Although he may never get laid again, kudos to John Hawkins for sticking to his guns.

While I did have a few women on the list that I submitted, I must admit that they were a distinct minority. Perhaps he can do a list just for American women.

Let's see.. Marlyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson, Jennifer Aniston, Tanya Roberts.... Oops, sorry.. wrong list.

Michele offers up chapter two of the PETA KFC chicken protest. Before it was just vandalism, now it's assault and battery.

(click to supersize)

Why should we put up with such home grown eco-terrorism sponsorship? I can only hope that armed troops are storming the PETA headquarters in Norfolk at this very moment. At the very least the CEO's body guards should have pummeled the every loving shit out of these thugs.

"When something like this happens, you do think about the fact they were blind and wonder, but I believe that blindness - either in the child or the counselors - had nothing to do with this. There are many sighted children who also drown." -- Joyce Scanlan, executive director of Blind Inc., who is also blind. Scanlan claims that blindness has nothing to do with the drowing death of a blind child who was swimming with all blind councilors.

I guess if a man with no arms gets into an auto accident, she'd claim "The fact that he had no arms and was steering with his teeth had nothing to do with this. There are plenty of armed people who also get into auto accidents."

Neal Boortz (second item) is taking the Democrats to task today for Dowdifying President Bush. In a campaign commercial in Minnesota, the Dems alter one of Bush's quotes to change the meaning, in the style of Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. Of course, Bush's actual statement is true:

"The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

"Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

The NAACP had their lawsuit against the gun industry thrown out of court, but not before U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein ruled that gun retailers were responsible for the proliferation if illegal firearms. The AP reports on Weinstein's ruling:

The NAACP proved its members "did suffer relatively more harm from the nuisance created by the defendants through illegal availability of guns in New York," U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein wrote in a 175-page decision.

"It failed, however, to show that its harm was different in kind from that suffered by other persons in New York," Weinstein added. [...]

Manufacturers take too few measures, he wrote, "to eliminate or even appreciably reduce the public nuisance they individually and collectively have created." Among the "obvious steps," he said, would be requiring retailers to ban multiple sales to the same customers.

Of course, the notion is akin to blaming car dealerships and manufacturers for the proliferation of auto accidents stemming from high speed police chases. After all, if they didn't manufacture and sell so many cars, there wouldn't be as many to steal. You cannot blame the thief, because he's the victim of an oppressive and unfair capitalist society. So, lets blame the capitalists. Even if we lose in court, perhaps we can still drive them out of business.

I also love his handy solution to illegal gun violence. We'll just run right out and edit the Constitution to read "keep and bear arm" instead of "arms". That should keep guns out of the hands of criminals. What a jackass.

Of course, New York already tough city and state-wide gun control. That hasn't seemed to stop the proliferation of crime under Bloomberg's watch. In fact, Guiliani's method of crime control proved to be the most effective way to reduce crime. Under Rudy, criminals and gang bangers were rounded up for lesser crimes like vandalism, as a form of nipping them in the bud. It sounds easy, but it was effective. Bloomberg on the other hand, has the police so busy trying to generate revenue by ticketing smokers and people who sit on milk crates, that real crime is starting to run rampant.

UPDATE: Kim DuToit adds this gem quote from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the NJ gun control democrat who shoved Torricelli aside last year.

"A federal judge has found that corrupt gun dealers are a menace to a safe, peaceful society," Mr. Lautenberg said. "Unfortunately, a legal technicality prevented the court from ruling against these reckless gun dealers."

(Photo via AP)

You just know the media does this on purpose.

For those of you that were too lazy to read my Chicken Soup for the Blogging Soul, here is a highlight that I liked:

Last Sunday in Virginia, I missed the commissioning of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. She looks like a good ship, and should help usher in the next wave of super carriers. The U.S.S. George H. W. Bush is right behind her, and should be the next carrier out of dry dock. Apparently, there may just be a U.S.S. George W. Bush in the works too. Hmm, I wonder why there is no U.S.S. Clinton. I wouldn't name a carrier after him, but perhaps a yellow submarine that's long, hard and full of seamen. (rim job er.. shot)

"In France, it's a very healthy protest scene and very common for people to take to the streets to air their grievances. We went to a police station, we filled out a form, we'll pay a fine. That's it." -- Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, isn't "Back on the Chain Gang". She's expressing praise for the French police who arrested her and other PETA protesters for vandalizing a Paris KFC.

Hynde and other PETA protesters blocked traffic and vandalized the facade of the restaurant to protest the inhumane treatment of chickens. She was released after spending less than an hour in jail.

I wonder if she's interested in supporting Americans for Chicken Safety.

The University of California is contemplating hiking tuition for "rich" folks. That means that students whose parents make more than $90,000 may be hit with a $3000 tuition surcharge.

California's premier university system is considering charging rich students more tuition to offset deep funding cuts resulting from the state's $38 billion budget deficit.

Of course this is only the first step. You can bet that the $90,000 threshold won't hold up to inflation, and will gradually be expanded to include more and more students. After all, those rich kids can afford it. They don't "need" the money.

How long before you have to take your tax return in to purchase other government services? The DMV, post office, and any number of government agencies could start charging more to rich folks. Imagine having to pay $150 to get your drivers license, while your buddy only has to pay $40. Isn't there some Nordic country that hands out parking and traffic fines based on your "ability" to pay? Karl Marx would be proud.

CNN is reporting that a handful of young liberals are making a run for the border. The Canadian border, that is. Fed up with the massive conservative shift, the biased right wing media, and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to dominate the globe, and control the world's oil supply, some liberals are packing up and leaving. Canada, the land of stiff gun control, sactuarires fo heroin addicts, government controlled health care, and the 50% income tax is seen as a liberal utopia for many.

CNN also brings up fond memories of the Vietnam draft, when commie pinkos and draft dodgers were moving northward in droves. Perhaps Charles Rangel was on to something when he said he wanted to bring back the draft. While many conservatives balked at Rangel's idea of weakening our military with an influx of conscripted liberals, I think it's a hell of an idea. Not only should we bring back the draft, but we should have separate buses set up at the draft office. One for shipping our guys to boot camp, and the other for shipping all the conscienscous objectors up to Canada. My only request is that they take Alec Baldwin with them.

Related articles:
New York Congressman Calls for Resuming Draft - 12/31/02

Tony Martin, a UK farmer who removed a home invader from the gene pool, is still being given harsh treatment by the U.K. "justice" system. Martin is coming up for a mandatory parole, having served two thirds of his prison sentence. Normally prisoners are given a three day pass to get their affairs in order, and to transition them back into society, but Martin's was denied, because he is still seen as a "danger to burglars".

Back in May, the parole board denied Martin's early parole because of his lack of remorse for the home invading goblin. They contended that burglars who break into people's homes and attack them are "entitled to protection" from people like Martin.

Living in socialist Europe, Martin had no right to defend himself. He was supposed to pee himself, and hide under his bed while he waited for police to arrive to investigate his murder. Instead of allowing the goblin to kill him like a good socialist martyr, Martin decided to take his personal safety into his own hands. That's a big no-no in "civilized" societies such as the U.K., and it earned Martin hard time in the pokey.

(link via Spoons)

Related articles:
UK continues to champion criminal's rights - 06/16/2003
UK Parole Board concerned about "burglar's rights" - 05/12/2003

Hawkins has put together another list. Actually, I helped with this one by submitting a list of names. I was surprised to see how many of my picks made it to the Top 20.

Well, go check out the list.

When I switched to individually archived permalinks, I was a bit perturbed at how much diskspace the archives took up. It basically doubled the amount of disk space my web site gobbled up. I really started to become alarmed at how fast I was approaching my space limit.

