World of Suck

It seems the president can't do any better than a four year old (I'm probably insulting four year olds here) with his analogy that the democrats are terrorists. To hear him tell it, you would think that only card carrying Al Quaida are democrats, and all democrats are evil.

"However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this," he [bush] said. "The terrorists win and America loses."

Loses? Is this how the "uniter" talks? America loses if they exercise their right to vote and pick someone other than whom he wants?

Personally I don't really care who wins these days. With him in office my attitude is that the only real "winners" is industry and oil. They've certainly made out like bandits, at the expense of the consumer, at the expense of blue and white collar America.

Facts are facts asshole. American involvement in the Middle East hasn't done anything to make America safer. All it has done is provide an excuse to cover up lousy government, greed, mismanagement and hate. We've bred a whole new generation of haters, and removed our ability to deal with threats in Iran and North Korea.

Seems to me the terrorists have already won.

I like my computer. I use it a lot. A whole hella lot more than I use a TV. In fact getting information from my computer is my preferred method of data intake. I read the news, get recipes, even watch episodes of things I wouldn't watch on TV (like the episode of South Park that spoofed WoW for example). Lately the sanctity of my data has been smirched with animations and flash based advertisements. Personally when I'm reading the last fucking thing I want is some shit flashing in my peripheral vision. I've learned to adapt however, after almost a decade of "punch the monkey" and "hit the ball" flash banners I'm pretty immune.

Now there is a new evil on the horizon. With the advent of sickeningly high bandwidth for most consumers, institutions like the Times have taken to looping actual film and TV advertisements. In some cases you can't even pause or disable the crap. What makes this particularly repugnant is that since it is a news page, it refreshes after a certain period which causes the video to kick off again.

Frankly it's gotten to where I actually select "low bandwidth" versions of sites if I'm given the option. Since instead of receiving glossier or additional information that I'm interested in, my connection is used instead for additional advertisements.

I'm beginning to think my next computer upgrade is going to be a terminal. Anyone have a VT220 I can use?

Any woman that thinks a girl can be better educated in a single-sex class is both retarded and ignorant. There is nothing to be gained by separating boys from girls in education because our society isn't structured like that. Teaching ignorance by imposing boundaries between the genders only ensures a future society of dysfunctional couples. I mean ffs, we're already at the point where family-oriented groups are lamenting the lack of permanence in couples, married or not.

There is no good reason whatsoever to put further barriers in social education, unless your goal is to enforce some morality code. I suppose it's one way to beat teen pregnancy, by keeping them apart. But there's been no hard proof that women or men learn better when they're segregated. Further, wasn't the concept of "separate but equal" something we tossed out of our government years ago?

The fact that the government is willing to provide its seal of approval for single-sex classes and schools (while fighting single-sex marriages tooth and nail) is yet another stunning reversal of advances against discrimination. What's next, women at the back of the bus? Excluding women from education? Preventing them from holding jobs? All covering burkahs?

It's amusing in a black-humor kind of way that Bush is anti-Islam. I mean he holds the same principles of religious autocracy, perhaps that's why he had to start a war. Jealousy can be an ugly thing....

Reprint from statement by Robin Williams:

1) "The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those "good 'ole' boys", we will never "interfere" again.

2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Philippines . They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. Well give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are. They're illegal. France will welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5) No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home they go.

6) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope with it for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere." They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) The Language we speak is ENGLISH...learn it, get over it, or leave.

I know you don't read what you spam. How could you? 200 posts in 2 minutes on this blog alone. Not possible. Millions of emails sent out for pennies.

I would like to note however that I find you to be wretched people. One of the lowest form of life on the internet, it disturbs me that your business model works. I would pay very good money for a list of your names and addresses to be put out into the public eye. See if you like the attention you’d get.

As I’ve recently noted, there are some crazy people out there. And they’re not interested in hot teenage whores (or at least, if they are, they can Google it just fine). They don’t need penis extensions. Viagra. Stock advice. Real estate assistance. They need none of that.

Nope. What they want is to go to their blogs, or email boxes and read mail / posts about the subjects they’re interested in. Replies to things they wrote without sifting through piles of bullshit that you throw out there in the hopes of make a buck or two.

And these crazy people would really like to speak with you. Of course, you’re hiding from them because you know what type of ‘discussion’ they want to have with you. It probably involves a ball-peen hammer and your fingers.

Fuckers.

Today let me mention a few of the automotive peeves that have been driving me nuts recently. Every so often they boil up and make me want to run people over. And since my girlfriend insists that doing so would be illegal, let me scream about it here for a bit.

