We're a Scared and Confused Lot aren't we...

Since election time will be upon us it's hard for one to not get bombarded by everyone's pet peeve.  The War on Terror, the "Gay" Agenda, Abortion, Religion, Steroids........it's enough to make you want to just nuke the planet from orbit and go live on the moon (although there are all kinds of things that go wrong with your body after years in lower or no gravity but I digress...).   We seem to get all worked up over things that aren't really important.   Little Johnny can't pray in school.  Little Johnny doesn't need to be praying in school, he needs to be learning to read and write intelligible English and how to do math.  Little Johnny needs to be learning about science and how the world works.....he needs to learn History so he knows what not to do when he gets older.   Little Johnny can pray on Sunday like everyone else, or at the Dinner table at home or at the side of his bed at night before he turns in.   We don't need to go Ape Shit and have protests and such about this.  The Government doesn't need to spend our tax dollars on this either.  Bob and Jeff want to get married as do Suzy and Cindy.  Rev. DoGood doesn't want them to because in his opinion they are sinners!!!!  Who cares?  Seriously, not to be an ass, but who cares right now.  This isn't important really.  I personally don't care if Gays get married or not, they aren't hurting me and my marriage like all the Religious nuts say they are.  We don't need to be spending tax dollars fighting this right now.   Abortion.....oh Lord help us!  It's legal and has been for a long time.  You don't like the idea of an abortion; don't get one!  I don't like you reading a book then telling me how to act because God said so but you don't see me telling you that you can't read that book, now do you?  Me personally, I'm Pro Choice because it's none of the Government's damn concern what a woman does with her own body.   Abortion is a traumatic thing and that woman needs to live with her own actions.    We don't need to spend any more tax dollars on this.   Athletes taking steroids.   Exactly what laws are they breaking doing this that the Government needs to spend tax dollars on hearings and such?    The War on Terror.  Yes, we do need to still spend money on this, but we don't need to constantly strip away more and more of a Citizen's rights to do so.   They say the surge is working; is it?  What exactly are we doing over there now?  We are not fighting to free the Country anymore, we've done that and did a damn fine job.  We are now just occupying a foreign nation and doing so because of a Moron in DC who says we are doing good.  We are just dying is what we are doing.  We should be in Afghanistan reducing the mountains of the Khyber Pass to rubble so we can kill Osama....the real bad guy.  It's the distraction I guess.  Let's get all worked up over prayer in school so people will hopefully forget there are real issues going on that need to be addressed.   A good portion of the populous has no Health Care.   As far as I'm concerned fix that problem first, then we can talk about Gays getting married or Johnny praying in Math Class.   Insurance companies are raping "we the people" as badly as the Oil companies are.   Shrub is letting them do it and not lifting a finger to stop it.  Yes I know it's a free market, but please.  It's like the Oil companies as well.  They are making a killing and we are suffering.  We love our cars, and we are paying the price for that love.  Is there another way?  Not in Middle Tennessee.  Transit only works if you work Downtown Nashville.  I work on the outskirts.  I could take the train, then hop on several busses and all of that would take me about 2 hours of waiting and boarding and unboarding and having to pickup transit far away from where I work.  Or I can drive and it will take me 45 minutes at the most.  There's a saying that says don't sweat the petty stuff.  Really, roids, prayer, abortion and same sex marriage are the petty stuff.  There are more important things we should expend our energy on.

Everyone's an Expert....

Yeah I know, there are those that think that opinion should apply to me too.  I don't claim to be an expert on anything, but I do know a few things about a few things.....I did pay attention in most of my College classes, and that degree I have wasn't because I tested well (Lord knows that's the truth).  I'm opinionated, and sometimes those opinions are backed by research or first hand knowledge.   But I digress.

