GOCinAtlanta

2003-06-25T15:31:00.000-04:00

They Won't Quit Pissing Me Off!

Well my sister said I "was real snarky last night." What the heck does that mean? And I did a rant just for Maureen. 'Reen, where are the comments? Anyway, keep feeding me ideas. And a few weeks back, your dad told me I had lost all my passion since I didn't have Cynthia McKinney to bitch about. Well, dammit, it's back.

And a great big thank you to Jennie who said I rant better than Mike at Cold Fury. No freaking way! But thanks, Sweetie. The first beige president. BWAHAHAHA! Al Sharpton actually said sumpin' I agree with. And I freely admit that I stole Dimocrat from Jennie. Kim said I must be eating a lot of red meat. You bet your ass I am. Nice rare steak. Hey Peta! Fuck you, you dickheads! And now the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation has done it again.

Sometimes I think this newspaper exists just to piss me off. Today they ran a screed by Julian Bond about Strom Thurmond. Remember, Julian Bond is one of the people who gave a speech full of vitriol about President Bush at the NAACP convention. And then they wondered why Bush declined to speak there. Duh! Julian, you are an asshole!

But that's not what really pissed me off. Nope. They had an op-ed by some booger eatin' moh-ron named Feisal Abdul Rauf and I'll bet you can guess what he was writing about. It seems like once a week they have to have some op-ed written by a Muslim who has to spout all that Islam is a Religion of Peace^TM bullshit. And that's not really what pissed me off. They don't have it on their web site, so I can't cut and paste it. It's mostly bullshit anyway so I'll transcribe some of the laughable parts.

The title is Islamic, American values not at odds I'm sorry. I really should have given a splatter alert for that.

As Ramadan draws to a close, Islam, a religion I deeply love and which is essential to my identity, is repeatedly bearing the brunt for atrocious acts carried out in its name the world over. It is perceived as a national security threat in the United States. At the same time, America, a land I deeply love and whose values I cherish, arouses antagonism in much of the Muslim world.

Go ahead. Fisk it yourselves. Do you notice that there is no condemnation for Muslim acts of terrorism. None. Nada. Nil. Zero. Zip. Diddly zip point shit.

This is the painful place in which many Muslim Americans find themselves. On the one hand, their American non-Muslim friends are saying, "What are you Muslims doing to us?"

You fuckers ain't gonna explode are you?

On the other hand, their overseas Muslim colleagues are saying, "What is your country, America, doing to us?"

And when are you gonna strap on some C4 and blow yourselves up in the name of Islam?

He really starts going off on the deep end after this.

Islamic theology is unequivocal in its respect for human life, and those who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam do not represent their faith.

After all, Islam is a Religion of Peace^TM. This is the strongest condemnation of violence in the entire op-ed. So why is there violence?

The roots of the violence lie not in religion, but in the politics and econmics of the Muslim world. While Islamic texts, law, and theology mandate tolerance

I guess nobody bothered to tell all the mullahs who preach their sermons of hatred and intolerance throughout the Middle East every Friday. I guess they forgot to tell the rioting Muslims in Nigeria, also. Yeah, besides being a Religion of Peace^TM Islam is a religion of tolerance. Yeah. I really believe that bullshit.

democratic values

OK. Name me one, just one, democratic country in the Arab world. And the center of Islam is in Saudi Arabia which is an oppressive intolerant regime. Oh, and 16 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia.

separation of powers

Yeah. Right.

the rule of law under an independent judiciary

This guy is talking about Islamic fantasy land. There is no Islamic country even close to what he is talking about.

and democratic capitalism

The drugs are really taking over now. Is that caterpillar talking to me?

Most Muslims do not live under such governance.

No shit! And whose fault is that?

Here's what happened in Nigeria

the increasingly common call for implementing shariah (classical Islamic law)

Chop off them hands. Stone them women. Beat the shit out of them first.

in Muslim lands such as Nigeria is no less than a desperate call for an uncorrupt state.

Let me get this straight. The riots weren't against the article about Mohammed wantin' to get it on with one of the babes but about the corrupt Nigerian gummint? And the fatwa against the columnist was also because Nigeria has a corrupt gummint? Hey caterpillar, gimme a hit off that hookah. Where the fuck did that cat go?

A state successfully practicing Islamic law

The operative word here is successfully.

embodies the American notion of a "nation under God," passionately dedicated to the well-being of its citizens.

Feisal, if you can name me just one of those countries, I'll buy you a first class ticket to it.

Many Muslims seem unable to prove that respect for human life, gender rights, religious tolerance and pluralism are rooted in Islamic scripture and tradition.

Well there are two reasons for that:

Most Muslims don't believe that.
It ain't in the Quran. Feisal's the only Muslim I've ever heard say it is. Maybe his copy is diferent.

Yet the Quran unequivocally mandates all of the above.

Then how come it ain't practiced in any Muslim countries?

I must say that this is one of the wackiest Don't blame Islam columns I've ever read. They all say the same things. Islam is a Religion of Peace^TM. Islam is a tolerant religion. The taking of human life is against Islamic law. But they never condemn the violence done in Islam's name. Never. The closest this guy came was when he said "those who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam do not represent their faith". Never have I ever heard one of these bozos (I apologize to the clown) condemn the venomous hate speech that spews out of the mosques of the Middle East every Friday about killing Jews and Americans. Never do I ever hear them condemn the homicide bombings in Israel. By the way, suicide is against the Islamic faith. Where's the condemnation of that? If these guys really want to have any credibility with their Religion of Peace^TM bullshit, they need to stand up and distance themselves from the hatred out of the Middle East.

This country was founded on tolerance and religious freedom. Muslims are treated a damn sight better here than Jews and Christians are treated in Mulsim countries. We didn't start this war with Islam. Islamic radicals started it with us. And we're gonna end it. You so called moderate Muslims have a choice. Are you with us or are you with the radicals. Make up your mind and quit spouting bullshit.

Do you know what I want for an end of Ramadan celebration?

Bombs over Baghdad.

2002-12-20T18:45:00.000-05:00

Moving Day!

Hallelujah!!! Today, thanks to the kindness and technical ability of Rachel Lucas, I have moved. I now live here.

2002-12-19T16:16:00.000-05:00

Mad Cow and a Letter

All right, all you assholes at PETA. Just for you, here is a mad cow.

My friend Bryce was in town tonight and he took me out to dinner. Bryce is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He is married to a wonderful lady and has four children and nine grandchildren. And he is a Christian. He is not an in your face Christian. In fact, I never even knew he was religious until after I had known him for about two years and the only way I discovered then were some offhand remarks about knowing some people through his church. His is the quiet faith. He is not holier than thou. He does not wear his religion on his sleeve. And, he accepts a foul mouthed old reprobate like me as a friend.

And it's gonna get mushier. My friend Richard forwarded the following to me:

My Heart On The Line By Frank Schaeffer Before my son became a Marine, I never thought much about who was defending me. Now when I read of the war on terrorism or the coming conflict in Iraq, it cuts to my heart. When I see a picture of a member of our military who has been killed, I read his or her name very carefully. Sometimes I cry. In 1999, when the barrel-chested Marine recruiter showed up in dress blues and bedazzled my son John, I did not stand in the way. John was headstrong, and he seemed to understand these stern, clean men with straight backs and flawless uniforms. I did not. I live on the Volvo-driving, higher education-worshiping North Shore of Boston. I write novels for a living. I have never served in the military. It had been hard enough sending my two older children off to Georgetown and New York University. John's enlisting was unexpected, so deeply unsettling. I did not relish the prospect of answering the question "So where is John going to college?" from the parents who were itching to tell me all about how their son or daughter was going to Harvard. At the private high school John attended, no other students were going into the military. "But aren't the Marines terribly Southern?" asked one perplexed mother while standing next to me at the brunch following graduation. "What a waste, he was such a good student," said another parent. One parent (a professor at a nearby and rather famous university) spoke up at a school meeting and suggested that the school should "carefully evaluate what went wrong." When John graduated from three months of boot camp on Parris Island, 3,000 parents and friends were on the parade deck stands. We parents and our Marines not only were of many races but also were representative of many economic classes. Many were poor. Some arrived crammed in the backs of pickups, others by bus. John told me that a lot of parents could not afford the trip. We in the audience were white and Native American. We were Hispanic, Arab and African American and Asian. We were former Marines wearing the scars of battle, or at least baseball caps emblazoned with battles' names. We were Southern whites from Nashville and skinheads from New Jersey, black kids from Cleveland wearing ghetto rags and white ex-cons with ham-hock forearms defaced by jailhouse tattoos. We would not have been mistaken for the educated and well-heeled parents gathered on the lawns of John's private school a half-year before. After graduation one new Marine told John, "Before I was a Marine, if I had ever seen you on my block I would've probably killed you just because you were standing there." This was a serious statement from one of John's good friends, an African American ex-gang member from Detroit who, as John said, "would die for me now, just like I'd die for him." My son has connected me to my country in a way that I was too selfish and insular to experience before. I feel closer to the waitress at our local diner than to some of my oldest friends. She has two sons in the Corps. They are facing the same dangers as my boy. When the guy who fixes my car asks me how John is doing, I know he means it. His younger brother is in the Navy. Why were I and the other parents at my son's private school so surprised by his choice? During World War II, the sons and daughters of the most powerful and educated families did their bit. If the immorality of the Vietnam War was the only reason those lucky enough to go to college dodged the draft, why did we not encourage our children to volunteer for military service once that war was done? Have we wealthy and educated Americans all become pacifists? Is the world a safe place? Or have we just gotten used to having somebody else defend us? What is the future of our democracy when the sons and daughters of the janitors at our elite universities are far more likely to be put in harm's way than are any of the students whose dorms their parents clean? I feel shame because it took my son's joining the Marine Corps to make me take notice of who is defending me. I feel hope because perhaps my son is part of a future "greatest generation." As the storm clouds of war gather, at least I know that I can look the men and women in uniform in the eye. My son is one of them. He is the best I have to offer. He is my heart. Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book, co-written with his son, Marine Cpl. John Schaeffer, is "Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps."

Please, when you see someone in uniform, thank him for serving his country.

2002-12-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

Gimme a Wooden Stake!

My friends, Michael and Cindy had me over for dinner Saturday night. Their house had been torn up for quite some time. They had decided to knock out the wall between their den and living room and create a great room, hereafter referred to as the Great Room of Dunwoody. This was a major project and required many Mexican workers, who, of course spoke no English. So, when Cindy tried to explain stuff to them, the response was always, "OK. No problem! " Example:

Cindy: Um, I didn't want that part of the hall painted purple.
Mexican Worker: OK. No problem

Upon returning home, the whole hall was now purple.

And of course, since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, the mariachi music started bright and early Thanksgiving morn. Michael said, "To be fair, they work on Thanksgiving and I work on Cinqo De Mayo."

Since their house was torn up for quite some time and they were essentially living on the second floor of their home, I had them over for dinner on a few Saturdays. Like this is a problem for me. Throw a couple more steaks on the grill, bake two more potatoes, cook some corn on the cob on the grill and make a larger salad. Michael would furnish the wine. Since he's in the business and has an excellent cellar we drank very well. I would furnish the cognac and grappa. Not much trouble at all.

So last week the project was finally completed and they had me over for dinner. I came in the door from the garage so I could enter the Great Room of Dunwoody from the side and not be so overwhelmed with awe that I would pass out. And it was a beautiful job. I didn't see any purple anywhere.

Having gone through the experience of the building of the Great Wall of Dunwoody and the Great Patio of Dunwoody at GOC Central (a subject of a future blog), I could relate to what they went through and how wonderful it was when the project was finally completed. Let the celebration begin!

After dinner, we were finishing up a bottle of an excellent 1989 bordeaux and turned on Saturday Night Live so we could make fun of the Gorebot. Much to our surprise, he was actually pretty good. All at once Michael and I looked at each other and said, 'He's running.' Yep. I said he was pulling a Nixon.

For those of you too young to remember, Nixon lost a very close election to Kennedy. Lots of dead people in Chicago voted for Kennedy and that helped do the trick. As an aside, I was worried when William Daley went to Florida in the 2000 election to fight for selective recounts. I was sure Bush was doomed. No one knows how to steal elections better than the Daley family.

Anyway, Nixon lost the 1960 election and went back to California. Then, he ran for governor of California in 1962 and lost. That is when he made his famous statement, "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore." Gosh, it sounded like he was finished with politics. He watched Barry Goldwater get creamed by Johnson in 1964. Then, all of a sudden, in 1967, he appeared on Laugh In and said, "Sock it to me". He's back! He's tanned and rested, and he has a sense of humor. This was 'the new Nixon'. He ran in 1968 and clobbered Hubert Humphrey.

Well, golly, parallels abound, albeit in a different order. Gore goes on Saturday Night Live to show he has a sense of humor. The very next day, he announces he is not running in 2004. (Rachel, you won't have Al Gore to kick around anymore.) Good decision. If Bush maintains his high ratings and Gore runs and gets creamed he becomes the new Adlai Stevenson. But, if someone else gets creamed by Bush in 2004, there may appear 'the new Gore', all ready for 2008. He'll probably have to fight the Clinton politics of personal destruction machine as Hillary will probably want to run then.

If Bush does get a second term, and if Cheney is still his VP, who will the Republicans have in the wings to run in 2008? We know it won't be Cheney. And we sure as hell know it won't be Trent Lott. So, I fully expect Gore to be back in the running in 2008. He's tanned and rested, and he has a sense of humor.

Someone give me a wooden stake to drive through that bastard's heart. Kim du Toit already said he'd swing the hammer.

It's the right thing to do. Let's do it for the children.

2002-12-17T21:48:00.000-05:00

No Rant Again

I'm sorry that there will be no rant tonight. I'm busy signing up for a new hosting service and downloading and installing Moveable Type. Plus, I have to get the house ready for the cleaning lady tomorrow.

Cleaning lady? Well la-de-freaking-da! Cleaning lady? Aren't we fancy?

Listen. It's a necessity. Can you imagine me, a cripple, pushing a vacuum cleaner around the house? Nope. Can't be done. So, I've gotta do that. I've signed up for a hosting service and right now I'm downloading the instructions for installing Moveable Type. Blogger has finally done it to me. You may have noticed my October archives are missing. I've been trying to reload them for the last month. Every time I try I get a message that there is a template failure and they're working on it. (Insert I/T support joke here)

And do you want to have a Trent Lott rant? Jesus H. Christ! It's all Trent Lott all the time. Give it a rest! John Lewis, noted civil rights activist (and spitter) and Congressman from Atlanta wrote an op-ed in Monday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation tying Trent Lott to Perdue's win in the gubernatorial race to the Georgia state flag to the racism in the Republican Party. Give me a freaking break! Get the fuck over it! Before tarring Republicans as racists go after Robert Bryd and Ernest Hollings. And how about the racist anti-Semites like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and Cynthia McKinney? "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." The hypocrisy is sickening.

So for a little levity, in the spirit of Kim du Toit, I give you the announcement I would like to hear on my next flight.

And, my friend Charlie, in St. Louis sent me the following:

The Democratic National Committee is currently polling Americans through the Internet to determine the electability of Hillary Clinton for the presidency of the United States in 2004. If you would like to show your support for Hillary and encourage her to run for President of the United States in 2004 please click this link.

And with that, I'm calling it a night.

2002-12-16T20:19:00.000-05:00

A Letter to the Editors

Feeling better. Went to the doctor and this time I got my regular physician who is a real sweetheart! I love her to death. The guy I got last time was a real cold fish. My sweetheat doc put me on another drug that does not have horrible side effects. I'm still not gonna write anything on my own tonight.

Tim sent me a copy of a letter that he sent to the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation. Not much chance of it getting published, but I will post it in full here.

Cynthia Tucker and Jay Bookman are trying to convince you that the GOP is a party of racists. They are lying to you to perpetuate a myth started 40 years ago, when Republicans were instrumental in passing civil rights legislation. The truth is, and we know and can prove this, racism in American politics has largely been a southern white problem, and substantially a southern white DEMOCRAT problem. To prove their point, they both point to a few southern white men and recount acts starting from 40 to 60 years ago. Namely, Strom Thurmond, a Democrat, turned Dixiecrat, turned Republican. Barry Goldwater, a failed Republican Presidential candidate (Mr. Goldwater carried only six states and 36 percent of the popular vote in 1964, hardly a resounding fact for labeling the entire Republican party racist). And now, Sen. Trent Lott, a segregation sentimentalist Republican from Mississippi. Fine, let's compare notes. First, I'll name three Democrats with a racist past. Then, we'll look at the history of the Democrat Party here in Georgia. Finally, I'll point out lies of omission by both writers. The 3 Democrats: Let's start with Sen. Robert Byrd, senior Democrat from West Virginia. Sen. Byrd was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head. He said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values." In a letter dated April 8, 1946 (three years after his alleged break with the Klan), Sen. Byrd wrote a letter addressed to Klan Imperial Wizard Samuel Green of Atlanta. It stated in part: "I am a former kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan in Raleigh County and the adjoining counties of the state .... The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia .... It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state of the Union. Will you please inform me as to the possibilities of rebuilding the Klan in the Realm of W. Va .... I hope that you will find it convenient to answer my letter in regards to future possibilities." In another letter, Sen. Byrd vowed never to fight "with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds." The ex-Klansman later filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act for more than 14 hours. He also opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court's two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. Last year, on the Fox News Channel, Sen. Byrd said, "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word." September of this year, while appearing on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes," Reps. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., refused to condemn Byrd's Klan past Next, let's move on to Sen. Fritz Hollings, junior Democrat (at age 80) from South Carolina. As a lawyer, Sen. Hollings appeared on behalf of South Carolina in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, arguing for the doctrine of "separate but equal" that made segregated schools legal. While Governor of South Carolina, Sen. Hollings oversaw the raising of the Confederate flag over the Statehouse on April 11, 1961, the anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter. As James Shannon wrote on July 31, 2002, this "mischief was the work of Democrats since virtually everyone who held elective office in South Carolina, and most other Southern states in 1961, were members of the Democratic Party." Let's take a brief look at the 1961 celebration of the Confederate War. The centennial delegations from New Jersey and Missouri included blacks who were refused entrance to the segregated Francis Marion Hotel, where the events were to be held. The South Carolina hosts refused to allow the black delegates to participate. The situation was only partially resolved when President John F. Kennedy (not Gov. Hollings) issued an executive order moving the centennial meetings to the Charleston Navy Base, one of the few integrated facilities in town. South Carolina led the South in leaving the national commission, and holding its own segregated events in the hotel. I'm curious, did then Gov. Hollings attend the events at Charleston Navy Base or the Francis Marion Hotel, or both? The dais in the ballroom of the Francis Marion was festooned with Confederate flags when state Democrat Sen. John D. Long, who had sponsored resolutions that placed the flag over the House and Senate rostrums, warmed up the crowd: "Out of the dust and ashes of War with its attendant destruction and woe, came Reconstruction more insidious than war and equally evil in consequences, until the prostrate South staggered to her knees assisted by the original Ku Klux Klan and the Red Shirts who redeemed the South and restored her to her own." To discourage African Americans from registering as Democrats, the party in South Carolina made a "loyalty oath" of allegiance to white supremacy and racial segregation a requisite for participation in the primary. This loyalty oath was still a requirement for Democrats when Sen. Hollings was Governor of South Carolina, did he sign one? More recently, Sen. Hollings has reportedly used the slur "wetbacks" to derogatorily refer to Hispanics and "darkies" to derogatorily refer to blacks. He also once disparagingly referred to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition as the "Blackbow Coalition," and called former Senator Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio "the Senator from B'nai B'rith.". He gained international criticism for his remarks about the African Delegation to the 1993 Geneva GATT conference, where he crudely remarked "you'd find these potentates from down in Africa, you know, rather than eating each other, they'd just come up and get a good square meal in Geneva." Finally, there's House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, who spoke before a prominent St. Louis white-rights organization during his first run for Congress and attended two of the group's picnics after his election. "Gephardt is one of many local officials who dropped by the Metro South Citizens Council's gatherings in the early 1980s," according to a March 7, 1999, report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Metro South Citizens Council was a group concerned primarily with "states' rights" and forced busing and when it disbanded, many of the members joined his Council of Conservative Citizens, according to Gordon Baum, head of the Council of Conservative Citizens in 1999. Rep. Gephardt later denounced the organization in 1988, but talking before the Council of Conservative Citizens is considered proof of being a racist by Democrats. It's true that the Republican Party inherited a few segregationalist southern Democrats in the post-Reconstruction era, but the majority of them remain Democrats. The Georgia Democrat Party: The racist record of the Democratic Party in Georgia is best described by Laughlin McDonald in "A Voting Rights Odyssey, Black Enfranchisement in Georgia." Georgia, a state ruled by the Democrat party for over 100 years, has been "in the forefront of the efforts to block the expansion of the franchise to blacks. It fought passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964. Members of its congressional delegation and the staff of the state attorney general argued before Congress that the proposed Voting Rights Act of 1965 was unconstitutional. A former president of its state bar association denounced the act as a violation of states' rights. Its governor wrote directly to President Lyndon Johnson urging defeat of the voting rights bill." Not one Democrat senator from Georgia voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Only five southern senators voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, after a three-month filibuster, passed in the Senate with the vote of only four Southern Democrats. Senator Richard Russell (D-Ga.) began a filibuster against the bill on March 9, 1964, just days after it was introduced in the Senate. At 9:51 on the morning of June 10, 1964, Senator Robert C. Byrd completed an address that he had begun fourteen hours and thirteen minutes earlier. Of the 26 Southern senators (including the two in West Virginia), 22 voted against the Act (exceptions: Cooper and Morton, both R-Ky.; Yarborough, D-Tex.; and Randolph, D-W.Va.). Overall, 80% of Republicans (138 to 34) voted for the Act as opposed to 61% of Democrats (152 to 96). In the Senate, 82% of Republicans (27 to 6) voted for passage along with 69% of Democrats (46 to 27). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 received overwhelming support from Republicans in both houses of Congress - with 82% Republican support in the House of Representatives and 94% in the Senate. Only three southerners voted to support the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Among those voting against the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were 17 southern Democrats, including President Bill Clinton's political mentor, J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. The Lies of Omission: Cynthia Tucker writes, "The simple fact is that the modern Republican Party has built a Southern power base by accommodating racists..As political scientists Earl and Merle Black note in their book, 'The Rise of Southern Republicans,' the ascension of the Republican Party in the South can be traced to Barry Goldwater, who ran for president in 1964 on a states' rights platform that rejected desegregation." Interesting, in a review of the book by CBS News Senior Political Editor Dotty Lynch, she writes, "'The Great White Switch' didn't happen until the presidency of Ronald Reagan when massive numbers of white Southerners felt comfortable calling themselves Republicans" She quotes the authors, "His optimistic conservatism and successful performance in office made the Republican Party respectable and useful for millions of Southern whites." According to Ms. Lynch's review, "A combination of positions on civil rights and demographic changes that brought a number of anti-government, anti-tax suburban voters into the South formed the basis of Republican Party's appeal." Jay Bookman writes, "Lott's resignation will not, for example, change the fact that of the 51 Republican senators and 225 Republican House members who will serve next year, not a single one will be black." The reason Mr. Bookman adds next year is Representative JC Watts, will retire from the U.S. House of Representatives this year after representing the 4th District of Ohio for eight years. Congressman Watts received the following letter concerning his retirement. "Dear Congressman Watts, thank you for your years of service to the United States House of Representatives. Many people are proud you have been dedicated to an opportunity few people of African-American descent have in this land. If you can, please remain as a pioneer on the Republican side until others come to assist you. I am glad I stayed in my seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus December 1, 1955. I did not know at that time people would rally as they did. I was pleased about their support, but it has sometimes been lonely. "Through the years my life has had peaks and valleys, but I have never been sorry about my decision. The Lord has always provided. "I would also like you to keep your seat and not think of your mantle as heavy, but think that you are chosen to prepare the way. "Peace and prosperity, "Rosa Parks" Representative Watts is an amazing man. I can only hope he continues to speak publicly and actively, in America and in our party. You may also have heard about Condolezza Rice, our National Security Advisor, whose wisdom and grace are vitally important to our country during this troubled time. And our Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who I was once proud to have served under as our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and now even more proud as a citizen to have him represent us to our allies, and our enemies, given the importance of our foreign policy. I can think of no one I would rather have doing this critical job at this time. You might not have heard of some others. Roderick R. Paige is our Secretary of Education. Alphonso Jackson is the Deputy Secretary to Housing and Urban Development. Claude Alien is the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. Leo S. Mackay, Jr, is the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Larry D. Thompson is the Deputy Attorney General. Stephen A. Perry is Administrator of General Services Administration. Rev. Steve Gordon, was the Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, 5th Congressional District of Kansas. Jennette Bradley will become the first African American female to serve as Ohio's Lieutenant Governor. In Maryland, Lieutenant Governor-elect Michael Steele will become the first African American to hold statewide office. Other African American candidates elected to office under the Republican banner include: Kenneth Blackwell, OH Secretary of State Cynthia Calhoun, Dallas County Clerk Linda Douglass, Guadalupe County (TX) Treasurer George Hanks, Jr., TX District Judge 157 Bill Hardiman, MI State Senate, District 29 Lisa Hembry, Dallas County Treasurer Dianne Jones, Dallas County Criminal Court 11 Ed Jones, CO State Senate, District 11 Sherman Parker, MO State Rep., District 12 Jane Powdrell-Culbert, NM State House, District 44 Michael Williams, TX Railroad Commission Chair Jackie Winters, OR State Senate, District 10 Others ran but did not win election, such as Rev. Steve Gordon, the Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, 5th Congressional District, Missouri. He was defeated by Rep. Karen McCarthy, D-Mo., the incumbent. And last year, Pittsburgh mayoral candidate James Carmine, was defeated by incumbent Democrat Tom Murphy. Where do we go from here? Republicans are outraged by Sen. Lott's statements. There's a temptation to defend Sen. Lott against the political hypocrisy of a Democrat Party that could find no disqualifying faults with their own members who have committed similar offenses, and worse. I don't know if he'll hold on to the Majority Leader position or not. I hope not. Whether the "conservatively biased" media and Democrats can convince you the GOP is a party of racists, or not, is ultimately up to you. You may already hold that opinion. As for me, I'll continue to vote for the best candidate, regardless of race, religion or gender. And I'll continue to pray that someday, maybe through our children, we can move one more step closer to better race relations in this country.

I couldn't have said it any better myself, which is why I let Tim do it. Now let me give you a few examples of the difference between Republicans and Dimocrats.

When Richard Nixon was facing impeachment for obstruction of justice (He knew nothing about the Watergate break in until after the fact. The cover up was to protect his subordinates. Contrast this with Clinton using his subordinates to protect him.), three Republican senators went to Nixon and asked him to resign for the good of the country. Nixon could have stayed and fought it out and might have even won, but for the good of the country he resigned. When Clinton was facing impeachment, there were no honorable Dimocrat senators to ask Clinton to resign for the good of the country. And in my opinion, the crimes of the Clinton administration were much worse. (One thousand FBI files where Nixon only requested one that he didn't even get. Nixon tried to use the IRS on his enemies with no success. Clinton was successful. ) Anyway, Clinton only cared for the good of Clinton, not for the good of the country.
When Robert Byrd, a member of the Ku Klux Klan in his earlier days, used the word nigger on national television, where was the outrage from the Congressional Black Caucus? Where was the call for him to resign from his position as President Pro Tempore of the Senate or from his position as the Chairman of the Senate ~~give as much federal money to West Virginia as possible~~ Appropriations Committee? Where was the wall to wall press coverage? Byrd has a history of racism. Certainly more so than does Trent Lott. One of the nattering nabobs on the left said that Trent Lott as Senate majority leader was fourth in line for the presidency. Nope. It is the racist Robert Byrd, who as President Pro Tempore (until the Republicans take control) is fourth in line for the presidency. I have read the Constitution. Republicans have called for Trent Lott to resign as majority leader. I never heard any Dimocrat suggest that Byrd resign as President Pro Tempore.

I did a fisk last week of a colum by E. J. Dionne where he claims that there is now a right wing bias in the media. If there were, we surely would have heard at least an equal amount of noise about Robert Byrd's racism and Klan membership.

Did I miss that?

2002-12-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

Bah! Humbug!

I started a post last night about how sucky my day off was last Friday. And I'm sick again. Actually, that should be still, since the antibiotics didn't kill all the little bugs and as soon as I finished the course, back they came. Sneaky little bastards. Whine! Whine! Anyway, I had to stop since blogger was messed up. I promise. I'm moving. I need to find an ISP and figger out how to use Moveable Type. So, looks like it will be next year.

So since I will probably feel like crap after going to the doctor today, I will take the easy way out and share some mail. The first piece of mail was forwarded to me by my friend Richard. If you have any children that have worked hard and have done well in school this is a good way to let them know how socialism works.

Father & Daughter Politics

"One time there was a young teenage girl who was about to finish her first year of college. She considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and her father was a rather staunch Republican. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to programs like welfare. He stopped her and asked her how she was doing in school. She answered that she had a 4.0 GPA but it was really tough. She had to study all the time, never had time to go out and party and often went sleepless because all of the studying. She didn't have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of all her studying.

He then asked how her friend Mary, who was attending the same college, was doing. She replied that she was barely getting by. She had a 2.0 GPA, never studied. Was very popular on campus and was at parties all the time. She often wouldn't show up for classes because she was hung over. He then asked his daughter why she didn't go to the Dean's office and ask why she couldn't take 1.0 off her 4.0 and give it to her friend that only had a 2.0. That way they would both have a 3.0 GPA.

She fired back and said, "that wouldn't be fair, I worked really hard for mine and my friend has done nothing."

After a moment of silence, she replied, "I guess I will never vote Democrat again."

I should have sent the next piece of mail to Rachel Lucas to put on her site, but, since I'm sick and lazy (Whine! Whine!), I'm puttin' it on mine.

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, HE LIVED ALL ALONE, IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE. I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE, AND TO SEE JUST WHO IN THIS HOME DID LIVE. I LOOKED ALL ABOUT, A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE, NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS, NOT EVEN A TREE. NO STOCKING BY MANTLE, JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND, ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES OF FAR DISTANT LANDS. WITH MEDALS AND BADGES, AWARDS OF ALL KINDS, A SOBER THOUGHT CAME THROUGH MY MIND. FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT, IT WAS DARK AND DREARY, I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER, ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY. THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING, SILENT, ALONE, CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME. THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE, THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER, NOT HOW I PICTURED A UNITED STATES SOLDIER. WAS THIS THE HERO OF WHOM I'D JUST READ? CURLED UP ON A PONCHO, THE FLOOR FOR A BED? I REALIZED THE FAMILIES THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT, OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT. SOON ROUND THE WORLD, THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY, AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY. THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR, BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS, LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE. I COULDN'T HELP WONDER HOW MANY LAY ALONE, ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME. THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE, I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND STARTED TO CRY. THE SOLDIER AWAKENED AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE, "SANTA DON'T CRY, THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE; I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, I DON'T ASK FOR MORE, MY LIFE IS MY GOD, MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS." THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP, I COULDN'T CONTROL IT, I CONTINUED TO WEEP. I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS, SO SILENT AND STILL AND WE BOTH SHIVERED FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL. I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT, THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR SO WILLING TO FIGHT. THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER, WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE, WHISPERED, "CARRY ON SANTA, IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE." ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH, AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT. MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT."

At the bottom of the note was the following:

"This poem was written by a Marine stationed in Okinawa Japan. The following is his request. I think it is reasonable..... PLEASE.

Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our US service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

I'll do better than that. I don't have 100 friends, but I do have 100 readers. Feel free to cut and paste this and send it along or send people my link. I'm not doing this to get more traffic. As a Viet Nam veteran, I am familiar with our military being treated with contempt. Our country had to endure 8 years with a commander in chief who was a draft dodger and stated that he loathed the military. We have men who are serving their country (my nephew is one of them) and they do not get the recognition and respect they deserve. Next time you see a soldier, sailor, marine or airman thank him or her for serving our country and keeping us safe.

Sorry. No rant.

2002-12-12T22:17:00.000-05:00

Sour Kraut For Lunch

About two and a half years ago, I got involved with a (Caution! Buzzword alert!) synergy project with my counterparts in Germany. The goal of this project was to develop a common operating system (IBM OS/390) platform. We had different operating system standards and that inhibited application development. We had weekly conference calls to see how we could address this problem. After the third call, we were already at an impasse. They built their systems one way, and we built our systems another way. Our entire infrastructure was based on our standards. We could move to their standards, but it would take, in my estimate, three additional programmers to restructure our infrastructure to match the Germans, and, once we had done that, an additional programmer to manage the new standards. I tried to explain to the Germans that we built our systems our way because they were easier to maintain. We managed the same workload with one third the staff. Their argument was they installed the systems using the IBM defaults and surely IBM knew what they were doing. Having talked to IBM programmers in the United States, they built systems just the way we did. The IBM defaults were just the way the system deliverable was packaged.

So every Friday, at 10:00 AM I would have to attend a conference call to discuss our synergy project which I had code named Death Spiral. At about five minutes into each conference call we would once again hit the impasse of dataset naming standards. These calls would last an hour and would essentially waste one hour of my time every week. We would try to explain to the Germans exactly why we did things our way and that IBM US did it that way. They would then ask why IBM packaged their system deliverable differently than we installed it. Six months into the project, I overslept (I had had a tad too much to drink the previous night) and got in to work at 10:00 AM (and I was hungover) so when I dialed into the call I hit the magic five minute impasse mark. I asked if we were once again discussing dataset naming standards and having been told that we were, I went off on a five minute diatribe about how we did things the easy way because we were understaffed and they did things the hard way because they were a socialist country and had a bloated programming staff and contrasted our economies with our 5% unemployment and their 10% unemployment and how I was tired of wasting one hour every Friday on a project that was doomed to failure because they were booger eatin' moh-rons and slammed the phone down and hung up.

My manager punished me by kicking me off the project for the next two months. Oh please B'rer Fox, don't throw me in that briar patch! But, alas, my good fortune was not to last. Two months later he put me back on the project and as part of my job objectives for the year, I was supposed to make it work. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. I tried to explain to him, using logic (wasted on a manager) that we were at an impasse. There were three possible solutions:

They do things our way. Fat chance!
We do things their way, in which case, he would have to hire three more programmers for a year to revamp our infrastructure, and an additional programmer after that to maintain it since the Germans did things the hard way. Additional head count? Fat chance!
Fire us and let the Germans maintain our stuff. Whoa! There goes his empire. Fat chance!

I told him the only solution was for a manager to make a decision. A German manager had to tell them to do things our way or an American manager had to add the staff to do things their way. Fat chance! So, the Death Spiral project went on for another year. The one change was the conference calls were moved to every other week. Even though I was supposed to make this project work, I only checked in every month or so. I hate exercises in futility.

One of the reasons I was replaced as team lead (Same pay. Less responsibility. Less bullshit. And the downside of this was ... ?) was my inability to make this project work. Another reason was I had become a grouchy old man and called one of my users incompetent. He had gone to my manager who, in typical management fashion, said whatever it took to get this asshole out of his office. He then called me and said there was a policy change. When I sent out a note to all the appropriate people to formalize this policy change, which was in total contradiction of our policies, my manager went ballistic and claimed he never said that. So now I was on his shit list. The user, in the meantime, got fired. Guess he must have been incompetent.

So our new team lead came on 18 months into this project. At this time we had a skill rebalancing action (layoffs) which eliminated two of our headcount. It only took two conference calls for him to realize that the project was doomed. We agreed to table it and revisit it in 2002. We conveniently neglected to revisit it until about a month ago.

My team lead and I (we share an office) were sitting around fat, dumb and happy about a month ago when our manager came in all excited. This was a bad sign. It seems Europe (That is, the Belgians who control the purse strings for Europe) was wondering why I/T expenses were higher in Germany than they were in the United States. (Three times the programming staff might be one reason.) I asked my manager if this meant we were gonna have to go through the synergy bullshit again? He said this time it would be different because it was the financial people (bean counters) who were involved. Yeah, that really gives me a real warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Fortunately, I had been left outside the loop until last Thursday. It seems our counterparts in Germany outsource their hardware and software support to another division of TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name) in Germany. We used to do a similar thing here. We outsourced our hardware support and did our own programming. We discovered, that due to the overhead markup, we could purchase our own hardware and do everything ourselves. We saved so much money we were actually able to increase our hardware capacity and still spend less money. The outsourcers in Germany are raising the prices and the German manager is screaming breach of contract. Here's where we come in.

The Germans are coming to us and asking if they can outsource all their I/T support (both hardware and programming) to us. We figger we can probably do it for $1 million less that the TCIDNN outsourcers in Germany. Now wouldn't you think, if someone was in the position to save you $1 million per year and started asking requirements you would be very forthcoming with those requirements? Wouldn't you think that you would want to treat someone who was in a position to cut your I/T costs by one third very nice? Nope! Evidently that's not the way they do business in Germany.

We sent the manager a note with ten questions that we needed answered to help us determine hardware requirements and additional staffing. We needed these questions answered before our first meeting (conference call) which was at noon last Wednesday. His response to almost every question was to get it off their website. So, we spent one hour and twenty minutes on the Wednesday conference call getting the answers to only the first three questions because the arrogant asshole wanted us to get the answers rather than giving them to us. And, no, the answers that we wanted were not on their website. What a dickhead! What gets me, is he is negotiating from a postition of weakness.

In talking to my team lead today, he told me that our manager wanted him to drive this project, but he has entirely too much on his plate right now. Our best programmer is retiring this month and he has had to pick up her workload. So then my manager suggested me. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! My team lead said that would be fine, but I would be a PR disaster. Yeah, I have this annoying habit of speaking the truth and I have a serious problem dealing with booger eatin' moh-rons. So, what we did is assign our most bureaucratic project manager to it. We had our first meeting Wednesday (in which I spent most of the meeting biting my tongue) which accomplished next to nothing. There is another meeting tomorrow. Oh, what's this? I'm off work? Too bad. That meeting will accomplish next to nothing but will lead to another meeting. The nice thing (for us, not the Germans) is this project manager's solution to every problem is to call a meeting. So, if there is a problem in any of the meetings with the Germans, he'll simply schedule another meeting. I figger it will only take about another month and the arrogant German asshole will be screaming for mercy and will give us any information we desire. Stop! Stop! I'll talk! No more meetings! I can't take it any more!