My allotment is 150 MB. Before I made the switch, I had used a paltry 30 MB. Switching to individual archives instantly gobbled up 40 MB, and I was almost half way to my limit. Over the next few months, the disk usage climbed up to 120 MB. Part of that is because of the icons, and any images I've added, but most of it was due to the damned archives.

I took another look at my templates today, and decided to cut out the sidebar on the individual archives. Cutting the sidebar saves me over 20 MB of disk space. I don't like the inconsistency, but it was either that or buy more space from my hosting provider. I guess I could restore the sidebar, but that would mean using frames or something else equally dreaded. I think I'll probably get used to the new look of the individual pages. Still, even though it bought me some time, it's obviously only a temporary solution. Right now I'm still using about 100 MB.

Is this just a shameless ploy, or a losers club?

When I look over at my blogroll, I see that there are a whole lot more people out there not blogrolled by Ravenwood, than not blogrolled by Glenn. I guess it's all a matter of priorities.

Wouldn't you just love to know which Homer Advice Quote you are? This one didn't really come as a surpise considering my "What Simpson's character are you" result was you know who.

You're the lusty, drunken, party type. Booze, and members of the opposite sex are pretty much all you think about. While your party attitude may land you some fun and all, it could also get you into some trouble. Not to mention the fact that you annoy the hell out of some people with your drunken desires.

(Hat tip to Gennie)

After 14 grueling days, working 14+ hour days and studying late into the night, I emerged from my training class weary and tired. Still, I managed to accumulate a 7-0 record on the exams, and walk away with my MCSA and MCSE certifications. Our entire class did extremely well, with 8 of 11 people passing everything the first time, and two more only having to re-take one exam. A nod goes out to my instructor.

I also want to thank Lope for taking the reins from me while I was taking my training class. Had I not been able to leave my weblog in his capable hands, I probably would not have been able to pass the class. Instead of using those lunch breaks and spare moments to study the next chapter, I would have undoubtedly been busy trying to publish a quick weblog entry.

I did however, manage to save a few bookmarks. I tucked away articles and stories that I really wanted to talk about. I saved them all up, for what I'm calling the "Longest Entry Ever" or "The Week(s) in Review" or "Chicken Soup for the Blogging Soul".

In blogging news, I missed Spoon's big comeback. I had a feeling he might be up to something when he left this cryptic message on my web-site. Oddly enough, Spoons added me to his blogroll right before he went on hiatus, and removed me from it right after he returned. Mrs. DuToit also put me on her blogroll, right when she started her hiatus, and her hiatus started right around the time Spoons came back from his. Both Spoons and DuToit have the same number of letters. Spoons lives in Chicago, and Mr. DuToit used to. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Is Spoons really Mrs. DuToit? Hmm... Inquiring minds want to know.

Speaking of Ohio, (okay, I wasn't, but I needed a segue) on Tuesday, I read about the city of Cincinnati going all 1984 on people's asses. Up go the cameras, which should make for some good "Stupid behavior caught on tape" videos. Ironically, Cincinnati lawmakers are Ohio's biggest opponents to allowing law abiding citizens the right to carry concealed firearms. It just goes to show you that they would much rather spend government money to investigate your murder, than to allow you to have prevented it in the first place.

Meanwhile, Fox News featured an AP story about a West Virginia man that went nuts at a school board meeting. He doused a man with gasoline, and opened fire with an "AK-47 assault rifle", because some people were smoking around him. I'm sure the pleasure police liberals will be falling all over themselves to try to ban cigarettes, AK-47s and gasoline from school board meetings.

Kim gives us a story about Massachusetts gun registration. It seems as though the police agency in charge of processing registration requests simply decided not to do it any more. The sheriff blamed budget cuts and imposed a moratorium on all new gun purchases. Thankfully, the town council had the sense to tell the sheriff he had to do his job, regardless of the budget. Hopefully this will be a wakeup call for citizens to tear down registration barriers once and for all.

In another gun registration story, Kim notes that the U.N. may be pushing for world wide gun confiscation registration. Specifically, they want to wield power over the citizens of the United States and our lawless, freedom loving ideas. All I'll say is that it isn't going to happen. Not to my guns any way.

Speaking of gun bans, one of these days, the citizens of Washington D.C. may finally get their rights back. The Post reports that Senator Orrin Hatch has proposed legislation to end the gun ban. Despite having a handgun ban and a longgun ban/registration scheme in place since 1976, Washington D.C. is the murder capital of the United States.

Speaking of murder capitals, the violent crime rate in England is still on the rise. Despite passing a sweeping gun ban in the late 1990s, overall violent crime is up 20%. Murders in London jumped 22%, while "gangland" crime has skyrocketed 72%. Gee, you make guns illegal, and prosecute homeowners for defending themselves, and look what happens. Go figure.

Speaking of guns, Kim has yet another good one about the age old argument between the .45 ACP vs. the 9mm Europellet. I've always thought size mattered, and for that reason, I don't own a wimpy 9mm. If I do buy a 9mm, it'll be something that like this mean and nasty Cobray M11, that is sure to drive fear into gun grabbers everywhere.

In other gun news, Taranto pointed out this tidbit of media bias. Journalists at the Olympian (Washington) are shocked, just shocked, to discover that gun owners can actually get together for some friendly competition and not end up killing each other in "Dodge City" fashion. Their headline: "Despite presence of guns, friendliness abounds at state championships" says it all, and makes me wonder about the mental stability of their reporters.

Speaking of media bias, Eugene Volokh caught CBS in not one, but two flaps about Iraq. I guess when you can't find any bad news, you just have to make it up sometimes.

While I'm thinking about Iraq, dems are acting like they've found the Rosetta stone with George Bush's state of the union address. Even though they voted to go to war months prior to the speech, Dems are claiming they were duped by the "bad" intelligence info. Desperate for a campaign issue, presidential wannabes like Kerry and Graham have been giving pointing the finger at Bush and his deceptive yet persuasive fifteen words that retroactively convinced them that attacking Iraq was the only option. They never would have voted to attack Iraq if they had known that the 15 words Bush interjected into his speech three months later were going to end up being false.

So distraught were some democrats, that they forgot all about the NAALCP's convention. After some harsh words from the race warlords however, dems were quick to Step'n Fetchit. They would have garnered more respect (and kept their spine) had they used this excuse instead.

Speaking of racial warmongering, Kim DuToit notes that the Congressional Black Caucus is upset because Bush didn't invite them to go to Africa. Kim notes that "perhaps if you stopped referring to the President as a moron, or as a right-wing fundamentalist, or as someone owned by Big Oil or Enron, or as someone who allowed 9/11 to happen so he could enrich his family -- perhaps if you stopped doing all those things, he might actually care about what you think."

Back at the NAALCP convention, Bob Graham, who is no doubt a product of government schools, noted that he would "use the five-letter word: deceit" to describe the Bush Administration. I wouldn't normally grandstand over such a trivial mistake, if it weren't for dickheads like Jacob Weisberg. The "Bushism" crowd, who tape every Bush event, in hopes that he'll stumble over a syllable or two, were eerily silent. What, no book of Grahamisms?

Speaking of the product of government schools, the top item on the PC Watch list are parents of an Oregon school system that want the schools to stop flying the American Flag. One of those who would be offended by the flag is Tracy Bungay, who whines, "I want to raise my children to be citizens of the world, and the flag does not represent ideals I want to instill ... It represents dominance, greed, corporate power and not freedom." Too bad state law requires the flag be flown. Perhaps Tracy can use her school voucher to put her children into a private school. Oh wait, she's probably against school vouchers too. Oh well, deal with it, Tracy.

Tracy may not understand what freedom means, but the Iraqis sure do. Over in the gulf, the fall of Saddam's regime has been made an official Iraqi holiday. I'm sure this is driving the peacenik's absolutely crazy. They could only be more pissed off if the Iraqi's started calling it George Bush Day.

