My heroes always have been cowboys

Sorry...

2005-10-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted a cool blog, but you know the rigors of teaching heavily outweigh the rigors of blogging. I don't know when I'll get the internet set up at my apartment, so no clue as to when the next time I will be posting is. I could have said some really cool stuff about the hurricanes and all that too...dang...

Proof That the World is Nuts

2005-08-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.
(Like THAT makes sense.)

In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman's genitals, but is prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see their reflection in a mirror.
(Do they look different reversed?)

Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers. The sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.
(A brick??)

The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.
(Much worse than "going blind!")

There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time
Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.
(Let's just think for a minute; is there any job anywhere else in the world that even comes close to this?)

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. The husband's illicit lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.
(Ah! Justice!)

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England - but only in tropical fish stores.
(But of course!)

In Cali, Colombia, a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens, her mother must be in the room to witness the act.
(Makes one shudder at the thought.)

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time.
(I presume this was a big enough problem that they had to pass this law?)

In Maryland, it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one exception: Prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only "in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises."
(Is this a great country or what? Well . . . not as great as Guam!)

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Who volunteers for that study?)

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(Is that why Flipper was always smiling?)

The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
(From drinking little bottles of what??)

Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Ah, geez, did the government pay for this research??)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)

Starfish don't have brains.
(I know some people like that, too.)

And, the best for last
Turtles can breathe through their butts.
(And I thought I had bad breath in the morning!)

Insurgents

2005-08-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

"Today, this editorial board resolves to sacrifice another word -- 'insurgent' -- on the altar of precise language. No longer will we refer to suicide bombers or anyone else in Iraq who targets and kills children and other innocent civilians as 'insurgents.' The notion that these murderers in any way are nobly rising up against a sitting government in a principled fight for freedom has become, on its face, absurd. They drove that point home with chilling clarity Wednesday in a poor Shiite neighborhood. As children crowded around U.S. soldiers handing out candy and toys in a gesture of good will, a bomb-laden SUV rolled up and exploded. These children were not collateral damage. They were targets. The SUV driver was no insurgent. He was a terrorist. People who set off bombs on London trains are not insurgents. We would never think of calling them anything other than what they are -- terrorists. Words have meanings. Whether too timid, sensitive or 'open-minded,' we've resisted drawing a direct line between homicidal bombers everywhere else in the world and the ones who blow up Iraqi civilians or behead aid workers. No more. To call them 'insurgents' insults every legitimate insurgency in modern history. They are terrorists." --The Dallas Morning News

Welfare Office

2005-08-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

A guy walks into the local welfare office, marches straight up to the counter and says, "Hi... You know, I just HATE drawing welfare. I'd really rather have a job."

The social worker behind the counter says, "Your timing is excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur and bodyguard for his nymphomaniac daughter. You'll have to drive around in his Mercedes or his Rolls, but he'll supply all of your clothes, credit cards and money. Because of the long hours, meals will be provided.
You'll be expected to escort the beautiful daughter on her overseas holiday trips.
You will have to satisfy her sexual urges. You'll have a two-bedroom apartment above the garage. The starting salary is $200,000 a year."

The guy says, "You're bullshittin' me!"

The social worker says, "Yeah, well, you started it".

Can I Live?

2005-07-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

"...(A)ccording to a CBS/New York Times poll cited in the article, 49% of 18-29 year old women believed that abortion should be "available to anyone who wants it" in 1993. In 2003 among the same age group, only 35% of respondents believed abortion should be "available to anyone who wants it." In 2005, only 28% of respondents favored making abortion "available to anyone who wants it."
Furthermore, in 1993, 30% of female respondents in the 18-29 year old age group believed that abortion should be "available, but with stricter limits." By 2005, the number had risen to 40%.
Most encouraging of all, only 19% of respondents in 1993 believed that abortion should be "not permitted." By 2005, the number had risen to 30%." -- RedState

Abortion is one of those topics that really gets me fired up. I bounced back and forth on the position for quite some time before finally settling in on a hard right position. Since then I haven't looked back. Anytime I hear something about the topic I make a mental note of what was said and who said it. I realize that the statistics above can only be taken with a grain of salt, but I have noticed something more concrete. I recently heard a song by an upcoming singer/songwriter/actor by the name of Nick Cannon. You might remember him from his breakout role in the movie "Drumline," he's also in the upcoming "Underclassman." Well aparently Nick wrote this song to his mother who at a young point in her life was faced with a decision of whether to have a baby at 17 or to pay 300 dollars and have her problem removed. We all have choices we must make in life and we all have to live with the responsibilities that go along with those choices. Since Roe v Wade was decided in 1973, well over 40,000,000 abortions have been performed in this country. How many Nick Cannon's are in that number that were denied thier right to life? How many Bill Gates' have we lost under the knife? Below are the lyrics to the song I mentioned. When it started I expected a completely different outcome and was so moved that I almost had a cry moment. Nick Cannon has just earned a spot on my list of artists to support.

[Nick Talking]
Talking MaI know the Situation is Personal
but it something that has to be toldas i was making this beat
you was all i could think about you heard my voice
[Verse 1]
Yeah Just think Just Think
what if you could Just
Just blink your self away..
Just Just wait just pause for a second
Let me plead my case
Its the late 70's Huh
You Seventeen huh
and having me that will ruin everything huh
its alot of angels waiting for there wings
you see me in your sleep so you cant kill your dreams
300 Dollars thats the price of living what?
Mommy i dont like this clinic
hopefully you'll make the right decision
and dont go though with the Knife Incision
but it hard to make the right move
when you in high school
how you got to work all day and take night school
hopping off da bus when the rain is pouring
What you want morning sickness or the Sickness of morning
[Chorus]
I'll Always Be apart of you
Trust Your Soul Know His Heart Is True
If I Could Talk I'd Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE
I'll Always Be apart of you
Trust Your Soul Know His Heart Is True
If I Could Talk I'd Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE
[Verse 2]
I' am a child of the king
aint no need to go fear me
and i see the flowing tears so know that you hear me
when i move in your womb that's me being scaring
cause who knows what my future holds
yo the truth be told you aint told a soul
yo you aint even showing im just 2 months old
though your clothes try to hide me deny
me went up 3 sizes
your pride got you lying saying aint nothing but a migraine
it aint surprising you not trying to be in wick food lines
your friends look at you funny but look at you mommy
thatz a life inside take a look at your tummy
what is becoming ma i am Oprah bound
you can tell he's a star from the Ultrasound
Our Sprits Connected Doors Open Now
Nothing But Love And Respect Thanks For Holding Me Down She Let Me Live...
[Chorus]
I'll Always Be apart of you
Trust Your Soul Know His Heart Is True
If I Could Talk I'd Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE
I'll Always Be apart of you
Trust Your Soul Know His Heart Is True
If I Could Talk I'd Say To You
CAN I LIVE
CAN I LIVE
[Nick Talking]
Its uplifting foreal yall
i aint passing no judgement
aint making no decisions
I am just telling ya'll my story
I love life
I love my mother for giving me life
we all need to appreciate life
a strong woman that had to make a sacrifice
Thanks for listening
Thanks for listening
Mama thanks for listening

Down Size Me

2005-07-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

As reported on FoxNews.com
In his 2004 documentary "Super Size Me," filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate at McDonald's for a month and gained 25 pounds.
Maybe he didn't eat there long enough. Another Morgan — Merab Morgan of Henderson, N.C. — has lost 33 pounds after more than two months on a McDonald's-only diet.
Mickey D's is affordable, the 35-year-old woman explained, and nearly every franchise posts a chart, also available on the Web, listing the calories in each menu item.
So Morgan simply memorized the chart, and now calculates how many calories each meal will be before she goes to the drive-through window.
"I just [stay] anywhere between 1,200 and 1,400 calories a day," she told WRAL-TV of Raleigh.
That's well under the 1,800 to 2,200 calories nutritionists deem the "replacement value" for a healthy adult, and far less than the 3,500 daily calories Morgan told the Raleigh News & Observer she had been eating prior to the diet.
Morgan, who's raising two kids alone and works in construction, spends between $9 and $11 per day on food, sometimes ordering all three meals at once.
At 5-foot-9, she's down to 195 pounds and has gone from a size 24 to a size 15.
Barry Popkin, a nutritionist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health, doubted that Morgan was getting enough minerals, fibers and vitamins, but admired her for devising a system that works.
"She's created, for her lifestyle, a very smart diet," Popkin told the News & Observer. "The moral of the story for every person is [that] you've got to work out a plan that fits your lifestyle."
Morgan would like to be the McDonald's version of Jared Fogle, the young man who lost weight on Subway sandwiches.
But she added that the company's attitude toward customer solicitation was basically, "We appreciate all your good ideas, but keep them to yourself."

End Story

In watching Morgan Spurlock's documentary on McDonald's I found myself in quite the quandry. All through the film I was intensly craving some food from McD's, but at the same time I never wanted to eat there again. Being a rational person, I know that the results in "Super Size Me" were exaggerated for the purpose of shock value, so that film didn't stop me from consuming those delicious delectables.

The above story provides the perfect example of what happens when someone is personally responsible for their actions. Many of the people Spurlock interviews and talks about in "Super Size Me" are looking for someone else to blame for their weight. Above we have a lady who realizes what it takes to lose weight. It doesn't take congressional action against McDonald's. It doesn't take a multi-million dollar settlement. All it takes is personal responsibility. You know what things you are putting into your body, and if you don't, it's your responsibility to find out. This woman's story is the anti-thesis to Spurlock's film.

I saw an episode of the ESPN show "Teammates" where NFL wide reciever Chad Johnson claimed that he eats at McDonald's virtually every day after practice. That makes two examples of people who benefit from their McDonald's intake. One is an obese woman who has found a way to lose weight eating the foods that she loves and one is the pinnacle of human athleticism who burns that fat and energy in grueling NFL practices and workouts.

Now, Spurlock is on to other subjects. The cable channel F/X has given him his own series called "30 days" where he tracks people being taken out of their comfort zones for a month and living new experiences. I recently saw an interview with someone who was claiming that the results of the show aren't what they seem. This person claimed that there is a predetermined outcome to each episode. It seems this person was supposed to be the subject of the episode concerning American Muslims. He was told before the experience began that throughout he will gain an appreciation and understanding for the difficulties that are inherent in being a Muslim in America. He objected to being the subject, because he didn't think it was right predetermining how he was supposed to feel at the end of an experience that is supposed to be documentary in nature. It all just goes to show you that if you persuasive enough you can always put forth the evidence to prove your point. It's no different in the world of documentary film-making.