Now lest any of you think I hate Germans let me say that on my mother's side of my family I am 100% German. My sister is real big into genealogy and has traced all of my mother's ancestors back to Germany. Here are some of the names: Breitschuh, Weber, Neudeck, Eisele, Dreiling, Gruner, and Yaeger. Can't get much German than that.

Our network guy was on the call yesterday and he waited until almost the end of the call to ask some questions about their network since we will have to pick that up also. He pretty much got the same bullshit. He complained to me that he had Kraut for lunch, since this call was over his lunch hour. It was at this point that I told him, that he had actually had sour Kraut for lunch.

But we'll have the last laugh. After dealing with this particular project manager for the last four years I never thought I'd ever enjoy hearing him say, "We will have to hold a meeting on this".

Music to my ears.

2002-12-11T15:44:00.000-05:00

This, That, and The Other

This

This is the last thing (I hope) I'm gonna say about the Trent Lott bullshit. He should resign as Majority Leader. And let's look at this logically. Who wants him to resign? The RWPP's (Race Warlord Poverty Pimps), like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, et. al. That alone should be a reason for him not to resign. What we need to examine is who doesn't want him to resign. Why, none other than Little Tommy Dasshole. Good ol' spineless Trent has rolled over so many times for Dasshole and the Dimocrats it's pathetic. He rolled over on the impeachment trial. When the Senate was 50/50 and Cheney had the deciding vote, spineless Trent, in the spirit of bipartisanship, worked out a power sharing deal with the Dimocrats. As soon as Jumpin' Jim Jeffords handed control of the Senate to Dasshole and the Dimocrats, you didn't see Dasshole, Mr. Obstructionist, working out a deal with the Republicans in the spirit of bipartisanship. Trent Lott is Dasshole's bitch. Howza 'bout someone like Kay Bailey Hutchinson as Majority Leader? She's got more balls than Lott? Geez! Any woman in the Senate has more balls than Lott.

That

In today's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation it was a celebration of Jimmy Carter. And howza 'bout this:

Oslo, Norway -- The tables were topped with the finest linens. Each place setting had four gold and green-rimmed stemware. But what stole the show was the centerpiece -- three tiers of matte gold bowls containing lilies, mums, birds of paradise, grapes and, yes, peanuts.

Must of been in honor of his brain. Oh, that's right. He was a peanut farmer before he screwed up the economy, gave away the Panama Canal, presided over the humiliation of the Iran hostage crisis, and began a long career of coddling dictators.

And from another article:

Carter brokered the Egypt-Israel peace treaty with his summit talks at Camp David in 1978. The agreement, in which Israel withdrew from captured Egyptian territory in the Sinai peninsula in return for an end to Egyptian hostilities, still holds.

Of course, it's costing us $5 billion dollars a year. $2 billion for Egypt and $3 billion for Israel. Let's see ... 1978 to 2002 is 24 years. 24 x $5 billion = $120 billion.

The formula it used -- land for peace -- is still seen as the most likely path to any peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, the Palestinians want all the land. Then there will be peace.

The Other

The Atlanta Urinal and Constipation prints an E. J. Dionne colum on Tuesdays and darned if he thinks that there is a right wing bias in the media.

The fat is in the fire on the issue of media bias, and that is a good thing. It's time to revisit a matter on which the conventional wisdom is, roughly, 180 degrees off.

Oh?

You hear the conventional wisdom all the time from shrewd conservative commentators who understand that political pressure, relentlessly applied, usually achieves its purposes. They have sold the view that the media are dominated by liberals and that the news is skewed against conservatives.

Well, yeah. That's 'cause it is.

This belief fueled the construction of a large network of conservative institutions -- especially on radio and cable television -- that provides conservative viewpoints close to 24 hours a day.

Had to do sumpin' to counteract ABCCBSNBCCNNCNBCMSNBCPBSNPR, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the St. Lous Post Dispatch, the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation, and just about every other large city daily newspaper.

Conservatives argued that hopelessly left-wing establishment news sources needed to be balanced by brave, relentless voices from the right.

Yep! And that is why Fox and Rush Limbaugh are so popular. And that is what has E. J.'s shorts in a bunch.

But the continuing attacks on mainstream journalists have another effect. Because the drumbeat of conservative press criticism has been so steady, the establishment press has internalized it. Editors and network executives are far more likely to hear complaints from the right than from the left.

Thanks E. J. for making my point. The reason there are so many more complaints from the right than the left is because the mainstream press is leftest. If it tilted to the right as you say, dontcha think there would be more complaints from the left than the right?

To the extent that there has been a bias in the establishment media, it has been less a liberal tilt than a preference for the values of the educated, professional class -- which, surprise, surprise, is roughly the class position of most journalists.

See all of us people in the red parts of the country are not as good as the 'educated professional class' that E. J. is talking about. This 'educated professional class' includes people like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, Peter Jennings, Dan Blather, and of course E. J. Dionne who know what's best for all of us ordinary citizens who live in the red parts of the country. These people are just oh so much smarter that we are. And they're not liberal. They're mainstream. At least in their minds they are.

This meant that on social and cultural issues -- abortion and religion come to mind -- journalism was not particularly hospitable to conservative voices. But on economic issues -- especially free trade and balanced budgets -- the press tilted toward the center or even toward moderate conservatism.

Remember, he's defining the center and moderate conservatism. He thinks he's a centrist.

You might say that the two groups most likely to be mistreated by the media were religious conservatives

Yep. I agree with that.

and trade unionists.

Nope. Missed that. When did that happen?

Earlier this week, former president Bill Clinton contrasted what he called an "increasingly right-wing and bellicose conservative press" with "an increasingly docile establishment press."

Oh yeah. If Clinton says it it must be true. Give me a freaking break!

A couple of weeks back, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle lashed out at radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. He said Limbaugh's attacks were so "shrill" that "the threats against those of us in public life go up dramatically, against us and against our families."

Ya wanna hear shrill? Howza 'bout the Congressional Black Caucus? Racist this. Meanspirited that. The Republicans want to starve children and kill old people. How about that fat demagogue Al Sharpton? He instigated the Crown Heights riot where an innocent Jew was beaten to death. Little Tommy Dasshole is a crybaby. Go read Peggy Noonan. She's got more balls and class than Dasshole and Clinton put together. What a bunch of whiny crybabies. Jesus they make me want to puke. And these are the people the Dimocrats think are leaders? A pervert and a crybaby.

Note the response of the so-called liberal media. Rather than join an outcry against Limbaugh, the establishment commentary was mostly aimed against Daschle and picked up the conservative cry that he was "whining."

That's because anyone in the country with half a brain knew he was whining.

Now, television hosts are free to invite anyone they wish (they've even had me on), and cable networks long for a piece of Limbaugh's large audience. But that is the point: Limbaugh's new respectability is the surest sign that the conservative talk network is now bleeding into what passes for the mainstream media, just as the unapologetic conservatism of the Fox News Channel.

As opposed to the unappologetic liberalism of ABCCBSNBCCNNCNBCMSNBCPBSNPR.

is now affecting programming on the other cable networks. This shift to the right is occurring as cable becomes a steadily more important source of news.

And why are more people watching Fox News? Could it be that given a choice between the liberalism of ABCCBSNBCCNNCNBCMSNBCPBSNPR and the so called 'unapologetic conservatism' (I actually think Fox is fairer than the major networks), the people are choosing Fox because they think it is fairer or more accurately reflects how they think. But what do we know? Remember we are not the 'educated professional class'.

When Katie Couric had the nerve to ask some tough questions of EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman on Monday's "Today" show, the ever-alert conservative Media Research Center trashed Couric for bias.

That's because perky Katie only asks conservatives tough questions. She throws softballs to liberals. Remember, it was on the Today show that Hillary came out with the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. What do you think Katie would say if someone said there was a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy?

When the Chicago Tribune ran an unflattering picture of President Bush on its Nov. 14 front page, it was assailed for a lack of patriotism.

Did the Chicago Tribune ever run an unflattering picture of Bill Clinton?

Editors who worry about conservative criticism are not paranoid. You just wonder: Where have the liberals been?

C'mon. Name me an editor who's worried about conservative criticism? Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta paper sure as hell isn't.

It took conservatives a lot of hard and steady work to push the media rightward.

Facts not in evidence, your honor.

It dishonors that work to continue to presume that -- except for a few liberal columnists

A 'few' liberal columnists?

-- there is any such thing as the big liberal media.

Except for all the major networks, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR and PBS (our tax dollars at work), and most large city newspapers.

The media world now includes (1) talk radio,

There's no law against liberals having talk radio shows. Except no one will listen since they have to use logic to defend their views and liberal views do not stand up well to logic.

(2) cable television and (3) the traditional news sources (newspapers, newsmagazines and the old broadcast networks). Two of these three major institutions tilt well to the right,

Once again, facts not in evidence. CNN,CNBC, and MSNBC tilt to the left versus Fox which he claims tilts to the right. And, once again, it shows that the people, given a choice, prefer Fox, so I guess that must mean the country tilts to the right. Or maybe the country believes Fox is mainstream since Fox is winning in the ratings. Therefore, the establishment media must lean to the left.

and the third is under constant pressure to avoid even the pale hint of liberalism.

But, I've noticed, they haven't given in to the pressure. They're just as liberal as they've always been. Hell, even more so. What did MSNBC do when they couldn't compete with O'Reilly? They brought in a liberal, Phil Donahue. And the media isn't liberal?

These institutions, in turn, influence the burgeoning world of online news and commentary.

I've noticed that we bloggers are pretty good at looking at various points of view and coming to our own conclusions, thank you.

What it adds up to is a media heavily biased toward conservative politics and conservative politicians.

Nope. Still wrong.

Kudos to the right. Now, what will the rest of us do about the new bias?

Probably not a damn thing and you will contine to become more and more irrelevant.

And that's a good thing.

2002-12-10T20:52:00.000-05:00

Shut The Fuck Up!

"Bring me the head of Senator Lott!", they scream. "He's a racist!" "He should resign as Majority Leader!" I agree with that last. He should resign as Majority Leader. But not for anything he said. He should resign because he is a spineless wimp. But let's take a look at some of the people screaming for his scalp. I found this story from Reuters.

"His remarks require minimally a much larger apology ... a meeting with the black caucus ... and whatever else the caucus may decide," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat.

Oh that's just special. A meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. A bunch of racist assholes. They can spend an hour or two insulting Trent Lott and since they probably wouldn't stop talking, he couldn't get a word in edgewise. Then they could take him outside and lynch him. And Sheila Jackson Lee? My friends Michael and Cindy call her the hat lady. She was one of the staunchest Clinton supporters during the impeachment of Bubba. And she's also a real rocket scientist. During the Mars landing she asked if the Mars Rover was anywhere near the flag that the astronauts planted. Sheila Jackson Lee, you are an idiot. Shut the fuck up!

"We are not finished," added Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, another Texas Democrat and the outgoing caucus chairwoman.

Yep. We gonna milk this shit for all it's worth. I've seen Congressthing Johnson on television. She's another idiot. Whatcha gonna do to Lott? Lynch him? Ms Johnson, Shut the fuck up!

Just hours before his written apology on Monday, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the country's oldest civil rights group, called on Lott to resign as Senate Republican leader.

Oh yeah, here's the pot calling the kettle black. (Sorry. Sometimes I can't help myself.) Hey NAACP, howza 'bout you apologizing for that shameful add in the 2000 election trying to tie President Bush to the death of James Byrd? Howza 'bout you guys apologizing for all the hate speech directed at President Bush during your last convention? Howza 'bout having Julian Bond apologizing for the screed he wrote about Strom Thurmond? Howza 'bout you guys not acting like a bunch of hateful bigots? When the shoe is on the other foot, all we hear is "That's in the past. Let's just move on." Good idea. Let's just move on and have you guys Shut the fuck up!

"Senator Lott's statement is the kind of callous, calculated, hateful bigotry that has no place in the halls of the Congress," said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume.

Give me a fucking break! How many illegitimate children have you fathered? What was your past? What, you've been in jail? But you've reformed? And you believe in forgiveness? Fine. Forgive this and shut the fuck up!

One caucus member, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, rebuked Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota on Tuesday for promptly accepting Lott's regrets.

Omigawd! Maxine Waters! Now there's a voice of reason. Everything is whitey's fault! Didja know that the crack problem in the inner city is a CIA plot? Yep. That's what Maxine thinks. And do you remember the Watts riots when Maxine coined the slogan, "No justice, no peace!" C'mon Maxine. Give us a break and shut the fuck up!

Lott issued his statement of apology late on Monday, shortly after former Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) denounced his remarks as "racist" in an interview on CNN.

Gore, the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee, said unless Lott retracted the comments the Senate should move to censure him.

This is the same Al Gore whose father was a staunch segregationist. I know Al tells us his father lost his seat because he was for civil rights (This from the guy who claimed to invent the internet), but Al Gore Senior voted against the 1965 Civil Rights bill. This is the same Al Gore whom Cynthia McKinney said had a low Negro tolerance and whose family made their black maid stay in the car when they would go to a restaurant. Also, this is the same Al Gore who said of Clinton, during impeachment, that he was one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century. Hey Al, why didn't you call for censuring Clinton, you hypocritical asshole? Shut the fuck up!

OK let's see what the AP has to say.

"Hateful bigotry" has no place in Congress, said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, a former House member.

OK Kweisi, I'm waiting for a big percentage of the Congressional Black Caucus to resign since they're the biggest bigots in Congress. And I already told you to shut the fuck up!

"It sends a chilling message to all people," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., of the remarks Lott made last Thursday at a birthday party for 100-year-old Thurmond, R-S.C., who is retiring after 48 years in the Senate.

"These are the kinds of words that tear this nation apart," said Cummings, who was elected chairman of the 39-member Congressional Black Caucus (news - web sites) on Tuesday. "We are going to do something about it."

Whatcha gonna do? Take him out back and bitch slap him? Yeah. Trent Lott is an idiot. He's also spineless. He apologized. Let's move on. You booger eatin' moh-rons are making a mountain out of a molehill. If you wanna get outraged about sumpin', how about Robert Byrd, Senator from West Virginia, former member of the KKK, who used the word nigger on national TV twice earlier this year? Nary a peep from you hypocritical bastards. Shut the fuck up!

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson called last weekend for Lott to quit the majority leader post.

I was wondering when he was gonna check in. Let's see. Jesse fathered a child out of wedlock and then used funds from a nonprofit organization to pay her off. Also, I don't recall him ever apologizing for his Hymietown remark. Jesse, I think you should resign from your job. Wait a minute. He doesn't have a job. Where the fuck did he get all his money? It's pointless, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Jesse, Shut the fuck up!

And I'm sure that fat fuck Al Sharpton had to regale us with his wisdom, but I'm too lazy to look for any more articles on this bullshit. At least Trent Lott didn't start any riots like the one in Crown Heights that was a result of Al Sharpton's anti-Semitic rantings and ravings. People died from that. So Al, I don't give a crap what you have to say. Shut the fuck up!

And where was Major Owens? Didn't he have anything to say. He was the Congresscritter who gave a speech and said that over 200 million blacks were thrown overboard during the slave trade. In fact, even to this day, the sharks are patrolling the waters waiting for the black meat. The next day, Rush Limbaugh had his staff run the numbers to see how many people would have had to have been thrown over every day for the duration of the slave trade. I don't remember what he came up with, but let's do it ourselves. We'll be real generous and say it ran from 1500 to 1850 (which is real generous since the Spanish enslaved the indigenous people first, and only imported Africans after all the Indians died, and the United States didn't start until after 1600.) So 200,000,000 / 350 = 571428. 571428 / 365 = 1565. Holy crap! That's 1565 being thrown over the side every single day for 350 years! So Major went back on the floor of the House to correct himself and said it was actually 20 million. OK using the same calculations that would mean 156 blacks being thrown over the side every single day for 350 years. Ol' Major makes up numbers just like I do when I have to code my SHTS (Stupid Hourly Tracking System) numbers at work. So just on general principles Major, shut the fuck up!

But there's more important stuff going on than Trent Lott. What about Jimmah Carter in Oslo? Do you think we could just have the Norwegians keep him? It can be real bad living in Atlanta and having to read the liberals at the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation, Cynthia Tucker, Jay Bookman and Martha Ezzard fawn over that incompetent bastard. Fer chrissakes, Jimmah and his admirers need to Shut the fuck up!

Just give me some peace and quiet.

Please.

2002-12-09T20:50:00.000-05:00

Champagne and Hypocrisy

I didn't blog last night because last night was the annual Sommelier Guild of Atlanta's champagne dinner. Most of the Sommelier Guild tastings consist of a bunch of rich old farts who get together once a month to taste wine. But, twice a year, wives show up. They come to the annual banquet in the Spring and to the Champagne tasting in December. This year the tasting was at the Tiburon Grille in Atlanta. The food and the champagne were both fantastic.

Here is the menu.

Speaker's Wine
Raymond Henriot Brut NV

First Course
Ginger Curry Crabcakes

Piper Heidsieck Brut NV Feuillatte Brut NV

Second Course
Sesame Seared Tuna

Pol Roger Rose 1995 Billecart - Salmon Rose NV Feuillate Rose NV

Third Course
Grilled Maine Lobster Tail with Ginger and Winter Vegetables

Salon 1990 Dom Perignon 1993

Fourth Course
Irish Salmon Souffle

Krug Grand Cuvee Brut NV Veuve Clicquot "La Grand Dame" 1993

Dessert
Moet & Chandon Nectar Imperial NV

It's a rough job, but someone's gotta do it.

Fortunately, I went with my friends, Michael and Cindy, and Cindy was kind enough to drink less than Michael and myself, so she drove us home. We each had a nice glass of Delemain Vesper cognac when we got to my house, and then they went home.

I really did not feel like going to work today.

So that covers the champagne. What about the hypocrisy?

Strom Thurmond is retiring and since he's 100 years old and is the longest serving senator in the history of this country, people are saying nice things about him. Hey, that's what you do. All right, he was a Dixiecrat and a segregationist, but, he changed with the times. But of course, that's not OK with some people. Julian Bond wrote a venomous op-ed last week about Strom Thurmond with the expected rhetoric of a RWPP (Race Warlord Poverty Pimp) like Julian Bond. This is the same Julian Bond who ranted about how bad President Bush was in a speech at the last NAACP convention and then was pissed the Bush didn't come speak at the convention. Listen up you classless asshole, I wouldn't want to attend a convention and get insulted either.

Trent Lott (the man without a spine) tried to say sumpin' nice about old Strom and got hisself in hot water with the Dimocrats and the liberal media. He said he was from Mississippi and Mississippi voted for Strom when he ran for president in 1948. So here it comes. Mississippi is a racist state. Trent Lott is a racist. No he is not. He's a spineless nitwit, but I doubt if he is a racist. But the hypocrisy is so blatant it's pitiful.

Ya wanna talk about a racist? Howza 'bout good ol' Robert Byrd? He used to be a member of the KKK. Hey Julian, whatcha gonna say when he retires? Oh, that's right. He's a Dimocrat so that's OK. Byrd even got away with using the word nigger on national TV. A Republican would have been hounded out of office. There was barely a peep from the media. Where were Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson?

And what about the Confederate flag that used to fly above the Statehouse in South Carolina. Guess who put it there. Why it was Senator Hollings from South Carolina. He was the governor at the time. How come the NAACP doesn't bring that up? Oh, that's right. He's a Dimocrat so that's OK.

But, then we need look no further than Bubba. Let's see, it was all about sex. But Robert Packwood had to resign for sexual harassment. He was a Republican. Too bad that was before Gloria Steinem came out with the 'one free grope rule'. See, if you are a Dimocrat, and you are pro-abortion, you can pretty much treat women any way you please. You can rape 'em. You can grope 'em. You can get blowjobs in the Oval Office. A military officer who did what Clinton did would have been forced into retirement. A CEO would have been fired. But pro-abortion Dimocrats are immune.

But wait until we have another sex scandal with a Republican. We'll see all the Clinton apologists like Barbara Boxer, Gloria Steinem, Eleanor Smeal, and the others shrieking like the harridans they are demanding that the evil bastard resign and how this is a disgrace and he used his position of power to take advantage of an innocent girl, yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah.

And ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCCNBCNPRPBS, the New York Times, and the Washington Post will not bother to point out the hypocrisy. They're fair, balanced, and mainstream.

But the mean old right wingers like FOX, Rush, and the Washington Times will.

You can count on it.

2002-12-06T16:20:00.000-05:00

Clueless

Since I write my blogs in the evening, I usually only post Sunday through Thursday which has them available Monday through Friday. I'm doing a bonus blog today for a variety of reasons.

First reason: I got my address book program fixed. I wound up buying a new copy and importing my data. Worked like a charm. Since the program was only $20 it wasn't worth my while to try to fix what I had screwed up. So, since I'm off work today, I have some time to kill.

Second reason: Poor Tommy Glavine is whining to the media about how ungrateful the Braves were in not offering him a contract. He wanted to finish his career here, but he said the Braves insulted him and played hardball in the contract negotiations. Boo hoo! This from a guy who was one of the leaders in the baseball strike. Who was ungrateful then you whiny crybaby? Back then he said this was a business. Guess what Tommy? It is a business. The Braves didn't think you were worth what you were asking. And, the Braves didn't try to negotiate using the media like you did. The Braves have a hell of a lot more class than you do you ungrateful bastard. Go ahead on to the Mets and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way to New York. I hope your arm falls off and you don't finish your career with 300 wins. What a clueless dickhead!

Someone got to my website using a search argument of old+granny+fucking. Huh? Wassup wit dat?

And the last reason I'm writing sumpin' today is Toren Smith at The Safety Valve sent me this link. I checked to make sure he hadn't ranted about it, but he's busy so I just had to write a few words about this. I don't have a clue who Diana Griego Erwin, is, but I do know she is a clueless idiot. I'm not trying to insult her here, I'm just stating a fact.

I feel like an idiot.

Well, duh! That's because you are. It's nice to see you're in touch with your feelings.

I'm calling the White House, but not to drudge up the kind of information that reporters usually gather. I'm not pressing for details on Iraq's upcoming deadline to turn over the skinny on its weapons program. This isn't that kind of story.

OK. What kind of story is this gonna be? What kind of information is she looking for? Put down your coffee cups and coke cans. Do not read this next paragraph with any liquids in your mouth. Make sure your chin is at least 18 inches above any hard surface so when your jaw drops it won't hit anything. OK. Are you ready?

"Has anyone asked what they want?" Silence. "You know, the terrorists who are out to kill innocent Americans? What do they want? To stop this, I mean."

And the response from the person at the White House?

She says she'll have to have someone get back to me. No one did.

Can you imagine how hard that person at the White House must have been laughing? And, yeah, no one called her back because they figgered it had to be a crank call. I'm surprised the person at the White House didn't say, "Is this Crank Yankers? This can't be for real right?"

Go read the rest of the column if you want to see examples of more liberal logic. I mean, why aren't we talking to the terrorists? Yeah, can't you imagine if Al Gore were president? The Taliban would still be in power and Jimmy Carter would still be trying to broker some sort of deal with them.

OK Diana, I'll tell you what they want. If they are Palestinian terrorists they want the total destruction of Israel. They have never ever made a secret of it. The PLO charter actually states that. It was supposed to be changed as one of the requirements of the Oslo peace process, but the Palestinians never got around to it. The geography books used in Palestinian schools show Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranian Sea. To a Palestinian (and to most Arabs) there is no Israel. The only reason Jordan and Egypt recognize Israel is because we pay 'em to. In the case of Egypt it's $2 billion per year.

Diana, when you heard that women are from Venus and men are from Mars you didn't have to take it literally and go to Venus. You couldn't have been here and missed all the bin Laden videos. What does Binny want?

He wants the United States out of the Middle East. That means Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Kuwait.
He wants the total destruction of Israel.
He wants the total destruction of Western Civilization
He wants to take the world back to the 7th Century.
He wants the total world under Islamic Law. That means you would have to walk around in a tent. You wouldn't be allowed to write ridiculous columns. Wait. That might be a good thing. You would be under the total control of your father until he sold you to your husband. Then you would be under his control. You would have no rights.

As I grow older and I observe the thought processes of liberals like one of my cousins and a friend's sister, I really do think liberal brains work differently.

"What do the terrorists want?" he asked. "No, ma'am, that's not a question we ask. We are out there combating terrorism. We don't ask them what they want."

What do the terrorists want? They want to kill us! Jesus H. Christ! Can't you hear all the hatred for us coming from practitioners of the Religion of Peace^TM.

Apparently we're not as adept at asking questions, building bridges or seeking resolutions to address why so many people the world over despise us. We react. We militarize. We kick butt. Talk? No, ma'am, we don't talk.

Kum-bay-fucking-yah! Give peace a fucking chance! It doesn't matter why they despise us. They want to kill us. What would it take to make them stop? Total surrender. Give up our way of life. Convert to Islam. Return to the 7th Century.

President Bush and his advisers should sit down and read the fine print of the National Security Council's "National Security Strategy of the United States of America." Woven throughout are the ideals behind those catchy phrases peppered in speeches: freedom, fairness, democracy, human dignity.

Name me one Islamic country that has freedom, fairness, domocracy, and human dignity? One. Name me one. Just one. If we listen to twits like you we will lose freedom, fairness, democracy, and human dignity.

I can't take any more. I cannot believe that Diana gets paid to write bullshit like this. I could write tripe like that for free. Geez I write this stuff for free.

I read somewhere this morning that Mexico is flooding California with illegal immigrants to eventually take over California and return it to Mexico. Take it now.

And take Diana, too.

2002-12-04T21:32:00.000-05:00

PTSS

Went back in to work today. Did my day suck! Have you ever had one of those days when everything you touched turned to shit? I think I'm suffering from PTMDRSS (Post Traumatic My Day Really Sucked Syndrome) tonight.

The forecast this morning was for sleet and freezing rain hitting Atlanta in the afternoon. Well that's just freaking great! Any forecast in Atlanta that includes either snow or freezing rain throws the entire area in a complete panic. The stores sell out of bread, milk, and eggs in no time flat. The reason this happens is because of Snow Jam 1982. Atlanta got hit with 6 inches of snow (a veritable blizzard) during the day and none of the businesses let people off early. So there was an afternoon rush hour, with stupid drivers, and 6 inches of snow. Talk about a recipe for disaster. And it was. The city was shut down for two days. I was living in St. Louis at the time and drove through Atlanta on my way to Florida that evening. There were cars on the shoulder up and down the interstates. I was in a Volkswagen Beetle and drove right through with no trouble. Ever since Snow Jam, the city overreacts. Schools closed today. It didn't start raining today until after 4:00 PM and it still isn't freezing.

So I got to work and started working on a problem that I was trying to fix on Monday. No luck. Then Operations called and said they can't get some systems up and could I come upstairs and help. Sho 'nuff.

First problem was a communications problem which kept us from getting some systems on the network. This was a problem caused by a power outage over the weekend. Recycled some PU's, and that problem was fixed.

Next problem was some systems wouldn't come up. Turns out I had made a configuration definition error when we had done some recabling last month. Fixed it and got one of the systems up and told Operations everything was OK and went back to my office. Wrong! I thought I had fixed the configuration error but I had forgot how to count in hexadecimal and fixed it wrong. Fixed it right this time.

Half an hour later Operations called again. They can't get some policies activated because they can't be found. I looked and then realized they were trying to load the wrong policies. Told them the right ones.

OBO (Our Best Operator): That's not what the procedures say.
Me: The procedures must be wrong. Here is the naming convention we use.
OBO: I better change the procedures.
Me: Yep! And I'll thump the guy who wrote them. (Who happens to be a guy I like and I cannot imagine him giving her the wrong procedures)
OBO: Wait a minute! You're right. The procedures are OK. I misread them. (See. She is a good operator. She admits when she makes a mistake.)

A half an hour later I get a call from Operations. This time it's Our Worst Operator.

OWO: I'm trying to activate these policies and the system says they cannot be found.
Me: That's because you are trying to activate the wrong policies. You need to activate these policies.
OWO: Well xxxxx told me to activate these.
ME: xxxxx was mistaken. Read the procedures and talk to OBO.

Arrrgggghhhhh! This blew three hours of my day.

As regular readers know, I had to move out of my old office into an office with my team lead. My old office was on a different floor. This office is on the same floor as my manager. He loves to pop in to see how we're doing. We got one of his daily visits today. He's all excited because we're revisiting a synergy project with our cousins in Germany.

I'm still suffering from PTSPWTGS (Post Traumatic Synergy Project With The Germans Syndrome). We used to have a weekly conference call with them about building a common development platform. The problem is they build systems one way and we build 'em another. We don't have the staff to reconstruct our environment to conform with theirs and they won't conform with us. So we would spend 45 minutes discussing this impasse every Friday. One Friday I came in hungover and ranted (Me? Rant? I'm shocked!) about how we do things our way bcause it is the easy way and since they live in a socialist country and have to justify their bloated head count they won't do things the easy way and I'm not gonna waste any more time on this waste of time project and slammed the phone down.

At this time I was our team lead. This is just one of the many reasons I am no longer team lead. My manager told me that in the future, the project manager should be the one to negotiate with the Germans. The project manager eventually changed the conference call to once every other week. That way we only wasted 45 minutes every other week rather than every week. This went on for over a year and a half. I constantly told both the project manager and my manager that this was a dead project (my name for it was Death Spiral) to no avail. Finally, when I was replaced as team lead, after two calls, the new team lead declared the project dead and my manager agreed with him. Of course, this was after my team lost two people which would have made it even harder to redo our systems to conform with the Germans.

Now it turns out that the I/T costs in Europe are considerably higher than here in the USA. Duh! They have three times the headcount. So, they are revisiting the project, only this time, managers are involved, and, they're looking at shutting down Germany and moving everything here. My manager who has wanted to go global for as long as I've worked for him is ecstatic. For me, it would mean job security, but I know it ain't gonna happen. One reason is he put the most bureaucratic project manager in charge of the project. This guy's solution to everything is "We will have to call a meeting on that." There will be so many bloody meetings the Europeans will decide it's easier to pay more for I/T costs than go to all the meetings. They will soon be suffering from PTHTATMFMS (Post Traumatic Having to Attend Too Many Fucking Meetings Syndrome).

So I guess you must be thinking I'm making up all these post traumatic (bullshit) syndromes. Yep! I am. But why not? Maureen commented the other day about listening to a program on National Proletariat Radio and there was a guest on one of the programs talking about some slave syndrome that "can be used as an explanation for self-defeating behaviors perpetrated by some African-Americans." My first response was, she's making this shit up. So off I went to Google. The correct term is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS - Hence the title). There was an off-Broadway play named Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. I found some info about it. Here are some excerpts.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome described the condition - that crippling mixture of fear, paranoia, anger, and depression that can follow a period of acute violence or victimization - the chilling parallels with the World Trade Center disaster were impossible to ignore.

Huh?

Though this new drama looked at four hundred years of black/white history as the source of our collective trauma, the harrowing ordeals of recent weeks were never far from mind. That's not to say that our newest national horror somehow trumps or invalidates the play's premise, or makes it inappropriate for those still struggling with the here-and-now - quite the contrary. Universal Arts' therapeutic use of theatrical performance as a tool for exposing, understanding and ultimately re-imagining destructive patterns of emotion and thought may be just what the doctor ordered as the nation, our city, and the theatrical community begin to grapple with an awful aftermath.

Awright! About now I'm suffering from PTGMAFBS (Post Traumatic Give Me A Fucking Break Syndrome). And who was the person who discovered PTSS? Let's read further.

Principal among sources is the work of sociologist Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary, whose theories on "Axiology and Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome"

Holy shit!

endeavor to rationalize many of the differences between African-American and European-American cultures. Dr. DeGruy-Leary's argument (in a nutshell)

No comment.

posits that the short three-month growing season in prehistoric Europe has rendered European-Americans - thanks to bygone prehistoric necessity - time-sensitive, forward-looking, and obsessed with efficiency, hierarchies, and the acquisition of objects, while the year-round warmth of African climates has translated into a more fluid, holistic, and spiritual approach to life for African-Americans. The incompatible value systems of these two cultures collided in the slave trade; we, as a nation, continue to suffer from the traumatic and manipulative methods through which white slave-owners deliberately brutalized and manipulated the fears and loyalties of their captives, all in the name of stabilizing and maximizing the output of their plantations.

So does that mean we white folk can't help it? It's because of a three month growing season? Omigawd! I'm suffering from PTTOOTSTIEHS (Post Traumatic That's One Of The Stupidest Things I've Ever Heard Syndrome). Here's the deal. Slavery^TM has been the order of things since the beginning of civilization. It was those mean old white Europeans (the English) who first decided slavery^TM was wrong. That spread to the United States, which fought a bloody war to abolish it. Slavery^TM, by the way, still exists in, of all places, Africa, where the slaveholders happen to be those " holistic, and spiritual" Africans who enslave their fellow Africans. How come we never hear blacks in the United States speaking out on that?

Look, slavery was wrong. We admitted it. We abolished it. That was over 140 years ago. Segregation was wrong. We abolished it. We passed civil rights laws. We implemented affirmative action. Yes, racism still exists, but it is not what is holding blacks back. What is holding blacks back is lack of education which is a result of deplorable schools in the inner city and the anti-achievement mentality that equates doing well in school is "acting white".

Nope there ain't no such thing as Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. It's total bullshit.

There is, however, PTLTBFJJAASS( Post Traumatic Listening To Bullshit From Jesse Jackson And Al Sharpton Syndrome).

And that does exist.

2002-12-03T21:34:00.000-05:00

Health Care

Every day I go out to Neal Boortz' web site to read his daily program notes. Today, he referenced a column in Tuesday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipatation by a liberal named Robert Reno. I was afraid he was gonna take down the entire column, in which case I would have had to have found sumpin' else to write about, but he only concentrated on one sentence, which left the rest of the column for me.

At a time when nothing seems to stand between President Bush and soaring approval ratings,

And doncha just know this really pisses liberals off sumpin' fierce? Their hero, Bubba, never did this well. But that's the difference between style and substance.

his one vulnerability may be a health care system on the verge of falling apart.

Now there's an issue the Dimocrats rode to success in 1994.

''Health insurance premiums are rising at double- digit rates,'' writes Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution in the Washington Post. ''Drug prices are skyrocketing. Employers are curtailing health insurance benefits and boosting the share of cost employees must shoulder.

And what is one of the big reasons that health insurance costs are skyrocketing? Can you say malpractice insurance? Malpractice insurance premiums are skyrocketing which means doctors have to charge more for their services to cover the costs of rising premiums. Tort reform would address that issue, but, since the trial lawyers own the Dimocrats, they won't let that happen. Mike Royko, the late, great Chicago columnist, once suggested that we needed to have universal legal care in this country to keep lawyers' fees down. And the people who would set up that system would be doctors.

''Stunned by rising premiums, employees are foregoing coverage for themselves, their spouses and their children. As a result, the ranks of the uninsured rose to more than 41 million, a jump of 1.4 million in 2001 alone, and appear likely to continue expanding as rising costs hammer employers whose profits are depressed by a weak economy. No one should be surprised if 50 million people are uninsured by 2005.''

Aaron's words suggest that if people aren't hysterical, they should be.

Quick! Call Chicken Little! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

A do-nothing attitude could even lead to a point where Americans punish Bush for leading them down a garden path to nowhere and to a health-care system that lies in wreckage.

Is he saying that our current health care system lies in wreckage or is headed that way?

What's most depressing is that there is little evidence Bush has a plan for this impending crisis or a clue to its solution.

But I bet Robert does.

''The number of uninsured will continue to grow as long as health insurance premiums rise more rapidly than earnings, as they have for a decade,'' says Drew Altman of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which specializes in health care issues. ''Losing health benefits is becoming a middle-class issue.''

And health insurance is right there in the Constitution. It's in there right between welfare and campaign finace reform.

Altman's words are ominous because when a sense of insecurity creeps into the comfortable middle classes, it touches raw nerves. These are not the same alarms sounded when the rich help themselves to a larger share of the nation's income or when the poor get it in the neck again, as they always do.

Here we go again with the fucking poor. Jesus H. Christ! I get so fucking sick of hearing this same old whiny bullshit over and over again. As long time readers know, I have stated over and over again that with the exception of some catastrophic event like disease or accident, there is almost no excuse for being poor in this country. I came from poverty and a dysfunctional family so I know. Get an education. Work hard. Do not have children you cannot afford. Don't live beyond your means. Save and invest. Live the American dream. And if you do that, you might become one of those evil hated rich folks.

In any event, it's a problem that has already been settled in most of the civilized world, where the health care debate has been solved by universal coverage.

Yeah. Like in Cuba. Don't laugh. This guy's a liberal and to liberals, Cuba is part of the civilized world.

It exists in Canada,

Where Canadians come here for treatments unavailable in Canada.

in Europe,

Home of high taxes and high unemployment.

even in countries that can afford minimal health standards.

Like Cuba.

It often creaks with inefficiencies and anomalies, but stands as the only sane answer to a compelling need.

See that's the way socialism works. It is far better to have institutionalized mediocrity, which is what socialized medicine is.

The nightmare that still haunts the health care system is the experience of Hillary Clinton, who tried to solve the mess in 1993

That should read, "The nightmare that the health care system almost became was averted in 1993 when Hillary Clinton was prevented from implementing socialized medicine".

and got nothing but grief and vilification for her efforts.

And gave the House and Senate to the Republican Party, so sumpin' good did come from it.

She's now a sitting senator from New York, which ought to tell us something,

Yeah, it tells us how fucking stupid the people in New York are.

if only that people who try to solve problems instead of pretending they don't exist sometimes get their just rewards.

And Hillary sure solved that problem of her husband's philandering didn't she. Wait. That's right. She didn't know it existed until he told her after the stain was found on the dress.

It's a good thing she never pretended that problem didn't exist.

2002-12-02T22:42:00.000-05:00

AIDS Causes Terrorism

Boo hoo! Whine! Whine! I'm sick. Boo hoo! Whine! Whine! Poor ol' pitiful me! Boo hoo! Whimper! Whimper! Whine! Whine! In the words from a song by the immortal rock group, the Fugs, "And I feel like homemade shit!" Whimper! Whimper! Whine! Whine!

