Whatever's tugging at my brain handles
Posted in Politics & Religion on Jul 17th, 2008
According to a recent AP article, John McCain took in $405,409 in gross personal income in 2007 (not including the millions his wife made). That included $23,157 in Social Security payments. WTF?!?!?!
Posted in Politics & Religion, World Affairs on Jun 20th, 2008
Everyone, from the man on the street to the major candidates for political office, are wondering what we can do about gas prices. They say there's no short-term fix. They propose drilling off the coasts and in Alaska all of which would take 5-10 years to deliver any oil. They propose sweeping [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Jun 20th, 2008
So, I was reading this story about these pastors who are trying to challenge the political endorsement restrictions of section 501(c)(3) of the tax code which provides tax-exempt status to churches and other non-profit organizations.
One of the rules under that section of the tax code is that these organizations cannot officially endorse or oppose a [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, World Affairs on Jun 1st, 2008
Sharon Stone recently suggested that the earthquakes in China might be karmic payback for the crap China's been pulling in Tibet. And when she did, people lost their minds. People have been calling for boycotts, claiming she's an idiot, claiming she's evil, claiming she's insensitive, and basically suggesting in various degrees how wrong [...]
Posted in Society on May 20th, 2008
This weekend, I had to fill up my car with gas. As it was on my way to some other errands, I went to Arco because they generally have the best prices. But I was amazed by how much. Over the course of about 2.5 miles on a main highway, I saw [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on May 17th, 2008
In a post on CNN, Jack Cafferty asked if gay marriage will be a wedge issue in the 2008 election like it was in 2004.
All the top answers seemed to focus on the fact that this time around there are bigger fish to fry and that's what would stop it from being an issue. [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on May 7th, 2008
Here are the raw numbers from today's primaries. With 99% of precincts reporting, Hillary's 51% to 49% win is a rounding error. Out of one and a quarter million votes, she leads by less than 23,000 votes for an actual tally of 50.49% to 49.51% Right now, with maybe 10-12k votes to [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Stupid Thoughts on May 1st, 2008
So, this afternoon, when I got home from work, I was faced with a tough choice: go check my e-mail... or poop.
Both were insistent urges. And since I do use a MacBook Pro as a "desktop replacement" machine, the thought did cross my mind to bring the laptop into the bathroom and check [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Apr 29th, 2008
As I've watched the nomination battle wage on, one thing has become clear to me. The Democrats are burning their own house to the ground and Hillary is holding the match.
Her politics of negativity and venom, her fearmongering, her scheming and attacking are doing one thing... pissing people off. And it's not just [...]
Posted in Miscellaneous Thoughts, Society on Apr 10th, 2008
So I don't know if this is a scam or just spam, but I got the following spam:
Dear sir:
I am sorry to bother you for a moment, we would be honored to introduce our company and products, hope that we may build business cooperation in the future.
Our company is located in the ¡°garlic hometown of [...]
Posted in Just Personal, Society on Apr 7th, 2008
So, I was driving along in my car, listening to AM news radio because its commercial breaks are shorter and less whiny than public radio's pledge breaks (I'll get to that in a moment), and I heard a commercial for QFC's pharmacy offering $4 generics (like every other Wal-Mart imitator) that sounded wrong to my [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Society on Apr 7th, 2008
The current contract I'm on has me editing a few sections of a major corporation's internal employee home page. One of the things we do is take employee submissions of photos of themselves on vacation or pursuing their hobbies, and we post one photo a day to this home page. And what I find [...]
Posted in Family & Kids, Medicine on Mar 30th, 2008
So I've recently been seeing a number of ads on Yahoo.com from Sanofi Pasteur, encouraging new parents to get re-vaccinated for Whooping Cough (pertussis), basically implying you could pick it up and kill your baby. Here's one of the ads...
And even better for trying to scare you that your baby will die is this [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Mar 29th, 2008
On the heels of my Obama as Mr. T design (a.k.a.
When I heard about Anthony Minghella's death, I felt compelled to write something immediately. Fortunately or unfortunately, a severe head cold got in the way. See, I'm of two minds about Minghella's work. On the one hand, he's responsible for one of my favorite romantic comedies, Truly, Madly, Deeply. On the [...]
