Gay marriage isn't a tier 1 issue for me but if I
have to choose right now, I say I'm against it. Just what part of
"alternative lifestyle" is unclear? Heck, I bet a lot of guys
with boyfriends who want to marry them loudly rail against Ashcroft for
denying them the right to marry while they secretly send checks to the
Anti-Gay Marriage League. And no, it doesn't mean I want homosexuals deprived
of civil rights. But Mark
Steyn hits on my pet peeve about the whole
gay marriage issue (via Real Clear Politics): The guys in powdered wigs who wrote the state constitutions of
Vermont and Massachusetts never thought explicitly to prohibit same-sex
nuptials any more than they thought to decree that the sun was only
permitted to shine during daylight hours. So various activist judges have
insisted that forbidding a man from marrying a man is "unconstitutional."Yes, the annoyance of having to
legislate what should be the bleeding obvious. (Posted December
28, 2004)
Buy American campaigns are wrong, jingoistic, and
quite possibly racist, we are told by our betters. But buying from "blue"
companies is apparently an act of conscience.I guess the UAW workers in blue state Michigan can just go to hell as the always color
conscious buy Toyotas because of that auto maker's donations record.The color conscious perfect word is one
where right-thinking-citizens-of-the-world-who-happen-to-live-in-Amerikkka-with-proper-birth-certificates
only buy from blue companies and terrorists only target red states. What
lovely people. (Posted December 28, 2004)
Ok, I concede I probably wasn't in the best of
moods since I was on the way to the dentist. But even if I wasn't getting
a filling I think I would have been just as annoyed at the comment on NPR
by the guy who wrote the books An
UnfortunateSeries of Events
(that's close and I'm not going to check it). In explaining that he grew
up afraid of different things at different times, including a large tree,
he mentioned something that just pissed me off completely.During the 1980s, he explained, he spent
a lot of time afraid due to President Reagan's fight against "what he
believed was an evil empire." I switched the radio station right then
so maybe he followed with "Just joking, thank God those murdering
bastards are gone!" but I doubt it.For a sentient being to deny the atrocious and, yes, evil, nature
of the Soviet Union thirteen years after their fall is astounding.
Now, I'm amazed that people couldn't see this during the Cold War but
let's cut a little slack for the sake of argument and assume that since
the Politburo didn't confirm their evil it was natural for people like the
author not to believe our own government and various Russians who escaped
the Kremlin's grip. Granted. But even if one can be excused for not seeing
the evil that we faced, how is it possible not to see it now? After all
that has been revealed from the records of the Soviet Union and their East European empire? How??!!! (Posted
December 17, 2004)
The International Committee of the Red Cross
calls our treatment of Islamist killer prisoners "tantamount
to torture?"Are these
people serious? In this entire world of depraved monsters with UN seats,
the ICRC sees fit to complain about how we are treating some of the worst
monsters who thank God are not running free to kill more? And I'm not even
relying on any "others are worse" defense. We are treating these
prisoners just fine and in line with our standards and even the paper
international standards so many countries violate routinely. Truly, if you
are an ICRC member and have the choice of working on the USA report or the North Korea report, opt for the USA report. You will never need to worry about America hunting you down and killing you or your family.
You'll have free movement and plentiful information, rumor, and innuendo
to work with. And you'll certainly get more positive press coverage. You
will also be chatted up at all the best parties. This report is tantamount
to lying. The ICRC is tantamount to an apologist for dictators. And those
who believe this crap are tantamount to idiots. Unfreakingbelievable.
(Posted December 6, 2004)
The ACLU keeps asking me to join them. That's not
the really annoying thing, though I confess I don't know how on Earth I
got on their mailing list. Sure, I believe I am firmly on the side of
freedom and liberty, but I doubt the ACLU agrees. They, after all, want my
support "to help the ACLU resist assaults on such basic
constitutional rights as free speech and religious liberty." Our
rights are under "unprecedented attack" under "heavy-handed
crackdowns on dissent and free speech[.]"
The "assaults are sure to escalate" since "the opponents of
civil liberties are wielding enormous political power[.]"
