Post it Notes

Had a nice meal of garlic crusted chicken and fetuccini Alfredo with a half bottle of Shiraz left over from Saturday night. Yeah, the grouchy old cripple can cook. For the uninitiated, a Shiraz is the Australian version of the Syrah grape grown mostly in the Rhone valley of France. Nothing creative tonight. I'm just gonna post stuff and comment.

My friend Cindy's grandmother died last night. She was 96 years old. Think of what she saw in her 96 years. She saw the invention of radio, television and manned flight. And didn't y'all think that after the incredible moon landings of the late 60's and early 70's we would be further along in the exploration of space? What ever happened to 2001? That allows me to segue into something I read over at USS Clueless.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in that post, but I just had to comment on one paragraph:

And that happens in computer operating systems, too. Where is the Amiga and OS/2? Gone, gone, dead and gone. Why? In the early days, each had substantial virtues by comparison to Windows, but each also had deep flaws. When the market was expanding rapidly, there was still room for everyone. But when the market begins that permanent switch from expansion to competition, the flaws became more important and they went into decline. In the computer OS market, the switch from expansion to competition can be seen when each product begins to adopt the features and market niches of the others. The Amiga, for instance, pioneered desktop video editing and for a long time was the only game there. But eventually others noticed it and moved in, and the Amiga could no longer take advantage of the fact that it was the only player there. By the same token, the Mac originally owned the cheap desktop WYSIWYG text editing business, but it doesn't any more.

First of all, since I was an OS/2 bigot, it was not an inferior system. The rocket scientists at IBM gave away the PC software business to Microsoft. IBM hired Gates to write an operating system for PC's and gave him the fucking store. He didn't even write the system. He took ZDOS a simple system that someone else had written, renamed it DOS, and sold it to IBM. IBM also hired him to write OS/2, but since he had already taken IBM to the cleaners. he told them to fuck off. OS/2 was a fully functional, 31 bit, multitasking operating system that was available and stable five (!!!) years before Windows 95. So what happened? Once again, the rocket scientists in charge of the PC division did not realize what they had and did not push it. It became a catch 22. No one wrote applications for OS/2 except Lotus (which is one of the reasons IBM bought it) and since no one wrote apps for it, no one wanted it for an operating system. Remember, the guy who invented the photostatic copying process went to IBM first and they turned him down. He found someone else and that's when Xerox was formed. As an interesting aside, IBM got into the copier business in the early 70's, Xerox sued them for patent infringement, IBM settled out of court, and got out of the copier business in the 80's. Enough about survival of the fittest. On to another topic.

So they're gonna let that disgusting, little cockroach Arafat free. And for what? He's gonna allow some Palestinians be imprisoned in Jericho, with British and American guards. All right, who thought this shit up? When a Palestinian mob storms the prison, kills the American and British guards are we finally gonna realize what a dipshit Arafat is and relegate him to the dustbin of history where his sorry ass belongs? Why don't we assign French guards? At least they can throw down their weapons and run away. Quick, what is the first thing a French recruit learns in boot camp? How to say "I surrender" in five different languages.

Ah...the French. Wasn't the election fun? Here is a neat article about the Eurosnots. I especially liked the following two paragraphs:

Absolutely. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be weeping with laughter at the scenes of France's snot-nosed political elite huffily denouncing Sunday's result as an insult to the honour of the Republic. I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago and I well remember the retired French diplomat who assured me that "a man like George W. Bush is simply not possible in our politics. For a creature of such crude, simplistic and extreme views to be one of the two principal candidates in a presidential election would be inconceivable here. Inconceivable!" Please, no giggling. Somehow events have so arranged themselves that French electors now face a choice, as the papers see it, between "la droite" et "l'extrême droite." The French people have taken to the streets in angry protests against ... the French people! Which must be a relief to the operators of McDonald's franchises, British lorry drivers and other more traditional targets of their ire, but is still a little weird. Meanwhile, the only thing that stands between M. Le Pen and the Elysée Palace, President Chirac, has declared himself the representative of "the soul of the Republic." In the sense that he's a shifty dissembler with a long history of financial scandal and no political principles, he may be on to something.

And the summation:

A century and a half ago, Tsar Nicholas I described Turkey as "the sick man of Europe." Today, the sick man of Europe is the European -- the urbane Continental princelings like Chirac and Michel, gliding from capital to capital building their Eutopia, oblivious to the popular will except on those rare occasions, such as Sunday, when the people do something so impertinent they finally catch the eye of their haughty maître d'. I've said before that September 11th will prove to be like the Archduke's assassination in Sarajevo -- one of those events that shatters the known world. To the list of polities destined to slip down the Eurinal of history, we must add the European Union and France's Fifth Republic. The only question is how messy their disintegration will be.

The French and the rest of the Eurosnots down the Eurinal of history. Someone call Jonah Goldberg. It just doesn't get any better than this!

There are a lot of warbloggers out there and even some pundits like Michael Barone who have been saying that Dubya is playing a slick game here. Some call it rope-a-dope. He's playing for time until we rebuild our stock of weapons. The WSJ weighs in here.

Is this wishful thinking? Could Dubya be this smart? He's been underestimated throughout his entire political career.

Went on a lot longer than planned. Have to save the Cynthia McKinney and Michael Bellesiles stuff for another day. Ciao!

Strange Weekend

The weekend started out OK. My old neighbors who moved north last year, were down for the weekend and they stopped by on Saturday. I told them next time they would have to come for Saturday dinner. They are a real cute couple and I miss them very much. Wish they hadn't moved.

Things started going downhill on Sunday. First the good. I got my vegetable garden in. Now the bad. In the Sunday Urinal and Constipation, in the opinion section, there was an article about a photo exhibition of lynchings in the South. I have mixed feelings about this.

We have two Cynthias in Atlanta. We have Cynthia McKinney, and now the whole country knows about her, and we have Cynthia Tucker. Cynthia Tucker is the editor of the aforementioned Urinal and Constipation (AJC). Cynthia and I do no agree too often, but she is intelligent, unlike the other Cynthia, and she means well, also unlike the other Cynthia. She came down real hard on the King family for cashing in on the King legacy and changing "I have a dream" into "I have a racket". How much can we sell the King name for? How about "I have a dream about vanilla coke"? So Cynthia does have integrity and strong beliefs. Anyone in Atlanta who says anything bad about Saint Coretta and her offspring has a lot of guts.

Cynthia wrote a column about the exhibit. Since Cynthia, unlike Molly Ivins, does have a brain, I will not ridicule her. The column is well written. The first three paragraphs set the tone.

There are Americans who still wish to deny, to equivocate, to dispute the savage history of American racism. They will not want to see "Without Sanctuary," an exhibition of gruesome photographs of lynchings in the United States. It would rob them of their defenses. The photographs -- stark in their horror, ingenuous in their brutality -- are beyond dispute, out of equivocation's reach. They will not be denied. The dead -- the tortured, mutilated dead -- will have the final word.

