Person of the Year

Click on the title to read the story. Oh yes, and congratulations!

Things I would like to bitch about

Yep, that's what this post is going to be. Just things that I would like to bitch about. Here they are, in no particular order (although my subconscious mind may have put them into order without my knowledge):

1. As of December 11, 2006 the U.S. military casualties in the Iraq war is at 2,927 confirmed dead, and 10 awaiting confirmation from the Department of Defense (here). Don't you just love that word, casualties? It reduces it to nothing but a statistic. We need to start telling it as it is, and if it upsets someone that I say it's about damned time it upset someone. The dead in Iraq are not statistics - there are 2,927 men and women who have returned to the United States in a casket. 2,927 times, families and friends have mourned. 2,927 lives ended tragically too soon. They are not casualties, they are human beings who deserved more than to be added to a numbers column. If you would like to make me a happy girl, pledge to stop using the word casualties and instead say people. Try it with me now. There are 2,927 husbands, wives, daughters, sons, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends that have died in Iraq.
2. If you cannot turn off your damn cell phone while you are shopping or even worse, in a restuarant, then remove yourself and the cell phone from the area and leave the rest of us in peace. No, I'm not referring to the 'honey, which kind of detergent was I supposed to get?' kind of call. That's what cell phones are for. I'm talking about the people that have to conduct business, catch up with their sorority sister and have a teacher conference via cell phone while in the middle of the store. I'm sorry, but if the call is that important then sit your ass in your car, have your call, and when you are finished turn the fucking phone off and return to the store or restaurant without making the rest of us hear you yell into your phone about how your boss is an ass and your kid has the shits. Effective immediately, I am taking a small air horn everywhere I go and if I come across someone on a cell phone or using one of those damn Blue Tooth ear pieces and it is not one of those short 'I need to ask a question' calls, I'm going to blast the air horn. If I have to listen to you on your phone then you have to listen to me and my air horn. What's that? You can't hear to have your phone conversation when I blast my air horn? GOOD!!!
   
3. The arrows on aisle in a parking lot are not suggestions to be ignored if it doesn't suit you. When cars come at me in the wrong direction, I will continue my practice of sitting there in the middle of the aisle. The asshole that is too stupid to read an arrow can back his/her own damn car up to get out of the aisle. It's not my fault that your parents blessed you with only five brain cells, two of which sometimes work.

Damn, I'm all out of time. I'll have to continue my bitching tomorrow, but until then if you remember nothing else from this post, remember no. 1 on my bitch list.

Outraged Yet?

As of September 15, 2006 - 2,682 US Soldiers killed in Iraq

As the bumper sticker says, if you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention.

Oh happy day!

Yes, peeps, I'm back! Well, I never actually went anywhere, it's just that I couldn't log into the blog to post because it kept saying that my username didn't exist. Turns out they were right. Oops! But now I'm back, and there's just soooo much to talk about I don't know where to start.

First, let me tell you what I've been doing during my absence.

I got caught up in The Lost Experience. There, I said it. I let myself get caught up in a virtual reality game.

And I will be staying up tomorrow night to listen to the final broadcast of DJ Dan "Taking Down the Man!".

Now if you're not a fan of Lost then you have no idea what I'm talking about and think I'm nuts. If you are a fan of Lost and you aren't playing, then let me just tell you this: when they said that the game and the show wouldn't overlap, they LIED! We found out what the numbers mean, why the stations were built on the island, all sorts of stuff. Also, if you haven't bought the book "Bad Twin" yet...don't. It sucks, and it was good for solving one encrypted message that was given by a caller to the last DJ Dan live broadcast. You won't gleam a bit of information about anything from that book.

I've also become addicted to Poser. Poser is a 3d modeling program. I love it. LOVE IT! But I've bought too much stuff for it and spend too many nights up trying to get just the perfect render. I need a 12 step program.

I have much more to say but it's late and I'm tired so I'm going to bed. I'll post more when I get up.

It's just too hot here, anybody have an island I can visit?

It is so very freakin' hot! I hate summer...HATE IT! 'Tis the season to burn to a crisp and die of heat exhaustion.

I have, however, found a site where you can buy islands and even rent them...hmm...maybe that's what I need to do...rent an island. I'm sure the heat would be much more bearable if it was accompanied by ocean waves and palm trees.

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness

That, my friends, is all that we are guaranteed. Just those three things. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.

