Just follow the f*ckin instructions, they don't require a PhD people.
THINK of a number from 1 to 10
MULTIPLY that number by 9
If the number is a 2-digit number, ADD the digits together
Now SUBTRACT 5
DETERMINE which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with (example: 1=a, 2=b, 3=c,etc.)
THINK of a country that starts with that letter
REMEMBER the last letter of the name of that country
THINK of the name of an animal that starts with that letter
REMEMBER the last letter in the name of that animal
THINK of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter
Are you thinking of a Kangaroo in Denmark eating an Orange?
--
What, you consider me some uneducated, misinformed idiot? LOL!! Of course that's exactly what I got, but here's why...
Considering that the formula in the beginning always equates to 4, there are only 4 "D" countries, and two of them are quite obscure in my opinion, of course everyone is going to pick Denmark. Hamlet, Hans Christian Andersan, Vikings... Sorry Djibouti, and Dominican Republic, you've not yet reached pop culture status.
Secondly a "K" animal. Hmmm... Koala, Kudzu, Kitten (It doesn't specify adult animals), Kite, etc... Oh wait, of course, Kangaroo.
And that leavs us with a fruit that starts with "O". Hmmmmm... Olive, right. It's technically a fruit. The ripened ovaries and surrounding tissue of a flowering plant.
But honestly how many people out there consider the olive more of a vegetable then a fruit? That's because most of consider fruit synonymous with sweet. If it's not sweet it's not fruit. Sorry Mr. Tomato, and Mr. Okra, you're just not sweet enough to be elevated to the prestigious fruit status.
So ends the oh so "mystical" status of this stupid e-mail brain bender.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Devil went down to Georgia!
So I was stumbling around the internet this morning and I can across this Primus video of their rendition of The Devil Went down to Georgia.
I wanted to see what other creative versions there were of this song out there. I came across this one, albeit the video was stolen from the version above. Have a listen, I think it has one of the best retorts from Johnny I have ever heard.
Here's the Muppets version. I really think Animal should have been involved in this one, although I love the psychedelic look of the Devil during his solo.
I wanted to see what other creative versions there were of this song out there. I came across this one, albeit the video was stolen from the version above. Have a listen, I think it has one of the best retorts from Johnny I have ever heard.
Here's the Muppets version. I really think Animal should have been involved in this one, although I love the psychedelic look of the Devil during his solo.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Guide to Japanese tourists visiting America.
1. The yen is very strong against the dollar right now. This will make
goods in America seem very cheap -- an excellent opportunity for
shopping! However, remember to be polite in your use of money --
America is in the middle of economic malaise right now, and Japanese
people with wads of money in their hand might be looked on with envy.
Besides, if you are obviously wealthy in an American city, you may be
robbed.
2. For our valued customers who work in the automotive
industry [#1 employer where I live], we advise discretion. If you must
say where you work, the preferred phrasing is [English] "I work at the
car company".
3. Most Americans are very polite, particularly
outside of the big cities. However, outside of the big cities, everyone
owns guns. Inside the big cities, almost everyone owns guns. Let's be
polite together!
4. If you go shopping at an American department
store, they will ask you if you want to open a credit card account.
They are *not* asking whether you want to use a credit card. This may
seem strange but it is an American custom to offer customers a credit
card, in order to make them spend more money. We suggest politely
declining offers of credit cards. You may have to politely decline
several times. Don't think of this as rude, the Americans have to do it
too.
5. Most Americans think we look like Chinese or Koreans. Try not to be too offended.
6. Most Americans will think that a Japanese person standing on the street
is an American, unless they are holding a camera. If you are not
comfortable speaking English, you might try bringing along a camera to
say "I am a tourist, please don't expect me to speak English." Except,
don't try this in the big cities -- tourists get mugged in big cities.
7. Americans have a social institution called a "gratuity". Basically, the
price on the menu at any place which serves food is not the real price.
The real price is 20% higher. You have to calculate 20%, write it under
the subtotal, and sum to arrive at the real price. Taxis work the same
way. It is considered very rude not to pay the "gratuity".
8. In
general, Americans consider it impolite to discuss politics. However,
this January Obama will become the new president, and many people are
excited! If they ask you what you think of him, a safe answer is
[English] "Obama is really cool." or [English] "Obama speaks so well.
Not like me. Hehe." Be very careful when pronouncing his name. O BA MA,
just like Obama City.
9. Most
big cities have Japanese food available. You may have to look hard,
though -- ask your hotel for some place to eat tempura. Restaurants
which say they serve sushi probably only serve makizushi, like
California rolls. (Americans think California rolls are [English]
"sushi".) If a restaurant says [English] "Asian" they really mean
Chinese. They are probably not really Chinese, either.
10. Ladies:
if you shop for clothes, ask for where to find [English] "petite". It
means normal sized. Ladies who are petite may have difficulty finding
clothes which fit in America, except at specialty shops.
11. McDonalds: Has no teriyaki burger in America. Portions are bigger and
food is cheaper. Sometimes the person taking the order does not speak
English. Please relax! They probably understand the set menu, although
it is called [English] "combo", and you can hold up the number with
your hands as shown. [Snip of chart for how Americans count on their
fingers, which is actually different than how Japanese people count on
their fingers, hence the need for a chart.]
goods in America seem very cheap -- an excellent opportunity for
shopping! However, remember to be polite in your use of money --
America is in the middle of economic malaise right now, and Japanese
people with wads of money in their hand might be looked on with envy.
Besides, if you are obviously wealthy in an American city, you may be
robbed.
2. For our valued customers who work in the automotive
industry [#1 employer where I live], we advise discretion. If you must
say where you work, the preferred phrasing is [English] "I work at the
car company".
3. Most Americans are very polite, particularly
outside of the big cities. However, outside of the big cities, everyone
owns guns. Inside the big cities, almost everyone owns guns. Let's be
polite together!
4. If you go shopping at an American department
store, they will ask you if you want to open a credit card account.
They are *not* asking whether you want to use a credit card. This may
seem strange but it is an American custom to offer customers a credit
card, in order to make them spend more money. We suggest politely
declining offers of credit cards. You may have to politely decline
several times. Don't think of this as rude, the Americans have to do it
too.
5. Most Americans think we look like Chinese or Koreans. Try not to be too offended.
6. Most Americans will think that a Japanese person standing on the street
is an American, unless they are holding a camera. If you are not
comfortable speaking English, you might try bringing along a camera to
say "I am a tourist, please don't expect me to speak English." Except,
don't try this in the big cities -- tourists get mugged in big cities.
7. Americans have a social institution called a "gratuity". Basically, the
price on the menu at any place which serves food is not the real price.
The real price is 20% higher. You have to calculate 20%, write it under
the subtotal, and sum to arrive at the real price. Taxis work the same
way. It is considered very rude not to pay the "gratuity".
8. In
general, Americans consider it impolite to discuss politics. However,
this January Obama will become the new president, and many people are
excited! If they ask you what you think of him, a safe answer is
[English] "Obama is really cool." or [English] "Obama speaks so well.
Not like me. Hehe." Be very careful when pronouncing his name. O BA MA,
just like Obama City.
9. Most
big cities have Japanese food available. You may have to look hard,
though -- ask your hotel for some place to eat tempura. Restaurants
which say they serve sushi probably only serve makizushi, like
California rolls. (Americans think California rolls are [English]
"sushi".) If a restaurant says [English] "Asian" they really mean
Chinese. They are probably not really Chinese, either.
10. Ladies:
if you shop for clothes, ask for where to find [English] "petite". It
means normal sized. Ladies who are petite may have difficulty finding
clothes which fit in America, except at specialty shops.
11. McDonalds: Has no teriyaki burger in America. Portions are bigger and
food is cheaper. Sometimes the person taking the order does not speak
English. Please relax! They probably understand the set menu, although
it is called [English] "combo", and you can hold up the number with
your hands as shown. [Snip of chart for how Americans count on their
fingers, which is actually different than how Japanese people count on
their fingers, hence the need for a chart.]
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Rhonda Byrne’s "The Secret" debunked.
This snippit is taken from The Skeptoids latest questions podcast when asked about quantum physics.
--
When Rhonda Byrne wrote The Secret and claimed that quantum physics explains how you can wish for things and they'll magically appear, she didn't know anything more about quantum physics than the average person on the street. She's just a smart enough marketer to know that when people hear the term, they're impressed. Ask a theoretical physicist who has read her chapter on quantum theory: Not a single word of it makes any sense; it's just childish technobabble to impress the masses. Real quantum theory has no conceivable relevance to paranormal claims like The Secret or What the Bleep Do We Know, thus its frequent employ is almost always without any scientific meaning.
