of Tennessee there is going to be a Candlelight Vigil held by those in favor of Health Care Reform.   I just thought it was funny that those that are opposed to Corporate Greed and want a sensible, affordable option to the Insurance Companies for their health care or who want a little more regulation to keep said Insurance Companies from making a profit at "whatever cost" are showing their support in a peaceful fashion while those that are opposed to any kind of Health Care Reform because they believe the negative hype from the Right show their opposition by screaming and yelling and carrying on and walking around outside Town Hall Meetings with slung rifles.  Just goes to show you who the independent thinkers are and who are the scared, easily riled up sheep.  

 

Also it seems now that Steve McNair was a true moron and deserved his fate.   No, I'm not saying the Man deserved death, no one deserves that, I'm saying he deserved the bad karma that came his way.   Apparently after he bailed the bimbo that killed him out of her DUI, that night he went to his other mistress' house and slept with her.  She's come forward now and said that bimbo #1 was following her around a few weeks before McNair was killed.  And, to add insult to injury, another woman has come forward with a daughter she says is his.  Yeah, such a humanitarian.  Too bad all his good karma was outweighed by all of his bad.  Here's a lesson guys; if you are going to marry someone, don't cheat on them.  Especially if you have kids involved.  No good ever comes of it.  Gals, if you are the one cheating with a Married Man, stop it now.  Even if he leaves His Wife for you, he will dump you for someone else eventually.  You think you are special because he picked you over His Wife, but what you don't stop to think about is if he's going to cheat with you on someone else, he's going to cheat with someone else on you.  Guys, if you want to be free to date whomever you want, then don't get married.  Take a lesson from the Perfect Line on that one.  He likes his freedom and his tastes change like some people change socks.  I honestly don't think he would be happy as a Married Guy, he has too much fun.  He's honest with himself and the women he's with though.  Gals, seriously the married guy should be off limits okay.  Just isn't worth it and all he will do is use you.

 

 

Is it Just Me?

Here is a badge of honor I award to those that I consider Attention Whores.   Kanye West, Huge AW.  Is it just me or are all AW's also collosal Douchebags?   Recently we have had our fair share of these AW's.   I blame the American Tabloid mentality and Our love of Reality Shows.   Reality Shows, at least from my recollection, all started with MTV's "The Real World".   Take 6 diametrically different people, drop them into a roomate situation then film every move 24/7.   It was a social experiment that was in it's purest form when it started but has now devolved into "let's find the most controversial people we can find, encourage them to be complete assholes to each other, then not tell anyone else on the show we are doing this."   Reality TV is cheap to produce; basically any moron with a pulse who wants to have their life filmed and can push people's buttons can get a show.   Look at Jon and Kate Gosslin.....you know the ones....he's a bigger child than his kids and she's the "Shrew" from "Taming of the Shrew".    Jon apparently loves the negative attention, but hey you know what They say "any attention is still attention."   Parents, go home and give your kids lots of love and affection and attention so they don't grow up to be AWs.  Just saying.

There are levels to being an AW.  There are the showing off levels straight up to the Going on a killing spree because I want to be famous levels.   Let's examine them shall we.

Level One: Show off.  We've all been an AW at this level at least once or twice in our lives, it's human nature.  We've all been there when the TV crew pulls up and the cameras are rolling and you see the Journalist talking into a microphone with the camera on her/him and you see some goofball behind the reporter jumping up and down and waving his hands because there's a camera pointed at them.  Or the little kid who sings and dances when the adults are all gathered around sitting down after a Holiday dinner, these are examples of minor level AWness.  

Level Two: Stupid Human Tricks.  These are acts that are usually proceeded by the statements "Hey Y'all watch this." or "Hey hold my beer".   You've seen these dumbasses on those video shows...adults jumping on trampolines for their kids and falling on their asses, through windows, etc.    Or morons just doing stupid crap that is completely unplanned and either ending up with a Darwin Award (for removing themselves from the Gene Pool) or getting an Honorable Mention (injured, but didn't quite take themselves out).  This kind of AW is usually drunk or high, Male and between the ages of 15-23. 

