OK, maybe I’m just dense.
If you park a car bomb in front of a Mosque and detonate your explosives, thereby killing yourself and 40 Iraqi worshipers and destroy the Mosque, how many Quran’s are damaged or destroyed?
Dozens?
Dozens of dozens?
Since there have been a number of Mosques destroyed recently, I want to know what is the big %$#*& deal about a US soldier kicking a Muslim prisoner’s Quran or throwing some water balloons and getting a Quran wet?
“U.S. Confirms Gitmo Soldier Kicked Quran
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON - U.S. military officials say no guard at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects flushed a detainee's Quran down the toilet, but they disclosed that a Muslim holy book was splashed with urine.
In other newly disclosed incidents, a detainee's Quran was deliberately kicked and another's was stepped on.
On March 25, a detainee complained to guards that "urine came through an air vent" and splashed on him and his Quran. A guard admitted he was at fault, but a report released Friday evening offering new details about Quran mishandling incidents did not make clear whether the guard intended the result.
In another confirmed incident, water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet, and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.”
First, I’m wondering why they don’t more accurately call Robert Burns, the “AP Military Writer,” a “Military Critic?”
Further, why isn’t Robert Burns, AP “Military Writer,” breathlessly telling us about the number of charred remains of Qurans that have been found clutched in the dismembered hands found outside the destroyed Mosque?
Why isn’t Comrad Robert Burns, AP “Military Writer” (Columbia leftist Journalism School class of 1990) printing photos along with his stories showing the stacks of Qurans soaked with water sprayed on the Mosque by Muslim firefighters dousing the fire started by the wild eyed Islamic Jihadist Towel Head Muslim that blew himself up?
Yeah, you know the answer as well as I do…
Saturday, June 04, 2005
The Whole World Is Going Down The Toilet
When I was attending Georgia Tech back in the late 1970’s I lived in Harrison Dormitory for a year. Harrison had no AC, clunky steam radiator heat, and a lovely view of the Downtown Connector (a combination of I-75 and I-85) and the world famous The Varsity restaurant, the largest drive-in restaurant in the US. It even has a 600 car parking deck.
As a concession to the students, there was a pedestrian tunnel under the interstate at 5th Street that allowed you to walk across if you wanted to visit the adjacent run-down retail establishments and housing on the other side of “the concrete gulch.”
There was this little hole-in-the-wall bar (I forget the name) that had an eclectic mix of local residents and students as patrons. I only wandered in there a couple of times, because I was frightened by the way they served their popcorn—in a toilet.
You heard me right, the first thing that you saw when you walked in the door was a full sized porcelin toilet sitting on the end of the bar—full of popcorn. And people were EATING the popcorn. I, personally, could never quite get used to the idea.
If you are going to do popcorn in a toilet, why not serve dinner in a toilet like they are doing in this restaurant in Tiawan?
“KAOHSIUNG, Tiawan--Taiwanese restaurateur Eric Wang has given new meaning to the traditional revelers' cry of bottoms up.
His eatery in the southern city of Kaohsiung delivers its food not on conventional plates and dishes, but in miniaturized Western and Asian style toilets, both the flush and non-flush variety.
For anyone missing the point, diners are encouraged to stir up mushy, earth-colored offerings like curry chicken rice and chocolate ice cream to conjure up -- well, the real thing.
Located in a downtown area with a variety of competing eateries, Marton -- the name means toilet in Chinese -- attracts its customers through its dazzling bathroom decor.
Walking in through an arched door, diners are greeted with a giant toilet bowl sitting between two urinals. White ceramic toilet seats comfortably accommodate their bottoms, and urinals grace the walls.”
Sorry, but I think I’ll just have a sandwich here at home…
As a concession to the students, there was a pedestrian tunnel under the interstate at 5th Street that allowed you to walk across if you wanted to visit the adjacent run-down retail establishments and housing on the other side of “the concrete gulch.”
There was this little hole-in-the-wall bar (I forget the name) that had an eclectic mix of local residents and students as patrons. I only wandered in there a couple of times, because I was frightened by the way they served their popcorn—in a toilet.
You heard me right, the first thing that you saw when you walked in the door was a full sized porcelin toilet sitting on the end of the bar—full of popcorn. And people were EATING the popcorn. I, personally, could never quite get used to the idea.
If you are going to do popcorn in a toilet, why not serve dinner in a toilet like they are doing in this restaurant in Tiawan?
“KAOHSIUNG, Tiawan--Taiwanese restaurateur Eric Wang has given new meaning to the traditional revelers' cry of bottoms up.
His eatery in the southern city of Kaohsiung delivers its food not on conventional plates and dishes, but in miniaturized Western and Asian style toilets, both the flush and non-flush variety.
For anyone missing the point, diners are encouraged to stir up mushy, earth-colored offerings like curry chicken rice and chocolate ice cream to conjure up -- well, the real thing.
Located in a downtown area with a variety of competing eateries, Marton -- the name means toilet in Chinese -- attracts its customers through its dazzling bathroom decor.
Walking in through an arched door, diners are greeted with a giant toilet bowl sitting between two urinals. White ceramic toilet seats comfortably accommodate their bottoms, and urinals grace the walls.”
Sorry, but I think I’ll just have a sandwich here at home…
Lord, I Was Born A Ramblin' Man...
Tryin' to make a livin' and doin' the best I can...
I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that I'm going on vacation for ten days. We're traveling by air from Brunswick to Atlanta, then on to the suburbs of Pittsburg this morning.
The bad news, for my blogs and my writing in general, is that I'm going to have to live on a normal 24 hour schedule rather than my "night owl" 12 hour schedule and, spending some of the time in hotels and in relative's homes, I'm afraid that my blogging is going to suffer as a result. God knows what kind of internet connections will be available--all slow probably.
After a couple of days with my girl Pat's family and a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house in nearby Bear Run, Pennsylvania, it's on to Erie, PA to visit Pat's daughter in their new home they moved into last week. I think that there is a surround sound stereo with my name on the wiring there.
Next Friday we're traveling down to Charleston, WV to rendevous with my Dad's two brothers and my 92 year old grandmother and attend a "Town Reunion" in a little town where my Dad's family lived from the 1930's until the early 1960's. My grandfather was the electrical superintendent in the Red Parrot Coal mine during that time, and it is fun to meet people that went to school with and knew my father and uncles and learn about coal mining life in the early 1900's.
Continuing the family adventure, we'll be attending the Rogers reunion on Sunday in southeastern Ohio. Again, lots of food and ex-coal miners sitting around talking about the good old days.
We'll be returning here to paradise on Monday, the 13th, at which time I'll collapse into a heap on the floor or sofa--eager to rest and sit around in my underwear with a computer in my lap (sorry about that mental picture--too much information.)
Until then, I ask for your patience and that you check back by once in a while for some intermittant travel blogging.
If I get bored or see something amazing, you'll be the first to know.
I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that I'm going on vacation for ten days. We're traveling by air from Brunswick to Atlanta, then on to the suburbs of Pittsburg this morning.
The bad news, for my blogs and my writing in general, is that I'm going to have to live on a normal 24 hour schedule rather than my "night owl" 12 hour schedule and, spending some of the time in hotels and in relative's homes, I'm afraid that my blogging is going to suffer as a result. God knows what kind of internet connections will be available--all slow probably.
After a couple of days with my girl Pat's family and a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house in nearby Bear Run, Pennsylvania, it's on to Erie, PA to visit Pat's daughter in their new home they moved into last week. I think that there is a surround sound stereo with my name on the wiring there.
Next Friday we're traveling down to Charleston, WV to rendevous with my Dad's two brothers and my 92 year old grandmother and attend a "Town Reunion" in a little town where my Dad's family lived from the 1930's until the early 1960's. My grandfather was the electrical superintendent in the Red Parrot Coal mine during that time, and it is fun to meet people that went to school with and knew my father and uncles and learn about coal mining life in the early 1900's.
Continuing the family adventure, we'll be attending the Rogers reunion on Sunday in southeastern Ohio. Again, lots of food and ex-coal miners sitting around talking about the good old days.
We'll be returning here to paradise on Monday, the 13th, at which time I'll collapse into a heap on the floor or sofa--eager to rest and sit around in my underwear with a computer in my lap (sorry about that mental picture--too much information.)
Until then, I ask for your patience and that you check back by once in a while for some intermittant travel blogging.
If I get bored or see something amazing, you'll be the first to know.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Storm Stress Syndrome?
Pluuuueaseeeee…
Damn I’m insensitive today. I guess it could be that I’m all cranky and suffering from a bad case of “Internet Deprivation” since I had to spend nearly 12 hours with only hit or miss service today.
I guess I should call some hotline somewhere or consider going in for counseling like these people down in Florida are doing.