 

This past Sunday my wonderful Wife asked me to keep her company while she was having an Open House for a Townhouse she is the listing Agent for.   It was a really nice Townhouse...open floor plan, three floors (lots of stairs....) with an Overlook in the Master Suite that has a Lake View and accordion doors you can close for privacy.  That's the part I liked the best.  It also has three Decks....backyard, front and Master Suite.  Very nice.  The woman that owns it has done some nice things to it; new Hardwood floors (not laminate but real hardwood) and kitchen tile.   New light fixtures in the bathrooms too.  She put some cash into it and is trying to make it back on the price.   About a half dozen or so couples came through in the three hour window to look at it.  Everyone liked it but these two dudes.   These guys are the reason for the blog title.  These Dudes were in their late 20's early 30's.  Not a couple, but two straight Dudes obviously looking for a property to Flip.  I roll my eyes when I think of these guys.  Thanks to HGTV and all their Real Estate, Curb Appeal, Flip that House type shows we are getting to be a Society of Expert Real Estate investors.   These Dudes were looking for a bargain....possibly a foreclosure....that they could turn around quick with minimal effort.  When the owner put in the new light fixtures, she didn't paint over the space on either side where the old ones had been.  Big deal says I.   These Dudes commented on that.  The floor in one of the bedrooms slopes ever so slightly....the house is built on a hill and is 23 years old.....crap settles and if there was anything structurally wrong with that section, the guys wouldn't have installed the hardwood floor there.  Oh yeah, and the ceiling fan in the living room is missing a blade.   Other than that, the Townhouse is in perfect condition.  Hell I'd buy it if I didn't already have a mortgage of my own.  These Dudes comments "It's totally unlivable the way it is.  There is so much that needs to be done to it that it's not worth it."   Huh??????  I guess these morons are looking for a brand new, contemporary place for 100K or something so the can turn around and sell it for double.  Yeah, good luck with that.   Dumbasses.  We met this one Mortgage Broker (nice guy, real professional and he knew his stuff) he told us this story of how dumb folks can be.  Now I'm not a financial expert by any means, but I do know a thing or two about how Interest Rates work and when the Fed says they are going down, it's not by much......vice versa as well.  He had some clients who, and this was recently, were approved for a mortgage with no points, no orig cost, etc and a interest rate of 5.125%....on a 300K loan.  Wow!!  I thought to myself.  That's better than I got (mine is 6 something....).  Did these folks jump on it????  Hell no!!!  These morons told this Broker "well they say the rates going lower..." the Broker told them that it ain't going that much lower and expecting it to is a huge gamble.   They still wouldn't lock it in.  Time went by, the rate expired and they ended up paying points plus orig fees and almost 6%.....why?  They thought they were experts.  Let's not listen to the Broker...a guy who has a license and makes his living eating, and breathing the markets.   Everyone who has even a remote clue about markets knows that if you have a rate of 5.125% and the average is 6/6.25 and they say the rates are going lower.....they mean for the folks who have 7 and 8% interest rates.....not someone who has been approved for one of the lowest rates in the range!!!!   It's a good bet home loan interest rates aren't going below 5% for awhile......I got a 4.5% in 2004 for a 15K car......no way I'm getting a 4.5 for a house at 130K or higher.  Ain't happening.  Even someone with stellar credit will get a 5.   But hey you know, Everyone's an expert......

Lynne Spears should be ashamed of herself.....

