Hysteria!

That is really all you can call it. Hysteria. The people of the USA have become a bunch of hysterical chicken littles. When an ad campaign can shut a city down, something is wrong. The article quoted the Massachusetts Governer as follows:

Gov. Deval Patrick praised the response of law enforcement and said that he was "dismayed to learn that many of the devices are a part of a marketing campaign by Turner Broadcasting."

"This stunt has caused considerable disruption and anxiety in our community. I understand that Turner Broadcasting has purported to apologize for this. I intend nonetheless to consult with the attorney general and other advisors about what recourse we may have," Patrick said.

I have a suggestion. Tell the folks in Boston to get their head out of their ass. Wake up, Nobody makes bombs with LED figures on them. They use explosives. Have we become such a nation of dumbasses that we piss in our pants everytime we see something that we have not seen before.

Does
[DEAD LINK ] http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070201/capt.ny20402010027.suspicious_devices_ny204.jpg?x=380&y=285&sig=K0jt.lBZEjEgL21qAJmvKw-- this look like a bomb to you?

Gary North's Tips For Saving Money On College

I subscribe to Gary North's Free Email Newsletter. He offers some good advice on handling your money. This morning, he had a link to a video that he has posted on YouTube telling folks how to save money on college. Looks like good advice to me.

More Saber Rattling

[DEAD LINK] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070129/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iran_3

Here is some more Saber Rattling from the Decider-in-Chief. I wonder if the evidence of involvement of Iran in Iraq came from the same sources as the evidence of WMDs in Iraq.

Axis of Evil Member Number 2

Here are some pictures from Axis of Evil Member Number 2. The one that the president and vice-president are laying the ground work for attacking.

Believing What We Choose To Believe

Last week, Linda and I were watching the local news. They were running a piece on a recent court decision in the western section of Jefferson County. The judge had ruled that some previously excluded gaming machines were in fact gambling devices and had to be shut down and removed by the end of February. After talking about the ruling, the reporter then interviewed two ladies individually. She asked the first lady if she agreed with the ruling and if she did why? The lady responded that she did agree and that she was against any kind of gambling because she was a Christian. They edited out the question on the second lady and took up her response in mid sentence as she was explaining that she was a Christian and that she thought games of chance were ok.

For some reason, this news piece reminded me of a guy I once worked with. He said that he believed that the Bible was the indisputable, inerrant word of God. He belonged to a denomination that believed that the drinking of alcohol was a sin. I asked him how he could feel that way about alcohol when Jesus himself had turned water into wine and that wine was mentioned repeatedly in the Bible. He told me that it was not wine they were talking about, it was grape juice and they were just calling it wine. I wonder if fornication was actually soccer and they were just calling it fornication???

Too Many Gates

Ok, one of them has got to go. I keep reading these headlines like: Gates says more troops needed in Iraq, and I think, what does Bill Gates and Microsoft have to do with Iraq. Then I remember that the new Secretary of Defense is Robert Gates. That is ok for awhile until I forget again. Just a few minutes ago I saw where Gates says Internet will change TV. Immediately I wondered, what is the Secretary of Defense doing talking about TV and the Internet. One of these Gates is gonna have to give it up and drop out of the public spotlight, or maybe the news reports could do like the Atlanta Braves do with Chipper and Andrew, put their first initial on their jersey. Yeah. That would work. B.Gates talks about the Internet and R.Gates tells us about the armed forces.

Now if someone would just do something about Conde Nast and Condi Rice.

Petition On Iran

I think it is probably time to stop worrying about Iraq and start worrying about Iran. It appears to me that President Bush and Vice-President Cheney are laying the ground work to attack Iran. Now I know that Iran has one dumb SOB for a president, but I believe that the Iranians will throw Ahmadinejad out in due time. In the mean time, the last thing America needs is another war in the middle east.

I have found a website that contains the following petition:

To: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
cc: Chairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Committee on International Relations


We, the undersigned, vehemently oppose any U.S. military action against Iran. Such military action would inevitably kill large numbers of innocent people, foster even more hatred and international condemnation of the U.S., and dramatically increase the instability of the region. Our own intelligence agencies have concluded the Iraq war has worsened the terrorist threat, and a war against Iran would add immeasurably more fuel to the fire.

