I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to see who gets the coveted AOTW award this week. The wait is over. It's someone named Michelle who made the following comment on this post. Yeah it's an old post, but she made the comment this week.
Okay how long did we hear about Healy killing his team mate. Hell he was drunk,driving and committed a murder. Society has it're priorities in the wrong place. It seems that the more money you make the more you get in the media. How many dog lover out there will give mouth to mouth to a dog. How many of you will pull to the side of the road and pick one up or move one out the way that has been hit instead of riding over them. How many of you will go and feed all the homeless people in your neigborhood. Who will be the first to shoot a stray dog in your yard instead of calling impound to pick them up. Yeah keep calling us thugs, black and ignorant, but if you look at some of our pictures and movies that show how the white man tried to keep us this way then who's ignorant and stupid. Just becasue a white man kills, steals, rape, and murder and does something stupid he is still just a white man to me. No reason to call us out of your name.
OK. Let's break this down.
Okay how long did we hear about Healy killing his team mate. Hell he was drunk,driving and committed a murder.
How many of you outside Atlanta know who Michael Vick is? Lot's of you, right? How many outside of Atlanta (and in Atlanta) know who Dan Healy is? Anyone? Healy was an ice hockey player on the Thrashers. He got drunk, had an accident, and killed one of his teammates. Kind of like Ted Kennedy. Like Kennedy, he didn't serve any time. He was traded to another team. Michael Vick, superstar. Dan Healy, better than average ice hockey player. Might have sumpin' to do with the difference in coverage, but Michelle wants to play the race card here.
Society has it're (sic)priorities in the wrong place. It seems that the more money you make the more you get in the media.
Duh! Somehow she stumbled on to a truism.
How many dog lover out there will give mouth to mouth to a dog.
If it's my dog or my cat, I would. I would not electrocute, drown, or throw a dog against the wall to kill it.
How many of you will pull to the side of the road and pick one up or move one out the way that has been hit instead of riding over them.
So in Michelle's mind, not stopping to help an injured animal is the same as torturing and killing an animal. Yep. Makes sense to me.
How many of you will go and feed all the homeless people in your neigborhood.
I don't have any homeless people in my neighborhood. I do give money to charity and pay a tidy sum in taxes. Does that count? Oh, and I don't torture and kill dogs.
Who will be the first to shoot a stray dog in your yard instead of calling impound to pick them up.
I'm not in the habit of shooting strays. Four of my cats were strays who came to live with me. I really don't know anyone who would shoot a stray. Maybe Michelle does.
Yeah keep calling us thugs, black and ignorant, but if you look at some of our pictures and movies that show how the white man tried to keep us this way then who's ignorant and stupid.
Bam! The race card gets slammed on the table. I've been trumped! It's all whitey's fault. We white people made Michael Vick into a thug. We forced him to buy that property and raise dogs to fight. We forced him to kill the dogs that didn't perform to his satisfaction.
"Electrocute that fucker! It's Arthur Blank's fault for giving me a $130 million contract."
Listen lady, I don't care what color you are, if you act like a thug, you're a thug. If white people did what Michael Vick did, I'd be all over them as well. I'm against cock fighting. I think bull fighting is barbaric. If I were forced to watch one, I'd root for the bull. And as for the thug label, if you act like a gang banger, you're a thug, and I don't give a flying fuck what color you are. Michael Vick tortured and killed dogs. He's not sorry. He's only sorry he got caught and his career is up in flames. He was cautioned about his behavior after the Rolex incident, and Ron Mexico, and the water bottle with the fake bottom. After all that, we have dog fighting and now he's found Jesus.
Just becasue (sic)a white man kills, steals, rape, and murder and does something stupid he is still just a white man to me. No reason to call us out (sic) of your name.
Michelle, if a white man "kills, steals, rape, and murder" he is a thug. Calling someone a thug is not a racist remark, but you're obviously one of those assholes who walks around with a chip on your shoulder looking to be offended. Good for you. I hope getting the AOTW award offends you. It's meant to.
GFY and here's your award.
Here are some interesting statistics about poverty in the United States.
Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
Almost half of the poor in the United State actually own their own homes? WTF? They don't live under bridges?
Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
That's more than France. Maybe if they had more A/C in France all those old people wouldn't have died a few years back. This leads to a conundrum. If more French households had A/C, yannow to cope with that Manmade Global Warming thing, that would require more energy use which could lead to more greenhouse gases which could put them over their Kyoto accords. Ah screw it! Let the old folks die of heat exhaustion. Save the planet! Kill the old folks!
Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
That 6 percent are prolly Mexican households. They have four to a room and six cars parked in the front yard.
The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
So our poor have more living space than average folks in large European cities. It's beginning to sound like being poor in America is not as bad as the Dimocrats make out. Maybe we need a different definition of poor.
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
See Prosper. Our poor people own cars. Your poor people torch them.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
And some of them are bigscreen TVs.
Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Geez! I grew up poor and we didn't have it that good! Maybe they're starving themselves to pay for all those amenities.
As a group, America's poor are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms. Poor children actually consume more meat than do higher-income children and have average protein intakes 100 percent above recommended levels. Most poor children today are, in fact, supernourished and grow up to be, on average, one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II.
But the Dimocrats rant and rave about "starving chirren"!
While the poor are generally well nourished, some poor families do experience temporary food shortages. But even this condition is relatively rare; 89 percent of the poor report their families have "enough" food to eat, while only 2 percent say they "often" do not have enough to eat.
Hardly starving.
Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs. While this individual's life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.
It sounds like our "poor" would be considered wealthy in Third World countries and middle class in countries like France.
I have stated many times that the only excuses for poverty in this country are catastrophic health problems, catastrophic accidents, poor choices (dropping out of school, having children you cannot afford), or laziness. Even at that, our poor live better than most of the people on this planet.
And in this country, even someone who grew up poor, like I did, can still become a SRF©.
Or you can stay poor and still own a home, a car, a color TV, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, stereo, DVD or VCR, and enough food to eat.
No wonder people want to come here.
What about $400 haircuts? Shouldn't that be in there as well?
Yep! The Mexican TB Dude turns out to be an illegal Mexican TB Dude. Whoda thunk it?
Thanks to all my readers who notified me of this guy's illegal status.
This guy is gonna be deported back to Mexico. I wonder how long it will take, with our porous border, for him to return to this country? A week? Two weeks? A month?
This is a telling paragraph.
Because of antibiotics and other measures, the TB rate in the United States has been falling for years. Last year, it hit an all-time low of 13,767 cases, or about 4.6 cases per 100,000 Americans.
But as long as folks from Third World countries are able to sneak into this country due to lax border enforcement we will see more cases of TB, especially resistant strains. Is it worth the cheap labor?
In this morning's Nealz Nuze on Neal Boortz's blog he said a caller suggested that Larry Craig should call a press conference and announce that he was changing his party affiliation to Dimocrat. I thought of it first, even before Babs did.
Neal's caller must be a reader of GOC.
Hey PETA! Eat this!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
From Thomas.
I can't believe it! For the first time since I have been home from my trip there was not one story about Michael Vick in the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation. But I still have some more Vick 'toons to post.
To: Senator Larry Cregg, Senator from Iowa
From: Barbara Streisand
Dear Barry:
I was sad to hear about your recent problem and how those mean Republicans are demanding that you resign. How bad is that? There's nothing wrong with being gay and I have a solution for all of your problems. Switch parties. In the Democcratic Pary we embrace gays. We don't demand that you resign for playing footsie with someone in a public bathroom. And what's up with that? If you wanted some gay sex I'm sure that Benny Frank could have fixed you up with someone. And speaking of Ernie, doesn't he have the cutest little lisp. I just love him to death.
Anyway, if you switched parites, you could be out in the open and upfornt about your gayness. And Democrats won't demand that you resign. After all we had Gary Studds who was having sex with male pages and we Democrats kept reelecting him. That's the way we are. We are very forgiving people to our fellow Dmocrats. Buggereing pages is nowhere near as bad sas sending dirty e-mails to them like that Mick Foley dude. Eeeeewwww! I would never want him to becone a Democrat.
If you changed parties, I'm sure the citizens of Nebraska would admire you for your honesty and reelect you for as long as you wanted to serv.
So come on. Come out of the closet and become a Democrat. You know you want to. Then Barny Frunk would invite you to all of his parties and I would
luv ya,
Babs
From Patrick. And let's not forget that we have reached a "consensus" on AGW and that the US has the worst health care in the world. I wonder why we get so many Canadians coming here for tests and operations? Yannow, like the lady who came here to have her quadruplets. Why didn't she go to Cuba? According to Mr Creosote, Cuba has better health care than the US. Or why didn't she just stay in Canada? Oh yeah. There was a shortage of neonatal beds in Canada. Funny how shortages occur under socialism.
