There's got to be something in the water.....

I heard a news item the other day that made me scratch my head and say "you're just now figuring that out?".  The news item was that a series of psychiatrists was going to be looking into what exactly is it in Florida that is making all of these female teachers have a need to have sex with their teenage students.  Anyone that reads Fark can tell you that the answer to this is "It's Florida".  Heck Florida has it's own news item tag on Fark.  I noticed this a long time ago.  There seems to be something about that State that either just makes late 20's and older women hornier than all get out.   They can't seem to contain themselves.....it's not just in Florida, although the percentage of these events speak to a disturbing trend in the Citrus State, it's in other States too.  It used to be the stereotypical "Dirty Old Man" but lately it's been the "Middle aged, attractive, Soccer Mom type".   It's hard to imagine what a Teen boy, for the most part, can do for these women.  I have a 15 year old Daughter, I've met her friends both male and female and I can tell you there's nothing about any of those girls that I desire or could want whatsoever.   Teen boys are worse...they are dorky and clumsy and they act the fool all the time.   Just don't understand it......and yes I know it's abuse, but all I have to say is

Where were these teachers when I was in High School?   Pseudo serious note, but if this had happened to me and my friends in High School, that teacher would never be arrested.   There were young (30's) attractive teachers we fantasized about and if they ever did what these women did, we'd never tell a soul.   I will give kids today that much credit, they will go a long with this for a bit then turn it around on the teach.  I honestly don't think we would have.  Then again, that was a billion years ago and what do I know?  Yes this is a serious matter, but I honestly don't think we would have reported said teacher back in the day.

The other place where they need to check the water is Ft. Campbell....home of the 101rst Airborne.   Within this past year we have had half a dozen soldiers accused of rape and murder and murder.....could it be the stress of constantly rotating in and out of a combat zone, or is there something more? 

It just seems we have two flux points of strange activity in the US and only now someone is starting to notice.

Two for one Day......

As those that follow this blog know, Heroes is one of my favorite shows.....well except for last season and part of the season before.   The Season before hinted at the formation of Teams.....Super Heroes vs. Super Villans....but it was short lived and the rest of the season went to crap.   Last Season was basically Days of Future Past....see the collected X-Men comics from the 80's in the Graphic Novel of the same name....but unlike that story, Nathan Patrelli's reason for rounding up Supers seemed to be flawed and make absolutely no sense whatsoever.   This Season started off well with a band of Irish Carnies who are a Family of Supers that adds to their ranks when one of them is dying.  They have an aging Time Traveler and they are looking to recruit Hiro to take his place.   It's kind of a "Something Wicked This Way Comes" kind of vibe.  They remind me of Marvel's Morloks....Mutants who have decided to live underground.   So far it's starting out well....then again most seasons of this show do then take a detour somewhere along the line to WTF??ville.  Here's crossing the old fingers that it stays good all season long.

It's about time.....

The Giants are actually coming to the end of a Season on a winning record!!!!  Guess getting rid of Barroid and freeing up all that cash and getting young guys is working out.  Our magic number is 4......let's see if we can make it to a Wild Card Spot.  I may actually have to watch Post Season Baseball this year.

Kanye West: Douche Extraordinaire

Last night at the MTV Video Music Awards;  I'm going to pause right there for a second.  Let's consider the OxyMoronic nature of that statement right there.  MTV Video Music Awards.   You remember MTV don't you?  You know, the cable channel in the '80's that everyone said was going to kill radio because they played visual versions of music.  Yep Music Videos and they had instead of DJs, VJs.   Oh wait, you don't remember that?  That's right, I forgot Music TeleVision hasn't played a freaking video since the mid-90's!  Why these Jackholes think they are experts on Video Music is beyond me.  Anyway back to your regularly scheduled rant.

 

Last night at the MTV Video Music Awards Taylor Swift won for some kind of video.  Not a huge fan of this young lady, but she is one of those rare Country Singers that can crossover and appeal to all listeners of any kind of music.  Not just Country Music fans.  Faith Hill, Shania Twain and Dolly Parton also come to mind.  As she was happily receiving her award and starting to make her speech, has been Kanye West jumped up on stage and grabbed the mic from her telling her congratulations, but that Beyonce's video was better and she should have won.  He was summarily booed off the stage and the shows producers cancelled his performance and they escorted his ass and his large ego out of the building.  I believe this is the second time he's played the Ass at an awards show.  If I recall correctly he had a hissy fit because someone else won over him and he thought he should have won.  I give Kudos to Beyonce (not a fan of hers either) for pausing before her performance to call Taylor Swift up and told her to finish her acceptance speech please and apologized for Kanye's Douchiness.....she didn't say it quite that way but the jist was there.

 

What's with these Douches anyway?  Sean Combs and this dumbass need to go away; far away.  Yes I said Sean Combs...sorry asswipe I refuse to call you P-Diddy or Puffy or whatever stupid ass name you want to call yourself.   Should call the guy Lame Douche.....L-Douchy.   So is this what they tell you to do when you are a failing and fading Rap/R&B star?  Make an ass out of yourself?   You may have an opinion, but we don't want to hear it.  The world doesn't stop to consult your asses before making decisions.  It goes right along without you.  So please, please fade into oblivion a little quicker.  Thanks.

The President's "Evil" Agenda or how Repug Parents are serving their Kids Sour Grapes now.

The President is going to make an Internet speech geared towards children today that has all the Conservative Parents who didn't vote for him in a tizzy.  You see they believe it's part of the President's Socialist "Indoctrination" of their children.  His "Evil" Agenda to warp their minds.  Now mind you, it was announced that the Speech was about education and geared towards keeping kids in school and hopefully lowering the dropout rate and encouraging these kids to work hard and excel so you can get into college.   Evil agenda indeed.  If that's what these frothing at the mouth, repugnican Kool-Aid drinking sour grape eating dumbasses consider "indoctrination" then I say Indoctrinate away.  The freaking transcript was released saying exactly what the President's speech will contain, yet there are still moronic parents and School districts that aren't taking time out of their day or not even showing the speech because they still believe it's crap.  Here's the kicker; that bastion of fear mongering, Bill O'Really, he thinks their's nothing wrong with the speech and that all kids should watch it.  Wow!!!  He's not even remotely a fan of the Pres but yet he even thinks that pushing education is a damn good thing.   So to all you moronic parents I say this; get used to your child lounging around the house at 30 years of age, doing nothing with his/her life.   Hope you didn't want to see your kids succeed because with your insular attitude they won't.  All the President is doing is making education, hard work, college, success a good thing; making it more attractive than dropping out and not getting a diploma or higher degree.   What the Hell is wrong with that?   Do you hate the man that much that when he does something positive you still don't care?  I'm all for free speech and all, but lately some of the shit folks are saying and doing is bordering on treason.  I think the Pres needs to start being a bit more of a Hard Ass.   When Beck called him a racist, hold a press conference and call Beck out for a discussion.  Tell him "put up or shut up".  Something tells me Beck wouldn't have the stones to go face to face with the Pres.  When Sorehead Palin talks about shit she has no clue about, call the bitch on it.  The Pres should have come out and said "all right Sarah the Quitter, where's your proof of these so-called Death Panels?"   The Dems in Congress need to stop being such wusses as well.  Man up Nancy boys and girls and let's go.  Back the Man, tell the Repugs to fuck off or come the next election you will all be history.  We put you in there to change shit; well get off your asses and start.

This is going to suck so badly....

http://thenextweb.com/2009/08/31/disney-acquires-marvel-4-billion/

As those that know me are aware, I'm a huge Comic Geek.  My childhood Super Hero is Spiderman and I was so glad the first two movies didn't suck, but was really disappointed in the last one.  Comics way back when were a great thing, until the '90's.  Those that remember Comics in the 90's will remember that they had become an investment.  Apparently folks in the 90's were looking for that quick investment that no one else had...thus the over abundance of Baseball Card Stores and Beanie Babie stores.  Comics were coming out with 6 different covers with foil and glitter and glow in the dark and you had to put them in plastic bags with a carboard backing so they wouldn't get wrinkled, and God Forbid you actually opened one up and read the damn thing!!!  What ended up happening is summed up by a quote from Stan Lee (one of the Marvel Founders) "We almost killed the Comic book industry with our fancy covers, etc.  We stopped writing books for entertainment and started cranking out crap for investment purposes."  Yes you did.   The company delcared restructuring bankruptcy and Marvel Studios was created to make quality movies.  There were a few movies that had come out over the years and they sucked big time.  Then came X-Men, Spiderman, etc and they were actually good.   Apparently after two sucky Hulk movies and various other failures...see Fantastic Four and Spiderman 3....the crap has hit the fan and Stan Lee is selling out again.  Yep The dreaded Mouse has bought Marvel!!!!!  Oh my God!!!!!  I can't tell you just how much that is going to suck.  I can see it now...Spiderman's new love interest will be Hannah Montana!!!!