Level Three: Dance/Cheer Moms and Sports Dads.   You've all seen these ones.  These are the Dads at your kids soccer/baseball/football/basketball games who yell at their kids for making mistakes, yell at the umps, threaten the umps, physically abuse the umps and generally make a loud, assholic, public spectacle of themselves.  These Jackholes are ex-Jocks who have yet to come to terms with the fact that being popular in High School usually doesn't translate to being Popular in the Real World and have crappy jobs and two mortgages and a shitty marriage (usually to the Cheer/Dance Mom).  These Asshats are pissed because they never made it pro as an athelete.  They were the Shit in High School, but not so great in college and either ended up injured or cut from the team because they weren't as great as they thought they'd be.  These Fubars are jealous because the Geeks they gave wedgies to are all High Tech millionaires and Jock boy lives in the crappy section of the Burbs.   Steroid boy lives vicariously through his "Boy" and was so proud when his breeding partner threw a male instead of a female (and he will usually have multiple kids because he kept trying until he got a male).  These Jackholes crave attention but have to get it through their offspring's efforts.   Dance/Cheer Moms are the same.  The former Cheerleader or Beauty Pageant Winner who forces their little girl into these inane competitions against their will.   You can usually find them getting their 5 year olds a facial and buying their teen daughters new breasts.   Yes these harpies have fought Father Time tooth and nail and are losing the battle fast so they relive their youth and beauty through their Daughters.   Celebrity examples of this are Joe Simpson and Dinnah Lohan, both Parent of the Year candidates.

Level 4: Narcissistic Douchebags.  These are the assholes that refer to themselves in the third person.  The one's that think they are successful because they bullied everyone in their path.   There are these three guys in their 20's on this HGTV show who sell Real Estate....the tagline is they are the Millionaire Bad Boys.   I watched 5 minutes of this one Douche the other day flipping channels.  He has the Ceasar Hair that seems to be all the rage with the 20 something dudes, goofy ass clothes (he was dressed more like he was going to a club than he was dressed like a serious Realtor running an Open House) and refers to himself in the third Person....example : This house needs a touch of The Chad...The Chad is happy he is having an Open House....WTF??  He went through a really nice Manhattan Condo refluffing pillows, turned down the bed....I'm sorry, but I thought a big selling point of houses was when you had the beds MADE so the rooms looked neat?  I guess The Chad was going for the just got off my boyfriend look (yes he looks and acts quite gay but yet would be the first to not admit it to himself or anyone else...coward.)  I had to change the channel, I was going to be nauseous.   There's this other Real Estate show on the same channel called "The Property Shop".  I features a curly haired (almost a 'fro), blonde who is an absolute BITCH.   She's going to have an annurism by the time she's 40 if she doesn't rein it in.  She rags her Clients to death, she bitches at them, yells at them, talks down to them and she never stops working.  These so-called Hip Hop Moguls are the same way.  Kanye West, Douche extraordanaire and his little awards show stunt.   Now we have Sean Combs who displays all the symptoms of an AW, he's a Douche, he's a show off, he's narcissitic and he refers to Himself in the third person.  His latest example of AWness was at the taping of a BET show.  He came into the studio throwing handfuls of cash....this is Rapper for "I'm so rich I can just throw money away".....and in the process of "making it rain" he lost one of his rings.   Now if you are so rich you can just throw money away, then you wouldn't give a damn about the ring.  Oh no.....Combs had the studio locked down and everyone frisked.   If I was in that audience, I'd be getting paid big time right now.  Then we have the "anything for a buck" folks.  The one's that plan elaborate hoaxes for the publicity and hopefully monetary gain....it's mostly for the publicity.    Remember the Wendy's Chili incident?  This stupid cow in San Jose claims she found a finger tip in her Chili.  When the news went to interview her she had her daughter with her, arm in a sling, saying that the cops did that to her kid when they knocked her down executing a search of the premises.   She and Her husband claimed they were victims, etc etc.....it was front page news for months until the Police and FBI finished their investigation.  To this day Husband and Wife are rotting in jail for extortion and fraud.   Which takes us to the most recent AW, the Jackass who's kid was supposedly caught in a balloon.   This huge metallic balloon launches from this guys backyard and there's news choppers, National Guard Choppers, cops, etc all tracking this balloon and trying to get it down to save this poor six year old boy trapped in it.  When it finally landed and they saw no kid, they frantically searched and searched for this missing and presumed dead boy.   He was hiding at home the whole time.   So they say.  On a CNN interview the other day the little boy was questioned as to why he was hiding and not answering anyone's calls and he turned to his Dad and said "Dad said it was all part of the show."  The Dad glared at him and the boy turned to Dad and said "But I thought you said it was all part of our TV Show Dad?"  Further investigation revealed that this Monkey had been on Wife Swap before and has been trying to pitch a Reality Show about he and his Wife and Kids but was turned down.  It was also discovered that he called the FAA and News Channels first before calling 911 and has just been determined today to be an elaborate hoax.