--
When Rhonda Byrne wrote The Secret and claimed that quantum physics explains how you can wish for things and they'll magically appear, she didn't know anything more about quantum physics than the average person on the street. She's just a smart enough marketer to know that when people hear the term, they're impressed. Ask a theoretical physicist who has read her chapter on quantum theory: Not a single word of it makes any sense; it's just childish technobabble to impress the masses. Real quantum theory has no conceivable relevance to paranormal claims like The Secret or What the Bleep Do We Know, thus its frequent employ is almost always without any scientific meaning.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Logic and Critical thinking vs. History and Litrature.
We're the same race of people that first walked out of Africa 100,000 years ago. We have the same physical brain makeup, genetically we're the same species. So our instincts have not changed no matter how much our technology has advanced. We've just incorporated those instincts into our lives differently.
My guess is that the every day guy in history thought about the same every day issues we do. They had landlords, they had employers, they worried about the boy their daughter would marry. Instead of rich and poor they had patricians and plebeians. But, they considered themselves as advanced as we consider ourselves.
If we can somehow learn from the chaotic patterns of the past to at least help us in the present then anything can be valuable. I don't care if it's Plato's Republic or The Freak Brothers, it tells us who we were and who we are. Personally, I believe that it's far more important to be a well rounded then logically yes or no. What good is critical thinking if there's really nothing to think critically about?
My guess is that the every day guy in history thought about the same every day issues we do. They had landlords, they had employers, they worried about the boy their daughter would marry. Instead of rich and poor they had patricians and plebeians. But, they considered themselves as advanced as we consider ourselves.
If we can somehow learn from the chaotic patterns of the past to at least help us in the present then anything can be valuable. I don't care if it's Plato's Republic or The Freak Brothers, it tells us who we were and who we are. Personally, I believe that it's far more important to be a well rounded then logically yes or no. What good is critical thinking if there's really nothing to think critically about?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Mathematical Paradox
e = 2.71828... (Natural Log)
i = √-1 (Imaginary number)
π = 3.14159... (Pi)
e^iπ = -1 (^ is 'to the power of'.)
"It is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth." - Benjamin Peirce, Harvard Mathematician
i = √-1 (Imaginary number)
π = 3.14159... (Pi)
e^iπ = -1 (^ is 'to the power of'.)
"It is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth." - Benjamin Peirce, Harvard Mathematician
Thursday, November 13, 2008
I recently listened to Dan Carlin's latest Common Sense podcast in which he suggested that someone needs to go to jail for this economic mess we've gotten into. This is my response.
--
You're right Dan, someone SHOULD go to jail. But it shouldn't be the bankers and their minions. It should be us; we the American people. We should go to jail for being so blatantly short sighted. We enabled the bankers to make the mistakes. They didn't brainwash us, we were greedy. We saw that raise in social status staring back at us and we took it.
"Oh but it wasn't me, I wasn't one of those people.", we say as we stand beside our $50,000 SUV. "Well we needed a big truck for the kids." Is thirty thousand dollars and 9 mpg really worth the inconvenience of taking an extra 15 minutes to get your kids into a smaller vehicle? Or did we buy that $50,000 truck with a big V8, mag wheels, pin striping, leather seats and a bose hifi stereo because it raised our social status? I think so.
We should go to jail for being stupid enough to allow our mortgage lender to talk us into an obviously unaffordable mortgage. For not reading and understanding the fine print before we placed our signature next to the red X.
We should go to jail for racking up 30, 40, $50,000 in credit card debt instead of simply lower our lifestyles a little bit. "Well, those $150 jeans and $70 shirts from the mall are manufactured better and last longer." Are they really worth the lifetime of servitude we've bought ourselves into?
We should go to jail for thinking we could go out to eat three times a week instead of saving that money and inconveniencing ourselves a little to prepare dinner at home. "Well, I worked a 12 hour day, I have no time to make dinner." Yeah I'm sure, between reading the newspaper and watching 4 hours of that brain numbing box.
We should go to jail for shopping at the upscale grocer instead of one more reasonable. For feeding our kids nothing but preprocessed, preservative laden crap instead of taking the time after work to prepare and make a nutritious dinner.
We should go to jail for blaming the big corporations for making America the most obese nation in the world. It's us who take our kids to McDonalds and stuff their faces with happy meals because we're to inconvenienced to cook breakfast or lunch, not them.
We should go to jail for having 4 cell phones in the family and a local home phone to boot. "But my kids need that phone in case there's an emergency!" Where's the emergency in 1400 text messages and $400 cell phone bills?
We should go to jail for having a flat panel HDTV in each room of the house and one in the rec room, for paying over $200 for cable and for thinking it makes a great babysitter.
We should go to jail for mismanaging our children. Aren't they the most important things in our lives? Then how come the high school drop out rate is so high!?! How come we have so many dead beat dads?
We should go to jail for paying $700 on a PS3 game system or $600 on an Apple iPhone, and umteen million $6.99 apps, $1.99 songs and $50 video games. All on the credit card, at 14% to 36% interest no less. Oh, that's right, we always pay that bill off at the end of the month. Right?
We should go to jail for not first comparing the prices of our medical and drug providers before we chose them. For not asking the important question, "What's this going to cost me AND my insurance company?"
We should go to jail for thinking it was OK to take that $5000 vacation on the dime of our mortgage lender, "But you know what, I really wanted to get over to Europe before I couldn't any longer."
We should go to jail for enabling the polluters of the world by powering our umteen million over priced electronic devices. "But hey, I'm going green with this device!" Tell that to the coal industry who flattens mountains and delivers up endless train loads of coal to your local power plant.
We should go to jail for not protesting $100 trips to the movie theater, $300 baseball games, and $500 family trips to the amusement park. No wonder families never leave the home, it costs 2 weeks disposable cash to afford taking them to a ball game. Their salaries have priced their largest customer base right out of the market.
We should go to jail for waving the finger at a few people for taking something that not one of us would decline. "Oh no, not me! I wouldn't take that $400,000 company sponsored trip to the spa, not me." No wonder no one knows the value of a hard days work anymore. Incentives to work harder then the next guy have become taboo!
We should go to jail for pointing the finger at a few unlucky wealthy people for wanting to raise their own social status a bit more. Not one of us would have declined the kind of money they were being given. NOT ONE!
We should go to jail for fighting our employers for more benefits, more vacation, and more pay, then complaining about the products we make which more benefits, more vacation, and more pay have forced our employer to price out of our reach.
We should go to jail for claiming that we weren't the ones who made the mistakes.
We should go to jail for thinking that the government owes anyone anything.
And most importantly, we should go to jail; for allowing our government to give the executive branch power over the checks and balances placed into the constitution by the framers, for allowing our government to shortsightedly enable the abuse of our 4th and 6th amendment rights through the patriot act and cripple our first and second amendment rights through endless legislation and regulation, and for allowing our government to enable the private sector to dictate law.
We should go to jail, Dan!
And you know what, Dan? Now that change is afoot, some of us may actually go to jail, but not for our mismanagement of money or crimes against persons and property. Oh no, Dan. We will go to jail for our assumed unconventional thoughts and ideas.
It saddens me to think that "We the People" have allowed all this to happen to us.
"It wasn't me, I wasn't one of those people." Keep saying it, you might start to believe it.
--
You're right Dan, someone SHOULD go to jail. But it shouldn't be the bankers and their minions. It should be us; we the American people. We should go to jail for being so blatantly short sighted. We enabled the bankers to make the mistakes. They didn't brainwash us, we were greedy. We saw that raise in social status staring back at us and we took it.
"Oh but it wasn't me, I wasn't one of those people.", we say as we stand beside our $50,000 SUV. "Well we needed a big truck for the kids." Is thirty thousand dollars and 9 mpg really worth the inconvenience of taking an extra 15 minutes to get your kids into a smaller vehicle? Or did we buy that $50,000 truck with a big V8, mag wheels, pin striping, leather seats and a bose hifi stereo because it raised our social status? I think so.
We should go to jail for being stupid enough to allow our mortgage lender to talk us into an obviously unaffordable mortgage. For not reading and understanding the fine print before we placed our signature next to the red X.
We should go to jail for racking up 30, 40, $50,000 in credit card debt instead of simply lower our lifestyles a little bit. "Well, those $150 jeans and $70 shirts from the mall are manufactured better and last longer." Are they really worth the lifetime of servitude we've bought ourselves into?
We should go to jail for thinking we could go out to eat three times a week instead of saving that money and inconveniencing ourselves a little to prepare dinner at home. "Well, I worked a 12 hour day, I have no time to make dinner." Yeah I'm sure, between reading the newspaper and watching 4 hours of that brain numbing box.