So much for Pope Algore's consensus. What consensus? (Got here via Rodger and Moonbattery).
Less than half of all published scientists endorsed global warming theoryIn 2004, history professor Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of research papers on climate change. Examining peer-reviewed papers published on the ISI Web of Science database from 1993 to 2003, she found a majority supported the "consensus view," defined as humans were having at least some effect on global climate change. Oreskes' work has been repeatedly cited, but as some of its data is now nearly 15 years old, its conclusions are becoming somewhat dated.
But nothing's changed, right?
Medical researcher Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte recently updated this research. Using the same database and search terms as Oreskes, he examined all papers published from 2004 to February 2007. The results have been submitted to the journal Energy and Environment, of which DailyTech has obtained a pre-publication copy. The figures are surprising.
More scientists support the Religion of AGW, right? Pople Algore is correct that the debate is over, right?
Of 528 total papers on climate change, only 38 (7%) gave an explicit endorsement of the consensus. If one considers "implicit" endorsement (accepting the consensus without explicit statement), the figure rises to 45%. However, while only 32 papers (6%) reject the consensus outright, the largest category (48%) are neutral papers, refusing to either accept or reject the hypothesis. This is no "consensus."
No consensus? WTF? We're not gonna burn up? We're not destroying the planet? Pope Algore will be out of a job?
The figures are even more shocking when one remembers the watered-down definition of consensus here. Not only does it not require supporting that man is the "primary" cause of warming, but it doesn't require any belief or support for "catastrophic" global warming. In fact of all papers published in this period (2004 to February 2007), only a single one makes any reference to climate change leading to catastrophic results.
OMFG! We don't have ten years from whenever Pope Algore says to change our ways or we're doomed?
These changing viewpoints represent the advances in climate science over the past decade. While today we are even more certain the earth is warming, we are less certain about the root causes. More importantly, research has shown us that -- whatever the cause may be -- the amount of warming is unlikely to cause any great calamity for mankind or the planet itself.
Especially since it was warmer from the Tenth to the Fourteenth Centuries than it is now. No Chicken Little the sky is not falling. Yes, an Inconvenient Truth was total bullshit.
Can't seem to get enough as is the case with the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation which has to publish at least one Vick opinion column or story every day, and that's not to even count the letters that they print in the Opinion Section.
Go here.
From Walt.
You may notice that Republicans are calling for Larry Craig to resign. Dims are still supporting William Jefferson. Republican scubags resign. Dimocrat scumbags are honored members of the Dimocrat Party. They get away with murder. Ask Ted Kennedy.
A ciccada lies dormant underground for 17 years and comes up only to say....
From Poulsen.
Yep! Another round of the game created by Don Surber. This was in today's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation
Former state Sen. John Ford, once among Tennessee's most powerful lawmakers, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for bribery. Ford, 65, was one of five former lawmakers convicted of bribery or extortion in a statewide corruption investigation. He was convicted in April of taking $55,000 in bribes from FBI agents posing as dishonest businessmen. In addition to the prison term, Ford was sentenced to two years of supervised probation. Ford's attorney said he planned to appeal both the conviction and sentence.
<DonSurber>Is John Ford a Dimocrat or a Dimocrat</DonSurber> Hint: He's related to Harold Ford the head of the Dimocrat Leadership Conference.
On a related note, have you noticed that every story about Senator Larry Craig from Idaho mentions in the first paragraph that he's a Republican? Here's an exception. It waits until the second paragraph. Larry. Here's a suggestion. Move to Taxachusetts and become a Dimocrat. Your political future will be secure.
Don Surber linked. Thanks Don!
Thanks to Mark.
Prolly NSFW. Check out the shooting at the end. Ted and his band know how to shoot!
And in a related story, the United States is the most heavily armed country in the world.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.
I'm doing my part. I have two: an S&W 640 and a WWII German Mauser and I consider myself underarmed. My sister and her husband have considerably more hardware.
"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.
USA! USA! USA!
So Vick found Jesus. Everytime I hear about a scumbag (athlete, policitian, Hollywood celebrity, or any other douchbag...) finding Jesus and turning his life over to God, I think of the Iris Dement song (actually written by Harlan Howard-Bobby Braddock) God May Forgive You (But I Won't). The chorus goes like this:
cause God may forgive you, but I won't
Yes, Jesus loves you, but I don't
They don't have to live with you and neither do I
You say that you're born again, well so am I
God may forgive you, but I won't
and I won't even try
They have Iris Dement singing Our Town on YouTube, but not this song or I would have embedded it.
Being an atheist, I don't think too much about the I found Jesus schtick. Heh! Heh! Heh! Maybe My Give a Damn's Busted.
Some professor of women's studies wrote an op-ed in the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation (no link since those types of op-eds are not on their web site.) that was full of moral equivalence bullshit like if you eat meat you're just as bad as Michael Vick.
WTF is "women's studies" and exactly what good does a degree in "women's studies" do a person? Does it enable one to get a job as a professional feminist?
Maybe I should have saved this dude for AOTW. (Thanks to William for the link.)
When doctors told Francisco Santos he had tuberculosis Friday, health officials said the Gwinnett County 17-year-old refused to believe it.Then the wiry, dark-haired youth refused to submit to any treatment. Worse, he said he was walking out of the Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville and heading back to his home country of Mexico, officials said.
If only, but the dickhead would have prolly stayed here.
Gwinnett health officials found themselves in a bind. They had a person with a case of active, contagious tuberculosis, refusing treatment and threatening to carry the disease to a foreign country.
I know what I would do. What did Gwinnett County do?
n this case, the Gwinnett officials acted decisively: They put Santos in jail Friday evening, in a rare act of a government agency confining a sick person. Santos is the only inmate in a special medical isolation cell designed for inmates with contagious conditions. The cell, which measures about 15 feet by 20 feet, has a special ventilation system that keeps the air from reaching other inmates.
Yay! that's what I would have done.
Will said Santos is being held under a court order for confinement. He'll stay in that cell until either he starts cooperating and accepting treatment, or a judge makes some other decision at a Sept. 5 hearing. At that commitment hearing, the judge could decide to place him in a hospital with security.
I wonder how long it will be until some ACLU lawyer comes along and demands this asshat get his "rights"? In the article they state that Gwinnett County officials do not know his immigration status but I'll bet he's here illegally.
It was wall to wall coverage of Michael Vick in the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation tody. Vick has found Jesus. He's gonna turn his life around. He's sorry about the dogs. Yeah. He's sorry he got caught.
Woody sent me this article.
Every morning for as long as she can remember, Nicky Taylor — like millions of other women — has carried out her 'getting ready' routine.It starts with shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, includes mouthwash, cleanser and a moisturiser, and ends with an array of age-reversing serums, make-up, hair gel, deodorant, toothpaste and perfume.
Prolly only needed half that stuff.
But over the past six weeks, Nicky, 42, has cut this daily routine, and all the products associated with it, out of her life altogether. Yes, for 40 days and 40 nights, there has been no showering, no hair washing, no teeth cleaning and no deodorant.
This is known as the "French regimen".
However, it wasn't until the fourth day of not washing that Nicky began to notice a certain odour emanating from her person.
And the desire to move to Paris.
By the second week, Nicky's experiment and the subsequent haze of body odour accompanying her was beginning to affect her children, who refused to cuddle her.
And Nicky started speaking French. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Just a reminder. It's getting close to Blogtoberfest 2007. You don't need to be a blodger to come.
Unix-Jedi's wife just started blogging and since I know her (I attended the wedding), she goes on the Bloggers I Have Met In Person ... Blogroll.
This pun was sent to me by DWD5100.
A couple lived near the ocean and used to walk the beach a lot. One summer they noticed a girl who was at the beach almost every day. She wasn't unusual, Nor was the travel bag she carried, except for one thing; she would approach people who were sitting on the beach, glance around furtively, then speak to them. Generally the people would respond negatively and she would wander off, but occasionally someone would nod and there would be a quick exchange of money for something she carried in her bag. The couple assumed
She was selling drugs, and debated calling the cops, but since they didn't know for sure, they just continued to watch her.
After a couple of weeks, the wife said, "Honey, have you ever noticed that she only goes up to people with boom boxes and other electronic devices?"
He hadn't and said so.
Then she said, "Tomorrow I want you to get a towel and our big radio and go lie on the beach. Then we can really find out what she's really doing."