First thing. The left lane is the FAST lane. Also known as the passing lane. You do NOT need to be in this lane if there are long lines of traffic stacked up behind you, and streaming around you on the right. Additionally if you are not going the speed limit, and there isn’t a traffic jam causing all traffic to slow down, the left lane… not for you. Move to the right. It’s a simple rule, but following it will lead to a happier drive for everyone. Maybe if the rule isn’t enough, you should consider possible consequences and punishments. There are some crazy people out there. I mean, maybe you’re going home one day and someone is tailgating your ass all the way home. And maybe they pull up behind you and bashing your larynx in with a baseball bat. Just saying. It could happen. And maybe you want to consider that before you slow down in the fast lane.

Second thing, switching lanes. This is simple too. You decide to change lanes, either in traffic or moving into a turning lane. Whatever, doesn’t matter. Once you decide to do so, there are simple steps. Check mirrors to make sure it’s clear. Glance over the appropriate should to verify the blind spots are clear. Blinker correctly. Then, and this seems to be the tricky part… MOVE THE FUCK OVER! Don’t meander over. Don’t slowly slide. Don’t get halfway over and then pause for a second. GET THE FUCK INTO THE OTHER FUCKING LANE MOTHER FUCKER.

Third, I know you’re out there. For lack of a better term, I’ll call you ‘inchers’. You get to a red light and stop. Then, for not particular reason, you being inching forward. Slowly, unperceivable at first, but slowly moving forward. The light is still red. The cross direction is still green. But you’re moving forward. By the time the light actually does change, you’re a full car length into the intersection. I don’t get it. How does that somehow help you? Red means stop bitch.

That’s it for now. It’s enough to calm the enraged Rou. For the moment. So I probably won’t be out there with a baseball bat.

Probably.

I've never really understood MySpace. I accept that. I don’t feel less for it. In fact, my few forays into the social networking site left me feeling glad that I somehow missed out on this little phenomenon.

The gist of it seems to be one of three main groups. Friends who want someplace to chat back and forth online and couldn’t find a forum that suited their purposes. People who hoped to meet cyber friends and couldn’t find a better way to do so. And finally, spammers, who take advantage of a large searchable database of people.

I’m leaving out groups certainly. The bands looking fro an audience, the celebs trying to talk to their fans, etc. They’re the minority.

I dunno. The overwhelming majority of people I’ve encountered seem to be people that just suck at the internet. They couldn’t find a forum or set of forums to discuss whatever it is they want to discuss.

In some ways it’s a revolutionary site. A blog, a forum, and an attention whore site devoted entirely to Ego. Media storage, searchable user databases, the works. Very good.

But the clientele seems like prats for the most part. Cry babies and high school kids that spend most of their time gossiping about what Linda Sue and Jimmy did last Saturday. It’s really painful. On top of that, so many of these brain surgeons are complete idiots. I mean, damn. Who puts proof of their crimes on web sites? Seriously. I know the average criminal isn’t the brightest bulb in the box, but fucking hell people. You don’t put video of the crime online. You don’t put pictures of the crime online. And you don’t blog about how you did the crime. You especially don’t do those things on a web site that is searchable, is identifiable, and you’ve broadcasted to most of your friends and family. If it’s in your email signature, as some of them are, it’s even more idiotic.

Of course, judging by their web design skills, I’m supposed to give them a freebie. I mean, it’s not nice to pick on deaf, and color blind people right? Who knew that there were literally millions of high schools kids who can’t tell that grey on black text with flashing icons and blaring Emo music is bad web design. Those poor unfortunates. Seriously, someone should start a foundation to help them. Because if they’re not handicapped, someone needs to put them out of their misery before they are allowed into the rest of the internet.

Dunno. I just don’t get it. But I suppose I’m a relic of a previous era. I remember dialing into a BBS to talk. Then onto ICQ, IM, forums, IRC, voice comm., blogging, ranting and more. I can’t say I’ve ever really had a place for something like MySpace. Maybe that’s just me.

My mind is ringing. My brain is pleading for relief. My psyche is screaming for surrender.

There are limits to how far a person can be pushed. And right now, my heels are on the precipice. My limit is here. My limit is now.

For 6 full hours now, that’s 360 minutes, non-stop, I’ve been listening to a single song playing over and over and over again. It’s not a good song. Smack That by Akon. It’s even more “not good” after say, and this is purely a hypothetical example, six hours of unrelenting, ceaseless repetition. It’s about 3:30 long. So call it… 100 or times now. Give or take.

This mental torture is being inflicted on me by the guy next to me. He’s got his headphones on, as required by policy, but has them turned up so loud I can hear the entire song clearly from 5 feet away. They’re even full closure headphones. I secretly suspect that he’s deaf. There is no other explanation for listening to a single song for six hours, particularly at the decibel level of jet engines.

Kill me. Please!!!

NBC has declared that, to save money, they're going to reduce the number of scripted comedies and dramas they produce. Instead, they're mostly going to make reality shows and game shows.