College Dropout

2005-07-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

It's official, I'm getting rid of my College Dropout cd. On July 2, 2005, Kanye West appeared on the Philadelphia bill of Live 8, using the global platform to refer to "man-made diseases placed in African communities", a reference to the belief that AIDS was created by Westerners to exterminate Africans. I haven't ever heard of this before in my life. How much credibility does this theory hold? What would be the benefit to Westerners from wiping out Africa? How about other major catastrophic diseases? The Black Plague? Polio? Were these also intentionally released by maniacal scientists bent on taking over the world? I know that germ warfare exists and is a very real thing and there are credible examples, such as Europeans infecting Native American tribes with smallpox, but AIDS? Europeans were already resistant to the smallpox virus when they passed it to the Natives so there was a very positive upside for them. The natives would get sick and weak and were easily defeated. NO ONE is immune to the HIV virus. What's the point in purposefully infecting one culture when it can be easily spread to your own?
He also criticised Western leaders, but not African leaders, for "riding in their Bentleys and Benzs", even though he himself has a collection of 12 cars and is a very rich individual. Kanye is one of those insufferable "blame someone else for my condition" types. He also made the statement at the Live 8 interview that crack cocaine was intentionally placed in the inner city by whites in order to break up the cohesiveness of the Black Panthers. What has happened to personal responsibility in this country? I've seen people who smoke crack and they don't look so hot. That's why I don't smoke it. Most of the people who I know that smoke weed are losers. That's why I don't smoke it. Most of the alcoholics I've known have pretty sucky lives. That's why I don't make it a habit of over indulging with alcohol.
I feel bad for starving kids in Africa, I really do, but is it our government's fault that those kids are starving? Don't they have a government? Why is this area of the world worth pitying more than any other area? I love how liberals get to play both sides on everything. With regards to Iraq and Afghanistan, America is an interventionist bully pushing it's will upon other countries doing no one any good, but somehow throwing money into the hands of corrupt African governments that allow their people to starve to death is going to solve the solution to the world's poor. Thanks Kanye, and the rest of the Live 8 performers for bringing so much attention and focus to an unsolvable problem.

Swing Judge No Longer

2005-07-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

It’s finally happened. Bush is finally going to get a crack at nominating a judge to the Supreme Court. Sandra Day O’Connor has announced her intention to step down later this summer in a personally delivered letter to the President. O’Connor has her place in history reserved however, being the first woman ever appointed to the largest court in the land. Throughout her tenure on the court O’Connor has been a swing vote on virtually every decision. No one ever knew which way she was going to lean. She kept the democrats from stealing the election in 2000. She’s consistently voted “pro-choice” on abortion. Just recently she was in the minority vote along with Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas in the decision for Kelo vs. New London. John Paul Stevens's majority opinion provoked a strongly worded dissent from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote that the ruling favors the most powerful and influential in society and leaves small property owners little recourse. Now, she wrote, the "specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory." As part of my American Constitutional History course in college we read The Majesty of the Law by O’Connor. It’s actually a really good read. She gives a good history of the Supreme Court and it’s most influential justices. She also puts forth some really good ideas about tort reform. I thought it would be boring as crap, but it goes by surprisingly fast.

Things don’t look to good with regards to Bush putting someone who is more conservative than O’Connor on the stand. Look at the recent filibusters. It doesn’t warm my heart any to have conservatives back down from their position of power and compromise on appointees. Word on the street is that Rehnquist will soon retire as well. Rehnquist is a strict constitutionalist, conservative. Filling his shoes will be a big duty. It’s too bad one of the four crazy liberal judges couldn’t step down…in my dreams.

Forehead for Sale

2005-07-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Have you ever really asked yourself how much money it would take for you to become a walking billboard? Being the capitalist, money-hungry, pig-dog that I am, I have given this question some thought. Most pro athletes are basically billboards for different sporting companies. Remember the fuss when Tiger switched to playing with Nike clubs? If a company was willing to give me loads of free stuff for their own advertising purposes and it was a company that I liked, I would do it without hesitation. What I wouldn't do however, is tattoo a company's name on my FACE! I'm a big fan of tattoos, don't get me wrong. I have three myself. This lady's just gone a little too far...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For $10,000, Kari Smith has had her forehead tattooed with the Web address of a gambling site.
Smith, 30, who sold her unusual advertising space on eBay, said the money will give her 11-year-old son a private education, which she believes he needs after falling behind in school.
"For the all the sacrifices everyone makes, this is a very small one," she said. "It's a small sacrifice to build a better future for my son," she said.
"To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, $10,000 is like $1 million. I only live once, and I'm doing it for my son," she said.
Tattoo artist Don Brouse said he and his staff spent nearly seven hours Wednesday trying to talk Smith out of putting "GoldenPalace.com" above her face.
When he did go through with it, he kept the inch-tall letters close to her hairline, where bangs or a hat could provide some cover.
Smith's eBay auction attracted more than 27,000 hits and 1,000 watchers. Bidding reached $999.99 before Goldenpalace.com, an Internet gambling company in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, Canada, met Smith's $10,000 asking price.

State V Kale Blick

2005-06-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

So, about a month ago I was tagged by the Rossville Police Department doing 60 mph in a 40 zone. It was in a little town that's so small the speed limit sign drops one time and then it's right back to where it was before you got in to the town. Kind of a "blink and you'll miss it" place. Anyway, for doing 20 mph over the limit the ticket came out to $126.50. Well, I've just returned from paying the citation I recieved from the Barney Fife of Rossville and I realized that I've never actually known what the money actually goes to when you get a speeding ticket. For those inquisitive minds out there who just have to know, here's the breakdown.

Court Costs - County $21.00
Court Costs - State $49.00
User Fees $3.00
Jury Pay Fund $2.00
Document Storage Fee $2.00
Auto Record Keeping Fee $7.00
Judicial Insurance Fee $1.00
Judicial Admin Fee $1.00
Hwy Work Zone Fee $0.50
Infraction Judgment $40.00

This makes me 5 for 7 in the pull over department. The only time I've ever been let off was my first pull over and even then I got a written warning. Then, the other time was doing 40 in a 30 which I truely thought was a 40 zone. Even so, I didn't think they'd even waste time pulling a guy over for that. I don't really know that there's a purpose in this posting other than that it's interesting to see the breakdown of a ticket and who gets the biggest cut.

PetaKillsAnimals.com

2005-06-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

This article speaks for itself.

PETA Employees Face 31 Felony Animal-Cruelty Charges for Killing, Dumping Dogs

Center For Consumer Freedom Has Warned “Ethical Treatment Of Animals” Workers Routinely Kill AnimalsAhoskie, NC – Last night, one month after the launch of www.PetaKillsAnimals.com, two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) were arrested on 31 felony animal-cruelty charges for killing and disposing of dogs and puppies in a dumpster. Today the Center for Consumer Freedom is calling on Americans to stop making donations to support PETA and its grim-reaper program.
When Ahoskie police arrested PETA employees Andrew Cook and Adria Hinkle last night, they found 18 dead dogs in a nearby shopping-center dumpster (including a bag containing seven dead puppies), and 13 more dead dogs in the PETA-owned van the two were driving. Police observed them throwing several dark-colored bags into the dumpster before the arrests were made.
This is not the first public mention of PETA’s large-scale euthanasia program. In May 2005 the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) unveiled a giant Times Square billboard and a new website (www.PetaKillsAnimals.com). CCF had obtained official records from the state of Virginia showing the militant animal-rights group had put over 10,000 dogs and cats to death since 1998.
In 2003 PETA euthanized over 85 percent of the animals it took in, finding adoptive homes for just 14 percent. By comparison, the Norfolk SPCA found adoptive homes for 73 percent of its animals and the Virginia Beach SPCA adopted out 66 percent. PETA’s required report documenting its 2004 record is currently over 4 weeks late.
A Bertie County (NC) Deputy Sheriff told The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald that Cook and Hinkle assured the Bertie Animal Shelter “they were picking up the dogs to take them back to Norfolk where they would find them good homes.” Pittman added that persons identifying themselves as PETA representatives have picked up live dogs from that shelter during the last two months.
“This is disturbing behavior on the part of self-professed animal lovers, and I hope the public takes notice,” said Center for Consumer Freedom Director of Research David Martosko. “PETA raked in nearly $29 million last year alone, but apparently it couldn’t spare any money to care for the flesh-and-blood animals entrusted to its employees. It’s ironic -- If anyone else were caught red-handed with 31 dead dogs, PETA would be holding a press conference to denounce them.”
Martosko added: “Last month when we launched PetaKillsAnimals.com, we warned the public that PETA was not the warm and kind group it claimed to be. Now it’s clearer than ever that Americans who truly want to help animals should donate to their local animal shelter, not to PETA.”

Click It or Ticket

2005-06-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

by Walter E. Williams

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an office within the U.S. Department of Transportation, just finished its annual campaign to get us to wear our seatbelts under a program called "Click It or Ticket." States receive federal subsidies to ticket drivers if they or their passengers are not buckled up. Some states, such as Maryland, are so eager that they've equipped their officers with night vision goggles, similar to those used by our servicemen in Iraq. Maryland state troopers bagged 44 drivers traveling unbuckled under the cover of darkness. The NHTSA's "Click It or Ticket" program is another step toward making Americans serfs of the state.
Let's look at it. I personally believe that wearing seatbelts is a good idea, and I buckle up and remind my passengers to do so as well. Because seatbelt usage saves lives, mandating such is an abomination in a free society. There are many other legislative actions that are offensive to liberty and can have saving as their justification, a matter I'll turn to later. But let's talk about the immorality of mandated seatbelt usage.
Let's start with the question: Who owns Walter E. Williams? Is it President Bush, the U.S. Congress, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or do I own myself? I'm guessing that any reasonable person would agree that I own Walter E. Williams. The fact that I own myself means that I have the right to take risks with my own life but not others'. That's why it's consistent with morality to mandate that my car have working brakes. If my car doesn't have working brakes, then I risk the lives of others, and I have no right to do so. If I choose not to wear a seatbelt, then I risk my own life, which I have every right to do.
Of course, if it's stipulated that President Bush, the Congress or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania owns me, I have no such right; I'd be risking their property. Some might rejoin by saying, "Williams, if you're not wearing a seatbelt, and don't do us the favor of dying in an accident and become an incapacitated vegetable, society will have to bear the expense of taking care of you." That's not a problem of liberty and self-ownership. It's a problem of socialism.
There's no moral case for forcing anyone to care for me for any reason. When we buy into socialism, we buy into paternalistic government. It reminds me of what my mother used to say during my rebellious adolescent years: "Boy, as long as you're living in my house and I'm paying the bills, you're going to do what I say!" Paternalism is OK for children, but is it suitable for adults? For those who agree with "Click It or Ticket" because it saves lives, would they agree with other possible lifesaving mandates?
Each year, obesity claims the lives of 300,000 Americans and adds over $100 billion to health care costs. Should government enforce a 2,000-calorie intake limit per day? There's absolutely no dietary reason to add salt to our meals. Salt can lead to hypertension-induced heart attacks that kill thousands. Should government outlaw salt consumption? Sedentary lifestyles have been shown to lead to shorter and less healthy lives. Should there be government-mandated exercise programs?
The justifications used for "Click It or Ticket" can easily provide the template for government control of our diets and other lifestyle features. Maybe I'm a bit out of touch with today's Americans. With the silence in the face of attacks on Burger King and McDonald's, alleging they cause obesity, maybe Americans are pining for more government control over their lives -- and "Click It Or Ticket" is just softening up the rest of us for what lies ahead in the future.