So says the cover of Us/People (or whatever Hollywood gossip mag that I saw in our lunchroom).   Really????  You don't say????  If Us/People is just figuring that out now, they need help.  Yes, Lynne Spears should be ashamed of herself.  She's proof you can take the girl out the trailer but you can't take the trailer out of the girl.  This woman has whored out both of her daughters to fill her coffers with no care as to how it affects them.   Never been a Brittney fan, but I pity the girl.  It's easy to laugh at her because the masses lifted her up so high that her fall into oblivion makes us feel good about ourselves.   "God my life sucks!" you may say, as the bills pile up and it gets harder to make ends meet.  Then you see Brit on the TV, shaving her head, flashing her privates, being chased by photogs and generally spiraling around the drain that is mental and physical health.   You look at this and say "Hell at least I'm not Brittney...."  It's a nasty thing we do, but we can't help it.  We are constantly told these people are better than us, and that pressure makes Lower Middle Class folks like Lynne Spears whore out their daughters for profit.   Or the Ramseys.....Mom used to be a Beauty Queen.....never knew anything else in life.....got by on her looks because some of us men are stupid and want the Beauty Queen with no ambition other than to marry a rich Dude.   They have children and Mama Beauty Queen who's now lost her looks because duh we all age....tarts up her 5 year old and lives vicariously through her.   Or you have Joe Simpson.....you know him....another lowlife who whores his daughters out for his profit.   I feel sorry for those girls too.   These folks aren't the first, nor will they be the last.   Remember the Osmonds?  The Jacksons?   The Osmonds didn't turn out so bad, but there was some drama there for awhile.   The real damage was done to the Jacksons.  Jeeeessssussss!!!!!!  Ever wonder why Michael is so screwed up?  Meet Joe Jackson...Patriarch and sadistic asshole.   Child stars get destroyed for the most part in Hollywood.  There are those that survive and survive well.  There are those that go to the lowest lows and march right back to the top, head held high to succeed again.  Drew Barrymore comes to mind.  Tatum O'Neal is another.   What's becoming more prevalent, and Thank God too, is parents being in control of what happens with/to their child stars.  Not letting them be destroyed or become the next Brit, Paris, etc.   One good example is Billy Ray Cyrus.  Yeah I know....Mr. Achy Breaky Heart.....I give the man credit though, he watches out for his daughter like a hawk.  She's a talented Kid and sets a good example.  I guess these folks don't realize that when one is in the public eye, one is an example.  There are folks that look up to you, want to be like you, imitate you.   Brittney was selling bubblegum pop to 8 year olds but her videos were for the Dad's of those 8 year olds.   WRONG!!!!  I'm so glad my Step-Daughter has other idols....all strong and independent women.   Not the Paris' or Britts of the world.   I remember in High School wanting to be an Actor (thus my numerous Theater classes and roles in plays and 12+ year stint at Ren Faire and Dickens Fair) but if I had realized then what it meant, I would have said "Hell No!!!"  No matter how clean you keep your nose, one stupid little slip and they broadcast it and try and tear you down for it.   This happened to Miley Cyrus.  Apparently now we have these Ticket Broker companies who are the reason ticket prices are so high for live shows.   These guys are basically legalized scalpers.   They have banks of Bot computers that are programmed to go off and buy the maximum number of tickets online that a person can buy.  Thus the reason certain shows sell out so quickly.   God I remember before the interwebs we had to sit on the phone and hit redial 40,000 times until you got through.   These ticker brokers buy at the normal price, then sell at whatever the market demands.   Miley tickets were going for 1-3K a piece because of these schumcks.   Did the media blast the ticket brokers?  NO.  They said Miley should have had more control.  Doesn't work that way moron media folks.  She gets a percentage of the profits as well as the venue putting on the show plus the ticket company doing the original selling of the tickets gets a cut too.   So the 60-80+ dollars you pay for a ticket goes to cover costs plus make several people a profit.  Miley has no control over this.   She signs a contract to do the show, and she is paid either a flat rate or cut of the ticket sales depending on the contract.   When these brokers are selling them for 1-3K, they are the only one's seeing the profit from that.  So Miley ain't making extra off the sales of high priced tickets, nor does she have say in who buys or doesn't   I hate these schumcks.   Something needs to be done about them........possibly have software where you have to type in a code on the screen that a Bot can't to be able to buy tickets.  Might not stop these guys, but it will slow them down. 

Is it just me?