Not a whole hell of a lot, is it?

Or is it?

Think about it. The right to life is a pretty big deal in and of itself. It means that you have the right to live, which is more than some people have. Then you have the right to liberty, which is also more than most people in the world have.

Finally, you have the right to pursue happiness. Note that you do not have a right to happiness, but you do have the right to the pursuit of happiness. In my humble opinion, this means that you can do whatever you want to be happy, with one little catch.

You can't do anything that takes away someone else's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, because every other American has the same rights. This is why you can't go around killing people that piss you off, nor can you prevent someone from doing something just because you find it morally wrong. Unless the actions of others are causing you harm, you can't stop them.

Now I know there are a lot of 'religious' folks out there who like to invoke Jesus and the Bible into their arguments. Please, tell me where in the Constitution of the United States it says that the Bible is the law of the land. You can't because it doesn't. The Constitution is the law of the land, and what you think the Founding Fathers intended doesn't amount to a hill of beans. I know it pains you, but non-Christians have the same rights as Christians do. Get over it.

If you find homosexual behavior to be morally reprehensible, then you are most likely heterosexual and therefore not likely to engage in homosexual behavior. Therefore, it does not concern you. Two men or two women getting married is NOT a threat to the institution of marriage, unless someone can explain how gays and lesbians getting married is going to prevent straight couples from getting married. Are you afraid that all of the good wedding planners and florists will be too busy with the homos to help you with your wedding?

Speaking of non-Christians, thank you President Bush for stating that Wicca is not a religion. Wicca is a religion, and one that is far older than Christianity. Yet the Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize Wicca as a religion and as a result, a follower of Wicca who dies for his or her country cannot get the Pentacle on his or her military marker (Fallen Soldier's Family Wants Wiccan Marker). I have absolutely no faith that this man will ever get the honor that he -- and all members, past and present -- of the military deserve, which is a marker that reflects the faith of his choice. His family should be able to get his marker with Donald Duck on it if that is what he would have wanted. It is no one's place to tell others what is or is not acceptible. If it doesn't harm anyone else, then no one should be able to prevent it. Or can someone explain to me how having a pentacle on the gravestone of a fallen soldier can possible interfere with someone else's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

This is where we've gone wrong. We seem to have forgotten that other people have the same right to the pursuit of happiness and instead want everything to center around our own pursuits and beliefs.

On second thought, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness IS a hell of a lot, but only if we learn to let EVERYONE enjoy those rights.

Disclaimer: My opinions are my own

My employer has sent out new rules, one of which is that employees are to include a disclaimer when posting to forums or blogs that the opinions posted are "not the opinions of my employer".

This was covered in a memo on use of the company equipment, so am I to assume that I can now post to this blog while I'm at work, just so long as I post the disclaimer? If so, cool. But somehow, I doubt it.

Anyway, I doubt that any of you know (or care) who my employer is, but just in case someone from the corporate office is a) reading this blog and b) actually knows who it belongs to, let me post my disclaimer:

THE OPINIONS POSTED HERE ARE MINE AND MINE ALONE! THEY ARE NOT THE OPINIONS OF MY EMPLOYER, AND MY EMPLOYER IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT IT MAY NOT MAKE ANY CLAIMS TO AGREE WITH ME ON ANY POINT WHATSOEVER REGARDING WHAT I HAVE POSTED IN MY BLOG!

Now, let them put that in their pipes and smoke it.

The Outsourcing of America Part II

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way trying to state or imply that any of the examples given below have happened. This is purely my brain thinking of things that COULD happen in a given situation.

So I already covered how jobs are being outsourced and how it is hurting America's economy in a previous post.

Now, I bring to you some of the other possible consequences of outsourcing.

Identity theft has become a real problem in today's society. One day everything is just peachy, the next you find out that someone has bought a car in your name and skipped out on the payments and skipped town with the car. Or you apply for a home loan and find that a credit card was issued in your name, with your information, and said card has been maxed out to it's full $20,000 limit without a penny being made in payment.

Even worse, one day the cops are beating on your door and haul you off to jail. Seems someone used your identity to open a checking account, bounce checks all over the Northwestern United States, and then vanished leaving the authorities only your social security number, driver's license number and address as a clue.

