Friday, June 19, 2009

Tiny Dogs...

Have Giant Hearts...


View more news videos at: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/video.



My dog would do that for me...

UrrrrrpppppppppPPPPPPP

Please Excuse Me...

Thursday, June 18, 2009

No Matter What The Government Says About Universal Healthcare...

I Think WE Will All Ultimately Regret The Day....


Just for fun this morning...

I want you to think of a single important product or service you can get for free or for an artificially reduced price which is as good a value or performs as well as the best--or even the average--similar product(s) or service(s) delivered at the true cost and/or fair market price?

Got any ideas?

Let's ignore silly consumer products like cell phones or music CD's...I'm talking about IMPORTANT stuff...necessary stuff like LIKE HOUSING and TRANSPORTATION.

For instance, if someone gives you a car for free, wouldn't you agree that it's probably not gonna be a shiny new Lexus (unless you're on a TV Game Show like Wheel of Fortune)?

Most likely it will be a clunker and even more likely if it runs at all it won't be reliable.

Don't get confused...I'm about to talk about government supplied health care but I have to lay out some fundamentals...so bear with me for a moment longer here...

Now think about things the Government "gives" the public or "manages" on behalf of the public.

In the transportation category I present for your consideration the Amtrak Passenger Rail System ... a GOVERNMENT RUN train system which has never turned a profit in any single year in it's ENTIRE EXISTENCE and is constantly cutting service and coming back to Congress looking for more money under threat of shutting down.

One of the main problems, other than being government run, is that in areas other than in the Northeast corridors between large cities, Amtrack doesn't actually GO ANYWHERE anyone wants to go to.

For instance, if I want to go down to Miami and stay for a week, looking at the Orbitz Website I can pay the airlines $557 round trip, and by leaving at 5 PM Sunday I'm in Miami before 11 PM.

About SEVEN HOURS one way including the time to drive to the airport and park and go through security. The round trip schedule is equally time efficient.

Now...what about taking the GOVERNMENT option called AMTRAK?

On Amtrak I have to first drive from Knoxville to Atlanta, then pay $639 round trip, and then instead of riding a train to Savannah or Jessup Georgia--places within 250 miles that have Amtrak service--I have to ride a train to WASHINGTON, DC...then turn around and head back south toward Miami.

And how much of my time does this epic Government managed sojourn take?

Going south takes TWENTY SEVEN HOURS...not including the three hour drive in the car to get to the Atlanta station.

...and the return north takes THIRTY FOUR HOURS (including the drive time back from the station to Knoxville.)

Doing the math and using the current gas prices of $2.85, I can DRIVE the 881 miles between Knoxville and Miami in a little over 13 hours at the round trip cost of $220.

Why in the world would I use Amtrak--unless I was afraid of flying--considering these transit times and the cost exceeding going by air.

Isn't it insane that Amtrak charges $82 more than the cost to fly, and takes over five times as long to get there?

Now let's think about GOVERNMENT HOUSING for a moment.

Ever drive through a government housing project?

I'm not trying to be a racist, but regardless of race, sex, or national origin wouldn't you agree that 99% of buildings in 99% of the neighborhood occupied by GOVERNMENT HOUSING are complete and total HELL HOLES?

I know that living in GOVERNMENT HOUSING is probably at least a little better than sleeping in a GOVERNMENT RUN HOMELESS SHELTER, but just barely.

I know most of us recognise that the PEOPLE that reside in GOVERNMENT HOUSING are probably at least half of the problem, but a private landlord would hardly put up with the physical conditions found in most GOVERNMENT HOUSING and you know what?

If a private landlord did let their own privately owned and managed property deteriorate to similar conditions, most likely THE GOVERNMENT would step in and force them to fix things else close them down.

But I say the GOVERNMENT runs housing like they run transportation...like CRAP.

Now I'm going to ignore the coming financial insolvency of the current GOVERNMENT supplied retirement system called SOCIAL SECURITY and government run elderly and indigent health programs called MEDICARE and MEDICAID--all of which are hemorrhaging money and cutting benefits as we speak--and talk about...

GOVERNMENT RUN VETERANS HOSPITALS.

Have you or anyone you know ever been to a VETERAN'S HOSPITAL (hereafter referred to as a VA Hospital) in your town?

Yes?

No?

You may or may not realize that if you live in Georgia THERE IS NOT A VETERAN'S HOSPITAL in your town unless you live in Atlanta (Decatur), Augusta, or Dublin.

Looking at the VA web page for Georgia , there are only an additional 21 "Outpatient Clinics" in the entire state.

You know what this means to a "Retired Veteran" who is forced by government mandate to get his healthcare benefits from THE GOVERNMENT VA facilities.

From what I saw while we lived on St. Simons Island ( a place where over half the retired men were Veterans) the older Widower Vets that couldn't drive themselves had to ride in a van driven by volunteers once or twice a week on a 4 plus hour trip covering over 200 miles to the VA hospital in Augusta to get treatment.

