Month: August 2004
Talk
I usually start off my posts with titles — sometimes they come to me immediately and set the tone for posts, sometimes they are terrible titles for posts because they have nothing to do with them, and other times they are dead on. Right now I have no title at all in mind or every title I think of contradicts what I was going to talk about.
I was going over the site web logs – just sometime I do from time to time to see who is linked to Der Stonegauge or other sites I am in control of. I’ve been catching a lot of people who’ve been siphoning graphics lately, for example. I also check those logs for search phrases that are used on the Internet that leads people to this site. Sometimes they are strange terms, sometimes they are relevant because I have posts using those titles, sometimes they are explicitly (because I use 4 letter words in posts and other posts just happen to have the matching second keyword that some pervert typed into a Search Engine) and then some terms come out of the blue.
Here’s the one that made me do a double take:
he doesn’t want to talk to me
It got me thinking… It got me wondering…. Of course, I have no phrase use on the site that even comes close to that, and of course I have no clue who went on the Internet, typed that key-phrase on a certain Search Engine and got this site as a result, but it just jarred me a bit.
So I’ll humor myself here by just typing out why it may seem like “he doesn’t want to talk to me” to this person… And what the truth may be on why “he” seems the way he is.
Read More
more weather for the weary
Latest computer projections for Hurricane Frances. This doesn’t look that good for Florida as it stands now (Monday afternoon)
Try Try Again
Toe is at it again.
The great sage and creative webmaster, known for such web sites as GWBush04.com, RedTideNews.com and the now defunct KilltheWeb.com satire sites, has a new political blog up and running…
For all of you who couldn’t guess where Toe falls on the political map, just check the site name and take a guess: The Blue Donkey…
Batten Down the Hatches Again???
Hurricane Frances is alive and well in the Atlantic. It is a long ways away from any land (including the Lesser Antillies) but this system is a monster and has basically no atmospheric interference to hinder it’s growth:
Something missing from my life
At least Kurt had one to sign about…
About A Girl
I need an easy friend
I do… with an ear to lend
I do… think you fit this shoe
I do… won’t you have a clue
I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night
Free
I’m standing in your line
I do… hope you have the time
I do… pick a number too
I do… keep a date with you
I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night
Free
I do….
I need an easy friend
I do… with an ear to lend
I do… think you fit this shoe
I do… won’t you have a clue
I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night
Oh, I can’t see you every night…
For free
I do…
I do…
I do…
I do…
Pie Fucker 4?
Well, I talked about it happening when I reviewed the last film… But now there are quiet rumblings that it will indeed happen:Casting for AMERICAN PIE 4 is underway.
My American Wedding review made mention of the possibility of American Pie 4 which continued the story of Jim and Michelle. The above link to the casting rumors, however, tells a different story on what will happen in the next film….
Moral Cowardice
One of the strongest pieces I have seen that outlines the key weakness of a certain political figure was posted by Josh Micah Marshall the other day, having to do with the president’s moral cowardice….
The stubborn refusal ever to change course, which the president tries to pass off as a sign of leadership or devotion to principle, is actually an example of his cowardice.
For the same reasons, he runs from soldiers’ funerals like they were burying victims of the plague — because it’s the easy way out. If there’s a problem, he denies it or finds someone else to take the fall for him.
Everyone has these tendencies in their measure. No one is perfect. But they define George W. Bush.
The same sort of moral cowardice that led him to support the Vietnam war but decide it wasn’t for him, run companies into the ground and let others pay the bill, play gutter politics but run for the hills when someone asks him to say it to their face, those are the same qualities that led the president to lie the country into war, fail to prepare for the aftermath and then refuse to take responsibility for any of it when the bill started to come due.
Thanks to Jon at Lies.com who’s post I originally found out about this from.