You can't figure out how this could have happened, because you never give out information like your social security number unless it is a call that you initiated, you shred all of your documents before putting them into the garbage, and you keep your social security card locked up in a fire proof safe. So just how in the hell did someone get the information to steal your identity?

Think about the company's that have outsourced their customer service and data entry to foreign countries. In fact, let me give you a hypothetical situation.

You decide to refinance your home because interest rates have dropped. So you go into the bank and talk to a loan officer. After you have filled out the loan application and left, the loan officer calls a title company to open up an order for two reasons: the bank wants a title report which will show what liens and encumbrances are against the property, and an escrow account needs to be created for the funds to pass through. You don't need to understand the hows and whys of this. All you need to understand is that the bank, which has your name, address, date of birth, driver's license number, social security number, current employer, and probably other information, has now shared that information with the title company because as part of their service to the bank is verifying that you have no outstanding judgments against you, and also meeting certain requirements set forth by the Department of Justice. Most likely you will be required by the title company to fill out a statement of information in which you will be verifying your personal information.

So now the bank has your information, and the title company has your information. Of course, in this day and age, everything is put into a computer system. This means that a whole shitload of people have access to your personal information. Wait, it gets better.

You see, the people at the bank and the title company are bound by security and privacy agreements. Put plainly, their asses would be grass if they were caught using your private information illegally.

But what if either the title company or the bank have outsourced jobs? That means that someone in a foreign country is handling data for your file, but more importantly that person has access to your personal information that has been entered into the computer system.

This person could easily sell your information to another party or use it for his/her own gain. And what can you do about it? What rights do you have about how someone in a foreign country handles your personal information? Well??? Do you think that law enforcement here can do anything about it if someone in a foreign country uses your information to steal your identity? What jurisdiction do they have?

What about your credit card companies? They have all of this information, PLUS they already have your credit card information! If your credit card company has outsourced any of its jobs, I'd watch my statements very closely. Again, what can U.S. law enforcement do about someone in a foreign country that is committing these crimes against U.S. citizens?

The very worst part is that there isn't much you can do to protect yourself. If you refuse to do business with a company that has any jobs in a foreign country, forget about getting your computer hooked up or your DVD/Recorder programmed...or just about anything else that requires you call customer service.

And as an added benefit, this outsourcing is adding millions of dollars to countries where men marry so they can extort money from the brides' families and kill their wives when they can't get any more money from the in-laws.

Yep, great system we got going, this outsourcing.

If I were the President...

I figure if I'm going to complain about President Bush, it's only fair that I tell you what I think I would do if I were President (because honestly, I have no idea how things work in Washington and maybe if I was the President I would see that things needed to be done differently). So here goes.

• I would end all funding for programs to bring democracy to countries that do not want us to bring them democracy, such as Iran and Syria. Bush asked for $75 BILLION to bring democracy to Iran. Think of the AMERICANS that could be helped with that $75 billion (Hurricane Katrina victims, anyone?).
• I would require all companies that receive government assistance or that are receiving tax breaks fill at least 50% of their jobs IN THE UNITED STATES. This percentage would go up by 2% each year to give companies time to bring American jobs back to this country from India. Companies that manufacture goods would be required to manufacture at least 50% of their product in the United States, with the same 2% per year increase.
• The revenue produced by 1) the increase in taxes from companies that outsource more than 50% of their workforce 2) the increased taxes from the people that were now employed by the companies that brought their jobs back to the United States, would go directly into Social Security to start paying back the money that Reagan had no right to steal...I mean borrow...to pay for his overspending.
• Stores with more than 60% of their inventory consisting of imported goods would have to pay an import tax on those imported items that they sold, thus a) increasing revenues to the government and b) encouraging business to sell American-made products. Yes, the prices would rise, but guess what? So would wages because Americans would have jobs again producing those products.
• I would see about making marijuana legal to smoke, but not to sell. You want to smoke it, you gotta grow your own; it would still be illegal to be a pot dealer. I mean, get real people. With all of the shit that is out there to be worried about, LSD, crystal meth, crack, heroin, guns, gangs and AIDS, is this really that big of an issue? If you're against drugs, don't smoke it. If you're a parent and don't want your kids smoking it, be the god-damned parent and don't expect the government or society to raise your kid; it's your job to teach little Johnny right from wrong, to know where he is and who his friends are. Besides, maybe if we all kicked back with a little weed every now and then people wouldn't be so angry. We could actually see violent crime on the decline.
• I would get the President of the International Olympic Committee to negotiate peace in the Middle East. If he can get North Korea and South Korea to stop bickering long enough to send one unified team to the Olympic games, I say he's got as much of a chance of getting the countries in the Middle East to get along as anyone.