By "treatment" I mean important stuff like Cat Scans and X-Rays and Dialysis and stuff.

Of course they could go to a local doctor and hope that the procedure was covered by Medicare, but to get Medicare to pay they had to get pre-approval from a GOVERNMENT official before they could go to the local doctor which ment that they had to WAIT FOR MEDICAL CARE.

"Sorry Mr. Wilkins...just stop having that heart attack and fill out these ten forms and we'll get back to you next month..."

Of course they could just go to the doctor and pay out of their own pocket, but doesn't that undo the so called BENEFIT of having free GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE in the first place?

A classical bait and switch program--tax your ass off while you're working and then make obtaining the benefits painful if not virtually impossible.

...

Now let me ask you this question...

If the government can't manage to run an efficient and convenient healthcare system for a few million retired veterans--people that worked their entire military careers believing they had the healthcare benefits coming when they needed then...

HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK THAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN MANAGE AND FUND A NEW PROGRAM TO TAKE IN AN ADDITIONAL 39,000,000 BENEFICIARIES AND ULTIMATELY AN ENTIRE POPULATION OF 300 MILLION PLUS?

Are you STUPID, RETARDED, OR JUST ON DRUGS?

Go ahead if you don't agree with me and cheer this GOVERNMENT POWER GRAB on and keep voting for it.

Then you will have to excuse me for LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY when about twenty years from now you find your ass rotting off and some bureaucrat tells you that you can't have a bottle of Iodine and a pack of band aids because you're too old and you drank and smoked and most likely brought the disease on yourself...

SO YOUR BELOVED FREE GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE PROGRAM WON'T PAY.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it...Dammit.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Global Warming Still Full of Crap?

More Climate Change Insensitivity...


Anyone but me notice that...

while Chicago and much of the midwest has had a record cool June thus far...

and at the same time my Mom and my friends in my home town in Lower Alabama are baking in 100 degree F heat...

THAT THERE HAS ONLY BEEN ONE SUBSTANTIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE THIS YEAR?????????

And that little blow was up in the mid Atlantic latitudes but incited the weather nerds and sniveling, booger eating, tree hugging, wild-eyed-eco-greenie-weenies to start buying plywood and battening down their hatches as they predicted an "Above Average" tropical season because...

the little piss ant storm formed in LATE MAY...

BEFORE the official "Hurricane Season"???

(which for my and your enjoyment runs from June 1st to the end of October each year.)

I just thought that I'd point that little fact out--that in the past three weeks we've only had one little wimpy tropical anything to talk about.

Except on this Blog and Blogs like it you won't hear any news stories and headlines leading with THAT FACT...now will you?

(taking a big breath here boss...)

Ok...

That will be all...for now...

Inside The New Door

Trim Complete...Paint Pane Pain In The Gl ass


I know some of you have been dying to catch a glimpse of my latest carpentry masterpiece...so here's a shot of the as yet unpainted door with the walls finished and the surrounding stuff hung back up:



And here's a closer look at my creative solution to covering the 2-1/2" gap between the top of the door frame and the sheetrock (I would have otherwise just used a piece of 2-1/8" jamb trim and been done with it all):



I'm also proud of that double light switch which controls a new outside light and a new double flood illuminating the deck and extending the hours we can use the back yard this summer. While I was at it I installed a new weather proof receptacle out there also to power crap like radios and charcoal grill lighters and such.

We like that "colonial" crown trim detail so much I'm going to tear out the head of the six foot wide cased opening between the living room and dining room and do the same thing. And the front door casing is also an candidate for similar renovation...

...once I finish the deck and the fence and the outside of this door frame.

When will my insanity and self abuse ever end???

Blogging From The Bottom Of The Mighty Tennessee River

My Mature Judgment Saved My Computer...


I swear if I were twenty years younger (including my propensity those days to throw mis-behaving electronics items like remote controls and phones) and still had a boat I'd have taken this computer out to the river and used it for a boat anchor or created a new artificial reef.

It just crashed a few minutes ago for the second time since midnight and about the fifth or sixth time in the past TWO days.

What really freaks me out is that I thought things with the pitiful useless Vista operating system had self medicated themselves over the past couple of weeks because I was sometimes getting through three days in a row and entire weekends without a crash.

Needless to say I've become the most diligent person in Eastern Tennessee at hitting the save button before I walk away from the beast and I save often in longer sessions where I'm writing.

When I find a web page I like or need for future reference I either bookmark it or copy the URL to an e-mail and send it to myself with a descriptive subject line. The e-mail method keeps from cluttering my favorites listing which probably has two or three hundred entries in sub-folders.

So any way...closing detail progress continues on the deck, fence, and the new Turbo Pup Exit door with the second coat of paint going on the wall trim and some other detailing being finished around the freshly cut opening in the brickwork on the outside.

I pace myself (in other words I'm distracted and lazy) to only three or four hours a day due to the heat so a project which could have been done professionally in three days has now extended itself to nearly a month.