Damn Spammers.

Since I've had a rash of comments in Asian....looks like Japanese........on one particular blog entry that are basically spam to some kind of pseudo Porn link I will be turning on Word Verification for all comments. I hate doing that but oh well. Funny little tidbit I noticed this morning:

On the back of a bottle of Target Brand Men's Daily Multi-Vitamins.....now mind you, in large white letters it says "Men's Daily Multi-Vitamins" so no mistaking as to what sex of human those vitamins are designed for.......it says "Warning: If you are pregnant or nursing, please see a doctor before taking these vitamins". Why? Why is that on there? Are there many pregnant and nursing males? Or is that for the illiterate women who can't read the label to know what vitamins they bought....oh wait, if they are illiterate than they wouldn't even know what the hell they bought let alone be able to read the warning label......

It's time to cut through the Bullshit!

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/settingtherecord

Click the link, then tell me if you still think the President is going to have a "Death Panel" to decided the fate of Seniors or if he's going to force you out of your current health insurance plan (which probably sucks anyway). To all you Birthers and ignorant fucktards out there who keep up the rumors and lies......to Hell with you. Choke on it.

Oh and for a bit of humor about this serious situation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNuCfD5bICQ

Is it Just Me? Part 6

In this installment I'd like to discuss Labor Unions.  I will wait for certain people's hackles to rise on that one.  As far as I'm concerned, there are only two Unions that are worthwhile still: Teacher's Unions and Police Unions.  Why those two?  Because those are the two professions that are still grossly underpaid for the shit they have to deal with on a daily basis.  You want Teachers to teach your children?  Then how about paying them a decent wage so they can actually work on teaching those children.  Or how about doing away with tenure so that those sucky teachers who don't even bother anymore can be replaced by teachers that actually teach.  Trust me, I had my share of Teachers who "phoned it in" basically.  You expect Cops to protect your ass yet you still only want to pay them 50+ K a year to do so.  These folks Unions really try to get their people a good deal without strikes and without costing the State (whichever State that may be) a ton of cash.  The other Unions on the other hand......we can honestly do without.   What prompted this was the Jackasses at BART threatening to go on strike again.  I remember the first BART strike.  I was commuting from Walnut Creek to SSF then and when the trains weren't running, there ended up being so much more traffic trying to cross the Bay Bridge in the Morning that it was more of a nightmare than usual.  God that sucked!!!!   The folks on strike?  The Station Agents.   First off, for those that don't know what BART is, it's the Bay Area Rapid Transit system...basically the San Francisco Bay Area's version of a Subway.   Like the Metro for those that live in the DC area.  The Station Agents are the lazy asses that sit behind a glass cube and basically say the same things:  "The Bathrooms are over there".  "No I don't have change, you will have to go find some change somewhere." "The next train is on the schedule over there on the wall."  "Look at the map and it will tell you the best route to take."  And various other non-helpful statements like that.   Back in 1998 they made about 50K a year to do this.  Of course they made that money because they were part of the Union and part of their salary went towards Dues.  Still, they got great benefits and a decent salary for a job a trained monkey could do.  You sit on a damn stool for Christsake!  Behind a glass cube and talk to people via a Microphone.  Recently these same pricks were threatening to go on strike.  But in the age of the Blog and Comment sections on electronic versions of news articles, the public's downright Outrage at the thought of those with "a stable job, with decent pay and great benefits" threatening to walk off their jobs because they want MORE....in this economy affected the quick outcome of not striking.  I remember back in 98 when the strike first happened.   When the Agents came back from their strike they were greeted with derision and hatred.  There were reports of passengers walking up to the Agents and saying "I wish you would die."  Basically these greedy assholes are threatening the livelihoods of a large number of people in the Bay Area who depend on their trains to get them to work in a timely fashion.   Without the trains running, folks would be late for work, or not make it there (some folks don't have a car) and could possibly be fired.  Unions are also the biggest contributor to the fall of the Big 3 US Automakers.....the other contributor was making piece of shit cars no one wanted, but I digress.   An UAW worker makes about 70-100 dollars an hour....but the moron only takes home about 30-40 dollars an hours salary.  The rest goes to the Union for Dues.  Maybe that's why they were cranking out shitty cars.  They were spending so much money on payroll, there was no money left for research of any kind.  Back home, especially in SF, there's a union for everything.   San Francisco could be a huge cargo port if it wanted to be, but the Longshoreman's Union put a stop to that.   They insisted that every cargo ship coming into port needed to be offloaded by hand.  Oakland said screw that and built huge cranes.....lots of them....to the point that Oakland is a hugely busy cargo port.   The one that gets me is there's a union for Hotel workers.  Really?  Is that really necessary?  You clean hotel rooms....not saying it's a horrible job but it's not worth 25 bucks an hour!!!!  It's not worth having a Union over.   Grocery workers back home have a Union.  Cashiers....yes the folks that scan your groceries over a red laser....make about 30+ K a year.  To pass your groceries over a scanner!!!!  For skilled labor, i.e. Carpenters, Electricians, Plumbers, etc I can see a Union, if only for the training that said Unions insist on.  Constant training.  What I think is wrong is the rates these guys get paid.  It's absolutely ridiculous.   Unions really don't have a place in our society today.  There are so many regulatory commissions out thee right now that keep the American Worker safe and sound.   Make them go away and I bet things might get better.....

Is It Just Me? Part 4 A and Part 5

I forgot a couple of examples in the "how not to run a business" installment.  In the City I live in there are some ancient little strip malls still standing.  These were built with poor planning and have bad access to them.   One is built in a gully basically, you can't see anything from the road at all and getting in and out of one of the driveways is like rolling the dice that there is going to be a head on collision or not.  Bad planning.  A new pizza place opened up called Sir Pizza....well that was the original name anyway.  Apparently there is a Sir Pizza that has been opened already for years in another nearby City as is quite crowded most of the time.  We thought that this was either another location or they were closing that one and moving to our City.  Well as a name change within the first week of this place being opened proved, they had nothing to do with the other place.  The name changed to Sir Pizzaria.....like that is any different....  It was never crowded, from what I heard the food sucked, then tried to reopen under new management and it is now closed.   This was a record....six months I believe.   Here's the problem: Don't try and steal a name or pretend you are someone else.....the original place will find out and you will be ratted out as the schmucks you are.  If you are going to open a restaurant like that, be freaking original!!!!  Don't steal a name or style, just do your own thing.  Jeez, use the freaking creative mind you were given.  I can tell you of two successful Pizza restaurants back home that do their own thing: North Beach Pizza (with about 4 locations) and Mountain Mike's Pizza (with a few of their own).   These guys do delivery and sit down service, and they do it well.  The food's good too.  Mountain Mike's is a "go to the counter and order" type of place...it's very well stated when you walk through the door.  No guessing, no being seated then being told to go order at the counter.  You order at the counter then go sit where you want.  If they aren't busy they will sometimes bring your food out to you or call you to come get it.   North Beach Pizza is a wait to be seated, order taken at the table, food brought to you kind of place.  Both have great pizza and great service.   So why can't someone around here do the same?  It's not that hard.  The problem is that the wrong people tend to open businesses around here.  I should say independent, non-chain businesses.  All the chains are great, except O'Charley's but that's corporation wide issue because every single one I've been to so far sucks, but the majority of the independents opening up fail miserably.   They go the cheap route.  Buy the cheapest supplies possible and crank out a crappy product....then they wonder why they fail.  Another one is Big Bad Wolf eatery...apparently they do BBQ or whatever.  The Real Estate Office the Wife worked at had them cater lunch one day.  Wifey said the food sucked.   That would explain the lack of people in their restaurant every night.  Seriously, I have not seen a single person sitting in there eating, yet they are still open.  Why?  These folks probably have found the cheapest cut of meat they can find to cook, thus the crappy food.   When will folks learn?  You can't cut corners, especially if you are selling food for folks to consume.   If I had the cash I'd open an Deli.  Other than a Subway and a Quizno's there are no other Deli's around.   Oh sure, Kroger's has one, but good luck trying to have them make you a sandwich.   I tried to get one once and got the lamest excuse ever.  It was like the little bitty behind the counter didn't want to.  They have several condiment bins on a prep area but yet there's nothing in them.   The lady literally told me it would take 15-20 minutes to make a sandwich and then stalked over to the produce section to find tomatoes, etc to put on the sandwich.  I looked at her and the whole process with my chin on the floor.   It was surreal.  Like some kind of Twilight Zone episode.  I was thinking to myself, it's just a damn sandwich for christsake!!!!  I walked away.  We told the manager and he was pissed he said "we will get you a sandwich made sir".  I told him that it was okay, that I really didn't want it anymore and I was afraid the lady would be pissed enough to spit in it or something.   Even though the bitty was told, their policy still hasn't changed.  The only Deli sandwiches you can get at the Kroger Deli are the one's made up already and packaged.   Jeez I remember going to the Safeway Deli and getting a fresh, hand made sandwich in about 5 minutes with no hemming or hawing or looks like I was asking the person to cure cancer or fly to the moon or something!  I'd make a mint with a Deli especially if I played up the "Italian Deli" part.  Have the big ol' jars of vinegar with the layers of herbs and veggies in them, or the big collectors bottles of chianti (although with our stupid alcohol laws I probably couldn't sell that). 

