just me

The $700 billion bailout bill failed to pass the House today, and I for one am happier for it. McCain can go suck rotten eggs for blaming Obama. If Obama was the reason it failed to pass, then he must be more powerful than our current President who couldn’t push it through. For an excellent article explaining why this is a Good Thing, read this.

So Sen. McCain has said that he won’t debate Sen. Obama until Congress has reached a deal on “saving the economy.” Now Dems are whinging that it’s a ploy because they sey that McCain doesn’t want to or is afraid to debate Obama. I agree with Republican sympathizers that this is not the case, that John McCain is more than capable of debating Barack Obama. Here’s my 2¢:

It’s a ploy to either give Palin more time to prepare for her debate against Biden or to continually postpone the VP debates until it’s too late. Palin may be a decent governor, but at best she’ll look like a fool on national TV, and the McCain camp knows it. Anyone remember the televised VP debates from 1992 with Ross Perot’s VP, Vice Adm. Stockdale?

If Barack Obama were white, he’d be leading in the polls by at least 20 points.

If Obama loses in November, it’s because American voters are still too racist to vote for a black man. It could also be because the 18-25 demographic was too damned lazy to get to the polls before they close at 6:00pm.

If Sarah Palin weighed 200lbs. and was plain looking, nobody would know who the hell she is.

I can understand why some people choose to be vegetarians. I’ve even considered becoming a vegetarian from time to time, but I just like hamburgers too much. And I’ve always felt a connection to nature and to animals. And while I’m quick to agree that Homo Sapien Sapien are intellectually superior to animals, animals aren’t stupid creatures. They can communicate with one another. They can communicate with humans if the human is really willing to pay attention. And they have feelings. They care for their young. They care for their elders. There are endless stories of one species caring for the young of another.

So when I hear stories of animal cruelty, whether by an adult or a child, it makes my blood boil. This story, though, is truly heinous. I genuinely felt physically ill when I first read this article. If it was my call these perps would suffer the same punishment that they doled out to these pigs. It’s mind boggling that a species that is capable of incredibly selfless acts is also capable of such disgusting and appalling crimes. Now where did I put that veggie burger…

PETA video shows pigs abused at Iowa farm

So I had this odd dream last night that went something like this:

My parents had just left for vacation and I was at their house for some unremembered reason. I hear someone out back turning on the water spigot, and when I looked out the window I see someone in a red motorcycle helmet and a red leather motorcycle jacket hosing the dirt and grime off of themselves. There are always neighbors over at their house borrowing tools, etc., so I’m too alarmed, so I decided to finish up whatever it was I was doing before popping my head out the door to ask what’s going on.

After a couple of minutes I get to the back door, only to be surprised by a nude blond asking if she can take a shower. Being stunned, both because I didn’t expect anyone to be there, and more importantly not expecting a very attractive nude woman standing there, I say “Sure. Down the hall on your right, through the bedroom. The towels are in the closet.”

Ten minutes later she comes out of the shower, nude except for the towel she’s drying her hair with. About that my wife walks in (from where, I don’t know). While my body does it’s best to seem calm and unfazed, my brain goes into full-blown panic mode. As calmly as possible I say something like “…she was really dirty and just wanted to clean up.” Fortunately, I was fully clothed and Nude Woman doesn’t try to exacerbate the situation. Somehow my wife believes me.

That’s about all I can remember. My Inner Husband (would that be superego or ego? superego, I think) congratulates myself, saying “even in a dream you didn’t cheat on your wife.” My Inner Dude (id) says “dude, I think you’re gay.”

Palin stays firm on Bridge to Nowhere claim

Do my fellow Americans not care that she’s lying through her teeth, or do they not believe the evidence? With the rise in “creationists” I’m inclined to believe the latter (no pun intended).

You have got to be fucking kidding me. Sixty-two percent of men? Really? Other than being attractive, Palin has zero redeeming qualities. I wouldn’t vote for her for City Council, let alone the second most powerful person in the world. She lies, she’s so far from being qualified for the job it’s not even funny, she’s a nutjob born-again Christian, and she’s just damned annoying to listen to. If the GOP wins the Whitehouse again I’m seriously thinking of moving elsewhere.

Here’s the CNN article.