The most scary thing about this cowardice is that i have seen it before – though I had thought originally it was tap dancing around issues, that wasn’t the truth (though that plays a part in this) to it — it’s blindly seeing it yoru way and playing the spin so you can accept the lie as truth… It defines many Americans, sadly.
Strung along
I’m not even goign to leave much of an entry… Lets just say the more things seem surprising and new, the more they turn into old situations that you’ve benevonently found yourself in time and again.
Oh well, in vaugeness I degress and head west once more….
Less Defense, more Beauracracy
Beside George Tennet, I wonder how many people see the proposed breakup of the CIA as a step backwards instead of a step forward?
There are already a handful of security and intelligence agencies int eh United States and a handful of Investigative agencies as well. The 9/11 Commission cited lack of communications/cooperations between agencies as part of the reason 9-11 happened.
So why is it that breaking the CIA into three is supposed to be the way to mend the problem? You have more agencies that need to answer to other agencies and more groups that may or may not share data. It’s taking the wrong approach to finding a solution.
Just like the Department of Homeland Security is giving the Defense Department a day off from defending the United States of America so that they can go ahead and be the Offense Department and take War elsewhere, changing the CIA to three different agencies doesn’t rectify the problem – it just adds bureaucracy so that other groups can focus on other things instead of solving the real problem — the glut of agencies and the lack of coordination with them.
I’m not totally opposed to the dismantling of the CIA but then again? I want to see the FBI and ATF factored into this group. I would think one super agency with divisions for national Investigation and law enforcement as well as international intelligence is going to be more beneficial than adding more groups to an already crowded field of agencies that are only loosely connected… And of course, having one person overseeing those agencies is not going to help cooperation and coordination between them…. It’s just going to add to the mess.
And what are other politicians going to tell you? That dividing and confusing is going to make America safer? That’s hardly a way to protect America… It’s more likely a way to contribute to more trouble – both Political and Geo-political – in the future.
Where's My Bridge? Or should I be yours?
When I was in middle school, we would have a special assembly every year, tied to the Yearbook being on sale, to go through som nostalgic videos clips with music, and usually the crowd woudl boo, cheer or just act indifferently to certain songs…
One of the songs I always had a deep, personal connection to every time it aired during this assembly was the following… It always aired with clips from Vietnam and it just seemed appriopriate and moving…
I’ve liked the lyrics for years but sometime I have only given them token notice…. Right now, I could use a bridge over my troubled waters — or just the need to be someone else’s. I don’t know….
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Paul SimonWhen you’re weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all;
I’m on your side. when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.When you’re down and out,
When you’re on the street,
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you.
I’ll take your part.
When darkness comes
And pains is all around,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.Sail on silvergirl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine.
If you need a friend
I’m sailing right behind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.
Forever Chasing Amy, so to speak…
Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) has just attempted to explain his complicated problems with his girlfriend Alyssa’s lurid past to his friends, Jay and “Silent” Bob. This leads to the longest speech of the Jersey Films Quadrology by our beloved Silent Bob:
Silent Bob: Chasing Amy.
[Shocked silence, more for the audience than anyone else]Holden: What? What did you say?
Bob: You’re chasing Amy.
Jay: Why are you so shocked for, man? Fat bastard does this all the time. Think just because never says anything, it’ll have some huge impact when he does open his fucking mouth…
Bob: Jesus Christ, why don’t you just shut the fuck up. You’re yap, yap, yapping all the time. Give me a fucking headache. [To Holden] I went through something like what you’re talking about, a couple years ago, this chick named Amy.
Jay: When?
Bob: A couple years ago?
Jay: What, you live in Canada or something? Why don’t I know about this?
Bob: Bitch, what you don’t know about me I could just about squeeze in the Grand fucking Canyon. Did you know I always wanted to be a dancer in Vegas? [does a gesture with his hands, a reference to a move by the exotic dancers in Showgirls] Betcha ya didn’t even know that shit, did ya?
Jay: So tell your fucking story so we can get outta here and smoke this.