 

Now on to part 5.  Health Care Reform.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the most vocal opponents of Health Care Reform are all conservatives who hate change and are opposed to the idea because President Obama wants this to succeed?   Seriously, I don't understand the anger from the most average of citizens to the whole idea of Government Health Care?  These old geezers scream Socialism but benefit from the biggest piece of socialistic process called Medicare.  Yeah we the People pay for your health care old fart....yet you don't want me to have any.  No it's okay for you to suck off the Government Teat but if I want to I can't.  I also don't understand why the average citizen is vocally defending greedy corporations?  Seriously folks, even those with health insurance are finding it harder and harder to get that insurance company to pay for anything!!!  Yet they will keep upping your premiums....basically taking more of your money but giving you less for it.  Yeah those folks are so worth defending.   I don't get it.   I see too many drinkers of the sour grape wine on the right.   They don't want to cooperate, or even offer another solution.  They come up with some kind of scare tactic...."Death Panels" comes to mind....completely false by the way.....and harp on it.  Apparently the uneducated, easily swayed voter on the right loves simple statements they can chant over and over again....remember "Drill Baby Drill" yeah that was such a great solution to the problem..... You don't want the government involved, yet you're okay with getting bent over and rapped by Insurance Companies while you grow fatter and fatter and dumber and dumber and die earlier than you should.   Yeah the "Free Market" is sooooo great.  I think not.  The problem I see is that the Free Market jettisoned all form of ethics and honor and emotions a long time ago in favor of PROFIT!!!  Profit at whatever means possible.  If that means killing people with an inferior product but not fixing the issue and covering it up because "its only 1 out of 100" then hey let's just keep making that shitty widget.  The Ford Pinto comes to mind.   It was determined, and this was put in writing which is a stupid idea to begin with, that it was cheaper in the long run to pay the wrongful death suits for people dying because the gas tank in the Pinto exploded than it was to fix the issue.   The issue was a bolt placed in a bad place that in the event of a rear end collision would cause the gas tank to scrap against it, causing sparks and rupturing the gas tank in the process which lead to an explosion.   So instead of moving the bolt or whatever they would just let people die and pay the grieving families.   But hey, let's keep defending the Corporations okay.  They have our best interest in mind right????  Right????  The more care the Insurance Companies deny you, they less they have to pay out to the Doctors and the more of your money they get to keep.  They make money off of you being sick.  Don't tell me there is competition either.....try shopping for individual/Family insurance online sometime.  I have.  There's no difference in price for similar policies at all.  They all cost around the same.   There's no competition.  Hell there's more competition to get a freaking shirt and a pair of pants than there is to go get your blood pressure taken.  It's no secret either, the costs of health care is one of the biggest causes of companies going bankrupt but yet these monkies show up screaming and yelling to Town Hall meetings energized by the Beck's and Hannity's of the world to cause havoc basically.  These people aren't disgruntled Americans exercising their First Amendment Rights, no these people are easily swayed, uniformed Assholes who think the President wasn't born in this Country and that he's going to "Take yer guns" and he's going to turn American into a Communist Country.     Oh and they're pissed because he's Black......actually these folks love to point out how "he's only half Black....so actually he's White too...."  It just pisses me off.  It really does.  These folks don't care about the truth or the facts, they just want to yell and scream and be bullies.  Plain and simple.  It's a mob mentality that is ruining our Country.   If you don't agree with the Bill before the Senate and House because you think it's going to cost too much money or disagree with some portion of it, that's fine.  Please call your Congressmen/Senator and tell them.  But discuss it in a civilized fashion.  Yelling bullshit and acting like an uncivilized Asshole isn't going to do any good.  It's just going to lose your side another election.  Honestly it is.  The Senators and Congress Folks are worse.   They bitch and moan about everything the Pres wants, but yet won't offer any alternate solutions of their own.  Seriously, these jokers just bitch because it's a knee jerk reaction (Jerk is the operative word here) to a Democratic President.  Enough of this shit.   Seriously folks, let's sit down and have a civilized discussion without the bullshit and frothing at the mouth.  If not then the Corporations are going to win and they are just going to keep screwing us over until we beg for it because we know nothing better.   Wake up America!  Stop thinking with your politics and start using your freaking head!

Is it Just me? Part 4

This installment will be about folks who open up businesses but have no business running a business.  Say that five times fast.  Anyhow, I've always been of the mindset that if you don't have any clue of what it takes to run a business, then you should go get yourself a clue before you open one up.  Learn about inventory, pricing, location, advertising, hours of operation, etc etc..... In the City I live in, we've had several examples of "what not to do" when running a business.   There is a chain called NYPD for New York Pizza Deli.  One opened up in the Providence Mall near my home.  They were advertised as being a deli style pizza restaurant where you could order by the slice or the pie.  Things were bad when they first opened as they were only open the first week to friends of the owner.  Excuse me?   Bad form.   When they were finally opened to the public, there was no ordering by the slice...or if you wanted by the slice it would take several minutes....say 15.....it was like they were saying "it's an annoyance for us to do that even though our Franchise says we have to".  We went in the sign said please wait to be seated.   There was a dozen folks working but no one sat us.  An employee on his way out the door told us to go sit wherever and someone will come to take our order.  Okay.  We did, and the waitress who's section it was just kept giving us funny looks.   Didn't come over and ask if she could help us or nothing, just kept giving us looks.   Finally she came over and said something to the effect of "Did someone tell you to sit in my area?"  Which I interpreted to mean "I don't want to have to work real hard tonight so why did someone seat you in my area?".    She took our drink order and food order (we had waited long enough that we actually decided on what we wanted at that point) and we never saw her again.  Oh, she came by to the other tables, but didn't once ask if we needed refills, how the food was, nothing.  Other wait staff delivered our food and drinks.  Hell I even had to get another waitress to get our check.  I went up to the counter to pay (it looked like that's where you paid) and the owner gave me a funny look like "why are you up here to pay?".    We chalked it up to new restaurant, shitty staff.   We went again a few weeks later.   We had to wait to be seated again, this time someone actually sat us right away.   The waitress then gave us our menus and said "When you are ready to order just go up to the counter and order."  Okay, last straw.  We left.   If I have to wait to be seated, and you have wait staff, then you are going to take my order and bring my food to me.  If I have to go stand in line and order it, then I get to sit where I want and don't expect a tip.  They have since changed their name to NYYP or New York New York Pizza.  I think they got their franchise pulled on them so just fudged the name to stay in business.  Honestly, it could be a crowded place, but it's not.  They suck that much.   Prime example of know what the hell you are doing before you open a business.  Now it may seem like I'm being petty, but honestly make up your damn mind.  What kind of restaurant are you?   It's like I won't go to a Korean BBQ restaurant.  I'm sure the food is good, but I'm not paying for food and service at a restaurant where I'm expected to cook my own damn food.  If you are not familiar with a Korean BBQ restaurant, they work like this.  There is a hibachi grill in the center of the table.  You order the food you want and it is brought out to you raw.  You are then supposed to use the grill to cook it the way you like it.  Of course their prices are still the same as if a chef cooked it for you and the waiters still expect a tip.  I know Papa Murphy's pizza is cheaper because you take it home and cook it.  That's fine by me.  If I have to do some work then you cut the price.   It's cheaper to wash your car yourself than go through a car wash. 

 

Another example is a coffee chain we have in our mall.  No it's not Starbucks it's called Billy Goat Coffee Company.  These folks issue is they are too damn expensive.  Hell Starbucks is cheaper.  We had two coffees and two slices of cheesecake...total 18 bucks!  You'd think a place like that who is trying to compete with Starbucks would be cheaper than...but no. 