“Mental health experts have noticed more cases of what they call "storm stress syndrome" after recent news coverage of the 2005 hurricane season, according to Local 6 News.
A crisis counseling organization has seen a 20 percent spike in phone call volume in the days before the official June 1 start of hurricane season.
Experts in Central Florida said they noticed the first cases of "storm stress syndrome" after last year's storms.
Recent severe weather in Central Florida and the start of the hurricane season can be too much for some storm victims.
"They get depressed or they get anxiety and are not able to function properly when it rains or is thundering," Project Hope worker Maria Weber said.
The best way to deal with storm stress syndrome is to talk about it with a professional, according to the report.”
I have a solution for all of these depressed Floridians. Here is what they need to do rather than fretting their little miserable lives away and spending their children’s inheritance money on shrinks.
Instead of enjoying the good life, golfing in the middle of the winter, water skiing on New Years day, and hanging out at the beach when a hurricane isn’t blowing, MOVE TO WISCONSIN.
It’s lovely there, I hear. They have two seasons…winter and July.
That should solve their “storm stress syndrome” quite nicely.
Damn I’m insensitive today. I guess it could be that I’m all cranky and suffering from a bad case of “Internet Deprivation” since I had to spend nearly 12 hours with only hit or miss service today.
I guess I should call some hotline somewhere or consider going in for counseling like these people down in Florida are doing.
“Mental health experts have noticed more cases of what they call "storm stress syndrome" after recent news coverage of the 2005 hurricane season, according to Local 6 News.
A crisis counseling organization has seen a 20 percent spike in phone call volume in the days before the official June 1 start of hurricane season.
Experts in Central Florida said they noticed the first cases of "storm stress syndrome" after last year's storms.
Recent severe weather in Central Florida and the start of the hurricane season can be too much for some storm victims.
"They get depressed or they get anxiety and are not able to function properly when it rains or is thundering," Project Hope worker Maria Weber said.
The best way to deal with storm stress syndrome is to talk about it with a professional, according to the report.”
I have a solution for all of these depressed Floridians. Here is what they need to do rather than fretting their little miserable lives away and spending their children’s inheritance money on shrinks.
Instead of enjoying the good life, golfing in the middle of the winter, water skiing on New Years day, and hanging out at the beach when a hurricane isn’t blowing, MOVE TO WISCONSIN.
It’s lovely there, I hear. They have two seasons…winter and July.
That should solve their “storm stress syndrome” quite nicely.
Weird Beard Stupidity
Those that know me know that I’ve had a moustache and some form of beard for most of the past 28 years. I actually let the beard come and go—usually it is closely cropped and sits low on my cheeks and chin.
Back in the days when I was a frequent scuba diver I had to trim down my moustache and shave off my beard so that my scuba mask wouldn’t leak. The guys that had thin scraggly beards or those that wore the small format masks could get away with the facial hair, but I have what’s called a “sweater face” and can grow a beard right up to my eyebrows so I made the facial hair sacrifice to support my sports endeavors.
I’ve only been completely clean-shaven once in this time, that being a three week period last year while I was playing the part of Hannibal, a self-committed mental patient in the play “The Curious Savage.” I disagreed with the director, who also made me cut my ponytail off and for some reason thought that everyone in the early 1950’s (the period the play took place) had short hair and were clean-shaven. I thought that he (the director) was an idiot and he has subsequently proven his management ineptness in subsequent dealings.
Speaking of idiots, here’s a story about a firefighter that’s going to court to keep his beard. His reasoning is based on religion—the idiot is A MUSLIM.
“PHILADELPHIA -- A Muslim firefighter who refuses to shave his beard on religious grounds cannot be fired while his legal case unfolds, a city judge ruled in a test of the state's religious freedom law.
The Philadelphia Fire Department, like most big-city departments, prohibits beards and mustaches, citing safety reasons. Facial hair, the department says, can prevent firefighters from getting a seal when they wear respirators.
Firefighter Curtis De Veaux agreed to shave when he joined the department two years ago. But as his faith deepened, he decided he was no longer willing to, he said Wednesday.
De Veaux also said he has a skin condition that makes it painful to shave. He added that he can get a proper seal on a respirator despite his beard.”
The next sound you hear is me inhaling in order to supply air to issue my Sam Kinnison like scream:
Ohhhhh Ohhhhhh, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
This idiot can NOT possibly be serious.
OK, a couple of points here, speaking from my infinite experience…(in diving, not firefighting)
A. I could get a proper seal on my scuba mask when I was diving with a heavy five o’clock shadow, but the rest of my dive party wasn’t implicitly relying on me to fight a fire and save their lives in an emergency. It was between me and my dive buddy to decide what was safe, and you never dived alone. Likewise, firefighters work as a team and rely on each other for their own safety. If someone were sick or otherwise incompetent, I wouldn’t want to enter a building with them in tow while fighting a fire.
B. When scuba diving, I was diving in water, not toxic smoke, and I could generally see the surface and make an emergency ascent if I had a mask or regulator problem. I could see where it would be nearly impossible to successfully exit a burning building full of smoke with a Quran in one hand and a leaky mask, clouded with fumes, strapped loosely to my face.
C. I didn’t wear a full-face mask like firefighters do, so if my mask leaked water I could close my eyes or leave them open and let the salt water burn them for a few minutes while I breathed through the regulator that was still clenched firmly in my teeth. If the firefighter’s mask leaks, it not only compromises his vision, but also his air supply.
D. And finally, WEIRD BEARD knew the rules when he joined the fire department. He should just suck it up or move back to Iran, or Iraq or wherever and join the fire department there--they certainly could use his training and assistance.
Leave it to this moron to hide behind Pennsylvania’s religious freedom law to cover his own selfishness. I bet his lovely Muslim mother and the rest of his family would sue the city's and the fire officials' asses off if he managed to get hurt or killed sporting his symbol of Muslimity.
If he wins the lawsuit and insists on staying with the fire department, someone aught to accidentally break both of his knees and see if the Americans with Disabilities Act can help him keep his firefighting job working from a wheelchair.
Can't we all just get a GRIP here?
Back in the days when I was a frequent scuba diver I had to trim down my moustache and shave off my beard so that my scuba mask wouldn’t leak. The guys that had thin scraggly beards or those that wore the small format masks could get away with the facial hair, but I have what’s called a “sweater face” and can grow a beard right up to my eyebrows so I made the facial hair sacrifice to support my sports endeavors.
I’ve only been completely clean-shaven once in this time, that being a three week period last year while I was playing the part of Hannibal, a self-committed mental patient in the play “The Curious Savage.” I disagreed with the director, who also made me cut my ponytail off and for some reason thought that everyone in the early 1950’s (the period the play took place) had short hair and were clean-shaven. I thought that he (the director) was an idiot and he has subsequently proven his management ineptness in subsequent dealings.
Speaking of idiots, here’s a story about a firefighter that’s going to court to keep his beard. His reasoning is based on religion—the idiot is A MUSLIM.
“PHILADELPHIA -- A Muslim firefighter who refuses to shave his beard on religious grounds cannot be fired while his legal case unfolds, a city judge ruled in a test of the state's religious freedom law.
The Philadelphia Fire Department, like most big-city departments, prohibits beards and mustaches, citing safety reasons. Facial hair, the department says, can prevent firefighters from getting a seal when they wear respirators.
Firefighter Curtis De Veaux agreed to shave when he joined the department two years ago. But as his faith deepened, he decided he was no longer willing to, he said Wednesday.
De Veaux also said he has a skin condition that makes it painful to shave. He added that he can get a proper seal on a respirator despite his beard.”
The next sound you hear is me inhaling in order to supply air to issue my Sam Kinnison like scream:
Ohhhhh Ohhhhhh, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
This idiot can NOT possibly be serious.
OK, a couple of points here, speaking from my infinite experience…(in diving, not firefighting)
A. I could get a proper seal on my scuba mask when I was diving with a heavy five o’clock shadow, but the rest of my dive party wasn’t implicitly relying on me to fight a fire and save their lives in an emergency. It was between me and my dive buddy to decide what was safe, and you never dived alone. Likewise, firefighters work as a team and rely on each other for their own safety. If someone were sick or otherwise incompetent, I wouldn’t want to enter a building with them in tow while fighting a fire.
B. When scuba diving, I was diving in water, not toxic smoke, and I could generally see the surface and make an emergency ascent if I had a mask or regulator problem. I could see where it would be nearly impossible to successfully exit a burning building full of smoke with a Quran in one hand and a leaky mask, clouded with fumes, strapped loosely to my face.
C. I didn’t wear a full-face mask like firefighters do, so if my mask leaked water I could close my eyes or leave them open and let the salt water burn them for a few minutes while I breathed through the regulator that was still clenched firmly in my teeth. If the firefighter’s mask leaks, it not only compromises his vision, but also his air supply.