Well, the plan went off without a hitch and the wife was almost hopping up and down with anticipation when she saw the girl talk to her husband and then leave.
The man walked up the beach and met his wife at the road. "Well, is she selling drugs?" she asked excitedly.
"No she isn't" he said enjoying this more than he should have.
"Well, what is it then? What does she do?" his wife asked.
The man grinned and said, "Her name is Sally, and she's a battery salesperson."
"Batteries?" cried the wife.
"Yes," he replied.
She sells C cells by the seashore!
My sore is healed! Cindy confirmed it. The new skin is still a little tender so I have to be careful I don't damage it. I'll have to keep my walking to a minimum for a while. I'll be able to start attending the pool sessions as a refresher for my diving since I am going to Bonaire the end of September. Woo hoo!
Check out the new banner above. Matt Ashby, a photoshop wizard, has offered his services to me. He's already created some images for me like Dimocrat Rage Boy and The Clinton Library. He created the new banner. I've had the old banner ever since I moved to MT. Rachel Lucas created the old banner when she moved me from Blowspot to MT.
Look for more work by Matt in the future. Now all we got to do is get him to a Blown-Eyed Blodger Meet.
This one is from Mo K. I may have posted it before. I'm getting old and suffering from dain bramage.
Three blondes were all applying for the last available position on the Texas Highway Patrol.
The detective conducting the interview looked at the three of them and said, "So y'all want to be cops, huh."
The blondes all nodded.
The detective got up, opened a file drawer and pulled out a folder. Sitting back down, he opened it and pulled out a picture, and said, "To be a detective, you have to be able to detect. You must be able to notice things such as distinguishing features and oddities, such as scars and so forth."
So saying, he stuck the photo in the face of the first blonde and withdrew it after about two seconds. "Now," he said, "did you notice any distinguishing features about this man?"
The blonde immediately said, "Yes, I did. He has only one eye!"
The detective shook his head and said, "Of course he has only one eye in this picture! It's a profile of his face! You're dismissed!" The first blonde hung her head and walked out of the office.
The detective then turned to the second blonde, stuck the photo in her face for two seconds, pulled it back and said, "What about you? Notice anything unusual or outstanding about this man?"
"Yes! He only has one ear!"
The detective put his head in his hands and exclaimed, "Didn't you hear what I just told the other lady? This is a profile of the man's face! Of course you can only see one ear!! You're excused too!" The second blonde sheepishly walked out of the office.
The detective turned his attention to the third and last blonde and said, "This is probably a waste of time, but..." He flashed the photo in her face for a couple of seconds and withdrew it, saying, "All right, did you notice anything distinguishing or unusual about this man?"
The blonde said, "I sure did. This man wears contact lenses."
The detective frowned, took another look at the picture and began looking at some of the papers in the folder. He looked up at the blonde with a puzzled expression and said, "You're absolutely right! His bio says he wears contacts! How in the world could you tell that by looking at his picture?"
The blonde rolled her eyes and said, "Well, helloooo! With only one eye and one ear, he certainly can't wear glasses."
Summer's not over yet and we're still at the beach.
This week's Asshole of the Week is Elvira Arellano. Who dat? I'll tell you. She's an illegal alien who has snuck into the United States not once but twice. She has been holed up in a church in Chicago for the past year. She recently left this "sanctuary" to go protest at a rally in Los Angeles. She was picked up and deported to Tijuana. Now she's all "Boo freaking hoo! Poor me!"
The Mexican Senate is on her side.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican Senate committee passed a measure Wednesday urging President Felipe Calderon to send a diplomatic note to the United States protesting the deportation of an illegal migrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year.
Just what part of "illegal" do they not understand?
The committee also approved a scholarship to help her 8-year-old U.S.-born son, Saul, who is an American citizen and stayed in the United States.
Whoopdi-freakin'-doo! He'll probably get a free ride to college and the Mexican Senate won't have to pay a thing.
"We cannot remain quiet in view of this injustice and must ask for firm action from our authorities," Mexican Sen. Humberto Zazue said.
Hey Humberto! GFY!
Arellano, who was at the committee's session, said Saul is in Chicago in the care of his godmother and will attend a Sept. 12 rally for immigration reform in Washington. She said she would help organize a rally in Tijuana that same day to demand Mexican authorities do more to protect migrants."For me it is very important that our government take a strong stand to defend all of us who decide to migrate to another country," she said.
There's just one problem. You were here illegally. That means you broke the law, not once, but twice. If you want to migrate to this country you need to follow the rules. You do not have the right to be here illegally.
She's been deported twice. What do ya wanna bet she'll cross the border illegally again?
Anyway, I'm gonna let her and the Mexican Senate share the AOTW Award.
Sent to me by Matthew.
This week we celebrate a special birthday. Monica Lewinsky
turned 31. Can you believe it? It seems like only yesterday she was
crawling around the White House on her hands and knees, and putting
everything in her mouth.
They grow up so fast, don't they?
Just can't get enough of this stuff, and it leads to lots of comments.
So we found out last week that NASA screwed up their data on temperatures and it was a blogger who caught them. 1998 was not the hottest year on record, 1934 was. In fact five out the ten hottest years occurred before WWII. Must have been those Model T SUV's.
Here's sumpin' interesting.
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions dropped slightly last year even as the economy grew, according to an initial estimate released yesterday by the Energy Information Administration.The 1.3 percent drop in CO{-2} emissions marks the first time that U.S. pollution linked to global warming has declined in absolute terms since 2001 and the first time it has gone down since 1990 while the economy was thriving. Carbon dioxide emissions declined in both 2001 and 1991, in large part because of economic slowdowns during those years.
So, in spite of not signing on to Kyoto, we're still cutting emissions? Whoda thunk it. So How's the EU doing?
(PARIS) - Overall greenhouse-gas emissions by the European Union (EU) edged downwards in 2005 but rose in Italy and Spain, which are now badly adrift of their pollution-cutting targets under the Kyoto Protocol, according to data released on Thursday.Emissions by the 15 EU nations that made a collective commitment under the UN pact fell by 0.8 percent between 2004 and 2005, the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency (EAA) reported.
Oh those wacky Italians and Spaniards! But this will make Prosper happy.
Emissions by France fell by 0.5 percent in 2005 over 2004. It is on course for exceeding its Kyoto target, with cuts of 1.9 percent so far over 1990, compared with a 2012 goal of zero percent.
Still didn't do as well as the US.
So let me get this straight. The EU, which signed on to Kyoto, only cut their emissions by .8 percent and the United States, which didn't sign on to Kyoto, cut their emissions by 1.3 percent.
That tells me that it's better to ignore Kyoto. QED. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Probably NSFW. Put all drinks down before watching.
Sent to me by multiple readers.
So we got some booger eatin' moh-ron who thinks Michael Vick should be allowed to return to the NFL.
ATLANTA (AP) - An NAACP leader said Michael Vick should be allowed to return to the NFL, preferably the Atlanta Falcons, after serving his sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation."As a society, we should aid in his rehabilitation and welcome a new Michael Vick back into the community without a permanent loss of his career in football," said R.L. White, president of the NAACP's Atlanta chapter. "We further ask the NFL, Falcons, and the sponsors not to permanently ban Mr. Vick from his ability to bring hours of enjoyment to fans all over this country."
White said the Falcons quarterback made a mistake and should be allowed to prove he has learned from that mistake.
Hmmmm! What about Don Imus? All he did was call a bunch of skanks who looked like nappy-headed hos a bunch of nappy-headed hos.
Oh crap! I'm a racist! Look for calls to boycot this blog!
Didn't Imus learn from his mistake? Didn't he grovel in front of Al Sharpton? Shouldn't he be given a second chance? After all, he didn't kill any dogs. Ask this asshole what he thinks about Imus and I bet you'll hear a different tune.
On the upside, Imus settled with CBS and will probably be back on the air again.
Last month, state and local leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People urged the public not to rush to judgment in the Vick case. The civil rights organization said animal rights groups, talk radio and the news media were vilifying the embattled athlete, and that his team and corporate sponsors were prematurely punishing Vick.
But let a white person make a disparaging remark about a black person and they scream for his scalp.
White said he does not support dogfighting and that he considers it as bad as hunting.
Get that? Torturing dogs is the same as shooting Bambi's mom.
"His crime is, it was a dog," White said.
WTF? So if it had been cats that would have been OK? Howza 'bout cockfighting? His crime was breaking the law. Dogfighting is illegal. He knew it. He did it. He gambled on it. Vick will not play in the NFL again. He'll be broke by the time he is 40.
Dear EU - Go fuck yourself! Thanks, GOC.