We should go to jail for shopping at the upscale grocer instead of one more reasonable. For feeding our kids nothing but preprocessed, preservative laden crap instead of taking the time after work to prepare and make a nutritious dinner.
We should go to jail for blaming the big corporations for making America the most obese nation in the world. It's us who take our kids to McDonalds and stuff their faces with happy meals because we're to inconvenienced to cook breakfast or lunch, not them.
We should go to jail for having 4 cell phones in the family and a local home phone to boot. "But my kids need that phone in case there's an emergency!" Where's the emergency in 1400 text messages and $400 cell phone bills?
We should go to jail for having a flat panel HDTV in each room of the house and one in the rec room, for paying over $200 for cable and for thinking it makes a great babysitter.
We should go to jail for mismanaging our children. Aren't they the most important things in our lives? Then how come the high school drop out rate is so high!?! How come we have so many dead beat dads?
We should go to jail for paying $700 on a PS3 game system or $600 on an Apple iPhone, and umteen million $6.99 apps, $1.99 songs and $50 video games. All on the credit card, at 14% to 36% interest no less. Oh, that's right, we always pay that bill off at the end of the month. Right?
We should go to jail for not first comparing the prices of our medical and drug providers before we chose them. For not asking the important question, "What's this going to cost me AND my insurance company?"
We should go to jail for thinking it was OK to take that $5000 vacation on the dime of our mortgage lender, "But you know what, I really wanted to get over to Europe before I couldn't any longer."
We should go to jail for enabling the polluters of the world by powering our umteen million over priced electronic devices. "But hey, I'm going green with this device!" Tell that to the coal industry who flattens mountains and delivers up endless train loads of coal to your local power plant.
We should go to jail for not protesting $100 trips to the movie theater, $300 baseball games, and $500 family trips to the amusement park. No wonder families never leave the home, it costs 2 weeks disposable cash to afford taking them to a ball game. Their salaries have priced their largest customer base right out of the market.
We should go to jail for waving the finger at a few people for taking something that not one of us would decline. "Oh no, not me! I wouldn't take that $400,000 company sponsored trip to the spa, not me." No wonder no one knows the value of a hard days work anymore. Incentives to work harder then the next guy have become taboo!
We should go to jail for pointing the finger at a few unlucky wealthy people for wanting to raise their own social status a bit more. Not one of us would have declined the kind of money they were being given. NOT ONE!
We should go to jail for fighting our employers for more benefits, more vacation, and more pay, then complaining about the products we make which more benefits, more vacation, and more pay have forced our employer to price out of our reach.
We should go to jail for claiming that we weren't the ones who made the mistakes.
We should go to jail for thinking that the government owes anyone anything.
And most importantly, we should go to jail; for allowing our government to give the executive branch power over the checks and balances placed into the constitution by the framers, for allowing our government to shortsightedly enable the abuse of our 4th and 6th amendment rights through the patriot act and cripple our first and second amendment rights through endless legislation and regulation, and for allowing our government to enable the private sector to dictate law.
We should go to jail, Dan!
And you know what, Dan? Now that change is afoot, some of us may actually go to jail, but not for our mismanagement of money or crimes against persons and property. Oh no, Dan. We will go to jail for our assumed unconventional thoughts and ideas.
It saddens me to think that "We the People" have allowed all this to happen to us.
"It wasn't me, I wasn't one of those people." Keep saying it, you might start to believe it.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Agreed!
I may not have voted for you Mr. Obama, but now that the people have spoken I am ready to hop on board. As long as you don't take advantage of the people you lead and promise to remain humble and compassionate you will never lose my support. Always remember; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/04-11-2008/106660-changebetter-0
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/04-11-2008/106660-changebetter-0
Compassion? Greed!
Why care about people when you can care about not getting paid instead.
When you let the bean counters manage compassion it makes everyone involved look like an a$$. I'd be willing to bet, bean counters have no friends!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/us/09deport.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
When you let the bean counters manage compassion it makes everyone involved look like an a$$. I'd be willing to bet, bean counters have no friends!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/us/09deport.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Did you know...
Well, it's been a while since we've elected a senator president. The last one was Nixon, although he made progress with China, we all know what happened to him. Before that was JFK, and we also know what happened to him.
I'm still curious as to why Barrack will not give up his birth certificate to prove American citizenship. According to the Constitution, Article II section 1, "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President..."
What does that mean if it comes out that he's not a citizen? According to Article II section 1, the 20th, and the 25th amendments, Biden becomes president.
But what about McCain. In that case, Obama should never have been able to run. That means Clinton should have been the Democratic candidate. And she would have never beat McCain.
Makes ya wonder...
I only have one question for you Barrack, where do I sign up to collect some of this wealth you're spreading around? I'll take Bill Gates house if no one else is claiming it.
I'm still curious as to why Barrack will not give up his birth certificate to prove American citizenship. According to the Constitution, Article II section 1, "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President..."
What does that mean if it comes out that he's not a citizen? According to Article II section 1, the 20th, and the 25th amendments, Biden becomes president.
But what about McCain. In that case, Obama should never have been able to run. That means Clinton should have been the Democratic candidate. And she would have never beat McCain.
Makes ya wonder...
I only have one question for you Barrack, where do I sign up to collect some of this wealth you're spreading around? I'll take Bill Gates house if no one else is claiming it.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
This is ridiculous!
For those of you who don't like the drama it would probably be best to skip this blog.
To those of you out there whom I've neglected in my call returning duty, I apologize. It's not that you've done anything wrong, it's simply because I choose not to pick up the phone. Whether it's because I just don't want to talk to anyone at that particular point in time or because I feel it disrespectful to my wife-to-be to continue relationships with some people, I'd hope you respect that it is my choice to make.
Next, I'd like to finally settle this whole friend first situation. To those of you who judge friendships on a chronological scale of association... hello? I am sorry, but I do not contrive friendships based on how long I have known the person in question. Ultimately, it's my friends who choose who they are, not me. If they feel the need to break that bond, for whatever reason, that's their choice to make.
For those of you wondering, I hold no animosity toward anyone. Just because I haven't talked to you in a while does not mean I've forgotten about you or want to end the friendship. You just have to understand that my priorities in life have changed. It's funny how certain events in life can change your entire view of the world...
And on that note, for those of you who don't already know, Michelle and I are going to be married on Friday the 14th of November. We're having a small ceremony at the Justice of the Peace. Please don't be offended that you didn't receive an invitation because no one did. If you're interested in celebrating with us that evening and you're willing to leave any personal matters you may have at the door, please drop me a line and I'll let you know as soon as we've figured it all out ourselves.
Peace to everyone!
To those of you out there whom I've neglected in my call returning duty, I apologize. It's not that you've done anything wrong, it's simply because I choose not to pick up the phone. Whether it's because I just don't want to talk to anyone at that particular point in time or because I feel it disrespectful to my wife-to-be to continue relationships with some people, I'd hope you respect that it is my choice to make.
Next, I'd like to finally settle this whole friend first situation. To those of you who judge friendships on a chronological scale of association... hello? I am sorry, but I do not contrive friendships based on how long I have known the person in question. Ultimately, it's my friends who choose who they are, not me. If they feel the need to break that bond, for whatever reason, that's their choice to make.
For those of you wondering, I hold no animosity toward anyone. Just because I haven't talked to you in a while does not mean I've forgotten about you or want to end the friendship. You just have to understand that my priorities in life have changed. It's funny how certain events in life can change your entire view of the world...
And on that note, for those of you who don't already know, Michelle and I are going to be married on Friday the 14th of November. We're having a small ceremony at the Justice of the Peace. Please don't be offended that you didn't receive an invitation because no one did. If you're interested in celebrating with us that evening and you're willing to leave any personal matters you may have at the door, please drop me a line and I'll let you know as soon as we've figured it all out ourselves.
Peace to everyone!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A nation of lies.
The desire for ones own safety and prosperity far outweighs the desire to quest for truth. Truth is not about truth any longer. Truth is about following the current trend. As any intellectual who has spent any significant amount time on the inside of a high school locker knows, it's better to follow the flow then to voice truth. Basic survival instinct. BooHoo for you if your brown nosing is later found to be incorrect. Until that time comes where Americans can grow some balls and stand up against an establishment perpetuated by lies, their culture will continue to be dragged through the mud by those who do the perpetuating.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
John Cleese gets it!
This whole thing is turning out like an episode of The Simpsons. Sorry McCain, blowback's a bitch!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Liberty!