Sorry. I'm practicing to be a Dimocrat. And yes I am sick. I got a big ol' shot of a powerful antibiotic this afternoon at the doctor's office. And it was one of those big ol' needles that they have to stick in your butt. Since I have no sensation there, I didn't feel a thing. But, as anyone who has ever had to use a super powerful antibiotic knows, there are some undesirable side effects. Lactaid works for those, but I didn't take any soon enough.

As I was suffering in my misery, I just thought of three Dimocrats and how much they were like kids we all knew in school. Tommie Dasshole is that little whiny kid who was always running to the teacher saying everybody was picking on him. Al Gore is the class snitch. And Bill Clinton is Eddie Haskell.

But enough about little whiny children. I just learned over the weekend that AIDS causes terrorism. Yep! It was a surprise to me too, but Cynthia Tucker, in her Sunday column explains why.

Though this is the season of goodwill and generosity, the Bush administration continues to shortchange poor nations struggling with AIDS.

Those bastards! Not content to poison the water supply, set civil rights back forty years, and push old people in wheelchairs off cliffs (or graphs), the Bush Administration is turning its back on poor nations struggling with AIDS.

Prepared to spend $100 billion to wage war on Iraq, the administration has so far spent less than $2 billion on programs to curb AIDS abroad. Even as international aid experts and physicians document a plague that is destabilizing countries across the globe, the United States has resisted offering substantial funds to help.

Iraq is a sponsor of terrorism. Iraq is developing nuclear weapons. We'll talk more about why AIDS is a plague later.

Last summer, when retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) was belatedly stricken with a bout of conscience over his years of opposing funding for AIDS research, he proposed a dramatic increase in U.S. donations to curb the spread of AIDS worldwide. But President Bush fought the proposal.

Cry me a fucking river!

It was a remarkable moment. As he neared retirement, the jingoistic troglodyte from North Carolina

Now that sounds pretty mean spirited to me. Ya notice how liberals like to resort to name calling. If someone on the right were to refer to Ted Kennedy as a notable drunk driving, passenger killing, Senator can you imagine the howls of outrage?

realized he'd been mistaken about anti-AIDS efforts. Believing that his Christian faith required more of him, he rounded up bipartisan support for a bill to pour billions into programs to fight the epidemic.

Praise God! I've seen the light!

But Bush, who marketed himself to the American people as a "compassionate conservative," deep-sixed the plan.

That heartless bastard!

If simple compassion is not enough to persuade the president to do more, perhaps national interest will. AIDS --- the great plague of the 21st century --- is creating chaos and instability throughout Africa and parts of Asia. Those conditions give free rein to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida.

Got AIDS? Call al-Qaida. Remember, in the middle of al-Qaida is aid. Unless of course you spell it al Qaeda, in which that slogan doesn't work too well.

While there is no clear link between poverty and terrorism

Which pretty much invalidates the rest of this column and everything that follows is bullshit, but let's keep reading just for the fun of it.

(the hijackers who committed the terrorist atrocities of Sept. 11 were mostly middle-class and educated), it is no accident that al-Qaida could make itself at home in countries such as Afghanistan and Sudan. In both places, years of civil war had created desperate poverty and undermined central government authority. It was easy enough for Osama bin Laden to move in, buying loyalty with his millions.

Of course, Afghanistan and Sudan were mainly Muslim countries. Since al-Qaida is based on the Religion of Peace^TM, I cannot imagine them setting up shop in Zimbabwe or South Africa.

AIDS is creating similar conditions in countries from Angola to Zimbabwe to Rwanda. As just one example of the consequences, the Pentagon has started to notice that AIDS is decimating African armies. That does not portend well as the United States starts to look toward African nations as sources of petroleum; multinational oil companies depend on local armies to provide security for oil installations.

Let's see. What do all these countries have in common? Would you believe corrupt, incompetent gummints. Look what Mugabe has done to Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe used to be a net exporter of food. It now imports food and is using state sanctioned famine to starve opponents of the regime. Howza 'bout South Africa? AIDS is rampant there, but the gummint is in denial and doesn't think it has an AIDS problem. In the very same section of Sunday's paper ran this article about AIDS in Africa. In it was this statement

An estimated one in four South Africans between the ages of 18 and 50 carries the AIDS virus, making it the most infected country on earth.

Later in the same article.

In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Mbeki and his health minister suggested that HIV does not cause AIDS and that the drugs used to fight the disease could serve only to poison South Africans.

Yeah. Giving aid to South Africa and Zimbabwe would be a big help. How about Zambia? They're starving and won't eat our donated grain because it is genetically engineered. We've been eating it for years and it sure has crippled us as a nation hasn't it?

The AIDS pandemic has also begun cutting a broad swath across Eastern Europe and Central Asia;

Hmmmmm ... More incompetent, corrupt gummints. What a surprise.

the region now has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest rate of new infections. Uzbekistan, for example, has had nearly as many new cases of HIV infection in the first six months of this year as it had in the previous decade, according to UNAIDS, a U.N.-affiliated health organization.

Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic, has a heavily Muslim population and shares a border with Afghanistan. If Uzbekistan's government grows more unstable because of a high rate of AIDS, American efforts to halt terrorism, drug trafficking and gun running in the region will be crippled.

Not if everyone is dead of AIDS. Sorry. I shouldn't be so heartless. But if AIDS is spreading in Muslim countries, that must mean there is lots of adultry going on. AIDS is just saving them the trouble of stoning adulterers.

Americans are not easily persuaded to support efforts that wage peace.

Yeah. We're a nation of bloodthirsty savages.

Despite our self-image as a generous and charitable nation, we donate about 0.01 percent of gross national product in development aid to poor countries,

Which is about .01 percent of gross national product too much.

the lowest percentage of any wealthy nation.

Great. Send Europe the bill for the Cold War. Have the United Nations start paying rent for their headquarters in New York. Have the rest of the world pay what they owe us for World War II. I'm sick of the liberals in this country along with the freeloader nations who think that we are supposed to support the entire planet. Fix your gummints. Fix your economies. Freedom and low taxes. Works here.

Given his personal popularity, Bush could help Americans see the connection between increased foreign aid and a more stable world.

Huh? We give Egypt $2 billion dollars a year not to wage war with Israel. There's a real hot bed of stability. There is no connection between foreign aid and stability unless it results in an educated populace, freedom of the press, religious freedom, and democracy. Damn! There I go using logic again.

As we settle in to fight terrorism for the next several decades, we ought to help ourselves by curbing the conditions that allow it to fester and grow.

Radical Islam. Corrupt gummints.

Bush could easily convince Americans of the connection. But first, someone will have to convince him.

And since Bush has a functioning brain, that won't happen.

2002-12-01T20:20:00.000-05:00

The Pussification of America

Awright! I'm fixin' to offend some people. I've been good. I even wrote a treacly post about how I was thankful for lots of stuff. I'm nice three times a year: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Mother's Day. The rest of the time I'm my usual grouchy self.

I've finally got my new PC set up. The guy brought it over Wednesday, but the mouse wouldn't work. Then the keyboard wouldn't work. So he took it home. He brought it by today and everything works. Now, I have to get all the programs off my old hard drive (which is still in the machine) to the new hard drive. I've already screwed my address book program and I know I backed it up on a Zip disk but I can't find it. So, I'm pissed off about that.

So, I see that there is some sort of storm going on about people getting pissed off about being delinked, and some pissant named Wilde is giving Jennie a hard time. Hey Wilde! Fuck off!

All right, ladies, I'm blaming all this whiny, wimpy shit on you. What do men want most of all? They want to get laid. Men will do anything to get laid. Ever since the late sixties, women have been saying that they want caring, sensitive men. They want men who will cry at movies. They want men like that wuss, Alan Alda. So, that's what we have, a lot of sensitive whiny crybabies. And that's why women liked Bill Clinton. They thought he was a sensitive, caring man. He felt our pain. Obscene Clinton joke follows. Skip the next paragraph if you are easily offended.

What does Hillary Clinton do after she shaves her pussy in the morning? She ties his tie and sends him off to his office in Harlem.

I got so sick of Bill Clinton bitching for eight years about how hard the press was on him. What a crock of shit. He was asked once (once!) about his alleged rape of Juanita Brodderick. If Clinton had been a Republican, he would have been asked that at every single press conference or photo op. I can still remember how Dan Blather hectored Nixon constantly. Clinton never got that treatment.

And now we have Tommie Dasshole whining about the treatment he's getting from Fox News and talk radio. "This has to stop", he whines. "I'm getting threats." Cry me a fucking river you whimpy, whiny bastard. If you can't stand the heat, get the fuck out of the kitchen. Yoiu make me sick to my stomach. So Fox News and talk radio is against you. You've got ABCCBSNBCCNNCNBCMSNBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times on your side. I don't hear any Republicans whining about that you gutless wimp.

Peggy Noonan has more balls than all you gutless Dimocrats put together.

I dispise self pity. I despise whining. I'm a cripple and you can ask anyone who has been around me any length of time if I whine, feel sorry for myself, or expect special treatment. That's why listening to whiny liberals just sends me up the fucking wall!

Tommie! You lost! You're in the minority. Grownups are in charge now. If you keep crying we'll have to send you to your room.

And to the rest of you whiny Dimocrats like Al Gore.

Grow up!

2002-11-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving

This morning I got a call from work. I'm off all week, but they have now called me five times. This time it was a problem with a user in Japan. It was eight AM here and Japan is 11 hours ahead of us (I think) so it was nine PM there. He's working after hours. I've dealt with this guy before and he is highly competent. Operations conferenced him in with me and I talked him through what needed to be done. A person here in the United States was supposed to have provided him with the procedures, but didn't. Our Operations lead (and she is fantastic!) listened in and after the call asked if I wanted her to document this stuff so she could handle it the next time. I really love her!

But I'm not pissed. All this stuff is being logged, so hopefully management (now I'm assuming some competency here) realizes that I'm the only one who can handle this stuff since my team lead was called every time before Operations called me. So maybe I'll survive the next resource action (layoffs), that will probably occur in another six months. They've been happening every six months for the last two years.

So that brings me up to thinking about all the things I am thankful for this year.

I'm thankful for the intelligence I got from my father and the common sense I got from my mother.
I'm thankful for the work ethic taught to me by my parents.
I'm thankful for my sister who encourages me in my blogging, laughs at my jokes, and makes the best apple pie in the world.
I'm thankful for the education I got in the Webster Groves Public School System, in Missouri. When I went to school, there was a dress code and discipline. There were no social promotions. If you flunked, you did the grade over again. There was an emphasis on writing. The faculty at Webster Groves Senior High School assumed everyone was going to college and they taught accordingly. I particularly remember Mrs. Paige, my English teacher in my senior year, who encouraged me and made me write, write, and write. Her husband could read Chaucer as written. He came in one day and read it to us. I didn't understand a single thing he read.
I'm thankful for surviving the last resource action at TCIDNN(The Company I Dare Not Name).
I'm thankful for the Operations team lead.
I'm thankful for good friends.
- Cindy, who nags me about my health, but supplies nursing care when I screw up. She also goes to the doctor with me to translate and ~~intimidate~~ discuss treatment with the doctor. FMG's (Foreign Medical Graduates) beware!
- Michael, her husband, who sells me wine and who also brings over good wine when I have him and Cindy for dinner. And serves good wine when they have me for dinner.
- Wahoo, who took care of me after my accident, finished a crosstie landscaping project I had started, put ramps in my old house to make it accessable until I learned to walk again, and wouldn't let me slack off in rehab.
- Jeanella, his wife, who used to clean my house and take me shopping. I used to have them both over to dinner reguarly, but since I moved, I'm over thirty miles away and don't see them as much as I would like.
- Alixe, a good friend in St. Louis. Since I don't go up to St. Louis much, I seldom see her.
- Ditto for Nancy and Jerry in St. Louis.
- Cliff, in Lebanon Missouri. Lebanon? Where the heck is that?
- Brian, whom I used to share an office with and who hates it when I use fuck in a blog.
- Gwen, In Maryland, whom I never see anymore. When I first met her, I thought she was an airhead, but she speaks three languages and is a hell of a lot smarter than I am.
- Richard, who reads my stuff, teaches me stuff, and thinks I'm smarter than I am.
- Uncle Mikey, who teaches me stuff and thinks I'm smarter than I am.
I'm thankful that I live in the United States. I've been in over 25 different countries and none of them even come close to this country.
I'm thankful for the blogosphere because:
- Fred Pruitt at Rantburg. What a sense of humor. He gave me a plug.
- Bill Quick at DailyPundit saw Fred's plug and gave me a plug. And Bill put me on his blogroll. And I just loved his Most Bloodthirsty Warblogger election.
- Glenn Reynolds saw Bill Quick's plug and gave me a plug (the only one I've ever received from him dammit)
- Kim du Toit, my companion grouch. He saw Glenn's plug, read my stuff and sent me an e-mail. We've been friends ever since. He also gave me a plug and put me on his blogroll. My redneck friends love his gratuitous gun pictures.
- Connie du Toit, Kim's wife, a blogger in her own right. Unfair to have two excellent writers in one family.
- Toren Smith, whom Kim directed me to. I hope he gets caught up and can start posting again. Another friend.
- Addison, one of my long term readers whose comments are often better than what I write.
- Ralph Gizzup, also one of my long term readers who has supplied me with many interesting links. Get off those crutches!
- Rachel Lucas, whom either Addison or Ralph directed me to. I cannot remember which one. I don't know how she works, goes to school, and writes. She's another good friend whom I hope to meet someday.
- Andrea Harris, who gave me a plug. I followed the link back to her site and I've been reading her ever since. Another intelligent lady who works, goes to school and writes. I'm anxiously awaiting her first Danielle Steele type novel. I'm not fond of that genre, but if Andrea writes it, I'll read it.
- Lileks whom we all wish we could write like.
- Stephen den Beste, who is so damn smart and prolific it drives me crazy. How the heck does he do it?
- Chris Johnson (WGHS - Class of 74), Midwest Conservative Journal, who put me on his blogroll evern before he knew I was from Webster Groves. He keeps my sister (WGHS - Class of 60) and me (WGHS - Class of 64) up to date as to what is going on in St. Louis and in Webster Groves.
- Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs.
- Ooops! Almost forgot my sister's neighbor who's told a lot of his friends about me. Get to meet him next month when I go out to San Francisco for Christmas.
I'm thankful for TCIDNN which has employed me for almost thirty years. I've had good times and I've had bad times, but I've made a good living, and TCIDNN has provided me with a lot of blogging fodder. And my current job is the best job I've ever had. It's fun being a systems programmer. And now, if I get resource actioned out the door, I can retire.
I'm thankful for my two cats Doofus and Ashley who graciously allow me to live with them.
I'm thankful that Maureen's cat, Odell, is doing OK after his operation.
I'm thankful for my BMW Z3 which is the most fun car I've ever driven.
I'm thankful for the beautiful house that I moved into four years ago.
I'm thankful for the Great Patio of Dunwoody. (It will be the subject of a future blog)
I'm thankful Bill Clinton is no longer president.
I'm thankful that Algore is not president.
I'm thankful that Algore and Michael Moore exist since Rachel does such a good job takin' 'em down.
I'm thankful for Molly Ivins whose columns fisk themselves.
I'm thankful the Falcons may actually have a winning season.
And I'm thankful that Cindy's parents are having me for Thanksgiving dinner. And afterwards, Michael and Cindy are coming here for Port, which Michael will supply.

I will probably be in too good of a mood to post tomorrow. We'll see.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2002-11-26T21:38:00.000-05:00

Verizon and Zogby

Today was one of those beautiful autumn days in Georgia. It got down in the 40's last night, but during the day it got up in the mid 60's. Beautiful blue sky. Very few clouds. One of those days that you are glad to be alive.

Work called me last night. No problem. I got called three times today. No problem. And, I was offered to participate in a new site about Homeland Security (and the abuses thereof) put up by Kim and Connie du Toit. Now that is an honor! Let's see. I see the usual suspects including two of the smartest women in the blogosphere, Rachel Lucas and Andrea Harris. But where is Michele? After all, she got rated as the most bloodthirsty war blogger at Bill Quick's site. Look for a surprising post by me as soon as I sober up. That would be tomorrow.

So, as I said, it was a beautiful day. What can I do to ruin it? I know. Let's go to the Verizon Wireless store. I've got the top down on my BMW Z3 and I'm wearing a rugby shirt. It's perfect convertible weather.

I have a cell phone from Verizon that will not power on. This is a cell phone I got through AAA for emergencies. Not much good it it won't power on. So, off I go to the Verizon Wireless store in my Z3 with the top down. Beautiful drive.

I walk into the Verizon store and there's no line. I walk up to the rep and tell him my tale of woe. Of course, he needs my cell phone number and name. No problem. He takes my phone and charger and plugs them into an outlet. Hmmmm. Doesn't work. No shit! He gets another charger. No luck. "OK", sez he, "I'll have to turn you over to tech support." He takes my phone and charger over to tech support and points out a chair I can sit in while waiting.

There are two people in front of me. Finally, one person leaves and I can step up to the counter. There is one person working tech support. Her name starts with an S and ends with an A. There are a bunch of letters in between, but I cannot put them together into some sort of a name I can pronounce. She has one speed. Veeerrrrry Sloooow. She is also trying to multiplex.

She: Did you fill out one of these forms?
Me: What forms?
She: This form here.
Me: No, but that would have been a good idea for me to have done while I was sitting down doing nothing.

So, I filled out the form. Did I mention that Dwayne was there fixing their computers? There was also another Verizon guy walking around doing absolutely nothing.

So after I filled out the form S****A (Starts with an S and ends with an A) asks me what's wrong with my phone.

S****A: What's wrong with the phone?
Me: It won't power on. (Can't you read the form I filled out?)

So, since S****A is multiplexing, she goes back to the other person who's been there since before I got there and starts dealing with her. Meanwile, the other Verizon guy who is doing absolutely nothing, keeps walking around the store. I guess he must be in management.

So, S****A gets back to me and starts disassembling my phone. I don't know what she was looking for, since she didn't find it. Then, she turned back to the other person. Meanwhile, the other Verizon employee kept walking around the store doing nothing. Also another counter rep came back with another customer who had a problem, so that person dropped into S****A's queue. Omigawd! Now she has to multiplex with three of us! She finally starts servicing my interrupt (a little computer jargon there) and puts my phone back together and breaks out two boxes of phone batteries.

Now call me stupid (OK. You're stupid), but if I have a cell phone that won't power on and won't take a charge, the first thing I would check would be the battery, but I'm not a highly trained cell phone specialist.

Out of these two boxes of batteries, S****A finds three that are for my phone. None of them work. Hmmm. So now she breaks out her handy dandy Radio Shack voltmeter and meters the batteries. They all show bad. At this time, I would probably throw all the batteries away, since they are bad, but what do I know? She puts them back with the rest of the batteries and disappears. She returns with a brand new battery that works. So now my phone is fixed. I pay for the new battery and leave. Total time spent at the Verizon store: 45 minutes. Oh. The person who was there before me is still there. Also, the other guy (who must be in management) is still walking around the store doing nothing.

Hey Verizon, Can you hear me now? You are a bunch of idiots!

So I need sumpin' besides a couple of Stolys on the rocks and half a bottle of wine. Well, here's just the thing. By golly, the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation has an op-ed by Arab apologist extraordinaire, James Zogby. Unfortunately, they don't have it at their online site, so I found it here.

Arab Americans and American Jews Agree

Well that's just ducky. Unfortunately, they're not the ones fighting in the Middle East so why is this important?

I’ve always maintained that for there to be an effective U.S. policy pressing for a just Middle East peace, there had to be a U.S. constituency that demanded such a policy. The results of a recent poll establishes that such a constituency exists among strong majorities of Arab Americans and American Jews—both of whom agree on the general outlines of a just peace plan.

And I've always maintained for there to be an effective Middle East peace plan there had to be people in the Middle East who wanted peace.

It may be surprising to some that despite more than two years of terrible violence and tragedy and growing polarization in the Middle East, Arab Americans and American Jews remain committed to support for a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And it may be surprising that after two years of terrible violence and tragedy that the Palestinians remain committed to the total annihilation of Israel.

What was most striking about the results were the many points of convergence between the two communities. For example, more than 90% of the respondents in both communities report that they closely follow Middle East news.

No shit!

And majorities in both communities say that they are pessimistic about the prospects for Middle East peace (six in 10 Arabs, and three-quarters of American Jews).

I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!

Neither Arab Americans nor American Jews give U.S. President George W. Bush high ratings for his handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In fact, both groups give the President near identical negative ratings—Jews rating Bush’s performance 28% positive and 70% negative and Arab Americans giving the President a 26%/67% net negative score.

Y'know, I don't really give a flying fuck. Sorry, Brian, I almost made it all the way through without saying fuck, but Zogby is so full of shit I cannot help it. Geez. He's an Arab Molly Ivins.

While the negative assessments are the same, it appears from the data in the poll that the reasons behind each communities’ concerns are somewhat different. A significant number of American Jews, it appears, fault the Administration for being too disengaged from the search for peace, while a substantial number of Arab Americans critique the Administration for showing too much support for Israel.

In other words, let the Palestinians drive the Jews out of Israel and create a Palestinian state from "the River to the Sea". By the way, does anyone realize that the PLO has never repealed the article of the PLO charter that calls for the destruction of Israel? That was part of the Oslo accords, but the PLO just never got around to it. "We've been meaning to do it. Honest. But what with all the people blowing up, we just never got around to it."

Where the strongest agreement exists between the two groups is in their mutual support for two “independent and secure states” for Israelis and Palestinians. More than 95% of Arab Americans support a “secure and independent” Palestine and a “secure and independent” Israel. Meanwhile, 87% of American Jews, support such a state for Palestinians, while more than 95% support an “secure and independent Israel.

Wonderful! Glad to hear it. But that's not what counts. How many Palestinians suppport a "secure and independent" Israel? Let's see. The last poll I saw was that about 85% of Palestinians supported the total destruction of Israel. That leaves around 15% who might support a "secure and independent" Israel. Those are the numbers that count. Contrast that with close to 50% of Israelis who are for a "secure and independent" Palestinian state. Israel is not the problem. Israel wants peace. Israel has wanted peace since 1948. America is not the problem. The Palestinians and their leadership are the problem.

After two years of violence that has destroyed lives, shattered hopes and brutally transformed the West Bank and Gaza into a devastated and impoverished land

Who walked away fron the negotiations? Who started the two years of violence?

—it is important that many Arab Americans and American Jews still seek a way forward based on mutual rights and respect.

I beg to differ. It is important that the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world recognize Israel's right to exist. Only until that happens will there be peace in the Middle East.

What the AAI/APN poll tells us is that while both communities have obvious deep feelings and attachments to different sides in this struggle, and while they may differ in many areas, they can find common agreement and work for peace.

But it is not the American communities that need to work for peace. It is the Middle Eastern communities. The Israelis have been willing to do it since 1948. Maybe some day the Arabs and the Palestinians will be willing to work for peace.

And no amount of polling in America will have any effect on that.

2002-11-25T20:13:00.000-05:00

A Lot About Nuttin'

Things are going well. My alma mater, Webster Groves Senior High School is going to the Missouri 5A class championship. This info courtesy of Christopher Johnson at Midwest Conservative Journal. This may affect what is known as the Turkey Day Game with Kirkwood (Boo! Hiss!) Senior High School. The Turkey Day Game is the oldest Thanksgiving football rivalry west of the Mississippi. Growing up, my cousins lived in Kirkwood and we lived in Webster Groves and at Thanksgiving dinner if Kikwood won my cousins were insufferable. Likewise, if Webster won, my sister and I were insufferable.

Speaking of insufferable, JoshMedia and I are still going back and forth in my comments about Stella and the coffee. He told me to do my research about hot liquids. Let's see, when camping, I used to drink coffee made over a campfire. The water was boiling hot. That means 212 degrees. I have spilled coffee on myself. Not the whole cup, but just a little splash. No blisters. I have spilled coffee made from boiling water in a microwave. Once again 212 degrees. No blisters. Now JoshMedia said that I would get third degree burns in 2 to 7 seconds. I'm not soaking my fingers in the hot liquid. I'm not in contact with the hot liquid for 2 to 7 seconds. My point is, after 56 years of spilling hot liquids on myself, I would be careful with them. For one, I would never put something hot between my legs like Stella did. She was an idiot.

Oh, I did some additional research. I was talking to my friend Cindy, who is a rehab nurse, about this, and she pointed out that Stella would be more apt to get a burn (at least above her waist) than I would. Here's why. I'm a paraplegic. Below my level of injury (T12/L1) my blood circulation is poor. Also, since I have no sensation, my body doesn't do a very good job of cooling. These two factors make me more susceptable to sunburn. This was made evident to me when I went on my checkout dive at an Alabama quarry last summer and I got a sunburn on one ankle that turned into a skin sore that turned into cellulitis. Dammit! It was the sun's fault. Who the heck do I sue? Since older people have poorer circulation, Stella would be more likely to burn her hands that I would. But, I still would not put a hot cup of coffee between my legs! Comment all you want JoshMedia, the discussion is over! Stella is still an idiot! And, Addison, feel free to jump in at any time.

Omigawd! I saw this and almost fell outta my chair I was laughing so hard. I knew Rachel was smart, but I didn't know she graduated from high school when she was ten years old. My caption would be, "The girl on the left has a sense of humor. The guy on the left is an asshole". Speaking of assholes, I was driving by one of the malls last week and I saw that there is a movie named Jackass. When did they film Michael Moore's life story?

I'm off work all this week and if my mother was still alive, I would be up in St. Louis. I always drove up the Saturday before Thanksgiving and drove back the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I got to spend the week visiting friends and not doing much of anything else except catching up on my reading. I looked at the weather in St. Louis and it's in the 20's and 30's. I was driving around this afternoon in my Z3 with the top down. It was an incredibly beautiful day.

My PC sagas are almost at an end. I got everything backed up on my old PC and my PC guy came by to pick it up and he's gonna upgrade me to P4-1.8G machine with 256M of RAM, a better hard drive, and an internal Zip drive. He's leaving my old hard drive in the machine so I can easily transfer my programs. I'm hoping to have it back before Thanksgiving.

Here's a surprise. For once, I actually agree with Sumpin' written by Molly Ivins. In this column she goes on about Total Information Awareness.

Total Information Awareness will provide intelligence agencies and law enforcement with instant access to information from e-mail, telephone records, credit cards, banking transactions and travel records, all without a search warrant. It will, said Poindexter, "break down the stovepipes" that separate commercial and government databases. The just-passed Homeland Security Bill undermines the Privacy Act of 1974, which was intended to limit what government agencies can do with personal information.

Like perhaps over 1000 FBI files?

This just shows that even a blind pig can sometimes find an acorn. Somehow, I think that Molly is more concerned that this is being done by Republicans. If Dimocrats were doing it she would probably be saying, "People with nothing to hide shouldn't be concerned about this."

But to expect Molly to make sense during an entire column would be too much to ask. She was doing fine talking about Total Information Awareness, but then off she goes with the following bullshit:

Personally, I still believe internationalism makes more sense than isolationism because our major problems in the future -- global warming,

Hello Kyoto.

overpopulation

The only overpopulation we have to worry about is from our lax immigration policies. As for the rest of the world. Fuck 'em.

and water shortage

Have you seen the oceans? We have the technology to make fresh water from salt water. It's expensive, but can be done.

-- are going to have to be dealt with on a global basis.

And guess who the world wants to foot the bill?

This is an environmental struggle, as well as a civil liberties struggle. I think it is inarguable that this is the most anti-environmental administration since before Teddy Roosevelt.

By inarguable, she means that she doesn't have the facts to support this thesis.

The corporatists in this administration, particularly those from the oil bidness, apparently have some grand imperialist schemes to keep us in cheap oil indefinitely.

And having cheap oil indefinitely is bad because ... ?

As a matter of both foreign and environmental policy, it makes a lot more sense to lay rail,

For trains and mass transit that no one wants to use. Yeah that makes sense.

promote renewable energy

Like ethanol. That's working out, right? Wind? It's pissing off environmentalists because it's killing birds. There's hope for solar some day.

and get serious about conserving oil.

Remember Jimmy Carter and his sweaters?

We subsidize the hell out of the oil bidness with innumerable tax breaks, loopholes and support programs.

Same with the farm bidness.

For heaven's sake, why not support renewable energy, instead?

See ethanol and wind above.

Why should we ask our military to die for cheap oil when the rest of us aren't even being asked to get better mileage?

Maybe they're not being asked to die for cheap oil. It might have sumpin' to do with terrorism. Remember 9/11? Remember, "You're either with us or against us"?

Molly, Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the lead pipe. Now you have three clues.

Alas, it's probably still not enough.

2002-11-24T20:13:00.000-05:00

Personal Responsibility

A few days ago, I was bummed out by another 'resource action' (That's the current eupemism for layoffs. Last year it was called 'skill rebalancing') by TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name), so after writing about that, I filled up my post with sumpin' an old Navy buddy had sent me about the Stella Awards. Turns out they were bogus. What a surprise! I had written at the end of my post, that "If it's on the internet, it's gotta be true'', which was meant to be tongue in cheek. Anyway, I got a note from Randy Cassingham who directed me to two of his sites this one and this one.

Also, I got more comments than usual (but still no hate mail) including one from JoshMedia who told me these were ripped off by my Navy buddy from here. Actually, someone else did it because these were forwarded to me from him.

I had a discussion about Stella with my friend Wahoo last year, and he used the same arguments that JoshMedia did, namely, that McDonald's coffee was served too hot and they had been warned about it and refused to lower the temperature. My reply was she was an idiot. You do not put anything hot between your legs. JoshMedia's reply was it was 'not just hot, but so hot as to be unsafe'. My reply again was that Stella was an idiot. I treat any hot liquid the same way. If I spill it, I will get burned. And if I do spill it and get burned, it's my fault.

I have noticed over the last thirty years that we seemed to have lost the concept of taking responsibility for our actions. It's never our fault. It's always someone else's fault. Billy Boy Clinton was a master of this. Remember when he was travelling around the world on all of his Apology Tours? Everywhere he went he was apologizing for sumpin' the United States did. For example, when he was in Africa, he apologized for slavery^TM. That's rather funny, since slavery^TM still exists in Africa and we fought a bloody war here in the United States to abolish it. The descendants of slaves in this country have a higher standard of living than black people anywhere else on this planet.

But did you ever hear Clinton apologize for anything he did? Waco? Janet Reno's fault. Over 1000 FBI files? (Nixon asked for one that he didn't even get, and the press was outraged. What an abuse of power!) It was a 'bureaucratic SNAFU'. Firing the White House Travel office (Nothing wrong with that) and siccing the FBI on them? (Now there is an example of mean spirited behavior) Billy Dale, after great legal expense, was acquited in 45 minutes. No apologies from Bill and Hill. And lying and obstructing justice aand publicly humiliating Hillary (Wait a minute! That's a good thing.) and Chelsea? It was the Republican's fault. I could go on and on about Clinton, but he never apologized for any of his scandalous behavior. Rush Limbaugh had a great line about that. "Harry Truman always said, 'The buck stops here.' Bill Clinton always says, 'The buck never got here'."

According to Dimocrats, like Dickhead Gephardt, the poor didn't win "life's lottery", as if it's not their fault that they are poor. They are victims. They've been held back by the evil rich. It has nothing to do with the fact that they didn't get an education and had children they could not afford. I have said many times in my writings on this site that the only excuses for poverty are catastrophic events like accidents, death, illness or an addiction like drugs or alcohol. Both my sister and I came from poverty. It was not grinding poverty, but my father was an alcoholic and was often out of work and my mother had to work at low paying jobs. We had no medical insurance. But, we both got an education, we both started working at an early age, and we didn't have children we couldn't afford. She has one. I have none, since I am too cranky for a woman to put up with.

Of course, the reason so many blacks are in poverty is racism. That was true at one time, but not anymore. But we have professional RWPP (Race Warlord Poverty Pimps) who spout this line and make excuses for blacks not achieving rather than going after the nonachievement mentality in the black community that doing well in school and learning to read and write proper English is 'acting white'. Gotta get that Confederate flag off the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse. I get so pissed off at college coaches who say that we need to lower admissiion standards for black student athletes. And the ones who are screaming the loudest for this are black basketball coaches. Don't they realize that by these actions they are telling these black kids that they are dumber than white kids?

Here's a neat one. It's our fault that so many illegal aliens sneaking in our country die in the desert. Can you believe that? What are we supposed to do? Put out water stations for 'em. It's not their fault they're dying of thirst. It's our fault for not opening our borders.

I'm getting so sick of the nanny state philosophy that no one has to take personal responsibility for their actions. Actions have consequences. My parents were good at telling my sister and me that. When I flunked out of college, my mother welcomed me to the real world by telling me I better get a job 'cause I was gonna have to start paying room and board. Ooops! I goofed. And then the draft board was closing in. Joined the Navy instead.

So even though I suspected the Stella awards were bogus, it wouldn't have surprised me if they had been real, because we no longer want to hold people reponsible for their actions.

"I raped and killed them women because I wuz abused when I was a child", said the toothless tatooed rapist/killer. Oh poor baby. He was a product of his environment. Blame the parents. Blame the fact that he grew up poor. And also, since he used a gun, blame the gun manufacturers.

And if I ever get carried away and spout too much bullshit on this site, it's not my fault.

I am:

A victim of poverty
A victim of a dysfunctional family
A victim of an unhappy marriage (I was married once, believe it or not)
A victim of many rejections by females (How could that be?)
A victim because I flunked out of college (They insisted I go to class, those bastards!)
A victim of a hopeless war (Fortunately, I didn't kill any babies in Viet Nam or I'd really be fucked up.)
A victim of high taxes
A victim of the Social Security System
A victim because I'm a cripple (And dammit, I couldn't figger out whom to blame for my stupidity so I wasn't able to sue anyone.)
A victim of eight years of Bill Clinton

See? It ain't my fault.

2002-11-21T20:20:00.000-05:00

Those Poor Palestinians

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Muslims? It's not because of bigotry or prejudice. I hate them because they are evil. I hate them because their religion of peace^TM is a sham. I hate them because their religion preaches hatred and death in the name of their God. I hate them because they justify and celebrate killing innocent children in their beds. I hate them because of all the vitriol that spews from their 'holy' places in the Middle East every Friday. And I hate them because I see no major Muslim leaders in this country distancing themselves from the hatred and bigotry of their religion. They totally disgust me.

And now to shift gears. How could I go about getting a job as a liberal columnist? I mean it can't be too hard can it? All I would have to do is write meaningless tripe about how the mean evil Republicans are gonna starve old people and outlaw abortion. Or maybe how the poor Palestinians are desperate because of the opppression of Israel. Or maybe how all the problems in the world are caused by the Unitied States. I could do it. I really could. If Molly Ivins, Helen Thomas, and Robert Fisk can get paid for writing drivel surely I could too. Where do I go to apply? I could pretend to be clueless. I would have trouble keeping a straight face, but I know I could do it.

What brings this up is the latest column from Jay Bookman, the assistant liberal, at the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation where he bemoans the plight of the Palestinians.

Palestinian bombers maim a just cause

See, we're only at the title and he's already wrong. They're maiming lots of people, but there is no just cause.

Palestinian suicide bombers continue to blow up Israeli buses, Israeli buildings, Israeli lives. The terrorists no doubt believe they are killing to advance the Palestinian cause, but they are tragically, hopelessly, historically mistaken.

Actually, I think they're just trying to kill as many Jews as possible. And we also need to define the 'Palestinian cause'. What liberals like Bookman do not seem to understand is the Palestinian cause is the total elimination of Israel and a Palestinian State from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. I cannot understand why he and his fellow liberals do not understand this. Arafat and his thugogracy have made no secret of this.

Every time a suicide bomb explodes, the likelihood of a Palestinian state grows smaller.

I was willing to admit that there should be a Palestinian state until Arafat walked away from the best deal he's ever gonna get, emptied the jails, and started the current wave of violence. I now see that the current generation of Palestinians have been turned into crazed, rabid animals who only understand death and destruction. They are animals who should be put into cages.

With every new attack, Palestinian terrorists strengthen the hand of Israeli extremists who hope ultimately to deny statehood to the Palestinians, and someday even to remove them from their land altogether.

Israeli extremists? Israeli extemists? Israeli fucking extremists? How about normal Israelis who only want to live in peace? They only elected Sharon because the generous concessions Barak made to Arafat were interpreted as a sign of weakness. Arafat figgered some more violence would get more concessions. Why not? The world has let him get away with all the terrorism so far. He was even given a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Imagine that. The world's most successful terrorist awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Kinda cheapens the Nobel Prize doesn't it. And as far as I'm concerned, the Palestinians should all be put down into the Gaza Strip. Then build a wall around it. Cage 'em up like the animals they are.

And because the Palestinians lack leadership willing to tell them that truth, they continue to play into the hands of those who plot to destroy them. In their blind anger, the Palestinians are allowing themselves to be outsmarted and played for fools, and risk losing what they are willing to die to achieve.

A whole generation of Palestinians has been brainwashed and instilled with hatred of Jews. Their leadership does not want a Palestinian state as much as they want the total destruction of Israel.

Recent events in Hebron, a historic town in the occupied territories, serve all too well as a microcosm of what's at stake, and what the future may hold in the Middle East.

More bloodshed.

The latest string of events began a week ago with an attack on Israeli settlers and troops by members of Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group. The attack killed 12 soldiers and guards, and in response local Israeli settlers demanded the further expansion of Israeli settlements in Hebron. Two days later, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly endorsed that step.

Yep! Fuck with us and we'll put in more settlements. You don't like it? Tough shit!

And so it has gone, and so it will go.

Yep! Bloodshed begets bloodshed.

Palestinian leaders express great frustration that while Israeli leaders have talked publicly for more than a decade about swapping land for peace, they have meanwhile continued to expand Jewish settlements in occupied areas, implying that they have no intention of ever leaving.It's called negotiating from strength. Look. Back in 1948 the Arabs decided to wipe out Israel. Israel won that war. The Arabs, not satisfied, tried again in 1967. That's when the Israelis acquired the 'occupied territories'. Even then, they were ready to swap land for peace. What the Israelis are telling the Palestinians is that the longer they wait, the less land they're gonna get. Unfortunately, the Palestinians don't want the 'occupied territories'. They want Israel. They want it all. They don't even make a secret of it.