In other war news, Puggs over at Random Nuclear Strikes finally got around to watching Gods and Generals. He seemed to enjoy the movie, but claims that his Yankee blood could feel empathy for the "confederate men, but not their cause, not their passion for the war that was to come." So just what did he feel empathy for, if not the cause or passion of men defending their homeland from invasion? Perhaps it was just indigestion he was feeling.

Meanwhile, in state news, the Rhode Island state police have declared war on the natives over cigarette sales taxes. First the white man stole their land and used their images as sport's mascots, and now they cannot even sell tobacco (which is a truly Native American product) without paying tribute to the man. If anything, we should be paying Native Americans for giving us the wonderful product that is tobacco. I wish the Narragansett Indian Tribe the best of luck in federal court. Those yankee pleasure police droogs need to be taken down a peg or two.

I really had to bite my tongue when I read about the Nevada Supreme Court overturning their own Constitution. Apparently the Nevada constitution mandates that school funding be taken care of, and that tax increases be passed by two-thirds majority. Lawmakers discovered that by diverting budgetary funds away from the school budget, they could try to push through a tax increase under the constitutional provision protecting school funding. The question that comes to mind is how mandating a simple majority is any more constitutional than a two-thirds majority. Well, it could have been worse. At least they didn't use the words "compelling interest". Augh, you know this is all her fault.

Last Sunday in Virginia, I missed the commissioning of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. She looks like a good ship, and should help usher in the next wave of super carriers. The U.S.S. George H. W. Bush is right behind her, and should be the next carrier out of dry dock. Apparently, there may just be a U.S.S. George W. Bush in the works too. Hmm, I wonder why there is no U.S.S Clinton. I wouldn't name a carrier after him, but perhaps a yellow submarine that's long, hard and full of seamen. (rim job er.. shot)

In other national news, the AP notes that the RIAA has won hundreds of federal subpoenas against music fans. I find it most interesting that the ISPs that are being targeted for enforcement, are in direct competition with RIAA members like TWAOL. Verizon and Comcast users have been hit the hardest, neither of whom also has a music business division. Meanwhile, even though they are the nation's largest ISP, not a single AOL user has been served with one of the 871 federal subpoenas.

Fox News brought us the sob story of former college students that are stuck with "high interest" loans. Apparently we've gotten to the point where 6.45% is "high interest". Oh woe is Gene Riccoboni, a New York lawyer who is prevented by the government from locking in his taxpayer subsidized loan at the low 3% rates that are common among today's student loans. You know, with seven years (or more) of college, you'd think he would have learned the difference between FIXED and VARIABLE rates. You don't see me crying to Ford Motor Company because I'm locked in at the ludicrously high rate of 4.9% on my car loan. Gene, you always have the option of trying to find non-government subsidized financing in the private sector. You could always walk down to the bank and ask them for a 3% personal loan. (Good luck with that!)

There has been a lot of good offbeat news lately. Last Thursday, I sent out an email about a nice South Carolina girl I'd found. She has a few skeletons in her car.. er closet, but at least I don't have to worry about her running off. About a week later, my cousin's wife asked me about this mysterious new girlfriend I had. I guess cynicism is lost on some people.

In a rare bit of journalistic humor, Reuters featured a truly bizarre story about a Swiss rent-a-cow service. Apparently the cows are rented out for their milk production and cheese. I wonder if PETA has a European branch?

In other offbeat news, On the Fritz featured this truly bizarre story about the tracking of rubber duckies. Ahh, our scientific dollars hard at work.

In related scientific news, the mystery of Van Gogh's Moonrise has finally been solved. This has long been one of my favorite paintings. Scientists, not wanting to squander a perfectly good government grant, have calculated the precise time and day that Van Gogh would have created such a masterpiece. On July 13th, 1889 at 9:08 PM local time, Vincent Van Gogh forever immortalized a ridge of the French countryside. We can all rest better, now that they've cleared that up.

In other French news, actor Johnny Depp, known for his roles in Private Resort and Cry-Baby, plans to make Paris his permanent home. The Seattle PI reports that Depp says that the United States "mortifies" him with its "childish freedom fries and freedom toast." Depp also campaigned for the "Father of the Year" award by noting that if his kids ever wanted to smoke pot, he'd go get it for them. After watching his friend River Phoenix go dance with the devil in the cold moon light, Depp doesn't trust street drugs anymore, because they could easily be laced with other substances. Ahh, another liberal, doing it "for the children".

France's ally, those pesky Iraqi guerrillas, are going to have to suffer through their shortage of white flags. France has ruled out sending troops to Iraq.

Also in France, cyclist Lance Armstrong, who is trying to win his fifth Tour de France in a row was held up by some French anti-globalization nutjobs. Taranto linked this SI article, and noted that only in France could a political protest that stopped a bike race be deemed "a normal race incident."

In other sporting news, Tazteck notes that home town hero Maurice Clarett may be getting more than just tutoring. Apparently communications is a harder major than it looks like, and the star running back may have taken drastic measures to make it to the Tostito'stm Fiesta Bowl last year. I'll hold my judgement until the facts are in, but I've taken classes with student athletes that seemed to never show up, yet always still managed to pass.

And of course there's Kobe. Kobe Bryant was charged with felony sexual assault. I'm not sure what to make of athletes who get in trouble with girls. On the one hand, there are plenty of women out there who would love to trap an athlete in this exact situation, in hopes of getting a huge settlement. On the other hand, there are plenty of grab-ass athletes out there that think they can get away with murder. (cough) OJ (cough)

Well, that brings me to the end of a long post. If you made it down this far, congratulations. Give yourself a gold star for attentiveness. Happy hour is rolling around, and somewhere there is a beer with my name on it. Salud.

Ravenwood will resume regular blogging today. Thanks for reading: I may post very unoccasionally in the future. My immediate plans are to kick my poker habit and resume my normal (web) programming schedule.

DraftClark2004 has this fascinating story about Dwight Eisenhower:

"America has seen many draft movements in its history. One notable effort involved Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952:

-- Courtesy of the Eisenhower Institute Web site"

The CEO and Founder of my company ordered a bunch of copies of Seth Godin's Purple Cow. He gave them to all the department heads today and told us to have then read them by next Wednesday. It didn't take me long to figure out this book was nothing like Harold and The Purple Crayon, my son's favorite book.

Being something of a speed reader, I'm just about through with the book and will report that it is a great read. Seth Godin makes the point that to be a very successful business, one must now be REMARKABLE.

In the Golden Age of TV Advertising, companies thunked up a product, built a factory and advertised on TV. TV advertising drove product sales which generated profits that went back into TV advertising. The cycle got bigger and bigger and products could be branded for a long time. All good things must come to an end, however..

Because of the pervasion of mass advertisement, consumers now successfully block out most attempts to reach them.

Seth successfully uses the research of other marketing gurus to provide us with a bell curve that shows the name of the game is to now be REMARKABLE enough to grab the attention of Early Adopters who will influence a larger buying segment that is ignoring mass advertising.

The downside is a shorter product life cycle. Why? Because its hard to maintain the REMARKABLE aspect of a product or service. Something better or more clever will invariably come along.

Purple Cow throws out the P's of marketing and shows businesses how to market to a nation raised and jaded on traditional marketing.

Terry Jeffrey set a personal record tonight on Hardball when he was able to excoriate liberals on every single question posed by fill-in host Mike Barnicle. Jeffrey managed to sock it to liberals on a wide range of questions covering topics as diverse as Bush's handling of the peace in Iraq, Hollywood's glamorizing of smoking and whether or not Senior Citizens should be allowed to drive.

His last liberal strawman was so convoluted that Jeffrey himself broke into what appeared to be an embarassed grin, although frequent watchers of Hardball know the Republican apologist is incapable of such emotion.