 

Another example is a place that has seasonal stuff.  Here in Tennessee we have actual winter.  It's not like Michigan, but it gets damn cold still.   One of the first casualties of the new mall is the Keva Juice.  Think Jamba Juice for my California friends.   Healthy smoothies....heck smoothies in general are really only a summer treat.   Even then they weren't that busy.  I chalk it up to the fact that I live in the 3rd Fattest state in the union and smoothies are a "Yankee" invention.  Maybe if they called the Heavenly Smoothies and the cups came with a Jesus fish on them.....but I digress. 

 

Then you've got the NIMBY business folks who have been here for years.  For those that don't know the acronym it stands for Not In My Backyard.  These are the one's that were used to the City being a small, sleepy bedroom community with a smattering of businesses.  Heck the only prevalent businesses were Lawyers, Real Estate Agents, Insurance Brokers and Mortgage Brokers.  Then the mall came in.  It increased the population, okay the new housing that came with the mall helped with that, and increased the sales tax revenue.  But yet, we still have the NIMBY's who have copped a bad attitude and refuse to change to compete.  There's a little coffee/lunch counter place in our City.   I've never been there because their hours are the most inconvenient ever.  Our City is a commuter City.  Folks live here because they work in Nashville but don't want the hassle of living in a major City.  There aren't many office buildings in our City, nor is there the headquarters of any large corp, etc.  People drive away from Town to go to work, not into town.  Yet, this coffee shop is only open Monday - Friday from 8am to 5pm.  The owner has always had an attitude about everything.   I'm sorry, you bitch about no business, or that the "mall is taking" your business but yet you refuse to compete with the mall.  She's also in a crappy location.  A two lane road that is majorly busy and it makes it unsafe to get to her shop from one side of the road, and even worse to try and get out of the parking lot.  Bad location, bad attitude, bad hours=no business.

 

Another example are Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A.   Both run by Christian corporations......neither open on Sunday.   Now one is a Hobby/Craft store and the other is a Chicken Fast Food place.  From what I know of Church around here, you are there the majority of the morning and get out about 11:30am.   Most folks work M-F and do chores/errands on the weekends.   Chik-Fil-A not being open....okay...they are open late and you can get the same food anytime of day.  Hobby Lobby though, sorry, but folks shop on the weekends, even after Church.  Hell people go out to eat after Church...trust me I know this from being at Cracker Barrel at the wrong time of morning on Sundays.......So why wouldn't you be open?  Especially a Known Christian Corporation....guess where the Church folks would flock to eat at......exactly.   Just not a smart idea. Banks too...they've always cracked me up when it came to their hours of business.  I can see being closed on Sunday, heck the Post Office is, but on Saturday?  At least most banks I've banked at had Saturday hours.  They weren't that long, but hey they were open at least.  But what always gets me is that their employees take lunch at the same hour as everyone else in the world.  Why is that dumb you ask?  Well if you have banking to do in person during the week, when do you do it?  You go at your lunch break.  So does everyone else in the world.  But yet, that's the time the banks have the least staff on hand.  Makes no freaking sense.

Town Hall Riots????

It seems that the latest GOP/Special Interest tactic to stop Congress from doing anything about Health Care Reform is to send out small groups of Jackasses to Congressional Town Hall meetings and have these folks start acting like assholes. It's been in the news lately, how these Town Hall Meetings have turned into the Jerry Springer show with a handful of these fraktards yelling and screaming and generally carrying on to try and intimidate the Congressman into not voting for the Reform bill. That's right folks, the Insurance Companies don't want health care reform because then they can't take your money each year and not give you anything for it anymore. No, they'd actually have to do something for you. Why are people so afraid of a National Health Care system? Why? The reason we need one is to introduce a bit of competition into the free market. Health Insurance Companies all offer the same thing for the same price basically. There's very little difference in premiums. Therefore, no competition. They're in it together. Free Market my ass. For almost a decade now, the Free Market has shelved any form of ethics in favor of making more profit at whatever cost. Look at the current banking and housing situation. Banks and Mortgage companies got so damn greedy that they were talking the average person into getting a loan that was the most riskiest piece of crap yet. But they would talk a great game, nearly "guaranteeing" the property would double in value then you could re-fi to a better mortgage. Now, a smart person, or a thinking person would say that was a crock. You cannot guarantee the value of anything doubling. The market fluctuates so much that all one could do is predict. Now the banks are stuck with worthless properties because of their greed. Health care is the same. The insurance companies have basically increased their rates in favor of giving you any actual benefit for that money. In most cases, for the cheapest monthly rate you can find (usually just shy of 300 bucks a month for a family) you have to incur a huge amount of out of pocket debt before the insurance even kicks in. So you pay 300 bucks a month for the benefit of paying your doctor out of your own pocket the same price you'd pay him if you didn't have insurance. Seriously? But hey, it's the "free market" after all....Government shouldn't be involved. Yeah that's like saying the Police shouldn't bust pedohiles or rapists. After all it's a "free market" right? By basically allowing these institutions to do what they are doing, we the people are allowing them to rape us; molest us. The Government doesn't want to seize control of every aspect of your life, they just want to do the will of the people. We the people want to be able to afford monthly health care premiums without having to not buy groceries that month. We want our insurance that we pay for to actually give us some benefit for the money. I want to be able to pay an affordable monthly rate and have a plan that lets me see my Doctor whenever I need to and only pay a small co-pay for that office visit. Say 30 bucks. Is that asking for alot? No it's not. But the insurance companies aren't going to change their ways. They make money off of our bad health. It's sad but true. What is wrong with paying a little more taxes in order to fund a Government sponsored program that will force the Insurance Companies to compete or die? Everyone will agree that we need to fix our system yet the majority of these people aren't willing to fork out a little extra cash to do so. Hypocrites I say.

Yay it's August....

Boo it's still freaking raining!!!!  Um, I can safely say we've basically had no summer whatsoever.   I feel like I'm living in Seattle here with the amount of rain we've had.   The Wife and I have been dying to get out the bikes and load them on the bike rack and head over to one of the many State Greenways we have near us to go riding. http://www.nashville.gov/greenways/maps.htm Here's the link in case you're curious.   I've been searching online for a pair of bike saddle bags that will attach to the rear rack that came with my bike.   We saw a rider with one and had to ask him about them.  Sure we've had some nice enough days to go riding, but the humidity makes any physical exercise unbearable.  It's just damn hard to breathe, and yes we are both in our mid-40's and out of shape.  We've been trying.  We bought a Wii Fit Balance Board and it's great.  Works your ass off I must say.  We also got Wii Sports Resort, the new collection of Wii Sports games.  You are at this Island resort with all these activities going on.  It's a great game and uses the Wii Motion addon...basically the third gyroscope the Wii remote desperately needed to offset the issues it was having.  What issues?  If you don't own a Wii, then you haven't experienced the Boxing game lag.  Basically in the game that comes with the console, there is a boxing game.  You physically can punch faster than the game reacts.  The original two gyroscopes in the remote can only react so fast, and it was discovered that most humans punch faster than it can react.  The addition of the 3rd gyro has fixed this.  August is also great because the child starts back to school.  Although I'm preparing for grey hairs because she will be 15 and that means a Learner's permit.  I finally own my Scion outright and the child will be driving it..........possibly...although I think I will let her practice on Mom's Focus first.   It's also my birthday month.  Yes I turned 44 this year, and no I don't get all freaky about age.  I look at it this way, there's always the alternative of not having birthdays :)  I'd rather be one year older than dead.  It also means I truly am old enough to say things like "you kids today xxxx" (fill in the blank) or "I remember when you ......." or my favorite "Get off of my lawn!!!"   Speaking of....I finally got a chance to mow the damn thing!  Here's the pattern around here.  You mow, it rains for a week.  It clears up, but you can't mow then because the ground is swampy but you really need to because your yard is now a jungle.   When the time comes around that the ground should be sort of dry it starts raining again and you still can't mow!!!!  You get these narrow windows of time when it's dry and perfect weather for mowing and you hear everyone's mowers going.  Here's hoping we can get out in September.....

Look! Far to the Right! It's Fake Outrage!!!!!