This isn't really new; it's a continuation of an ongoing trend. Networks have less scripted programming on than ever, it seems. 10 years ago, there were no reality shows or game shows in prime time. Then some time around 1999, things changed, and you couldn't turn on the TV without seeing "Survivor" or "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" Now, most of the schedule of every network is reality shows, game shows, and sports. Especially because most of these shows are aired multiple nights. You have about a 50/50 chance of getting "Deal or No Deal" if you turn on NBC during prime time, any night of the week.

I hate this decision, for several reasons. The first is that I hate reality shows and game shows. They're boring. Second, NBC is the one broadcast network I actually watch. Now I have to worry about "Heroes", "30 Rock", "The Office", and "My Name is Earl" being endangered by this new decision. Why not CBS or ABC? Their shows already suck! And third, it's supposedly being done to compete with the threat of the "new media", YouTube and other websites. But it seems to me that websites make content very close to reality shows, and nothing like the scripted series that NBC is dropping. So I don't even see the connection.

But the biggest problem is that it's such a short-term solution. I know that a lot of people get into reality shows and game shows. But how long does the infatuation last? Are there people watching Season 1 of "The Apprentice" in syndication? Did anyone buy "So You Think You Can Dance" on DVD? Maybe; I don't know. But I do know that I can turn on the TV any time of day and watch a "Seinfeld" rerun, and that DVDs of popular shows like "The Simpsons" are huge sellers. These shows have dedicated fans who really care. I don't think anyone cares the same way about reality shows and game shows, which are so ephemeral. This strategy is going to bite NBC in the ass in the long run, because it's just going to drive people away from TV even more.

BY SANDRA CHEREB
RENO, Nev. -- Gambling, prostitution, and now pot? Organizers of a Nevada ballot measure hope voters in a state where almost everything goes will go one better and legalize marijuana.

If it passes Nov. 7, Nevada will be the first state to allow adults to possess up to an ounce of pot that they could buy at government-regulated marijuana shops.

The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, which has pushed medical marijuana and decriminalization laws around the country, thinks Nevada -- with its embrace of certain vices and its streak of Western independence -- is a perfect venue.

Opponents include law enforcement, the nation's drug czar, and civic and business groups. AP

One can only hope. You know this is going to make for an interesting federal vs. state rights discussion since:

Federal Controlled Substances Act of 1990 which puts marijuana in the first schedule along with things like heroin, MDMA and LSD. From the FDA:
(1.) Schedule I. -
(A.) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
(B.) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
(C.) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

I hope Nevada wins this one. Although my pot smoking days are far behind me, I think Draconian drug laws need to be challenged and repealed, particularly for something that is a plant product that requires little processing.

Furthermore, I personally have little respect for the FDA. In my opinion they are too far into the pockets of drug companies. If it can't be patented, then they consider it useless or unsafe. There are medical uses for marijuana. The FDA's claims there is a lack of research, which is crap. There is research available. The Europeans, particularly the Germans, have embraced herbal remedies and have a significant amount of research. The FDA's ban of ephedra was similarly short-sighted and has crippled herbalists and practiciners of Chinese medicine. I have a similarly dim view of most doctors and the whole notion of "medical supervision". Some of us have done research and understand the pro's and con's.

Hemp (of which marijuana is part of the same plant family) grows wild all over the US. Hemp is still a viable crop in Canada and any seeds they provide to the US market have to be rendered sterile. Part of the original reason marijuana and hemp were outlawed were to placate cotton farmers, since hemp fibers can be used to make cloth. Because of our country's paranoia over drugs, hemp can not be grown in this country because of it close kinship to marijuana, although hemp has little TSH. Now that is stupid.

LIVINGSTON, Texas - A death-row inmate slit his own throat with a makeshift knife early Thursday, committing suicide less than 18 hours before he was scheduled to be executed, a prison official said.

I love news stories like this. Now, instead of becoming a statistic and receiving the punishment handed down by the court for the slaying of a convenience store clerk, the inmate can be viewed as some sort of victim. But then there's this...

Prison guards had been checking on Johnson's welfare every 15 minutes, as is customary, when they found him unresponsive in a pool of blood in his cell,

Why do we need to check on the welfare of someone that we're just going to kill anyway? Save the tax payers some cash and give them some opportunity is what I say.

Massachusetts isn't without it's fair share of morons. Today's gem is Principle Gaylene Heppe of Willett Elementary School. Her contribution to the children of tomorrow is a ban on playing "tag". Stupid doesn't quite cover it. I'm not really sure what adjectives I can use to heap the appropriate amount of disgust and disbelief but I can start with the classic "Gaylene you Stupid Twat..."

Tag.

Banned like drugs, or guns because... yes kids can get hurt. Playing Tag.