Whacko Jacko on the Loose

2005-06-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

First off I’d like to say that in no way shape or form am I a fan of Michael Jackson’s. This rant is coming to you completely void of any sort of star struck love for a celebrity. At best I would say that I’m a neutral in the whole issue and I’m just glad that maybe, just maybe it’ll all go away now. Personally, I think he probably has had inappropriate contact with children. What I’d like to talk about in this posting is not whether Michael Jackson is “really” innocent or “guilty.” I’d like to say my piece on the justice system and how this whole court thing works.
It hasn’t been long since the jury delivered an across the board “not guilty” verdict to MJ stemming from charges ranging from child molestation to contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Of course as soon as the verdict was read everyone started in on what they think should have happened and what they think the verdict should have been. To everyone who has an opinion about someone’s life who they don’t even know, I would just like to ask what makes them think they could have come to a better decision. There were 15 jurors in that courtroom that heard every single shred of evidence and went over and over what was presented and when it all came down to it, not a single one of them disagreed with any of the others. They unanimously agreed that MJ was innocent of the charges that were brought against him.
I’m sick and tired of people saying that all that people get off just because they’re rich. That may be true sometimes, like with mobsters and people that can intimidate a judge or jury, but I’ve got to tell you I don’t see it here. It didn’t happen here and it didn’t happen with OJ. What happened in both of these cases was that the prosecution FAILED to prove guilt. That’s the funny thing about how our justice system works, and thank God it works the way it does. You don’t have to prove your innocent when someone brings charges against you. If someone claims that you’ve done something wrong they have to prove it. Think about what would happen if we could all just go around lobbing accusations at one another and the burden of proof was laid upon our shoulders. Go ahead Kobe, prove that you didn’t rape me. If you say I did something wrong then prove it.
Now that I’ve been thinking about everything I realize that this isn’t over yet. I wonder how long it’ll take to get to the civil side of the matter. Just as with Kobe this was all about money. I don’t care how much that little boy’s mom says it isn’t about the money, by next week we’ll have a trail date for the civil suit. Just like Kobe, Michael will throw money at them to get this part of his life over with and that’s probably just what was intended all along. 4 million dollars of California taxpayer dollars were spent on this trial. MJ has poured loads of his own money into a solid defense team and they did what he paid them to do. Now, does he get any retribution? Yeah right. Now this doesn’t apply well here because this was a criminal matter, but seeing as how the civil trial will soon commence, I say that if someone brings suit against you and you’re shown to be not liable, the other side should be forced to foot the bill for your expenses. This way we would have many less frivolous lawsuits. I feel sorry for everyone involved, the little boy, Michael, and the taxpayers of California.

The Headache

2005-06-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

The doctor said, "Joe, the good news is I can cure your headaches. The bad news is that it will require castration. You have a very rare condition, which causes your testicles to press on your spine and the pressure creates one hell of a headache. The only way to relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles."

Joe was shocked and depressed. He wondered if he had anything to live for. He had no choice but to go under the knife. When he left the hospital, he was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he was missing an important part of himself. As he walked down the street, he realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning and live a new life.
He saw a men's clothing store and thought, "That's what I need... a new suit." He entered the shop and told the salesman, "I'd like a new suit."

The elderly tailor eyed him briefly and said, "Let's see...size 44 long." Joe laughed, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!" the tailor said. Joe tried on the suit, it fit perfectly.

As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, "How about a new shirt?" Joe thought for a moment and then said, "Sure." The salesman eyed Joe and said, "Let's see, 34 sleeves and 16-1/2 neck." Joe was surprised, That's right, how did you know?"
"Been in the business 60 years."

Joe tried on the shirt and it fit perfectly. Joe walked comfortably around the shop and the salesman asked, "How about some new underwear?"

Joe thought for a moment and said, "Sure."

The salesman said, "Let's see... size 36."

Joe laughed, "Ah ha! I got you, I've worn a size 34 since I was 18 years old."

The salesman shook his head, "You can't wear a size 34. A size 34 would press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you one hell of a headache."
New suit - $400
New shirt - $36
New underwear - $6
Second Opinion - PRICELESS

The Meeting

2005-06-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow I’m going down to the school corporation’s administration offices to sit in on the board meeting where I will be officially confirmed as the newest 8th grade Social Studies teacher to hit the Junior High scene. I know that people say stuff about God’s will a lot and how you’ve just got to wait for the right door to open at the right time, but now I’ve actually got to see that come to fruition. As soon as I walked into that school for my interview, I knew that I was going to get hired. There was a peace that came over me and I knew that I was going to be unstoppable once I got a chance to show them what I could do. This school is the absolute perfect place for me to be. It’s very small and rural, just the way I like it. The pay may not be the greatest, but that’s not what’s important to me. What’s important to me is that I have freedom in the classroom and get to have an impact on the students I teach. Plus, I’ll be moving away from my home town permanently. It will be almost like starting completely over. I’ll be in a new town and have to learn how to get around and how to survive. I don’t know what living on my own in a one bedroom apartment is going to be like, but I can’t wait to find out. I’ll probably be really lonely and starve to death, but hey, it’ll be fun while it lasts, right?

The Three Little Pigs

2005-05-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

There were once three little pigs. The first little pig built his house out of straw. But the big bad wolf easily knocked it down. Then he ran to the 2nd pig's house which was made out of sticks. But the wolf came there and knocked it down too. Then both pigs ran to the American pig's house which was made out brick. When the wolf came there, the American pig pulled out a gun and blew his stinking head off. Afterwards, both little pigs who lost their houses started building their houses out of straw again. When the American pig asked them why they accused the American of being an "arrogant jerk" and of "acting unilaterally". But they secretly knew the American would always save them, just like he did in WW1 and WW2 so they could afford not to be prepared.

The Moral of the Story: Even though Americans are helpful, they're real creeps!

The Three Billy-Goats Gruff

2005-05-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

The first and second billy goat gruffs were stopped from going across a bridge to get food by a troll. Then the biggest and baddest billy goat gruff showed up. He told the troll he was going to kick his @ss. That greatly upset the first and second of the billy goats gruff who accused the third billy goat gruff of "hegemony" and "imperialism" and said that negotiation was the way to go. So the third billy goat gruff went away. Unfortunately, the troll refused to negotiate and first two billy goats gruff starved to death.

The Moral of the Story:It's better to starve to death than to fight!

Hansel and Gretel

2005-05-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hansel and Gretel were lost in the woods when they came upon a house made of candy and cake. An old witch invited them in and then captured both of them intending to eat them. Gretel had a chance save both of them by pushing the old woman in an oven but she decided that it would be wrong not to respect the witch's cultural traditions. So Gretel and her brother allowed themselves to be cooked and eaten. The witch was so happy with the children's actions that she invited all of her witch friends to the area. Soon thereafter, they ate every child in a hundred mile radius. Soon the whole area was filled with nothing but child eating witches and all the witches were very happy!

The Moral of the Story: You must respect the culture of others, even at your own expense!

PC Fairy Tales

2005-05-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

The three fairy tales you see posted above on this blog are the intellectual property of John Hawkins of Right Wing News. Come on, you didn't think I was this clever did you.

Native Americanapolis

2005-05-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

American Indians in Florida are suggesting that the NCAA and other groups trying to force Florida State University to change its team name, the Seminoles, should mind their own beeswax, the Palm Beach Post reports.

The real Seminoles gave the university permission to use the "Seminoles" nickname and tribal symbols in 1997, but activist groups such as the American Indian Movement and the NCAA are pressuring the university to stop using the "racist" imagery. Real Seminoles, however, say they are proud of the association and would be somewhat dismayed if out-of-state busybodies had their way.

"I have a problem with other native groups from around the country telling the Seminoles of Florida what is right or wrong for us," said Louise Gopher, education director for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

My friend Andy has a long going tirade about political correctness of this very issue. If you ever get the chance, you should sit in on one of them. This is an issue that gets to me as well. As a hisory lover, and newly hired Social Studies teacher, I have studied much about Indian/Native American lifestyles. Personally, I don't think that anyone should get preferential treatment due to skin color. Let's logically take this issue in the news story quoted above to the next level. (The following point is deservedly credited to Andy Austin.) Pretty soon we will have to change the name of our state! Instead of Indiana, we will become Native Americana. Our state capital, Indianapolis, will become; Native Americanapolis. So, Columbus made a mistake when he met the indigenous people of this land. Cut the guy some slack! It's not like he had a GPS navigator onboard the Nina, Pinta, or Santa Maria. He thought he was in India for crying out loud. I guess I'm saying all of this to say that we are letting minority rule in this country. In many circumstances a small group of people are deciding things about which they have no right to even make a comment. I sincerely belive that "race" is a dying issue. The only people that persist in bringing up issues like these are those who are a part of a generation that can't grasp the blending of ethnic races that will occur in this country in the next century. The confederate flag is not a racist symbol any more than the mascot for Florida State.

Basically, we're all getting pretty sick of how quickly the political correctness is changing seemingly everything in this country. Pretty soon we won't even be able to talk to each other without the possibility of being put in prison due to offending someone. I have a newly acquired friend who has a dual citizenship in South Africa and the United States. As far as I'm concered, he's the only person who I will be referring to as an African American. If black people get to be African American and Indians get to be Native Americans, then I want to be called a German American. I am going to embrace my German heritage and continually strive to nominally separate myself from people who though they may have the same skin pigmentation, could be from some backward European country, like France. I refuse to fill out any sort of form, governmental or otherwise that forces me to check a box that uses offensive blanketing terminology such as "white." I am not white. I'm more of a freckled light brown. It is summer after all. If you want to know which race I belong to please provide a sliding color chart that contains every skin pigmentation from white as the driven snow to black like a crow. Then you can make your own judgement as to which race I belong. Wait a minute...how about a box that simply reads "human."

Quote of the Day II

2005-05-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

"Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. If you graduate from high school today with a B or C average, in most places in our country there's a low-cost or financially assisted post-high-school education program available to increase your skills. Most jobs start with wages higher than the minimum wage, which is currently $5.15. A man and his wife, even earning the minimum wage, would earn $21,000 annually. According to the Bureau of Census, in 2003, the poverty threshold for one person was $9,393, for a two-person household it was $12,015, and for a family of four it was $18,810. Taking a minimum-wage job is no great shakes, but it produces an income higher than the Bureau of Census' poverty threshold. Plus, having a job in the first place increases one's prospects for a better job." --Walter Williams

Quote of the Day

2005-05-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

"The fashionable notion of "a living wage" is a wage that will support a family of four. And, sure enough, The New York Times finds a Wal-Mart employee who complains that he is not making "a living wage."

How is he living, if he is not making a living wage?

Should people be paid according to what they "need" instead of according to what their work is worth? Should they decide how big a family they want and then put the cost of paying to support that family on somebody else?

If their work is not worth enough to pay for what they want, is it up to others to make up the difference, rather than up to them to upgrade their skills in order to earn what they want?"
-- Thomas Sowell

International Respect for Chickens Day

2005-05-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, last Wednesday was "International Respect for Chickens Day." United Poultry Concerns, the group launching the new "holiday," says, "International Respect for Chickens Day is a day to celebrate the dignity, beauty, and life of chickens and to protest the bleakness of their lives in farming operations." Karen Davis, the president of this respectable organization, claims that chickens are models for intelligence, saying, "I spend my days with domestic chickens and turkeys, birds that have long been denigrated as stupid, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Just watch a hen calculate how to speed to her perch at night to avoid a certain attentive rooster in the way, and you know that a smart chick is looking out for her own interests. The day may come when to be called a 'chicken' or a 'turkey' will be rightly regarded as a salute to a person's intelligence."