When I say liberty, I do not simply mean what is referred to as free enterprise. I mean liberty of the individual to think his own thoughts and live is own life as he desires to think and to live. A liberty of the family to decide how they wish to live, what they want to eat for breakfast and for dinner, and how they wish to spend their time. Liberty of a man to develop his ideas and get other people to teach those ideas if he can convince them that they add some value to the world. Liberty of every local community to decide how it's children will be educated, how it's local services should be run, and who it's local leader should be. Liberty of a man to choose his own occupation and liberty of a man to run his own business as he thinks it otta be run, as long as it does not interfere with the right of other people to do the same thing. - Robert A Taft
Gets me thinking about the whole evolution battle going on in the courts. If the local communities believe in Christianity, then I think their parents and educators should be free to teach that way of thinking. I personally have different beliefs, but I hope I will have the liberty to pass those ideas onto my own children without the interference of some lobbyist social group. Until we stop this kind of social bigotry, we will never be the nation the framers intended. And more importantly, we'll never be the nation of ideals we've so delusionally painted for the rest of the world.
Gets me thinking about the whole evolution battle going on in the courts. If the local communities believe in Christianity, then I think their parents and educators should be free to teach that way of thinking. I personally have different beliefs, but I hope I will have the liberty to pass those ideas onto my own children without the interference of some lobbyist social group. Until we stop this kind of social bigotry, we will never be the nation the framers intended. And more importantly, we'll never be the nation of ideals we've so delusionally painted for the rest of the world.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Liberty!
When I say liberty, I do not simply mean what is referred to as free enterprise. I mean liberty of the individual to think his own thoughts and live is own life as he desires to think and to live. A liberty of the family to decide how they wish to live, what they want to eat for breakfast and for dinner, and how they wish to spend their time. Liberty of a man to develop his ideas and get other people to teach those ideas if he can convince them that they add some value to the world. Liberty of every local community to decide how it's children will be educated, how it's local services should be run, and who it's local leader should be. Liberty of a man to choose his own occupation and liberty of a man to run his own business as he thinks it otta be run, as long as it does not interfere with the right of other people to do the same thing. - Robert A Taft
Gets me thinking about the whole evolution battle going on in the courts. If the local communities believe in Christianity, then I think their parents and educators should be free to teach that way of thinking. I personally have different beliefs, but I hope I will have the liberty to pass those ideas onto my own children without the interference of some lobbyist social group. Until we stop this kind of social bigotry, we will never be the nation the framers intended. And more importantly, we'll never be the nation of ideals we've so delusionally painted for the rest of the world.
Gets me thinking about the whole evolution battle going on in the courts. If the local communities believe in Christianity, then I think their parents and educators should be free to teach that way of thinking. I personally have different beliefs, but I hope I will have the liberty to pass those ideas onto my own children without the interference of some lobbyist social group. Until we stop this kind of social bigotry, we will never be the nation the framers intended. And more importantly, we'll never be the nation of ideals we've so delusionally painted for the rest of the world.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
At least someone knows what's going on.
I find it funny that people still think we're going to be able to survive this economic mess without pains. "Leaders" keep chanting, "We'll fix this, we'll fix this" but nothing seems to be getting fixed.
The economy of the world moves in a smooth ebb and flow motion through time. When you impose rules (regulations) on the market it causes turbulence in the system. When you get enough rules running about throughout the system the turbulence gets great enough to literally destroy the rules.
People will eventually see that the rules are the problem. Unfortunately given the massive short sightedness of the population, this isn't going to happen until we're quite possibly eating sawdust bread.
Listen to this guy. You can feel the ignorance in the air when he talks. News casters have no idea how to respond to him. They all have looks of "Oh my god, maybe he's right!" on their faces. No one wants to believe that the good times are over. Here's the video, watch the whole thing. I think the posture of the news organization is humorous at least.
"We are where we are." ... ROFL
The economy of the world moves in a smooth ebb and flow motion through time. When you impose rules (regulations) on the market it causes turbulence in the system. When you get enough rules running about throughout the system the turbulence gets great enough to literally destroy the rules.
People will eventually see that the rules are the problem. Unfortunately given the massive short sightedness of the population, this isn't going to happen until we're quite possibly eating sawdust bread.
Listen to this guy. You can feel the ignorance in the air when he talks. News casters have no idea how to respond to him. They all have looks of "Oh my god, maybe he's right!" on their faces. No one wants to believe that the good times are over. Here's the video, watch the whole thing. I think the posture of the news organization is humorous at least.
"We are where we are." ... ROFL
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Divisibility Test
0 & 1 - All numbers are divisible by 0 and 1.
2 - The number ends in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8
3462350971235735692 <- Divisible by 2
3 - The sum of all the digits is divisible by 3.27336 = 2 + 7 + 3 + 3 + 6 = 21/3 = 7 <- Divisible by 3
4 - The last two digits are divisible by 4.324154123451251324536 = 36/4 = 9 <- Divisible by 4
5 - The number ends in 0 or 5.1237456918723455 <- Divisible by 5
6 - Use the rules for 2 and 3. If it ends in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 and the sum of the digits is divisible by three then so is it.542718 = 27/3 = 9, and ends in 8 <- Divisible by 6
7 - 1 * 1s digit + 3 * 10s digit + 2 * 100s digit - 1 * 1000s digit - 3 * 10000s digit - 2 * 100000s digit + 1 * 1000000s digit ... If the sum is divisible by 7 then so is the number. The pattern is multiply each digit starting at 1s by 1,3,2,1,3,2,1,3,2 in order, alternating +, -, +, ... for each group of 132.
7108402 = +(1*2)+(3*0)+(2*4)-(1*8)-(3*0)-(2*1)+(1*7) = 7 <- Divisible by 7
8 - If the hundreds digit is even, check if the last two digits are a multiple of 8.
- If the hundreds digit is odd, check if the last two digits are a multiple of 4 but not 8.
12341361345123515832 - 8 = even - 32/8 = 4 <- Divisible by 8
6234512346312 - 3 = odd - 12/4 = 3, 12/8 = 1.5 <- Divisible by 8
6234512346312 - 3 = odd - 12/4 = 3, 12/8 = 1.5 <- Divisible by 8
9 - The sum of the digits are divisible by 9
819 = 8 + 1 + 9 = 18/9 = 2 <- Divisible by 9
10 - The last digit is 0.18947091235698762530 <- divisible by 10
11 - Formulate the digits in reverse order alternating - and + starting with -. If the sum is divisible by 11 so is the number. Also if the number is an odd numbered palindrome with a central even digit the number is divisible by 11.
913891 = 1 - 9 + 8 - 3 + 1 - 9 = -11 <- Divisible by 11
123456787654321 < Divisible by 11
Monday, September 15, 2008
Keep watching MTV because they care about the environment.
I'm glad to see that MTV cares about our environment no matter how far it is from their home base. I guess MTV decided to record an episode of their Road Rules show (premiering September 17th) on a isolated beach in Panama (No it's not really filmed on a deserted island as they claim in the show.) But here's a glimpse of how MTV and their environmentally friendly/green stance leaves a pristine beach when they're finished.
This makes me fuking sick!! I hope those at MTV who were involved in this mess choke on a fish bone!
This makes me fuking sick!! I hope those at MTV who were involved in this mess choke on a fish bone!
Tires, donuts of death!
A 20/20 investigation found some interesting facts about new tires. It turns out that Automakers have been warning consumers for ever about death donuts. Older tires (over 6 years old) can become brittle and crack even if they've never been driven on. So, next time you're in the market for new tires check them out. Look for a three or four digit number (DOT code) in an oval on one of the side walls of the tire. They will look like this...
If the number is three digit, the first two number are the week in which the tire was manufactured and the last digit is the year in the 90's. So 414 as seen above was manufactured in the 41st week of 1994, making this tire 14 years old. If the number is 4 digits it was manufactured in the 2000's. So 2402 from above was manufactured in the 24th week of 2002.
Before you purchase any tires ask the vendor if you can look at the tires and check their age. Don't take no for an answer. If they won't allow it take your business elsewhere. In my opinion if the tires are more then a year old, do not purchase them. If they are more then 6 years old, make it known to the vendor and seek tires elsewhere. According to 20/20 the largest offenders they found were Sears and Walmart.
Here's the 20/20 video if you'd like to watch it.
If the number is three digit, the first two number are the week in which the tire was manufactured and the last digit is the year in the 90's. So 414 as seen above was manufactured in the 41st week of 1994, making this tire 14 years old. If the number is 4 digits it was manufactured in the 2000's. So 2402 from above was manufactured in the 24th week of 2002.
Before you purchase any tires ask the vendor if you can look at the tires and check their age. Don't take no for an answer. If they won't allow it take your business elsewhere. In my opinion if the tires are more then a year old, do not purchase them. If they are more then 6 years old, make it known to the vendor and seek tires elsewhere. According to 20/20 the largest offenders they found were Sears and Walmart.
Here's the 20/20 video if you'd like to watch it.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
State of Power...