Posted in Art, Jokes, Politics & Religion on Mar 13th, 2008
So, when people would say Barack Obama's name, pronouncing the "rack" like "clothes rack" instead of like "rock", it would make me think of Mr. T's character, B.A. Baracus from "The A-Team". And then a fun thought entered my head... Wouldn't it be fun to dress up Barack Obama like Mr. T? Show [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Mar 11th, 2008
Tonight I got a fundraising letter from the Obama campaign. In it, Barack complained of a new wave of attacks from Hillary Clinton that denigrate his supporters.
Over the weekend, an aide to Senator Clinton attempted to diminish the overwhelming number of contests we've won by referring to places we've prevailed as "boutique" states and [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, Society on Mar 11th, 2008
Pedro Espinoza is a terrorist. There's no doubt in my mind that this gang member from Los Angeles is as cruel, heartless, callous, and evil as any terrorist we're fighting overseas. He is currently under arrest for walking up to a black teen in Los Angeles, asking him if he was in a [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Politics & Religion on Mar 5th, 2008
Hillary Clinton took the Ohio primary handily and is predicted to take Texas by a narrower margin, but did she really win, or is her success the result of Republicans trying to prolong the fight within the Democratic ranks?
We all heard about how Rush Limbaugh called for Republicans to go vote for Hillary in the [...]
Posted in Job Hunting, Society, Techno Thoughts on Feb 26th, 2008
I just got another job scam e-mail, this time offering me a sales rep position. What some of you may not know is that not all the job offer scams are intended to get you to cash fake checks or buy classes you don't need or buy supplies for a project that never materializes. [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Feb 19th, 2008
Accusing Obama of plagiarism, saying he's "just in the speeches business," claiming he's inexperienced... no, it's not the Republicans, it's Hillary. After 10 straight primary losses (okay, 9, but they'll call Hawaii in a few hours and it's almost a gimme for Obama), Hillary is fighting tooth and nail and venom to save her [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Feb 15th, 2008
Ever heard of Jim Cooper's health plan? Back in 1993, it was one that would have provided a lot of relief to a lot of Americans and had broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate. Hillary torpedoed it and tried to ruin Cooper for spite.
Read the story of how Hillary Clinton killed [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Feb 11th, 2008
I recently read a story about how Saudi police are cracking down on red rose sales in advance of Valentine's Day.
What got me was how the story got into how the Saudi version of Sunni Islam prevented unrelated men and women from mixing and how the crackdown was intended to put the kibosh on romantic [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Feb 10th, 2008
In navigating all the election results, the delegate tallies depend on who you ask. According to CNN, the count is 1148 for Clinton and 1121 for Obama. According to the Associated Press it's 1136 for Clinton to 1108 for Obama. According to MSNBC, it's 943 for Obama and 895 for Clinton. [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Feb 10th, 2008
Well, despite my grumblings, Super Tuesday didn't decide a clear front-runner in the Democratic race, meaning that I could go caucus this weekend, make my voice heard, and it would matter. Or so I thought.
I figured I didn't want to get to the caucus location too early, because I was going to have to [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, Society on Feb 9th, 2008
Recently, I was alerted to a story about a school in Colorado that will be accomodating a transgender student... who is in second grade. Yes a little second grade boy will be attending school dressed as a girl, called by a girl's name, and pretty much treated as a girl by the teachers and [...]
Posted in Family & Kids, Society on Feb 3rd, 2008
So, last night I blog about the best way to collect points for the Pepsi Stuff promotion. Today, for the first time, I watch the Superbowl with my son. He'll be three later this month and finally has the attention span to couch potato it for a Sunday with the old man. [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Feb 3rd, 2008
After poor showings in South Carolina and Florida, John Edwards dropped out of the democratic race. Dodd, Gravel, Richardson, and Biden were never really contenders. And while Kucinich wasn't either, at least he hung in there.
I just filled out my mail-in ballot for the Washington State primary. The Democratic party ignores the [...]
Way back when Pepsi teamed up with iTunes, the deal was that if you got a bottle with a code, you got a free download. Now, not all bottles had codes, but it was possible to peek and see if a bottle was a winner if you looked at the right angle. I [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, Stupid Thoughts on Jan 31st, 2008
So, Chuck Norris has endorsed Mike Huckabee. Arnold Schwarzenegger just endorsed John McCain. The nation excitedly awaits an endorsement announcement from Steven Seagal.
Of course, the Olsen Twins are endorsing Obama, because "black guys are like cool and stuff," Britney Spears is endorsing "woooooo," and Lindsay Lohan is endorsing George W. Bush "because he's like [...]
