This Looks Really... Boring

The Trailer for The 3 Musketeers:


Wow. 300 meets The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets Pirates of the Caribbean - Super slow-mo fight scenes, anachronistic weapons, and a chick who runs around and gets dirty a lot, yet somehow never smudges her make-up. There's probably some fetishized set-worship from The Lord of the Rings, too.

Oh, and the British accents for a movie set in France, since American audiences think that ALL Europeans speak with British accents.

Ah, well. Here's something to get that awful taste out of your mouth.

The Captain America trailer, perfectly synchronized to the Team America: World Police theme: "America, Fuck Yeah!


[YouTube direct link]

GE Paid No Taxes - UPDATED 3-26-11

Good.

While General Electric is one of the most skilled at reducing its tax burden, many other companies have become better at this as well. Although the top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, companies have been increasingly using a maze of shelters, tax credits and subsidies to pay far less.

They've managed to use the government's own stupid laws to protect themselves. I don't curse them for doing that. I wish everyone could.

And it should make you question the wisdom of laws that make it more profitable for companies to hire people to do this sort of pointless paper-shuffling than to simply focus on creating and selling products and services.

If this ain't a big, red flag that corporate taxes are too damn high, I don't know what is.

UPDATE 3-26-11 - Joarn of Argghh! comments (quite correctly):

Businesses have NEVER paid taxes. Period.

Their customer does that for them.

Really, She Doesn't Need Your Help

Background:

Bill Maher uttered a female vulgarism when referring to former Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin on his HBO show Friday night.

"Did you hear this - Sarah Palin finally heard what happened in Japan and she's demanding that we invade 'Tsunami,'" Maher said. "I mean she said, 'These 'Tsunamians' will not get away with this.' Oh speaking of dumb twats, did you..."

N.O.W. didn't say a word, but another woman's group did:

"Widespread sexism in the media is one of the top problems facing women, and seriously affects women in politics. A highly toxic media environment persists for women candidates, and discourages all women - irrespective of political persuasion - from running for public office," Yana Walton, Vice President of Communications at Women's Media Center told FOXNews.com. "Despite the fact that women make up half of the population, we're only 17 percent of congress. Bill Maher's misogynistic comment about Sarah Palin hurts all women, not just Palin, and not just conservative women. By insulting her gender, rather than her platform or stance on issues, he insults women as a group."

My reaction:

1) It's perfectly ok to insult someone personally if you hate them politically. I do it to Obama all the time. Best to do it in an entertaining fashion, though. I'm not sure the phrase "dumb twat" qualifies.

2) Really Fox? You suddenly give give a crap about what some "don't be mean to the weak and helpless girl - who's actually a very strong, independent woman!" organization has to say? A sleazy, fault-flailing organization that butters their bread with the curdled cream of identity politics?

How 'bout we just go back to not giving these twisted guilt-mongers the time of day?

So Close

In the past, I've been really mean to Michelle, mocking her boob belts and clashing colors, so to be fair, I'll say that this dress is sensible and actually rather flattering:



She should make all of her clothing out of curtains.

I Guess It's Not Just Me

Ok, I knew the MSM was ignoring the death threats against Scott Walker. I just shrugged & figured, "eh... liberal media".

Then someone with liberal street cred noticed there was a problem with the lack of coverage and said, "there's a problem with this lack of coverage".

As I was reading the main body of the article, I wondered... how ARE the uberliberals going to react?

Yeah... I read the comments and there were two angles for denial.

1) It was a fake death threat from a Republican

2) Walker deserved it

Neither of which makes me any more sympathetic to the public union position or makes me believe that these beasts still retain any shred of humanity.

In A Better World, This Wouldn't Be News

From the Puppy Blender:

State Police troopers arrested 14 people during a rowdy protest of Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget bills. One of them was a man who allegedly broke into the Capitol through a window and assaulted officers, state police said. The man was armed with a sharp-edged weapon, state police said.