Ever since the November 2008 elections, the extreme Right Wing Republican machine has been fast in motion cranking out that most bitter of elixirs; sour grapes. Oh how we've been privy to many a scene of fake outrage and the "Socialist" President at the "Not a citizen because he won't show us his birth certificate" President. The so-called Liberal media is his buddy they say. (Really? Because last time I looked it seemed like the media has been ripping the Pres to shreds....but I digress). Recently Caribou Barbie (you know who she is....I won't even give her any attention by saying her name) and one of her hillbilly spawn went to a Yankees game. David Letterman told a joke in his monologue about how Jeter had slept with the oldest of the hillbilly spawn...you know the one that the abistence only speech really worked on. Yeah it was in bad taste, and yeah it really wasn't all that funny, but give me a break. It's a joke. But I forget that White Folk on the extreme right have no sense of humor. Oh wait, yes they do. Racists jokes about the President and watermelons......that's what passes for humor amongst the Redneck Elite. Caribou Barbie got all outraged at Letterman because the daughter he joked about wasn't the one that was at the game. So all of a sudden David Letterman became a "dirty old man who thinks that child rape is funny." WTF bitch???? A. Letterman doesn't write his own jokes anymore. He has writers for that. They got the wrong hillbilly crotchfruit and so the joke didn't work. Don't like those kinds of jokes biatch? Then you shouldn't have paraded your hillbilly clan in front of the country for everyone to see. Hannity and the rest of the mouth breathing dumbasses that speak for the Right all wanted Letterman's head. Hell the man apologized (something I'm pissed off at him for. Dave, you didn't need to apologize for shit. Screw her.) and even Bill O'Really gave him a pass for it. Wow...that's a first. Yet when we have a Repulican Governor from South Carolina jet off to Argentina to bang his little ho down there and tells no one where he's going, do the mouth breathing assholes give him shit? Oh Hell no!!! Not a freaking word. Maybe they mentioned it once, but you don't see any week long specials dedicated to it. Ah the fake outrage. Too afraid to turn it towards their own because they know they are the party of irrelevance right now. Or when a Republican Senator blantantly says that he and others are actively causing hold ups on passing Health Care Reform for the express purpose of "breaking" the President not a single one of the Right wing pundits says shit about that. Hannity isn't outraged at that. Here's a Senator admitting to what I consider a breach of duty at the least and treason at the most but no one says shit. Nice. Liberal media my ass. Now mind you, the other night on TV our President, whom I support, answered a question he should have just taken the fifth on and showed some racial bias. It wasn't his best moment; he was right in his opinion, but he shouldn't have given it. It made him look biased and stirred the mouth breathers and hillbillys and fundies into panty twisting mode. Oh how the Sour Grape Juice has been flowing. All I have to say is keep it up you dumbasses. You are making this middle of the roader lean farther left every day. I feel sorry for the Right...I actually do. They just can't see that they are only hastening their slide into oblivion.

Is it Just me? Part 3

Those that know me and those that read this blog know I have issues with organized religion.  Part of that stems from the fact that I was raised Catholic.  And before you pervs think it was because I was molested by Priests...think again.  The Priests at our Parish were very nice people.  No, my problem with that particular church started when I turned 18 and was told by my Mother that I could make my own decision on whether or not to keep going to church.   I found mass boring, uninspiring and frankly a waste of my time.  I didn't feel any different after communion, nor did I feel any different after going to mass.  It all felt hypocritical to me.   Why should I give crap up for Lent?  Just because Jesus went into the desert for a month so the Devil could tempt him?  That's what he was supposed to do.  Endure crap like that so he could get in touch with Mankind.  Sex only when you're married?  Oh please.  Or the caveat, but if you do have sex even when you are married, you can't use birth control because that's a sin.  I see.  So the church has decided that Humans are like all the other animals in the world and we are only supposed to have sex to make babies.  Got news for you; we enjoy it as well as use it for procreation.  My biggest issue was when I was going through my divorce.  Here was a man who had never been married, who couldn't get married and yet he was supposed to counsel me on the troubles I was having.   The thing they always tell you is "no matter what, Divorce is a sin.."  Whatever.  When your wife is cheating on you, you know it.   So according to the church I'm still married to my ex because I didn't go through their official channels, pay 800 bucks, and sit through a bunch of BS classes all so the church could annul my marriage.  Yeah right.  Look I paid a lawyer 500 bucks and the State of California says I'm no longer married to my ex.  That's good enough for me.  But let's forget all that for now and get to the heart of this installment of "Is it just me?".   This installment is about Christians.  Now let me start by saying that I'm not going to be generalizing here.  Living in one of the Bible Belt States I have friends who are Christians and they do not fall into the category I'm about to speak of.  Those Christians are the overly fanatical ones.  The ones that it seems to me like they have something to prove to someone.   Let's take local businesses for instance.   There's a pool and hot tub place in town who has Scripture on their sign board outside of their business all the time.  I won't shop there, like I won't shop at the nursery that flies the Confederate flag in town.  Why you ask?  Because I don't like when people push their faith on me.   You are in the business of selling pools and spas, not saving my soul.   The only "business" that should have Scripture on their sign is a Church!  That's their business; saving Souls, preaching the Word.   There's also an Auto Mechanic who advertises on TV.  It's he and his Wife and dog and they give their spiel about their business.  When the commercial is almost through the Wife says, "and not only are we here to fix your car, but we are available for Prayer Requests and Fellowship."  WTF???  Who gives a crap.  If I take my car to you to be fixed, I want it fixed.  I don't want you stopping in the middle to go do a "prayer request" or to comfort some fellow soul in need.  No, do your job.   These people just go a bit too far.   It's like they are trying to prove how saved they are or something.  My group of friends out here all go to the same church.  Not once have they tried to preach to me, convert me or even discuss their church in my presence.  Not once.  I'm grateful for this.   Their faith is personal, like it should be.   I also am annoyed by people that say "Have a blessed day!".  I don't want to have a blessed day, Hell sometimes I don't want to have a "Nice" day.   Then there's the folks that have to put the symbols of their faith on everything.  The Jesus Fish on the car, or the Jesus Fish and 3 crosses in the signature line of their Professional Emails.   If I was to put an Oakland Raiders logo in the signature of my professional emails, I'd get fired.  To me the Jesus Fish is the same thing.  It also seems like certain Christians engage in what I consider sacrilegious behavior.   They desperately try and sell their religion.  Market it to the masses.  Stupid T-shirts that parody current trendy things.  An example:  "Got Jesus?" on a T-shirt.  C'mon......Or the ever popular, "WWJD"....which stands for "What Would Jesus Do?".  I'll tell you what he would do, smack the crap out of you for using him as a marketing tool.   There's even Christian Music....Modernized Gospel music basically.  Heck, Christian kids can't even play Guitar Hero without there being a cheap Christian Knockoff.    During Halloween, a holiday the Christians are trying to make go away, they start putting out Biblical Figures costumes.  The "Real Super Heroes" they call them.   What, Christian kids can't read comics now???  Oh no Jr., sorry you can't be SpiderMan for "Fall Fest" you have to be Moses.   It's just a bit much.   Then the wonder why Teens and young adults flee the Church.   It gets to be too much.  Not sure why they feel the need to try and shove the fact they are Christians down everyone's throat?  Why is there this section of Christians that feels the need to constantly prove to the world they are Saved?   They will call it preaching the word.  I call it being an annoying pain in the ass.  I ignore them for the most part, but sometimes I just want to say "I don't want to have a blessed day.  I don't care that you found Jesus, nor do I care that you're saved.  Only God cares about that so go tell it to him."

 

 

Is it just me? Part 2

I think I will make these segments a recurring thing on my blog, kind of like my version of Andy Rooney's bit at the end of every broadcast of 60 Minutes.

Why an ipod? Seriously why? Are they really that superior of a machine? Knowing Apple's track record, probably not. I researched MP3 players once (my StepDaughter was wanting one for Christmas) and I discovered a bazillion of them that were a hell of a lot cheaper than the iPod. They also didn't require you to suck off the teat that is iTunes to download music. No, you could go to any number of reputable, and maybe not so reputable, sites and download music and get it cheaper than at iTunes sometimes. Why this one product? Does it make you cooler? Hipper? More desirable to the opposite sex? I don't get it. Why fork out a huge bundle of cash for something you can get for half the cost that does the same thing.

Game consoles. Why would anyone get an XBox 360 now when you know the history of issues with them. The "Red Ring of Death" comes to mind. Apparently there's a design flaw with the case. The power supply sits too close to the case in some models and it heats up causing the unit to save itself by going into emergency lock mode. ie "The Red Ring of Death". There appears to be no way out of said condition other than to send the unit back to Microsoft for repair or replacement. Honestly, save your cash and get the PS3. But, you're better off getting an HD TV first. Seriously, playing a PS3 (which is a BluRay DVD player as well as a gaming console) on a non-HD TV is like kissing your sister. In my honest and humble opinion (you Mr. Ranter?? Humble????) I'd get a Wii. Yeah I know, "it's a kids game...". Not necessarily. They're alot of fun too. Graphics might not be great but Nintendo wasn't going for graphics. They were going for a new kind of interface which they nailed.