D. And finally, WEIRD BEARD knew the rules when he joined the fire department. He should just suck it up or move back to Iran, or Iraq or wherever and join the fire department there--they certainly could use his training and assistance.
Leave it to this moron to hide behind Pennsylvania’s religious freedom law to cover his own selfishness. I bet his lovely Muslim mother and the rest of his family would sue the city's and the fire officials' asses off if he managed to get hurt or killed sporting his symbol of Muslimity.
If he wins the lawsuit and insists on staying with the fire department, someone aught to accidentally break both of his knees and see if the Americans with Disabilities Act can help him keep his firefighting job working from a wheelchair.
Can't we all just get a GRIP here?
Internet Problems
Sorry for the light posting this morning, but I'm having router/modem problems..Arrrrgh!
I can get connected to the wireless router, but the system can't find the internet throught the cable modem.
I gave up about 12:30 last night and started again an HOUR AGO, rebooting a half dozen times and almost throwing the whole shebang out into the back yard.
Finally, and miraculously, I got connected...I'm not turning it off for a while.
I can get connected to the wireless router, but the system can't find the internet throught the cable modem.
I gave up about 12:30 last night and started again an HOUR AGO, rebooting a half dozen times and almost throwing the whole shebang out into the back yard.
Finally, and miraculously, I got connected...I'm not turning it off for a while.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
You Just Can't Make Stuff Like This Up
We had a relatively quite Memorial Day weekend focused on staying here at the condo and avoiding the bars, restaurants, and all of the “Tourists” in general here on St. Simons Island. Rumor has it that the island was packed, but we chose to not get involved. Call us smart or call us snobbish, we had a lot less stress as a result of our efforts. All seemed quiet to me.
There is a local talk radio show here on AM 1440 that runs from 7:30 to 10:00 each morning that I’ve recently started listening to. The show in its present format is fairly low budget and sort of lame in the commentary, but I have designs on the host’s job—at least on a fill in basis—he just don’t know it yet. I guarantee that I could increase the call volume within three months, although they might be trying to “ride me out of town on a rail…”
Any way, on Tuesday morning I was listening to the talk radio show when a caller told the story of two “Streakers” that were arrested early Sunday morning on the beach down by the fishing pier. By “streakers” I mean “buck nekkid” people—my southern readers know what I mean.
You know—“streakers”—people running ‘round in public with no clothes on.
The story was sort of funny at the time, and on a slow news day a few other callers commented and one guy actually added some additional details, but I basically thought nothing about it, even after hearing the local noon news broadcast giving brief details and the names of the offenders.
Well, let me tell you, over the past two days I have put the story together by doing a little personal sleuthing and guess what…
I know these two young men. Two 20 something year old guys I’ll call Pete and Repeat Here’s what happened…er…um…here’s what they did.
They each work as bartenders down at the local Irish Pub that has been here on the island for almost 40 years. They both worked the night shift Saturday night.
Apparently there was some drinking going on—on both sides of the bar. I mean LOT’s of Drinking. Then the bar closed down at 2:00 AM, and then there were more libations, and some imbibing to be had after roommates Pete and Repeat got home to their rental cottage near the beach.
By 7:30 AM Sunday morning, it must have seemed like a good idea to them to walk out on the beach, strip off their shorts, and jump into the Atlantic Ocean (actually St. Simons Sound) and take a little dip. After running into and out of the surf a couple of times, a bystander notified the authorities of their antics.
This is when the trouble started. Pete and Repeat wandered out of the surf and were walking “buck nekkid” up onto the concrete fishing pier, where they proceeded to dive off into the surf, at great risk to life, limb, and personal private parts (if you know what I mean-there’s sharks out there) and swim back to shore.
Upon exiting the surf this time, they were greeted by an arriving Glynn County patrol squad car. They then delivered various oral explicatives and some universal signs of disrespect utilizing their arms and fingers, finally donning their boxers and running like hell.
Pete was unfortunately apprehended a short distance from the scene of the crime. Repeat initially got away. I say “initially’ because here is what ensued.
Pete, now cooperating with the authorities, politely asked if they would be kind enough to drive by his beach cottage so that he could retrieve his cell phone and wallet, all the better to make phone calls and arrange bail for his indescressions.
The police complied…we have nice officers here in Glynn County. So good so far.
The police, being wise to the ways of the world and not wanting Pete to enter his home alone and retrieve a Uzzi or MK-10000000, or any other potentially lethal, illegal, automatic weapon, elected to enter said premises with Pete and, upon entry, found Repeat reclining on the sofa, basking in the glow of his previous escape.
A couple of thousand dollars later, Pete and Repeat are free on bond, jobless, and Repeat’s father, the Juvenile Court Judge, has dis-owned him.
I swear I’m not lying. As I said earlier—you can’t make this kind of stuff up…
There is a local talk radio show here on AM 1440 that runs from 7:30 to 10:00 each morning that I’ve recently started listening to. The show in its present format is fairly low budget and sort of lame in the commentary, but I have designs on the host’s job—at least on a fill in basis—he just don’t know it yet. I guarantee that I could increase the call volume within three months, although they might be trying to “ride me out of town on a rail…”
Any way, on Tuesday morning I was listening to the talk radio show when a caller told the story of two “Streakers” that were arrested early Sunday morning on the beach down by the fishing pier. By “streakers” I mean “buck nekkid” people—my southern readers know what I mean.
You know—“streakers”—people running ‘round in public with no clothes on.
The story was sort of funny at the time, and on a slow news day a few other callers commented and one guy actually added some additional details, but I basically thought nothing about it, even after hearing the local noon news broadcast giving brief details and the names of the offenders.
Well, let me tell you, over the past two days I have put the story together by doing a little personal sleuthing and guess what…
I know these two young men. Two 20 something year old guys I’ll call Pete and Repeat Here’s what happened…er…um…here’s what they did.
They each work as bartenders down at the local Irish Pub that has been here on the island for almost 40 years. They both worked the night shift Saturday night.
Apparently there was some drinking going on—on both sides of the bar. I mean LOT’s of Drinking. Then the bar closed down at 2:00 AM, and then there were more libations, and some imbibing to be had after roommates Pete and Repeat got home to their rental cottage near the beach.
By 7:30 AM Sunday morning, it must have seemed like a good idea to them to walk out on the beach, strip off their shorts, and jump into the Atlantic Ocean (actually St. Simons Sound) and take a little dip. After running into and out of the surf a couple of times, a bystander notified the authorities of their antics.
This is when the trouble started. Pete and Repeat wandered out of the surf and were walking “buck nekkid” up onto the concrete fishing pier, where they proceeded to dive off into the surf, at great risk to life, limb, and personal private parts (if you know what I mean-there’s sharks out there) and swim back to shore.
Upon exiting the surf this time, they were greeted by an arriving Glynn County patrol squad car. They then delivered various oral explicatives and some universal signs of disrespect utilizing their arms and fingers, finally donning their boxers and running like hell.
Pete was unfortunately apprehended a short distance from the scene of the crime. Repeat initially got away. I say “initially’ because here is what ensued.
Pete, now cooperating with the authorities, politely asked if they would be kind enough to drive by his beach cottage so that he could retrieve his cell phone and wallet, all the better to make phone calls and arrange bail for his indescressions.
The police complied…we have nice officers here in Glynn County. So good so far.
The police, being wise to the ways of the world and not wanting Pete to enter his home alone and retrieve a Uzzi or MK-10000000, or any other potentially lethal, illegal, automatic weapon, elected to enter said premises with Pete and, upon entry, found Repeat reclining on the sofa, basking in the glow of his previous escape.
A couple of thousand dollars later, Pete and Repeat are free on bond, jobless, and Repeat’s father, the Juvenile Court Judge, has dis-owned him.
I swear I’m not lying. As I said earlier—you can’t make this kind of stuff up…
John Kerry's "Hillarycare Lite"
I stopped by the old John Kerry Website today just to see what the heck was going on.
First, the good news--John Kerry has actually tendered an original piece of legislation, Senate Bill S114, called "Kids come first act of 2005." How exciting...
You do remember that in all the years he had been in the Senate before losing his bid for the presidency that he had only sponsored TWO bills…EVER? Massachusetts' voters must be so proud...
Unfortunately, when you look at the details of S114, it looks like it is another version of "Hillarycare Lite."
The interesting thing is that on the Kerry Web Site they say:
"On the first day of the 109th Congress, Kerry introduced legislation in the Senate, the “Kids First Act” - S. 114, to provide health care coverage to the 11 million American children who currently go without. Kerry’s legislation also helps Governors and states save on health care costs by reducing the burden on state's Medicaid rolls."
New Federal funding for 11 million uninsured children?