Even if Iran decided to build a nuclear weapon, experts agree that it would take several years. There is no crisis, and our government should not create one with inflammatory rhetoric or military threats. The U.S. has both the time and obligation to work with the international community to fashion a diplomatic resolution to the situation, and the current refusal of U.S. officials to talk directly with Iranian officials cannot possibly help resolve the nuclear standoff, nor contribute to peace in Iraq and the Middle East.

Therefore, we urge you to take all steps necessary to reach a peaceful resolution to the current situation, including direct negotiations without pre-conditions. This is the only way to prevent yet another war, one that would be a calamity of truly global proportions.

If you feel as I do, that it would be a grave error for the USA to attack Iran, then I encourage you to go to this website and sign the petition. I have. In case you want to check, I am #33502 on 27-Jan-2007.

Sometimes

Sometimes my tongue is in my cheek, but most times it just sits there behind my teeth.

On To Plan B

Well it should be obvious to everyone by now that my plan to solve the problems in the middle east with barbeque did not work.I still think that some Dreamland Ribs would smooth everything over but, alas that will never be. Not being one to be stopped by a singular failure, I am moving on to Plan B.

I asked myself, what would stop those folks from fighting? Well, what started them to fighting? The first thing that came to my mind was that God made dirt and soon after that everyone in the middle east started fighting, but in more recent times, it looks like the creation of the modern State of Israel may have had a lot to do with it. Now it is obvious that the Israelis deserve a country. I don't think that even the Arabs would deny that. They just don't want it located in their neighboorhood. So I ask myself, what is so special about the Holy Land. I know, a lot went on there, but isn't God everywhere? Would he not be with is people if their country was somewhere else? But where? Well I think I have the answer. South Florida. The nation of Israel is about 8000 square miles in area. The five southern most counties in Florida (Palm Beach, Broward, Dade, Monroe and Collier) are about 8400 square miles in area. I know, its a little more, but after all the everglades are in there and they are really not too hospitable of a habitat.

There are already a lot of Jewish people down there, they would probably want to just stay. Now that Castro is fixing to croak, most of the Cubans will probably want to be moving back to Cuba. I know that some of the Israelis living in the middle east might want to stay there. I don't guess that would be too much of a problem, I understand that Muslims, Christians and Jews lived side by side fairly peaceably in the old state of Palestine before the new nation of Israel was created. They probably could again. As for the state of Florida, they have plenty of land. If it seems like too much of an inconvience to give up 8400 sq mi, I am sure that my state of Alabama and the good folks in Georgia could spare them a strip of land along our southern border to help offset the loss.

I know, some of you are gonna find fault with my plan, so if you have a better idea, lets hear it.

Three Cheers For Maine

Just read where the

[DEAD LINK] http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070126/pl_nm/usa_idcard_dc_1

Maine Legislature has called for the repeal of the Real ID Act. I say "three cheers for Maine!"

Hosford, Florida

This morning I read

[DEAD LINK]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/ts_nm/globalwarming_dc_1

an article on Yahoo News that said that "World sea levels will keep rising for more than 1,000 years even if governments manage to slow a projected surge in temperatures." This is according to a study done by or for the United Nations. So, looks like the old lets stop global warming to avert a catastrophe is like closing the barn door after the mule has got out. Nope, the thing to do now is not to worry about stopping it, but figure out how to live with it. It immediately came to my mind that one of the more valuable things around today is ocean front real estate. I remember reading somewhere a prediction that oceans levels are gonna be raising about 100 feet due to global warming. What that means to me is that the current shore line is gonna be 100 feet under water and anything that is now at 100 elevation is gonna be beach front. I went to Worldatlas.com and found little Hosford, Florida. It is currently 125 ft above sea level. That means when the oceans rise 100 ft, Hosford is gonna be beach front with 25 feet to spare. Got to get down there and buy me up some of that future beach front. I doubt that I will live to see it, but one of these days my great great grand children will probably be selling off chunks of beach front to developers who want to build condos.