There is no doubt Cynthia was moved by the exhibition. It is her final two paragraphs that bother me

There are still those who wonder what good can come of this, what purpose can be served by an excursion into a sordid and bitter past. And there will still be those who want to turn their heads, avert their eyes, push quickly past this window into the hideous truths that belie America's founding myths. But a vile past -- hurriedly and poorly buried -- still emits a stench that can only be cleansed when it is opened up and fully aired. Let us begin that cleansing with these photographs.

I agree that there was and is racism in this country. And she does have a point, that maybe we should bring this stuff to the surface. But are we cleaning out a wound or picking at a festering sore. I'm really surprised Cynthia McKinney hasn't weighed in on this exhibition yet. Or Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton saying "See, that's why there should be reparations". Will this promote healing or more hatred? I don't know. It is disturbing. I hope Cynthia is right, but as long as we have professional race baiters I fear this will cause more bad feelings between the races.

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The other bad thing that happened on Sunday is my friend Cindy called me and her 96 year old grandmother is dying. What can be worse than the sadness of a good friend?

Tax the Stupid!

I was gonna write about SHTS and SPTS which are systems my company uses to track labor, problems and change management, but, I dropped over to Dr Weevil's site and in his April 24 post I noticed a thread on lotteries. By the way, the stuff on seiges is interesting also. Worth a read. For more interesting stuff about seiges go over to USS Clueless Anyway, I'm in favor of lotteries and lots of other businesses the government should start up or at least legalize.

As a cross between a rational anarchist and a libertarian I'm of the firm belief that people should be able to do just about anything they want to themselves as long as they don't bother other people. For example, if someone wants to pull a Lawn Chair Larry, let 'em. Now when they get in the flight path of LAX, they're a menace. They could have shot Larry down and it wouldn't have bothered me one bit. If someone wants to take himself out of the gene pool, that's fine with me. I am not my brother's keeper.

Last century we tried an experiment called Prohibition that was a colossal failure. People wanted their booze and in the entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism an organization rose up to fullfill that need. That organization was organized crime. It was very profitable. When the people finally realized, that it was impossible to legislate morality and ban the evil demon rum, Prohibition was repealed. Of course, there are still a lot of pissed off Baptists, which means that we have some funny liquor laws at the state and local level. For example, in Georgia, we still have a few dry counties, or beer and wine only counties. You can always tell them as there are liquor stores right across the county line.

As I say, we cannot legislate morality, or intelligence for that matter. That brings me to lotteries. In big cities there was once, and still may be, something called the numbers. The numbers was a lottery run by organized crime. I guess one day someone in government woke up and had this thought: Since we're already stealing money from the rich, in high taxes, and we're also running a ponzi scheme called Social Security, let's tax the stupid with a lottery and put organized crime's numbers racket out of businesss. What an idea! Yeah, that's the ticket! We'll kill two birds with one stone. Tax the stupid!

Since the Great Society, we have created a permanent underclass of people dependent on the government. We have essentially subsidized poverty. We're now even trying to remove the stigma of being on the dole by giving the poor an ATM style card rather than food stamps. I want to know where it says in the Constitution that I'm supposed to work my butt off to support someone and we don't want his (or her) self esteem to suffer. Uh Oh! I'm starting to get pissed off now. Look, if you can't afford kids, don't have them. Oh yeah. That's one of the reasons they're poor. They be stupid. Anyway since I'm up here pulling the wagon, I'd like a little help. I love the lottery! Here in Georgia, we use the proceeds from the lottery for education. A lot of the lottery tickets are bought by people with the intelligence of a brick. So it's a regressive tax. Who cares? It's not like I'm putting a gun to their heads when they pull up to the Quick Trip and get a sixpack, some cigarettes, and a few lottery tickets. Thanks for helping! Tax the stupid!

And cigarettes. Here's another great chance to tax the stupid. It's been obvious since the late 60's that cigarettes are hazardous to one's health. Hey! It says so right on the pack. That hasn't stopped people from smoking. Hell, anyone can quit smoking, but it takes a man to stand up to cancer. Smokers are stupid. But, as long as you don't smoke around me, smoke all you want. Just pay a couple bucks a pack in taxes. Tax the stupid!

As long as I'm talking about Bubba and Bubbette stocking up on beer, smokes and lottery tickets at the Quick Trip, that brings up the results of a study done by the Department of Transportation. They put black boxes in cars to record the last words of people in car accidents. In 49 states, the last words were "Oh shit!". In Arkansas, the last words were,"Hey Bubba, hold my beer and watch this."

Now that brings me to the War on Drugs. It's been about as successful as Prohibition and has made a lot of people rich. Any time our government declares a war on something other than a nation, it has been a spectacular failure. Remember the War on Poverty that we're still fighting today? It's been about as successful as our War on Drugs. I say, let the government get into the drug business. Legalize, and tax just like booze and cigarettes. At the least, legalize marijuana. It is no worse than alcohol. But what about people driving under the influence? News flash! It's against the law and people are still doing it. But I'll tell you something about pot smokers. When they do drive, they drive slower and because of the induced paranoia they're one hell of a lot more cautious then drunk drivers. They just cannot remember where they're going. Our jails are filled to overflowing. A lot of that is due to drug users. Users not pushers. Treat drug addiction as a medical problem, not a crime. If the government got into the drug business, they could undercut organized crime and still turn a profit. Use the profits and taxes and fund treatment centers. Sure, there are some people who are beyond treatment. Put them in separate facilities. But franchise out drug sales and drug treatment centers. Tax the living shit of of drug sales. Tax the stupid!

How about gasoline? We have the cheapest gas of any western industrialized nation. We are dependent on foreign oil. We drive SUV's. They're status symbols. Many of the people I know have them because everyone else has them and since gas is still cheap, it's no big deal that they are gas guzzlers. Gas taxes are essentially voluntary because no one is holding a gun on us and telling us to buy gas guzzlers. I'm against most taxes except consumption taxes. Make gas expensive and that will solve a lot of our dependence on foreign oil. What about the poor? That's what mass transit is for. Most of the liberal bedwetters who think mass transit is a good idea drive SUV's and wouldn't be caught dead on a bus. I remember during the last spike in oil prices, some whiner in Wisconsin was crying about the fact that he couldn't afford to put gas in his SUV and feed his five children. Hey bucko! Why the heck did you have five children if you can't afford them? Just asking. Tax the stupid!

And cell phones. They ought to have a big ol' tax on cell phones. Listen slick, when I'm in a restaurant, movie theater, or the checkout line at the grocery store I don't want to have to listen to a booger eatin' moh-ron like you talking on the phone. And I certainly don't want to see you driving while on the phone. They have smoking sections at restaurants. How about cell phone sections. And make 'em pay more 'cause they're so damn annoying. Tax the stupid!