Quality over quantity is my motto, and having a good time in the process is job #1 at all times.

Time to go smear paint on wood and myself...regards y'all...

Monday, June 15, 2009

You might be an engineer if ...

I'm Afraid Most Of This Is True (About Myself At Least)


... choosing between buying flowers for your wife or more RAM is a moral dilemma.

... you take a cruise so you can go on a personal tour of the engine room.

... in college you thought "spring break" was metal fatigue failure.

... the salespeople at the local computer store can't answer any of your questions.

... at an air show you know how fast the skydivers are falling.

... you bought your wife a new CD-ROM drive for her birthday.

... you can quote scenes from any Monty Python movie.

... you can type 70 words per minute but can't read your own handwriting.

... you comment to your wife that her straight hair is nice and parallel.

... you sit backwards on the amusement rides to figure out the special effects.

... you have saved every power cord from all your broken appliances.

... you have more friends on the Internet than in real life.

... you know what http:// stands for.

... you look forward to Christmas so you can put the kids' toys together.

... you see a good design and still have to change it.

... you spent more on your calculator than you did on your wedding ring.

... you still own a slide rule and know how to use it.

... you think that people yawning around you are sleep deprived.

... you window shop at Radio Shack.

... your laptop computer costs more than your car.

... your wife hasn't the foggiest idea of what you do for a living.

... you've already calculated how much you make per second.

... you've tried to repair a $5 radio.

... you consider yourself well-dressed when your socks match.

... you buy your wife a set of matched screwdrivers for her birthday.

... you have a non-technical vocabulary of 800 words.

... you think a "biting wit" is a fox terrier.

... you have no life - and you can prove it mathematically.

... you enjoy pain.

... you know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.

... you chuckle whenever someone says "centrifugal force".

... you've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.

... when you look in a mirror, you see an engineering major.

... you are always inside working on a computer while it is sunny and 75 degrees outside.

... you frequently whistle the theme song to MacGyver.

... you always do homework on Friday nights.

... you know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.

... you think in "math".

... you've calculated that the World Series actually diverges.

... you hesitate to look at something to avoid breaking down its wave function.

... you have a pet named after a scientist.

... you laugh at jokes about mathematicians.

... you've been arrested by the ASPCA for performing the Schrodinger's Cat experiment.

... you can't remember what's behind the EXIT door in the science building.

... you bring a jacket to the lab in the summer because of a wind-chill factor.

... you are completely addicted to caffeine.

... you avoid doing anything so as not to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.

... you consider ANY non-science course easy.

... you can prove that, according to Heisenberg, your homework could be anywhere in the world!

... your brain's "fun" center has deteriorated from lack of use.

... you assume that a "horse" is a "sphere" in order to make the math easier.

... you know the second law of thermodynamics but not your shirt size.

... you repair your own cameras, telephones, TV's and automatic transmissions.

... you say "it's 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 25 degrees Celsius, and 298 degrees Kelvin."

... you wear a badge so you don't forget who you are.

... you rotate your tires for laughs.

... you make four sets of drawings and seven revisions before making a bird bath building a deck in your back yard.

... you can't remember where you parked your car for the 3rd time this week.

... your briefcase contains a screwdriver, "Quantum Physics" and half a sandwich.

... your wristwatch has more buttons than a telephone.

... you ever burned down the school gym with your Science Fair project.

... you can translate English to Binary.

... your hero is Dilbert.

... your IQ is more than your weight.

... you can name 6 Star Trek episodes.

... you know the direction the water swirls when you flush.

... you have ever taken the back off of your TV just to see what's inside.

... you have ever purchased an electronic appliance "as is".

... you thought the real heroes of "Apollo 13" were the mission controllers.

... you have a neatly sorted collection of old bolts and nuts in your garage.

... you understood more than five of these indicators.

... you make a hard copy of this list and post it on your door.

... you don't find the above at all funny.

I'm still busy working, so I shamelessly stole the above from Here: http://www.enerchecksystems.com/humor.html

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Compressor Healthy...Back Aching

Construction Materials Dwindling...


Of course I have to go back to Lowe's and or Home Depot today.

Again.

I managed to not go yesterday because after I repaired the compressor I had enough materials to finish expanding the fence around the back yard Turbo Pup enclosure and get the base boards and shoe mouldings trimmed and reinstalled around the new door.

Before that I even got mouldings on each side of the interior of the door, but then progress hit a brick wall (excuse the pun) when I realized that the 3-1/2 foot scrap of crown mold I grabbed out of the scrap bin was a few inches too short to cover the distance I needed.

I didn't cut the board so I have a clear conscience taking it back because they sell it by the foot and I'll just cut another a few inches longer.

Then I'll probably fiddle around remounting gate hardware and do some more skirting and if my energy holds out I might actually be FINISHED at sundown today.

By the way, it's pizza night here in Knoxtown so free to stop by about 7:00 PM and I'll cut you a slice.

Regards Y'all...