Forwarding Emails

Every day, I get several emails that urge me to send a copy on to all of my friends. Before I do, I first read the email to make sure I agree with what it is saying, next I consider the ultimate good or harm that sending it on will do and finally, I look it up on Snopes . After I do these three things, I hardly ever have to forward an email.

This morning I got an email from a friend titled " Traitor to be Honored! Do you agree?". I thought that title sounded familiar and when I opened it, I knew that I had seen it before. It involves an award that was given to Jane Fonda in 1999. Thats right, 1999. This email is trying to prevent something from happening that happened in 1999. You can read about it here if you like. Now don't get me wrong, I am no big Jane Fonda fan, a lot of what she did was wrong, but as you will see if you read the article, some of the worst of what she is accused of she did not do. Also, what she did was a long time ago. Today we have a lot more important things to worry about than what Jane Fonda did in the early 1970's.

The next time you get an email that urges you to forward it as quicky as possible to all your friends, stop and do what I do. It can save a lot of bandwidth and might keep your friends from thinking you are one of those things that David Hannum said is born every minute.

Hallothankmaster

The other day Linda and I got to talking about the holidays. The holidays are actually kind of a Reader's Digest version of life. They contain joy, sadness, aggravation and exhilaration, just like real life, only packed into a shorter period of time. Seems like this year there was a whole lot more of the first one and the last one and not so much of the two in the middle. Anyway our discussion got around to Hallothankmas, the holiday that starts on the day after Labor Day and Ends with the Super Bowl. Somehow something just did not seem right about that. Maybe it was because the holidays had been nicer this year, or maybe neither one of us thought that NFL football provided an appropriate climax. I remembered some suggestions that my niece Katherine had once made about alternate endings to the Hallothankmas holiday. After some deliberation and minimal soul searching, Linda and I decided that the Hallothankmas season should hince forth be extended until Easter Sunday and renamed Hallothankmaster. Not to be confused with the Stairmaster or the Thighmaster which have similar names. It's Hallo-thankmas-ter, not Hallo-thank-master.

I know some of you are already jumping ahead and saying why not go ahead and extend it to the day before memorial day and name it NotSummer. That does have a certain elegant directness to it, but some how just does not seem festive enough for the extended holiday season, so for now, it is Hallothankmaster.

The World Just Keeps Getting Stranger

There are some people with some

[DEAD LINK]
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/parenting/01/18/designerd.disability.ap/index.html

weird ideas in this world.

I noticed with interest the comment of Cara Reynolds of Collingswood, New Jersey. " 'You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who's going to look like me,' Reynolds said. 'It's just unbelievably presumptuous and they're playing God.' "

Got me to thinking about the phrase 'playing God.' When I look at the mess this world has become just in my short lifetime, I think that playing must have been what God was doing when he created us. Surely no omnipotent being would create a screwed up mess like this on purpose. I think that he was just playing around and this is what resulted.

My Daddy Always Said ...

My daddy always said don't be talking about what you are not gonna do cause that will probably be one of the very next things you find yourself doing.

Well I've done a lot of talking about not voting. I have been especially vocal about not voting for Democrats or Republicans. Now I learn that Congressman Ron Paul of Texas is considering running for President. If he runs, he will be running as a Republican. So now it looks like I will not only be voting for a Republican, Congressman Ron Paul, but I will probably be campaigning for him as well.

Congressman Ron Paul For President

Read the article here or listen to it here.

A Gloomy Prediction From The Pentagon

This prediction from the Pentagon is depressing.

Scary Stuff

When I read this a cold chill went down my spine.

A Major Party Candidate I Can Vote For

I don't vote for many Democrats or Republicans, but
[DEAD LINK] http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/16438882.htm
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas is definitely one I can support.

Attention to Detail

A few days ago I blogged about people signing up for things and giving the wrong email address. Since then I have run into a instance that really confounds me. A gentleman in Texas has gone onto three websites and posted his resume in search of a job. When he registered on the sites, he gave them my email address instead of his own. Granted, our email addresses are very similar, only one character difference, but... How does he expect anyone to contact him?