We need a line on the 1040 tax form with a question: Do you think Cynthia McKinney should be taken seriously? If the answer is 'yes', you're an idiot. Your tax has just doubled. Tax the stupid!

Finally, if you see someone in an SUV, talking on the phone, smoking a cigarette or a joint, drinking a beer, with a handful of lottery tickets, call the cops and have them pull that son of a bitch over and hit him with a stupidity tax right then and there.

Tax the stupid!

TGFA (Thank God For Amazon)

My Amazon order arrived last night! I discovered it on my front porch right after I logged off last night. I now have two books on html. I can now start doing a better job of presentation. That will make my sister happy. She thinks I oughta go back and redo everything I've done so far. Fat chance! Also got some CD's, mostly classical, but one rocker: a live Johnny Winter album that really kicks ass!

Worked from home today and spent all day installing and configuring all the new software I needed to provide remote support for my systems at work. All of my dialup stuff changed and I waited until the last minute to get that working. Also, my mail was moved to a new server, so I had to configure that and replicate to my local mail on my PC. Takes forever on a modem. Yeah, I should have DSL, but I'm over three miles from the closest switching station. Cable modem? From AT&T Broadband? I don't think so.

Got some mail from my buddy Richard, who gave me an 'atta boy' for what I've written so far. He'll be featured in a later missive when I talk about BEM's (booger eatin' moh rons). So now I know that he reads me and my sister does also. I sent my URL to my friend Gwendolyn. She's a liberal, but I love her anyway. She got set upon by the PC Police last year and I think she may be meandering over to the libertarian side of the world. Tried to put a counter on my site, but forgot the id and password I'd set up for it. Jeez it's hell to get old. The memory is the second thing to go and I cannot remember the first. Yeah, old joke.

The Middle East is still in the news. Watched Hardball tonight and heard Chris Mathews call Colin Powell a decoy. Hey, all you warbloggers out there what do you think of that? If y'all are right about rope-a-dope, Chris gets it.

Read Lileks talking about Urban Sprawl this morning. We got this big debate going on about that here in Atlanta. Did ya ever notice that most of the people talking about save the planet, mass transit, and Urban Sprawl, drive SUV's? Just checkin'

Some interesting letters in the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation this morning about the Middle East. Let's see, Stephen Boppart of Sandy Springs thinks Jimmy Carter's proposal is sensible. "Force Israel to give up control over all Palestinian lands, including Israeli settlements, and force the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to rein in the terrorists." Steve, old buddy, there are two things wrong with that suggestion:

1. All the Palestinian geography books say that the "Palestinian lands" include everything from the River to the sea. There is no Israel. It is all Palestine.
2. I'm gonna say this real slow. Arafat....is....a...terrorist. Hamas...is...a...terrorist...organization. The...Arabs....hate ...Israel. All...the...Arabs...want...is...the...destruction...of...Israel.

Helen Mills from Woodstock "Thank you Jimmy Carter for the well spoken words on the U. S. policy on the Middle East". Yeah, we all know what an expert Jimmy Carter is on the Middle East, especially Iran. "We must consider the plight of the Palestinians". Helen, if you had read any history, you would know that the "plight of the Palestinians" is mostly self inflicted.

M. R. "Mickey" Robertson Jr. of Dunwoody (no...I do not know him and that is not a pseudonym of the Grouchy Old Cripple, but we do both live in Dunwoody and I bet he hates Cynthia McKinney as much as I do) gets it exactly right: "President Clinton's final peace construct was accepted by Barak, but turned down by Arafat, who then launched the latest Intafada. The result was the election of Sharon, who would not have had a chance except for the Palestinian violence. The next prime minister in line is Benjamin Netanyahu, and he makes Sharon look like a peacenik." I couldn't have said it any better myself. Maybe I could have. See Molly Does Moral Clarity from yesterday.

Rabbi Jordan Friedman (so he's Jewish, I guess he may be a little biased) of Roswell (almost Dunwoody) points out Jimmy Carter's ignorance of historical facts. I'm shocked! In an Op Ed Jimmy talked about how Nixon intervened to stop the Yom Kippur War as if to imply that Israel started the war. Actually, the Arabs, who were so opposed to us lauching an offensive against Afghanistan during Ramadan had no qualms against launching "a surprise attack against Israel on Judaism's holiest day". He also goes on to point out Jimmy's expertise in dealing with Iran.

And with that, I'm gonna log off and go to bed. Blog on!