Level 5: Serial Killers/Home Grown Terrorists.  Believe it or not, these guys are Attention Whores too.

That's it on AW's (I think I've given them more attention than they deserve), so now you know what to watch out for.

Catching up.

Like my fellow GoGers, I haven't been bitten by the blog bug lately.   Today I have remedied that with my Columbus Day post and this one which will cover several topics.

 

1. WalMart.  The bastion of evil as I like to call them.   I've noticed lately that there has been a major marketing campaign by the Corporate Ghouls at WalMart, Inc to flood the airwaves with commercials.  Lot's of commercials, like two to three WalMart commercials per show.   Their new slogan is "Save More, Live Better".  I despise WalMart, I really do.  They weren't content with just being a Discount Department store, no no no.  They had to become the all encompassing, give us all your money, place.  They roll into town and ruin all the local shops.  Thank God back home in California they are smart enough to tell WalMart that if they want to come into a certain town, they have to be a regular WalMart only.  Thus the reason there are few WalMarts in California.  Out in Tennessee, these places are a dime a dozen, and they are the SUPER WalMarts.  Oh yes oh Lazy Housewife who Home Schools her kids, you can go to one place and get clothes, toys, cleaning supplies, groceries, you teeth checked, your hair done, your eyes checked, pay your bills, get some jewelry, cash your paychecks and other checks (this till throws me....who doesn't have a bank account in this day and age?  Seriously....do you like paying someone part of your paycheck so they can give you money instead of having the whole amount deposited into a bank account?) and get the car repaired all in the same store.  Why you might as well move on in, or better yet, get a job here.   We will pay you minimum wage and ask you to work overtime but not pay you for it because it wasn't authorized.  Their commercials are so deceiving too.  They start off with some kind of scenario; i.e. lunch for working adults.   They come up with some number they got from somewhere that makes you think that by buying lunch everyday you are wasting your money, but if you shop at WalMart and buy some of their lunch things, lunch meat, bread, lunchables, etc you will save X amount of dollars a month.   Okay, I have an even better way to save money each month, it's called LEFTOVERS!  When you make dinner the night before, make extra.  That extra you put aside in a separate container and take it to work with you the next day for...wait for it....LUNCH!!!!!  Or make a damn sandwich and put it in a paper freaking bag.  Eating out every single day does get expensive, that's the only part of the commercial that's true.  I know I can get the same price if not better with coupons and sales at Kroger than what WalMart claims.   Most of their crap is priced about the same as Target and K-Mart, although listening to their commercials will lead you to believe they have the "lowest prices in town".  The only time you can get a real deal their is if you bring in a print ad from another store and show them that the other store is charging less.  They will match the price.  Good example: we just bought Wii Fit Plus at Target.  I've seen it priced the same everywhere; 19.99.  At WalMart they have it priced at....drum roll please....19.96! OMFG 4 WHOLE CENTS CHEAPER...LET'S GO GET IT NOW!!!!!!!!  In this State with our almost 10% sales tax, that .04 ain't going to make a whole hell of a lot of difference.  Yes, I have shopped there (yesterday actually) but that was because there is no Target in Cookeville and we needed to get my Grandson a surprise.  Hey it's Nanu's job to spoil him, when he gets older he gets money.  

