I know, I said I hate these lists, but I figured I'd throw one together to fill in the weekend lull. Here is my list of the most unrealistic TV Sitcoms. I decided to limit it to sitcoms, otherwise I'd be naming every sci-fi show this side of Star Trek. So, here goes.

In no particular order, the Most Unrealistic TV Sitcoms:

The Flying Nun - A cutie like Sally Field as a nun is almost as realistic as her ability to fly?
Gilligan's Island - Too many to mention, but I'll try: 15 years on that island, within radio range of Hawaii, same clothes week after week, Ginger and Mary Ann managing to keep from being gang-raped in a 'Lord of the Flies' style mating ritual? Puhleease.
A-Team - Ok, the A-Team wasn't exactly a sitcom, but still, all those bullets flying around, and the only person ever actually shot was B.A., and not Murdock.
I Dream of Jeannie - In reality, Jeannie would be a sex slave, and Major Nelson would be driving a Ferrari.
Bewitched - Lets see, magical powers, two different Dicks, both of whom are light in their loafers, and again with the 'don't use your powers' mantra.
Alf - That annoying little alien/muppet would have been strangled and eaten by a racoon his first five minutes on Earth.
Hogan's Heroes - Take your pick, a POW camp run by idiots, or a series that lasted longer than the actual war did. Still Nazi humor flew better in the 60s than it would today.
Dukes of Hazzard - How many of you actually grew up thinking that the police had to stop chasing you at the county line? Besides, in real life each time they were caught, Bo and Luke would have been pistol whipped so bad their own Uncle Jessie wouldn't have recognized them. Also those pretty boys would make good girlfriends for Hazzard's local yokels while in the pokie.
Adventures of Superman - No, it isn't Superman that is unbelievable, but his portrayal by a flabby George Reeves.
Mork and Mindy - I guess to parents and children of the 1970s, Robin Williams on cocaine looked a lot like a space alien. Now he just looks like Robin Williams on cocaine.
Knight Rider - A car that can do anything, and the driver wastes his time fighting crime? In real life Michael Knight would be drag racing for pink slips while hanging out the T-top.
Eight is Enough - Should have been 'One is Enough'

Shows that you may think should make the list, but don't.

Get Smart - This spy spoof wasn't supposed to be realistic
Taxi - Despite having all English speaking cab drivers, Taxi still doesn't make the list.
Cheers - Despite the fact that nobody ever paid for a beer.
Welcome Back Kotter - Despite the kids having only one class a day that lasted 2 1/2 minutes.
The Munsters and The Addams Family
Fantasy Island and Love Boat
Beverly Hillbillies
Partridge Family

I'm sure I left some out. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Ugh. I am definately spoiled by broadband internet access. Using dial-up for the past 4 days has been very frustrating, and illustrates just how spoiled I really am when it comes to internet access.

The main reason for the lack of posts has been due to me staring at that damned hourglass while I wait for pages to load. Sigh.

Headlines like this continue to remind me that NASA is the biggest make-work organization in the world. While I agree that the 'space race' of the 1960's was an important show of technical prowess to the communists, since then, many missions are largely unnecessary. While science is important, I don't think that seizing taxpayer dollars at the point of a gun in the interest of scientific achievement is the best way to go about it.

NASA continues to try to grab headlines for the 'first' this, and 'longest' that, just to keep people interested and keep the money coming in from legislators. People in Cape Canaveral, Florida and Houston, Texas would probably argue for the other side, but only because their local economies depend so much on the large taxpayer funded organization.

The simple fact remains that a large amount of the work, especially simple satellite deployments can be done with unmanned rockets and not more expensive shuttle launches.

Kudos to Tennessee Governor Sundquist for standing up to pressure from vegans to proclaim a state wide "vegetarian month." The major concern with the proclamation is that the wording is too anti-meat. The proposal reads, "Our food supply should be safe and wholesome, rather than laced with pathogens, fat, cholesterol, hormones and carcinogens." Had the vegans worded the proclamation a bit less anti-meat and just pro-vegetable, the Governor would probably sign it.

Still, resolute in pushing their beliefs onto other people, the wacko-vegans are refusing to back down and claim that giving up meat is a positive thing and the proclamation should be endorsed.

The vegans probably won't have to wait long, because Sundquist gives up his post as Governor after this year. Tennessee elected a Democratic Governor which means that right after endorsing the passage of a state income tax, the new Governor will probably gladly sign the anti-meat endorsement.

Today is a day of thankfulness, feasting, football, and even birthday cake. No blogging today. (Unless of course the Redskins start losing)

Of course I'm Han Solo. I'll take a babe, a blaster, and a fast ride any day over some close quarters combat light saber and a lifetime of never getting the girl. Sure moving shit around with my mind would be cool, but if you can't use it to make chicks skirts fly up at the mall, who needs it?

(link via Quit That)

Kermit's gone mad! AHHH!!!

The NY Times shows a photo of Kermit, clearly feasting on several parade workers. Thankfully they threw a giant net over him and were able to minimize the carnage.

Al Gore seems to have misplaced his tin foil hat. Speaking to the New York Observer, he blamed the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy for poisoning the media with a conservative agenda.

"The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party," whined Gore.

"Fox News Network, The Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh - there's a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media," he said, apparently speaking about Rupert Murdoch.

"And then pretty soon the mainstream media goes out and disingenuously takes a so-called objective sampling, and lo and behold, these RNC talking points are woven into the fabric of the zeitgeist." Zietgeist? I knew that word of the day toilet paper would come in handy.

Gore's comments, combined with Daschle's whining last week, just goes to show how conservatives are breaking the liberal grip on the American media. As the democratic party creeps further and further to the left, their bitching and griping is starting to border on paranoid schizophrenia.

Carnival of the Vanities: The Ten Horned Beast has been posted at Silflay Hraka and Blogcritics.

I have arrived safely at my super secret undisclosed location. I will be here through the holiday, returning Sunday night, so posting will be a bit light.

Flying commercial instead of driving saved me a whopping 60 minutes, plus I got to suffer the indignity of having my socks and underwear fondled by a federalized, professionalized, TSA employee during a 'random' search. (Random meaning, the ticket lady looked at me and said, "You, go over there".)

About 3:30 AM, Delan "Rusty" Perry and his wife were awakened by the sound of breaking glass and their dogs barking. Perry carried a 12-gauge shotgun as he walked outside. After firing a warning shot into the air, an intruder identified as Samuel Soo Kim, started running toward him and shooting at him with a .22-caliber pistol.

Kim was pronounced DRT*, after receiving a sucking chest wound, from Rusty's shotgun. (Or as doctors put it, he was "killed by shotgun pellet wounds to the head and chest.")

Although Perry was arrested, Police released him with no charges filed. A further investigation shows that Kim had also shot one of his dogs, and vandalized an agricultural chilling house.

*Dead Right There

Massachusetts seen inflating gains in tobacco fight, reports the Boston Globe. While lawmakers have been taking credit for helping to curb smoking, the facts paint a very different picture:

Massachusetts, with the most expensive antitobacco campaign in history, has the third-lowest rate of smoking in the United States.

The campaign's supporters rarely mention that smoking was declining here before the antismoking campaign began in late 1993, or that the rate of decline has actually slowed since.

Most of the drop in smoking hasn't been caused by the once-ubiquitous antismoking ads, but by increases in the state cigarette tax, which has skyrocketed from 26 cents to $1.51 per pack.

I have to ask why a state should be permitted to seize tax money with the threat of lethal force, and use said tax money to pressure people to give up legal behavior they deem irresponsible and inappropriate.

If people want to smoke, let them. Contrary to what anti-smoking nazis claim, group health costs do not decline when people quit smoking. In fact, less smokers means more people hanging around into their 90s to take advantage of health care and retirement benefits. Not to mention that smokers already pay higher insurance premiums.

You have to love the L.A. Times sense of entitlement:

On Dec. 28, three days after the celebration of a man famous for helping the downtrodden, Republican scrooges and Democratic stooges in Congress will hand 800,000 Americans something far worse than a lump of coal: an end to unemployment benefits the Senate had earlier voted to extend.

Just when should unemployment 'benefits' end? Why is 39 weeks not enough? The L.A. Times wants to extend them indefinitely, rather than provide actual motivation to find a job.

I am reminded of something my mother did to me one winter. I was taking the spring semester off from college, and was hanging around the house in January. I worked for a landscaper, so I was on hiatus for the winter. At 7 AM, my mom busted down my bedroom door, ripped off the covers and kicked me in the ass. She told me to get the hell out and not come back until I had a job. I took the first job I was offered, and was back in bed by 7:45.

When I was in college, the BK at the Student Center took credit cards. They were largely responsible for my graduating with a staggering $12,000 of credit card debt. (That is about 3,000 value meals.)

McDonalds is already being sued for allowing fat people to eat there. This will probably prompt lawsuits claiming that McDonalds is responsible for the mountains of debt people are accumulating. Spiking their goodies with pickles and onions only exacerbates the problem.

Fox News reports that the GDP Rose at 4.0 Percent in Third Quarter, steeper than first calculated. Once I saw the headline, I checked a few other major news outlets to see who'd spin it down. Thanks to MSNBC for validating my hunch.

MSNBC runs the good economy article, but cannot help inserting a bad economy article right underneath it.

U.S. economic growth revised up - Gross domestic product expanded at 4% rate in 3rd quarter

YAY, the economy is doing well! Not so fast says MSNBC:

Economists see modest U.S. growth - Forecasts revised down but new recession seen unlikely

Apparently 'experts' still think that 2003 will be filled with gloom and doom.

"If they have to cut spending --- that takes money out of circulation." -- Carl Tubbesing, Executive Director of the National Conference of State Legislatures, concerned that budget crunches are causing governments to cut spending.

He's either really really stupid, or he's trying to teach 'economics of the liberal' to the masses.

This weekend I stopped by the bookstore and picked up a copy of Gods and Generals, the paintings of Mort Kunstler. It makes a good coffee table book, with lots of illustrations to offset the text. The text for the book happens to be written by my old Civil War professor Dr. James I. Robertson. Dr. Robertson is an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, and an authority on General Stonewall Jackson. I have several of his books, but just hadn't gotten around to picking up this one.

I got a chance to socialize with Dr. Robertson when he was in Atlanta about two years ago, and he told me about his work as a historical consultant for an upcoming film. Gods and Generals is set to be released in February (with a limited release in December), and it looks to be a pretty good Civil War flick. The estimated running time is 3 hours and 30 minutes, with the directors cut running a staggering 5 hours and 25 minutes. Of course Dr. Robertson also hit me up for a donation to the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech, for which I gladly gave him a check.

Civil War history has always been a passion of mine, and I look forward to seeing the film when it opens. Until then, I'll be reading the illustrated book and checking out the unofficial web site (which has much more information than the official site). Also, one of these days before the movie opens I'll get around to picking up the novel that the movie is based on by Jeff M. Shaara.

NY Daily News reports that the NY City Council is not even going to listen to public debate prior to voting for an 18% property tax increase. They quote Councilman David Weprin (D-Queens), who heads the Finance Committee as saying "It's not like we haven't heard from the public. The public would rather not have a property tax increase."

Well isn't that just dandy. I hope his constituents remember his unwillingness to even listen to them when election time rolls around.

They also note that the NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is upset because the four Republican Councilmen have already gone on record as saying they are not going to support the Mayor. While they didn't actually quote them, I imagine that when asked by Bloomberg to support the massive tax increase, their response ended in something like, "...and the horse you rode in on."

It would appear as though the domain is almost completely transferred over. There could still be some errant errors over the next few days, however. I figure this Thanksgiving week is going to be slow anyway, so it was the best time to do the change.

Please feel free to report any bugs to me via email or the feedback form.

The CGI counter still isn't working for some reason, but I'll figure it out when I have time.

UPDATE: To use server side scripting on my new web host, I had to change the file extensions to .shtml. That means permalinks will be affected.

It is always the small stuff that throws you for a loop. I spent an hour troubleshooting one CGI script to get the date to report correctly and it turned out all I needed to do was change the '/usr/bin/date' variable to '/bin/date'. Sigh.

"It makes me more accepting of the use of force to stop bad guys. I find now that I can support things like the war on Iraq. It's made me a lot more hawkish." -- Best selling author, Michael Crichton, telling how having been held at gunpoint (along with his 13-year old daughter), tied up, and robbed has changed his life.

It is always nice to see people open up to the realization that it is the threat of force that keeps the peace. Contrast this to Robert Fisk, who most certainly would have blamed himself and his neighbors for living too rich of a lifestyle.

The LA Times tells just how nice life is in South Central Los Angeles:

Where they go, what they wear, what they say, how loudly they play their car stereo: All are infused with - and circumscribed by - fear of an unexpected bullet. On peaceful looking, palm-lined streets, residents hurry inside when the light fades. They try not to draw attention. This is the way it is and has been for years.

It looks as though those gun control policies are working just as predicted. Honest, law abiding citizens live in abject fear for their lives, while thugs and gang-bangers rule the streets.

If you remember the L.A. riots of the 90s, it was the Korean store owners, armed to the teeth with shotguns and rifles who came through it virtually unscathed. These store owners were able to successfully defend their property and businesses with a show of force, yet they were not a threat to the public. Go figure?

Of course, you won't get that perspective by reading the Times. Instead, they blame the whole measure on poverty, and give some useful tips on how not to make yourself a target.

Don't wear blue and red..

Don't wear loud colors, no yellow.

Wear black or gray; neutral colors that will not attract attention.

... adding that jewelry or attention-grabbing sneakers are also no-nos.

Once out the door, know where you are going.

Avoid side streets, stick to main thoroughfares and don't look tough.

You can't look too hard [at anyone].

Pick your words carefully.

The same rules apply to music ...Certain songs in certain parts of town invite trouble.

Don't crank up your car stereo so much it drowns out somebody else's. They may take it as the ultimate offense, a sign of disrespect.

It sounds like a wonderful way to live, doesn't it. They should incorporate the Washington Post list of survival tips, which included not walking in a straight line, and hiding under your car while pumping gas.

Students in five states rioted after football games this weekend.

Can anyone give me a reason why students caught and convicted of riotting shouldn't be expelled?

Memphis, the city that worships an overweight drug addict who overdosed in his own bathroom, is pondering white-washing Civil War history, because somebody might get 'offended'.

The grand irony behind the movement to strip the names off of Confederate Park, Jefferson Davis Park, and Forrest Park, is that the idea came up during a visit from HBO officials during last year's Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson fight. The city that bent over backward to court a visit by a convicted rapist, is suddenly worried about what people might think.

I don't know about you, but I find the idea offensive.

When the BCS was formed, they created a special 'Big East' rule because they were worried about the weakness of the conference. Perhaps now they need to make an 'ACC rule'.

Florida State, who is ranked 22 and 23 in this week's AP and CNN polls, managed to clinch the ACC outright, despite their loss to NC State this weekend. Clinching the ACC means that they automatically receive a bid to a major BCS bowl. If FSU loses next week to arch-rival Florida, they could go into the BCS bowl unranked, and with 5 losses. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

Pubs in London are being fined for not stopping patrons from dancing or even 'swaying' to the music. Under British law, pubs must have an entertainment license to allow dancing. Getting a license can be a bureaucratic nightmare filled with red tape and financial kickbacks to local politicians.

This may sound like another odd piece of Eurotrash policy, but believe it or not, some localities in the U.S. have similar laws. My recent trip to New York City in October included a visit to a club that lacked an 'entertainment license'. Dancing or any type of 'rhythmic movement' to the music would get you a stern warning from the bouncer. Do it again, and they'd bounce you out on your ear.

The sad fact is, that we live in a world where you literally cannot take a shit without government intervention. Government licensing and control seeps into every facet of our lives, so much so that walking funny or 'moving rhythmically' can result in fines and punishment.

Laws like this may sound quirky or amusing, but the bottom line is that it is still a government agency using police power and the threat of lethal force to control and/or tax human behavior.

My old webhost seemed to be getting very very slow at times. Michele had such good things to say about Bloggerzone that I decided to give it a try.

The core weblog seems to work fine, and the speed is vastly improved. Some of the CGI is still a bit buggy until the domain transfers over. Because of that, I'm not sure how well my email is going to work. Also the CGI referrals don't seem to be working, and the counter is noticeably absent. I'll fix all that stuff once the domain transfers over and I'm sure the CGI is even executing locally.

Also, the photos in the weblog content are all broken. Since all the photos were put in the '/images/...' folder, they won't reappear until the domain transfers over. (Basically the leading slash removes the '~ravnwood' from the image tag.)

Since my old site used BerkeleyDB and the new host uses MYSQL, I had to reimport all the entry and comment data. That served to renumber all the 'permalinks'. Anyone who linked to any permalinks may want to adjust them accordingly.

This host is much faster and seems to work a lot better. Although it doubled my hosting costs, Ravenwood's Universe will still be offered free of charge and with no gratuitous begging.