Molly Does Moral Clarity

Time once again for Molly Ivins. I had a little trouble with her this week, because, I guess, she was dealing with a subject that she, as a liberal, is not really too good with: Moral Clarity. But why don't you go read the column yourself. It's right here. Take your time. I had to read it a few times myself to make any sense of it. I'll be here when you get back. Ready? Let's take a trip into her fantasy land. "When in the course" (of human events? What is this? The Declaration of Independence?) "of the usual reasoned civil debate on public affairs - conducted with courtesy and good cheer" (Excuse me Molly, what planet are you living on? Carville? Begala? Daschle (little mister trial balloon)? Gephardt? a shreaking Eleanor Clift? Courtesy and good cheer? I'd hate to see the attack dogs) "one finds one's self snarling" (So much for courtesy and good cheer) 'Oh, shut up!' one has, I fear been reading too much" (Molly Ivins? No, Molly says) "George Will". (What, has he been writing about baseball again? That's usually what gets me going about George Will) "Being instructed what to think by the peerlessly, pompous Will" (Or the equally pompous Hillary Clinton, or by Molly, herself) "perched upon his" (her) "superiority" (Hillary, The Smartest Woman in the World) "and apparently in a permanent state of dudgeon over everyone else's stupidity" (Those ingrates didn't realize how great HillaryCare was) "is reminiscent of being bullied by a snotty teacher" (Or of being lectured to by Bill Clinton, Sleazy Bubba, wagging his finger in our faces. Hey Bill, if you do that again, I've got a finger I'm gonna wag in your face) "One is tempted to respond with the classic, frozen-faced Texas reply, 'No bull?'" (Actually, I think it's 'No shit?' or 'No bullshit?' But you cannot say that in the print media. Long live the internet and its creator, Al Gore) "Will is often worth reading" (unlike Molly) "if only you can figure out why you disagree with him" (I don't have that problem with Molly. I always disagree with her. She goes on to say that) "he has been leading an entire phalanx of right-wing commentators in full cry over President Bush's loss of 'moral clarity' in the Middle East. The sheer implausibility of finding moral clarity in the Middle East does not deter them." (It doesn't deter me either. Arafat is a terrorist. He has led the Palestinians into disaster. They are evil. Any society that advocates strapping bombs on children and sending them off to murder civilians is bad. Golda Meir said that there would not be peace until the Palestinians loved their children more than they hated the Jews. No problem finding moral clarity here. The Jews have offered land for peace since 1967. There was a Palestinian state in 1947. It was called Jordan and included the West Bank. Arafat does not want a state as much as he wants to kill all the Jews. Clear enough?) "Better minds tha Bush's are defeated by that challenge," (Hmmm, could she mean Sleazy Bubba and Jimmy Carter?) "but the moral-certainty crowd admits no shade of gray." (There is none. Arafat and the Palestinians are terrorists. We are in a war against terrorism. Seems pretty clear to me.) "Will ...dismisses 'the intellectual confusion and moral miasma...that now permeate U.S. policy and media coverage" (I have to disagree with George here. U.S. policy and media coverage are two different things, unless you get your info from the net or Fox News) concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.' " (There is much speculation that the apparent confusion in American policy is actually rope-a-dope to buy us time to replenish our supply of weapons. Then, it's goodbye Saddam. If we control Iraq, we control Iragi oil. Then our 'friends', the Saudis, better watch their asses. See opinions from various warbloggers in the blogosphere) "Personally, I think Sharon is a continuing, shattering disaster for Israel" (As opposed to Ehud Barak, who gave Arafat the best offer he will ever get. Arafat walked away and started the current intifada, which, incidently led to Sharon's election. Got any better ideas Molly? I know, Let's have the Israelis throw down their arms and give peace a chance.) "If it is not clear to all" (it's not) "by now that his policies - leaving aside their morality - (Morality? Morality? He's fighting a fucking war for Christ's sake. Listen you liberal twit. The first war Israel loses is the last war Israel fights. Jesus. I'm getting so pissed off I'm beginning to sound like Michael Savage!) "don't work." (How many Israelis have been killed by suicide bombers since the offensive started? Not as many as before. What do you want Sharon to do? How many times do I have to say this? ARAFAT DOES NOT WANT PEACE!!! HE WANTS THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL!!) "How much more evidence is needed" (see above. But now Molly careens off into South America and the coup in Venezuela. Enron didn't work so let's try to tie the Bushies to the coup in Venezuela. Let's see, since we didn't denounce the coup, we obviously must have had a hand in it. ) "'senior members of the Bush adminstration met several times in recent months with leaders of the coalition that ousted...Chavez, and agreed with them and said he should be removed from office', according to the New York Times" (That notoriously pro Bush newspaper. Calling Cynthia McKinney. Let's have an investigation. Did we send in the Marines? Did we recognize the new government? No. We stayed out of their affairs. Isn't that what you liberals want? Anyway, Molly continues) "Our own assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, Otto Reich, was on the phone with the head plutocrat advising him". (Advising him to do what? Molly doesn't say. Now let's smear Reich) "He was a recess appointment byPresident Bush for the simple reason that he could not get confirmed by the Senate" (But that was OK when Sleazy Bubba used the same ploy to appoint Bill Lee to the Justice Department) "While heading a State Department office in the 1980's, Reich ran a covert propaganda effort against the Sandinistas" (And this is bad because...? Oh, I forgot. To liberals socialism is good. In their minds, the only reasons socialism has never worked is because the right people haven't been in charge. Ya know, like Hillary Clinton. Or that enough money has not been used to fund it) "He is also believed to have helped get Orlando Bosch a known terrorist, asylum in the United States" (Believed...Kind of like alleged.) "Bosch was pardoned by Big George Bush - I suppose indicating some lack of moral clarity there,too" (As opposed to all the moral clarity of Sleazy Bubba with all the terrorists he pardoned to either get his wife elected (Puerto Rican) or the massive going out of business pardon sale when he left the White House. I'm not even gonna put the quote in by 'one administration official' as that provides her lead in to her Carthago Delenda Est. OK Just in case anyone does not know what that means. During the 2nd Punic War, Cato, the Elder, a Roman Senator, ended every speech he made in the Senate with Carthago Delenda Est...Carthage must be destroyed. It seems liberals keep bringing up the neverending election. Her she goes) "Sometines a mojority of the voters lose out to a five-to-four vote on the Supreme Court." (OK. Let's try this one more time. Gore lost in district court when the manual recount could not be completed past the date, BY FL0RIDA LAW, that the Secretary of State had to certify the results. The Florida Supreme Court, all Democrats, legislated from the bench, The U. S. Supreme court slapped them down, they did it again, the Supreme Court slapped them down again. The results were certified. Bush won. Gore lost. Neener neener neener. Also, it turns out that with all the recounts, BUSH STILL WON! Now let's contrast that to what happened in Missouri where they elected a dead man!!! Ashcroft had every right to contest that election, but he showed graciousness and class, something sadly lacking in the Democratic Party.) "Are we all morally clear now?" (It all depends on what your meaning of 'morally clear' is)

Corrections: Forgot to post a correction for Good Golly Miss Molly. I wrote ANRW when I meant to write ANWR. Also, got the Blog Description fixed. Still waiting for my html book from Amazon to arrive.