How do these clowns get regular TV appearances? The "blame the liberals" schtick is now a parody of itself and should immediately discredit the speaker.

"Touched By An Angel" was cancelled when its last viewer succombed to old age. How much longer until the old conservatives that comprise cable opinion-TV's base demographic die and free up the wires for intelligent discourse?

Do Dogs Bark The Same In Different Countries?

MSN knows how to get me to click through their web-site. These are the kinds of questions that intrigue me: trivial or nonsensical on the surface but perhaps more complex beneath the surface.

My initial answer is YES.

I read somewhere once there is a simple answer to every question and it is invariably the wrong answer. Of course, that seems to run contrary to Occham's Razor, SO..

NOW I'VE GOT TO CLICK THE LINK AND FIND OUT.

Alas, I still don't know. I lost my sound when I was reconfiguring the network a few days ago and haven't had time to troubleshoot it what with my new poker addiction and all.. can someone click the link and report back?

Four months to the day after sending this letter, Rep. Henry Waxman still has not received a response from the White House. I'm no expert on these things but to diss a Congressman - an elected representative of The People - seems to indicate an extraordinary degree of hubris on the part of the Bush administration.

Before you jump on me, Dear Republitarian, let me state that I realize Waxman is a Democrat, a liberal and probably a closet Socialist and a gun-grabber too, but he speaks for his constituents. Doesn't this mean anything anymore? Do lies and cover-ups only count against you if you are a Democrat? I watched the G-Man spinning this story on Hardball w/ Chris Matthews and I felt sorry for him. He seemed embarassed to have to trot out technicalities and hedges.

Time to drag Ken Starr out of storage, give him 20 million dollars and a mandate to find something. anything..

Hunting For Bambi has made headlines recently on the web and on TV. Snopes thinks the whole thing is probably a publicity stunt to sell videos.

One telling fact reported on Snopes:

"..in common with most web-based business hoaxes, the Hunting for Bambi site displays a curious lack of contact information. Its putative parent company, Real Men Outdoor Productions, is indeed a registered Nevada corporation, but that in itself doesn't mean much, as anyone can register a business for a small fee. (The address listed for Real Men Outdoor Productions corresponds to the address of another registered Las Vegas company, Clean Your Carpets Inc., whose corporate status has since been revoked.) Perhaps more significant is that no business address or phone number is to be found on the Hunting for Bambi site, and several readers who expressed interest in booking a "hunt" have told us their e-mail inquiries to the Hunting for Bambi folks went unanswered. Those are rather odd business practices for a legitimate company looking to book customers at $10,000 a pop."

I wanna be outraged by the whole tawdry affair but seeing women run around naked in the woods reminds me of that Caveman movie Darryl Hannah was in and that reminds me.. well, you know. Mhmm.

If you're a big Billy Bob Thornton fan, you've prolly seen "Daddy And Them". I'm not much of a movie watcher, preferring news and sports. I saw "Daddy And Them" last night (while I was playing poker) on one of the movie channels and was moved. Billy Bob Thornton is effortless. Andy Griffith turned in a brilliant performance. Laura Dern was awesome. Kelly Preston was unrecognizable.

I'm always amazed at how quickly a Billy Bob Thornton role can pull me in. One minute you think "Hey, its the actor with the country accent.." and the next minute the movie is over and you're shaking your head, "Wow". My wife saw Slingblade for the first time the other night and didn't even realize the protagonist was Billy Bob Thornton.

Of course, not everyone is a Billy Bob fan. Ravenwood told me "If Monster's Ball was the sequel to Monster's Inc., it sucked big time."

A coupla weeks ago, my boss (V.P./Director Of Operations) came into my office and asked me if we'd seen the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour broadcasts. I had, of course. My wife and I have been hooked on the series for few months.

Mike and his wife have gotten hooked on the show too. Mike took it further and logged on to a Poker internet site to play. He then made us all log on and play one night. Since then, I've been hooked. I don't do anything anymore except play online Poker.

I WAS programming/writing Stratego for the web, Game 2 in my Nostalgia Gaming Series. (Game 1 was Scrabble. Game 3 is going to be King Oil - anyone remember THAT gem?) I WAS working on some database stuff for my department. I WAS managing my time well.

Now I just play Poker. At home. At work. Today, I called my boss' extension and got his voice mail. I said, "Mike, I need to talk to you about a problem: I've got a pair of kings with an Ace kicker on the flop. I'd like to think my kings are best but one of my opponents bet on the flop so I think he may have Aces. What should I do? Please get back to me quick, it's my turn to bet !"

Come play Poker with me at Pokerroom.com.

Orrin Hatch recently proposed changing the Constitution (Article 2/Section 1) to allow naturalized citizens to hold the office of President, no doubt paving the way for President Schwarzenegger. This change is probably long overdue despite the motivations behind it. (Ending Presidential term limits is also long overdue. Republicans gave them to us, maybe now they'll end 'em for us.)

Orrin Hatch is one of my favorite right-wingers. Most times, he remains above the partisan fray and takes the amiable, plain-spoken approach. He understands what its like to be on the outside, always failing in his Presidential bids to be recognized as a "real" Christian by millions of activist religious conservatives who view Mormonism as a cult.

And he's also a prodigious song writer. Check out his music here.

A recurring theme of the blogs I visit seems to be DISGRUNTLEMENT - and there's nothing wrong with this. I only point it out to spotlight the difference in my own (weak) blogging. I'm bemused about most things, rarely disgruntled. I live a blessed life; life-long friends with whom I still keep in touch, a career I enjoy at a company I *LOVE*, a smart and successful wife who has borne me two healthy beautiful children, relatively good personal health. (My buddy Bill says that perfect health is the slowest rate at which one dies, so I'm dying slower than he is.)

The highlight of my day is right before bedtime when I look in on my sleeping children. Kasey usually sleeps like her mother, on her back, arms straight out beside her (a position that is easily mistaken for death.) Zane is a small boy in a relatively large bed, so finding him is the trick. If he's not in the bed, he's under it. He likes to sleep on his side. Last night, I took pictures of them sleeping and post them here for your viewing pleasure.

One of my favorite sites on the Web is the CIA's Home Page for Kids. Sure its sounds frightening and is a pitiful waste of taxpayer's money but where else on the internet can kids get the positive message to SAY NO TO DRUGS and GET HIGH ON INTELLIGENCE?

I mean from the CIA.. where else on the internet can you get this message from the CIA? Exactly.

Showing more religious fervor than class, per usual, Pat Robertson embarasses Virginia again. Pat is wasting good praying power on politics when we're plumb in the middle of Hurricane Season. (although Southeastern Virginia has natural hurricane protection. Its called North Carolina.)

Pat, turn to Matthew 6 where Christ is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 6: 5 - 8

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

Be not ye therefore like unto them for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."

Joe Conason points out a quote from George Bush that the rest of the liberal press missed yesterday:

"We gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in."

I can see how this would cause some to question the veracity of the President's statements. I can even see how some folks would become a little scared what with the President not being aware of the events leading to his preemptive invasion of Iraq.

My personal feeling is that Bush is setting up the Reagan Defense as used in the Arms For Hostages scandal - Pretend You Don't Have Any Idea What Was Going On. I could take the easy shot here and say that shouldn't be hard but I won't. Oh well, I just did.

Now, for those of you that don't trust a steenkin' liberal Clinton flack like Joe Conason, go watch the video for yourselves. It's the video link titled "President Reaffirms Strong Position on Liberia".