With all the election year hoopla surrounding New Jersey, they were quickly cementing their position as the most ass-backwards ridiculous state of the United States. Feeling left out of the fray, West Virginia upped the ante and threw the prestigious award for 2002 Armpit of the Nation into question.

West Virginia University beat 13th ranked Virginia Tech on Wednesday night. Shortly after the victory, West Virginians took to the streets in Morgantown. They drove around honking their horns, jamming traffic for hours. They proceeded to trash the town and set dozens of fires. Cars were trampled and turned over, store windows were busted, utility poles were set ablaze. Police had to use riot gear and fire hoses to disperse the crowd.

What makes this more interesting than most post-game riots is that it occurred in Morgantown, West Virginia, home town of the WVU Mountaineers. The game, however, was played in Blacksburg, Virginia, home of the VT Hokies. Still, that didn't stop drunken West Virginian's from breaking into their own stadium and tearing down their own goal posts. Despite all the violence, only three people were arrested.

Top Kyoto Minister Admits He Has Two SUVs - Kyoto is only for the common people..

'Soft Money' Ban Evasion Alleged - Dems and GOP accused of evading Campaign Finance laws..

Sting's forest lobby attacks 'green' timber trade - 'Green' timber trade not so green, but that's ok with Greenpeace..

Shooting is 17th LA homicide in a week - Only 8 people (out of 3 million) are licensed to carry firearms in LA, yet they have the highest homicide rate in the U.S.

The Wilmington Delaware City Council has voted to mandate firearm's registration.

Owners of shotguns, handguns and rifles would have to register existing weapons as well as new ones when they are acquired. Police would issue a certificate that would have to accompany a weapon at all times.

Despite the bill being illegal under Delaware state law, the City Council has threatened to override a Mayoral veto. The bill passed 9-3, and only 9 votes are needed to override a veto. The delusions of the City Council are so off-beat I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[Councilman Norman] Oliver, [who sponsored the bill] said he hopes it would help identify stolen guns and discourage criminals from carrying them.

[Councilman Gerard Kelly claims,] "We register cars. We register houses. We register pit bulls. This is no different."

One of the following, must be true. Either the Wilmington City Council is really fucking stupid, or this is part of their agenda to limit firearms ownership. If Oliver REALLY believes that rapists, murderers, and street gang thugs are going to be discouraged by having to carry an unregistered firearm, than he is unfit to serve public office. If he is merely pressing his anti-gun agenda onto law abiding citizens, than he is unfit to serve public office.

Kelly on the other hand is just a bald face liar. Registration of vehicles and registration of firearms are completely different animals. I'm not going to rehash the whole comparison, but I will point out that owning a vehicle requires no registration, nor is it a Constitutionally protected unalienable right.

(Credit Rodger Schultz for being on top of things)

Paul "Enron" Krugman, NY Times cry baby, does his part to fuel class envy and warfare. It would seem that Krugman has his panties in a bind over the statistical trend of rich parents having rich offspring and poor parents having poor offspring. Unfortunately, his piece offers little substance and fact and mostly just whines on and on about how the poor kids are left behind, while rich kids step on their heads while clambering up the ladder of success.

Krugman thinks that the evil rich are paving the way down easy street for their kids. They offer up lucrative jobs to their offspring, which of course require no amount of hard work what-so-ever. Meanwhile, poor kids are stuck in the ghetto working at the local McDonalds. Even those that work hard and take advantage of every single opportunity have no chance for success because their parents aren't rich enough. We are taught that the American dream is dictated by hard work and ambition, not who your father was, but to Krugman, that is all a bunch of crap.

What completely escapes Krugman is that upbringing has everything to do with success. Rich people typically continue to do things that make them rich, while poor people continue to do the things that make them poor. If parents think that it's ok to buy lottery tickets, cigarettes and beer while their un-open, unpaid, bills lay there on the coffee table, chances are the children are going to learn that lesson as well. On the other hand, when parents exude personal and fiscal responsibility, chances are their kids will follow in kind.

There is a reason why multi-million dollar lottery winners are often back to being dirt poor in less than 10 years.

It is those types of behavioral lessons that foster success. The statistical relationship to wealth is caused only by the fact that parents are not just teaching those lessons, but exhibiting them as well. That is exactly why people who start out with very little wealth are still able to be successful.

This topic is very personal to me, because my parents, while not wealthy by any stretch, taught me that hard work and determination pay off. My family was poor and came from a poor background. Still, by exhibiting a good work ethic, and good decision making, they managed to carve out a decent middle class living. By demonstrating good fiscal behavior, they taught both me and my sister the lessons needed for us to do the same.

Krugman, however, rather than stress the importance of good financial behavior and personal responsibility insists that income redistribution is necessary. That is, he would rather advocate the seizing of wealth with the threat of lethal force, than teach children the lessons of hard work and personal financial management.

There is a lot to be said for the old adage, "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime." Unfortunately, the lesson is lost on socialists like Krugman, who think other people's money is the solution to every problem.

Michele takes the time to rant about some dipshit anti-military, anti-war, anti-SUV, anti-capitalist moron* who's biggest accomplishment is managing not to get kicked out of school for three years.

Personally, I don't waste my time on dickheads* like this. If he wants to hate the military, that is fine by me. Hopefully some sailors stationed down there in San Diego will take this guy out for a few beers, get him laid (which he sounds like he desperately needs), and change his mind. Don't count on it though.

The substance of his rant is so cliche, it is immaterial. I could have added it all up and written it myself:

English major + Junior at a left coast college + An idiot* that even admits he cannot even find Kosovo on a map.

I'm just surprised he didn't use the term 'baby killer'.

* Footnote: My staff writers are insisting that I explain my actions of having resorted to name calling. While I never resort to name calling in an argument, I feel free to categorize people that go so far as to prove they are a moron and an idiot through a public editorial. In other words, if you write me to disagree with me, I might call you misguided, or something, but I'd never resort to a public 'attack' (which Dawn Olsen accused me of when she banned me). However, if you publish a blatantly idiotic editorial like this, I call a spade a spade.

"The county needs some money, so the quicker we can take the steps, the better... The county's kind of living from paycheck to paycheck." -- Richland County Commissioner Dave Swartz 'justifying' the need to raise the local sales tax rate a quarter point to 6.5%.

It must be nice to be able to go out and legally use lethal force to get more money when you're running short. Of course, when private citizens do that they go to jail.

Radly Balko writes a good column about the Libertarian relationship with the Republican party. In our modern two party system, being libertarian often puts you between a rock and a hard place. Or in some cases, between two rocks.

Balko responds to the recent Republican assertions that Libertarians are costing them seats in Congress:

...lots of Republicans see libertarians as extremists, hell-bent on "all or nothing" politics -- either we get privatized sidewalks and heroin on the playground, or we're going to vote for Ralph Nader.

What Republicans really need to understand is that they are simply the lesser of two evils. Although lately, not much lesser.

Either the programmers at Harvard are smoking crack, or the Chinese internet filtering is moodier than an ex-girlfriend who loaned you money. The first time I checked it, this site was accessible in China. When I checked it a few months later, this site was inaccessible. I checked it again just now, and I'm listed as accessible.

It reminds me of a moody bitch I dated once in college. She was all clingy and lovey dovey at first. Then she used to run from me whenever she saw me. (yes, she literally ran away) Later she was whining that I never called her anymore. Sheesh, what's a guy to do?

I wonder if their internet filtering looks for specific words on the site and then decides on the fly whether or not you are worthy of Chinese eyes. Or perhaps, the boneheads at Harvard don't know how to program for shit.

Either way, I'm keeping my 'Banned in China' graphic. Even if they did reconsider the ban and reinstate me to preferred website status.

At the beginning of the season I expected Virginia Tech to have a rough year. They were scheduled to play three tough non-conference teams, and would be playing an extended 13 game schedule that stretched from late August to early December. They lost most of their defense last year, and had serious questions about their quarterbacks.

When they beat three ranked teams in a row, were 8-0, and ranked 3rd in the nation, I was truly astonished. Now that they've lost 3 in a row, I'm wondering if they can win another game this season. Their young defense that looked so impressive through 8 games has all but fallen apart. They were not much of a match for West Virginia's 2nd ranked rushing game last night.

The lack of offense hasn't done much either. Mistakes in their field goal kicking have proved disastrous. In last week's Syracuse game, kicker Carter Warley missed two chances to win the game with a field goal. Down 21 to 18 against WVU, the lack of faith in their 9 for 19 kicking game caused them to press the endzone for a win rather than play it safe with a tie going into overtime. Quarterback, Bryan Randall's inexperience showed when he tried to force a pass into the endzone for a win and ended up giving the game away with an interception. Of course, they wouldn't have been in that situation if their offense didn't stall several times prior to that in the red zone.

VT has two games left, against Virginia and Miami. Both will be tough. Virginia is their in-state rival, and is always a tough game. Miami, well, that's Miami. (in the Orange Bowl, at that)

Miami is on upset watch tonight versus Pittsburgh. I think Pitt could pull this game out if their defense does the job. Miami was slow to start against both Boston College and Rutgers. Pitt on the other hand will be playing for their first Big East title. Given that Miami is favored by 21 points, I'll put my money on Pitt any day.

One bright note, Tech tailback Lee Suggs broke an NCAA record by scoring a touchdown in 24 straight games.

One week from today, millions of Americans across the nation will sit down at their dinner table with family and relatives, to celebrate my birthday. I encourage all Americans to feast on turkey, potatoes, and stuffing, while the Cowboys and Lions host their annual football classics, in celebration of the anniversary of my birth.

Thursday, November 28, I turn 30 years old. I've come to terms with turning the big 3 - 0. It doesn't seem to be as bad as I thought it would have been. When I look back on my life and reflect the last 3 decades, there is very little I would change. Sure, I would have tried to wet the bed a bit less, and I would have ducked to avoid missing that 2x4 that split my head open, but other than that, I'm pretty happy about the way things have turned out.

Just 10 years ago I thought that turning 30 would mean the end of life as I know it. Now, in an attempt to put a positive spin on the event, I came up with a modest list of the best things about turning 30.

Turning 30 is great because:

- I don't mind getting carded for beer anymore.

- Since there was no year zero, I'm actually only 29.

- Lower car insurance rates will offset higher life insurance rates.

- I'm still too young to run for President.

- I can finally wear my "I turned 30 and all I got was this stupid T-shirt", T-shirt.

- I may be 30, but my sister is 33. So when I'm 60, she'll be 66.

- Single women my age are just now entering their sexial prime.

- Single women my age are usually pretty desperate.

- With my lack of diet and exercise, I'm officially 'middle aged'.

- I can stop coloring over my grey hair, and just let it go.

- I'm officially allowed to refer to college kids as 'young whipper snappers'.

- Only 25 more years until I can finally respond to those AARP fliers I keep getting in the mail.

- The 'oldies' stations are finally starting to play my kind of music.

- I get to tell kids about the good old days, when MTV played music videos, everyone had a record player, and someday we were going to get cable TV.

- I'm one year closer to the eternal dirt nap.

- And, finally, there is nothing good about turning 30.

Really, I'm ok with it. Turning 30 next Thursday doesn't bother me a bit.

Here are some facts you never hear in main stream media:

"Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use and are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns." -- U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, NCJ-143454, "Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse", August 1995.

Here's what a 1995 federal study investigating juvenile crime found after looking at 20,000 randomly selected households:

Relationship between type of gun owned and percent committing street, drug and gun crimes.

Illegal gun:
Street crimes = 74%
Drug use = 41%
Gun crimes = 21%

No gun:
Street crimes = 24%
Drug use = 15%
Gun crimes = 1%

Legal Gun:
Street crimes = 14%
Drug use = 13%
Gun crimes = 0%

Thanks to Gun Defense Clock. Check out their site for more useful information.

Canada began registration and confiscation of firearms several years ago. While gun collectors with proper licenses were grandfathered in, and can legally own and sell firearms in Canada, that doesn't stop the government from seizing firearms and filing charges against even law abiding citizens.

Here is a tragic video story about a Winnepeg man who legally owns over 400 firearms. Despite his compliance with the law, the RCMP are seizing his firearms and charging the owner for 'improper storage' and failure to report 'missing firearms'. The RCMP even brazenly admits their political motivation in claiming that the firearms are designed 'only to kill people.'

Esterbol Rios-Gomez, was a parolee, out after serving 18 months for assault with a knife. Shortly after having stabbed someone else, he broke into the home of Paciano Reyes-Vieyra, the uncle of his ex-girlfriend's new beau. He threatened Vieyra and his family with a knife, and fled the scene.

When Gomez returned to Vieyra's home a second time, he was met with gunfire. Afraid for his and his families safety, Vieyra shot Gomez with his 30-30 lever action hunting rifle. Gomez was hit once in the side, and once in the back, as he tried to flee. Vieyra waited on the front porch for police to arrive. Gomez was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced DOA.

The incident went before an Oregon grand jury who found the incident a justifiable use of lethal force.

"ASHBURN, Va., Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Washington Coach Steve Spurrier, trying to light a spark under his lethargic offense, has decided to bench Shane Matthews in favor of Danny Wuerffel when the Redskins (4-6) host the St. Louis Cardinals (5-5) on Sunday." -- from the UPI Sports Desk, November 21, 2002.

Do they know something we don't? If the Cardinals are moving back to St. Louis, that may be news to the Rams.

"On Election Day in Massachusetts, which will face an estimated $2 billion deficit next year, voters moved perilously close to a tax revolt that was breathtaking in its mindlessness. Nearly half the voters - 45 percent - supported a ballot proposal to eliminate the state income tax, a move that would have plunged the state into a fiscal emergency." -- Bob Herbert, in a NY Times Op-Ed, November 21, 2002. (emphasis mine)

Mindless: 1 - a: marked by a lack of mind or consciousness b: marked by or displaying no use of the powers of the intellect
2- requiring little attention or thought; especially : not intellectually challenging or stimulating

So, now Herbert thinks that half the voters in the state of Massachusetts (a/k/a Taxachusetts) are mindless. This isn't surprising, as just last week, Herbert praised NYC for the proposed tax hikes, and earlier this month, the Times called the lack of a commuter tax 'unconscionable.'

Funny how a $2 billion deficit is not an emergency, so long as the state has ability to use lethal force to seize the necessary funds. However, when the government's constituents exercise their right of suffrage to limit that ability, it is characterized as a 'mindless revolt'.

Carrollton, Texas has banned toy guns, because officers there cannot tell the difference between toys and the real thing. Rather than properly train their officers to tell the difference between an orange plastic water pistol, and an actual .44 Magnum, they feel it is easier to simply tell kids they can't play with the toys outside.

Of course, it is presented as a 'safety measure'. So please, no protests. It is 'for the children'.

Neal Boortz has long said that controlling and limiting talk radio was on the Democrats 'secret plan for America'. Now Tom Daschle has validated that part of the 'secret plan'. Daschle claims that conservative talk radio is leading to perceived threats against his life. He even likened it to religious fundamentalism. The strange thing is that Daschle is over-reacting now, moreso than when he received the anthrax letter, an actual assassination attempt on his life. He also said they need to increase their presence in talk radio. (Wait, I thought it was 'dangerous'?)

Boortz, and other conservative talk show hosts have often expressed fear that Democrats will push for legislation limiting political speech. A bill similar to Incumbent Protection Act Campaign Finance Reform could be applied to talk radio and media outlets. CFR already limits political speech by members of the general public, 60 days before an election. Historically, democrats have floated the idea of a 'fairness doctrine'. It would mandate 'equal time' for democratic ideals on talk radio.

Once talk radio is conquered, they wont stop there. Certainly the internet is the next step. It may not be long before I'll have to give 'equal time' to some Alan Colmes wanna-be.

UPDATE: As expected, Boortz actually talks about it in today's program notes.

I am mortified to find out that Democrat Underground, and only Democrat Underground is in my neighborhood of blogs, according to blogstreet.

When the Big East joined the BCS coalition, they had a special rule that said conference winners had to average in the Top 12 over four years. It was called the Big East rule, because they weren't deemed as good as the other NCAA major conferences.

Well, not it looks like the Big East is finally starting to get some respect. Miami and Virginia Tech were the perennial favorites, but now teams like Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and Boston College aren't looking so bad. Pittsburgh is in contention with Miami for the conference championship, WVU is 7-3, and BC knocked off a Top 5 Notre Dame team.

As of right now, the Big East has three teams in the Top 16, which is a far cry from where they used to be when they formed in 1992.

Kofi Annan rebuked the U.S. view that Iraq is breaching UN Security Council resolutions by firing on U.S. aircraft. The Guardian (UK) notes that "Mr Annan, entering the fray for the first time since the resolution was passed, was adamant that the anti-aircraft fire did not amount to a breach."

Sadly, Great Britain, whose aircraft are also being fired upon, agrees with Annan.