Sounds good on the surface, but...How does Kerry define "children?" Let’s take a look at the actual text of the legislation which can be found here on the Senate Web Site. It reads as follows:
"Currently, there are 9,000,000 children under the age of 19 that are uninsured. One out of every 8 children are uninsured while 1 in 5 Hispanic children and 1 in 7 African American children are uninsured. Three-quarters, approximately 6,800,000, of these children are eligible but not enrolled in the medicaid program or the State children's health insurance program (SCHIP). Long-range studies found that 1 in 3 children went without health insurance for all or part of 2002 and 2003."
So which is it, Mr. Kerry--11 million uninsured kids, or 9 million uninsured kids? And who is at fault that the 6.8 million kids "are eligible for but not enrolled in the Medicaid program"?
The government's, or the kid’s parents who didn't enroll them?
So, now if you believe the actual numbers put forth in the bill, there is really somewhere between 2.2 and 4.2 million uninsured kids that are not already eligible for Medicaid—a program which we are already paying taxes for.
As you read further, you find that they aren't really talking about little babies and toddlers (what my mental picture of kids usually is).
"There are 7,600,000 young adults between the ages of 19 and 20. In the United States, approximately 28 percent, or 2,100,000 individuals, of this group are uninsured."
Ah hah…so S114 also covers 2.1 million "young adults" in the 19 to 20 age bracket, which is where I guess the Kerry Website gets their 11 million number (+ or - 100,000, what the heck...)
They also want to tie federal funding to promises by each state that children of illegal aliens are not excluded in any future state legislation and to include children of families that earn 300% of the poverty line base income. So this isn't really all about insuring the children of poor families, is it? It's about transfering the legitimate responsibility of the healthcare of children from the parents (democratic voters) to the taxpayers (republican voters.) Well isn't that special.
And finally, I want to point out that there seems to be a pathologically induced inability in "healthcare advocates" and Democrats to discern between the concepts of a lack of "health insurance" and a lack of "adequate and timely health care." Health Insurance is money, Health Care is pills and shots and doctors and hospitals.
This bill, in my opinion, is typical liberal bait and switch crap.
All the public sees and hears is the "Kids come First" title and the 11 million uninsured number, with no qualification as to how the "kids" got to where they are in the first place--the parents lack of concern and action.
What do you think?
Update 11:40 PM:
I knew I smelled a rat in the form of an income tax increase in this bill, and I found it:
SEC. 501. PARTIAL REPEAL OF RATE REDUCTION IN THE HIGHEST INCOME TAX BRACKET.
Section 1(i)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following flush sentence:
`In the case of taxable years beginning during calendar year 2005 and thereafter, the final item in the fourth column in the preceding table shall be applied by substituting for `35.0%' such rate as the Secretary determines is necessary to provide sufficient revenues to offset the Federal outlays required to implement the provisions of, and amendments made by, the Kids Come First Act of 2005.'.
In other words, the health care insurance costs of Mr. Kerry's 9 million or 11 million "kids", most of which are already eligible for taxpayer funded Medicare, will be born by the "wealthy taxpayers" that pay the current 35% rate.
How much should I mail in, Senator Kerry? Will all of my income be enough?
What a %$#& moron...
First, the good news--John Kerry has actually tendered an original piece of legislation, Senate Bill S114, called "Kids come first act of 2005." How exciting...
You do remember that in all the years he had been in the Senate before losing his bid for the presidency that he had only sponsored TWO bills…EVER? Massachusetts' voters must be so proud...
Unfortunately, when you look at the details of S114, it looks like it is another version of "Hillarycare Lite."
The interesting thing is that on the Kerry Web Site they say:
"On the first day of the 109th Congress, Kerry introduced legislation in the Senate, the “Kids First Act” - S. 114, to provide health care coverage to the 11 million American children who currently go without. Kerry’s legislation also helps Governors and states save on health care costs by reducing the burden on state's Medicaid rolls."
New Federal funding for 11 million uninsured children?
Sounds good on the surface, but...How does Kerry define "children?" Let’s take a look at the actual text of the legislation which can be found here on the Senate Web Site. It reads as follows:
"Currently, there are 9,000,000 children under the age of 19 that are uninsured. One out of every 8 children are uninsured while 1 in 5 Hispanic children and 1 in 7 African American children are uninsured. Three-quarters, approximately 6,800,000, of these children are eligible but not enrolled in the medicaid program or the State children's health insurance program (SCHIP). Long-range studies found that 1 in 3 children went without health insurance for all or part of 2002 and 2003."
So which is it, Mr. Kerry--11 million uninsured kids, or 9 million uninsured kids? And who is at fault that the 6.8 million kids "are eligible for but not enrolled in the Medicaid program"?
The government's, or the kid’s parents who didn't enroll them?
So, now if you believe the actual numbers put forth in the bill, there is really somewhere between 2.2 and 4.2 million uninsured kids that are not already eligible for Medicaid—a program which we are already paying taxes for.
As you read further, you find that they aren't really talking about little babies and toddlers (what my mental picture of kids usually is).
"There are 7,600,000 young adults between the ages of 19 and 20. In the United States, approximately 28 percent, or 2,100,000 individuals, of this group are uninsured."
Ah hah…so S114 also covers 2.1 million "young adults" in the 19 to 20 age bracket, which is where I guess the Kerry Website gets their 11 million number (+ or - 100,000, what the heck...)
They also want to tie federal funding to promises by each state that children of illegal aliens are not excluded in any future state legislation and to include children of families that earn 300% of the poverty line base income. So this isn't really all about insuring the children of poor families, is it? It's about transfering the legitimate responsibility of the healthcare of children from the parents (democratic voters) to the taxpayers (republican voters.) Well isn't that special.
And finally, I want to point out that there seems to be a pathologically induced inability in "healthcare advocates" and Democrats to discern between the concepts of a lack of "health insurance" and a lack of "adequate and timely health care." Health Insurance is money, Health Care is pills and shots and doctors and hospitals.
This bill, in my opinion, is typical liberal bait and switch crap.
All the public sees and hears is the "Kids come First" title and the 11 million uninsured number, with no qualification as to how the "kids" got to where they are in the first place--the parents lack of concern and action.
What do you think?
Update 11:40 PM:
I knew I smelled a rat in the form of an income tax increase in this bill, and I found it:
SEC. 501. PARTIAL REPEAL OF RATE REDUCTION IN THE HIGHEST INCOME TAX BRACKET.
Section 1(i)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following flush sentence:
`In the case of taxable years beginning during calendar year 2005 and thereafter, the final item in the fourth column in the preceding table shall be applied by substituting for `35.0%' such rate as the Secretary determines is necessary to provide sufficient revenues to offset the Federal outlays required to implement the provisions of, and amendments made by, the Kids Come First Act of 2005.'.
In other words, the health care insurance costs of Mr. Kerry's 9 million or 11 million "kids", most of which are already eligible for taxpayer funded Medicare, will be born by the "wealthy taxpayers" that pay the current 35% rate.
How much should I mail in, Senator Kerry? Will all of my income be enough?
What a %$#& moron...
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
They're Standing On My Last Good Nerve--AGAIN
I’ve never once in my life ever worked in a job that paid minimum wage, even when I was a teenager. Rather than saying that I was just lucky, I assert that I was just that good at what I did.
Some would like to attribute the truth in this apparently arrogant statement to the fact that I am one of those mean old privileged white guys that the Democrats love to tax and the liberal media loves to bash for hogging all of the money and opportunities in life.
They’d be wrong, though.
I feel like that many times in my fitful career as an engineer and business owner that I wasn’t paid what my efforts were worth, but every single time I started feeling underpaid, I could only blame myself and I either changed the situation by getting a new employer or I worked harder and stuck it out.
I’ve actually turned out to be the toughest, meanest boss that I’ve ever worked for—I worked for months at a time back in the late 1990’s without paying myself one thin dime. It’s a real downer when everyone is making money but you, and YOU own the company.
That’s why I get so angry when I see mindless, sappy, feel-good, “rob from the rich and give to the poor ” type stories like this one in USA Today trumpeting various states overriding the Federal minimum wage laws.
“More states are raising their minimum wages, pushing hourly rates above $7 in some and shrinking the role of the federal minimum wage, which hasn't gone up in eight years.
In all, 17 states and the District of Columbia - covering 45% of the U.S. population - have set minimums above the federal rate of $5.15.
That has helped cut the number of workers earning the minimum or less (for those earning tips) from 4.8 million in 1997 to 2 million last year, or 2.7% of hourly earners, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.
About half of minimum-wage earners work at restaurants. Millions more have wages that are influenced by the minimum. Its buying power is at its lowest point since 1949.
Congress last changed the federal minimum wage in 1997. The latest proposal to raise it died in the Senate in March.”