Bob: So, there’s me and Amy. And we’re all inseparable, right? Big time in love. Then four months down the road, the idiot gear kicks in, and I ask about the ex-boyfriend. Which, as we all know, is a really dumb move. But you know how you don’t wanna know, but just have to know–stupid guy bullshit. So, anyway, she starts telling me about him. How they fell in love, how they went out for a couple of yeas, how they lived together, her mother likes me better, blah blah blah blah blah. And I’m okay. Then she drops the bomb. And the bomb is this: it seems that a couple of times while they were going out, he brought some people to bed with him, “menage a troi,” I believe it’s called. And this just blows my mind, right? I mean, I am not used to this sorta thing; I was raised Catholic, for Gods sake.
Jay: Saint shithead.
Bob:Â [to Jay]Do something. [to Holden] So I’m totally weirded out by this, right? So I start blasting her. I mean, I don’t know how to deal with what I’m feeling, so I figure the best way is to call her ‘slut,’ tell her she was used. I’m out for blood, I really want to hurt this girl. I’m like, “What the fuck is your problem,” right? And she’s just trying to calmly tell me it was that time, it was that place, and she doesn’t feel like she should apologize because she doesn’t feel that she’s done anything wrong. And I say, “Oh, really?” That’s when I look her straight in the eye, tell her it’s over. I walk.
Jay: Fucking-A.
Bob: No, idiot, it was a mistake. I wasn’t disgusted with her, I was afraid. In that moment, I felt small, like I lacked experience, like I’d never be enough for her or something like that, you know what I’m saying? But what I did not get: she didn’t care. She wasn’t looking for that guy any more. She was looking for me, for the Bob. But by the time I figured this all out, it was too late. She had moved on. And all I had to show for it was some foolish pride which gave way to regret. She was the girl. I know that now. But (lights a cigarette) I pushed her away. (pause) So I spend every day since then chasing Amy. (pause) So to speak.
Birthdaze
It’s Birthday Time in teh Fontana Family – between my immediate family and extended family, quite a few birthdays come up around this time of year and I am always at a loss to find a gift or something to give mi familia…
And I WANT to give, I NEED to give… I hate just sitting around like a schmoe and not giving something…. That just feels really lowball.
The key problem areas are my older brother Michael and my father. Mike’s birthday comes up in a couple of weeks (August 29th) and basically he has taken an anti-materialism vow — though he seems like the most materialistic son of a bitch sometimes. He also seems to be very much into Pool lately so I am going to have to see if I can find something that fits along those lines as a gift (and no, a cue is out of the quesiton – he just bought one).
Meanwhile, I have another month before my fathers birthday. If Mike is hard to shop for, my father is impossible. ANy time of year, any holiday — outlandishly impossible. It’d be easier getting him a few days off at a casino than getting him anything material or meaningful…
IAnd I am 2 months away from #25…. I’m due out in LA on my birthday — if I can do something other than my usual trips to LA that are uneventful, it willb e a good day all by itself.
Going All out at Busch Stadium
Taken from Cards Fan in Cubs Land
Another of the attractions at the stadium will be bean ball cages. Inspired by the film Happy Gilmore, fans will be able to step into the cage and feel what it is like to be hit by a major league fastball.
I don’t know whether to just :rolleyes at this or what… One of the other features of new Busch stadium is supposedly “Luna Landing” which will be sponsored by NASA?!
Just a glimpse
My friend Jason on Skyscraperpage.com has been down in Ft. Myers, helping his own family repair damages to their houses. He also took a few pictures to give everyone a better glimpse of the damage.
This has been a very sobering wakeup call for west-central Florida. We were lucky — 15 degrees north and the damage would have been the worst disaster in United States history…
That was a forrest… Just imagine what happened to the homes… or click on the link provided above.
Aftermath
I regret making my “joke” about Charley’s turn — seeing the destruction that it caused and knowing it could very well have been here is very sobering.