Leave it to Salon.com to make a case for Telemarketing. Here's one paragraph:

"Telemarketing is an enormous business that hires millions of people and contributes to billions in commerce every year, but it is suddenly reeling under what insiders describe as a politically expedient bit of regulation. It surprises and offends telemarketers that, of all the scourges we suffer, lawmakers made this one a priority. Telemarketing is an annoyance, but that's all it is, people in the industry insist. Unsolicited sales calls won't give you cancer or heart disease or make you fat. Telemarketing doesn't damage the environment. It doesn't cause car accidents. Telemarketers don't hurt kids or animals. They aren't suspected of harboring weapons of mass destruction. Yet politicians of every stripe are united behind the issue, and they've come up with a solution -- the do-not-call list -- that experts say will devastate telemarketing."

The article goes on to quote these questionable statistics:

"On average, says Searcy of the American Teleservices Association, an American household makes three purchases per year in response to sales calls. In 2001, according to the WEFA Group, telemarketing purchases represented 4 percent of all sales to consumers in the United States, an enormous slice of economic activity. Before the imposition of the do-not-call list, WEFA estimated that by 2006, about $403 billion in sales would be made by telemarketers."

Having NEVER made a purchase from a telemarketer in twenty years and only being slammed by a phone company once (Sprint), I don't see how these numbers can be correct. Or to extrapolate it, if 60 million Americans are expected to sign up on the DO NOT CALL list by October 1st, presumably because they DON'T buy from telemarketers, how much stuff must the other millions of Americans be buying? And if this is the case, how many calls must these folks endure a day?? Don't bother with the math. Since these are industry numbers, they're probably inflated.

The new legislation goes further than a DO NOT CALL list, tho..

"The commission ordered telemarketers to set their predictive dialers to "abandon" -- that is, hang up on -- no more than 3 percent of the calls made, and it prohibits call centers from masking their phone numbers from caller I.D. devices, which has been a common practice in the industry.""

Typically, I'm tied in conflicting knots after reading the article. I want to err on the side of free-enterprise and capitalism but it occurs to me that free-enterprise gave us the institution of slavery which ultimately required Gov't intervention. Or, hmm.. if owning a phone isn't a right, then no one has the right to call you on the phone. Hell, I dunno. Comments are welcome - no, comments are required!

"More and more African-Americans are beginning to think for themselves." - Dick Armey, former Republican House Majority Leader, today on MSNBC.

Oh my!

Let's help Susan Smith find a man she deserves. As someone who does a lot of hiring, I can advise Susan that she just needs to prettify her resume. Any of the following phrases should have her drowning in love in no time:

"Great With Kids - For The First Couple Years Or So"
"Post-Delivery Abortion Specialist - Will Relocate to State with Lax Murder Laws"
"Christian - The Old Testament-Stone-The-Whole-Family-Kind"

It's a shame Jeffrey Dahmer got shiv'ed. They'd make the perfect pair. She could kill 'em and he could eat 'em.

This weekend, General Wesley Clark will be on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Click here for show times.

This could be the EVENT Clark fans have been waiting for. Do the moderate thing and go sign the online petition to draft Clark.

A Twenty Dollar Donation can make you a card-carrying ACLU member. The horror-stricken looks you will get in the red states is by itself worth the money. Not enough fun? Then buy your favorite Christian Conservative a membership !

.. all joking aside, the ACLU performs a valuable service for unpopular causes across the political spectrum. Its a shame their web-site only focuses on their efforts against right-wingers. But I do understand why..

I'm back online again. Friday afternoon/evening my wife saw a Cox Cable van around the corner. I visited with the data tech and explained the lightning strike and let him know the node was working and the problem was likely with the boxes between the houses. Being the conscientious worker he is, he troubleshooted at my neighbor's house for a few more hours before making the call to the field maintenance guys, who can do work on the boxes.

They showed up Saturday around noon and told me it would be working when they left. When I got home again around 2pm, it was working - well, ONE of my systems was working. The other system wouldn't pull an IP from Cox. I'm paying for a coupla extra IPs. Tried another network card. No luck. Unpacked and hooked up the router, released IP from one working system and renewed with router. Hooked systems up to router. Bingo.

Will call and cancel extra IPs with Cox. I didn't cancel my Saturday night appointment with Cox. I wish I woulda been here to let them know it was working now. I hate Cox.

It appears that the purveyor of "Jesus Was a Liberal" T-shirts at Stupid Conservatives.com was shaped in much the same manner, religiously-speaking, as I was. Click here for his explanation of why he developed the T-shirt. I grew up the son of missionaries in a series of fundementalist churches. Some of the things I heard preached from The Word Of God:

- Genesis Chapter 1 details how blacks and whites are different species and should therefore not marry.
- Hannah's story in the Old Testament and the Book of Timothy in the New Testament show women are subservient to men and are cursed by God to have babies (from the original sin) and should stay out of leadership positions over men.
- The AntiChrist will be/is a Jew.
- Destruction of the world foretold in Revelations will occur in our lifetime.
- If I don't attend church regularly, my marriage will break-up.
- God will kill me for not being "right with him".

I could go on and on but you get the picture. As children we were also threatened with abandonment in the form of rapture if we weren't "saved", and imminent torture by communists (who would be taking over America any day) if we were "saved". Tough choice, huh?

When you vote Republican, you are empowering the people whose view of America is some sort of Zionist-type latter-day Israel that will be accorded or refused blessings from God depending on how many babies we abort or homosexuals we tolerate. The America you are helping these people create is not an America you want to live in, Dear Republiterian.

You recruit a blogsitter to sit for your blog while you are away. The internet gods get angry, and smite his internet connection. What do you do?

Easy, you visit Rob and steal one of his posts for some quick blogage. He's been on a quiz rampage lately, so this should be pretty quick. Lets see how I do on some of the questions from the Naturalization test.

I'm not sure if Rob wrote this test or not, because some of the questions repeat, and the numbering is all out of order.

1. According to the constitution, a person must meet certain requirements in order to be eligible to become president. Name one requirement.
You have to be at least 35 years old.

2. Can the Constitution be changed?
Yes. The Constitution has an Amendment process, whereby the Legislative branch passes the changes, and the states ratify them.

3. Can you name the 13 original states?
Yes. (That was easy)

4.Can you name the two senators from your state?
Yes. (another easy one.)

5. For how long do we elect each senator?
Most senators serve 25 or 30 years. Some seem to serve for 40 or 50. Technically they are elected to only 6 year terms, but with the passage of the Incumbent Protection Act, whereby you cannot criticize a sitting senator 60 days before he comes up for re-election, it is pretty much a lifetime term.

6. For how long do we elect the president?
We don't. The President is elected by the members of the electoral college. He serves for four years. The electors are chosen by the states, via popular election, so technically we have a hand in the process. But we really don't.

7. For how long do we elect the Representatives in Congress?
Two years, but the Incumbent Protection Act still applies.

8. How many amendments to the Constitution have been made so far?
Twenty Seven.

9. How many branches are there in our government?
Three.

10. How many changes or Amendments to the Constitution are there?
See number 8.

11. How many members are there in the Supreme Court? What is the term of office for these judges?
Nine. They serve for life, or until they retire.

12. How many Presidential electors does each state have?
They have an elector for each House Representative, with a minimum of three.

13. How many representatives are there in Congress?
435.

14. How many Senators are there in Congress?
One Hundred.

15. How many states are there in the union?
Who the hell cares? There were 13 Confederate States, and that is all you need to know. (Some people say 11, they are wrong).

16. How many states are there in the US?
Fifty.

17.How many stripes are there on the flag?
Thirteen.

14. How many Supreme Court justices are there?
Nine. See question 11.

15. How many terms can a president serve?
Two full terms.

16. How many times may a congressman be reelected?
As many times as he can win.

16. How many times may a senator be reelected?
Same.

17. In what month do we vote for the president?
November.

18. In what month is the new president inaugurated?
January.

19. In what year was the Constitution written?
1788. (I think?)

20. Name one amendment that guarantees or addresses voting rights?
Fourteenth, Fifteenth, the dreaded Seventeenth, and the very dreaded Nineteenth.