The EU wants Texas to quit killing people. Thanks to Patrick for the link.
(AP) BRUSSELS, Belgium The European Union on Tuesday urged Gov. Rick Perry to halt executions and introduce a moratorium on capital punishment in the United States' busiest death penalty state.
I like what Ron White has to say about Texas. It went sumpin' like other states were slowing down executions, but Texas was putting in an express lane.
In an unusual direct appeal, the EU said Perry must "exercise all powers vested in his office" to halt the impending 400th execution since Texas resumed carrying out death sentences in 1982.
No, Perry must "exercise all powers invested in his office" and tell the EU to go fuck itself.
"The European Union notes with great regret the upcoming execution in the State of Texas," the bloc said in a statement.
Whereas many Texans will hoist a beer and say, "We killed another one!"
Perry spokesman Robert Black responded that while Texas "respects our friends in Europe" the state would decline the call for a moratorium.
Which is a nice way to tell the EU to go fuck itself.
"The reason our forefathers fought a war 230 years ago was to throw off the yoke of a European monarch so that we may have the freedom of self-determination," Black said. "Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens."
Yee-haw!
Vick pleads guilty to dogfighting.
Then, he gets a ticket for not wearing a seat belt.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Anyone taking bets on how much time he'll serve for the dogfighting plea? He might play football again but it won't be until next year. What a turdbrain.
Yep! It's time for another episode of Name That Party, a game created by Don Surber. This one is courtesy of the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation.
Y'see there are these two ladies in Atlanta who are soaking the taxpayers of Fulton County.
Juanita Hicks has retired as the clerk of the Fulton County Superior Court, but she hasn't left the building.She is making more money from taxpayers than ever because of a special double-dipping deal that allows her to retire with a six-figure pension and draw a new lucrative county salary, courtesy of her hand-picked successor, acting clerk Cathelene "Tina" Robinson.
Wow! That sounds like a real neat deal! Tell us more.
Hicks, 58, retired as the elected clerk Feb. 21 after 18 years in office with an ending salary of $143,372. That alone brought her an annual pension of $105,588 from the county; she gets another smaller pension from the Georgia Superior Court Clerk's Association.
I'm really envious. That's a hell of a lot more than my IBM pension and I worked for IBM for 31.5 years. Some of these "public servants" really make out. But it gets better.
For some folks that would be enough, but Hicks said she liked to stay busy, and —- as luck would have it —- the protege who would fill out her term said she needed Hicks' guidance. So Robinson created a position especially for Hicks —- Clerk of Superior Court Executive —- and hired her full-time at $55 an hour, which would bring in more than $97,000 for this year for full-time work. Hicks, so far, has worked about half time.
The story goes on with more about this sweetheart deal. Even Emma Darnell, a city councilcritter complained about this and Emma looks on the city gummint as a jobs program for her constituents. Nowhere in this story or the editorial the next day does it mention the political party of either of these women.
The question remains <DonSurber> Are these two women dimocrats or are they dimocrats?</DonSurber>
Hugh sent me this and it pretty much captured how I felt last week. I lost four days of my Wild Wild West Tour due to a sore on my foot (both feet actually, but the one on the left foot was the bad one). Even that one is not as bad as it could have been, but it is bad enough that I have to stay in my wheelchair until it heals. That means no walking. Bummer.
I went to a wound clinic on Thursday and the NP there thought that from reading the doctor's report my sore was much worse than it actually is. It isn't. The antibiotic has knocked out the infection and the sore is healing rapidly. It should be healed before I head off to Bonaire for a week of scuba diving.
Even so, I was in a foul mood all last week. I'm much better now. Sorry there was no AOTW last week, but you did get Saturday Boobage.
This ethnic pun comes from DBolsman.
An Italian, an Irishman and a Chinese fellow are hired at a Sydney construction site. The foreman points to a huge pile of sand and says to the Italian guy, "You're in charge of sweeping."
To the Irishman he says "You're in charge of shoveling."
To the Chinese guy, "You're in charge of supplies."
He then says, "Now, I have to leave for a little while. I expect you guys to make a dent in that there pile."
So the foreman goes away for a couple hours, but when he returns the pile of sand is untouched. He says to the Italian: "Why didn't you sweep any of it?"
The Italian replies in a heavy accent, "I no gotta broom, an' you tella me dat de Chinese'a guy supposa bringa da supplies, but he disappear and I no finda him."
Then the foreman turns to the Irishman and asks why he didn't shovel.
The Irishman replies in his heavy brogue, "Aye, that ye did, but I couldn't get meself a shovel. Ye left the Chinese fella in charge of supplies, but I couldn't fin' him."
The foreman is really angry now, and storms off looking for the Chinese guy. He can't find him anywhere and is getting angrier by the minute. Just then, the Chinese guy springs out from behind the pile of sand and yells...
"Supplies!!"
Any Jethro Tull fans will remember that they played part of this.
CD - This is the exact transciption that is in the Fingerpicking JS Bach book. It's not as hard as it looks. I learned this before the Jesu. I used to be able to play it all the way through, but now I have some gaps.
Mo K. sent me this. Since last week's Saturday Boobage left sumpin' to the imagination here's a bonus for this week.
NSFW!
The Future Of Hooters - More bloopers are a click away
OK. I lied. Behold Rubber Head.
From Catfish.
I'm still winding down from my trip and I've got company coming tonight so no posting until tomorrow. Here's a joke from Ralph.
Without any paperwork or for any reason, this old black man everyone
called Grandpa started getting a $500 check every month. So Grandpa and
Grandma started cashing them.
It turns out the government made a mistake with the address; the checks
were intended for another person with the exact same name.
Grandpa then received a notice that he had to pay back $6,000. Visibly
upset, he complained to his grandson, an accountant.
His grandson asked: "Grandpa, didn't you wonder why you were receiving
checks for doing absolutely nothing?"
Grandpa answered: "I just assumed the Democrats were back in power"
From Hal.
It looks like Vick's "friends" are turning on him. The rest of the dudes are now pleading out. Vick should have listened to Falcons' management a few years back when they told him he shouldn't associate with the dudes he was hanging with. He said they were his friends before he made it big and he wasn't gonna let them go. Now they're cutting deals with the prosecution. Some friends.
I drove 7233 miles in 15 days. Twenty states:
Georgia
Alabama
Mississippi
Louisiana
Texas
New Mexico
Arizona
California
Oregon
Washington
Idaho
Montana
North Dakota
Wyoming
South Dakota
Iowa
Missouri
Illinois
Kentucky
Tennessee
If I hadn't had to cut my trip short, I would have also stuck my nose in Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. I got within a few miles of all three. Now there are only three states I haven't driven in: Michigan, Minnesota, and Nebraska.
I was planning on spending three days in St. Louis to visit family and friends, but had to bail on that.
The heat wave mostly missed me. The only two places where it was really hot were the desert in California and Arizona and yesterday driving home from St. Joseph. The weather in Rapid City on Saturday was awesome. High 70's to mid 80's. The bikers had to love it.
My car performed great on all the winding roads. It was some of the most fun driving I have ever done. Alas, this will probably be the last road trip for the Z3.
I got to meet some old friends and some new friends. I also had to miss meeting lots of other people since I was on a pretty tight schedule.
I have to admit, it was nice in Oregon having someone gas up my car.
There was only one place I stayed on the entire trip that didn't have internet access.
I love my new laptop.
I want to thank everyone who gave me suggestions of where to go. Even though I didn't follow most of them, they were appreciated.
Getting through places like LA is great when you have a Garmin. I have driven through LA using a map and that is a real pain.
My cats were very glad to see me, even Scooter, who usually punishes me by sulking and avoiding me. He was all over me when I got home.
This was a very ambitious trip. I won't do one of this magnitude again. I think for the next Texas Blown-Eyed Blodger meet, I may drive out and then continue on to Tucson to see my friend Phil, whom I missed this trip (he was in Missouri), then up to Four Corners, and back home through Colorado (maybe trying to find Rob Cooper), stopping in St. Louis. I'm hoping to buy a new 330is to replace my 325is, which is now 15 years old. That trip will be less than two weeks.
Went to the doctor this morning. Got my antibiotics for the sore. Hopefully it will heal quickly 'cause I got a dive trip coming up next month.
I hope y'all enjoyed reading the travelogue as much as I did writing it.
I've always thought bull fighting was a barbarous sport.
From Catfish.