[emphasis mine]

He's an adult male American. Why the fuck shouldn't he carry a weapon? That's what free men do.

You'll notice the article didn't say he brandished it or used it to injure or kill anyone.

He was also wearing pants, but the article didn't feel the need to mention that, because it's normal.

It's REALLY past time we get over this bizarre liberal notion that being disarmed is "normal". Normal adults retain at all times the means of protecting themselves, their property, and their loved ones.

What Google Are YOU Using?

Why bring an iPhone on your next hiking trip?

"looking up that interesting bug or plant on the web."

Bullshit

The internet is useless for plant and animal identification, even with a full keyboard and a high-speed connection.

The internet does not tag images with descriptions, it tags them with names. Typing a description into Google doesn't do much good.

Trust me. I still don't know what the fuck that little tree in my back yard is. Or that crap growing all over my fence.

And I never will without sending a picture to a botanist.

Shove your iPhone up your ass, then enjoy nature as it was intended to be enjoyed - without benefit of electronic devices. Otherwise what you're doing isn't really "enjoying nature", now is it?

House Yanks Funding From NPR

And this, my friends, is why government-funded speech is not free speech.

They get you hooked on that taxpayer money crack, then tell you not to say stuff they don't like or they'll take that money away.

Kudos to NPR for remaining the loudmouth liberal turd-suckers they are instead of caving to political pressure to keep the filthy lucre flowing.

And let this be a lesson to anyone else who's considering accepting government money without a good, solid plan for how they'd live without it if the government starts adding shit-scented strings.

Odd Comparison

So some liberal douchebag on MSNBC compares Obama to Winston Churchill. Not off-handedley, either. The full-monty extended metaphor kind of comparison. More specifically, he compares Obama making his bracket picks during a time of domestic and international crisis to Winston Churchill smoking cigars, drinking heavily, and creating paintings.


[Fox direct link]

Three points:

1) "The President is said to be abstemious when it comes to drink".

Do these fucks NOT have an internet connection?

Beer.

Wine.

The beer fucking summit.

2) Churchill didn't do his cigars, booze or paintings in public as a PR stunt to ingratiate himself to sports fans - who tend, as a group, to lean right - as his re-election draws ever nearer.

3) Obama returns the bust of Churchill.

Seriously, MSNBC douchebag. Go fuck yourself.

I Get It. We're Broke.

Stolen & paraphrased from Rebellion University, this is my all-purpose answer for any budget cut in any program at any level of government. Just fill in the blank:

I am all for cuts in _______________. I will hope that such cuts don't hurt me personally, but I will certainly understand if they do.

Now get cutting.

Dedicated to Everyone Who's Ever Been Stuck in the Friend Zone

Caution: catchy tune.



[YouTube direct link]

This Post is Just Amazing

The most overused word on every single reality TV show?

"Amazing".

Listen for it. You'll see what I mean.

But for heaven's sake don't make a drinking game out of it. You'll be dead of alcohol poisoning before the first commercial.

Another Old Proverb Down the Tubes

You know that one about horses, water, and drinking?

Two minutes & 16 seconds into this annoying crapfest (thanks leeann), Jennifer Aniston proves it wrong.

Or at least tacks on the addendum "unless you pay old nag a shitload of money".



[YouTube direct link]

Not a good ad for this product, since Jennifer is proof that it doesn't do what its name implies.

The Tragedy Of Unrealistic Toys

It's all Barbie's fault:

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a Hamilton College sophomore who created a life-size Barbie to illustrate how unrealistic body images feed (no pun intended) eating disorders in young women.

Huh.

Ya know, my cap gun never fired projectiles, but that didn't make me handle firearms recklessly as an adult.

Although I *did* almost get kicked out of the Navy because I kept trying to bring my dog with me. Hey, the guy on the Cracker Jack box always had a dog.