I have more but it's past my bedtime. Besides, I think this is enough to start with.

Sometimes it's just overwhelming

You would think that with everything that has happened in just the last week or so, this blog would be one hopping place. Yeah, right. The truth of the matter is that with so much stuff, this little kitty just couldn't decide where to begin.

So let's recap, shall we?

• Dick Cheney went hunting quail and shot a 77-year old lawyer instead. After mistaking the man in the orange vest for a small bird, the Vice-President then neglected to tell anyone at the White House that he had just shot a major political contributor.
  
• A deal was made to sell six major U.S. ports to Dubai Ports World, a state-run company of the United Arab Emirates. President Bush (according to White House Spokesman Scott McClellan) knew nothing of the deal until he heard about it in the press. Despite knowing nothing about the deal, President Bush insists that he feels he made the right decision to sell the ports to the UAE.
• Video is released showing that, contrary to statements made by President Bush after Katrina hit stating that no one could have guessed that the levees would fail, President Bush was part of a meeting BEFORE Hurricane Katrina struck in which it was brought up that, among other things, there was a danger of the levees failing.

So much good stuff, so little time...

Goodbye Torino

And so another Olympics has come to an end. If you aren't in the least bit interested in the Olympics, tough. This is my blog and I'll post about what I want.

I don't know why it always makes me a little sad to see the Olympic flame extinquished; perhaps because we live in a world where we may not live to see it lit again. How is it that people from all over the world can come together and live in peace for two weeks for the Olympics, but the governments of the world can manage to live in peace with one another for two hours?

Anyway, thank you Torino for sharing with us your people, your culture and your country.

Guns don't shoot people...

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

The State of The World Address

WARNING:

The following post has been rated S for Satire

It may contain content not suitable for young children, Right Wing Conservatives and the humor-impaired.

Viewer discretion is advised.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Tonight, we come together to discuss the State of the World. The world is a big, scary place. In the Middle East, specifically in Iraq, there is a new threat to the survival of mankind. That threat is the Magical Disappearing Weapons Of Mass Destruction© (patent pending). These Magical Disappearing Weapons Of Mass Destruction, or MDWOMDs, have the firepower to be launched in the Iraqi desert and destroy the United States.

What makes them so deadly and so dangerous, though, is the fact that the MDWOMDs also have the ability to disappear into thin air, leaving behind not so much as a tire track. Scientists are unsure if the MDWOMDs actually shift into another phase of reality or if they teleport directly into Syria. Efforts to uncover the secret of the MDWOMDs and to form a way to track them is made more difficult by the fact that only one person in the world has the ability to see the MDWOMDs, and that is the President of the United States.

Speaking of the President of the United States, the warrant-less wiretapping efforts there have resulted in over 5,000 American citizens having their phones tapped because they were making or receiving calls from al Queda operatives. At first glance the number seems high, but it appears that al Queda also runs the telemarketing company that always calls while you're eating dinner.

Global Warming is another important topic which we cannot ignore. President Bush has denied the existence of Global Warming, which appears to have pissed off Global Warming to the point that we are experiencing one natural disaster after another while Global Warming proves to the world that it does, in fact, exist. The strongest evidence offered up to prove Global Warming does exist comes from the fact that President Bush lost a major American city not to the threat of terrorists but to the ruthless and elusive enemy, Standing Water.

Tonight, we find ourselves dangerously close to World War III. Iran wants to remove Israel from the face of the earth and wants to restart its nuclear program, and far too many countries whose governments don't like each other already have nuclear weapons. How ironic that it now appears mostly likely that a cartoonist from Denmark, and not some military invasion or 'first strike', will be responsible for starting the chain of events that could lead to WWIII.

In closing, let me say that the current State of the World seems to be "F**ked Up Beyond Belief". Our best hope for recovery is to end the reign of the Bush administration and free the American people.

The land of the not-so-free?

Who would have imagined that the United States of America, the shining beacon of freedom to so many in the past who yearned for a better life, who longed to live "the American dream", would one day find itself the land of the not-so-free.