What a fucking dolt this woman is, and everyone supporting it. Kids are going to get hurt, it's part of growing up. The idea that you'll stop kids from running around by banning Tag is retarded enough to make any sane persons head hurt. So what now, Tag is banned, are they going to ban all forms of running around because the kids might trip or run into something or someone? What's next, leg shackles after lunch? Chain gangs of youngsters shuffling in and out of a playground only to look at the swings and slides and each other, fettered and safe but desperate to play?

I get the strong feeling that Gay failed her educators courses. Everyone knows (since everyone has been a kid, maybe with the exception of Ms. Heppe) kids need time to run around and let off steam so they can focus. After all, kids have energy.

Rules have cropped up against dodgeball, in other states against ANY unsupervised "contact" sports.

It's fucking amazing. Future generations aren't just going to be fat, they're not going to know how to organize a simple pickup-game in the future because, for fuck sake, they were never permitted to as kids.

Get a fucking life Gaylene, let kids be kids.

Today I saw someone come off the highway, approach an intersection, and quickly make a sharp left turn. The light was red. When the light is red, you're supposed to stop. Also, right next to the red light, there was a "No left turn" sign. You also aren't supposed to make a left turn when there's a sign like that. So I count 2 distinct reasons not to make a left turn. The driver ignored both of them; he didn't even slow down.

For a while, I didn't believe that Massachusetts drivers were worse than those from other states. But it's getting harder to deny it.

I play WoW. Recently a snippet of smack talk caught my attention. Some schmuck was complaining in global chat about a lack of attention paid to Rogues from Healers. The immediate slap-down came back as "Rogues bandage in Endgame, L2P". This was over a week ago, and I'm still thinking about how this applies to my life. Stangely enough it seems to have a wider impact than just a game, so just how does this become a global metaphor?

Work has been sucking hard lately. In fact the whole "team in a dungeon" analogy works fine. I'm part of a team, supposedly working together to conquer a significant project and reap rewards (bi-weekly paycheck). For the most part, after a series of near team-wipes (customer repeatedly threatening to cancel contract) the interteam acrimony has reached the level where team members are pulling targets at random and lunging at any positive feedback like ninja's over epic loot. To get my job done I've had to go rogue, jumping into the fray, putting out the damage, killing the issues that arise but getting little if any support from my team. For safety I try and skulk around, present but barely above notice. I sense traps (usually being set by my peers) and disarm them by proactive effort. Yes, life is an endgame, and while I'd like the support of the people I help, there's no rule that says I deserve any. Instead after a job well done, I'm the only one congradulating my effort and bandaging with a hearty glass of red wine at the end of the day.

The moral, I suppose, is that if you're going to break with the team to expedite matters then it's all on your own head. Getting things done fast solves the problem, but garners attention and resentment of peers who prefer to just slack along. It also means that if you want their support or acknowledgement you're better off waiting for a blue moon. Bitching about lack of respect or acknowledgement isn't just pointless, it demonstrates that you don't have an adequate grasp of reality.

Rogues bandage in endgame n00b. This is life, learn to play.

It's funny in the sad way how a limp dick is a call to arms for medicine and politics. The right to a resounding and fabulous erection seems to be one of those un-written but inalienable rights that is all but carved into the constitution. Health plans which don't cover contraceptives for women will cover prescriptions for Viagra. On the other hand, there has been collateral damage discovered recently, and it's going to be interesting to see how it gets handled.

Lately the press has been reporting on the surge in adolescent development in children as young as four and five. Pre-K kids have been developing hair in mature areas, growing boobs and acting more aggressive. In one case this was determined to be due to the fact that their father was using a testosterone saturated skin cream. The kids were absorbing a full-adult male's worth of hormones just through contact with their dad. In other cases, inhaleable hormone sprays were getting into the kids sheets and causing similar effects. In essence, Daddy's drive to get more nookie was turning his kids into teenagers almost a full decade before the fact.

It seems that it's not enough that kids are exposed to hormone balance altering chemicals through plastics, cosmetics and meats but now they have to worry about direct exposure to "performance enhancing" chemicals through over the counter sprays and creams. What I can almost personally guarantee is that access to these additives won't be restricted in any way, because as stated above, getting it up is a priority over the health and welfare of everyone else. What I find even more depressing is that these men who already have done their duty in reproducing seem less concerned with the results of previous efforts and more so with what they can get tonight.

Like menopause hormones, that require a prescription, men who require additional testosterone should be required to see a doctor and get it formally written out. In my mind any chemical that can threaten the health and welfare of both the user and people in the vicinity should be controlled. Going in for a simple blood test to determine the actual testosterone level really isn't very hard and can be done as part of a routine physical. But that's logic speaking. And when it comes to politics and sex, we all know just how far logic and a nickel will take you...

Somewhere back in the mists of time, our language developed certain rules and guidelines for acceptability. These rules have slowly adapted as the common mores change.