When Palestinians complain about that blatant hypocrisy, they are absolutely correct.

Oh Bullshit!

When they criticize the United States and American media for largely ignoring the underhanded Israeli settlement policy, they are right again.

Oh Bullshit! Jesus H. Christ! Don't you think the Israelis would dismantle the settlements for a real peace? You bet your ass they would. It wasn't the Israelis who walked away from the negotiating table after Clinton had forced incredible concessions from Barak. It was Arafat. OK Jay I'm gonna say this real slow. The.Palestinians.Do.Not.Want.Peace.They.Want.The.Total.Destruction.Of.Israel.

But in a broadcast media world, the suicide bombing of a bus will always get more coverage than the expansion of a settlement.

But Reuters doesn't classify this as terrorism. And to the liberal media these are 'acts of desperation'.

Terrorism against civilians will always be a bigger story than a new Israeli outpost in the West Bank.

Well ... Yeah. What's your point? Blowing up a busload of innocent civilians does pale in comparison to building a new settlement in lands that the Palestinians could have had back in 1948 if they didn't want the total destruction of Israel. What these dickheads are whining about they could have had 50 years ago fer crissakes.

It's a fact of modern life that no amount of complaining will change.

But accepting the fact of Israel's existence and deciding to live in peace might be a good first step.

With their violence, the Palestinians are providing cover for their own disinheritance.

Yep. They're showing that they're nothing more than rabid dogs.

The impact extends to Israeli politics. In a recent poll, 78 percent of Israelis said they would be willing to withdraw from most settlements as a condition of peace. But because of Palestinian terrorism, the Israeli government remains in the hands of the 20 percent who would not.

So is this Israel's fault? Like I said, it was Arafat who walked away from the negotiations. The Israelis are desperate for peace. The Palestinians, and the rest of the Arab world will not be satisfied with anything less than the total destruction of Israel. This is not a secret. Read the Arab press. Listen to Arab radio and TV.

The platform of the ruling Likud Party, headed by Ariel Sharon, states clearly that "the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. (Judea and Samaria are the historic Hebrew names for the West Bank.) Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel."

So the Israelis elected Ehud Barak of the Labor Party and he made unprecedented concessions to Yasser Arafat and what did it get Israel? More violence. That seems to be all the Palestinians understand: violence, death, and bloodshed. And these people deserve their own state?

In a recent interview, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon referred directly to the occupied territories as "our land," meaning part of Israel. When I questioned the description, he seemed startled that such a thing could even be disputed. Of course it is Israeli land, he said. It has always been Israeli land.

But, for a real and lasting peace, Isreal would give it up. They were willing to do it two years ago. Who walked away from the negotiating table and started the current wave of suicide bombings? I'll give ya a hint. It wasn't Ehud Barak.

Which, of course, it has not, not since the times of the Old Testament.

Who gives a flying fuck? I repeat. The Palestinians could have had it back in 1948, but the destruction of Israel was more important. To the Palestinians, it still is.

Last month, Jewish settlers fired on Palestinians who were attempting to pick ripened olives from their own trees, in one case killing a harvester.

Oh cry me a fucking river! I'm surprised the settlers haven't started slaughtering Palestinians. Imagine what would happen in Texas or California if Mexicans from predominantely Mexican neighborhoods started entering houses and shooting women and children and this continued to happen no matter what local law enforcement did. How long do you think it would take before Americans retaliated? Can't happen here? Bullshit!.

Armed settlers in other areas began to pick olives themselves, robbing the Palestinians of their last real source of income. In response, a prominent Israeli rabbi, once the nation's chief rabbi, announced that the settlers had been within their rights, since the land and everything that grows on it belongs to the Jews.

I'm crying real tears here. Who walked away from the negotiations?

That is clearly still a minority viewpoint in Israel. But as Jewish settlements multiply and expand in occupied Palestine, hidden from world notice by Palestinian terror attacks, you have to wonder. If the chance for peace ever comes, will the majority of Israelis have the political will to force a withdrawal that a minority of Israelis passionately, fervently and religiously oppose?

The ball is in the Palestinians' court. But as Abba Eban said, "The Palestinians have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity".

By then, will it even be a minority?

As long as the Palestinians keep exploding, they keep pushing the Israelis further to the right. The violence after Arafat turned down the best offer he'll ever get, got Sharon elected. The continuing violence is gonna get Netanyahu elected.

A while back, Stephen den Beste had a post about the Arab-Israeli conflict and he compared it to World War II. The way we defeated Japan and Germany was by showing them the total futility of continuing to fight. We had to effectively crush them. In Japan's case, this took the atom bomb. Unfortunately, this is what Israel has to do to the Palestinians. And this will only happen, if we do the same to the Arabs. This is why we need to go to war with Iraq. We need to effect a regime change in Iraq. We need to do the same in Syria and Saudi Arabia. It is Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia who are supporting not only Palestinian terrorism, but also world wide terrorism. Only by shutting down Arab support for the Palestinians and convincing them of the utter futility of their dreams of destroying Israel will we be able to bring peace to the Middle East.

Until then, Palestinians will continue to blow up, and Israel will show less and less restraint. They've shown more restraint than we did after 9/11. As a percentage of their population, they've lost far more lives than we have. If we were in their shoes, Arafat would have been dead a long time ago.

I don't understand why he is still alive.

2002-11-20T21:09:00.000-05:00

Gloom, Elation, and Stella

Just damn! I feel like getting rip roaring drunk! And I don't know if it's to celebrate or if it's because of sorrow for fellow workers. The Dreaded Dark Angel of Layoffs descended on TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name) again today. Rumors had been circulating that today would be the day. So just in case, I applied lamb's blood to the lintel over my office door before I went home last night. It must of worked because my officemate and I were both spared. Unfortunately, it did hit three people in close proximity: one four doors down and two five doors down. Fortunately, two of them were eligible for retirement, so they'll get to retire and get severance pay on top of it. That's the way I want to go. The other person was within a year so he gets to keep his medical and get full retirement as soon as he hits his eligible date.

One of the hardware guys got visited by the Dreaded Dark Angel of Layoffs and I don't know what his situation is. It was a very gloomy day.

This shit seems to be happening every six months. And every time it happens, I have to walk around on eggshells and be very sensitive. I just can't come right out and ask, "Did you make the cut?" So, everyone makes small talk and waits for someone to volunteer the information, or say, "Did you hear that Bubba got laid off?" I had two co-workers come by my office and tell me they were leaving. It was a very depressing afternoon.

So, since I was thoroughly depressed, I left work early. It was raining. Atlanta traffic sucks when the weather is nice. When it rains, it gets even worse. Geez, all you have to do is spit on the pavement and there's a traffic jam.

I got home and noticed that there were two messages on my answering machine. The first one was from the vet, Dr. MacDonald. I love Dr. MacDonald. She's so sweet. She always gives my cats a big kiss when I take 'em in. Doofus' bloodwork was back. His fructose was normal! That means I can stop giving him insulin shots and we'll see if the diet will keep his diabetes under control. Hooray! After the depressing day at work I have some good news.

The second message was for D. D. Wilson about his Walmart account and 'please call us at this number...'' Listen bitch! I'm D. S. (Is that dumbshit or damn smart?) Wilson. I wonder if this is the same guy who has the high credit card balances. Some guy at a nonprofit debt counseling service keeps leaving me messages about how they can help out with my high credit card balances and "I don't understand why you won't call us back". Because, you booger eatin' moh-ron, I don't have high credit card balances. I live within my means and I pay them off every month. You're calling the wrong person. Cut it out!

Now the freakin' telemarketers are leaving messages or they're having computers call and leave messages. Dude! Why doesn't your machine call my machine and they can do lunch some day?

On the bright side again, I found out that Earthlink can support Moveable Type, so, now I just have to get some additional web space, and work out some other details and I can move off of Blogger.

So let's see. Layoffs. Gloom. Doofus. Elation. Messages on answering machine. Bad. Moving off Blogger. Good. I'm in in between land and can't work up a rant or do sumpin' funny, so I'll post the nominees for this year's Stella Awards sent to me by one of my old Navy buddies.

The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonalds.
She put a hot cup of coffee between her legs and scalded herself when it spilled. Duh! Fortunately for her, the jury was just as dumb, which gives rise to the question, would you like to be tried by a bunch of people too dumb to get out of jury duty?
That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States. The following are this year's candidates:

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

Obviously a jury of her peers. They're just as freakin' stupid as she is.
A 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hub caps.

C'mon. This can't be for real. Someone's making this shit up.
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr.Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

Maybe he preferred Coke to Pepsi
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

Now this I can understand since everyone in Arkansas is related to everyone else so all the people on the jury were his cousins (or aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, etc.) This is the state that gave us Bill Clinton.
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

Dammit! Where's that busboy? He's been goofing off again.
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

That'll teach them to have a cover charge!
This year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles.

Like the complete morons on the jury.

Now, I don't know if these are for real or not, but I got 'em on the internet. And as we all know. If it's on the internet, it's gotta be true. That's where I learned about Lawn Chair Larry.

Up up and away in my beautiful balloon.

2002-11-19T21:21:00.000-05:00

Cats, Dogs, Rats, and the Phantom Graveyard

I got an email from my friend Cindy. One of her daughter's cats got run over and broke its hip. He had to have surgery. He's gonna survive, but he'll be an indoor cat from now on. I can relate.

I got another email from a friend and evidentally there are some al Qaeda training sites down here in the South and there's been some foolin' around goin' on.

The governors of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi announced today that they have made a disturbing discovery in their states. Apparently, a small number of al Qaeda terrorists have become romantically involved with local redneck girls. The result is not pretty; they now have the sad task of reporting the creation of a new sector of the human race: ISLAMABUBBAS.

So far, only a smattering of actual births have been reported, but Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition is hard at work trying to isolate and seal them off.

To date, the Coalition has identified the following children: Mohammed Billy Bob Abba Bubba Mohammed Jethro Bin Thinkin Bout It Mohammed Forrest Gumpa Bubba Mohammed Rubba Dub Dubba Bubba Bobbie Jean Hasbeena Badgurl Linda Sue Bin There Dunthat

Not surprisingly, the Coalition believes they all seem to have sprung from one couple: Mohammed Whoozyadaddy and Yomamma Bin Lovinit.

Those dogs!

A few blogs back, I asked for good names for Dimocrats. I've been meaning to share some of the names readers submitted, but they are in my October archives and alert readers may notice that I have no October archives. When trying to republish, I get a 503 error and am informed that Blogger phantom tech support is working on it. They've been working on it for over a week! But, I'm getting what I am paying for. Beggars can't be choosers.

Anyway, one of the better names was submitted by one of my sister's friends. She suggested Hypocrats, and by golly, the name sure fits. Ol' Patrick 'Leaky' Leahy has been badmouthin' Saxby Chambliss and callin' him a draft dodger. Now the height of hypocrisy is any Dimocrat callin' anybody a draft dodger after we just had a Dimocrat draft dodger spend eight years in the White House. Bubba had Senator Fullbright pull some strings to get him out of the draft and he promised to join ROTC. He reneged on that promise. Bill Clinton was a gen-you-wine draft dodger. Saxby Chambliss had a student deferment. There is a difference.

During the 2000 election, that fat asshole Michael Moore went off on how Bush was a draft dodger. But Bush was in the National Guard, right? Michael Moore, like most liberals, never seems to let facts get in the way. But, he said he went to high school with people who died in Viet Nam. Those guys went instead of Bush. That's funny. I never heard any of that shit when Clinton was president. As far as I'm concerned, after Clinton, there should be no mention of dodging the draft. If it was OK for Bubba, it should be OK for everyone. End of discussion.

But 'Leaky' Leahy said that Cleland was a war hero (Which he wasn't. He didn't lose his legs and an arm in combat. It was an accident. And it may have been carelessness on his part.) and Chambliss was a draft dodger so Cleland should be the senator. OK Dickhead. Bush the elder was a war hero and Bill Clinton was a draft dodger so Bubba should have never been president. Bob Dole was a war hero and Clinton was a draft dodger so Bubba should have never been president.

And what the Dimocrats in Georgia are whining about is that Chambliss implied that Cleland, the war hero (who wasn't) wasn't patriotic after giving his legs and an arm in a war for his country. Dammit! That argument doesn't have a leg to stand on! (sorry) All Chambliss did was point out Cleland's voting record. He voted against the Homeland Security Bill because he put unionized gummint employees before national security. He also had a very liberal voting record. Georgia, outside of Atlanta, is a conservative state and the people in rural Georgia have not left the Dimocratic Party. The Dimocratic Party has left them. And now the Dimocrats are moving even further to the left.

Another reader suggested DemoRats and that name fits. Those rats!

Last year around this time, actually it was late September, my sister had me drive her around southern Illinois and southern Missouri so she could do some genealogical research. Actually, it started out that I was gonna go up to St. Louis to see some family and friends and then down to Lebanon Missouri to see my friend Cliff. This was also gonna be an opportunity to get my BMW Z3 out on the open road. She asked if she could go along. We wound up going to many small towns in Illinois like Carbondale, Grand Tower, Chester, Murphysboro, Greenville, and Sorrento. In Missouri we hit Cape Girardeau, Pocohantas, Scott City, and Perryville. I called this the Roots 2001 Tour. I even had t-shirts made.

Our great-great grandparents, Charles and Mary Dreiling (I better have this right or I'll get blasted by my sister in the comments) lived in Sorrento, Illinois and were buried in Gum Cemetery. Now ya gotta understand, when going on a roots tour, you have to go through probate records, get birth and death certificates, find houses, and find gravestones. We found our great grandfather, Cyrus Freeman's grave real easy. His was the biggest marker in the grave yard. It shoulda been. That randy old goat had 19 children. He had 12 by his first wife and wore her out. He remarried and had 7 by that wife. Both of his wives were teenagers when he married 'em. An inspiration to us all.

So we were in Sorrento, well, actually, near Sorrento and we were trying to find the Gum Cemetery. My sister is real good with maps. When we were growing up, our parents took us around the country on camping trips. That's all we could afford. By the time I was 17, I had been in 47 states, Mexico, and three Canadian Provinces. My sister was always the navigator. She's good. We went up and down roads for over an hour looking for the bloody Gum Cemetery. Never found it. This was farm country and the roads were laid out straight and at right angles. I bet everyone knows one another. We passed a bunch of farms and a big bunch of pickup trucks. I could just hear them the next time they all got together.

"Hey Zeke! Did you see them damfools in that little blue sports car with the Georgia plates driving around all afternoon?"

"Yeah, Jake. Whaddya think they wuz doing?"

"Beats me."

Not to be deterred, we went back the next day and tried again with no luck and once again, I'm sure, providing more conversational fodder for Zeke and Jake. So, I now call the Gum Cemetery the Phantom Cemetery. It's on the t-shirt.

Well, no more. This year, the Roots 2002 Tour consists of my sister and her husband. It's going on now. They drove out from California and, by gum, they found the Gum Cemetery. My sister sent me an email to that effect and said it was on a road we did not go down. Bullshit! We went down every road there was. And we did it more than once. They hadda put in a new road since last year.

Speaking of my sister, she's pissed off at me. It seems she didn't like the way I ended yesterday's blog. First let me say that my sister is smarter than I am. She won a full four year scholarship to Washington University in St. Louis. I flunked out of a junior college before I went into the Navy, which is why I joined the Navy a few steps ahead of a draft notice from the Army. And I flunked out of Washington University, when I burned out in my Junior year. And I do make more money than she does now. She attributes that to male engineers making more than female engineers. What actually happened is after I returned to TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name) after breaking my back, I worked my butt off because I didn't want anyone to say that the only reason I had my job was because of diversity. The manager I worked for at the time gave me some opportunities and I taught myself how to be a systems programmer since the people who were supposed to support us wouldn't. It was bureaucratic bullshit. He rewarded me for hard work and I worked hard. I got good raises. He retired. I no longer get rewarded for hard work and I no longer work hard. I don't expect any more raises. If my sister doesn't retire, she'll pass me.

But until then, I make more money than she does.

So there!

2002-11-18T20:30:00.000-05:00

A Piece of Paper

So, I'm sitting in my office today doing my systems programming stuff and the phone rings.

Me: This is Denny. (That's how I always answer)
BFB: Hello, Mr. Wilson? This is Billie from Belkin. I'm calling about your cable. (What alliteration. Billie from Belkin. Has a ring to it. Kinda like Henry from Hoboken.)
Me: The cable problem is fixed. Microcenter removed it and gave me my money back. And I will never buy another Belkin product.
BFB: (silence ... then) Uh ... I'm sorry you feel that way.
Me: No, if you were sorry you would have addressed the problem last Monday or the other days I called. Goodbye.

Back to work. And yes, I do do work. Not as much as I could, but some of that is due to lack of motivation. After all, my manager told the department that appraisal ratings will be skewed down this year. What that means is it doesn't matter if you performed at the same level as you did last year, you may get a lower rating this year because times are bad. Then he says that being rated as a 3 this year is actually the same as being rated a 2 in previous years. Well, no, it isn't. It means when they give us our bonus in March it will be less as a 3 than it would be as a 2 since it is based on our rating. Do they really think we believe this bullshit?

My problem is I work down to the level that I am rated. My rating was dropped this year, not because of performance, but because of the economy. And, I imagine I'll keep the same rating for the rest of my career. My manager knows I'm only planning on working two more years, so he's not going to invest any money in raises for me. So, I come in and am productive, but I no longer bust my butt because there's no reason to. And who knows? There are rumors of more skills rebalancings (layoffs) and I may be one of the folks skill rebalanced out the door. I wonder if that job at the other company I won't name is still open?

But enough about that. Let's talk about education. Rachel Lucas was griping (and with good cause) about how her college tuition was going up while the quality of her education was going down. I can relate. I ran into the same problem when I went to college.

I got out of the Navy in October of 1969 and started back to college in 1970. I went four semesters at a junior college at about $120 per semester (This was 1970) and was impressed with the teachers and the quality of education. I was going for a degree in electrical engineering and was able to get almost all my math, my basic science (physics and chemistry), and humanities out of the way before going to the big school. I enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis which had (and still has I imagine) a very reputable engineering school. The tuition was $1250 a semester. Remember this was 1971 and that was a lot of money back then. Was I shocked! I could not believe how incredibly bad the teachers were compared to the ones I had at the junior college. And to pay for this I had taken out a student loan and was working three jobs: I delivered flowers in the afternoons and on Saturday. I delivered Where Magazine to hotels over the weekend. And I went active in the Naval reserve and went to a meeting once a week. And I was getting ripped off by Wash U.

My big problem was I did not realize why you go to college. You do not go to learn. You go to get a piece of paper. Had I known that, I might have been able to stick it out. But, since I was pissed about the education I was getting for my money, and I was totally burned out, I dropped out of school and got a job with TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name).

I was able to do well and am now a software engineer (self taught) and have succeeded with nothing more than an associate's degree from a junior college. Stephen Den Beste didn't finish college and he is a software engineer and one of the most prolific bloggers in the blogosphere. Kim du Toit weighed in on this topic also.

I have written many posts on poverty and how to avoid it and one of the ways is to get an education. But, that doesn't have to be college. I joined the Navy to avoid getting drafted by the Army and to learn electronics. It was my knowledge of electronics that enabled me to get a job with TCIDNN. Having three years of college didn't hurt, but it was my Navy background that was most important.

Andrea Harris (Lots of plugs tonight) commented on Kim's site and has commented on my site that her degree is not in a field that will get her a guaranteed job, but she will have that piece of paper and that piece of paper is what is important.

I'm a mainframe (ooops ... I mean high end server) programmer and the operating systems I work with are MVS (yeah ... it's now z/OS but the kernel which is OS 3.8 hasn't changed in 15 years) and VM. You can give me someone with a BS in Computer Science and he will be totally worthless for at least six months. I can take a sharp operator and train him just as fast. I've met many systems programmers that started as operators. The piece of paper can get the BSCS guy in the door, but if he doesn't have much of a brain he's gone.

So that brings us back to Rachel's rant. My friend Cindy couldn't believe I didn't know the scam about going to college was not about learning but getting a diploma. And, Rachel, in case you never knew this, I'm passing this knowledge on to you. So, don't sweat the shitty professors. Stick it out and get that piece of paper. Learning is secondary. The diploma is what counts.

And it looks good hanging on the wall. I know. My sister has one. I don't.

But I make more money than she does.

2002-11-17T20:02:00.000-05:00

No Grouchy Today

Dammit! It's hard to be a grouch when things go well.

Regular readers (all 100 of you) may recall all the problems I have been having with a PC locking cord. This all started the week before last. I bought a cord from Microcenter and it didn't work. It wouldn't unlock. So, I returned it. No problem. They didn't even try it. They just gave me my money back. So, I bought another one. This time I messed up. To test the lock, I put it in the locking slot in my laptop and pushed the locking mechanism. So far, so good. Then, I tried to unlock it. The dadgummed key would not work. Like I said, this is just a review.

I took it back to Microcenter last Monday and they tried to get it off. They called the company that made it, Belkin, and we finally wound up with a secretary, who said her boss was not available and give her my name and number and he'd call me back. She also gave me her direct extension and her name. During the week, whenever I would call her, her boss was 'always in a meeting, but he would call me as soon as the meeting was over.' Yeah. Right. I never heard from him. As a result, I will never, ever buy another Belkin product.

I was off last Friday, so I took my laptop back to Microcenter. They got one of their tech guys to look at it and he said he could get it out. They gave me my money back for the cord.

On Saturday, I went back to Microcenter and got my PC. No charge. No problem. It's nice to deal with people who believe in customer service. Too bad Belkin doesn't. Did I say I'd never buy another product made by Belkin?

Saturday morning, Cindy came by and we took my 14 year old black cat Doofus to the vet. When I get my own site and move to Moveable Type, I should be able to post some pictures. Anyway, Doofus has type 2 diabetes and I'd been feeding him special cat food and giving him daily insulin shots. Docter GOC hard at work. I got good news at the vet. His glucose dropped from 386 to 190, whatever that means. Cindy is a nurse and knows what it means and she was ecstatic. So was the vet. He'd also lost 8 ounces. We're gonna wait until we get the fructose level and decide where to go from there. So that was good news.

Georgia beat Auburn on an incredible 4th and 15 touchdown pass with less than two minutes to go. That means they get to go to the SEC championship game.

I tried to make an apple pie Saturday. My sister makes the best apple pie in the world. I never can get the crust right. This time it rolled out nice, but when trying to get it to the pie plate, it came apart. Screw it! I got it into the pie plate. It wasn't pretty. Got the filling in OK. I did better on the top crust. Had it for dessert. Like I said, it wasn't pretty but it tasted just fine.

This morning, the guy who was working on my personal PC called and said he had it fixed and would bring it over in about an hour. He had to give me a new case to get the power supply in and the new case was too tall to fit in my desk. He had to move a shelf and now it fits. When we powered it on, the modem wouldn't work. He got that to work and then we were back to my network problems. I told him not to worry about that since I was gonna get an external hard drive and copy everything to it and then upgrade to XP. He said he hadn't had good luck with XP and suggested he put in an internal hard drive and copy everything there, format my hard drive and reload 98 or upgrade to 2000. He told me he could take my PC and go ahead and do that, but I'd been without my baby for a week and had to get all my financial stuff into Quicken. Maybe we'd do it over Thanksgiving.

The Falcons won!

The Dimocrats elected Nancy Pelosi to be their leader in the House. It just doesn't get any better. Dickhead Gephardt originally started out as a moderate Dimocrat until he got aspirations for a national office and moved left. When I lived in St. Louis, he was my Congressman so I know a little about him. Pelosi, on the other hand, makes Gephardt look like a Republican. I just love it! Go left Dimocrats, go left. Pelosi oughta be good for us bloggers. Talk about blogging fodder.

And howza 'bout Algore coming out in favor of single payer health insurance? The return of Hillary care. We oughtta be able to have some fun with that.

Does Michael Jackson have leprosy? It looks like his nose is fallin off.

So, I apologize for not ranting and raving today. I'm going back to work tomorrow after a three day weekend. I've got every Friday off for the rest of the year so every weekend is gonna be at least three days. Maybe when I go in to work tomorrow, someone will piss me off and I'll have sumpin' to grouch about. Or, I could go over to the Democratic Unerground or Democrats.com and fisk sumpin'.

I alos got a new locking cord. I'm gonna see if it will work. Fortunately, it's not made by Belkin.

Wish me luck.

2002-11-14T21:53:00.000-05:00

Dead White Guys

One of the top items on the agenda of the multiculturists is to discredit Western Civilization as a bunch of oppressive colonialists. I mean, look what we have done in Africa. All the countries that Europeans ruled, with the exception of South Africa, are now basket cases. Of course, all this shit happened after the Europeans left and turned over the gummints to the aboriginal peoples. The Congo? Disaster. Zimbabwe? Once a net exporter of food. Now suffering from famine. As we all know, it is the fault of Europeans and Western Civilization.

Here in the United States, there are movements at our centers of higher learning (liberal colleges) to discredit Western Civilization. It used to be a requirement to take a History of Western Civilization class. No more.

The politically correct among us have taken to renaming schools that were named after people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson because they (Shudder! Gasp!) owned slaves. And the contributions of these men are being glossed over in favor of more politically correct men and ideas.

Now the multiculturists among us will have us believe that all cultures are valuable and have something to offer. On the one hand they condemn men like Washington and Jefferson for owning slaves while on the other hand, they excuse Muslim culture for enslaving half their population. What else would you call a culture that gives a father total control over his daughter until he gives (sells) her into marriage with another man, who now has total control over her life?

I am getting sick of this cultural relativism! Slavery^TM, which the blacks think is their franchise, has been with us since the dawn of civilization. The Egyptians had slaves. The Babylonians had slaves. The Greeks had slaves. The Romans had slaves. And today, slavery^TM exists in Africa. Black Africans are enslaving other black Africans. And guess who sold the slaves to the slave traders during the slave trade with the New World? Why it was black Africans selling other black Africans. I'm sorry. Roots was wrong. Whites did not go into the interior of Africa to capture slaves. They didn't have to. The coastal tribes sold captives from the interior to the traders.

The idea that slavery^TM is wrong has only existed for the last 250 years. Guess where this idea originated? Would you believe western Europe and the United States. It was a bunch of dead white guys.

Another thing that pisses me off is when people judge what happened 200 years ago by the standards of today. By our standards, slavery^TM is wrong. But in the days of Jefferson and Washington it was acceptable, as it had been for the previous 5000 years.

Let's not forget, that it was Jefferson and Washington, along with a bunch of other dead white guys who created this country. And this country is the most free and tolerant country in the history of this planet. I defy anyone to name another country with our religious tolerance. I defy anyone to name another country where blacks, the descendants of slaves, have a higher standard of living. Yes, slavery^TM was wrong, but, descendants of slaves in the United States have a better life and a higher standard of living than their cousins in Africa. And it was a bunch of dead white guys who fought a war that resulted in the abolition of slavery in this country.

And now we have the politically correct among us who are looking to be offended. An example of this was the white gummint official in Washington DC who was carping about the niggardly budget. Outrage! He's a racist! Niggardly has absolutely nothing to do with the word nigger, but we have thin skinned people just wanting to be offended. What brought this up was a series of essays that I read over at Mrs. Dutoit's site called finding Mark Twain. Read Conclusion: The Epiphany. Go ahead. Read it now. I'll wait.

I consider Mark Twain to be the best American writer who ever lived. Yeah, we have Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemingway, and others, but they don't hold a candle to Mark Twain. And, had I lived back then, I would have probably considered him to have been a flaming liberal, 'cause he was. This is where Mrs. Dutoit nailed it:

How Huckleberry Finn changed the entire country’s attitudes about slavery and how this man was more responsible for this consciousness raising than another other (sic) man alive or dead

How he’d revisited the issue again with Puddin’head Wilson and reshaped America’s views about race relations

How incredibly ironic it was that this change-agent, story teller, who’d done more for race relations than any other single person, was being banned from school libraries because the books contained the word nigger.

But, after all, Mark Twain is just another dead white guy.

2002-11-13T21:23:00.000-05:00

Babies Having Babies

For those of you who have been following my computer episodes, my TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name) laptop still has a tail and my personal PC has a blown power supply. The guy I work with who is fixing it is gonna get a power supply and I should have it back by the weekend. It's amazing how much that PC means to me. All my financial data is on it. Fortunately, I have a current backup and could reinstall Quicken, but in the meantime, I have to keep track of every financial transaction I do until I get my PC back. Normally, it's pay the bill and enter it in Quicken. Check register? Nope. It's in Quicken. I just got my credit union statement and it's begging to be reconciled. Arrrggghh!

I often find it strange that we have to get a license to get married, but not to have children. The libertarian in me says having children is none of the gummint's business, but, since one of the main causes of poverty is poor (or stupid) people having children they cannot afford (or care for) and the gummint winds up taking care of them with my money, it turns out to be the gummint's business.

We had another case of a baby dying here in Atlanta. The complete story is in Wednesday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation.

The 11-month-old boy who died in state care last week wasn't in his approved foster home when he died strapped in a car seat while an adult in the house slept nearby.

What? This is already starting off strange.

The state is trying to determine whether the baby's foster mother was allowed to leave him with anyone else, said Renee Huie, spokeswoman for the state Division of Family and Children Services.

"It depends on the situation," she said.

It depends on the situation? The baby is dead! Someone fucked up big time here!

Five adults, ages 19 through 23, and three other children, ages 2, 4 and 10, were in the apartment when the baby choked to death on piece of hot dog Nov. 7, the report said.

This was the apartment of one of the foster mother's daughters.

None of the adults in the house could tell police how the baby got the hot dog, the report said.

He was strapped in a car seat next to a bed while one of the daughters was sleeping when he died, the report said.

So let me get this straight. We have an 11 month old baby strapped in a car seat and a hot dog just walks into the daughter's bedroom and jumps in his mouth?

This is getting ridiculous. I wrote a while back about a mother who had left her child strapped in a car seat, in a hot car, while she went to work and the child died from the heat. Here we have an example of another child dying, in a car seat, (Car seats are getting dangerous) in an apartment with five adults and three other children and no one knows what happened? And this is under the care of a foster mother? Who isn't even there. And two of the other three children were also foster children, although no one knows yet if they were under the care of the same foster mother. The state has taken them back into custody. Good move.

We've been having big problems with the foster care program here in Georgia. During the gubernatorial debates, Sonny Perdue (Man, I just love living in the South. Our governor is named Sonny and our two senators are Saxby and Zell), brought up the state's foster care program and Roy Barnes said sumpin' about how some children were bound to die. Bet he wishes he could take those words back.

Anyway, what's up with the dead child's real mother?

The baby's mother is 16 years old. His father, 18-year-old George McClain, was gunned down at a Jonesboro Road gas station on Thanksgiving 2001, a few weeks before the baby was born.

Let's see we have a 16 year old girl with an 11 month old baby. Let's do some math. 11+ 9 = 20. Subtract from sixteen. There's a good chance the mother got knocked up at 14. So, do you paragons of moral virtue think that condoms shouldn't be handed out in schools? This is ridiculous!

The gunned down father's family had been fighting to get custody of the baby. Let's check them out.

(The father's mother, Pamela) Surry, 41, her daughter Shawnya, 25, and her sister, Benita Stringfellow, 40, had been trying to get the child returned since then.

Let's do some more math. 41 - 25 = 16. So Pamela had Shawnya when she was 16, and we don't even know if that was her first child.

In separate visits to the child after his foster placement, both Surry and the child's teenage mother found him ill clad and ill, they said.

But, obviously nothing was done and we have yet another death in Georgia's foster care program. I would guess that these people were black, which people would say makes me a racist, but all of these senseless deaths seem to take place in the black community. And, I happen to be right. They have a picture of the granmother and great grandmother in the paper, along with the story.

My friend Cindy, used to be a social worker back in her youthful, liberal days. Remember, Winston Churchill said, "If you're not a liberal in your twenties, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative in your thirties, you have no brain." Anyway, she told me the average age for a grandmother in the projects was mid thirties. And this is what the Great Society has wrought. We have babies having babies. If that isn't a super highway to poverty I don't know what is.

The problem is not the foster care program in Georgia. The problem is we have children having children without the emotional or financial wherewithal to take care of them. And, the only male mentioned in this article is the gunned down father. What is wrong with this picture? And where is the call from the black community about this? Oh, right. The NAACP is worried about a flag. That's more important, than poverty, crime, drugs, education, and children having children.

This just drives me up the wall. I don't like to see children dying. I don't care if they're black, white, yellow, or red. And this is preventable. Where are the black leaders on this? They're out crying racism. They're out railing against the Confederate flag. They're screaming for reparations. Meanwhile we have fourteen year old girls getting pregnant. Racism has absolutely nothing to do with that. Yes I know, we have that happening to while girls and I actually know some of them, but it is much more prevalent in the black community and that along with education are the two main reasons that we have so much black poverty.

And here is what is really sad. There are actually some black people who say this. Who speak out on personal responsiblity. Who speak out on getting an education. Who speak out on overcoming racism by working hard. Ya know what those people are called?

Uncle Toms.

2002-11-12T21:36:00.000-05:00

Toiling on The Plantation

Just damn! I should be grouchy, but for some reason the bile ain't there.

One of the guys I work with builds and fixes PC's in his spare time and he came by and picked up my personal PC that won't power up. Also, I haven't been able to get any networking stuff to work on it for over three weeks. I tried to do a favor for my friends Michael and Cindy and screwed up my networking capability. Every time I'd fire up Mindspring, I'd get the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. My PC guy said that was drivers and he'd fix that also. I used to fix multimillion dollar mainframes and I can't fix a simple little PC.

My laptop still has its tail. Faithful reader Carl, suggested a sledgehammer. He also told me comments were 404'ing. Just checked and they've disappeared again. Arggggghh! Plus, all my October archives are gone. I try to republish and get a 503 error and 'We're working on it'. Hey Blogger! Get some tech support. You've been working on it for the past three days. I'm moving to Moveable Type. I hope to be there before the end of the year.

All right. I'm getting grouchier. I hit the wrong key on my keyboard and Blogger just lost an hillarious account of my Waste Fifteen Minutes Every Other Tuesday Conference Call. It used to be the Waste Ten Minutes Every Tuesday Call. On this call the various teams of I/T Support of the organization of TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name) updates all the other teams of projects that we're doing. Since the AIX folks do not have a clue as to what the MVS folks are talking about and the MVS folks don't have a clue as to what the AS/400 folks are talking about it's a total waste of time. But, it does give our manager an opportunity to rally the troops.

So, today, after we all finished boring everyone else, or said that there was nothing new going on, our manager did his thing. It was announced three weeks ago that we were gonna have another reorganization. That is our core business. When in doubt, reorganize. Also, usually when we reorganize, we also trim jobs. So, many of us are worried that we might lose our jobs. Our manager, in true form, made us all feel better by saying that there might be workforce reductions. Way to boost morale!

And then he said that appraisals would be skewed downward again this year. Now this is a sore spot with me. If you work at the same level and one year you get one rating and the next year you get a lower rating that's bullshit. That's what happened to me this year. My rating was dropped but he said that since the ratings were skewed down because we didn't do well it wasn't really a drop. Hello! Do I have a big ol' STUPID sign on my forehead? I did the same job and you dropped my rating? But that's not really a drop? How freaking dumb do you think I am? During the whole interview I just had a shit eating grin plastered on my face and said to myself, 'Self, you can just work at the level he rated you'. Which I do. He knows I can retire any time I like so I don't think I'm gonna get anymore raises. Of course, I don't knock myself out anymore. It's a shame really, 'cause I'm really good at what I do. I'm not bragging. That's a fact. Give me some incentive and I can be real productive. The manager I worked for two managers back understood that. He took care of me and I busted my butt. It's a shame that so many managers do not know how to manage.

But enough about work. Let's do some politics. Do you remember a few weeks back when Harry Belafonte called Colin Powell a house slave? Well, here's an op-ed by someone who gets it. As usual, excerpts and comments follow. Most of it is well reasoned, but occasionally he strays over to Wackoville.

When Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor, sought the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee two years ago, ''the Dems shoved him to the back of the bus so fast --- in favor of [Bill Clinton's top money-raiser, Terry] McAuliffe --- that the poor guy didn't even have a chance to put in a call to Johnnie Cochran. '' That dig came from an admittedly acerbic source. But it was close to the truth.

At least Colin Powell is a house slave. The blacks in the Dimocratic Party are still toiling in the fields.

Now look at DNC Chairman McAuliffe's record in his first midterm election: The Republicans recaptured the Senate, expanded their majority in the House, won more seats in state legislatures than Democrats did for the first time in a half-century and, in the final blow, elected the first Republican governor of Georgia since Reconstruction. Could Jackson have done any worse?

Aw ... C'mon. Can't ya give Terry one more chance?

Despite his sterling party credentials and record of political achievement, Jackson had one problem: the unmitigated gall to reach too high. Some things are just too precious to share, such as party leadership and control of the money that comes with the job. Running for president is another, but more about that later.

See Dimocrats with all their race baiting want to keep blacks on the plantation. Isn't it ironic that it was a Republican president who appointed a black Secretary of State and a black National Security Advisor? And a black useful idiot has the gall to call them house slaves.

So McAuliffe expects to stay right where he is.

Be still my beating heart!

And if Democratic politics run true to form, two years from now --- after the labor-dominated primaries winnow the current field of singularly unexceptional presidential candidates to a Democratic ticket bearing a vanilla message for independents and swing voters --- McAuliffe and top party leaders will turn their attention back to urban America. Its legions of preachers, pols and party loyalists will be exhorted to get out the African-American vote in time for November 2004.

Remember, you black folks are too stupid to make it on your own. The reason you're failing is due to white racism. Vote for us and we'll make sure your schools continue to suck. We'll reinforce the anti-achievement mentality that permeates the inner city culture. After all, Ebonics is a separate language and learning to read and write English and doing well in school is acting white.

If that happens and African-American Democrats, the party's most loyal constituency, are once again taken for granted, who really deserves the blame?

A question in search of an answer.

The days of settling for second string in the country's electoral process must end --- now. There are choices: African-Americans can join another party,

As blacks move into the middle class they have the same concerns as middle class whites: crime, education, and high taxes. Hmmmm. What party does that sound like?

form another party, become independents or stay Democrats. But if switching's not in the cards, then at least leave the fields and fight for something.