Doesn't it seem like "science" is coming up with names for conditions that have been around for years?  Doesn't it seem strange that the only time you hear of the names for these conditions is in a commercial for the latest drug that is designed to combat this condition?  We have the new "disease of the year" called fiber myalgia(sp?) which sounds to me like a form of arthritis (joint pain, muscle pain....basically pain....).  It also sounds like the crap we go through when we get old and not so active anymore.    We also now have special yogurt that helps you become regular and the "culture" found in it is called Bifudus irregularus.....Really?  Is that for real?  Something tells me that's a name some Madison Avenue Ad Exec pulled out of his/her ass to sell more yogurt at higher prices.  All yogurt is the same......the regular Yoplait or Dannon that Kroger sells for 10 for 10 bucks is the same as the shit with "Bifudus Irregularus" but yet they charge more for less of the "BI" stuff.  My Wife drinks Ensures because it helps boost her energy and gives her the extra protein and calcium a Woman her age needs.  She takes Multi-Vitamins everyday but the Ensures really help.   The shit's pricy though!!!  I love how they beat us over the head to be healthy and eat right, but all the foods, etc that are available to help you do that cost an arm and a leg and shit like Kraft Mac & Cheese is dirt cheap.   I like living in a free market as much as the next Capitalist, but something's got to give here..... people want to do the healthy thing but you can't afford to.  Disclaimer: Before I get slammed with comments calling me a Fiber Myalgia Hater....It's not that I don't believe this condition is real....chronic pain is a reality for a lot of folks...Arthritis, muscle aches....but these are conditions that come with getting older (Hell I know when I squat down in the store to look at something on a lower shelf, I can't hold that position for very long without my knees aching.....).  My complaint is that these pharmaceutical companies are finding every excuse they can to market some "miracle drug" that they spent cash creating......so they can get folks to become dependent on it to cure their ailments. 

Now my own people are doing it!!!

So Supreme Court Justice Alioto is pissed off at the Sopranos. Says it "shows Italians in a bad light". Really Justice Alioto? You mean the Costa Nostra never existed???? You mean Italian Family Gatherings are not loud??? Aye Marone.....give me a break Dude. There's a group I used to support called the "Sons of Italy" because my deceased Grandfather was a member. That is used to support until I got their literature basically pushing for Italians to have "minority" status. Sorry guys; DO NOT WANT!!! To make a movie about Italians and make it interesting you have to put in the Mafia angle. Sorry; no one wants to see a movie about poor Italians coming to America and digging ditches or working the docks. Besides, most of the Italians that worked those jobs were working for the Mafia anyway (who do you think got them the jobs??) We Italians have existed under the Radar so to speak by not asking for special compensation because of our race. We don't demand that ATMs and packaging be written in Italian. We don't even care that Colombus Day is basically a throwaway Holiday that no one really cares about. Italians have made their own way in the world by their own merits....not because someone had to hire "x number of Italians" because not doing so would be discrimination. I know my Ancestors in Sicily were a little of both. Working Man and Mafia Man. Mostly Fishermen but there were those that worked for the Mob.....heck both of my Great Grandfather's on my Mother's side were Dons......and that wasn't their first name either. The reason so many worked directly and indirectly for the Mob was that as immigrants they were the "Mexican's" of the 30's along with the Irish. Back in the 30's it was common to hear "those damn Wops and Micks come to this Country and take all of our jobs...". Sound familiar? Just insert disparaging term for Mexican in place of Wops and Micks and you have today's chant. Unlike a good portion of the Mexican immigrants today, the Italians and Irish were here legally. No paying smugglers to help them cross the border then having to work like slaves to pay it off. No, my Ancestors had to work off their passage with manual labor....or like my Great Grandmother an arranged marriage to an older American. She of course said to Hell with that and ended up marrying a nice Sicilian boy she met on the ship. The American was dead by the time she got here so it was easier for them to get by. The contract was null and void, but her papers were in order. The Soprano's doesn't put Italians in a bad light.....just like the Shield doesn't put all Cops in a bad light or the Wire put African-Americans in a bad light. Sterotypes exist because they contain a smidgeon of truth. Ever meet a New York Italian? Yes, they grab their crotches alot and talk just like they are potrayed in the movies. We're talking streetwise Dudes....... my Uncle (the one that is dead to us.....) is alot like that. He's a wheeler and a dealer....dresses like Christopher from the Sopranos....acts like him too, wears the pinkie ring, the gold chains......c'mon......bad light??? Please. I know these sterotypical Italians....I'm related to a few of them.

Cue the Nanny State Police......