Appeasement Never Works

It was a real nice weekend here in Beautiful Dunwoody Georgia. It got unseasonably warm last Wednesday and I had to turn on the AC. That doesn't usually happen until May. But it turned out to be an excellent weekend. My wine guru, Michael, was in California at a wine geek convention, so I asked his wife, Cindy, if she wanted to come over for dinner. Now my Saturday dinner is very boring. I grill a filet mignon (medium rare), bake a potato and toss a salad. If I have someone for dinner I usually add a vegetable. So that is what we had. We had a nice Graves white with the salad and a 1998 Gigondas with the steak. The 1998 is not quite as good as the 1995 (91 vs 92 per Robert Parker) but was pretty kickass all the same. The weather was nice enough that we were able to eat the entire meal out on the Great Patio of Dunwoody. And to finish off, I had just enough Delamain Vesper left for an after dinner drink for both of us. So Saturday was pretty mellow. Sunday, I worked out in my raised beds getting them ready for the vegetable garden I'm putting in next weekend. I programmed the sprinkler system for the yard and admired how much better the lawn looks this year. So, all in all, I was in a pretty mellow mood. I'm attending a class via a web conference on my PC at work, and I love going to school, unlike in my earlier years when I managed to flunk out of college twice. I know both of you who actually read this are saying when is he gonna get to the point, but it's coming. Over lunch, I surfed on over to the FrontPageMag web site and came across this piece. This really pissed me off. Go read it and come back and we'll talk about it. Now for Reverend Damon Lynch III substitiute Yasser Arafat or Adolf Hitler. Yeah, that's right I'm lumping Hitler and Arafat together. Hitler hated Jews and wanted to kill as many as possible. Arafat hates Jews and wants to kill as many as possible, especially children and old people. Now for Mayor Charlie Luken substitute Ehud Barak or Neville Chamberlain. For the Blacks in Over the Rhine substitute the Palestinians or the Germans. Get the picture? Hitler kept saying just give me this little piece of Europe and I'll be happy. The more he was given, the bolder he got and the more he wanted. Same with Arafat. Keep in mind that Barak gave Arafat a better offer than he had ever received before. But, Arafat, emboldened by Israel's desire for peace, turned down Barak's offer and started the Intifada. For all you Clinton lovers, this happened while your boy Bill was in office and while Barak was Prime Minister. For all his bitching about Sharon, it was Arafat who got him elected. Just like Hitler wanted all of Europe. Arafat wants all of Palestine. Don't believe it? Check out the PLO charter. It advocates the total destruction of Israel and a Palestinian state from the River (Jordan) to the Sea. As part of the Oslo accords, that was supposed to be changed. Oops! Never seemed to get around to that. Even the doves in Isael have finally realized that Arafat does not want peace. Neither do the Arabs. Crown Prince Abdullah's peace plan would have Israel retreat to its (indefensible) pre 1967 borders and repatriate all the Palestinian refugees The Israeli Arabs would then outnumber the Jews. Israel, being the only democracy in the Middle East, would have been voted out of existence. Cool, huh? Some peace plan. So now we come to reparations. Jonah Goldberg had a real good line about reparations. He was all for them if it would shut up Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and all the other civil rights poverty pimps. Here..here's some money. Now shut up and go away. I could live with that. Then, as I remember many Black leaders saying about the scandals surrounding our first black president, maybe we could say, 'Let's just move on'. Fat chance. Ya know a lot of good things came out of the civil rights movement. Blacks were discriminated against in schools, housing and jobs. We fixed the problem with the schools and do not need to bus anymore. What with the teachers unions we have succeeded in making the schools in the suburbs as bad as the schools in the cities. We have integrated neighborhoods. And we have affirmative action. I'm not gonna talk about affirmative action. That's a topic for another time. Something bad that came out of the civil rights movement was Jesse Jackson and all the other poverty pimps. I remember when I lived in St. Louis and Jesse Jackson was head of PUSH. He came to St. Louis and threatened a boycott of Anheiser Busch. He wanted more minority (read black) hires and more minority distributorships. There was at least one more minority distributorshipafter that and it was given to two of Jesse's sons. Wow! This shit works. Let's try this again. This became a nice little business for Jesse. Threaten a boycott, get bought off. It was easier to buy Jesse and all the other extortionists off rather than fight. Guess what? Appeasement never works. Now we come to the latest pile of bullshit: reparations for slavery. David Horowitz has chronicled some very good reason why this sucks. Let me add some of mine: 1. We fought the bloodiest war in this country's history to free the slaves. Reparations in blood. 2. We've thrown four trillion dollars at poverty. Reparations in money. 3. And what really pisses off Julainne Malveaux if she hears it (I saw it it was beautiful): the poorest black person here is better off than over 90% of the black people in Africa. Honest Blacks (Uncle Toms, of course) realize that they are better off here, being the descendants of slaves, than if their ancestors hadn't been brought here. That does not justify slavery, but slavery happened a long time ago. It's over. Blacks in the United States live better than Blacks anywhere on this planet. Let's stop all this crap. We do not need race wars in this country. That is what we'll get if we have to fight reparations. Appeasement never works. Just say 'no' to Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Johnny Cochran. Let's move on.

Good Golly Miss Molly

One thing you can always count on from Molly Ivins is a good laugh. Unfortunately, reading one of her columns can be hazardous to your brain. I can only read a little at a time. The Atlanta Urinal and Constipation prints one of her columns every Monday in the editorial section. It should really be on the comics page. I tried to find last Monday's column in their archives, but they must be ashamed, so I had to go to the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph to find the column. Some excerpts follow: "Across the length and breadth of this great land of ours, from the mountain to the prairie, from every hill and dale" (from the oceans white with foam...God Bless America) "comes the question" (the country waits with bated breath) "Where are the Democrats?' (For sure, that's the question I've been asking myself, but Molly continues) "They're among the missing,along with Judge Crater and Osama bin Laden. So this is what it is like to live in a one party country." (Yep! Them thar Republicans in the Senate borked Judge Pickering, defeated drilling in ANRW, and will not bring up making the tax cut permanent. Ya know, prominent Republicans like Chuckie Schumer, Teddy Kennedy, and Tommy Daschle. She goes on to ramble about the Republicans) "the John Ashcroft-Trent Lott school of patriotism" (as opposed to the Barbara Lee, Cynthia McKinney, and John Lindh school of patriotism) "which holds that questioning our elected (or even not-so-elected) leaders" (News flash Molly! The election is over. Bush won. Gore lost. As the Clintonoids were fond of saying over and over 'Let's just move on') "one only has to look at the performance of these same definers of 'patriotism' as blind obedience when Bill Clinton was struggling to fight a war." (and that war was ..against the Constitution? against the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy? against impeachment? against truth? against justice? against the American way? Look! Up in the sky. It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Sleazy Bubba! Wait! It gets better) "When the Clinton administration was trying to track and kill bin Laden" (Let me count the ways: one aspirin factory in the Sudan and a tent in Afghanistan. Not to mention the collateral damage to the goats. He also tried to track him at lots of fund raisers and many golf courses. Hey OJ if you help me find bin Laden, I'll help you find Nicole's killer. Maybe we can get Condit to help us and we'll help him find Chandra) "Republcans gratuitously dismissed the entire effort" (two cruise missiles..Damn! Just missed him!) "as an attempt to change the subject from the all important Monica Lewinsky" (And it was actually...???? Molly doesn't say. Here's a knee slapper) "we have forgotten what principled opposition means" (Clinton attack dogs James Carville, Paul Begala, Sidney Blumenthal. Now there are fine examples of principled opposition. Yeah Molly. I guess we have forgotten what principled opposition means. We haven't seen it from the Democratic Party in some time.) "However President Bush's sex life" (Unlike Bubba's) "has nothing to do with the fact" (this is a good thing) "that his foreign policy is so inept" (Clinton really solved that Israeli-Palestinian thing didn't he? And took decisive action for the embassy bombings and the Cole. Look his lip is bleeding from all the times he bit it and felt our pain) " that all the Arab countries, including our friends and allies the Saudis" (bin Laden and 16 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. With friends like these...) "and the Egyptians" (Amazing what $3 billion per year can buy) "are now siding with Saddam Hussein instead of the United States. You really have to work at it to produce a result that bad" (Hey Molly, I bet if we kick Saddam's ass, the Saudis will be falling all over themselves to be our friends) "We stilll haven't caught bin Laden" (Even though Sudan offered to turn him over to the Clinton administration...Oops, forgot about that. Hey this next part is kinda neat) "Why not point out that suggestions and solutions offered before Sept. 11 were ignored by Bush?" (Molly Ivins, meet Cynthia McKinney. Cynthia, Molly. More liberal twittering) "Nineteen Democratic Senators recently voted with Rebublicans against requiring automakers to increase gas mileage" ( Molly, here is how this works. The American people do not want this. Have you ever heard of polls? Remember, the American people didn't want to impeach Clinton. You were for public opinion then, right? So public opinion was good then, bad now? Just checking. Now some sermonizing about Kyoto and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and) "the International Criminal Court (which would have been such a useful option for dealing with bin Laden)" (First, Bill, OJ, and Condit have to track him down. But the way the international community is against us, we would probably be brought up on charges for the war in Afghanistan. Also, there is a slight matter of the Constitution. Remember the Constitution? That's that pesky document that liberals call a 'living document' and keeep reinterpreting and trying to circumvent . In all probability, since the International Criminal Court would take precedence over our laws, it would violate the Constitution. The last sentence of the column is) "Let's get started" ( No. I'm finished)

Bummer!!!