I'm referring not only to the Bush administration spying on American citizens without warrants, but to the other violations of our privacy which we just haven't found out about yet. Do you honestly think it was limited to the wiretaps that the New York Times finally reported about? (A spying program which the NY Times was well aware of prior to the 2004 elections, but which they kept the lid on AT THE REQUEST OF THE WHITE HOUSE! Can anyone say 'conspiracy'?)

Now I have no problem with the government listening to my phone calls or going through my emails. I'm certain I haven't communicated with al Queda or called upon anyone to overthrow the government. But if that is all that President Bush was interested in, why didn't he get a warrant? The only reason I can think of is because he knew that the request for a warrant would be rejected.

As I said, I don't care if the government wants to listen to my phone calls if all they are interested in is terrorist activity. But what if they also catch my conversations on the topic of the Iraq war, the budget cuts to programs for the poor and education, or the strong desire to invade Iran? I can guarantee you that my comments are not in President Bush's favor. Am I to believe that a President who secretly spies on his own people domestically and without warrants wouldn't use that kind of information to his benefit? Imagine what he could do if he could catch the right phone call or the right email that got him into the middle of a conversation between his political enemies.

Surely that kind of spying would have to be done without a warrant, wouldn't it?

According to President Bush, he didn't do anything illegal because the Constitution gives him the power to carry out domestic spying because we are at war. Now I've read the Constitution, and I can't find anywhere that it says in time of war the Constitution gets tossed out the window. The President took an oath to protect, preserve and defend the Constitution. Acting in violation of the Constitution hardly qualifies as preserving it.

Oh, and in case anyone is giving the president advice, you might want to tell him that it would have been more convincing if only the Attorney General had been sworn in for his testimony. I know that I generally don't believe what someone says if they refuse to be sworn in. Perhaps he wanted to be sure there couldn't be any perjury charges...

Adventures in Bush-isms Part II

"Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better."

Considering Canada and Mexico don't actually share a border...

"The suicide bombings have increased. There's too many of them."

And just how many suicide bombings would be 'just enough?

"One of the interesting initiatives we've taken in Washington, D.C., is we've got these vampire-busting devices. A vampire is a...a cell deal you can plug in the wall to charge your cell phone."

I believe that those of us in 'reality' call that a 'charger'.

"My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the...in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen."

Not on his watch, anyway.

"It's amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity, and incumbency."

Ah yes, the good old days before war, poverty and idiocy.

"For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it."

This is America, we should be aiming for 100% success!

"First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been ratified, nor a treaty that I thought made sense for the country."

Nope, not having anything to do with stuff that makes sense.

"I do remain confident in Linda. She'll make a fine labor secretary. From what I've read in the press accounts, she's perfectly qualified."

And I base all my decisions on what the press says, because I'm the President and I don't have time to look that kind of stuff up myself.

"I'm the commander — see, I don't need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president."

Hee hee...I can tell you all to go f**k yourselves because I'm the commander, hee hee.

"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you."

What, was Osama bin Ladin a lonely shut-in who formed a terrorist network because no one came to see him and say I love you?

"You see, the Senate wants to take away some of the powers of the administrative branch."

But I'm not going to let them because I am the all-powerful President.

"We ended the rule of one of history's worst tyrants, and in so doing, we not only freed the American people, we made our own people more secure."

???

"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself."

And no one has the right to terrorize himself, that's our job.

...To be continued...

Adventures in Bush-isms Part I

Just because when President Bush speaks he makes me laugh, here are my favorite Bush-isms:

"If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for anything! If you don't stand for something, you don't stand for anything!"

Following this logic, if I stand for something, I stand for anything and if I stand for anything, I stand for something. Right?

"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program."

Well if it's not a federal program then would you please tell the federal government to stop taking so much out of my paycheck for social security?

"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet."

I have not come across any dark dungeons on the Internet, nevermind ones with children living in them. How would one live in a dark dungeon ON THE INTERNET?

"Bill wrote a book at Yale. I read one."

I'm betting there's only one book in the library at Yale that has pictures in it.

"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children."

Anyone???

"It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas."

Funny thing, most stuff that is foreign comes from overseas. Otherwise it wouldn't be foreign. It would be dom-es-tic.

"The best way to relieve families from time is to let them keep some of their own money."

Isn't that generous? The President says we get to keep some of our own money.

"I'm gonna talk about the ideal world, Chris. I've read — I understand reality. If you're asking me as the president, would I understand reality, I do."