 

2. The GOP and their utter disrespect for the President.   It's getting appalling actually to listen to it.  The Democrats the past 8 years were more respectful to President Bush than the Republicans are to President Obama.   He hasn't done anything wrong yet but they are constantly manufacturing shit that he's "going" to do.  They can't even give him kudos for winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  Folks like Liz Cheney has to say "he should send the mother of a fallen soldier to receive the prize because if it wasn't for that soldier there'd be no peace."  Um Liz, STFU okay?  Why don't you and Penis...I mean Dick go hunting somewhere in the woods and do the world a favor and don't come back.   He was given the prize because of his attempts to mend the rift between the US and the  WHOLE FREAKING WORLD that Bush built  8 years ago.   We are part of a global economy, and if we don't start playing nice we will be left behind.  Hell the Europeans are already kicking our asses with the Euro and the power of the European Union.   We suck compared to them.  These asswipes can't even find anything good about the President winning the prize, just another excuse to bash him and bring up his "lack of proof of citizenship" like Rush Oxycotin did this morning.  He said "this is the second Kenyan to win a Nobel peace prize".   God, I pray to you, please give Rush Oxycotin testicular cancer.  Please?  I don't want you to kill him, just leave him ballless like he already is.

 

3. Tennessee County and State Government.  Corruption and sneaky, under handedness at it's best.  Back home in California, when there was an election coming up, your mailbox was flooded with sample ballots, campaign flyers, etc.  Everything you needed as a registered voter to prepare yourself to exercise your constitutional right to Vote.  Not in Tennessee.  Oh no, by State law all they have to do is announce the vote coming up in the newspapers.  That's it.   They usually advertise these things in the throwaway papers that litter your lawn/driveway until they become a wet soggy mess that you end up regretting you let it get to said state before throwing it away.   Unlike back home, car registration is done by county out here so the charge and whether or not you need a smog test is determined by the County you live in.  In Wilson County we pay a 25 dollar wheel tax on top of the 25 dollar standard State registration fee.  Not sure what this Wheel tax is for, and I don't think anyone else does either.  We also have to get a smog test every year.  My total registration is normally 60 bucks: 25 State Fee, 25 Wheel Tax and 10 for Smog.  A lot of the cities in this county are growing and need better schools. Mt. Juliet managed to find the money to build a brand new High School, but Lebanon (where the County Seat is) can't seem to find the money to re-build/refurbish their's which is literally falling down.  The County Seat, where there is a lot of money can't seem to find anyone willing to pay for a new High School that most of their kids will be going to.  They waited until the last minute to have a special election to add another 25 dollar wheel tax that would be in affect for 25 years and in that time they'd have enough money to build a High School.  The only way I found out about the election was from the morning news.  I rushed to the polls that night to vote.  The tax was defeated, but only by 1,000 votes.   Now, what gets me is that their solution to the immediate need for a new High School is to impose another tax for 25 years to be able to make the money to build one.   You need a school NOW, not 25 years from now.  I remember something else that was supposed to be temporary, a fee that was only going to be paid until the product was paid off.  Both of them actually.  One was built in 1936, the other in 1938 and I'm sure they've been paid for 1,000 times over but we are still paying for.  That's right, I'm talking the Bay Bridge and the GGB.   Here's my big issue with this whole thing: A. My kid doesn't go to school in Lebanon, nor do I live in Lebanon.  If Mount Juliet asked Lebanon to help pay for our new High School they'd have laughed us off as morons.  B. A 25 year plan is the best you collection of talking apes can come up with?????? Seriously?

 

That's it for now.

Columbus Day

In 1492 a Genovese name Christopher Columbus set sail to prove to his skeptics that the world was indeed round and not flat like was popularly believed.  Notice I don't refer to him as an Italian because back then there really wasn't a unified Country called Italy yet.   Columbus was from the Province of Genoa, thus the term Genovese.  No one believed him, so he went to Spain to the Court of King Phillip and Queen Isabella who bankrolled the Genovese in his efforts.  You see Spain was on a global land grab and was stopping at nothing to expand their Empire.   Now all of this is common knowledge here in the US; we are taught about it in Elementary School and Middle School.  The issue I have is this; why do we in the United States celebrate Columbus Day?  Actually no one but the Banks, Post Office, Local, State and Federal Governments celebrate Columbus Day.  Columbus never set foot in North America, he discovered Central America and the Caribbean.  El Salvador, parts of Cuba, Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and parts of South America.   He was also responsible for the deaths of 15 million natives and the introduction of slavery into the European way of thinking.   Yes, let's be so proud of good 'ol Chris.   Heck the only thing that came of his "discovering of America" is that we get Cities named after him and some of the best Salami to be made comes from the Columbus Salami Company in San Francisco.