My older borther Mike got sent by Publix to do emergency work in Ft. Myers. He’s supposed to be down there for three days but for all he knows he could be down here a lot longer….
There’s a sexual joke in here somewhere regarding Hurricane Charley
Hurricane Charley has decided not to give Tampa Bay a blow job but instead decided to go down on Charolette to the south.
Figures
OK, power was never turned off here and I am angry at my kneejerk family who decides to give me vague news. The huge news is we in the Tampa Bay Metroplex have escaped the full wrath of Charley and are instead getting second-hand frontal bands in his wake.
In a related Story 10 Tampa Bay News has been the absolute worst storm broadcast I have ever seen. It doesn’t help things when your studio is in a prime evacuation zone well away from urban centers in St. Petesburg or Tampa, but when your transmission quality bottoms out in your new location and you stop getting outside information? That’s horrid.
Give Paul Delagato big props for not only carrying the ball passed to him by his mentor and Flrodia weather guru Roy Leap, but for goving above and beyond to get news information and updates to people at home when the information becomes availible. Of course, Howard Shapiro and “Drunk” ANdy Johnson also deserve props for being part of teh best weather coverage in Tampa / St. Pete, but Delagdo is WTVT’s main weather personality and head meteorologist.
More weather coming in so we aren’t in the clear yet but this was a big, big, BIG escape for Tampa Bay. No one was crying wolf with this storm from the get go and the region handled the evacuations and such swimmingly.
Powered Out
In what is going to be my lst entry for at least a few hours, I wanted to report Progress ENergy will be shutting down their transmission lines and power stations at Noon today in preperation for Charley…. It’s a means of keeping their employees safe and la-de-da
It’s a hum dinger of an inconvience for the rest of us but this entire storm is a humdinger of an inconvience for the Tampa Bay Metro Region. 600 thousand+ evacuees from Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties alone? Good god damn, that’s a quarter of Tampa Bay’s population.
The full brunt of the storm is still expected to hit Tampa / St. Petersburg at around 8 PM EDT….
Good luck to those who are also riding out the storm and god bless. Until we meet again, kiddies, this is John signing off for the duration….
Batten Down the Hatches!
I was going to post about some political mumbo jumbo but there is a more pressing situation — I think Mr. Tommy Dunan does a better job posting about Florida’s multi-tiered threat against it’s very existence.
I haven’t dealt with a Hurricane head on since I was a real young kid living on Long Island…. This is certainly an ordeal I am trying to overprepare for.
Get back to basics, get back to "Baseball Boards"
Not that it’s important, but I thought up a tag line for the floundering Baseballboards.net…
The site certainly hasn’t done enough to warrant me pushing it very hard in the future but at the same time, ther eis some passion from certain members that give the site a chance. I just certainly need some other impassioned souls to take part in this in order to make it work.
Retrograde
I’ve been in the dumps the last couple of days… I meanh really down and jus tlost what to do and hwo to live. I feel trapped, I feel without a purpose and I can’t exactly find reasons to push myself. Sure, I am doing great with my recovery and I am making headway almost every day…
But it’s that purpose that I am lacking. It’s apersonal connection that I’m lacking. Every time I think I found something, it turns out to be nothing. Every time someone else thinks they have found something in me, I get repelled.
SO I’m really low perosnally… And just trying to make it… And yet I’ve found an excuse for why I feel like this. I’ve been reading my Astrology lately )which I swore off last year because it made me think of other Libras) and I’m taking comfort in knowing a certain Astrological condition is upon us.
Now what is the relevance of this? Things feel like they are goign backwards. Communications are snarled up and things are shitty, at best in terms of startingstuff. I always associate Mercury going Retrograde with something negative as it was outinely painted as so in a biography I read about John Lennon.
Maybe I’m just desperate for an excuse?
Maybe I’m just desperate for an answer?