Don't generally live there, but do understand the basic concept of reality.

"The fact that he relies on facts — says things that are not factual — are going to undermine his campaign."

That must be the logic that got us into war with Iraq.

"It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber."

Who would want to clone a Senator anyway?

"They didn't think we were a nation that could conceivably sacrifice for something greater than our self; that we were soft, that we were so self-absorbed and so materialistic that we wouldn't defend anything we believed in. My, were they wrong. They just were reading the wrong magazine or watching the wrong Springer show."

The terrorists watch Jerry Springer?

"My trip to Asia begins here in Japan for an important reason. It begins here because for a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times. From that alliance has come an era of peace in the Pacific."

Umm...anybody else remember a little thing called World War II?

...to be continued...

Why all the hate?

I've read a lot of posts from people claiming to hate based on political views. I want to know why you would hate me because of my views?

I don't want to stop you from worshipping the way that you want; I only want the right to worship the way that I want, and to do so without you hurling insults and/or rocks at me.

I would prefer not to see homosexuals OR heterosexuals engaging in anything even remotely sexual in public; I do want the right for consenting adults to engage in whatever sexual activities they chose to so long as it is done in private.

I don't want to see abortion become a commonly accepted practice for unwanted pregnancies; if I feel that it is in my best interest to end my pregnancy, I want to have the right to do so. If it is a mortal sin, so be it. It's my body, my life and my soul, and I don't need or want your salvation.

I don't want you to stop living your life according to the morals and values that you hold dear, nor do I want your children to be taught anything that is contrary to those beliefs; I do want the right to live my life according to the morals and values that I hold dear. As long as my actions don't result in the loss of life or limb, or put anyone in harm's way physically, mentally or financially, what business is it of yours?

The next time you feel like you hate someone, ask yourself: What would Jesus do?

Yelling, screaming and hurling insults at me will only drive me farther away, but perhaps if you showed a little respect, a little compassion, if you actually talked to me, I would listen to you.

I might even agree with you.

But first you have to stop yelling at me about how much you hate me.

Ignorance, Intollerance, and You

Yes, my peeps, I have uncovered a goldmine of quotes. Quotes which should leave you with no question as to why the rest of the world hates us or, at the very least, thinks that we're stupid.

Let's start with this gem from Ann Coulter:

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

If you truly feel that way, shouldn't you convert their leaders to Christianity before you kill them? Afterwards it's kind of a moot point, don't you think?

"Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity, as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed'"

Oh, so that's what you call it when you say we should invade their country, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. So if that's being nice, what would you do to them if you were being 'not nice'?

Here's a nice one from former President George Bush Sr.:

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

Geez, do they not study history? The founding fathers did NOT include 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was added because somehow 'under God' was going to make more of a distinction between us and the Soviet Union than capitalism vs. communism did. The Cold War is over. Just let it go. Say 'under God' if you want to, don't say it if you don't want to. It's that simple. Great, I got off topic and now have to find my way back...

And when did believing in God become one of the definitions of an American citizen?

From President George W. Bush:

"I don't think that witchcraft is a religion. I wish the military would rethink this decision."

No one is saying that witchcraft is a religion. Wicca is a religion, one that is far older than Christianity. Surely you aren't about to say that Hindu, Buddism and Islam aren't religions, are you?

There are more examples of the stupidity and hatred of these people at http://www.stephaniemiller.com/ezmoblog/Itemid,89/. This is what the rest of the world hears, folks ~ the condemnation and outright threats.

Of course terrorism -- no matter who the terrorists are -- is wrong. But does it help matters when the quotes above are how Christianity is being portrayed to the world?

The Outsourcing of America

Tell me, when is the last time you called a company and talked to a representative that was actually in the United States?

Are you sure?

Because more and more companies are moving their customer service to India and spending millions of dollars teaching these people to speak flawless English. They even chose American-sounding names so that the customers won't suspect they are talking to someone in India (some names work better than others, of course. If you chose the name Moses Garcia, I'm talking about you.)

Outsourcing is good for the bottom line of Corporate America. The average call center employee in India makes in one day what the average citizen of India would earn in one week.

It's also what their American counterparts working that same call center job would make in one hour. It's cheap labor, and nothing else.