I think that's enough for now. More to come at a later date.

Is it just me?

I guess somewhere along the line I became too practical for my own good.  I guess you can say I'm a cheapskate, or maybe frugal, depending on your point of view.   Is it just me, or does anyone else not really give a shit if your cell phone has a full keyboard and you can run shitloads of apps on it?  The device to me is a phone.  I like the camera on it, and I use mine alot.  The DC vacation pictures I posted here were taken by my cell camera.  I use it to take a picture of the row number where we park when we go out...that way you can always find your car.  If I see something in the store, a book, etc that I like but don't have the cash to buy it right then and there, I take a picture so I remember what it is when I can go buy it.  So that feature is fine by me.  It comes with most phones now and doesn't cost extra.  I like that.  If it did cost extra, then I'd get along without it.  I don't need a calendar function to set up appointments or to surf the net, etc so why do I need a full keyboard on my phone?  I don't have that urgent of a need to get online that I can't wait until I get to work or home or the public library to use a computer.  Besides, who wants to read crap on a 4-6 inch screen anyway?  I know some folks love their blackberry's, iphone's etc because they are busy folks who need access to crap now and want a small portable device.  Great for them, but not for me.  I've noticed that most of the phones coming out now have flip up panels to access the full keyboard.  Sorry, I don't text, and I don't care to text.  Especially because it costs extra.  In the immortal words of Gin Rummy on the "Boondocks" "I could have dialed the number, said what I needed to say and hung up again in the time it took you to type one line with your thumbs."   Have we become a society of non-human interaction?  Do we not want to talk to each other anymore.  You know TALK as in use your vocal chords, tongue, palate, etc to form words so you can get a message across or pass on information to another human being?  Would I text more if it was free?  Probably not.  The damn thing is a phone...it's used for communicating with someone.  The function I would love to have is the walkie talkie function.   I'd be able to push one button and connect to my Wife's phone instantly so I can say hey or give her info or whatever.  That would be handy....but I'm not willing to pay extra for it.  I just don't see unlimited internet, unlimited texting, unlimited downloading of songs, etc on a phone to be worth the money you pay for it.   The only phone on my account that has unlimited texting is my Daughter's.   She's 14 and apparently that's how all 14-17 year olds interact with each other...via words typed with your thumbs.   Yeah I know, I sound like that old guy, but seriously........I love the advances in technology, but I just don't see paying extra to use it.   Take cable for instance.   My old roommate and I used to have Digital Cable.  You had the box with it's own remote, but you couldn't tape one show while watching another unless you were willing to get a switch box.  Now they have DVR's that come with the digital cable boxes that have solved this problem, but back then they didn't have them.   We had a billion channels of crap....literal crap and maybe watched 15 of them...maybe.... One day we were talking and I asked "Do we really need this Digital Cable?  Do we watch any of this crap at all?"  We both agreed that the channels we watched the most you could get by just having extended basic cable.  We ended up getting that and cut our costs in half.  Honestly, why is HBO and Showtime a separate subscription anymore?  Starz, Cinemax as well? (Do those channels even exist anymore?)  HBO and Showtime are now irrelevant when it comes to being "movie channels".   The movie "The Dark Knight" has been out on DVD for rental and sale for a long time now.   HBO is just now showing it.   Wow...ooooo.....if you haven't rented it or bought it by now, then you are just not interested in that kind of movie so why pay a subscription to see it.  HBO and Showtime should just become commercial cable channels like FX, etc.  Sure they have some great series, but there is a time of night where you can show adult content type shows...simulated sex, language, extreme violence....and not have to worry about the censors.  Who watches shows when they air anyway?  Most shows are DVRed or taped (yes I still tape shows.......DVR's aren't something you can just buy in the store, and you have to have a subscription to them monthly....).  On that subject, why don't they just sell DVR's that you can use to just record shows on?  I don't care about pausing live TV or having it suggest shit for me to watch based on my viewing habits, etc.  I just want to cue it up to tape a particular show(s) on particular evenings so I can do other crap with my life but still watch some TV.  Hell I'd buy one of those DVR's.   As it is, I have a VCR that I still use to do one thing: Tape shows so that I can watch them later.    DVR's do that, but they do all kinds of other shit too and because they do you need to not only pay for the DVR, but a monthly subscription to whomever the company is that provides you with the ability to pause live TV, etc.  I just want to tape a damn show......why should I pay a freaking subscription fee to do that?  I may need to go to Target and stock up on blank video tape......it may not be around much longer.   The tech I'd like to have in my house, and when we get our laptop back from being fixed we will probably get it, is a wireless network.  That's actually handy. 

Enough already!!!!

Some may take offense to what I'm about to say, but I honestly don't give a shit at this juncture. People die all the time. It is a sad and tragic thing, but it happens. Those that were close to the person or were close to that person's family are usually the one's to grieve. Other folks may nod and say sorry for your loss, but it's usually out of polite consideration for that person's sadness at their loss. The point of all this you may ask? The point is this; I am so sick of the constant reporting about Michael Jackson and Steve McNair that I'm getting to the point where I can say, I don't give a shit. Michael Jackson went form a talented, young black man to a freaky, white woman. Somewhere along his journey something snapped in his head and he became a freak. When the man died, his Family came out of the woodwork all sad and upset. Yeah right. The only one's that stuck up for him at anytime I can remember were Janet, Jermaine and Tito. The rest of them could give two shits. Yes, like I've mentioned before, someone dying is a tragedy. But constantly reporting about it, over and over again in the news is too much. Joe Jackson decided that he hadn't been making enough money off of his children that he used to abuse, so he rented out the Staples Center in LA and had a Memorial Service for his son that he "misses so much". Sure you do Joe. Sure you do. Apparently all of these music types showed up to perform. They all claimed they were going to do a duet with him on his tour, etc etc. Hell Mirah Carey is apologizing because her performance wasn't up to snuff. Ummm hello Attention Whore, who gives a shit. It wasn't about you dumbass. Madonna was there plus a whole shitload of folks who probably met the man once or twice in passing and who could honestly not give two shits about this guy. Oh yeah, you dear reader could have also gone down there to see the Memorial. For the price of plane fare and whatever Joe Jackson was going to charge you to get in, you could have gone too. A shit load of people apparently went. Why???? Seriously, why? So you bought his records and listened to his music. You didn't know the man and you probably hadn't even thought of the guy in the past decade yet all of a sudden "you miss him sooooo much". Give me a break please. Where's all the hoopla for Farrah Fawcett? Billy Mays? David Carradine? Ed McMahon? Karl Malden? Where are their "Memorials"? They contributed just as much to the entertainment world as Michael Jackson did, yet their passing was a mere footnote. We should be ashamed of ourselves. What about the 4,000 plus soldiers that have died since the "war on terror" has begun? Where is their Memorial? Where is their news story? We Humans are a disgusting lot sometimes.

Another person who's death has caused such hype, at least around here, is Steve McNair. Again, this will offend some but I don't give a shit. I am not moved or saddened by Steve McNair's death. Not in the slightest. Want to know why? His was the most avoidable death ever. That's right, if good old Steve-O....the great humanitarian who loved kids and paid for football camps for underprivileged youth out of his own pocket....would have kept little Steve-O in his pants and brought it home to where it belonged; his Wife, then Steve would be alive today and we wouldn't have a Memorial service for him. Steve McNair, for those that don't know, was found dead on the 4th of July in an apartment he and a roommate rented next to the dead body of a woman who was not his wife. Yep, the Man that was so great with kids the apparent good guy who has 4 sons of his own and a loving wife was killed by his 20 year old mistress who then proceeded to shoot herself in such a manner that when she died her body would be lying on his. Any respect I ever had for the man and his accomplishments has become disgust at this situation. Seriously guys, take this as a lesson. Cheating never pays off in the end. Word for the ladies, because this is something that is portrayed on television and in the news, do you ladies honestly think that taking a man from his Wife and Family is going to make for a stable relationship? Seriously, do you honestly think that when he says "I'm going to divorce my wife for you" that he is actually going to do it? 9 times out of 10 he doesn't. Even if he does, what makes you honestly think he's not going to dump you for someone younger? I mean after all he dumped his Wife for you....what makes you any better than any other woman out there? Ladies, have more respect for yourselves than that. Stay away from married guys. No one will think you are great because you helped wreck a marriage. No, folks will think you are a manipulative whore. The people I feel sorry for in this situation are his Widow and Kids. These boys, who from all reports thought Dad was a hero, now have to hear and see evidence of Dad's infidelities with a Dave and Buster's waitress. The same place that Steve would take his Family on occasion. Wonder if bimbo was working there during those times? That disgusts me even more right there. So hate on me all you want my fellow Nashvillians, but know that the man you "honor" doesn't deserve that honor. Know that the man you "miss" so much you didn't have to miss because he shouldn't have been where he ended up with whom he ended up with.