UPDATE: In looking at Mrs. DuToit's list of questions, it's no wonder that Peter Jennings waited so long to become a citizen.

I've been without home internet service since a thunderstorm came through about 30 hours ago. I've called Cox about a dozen times now. The first few calls they just blew me off saying they were a lot of outages in my area. This morning, I called from work (after I posted saying I was going to do such - see below) and the nice lady determined there were no more outages in my area, meaning I had a problem that required dispatched service. The earliest they have available is Saturday night between 6 and 8 pm. I explained if they'd taken my problem seriously the first few calls, I'd have a sooner appointment scheduled already. She was unmoved and told me *I Could Call Them* periodically to see if a cancellation had opened up an earlier spot.

I do not have landline phone service so without Cox's lousy service, I have no service at all. When I got home from work this evening, I called back in something of a controlled fury. I was made to step through resetting my modem for the umpteenth time. Long story short (too late, eh?) I wound up talking to a Supervisor who told me there was no earlier time available for dispatched service. I tried to impress upon him the nature of my problem: 200+ dollars a month for internet/digital TV/scads of premium channels/extra IP adresses and no back up internet.

He was unmoved. I will be down for 4 days. He did offer me a month's service credit and I can't tell you how grateful I am to know I'm not paying for nothing.

After I got off the phone with Cox, I decided to walk across the street to use my brother-in-law's internet. What do I find when I get here? He has Cox cable modem service and it's working GREAT! He's also a network guy so together we took his cable modem back to my place and tried it outside where the cable comes into the front of the house, bypassing two splitters. Still won't come online. Tried it in the backyard where the main cable line comes from the cable pedestal behind the yard. Still won't come online.

We know the node is working because his service is fine. This means the problem is in the pedestal behind our fence. (squarish green box about 2 feet high.) My brother-in-law told me my situation will only get worse and described this scenario: On Saturday evening, Cox will dispatch a contractor out to fix the problem and they will determine it is the pedestal (as we did). Then they will tell me they can't work on them and will have to schedule a COX EMPLOYEE who can work on it. This will take another couple of days. He said I can try calling Cox back to let them know it's the pedestal but they likely won't act on my information.

Now.. we all know the cable company is a pseudo-monopoly. Libertarians are okay with monoplies. (I know this from my youthful days flirting with libertarianism.) Someone tell me how the Libertarian solution will make all my problems go away. Or does the libertarian case have us so awash in cash from not paying taxes and so stoned on readily-available drugs that we spend our evenings target shooting with our automatic rifles and rampaging through the neighborhood in our Abrams' tanks not caring a whiff about internet service or who owns the cable company or even who owns America. Yah, its a cheap shot, but I've had a rough day.. and its going downhill quickly.

The Free State Project group already has an uphill battle finding a state to hijack, in large part due to their own hypocrisy. Organizers had an "Escape to New Hampshire" getaway weekend at a New Hampshire State Park, which wouldn't even exist if Free Staters ran the state. (This is like one of those time-travelling paradoxes.)

But it just seems patently unfair (fainress, n., one of those liberal notions!) not to give the residents of the targeted states a forum for saying "Not My State!"

Who wants to step up to the plate and buy/develop http://notmystate.org to provide a forum for residents of Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming? The ideal webmaster should hail from one of these states and be committed to free expression.

Republiterians should also be interested in hosting such a site. The state with the least amount of input may be the ideal state to hijack.

A series of thunderstorms moved through Southeastern Virginia Wednesday afternoon and disabled our cable internet access. We don't have land telephone service so I'm unable to post from home. I will add a few things from work today - so long as everyone promises not to tell my boss.

Right now, I'm going to call Cox and scream at them some more. It won't get me working any quicker but it does make me feel better.

The Free State Project is an effort by Libertarians to take over a small state and pass laws.. er repeal laws.. favoring Libertarian causes.. er targeting other folk's causes. It's so confusing!

So how do you join the movement, Dear Republiterian? All you have to do is cede your individual right to live where you want to, and let the Free State Project group choose a small state to which you will move. Once there, the group will instruct you on on how to vote and for whom to vote. If you are successful, you can have your individualism and liberty back. Moving costs are not refundable, in any case.

If the irony is lost on you, then you are an ideal candidate.

I'm not sure, but I think this is how D.C. got started..

I just wanted to provide a brief "Blog Vacation" update. Believe me when I say it is no vacation. To give you an example of how my days are going, I'll give you a timeline of my day today.

I started off by arriving at work at 6:15 AM. I had to work for about an hour, doing some administration functions at work. I had to send out a fax that had been left on my desk, answer all my email and voice mail, and perform the daily maintenance on our network server. I had several documents to print out for my boss' meeting today, which he had to host without me. I managed to get all the important stuff done by 7:15, and then it was off to my MCSE boot camp.

Class started at 7:30 AM, and we had an exam first thing in the morning. I passed, and completed the first step toward my MCSE certification. Technically that makes me an MCP, but I'm not going to get too excited. I have 6 more exams to face over the next 12 days. After the exam, we had lecture and studied for the rest of the day. (And I do mean, the rest of the day.)

Class let out at 9 PM, which made for pretty much a 15 hour day. That doesn't include my home work. I have about an hour or two of reading to complete tonight, before I start the whole process over again tomorrow.

I have to keep this schedule up for two straight weeks. It started on Sunday, and goes through next Saturday, the 19th. The only breaks I get are on Saturday and Sunday when I don't have to go to work, and can concentrate just on my MCSE class. No, the boot camp doesn't give us any days off. (sigh)

As far as the web site goes, there is absolutely no way I could maintain the blog on top of all this. I think Lope is doing a great job running the site while I'm gone. His politics are just about polar opposites of mine, so I expect that all you people that were sending me hate mail on a daily basis will start sending lovey dovey notes now.

At the very least, please be sure to send thanks to Lope for holding down the fort while I'm away. (And no, Acidman didn't fire me and hire someone else. Don't believe a damn word he says.)

If you're like me, you're cheap and lazy and it becomes apparent every other week when its time to mow the damn yard. For years I've let the grass grow real high and never, ever raked. Science has caught up with me - turns out I'm an organic groundskeeper.

Paul Wheaton explains it all. While you're reading, I'll be out working on my mower. Really.

Below is the latest salvo in my war to make General Wesley Clark the Last Man Standing:

Top Ten Reasons Not To Vote Democrat

10. Ralph Nader
9. Joe Leiberman
8. Al Sharpton
7. John Edwards
6. Dick Gephart
5. Howard Dean
4. Carol Moseley-Braun
3. Bob Graham
2. Dennis Kucinich
1. John Kerry

In a last-ditch effort to attract America's military and financial aid, the Democratic Republic of Congo elected Saddam Hussein President yesterday. "We are confident that Saddam Hussein will be able to straighten out our country." winked outgoing President Joseph Kabila. He rushed on, "This monster will stop our people from killing one another so that we may begin the task of killing Americans." Afterwards, he quickly covered up his face with a handkerchief and coughed loudly while his chest shook.

After composing himself, Mr. Kabila said that while Saddam Hussein had not officially arrived in the country, his luggage had and "it smelled funny, like plutonium and anthrax mixed together in a horrendous dirty bomb destined to destroy the infidels of the world." He went on to say, "Regrettably, Congo Air lost the luggage but we suspect it is somewhere in northeast Congo, in the midst of the heaviest tribal genocide."

Mr. Kabila also announced the expulsion of all UN observers but had high praise for the exiting French. "We will miss the French people, and their staunch loyalty and delicious toast."