Give me just one minute. Ok, I was trying to figure out how you type out gut-busting laughter, but I couldn’t do it. Don’t get me wrong here, I love chickens. I have a great fondness for poultry in a variety of recipes. You know, as crazy as this sounds I could actually see this becoming a paid federal holiday. Just think, we could have little chicken festivals at parks all across the country. We could all dress up in feather suits and run around dropping eggs out of the bottoms of our outfits. The festival would then culminate with a mass release of chickens into the wild. You’ve probably never seen it, but a herd of chickens grazing on the plains is a beautiful sight. It even rivals that of the North American Bison.

So, this lady’s evidence for the intelligence of chickens is a hen fleeing the advances of a horny rooster, as opposed to all of those other hens that are just prowling around looking for some action. Actually, I don’t blame her. That rooster had just come home from the bar and reeked of whiskey. She was smart not to step into his advances. He has probably hurt her emotionally in the past and this time she was putting her foot down.

If you look at the created world, you’ll notice something very interesting. In most animal species besides humans, the male is considered to be the more “attractive” of the two sexes. The males have the bright colors, and it’s their role to strut around and get the females attention. Take for example, peacocks, robins, lions, deer, roosters, and many others. In the human world things are reversed. I don’t think that there are too many that would argue that the female is by far the more “attractive” of our two sexes. Guys are for the most part, hairy, sweaty, smelly, bulky, and just overall gross. This has gotten far removed from International Chicken Day, but I digress. Just another example of how we were created separate from the animals of the world and when people try to compare human intelligence to those of animals, I just get all flustered.

I know it's not Halloween, but it's still good...

2005-04-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

One night after Halloween a father sat his son down and said, "Son, I am proud of you; you have collected a lot of candy. And that is why I think it is time to teach you about wonderous tax system created by the Liberals."

"See, you have 200 candies that means you are in the top 1% of trick or treaters. Sorry son, but I am going to have to take 34% in Federal taxes, or 68 candies. Now I am going to have to take 10% for the state, or 20 candies. Next, I'll have to take 2% in local income taxes, or 4 candies. Then there is the property tax that's another 10%, or 20 more candies. Sales Tax!" Exclaimed the father as he grabed 5% more, or 10 candies. "Hmm so how much does that leave ya with son?"

"78 stinkin' candies, dad!"

"Oh my!!" Shouted the father, "I forgot the Alternative Minimum Tax. I'll need another 10% of your candies, thats 20 more son. So that leaves you with 58 candies."

One year later the son is not trick or treating, instead he just sits in front of the tv, and drinks coca-cola. The father asked the son, "What are you doing, why aren't you trick or treating? Did I not teach you anything last year?"

The son stood up walked over to their front door, grabbed the bowl of candies, poured all the candies in his bag, looked at his father and said, "Welfare."

Moral of the Story: Taxation kills incentive to work, hinders productivity, and causes less of whatever is taxed to be produced. Help end oppressive income taxation by supporting the Fair Tax legislation.

The Year 2029

2005-04-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

- Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in theworld, Mexifornia formally known as California. White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia's third language.
- Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.- Baby conceived naturally . . . scientists stumped.
- Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.
- Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon).
- North Korea still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.
- France pleads for global help after being overtaken by Jamaica.
- Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.
- George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.
- Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery toWednesdays only.
- 85-year, $75.8 billion government study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss.
- Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.
- Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed, they can now photograph a woman with her mouth shut.
- Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.
- Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.
- Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.
- New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-upnewspapers must be registered by January 2036.
- Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.
- Capitol Hill intern indicted for refusing to have sex with congressman.
- IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.

Parable of the shoes

2005-03-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

Once there were two boys, Adam and Jesse, who wanted shoes to wear. Both had the same amount of money to spend on shoes. However, they had different beliefs on how to spend the money.

Adam believed that as many shoes as possible should be purchased for wear. While Jesse believed that it was unfair to the shoes to be sold for such a low price. So Jesse would not purchase a pair of shoes for less than $50.

Adam went to "Shoe Store A" to make his purchases. All of shoes were delighted to bought by Adam because it is better to be owned and worn than rot away on a shelf.

Jesse went to "Shoe Store J" to make his purchases. Only a few shoes were made happy by being bought. This left hundreds of shoes on the shelf, which made them loathe Jesse with a passion.

Two weeks later the shoes from "Shoe Store J" united and divised a plan to take Jesse out for leaving them to rot on the shelf.

Their plan succeeded; Adam inherited all of Jesse's money and went on a shoe shopping spree buying all the shoes at "Shoe Store A" through "Z."
Moral of the Story: The minimum wage decides how many people will be employed - Adam would buy shoes at any price (no minimum wage) and bought an entire store of shoes. While Jesse would only buy shoes costing more than $50 (a minimum wage) and only bought a few shoes.

Ever since I came across the parable of the cows again, I've been searching the net for some cool political parables that explain certain nuances of the government that are often difficult for people to understand when they only hear what the politicians are telling them. Right now the minimum wage issue is one of those things. People just can’t seem to understand how paying people more actually hurts more than what it helps. Think about it rationally though. Put yourself in the position of a business owner. You’ve got to keep costs under control to protect your already razor thin profit margin. You’re happy to pay someone $5.15 an hour to perform a menial task within your business, but then here comes Ted Kennedy saying that you should pay those workers who earn the least no less than $8.25. What are your options as a business owner? Here they are. You can pay the employees more and take the direct financial hit to the profit margin (which will never ever ever happen), you can pay them the extra money and raise your prices on goods to match (thereby decreasing purchasing power for everyone, including employees), or you can eliminate those employees who are paid the least. It is always option two or three that happens with minimum wage increases. Here are some interesting statistics and facts.

For each 10% increase of the minimum wage at least 100,000 American jobs are shipped overseas. With the minimum wage hike under the Clinton administration from $4.25 to $5.15 (current level), which constitutes a 21% raise, over 200,000 American jobs were lost and prices on goods were increased to match.
A higher minimum wage means employers will be able to employ fewer workers.
The minimum wage is a factor of inflation which means that it negates purchasing power - the dollar is devalued and can buy less each year.
If a minimum wage of $8.25 is necessary, why stop there? Why not raise the minimum wage to $20.00? How about $200.00? The answer: The minimum wage is a purely political devise to make politicians seem to care about the little guy.

Luck of the Irish

2005-03-18T11:53:00.000-08:00

In honor of St. Paddies Day, I'd like to relate something really cool that happened when I was at the mall and I got to see God’s perfect timing play out right in front of my face. I went to Dick’s sporting goods the other day after work to buy a new baseball/softball mitt, for when I play in the church league this summer. So I’m in there perusing the millions of mitts they have for way too much money and as I’m putting on back on the wall way up high my ring slides off my finger. This is no ordinary ring mind you, or I would’ve just left. I got it when my dad took me out to Las Vegas for my 21st birthday so for me it kind of symbolizes a transition in my life into real life adulthood. So I’m there laying on the floor like a goon for like a half an hour looking for my ring. Thing is I never saw it hit the ground so then I start pulling all the mitts off the racks in the general vicinity and looking inside them. Man, those people must have thought I was a new stock boy or something. After a total of about 45 minutes of futile searching, I said a little prayer that went something like “God that really sucks and I hope that you’ll help me to find this thing, but if not I know that there’s a reason for me losing it and I hope you’ll use this to make me better somehow.” Seriously, that’s just about how it went, I think. Anyway by this time there was a dad and his little girl looking at softball mitts and the dad said something about me being there so long looking at all the different gloves and I told him well I’m not really looking at the gloves per say, I’m looking for my ring. The little girl goes, “I’ll help.” The next thing I know this little girl is army crawling across the carpet in what I’ve come to believe is a vain search for my now nonexistent ring. Then, she pops right up and says is this it, and it is right there in her little hands. I seriously must have overlooked the stupid thing a million and a half times. So I express my gratitude and we part ways. Some might say I was lucky. I’ll call it providence.

I finally decide on a mitt to buy and then I got this hankering for a smoothy. I proceed to walk all the way down the mall to the smoothy place and upon arrival find the hankering has dissipated (that or I only had two dollars left). So I head back to Dick’s to go out to my car. Again I don't think I just gave up on a smoothy for no reason.

At this point, if you’ve lasted this long, you’re probably thinking to yourself, this is the most pointless story ever. Just wait, it gets better. That first part was all build up baby. I’ve been trying to hit the teaching market hard this season and in doing so I’m trying to build a better pool of letters of recommendation. In college during the summer I was a camp counselor and the director of that camp would be a great one as well as her husband who I got to know really well and who is a teacher himself. I’ve been trying to track these people down for about a month now, because they moved and nobody has new contact info for them. So I’m walking back through Dick’s right, when all of a sudden I see Kevin and Cooper. Kevin is the teacher/husband and Cooper is his four year old son. To make a long story short I got to catch up with where they’re at and what’s been going on and as it turns out Heather, the camp director, was at the mall with them, so I went with Kevin and Cooper to meet up with her. They said they would love to write me a recommendation, and I got updated info on the lot of them. In all it was just a really awesome day because, not only did I finally get to track them down, but I got to see an answer to prayer happen right in front of me. I know it was just a stupid little prayer about my ring, but if I hadn’t have lost it for that amount of time and then gone to the smoothy place, I would have never run into Kevin and Cooper on my way back through the store.

This just further cements in my brain that God does take time to look at the little stuff that’s happening to us and that there is absolutely no such thing as luck.

Parable of the Cows

2005-03-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

This age old parable is widely used to teach people about some of the different types of governing systems in use in our world today. The first time that I came across this was in my senior government class in high school. If I am able I hope to one day use it in my own classroom as well.

Socialism: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor.

Communism: You have two cows. The government takes them both and provides you with milk.

Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes them and sells you the milk.

Bureaucracy: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours it down the drain.

Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Democracy: You have two cows. Government taxes force you to sell them in order to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow which was a gift from your government.

Robber Barons

2005-03-10T05:56:00.000-08:00

This isn't my own material. It was collected via email and I felt that it made such a good point that I couldn't resist posting it. It's well worth reading, very short and to the point.

SOCIAL SECURITY:

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments.. This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries. For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives. Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH.... This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds; "OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits! Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to: Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us. then sit back..... and watch how fast they would fix it. If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.

We Don't Need No Education

2005-03-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Check this out!

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Students in the Berkeley school district aren't getting written homework assignments because teachers are refusing to grade work on their own time after two years without a pay raise.
So far, a black history event had to be canceled and parents had to staff a middle-school science fair because teachers are sticking strictly to the hours they're contracted to work.
"Teachers do a lot with a little. All of a sudden, a lot of things that they do are just gone. It's demoralizing," said Rachel Baker, who has a son in kindergarten.
Teachers say they don't want to stop volunteering their time.
"It's hard," said Judith Bodenhauser, a high school math teacher. "I have stacks of papers I haven't graded. Parents want to talk to me; I don't call them back."
The action was organized by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, which wants a cost-of-living increase next year.