Now let's put these deceased folks in the ground and move on. Enough already!!!!

DC Vacation

We just got back from our Vacation the Nation's Capitol. Wow, what a place. The sheer history alone will awe you, no matter what your political bent is. That's a good suggestion to start with when visiting the Captiol; leave your politics at home. There's more to DC than Politics. If you're going, I suggest staying at a hotel in the outlying areas that is close to a Metro Station. For those that don't know what the Metro is, think a Subway. For my Bay Areans back home think Bart. It is by far the most stress free way of getting into that town to sight see. I also suggest getting a 2 day pass for one of the many sightseeing busses that cruise through town. You won't regret it. We hopped on the City Sightseeing bus http://www.city-sightseeing.com/ (I liked them so much I will put their website url up in this post) and we didn't regret our decision. A two day pass for 3 people was 70-something dollars. This included a night tour. The beauty of these busses, besides being open topped double deckers, is that you can get on and off as many times and for as long as you want at each stop. You do not have to get back on the same bus, just one of that companies busses that comes along every 15 minutes. The stops are all at or near places you want to go anyway. I also suggest doing some research ahead of time. We bought a couple of really cool travel books at the bookstore. One broke the City down into sections, and each sections write up was two pages long. Included in that section was a flip up map of the area. Very handy. Also each book comes with a Metro map in the front...again vary handy. One thing you should be prepared for is high security at all the museums, etc. And please folks, don't bitch and moan about the crap security asks you to do. The one time someone doesn't check something is the one time something happens. These folks are just doing their jobs, don't give them shit. I highly suggest the Holocaust Museum. That place will get you. Also I might add that anyone who thinks that the Holocaust didn't happen needs to remove themselves from the Gene Pool. I loved the Museum of Natural History but I ran into someone outside that I really wanted to smack. There was a chunk of iron ore dated back to 22 million years ago. Some guy with his sons was reading it to them and he said..."22 mllion years, or 7000 depends on what you're buying." Freaking Creationist!!! I literally wanted to smack the guy and say "if you don't believe any of this is true then what the Hell are you doing going into the museum." I ignored the ingnoramous and we walked in. Holy Crap that place was huge!!!! You could seriously spend a week in that place. Here's a pic of one of the halls:



Huge isn't it? There was a very cool temporary exhibit going on that was a Butterfly tunnel. You went in this room that was filled with flowers and there were butterflies of every kind, color, etc flitting around. They'd land on you and the curators had to check you on the way out to make sure you didn't carry any hitchhiking butterflies. We tried to get to the American History museum but ran out of time.

The memorials are very moving. I only got to see Abe and the Korean War Memorial and the WWII one from the bus. Here are some shots:







Abe is 19 feet tall an along the side walls are the complete Gettysburg Address. The figures in the Korean War Memorial are lifesize and the detail is amazing.

I suggest trying to see all the Memorials. You may not agree with the decision to go to War, but you have to honor those men and women that gave their lives so we can be the Nation we are.

Also try and see all the Smitsonian Museums. They are free, and the artifacts in them are amazing.

My favorite was the Air and Space Museum. I got to see the Spirit of St. Louis, a Predator Drone, one of the Lunar Landers, several space capsules and the Wright Bros plane......very impressive.....here's some shots.







Didn't get the Wright Bros plane as my phone camera doesn't have flash. The Wife got some good shots though.

We tried to get into the Capital but some Jackhole left an unattended package and they had to treat it like a security breach. Especially since Congress is in session.

There is so much to do and you need several weeks to do it in. It was really a good trip and we were exhausted when we got back to the Hotel.

Good News and a bunch of Sad News.

The good news is that Bernie Madoff is going to be in prison for 150 years. It may be Club Fed, but it's still prison. Also his petty Wife who claims that 90 mil of their holdings was hers has basically had everything sold out from underneath her and left with a "measly" 2.5 million. Poor wittle baby....I guess you're going to have to learn to live off of 2.5 mil. Sorry bitch.

Now for the bad news. We've had some great entertainers die recently and our arts are surely lacking for their loss. First off there was Ed "Yes!!" McMahan. He put the Yes into Yes Man. He was the worlds most famous SideKick. Poor Farrah lost he battle with cancer and has gone off to a better place now. I remember the famous Farrah poster well...I should, I had one hanging on the wall next to my bed as a Teen boy. Little did Mom realize it was legal Porn for us teen boys. Then we lost Michael Jackson. Say what you will, and I've said my share believe me, before he turned into a White Transvestite he was a talented Man. Something along the way snapped and that Man never reemerged. Today I read that we lost a amazing salesman in Billy "Oxiclean" Mays. WTF????? I've been watching his show "Pitchmen" with fellow salesguy Anthony Sullivan lately and it's a great show. Wow!!! We also lost David Carridine earlier so that's 5.....one more I guess....you know how they say they die in 3's. RIP all....you will be missed.

How does this happen?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/09/BAM8183KNR.DTL&tsp=1

Another moronic parent has killed their infant child by "forgetting" them in their car. How the Hell does this happen? It's a freaking child Asshat, not a cellphone or your lunch. According to the article over 40+ kids have died from a parent forgetting they were in the car. I see the crap my oldest Daughter has to bring with her when she brings the kids over to visit. Diaper bag, the 5 year old's cars and toys, the baby's toys, etc. She is very aware her children are in the car with her. It's unexcusable. The article gives some tips on how not to forget your kid's in the car. What???? Here's a tip asshole; YOUR KID IS IN THE FREAKING CAR....YOU KNOW A LIVING HUMAN BEING THAT YOU PHYSICALLY PUT IN A CAR SEAT IN YOUR CAR AND BUCKLED IN!!! If you can't remember that, then your children need to be taken away and you need to be sterilized. This dumbass normally takes his kid to daycare before going to the BART station to catch a train to work. Apparently this one time he forgets!?!?!?!? The article quotes some "expert" who says "One little deviation from your daily routine can be just enough of a distraction that you forget the child." Bullshit! With the price of Daycare the way it is, you are going to remember to haul your kid there. Here's a little hint folks; just because you can make children doesn't necessarily mean you should.

Update: Saturday we had GrandDaughter duty. She's 9 moths old. The Wife and I were acutely aware of her being strapped into her car seat in our back seat. Even when she was sleeping we'd check on her. So I still don't have any clue other than Munchausen Syndrome how this could happen.

California: The Education is for the Wealthy State

I should also add California: The Let's make the cop's job even harder State. Please read The Supergoober's Blog, The Discourser's Blog and The Warden's Blog regarding the sorry State of Politics in the about to be bankrupt State of California. Isn't it funny, when there's no cash the first places they take it from are Education and Law Enforcement. I miss the sights and I miss the GoG, but I don't miss California Politics. Needless to say I'm as pissed off as the guys are.

June 6th, 1944

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Battle+of+Normandy

Amidst all the whining and bitching heard in the MSM lately, I neglected to hear anything about the fact that Saturday was the 65th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. So remember those vets of the Great War who are dwindling in number as the years advance. I read somewhere that very soon there will be no more living Vets of WWII. So if you have a relative or aquaintance that was in that war, please visit them. Talk to them about their experiences because very soon that generation will have all gone away.