I just don’t get why so many people think that Obama is too much of a risk to be our next President. For fuck’s sake, most of these people voted George W. Bush to TWO terms. The first time Dubya was elected, I was bitterly disappointed, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Here was a guy that spent two terms as governor of Texas, was a failed oilman, owned a stake in the Texas Rangers, a previous coke-head, dodged Vietnam, earned himself a DUI, and never left the USA until after he was elected President. He’s slightly less incompetent than his younger brother Neil, who was “a player” in the Savings and Loan fiasco that We the People bailed out from 1986-1996 at a cost of $160.1 BILLION (funny note — John McCain, part of the “Keating Five”, had a hand in the S&L mess as well). Google “Silverado Savings and Loan” and “Neil Bush” and see what you find. While you’re at it, try “Keating Five”, “Lincoln Savings and Loan” and “John McCain”. But I digress.

In my mind, Barack Obama is no less of a risk than anyone else who has run in the last quarter century. Sure, you never know until they’re in office, just like any other job in the world. Nixon had plenty of experience and look how he turned out. And now the GOP has the gall to pick Gov. Palin of Alaska for their VP? Two term mayor of a town of 9,000 and 20 months in office as governor, and they think she’s more qualified than someone who worked as a community organizer/activist, civil rights attorney, law professor, member of the Illinois Senate for 8 years, and 4 years as the Junior Senator from Illinois.

In my honest opinion, the real reason many people consider Obama a risk is because he’s not white. That’s right, I said it. A lot of this country is still bigoted and racist, especially older generations.

I imagine because of my continual rants of people emailing crap without verifying if it’s true or not, my mom has gotten into the habit of asking me if it’s true/hoax/cause for concern. I honestly am happy that she does this. So a few weeks ago she forwarded one on to me from my aunt and uncle (her brother and sister-in-law) about how “the liberals care more for flowers than they do for America.” Basically, it was about why we should drill in ANWR and why it really won’t harm the environment. Below is my response to them. I haven’t heard back from them since.

Let me start off by saying I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican. Both parties care nothing for fixing anything, unless it helps them retain power…

I can’t vouch for the validity of the photographs, but the maps and the size of ANWR are accurate. Spills will happen (in 2006 there was a spill of between 134,000 and 268,000 gallons of oil near Prudhoe Bay) and roads will need to be built, as there are zero roads within or leading into ANWR. But even though there are no roads, there are thousands (at least 5,000) native Inupiat peoples that live in ANWR and depend on the flora and fauna of the area.

Sure, jobs will be created and there will be oil pumped out, but it’s a tiny amount of oil and a relatively small number of jobs. According to the Department of Energy’s EIA (Energy Information Administration:

“The opening of the ANWR 1002 Area to oil and natural gas development is projected to increase domestic crude oil production starting in 2018. In the mean ANWR oil resource case, additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR reaches 780,000 barrels per day in 2027 and then declines to 710,000 barrels per day in 2030. In the low and high ANWR oil resource cases, additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR peaks in 2028 at 510,000 and 1.45 million barrels per day, respectively. Between 2018 and 2030, cumulative additional oil production is 2.6 billion barrels for the mean oil resource case, while the low and high resource cases project a cumulative additional oil production of 1.9 and 4.3 billion barrels, respectively.”

“Additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR would be only a small portion of total world oil production, and would likely be offset in part by somewhat lower production outside the United States. The opening of ANWR is projected to have its largest oil price reduction impacts as follows: a reduction in low-sulfur, light crude oil prices of $0.41 per barrel (2006 dollars) in 2026 for the low oil resource case, $0.75 per barrel in 2025 for the mean oil resource case, and $1.44 per barrel in 2027 for the high oil resource case, relative to the reference case.”

For the average case, drilling in ANWR would reduce crude oil by 75 cents, in 2025. The total production from ANWR would be between 0.4 and 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030. So, we won’t see any oil for at least 10 years, and at best the price per barrel of oil (not per gallon of gasoline) will drop by $1.44 in 19 years. To me, that sounds like a huge waste of time and money. Instead, we should be investing our time and money on weaning our country off of oil, not just “foreign oil.” The more we invest in alternative energy sources for the production of electricity the less oil and natural gas we’ll need to import, which will bring the price of oil, and therefore gasoline, down.