Then I noticed they aren't talking about Iran, North Korea, or Cuba. They mean the United States. Unfreakingbelievable.
The United States Department of Defense is doing more to protect civil
liberties than these disoriented fools will ever manage. "Freedom is
why we're here" the ACLU letter proclaims. Why yes, as long as we are
free, the ACLU will work to undermine the defense of our liberties. I am
of course, sincerely impressed that the ACLU was able to print this up on
their mobile printers and mail it out before packing up their equipment
and moving before the Bushstapo goons traced
them and broke down their door to beat them. And bravo to the clever way
they hid their identity by emblazoning "ACLU" on the envelope so
the government-run Post Office wouldn't suspect they were delivering
subversive material. And one more thing, stop sending me those little ACLU
cards. That's the first thing "they" look for when they stop and
search me. (Posted November 30, 2004)
The
talk of blue states seceding is just childish. It is the worst combination
of “America-Love it or Leave it” and “I’m taking my ball home” thinking.
And it is simply impractical. Just who in the blue states will do their
fighting for them? The only blue state citizens who have firearms are
really only trained for drive-by shootings. Just looking at the map shows
that the vast majority of military bases are in red states. And will
military units really abandon their oaths and fight for blue states? I doubt
it. Even the blue state reservists would be unlikely to defect in
significant numbers. So looking at that map again, how would the blue
states defend their three separated enclaves? And it gets worse when you
look at the colors by county instead of by state. Blue counties are tiny
geographically speaking compared to the red counties. Will red counties in
blue states really accept Women’s Studies commissars coming out from their
campus headquarters to rule over them? So at best a blue state secession
movement becomes a blue county revolt. These enclaves may enjoy their
happy politically correct nirvana for a while—like Fallujah did—but
eventually they would be reduced by a couple troops of Boy Scouts and that
would be that. We need grown up adult discussions over our country's
future with real alternatives offered. Childish ranting that cannot be
taken seriously does nothing for the credibility of those spouting off.
The new secessionists need to grow up. (Posted November 25, 2004)
“Post
Election Selection Trauma.” Apparently some people are having trouble
dealing with the election results. Heh. Hehhehheh.
Ha! Ha hahaha! HA HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Guffaw!!! Oh
God! My side is killing me!! Hahahahahahah!!! Heh … Whew… Ok, I’m done now. No I’m not! Hahahahahaha!!! Will they start a new support group,
FixateOn.org?Good grief, some
people are just weenies. I sure hope they can uncurl from their fetal
positions long enough to emigrate to Canada.
Seriously, if Patton was alive today, he would be justified in slapping
some of them. Hmm, I just noticed the Acronym is PEST.
Hey, is the Onion behind this? (Posted November 20, 2004)
Heineken's recent beer commercial is almost
enough to drive me to drink Zima. Their keg can ads are so stupid as to
defy belief. What is worse is their assumption that we must be stupid,
too. What am I to make of a commercial that goes on about the actual beer can,
as if it is a newborn child, for the entire commercial, and then concludes
with "Heineken—it's all about the beer." No. It isn't
apparently. At least not by listening to your commercial. It's all about
the keg-shaped can with nary a word about the actual beer. Nope, doesn't
make me want to drink their beer at all. Indeed, it would have to be a choice
between Heineken and Zima before I'd reward this moronic ad campaign.