Our response to the UN position should be clear. The U.S. with cooperation with New York City, should announce that attacks on the UN headquarters building in Manhattan are no longer considered a 'material breach' of the law. Attacks, threats, and break-ins to the UN building will be investigated, in due time, along with equally serious reports of jaywalking, spitting, and littering.

Federal unemployment benefits typically expire after 26 weeks (or 6 months). After 9/11 they were extended another 13 weeks. With federal benefit extensions set to expire December 28, the whining is already starting.

The SFGate reports that 300,000 Californians will lose their federal unemployment benefits on December 28th.

"I don't think it's fair," said San Francisco resident Karen Rothstein, 59, a former cook at Miz Brown's Feed Bag. "The economy hasn't recovered yet. I have some money in an IRA, but I don't want to go into my IRA yet."

I don't blame her. Why spend your own money, or worse, go back to work, when you can suck on the federal teat for a while longer. Rothstein does claim to be hitting the pavement 4 hours per day looking for work. Still, she wants an additional 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Despite California having the 4th highest unemployment rate in the nation, Governor Gray-"out" Davis shirks his responsibility off onto the federal government. "Failing to provide additional weeks of benefits to the long-term unemployed would . . . send a bleak message to tens of thousands of California's jobless workers," says Davis. Davis supports Californians going for literally years without working. Instead of working themselves, they are supported by money forcibly seized from those that do work hard every day.

Am I being too heartless here? How is it that a cook, assuming she is a decent cook, cannot find gainful employment for over a year? I think she either sets her standards too high, or she really doesn't want to work. Or, perhaps the California restaurant industry is so rattled by stringent anti-smoking legislation that there really are no jobs left. If that is the case, she needs to MOVE!

Geez, my whole reason for leaving Southeast Virginia was because the job market sucked so bad. I moved to Georgia and then Ohio to further my career. Still, the Californians and other liberals insist on using the police power of the federal government to seize my money at the point of a gun, to line their own pockets. And then, as if 39 weeks, wasn't enough, they are whining for another 26 weeks of 'benefits'!

The New York Post tells a humorous tale of a woman that was assaulted for smoking.

I was walking down Sixth Avenue when a very small woman came barreling across in front of me. She made it look like she was adjusting her backpack, but she reached up and hit me in the arm - hard, with a closed fist.

Stunned and with an aching arm, I quickly walked after her. She turned around, saw my angry face hovering a foot above her, and blurted: "Oh, you want to . . . uh, uh, your god-damn cancer stick."

Right there she admitted that she'd assaulted my body because I was smoking.

... She grabbed her cell phone from her backpack and said she'd call 911. "Good," I said, taking a step closer. "You just assaulted me, and that's illegal. Smoking on the street is not."

At that point, she stepped three feet backward and started kicking at me, coming nowhere near my body.

So, here I am in Midtown, with this weirdo dancing around flailing and kicking at me like a raving lunatic - because of a cigarette.

While not all anti-smoking nazis are violent like this woman, she does personify the entire anti-smoking movement. At least this nut case has the gall to do her own fighting. Most anti-smokers vote to use the police power of the state to enforce their wacky beliefs.

"The damaging oil spill off the coast of Spain is a sobering reminder that the world's heavy reliance on oil for energy carries environmental risks that need more urgent attention than they have been getting. This was an accident just waiting to happen..." -- NY Times, November 20, 2002.

"The damaging forest fires in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, South Dakota, et. al, is a sobering reminder that the nation's adherence to enviro-wacko policies against logging and deforestation carry serious environmental risks that need more urgent attention than they have been getting. This was an accident just waiting to happen..." -- Ravenwood's Universe, November 20, 2002.

At least Tom Daschle is looking out for South Dakotans, making sure they can step up their efforts to thin forests before they go up in flames. Of course, the rest of us are just shit out of luck. (I wish we all had a Senator like Daschle)

This can't be good for me. As a frequent flier on Delta who is used to frequent flier perks at discount prices, I am very worried. This will allow Delta to further differentiate their travelers, allowing them to charge more money for people that fly 'Regular Delta'. If you want discounted fares, you'll be banished to 'Delta Light', where there is no first class seating, no priority boarding, no nothing.

New Jersey is working on passing a bill to mandate 'smart technology' into all handguns sold within the state. Of course, 'smart technology' hasn't been invented yet. Basically, they are trying to pull a 'california' and drive the production of handguns for everyone nation wide. (California does the same thing with automotive emissions and fuel standards.)

Of course, if guns with 'smart' technology are developed, they will be several hundred dollars more expensive than they are now, which is just fine with the gun grabbers. The more people that cannot afford to defend themselves, the better.

The impact on crime will be negligible. Criminals don't usually get their firearms through regular retailers, and given the amount of 'dumb' guns that are out there, they will still have an ample supply of firearms to stick in your face.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities is published at:

Silflay Hraka and Blogcrititics

Hangings may soon return to New Jersey. No, I'm not talking capital punishment, I'm talking tax revolt. Homeowners in Milburn Township, NJ are planning to secede to a neighboring county, rather than face a property tax hike of up to $3000 per household.

When taxes get out of control, why should the electorate have to take it on the chin from their local politicians? (or any politicians for that matter.) String a few of these guys up by their feet, and add a nice new coat of tar and feathers and they'll get the message.

"It's OK, I do it all the time" -- Matt George, showing off to his buddies, about to kiss his pet rattlesnake.

"I'm going to die" -- Matt George, shortly after being bit on the lip by his pet rattlesnake.

George didn't die however, ruining his chances to win this year's Darwin Award.

All the controversy and belly aching over the Homeland Security Bill, and it passes 90-9.

CNN reports that Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts; Paul Sarbanes, D-Maryland; Jim Jeffords, I-Vermont; Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii; Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii; Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia; Carl Levin, D-Michigan; Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-South Carolina; and Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin voted against the bill, and Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, was not in Washington for the vote.

On the surface, it would appear that my position against the electronic tracking of sexual predators seems to clash with my position of being tough in criminals. In fact, just the opposite is true.

First of all, I feel that if a person commits a heinous crime, there shouldn't be any tracking necessary. They should be right there in their prison cell (or grave site). That should be especially true for predatory crimes and murder.

The fact that a person is out of prison and walking around among the living, to me, implies that they are fit to be welcomed back into society and shouldn't need to be tracked. At the very least it should imply that they are no longer a danger to society. If they are no longer a danger, what is the point of using electronic monitoring? If they are, why are they being released in the first place?

When it comes to sexual predators, they are easy to pick on. Nobody likes them, and people with children tend to really, really hate them. That is why I think that this is just a first step in the tracking of all persons. They already assign everyone a unique number at birth and use it to keep a lifetime "permanent record". Britain already goes so far as to put cameras on every corner to monitor their populace. To me, this just seems to be the next logical step.

Maybe I am being paranoid, but if I were a big government agency whose agenda included tracking my populace, this is how I'd implement it.

Now, where'd I leave my tin-foil hat?

CD Harris should use this as next week's caption of the day. I don't know what Michael was thinking, but he's certainly not going to win Father of the Year.

UPDATE: Taranto notes that Reuters carries this photo under "entertainment".

"We live on an island. A giant big fucking island. We don't understand that people actually get mad at us. We still think of ourselves in terms of WW2. It's not uncommon for us to say to France, 'Hey, you'd still be speaking German if it wasn't for us.' The problem is the world has changed, and our involvement in these tiny little places is different than it was in 1941. It was a lot clearer then. We were attacked." -- George Clooney on why we shouldn't fight Iraq or the War on Terrorism.

My staff writers want me to point out that Clooney probably knows what he's talking about. After all, he fought the Japanese in The Thin Red Line, and Saddam Hussein in Three Kings.

I bought 350 rounds of ammo today.

200 - .40 S&W FMJ
100 - .22 WMR JHP
40 - 7.62 x 39 FMJ
10 - 12 ga. slugs

Please show your support as well and buy at least 100 rounds for Ammo Day.

Dennis Prager writes a brilliant column about the hypocrisy of the anti-smoking nazis. He is inspired by the idiocy of the commotion surrounding the latest James Bond film. Bond films are filled with sexual titillation and innuendo, violence, murder, and even the consumption of alcohol, but it is his cigar smoking that gathers all the protests. Prager asks:

Would you rather be raised by a parent addicted to cigarettes or addicted to alcohol?

Would you rather your pilot smoked a cigarette/cigar/pipe before or during a flight or drank an alcoholic beverage before or during a flight?

Has anyone ever been beaten, murdered or abused because someone was under the influence of a cigarette, cigar or pipe?

We'll have to ask Michele about that last one. She was voted most likely to beat someone to within an inch of their life over her not having a cigarette.

An oil tanker broke in two off the coast of Spain, and the spillage could be twice the size of the Exxon Valdez spill. Hopefully the damage will be contained, but I couldn't help but notice that the existing damage to animals is mainly limited to 'sea birds' who have been 'taken for treatment'.

As someone who grew up on the ocean, I can honestly say, that one less sea bird is a good thing. Several hundred less 'sea birds' is a great thing. These birds are disgusting, vile creatures that I liken to rats and vermin. The only good birds are those that are worth eating (chickens and the like), and those that help control insect and rat populations (owls and the like). The others mainly feed on garbage and dead carcasses. I know, scavenging is a necessary job, but a few hundred less scavengers isn't going to hurt anyone.

To me, 'rescuing' animals that are suffering seems like a huge waste of resources. It would be much more efficient to euthanize the poor bastards and go about cleaning up the beaches. What it comes down to is that they are dumb animals, and their life, like all life, was finite to begin with. Cleaning them up and releasing them back into the ocean does a lot to warm the hearts of tree huggers, but little to restore nature's life cycle.

I have a question for these tree hugging, bed wetting, environmentalist wackos that go out and 'rescue' animals like this. Do you 'rescue' all life, or just the cute and fuzzy mammals and birds? What about any insects, worms, and microscopic creepy crawlies that are coated with a good slick of oil? Are they to be saved, or do you simply squash the bugs while running after the birds? Don't answer, I already know the hypocritical truth.

Hollywood actor James Coburn has died. My favorite movies of his included: The Magnificant Seven, Great Escape, Midway, and Maverick. I'll forgive him for those 'Flint' superspy movies. I realize they were a product of their time. (not my time.)

Please support Ammo Day. Purchase at least 100 rounds of ammo today, and report your results to the Ammo Day website.

I think that one of the sexiest things a woman can do is learn how to properly handle a firearm. My ex-girlfriend, Jennifer, was not afraid to handle my 12-gauge, and would often go trap shooting with us in college. Despite the recoil and her small 120lb frame, she was able to tame the firearm, and shoot accurately with just a little bit of practice. Jennifer, however, was the exception to the rule.

Most women today fear firearms. They are taught by society that guns are for men. They are told that guns are complicated devices, that they are not intelligent enough to operate. Women are led to believe that firearms are powerful tools that they don't have the strength to handle. Gun grabbers like Sarah Brady would have women believe that they are more likely to be disarmed by an attacker and have their firearm used against them, than they are able to properly defend themselves.

In fact, firearms are the great equalizer, because even a 6' 6" 350lb attacker is bound to be slowed down by a sucking chest wound. A woman, properly trained to use a firearm, could very easily neutralize an attacker three or four times her size. Gun grabbers would rather tell a woman to call 911, or try to gouge out the eyes of a would-be rapist. Unfortunately, police only respond quickly enough to actually prevent 5% of crime. Most of the time they arrive too late and are left to simply investigate the crime after the fact; which isn't very comforting to the victim (assuming she is still alive). Personally, I think it's much more efficient to squeeze off a double-tap to the chest and then call police to mop up his body. It certainly cuts down on the investigative work.

As for complexity, handguns are surprisingly simplistic. Any dealer hoping to make a sale will take a few minutes to teach a customer to properly strip the firearm down for cleaning. Many handguns need only to break down into a half dozen parts to be properly cleaned and maintained. As for shooting proficiency, a day or two out at the range should be enough to teach the basic skills needed. A professionally taught NRA safety course typically runs about $50, which isn't much considering the cost of a quality handgun.

If worse comes to worse, you could just ask someone at the range for help. Despite the images portrayed by the gun lobby, firearms owners are not all nuts. In fact, comradery is almost always shown to other firearms owners, and most guys would be more than happy to share their knowledge of firearms, shooting proficiency, and safety. Especially to a woman.

Obviously firearms aren't for every woman. Maturity is arguably more important than skill, especially for self-defense. (Hell, there are plenty of men out there that aren't mature enough to properly handle a firearm.) Anyone who intends to use a firearm for self defense needs to be prepared to use it once it is drawn. Even though over 90% of defensive gun uses require simply brandishing a firearm, drawing your gun against an attacker is always risky; more so if you are not prepared to back up your threat with real force.

Still, whenever I hear about some scumbag would-be rapist that gets his nuts blown off while trying to overpower a woman half his size, I can't help but smile. I know that there was a woman who was not afraid to take a stand in personal responsibility and self defense. There was a woman who would thumb her nose at the Sarah Brady's of the world; people that would tell a woman that they should let themselves be raped. They should beg an attacker for mercy, and then sit back and wait for police to round up the asshole, try him, convict him, and send him to jail for punishment and/or rehabilitation. There was a woman who knows it is her God-given right to defend herself. It is her duty to try to prevent herself from being violated in the first place.

As for the cowardly asshole who preys on the weak, he deserves what he gets.

Footnotes - This article by the Independent Women's Forum should be required reading of all women. This site is a good reference for the concealed carry laws in your state, however you should always check with your local attorney general's office or law enforcement body to ensure you are in compliance with applicable laws.

Bill Wyman, real name William George Perks, of the Rolling Stones has sent a cease and desist letter to Bill Wyman, real name Bill Wyman, ordering him to stop using his own name. Wyman, who was born in 1961 has used the name ever since his parents put in on his birth certificate. He's written music and entertainment reviews for about 20 years, and currently writes for the AJC. Perks of the Rolling Stones has used the name since 1963. Still, Perks is arrogant enought to think that he has more claim to his stage name than Wyman has to his real name.

(This reminds me of when Madonna applied for a trademark.)

Yet another "What ___ are you?" quiz.

It turns out that I'm Atlanta. This really upsets me, because I just moved away from Atlanta in June. What the hell was I thinking!? I was homesick for Atlanta before, but now I found out that it was perfect for me! sigh.

(link via da Goddess)

My other cities were Chicago (cool, but WAY too liberal), Dallas (great, except I'm a 'Skins fan), and L.A. (BWAHAHAHA!!!)

Apparently the Chinese censors are on the ball. I used this tool a few months ago, and my site was accessible in China. Joanie posted it this week, so I tried again. Lo and behold, I've been banned in China.

That certainly explains my low hit counter. Over 1/6th of the world population is BANNED from viewing my site! How is that for an ego buster. Now if I can only get India to ban me, that'll be a full 1/3rd.

Let this be a warning to all my readers. You should read as much as possible now, before I'm banned in the U.S. as well.

I was going to write a rant good enough to inspire a Chinese uprising that would rival the Tiananmen Square revolt, but now I figure, why bother.

Whenever I read other peoples weblogs I usually see things that I missed, or wish that I had said. And then there's CGHill and his headlines:

(I Can't Get No) Punctuation
A bridge too fallible
A reminiscence of sorts
I'll take Character Assassination for $200
No Peking
E pluribus units
A pack of Peter Parkers
The War of 1812 is over, too
Weapon of mass distraction
A Goofy comparison?
Being objective about subjectivity
The power of pasta

I could keep going. Not to take anything away from his postings and content, but I am insanely jealous over his knack for writing catchy headlines.

I wonder how much time he spends on it. When I write a weblog entry, I typically go for speed. I type it out at about 60 wpm, do a quick spellcheck, come up with a quick headline, add any hyperlinks, post, and I'm done. The whole process is pretty quick actually.

Every once in a while, I'll post and see how it looks once it's published. (I just cannot get the 'feel' for it using the 'preview' button, plus the preview doesn't always handle any html I've added) Sometimes I'll go back to an entry and make an edit, publish, make another edit, publish, edit it again, publish.. you get the idea. But I rarely re-visit the headline after the first go 'round. Perhaps I should.

They describe him as 'job hunting'. Apparently he wasn't hunting too hard. Perhaps it was that extra 13 weeks of unemployment that allowed him to master his craft.

The AP notes that "first prize was $1,200, a video game system and a gold medal." That should keep him unemployed for a few more weeks.

(I saw this story earlier but neglected to comment on it. When I saw Simon's neat Online Rock-Paper-Scissors game, I felt inspired, so credit him for the link.)

This weekend, I looked at my raw hits and noticed that Saturday had unusually high traffic. At the time I felt guilty for taking most of the weekend off from blogging.

A little research today, (actually I got around to checking my referrer logs) showed that I got 'Bill Quick'ed on Friday night.

That is probably the highest profile link I've received to date. (Not that I'm fishing for one..)