Outsourcing is ruining this country. We don't just outsource call center jobs; we outsource data entry, accounting, and of course manufacturing. The reason your new sweatshirt is so cheap is because it was made by a 7 year old working in a sweatshop in Mexico for 70 cents a day. Now is some kid being forced into basically slavery hurting America? Well, no. But the fact is that kid working for 70 cents a day cost American jobs. That means that there are people unemployed and unable to purchase say, a new home, car, or other items. And that means that the stores and the manufacturers lose that profit. Which means that over time, they make less and less profit.

So both the retailer and the manufacturer cut back on labor because they are losing profit. And those labor cut backs mean that even more people don't have the income to buy the stuff, which means that there are more labor cuts...and so the cyle never ends as we get stuff cheaper and cheaper but have less and less money to buy it. Because the people that lose their jobs here means that there are less home sales, less car sales...less everything sales. Which means retail jobs are lost.

You get the picture, right?

Now let's add into the equation the fact that our military tanks are made in China. Yes, that China. The ones that have threatened to nuke us. The ones that are allied with Iran. In fact, our economy is being run by China because of the amount of money our government has borrowed from them.

Nervous? Good. You should be. If not, read this article.

Not only are we sending our jobs to foreign countries, we're staking our existence on them continuing to float our loans and sell our military the things that our soliders need. The United States is now the largest exporter of raw materials and the largest importer of finished products.

Congratulations, America. You now meet the definition of a third world country.

Today's Mood: Selfish

My toy! Mine! All mine!

Hijacked conversations

Yesterday, I blogged about how a conversation went from college textbooks to whether or not casinos in Las Vegas will ever be willing to stop taking bets on NBA games. Yes, I know, it boggles the mind.

So now, as promised, I will tackled yet another conversation, this time via email, that took a wrong turn and got lost.

It all started with a stupid joke. Then again, aren't most jokes that get sent via email stupid? Anyway, it was a joke that ended with a punchline about used condoms being turned into bubblegum that was shipped to France. Now bear in mind that I was not an active participant in the argument. An antogonist, perhaps, but not an actual participant.

Anyway, one of the recipients of the joke replied to the sender of the joke, and the sender called the recepient a lover of the French and hater of America because he said the joke wasn't all that funny and that he had nothing against France or its people.

So there's a discussion about France and how, to paraphrase the sender, French people act uppity and put us down unless they need us to bomb something. "Us" being America. Somewhere around this part is where I was brought into this. Not kicking and screaming, mind you; I was a willing non-participating participant who happened to agree with the receipient (hereafter referred to as "R") in his arguments against the sender (hereafter referred to as "S").

The conversation turned from WWII to weapons, specifically who was selling what to whom. That's where I got kind of lost until suddenly S brings Iraq into the dialogue. Then the debate/argument turned to whether or not we were justified invading Iraq, were things better or worse for the Iraqi people, who had better information on the subject...meanwhile, I'm sitting there thinking how the f**k did Iraq get into a conversation about used condoms being recycled into bubblegum and whether or not the joke was funny?

Pay attention in your conversations with other people and you'll probably find that it happens more often than you think. Make a casual conversation about people not making coffee when the pot is empty, and it will turn into a deep discussion on why we didn't use copy paper that was a 92 brightness all along. Mention the recent rise in gas prices and soon you'll be discussing whether ABC will put Lost on hiatus during the upcoming Olympics.

I think this is why our government gets away with so much crap, and we're shocked when we find out about it. It's because we have no attention span anymore. Case in point: Scooter Libby. Whatever happened with him? It seems like one minute we're talking about his bad-sex novel (no, I don't mean that the book is about bad sex, it's a book about sex that is very very bad...and not bad in the good kind of way) and then there's this flurry of stuff going on and suddenly everyone's attention is on whether Iran will stop and nuke Iraq on it's way to nuking Israel.

And so our conversations and our logic are subject to being hijacked, turned in a completely different direction and set on a new course in the hopes that we forget what we were originally after.

Pass the bubblegum.

And just how did we get here?

Ever have a conversation and at the end wonder how in the world you got to that topic? Just for clarity, I'm referring only to those times when all parties have been sober. Conversations that took place when you or one of the other participants were drunk, stoned and/or high do not count, as when one is drunk, stoned or high one generally forgets the protocol of saying "Excuse me, but I'm going to completely change the subject now." And if you were drunk, stoned or high, you probably don't clearly remember any of the conversation anyway.