Being an education major and yet having never actually been a teacher I feel I’m qualified to voice my opinion on this issue. I understand the point of a teacher’s union. As I understand it’s to collectively bargain for the best possible working conditions and the best possible wage. That’s all well and good, but what do you do with a situation like this. Who’s being hurt here? In my opinion this teacher’s union has taken action that directly harms the very lives of the people who teachers are trusted to nurture. Those people being the students. I understand that they’re mad about not having had a raise in two years, but why take it out on the kids? They didn’t decide against the raise year after year. The kids didn’t collectively bargain their way into this mess. Yet, the kids are the ones feeling the brunt of this mess. Here’s what should happen in my world. There would be no teacher’s union. If you are a teacher and you feel that you are not being paid in a way that provides the best compensation for you and your family then you singularly negotiate a contract just like professional sports. If the school board fails to meet your demands then you seek gainful employment with another corporation that can satisfy your needs.

Above is the way it actually plays out. Teachers who singularly could be competing and thriving in the classroom, bringing the best possible education to public school kids are forced into an NHL style lock out which directly harms the students. The teachers are still being paid their wages, but the students are “suffering.” I did the little finger quotes around suffering, because I doubt the kids actually mind not having homework. Heck, I wouldn’t, but no one would sit here and say these kids are going to be better off because of this action taken by the teacher’s union.

Math at the Flying J

2005-02-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

Something happened this weekend that made me realize just how far we’ve fallen as society. Friday, I was called upon to drive to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for business. On the way home I needed to stop for some gas. I decided upon the handy, reliable Flying J’s. It’s one of my favorite places because there is so much to do there if you need a few minutes to stretch the ole legs. Having some cash on hand, I decided to forgo paying by card and thought after pumping I would go inside and lay claim to some munchies. Once having procured said munchies I went up to the register to purchase my hall. The total came to $20.87.

Here’s where the story gets interesting. There were two girls behind the counter, one at the register and one doing something else, I wasn’t really paying attention. I handed the girl behind the register a twenty dollar bill along with a Washington, for a whopping total of $21 even. Then I hear this come from the mouth of the young college age girl, as she turns to the girl wonder next to her, “Dang it, I punched it in wrong. How much is 21 minus 20.87?”

Now realizing that this inconceivable math problem actually involves decimal points, I decided to let this slide. Then I actually see the other girl punch this formula into a calculator! Are you serious? Neither of these girls are capable of this mind bending formula? I think that NCLB came a little too late for these two geniuses. Finally, after an earth shatteringly awkward few seconds, I hear the response, “Thirteen cents.” Wow, I almost gave up on humanity right there. This girls is why you work at the Flying J.

Tax by the Mile

2005-02-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

This just goes to show you that as soon as you find a way to save money the government will find a way to take even more away.

College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment.
"I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.
So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW.
And what kind of mileage does he get?
"The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway," says Just.
And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas.

This all sounds great thus far. I’m happy for Jason and his new weenie car. If it fulfills his needs and saves him money, no one is a bigger supporter than me. Heck, I would probably buy one of those things too, if they could make it look a little more like a normal car. The next part of the story is where my consternation (no not constipation) develops.

It's great for Just but bad for the roads he's driving on, because he also pays a lot less in gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs. As more and more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough roads ahead.
Officials in car-clogged California are so worried they may be considering a replacement for the gas tax altogether, replacing it with something called "tax by the mile."
Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring Oregon has already started road testing the idea.
"Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that," says engineer David Kim.
Kim and his team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one. "So, if you drive 10 miles you will pay a certain fee which will be, let's say, one tenth of what someone pays if they drive 100 miles," says Kim.
The new tax would be charged each time you fill up. A computer inside the gas pump would communicate with your car's odometer to calculate how much you owe.
The system could also track how often you drive during rush hour and charge higher fees to discourage peak use. That's an idea that could break the bottleneck on California's freeways.
"We're getting a lot of interest from other states," says Jim Whitty of the Oregon Department of Transportation. "They're watching what we're doing."

Is anyone else seeing the fulfillment of the Nanny-state with legislation like this? Just think of how safe you’ll feel knowing that the government can track your vehicles every movement, knowing where you are and what you’re doing at every second you’re cruising down the road. Are you kidding me? This is complete delirium. Don't be fooled by their statement that it would relieve traffic jams during peak hours. Rush hour is what it is because those people have to be on the road at that time. Nobody voluntarily says, hmmm, I think I'll take the busiest most clogged roads today so I can be late to work. Nobodies going to say to them selves, I think I'll stay at work for a couple of hours every day so that I avoid paying that extra darn tax. Also, don’t even try to give me the ole, “But they’ll be able to track car thieves and criminals if every car has a government issue GPS tracker.” That’s not the point. The point is the invasion of personal privacy and on top of that making us pay to give up that privacy. I’m a big fan of W, but some things in the “Patriot Act” are taken to the extreme. To me this is along the same vein.

Environuts have been pushing these stupid looking cars on us for the past few years now, and as soon as they gain a little steam all of a sudden it’s, whoops, maybe we didn’t think this through well enough. Not only will we have to pay more taxes by paying by use, but we’ll also have to pay more for car manufactures to add another device to their lines of automobiles. What else is the government to do you say? They’ve got to get the money for upkeep from somewhere. To this I respond: Why in the world does the government get to have a monopoly on roads in the first place? We all know that almost anything that is done by the government is done much better in the private sector. Here are a few examples; public schools, public parks (public toilets), public housing, and free clinics. All of these things when privately owned and operated by profit driven entrepreneurs are light-years better than when they are run by the government. Why would roads by any different? I guarantee that if a private company were to build roads in this country, they would not only be better built, but they would require less maintenance and would be nicer as well. These things would happen because roads would then come under the pull of the market forces of competition. They would have to provide the traveler with the best route possible for the least amount of money, so that next time you don’t use some other guys road. Why are these things so hard for some people to even fathom?

Where were they when I was in school?

2005-02-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

So, I take it that everyone has heard about the recent charges against a young phys. Ed teacher, who was having a sexual relationship with a 13 year old student. I apologize if I’m slightly off with the ages and what not, but I’m trying to do all this from memory. Seriously, have you seen pictures of this lady? She is absolutely smoking. If I remember correctly there was another one not to long ago that’s also been charged with having an illicit relationship with a young male student. Then of course everyone remembers the Mary Kay woman who is actually going to marry her little man. She’s not attractive, but the other two that have made national headlines completely are. I’m not even going to lie. This is crazy! Where were these teachers when I was a young lad? I mean I’m not saying I would have done anything, because I probably would have been scared out of my wits, but still I’d like to think there could have been a chance.
Actually, on this note, I have a very interesting story. It goes something like this. The first real boob that I ever saw was that of my eighth grade art teacher. Before you ask; yes she was hot. I don’t want to post any names for fear of embarrassment, but wow. She had us doing this assignment where we had to draw an object without looking at our paper. Apparently, we weren’t getting it our something so she climbed up on a table to be the “object” that we were to draw. We were circled around her and she happened to be facing my desk. She was on her hands and knees so I could see right down her shirt. All I remember thinking was, holly crap, is this really happening and is that really what I think it is. I just sat there staring and making incoherent shapes on my paper until something snapped me out of my trance. I heard my teacher say, Kale’s the only one I haven’t seen take his eyes off of me. She looked right at me and told me that I was doing a fantastic job. So, that’s how I’ve come to have the life motto of never taking my eyes off an intended target.

PETA would love this guy

2005-02-03T13:10:00.000-08:00

This posting is just for you Andy. I saw the following on a yahoo celebrity page, which is funny because this guy hasn't done anything worthwhile since Terminator 2. Sure he was hooked up with Paris Hilton for a while, but who hasn't? Am I right fellas? Anyway, Eddie Furlong here was the annoying John Conner in T2. Personally, I prefer Nick Stahl's version in Rise of the Machines much better. Anywho, hope you get a kick out of the following.

Ever since Edward Furlong was arrested last year for attempting to free a tank full of lobsters from a Kentucky supermarket, we just can't hear his name without picturing a bib and drawn butter. Now, the troubled actor says there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for his crustacean crusade. "Lobsters are people too," he earnestly tells Complex magazine (via the New York Post). "Lobsters, they are great spirits and they need to roam free. I know it was a bad idea. And, of course, you read it everywhere afterward and you get to [the] set and people are like, 'Hey, Lobster Boy!' All I did was free their little claws, man. They wanted to be free."

What the? Just where in the world are these lobsters going to roam free? Aisle 5 next to the milk and cheese? What a complete tool. There's a reason that lobsters in the supermarket have rubber bands around their claws. If they don't they'll pinch each others claws off in order to show who's the biggest and baddest. Those tanks are kind of like lobster prison. Once you get thrown in you have to establish your dominance or else be ascribed a female name and take everything else that comes along with that. I'll let you use your imagination there folks. With rubber bands on their claws they're kept from hurting each other. What was Eddie seriously trying to do? He's in Kentucky for craps sake. Was he going to buy each one and personally drive them back to the coast of Maine and set them free? It's not like Kentucky has some unknown wild lobster population. Maybe Eddie's just so bored, not working will do that to you, that he wanted to see some of them fight. Wait, that couldn't be it because as we all know, lobster's are people too.

Show-Me yer boobs

2005-01-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

This news item comes to us from Jefferson City, Missouri. One Show-Me state lawmaker has it in for small businesses in Missouri. His goal is to levy so many taxes on these businesses that they are forced to relocate. He wants to make it impossible for them to make a profit. His goal is a 20% tax on all revenues and a $5 fee for each patron that walks through the door. He also wants to regulate the hours that these businesses can be open. As many as 1,000 small businesses could but shut down. Think of the jobs and revenue that could be lost. This man’s name: Matt Bartle.

"The goal of the bill is to make Missouri inhospitable for these businesses," says Bartle.

You would think that this man would be a Democrat from the way he’s trying to regulate these small business owners, but I’m sad to say that he’s a member of my own party; a Republican. Why is this man attempting to terminate these business owners’ desires to earn a living and increase their lot in life you ask? Well, for far too many the answer is simple. Senator Bartle’s target is…drum roll please…the adult entertainment industry. Apparently, he has a personal problem with smut. He thinks these girls are ‘Show’ing too much. Maybe at some point in his life he tried to hit on a stripper, and she shot him down. Maybe he was kicked out of an adult book store for lingering too long in the back corner with a magazine. At this point some are cheering for another champion of the religious right. Personally, as a member of the religious right, I’m boo hissing at a “Daddy Knows Best” congressman who is attempting to stifle the free market.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not a fan of the adult entertainment industry as a whole. I’ve never been to an adult bookstore, but have seen some in the movies, and Spencer Gifts is kind of close to that. I have been to a strip club. Just once, on a Las Vegas trip with my dad for my 21st birthday. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about so I stopped in one night to see for myself. Feeling like the biggest pervert ever, sitting in a little booth by myself not wanting to part with the little money I had left from a hard day at the tables, I resolved that it wasn’t for me and haven’t been to one since. Even though I don’t enjoy that type of thing, I’m not about to trample on the rights of those who do enjoy that. Especially, on the rights of a business owner to run their business the way they want and to be competitive in the free market.

That’s why I like the market. It’s consumer driven. If the consumer doesn’t want to pay, the item in question either adapts or goes obsolete. What’s being done to these women who are simply trying to earn money (and pretty good money from what I hear) and work is being done to other areas of life all throughout this country.