I put my email address at the end of my last blog hoping to get some sort of response. Ya know, maybe some hate mail. I got home from work and eagerly logged on and what did I find? Nothing...nada...diddly dip point shit. I can only assume one of three things:

1. I didn't piss anyone off (now that's hard to believe since that is my main goal in life)
2. No one read my blog (there are so many bloggers now that it is easy to be lost in the murky pond of blogworld)
3. It sucked so bad that it wasn't worth anyone's time to bother to tell me that.

I got news for ya. That ain't stopping me!

My sister sent me an email today. "Why didn't I get an email from you yesterday?" Read my blog. Almost anything I would email you is in there.

I was seriously thinking of having fun with Molly Ivins' column in Monday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation but, I wound up finishing the bottle of Cotes Du Rhone that I opened last Thursday (thank God for the vacuum pump) and I'm in too mellow of a mood to make fun of Molly tonight. BTW, the wine cost $10.99 and my retailer has a bunch more. And I ain't tellin you what it is. Life is good.

Before the Blogosphere there was Free Republic. (www.freerepublic.com) I've always been a Free Republic lurker. Today I saw a post that was talking about solar collectors on the moon and using them to create solar energy and send it to earth via microwaves. Actually, this was a variation of an idea about having satellites do the same thing and transfer energy to earth via microwaves. Before long Freepers began posting replies and that's where all the fun is on Free Republic. Someone said this would make a great novel and I immediately thought of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. Three posts later there it was: "novel already been written, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" So this would be a great segue into a nice blog about Robert Heinlein and his libertarian, or what he referred to as his rational anarchist, philosophy. But that's not what I came to talk to you about tonight., as Arlo Guthrie would say, I came to talk to you about the war. Or in this case, the political war.

I first discovered Free Republic a few years back during the Clinton administration. Free Republic is the brainchild of Jim Robinson, or as some of the Freepers refer to him, JimRob. It is definitely right wing, and that is bad because...? The Freepers despise Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary. And that is bad because...? Note to Paul Begala..Clinton haters do not hate Clinton because they hate themselves. They hate Clinton because he is a slimey, sleasy individual. Paul, we'll make a deal with you. If Clinton goes away, we'll quit hating him. Unfortunately, there is not much chance of that happening.

The Freepers are a rowdy bunch who believe in this country and what it is supposed to stand for: Ya know, strange things like the Constitution, and that means all of the Constitution, including the Second Amendment. And I just love some of their names, for example, Clinton is a Liar (He is? I'm shocked! Dan Rather said he was an honest man), Hillary's Pretty Legs (she's joking, right?) and Cinncinnatus' Wife (obviously, someone who knows history). There are some creative people also: Doug From Upland who does incredible song parodies and Mia T, who is great at sucking up bandwidth with her graphics.

Free Republic is like Blogland because a Freeper will post an article and other Freepers will jump in with comments. The real fun starts when a liberal appears and posts something incredibly stupid (and no, there are no trolls on Free Republic and I guess liberal and something stupid is kinda redundant). We're talklng about major flame city here. Every now and then a liberal will appear whose main purpose is to be a disruptive influence or to post bogus stuff. Sometimes that even happens with conservatives. That's the time JimRob steps in and the post(s) are deleted and the person(s) are bannned. A few years back, there was one particular person who kept registering with different names.

But one of the things the Freepers are really good at is freeping polls. Some (usually a liberal) web site puts up some kind of a bogus poll (Was Bill Clinton the best President of the 20th Century) and the Freepers kick in with massive no's. Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit) gives full credit to the Freepers on today's posts. He has received an email from a person who tries to give Glenn credit. "Duh, I've heard of Free Republic" It seems today Cair started a poll as to whether Ariel Sharon should be tried for war crimes. After a little over 500 votes it was running over 90% yes. Then someone started freeping the poll. Before long, after over 11000 votes it was running over 90% no. Glenn predicted technical problems would soon occur. Bingo! Over 11000 votes disappeared, and then the poll was removed from the web site. For more amusing info see: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/136oxixa.asp.

I love the Internet. I love Blogland. I love Free Republic. Freep on!!!

TaxDay

It's Tax Day and I've got a few things to say about that. But first I'd like to share with my sister and anyone else who may be reading this exactly what I have to put up with here in Atlanta. We are all aware of my illustrious Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney. As If she hasn't shot off her big mouth enough, she has compounded her disgrace once again, in print, in today's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation. The Atlanta paper is usually funny enough on Monday as they have a column by that noted humorist Molly Ivins. What, she's not a humorist? You mean she's serious? Oh well, another time. First Cynthia and then taxes.

To the AJC's credit, they did publish an editorial titled, McKinney's call for probe is nutty. Here, read it yourself.

Note the last paragraph: While there is no proof that McKinney is fronting for the terrorist group al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, nor proof that she receives funding from foreign countries yada yada yada blog blog blog.

I don't have the link and I'm too lazy to look it up right now, but I believe InstaPundit has a link to a list of Cynthia's contributors and many of them seem to have Arab names. Now I'm not saying that she funnels money to the Palestinians, but I think an investigation is in order.

Since the AJC seems to be developing a sense of humor, they gave Cynthia equal time. Here's the link to that.

I'm happy to say that they didn't put up a picture with the online version as they did with the print version. I think Cynthia has had only one picture taken of her in her entire life, or maybe that is the only picture where she looks presentable. It's the only picture of her that I ever see. I could spend all day tearing this op ed apart, but I do want to point out one thing. In the fourth paragraph down she writes, 'Sadly, the United States government is being sued today by the survivors of the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa because, from court reports, it appears clear that the United States had received warnings, but did little to secure and protect the staff at our embassies.'

I'm sure Dubya would have liked to help, but he was the Governor of Texas at the time. Cynthia's hero, Bill Clinton was the President when the embassies were bombed and as we know he had other things on his mind. Insert your own Clinton joke here.

