So do the police understand what the word "threat" means? Do they think if they had done nothing, that the school would now be overrun by zombies? I suppose the kid should be thankful that he wasn't sent overseas to be tortured until he gave up the names of all his zombie friends who were going to help him in his attack.
It's even more disgusting to me since it's very close to home, just a little south of where I live. My in-laws live in Green Cove Springs. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, there are plenty of rednecks around here, plenty of republicans, and sadly, plenty of homophobes.
The most disgusting part is that the girl has to pay to get he picture in her own high school yearbook. Somehow, the picture isn't good enough to publish where it belongs, but when $700 is shelled out, suddenly, they can find a place for it. What the fuck is so wrong with a girl wearing a tuxedo? You know, I doubt they really have much problem with this, but what they are really afraid of, is that if they let he picture in, they will have to let a boy in wearing the girl's clothes in the future.
The whole thing is just disgusting, especially considering that if they had just put the picture in with no fuss, barely anyone would have noticed it.
I don't watch the local news much anymore, but everytime I do, they manage to piss me off. Do we really need two entire segments devoted to the weather at different times during the show? Personally, I could do without the weather coverage at all, but if you have to put it on there, just tell me whether or not it's going to rain tomorrow, and how hot/cold it will be. And for God's sake, on the 11:00 news, I certainly don't need any coverage of what the weather was like today. I know what the weather was like today, it already happened.
This makes me more angry when I see articles showing how little time local news broadcasts devote to showing news about anything at all of importance, like the war, for example. Tonight, my local news covered one story, had two weather segments and a sports show. Seriously, only one story.
The weather wouldn't bother me so much, if the weather people didn't seem like they thought they were so god damned important. Clicking that little thing in front of that big map, like that takes a lot of skill. And do we really need them in front ofthe map moving their hands around to show where the storm system is headed? Couldn't we just replace them with a little simple computer animation? It also would have been nice if the biggest local weather guy in town hadn't looked like he wanted to cum in his pants when he was covering those four hurricaines that we had to watch out for last year. It was ridiculous, the projectrions on any national websites would show the hurricaine missing us by hundreds of miles, but the local guy just made his cone bigger to make sure we were in it at all times. I'm glad we didn't actually get hit, or we may have had to watch him pleasuring himself on live TV.
Seriously, I'm sure there are plenty of Catholics that are very concerned about this guy, but why do the rest of us have to see all this coverage about a guy who might die? There are plenty of people in the world who are actually dying who seem to be going unnoticed. Whether it's some African genocide, or the war in Iraq, no one seems to care anymore about a lot of people getting killed. But this one guy gets sick and everyone's falling all over themselves to get the most coverage. Seriously, even most of the Catholics I know don't really agree with half of what the Pope says anymore. So I guess this is news, but I don't understand the obsession with it. I mean the guy is like 80 years old, it shouldn't be suprising when he's sick.
* I'm going to Hell anyway, because I'm a godless heathen, but I mean, if I wasn't
I was going to post something mean about this bitch after reading her article about the Gannon mess, but The Rude Pundit does it much better than I could, so go read his instead.
* Because she's a cunt
Last night I was watching some show on Court TV about consumer awareness. Basically, they ran a bunch of scams to see how many people would fall for them, then told them what they'd done so the people could look incredibly stupid n TV, then gave "tips" to the viewer about how to avoid falling victim to these scams. Basically, all the tips said something to the effect of, don't be a fucking moron, use some common sense. They had guys selling $400 TVs out of the back of a van in a parking lot for $30, turns out it was just a box of bricks, some woman posing as a "bank inspector" asking you to withdraw money from your account as part of an investigation, but don't tell anyone inside, and it will be deposited back into your account within an hour, she even gave reciepts, phony contractors quoting ridiculously low estimates then asking for whatever they could get up front to "secure" the price, and counterfeit ticket sellers. Just a bunch of stuff that people should know better than to fall for, but apparently they don't.
Now, I have to say, I don't have any respect for con men and they should be ashamed of themsleves, especially if they're preying on the elderly or something, but if you're an ordinary person that falls for this crap, really, the con man deserves your money more than you do. Everytime I see one of these stories it really makes me mad, not at the con men, but at their victims. It's kind of like spam and telemarketers. Everyone likes to complain about them, but they wouldn't bother if there weren't enough idiots out there making it worth the effort. It's the same way with con men, they're not going to keep it up if no one is falling for it. It just amazes me that that many people are that stupid. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, after all, more than half the people who voted in the Presidential election voted for a man who can barely speak English.