Just Shut Up and Write

Stephen King said:

"And you know what, as a rich person I pay 28% tax. What I want to ask you is why am I not paying fifty? Why isn’t anybody in my bracket paying fifty?"

Full disclosure, I've read almost everything Stephen King's ever written, so I say this with the deepest love.

Stephen, you are free to send another 22% of your income to the government in the form of a check as a non-deductible donation, if you want. Your income tax is a minimum, not a maximum. Go ahead and pay more of your own free will, then brag about what a loyal citizen you are.

Honestly, mandatory taxation is NOT your only viable course of action. Please don't suggest it be forced on people unless you're willing to cover their tabs, too.

The Tasteless! It Burns!

It just doesn't make any sense:



1) This 1000 dollar tote bag. Why would you pay that much for something that performs the "holds stuff" function no better than a plastic bag from Wal-Mart?

2) Color of bag: blue-green. Color of shoes: blue. Honey, either match it completely or contrast it. Half a match is what normal people call a "clash".

3) Stevie Wonder called - wants his sunglasses back. Although Michelle's blindness might explain #2. Also, I notice the house-cracka holding the door for her isn't wearing shades. So that means they're not necessary and Michelle is just making a fashion statement. In musical terms, it'd be called "Song of the Screamapillar".

4) Her blouse is half-unbottoned, so she must be warm. But she's wearing a jacket, so she must be cold. Great. We're gonna lose some Alice androids on this one.

Remember

3-11-04

Bad Idea

From OTB:

Seventy-seven percent of senior officers in the active-duty military are white, while only 8 percent are black, 5 percent are Hispanic and 16 percent are women, the report by an independent panel said, quoting data from September 2008.

One barrier that keeps women from the highest ranks is their inability to serve in combat units.

I don't care if it's 98% cross-dressing cocker spaniels. National defense is the one area above all else where you can NOT afford to play childish affirmative-action games. War is not an activity for children.

And why do they want more women to die in combat zones? They omit the word, but that's what it means in practice.

Also maimed, wounded, crippled, and psychologically damaged.

Maybe their mamas raised them wrong, but the whole purpose of going to war is to PROTECT the womenfolk, not put them in harm's way.

Yeah, That'll Happen

Headline: Anger Brews Over Government Workers' Benefits

They had this coming.

Unions were always all about the politics of envy - OO! That evil rich management has more that us. Gimme!

Now the taxpayers are looking at state workers and going OO! - evil government unions have better benefits than me and they pay less for them! Gimme!

Now it's the unions' day in the barrel.

The go around has come around.

Shouldn't have played the envy game.

Full disclosure: Beloved Wife is a state worker in WI, and Walker's bill is gonna take a chunk out of her paycheck. We're gonna take a hit.

But the state is broke, and there's a lot of union guys at the local closed-down GM plant that aren't working at all because their union got greedy & bankrupted the company. I'm counting my blessings on this one.

Besides, even paying more, the pensions & benefits still beat the private sector.

Typical Libertarian

Know what I hate about libertarians? They don't know when to shut up.

More precisely, the speak in paragraphs without summarizing in soundbites. Which is a shame, because the points they make could save this country from ruin. Trouble is, without a catchphrase it ain't gonna happen.

Hell, even the Founding Fathers - masters of the run-on sentence (God help you if you ever try to read Jefferson's brilliant-yet-long-winded writings) - managed to pump out some shorties we could hang our hats on like "freedom of speech" and "right to bear arms". You'll notice that, unfortunately, the most important Amendments - 9 & 10 - are too long to be committed to memory.

But I'll give partial credit to this piece by David Steinberg on why Big Government sucks. Because in this case, going on and on and on is sort of the point.

Except that that whole crappy, boring, history-of-the-universe-part-one intro isn't really necessary.