President Bush is expected to hold a news conference later today announcing troop movements to the central African region.

On the way home from work today, I passed a truck with this bumper sticker:

"There are Americans ... And there are Liberals"

At first I was pissed off. (I hate Super Patriots who question everyone else's patriotism, especially the Chicken Hawk crowd). I rolled down my window with the intention of saying something at the next light. But at the next light before we got side by side, he rolled down his own window and poured out his drink on the road. Then he flipped his cigarette out the window. Upon seeing this, I had to smile. Ever heard the quote "Consider the source?" We need more folks like this questioning other folk's patriotism.

Kinda reminds me of Ann Coulter and Mike Savage hyper-defining Conservatism to an all-new level of hysteria and silliness. These folks, of course, will be the undoing of the modern neo-con movement. Just give 'em more rope - (and make sure there are no lynchin' trees nearby.. !)

What I fear with the modern neo-con movement is that dissent will be silenced. This is one reason I've proudly self-identified as a liberal. Just for fun sometime, listen to Rush or Boortz or Coulter and everytime you hear the word "liberal", substitute it mentally with "Jew" or "Christian" or "Negro". Pick your favorites race, religion, or creed. Scary, huh? We need folks like Coulter and Savage and this litter pig giving the whole shooting match a black eye.

Those of you who give a damn noticed I haven't been posting much in the last week. We just signed a contract on this house:

We had planned on being homeless longer, since moving out of our old house. Our "old house" wasn't that old. We had it built in 1990 and it wasn't anything special, just a small A-frame house way out in the suburbs. Since then, everyone else in the world moved out there too and traffic became a special kind of nightmare that only those who have lived in Hampton Roads can understand. (I know traffic is bad in other places but you have options there.. it's all about optional routes!)

The new place is only about 3 miles from my work and 4 miles from her work. And 2 miles from the kid's babysitter. All going in the same direction.

Generally speaking, we self-identify as conservative or liberal. Doug Newman points out that no matter how we self-identify, our actions speak louder than our feelings. In We Are All Liberals Now, he makes an excellent sports analogy about the current state of politics:

"Recently, I said that politics should resemble football, with one team moving the ball toward one end zone, and the other team moving the ball toward the opposite end zone. Someone e-mailed me back saying that contemporary politics is more like baseball, with both teams working to advance across the same plate, but just earlier and more often."

If you like this quote, you'll love the full essay.

If you have Showtime, you probably already know about Family Business. If you don't have Showtime, maybe its time to spring for it. Family Business is the Porn Industry's version of The Courtship of Eddie's Father. The Reality TV show follows single parent Adam Glasser (aka Seymore Butts) as he struggles to meet a nice girl who accepts him and what he does for a living: distributor, producer, director and occasional star in the Adult Entertainment Industry.

Completing the cast are his eccentric older cousin Stevie and not-so-typical Jewish Mom, Lila. Together they help him run his business and provide comic relief and intimate insight, respectively.

My only complaint is some of the scenes with Stevie seem to be setups designed for comedy. For instance, when a camera-man/director is a no-show for a guy-girl-girl shoot, Stevie is sent over to film it, despite having no directing experience and knowledge of how to operate the camera (or even turn it on.) Still other scenes with Stevie are crying-fits funny, like when Adam has to leave the office early and tasks Stevie with interviewing and photographing a male model.

Still, despite hilarious scenes, the nude roller skating party for Stevie's 60th birthday party reminds us why we love the show!

I don't know if this will help her climb out of the 825 spot, but I'm going to try.
Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl Dizzy-Girl

UPDATE: Speaking of linkage, it has now been about 6 months without Spoons.

On July 4, 1776, American patriots signed the Declaration of Independence. The document was inflammatory, in that it accused the King of England of tyranny and heinous crimes against man. It could have spelled a death sentence for everyone who signed it. Yet, the document proved to be the framework for world wide freedom. It professed that man is "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights", and that "among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Hapiness."

Those are ideals worth fighting for, and worth dying for.

This is not just July 4th. This is not just a day to sit around the pool and bar-b-que. This is not just a day to sell new cars at 0% interest and $1000 cash back. This is not just a day to drink tall frosty beverages with your friends.

This day, is first and foremost, the anniversary of our Independence Day.

For those of you starting your holiday early, have a happy Independence Day.

I don't know how much posting I'll do this long weekend. I don't plan on posting at all tomorrow, and I start a two-week class on Sunday, so I may not be back here for a while.

Lope will be filling in for me while I'm gone. Please be courteous to him, as he is quite new to weblogging and probably hasn't built up the immunity to hate mail like I have.

Susan Reimer of the Baltimore Sun is griping about men not getting married early enough. Even though today's society isn't exactly promoting marriage, and many of today's feminazi liberal women don't really have much to offer, Reimer places the blame solely on men. While I disagree, I cannot help but laugh at some of her observations about young single guys.

He has no biological clock since he can father children well past middle age, so he is in no hurry to marry.

He is looking for a "soul-mate," and he believes there is someone out there whom he is destined to love.

If he finds her, he is also likely to find that the relationship does not live up to this romantic ideal, but it will be easy enough to divorce these days.

In the meantime, he is taking his time looking for her because he can, so his current lifestyle is likely to extend into his 30s.

He is living an extended adolescence - an adult-olescence - and every immature, irresponsible, self-absorbed thing he does is re-enforced by the latest issue of his favorite men's magazine.

Reimer goes on and on, blaming single men for fathering children out of wedlock, and for being openly suspicious man-trapping women. From the very title of her op-ed, "Grow up, men", she places full blame on sexually deviant single guys, who are just out there to have fun, and keep skirting through life with no responsibilities.

My view is CAN YOU BLAME THEM. To be perfectly frank, the so-called "problem" has mostly to do with today's loose women, who let men get away with it. For one thing, they aren't exactly pushing guys in the marriage direction. Since the sexual revolution women rarely save themselves for marriage anymore, and young women are all very quick to shack up with a guy; sometimes for years at a time. I don't want to use any cliches, but I'm thinking of one about a cow, and free milk.

I have nothing against marriage, and I certainly have nothing against easy women. What I do take issue with, however, is putting the blame solely on men. Whether feminists like it or not, women are the attractors of the species, and right now they simply aren't selling something men want to buy.

Maybe feminazis should stop teaching young women how to make it on their own, and start teaching them how to cook.

California's budget woes are nothing new. After a low level functionary single-handedly decided to triple the state's car tax, the GOP legislators are filing suit. Of course, the government will continue to rake in the taxes until the matter has been fully litigated. What strikes me is how the California government and the employee's unions are still pushing through big dollar raises.

SACRAMENTO - As California entered the new fiscal year without a budget or any plan to climb out of its multibillion-dollar budget hole, Republican legislators went to court Tuesday to dismantle the tripling of the car tax ordered by the Davis administration and set to take effect in October.

State employees, meanwhile, balked at the governor's plea for 180,000 of them to give back raises of up to 7% that were negotiated last year and take effect today. The workers have been warned that if they do not accept salary freezes of a year or longer, as many as 10,000 will be laid off.

In spite of having the biggest budget gap in the history, and despite a massive state wide recall effort, Gray Davis continues to raise spending. I think he needs psychiatric help. Gray Davis' has a long history of fiscal irresponsibility. For his first four years in office, Davis:

• 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.

I cannot blame Hormel for being upset that the name of their popular canned lunch meat has been transformed into describing the repugnant bulk e-mail that clogs our inboxes every day. The fact that they are going after an anti-spam utility called Spam Arrest in court seems to be perfectly justifiable. The problem for Hormel, is trademark law probably isn't on their side.

The company added that Spam Arrest's name so closely resembles that of its lunchmeat that the public might become confused, or might think that Hormel endorses Spam Arrest's products.