A few years ago, they started adding those two special Windows keys on keyboards, one to bring up the start menu, and one to bring up the context menu. I just noticed that I even have them on my laptop, where I would think space would be at a premium and they would forego useles, unnecessary keys. So I'm wondering, does anyone actually use these keys? I'm usually someone that likes to use alloptions available to me, I like to customize my desktop and mouse buttons and things like that, but I have never, ever used either one of these keys.
I just commented on another blog that does not use Haloscan, and the comments were remarkably Haloscan like. So I guess Blogger has changed their commenting system to fit more with what people obviously want, anyone else noticed this? I wonder if you still need a Blogger ID to comment. If not, I may have to switch back to Blogger's comments.
A while ago, I posted about Hannity and Colmes' "exclusive" interview with Amber Frey which puzzled me because I had just seen her on Dateline a couple of days before. Now, I see them touting an "exclusive" interview with Jose Canseco. This is the same Jose Canseco who is going on every media outlet in the country to promote his book. Off the top of my head I know for sure he's been on 60 Minutes and The Today Show, and I know there are at least several others. I know FOX "News" isn't exactly the pinnacle of journalism, and this is a very minor thing, but shouldn't this bother people they they are just outright lying, and expecting people to be too stupid to notice?
I was watching Hannity and Colmes last night (Monster Garage was on a commercial) and they had a director that had filmed a documentary with some troops in Iraq along with one of the soldiers featured in the film. Well, between Hannity's attempts to get the director to admit his anti-war bias was a pretty interesting interview. The soldier talked about coming home and seeing some story about pet care on the front page of the paper with news from Iraq buried on page 13. He seemed bothered by this and said regardless of your position on the war, it is what should be America's focus, and I agree.
Since the "catastrophically successful" elections and with the Gannon mess going on, I haven't seen nearly as much talk about the war lately. Meanwhile, people are still getting killed everyday, and Iraq is still a mess, and as far as I can tell, it doesn't show a lot of signs of getting better. With talk of Iran, Syria, and North Korea, it seems that many people have forgotten about Iraq, and I think that's sad. We should remain focused on the war in Iraq, whether you are for it or against it, we shouldn't put it behind us until our soldiers can put it behind them as well. And even then, there will likely be a mess for the Iraqis to clean up.
This is my blog Gizoogled, in case anyone is having a hard time reading it the normal way. This seems like a handy little service.
Obviously Blockbuster didn't make it clear what would happen to people who didn't return movies when they got rid of late fees, and they really should have. However, what the fuck did people think they were going to do, just let you keep shit forever? I knew about the new policy because I was curious what the catch was when I saw the new ads, so I went to the web site and read about it. People are stupid.
People still joke about Clinton's "didn't inhale" quote, but watch this crap just go away like it never happened. I don't understand why this guy is never accountable for anything. I guess it's that liberal media that attacks all the liberals, but lets the conservatives off easy.
Ok, so that's no big revelation, I guess. I know there's basketball on, and I like basketball just fine, but so close to football, it just isn't good enough. I think I'm going to start watching movies every Sunday/Why is football season so much shorter than every other season? Ok, I know why, but still, I don't have to like it. Maybe I'll start watching Arena football, it's not the same, but it's not so bad. Maybe I'll just take a nap.
From skortchaser's journal:
Here's another dilbert mod I cooked up during my lunchbreak. I love my job..
I'm not one to resist change. I get irritated anytime I hear some old fogey whining about how things were better way back whenever. I know things change and even when I don't necessarily like it, I'm not one to complain about it. However, having said that, this new Looney Tunes show just seems completely ridiculous to me.
If kids today don't want to watch Bugs Bunny for whatever reason, then fine, come up with something new and different for them to watch. But why try to change something old and try to fit it into something new? It just doesn't make any sense. I guess the point is to be able to sell this as part of a succesful franchise. But if you need the franchise support to sell your new idea, then how good is your new idea, really? And if it takes away from a valuable franchise, is it really worth it?