(Posted November 19, 2004)
I don't know a lot about the workings of
intelligence agencies. All I really know is that they should provide
accurate information about what is going on inside the halls of our
enemies and friends; stop the bad guys quietly; and carry out the policies
of the administration which was after all elected. So while I sense that
the cleaning house at the CIA is justified, all I know is what I read in
the papers. But sometimes you figure out who to
root for by what you know about the people taking sides. Recently,
National Public Radio had a fawning piece on the CIA wholly sympathetic to
the agency in its struggle with the White House. When the leftist NPR is defending the CIA you know the CIA
is on the wrong side of the issue. (Posted November 18, 2004)
Crack
Moveon.org Suicide
Brigade in action. Now this is the kind of reaction that could help
unify the country and improve the gene pool at the same time. Seriously,
though, this is obviously a disturbed individual. It is sad that a young man with his life ahead of him and engaged to be married would think this was the right response to his candidate losing. People really need to
maintain some perspective. A suicide and threats to leave America
since they can’t love her now are two signs of looniness. I hope that more
aggressive acts aren’t boiling under the anger. Low level acts of violence
and “artistic” or "humorous" calls for assassinating the President in the campaign are
disturbing enough. We need to keep our guard up to keep whackjobs from carrying out anything worse. Really, I
managed to love my country for eight years in the 90s and I managed to
disagree with the President without going conspiratorial and paranoid or
venting hatred. I even managed to disagree with a couple wars over tactics
and/or justification but never crossed over into siding with the enemy.
People need to get a grip. (Posted November
7, 2004)
Ok, this is a little thing, but it is annoying. Exit
polls on Election Day were wrong. Ok, fine. Stuff happens. Polling is
tough. Why it was systematically wrong in one direction only I'll leave to
minds more political than myself to ponder. But when the final results are in,
what am I to make of the insistence that Bush won 51% of the vote? When I
do the math, it is done correctly for Senator Kerry. He won 48.47% of the
popular vote and his total is rounded down to 48%. But the President won
51.52% of the vote. Shouldn't that be rounded to 52%? Yes, yes, you need
to make room for Nader and whoever the Libertarian guy was, but that's why
we have asterisks. Or little notes that say the totals may not add up to
100 because of rounding. Or bust a gut and use a decimal point! Call it
51.5 to 48.5. Sheesh. Math itself cannot
withstand politics it seems. (Posted November 5, 2004) UPDATE 20 NOV 04: Alright, as the votes are counted, I've noticed that Bush's total has gone down to 51% even, counting tenths. I retract this rant.)
Former
President Jimmy Carter is a disgrace to our country. It took me about ten
seconds to switch off Hardball
last night when I heard him begin to prattle on. Apparently, he wants
to do to history what he did to the presidency—use it to undermine America.
I’ll not dwell on Carter’s comparison of our Revolution to the Iraq War.
He compared the US
today to the British who tried to maintain undemocratic rule over us
starting in 1775; and compared the murderous Iraqi Baathist
insurgents to American revolutionaries fighting for freedom (I guess
Michael Moore sitting next to him at the Democratic convention was no
mistake). Perhaps I missed the history unit where Washington
ordered Benedict Arnold into the plastic shredder. But what really got me
was Carter’s claim that the Revolution was an unnecessary war. He said
that we would have eventually been granted independence like Canada,
Australia,
and India.
And we would not have suffered the thousands dead in the fight. What a
bonehead. And I say this with regret since a former President should be
respected. But this man has turned his back on us for decades and he has
forfeited respect. Can this man not see that history would have unfolded completely
differently waiting for Britain
to grant us independence? Would Britain
have allowed us to spread west as we did? Would France
have sold the Louisiana
territory to the British who would in turn grant it to us? Would the Great
Lakes region and Washingtonstate have gone to Canada?
Would we have the Southwest? Alaska?