So I guess it will no longer be feasible to make comedies anymore because no matter how harmless of a remark you make...someone's going to be pissed off. Just read an article where folks that have children adopted from China are pissed off at a snarky remark the lead character in the movie "Juno" makes to a couple hoping to adopt her unborn child. The remark is basically "you should go to China and adopt your child....I mean they give them away there like free ipods or something..." In the context of the movie it's a teens reaction to something she really doesn't want to do; give up her child for adoption. But yet people are getting pissed off saying "oh that's not true...China is very strict about their adoption policies..." STFU!!!!! Morons......get the hint......IT'S A FREAKING JOKE!!!! K???? Let's not get our panties in a bunch here......Jesus!!! So what's next....we get pissed off at Letterman and Leno for making lead paint in Chinese made toy jokes?????? And now these moronic groups out there who want to bubblewrap and foam pad our Children to death are pissed off at Miley Cyrus and her Dad for a scene in their concert movie where they are riding in the back of a vehicle without seatbelts.....ZOMGBBGWTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!??! Stop the presses!!!! Let's see....the Girl is a great role model for kids her age. She's clean cut, talented, you don't see her running around showing off parts of herself that should be covered up....she's not in rehab....not screwing some new guy every other second....doesn't have a sex tape on YouTube......not shaving her head and running over paparazzi.....no she and her Dad didn't wear a freaking seatbelt in a Movie..........Holy Crap let's string her up now......

The only solution? Nuke the planet from orbit it's the only way to be sure....

Geez....These Scammers don't give up do they!!!

http://thegreatoldtrucktrade.com/craigslist_scammer.asp

Click the link for a great tale of how one man turned the tables on one of these scammer clowns....it's quite funny.

So checking the review panel for my email addy (our Net Nazi software at work won't let us check our webbased email addresses) I noticed today that I had 6 of these "Nigerian Prince" scam emails. Holy Crap!!! Dudes....are you getting that desperate???? Seriously. Here's a hint to protect yourselves; if you don't know who the email is from...DELETE IT. Simple. Here's some other helpful hints (and no I'm not an expert....just someone who questions everything):

1. Your Bank NEVER asks you for sensitive information out of the blue. The only time they do that is if you call in and they need to access your account....then it's just to verify that you are who you say you are. Never give your bank account, password, etc to some stranger.

2. No one is going to give you anything for free. At least not something that costs any substantial amount of money. Even "FreeCreditReport.com" requires you to enroll in a trial basis of their monthly tracking service. Sure they give you a free credit report, but then if you don't cancel your "free trial" they assume you want it and start charging your credit card. Nothing's free. A capitalistic society doesn't work that way. You go to the grocery and it's Buy one get one free....you still have to spend money to get something free.

3. No one is going to send you a check out of the blue, have you cash it, then write them a check back for the amount. That's called Money Laundering and it's illegal. Even if someone legitimately gave you a check (as in personally handed it to you) you would be busted so fast.

4. The Prince of Nigeria is not going to use a British Barrister to send an email to Joe Average in MiddleTown USA to facilitate the cashing of a check so he can get out of the Country because he is being deposed or something insane like that. The Prince of Nigeria doesn't know Margaret Jones of Nebraska, 78 years old. Is there even a Prince of Nigeria? I thought most places like Somalia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria were run by Warlords who engage in ethnic cleasnsing.

5. PayPal sends you emails every once in awhile....but if you didn't buy something on Ebay...then clicking the link in the email that says "Your recent ebay sale" is stupid. Or the email's that say "the money you owe me..." I know who I owe money too. It's not to these people that's for sure.

6. If someone makes a payment to your PayPal account in error (uh yeah right.....you get an email from paypal saying someone has paid you....then you have to go into your account and transfer the funds to your savings/checking) PayPal can usually be informed and that problem will be taken care of. It doesn't happen as when you pay someone with PayPal, you have to send it to a verified email address linked to a verified account.

Be careful out there folks.......

BTW Prince of Nigeria....Cash your own damn check.