Here’s my main beef with the whole issue. We are becoming a Nanny State. I for one can’t stand that. I don’t want the government telling me what I can and cannot do (within reason). Have you noticed that every year it becomes harder and harder to smoke a cigarette in this country. Tobacco is the only reason that the first Europeans even stayed on this side of the world and this is how we repay it, by outlawing it everywhere. Personally, I hate smoke and won’t go to smoke filled places such as bowling alleys and bars for enjoyment. That’s the free market at work. No one forced me to not go there. I made that decision because they’re full of smoke and I don’t like smoke, therefore they won’t get my business. If enough people did that, the business owner would adapt to changing market forces or have to shut down. The same goes for strip joints and adult bookstores. As long as there is demand there will be supply. What Senator Bartle will ultimately do should his law be passed is to push those things he doesn’t like to the underground. The market always exists even when we try to stifle it. Have you ever heard of the Black Market. That is the market forced underground. Please don’t take this as me being uber Libertarian and wanting to allow everything. I’m just saying that the government needs to let the us make the decisions as to what businesses we allow in our towns by voting with our wallets.

22 and 1/2 hours

2005-01-26T11:47:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I purchased a new car. It was another turning point on the road towards real live adulthood. I was stoked. I was semi forced into this situation due to the incident which happened around Christmastime involving my car, a girl whose car was dead in the middle of the road, and a mailbox. I was able to find a really great deal on a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am GT. It only had 68,000 miles on it which is really good for the price. It was priced at $5995. I figured this would be the perfect time to buy. My Cavalier is now a busted piece of crap, and it is tax time. Every dealer is trying to get rid of their cars around tax time right. I’ve also got some money coming my way in the form of a two year old loan to my brother and a big fat tax check. So, I decided to take out a $6,000 loan to buy the car. The process of selecting a lender was in itself bad enough, but eventually I decided to go with the Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union. They gave me 1% cash back when I closed the deal. I ended up with a sweet $55 cash in my pocket when I left. I rushed over to Dave Perigo Motor Sales in my hometown of Dayton and picked up the car. If I would have been living in an episode of 24 that would have been hour 1.
The next morning I was driving to work. I had some errands to run so I was on a side of town that I’m not normally on at that time of day. I noticed that this would be a great opportunity to put the first tank of gas in my new car, so I stopped and filled up. I then proceeded back down the now infamous Teal Road. It’s a four lane road with multiple stop lights. I was in the left lane cruising smoothly at 35 miles per hour. There was stopped traffic in the right lane due to a light up ahead. Then it happened. A woman in a 2003 silver Ford Taurus was waived by someone in the right lane to come out of a parking lot. She wanted to turn left on Teal which meant she had to come across two lanes of traffic to do so. All I saw before the collision was the front end of the car and the back of the lady’s head. I didn’t even have time to get my foot over to the brake and only two letters escaped my mouth…N…O…
After I cleared my head, all I could do was step out of my car and watch as the fluid contents bled out onto the streets. In the end, three Lafayette Police cruisers responded, EMS came to the scene for the woman who I hit, and Lafayette Fire was called as well, because the jaws of life were needed to extract the woman from her car. I watched helplessly as my car was lifted into the air by a wrecker and towed to a dealership were I was later notified that there was no hope. I only had her for a short time, but what an impact. Now it’s time to deal with the insurance hassles and find a new car.

Shoot the Moon

2005-01-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

I’ve decided to bypass some more serious issues that our world is facing, such as tsunamis in Asia, ongoing terrorist violence in the Middle East, UN officials saying that the United States doesn’t give enough to other countries **cough...bullcrap...cough**, to focus on an issue that’s a little more light hearted. I would like to say my peace about Randy Moss “mooning” Green Bay Packer fans.

What is that you say? This isn’t a topic worthy of public discourse. I beg to differ. Most things are topic for discourse and this certainly is one of them. For you see, even though this incident can’t compare to the massive death and destruction that’s occurring globally it does provide us with a distraction of sorts. Something we can all talk about and relate back to other issues of life.

Randy Moss is an entertainer. He is paid to provide football fans with enjoyment week in and week out of the football season. That’s simply it. The guy is no brain surgeon and we shouldn’t expect him to be. He gets paid millions of dollars to catch spinning ball for crap’s sake. Some athletes run their mouths, some let their skills talk for them, and yet others choose to have a weird combination of both. Randy Moss falls into this latter category. No one can deny his prowess at the wide receiver position. Since he came into the NFL he has been dominant at what he does. I’m not going to say he’s the best, but no one can deny his giftedness. Along with this giftedness came a smarmy, cocky attitude. He was given whatever he wanted in front of him served on a silver platter. No one told the guy no, and now when he does something that some people find offensive people get up in arms about the state of professional sports in this country. Well guess what everyone. It is what we’ve made it to be.

Personally I didn’t find anything offensive about Randy PRETENDING to moon the fans in Green Bay. Especially now in light of Coach Dungy’s comments that Green Gay (oops…Bay) fans have a tradition of actually mooning the opposing team’s bus as they leave the stadium. There was no nudity with Moss, the gesture was completely mocked. I love when players interact with the fans. That’s why we want to sit so close, so we can hurl profanities and insults at the opposing team and heap mounds of praise upon our chosen players. Football is a very emotional game and to expect these gladiators not to respond emotionally is plain stupid. All the guy did was rub a little dirt into the faces of those fans who deride him at every chance they get. If you want to pin the blame on someone, blame the television station who broadcast the footage. They could’ve cut away from what was a non-harmful touchdown celebration. Nope, instead they chose to show it, and then we had to listen to the announcers talk for five minutes about how that shouldn’t have been shown and how disgusting of a person Randy Moss is. Give me a break. I’ve done worse celebrating a correct answer at Final Jeopardy competing against my best friends.

Other guys do much worse. Earlier this season, Jake Plummer gave the finger to his own fans in Denver. It was rude, he apologized, and the issue was done. Brett Farve used to do the throat slash toward the other team when he threw a touchdown pass. Some would say that’s actually threatening to kill another man. At the time we all said he was a fierce competitor. John Lynch practically decapitates wide receivers on a regular basis. He continues to play and is rewarded with selection to the Pro Bowl. Donovan Darius almost paralyzes Green Bay wide receiver Robert Ferguson with a vicious close line. He continues to play as well. Now people are calling for Randy Moss to be suspended when his team needs him most because he was having fun with the crowd and building up an already heated rivalry.

My point is that people love to talk about how much it should rain. How they’re desperate for rain, and how much they love when it rains. Then, when it actually starts to rain, they stand outside and curse the heavens for making it rain. Professional sports are as they exist today, because we like it that way. We are the consumers. We provide these men with gargantuan salaries to play a game. We buy the tickets and our tax dollars fund the stadiums. It will stay this way until the consumer decides he or she wants something else.

Stella Awards

2004-12-21T15:03:00.000-08:00

Not long ago I opined about a woman who was hit by a train and successfully sued the railroad company for failing to advise her that it was dangerous to walk on the railroad tracks. Well, since that time these delightful gems have fallen into my lap. They are ranked in order of their sheer ridiculousness and have been dubbed the Stella Awards in honor of 81 year old Stella Liebeck. You remember her. She’s the woman who spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee in her lap and successfully sued because she didn’t know that McDonald’s serves their coffee hot. So in her honor here are the winners.

6th Place – Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor & knocked out two of her front teeth. This occurred whilst Ms. Walton was trying to crawl through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 & dental expenses.

5th Place – Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 & medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's Beagle dog. The Beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been a little provoked at the time, as Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard, was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

4th Place – 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles, California, won $74,000 & medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently did not notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal the hubcaps.

3rd Place – A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500, after she slipped on a soft drink & broke her coccyx(tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument

2nd Place – Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had justfinished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He could not reenter the house because the door connecting the house & garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation & Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for 8 days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found & a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the house owners insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

1st Place – This year's winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new Winnebago Motor Home. On his trip home from an OU football game, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph & calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the Motor Home left the freeway, crashed & then overturned.Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him, by reading the owner's manual, that he actually could not do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago Motor Home.The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit. Just in case there were any other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles. While it is true that technology waits for no man; stupidity will always stop to take on new passengers.

Master Teacher and Kwazy Kwanza

2004-12-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

Listen, I’m all for people celebrating their heritage and learning about the cultural roots from which they sprout, but the current trend in our nation of creating a holiday and shoving it down the throat of all Americans is getting a little absurd. Of course I’m referring to that joyous time of year that has become standard tradition throughout the nation, and is being taught and celebrated by public school children. It’s that festive time of year known as Kwanza.
Apparently not many people, including African Americans who celebrate it, know where this holiday comes from. Allow me to shed a little light on the issue. The winter holiday of Kwanza that has been accepted wholeheartedly by the unassuming American public was created in 1966 by a man named Ron Everett. Ron Everett is also know by the moniker Maulana Karenga. Maulana is the Swahili word for “master teacher.” Now you may be asking how one ascribes to the level of “master teacher” in African culture. Apparently you can just start asking people to call you that. That’s what Ron Everett did back in the mid 1960’s. Mr. Everett (I for one refuse to call him Maulana Karenga.) started a group called the US (United Slaves) Organization. This group was intended to counter the effect of the Black Panthers in the 60’s. The illustrious accomplishments of the US Organization include the murder of two Black Panther members in 1969, and the brutal torture of two women who Everett believed were trying to poison him. These women had earlier been given the rank of “African Queen” within their group before the torture.
For his part Everett was convicted and sentenced to serve one to ten years for two counts of felony assault and one count of false imprisonment. So the story goes, this sparkling gem of a human being decided to unite the black culture of America with a holiday. He claims that it is based on a harvest festival from Africa. However, no record of any such festival exists. There is no doubt that tribes would hold festivals when it was time to bring in the harvest, but these were not formalized and unifying as Everett would have us to believe. Then there’s the whole problem with the timing of the matter. If Kwanza is supposed to be a harvest festival then why in the world is it held today in the dead of winter? The word Kwanza itself is a derivative of a Swahili term "matunda ya kwanza" which means “first fruits.” Swahili is the language spoken predominantly in East and Central Africa. Most of the slaves that came to America were from West Africa and would not have spoken Swahili.
I know you’re anxious to hear of Mr. Everett’s whereabouts. Currently he holds a position as professor or should I say “master teacher” at California State University, Long Beach. Guess what? He has a prominent role in the Black Studies division at CSU Long Beach despite the provisions in the California State education code about employing convicted felons. Some may say that those were the mistakes of his youth and he has served his time, but let’s keep in mind some very important things here. One is that it’s only been five years since he got out of prison, and the second is that convicted felons should not be allowed to serve in positions of authority over impressionable youth. Hey I’ve got an idea. When Ted Kaczynski gets out of jail, let’s give him a professorship at an extremely liberal institution of higher education teaching in the Lifestyles Department. His courses could include Home Terrorism 101, Hermitage 202, and Perfecting the Look of a Crazy Demented Psycho 400 (This class for advanced students only). Then, Professor Ted could create his own holiday too.