The president of the network says, "I think the legacy is intact. If anything, it's an homage to the legacy instead of a destruction of the legacy." But he's wrong. It may not destroy the legacy, but it certainly damages it, and I definitely don't see it as an homage.
We had a local election here this week for City Council and Supervisor of Elections (I wonder who supervised this election), and I really don't know much about any of the candidates, so I didn't vote, but I did notice that one of the City Council candidates who made it to a runoff is a guy named Clark whose campaign signs pretty much look like a Clark Bar wrapper. Now this is a pretty good idea, I guess, but I hate to think that someone who will be making important decisions in our city is only there because the voters wanted a snack.
This reminds me of one of the things that I think was a factor in the Presidential election: Bush's bumper stickers were much cooler than Kerry's. I doubt it had a big effect, but I think it made a difference. If I had to decide based purely on the bumper stickers, I definitely would have voted Bush. I can't remember any other election where I saw so many people with the stickers still on their cars this long after the election was over. Someone tell Howard Dean, next time we need better bumper stickers.
I know that's not terribly surprising news. But if you're going to be a gay basher, shouldn't you at least make sure the people you're bashing are gay? Otherwise, doesn't the don't the threats and vandalism conflict with your "moral values?"
Well, on the bright side, if enough straight people become the victims of gay bashing, maybe it will raise awareness and people will become more tolerant.*
* Ok, probably not.
Seriously, what's the point? I don't know as much about this guy as some of the other nominees, but he appears to be another fan of torture and an enemy of due process, I wouldn't expect him to have as much opposition as Rice or Gonzales, but you'd think at least one Senator would be bothered by the Administration policies regarding detainees to vote against anyone who had anything to do with them. And with both Rice and Gonzales getting confirmed fairly easily, it shows that these hearings are nothing more than a rubber stamp. So just get rid of them, why waste the time and money?
I added Google ads. I doubt it was worth the trouble of adding them, since I don't have a lot of readers, and probably will have no one clicking my ads, but I figured it would be interesting to see if they produce any results. So go click them if you feel like it, or even if you don't just click them anyway, is that so hard? I also added a search bar, but it pretty much just came with the ads, sort of.
It seems like it wasn't that long ago that we didn't have to hear stories about torture all the time. Now, they're all over the place. The surprising thing, though, it that our government always seems to be on the wrong side of the issue. Now they are fighting against Gulf War POWs collecting damages related to their torture in the 1991 Gulf War. Why on Earth would we do that? What happened to supporting the troops? Apparently Iraq needs that money to rebuild. While I'm sure that that's true, how is that the fault of these soldiers? We pass laws supposedly in order to hold these governments accountable, but when one actually gets held accountable our government has a problem with it. So which side of The War on Terror are we on again?
I wonder if I can tell my mortgage company that I need my mortgage payment for other more pressing things. I'm not sure if they would buy that. Apparently this administration thinks that laws do not apply whenever it is inconvenient to their goals, and unfortunately, I'm not sure that they are wrong about that.
Uh, exactly what is Kobe Bryant going to testify to? If you're on trial for being a sexual deviant, I'm not sure that Kobe Bryant is your best character witness. Maybe Kobe is going to testify about him and MJ having wild orgies with adult women as evidence that he's not a pedophile. Otherwise, I can't really see any benefit for Jackson.
I'm sure Ray Charles' last album was good, but does anyone think he would have won 8 Grammys if he was still alive? If you do, that's fine, but if not (and I certainly don't) then doesn't this make the Grammys into a big fraud? If you're not giving the awards based on the music, then what good are they? And as nice as it is to recognize Ray Charles following his death, awards shouldn't be about being nice to someone. This reminds me of that year Eric Clapton won all those Grammys after his son died. That's a terrible tragedy that I wouldn't wish on anyone, but why give him Grammys because of it? I just don't get it. Didn't either Milli or Vanilli die a few years ago? Maybe they should have given him back the Grammy he had to return.
I went into the living room yesterday, ironically to watch the end of Shark Tale with my son, and his brother wanted us to wait so he could finish watching what he was watching since it only had 10 minutes left. He was watching Ultimate Fighting on SpikeTV. If Focus on the Family is so worried about kids seeing gay characters in cartoons, I will hate to see what they're going to say when one of their members sees this Ultimate Fighting. This was the gayest thing I've ever seen. I suppose gay porn is probably a little gayer, but not by much. These guys did do a little bit of punching each other, but mostly they just layed there on the floor with their arms wrapped around each other, dressed only in boxer shorts locked in what looked like a passionate embrace.