To believe that everyone should think and believe like you is immature and very Hitleresque. We all have different values in our life, sooner or later those values begin to clash. Right now we solve it by proving whose right and oppressing the values of whose wrong. But wouldn't it be nice if we could move where the local values fit more like our own, while still remaining under the same system? That way, if you're for marijuana, you won't get upset when your neighbor sits on his front porch smoking a big fatty.
Don't forget, America is built on the idea of freedom, not the oppression of he who is wrong.
Don't forget, America is built on the idea of freedom, not the oppression of he who is wrong.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Torture, right or wrong?
I was recently posed the question of whether or not torture in Iraq was wrong. After a great deal of comparing real information with misinformation that could be devised from torture I came up with a question of greater significance.
All I know is that when military action is dictated by popular opinion, the military is almost always defeated. Popular/Mob mentality is never rational when it comes to the military and tactics. The average person is all about instant gratification and adversely tactics are all about patients. Personally I think the largest hindrance to US efforts abroad is interference by the American people. Could the US have won VietNam? Of course. If it hadn't been for leaders being more concerned about their own popularity then the outcome of the war, the US could have crushed the communist North Vietnamees and the world would be a different place. But that was not to be.
If the people of Rome had stayed out of military dealings during the Second Punic War and allowed Fabius to defeat Hannibal they wouldn't have been completely crushed at Cannae. Fabius knew Hannabal was the better general when Hannibal was able to choose his own battle field. Unfortunately the people saw Fabius' tactics as indecisiveness instead of patients. If Fabius had been allowed to continue what the people chose him to do, it's my opinion that he would have defeated Hannibal long before Cannae as he nearly did at Campania. But instead popular opinion elected Marcus Vera consol in 216BC on the promise of a grand army crushing Hannibal once and for all. Because of that Rome suffered it's greatest defeat ever at Cannae. At Cannae the Romans had amassed an army of nearly 100,000 men to confront Hannibal's much smaller armyof around 25,000. In the end the Romans were routed with losses between 50,000 and 70,000 men. If it hadn't been for Hannabal's indecision after Cannae, Rome would have been no more.
Islam is not fighting a war of IUDs and bombs. It's fighting a war of popular opinion orchestrated by fundamentalist Islam and accessorized by the western media. They know if they can shift American popular opinion against the war that America will eventually be forced to pull out of Iraq by its own people. Use the ignorance of the people against themselves, what a brilliant tactic.
Is torture right or wrong? I don't know, I leave that to the philosophers to debate. The real question is, what did more harm to a favorable outcome in Iraq, the act torture itself or the fact that the media lambasted the population with the images of torture?
All I know is that when military action is dictated by popular opinion, the military is almost always defeated. Popular/Mob mentality is never rational when it comes to the military and tactics. The average person is all about instant gratification and adversely tactics are all about patients. Personally I think the largest hindrance to US efforts abroad is interference by the American people. Could the US have won VietNam? Of course. If it hadn't been for leaders being more concerned about their own popularity then the outcome of the war, the US could have crushed the communist North Vietnamees and the world would be a different place. But that was not to be.
If the people of Rome had stayed out of military dealings during the Second Punic War and allowed Fabius to defeat Hannibal they wouldn't have been completely crushed at Cannae. Fabius knew Hannabal was the better general when Hannibal was able to choose his own battle field. Unfortunately the people saw Fabius' tactics as indecisiveness instead of patients. If Fabius had been allowed to continue what the people chose him to do, it's my opinion that he would have defeated Hannibal long before Cannae as he nearly did at Campania. But instead popular opinion elected Marcus Vera consol in 216BC on the promise of a grand army crushing Hannibal once and for all. Because of that Rome suffered it's greatest defeat ever at Cannae. At Cannae the Romans had amassed an army of nearly 100,000 men to confront Hannibal's much smaller armyof around 25,000. In the end the Romans were routed with losses between 50,000 and 70,000 men. If it hadn't been for Hannabal's indecision after Cannae, Rome would have been no more.
Islam is not fighting a war of IUDs and bombs. It's fighting a war of popular opinion orchestrated by fundamentalist Islam and accessorized by the western media. They know if they can shift American popular opinion against the war that America will eventually be forced to pull out of Iraq by its own people. Use the ignorance of the people against themselves, what a brilliant tactic.
Is torture right or wrong? I don't know, I leave that to the philosophers to debate. The real question is, what did more harm to a favorable outcome in Iraq, the act torture itself or the fact that the media lambasted the population with the images of torture?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
So True!
I know it's long, but everyone should read this.
By Dennis Prager
The day the O.J. Simpson verdict was announced, I said to my then-teenage son, "David, please forgive me. I am handing over to you a worse America than my father handed over to me."
Unfortunately, I still feel this way.
With the important exception of racial discrimination -- which was already dying a natural death when I was young -- it is difficult to come up with an important area in which America is significantly better than when I was a boy. But I can think of many in which its quality of life has deteriorated.
When I was a boy, America was a freer society than it is today. If Americans had been told the extent and number of laws that would govern their speech and behavior within one generation, they would have been certain that they were being told about some dictatorship, not the Land of the Free. Today, people at work, to cite but one example, are far less free to speak naturally. Every word, gesture and look, even one's illustrated calendar, is now monitored lest a fellow employee feel offended and bring charges of sexual harassment or creating a "hostile work environment" or being racially, religiously or ethnically insensitive, or insensitive to another's sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, all employers in California are now prohibited by law from firing a man who has decided to cross-dress at work. And needless to say, no fellow worker can say to that man, "Hey, Jack, why not wear the dress at home and men's clothes to work?" An employer interviewing a prospective employee is not free to ask the most natural human questions: Are you married? Do you have a child? How old are you? Soon "How are you?" will be banned lest one discriminate on the basis of health.
When I was boy, what people did at home was not their employer's business. Today, companies and city governments refuse to hire, and may fire, workers no matter how competent or healthy, who smoke in their homes. Sarasota, Fla., the latest city to invade people's private lives, would not hire Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy if they applied for a job.
When I was a 7-year-old boy, I flew alone from New York to my aunt and uncle in Miami and did the same thing coming back to New York. I boarded the plane on my own and got off the plane on my own. No papers for my parents to fill out. No extra fee to pay the airline. I was responsible for myself. Had I run away or been kidnapped, no one would have sued the airline. Today, fear of lawsuits is a dominant fact of American life.
When I was a boy, I ran after girls during recess, played dodgeball, climbed monkey bars and sat on seesaws. Today, more and more schools have no recess; have canceled dodgeball lest someone feel bad about being removed from the game; and call the police in to interrogate, even sometimes arrest, elementary school boys who playfully touch a girl. And monkey bars and seesaws are largely gone, for fear of lawsuits should a child be injured.
When I was boy, I was surrounded by adult men. Today, most American boys (and girls, of course) come into contact with no adult man all day every school day. Their teachers and school principals are all likely to be women. And if, as is often the case, there is no father at home (not solely because of divorce but because "family" courts have allowed many divorced mothers to remove fathers from their children's lives), boys almost never come into contact with the most important group of people in a boy's life -- adult men. The contemporary absence of men in boys' lives is not only unprecedented in American history; it is probably unprecedented in recorded history.
When I was a boy, we had in our lives adults who took pride in being adults. To distinguish them from our peers, we called these adults "Mr.," "Mrs." and "Miss," or by their titles, "Doctor," "Pastor," "Rabbi," "Father." It was good for us, and we liked it. Having adults proud of their adulthood, and not acting like they were still kids, gave us security (as well as something to look forward to in growing up). Today, kids are surrounded by peers twice, three, four times their age.
When I was a boy, the purpose of American history textbooks was to teach American history. Today, the purpose of most American history texts is to make minorities and females feel good about themselves. As a result, American kids today are deprived of the opportunity to feel good about being American (not to mention deprived of historical truth). They are encouraged to feel pride about all identities -- African-American, Hispanic, Asian, female, gay -- other than American.
When I was a teenage boy, getting to kiss a girl, let alone to touch her thigh or her breast (even over her clothes) was the thrill of a lifetime. Most of us could only dream of a day later on in life when oral sex would take place (a term most of us had never heard of). But of course, we were not raised by educators or parents who believed that "teenagers will have sex no matter what." Most of us rarely if ever saw a naked female in photos (the "dirty pictures" we got a chance to look at never showed "everything"), let alone in movies or in real life. We were, in short, allowed to be relatively innocent. And even without sex education and condom placement classes, few of us ever got a girl pregnant.
When I was a boy, "I Love Lucy" showed two separate beds in Lucy and Ricky's bedroom -- and they were a married couple. Today, MTV and most TV saturate viewers' lives with sexual imagery and sexual talk, virtually all of which is loveless and, of course, non-marital.