Japanese Bobtail

Now we know what breed Miss Panther finally is. Click on the title to be taken to a page all about the breed. It clearly explains the fetching and carrying as natural behavior......too funny.

Happy Year of the Rat

It's that time again...Lunar New Year. I do miss going to the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown. It was always great fun and the Lion Dancers (pictured) and Dragon Dancers were always cool.

How about them Giants!!!!

Unfortunately not the San Francisco Baseball Giants but the New York Football Giants!!! Being a die hard Raiders fan and remembering the Snowjob game where Tom Brady was given the benefit of a bad call and the Raiders lost, I was so glad to see the Giants win the Superbowl yesterday. Halleuiah!!! Hell apparently the Mayor of Boston (who is known for her "great decision making" ie full scale SWAT alert for a Neon Sign) already had the Victory Party and Parade planned.....ooops.... Guess that's what happens when you believe the hype. Good job Eli....that kid needed to get out from under his Big Bro's shadow....Strahan and the rest. Now the Sports guys will shut their traps and stop yacking about "Perfect Seaons" and "Team of the Decade"....whatever.......go away the whole bunch of you. I have noticed a trend this season.....these young QB's have their "celebrity" girlfriends showing up to games and they end up getting a big case of the chokes........ hee hee......

I do so love having a Blog....

Apparently I've been touching a few chords with people who have found my rants via search engines and have stopped long enough to read and add comments. Most of my comments are from The Discourser or the SuperGoober as they are friends and live back in California and it's our way of keeping in touch. The first one was when I talked about Algood and Cookeville and how crappy the towns are. Some Hillbilly Redneck (from his lack of grammar and punctuation plus atrocious spelling you could tell he was) proves my point about the average person that lives there by going into a rant about he knew who I was.....and he was going to pray for me because I was a coke head and a meth head and how's my girlfriend recovering from being beat up by me.......made me laugh.....it also pissed off my oldest Step-Daughter who left a scathing comeback to Hillbilly boy herself. I've had positive comments, like the guy from France who agreed that some of the books I listed that should be made into movies should be made into movies. I like Feedburner by the way....it tells me where people are searching me from. There was the Canadian who got mad at me because I said American Idol sucked.....when I replied to that person we actually had a civil debate back and forth via comments. Then Mike C found my rant about Airsoft Whiners, didn't know who it was at first but thought my points were valid...so did Chuck of OPForce. Of course I just recently had a comment on that same post from some guy who still doesn't get it.......I will say it again....There should be a limit of the speed which a bb is shot through an airsoft gun.....the higher you get, the more chance of serious injury or disability you run into. Period. When you have a local Airsoft store constantly pushing the envelope in just how high powered you can get a gun to shoot, you run the risk of those little plastic bb's reaching the same velocity of a real firearm. At that point you've just committed a felony and someone will acutally get one of those little plastic bb's embbed in their skin and our penetrate the flesh and someone may die. How much plainer could it be? But I digress....my most recent comment was from someone named Bitch.......who's probably some teenage bimbo with half a brain. She's obviously from Boston as she commented in true Internet Tough Guy fashion "You are an idiot". Oh, it was all in CAPS too. I commented on how stupid the leaders of the City of Boston where for implementing a full scale SWAT team and emergency shutdown of their City over a neon sign.....you know the story I won't go into it.

Lest We Never Forget

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

Save us from the EcoNazis......

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

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

Improbable Movie Plots

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

 

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

A Few Recent Observations

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

 

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

 

 

Stupidity Abounds

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

 

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

 

We don't need Chinese businesses here

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

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

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

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

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

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

Virginia Byrd

Algood

 

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

Security

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

Suuuurrre It is......

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

This Woman Deserves a Medal

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



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



Printable Version
Email This Article
del.icio.us Digg Technorati Reddit
Slashdot Fark Newsvine Google Bookmarks
(28)-->
Georgia (default)
Verdana
Times New Roman
Arial
document.getElementById('fontpopup').onmouseout = sfgate_chfont_mo;

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



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

Nice Try Ahmedijan....

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