Al Sharpton for president!

The first target should be McAuliffe, who blew money that Carl McCall could have used in his historic bid to become New York's first black governor. But McAuliffe said that he didn't think McCall could win and that he would spend the money elsewhere --- like in Florida.

Trying to avenge the 'stolen election'. Thanks Terry.

Get this: The outpoliticked and underfunded McCall lost his bid by 16 points. But Jeb Bush also buried McAuliffe's guy in a 13-point landslide.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So on to step two. African-American Democrats should assume a larger role in the selection of the party's presidential nominees.

Al Sharpton for President! Oh, I already said that. This guy's been making a lot of sense so far, and the Dimocrats would be wise to listen to him, but now he's headin' off to Wackoville.

No more days of white Democratic presidential candidates breezing into the African-American community toward election time --- or worse still, sending in black surrogates or a Bill Clinton

Our first black president

--- to make all sorts of promises that won't be kept.

But that's what Dimocrats do to black people. But, in all fairness, they also do it to white people.

When candidates come calling in the 2004 presidential primaries, they should be greeted by a local African-American favorite son or daughter who has also declared for the presidency.

Al Sharpton for president! Any other people you got in mind?

For example, a popular Democrat such as District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton should declare in 2004, field a delegate slate and prepare to do battle with any outside candidate who comes to the city hunting supporters for the next convention. If the candidates aren't prepared to compete with Norton on issues of importance to district voters, then Norton wins the primary and goes to the convention with delegates committed to her values and causes.

How many delegates does Washington DC have? As the TV ads say, but wait, it gets better!

Why shouldn't Rep. James Clyburn adopt a similar strategy in the South Carolina primary?

Never heard of him.

Or Rep. Charlie Rangel in New York?

Seen him on TV a lot. He's a RWPP (Race Warlord Poverty Pimp)

Rep. John Conyers in Michigan?

Another RWPP. Also for reparations.

Rep. Maxine Waters in California?

A dream candidate. She thinks crack cocaine in the inner city is a CIA plot.

Rep. John Lewis in Georgia?

The spitting candidate. A genuinely nice man, but a useful idiot for the Dimocrats. He thinks the way you eliminate poverty is by throwing money at it.

Rep. Bobby Scott in Virginia?

Never heard of him.

And please don't hand me that stuff about African-Americans not being qualified to run for the big one. For goodness' sake, look at who's running now: John Edwards, a North Carolina newcomer to the Senate whose claim to fame is that he made loads of money as a trial lawyer. John Kerry, a Massachusetts senator and decorated veteran with a Dudley Do-Right persona. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut senator and nice guy who doesn't have half the legislative and public policy experience or war record of Rangel,

What can I say? He's got a point.

or history of advocacy for women, children, the poor and people of color of Waters,

She is a first rate wacko. But ya gotta admit it would add some comic relief to the primaries.

or grounding in the Constitution, the law and social policy of Norton.

But the Dimocrats don't give a shit about the Constitution.

The days of playing supplicant are over. It's time for self-respecting black Democrats to get it on with their party --- or look for another home.

But sadly, they will stay on the plantation and continue giving votes to the Dimocrats who take them for granted and leave them in poverty.

And somebody please alert Johnnie Cochran.

If you don't pay, we ain't gonna stay.

2002-11-11T20:18:00.000-05:00

Fun With PC's

Before I begin, as a veteran, I would like to thank all the bloggers who said nice things about us and honored us for serving our country. Some Viet Nam veterans, on returning home, were called baby killers, warmongers and other names by the peace activists. Most of these men were drafted and were serving their country and did not deserve the total lack of respect and scorn heaped upon them. I am happy that on this Veteran's Day, just like last Veteran's Day we do not have to see the spectacle of a hillbilly draft dodger pretending to honor the military that he abhored.

AT TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name), we have to have all of our PC's upgraded to Windoze 2000 by the end of the year. Since I have a slow desktop machine running Windoze 95, this was a good excuse to get a laptop to replace my desktop. Plus, my officemate was gonna show me how to hook up the laptop to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.

So I've now got a laptop with Windoze 2000 loaded on it. I went out to our PC software site and got everything up to the latest level and transferred all my data from my old machine to my new machine. We did it in less than a day. So far, so good.

Now, to get the external keyboard, mouse, and monitor hooked up I have to go up to the computer store. I got me a splitter. There's only one plug on a laptop for the keyboard and mouse, so you need a splitter to separate them so you can plug in the keyboard and mouse cables. I also got what I thought were extender cables and a laptop locking cable. Turns out I didn't need the extender cable and it was just as well since it wasn't an extender, but the cable you would plug into a switch to allow sharing a monitor, keyboard and mouse with multiple PC's. This gave me an idea. More on that later.

We got everything hooked up on Thursday and we also tracked down a 21 inch monitor. Am I in hog heaven or what? I unpack the locking cable and it doesn't work. I cannot get it unlocked. That's OK. I've decided I'm gonna get a PC switch so I can share my keyboard, mouse, and monitor between my home PC and my TCIDNN laptop.

I was off last Friday so off I went to the PC store. First I returned the locking cable that didn't unlock. Then, I bought another splitter, a 4 PC switch box, another bundle of cables to go from my PC to the switch box (I had already bought the cables to go from my laptop to the switch box), a USB hub (I know I'm gonna need one of those when I buy my external hard drive), and another set of locking cables.

I got home and started hooking everything up. I have a room in my house that has some beautiful built in bookshelves (built by my redneck friend Wahoo) that I call my library. That is where my PC lives in and on a beautiful cherry desk. The desk is right up against the wall and heavy. I had to run cables behind it. No fun. Lot's of cussing. I finally got all the cables run and began hooking everything up. The keyboard, mouse, and monitor cables plugged in OK. But, when I began plugging in the cables from my laptop I discovered that the monitor cable that plugged into the switch box was female. The switch box was also female. Damn! By then it was 3:30 and I didn't want to make another trip to the store.

I decided to unpack my locking cable and make sure it worked. I put the lock into the back of my laptop and pushed the little doodad that locked it. OK. It locked. Now to unlock it. Shit! The key didn't work! So that was cool. I've got a cable locked into the back of my laptop. Enough crap for my day off. I decided to quit for the day.

On Saturday, I went to a nearby computer store to get a gender changer for my monitor plugs. The nearby computer store didn't have 'em. So, I had to go over to the store by my office. No sweat. Got me two gender changers. I got home and hooked everything up. First, I tried the laptop. It worked! Cool! Then I pushed the power on button on my PC. Nothing happened. Was it plugged in? Yes. Was I sure? Yes. Well that sucked.

My friends, Michael and Cindy, are having some work done on their house and their main floor is a mess, so I've been having them over for dinner on Saturdays. I decided to postpone any PC work for a later date. They had some Thai food delivered and they brought over two bottles of wine and I had a white Rhone and as usual we drank everything. I completely forgot all about any PC problems.

On Sunday, I got brave and took the cover off my PC. I was looking for a fuse or some kind of circuit protector. I was an electronics technician in the Navy and before I became a systems programmer, I worked on computer hardware. If there is no power it is usually a fuse or a circuit breaker. I couldn't find a bloody fuse to save my life? Who built this piece of shit? Arrrrgggghhhh! I decided to work on it at a later date.

So today, I went into work and told my tale of woe to my officemate. When I showed him my locking cable he asked for a key to see if he could get it unlocked. Nope. No luck.

I took off work early to go to the computer store and see what they were gonna do about my cable. So what do you think they did? They they tried the keys. Nope. They don't work. Someone else tried the keys. Didn't work. They went out and got another locking cable of the same brand. It worked. They tried the keys in mine. Nope. So they called the company. You can imagine what happened next.

Phone: You have reached XYZ Company. If you know the extension of the person you are calling enter it now. Otherwise listen closely as some of our menu options have changed. To reach sales press one. For tech support press two.
Computer store person presses 2. (Meanwhile I'm a thinking - Tech support? For a locking device?)
Phone: Your call is important to us, please stay on the line - music plays (As usual, when I hear the 'Your call is important to us' bullshit I'm usually screaming "If it's so fucking important why don't you assholes have someone to answer the fucking phone?"
Phone: Music stops. Human answers. Human says we need to talk to sales. Transfers call. Sales says they'd send me a new one.
Computer store person: That's not why we called. We need to get the old one off. How we gonna do this?

Meanwhile, I've been in the store for over thirty minutes and during that entire time someone keeps trying to get the key to work in the lock. In fact, one guy says that his fingers are getting sore trying to force the bloody thing to work. About this time I'm having a Johnny Cochran moment and what is running through my mind is, "If the key don't fit, you oughta quit." Someone at the lock company finally asks to talk to me. She tells me that the person we need to talk to is away from his desk but if I would give her my phone number he would call me. So I give her my work number and my home number in hopes that he can provide a solution to my laptop's appendix. She also gives me her name and extension. I have a feeling I'll be talking to her again since no one from the company has called me at my work number or my phone number yet.

The people at the store remarked at how well I was taking all this. I told 'em it's wasn't my problem it was theirs.

But, I must say my laptop does look kinda funny with a coiled up cable attached to it.

2002-11-10T18:07:00.000-05:00

The Dimocrat's New Agenda

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! After a brief interlude of sanity, rhe wackos are back at Democratic Underground. In my last blog, I quoted and commented on a sensible, well reasoned article on why the Dimocrats lost and what they should do in the future to win back power. I was worried that the Dimocats just might take the advice of this writer. Looks like I had nothing to worry about.

What Clinton demonstrated was for Dimocrats to win power, they needed to move the party to the center. Fortunately for the country, the Dimocrats think they need to move further to the left, as evidenced by their anticipated selection of Nancy Pelosi as their new minority leader. Thank you Dimocrats! Also in this article Frank Lovato opines on why the Dimocrats lost and what they should do in the future. I hope the Dims take this guy's advice since it is a recipe on how to be a minority party for years to come.

As I watched the TV news this morning I was torn between wanting to swear or cry and at times, both. As the implications of the news reports became clear, I realized our nation was now in the hands of the lunatic fringe and there was not a thing I could do about it.

Huh? He must of been watching news from Mars. The party of Barbra Streisand and Michael Moore didn't win. The lunatic fringe, besides being the only memorable song by the rock group Red Ryder, is the far left of the Dimocrat Party.

Thoughts kept racing through my head. Surely the IQ of the average American was higher that a cumquat!

Yep! That's why the Dimocrats made history by losing seats during the first term of an opposition party president. Way to go guys. That was quite an accomplishment.

The presidential election was stolen just two years ago

I invoke Addison's Law. Addison's Law is based on Godwin's Law. (Link from Andrea Harris) Godwin's Law states whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Addison's Law, which I named after one of my readers, states, Whenever anyone says that Bush stole the 2000 election, anything that follows is total bullshit. A corollary to Addison's law is Whenever anyone says that Islam is a Religion of Peace^TM, anything that follows is total bullshit. Oh, and by the way, the New Jersey Supreme Court selected Frank Lautenburg and anytime a Dimocrat gives me the bullshit about Bush stealing the election I'll just throw Lautenburg back at 'em.

and the voters would not let them get away with that! What went wrong?

I know what went wrong, but let's see what Frank has to say. It doesn't really matter since I invoked Addison's Law, but I think I can have fun with the rest of his article.

The news commentators, always looking for a reason for anything they do not understand,

Since most of them are liberals, there is a lot they do not understand.

came up with the "power of a popular war time president". Wartime president, my foot! Bush was just fortunate enough to have the insight to capitalize on the 11 September tragedy and find an issue where he could strut, make stupid statements, and be considered a leader.

Unlike Clinton who would take a poll, convene a bunch of focus groups, bite his lip, promise justice, do nothing, and then go back to the oval office and get a blowjob from Monica. That is the Dimocrat's version of a true leader.

The sympathetic American public jumped on the bandwagon even though the 11 September tragedy affected them little or not at all.

Let's see. It was a declaration of war by radical Islam. It also sent ripples throughout the economy. I think 9/11 affected all of us you booger eatin' moh-ron.

They donated money by the basket to the Red Cross, the New York Fire Department, and anyone else even vaguely associated with the event and Bush bled it for all it was worth.

Hillary tried, but she got booed at a concert. And if there is ever any doubt as to the left leaning bias of the media, the DVD of the event has the booing edited out and replaced by cheering.

If I had family or loved ones killed or injured by the events of 11 September, I would be mad beyond words at the Republicans capitalizing on this terrible human tragedy for their own political gain.

He's just pissed that the Dimocrats couldn't figger out how to capitalize on it, not that they didn't try. Can't you just imagine how Clinton would have carried on if he had been president?

He invaded Afghanistan accomplishing little.

Accomplishing little? We toppled the Taliban and installed a democratic gummint. If that's 'accomplishing little', I wonder what he would consider accomlishing a lot?

He couldn't find the Talaban

We found lots of Taliban. Many are dead. Many are in Cuba. Liberals think we oughta release the ones in Cuba.

or Osama

Haven't heard much from him lately. If he were alive, I'm sure there would be more videos rallying his troops.

so he needed another more tangible enemy. So he made Iraq the fall guy because, who deserved better to be the fall guy than Iraq.

Works for me. They look a lot like the Saudis who hijacked the planes and they had made a fool of Poppy and caused him to lose the election ten years ago.

This is news to me. I thought Poppy lost the election because of 'It's the economy stupid!' I don't recollect anything about Iraq during the 1992 eleection. But, after all, we have been working under Addison's Law since the second paragraph.

He may not be very bright

His SAT scores were better than Algore's, whom the Dimocrats think is very bright. He has an MBA, the first president to have one. And, you can't be stupid and fly high performance fighter jets

but he does have a pretty good memory for things that interest him.

National security comes to mind, but that never seems to be too high on the Dimocratic Party's agenda.

With all this going for him, he fabricated the "war against terrorism" and made himself out to be a heroic figure. To the Republicans, who didn't care if their hero was an idiot as long as he helped their cause,

Unlike Dimocrats who didn't care if their hero, Clinton, was a perverted sexual offender and accused rapist (Not to mention lying under oath, obstructing justice, and breaking campaign finance laws.) as long as he helped their cause.

this was reason to rejoice and it seems to have worked.

Yes it is nioce to have an adult and a leader in the White House rather than an adolescent with no core beliefs who governed by polls and focus groups.

The question came back, WHY?

My answer.

His answer.

The Democrats, frightened by the wartime hype and polls proclaiming his popularity,

See what I mean about polls?

tried not to alienate anyone and became Republican Lite by pussy footing around the main issues and trying to be good. Many backed that insane tax cut that will undoubtedly drive the federal government back into a good old time Reagan deficit.

Fine. Let's talk about the Reagan deficit. Since most people do not seem to understand how our gummint works let me 'splain who exactly spends the money. The president proposes a budget. Congress actually writes the spending bills. Let's see. Who controlled Congress during the Reagan years? Who controlled Congress until 1994? When did the deficits stop? That's right. After the Republicans took over the House of Representatives. They cut the growth in spending. Now the surpluses the politicans keep talking about never existed. Discounting the surplus the Social Security taxes were bringing in, the federal budget was still running a deficit. I will blame Reagan for not making better use of his veto power. Anyway, the Reagan tax cuts actually doubled revenues. Unfortunately the Dimocrats in Congress tripled spending.

tried to be good little patriots by supporting a unilateral war against Iraq. They became just about anything they thought might get them elected.

That's what the people wanted.

In the process, the Democrats lost their identity and because of that they lost control of the Senate and further decreased their numbers in the House.

Max Cleland, here in Georgia, voted to put gummint union jobs above security and he paid for it by losing the election. I guess if he had been more of an obstructionist he would have been reelcted in a landslide.

What to do now?

Tell us Frank! We're waiting with bated breath.

Quit being the loyal opposition! Quit being so nice!

Yeah, that's the ticket! Let's have more Terry McAuliffe. Let's have more of Dasshole's whining and obstructionist tactics. And I can hardly wait until we start hearing Nancy Pelosi shrieking.

When Bill Clinton was President, a trip or two to campaign for Democrats would be cause for someone to rise up in the Congress and demand an investigation.

Two things:

Clinton made more that 'one or two trips and he also let Hillary use Air Force One when she was running for the Senate.
It wasn't campaign trips that were being investigated.

What did the Democrats do when Bush was riding all over the country drumming up support for the Republicans?

Violated the law when they put Lautenburg on the ballot in New Jersey. Turned a memorial service into a campaign rally in Minnesota. Registered a lot of dead people to vote.

They let it ride because they didn't want to act like poor sports.

The Dimocrats acting like poor sports? Never happen.

When the head of the SEC was found to be either incompetent or trying to save the rich corporate donors that seem to flock to the Republicans, the Democrats merely said, "excuse me."

I dunno. I thought I heard a lot of Dimocrats calling for Pitt to resign. I guess I must of been imagining things.

If we learned anything out of these last twenty years is that the Republicans of today are street fighters with little room for fair play and all that other stuff that looses elections.

Unlike Dimocrats who always play fair.

We did not lose the election because the Republicans got more votes,

What? I thought the people who get the most votes win elections.

we lost because the voters saw no differences in the two and thus had no reason to come out and vote.

Also, the Dimocrats couldn't get enough dead people to vote. And in Georgia, it rained and for some reason people on welfare don't go to the polls in bad weather.

The Democrats must promote a strong leader who enthusiastically projects the Democratic message.

High taxes. High gummint spending. Failing schools. Weak national defence. Socialism. Hillary Clinton comes to mind. She's a communist. And she certainly hates America. You people in New York must be proud to have elected her.

For the next two years the Democrats in the Congress must use every parliamentary maneuver and trick to stop this illegal and immoral administration.

Please! I'm begging you! Please! What could be better for all of us than to have Dasshole and Pelosi being as obstructionist to the war effort as possible. Can you say Republican landslide in 2004?

Under the guise of "homeland defense" they will do their best will destroy the freedoms we cherish

Beware of Adolph Bush and Heinrich Ashcroft. They're building the concentration camps as we speak. But, unlike Dimocrats, they want the populace to remain armed.

and abolish the social gains of the last fifty years.

I'd like to start with the Department of Education. I'd like to see real welfare reform. Social Security needs to be fixed.

They must cry out at the top of their voices whenever the administration tries to pack the courts,

Translation: Judges who actually believe the country should be run by what is in the Constitution and not treat it as a 'living document'.

subvert the governmental substructure,

Translation: Ignore the Constitution

or otherwise stack the political deck.

Translation: Not let dead people vote.

If the Democrats continue to be lukewarm, the electorate will spit them out like they just did. Be hot or cold but not bland. Be brash, strong, and consistent in the Democratic message and just maybe we might get our identity back.

So there we have it. The Dimocrats must be strident in their beliefs and they need a strong spokesperson. I got just the person in mind. Unfortunately she is not holding any office right now and I'm sure it's because she was not outspoken enough.

Cynthia McKinney, your party needs you.

2002-11-07T21:03:00.000-05:00

The Election

Now that the dust has settled and we've all been able to take a deep breath, I have one thing to say: BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! And what I really like is that the Clintonistas were trying to salvage Clinton's disgraceful legacy by beating Jeb Bush in Floriday and diverted lots of money and resources to that race and got their asses kicked. I know George Bush is a class act and is not publicly gloating, but check this out.

Maybe the Dimocrats in Georgia should let the Republicans do the redistricting from now on. I was talking to my friend Michael tonight about this. After the 1990 census, the Dimocrats ~~gerrymandered~~ drew the congressional districts to guarantee three black congressional districts. Unfortunately, there weren't enough Dimocrats left over and Georgia wound up with three black Dimocrat districts and eight Republican districts.

Georgia got two more House seats this year and the districts needed to be redrawn. So they ~~gerrymandered~~ drew what they thought would be seven safe Dimocrat districts. They even used computers. The Dims did pick up two more House seats, but Republicans won in two districts that the Dimocrats thought would go for them. In one of the districts a white man beat a black in what was expected to be a safe district. It was explicitly drawn for Champ (Chump) Walker. Bottom line, the Republicans still hold eight House seats.

There were two more shocks in Georgia. We elected our first Republican governor in 130 years. The last one was during Reconstruction. Roy Barnes, or King Roy as he has been called for the last year thought he was safe. He had more money that Sonny Perdue and outspent him, but King Roy pissed a lot of people off over the last year. He brokered a secret deal to change the state flag which was actually a good thing since that gave the NAACP one less thing to bitch about (And what a stupid non-issue the Confederate flag is - Why aren't you assholes working on illiteracy, poverty, drugs, the anti-achievement mentality, and things that really affect blacks in the inner city?) . A lot of people voted against him because of that. I know Neal Boortz says that's bullshit, but he's wrong this time. Also, he was for a controversial road project, the Northern Arc, and a lot of Georgians are also against it. And it rained and, for some reason, welfare recipients, the most reliable Dimocrat voters after gummint workers, don't seem to want to leave their gummint supplied housing during bad weather.

Another shock was the Speaker of the Georgia House, Tom Murphy, lost. He has been in the House for over forty years and Speaker since 1972. When the Dimocrats redrew his district, they added just a little too many Republicans.

And Michael came up with another thing. When the Dims ~~gerrymandered~~ redrew the districts, they made Saxby Chambliss' district too Dimocrat, so, since he didn't think he could win reelection, he decided to run for the Senate. Six years ago, Max Cleland ran as a Sam Nunn Democrat. Sam Nunn, a Georgia senator, was a conservative Dimocrat. He was what was known as a Dixiecrat. Many of the Dixiecrats became Republicans. Some like Sam Nunn, and Zell Miller now, had been Dimocrats all their lives, and even though they were more conservative than Northeastern Republicans elected to remain Dimocrats. Cleland ran as a conservative, but voted as a liberal. He voted with Dasshole on putting union jobs over security in the Homeland Security bill. That came back to haunt him.

So we're all happy here in Georgia. And do you think that ~~tacky foot stompin' rally~~ memorial service for Wellstone pissed off enough people in Minnesota to cause Mondale to lose? I saw a picture of Billy Boy Clinton laughing it up with Mondale at the ~~rally~~ service. Reminded me of the film clip of him leaving Ron Brown's funeral and laughing it up until he saw a camera, and immediately start crying. What an actor! He belongs in Hollywood. He would fit in well with all the phonies.

But the folks over at Democratic Underground actually were outraged that some of us thought the Wellstone rally was in poor taste. "How dare they tell us how to mourn", rages Monica Friedlander. Here is one of the funnier excerpts:

Tens of thousands of people came to pay their respects. None but a handful who never understood what Paul Wellstone was all about found anything disrespectful about the memorial. They had one last chance to recall his ideals and share the stage with the Democratic Party's best, those whom Wellstone most admired: Gore, Kennedy, Clinton, Harkin, Mondale, and others who championed his ideals.

If that is the Dimocratic Party's best, than the Dimocrats are in worse shape than I thought. Go read the rest of the article. It's a hoot!

And here's a real surprise. Democratic Underground actually has someone writing for them who has a brain. Hopefully, the Dimocrats will ignore him. Some interesting excerpts follow:

The worst thing about Tuesday's election was that it didn't have to happen. It was a wasted chance, a blown opportunity that may be hard to get back. And if you're looking to place the blame don't point at the voters or the media or whacko conspiracy theories or even the Republicans. The blame belongs entirely with the Democrats themselves who ran out of appendages to shoot themselves in. You want people to go out and vote for you? Give them a reason to do so. They didn't.

No don't tell 'em that. I like to watch Dimocrats fuck up. I like to listen to Tommy Dasshole turn people off with his constant whining. But let's hear what he says about Terry McAuliffe.

But there's something about McAuliffe that reminds me of someone who's trying to scam someone's granny out of her life savings.

Well, he was handpicked by that noted snake oil salesman, Bill Clinton. He scammed the American people into giving him two terms in the White House.

I often feel like I need a shower after one of his TV appearances.

So do the rest of us.

The tacky Wellstone memorial

Wait a minute. How dare you tell them how to mourn! Didn't you read Monica's article?

had Terry's style written all over it (he classily blamed it on the Wellstone family last Sunday). McAuliffe may indeed be Bill Clinton's guy but if so he represents Clinton's dark side

Clinton has a side that isn't dark?

(the pardons and interns side). And, while we're on the subject, if McAuliffe is such a terrific fund-raiser why the hell was the party broke the week before the election?

They spent it all in Florida trying to beat Jeb. To the Clintons, that race was personal.

Sleazebags are only tolerable when they win.

Noted sleazebags Bill and Hillary Clinton come to mind.

Try not to let the door hit you in the ass, Terry.

But don't forget to leave a check.

And while we're talking about who's going to deliver the party's message maybe we should discuss the desirability of having one.

They did have a message. It's the same old message. Class warfare. Play the race card. The Republicans want to cut Social Security. Socialism. Weak national defense.

The malaise and confusion that has infected the party leadership since 9/11 was evident all through the fall.

It doesn't help when lots of your party members want to blame America first. It also didn't help having Bonior and McDermott go to Baghdad.

Immediately after Labor Day they were thrown on the defensive by the Iraq question. I find it hard to believe that they didn't see it coming in that every pundit in DC seemed to know all summer that the Bushies were going to use Iraq as a fall campaign issue.

That's because the Dimocrats still think Bush is a dummy.

But when it came up the Dems looked confused, defensive and disorganized.

Which, of course, they were. That's what happens when you have no core beliefs. Clinton got away with it because he was able to convince enough of the American public that he actually cared.

They refused to ask the relevant questions (Why now? How will it be paid for? How long will we be there? etc.). The people have doubts about Iraq, too, and would have welcomed the debate - but it never happened. They first tried to avoid the vote and then simply caved, abandoning their own people who couldn't bring themselves to vote for it and sending a mixed message to the public. It pleased nobody.

When you live by polls, you do not know how to lead. Bush was leading. The Dims were reading polls and were scared shitless.

They bungled again on the Homeland Security issue. Instead of passing their own bill and forcing Bush to veto it or sign it they allowed him to portray them as unconcerned about security.

This is a good point, but he overlooks the fact that the House had already passed a bill. If the Senate passed a bill, it would have to be reconciled with the House bill. It wouldn't have happened since the Dimocrats were adamant about protecting union jobs. Dasshole and friends put gummint union jobs ahead of national security. This is what did Max Cleland in.

There seems to have been a fantasyland notion in Tom and Dick's heads that if they would just get the uncomfortable issues off the evening news and out of the headlines that the dismal economy would somehow bail them out. But where was the economic message?

They had none. They wanted to repeal the tax cuts, but, since that would esentially be calling for a tax increase, they didn't have the courage. Their only ideas were to try and obstruct everything the Republicans wanted.

He goes on to point out other areas where the Dimocrats might have done a better job and then comes up with what is probably the best piece of advice in the whole article.

Another thing. Can somebody please tell Barbra Streisand that if she wants to help the party to send a check and shut the hell up?

No! No! Not that! Please don't make her shut up! She's a fantastic source of blogger material.

The support of the Hollywood celebrities is an essential part of the modern Democratic Party.

We want your money, but keep your opinions to yourselves.

It never hurts to have attractive, famous people posing for pictures with your candidates or making contributions.

But when they open their mouths you realize just how stupid they are. Hello Alec Baldwin. Hello Susan Sarandon. Hello Julia Roberts.

But La Streisand should be aware that as a high profile person her actions are going to attract more attention than those of an average party member. Aging divas giving the party leadership foreign policy advice

and misspelling Gephardt's name

and speculating in public that members of the opposition party murdered a US Senator

You mean that's not true? But I read about it on a Democratic Underground forum on October 26. And, then there was this article, also on Democratic Underground that hinted at it. And let's not forget Ted Rall.

(without a shred of evidence to support the contention) make the party look ridiculous

Not to mention how ridiculous it makes Democratic Underground and Ted Rall look. I guess they must be used to it by now.

and hostile talk show hosts and columnists

And bloggers. Don't forget bloggers.

can hardly wait for Barbra's next utterance.

She is a blogger's dream come true!

The Clinton/Gore era is over.

I really hope so.

The voting public is not going to gravitate to Democrats simply because they perceive the Republicans as extreme. The party's got to present a clear, concrete, serious, alternative or we're going to be having these same post-mortems two years from now.

And if so, it will be sweet.

I really think the Dimocrats are paying for selling their souls to Bill Clinton. He was responsible for them losing the House and Senate in 1994 but he was able to successfully win re-election in 1996 by painting the Republicans as extremists. If the Dims had been smart, they would have done what the Republicans did to Nixon. They would have sent three honorable senators to the White House and asked him to resign rather than put the country through impeachment. Oops! That wouldn't have worked. The Dimocrats didn't have three honorable senators. (Clinton probably had dirt on everyone anyway and I'm sure he would not have gone willingly. Nixon had some honor. Clinton has none.) If they had done that, Algore would have won and have easily been re-elected. Of course, if he had, we'd still be negotiating with the Taliban. Jimmy Carter would have led the delegation. Clinton still runs the party and is more concerned with trying to salvage his legacy than with the country or even his party. They're still stuck with him since he is their 'elder statesman' and still raises a lot of money.

There's an old saying, 'If you lay down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas'.

The Dimocrats have been scratching since Tuesday.

2002-11-06T20:26:00.000-05:00

Those Poor Muslims

I love the sound of Dimocrats whining in the morning. It sounds like victory.

Eenie. Meenie. Minie. Moe. Decisions. Decisions. Should I take on Maureen Dowd (Is she imploding or what? Her writing has really gone downhill. Ever since Imus named a cow after her, she's been writing like she had the intelligence of one.), should I talk about the election or, to celebrate the first day of Ramadan (November 6), should I write about the Religion of Peace^TM? And the winner is .... The Religion of Peace^TM.

Now, I think to properly celebrate the first day of Ramadan what I really need to do is sit in front of a mosque and barbecue some ribs (pork, of course), wash 'em down with some beer, and follow up with a big 'ol cee-gar. And I should have done this around lunch time.

And what brought about this latest round of Muslim bashing? Why, it was another one of those 'us poor old Muslims' op-eds in today's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation.

Unfair to direct blame at Islam

By EBRAHIM MOOSA

This was written by a female moose?

As soon as there were suggestions of a possible terrorism connection to the Beltway sniper, many Muslims went: "Oh God [actually Allah], please do not let there be a link to us again!'"

See, Ebrahim, this is where we differ. The rest of us non-Muslims were praying that the sonuvabitch would be caught before he killed again. You bastards were only worried about your reputation.

So when John Allen Muhammad was caught, was it sign that our prayers were rejected?

Well, yeah, since your prayers were only that he wouldn't be a Muslim. It seems you didn't give a shit whether or not he killed anyone. You only were worried that he might be a Muslim. Guess what asshole! He was.

Ever since Sept. 11, Muslims in the United States have been petrified by the way they and their religion are increasingly being identified with, first, terrorism and, now, serial killers.

Ya see, Ebrahim, some of us believe in cause and effect. Over the last 35 years, the majority of terrorist acts have been committed by Muslims. The 9/11 terrorists were Muslims. All the booger eatin' moh-rons blowing themselves up in the Middle East are Muslims. When you think terrorism, you think Muslim. They go together like ribs (pork, of course) and beer.

It does not matter that 90 percent of all criminals in this country have had some kind of Christian upbringing.

Mr. Apple meet Mr. Orange. These criminals are not killing in the name of Allah, asshole.

To date, none of the gatekeepers of Christianity -- the Jerry Falwells and the Franklin Grahams of the world -- has apologized to the Vietnamese people for atrocities committed in their country or to the Japanese for Hiroshima.

Let's see, I think the Vietnamese committed more atrocities than we did. Have you ever heard of the Killing Fields? Even Joan Baez said, in hindsight, after what the Vietnamese did in Cambodia, that maybe we should have been there fighting the Viet Cong. And If I remember my history right, the Japanese declared war on us. We finished it. We don't owe anyone an apology you sanctimonious bastard! And, we weren't killing in the name of God.

But they demand that Muslim leaders apologize for Sept. 11.

Yep! And we're still waiting.

The trick is if Muslims are foolish enough to apologize, then they admit that Islam, a complex and diverse religious tradition, is culpable of these acts as a religion, while the people who performed these ugly deeds are ignored.

OK. Howza 'bout condemning the people who perform these acts of violence? We're still waiting for that to happen.

A pattern is emerging. When Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz or Adolf Hitler killed people, they were held accountable as individuals.

They weren't screaming "God is great!" when they were killing. They weren't proclaiming jihad.

But if Mohammed Atta or John Allen Muhammad kill, then suddenly all of Islam is culpable.

That's because the branch of Islam they belong to advocates killing. They were killing in the name of Islam. They said so. And you bastards aren't condemning it.

Can one blame a religion for crimes committed in its name?

Yeah, when every Friday, there is hate spewing from the mosques in the Middle East. When the imams are screaming 'Death to Israel!", "Death to America!", and it is "Allah's will that we kill Jews and Americans!". You're damned right I can blame a religion for that. I blame the Catholic church for the Spanish Inquisition. I blame religion for the Salem witch trials. And as long as you bastards keep making excuses for this barbarous behavior, I'll continue to blame Islam for this.

Only if everyone in a religion agrees without any dissent that a specific act is a religious duty can the religion be held accountable.

Bullshit! Spanish Inquisition. Salem witch trials. Hey! Howza 'bout them Crusades? Lotsa people killed in the name of religion. The Church sponsored them. They were responsible. But not everyone agreed with the policies. Wait until you read what's coming next.

So, for example, if Congress outlaws killing animals, but all Jews, Christians and Muslims believe it is permissible to sacrifice animals or eat meat, then every time any of these believers breaks the law, we can legitimately attribute it to religion. But as soon as some people argue that vegetarianism is part of their belief, then the meat-eating position is challenged. From then on, one can no longer hold all of Jewry, Christendom or Islamdom responsible for breaking the law, but we should specifically blame the meat-eating Jews, Muslims or Christians.

I've read this paragraph about twenty times and I don't have a fucking clue as to what he's trying to say. Maybe it's that in disputes between religion and civil laws that church laws take precedence? If so, he's dead wrong. That's not the way it works here. And that is one of the problems Muslims have in this country. Here's an example. Bigamy is illegal. The Mormons allow bigamy. If they practice it, they are breaking the law. So, his previous paragraph, like most of this op-ed, is total bullshit.

If we want to get into the blame game, then we really have to do a thorough job of re-writing all of history and also be consistent. Every time a Jack, a Rodriguez or a Hong commits a crime, the headline should read: "Protestant Christian or Catholic or Buddhist or Taoist kills five people."

And, if they are killing in the name of religion, like your Muslim buddies, the papers say it. Have you heard about abortion clinic bombings? Jesus H. Christ! The liberal media loves to blame right wing Christian groups. Didn't ya hear all the profilers saying the sniper was probably a white, right wing Christian?

But if some headlines say: "Man kills five" and another reads: "Muslim kills five," then the headline writer and newspaper editor owe the public an explanation.

And the explanation usually is some Muslim terrorist group claims credit for it and is doing it in the name of Islam.

Even if John Allen Muhammad claims that he killed people because of his belief in Islam, we still cannot accept it as a fact.

Huh? He's lying about it?

We can only do so when we know for sure that Islam as a religion teaches individuals to engage in assassinations.

What the fuck do you think they're teaching in the Middle East? Haven't you been paying attention? Those dudes are killing in the name of Islam. They think they're gonna get to make it with 72 virgins after they blow up.

But since we do know for sure that "thou shall not kill" is also part of Islamic teachings, any attempt to blame Islam for Muhammad's senseless deeds is an act of deep prejudice and malice, nothing less.

Nope. It's applicarion of logic. And, the Muslim terrorists are making no secret that this is a jihad. Islam declared war against this country. Which side are you gonna be on, Ebrahim?

By the way. Happy Ramadan.

Here. Have some barbecued ribs and some beer.

2002-11-05T21:20:00.000-05:00

Voting

I'm watching the returns on television and it's only a matter of time until I hear one of the talking heads bemoaning the fact that only 50% (or less) of the registered voters voted. "Oh no! This is terrible!", they will moan. All right. If you want more people to vote, let's do it the way they do it in Europe. They make election day a holiday. That way, there is no excuse not to vote. But, I take an opposing viewpoint. I think too many people in this country are allowed to vote. If I were in charge, here's what I would do.

If you pay no taxes, you cannot vote. This goes for rich and poor alike. If you're not putting any money in the pot, you do not get to determine how it is spent. I don't think my hard earned income should be taken from me and given to someone who has decided to be a parasite.

If you cannot read and write English, you cannot vote. This is an English speaking nation. To become a citizen, learning English should be a prerequisite. If I move to another country and decide to become a citizen, my number one priority would be learning that country's language.

Dead people should not be allowed to vote. Likewise, dead people should not be allowed to run for office.

Stupid people should not be allowed to vote. Do you hear that Florida? It must be rough to be a Dimocrat in Florida and have the Dimocratic leadership tell the entire country just how fucking stupid you are. An elementary school student could have figgered out (Oh yeah. Elementary school students did.) the butterfly ballot (Which was designed by a Dimocrat). During the primary, Dimocrat voters in Florida, in the same counties where they had problems with the butterfly ballots, could not understand touch screen systems. Jesus H. Christ! This is the same type of system they use in fast food joints because they can't get intelligent people to work for them. I used a touch screen this morning and it was great. No problems. The type was even large enough that I didn't even have to use my reading glasses.

Women. All right. I'm not really sure what to do here. Women elected Bill Clinton and women almost elected Algore. I know lots of smart women like my sister, my friend Cindy, and her daughter Maureen. There are also many female bloggers who are extremely intelligent. Rachel Lucas is a damn sight smarter than I am. What can we do about the women who are Dimocrats? Look ladies, the Republicans are not going to overturn Roe v Wade. They will not outlaw abortion. Don't you married ladies realize that the reason you have to work is to pay the high taxes the gummint has levied on you? The Dimocrats want to take your SUV's away from you. The Dimocrats want to raise your taxes. They've fucked up education. Everything they try to fix they make worse.

I also think that any politician should have had to have performed some gummint service before entering politics. That could be the military, the Peace Corps, or VISTA. That would have eliminated Bill and Hillary Clinton.

So those are just some of my solutions.

I said last night that if the weather is bad, Dimocratic voters stay home. It rained all day today in Atlanta.

I feel good about the races in Georgia.