Hawaii? Would we have been a
great power at all able to help defeat Germany
in two world wars and defeat communism in the Cold War? Can this newly
proclaimed historian not see the different path we would have taken as a
Commonwealth in the British Empire? Does he value
freedom so little and is he able to ignore all the good we’ve done in our
short history? Well, yes, he does. He is a man without a country. And he’s
done it to himself. (Posted October
19, 2004)
Lawrence
O’Donnell is really annoying. He has been for some time. He wasn’t always
annoying as far as I can recall though I concede I do not follow his
career or philosophy of life or politics. But he is clearly turning into a
big time jerk. On Thursday’s Scarborough show, he
called the President’s faith simple-minded and said that only
simple-minded Christians would buy the President’s statement that freedom
was a gift from God. O’Donnell thought that it was a strange God that
would let people live without freedom for all this time and only grant the
Afghans freedom in 2001. And that the idea that the President is doing
God’s work is scary to O’Donnell. Excuse me for being simplistic, but I do
believe God let humans go for quite a long time before sending his only
Son to die for our sins. In addition, I believe that free will means we
are not puppets of God and that for a God who always was and always will be, what exactly do several thousand years mean? Does
God start thumping his God fingers in God-like frustration that those
pesky humans are just not getting that freedom thing after a few thousand
years? Just what is God’s timeline? And God forbid that a President might
think that freeing people is a good thing that God might smile upon. Far
better to display European-style agnostic sophistication and let people
wallow in pain and terror. I'm hardly intense in my faith, but the scorn for those with faith that O'Donnell displayed was ridiculous. I’m going without Flavia
for this nitwit? (Posted October 14, 2004)
I listened to All Leftist Things Considered on
NPR while driving home today. Yeah, I know, what was I thinking? But the
initial topic was boring enough to not be offensively slanted. But the
last topic that I only caught part of was on the imminence of a draft.
Their “expert” thought it possible given events in Iraq even though he
rightly noted that the bills introduced are going nowhere (and were
introduced by Democrats to try and embarrass the administration) and that
the administration, Congress, and the military don’t want a draft. He
noted that the military has had some problem this year recruiting and
figures a draft is logical. Huh? The National Guard came up short some
small percentage. Let’s say 5,000. I’m guesstimating. So with a small
shortage, we should ramp up a massive draft program and then exempt 99.95%
of the eligible draft class to get that 5,000? Oh, that would be fair! Hey, maybe we could offer additional
incentives, instead. Maybe larger enlistment bonuses? Ya
think that solution might make a whole freaking more sense when our
volunteer military has proven
its worth yet again? Sheesh. Freaking
idiots… Oh, and the purported expert also called stop-loss a type of
backdoor draft further cementing his idiocy in my opinion. Stop-loss is
about maintaining unit cohesion when a unit is about to deploy, so trained
soldiers at the end of their enlistment don’t leave and break up teamwork
on the eve of battle. It is about effectiveness and saving American lives.
I wait in vain for the idiots to get a clue. (Posted October 5, 2004)
Sometimes
I think that al Qaeda is pretty weak if they
cannot penetrate the security line that our TSA holds. Yesterday, a pair of potential terrorists were selected for
searching. The pair was suspicious. They were patted down and the younger
one had to remove her shoes. You never can tell when a shoe bomber will
make it through. I’ll wait while you check out the selectees
here. You’re back? Clearly, they could have been fresh from Zarqawi Day Care Centers, Inc. And if you pack Semtex into a size 2 baby shoe, you could probably
really scare somebody with a really loud bang! I mean, if you really
suspect a baby bomb, wouldn’t you be better off checking the diaper than
the shoes? Those things can hold a lot of stuff after all. Sheer
sand-pounding stupidity. (Posted September
28, 2004)
NPR on
the way home today had a story on Darfur
that demonstrates the relativistic moral swamp that so many on the Left
slog through. Darfur, the
host explained, was a “humanitarian crisis.” Yeah, it is more like a
flood, or a hurricane, or an earthquake rather than systematic killing and
raping to drive innocents out. And the problem is that “all sides” have
been unable to come to an agreement to end the humanitarian crisis. Ah
yes, the Sudanese government with their militia thugs has been
slaughtering, raping, and driving into exile the people of Darfur and the people of Darfur
would like it all to stop. Those simplisme peasants. Don’t they know that European-style
sophistication requires them to discuss the pace of the killing and perhaps some nice safe zones with
their killers? End the killing! How cowboyish!
And how typical for NPR to see shades of complexity in simple genocide.