Posted in Miscellaneous Thoughts, Society on Jan 23rd, 2008
Remember those old commercials for Trident sugarless gum, where they said "4 out of 5 dentists recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum"? Many a person has honestly wondered what the fifth dentist recommends. Many a comedian has humorously speculated on it. I believe I have the answer.
I realized what [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Jan 20th, 2008
In the recent Nevada caucuses for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton has widely been pronounced the winner. There's only one problem. Barack Obama won.
Did Obama get the most votes? No. And in that sense, Hillary won. But he got the most votes in the right precincts, meaning that [...]
Posted in Society on Jan 10th, 2008
A standard rule of style in American writing is that punctuation goes within quotation marks. For example: "He was going to the park," said Fred. Although Fred's statement was a complete sentence in and of itself, it is part of the larger sentence in this instance.
But there's an instance where I don't agree [...]
So, inspired by creating an antidote to the Sanrio attempts to target Hello Kitty to boys, I took that scuzzy cat concept a bit farther. I added some stains to his shirt, did a version with his tongue sticking out, changed the shirt colors, and did a second slogan. Still, gotta give a [...]
Posted in Art, Society, Techno Thoughts on Dec 28th, 2007
According to this article, Sanrio is set to unveil a line of clothing and accessories for men using the famous Hello Kitty character.
"Young men these days grew up with character goods," said Sanrio spokesman, Kazuo Tohmatsu. "That generation feels no embarrassment about wearing Hello Kitty."
Maybe I'm an old fuddy duddy, stuck in a [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts on Dec 28th, 2007
Something to think about... Only a small percentage of the WGA actually makes their living from union writing jobs, but all the "active" members of the union get to vote on the strike and vote on what the negotiators demand.
So, as this drags out, the majority of the WGA membership can afford to stand on [...]
Posted in Online Marketing And SEO, Society on Dec 26th, 2007
Earlier this month, my wife ordered some books from Barnes and Noble (via their bn.com site) as Christmas gifts for her grandmother. Everything seemed to go well, the order was delivered on the 20th, everyone was happy. Or so I thought.
On December 23rd, we got an e-mail from Barnes and Noble stating:
Your order [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, Society on Dec 17th, 2007
There was a story on Slashdot about a kid who was given detention for using the Firefox web browser when his teacher said to use Internet Explorer. This later turned out to be a hoax, but it sparked some interesting discussion, most notably about when/whether a student should follow a teacher's instructions or orders [...]
Posted in Society on Dec 11th, 2007
In a recent trip down to Los Angeles to see my family, the Avis car rental facility at the Burbank Airport tacked an "11.11% Concession Recovery Fee" onto my bill. My first thought was "what the heck is this 'Concession Recovery Fee'?"
The thing to realize is that the daily rate you see can be [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, Society on Nov 1st, 2007
Duane 'Dog' Chapman, of "Dog, The Bounty Hunter" fame was recently outed by the National Enquirer as a racist.
In a tape recording of a conversation with his son, he tells his son that his African American girlfriend is not welcome around Dog's home or business because the word "nigger" is occasionally used there, and he's [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, Society on Nov 1st, 2007
My brother-in-law and I were discussing yesterday's jury judgement of $11 million dollars against an anti-gay church that picketed the funeral of a soldier who died in Iraq, and we were discussing whether or not the church group's First Amendment rights were violated by the jury verdict and award.
Now, I've posted regularly in discussions on [...]
Posted in Society, Techno Thoughts on Oct 19th, 2007
So, there's this computer program they're selling which claims to make your PC emit 34,000 homeopathic bioresonance patterns that improve your health and repair damage done by electromagnetic waves from your computer. And it's only around $80. What a bargain, eh? Wouldn't you buy it?
Enter Sense About Science, which has put out [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Medicine on Oct 12th, 2007
Sorry to go off on a medical-related diatribe again, but I am forced by the details of this story to say a couple of things.
There's an old saying that goes: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." So where does the shame get assigned on "fool me six [...]
Posted in Insurance, Medicine, Techno Thoughts on Oct 11th, 2007
Today, Wyeth pharmaceuticals was hit with a $134.5 million judgement in a case over its hormone replacement therapies for menopausal women. That wasn't a judgement that pays for a large group of women in a class action suit. It was for three women. And it's still not all. The jury still [...]