So allow me to edit. It should read like this:

"This is what Big Government means in practice:"

[interminable list of government programs and agencies which no one will ever read, but which makes the point through sheer sensory overload, and kudos for linking every single one of these overbearing nanny-state fucktard organizations]

"[Liberals,] we deserve to know if you are proud of this structure — not the principles behind the structure, the ideals, but the actual structure. This is the government, now, crushing and wasting us, and rational men cannot be proud of what you have done here. Are you, and do you understand us?"

Tangential thought: The Indian Arts & Crafts Board... their symbol is pretty obviously a cock & balls.

Seriously guys, on the New Coke scale of crappy ideas, this is a 9.5 - just below New Coke itself, and just above Black Oreo Barbie.

Family Pride

My blogless brother Tom has a hobby, wherein he takes 2 hour movies, and edits them down to 30 minutes.

Not just crappy Toxic-Avenger-type movies, but even classics like Star Wars.

It was kind of inspired by Red Letter Media's cruel criticisms of the Star Wars Prequels, which, while weird and sick, make excellent points about the art of cinematic storytelling.

And it's a great learning experience, because it's teaching him (and by association, me) to look for what is and is not absolutely ESSENTIAL to tell a story.

Turns out a lot of movies are 75% padding, although some are only 65% or 70% padding, which means that sometimes he has to... uh... take "artistic liberties" with some movies. Like that new ending on Star Wars.

I wish I could share these, but unfortunately YouTube shrieks "copyright" if he tries to post them. Although it's arguably fair use-ish, since he's making a point of criticism about how poorly constructed some of these films are - full of pointless padding and useless reaction shots.

Anyway, if anyone knows of a less rigid video-hosting site, let me know.

Meanwhile, he just finished his condensation of "Pandorum". I'm looking forward to it.

A Small Disturbance in the Force

Checking my refers again, and someone translated my blog into Russian.



Makes me feel very Kirk-in-Star-Trek-6, because up until about 1991, it was my sworn duty to make sure that every Russian son of a bitch on the planet died a fiery nuclear death. Which seemed reasonable at the time, since I know good and well that they had at least one nuclear warhead trained on the USS Enterprise the whole time I served aboard her.

But the Cold War's long over, we won, and now they're hitting me with search engines instead of radioactive explosive devices.

Funny old world, ain't it?

And I mean that in a good way.

This Is Why I Blog

Because I hate to see innocent people have to go through the same miserable crap that I went through. If I can spare human suffering by posting a little advice, I feel like my entire existence as a human being has been validated.

Checking my refers, I noticed that someone arrived at my site via a Google search for "uninstall js-kit" (without quotes) and found this post.

I sincerely hope I helped you, sir or ma'am.

Or, more accurately, señor o señora, since they did the search through Google Argentina [screenshot].

Google Makes It Harder To Game Their System

And I don't care.

From WSJ:

The debate about Google's results was sparked by a recent blog post by Vivek Wadhwa, a former technology executive and a visiting scholar at the University of California-Berkeley. He wrote that his students had trouble finding basic information about the founders of start-up companies on Google.

"The problem is that content on the internet is growing exponentially and the vast majority of this content is spam," or of little use, he wrote. "Google has become a jungle."

Oh REALLY?

Boo-fuckin-hoo, bitch

Search was a LOT worse before Google. I remember needing to go 3 or 4 pages deep into Yahoo to find links that were even REMOTELY connected with what I was looking for. With Google, if it ain't in the Top 10, at least you know you need to refine your search. Saves a lot of pointless eyeball-skimming time.

My point being, if your students can't find what they're looking for, it's because their teacher hasn't taught them effective internet search strategies.

Which, ironically, is a very Googlable topic.

Because Boyhood Is Now A Disease

Somewhere in Washington state.

Nine sixth-grade boys were expelled from Stewart Middle School Monday after officials at the Tacoma School learned about their suspected participation in a so-called "fight club."

Tacoma Public Schools spokesman Dan Voelpel said it came to light when a relative of one participant spoke to television station KCPQ.
[...]
Voelpel said they were apparently friends who would set up after-school fights - staged in a boys' restroom at the South End school or at the youths' own homes - to see who was the toughest.