But I don’t think they’ve every really made sense. Not logically at least.

Think about the curse words we have out there. Some of them are understandable and incontrovertible. ‘Motherfucker’. That’s a bold word with a very graphic and derogatory meaning to it. I get that. Of course, technically, it really just means a Daddy. Or the milkman.

On the other hand you’ve got things like ‘Fuck’. There is graphic imagery there. No lie. But that same imagery is associated with lots of other phrases that we have no problem with. Sex. Hump. Mount. Screw. Bang. Tango. Laid. Fornicate. Sleep with. Even using them in their most base and filthy forms, those words are not frowned upon nearly as much as ‘fuck’. For some reason, fuck is the most pejorative form of expressing the act. It’s the one that we wash out of little Johnny’s mouth when he uses it.

Another example. Nigger. Now, I hate this word. Nigger, nigga… don’t care. Can’t stand it. But, and this is the point here, saying the ‘N-word’, or the ‘N-bomb’ doesn’t somehow remove the connotation. Typing out N***** doesn’t somehow absolve the writer. If you want to say it, I think you should say it. Pussyfooting around it is just politically correct tap dancing. If you’re unwilling to accept the damnation for saying Nigger, you shouldn’t try to hide behind a wink and a nudge. Same goes for all the other racial epitaphs out there. I’m not even touching the fact that some people are “allowed” to use it but others become an instant pariah.

And then we have Shit. Another word we never teach little Johnny. But crap is fine. We teach him poo-poo and ‘number 2’ about the same time as we teach him to walk. But Shit? No. Never that. What did Shit do to earn its place on the naughty words list? It’s the same image. Same meaning. Same everything. But for some reason, this way, it’s a bad word.

There are a lot of silly curses that we’ve picked up over the years. Things that you’re supposed to say instead of the “bad word”. Darn it. Shucks. Tarnation. I don’t get them either. Same basic swearing form, but sidestepping the societal scorn. Like swearing for dummies or something.

I’m sure this list could be easily expanded to include most curse words. It drives me up a wall that we have a double standard built into our language. I vote we say what we mean and we don’t care what other people think of those words. If you want to say Fuck, say it if that’s what makes you feel good. If it doesn’t, there are plenty of ‘acceptable’ alternatives to all those words. Speak your mind, not what society thinks you should say.

Your words.
Your choice.

I love how when congressmen are getting nailed for something, lusting after pages, taking bribe money that the tune is consistently and repeatedly going the same way "It wasn't me it was the booze". First Foley, now Ney - these politicians have no simple way of just owning up like real men to their actions it's "Oy, pity me the sad alcohol abuser that I am. I'm not a bad person I need treatment."

Fucking pathetic.

These scumbags can send boys to war to be maimed and injured but when it comes to suffering pangs of guilt, these pussies can't even stand up to the truth.

Listen boys, you know what? America doesn't care if you were fucking drunk as a skunk or stoned out of your head or wacked on crack when you pulled the shit you did. Fucking stand up and be a man for once, get off your tax-fattened ass and take your punishment. Be a fucking man and face reality, for the lives of all the people you've changed, the laws you passed.

In my world I'd have tracking bracelets locked on the ankles of all our politicians, I'd probably put two on the president and vice president. If at any time more than 55% of the Americans they represented disapproved of their actions, I'd have a large and painful electric shock delivered through the bracelet. That would keep the fuckers in line, and it would keep their voters convinced that they really wanted the job, and were tuned to what the voters wanted.

Now, where can I go to patent this?

Maybe if the people who were inclined to commit news-grabbing crimes knew of the reporting aftermath they'd hesitate. If they realized that no one was really going to be interested in their motivations, and only the lascivious details of what they did perhaps they might balk at becoming a tool of the media. The more innocent and vulnerable the victim, the more the criminal is objectified. The active example of this is the Amish school shootings.

In the order of events there's really not much to say. A guy went into an Amish school, ordered everyone but some young girls out, and then killed them and himself. The press is having a field day. If there are twenty ways to describe the same events, then there must be at least two hundred articles all describing the same content with sadistic glee. Every tid bit that comes out generates not a handful but a dump truck load of new articles all with the same text.

I don't think the press really gets it - that in cases like these less is actually better. After reaching a level of saturation, more or less within a day of the event, people already know about it and frankly don't care. In fact the more they report on it, the less people do care because they become immune to the events after the 150th telling. At a certain point it's the press that becomes disgusting, in the same way crows picking at road kill is disgusting. It's not informative, it's not really news. What's more the victims in question were Amish, and they don't like or want the intrusion.