Taxes

Before I begin, let me send you over to our Libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz: http://www.boortz.com Go to his program notes for April 15. He has some interesting things to say about taxes and has some interesting quotes and statistics. Now, when you look at who pays what e.g. the top 1% of taxpayers earn 19% of the income and pay 1/3 of the taxes it's easy to see why tax cuts are, in the words of Dickie Gephardt, Tommy Daschle, Hillary Clinton and all the other leftests 'tax cuts for the rich', because, THEY ARE THE ONES WHO PAY THE TAXES!!!!! Do I make myself clear here? As Neal points out, the goal of the left is to shift the tax burden entirely to the upper 49% of the people in this country. We're almost there. We will then have full blown socialism, including Hillary Care. That brings a joke to mind. Osama bin Laden found a magic lamp and rubbed it and a genie appeared and told him he would grant him one wish. Osama said, 'Oh Genie, I would like to wake up in a bed with three white women'. Sure enough, the next morning, he woke up in a bed with Tonya Harding, Lorena Bobbitt, and Hillary Clinton. His knees were broken, his penis had been cut off and he had to wait three months for a doctor. Back to taxes. I really think the tax code is a mess. Politicians are always saying we need to fix it or simplify it. Remember Ronald Reagan? He tried. He failed. When even a simple tax situation requires someone to go to a professional tax person, the tax code definitely needs to be fixed. Let's scrap it and start all over. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. It will only take a grass roots effort and throwing enough politicians out of office to make that happen. And let's hear it for the IRS. They have refunded $30,000,000.00 in slave reparations claims. That's THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS. And we're putting the government in charge of airport security? We're doomed! True story about the IRS. In the 1980's I was living in St. Louis and invested in a perfectly legal, but questionable tax shelter. One of the partners got audited and the IRS gave him a set of figures that they would approve. So, I dutifully filed an amended return using the IRS figures. I got audited. When I pointed out to the auditor that the numbers I was using were the IRS' own numbers he told me that those numbers came from the downtown offfice and this was the Clayton office. Huh??? Aren't you the same agency? The rules change from office to office? Hey Leroy..come and wand this old lady in the wheelchair. That's OK, sir you don't have to take off your turban. Go right on through. Back to the IRS. I appealed, which meant that I went to this guy's supervisor. I knew there was no chance I would win, I just wanted to get my money's worth. I used the same argument about the St. Louis office numbers and the supervisor essentially told me to take 'em to court. The amount of money involved? $240 with a $30 fine. I told them both that with computer time, the auditor's time, and his supervisor's time it probably cost over $5000.00 to collect that $270 and as a taxpayer, I was appalled. The IRS is the only government agency where you are guilty until proven innocent. One of the other partners did take the IRS to court. They kept getting continuances and, since he had to take off work every time he went to court, he just gave up. Yes Abdullah, you're fine...you don't have to remove your shoes. Mustn't profile you know. But you must admit, we do have the best politicans that money can buy and are they ever entertaining. Some examples: Cynthia McKinney...what more can I say? Sheila Jackson Lee...She was touring NASA in Houston during the Mars rover project and she asked if the rover was anywhere near the flag the astronauts planted.. Major Owens...He gave a speech in the House that over 20 million slaves died during the passage from Africa to America and and were thrown overboard. Sharks are still patrolling the slave route waiting for more human flesh. Rush Limbaugh had his staff run the numbers and it was around 4000 people a day being thrown overboard. The next day Major changed it to 2 million, which still works out to over 400 a day. Maxine Waters...The CIA started the crack epidemic in LA. Henry Waxman...Please do something about those nose hairs!! And we must not forget Robert C. Byrd...If he lives as long as Strom Thurmond, the whole State of West Virginia will be named after him. In fact, I'll bet they're getting ready to change the name to Byrdland after he dies. Some additional quotes: 'I'm proud to be paying taxes to the United States. The only thing is...I could be just as proud for half the the money.' Arthur Godfrey 'Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society' Oliver Wendell Holmes A civilized society??? Driving on the Atlanta freeways? Listening to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? I want my money back!! Send all hate mail to dennywilson@mindspring.com

Why me?

It started out as a normal day. I slept a little bit late and it was raining on the drive in and right before I got to work our libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz started his show by saying that there wasn't any evidence of this, but we ought to have an investigation that maybe Billy McKinney was pimping young boys.Wazzup wit dat? I know Billy McKinney is a hatemongering racist and he is the father of Cynthia 'the cutest little communist in Congress' McKinney, but what had Billy done this time to piss off Neal. I got into work, read my mail, and fired up Netscape. I will only use Internet Explorer when forced to. I hate Bill Gates and Microsoft, but that is a topic for another day. And then I saw what had got Neal's shorts in a big bunch. Cynthia did it again.

We went through redistricting this year, and since the Democrats control Georgia government we got some really weird districts. I've been in Cynthia's district since I moved to Dunwoody four years ago. My buddy, Richard the redneck, who lives in Gwinnett County and I have both been crying in our beer at having Cynthia as our Congressional Representative. I was hoping, nay praying (and I'm an atheist) that I would be moved out of her district. Richard made it. I didn't. Why me? Damn Dickie (Gephardt), I lost again at that life's lottery thing.

Now I guess you might wonder how someone as looney as Cynthia keeps getting elected to Congress? Cynthia's district is pretty much composed of DeKalb County Georgia. All DeKalb is divided into three parts. (Not the Gaullic Wars...the DeKalb Wars) North DeKalb: Those of us who, like Dickie says have won life's lottery. Staying in school, getting jobs, working hard didn't have anything to do with it. Most of us have money and want to keep it. For some strange reason we vote Republican. South DeKalb: Those who have lost life's lottery. They have dropped out of school, have no skills, often have children they cannot afford, and don't have jobs or if they do they have jobs, they do not pay well. Might be because they dropped out of school and have no skills. They don't have money but want ours. These are the people to whom Cynthia panders. Rather than telling them that they might be better off if they stayed in school, acquired job skills and did not have children they could not afford, she tells them that it is all the fault of those evil white folks up in North DeKalb. They vote Democrat. Middle DeKalb: Those who are connected with Emory University. Students and faculty. As we all know, in the dream world of academia, socialism works. I call these people the Emoroids. They vote for Democrats. Every election eve as we watch the returns come in, the northern precincts always come in first and Cynthia's opponent is leading. Just like Charlie Brown, we think this is the year that we will kick the football, but alas as the South DeKalb and the Emoroid precincts start coming in, we find ourselves once again flat on our backs. Lucy did it again. Good Grief!

.

Down here in Georgia even though it disgusts us it never surprises us when Cynthia does something looney. She comes by it naturally. Her father, Billy McKinney, is, as I said, a racist hatemonger. He is a member of the Georgia House and once, during a floor debate, threatened to knife one of his opponents. Three elections ago, he made some antisemitic comments about Cynthia's opponent who happened to be Jewish. Lot's of Jewish folks in Dunwoody, but since North DeKalb is outnumbered by South DeKalb and the Emoroids, it's no big deal. During the last election Cynthia and Billy were campaiging on election day at the polling place which is a violation of the election laws. Billy allegedly threatened a Republican poll worker. There is an ongoing investigation, but it will not go anywhere. After all, critcism of Black politicians is racist. And who can forget earlier this year when Guilliani turned down the money from the Saudi Arabian royal person. Cynthia stepped right up and begged for it herself as she could use it to better the plight of the oppressed Black folks here in the US. I'm sure there was one particular Black person who would have benefitted from it.