Furthermore, the U.S. consumes 20,687,000 barrels of oil per day (as of 2006). At best, and only at it’s peak, we would be able to extract 1,450,000 barrels of oil per day. Since the entire world consumes a total of 83,607,000 barrels of oil per day (as of 2005), we Americans use nearly 25% of the worlds oil but account for less than 0.5% of the total population of the planet (300 million out of over 6 billion). The real kicker is that the total world production of oil is 82,532,000 barrels of oil per day (as of 2005). So, not only are we using much more than our fair share of oil, but we’re using it faster than we’re finding it. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. If I spend more money than I make it’ll eventually catch up to me, and then I’ll really have problems.

There is no magic bullet to save us from this energy crisis. People want simple solutions, but there are never simple solutions to complex problems. And this is a problem that has been decades in the making. I don’t profess to speak for God (or Jehovah or Allah or…), but I’d imagine he’s extremely disappointed at how humanity has run (ruined?) this beautiful planet. Aren’t we supposed to be stewards of the Earth?

Mike
—
“A free America, democratic in the sense that our forefathers
intended it to be, means just this: individual freedom for all,
rich or poor, or else this system of government we call
democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the
machine and make him like it.”
- Frank Lloyd Wright

This is courtesy of Linda that I work with. I believe the original author is here.

Okay, I’m going to blow your mind here for a minute. I’d advise you to sit down or something because your entire head is about to crack wide open.

Are you ready?

Why don’t we have a Batman yet?

I want you to really think about this.

This has been bothering me for days.

I’m not asking a stupid question. I didn’t just say “Why don’t we have a Superman yet?” or something stupid like that.

Superman is an alien from another planet.

That doesn’t make any sense.

The immigration papers alone…

But Batman doesn’t have any special powers. He’s not an alien or a mutant or anything.

He’s just a rich guy with issues and too much time on his hands.

Don’t we have a whole freakin’ bunch of those running around?

Seriously, you can’t even turn on the television anymore without seeing some rich retard serving no actual purpose.

Why hasn’t one of these guys manned up and gone Batman?

Is it the whole parents killed in front of you thing?

We could totally fix that.

Hell, it should be a government program. If your parents are rich, the government shoots them in front of you and then you fight crime.

Why is the government wasting money on stupid things like education when they could be focusing on the face shooting initiative?

That’s a plan we can all get behind.

It’ll be like gun control only with more face shooting.

All of those spoiled, rich bastards serving no purpose in our society…

Is it so much to ask that one of these useless excuses for people get their act together and do something important?

We already have douchebags.

We have a freakin’ ton of those guys already.

What we need is Batman.

You’re already spending five hours a day in the gym so you can make other people feel bad about themselves.

Why not throw in some kung fu lessons and a utility belt?

Why am I the first person to think of this?

I mean, we haven’t even seen someone take a shot at it. We haven’t seen one person try out the whole vigilante superhero gig.

That moron who climbs buildings doesn’t count.

Spiderman, my ass.

No one has ever tried to be Batman.

Does that make any sense?

There’s a woman who pretends to be Kim Kardashian and charges people money to go to parties.

How the hell do we have two Kim Kardashian’s and no Batman?

There’s something wrong with our society.

You’d think that someone, anyone would have at least tried. You’d think some poor bastard would WANT to be Batman.

I want to be Batman.

You want to be Batman.

Oh, shut up. You know you want to be Batman.

So, why don’t we have a Batman?

I’d do it myself, but I don’t have the unlimited resources or free time.

Or motivation.

I’m pretty sure no one has shot my mom in the face.

I’m pretty sure.

I should probably call her.

There is no good damned reason why we don’t have a Batman yet.

There isn’t.

They let Val Kilmer be Batman for a while.

How hard could it be?

It’s not like it would be a terribly difficult job or anything.

We don’t have actual supervillains. There’s no Joker running around planning overly complex crimes.

Sure, we’ve got lots of really bad people.

That’s what the kung fu’s for.

You see a bad guy, you kung fu him in the face.

Problem solved.

And think of all the perks that come with the job:

- really cool car
- awesome underground lair
- lots of amazing gadgets
- butler

With only one major drawback:

- your mom gets shot in the face

That’s not a bad deal.

You can bury her next to the lair.

Seriously. One of you people put down your Starbucks and get to f–king work.

Congratulations. You’re Batman.

Your parents will be so proud of you.

Maybe you should call them.

Quickly.

posted by [GM]Dave @ 6:32 PM 6 comments

Monday, September 01, 2008