Maybe I’m just desperate for a clue?
It's an obligation for me to say this
I am oblidged to say this…
CONGRATULATIONS TO MR. AND MRS. DAVID COAKLEY.
The reason why I shout that out is because Melanie of Melly’s Mind got herself married. I pitty her :wink
Home Video Lameness and marketing idiocy
It was sort of an interesting thing to happen and cool that it happened to me but at the same time, it aggravated me… No, not just that, it infuriated me.
Last nigh, a representative from Warner Brothers Home Video emailed the webmaster of Boltsmag.com — namely moi — and tried to recruit me to help sling their product on the web. The product in question is the Stanley Cup Championship DVD which shows highlights of the Tampa Bay Lightning season along with Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final and the Lightning being crowned as Champs. It’s a DVD I very much want to be able to enjoy….
But I can’t. No sir, I can’t invest a couple of bucks in the DVD knowing it’s going to a company that didn’t complete the DVD and put it on the market. I can’t invest in a company branch that does it all the time with their sport DVDs. The Warner Brothers Stanley Cup Championship DVD lacks Closed Captioning for the Hearing Impaired and I happen to be hearing impaired.
Lets roll back the clock to more than a year ago with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl…. It was a cap on a dream season for the Bucs and I quickly went and bought the DVD that Warner Brothers Home Video produced that had the entire game — or a likeness of it — along with season highlights and a pre and post game show (so they claimed).
What I found out, cruelly, was when I tried to view the season highlight package (which is always an incredible job done by NFL Films) I got pictures and sound but no clue what the narrator was telling me. No clue what miked players were saying. I could see games and relive moments but not find out what people were blabbering about at any given moment…. Was this a joke? I went to the actual game and they had the network video feed but — what is this? Not only is the video feed replaced by the respective teams radio commentary men but — no closed captioning. I had no clue what was being said by Buccaneer radio man Gene Deckerhoff or the Oakland Raiders respective play-by-play radio man.
So I could see but I couldn’t really enjoy the DVD. I wrote off a scathing letter to Warner Brothers Home Videos and got offered a free DVD of my choice as if to say “Sucks to be you – have one of our movies we can’t move on us!”
This isn’t an isolated incident with DVDs and lack of closed captioning. While major motion pictures are captioned on all DVDs, DVDs tend to be loaded with extra features such as commentary tracks and featurettes. Neither of these are captioned so that the hearing impaired can enjoy these additional features they are paying for when they buy DVDs. To make matters worse, Universal Home Videos doesn’t even use Closed Captioning but instead relies on Subtitles (much like you would see on a foreign film) with their movies. It becomes difficult to follow the film if the text is set on a white background or over a bright object. You lose entire sentences or entire conversations because of the setting of a scene.
And it gets worse from there. Trimark Home Video has the rights to NBC’s Saturday Night Live on DVD — which is both syndicated on TV and broadcast on NBC with full closed captioning… Trimark couldn’t be bothered to add this captioning to their DVDs of Saturday Night Live. Just as Rhino Home Videos couldn’t be bothered to add captioning to their DVD palette which includes children’s TV series like Transformers, Jem, GI Joe… Not to mention their Monkees DVD’s…. Or their original offering of South Park DVDs. (I have no clue if Rhino is still responsible for publishing South Park DVDs at this time. This may have changed).
With the Baby Boom population aging and their bodies failing them to one degree or another, why is it that the Home Video industry gets away with this? Better yet, with 22-34 deaf and hard of hearing Americans out there, why does the movie industry think they can ignore this demographic when it comes to their home video sales? Even more pertinent, why doesn’t someone stick the Americans With Disabilities Act in their face and tell them to shape up or ship out?
It’s an ironic story that Warner Brothers tries to get someone to help sling their DVD — for free — on the web when that person can’t even enjoy the product. It’s even more ironic that no one in the deaf community or elsewhere in America makes a fuss out of this… It’s one of the great dupe jobs going on in the entertainment industry for the sake of the almighty buck.