If the press had any nads or self-esteem whatsoever they'd stfu and leave these people alone. What the public needs is a way to communicate to the press that we don't care, we don't want to hear it and that they need to earn their money the old way - by going out and finding new stories to tell. It's not like there's a lack of news, it's just that there's a lack of effort in going out and reporting it. At a certain point it's time to put down the pen and step away from the corpse, it's been picked clean...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian state radio Monday blamed North Korea's reported nuclear test on U.S. pressure, accusing Washington of ''humiliating'' the impoverished communist country.

That's ok with me. I blame Iran for being fascist, hyper-religious, narrow-minded, misogynistic, xenophobic, opportunistic, hate-mongering, lying, bigot scum.

I can't take it. Really.

The single thing most likely to make my head explode, splattering blood and brains all over the inside of my windshield is when I see some complete fucking retard come screeching to a halt in his behemoth SUV just to go over a speed bump, railroad track or, gods forbid, grooved pavement. The urge to rip in front of them, jam on the brakes, and yanking them screaming from the vehicle while I patiently explain to them (with the help of a water logged 2x4) that they fucking bought an SUV because TV add showed it driving through canyons and over dead trees the size of a mini-cooper, is almost unbearable.

IT'S A FUCKING SUV, YOU DON'T NEED TO SLOW DOWN TO GO OVER THAT 2" BUMP.

Christ these people are fucking stupid.

The religious bastards that currently have our government by the nads want everything America has and more. They want far more than just the freedom worship as they please, something that isn't readily available all over the world. They also want to be able to force their neighbors who are not as committed to bend to their interpretation of how the world should be run.

Ignoring for the moment the whole muslim-lunacy thing, and focusing on America, it's impossible to say where the influence starts and where the impact ends. If you slap the tag of religion on anything, from a genuine place of worship to business efforts such as hospitals and day care centers, you get two things: free money and freedom to screw people as you like. You can fire people because they have cancer. You can deny teachers or nurses the right to unionize. You can endorse sexual harassment, condone discrimination. All this -AND- the government will uphold your freedom to do this simply because your religion (and lack of humanity) dictate it.

Personally I think there's no end in sight. The religious are, despite their claims, the greediest of all institutions. Souls apparently aren't enough, when money and influence are available. Supreme dictator of the world in all things? Yes, that's what they're after - and human salvation is only an afterthought.

I find the whole teen-evangelical movement funny. Personally it must be fabulous to tell yourself that the best years of your life, the first kiss, the first drink, the first time you get laid aren't now, but at some mysterious time in the future. "Save yourself for marriage". Yeah, that's great - do that.

The image of two 24 year olds fumbling around trying to figure out how it all fits together is the perfect backdrop for a prayer asking for enlightenment on how to get his-n-hers together. Really it's hardly a surprise when you read articles about how the uber-religous types wind up at fertility specialists bereft of progeny, only to be informed "well you have to have SEX first".

What's more interesting is that many teenagers are wising up. They're dropping out of the whole "religious movement", not because they're being pulled away by the lascivious modern society we live in (as the faithful zealots would have you believe) but rather because they figured out that listening to some fucked up old asshole was going to deprive them of the best years of their lives.

Personally it's Darwin's way of keeping them from interbreeding with the smart kids, by weeding them out early. Anyone with a moderate to high IQ isn't going to huck their teen years out the window in exchange for potential fulfillment when their hair starts falling out and their tits begin to sag. Further, even if you do change your mind by the time you're 21, what normal member of the opposite sex is going to let you fumble around with them? All I can say is, either you better read a lot of books, watch some movies, or catch on mighty quick.

All in all I say "Yea!" if a teenager is retarded enough to choose a vague promise of fulfillment over a fulfilling hands-on experience. Chances are you're saving some poor slob from wasting their time on you. There will be plenty of time for you to figure out what you missed when you're older...

$9.99
$19.99
$99.95
$999.95
$19,995.99

Round it the fuck up already. I don’t care if it’s a candy bar or a new car. I despise the fact that things are always priced just under their cost. When something says it’s $9.99, most of us know it costs $10. But because there is a small infantile percentage of the population that is incapable of making that little leap, I always get a handful of change when I buy things. Pennies and nickels mostly, but largely irrelevant to the greater scheme of the actual price.

And without fail, those coins get tossed. Either into a coin jar at home, or I drop them on the sidewalk outside. I don’t want them, don’t need them and frankly, get sick of the obvious subterfuge that stores use in an effort to make their prices seem lower.

“Starting under $10,000!!!” We all know that means their cheapest car is $9999.99

I know, I know. A penny saved and all that. But I would gladly surrender that to make my checkbook easier to balance. To skip the part of the day where I have to empty the change out of my pockets. To make calculating the cost of multiple items easier in my head. .