Neither of the kids seemed any gayer after watching this nonesense, but I suppose I should be on the lookout for signs of that, especially since we did finish watching Shark Tale afterwards, and we all know that Lenny is a thinly veiled homosexual. Seriously, a shark dressing up like a dolphin? If that's not a metaphor for cross dressing, I don't know what is.
Tomorrow is my daughter's 14th birthday, and according to her and her brothers, when your age is the same as your birthday, it's called your "golden" birthday. Before my wife and I got married, I had never heard of this concept before, so I was wondering is this something they just made up on their own, or do other people know about this? My wife doesn't know where they got it from either. And unfortunately, I didn't know about it when mine (23rd) came along.
Why are both famous Deep Throats in the news at the same time? I saw the title of the article and wondered how sexuality figured in anywhere, but then I realized it was talking about the porn Deep Throat not the political Deep Throat. Normally, I would have thought of the porn one first, but with after seeing recent articles about the other one, that was on my mind. I guess once the political one dies and is unmasked, we'll no longer have to deal with this confusion, but they really should have been more thoughtful about this confusion when they made that movie. Really, who cares what the title of a porn movie is, anyway, except to make fun of it?
Come back when you have something newsworthy to tell us. Like maybe when you have a deal done. No one wants to hear about your stupid drop dead date. Everyone knows there is no chance of having a season this year. I'm not a hockey fan, but there are a lot of people who are, and I'm sure when you have made some progress and are ready to announce when the NHL will resume play they will all be very interested, but until then, just shut up. Even our drop dead date might be somewhat interesting if anyone thought you had any chance of getting a deal done before it, but since you don't, it just sounds like a story floated out there to say, "Hey, look at us, we're still here, don't forget about us." Well, most people have forgotten about you, so go away. Come back when you have a deal done and you're ready to announce your new TV contract with SpikeTV*.
* Only on nights when there is no Slamball.
Ok, so if he had come out and said that he was molested by Jackson, then that would be news. After seeing all the previews for 20/20 and hearing everyone talk about this on the radio, I thought he might have some real revelation like that. But reading this article shows me that, like everything else involved in this story, it's pretty much all needless hype. So MJ let little innocent 13 year old Corey see a book with pictures of naked people with VD. Yes, that's a bad thing, no MJ shouldn't have done that. Do I care? Not really. If I had to imagine what kind of person Corey Feldman was at 13, I would imagine that he had seen much worse by then. Someone wake me up when this thing is over. Oh, and if he doesn't end up in jail, some advice that I'll offer to parents everywhere: Even if you think he's innocent, letting your kid spend the night with him is pretty fucking irresponsible. If you want to take your kid to Neverland and let them ride the merry go round or whatever, fine, but when you have to leave, take your fucking kid with you.
As ridiculous as the leaders of our own country seem these days, I'm still glad we don't have this "royalty" bullshit they have in England. "Prince" Charles is what, like a hundred? Does he ever actually get to be the King? I'm saying he doesn't make it. And then today I hear he's getting married to Camilla Parker Lewis Can't Lose or whatever the fuck her name is, but she doesn't get to be Queen if he becomes King? What the fuck? Isn't the whole point of being married to the King to be the Queen? So who gets to be Queen? And what the fuck is the difference between the Queen and the Queen Mum? Anyway, unless they start guillotining people again (or was that the French?), I don't want to hear about your silly Royal Family.
First of all, clearly Iraq wasn't the biggest threat out there. It was clear at the time, and it' s all that much clearer now. Secondly, it seems that the US invasion of Iraq is being used as incentive for the "Axis of Evil" countries to develop their own weapons for use in self defense from the US. It also ridiculously hampers any ability we may have had to try to negotiate these situations diplomatically.
I can't see how anyone thinks giving our enemies incentive to develop nuclear weapons makes us safer, but maybe I'm missing something.