Racism

Supergoober brought up a good point on the GoG's private yahoo group today about Racism.  For those that don't know, the GoG is made up of a diverse group of races that is a demographic slice of the SF Bay Area.  Seriously it is.  The group is made up of Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Latino, Celts and Italians.   The Group also has Catholics, Jews and other religions that I'm probably not aware of.  (Honestly with the GoG, Religion is a mute point as it's a subject that is rarely discussed and everyone's differences are respected.)  Yet in that Group of Immigrants (there's no one in that group who's ancestors came over on the Mayflower.) The Celts, Pols and Italians would be considered "White" and treated differently than say the Asians or Latinos.   Why?  The media, the mouth breathing "pundits", etc.   I've discussed this before, every Stereotype has a bit of truth to it.  I'm one of the Italians in the group.  My people are loud, we talk with our hands, we are touchy feely and tend to have no concept of personal space.  We pepper our dialogue with Italian sayings (case in point, from being around my relatives and Family all my life I, like other Italians, say the term "Madon" when someone or something makes one shake one's head.  Or when someone frustrates you.  The actual term is "Madonna Mia".  Something on TV last night made me say that and my Daughter said "why do you say that all the time?") and when we are together we get "very Italian".   I know, you are thinking "The Godfather" and "The Sopranos" right now aren't you?  Those stereotypes are true.  Am I offended by them?  Hell no.  The point of this discussion was prompted by Supergoober's response to Rush Limburger calling Justice Sotomayer a "racist".   Wow.  Hello Mr. Kettle, I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Pot.  Her statement was from 2002 when she said that (and I'm paraphrasing here) that "as a Latina she would have a better perspective on the situation than a privileged White Person."   I'm guessing the case was a case of a minority being further undermined by the law or something.   In that case, it wasn't a racist statement.  When offering opinions on laws, I firmly believe the Supreme Court Justices should first ask themselves "Who is this law benefiting?".   In a case like the aforementioned one, if it was about a minority, then yes Sotomayer as a Latina who had to work her way up from the bottom and who was able to attend Law School on Scholarships would have a better understanding of what an underprivileged Minority has to go through every day.   A WASP born into buttloads of cash who has never had to want at any time in their lives doesn't understand shit about being Poor, or a Minority.  Hell they don't even understand what it is to be White and Middle Class.  People claim there's a "double standard".  If a White Man said something similar to what Sotomayer said he'd be branded a racist and would have resigned his nomination.   As well he should.  I hate to say this White Folks, but your racist, in charge of everything asses have had this coming a long time now.   Those of you born into money with no freaking clue as to what those who have to work for a living have to go through every day are in for a big shock too.  Supergoober's comparison was this:  Take White people hating all Filipinos and then compare that to Filipinos hating all White people.  There are more Whites in this country (hell I think they are all here in Tennessee but I digress....) than Filipinos.  If there was a "battle" who do you think would win?  This was his question.  His point was that the White Hatred towards the Filipinos is more dangerous and detrimental to that Racial Group than the Filipino hatred (and yes he commented on the lowercase h..) towards the Whites.  Why you ask?  Isn't it the same thing?  Isn't hatred hatred?  In a sense it's the same thing, but only in the fact that the hate is an emotional response to actions from the other group.  That's it.  Whites have the power in this Country (even with a Black President, it's still a mostly White Congress and House.....).  Most CEO's of the big Powerful Corporations are White Males.  Money talks, and the Whites have most of it.  If a powerful and wealthy White man wanted to, with a little expenditure of cash he could make it so Filipinos are considered second class citizens.   That's SG's point.  We Humans tend to hate what's different than ourselves.   White folks have been Xenophobic for Decades now, and not much has changed.   What is changing is the old generations that accepted the "N" word as no big deal, who actually used it often and in polite company, are dying off and becoming irrelevant.  Funny how most of them are die hard Republicans...hee hee...  I saw a report that said there is an increase in the amount of interracial people in this Country.  I've always said, one day we will all be the same freaking color and be able to trace our ancestry to several different racial backgrounds.    With the generations that are coming of age (i.e. younger than me...) and their attitudes towards things, I'm not surprised in the slightest. 

NAFL......who's that?????

It seems that back in 1996 some people didn't get the hint about Spring/Summer Football being a bad thing.  Remember way back when in the 80's when we had the USFL, the United States Football League.  Such memorable teams as the Oakland Invaders (the Raiders had just moved to LA and this was the replacement team but not an NFL team).  It failed miserably because they were playing during the midst of Baseball season.  Well apparently in 1996 an amateur Football league was put together called the North American Football League and they have been playing ever since and they have 71 teams!?!?!?!?!?!?  If it hadn't been for a recent commercial on TV for the Nashville Storm....which made me pause and say "who the Hell is the Nashville Storm????"....I never would have heard of this league.   If you look at the Wikipedia entry, apparently there will be massive expansion in the league next year with Sacto, San Jose, SF, Stockton, and other Cali cities getting teams.   Has anyone even seen one of their games?  Are these guys popular or even have a following?   You would think they would have gotten the hint after the demise of the XFL....c'mon who didn't see that coming.  It was a "Football" league created by Vince "WWE" McMahon.  Hell they had the same announcers for the Wrestling matches calling the play by play on the game.  Apparently during the mandatory TV time outs, the "Cheerleaders" put on a show akin to a striptease.  Note on TV Time out:  Pro Football is a TV sport.  Every game is televised and shown somewhere in the Country.  That's why there are very few games and they are played on one day, sometimes two, only.  Watching the game live it's very odd because when the networks switch to commercial, play on the field stops.   The live game you are sitting and watching in the stadium actually stops for what is called a TV Timeout.  Now back to the Rant.  The XFL died after only one season.   They made such a huge deal out of it too, but it was not to be.   Then we got the AFL or Arena Football League.  Played indoors on a half sized field it was more action packed and higher scoring.  It also has been steadily losing enthusiasm since day one.  Our team out here in Nashville was sold twice.  Apparently the Predators Hockey team didn't like to share the Sommnet Center.  The AFL team owners decided to cancel the 2009 season to reassess the business model of the league and try and find out why it's not popular.    Gee, I can tell you why.  See USFL, XFL, etc.  Hell see professional LaCrosse and the funniest one of all, professional Roller Hockey.  Oh yes, there was once a team called the Oakland Rhinos.   The one that got me was when the NHL was expanding to areas of the world without snow: San Jose, Phoenix, LA., there was a league trying to compete called the IHL.  There was a SF team called the Spiders and they played in the Cow Palace.  Oh yeah, they were doomed from the start.  The Cow Palace is in one of the most Ghetto areas of SF to begin with.  Put it this way, the KFC near the Cow Palace has a huge lexan wall with tray slots and speakers and this is INSIDE the restaurant.   If a fast food restaurant has to take your orders and serve you through bullet proof glass then it's a Ghetto.  The other reason they were doomed is because the Cow Palace is an ancient facility.  If you've never seen a concert there, don't.  I don't care who it is.  In High School I saw my share of concerts there and the acoustics are horrible.  I know what you're thinking, but no.  I didn't go to concerts to get high or drunk, I actually went to hear the music and see the band play.  I know, GEEK....whatever.  My brain cells will die off naturally over time and not because of some funny green leaf that makes you stupid.  Maybe this amateur league will survive because no one knows about it.  I guess obscurity is better than hype.

How Not to be a Mom

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/index?blogid=46

I should know better than to check out the "Mommy Files" blog on SF Gate. I've written about Amy Graff before and how she is essentially clueless. She is a wealthy white woman who's husband makes a great living so she has time to get paid to blog and write articles. She has a daughter named Paris....that should be a sign right there, and a son. Apparently she has coddled and sheltered her Precious little Snowflakes to the point of them being afraid of their own shadows. This is the lady who on advice from a friend stopped her family from using shampoo because your hair's natural oils keep it clean........oh and because baby shampoo can give your kids cancer.....like I said before, if that was the case, every single person on this planet born in the 60's on would have cancer.....dumbass!! These people think because they have given birth, they are instant experts on child rearing. Her latest post asks the questions "Were your kids as scared of Pixar's Up as mine were?" WTF???? Apparently there are some big dog characters in the movie who go chasing after a bird. Well since her snowflakes got pushed down by a big dog a few weeks ago it's now the most traumatic thing EVER!!!!! These kids, 6 and 4 are so afraid of these computer generated, cartoony dogs that they cower under Mommies skirts to the point she has to leave the theater. Holy crap Lady!!! Do you not know that you have to help your children get over their fears? She admits she didn't research the movie ahead of time but seems to blame Pixar for making a child inappropriate movie. Ummmm....okay...it's for Kids and I believe it's rated G!!!! Tell you what Lady, just plop your kids down in front of swirling colored lights okay.....that shouldn't be too scary. Or have them watch Veggie Tales...oh wait, that might scare them because they are talking, Christian vegetables......talking Veggies can be traumatic. It sounds like I'm being a bit harsh but this Lady really pisses me off. Why you ask? Because she is supposedly some kind of "expert" and gives advice on a Moms Blog that poor, lost Mother's go to for expert advice. This Lady has more money than sense and seems to want some kind of award for giving birth. Read her blog if only for the laugh it will give you....you will laugh as you read her "advice" because you won't believe some of the crap she says. I bet she carries an industrial sized bottle of Purell in her purse. Just saying.

Update: Hee hee...apparently I'm not the only person who thinks her kids are coddled, wimps.....the comments to her latest blog post are full of people telling her what a moron she is or what wimpy kids she has. You'd think this Lady would have gotten a clue that it's a Pixar movie rated PG...that should tell you right there not for 4 and 6 year olds......