Made it home! I miswrote yesterday. My Garmin said it would take me 13 hours. Actual time? St. Joseph Missouri to Beautiful Dunwoody Georgia in 12 hours and 15 minutes. Dan, there were no delays in East St. Louis, Nashville or Chattanooga. I sailed right through. You left out the stretch of I-35 on your route. Usually the only radar I see on I-24 is the last ten miles of I-24 in Illinois before the Ohio River bridge and just before getting to Nashville. I was tagged heading west doing 95 (the cop only wrote me up for 85) coming down from Monteagle. That was about 15 years ago. That was the only time I ever saw cops there. I-64 is deserted. That's where I took my 1992 BMW 325 up to 130 once and my Z3 up to 120 (not this trip). It's straight and traffic free. When I did do 130 in the 325 the only way I knew I was going that fast was how fast the telephone poles whizzed by. The ride was quiet and smooth. German engineering.
I ran through some storms near Columbia Missouri. It was welcome 'cause it cleaned all the bug splatters off my windshield.
I have a skin sore on my left foot which is why I cut the trip short and beat feet (the pun explained) back home. Cindy called me on the way and she has made a doctor appointment for me tomorrow and since she's off, she can take me. We know the drill. No one will know how to dress the wound properly (but we do) and we'll get the antibiotic I need to keep the wound from getting infected.
Doing laundry and playing with my cats. More tomorrow.
Sticking with Richard.
There was one a dromedary whose fur was an amazingly close match in colour to the desert sand, and he was almost impossible to see.
Some called him 'the invisible dromedary', but in reality he wasn't invisible; he was just
really well camel-flaged.
St. Joseph Missouri - I have some physical problems so I have too beat feet back to Atlanta. (Cindy, if you are reading the pun is intended and it wouldn't have mattered if I had brought my wheelchair as it occurred while I was driving!). I was on the road at 7:00 AM, but since I'm heading east, I got to turn the clock forward an hour so I lost an hour of driving time. I drove until 5:30 and figgered I better stop to make sure I got a room.
There sure were a lot of bikers on the road today. The further I got from Rapid City, the fewer I saw. It's amazing how old all of the ones I saw were. Some of them obviously had some money since I saw some land yachts towing trailers with bikes in them.
Now it's time for the requisite biker joke. What's the difference between a Harley and a Hoover. On a Hoover the dirtbag is inside.
I was sorry to leave South Dakota since the speed limit is 75. I'll have to do 70 the rest of the way home. Once I get across Missouri, it's easy sledding since I've driven the route from St. Louis to Atlanta so many times I could do it in my sleep.
I wanted to stick my nose in Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas just to add states to this trip, but, alas, I was unable to. Apologies to those people I missed stopping to see, but I gotta get back to Atlanta tomorrow.
I'm gonna drive straight through from here to Atlanta. My Garmin says it will take me 12 hours. It's quite a push, but the sooner I get home the better. It really sucks because I was planning on spending three days in St. Louis catching up with family and friends.
Ahhh. The joys of being a cripple.
Update: I almost forgot an amusing incident that happened to me yesterday. I was following a herd of bikers...gaggle of bikers...pride of bikers...group of bikers...Yeah. That's it. A group of bikers...I was following a group of bikers at about 40 mph and we came up to a crosswalk. I didn't know at the time that if there are people in the crosswalk you have to stop. The bikers didn't and I didn't either. Even if I had slammed on my brakes, I wouldn't have been able to stop before the crosswalk. The dude in the crosswalk yelled, "Nigger!"
I automatically flipped him the bird. Conditioned reflex. The top was down, so it was easy to do. Then, the thought that raced through my mind was, I thought they buried that word. One of my commenters even suggested I drive to Michigan and stop in Detroit and see the grave.
The next thing I did was examine myself. I had my floppy hat (the one in the picture in the left sidebar)and sunglasses on so he couldn't really see my face and hair, and I guess my arms are rather dark from riding around with the top down, so maybe he did think I was black, else why did he call me a nigger? Asshole would have been more appropriate and wouldn't have carried any racial connotations.
Did being called a nigger bother me? Nope. Just like being called asshole or honky doesn't bother me. They're only words and words only carry the power that we ascribe to them. That's why burying the word nigger in Detroit was so absurd. Yeah, it's an ugly word, but look at the people both black and white who use it. They're all assholes! Consider the source.
Still, there is some dude in South Dakota who thinks I'm a nigger. He's probably a bigot and he's definitely an asshole. And he was walking and I was driving a BMW Z3. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Keystone South Dakota. Unlucky Day 13.
No. Holy crap! This is where I'm staying. No internet access so I'm writing this tonight and will post tomorrow night. My laptop is on a glass table. Have you ever tried to use an optical rodent on a glass table? Doesn't work too well.
I shoulda gotten up earlier this morning. I didn't realize I was gonna have to drive so far today. I didn't get to Mount Rushmore until 5:00 PM and I was driving fast all day.
I took I-94 to 85. From I-94 to I-90 on 85 I may as well have been on an interstate. It was two lane but it was straight and mostly flat. I didn't have any trouble passing. Cruise control on 75.
I got on I-90 and got back off on 85 south. Now the driving got fun again. I had the top down. The only bad thing was getting behind a biker going uphill. The sound of the bike drowned out the radio. I had a good station too. They were playing my kind of music: rock from the 70's and 80's. I mean real rock. Guns and Roses, Van Halen, AC/DC, Ozzy. Driving music. There was a station in Tucson like that. Alas, Atlanta does not have a decent rock station any more. The last one was 96 rock and they changed to Project 96 and they now play nothing but Gen Y crap. Grunge didn't bother me. The stuff now is crap. No one knows how to play lead guitar. Yeah. I know. I'm an old fart. I've turned into my father.
I took 85 down into Wyoming where I picked up 16. Yeah. I know. I shoulda gone to Devil's Tower, but I was running late and was worried about finding a place to stay.
Yannow, I really wish I had a good way to take notes while I'm driving. I write these posts in my head and then when I sit down at the computer, I forget everything I wanted to write about.
What about radio commercials? There are two that really drive me up the wall. The first one is where the kid says, “Mommy, will you still love me when I'm six?”
“STFU kid! Mommy's busy. Go watch cartoons.”
The other one is the Ovaltine commercial where at the end the kids say, in chorus, “More Ovaltine please.”
Here kids. Drink this Drano and STFU!.
There was one in Oregon for a toothpaste that brags that it is packed in recyclable cardboard and the toothpaste tube itself was recyclable. Nothing about the toothpaste. Does it get your teeth clean?
Back to my trip. There are bikers everywhere! Duh! I'm right next to Sturgis. The first place I stopped there were no rooms, but she sent me right down the road to the Holy Crap Lodge and they had a cabin. Unfortunately, I had to get up three steps to get in.
I can hear Cindy now. “OMG! Steps? WTF are you thinking?”
So I got checked in, got my stuff up the three steps into the cabin, and went up to see Mt. Rushmore where I took this picture.
Crap. It looked better when I was cropping it. I never claimed to be a photographer. I shot it from the parking lot and there was too much light coming from the sun just off to the left.
I plan on getting an earlier start tomorrow.
Got this one from Paul.
Three women go down to Mexico one night to celebrate college graduation,
get drunk, and wake up in jail, only to find that they are to be executed
in the morning, though none of them can remember what they did the night
before.
The first one, a redhead, is strapped in the electric chair and is asked
if she has any last words. She says, "I just graduated from Trinity Bible
College and believe in the almighty power of God to intervene on the
behalf of the innocent."
They throw the switch and nothing happens. They all immediately fall to
the floor on their knees, beg for forgiveness, and release her.
The second one, a brunette, is strapped in and gives her last words. "I
just graduated from the Harvard School of Law and I believe in the power
of justice to intervene on the part of the innocent."
They throw the switch and again, nothing happens. Again they all
immediately fall to their knees, beg for forgiveness and
release her.
The last one (you knew it), a blonde, is strapped in and says, "Well, I'm
from Kansas University and just graduated with a degree in
Electrical Engineering, and I'll tell ya right now, ya'll ain't gonna
electrocute nobody if you don't plug this thing in.
C'mon. A blonde electrical engineer?
Dontcha just love it when those smartass kids grace us with their comments? I mean they are just so clever it's amazing. This week, I had one of them who made three comments, using different clever made up names, on this post
The first name our liberal genius used was Dick Cheneys a HO. How clever. How original. I stand in awe! Here's his comment totally unedited.
I have a joke... What smells like shit and lies? Conservatives!!! Bush is a dumbass, Cheneys a liar, the war is pointless, and roses are red. You right wing Nazis dont know what youre talking about, always labeling anyone who doesnt believe in your narrow minded propaganda as terrorists or liberals. You whine about MSNBC being biased, yet praise Fox News, you bitch and moan about how other people can't see the truth, and yet youre all so narrow minded and blind. You sicken me. You claim were saving lives with the war, and yet every week, innocents and soldiers perish by the dozen. Its a damn good thing democrats will take over in '08 to shut you right wing dangly genitals up. HEYO!!!