When I was boy, people dressed up to go to baseball games, visit the doctor and travel on airplanes. Today, people don't dress up even for church.
When I was a boy, Time and Newsweek were well written and relied little on pictures and illustrations. Today, those magazines often look like adult comic books by comparison. They are filled with large illustrations and photos, and they dumb down the news with features like "Winners and Losers" and "Who's Up and Who's Down." And when I was a boy, it would have been inconceivable for Time to substitute anything, let alone a tree, for the flag planted by the marines on Iwo Jima.
One might argue that these are the same laments that every previous older generation has expressed -- "Ah, when I was young" But in America, that has not been the case. In America, the older generations tended to say the opposite -- "When I was a kid, things were worse."
Can we return to the America of my youth? No. Can we return to the best values of that time? Yes. But not if both houses of Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court move the country even further leftward. If that happens, many of the above noted changes will simply be accelerated: More laws restricting "offensive" speech will be enacted; litigation will increase and trial lawyers will gain more power; the American military will be less valued; trees will gradually replace the flag as our most venerated symbol; schools will teach even less as they concentrate even more on diversity, sexuality and the environment; teenage sex will be increasingly accepted; American identity will continue to be replaced by ethnic, racial, gender or "world citizen" identity; and the power of the state will expand further as the power of the individual inevitably contracts. It's hard to believe most Americans really want that.
By Dennis Prager
The day the O.J. Simpson verdict was announced, I said to my then-teenage son, "David, please forgive me. I am handing over to you a worse America than my father handed over to me."
Unfortunately, I still feel this way.
With the important exception of racial discrimination -- which was already dying a natural death when I was young -- it is difficult to come up with an important area in which America is significantly better than when I was a boy. But I can think of many in which its quality of life has deteriorated.
When I was a boy, America was a freer society than it is today. If Americans had been told the extent and number of laws that would govern their speech and behavior within one generation, they would have been certain that they were being told about some dictatorship, not the Land of the Free. Today, people at work, to cite but one example, are far less free to speak naturally. Every word, gesture and look, even one's illustrated calendar, is now monitored lest a fellow employee feel offended and bring charges of sexual harassment or creating a "hostile work environment" or being racially, religiously or ethnically insensitive, or insensitive to another's sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, all employers in California are now prohibited by law from firing a man who has decided to cross-dress at work. And needless to say, no fellow worker can say to that man, "Hey, Jack, why not wear the dress at home and men's clothes to work?" An employer interviewing a prospective employee is not free to ask the most natural human questions: Are you married? Do you have a child? How old are you? Soon "How are you?" will be banned lest one discriminate on the basis of health.
When I was boy, what people did at home was not their employer's business. Today, companies and city governments refuse to hire, and may fire, workers no matter how competent or healthy, who smoke in their homes. Sarasota, Fla., the latest city to invade people's private lives, would not hire Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy if they applied for a job.
When I was a 7-year-old boy, I flew alone from New York to my aunt and uncle in Miami and did the same thing coming back to New York. I boarded the plane on my own and got off the plane on my own. No papers for my parents to fill out. No extra fee to pay the airline. I was responsible for myself. Had I run away or been kidnapped, no one would have sued the airline. Today, fear of lawsuits is a dominant fact of American life.
When I was a boy, I ran after girls during recess, played dodgeball, climbed monkey bars and sat on seesaws. Today, more and more schools have no recess; have canceled dodgeball lest someone feel bad about being removed from the game; and call the police in to interrogate, even sometimes arrest, elementary school boys who playfully touch a girl. And monkey bars and seesaws are largely gone, for fear of lawsuits should a child be injured.
When I was boy, I was surrounded by adult men. Today, most American boys (and girls, of course) come into contact with no adult man all day every school day. Their teachers and school principals are all likely to be women. And if, as is often the case, there is no father at home (not solely because of divorce but because "family" courts have allowed many divorced mothers to remove fathers from their children's lives), boys almost never come into contact with the most important group of people in a boy's life -- adult men. The contemporary absence of men in boys' lives is not only unprecedented in American history; it is probably unprecedented in recorded history.
When I was a boy, we had in our lives adults who took pride in being adults. To distinguish them from our peers, we called these adults "Mr.," "Mrs." and "Miss," or by their titles, "Doctor," "Pastor," "Rabbi," "Father." It was good for us, and we liked it. Having adults proud of their adulthood, and not acting like they were still kids, gave us security (as well as something to look forward to in growing up). Today, kids are surrounded by peers twice, three, four times their age.
When I was a boy, the purpose of American history textbooks was to teach American history. Today, the purpose of most American history texts is to make minorities and females feel good about themselves. As a result, American kids today are deprived of the opportunity to feel good about being American (not to mention deprived of historical truth). They are encouraged to feel pride about all identities -- African-American, Hispanic, Asian, female, gay -- other than American.
When I was a teenage boy, getting to kiss a girl, let alone to touch her thigh or her breast (even over her clothes) was the thrill of a lifetime. Most of us could only dream of a day later on in life when oral sex would take place (a term most of us had never heard of). But of course, we were not raised by educators or parents who believed that "teenagers will have sex no matter what." Most of us rarely if ever saw a naked female in photos (the "dirty pictures" we got a chance to look at never showed "everything"), let alone in movies or in real life. We were, in short, allowed to be relatively innocent. And even without sex education and condom placement classes, few of us ever got a girl pregnant.
When I was a boy, "I Love Lucy" showed two separate beds in Lucy and Ricky's bedroom -- and they were a married couple. Today, MTV and most TV saturate viewers' lives with sexual imagery and sexual talk, virtually all of which is loveless and, of course, non-marital.
When I was boy, people dressed up to go to baseball games, visit the doctor and travel on airplanes. Today, people don't dress up even for church.
When I was a boy, Time and Newsweek were well written and relied little on pictures and illustrations. Today, those magazines often look like adult comic books by comparison. They are filled with large illustrations and photos, and they dumb down the news with features like "Winners and Losers" and "Who's Up and Who's Down." And when I was a boy, it would have been inconceivable for Time to substitute anything, let alone a tree, for the flag planted by the marines on Iwo Jima.
One might argue that these are the same laments that every previous older generation has expressed -- "Ah, when I was young" But in America, that has not been the case. In America, the older generations tended to say the opposite -- "When I was a kid, things were worse."
Can we return to the America of my youth? No. Can we return to the best values of that time? Yes. But not if both houses of Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court move the country even further leftward. If that happens, many of the above noted changes will simply be accelerated: More laws restricting "offensive" speech will be enacted; litigation will increase and trial lawyers will gain more power; the American military will be less valued; trees will gradually replace the flag as our most venerated symbol; schools will teach even less as they concentrate even more on diversity, sexuality and the environment; teenage sex will be increasingly accepted; American identity will continue to be replaced by ethnic, racial, gender or "world citizen" identity; and the power of the state will expand further as the power of the individual inevitably contracts. It's hard to believe most Americans really want that.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Problem 7 with America - Appitite
We eat pure shit!
People, you're fueling your body with manufactured chemical crap!
An Exerpt from The North American Diet
The food industry aims at making products look and taste appealing without thought to the products' nutritional value. Loaded with chemical additives and designed to be addictive, processed food is manufactured first for profit.
All great chefs will tell you that the tangy flavor of lemon juice is a must in enhancing and lifting the taste of fish. In fact, lemon juice is widely used to compliment a variety of popular dishes. But to cut cost and for the sake of convenience, manufacturers have replaced lemon juice with 2-methyl-3-(pisopropylphenyl)-propionaldehyde. An unpronounceable name to add to the estimated three thousand chemical additives which we consume.
Your body has become a chemical depository. Sulfur is used to keep dried fruit fresh. Formaldehyde which is used to retard corpse decomposition is added to disinfect frozen vegetables. The blue shimmer on the surface of luncheon meat is the result of sodium nitrate. Sodium nitrate is commonly used in the preservation of ham, bacon, sausage and bologna to keep meat looking red, when normally, it would have decomposed into an unappealing gray. In the stomach, sodium nitrate is converted into nitrous acid which is suspected of inciting stomach cancer. Germany and Norway have banned the use of this powerful toxin.
Feed for raising chickens contains arsenic to stimulate growth, increase egg-production and give the chicken a yellowed skin. Aluminum compounds are added to baking powder, aspirin, antacids, beer, table salt and antiperspirants. It also leaches into our food and water through cookware, soft drink cans and aluminum foil. It has been discovered in high concentrations in the brain of Alzheimer's patients and is suspected in contributing to this most hideous disease.
Potatoes may seem untouched by chemicals but because of their bad habit of sprouting, they are coated with the chemical inhibitor, maleic hydrazide, which has resulted in cancer in laboratory animals.
