The Eagles have released a new album. It’s their first one in a while. They entered the scene with a bang in 1972
Now, they are back. However, from what I can tell, they’ve taken the path least resisted and made a political statement with their music. And from what I can tell, they put all their focus on the message and basically none on the music. Apparently they feel compelled to market it to Hollywood and basically no one else.
I am already beyond tired of really old rich rockers whining. I’m quite certain I’ll take a complete pass on “The Long Road Out of Eden”. Just the name of this album bugs me. When did they ever live in Eden in the first place?
31
Oct
There’s a lot being said over waterboarding. Michael Mukasey’s nomination is said to be “drowning” over this one single issue. Joe Biden and Patrick Leahy, who are prone to oppose just about anything for the sake of politics, are “concerned” that Mukasey, rather than completely cowering and denouncing PC-torture-procedure-of-the-day, stated he’d rather look at each instance as it occurs to see what laws were broken. Imagine that, a lawyer who’d rather look at the facts as opposed to publicly pinning himself in a corner. How stupid can he be? Leahy and Biden could care less about circumstances, they want to define what the military can or can not do in a way that strikes back to the days of “the wall“. It was the pandering of the CIA director to a political flunky to the Attorney General that led to the events of 9/11. Biden and Leahy were here then. They should know as well or better than anyone what happens when politicians wank security and defense issues.
But that’s exactly what they are doing now. And no one is calling their bluff. They are trying to micro-manage our ability to collect information by pinning this entire nomination on one issue that is probably never used and very few people even know what it is. The next nomination, if Mukasey fails, will know they have to pander to Biden and Leahy in order to get the nomination. That scares me folks.
Even if we never do waterboarding ( whatever the hell that is ), I’d like for our enemies to at least think we did on a very regular basis. Biden and Leahy would like them to think that if they do get caught, they’ll get a vacation where they’re well-fed, rested, and primed and ready to go at it again.
That’s just stupid.
I’d be more concerned if I thought Biden had a ghost chance in hell of winning.
18
Oct
Kids at King Middle School in Portland Maine haveto be feeling pretty darn good about themselves. The school’s so concerned about their health and welfare that they are passing out birth control for those that feel the urge. I’m just totally stumped by this one. We’re talking 12-14 year olds. For the most part, I don’t think most 12 to 14 year olds really think about having sex that much at that point. Those that do, well, usually don’t do it AT school. In other words, it’s not a school function or responsibility. By making sure they’re well protected if they decide to, the school is condoning the act whether they intend to or not. By making access to birth control fairly easy and discreet, they can hide it from their parents that much easier and feel that much more confident about giving it a go. So, the effect of what King Middle School is doing is encouraging sex at a time when they should be educating kids on the consequences. Plus, there are more consequences of having sex than simply popping out a kid. Will the school/health department take care of those consequences as well? If one of their kids does get pregnant by not appropriately using the stuff the school gave them, can she sue the school for support? I just think this opens a whole can of worms the school’s not thinking about.
Scrappleface of course skewers the topic appropriately by pointing out another angle I hadn’t thought of. By handing out birth control at taxpayer’s expense, the school is showing preference of heterosexual activity over any other form of sexual activity. How does this make the gay 12 year olds feel? I see a sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit over this. In order to counter that, what will the school hand out to the 12 year old lesbians and gays?
This is a road the schools should not be going down. The road they should be going down is encouraging the kids to prosecute whoever they are having sex with. It is after all, illegal at that age.
This is what Christie Brinkley does absolutely best:
What she doesn’t do quite so well is make an argument for a nuclear free world. Her logic is this, because the United States chose to assure Iraq had no nuclear weapons or capability to make them, the world was blinded about the threat of nuclear weapons. She went on to agree with Henry Kissinger and others that the United States “must reinvigorate efforts to obtain a nuclear weapons-free world.” Which is it Christie? Do we do what it takes to obtain a nuclear weapns free world or not? Some of those things are going to be confrontational and ugly. There was no consensus that Iraq was not trying to develop nuclear weapons at that time. There was a consensus after we went in that he had tried and failed. That led to a war. There is a consensus that North Korea had developed nuclear weapons capabilities and were more than willing to export that technology to other unstable countries. The sanctions placed against North Korea probably led to a lot of innocents discomfort and possible famines. North Korea has supposedly backed down. There is a consensus Iran is now developing nuclear weapons capabilities. What is going to stop them? They are cozying up to stated enemies of the United States and my bet is they will be more than happy to sell some weapons to those enemies. What is going to stop them Christie? Can you do it? I would be thrilled if you could. It’s so cliche and passe to blame everything on one person. It’s a hell of a lot harder to look at what’s really happening in this world and come up with a logical plan that everyone will go along with. Ahmadinejad blames you for what is wrong with the world as much or moreso than he does Bush. You are the symbol of Western decadence. You’re not going to talk him into giving up nuclear power no matter how much you bitch and whine. Blaming everything on Bush I’m sure tickles people like Ahmadinejad quite a bit, but he’d have to kill you for prancing around naked and enticing young boys. So, you’re out of the picture as far as negotiating goes. Who would you recommend go talk nicely to Ahmadinejad or anyone else for that matter? We’ve been dealing with Russia since WWII and they haven’t felt the need to eliminate theirs. So, do we set the example and lay our defenses bare? I’m sure they’d love it if we did. That’s what Putin’s trying to get us to do right now so his father of all bombs will be king and outside of Geneva protocol.