The events were timed and had their own rules, such as "no hitting your opponent in the face," Voelpel said.

Oh look. They're boys.

Clever boys, who set up a club. With rules. On their own.

These kids have a future in the personal combat entertainment field. Nurture it and teach them the most important part: how to make money off it and become productive citizens.

Don't be a pussy like Dan Voelpel.

Yes I Know. No, I Don't Care. It's Still Awesome

M.C. Escher's Waterfall:



One of my favorite artworks of all time.

Some guy made a no-bullshit, real-life working model of it:


[YouTube direct link]

"But," I hear you object, "it's just a tricky, camera-angle-based optical illusion.

[See the title of this post]

And there's a tiny, boy-child part of me that doesn't want to know how he did it, because sometimes - even for a hard-core, science-bound, compulsive analytic like me - sometimes it's just more fun to believe in magic. That same feeling of wonder, the feeling of "I know it's wrong, but I can't explain why" that looking at Escher's drawings has given me all my life. A shadow-feeling between knowledge and vertigo that's just fun to have, once in a while, in tiny doses, as a contrast to the sharp and pointy real-world that I have to beat my head against every day as a responsible adult.

Things That Make Me Happy - UPDATED 3-4-11

If this passes:

Wisconsin’s 20-year-old mandatory recycling law would be tossed in the garbage under Governor Scott Walker’s next state budget. The Republican Walker says communities would no longer be required to have recycling programs – and those that do would stop getting state money to help run them.

1) I don't like being required to gift-wrap garbage.

2) Recycling used to be a profitable industry, metal & paper-wise. Then the government decided to force people to recycle plastic. Which is useless, unreusable, and frankly belongs in a landfill.

3) The dirtbag asshole companies that signed up to take the government blood money to recycle this unprofitable crap despite the fact that there never was and never will be a sound business reason to do it... well, I hope they all go bankrupt and all their employees end up homeless, living in cardboard boxes, and die by getting eaten by rats.

Rats who will then move to the dump to frolic away the rest of their carefree days amongst the myriad of plastic items that have finally been put where they belong.

UPDATE 3-4-11 - via my Blogless Brother Tom, it turns out that curbside recycling is such an incredibly retarded idea that even filthy socialist hippies from Berkeley have come out against it, because it doesn't even make sense using THEIR tree-hugging, fairy-dust-snorting, unicorn-humping version of logic.

Proof That Obama Was A Mistake

Tangential quote pulled from Obama spokes-tool Valerie Jarrett:

[Obama] inherited such a crisis on all fronts—two wars, an economic meltdown, a fiscal meltdown, the largest deficit in our nation's history, and a health crisis, energy crisis, education crisis, confidence crisis around the world

So let's see how he's done:

* Two wars - still going

* Economic meltdown - unemployment rose on his watch

* Fiscal meltdown - half the states are broke & CA's near bankruptcy

* Largest deficit in history - he set new records on that

* Health crisis - doctors & insurance companies are now up and QUITTING

* Energy crisis - we're pushing $3.50 a gallon in WI. And you?

* Education crisis - public education has always been crap. It's probably not really any worse

* Worldwide confidence crisis - Our allies don't trust us, our enemies don't fear us, and China owns us. I don't feel confident.

Maybe this administration shouldn't point out Obama's inheritance if all he's done is squander it.

Stylish Blogger Award

Moogie of Moogie's World awarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award:



I have style? Who knew.

Receiving this award comes with some conditions: I'm supposed to list 7 things about me, then list 15 good blogs I've recently encountered. Those 15 bloggers will then be eligible for this award, if they likewise mention those 7 things and list 15 good blogs.

Yes, it's a pyramid scheme for blog-attention. I'm hoping this will go better than that investment I made with Bernie Madoff.