I’m not saying get rid of change or pennies or round everything up to the closest dollar. But I get annoyed every time I see things priced this way just to give a false impression. I don’t get mad at the stores. Not really. I get mad at the sorry saps who allow this disingenuous marketing ploy work

Of course, I know many of you don’t care. Most of you pay a sales tax that boosts the price up over the dollar anyway, which ends with you have a much larger sack of coins in your pocket as you break another dollar. But I don’t have to, so it pisses me off.

Still. Aggravates me, so I ranted about it :P

Yes we're all horrified by the spate of school related shootings. Basically men with guns go into a school and shoot people. Variation on the theme, kid with guns goes in and shoots people. The unifying factor in this is that everyone had guns. Of course there are solutions that are being posed to mitigate or prevent these events. One is, lets make it harder for people to get guns. See without a gun these people would have to use a bat, pipe or even their bare hands... and frankly that's a lot less sexy and a lot more physically demanding than just leaning back and pulling a trigger. Yes yes, of course, if "guns are outlawed then only outlaws will have guns". Uh huh. But the are the people shooting up the schools outlaws, or are they just people with casual access to guns? Yes, we know the answer to that one - especially when it's kids with the guns.

Sill why go the common sense route? I mean common sense hardly makes the news. Wisconsin Republican Rep. Frank Lasee has a better idea: Give the teachers guns so they can shoot back.

Well isn't that a novel concept? More guns so there can be more bullets so there can be more dead people. Better yet! With teachers carrying guns now there can be 100% certainty that someone will have access to a gun in the school? Why guess? If you know there's guns in a school, hell you won't have to even bring your own - just sap a teacher and take theirs.

So you think they'll start stocking ammo next to the chalk and desk cleaner?

Think the kids will pay more attention if the teacher puts a few rounds into the ceiling?

It sure will spice up those parent-teacher conferences a mite.

It's nice to know that Wisconsin doesn't discriminate against retarded people, hell they even elect them to public office...

You there. Over there. Stop it.

Stop staring at me.

You’re not normally on this floor. You don’t normally sit there. Don’t know who you are or why you’re there.

What I do care about is that every time I look up, you’re staring at me. And when I walk past, you follow me with your head.

It’s very creepy.

Especially because you have piggy eyes. Seriously. They’re set really far back in your head, and you’re constantly squinting.

And you’ve got this very strange open mouthed way of sitting there. Kinda like a dog, but not as cuddly.

So… stop it already.

Fine. Be that way.

Imma find a crowbar. I think I can fix your eyes.

Work is procedure oriented. So long as you follow all the documented processes, it's hard to go wrong.

The problem is the gray areas. Sometimes they are so rare that they have no documented procedures. Or they have multiple conflicting procedures depending upon personal perspective. Or finally, managerial oversight can supercede standard procedure.

The problem with being procedure oriented is that these gray areas are like trying to square pegs in round holes. Sometimes I can bash them into place and the audit gods are pleased. Other times, I shake the voodoo stick and wave the dead chicken over it all and still end up on the raw end of an audit review.

Now, to be fair, these reviews are mostly a series of emails back and forth with both sides covering their own ass for the good of the organization.

Sometimes though… I just wish this place was a bit more flexible in certain gray areas. If it’s not explicit you have to expect a little bit of imaginative flair for how we do things. Of course the flip side of this is that we have many many large binders worth of documents detailing every single procedure they could think of, which is annoying in its own right.

Ah well. In the grand scheme of things it’s not enough to drive me batty. Just occasionally annoying.

Oh Fox News... how you amuse me with your spin.

Issue #1, Foley, the scumbag politician who solicitied his 16 year old page, is apparently a Democrat. Of so they flashed up under his name and face. Being generous, this was a mistake or a typo. Fine, I'll give you that. Amuusing but relatively harmless and corrected shortly after. Of course, your average Fox News watcher has gotten the wrong impression from such mistakes before.

Issue #2, the left shouldn't complain about Foley because Clinton went after his 19 year old intern. This... this is stupid. Many reasons. First, she was 22 the first time they met. Second, even if she was 19, that's legal age anywhere in the country. Sixteen... not so much. And third, it doesn't fucking matter what Clinton did or didn't do. Clinton's actions don't absolve Foley of being a giant douchebag.

Fucking Faux news.

It's getting harder and harder to accept that Texas isn't populated solely by the mentally deficient. In the latest news from the home state of our president comes this jaw-dropping tidbit:

…Ms. McGee, 51, a popular art teacher with 28 years in the classroom, is out of a job after leading her fifth-grade classes last April through the Dallas Museum of Art. One of her students saw nude art in the museum, and after the child's parent complained, the teacher was suspended.

Ok, I need to step back a second just to compose my thoughts.

So a fifth grader saw a classical greek nude as part of a funerary relief. And complained to the mom. And the mom complained to the principal. And the principle fired her. The principal's name is Nancy Lawson.