(Posted September 28, 2004)
No. Law. Is. Permanent. Say it with me. I've
recently seen television ads arguing darkly that the administration is
seeking to make the Patriot Act "permanent." These people surely
must know that the move is only to remove the sunset date that would
automatically repeal the act with no Congressional action. There is no
such thing as a permanent act. Any Congress is free to amend any act
and—if the President vetoes it—override the President and pass the bill
anyway. Sunsets are commonly used to sway votes for a bill when some are
unsure of the bill. And sunsets are routinely extended or repealed on such
acts. In this political season it is clear that some believe that Iraq has distracted us from dealing with our real
enemy—John Ashcroft. (Posted September 22, 2004)
I absolutely hate the tactic of assuming false
choices when attacking policy. <throbbingtemplepain> The New York Timessavages
the Dowdified Cheney quote on the election choice we have. Ignoring
that, let me focus my ire on this statement in the editorial: "The
danger might be a bit less if the current administration had chosen to
spend less on tax cuts for the wealthy and more on protecting our ports,
securing nuclear materials in Russia and establishing an enforceable
immigration policy that would keep better track of people who enter the
country from abroad." Oh, really? In our huge budget, we allocate
resources as we choose, and such either-or choices are never made. I could
just as easily say the danger might be less if we had chosen to spend less
on public radio. Or the arts. Or rest stops in West Virginia named after Robert Byrd. Or studies on removing
chewing gum from hair. Surely, our safety is more important than
displaying so-called art consisting of Crucifixes in urine? Or even new
Barney episodes? The idiocy or partisanship displayed in this editorial is
annoying. Ok, I can move on now. </throbbingtemplepain> (Posted September 9,
2004)
Whenever
I get a vague notion that my disdain—nay, contempt—for protesters is
overblown, I get a reminder
of why those losers tick me off so much. Because, you know, it just
isn’t a political debate unless you vandalize something or injure a police
officer, right? Papiermache
puppets just scream serious dissent, eh? And bongos are the rhythm of
reason. Labashputs
it well when he writes, “I used to think that there was nothing wrong
with street activists that a good scrubbing and a few rubber bullets
couldn't fix.” Well said, Matt. Well said. (Posted September 1, 2004)
Oh, please! Could Newdow
be a bigger fool? His attempt to get "under God" removed from
the Pledge of Allegiance was annoying enough. I mean, unless I missed the
50-year evolution toward a theocracy that took place. But his purported motive
is so self-centeredly silly that I can't believe it: "He told justices in a filing last month that he had
spent six years to keep his daughter from being told at school 'that her
father's religious beliefs are wrong, unworthy and inferior.'" As a
father of a boy in the Ann Arbor public schools, I'll be real curious
to see if I can take that argument all the way to the Supreme Court if I
don't like what his teachers in high school tell him about US history or foreign policy. Imagine!
I should have a right not to have my son taught that my political beliefs
are wrong, unworthy, and inferior! I say Newdow would have been better off
spending those six years talking to his daughter. He's seriously up to
"11" on the Clueless Meter. (Posted August 25,
2004)
Khartoum says we in the West are just mucking around in Sudan to gain control of their oil
and Gold. Genocide? Never heard of it, they say. Sudan's al Bashir said, "This highlife that they (the West) enjoy now is
a result of the theft of the colonies and their riches and peoples."
Since we Americans were colonies, too, I guess we can't be part of this
guilty West. Honestly, I wish we lived in a world where reality-twisting
statements such as this were met with a salvo of JDAMs
targeting key government offices in the offending klepto-state's
capital. I mean, just to discourage this sort of
thing in the future. There will always be fools here and abroad who will
eat this kind of junk up, but we could at least cut down on the number of
these annoying blasts. (Posted August 12, 2004)
Reuters
and NPR both call Sadr a “firebrand”
cleric. Is it impossible for these people to suppress admiration for
common thugs who kill our forces? I swear, if you hate America,
the press will find something good to say about you or will find a way to
portray you in a somewhat positive light. They seem to think the killer
must have some redeeming quality since he is wise enough to hate America.