Ice cream producers use propylene glycol, the same substance in antifreeze and paint remover. Carboxymethylcellulose is a stabilizer, used in ice cream, salad dressing, cheese spreads and chocolate milk. It has produced tumors in 80% of rats injected. Yet, the FDA flatly denies it as a carcinogen, for the reason that when it was given to the rats orally, it didn't cause cancer.
For 50 years, producers have added brominated oils to bottled fruit juice to maintain a look of freshness—even after 6 months of storage. Unfortunately, brominated oils have side effects. They produce changes in heart tissue, enlargement of the thyroid, kidney damage, decrease in liver metabolism and cause withered testicles. Canada, Holland, and Germany have banned brominated oils in the production of bottled drinks, yet they can still be imported from other countries.
And this sums it up best.
The life of most cells is short; new cells are constantly being made to replace dead ones. The raw materials for this rebuilding come from the blood stream. When it contains toxins, the process of rebuilding cells is disrupted. Resistance to disease diminishes. If you have a genetic weakness and continue to eat processed foods, the cumulative effect of toxins will increase the risk of becoming a host to disease or premature death.
You're free to go back to your instant gratification lives...
People, you're fueling your body with manufactured chemical crap!
An Exerpt from The North American Diet
The food industry aims at making products look and taste appealing without thought to the products' nutritional value. Loaded with chemical additives and designed to be addictive, processed food is manufactured first for profit.
All great chefs will tell you that the tangy flavor of lemon juice is a must in enhancing and lifting the taste of fish. In fact, lemon juice is widely used to compliment a variety of popular dishes. But to cut cost and for the sake of convenience, manufacturers have replaced lemon juice with 2-methyl-3-(pisopropylphenyl)-propionaldehyde. An unpronounceable name to add to the estimated three thousand chemical additives which we consume.
Your body has become a chemical depository. Sulfur is used to keep dried fruit fresh. Formaldehyde which is used to retard corpse decomposition is added to disinfect frozen vegetables. The blue shimmer on the surface of luncheon meat is the result of sodium nitrate. Sodium nitrate is commonly used in the preservation of ham, bacon, sausage and bologna to keep meat looking red, when normally, it would have decomposed into an unappealing gray. In the stomach, sodium nitrate is converted into nitrous acid which is suspected of inciting stomach cancer. Germany and Norway have banned the use of this powerful toxin.
Feed for raising chickens contains arsenic to stimulate growth, increase egg-production and give the chicken a yellowed skin. Aluminum compounds are added to baking powder, aspirin, antacids, beer, table salt and antiperspirants. It also leaches into our food and water through cookware, soft drink cans and aluminum foil. It has been discovered in high concentrations in the brain of Alzheimer's patients and is suspected in contributing to this most hideous disease.
Potatoes may seem untouched by chemicals but because of their bad habit of sprouting, they are coated with the chemical inhibitor, maleic hydrazide, which has resulted in cancer in laboratory animals.
Ice cream producers use propylene glycol, the same substance in antifreeze and paint remover. Carboxymethylcellulose is a stabilizer, used in ice cream, salad dressing, cheese spreads and chocolate milk. It has produced tumors in 80% of rats injected. Yet, the FDA flatly denies it as a carcinogen, for the reason that when it was given to the rats orally, it didn't cause cancer.
For 50 years, producers have added brominated oils to bottled fruit juice to maintain a look of freshness—even after 6 months of storage. Unfortunately, brominated oils have side effects. They produce changes in heart tissue, enlargement of the thyroid, kidney damage, decrease in liver metabolism and cause withered testicles. Canada, Holland, and Germany have banned brominated oils in the production of bottled drinks, yet they can still be imported from other countries.
And this sums it up best.
The life of most cells is short; new cells are constantly being made to replace dead ones. The raw materials for this rebuilding come from the blood stream. When it contains toxins, the process of rebuilding cells is disrupted. Resistance to disease diminishes. If you have a genetic weakness and continue to eat processed foods, the cumulative effect of toxins will increase the risk of becoming a host to disease or premature death.
You're free to go back to your instant gratification lives...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Problem 3 with America - The Pompus
There's always some f'ckin' moron who thinks he knows best when it comes to people's lives.
This quote comes to mind, "If the slave is HAPPY being the slave, what makes you so sure he'd be happier being the master?"
Be free all you want, but keep your religious bigotry to yourself.
This quote comes to mind, "If the slave is HAPPY being the slave, what makes you so sure he'd be happier being the master?"
Be free all you want, but keep your religious bigotry to yourself.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Since I’ve started getting tattoos I’ve grown a hatred toward certain types of tattoos. Here’s my list of gay ass tattoos.
1. Tramp Stamps, Targets or the more political correct lower back tattoo. What’s even worse are girls who proclaim, "I got mine before it was trendy!" lol! My girlfriend’s gonna kill me for this one, sorry hun. :)
2. Anything tribal. Enough already, it’s beginning to get annoying!
3. Shit you don’t understand. Yeah, that pyramid with the eye on the US Dollar bill is cool, but if you don’t understand it’s meaning you’re a stupid sheep! What if it’s later found that it means "I suck large horse cock"? This also goes for any kind of writing which you cannot read. I mean how stupid would you feel if what you thought was Kanji for "justice" turned out to be "I like to be ass rammed" in North Korean?
4. Stupid inappropriate shit. I once saw a jizz tramp stamp. I mean I’d surly appreciate finding out the girl I’ve been dating likes guys cumming all over her back so much that she had to immortalize it with a tattoo. Although tattoos are becoming more accepted in our society, there’s still a public standard. I’m sorry, but I’m going to knock your dipshit ass out when my 9 year old asks me, "What is that between that ladies legs on that man’s arm?"
5. Any type of wings on the back. Sorry, but you’re not an angel nor a fairy. It just stupid and ghay. Fairies and mythical woodland creatures were only popular with the geek crowd when I was in high school. Now every cheerleader and drama queen has them on their back. SHEEP! BHHAAA And for those who put wings on their chest, ROFLMAO!
6. Someone’s name. Memorials to your kids or parents are ok, but your girlfriends name is just stupid. I know I’d love to stare at my girlfriends name every time I look at myself in the mirror. Especially after she’s just dumped me for some other asshole.
7. Oriental or other cultural body suits on white American dudes. Get a fucking life, you’re not Yakuza.
8. Any type of product branding. At least that stupid chick with the Golden Palace casino tattoo on her forehead is getting paid for it. Morons!
9. People who claim to have tattoos yet they’re all hidden where you can’t see them. Sorry dudes and dudettes, if they’re hidden they don’t exist.
10. Spider web tattoos on guys whose only experience with a jail cell is a get out of jail free card in Monopoly. You’re nothing but a trend following turd!
11. Cosmetic tattoos. ROFL!!! Nothing worse then being stuck with stupid ass looking tattood eye brows 10 year after the style you’re wearing has gone out.
12. Inner lip and eye tattoos. God, you people aren’t tough, you’re fucking ignorant. One thing I will never mess with are my eyes. My sight is something I treasure above all my senses. There’s no way I am going to take even the smallest risk at losing my sight.
13. Pubic bone tattoos. Sorry honey but the last thing I want to see when I’m going down on you is a pair of eyes staring back at me. It’s just creepy! And the lawn mower tattoo is fuckin’ stupid, not cool.
14. Skeleton tattos. Ok ok, now I know you have a skeleton and muscles.
15. Wedding Ring tattos. There’s nothing better then the reminder of a miserable failed marriage every time you look at your hand.
16. Face tattoos. Unless you tattoo for a living, welcome to the wonderful world of ditch digging!!
Do I sound condescending? Of course I do! If the only reason you’re getting a tattoo is because you think it’ll make you cooler then you were before, you’re a moron. It’s not going to make you cool, and it’ not going to get you laid. It’s going to make you look like an MTV driven trend following turd.
1. Tramp Stamps, Targets or the more political correct lower back tattoo. What’s even worse are girls who proclaim, "I got mine before it was trendy!" lol! My girlfriend’s gonna kill me for this one, sorry hun. :)
2. Anything tribal. Enough already, it’s beginning to get annoying!
3. Shit you don’t understand. Yeah, that pyramid with the eye on the US Dollar bill is cool, but if you don’t understand it’s meaning you’re a stupid sheep! What if it’s later found that it means "I suck large horse cock"? This also goes for any kind of writing which you cannot read. I mean how stupid would you feel if what you thought was Kanji for "justice" turned out to be "I like to be ass rammed" in North Korean?