Well Nancy, you fucking under-qualified retard, want to explain why exactly seeing a nude sculpture in an art museum on a tour you approved is a problem? Do you know what art is? Have you ever seen a naked body? WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU BITCH?!?!?

The very idea that someone would lose their job by actually teaching someone what art is it's simply unfathomable. Yes someone at that school was unqualified to hold their position, Nancy "head up my fucking twat-hole" Lawson is that person.

It's pretty clear that the people in 330 BC were far more fucking civilized than the retards in charge of the texas school system in 2006.

Hey Nancy, if the sculpture of a male dick scares you, maybe you need some in real life eh?

Any way you read this - it's explosive. I can't do any better than the original text so here it is:

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 2 A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did indeed brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001 about looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said on Monday evening.

This tid bit - spilled by Bob Woodward's latest book "State of Denial" has pushed darling Condi back on her ass, as she's desperately tried to back pedal.. "Um, I don't recall. No, I never had that meeting. I never would have ignored it if I did."

Well, apparently her faulty memory isn't the only problem. The fact that this was never mentioned to the 9/11 commission is gaffe the size of the grand canyon.

Personally I know, as any halfway intelligent person with the capability to wade through propaganda and recognize it, that there's far more to the story than the public will get to hear for many decades. Look how long it's taken for information about Korea and Vietnam to get the light of day... and the press wasn't half so restricted then as it is now.

Nonetheless, this fact lays responsibility squarely in the lap of the administration. It will be an amusing, if pathetic act of tap-dancing to watch them wiggle out from under and attempt to lay the blame on someone else. It's highly unlikely that this bit of data will go lightly into the sunset. Rather it's a ticket for someone's public execution, the biggest question is who?

Much noise has been made as of late about how the President lied his way into a war. How the truth had been withheld from the public and other branches of government. For those still interested in the story it's been confirmed over and over that there was no link to terrorists in Iraq, in much the same way there were no weapons of mass destruction. With those elements removed there simply is no supporting justification, other than "we wanted revenge". Ok, so how many dead people does it take to satisfy one mans desire for revenge?

I guess we'll be finding that out...

Over the weekend, I had to go to the Apple store in a nearby mall, because my girlfriend's new Macbook is having some problems. (Her old Apple laptop had problems too. For a company with such a good reputation, Apple seems to have some quality control problems.) I'm not a big fan of Apple in general, but I really hate the Apple store.

There are a lot of things to hate about the Apple store. Like the way half the floorspace is devoted to iPods and iPod accessories. There are way too many iPod accessories on the market. Or the unnecessary "i-" prefix in front of every product on the shelves. Or the cacophony that results when the sounds of a dozen iPod stereos set to a dozen different songs mix with the music from the overhead speakers, the sounds of the kids' computer games, and the technical demonstration in the back of the room. But I'm specifically going to focus my rage on the Apple support technicians.

Oh, but they aren't just technicians. They're geniuses! Yes, the tech support area of an Apple store is called the "Genius Bar." Actually, it might be the "iGenius Bar"; I can't remember. Unlike other stores, you can't just walk up and ask for support. The geniuses are too busy to be bothered! Instead, you get to put your name into a computer system and wait over an hour for the privilege of having a genius ask you about your problem. Even if it's a problem with the Apple hardware, a problem caused by the rest of the geniuses at Apple. During about half of that wait time, you get to watch the geniuses stand around, talk to their friends, and generally not try very hard to get through the list of people waiting for support. But I guess Apple can't be too hard on them, otherwise they'll quit. And it's not easy to find more geniuses.

Schools have been trying to reach their little arms out more and more in recent years. Part of this is no doubt in response to a lack of parental responsibility. Regardless of the reason, the result is the same: schools are beginning to overstep their bounds.

For example, many schools have rules restricting access to social sites like MySpace and such. No problem. It's not school work and I can understand it. However, that isn't enough for our little educational dictatorships. Several districts have begun using policies that hold student accountable for ANYTHING they post online, regardless of when it was posted. For example, if you tease a schoolmate online, you can be given a detention just as if you did it in school. One school suspended a student and gave the kid community service (I won't even go there) because he posted inappropriate comments about another student. None of these comments were made during school. It was done after hours from home.

If online issues are brought to the school's attention, the school is not responsible for punishment. When they're not in school, the school has to ignore it. It's the parents. It's ALWAYS the parents responsibility. At best, the school should notify the parents and make sure they're aware. Then they're done with it.

The school claims they're trying to impress responsibility for their online activities to the kids. But that's not their job. They also calim they're trying to prevent online discussions from spilling over into the schools. Once again, talk to the parents if it's brought to the schools attention. If it spills into school, THEN you can do something about it.

I swear, even since I was in school, it's gotten worse and worse. Schools are trying to act as a third parent for children. Not their job. Education, not parenting.