2002-11-04T14:29:00.000-05:00

Why I'm Not a Dimocrat

Die Saddam die! Vote for me at Daily Pundit.

My sister's neighbor sent me an e-mail, which I inadvertently deleted so I cannot post it here, which suggested some other names for Dimocrats. I wish I could take credit for the name I use, but I stole it from Jennie. Anyway, that gives me an idea. For all my creative readers, please e-mail me or post in my comments neat names for Dimocrats. Be as crude as you like. Names like dipshitocrats are perfectly acceptable.

With the election coming up tomorrow, I thought I would come up with lots of reasons why I am not a Dimocrat and why I will not be voting for any Dimocrats.

National defense - Dimocrats have never seen a defense budget that they did not want to cut. After every Dimocrat administration, the Republican president has to try and repair the damage done to the military by the Dimocrats. And this time, Bush had to rebuild the low morale caused by having a draft dodger and sexual offender as the commander-in-chief.
Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Kennedy.
Social Security - The Social Security system is in serious trouble. The trust fund has been raided by the politicians (both Republicans and Dimocrats) and is full of IOU's (Essentially government bonds that we the taxpayers will have to redeem from our taxes meaning we will have to pay Social Security taxes twice) from the Federal Gummint. The Dimocrats solution is to raise taxes and cut benefits. The Republicans at least want to try sumpin' different. Had I been allowed to invest my Social Security taxes in a stock index fund I would have more money than what is in my 401(k). As it is, twenty years of investing in my 401(k) (And I invested very conservatively with a large cap index fund, a small cap index fund, and a bond fund.) will give me a better income than forty years of paying Social Security. Plus, I can pass my 401(k) money on to my family. When I die, Social Security dies with me.
Taxes - We are overtaxed. Think about it. An average American pays 28% federal income taxes. Add in Social Security which is 15%. What? I though it was around 7.5%. Nope. You pay half and your employer pays half. That's money he could be paying you. Ask a self-employed person how much he/she has to pay. Rachel, would you care to answer that question? So we're up to 43%. In Georgia, our state tax is 6%. Factor in sales taxes, excise taxes, ad valorem taxes, personal property taxes, capital gains taxes, and all the junk taxes (Have you looked at your utility bills lately?) and that's a pretty hefty tax burden. The Dimocrats treat a tax cut as an expenditure. They say the gummint can't afford to give us a tax cut. A Dimocrat never met a tax cut he liked (Unless it bought him votes.) Or a tax increase he didn't like. To a Dimocrat, all the money belongs to the gummint. If we're real good, they'll let us keep some of our own money. Listen up dipshits! It's not your money! It's my money and I worked hard to earn it. If the gummint 'can't afford' a tax cut, maybe the gummint is too large. Try cutting spending! That's what us peons have to do. We can't vote ourselves a pay increase like you assholes can. And you bastards are all overpaid.
Tom Dasshole, Barbara Boxer, and Jean Carnahan.
Education - Ever since Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education, our education system in this country has gotten worse. The Dimocrats' solution is (Su-prise! Su-prise!) throw more money at the problem. We need to abolish the worthless Department of Education and use the savings to give us a tax cut or block grant money to the states. Abolishing teachers unions would help too. We need accountability from our educators. We also don't need political correctness and socialism taught in our schools. Howza 'bout teaching Johnny how to read and write and add and subtract?
Racists - The Dimocrats are racists. Think not? They think blacks are dumber than whites. If not, why do they think that blacks should be held to lower college admission standards than whites? Why do they make excuses for low SAT scores by saying that SAT tests are 'culturally biased'? What culture is that? The anti-achievement culture that states that anyone who does well in school is an oreo, an Uncle Tom, or is 'acting white'? That's the culture that the SAT's are biased against. That's the culture the Dimocrats want to maintain. That is why I despise people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. They have sold out their race for personal gain and the Dimocrats have actively aided them. That is disgusting!
Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Julianne Malveaux.
Welfare - The Dimocrats have created a permanent underclass. Blacks are over represented in this class. There are more white people on welfare, but as a percentage of their race, there are far more blacks. The RWPP's (Race Warlord Povery Pimps - see Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton) aided by useful idiots like John Lewis (Civil rights pioneer and Congressman from Georgia) have kept blacks in poverty and on the Dimocratic plantation. Don't demand they get an education. Don't demand that they not have children out of wedlock. Keep holding them to lower standards. Blame all their problems on white racism. Rather than tackling problems like illiteracy, high crime, drugs, and out of wedlock births, sponsor boycotts to get rid of the Confederate flag in South Carolina. Yeah, that's gonna lift a lot of blacks out of poverty.
Dickhead Gephardt, Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi.
Gun control - I support the Second Ammendment to the Constitution. Dimocrats don't. They want to take our guns away.
Socialism - The Dimocrats want to turn this country into a socialist state like Cuba. Why do European countries have high unemployment rates? Because the businesses in those countries are over-taxed and over-regulated. Government mandated social programs ensure that the companies will hire as few employees as they can. Socialism has never worked any where it has been tried. The only limited success was in Sweden and that country is now imploding.
Barbra Streisand, Alec Baldwin, and Rosie O'Donnell.
Homeland Security - The House of Representatives has passed a Homeland Security bill. Tom Dasshole and the Dimocrats in the Senate have not because they want the employees to be in gummint unions and impossible to fire for incompetence. To the Dimocrats, gummint jobs are more important than the security of this country.
Wimps - After the terrorist acts committed against us during the Clinton administration, how many times did Bill Clinton bite his lip, feel our pain, and promise to bring those responsible to justice? And what did he do? Fired off a few cruise missiles and wiped out some goats and an aspirin factory. And the only reason he did that was to distract us from Monica. What did Bush do after 9/11? Kabul Kaboom! And that was just the start. We are going after Saddam, with or without the Eurowimps.
Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Carrie Meeks.
Kyoto Accords - Yeah, the Senate voted 99-0 against the Kyoto treaty, but, there are Dimocrats out there who say we should ratify that treaty. There are no Republicans or Libertarians who feel that way.
The International Criminal Court - Dimocrats think that we, contrary to the Constitution of the United States of America, should surrender our sovereignty to a foreign body like the ICC.
James Carville, Paul Begala, and Terry McAuliffe.
Elections - I think elections should be decided at the polls and not in the courts. When the Dimocrats lose an election at the polls they try to win in the courts. The Dims in California took Prop 209 to the courts. Look at the 2000 election mess in Florida. And no, The United States Supreme Court did not give the election to Bush. The Supreme Court simply told the Florida Supreme Court (All Dimocrats, by the way.) to obey Florida election laws, which, the Florida Supreme Court was trying to change. The New Jersey Supreme Court (Guess which party?) changed the New Jersey election laws to allow Lautenburg to replace Toricelli. Imagine the howls from the lamestream media if Republicans had legislated laws from the bench. Also, I don't think that dead people should be allowed to vote because they vote overwhemlingly for Dimocrats. There's an old joke in Chicago that goes like this: 'My father voted Republican all his life. Since he died, he's voted Dimocrat in the past three elections.'
Al Gore, Walter Mondale, and Jimmy Carter.
Class Warfare - The Dimocrats have pitted rich against poor. Young versus old. Black versus white. The rich do not pay their fair share is a popular Dimocrat chant. The top 1% of taxpayers in this country who earn 17% of the income pay 34% of the taxes. Is that fair? Social Security is gonna put a tremendous burden on the young to support, in many cases, the very well off old. I'm gonna be one of 'em. Blacks have more freedom and a higher standard of living in this country that anywhere else on this planet. To hear Dimocrats and the WRPP's, blacks are oppressed with no opportunities. Bullshit!
Totally bankrupt policies - What do the Dimocrats stand for? Failed policies. High taxes. Big gummint. Gun control. Election fraud. Weak military. Socialism. Failed education system. The Dimocrats stand against everything that has made this country great.

I read yesterday that when the weather is bad, the Dimocrat party's base stays home.

Pray for rain.

2002-11-03T20:23:00.000-05:00

It's All Our Fault

Blood! Guts! Death! Destruction! Kill! Kill! Kill! Vote for me at Daily Pundit.

Get out your crying towels. We have a single mother, Nakia Burgess, who left her three year old daughter in her car while she was at work. Her daughter, Asan'te died from the heat and Burgess has been charged with felony murder. And it's all our fault.

A little background here. Burgess moved to Atlanta, where she had no friends and no family, from New Jersey where she did have friends and family. One of the family members in New Jersey was willing to care for her daughter while Burgess worked, but Burgess wanted to go to Atlanta, supposedly a mecca for blacks. But why wasn't the child in daycare? Well let's see what the AJC has to say about this.

Two months before her child died in her car, Nakia Burgess had found the institution best capable of caring for her while she worked.

Records at the DeKalb County school district's Coralwood special education school show that Burgess called the school Aug. 6 about its program for preschool children with special needs.

The school was exactly where federal law says her daughter, Asan'te, should have been as a 3-year-old DeKalb County child with Down syndrome.

So far, so good. So what went wrong?

School officials said Burgess was told to bring in her daughter's special education plan and proof that she lived in the school district.

That doesn't sound too hard to do.

They said they never heard from Burgess again.

What? Why not?

Burgess' lawyer, Phinia Aten, is not permitting her client to talk to the media.

Smart move by her lawyer.

But Aten said her client was in the process of compiling a larger number of records that she believed the school needed to enroll her child.

Burgess left much of her child's documentation, including her immunization records, behind when she moved from New Jersey Aten said.

Now that was a smart move. Move to Atlanta and leave all your child's records behind. Godammit! Stupid people should not be allowed to breed!

"She was trying to get those documents together,'' Aten said. "She told me she was trying to get her into a school."

Here comes the punchline.

Aten said her client didn't know that the school typically enrolls children like Asan'te immediately and gets the paperwork later.

"They know what their policies are," Aten said. "She did not."

Here's a novel idea. Howza 'bout saying, "I don't have all here records yet. Can she be enrolled and I'll give you her paperwork when it arrives?"

The 28-year-old Burgess is now charged with felony murder in the Oct. 2 death of her daughter.

Asan'te died from the heat after Burgess left her in the car outside her workplace.

Aten said Burgess did that because child care arrangements fell through on the first day of her temporary job.

Since then, Burgess' child care crisis has become both the backbone of her defense and a rallying point for those who say the area's safety net is too thin.

Here we go. It's not her fault. It's all our fault because we wouldn't take care of her sorry ass. She made too many stupid decisions. She left New Jersey and moved to Atlanta with no job prospects. She left all her daughter's records in New Jersey. She screwed up on the day care arrangements. Then she left her daughter in the car while she was at work and let her die from the heat. And now she's blaming us. It's all our fault.

You notice that there is no mention of the father anywhere. This is another welfare mother. Where does it say in the United States or Georgia constitutions that I'm supposed to support somewone who is too fucking dumb to have children? The only bright spot is that if she goes to prison she won't be breeding for a while.

Doofus and the Favorite Muslim Wine

Blood! Blood! Blood!! Guts! Guts! Guts! Gore! Gore! Gore! (Not Al) Kill Saddam! Kill the A-rabs! Shove a white hot poker up Arafat's butt! Vote for me at Daily Pundit. Be like a Dimocrat. Vote often.

Yeah, I know, I don't usually blog on Saturdays but I saw sumpin' in today's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation that just begged for the GOC treatment.

But first, Cindy and I took my big old (14 years) fat, black cat, Doofus back to the vet today. He has type 2 diabetes and Doctor GOC had to give him an insulin shot every day last week. He's been peeing less (Doofus, not Doctor GOC), so it looks like the insulin and the special cat food has been working. The vet told me his blood sugar is way down. Now, besides the shots, I got some dipsticks that I gotta use to test the glucose in his urine. He's lost 11 ounces and is down to fifteen pounds. He's not real crazy about the special dry food, but I got some special can food for him also. With any luck, I may be able to quit the insulin. He is a good cat and takes the shots real well.

Every Saturday, in the AJC, there is a section called Faith and Values. It's about religion, and, with the approach of Ramadan, there is the requisite article about the Religion of Peace^TM.

As Muslims begin their monthlong daylight fast for Ramadan next week, they have little to celebrate, says Mahmoud Al-Batal, associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at Emory University.

And why is that? Are their turbans too tight? They're alive. They're not starving. They're not blowing up. They live in the most free and tolerant country in the history of the planet. Whatcha whining about Mahmoud?

Ramadan is expected to begin Wednesday, but Islamic months are lunar and thus depend on the sighting of a new moon. The fast is intended to remind Muslims of their dependence on Allah and to make them sympathetic to the poor.

Once again, they live in a free and tolerant society. This should be a cause for celebration.

With the possibility of war against Iraq,

Listen up dickheads! Are you Iraqis or Americans? If you're so sympathetic to Iraq, go live there.

no peace in sight between Israelis and Palestinians

Just gotta get Israel in there, dontcha? I read in the paper this morning that that fat little asshole Arafat wants to resume negotiations with Israel. Let's see. Arafat walked away from the best deal the Palestinians will ever get. He emptied the jails and started the current wave of terror. Now that everything has backfired in his face he wants to go back to the negotiating table. And whaddya have to offer Yasser? Nada. Nothing. Zilch. Nil. Zero. Diddly dip point shit. You are the dean of terrorists. You are not a leader. Your hatred of the Jews has led your people to ruin. You can no longer be trusted. You're through. Take your Baby Wipes and leave.

and tensions between predominantly Hindu India and Pakistan, which is mostly Muslim,

Do ya think that might have sumpin' to do with all the Muslim terrorism directed toward Hindus?

"Muslims don't have anything to enjoy this Ramadan," Al-Batal said.

My heart is pumping purple panther piss and peanut butter for you you self pitying bastard. Once again. You're alive. You're not starving. You're not blowing up. You live in the most free and tolerant country in the history of the planet.

He said he is concerned that Americans' fear of terrorists

Most especially, Islamic terrorists. The majority of terrorism is performed by Muslims.

has been translated into fear of Islam,

Do you blame us. All we hear from the Muslim world is 'Death to America!' or 'Death to Israel!'. The Friday sermons at mosques in the Middle East spew hatred at Israel and the United Sates every week. 20 of the 22 major conficts going on in the world today involve Muslims. It was Muslims who rammed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and killed 3000 people. We saw pictures of Palestinians dancing in the streets on 9/11. The sniper was a Muslim. You're damned right we fear Islam.

Can you guess what's coming next?

What do the Muslims always say about Islam?

Wait for it.

Here it comes.

which, he says, "is a religion that strives for peace and love, not violence and terrorism."

What did I tell ya? It's the old Religion of Peace^TM bullshit. My friend Addison commented on yesterday's blog that anytime someone mentions that the Republicans stole the 2000 election, everything that follows should be regarded as total bullshit. I'm naming that the Addison rule. And I'm adding to it. Anytime a Muslim (or a liberal) says that Islam is a Religion of Peace^TM everything that follows should be regarded as total bullshit.

A new poll indicates his concerns are well-founded.

Well, duh! What part of 'Death to America' do you think the American people do not understand?

One-third of Americans have unfavorable views of Islam today compared with 24 percent in January, an ABC News/Beliefnet poll shows.

Do you think that might have sumpin' to do with all the hate spewing out of the Middle East? How about that sterling practitioner of the Religion of Peace^TM, John Muhammed? What about what just went on in Russia. And I love what the Russians are gonna do. They're gonna wrap the remains of the terrorists in pigskins and bury them. That's what I suggested, on another web site, we should have done with the remains of the 9/11 terrorists.

Likewise, almost one-fourth think Islam encourages violence, up from 14 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Could it be because Islam encourages violence? Once again, 20 out of 22 of the major conflicts going on in the world today involve Muslims. Islamic fanatics declared war on this country. And Mahmoud, I have yet to hear a major Islamic leader in this country renounce violence. You glorify the Palestinians for killing women and children. You blame Israel for all your problems. And all I ever hear from CAIR and all other Muslim outlets is how much you worry about how you'll be treated and Islam is a Religion of Peace^TM. Howza 'bout acting like Americans? Maybe that would help.

One of my Jewish friends told me a joke.

What's the most popular Jewish wine?

I wanna go to Mi-aaami!

So here's my Muslim joke:

What's the most popular Muslim wine?

Islam is a Religion of Peace^TM.

2002-10-31T20:54:00.000-05:00

More Conspiracy Theory Crap

Dadgummit! My comments were down all freaking day. If anyone can point me to a better comment package, please let me know.

As most of you know, I don't do all that much linking, but, my buddy Addison sent me this link that is just so delicious, I have to share it. And the nice thing is, Dimocrats can't bitch about it being in poor taste since they pretty much set the standard of abhorrent taste a few nights ago at their ~~foot stomping campaign rally~~ solemn memorial service for Saint Paul 'the dead' Wellstone.

I wrote sumpin' a few nights ago about the Conspiracy Theory being tossed around over at the Democratic Underground web site. Are these people fruitcakes or what? Anyway, Michael from Dunwoody sent me the following e-mail:

Denny:

I really enjoyed your Monday take on the "conspiracy" to kill Wellstone.However you must realize that any attempt to blame the dimocrats for this horrible event is completely misplaced.I know your piece defended Republicans against this horrible accusation but you did imply that the only party that benefited from this accident were demo,dimocrats(sorry my spelling is still off).Nothing could be further from the truth.How can I tactfully put this.The dimocrat's wife was killed.If this was truly a dimocrat plot to kill off one of their more unpopular pols just before an election,the wife would have been on another plane!

And by golly, he's right! It obviously was a Republican plot. I owe the folks over at the Democratic Underground an apology. Not! Michael from Dunwoody happens to be a friend of mine and he was just making a joke. What? Joking about death? Well, obviously Bill Clinton and Walter Mondale thought it was funny as they were really yukking it up at the ~~foot stomping campaign rally~~ memorial service the other night. And after all, what's it matter if there's a dead senator as long as they can keep the seat?

You know who else thinks this is an assassination? Why none other than Ted Rall. I've never actually read any of his stuff, and now I know why. This guy actually makes Molly Ivins look rational and intelligent. Don't worry, I'm not gonna fisk the whole column, but I don't think I've ever read a column where I can fisk every single sentence. Here's the link

THE (POSSIBLE) ASSASSINATION OF PAUL WELLSTONE

The title. It only gets worse.

George W. Bush's Legacy of Cynicism and Contempt

The subtitle. And let me say that Bush has to go a long way to even come close to Bill Clinton's Legacy of Cynicism and Contempt. The Clintons and the current gaggle of Dimocrat assholes have set a standard that will remain unrivaled until the next Dimocrat administration.

George W. Bush and his henchmen stole the presidency.

Ah yes. Liberals have to keep saying that knowing that there are plenty of stupid people in this country who actually believe it. They're called Dimocrats.

They threw thousands of innocent people into prison without even charging them with a crime.

Proof, Ted! I want some proof. If there were thousands of 'innocent people' in prison, the lamestream media would have their relatives on the evening news every night decrying the Gestapo tactics of Adolph Bush and Heinrich Ashcroft. Do you really think that Peter Jennings and Dan Blather could keep quiet about this?

They're gearing up to invade Iraq without bothering to come up with a substantial justification.

Howza 'bout the fact that we hate his mustache and his stupid beret? Not good enough? OK. He's developing nukes. He is a sponsor of terrorism. He's one of the impediments to peace in the Middle East. And, as a warblogger I want to see blood, blood, and more blood. Vote for me at Daily Pundit

Now some Democrats and progressive Americans

Is progressive American an euphemism for communist?

are asking the unthinkable about an administration they increasingly believe to be ruled by thugs and renegades.

These are the same people who think the Republicans stole the 2000 election.

Did government gangsters murder the United States' most liberal legislator?

No.

Talk of foul play began hours after Senator Paul Wellstone's plane went down over northeastern Minnesota on Oct. 25, killing him, his wife an his daughter, along with three staffers and two pilots.

Yep! Them Republicans, not satisfied with starving old people and throwing thousands of innocent people into prison are now killing liberal Senators. Yep! Makes perfect sense to me.

"Please tell me I'm wrong to be thinking what I'm thinking," a self-described "liberal Democrat" from St. Paul e-mailed me that evening.

First you have to tell me what you're thinking. The thought processes of anyone admitting to being a liberal Dimocrat, and therefore a fucking idiot, are totally beyond the comprehension of any rational being. A liberal Dimocrat is someone who believes that Hillary Clinton is a lady and Rosie O'Donnell isn't a man.

"I want to be wrong,

Let me help you out. You are wrong. You're also a fucking idiot!

but I wouldn't put it past the Republicans--THESE Republicans--to sabotage Wellstone's plane."

So let me get this straight. THESE Republicans are worse than ordinary, garden variety Republicans? Do they torture the old folks before they steal their Social Security checks and then push their wheelchairs over cliffs?

Internet discussion groups and e-mail in-boxes quickly echoed her sentiment.

Yep! Especially at that bastion of sanity, the Democratic Underground.

People expressed similar fears after Commerce Secretary Ron Brown

Hold it right there Baba Looey! Everyone knows that Ron Brown was part of the Clinton bodycount. He was due to testify against Clinton and he had to be silenced. I know it's the truth. I read it at Free Republic. Next thing you know they'll be trying to blame Bush and his henchmen for James McDougal and Vince Foster.

and Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan died in plane crashes--the latter weeks before facing an election challenge from future Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft--

This one has really been bugging me, but I've finally figgered it out. Bush didn't want Ashcroft to win so he could appoint him as Attorney General and thus help him build the future police state after he talked Osama bin Laden into having his guys crash the planes into the World Trade Center which would enable Bush to declare marshall law and take over the gummint. And Bush thought electing a dead guy in Missouri would be kinda neat, kinda like Weekend at Bernie's in the Senate. I heard he really likes that movie. And the liberals think Bush is dumb. He's outthought them at every turn. He even knew they would make themselves look crass and petty this week at the ~~foot stomping campaign rally~~ memorial service.

but the whispers of assassination following the Wellstone tragedy are more widespread and gaining mainstream currency far beyond the usual conspiracy nuts.

Yeah. Not only is it the wackos at Democratic Underground, but the moderates over at Democrats.com probably feel that way too. Next thing you'll be telling me that Eleanor Clift and Margaret Carlson feel that way. And let's not forget Helen Thomas.

A Convenient Death

It sure was. We got a damn good campaign rally outta it. And the wackos on the left now have better conspiracy theories than the wackos on the far, far right.

The Minnesota senator's death certainly comes at an auspicious time for the Republican Party.

And this time they did it right. They made sure the wife was with him so she couldn't be appointed if Bernie Wellstone won the election.

Wellstone's challenger, former St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman, was considered by both parties to be the GOP's best chance for recapturing the 50-to-49 Democratic U.S. Senate.

Then why jeopardize his chances by drumming up a sympathy vote for a dead guy? Ya think they might have learned from Missouri, right? And Ted, technically Jeffords is an independent. And Ventura is so pissed he might appoint an independent to serve the rest of the year. Wouldn't that be neat?

Wellstone had been considered vulnerable for two reasons: his principled

Have ya ever noticed that when a liberal opposes sumpin' it's principled, but when a conservative opposes sumpin' it's partisan?

opposition to Bush's Iraq war resolution (the Senate voted 77-to-23 in favor) and a strong Green Party candidacy sure to siphon off leftie votes.

Then why kill him?

Bush was so anxious to silence the Senate's most liberal voice

I don't know about that. Barbara Boxer could give him a good run for that title.

(Mother Jones magazine called him "the first 1960s radical elected to the U.S. Senate") that he personally recruited Coleman to run against him.

And soundly defeating Wellstone at the polls would do a better job of silencing him than killing him.

Bush then campaigned furiously against Wellstone, attending two fundraisers which raised over $2.3 million--more than he raised for any other Republican candidate, including his brother Jeb.

Now this is what really pisses off the Dimocrats. Bush is raising more money than Clinton did. I'll bet that hurts!

Republicans resorted to Nixon-style dirty tricks in the Coleman campaign.

Unlike the Clinton/Gore/Dimocrat dirty tricks which included an ad in Texas equating Bush with the assholes who dragged James Byrd behind a truck, because he was against hate crime legislation. But that ad was done by the NAACP. That's right. And they're a non-partisan organization. Huh? I'm missing sumpin' here I guess.

Coleman called Wellstone "extremist" and implied he was a communist.

Oh, so telling the truth about an opponent in an election is now a dirty trick? I just read a few sentences back that Wellstone was the first 1960's radical elected to the Senate. And Ted, I hate to have to break this to ya but Wellstone was a communist.

GOP workers phoned senior citizens to tell them that Wellstone was plotting to take away their Social Security.

Now that is a dirty trick. Everyone knows that only Dimocrats are allowed to scare senior citizens over Social Security.

They called members of the National Rifle Association to tell them that Wellstone was plotting to take away their guns.

He wasn't? That's news to me.

They even ran newspaper ads depicting gruesome photos of late-term abortions.

The cads! Trying to make abortion a campaign issue. How dare they!

Despite the money and sleazy tactics being used against him,

Only to a Dimocrat could telling the truth about a Dimocrat's position on the issues be a sleazy tactic.

recent polls showed Wellstone beginning to pull ahead.

Now I had heard just the opposite, but, what do I know?

With Election Day looming on Nov. 5, many analysts were predicting a Wellstone victory and continued Democratic dominance of the Senate.

Which would mean two more years of Tommy Dasshole as majority leader. Yechhh!

Perhaps, the thinking goes, someone in the Bush regime decided Wellstone had to go.

And with that, I think I have to go. Wading on down through the rest of Ted's bilge, I see that he knows very little about general aviation, one of the things being that politicians have slipped a little exception into the rules about the pilot qualifications required to fly politicians in private aircraft. Neal Boortz (read the whole thing) wrote about it. By the way, Carnahan's son was the pilot when he died. I do not believe he had a commercial pilot's license.

So Molly, move over. Ted Rall has replaced you as the most fiskable columnist ever. And as for all you stupid Dimocrats who think the Republicans are knocking off Dimocrat senators up for reelection, it's only four more years until Hillary runs again.

Not to worry. I don't think it's possible to sabotage a broom.

2002-10-30T20:38:00.000-05:00

Saint Paul of Wellstone

Just when you think the Dimocrats cannot sink any lower, that they cannot do anything more crass or show less class, they have to prove me wrong. Of course I'm referring to the Wellstone ~~political rally~~ memorial service. I hope all of you folks in Minnesota are proud of that spectacle.

We have been treated over and over again with the eulogies from the lamestream media about what a wonderful person Paul Wellstone was. Yeah, he was a socialist, but he meant well. So did Lenin. Lileks said he wasn't for putting people in gulags. Neither was Marx. Look, I'm sorry he died, but enough with all the platitudes already. And if he was such a great man, couldn't he have given his sons a little more class? What's this shit about the vice-president not being welcome at the service? Going to funerals is in the job description. When I heard that I didn't believe it at first, but then I remembered: They're Dimocrats. I should know better than to expect class from any Dimocrat. But, can you imagine if it had been a Republican senator who had died and his family had said a Dimocrat vice-president was not welcome? The New York Times and the Washington Post and NBCCBSABCCNNMSNBC would be screaming 'mean spirited' 'partisan', and any other epithets they are fond of throwing at Republicans.

Two years ago, Paul Coverdell, a Republican senator from Georgia died. I don't remember his wife telling any Dimocrats they weren't welcome. But, she obviously has a lot more class than the Wellstone boys. I also don't remember the lamestream media carrying on like they have for Wellstone. Oh, that's right. He was a Republican. Republicans are evil. Dimocrats are saints.

And I missed that rousing rally they held at Coverdell's memorial service. What? There wasn't one? How about the booing of Dimocrat politicians who came to pay their respects? That didn't happen either? How could that be? I thought Republicans were mean spirited and partisan and were willing to politicize anything.

So now the joke can go that I went to a Dimocrat funeral and a political rally broke out. Why didn't they just sit Wellstone up and have him wear a sign that said, 'Sure I'm dead, but vote for me anyway'? This can be a new Dimocrat campaign strategy: Dead men running. It worked in Missouri two years ago with Mel Carnahan. The Dimocrat Party where dead voters vote for dead candidates.

Some dipshit over at the Democratic Underground thinks this is a Republican conspiracy. Ya know, bumping off Dimocrat Senators in plane crashes right before the election. It's a funny conspiracy. Why do the Republicans want to elect Dimocrats? That's what happened in Missouri. And the Dimocrats are hoping they can make it work again.

I missed the canonization service. I'm glad since I always cry at funerals, especially funerals of saints. But I read the following in today's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation:

For the first two hours, speakers remembered the eight with poignant anecdotes. But when Wellstone's friend and longtime campaign treasurer Rick Kahn took the stage, he adopted the late senator's fiery speaking style and abruptly demolished the leaky dike that had held back most political speech since the accident.

The Dimocrats could simply not pass up a golden opportunity to turn a death into a political event. 'Dimocrats, Farmers, Labor, lend me your ears. I come to elect Wellstone, not to bury him.'

"If Paul Wellstone's legacy in the Senate comes to an end just days after this unspeakable tragedy, our spirits will be crushed, and we will drown in a river of tears," Kahn said. "We are begging you, do not let this happen."

Give! Me! A! Fucking! Break! What the fuck is wrong with Wellstone's sons? If some asshole had tried to make my parents' death a political circus like this I would have walked up on that stage and kicked his nuts so far up inside him he'd be choking on them!

Kahn even called on Republican senators in attendance to stand up in the election's final days and to urge others to keep Wellstone's dreams going forward.

What??!!?? A commie bastard dies and now we're all supposed to abandon all of our principles to implement his dream of a socialist United States? Only the mind of a liberal could come up with that.

Wellstone's sons, David and Mark Wellstone, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, one of Wellstone's closest friends in the Senate, also stoked the crowd to fight for Mondale, though none of them mentioned him by name.

Of course they didn't. They want everyone to vote for Saint Paul 'the dead' Wellstone. Great bunch of boys you raised there Senator Wellstone. A credit to the Dimocrat Socialist Party.

Republicans quickly criticized the partisan tone of the memorial. "I was frankly stunned. It was over the top," said Sarah Janecek, a Republican consultant. KARE-TV in Minneapolis, which carried the service live, said it received hundreds of calls from outraged viewers.

I hope you outraged viewers will remember this crap next week and express your disgust at the polls.

What a complete, total, absolute sham," Vin Weber, a former U.S. representative from Minnesota, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "The DFL clearly intends to exploit Wellstone's memory totally, completely and shamelessly for political gain. To them, Wellstone's death, apparently, was just another campaign event."

Well Vin, what do you expect? You expect any shame whatsoever from a Dimocrat? This is the party that stood by and defended the most corrupt and dishonorable president in this country's history.

State House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said it was disrespectful that the crowd cheered when former President Bill Clinton,

A white trash hillbilly and sexual harasser.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

A commie bitch.

and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.,

Noted swimmer and champion of women.

appeared on the big monitors and that the crowd jeered when U.S. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former GOP Sen. Rod Grams of Minnesota were on the screens.

Do you seriously expect to see any class (other than low) whatsover from Dimocrats? Look at who their heroes are.

It was during Kahn's speech that Ventura and First Lady Terry Ventura got up shaking their heads and walked out. Lott also walked out during the service.

Good for them, especially Lott. Maybe he's growing a spine. And isn't it amazing that an ex-professional wrestler had more class than all the Dimocrats in attendance? Well maybe not. Eight years of Clinton pretty much removed any class or honor the Dimocratic Party ever had.

It just goes on and on and on and keeps getting worse. I just wonder what Wellstone himself would have thought of the spectacle? If he were the paragon of virtue that he has been made out to be, he would have been totally disgusted.

Like Diogenes looking for an honest man, I keep hoping that I may one day see an honorable Dimocrat. Supposedly, one just died. Too bad his death was cheapened and used as a political event.

You Dimocrats must feel so proud.

2002-10-29T21:09:00.000-05:00

As Bloodthirsty As I Wanna Be

My friend Michael remarked a few weeks ago that I seemed to have lost my passion after Cynthia McKinney got defeated. And then I was just reading Rachel Lucas the other day and she commented that she got hate mail and some of the more offensive male bloggers didn't. And that got me to thinking that I still have not received any hate mail. I did have some sissy anti-gun asshole from some Scandinavian country say on his website that I should be taken outside and shot, which I thought was rather ironic. But who gives a shit about what someone from a Scandinavian country says? These are the same people who gave Jimmy Carter and Yassir Arafat Nobel Peace Prizes. Next year they'll probably give one to Saddam Hussein.

Anyway, I think I have the hate mail thing figgered out. It's not as if I'm not offensive, though I do admit, looking back at some of my earlier stuff, I do seem to have mellowed out a bit. I'll have to see if I can do sumpin' about that. Toren Smith once remarked that I made him look like St. Francis of Assisi, but he's catching up with his idea of carving T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T-S on the skulls of some lamestream media types. I'm in favor of using a hot branding iron myself. And I'd brand sumpin' like FUCKHEAD or DIPSHIT or my favorite BOOGER EATIN' MOH-RON.

The reason I don't get hate mail is due to my limited readership. I have peaked at between 100 to 150 hits a day. But those hits are by some of the most intelligient people on the planet. They obviously agree with everything I say. All my e-mail and comments confirm that. But let's see if can get some of my passion back and just maybe piss off a few people.

Bill Quick has list of nominees up for MOST HAWKISH AND BLOODY-HUNGRY blog in the blogosphere. Of course I nominated myself. I don't stand a snowballs chance in Hell, but it will give me an excuse to try to get my ranting back up to snuff.

Hawk? You bet I'm a hawk! I'm still pissed off about Viet Nam! And we shoulda stomped the shit out of the Iranians when they took our people hostage. Jimmy Carter was and is a wimp! The crap that was in the local paper about the Nobel Peace Prize was enough to make me puke.

Beirut. We covered that little fat fuck Arafat's ass when the Israelis drove him into Beirut and we made the Israelis let him and a whole bunch of his raghead buddies skip town. We were rewarded by having our Marine barracks blown up. Reagan should have lobbed a few cruise missiles into the Bekaa Valley for that. We still owe some bigtime payback to Hezbollah for that.

We should have finished off Saddam Hussein back in Gulf War I. I'm just hoping Bush is waiting for the weather to cool. Yesterday, he pretty much told the UN to go fuck itself. Hope Den Beste is happy. He wanted Bush to give the UN the finger before he got back from vacation. He got his wish. About time! I want to see some blood!

And after we take out Iraq, we can look at Syria and Hezbollah. Like I said, there's some payback due there. And let's fix the Palestinian problem. I would like to see a white hot poker rammed right up Arafat's ass. Now, Yassir, you really have a use for those baby wipes you fat asshole.

Damn! This feels good!

You Palestinians want a state? Kiss my ass! You bastards don't deserve a state. I say we move you all into the Gaza Strip and build a big ol' wall around it. You people are animals. You belong in cages.

And let's hear it for the Religion of Peace^TM! I am so sick of hearing that shit. Of the 22 major armed conflicts around the world 20 of them involve Muslims. Any student of history (which prettty much leaves out a large percentage of people who graduated from government schools) can tell you that Islam never has been a peaceful religion. The Arabs came roaring out of Arabia in the 7th Century and spread Islam by armed conflict. By 750 AD, a little over 100 years after the death of Mohammed, the Baghdad Caliphate stretched from the Punjab, through the Middle East, across North Africa to present day Spain. None of this was a peaceful expansion.

There was a 500 year period where the Islamic civilization was a grand and glorious civilization, but around 1250, it began to sink into decline. All it seems to offer now is hatred. Hatred of western civilization. Hatred of Jews. Hatred of America. I can not have any respect for a religion that preaches so much hatred, or of American Muslims who act as if that hatred is justified. Listen up you Muslim assholes! If you don't want us to hate you, stop the hatred! Denounce all the violence. Denounce the hatred. Denounce the bloodshed. You can't can you? And if you hate America so much, leave! I'm sick of all the whining by CAIR and the other Muslim organizations.

I believe we're seeing the beginning of World War III which is a war between radical Islam and western civilization. We didn't start the war. We didn't want the war. But I sure hope we can win the war.

I wanna see Baghdad go boom!

2002-10-28T20:12:00.000-05:00

Conspiracy Theory

Dadgumit! TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name) has me in CICS school this week. Our CICS programmer is retiring the end of this year, and the three of us remaining full time programmers are all trying to learn CICS. We figger that maybe three of us just might equal one half of her. We should be so lucky. Anyway, since I'm in school, I can't surf at work. Bummer!

I heard the tail end of a campaign commercial for our Senate race between Max Cleland and Saxby Chambliss last week that said Chambliss voted to abolish the Department of Education. I didn't know if that was an ad by Cleland or Chambliss. It sure makes me want to vote for Chambliss. For those of you who don't remember, or who were not around back then, Education used to be a part of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. As a campaign promise to the teachers' unions, Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education, and the education system in this country has never recovered. Another memorable event of the Carter presidency.

Did you know that the Rebublicans were behind the airplane crashes that killed Mel Carnahan and Paul Wellstone? Me neither, but that's what the folks over at Democratic Underground have to say.

Wellstone was assassinated under the exact same circumstances as Mel Carnahan, two years ago. Carnahan the Democrat was beating John Ashcroft,

Actually, it was neck and neck and too close to call, but what do the facts have to do with a good ol' Dimocrat conspiracy theory?

but with just two weeks remaining before election day, Carnahans plane conveniently crashes. It is still not enough for the widely un-popular Ashcroft -

Widely unpopular? The election was a tossup.

When the voters considered the prospects of another six years with this Ashcroft, THE VOTERS VOTED FOR THE DECEASED CARNAHAN ANYWAY (actually his wife) RATHER THAN HAVE ASHCROFT FOR ANOTHER TERM !

Actually, the classy Ashcroft, out of respect, quit campaigning, and the sympathy vote, not to mention lots of illegal votes in North St. Louis, elected Carnahan. Just imagine if a dead Republican had been elected. The Dimocrats would have flown in a battalion of lawyers just like they did in Florida.

So the Republicans' killing of Carnahan elected his wife to the Senate. To follow up with the success of that tactic, they decide to try it again with Wellstone. I heard Wellstone was actually trailing, so why would the Republicans want to bump him off? If the Dimocrats were smart, they would use the same tactic they used in Missouri. Keep Wellstone on the ticket. What with all the carrying on in the liberal media, he has now become a saint. That should be good for a lot of votes. And, since so many dead Dimocrats vote (Actually, many of them were probably Republicans when they were alive. They didn't become Dimocrats until after they died. That's the way it works in Chicago.), it would only be natural for them to vote for a dead man. So they would have the sympathy vote, the clueless liberal vote (most of them probably don't even know he's dead), and the dead Dimocrats vote. All they'd have to do is steal a few more votes here and there and they'd have that seat locked up.