Neither the Imperial Federal Government nor the individual states have any business in setting minimum wages. They didn’t do a darn thing for my personal wages when my company was sinking underneath me—other than demand that I pay unemployment taxes, workmen's compensation insurance, and hire an accounting firm to prove that I was losing money and eventually was broke (and FYI I've never once collected unemployment or workman's comp either.)
So why should the government be allowed to run around telling business owners how much to pay their employees? From personal experience I can tell you that if you want good employees you have to pay them what they are worth. Everyone with half a brain realizes that, right?
I guess that it is no surprise that half of the “minimum-wage earners work at restaurants,” but I have a suggestion to remedy that situation…
Why don’t all of the "wage activists" and bleeding heart liberals out there that want to raise the wages of the gum-chewing waiter or waitress that just spent the last half hour ignoring their empty tea glass just toss an extra $5 or $10 out of THEIR OWN WALLET onto the table next time they are leaving the restaurant?
Sorta like putting THEIR money where THEIR mouth is, instead of spending my hard earned cash to solve THEIR PROBLEM, you know?
Is it just me?
Some would like to attribute the truth in this apparently arrogant statement to the fact that I am one of those mean old privileged white guys that the Democrats love to tax and the liberal media loves to bash for hogging all of the money and opportunities in life.
They’d be wrong, though.
I feel like that many times in my fitful career as an engineer and business owner that I wasn’t paid what my efforts were worth, but every single time I started feeling underpaid, I could only blame myself and I either changed the situation by getting a new employer or I worked harder and stuck it out.
I’ve actually turned out to be the toughest, meanest boss that I’ve ever worked for—I worked for months at a time back in the late 1990’s without paying myself one thin dime. It’s a real downer when everyone is making money but you, and YOU own the company.
That’s why I get so angry when I see mindless, sappy, feel-good, “rob from the rich and give to the poor ” type stories like this one in USA Today trumpeting various states overriding the Federal minimum wage laws.
“More states are raising their minimum wages, pushing hourly rates above $7 in some and shrinking the role of the federal minimum wage, which hasn't gone up in eight years.
In all, 17 states and the District of Columbia - covering 45% of the U.S. population - have set minimums above the federal rate of $5.15.
That has helped cut the number of workers earning the minimum or less (for those earning tips) from 4.8 million in 1997 to 2 million last year, or 2.7% of hourly earners, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.
About half of minimum-wage earners work at restaurants. Millions more have wages that are influenced by the minimum. Its buying power is at its lowest point since 1949.
Congress last changed the federal minimum wage in 1997. The latest proposal to raise it died in the Senate in March.”
Neither the Imperial Federal Government nor the individual states have any business in setting minimum wages. They didn’t do a darn thing for my personal wages when my company was sinking underneath me—other than demand that I pay unemployment taxes, workmen's compensation insurance, and hire an accounting firm to prove that I was losing money and eventually was broke (and FYI I've never once collected unemployment or workman's comp either.)
So why should the government be allowed to run around telling business owners how much to pay their employees? From personal experience I can tell you that if you want good employees you have to pay them what they are worth. Everyone with half a brain realizes that, right?
I guess that it is no surprise that half of the “minimum-wage earners work at restaurants,” but I have a suggestion to remedy that situation…
Why don’t all of the "wage activists" and bleeding heart liberals out there that want to raise the wages of the gum-chewing waiter or waitress that just spent the last half hour ignoring their empty tea glass just toss an extra $5 or $10 out of THEIR OWN WALLET onto the table next time they are leaving the restaurant?
Sorta like putting THEIR money where THEIR mouth is, instead of spending my hard earned cash to solve THEIR PROBLEM, you know?
Is it just me?
More Goverenment School Insanity
If you are an uneducated dumb ass, I suggest that you stop reading right now, because what I have to say is going to offend you. Actually, I don’t believe that many readers who visit my blog are uneducated dumb asses and I didn’t mean to imply any such thing. If you are a parent of school aged children you definitely want to keep reading.
My keyword here is “uneducated,” because being born a dumb ass is not a crime, we are all born that way. I certainly was, but I had a capacity to learn and I’ve used it with various levels of success in the past forty-five years.
If you are uneducated and over the age of thirty-five, your condition is most likely your own fault (with all due respect to learning disabled individuals) because until the late 1970’s or early 1980’s, successfully attending the minimum of 12 years of our government schools (our so called free public education) was more than adequate to prepare you for employment and dealing with life’s experiences. In addition, attending a quality four-year college or university certainly served to help matters
If you are between twenty-five and thirty-five years old and only attended the first 12 years of government schooling, you might be experiencing some trouble with advancing your career beyond the point of asking “you want to super size that?” I’m not saying this is true of everyone, but there are a lot of people out there that have been severely let down by government schools and I, as a property tax payer, feel like I haven’t gotten my money’s worth as property taxes provide most of the funds used by government schools.
Who I’m really concerned about are our current high school graduates and the kids in their young twenties that are duped into borrowing money to attend all of these “diploma mills” disguised as private colleges and the Internet schools promising a four-year education in two and one-half years. What do they do, a Vulcan “mind meld’ and transfer a proficiency in the subject matter directly into your cerebral cortex? This is complete and total BS in most cases, resulting in the liberals in government demanding a raise in the minimum wage since the education standards basically suck and they think that the only way to get earning up is to legislate wages.
Adding to the Federal Government’s farcical “no child left behind” program, there is this Sacramento Bee story about California lawmakers limiting the size of textbooks:
My keyword here is “uneducated,” because being born a dumb ass is not a crime, we are all born that way. I certainly was, but I had a capacity to learn and I’ve used it with various levels of success in the past forty-five years.
If you are uneducated and over the age of thirty-five, your condition is most likely your own fault (with all due respect to learning disabled individuals) because until the late 1970’s or early 1980’s, successfully attending the minimum of 12 years of our government schools (our so called free public education) was more than adequate to prepare you for employment and dealing with life’s experiences. In addition, attending a quality four-year college or university certainly served to help matters
If you are between twenty-five and thirty-five years old and only attended the first 12 years of government schooling, you might be experiencing some trouble with advancing your career beyond the point of asking “you want to super size that?” I’m not saying this is true of everyone, but there are a lot of people out there that have been severely let down by government schools and I, as a property tax payer, feel like I haven’t gotten my money’s worth as property taxes provide most of the funds used by government schools.
Who I’m really concerned about are our current high school graduates and the kids in their young twenties that are duped into borrowing money to attend all of these “diploma mills” disguised as private colleges and the Internet schools promising a four-year education in two and one-half years. What do they do, a Vulcan “mind meld’ and transfer a proficiency in the subject matter directly into your cerebral cortex? This is complete and total BS in most cases, resulting in the liberals in government demanding a raise in the minimum wage since the education standards basically suck and they think that the only way to get earning up is to legislate wages.
Adding to the Federal Government’s farcical “no child left behind” program, there is this Sacramento Bee story about California lawmakers limiting the size of textbooks:
“Lawmakers voted Thursday to ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages.
The bill, believed to be the first of its kind nationwide, was hailed by supporters as a way to revolutionize education.
Critics lambasted Assembly Bill 756 as silly.
"This bill is really the epitome of micromanagement," said Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Northridge. "(It's) absolutely ridiculous." ...
But Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, said critics are thinking too narrowly…
"Our problem in California is not the size of textbooks, it's that we have large achievement gaps that need to be closed," he said.”
Huummmmm…“Large achievement gaps”--must be the textbooks are too big...
It seems to me that the solution isn’t that they need smaller textbooks, they need to teach more of what is in the big fat textbooks that they already have.
Things Could Be Getting Warmer
(but not the way you think)
If you listen to the media, in addition to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, we should all be preparing to die from global warming. “Global warming this” and “global warming that”—I’m sick of false experts and scientists that know nothing about meteorological issues beating me over the head with global warming.
If you want to worry about the disaster du jour, the latest thing is…
VOLCANOES!
Well, being the internet nerd that I am, I’m on the E-mail alert listing from the Volcano Live web site. You aught to go check out the work of researcher John.Seach at his site.
You might think that Kilauea in Hawaii and Mt. St. Helens in Washington State are the only potential problem volcanoes here in the US. Then you’d be WRONG, because there are actually 169 active volcanoes in the US and Mariannas territory.
The good news for me and my family is that all of the potential problem volcanoes are located far away from us in Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii. I didn’t realize that there were so many in the northwest.
And finally, the reason I opened this posting by mentioning global warming is this—if the Earth is beginning an increased period of volcanic activity (it is cyclic, you know), then running around hysterically passing Kyoto Treaties and changing the law saying the kind of Freon we use in our car air conditioners is going to accomplish NOTHING. Remember how much ash and other crap that Mt. Pinatubo blasted into the sky in the Philippines back in 1991? I do, because I was trying to learn to fly an airplane and half the time the visibility was insufficent to allow a student to fly solo.