4. Stupid inappropriate shit. I once saw a jizz tramp stamp. I mean I’d surly appreciate finding out the girl I’ve been dating likes guys cumming all over her back so much that she had to immortalize it with a tattoo. Although tattoos are becoming more accepted in our society, there’s still a public standard. I’m sorry, but I’m going to knock your dipshit ass out when my 9 year old asks me, "What is that between that ladies legs on that man’s arm?"
5. Any type of wings on the back. Sorry, but you’re not an angel nor a fairy. It just stupid and ghay. Fairies and mythical woodland creatures were only popular with the geek crowd when I was in high school. Now every cheerleader and drama queen has them on their back. SHEEP! BHHAAA And for those who put wings on their chest, ROFLMAO!
6. Someone’s name. Memorials to your kids or parents are ok, but your girlfriends name is just stupid. I know I’d love to stare at my girlfriends name every time I look at myself in the mirror. Especially after she’s just dumped me for some other asshole.
7. Oriental or other cultural body suits on white American dudes. Get a fucking life, you’re not Yakuza.
8. Any type of product branding. At least that stupid chick with the Golden Palace casino tattoo on her forehead is getting paid for it. Morons!
9. People who claim to have tattoos yet they’re all hidden where you can’t see them. Sorry dudes and dudettes, if they’re hidden they don’t exist.
10. Spider web tattoos on guys whose only experience with a jail cell is a get out of jail free card in Monopoly. You’re nothing but a trend following turd!
11. Cosmetic tattoos. ROFL!!! Nothing worse then being stuck with stupid ass looking tattood eye brows 10 year after the style you’re wearing has gone out.
12. Inner lip and eye tattoos. God, you people aren’t tough, you’re fucking ignorant. One thing I will never mess with are my eyes. My sight is something I treasure above all my senses. There’s no way I am going to take even the smallest risk at losing my sight.
13. Pubic bone tattoos. Sorry honey but the last thing I want to see when I’m going down on you is a pair of eyes staring back at me. It’s just creepy! And the lawn mower tattoo is fuckin’ stupid, not cool.
14. Skeleton tattos. Ok ok, now I know you have a skeleton and muscles.
15. Wedding Ring tattos. There’s nothing better then the reminder of a miserable failed marriage every time you look at your hand.
16. Face tattoos. Unless you tattoo for a living, welcome to the wonderful world of ditch digging!!
Do I sound condescending? Of course I do! If the only reason you’re getting a tattoo is because you think it’ll make you cooler then you were before, you’re a moron. It’s not going to make you cool, and it’ not going to get you laid. It’s going to make you look like an MTV driven trend following turd.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
How ironic is it that science fights an ignorance war with creationism, yet it has it’s own version of ignorance built right in. Have Pro Planet people really resorted to the kind of deceit we hear from groups such as PITA, Greenpeace, and the pro life effort? Who ever claimed that Pluto was an asteroid? And it would take a pretty damn huge collision to send Pluto hurling toward earth. *sadly shakes his head*
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Second Fiddle
When I was in grade school, I played saxophone in the band. The biggest or at least most fun competition of my life was probably between Jim Gleen and I over first chair Sax. I was actually a pretty good sax player back then although now I’ve grown a bit fonder of the clarinet. But that’s for another story.
We competed in every facet of the game. If he got a new saxophone, I got a new saxophone. If I practiced 2 extra hours, he’d practice 2 extra hours. We even went as far as talking shit about each other to the rest of the band. The thing got pretty heated and some might say, out of hand.
Eventually, the director chose Jim over me for first chair. In true grade-school fashion I quit the band. There’s no way I’d settle for second chair. I’ve always wondered how great it would have felt if they’d have groveled to get me back because something had happened to Jim. Alas it never happened and I never got my secret glory.
In the years since then I have grown up a bit and learned a few lessons. One of those being not to be so arrogant. But I never lost my steadfast belief that second chair would never be good enough for me. I think this general rule holds true for most aspects of your life. Never settle for second best. Always strive to be the best that you can be.
One of those experiences in life where I believe this rule holds the most truth is with the opposite sex. When a guy chases a girl and she snubs him off by being with someone else that typically means that the girl isn’t interested. At least to me that means, "I just want to be friends." My parents taught me to respect women thus no means no.
That also means; once she’s realized that she made a mistake and she sees that the guy has a new girlfriend, she has no right to blame the guy for anything or interfere in what he has! I don’t play second chair... EVER... you had your chance and you blew it.
Always remember, we live in the age of technology. The burden of the chase is no longer entirely on the shoulders of the man. So next time you notice someone who you think might like you, don’t play games. Speak up with something other then, "I just want to be friends." Cause, who knows what would happen if YOU offered that guy first chair in your band.
We competed in every facet of the game. If he got a new saxophone, I got a new saxophone. If I practiced 2 extra hours, he’d practice 2 extra hours. We even went as far as talking shit about each other to the rest of the band. The thing got pretty heated and some might say, out of hand.
Eventually, the director chose Jim over me for first chair. In true grade-school fashion I quit the band. There’s no way I’d settle for second chair. I’ve always wondered how great it would have felt if they’d have groveled to get me back because something had happened to Jim. Alas it never happened and I never got my secret glory.
In the years since then I have grown up a bit and learned a few lessons. One of those being not to be so arrogant. But I never lost my steadfast belief that second chair would never be good enough for me. I think this general rule holds true for most aspects of your life. Never settle for second best. Always strive to be the best that you can be.
One of those experiences in life where I believe this rule holds the most truth is with the opposite sex. When a guy chases a girl and she snubs him off by being with someone else that typically means that the girl isn’t interested. At least to me that means, "I just want to be friends." My parents taught me to respect women thus no means no.
That also means; once she’s realized that she made a mistake and she sees that the guy has a new girlfriend, she has no right to blame the guy for anything or interfere in what he has! I don’t play second chair... EVER... you had your chance and you blew it.
Always remember, we live in the age of technology. The burden of the chase is no longer entirely on the shoulders of the man. So next time you notice someone who you think might like you, don’t play games. Speak up with something other then, "I just want to be friends." Cause, who knows what would happen if YOU offered that guy first chair in your band.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Talk about a twist.
Not sure if this is true or not, but I found it a quite entertaining read.
--
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for Forensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story.
On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this.
Ordinarily, a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended.
That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands.
The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus.
When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her; therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
There was an exquisite twist.
Further investigation revealed that the son [Ronald Opus] had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth story window.
The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
--
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for Forensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story.
On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this.
Ordinarily, a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended.
That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands.
The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus.
When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her; therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
There was an exquisite twist.
Further investigation revealed that the son [Ronald Opus] had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth story window.
The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Banned Sex toys?
So I'm stumbling around the internet like any good procrastinator would do and I come across this story about a sex toy ban being struck down in Texas. It seems that Texas and a few other states have laws against the sale and ownership of sex toys. Citing if you have 6 or more it's intent to distribute. ROFL! Are you kidding me? What... is the fine doubled if you're within 500 feet of a school or park where children gather? Oh no, poor johnny's fragile mind might become wounded for life if he sees a fucking dildo lying on his mom's bed.
It tends to make you wonder why this legislation was voted into law in the first place. So why would a legislator in Texas was to ban sex toys? For health reasons? I'm sure he has a little place in his heart for all those girls who have torn their vagina using a 9 inch rubber dildo. What a great guy, right? Yeah, right! My guess is that said legislator wasn't getting any from his wife. Instead of giving it to him she would head off to the bathtub and use her favorite vib. Problem solved, make that vib illegal and threaten to imprison her if she doesn't give frequent head.
lol!
It tends to make you wonder why this legislation was voted into law in the first place. So why would a legislator in Texas was to ban sex toys? For health reasons? I'm sure he has a little place in his heart for all those girls who have torn their vagina using a 9 inch rubber dildo. What a great guy, right? Yeah, right! My guess is that said legislator wasn't getting any from his wife. Instead of giving it to him she would head off to the bathtub and use her favorite vib. Problem solved, make that vib illegal and threaten to imprison her if she doesn't give frequent head.
lol!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Chadisms...
"Hey, of all my friends, you're one of 'um"
"Mother Father!"
"Hey guys, I'm so glad I shaved my balls!"
"Hear me out! Hear me out!"
"Shut the front door!"
"right on!"
"I can hum and whistle at the same time!"
"What's up bro!"
"Let's make like a fetus and head out!"
"Mother Father!"
"Hey guys, I'm so glad I shaved my balls!"
"Hear me out! Hear me out!"
"Shut the front door!"
"right on!"
"I can hum and whistle at the same time!"
"What's up bro!"
"Let's make like a fetus and head out!"
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Reality mode
[REALITY Mode: ON]
FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[REALITY Mode: OFF]
Back to work people.
FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[REALITY Mode: OFF]
Back to work people.
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