Britain is considering tagging sex offenders with a tracking device. You can imagine the horror this instills in civil libertarians. Today it is sex offenders, but who will it be tomorrow?

The Observer article notes that not only can movement be tracked, but vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure.

The New York Sun notes that those 'spending cuts' proposed by Mayor Bloomberg and echoed by the New York Times are actually spending increases. New York's budget is slated to be $43.3 Billion (that's 43,300 million), an increase of more than $1 Billion over last year's budget. The financial plan calls for increases every year through 2006 when it will reach $46.4 Billion.

It is interesting that the NY Times considers the lack of a commuter tax "unconscionable", but steep tax hikes in the wake of budget increases "a rare profile in courage."

So, how is it that the left calls a spending increase a spending cut? Simple, they had planned on increasing spending say, 6%, but now are only increasing it 3%, so they call it a cut. They did the same thing with Bush's first federal budget, when they whined about across the board cuts in federal programs. In fact, not one single program received less funding than it did the year before.

It is the same logic Tom Daschle, D-SD used last week on "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren to refer to his 3.1% increase in congressional pay as "not a raise."

Randall Wright was house-sitting for a friend when two would-be armed robbers forced their way into the house. Wright pulled out a gun and pleaded with the robbers to back off, but they would not. One shouted "kill him, kill him," and gunfire broke out. One gunman fled the scene, but the other was left wounded and died later from his sucking chest wounds.

The man who fled was later apprehended and is being held by police. While some states charge the surviving accomplices* with first degree murder, South Carolina is not one of those states.

* Ohio, for instance will charge a co-conspirator with murder if their accomplice dies while committing a crime.

John Leo offers up some nice "euphamisms and upscale name changes." Here are a few:

Comparative ads: attack ads
Traffic-calming road insertions: speed bumps
In-depth interrogation: torture
Visual harassment: staring
Derivative passages: plagiarism
Verbal abuse: criticism
Abductees (in Sudan): slaves
Tribal chief: swarthy, non-English-speaking leader you admire
Warlord: swarthy, non-English-speaking leader you do not admire
Self-sacrifice bombers: suicide bombers
Cultural genocide: correcting a pupil's nonstandard English
Multicultural issues editor: censor
Psychological violence: disapproval
Creating personal accounts: privatizing Social Security
Unpaid sex worker: wife
Sexual service provider: paid sex worker, hooker
Death tax: inheritance tax
Pregnancy-related services: abortion
Action figures: dolls for boys
Spouse equivalent: lover
Polyamory: wild promiscuity
Nontraditional sex: perversions
Hemp activist: pot promoter
Problem-plagued: drug-addled
Post-verdict response: riot
Uprising: a riot you approve of
Granted "access" to my body (Boston clerical term): had sex with a young male
Occupant restraints: seat belts
Race-sensitive programs: preferences, quotas
Faith-based organizations: religious organizations
Deer management: shooting all the deer
Activity intolerance: lower back pain
Economic profiling: getting turned down for a loan because of a poor credit rating
Made possible by: We don't take advertising, but here comes an ad anyway
Relationship manager: salesperson
Persistency specialist: bill collector
Tactical pricing: panicky price cuts
Mainstreaming (journalese): quoting one member of every race, gender, orientation and ethnic group in all news reports, even ones about ailing turtles, bad weather or Martha Stewart
Lifestyle and fitness competition: Miss America's swimsuit competition
The (nongendered) monarchy, the power and the glory: the (patriarchal) kingdom, the power and the glory
Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer: Father, Son, Holy Spirit
Involuntary normal attrition: laying off workers
Managing down: laying off workers
Rightsizing: laying off workers
Job survivor: person not yet rightsized, attrited or managed down

Homeschoolers in the Chicago area are getting quite a rude awakening. The superintendent of schools is sending squad cars out to people's homes to demand that they attend a 'pre-trial' hearing. The hearing will demand that homeschoolers prove that they are in compliance with the law?

Whatever happened to burden of proof? And why does education have to be government sanctioned anyway? Whatever happened to the good old pioneer days and one-room school houses? There was no gestapo going around making people prove their compliance with the law. This is typical fascist intimidation tactics. Heaven forbid someone should want to pull their kid away from government hands.

Nevermind the fact that home-schooled kids usually get a much better education. When is the last time a government school kid won a national spelling bee?

Remember that professor from Xavier who went off on the Air force Cadet?

Well, last week he was relieved of his teaching obligations because of the incident.

If Xavier was able to move so fast, why wasn't Emory able to fire Bellesiles sooner?

There is a lot of buzz in the air about a Gore-Hillary ticket in 2004. Who would be the undercard here? Is Hillary really going to settle for Veep, or will Al once again be second fiddle on the Clinton-Gore ticket?

Either way, I hope they run.

Neal points out that we ought to call a spade a spade. The latest proposals for socialized medicine are actually fascist and not social in nature. Socialism means government ownership, where as fascism means private ownership with government authority and control.

I stand corrected Neal, and will henceforth use the proper terminology.

Big surprise, another NY Times Op-Ed praising tax hikes. Only this time, they want to bring those tax hikes to your city, citing New York City as a wonderful example of the harbinger of things to come.

Bob Herbert, of the Times notes that costs for cities continue to rise, while revenues remain flat. Of course, he can't help but include socialized fascist medicine as a 'basic expenditure'.

And other inescapable expenditures - on health care, for example - continue to rise

Of course, we can't lower health care costs by limiting frivolous law suits, because that would ruin our political base with the trial lawyers. So, what is the solution? Raise taxes of course, but only on the wealthy, because that is 'equitable'.

The cities' problems can only be solved in the context of national policies. And it is essential that those policies include a more equitable approach to taxation

Ok, so he doesn't exactly say 'raise taxes on the wealthy'. Until you read a little bit further.

A national economic policy that consists almost solely of tax cuts for the very rich will lead only to further disaster

Now, anyone that paid taxes got a tax cut. Remember those rebate checks? And that was just in the first round. So, according to the NY Times, if you got a tax cut, you must be among the 'very rich'.

Herbert is not alone in his sentiment. He is parroted by the Mayor of Boston, (from the state of Taxachussets).

"We don't run government with voodoo economics. We run it with real cash to fund real programs that help people." -- Thomas Menino, the mayor of Boston and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors

What he really meant was that the government confiscates real money with the use of real force. This money is then used to woo a popular majority to win their support for re-election the next time around.

It never ceases to amaze me how the lefties continue their onslaught on capitalism. They raise taxes on the rich, give money to the poor, all in the name of the 'providing basic human services' mantra. Hell, the federal government already spends over 25% of the GDP, what is a few more bucks?

Of course, there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that authorizes the Robin Hood-esque seizure of wealth from one person to give to another. Tax proponents point to the 'General Welfare' clause, but as the great Walter Williams points out, James Madison, the 'father' of our Constitution once stood on the House floor and declared, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

But what did he know?

Perhaps inspired by the KFC 'extra biscuits' dope pusher, this guy is selling ice cream cones made of cocaine. He was apparently caught when an off-duty cop wanted an ice cream cone with 'sprinkles'. You would think that he'd have come up with a more obscure code word, like ketchup.

I caught the end of a news story this morning, where Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs was mulling running for President. One major problem, is that he doesn't turn 35 until two days after election day. If the New Jersey Supreme Court were allowed to interpret our U.S. Constitution, they could easily just say that 35 actually means 34, but it looks like Puffy may need to wait until 2008 to make his run.

Another thing that puzzles me is Combs' 'alleged' illegal activity. I know he's been arrested for 'allegedly' exhibiting some violent behavior, but I'm not sure if he's ever been convicted. Mounting a Presidential campaign with such a record of lawful indiscretion is something that only say, Rev. Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson could pull off. Of course if Puffy downplays his run ins with the law, what will that do to his 'bad boy' music career? Also, would he want a job that only pays $400,000 a year?

It will also be interesting to see how Rev. Al handles this. Sharpton has already announced his intention to run for President in 2004, and Combs would appear to only get in the way. Will Sharpton latch onto Combs and mount a puppet regime, or will he simply squash Combs political aspirations the same way Clinton and McAuliff took away Andrew Cuomo's hopes and dreams?

UPDATE: I finally found a web story to back up the televised news segment I saw this morning. The NY Daily News reports that candidates must be 35 "prior to election." According to the New Jersey Supreme Court, 35 actually means 21 as long as the candidate is a liberal.

Tom Daschle, D-SD insisted on federalizing air screeners. Pundits said it was to pack the democratic rolls with new federal union employees that will mindlessly vote democratic. Daschle claimed that it gave the federal government the power to control who was hired and fired and control rigid professional standards.

The first federal professional standard to be dropped was a requirement for a high school diploma. The latest federal professional standard to be dropped is a requirement for U.S. citizenship.

There is no word yet on whether or not they will drop the requirement to vote democratic.

Haha. Did nobody see this coming. Iraq has routinely fired on our planes in the no-fly zone. Well, that is a violation of the latest U.N. Resolution. While it remains to be seen whether or not it will be seen as a 'material breach', I think we should take every single violation directly to the Security Council.

Our staff writers are in consensus that it will be found to not be a 'material breach'. In that case, members of the Security Council should be forced invited to ride along with our boys while their being shot at. Perhaps that would help change their perspective on whether or not Iraq is cooperating.

Kudos to Rachel Lucas to pointing out how stupid and shallow Michael Moore is. Moore wrote a rant right before the election entitled "Years from now, they'll call it 'Payback Tuesday'." It was about how Democrats were going to right the wrong of the 2000 election and take power away from the Republicans in the 2002 election.

Well, Moore turned out to be dead wrong. Rather than admit that he was wrong, he's tried to erase all evidence of his mistaken prediction. A search of his page and his archives shows the rant to be suspiciously absent. His November 3rd 'message' is completely gone, vanished, disappeared. The only way you can even read it is through the direct link that Rachel just happened to have on hand.

How long before even that is missing?

UPDATE (Originally posted 11/14/02 at 14:00): Apparently not long. They pulled the message already. So, I have it saved in PDF format *. (screenshots are so messy)

* You can download Acrobat reader from Adobe.com if you need it.

Check out this story to find out why a football player is running for a touchdown with nobody on the defensive team trying to stop him.

I'm warning you, it is quite touching. Don't blame me if you get all teary-eyed.

Apparently one coach struck a deal with the other. The player's coach wanted to get him some playing time at the end of the game, but didn't want the defense to cream him. Ahead 42-0, the opposing team's coach told him to go ahead and run it in for a touchdown.

The Herald-Dispatch takes a jab at the prima donnas in the NFL:

Those who play football on the highest levels should take notice.

No pen that Terrell Owens ever pulls out of his sock could write a scene more touching than this.

I am inclined to agree.

Campaigning for this year's dumbest criminal award, Joaquim Grace allegedly pulled a bank job just two blocks from his local watering hole. Not only that, but he stopped by the place 'where everybody knows his name' right after finishing the job. I guess grabbing a beer would help cool down the adrenalin rush of having just pulled a bank job.

BTW, this is why your's truly would never be a good bank robber.

Earlier this year, SCOTUS barred the execution of the mentally retarded.

With all the talk of trying the 'Beltway Snipers' in Virginia because they are more likely to implement the death penalty, what do you want to bet that both John Muhammed and John Lee Malvo are suddenly diagnosed as 'mentally retarded'.

No, this isn't something from the wayback machine. Algore is still speaking about the 2000 election, and apparently he is still bitter.

"I believe that if everyone in Florida who tried to vote had had his or her vote counted properly, that I would have won," says Algore in an interview with Washington Post Magazine. "I strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court decision and the way in which they interpreted and applied the law. But I respect the rule of law, so it is what it is."

Algore figures if you repeat something enough times, it becomes the truth. The fact of the matter is that the SCOTUS simply said that Florida must apply the law equally to all counties. They are not permitted to single out heavily democratic areas and apply different standards to divine more votes. Since the decision didn't go their way, lefties have repeatedly called for the resignation, and impeachment of some of the Justices. To back up their claims they repeatedly utter half truths and falsehoods.

The Washington Post does their part by calling it a "5-4 Supreme Court decision that put Bush in the White House." For the record, the SCOTUS decision was 7-2 in agreement that Florida's recount process violated Constitutional equal protection and due process guarantees. The 5-4 decision simply set the deadline for recounts at midnight of that day, effectively terminating the process.

Gwynn Park High School hadn't played football in 23 days because of the 'Beltway Sniper' hysteria in the DC area. They were undefeated, but to finish out the regular season they'd have to play 4 games in 12 days. Gwynn Park met the challenge and won all four games to cap off an undefeated season and earn a berth in the Maryland state playoffs.

They played and won their last four regular season games on October 29, November 2, November 5, and November 9. Their first playoff game is tonight. Good luck guys.

The number of people on hospital waiting lists has increased by over 12,000 in Britain, reports the Telegraph. Remember that next time some social wanker starts pushing for nationalized health care in the U.S. That doctor you currently have to wait a few days to see would then be 6 to 18 months away.

Take a guess at just who and what the NY Times is talking about:

[he] bravely waded yesterday into his roughest waters yet...

...performing a rare profile in courage...

[If they] can manage to be half as courageous as...

Give up yet? Is it George W. Bush for taking a hardline stance with Iraq? Is it Colin Powell for shoring up support in t he UN? Perhaps it is Rummy for easing the fears that we are on the cusp of World War III. Nope. They are talking about the Republican Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg and his decision to push for substantial tax increases.

What do you expect from people who just the other day considered the lack of a commuter tax to be 'unconscionable'.

Chalk up a victory for free speech. West Virginia University is back-tracking on their 'free speech zone' policy. They had declared that freedom of expression only applied in a few small 'free speech zones'. Protest and assembly was banned on the area of the campus (about 95%) that lay outside the free speech zones.

Check out this photographic history of Michael Jackson's nose. It is funny, but not for the weak at heart. (or stomach)

I've ranted a lot about smoker's rights. (Which some consider strange since I don't smoke.)

Anyway, I stand humbled before the man. Acidman takes a moment to respond to a anti-smoking nazi do-gooder that thinks he has a right to tell people what to do with their property.

Question: If a teenager steals a handgun from a family friend, and then uses that gun to murder his teacher, who is at fault?
Answer: Everyone except the teen.

A jury in West Palm Beach (it figures) awarded the victim's wife $24 million. The award was broken down as $12 million from the family friend, $10.8 million from the school board, and $1.2 million from the distributor of the gun, based on a 50/45/5 percent split in responsibility.

The CNN article sets the tone of the trial:

Attorneys for Pam Grunow had said the gun [an inexpensive model from Raven Arms, Inc.] has no purpose because it's too unreliable and that it's not used by collectors, law enforcement officers or the military, or for target practice, hunting or self-defense.

Grunow's attorneys had hoped for a verdict large enough to force companies to stop selling the Raven.

So, they weren't out for money, they wanted to further their anti-gun agenda. John Hawkins points out an interesting fact that CNN conveniently omits:

The jury didn't find any liability for Nathanial Brazill, who pulled the trigger. Brazill stole the unloaded gun and bullets from a cookie tin stashed away in a dresser drawer of family friend Elmore McCray.

How the jury could find the gun distributor and school board at fault, is almost as boggling as to how they could find Brazill 0% at fault for his own actions. But then again, these are the people who had trouble mastering the complex process of voting.

This really bugs me. My ex-girlfriend owns a pit bull, and it is one of the most lovable and obedient dogs I've ever met. Plus it is a great security dog for a single female to own.

Notice how the 'justification' for banning pit bulls parallels the 'justification' for banning firearms.

Dog warden staffers said drug dealers tend to keep them for security or as status symbols.

"Anywhere you find drugs, you're going to find a pit bull in that area," [Deputy Dog Warden] Stannard said.

"These dogs are basically used for nothing but fighting and guarding," he said.

Area authorities have received a few calls over the years of pit bulls attacking people and other dogs. Nationally, pit bulls have killed children and mauled people.

Stannard said some pit bulls are trained to be social with people but to go after other animals. The dogs are primarily a danger to neighborhood animals and small children, he said.

I'm surprised they didn't say "nobody needs to own a pit bull" the same way they say that about firearms. And what is so bad about using dogs for "guarding"? People have literally used guard dogs for thousands of years.

My family owned a mix poodle when I was growing up. It was territorial and would attack other dogs. It snapped at children and was responsible for a nasty bite on my cheek. (although I deserved it) The point is, you could say this about lots of dogs. Pit bulls get a bad rap simply because they are sensationalized in the news. (It is the same phenomena as 'shark bites' and 'gun violence') So much so that most people think that the "San Francisco Dog Mauling Trial" was centered around pit bulls. *

This year it's pit bulls, next year it's Presa Canarios. The year after it'll be some other breed. Owners should be punished for what actually happens if they lose control of their dogs, not for what may happen.

* Those dogs were Presa Canarios (named for the Canary Islands), but most people couldn't tell you that.