If VOC’s and aerosol gasses are responsible for global warming, we’re all in for a good dose of it as a result of NATURAL CAUSES. And then, of course, there is the possibility of atmospheric change because of sunlight being reduced by all of the ash. Then all of the nay-sayers and pseudo-scientists will start running around screaming about something else…
GLOBAL COOLING…now where’s my heavy coat…
If you listen to the media, in addition to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, we should all be preparing to die from global warming. “Global warming this” and “global warming that”—I’m sick of false experts and scientists that know nothing about meteorological issues beating me over the head with global warming.
If you want to worry about the disaster du jour, the latest thing is…
VOLCANOES!
Well, being the internet nerd that I am, I’m on the E-mail alert listing from the Volcano Live web site. You aught to go check out the work of researcher John.Seach at his site.
You might think that Kilauea in Hawaii and Mt. St. Helens in Washington State are the only potential problem volcanoes here in the US. Then you’d be WRONG, because there are actually 169 active volcanoes in the US and Mariannas territory.
The good news for me and my family is that all of the potential problem volcanoes are located far away from us in Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii. I didn’t realize that there were so many in the northwest.
And finally, the reason I opened this posting by mentioning global warming is this—if the Earth is beginning an increased period of volcanic activity (it is cyclic, you know), then running around hysterically passing Kyoto Treaties and changing the law saying the kind of Freon we use in our car air conditioners is going to accomplish NOTHING. Remember how much ash and other crap that Mt. Pinatubo blasted into the sky in the Philippines back in 1991? I do, because I was trying to learn to fly an airplane and half the time the visibility was insufficent to allow a student to fly solo.
If VOC’s and aerosol gasses are responsible for global warming, we’re all in for a good dose of it as a result of NATURAL CAUSES. And then, of course, there is the possibility of atmospheric change because of sunlight being reduced by all of the ash. Then all of the nay-sayers and pseudo-scientists will start running around screaming about something else…
GLOBAL COOLING…now where’s my heavy coat…
Monday, May 30, 2005
Hair Care Surchage--Racist?
Take a look at this story from The Washington Post about so-called racial discrimination at Dillard’s department store.
“LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- An Alabama woman is seeking class-action status for a lawsuit against a Dillard's Inc. hair salon for allegedly charging black women more than white women.
Debbie Deavers Sturvisant alleges that a hair salon in a Tuscaloosa, Ala., Dillard's department store charged $35 to wash and set her hair, while white women paid $20 for the same service.
Sturvisant's lawsuit could bring a whole new level of attention to the general practice across the country of charging differently for hair care based on ethnicity.
Officials in Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland and Massachusetts have already addressed race- and sex-based pricing differences at hair salons.
"The stereotype is that all black hair is the same. But that's erroneous, just as all hair for Caucasians is not the same," said Patrick C. Cooper, a Birmingham, Ala., lawyer who plans to represent thousands of affected customers. Sturvisant's lawsuit was filed in February.”
I’m not a hair stylist, but I think that I know a thing or two about haircuts. I easily got twice as many haircuts in the first 20 years of my life than I’ve gotten in the past 25 years, but they all didn’t cost the same—the price depended on where I was getting it cut, who was cutting it, and how long my hair was at the time.
When I lived at home with my parents, my dad, the Army pilot, was a firm believer in “white sidewalls” on the side of a little boys head. I had a fresh $3 haircut, every two weeks, come rain or shine—whether I needed it or not. My Dad did too. If your hair was touching your ears, it was time to visit the barber.
When I went off to college, the only change in my hairstyle was that I grew a thin moustache, but it (the moustache) and my “white sidewalls” haircut had to now conform to the hair standards of the US Navy.
It was a tough life in the late 1970’s, running around with minimal hair while my non-military peers were wandering around with un-kept long hair. There was no reason to go to a fancy hair salon and pay $10 or $15 for a haircut when there was a nearby campus barber shop that would do the job for $7. No shampoo and no conditioner, just little bitty itchy pieces of hair inside your shirt collar when it was all over with. Black, white, straight hair or curly, the price was the same because the time it takes to deliver a nice scalping is the same regardless of skin color.
Times have changed today and there are fewer options in the way of the old classic barber shops for men. Now you have to run the gauntlet of the “unisex” salons and witness women in all states of hairstyle disarray, heads festooned with foil strips and curlers, some looking like drowned poodles as you try to avert your eyes to avoid laughing or being turned to stone in a manner similar to being caught looking at Medusa (the Greek chick with the head full of snakes.)
It’s not uncommon for a woman to pay over $100 for a haircut. Of course, by haircut I don’t just mean getting their hair cut. Noooo, I mean a “Styling.” Shampoo, conditioner, clip, cut, trim, layers, highlights, roots, overall color, pedicure, manicure, it’s a wonder there is anything left of you when you get through spending THREE HOURS in a hair salon. What could possibly take so long?
And ethnic people (I’m trying to be sensitive here…) do some even weirder stuff to their hair. If they have curly hair they want it straight. Relaxers, straighteners, braiding, funky colors like gold and orange, there are shops out there that specialize in the alchemy that is required to deal with the hair of African Americans.
So where’s the beef? I would no more walk into “Lacrisha’s Caribbean Braid Shop” asking to have my “ears lowered” than these silly bitches need to be hiking into a salon in an Alabama Dillard’s and complaining about the prices.
There is obviously a reason that the prices are different, but racial discrimination, in the negative sense, is not it. Being the insensitive asshole that I am, my solution would be to raise all of the prices from $20 up to $35 and tell everyone to go to hell if they didn't like it. Of course I’d probably be out of business in six months and everyone, black and white, would be wandering back down to Lacrisha’s for some “corn rows.”
So the staff of the Dillard’s salon doesn’t do Dippidy Do and Afro Sheen, and takes a little longer to do a nice Afro. Are they legally required to go out and recruit someone specializing in ethnic hairstyles in order to avoid litigation?
I say not, but I’m just an ignorant Redneck, what do I know about haircuts?
“LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- An Alabama woman is seeking class-action status for a lawsuit against a Dillard's Inc. hair salon for allegedly charging black women more than white women.
Debbie Deavers Sturvisant alleges that a hair salon in a Tuscaloosa, Ala., Dillard's department store charged $35 to wash and set her hair, while white women paid $20 for the same service.
Sturvisant's lawsuit could bring a whole new level of attention to the general practice across the country of charging differently for hair care based on ethnicity.
Officials in Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland and Massachusetts have already addressed race- and sex-based pricing differences at hair salons.
"The stereotype is that all black hair is the same. But that's erroneous, just as all hair for Caucasians is not the same," said Patrick C. Cooper, a Birmingham, Ala., lawyer who plans to represent thousands of affected customers. Sturvisant's lawsuit was filed in February.”
I’m not a hair stylist, but I think that I know a thing or two about haircuts. I easily got twice as many haircuts in the first 20 years of my life than I’ve gotten in the past 25 years, but they all didn’t cost the same—the price depended on where I was getting it cut, who was cutting it, and how long my hair was at the time.
When I lived at home with my parents, my dad, the Army pilot, was a firm believer in “white sidewalls” on the side of a little boys head. I had a fresh $3 haircut, every two weeks, come rain or shine—whether I needed it or not. My Dad did too. If your hair was touching your ears, it was time to visit the barber.
When I went off to college, the only change in my hairstyle was that I grew a thin moustache, but it (the moustache) and my “white sidewalls” haircut had to now conform to the hair standards of the US Navy.
It was a tough life in the late 1970’s, running around with minimal hair while my non-military peers were wandering around with un-kept long hair. There was no reason to go to a fancy hair salon and pay $10 or $15 for a haircut when there was a nearby campus barber shop that would do the job for $7. No shampoo and no conditioner, just little bitty itchy pieces of hair inside your shirt collar when it was all over with. Black, white, straight hair or curly, the price was the same because the time it takes to deliver a nice scalping is the same regardless of skin color.
Times have changed today and there are fewer options in the way of the old classic barber shops for men. Now you have to run the gauntlet of the “unisex” salons and witness women in all states of hairstyle disarray, heads festooned with foil strips and curlers, some looking like drowned poodles as you try to avert your eyes to avoid laughing or being turned to stone in a manner similar to being caught looking at Medusa (the Greek chick with the head full of snakes.)
It’s not uncommon for a woman to pay over $100 for a haircut. Of course, by haircut I don’t just mean getting their hair cut. Noooo, I mean a “Styling.” Shampoo, conditioner, clip, cut, trim, layers, highlights, roots, overall color, pedicure, manicure, it’s a wonder there is anything left of you when you get through spending THREE HOURS in a hair salon. What could possibly take so long?