So today at work, we're minding our own business working and...stuff...when we start talking about books because one of the women is going to college and was telling and showing us a text book for a college class. That led to the topic of how there are books in some really old college libraries that are bound with human flesh. No, seriously! Okay, perhaps I should back up a bit. We started out the morning talking about how whale vomit is used to make the really expensive perfumes, so when the textbook topic came up, books bound with human flesh was just a natural topic to bring up. You know, one gross fact leads to another.

So then J (ha ha, no one will ever guess who you are!) starts talking about how he should write a book and then leave it in his Will that when he dies, he wants the book bound with his flesh. And of course how, if he did put that in his Will, his son would just assure everyone that he was smoking some good shit the day he wrote his Will.

Now the only logical place for the conversation to go at this point is...what would happen to J's body after he died? I offered to drive down I-80 with the window open and let the wind carry his ashes onto the windshield of the other vehicles. Then we discussed other places that ashes could be scattered. The State Capital, the lawn of the White House, and Arco Arena were all good choices.

Hopefully by the time J dies, there will be a new arena in Sacramento. In the same line of thought, hopefully by the time J dies, the Kings will be playing like a professional basketball team again. Anyway, J said scatter his ashes on the remains of Arco Arena, that it will probably be an office or something by then.

Which of course led to speculation about whether the Kings would get a new arena, and how Sacramento needs an arena because the acoustics at Arco suck so badly a lot of artists just skip over Sacramento on their tours. And then turned to will the Kings stay in Sacramento, or will the Maloofs move the team to Las Vegas, where the Maloofs own the Palms casino.

Which led to the question of whether or not an NBA team (or any professional sports team) could do well in Las Vegas, and if other casinos would be willing to give up betting on NBA games to get an NBA team to come to town.

In summary, we went from "College textbooks are really expensive" to "I just don't think the casinos in Las Vegas are going to give up the revenue they make from people betting on NBA games" in one conversation. Wow.

Tomorrow, I'll try to tackle how a joke about French bubblegum led to a debate about whether the war in Iraq is just or unjust. And coming up in a future blog: If you're buying a house and someone once died there of natural causes, do you really think the dead person has been waiting for you to buy the place so he/she can haunt you?

Our founding fathers must be so proud

In light of all that has come out about our President spying on American citizens (call it what you want, it still amounts to spying on American citizens) I can't help but think of the words of Benjamin Franklin. Yes, the guy that went and flew a kite during a thunderstorm. Okay, so he wasn't the brightest guy around, but he still made a very true statement: "Those that would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither freedom nor security."

How do you suppose they would feel, knowing that American men and woman are in a foreign country dying to liberate those people while on American soil the government was hard at work trying to restrict the personal freedoms of Americans? What would they think of a President who feels that the Constitution should be set aside while we fight a war that was never actually declared a war? What would these men, who made it very clear that religion has no place in government, do if they had known that we would one day have an administration determined to make us all conform to the mold of Christian morality?

Since President Bush says he talks to Jesus in the Oval Office, I wonder if he's asked the question, Who would Jesus bomb?

Ignorance is alive and well

First, let me begin by saying that this is NOT aimed at any one person. It is aimed at everyone who, when asked why they were so determined to argue (translation=beat a dead horse) has said "I was on the debate team in high school".

Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of people out there who like to argue about something and then claim "I was on the debate team." To this I say "BIG F***ING DEAL."

You were on the debate team in high school. Congratulations. I went to law school. Now that we've cleared up which of us has more 'education' on debating...

Welcome to the real world. Leave your silly little rules about how to debate outside. Rules on how to debate a subject are only for those who lack the passion of their convictions and therefore cannot build a good argument. In high school, you were told what side of the argument to debate. You're a grown up now, chose your own damn topic. If you really believe in it, and if your belief is based on facts, research and experience, and not just because it's what your political party of choice has told you to believe, then you'll be able to make a convincing argument. If not, you'll sound like an ignorant, closed-minded fool trying to make points on the playground.

And don't expect that you're going to change anyone's mind, because most likely you are arguing with the person BECAUSE of the passion that they have for the subject. You have as much chance of getting the other person to throw up their hands and say "You're right, what was I thinking? Oh thank you!" as you do of converting a Hindu to Catholicism. The best that you can hope for is to get the other side to agree that you have some valid points.

(BTW, no, I didn't not go on to become an attorney so yes, I am still a member of the human race)