Is it any wonder that FOX news gains viewers? There is absolutely nothing
wrong about getting your news—good and bad—from people who visibly want America
to win. I watch other news shows, but I don’t fully trust them. (Posted August 7, 2004)
♥Meaghan♥ is what I read on the overpass going
home on I-94 last night. Wow, defacing public property really says 'I love
you,' I guess. I've seen this on overpasses usually, but also on rock
outcroppings or walls. Hallmark should really get with it and come out with some
type of card or something. You know, put some kittens or teddy bears or
Roses on it and some nice poetic greeting. There
is clearly a real demand out there. Until then, I guess those in love will
be reduced to this method of expressing everlasting love. Having already
wondered about the writer, what is this Meaghan
like? When she drove past it did she nearly swoon with delight and run off
the road? Did she know who ♥ her,
or did she wonder who her secret admirer is? Or was she closer to dying of
embarrassment as a friend pointed out the sign? Ah, expressions of love.
Diamonds may last forever, but an overpass is still good for several
decades. (Posted July 20, 2004)
I know that any human rights violations by certain
countries will always be excused by the professional keepers of the global
moral standards if they once were oppressed colonies. Yes, colonial status
may have been decades ago. And the current repression may be truly horrible. But how can they help themselves under the
circumstances, seems to be the attitude. If the offending dictator can
utter an anti-American comment at least now and again, the repression
becomes even understandable. It is an annoying attitude on its own, to be
sure. But as long as the noble status of victim is to be bestowed upon any
tin-pot thug with pretensions to Hollywood swooning, can't the United States get a similar honor? We have the former colony
thing going for us. And if you believe certain rabid circles here who
think that their trips to Starbucks for a poetry reading on the Patriot
Act represent fleeing the Bushstapo hot on their
heels, we are a dictatorship, too. Heck, if this circle gets its way, our
government will even be anti-American! We'll be three for three on the victimhood score card. (Posted July 15,
2004)
Wow,
what a party slut! Not to worry, this isn’t a Paris Hilton comment. FlaviaColgan is the PS I’m
talking about. This isn’t a gender-based charge. What I’m talking about is
the ability of some to defend their own party no matter what. James
Carville is a prime example: “Why sure, he eats kittens for lunch, but
with the way the administration refuses to spend more money on beef
safety, this is an understandable and even admirable …
.” Watching Colgan on Scarborough
the last week or so while she defended Moore’s
movie to the hilt has been just revolting. Nothing he did could elicit
even a minor agreement that just maybe Moore
was a teensy wrong. Scarborough seemed to finally have had enough of her and I wouldn’t be too shocked if Flavia does not make it back on his show. She doesn’t
give an inch and this just kills any credibility she has as an “analyst.”
That is most unappealing. A darn shame, too, because Flavia
is stunningly pretty. But my
fatal flaw is another story altogether. (Posted June 26, 2004) UPDATE on August 25, 2004: Hey, Flavia is back on Scarborough. I have only caught bits of her return, but since this post seems to be getting hits, I should mention that she seems in a more reasonable frame of mind now. Perhaps her time out by Joe was enough. And still quite cute...
Michael Moore. What can one say? Other than he
should be put up against a wall and shot. Repeatedly. <sigh> Well, no, I don't actually wish or advocate
that. But it does feel really good
to write it once. Seriously, I have a point starting this way. In Moore's
mind—and many others of his ilk and income bracket—America is the Fourth
Reich, and but for the brave speaking to power of the likes of Moore, we'd
all be in Gulags (and never mind getting them to admit that they existed
in the morally equivalent Soviet Union) smuggling defiant tracts out to
Alec Baldwin publishing in exile in France. Please. Only in America can people who make millions, jet about, have
limos on call, and have every corner of our multi-media universe at their
call to publicize their views, call themselves brave dissidents. Until
Michael Moore has to fearfully run from organic market to organic market like
some type of left-wing safe house system, I really don't want to hear any
more about brave dissent in the face of massive government efforts to