As I read about this whole Jeff Gannon mess, I hope it doesn't get bogged down in the sleazy details about gay military escorts and Gannon's apparent hypocrisy, but instead is used to focus attention on the media and how many of them are cleary in the hip pocket of this administration, whether they are actually paid for it or not. How many of these guys do we have to find, before people stop parroting the ridiculous liberal media label? The media has collectively been sucking Bush's dick since September 11th, if not before, and the sooner people realize that, the sooner they will realize what is going on in this country.
As I wrote my last post, it made me realize that the right is constantly bitching about things which really don't affect them very much. The war, abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, things like that. I say to them put up or shut up.
If you are in favor of the war in Iraq, go join the military. If you truly think it's a good idea to be over there, you shouldn't mind going yourself. After all, support for a war that is contingent on other people fighting it for you isn't really support for a war as far as I can tell. If you are too old, or disabled or something, then encourage your kids and friends and family members to sign up, if this war is really worth fighting, you should be able to convince people to do this.
If you think it's wrong to use human embryos for research, then you (if you're a woman) or your wife or daughter should get in line to have one of those embryos transferred to your womb. After all, regardless of whether or not they're used for research, the real moral issue here is the waste of human life, is it not? So, even if they are not used for research, they are still wasted, so why don't you do something about that? Those babies aren't going to birth themselves. If you're not willing to do this, then maybe you could rethink your position on using them for research, because if they just sit there or get discarded, then that truly is a waste.
If you're really against gay marriage, think about why. How does it really affect you? If you're against it because it it destroys the sanctity of marriage, then you should be at least as much if not more of an activist against divorce, spousal abuse, and things like that which are obviously a much bigger problem. If you're against gay marraige because you think homosexuality is just wrong, then I think you're wrong, but that's ok, you're entitled to that opinion, I just hope that when someone tells you that they disagree with something that is an important part of who you are (say for example, I asked you to give up your heterosexuality), that you'll give that up as well. If you're not ready to do that, perhaps you should stop expecting it from other people.
Finally, if you're really against abortion, if you really think it's murder, then stop trying to make it illegal (or keep trying, but that shouldn't be your primary focus, because that will not in anyway eliminate the problem) and instead focus your efforts on trying to actually stop people from being in that position. Educate people about sex (abstinence is great, but let's live in reality) , birth control, alternatives to abortion, things like that. If you're not doing these things, then your outrage over abortion is just noise.
It always amazes me how the right is quick to take the presumed moral high ground, but when something affects them personally, then they see how things work in the real world, and suddenly they stray from the party line. The Reagans on stem cell research or the Cheneys on gay marraige. If these people could just think about other people in the first place, things would be a lot easier for everyone.
While there are definitley moral and ethical questions to be debated regarding embryonic stem cell research, it would be nice if we could all agree that embryos are not the same as people. Unfortunately, there are too many people that seem to think they are exactly the same. It's ridiculous to think that a bunch of cells sitting in a petri dish has the same value as a living breathing person. Especially because, if no one ever does anything with them, they will continue to just sit in that petri dish. That is not a life, that is something that has potential to create a life. But it also has potential to do other things as well, things that could help actual people. It's very frustrating that people would rather they sit there unused than be used to possibly help people. You would think we could at least agree to use the ones that are already available and would be otherwise discarded. Personally, I'm not sure I would be against creating more for research if it had the promise of saving actual lives, but I really can't see any reason not to use the ones that are already available, that will never be implanted into anyone, and therefore never actually be a person.
My son was born using IVF, and we didn't have any embryos left over, but if we had, am I supposed to have the same feelings for them that I do for my living breathing little boy? That's absurd. We transferred all three embryos that we had in our effort to have my son, should I mourn the two that were lost? It's ridiculous, they are not the same thing. Potential for life is not life, and if people truly should feel guilty about destroying the potential for life, why are we not talking about making birth control pills, vasectomies, masturbation, etc. illegal? If the potential for life is really so sacred, aren't these things just as bad? Hell, shouldn't IVF be illegal since it creates all these extra embryos, anyway? Just another example of people on the right who would rather bitch about some imagined injustice than live in reality where things are complicated.