Irene! Irene!

Last month my Airsoft Team, The Order, went to Operation Irene VII.  For those that don't know what that is, it's the "Superbowl" of Airsoft events.  400-500 folks come and pay to play at the Urban training facility at Fort Knox known as Zussman.  It's a full scale city complete with sound effects and pyrotechnics that gives you the experience of being on a movie set.  It's some cool crap.  A friend of ours, Chuck Link, is the head of Securtiy/Staff at these events and works closely with the Organizer Mr. John Lu.  We get to play for free in exchange for a bit of work and being general Staff (assisting with parking, answering questions, etc).  What makes the event so cool is there are real life Heroes there.  Retired soldiers that fought in the crap and lived to tell the tale.  One notable is Col. Danny McKnight.  He lead the Hummve column through the streets of Mogadishu in October of 1993 in the battle dramatized in the movie "Black Hawk Down".  Operation Irene was the codename for that mission and this event is a reenactment of that day.  At the bottom of this blog you will see a video my Teammate Jason, aka Sureshot is making of all the footage he shot that day.  The video is just the intro, ala the beginning of the movie "Snatch", and the full thing is done and we will have copies shortly.  Check it out.

Edit: Sureshot just added all the videos in 10 minute segments on his Youtube profile.  Watch the Intro on Youtube then click on "all videos by this user" and you will see the rest.

Prohibition Has Ended!!!

No this isn't a blast from the past post.  Yesterday in Trigg County, KY Prohibition ended.   I will let that soak in for my Buds back home.   Apparently in the South, or as I like to call it "the land that time forgot", we still have Dry Counties.   That's right, it's more of someone elses morals being forced upon everyone else and being made into law.   Because alcohol is considered "The Devil's Drink" by alot of Southern Baptists (I know my fair share and they drink like fish....but I digress) they helped to pass laws that made the decision to ban alcohol by the County.   Now what I find hypocritical about this is these same folks say that the Government banning anything is Soclialism.   Hee hee....the Hypocrisy runs deep with these ones.   In most of these Southern States, there is no State Income tax so the Counties have to make due somehow.   Most of the major, metropolitan Counties have gotten smart about this and allow liquor stores and restaurants that sell alcohol by the drink.  Let me explain the odd booze laws out here first off.   A Liquor Store out here can only sell, you got it, Liquor.  That's it.   Now we need to define what they consider Liquor.  Beer is not considered Liquor; it can be bought at the grocery store.   I can see the GoG scratching their heads at this.  Back home, in Safeway (think Kroger in TN), there are aisles of Wine, Scotch, Whiskey, Vodka, etc as well as a cooler full of chilled beer.  Not here.  Only beer is sold.  Liquor stores can sell beer and they can sell wine and other alcoholic beverages too.  The one thing you will never see here is the big box Liquor Stores like Beverages and More.   Those stores not only sell alcohol but snacks and gourmet sodas, cigars, etc.  You can't do that here.   Not sure why, but you can't.    The strangest example of irony in TN is the County that Lynchburg, TN is in is a dry county.   Yep the place where Jack Daniels is made you cannot drink what is made at said distillery.   What gets me is that one of the Churches in Trigg County went so far as to threaten to kick people out of the congregation if they voted for it.   What's the big deal you say?  These little counties are all getting poorer.  The big metropolitan counties survive on the sales tax revenue from restaurant chains and bars.  Most restaurant chains won't open up in your area if they can't sell liquor by the drink.  Cookeville, TN survives to this day because they let this happen.   There is a huge restaurant row because they relaxed their alcohol laws.   This whole concept of Dry Counties escapes me; then again I come from an area of the world where Napa Valley was a few hours drive North.