suppress dissent. We've had it so easy for so long that we
forget what even an easy war is like. And now we forget what real
oppression and real dissent are. Shot for treason or disappeared? Not going to happen in our free country of laws. Silenced? I'd settle for them pausing for
a deep breath once in a while. (Posted June 4, 2004)
Look,
I don’t mind the fact that the makers of plastic Army men and armor sets
still use the same molds they used when I was a child. Really. It’s kind
of amusing that armor sets still contain a mix of 1970s era US vehicles
mixed with World War II stuff. But yesterday at Meijer
I saw a future combat set with a half dozen die-cast vehicles. One looked
like a futuristic self-propelled howitzer. Another looked like the
speculation of fifteen years ago about what the Stealth Fighter looked
like. Others looked like combination flying/hovering machines. All very
futuristic. Except for one. One was a French FT17 Renault tank. Circa
1917. Needless to say this doesn’t even remotely look futuristic. Is this
sheer military ignorance or a subtle shot at the French military? Either
way, it still bugged me. No real reason. It just did. (Posted May 24, 2004)
Adult
Happy Meals? Adult
Happy Meals!!?? Good God. What has come of us? Are we so addled with
our fast-paced lives that we can’t manage to occupy our flitting minds
during the ten minutes it takes us to wolf down a cheeseburger, fries, and
a Coke? Is this possible? Must we be entertained
in that short span of time? I mean, I’m no purist here. I love the kids meals. They’re great when time is short and I
don’t often take Mister to a burger joint. Two times a month—maybe. And a cheeseburger, fries, and some lemonade is a decent
meal. Plus a toy that rivals stuff I got for Christmas (I’m thinking here
of the video games that are better than the Pong I considered buying for
$80.00 thirty years ago!). But this is too much. Unless the “toy” that
comes with the meal is either a half-pint of booze, tobacco products, or a
Victoria’s Secret catalog,
this should go the way of New Coke. Adult Happy Meal indeed. (Posted May 18, 2004)
Mailing
labels. You know those little stickers for letters that show your return
address? They are annoying. I hate to buy them since every group in the
world sends a lifetime supply to you free in order to shame you into
donating money. And then the label providers donate a hefty 2% to the
named charity. I won’t send any money to those guys. Send money direct to
the charity if you want to help. Anyway, those charities don’t know who
you are until you … buy labels from the label companies! Then, the company
sells your name on a list to the charity hucksters and viola! The endless
stream of labels begins. I don’t know why the label companies do this
since I never need to buy another roll of labels as long as I don’t move.
Annoying Catch 22. (Posted May 2, 2004)
Egad!
What kind of foul-smelling bath soap did I buy? It was Dial soap. I
expected your basic manly, rectangular white block of scentless or
nearly-so soap. And it was on sale. Instead, I have some reeking watermelon-like
“scent” wafting from my shower to my bedroom. And it’s that “watermelon”
smell of the watermelon-flavored hard candies of my youth. I think my
illness has kept me from noticing this until today. Man.
And it’s part of a three-pack. When you can’t count on the Dial Corporation
to make functional soaps without any scent or coloration whatsoever, who
can you count on? (Posted April 4,
2004)
I’m
just tired of commenting about the so-called peace protesters. Anti-war, yadda, yadda. Yeah right. I
did my duty slamming them in the run up to the war. Their ability to
continue insisting that Saddam should still be in power a year later is
disgusting. Lileks saved me the trouble. Truly, some people
are just wastes of good oxygen better used by some of the cuter reptiles.
But I’m too tired to argue about the pro-Saddam side and their stupid hand
puppets and bongos. (Posted March
22, 2004)
I am
outraged. Seething. Is nothing sacred anymore? I mean, when traditions are
discarded for the trendy and the popular, can our society last much
longer? Dunkin’ Donuts has gone too far. Their two-page spread in the bulk
mail coupon magazine I received today doesn’t even have any coupons for
donuts! (And no, the donut holes coupon doesn’t count) Instead, this icon
of American breakfast is offering espresso, lattes, and cappuccino! Egad!
They even have something called swirl
lattes! Nothing is sacred when they discard plain old coffee for this yuppy crud. What’s next? Crullers? Croissants??!! I’m outraged.