Sheez, I wish these Hollywood airheads would use their star-power for something constructive instead of trying to out-dumb each other with publicity stunts.
25
Sep
Well, here it is:
I really can’t see what’s so offensive about this one to the tune it can’t get on tv in Houston.
I myself was hoping to see a little more.
I’d actually like to see a lot more like this and a lot less of those commercials promoting super-caffeinated drinks aimed at children. Now, to me, that’s offensive.
Until we get our priorities straight our kids will continue to be messed up and confused.
24
Sep
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is disappointed the US is not allowing him to roam free in the US speaking. His logic for allowing to do so is something like this:
At exactly the same time that quote was released, this story is breaking as well:
So, what is the correct information? If Ahmadinejad’s claim that insteability in Iraq is detrimental to Iran’s goals, why are Iranian weapons being found in Iraq?
This guy is bad at manipulation.
Now, what disappoints me without it even happening yet is I know the kids at Columbia won’t hammer Ahmadinejad over real life issues causing death and destruction in Iraq. They’ll buy his rhetoric and probably ask a hand full of watered down social issues that has nothing to do with world peace.
Go ahead Columbia, make my day, prove me wrong.
The last few Jerry Lewis telethons have been somewhat forgetable. Well, for me, they pretty much all have been. Having a telethon on Labor Day is a big deal here. Labor Day is the last big bash on the lake for us. Toss in the fact my birthday quite frequently falls on the same weekend and you can see why I can’t tell you one single minute of what’s happened the last twenty years. I did notice a couple of things this year tho, after the fact.
- Jerry dropped the f-bomb during the show. Now the sex one, the gay one. Realizing he probably shouldn’t have, he stopped the monologue pretty much in mid-sentence.
- He broke a record for most money received, over $63 million.
Coincedence?
Whoopi Goldberg replaced Rosie Odonnell on The View. Rosie being gone is a good thing because Rosie seemed to rely on rhetoric, stupidity, and generalizations as a basis for most of “the views”. However, Whoopi’s been known to drop some stupid bombs of her own in the past. Apparently not much has changed by replacing Rosie with Whoopi as Whoopi dropped this stupid bomb yesterday:
“from where he comes from” in the South, dogfighting isn’t that unusual.
OK, for starters, dogfighting is NOT that common here. I’ve never been to one, I’ve never even heard of one. There was some cockfighting going on when I was younger, but that sort of lost it’s glamour about twenty years ago around here. Now, it probably still happens, but it’s rogue idiots doing it, not anything organized or anything. And, if caught, they will go to prison and that’s the end of it. In simple terms, it’s as condoned here as whereever Whoopi lives now. Dogfighting’s the same. It may happen here, but it’s probably more likely to happen in Los Angeles than here. Simple math makes it so, there’s more people in Los Angeles than a lot of the South combined.
Some simple facts here for Rosie Whoopi:
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Some states have various aspects of dogfighting that are not prosecuted as felonies. Those are:
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Sponsoring a dogfight: Idaho and Wyoming
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Possessing fighting dogs: Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, New York, Texas, West Virginia, Wyoming
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Being a spectator: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
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OK, the facts.
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As far as sponsoring a fight, 100% of the non-felony states are NOT “where he comes from”.
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As far as possessing fighting dogs, 71% of the non-felony states are NOT “where he comes from”.
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As far as being a spectator, 80% of the non-felony states are NOT “where he came from”.
So, her generalization that it’s not that unusual “where he came from” is not in the least bit by existing laws. Now, laws might not reflect prevelance, but it does reflect public sentiment most usually. Especially in regards to social norms.
If Whoopi needs more evidence it’s not a “where he’s from” exclusive activity, here’s a headline from a couple of weeks ago with some pretty impressive numbers:
78, read seventy-eight, people busted in one sting. That wasn’t Georgia, that was San Francisco, California. That’s not where Vick’s from, that’s a lot closer to where Whoopi’s from.