A service station owner in Connecticut uses a firearm to disarm a would-be robber armed with a crow bar.

Perhaps someone out there can tell me what a ".44-caliber shotgun" is. The only think I can think of is they either meant to say .410 gauge or .44 caliber handgun.

Canada's clash over Kyoto - Canadian scientists are starting to admit that there is no hard scientific evidence to support Kyoto's doomsday theories. Unfortunately, the cries are falling on deaf ears.

Squirrel-friendly road could cost millions extra - Endangered or not, it is still a rat with a bushy tail.

Its nice to see that a slumping economy hasn't affected everyone.

Parents of a moronic MIT student who died while trying to get high off nitrous oxide are suing the college for failing to properly baby sit their 22-year old son. The Boston Herald reports that the suit "alleges MIT 'breached their duty to provide reasonable care, supervision and oversight of students in dormitories,' and 'should have known' there was 'drug use' at East Campus."

Perhaps the parents should have known their dumb-ass 22-year old son was getting hopped up on laughing gas. Now they have the nerve to fault the university for failing to supervise their 22-year old son?

Just ONCE, I'd like to serve on a jury for one of these trials. (Like it'd ever get to trial) I'd love to see the mortified look on the parent's faces when I stand up from the jury box and scream "YOUR IDIOT SON WAS A DOPEHEAD AND A MORON! YOU GET NOTHING! NOTHING!"

My insensitivity streak is in full view today.

Just over two weeks ago, NCAA fans were stressed about there being 8 undefeated teams in NCAA football. It was too many. How can they crown a national champion with all those undefeated teams out there? As most astute football fans know, a lot can change in two weeks.

Now there are just 2 undefeated teams, and fans are crying that it may not be enough. Undefeated Miami has three tough games versus Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech left to play. Ohio State has two games left versus Illinois and Michigan. If either Miami or OSU (or both) gets knocked off before the end of the season, a one-loss team may be selected to go to Tempe. That would start the who beat who, and who is better than who conjecture that happens every year at the end of the NCAA season. That is the problem of not having a playoff system.

The magical BCS computer formulas, which change every year, are supposed to crunch the numbers and determine who is worthy to compete for the National Championship. But even they don't solve the problem of a once-beaten Texas, Oklahoma, Washington State, OSU, Notre Dame, Miami, Iowa, Georgia gridlock. The computers love Ohio State right now, but if they lose to Michigan at the end of the season, they are almost assuredly out. Washington State would probably get the nod over Ohio State, even though OSU beat them on the field. Ironically, the scenario would favor Washington State, because they lost to a good OSU team, whereas OSU would have lost to a 'decent' Michigan team.

A playoff system would eliminate a lot of the skepticism that fans have about the mystical computer formulas. It would also eliminate the need for a team to go undefeated to be considered for the National Championship. The push for teams to play perfectly all season long puts enormous pressure on them, because typically a single loss is all that is needed to ruin your chance to play in the big game. Teams that do lose a game, have no chance unless other teams lose as well. That is, they no longer control their own fate. Once other teams lose, they are at an advantage because they lost earlier in the season than the others.

Although a playoff would mean that one or two loss teams still have a shot at the title, BCS proponents claim that a playoff will never work in college football. (Not to mention that NCAA football already has a working playoff system, in Division I-AA.) BCS skeptics know the real reason for not holding a playoff is money. In a world where more than 50% of all Division I-A teams go to a bowl game, the almighty green-back is king.

The threat of losing revenue doesn't bode well for a playoff system. For the mean time, NCAA football will continue to suffer under the dreaded BCS computer polls. Hopefully the advent of computers will bring on some large scale corruption that will swing the need for change in the fans favor. Perhaps a computer hacker will manipulate the polls to put Bowling Green back in the race for a national title.

Since I'm just a spectator, I can only hope.

"We want the offenders who hate, hurt and harm others to know the Met will do everything in its power to find them out and put a stop to their crime," said Commander Cressida Dick, director of the Diversity Directorate in London, England. BBC News also reports the disturbing fact that "most have been arrested on suspicion of making racist threats and of homophobic harassment."

While the act of making threats, harrassment, and intimidation is a crime, I am very skeptical. Where is the evidence of actual crimes? This appears to be some sort of modern-day 'red scare'. Residents of London have been encouraged by posters all over town to turn in their neighbors, or 'name names'. What's to stop people from turning in those that they feel are racist, homophobic, or just mean, but have committed no crime?

I agree that real crimes should be punished, but hate is not a crime. If it was, you'd have to arrest all the Cowboy fans at a Redskin's game.

Whenever we have a government authority trying to get into a person's head to see how they 'think' or 'feel', I get worried. It is not logical to conclude that a crime inspired by hate is somehow worse than the same crime inspired by greed (or any other factor). Unfortunately, now the government is arresting people who haven't even committed an actual crime.

Micah Zoerner, a Wisconsin teen, is blaming a video game for inspiring him to go out and steal cars.

In related news, Zoerner's cell mate is blaming a gay porn video for inspiring him to sodomize his new teenaged friend.

Happy trails, Micah. I hope you like tossed salad.

Jack Cluth seems to be stuck in a rut lately. He's starting to question his very reason for blogging. I'm not sure whether or not it's blog burn out, or a post-election malaize, but I'd hate to see Jack go either way.

As I told Jack, his is just about the only liberal weblog I actually enjoy reading. If he closes up shop, I won't read any liberal weblogs, and my journey toward the dark side will be complete. I will have no other choice but to embrace the dark side, and take my place by the emporer's side.

Not to mention, if he closes up shop, the terrorists will have already won.

Besides, I don't see any donation links on his page. That means this probably isn't a cheap publicity stunt to increase revenue.

The New York Daily News reports Kevin Spacey's feelings on our impending conflict with Iraq.

"We have [fewer] troops in Afghanistan at this moment than we had in Kosovo. There's no clear victory in Afghanistan."

Sure, we only ousted the Taliban, and made a vast improvement of the rights of women and children. So what if little girls can go to school without fear, and women are free to walk around without their burkas on. What have we really done?

"There's not a single domestic issue that anyone in this country was paying attention to."

I guess Kev has never heard of Zogby. They reported right before the election that 60 to 70% of Americans thought the ECONOMY was the key issue this election cycle. Perhaps Kevin fails to see the relationship between terrorism and our economy.

Republicans "left the impression that if you questioned whether [an invasion] is a good idea or not, you're unpatriotic."

Kevin, Republicans consider you an idiot, not unpatriotic for failing to see the threat that is posed by Iraq. I guess Syria, France, and Russia are actually showing U.S. patriotism, in their support for us tightening our grip on Iraq.

With Saddam waiting to see if the U.S. will blink, said Spacey, "I hope that wisdom will prevail, that we'll find a a way to diplomatically solve what is no bigger a crisis than the missiles of October [i.e., the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis].

Yeah the threat of force didn't cause Russia to pull missles out of Cuba. Oh, wait, yes it did. Well then, the Cuban Missle Crisis must not have been a very big deal. It probably didn't even make the papers the next day.

The same Fox News story notes that Anheuser-Busch's success comes on the back of 21 to 27 year olds.

Baker said beer volume can increase along with the growth of the 21-year old to 27-year old segment as beer volume is driven more by demographics than the economy.

What about the 16 to 21 year old demographic? I am a strong believer in lowering or abolishing minimum drinking ages. Our mothers and fathers grew up being able to drink at age 18, and they turned out ok. Many foreign countries, like Germany, the drinking age is even lower, or does not exist at all.

The idea that it somehow reduces teen drinking and driving, or accidents is incorrectly held up as justification for raising the drinking age. By that logic, you should raise the drinking age to 45, to cut down on alcohol related deaths and accidents in the 21 to 45 age group.

When a person turns 18, they are considered an adult. They are permitted to fight a war for our military, vote in elections, drive an automobile, purchase a firearm, rent or buy a house, pilot an aircraft. However, they still cannot take a drink. There is something wrong with that logic. Why is it that the same people that are against 18 year olds being permitted to drink are in favor of trying 16 year olds as an adult for serious crimes? Parents let their children watch violent movies and play violent video games, but alcohol (and sex for that matter) are considered taboo.

There is no doubt in my mind that an 18 year old still has a lot of immaturity. They are still developing into an adult, and may not be the most responsible person in the world. However, I feel that responsibility comes from experience. Just like teaching minors proper firearm safety is much better than hiding your pistol on the top closet shelf, teaching minors and young adults that alcoholic consumption also comes with great responsibility is better than an outright ban. Besides kids are always trying to grow up fast any way. Reserving alcoholic consumption for the arbitrary age of 21 only serves as encouragement for under-21 kids to try to sneak a drink. The desire to feel and act older is a strong one, and forbidding alcohol only serves to increase that desire.

Fox News reports that Anheuser-Busch is having an excellent year:

Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (BUD), the world's largest brewer, stood by its forecasts Wednesday, saying it is having an "excellent" year and that outlook for a continuation of strong earnings growth is "very favorable."

They didn't so much as send me a Christmas card.

Yet another "What ___ are you?" quiz.

Surprise, I am the famed Desert Eagle. One of the most powerful handguns in the world.

The New York Times has a few ideas on how Bloomberg can balance the budget in New York City. It should serve as no surprise that their suggestions follow a very liberal ideology.

Mr. Bloomberg knows he must raise taxes and cut spending while trying not to heap too much of the burden on any one segment of the population. He should begin with those who are carrying less than their share now.

On the surface, this seems like an acceptable premise. But the actual suggestions the Times makes don't hit the mark. They don't even support their premise of taxing those that carry 'less than their share now.'

...the East River bridges should [not] continue to be toll-free.

A tax on commuters and city residents that live in the outer boroughs. That should help bring people back into New York.

The commuter tax, which was unconscionably repealed in 1999, should be revived.

I think it's funny that they use the word "unconscionable".

Miriam-Webster defines unconscionable: 1: not guided or controlled by conscience : UNSCRUPULOUS 2: a: EXCESSIVE, UNREASONABLE b: shockingly unfair or unjust.

It is very telling that the New York Times finds the lack of a commuter tax unconscionable. I'm surprised they didn't just call it 'terrorism'.

A surcharge on the personal income tax that is slanted to the wealthiest New Yorkers...

What happened to taxing those that are 'carrying less than their share now'? Are we to believe that NYC currently taxes the poor and lets the wealthy get off scott free? How is increasing taxes on the wealthy the least bit fair? The communist liberal socialist answer is to tax those that have the 'ability' to pay.

The city can do an Albany bypass with an across-the-board hike in the property tax

Bloomberg is already floating the number 25 percent around. That means he'll probably come in around 10 or 15 percent, and is using 25 percent just to soften the blow. At least the times says 'across the board'. I won't be surprised if the socialist jack up the exemption to ween the poor and middle class off the tax rolls. (Then again, are there really any poor property owners in NY?)

...absentee landlords currently taxed at the single-family rate should be reclassified as commercial property owners...

Who do they think pays property tax? Tenants, perhaps? Taxing 'absentee landlords' that rent out their property will only serve to raise rental rates. Unless of course, they intend to use rent control to stick it to the property owners. In that case, properties will start to go into disrepair, or just close down altogether. Either way, property values will decline. Landlords are not going to rent their property at a loss.

The suggestions made by the Times are typical of someone that knows nothing about how economics work. NYC already lost thousands of local firms and employees when they lost the World Trade Center. Raising tolls, property taxes, and commuter taxes is no way to attract business back to New York. Taking money out of the hands of property owners and making rental properties unprofitable will only serve to degrade their economic situation even further. These measures are almost as absurd as raising cigarette taxes to balance your budget, and then following it up with a smoking ban. (Oh wait, NYC already did that!)

So, Bloomberg, the Democratic City Council and the Times are trying to seriously screw up New York City. Why should we care, we don't live there? Well, you can bet that after they pass all these anti-capitalist measures and still have a budget problem, they'll be looking for federal bailout money. And guess who will be footing that bill?

Carnival of the Vanities #8 is up! There is a lot of good stuff posted there.

Silflay Hraka

Blogcritics

Fox News reports that "a federal program to randomly check cars in a search for terrorists and illegal immigrants was being brought to Michigan."

Although the story doesn't elaborate on how close to the border the random checks will take place, our staff writers are skeptical. Government agents and police are always looking for new ways to pry into the private lives of Americans. This sounds like harrassment of U.S. citizens under the guise of homeland security. How many people will be arrested on unrelated charges stemming from the 'random citizenship checks'?

I think that any federal and state officers performing such 'random citizenship checks' should be required to wear knee high boots and goose-step to and from your vehicle.

I've got to work out of town today and Wednesday, so blogging will be sporadic. I'm sure you'll survive until I get back!

Best Buy opens at 10:00 AM. At 10:01 AM, I purchased my Star Wars Episode II DVD and free Star Wars Calendar.

Bill Quick is back from retirement already. Just to prove that the outpouring of support and inpouring of donations were not just a blatant ponzi scam, he's even offering to return any donations that were made.

Should I be worried that the VRWC page gets more hits than the my main page? I guess it is an interesting kind of blogroll for those members that have a weblog.

Remember, to be included, send an email along with your card (and link if applicable) to vrwc-at-ravnwood-dot-com.

Ammo Day is one week away!

California Democrats turned out in droves for Gray Davis. The Washington Times looks at what Davis has done during his first four years:

• Turned a $7 Billion surplus into a $23.6 Billion deficit.


• Increased the California annual budget from $57.8 Billion to $78 Billion his first two years in office. An increase of 15% and 17%.


• Increased the state payroll by 33,000 employees, more than the next three largest states combined.


• Borrowed $6 Billion during an energy crisis to pay for future energy deliveries at 3 times the market price.

What was Davis' reaction to this? The Times quotes him as saying, "The problem is not spending, the problem is lack of revenue."

With Davis as Governor, and Dems in control of the Legislature, it should be a regular Liberal Utopia out there. Well, California, you voted for him. Now the rest of us get to sit back and watch the Democratic dream in action.

A boy has seriously burned himself by allegedly copying a 'Jackass' stunt. Apparently, a 15 year old boy doused himself in rubbing alcohol and set himself on fire while his buddies filmed it. He suffered only first degree burns, so he should be ok.

The sad thing is that he'll probably sue MTV and/or the makers of 'Jackass'. I can only hope that I'm on that jury so I can deny his stupid ass an award. While I'm not in the practice of expressing jubilation at other people's pain, I have no sympathy for idiots that are the victim of their own stupidity.

Every activity in life has inherent risks. From driving a car to skydiving, you are taking chances where ever you go. If you ignore these risks, or are too stupid to recognize them, so be it. You deserve what you get.

Survival of the fittest baby, that is what it is about!

Last night, I watched in horror as ESPN fawned over that bitch from the NCWO, who is whining about women being excluded from Augusta National, a private club. A REAL reporter would have asked questions like:

"Are you just doing this for publicity?"
"Aren't there more serious women's issues you could be devoting time to?"
"Your organization hasn't exactly been hurt by all the attention, now has it?"

Instead ESPN lobbed up softball questions about what she thought of Hootie Johnson's position, and asked what her next steps were going to be.

At the very least, when she called him a 'bigot' no less than three times, they should have played devil's advocate and challenged her on that.

I set the UltimateTV to record Behind Enemy Lines last night. I had never seen it, but didn't feel like staying up to watch it. I started watching it tonight, and turned it off after a point. The story line is ok, but the action sequences are ludicrous. My first beef was with the long hair. I grew up in a military town, and spent the first 12 years of my life getting 'regulation' haircuts at the Navy barber. There is no way in hell a Naval Aviator would have long hair, but I was willing to overlook it.

My second beef was them using a steam catapult to 'kick' a football off the flight deck of the carrier. [biting my tongue]

My third beef came with the Navy F-18 sequences. Either the Navy has greatly increased the speed of their F-18s, or the Serb forces have VERY slow SAMs. The F-18 pilot was able to successfully evade a SAM by merely out running it, and then faking it out with an exploded drop tank. [rolling my eyes...]

My fourth beef came after their plane was hit. The REO ejected, and the pilot was left in the plane trying to eject himself. It was at this point, I turned it off. There is only so much military inaccuracy I can take, and they reached the limit in record time.

Rather than waste my time on a wanna-be war movie, I put Patton in the DVD player and lit up a premium cigar. I think it's a proper way to cap off Veteran's Day?

(image courtesy of the Veteran's Day Nat'l Cmte.)
(scroll down for today's content)

Bill Quick is fed up. It looks like for good this time.

Unless the outpouring of gushing support is enough to sway him back into the blogosphere, he appears to be taking his ball and going home.

Hey Bill, if you ever get an itch to blog again, you can always join the staffwriters at Ravenwood's Universe. The pay sucks and you have to work long hours, but you've earned enough stripes to merit a guest column here if you want one.