Yep, Cynthia is a looney all right. And why do we folks in her district call her a communist? Why one year she went down to Cuba to help out in the sugar harvest. That was probably the last honest day's work she has done in her life. Between codddling African despots to sucking up to Castro Cynthia has always remained true to form. I've got an idea. Since Jimmy Carter is going to Cuba, maybe he should ask her exactly where on Castro's butt he likes to be kissed.

As an afterthought to all this, as I was driving home from work this afternoon, one of Cynthia's constituents from South DeKalb called in to a local talk show and she said, 'Well everyone knows that Bush knew about 9/11 and did absolutely nothing about it so his business friends could make money'. I wonder if she dropped out of school, has no skills, has children she cannot afford and has no job?

Ain't it great

Three weeks ago I followed a link to Andrew Sullivan's site and first heard the term blog. Then my sister sent me a link to Lileks and Vodkapundit and I had to ask her, 'Excuse me, I must have missed school that day, but what is a blog? She then informed me it was a weblog. And I said '...and?' After further explanation, I got it. I always seem to be a little behind the curve. Like I missed the day that Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action changed to Diversity. All hail to Diversity for it will allow us to look like America. But I don't want to talk about Diversity although it is Good and Great. I just want to say how neat it is that I can actually write something that maybe someone (other than my sister and a few close friends) might read and enjoy. I'm tired of writing letters to the editor that they will not publish because they do not recognize literary greatness when they see it. Or maybe my letters just suck.

Anyway, I'm sitting at the computer drinking a nice Cotes du Rhone that was sold to me by the wine guru at Green's Beverages in Atlanta. Shameless plug wynegreen@aol.com or www.greensbeverages.com. When I learn html I'll put in anchor tags, but, hey I'm new here. But I digress, I'm sitting here listening to a cd that I got with Turbotax. It's classical music and I guess it must be music to give a pound of flesh to the government by. I'm in the top five percent. I'm one of the 'evil rich'. Or as Dickie Gephart says, I am someone who 'won life's lottery. Hey Dick, if I won life's lottery how come I'm in a wheelchair? What a jerk! Twenty years ago he was my congressman. Now Cynthia 'the cutest little communist in Congress' McKinney is my representative. Not doing too good in that lottery thing. But, I'm feeling pretty mellow, or what passes for mellow so I just want to add few things to Vodkapundit's 'Things that I know are true but cannot prove':

• James Joyce does indeed suck. I had a classics teacher in college tell me that Ulysses was the best book ever written. What drugs was he on? I want some. The only time I enjoyed Ulysses was when Sally Kellerman read the ending in the movie Back to School.
• John Barth is no better.
• The best Science Fiction writer was Robert Heinlein. I like the idea in Starship Trooper that you could not be a ciitizen unless you served in the military. No citizen, no leader. That would have taken care of Bill Clinton. Can't you just imagine some drill instructor telling him to drop his pasty ass on the floor and give him 20?
• There will never be another Lewis Grizzard. Lewis was married and divorced three times. After his third divorce he said 'I'm not gonna get married again. I'm just gonna find a woman I don't like and give her a house'
• There will never be another Mike Royko. Day after day, week after week nothing but good writing.

And with that I'm gonna call it a night. Thanks for stopping by.

Tolerance

How come we are the only country in the world who has to be tolerant of everything? I don't know about you, but I'm getting real sick of all this tolerance BS along with 'root cause'. I mean when we go to other countries, such as Saudi Arabia we have to respect their customs. Our women have to hide their faces and bodies. So we have a female fighter pilot who is protecting Saudi Arabia and she cannot even drive a car. What the Saudis need is a good dose of Honor Harrington (for those not in the know, Honor Harrington is an heroine of a Science Fiction series by David Weber). But, when they come to our country, we have to be tolerant of their customs. Case in point, an Arab woman in Florida who wants to have her driver's license picture taken with her veil. She's suing. Hey lady, we cannot recognize you with the veil. Maybe if it were a mask like the Queen of Swords ( a quick vision of Tessie Santiago) it would be OK, but this is America. Back in your country you couldn't even drive a car. We do believe in freedom of religion, unlike your country of origin, but only if it doesn't violate our laws. Even the Mormons had to give up polygamy and it is no longer practiced in Utah (nudge nudge wink wink).

After 9/11 we were told not to believe all Mideasterners felt like the hijackers and not to vent our rage on them. And remember, Islam is a religion of peace. It sure is. With all the Mullahs and Imams crying 'Death to America' I believe it. Rest in peace. Anyway, I may have slept through this but I seem to have missed the blanket condemnation by the American Muslim community concerning 9/11.

Anyway, we've been very good as Americans usually are and the acts of vandalism and violence against out Mideastern 'friends' in this country were few and far between. We were tolerant. But as usual, tolerance is a one way street. With the Israeli response to the latest acts of terrorism it now seems open season on Jews, especially at that hotbed of tolerance in Berkeley, California.

Don't you get a big kick out of Arafat's buttboy James Zogby on the talk shows trying to defend the indefensible? These suicide bombers are acts of desperation. No Jimmy boy, they are acts of terrorism. Acts of desperation would be renouncing terrorism and actually negotiating in good faith rather than sending children (children!) out to blow themselves up and take innocent civilians with them. How would you like it if Israel were to play by your rules? Civilians are fair game. If so, they wouldn't have to send in soldiers they could just carpet bomb and civilians be damned. How would you like them apples Jimmy boy? And another thing. Don't you think the Muslims would get their shorts in a bunch if a bunch of Christians or Jews were to hole up in a mosque? Man the Norwegians would really be pissed off about that. And what about the French? Wouldn't that sour their cheese. The obligatory French joke courtesy of Jonah Goldberg. Why are there so many tree lined streets in Paris? So the Germans can march in the shade.

And what is it with all this 'root cause' crap? The Japanese had root cause. We had trade embargoes against them. To them this was bad. They attacked us. We didn't care about root cause. We nuked 'em. Hitler had root cause. He wanted to conquer all of Europe and to kill all the Jews. Just like with Arafat we kept appeasing him. I'm sorry Yasser old buddy, you are now on double secret probation (obscure Animal House reference). We didn't care about Hitler's root cause. We fought a war,we won,end of story. I don't care about the root cause of the assholes who killed 3000 people on 9/11. You declared war. We don't like you and do not give a crap about root cause. For you Arab apologists like James Zogby it is time for you to decide whether you are an American first or an Arab first. Arafat is a terrorist, Arafat always has been a terrorist, and Arafat always will be a terrorist. By the way, do you know how to tell when Arafat is lying? His lips move.