But it looks like the Dimocrats, just like in New Jersey with Lautenberg, are staking their future on another young lion, Walter Mondale. This is the face the Dimocrats want you to see: 78 year old Frank Lautenberg and 74 year old Walter Mondale. 'We're rested and we're ready!' Or in a variation of Hillary's listening tour: 'Huh! Speak up! Can't hear you!' Or maybe: 'Can't wait to sink my teeth into the problems facing the nation. That is, as soon as I find my teeth.' I wonder if Fritz is gonna use the effective campaign tactic of his presidential campaign of promising to raise taxes if he's elected?

Ya know, the Dimocrats would really be funny if they weren't so dadgum dangerous.

2002-10-27T20:47:00.000-05:00

Doofus, Ashley, and the Religion of Peace^TM

Friday was my birthday. I was 56. My friends Wahoo and Jeanella were coming over for dinner Saturday, but first, I had to take my cats to the vet. Ashley had a kidney infection while I was diving in Roatan, so my friend Cindy took her to the vet. We took her back last week and the antibiotics weren't working, so we changed them and were taking her back to get her checked again. Meanwhile, Doofus, my 14 year old black cat had to have his shots and since he was peeing a lot also, we took him to the vet to have him checked out. So, my good friend Cindy had to take a cripple and two cats to the vet.

But, first, we had to catch 'em. Ashley's not too bright, but she recognizes a cat carrier when she sees one. Last time we had to chase her all over the house and out from under my bed twice. This time, a few minutes before Cindy arrived, I closed my bedroom door. Then, I went into the library to read and Ashley followed me in there. When I saw Cindy's car pull up, I sat down on the floor and held onto her so she couldn't get away. Worked like a charm. Now to get Doofus. He's a little slower now and we caught him easily and he went into the cage real easily also. Lots of crying on the way to the vet. Doofus also crapped. Going to the vet scares the shit out of him.

We were at the vet for over two hours. Turns out Doofus has diabetes. He has to eat special food and, since Ashley is a little porker, it's OK for her to eat the food. I also get to give Doofus an insulin shot once a day. Yes, here we have Dr. GOC, the crippled veterinarian. I get to push a pill down Ashley's throat twice a day and give Doofus an insulin shot once a day. Everyone here at GOC Central is now in rotten health.

Anyway, Saturday's dinner was great! We grilled steaks. I made rotini pasta with shrimp. Tossed a salad. I opened a nice 1995 Chateauneuf du Pape. Had a nice glass of Delemain Vesper cognac after dinner. A good time was had by all.

So it turns out the sniper was an adherent of the Religion of Peace^TM. But all the profilers said he was a white guy. How could that be?

In Saturday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation, I came across this article.

SNIPER SHOOTINGS: Islam connection shakes Muslims Metro adherents say killers tar their image.

Ya think?

The good news came first, recalled Suhail Ali, a Muslim accountant who lives in Atlanta.

The Washington, D.C.-area sniper, after a three-week reign of terror in a city where Ali had relatives and friends, had finally been caught.

The bad news followed seconds later. One of the suspects was a convert to Islam named Muhammad.

A member of the Religion of Peace.^TM

"Ordinarily we celebrate when we hear someone has converted to Islam," said Ali. "But we rue the day when John Allen Williams took the name of our holiest prophet."

For many of metro Atlanta's 32,000 Muslims who gathered at area mosques for noon prayers Friday, the sniper suspect's faith was cause for consternation.

Oh? And why was that?

Some said Muhammad had once again tarred the image of a peaceful religion, just as it was recovering from the shameflul blow dealt by the Sept. 11 hijackers. Others disapprovingly noted that a true Muslim would never boast he is God, as the sniper did in a note at one of the shootings, much less kill without justification.

So the hijackers were not true Muslims? The bombers at Bali were not true Muslims? The murderers of Daniel Pearl were not true Muslims? The hostage takers in Moscow are not true Muslims? The Palestinian thugs who target innocent women and children are not true Muslims? All the calls for death to Americans and Jews at the Grand Mosque at Mecca arenot being preached by true Muslims? There sure must be a lot of fake Muslims running around.

Still others emphatically pointed to reports that Muhammad was a member of the Nation of Islam, a fringe group that combines Islam and black nationalism, and is led by controversial firebrand Louis Farrakhan.

"His ties to Islam are tenuous at best," said Faheem Abu Na'im, an optometrist from Atlanta.

Yeah. Them black Muslims are fake Muslims.

Although officials haven't said whether religious beliefs played a role in the attacks, some Muslims fear that message has seeped into the American consciousness. The recent terrorist attacks in Indonesia, Kuwait and other countries where Americans were killed have strengthened the belief that Islam fosters terrorism, some said.

Could it be because almost all the terrorist acts committed during the last year were by members of the Religion of Peace^TM?

Tarek Aziz, a real estate agent in Sandy Springs, has seen the effects of such a distortion on a close friend.

"He always stood up for me when others asked me all these hostile questions about Islam," said Aziz. "But after this latest incident, he says, 'You know, Tarek, there's always a reason behind stereotypes.'

"Even he had internalized that being a Muslim means you're anti-American."

No, he had probably internalized that the face of Islam shown to the world is of an intolerant, hate spewing religion. Death to the Jews! Death to America! Tarek, ol' buddy, when we hear this bullshit over and over again and we hear no condemnation from American Muslims we tend to think that you guys agree with all this crap. We hear no high profile Muslim leaders in the United States condemning all the Islamic terrorism. We hear stuff like it's all Israel's fault. Israel had nothing to do with Bali.

You want us to stop thinking you're anti-American? Condemn all terrorism. Oh, I forgot. To you people, killing Jewish children, women and old people isn't terrorism. But to us civilized people, killing civilians is wrong. We went to a lot of trouble to avoid killing civilians in Afghanistan. We will also try to keep civilian casualties at a minimum when we attack Iraq. Too bad your Religion of Peace^TM does not feel the same way. When we hear Islam actually preaching peace and a comdemnation of killing instead of all the hatred we hear coming from the Middle East, maybe then we'll believe Islam is a Religion of Peace^TM. And when we hear comdemnation of the hatred spewing from the Middle East by American Muslims, maybe then we'll quit thinking you guys are anti-American.

I won't hold my breath.

2002-10-24T20:26:00.000-04:00

Who Is Antonio Gramschi?

Just damn! My buddy Kim Dutoit done did a takedown on Lileks. The sacrilege! The horror! You need to scroll down to find what I'm talking about

I'm behind Kim 100% on this. This should not have been a Bleat. It should have been one of Lileks' famous Screeds. And Kim was right. He should have not been so polite and taken every step Kim demanded. Jesus H. Christ! He's right when he said that they're starting earlier in bullshit indoctrination that Hitler. Every year at the start of the school year Neal Boortz rants about people taking their most cherished possessions, their children, and sending them off to gummint indoctrination centers

I have a few questions to ask conservatives:

When are you gonna start fighting back? You Republicans quit fighting dirty after Lee Atwater died. Look. This is a war. The Dimocrats will stop at nothing to get and maintain power. They almost stole the election in Florida. And the next time a Dimocrat says that the Supreme Court gave the election to Bush, tell 'em that they were just making Florida obey the law. The all Dimocrat Florida Supreme Court tried to change the election laws (just like the New Jersey Supreme Court did). And anyway, you Dimocrat assholes, all the recounts that Gore wanted, and were done after the election, showed that Bush won. Quit your whining and shut the fuck up! I'm tired of listening to your bullshit.
When are you gonna stop watching Survivor and start watching what is being done to your country right before your eyes?

I have another reading assignment. Read this by Mrs. Dutoit. Go ahead. Read it now. I'll wait.

I will be writing sumpin' later about her Mark Twain series and dead white men and the travesty of the public education system. But now that I've brought up education, let's see how it fits into the grand scheme of the Dimocrat Socialist Party.

How many of you have ever heard of Antonio Gramschi? Let's see a show of hands. Anyone? No one? Well, here's some interesting info about him, Marx, and Lenin. Geez, it's from Oakland?

III.Antonio Gramschi, 1891-1937 A.The New Order (L'Ordine Nuovo) 1.Italian Communist newspaper, founded 1919 2.Co-founder of Italian Communist Party, 1921 3.Pre-Prison Writings, ed. Richard Bellamy (Cambridge, 1994) 4.Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Intl. Publishers, 1971) B.Lenin was wrong, and the Leninist revolution will fail 1.The workers will see the revolutionary government as a new boss 2.When the revolution fails, the west will re-import Capitalism

So, according to Gramschi, revolution will fail. Man, he must have been prescient. That's what happened to the Soviet Union and its puppets. He had a better idea:

C.Gradual revolution: infiltrate, Co-opt, Subvert 1.Infiltrate the State: elective & appointed office; judgeships

This was why the 2000 election was so important. Bush will probably get to appoint someone to the Supreme Court. This is also why the 2002 Senate election is important. The Dimocrats want to keep the judicial sysytem as liberal as possible. Look at the way they have bottled up judicial appointments in the Senate. We learned in Florida and in New Jersey that Dimocrat justices have no regard for the law.

2.Infiltrate the military: enlist & subvert from within

So far that hasn't happened yet. I think.

3.Infiltrate justice: undermine and discredit state constitutions

Florida Supreme Court - All Dimocrats. New Jersey Supreme Court - All Dimocrats. The Clinton Justice Department. Need I say more?

4.Infiltrate education: professors & administrators

Hello! They're doing it right in front of us. Good God! They're doing it in pre-school and Lileks is being polite about it. How about a fucking screed? They're doing it to your two year old child right in front of your eyes!

5.Infiltrate & discredit religion: scoundrels as clergymen

Is this a game plan or what? Look at all those disgraceful Catholic priests! And let's make this front page news.

6.Register, then license, then confiscate all privately held weapons

Wow! This is scary. Is there more? You bet!

D.Form or infiltrate international organizations to promote goals such as "global understanding," "economic development," "transfer of resources"

Enter the United Nations and 'one world government' bullshit. The only way I would put up with 'one world government' would be if we ran it. You think I want the French to tell us what to do. By the way, do you know why France is holding up their approval of the Iraq invasion? They have the white flag concession and haven't manufactured enough yet.

E.Both Capitalism and Judaeo-Christian culture must be destroyed before a Communist revolution can succeed

I'm an atheist, but even I'm shocked at the assault on Christianity in this country. And we are moving slowly but surely toward socialism.

1.Religious sentiment cannot be destroyed through legislation, as Lenin believed, but must be redirected from the divine to the state a.Terror will only drive Religion underground b.Religion will then reemerge when Leninism fails

Religion has reemerged in Russia. I was there eight years ago. I was amazed! Gramschi was right on. c.So Religion must be destroyed in the minds of men 2.Infiltrate religious academies and become priests and clergymen a.Subtly promote heresy within religious organizations b.Infiltrators must act so as to discredit the church (1)Cause financial and sexual scandals (2)See that this is given a high profile in the news (3)Like-minded infiltrators in the media will cooperate

Hmmmmm! Sound familiar?

3.Once religion is discredited from within, continuously promote the idea that only the state can solve the problems that have been traditionally brought before the church

Whatever we do, let's not have faith based programs. Let's discredit the Salvation Army because of their anti-gay policies. Remove 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance.

F.When propagating revolutionary ideas, cloak them in polite terms 1.National Consensus

Cite polls when they agree with your point of view. Ignore them when they don't.

2.Popular Mandate

Ditto.

3.National Pacification

Gun registration with eventual disarmament.

4.Pluralism

Democracy. This country is not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic. There is a reason. Our founding fathers did not want mob rule.

5.Global Community

Oh! My! God! It takes a fucking village. I'm about to puke!

6.Economic Justice

Socialism!

7.Economic Democracy

Fucking Socialism!

8.Liberation Theology

Fucking Religious Socialism!

9.Direct Action

What they're doing and we ain't!

G.Marxists "must enter into every civil, cultural, and political activity in every nation, leavening them as yeast leavens bread."

Europe is going there. That's why we're kicking their ass economically.

H. Subvert the existing hegemonic culture and replace it with a "counter-hegemony" that is based on the revolutionary culture of the oppressed masses

Or as Dickhead Gephardt puts it 'those who have not won life's lottery'.

So there you have it. The Dimocrats have taken their game plan straight from Antonio Gramschi. They've taken over the media, the ~~gummint~~ public ~~indoctrination~~ school system. In many states, they have taken control of the judiciary. Election laws mean nothing to them. Look at all the election scandals. They are all Dimocrat scandals, and, since they control the media, they're not telling us that.

So what can we do about it? Howza 'bout turning off the TV and looking at the bullshit that your children are being ~~brainwashed with~~ taught in the gummint indoctrination centers. My sister lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and they tried to brainwash her son with all this multicultural bullshit. My sister and her husband done good with him. He would get in trouble in class because he would disagree with a lot of the bullshit they tried to ram down his throat. Good for him.

Wake up and look at what is going on. There's still time.

Let's not waste it.

2002-10-23T17:45:00.000-04:00

Social Security

I feel better, but I'm in a real grouchy mood. I slept most of the day, which means I probably won't sleep well tonight. That means I'll be dragging my ass tomorrow. But that's not why I am pissed. I want this election to be over. Now! Right Now!

Every two years we can count on the Dimocrats demagoging Social Security. Risky scheme here. The Republicans want old folks to starve there. I'm sick of it. But, since it works, they're gonna continue with the bullshit. I went off on this two days ago and I could probably go off on it until the election.

Social Security is like the Holy Roman Empire (It was not holy, Roman, or an empire.) in that it is not social (unless you mean socialism since it steals money from one group of people to give to another group of people) and it is not security (Try living on it.) This is another despicable thing done by the Dimocrat Socialist Party. They have promulgated this myth that one can live on Social Security.

Besides everything else, Social Security is illegal, that is, if it were run by anyone other than the gummint. It is nothing but a ponzi scheme (a pyramid scheme). The only way it can continue is if you keep adding more ~~suckers~~ people to the system. Unfortunately, we baby boomers are gonna start hitting the system big time. Since we boomers are selfish and self indulgent we didn't bother to have lots of kids. Thus, the bottom of the pyramid is not growing enough to sustain this ripoff. We're fast approaching a day of reckoning.

Stop me if you've heard this before. Within the next few years, we'll either have to raise taxes or cut benefits. Or, we'll have to try another solution. As usual, Dimocrats won't say what their plan is, but during the 40 years they controlled Congress, their solution was always to raise taxes. They also started taxing Social Security itself. Remember, a Dimocrat has never met a tax he didn't like.

Many Republicans are actually risking political suicide by suggesting that we at least look at other solutions. But, with the current bear market the Dimocrats are braying, like the jackasses they are, that if the Republican's risky scheme had been implemented everyone's Social Security money would have been lost.

Let's think about this. We've had 401(K)'s for about 20 years now. I have contributed the maximum amount (12% of my salary plus 3% from TCIDNN ) to my 401(K) which amounts to about 15% of my salary. I have had that in a mix of bonds and stocks. I have been in the Social Security system for 40 years. Currently about 15% of my salary goes to Social Security. What? It's only around 7.5% isn't it? Nope. You pay around 7.5% and your employer pays about 7.5%. That's money your employer could be paying you instead of the gummint. Ask a self employed person how much money he/she pays.

According to my last 401(K) statement, I have made almost as much money as I've contributed. This is after the losses of the past year. If I could invest what I already have in my 401(K) in 6% bonds, I would make almost as much as Social Security will pay me when I start taking payments in six more years. Granted bonds aren't currently paying 6%, but overall my 20 years in the market is doing better than my 40 years of Social Security payments.

This is how the S&P 500 index has done since 1926:

Average annual return 10.7%
Years with a loss 22 out of 76
Average loss -12.1%
Worst one year loss -43.1%

The above figures were courtesy of the Vanguard Group and were in the latest newsletter sent with my 401(K) statement. These figures include the 1929 stock market crash. They do not include 2002. Even so, 75 years of data show a 10.7% anual yield over time for the S&P 500. This is real money.

The Social Scurity trust fund on the other hand is broke. Broke? How can that be? The politicians tell us there's over $1 trillion in it. Nope. The trust fund consists of gummint bonds. In other words, the gummint borrowed the money to mask the deficit. Those bonds will have to be paid back. Guess who gets to make the payments? So, we've paid money into Social Security which the gummint has borrowed and then they'll have to tax us again to pay off the gummint bonds. And they have done this right in front of everyone. Suckers!

So we're on our way to big problems. The Republicans want to try something to fix the problem by allowing people to invest their own money. The Dimocrats want to win elections. Ask them what their solution to Social Security is.

Good luck getting an answer.

2002-10-22T21:40:00.000-04:00

No Blog

I'm coming down with sumpin' and I feel like crap. I can't even muster up the energy to make fun of Dimocrats. Maybe tomorrow.

2002-10-21T23:08:00.000-04:00

Pushing Granny Off the Cliff

Short blog tonight.

Why's that?

I couldn't blog from work.

Whaddya mean you couldn't blog from work? 'Sup wit dat? You mean TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name) expected you to work for the outrageous salary they pay you?

Yeah, I know. I keep telling my boss if you want me to do systems programming and other work like that, I want more money. Also, Operations had problems bringing systems up this AM and I was drinking coffee with one of my co-workers and discussing how this particular DASD box was supposed to handle concurrent write operations and other mundane stuff. When I got back to my office, there were five voicemail messages from Operations asking why the systems weren't coming up and what could I do about the problem. My team lead, who shares my office, asked the same questions. Fortunately, all the problems were simple and were (cough! cough!) uh... programming problems.

What's that. Speak up! I can't hear you.

All right. They were programming problems! I fucked up! Are you happy?

Geez! No need to get ballistic. You sure are touchy.

Anyway, I fixed the simple problems and did some other minor stuff and was just getting ready to go up to the raised floor lab and test out some systems I built last week when my team lead pointed out that we had to attend a conference call on our 1st Quarter 2003 financial plan. That's where we put together our equipment wish list of the hardware resources that we need and will never get. It is an exercise in futility. Most of the call, I make sure the phone is on mute so no one hears my sarcastic remarks and my peals of uncontrollable laughter as I listen to people treat these requests as if they think they will really happen. Excuse me. Could I have another hit off that bong?

My team lead leaves around 3:15. He's real dedicated and comes in around 7:00 AM (He lives in the suburbs north of Atlanta. If you don't leave for work around 6:00 AM, you don't get in until 8:30. Atlanta traffic sucks big time. What about mass transit? Whoa! That's a blog for another day.), works through lunch and leaves between 3:00 and 3:30. Shhhh! Don't tell. I leave about fifteen minutes after he does. The joke running around our department is I leave five minutes after he does, and everyone leaves 45 minutes after I do. If I can't get him out the door before 4:00 PM everyone in the department gets pissed.

I wanted to make sure I got out at a reasonable time since I was going to a Sommelier Guild of Atlanta wine tasting tonight and we were gonna taste 2000 vintage southern Rhone reds. I love Rhone reds. The tasting was excellent and I was on my best behavior. I sat next to a gentleman whose politics happen to be to the left of mine.

Yeah, like that's hard to do. Atilla the Hun would be to the left of you.

Who asked you? Anyway, about a year ago at one of the Guild functions, I was badmouthing the Europeans about Kyoto and how hypocritical they were being and he took exception to what I was saying. We had a little discussion about it. Before he left, he said he hoped I didn't take it personally. Of course I didn't. He was a dumb liberal asshole. Why should I take it personal. No, I didn't tell him that. He sat next to me tonight. I promised Michael (of the Michael and Cindy duo) that I would be good, and I was.

So how was the tasting?

Very good, thank you. I'll be going down to Greens to stock up on some 2000 Rhones for my cellar. The stuff I'll be buying can be drunk now, but won't be primo for over five years, which is why I'll be cellaring it.

So, I'm in a pretty good mood tonight and I'm really mellow and not up to a good rant, but it's not due to lack of effort by the Dimocrats. I got home from work tonight and in my mailbox was a piece of mail that had a picture of toast, scrambled eggs, juice and coffee. Next to that was a copy of the Atlanta Urinal anjd Constipation with a screaming headline Dow at 4-year low as stocks tumble. Under that, it says Investor losses hit $7.1 trillion in bear market. Oh my! What's this all about? As if I didn't know.

On the top of this picture it says For Georgia's Seniors - this was a really bad morning. Under the picture it says And Saxby Chambliss is making it worse

Holy shit! Here comes the Dimocrat scare campaign.

I turn the page and inside is a picure of FDR and the following text:

We depend on Social Security to be there for us.

I don't. I have a brain.

Over 50 years ago when ~~an illegal ponzi scheme~~ Social Security became law - it made a simple promise - that when you retired it would be there for you.

Please tell me if it is such a great system why our elected representatives aren't in it?

And in the years since then, that simple promise has helped millions of Americans retire with dignity

As long as they did not have to rely on it for their sole means of support.

they deserved after a lifetime of work.

Now, however ... some in Congress want to change all that.

Uh Oh! This can't be good!

Saxby Chambliss is one of them.

Why that heartless bastard!

I turn the page in breathless anticipation. What could be next?

Saxby Chambliss has proposed a risky gamble to the Social Security system that puts your future benefits at risk.

Yeah. Like I have a lot of confidence in the Social Security trust fund that the politicians have been raiding ever since Lyndon Johnson put it on budget in the 60's to mask the real size of the deficit. And the surplus the Dimocrats like to crow about? Never happened. Without Social Security tax receipts, there was still a budget deficit. And the trust fund? It's full of IOU's from the gummint. There's no money there. The money has been stolen and spent. And we let the politicians get away with it! Bastards!

Back to what Chambliss is gonna do to granny.

He has proposed a risky scheme that lets Social Security funds be placed in volatile stock market accounts

Rather than stable gummint accounts that have been raided by our elected representatives.

gambling with the solvency of the system

Solvency? The trust funds are full off IOU's. There's no money there!

and putting benefits at risk.

His plan leads to big reductions in Social Security's guaranteed benefits, cuts in the annual cost of living adjustments and raising the retirement age for retirees.

Which is gonna hapen anyway unless we raise the tax on all the gen-x'ers. Sorry dudes. You gonna get fucked! Old people vote.

These Social Security schemes endanger a system that has kept its promise to America's seniors for three generations.

And is just about ready to give gen-x the shaft.

Let's make sure that it is there for current beneficiaries and for generations to come.

Don't let Saxby Chambliss' risky Social Security plan gamble away your retirement.

After all, there's nothing to gamble away. All the money has all been spent. Guess what gen-x? You dudes get to pay my Social Security for the rest of my life.

Dude! I'm gettin' a check. You're gettin' fucked.

Sure is a good thing you don't vote.

2002-10-20T19:38:00.000-04:00

Gravitas, Foreign Policy, and Other Bullshit

Are you a dipshit? To find out, take this test. My score was 5%. So I must only be a 5% dipshit.

I had my friends Michael and Cindy over for my birthday last night. Wait a minute. That's not quite right. Every year for my birthday, they have me over to their house for dinner. But, since they're having a wall knocked out to make a big room out of their living room and den, their house is a royal mess. So, they bought dinner at a real good Italian deli/restaurant and we had dinner here at GOC Central. Michael brought over all Italian wines. We had a Soave, a Chianti, and a Barbera. All three were excellent. The food was excellent.

Last night was not really my birthday. That's later this week. I'll be 56. For my birthday, Cindy, who is a very good knitter, gave me a hand knit sweater. This is the seventh sweater she has knitted for me. They are incredibly beautiful. Periodically she asks me which one I like best. That is, of course, a trick question. It's like, "Does this dress make me look fat?" The proper answer is, "Of course not honey. Since you're not fat, no dress could ever make you look fat." I answer the sweater question with, "They're all so beautiful, it's impossible to have a favorite." Oops! My secret is out.

After dinner, we were discussing politics and Michael asked why I hadn't done a blog about the latest revelations that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons. What's there to discuss? It's another foreign policy failure of the Clinton administration. Surprised? Not me. Think back to the 1992 elections. The catch phrase was "It's the economy, stupid." Clinton and Gore kept telling us it was the worst economy in fifty years, which it wasn't, and the fawning liberal press never called them on that lie. Just as it never called them on all the other lies told over and over again by what will probably turn out to be the most corrupt administration in the history of this country. Has any president or first lady ever had their net worth go up as much as the Clintons during their eight years in office?

After the succes of the Gulf War, Clinton certainly couldn't run on foreign policy. Which I think rather ironic that in the 2000 elections the press hammered Bush as not having gravitas and not having a proper grasp of foreign policy. Foreign policy? All of a sudden that's important? And gravitas? Where the fuck did that come from? Who came up with gravitas? And Bush didn't have any? He sure had a hell of a lot more than that overgrown adolescent Bill Clinton who liked to assault women and get his knob waxed by a stupid, chubby intern. You call that gravitas?

Oh shit! Now I'm starting to get pissed! And it's been such a good day so far. I didn't get up until noon, and my feet don't hurt (As part of being a cripple I have phantom foot pain. I take many legal drugs for that. The day after drinking, my feet usually hurt more.) as much as they normally do on a Sunday. And, the Atlanta Falcons won again. Now the worst they can do this season is finish 3-13. But, just hearing that bullshit word gravitas, set me off.

The bad thing about Dimocrats and their foreign policy is the Dimocrats are usually clueless. Most of them have never met a socialist/communist dictator they didn't like. Let's engage Castro. The worker's paradise. Free health care. Bullshit. And that brings us to North Korea.

North Korea was developing nukes and the Clinton administration, using their foreign policy brilliance, negotiated a solution. If the North Koreans stopped trying to develop nukes, we would help them build a nuclear reactor. In other words, we were buying them off. I'm not sure, but was Jimmy Carter involved in the negotiations? It sounds like bullshit that clueless idiot would be involved in.

That really stupid president Ronald Reagan (All he ever did was win the Cold War. Not bad for a dunce.) came up with a wonderful quote, "Trust, but verify". Dimocrats, and the other useful idiots on the left seem to think that all you have to do is sign a treaty and the other side will automatically honor it. It doesn't work that way dipshits. Trust, but verify!

Now the left is saying, we don't want to cut off aid to North Korea. We need to engage them. No, you stupid dipshits, we need to immediately stop all aid. We need to totally bankrupt their economy like we did to the Soviets. But, it will hurt the poor innocent people of North Korea, But when we were trying to get South Africa to change their political system, the economic sanctions hurt the people we were trying to help.

The left: Well that was different.

Me: OK. 'Spain to me why it was different.

The left: Apartheid was evil.

Me: And communism isn't?

The left: You don't understand.

Me: You're right. 'Splain it to me.

The left: You're just a mean spirited conservative. You want to see North Koreans and Cubans die. It's not their fault.

Actually, I'm a mean spirited libertarian. I don't give a shit about Cubans and North Koreans. I don't give a shit about Palestinians or Iraqis. I care about Americans. I care about myself. I realize that's pretty selfish of me, but if it's me or them, I vote me. We Americans have more freedom and the highest standard of living in the world. I kinda like it that way. I don't like the fact that every time we turn the gummint over to the Dimocrats they immediately cut military spending, screw up our intelligence gathering ability, and turn our foreign policy into Kumbaya feel good bullshit policies. Listen up dipshits! The main function of our foreign policy should be to ensure that no one fucks with us. That means North Korea. That means Iraq.

But what should we do about North Korea? I've already said what. If we're giving them any aid, stop it immediately. I don't want to hear any liberal twit talking about engagement.

And whatever we do, keep Jimmy Carter out of the process.

We don't need him to fuck up anything else.

2002-10-17T11:33:00.000-04:00

Liberal, Beating His Brain, and Whipped

I was racking my brain today trying to think of something to write and durned if the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation, in the person of Jay Bookman, didn't serve me up a softball to clobber. And no, this is not some sort of sado-masochistic blog. Jay is one of our resident liberals at the Atlanta paper. Over the weekend he wrote a piece of tripe about Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King being 'Two Pillars of Peace'. Todays piece of shit is about why people hate Jimmy Carter.

I'm beating my brain, but I'm still whipped

The title. Maybe if he quit beating his brain, he wouldn't be whipped.

Many things confuse me.

That's understandable. He's a liberal. It goes with the territory.

For example, I do not for the life of me understand why some people look at Jimmy Carter and see the AntiChrist.

Actually, we look at Jimmy Carter and we see someone who was probably one of the worst presidents this country has ever had.

You mention his name and they froth at the mouth and start muttering words such as "traitor" and "disgrace," in between words I can't print here.

Dumb fuck. Shithead. Asshole. Incompetent prick. Nice thing about the blogosphere. I can say 'em.

It's weird.

What? That we think Jimmy Carter is a dumb fuck, shithead, asshole, and an incompetent prick?

I can certainly understand not voting for Carter. In 1976, the first year I could cast a ballot, I myself voted for Gerald Ford.

Which means Jay's gone completely opposite of what Winston Churchill once said: "If you are not a liberal in your twenties, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative in your thirties, you have no brain."

I can also see why people might think Carter was an unsuccessful president.

I can too. Panama Canal. Iran hostage crisis. Double digit inflation. Double digit interest rates. Malaise. Gas lines. And that's just off the top of my head.

And if you think that somebody else might have been a better choice for the Nobel Peace Prize, hey, everybody's got a right to an opinion.

Opinions are just like assholes. Everyone has one.

But hatred? Of Jimmy Carter?

I don't hate him as much as I hate Bill Clinton if that makes Jay feel better.

But as I said, there's a lot I don't understand.

And as I said, he's a liberal and that goes with the territory.

Take this strategy where we're gonna try to destroy al-Qaida by attacking its enemy, Iraq. I've really been trying to figure this one out.

Iraq is a sponsor of terrorism. President Bush said that in the fight against terrorism, you're either with us or against us. Iraq is against us. Maybe Jay missed that speech.

I even watched President Bush's speech last week, in which he explained that we have to attack Iraq so it won't give arms to terrorists.

Then what's the problem?

For a brief moment, I thought I understood.

For a liberal, that would be a very brief moment.

But then, the very next day, the president's own CIA said that such a transfer of weapons was highly unlikely.

Would that be the CIA run by a Clinton appointee (and why hasn't that bastard been replaced) that was eviscerated during the eight years of the Clinton administration?

Which confused me even more.

How is that possible?

It does remind me, though, of an e-mail I got right after Sept. 11. A reader blamed the attack on President Clinton for failing to strike back hard enough after previous terror attacks on U.S. targets.

A few goats and and aspirin factory.

If that's the case, I responded, you have to blame Ronald Reagan too. Back in 1983, after Arab terrorists killed 200 Marines sleeping in their barracks in Lebanon, Reagan pulled our troops out of the region and ran off with his tail between his legs.

He's partially right about that. I think we should have kicked some major butt after that. But then Reagan bombed Libya. Didn't hear much from Ghadaffy (only one of the many spellings, but I like it the best 'cause it ends in daffy) after that did we? He's also overlooking the Gulf War where we did kick butt. Unfortunately, we didn't finish the job and then compounded the error by electing Clinton our pussy-in-chief. He did nothing except the above mentioned goaticide and the obliteration of the aspirin factory. Oh. I forgot. He also bit his lip and felt our pain.

That didn't go over well.

What your faulty logic?

In fact, based on the guy's reaction, you would have thought I had showed him a picture of Jimmy Carter.

Why? Did he throw up or burst out laughing? Those would be two valid reactions to a picture of Jimmy Carter.

Reagan did fight back, he insisted. To retaliate for the Lebanon attack, two days later the United States invaded Grenada.

Huh? Either Jay is making this up or the guy he's debating is a moron. The one had absolutely nothing to do with the other. We never retaliated for Lebanon. We should have rained cruise missiles on the Beka'a Valley. Even I admit Reagan fucked up on that one.

Somehow, I suspect that guy's now working in the Bush White House.

Somehow I doubt that. He's probably a liberal columnist at the AJC.

If so, he has probably met White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who's another source of confusion to me.

I'm beginning to think Jay walks around in a constant state of confusion. There are drugs for that. Or maybe it's because of drugs.

When Fleischer was asked why Bush opposed a national firearms database that would track deadly bullets back to the gun that fired them, Fleischer tried quickly to change the subject:

Ari, I'll answer that question. Because it wouldn't fucking work you gun grabbing asshole. And I'll let my buddy Kim (scroll down to the 10 questions the President should ask the ATF) answer that question.

"And certainly, in the case of the sniper, the real issue is values," he said. "And that's what is at stake here. The real issue is values. These are the acts of a depraved killer, who has broken and will continue to break laws. And so the question is not new laws; the question is the actions here represent the values in our society."

Now what could possibly be confusing about that?

Values? A sniper is picking off innocent Americans, and our leaders talk about values?

You bet your liberal ass he's talking about values. What do you want him to talk about? That liberal bullshit about why they hate us? Or maybe he came from a broken home? Or maybe he grew up in grinding poverty? The guy is killing innocent people which is against the values of our society. And how did we get off on this tangent? I thought this column was supposed to be about Jimmy fucking Carter?

As I said, that's all over my head.

Is he bragging or complaining?

And finally, there's this mystery: Last month, one year after hijackers crashed airliners into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, airport security screeners confiscated 62,000 knives, 59 guns and 2,900 boxcutters from passengers preparing to board airplanes, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Since these figures come from the TSA they're suspect. I wonder how many of the guns were real and how many were toys? And what is the mystery? And what the fuck does this have to do with anything he's talking about? Do you realize he gets paid to write this shit?

I don't get that either. Does it have something to do with values?

I don't get it either. What the fuck is he talking about?

Grenada?

We won.

Jimmy Carter?

He finally comes back to Jimmy Carter.

Somebody help me here.

Jay, I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but you are beyond help.

And now we come to an example of life imitating art. When I used to watch Cheers, I always thought that Woody Harrelson was acting. Little did I know then, that the character he was portraying, Woody, was actually more intelligent than the real life Woody. It kinda reminds me of what Grant Tinker once said of Ed Asner: "'Ed Asner has Lou Grant's image but Ed Asner's brain". Did ya see the incredibly stupid op-ed (link via Drudge) he wrote, for, who'd a thunk it, the Guardian? Now I was thinking of only fisking the two most ridiculous paragraphs of this op-ed, but I started laughing so hard I couldn't type. In one paragraph he has:

Kyoto - which would destroy our economy.
Join the world court - which is against our Constitution.
Stop subsidising earth rapers like Monsanto, Dupont and Exxon - no comment.
Shut down the nuclear power plants - Between that and Kyoto and we'd really have an energy crisis.

He left out 'Give Peace a Chance' and 'Save the Whales'.

If there are any blogger wannabes who want to try out a fisk of a column, this would be a good place to start. It would write itself.

I really think we folks in the blogosphere should come up with some sort of a weekly award for the most ridiculous thing said by an actor. We could call it the BABS (Bullshit Actor's Banal Statement - or sumpin' like that - this was just off the top of my head), named after, guess who? That's right, the person who thought Saddam Hussein was the dictator of Iran. Now who would be the arbiter? I recommend, Rachel Lucas or Andrea Harris. Both of them read me and they both have more readers than I do, so Rachel, Andrea, if either of you want to pick up on this, be my guest.

Meanwhile, Woody has me laughing so hard I just gotta stop.

See y'all next week.

2002-10-16T20:37:00.000-04:00

Telemarketers and Junk Mail

So you're having a good time on your computer and all of a sudden a rash of Instant Messages arrive and completely breaks your train of thought. If this has happened to you, you know how Charles Butler must have felt.

Bummer. Kinda like telemarketers. I hate those bastards! I used to be real polite and say "I'm sorry. I'm not interested." I did that once and hung up and damned if the bastard didn't call back.

Me: Hello

Asshole Telemarketeer (AT): Mr. Wilson, we got cutoff.

Me: No. I told you that I wasn't interested. Goodbye.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Answering machine picks up and answers with my clever message.

AT: So, you sonuvabitch. You're not answering. Well fuck you you bastard!

I'm not making this up. It actually happened.

I have some rules regarding the telephone:

I don't answer it during dinner.
I don't answer it when I'm in a foul mood.
I don't answer it when I don't want to be disturbed.
I don't answer it when I'm not at home.

I refuse to allow the telephone to rule my life. Since I don't always answer the phone when I'm home, my friends Wahoo and Jeanella bought me an answering machine one year for Christmas. That way, they could at least leave me messages.

Back to AT's. I have caller id, but I can't read it unless I'm wearing my reading glasses. AT's usually show private line anyway. Like I said, I used to be polite, but I've gotten grouchier as I've gotten older. If I answer the phone and don't hear anything for 3 seconds, I know it's a computer generated call and I hang up. If they call manually and I hear noise in the background, I know its a boiler room and I hang up. But I'm doing it all wrong.

What's the worst thing you can do to a AT? Waste his time. I work with a guy named Dave, and he loves AT's. He tries to keep them on the phone as long as possible. Example:

Dave (as Jeeves the butler): Dave's residence. Jeeves speaking.

AT: Uh, is this the Dave residence?

Jeeves: Yes. This Jeeves, the butler. Whom are you calling please?

AT: Uh, I'd like to speak to Mr. Dave please.

Jeeves: And whom may I say is calling, sir?

AT: This is Asshole with the Annoying Company.

Jeeves: And Mr. Asshole, this would be in regard to what?

According to Dave, this would be about the time the AT would hang up.

Another time he played an old German gentleman and the AT was trying to sell him a condo in Helen Georgia. "Vy vould I like to go to hell, in Georgia". Dave says it drives 'em nuts and he has a great time.

But, I found an even better thing to do to AT's. A friend sent me the following:

Now Steve Rubenstein, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, has proposed "Three Little Words" based on his brief experience in a telemarketing operation that would stop the nuisance for all time. The three little words are "Hold On, Please." Saying this while putting down your phone and walking off instead of hanging up immediately would make each telemarketing call so time-consuming that boiler rooms would grind to a halt.

When you eventually hear the phone company's beep-beep-beep tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task. This might be one of those articles you'll want to e-mail to your friends. Three little words that eliminate telephone soliciting.