One election result that was vastly overlooked last week, was a Massachusetts (a/k/a Taxachusetts) ballot initiative called the Small Government Act. The bill would have repealed the state income tax and taken $9 Billion (with a B) out of the Mass. state budget. That is $9,000,000,000 or $9,000-Million in the hands of working families rather than in big government coffers. (We reported about it last month.)

What is most surprising, and what you won't hear in major media outlets, is that the measure garnered more support than anyone had predicted. While some polls showed the measure down by 25 points going into the election, it actually failed with a whopping 45.4% of the vote, with 54.6% supporting taxation. ¹ In some localities, it actually garnered a majority of the vote.

This offers a pretty good illustration of just how lots of Americans feel about taxation. Had this measure been on the ballot in a more conservative state, it may have passed. ² At the very least, it should send a message to Massachusetts politicians that raising taxes could be very career limiting. While I am not normally a fan of ballot initiatives, this seems like a good way to send a message to state level politicians that taxing us to death and beyond ³ is not something people take lightly.

Clearly, progressive taxation is a cornerstone of communism. Marxist.org lists as a principle of communism: "Limitation of private property through progressive taxation, heavy inheritance taxes, abolition of inheritance through collateral lines..." Who does this sound like? ⁴ The idea that someone who makes more money should pay more taxes, yet enjoy less benefits, and have the same representation as those on the receiving end is nothing short of pinko communism. If you listen to people that support higher taxation on the wealthy, they talk about "need" and "ability to pay". The argument is that people with higher incomes don't "need" the money as much as those with lower incomes. They have a greater "ability" to pay. A cornerstone of Karl Marx's communist manifesto is "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need."

When people agree with Marxism, it worries me. Nonetheless, poll a bunch of people, and you are likely to find that they support the view. ⁵ These are likely the same people whose retirement plan consists of playing the lottery, or winning a million dollars on a game show.

If only economics were properly taught in grade school. Too many dolts out there think there is a finite amount of money in this country. The look at income as something that is distributed and not something that is earned or something that can grow. They think that the lowering of taxes automatically means less government money. In fact, lowering of taxes spurs economic growth. With lower taxes AND increased economic growth, federal tax monies can actually increase. Obviously government spending cannot go unchecked, and lowering taxes too much will decrease the federal budget. (Which would be a good thing in my opinion) It should be noted that all these states that are whining about not being able to balance their budget without severe cuts or tax increases, are the same states that have increased spending 30% or more over the past 5 years.

The reason I am a proponent of 'small government' is obvious. Big Government drives the need for big taxes. A wise man once told me that "Government doesn't tax to provide services. It provides services so that it can tax." ⁶ So true, so true.

Until my dream is realized, all I can do is keep shouting. And keep shouting I shall.

¹Why anyone would support more taxation amazes me.
²Or perhaps not. In states where income tax 'isn't as bad', it may not have garnered as much support.
³Taxation does not end with death.
⁴Democrats
⁵Watch Survivor this week. The promos show a bunch of people talking about a contestant that should be voted off simply because they don't "need" the money.
⁶It was Acidman.

Anyone who uses Movable Type will notice a few buttons above the entry window that easily let them do bold, italic, or underline. They basically insert the opening and closing HTML tag on any selected text within the window.

Why not have some macro buttons up there that you can program? If you frequently use strikethrough, different font colors, or different font sizes, or whatever, you should be able to simply set up your opening and closing HTML tags and use the hot buttons rather than having to type the tags in manually each time.

If they don't do it, one of these days, I'll have to edit the movable type interface manually, and do it myself.

Estonia, Latvia, Croatia, and Russia all have flat taxes. Communist China is considering the flat tax. Why aren't we?

Fortunately, John Linder, R-GA won re-election this year. He has been the champion of a flat tax proposal in the U.S. Congress.

Is this the King of all mobile homes? It certainly is an original idea.

Well, don't hit the streets with your walking billboard just yet. Scientists are starting to fret over the impending pole reversal of the Earth. If you've ever taken Geology (or perhaps even Astronomy), you probably know that it is scientific knowledge that the Earth's magnetic poles flip every 250,000 years or so. That is, North becomes South, and vice versa. Since it has been about 1 million years since the last flip, we are long overdue.

Scientists theorize that the Earth's magnetic field will disappear during the flip and the Earth will be bombarded with solar radiation. Since estimates for how long the flip will take are anywhere from two weeks to 1000 years, what will happen to man-kind and the inhabitants of Earth is subject to a lot of conjecture.

I've never really understood why people waste so much time and energy worrying about something we have no control over. This is akin to worrying about when the Sun will go nova, and destroy the Earth. I have the same philosophy about death. I came to the realization long ago, that I am going to die. I have almost no control over it, except for trying to postpone it as long as possible, and to try to control the when, where, and how.

This helps explain why I live by The General's motto.

Live the good life. Drink, smoke, gamble, feast, joke, fornicate and be tolerant of those who do. Take risks and thrive for the good challenge. Work hard and play hard without going over the edge. Live in the moment. Believe in moderation in all things, including moderation. Live it up!

Life is finite. You might as well enjoy it while you can. Drive an SUV, smoke if you want to, drink, fornicate. Do what you want, as long as you don't deprive anyone else in their pursuit of the same. This is why, I am libertarian!

No, this wasn't written by the Onion:

Violence mars anti-war rally
Brussels - A protest against war in Iraq turned violent on Sunday in Brussels when dozens of youths clashed with police and attacked American-owned businesses.

Up to 100 masked rioters, many of them of Arab origin, broke away from the main body of other antiwar protesters who were marching through the city centre

Normally, I have the utmost respect for misguided peaceniks that are delusional enough to think that peace can be obtained through written agreements rather than forceful deterrence. However, I rescind that respect when they march along side masked militants whose sole agenda is to loot, riot, and wreak havoc on society.

There is a point in time when these people need to look at what they are doing, and realize that riots* are not a proper form of protest. If they want to protest, fine, but they should have the responsibility of making sure rioters aren't invited.

*I refuse to use the PC term 'civil disobedience'. Someone refusing to pooper-scooper their dog is practicing civil disobedience. Someone throwing cinder blocks through shop windows and hitting police with rocks and bottles is rioting.

There were a lot of thunderstorms and tornadoes that came through the area last night.

It got pretty scary at one point. I was sitting in my living room watching the weather alert on TV. I could hear what sounded like a frieght train outside. I peered out the window through the blinds. It was very dark outside, and hard to see. The rain and wind were pounding very hard against the window, and I thought it might break. Trees and leaves were blowing very hard, and the wind was gusting quite high.

I squinted and looked out across the parking lot. Then I saw it. It right there. It was perhaps 50 yards from where I parked my car and moving to the west. It was groaning and squealing, and making an awful racket. I couldn't get a photo of it, because it was so dark, but here is what it looked like.

The internet may become a lot smaller for Europeans. Apparently the EU is considering passing an internet "hate speech" law. Wired notes that:

The Council of Europe has adopted a measure that would criminalize Internet hate speech, including hyperlinks to pages that contain offensive content.
Specifically, the amendment bans "any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as pretext for any of these factors."

It is generally accepted that when faced with such a ban, Europeans simply set up a U.S. based web site rather than a European one, to take advantage of our First Amendment protections. The E.U. feels that it will be difficult to enforce unless they get cooperation from U.S. law enforcement officials when requesting information about U.S. based web sites.

It will also be interesting to see who sets the subjective standard? Will Ravenwood's Universe be banned in Europe? Certainly it could be argued that some of my content is "hate speech". Especially when I'm talking about the French.

My staff writers also wanted me to remind you that controlling information and the media is but one of the pillars of a totalitarian state.

While I understand that tornadoes and thunderstorms are important, I was horrified to see Fox 8 Cleveland cut off the last few seconds of the Atlanta-Pittsburgh game for a weather alert.

Fortunately for Fox, Pittsburgh's hail mary pass was about a foot short of the goal line, and a 'heidi game' was technically averted.

I went to the Medina gun show yesterday and purchased a Yugoslavian SKS. It is a pre-ban 1969 model with an attached bayonet and grenade launcher. It shoots 7.62x39 mm ammunition.

There are certain people out there, (like Kim) who will chastise me for buying a communist rifle, but it is hard to beat the bargain. If the U.S. Government was willing to import Yugo cars during the cold war, I don't have a problem buying their rifles.

A model like this will set you back a whopping $129 + tax. Cheap Russian ammo that it was made to shoot is only 7.5 cents per round, or $75 per 1000 rounds. After sweeping out the barrel a few times*, I loaded it up and test fired it. It is surprisingly accurate, and I was able to hit a 12" round metal target 9 times out of 10 at 100 yards.

The buddies I went shooting with had quite a cache of firearms. We took turns shooting different arms, which included an AR-15, fully auto M-16, .44 Magnum, .454 Pistol, and various other rifles and pistols. Needless to say, my shoulder is a bit sore this morning.

* It is always recommended that you completely clean your arms prior to shooting. After my test firing, I completely disassembled the firearm, and cleaned every part. The stock was also very oily, so I stripped it with a de-greaser and re-oiled it with a furniture oil. Remember, firearms like this have been in storage for 30+ years, and are commonly packed in heavy grease.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention, I used to own a Chinese model in college, but I sold it for beer money.

When I attended Virginia Tech, we used to yell from the stands, "Whatever you do, don't kick it!" Those were the good old days of football. We were 2-8-1, and losing wasn't such a big deal. Our place kicker was so bad, that we almost always went for a 2-point conversion, and going for it on fourth down rather than attempting a field goal was the norm. Those days are coming back to Virginia Tech.

Yesterday, a lackluster defense, bad coaching, and back kicking really hurt the team. Not to take anything away from Syracuse, but VT's star running back Lee Suggs, only had 8 carries through the first three quarters. This doesn't seem too smart for a team whose bread and butter up until now has been running the football. Even before Kevin Jones was hurt last week, they had scaled back on rushing and seemed to be trying to force the pass. Obvious problems arise when you throw the ball on every down. Even bigger problems arise when you throw the ball to the same player on every down. Despite the obvious play calling, Ernest Wilford was still able to score 5 touchdowns.

Just like the old days, what hurt most was kicking. Kicking for both Syracuse and Virginia Tech was an adventure and comical at best. When it came down to crunch time, however, Carter Warley of Virginia Tech missed a short field goal with time running out in the fourth quarter, and again in the first overtime that would have won the game.

Since we may be going to war, I wanted to throw together a list of my favorite war movies. To be considered, war and fighting must have been a major theme in the movie, not just part of the setting. For this reason, excellent movies like Casablanca and Empire of the Sun are not included.

1. (tie) Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb - Cold War hysteria. Best Dark Comedy.
1. (tie) Patton - When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do.
3. Full Metal Jacket - Is that you John Wayne? Is this me?
4. Apocalypse Now - I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
5. We Were Soldiers - Lots of action.
6. Tora! Tora! Tora! - The REAL Pearl Harbor movie.
7. Glory - Best Civil War film.
8. Mister Roberts - Best War film without showing the war.
9. MASH - Second Best War film without showing the war.
10. Green Berets - Fighting soldiers from the skies.
11. Platoon - Charlie Sheen's only good film.
12. The Longest Day - WWII, D-Day, all star cast, what more could you want?
13. Saving Private Ryan - Overrated, but still near the top.
14. Great Escape - Best POW film.
15. Pork Chop Hill - Best 'Pointless Mission' film.

Honorable Mentions:

Band of Brothers - Best War Miniseries.
Midway - Best War in the Pacific film
In Harms Way - Second Best War in the Pacific film
1941 - Best War Comedy
Red Dawn - Best WWIII.
BAT*21 - Best 'trapped behind enemy lines' film. (yes, better than Blackhawk Down)
Blackhawk Down - Best 'we screwed up royally' film
Kelly's Heroes - Best TBS flick, who loves ya baby?

Funny how George C. Scott starred in my top two films, and John Wayne barely cracks the Top 10. Surprisingly, there are no good movies featuring the Revolutionary War. I'm sure I missed some good films. Feel free to flame me in the comments.

Fox News is reporting that Secretary of State, Colin Powell was instrumental in securing UN votes from France and Russia. His diplomacy was what turned them from the dark side, as late as 20 minutes prior to the vote.

This isn't exactly the kind of job you'd expect a 'house slave' to be handling, and I think it helps serve as a big 'F- YOU' to harry belafonte.

Belafonte is prolly still upset at Colin for not getting paid for this parody. (still one of my favorites)

Taking advice directly from Ravenwood's Universe, the grandfather of a girl attacked by a rodentus terrorizedus, has hunted down and killed the furry little bastard with an air gun. (It is only a matter of time before the British police arrest the perpetrator for illegally carrying an air gun.)

"When I tracked him down I was surprised how big he was. He came down a tree and headed for me, but I shot him before he jumped," said Geoff Horth, who single-handedly took on the vicious squirrel. "Its a shame he went nuts, [pun intended?] but I couldn't let this little beggar hold the town to ransom."

My staff writers are urging me to apologize for making light of the situation yesterday. I had no idea the squirrel had made ransom demands. This was apparently a very grave situation indeed.

First posted 7/27/2002:

For those of you that have been desperately afraid of alien abductions, fear no more. For a mere $35, you can make a helmet to protect you from alien mind control. It looks like it'd be rather hot to wear around in the summer, but the instructions say that you can punch some holes into it and not affect the functionality too much. Just make sure you take it off your head first.

I reposted this because Michele is always talking about tin-foil hats. I'm hoping to illustrate that it takes more than tin-foil to stop alien abductions. (well, not much more)

For those of you that are bad at remembering holidays, Monday is Veteran's Day.

In rememberance, I'll be displaying my POW-MIA flag through Monday.

Originally called Armistice Day, this holiday was established to honor Americans who had served in World War I. It falls on November 11, the day when that war ended in 1918, but it now honors veterans of all wars in which the United States has fought. (src)

Even Syria voted in support of the UN Resolution against Iraq.

Saddam has 7 days to answer, and 30 days to come up with a list of all their nucular, chemical, and biological weapons facilities. My personal thoughts are that he'll let us in, but try to stall and bide his time. Still, it is going to be interesting.

Is it too early to starting singing? "Na na na na.. na na na na... hey hey hey.. good bye!"

UPDATE: Over at Neo-Libertarian News Portal, a site which I don't visit enough, Robert postulates that the UN might have just saved itself with this vote.

He may be correct that they had selfish reasons for supporting us, (like keeping their NYC office space), but I think they are a long way from saving themselves. Albeit, this is a step in the right direction.

For all of you pro-gun licensing people out there, this is why Americans are so opposed to giving in to licensing schemes.

Bangladesh Orders Surrender of Firearms in Anti-Crime Crackdown Operation
In Bangladesh, citizens have been ordered to surrender licensed firearms, as part of a massive anti-crime operation launched by the army, three weeks ago. The government has also ordered more troops onto the streets, to bolster its countrywide crackdown on crime.

Hundreds of Bangladeshis began surrendering firearms and ammunition after authorities told them to hand them in by mid-November or face legal action. The government says the latest move is part of efforts to ensure that the army-led operation to stamp out violent crime in the country is successful.

For those of you that say confiscation will never happen, it already has. England, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand have all used gun registries to enforce a confiscatory ban. In the US, California and New York City have done the same with certain types of firearms.

(link via Owen)

I apologize that the site is running slow lately. My hosting provider is working on the issue. The site seems to load somewhat ok, but the CGI is very slow, so posting and commenting is a bear. If you write a comment, I suggest you copy it to your clipboard prior to submitting it, in case it is swallowed by the cyber-gods.

UPDATE: No sooner than I posted this, my host solved the problem. Hopefully everything is back up to speed now.

Carl Collins' wife had filed a restraining order against him. Police had filed an arrest warrant against him. He had even previously threatened her with a gun. Still, Carl Collins was able to break into his estranged wife's home and sever the phone lines so that she could not ring the police. Fortunately, when Collins' chased his wife into her son's room, he was met with a load of buckshot and pronounced DRT*.

* Dead Right There

Calling all criminals. Do you want to steal a car? If so, Atlanta is now the place to do it. Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington is expected to release new rules to officers regarding police chases. The AJC notes that "under the new policy, officers will chase suspects only for serious offenses against people, such as murder, rape or robbery. Offenses such as stolen automobiles or traffic violations will not warrant chases."

I guess anyone that invested in LoJack just threw their money away. Imagine calling the Atlanta police, expecting to recover your car within the hour. "Sorry ma'am, we tried pulling them over, but they run oft. Maybe they'll head up into Cobb County where their cops are allowed to drive over 55."

The AJC also notes that "most people who flee police... do so because of minor crimes and misdemeanors like car thefts, DUIs or refusing to stop at traffic check points."

Well, now they might as well not even bother with check points, since anyone violating any laws, is encouraged to run them. Unless of course, they are only interested in catching criminals who voluntarily give themselves up.

Back in Virginia Beach, where I grew up, they chased a guy and got him barricaded in with a road block at a major intersection. When he refused to get out of his car, they shot him 48 times in self defense. It didn't do that guy any good, but it sure as hell cut down on police chases.