Another thing that bugs me is people who have old dates on their computer. This morning my online inbox showed 6 unread messages, 5 were in plain site. I had to go back to 2004 messages to find the 6th. I know, if I did not leave so many messages in my inbox, that would not be a problem, but I do and it is. Not as much of a problem as the guy having all of his prospective employers contact me, but still aggravating.

Political Correctness

This morning I was reading an article by Bill Bonner of "The Daily Reckoning" and he mentioned something about political correctness. It got me to thinking. I've always had a problem with political correctness, in fact I am such a redneck that basic etiquette is a severe challenge to me. Something in what Mr. Bonner said caused me to realize my biggest problem with PC. It has to do with form over substance. About caring how something looks as opposed to what is actually being accomplished. I was reminded of a quote I once heard someone attribute to Albert Einstein, "Ours is a time that is characterized by a perfection of means and a confusion of ends."

We really don't care where we are going or what we accomplish so long as we look good and don't step on any toes doing it. I am afraid that if we continue to worry more about how things look instead of actually seeking positive results, we may wake up one day and not like what our efforts have wrought.

The Numbers

How many troops are needed in Iraq? This post on Antiwar.com gives details of predictions made by a US goverment study in 1999.

Sounds Like Vietnamization To Me

I just finished reading the text of President Bush's address. Sounds an awful lot like what Nixon tried in Vietnam. Vietnamization didn't work in Vietnam, I doubt that Iraqization will work in Iraq.

Mr Bush said "The consequences of failure are clear: Radical Islamic extremists would grow in strength and gain new recruits." What exactly does he think is happening now? I've heard this all before. If we pull out of Vietnam, the whole of Indo China will fall and we will be fighting the communist in Hawaii. Things did not turn out as they predicted then and I suspect that Nixon's bunch was at least as smart as the Bush bunch. Sooner or later, we have to leave and when we do, what is gonna happen will happen. Us sending 20,000 more troops over there to serve as targets is only gonna prolong the situation and get more brave US soilders killed or wounded.

Bush's New Iraq Plan

Here is a list of the top ten features of Bush's New Iraq Plan compliments of The Late Show with David Letterman:

Some Help For The Decider

Me and the Decider don't see eye to eye on too many things. Take this ramping up thing. He says it is necessary. I think it is bass ackwards. Since he never calls me to get my approval on what he does, I suspect that he is going on with it anyway. I have been reading a lot about a shortage of troops. That seems like it would make ramping up difficult. In fact some beauracrat is preparing to 'test' the selective service system to make sure it still works. Remember, it is only a test, no one has any intention of using it. Also recall that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Since the decider is gonna ramp up anyway, and since there is a shortage of troops and since draftees are not the most cooperative soldiers, there must be some better way. I think I may have come up with a way that he can ramp up and actually make America safer. You see we are a country overrun by Paramilitary Police Units. They are relics of the failed war on drugs, you know, the big war before the current big war. Anyway these SWAT teams are running amuck and killing innocent citizens right and left. Why not nationalize them and send them to Iraq. They already have some training and M-16s and they are experts in knocking down doors and killing anything that moves. They might not do any good in Iraq, but at least the United States would be a safer place.

All Men Are Created Equal

That phrase is contained in the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence and is generally accepted as being true. The same is not true for all cities. Some cities seem to have been created to be great, others to be piss-ant.

When I first moved to the Birmingham area, old timers used to tell me the story of the search for a regional airport in the 50's. According to them, after the war, the major airlines recognized the need for a regional hub airport in the southeastern United States. At that time, Birmingham and Atlanta were still both reasonably small, backwater towns. Initially, Birmingham had an edge in the competition since it was more centrally located. Recognizing that they had an advantage, the Birmingham powers that be started figuring out how to raise taxes and get the maximum short-term profit out of the deal. Atlanta leaders on the other hand started coming up with concessions and inducements to get the airport located there. It worked, Atlanta got the airport and the rest is history.