And ethnic people (I’m trying to be sensitive here…) do some even weirder stuff to their hair. If they have curly hair they want it straight. Relaxers, straighteners, braiding, funky colors like gold and orange, there are shops out there that specialize in the alchemy that is required to deal with the hair of African Americans.
So where’s the beef? I would no more walk into “Lacrisha’s Caribbean Braid Shop” asking to have my “ears lowered” than these silly bitches need to be hiking into a salon in an Alabama Dillard’s and complaining about the prices.
There is obviously a reason that the prices are different, but racial discrimination, in the negative sense, is not it. Being the insensitive asshole that I am, my solution would be to raise all of the prices from $20 up to $35 and tell everyone to go to hell if they didn't like it. Of course I’d probably be out of business in six months and everyone, black and white, would be wandering back down to Lacrisha’s for some “corn rows.”
So the staff of the Dillard’s salon doesn’t do Dippidy Do and Afro Sheen, and takes a little longer to do a nice Afro. Are they legally required to go out and recruit someone specializing in ethnic hairstyles in order to avoid litigation?
I say not, but I’m just an ignorant Redneck, what do I know about haircuts?
Paul Krugman Is An Insensitive Idiot
Did I mention that I think that NY Times editorialist Paul Krugman is an idiot?
Yeah, I re-read my headline, and I guess that I just did…and in Sunday’s NY Times Op Ed piece, Krugman provides an ample example of why I hold this belief--AGAIN. I think that I mentioned Krugman’s mental capacity earlier this month in a slightly less polite manner.
Here is a sample of his latest blithering:
“One of the more bizarre aspects of the Iraq war has been President Bush's repeated insistence that his generals tell him they have enough troops. Even more bizarrely, it may be true - I mean, that his generals tell him that they have enough troops, not that they actually have enough. An article in yesterday's Baltimore Sun explains why.
The article tells the tale of John Riggs, a former Army commander, who "publicly contradicted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld by arguing that the Army was overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan" - then abruptly found himself forced into retirement at a reduced rank, which normally only happens as a result of a major scandal.
The truth, of course, is that there aren't nearly enough troops. "Basically, we've got all the toys, but not enough boys," a Marine major in Anbar Province told The Los Angeles Times.”
Why can’t the NY Times and its editorial staff take a few days off once in a while from the arduous task of endlessly bashing the military and its Commander-In-Chief, President Bush?
It is Memorial Day, after all, you know? We’re supposed to be honoring our military and our veterans, not endless debating their value and the decision making ability of its leadership.
The press keeps on trying to armchair quarterback our military’s operations, even though virtually none of the writers have ever set foot on a military base, except possibly to buy cheep beer or go to an air show.
Apparently the media really doesn’t want us to conduct any military operations overseas, they just want the better paying government jobs made available for “working families.”
If one single soldier is injured or killed, and if one single civilian is killed or displaced, then our actions are considered to be “the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
Let’s take Iraq as an example.
We could have avoided any US military casualties and just gone in and Nuked the shit out of Baghdad and Fallujah—turned most of Iraq into a giant silicone glass parking lot for a new Super Wal Mart and a big BP gas station.
Once the first mushroom cloud had disipated, the media would have melted down in a fit of eye rolling, salivating, hand-wringing. I agree that that method of prosecution of the war would have been overkill, but hey, the Times and Ted Koppel wouldn’t be doing a monthly body count over the US troop losses right now and the debate over troop levels would be mute.
Instead, we conducted a precision air attack that lasted a few weeks and softened everything up before our ground forces went in. As a result of being so sensitive to avoiding civilian collateral damage, we now have to sit around while the Saudi and Syrian “insurgents” and former members of Saddam’s Bathist Republican Guard “chicken shit” coward brigades take pot shots at our military and kill hundreds of innocent civilians. And yet the media blames our military for the current state of affairs in Iraq.
Following the air strikes two years ago, we also could have vacated our military out of their cushy deployments in Germany and South Korea and covered Iraq up with troops--probably gotten a half million personnel into the region within six months of the initial campaign, but we didn’t. And again, the media would have screamed bloody murder. “Abandoning our Allies” the headlines would have read. “Look at all of the disgruntaled solders” would have been the lead in for the evening news.
Yes, with an all voluntary Army you still have some half hearted, even half-assed participants. Some join just looking for the enlistment bonus and the college tuition. Some are really mean bastards that like drowning cats and shooting stray dogs. Fortunately, the majority are proud, honorable Americans that wish to serve our country and understand that in order to function as the world's police force you are required to break some things and kill some people.
What the men and women serving in the armed forces and the families of those lost in our efforts should not have to endure is a hostile press that diminishes the apparent value of their contribution, all in a politically motivated temper tantrum.
The media just doesn’t get it when it comes to the military, and they don’t play fair when it comes to their news coverage and editorial commentary.
I’m really sick of it, aren’t you?
Yeah, I re-read my headline, and I guess that I just did…and in Sunday’s NY Times Op Ed piece, Krugman provides an ample example of why I hold this belief--AGAIN. I think that I mentioned Krugman’s mental capacity earlier this month in a slightly less polite manner.
Here is a sample of his latest blithering:
“One of the more bizarre aspects of the Iraq war has been President Bush's repeated insistence that his generals tell him they have enough troops. Even more bizarrely, it may be true - I mean, that his generals tell him that they have enough troops, not that they actually have enough. An article in yesterday's Baltimore Sun explains why.
The article tells the tale of John Riggs, a former Army commander, who "publicly contradicted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld by arguing that the Army was overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan" - then abruptly found himself forced into retirement at a reduced rank, which normally only happens as a result of a major scandal.
The truth, of course, is that there aren't nearly enough troops. "Basically, we've got all the toys, but not enough boys," a Marine major in Anbar Province told The Los Angeles Times.”
Why can’t the NY Times and its editorial staff take a few days off once in a while from the arduous task of endlessly bashing the military and its Commander-In-Chief, President Bush?
It is Memorial Day, after all, you know? We’re supposed to be honoring our military and our veterans, not endless debating their value and the decision making ability of its leadership.
The press keeps on trying to armchair quarterback our military’s operations, even though virtually none of the writers have ever set foot on a military base, except possibly to buy cheep beer or go to an air show.
Apparently the media really doesn’t want us to conduct any military operations overseas, they just want the better paying government jobs made available for “working families.”
If one single soldier is injured or killed, and if one single civilian is killed or displaced, then our actions are considered to be “the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
Let’s take Iraq as an example.
We could have avoided any US military casualties and just gone in and Nuked the shit out of Baghdad and Fallujah—turned most of Iraq into a giant silicone glass parking lot for a new Super Wal Mart and a big BP gas station.
Once the first mushroom cloud had disipated, the media would have melted down in a fit of eye rolling, salivating, hand-wringing. I agree that that method of prosecution of the war would have been overkill, but hey, the Times and Ted Koppel wouldn’t be doing a monthly body count over the US troop losses right now and the debate over troop levels would be mute.
Instead, we conducted a precision air attack that lasted a few weeks and softened everything up before our ground forces went in. As a result of being so sensitive to avoiding civilian collateral damage, we now have to sit around while the Saudi and Syrian “insurgents” and former members of Saddam’s Bathist Republican Guard “chicken shit” coward brigades take pot shots at our military and kill hundreds of innocent civilians. And yet the media blames our military for the current state of affairs in Iraq.
Following the air strikes two years ago, we also could have vacated our military out of their cushy deployments in Germany and South Korea and covered Iraq up with troops--probably gotten a half million personnel into the region within six months of the initial campaign, but we didn’t. And again, the media would have screamed bloody murder. “Abandoning our Allies” the headlines would have read. “Look at all of the disgruntaled solders” would have been the lead in for the evening news.
Yes, with an all voluntary Army you still have some half hearted, even half-assed participants. Some join just looking for the enlistment bonus and the college tuition. Some are really mean bastards that like drowning cats and shooting stray dogs. Fortunately, the majority are proud, honorable Americans that wish to serve our country and understand that in order to function as the world's police force you are required to break some things and kill some people.
What the men and women serving in the armed forces and the families of those lost in our efforts should not have to endure is a hostile press that diminishes the apparent value of their contribution, all in a politically motivated temper tantrum.
The media just doesn’t get it when it comes to the military, and they don’t play fair when it comes to their news coverage and editorial commentary.
I’m really sick of it, aren’t you?
And We Have A Winner...
Everyone can stop holding their breath—we’ve had our first shark attack in Florida this year:
"Daytona Beach Shores, Fl--Miami man is Volusia County's first shark bite victim of the year.
Alfonso Garcia was swimming in the surf in Daytona Beach Shores yesterday when he was bitten on his left foot.