Our house was sided with what seems to be just really thick cardboard. There was a class action suit which got us some money towards re-siding our house (of course nowhere near what it actually cost). After going through the hassle of getting the settlement in the first place (actually my wife did most of the hard parts), I really wasn't looking forward to trying to find someone to do the job. I hate having to do things like that, worrying about how much it will cost, how good a job they will do, and whether or not you're going to get screwed. Luckily, my wife again did most of the work of lining up people to come and give us estimates. Anyway, the point of this post is to mention how easy it ended up being and what a great job the company we hired did for us, and to recommend them to anyone else who may stumble by this blog. I'm sure I don't have many regular readers in Jacksonville, but since Jacksonville is the most poplular search term that gets you here, I thought someone who is interested may see this post.
Additional Living, Inc. was the first company to come and give us an estimate, and we were really impressed with the owner (he pretty much does all the work himself), his products and his price. After getting a few more estimates, his was by far the cheapest, his products seemed much better, and he was by far the most interested in making up happy. So we picked his company, and just waited for him to start working, hoping that his work was as good as his sales pitch. Throughout the process, he kept telling us of little things he could do to make the house look even better, and whenever we asked about how much extra these things would cost, he would say that he had already figured it into the estimate he had given us. When he actually started working, it turned out we actually had a lot of rotten wood that needed replacing (becaus eof the carboard), but once again, he had figured that into the estimate, which surprised me because one of the other guys whose estimate was much, much higher also said that it could go up depending on how much rotten wood there was to replace. Anyway, the only thing extra we ended up paying for was for him to install a new front door for us and to paint the garage door to match the house. When he was finished, I couldn't believe it was the same house, I still can't, I feel like I'm living in a completely new house. He did a great job, so if you're in the Jacksonville area, and need windows or siding or home improvements, I would recommend this company very highly.
Ok, so they probably still would have lost, but what the fuck were the Eagles thinking about when they were down 10 points late and huddling and walking to the line of scrimmage and just generally taking their fucking time? I hate it when my team does that, I'm not an Eagles fan and it was really pissing me off, so I imagine several Eagles fans have broken TVs today after throwing shit at them for that entire drive. Seriously, how does an otherwise well coached team fuck up something as important as that? Did they think they had more time, did they think they were only down one score?
I spent all day downtown yesterday checking out all the SuperBowl related activities and events. It was a lot of fun, I've never seen this city so alive with people, boats, planes, helicopters, it was something.
First we went to the NFL Experience which was a lot of fun. I had a free ticket, but it was probably worth the $15 it cost to get in. They have a lot of NFL related activities to try out which are a lot of fun. The best part was that Emmitt Smith was there for an interview on AOL and to draw the name for the winner of tickets to the game, and we got to see that. I was hoping he would stick around to sign autographs, but he didn't.
After that we walked down the Riverwalk then over the bridge and down to the Stadium. There was a lot of stuff going on. It was really strange because our downtown is normally so dead. There were a couple of things that really surprised me. First, it seemed like the Eagles fans outnumbered the Patriots fans like 10-1, at least from what I saw. I guess the NE fans have been through it before so weren't as likely to make the trip. The other thing was the number of crazy religous people around. The first guy I saw wasn't so bad, just holding a sign that asked if you were ready since Jesus was coming back. It looked like apretty boring thing to do all day. Then there were at least three separate groups that I saw dragging crosses around up and down the street. Next were some people using a bullhorn to spread their message, I don't remember what they were saying other than it sounded depressing. The strangest one I saw was the guy with a sign with the Pope's picture on it telling about how Catholicism would lead you to Hell. That seemed a little offensive to me. We also went to the Landing where they were filming The Best Damn Sports Show, it was way too crowded so we didn't stay long.
All in all, it was a lot of fun, if the SuperBowl ever comes to your town, I'd recommend checking it out.
If Rumsfeld tried to quit, why not let him? Bush is such an idiot. Although, I'm not sure I believe this, if he really wanted to quit because of what happened, Bush couldn't make him stay. At the very least, he could have left at the end of the term with everyone else. Hell, if he was really that embarrassed about the torture scandal, he could have stuck around, then made sure that the President didn't try to appoint pro-torture people to the cabinet.
I thought there were more than 36 Senate Democrats. Oh wait, that must mean that some voted for him. I wonder if those guys line up after the vote to give complimentary blowjobs to the Republicans, as well. Really, what the hell is the point of this confirmation process if everyone knows the results going in and it doesn't matter if you're corrupt or ridiculously incompetent? Do we still live in America?