Someoen is pissed — and rightly so
Tom Benjamin is pissed off, and with good reason ladies and gentlemen. Here is politics at it’s worst and Pork Barrels in America also at it’s worst:
How does it work? In the United States the entire sports franchise is apparently a depreciating asset. Never mind that the franchise does not wear out like a building or a tangible asset. Never mind that history tells us franchises appreciate over time. Everybody will pretend they depreciate and if you have the money to buy an NHL hockey team in the United States, you get to write off the entire purchase price over 15 years.
Please read the full story on this…
Four and Twelve seems like a real possibility
I haven’t talked about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a real long time… I think the last time I put up a post was in January where I gave a general sports roundup. Of course, my sports eye has been on my primary love in Tampa Bay — The Lightning — and that means the Bucs (who I grew to love during their hapless years) have taken a back seat.
Before anyone lays into me about being a bandwagon fan, I support the Buccaneers and haven’t turned a blind eye because another team in town won a championship. The Bucs earned my love over the years from miserable to respectable, and the Lightning won my love since their inception and I place hockey just ahead of football because it was a sport I liked to compete in.
Anyway, I haven’t abandoned the Bucs but I have to turn my eyes because of the train wreck the franchise has become.
Lets go to January of 2003 first and foremost and Jon Gruden / The Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl. When Jon won the title, little did fans know it gave him carte blanche over the Buccaneer Franchise. A team assembled by Rich McKay and Tony Dungy was put over the top by Jon and of course we all loved him for it because this was the Buccaneers finally reaching the paramount of the NFL after being as low as you could get for so long.
Things fell apart last year as Jon Gruden started to follow a trend that previous Buccaneer coaches have shown and fallen with — Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Glazer’s catered to his every whim and the only guy who stood in his way was Rich McKay…
Was, past tense. Rich left the only franchise he had known and went north to Atlanta… Jon was allowed to keep walking the walk he wanted and the Bucs continued the downward spiral.
A trend from Oakland seems to be in place here — not just a desire for veteran players over building a team from the ground up with talented youngsters, but also a “Just win, baby” mentality that tells players their off-field antics amount to shit as long as they perform on the field.
Case in point – Michael Pittman remains on the Buccaneer roster even though he is guilty of ramming his car into his wifes vehicle with children inside. He faces possible jail time and Jon Gruden could give a shit.
The Bucs picked up another ass-clown from the Raiders in the form of Bruce Allen who cut one foo the greatest players in Tampa Bay Buccaneer history – John Lynch — and signed one of the most notorious players in NFL history — Darrell Russell, who drugged a girl and taped him and his friends raping her.
Allen went so far as to compare Russell with former president Bill Clinton and said the rapist is guilty of less crimes than Clinton. (side-note, Allen’s brother is a Republican Senator in Virginia)
I could keep going with moves the Bucs have made and crimes their players have committed since the Super Bowl Championship, but I can’t. It’s watching a train wreck as it occurs and their are more people than just myself who can see this. For the first time since Raymond James Stadium was opened, their are tickets available on Ticketmaster for Buccaneers games this late after the initial public offering of tickets. The Bucs boast a season ticket waiting list of 110 thousand but all it takes is filling out a form online in order to do so. Somehow, my name is on the Season Ticket waiting list and I hate watching football in person. I didn’t sign up and I don’t have the foggiest clue how I got on there…
The number is artificially inflated and more than half of those on this waiting list would not invest in the current product on field.
I look at the Buccaneers this season and I see the train wreck in progress. I feel bad for guys like Derrick Brooks and Mike Alstott who are pillars in the community and who will be cut lose if it meant a marginal offensive tool could be picked up. The once vaulted defense is in shambles and Jon Gruden was given a contract extension before the season to continue is free reign over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
6-10 may be a reach but 4-12 is still a possibility this season. Break out the orange, it’s Yuccaneer football all over again.