She’s relying on stereotypes and rhetoric. That’s the same crap Rosie did. Try researching an issue before spewing it on public television. This garbage is what has kept the United States divided, not the political candidates. And, by pointing the finger in one direction only, it allows the places that still do condone this activity to some degree to continue doing so since there’s no public heat to do anything about it. Apparently one of those places is Whoopi’s back yard.
Barbara, you could have done so much better than this. Whoopi is apparently very stupid too. It’s gotten so consistent of late it’s starting to make me think this is the company Barbara chooses to associate with. One thing that is common down here is the phrase “birds of a feather”. Know-what-mean, Barbara?
Here’s the situation:
Their response:
The school district contends its actions were “constitutionally appropriate.”
Constitutionally appropriate?
I think the school is relying on the old adage of separation of church and state. However, that is basically a 21st century politically correct trend. There is no constitutional separation of church and state. What there is is a section that states:
Now, the problem so many people have today is they take what they believe and run with it. Mark Brewer believes the US Constitution forces the school not to endorse religion. That’s fine and good. However, Erica Corder was making a speech of her own accord. In other words, she was exercising her right to free speech. There actually is nothing there that compels a school to stifle all religion, it just can’t push religion on the students itself. Brewer doesn’t understand the simple language here. The Constitution never meant to interfere with freedom of speech, it just doesn’t allow a federally enforced religious preference. If a student wants to acknowledge their religion during a school event, they are allowed to do so. The next student has the same right to say what they want to as well. There are limitations of course. You can’t incite riots, you can’t incite illegal activities. But, very clearly, can you state your religious convictions.
The school will lose. As it should. It really bugs me that educators more often than any other group I can think of seem to be completely unable to grasp the very simple First Amendment language and seem more often than any other group to exhibit intolerance to that most basic right we’re granted by that very simple language. Erica Corder has her right to freedom of speech, the same right I have in voicing my displeasure and concern over Mark Brewer attempting to deny her that right.
What bugs me even more is if she had gotten up there, made a shocker, and told all the kids to party on, I am betting Mark Brewer would never have said a word. Our education system really needs to take a step back and re-examine what it thinks it is producing for our society. It seems the wrong value are ignored, and the right ones stifled. I know that’s not happening everywhere, but it sure seems to happen a lot.
29
Aug
When I was in college, I had a frat brother who was the queerest human male on this planet. He wasn’t just gay, he was flaming. He loved being gay and flaunted it excessively and publicly. This guy was about six feet four inches and probably in the neighborhood of about three hundred pounds. Now, I wasn’t the least bit gay, or even the least bit curious, so it was loads of fun for me to watch this guy harass the life out of young preppy frat wannabes at the local bars. Because of this, I had to associate with him in public. I enjoyed the carnival show, and he tended to run with a very, very, physical and rough crowd, so I was pretty safe physically. It almost never led to anything as he would usually just drink himself into a stupor and pass out. Because of his extremely aggressive and overt nature, I learned a lot about the gay community whether I wanted to or not. If I walked into a bar and a shot of tequila was brought to me, I was the object of some gay man’s desire. If I accepted, I was expected to at the very least meet the person and acknowledge their advance. It was always my friend, so I always accepted. There were other signals and cues that my friend made me aware of, and I saw them in practice fairly often as he generally would be able to single out the gay guys out of the hundreds of drunk people in any bar. I live in rural Kentucky, gay guys for the most didn’t make it that obvious then. My friend however, could single them out in a heartbeat. One thing I was never made aware of by him or any of his bunch was tap, tap, tap in a stall. Now, according to Michael at Gayorbit.com, every gay guy knows this. Some guys in the comments claim they didn’t know it, but others assure them they are just out of touch or not practicing enough. Now, this kinda bothers me. The average duration it takes for me to take a good pee is about fifteen to twenty seconds or so. I’m just not one of those people that goes on and on. Addititonally, I’m a fidgety pee’r. I just don’t like standing still for any reason at all. Often, I will tap my foot. In the duration of an average pee, I can easily see that being tap, tap, tap. Am I being lewd? Would I have been arrested in Minnesota? Are a lot of gay guys po’d at me because I sent a signal and walked away? Sheez. I will never tap my foot in a stall again. Ever. Guaranteed. And if I am lost in thought or drunk or something and accidentally do tap my foot to the perfect rhythm and get busted for being lewd, I’m fighting it all the way to the Supreme Court. Being bored and having rhythm doesn’t prove I’m gay and they’d have no other evidence to prove otherwise.
This is nuts. Larry Craig is probably a victim in this case. However, because he did the stupidest legal move you can by being his own attorney and pleading guilty, he’s in a world of hurt and it’s his fault. But, the ramifications of this situation are pretty unnerving to me. I usually could care less if someone’s occupying the stall next to me. Now, chances are it’s either a gay guy cruising or a cop or both. I think from now on I’ll just wait till it’s empty.