Now I don't know whether or not the story is completely true, but just as in Aseop's fables, it illustrates a valid point. Some towns are run by small minded, petty people, others are led by people who can look to the future.
Take for instance, Pelham and Alabaster. I have been in the Pelham / Alabaster area for the better part of 30 years. When I moved out here, both places were piss-ant little towns, they still are, but that is slowly changing. Alabaster has been successful in getting some much-needed highway changes and traffic moves around in town much better than it did in years past. Pelham is still working on getting highway changes but even when they do it seems that the traffic patterns are just different, not better. Alabaster has been successful in getting a major new shopping center that continues to expand. Pelham has several denuded areas that have been completely stripped of topsoil and vegetation in apparent preparation for commercial development. All that prep work took place a long while before the Alabaster development, but so far all Pelham has is a lot of vacant weed patches where trees and hills once stood. Maybe its just bad luck, maybe it is bad karma or maybe it is because the mayor and town officials in Pelham spend all their time worrying about passing ordinances like the one they approved last night to regulate the number of adults that can live in a house. Hopefully, now that they have that important piece of regulation taken care of, they will have time to talk someone into building something on all these denuded vacant weed patches.

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

I find myself pretty much agreeing with Sean Penn except I would have probably called Hannity an asshole instead of a whore.

A Speech By Congressman Ron Paul

If you are among those who still think the war in Iraq is a good idea, please read this speech by Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. After you do, email me at pentonvilleATgmailDOTcom and tell me what Congressman Paul says that you disagree with.

The Bonnie Blue Flag

People who don't know their own email address

Apparently there are a lot of them. Almost everyday, I get an email from someone responding to a person who had filled out a form, requested information or even placed an order and gave my email address instead of their own. Often times these emails contain passwords that would enable me to log on to the sites if I wanted to. Recently some 21 year old guy in California created a myspace page and gave my email address instead of his own. Whats with these people? Do they not care enough about what they are doing to at least get their email address correct?

Some woman in Minnesota must have given my email address to everybody she knows. I am constantly getting newsletters, notices of classes and even receipts for apartments rentals in Paris all intended for her. Once I tried to figure out what her correct email address was using information from the internet, but the person I contacted said that I had reached the wrong person. I always attempt to contact the sender and let them know they have the wrong email address. Sometimes they send me back a thank you, sometimes they just quit sending and a few of them just keep right on sending me the information even after I have advised them of the mistake. I guess that editing their address book is just too difficult.

My letter to my Congressman

This it the text of the email I just sent my Congressman:

Happy New Year. At this time of the year many of us
take the time to make New Year's Resolutions. This
year, I am making one resolution. It is to do all I
can to get our brave troops home from Iraq before
another New Years rolls around. I know that some say
that if we withdraw from Iraq that it will collapse.
I remember when we were told the same thing about
Vietnam. It was not true then, it is not true now.
I am just one person with a small circle of friends
and family. I can not do much. You are in a position
to do much. I call on you to look into your heart
and ask yourself, "will the world be a better place
if we withdraw from Iraq?" If your answer is the same
as mine, please take any action you can to bring our
men and women home.

If you would like to write your congressman, you can do so at this site.

Action Item for 1/1/2007

I just read this article by Charley Reese. He is exactly right. Its time to ramp up the calls for an end of our participation in the Iraq Civil War. I know that the politicians say all sort of bad things will happen if we pull out now. That is the same thing they told us about Vietnam, but the world did not end when we exited Vietnam and it won't end when we leave Iraq.

In case you would like to send a message to your congressperson suggesting that they get up off of it and start calling for an end of the mess in Iraq, you can contact them at this website.

Things Are Tightening Up

Financially speaking, the year 2006 was not bad for me. It certainly wasn't my best year but it was not my worst either. Even though I am retired, I managed to get the things I needed and did not miss any meals. All and all, I can not complain, but in talking to friends and relatives, I sense that in general, things are tightening up. I know that higher gasoline prices contributed to that, but I sense that there is something more at work than just energy prices.

This morning I was reading articles on the internet and I came across a link to this one. I don't know about you but I hope that the Feds don't take a notion to ask me to pay my $440,000 part of this, or even the interest on $440,000 for that matter.