Praising Megamurderers

2004-12-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

The governmental system known as Communism has been a plague on this earth since its conception by Karl Marx with his writing of the Communist Manifesto. This ultimately important historical document has given birth to the world’s most cruel and punishing regimes. Marxism-Leninism is defined by bloody terrorism, deadly purges, lethal gulags and forced labor, fatal deportations, man-made famines, extrajudicial executions and show trials, and genocide. As I said in my last posting, it is shameful for students at a private Christian university who proclaim themselves to be Christ followers to extort the “virtues” of Communism. Nothing has ever existed that is less virtuous. Most people know that Communist regimes are brutal and nothing to be praised, but apparently these students who have started this group would like to ignore the pain and suffering that has profoundly affected millions of people across many cultural barriers.

Most people don’t realize just how deadly Communism has been to our world. Please note that these figures are nowhere near concrete, but can give us a good idea as to the suffering that this system of government has inflicted upon the created world. Even with archival statistics and fist hand survivor accounts, historians still disagree as to the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust. Given the amount of secrets Communist governments hide from the world at large we can’t even begin to approach the accuracy of those killed during the Holocaust. What we can estimate is a range of those who have perished under the hammer.

The Soviet Union appears to have been the biggest perpetrator of mass suffering and death. All told 61,000,000 people were killed during its existence. Joseph Stalin’s regime itself is responsible for about 43,000,000 of those deaths. Most of the deaths, perhaps around 39,000,000 are due to lethal forced labor in gulag and transit thereto. Communist China is the world’s second worst murderer with over 35,236,000 murders by the government. Honorable mentions go to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia with a total of 2,035,000 dead. At the time Cambodia only had a population of 7,000,000. That’s almost 30% of the entire population wiped out. Vietnam claims 1,670,000 dead. North Korea has the blood of 1,663,000 citizens stained upon its government. Tito’s Yugoslavia brutally murdered 1,072,000 human beings.

In all, Communist governments around the world during this past century killed roughly 110,286,000 people. Are you sick to your stomach yet? Here’s the kicker. In all the wars of the previous century, 38,000,000 people died in battle. The killings in the Soviet Union alone easily surpass this total and Red China almost equals it. Communism is the greatest man made disaster the world has ever seen. In an attempt to create paradise and play God, the limitations of man have led to the slaughter of over 110,000,000 people under Communist regimes world-wide, not to mention an additional 30,000,000 killed in war defending the ideals of the Communist state. If this information doesn’t get Presidents Barnes’ attention, I don’t know what will.

If you would like more information about the statistics I cited throughout this posting, please visit this site. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM

The College Communists

2004-11-24T13:25:00.000-08:00

I’d like to preface this posting by saying that the four years of my life that I spent at college were the hands down absolute best years of my life. I never once regretted choosing the school that I did and I give them credit for developing me into the person that I am today. At Indiana Wesleyan University I developed my worldview and began to think critically about the things and people who influence my life. I absolutely loved my school, which is why this posting pains me so much.

When I was a student at IWU the College Republicans were the most outspoken political group on campus. Being a private Christian institution this is hardly surprising. My senior year the College Democrats were started which I can sort of understand. There seemed to be many students at IWU that felt they could hang onto their Christian principles and still belong to the Democratic Party. Since that developed, another group came to the fro, the College Libertarians. Ok so now we’ve got the Reds, the Blues, and the wackos. I’ve recently learned, upon returning to my alma matter for a visit, that IWU now has, in addition to the three aforementioned groups, a College Communist group. Did you hear that? Maybe you should go back up and read that last sentence one more time. That’s right, I didn’t stutter. A Christian school allowed a group of students to actually identify themselves as communists and now must provide them with school funding just like the other political groups. They are calling themselves the Christian College Communist Party! Hello…does anyone realize what the acronym for this group is? It’s the same as Soviet Russia, the CCCP! Not only have these students given themselves this moniker, but they are developing marketing materials such as t-shirts and fliers to promote the group around campus. They are proudly displaying images of the hammer and sickle as their symbol and mass murderers, such as Che Guerrva. I don’t know how any of this makes you the reader feel, but as a Christian and a former student of what was once a great school, it really upsets me. I’m not talking about whoops I spilled my soda upset. I’m talking about turns my stomach into knots, makes me want to vomit, ashamed to tell people I’m a graduate upset.

IWU leans heavily on alumni for donations to the school. Well, I’m making my public statement right here and now that IWU won’t receive one red cent from me as long as they continue to support the existence of a group such as this one. I will be drafting a letter to the University President along with all the Deans letting each of them know of my displeasure. I will also inform them that I will not recommend IWU as an option to high school students who are seeking to attend a school that claims to be Christ centered, and yet supports groups such as the College Communists. A group like that has no business in a Christian university. If it does, I wonder how the university would respond to a College Ku Klux Klan, or how about a College PLO, better yet how does the College al-Qaeda sound to all the Christians out there?

Check back for updates to this disturbing situation. This issue kind of has my focus for the moment and is going to require some research to show just how disgusting this occurrence really is.

Pedestrian Crossing

2004-11-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

This one may top the lady who spilled the McDonald’s coffee in her crotch and sued for millions of dollars. Ok, maybe it doesn’t in terms of monetary settlement, but it sure does in terms of stupidity.

"Patricia M. Frankhouser filed suit on Nov. 4 seeking damages in excess of $30,000 from Norfolk Southern Corp., according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Last January, Frankhouser was hit by a train as she walked along railroad tracks in her hometown of Jeannette, Pa., a southeastern suburb of Pittsburgh.
Amazingly, she came away from the encounter with only a broken finger, some cuts and, according to the lawsuit, "pain."
Apparently, however, the incident was traumatic enough for her to hire a lawyer.
"Defendant's failure to warn plaintiff of the potential dangers negligently provided plaintiff with the belief she was safe in walking near the train tracks," Frankhouser's suit asserts.
It goes on to state that Norfolk Southern, based in Norfolk, Va., should have posted signs warning passersby "of the dangers of walking near train tracks and that the tracks were actively in use."

Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture? This ranks right up there on the stupid-people-meter with those who sue gun manufactures when someone gets shot. Now railroads are being forced to warn people that walking on the railroad tracks can be hazardous to your health. I thought that was sort of implied by the thousand ton locomotive barreling down them at breakneck speeds with whistles blaring. If I was the judge in this case and the woman was in no way mentally impaired (prior to being hit by the train), there is no way this case would ever require Norfolk to put up the money to defend themselves. I can understand walking on the tracks, I’ve done it many times in my day, but it’s not like a train can just come out of nowhere and hit you. A sensible person sees these types of things approaching. Here’s my tip for the day. When a Norfolk and Southern locomotive is barreling down on you, please do not run straight ahead. The train will catch you. Simply step ten feet to either side, and let the train pass before you resume you hobo journey down the rails. If the train does somehow managed to still hit you and you come away with only a broken finger and some scratches, do not hire an attorney. Put a splint on your finger, and then proceed to thank God for giving such a moron another chance at life. Next time use the sidewalk.

Cat Scratch Fever

2004-11-16T11:51:00.000-08:00

So, let me know if anyone out there has had a worse start to their week as I’ve had. Sunday afternoon I was invited to lunch at my friend Casey’s house. It was a little warm in my car after church and was a very pleasant autumn day so I rolled down my window thinking nothing of it. After lunch my friends and I proceeded to gallivant around town, getting into trouble, you know the usual Sunday festivities.
It was around 10:30 that night when the friends and I were all saying our goodbyes to Casey and his friend from school John. After we all said our goodbyes we merrily went back to our vehicles. My friend Tiffany needed a ride back to her car which had been left at Casey’s house. Being the good friend that I am, and seeing as how it was on the way, I offered to take Tiffany back to her car. On the way there I noticed a funny smell. By the way, I had just recently purchased a strawberry air freshener thingy to make my car not smell like a boy drives it. This new smell however, was not my lovely strawberry patch that I have come to know and love. The new smell came at me in droves. I was sitting there minding my own business when all of a sudden my nasal passage would be assaulted with alternating shots of strawberry then ick, strawberry then ick. My mind began to race as to what could be making this horrendous smell in my car. I gave the armpits the ole’ discreet sniff sniff and quickly eliminated myself as a viable source of the smell. In my mind that left only one legitimate source of stank. It had to have been Tiffany. Now for those of you who don’t know Tiffany, she’s a very pretty, demure, intelligent girl, who would never let one rip in front of a boy. I thought maybe she had let one slip, and I didn’t want to cause her further emotional harm by calling her out on it.
So, I dropped her off and everything was fine. I can’t recall if I smelled anything else the rest of the trip home as I was pretty tired and it was just a couple of miles. The next morning I went out to my car to go to work at 7:30. I opened the door and was greeted by not one, but two of the biggest, steamiest piles of crap that I’ve ever seen. One was dropped just behind my driver’s seat on the floor. The second, more repugnant of the two piles had been deposited directly in the middle of the driver’s seat! Gravity even made sure that the liquid crap had slid into the most comfortable part of my butt grove in the seat.
Now, I’m not a man of huge intelligence, but I do know when I sit in a pile of poo and when I don’t and I did not sit in that pile on the way home last night. Then I came to the realization that whatever had done that had done it over night and must still be in my car. Being the manly man that I am, I immediately ran back inside my house and summoned my aunt to the rescue. Together we searched my car and discovered the culprit. Apparently, at Casey’s house the day before, one of his cats had jumped into my open car window searching for a warm place to bed down and poop. This cat was curled up under the passenger’s seat of the car, snug as a bug in a rug. It was all she could to keep me from going into the shed and getting the ax right then and there. I settled for poking at the cat with a stick. After several attempts to dislodge this spawn of satan from its hiding spot, it finally fled. Immediately our dogs gave chase and the last time I saw the cat, he was high up in a tree with our dogs waiting patiently below.
Needless to say, I spent the next hour scrubbing the nastiest smelling fecal matter out of the seats of my car. The worst of it is that the cat had stepped in his own excrement and tracked it all over the back seat of my car. Let me let you in on a little secret if you didn’t already know this. Cat crap is the worst smelling stuff in the world and I now know why litter boxes are so powerful. It’s now late Tuesday and I still can’t get into my car without a healthy dousing of Febreeze and Powder Fresh aerosol. I’m sitting on a folded blanket so that it absorbs the brunt of the abuse and not my pants. I have no idea when this smell will finally leave my car or if I will forever be explaining the huge stain on my seat, but what I do know is that if I ever see that cat again, PETA will be protesting at my front door. The next time he comes home, Casey’s in for a rude awakening.