(Posted March 3, 2004)
God almighty, if I hear another self-indulgent Baby Boomer prattle on about their unique insight into injustice based on their earnest participation in some stupid peace march during the Vietnam War, I shall truly hurl my lunch. Sorry, I know I shouldn't listen to NPR, but they do have some news if you know enough to ignore the slant. But the ignorant, self-centered idea that the American people were just dumb sheep until this big-brained generation came along, discarded deodorant and any fashion sense whatsoever, and blessed us all with their wisdom is just nonsense. Ask the New Englanders who protested the War of 1812. Ask the New York draft rioters and the entire Democratic Party in the Civil War. Ask the 25% of the American population who opposed World War II. Ask the Americans who opposed the Philippines War. The protesting subset of the Boomer generation that gave us tie-dye were hardly unique in their ability to protest while Americans bled in our wars. Just spare me. (Posted February 19, 2004)
Robert
Scheeris
like Ted Rall with a better agent. He leaves
out much of what Kay said in order to mine the most hostile quotes about
Iraqi WMD. If the President is guilty of crimes as Scheer
alleges, then our past president should also be indicted, along with every
member of Congress and current and past administration official that
participated in or supported either Desert Fox in 1998 or the Iraq War in
2003. Lots of people making noises of outrage today were dang sure Iraq
was a threat in 1998 and loudly proclaimed their beliefs. Scheer really does just torque me off. (Posted January
27, 2004)
One of
my credit card companies charged me $1.86 in finance charges because they
did not post my in-full payment by the deadline. I think I sent it with
several days to spare. I always pay that card in full. I use it
exclusively to buy gas and it is convenient to track this budget item (I
drive a lot). I knew this company was impatient to get my payments since
for a while they were changing my check into an electronic debit. They
denied me even the mini-check photocopy I’m used to getting. They stopped
that but they are still in a hurry. What to do? Call them and complain
that it isn’t the two bucks but the whole principle of it? Nah, it’s
usually the two bucks when such arguments are raised. So. I’ll put away
that card for a couple months. That way I make sure I don’t get dinged for
more financing on new purchases. And I’ll deny them their 2% that they get
on purchases. They’ll lose more than the two bucks I paid them. Is this a
little thing? You bet. But you’d think a clean record with this company
would earn me a couple days on when they cash my check. (Posted January 17, 2004)
The
space program is one of those things that I don’t follow closely but I
like the idea of having something that will sometimes intrude in the news
and make me go, “Damn
that’s cool.” So I don’t have much to offer on the President’s
proposal. I like the idea of a permanent base on the moon. I like the idea
of Americans welcoming Chinese Taikonauts for
sure. I like the idea of manned exploration of the solar system. I’m also
uncomfortable about how the Shuttle and International Space Station have
turned out. The Shuttle was supposed to go up frequently and bring costs
of putting pounds into orbit way down. Instead it’s expensive and killing
Astronauts. The space station was supposed to be the start of a permanent
human presence in space and instead it is way too expensive and sounds
like a tenement
with solar panels. Criticism of the proposal may be right on money and
outlook but I’m willing to accept that we should downgrade our failed
programs soaking up money to try something new. But what annoys me are comments broadcast on the news that “we
shouldn’t be funding this stuff while we have problems here in America.”
The false choice of space versus feeding children or something. Fine.
Let’s stipulate that as long as a single child misses a meal or has a
substandard school, no more funding to public radio and television and no
more funding to artists who place Crucifixes in human urine. I mean, as
long as we’re setting priorities here. (Posted January 17, 2004)
What a dumbass. Seriously. And I like Irwin. I mean, I don’t
watch him but when he is on a commercial for a few seconds, he seems amusing
and a good bloke. But taking a one-month-old baby out to meet a crocodile? And
holding such a young baby one-handed? How stupid is he? Like Lileks once mentioned in regard to the Michael Jackson
balcony incident, when Mister was little I felt like I should duct tape him to
my body just to go up and down the stairs. One man in the article has an
alternative view to mine: “I think he's a bloody
idiot.” I stand corrected. I guess I’m stretching the limits of LAT with this
post. I can’t say it is something that is really annoying or pisses me off.
Just mind boggling. What on Earth was Irwin thinking? (Posted January 3, 2004)