I love it! How come I can't think of stuff like this?

Somehow, I got on the mailing list of the Democratic National Committee. Don't have the slightest idea how that happened. Well, maybe, it's because I subscribe to the New Republic and they sold 'em my name. Bastards! Anyway, they're always hitting me up for contributions. They always send a return envelope for me to use to send in my contribution. I just seal the empty envelope and mail it back. But, I'm really missing an opportunity. Here's what I should do (Sent to me by a friend):

When you get ads in your phone or utility bill, include them with the payment let the companies throw them away.

When you get those pre-approved letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and junk like that, most of them come with postage paid return envelopes, right?

Now this is GREAT!! I didn't think of this!!!

Well, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little envelopes!

Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send the pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day then just send them their application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can send it back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing!

Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting their junk back in the mail. Let's let them know what it's like to get junk mail, and the best of it is that they're paying for it! Twice!

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they say e-mail is cutting into their business, and that's why they need to increase postage again!

Send this to a friend or two or three...or fifty

Or anyone who reads this blog. C'mon people. Let's go.

I'm now looking forwards to junk mail.

Just this morning, I sent an add for painting and an add for carpet cleaning to Dissent Magazine.

Hope they like it.

2002-10-15T11:47:00.000-04:00

Guns, Jimmy Carter and the Wacky McKinneys

Sorry there was no post yesterday, but Blogger decided to go flakey. I know. I know. That's a common problem for Blogger, but as I have mentioned many times, you get what you pay for. Just like my posts, blogs, articles, columns, or whatever y'all want to call my writing that I do here, sometimes I'm good and sometimes I suck. But, through it all I keep on posting.

My buddy, Kim sent me a link to an editorial in last Thursday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation yet again arguing against arming airline pilots. Ever since Cynthia Tucker, editor-in-chief of the AJC's editorial page succeeded in her crusade to get Cynthia McKinney out of office, she's reverted back to her socialist, gun grabbing agenda. She wrote an editorial back in July on the same subject, so I went back in my archives and found this post fisking a previous editorial. Lazy? Yep. But she uses the same old tired arguments every time she writes about arming pilots. So, all I have to do is repost. As an added bonus, I have some kind words to say about the religion of peace.^TM Caution! Contains adult language.

The local paper has been Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter, and Jimmy Carter. To whit:

Saturday stories:
- CARTER WINS NOBEL PRIZE: Voice for peace (Barf!)
- CARTER WINS NOBEL PRIZE: Honor spotlights Georgian amid talk of war (More barf!)
- VOICE FOR PEACE: IRAN: Hostages' early bitterness softened through the years. (Yeah, you incompetent bastard. We've just about forgiven you for the 444 days we spent in captivity, you asshole!)
- VOICE FOR PEACE: Books win critical and public acclaim (Yeah, he writes books too. More barf and I'm really starting to blow chunks!)
- VOICE FOR PEACE: ATLANTA PROJECT: Even Carter can't defeat urban woes (No shit! You expect Jimmy Carter to be a success at anything? Jesus, now the chunks are coming through my nose. Arrgggh!)
- VOICE FOR PEACE: U.S. REACTION (Andrew Young, St. Coretta Scott (Ka-ching!) King, and Griffen Bell shovel some major league bullshit - Nothing left in my stomach. It's nothing but dry heaves from now on)
- VOICE FOR PEACE: WORLD REACTION (Gunnar Berge, Hamid Karzai, and Shimon Peres check in with some more bullshit)
- VOICE FOR PEACE: COMPLEX CHRISTIAN: A man of faith who lives what he preaches (Ohhhh! I am in total agony now. Make them stop! Please! I'm begging you.)
- VOICE FOR PEACE: Q&A: Focus on Carter Center gratifying (Finally! The last article about Jimmy)
Sunday
- Carter credits his wife 'in everything I've done' (So it wasn't his fault after all. We can blame it all on Rosalynn!)
- JIMMY CARTER / MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: 2 pillars of peace (By Jay Bookman. Oh shit! This guy can make Molly Ivins look intelligent.)
- JIMMY CARTER'S NOBEL: Former president's award long overdue (By Andrew Young. Can it get any more painful than this? )
- JIMMY CARTER'S NOBEL: Prize eluded Carter for years, but peace victories rarely did (Oh no! It's starting again! Gag! Gag! Gag!)
- FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: GLOBE-TROTTING GEORGIAN (And when he was gone, he wasn't fucking up anything here.)

Do you have any idea how long it would take me to address the bullshit in all these stories? So, instead, I'll write about sumpin' else. And just look what I found in today's paper. By golly, it's those wacky McKinneys again.

A group of voters seeking to overturn the victory of Denise Majette over U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic primary accused Republicans today of "hijacking" the election

Now that's a serious charge. How did the Republicans hijack an election?

Standing on the steps of the DeKalb County Courthouse, four of the five plaintiffs, joined by McKinney's father, Billy, pledged to press on with their federal lawsuit. They claim Republicans

Wait a minute! I thought Billy McKinney said it was the Jews, J-E-W-S, who were at fault.

ensured Majette's victory by taking advantage of Georgia's open primaries to cross over and vote for McKinney's opponent.

Which is perfectly legal in Georgia.

They are asking a federal judge to reverse the election's outcome by erasing those votes.

Go ahead. She would have still lost as we shall see later.

The plaintiffs also dismissed an analysis published in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution showing that only a fraction of Majette's 19,000-vote margin of victory came from Republicans. The newspaper reported that only 3,118 of those votes came from clearly identifiable Republicans.

That can't be right! Don't confuse them with the facts. They are Dimocrats, after all.

"It's biased, just like everything else the Journal-Constitution does,"

The Journal-Constitution, if anything, is a left leaning paper. They were against Billy and Cynthia McKinney because they were tired of these two wackos embarrassing Georgia. Jimmy Carter is embarrassing enough.

said Billy McKinney, a state representative who was voted out of office three weeks after his daughter's Aug. 20 primary election defeat.

Nyah! Nyah! Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!

The plaintiffs claim that 37,500 Republicans crossed over and voted for Majette, more than half of the victor's vote total. Their analysis is based on the 2000 presidential primary in which a similar number of DeKalb voters cast ballots.

Holy shit! I didn't think there were that many Republicans in her district. Aha! They took away a lot of Republican voters from her district during ~~gerrymandering~~ redistricting and added a bunch of Dimocrats, so using 2000 election figures is bogus. But when did it ever bother a Dimocrat to use a bogus arguement?

In a two page analysis of the primary that is included in the lawsuit, Dan P. Young, a political consultant, wrote, "We know that 6,041 Republicans actually voted in the Republican fourth Congressional election, so what happened to the remaining hardcore Republicans whose numbers would be 31,350?"

I'll tell ya where they went. At least a third of them were moved into John Lindner's district as a result of the ~~gerrymandering~~ redistricting by the Dimocrat controlled legislature. The ones who didn't vote were working their butts off to pay the taxes to support all the welfare recipients in south DeKalb.

Young suggests they voted for Majette in the 2002 Democratic primary. But the Journal-Constitution study found that about 23,000 voters cast ballots in both the 2002 Democratic congressional primary and the 2000 Republican presidential primary. At least 12,000 of those voters were identified in the Journal-Constitution study as either Democrats or regular party-switching voters. The remaining 11,000 are a mixture of Republicans and people who typically don't vote in state primaries. "I believe [our analysis] should count for something," said Linda DuBose, one of the plaintiffs in the suit.

Sure your analysis should count for something, but it's worthless since, now listen real closely, I'm gonna talk real slowly here. Are you ready? Georgia. Is. An. Open. Primary. State. It. Is. Not. Illegal. For. A. Republican. To. Vote. In. A. Dimocratic. Primary.

Robert Dallas, a lawyer representing the GOP, dismissed the group's efforts.

"Nobody was breaking the law in exercising their right to vote," said Dallas.

Exactly. Now, what does the AJC have to say?

U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney believes it was Republicans who defeated her in the August Democratic primary. But an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows they weren't the decisive factor.

In fact, it wasn't even close.

Tell me more. I'm all ears.

Of the 68,612 voters who cast ballots for Democratic challenger Denise Majette, no more than 3,118 of them were voters who can be clearly identified as Republicans, based on their voting histories in state primaries. Majette's margin of victory, in winning 58 percent of the votes cast in the primary, was six times that amount.

Uh Oh! That's gotta piss off all the McKinney supporters.

The analysis suggests that most of the people in the 4th Congressional District who cast ballots in the Democratic primary either had histories of not voting often enough or of switching parties so often that they could not be classified as either Democrats or Republicans.

But I bet they were all tired of Cynthia McKinney's bullshit.

McKinney's backers claim Republicans ensured Majette's victory by taking advantage of Georgia's open primaries to cross over and vote for McKinney's opponent.

Which is perfectly legal.

They are asking a federal judge to reverse the election's outcome by erasing those votes.

Go ahead. She still lost.

The crossover vote was, at most, a couple of percentage points higher than normal based on the newspaper findings. Republican pollster and strategist Whit Ayres said crossovers in party primaries typically run between 1 and 2 percent. The GOP crossover in the McKinney-Majette primary was 3 percent.

Actually, judging by the people I saw at my polling place, it was consideralbly higher. Actual conversation on election day. (My polling place is Jewish synagogue, which, I guess is kinda poetic justice.)

Me: I didn't realize there were so many Dimocrats in Dunwoody. (10 to 1 when I voted.)

Female voter: From your lips to God's ears.

McKinney did not return a phone call seeking comment. Mike Raffauf, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of five DeKalb County voters, dismissed the findings.

Now this is news. This is the second time Cynthia McKinney has not returned a phone call. Any time Cynthia McKinney keeps her big fat mouth shut is a newsworthy event.

"I don't have any faith in any analysis you or The Atlanta Journal-Constitution would do," he told a reporter. "It's still a violation under the Voting Rights Act."

No it isn't. Georgia is an open primary ... Oh shit! What's the use?

The plaintiffs plan to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. today. on the steps of the DeKalb County Courthouse

Sorry I missed it. Bet it was a riot.

Stanley Baum, former head of the DeKalb Republican Party, argues McKinney's defeat was the result of a combination of circumstances.

And these were ...

"I don't think she lost because of the Republican crossover but because of a lot of factors," said Baum. "There were many different types of people who felt disenfranchised by her remarks and the remarks of her father," longtime state Rep. Billy McKinney.

Exactly. They were racists bullshit artists and the voters in her district wanted someone who was more inclusive and wouldn't continue to embarrass Atlanta and Georgia.

Baum, who is Jewish, said he cast an absentee ballot for Majette in the primary because he couldn't stomach the thought of entering a Democratic voting booth on Election Day.

Actually, it wasn't as hard to do as I thought it would be. It was the first time in my life that I ever voted for a Dimocrat.

He said he believes the call to arms by some Republican activists and conservative newspaper columnists to oust McKinney was heard by many different types of voters.

'From your lips to God's ears.'

The newspaper analysis suggests some evidence that supports that view. Along with thousands of switch-hitting voters, the primary drew 5,701 new voters and 4,694 people -- mostly dormant Democrats as identified by their voting histories -- who hadn't voted in at least four years

Cynthia really got out the vote!

The resulting Majette victory came from a patchwork of voting groups: independents, white Democrats and crossover Republicans. Joining them were 18,000 black voters who made up one-fourth of Majette's total. That estimate is based on Majette's vote totals in predominantly black voting precincts.

They were black Republicans?

Political experts generally believe McKinney's defeat was rooted in her alienation of white Democrats. They say she failed to correct a steady evaporation in recent years of support in the predominantly white sections of DeKalb County, once bastions of Republicanism that now lean Democratic.

Even the white Dimocrats got fed up with her racist, communist bullshit. Anyway, it goes on and on and continues to debunk all the bullshit theories the McKinneys have as to why they lost. They're racist bigots and the voters got tired of them.

But, I must say, I'll miss the McKinneys. They were always good for a laugh. And just think, the Green party wants her to run on the Green party ticket in 2004 as either president or vice president.

Those blogs will write themselves.

I can hardly wait.

2002-10-13T18:07:00.000-04:00

Idle Ramblings

I must admit I was guilty of some sloppy reporting in my last post. So, I went out to the National Proletariat Radio website and listened to the entire report about the poor lady whose health insurance has gone from $12 per month to $55 per month in two years. Andrea Harris commented that she didn't quite make $18,000 a year, but that's because she only worked part time while attending college full time and she couldn't get health insurance for three times that amount.

The lady in the story was a widow with two children. So she fits my catastrophic accident/illness category. But, didn't her husband have any life insurance? I don't wanna hear about how they couldn't afford it when he was alive. If they couldn't, why in the hell did they have two children? Next, her little $18,000 a year secretary job (I realize some secretaries are underpaid, but $18,000 a year is ridiculous. Even school teachers make more than that and they only work nine months a year.) has health insurancfe included. What she has to pay is $55 per month. Her employer pays the rest. How do I know? The share of my insurance I pay with TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name) is $28 per month and there is only one of me. So $55 for three people is not really all that bad in today's market. But remember, NPR's agenda is socialized medicine so they need to make it seem like a lot of money and we need to implement a health care system like Canada's. Bah!

I got a note from Kim Dutoit with a link to this editorial in the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation against arming pilots. Cynthia Tucker, the head of the editorial page at the AJC, writes at least one anti-gun editorial or column a month. I have taken to ignoring them. This editorial was in response to an op-ed that Zell Miller had written for arming pilots. I wrote a blog about that a few months ago, and as soon as Blogger gets their archives fixed (Yeah. Yeah. I know, Blogger has problems, but it's free and easy to use. When I have time to fix the code problems on my primary PC, which will be an OS upgrade from Windoz 98 to XP, I'll see about moving to movable type. May need your help Rachel.

Also in Thursday's AJC was this article about how Georgia's congressional delegation was voting on the Iraq resolution.

Another Democrat, John Lewis, gesturing with his fists,

and spitting mightily. Ya don't wanna be in front of John Lewis when he is speaking passionately.

rose on tiptoes to plead for the peaceful prescriptions of the late leaders Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

"War is bloody, it is vicious, it is evil, and it is messy," Lewis declared. "War destroys the dreams, the hopes and aspirations of people. As a great nation and blessed people, we must heed the words of the spiritual --- 'I am going to lay my burden down, down by the riverside. I ain't gonna study war no more.' "

John, ol' buddy, you better be glad that Lincoln didn't feel that way and we didn't fight the Civil War. John Lewis, bless his heart, means well, but, as a typical liberal is antiwar and pro welfare. Of course, we know Cynthia McKinney is against the war. And most of us in Georgia are against Cynthia McKinney.

Sunday's AJC was all Jimmy Carter. About the only thing Jimmy Carter has done worthwhile since his presidency is build houses for the poor. So, I've got a good idea. Let's let Jimmy Carter build some houses in Hillary's village. Then, while they're both there, use Alfred Nobel's invention, TNT, to blow them all to kingdom come. Isn't it a bit ironic that there is a peace prize named for the inventor of TNT?

There wasn't too much else worth reading in today's AJC. But I did come across this gem about the South Carolina NAACP. I am very pleased the the South Carolina NAACP has solved black poverty, black crime, black illiteracy, and all the other problems affecting blacks in South Carolina and can now get to the most important problem facing them: The Confederate flag on the capitol grounds.

Savannah --- The South Carolina NAACP put its money where its mouth is this weekend by convening its annual convention in Georgia instead of its home state. The group is maintaining a tourism boycott of its home state to protest a Confederate flag display on the capitol grounds.

But tourism officials said Friday the NAACP --- which launched the nationwide boycott of the state in January 2000 --- may be the only group still heeding the sanctions, others having moved on after the flag was moved from atop the Capitol building.

The flag used to fly above the capitol, but in a compromise agreement, it was moved from there to a Confederate Memorial on the statehouse grounds. Unfortuately, this was not satisfactory to the NAACP. We had a similar flap in Georgia with our state flag. The flag was changed which now has a bunch of ignorant goobers upset. It was a non-issue before it was changed and is a non-issue now that it has been changed. Get a life people! It's only a fucking piece of cloth. There's a lot of more important stuff to worry about.

One group that may still be feeling the effects of the boycott is black-owned businesses. Opponents of the boycott say the strongest supporters of the boycott are black families and organizations who typically support black businesses when they visit the state.

Now isn't that special? "We'll show those white folks. We'll fuck up black owned businesses."

"It would be common sense to assume there would be a higher percentage of involvement in the sanctions within the African-American community, which means businesses that are owned by African-Americans and cater to African-Americans are the ones affected the most," said Marion Edmonds, spokesman for the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

Common sense? Putting all this energy into getting rid of a flag?

In the past two years, Sponseller said, only one hotel has closed in South Carolina --- and it was black-owned. The owner cited the boycott as a factor, he said.

Way to go! The boycott is working! I bet the NAACP is really proud.

But NAACP officials say they have directed black groups to black-owned businesses in the state.

Wait a minute! Am I missing sumpin'? I thought there was a boycott. How can they be directing black groups to black owned businesses when they're telling blacks to stay out of the state? I'm confused. Could someone 'splain to me how this works?

"A lot of family reunions who said they needed to come but wanted to respect our boycott were directed to black-owned businesses," said South Carolina NAACP President James Gallman. "When possible, we've assisted black businesses."

Obviously not enough to keep the black hotel from going out of business.

Debates over the Confederate flag have erupted across the South in recent years. Supporters say the flag represents Southern heritage and valor; opponents say it is a symbol of black oppression and is the emblem of racist hate groups.

And the whole debate is a waste of time. It shows just how irrelevant the NAACP has come. Yeah, there are some ignorant racist goobers in the South, but getting rid of the Confederate flag will do nothing to end racism. Ignore the goobers. Get a life. Concentrate on more important things. Move on. Quit making a mountain out of a molehill.

In January 2001, the Georgia Legislature voted to replace its Confederate flag-centered state emblem with one that depicts a small image of the flag along with others that have flown over the state. Four months later, Mississippi voters rejected by 2-to-1 a proposal to replace their flag. Despite the different resolutions, neither state has seen the level of controversy that South Carolina has.

The NAACP must be stupider in South Carolina.

Beginning in early 2000, the NAACP organized a steady stream of protests --- including a five-day march to the capitol and periodic state border demonstrations encouraging visitors not to come into South Carolina.

Hoping to appease the NAACP and stem declining tourism dollars, lawmakers voted to remove the flag from the capitol dome on July 1, 2000, and move it to a still-prominent spot in front of a Confederate soldiers' monument on the building's grounds.

NAACP and its supporters say placing the battle flag at the monument was not much different from flying it on the capitol itself.

And the boycott continued and more black businesses suffered. Way ta go guys!

"What we're saying is we don't want our tax dollars supporting a Confederate flag display anywhere at the capitol," Gallman said at a convention seminar on Confederate flag history. "They can wear the flag and display it at their homes all they want, but it's not right to have it on public property."

Whadya wanna bet, that if they get their way, the next thing will be to make any display of the flag illegal?

At the seminar, about 100 members --- including several whites and about two dozen college students --- listened to a historian and watched videotape segments on the flag flap. Members applauded each other

They applauded each other. I just love that.

as they stood and talked about everything from economic disparities in South Carolina

Which, as we all know, getting rid of the flag will immediately solve all those "economic disparities"

to the "disrespect"

"They be dissing us."

from lawmakers who allow a Confederate flag on public property.

A lot of people who know what's going on are still backing the boycott," said Wilson, who graduated from the University of South Carolina in the spring of 2001. "We're not slowing down. We're going to continue this boycott until the flag comes down."

And we destroy more black owned businesses. The South Carolina KKK must be laughing their asses off.

I just came up with a fantastic idea! Let's let Jimmy Carter mediate this dispute. Now that would be worthy of a real Nobel Peace Prize.

2002-10-10T12:57:00.000-04:00

Poor Ol' Pitiful Me

Before I start, I have two links I would like to share:

The first link was sent to me by my brother-in-law, and it is my answer to Kim Dutoit's gratuitous gun pic feature. This one's for you Kim. Swallow your coffee first. I will not be responsible for a splattered keyboard or monitor.
The second link I got from Kim's website. Not only is Stephanie Sailor a Libertarian (which means she has a brain), but she is also a babe. And yeah, I am a male pig. Ya wanna make sumpin' outta it? Don't mess with me or I'll whup a crutch along side your head.

My clock radio is tuned to the local National Proletariat Radio station, so I wake up to Morning Edition. Don't ask me why. I guess I just don't like to be jarred awake by rock music. Anyway, it's just white noise. This morning, as I was getting out of the shower, they had just started a segment on health care. I heard some woman whining about how her health insurance payment was going from $12 a month to $55 a month and she was only making $18,000 a year. At that point, the radio mercifully turned off, as by that time I was already sobbing hysterically over the plight of this poor, pitiful woman. I guess the next thing she was about to say was how she was already unable to feed her children.

Where do I start on this? Let's do the $18,000 a year first. How dumb or unskilled does one have to be to have a full time job making only $18,000 a year? That's only $9 per hour. You can get a job flipping burgers for $7.50 an hour. I've said it before and I'll say it again. There are only two excuses for being poor in this country:

You have to be incredibly stupid.
You are a victim of a catastrophic illness (I'll include drug addiction and alcoholism) or a catastrophic accident.

Outside of those items, poverty is a lifestyle choice. I've covered my three rules to avoid poverty many times, but I'll restate them once again.

Get an education. That means, at the least, finish high school. With the state of today's public school system, most people can get a diploma just by showing up. As part of that education learn how to read and write English, not Ebonics, not Spanish, not French, but English. English is the language we speak in this country. Go to college. Can't afford it? Go to junior college. Can't afford it? Go to trade school. Can't afford it? Join the military. I was in the Navy. The Navy has excellent technical schools. I learned electronics. I also went to college on the GI Bill.
While in school, get a part time job. Not only does it develop a work ethic at a young age, it teaches responsibility and gives ya extra spending money.
Do not have children you cannot afford. The most common cause of poverty in this country is children. It is not a right to have children, it is a responsiblity. There is nothing in the Constitution that says you can take money away from me to support your irresponsible lifestyle choices.

OK. She's only making $18,000. Whaddya wanna bet she gets food stamps? She probably also gets the Earned Income Tax Credit. And, if the Dimocrats have their way, pretty soon she won't even have to pay any Medicare and Social Security Taxes.

I wish my family wouldda had a deal like that. My father was an alcoholic and my Mom worked. No food stamps. No EITC. No health insurance. When did that become a right? Somehow we made it. And on top of that, my sister and I had to walk ten miles to a one room school house. Through the snow. Up hill. Both ways. OK I made that last bit up. It was only up hill one way.

Now let's talk about health insurance. Knowing NPR, I imagine their take was the gummint must 'do something!' Everytime the gummint has to 'do something!', they wind up making things worse. They also take more money from me. So why, pray tell, is this poor woman's health insurance going up from $12 a month to $55 a month? There are multiple reasons.

Trial lawyers. The more malpractice lawsuits they win, the more malpractice insurance costs. Also, due to the risk of malpractice suits, doctors have to practice defensive medicine and prescribe many unnecessary tests. All that leads to more expensive health care costs.
Tort reform (lack of). Those mean old Republicans want to set limits on punitive damages awards, but the Dimocrats won't let them because the trial lawyers give them lots of money. $38 billion punitive damages against a tobacco company because someone was too fucking stupid to read the warnings on a cigarette pack and quit smoking?
Stupid juries. One example of this is the jury awarding a bunch of money to the woman who put a hot cup of coffee between her legs which spilled and scalded her legs. She sued McDonalds and won. I had a discussion with my friend Wahoo about this and he pointed out that McDonalds had been warned that their coffee was too hot. I don't give a shit. A person stupid enough to put a container of a hot liquid between her legs should have been laughed out of the courtroom. "You madame are a fucking idiot. Never let me see you in this courtroom again." Stupid juries think that it's just an insurance company that's gonna pay the damages and that's true, but insurance companies are in business to make a profit. Every suit they lose means they will raise their rates to recoup their losses.
Our judicial system. We need to institute a loser pays system. There are entirely too many frivolous lawsuits.

Of course, I realize the purpose of this sob story was to promote NPR's socialist agenda and to drum up support for a national health care system. Y'know, like the one they have in Canada. (That's why so many Canadians come here for health care.) And folks, it's coming. They're just gonna do it a little bit at a time. ( I wrote an earlier post about the camel's nose under the tent which described that process.) And then, we'll have 'free universal health care', just like they have in Cuba.

I wonder where the Canadians will go then for quality health care?

2002-10-09T11:30:00.000-04:00

Daylight Come and You Can Kiss My Ass

So some of my readers didn't like hearing about my dive trip. They wanted a full bore rant. Hey, I did some mini-rants before talking about my trip. But, there are some people who wanted to know about my trip (my sister included) and rather than telling 'em one at a time, I just let 'em read about it. After all, this is a web log, which is really just an online journal. Also, I wanted to stay mellow as long as I could and savor my week of total isolation from the world's bullshit. But now I'm back and dammit, I'm really pissed!

I picked up this from Drudge. There was also this from Newsmax talking about 1993 when Harry Belafonte was singing a different tune.

I don't know about you, but I'm fed up with all this racial bullshit. IFPOTUS (Impeached Former President of the United States), the hillbilly-in-chief was supposed to be the first black president, but under the (sarcasm) racist, bigoted (/sarcasm) George W. Bush we have a black man 4th in line to the presidency. Lets see. IFPOTUS had Hazel O'Leary as Secretary of Energy (What a disgrace she was) and Ron Brown Commerce Secretary. Wouldn't you think the first black president could have done better than that? Let's see some of the shit that Harry Belafonte's been shoveling.

"There's an old saying," Belafonte began. "In the days of slavery,

Christ, here we go with the freaking slavery^TM bullshit. Goddammit! Will you dickheads get off this shit. We freed the slaves over 140 years ago and a lot of good men died to do it. If you want to bitch about slavery^TM take a look at your brothers in Africa and your friends, the Arabs. Slavery^TM still exists in those cultures.

there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and were those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master... exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him.

"Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."

What can I possibly say? This washed up calypso singer is calling Colin Powell a house nigger. And George Bush is the plantation owner. I guess John Ashcroft must be the overseer and he probably has to whip Colin Powell three or four times a day to keep him in line. This is just so disgusting it makes me want to puke.

I am so freaking sick of people like the odious Julianne Malveaux who said of Clarence Thomas "I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease." Talk about hate speech. The only plantation that blacks are on in this country today is the liberal plantation. Let a black person stray from the liberal, Dimocrat, socialist plantation and he (or she) is immediately castigated as an Uncle Tom (or Tomette as Cynthia McKinney called Denise Majette. And she was speaking of a liberal Dimocrat!) or an oreo and subject to the most rancorous hate speech imaginable. Get over it!

Belafonte likened Ashcroft's tactics to the McCarthy era:

"Families were destroyed, neighbors spied on neighbors. Now we find Ashcroft cutting in under the guise of catching terrorists, suspending liberties and rights. To deny those rights, to any citizen, to any people, is to cast a great shame on us and lead us back to another dark period."

Holy shit! Round up them citizens! Throw 'em in pens! Whup 'em and torture 'em. Yee haw! We're having a good time now. Just yesterday, one of the Ashcroft Youth members ratted out his parents and they were dragged kicking and screaming into the Gestapo truck. Where do these people get this shit? Are we depriving citizens of rights? I'm pulling down my shades to make sure my neighbors aren't spying on me.

Belafonte also sang the praises of the United Nations as a pillar of global democracy,

That's all we need. Global democracy. Ya know what democracy is? It's two wolves and one sheep voting on what's for dinner. Yeah. Let's have global democracy and put the UN in charge. The first vote would be for the us to give all our money to Third World nations.

and decried President Bush for failing to attend the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa earlier this year.

The World Conference Against Racism also known as the World Conference For Anti-Semitism.

"There were tens of thousands of peoples and leaders from all over the world gathered to ~~bash Israel and the United States~~ discuss the issue of race. It was an honorable arena...

Bwahahahahahaha! That's a good one Harry. I didn't know you were a comic.

But by not showing up,

Why would he want to do that and spend his time being insulted by a bunch of Third World booger eatin' moh-rons?

by sticking it to the government of Nelson Mandela...

Uh, Harry, last time I looked, Nelson Mandela was no longer the President of South Africa.

It was a dark page on our foreign policy."

Was that a Freudian slip or was he being clever? It sounds like sumpin' I would say.

Belafonte is best known for the international hit "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)".

Harry, get your black, racist, paranoid ass on your banana boat and get the fuck out of the country.

Daylight come and you can kiss my ass.

2002-10-08T15:51:00.000-04:00

The Zen of Buoyancy (Part 2)

All right. Now I'm really pissed! I get back from this fantastic vacation and wanted to slip back slowly into the blogosphere. I was totally isolated from the real world for one whole week. On the way back from Roatan, I purposely did not watch any television at the Houston airport. I did not buy a newspaper. Up until Sunday morning, the only news I got was about Cynthia McKinney and that was just a classic comedy. My friend Michael even printed off a copy of the article 'cause he knew it would make a good blog.

But then, I hear about the Torricelli affair. What a piece of crap. So, if Lautenberg wins this election, do we get to say that the ~~Sopranos~~ New Jersey Supreme Court appointed him? I know I will. Everytime I hear a Dimocrat spout that bullshit about Florida, I'll reply New fucking Jersey. What the fuck is wrong with the people in this country? Why in the world can anyone support the Dimocratic Party? Why is there a conspiracy to piss me off?

I still haven't gotten over Hanoi Jane Fonda. Can someone tell me why that bitch was never tried for treason and had her "workin' out with Jane" ass thrown in jail. Or better yet, lined up against a wall and shot? What the fuck is wrong with this country?

Yeah. You're damn right I'm drinking wine tonight. Rachel loves it when I drink wine (which is good for the heart) 'cause I really go off sumpin' fierce. It pisses my sister off 'cause my toilet tongue comes out. And this is a side of me that Maureen (see Sunday's comments) has never seen.

And now we have David Bonier and Jim McDermott going to Baghdad and badmouthing our foreign policy. Listen up assholes! That shit isn't done. If you have a problem with our foreign policy, you talk about it here in the US. You don't go to the enemy's capital and do that bullshit! I hope you people in Jim McDermott's district are taking note of this. If you reelect this sonuvabitch there is sumpin' seriously, fucking wrong with you people.

And now, as if my blood pressure isn't high enough, we got the IFPOTUS (Impeached Former President of the United States), the ex hillbilly-in-chief, reprising his disgraceful act from the 1960's and speaking against US foreign policy in England, thus stabbing his buddy Tony Blair in the back. Jesus H. Christ! How can you fucking Dimocrats live with yourselves. Actually, there was an upside to Clinton not getting kicked out of office (as he should have been). If he had been, Algore would have been president and would have easily been reelected. Nyah Nyah Nyah Nyah Nyah. You Dimocrats really fucked up big time. The thought of Algore as president during these times is frightening. And here's an interesting comparison of the fat hillbilly giving his speech in England and denying his escapades with Monica. Scroll down.

All right. I feel much better now. Let's go back to the Zen of Buoyancy.

Day 4 was another beautiful day. After breakfast, we got aboard the dive boat to go to Mary's Place. I got a weight to put around my tank valve to move my center of gravity higher so I could get horizontal easier. Since I was still having buoyancy problems, I elected to dive above Mary's Place. Cheryl was having problems equalizing so she and I stayed down around 40 feet and watched the divers go through the chasms. I'm still having buoyancy problems. At the end of the dive I couldn't stay down for my safety stop and shot to the surface. Need more weight.

That afternoon, we went to Missing Link. I added still more weight. Got down all right and was OK for my safety stop. By now, I'm up to 18 pounds of weight. If there are any divers out there, like Toren, that is way too much weight. That will come back to haunt me later.

Charlie took his light on that dive. Remember Charlie's light? The one that leaked? The light worked. But, it got water inside it. Anyone who has been a diver or anyone who remembers Boyle's Law, think about what might happen if you are down 60 feet and you have a container that water has seeped into. And then you take it to the surface. Anyway, Bert warned Charlie about the light. He told him not to open it. During the afternoon, after the Missing Link dive, Charlie decided to open his light and clean all the salt water out. As soon as he cracked the seal ... Blam!!!!

I was laying on the bed reading (still doing research) and jumped up and said, "What the heck was that?" Charlie mumbled sumpin' about how Bert warned him against doing that. See, there were two atmospheres of pressure inside the light and when he cracked the seal, it exploded. It took him fifteen minutes to clean up the bathroom and one of the batteries went down the sink.

So we went to supper and had sumpin' to laugh about. When Charlie said the battery went down the sink, I assumed it went all the way down and was down around the trap. Nope. It just went down a little bit so it was visible when ya looked down the drain. Hmmmm. I told him what we software engineers said in cases like this, "That's not a bug. It's a feature." Needless to say, everytime I looked down the drain the rest of the trip, I had to stifle a laugh.

Day 5. I knew I was gonna finally get my buoyancy straight this time. As I was walking into the equipment area, I slipped and fell. Everyone raced to help me. A bit of advice: When a walking cripple starts to fall, get out of the way. Don't try to catch him. Usually he has a plan. Anyway, no harm done. As I'm getting on the boat, again I slip. This time, I grab one of the ladders to catch myself. Dive boat ladders are designed to go down, which this one did. I did too and one of my crutches went into the water and to the bottom. As we were only in about eight feet of water, one of the divemasters jumped in and retrieved it.

This was not a good omen. This morning, I'm diving with Graham, one of the master divers. I just know I'm gonna get my buoyancy under control on this dive. I had no problems descending. So far, so good. We swam out to the wall and started going down. Holy shit! I sank like a fucking rock! I don't want to overcompensate. Hit the inflator. Hit it again. Hit it again. Hold that sucker down! Graham came shooting down to get me! At about 100 feet (!!), I finally stopped and started up and met Graham at 95 feet. We went back up to 70 feet and continued the dive. Am I ever gonna get this buoyancy crap down?

So, now, I know I need lots more practice, so I do the drop off on the way back to the resort. We dove the wall off the resort, the wreck, and went back into shore. Graham held me down for the safety stop at the end of the dive and dragged me to shore. This buoyancy crap is really getting frustrating!

That afternoon we went to Anka's reef. I just knew I was gonna get my buoyancy correct this time. So I messed around with my buoyancy and blinked out a contact lens. Oh crap! Well, that had happened before. All I had to do was keep my cool and at the end of the dive, fish it out of the bottom of my mask. Only one thing wrong. My mask started to fill up with water. I had to bite the bullet and clear the mask. Good bye contact lens. One of the divemasters pointed out to Graham that my mask wasn't on properly and some of my hair was in the top of the mask which messed up the seal. I fixed it and cleared my mask and the rest of the dive went OK. When I got on the boat at the end of the dive, my contact lens was stuck against the inside of the mask. What luck! It had landed with the inside of the lens against the mask and the pressure had kept it there. Cool! Rather than pressing my luck, I skipped the drop off dive.

That night, a night dive was scheduled. I really didn't think I was qualified, and since the rest of the crips were going, I figgered all the good divers would be occupied. Also the wind was picking up. Before my accident, I was a sailor, and I didn't like the look of the weather that was moving in. As I watched the lights of the dive boat going out the channel, and saw how much the boat was bouncing up and down, I knew that there were gonna be some real sick people before the night was over. It turned out to be the night dive from hell. Graham wound up blowing chunks through both of his regulators and they must have been major league chunks, 'cause at the end of the dive he had to grab another diver's octopus. Charlie told me he didn't use the ladder to get aboard the boat. He just timed a wave and rode it right into the boat. Glad I missed that dive!

Day 6 and the weather had blown over. Another beautiful day. I passed on the morning dive. That afternoon, we went to Big French Cut, and I dove with Bert. Got down all right, but went too deep. Pissed Bert off. "All right", I told him, You're my instuctor, instruct me. Fix what's wrong." So, he reconfigured my weight belt and we made a few other adjustments. Cut my weight back down to 16 pounds. We did the drop off and dove the wall off the resort. Descended just fine. Went down to about 60 feet and I was hanging out watching Bert shining his light into little caves looking for critters. All of a sudden I realized I had perfect neutral buoyancy and was controlling my depth with only my breathing. What's more, I was ahead of the curve. Right about the time I was starting to ascend, I was breathing out and as I was starting to descend I was breathing in. I was hanging vertical with my arms and ankles crossed. I had finally achieved the Zen of Buoyancy. Wow! This was really cool! I could have hung there all day.

Finally Graham broke the spell by punching me and pointing in toward shore. We swam in and at 15 feet, Bert found this hermit crab that he decided to take a picture of. There was a grouper fish hanging out about two feet away. We spent about 10 minutes there while he lined up the shot. I was able to balance about two inches off the bottom using breath control. Only another diver could realize how cool that was. Since we didn't go any deeper than 60 feet and didn't exert ourselves, we wound up spending about an hour an five minutes under water.

That night, we went to a restaurant in French Harbor to eat. I had Parmesan shrimp. Delicious.

Day 7 and our last dive. Two people were sick from last night's dinner. Ooops! We dove the Menagerie which was a drift dive. That meant we dropped off the boat and drifted with the current and the boat would pick us up at the end of the dive. This site had the most fish we had seen in all of our dives. It was a beautiful site and I maintained perfect buoyancy throughout the entire dive. Fantastic!

So, we're low on air and hanging out at 15 feet doing our 3 minute safety stop and waiting for the boat to show up. Hello boat! Where are you? Finally, the boat showed up, we surfaced, and climbed aboard. Charlie tried to talk one of us into doing a drop off since this was our last dive, but we were all too beat so none of us did.

That afternoon we took a tour of the island. Roatan has an iguana farm. Holy shit! Those suckers get huge. There is also a bird sanctuary, mainly for parrots and toucans. Our guide also told us some history and who the rich Americans were and some dirt on 'em.

That night, we had steak and lobster for dinner. There was also a party with rum punch. I only had one since I had to get up the next morning and fly home.

All in all a great vacation and the best diving I have ever done. I'm looking forward to returning some time. If you are a diver and want a great diving experience Cocoview is a great place to go.

I'm glad to be home and sleeping in my own bed.

I watched Bush deliver his speech last night. The only thing missing was "The reason we starting bombing Baghdad tonight was ..."

So, I guess I'm back to what passes for normal.

Damn! I wish I were hanging off that wall right now.