I would like to keep track of all the members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

If you are a member, please email your cards to vrwc-at-ravnwood-dot-com. If you run a weblog, or want a link included, please let me know.

England is a country where the citizens are unarmed, and self defense is a crime. Now they are being terrorized by a fuzzy little squirrel. Why did we bail these people out in WWII, only to have them conquered by a legion of rodents? Next thing you know, even the French will be making fun of them.

Perhaps we should ship them an army of 12 year old boys armed with BB guns to help them fight back.

"Everyone round here is living in fear...it's a vicious little thing. I'll never trust squirrels again," says Blanche Kellye, a local resident.

Personally, I learned my lesson years ago, when I loaned a squirrel $20 and he never paid me back.

(link via ATS)

UPDATE: Why didn't I think of this? Taranto thinks Reuters should have known better. "One man's terrorist is another's nut gatherer."

Election glitch missed 103,000 votes in Florida county

Al Gore declared winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes and is set to take over Presidency immediately.

Democrat Underground goes "Pay to Play":

Due to the unexpectedly high traffic to our website since election day, we are currently limiting access to our message board. Only individuals who have donated to Democrat Underground during the last year are being given access.

Too bad too. I was having so much fun making fun of them. Interestingly, they list 'The Media' as number one of their "Top Ten Conservative Idiots"

UPDATE: I feel I should remind you that content at Ravenwood's Universe is being brought to you free of charge. That should free up some of your cash so that you can help out the staff at Democrat Underground.

Check out a few paragraphs from the London Times (emphasis mine):

PRESIDENT BUSH defied history to seize outright control of Congress yesterday, winning a personal mandate for domestic change and strengthening his hopes of re-election in 2004.
Republicans recaptured a majority in the Senate and tightened their grip on the House of Representatives, giving the President's party all the levers of power in Washington. Republican leaders will begin the push for deeper, permanent tax cuts, social security reforms and oil drilling rights in an Alaskan wildlife refuge in the new year.

Mr Bush's campaigning blitz in the final days paid dividends once the polls opened. A clutch of Republicans visited by Mr Bush won tight races that were must-win seats for Democrats.

Why do they portray our electoral process as though it were a military coup? Perhaps I'm just being nit-picky again, or perhaps they just like metaphors.

Times are tough at Democraticunderground.com. Apparently so tough, their servers are unable to handle the traffic.

Due to the massive influx of people this morning, we are experiencing serious problems with server overload.
The forums were shut down at 11:00AM ET. Feel free to check back every half hour or so. But please don't hit the "refresh" button on your Web browser every 5 seconds, or we'll never come back online.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Please, don't go to their page and hit refresh every 5 seconds. Really, don't do it!

So, what happens to Jumpin' Jim Jeffords now?

I'm thinking he'll be assigned to investigating Anwar drilling, or the melting of the polar ice caps.

Our "Drug Mart" store had to have a ballot referendum to have permission to sell wine on Sunday. I presumed the measure would pass because you could simply cross the street and buy wine at several other places that sell wine on Sunday.

Here is how you know you live in a small town. The measure failed with 66 Yes votes vs. 80 No votes. Granted this is only 1 precinct in my 'city' of about 5000, but it is still quite a difference from when I lived in Atlanta. (Of course beer and wine sales were banned state-wide in Georgia..)

Neal publishes this exchange between an Air Force Academy cadet and a liberal college professor. It is pretty damning:

The Air Force Academy has a program called The Academy Assembly. You will read a description of The Academy Assembly below. An Air Force Academy cadet named Robert Kurpiel sent an e-mail to which ended up in the hands of Peter Kirstein at Saint Xavier. Here is the text of that e-mail:

Dear Sir or Ma'am

The Air Force Academy is going to be having our annual Academy Assembly. This is a forum for mainly but not only Political Science majors, discussing very important issues dealing with politics.

Right now we are in the planning stage for advertising and we would appreciate your help in the follow (sic) areas. Do you know of or have methods or ways for interschool advertising and or communications? What would be the best way for us to advertise at your school whether it is sending you the fliers and you making copies or by perhaps putting an advertisement in your local publication? We would appreciate your input and the cost of what your recommend. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Very Respectfully,

Cadet Robert Kurpiel

Now ... here is the response from Professor Kirstein. Be sitting down when you read it.

From: Peter Kirstein
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 1:46 PM
To: Kurpiel Robert C4C CS26

Subject: Re: Academy Assembly

You are a disgrace to this country and I am furious you would even think I would support you and your aggressive baby killing tactics of collateral damage. Help you recruit. Who, top guns to reign death and destruction upon nonwhite peoples throughout the world? Are you serious sir? Resign your commission and serve your country with honour.
No war, no air force cowards who bomb countries with AAA, without possibility of retaliation. You are worse than the snipers. You are imperialists who are turning the whole damn world against us. September 11 can be blamed in part for what you and your cohorts have done to Palestinians, the VC, the Serbs, a retreating army at Basra.
You are unworthy of my support.

Peter N. Kirstein
Professor of History
Saint Xavier University.

Check out his site for the rest of the e-mail exchange. I will not comment on the professor's letter, nor his misunderstanding of what AAA is.

Why Ravenwood is happy:

• Democrats lost control of the Senate. Now a filibuster is the only way they can cause gridlock.


• Judicial nominees will start to be approved.


• A homeland security bill can be passed without having to kowtow to big government unions.


• Roy Barnes was voted out in Georgia. Georgia has their first Republican governor since reconstruction.


• The liberals on democraticunderground.com are going nuts. ("the new computerized voting machines, and the fact that they are made by a Republican contributor should be a giant red flag.")


• Tax cuts may be accelerated.


• Tax cuts may be made permanent.


• Capital gains tax cuts may be passed.


• My stocks are more likely to start going up.


• All of my local tax levies were defeated.


• Pro-CCW Republican judges were elected to the Ohio Supreme Court.


• Terry McAuliffe is quaking in his boots.


• Saddam Hussein is quaking in his boots.


• Jumpin' Jim Jeffords is quaking in his boots.


• PC Coffee was struck down, in Bezerkeley of all places.


• Oregon voted against socialized health care. (Part of me wanted them to pass it, so I'd be able to watch the fallout)


• Kathleen Kennedy Townsend can start going by Kathleen Townsend again.


• Even Taxachussetts voted against a Democratic governor.

Why Ravenwood is sad:

• Pleasure Police won a smoking ban in Florida.


• Florida chose to throw a ton of money into reducing their class size with no guarantee of results.


• New Jersey validated Democratic disenfranchisement with a Lautenberg win.


• California voted to support rolling blackouts by returning Gray-out Davis to office.


• Ravenwood moved away from Georgia and wasn't able to personally vote Roy Barnes out of office

This is a partial list, and I may add to it later if I have time. Feel free to add your own to the comments.

This week's Carnival of the Vanities has been published at Silflay Hraka and Blogcritics.

This is the best of the Blogosphere! (Well, it certainly isn't the worst.) Take a break from boring election coverage and go, read, and enjoy.

As a former Georgia resident and a CNN critic, I noticed that CNN waited until Saxby Chambliss started his victory speech to make the call in his Senate race. Fox News made the call about an hour and a half earlier than CNN.

Oddly, CNN called the Arkansas race for the Democrats with only 44% of the precincts reporting and a 54/46 split. Chambliss had a 53/46 split with 73% reporting, and CNN still wouldn't go out on a limb for Chambliss.

After cutting Chambliss' victory speech short, CNN also started a Cleland gush-fest, displaying surprise that a triple amputee Vietnam vet would be voted out of office.

I liked James Carville's reaction on CNN's Crossfire. He put a trash can on his head, and it took some coaxing for him to come out from under there.

Imagine owning property in Florida. It is now illegal for you to smoke or allow smoking on your property. The fact that the Florida ballot initiative had to make an exception for private residences, illustrates just how sweeping the smoking ban is. It will probably only be a few more years before even that is illegal.

Although I don't smoke, nor do I live in Florida, the thought of mob rule being able to take away a person's property rights is very disturbing to me. The biggest impact will be on bars, restaurants, and clubs where smokers often frequent. Wait staff and business owners will feel quite an impact in their tip jars, and many people may be put out of work.

Whenever I think about the whiny pleasure police pushing their agenda on people, I get pretty pissed off. Customers of business establishments should have no right to control whether or not that business allows smokers. Quite frankly, if there is a large enough demand for non-smoking establishments, a free market will provide them for both customers and employees.

I feel VERY strongly that if you want to work for a business or set foot on someone's property who allows smoking, you have to either deal with it, or get the fuck out! Taking away the rights of the business/property owner simply because you don't like their behavior should not even be an option.

While I wasn't offended, I find it interesting that ABC is promoting their Osbornes 20/20 special by saying "Get ready for one outrageous f<beep>ing special.. Barbara Walters takes on the Osbornes"

The announcer clearly used a beeped F-word, and during the 8-9 PM primetime hour. I think they'll probably get letters over that one.

Perhaps they are taking the Bob Uecker attitude:

Harry Doyle: One hit? That's all one goddamn hit?
Assistant: You can't say goddamn on the air.
Harry Doyle: Ahh, don't worry, nobody is listening anyway.

I was going to vote again this afternoon, but the election officials seem to have tagged me with some sort of fraud prevention device to keep me from voting more than once.

My diligence and hard work in exposing liberals for the lying, cheating, election-stealing bastards that they are, has earned me an honorary spot as a member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. I display my badge with honor.

(Thanks to Michele for indoctrinating me)

While I voted mostly Republican today, I don't always. As a Libertarian, I always find myself sitting the fence with candidates. Surprisingly, up until a few years ago, I didn't know what I was. I wasn't a Democrat, Republican, or a Libertarian. I guess I was an Independent, although I usually voted Democratic. I voted for Clinton in '92 and '96. (I've regretted it since 1998 too.)

Oddly enough, I must have some how subconsiously known that I wasn't meant to be a Democrat. People would ask me who I voted for and I was always ashamed to admit it. I would also come home from the polls and start scrubbing myself down with a brillo pad. I once found myself defending my political leanings from Lope. I shouted, "I AM NOT A DEMOCRAT! I AM A HUMAN BEING!" I should actually thank him, because he pointed out that if I was afraid to admit who I voted for, I probably didn't really support the candidate.

All that changed with the Clinton administration in 1998. His lies and trickeration drove me away from the Democrats forever. Now, having embraced my conservative roots and the Libertarian party, I stand tall and proud. And as a gun owner, I don't have to worry about being bullied and harassed by liberal whiners either.

The only early poll results I can give you are my own. I voted this morning about 7:30 AM. It was a punch card ballot, and it worked flawlessly. I checked the back for hanging and dimpled chads, and there were none. Apparently I have the strength to operate it correctly. (ie: punch a pin through paper.)

There were no libertarians on the ballot, so I mostly voted Republican. I also voted for the two State Supreme Court judges that were endorsed by Ohioans for Concealed Carry. (ofcc)

There were a few interesting ballot measures. The first was Issue 1 that proposed offering treatment instead of incarceration for first and second time non-violent drug offenders. As a libertarian, I am all for that. Even though it will cost some money to set up the treatment program, in the long run it should save money in incarceration costs. Surprisingly, the police organizations were against it. I don't think it matters, the issue will probably fail.

Another ballot issue was Issue 5, which asked for a property tax increase to fund some 'mental health' program. I voted against that one, but it will probably pass. I've seen all sorts of posters supporting Issue 5, and no one willing to stand up and say it is a futile waste of taxpayer money. I still feel that care for the mentally ill that cannot afford it, is best left up to private charities. I guess that makes me an evil right winger who wants to push old ladies down the stairs in their wheel chairs.

By far the most interesting ballot issue, was a referendum on whether or not our new local 'Drug Mart' store should be allowed to sell wine on Sundays. (Beer is already permitted, I think) Most other stores in the area sell wine on Sundays, so I don't see what the big deal is here. I am surprised it has to go to a ballot referendum. They did well to open right before the election. The only ones I could think of who would oppose such a thing would be employees at competing stores. Even the devoutly religious shouldn't mind, since you can easily go to the store across the street and purchase wine.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that one of our candidates, a democrat, has signs up that say "Honest Harrington" (or whatever his last name is) To me he sounds too much like a used car salesman. Either that or he's like one of those fat people named 'slim', or bald people named 'curly'. Either way, if you have to proclaim your honesty like that, you probably aren't all that honest.

Can you imagine being an interior designer and having to listen to Bab's right wing conspiracy theories? Her latest theory is that Wellstone's plane crash was 'no accident.' Perhaps it wasn't but it was probably the Democrats, if anybody, if there is foul play involved. Hell, they were the ones whooping it up at his memorial service/campaign rally.

Also, there must be a hell of a margin, or you'd think these designers would shove their blueprints up Barbra's ass. Christ, she even lectured them on her abortion views and demanded that they vote democratic.

Way too much baggage.

There are a lot of people making election predictions out there. They are combing over the results of poll after poll, looking for anything that might give them an idea of who is going to win tomorrow.

Personally, I think they are all full of shit. The whole thing is conjecture and the best way to find out who wins is to wait until after election day. Unfortunately, the political party's legal teams are ready to challenge any close election in court, so we may not know until next year who actually will take office.

Yet another "What ____ are you?" quiz that I could not resist. What Founding Father are you?

Surprise, surprise, I'm George Washington. This fits well, since I was the American Revolution in the "What Revolution Are You?" quiz.

(link via Todd)

Kim DuToit's Ammo Day is just two weeks from tomorrow. I've just found out that I'll be working out of town that day, so I need to find a local gunsmith in the town I'll be working in that day. Regardless, I plan on pulling my weight on Ammo Day and the weight of a few others as well.

Support the Second Amendment, and support Ammo Day.

Owen wants to know how Keanu Reeves' Johnny Neumonic escaped my list. Truth is, I never saw that flick, probably because of all the other bad Keanu movies I sat through. I don't know how I managed to leave Point Break off the list.

On a disturbing note, several of my worst ended up on Hawkin's Best 50 list. Had I read through his list first, I would have remembered to include the Patriot and anything from Steven Seagal. (or Jean Claude Van Dam)

UPDATE: I updated my list below. I couldn't have slept tonight knowing that Keanu, Swayze, and Seagal escaped without mention.

Here is a twist. A Canadian hunter jailed in the U.S. for a firearm's violation. I can't help but think this is retribution for Canada's U.S. travel advisory last week.

Berkeley, CA, upset at Seattle horning in on their bizarre legislation, is mulling passing a PC coffee law of their own. Proponents of the PC coffee bill want to make it a crime punishable by up to 6 months in jail for selling non-PC coffee. Hell, even members of the liberal Berkeley City Council think it is a waste of police resources to enforce inane coffee laws.

However, that doesn't stop Tim Kingston, of the San Francisco-based human rights organization, Global Exchange. He argues that we should legislate for legislation's sake. "We legislate things in this country. We legislate car safety. We legislate seat belts. All this does is it legislates the people who grow the coffee actually get something resembling a living wage."

I chuckle every time I hear this 'living wage' bullshit. Are liberals really that stupid, or are they just pretending? How come they always view jobs as compulsory? Nobody is forcing people to work for pennies a day. For the sake of the argument, lets say the average daily wage picking coffee in Colombia is $10. If a US company comes in and pays them $20 a day to pick coffee beans, how is it that they are worse off? 'Human Rights' organizations like Global Exchange would take away their ability to make $20 a day from US companies and then have the audacity to pass it off as though they are doing them a favor. (For more on the living wage bullshit, check out Williams' column last week.)

On a related liberal bullshit note, I saw a sign in a local store window this weekend that said they were closed on Sundays so that "employees would have time for family and worship." Now, if you want to close your store on Sunday, that is your business. But spare me the liberal bullshit mantra of doing it "for the employees." Nobody is forced to work on Sunday. They work because you provide them the opportunity to do so. The idea that people are chained to their jobs against their will really gets under my skin. As a matter of fact, they are actually depriving people of work by NOT opening on Sunday. What about those people that work a regular 1st-shift full-time job and want to earn some extra dough on the weekend?

Variety editor Peter Bart apparently is no fan of the movie 'Jackass', or Johnny Knoxville. But worst movie ever?

Now, lists of 'Best this' and 'Worst that' are notoriously controversial. Some movies just don't compare evenly, and you inevitably leave something out, or rank them in the wrong order.

Disclaimers aside, here is my list for the "Top Worst Movies I've Ever Seen." Since sequels are never as good as the original, they have been left off the list. Besides, anyone can simply list Police Academy 2 through 10. These are all original stinkers (or possibly re-makes), and are presented in no particular order.

• Baby Geniuses - How could you go wrong with wise-cracking super human babies. This is how. (update: not to be out done, they are making a sequel)


• The French Connection - Other than a decent car chase, this movie stinks up the screen. The fact that it beat out A Clockwork Orange and Fiddler on the Roof for 1972 Best Picture nods, is proof that even Oscar voters smoke crack.