"The guy was sitting on the ground with his foot up and blood everywhere and I looked over and there was a chunk of his foot taken out," a witness told Local 6 News. "There were teeth rake marks across his toes."
He was taken to a Daytona Beach hospital where he was treated for a minor cut that required stitches. He was released from the hospital a short time later.
Volusia County had the highest number of shark attacks in Florida last year -- three. That's down from the 13 reported in 2003."
I’ve been ranting about the stupidity of the media’s coverage of “shark sightings” and “shark attacks” every year for the past ten years, and I will probably be ranting and writing about this subject every year for the next ten years.
So, it is with a calm head and a great personal understanding of shark behavior that I remind you, AGAIN, that you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than being killed by a shark.
And of course, if you believe the hysteria and never go to the beach, you can eliminate the risk posed by sharks completely from your life, and that’s OK with me…
Because it leaves a less crowded beach for me to enjoy.
"Daytona Beach Shores, Fl--Miami man is Volusia County's first shark bite victim of the year.
Alfonso Garcia was swimming in the surf in Daytona Beach Shores yesterday when he was bitten on his left foot.
"The guy was sitting on the ground with his foot up and blood everywhere and I looked over and there was a chunk of his foot taken out," a witness told Local 6 News. "There were teeth rake marks across his toes."
He was taken to a Daytona Beach hospital where he was treated for a minor cut that required stitches. He was released from the hospital a short time later.
Volusia County had the highest number of shark attacks in Florida last year -- three. That's down from the 13 reported in 2003."
I’ve been ranting about the stupidity of the media’s coverage of “shark sightings” and “shark attacks” every year for the past ten years, and I will probably be ranting and writing about this subject every year for the next ten years.
So, it is with a calm head and a great personal understanding of shark behavior that I remind you, AGAIN, that you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than being killed by a shark.
And of course, if you believe the hysteria and never go to the beach, you can eliminate the risk posed by sharks completely from your life, and that’s OK with me…
Because it leaves a less crowded beach for me to enjoy.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Writing For The NY Times = Loosing your Mind
Leave it to the NY Times to continue to bash the military on Memorial Day Weekend. What complete %$#@& idiots and partisan hacks their editorial writers are.
Today’s headline reads ”The Death Spiral of The Volunteer Army.”
“Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likes to talk about transforming America's military. But the main transformation he may leave behind is a catastrophic falloff in recruitment for the country's vital ground fighting forces: the Army and the Marine Corps. The recruitment chain that has given the United States highly qualified, highly skilled and highly motivated ground forces for the three decades since the government abandoned the draft has started to break down.
This is astonishing, even allowing for the administration's failure to prepare Americans honestly for how long and difficult the occupation of Iraq would be. There are over 60 million American men and women between 18 and 35, the age group sought by Army recruiters. Getting the 80,000 or so new volunteers the Army needs to enlist each year ought not to be such a daunting challenge. There are obvious attractions to joining the world's most powerful, prestigious and best-equipped ground fighting forces, and in so doing qualifying for valuable benefits like college tuition aid.”
So think about this story with me for a minute…
What exactly would the NY Times propose that the military do to improve their image?
Would they have the Army stop fighting “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time “and start collecting money for “defense funding” while handing out boxes of doughnuts wearing funny hats with the Shriners on urban streets every weekend?
Should the Marines start building houses for the homeless with Habitat for Humanity?
Maybe providing a free tire rotation and oil change at local recruitment centers would help?
If they can’t improve their image and get recruiting numbers up, is the Times suggesting that they restart the draft? Remember last fall when the media was full of rumors that Bush and the mean old Republicans were going to start drafting again?
I say that the media has been conducting a conscious campaign against the US military, and this article, posing with fake concern asking serious questions about recruitment efforts, is actually a smirking declaration of their preliminary victory in their private “war” against the war-making powers of our government.
Finally, the Times inadvertently takes credit for the recruiting problem with this paragraph:
“Why this is happening is no mystery. Two years of hearing about too few troops on the ground, inadequate armor, extended tours of duty and accelerated rotations back into combat have taken their toll, discouraging potential enlistees and their parents. The citizen-soldiers of the Guard and Reserves have suddenly become full-time warriors. Nor has it helped that when abuse scandals have erupted, the Pentagon has seemed quicker to punish lower-ranking soldiers than top commanders and policy makers. This negative cycle now threatens to feed on itself. Fewer recruits will mean more stress on those now in uniform and more grim reports reaching hometowns across America.”
They’re damn right that “two years of hearing about too few troops on the ground, inadequate armor…” might be having some effect on recruiting. The media has become professional armchair quarterbacks, injecting their opinions into every detail of the war on terrorism—enjoying the reporting of each and every road-side bombing and jubilantly reporting every injury and death with a pompus “we told you so attitude.”
They revel in screaming “oh my gosh, the Reserves and National Guard are actually having to go out and fight” rather than sit at home collecting their generous part-time paychecks to do a couple weeks of time in the summer and one weekend each month.
Yes, the current deployment schedule is tough, but at no place in any of these type articles do they ever bother to mention that the reduction in our armed forces occurred during Bill Clinton’s eight years of service as Commander-in-Chief, a reduction from 1.8 million down to 1.2 million soldiers—accompanied by parallel cuts in spending for not so insignificant things like armor, is the reason that we are where we are today.
I place the low troop levels and supposed inadequate armoring squarely on the shoulders of the pantyhose-commander-in-chief Bill Clinton, not George Bush.
What Partisan, Lying Idiots...
Today’s headline reads ”The Death Spiral of The Volunteer Army.”
“Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld likes to talk about transforming America's military. But the main transformation he may leave behind is a catastrophic falloff in recruitment for the country's vital ground fighting forces: the Army and the Marine Corps. The recruitment chain that has given the United States highly qualified, highly skilled and highly motivated ground forces for the three decades since the government abandoned the draft has started to break down.
This is astonishing, even allowing for the administration's failure to prepare Americans honestly for how long and difficult the occupation of Iraq would be. There are over 60 million American men and women between 18 and 35, the age group sought by Army recruiters. Getting the 80,000 or so new volunteers the Army needs to enlist each year ought not to be such a daunting challenge. There are obvious attractions to joining the world's most powerful, prestigious and best-equipped ground fighting forces, and in so doing qualifying for valuable benefits like college tuition aid.”
So think about this story with me for a minute…
What exactly would the NY Times propose that the military do to improve their image?
Would they have the Army stop fighting “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time “and start collecting money for “defense funding” while handing out boxes of doughnuts wearing funny hats with the Shriners on urban streets every weekend?
Should the Marines start building houses for the homeless with Habitat for Humanity?
Maybe providing a free tire rotation and oil change at local recruitment centers would help?
If they can’t improve their image and get recruiting numbers up, is the Times suggesting that they restart the draft? Remember last fall when the media was full of rumors that Bush and the mean old Republicans were going to start drafting again?
I say that the media has been conducting a conscious campaign against the US military, and this article, posing with fake concern asking serious questions about recruitment efforts, is actually a smirking declaration of their preliminary victory in their private “war” against the war-making powers of our government.
Finally, the Times inadvertently takes credit for the recruiting problem with this paragraph:
“Why this is happening is no mystery. Two years of hearing about too few troops on the ground, inadequate armor, extended tours of duty and accelerated rotations back into combat have taken their toll, discouraging potential enlistees and their parents. The citizen-soldiers of the Guard and Reserves have suddenly become full-time warriors. Nor has it helped that when abuse scandals have erupted, the Pentagon has seemed quicker to punish lower-ranking soldiers than top commanders and policy makers. This negative cycle now threatens to feed on itself. Fewer recruits will mean more stress on those now in uniform and more grim reports reaching hometowns across America.”
They’re damn right that “two years of hearing about too few troops on the ground, inadequate armor…” might be having some effect on recruiting. The media has become professional armchair quarterbacks, injecting their opinions into every detail of the war on terrorism—enjoying the reporting of each and every road-side bombing and jubilantly reporting every injury and death with a pompus “we told you so attitude.”
They revel in screaming “oh my gosh, the Reserves and National Guard are actually having to go out and fight” rather than sit at home collecting their generous part-time paychecks to do a couple weeks of time in the summer and one weekend each month.
Yes, the current deployment schedule is tough, but at no place in any of these type articles do they ever bother to mention that the reduction in our armed forces occurred during Bill Clinton’s eight years of service as Commander-in-Chief, a reduction from 1.8 million down to 1.2 million soldiers—accompanied by parallel cuts in spending for not so insignificant things like armor, is the reason that we are where we are today.
I place the low troop levels and supposed inadequate armoring squarely on the shoulders of the pantyhose-commander-in-chief Bill Clinton, not George Bush.
What Partisan, Lying Idiots...