Posted in Society on Oct 9th, 2007
When I was a teenager, a group from my high school was given the very cool opportunity to take a tour of Jet Propulsion Laboratories. During the tour, one of the kids pulled out a pocket camera to take a couple of snapshots. His camera was quickly confiscated and returned at the end [...]
Posted in World Affairs on Sep 25th, 2007
Reflecting back on the recent parity of the American and Canadian dollars, I decided to play around with the currency calculator at finance.yahoo.com.
Did you know, that while 1 American dollar was buying a mere 1 Canadian dollar a few days ago, it buys 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars? Yup. If you've got $33.34 US, you [...]
Posted in Techno Thoughts, World Affairs on Sep 24th, 2007
Have you been reading about that cool XO laptop, the result of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program and thought "I'd love to have one of those"? You can get one... in November.
For two weeks in November (12th through 26th) OLPC will offer a Give One - Get One program. For an [...]
Posted in World Affairs on Sep 20th, 2007
Back in 2002, when my wife and I were dating, we went to Vancouver for a romantic weekend of dining and shopping. At that time, the Canadian dollar was worth about 70 U.S. cents. How things have changed.
Today, it was reported that the U.S. dollar had fallen to a 30 year low against [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, What if...? on Sep 17th, 2007
So I was thinking... if God had voicemail, what would He say on His outgoing message?
Now, if you get someone's voicemail, they usually say something like:
I can't take your call at the moment...
I've temporarily stepped away from my desk or am out of the office...
But, if God is omnipotent (all-powerful, God can do anything), He [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion on Sep 11th, 2007
A couple of days ago, while accepting her Emmy, actress & comedian Kathy Griffin had some choice words about Jesus.
Griffin, a self-professed athiest, said: "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. [...]
Posted in Society on Sep 9th, 2007
A 4-year old child was injured recently when repo agents towed away his mother's car with him in it!
Trying to avoid being carted away by the careless repo agents, the young boy, Fashawn Parker, leapt from the moving vehicle and required treatment for minor injuries at a nearby hospital. Police said there would be [...]
Posted in Society, Techno Thoughts, Technology & Life on Sep 5th, 2007
To those who actually say "content wants to be free" with a straight face and seriousness of purpose...
"Content wants to be free" makes as much sense as "content wants to be a fireman" or "music is a Republican."
When you say "content wants to be free," you actually mean, "I don't want to pay for content" [...]
Posted in Medicine, Miscellaneous Thoughts on Aug 29th, 2007
So I was reading my daily dose of newsfeeds at Yahoo and saw an ad for a drug that treats RLS (also known as Restless Leg Syndrome). When I accidentally passed my mouse over it, a safety information warning was displayed over the ad. After reading it, I realized I had to screen [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, Techno Thoughts on Aug 23rd, 2007
My friend Dan Gray started up a new site a while back called MPGomatic, focusing on which cars provide the best gas mileage.
One of the cool features is the gas mileage calculator, but even more cool and eye opening have been his articles on cars made by Ford, Honda, and other manufacturers that combine great [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Politics & Religion, Society on Jul 15th, 2007
I recently read an opinion piece about a recent judicial decision striking down elements of COPA (Child Online Protection Act) as unconstitutional. Now, on the surface, it's easy to get upset, because it struck down requirements that online porn sites essentially "card" their visitors, thus making it easier for kids to see porn.
The author, [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Miscellaneous Thoughts, Society on Jul 15th, 2007
I've been seeing Gary Coleman doing commercials for Cash Call. Recently I read the fine print about the Cash Call loans. If you think the payday advance people are bloodsucking loan sharks who charge outrageous fees, meet Cash Call.
According to the fine print on their commercial, Cash Call will charge you a 99.25% [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Politics & Religion, Techno Thoughts on Jul 13th, 2007
A few weeks back, there was some brouhaha about Dick Cheney asserting he wasn't subject to certain White House rules because he's part of the legislative branch of our government. Of course, when he was convening his energy task force and the legislative branch tried to compel him to disclose who he met with, [...]
Posted in Family & Kids, Society on Jun 17th, 2007
Jay Jay the Jet Plane is the animated star of of a PBS kiddie show bearing his name. And "Jay Jay the Jet Plane and the Uncanny Valley" might sound like the title of one of his adventures. But the Uncanny Valley isn't a place. It's a theory that has to do with [...]
Posted in Society, Stupid Thoughts on Jun 17th, 2007
When I was a kid, the corporate mascot for Burger King was alternately a cartoony little king, a more virile and comic-book style king, and eventually Herb.