As always, if I've tagged you, you are perfectly free to modify the rules on this as you see fit, since the requirements are oppressively excessive, and America is still a free country. Besides, if I say you're stylish, you're freakin' stylish. 'Nuff said.

7 Things About Me

1) 6 years in the Navy. The last 4 on board the USS Enterprise (11-85 to 11-91) as a Reactor Mechanic. Yeah, I was a nuke.

2) I got bored once and calculated how fast a hamster would have to be travelling in order for it to stop the Enterprise dead in the water if it were running at its top operating speed. Assumptions: both the hamster and the Enterprise are indestructible, and F=MA, without correcting for the effects of relativity. As I recall, the answer was somewhere around 200 times the speed of light.

3) I once traded my car for a coffee grinder. I definitely got the long end of that stick.

4) In order to become a more amusing blogger, I once reverse-engineered an entire book of David Letterman's Top Ten Lists to figure out why they were funny so that I could apply the techniques to my own writing.

5) I flunked English in 10th grade. Ironically, I got hired for my current job based entirely on my mad writing skills.

6) Despite numerous and heated arguments with numerous liberal college professors, they never took it out on my grades. In fact, I think they rather enjoyed it in the same way Inigo Montoya enjoyed dueling The Man in Black.

7) And yeah, Princess Bride - Best. Movie. Ever.

15 Good Blogs:

1) ACK! THBBBT!:

The Husband and I bought a credenza about the size of a twin-sized bed. Still, I whined to The Husband that I didn't have any place to put things.
He opened a drawer of the credenza to point out all the room available, but he found the drawer full of yarn. He pulled open another drawer. Full of yarn.
A third: full of yarn.

As he began to laugh, I protested, "What? That's only three drawers of yarn. And... five baskets. And that grocery bag full in the back of the closet. Shut up."

2) American Digest:

The Ten-Year-In-the-Future-Jam-Tomorrow gambit is not only used by the Obama administration when pumping more slop from their endless fountain of froth, but by others of all parties that play the DC game. And it is used for one end and one end only: to keep the Heroin of tax money flowing into their scarred and suppurating veins.

3) Basil's Blog:

"Addressing a small, anti-Wal-Mart rally at City Hall on Monday, Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn't resist the temptation to steal."

Got it? Walmart doesn't create jobs. It causes theft.

So, if some punk steals from Walmart, it's because of the temptation created by Walmart, not because the kid is a little thief.

Keep this in mind if you ever get robbed. It's your fault. Not the fault of the little punk that sticks a gun in your face and takes your money or your car. Yours.

4) Boudicca's Voice:

Let me remind you about my 2nd son. This is the boy that when I told him about sex, he was completely analytical. This is the boy that wanted to know the stats on pregnancies for various forms of contraception, wanted to understand why a priest would have any type of say on contraception given they aren't parents or married, and tried to calculate the fiscal responsibility of having more than three children. (I did explain to him that having lots of children is truly a blessing for those who are great parents. I'm not one of those. A large family for someone like me would be disastrous.)

5) ErosBlog (NOTE: Rated NC17)

So, unless you’re one of those hopelessly self-absorbed men, you were already aware that sometimes, your lady is making those noises because she knows the pleasurable effect it has on you, and not because she can’t help herself. There’s nothing wrong with that — it’s just another tool of pleasure, like fingers or tongue or that thing in your sock drawer you bought last time you were in The City but haven’t shown her yet.

6) House of Zathras:

We were discussing compound words this week in the classroom. The kids have a pretty good handle on the concept.

Then we broke down the word 'blueberry'. One kid correctly divided the word into 'blue' and 'berry', when another kid suddenly exclaimed, "Hey! I have a cousin named Barry!" I then commented that it was also President Obama's nickname.

Then I heard from the back of the room, "His name is President Blueberry??"

7) Been Here So Long Got to Calling it Home:

Naming food dishes is not my strong point. However, I created this the other day and it was good. If anyone has a better suggestion for a name let me know. The winner will receive a lifetime free subscription to my blog.