I am so impressed. He got Bush is dumb. Cheney is a liar. We are Nazis. Fox News. We on the right are narrow minded. We're killing innocents in Iraq. Yep. Got almost all the liberal talking points in. He missed Haliburton. I do believe his keyboard must be missing an apostrophe.
Once again. What are people like this asshole afraid of? The Dims have all the major news outlets, yet they are so upset with Fox News. And this weenie calls us narrow minded?
But he's not finished yet. He commented yet again in a response to Rob Cooper and this time he used the name Jesus 4 Barak 08. OMFG! I am blinded by his brilliance! We're not worthy! We're not worthy! Dude! Start a blog so we can go and sample your erudition and intellect on a daily basis.
You just insulted my honor so badly. What are you gonna do next, conservative, call me a liberal? Go suck Bush's dick...
This is what passes for intellectual discourse on the left.
But he's still not done. He has one more nugget of wisdom to gift us with and this time he used the name Bush is my Bitch. Man. I wish I could think up shit like that. Once again, totally unedited.
There was a poll 3 weeks ago, no not the poll your mom dances on each night at the club, another one. The results were that all 3 democrat cantidates beat all 3 conservative scumbags. Where are your mommies and daddies now?
Dude. If you have Firefox, it has a spell checker plug in. That way you would know how to spell candidate. Yep. A poll a year before the election scares the crap out of me. Dukakis, Gore and Kerry were all ahead in the polls until the Fall campaign began. Howard Dean was gonna win the Dimocrat nomination until he blew up in Iowa. The only poll that counts is the election.
As for my mom dancing on a "poll", that's kinda hard since she's been dead for over 8 years. She was able to do the Macarena. Is that close enough? Not bad for an 80 year old woman. However, that is a good question you ask about mommies and daddies. Where are your parents? Do they know that you're playing with their computer?
Thanks for once again showing us the typical Dimocrat voter. You won the Asshole of the Week award. Congrats. Here's your prize.
East Jesus Forsyth Montana. I'm on I-94 about 50 miles from Miles City. I just snapped this picture of the convenience store across the street.
No comment.
Montana is a pretty state to drive through. All I remember from 50 years ago is camping somewhere that had a lot of cottonwood trees. We were probably by a small stream.
I found a motel that had internet. No Wifi. DSL. It's the best connection I've had on the entire trip.
Just my luck. The motel office was down a short flight of stairs. Good exercise.
The plan for tomorrow is to take I-94 into North Dakota just to say I've driven in it. Then, I'll catch 85 to get back down to I-90. From there I'm off to Mt. Rushmore. Haven't decided if I'm gonna hit Crazy Horse or not.
Looking at the map, I may just go ahead and take I-90 into Minnesota, turn around and take I-29 down to Kansas City. I'll poke my nose into Nebraska. That will leave only Michigan among the lower 48 that I haven't driven in.
Think I'll go eat.
Update: Here's an amusing story. I went out to the car to get some maps and take the picture above. As I was getting out of the car with the maps, I managed to overbalance and fall. Two batteries fell out of the camera. The memory card went flying as well. Being a cripple, where every step is an adventure.
I came inside and started to write this post and my cellphone went off, but dropped the connection before I could answer it. It was Eric. WTF? Why is he calling me. I called him back and asked him what he wanted.
He said, "Dude, you called me." It seems I didn't have the keys locked on my phone and when I fell, I must have had him selected in my phone book and inadvertently called him .
We talked for a while and I told him about my trip so far.
The bikers are starting to pull in here on their way home from Sturgis.
Superior Montana - I drove further than I expected to today. The drive up the Gorge was beautiful. I then turned off onto I-82 to 395 up to I-90.
I had been to Spokane once before when I was but a lad around 50 years ago. We had taken a western vacation where we hit Jackson Hole and Yellowstone. We were poor, but we had a car and camping equipment. Dad drove over the Idaho/Washington border to Spokane, so we could say we had been in that state. We camped out in Idaho in a place called Dennamora (sp). My sister said it was at Coeur D'Alene. All I remember is that it was cold. I mean really cold. We heated rocks, put them in socks, and put them in our sleeping bags.
The drive through Idaho was excellent. I'm about 70 miles west of Missoula, Montana. Wouldn't it be neat if I had an interactive map of my progress so you could see where I was every night?
I'm staying in a dump. It does have Wifi. I could of made it to Missoula, but with the time change, that would have put me there after 6:30 and I wanted to make sure I got a room for the night.
My tentative plans for tomorrow are to pick up I-94 at Billings and take it to North Dakota. I wanted to add another state to those I have driven in. At the end of this trip, there will only be two of the lower 48 I haven't driven in yet: Michigan and Minnesota. I'm hoping to get them next year.
At the first chance after entering North Dakota, I'll head south to Mt. Rushmore. That will probably be Saturday. The traffic will probably suck.
Oh. I almost forgot. Jeremy, I stopped at a Burger King in Spokane. I didn't see Jane working there. Had I realized earlier that I was gonna go through Spokane, I would have tried to get in touch with Margi.
Ted Kennedy on why he supports amnesty
for those sneaking across the Rio Grande.
From Ron.
As all of you are aware, the Dimocrats refuse to appear on any debate run by Fox News. Why is that? Are they afraid to answer tough questions? Lemme get this straight. They claim that they are tough enough to protect this country, but they are afraid to answer questions from Brit Hume or Chris Wallace. Sounds like a bunch of pussies to me.
The Republicans aren't afraid to appear on the Communist News Network or MSNBC. They're not afraid to appear on ABC, CBS, NBC, or PBS.
What are the Dims afraid of? For those of you who claim that Fox is partisan do you think that ABCCBSNBCCNNPBSMSNBC aren't? Dimocrats are pussies.
And for the record, if Republicans refused to appear on one of the above networks, I would take them to task as well. They are not afraid to answer tough partisan questions. Dims are. They are pussies.
Just in case you missed the point of this post, I'll repeat it. Dimocrats are pussies.
Speaking of pussies, Pope Algore of the Church of Global Warming also refuses to debate.
Best-selling author Dennis Avery is the next prominent figure to challenge the facts Al Gore is promoting in his global warming crusade. Mr. Avery is co-author of "Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1,500 Years." Both Al Gore and Dennis Avery have New York Times best-selling books on global warming, but with opposite conclusions.
But I thought the science was settled on this. The Pope should be able to clean this guy's clock. What is Algore afraid of?
The list of Al Gore detractors continues to grow as his extreme rhetoric and conclusions get dissected by scientists, economists, and researchers. Avery joins Lord Christopher Monckton (former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher advisor), Bjorn Lomborg (Danish economist), author Michael Crichton, Prof. S. Fred Singer (former director of the U.S. National Weather Service), Tim Ball, Ph.D. (historical climatologist), Prof. Ian Clark (University of Ottawa), and Prof. Richard Lindzen (MIT) among others.
Pretty impressive list. Maybe the science isn't settled after all.
Gore claims recent climate change is the result of human activities, and society must give up most of its energy supply to prevent global catastrophe.
While Pope Algore and his liberal buddies make no sacrifices whatsoever.
Conversely, Avery amassed physical evidence of past warming/cooling cycles and experimental evidence demonstrating variations in solar activity affect Earth's constantly varying temperatures.
Holy crap! Real science!
"My book says our warming is natural, unstoppable -- and not very dangerous anyway," stated Avery.
It was warmer in the 1oth Century than it is now and we're still here. Amazing, isn't it?
These books represent the two leading explanations for the Earth's recent temperature changes-and they conflict. If global warming truly is the most important public policy issue of our day, then it is high time the public got to hear the arguments from both sides matched up against each other," continued Avery.
I agree. Bring it on. What is Algore afraid of?
Gore has refused all debate challengers to date. Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, noted, "Maybe it's because climate alarmists tend to lose when they debate climate realists. Or because most scientists do not support climate alarmism." The Heartland Institute has run more than $500,000 of ads in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Times promoting a debate.
Conclusion: Algore is a snake oil salesman peddling bullshit and junk science. He's also a pussy.
Portland - A nice easy day today. I drove up to Mount St. Helens. It's only about a two hour drive. I took the following picture from one of the observation points.
If the clouds would have been 200 feet higher I would have been able to see the crater.
Tomorrow, I'm heading up the Gorge. I'm heading to Mount Rushmore but I'm not really sure what route I'm gonna take to get there.