All of these were okay, comfortable, and well, non-creepy. Okay, maybe Herb was a little creepy. But none of them brought on the outright heebie-jeebies inspired by [...]
Posted in Politics & Religion, Society, Technology & Life on May 6th, 2007
There's an old joke in which a man asks a woman if she'd sleep with him for a million dollars. After some thought, she says yes. Then he asks her if she'd sleep with him for 50 dollars. She says, "of course not! What kind of girl do you think I am?"
"We've [...]
Recently, I was catching up on Aaron Dragushan's blog, Ice Cream For Everyone and read his post about kiva.org.
Kiva is a micro-lending collective where you can invest small amounts in interest free loans given to people in developing economies to help start or expand a business. They're usually just a few hundred dollars and [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Politics & Religion on Apr 24th, 2007
A lot of people have been criticizing Alberto Gonzales' testimony before congress, but all those failures to recall... that's the Attorney General version of "what do I know about the Mafia? I'm just a humble olive oil importer."
Think about it.
Posted in Job Hunting, Society, Technology & Life on Apr 15th, 2007
What kind of jobs do you think would ask for applicants with a sense of humor? You might be surprised.
Though I'm not unemployed, I am underemployed. So a little while ago, I began job hunting in the Seattle area. Considering that I have seen many of my jokes float around the net, [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Politics & Religion on Mar 25th, 2007
After evaluating the energy policies of the frontrunning Democratic presidential candidates, I figured it was only fair to go check what the frontrunning Republican presidental candidates had to say.
As my four frontrunners, I went with Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee. Some would argue against Huckabee being a frontrunner, but he's [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Politics & Religion on Mar 25th, 2007
So, though I like Barack Obama's charisma and that he seems to be a man of ideas, I decided to look at where he and other leading Democratic presidential candidates stand on issues I care about. It was an interesting journey around the web.
I looked at four sites, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Online Marketing And SEO, Politics & Religion on Mar 11th, 2007
Interested in the Obama presidential campaign I signed up for a membership on the web site. But when I started getting e-mails from them, I was shocked at how lacking in net-savvy their communications team is.
My e-mail client shows the e-mail address of the sender only when there's no name associated with it. [...]
Posted in Medicine on Feb 15th, 2007
One thing that gets me is how many people choose brand names or marketing messages over reading the active ingredients on OTC (Over The Counter - non-prescription) medications.
Like most people, I occasionally need a little help getting to sleep. And while you can get a sleep aid at the local pharmacy for 15-30 cents [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Insurance, Medicine, Politics & Religion on Jan 17th, 2007
Last year, I created Doctor Tricks to tell the tale of how I got bit for extra money at a hospital. Thing was, though the hospital was a preferred provider on my medical insurance, none of the emergency room doctors were. I ended up getting bit for an extra $153.50 for the ER [...]
Posted in Cooking & Recipes, Society on Jan 16th, 2007
It's a common complaint, over-saucing at Taco Bell.
I'm not talking about how much sauce they put on their food, but instead, how many hot sauce packets they give you with it. In my last two visits to Taco Bell, I got 18 and 12 hot sauce packets respectively.
On the day I got [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Society on Dec 18th, 2006
Just read an amazing blog post called "Two Phrases That Destroyed American Culture and was blown away. The two phrases are "the customer is always right" and "you have to earn my respect."
The claim of the author is that those two statements have been used by generations of jerks to treat other [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Politics & Religion on Dec 14th, 2006
Two groups have called for Walmart to remove a violent "Christian" video game from its shelves.
The game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is based on the popular Left Behind series of books and videos. Set in a post-rapture New York, holy warriors must battle the forces of the Antichrist.
Sounds cool until you get into the [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Society on Dec 3rd, 2006
The Michael Richards situation is unfortunate. While doing a set at a Los Angeles comedy club, he launched into a tirade against some African-American audience members who were heckling him. It was videotaped and he's since had to do a LOT of damage control.
But I'm not sure which part is more unfortunate, the [...]
Posted in Dangerous Thoughts, Politics & Religion on Nov 29th, 2006
A U.S. federal district court judge just ruled in the first salvo of what may prove to be a long legal battle to make U.S. paper money less uniform.
The American Council of the Blind sued The U.S. Treasury Department, claiming that the uniform size and coloring of U.S. paper money makes it so difficult for [...]