Frustrated
Take the good with the bad I suppose.
I’m about back where I was a year ago — or over a year ago at that. I am not quite able to go out and do stuff on my own but I am not a gimp anymore. I don’t want to be stcuk home all day and at the same time — it’s not like I can go out and do something.
I read an article by Rick Reilly about Lance Armstrong and then I listened to Max Cleland’s speech before John Kerry was introduced to the DNC and between both stories of overcoming — I felt like I was wasting what I have accomplished and what I can accomplsih. I’m ready to do again but I don’t know what. I am not totally read y to do again but I can’t just sit here and wait. Time won’t let me. I won’t let me for that matter. I’ve done too much waiting for the opportune time in my life for certain things as is.
Lightning does strike twice with me…. But waiting for it to hapen is getting really tiring, especially when I should be able to accomplish on my own.
A Reagan tells it like it is
The Case Against George W. Bush
Just like that, a country whose economy had been reduced to shambles by international sanctions, whose military was less than half the size it had been when the U. S. Army rolled over it during the first Gulf war, that had extensive no-flight zones imposed on it in the north and south as well as constant aerial and satellite surveillance, and whose lethal weapons and capacity to produce such weapons had been destroyed or seriously degraded by UN inspection teams became, in Mr. Bush’s words, “a threat of unique urgency” to the most powerful nation on earth.
I chose to quote that section of this article specifically because that is the still-infuriating case (for me) against the Iraq invasion: Iraq, being contained and under close world scrutiny, had suddenly turned into a indominable threat and we had to strike or we would be destroyed.
All of the points Ron Reagan Jr. made were ignored by just about everyone who backed the attack or backed Bush blindly.
Why did it take so long for someone to write a piece that speaks what was so painful obvious about how much we were lied into War?
Reagan’s article is a long read but a good one, citing the lies and deception of Bush as a case to get this administration out of office.
Roll Back America, Al Qaeda
So Al Qaeda has the idea to go and attack the American financial institutions to do damage to our way of life. Citicorp, Prudential, etc… Sure, major financial institutions such as these are indeed good targets but really, is Al Qaeda missing an opportunity here? Why go after these big banks when there is an even BIGGER target sitting in the country with absolutely no one paying attention to it?
Why not blow up Wal Mart’s main offices and do Americans a favor?
First off, I’m kidding when I suggest these bastards blow up anything, so if anyone takes this post seriously and thinks I am encouraging a terrorist attack, you got another thing coming.
Of course, even attacking a retailing giants main corporate center won’t destroy the organization. Wal Mart is too spread out… But the thing is — attacking Wal Mart hits every American in one way or another… Shopping, employment… Even competing wages for those employed in other retailing / supermarket institutions…
I won’t get into a rant with regards to Wal Mart and the rolling back of American pay rates… but lets just say I would have know qualms if the Wal Mart shopping institution was suddenly wiped from the map.
If at first you don't succeed, install, install, install
Monday, August 2nd is turning into one day of digital frustrations for poor little Johnny. After getting my Computer back from Compustore, I rescued the files I coudl from the found chunks that were saved and tried to start over.
That was Friday.
With a plethora of frustrations and a jagged mess on my Hard Drive, last night I said screw it and started saving what I could to CD’s and started to format my hard drive for Windows XP Re-installation this morning.
Such fun… :rolleyes
At least it’s keeping me busy, though….
The Electorate
Hate it, loathe it or not care about it whatsoever… The current Electoral Vote tally stands as such:
Functioning — sorta
Well the computer is back and has been since Friday BUT I may have to format it again. At least I have the opportunity to rescue some of my personal files before having to wipe the HD again and go through the re-install bullshit once more.
Much thanks to the guys at CompuStore for saving at least some of these files from my machine (along with cleaning the utter mess that is my computer).