This one surely has Pumpman rolling in his grave.
Jesse sent me this link. Yep. Right there under the picture it identifies his party and he's a Republican. Remember, if the scumbag is a Republican, it will be in the first paragraph, or in this case right under the picture. If the scumbag is a Dimocrat, his party will either not be named or it will be way down in the story.
I overslept this morning so I didn't get on the road until 9:30. I didn't take the Avenue of the Giants as DanS suggested, since I had already done that in the early 90's. I've done a lot of traveling in my life. I had been in 47 states by the time I was seventeen. I picked up Alaska and Hawaii while in the Navy and I picked up Oregon, the only one of the lower 48 I had missed, back in the early 70's. That's when I met the cop in Klamath Falls. I had made a side trip to Oregon on my way to California to see my sister. On that trip I came down from Klamath Falls and entered California right near Mount Shasta. Pretty drive.
This morning I took 101 up to 199 which took me to Grants Pass where I picked up I-5. Both 101 and 199 were fun drives. On 199 I was finally able to put the top down on the Z3. I had envisioned driving up the coast that way but it was always too cold. It was even cold in Sacramento.
199 is a nice curvy road and it has lots of passing lanes. There was a guy in front of me who was having a lot of fun so I followed him all the way until he turned off right before Grants Pass.
Then, it was I-5 all the way to Portland. I don't have the time for Crater Lake this trip. I'm thinking of doing a Lewis and Clark trip in two years and I'll hit it then.
I had to put the top up in Eugene as it started to get a little chilly.
I didn't get to my hotel until 6:45. The trip from Garberville took longer than I thought it would.
Rivrdog picked me up at my hotel and he, his wife, their neighbor, and I went out to dinner. Gotta add another name to Bloggers I have met and partied with. I didn't get back to my room until about 45 minutes ago which is why this post is so late.
I'm staying two nights in Portland. Tomorrow I'm going over to Mount St. Helens. I was here in the early 90's on business and I tried to do it then, but it was late April and the road was closed halfway up. Surely it should be OK now. Rivrdog told me it would probably be foggy tomorrow. We'll see.
Long day. Time for bed.
Garberville California - Starting week 2. OK. The adrenaline rush is over. What a day! But first, yesterday.
I drove from Half Moon Bay up to Point Reyes. Somewhere along the way I snapped this picture.
It's still foggy.
The drive up to Point Reyes was a nice twisty curvy road made for a sports car.
When I got to Point Reyes, I shot over to Sacramento to see my friend Pres. I had a few beers and he had a few margaritas and he made some awesome baby back ribs for dinner. We reminisced about our old Navy days. I spent the night.
Got up the next morning and headed back to Point Reyes to continued my trek up Highway 1. Somewhere along the way, I pulled over and took this picture.
The rest of the day it was super driving. There was one spot where I got stuck behind five land yacht/trailers. One of them pulled off the road, and I got a straight stretch and passed the other four in one swell foop.
Some of the slower cars actually pulled over at the turnoff points so I could get past them. The only car that was as fast as I was was a Mustang convertible. He was having as much fun on the road as I was.
I'd been on a few sections of this road before but it was with Ryan and Sherry and Ryan was driving. I couldn't drive because they have a stick shift and even though I can drive a stick, my left foot isn't reliable enough and sometimes it can hit the brake instead of the clutch. Not too much fun when one is doing a lot of shifting. Anyway, Ryan likes that type of driving too much to share.
After Fort Bragg, the road heads inland. There where I got stuck behind five buttheads who wouldn't pull over to let me by. That was a shame, because the curves weren't as sharp and I could have gone really fast on them. I had passed another Mustang ten minutes earlier and he caught up with me. I was behind these buttheads until I got to 101.
I stopped here in Garberville for the night. The hotel had a complementary wine and cheese reception from 5:30 to 7:00 so I had some cheese and two glasses of wine and had a nice conversation with two other couples who were there.
There was a Chinese restaurant up the street where I had some sweet and sour shrimp. It wasn't as good as what Christina's mother makes.
Tomorrow is Portland. I'll probably drive halfway up 101 and then cut over to I-5 for the rest of the way. I have been cautioned to watch out for the Oregon cops as they don't give much leeway on speeding. That reminds me of a story about an experience I had with an Oregon cop just outside Klamath Falls back in the 70's.
I had straightened out a curve by going over a yellow line. There was a concrete barrier between the lanes going the other way and a yellow line two feet from the barrier. I was rounding a curve and I just straightened out the road a bit by crossing the yellow line. I got pulled over and he gave me a sobriety test. I had a big cooler in the front seat that had beer in it and one empty beer can from lunch on the floor of the back seat. There were no open containers in the cooler or anywhere else. I had to recite the alphabet, walk a straight line, and touch my nose. He let me go and didn't give me a ticket. Fortunately, he didn't check the glove compartment or he would have found some pot. Yep. I was a stoner back in the 70's and I was stoned when he pulled me over. I lucked out there.
Ignore the date. I'm posting this early.
A wagon train was lost and low on food. But the pioneers saw an old Norwegian man sitting beneath a tree. "Is there some place ahead where we can get food?"
"I think so," he said. "But don't go over that hill. Someone told me there's a bacon tree over there."
The lead pioneer went back and told the others what the man said. They decided to ignore the man's advice and go over the hill. Suddenly, Indians attacked them. Only the leader survived. He told the old man what happened.
The man picked up an English-Norwegian dictionary and thumbed through it. "Oh, I made a big mistake! It wasn't a bacon tree.
It was a Ham Bush!"
That's what Mo K says. She sent me this story
Police: Clinton Double-Murder Suspect Hit By Train
Before you get your hopes up the rest of the story states:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- According to police officials, the suspect in a Clinton double murder is in “very grave condition” after being struck by a train Saturday.Police have been searching since Thursday evening for the suspect.
Authorities said the man deliberately jumped in the front of the train in an attempt to take his own life.
The Clinton mentioned in the story is the town of Clinton Maryland, not the crooks from Arkansas.
Half Moon Bay – I can hear my sister now. “How come you aren't staying at your sis' former neighbor's? He's just over the mountains.”
Simple. I didn't want to impose. When I was young and poor it didn't bother me to freeload. Now that I'm old and a SRF© I can afford to stay at hotels. Also, due to my physical condition, I prefer the privacy. I just sponge off relatives now and the only relative I sponge off of is my sister.
I left this morning around 8:30 AM and headed north on 101. As soon as Highway 1 split off to head to Lumpoc, that's the way I went. I put the top down thinking it was gonna be a nice day. Wrong. As soon as I got back to the coast, it got foggy and cool. I had to put the top back up.
Just north of Lompoc there is a really neat winding stretch on 1. I got to play with the manual shifting option on the Z3. This was the first time I'd tried this so it was a learning experience.
I lollygagged my way up the coast on 1. It was some real fun driving. Like I said, it was foggy so I wasn't able to take any pictures. At the spots where I might have been able to get some shots, there was no place to pull over. Where there were pull offs, I would not have been able to take pictures from the car and it is kinda hard for me to take a picture while trying to maintain my balance.
There were some stretches where I would have liked to have been able to take some pictures to post. Most of the coastline was very rugged and beautiful. At one point, there had been a landslide so only one lane was open. They had put stoplights at either end of that section to control traffic. There were sections of 1 just like north of San Francisco. I have been on that part with my sister and her husband. I'll do some of that day after tomorrow.
I did get pissed off at one asshole in a land yacht. He came to a complete stop. No signal or nothing, so I thought he was stopping to let me go around him. As soon as I started to do that, he turned right in front of me to pull off on the left. Like I said, no signal. I slammed on my brakes and he slammed on his. So I started again to go around him and he started to turn in front of me. Fortunately, the left side of the highway was clear and I got around him before he hit me. Peckerwood asshole!
I was only expecting to get to Carmel or Monterey today. I made better time than I thought and wound up at Half Moon Bay at 4:00. The first hotel didn't have any rooms. The second one did.
Tomorrow, I'm taking a side trip to Sacramento to see an old Navy buddy. Of all the people I met in the Navy, he is the only one I've stayed in contact with.
There will be no travelogue tomorrow.
A blonde cowgirl, who is visiting Tennessee from Texas, walks into a
bar and orders three mugs of Bud. She sits in the back of the room,
drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When she finishes them,
she comes back to the bar and orders three more.
The bartender approaches and tells the cowgirl, "You know, a mug
goes flat after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time."
The cowgirl replies, "Well, you see, I have two sisters. One is in
Australia, the other is in Dublin. When we all left our home in
Texas, we promised that we'd drink this way to remember
the days when we drank together. So I'm drinking one beer
for each of my sisters and one for myself.