• Dances with Wolves - Kevin Costner's 1990 pet project should have been called, "Masturbates with Wolves." How else should you describe three hours of Costner frolicking in the grassy plains with an under fed malamute. What is even harder to believe is that the original cut was over four hours.


• Eyes Wide Shut - Only in Hollywood can you have an excellent director like Stanley Kubrick direct Tom Cruise's home made porn movies at a cost of $65 Million. How could the man that made Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket bring us this pile of crap? I only wish I had watched it at home rather than in the theater, so I could have fast-forwarded through to the Nicole Kidman nudie parts.


• Face/Off - I could probably make an entire list out of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage movies. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but cutting off a persons face and sewing it back on in a half hour with no visible scars is over the top. They should have literally cut each others heads off at the beginning of the movie and saved us all from shit like Battlefield Earth, Swordfish, and 8MM


• Moulin Rouge! - Even! a! Nicole! Kidman! bukake! scene! couldn't! have! saved! this! musical! stinker!


• Pearl Harbor and Titanic - There is no worse feeling than going to see a war movie or a good ship wreck and ending up watching a three hour love story. I'll take Tora! Tora! Tora! and the Poseidon Adventure over these two any day.


• Waterworld - Yet another Costner flop. It should have been titled "How to ruin your acting career with $250 Million." I just don't understand how a movie on a boat in the middle of the ocean can cost so much.


• Iron Eagle - Pretty much anything with Jason Gedrick sucks, never mind a film where he steals an Air Force F-16 and single-handedly fights a middle eastern war. Perhaps if our Air Force pilots had a good sound track, they'd have gone in and gotten Saddam Hussein by now.


• Robin Hood - I'm trying very hard to not dominate the list with Kevin Costner flops, but this one had to be included as well. A great supporting cast and decent story weren't enough to overcome Costner's bad acting and unbelievable English accent. If you pay attention, you can see the point in the movie where Kevin finally gives up and stops trying to sound British.


• The Chase - Like other viewers, I got half way through this made for USA Network movie before I realized Charlie Sheen hadn't actually pulled an OJ. This movie reminds me of when the Simpsons visited a Hollywood lot. Marge Simpson: "Look! There's Robert Downey Jr. in a shoot-out with the police." Bart: "That's funny, I don't see any cameras."


• In the Army Now - This is one of many reasons Pauly Shore won the Razzie for "Worst new star of the decade." Other reasons include Encino Man and Son in Law. The thought of Pauly making it through basic training without being shot by his own troops makes this completely unbelievable.


• Space Cowboys - Thanks to John Glenn for inspiring a story about a bunch of washed-up has-beens going into space to save the planet from our old cold war nemesis.


• Big Jim McLain - Proof that even the Duke isn't immune to stinkers. This John Wayne 'classic' was nothing but red scare propaganda at it's worst. If the movie didn't come of with such a serious tone, it could have been a great comedy, illustrating just how ludicrous the 'House Un-American Activities Committee' really was.


• Point Break - Surfing almost never makes for good movies. Combine it with Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, and a bank robbery, and you end up with a 120 minute train wreck. Arguably, the only good thing to come out of Swayze was Red Dawn, and the Matrix was good in spite of Reeves, not because of him.


• Ghost - Speaking of Patrick Swayze, if I see this horrible love fest one more time, I'm gonna puke. Call me old fashioned, but saying "ditto" is not the least bit romantic, and the Whoopie Goldberg/Demi Moore make-out scene gave me nightmares for 6 months.


• Above the Law - The first of many Steven Seagal wanna-be action flicks. How this middle-aged, flabby, Jean Claude imitator passed for a movie star, we may never know.

I'm sure there are quite a few I left off the list, but this is a good start. Also, I don't want to hear from wussys that loved Titanic, Pearl Harbor, and Moulin Rouge. Anyone can be cliche and say they liked those piles of crap. Instead be a real man and stand up in defense of Kevin Costner, or admit you are actually a closet Pauly Shore freak.

UPDATE: I added in a few flicks I obviously missed. How Keanu Reeves and Steven Seagal escaped me, I'll never know. It looks like Michele has the makings of a good list going herself, so I won't touch her suggestions. Besides, I refused to watch Little Nicky, and I have hardly heard of the others.

Todd: "I've personally accompanied 5 women... though only 1 went the whole way"

Da Goddess: "...who wants to help me pick out protection?"

Steve: "Goddess, I volunteer for the honor! Come on up to Reno, and I'll equip you with whatever you need."

Now, what are these people talking about? Now I know how Mr. Roper felt.

... and Jupiter aligns with Mars. College football was really shaken up today. Just last week, pundits were crying about having 8 unbeaten teams, with a possibility of 7 at the end of the season. This week the college football gods answered with 4 of the Top 10 ranked unbeaten teams losing in upsets.

Now we are left with 4 unbeatens, one of which is Bowling Green who will probably never enter the BCS picture. This week, some pundits will undoubtedly be crying that there aren't enough unbeaten teams. Ohio State has the best chance to stay unbeaten, as Oklahoma will probably face Texas again in the Big 12 Championship game, and Miami still has some tough games ahead.

While I was obviously disappointed to see Virginia Tech lose, I was absolutely giddy when Boston College beat Notre Dame. Notre Dame's offense was ranked 109th in the NCAA which is why I've been picking them to lose every week for the past month. After beating Pitt and Air Force in close games, it was only a matter of time before the luck of the Irish ran out. I do want to know who the idiot is that gave Notre Dame a first place vote in the AP and Coaches poll. Perhaps that was all that was needed to jinx them.

The other losses are a tough Georgia loss to Florida, and NC State losing to Georgia Tech, who has been on a rebound lately. Miami also had trouble with Rutgers for the first three quarters. That is the same Rutgers that Virginia Tech had trouble with two weeks ago.

The BCS implications are clear. If there is more than two or less than two unbeaten teams, there is always going to be a BCS controversy. I can only hope that they do away with the BCS in the next couple of years and institute a playoff system. The thought of letting a National Champion be selected by computers, and not how teams play on the field is still disheartening.

I have a cigar that has been in my humidor now for almost 3 years. I've been saving it for when Virginia Tech wins a national title. It looks like it's going to be in there for at least another year. At the start of the season, I never really expected Tech to go all the way, but when they beat LSU, Marshall, and Texas A&M I figured they had a good shot at it.

Pittsburgh has been excellent since the middle of last season, and I have been dreading this game for over a month. I was serious when I picked Pittsburgh to beat Notre Dame, and I still think they are a better team. I think they have a legitimate shot to win the Big East this year, as only Miami and West Virginia stand in their way. Pitt's only losses this year are close games against Notre Dame and Texas A&M.

Virginia Tech on the other hand, has been mediocre over the past few weeks. I said earlier that if they continued to make mistakes, and if they bring the same game they brought against Temple and Rutgers to bear against Pitt, they were going to lose.

Not only did they fail to step up their play, they failed to even get anything going on offense. Their three touchdowns came off of great special team's plays, and a single long running play. Not once did they mount a long offensive drive down the field deep into Pitt territory. Pitt on the other hand had several long drives, keeping Tech's lackadaisical defense on the field.

Pitt has beat VT two years straight now. Lets just hope that this year they have a little class about it and don't run to the news conference to trash their opponent.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Firearms are a great equalizer. A 6'6" 300lb male attacker is no match for a 5'4" 120lb female victim who knows how to properly use a firearm.

I feel that anyone who thinks she should be a the mercy of such an attacker simply because they have an irrational fear of firearms is a sick and pathetic excuse for a human being.

Virginia Tech plays Pittsburgh tonight at 7:30 on ESPN2. If they don't improve from soft games against Rutgers and Temple, Pitt may have their way with them. Pitt has two losses, both of them close games to a quality Texas A&M team and Notre Dame.

Meanwhile, Miami plays Big East cupcake Rutgers, where their biggest threat is the cold weather.

A Colorado and Boston College win today would be helpful to the cause!

Apparently Michele at A Small Victory has had quite a few people publicly take her off their blogroll. Nothing says big fat meanie and social wanker like announcing "Michele is no longer good enough for my blogroll, and she has been banished to the recycling bin of death!".

I was just about to pile on and publicly remove Michele from my blogroll, when I realized she was never on it to begin with. So, I have added her to my blogroll, and invited Zogi, the High Priest over to perform the ceremony.

Zogi, the High Priest: Do you, Ravenwood, Ruler of the Universe, take this Earthling Michele, to be your Blogroller of the Hour?

Ravenwood: Of the hour, yes.

Zogi, the High Priest: Do you promise to use her as you will?

Ravenwood: Certainly!

Zogi, the High Priest: Not to blast her into cyberspace?

[Ravenwood glares at Zogi]

Zogi, the High Priest: Uh, until such time as you grow weary of her.

Ravenwood: I do.

I am hopeful that the fanfare won't lead to jealous infighting among the other residents of my blogroll.

Drunkenness Rating: 20 beers

When I was in college, I lived with a grad student named Jill. One Independence Day weekend while my friend Ken was visiting from UVA, she invited us down to Abingdon to spend the holiday weekend with her and her boyfriend Jerome. With a weekend of fireworks, hiking, and drinking planned, we started out early Saturday morning. We were headed down to the Crazy Herbs, across the Tennessee state line to get some fireworks before going hiking. Jerome only had a beat up white Jeep pickup, so Ken and I had to ride in the bed of the pickup with the cooler of beer. We set up a few lawn chairs back there and set the cooler between us. They were the low-rider type lawn chairs, so they didn't rock too bad when we went around corners.

After we get about a half an hour down the road, I hear Jerome shouting from the cab of the pickup. He didn't have a sliding rear window that opened, so he stuck his head out the driver side window and shouted, "Lets have some cold mammies up 'ere." After a few moments of Redneck to English translation, it finally dawned on me that they wanted beer.

Now, I'm not one to advocate drinking and driving. Drinking while driving just seems stupid. Passing beers up to the front of the pickup while going down the interstate seems suicidal. I even remember saying to myself, as I hung out the side of the pickup bed holding a few bottles of beer, "This is suicidal." But what else could I do?

Anyway, we got off the interstate a short time thereafter, and took the back roads down toward Damascus, to just across the Tennessee border. Crazy Herb took credit cards, so stocking up on fireworks was not a problem. We loaded up the truck and headed up into the mountains to do some hiking. I've always liked hiking. I had been a boy scout in my yute, and loved to get back to nature. However, hiking with beer and fireworks brings a whole new meaning to the activity.

As the day dragged on, we made our way back to Jerome's house for some fireworks and fun. Now, drinking and fireworks may seem harmless enough, but you'd be surprised at the unforseen hazards. Several times a firecracker went off in my hand, however that was nothing compared to the pain of having one of those spinning jumping jacks go off prematurely. The only thing that seemed to dull the pain was a cold beer. The icy cold bottle cooled the burn, and of course the alcohol acted as an anesthetic.

Overall, the weekend was a blast and thankfully no one was seriously hurt. (For some reason, I have a habit of sustaining minor injuries.) We took some stupid risks that I wouldn't dream of taking today, but that is part of growing up. It is only when people fail to grow out of such immaturity and stupidity that they have a problem.

Commenting on a story about a hatchet wielding ex boyfriend, James Taranto offered the following parody of the gun control lobby:

This story points up the need for more-stringent hatchet-control laws. The power of the Hatchet Lobby is such that in most states, anyone can buy a hatchet--there's no waiting period, licensing requirement or even limit on the number of hatchets you can buy. Don't get us wrong; we're not for a complete ban on hatchets. Contrary to the "ax nuts" at the National Hatchet Association, responsible hatchet control poses no threat to legitimate wood-choppers.

Staff writers here at Ravenwood's Universe immediately saw the resemblance to our much ignored story about Americans for Chicken Safety.

As long as anyone can simply walk into a store and purchase a chicken, no one is safe. I propose a state-wide blanket chicken ban to stop all cock fighting. At the very least, you should need a license to purchase a chicken, and there should be a three day waiting period.

While we don't have the national audience that Taranto has, we still take pride in our work. Unless something better comes along, we'll probably nominate it for next week's Carnival of the Vanities to get more exposure.

I've been noticing more and more advertising on some of the weblogs out there. Some are becoming cluttered with pop-ups, pop-unders, and banner ads.

While I don't condemn anyone for running ads or making money off their weblog, my staff writers wanted me to remind you that our policy here at Ravenwood's Universe has not changed. This has been and always will be an ad-free zone.

While we may occasionally put up an endorsement (ie: the Ammoday banner), and of course we have our obligatory movable type link, we will not accept any paid advertisement. You also won't find any tip jars, wish lists, or any other sort of begging.

I don't have anything against advertising, it just has no place here at the Universe. We feel it would ruin your experience (not to be confused with a 'spoons experience') here at our weblog.

Sincerely,

Ravenwood

President and CEO
Ravenwood and Associates, Inc.

Whenever employees vote not to organize with labor unions, I feel there is still hope out there. When a labor union is turned down by a 70/30 margin at a liberal bastion like Cornell University, it makes a real statement!

So what was it at Cornell that defeated unionization? Logic and individual freedom.

Union organizers had to jump through hoops, laying out the union benefits and costs to the Cornell students. In the end, they determined that the cost of organization was just too high.

Joseph J. Sabia, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell, sums it up best by saying, "individual freedom is preferable to living under the tyranny of the majority."

I love that! I'm going to steal it, and I'm going to use it. Often.

(thanks go out to Todd)

"How many of you here remember where you were and what you were doing when the United States Supreme Court stopped the counting of votes two years ago?" -- Al Gore, in a self-absorbed campaign speech for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in Maryland.

Gore also introduced himself as, "I am Al Gore, I used to be the next President of the United States." He then asked, "Here in Maryland, does the candidate who gets the most votes actually win?"

I guess Al Gore, inventor of the internet, has never heard of the electoral college, and was unaware of the requirements to win the Presidency.

(dedicated to Rachel)

UPDATE: I like how James Taranto summed up Gore's beef: "Later, campaigning in San Francisco, Gore accused the California Angels of having "stolen" the World Series because they scored only 41 runs, while the San Francisco Giants scored 44."

Lots of good news stories today:

Man Copkiller throws tantrum (and pitcher) after conviction
He received a death sentence, in Texas, where capital punishment is meted out with the utmost efficiency. The best part was hearing how he threw a tantrum in court and tried hiding under the table while the verdict was being read. What a fucking coward.

Better tasting beer is on the way
As a beer connoisseur and certified Anheuser-Busch Beermaster, I should be getting my invitation to help out with the research any time now. My resume includes having visited the top three beer countries in the world, (Ireland, Holland, and Germany) having visited numerous breweries, and having been a member of Taco Mac's Passport Club (which I would have completed, had they not kept losing my list after 75 beers). I can also recite the pledge from a Budweiser label from memory.

Global Warmers Admit No Solutions
How can you continue to follow a movement where they make suggestions for "planetary engineering," including "putting layers of reflective dust in the upper atmosphere, increasing cloud cover by seeding, and placing a giant mirror (2,000 kilometers wide) to act like a permanent sunspot and deflect about 2 percent of solar flux." I would be lauging, but some idiots take these guys seriously.

My mom sent me a picture of her frightful Jack-o-Lantern.

No Trick or Treaters last night. Not a single one. Now I've got all this damn candy left over.

This is the third year in a row I've been snubbed by the little pan-handlers. Next year I'm playing Scrooge. No candy from me (unless of course four ghosts appear telling me to give them some.)

As you may have already heard, the GNP grew by 3% last quarter, and the stock market grew by 10% in October. Those are definately not recession numbers, although you wouldn't know it if you read the mainstream press.

The New York Times is in liberal high gear, right before the election. They continue to downplay any economic recovery:

Economy Grew at 3.1% in 3rd Quarter, Slower Than Expected -- NY Times, October 31, 2002.

Unemployment Rate Rose to 5.7% in October -- NY Times, November 1, 2002.

I have been telling my friends and family for the past few months that the economic outlook will turn around after the election. It looks like I may be right.

Site traffic increased again in October. Here are some raw numbers: 6492 visitors (3599 in September), 35302 page views (21577 in September), 91937 hits (48215 in September), and 911.4 MB (386.7 in September).

The Ravenwood.com page counter also went over 10,000 in October, with very little fanfare.

Interestingly enough, I only posted 157 times in October, up from 155 in September and 124 in August.

I did some dumb things when I was a kid, but never anything like this. Jumping onto a school cafeteria table loaded down with fake bombs and holding a fake gun in the air, an Arizona teenager started making threats that he was going to kill his fellow students. He then jumped down and tried to flee, but was apprehended.

The fact that he was in a 'gun-free zone' probably saved his life. Try this out in public, and someone might have started shooting.

The kid is being held for arraignment this morning. Given his prior convictions for drug possession, I don't think the judge will go too lightly on him.