I guess I need to go find Bill Nelson's vote. I just got my response from his office replying to my email about his ridiculous vote to confirm Rice. I hope I don't have to send him another one about this, since the reponse just depressed me even more. It's amazing to me how spineless these Senate Democrats are.
I didn't watch. I just can't stand looking at that monkey any more than I have to. What's the point anyway, when the speech was already released? Why even give a speech if everyone already knows what you're going to say? I guess so people can't watch that liberal media West Wing show that shows even a fictional President with a major disease would be better than you. So, anyway, I'd just rather read the thing than watch, that way I don't get all the stupid pauses for meaningless applause, the mispronunciations (although Bush now gets to make up his own) and made up words. Maybe next week Lost will finally be back on.
Washington Post, link via AmericaBlog:
Senate Democrats angrily denounced White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales yesterday as an advocate of prisoner torture but said they would not block his confirmation as attorney general.
I wonder how long it will be until we find out Kobe ran him off too.
Link via 42. A boring article with a lot of boring economical stuff, but nicely summed up by this quote:
...any growth projection that would permit the stock returns the privatizers need to make their schemes work would put Social Security solidly in the black.
Now, a lot of people are going to make a big deal of this, and add it to the mounting evidence that shows that Bush is stupid. However, I am going to suggest a different explanation.* I think Bush probably is familiar with the Voting Rights Act, and this was just his way of being polite to the CBC. After all, would you really expect him to come out in this meeting and tell the CBC that he is not going to support them? No, he knows what it's about, but he didn't want to make it a big issue, that might have caused them to hang around longer than he was comfortable with attempting to make him explain why he wasn't in favor of making sure that people are not disenfranchised. I mean, isn't it clear that Bush doesn't want black people to vote? The mess in 2000 in Florida shows that pretty well, I think. He doesn't want them to vote, because they will more than likely vote for the other side, but he can't tell them that, so he just gave them some noncomittal answer to be polite. The really shocking thing about this story, to me, is that Jesse Jackson actually thought Bush might support the re-authorization in the first place. Jackson can't be that naive, can he? Maybe he just wanted to clarify Bush's position against it so he could use it against Bush, but Bush is too shrewd a monkey to fall into that trap.
* This is not meant to imply that I think Bush isn't stupid
Being a Cowboy fan, Emmitt is my favorite player of all time, I also think you could make an argument that he is the best player of all time. It's hard to argue with Jerry Rice for that distinction, but I just don't like Jerry much, and Emmitt is certainly worthy. Emmitt rushed for over 1,000 yards in 11 straight of his 15 seasons, and came pretty close in 3 out of the other 4, including his rookie season and what looks to be his final season with 937 yards in each. His only bad year was 2003 when he was hampered by an injury he suffered coincidentally against the Cowboys. He also won 4 straight rushing titles, a league MVP, a SuperBowl MVP, three SuperBowl titles, is the all time rushing leader, has more rushing TDs than anyone ever (by far) and is second only to Rice in total TDs. Some will try to say that Barry Sanders was a better back than Emmitt, but when you look at the numbers and the accomplishments, Sanders only comes close in yards, he never scored like Emmitt, and certainly didn't lead his team to any big playoff victories. Jim Brown and Walter Payton would be better players to compare Emmitt with, the Sanders comparison only comes up because they played at the same time, and was more flashy.
Having discovered sports bars the same year that Emmitt made his NFL debut, and having Direct Ticket later, I was able to watch nearly every game of Emmitt Smith's career, up until he went to the Cardinals. Other people had better seasons or bigger games, but the consistency with which Emmitt was able to run the ball successfully and get into the end zone is what makes him the best ever. He single handedly won the Cowboys the division title in 1993 running for 160 something yards with a separated shoulder in the regular season finale to lead his team to victory in overtime on the way to their second straight SuperBowl win. In that SuperBowl, with the game tied, in the third quarter, he carried the ball on eight straight plays on a drive and was only stopped when he crossed the goal line, and the Cowboys won comfortably. Those are just a couple of memories from many great games in a Hall of Fame career.
I think Emmitt sometimes doesn't get the credit he deserves because he played on a star-studded team, but hopefully, if he does indeed announce his retirement today, it can be used as a time when everyone can give him the credit for being one of the greatest players in NFL history as well as one of the good guys in sports. I look forward to seeing him inducted into the Hall of Fame in about five years.