Trademark law seems to be somewhat forgiving in this respect. For instance General Motors and General Mills, both have similar names and initials, but make completely different products. CBS, who owned The Nashville Network (now the National Network, wants to be SpikeTV) sued The Network Network (TNN) for trademark infringement to get the rights to their domain name, TNN.com Their claim was pretty weak, given the fact that TNN had been around longer than The Nashville Network, and that TNN.com sold network maintenance and other IT related services. In his ruling, the judge comically wrote:

Unlikely indeed is the hapless Internet searcher who, unable to find information on the schedule of upcoming NASCAR broadcasts or 'Dukes of Hazzard' reruns, decided to give up and purchase a computer network maintenance seminar instead.

There is something interesting going on in Nevada.

Gov. Kenny Guinn [a Republican] asked the Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday to order the Legislature to raise taxes after lawmakers failed to fund a new public schools budget.

Guinn made the request as the new fiscal year opened without legislative approval of $864 million in new taxes or a K-12 schools budget.

Wow. I cracked the 300 barrier on the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, and am hanging on to position number 299. Since there are over 3000 registered weblogs in the ecosystem, does this mean that I am Top 10%?

Well, regardless of what it means, I am ranked higher than Ann Coulter's Coultergeist. Of course, she hasn't started posting entries yet. All she'd have to do is post a nudie pic of herself, and she'd probably shoot up to the Top 10.

I don't have any Ann Coulter nudy pics, but I did post these way back in July, 2002.

After reading a few of the comments on Peppermint Patty's site, I wanted to try to dispel some of the myths about Cuban cigars. Cuban cigars like Cohiba, Montecristo, and Romeo y Julieta are not the same cigars as their Dominican and Nicaraguan cousins. When Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959, one of the first things he did was seize the local tobacco factories for the government. Owners of the factories fled Cuba and took with them, the knowledge, the processes, and sometimes even the seed used to grow their world famous tobacco.

Many of them set up shop the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, and other various countries, to start rebuilding their business. With court approval, they even held on to their trademarks, which explains why there is a Cuban Montecristo and a Dominican Montecristo. They are not the same cigars, and the only thing they share is the name and sometimes the look of the band. Before the manufacturers had court approval to continue to use their former trademarks, many cigar manufacturers tried to re-establish brand names, and thus cigars like Montecruz were born.

Although Castro seized control over the Cuban cigar factories, the commie variants that he produces there now are in no way as good as pre-1959 Cuban cigars. They may be decent smokes, but the Dominican, and Nicaraguan sticks typically rival or exceed them in quality and taste. Much of the appeal for Cuban cigars in today's society stems from the U.S. embargo of all things Cuban. People assume that since they cannot have them, they must be good. With the high demand, Castro's factories have focused more on quantity and market saturization than on quality. While Cigar Aficionado noted that Cuba is starting to focus more on quality as of late, they still have a long way to go.

Not only is their quality usually substandard, but Cuban cigars demand a premium. Cubans that you buy in Canada and Europe are usually much more expensive than similar non-Cuban cigars. Not only do they cost more, but by buying Habana-made sticks, your money is supporting a communist dictatorial regime. Now, I'd be a pretty big hypocrit if I stood on my soap box and preached against smoking Cuban cigars solely on that basis, mainly because I've bought more than my fair share of them. However, I will say that outside of the prestige of having something that you aren't supposed to have, or something that nobody else can get, Cuban cigars are typically a mediocre smoke, and not worth the money.

Naturally, some Cuban varieties are a better than others. I found the Montecristo #4s, and Romeo y Julieta Excepcionales to be an excellent cigar. But when you factor in the price, you can get a much better Dominican smoke, and you don't need to travel overseas or break the law to do it.

Another problem with Cuban cigars is that there is a huge market for counterfeits. If you are buying them on the streets of Havana, they are likely to be a counterfeit label wrapped around some skunk weed. The same goes for flea markets. I saw some at a gun show a few months back that were obvious counterfeits. Aside from the label being completely wrong, the cigars themselves looked like they'd been run through a washing machine. The only thing that did look genuine was the box, but even then I didn't get a close enough look to see if the tax stamp was real or not. (To be honest, I didn't really care.)

If you are a cigar lover whose never had one from Habana, next time you are out of the U.S. you might want to try one. I certainly wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to sample something they've never had before. I'm just saying that you should beware that it may not be all that you were expecting.

Related articles:
Priming your Humidor -- 06/24/2003
A Fine Cigar -- 06/15/2003
Guns and Cigars -- 12/18/2002
Cigars are an obsession -- 10/16/2002

Am I the only one concerned about this technology? I can see England jumping on this product right away. Some local lawmakers of cities in the U.S. probably won't be too far behind.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is developing an urban surveillance system that would use computers and thousands of cameras to track, record and analyze the movement of every vehicle in a foreign city.

Related articles:
It's 1984 in Oregon - 06/03/2003

Site traffic increased in June. Here are some raw numbers according to Webalizer: 12513 visitors (11583 last month), 31117 page views (26640 last month), 448649 hits (374537 last month), and 3.82 GB (3.07 last month).

The Ravnwood.com page counter also went over 85,000 last month, with very little fanfare.

There were 169 posts in June, compared to 140 in May, 127 in April, 123 in March. The high is still 186 in November, 2002.

We must have come around the batting order, because Laurence Simon is hosting the Carnival again. Head on over to Amish Tech Support to check it out.

To the guy that asked Jeeves: if i join the navy does my wife go with me, and ended up here:

No.

Are we supposed to believe that this slight is purely accidental.

Apparently I'm not reading very influential weblogs. I read #8 and #9 on this list, and that's it. Every now and then I catch an article from one of the others, but they are few and far between.

I'm also not sure what they mean by influence. To me, influence means the shaping of minds. To influence someone, they not only need to have someone's ear, but also their respect. After all, just because you agree with someone's point of view, doesn't necessarily mean that they have an influence over you. I may read someone's work, and agree with 70% of it. But do they really have an influence on me? Are they influencing me to agree with their point of view, or would I have come to that conclusion on my own? Methinks the latter is probably true.

I don't want to name too many names, but when it comes to influence, I would pick a person like Walter Williams. I love his work, and am truly influenced by it. I think it shows up in my writing. From the blogosphere, I would say Kim DuToit has a lot of influence over me. When it comes to guns, he seems to be a tall dog in the knowledge department. I'm no slouch myself, but when I need clarity on something, Kim is usually one of the ones I turn to.

Virginia HB1516 goes into effect today. That is a preemption bill for carrying concealed handguns in the Commonwealth. Even after today, several localities still have laws on the books banning the carrying of concealed firearms in local parks and various other public places. The new Virginia law says that they can keep their silly laws on the books if they want to, but they cannot enforce them. It is part of a statewide effort to make uniform, the places a person can and cannot carry a concealed handgun. It should go a long way to removing some of the confusion for permit holders.

For information on places that permit holders can carry in Virginia, I suggest you check out Packing.org, or the VCDL web site.

(Photo via AP)

The Canadian Navy is "worn out" and taking a year off. How can they afford to do that? Aren't they afraid of invasion? Who will protect them?

It must be nice to have the luxury of unwavering American protection. Even though they didn't support us in Iraq, they still depend on us to keep them safe. Is there any chance that we'd just look the other way if someone like Russia, Greenland, or the Rhode Island National Guard just up and decided to conquer Canada?

The unemployment rate in Euro-zone nations is stagnating at close to 9%, reports the AP.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Unemployment in the 12 nations that share the euro as their currency remained at 8.8 percent in May, its highest level in three years, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday.

The jobless rate in the euro-zone's largest economies in Germany and France, stood at 9.4 percent and 9.1 percent respectively, while the highest rate was registered by Spain, where unemployment stood at 11.3 percent.