Article posting

2004-11-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

There is a very interesting article about conservative celebs at this site
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005377

Two versions

2004-11-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

Two versions of an old story. . .
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPEROLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building hishouse and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building hishouse and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference anddemands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed whileothers are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shiveringgrasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filledwith food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in acountry of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybodycries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green." Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house wherethe news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Jesse thenhas the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Tom Daschle & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both callfor an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-GrasshopperAct," retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined forfailing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left topay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federaljudges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits ofthe ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens tobe the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house,now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Vote Republican

Conservative Celebrities

2004-11-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

Here they are as promised, a comprehensive list of conservative celebs that I could find who are alive and kicking, and amazingly still working in Hollywood. As you can see there are very few on the list with huge star power. Mel Gibson, Adam Sandler, and Bruce Willis are the biggest ones according to my taste in film. The list of dems is far more exhaustive, powerful, and outspoken than our list of conservatives. I would also like to note that unlike the acting world the world of professional sports are dominated by conservatives. Most interesting to me were the biggest names in all the big American sports. The PGA has Tiger Woods, NFL has Peyton Manning, MLB has Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens, and the NBA has Kobe Bryant. Maybe the issue is that the conservatives aren't just as outspoken as the libs, which I don't mind. It seems that liberal Hollywood's activism actually convinced more people to vote for W than for JFK II. So I say to them thank you, and keep up the good work.
Joan Allen
Scott Baio
Adam Baldwin
Stephen Baldwin
James Belushi
Tom Berenger
Eric Bruno Borgman
Ernest Borgnine
Bruce Boxleitner, though his wife, Melissa Gilbert, is a Democrat.
Lara Flynn Boyle, admits to being a "Democrat by blood," but says, "I'm 100 percent for Bush."
Wilford Brimley
Morgan Brittany
Zachary Ty Bryan
Delta Burke
Dean Cain
Kirk Cameron
Drew Carey
Nancy Cartwright
Dana Carvey
Emma Caulfield
James Caviezel
Mike Connors
Robert Conrad
Kevin Costner Voiced support for Democratic candidates in the primaries this year.
Tony Danza
Robert Davi
Doris Day
Bo Derek
Shannen Doherty
Jerry Doyle
Fred Dryer (also football player)
Robert Duvall
Leslie Easterbrook
Clint Eastwood (Libertarian)
R. Lee Ermey
Chad Everett
Jamie Farr
Glenn Ford
Peter Ford
Jeff Foxworthy
Dennis Franz
John Gavin
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Mel Gibson
Kelsey Grammer
Fred Grandy, also a former congressman from Iowa
George Hamilton
Angie Harmon
Patricia Heaton (anti-abortion, pro-feminist)
Charlton Heston
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Catherine Hicks
Hal Holbrook
Dennis Hopper Voted for Bush.
Jonathan Jackson
Dean Jones
James Earl Jones
Shirley Jones
Mike Judge
Yaphet Kotto
Cheryl Ladd
Heather Locklear
Norm MacDonald
John Malkovich
Jackie Mason, extremely anti-Hillary Clinton, sides with Sean Hannity on TV
Gerald McRaney
Dennis Miller
Larry Miller
Yvette Mimieux
Ricardo Montalban
Michael Moriarty
Jim Nabors
Jack Nance
Leslie Nielsen
Chuck Norris
Maureen O'Hara
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (Olsen twins)
Fess Parker
Jason Priestley
Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Dennis Quaid
The Rock (Dwayne Johnson)
Mickey Rooney
Jane Russell
Adam Sandler
John Schneider
Rick Schroder
Dwight Schultz
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 38th Governor of California
Tracy Scoggins
Tom Selleck
Ron Silver, Outspoken Bush Supporter (http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1248289/posts)
Gary Sinise
Tony Sirico
Jaclyn Smith
Kevin Sorbo
Paul Sorvino
David Spade
Sylvester Stallone
Ben Stein
Jaclyn Smith
Shirley Temple
Dave Thomas
Fred Thompson, also a U.S. Senator from Tennessee 1995-2001
Tommy Tune
Janine Turner
Hunter Tylo
Jean-Claude Van Damme is said to be very conservative
Vince Vaughn
Jimmie Walker
Cindy Williams
Bruce Willis
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
Paco Martinez Soria

Quick Salute

2004-11-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick congratulation to President George W. Bush for pulling through and defeating the upstart John Kerry. I’ll have to admit I was a little more than nervous, not so much about the outcome. I firmly believed that the “W” would retain his position, but I was unsure as to how long the demaholes were going to put up a stink about the outcome, especially considering the 10,000+ lawyers that they had ready to role in Ohio. I give mad props to JFK for going out like a man and conceding what could have been bitterly contested, as many in his party wanted him to. It was a much better way to go than the former man who tried to take on the “W.” Not to mention that JFK had a tiny bit more of a personality than the Earth In Balance miser. For now it’s over. We’ve got four years of relative calm ahead of us. No more campaign commercials. No more schmoozing for the media. Bush can finally slap his monster down on the table and say look at me now. Traditionally, presidents have made their most important historical marks in their second term. I will give a hint of a warning however. 2008 is going to come upon us very quickly. Once George is gone, I fear the Republican Party has little to work with in terms of viable presidential options. The demos on the other hand are going to come at us with which the likes we have never seen. Here is my prediction for the 2008 presidential campaign. The libs will put up a Clinton (Hilary) / Obama (Barak) ticket, and the cons will put up a Giuliani (Rudy) / ??? ticket. The only other Republican who I can think of that could possibly muster the popular support to match Clinton/Obama would be the current governor of California, Arnold. However, due to his immigrant status he can’t achieve such high an office, unless some constitutional amendment was to go through. Heed my warning fellow elephants, a Clinton/Obama ticket would surely win the day no matter what Bush accomplishes in the next four years. At least for now I can congratulate George W. Bush, thank the Lord for answering my heartfelt prayers, and wear my Win One for the Gipper t-shirt with pride.

An interesting article

2004-11-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

THE CELEBRITY
A Liberal Hollywood Actor Who Speaks Up for Bush
By BRUCE WEBER

Published: September 1, 2004

The actor Ron Silver was leaving a cocktail party at the Four Seasons restaurant on Monday evening, headed for Madison Square Garden, when he ran into Henry A. Kissinger, whom he once played in a made-for-television movie. They greeted each other warmly, but as they shook hands, Mr. Kissinger raised a quizzical eyebrow and said, in his distinctive, German-tinted rasp, "What are you doing being a Republican?"

It was the question of the night for Mr. Silver, who has long been known as a liberal Democrat, but who spoke from the podium on Monday, the opening night of the Republican National Convention.

He was asked the same thing, over and over, by a variety of people, including Brit Hume, the Fox News anchor, who compared Mr. Silver to Zell Miller (the Democratic Senator from Georgia who will deliver tonight's keynote address), and insinuated that because of his political views he was being blackballed in Hollywood.

Before the cameras rolled in the Fox booth, high above the Garden floor, Mr. Hume explained to Mr. Silver that he was going to ask him why his loyalties had shifted. "And then I'm going to ask you how your career is going since," he said.

The attention paid to Mr. Silver reflects the unusual territory he has staked out, both politically and in the entertainment world. Arnold Schwarzenegger, erstwhile movie star and current governor of California notwithstanding, the Republican convention is not heavy on Hollywood glamour. The list of "celebrities for Bush" is laden more with stars from country, heavy metal and evangelical music than from the movies and television.

But Mr. Silver is a highly visible Hollywood figure with ample credits on popular television series ("The West Wing," "Chicago Hope"), in movies ("Reversal of Fortune," "Ali") and onstage (David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow," for which he won a Tony Award in 1988).

In addition, for most of the 1990's, he was president of Actors' Equity, the labor union, and in 1989 he was a co-founder, with Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Reeve, Blair Brown and Stephen Collins (most, if not all, outspoken Democrats) of the Creative Coalition, a group that advocates on behalf of First Amendment rights, arts support and public education.

So as well-connected and outspoken in the traditionally Democratic circles of Hollywood as Mr. Silver has been, his support of President Bush can be described as a defection.

Even his 21-year-old daughter, Alexandra, who accompanied him to the convention but whose first presidential vote in November will be for John Kerry, teases him about it. As they waited for their ride to the Garden, which was delayed in traffic, Mr. Silver paced nervously.

"He was much less uptight as a Democrat," Alexandra remarked.

In fact, he is still a registered Democrat, and Mr. Silver told his convention audience that he has not disavowed the left's social agenda. But at the moment he represents a particular slice of the American political spectrum: voters who put national security before ideology and want to keep President Bush's hand on the nation's rudder.

"I'm a 9/11 Republican," he said. "If we don't get this right, all the other things don't matter worth a hill of beans. I'll live to fight another day on health care, environmental concerns and sensible gun legislation. But this is such a predominant issue that it towers above all others, and I'm not certain both parties are capable of handling it the right way."

Mr. Silver said he admired Senator Kerry, whom he described as honorable, but added he did not think the candidate represents the rank and file of the Democratic Party, most of whom, he said, "I think are Howard Dean-Kucinich-Sharpton-Michael Moore people," the kind of people "who like the projection of American force for humanitarian reasons, so they'll support Clinton's intervention in Bosnia, but they don't like it in support of our own defense."

In response to Mr. Hume and to others, Mr. Silver said he had no evidence that his views had cost him any work. He has just finished filming a "Law & Order" episode, and he's revisiting a one-man stage show, based on the life of the rock 'n' roll impresario Bill Graham, that he worked on in the late 1990's.

But socially, he said, he has felt ostracized in Hollywood, reopening a chasm created when he supported Rudolph W. Giuliani, whom he describes as a friend, in his campaigns for mayor of New York.

"I just don't get invited to the same dinner parties I used to like to go to," Mr. Silver said. "And when I do get invited, there's no engagement. It's 'Ron, you're too smart for this,' 'Ron, you must be kidding,' 'Ron can we not talk about the war and have a nice dinner party?' And then they talk about it, but everybody has the same opinion.

"I'm getting friendly with the Gatlin brothers, what can I tell you?"

On Monday there was no such social disdain, but there was some surprise.

Running into Al Franken, the comedian and liberal talk show host, at the Four Seasons party on Monday, Mr. Silver said, "I'm speaking tonight."

Puzzled, Mr. Franken asked, "For Bush?"

Reinforcing the point, Mr. Silver replied, "I'm speaking."

"For Bush?" Mr. Franken said.

"I'm speaking," Mr. Silver said again.

"For Bush?" Mr. Franken said.

As Mr. Silver excused himself, Mr. Franken was asked his reaction.

"It's crazy," he said, and his facial expression made the case that he really thought so.

Blacklisting in Hollywood

2004-10-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

Much has been said about the "blacklisting" that occurred in Hollywood during the Cold War. During this time Senator Joseph McCarthy discovered that there were many Communist sympathizers working in the entertainment industry. Seeing as how we were in the middle of a war (albiet a cold one) the senator did not look to fondly upon this issue. He had published a list of who he and other had determined to have ties to the Communist Party. These people were then "blacklisted" in Hollywood, shuned by their communities and then generally had their lives destroyed.

What does this matter you ask? Why does anyone care you ask? How is this relevant in today's world you ask? It is your humble correspondant's opinion that the blacklisting that occurs in the entertainment industry today is far more destructive than any of the hyped "blacklisting" that occured during so-called McCarthyism.

Conservatives in Hollywood are a rare breed. I would venture to say that this is a reality because once an actor or actress has come out in support of a conservative candidate their career is virtually terminated. Speaking of "terminated," some may try to refute my thesis by saying that Arnold is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and currently serves as Governor as a member of the Republican party. While everything you said may be true in theory, I would like to let you in on a well known secret. Arnold is hardly a conservative. He is what we true conservatives call a "RINO." Republican In Name Only. So with this being said, I'm giving myself a mission. I'm going to create a list of conservative hollywod actors and then a list of the liberal ones. I'll let the reader be the judge of whether my thesis holds true. Just ask yourself, why there are so many powerful liberal Hollywood actors and so few conservatives.

First Posting

2004-10-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Hello all, this is my first official posting to my very own blog. I can't tell you how excited I am to finally have my own place to express all my political rantings and ravings. Have fun reading and responding. Hopefully, I'll only put up cool stuff.