The bartender admits that this is a nice custom and leaves it there.
The cowgirl becomes a regular in the bar and always drinks the same way.
She orders three mugs and drinks them in turn. One day, she
comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent.
When she comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says,
"I don't want to intrude on your grief, but wanted to offer my condolences on your loss."
The cowgirl looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns in her eyes and she laughs.
"Oh, no, everybody's just fine," she explains, "it's just that my husband and I joined the
Baptist Church and I had to quit drinking. Hasn't affected my sisters though."
I don't think this is a real blonde.
It turns out that the Bubonic Plague that struck Europe was Bush's fault. Yep! Haliburton invented a time machine and Bush went back in time and disseminated the virus.
The fall of the Roman Empire? Bush's fault.
Attila the Hun? He was a friend of not just George Bush but also Dick Cheney.
The Johnstown Flood? Yep! Bush's fault.
In fact, every single disaster that has ever happened in the history of this planet can be blamed on George Bush.
Bite me! What is it with all of these politically correct hotels that make them put up all these stupid signs in their rooms about how they are working to save the planet? Fuck the planet! I'll be dead in 20 years so I don't really give a flying fuck! Global warming? Bring it on!
Atlanta Ooops! Friday rush hour in LA reminded me of Atlanta, except in LA the drivers are better (really!) and the air is dirtier.
Carpinteria. I was aiming for Pismo Beach today but decided to stop here.
I got up this morning and was sitting in the drive thru at Mickey D's when I called my friend Pat. She told me not to call her until after 7:00 AM. I called her at 8:30 and woke her up. She decided to change our plan and she had me meet her at Brawley instead. There was a really neat road I had to take to get there. By neat, I mean fun to drive in a Z3. My Garmin said I would get there at 10:21. Then it kept decrementing the ETA. I wound up getting there at 9:55. I killed ten minutes looking at maps to decide how far I was gonna go today. I called Pat at 10:10 to let her know I had made it. She was still ten minutes away. I guess the passing years have eroded her memory of how fast I drive.
We sat around in the restaurant and she showed me pictures of her grandchildren. They are all really cute. We reminisced about other things like her father and his favorite expression: Goddamn the goddamn. Tom Huntington was a real character.
I met her family back in 1967. I was in the Navy and we were in San Diego. My wife left me on July 4th (rather appropriate), and since I didn't have anything to do on weekends, a shipmate took me up to Mt. Laguna and I worked at a riding stable with him. That's when I met the Huntington clan: Tom and his children Pat, Donna, Steve, and Dea. Holy crap! That was 40 years ago!
Sumpin' I forgot to write yesterday. I've now been to Tonapah!
Huh? WTF?
You know the Little Feat or Linda Ronstadt song, Willin' which has the following chorus:
I've been from Tuscon to Tucumcari Tehachapi to Tonapah Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine and you show me a sign I'll be willin', to be movin'
I drove through Tonapah yesterday. It's in Arizona. I've now driven through all of those places.
Anyway, I left Brawley around noon and headed off to LA. It was hotter than hell. I stopped and took this picture.
Inthemiddleoffarookingnowhere California.
I got back on to I-10 in Indio. My Garmin did its job and got me through LA. Don't remember everything, but I do know I was on I-210 for a while. I was doing great until I hit 101. Then I got into intermittent stop and go traffic all the way to Oxnard. When I got to where I am now, I decided to stop for the night. I'm on the coast! 2570 miles so far.
Pat called me as I was going through Oxnard and told me it got up to 126 where she was. On the coast it's in the 70's.
I'm now gonna have an adult beverage and eat dinner.
Blythe California. Whoopie! Got my Garmin fixed. More on that later.
Why I never watch CNN. I woke up this morning and turned on CNN on the TV. Actually, I was just looking for some news while I got ready to leave and CNN was the first news I came to. They were talking about the bridge collapse in Minnesota. It was all Bush's fault. Yep. According to the CNN dude on site the bridge didn't get needed maintenance because of the war in Iraq. And furthermore, we had a budget surplus back in the '90's and now we're running deficits. Really amazing how quick CNN got all those liberal talking points in. Freaking Amazing! They don't even pretend to be impartial.
I gassed up the car and stopped at Mickey D's for some coffee. Back on the road.
I talked to a friend of mine last night and she's gonna meet me in Indio tomorrow for lunch and suggested I stop in Blythe which is where I am now. I'll call her when I leave in the morning and she figgers if she leaves her house when I call her we'll both get there at the same time.
As I drove through Tucson on I-10, I kept looking for a Best Buy or Circuit City to address my electronic gadget problems. No such luck. I repeated the process in Phoenix and found a Best Buy. Nope. He didn't have an adapter cable that would work. I did buy a rodent so I wouldn't have to mess around with the mouse pad on my laptop. It really makes a difference.
Last night, the motel I stayed in had wireless, but no table or desk. I put the laptop on top of the dresser and sat on the floor. Having to mess with the mouse pad made things even worse. And the connection was slow.
Besides getting a rodent, I bought some batteries for the camera so I can take pictures. I haven't seen anything worth taking a picture of yet.
When I got back into the car it was hot, hot, hot! But it's a dry heat. Yeah. When you're in a blast furnace humidity really counts. Turn that AC up full blast!
I checked into the motel in Blythe and asked the clerk if there was a Radio Shack around. Yep! Three blocks up the street.
The lady at Radio Shack first tried tried to fix my old adapter. It was missing the metal tip at the end of the adapter and the fuse. No luck. She got out a new adapter and put the correct fitting on to match the Garmin. She tested it out and everything worked. It's nice to have the Garmin back if just for looking at the map as I'm driving.
Crap! The room next to mind has Hispanics (probably illegal) in it and they're playing Mexican music. I hope they go to bed early.
I had three Barf in the Bag Jack in the Box tacos for supper. For the life of me I cannot figger out why I like their tacos. I mean, they consist of processed mystery meat mixed with lettuce, cheese and hot sauce wrapped up in cardboard but I like them anyway and I can't get them in Georgia. But then, I can't understand why people eat White Castles or Krystals. It's all a matter of taste, or lack thereof.
Tomorrow I should hit the coast.
And he's just getting ready to fumble.
Sent to me by many readers.
Deming, New Mexico. made good time today.
Whoa dude! What happened to Day 2?
Huh?
Day 2. All you posted was a cat picture and some stupid Moo-slime bitches trying to eat pasta.
Oh yeah. OK. Day 2.
Left Lafayette Louisiana around 9:00 AM. Driving from Lafayette to the Texas Hill Country is booooooring. Straight and flat. On the upside, they have most of the construction between the Texas border and Houston finished. The weather was nice so I got to drive with the top down until my arms started getting red.
I pulled into Kerrville around 4:00 and checked into my hotel.
A Blown-Eye showed up at my hotel around 6:00 and we went to a Chili's. Another Blown-Eye, frequent commenter Kerrcarto, showed up later. This Chili's has a patio overlooking the Guadelupe River, so after eating, we moved out there and had a few beers.
Texas is not a Southern state. This Chili's did not serve sweet tea. My sister would have been upset. Didn't bother me. I don't drink tea. I drank beer.
We hung out until around 10:00 and called it a night. I went to bed shortly after I got back to my hotel.
Day 3. Another boring day. Texas is a big state! Driving I-10, it's 880 miles from the Louisiana border to the New Mexica border. About 30 miles west of Kerrville, the speed limit changes to 80. Whoopie! That means I should be able to get away with 85. About this time, three cars all decked out in decals went by me at about 100 mph. Ten minutes later, they were all on the side of the road with two cop cars. I saw more of these cars the rest of the day. It looked like they were doing some cross country race/rally.
In the afternoon, I ran into some storms.
I made great time. Forty miles east of El Paso, the speed limit dropped back down to 70. Out there in the middle of South Texas would be a great place to build some refineries. There's nothing there.
I knew that I would get to set my watch back an hour when I crossed into New Mexico, so I decided not to stop in El Paso and kept driving until I got to Deming, where I'm spending the night.
I love going west, both driving and flying. I get to drive longer. I drove 600 miles on Day 1 and 600 miles today.
I'm actually a little ahead of schedule, so I might see if I can find an AC adapter for my Garmin in Tucson tomorrow. I also need batteries for my camera. And a mouse for this PC.
No news commentary tonight. I'm tired.
It's an outrage! It's blatant price gouging! We need to hold hearings! Let's enact a windfall profits tax.
Starbucks raised the price of their coffee nine cents.