The spice mixture is a little tedious to make, and perhaps not all the entries are contributing to the final flavor, but it's what I put in and it worked.

8) IMAO:

I don’t get onions’ chemical warfare on my eyes. If you don’t want to be cut, don’t have so much flavor.

9) Innominatus:

Project #2: Figure out why the vacuum stinks of burnt rubber and is barfing dust all over the room. First of all, I want to know who decided that all modern vacs have to be bagless. Oh, duh. I know. The same despicable individual that wants to make me buy an $8 filter instead of an 89 cent vac bag. Curse him! Take vac apart, remove several cubic kilometers of dog hair from hoses, ducting, filter, and every other nook and cranny in the darned thing? Dust barfing continues unabated. Belt? Belt is OK. Dig some more, learn that there is a secondary filter that is so confunkulated that no air will go through it. Dust-laden air is forced AROUND this filter for it is so full it is basically airtight. Replace filter. WINNER!

10) Miasmatic Review:

Taste: The tongue is treated to a rich dark roasted malts, mostly coffee with a touch of chocolate. Dark fruit and molasses flavors help to enhance the flavors tremendously. There is a good hop finish to it that helps bring all the flavors together. The aftertaste is a lingering mild bitterness on the back of the tongue that fades slowly. The beer has a slight alcohol taste, which isn’t surprising based on the 9.4% ABV.

11) One Happy Dog Speaks:

My mom sent me this in an email (and no she did not originate it):

"Fathom the hypocrisy of a Congress that requires every citizen to prove they are insured…..but not everyone must prove they are citizens".

My mom is a wise woman. She sends stuff to make me laugh, to make me remember and… to make me think. Like this quote. So many things run through my mind. My kids, their future, my future, my country, my ability (or inability) to fix this, does it need fixing, how is it going to change my life….

What goes through your mind when you read it?

12) Primordial Slack:

We’re losing faster than we’re winning in the information game, (we always have) and marching on the streets will NOT get a fair shake in the media. I know I’m tilting at windmills with this little blog effort, but if I can convince you to TALK IN PERSON with people you know, eye-to-eye, you will have a larger effect on the future of this country than all the hopes that the MSM will someday come around. And we call ourselves the party of reality? We’d better see ourselves as the party of Real People with Real Friends.

13) Rebellion University:

3. I further appreciate the knowledge that the drivel I post interests, informs and amuses those people who frequently look here. It is not like there is a shortage of such places on the internet. What I have to say is certainly not unique, though I do try to not just write what everyone else is writing.

4. The internet is just like real life. None of you sees me as I see myself. So you are incapable of providing the empathy I sometimes require.

5. Empathy without beer is futile.

6. Why can't beer be like crack and help you lose weight?

14) Technicalities:

While getting my teeth cleaned the hygienist had the news on. I was not able to find it online, but there was an actual comical story - yes in the middle of the local news not at the end! A man, somewhere around here, was arrested for using large firecrackers to blow up the piles of snow at the end of his driveway. Personally I thought it was an ingenious idea, but the police didn't think too highly of it. Heh.

15) Violins & Starships:

Sometimes my mind does weird things. Perhaps the weirdest is making me talk about it like this - as if it was a completely separate and independent entity. Which reminds me of this: "You're out of your mind." - "That's between me and my mind." Absolutely everything can be tied to Firefly in some way. Or Star Trek. Can you imagine if there were as many episodes of Firefly as there are of Star Trek? I would be completely unable to carry on a normal conversation. I'd just speak in Firefly quotes all the time. But, I should stop before this turns into another Fox-Hate party.

25 Levels of Fun

Moops - Great little time-waster. Until level 26, when it becomes a miserable, grinding, pixel-hunting, perfect-timing, do-it-again-stupid annoyance.

But up until level 26, lots of fun.